#better cut that out so ppl don't get the ~wrong idea~ about him and think he's actually more mellowed out in this game

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

mfw finding out that the localization of hopes literally cut an entire frame out of a scene

like can we not

can we not try to make felix seem more angry and edgy than he actually is by removing him smiling/not being aggressive for the explicit purpose of making him seem significantly angrier as a person/purposely not portraying him in a good light

like no seriously tell me why they literally went out of their way to remove an entire frame of him when it didn't improve the scene to remove it and instead paints him in a worse light

[qyburnsghost]

If you had the chance to change something about the dance of the dragons (TV show or book), what would it be? For example, how a character dies, which team a house is on,or an entire character personally. How would you change it to make the story better, in your opinion?♥️🖤💙💚

wow i almost missed this question! book wise i'm kinda okay with everything although i would say some people deserved to die more brutally than what they got ..

on the show however i would change so much… i would keep most of the book plot. if we have to do the rhaelicent friendship i would make it more in depth but keep it as toxic as it is. i would keep the book part where laena and rhaenyra are very close and possibly lovers. . it would be a good contrast to show the difference between real friendship and toxic friendship. i would give rhaneyra and alicent more conviction and agency. alot of times they are going back and forth instead of making decisions they want or for themselves. i would keep daemon more like book daemon, yes hes mercurial and hot tempered but he loves his family and various women, on the show it seems he only loves himself, not even his own kids. i would have kept how he got laena which was killing her fiance to have her, i'd show how much he loved her instead of treating her like shit and i would keep rhaenyra and laenor frequent visits to her and daemon and how she flied her personal maester to try to save her, and i would get rid of her stupid death scene, and keep the book version where he carries her to her dragon and him and rhaenyra stayed vigil over her body, that way when they fuck at her funeral it can be in grief instead of the most disrespectful shit ever, maybe then their kids wont look so fucking dejected at their wedding. oh yea i would make it seem like daemon actually loves his daughters instead of walking away from them after their mom dies and ignoring them after they got punched and pushed by a boy instead of smiling in the corner like a jackass... wait why am i rewriting everything?

i would have kept the scene where younger rhaenyra plays with baby aegon, i would have rhaenyra and aegon actually interact at least ONCE before they decide to go to war with each other. id have rhae actually have a moment or two with harwin so ppl won't be shocked she has 3 kids by him without even a kiss.i would like aemond to actually interact with helaena!

i would have like to known how cripsy was able to kill a guest at a wedding IN FRONT OF EVERYONE

i would have alicent smother viserys in his sleep, sorry.. or perhaps poisoning him this whole time, not this OOPS i heard a prophecy wrong

also fuck that prophecy, its worthless in the end, since arya fucking stark kills the NK she never knew or met before, truly aegon,viserys and rhaenyra are following a prophecy that ENDS HOUSE TARGARYEN, why the fuck would they even keep it in the show. my ass itches everytime they mention it

i would like to know how jace and luke feel being bastards , i would actually like to get to know them and the dragon twins. id let the older dragon twins actually have LINES instead of cutting them or nothing at all. also how stupid to cut baela scene, because when rhaenys joins you have no fucking idea why cause she was jjust like 'bye bitch this not my problem' after coming out the fucking ground after doing a terrorist attack

I would like to know why the velaryons are such fucking doormats for targaryens, corlys brother died and hes like WHOOPS. bitch your daughter is dead and you think they killed your son, what you mean oops.

i would have kept or had laena claiming of vhagar to see how its different than aemond. since they want him to be making mistakes and shit and having statements like we don't control dragons or not to be played with, well we see laena use her dragon for playing and fun even shooting fire and the dragon does eventually obey her and kill her (stupid shit) so we may as know why she had a better hold on vhagar. i wouldn't have made storms end a complete accident but rather a crime of passion.. so like the book he meant to kill him but once its over, 'what have i done?' its a Pyrrhic victory, he's drawn first blood and everyone will pay.. 'what did i do?'

season 2, no way i would merge rhaena with nettles, they have nothing AND I MEAN NOTHING in common .. a rich privileged timid girl whose already entitled to dragon and doesn't really need to pavlov dog a dragon vs a poor orphan who has nothing, possibly not even blood..just intelligence... can you imagine rhaena grabbing a sheep and slaughtering it ? i'm not even royalty or rich and i can't imagine grabbing one and bringing it anywhere for any purpose even if its a gain. and if shes getting shepherds help, even more boring. it doesn't hit the same but nice to know that just because addam and rhaena are black in the show, they are some how interchangeable with her, also cutting her has alot of consequences for battle scenes, for motivations,for changes in characters personality, for questions about blood and magic of targaryens and what she later becomes for the future which appears in later game of thrones books.

so for the long rant perhaps this was too much..

[golbrocklovely]

Wait a minute when did you see his vacation post because when i read it he had about 5 or 6 comments disagreeing with him, not full on hating on him simply telling him his thought process did not apply to the general public. If you saw NONE then there is further proof he deleted them which is not cool. If you are not able to start a conversation and have people add their own experiences because you see it as a personal attack towards you, then why start the conversation to begin with. Just deactivate the comments if all you’re interested in is people blindly agreeing and praising something that does not apply to them. I was all for him starting a book club, that was his original idea for dumb & wise, but what fun is it if all he reads is self help books that apply to only him and how to get rich quick??

He looks up to Bezos, Musk, the Paul Brothers, Jeffree Starr and all because they’re extremely wealthy. And while it’s great to challenge yourself to see how far you can go, dont start preaching to regular people about how they need to have the same mindset as these toxic men who value always working and not having any time off ever and scam their workers when they all have the ability to travel anywhere, purchase anything, and do so without giving back to those who got them there. Musk literally said hes never had a day off and sleeps on friends sofas. Bezos the riches man refuses to pay workers past minimum wage, and rented out a ride in a amusement park all to himself and had no one with him nor let anyone else ride it, The Paul brothers moved to Puerto Rico to get a tax cut when hundreds of people on the island are loosing their homes and suffering, and thought they could break every rule and kill their sea turtles, and Jeffree Starr moved to the middle of nowhere Wyoming because no one in La could stand him. Thats who he wants to mirror his mindset and business approach after😕.

i haven't checked on the post since he made it. i was more commenting on when he first posted it, i didn't see anyone outright disagreeing with him until i got on here. but that doesn't mean there weren't comments disagreeing, i just didn't see them originally.

and like i just said in the previous ask, i do think to some degree he doesn't really want to hear ppl's opinions. he'd rather live in a bit of an echo-chamber. maybe i'm wrong, so don't take my word for it. that's just how it feels sometimes. bc it's not like he replies to ppl who disagree or tries to keep the conversation going. he just posts and moves on lol

he looks up to ppl who've made a shit-ton of money, and while i get that from a business stand point….. find better ppl. there are probably plenty of rich ppl who didn't abuse a fuck ton of ppl on their way to the top. granted if you're trying to look up to billionaires you aren't gonna find any good ones. that's just my personal opinion.

i think his issue is that he believes the one main way to be successful is thru wealth and business. and while that is definitely one way, it's not the only way. there are plenty of ways to be successful. but i think he hyperfocuses on business and working bc it's the one thing he can control. his emotions? absolutely not. but he can control how much effort or time he puts into something.

i've never really mentioned this before, but sometimes there is an intensity with him that concerns me a bit. especially when it comes to him talking about working or editing. he just seems… like he's ready to burst at any minute.

i truly hope that both him and colby can take a much needed time off when hell week is over.

[gallus-rising]

for p1: current favorite ship/first favorite ship and p2 current favorite character/first favorite character. also top 5 pokemon for 3

i'm afraid i can't give you first fav ship/character since my memory is terrible and also i'm probably over thinking it and trying to go too far back 😔 first fav character was assuredly someone from Digimon tho lol

ok under the cut because it got longish lol

current favorite ship: currently suffering from ekumob brainrot 😔

when I started shipping it if I did:

ok their friendship was already very important to me but when the broccoil arc was animated?? idk for some reason that Activated something in me..... there was also this one popular fanartist on twt who's since moved on from mp100 that def contributed. no idea where they are now but i hope they're doing well 🙏

my thoughts:

oh god we'll be here all day. they r. Good

What makes me happy about them:

hhhng human/monster ships always make me happy just because (´ ∀ ` *) but something specific to them is the slowbuild trust between them?? most of my ships are built on canon friendship stuff and mp100's platonic relationships are particularly good. i wouldn't be able to properly describe it w/o going into full series meta lol but this is a good place to start probably

What makes me sad about them:

we all know that mortal/immortal pairings never end well :']

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

there isn't enough fic for them for this to rly be applicable :''']

things I look for in fanfic:

thing i'm desperate for in both fic and art is ghost Dimple. get that claw guy outta here he is a mere means to an end

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 

ekurei is always fun but Mob is aro to me u-u i'm shipping him in an aro way. i promise it makes since in my head

My happily ever after for them:

just very chill living together. Mob seemingly lives alone and his normal friends feel a lil bad for him and try to set him up w someone every once and a while but Mob always politely declines. when Mob is busy Dimple spends time with the extended S&S crew because those are his fwiends 🥺 sometimes Dimple is gone for a few days but he always comes back home <3

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

depends on whether Dimple is in Big Ghost mode or Little Ghost mode lol but i feel like they both equally enjoy either role

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

Mob astral projecting so Dimple can possess his body and do the sorts of normal human things he misses. just. small ghost Mob hanging out while Dimple goes on a walk or has dinner or takes a bath or w/e. also. small ghost cuddles 🥺 tiny ghost Mob and tiny ghost Dimple snuggling 🥺🥺 Mob's unconscious body is about 5 feet away ig

current favorite character: bouncing around between various Dungeon Meshi characters atm but let's go with Laois

How I feel about this character:

autism to autism communication

All the people I ship romantically with this character: 

no one. he is aroace to me u-u

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

i don't say this lightly but the Touden party is the found family of all time oh my GOD

My unpopular opinion about this character: 

as an autistic/autistic-coded characters he is ofc subject to Pure Sunshine Syndrome UwU so most of my unpopular opinions are just canon facts lmao. he's very smart and a capable leader, charisma is just his dump stat

also i know someone wrote a meta post explaining this way better but Laios is just so angry. the post was mostly about how in most media the character who is autistic misreads the social situation is always in the wrong. the character must always realize they've committed a horrible social taboo and eventually apologize to everyone for their bad behavior. but Dugeon Meshi lets Laios be angry. like yeah!! why didn't ppl just explain things to him?? he gets mad when other ppl pretend to get along w him but actually dislike him and are waiting for him to get a clue. so yeah, Laios is a chill guy but underneath that he is just so angry at the world all the time. he's pissed off ppl treat him like a freak for acting sincerely, he's pissed off ppl treat his sister like a freak for her natural talents, and Kabru is super valid and right for assuming that Laios hates humanity bc he kinda does a lil (tho not to the extent that Kabru thought ofc)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

let him have fangs and glowly cat eyes and all that. he needs to live out his furry/otherkin dreams.

my OTP:

N/A

my cross over ship:

you know what???? Venom.

a headcanon fact:

ALMOST ALL DUNGEON MESHI CHARACTERS HAVE SOME KIND OF DISCORDED EATING IN THIS ESSAY I WILL--

top 5 favorite pokemon: hhhhng picking just 5 is v difficult so consider this incomplete. listed in no particular order because i'm bad at that 😔

turtwig line. i yelled when the Big Torts appeared in Detective Pikachu

porygon line. split line evo where you can evolve proygon2 into porygon3 which is stated for Sp. Def vs porygon-z's Sp. Atk WHEN!!!!

pidove line. fav regional bird. unfezant is Peak bird design

smugleaf snivy line. it's a skink that evolves into a legless lizard what's not to love??

klefki. L + Ratio + Prankster + Thunder Wave + Spikes + Dual Screens + Light Clay. Taunt users DNI

[mintglacier]

I recently got out of a super toxic friendship, where I still feel like it's my fault things turned out the way they did but everyone else I talk to about it says he was the main problem and I was simply retaliating against the things he'd say to me, but that's not the point of this.

That last post I reblogged reminded me how I never felt I could just be weird and myself with him. It'd always be "why are you so fucking cringe" or "what's wrong with you" and things of the like which in turn made me start to change myself to better suit HIM. And once I finally cut ties with him (well it had been done for awhile I think, but I just needed one last push to get any idea of having him in my life again to go away) and nestled into friendships with these other ppl...

They let me be weird. They let me be myself. They don't say mean or hurtful things in the name of a joke or treat me like a punching bag. And they enjoy me around ;w;

It feels so strange being accepted as I am, and I still feel I don't deserve it but it's just. Idk. It's hard to explain after you've been treated like shit for a year.

[sweetescapeartist]

DBS COLORING BOOK CHAPTER 73 REVIEW

Alright... let's do this.

The first 4 pages are good. Good flow, not too many pages, no dialogue (thank God). Page 5 is where the paneling gets unnecessary. The last 2 panels aren't needed.

Page 6 is absolutely stupid. Goku & Granolah are flying at extremely high speeds, Goku is firing ki blasts that are moving at a higher velocity than he is currently moving, Granolah moves even faster in order to dodge Goku's ki blasts, then Granolah is using his scarf that is wrapped around a tree to swing around the tree & get behind Goku... A SCARF.

The scarf would tear apart instantly if Granolah tried to use it to catapult/swing himself around faster than Goku can perceive.

YOU: "The scarf is probably really strong tho!"

Sure let's assume that. In that case, the tree would be uprooted from the velocity Granolah is moving. Either way, it doesn't make sense. If this was early Dragon Ball and Yamcha did something like this when fighting Goku, then yeah it would be reasonable and look cool. With the power these characters are at now, it just looks ridiculous and inconvenient. It doesn't work here. Granolah could've easily dodged on his own and much faster that wraping his scarf around the tree.

So Granolah swings around and kicks Goku through tons of trees. (Saiyans killed his ppl but Granolah is killing his planet. Ironic)

Hey look! Another stupid page 😒

Page 7. Goku got sent flying back at a speed capable of easily cutting through tons of trees, but he slows himself down by grabbing a branch & swinging around it? Why? Again, at that speed, Goku would yank the limb of the tree clean off or uproot the entire tree. That wouldn't slow down his speed. He would be better off just stopping in the air on his own as if he applied the emergency breaks. Characters have done that plenty of times. Again, stuff like swinging around trees and tree branches is stuff they would had done in OG Dragon Ball.

Why is Goku blocking like that?? He isn't reinforcing his arm, he's holding his wrist whole his forearm gets punched. That would damage his arm and/or wrist.

*Boom boom! Bam bam!* They hit each other some. But are you ready for this? Pages 11-12...!

Why did Goku yell as if he is transforming? He is using Ultra Instinct, right? You don't yell to power that up. Remember the Moro arc? He calmly breathes to go into the state. Remember the chapter before? He calmly closes his eyes to focus. Why is he yelling then tapping into UI? Because Toyotaro can't write consistently. This page was...! just dumb...

Also... What is this SSB with Ultra Instinct then? You remember the SSB aura around UI Omen in the Moro arc? What's the difference between "Blue plus Ultra Instinct" & "Ultra Instinct plus Blue?"

Granolah says he can read Goku's blood flow and cell movements. That should come in handy later when he could potentially find a weakeness in Goku using UI. Hopefully Goku doesn't tell him he can't stay in the form too long. 🤞

SSB with UI is more focused that lower forms in combination with UI. Goku should be nearly untouchable. Pages 13 - 14 show how well Goku can dodge. Looks like ballet in a way, like Goku us dancing around him. I like that. Then he uses a point blank Kamehameha. Looks cool. But it turns out that Granolah simultaneously hit Goku somehow. Not a complaint here.

Pointless panels of Oil being blown back by the force. Pointless panels of Vegeta not paying attention to the fight and looking around. Pointless 2 panels of smoke clearing away. The entire page doesn't add anything at all. Page 17 could be omitted & it would flow better.

Goku is on the ground for the... 3rd time in this battle? I wish it would at least have Granolah say he didn't realize how difficult UI with SSB would be for him, but he barely saw an opening. That would be some sort of respect for Goku and did some clever foreshadowing. But we get Granolah insulting Goku instead. Whatever.

This "vital points" nonsense is so stupid. Everyone in DB has nearly identical vital points. Majin Vegeta knocked Trunks out by chopping at his vital point. These characters know what vital points are and know them well as we have seen when they were in combat since early DB. Granolah should be saying "My right eye will always find an opening." But maybe its a translation error or something. I won't be too harsh about this one.

Wait wait wait. Lemme get this straight...

Whis trained Goku, then Goku is able to use UI in the ToP.

Merus trains Goku to use UI Omen at will.

Goku later masters UI with silver hair.

Whis points out new flaws that didn't exist then trains Goku even further.

Goku has been trained by 2 Angels to the point of being able to go into Mastered UI at will and recieved further training after mastering the Angelic power. How is it that Goku has the gull to say "No, Ultra Instinct should have no weaknesses. If anything's lacking, it's gotta be my training."

And he's telling Granolah that he is vulnerable for some reason...? He's just foreshadowing for the reader that he will lose. The last 4 or 5 panels of page 19 isn't needed.

Whatever. Let's move on. So on page 20, for some reason, Goku has a confused look & a question mark in his speech bubble after Granolah blames Saiyans for killing his ppl. Maybe Goku doesn't understamd why Granolah is repeating himself for the 3rd or 4th time? Or he wasn't listening the earlier times. Can't blame him. Granolah's speeches bored me too.

Granolah copies Moro & makes lava rise from the core of his beloved home planet in order ro hurt Goku. Poor Sugarians. I wonder if there will be a "You're becoming the bad guy now, Granolah." type of story. Dont really care though. Goku escapes by teleporting. He mentions how Granolah has Moro's move. I guess Granolah is supposed to be like Cell and have others techniques... like Moro before him... They are both altered copies of Cell who is much cooler than both of them combined...

Well, here they are making Vegeta look capable (somehow?). Also its interesting that the bloodthirsty Granolah is allowing Goku & Vegeta to chat about their discovery of who his ppl are. The the ex-detective Vegeta quickly figures out that Maki & Oil fooled them. That was rushed. "But Vegeta was suspicious of them before." Yes, but there was no reason or anything we heard that would make Vegeta suspicious. The writing is bad. Also it's convenient that Oil has a drone all of the sudden to eavesdrop. The last 4 panels of page 24 are pointless.

GOKU: "Hey let's talk to him and clear things up."

VEGETA: "Nah. He's probably too stubborn. Just fight to move the story along instead."

Goku says he hasn't used his full power yet & Vegeta is surprised. How does Vegeta not realize Goku hasn't used his full power, Mastred UI? Then Vegeta says "Tch... Gotta resort to that in the end, huh?" Toyotaro is having Vegeta downplay UI in order to hype up Vegeta's fight next chapter. Bad writing. There's better ways to hype Vegeta up. Toyo chose one of the worst ways to do so.

Granolah... Just standing and waiting for Goku to come back. What a patient revenge fueled man.

UI Goku through the fog looked cool. (And his wounds heal? Ok...) But, seeing that made me realize something else. It would be much cooler if it went from page 22 then skip to page 26!

We don't need Goku & Vegeta chatting. The reveal of UI would not have had a pace breaker. It just happens & you see that Goku is serious now. Show don't tell.

GRANOLAH: "I can't perceive... any vital points?!"

That sounds stupid, so I do think it is a translation error.

GRANOLAH: "I can't perceive... any openings?!"

Now that reads much better! (I also edited the dialogue to "openings" in the pic above.)

Great... Goku conveniently exposed a weakness in UI that Whis had conveniently made up in CH 71. Although, in CH 59 Whis said that Mastered UI doesnt have the stamina issue that UI Omen has. Then in CH 64 it shows that the stamina issue is gone with Mastered UI during the 3 chapter battle with Moro. Goku never looked fatigued or weak in this form. Only time the form went away is when "planet" Moro drained Goku of his energy.

But now Goku & Whis say otherwise. How suddenly contradictory. Page 26 of this current chapter (CH 73) would be better if the last 2 panels were omitted.

Mastsred UI Goku easily takes down Moro- I mean Granolah. Also Goku tries to chat now after attacking Granolah. Should've said something before you start kicking ppl in the face. But this is shown to prove Vegeta is right about not being able to reason with Granolah. Even if it makes no sense.

Cool dodging & aikido type movement from Goku.

Goku using "the force" & stopping Granolah's movements was cool. Reminded me of Goku doing something similar to Broly in the DBS movie. Or more similarly, like Zamasu did in the manga.

I guess Toyotaro is suggesting that the quick flurry of punches is a Master UI kind of move. (Although it originated in the anime when UI Omen Goku was punching back against Jiren & when he did so to block attacks from Jiren in EP 129.) I hope this move isn't over used that it ends up losing its flare.

Vegeta pretends to be upset that Goku defeated Granolah while in the previous chapter, Vegeta told Goku to fight first.

Somehow Vegeta is able to sense that there are 2 Granolahs. You can say because he has spirit control, but Goku has been through that kind of training with Roshi, Kami, & King Kai (possibly some with the Yardrats too which helped him control Super Saiyan at the level he could). And with Instant Transmission, Goku must be an expert in detecting ki. He can feel ki in different realms and locate ppl from far across the galaxy Goku should sense this too. All this writing is doing is trying to make Vegeta appear as the more capable fighter & get Vegeta fans hype for his next battle. That's all.

The switcheroo (I think I used that wrong) of a fake Granolah was a kinda clever idea. But Goku not knowing what "split" means is asinine.

Goku literally says "Split...? What's that mean?"

Goku has seen firsthand when Tien split into multiple Tiens, Goku knows the Yardrats can split themselves into many ppl, he saw merged Zamasu split himself, & he saw Moro split himself. Why is he written so stupid? I need answers Toyo.

Page 40....

HOW IN THE HECK did Mastered UI get caught off guard?! Ain't it supposed to automatically grow sturdier as necessary?! Boy oh boy, this writing... A positive is that the punch looks like the 1 inch punch Goku did to Golden Freeza (inspired by the legendary Bruce Lee).

So if actual Granolah is twice as strong and can one shots UI Goku... Vegeta doesn't stand a chance. But the bad writing will make a way for Vegeta to look somewhat capable.

Granolah says UI becomes less sharp over time. Only problem is that Goku fought longer against Moro. This fight of UI Goku should have been longer. If the fight was longer when in the UI "transformation" then I would be more generous about Granolah finding an opening. Speaking of openings, Granolah says "opening" instead of "vital point." Must be a translation error.

Goku is in a near death-like state and Vegeta is like

VEGETA: "Leave that fool alone. Fight me instead."

Vegeta threatening Granolah is either stupid or smart. Smart = Vegeta provoking Granolah to get an advantage mentally. Dumb = Vegeta reverting to his Cell saga overconfidence that Toyo always does.

IN CONCLUSION:

STILL NO IMAGE OF FREEZA... I guess he isnt that important to the story after all. And this storytelling is so bad because Toyo can't stay consistent at all, he doesn't understand the characters, & he can't come up with anything besides "this form also drains stamina." You can say he & Toriyama write this together but I doubt it. Toriyama corrects his art & just gives the story a pass.

Recently it seems that Toriyama is more interested in the DBS movies being produced. Toriyama just writes an outline, Toyotaro & Toei write their versions of the story around that, Toriyama corrects Toyotaro's art & Toriyama also corrects or adds to what Toei thinks up. Example being when Toei created Kale & Toriyama created Caulifla in response.

I'm not excited for the next chapter. I don't care what Vegeta does. How is Vegeta going to win against someone who one shotted Goku in UI. Either the writing will be kinda smart or just plain stupid. I'm expecting stupid.

Idk if I'll review the next chapters. The bad writing was too much for me. I wrote this review last month right 1 day after the chapter came out, but I didnt want to read the manga again to get the images I need for this review. So I put it off for almost 1 month.

I wanna take a break from this bad manga...

[cattles-bians]

damie vibecca exes au pt 9

post directory

obsetress: ready ok ot4 hc incoming

em: ot4! ot4! ot4

obsetress: after dani breaks up with her viola cuts all her hair off n it's the first impulsive thing she's ever allowed herself to do in her whole life (which should also tell you exactly how fucked up she was by it) n so then we have

obsetress: short curly hair viola

em: what is wrong with you

em: oh i love a dramatic haircut as a motif

obsetress: by the time she and rebecca start hooking up it's grown into a long bob and she keeps that for a while tbh because like

obsetress: viola has impulses all the time but she either: suppresses them, or thinks about them and then does them to the point where they can no longer be considered impulsive

obsetress: vs um

obsetress: dani has impulses all the time and used to suppress them but then fully leaned into

obsetress: charging headfirst into whatever the fuck (vp speech ref sheds a tear)

em: OTP: dont you wanna go apeshitt

obsetress: and thinking about how people change u and rub off on u for the better even after they leave

obsetress: viola: wants to go apeshitt

obsetress: viola: thinks about going apeshitt, thinks about all the ways it would benefit her, thinks about how she would enjoy it even if it did not in any way benefit her

obsetress: viola: yes ok don't you wanna go apeshitt

em: no but i am i am thinking abt like. dani and viola as both sort of? dragged into being housewives and homemakers because Women n viola didn’t really have the power to change her situation (even if she got isabel out of it!) and dani actually managed to call it off

obsetress: YEAH

obsetress: grits teeth

obsetress: once again crying over very intentional very deliberate danvi parallels that no one else wants to talk about and i think even in this au right

obsetress: viola is socialized in such a specific space that this can very much still be true

obsetress: and i think like part of what draws her to dani is exactly that––that dani had the freedom to do that much sooner––but also she resents dani for exactly that too

obsetress: even when they're together, and that's the possession piece too

obsetress: i think a part of her thinks if she can't do it for herself she can have it for herself and that's close enough

obsetress: like she v much covets dani

em: ah the unique way that lesbians fuck each other up bc of living in a homophobic and misogynistic society

em:i mean who doesn’t covet danis ass

obsetress: literally and metaphorically

obsetress: and part of dani definitely knows that but part of dani (at least until she doesn't) likes it

obsetress: (also this is kinda what i was getting at w my insane lil pwp alfjadslf but i think it tracks here too)

obsetress: because she's like "well this is what it's supposed to be but it didn't work with eddie because i don't like men but now i'm with a woman and this is how it's supposed to be"

obsetress: "and i like being wanted it's nice to be wanted by someone i want for once"

obsetress: but yeah thinking a lot about the danvi dynamic once again

obsetress: viola short curly hair to viola long bob

obsetress: YEAH I JSUT

obsetress: WENT TO HER INSTA TO FIND

obsetress: AND THEN GOT

obsetress: SO DISTRACTD

[em note: edited out a 30 minute tangent going through pictures from kates instagram]

obsetress: so anyway the whole point of this. long bob viola

obsetress: rebecca loves long bob viola she rly loves um. sitting on her lap and running her fingers back through her hair

obsetress: when she and dani see each other again for the first time dani's all "oh. you cut your... hair" and vi's like "i did" and dani's like "it, um. looks... it looks... good?"

em: i think it’s nice when viola does something for herself :)

obsetress: it's nice :)

obsetress: i'm happy for her :)

obsetress: wish she didn't have to look so much hotter though :)

obsetress: don't make that face, babe, it's fine :)

obsetress: you know i love you :)

em: WAIT

em: dani had a fucking moment. she’s like

obsetress: oh dani likes her girls w curly hair huh

em: counting on her fingers. how many ppl has she dated w

em: YEAH

obsetress: YEAHDLKFJSLDFDFJSLDFj

em: CURLY BROWN HAIR

obsetress: OH MGOD EDDIE TOO

obsetress: NOT JUST GIRLS

obsetress: aw baby has a type

em: so actually it is DANI who ends up w the strongest routine

em: just short bob hair viola sitting next to jamie and dani has a fuckjng. out of body experience. perceives herself a little too hard

obsetress: she's just. staring

obsetress: mouth def hanging open

obsetress: then someone's like "dani? dani?" and she's blinking like five times in a row and sitting up straight

obsetress: but she does def have that moment at brunch

em: jamie doesn’t twig it

em: violas like. violas got a keen eye for anyone ‘copying’ her style. raises one devastating eyebrow

obsetress: dani and vi devastating eyebrow partners n crime

obsetress: later that night, in bed: jamie?

jamie: wot?

dani: do i have a type?

obsetress: jamie immediately wants to jump to no because how could she have anything in common w––

obsetress: oh. oh

em: jamie’s lil wispy premature greys set her apart

em: ‘jamie HATES it when she has things in common w viola’ is my favourite bit sjddkhd

obsetress: jamie "not sure how viola has no greys n she's how much older than me again" taylor

em: dani realises she actually has. no idea how old viola is

em: barely even knows a birthday

em: maybe viola even has like. a decoy birthday

em: queen of being mysterious for the drama of it all

obsetress: "she's just too stubborn to grey is all" "i'm stubborn!" "mm" "wossat supposed to mean" "you're..." "i'm what" "you like to... pretend? you're stubborn" "pretend i'm–– i am!" "jamie, i asked you to repark the car because i didn't want to get out of bed and it's street cleaning day and you immediately jumped up to do it even though you can barely parallel park"

em: WHIPPED

obsetress: jamie's quiet for a long time then, softly: "can parallel park just fine"

obsetress: "mm"

obsetress: whipped as hell

obsetress: this led me to everyone making dani or viola parallel park all the time when they go anywhere

obsetress: hc dani is a Very Good driver. idk why but it tickles me

em: i think um. dani is v independent and wants to be able to do things herself

em: and i think she probably got her license before eddie, but as soon as eddie got his....

obsetress: and dani's better than him n got a better score than him, and yet

em: and yet!

em: they swap out being deso driver if they’re gonna be drinking. or jsut call a taxi lmao

em: i’m so endeared by Extremely Good Driver Dani

em: dani does a reverse park without thinking

obsetress: viola loves her martinis n dani is drunk off of half a glass of sangria

obsetress: same!!!!!!!

obsetress: also just like. imagining

obsetress: dani checking all her mirrors

em: no

em: HANNAH

obsetress: and adjusting everything so fastidious

obsetress: OH GOD

obsetress: i didn't––

em: i jumped

em: phew it’s actually cute

obsetress: yeah! dw i'm not sick

em: well

obsetress: she just goes through her whole lil checklist and is so meticulous and precise

em: jamies like ‘we’re the same height’ and danis like ‘well.’

obsetress: oh god the four of them driving to the seaside for a vacation together (lots of content to mine here, will have to put a pin in most of it because i am getting sleepy) but they end up taking the truck much to vi’s chagrin just because it can hold the most

obsetress: (like viola doesn’t have a range rover but listen it needs to be dani n jamie’s car for this to work)

obsetress: and vi and rebecca are sitting in the back and then rebecca’s frowning and blinking and digging a headband out of the seat between them and viola immediately just. knows

obsetress: she’s like “dani?” “mm?” “you and jamie... have cleaned your car recently, right?” (jamie’s chiming in: “i’m right here, vi, you can address me too,” viola pointedly ignores her) “um... maybe a couple months ago? why?” “well,” and vi pokes her disdainfully with the headband, “can you at least tell me you’ve had it cleaned between whenever this got stuck between the seats and rebecca and me sitting here now?”

obsetress: dani just GRINS sheepishly

obsetress: “i could tell you that, but...” “but?” dani mumbles “it would be a lie”

obsetress: anyway dunno why vi’s that upset about having to sit in the backseat where dani n jamie hooked up, like, last week when it’s not like she and rebecca haven’t been inside the two of them respectively but it’s absolutely the kind of contrarian shit she’d choose to be pressed about and it makes me laugh so

[bleachbleachbleach]

HELLO.

I just wanted to say that I love, love, love your tags on that character/tool post a lot! Some of my favorite shows/books involve characters that can't keep it together and just barely make it to the end of the story or make it there in an "inconvenient way" and tbh I find that usually the narratives that follow these characters don't really work away from them either--the narrative is just usually more questioning instead of fully formed.

Like, 'what if/how would', y'know? There's less of a clear meaning and more just 'what if they hadn't done that. what if they had done that. what if all that meant nothing. what if that struggle was all there was'.

But oh boy, when they DO work away from the narrative. *chefs kiss*

I mean, most of my favorite Bleach characters are narrative nightmares who either hinder or cut off lines of theme in the story entirely. And, in general, I think there are A LOT of characters in shonen--a genre known for very long narratives that can't possibly complete every thought but also can't just abandon all those characters introduced ESPECIALLY the fan favorites or personal favorites--work in the way you described.

Tbh i think your tags really highlight why so many ppl get drawn to these characters/why they're so fun to play with in fanfiction.

If you have more to add or more thoughts about this you want to lay down I am here, eagerly awaiting and ready to pick them up.

Also, who do you think in Bleach is the most fun characters who sort of drop kicked the story, in your opinion? Who's the one you like the most? And who's the one you dislike the most?

[For posterity the referenced post is this one.]

Aww, thank you! That’s really lovely to hear. I was anxious about even putting it in tags because I don’t think I presently have the capacity to explain it well—and even if I did might still sound bananas to many. Or at least the bit about negotiating with characters and how *they* feel about being subjects in stories. Because as much as that really is my practice saying it out loud takes me back to like… FFN in 2003 where every store was prefaced by extensive chat-form back-and-forths between the fic author and their character "musies" and that is not something I think fandom would benefit from bringing back in force, hahaha. But anyway.

Here’s the part where I disappoint because I don’t think I actually know Bleach well enough to speak to it in this context. WHICH SOUNDS DUMB EVEN AS I TYPE IT BECAUSE LOL WTF IS THE NAME OF THIS BLOG WE ARE CHARLATANS AND POSERS FOR CLAIMING AS OUR NAMESAKE NOT ONE BLEACH BUT THREE BLEACHES but truly, my experience of Bleach has a shallow depth of field. I feel like I have weirdly intimate knowledge of some severe rabbit holes but a non-existent to uneasy sense of the gestalt.

Like idek man, in my "slow re-read where I am actually paying attention" Ichigo hasn’t even met Byakuya and Renji yet. ToT

I'm gonna put this behind a cut because it spidered all over the place, but in summary:

characters and their capacity to produce narrative failure

the charm of longform serialized series and their invitations to imagine stuff

me attempting to talk about Hitsugaya and feeling a fool, as usual

I guess in general terms, I’m really interested in characters and their capacity to produce narrative failure. Not failure as in 'bad' but failure as in things that break form or are circuitous or are actively detrimental to a narrative arc. All my strongest examples of what I’m thinking of are from a different fandom and therefore not relevant to this blog, alas. By comparison I think anyone in Bleach can keep it together better than the characters that are immediately coming to mind, lol. But I think this idea dovetails often with trauma narratives, or depression narratives, because these things are often… non-narrative? Like, there’s no fourth or fifth for minor fall or major lift. Sometimes it’s the same thing over and over again, or maybe nothing. Maybe it’s the exact same self-sabotage narrative dictates could have been avoided. Maybe it’s some act that emanates forth but cannot be explained because it cannot be explained and will never be explained. That’s a version of what I’m talking about, in any case, though not the only version.

Your note about longform shounen definitely resonates with me, too. In my mind I don’t like long things and I prefer series that are more self-contained but whenever I have ever landed in a long-term fandom, with a piece of media I felt obliged to carve out chunks of my life for, and to interact with at that level of creative fannishness, it’s always been something stupid long and serialized by the seat of its pants. I know plot holes or dropped threads bother a lot of people (makes total sense, don’t get me wrong) but I find these things incredibly attractive. I see them as invitations to join in the fun. Especially when it’s so much a part of the form and genre to have this, as you said, lack of real expectation that every thread will be followed to its conclusion (or that it would be worthwhile to do so) and every thought completed.

There’s this piece by David Grann that was published in The New Yorker in 2004 that I really love that speaks to part of this idea, albeit in terms of fictional universes versus fictional characters. But Grann is talking about Sherlock Holmes (Doyle original) and the ways that Sherlockians would like, approach apparent lapses in narrative and then solve them according to the established rules of the universe. I just love that. There’s also the line, "Never had so much been written by so many for so few," which LOL if that ain’t fandom I don’t know what is!!

I feel like I’m actually talking about three distinct but related facets of these thoughts in this post, except all at once and without clear transition, uhhhhh.

Gah, I am broken and now can ONLY think of examples from my not-Bleach fandom, but to try a different tack and add yet another facet to this already funhouse-mirror post, my various attempts to write Hitsugaya often feel like they come up against a version of this. I think Hitsugaya has aggressive side character energy, and I find it difficult to make him the center of a story and have it feel right to me. He feels different to me than writing other minor characters, where they can be the center of their own stories even if their story is not the main story. Like, two of my fave characters in my other fandom have literally like… three lines in 350+ episodes and it feels easier to imagine THEM at the center of their story and I think what it comes down to is that Hitsugaya probably prefers what he not be written. And when he does become more narrative I think he’d prefer that none of it was happening in the fist place. But at the same time he always seems to be…around??? whether there is really a good reason for him to be present or not. XD So while, say, he and Bartleby "would prefer not to" (because THAT'S what this post needs, a Melville reference), Bartleby actually opts out and Hitsugaya out here volunteering.

He also often feels non-narrative to me because he feels very declarative, if that makes sense? Like, the coming-to-decisions or coming-to-realizations parts of existence happen pretty quick, or are approached perfunctorily. I feel like I find narrative in the "coming" part of that equation and instead Hitsugaya will be like, well, I’ve already done that part without you, and/or plan to do that part in the future and it will still be without you, the audience. Anyway, here’s the determination I’ve made, here’s what I’m going to do, and here begins the long and probably tedious process of my doing that thing (off 2 go train in a cave for a bit). I don’t think he actually believes the world is that simple, Tab A into Slot B, but I do think he’s already made that assessment and can see coming to terms with that as a horizon, if that makes sense. So even if he doesn’t know the answer to something, or is completely at a loss of what to do (what to say to Hinamori? how to productively address the number Aizen’s done on him) there’s still not necessarily a story there. Maybe the answer is you grind, and it is repetitive and boring. Maybe you just hold things. There’s not even the act of learning how to hold things, necessarily, just the practice of doing so.

Wow, that probably doesn’t sound good! I feel like I need to suffix this with the assurance that Hitsugaya is my absolute runaway character in the whole series and this was true 15 years ago and it is still true now (truer, even) and everything I just said are reasons why I love him.

[locktobre]

In your Barbie-verse, what was it like for Rip growing up, and when he was an adult, post-getting out of fairy prison? Also, what happened to his mom? In the movies, we don't see her, and iirc, she was never mentioned, so I just assumed she died at some point, or Break was just a single dad.- That PCS Anon

Rip backstory is my favorite and I sure have a lot of it lmao

Rip’s mother was Barbra “Barb” Bloom, and she died when he was 9 (his brother Chuck was 11). But up to that point, Rip actually had a pretty good childhood. Barb also has a power, she was pretty sure, but it was so nebulous she could neither prove nor quite define it--either the ability to always find what she was looking for, or simply being in the right place at the right time, one of the two. Break didn’t believe it, and she didn’t bring it up a lot, since again, she couldn’t really explain the feelings she got, she just knew that some moments were special.

When Rip first started seeing things, she thought he was just being an imaginative kid, but then she realized it could actually be magic when she noticed that like... Rip doesn’t really have that great of an imagination. He’s more analytical, he doesn’t really color outside the lines or tell lies or get in trouble. Idk how to explain it, but sometimes ppl just seem like the type to say anything, you know? And then there’s ppl you can’t imagine ever lying or doing anything crazy or anything like that.

Anyway, so they were in it together while she was alive, and he had her there to talk about what he was seeing. But then she died, and Rip took it very hard. Everyone did, but Rip lost the one person he could really talk about magic with. And on top of that, he didn’t even know if he believed in magic anymore, bc if Barb was in the right place at the right time, she wouldn’t have been hit by that car, would she? So he doesn’t know what to believe, bc if she was wrong about her magic, then was she wrong about his? How does he know that he’s not just crazy? And he can’t talk to Break about it, bc Break does not believe. Chuck doesn’t really, either, but he’s nicer about it.

So that all leads to sort of a downward spiral as Rip grows up, bc he doesn’t always trust his perceptions. And that leads to the desperation to just jump thru a flyway when he’s 17, he was really not in a good place at the time. I touched on it in my other post, but he was gone for a couple weeks, and Break legitimately thought he was dead. And then when he tried to explain about the flyways and getting lost, of course that just pissed off Break even more bc it’s just more of Rip’s bullshit, right? So Rip eventually just says he ran away and then came back when he ran out of money (which is kinda-sorta the truth, if you strip the magic out). So Break’s furious with him (and so is Chuck), he’s grounded forever... But that’s actually a good turning point for him, bc he met Lilliana. And after the flyways, and Lilliana giving him some (begrudging) answers, he knows he’s not crazy. His friendship with Lilliana only lasts a few months, but by the time she cuts him off he’s friends with Finn, who may not believe him but also doesn’t fight him at every turn when he brings up magic, he’s more like lmao ok buddy whatever you say, which is honestly better than what Rip gets at home. And Finn does come around awhile to like wait no shit, really? For real? Which Rip can’t really believe but he’s so grateful.

Anyway so that’s up to 1989. Fast forward a couple years to 1991. Finn and Anne have been together for awhile, but Finn’s kind of like... He doesn’t want to break up with Anne, he still loves her a lot, but since their relationship has to be a secret, and it can’t really be any other way, it’s starting to wear on him. And he’s started to develop some romantic feelings for Rip that he wants to pursue, in part bc it would be much easier, honestly. But when he brings this up to Anne, she really doesn’t want to break up with him, either, so she says that he should just date Rip, too. And Finn’s like and... you’d be fine with that? And Anne’s like I will learn to be, anyway. And Finn’s not really sure if this will work or if Rip will even go for it. Rip is hesitant but he’s open to basically whatever so he’s like we can try it for awhile, I guess. Anne really makes an effort to be chill but it is hard on her and Rip’s like maybe we shouldn’t do this and Anne’s like I think the problem is that we don’t really know each other. Like Rip and Anne aren’t really friends, they’ve obviously met before but never really hung out one on one so Rip really knows her as Finn’s girlfriend, and she knows him as Finn’s weird friend. So they decide to start trying to get to know each other and be friends.

Rip doesn’t talk about any magic stuff with Anne for a couple reasons, one of which is that he doesn’t want to come off any weirder than he does when he’s trying to befriend the woman, and also bc she’s a royal and Rip does not care for royals. Not bc of anything politically, he just doesn’t think they are careful enough with magic and he doesn’t trust them with it. (He doesn’t trust anyone with magic, actually. Not humans, not fairies, not anyone.) So he has to give her the edited version of events when she’s like have you dated anyone before? And Rip’s like it wasn’t really dating but I did have a brief relationship with Lilliana Roxelle and Anne’s like. You mean the French supermodel? And Rip’s like yeah and Anne’s like how did you even meet her and he’s like I crashed her NYE party. And Anne doesn’t know what to make of him, bc it’s such a wild, specific thing to say that it could be a lie but it just feels like it’s true, bc why not say something more believable if you were going to lie? Anyway Rip’s more chill about not being believed at this point bc he has one person on his side again (Finn), so he just shrugs it off. And they just kinda move on and talk about their families and not getting along with their fathers, which are very different situations but it’s enough to commiserate over, and they just keep going like that.

And at the beginning of this, remember, Anne thinks of Rip as just Finn’s weird friend. She has no idea what he sees in Rip, romantically. (Or platonically, for that matter. Like he’s fun to hang out with but why not literally anyone else?) And Rip’s not super good looking, either. Like, he’s handsome enough, but you probably wouldn’t look at him twice. (He’s Break’s son, so that kinda limits how hot he can be lmao.) But he just has something about him. Like, when you talk to him, you get his full attention, he’s really supportive and sympathetic and he always feels like he gets what you’re going thru. So Anne starts to get it, and then she’s like wait am I catching feelings for this guy? THIS guy? And yeah, she is. So the three of them actually end up dating for awhile, which is a lot more complicated but they like each other enough to make it work.

However, meanwhile, Rip has met Calissa. And she’s a mermaid, and a queen, and she’s married, and she has a kid, but... Well. The heart wants what it wants. So Rip has to break it off with Finn and Anne. He can explain to Finn about Calissa, so they could maybe still date, but he can’t really tell Anne about a mermaid, and if he doesn’t tell her she’s a mermaid he doesn’t really have a good excuse for why they can’t ever meet this other girl and it just feels weird. And it’s already complicated, he can’t be in so many complicated relationships at once. And Anne’s really confused about why Rip would break it off, until he says that the girl he wants to see is already married, and Anne’s pissed that Rip would pursue something with a married woman. And he says he knows it’s wrong but... he’s gonna do it anyway. (He can’t exactly say that she’s not in love with her husband but can’t get a divorce bc she’s a queen and it would be a political nightmare... Which might not help, anyway, but at least it’s better than interfering in a loving marriage, right? Right?) Anyway, Anne thinks he’s not the man she thought he was and she doesn’t even want to be friends with him anymore. Finn still is, but they don’t hang out the three of them pretty much ever again.

Rip has his secret relationship with Calissa, she gets pregnant, and then they don’t really know what to do bc they don’t know if it’s Caligo’s baby and it’s fine or if it’s Rip’s baby and they need to panic. But as her pregnancy progresses, she’s pretty sure it’s Rip’s bc the baby’s movement feels different, she’s pretty sure the baby has legs and not a tail. So they really start to panic. Rip obviously wants to take the baby, but he can’t just show up at home with a random kid and say that hey btw my mermaid girlfriend gave birth. Break would think he was insane. Anyway so that’s when Rip gets the idea to fake his death, which he does. And he moves down the coast a ways and raises baby Merliah for about a year, until the Gloss Angeles guard track him down.

Cue botched execution and 17 year exile in Fairytopia, and then he returns to Earth in December 2012.

And life is actually... pretty damn good. He’s reunited with Calissa and Merliah, and his dad now knows he wasn’t lying about seeing fairies and meeting a mermaid and all of that. He has a lot to contend with, re-adjustment-wise, with how much the world has changed in the intervening time, and he also has 2 other daughters he had no idea about, and then Calissa gets pregnant with twins pretty fast so there’s a lot going on, but he’s used to chaos and having to learn about new environments so he takes it in stride, pretty much. He also reconnects with Finn (at Merliah and Kylie’s urging), so he even gets his old friend back.

And then, in 2016, a year post-RNR, Finn tells Anne that Rip’s alive. Which is in response to her telling him about keeping Sloane from him, and so he takes the opportunity to say I’ve actually been keeping something from you, too. (Idk if those two secrets are roughly equal, but for the characters I’m going to say they are.) And so Anne reconnects with Rip, too, and finally gets brought into the loop and learns about Rip’s powers and what really went down with him and Calissa and all of that. Which is a big shock but also he has some helpful advice about how to approach the situation with Sloane, having done it twice himself lmao. So honestly, everything comes up roses for Rip. He gets to live the rest of his life in quiet domesticity, which is all he ever really wanted.

The ONLY thing that kinda sucks is that due to how mermaids (and fairies) age, Calissa basically looks the same for their whole marriage. So as he gets older, she looks more and more like some young trophy wife, and he hates that anyone looking at him would think he’s some weird old man lmao. (He’s only 3 years older than her in actuality.) But that’s basically the only thing that sucks. Everything else in his life is very good, bc he deserves that goddammit.

[universal-kitty]

Hey, whatever you decide to do, please stay safe. You seem in a really rough spot, all I want is for you to take care of yourself. And if that means leaving, I'm 100% behind you. We don't talk, but I care about you.

   Yeah.... I haven’t gone in-depth about it, but.... I guess if anyone wants to know the full reason I’m so messed up rn, I’ll put it under the cut.

   TL;DR: my stepdad is a disgusting human being, I’m everything he hates, and my mom settled with him and also looks over my mental illnesses. Also, bugs are involved this time.

   TW for: bugs, racism, and homophobia/transphobia

   So in trying to keep this as short as I can: it started with the bugs. I did some research while trying to clean up my room (at long last) on some bugs I’d been seeing... Turns out, they be carpet beetles. Specifically, their larvae. Which they drop off in/around houses, because it ever so happens the babies like eating furs and cloth. Like moths, but- to my understanding- less damaging to items, more a HUGE nuisance to get rid of and also insanely itchy if your skin gets in contact with them.

   So my room has gotten ‘em, so it’s turning into a full-scale cleanup of my room to try and get rid of them.

   ...Which means I’ve lost my safe space in this house. I no longer have somewhere quiet to go when things are too loud or too stressful. I won’t have that for almost a MONTH, and that’s if I clean out my room fast. :/ (Which isn’t as possible as I want it to be.)

   I have four other siblings in this house, all younger. Love ‘em, but they can be very loud and I need my personal space. I don’t have that anymore.

   My mom is...usually a cool person. In this house, I guess I typically trust her the most. Though she never quite listens to me or engages in what I show her. Plus... Her previous issues with my mental health are troubling; she had a hard time grasping that I was autistic, instead insisting I should just be able to “do things” and that I needed to stop being lazy. (Even though she was there when I got tested for autism. I was sent....to a mental hospital... I just. Wow.)

   She’s gotten the idea better since then, buuuuuutttt.... Also looked me in the eye and said she thinks my stepdad- Marshal- wouldn’t treat me any difference if he knew I was LGBT+..... LMAO, good joke, mom. Got another one?

   So with that said... Stepdad. I...don’t like this guy. At all. He’s your typical bible thumper, so it’s a bunch of evolution doesn’t exist, get the kids involved in religion and guns (they’ve been learning how to shoot from him; the older of three girls that are his kids (me an’ my bro aren’t his kids) got a sticker recently that says “Coffee and Guns” and I’m so--), has argued abortion to my mom (women shouldn’t have them unless very specific situations that don’t include to save the life of the mother), and so, so many other things. Like saying trans ppl “have something wrong with them” and that Pride is a sexual thing.

   But yesterday, before I went to the Ren Faire... I overheard him on the phone. Drop not one, but TWO N-words. Hard R. Me upstairs, overhearing him. Talking about how he doesn’t believe that cops are racist and that- basically- if they think a black/poc is doing something bad and they shoot.... Oh well, right? Trust cops and their judgement!!

   So I’m, uh. Very much done with this household. Especially since there are other things that make me feel unsafe here. (EX: he once thought it’d be “funny” to walk at me with a lighter on, pretending that he was going to burn me..... It’s a funny joke for him, but what about me??)

   One of my boyfriends (Mattie) lives too far away. Cam lives nearby, but neither of us are prepared for or ready to leave home. (Plus, personal issues that make Cam more reluctant to leave home that I understand completely.)

   So there’s nowhere to go but back and forth from Cam’s house, so I can have a few hours of peace, company for bedtime....and then back here for his working day. This has been my life for the past few days and might very well still be for the week...if I don’t get kicked out whenever Marshal learns I’m LGBT+ and gets pissed. :’>

   So yeah, I’ve been torn to pieces thanks to all of this. There’s no way out and I’m...terrified, honestly. Continuing to hope that I’ll get out of here sooner rather than later.

[hirakdesherrani]

I was going through your blog, and you seem to criticize Shivaay a lot. But you don't seem to criticize Om as much who is no good either. I know Om started out good but after his character was butchered, there is no difference. At least Shivaay has shown a great character progression, and as of now he is the better man and husband. Not to attack you, 'cos I know everyone has their favs, but Omkara has flaws too.

Okay, so this ask has been licking dust in my inbox for weeks now. At the cost of seeming rude, I didn’t answer it ‘cos I just didn’t know what to reply, and tbh, didn’t feel like replying either.

Anyways, I’ll try now.

First things first anon, this is the first time someone has implied that Omkara is a fav of mine, which is farthest from the truth. Most of the times, I’m accused of hating on him ‘cos I’m blind Gauri stan, who’s white-knighting on her behalf (or so ppl believe). Secondly, LMAO anon, if only you had bothered to go back to posts I made last year, you would’ve seen how much I’ve criticized Om, much more than Shivaay, believe me.

Coming to your statements, lets see.

(Disclaimer: I’m in no way comparing abuse and saying who’s the worst among the two. Both are pathetic and don’t deserve the blessed presence of ‘any’ female in their lives, AniRi toh bahut dur ki baat hai.)

For the Shivaay v/s Omkara thing you mentioned:

As a husband, Shivaay >>>> Omkara. No explanations needed. (Post-their resolution of conflicts)

As a man, Omkara >>>> Shivaay, for the simple reason, that when Gauri told Omkara to GTFO, he accepted her decision and left. Unlike Shivaay, who took it upon himself to decide Gauri’s fate, because he thinks that he knows what’s better for Gauri than Gauri herself, which is damn patronizing. That Gauri chose to forgive Om is her prerogative, Shivaay orchestrating the kidnap was wrong. What if Gauri did not want to return to the Oberoi hellhole, then? Would he have kept her in the Oberoi mansion against her will, just to make his brother happy? I found the whole thing hard to digest, it was funny no doubt, but the underlying message was problematic.

As for character progression, well of course Shivaay has shown greater progression, because in the beginning of the show he’s a damn sociopath. Shivaay starts out as this Lucius Malfoy kinda character, who has rules about blood and lineage, who is proud about his ‘Naam, khoonn, khaandaan’ (just like pureblood nonsense) and calls Annika “road trash” (‘Mudbloods’?). Shivaay starts out from the very bottom, so obviously his growth will be greater. Omkara has his flaws, but as a character he was always better than Shivaay. Even in DBO when he was at the very worst of his graph, he still intervened to save a girl’s life, who he judged and hated, because that was the right thing to do. 

Both Shivaay and Omkara were put in the same situation re: Tia and Gauri. Both of them suspected that Tia and Gauri are lying about the pregnancy, and both had just cause to suspect. However, Shivaay never took any interest in Tia’s pregnancy, which made sense, because Tia was trapping him and he knew the child wasn’t his. It was Annika, in fact, who saved Tia from a miscarriage and actually cared for the baby indirectly, when she had all the reason to hate Tia and the child, because Annika is a kind soul.

Compare this to Omkara, who though acted as the judge, jury and executioner and decided that Gauri was not fit to mother that child (asshole!), but still actively cared for the unborn child who he suspected was not his own. We, as an audience, knew that Shivaay is right in his place, and Omkara is wrong in accusing Gauri. But as characters both Shivaay and Omkara were at the same situation, that is, they were unaware of what the other party had in mind.

Another reason why Shivaay’s character progression or redemption, has better sketched out, is because he is acutely aware of all the wrongs he perpetrated against Annika. Each and every instance, from suspecting Annika of selling the video to the media to the Daksh fiasco, every single misunderstanding has been cleared. But Omkara is not even aware of all the wrongs he committed against Gauri. Till date Omkara does not know the whole truth about Kali Thakur. He still only has a vague idea that he misjudged Gauri, that maybe she was forced into the wedding. The fact that Gauri was kept in chains, she was about to be married to three grooms, they were planning to make her their common sex slave for life, all this is still unknown to him. Even the buamaa truth, that Gauri was not lying when Kali captured Buamaa or even the fact that Gauri was not attempting to drown Buamaa in the swimming pool (for which he called the cops); all this is STILL unknown to him. How can he make reparations for everything he did in DBO, when he doesn’t even know the extent of all his sins in DBO?

And again, at the cost of repeating myself, even at his worst, Omkara did not derive any diabolic pleasure in ruining Gauri’s life. Unlike Shivaay, who put Annika in jail just because she refused to apologize for his arrogance. Annika would still be rotting in prison, if Dadi hadn’t bailed her out and Omkara hadn’t knocked some sense into Shivaay. Shivaay repeatedly fucked with Annika’s life and tried to make her miserable only for his ego. Annika was always at Shivaay’s mercy because Shivaay always used his power to abuse Annika.Contrast this to Omkara, Gauri was never at his mercy. Gauri was held hostage by the situation and had to return to the Oberoi mansion to save his dumb ass, but she was never at Omkara’s mercy. He did not make it a hobby to make her life difficult because that gives him sadistic pleasure. Omkara just wanted to get rid of Gauri and throw her out of his life. Which still makes him an asshole, but in all ways better than Shivaay. It’s just that Shivaay appears better than Omkara during DBO and after, because Shivaay was at the highest point in his character arc that time, while Omkara was at the lowest.

Coming to the last thing you mentioned about character flaws in Omkara. Sure, Omkara has a LOT of character flaws, you’re absolutely right there, anon. And those flaws are there even in IB 2016, its just that the audience puts him on a pedestal without analyzing his character properly, which is why the fall in DBO seems much more evident.

His biggest flaw is that he is STUPID. Like all the other problems and minor flaws emerge because of his sheer stupidity. Okay, that came out wrong. Omkara in the beginning of IB, is a Kalidas kind of character, who cuts the branch on which he is sitting. Unfortunately, stupidity is not seen as a character flaw, so most of the audience let it go. No wonder Om gets conned all the time, by Roop bua, Ishaana, Riddhima, Ranveer, etc. 

Because he is stupid, Omkara cannot understand the nuances of human beings. All his associated flaws, be it seeing things in black and white, or truth and lies, is because he cannot see the ‘grey’ or the ‘in-between’. To see and understand the grey, one needs brains and that Omkara does not possess.

Another thing is that most of the fandom thought that Om is more gender-equal than his brothers. But he has always been pretty misogynist from the beginning. 

Omkara put women in boxes. One was the good but victimized women (Box A): Jahnvi, Annika, even Pinky to an extent, who tolerated a lot of BS from their partners. And the other were women like Riddhima, Ishaana, Tia, who lied or used men for their own benefits (Box B). Of course, the worst was Svetty who was the ‘home breaker’ in his eyes. The first time he was confronted with this issue he chose to break up with Riddhima and Shivaay had to intervene and explain him that people are not good or bad, there is also the grey. The funny thing is that Om, who judged women harshly, never held Shivaay to the same standards. If he judged Shivaay in the same way, then he would have to put him in the category of bad people, which he refused to do. Hypocrisy much?

The second time when Omkara faces a similar choice, is when Mallika ran away from her wedding. Omkara categorically says that what Mallika did was wrong, even though he understands what compelled her. Again in that situation its Annika who makes Shivaay see sense, because Annika is an empathetic person. 

The thing is, whenever Om clashes with a ‘bad’ woman a/c to his judgments, he reacts badly. He was about to hit/get violent with both Ishana and Riddhima when he came to know of their betrayal. In both the cases, his brothers intervened and stopped him. Similarly he manhandles Svetty, after the whole engagement fiasco. 

The audience never held him accountable that time, because these women were wrong/used him. But the point is that even if these women were wrong, Omkara was also wrong in misbehaving with them. Manhandling or threatening assault to any woman is never right. 

This flaw comes in sharp focus only when Omkara meets Gauri, because unlike the other women before her Gauri is blameless. 

You mentioned the butchering anon. I know we all talk about how Omkara did a 360 degree in personality in DBO, even I say that. But in all honesty, he wasn’t butchered in DBO. His dark side which was suppressed in IB, came out in DBO. Like I explained before, Omkara was always violent with women who fell in category B. That coupled with his stupidity, which is why everyone cons him, spelled disaster for his equation with Gauri. 

If I have to be critical, Omkara was butchered badly only four times in the show (IB+DBO). When he throws money at Gauri’s face and crashes his car into her shop, when he leaves her to die at Kali Thakur’s hands after Chulbul reveal (which undid the very fact that he saved her from the villagers in similar situations the first time), when he shows complete lack of regret/guilt after Gauri leaves him post-inspiration argument and when he was drinking hot chocolate and going off to sleep after returning from Bareilly (instead of properly angstying and expressing regret in solitude) 

Coming back to the misogynist flaw, Omkara by the end of DBO did not know in which box to put Gauri in: due to all the lies and what he saw in Bareilly, he wanted to put her in Box B, but Gauri also put her life at stake multiple times to save his ass which confused him. On top of that, Gauri is not like Jahnvi or Annika who will stay with him despite all the shit he pulled. Gauri leaves immediately after the inspiration fuck up, which puzzled Omkara because Jahnvi never left despite the shit Tej did or Annika did not leave despite how Shivaay continued to insult her after their forced wedding. Annika in fact asked Omkara and Rudy to forgive Shivaay for the forced wedding BS that he did. [One reason why Omkara and Rudy misbehaved with Gauri, Soumya and Bhavya was because they internalized Shivaay’s behavior, ‘cos they saw that Annika forgave him despite everything, so they never expected these girls to dump their ass.]

I know a lot of people felt Omkara was OOC in many scenes in DBO. But actually on second thoughts he was like that in IB too, its just that in Ishana’s or Riddhima’s cases it was a one-off incident, but Gauri was forced to continue living in his presence to save him from Svetty and Buamaa, which made Om even more suspicious and thus, even more violent/verbally abusive. 

Baar haal, when you say character progression, sure Shivaay has progressed a lot from where he began. Omkara by comparison, had character flaws which he overcame post-break up with Gauri, when he realizes how wrong his stereotyping has been all this while, and how messed up his ideologies are. He learnt his lesson, and tried to implement that too, when he himself resorted to lies (as Dilpreet) to win back Gauri’s forgiveness. Character progression is more marked in Shivaay’s case because he started as a villain and went on to become a decent human being, whereas Omkara was in general a decent guy, with faulty judgments and anger management issues, which he sorta overcame. Of course, his stupidity cannot be cured. If one is stupid, then when is stupid, iska koi iilaaj nahi hai. Which is why he has a smart brother and wife to take care of him. 

I know you were not ‘attacking’ me for my choices, anon, but I thought to make it clear anyways. And hopefully, after this longass reply, nobody sends me an ask about the Obros, because writing about them just shoots my blood pressure.

[captainkirkk]

i saw those two recent anons about tddk/shipping and bakugou/how much he respects deku/how he was angry when he found out ppl shipped them so. so. i have a lot of thinky thoughts about this, and by extention a new barrage of questions for you! :D firstly, may i tell you how much i ADORE the fact that you made deku the person bakugou respects more than anyone else in the world??? that sits so well with me i don't ever wanna leave this chair. this is my ideal version of this story: bakugou (1/?)

Holy shit, another 10-part ask. The rest of the asks and answers to some of your questions are under the cut. Thanks, and I’m glad you’re enjoying this series!

growing to not only redeem himself and externalise his horrible habits so he can get rid of them and become a better person, but also him seeing deku and going “damn, fuck, shit, this guy is actually an AMAZING HUMAN BEING WORTHY OF EVERYONE’s UTMOST RESPECT, and giving that respect to him is not only 110% deserved, but it is also the least i can do, to akcnowledge the truth of how awesome and strong and KIND he is despite my DECADE-LONG torment, and give this to him. man. FUCK.” (2/?)

like, that’s a 10/10 character moment and i hope kiri was there cheering for him in the background the entire time and handing him his ass when bakugou was being a pansy about admitting this stuff to others and furthering his growth out of bully-land. fuck yeah. and also, i totally get what you were conveying with your response about fandoms, but i gotta agree with the anon on this one thing: tddk is absolutely the brangelina of the hero world, this is a thing now, no take-backs, sorry. (3/?)

and speaking of my faves, here come the questions (don’t worry if you haven’t got everything fleshed out tho!): 1. when did tddk get together? we now know it’s after kiribaku did, but was it during high school? my personal headcanon has always been that they realsie their feelings for each other at the start of year 2, and confess and get together about halfway through that same same year, i don’t like overlong periods of pining :/ 2. who proposed? and how? i dunno abou deku, but i always (4/?)

imagined shouto proposing by going outside, somewhere romantic, maybe by the sea, and using his fire (!!) to light up a bunch of lanterns that float up into the air and form a question mark, and then, when deku turns towards him with this bemused expression to ask what the “question” is, shouto’s kneeling with a ring. cue tears and kissess. if you haven’t got an idea for how the proposal in the history verse went, feel free to use this one, i can vicariously legitimise my ideas that way :3 (5/?)

but getting to the real meat of the stuff: one thing that has always irked me is how, in fics where tddk is together bakugou is always written as being disgusted with them and their romance, or not caring, or being outright derisive and mocking shouto for catching feelings for deku, and when i read history verse and saw your response about how bakugou grew to respect deku more than anyone else, my first thought was: if that’s the case and bakugou worked hard to become a better person, then (6/?)

does that mean he is genuinely happy for them? because he knows about shouto’s past and how terribly he suffered because Endickor, and he obviously knows how much he hurt deku, and so if they found love and everyone saw how good they are together, how much happier they make each other, then surely bakugou agreed and supported them? but if they got together while still in high school that may not have been the case cause bakugou may not have started to change yet. so??? which is it?? (7/?)

something else that made me lean towards the “bakugou is supportive” camp was also that tidbit in history… where you’re mentioning endickor’s trial (THANK FUCK THERE WAS A TRIAL I HOPE HE’S BEHIND BARS AND UNFIT FOR SERVICE FOREVER) and bakugou is described as being pissed that the reporters are hounding shouto, again, i assume, because he knows of shouto’s awful family situation and endickor totally rubs him the wrong way, like “omg if i hadn’t realsied what a dick i was i would have (8/?)

ended up like HIM, FUCK.” so yeah, i like to think he’s happy that tddk is a thing because he knows they both deserve that kind of happiness in their lives and he can see how painfully devoted they are to each other and how much love they have for each other. and he’s happy for shouto too, not just deku. i bet kirishima’s eyes well up every time he thinks of how GOOD and WHOLESOME the tddk relationship is and bakugou rolls his eyes but deep down he’s like “ UGH, same”. this is important. (9/?)

and most importantly: was deku best man at the kiribaku wedding? will baku be best man at the tododeku wedding? i bet he will. i bet he’ll cry and for once in his stupid life he won’t hide it. he won’t need to. everyone will be crying. tddk is just that beautiful. (10/10)

As always, you can have some of the answers. Not all of them. 

Bakugou didn’t make a conscious decision to respect Midoriya. It happened without him realising it. He did, however, make a conscious decision to treat Deku better, to treat everyone better, and to properly make amends with him. 

TodoDeku are kind of oblivious for a while. It’s just … very dumb on both of their parts. It’s less angsty pining, “He’s so amazing and he could never love ME”, and more these two just … not computing that all their interactions have romantic undertones. They’re both laying down hints that neither of them are picking up. They do get together before graduation, though. Thankfully.

Bakugou doesn’t openly admit it, but yeah, he’s happy for them. We’ve already begun to see some of Bakugou’s character development in the manga, and that continues during their time at UA. (He and Midoriya’s recovery goes unspoken for a while. Like in canon, they have small moments of reconciliation and what little they say goes a long way. They have a long, much-needed conversation where neither of them starts shouting, where neither of them gets violent, when they aren't under threat of being killed, in Midoriya’s hospital room after the July Attacks. That’s when they really start being friends again.) So, yeah, Bakugou doesn’t celebrate like the others when TodoDeku finally gets together, and he definitely doesn’t go around talking about how he’s happy for them, but he is glad that they have each other

You better believe that Bakugou has done so much reflecting on the fact that he’s Number Two now, a spot previously held by a very bitter, very violent Endeavour. He’s put a lot of work into overcoming the same power-hungry ideology Endeavour had, and being as patient as he can, and working with the one person in the spot above him, Midoriya, rather than resenting him. Todoroki has a lot of respect for that.

Kirishima is The Most Supportive Boy. He’s so proud of all his classmates, holy shit.

Bakugou says he doesn’t cry at the TodoDeku wedding, but Kirishima was right there. He saw those lone tears escape. You cannot fool him, Katsuki.

[wellhalesbells]

If you have the time and if you don't mind, what are some books you really recommend? Doesn't have to be all time faves, but anything that pops into mind that you want more ppl to read and love, Extra points if lgbt+ , i got the whole summer with little to do and i wanna spend it reading some good quality writing and honestly so far your recs have introduced me to so many faves its unbelievable

[blushes profusely] oh wow, thank you!!!  i’m so glad you’ve trusted me enough to check out some of the stuff i reblog; that is like the ultimate compliment, i can’t even???  i don’t mind at all(!), fair warning though: i only started recording what i read partway through last year and my mind is like a sieve so i’ll do my absolute best to remember what’s sang to me in the recent past.  warning number two: i’m in an open relationship with absolutely every genre out there so i’ll try to note which belongs where so you can avoid those that hold no interest for you.

LGBT+

i’ll give you the sun.  i loved this book, the writing is fucking transformative and all the characters are so damn likable, while still being realistically flawed human beings.

the raven cycle (tetralogy).  definitely my favorite series since harry potter.  the writing, the world-building, the characters, it’s all on top-form.  i wrote a little, mini non-spoilery review of it: here, back when i was better (worse?) wordly-wise and my feels were brand new.

more happy than not.  i’m still not sure how i feel about this book.  it was hard, but it felt very true to the characters and the lingo and style matched the ages of the players and i have a lot of respect for that.

the watchmaker of filigree street.  woooow i loved this book.  i admit ‘historical fiction’ kind of makes me cringe.  it never precludes me from reading a book but it does knock it down the list by a book or five because they’re often very dense and very clunky and end up taking me ages to get through.  but this one was gorgeous.  i loved the plot, the attention lovingly placed on every character and the historical elements.  the surprise gay in an already brilliant book felt like winning the lottery honestly.

captive prince (trilogy).  okay, truthfully, i’m only putting this on here because the second book is such a high point for me.  it was never bad at any point but it had unfortunately been hyped far too much for it to live up to my, admittedly, very high expectations.  hopefully it’ll fare better with you?

everything i never told you.  i go back and forth on this one.  i like the writing a lot, i like the LGBT aspect a lot, and i like the mystery aspect a lot but there are definitely characters i would cut out entirely for sheer predictability if i could and that killed a lot of my enjoyment at the time (but i think much more highly of it in retrospect?).  so, take that as you like.

aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe.  if there’s a book that handles its characters with more care or respect or consideration then i haven’t run into it.  i love the way this is written and the people it’s populated with.

flying lessons & other stories.  a bunch of uber talented authors writing a bunch of uber diverse and LGBT-focused stories and, yes, that is exactly as awesome as it sounds.

the song of achilles.  it is utterly heart-breaking but so rich, honestly.

FANTASY

the diviners.  (also has a minor LGBT character, who may play a bigger role in the sequel?)  fair warning, i have not read the sequel, lair of dreams, because it is somehow still not out in paperback (yes, i read physical books, yes, i pretty exclusively read paperbacks so i can lug them everywhere with me, YES, I PRE-ORDERED THIS ALMOST TWO YEARS AGO AND IT’S STILL NOT OUT, NOT THAT I’M BITTER ABOUT THAT OR ANYTHING) so i can’t speak to that one finishing on a high note as i don’t know.  but this was the first historical novel i managed to like in a long while.  it does such a good job of fusing in 1920s lingo and dress and aspects that i couldn’t help but love it.  add in the fantasy elements and i can admit i’m the perfect sucker for it.

the scorpio races.  i’m not sure why but it took me a long-ass time to get into this book, i wasn’t flipping pages with gusto until well towards the end but - especially as i was reading so much YA at the time - i really appreciated coming across a romance that lets both people come into it as themselves and stay themselves, neither puck nor sean were ever smashed or crumpled or shaved away to fit into their relationship, which was so refreshing.  plus the water horses were fucking cool.

the night circus.  the writing, the atmosphere, the circus.  just… it is all very whoa.

all the birds in the sky.  i loved this writing style and these characters and the magical elements.

CONTEMPORARY

i’ll meet you there.  there was something about this and i just… ended up liking it way more than i expected to.  i might’ve just read it at exactly the right time, i’m not sure, but i really enjoyed it.

the invoice.  this is honestly just hella cute and so freaking surreal.  swedes, man.

NON-FICTION

why not me?  i like mindy kaling a lot.  i make no apologies for that.  plus you can read both her books in about five seconds, haha.

SCIENCE FICTION

station eleven.  i loved this book.  the way the narrative is woven is so refreshing and i wish the comic book miranda was writing in this book was a real thing more than anything else in the woooorld.

illuminae.  hot DAMN this book was cool.  the plot was rock solid, the characters were hilarious and badass and the graphics made out of text and spiraling words and just the way this thing is put together?  shit, it’s worth your money and then some.

a robot in the garden.  okay this is just cute as hell.  i can’t even with tang, he’s the most adorable robot to ever adorable.

annihilation (southern reach trilogy).  (LGBT minor characters.)  okay, honestly?  i don’t know.  this was freaking zany but i was invested as fuck in all the kookiness for reasons i can’t articulately elaborate on.

the martian.  hilarious, engaging, SPACE.  what more do you want?

HORROR

things we lost in the fire.  this is more atmospheric than anything but, damn, could this get me wishing i wasn’t reading this in the dark or looking over my shoulder to make absolutely sure no one was standing behind me.  it’s a book of short stories (by the way, i love books of short stories and i definitely realize that is not true for everyone) and each one is so well-delivered and stylized.  i really enjoyed reading this.

let the right one in.  okay, this is legit horror so definitely stay away if you’re easily squicked out but it is harrrrrd to find good horror (at least in my opinion) and this definitely, definitely qualifies.

horrorstör.  i honestly had such low expectations for this, a horror story set in a wannabe-ikea, but it ended up being so ridiculous and strange and funny that i was won over by the finish.

the girl with all the gifts.  holy unique and well-executed zombie idea, batman!

SHORT STORIES

the bigness of the world.  there were definitely ones here that hit better than others but the ones i liked, i really liked!

GRAPHIC NOVELS (i read a lot of these so, um, prepare yourself)

saga.  (LGBT minor characters as well.)  this is world-building to a degree that i’m convinced did not exist before.  just, i can’t say enough amazing things about this series and the staggering amount of imagination that regularly goes into it.

ms. marvel.  heart-warming as fuck.  it’s definitely really easy to lose faith in the world these days, luckily kamala is there to remind you that people are primarily and genuinely good.

black science.  this is another one that took just an insane amount of imagination to cook up.  i got off to kind of a rocky start with this one but the gray-ness of all the characters really speaks to me, and that doesn’t really blossom until later in the series.

spider-man/deadpool.  this was very satisfying for my super duper spideypool-shipping mind.  joe and ed did us so good, and joe basically said in his sign-off: i made it absolutely as gay as they would let me, haha.

the wicked + the divine.  (LGBT minor characters that you’re going to get way too attached to, and retroactively.  it’s awful [sobs].)  the concept for this, gods reincarnating into teenagers before they burn up their hosts after a predetermined set of time, is so fucking cool.  the humor and the characters and the plot is all just aces.

iceman (LGBT MAIN CHARACTER).  okay, so this just started.  like issue #2 was only released days ago but 1) i am liking it so far and 2) marvel did it so dirty and barely advertised bobby - an openly homosexual superhero - was getting his own series, like, i found out about it the day before it went on sale and i keep my ear fairly close to the ground (not as close as some BY A LOT, but closer than the lay person i’d say) so if you can support it, please do!  pre-orders mean a lot in terms of numbers. :))))

descender.  admittedly, this starts out rooough.  because the main character, TIM-21 (and his little dog too), are annoying as hell.  he’s an android so there’s no dimension to him so he’s booooring as all get out but i am so glad i stuck with it through to the next trade because, probably picking up on the unsustainability of him as a main character, he gets shuffled off and the side characters get the stage and they rock so hard.

paper girls. (LGBT main characters.)  i’m kind of just convinced that brian k. vaughan can do no wrong at this point.  his plots are so tight and mind-blowing and badass.

monstress.  here’s a little tid-bit about me: female comic book writers are 100% more likely to get my money and my time because they are so damn rare and this series is unique, badass, and eye-opening.

black monday murders.  i’m a little premature with this since there’s only one volume and i usually try to wait until there are at least two but i check up on a volume two a lot so that definitely means something intrigued me!

nailbiter.  okay, i haven’t read the final volume yet ‘cause i’m reluctant to let it go but, so far, a series about multiple serial killers all being from the same town has me VERY HOOKED.

i wish i could remember more but this is honestly way better than i expected to do, haha.  they’re definitely not all my all-time faves but they’re ones that have stuck with me for one reason or another and that i didn’t feel i wasted my time on, so that’s something, right?  i hope this helps get you started and that you don’t think too awfully of me when you inevitably run across ones that aren’t your cup of tea!

[randomuser678]

This may be my own kinda ask but I really want to hear your opinion cause you seem to have a really great one about alot of stuff! Which danganronpa game do you feel was the best story, gameplay, characters and twist wise?? I hope you don't mind me going though and finding your other ask posts and ask8ng dome more asks. but thank you very much if you do This!

Oooohhh, thank you so much for asking!

Well, firstly, Im no entirely cought up with ndrv3, even tho I already have a pretty general idea here, and honestly, I don’t feel too motivated to continue, but that’s definitely gonna change at some point

I’m gonna say I’m biased towards the first game, at least when it comes to best story, twist and characters, because it was what started most trends in other dangan games, the story on dr1 served as a base to the following games and it introduced to everyone the dangan world and most of it’s rules, so when the other games showed this world it just felt weaker, just felt like they were rehearsing the same story that Ive heard b4, there was the same basic plot with ultimates trapped on a place and forced to murder eachother, the only differences being what their talents and main location were, so it feels like the shocking plot of teenagers and murders just got less shocking over time, they kept using this plot and it stopped being original.

But that wasn’t a bad thing, they kept following the same storyline, of course they’d have the same base story, so maybe it would have been better if they kept changing canons for each game? I doubt that would work, but hey, that would mix things up for sure.

But the worst part abt the trends that the first game started, is that I just can’t help but feel like so many story points were done much better at DR1, for example: Junko, the big bad gal, the queen of despair, the main villain of the franchise.

She has appeared in all of the games, and just everywhere really, as cosplay, as AI, whatever, she was there since the first game, and always as the villain, or some sort of force related to the villain, which is good, I love her, but since the first game, y'know how that turned into less of a plot twist and more of a boring pattern.

On the first game her villainy was the biggest plot twist, the girl that had died on the first chapter and never mentioned ever since, was actually alive and the one behind the murders, that just surprised me so much, who would even go on that direction. I absolutely loved it, and the whole basis of the plot twist was that the gyaru was actually the villain, and even tho I didn’t get that right of the bat I now find this pretty smart, and just goes to show how dr likes to subvert these anime tropes.

But then she was the mastermind on the second game.

I mean I loved having her round again, but “The villain this time is the villain from the last time“ isn’t that much of a surprise anymore, and seeing how Junko just turned into basically an all seeing always present god, I wonder why they kept pulling that off years after the first game, that is the most noticeable trend from the first game, and repeating the same plot twist just doesn’t seems like a good writing strategy.

But I can kind of see how that could work, you keep pulling the same plot twist again and again but adding more stuff each time, so the new one feels different from last ones, like “You were classmates” and then “You were classmates, and also you were evil“ or “It was Junko all along“ and then “It was Junko all along except it she is a fictional character“ and I guess that’s kind of creative, if that’s what they were going for here, but that doesn’t explain why they kept repeating so many story points and the character patterns.

The parallels between the first game and the second are pretty easy to make, first chapter there’s always a plan where the wrong person dies, second chapter is something or someone from the character’s past “coming back” to haunt the murderer, third chapter there are two ppl who are killed, and only one death was really planned from the beginning and the murderer is the least sympathetic of them all, on the fourth chapter the gentle giant dies and they always has good intentions and the chapter has a sacrifice being made and there is a blah blah blah abt what a life is worth and all of that, the fifth chapter is leading to the end, so many plot twists are made here, that one character that seemed like they were too badass and too present in the story dies (I mean Mukuro wasn’t present, but the story was hyping her as this mysterious force leading up to the final revelation) and then the two last games have final chapter revealing the mastermind and additional plot twists, the first game didnt have a sixth chapter cuz they had less of a plot to discover, the other games just kept adding to the basic line that I talked abt here.

So the discussion here is basically which game did all of this better.

The first game introduced this pattern, so it has some sort of advantage, the second one just felt like a copout for me, and the third one was pretty linear with this too but the last chapter was just, wow.

The final game had the biggest final plot twist, as in, it was a giant middle finger to the audience, which is not really a bad thing, but it still shocked me, the first chapter had already a plot twist that made some fans abandon the game, so you can only imagine what the last one did with some fans, I never expected the franchise to be this meta, and I honestly don’t know how to feel about it just yet.

Of course, nobody likes discovering that the characters you got so invested weren’tactually who you thought they were, I mean, yeah, they are fictional characters so of course you knew that they were fake ppl anyways, but knowing that the fictional characters that you love are fictional on their own fictional world, that’s fictionalception! And just hard to follow tbh.

So on one hand it was a shocking twist that took a really different turn from the last games, but in other hand, it made the story feel weaker somehow, knowing that this fabricated morals were fabricated on it’s own world, if that makes sense, I don’t know how to describe it.

I also wanna mention that on ndrv3 almost all of the murderers were sympathetic, the only exceptions being the mastermind and the third chapter, but that’s how it always is. On the first game it was all very gray, the murderers had their own reasons and you could feel bad for them if you wanted, but the game didn’t seem to side with either the victim or the culprit, you could understand how the Sayaka planned to murder Leon, but you also could see how Leon took advantage of the situation (And tbh they both were pretty stupid), you could understand how Mondo just lost control and did something horrible, but you can also see how that happened and how Chihiro was stronger than him (And that chapter was amazing tbh), but on the second game it felt more guilt-trippy for me, doesn’t help the fact that everyone just forgot abt the ppl who were killed, bcuz they had connections with the murderers, and I didn’t like the twist on the second trial at all, I felt like most of the characters got no development on the main plot line at all, the only really big exception being Kuzu and Hinata I think.

I preferred when they left it more gray, when the story allowed us to understand the murderer’s motive without feeling like they were forcing you to love them. That’s what it was like for me on the second and third games, but mostly on the second one.

It also doesn’t help that they almost always forget about the ppl who died as the story goes on, either that or they only remembered of their respective love interest.

And oh God, love interests, I don’t care about any romance on this franchise, the biggest offenders were So/n/dam/ and all of the hets in ndrv3, but I’m not gonna go in details here, that would be just  too unpleasant.

So like, ndrv3 had many cutscenes, which meant more character interactions, and seeing how a character interacts with other ppl is always a great thing, it builds better both characters, makes them feel more real, makes things less boring, and it’s just great, and dr1 didn’t have much of that, or at least not any remarkable ones like the other games, which sucks bcuz I wanted more of those characters, but they were still starting the franchise so of course it was gonna be like that.

And can I say how in sdr2 it felt like the coolest girls felt like were all forced to have a boy on their story lines? Sonia doesn’t do anything big on the story even tho she is pretty smart and curious, she only really did something when she was crying over Gundham, Peko is limited to her young master, which makes sense on the story (She was raised to only care abt him) but still feels like a waste of a character, almost everything Akane does on the story is related to Nekomaru somehow, or ends up with Nekomaru and as a result she gets no development, and hardly ever interacts with anyone outside of that dude. Peko and Akane never interact and that’s honestçy the worst of all of this, they are the two fighter girls with totally different styles! They should have hanged out more.

The guys were always on the spotlight and that makes me kinda sad, such wasted potential, and while that’s kind of a problem on this whole franchise, it was easier to see on sdr2 tbh.

The girls on ndrv3 and dr1 were great tho.

And also I rate male characters on dr based on how date-able they are, so it’d be like

Best boys- SDR2 (Would date them all)

Second best boys-DR1 (I dont like Togami that much but most of them are ok)

Worst boys-NDRV3 (I only like Hoshi and Gonta)

And gameplay wise ndrv3 wins, just, so many minigames and bonus content, it’s the newer game so obviously they’d have great gameplay.

So to cut it short, cuz I just went everywhere here

Best story: Ndrv3, dr1 is a close second, but since ndrv3 had two other games to live up to, they had a more solid basis when it comes to what to expect and how strong plot twists feel, even tho I still lean towards dr1 that started this mess.

Best gameplay: Ndrv3, the newer one with tons of bonus content and weird class trials

Best characters: Dr1, I loved the characters and was never able to get over them, even tho they didn’t have tons of character interactions like the other games. On a side note Ndrv3 has the best girls and Sdr2 has the best boys, but as a whole, I like Dr1 gang the best.

Best plot twist:Ndrv3 just loved having a bunch of those, but I still liked the whole Junko thing on the first game.

                                    Some other stuff too

Dr3 was an alright anime, I didnt like the end or how the character were treated and just forgotten abt forever, and I want them back, but still, I just loved seeing them animated and full of life.

Despair girls followed my fav from the first game, Toko, and an awesome protag, too bad the game felt like pandering to pedophiles so much, I know that isn’t anything new to this franchise at this point, and anime generally is like this, but it was just disgusting, they tried to tackle on the subject of child abuse while having fan service scenes with minors, that made everything worse, and was a waste of a cool concept and characters. At least the kids survived in the end.

I haven’t read dr0

So that’s it, thank you so much for sending an ask, I hope you have a great new year and stuff!

[helianthus21]

Hello! From one bitter Cass stan (who used to be all TFW positive) to another, I too am scared. Because I can't shake the feeling that Castiel won't have that much involvement in the season's arc, if at all. I don't believe a word that comes out of Dabb's mouth because he's a known liar (queue s12). I'm just wondering how disappointed I will be 😞

hey! Okay I’ll do this under the cut because while I guess by now ppl who follow me know I’m not S13 positive, I want the ones who are to have a chance to be able to easily scroll past thisAlso warning: This got more bitter in tone than I expected, so if you want sb to give you some hope and positivity, turn away now! But since you came into my ask box I doubt you wished for that:P

(Just in general: if you wanna vent about the show, my message thingy is always open, turns out I’m not done venting yet either, and that way I can keep it mostly off my blog;) anyway, dude, I feel you. I had tentative hope at the beggining of S12 that with the new showrunner things are gonna change for the better, but honestly? I don’t trust Dabb anymore either. Don’t get me wrong, I still think he’s a good screen writer, but there are things that happened in S12 that I think if he really wanted the show to change he’d not have let them pass. I’m aware that Ross-Leming is married to Singer, and Singer has a lot say in things, and yeah I have no idea how the showrunning business works, but things like Sam/Toni? Couldn’t he have put his foot down on that one if he initially had other plans for her character? And 12x21 man, this time Dabb can’t hold his hands up in all innocence like he did after Charlie. Because he might not have written her death scene, but he’s the fucking showrunner. I doubt Bucklemming are authorized to decide getting rid of her on their own, so like. Yeah, I have a grudge against Dabb. I mean, on the one hand I think if Cas actually gets to have some introspection before he comes back, gets to talk with someone important (Chuck? Billie? himself?) in the Empty or wherever, that could be a real chance for him to overcome his depression and accept himself the way he is (’Are you an angel or a man?’ - ‘Neither. Both.’) (^which would be my ideal way for this to go as you probably already know:P).But on the other hand - argh, I get that they’re going this ‘accentuate his importance via the boys pining in his absence’ route - but good lord, haven’t they done this enough in S12? Haven’t they done this enough in S11 too? Back then I was so hopeful that it was gonna lead somewhere. I told myself, “Okay, Cas is practically gone for the second half of the season but it’s gonna be worth it in the end! At the season finale he’s gonna come back and he’s gonna have some major role to subvert all the things Amara and Ambriel said and what he himself believes about himself, because he’s gonna prove himself as a hero! He’ll reject Lucifer as a first step on the long way to get his self-worth back and show that he’s not someone who just ‘helps’ and that he’s far from ‘expendable’.” I told myself that the whole time - 12 EPISODES, he was gone for 12 EPISODES!! - that he was gonna come back with a bang and it was all gonna be worth it. Because I liked the Casifer arc goddammit, it had potential. Because, for me, this was the only logical way for this to go! But then, of course, he came back and basically just stood around while everyone else got to do a part (yeah, being insulted some more by his fellow angels does not count in my book, and neither does this terrible beer run conversation, don’t even get me started on that one) while everyone got a bit of a scene with Chuck. Everyone except the one who, you know, spent basically his whole character arc searching for God, playing God, losing his faith in God - nah, that’s apparently not of import to the writers  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯So you’ll excuse me if I don’t get my hopes up that Cas’ death in 12x23 is gonna actually lead to something this time. I’m not very interested in spending the first few episodes without Cas - “really feeling his absence” bc dude I’ve been feeling his absence all the damn time! They exlude him from scenes and episodes when it’s actually working against the plot and against all logic not to have him there (see 11x09), because the format for some reason demands Misha to be in X episodes and so he won’t be in more than X episodes.I mean, sure, the three Cas-centric episodes in S12 were honestly glorious! But that doesn’t change the fact that he was in less episodes than Mary or Crowley. Quality before Quantity, yes, but then please give me this quality in all of his episodes. I don’t know about you, but him going around interviewing a few ppl, ‘searching for a lead’, that’s not what I’d call quality. That’s not really all there is to hunting and Dabb promised more hunter!Cas in S12 didn’t he. Also is quantity and quality really so hard to pull off? I mean...?? As for his involvement in the next season - I don’t know man. I probably can’t say a lot about that, or shouldn’t, because I’ve run out of chances to give the writers so I’m not gonna keep watching. They did say he shared some ‘bond’ or whatever with Jack so he’s probably gonna have a role in the overall arc, but then I had similar thoughts during the Casifer arc so..At least, the bond’s not gonna be of a romantic kind since Jack is a boy, not a girl, so there won’t be sexual undertones there, although tbh I can’t bring myself to be interested in Jack and his story? Maybe I’d think differently if they’d handled things with Kelly differently.. A shame, really, because the nature vs nurture thing does make for an interesting subject. Anyway, I know it’s too early to judge, but I get the people who worry that this storyline will yet again be taken away from him and fall instead into Sam and Dean’s hands. Wouldn’t be the first time ya know. And like I said, I’m not the best person to talk to about this, bc I can’t seem to find this storyline all too appealing bc of the way they led up to it.. which normally wouldn’t bother me too much since the characters are still A+ and they can make up for any not-so-interesting plot points, but after Eileen, not even that is enough for me tbh.So yeah, you can tell I’m still high-key pissed at the writers. Hey, I watched 12x21, the whole abomination of an episode, I think I deserve to still be bitter. Sorry though.But on a lighter note: the Empty does have potential and we shouldn’t write it off before we - well you - see it (I’m sure I’ll look at gifsets of it^^). And there’s The Hug to look forward to which I’m sure won’t be downplayed if just because Misha and Jensen and Jared know their characters and they wouldn’t half-ass this important reunion.If you wanna give S13 a chance, I’d say don’t get your hopes up too much, but also don’t think the worst? Because having your hopes crushed sucks, but if you only expect the worst, you probably won’t be satisfied with anything. This is all the advice I can give if I put myself into a more neutral position for a minute^^.