#and to a lesser extent this kinda happens with the female characters too

[gale-dekarios]

im not saying all of my posts are bangers, but its hard not to notice that posts i make about other companions easily break 100 notes no sweat, with the upper limit breaching 1k, to outliers of well over 4k, but whenever it's about wyll, it's crickets. i dunno, youre allowed to interact with anything you want to, and this isnt a call to reblog from me, specifically, this is the same for a lot of wyll orientated posts ive seen, but its just odd. and by odd i mean racist.

[treeba-rk]

Yh i agree about people s obsession with new duos. And don t get me wrong, sometimes new and unexpected duos are great, i m talking to the treebark burner account! Ranchers were also great, and totally out of nowhere. But i think people are a bit too obsessed with 1 creating new duos and names in order to portray new narratives and theories and 2 making every close relationship romantic or familiar, as if close friendships, qprs or just good ol' rivalries did not exist 3 ignoring female ccs, even more so when it gets in the middle of a ship (this happens with women in every single piece of media btw).

Male-female friendships (or ships) are often ignored bc i feel a lot of fans feel as if these fanon relationships are somehow more "real" and not roleplay bc they are a "straight couple" (c'mon people, most of us are queer what are you doing with this mentality?), and are more likely to assume you ship the creators and not the characters, or worst, to actually assume the ccs are together irl (which was the reason some female ccs were against shipping in the 1st place). Re: this point, I will give an special mention to bee duo though, the fans really assumed they liked each other irl, which was very creepy considering they were underage at the time.

F/F ships are also often snubbed, although lately i ve seen them become a lot more popular, such as nature wives and more recently Gem & Pearl (ik the ship has a name, but i ve decided to ignore it bc we are better than that), which has been satisfactory to see. Still a long way to go though.

Hope i have explained myself correctly 👉👈 english s not my 1st language so i m kind of nervous about dping such a long post about such a complex issue. Feel free to correct me

no you're all good! thanks for the ask 🫶

also sorry to anyone who's here for tree bark only bc this acc is basically my alt now lmaoo (due to me keeping anon off on main)

you're right that ppl want to create new duos and narratives but sometimes... those ppl aren't that close. or had three interactions in a series. that isn't to say they're not friends or friends can't become close in a short amount of time. but the fandomisation and trying to come up with an incomprehensible name instead of saying their names is kinda ?? to me personally. not that's bad, it's just... i don't really get why you won't use their names. especially when it's not a long established group that frequently collabs.

you're so right about male-female friendships and especially in this fandom. i feel like m/f shipping in this sphere (outside of the obvious lizzie/joel) is seen as taboo bc it could leak into m/f irl shipping. at least that's why i was squicked out for like two years. esp bc m/f irl shipping was / is a problem (for example, i still see ppl asking in their public yt comments if stress and iskall are together. during hc2 people thought mumbo and false were dating when he was like 17 and she was in her early twenties and it's just fucking weird to truth in people's comments).

(unrelated to this discussion but i will always be salty that the antihcshippers never bring up the point of REAL AND ANNOYING M/F IRL SHIPPING IN COMMENTS and instead bully scar/grian shippers on twitter or whatever. really shows that they never cared about cc's "boundaries" or feelings and just want that fandom moral superiority. quick have you been to comment sections of eps posted by the women in like 2017. have you seen the random twitch chatters.)

the fanon side of m-f friendships/ships in hc is interesting bc pre gem and pearl, the three women had their "designated guy bestie that they always collab with" and it's quite obvious who: stress-iskall, cleo-joe, false-ren (to a lesser extent cub). former two are basically the only prominent m/f ships (iskall in particular plays into it). i had talked to ppl in dms about why false/ren isn't prominent and my main theory is what i call the yaoi shield bc ren is shipped with a lot of men LMFAO (also something something about ren/iskall and false/stress being complements to avoid the "boring" m/f shipping).

but i still wish m-f friendships get more recognition 😔 like if you're not shipping them in the character sense, there's no risk of being seen as irl shipping, so technically it's no different from same gender friendships, right? 🤡 and i do not like the instant "siblingification" to create a fanon familiar bond to avoid shipping. like sometimes it works. a lot of the time it doesn't. people can just be friends. and they all are actually friends.

ok, more of a tangent here, but dug up an old ass convo from 2021 in which there was a point like "sometimes romantic relationships can happen between ccs and it is definitely more feasible than ccs becoming family via marriage/adoption" and i said "so technically 'shipping hcs' are less weird than 'same family hcs'. hm". soooo 🤡🤡🤡 it's totally fine if you don't wanna ship, but it is also TOTALLY fine to keep them as friends instead of siblings / family hcs. i think this fandom has enough awareness now to know you mean friends when you portray them as friends.

i'm happy to see more yuri bc yuri is almost always the least popular in fandoms. but i think m/m and f/f also has the vibes of "less likely to be perceived as irl shipping so we can go wild" while m/f character shipping is still treated with caution? and people really don't want ccs to misinterpret it as irl shipping? tbh i feel like the modern day fandom has gone into "god forbid a man and a woman are friends" that m/f is seen as the "boring" "cop-out" and it goes all the way around. like yeah sometimes it's boring. but not the point of it being nonexistent lmfao like m/f could be funnnnn!!!!!! and they can be queer too!! bi4bi, t4t!!!! or they can just be hetero idk!!

anyways. as a m&f / m/f main i have Thoughts. but yeah 👍

[m1ckeyb3rry]

LMAOO Karasu really is THAT man can’t have him in the plot or he’ll solve everyone’s problems just like that (and I’ll get sidetracked by him over Otoya LMFAO)

I lowk love that duality of how he’s so rough and almost edgy but he’s literally looking out for people (and doing their laundry LMAOO) That moment between him and Nagi after the Ubers Manshine match >>>> Barou pushing and trying to reawaken Nagi in his own way I love it (bring back BarouNagi rivalry!!)

Energy matcher Isagi so real LMAO i definitely think he doesn’t get categorized as red flag as often as others since he has some pretty clear moments of him being a lot more chill LOL the mischaracterization in the fandom runs rampant though HAHA

OOO sad to say I have not watched aot yet but I love some good world building…also wait expanding on part of the world not developed much in the series >>>>>> that sounds so interesting kinda almost like filling the holes in some lore!! I LOVR selfish y/n omg (very excited to continue following along with hollyhock too!!)

LMAOOOO time for a good reread sesh o7

And FR like what happened to just chilling and letting people exist as they please? It’s like people forget they don’t live in an echo chamber

I’ll never get over epinagi Karasu like oh em gee maybe it’s also because it’s monthly so there’s more time to put in the quality (opposed to some of the funny looking tiny panels of him LMAO)

One can only hope but I do agree…maybe someday in another filler ep where we have tabieitaken together we’ll see a spread….manifesting….

LMAO ego the lesser evil Shidous hot pink highlights truly are something…

-Karasu anon

BOTH SO TRUE like karasu analyzes people for fun he’s clocking otoya IMMEDIATELY LMAOAO and omg i was working on hollyhock a bit earlier and karasu finally showed up and i started tweaking because i need him…it’s so hard writing for his bff when he’s right there 😭 the only consolation is that he and y/n’s relationship in hollyhock is at least super relevant to the story though it’s not romantic. he’s based on hideyoshi to the extent that y/n is based on nobunaga (so not a TON but def to a certain extent) and like. ugh i can’t spoil so i’ll just leave it at they are soooo important (to me and to the plot in general).

I AGREE he seems so intimidating but he’s really kinda soft on the inside 🙂‍↕️ he and nagi have such sibling energy HAHAHA like barou is the older brother nagi never knew he needed and i love that for them

i do feel like isagi tends to be considered more of a green flag for the most part!! but yeah mischaracterization and popular fandoms go hand in hand nowadays 😓 not claiming to be the supreme authority on characterization or anything but idk 😫 it is what it is ig!!

that’s my fav way to write canon fics!! i like filling in holes in stories even if they’re not necessarily PLOT holes — just things mentioned in passing that i can expand on in my own way. i’ve done it a few times w aot and also w jjk!! i think it’s why coming up w a bllk longfic idea took me a while…the scope of the “world” is relatively limited so it’s hard to expand on it in a natural way. plus i only write female main characters and ah. well. canon bllk is not exactly an inviting atmosphere for women as we know 😫

yeahhh there’s def a lot of factors i think that have led to the shift in the way fandoms have operated but honestly i’ve decided to just mind my own business and live/let live. my post abt nagireo somehow ended up in the nagireo tag though??? idk someone commented saying they found it on there i PANICKED 😭 they were rlly nice abt it though just letting me know in case people got pressed HAHAHA i went back and tagged it as anti nagireo just in case 😰 don’t need the opps coming after me 💔 i actually think it’s one of if not the ONLY post in the anti nagireo tag that’s actually somewhat critical of them so i do fear that it’s truly a bit of a unique take LMAOAO we are in it together though ✊🏻

i’m hoping and praying they get one in epinagi!! like another top six spread but less focused on rin and shidou…obv it would have nagi in it but atp that may be our best option 🙏🏻 and the epinagi art style is so good it honestly might be a win

shidou is such a silly character to me HAHA he’s so easy to make fun of and so crazily violent and weird but also lowkey chill?? i have no clue what to make of him 😫 but yeah the hot pink hair is truly smth…honestly good for him though like #selfexpression

[hetakiba]

☕ Feelings on Casca, and feelings on your favourite (or just one of your favourites if you can't decide) video game

Hello! Thank you for this ask in specifc, I'm gonna have a lotta fun with it

Casca... Generically, I would say, I love her. More specifically, I'd say 🤔 I was throughout reading berserk constantly dubious of her writing, for one, like in general, I'm not a fan of one main female character who happens to be in love or fall in love with the one or multiple male leads, and obviously a lotta of the post eclipse stuff is difficult to handle with finesse, but I'd say that mostly her reasons or characterization around her feelings for griffith and to a lesser extent later guts is (mostly) pretty well written. It makes sense, and it doesn't really interfere with her too much as a character or as a person within the world, and I still found her writing outside of some of her interactions with guts to be fine. I also have never let a dude writing a woman in a bad or 🤔 stereotyped? Sexist? Way? Prevent me from liking them anyways. Casca's always had great potential to me from the start, and I would've liked to see more of her moving away from her crush/es on the other characters and grow into herself more before the eclipse or to see more of her development after. And of course, her relationship with farnese is of interest to me, and I kinda loved the potential their dynamic and differences in character set up, especially as a contrast to her early dynamic with guts/griffith and as the two late game primary women characters.

On video games ohh man, so hard to pick 🤔 I'll talk about a few!

Starting with Alan Wake! Mystery kind of twilight zone inspired light light horror, and one of my favorites from when I was much younger. For me, this game is great because it has a lot kind of. Going on in the background? But it's all so understated, it never really slaps you with it or confuses you by throwing too much out at once. It also absolutely doesn't feel the need to explain itself or just about anything that happens, but it still manages to avoid being confusing or pretentious, at least I think. Also the protag Alan, (such a lame name...) is like. He's just kinda. Annoying? Almost bordering on I guess diva-ish? And it's a joy, first of all, to have an unlikeable protagonist but also specifically to me because he's not like. A murderer or something big and dark and extra, he's just insecure and acts kinda small, and without spoilers, I think he maintains what little charm that initial premise offers while also growing more understanding of himself and the way he effects others by the end of the game, especially the dlcs which I'd say I almost preferred to the main game. Also it's just super underrated and the sequel is being made after like ten years so!!!

Honorable mentions include Outlast (horror, I've probably watched it 1000 times, deceptively deep lore, doesn't shy away from dark content but also doesn't make unrealistic unsympathetic monsters out of it's villains, dlc is also bomb), Resident evil 4 (from watching my brother play it also a billion times, cheesy man but so fun, and somehow, doesn't get boring after 50 times), and 🤔 Until Dawn! Pretty much the first game I ever played through more than once, still replay it yearly! Story was kinda shocking the first time I saw it, and just kinda aged well, plenty of unlikable characters and a few even likable ones too! Studio continues to make the branching path decision stuff with major variation in quality and impact of decisions, but you know what? I play them all so

Not horror mention goes to red dead redemption 2, truly, out of all of these, definitely the best writing, definitely the best narrative arc for the main character, Arthur Morgan is. A man I will never forget, I related to him and his struggle so much and there's just a ton to unload in this game, beautiful graphics too

Kind of long but 😭 thank you for the ask! I definitely don't get to talk about video games enough man 😊 if you have any favs let me know too!!

[personuhh]

i think.... the reason i'm not a huge fan of kan///nao is because like.... you can't really just have one character without the other, i guess. i find the same thing happens with sou///yo but definitely to a lesser extent (because yu is mostly silent and yosuke is such a standout character on his own). with kanji and naoto it honestly feels like they get lumped together by fandom and kanji gets reduced to the Big Buff Blushy Baby (tm) while naoto is just. a doll for him to fawn over. Idk. It's a lot more rare for me to find kan///nao i really like. naoto's personality is pretty.... muted, and personally i don't really see kanji's crush being reciprocated on naoto's part at all; they're pretty upfront about not wanting a relationship (the spinoffs ovbiously push the idea of shipping them but the OG game there isn't really anything there at all). IM RAMBLING NOW but yeah fuckin. i dunno. i really hate when shipping ends up taking away a "female" character's agency (what NAOTO wants) just because the other half happens to have a crush. they can be cute if its done right, but it kinda.... squicks me honestly. i see way too much of it just being accepted as canon because kanji is showing attraction when naoto's opinion matters too lmao

[megaderping]

I’ve been thinking a lot about online fandom climates but specifically my experiences within the Undertale fandom and especially the Discord and Soundcloud communities. If there is one thing I’ve noticed in all that time, it’s... just how quickly negativity can spread and make others feel outraged as well. And how little communication and respect happens in these online spaces. For instance, one of the servers I’m a part of- it used to be commonplace for people to nitpick the HELL out of AUs and other fanworks. This led to this twisted sense of superiority and jealousy. People were outraged that the works they put so much time and care into were overshadowed by other works that they felt were less deserving. I, regrettably, fell into this habit, too, and for a long time I was just so... hostile and resentful toward certain AUs and Undertale fanworks. And on one hand, I get it. There are popular Undertale fanworks that do things that are... frankly uncomfortable. Misgendering Frisk/Chara/Napstablook/etc, killing off Alphys or Papyrus for shock value, uncomfortable ships etc, etc. To a lesser extent, some just have really bad writing or characterization. I understand wanting to vent about these things in a safe space rather than swarming the content creators- but my concern is that many of these servers are actually public or semi-public, and with a large userbase that kinda feeds into circular venting that can consume channels and leave spaces with an overall toxic atmosphere. Granted, I ALSO get that not every content creator has been polite in response to fan concerns. I have seen popular  creators actively mock people who politely raise issues to them. And I think that’s really in poor taste- I get being frustrated if someone comes to you saying this thing you worked on is uncomfortable/hurtful, but I think as long as they are NOT attacking, it’s important to have patience. People aren’t mind readers. Popularity doesn’t excuse folks from human decency, and I also think that fans of content creators should also just... not gang up on someone who maybe has a dissenting opinion on the thing they enjoy? Though I will say, there’s also a pretty serious problem of disrespect toward content creators, too. Consider how many people go to Youtube and reupload people’s art/animation without credit or consent. This is a HUGE problem in the Undertale AU community especially, but it doesn’t end there. People will argue a creator’s decisions. I see this a LOT with people who label their work’s Chara as nonbinary- there’s a VERY vocal part of the fanbase that INSISTS Chara must be female... which is really unpleasant (yes, I realize gender discourse goes both way and aggression is never cool but I see this particular example a LOT). Never mind the occasional entitlement.

One prominent issue I see is just... the expectation of a work to conform to popular headcanons/interpretations. When IF started releasing its dubs, people got angry because some of our casting choices were unconventional. But it’s not just a matter of voice interpretations. There are ideas within the fandom collective people just treat as Objective Canon. E.G. Gaster being lost to “the void” and forgotten, Toriel and Asgore NEEDING to get back together Post-Paci and especially in any timeline where one/both kids is saved (disregarding that Toriel has a right to keep boundaries), the assumption that every work will select certain dialogue choices that are popular when things like Places to Go exists and deserve exploration, too. But it’s not just that. Take the Undertoad AU- people have gotten SO angry and entitled over its character placements (especially Kammy as “Toriel”). They got hostile when the AU creators declared they aren’t directly using roles, and while I personally think the matter could’ve been handled more delicately toward the fans, I also sympathize in that it is an AU that has been disrespected by fans since its inception, and as a content creator, that can be so, SO exhausting. But it’s not just Utoad. Team Switched has gotten so much flak for not sticking to the original Underswap concepts. The ORIGINAL Underswap creators got so fed up with fans disregarding their comfort zones and drawing ships they did not approve of (and requested people not draw) that they up and deleted the blog and disowned the AU. I know it’s just fandom, but it’s just SO unfortunate when a content creator’s ideas aren’t respected. When a creator asks that people not create certain types of fan content or sets up certain boundaries. More than anything, people need to understand that we’re all just... people. And just ‘cause someone is popular doesn’t make them unapproachable. I know, personally, I’d MUCH rather someone come to me if they had a legitimate grievance with my work so I can understand and at the very least keep it in mind going forward- especially if it was hurtful. People make mistakes, and sometimes the social climates one grows up in means they still have a LOT of room to learn or they just might not be privy to implications behind a given idea. Or they’re just inexperienced. It’s why I HATED when the SC and Discord spheres would tear into people with less experience- folks who are still learning to create and don’t have the foundation or knowledge others have. Like, goodness. There was this one AU made by someone whose first language was NOT English, and everyone would meme the heck out of it instead of talking to the creator and giving constructive feedback. It’s one thing if a content creator refuses to take input and lashes out- at that point, it’s best to block/unfollow and move on. But it is SO important to remember that this is a fandom that is FULL of young people, and making a public mockery of their work can really discourage them from honing their skills. It’s just... cringe culture is really bad. And so is online bullying. And so often, that’s what happens. The UTSC community, for instance? Rampant with all manner of toxicity. Backlash towards anyone who dares mention the oversaturation of Megalovania styled tracks, mockery toward new composers, transphobia (good LORD I heard about some awful conduct in *that* regard), the idea that servers that have zero tolerance for edgy slurs are “too soft” (yes, the IF server won’t let you be racist/homophobic/transphobic edgelords. Human decency is kinda important). These things, of course, are just a universal part of fandom and especially public spaces. There will always be online toxicity. But I think it’s important to remember not to get too swept up on it. To step back sometimes and understand that there’s a point where you can’t force change and sometimes it’s better to block/unfollow and find something more positive to remind you of what you enjoy about fandom. Though as one final note, I think it is ABSOLUTELY important to watch out for younger fans because SO many fandom spaces have predators and abusers. When it reaches a point where someone is actively hurting others, then it is completely understandable to spread the word. But that should be saved for the people who are actually a danger and not the person giving a dissenting opinion on a character you enjoy.

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Okay look I’m gonna say it.

Season 3 of Killing Eve was waaaayyyy too focused on characters that weren’t Villanelle and Eve. The fact that the climax happened literally while Eve and Villanelle were just...sitting on the sidelines watching it with no role to play and no real stakes in what was happening is kinda bogus. Like it was played for laughs that Villanelle just didn’t know who someone was at this final confrontation.

And I think that was also true of the entire season, because in a way it was like the writers just didn’t know what to do with Villanelle and Eve to a lesser extent, so they mostly focused on other characters instead. It was just slightly off the whole way through, and the only character that felt Really well characterized was Carolyn.

I think it’s neat that they’re having a different female show runner for each season, but this is the kind of thing that happens when a series doesn’t maintain an overarching vision and plot and artistic voice.

[vecna]

Oohh for the fandom meme! Dragon Age?

Send me a fandom!

Oh boy, this is going to be spicy.

It’s also very Anders-negative, so apologies up front.

The character(s) I first fell in love with:

I’m actually not sure which was the FIRST, but it’s a tie between Morrigan and Alistair. I saw fanart of them going around at the time Origins first released, and that’s what got me to try the game! 

Alistair was a breath of fresh air, because at the time, I was used to warrior men in games being all Edgy and Rough, and he was the total opposite and a sweetheart.

And Morrigan was just instantly my goth wife, and had Claudia Black as a VA, so I was sold immediately.

Both still hold a special place for me!

The character(s) I never expected to love as much as I do now:

Loghain is the main one. He does a lot of truly reprehensible shit in the first game. But once I sat down and read the prequel novels about young Loghain, plus saw what he’s like if you recruit him, he grew on me A LOT and now he’s a top fave.

Nathaniel I expected to hate as soon as I saw his name + who his father was, but then the expansion came out and I ended up loving that dude almost immediately. I really wish he was around more after Awakening, and also really wish he’d been a romance option, especially for a Cousland haha.

Merrill is a weird one because she was totally uninteresting to me in DA:O, so when they announced her as a companion in DA2 I was like, “Ehhhh.” Then they punked me by making her adorable and sweet and now I love her.

Plus a bunch of side-characters like The Architect? I liked him a bunch in the novel + Awakening – although I found his Plan in the novel much more appealing. But as the years have gone by, I keep surprising myself at just HOW disappointed I am he’s never appeared again haha.

The character(s) everyone else loves that I don’t:

There’s a few, and all of them will get me yelled at, but here we go.

First: Isabela. This one’s a bit complicated, but it really just boils down to her attitude towards how you play your character. I actively dislike characters who are super sexual – regardless of gender. But Isabela in particular bothers me because she’s constantly pushing her lewdness and sexual humor on you, and when you try to discourage it, she admonishes you with, “Well, you’re no fun.” Her whole character is just… like that for me. Super pushy, overly lewd, gets uppity when you don’t have the same ~liberated~ opinions she does, and this is all played up in the writing like she’s this Empowered Woman the player absolutely must love, especially if they’re playing a male character lol. I hate her for the same reasons a lot of people hate Liara in Mass Effect, but with the addition of pushy lewd jokey characters always rubbing me the wrong way.

Second: Iron Bull. I’ve written a lot about why he makes me more uncomfortable than any fictional character I’ve ever encountered, and I just outright hate him, he makes my skin crawl. If you want details, feel free to DM me, I don’t really want to rant about it again publicly.

Third: Anders. Again, I’ve written a lot about him before, but. I hated him in Awakening, for a lot of the same reasons I hate Isabela in DA2. But the changes they made to him in DA2 are just kinda :/. While I absolutely agree with him about Mage Rights, the level of preachiness they added to him drove me nuts, and the fact that you’re painted as a Bad Guy if you don’t like him blowing up the chantry. And from a purely OOC standpoint: He’s become a figurehead for all the aggressive Discourse people in the fandom, and if I see someone list Anders in their sidebar bio, I know pre-emptively that their blog is going to be full of 6 page long essays of meta about how everything is Problematic, and no thanks.

To a lesser extent, I’m also not fond of Zevran. But in his case, it’s not anything major like the others, I’m just tired of Bioware’s habit of making the bisexual characters overly lewd sex-focused rogues/deviants.

The character(s) I love that everyone else hates:

Loghain, lol.

But also Sebastian Vael? There’s so much about him that I find genuinely fascinating, especially regarding his backstory, and his struggles between his feelings of responsibility to his family vs his dedication to the Chantry and bettering himself. He’s such a dear character to me, and such a pivotal part of any playthrough, I’m always blown away when I remember he’s a DLC character and many people don’t have him.

HOWEVER Anders being the fandom darling means that people tend to unfairly shit on Sebastian for reacting poorly to the Chantry explosion. People also like to label him as a poster child of a White Straight Church Boy, while refusing to acknowledge he’s… not straight, and not exactly a church boy either lol.

Also Vivienne, but I think that one’s really self-explanatory. I love her, and she gives a really needed perspective on the Circle, since most of the mage companions previously were apostates. But of course, she gets written off as a Chantry apologist, and an uppity bitch, when people would def love her for the same traits if she was not black lol.

The character(s) I used to love but don’t any longer:

Justice. And by extension, Anders. A lot of people like to rant about how Justice ruined Anders, but I always saw it the other way around.Justice was my favorite character in Awakening. The whole concept around him, that he was a Fade spirit who took human form and was experiencing life for the first time was SO fascinating. I felt like there was so much to explore there with his character.

Buuuut then they had him merge with Anders. With the narrative being that he WAS a spirit of Justice, but the moment he connected with Anders, it corrupted his entire spirit into something he wasn’t anymore. So essentially, the character I used to love no longer exists, thanks to Anders. And it reminds me of that phrase recently, about how the destination is so terrible you can no longer enjoy the journey? I can’t even appreciate Justice in Awakening anymore, knowing what happens to him.

To a lesser extent, Corypheus. He was SO COOL and the premise of him was AMAZING when he first appeared in the DA2 DLC, but then Inquisition had to go and turn him into a weird shallow mustache twirl villain.

The character(s) I would totally smooch:

None? Idk I don’t really have the Smooch Fictional Character gene.

The character(s) I’d want to be like:

MAEVARIS TILANI. May I one day finally have the confidence in my identity that she does, and also marry a sweet bear man who adores me.

The character(s) I’d slap:

Too many to list, really. Probably Anders.

The pairing(s) that I love:

THERE’S SO MANY. And most of them are with the PC, because I generally don’t ship NPCs together. But my top 3 are:

M!Hawke / Fenris is my ultimate OTP in the Dragon Age series, by a long-shot. Not even sure where to start on how much I love it, but two damaged guys leaning on each other to work through their respective loneliness and trauma is MY JAM. And lmao I love silver-sideburned Hawke chillin in retirement somewhere but being a supportive husband while Fenris goes off hunting the Bad Guys, it’s great.

Solas / Lavellan is a close second, with the caveat that I increasingly prefer it with a male Lavellan. Having the Inquisitor in love with Solas just changes the entire tone of the game for me, for the better, and him actually being the villain trying to end the world while in love with this normie elf is just (chef kiss). Too bad I’m burned out by how overly spammed it is.

Dorian / Inquisitor is in third, I will just always be fond of how it’s a story of the Inquisitor helping Dorian be happy with who he is, escape an abusive family, and realize that he’s allowed to be loved. Good shit good shit.

Some others:

Warden / Morrigan is probably my favorite Origins ship, and that only intensified with the way she talks about the Warden in Inquisition, esp if they’re Kieran’s other parent. What a cute goth family, regardless of the Warden’s gender, cause you can pry Bi Morrigan from my cold dead fingers.

Cassandra / Inquisitor might have a lot of Romance Cliches, but I adore it – although, similar others, I increasingly prefer it with a female Inquisitor. I actively dislike the weird no-homo rejection with her, and come on, a lady Inquisitor being her Knight In Shining Armor is just good storytelling.

Cullen / Inquisitor, for a lot of the same reasons as Cassandra. I love me a cliche romance, but I’m also fond of the narrative w/ him of someone he loves helping him heal through the lyrium withdrawals and take time to rest.

Josephine / F!Inquisitor is just adorable all around, and wholesome, and great.

Varric / Hawke COME ON HOW WAS THIS NOT AN OPTION.

On the rarepair end:

Sebastian / Hawke doesn’t seem like it would be a rarepair – you’d think everyone who loves Cullen/Inquisitor would love this one too. I do! But alas. That said, I’m also pretty aggro about this one with a male Hawke because SEBASTIAN IS CANON BI. WHY WAS HIS ROMANCE STRAIGHT.

Maric / Loghain is a rarepair I will take with me to my grave LOL. Never forget the scene where Maric thought Loghain was leaving, and bolted across the camp with almost no clothes on to beg Loghain to stay. Come on.

Nathaniel / Cousland is dear to me, and I love it so much more than Alistair / Cousland haha.

Greagoir / Wynne, I can’t believe this got validated in canon ahhhh.

The pairing(s) that I despise:

Again: THERE’S SO MANY.

Iron Bull / Dorian is my least fave by a longshot. Again, I have written about why I hate this pairing a great many times, but it’s awful and toxic and makes me deeply uncomfortable, and I could happily go the rest of my life without seeing anything about it ever again. Please keep poor Dorian away from that man. He deserves someone that doesn’t sexually harass him until he’s finally worn down into dubious consent (while drunk) and then outted to everyone about it.

Isabela / Fenris. Sorry, but it’s just bad writing that Fenris bails on Hawke because the physical intimacy triggered his PTSD and he needs space to process, but then will turn around and have a casual sex relationship with Isabela instead. Yikes.

Anders / Fenris. Aveline / Isabela. Alistair / Morrigan. All of the DA2 Hawke/companion rivalmances. I don’t enjoy “these two people hate and antagonize and want to kill each other… but they fuck” in any form.

Cullen / Amell. Yikes.

And basically ALL of the canon wlw pairings in this series suffer from the fact they have men writing them, and as a result they’re almost always some kind of abusive or racist, and skeeve me out. See: Celene / Briala, Leliana / Marjolaine, Branka / Hespith, etc. Please Bioware, I’m begging you to consult some actual queer women. It’s insane how badly they’re treated compared to how the canon mlm couples are written.

FINALLY, I recognize this will be the most unpopular of all, but. As much as I love M!Hawke/Fenris, I just honestly cannot stand seeing F!Hawke/Fenris. There are some pairings where I’m so attached to the m/m or f/f version, I cannot deal with the m/f version anymore, and that’s one of them. (The others are mainly non-Bioware.)

[gamerwoo]

Taeyong: Dominant

@neverknewgrey2016 asked: Okay, I know NCT requests aren’t open rn, BUT, in case you open them later while I’m asleep, (b/c i have to get to bed for school) you know what to do. Taeyong. I’ll let you choose his mate (b/c if I was gonna pick it was gonna be a female either human or other alpha, but I don’t want anyone to be upset it’s another female so if you had one set in mind, i give you reins) ANYWAY, I am just hyped for it... not the point, i love you and i am going to sleep now ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Characters: Taeyong x female reader (featuring NCT)

Genre/warnings: werewolf au, kinda enemies to lovers???, angst, very slight crack at the beginning, smut (dom/sub themes, slight degradation, mirror sex, kind of hate fucking tbh lmao, sub!Taeyong)

Word count: 4,768

Summary: You’re a werewolf hunter. You’re ruthless, cold, and trained to kill. Taeyong is the alpha of one of the largest werewolf packs. He’s quick, smart, and incredibly strong. Despite all that, he can’t help that he imprints on the one person trained to kill him, and you can’t help that you can’t deny the feeling, either -- but it doesn’t mean you won’t have a little fun with it.

a/n: Star came up with this idea completely and it made me w e a k 

Renjun stared down at their captive, a puzzled look on his face as he considered where to go from here. He couldn’t just let a werewolf hunter kill one of his brothers -- even if Jaemin was incredibly oblivious to it -- but he also couldn’t kill you because he just couldn’t bring himself to kill anybody. But he had to figure something out before Winwin got home -- Jeno would probably help if he found out, but the less people that knew, the better.

So far, the only people in the pack that were aware of the captive hunter were Renjun, Jaemin, Haechan, and Hendery. The four werewolves were there when everything happened, and they all helped in tying up the hunter and bringing them to Renjun’s apartment that he shared with Jaemin, Jeno, and Winwin. But they couldn’t keep the hunter there forever, so they were trying to come up with a new plan.

“Well,” Haechan began with a soft sigh, tilting his head to one side as he looked at the angry and thrashing hunter on the floor, “I know Mark’s home, but if we can sneak her past him, nobody will ever know.”

“We have to be positive that Mark won’t see, because he’s absolutely going to tell somebody,” Jaemin nodded.

“Maybe we should tell somebody...” Hendery shrugged, his voice quiet. “It’s not like we did anything wrong.”

“We literally took a werewolf hunter captive,” Renjun reminded him, as if the angry noises around the gag in the hunter’s mouth wasn’t enough. “Do you know what that means?”

“More hunters will come looking,” Jaemin said with a sigh, looking away from the hunter on the floor to his brothers. “Which means we really have to figure out what to do -- fast.”

“That’s why we should tell somebody,” Hendery insisted. “Taeyong-hyung will know what to do -- or Kun at the very least!”

“Both of them will have all our asses,” Renjun stated sharply. He chewed the inside of his cheek as he thought of what to do next before he was calling orders like an alpha. “Jaemin and Hendery, help me with her. Donghyuk, do you think you can make sure there’s no way Mark will see us come in?”

Haechan’s smile was almost evil as walked toward the door, “I got it.”

All you could do was sit on the floor before the remaining three werewolves, thrashing against the hardwood floor.

-

With Mark out of the way (”how did you knock Mark out?” “I was told to take care of him, nobody told me how to do it.”), the three werewolves were free to move you from Renjun’s apartment, to Haechan’s. Making sure nobody heard them moving through the hall and up two floors was a little hard, but they managed.

“Johnny will be too worked up over Nina visiting in a few day to pay attention, and Yuta will assume somebody’s just in the bathroom if the door is locked,” Haechan smiled proudly once you were set in the bathtub. “We’ll be fine.”

“What do we do with...these?” Jaemin asked, holding up the box of weapons they’d gotten off of you.

Renjun groaned, “Who gave Jaemin the weapons?”

“Better than giving them to you,” Haechan scoffed as the four boys exited the bathroom, making sure to keep the door locked on their way out.

And that was when you started to try to escape.

-

Taeyong had been hearing the same weird noises all damn evening. Ever since he got home, all he could heard was banging and groaning -- and not the sexual kind. He was starting to think he should go in search of the source, but he wasn’t sure if it was one of the other occupants of the building that he wasn’t as familiar with.

Then again, it was his own pack that typically caused the odd shenanigans.

“What the fuck is coming from Johnny’s apartment?” Doyoung asked as he walked through the front door, closing it a little too hard with his annoyance.

Taeyong gave him a quizzical look, “How do you know it’s Johnny’s?”

“Oh, I thought Nina showed up early,” Jungwoo said with a shrug from where he was doing his homework at the coffee table.

“That doesn’t sound like Nina,” Doyoung told him.

Jungwoo only let out a little huff, “How am I supposed to remember what she sounds like? I only met her for five minutes last year.”

“Look, it doesn’t matter,” Taeyong said, trying to stop the conversation before Doyoung and Jungwoo started bickering about Jungwoo’s lack of knowledge of Johnny’s mate. “I’ll go check it out, alright?”

So the alpha left the apartment, going up the stairs to where Johnny, Yuta, Haechan, and Mark all lived together. He was pretty much expecting the usual antics from them -- probably Haechan doing some dumb prank on Mark -- but as he got closer to the apartment, he had the urge to both rush into the room but also to retreat as far away as possible. Despite the hairs standing up on the back of his neck at whatever it was in there that he could sense, he also smelled the sweetest scent he’d ever smelled in his life.

Either way, he assumed it was best that he called in some backup.

After a quick text to the groupchat, Taeyong was being accompanied by Kun, Ten, Doyoung, Jungwoo, and Yangyang -- the latter just wanted to tag along. Unfortunately for the four that had found and captured you, none of them were paying attention to their phones to see that Taeyong intended on searching the apartment that you were stored away in.

Taeyong used the spare key to get in, looking around and sniffing cautiously. Even Yangyang who was the youngest among them whined at the odd sense of danger coming from the apartment.

“Should we split up?” Ten asked. “Some of us search the bedrooms, and the others search the kitchen, living room, and bathroom?”

Taeyong sniffed the air carefully, trying to follow the sweet smell in the air -- everybody else smelled a stranger, but they had all originally thought maybe it was somebody in a neighboring apartment that had visitors or something.

“No,” he shook his head as he started to make his way to the bathroom, “follow me.”

The group made their way to the bathroom door. Seeing the light on, Taeyong tried the door only to see that it was locked. Without hesitation, Taeyong got his ID card from his wallet and slid it into the door in an attempt to get the lock out. When he finally did get the door open, he froze where he was.

You stared at the six werewolves from where you were face-down on the bathroom floor, your hands still tied behind you and your ankles still taped together. You knew you were less than intimidating like this, and you knew you had no way to protect yourself if these new werewolves intended to attack.

All eyes suddenly shifted to red as low growls filled the room -- all except one. Taeyong just stared at you with his golden eyes, his mouth slightly agape as he tried to make sense of the storm of contradicting feelings inside of him. He knew he was supposed to fear you, and yet, he only wanted to get closer and help you. He had completely forgotten about his pack behind him until Ten suddenly lunged forward at you.

Taeyong grabbed him by the back of his shirt just in time, yanking him back.

“Take Yangyang and get him out of here,” Taeyong instructed. “Jungwoo, you bring him home.”

“Hyung, what’re you doing?” Ten wondered, not understanding how the alpha could not only be so calm, but didn’t suddenly get defensive in the presence of a werewolf hunter.

Taeyong just shook his head, “Just go do it. Yangyang might get hurt.”

It was partly a lie, but he was still worried about the youngest of their small group being around a werewolf hunter -- even if you were tied up and without any weapons. 

As Jungwoo led Yangyang out of the apartment, Taeyong cautiously walked forward, hands up slightly to show his surrender. You watched him carefully, eyes narrowed as he took slow steps toward you.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he promised, his tone soft. “I’m just going to help you off the floor, okay?”

Of course, you felt the pull as soon as he did. Immediately after your eyes landed on him, you felt what he did but at a lesser extent -- you still felt it, nonetheless. You knew what had happened, and you also knew it meant this pack probably wasn’t letting you go anytime soon. If you had the choice, you’d tell the wolf to fuck off and just let him die while you went back to your group. You’d already lost one of yours to a werewolf -- he’d imprinted on her, and she was still his mate to this day -- and you didn’t plan on having the same fate. Your group still resented her -- although, you weren’t too sure about Zuho’s feelings toward her anymore.

Where the werewolf’s hands touched you, it felt like tiny sparks of warmth coursing through you. You cursed your body for enjoying his touch when your brain kept telling you it was wrong.

Once you were upright, the wolf just seemed to stare at you, his hands still gripping your arms.

“Hyung?” one of them finally spoke up, clearing his throat. “What do we do with her?”

He didn’t even look back at them when he answered, his eyes never leaving you, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of her.”

-

Of course it was the alpha. Why wouldn’t your mate be the fucking alpha, right? 

This alpha didn’t come across as an alpha to you. You knew he was the alpha because even you could sense it, but honestly, you thought maybe the one with black hair that kept bickering with the innocent-looking should’ve been the alpha because he just had that aura about him. Then again, you figured there might’ve been more to the pack than just the ones that you met since they kept talking about so many people over the five days you were kept as captive.

Speaking of which, you didn’t feel like a captive -- at least, not when the alpha was around. You were constantly being watched in the apartment he lived in but he -- you remembered his name was Taeyong but you couldn’t really keep up with anybody else’s names -- seemed to treat you more like a guest than anything else. The rest of the pack that he had keep an eye on you clearly didn’t like you, but it made you feel smug more than anything else.

“Hey, Doyoung--”

“Bye.”

You watched with a smirk as Doyoung immediately pushed passed Taeyong as the alpha walked through the door, going straight out the way Taeyong came.

Taeyong spun around, watching Doyoung go, “What’s wrong?”

“She’s pissing me off!” he huffed before he slammed the door shut.

Taeyong turned back to look at you, but all you did was shrug and keep your cocky smirk on your face. You got bored so what else were you supposed to do? Annoying the werewolves might’ve become your new favorite thing to do.

But as much as you liked seeing the older wolves get pissed off -- the tiny, sassy one even almost slapped you once -- you needed a plan to get home. You had somewhat of an idea but you knew it was a long shot. But considering you were always being watched without any of your weapons, you didn’t think you could just get yourself free and climb out the window. Without your weapons, you had no surefire way to beat any of the wolves.

Taeyong let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. He really had no idea what to do with you but he didn’t want to let you go. It wasn’t just because he was afraid you’d never come back to him, but he knew you’d be a threat to his pack. You’d probably come back with more hunters and he wasn’t going to let anybody in his pack get hurt -- even if that meant keeping you captive like a caged animal. He at least was making sure you were comfortable, and that was enough to ease his conscience -- mostly.

“C’mon,” he nodded his head toward the hallway where his bedroom was, “it’s bedtime.”

“It’s like, 7 o’clock,” you scoffed. “I’m not going to sleep.”

“You don’t have to sleep but you have to stay in my room with me,” he sighed as he walked over to get you. “You know this already so don’t act like--”

“Don’t touch me,” you growled as he reached his hand out to grip your upper arm.

He pulled his hand away, lifting his hands in the air in surrender, “_____...”

Something about the fact that Taeyong -- despite looking absolutely exhausted -- still wasn’t mad at you, was making you mad. Why didn’t he ever lash out? Why didn’t he yell at you or manhandle you despite your warnings? Why did he only show kindness and patience? What kind of alpha was this guy?

You opened your mouth, ready to tell Taeyong he could take his bedtime and shove it up his ass, but you didn’t even get a sound out before there was a knock at the door. Before Taeyong could even say anything, it was opened, the tiny one with a big mouth strolling in like he owned the place.

“So what did that demon lady do to Doyoung that made him so--” he stopped when he noticed you, blocked behind Taeyong’s body. “Oh, it’s here.”

You frowned, glaring over at the wolf, “Fuck off.”

“I’m not scared of you, princess,” he sneered. “I’ll kick your ass into last year.”

“Ten, that’s enough,” Taeyong scolded.

“I’d like to see you try,” you scoffed, ignoring the alpha.

“_____, you quit it, too,” he frowned.

Ten raised an eyebrow, “Don’t tempt me.”

Your selective hearing decided to only hear “tempt me” so you stood up on the couch, ready to lunge at Ten. But as soon as you were in the air, arms stretched out to claw at the wolf, you were caught by something solid, making you huff.

“I said to stop,” Taeyong stated, sounding like a stern father as he held you over his shoulder. “Ten, go home.”

“But she--”

“Go home!” he told him again, walking straight down the hallway toward his bedroom.

You were kicking and yelling the entire way to Taeyong’s bedroom. You demanded he put you down, punching his back as your legs kicked to get free. But Taeyong was much stronger than you and easily kept you in place with one arm, not putting you down until he’d shut and locked the door, keeping the key safely hidden away so you couldn’t get to it.

You huffed, flipping your hair out of your face once your feet were back on the floor, “I told you not to touch me!”

“You lunged at Ten,” was all he said, not really paying much attention as he took off his shirt to get ready to sleep. 

And he still didn’t sound angry.

“How are you so calm?!” you finally burst.

Taeyong turned to look at you, his torso bare but he didn’t seem to be bothered by it as he chuckled, “What?”

“You haven’t got angry with me all fucking week and all I’ve done is try to make you hate me so you’ll leave me alone!” you exclaimed, tossing your hands in the air. “Why the fuck can’t you just hate me?”

He just shrugged, “Because I could never hate you.”

“I tried to kill somebody in your pack, I’ve harassed all of them, and I tried to fight one of them a second ago, and you don’t hate me?” you scoffed. “You’re the alpha, why can’t you act like one?!”

“I’ve kept you away from the younger ones and the irresponsible ones, and nobody’s died yet. I’d say that’s responsible of me.”

Your blood was boiling. He really just didn’t give a shit what you did to him or his pack, did he? But you wanted him angry. You wanted him to hate you so much that fate would just give up and assign him a new mate -- it probably didn’t work like that but damnit, you were still trying to be that awful.

You lifted your hand, wanting to see if just straight up slapping him would do anything, but he caught your wrist with ease. He wasn’t even looking at you anymore, his still brown eyes wandering around the room as he looked for his pajamas, humming softly to himself.

Furious was an understatement. You hated Taeyong. You hated that he was a werewolf and that he’d imprinted on you. You hated that despite all that, you still felt something in your heart because of the pull, and you hated that he was godlike as he stood in front of you shirtless. 

Taeyong was well aware that you didn’t like him. He knew you were his enemy and he knew you were sticking by that despite the imprinting pull but he didn’t really mind. He figured with kindness, you’d come around overtime. He just had to practice patience with you, which he did pretty easily even though the rest of his pack clearly did not.

But because he knew you disliked him, he was surprised when he felt you grip his jaw and force his head toward you before pressing your lips hard against his. 

But he also wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip away from him.

He released your wrist, his hands going to your waist as your hands tangled in his hair. You’d backed him up until his back hit the door with a thud. He wasn’t sure why you were suddenly doing this but he couldn’t say he didn’t like it, especially when your hips started rolling into his. He let out a soft moan, your teeth tugging on his bottom lip.

“Maybe I should show you how to be an alpha,” you said in a low, sultry tone.

Your hands moved down to grip his shoulders. You spun the two of you around before you shoved him over to the bed. He landed on his back on the mattress, holding himself up with his forearms as you stalked over to him, taking off your shirt and shoving your tight pants as you went. His eyes raked down your body that was now only clad in a bra and your underwear as the brown began to melt away, being replaced by red.

You climbed onto the bed, straddling his hips before leaning down to hungrily kiss his lips again. Your hips ground down into him, your thin panties not doing much as a barrier between the erection growing in his jeans and your center. His hands were moving all over your body, leaving trails of fire in their wake that you didn’t even want to feel so it only fueled your anger-induced arousal even further.

Taeyong’s fingers easily unclipped your bra, sliding it down your arms and tossing it wherever. His hands massaged your breasts, feeling a sense of pride when he managed to pull a quiet moan from your lips. He tried to make it louder, thrusting up into you suddenly.

Your hands went to his hips, pinning them down, “No, you’re listening to me right now. Got it?”

Despite his instincts to be the dominant one, he nodded. There was no way he was going to mess this up, even if it meant having to keep his instincts in check. Plus, being dominated by you sounded pretty nice to him.

It wasn’t long until you were both completely naked, articles of clothing scattered across the floor. You had sat up with your hands on Taeyong’s chest, your nails digging into his skin and pulling growls from his chest as you teased his cock by rutting against it, letting the shaft move through your folds but not actually putting it inside you like he so desperately wanted. Still, he held onto your hips and moaned out your name, his head falling back.

“Look at you,” you breathed out, your own skin covered in a thin layer of sweat already, “submitting to your enemy. What kind of werewolf are you? Let alone an alpha.”

All Taeyong could manage was a whimper of “please” in response.

You smirked, slowing down the already slow pace of your hips, “Please what? You can’t even use your words properly?”

“Please ride me, _____,” he groaned.

You scoffed, raising your hips away from him and making him let out a whine.

“Any other alpha wouldn’t ask,” you told him, “they’d just take it. You really are too soft, aren’t you?”

But Taeyong didn’t want to just take it. He wanted you to want to give it to him -- even if it meant begging all night.

You pointed to the head of the bed, “Sit up against the headboard.”

Taeyong did as told immediately, scrambling backwards. He let his back rest against the headboard, his legs stretched out in front of him. You glanced over your shoulder at the two panels of the closet door that were made up of mirrors, smirking at your idea.

“If you want me to ride you so badly,” you began as you crawled over to him, straddling him again but this time, facing away from him and looking at the mirrors, “then you’re going to watch it all happen. And if you take your eyes off that mirror, you won’t like the consequences. Got it, wolf?”

Taeyong nodded obediently, his hands finding your waist.

You held the base of his cock, lining it up with your center before you slowly slid down, letting out an involuntary moan at the feeling. You’d had sex before but somehow none of that felt as good as this simple action, and that only made you more angry that this stupid alpha wolf was just so perfect. But he only seemed so perfect to you because you were literally made for him.

Fate really hated you.

Taeyong let out a whimper, his fingers gripping your skin harder. You could feel his thighs tremble when you’d finally gone all the way down on him as he tried to resist the urge to buck up into you. 

You placed your hands on his thighs and slowly lifted yourself up before going back down. Taeyong let out a strangled moan, his eyes locked on the mirror like you told him. From the way his eyes cast downward, you knew he was looking at where he disappeared inside you. You could feel the growl from his chest vibrating against your back.

You set a steady pace with Taeyong letting you do whatever you wanted. He kept his hands on your hips -- he’d tried to let them wander but you sharply told him to keep them there or you’d stop -- and let out moans and growls.

You clenched around him when you’d angled yourself to hit a new spot, causing Taeyong to whimper your name.

“Not such a big bad wolf now, are you?” you smirked, continuing to bounce on his length.

“You feel so good,” he moaned, his head falling back into the headboard.

You reached around his neck, gripping the hair on the back of his head and forcing him to look up again, glaring at him in the mirror, “What did I tell you? Watch.”

You leaned back to give him a better view of his length disappearing inside of you. Even you were biting your lip as you watched, soft moans falling from your lips. Your other hand traveled down your body to rub your clit, chasing the high that was quickly building.

“For an alpha,” you began in a breathy tone between moans and curses, “you sure take orders pretty well. You sure you’re not a beta, wolf?”

Taeyong’s eyes flashed up to the reflection of yours, letting out a low, warning growl.

You smirked, eyebrows raising, “Oh, not so shy and submissive now? What’re you gonna do about it?”

Not wanting to risk you suddenly stopping when he was so close, Taeyong averted his eyes from yours. You exhaled in what was some sort of half-assed laugh, moving your hips quicker.

“That’s what I thought.”

Taeyong whined, his claws scratching pink marks into your skin, “P-please...”

“Please what?” you asked in a teasing tone. “Do you want to cum?”

He nodded, another moan leaving his throat.

“Too bad. You have to wait until I do.”

Taeyong groaned. Every instinct inside him was screaming to flip you over and fuck you into the mattress but he was doing his best to resist. But if he had to be teased like this any longer, he was pretty sure he was going to snap.

He was too caught up in trying to hold himself back that he didn’t realize you were cumming until you clenched around him and dropped your head back onto his shoulder. He shuddered at the feeling of your walls closing in on him, biting his lip to hold himself back as you continued to bounce on him and ride out your orgasm. While your eyes were closed, he took the time to appreciate your blissed-out face and how beautiful you looked with your features scrunched up in pleasure.

Normally, you would’ve gotten off of Taeyong and just had him finish himself off -- that was your original idea. But you were on cloud nine in that moment and all you could think about was Taeyong -- fuck, you even moaned out his name as you came. So all you said was, “Fuck, cum for me,” and he did.

Taeyong came with a high moan of your name, filling you with his warm release. He disregarded every rule of yours, fucking up into you until he was empty and until tears were pricking your eyes from overstimulation. But you let him because -- now that you were back to your sound mindset -- you knew this would be over soon.

Once he came down from his high, you lifted yourself off of him. Taeyong reached out for you, thinking that you’d be okay with him cuddling you. You went to protest until you realized he was laying you down and covering you up with him without restraining you. If he cuddled you, he didn’t feel the need to keep you restrained in case you escaped, so you let him do it, deciding to go to bed as quickly as you could.

“Goodnight, _____,” he murmured, pressing a soft kiss to your bare shoulder.

“Night,” you replied simply, closing your eyes but making sure not to fall asleep.

-

Taeyong awoke to sunlight peeking through the windows, yawning with a groan. He sat up and stretched his arms above his head before he looked to his right to wake you.

He froze.

Not only were you not in bed, but your clothes were gone from the floor. He didn’t even sense you in the apartment anymore.

Quickly, he threw on some sweatpants and went out to the living room where his roommates were eating breakfast together -- along with Renjun and Xiaojun who were sitting on the floor behind the coffee table.

“Morning, hyung,” Jungwoo smiled warmly.

“Have any of you seen _____?” Taeyong asked breathlessly.

All eyes snapped to him, two pairs looking very angry.

“You let her go?” Taeil demanded.

“No!”

“So you lost her?” Doyoung asked.

“No!”

“Then what happened?” Taeil quizzed, raising his eyebrows as he waited for the answer.

But as Taeyong thought about it, he realized that you had tricked him. It was your plan to distract him and then get out, and he’d fallen for it. But he was too embarrassed to tell them that.

Still, all he could do was smile and chuckle, shaking his head. Nobody understood why he reacted that way, and he didn’t explain as he walked back to his room. He didn’t care if he’d have to find you again. The chase would be half the fun. And when he caught you, he’d make sure to get back at you and never let you go.

[retrauxpunk]

sv 6.04

spoiler-filled recap post under the cut

WHAT THE FUCK

i swear every single episode is gonna have me feeling like that because IT’S SO INTENSE i think i’ve forgotten how intense this show is because it’s prior to the release of s6 it’s been 2 years since i watched new episodes? and so i just know the storylines quite well and am familiar with everything?

but jesus christ!!

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

okay let’s start at the beginning:

FUCK ethan!!

WHAT THE FUCK

I had the vague inkling of a feeling that bringing on ethan would be the same as bringing on the carver, russ hanneman, jack barker, etc. in that it would seem to be good at first and then it would magnificently blow up AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED WHAT THE FUCK

there were so many intertwined storylines in this episode? i feel like there were more than usual? there was: richard and his conflict with ethan; gavin’s book thing; monica’s misadventures with feminism; gilfoyle’s budding friendship with john stafford (I STAN); jared’s story with his parents and gwart

THERE WAS SO MUCH.

last episode my fingers couldn’t keep up with my thoughts because it was such an amazing uplifting kickass episode, but this time i just feel, i dunno, kind of clogged with feelings/thoughts because there was a lot that happened in this episode and it was................ MOSTLY SAD????? mostly unpleasant?????? like it was a great episode but all the things that happened to the characters were like ... real shitty

HOLY SHIT the guy who plays ethan is SO GOOD at playing the role of the emotionally manipulative jackass prick who mistreats you and then acts like you’re the shitty one if you don’t ‘play along with the fun’ and so on like HOLY MOTHERFUCKER those types of people are the fucking worst and god i wish richard’s punch hand gotten him in the mouth instead or something (more on that later)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he was so terrible to richard! it fucking hurt! i was with dinesh! i watched richard’s balls getting kicked and my balls hurt in solidarity!! fuck!!

????!

richard what are you doing

it was, no lie, a little nice and fuzzy and heartwarming to see dinesh like sticking up for richard and trying to help him

even if it’s through the ‘dumbest thing i’ve ever seen’, that alpha male video. 

WHAT WAS THAT

THAT WAS LEGIT like something out of IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA what the FUCK

i don’t object to it being in the show because, y’know, it’s within the bounds of the absurdities of the show and so on, but

WHAT! that had the exact same energy as the fight milk ads!!

i really like that richard’s initial reaction was ‘this is the dumbest thing i’ve ever seen’. what a shame he succumbed to it!!! ........but at least it wasn’t something worse that he succumbed too i guess???

POOR RICHARD

this is one of those episodes where i am entirely on richard’s side and have no complaints about him, he didn’t do anything wrong

omg i just remembered when he caught ethan’s eye in the opening scene and waved him in because of ‘dumb social shit’ (#relatable) ................WAS THAT BECAUSE HE WAS REFLEXIVELY REGRESSING TO HIS DOWNTRODDEN WAYS from when he was ethan’s report and was consistently having to defer to him and put up with his shit? and that’s why when ethan motions to like invite himself into richard’s office, that’s why richard just invites him in?

yeah that’s my opinion now

........

IT HURTS

IT HURTS WATCHING RICHARD GET KICKED AROUND BY ETHAN

WHAT THE FUCK DUDE

this is one of those times when richard’s like, trying to do a good/right thing and be nice and so on WHEN HE SHOULDN’T BE. like when he was ‘trying to respect’ erlich by refusing to hire jared patakian despite erlich giving him his blessing. and (to a lesser extent) when he went to have those chats with seth after gilfoyle stole the endframe login credentials, and when he gifted laurie some pied piper credits (where they credits? don’t remember the word)

UGH he was trying to be ~chill~ and not so uptight and so on BUT NO THIS IS NOT THE TIME RICHARD and no this is not what being a cool/nice person is! it is not putting up with this kind of shit!

i just felt so bad for him!!!

WHAT THE FUCK IS ETHAN’S PROBLEM

god what a cock

I’M SO GLAD RICHARD PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE and honestly??? i wish the punch had fucking landed!! for once i’m sick of richard being an ineffectual klutz! i want him to try to kick ass and succeed!!! god!!

that’s what i want out of season 6, one (1) time when richard tries to do something physically badass like socking a deserving douchebag in the face and actually succeeds

can’t fucking believe he bought into dinesh’s dumbfuck alpha male video. UGH RICHARD

i mean at..........at least it makes him........feel better? idk

(in my personal hc richard manages to watch that fucking always sunny style video and not develop misogynistic tendencies as consequence because that would be lame if it happened)

I JUST HAD TO TAKE A BREAK FROM WRITING THIS RECAP BECAUSE IT WAS SUCH AN INTENSE EPISODE

6.3 was intense in the same way that like an adrenaline-fuelled ultimately victorious battle is intense, or like, idk, the lovechild of MDMA and acid???

6.4 is intense like the COMEDOWN. god

IT IS THE COMEDOWN, it’s the terrible fucking low that occurs in the wake of the soaring high of buying hooli!! fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!

okay so that’s the richard storyline covered

um

y’know i was suspicious when ethan wanted to move things onto hooliphones, i thought it was maybe some kind of thing to sabotage pied piper in some way? but now i see maybe it’s just a way to get himself a job. and the bullying of richard is a way to soothe his own fragile ego i guess? hmm

gilfoyle’s friendship with john stafford! I LOVE IT! i love that the guy from the underground pits of jack barker’s box plan has returned! and he announces each hooliphone the way he announced each box ... excellent callback. AND THEY PLAY CHESS! AND HE BEAT GILFOYLE EVERY SINGLE TIME! YES!!! 

GILFOYLE WHY DID YOU DELETE HIS FRIEND REQUEST

YOU WERE GONNA ACCEPT IT

YOUR CURSOR WAS HOVERING

WHY THE FUCK

some kind of lame-as-fuck attempt to maintain an idea of power in the dynamic? viewing the vulnerability of accepting a friend request as somehow being weak/lame?? just upset because he lost so many chess games??

hope it’s the the last one becaues that’s the least lame/sad of the three i thinkkkk

also his fucking feed full of dinesh hate. what a loser lmao perfectly suited to dinesh

i want them to kiss

ummmmmmmm monica!! lmao i enjoyed how they made her a female character who is successful but not actually personally interested in being a feminist activist, because i think that’s a thing that’s pretty real/relatable. like, you can be a woman who believes in gender equality but who doesn’t actually do stuff to actively advocate for it, and i think that’s a lot of people, and honestly i don’t think i’m quite like monica (i wouldn’t say the things she said about foxhole HAHAHHA) but i relate to it! i’m not a very politically active person at all, my ~activism is limited to being generally educated on stuff and calling out/discussing shitty things if friends/colleagues say them. so i guess i felt seen? #guiltyfeminist

when monica went to the panel........... and then priyanka totally outshone her ........ i felt a little bad for monica but she was pawning off foxhole to priyanka entirely selfishly because she herself didn’t want to be involved and so i didn’t feel too bad for her :pp

good on priyanka! all that stuff  she’s doing sounds awesome!

except the beginning where she referenced her ‘network of awesome women coders’ or something like that, i found that phrasing uhhhhhhh cringey. cliquey. didn’t like it, but that’s just my subjective feeling. also i suspect it was meant to be a little satirical of uberwokeness so fair :P

richard giving monica foxhole ‘for optics’ and then doing the handwavey ‘just make it work, for women’ ........ a brilliant sad-funny representation of extremely superficial and empty meaningless ‘feminism’

laurie lasering in on gwart because she’s also eating that vegetable in a weird way! nice.

OKAY JARED? JARED

FUCK

we see him set up in pied piper’s offices meaning he at least took up richard’s offer which is nice

his parents?

fuck ‘em

they deserve to rot, obviously

sociopaths

i............................... it was an upsetting scene, i’m not sure why it’s in the show............ perhaps to give rise to jared’s whole ‘i must have rejected them and rejected everyone else who’s been kind’ thing that he’s doing in a desperate bid to understand/make sense of his suffering ....... which gives rise to his thing about rejecting richard...

i guess maybe he’s doing that thing where he’s repeating past cycles of trauma/abandonment? that’s what’s (at least partially) driving his stubborn refusal to rejoin richard? is it that he (on some not-necessarily-conscious level) believes himself unworthy of happiness and self-sabotages? and all of that mixes with his fear of fucking up pied piper with his feelings (the way he did in 6.1) and that keeps him away from richard?

I DON’T KNOW IT’S COMPLICATED AND MAKES ME SAD

that thing he said about how he has to stay with gwart . .............. god this stupid entirely arbitrary rule he’s set for himself, it’s so fucking painful

ETHAN’S REPENTANCE WAS DUE TO THREAT FROM HOLDEN? WOW

um

good on you holden i guess!! .....?

i HATE the whole ‘jared threatening holden and emotionally abusing him into the perfect assistant for richard’ arc because that was painful and i feel like it was played for laughs but i didn’t find it funny or good at all

so in this case it was kinda vindicating to see holden no longer terrified of jared and kind of sassing him (’don’t you have somewhere to be’)

..............what was with the end of the cold open where richard’s like ‘holden i wanted water’??? or something? didn’t holden give him the water partway through ethan’s presentation? ugH

GWART FIRING JARED

FUCK YES! THANK YOU GWART

JARED TALKING ABOUT HOW HE’S FREE TO GO WITH RICHARD

HOLY FUCK

YEAH SO OF COURSE OUR BOY JARED WANTS TO BE WITH RICHARD and now that gwart (his temporarily chosen ‘leader’/person to be devoted to) has given him orders (and therefore permission) to fuck off, he CAN BE WITH RICHARD without feeling like he’s, i dunno, being disloyal.

HURRAH

so the episode ENDS on jared asserting that there is a space for him to be with richard? homg seems like 6.5 is gonna go HEAVY ON THE JARRICH again?????

HNNNG

this was a tense episode and i’m upset

like it was a decent episode, i didn’t think it was bad quality, i’m just sad

[semi-imaginary-place]

fe3h blogging 6 because organizational skills are for losers

oh hey yuri get to join chess club[3:24 PM]balthus DID go to the officers academy twice I’ve been trying to reconcile the route differences... it should be that everything that happens in a different route is also possible in the route you are looking at which ever one that may be. Now all there is is figuring out why those differences exist. or alternately to come up with a probability model to explain those differences. Let’s take the major difference of CF vs VW, AM, and SS. In CF unlike the other routes, Rhea is not captured, she organizes the knights and joins with Faerghus. In CF unlike other routes Byleth chooses to side with Edelgard and Rhea attacks them in the Holy Tomb, this is the only difference. Rhea is incredibly entitled when it comes to Byleth and so takes Byleth’s choice as a deep betrayal as the one who was supposed to be on her side chose not to be. In the battle of Garreg Mach, Rhea then also doesn’t entrust the Church to Byleth. Now how does this connect to Rhea avoiding capture in the battle? It could be she was more on guard after the Holy Tomb in BE, it could be that overall Rhea is likely captured but there is a chance she isn’t. Either way because she isn’t captured, she is there to rally and organize the knight’s of Seiros. In the other routes why didn’t Seteth do it? idk man. The Knights and Faerhgus together are better able to fend off the Empire and with the added security, keep Cornelia, the Agarthans, and Edelgard from framing Dimitri with assassination. Thus in CF Faerghus is in a more unified and powerful position with Rhea running the show. Never quite got why Garreg Mach was abandoned by all the sides given how much the characters talk about its strategic location etc. etc. In SS Rhea degenerates and causes the church to become a rampaging hivemind. Rhea is assumedly also in the palace in AM, but we do meet her in VW. This leads to a few possibilities, either she also dragon degenerated in those routes but the credits roll before we get to see that or she doesn’t. Either way she hold the potential to do so. This is probably the strongest probability argument in the game as we are shown no reason why she does in SS but does not in VW. Rhea is like a ticking time bomb. Maybe they should have blood minstrated like half the church. And then the Agarthans, are they just chilling around underground in AM? yeah, probably. They’re probably back to biding their time just like they have the past 1000 years.

I would like to talk about the three categories by which I evaluate how much I like a character in a series. 1. Personal preference: how much does the character's personality appeal to me on a personal level. Would I want to be friends with this person in real life. Do I just really wish they were real and want them in my life? 2.  Character writing: how well written is the character. How good is their character arc? What is the grade of execution? 3. Role in the story: what do they bring to the series as a whole. If they are a villain, are they a good villain? Comic relief. The Bro character. No matter the archetype, how well is it done. What is their narrative and thematic significance.

Let's look at the 3 Lords of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Please note that due to the branching story line and the ability of the player to choose the cast, I will not be focusing on a character's role in story as much as I usually do. Edelgard Personal preference: low. Her personality clashes with mine Character writing: high. Three Houses characters in general are well written. Edelgard feels like a person, her behavior is internally consistent, she's always herself. One of her main flaws explored in the game is how Edelgard will tunnel-vision and double down on a decision, a path even when it is no longer the best option. Role: high. In Crimson Flowers and to a lesser extent Silver Snow Edelgard acts as the central character, she drives the story. As the villain in 3/4 routes, Edelgard is incredibly interesting, acting as a counter point to the other Lords as well as to Byleth in Silver Snow.

Dimitri Personal preference: low. At first I didn't care, and then he was just annoying. He was solidly #2 on my to-punch-list in Azure Moon after Gilbert. Character writing: high. Dimitri has the easiest to notice character arc in the game as it is the main focus of Azure Moon. As such the most time is spent on his arc and it is very strong. The journey Dimitri goes on as he struggles with himself and his trauma is well written, its only weakness being that it hinges on the player (me) caring about him (which I do not). Role is the story: medium high. the overarching story of the rightful king reclaiming his throne nicely parallels the story of Dimitri reclaiming himself. Thus the external journey mirrors the internal one. Azure Moon most strongly brings the human element to Three Houses and this is both a strength and a weakness.

Claude Personal preference: very high. I wish I had a Claude in my life. His personality meshes well with mine and my life would be enhanced with the addition of his company. When I say Claude is my favorite, this is the category I am usually talking about. Character writing: high. Claude has the subtlest characterization and character arc of the Lords, this is further obscured due to mischaracterization by the English localization team and English voice actor. The characters in Three Houses in general are brilliant and Claude is no exception. He's complex and multifaceted as any real person is, and seeing him grow in to his own in Verdant Wind is a beautiful thing. Role in story: high. Claude's role in the Three Houses is also very interesting, his objectives especially in White Clouds turns the game into a mystery thriller which is breaking edge for a Fire Emblem Game. Claude's background is also a bit different from the others and so following along his story, you are able to gain perspective and see all of Fodlan for what it really is.

Jeralt personal preference: meh writing: good role: dad

wait. wait. so are the 4 apostles are called saints in the intro, but were they also children of the goddess?  so i can see indech and macuil dipping after the war of heroes and cethalenn went into a regenerative coma so that takes her and cihol out of the picture, but where were the 4 apostles during the war?  and why does balthus' pants have a specially colored patch for his crotch.  ... did balthus go to the academy twice?  dimitri really went “i’d be nice to just sink into the earth you know” huh. i just started cindered shadows so i can't really comment but... the whole "abyss is necessary for garreg mach" is such horse shit. like oooohhhhh we must have an oppressed underclass to maintain our standard of living.  why do the ashen wolves even exist. its not like there's a school down there and yet a bunch of people have uniforms.  its not like they took some of the officer's academy uniforms either. why waste resources making custom uniforms? oh hey yuri get to joisn chess club. balthus DID go to the officers academy twice. I wonder what happened to Constance. Also hello??? Intsys you have a kidnapping and torture as backstory problem, especially when its happening to female characters. Hapi get’s kidnapped, tortured and then imprisoned, no wonder the life has left her eyes. Also I don’t trust this Aelfric dude. He set up the ashen wolves “house”, but wouldn’t those resources be better spent on food and medicine. nepotism ho! your parent were good so you must be too

anyone else find Jeralt and Sitri's relationship a little weird. Hundreds of years old dude romances incredibly sheltered 19 year old with little life experience. and she and alfric idolized Jeralt when they were young. sitri was born in 1139 and died 1159 from childbirth.  I mean yeah Sitri's an adult and totally consenting and loving, and the relationship is pretty cute and sweet, but.... its kinda weird.... Like when you hear about a 30 year old dating a 60 year old, everyone's well into adulthood, they're consenting adults who can do whatever they want,  i have no objections,... but its still kinda weird. WHAT'S WORSE IS THAT THEY DEVS HAD LITERALLY NO REASON TO DO THIS they could have made her any age they wanted to. She could have been 35. but nooooo they didn't do that

the part that bothered me about maneula's writing. Is how the writers talk down on her for having emotions. You see this strongly in the hanneman+manuela paralogue. Where they make her do something impulsive which has negative consequences, which is fair. But then the game punishes her for being too emotional. "being too emotional" now where have i heard that critique before. This is especially in contrast to the game praising hanneman's intellectual rationality. how do i say this... whenever hanneman and manuela argue the game always takes hanneman's side and is overly harsh on manuela.  Oh hanneman is right that she should not have run off after a rumor about the death knight like that, but its the framing of the scene that bothers me.

the way people talk about the abyss reminds me of the goldfish bowl metaphor. the abyss provides sanctuary, but in it thye are also trapped. huh so edelgard doesn’t recognize dimitri. people sure do like aelfric, reminds me of a cult of personality, but it seems so genuine... A great rhea’s golems are back. they talk!! I was just joking about people’s souls being bound in there!!! aelfric is one of the cardinals!!!!! I've been trying to find these dude for months!!!!! you hear these lines going on and on about the cardinals. oh. he’s part of the seiros hivemind then. hey kids. if he’s a cardinal than the church probably already knows. this don’t tell the church stuff sounds like a trap. that letter is suspicious af. yuri clearly wants something, but what is he up to,,,

Yeah.. it really sounds like the 4 apostles were nabateans, but if that were so are constance, hapi, balthus, and yuri really descended from them? the 4 saints bloodlines in adrestia are from those gifted blood by the saints. yet i do believe the 4 apostles fled to different corners of fodlan, what remains in question is only if there in their new homes they gave blood (like rhea did to save jeralt), or actually did have kids.

i cant believe balthus got put on the bus via giant bird. ah so aelfric and yuri are cooperating with the agarthans. thats what they were up to. wow yuri really is fandom claude, i can still hear those idiots complaining that claude wasn’t up to anything and that he didn’t betray byleth. huh so yuri is struggling with split loyalty and the solution he came up with was to help aelfric but give byleth hints. 

constance calling the holy mausoleum a wretch hovel in on par with sylvain calling the dining hall filthy. huh so that was what yuri was planning. wasn’t expecting the double agent ploy.

so this does not take away from aelfric's decisions, but if rhea hadn't been a coward and just buried sitri instead of keeping her is storage where anyone could find her, this never would have happened. who know's maybe aelfric would have still made horrible decisions, but not this one horrible decision.

wait wait wait. rhea, what happened last time you used the chalice to try and resurrect sothis. what beast was created then? wait wait. nemesis dies and sothis’ heat and bones were retrieved in 91. the blood chalice ritual happened in 185. That’s enough time for rhea to have conducted her first experiment implanting the creststone into someone and having them live out their full life.

 prior to cindered shadows i thought claude had 2 given names much like many real world people of dual identity do (multiracial people, chinese americans, japanese americans, etc.), so claude is his name but he also has an almyran name. now though I am leaning towards the idea that claude is a name he took up upon entering fodlan given what he says to balthus at first and the presence of a claudia riegan in the past. from the feast of decadence: where is boramas? and i hope the bit about watching northern swordsmen ripped apart by wild animals at dinner was a play or something. why do books end up in the abyss anyways. why not burn them throughly. rhea certainly knows people have been living down there.  i wonder who built abyss. its older than garreg mach for sure.  real ironic how the blue lions idolize loog when he was an agarthan pawn not unlike edelgard.  rhea's choice contributed to the power imbalance between sreng and duscur compared to faerghus chevalier became village elder and gave everyone blood during wars. half got crests half turned into demonic beasts. that solves that. 1/4 down

i can’t believe aubin almost died in a ditch before yuri’s mom saved them. well that’s one more person with a really long life span

balthus: describing "bashbros" me: its called a life partner. "Balthus became son-in-law to the great commander, Nader" ... what. also why is the balthus yuri pairen ending the only one balthus ends up broke and on the street in. also where's my holst supports. scratch that. WHERE IS HOLST. oh yeah and you all were crying about byleth potentially outliving everyone, well yuri does too

ashen wolves supports that should have happened. Balthus: Manuela. Yuri: Mercedes. Hapi: Ignatz, Petra, Claude. Constance: Lorenz

Also let judith be a playable character. Claude and balthus already have like half a support with her.

why do feel like yuri and sylvain would be a disaster. and disaster in that they'd hurt each other's feelings

claude whenever balthus opens his mouth: shut up shut up shut up. shut up and go away. goddess. please. no. i enjoy seeing claude annoyed more than i probably should

me taking the fe3h developers by the shoulders and shaking them furiously: WHY DON'T CLAUDE AND HAPI GET A SUPPORT. THEY EVEN BOTH HAVE CELESTIAL MOTIFS!  claude would also empathize with hapi as an outsider of sorts, as well as both sharing a desire to explore the world.  i think the riegan crest and timotheus crest got mixed up in development. in tarot readings the moon is associated with darkness, an unclear mind, madness, creativity etc. it suits "dark dragon" far more than "star dragon". but that doesn't explain why claude gets the unique combat art Fallen Star me one again taking the fe3h developers by the shoulders and shaking them furiously: WHY DON'T YURI AND ASHE HAVE A SUPPORT!! THE APPARENTLY ALREADY KNOW EACH OTHER. THEY HAVE SIMILAR BACKGROUNDS. THEY'RE BOTH FROM FAERGHUS. THEIR BATTLE DIALOG SAYS MEANS THEY WANT TO BE FRIENDS

No bathus/manuela support either LET THEM MAKE POOR LIFE CHOICES TOGETHER. Balthus can have a little milf, as treat

...  yuri is very pretty in part 2

Edelgards biggest flaws are her desire for control and her stubborness or the way she will double down on a decision and refuse to budge. Claude's biggest flaws are his inability to trust, and showing his hand too late. A bit more on that last part. A large part of Claude's strategies involve downplaying his side and biding his time. This strategy is especially weak though to an aggressive opponent like Edelgard who can bulldoze him before he has time to play out his plan. Part of the problem is that Claude is very reactive but not very proactive (its one of the reasons I like pairing him with Edelgard and Petra). He won't just go for something the way Edelgard does, he's wait for the right opportunity. This difference you can also see in how the deal with the Church. Edelgard declares war on them because she thinks they are the root of Fodlan's social problems and need to be taken down. She makes a decision she believes in and readies herself for the consequences. Claude actually believes much of the same (The Church is the root of Fodlan's problems) but would much rather avoid those consequences (fall out with the Church). You see in Verdant Wind he will make use of the Church because the are useful. He's even willing to spout Church rhetoric and propaganda (Byleth as a Church symbol) if it suits his end goal of transferring power to an individual who will shape Fodlan's future to his liking (he does have an altruistic and humanitarian goal much like Edelgard). However in doing so he risks empowering the Church even more. In short Claude will put up a facade that he doesn't agree with on an ideals level and so is always in danger of that facade becoming real and failing his goals. yeah so claude character development has him learning to trust and being more proactive in his goals. so i like pairing him with characters that put him on a similar growth trajectory

wait how are the Fetters of Dromi (Aubin) and Vajra-Mushi (Chevalier) around simultaneously with Aubin and Chevalier. Aubin was last seen 20 years ago and the tales of elder giving blood don’t seem ancient, so were they recently killed?

ok if the vajra-mushi is a replica, what’s it a replica of? that implies an original. and its still able to turn people into demonic beasts. how????

unpopular opinion: I hate seteth. his face pisses me off and every time he opens his mouth I want to punch him. please die.

You know... i'd expected someone to have written a modern au of felix and sylvain being roommates with unresolved sexual tension.... but no its been 9 months and I haven't seen anything. Oh I've seen roommates where its like the new and uncomfortable experience of sharing space with someone you dont know and I've seen modern au where they are childhood friends. But i seriously have not seen the specific scenario where they are childhood friends AND roommates. Like... uuugh its just sylvain. But also uuggh its just sylvain?!? Maybe I'll just have to do it myself... but im no good at writing... 

What if glenn was 160cm but the kids never noticed (except sylvain) because they're so much younger

I want a spin off fighting game starring ferdinand and caspar. Honestly i just wanted to see ferdinand get into a fistfight with someone like in his support

On a fandom level I think the golden deer are the least popular for a number of reasons:

1. some of the characters only reveal their depth in supports and paralogues. Or in other words you must seek out these character to get to know them. Ex: Lorenz, Leonie, Ignatz. I mean without doing their supports you'd never know that Ignatz is the smoothest out of the Golden Deer the the most likely to get a date. If Sylvain is a poser, Ignatz is the real deal 2. Related to the above the writing sometimes relies too heavily on a character gimmick. Ex: Raphael, and Lysithea to a degree 3. Compared to other houses there are less established dynamics. Other characters (Linhardt and Caspar, BL childhood friend squad, etc.) can play off of each other and this can make them more emotionally accessible to a player. In the beginning especially the golden deer act more like co-workers than friends, they are the least cohesive as a house (which means their growth is that much more delicious). 4. the golden deer route in general is less popular and some characters don't appear in other routes so the sheer amount of exposure these characters get is less than other houses. a lot of people in the "fandom" have only played one or 2 routes and those usually include either azure moon or crimson flower/silver snow. people will also just delete or add things to characters.

OK Jp audio thoughts: tiny grandma sothis Alois is gravelier and yells a lot  I've been replaying the line where claude giggles in the jp audiio. How do i record audio ignatz is such a BABY in the japanese version. Like a small bunny Edelgard sounds more princessy Claude is more light hearted, less sassy more... boyish? like that one old school boy character trope that used to be a main character thing and is now more a side character thing eng dimitri more yell-y and feral.  jp dimitri is a lot more subdued and dead inside. but the delivery of the lines makes what he is saying all the more disturbing. dissonant serenity.

your path lies across my grave is such a raw line

Why did yuri get a different part 2 sprite.  he should age the same rate jeralt did. And in his paired ending with byleth? He apparently looks about the same after decades

Hilda and catherine would be EXCELLENT war masters if the devs weren't sexist

So almyra's big. We don't know how big. Fodlan is 2/3 of europe and almyra is bigger so i imagine there's a diverdity of biomes. I imagine the south coast is mediterranian. But that hinges on how subtropical adrestia is. Medditerranian climates are most common at 30-40 lattitude. The map of almyra we can see on the map is the same lattitude as faerhgus. This could be the greenest part of Almyra. I imagine almyra has both hot and cold deserts with a large plain covering the center. The rest would be scrubland/chaperral. All we know is that claude grew up somewhere with no big trees. I imagine that almyran government is more meriocratic than fodlan but that may vary region to region. I have an idea for both a centralized and decentralized almyra. Each regions leader is like the strongest most organized person around. A bit of nepotism may be involved. The exception would be the coast region which is more sedentary (some parts of almyra are semi nomadic) and may have a republic. Decentralized almyra would work kinda like the eu or us with seperate nations and a mediator for when almyra needs to act as a whole. That mediator aids negotions between regions and keeps things together. Mediator would be a council/appointed position. In a centralized almyra there still wouldn't be a monarachy. The king would choose a sucessor. So the king's kid would have a better chance than anyone but its no garuntee. I like the idea that like the 30 closeat relatives has a last one standing system as part of the selection system. This would allow for a dynastic style if ruling where there's a ruling clan but not direct line of descent 

Everyone keeps drawing older felix with long hair but I'm half convinced that 3 years post game he just lops,it off one day or gets a buzzcut

So a lot of people including me have long suspected Claude had an Almyran name and the validation right now just feels so great. Khalid!  Given his dialog in cindered shadows I think its more likely Khalid is the name his parents gave him and Claude is the name he took up upon coming to Fodlan

Things have never been easy for Claude, he says in his s support that he's going, to do it (the whole game/war) all over again. It's heavily implied that things to not end well for Claude outside of VW. i don't think the Almyrans would value a surrender to a fodlander tho. Claude in VW proves his competence as a military commander and leader by controlling all of fodlan. Its stated in some of his paired endings that the current king has some say in who the next king is as Claude had to earn his father's approval to ascend the throne. Don't forget that the general Almyran populace hates Claude. He has to prove himself by their standards before any respect is given and in SS/CF/AM he doesn't do that. Remember that the Fodland stereotype is of cowards and that Almyra values spectacles of strength/fighting prowess over tactical efficiency (invading fodlan's throat isn't for the purpose of gaining land/etc. its for the warriors to show off how strong they are), so they wouldn't value strategically weakening your nation (leicester) to stave off imperial invasion, to them that just looks like cowardice and incompetance. not only that he endangered and wasted Almyran soldiers in fighting a foreign war. Remember that no one really knows about Claude's plans outside of VW, he keeps his cards (too) close to his chest, and in non-VW routes the facade of weakness becomes a reality and all his schemes crumble. and he has little to show for his time in fodlan. Claude is less likely to experience character growth outside of VW, but I think there is potential for Claude's character growth outside of VW. One reason for this I'm just not a fan of Byleth's dating sim powers where everyone just falls head over heels for them. For every character and especially the lords, Byleth acts as a catalyst for the character's growth, but Claude (of the lords) is the least dependent on Byleth so I do believe he could have found some of the connections seen in VW if not to that extent. (also I'm a sucker for found family)[4:22 PM]But Byleth does act as the heart and glue of the golden deer so things wouldn't be that great for Claude and co 

So we cam see both turkic and persian influences in almyra but I've always wondered at the balance. From the turkic side we have the warrior culture and horse riding. This is also where my speculations on a nomadic society and non monarchy forms of government come from. Also note turkic (central asia, like the mongols) and not turkish (one of the turkic ethnicities). On the other side is ancient persia which was a center of science, technology and learning, a materially wealthy empire with imperial dynasties. These are very different and so balancing headcanons has always been challenging to honor both sides. You can see people are all over the spectrum in fandom.

Me shaking dorothea by the shoulders: YOU ARE VALID. I AM PROUD OF WHAT YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED. EAT THE RICH

im a caught between the dual desires of seeing sylvain succeed at something and be really cool, and seeing sylvain publicly make a fool of himself. sylvain miserable for mundane reasons is such a good look. I pin Sylvain in a headlock and force 2 gallons of respect women juice down his throat

In any universe. Claude's weekly schedule would fill me with terror.

Leonie and dorothea both have "I know a guy" vibes

A while ago I complained that the fodlan calendar doesn’t make sense. Why does the year begin on month 4? Well I recently got around to reading through the abyss library and it confirms that fodlan used to be on the gregorian calendar with months 1-12 lining up with our january-december which in a lot of countries are just month/moon 1-12 and then seiros and the church brought in a new calendar system (imperial year and "___ Moon" naming system). so combined with the other hints from the agarthans (un symbol, ICBMs, etc.), pretty much confirms that fodlan is indeed a post apocalyptic modern world. So the weird calendar system DOES have an in universe justification!

[daesofthepen]

So I really like KHR fics that make Namimori into a tightknit community of retired assassins, mafioso, etc. I would like to write a fic like that at some point.

Current ideas I’ve picked up from a variety of fic:

The idea that flames can be infused into items (I.E. rain flames into someone’s tea to calm them down or knock them out)

Like mentioned above, that Namimori is full of retired trained professionals. Added to this: You have to be Really Good in these professions to make it to retirement, so they’re all Pros in their fields.

Skies being able to harmonize with each other. I like the idea of each Sky being a “solar system” in a larger galaxy. Or at least, Skies harmonizing means everyone in both Sets gets a boost. They get even more boost if there are more than two Sky sets harmonized.

Kawahira and the Arcobaleno Curse isn’t the final boss antagonist of the fic. It could be aliens that arrive on Earth a la sci-fi movie, I just want it to have a different endgame fight. Not to mention, it would be cool if all that harmonizing-among-Skies power boosts had a proper antagonist to go against. Mafia-Earth vs Some-Aliens ftw! (Could also be, like, deep ocean species or underground species, but then I could feel bad cuz they already lived on Earth too...)

The girls of KHR getting more screentime. I’m tempted to have one of them be the protagonist of the fic tbh. I know some people do fem!Tsuna when they want a female protagonist, but there are perfectly canon female characters that already exist and don’t get enough screentime in both canon and fanfiction? I like Tsuna well enough, but I kinda want to write about someone else.

I like Haru, so it’ll probably be her. Plus some noncanon Sky Flames bc I want to experiment some with that.

Okay but like, consider a Sky in Namimori. They are young and civilian-raised, so they don’t realize they’re putting their Flames into the objects and locations they visit often. This means that when they visit the park, the playground emits Sky Flames for hours afterward. If they lay in the grass for long enough, the grass remains stained in Sky Flames for days. You could even go as far to say that their bathwater has Sky Flames, so it’s even in the plumbing of Namimori. Namimori becomes a town full of remnants of Sky Flames. The “harmony” element works to calm residents, similar to Rain Flames but less effective since it’s not what they’re for, and also increase their patriotism(?) for the town.

Consider: With Tsuna’s Sky Flames sealed, another Sky unknowingly gets claim for the town of Namimori without any other Sky contesting it. This is Namimori’s Sky. 

Tsuna unlocks his Flames later on in life and -- even though he has stronger Sky Flames -- he doesn’t challenge for the claim. Tsuna’s personality always felt like someone who would enjoy following someone else’s lead more than leading himself. I can see him bowing to someone else’s leadership if that person wasn’t a murderous psycho out to kill him and his friends. Why fix what isn’t broken, after all.

Some thoughts on Flames and the quantity a person has: If a person has a parent who had active Rain Flames, that not only increases their chances of Rain Flames, but they would grow up to have more Rain Flames than some random schmuck without Flame active parents who just happened to unlock Rain Flames. And two parents with active Rain Flames would almost guarantee Rain Flames in their offspring AND their kids would have more of it. Yes, I’m taking the Naruto-chakra route.

So Haru, born of two civilian parents, would have less Sky Flames than Tsuna. To reverse on that whole only-follow-the-strong-and-”pure.” Sometimes the best guy for the job isn’t the strongest.

It’s also been forever since I’ve read KHR so I’m going by the wiki, which says Haru did gymnastics and went to the private all-girls school in Namimori. Probably will include some original characters to fill in as teachers and students to flesh out the town more. And -- of course -- the girls’ parents will all have backgrounds in all kinds of illegal activities.

Imagine: Haru goes to compete with another school from another town and most of the town shows up bc hell yeah that’s our Sky. 

If I want the KHR girls to have more screentime, I might have them go to Haru’s school, too, or have non-school-specific clubs which they all join. It could be like a book club. Or a let’s-make-the-pervert-disappear Statistics club. The retired mafioso and assassin adults of Namimori would find it adorable and sometimes help by hinting at the best way to go about a plan.

On one hand, it makes sense that the seal on Tsuna’s Flames is done very well and doesn’t leak. On the other hand, Tsuna attracting Haru’s attention? Not that Haru would realize what is grabbing her attention for a long while. She might assume it’s a crush lmao just like canon.

They also meet earlier so Haru gets her crush sooner, so she can get over her crush earlier, too. :3

You know what let’s go full indulgent on this fic and also include Verde. 

Let’s say that while most of the time Haru’s father is absent, maybe he works as a mathematician for a big tech company alongside engineers, he sometimes gets to go on work trips to Expos and conferences to help promote the company. After Haru’s mother died, Mr. Miura became determined to financially provide for their daughter, so she could go to whatever school she wanted and into whatever field she would choose to devote herself to.

Mr. Miura gets permission to take Haru to a conference, so she can look around, meet people, check out if any job descriptions interest her, etc. That’s where she meets Verde, who’s there pitching some of his inventions. 

They talk, find common ground in their passions, and maybe -- completely by accident -- they harmonize. 

I like to imagine Verde as a very straight-to-the-point kind of person, so through him Haru eventually starts learning about Flames and (to a lesser extent) the mafia. 

Verde has many labs and hideyholes around the world, but he moves his main lab to Namimori. And because he’s a professional inventor, technician, etc., he isn’t just lurking. Verde gets contract work by the town of Namimori and maybe some other richer families around Namimori. It probably doesn’t pay as well as he deserves, but he also gets a direct say in the safety of his Sky, so. Also, he probably is hired online/overseas constantly. He’s, like, a working professional you guys.

But anyway, Namimori goes through a (not so) minor technological revolution. Hospitals get upgraded, there are now cameras with face-recognizing technology which keep track of everyone who goes in and out of Namimori. Official underground bunkers, We start getting sci-fi up in here.

Close to when Verde first arrives, he notices that Namimori is protected by Mist Flames, a barrier that just makes people notice Namimori less unless they were directly heading there. With some Flame sensors, Verde manages to track down the source/core of the system to Kawahira’s shop.

Verde figures out pretty quick who Kawahira is and, as an Arcobaleno, he HATES Kawahira. But Verde doesn’t try to kick him out of town because that Mist barrier? Super useful for protecting the town.

Through the combined efforts of Haru and the gang, Verde, and Namimori citizens, Kawahira and Verde agree to work together to try to come up with an alternative solution for the Arcobaleno curse. 

Both of them have YEARS of notes, so it’s easier to figure out what they would need:  Flame-based perpetual motion machine. The problem would be making a machine that works not just in theory. Gotta make sure that while the Flames cycle continuously through the machine, non is being lost because of subpar conductive metals, and the entire thing would need a material that is really good at keeping Flames IN the machine instead of being lost over time because a large surface area increases heat lost, etc etc. 

Adding some money problems for realism. Not including Verde and Kawahira, who have a personal investment in this project, they would need to hire an entire team of engineers, mathematicians, maybe some electricians, and at least one accountant to keep track of spending. Most of which need to know about Flames already to not break omerta. And then on top of that, a lot of their prototypes will be experimenting with different materials for Flame conductivity, etc. This stuff gets expensive over time, even if they have a lot of money saved up.

But anyway, eventually they get a working prototype. It just happens to be absolutely minuscule compared to the size it will have to be in real life to support the entire PLANET. So Verde presents the prototype to Viper to ask for funding --because this small prototype would show that it IS possible-- and afterward, they have no more money problems. Plus, all the other Arcobaleno find out through the grapevine and all are more than happy to pitch in in any way they can.

So the project has the opportunity for smooth sailing. 

And then the aliens arrive.

[krinsbez]

GI Joe: Remixed, the Sex Lives of Cobra High Command

Yeah, this is a somewhat awkward topic; our discussions can get pretty wide-ranging. I blame the combination of the Baroness and my desire to be egalitarian.

COBRA COMMANDER

CC is celibate, firstly because he's too paranoid to allow anyone be physically intimate with him, and secondly because (to quote @rk-striker-jk-5) "in his head, he's still married to Billy's mother...In his own twisted head, they're still married. And he will not break those vows. He's even still got his wedding ring tucked away somewhere."

THE CRIMSON TWINS

Tomax and Xamot are straight, and thus, rumors to the contrary, are not having sex with each other. That said, they do make a point of sharing any woman they have sex with. (They’re not comfortable being vulnerable when they don’t have each other around for backup) That quirk aside, they have a fairly conventional sex life for billionaire playboy businessmen; they date models and starlets, have affairs with other men's wives, enjoy the company of high-class escorts and strippers, and routinely flirt with and/or seduce various female subordinates. Note that their idea of flirtation often segues into sexual harassment, and their idea of seduction often involves coercion, but again, that's fairly conventional for what they pretend to be. The main departure, again asides from the sharing, is that, when they feel a need to re-assure themselves that they haven't gotten soft, they will commit some act of heinous violence, which sometimes will be rape. Though that's not really a sex thing. Additional note: -Interestingly, their sexual fantasies tend to involve female Joes, and to a lesser extent, high-ranking Cobras; in particular Lady Jaye and the Baroness.

DESTRO

Destro will only sleep with a woman if A: she is willing to make a commitment, B: that he can imagine her as the mother of the next Laird of Castle Destro*. That's not to say he expects every relationship with a woman to go to that far, but he isn't going to take any chances. Needless to say, he was smitten by the Baroness early on, but it took awhile before she was willing to accept criterion A. *Yes, that includes Zarana. She is beautiful, intelligent, ambitious, ruthless, witty, deadly, has the strength of will to keep the Dreadnoks in line, all of her relatives are also badass, and she understands the importance of family. True, while she lacks class and social graces, those can be taught; in fact the possibility of playing Henry Higgins was part of the appeal. Of course, since he was carrying a torch for the Baroness, and her primary interests in the relationship, asides from the obvious, were twitting the Baroness and trying to convince herself she wasn't in love with a Joe, things didn't work out. Additional notes: -Despite being picky about the women he sleeps with, Destro isn't always as careful as he should be; in his youth he fathered an illegitimate child, Alexander. Their relationship is...complicated (the character was introduced in Devil's Due Publishing's comics, so I'm not familiar with him, and we haven't had much discussion about him). -The persistent rumors that Destro has been with Zarana and the Baroness at the same time are false, since Zarana can't stand the Baroness, and the feeling is mostly mutual. Of three of them, it's the Baroness who finds said rumor least offensive; Zarana is offended at the idea that she needs help to please her man, while Destro is outraged that the minions are discussing his personal life. Meanwhile the Baroness A: believes that monogamy is an obsolete bourgeois concept and B: is European.

THE BARONESS

The Baroness is about 80-90% hetero; she'll sleep with another woman if she's particularly attractive, but in general she prefers men. As one would expect from someone as passionate as the Baroness, she's got a pretty healthy, uh, appetite, and is not shy about satisfying it, which means that yes, she's usually the seducer rather than the seduced. She also, as stated above, considers monogamy to be obsolete bourgeoisie nonsense and love a weakness, so she uh, has gotten around a bit. That said, she's basically a romantic at heart, so she's more of a "has lots of short-lived but really intense relationships" kinda gal than a love-em-and-leave-em type. Granted, if a man doesn't meet her expectations she will drop 'em quick; CF the Crimson Twins, whom she got with because they're hot, fit, identical twin acrobats, but found them to be low-class, egotistical, boorish weirdoes. And so, despite the sex being pretty amazing, that didn't last long. WRT said expectations, this is where it gets complicated, because they're kinda contradictory. First and foremost, her ideal man is as strong and dangerous as she is, if not more so....BUUUT she also wants a man whom she can control. You can perhaps see the problem. Now, the Baroness is, of course, arrogant and prideful, so she generally assumes that there is no one as badass as herself of either gender, and is willing to settle for man who approach her level; hence, for example Major Bludd. BTW, note that, in that case, the fact that he was both married and famously devoted to his wife made him particularly attractive; she likes a challenge. But eventually she got bored with him and he became increasingly guilty about the whole "adultery" thing, so yeah. It was, at least, a relatively amicable break-up, and they retain a good working relationship with a great deal of mutual respect. Anyways, she was, of course, smitten with Destro almost immediately. This loss of emotional control terrified her, and she spent an extensive period of time denying her feelings, though she insisted that the issue was Destro's insistence on commitment. She also genuinely couldn't make up her mind whether his being able to resist her charms sufficiently to insist on conditions was a turn-off or turn-on, owing to the aforementioned "wants a man who's as strong as her, but weak enough she can control" thing. Eventually, she got to the point that she realized that A: what she really wanted was less a man she could control and more a man who wouldn't try to control her, and B: Destro loved her enough to be that, and they're relationship has been fairly blissful ever since, the occasional backstab aside. Additional notes: -When she was in college, the Baroness briefly dated a young American from a blue-collar background, partially as an expression of her Marxism, partially due to a desire to annoy her parents; when he realized she was interested in him only as an American of blue-collar origins, he broke up with her. She has entirely forgotten his name and face, and has no idea that he's now the Joe codenamed Steeler. -At one point, the Baroness did make a token attempt at trying to get along with Zarana, mostly because she wanted to sleep with her. Since Zarana is 100% straight, this did not work out, and is an additional reason for the Baroness' hatred of the Dreadnok.

KRAKE

Krake may be gay, I haven't decided. Regardless, despite what the rumors say, he isn't sleeping with Savane. Actually, he doesn't sleep with anyone. He gets his rocks off and then either leaves or makes who ever he just had sex with leave, depending. He may not be as paranoid as CC, but he's still pretty paranoid. Obviously, he doesn't do relationships. He also doesn't feel like wasting time and energy on seduction; when he needs some, ah, relief, he uses prostitutes. Or comfort women or whatever the male equivalent would be if we go with him being gay. He's not picky. Just as long as he remains in control and there are no emotions involved whatsoever.

DR. MINDBENDER

Despite the common rumor, Dr. Mindbender isn't asexual, although it's true he isn't attracted to humans. Despite the other common rumor, he isn't a sadist, even though he has been known to get aroused performing horrific medical experiments on unwilling subjects. No, what Dr. Mindbender is into is simply this: doing science. Or, perhaps more accurately, SCIENCE!!

SERPENTOR

Unsurprisingly given what he is, the Cobra Emperor is bisexual (his gene donors being a wide mix of sexualities), albeit with a slight preference for women. Given the kind of people he’s made from, it should also not be surprising that his sexual appetite is quite voracious, and rather...omnivorous; it’s not that he doesn’t have standards, but that his ideas of what’s sexy are very broad. He’s not above rape, but he prefers his conquests to be willing, if only for ego purposes, and is an exceptionally skillful seducer.

He is primarily interested purely in satisfying said appetite, though he’s not averse to the idea of something more serious were he to find the right woman. Which happens to be Pythona.

VENOMOUS MAXIMUS

Like all V-Troops, VM was specifically designed to have no interest in or ability to engage in sex; Dr. Mindbender didn’t want them breeding. That said, his ideas of what is and is not sexy is more-or-less the same as those of his genetic progenitor, Gen. Hawk.

Cobra-Lan sexuality does not work the same way human sexuality does, and therefore is beyond the scope of this article; it will be discussed when I get around to collating an article about Cobra-La.

[danawinter]

Now that it's been a week since I've seen DS2, I think I wanna write down some of my thoughts. It will probably get unnecessarily long, so I'll throw it under a cut.

To just give my overall thoughts: I really liked the movie. I don't think it is objectively one of the best MCU movies ever, but I don't objectively enjoy things, I subjectively enjoy them, and this was definitely a treat.

I really like Doctor Strange in this movie. I thought his first movie worked, but it did kinda feel like it was setting up a lot of his stuff for Infinity War, so I liked seeing something that seemed to be a bit more seperate from setting up all these other things. Though I do wish it would've given us a bit more of Doctor Strange struggling with or questioning his decisions he made with giving up the time stone. There were some hints at this with his former collegue mentioning losing his sibling for example. But I feel like we didn't go exactly as deep as I wanted them to with all of that.

I appreciated his relationship with America. America herself felt a bit damsel-in-distress-ish, so I hope in her future projects she gets a bit more agency, but it was a fine enough character introduction I guess. But to see our Stephen be the one to actually give America the faith she needed to do what needed to be done to overome Wanda. My personald theory of why this Stephen could do what no other Stephen could, is because he had Spider-Man. Of course he can't remember Peter Parker, but just like MJ still has the necklace she got from him, Stephen should still subconciously have the lessons he learnt from working with Peter. And we know that there was probably no Spider-Man in the other Stranges' universes where America had been, or at least none that were close to that world's Strange, because America had never heard of any Spider-Man before. So I think that our Stephen's experience with working with Peter in Infinity War and No Way Home, gave him more knowledge about how to treat America in the way she deserved.

When the trailers were coming out, I though (like many people) that the Strange from What If was going to show up. I'm happy that ended up not happening, because the movie was already pretty crowded. But I like that conceptually, that Strange still felt connected to this movie, since the arc he went through in that episode was pretty similar to the arc Wanda had in this movie; lose one or multiple loved ones, reach out to a dark source of magic to get them back, however, when they reach them, their loved one(s) don't recognize them anymore and don't want anything to do with Strange/Wanda anymore. It ties this movie to that show without being over-referential, and it also ties Stephen and Wanda to each other as characters.

Which brings me onto Wanda. My feelings about her are... complicated to say the least. I think Scarlet Witch was amazing as a villain, but part of me wonders if that could've felt even more satisfying if the build up to that could've been even longer. I know that the Darkhold corrupted her, just like it did Agatha and other universe's Strange, so it all made sense logically. But for me it didn't fully satisfy me emotionally, because it still felt like they took a bit of a shortcut. The Scarlet Witch could've been a fantastic villain for an Avengers team-up story, but now that she's been used as a villain in this movie that can't happen anymore (probably).

And maybe part of what frustrates me is that I've seen this happen too much with villains, especially with female villains. My two favorite Katie McGrath characters are Lena Luthor and Morgana Pendragon. But writingwise both of them suffer from starting out as an ally to the protagonist with a possibility to turn dark, but then have their turn happen really quickly and mostly off screen. And this movie feels like it did a similar thing, though to a lesser extent because WandaVision at least gave some context to what's going on.

However, like I said, Wanda as a villain was amazing and got me super hyped. I'm usually not a big fan of horror stuff, but I felt like this movie did a fun job playing around with some of the tropes without going too far to the point where I couldn't enjoy it anymore.

I guess my main gripe with the movie as a whole is that I feel it was so fast-paced that a lot of the emotional beats didn't really hit me as hard. And a lot of times, it wasn't until a few days after I watched the movie until I'd have the realizations about what certain things meant, or what the depths behind some things were. Such as how Doctor Strange was the one to give the time stone to Thanos, which then led to Wanda having to see Vision die twice in a matter of seconds. Or how Wanda wanting to be able to travel to any universe for any cure seems intense, but with the knowledge that anyone who Wanda has ever loved ended up dying, her wanting to take these extreme precautions does make a bit more sense. But by those thoughts not hitting me until after the movie was over, the movie didn't impact me as much while watching it a first time. Though maybe I should just go watch it again.

[aratanaruu]

Tales of series, Guy x Luke, Luke

Oooh wow, all three? noice noice~ I’ll put it under a cut to spare your dashboards. Many thanks~! (Send me a fandom / character / ship and I’ll tell you...)

001 | Tales series...

Favorite character:I wonder... ~

Least Favorite character:I don’t think I have one. There are some characters I’m ehhh about (I’ll spare you from naming them) but that’s about it. If I had to choose... Van? He works as a villain well enough (manipulative, evil, disastrous, powerful, believable motivations) but holy hell does Abyss treat him as anything but a villain, which I loathe.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):In no particular order: Aschtalia, Rokunor, GuyLuke, Fluri, Soymilk

Character I find most attractive:Male: hint hint he is a very attractive guyFemale: okay afaik i am a straight girl..... but judith and teresa tho :eyes emoji:

Character I would marry::]

Character I would be best friends with:Tbh, I’m not sure which characters would get along with me. Perhaps it would be Anise, Jade, Magilou or Rokurou. The first three would make things a lot of fun, running around trolling everybody, and Rokurou sounds like a cool person to hang out with.

A random thought:Grand Chokmah is the most beautiful town / city / whatever in Tales.

An unpopular opinion:oh dear. Er. Tales in general? Hum... The overworlds could use some more work. I think it got better in Berseria, where the worlds had a lot more variety in their appearance, but I wish that things looked a lot more interesting than say... different types of fields / forests (Xillia. I swear, Xillia was like going to one town, then walking through some sort of grassy area to another town and repeat). I don’t know if this makes sense or if it’s unpopular at all. 

My Canon OTP:Prooobably Aschtalia, since that’s the only “canon” pairing I ship.

My Non-canon OTP:See above.

Most Badass Character:Jade. Eizen. Judith. Legretta. No explanation needed.

Most Epic Villain:If I want to be reaaally biased... Lady Teresa. I have a soft spot for the ice queen-types. I really like Shigure, most of the God-Generals and the Chimeriad, too. The Chimeriad were badass and very human, with admirable features. To me, they didn’t feel like a villain, just somebody with different ideals, which ties in well with Xillia’s final battle of ideals between Gaius and Jude/Milla.

Pairing I am not a fan of:Tbh there’s none that make me pppppbth at. There are no pairings that I don’t get or understand, even if I don’t ship them or like one+ characters in the ship.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another):aha. Tear. Let’s go with Tear. 

Favourite Friendship:YES FRIENDSHIP FRIENDSHIP IS SO UNDERRATED AAAH. It’s gotta be Guy&Luke. I do ship them, but god first and foremost their friendship makes me want to die of happiness. Guy’s overwhelming support throughout the entire game?? The Aramis Springs scenes???? The Tower of Rem scenes??? The Curse Slot scenes???????????

Honourable mention goes to: Sormik (even if you don’t ship, it’s hard not to see that they don’t care for each other), Vespy party, Rokurou & Magilou / Eizen, Abyss party.

Character I most identify with:Luke (Pre and post-Akz): (once) bratty and entitled, etc etc, “oh shit i’m screwing up” moment, a lotta up there issues, “who am i” existential crisis’ on the reg, redemption, raised questionably, long hair, trying their best, etc, etcMagilou: lmao what’s an emotion, trollish, whimsical, me? hiding everything under a mask?? it’s more likely than you think, ~magic~To a lesser extent: Jade / Judith

Character I wish I could be:Hmm... Judith? I’d love to be able to do all those backflips and I’m a sucker for spears / lances / glaives / the like. If not, then perhaps a mage-type character like Magilou. . . .

002 | GuyLuke...

When I started shipping them:About a month or so after I finished playing Abyss (so... August/Sept 2017?). It was mostly fanfiction and some fanart that dragged me into the ship. ngl tho I’m losing a bit of the love I once had for them. I think it’s because I’m busy being obsessed with other things, so dw, I’m sure I’ll get hit by a giant wave of GuyLuke feels in the future.

My thoughts:im... lov them........ this ship is so.... supportive...... they have so many issues but they’re working through it together. they’re both such lovable dumbasses. 

What makes me happy about them:Their trust in each other!! Their unwavering belief in each other!! Them being happy!!!!

What makes me sad about them:Sometimes I get the feel that it’s a bit one-sided? Guy is putting more into their relationship than Luke? Kinda got this feel in the game, but then again, Luke had a bunch of other relationships to balance but I do wish there was a bit more emphasis on Luke going out of his way for Guy. Or am I remembering the game wrong? what also makes me sad: oh i don’t know the fact that luke kinda dies like 7 times.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me:Hm... I don’t think there’s much. For the most part, what I’ve read is pretty decent.

Things I look for in fanfic:No preference.

My wishlist:Wishlist... for the ship? I don’t think I have much. Bamco is kind with the GuyLuke content, even if it’s not shippy. 

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:I’m fine with LukeTear. It is the canon ship after all, and I do slightly ship GuyTalia.

My happily ever after for them:let luke come back to life.... don’t make guy lose him again..........

003 | Luke...

How I feel about this character:One of my favourite characters of all time!!!! I love my boy. He’s got so many issues and he’s made so many mistakes but through all that, he perseveres and tries his best to make things right. Luke is such a (relatable) lost child, wondering who he is and what his place in the world is, and most of all, he feels so... human. He makes mistakes, he says the wrong thing, he struggles with say, saying the right things.... luke your redemption arc is one for the books

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: I’d say it’s just Guy.

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: ...Guy :>. Honestly, it’s Luke & Abyss party. I love the mentor-student relationship with Jade, BigBro!Luke to Anise and Ion and the squabbling cousins-role with Natalia. Tbh Luke&Natalia is an underrated friendship I will fight someone over.

My unpopular opinion about this character: eheheheh. i have a lot.... but i don’t want to explain the logic behind ‘em. haaaaah.... to say one or not...? Hm, I’ll say this: Pre-Akz Luke is an asshole

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:i am a simple gal with simple needs: luke to kick van’s ass. i mean like, actually kick his ass for what that bastard did instead of ‘thank you’. i’m forever salty about that moment.

My crossover ship:None~!

Whew, this was a long one. Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank you again~! I hope I delivered well.

[pass-the-bechdel]

Supergirl s02e16 ‘Star Crossed (1)’

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

Yes, twice. Barely.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Five (41.66% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Seven.

Positive Content Rating:

Three? I guess.

General Episode Quality:

Nevermind, they’re back to stupid. So, so stupid.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Kara passes with Rhea when they meet. They speak again later. There’s a lot of Mon-El involved both times, but they get there eventually.

Female characters:

Kara Danvers.

Alex Danvers.

Lyra.

Rhea.

Maggie Sawyer.

Male characters:

Mon-El.

J’onn J’onzz.

Winn Schott.

Lar.

James Olsen.

Boris.

Mandrax.

OTHER NOTES:

“To make Daxom great again.” Oh, no.

Ok. That flashback. I have mentioned before, how disturbed I am to find that the original confrontation of Kara’s prejudices towards Daxom have since been shown as actual deserved disdain, and how Daxom being actually exactly as bad as she said (to a caricaturish level) undermines Kara’s supposed lesson as well as treating Krypton as holier-than-thou despite all the huge flaws in its culture that have been made so evident, creating this huge us-vs-them divide with a really clear ‘good side’ and ‘bad side’ and absolutely zero nuance, etc. The flashback to Mon-El’s departure from Daxom as it actually happened does no favours to any aspect of the narrative: Mon-El is shown as hesitant and concerned for the safety of others in defiance of the prevailing Daxomite attitude, because the show is too afraid of the audience backlash if they show him being truly callous instead of just passively allowing it, while at the same time the narrative gives no quarter for Daxom and its people as a whole despite their undeserved fates. We are supposed to see Mon-El’s guard and think him awful, but what do we expect any ‘good’ guard to do? Maybe not kill that one guy, but the rest, with the ignoring everyone else in order to focus on rescuing the person he’s pledged to protect? Even killing the Kryptonian makes sense (is not morally ok, but makes sense) in the context of being exactly the kind of targeted violence that happens in the real world when people are ‘othered’. The coding of the behaviour is so transparent it’s disgusting, and coupled with that not-even-veiled MAGA line just before? Daxom’s Republicans to Krypton’s Democrats is a pretty fucking gross parallel to draw. I am very disappointed in the show for all of this garbage.

Remember when I fucking flagged Lyra as using Winn for her own ends the second she stepped on screen? Fucking flagged it. 

This is a much better Hamilton joke right here than the one a few episodes ago, but that one a few episodes ago was still too much, and that steps on this, because, really? Two sizeable Hamilton gags with only a couple of episodes between them? You’re trying WAY too hard to be current, show. It’s embarrassing.

Uurrrgghhh, and now we’re doing the ‘oh actually Lyra had a good reason for being terrible!’ thing? This shit is so predictable and empty and I am so over it. Remember one episode ago when this show was momentarily good again?

Is Guardian fighting in a fucking glass factory or what? So many glass panes to be thrown through.

So, we pretending that Lyra’s lie and Mon-El’s lie are the same? Just ‘they lied’ is not a parallel, show. These are not comparable situations.

See, Mon-El says in his apology that ‘I was a spoiled, useless person, but I didn’t know’, and that’s a big part of what is making this whole storyline, all season long, so poor. The total lack of nuance in Daxom. The clear-cut morality of Kryptonians which, also, lacks the nuance of reality. If Mon-El was raised in that life, how much opportunity did he have for seeing the flaws in it and recognising them as such? We have no concept of his level of self-awareness, and refusing to allow people room to grow is not how you achieve progress. At the same time, Mon-El’s process of self-improvement on Earth has been so paint-by-numbers simple, it’s hard to take it seriously. If he’s found changing so easy, how entrenched were those ‘spoiled, useless’ teachings that made up his entire formative existence? Real people take years to overcome such things, not least because when it’s a commonplace feature of how you were raised, it’s hard to recognise that there’s even a problem, let alone dismantle the rationale in your own mind that has allowed you to be unthinkingly complicit. Expecting Mon-El to change like flipping a coin is unfair; blaming him for the circumstances of his birth is unfair; telling this story in the way that they have, with his self-awareness and capacity for immediate total overhaul not just of personality but of ideals apparently uninhibited and detailed with only the slightest of backslides? Utterly unrealistic. What should have been a long, hard journey of self-reflection, questioning, and honestly ugly behaviour has instead been casual comic relief and romantic faux pas, and that’s so insulting. I can’t support Mon-El as a character because I can’t support the ill-constructed narrative that made him; in basic terms, he doesn’t make enough sense. He’s too unrealistic to function.

URGH. This is such a fucking mess I am annoyed at myself for even trying to untangle it. That kinda happens when you’re trying to over-simplify your storytelling to this extent: the break from reality is too intense, and you end up with a heap of confusion that your audience can’t figure out how to engage with on a meaningful level. In university, the single most important word I learned was ‘ethnocentricity’ - the belief that your own culture/background is inherently superior to all others. On the surface level, this is plain ol’ racism - and can be many other ‘isms as well, as cultural background shapes our perceptions of gender, sexuality, religion, etc. Looking deeper, we see ethnocentricity manifest when we assume that our social or moral codes are automatically the correct ones, without pausing to question where we got those codes from, and whether or not, actually, there might be better ways to do things. I actually debated this directly, back in 2016 when two Australian men were executed in Indonesia for drug smuggling, and the debate over the morality of the death penalty was rife throughout the country. I’m not going to get into that debate again here, but as an example of ethnocentricism, it was a case in which a lot of Australians flat refused to acknowledge the possibility that just because another country has different laws which conflict with our way of doing things, doesn’t necessarily mean that the people of that country are corrupt, lesser beings with an under-developed sense of morality which we need to step in and correct. Different ways of doing things can be shocking to our sensibilities at first blush, but we have to think about why they are that way and how the backdrop of that logic informs the constructs we see, before we pass high-and-mighty judgment over others. 

Supergirl’s Daxom narrative is a perfect example of ethnocentricism at work, with zero reflection: Kara is right, Mon-El is wrong, this cultural division is all-encompassing and without exception, the end. To be clear: I’m not suggesting that there’s a way to argue for, say, slavery being ok, but what there is is nuance to how people reach such a conclusion, and if we refuse to engage with the nuance we can’t engage with cultural learning, sharing, or understanding, and that’s how you end up with blank hostility instead of working towards more positive futures. Something being ‘obviously morally correct’ is (as evidenced through the entirety of human history) not enough to change systemic issues outright; if it were, the systemic issues wouldn’t have developed in the first place. Supergirl has run into trouble here because it’s trying to be topical, addressing the divisions in current US politics, but it also doesn’t want to actually have a nuanced conversation about the subject, and so instead we get heavy-handed black-and-white morality that only alienates the two sides instead of identifying common ground and building upon it to bridge the gap. Moreover, the show cripples its ability to explore these concepts in a better, more thorough way in the future, because it refuses to commit to the shades of grey in its situation and instead builds a two-camps concept in which any dithering or olive-branching between the two looks like ideological compromise and moral degradation instead of the complicated and painful process of learning that it represents in the real world. 

The truth is that as nice as it is to sit on your moral high horse feeling pure and special while everyone else scrabbles on the muddy ground, you can’t understand the people down below and you certainly can’t help them unless you’re willing to hop down and work through the mud as well, and what use is ideological purity if you’re the only one who benefits from it? That doesn’t mean that we should all start behaving in ways that conflict with our moral compass because, hey, some people are bigots, but it does mean recognising that we are all in a process of self-improvement and if you’re not at least open to the possibility that your way of doing things isn’t the best way, you can’t progress yourself, nor does treating others with condescension help bring them to your way of thinking or at least to a middle ground from which you can proceed together. That’s all a much messier and trickier prospect than what this show wants to deal with, and yet it’s exactly the story they’ve blundered into the middle of with the ridiculous notion that they’re gonna be able to clear-cut their way out. Mon-El’s process should involve a lot of questions: not ‘this thing is correct because obviously it is’ or ‘this thing is correct because Kara says so’, but rather ‘I’m being told that my way is wrong: why? Why is it wrong? Why was I taught that it was right? In what ways has my belief in the correctness of this thing influenced my perceptions of other things? Is it possible that this thing I believe actually is right, and Kara is wrong? Why should her perspective be infallible? What are the consequences of either possibility? Does that jive with the rest of my understanding of the world? What else is altered by this change? Are these alterations also correct?’ and so on, and so on, ad nauseum. Exhausting, repetitive, and complicated, yes, but that’s the reality (not least because he’s supposed to be a literal alien from another planet, but, whatever). At first, I thought it was stupid of them to introduce Mon-El without bothering to spend time on his integration into Earth culture outside of a handful of gimmicks; now I see that it’s much worse than that. I don’t expect this whole arc to end well; I only hope that it ends quickly.