#and yeah there's only three characters this time bc i didn't know who i should choose for this event and

[linawritesocs]

my ocs' fairy gala voicelines!

more twst ocs content LET'S GO!! help i forgot how to write voicelines

(also i didn't think of, like, a specific fairy gala event while writing this. think of it as a mix of both the original event and the new one sjsksks)

seth's fairy gala ssr voicelines.

summon: "wow, fairy gala sounds really cool! okay, i'm gonna be there and no one can stop me!"

groovy: "what, did you expect anything less from the ramshackle prefect? sure, i'm planning to transfer, but let me use the title just this once."

set home: "everyone looks so pretty~.. not as pretty as me though, so don't get too proud, okay?"

home idle 1: "yeah, i made my outfit myself this time too. no, i refuse to trust anyone with what i wear. well, i guess i didn't customize the uniform i got from the rsa students.. b-but hey, they just did a very good job with it!"

home idle 2: "i'm not used to wearing white, to be honest. of course, it doesn't mean that it's not my color, it's just.. i-i don't know, i feel weird. i feel like a prince in a way, haha."

home idle 3: *laughs* "i will never forget malleus-chan's reaction when he heard me say that i see this as a date with silver-chan. like, dude, everybody knows that i have four boyfriends, wake up! it's silver-chan's turn to go on a date with me!.. malleus-chan totally doesn't want to become my fifth boyfriend, right?"

home idle groovy: "ah, about the flower on my head. i made it myself. i heard about this flower from avery-chan and asked him to show me some pictures of it and i used them as a reference. he also told me that this flower actually has healing powers and i think he also wanted to tell me a story about it, but.. uh, i left before he could do that."

home tap 1: "it sucks that i didn't have enough time to make minnie-chan's dress too, but at least i was the one who picked it out. she's my vice prefect, i'm the one who's supposed to help her! it's a shame that sebek-chan didn't come with us, but i've heard about his reaction to her dress and i think i've done a very good job~"

home tap 2: "about the scarf.." *sighs* "it's the masquerade all over again. i actually didn't want to wear it at first, but then i was told that my outfit isn't "fairy-like" which basically means "seth, if you show too much skin again, we will literally kill you". you see, it's okay when anyone else does it, but not me- oh, wait, they probably just don't want more people to get a crush on me."

home tap 3: "silver-chan looks so pretty, right? if anyone here looks like a prince, it's definitely him!.. huh? i'm not comparing him to malleus-chan or leona-chan. he's better than both of them combined, we all know that. ehehe, and he looks even more pretty when he's with me~"

home tap groovy: "if i had to rank everyone's outfits, the best one would be sil- wait, you don't want me to be biased? u-um.. t-then.. ah, ortho-chan! ortho-chan looks sooooo pretty! i actually kinda want to try wearing something similar, even though i'm, uh, not a robot."

roland's fairy gala sr voicelines.

summon: "huh? you want me to come too? i-i don't think it's a good idea.."

groovy: "u-um, do i look good? something like this is so different from what i usually wear.."

set home: "i mean, i'm also a fairy, but still.. are you sure this will work out?"

home idle 1: "i'm not only a different type of fairy, but also a rsa student.. i don't think anyone will be happy to see me there. huh? you will be happy to see me?.. w-well, if that's the case, maybe i really should come."

home idle 2: "thank you for getting a new eyepatch for me. i really like it, i think it fits my outfit more.. you will do anything to make me feel more comfortable?.. haha, so that's why you're so popular. even though you deny it sometimes, you really are kind."

home idle 3: "even though most students obviously don't like me that much, some people have actually complimented me and said that i look good. it feels nice, haha.. w-why are you looking at me like that? why is everybody looking at me like that? i-it's because of my smile? what do you mean by that?"

home idle groovy: ".. so you've actually invited me because you noticed that i've been feeling not so good lately. you just wanted me to have fun, right? thank you. i mean it. i can't tell you why i've been feeling like this.. i guess i'm just a little lonely, that's all."

home tap 1: "wait, you think my hair looks pretty? y-you want to touch it?? no, no, i'm okay with that, i just didn't expect it, that's all.. huh, it feels nice, actually- pretend you haven't heard that."

home tap 2: "ortho-kun is a very good kid. he's very nice and i think he looks beautiful in that.. uh, how do you call it? "fairy gear", right. i wonder what his older brother is like. i've seen him many times before, but i've never managed to actually talk to him. i wonder why.. is he shy, maybe?"

home tap 3: "i think jay-kun would love this event. he always wants to know more, so it would be a good experience for him. he would look great in a similar outfit too, i'm sure of it. oh, now you actually want to make one for him? haha, i can't wait to see it."

home tap groovy: "sorry, i know i'm literally the gardening club leader, but i actually don't know much about flowers, so i can't tell you anything. you can ask avery-kun though, he would love to talk about them. no, really, sometimes it surprises me just how passionate he is about them. if he stayed in rsa, i would definitely make him the new club leader after i graduate."

minnie's fairy gala sr voicelines.

summon: "sure, sounds great and all, but why do i have to come?"

groovy: "how are you planning to make a magicless human look like a fairy?"

set home: "i just can't get used to this outfit.."

home idle 1: "all of this is such a bad idea.. why do we have to do all the work again? can't we just send all the fairies instead of pretending to be them? i don't care that they're different species or something like that, why would they make you- oh, so you actually weren't invited. you just decided to go because it'd be fun." *sighs*

home idle 2: "w-why did you have to pick this outfit? couldn't you go with something more comfortable? and, you know, less.. uh.. i-i don't want them to look at me, i don't want to be the center of attention! no, it doesn't mean that i admit i look good in it! wait, i always look good, it's just.. i won't be able to dance in something like this, that's it!"

home idle 3: "yes, sebek has already seen me. what, you want to know how he reacted to it? he just stood there for like a minute or two, didn't say anything, and when i was about to leave.. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE GOING WITH EVERYONE, HUMAN?? DO YOU KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THIS EVENT IS?? WERE YOU EVEN ALLOWED TO GO??" oh really? then why didn't you also come? that loser.."

home idle groovy: ".. fine, maybe i do like this dress. and thanks for helping me with my hair. but that's it. n-no, shut up! ugh, i can't even just say "thank you", you're going to turn it into "aww, so you actually love me?" i don't! AND IT DOESN'T MEAN I LOVE SOMEONE ELSE, SHUT UP!"

home tap 1: "what do i think about everyone's outfits?.. i don't really care. but i know that you won't leave me alone, so.. maybe ruggie? it's simple, but cute. just don't tell him that, i'm sick of savanaclaw students calling me "little mouse" and teasing me all the time."

home tap 2: "huh? what are you doing?.. you forgot to do my makeup? it's fine, i don't think anyone has noticed. it's not that important, calm down- fine, fine, i'll let you do it, just chill, okay? you can be worse than vil sometimes, you know that? i wish you could be so serious about everything and not just your interests though."

home tap 3: "you don't have to tell me everything about your "date" with him. no, seriously, i feel like i'm the one dating him and not you, i just know way too much now.. you're telling me everything about it because i'm so important to you?.. fine, whatever you say. o-of course, i like seeing you happy, we both come from a different world and we live in the same dorm. you're like a br- never mind."

home tap groovy: "ugh, fairies are so annoying, i don't get them at all.. well, uh, most of them. roland is fine, i guess. that goth guy who comes to visit you every night at 3 am? yeah, he is annoying. sebek?.. sometimes i forget that he's actually half-fairy. he calls us weak humans so often that it just feels nice to imagine him being a human himself. like it would just be so funny for him to turn out to be one."

[reallyromealone]

I’ve been soooo obsessed with the babyhaul series.So,I was wondering if you could do an ep where the babe finally develops his quirk.Aizawa dropped the babe at the U.A daycare and a few hours pass and he gets called to the office bc his little one developed their quirk (You can pick the quirk bc I have no idea what it should be)

Feel free to ignore this <333

Title: quirk

Fandom: bnha

Characters: Yamada, Aizawa, Nedzu

Fic type: fluff

Pairings: Yamada x Aizawa

Warnings: male reader, reader insert, child reader, fluff

Notes:

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Quirks were fun.

Especially when you get a call that your toddler rearrange the structural design of a block into a pile of sand, causing the daycare staff to have to call the parent to said daycare.

"What did he do?" Aizawa asked exasperated as he and his husband sat with their three year old, (name) sporting a cool quirk suppressant bracelet for children as he played with his papas fingers and wedding band "well it seems he developed his quirk, he turned a wood block into sand and then his cookie into a ducky toy and began crying when he didn't have his cookie anymore" the head of the U.A daycare explained and the two teachers shared a glance.

(Name) Had his biological father's quirk.

"Thank you for telling us, if you could excuse us" Aizawa lifted the little one In his arms as they went to Nedzu, they knew this time would come but god they wished they had a bit more time. (Name) Was confused as his dad's looked serious "papa! I got my quirk!" (Name) Tried to make conversation with Yamada who smiled down at his son that was in Aizawas hold "yeah, now we gotta see uncle Nedzu to teach you how to use it" (name) looked confused but just went with it, uncle Nedzu was the smartest guy ever so...

"Uncle zuzu! I got my quirk!" (Name) Said excitedly as he was freed from his dad's hold and set in the ground, waddling/ running towards the principal "So I have been told little mouse, very exciting" Nedzu said handing a cookie to the child who went around his desk to see him properly since he wasn't able to see above the desk.

"The commission isn't to know about his abilities so we can work that to our advantage" (name) was sitting on the carpet with his toys, playing happily while the adults put their plan into action, the daycare trained and signed enough NDA's to make a judge sweat "We will begin quirk training immediately, if he can do something like that without breaking a sweat now... That's something to keep close tabs on"

It was well known that quirks could be more powerful through generations, evolving into something even bigger than itself and (name) had no reaction to using his quirk even by accident, turning wood to sand wasn't an easy feat after all.

"It will only be for an hour a day, he is still quite young" Nedzu showed them folders he had prepared, a very cohesive and airtight plan that had the parents impressed "there's even snack time" Aizawa said with a huff, it fit in for their pick-up time for Eri and everything.

"And if course I'll be there in case something happens" Aizawa said looking back at his son who was in his own world.

That night, Aizawa and Yamada sat with their tot and explained a little bit about his quirk, (name) was already mentally developing faster than they were expecting, they were sure that Kisaki did something to cause that as the boy seemed to be understanding things faster and better than his peers.

"I can make cookies..." The power (name) realized he has was a horrifying realization to the parents who couldn't help but laugh at the fact that making cookies was his first instinct.

"Use that power wisely" Yamada snorted as they went home, they had some things to order and have lunch, (name)s choice.

[romanarose]

Favorites of 2023

Hi! I've seen a lot people doing these so I thought I would too!

These are all sorts of Oscar Issac/Pedro Pascal fics that delighted me this year <3

I tried to keep it to one rec per author just because I have soooooo many friends with wonderful fics and blogs who deserve recognition

If yours didn't make it, NO FEAR you are still wonderful to me &lt;3

Everything is labeled properly in the fic so be warned, many of this contains dark!

3 series that I couldn't stop thinking about

Hungry Hearts By @atinylittlepain: The Last of Us, A Bruce Springsteen themed Joel series? SHEEEEEEEESH

Yearling by @justagalwhowrites : The Last of Us, Jackson!Joel and a victim of prolonged sexual assault. If you know me, you know I love a traumatized reader healing with the power of love and friendship

The Fractured Moon by @melodygatesauthor : Moon Knight, NON CON, dark moon boys is always a slay but the way Marc is so tortured and Steven is so needy?!?!?!?! Mels characterization of Steven may or may not have influenced my Ben in ROF

Three fics that rewired my brain

On the Waterfront by @beefrobeefcal : Triple Frontier, Now, I've always loved a tubby man with a belly (who else had a crush on Samwise Gamgee in LOTR?) BUT DARK FRANKIE?!?!?!?! Turned it into a full obsession.

I can be your pretty girl by @walkintotheriveranddisappear : The Last of Us, Wow, I devoured every single chapter!!! I thinka bout it so much, ESPECIALLY that scene with Tommy... I've never looked at a pool ball the same way.

Dancing With Wolves by @hon3yboy : Moon Knight, Now, I'm not the biggest monster fucker out there, but this?!?!?!?! WEREWOLF MARC SPECTOR??? Unwell about it.

3 times men jerking off was hot

Caught by @toxicanonymity : The Last of Us, I've mentioned in the authors note for Keep Cry'n that this fic inspired it, it's one I go back to allllll the time

Take Care of me Tonight by @missdictatorme : Moon Knight, Jake is horny and lonely and jerks of..... reader helps, and makes our boy feel special <3

Pent Up by @ramblers-lets-get-ramblin : Narcos, Javi is... well... pent up, needs to let loose! and boy does he.

4 times it got gay bc something is wrong with me and I couldn't decide

Behind Enemy Lines by @astroboots : Triple Frontier, Y'all know how much I love this series, seeing as I wrote a fic for it XD but this chapter is something i always hold close <3

Captain of the team by @writefightandflightclub : Triple Frontier, MAAAAAANNNNN this fic is why I will never be the same as a person.

Trine by @my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction : Sucker Punch. Anyone who reader blue jones should be reading this. Incredible.

What if he never had to go? by @velocibeewords : Triple Frontier, The infamous series I read on my friend bachelorette weekend! So good I couldn't put it down, going so far as to read it at a casino XD Benny and Santi, my babies

3 times underused characters shined

Oxford Comma by @whatthefishh : The Two Faces of January, Tell me, how does someone take a character with almost no following and make a series so damn beloved by many??? Only Mona could.

My Ex's Tapes by @runa-falls : Lighteningface, Basil Stilt AND Jake Lockley??!?! God bless this mess hnnggggg

I'm Getting What's Mine by @winniethewife : The Card Counter, dub con, I think we as a society need more William Tell, and sensory deprivation to break down reader? Amazing.

3 times they talked dirty to me *trumpet noises*

Not a Survivalist Girl by @tightjeansjavi and @chaotic-mystery : The Last of Us, when they finally fuck??? HELLO?!?!! unreal

Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line by @millerscoffee : The Last of Us, Joel is so degrading and condescending in this I think about it so much it's fucking unreal.

Making Trouble by @juneknight : Moon Knight, The fic that completly fried the brains of the moon knight fandom. "You cried like I was killing you—except you were begging me not to stop" yeah. Yeah...

3 times there were three or more

The story of us by @pimosworld : Triple Frontier, This series has a special place in heart bc Priscilla said I influenced a lo of it with the characterizations and thats such a big honor. Priscilla Is so talented and I adore how she writes these guys... and the FishBen wins my heart

Eyes on Me by @cavillscurls : The Last of Us, Soft Joel? Tommy watches? AFTERCARE?!?!?! Y'all know how much I love aftercare.... I should read this again shouldn't I?

Run the Table by @katiexpunk : The Last of Us, MORE TOMMY JOEL THREESOME! MORE!!!! This one came out recently so its still fresh in my mind

3 Times I should NOT have been into that

No Soul to Sell @atticrissfinch : The Last of Us, NON CON V DARK, this is the fic that made me like... yeah I'm into piss. No doubt. It was so dark and hot ;-;

Plushies Series by @pedge-page The Last of Us, Haru knows how much I love this, and it was a toss up between this and their piss kink but seeing as I got that above.... plushes needs more love bc its so soft and domestic and horny <3

Plaything by @missannwinchester : The Last of Us, wow, I adored this fic… then I lost it!!!! Thank you to everyone who helped find it bc it’s one of my favs. I wanna be Joel’s lil doll he dresses up 🥺

3 times I said “this is underrated af”

No One But Me by @koshkamartell : The Last of Us, Are y'all tired of me talking about this fic yet? Koshka told me my series The Wrong Way inspired this so it's special to my heart <3

Safe by @criticallyacclaimedstranger and @apascalrascal : Triple Frontier, Cal has so many good Frankie one shots it was hard to pick, but this one is sooooo soft. We love Frankie being willing to listen and learn.

Through the Scope by @ssuperficialspacecadett : Triple Frontier, Y'all know I love a traumatized reader learning to heal, but his fic is fantastic bc it's a traumatized reader who has done a lot of the work already and is strong and brave as it is <3 Also, all 4 of the guys are her friends now which is the best way to have a fic

Thank you all soooooo much for all these amazing fics and for a great 2023! Well. Not so great, I had terrible time lol but y'all were my solace <3

If you feel so inclined, check out my best of year wrapped for both RomanaRose and Romana-after-dark

I'm not gonna say 2024 is my year, I leanred my lesson XD I am approaching 2024 with RESPECT. It will be the year it is.

[19burstraat]

anyone want to hear my six of crows x jane austen's emma au. yes of course you do don't be silly. the only person allowed to be silly is me as I descend into madness in the course of trying to cast this. (if you think 'I've heard this before' yes I've posted abt it before tho I think it was on my main)

kaz is emma, a bored, overintelligent rich bitch stuck in a country house with a bunch of shit idiot neighbours and almost no one to entertain or match him. fucking useless dad per haskell / mr woodhouse is a weaksauce hypochrondriac, and jordie / isabella has gone and got married and ditched kaz, the bastard. the only consolation is their neighbour inej / mr knightley, who is rich, sensible, popular, and elegible as hell... glory be, an intellectual equal for kaz!

in order to be less bored, kaz takes on a protege, mysterious randomer and natural son wylan / harriet smith, who kaz decides to mould in his own image and make a good match for. wylan is in love with gentleman farmer jesper / robert martin, but kaz is a snob and tries to push him towards local vicar kuwei / mr elton (I KNOW. I'M SORRY KUWEI), but that all goes tits up bc turns out kaz is a fucking terrible matchmaker, who'd've known.

meanwhile, unassuming and a little cold, but locally well-liked matthias / jane fairfax has arrived back in the village, and kaz busily commences hating on him because he's another accomplished young man and he makes him feel inadequate. hot on his heels comes the mysterious nina / frank churchill (NINA I'M SO SORRY I FUCKING HATE FRANK BUT THIS IS WHAT WORKS FOR THE COUPLES YOU CAN BE A NICE FRANK CHURCHILL ): ), who kaz is kind of fascinated by and enjoys sparring with, and hence kind of misses the really obvious signs that nina and matthias are secretly engaged, even though inej, ever thief of secrets, has lowkey noticed something's up, like matthias getting mysterious gifts from someone. kaz ends up being convinced that possibly it's inej that's pursuing matthias, which nina encourages because it helps her cover, and kaz kinda panics.

everyone has petty village drama which culiminates when kaz sneers at pekka rollins / miss bates (LISTEN. LI actually you don't need to listen bc I laughed out loud when I thought of this comparison but hear me out, if you just think of it as the equivalent of the church of barter scene except instead of 'I buried him' it's 'when have you ever stopped at three?' it kind of works. sorry to miss bates tho who is still kinda my fave austen character) at box hill, which culminates in inej going BOY WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM and kaz is like wow she kind of has a point should I be a better person :/

uhh what else even happens. there's a ball after nina massively encourages one, inej saves wylan from being partnerless and later dances with kaz (think of the gloveless dance scene from the 2020 adaptation? yeah? yeahh??). the regency gender conventions here are getting so messed up lmao, never mind. in emma harriet fancies herself in love with mr knightley and emma is forced to realise that she likes him, so let's say that wylan pretends to be after inej, in order to strong arm kaz into realising that he's wanted to marry inej this entire time. wylan's dad turns out to be minted (I'm stretching the book here to make it work w SOC but never mind) but that's after kaz has admitted he fucked up and sent wylan off to marry gentleman farmer jesper, yaaay. nina's relatives who are stopping her from marrying matthias die and hence there's a massive revelation with 'oh they were engaged this whole time lol', kaz is PISSED bc he didn't clock it. uh. everyone gets married and now kaz can escape the shit village and actually go places. the end.

[batboys-cumdumpster]

Actually I'm not done ranting yet bc now I'm gunna beef with SJM for fumbling Nesta's arc.

The whole book was hollow and empty for a character who had so much potential to actually be a strong badass. SJM reduced her entire book to shitty sex scenes and three different random plot points that were poorly address and poorly wrapped up (with some very unrealistic events, too, ranging from Feyre's 'she can't have a c-section' to the merry band of ribbon cutters 'winning' the blood rite).

In ACOWAR, I wanted to see Nesta step into her womanhood with power and she didn't. I was rooting for her and I was rooting for Nessian. There was SO much potential there. But it all fell apart. Horribly.

The cheap way Nesta "redeemed" herself by "saving" Feyre and Nyx without actually having a conversation with Feyre and apologizing makes me upset. I wanted two sisters to talk, I wanted them to face their past together and address it and have something real there. And any time Nesta and Feyre could have had a conversation, SJM ruined it by having it interrupted.

Nesta's friendships also feel empty and hollow to me. The friendships felt forced in the beginning to get to the closeness it ended at. And SJM writing Emerie and Gwyn telling Nesta she has nothing to apologize for (especially not knowing what she's even done) makes Nesta stans' behavior of excusing Nesta's behavior and blaming others for her behavior even worse.

It's okay to admit your fave has been abusive. It's okay to admit they have been shitty, and are still exhibiting that shitty behavior (ie Nesta making that shot at Azriel's mom in CC3). It's okay for a character to own that and apologize for it but it should only be accepted if that character actually changes. It is just like real life. I know these are fictional characters but if SJM wants to use these characters to reflect real life then she needs to be more responsible when writing them.

Give us real, changed behavior. Please, I am begging you. Give Nesta some fucking dignity and stop making her lash out at people like some child with a temper tantrum when she's angry. Let her actually fucking grow and show people that someone with such horrible tendencies can become a better person while owning up to what they've done and apologizing. It is hard work not to revert back to our trauma headspace and act the way we do when dealing with mental health so yeah, Nesta is gunna fuck up. But give her room to fuck up, she can't get there when she has no changed behavior.

I am so very much hoping that Nesta has changed in Elain's book because I want to like her. Even if her stans piss me off and dismiss her behavior, I genuinely do want to like Nesta. I was starting to like her and then, again, SJM completely fucked her character and her stans excuse it left and right and blame everyone except Nesta.

Nesta is responsible for her own actions, reactions, emotions, and health. No one owes her anything just because she is suffering because everyone has trauma they are dealing with. She cannot continue to make her trauma everyone else's problem. It doesn't make sense for being upset that IC/Rhysand tell her to mind herself when she gets abusive or when they give her back the energy she gives them.

No matter who you are, actions have consequences and most of the time no one cares about what you're going through in your personal life, they only care how you're treating others while you're going through it.

[ca-suffit]

for some thoughts on the Louis "pushing" Lestat + Armand. Should go without saying that Louis did not deserve either (though unclear if Louis or Lestat started the fight that lead to dropping like if it's true Lestat wasn't fighting back. I blame writers and confusing unreliable narrations however I digress) being dropped by Lestat or left in pain by Armand (or screwed over several times by Armand).

So anyways I want to look at the *why* Louis has this pattern that isn't because he's the abuser or bad guy or the one in the wrong. As cheesy as it is, we accept the love we think we deserve, right? Louis has always had lower self worth and has struggled with his image, who he is, especially as a vampire. he dealt with all the complex + intersections problems of being a black semi closeted gay man in the timeframe of America it was set in (20's¿) socioeconomic status, the family problems. I mean even to book!Louis he was always like straight up depressed dude. And it's the whole like people search for red flags for the thrill bc they're used to the chaos hurt and pain? I view Louis very similar. Idk you see this self sabatoging behavior with a lot of trauma+ abuse victims, and it doesn't mean they're a bad guy but often I think Fandom is the place for nuance to die lol.

But I hope they carry on and have more of Louis on the show than the books did, and I hope they continue the character growth where we can see him actually heal and like gain a sense of worth. S1 he appeared to but in reality it was mostly fabricated lies. I hope they don't waste Jacob like that. But yeah I think just on a side note of psychiatric people like are so wrapped up in why mental illness and trauma effects lestat and Armands actions but do seem to demonize and ignore how the same shit effects Louis.

"people like are so wrapped up in why mental illness and trauma effects lestat and Armands actions but do seem to demonize and ignore how the same shit effects Louis."

this is exactly the problem and then it's usually followed by ppl's antiblackness jumping out. then if anyone points that out to them, they usually double down bcuz they don't want to feel like they're racist. the thing is tho, if u always double down when things are pointed out to u, who are u ever gonna be but that person? it's uncomfortable to face ur own biases but it's the only way to overcome them. we're all raised in societies that fill our heads with all kinds of crap we have to unlearn. u *have* to unlearn it tho or else ur just replicating it forever.

stuff dies in fandom bcuz environments are created on purpose for it to be like this. look how impossible it is to even talk about race or racism here (or any fandom). this account has to be anon and rely mostly on other anon asks in order to talk about anything. the fandom stays ignorant bcuz ppl fight hard to keep it that way.

the fandom used to be all about louis and coddling louis when he was white. it's only dropped off since the show started. lestat, armand, and louis have always been the three main characters in this fandom that ppl relate to the most. suddenly louis is the only black character and usually has a lot of black fans posting meta about him aaaand....here comes the lestat and armand ppl reframing it all as "actually if u look at *their* trauma......"

and, I mean, it's *not* technically wrong. like u wrote and like the show is saying too, these cycles *are* cycles. this is real life! nobody was talking like this before tho. character's trauma histories were not dragged up as much as they are now. anne rice didn't write her stories like the show is doing so ppl are not used to critically analyzing anyone's behavior. she glossed over a lot of conflict as the books went on. taking into account most ppl read these as kids too, a lot of fans coming from the books just don't know anything but their own connection (thru trauma too, usually) to these characters, who they have seen forever as "not doing any wrong" (or doing wrong but it feels "justified" somehow or they said they did wrong so it's "fine"). then the show is saying they do a *lot* of wrong and now here we are.

for brief comments on the fight again....arguments happen and shit gets out of control v easily. no fight is a play by play of which side did what thing and who "deserved" what. there won't be a real answer to most fights like this. but for 1x5 the show has already said lestat is the one who crossed the line. that's all that matters. it's also not damning for life, especially an immortal life. ppl have a hard time understanding any of this bcuz the society's we live in don't allow for anything but punishment forever when we break social rules. that's kind of all anne rice put into her vampire society too, so again....if u come from the books, it's not gonna prep u for the show.

I also don't think S1 was mostly "fabricated lies." I don't think the IWTV book was either, the way most book ppl weirdly believe. I think that's the other part of what makes ppl uncomfortable. ur version of who u think u are is not gonna be what others always see, especially ex partners. it's just something u have to accept. ppl aren't gonna have the same perception of the same events, even for stuff u would think would be the exact same story no matter what. louis and claudia are black and lived with a white man who was family but also literally controlled everything, intentionally or by default of being a white man. everything in S1 is accurate to that relationship in that way and tbh the only reason most ppl want it to be a lie is bcuz most ppl aren't used to seeing whiteness portrayed like that. they want the black man's perspective to be revoked somehow in whatever way so they can stop feeling like they have to take it seriously. it should still be taken seriously, it was saying a lot of real shit. I also believe emphasis was prbly added but as an overall commentary on a lot of things otherwise? S1 does *not* need to be forgotten or written off for *any* reason.

idk if I covered everything I was gonna say but this is already long. ur going in the right direction tho. a lot of ppl aren't asking these questions bcuz they don't want to see louis as a person, then white fandom intentionally makes it feel like u will be attacked if u say anything "racist," so ppl are afraid to say anything, look for attacks or attack otherwise themselves first when nothing is even there. even if there's stuff here I disagree with, it's still fine to have a conversation about it and look at our different perspectives. fandom has ppl in this mindset that it's all who is right or wrong instantly, but that's not....real. this show isn't telling a story of who is right or wrong anyway but ppl's racist's perspectives def hold a different weight that needs to be examined. most ppl just don't want to.

[spider-xan]

Addressing two issues I've seen brought up in the Dracula Daily tag today, and I am begging people to remember that even if you dislike a character, you still need to engage with the text and their actual actions:

Van Helsing is so incompetent! Why didn't he just secretly put a wild rose on Lucy's coffin instead of dragging the three suitors into everything?

Again, I want to stress that the popular idea of Van Helsing being an experienced vampire hunter is not true to the text, so the pop culture interpretation shouldn't be projected onto him when we're dealing with the novel. At the time of the Lucy incident, he only knew some folklore due to his open mind, but he was learning, researching, and experimenting at the same time he was trying to save her, which also meant relying on folklore and superstition that may be incomplete, or who knows what's true or not; Lucy getting staked, beheaded, garlicked, her coffin soldered, the holy weather caulking, etc. reads like he wanted to take as many precautions as possible bc who knows which one works - but at this point, his knowledge is still incomplete.

By his own admission, meeting the Harkers is when he really started to gain a fuller knowledge of vampires and Dracula himself. I know it's a long way back in the novel now, but wild rose as an anti-vampire measure was first mentioned by Jonathan as one of the gifts he received from the villagers; it's possible, but not and never confirmed, that this may be where Van Helsing acquired that knowledge, if he didn't know it earlier - but if he learned it from Jonathan, it would have been after he already had an idea for Lucy as proof he needed for his bigger plan.

Do we really need to go over why Van Helsing needed to show the suitors Lucy running around as a vampire right in front of their eyes as direct proof that vampires exist so that they would join the Dracula hunting team again?

The men are forcing Mina to be their secretary bc they are sexist! They should take turns being the ones to record the minutes!

I mean, yeah, there's a sexist idea that secretarial work is woman's work and therefore less valuable, but in this case, Mina is a highly skilled and trained secretary who knows how to use a typewriter - still a relatively new technology that requires learning and practice - and type quickly; transcribing the minutes quickly into an easily readable format is a valuable contribution to the team, and to act like secretarial work is just something anyone can do and not a real skill or specialized labour is ironically degrading that kind of work.

Pragmatically, why make someone else take handwritten notes that will have to be typed again later, or fumble around with a typewriter for the first time? No, they don't have time to learn right now, and yeah, maybe they should have been learning, but also, let Mina have a special and important skill set that no one else has, and that the team would be lost without.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Questions for Princess Bee au, since you said you were following but soft rewriting events in S4 and S5, if these are things that you've thought of:

How does Lila's whole 'three mom scam + lair in the catacombs' thing work? Are you ignoring it bc of how nonsensical it is? Bc like, the only way I personally can think to make that plot work at all, au or cannon, is by using that 'Lila has been a Senti the whole time who was made a long time ago with the purpose of stirring up shit and antagonizing Miraculous users and that how she's pulling everything off' idea that someone brought up a while ago.

Is the Derision prank being ignored or rewritten? I know you hate it and the episode, and Chloe being Heather Chandler levels of cruel and feared pre-Origins is not gonna be a thing in this, but the prank itself doesn't seem much worse than some of the stuff Chloe did in S1, at least to me, so im curious what you're gonna do with that

((is Kim still gonna be dumber than two turnips in a rain barrel?))

What happened with Gabriel? Are you keeping him going full bastard post-Miracle Queen, or going to go the HC route with him? If you're settled on the Wish being used by Adrienette to stop him, I'm assuming he soundly lost, no statue or being remembered as a hero for him. Is he in jail?

((Also, is Natalie just dead if Gabriel didn't get the Wish?))

If you're keeping Feligami but making it a bit healthier, are you working with them and Adrien being Sentimonsters, or is that being thrown out?

Okay so! Lotta things!

Lila may be put on a slight backburner for now. I will scrap the three moms plot, because that's just??? How the fuck does she pull that off?? As far as Canon, she was still a teen who was going down a dark path and in this AU she unfortunately didn't get help and has continued said dark path. How much she's done in the meantime is up in the air, but having her still as a con artist is probably on the table. That said, I need to hammer out her motivations and what she plans to do should she get the Miraculous because like. As petty as she is I'm not going to say she's still miffed about Marinette calling her on her shit.

Derision is.... kinda both? I have a rewrite for this anyway but short version: yes Chloé was a bully and pulled pranks. This was another prank. No, not everyone was scared of her it's still the Origins-level and the prank wasn't quite as cruel because no feelings were involved(also maybe fake spiders instead of real ones). I'm saving Kim's character by 1.) having him semi-unaware of the prank? LIke Chloé tells him they're pulling a prank and he's on board but he doesn't know what's in the box and also 2.) afterward he's like 'yeah no that one was mean' instead of 'it's just a prank bro!'. Mari was hurt by it but not Super Extremely Traumatized™, and it has nothing to do with her stalking Adrien(that was just her being a bit lovesick and she addresses it in a much healthier way another time)

Gabriel is.... a bit up in the air. I am going with his Season 4-5 self so I'm not redeeming him. I can't /quite/ figure out a way he'd win that would have Mari and Adrien resort to using the Wish to stop him without having him use the Wish first and they reverse it. So either they reverse his Wish, or Gabriel's Wish in the first place included blocking all of the other Miraculous Users from being able to use the Miraculous so they can't undo his Wish. I'll debate on what to do with this one, and we also debate on Emilie and Nathalie's fates. If they reverse the Wish then Gabriel's probably alive but in jail and the Team would spend time finding how to fix Emilie and Nathalie(probably gonna be nice and fix them). If it's just Gabe gets the Wish and blocks them from fixing it, then he's dead but Nathalie and Emilie are fixed. Sill have to debate on /how/ he manages to get the Wish because I don't want Marinette to be a fucking moron but ya know.

I am working with the Sentikids plot! But I'm adjusting a few things!!

1.) Adrien, Felix and Kagami are Special and the other Sentis aren't Sapient Beings, so there's no moral issue over how many Mari killed or Felix making tool ones like Red Moon and OUAT. With this also comes the option to free them from their Amok's control.

2.) I'm having Tomoe be a lot better. She loves Kagami, though she did have her business deals with Gabriel. She's not as much a part of the supervillain thing past 'Gabriel has the Peacock and he can snap my daughter out of existence so I will do what he asks'. She's far from perfect, but her hands are tied for a while. And even when Felix gets the Peacock, not only is she unsure of if Felix is a threat to Kagami or not, but she's also in too deep and if Gabriel goes down so does she

3.) I'm bringing Felix's whole thing down a LOT of notches. He doesn't hate all of Humanity, he just hates the few in specific who treat him and the others like tools. So in Emotion, he only kills Gabriel and Tomoe, knowing Gabriel is like Colt and assuming Tomoe is as well when he finds out Kagami is a Senti. He does realize he's wrong later when he's eavesdropping and trying to find ways to get Kagami out of her situation and sees that her mother loves her. Their romance is also more slowburn instead of immediately hooking up.

Also an overall change: Adrien knows about what's going on and we have a proper reveal goddamn it!!

[thegeminisage]

okay WHEW it's star trek update time. last night* we watched tng's "interface" and ds9's "the siege." *i'm typing this at fuck o clock and scheduling it to go up tomorrow when i'm not here <3

interface (tng):

i don't want to talk about it

actually wait no yes i do but mostly i just want to complain. i wish there was perhaps some sort of skip/watch list with the dead parent episodes labeled. for star trek. i mean i know i'm making one but not that one i can't use that until it's too late. i can't crowdsource EVERY dead parent episode of star trek through my tumblr followers. though i will say whoever warned me about 4.02 of ds9 (i forgot which person it was, i'm so sorry 🙏) has my deepest gratitude. ok. complaint lodged.

what else...um, geordi and data. emptiness. Yeah

yeah. that's all. sorry. my spidey senses started tingling about halfway through the episode and i googled whether or not his mom really was dead and upon receiving my answer we stopped the episode to go directly to ds9.

the siege (ds9)

LOVED this one. where do i even begin

well i will begin at the obvious: women! kira and dax in the shuttle. mwah

what i loved most about kira and dax in the shuttle wasn't even the homoeroticism, though i did - of course - deeply enjoy the homoeroticism. what i loved MOST was that they seemed to have invented a personality for dax at last! i have no idea what was going on in this episode or who this dax was or where she was during s1 but i REALLY liked her. it's shocking bc i almost gave her LAST PLACE in the character rankings, but she was so fun here?? and also kind of like...airheaded and weird. "i might keep the nose." seems like they really DIDN'T know what to do with her in s1, but better late than never. i will continue to try and forgive her really terrible hair even though it makes her head look soooo weird and offputting

big spider bad. actually it was too stupid looking to be scary but i still didn't like it

quark and odo's gay little goodbye <3

julian FUCKING bashir pretending he was hot shit when he held those guys up. KING.

actually all of the action sequences in this episode were great. all three of season 2's episodes have been really funny even as they're also very serious at the same time, i fucking love it

love also the little nod to o'brien's service record on the cardassian front in the way of wartime rations. not only is it funny but it is, again, a great reminder of his cardassian trauma, and why he might feel obligated to stay behind

SPEAKING OF. everyone in ops, down to the last person, agreeing to stay at ds9, even though some of them have families like o'brien does. i'm SO glad they didn't forget his family, that they actually showed him and keiko arguing about it, but he STILL felt morally that he had to stay - that it was more important than his own life, and the risk of his family having to continue on without him.

PLUS the fact that not a single person wanted to leave, even after sisko assured them that they SHOULD think of their families...girl he is literally the best captain or commander or whatever. that's stone cold loyalty. they all trust him or love him or both.

i was a little ambivalent on li nalas as a concept but he actually was used finally...i think "off the hook" was a great way to take care of that arc neatly, because making him live the lie would have felt cruel, but him just ghosting would have made him look like an asshole, no matter how justified. i hope there's a bajoran afterlife he can chill out in

did we get set up for season-long villains with winn and jaro? that would be fun. the concept of "storylines" feels so foreign in a star trek show but there it is........

TONIGHT: tng's "gambit part i" and ds9's "invasive procedures," which with any luck will hopefully be about subjects besides dead parents 🤞

[topazpearl]

in celebration of sbg returning in a little over 2 weeks (!!!!!) have my HUGE master doc of all my possible theories, ideas, wants/needs, etc.

(spoilers abound of course)

Edit: For an updated, post-S2 release version, [here]

[Hamilton chorus voice] NUMBER ONE: The giant freakin phantompede and how to escape it

-Logan shoots it in the eyes, probably won't kill it tho, just make it mad and blind, which doesn't help

-they pull a Tremors and use the jeep as bait to make it jump off the cliff to its death, and they all jump out at the last second. a big gamble, assuming its stupid enough to do this. (tho making it blind first as mentioned could work) Sucks that they lose the jeep but they can get another car

-Or (this goes into my Phantom Ashlyn theory which I'll talk later) ashlyn can talk to it and tells it to go away and it….does! idk lol it's stupid but maybe ash has enough girl boss energy to convince it. or it's so shocked by a human talking to it it's like "dang ok" 

-last idea: they're near the school so they lure it there and into the sports area, assuming they have a baseball field, and kill it with all the big lights there (the poetic justice of it all... get 'em tyler)

NUMBER TWO: Schrödinger's Tyler

-I'm hoping that once phantompede is taken care of they'll go back to find him. Taylor will force them probably. Cue angst. 

-my top theory rn is that if you die in the phantom dimension (PD) you enter a coma in the real dimension (RD) b/c I think it'd be very lame and low stakes for a horror thriller for ty to just wake up fine but in pain. 

–unless there's some really NASTY RD consequences like, he starts getting narcolepsy, starts hearing Phantom noises too, constantly sick, slowly wasting away with each day, maybe relives his death every night like some horrid nightmare??? etc 

-then of course there's the popular idea that if u die in the PD your body becomes a phantom. who knows how long that takes. could be fun and angsty if it happens rlly fast like while the kids are there and see his body turn into a phantom and they freak the frick out. yeah 

and if the phantoms have no retained memories, Tay is just calling to him but it's for naught 

-anyway if ty's in a coma that'll be fun to explain to the parents 

-If a phantom is killed, their connected person in the RD who was in a coma dies fr

NUMBER THREE: Ashlyn and the Phantoms (cool new band name) 

-we know the kids are getting influenced by the PD, making phantom noises (further supports phantoms were people theory) but with Ashlyn's "really strong" connection to the PD, she's in special danger. If one can turn into a phantom without dying, it's gonna be her. Ryan the spy said that "the girl" – assumingly ashlyn– should be "especially" at risk of danger. This could be bc she was the one who interacted with the rift, or bc she already has a higher level of phantom influence on her. 

-when ashlyn told the phantom to let go, and her friends to calm down, both times she spoke with a black speech bubble WITH PHANTOM NOISE LINES NEAR IT.

this is different than characters who have also spoken with black bubbles. obviously these have been with threats/malice, but the boys' didn't have the red lines.

These times ashlyn has spoken, the phantom acknowledged her voice, and her friends' spell-like violence trance was broken. Therefore, Theory: ashlyn not only can hear phantoms, but she can speak their language sort of

-depending how the Tyler situation goes down, I think Ashlyn will have lots of guilt and anger towards herself, and if she can't reign it in, I could see her going into a violence trance like her friends did. maybe even worse (a semi phantom transformation??) Cue a fun angsty 'talking her down' moment with the others at best, or full on fighting Phantom!ashlyn at worst

-when ashlyn was born, a phantom like touched her in a blessing/cursing sense which is part of the reason why she can hear phantoms and her strong PD connection 

possibly even possession???? seems a bit farther fetched tho 

-tldr; i want ashlyn to enter her monster girl era 

-The evil gang seems confused why the kids have lasted so long. maybe Ashlyn's PD connection goes both ways. she provides a strong anchor to the RD. Maybe the PD is USUALLY all desolate with the pillars that we saw in the finale (maybe it's even an afterlife of sorts?), but Ashlyn makes a huge radius (~30 miles! (assuming kids were driving at least 60mph for 30 minutes)) of the PD around where she wakes up mirror the real world, creating a safer space for her and the kids. meanwhile a normal person that gets sucked into the PD gets thrown into a desolate hell world different from the RD (also maybe stuck there permanently), causing them to die much quicker. 

-Ashlyn's influence extends to jamming the recording devices like some kind of weird phantom static.

-Broke: Ashlyn's parents wanted her to learn self defense and have a knife bc they're in the military. Woke: they want her to be able to protect herself after the phantom scare when she was a baby

NUMBER FOUR: Origami gang and Co INC. 

-My Current idea on what the evil gang is doing: The gangs symbol is an origami crane (orizuru). the crane in East Asia has longevity as one of its symbolisms, with some myths saying it flies souls up to paradise. there's the popular myth that if you fold 1000 cranes you get a wish.

Heres where the evil twist comes in. The gang boss believes that if he traps 1000 people in the PD as like, a sacrifice, then he'll get a wish and he'll ask for eternal life or whatever. this gang is a cult and he's tricked everyone saying that they'll also get a long life but really it's probably only gonna be him 🤫 So they go around to different haunted places in America and pick ppl they sense can open these shadow rifts and get sucked in. the phantoms may be ppl they trapped in the past and they've turned into phantoms

-Ryan, the guy who's spying on the kids, maybe is ALSO "Mr. thomas"? he just puts on a wig and is a good actor lol. this is the reason why he asks about "Mr. Thomas's" fate. What goes against this is that Ryan seems to know all about the PD mechanisms, which doesn't fit Mr. Thomas being confused abt ashlyns hair. Unless he wasn't expecting it

– or "Mr thomas" could just be Ryan's friend or brother or smn. A low ranked guy in the gang that got stuck with roping Ashlyn into Savannah, but doesn't know the truth/details about the PD. 

-the gang mentions that "both sides" are trying to track them. either the government and a supernatural hunting group, or even some force in the PD like some Alpha Phantom like the devil who's like "Where's my dead people quota hello?" or better yet "you're messing with MY domain and I'm gonna Get You". 

-This is based solely on the Boss' appearance and smiling countenance: what if the gang Boss is Aiden's uncle, his dad's brother. his weird, estranged brother who's also evil probably. I'm really hung on this idea don't mind me. Maybe it's b/c we don't know his name yet, b/c he's secretly related and it'll be a big reveal

-you have to be able to make a paper origami crane from memory to be an official gang member /hj 

(S2 spoilers) NUMBER FIVE: Aiden's dyed hair and why it's A Big Deal

none of these have any solid evidence I'm just wildin 

-He hates his natural hair color/thinks it's ugly

-doing it to hide his real identity (IF the Clark family being involved with the Origami gang is real it would probably fall under this, BUT I have strong reason to believe Aiden is not involved with the gang tho. (See my ~EXCEL SHEET~ for my reasoning)

–falls under my random "gang boss is aidens uncle" theory. his uncle is the weird black sheep of the family, that Aiden has a spitting resemblance to, so he dyes his hair to make him look less like him

further developing my silly Boss Uncle idea but I'm imagining that Daniel (Adiens dad) married into the family bc he looks sm different than his wife or Ben's parents. But when he married Jessica (Aidens mom) at the start they used his surname, had Aiden, etc. Then Daniel's weird (evil) brother starts committing Crimes tm, possibly even convicted, jail time, all over the news (maybe he got out early cuz of parole, good behavior idk). Aidens family suffers for it by proxy; Aiden is bullied, his parents are stigmatized at work. it actually gets so bad that they decide to switch to Jessica's maiden name Clark. Currently wondering if Ben's dad, William, and Jessica are the siblings here. anyway they do that and with their constant moving and traveling, it's easy to embrace the new identity. But Aiden was still pretty affected by it being a kid and all so that's why he dyes his hair, and plays it off as doing it for funsies

-based on claims (if someone has proof of this beyond his skin tone HMU) I've seen that he's part Asian, so maybe has suffered really nasty racism in the past but when he's blond he's white passing, so he does it so he's not bullied anymore

-blondes have more fun to help with this "constantly happy" persona he has

– semi related, he's heavily masking depression and loneliness, and the bright yellow hair makes him happier.

-he dyes his hair for attention bc he didn't get enough of it as a child with his parents traveling and working 

Actually-!

NUMBER FIVE ½: Aiden's backstory

after seeing the Easter egg, wondering if his mom divorced or died idk cause the lady in the picture doesn't look like his mom, her hair is darker?? now ofc she could just be dying her hair too idk!!!

Absolutely Wildin' here but maybe aidens parents died when he was a kid so he was adopted but surprise! his dad is still alive and is a criminal and running a shadow cult. or maybe the boss is still his uncle. or maybe the boss is his parent(s) killer!!! 

Or Maybe The Boss is aidens dad. Aidens biological mom died and the Boss went crazy and probably committed crimes and went to jail, and then Daniel (aidens uncle, Boss' brother) and Jessica took custody of him. and then the Boss escaped jail and started his cult, maybe to bring back his wife

kinda off topic but I'm wondering if Aiden's red eyes are fake too. colored contacts. like neither of his parents have it, no one does. does he just have Protagonist syndrome or is it related to one of the ideas above?

I'm just throwing darts. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

NUMBER SIX: Character arcs and futures

-either no other of the kids will "die", just Aiden and Ashlyn will "survive", or everyone except Ashlyn will "die"

-but i hope if they can sever their connection with the PD, anyone who dies in the PD and gets in a coma will wake up

-So they're gonna get kidnapped. that's definitely gonna be a thing. either mid S2 or S2 ending. up in the air whether the kidnapping is successful or not. 

actually I'm placing my bets now S2 finale will be them getting kidnapped and it just cuts off there for another awful cliffhanger.

since it seems Mr thomas will be involved, maybe he'll ask the kids to stay after school to talk abt their failing grades or smn, and then maybe they're hit with knockout gas??

OR the gang has been spying on them so they pick a time when the kids are all separated and jump them. 

maybe this is when aiden knowing where ashlyns dance studio is is actually plot relevant!!??(please) like he (and Ben probably cuz they're always together) are able to escape their attackers and Aiden goes to help ashlyn cuz he wants to make sure she's OK. and she's either fine cuz she's a girl boss and can kick butt, or he saves her oo la la 

–lol imagine kidnapping is successful, gang tells kids why they were kidnapped, if Evil Boss Uncle theory is true this helps facilitate this but Ashlyn "goes off" on Aiden yelling and "attacking" him and stuff saying he's part of the gang etc but it's all a ruse to have the gang think she'll cause another energy spike and Aiden gets this and plays along, so assuming the kids are locked up, the gang opens their cell to stop ashlyn, and that's when they escape

–also assuming the gang would be smart enough to get rid of the kids phones when they're snagged. 

-also SPOILER ALERT if you haven't seen Reds ig stories but since they just had midterms it's probably October (bc the story started at the beginning of the school year (August) and there was a month skip (September) where they were learning self defense) Which Means that it could be Aidens bday which is why ashlyn is at his house and they're having a pizza party or whatever yippee! (i want this) And maybe Mr and Mrs Clark talk about seeing phantoms (the panel of them looking stressed the heck out lol) bc I'm assuming all the guardians have been seeing them I'm assuming!!!! And maybe Ashlyn overhears, and the kids Finally can tell the parents what's going on but I doubt it. b/c that'd be too easy y'know?

-regardless, the either failed or successful kidnapping will probably set the parents over the edge, Especially if Ty is in a medically unexplainable coma, and Mike Banner will be like "tell me what's going on Right Now" and the parents believe them and they help the kids get to Savannah yippee!! a cool Big family squad force they all hop on a working school bus or smn and drive there. (I wish i knew how many seasons there's gonna be so I could predict pacing but since it's a thriller I'm assuming pretty fast, so maybe 3 seasons? cuz while we got a fast plot we seemingly have a slow ashlyn & aiden relationship so 🤷‍♀️)

Sorry back to character arcs:

Ashlyn: Learn to trust and connect with people, make friends, lean on others. Could be nice if she accepts and admits the kids are her friends by the end of S2, leaving the next season for Aiden/Ashlyn dev specifically. More development about her connection with the PD, which could put friendship to the test. 

Taylor: will either shut down with grief like her mom, or maybe snap and have an Edgy arc (seems… unlikely to me tho she seems too emotionally intelligent for that). NEVERMIND with all the stuff im seeing, it seems likely!!!) Willing to bet money the twins are unhealthily codependent on each other. Maybe she'll start latching onto Ben instead (whether anything romantic develops on top of it is debatable, but I can see it. theyve already got a cute little closeness going on). Would not be surprised if, after losing her dad (which im predicting was a suicide) and Ty, she can't stand the thought of losing someone else, and will save someone in danger at her own expense, leading to her death. Sure I'll predict she'll die 2nd if there are more deaths.

Tyler: he frikkin ded so… (would've been nice to see him become even more caring but yknow)

Logan: Seems to be overcoming his fragility well if the arcade scene is any indication. Still has self-worth issues to overcome due to his parents' abandonment. Maybe we'll learn more about that in S2. That could be a rumor and the real reason he lives with his grandparents is that his parents died but idk why that'd be hidden unless their death was suspicious (phantom related???). He'll die 3rd; survives longer than expected but is the halfway point. 

Ben: Still needs to find a new passion for life, i suspect playing musical instruments like the guitar will be the answer (thank you tyler). Tho maybe learning to love his altered voice could happen? (tons of dudes have a rough/husky singing voice that ppl love) But this is probably unlikely. 

– Taylor and Logan's deaths will hit him really hard, maybe feels like his strength is worthless if he failed to keep the others safe, and starts spiraling real bad. Possible phantom transformation or attempted suicide. 4th to die. 

Aiden: (get medicated) Learning self-control, improving interpersonal relationships, accepting serious/negative emotions, along with God knows what else will be revealed. 

– Kinda wondering if he grew up in a "toxic positivity" mentality home, where his parents are like "we're so privileged we shouldn't complain" 

– IF he does die, he'll be the last one, leaving Ashlyn alone (when it hurts the most!!! muhahhaha!!! 😭), and it won't happen in S2.

NUMBER SEVEN: Miscellaneous predictions, wants, musings & hypotheticals

-hey uh what about the photo Logan took of the phantom back at the sorrel-weed house?? surely he still has it? can he show the parents?? will they be able to see it?

-Logan saw the whole Aidlyn hug from the roof from his snipper position, change my mind.

-Another death will happen in S2, possibly even two deaths.

-Mr thomas switches sides and helps the kids, gives them info

-Ryan (the spy) switches sides and helps the kids

-the tour lady Jasmine and the Boss are a hot evil couple 

also kinda want them to have a Rourke & Helga dynamic where he throws her under the bus at the last moment and she's Bissed 

-I want the boss to die by his own evil plan. i doubt a redemption arc will happen but I'd be down for it if done well.

-*grabs your shoulders until they bleed* listen. Aiden saved ashlyn, now I need her to save him. I need this. 

-Taylor and Ashlyn girl time please!!!

-Logan and Aiden becoming closer would also give me joy. big Freckle and Rocky energy. 

-Consider: Ashlyn says that she thinks Aiden looks better with dark hair, not meaning it as a compliment but as an objective statement, but he decides to grow out his dark hair again (will take a bit). 

-this doesn't have to happen but I think it'd be really funny if Aiden somehow gets the IDEA that Logan has a crush on Ashlyn when Logan doesn't, causing a stupid silly short jealousy arc.

-actually I really need a "can skydive from 10,000 ft but can't confess to the girl he likes" Aiden Clark

which like would make sense bc at this point he knows she thinks he's annoying, pushy, etc., so that's just asking for a rejection 

-I've got a bad feeling smn will happen to Ashlyn's parents, specifically her dad

-you know what's better than Ashlyn having to be a girlboss and face the villains alone? Aiden and Ashlyn going together and Aiden being used as collateral by the villains :) What if he dies permanently irl, while the rest of the kids, if they died in the PD, reawaken, leaving him the only one permanently gone in the end? :) 

-bruh what if everyone died like fr fr. yes I'm imagining Ashlyn looking at all her friends' graves. 

-the Origami gang fails to kidnap the kids b/c all that self-defense paid off, and they accidentally create a huge "energy spike", making phantoms appear everywhere in town.

-if the kids DO get kidnapped successfully, I want Ashlyn to be an awesome girlboss and use her knife shoes to help them escape.

-if my puppy fic became Canon that'd be swaggie actually.

-let Ashlyn have a dog 2023

-pov you're in Georgia in the fall and a hurricane hits, knocking out solar power for a few days. what then? :)

-when all this garbage is over and they hopefully all live in the end, I want them to have a fun stargazing party lead by Logan cause they can finally enjoy the night (And maybe aidlyn have their first Kiss?? 🙈)

-If there ISNT a "group goes to see Ashlyn in a ballet performance" scene then I'm WRITING IT MYSELF 

-the kids are like, juniors right? Prom. 

-Aiden works hard to get his permit and his parents buy him a car but it's a crappy one cause they know he'll wreck it but hey it's Savannah or Bust.

-At the end of all things, Aiden and Ashlyn will become a couple, or at least have reciprocal romantic feelings. This is not just my shipper heart talking. I feel it in my brain, in my soul. (b/c Red rlly seems to ship it so 😏)

-maybe aidens parents work for a religious missionary aid group like Samaritans purse

-a kid going into an angry protective phantom mode to protect another(s) 😳 (aidlyn on the brain but it could be anyone)

-if I had a nickel for every time I've imagined Aiden dying in Ashlyn's arms, I'd have many nickels 

-what if having a good singing voice ran in Ben's family? haha jkjk…unless??? but they don't sing like ever cuz they don't want Ben to feel bad 

-man what if a kid died by a phantom pushing them down a set of stairs.. 

-Rlly hope that Aiden's parents don't get scared seeing phantoms in their house and hearing other families having phantoms in THEIR houses and thinking the whole town is haunted, and they consider moving which they don't wanna do bc Aiden finally has friends but what else can they do!? angst. 

-John 15:13 for Ashlyn with the others except it's not permanent (I'm not saying ash is a Jesus figure tho WHWKEJEJDJ)

-I rlly wanna see ashlyn laugh like REALLY LAUGHING

~~

That's it for the moment (●'◡'●) thanks for coming

will any of these be canon? who knows! it's the fun of it all

[dearlybelovedemilyko]

The last chapter is very intriguing because until now, i thought anthony was trying to save the children -and put the adults in chaos- but then he killed a child. What is he TRYING to achieve?

(Also agreeing he was creepy and gross. I had my suspicions when he did this to barbara bc hes likely already an adult so...yikes)

*note i don't know japanese so i only saw the raw's images, i may be missing context

Before last chapter, I had three different Anthony theories on rotation, based on his canon behavior and what each of those scenarios would mean for the story thematically, though I personally never assumed he shared Kate's goal of saving all the children and defeating the adults. Luckily for me, one of them turned out to be true! I was actually quite fond of my "Anthony's evil in a similar way to the adult shadows" theory, and since I spent way more time than I probably should have thinking about it, I think I have an idea of what he's trying to achieve.

My points being:

I posted about this before with examples, but Anthony's behavior is oddly similar to that of adult shadows. This indicates that despite their vastly different places in the hierarchy of the manor, they have similar moral values, or lack of them

As you said yourself, he just killed a child. Even if his plan somehow includes freeing the human children, it's clearly far from Kate's goal of saving everyone. He was quick to kill off Maggie as soon as she outlived her usefulness to him

Anthony has the habit of putting himself in a position superior to other people. Kate has allies and friends, Anthony has pupils. Even Anthony's initial behavior of telling Maryrose not to undo anyone else's brainwashing is telling: as one of the only unbrainwashed living dolls, he had a clear advantage over every human in the manor except Rosemary. He could easily undo somebody's brainwashing in secret and manipulate them like he did to Maggie, something that would be much harder to do if everyone regained their senses. Maggie clearly saw Anthony as the perfect savior, and even stated that he could be the manor's master in the future. Lewis goes as far as refer to "Christopher" the same way shadows are thaught to refer to the Lord Grandfather

Based on this, my bet is that even if part of Anthony's plan involves saving some of the children, that's far from his main goal. His main goal in my opinion seems to be gaining power, just like every adult character we've met so far, the difference being that as a human, he can't simply climb up the social ladder the conventional way and needs to hide in the walls (or the sewers, idk for sure where he lives. At this point i want it to be the sewers).

That makes for an interesting villain, doesn't it? As an unbrainwashed human in a system that treats humans like objects, you'd assume he'd be all for destroying the oppressive system, you'd assume he'd be an ally, you'd assume he'd want to save everyone. If it turns out he's completely okay with what the manor stands for as long as he personally raises to power, throwing all or most of the human kids under the bus, now that's scary and honestly quite realistic.

About the creep factor... yeah. After reading the scene with Barbara, I got a weird vibe too but I still gave him the benefit of the doubt. I thought sure, he's doing that to get Kate to trust him, but who's to say he also didn't think that was the only way to save Barbara's life? Surely those aren't mutually exclusive, right? Maybe he cares about her since she was Christopher's friend. Also from the flashbacks we get that they can't be that far apart in age, Barbara's just short and stuck in the children's building, so most of the creepy vibe I got was from the fact that he was impersonating a dead person, which again I was giving him the benefit of the doubt for... only for Maggie to go as far as to call Anthony her prince out loud before he leaned down and caressed her face looking like a sicko in chapter 164. The more i think about it the worse it gets to be honest. Gross.

[keenma]

hi res who are your top 3 fave blue period characters? i know yakumo is one, and i seem to recall you liking hashida too (i had to search up hashida bc i didn't remember his name omg it's been over a year since i read it)

lmao! oh you should totally catch up, mariam, when you get the time. i think it's still worth reading; but i might be biased. lol i was met with yakumo's backstory chapters after all, picking it up again from where i left off. you're right about all of it, btw. wow you're memory's good～ if i have to narrow it down my top three goes yakumo ( and his gang- a seemingly tight-knit group of friends carrying a shared... 'burden'? oooh that's my cup of tea. i'm keeping things vague, trying not to spoil anything lol also i love how smart he clearly is but never misses a chance to act like this obnoxious child especially because when he finally gets serious, when the situation calls for it- well, it creates a nice contrast, i think ) hashida ( he's quite provocative yet kind and ready to help, not to mention knowledgeable. when he first showed up he reminded me of kuro lmao yeah, sorry, i've got a type. his 'backstory' there was basically only teased. have you read it already? i'm not sure. but i'm looking forward to it. ) and third spot is a close call between yuka-chan and yotasuke. when it comes to ryuji i'd say they're one of those character that stays constantly interesting, as in 'i wonder what they're going to do next' but you're more than sure that regardless of where they end up they'll keep being, for lack of better words, 'cool'. attention-worthy, never boring. aand yotasuke- well, his stubborn and aloof and blunt personality has captivated me. lol so yeah that's it. got longer than i thought but i did try not to ramble too much.

[vamqiredove]

it is actually so important and crucial that you tell me anymore thoughts you have involving agitha and link, or just some of your tp stuff in general because i would Love to know all your ideas!

im especially intrigued by this au you mentioned whats that all about

UNDERSTOOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! will break this up into two bits hopefully its clear enough where the break into speaking abt my au happens

REGARDING THE BUG THING. just in general w/ where link is from [ very rural heavy in nature he literally lives in a tree. he will just bottle up larva with his bare hands. this guy does NOT get squicked out easily !! ] i think he'd not only be chill but enthusiastic about gathering bugs for agitha. i like to think that he's still got that love for learning in him, and hey, here's this kind of bug he didn't know existed ! golden bugs are cool and agitha will tell him about them ! she teaches him how to pin bugs ! maybe make dioramas together !

and idk. it's just a nice break during his journey. he gets to stop going doing hero stuff to bring agitha bugs and i think he'd feel pretty at home in her castle [ again, literally lives in a tree ]. it's a nice break from all the dull colours of castledown once he gets over his countryboy wonder of WHOOAAHHHH THE CITY !!!!!!!!!!! cause like .. the only colour for you to see there is really just what people are selling in the market.

also idk how to explain it. i tend to not really like knight/princess ships when it comes to typical het dynamics, they have to have lots of flavouring to them. but smthing abt agilink scratches the positive itch for that trope ?? link's not a knight. he's just some ranch hand that got forced into all of this. agitha is scorned by everyone around her. the only 'people' she has is her bugs. it feels very autism couple to me. and yeha. yeah agitha autism. the a in agitha stands for autism. you rlly do get her better than nayone i trust no one else to takl about agitha. kewpie only

MY SILLY LITTLE FUCKED UP AU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it's an apocalypse au i started up a while ago originally just of the FSA manga. its called of fire and flesh, which very much reflects its origins bc the 'main character' is red who has an association with fire lmao.

BUT ANYWAYS i decided literally today to make it a general lozverse au bc i wanted to add more characters to it. specifically botw link and tp link, because they're like. my favourite linkcest ship outside of FSA. worth noting that in context of the au unfortunately all selfcest stuff is removed bc they're all entirely different people, and for that reason, taking all the 'link' and 'zelda' and giving them different names for clarity

botw link is still named link just as a reference to how he's the only one you can't change the name of in game, tp link's name is twilliam [ A JOKE TAKEN SERIOUSLY he tends to just go by twi or twilli ]

link's got amnesia, and he's just been kind of floating around the big city for a good while. twilliam was a country boy who grew up on a farm and went to the big city for university. haven't fully decided on WHAT yet but i think he wanted to be a teacher !! anyways. he meets link at some point at the cafe near the campus and they become quick friends. twilliam is naturally already protective of him, but then WOW the zombie apocalypse starts !! the two were together when they evacuated and they've stuck together.

where i'm unsure of what to do is where to add agitha in. should twi know her ahead of time, or would he and link meet her once things start up ? i think, maybe, the three were the only ones in an area when the evacuation notice got blared out, and she stuck with them !!

not like super sure on what ships i'll confirm but in my head. twilliam is arospce bicon with two hands.

link ends up getting infected, and now with agitha here, it adds some fun extra panicTM for twi. link ends up being immune [ he's the ONLY one in the au who's immune. i decided this to reference his "basically fucking dies and is then revived" thing ] BUT he suffered a terrible fever for a few days and it was terrible for everyone involved.

anyways on what i think agitha's deal is, i really don't know, i might give her a connection to sheik and have them both be pageant kids, though while sheik was pulled into the industry and left to suffer his whole life for it, agitha left it. whether she was kicked out for being too "creepy" and "unnerving" or because she wanted to and her parents[?] listened, who knows ! i think i'll yoink your idea of "her mother left her and her dad died, so she's living on her own with whatever funds she has" though it happened later in her life to explain why she wasn't just tossed into the system given this is a modern world au. THAT or she's living with an aunt ? could do some interesting character stuff with that !!!

i think she'd also be very good at foraging, which helps them out a lot with safely finding mushrooms to eat..

...and i guess this could very well lead into crackship territory of agitha x botw link, because when writing polyam i highly prefer "they're all dating each other" with only a few exceptions !! that'd be an interesting dynamic to think about [ and if you DO have thoughts on it pls lmk ]

anyways this au is largely a product of me having apocalypses as a special interest and hating most apocalypse media. a lot of it is just male power fantasy and i hate it. the goal of this au is for the characters to eventually all come together and start a community that's a safe zone with the goal to thrive instead of survive. because in the end, i like when there's hope to the end. as much as i'm a downer about life, i like the fantasy to think that if the world ended, at least some humans could come together to rebuild and, y'know, do Good instead of barely getting by.

also like the usage of guns in these things pisses me off but that's so unrelated hGJDSHJGHDSHDSH

left out a lot tho especially because this is abt agilink and not the entirety of this au. but if u are interested !! i set up a blog specifically to post abt it once i start finishing stuff TO post. idk if i'll reblog my old posts onto it though because i'm unsure how much of it will be retconned [ probably not much ? but eh. i need to finish character profiles before i worry too much about the timeline ] -> @offireandflesh but i have a tag on my main/slaingelo of the au if you'd wanna look n read thru it but that's all just FSA manga exclusive stuff, bc again i only decided to include more characters from the games like. 6 hours ago. i have one singular ficlet somewhere in there that's just red and blue basically having a break up and red being certain blue is dead

[xamaxenta]

Had this AU idea for saboace where Ace survives just barely but thanks to the news everyone thinks he's dead still cuz there's a brutal picture of his body bloodied and unconscious on the front page and he does look low-key dead so he has to disguise himself somehow and hide while simultaneously training up his haki (cuz I don't think he really did much with his haki, I think he had it but didn't like using it and refused to train it up, I headcanon that he did this on purpose to spite Roger who also had haki, honestly I refuse to believe Ace wouldn't have been dozens of times stronger if his haki had been properly evolved. Though he absolutely has all forms of haki already awakened cuz he's just that much of a badass, anyway).

The only place they can think of to hide him is right under everyone's noses, so he somehow wiggles his way into the revolutionary army. He's not too happy with it cuz he's got beef with Dragon (hey whyd you abandon luffy) and Dragon I think knows it's him despite the disguise but says nothing cuz that's none of his business (Kermit meme here) and since it was announced Ace was fully dead Sabo regained his memories and already had that super fun nervous breakdown and three day coma and is NotDoingWell™ and Dragon is a Dad so he's like "imma push these two together and hope they realize the connection, surely my Chief of Staff is smart enough to recognize who this is" but he underestimates Sabo’s Spicy Trauma cuz he does not realize.

And Ace knows it's Sabo but he's told by a few of the other revolutionaries that Sabo still has amnesia (yeah man he can't remember shit from his childhood from what I've heard), bummer he's only heard it from random footsoldiers and not those closest to Sabo but it's fine I'm sure. So Ace is like "oh I may fuck him up more if I fling my disguise off and tell him we know each other so imma just be quiet" and Sabo is like "wow I let my bro and first ever friend and high key love of my life get murdered I wish I was dead:)" and Dragon is like "guys plz just kiss".

Anyway I'm writing this fic but it's been a hot minute since I worked on it, I thought you'd enjoy hearing about the chaos that will ensue.

Anonnnnnn pleaseee *grabbie paws* gimmieeee i love this premise so much

Dragon doing the Kermit none of my business tea sip meme is so fucking funny i really should draw a bunch of classic memes as random OP characters bc its tragic that there isnt more maybe eight ? I love distracting myself from the projects i should be working on HAHA demon standees marcos bday whats that oops

Ace knowing its Sabo is sooo good but hes so sweet hes like i cant just reveal myself!!! Itll fuck him up, maybe he’s gonna hate me!!

Dragon watching their bs like gods help theyre both stupid

Snickering if its just a random guy Sabo overhears saying that xyz ‘insert Ace’s fake name’ is actually thee portgas d ace and Sabos like WHat DONT JOKE ABOUT THAT!!!! And thag rando is sweating like omg chief no harm no jest i swear its true

But when Sabo goes to ask Ace Ace looks to the side and hes like haha… no?

😭

[pumpkinstrawbrew]

I'M DONE

I have spent the last three hours looking for fanfiction on Scarebat that wasn't Nolanverse or Suckerpunch (I love it btw, it's so good, checking everyday for updates🙏🙏)

I didn't only look on Ao3 as you might think, I have looked on Tumblr, Wattpad, Fanfiction.net, Quotev, Deviantart, FUCKING FICWAD, and some others...😔😔 I BARELY MANAGED TO FIND SOME SCRAPS OF CONTENT ON ONLY A FEW OF THEM AND THERE WERE LIKE 3-4 FICS IN TOTAL, MAYBE LESS, DON'T REMEMBER EXACTLY

I need to write my own atp but I'm only half-decent at writing (planning to start practicing writing on Tumblr in the future) and I suck at writing two canon characters interacting with each other.... I would be unstoppable if I had the ability to do so

sorry for ranting in your asks, forgive me, but I think you're the only person who can understand this

-🐓

honestly, it’s kinda odd how over so many years, scarebat barely made rounds on the internet. despite how their whole personas an’ things that surround them as characters make a perfect set-up for a gothic romance. yet, somehow it keeps getting overlooked. batman’s most ideally tailored fuel just never gets enough fanon attention. 

an’ like, i wish that i could somehow share with you a link to some alt dimension, where scarebat was given all the attention it deserved. but as it is, we only have like yeah 3 fics an’ prob the same amount of arts. 

on the one hand, it does suck. i admit. but on other, it leaves a way larger fields to explore. way more opportunities to do smth new an’ different with those characters. i’d also go as far as to state, that when a ship is rare, it has a chance to stay somewhat true to source material or have more of different an’ individual approaches. when a ship is super popular, it’s usually slowly, but surely gets flanderized into the ground. after certain point all that you would see is a low-key copypasta of a fic, that you’ve already read about that pair, but from a different author. i had a couple of popular ships back in the day, an’ it had happened with every single one of them. 

so, in a way, i’m glad that those few scarebat fics are all at least different enough, even if i do say, that i kinda felt down by how it was labeled scarebat with it often being barely about the ship. or it was coming off as one-sided. different strokes for different folks, but it’s part of why i sat down an’ began writing my own fic, that would satisfy my own needs an’ my own vision. i just wanted scarebat romance times with some grittiness in between. which is why i do think, that you really should try to write your own story for them too! or even drabbles. anything that might tailor their dynamic in a way you see it. 

an', well, i do get the anxiety of not ‘being good enough’, or feeling insecure about how well you would be able to capture the ‘canon’ feel. or say, just generally thinking like your skill is not on the level you wish it was. i won’t bore you with details about my own uh, writing / art journey. but i will say, that due to a few reasons of my own, i also felt like i could never write an english fic *i'm a non-english speaker*, an’ even more so, i honestly thought that i could never ever draw anything, bc i simply had no idea how to draw at all. but i do kinda know how to draw now lol. an’ i can actually write things in english too. an’ the point of it not me being super good at it or even reaching some unknown highm no. the point is that i can do it an’ i can do it in my own ways. i can create smth, that prob would have never existed otherwise, an’ in the end of the day, it’s pretty cool. quality can be not top notch, but it's like...hey, it exists now. i've given smth back to my otp, that makes me happy an' have fun.

so as someone who was where you are, when it comes to feeling like you can’t do those things, i’d say, you sure can! anyone can! it might take some lil practice an’ a bit of ‘hmm, not what i wanted exactly, but close’, until you get to the level you might have wanted, but i promise, you'd be amazed at what you can truly do, once you get on 'wave'. it won’t be instant leap, but as someone who dealt *still does to a degree* with what i call ‘toxic perfectionism’, i’d say that you just let things go at their own pace. just have fun with the process. in the end, fan stuff should be existing for your own pleasure an' perhaps, it can also be this for some other people, which is always nice. you don't have to be 'professional' about it, if you don't want to.

either way, i’m fine with rants! i mean, i've just ranted back as well lol. i know, that the main theme of this message was being kinda well, dissapointed with lack of content, but i do think, that it's not all that gloom an' doom in the end of the day. it can't be helped, that we sometimes have to basically provide for ourselves in fandoms, but it also gives us chance to 'shine' too, i think.

an’ i also wanted to say, that i’m glad you liked my fic! suckerpunch is one of those works, that i’ve started on impulse an’ till 3th chapter actually had a very vague idea, where to take afterwards, but i was surprised to see way more people interested in this ship, than i thought. so really, for a rare ship, scarebat actually does have at least some audience. an’ that audience is pretty rad an’ cool one too, so it’s not all that bad!

i do get the pain tho. sometimes, i also wanna read an' look at arts of my otps, that aren't mine. but perhaps, with time scarebat will gain more active fans. maybe, one day, we will click on ao3 an' feel like we had walked into a candy store.

[odyssean-flower]

ok i played the new story update in hsr and here are my thoughts

warning: it's kinda negative

first things first: yeah i know this isn't the end of the xianzhou story, there are six ships after all and i guess luofu is supposed to be like the opening act to a bigger conflict with the aeons but m a n the execution was not good

the 1.3 story is more like an epilogue, which is fine, but it really should have been added to the previous patch. tbh the luofu story didn't need to be stretched over three patches with its overall length

i feel like everything went wrong when they decided to make the dan shu quests optional instead. i feel like they had to scrap a lot of stuff because of that? i agree that the dan shu quests felt out of place but they could have moved it around instead of just cutting them out of the main storyline. It's fully voiced after all and it has interesting lore

the problem is that the writers wanted to incorporate so many concepts but didn't want to (or can't) increase the length of the story. There are so much stuff going on like the conflict between Lan and Yaoshi, the bad side to immortality, the vidyadhara politics, the stellaron and the lord ravager, the sanctus medicus, dan heng & dan feng, dan heng and blade, the stellaron hunters, the high-cloud quintet, luocha, but all of these things only get brief moments of spotlight before we move on to something else. it makes everything feel kind of inconsequential and confusing

Especially the dan heng il thing which really should have been the main point of the story. his transformation is cool but it also feels random. the opening cutscene with blade also comes off as baffling in retrospect bc he didn't really do or explain anything??

i think they tried to rectify this by making the companion quests (like yanqing's and dhil's) basically main quests but they only raise more questions that may or may not get a definite answer. also these quests are optional

the ending is so abrupt, but they still try to tease continuations (see: jingliu and luocha cutscene at the end) even though we're leaving?? and who knows when these threads will get picked up again

Another problem i have: the vagueness of the lore and story. We finally know what dan feng's sin is...kind of. We maybe kind of know what happened to baiheng. tingyun's dead...or is she??? the writers love teasing resolutions instead of giving them, and it's honestly annoying. And im saying this as a genshin lore fan who loves finding random readables and trying to piece together what happened

The high-cloud quintet: ok this might be an unpopular opinion but i don't really care about them. maybe it's just my inherent dislike for the trope of "super elite group full of hot people who have a lot of history with each other and they feel sad about it :(" but they are just not doing anything for me right now. I like them all individually but as a group? meh. Part of the problem is that their lore is scattered all over the place and is very vague, so you really have to read between the lines and speculate in order to get their story, which requires a certain amount of investment from the start. i repeat that im a genshin lore player, but the thing about genshin lore is that it's not needed to understand the main story most of the time. Important stuff about the characters, on the other hand? tbh i care way more about spina di rosula trio or the narzissenkreuz people, and most of those people are npcs (faceless even)

honestly high-cloud quintet deserved a world quest chain or something instead of just (a very nice) animated short. as it is now i don't know why we would ever revisit them in the future considering dan heng doesn't want anything to do with them. maybe a rematch with blade?

tldr xianzhou had a lot of cool ideas but the execution was bad. oh well at least it had jing yuan