#but i LOVED his arc in the first book especially. and in the second. bc my GOD

[mamawasatesttube]

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

kon, of course, but everyone here knows that so maybe he doesn't quite count sfgkdh

let's go with kaladin stormblessed from the stormlight archive, mipha legendofzelda, and elrond peredhel! with an honorable mention to ash lynx bananafish and alphonse elric fullmetalalchemist.

i am simply a sucker for the battle healer archetype/characters who know how to kill you a hundred different ways, but would really rather not. characters who have faced the endless horrors but still choose to be kind and gentle and good where they can, or who fight the darkness not out of rage or pride but out of a desire to protect. characters who know what suffering is and want to make sure others don't have to. you know. the light at the end of the tunnel and choosing kindness and healing even though it would be so easy for them to cause harm instead. being the shield before the sword. all that.

alphabet ask game!

[crackedhrglass]

i got this ask on my strawpage and was gonna type it up in my notes app and post it to twitter, but i really couldn't figure out a way to say it concisely, so i'm answering it here bc it's prob gonna be long lol.

do i think stancest is actually canon? simply put, no. despite how often i'm like "STANCEST IS CANON!!" i truly don't think that AH and the writers intended stan & ford's relationship to be seen through an incestuous lens.

their relationship is def the heart of the show, second only to dipper & mabel's own bond. they are the center of each other's worlds, their story & character arcs revolve almost entirely around each other, and their happy ending is literally the two of them sailing off into the sunset to spend "the rest of their days" together (ford says this almost word-for-word in journal 3).

but i still don't think all of that was meant to be taken romantically.

in my opinion, where things start to get a little weird is, surprisingly enough, ford's relationship with bill.

the rest is under a cut bc HOLY SHIT this got longer than i expected.

there's no denying that bill was written to deliberately parallel stan in a number of ways, from his mannerisms, to his conman status, to the fact that he calls ford the same name stan did when they were kids.

he's written in a very intentional way that makes him serve as both stan's parallel and his foil, especially in their respective relationships to ford (bill feeds into ford's ego and encourages him to aspire for greatness alone, stan has always been a direct obstacle & challenge to ford's ego, accidentally ruining his chances at WCT & encouraging him to live out their childhood dream together; bill valued infinite power over his own family and destroyed his dimension as a result, stan valued his family over everything, and saved ford and his dimension as a result).

normally, this wouldn't be that big of a deal to a stancest shipper like myself. but as the book of bill & the accompanying website all but confirmed in big, flashing neon lights, ford & bill have a romantic history and are exes.

having the two people closest to ford be compared to one another is one thing. having ford be drawn to bill because of how similar he is to the brother he secretly misses is one thing.

having ford be romantically involved with said character is what makes me raise an eyebrow lol.

again, do i think ford is literally a brocon who's got repressed sexual/romantic feelings for stan?

no.

i do, however, think he has unresolved Brother Issues that led him to subconsciously find comfort in a romantic partner that reminded him of stan (right down to bill calling him stan's nickname for him) in much the same way a person with "daddy issues" may seek out affection & intimacy from someone who reminds them of their father (or is just "fatherly" in general).

that much, i believe, was actually intentional. it's just too blatant to not be lol. it'd be a completely different story if either

bill & stan were nothing alike (untrue) or

ford & bill's relationship was strictly platonic and didn't have any romantic implications (also untrue)

i've said this before, but this isn't just a case of "oh, ford fell in love with someone who just coincidentally reminds him of his brother." bill's use of the nickname "sixer" during their first encounter was a deliberate attempt at appealing to a part of ford that was repressed, vulnerable, and aching, in order to get ford's guard down and make it easier for ford to trust him, and it worked.

billford is a ship that, to put it bluntly, would not exist without ford's buried feelings for stan, even disregarding shipping/incest/etc. ford's desire to be close to stan even platonically is what allowed bill to needle his way into ford's heart in the first place.

and all of this wouldn't be that weird if, again, bill hadn't continued to feed into ford's longing for stan even after they'd established a romantic relationship, by still calling him "sixer" and trying to permanently sever the relationship he had with stan specifically, once he and ford broke up (the phone call he tried to make while in ford's body that was described in tbob).

to put it another way, imagine if wendy was basically an older, taller mabel, or if any of mabel's crushes were eerily similar to dipper. people in the fandom would def take notice and view it as a little strange. so i don't get how people can look at ford dating someone so blatantly and intentionally similar to stan and think to themselves "ah yes, this is normal. ford is completely Normal and definitely doesn't have any underlying issues whatsoever" lmao

to conclude: no, i don't think ford & stan's relationship is actually canonically romantic, nor do i think ford falling in love with bill was incestuous, necessarily.

but i do think that he had a desperate longing to reconcile with stan buried DEEEEEEP down, and it manifested itself in the form of being attracted to bill, which is probably why he never bothered correcting bill's use of the nickname "sixer" since their very first meeting, or ever expressed that it made him uncomfortable.

[blueiight]

can i ask your thoughts on the fandom’s heavy focus on louis as an object of desire? it sometimes feels to me like people are more interested in other characters reacting to louis than they are in louis himself. i know the “helen of troy” stuff is a joke but it genuinely seems like he’s often rendered oddly passive in his desirability, like we’re looking at him through the eyes of the other characters even though it’s his story (to be clear: in the fandom, not the actual show). or am i being uncharitable? either way, you always have interesting things to say about fandom reception.

i think the focus of louis as an object of desire arose largely in response to a lot of racially-charged nonsense about show louis, namely, where a loud minority of fans tried to deny the abuse and horror of season 1 and frame louis as the primary antagonist/abuser of his own story. which in of itself had the potential to go somewhere, especially considering the feminized role louis occupies in parts of season 1. unfortunately its spiraled off into its own dead end at this point to where now people, a year and a half removed from the release of s1, can box louis's character arc into this tale of getting all the hot boys to look her way. when this is a horror and tragedy series. romance is part of that, but is a piece of the full picture. classic romance is very much horror tbh but thats just me

if we're discussing the show strictly, majority of louis's relationships are antagonistic. even with his lovers, they love him as much as they seek to control him. 'his love is a small box that he keeps you in', trailer louis saying 'i knew who i was without those pieces [of myself?]' . so on and so forth. the first three episodes of season 1 are about louis's struggle to maintain a link with his mortal community, in the midst of increasing racist tensions against the city leaders, all as he struggles to come to terms with his existence as a vampire and how his relationship to lestat fits in relation to all these pieces of himself. doubly so, there is also the nature of the second interview in present time, and the sort of antagonism between daniel + louis as louis eventually pushes daniel into burning the old tape. the latter half of season 1, episodes 4-7 is squarely about the triad of lestat, louis, and claudia, how lestat increasingly tightens his hold over them both, claudia breaking them free of it, and louis's response to such. doubly so, daniel becomes more hostile the less he knows, and the more louis's composed 'master of his instincts' personage collapses to show the broken man thats underneath. armand comes in at the end bc the interview has reached a breaking point once more [as it did in the 1970s]. i know, im looking too hard into the meme, but so much of where louis errs, where his memory falters, where history is completely revised, has to do with the question of claudia. even book interview foundationally was about this grief, though not nearly with the level of depth+ gravity the show has added to the story.

where focusing on louis as an 'object of desire' most impedes analysis has to do with claudia as well, bc if u see louis as that solely, then what is claudia to u if not a 'child interfering in [louis's] romantic affairs'? why are people already seeking to write claudia off as a wayward child unduly 'taking out her anger on louis', when it was louis at the end of season 1 who strangled her against the wall and refused to let her burn lestat? when its louis in the trailer thats throwing claudia's words from season 1 back at her, evading her questions in the cafe? when claudia is having to dress as a baby doll and advertise with a sandwich board for a theater + a coven-master that all want her dead?

i think this is by nature of the fact that iwtv is canonly gay and isnt afraid of showing that, and modern fandom is mainly interested in romance. claudia's relationship to louis is secondary, if not tertiary, to all 'camps' of this tiny tiny fandom bc she is clearly established in s1 as not being a viable romantic option for louis, despite claudia's perspective and her story taking up the second half of the first season, and will continue to be important in the second season. the 'helen of troy' fixation on his desirability in relation to romantically viable vampires [or even men] seems to be another means by which fans can ignore this part of the story, just as the mutual abuse nonsense about louis being clarence thomas the third self hating black man who stole lestat's lunchables and is 'just as bad as the rest' drowned out and continues to drown out any other conversation for the past year and a half. it is very difficult to have conversations on this character precisely bc of this state of fandom, where many people seek to crack the whip over a fictional character for not being mother teresa and having a complex response to trauma, then instead of discussing that, some seek to fixate on the fact that mother teresa can be sexy, actually. when thats not the point. why is modern louis so full of grief and all but suicidal in dubai, if not for the fact that claudia is permanently dead, he still lives, he regrets something, and wants to find the truth under it all? the jokes are cute and all, but lets put our thinking caps on.

[they-stare-i-ship]

I finished reading the atlas paradox

and now you're subjected to my SPOILERY thoughts.

Parisa Kamali: I love Parisa, I have loved her since the first book. I LIKE HER SO MUCH she's funny she's mean she's cool she's kind. She's incredibly powerful. She's so interesting and I really enjoyed how she slowly became "her royal softness". Whenever we have her pov it's so fun. I love how she's not scared of Atlas and how she challenged him. I can't wait to see what she does in the next book. I'm actually excited to see how Dalton has changed and how she reacts to them in the next book. Her relationship with Nico makes me so feel so nice. I also need her to be kiss Reina sometime in the next book.

Nico de Varona: he's been my annoying lil baby since the first book. I loved how he became more fleshed out in this book. I loved how lonely he got, his relationship with Reina and Tristan really intrigues me. HE'S SUCH A CHILD sometimes and I love him for it. Obviously I have spent the two books insane bc I knew he was in love with Gideon, I just knew it and they're just *chef's kiss* also speaking of his relationship with people, I think him and Libby will be stunning as besties, I truly cannot perceive them as romantic. They act so sibling like or even just asshole bestie like.

Reina Mori: when we started with this series I actually had more hopes from her. I feel like she didn't do much (especially in book 2) and my girl really doesn't understand communication. If she just talked to people sigh. But honestly her God thing, I am down. Go off, I'm excited to see her go off the rails bc people didn't talk to her the way she could have understood. I am low-key in love with how funny the duo of Reina and Callum is, tbh. I also get major ace vibes from her.

Libby Rhodes: honestly she was my second least favourite amount the six when we started. She desperately needed the corruption arc we got in the later half of the book. I think I will like her a lot more now. Her crush on belen was stunning to read. I can't wait for Libby to fuck shit up, literally fuck everyone up. And I genuinely truly deeply want her relationship with Nico to just be friendship. Friendships are equally as important and the fact that the universe made them parallel to eachother is my favourite thing.

Callum Nova: honestly I didn't really like him much during the first book, he was fine but we had more interesting characters. BUT DAMN CALLUM NOVA POST HEARTBREAK?? ~~ exquisite ~~ he's so fucking funny and hopeless and sad and pathetic. he is so desperate for love and so upset that he was denied it. He's my pathetic lil meow meow. Also I would LOVE to see him use his powers more in the future. As we keep learning about it, I keep loving him. Also I need Tristan to beg Callum to take him back.

Tristan Caine: actually I didn't enjoy his povs at all in the first book, I couldn't wait for them to be over. He is still my least favourite among the six but in the second book he was more interesting and fun. I'm a lil anxious of how Atlas is gonna use him and his powers. I don't care much of him but I want him to beg Callum or regret it for the rest of his existence. Also I hate LibbyTristan as a romantic permanent thing, they can fuck around and have fun but pls end at that.

Gideon Drake: I have loved him since day 1. He was the softer kinder balance to Nico's aggressive and abrasiveness. He is so interesting, his origin and his powers. I spent both the book wishing we had more of him. Now that we are out of the library maybe he'll get to play a more active role in the book. I am obsessed with Gideon (bc Nico is obsessed with Gideon) I love the tidbits we learn about Gideon like how Libby always liked him more or how max travelled with him for the rescue of the "prince". I want Gideon to have everything he wants, that's all.

Atlas Blakeley: I have been thinking of Giancarlo Esposito as Atlas the entire time. There's no explanation it's just vibes

Ezra: I'm glad he's dead 💖

[grumpy-aino]

✨Little S2 Musical Analysis✨

You guys remember when Aziraphale forgives Maggie's debt in the first episode in exchange for some records?

Those records are by none other than Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich and I know LOTS about this man (and why the choice to include him may have something to do with Aziraphale's character arc in s3!)...

Shostakovich's life is usually characterised by his tricky relationship with Stalin. During the 30s, the musical freedom enjoyed by Russian composers came to an end, Stalin clearly preferring more traditional classical music. Although Shostakovich had been criticised for his more adventurous works in the late 20s, his 1936 ballet, Lady Macbeth of Mstsensk got him officially denounced by Stalin's official newspaper (Pravda).

Composers who refused to comply with the standards were denounced as formalists (including Western elements in their art) and risked deportation to a remote area of Russia, imprisonment and even death.

On to the record in question! The Symphony No. 5 was written after this denunciation. It was a success, being to Stalin's liking and praised as a "Soviet artist's practical and creative response to just criticism". Shostakovich was back in Stalin's good books.

Who else do we know to be once denounced and hated by a regime who has just recently got back into their good books?

This might just be a neat reference to Shostakovich's life in comparison to Aziraphale's, but Shostakovich's story doesn't end there: In 1948 he was denounced a second time for his Symphony No. 9, which was promised to be large and triumphant to celebrate the USSR's victory in WWII, but was completely the opposite - playful and cheery, mocking Stalin.

The second denunciation was in a way more serious than the first. Shostakovich (and other composers who were accused of formalism) were made to give quite a public apology. Many of his works were banned and he was expelled from the Leningrad Conservatory.

Although he was put to use again by the government in 1949 at a New York press conference, it had been remarked upon by Nabokov that Shostakovich was "not a free man, but an obedient tool of his government." Even after Stalin's death, Shostakovich still had a strained relationship with the government. They still largely controlled art and in 1960, Shostakovich was devasted when he joined the communist party.

Of course, all of this information could be completely irrelevant and it could just be Aziraphale buying some classical music. especially because the Symphony No. 5 is NOT 21 minutes long like Aziraphale implies (in fact, it's a little over an hour). But so much of this media is intentional and the PARALLELS are insane.

The second denunciation could mean a whole lot for season 3. Aziraphale is probably likely to 'go along' at first with Heaven (Shostakovich wasn't really on board with the heroic nature of his symphonies - the 5th, according to one musicologist, is a love symphony), but might be plotting something. This second denunciation appears like it could be entertaining.

What's more! Shostakovich also had a best friend who died before they could have their post-war reunion (as Shostakovich talked about it his letters). Honestly the whole thing's really tragic and hurts to think about; Shostakovich promised he'd never write another note again after his friend's death, but instead wrote his incredibly painful Piano Trio No. 2.

✨Anyway hoped you liked that✨

tagging @neil-gaiman bc why not?

[pizza-hats-of-the-world-1882]

Caderousse and Albert for the character bingo? :3c

hello comc and drawfee mutual!

ok im ab to say smth that may not make sense if you didnt follow one of my quests [the comc 19th cen. fanfic quest (i read a couple of comc fan sequels from the 19th cen. {they werent very good})] and in these fan sequels he is criminally underutilized!!!! bc he ends the real book when he is BEGINNING a character arc! he is on a quest to restore his family honor and make a new life! and i think the book ended at a good spot im not saying it should have followed him further but! if! you are writing a fan sequel, hes the only one who has an actual trajectory[spelling?] to follow and they! do! nothing! with him!

i love how we are introduced to him as like. a frat boy/spoiled rich kid and slowly it is revealed he has like actually many good qualities. this frat boy has a moral backbone! that doesnt always line up w what is socially expected of him like in the duel! or even what i expect of him like when he first finds out ab his dad's war crimes and he decides to cover it up but is also absolutely devasted i cant articulate it but that was a really interesting moment for me

i had an answer to this one but now i cant explain it. he really is just a silly guy! hes not interesting bc of any hidden issues to brood over or his dynamic w the count, hes interestong bc hes a rich frat boy who apparently has moral integrity!

and by fans i mean the aforementioned 19th cen fic writers and also some adaptations. i never think ab how much i love albert until i am deprived of him then i start screaming for him to get more screentime.

i think he would enjoy being a purse dog

when my mom was reading comc and she was fairly early into it she said "i hope they dont have albert and haydee have a ~thing~ going on just to cause drama" which i must say is a thought that absolutely never would have occured. to me.

hes just a silly lil guy!

and now caderousse:

i just like it when charcters have a signature accessory. the red kerchief is a look!

i like how different he is from the rest of the haterz clubtm. bc he straight up didnt want to do that! he just wanted to complain and drink! but danglars and fernand went wild w it. he even wanted to come forward afterward but danglars threatened him! i just think its neat that everyone else in the haterz clubtm seal their fate here except caderousse, who gets locked into the vengeance much later when he kills that jeweler*. edmond was straight up going to forgive him/give him a second chance and massive diamond for providing exposition. gaspard you fumbled the bag!

i get why he tends to be cut, hes not as integral or dramatic a part of the vengeange as the rest of the haterz clubtm but if you dont have ONE then whats even the point

idk im just kinda curious ab him. especially his past w benedetto!

*or maybe didnt kill that jeweler i love how ambiguous it is on who killed who in that scene very interesting [and also i love how the intro sets up what each of the haterz clubtm's fatal flaw will be, and caderousse is greedy yes, but also he is completely spineless!! if danglars says keep your mouth shut, you do it! if your wife says lets kill this guy, you do it! if benedetto says it'd be super easy to rob this place, do it! my guy, stand up please!!!! my mom said "he should be on america's dumbest criminals but for france" i cant disagree.

well yeah

the red kerchief is a look! is it a good look? who's to say...

he's a lil cringfail baby kitty cat who cant do anything right<3

[eerna]

I think the big problem witht the fan service in TPT was that it was to throw in your face.Fan service is good when you fell natural but simultaneously you could tell that is fan service.I rolled my eyes at taryn divine punishment it felt like she gave the fans what they wanted since qon(the whole taryn didnt got a punishment was always funny to me they were acting like having locke as a husband wasnt one)

I understand why HB tried to please as much people she could with it since from what i saw even people who enjoyed her other faerie books weren't big fans of TSH.I agree with J and C don't make good mcs anymore thei arcs endet and most of their problems were solved in a good note.

TPT tried to be a lot of things at once:

1.Fan service

2.the conclusion of the story

3.a bridge for her undersea book

4.Romantasy( marketed like this)

And fails at being a good structured story.(for a book marketed like a romantasy the romance was so little and rushed at the end)

From what i saw a lot of people started hating wren after TPT wich i understand in a measure since she was so little and most of her scene were not in a favorable light.(shes still my fav Tsh character and i love her but her arc was practically non-existent)

I enjoyed oak a lot maybe bc im a sucker for his type of character but i think it could have been done more with his character.

I don't know how a undersea book in jurdan pov will be but i dont think it would be a good one since what they will narate especially in the undersea!

Yeah, you laid it out very well. I am NOT above fanservice. I friggin love the stuff. Case in point: the way I was SO INSANELY HYPED for TPT because they promoted it with Madoc household content which are words to my heart. But the issue is when the fanservice overshadows everything else. Case in point: Wren becoming a side character in her own duology so that Oak's main storyline can happen with Jude. I legit can't blame anyone who hates her after TPT because oh my god her writing was SO BAD in that second book. You can't just have your character do the vilest cruelest thing in the world to her love interest and then remove her from page and later say that she was just manipulated and blackmailed into being mean and is ready for love now. Imagine if the everapple scene happened and then Balekin convinced Cardan to give him an oath of allegiance that kept Cardan on Madoc's side for the rest of the plot except for romance scenes and then in the end he and Jude still got together. BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED TO WREN. Well not exactly because she had a POV book first BUT YOU GET WHAT I MEAN.

Even the Oak-Jude storyline was not all it could have been. HB tried to give them a similar dynamic that Madoc and Jude had, where Oak isn't sure if Jude truly loves him and if she would sacrifice him if she suspected he worked against her. But there is no real tension because we KNOW Jude would never do that because like. That's the entire point of TFotA. I think that Oak slowly growing to resent his family was a fantastic concept, but the book barely gave it any screentime before it was solved. It's like HB didn't want to do anything too uncomfortable because this time around she would have to make Jude and Cardan his problematic parental figures, and that goes against every single rule of fanservice. So we get the worst of both worlds: Oak is a messed up kid doing very self destructive things that Jude is responsible for, but we can't explore them or treat them as very bad because that would make Jude look bad, and who wants to read a book about their fave girlboss accidentally ruining her baby brother's life? (Me I do oh my god I was looking forward to it so much I am still heartbroken)

There's still hope that the Undersea book won't be Jurdan POV, and I am manifesting it so much, because you're so right I have 0 confidence that I would like it.

(Marrying Locke was all the punishment Taryn needed fr. Rest in pepperoni loser)

[someoneihavelovedbutneverknown]

PROJECT DAYDREAM

HELLO. YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN A ROLEPLAY PROJECT BY THE NAME OF PROJECT DAYDREAM.

PROJECT DAYDREAM WILL BE A RECREATION OF THE ICONIC STORYLINE OF THE DREAM SMP, WITH YOUR OWN CHARACTER HAVING THE PROSPECT OF TAKING THE PLACE OF A CHARACTER FROM THE ORIGINAL STORY.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, DM ME [Spore] ABOUT ROLES.

I WILL BE UPDATING ROLES AS THEY ARE TAKEN BELOW AND THE CONFIRMATIONS WILL BE IN THE WEEK BETWEEN OCTOBER 1ST AND 7TH.

REQUIREMENTS:

You will commit to your role. Once you tell me what role you want there is a very little chance I’ll change it so you better be happy with your choice.

A general knowledge of the role you’re playing. If you’re playing Wilbur or Ranboo’s character, you should know that you’d be playing their ghost version and revived version if they get revived; if you’re playing Fundy you may want to make yourself familiar with his cannon nightmares.

A light attitude! This whole rp thing is supposed to be fun, and if somebody is doing anything that makes you uncomfortable or threatening you, come to me immediately.

GENERAL OVERVIEW:

We will be ideally going through the entire DSMP storyline, from the start to end. You’re welcome to change plot lines to create an alternate timeline, but it is crucial to communicate that with everybody (especially me) to ensure that everybody is on board with it. This is a great time to fuse your character making and playing abilities with your knowledge of your blorbo!

To word it a bit better, you’re creating an original character who will take the role of a specific DSMP character.

Let’s say I create this character called Elle Woods (i’m a basic bitch okay), and she’s in the role of Jack. She’s gonna go through his part of the story and essentially fill in all his role. She’ll be a part of all of Jack’s arcs, and I’d play her out. She doesn’t have to do everything by book, but that’s specified above. Also, your character doesn’t have to be exactly like the original role’s character by any means. Certain things that are species specific such as the enderwalk can be either adapted to your character or even taken out or substituted (I have my limits, but you gotta talk to me before we both know them).

When is the last time to register?

OCTOBER 1st

The rp will be starting on the 7th of October, and I will be letting you guys know your roles in that week, giving you a week to prepare. Use it.

EXTRA INFORMATION:

You need to make a new blog for this

All the role playing will be happening here on Tumblr, and you’ll be doing reblog chains

There is no Discord bc I don’t have it and idk if my parents are cool with me getting it (strict parents amirite), but if you wanna make a server that’s cool with me but please check with me beforehand seeing as I am kinda modding for it

This is open for everybody, no matter the rp experience! I’ve been in a few rps myself (though this is my first time running one), and I’d love to see some people branch out their horizons! It’s all about good fun

You’re welcome to play multiple characters if you’re willing to dedicate to it! Just DM me about it like everything else :D

In no way am I or this project associated with Dream, the actual Dream SMP, or any of the ccs involved. I am just a fan with an itch to rp and to watch ppl rp.

I am not planning on involving Tales From The SMP, but if the person playing Karl’s role or anybody else would like to organize it separately from the main project then be my guest

Oh yeah this ain’t gonna be clean by any means lmaoooooooo (if you really wanna pull a sex scene i’m not against it just please tell everybody that ur gonna do it for our collective sanity)

As a second to the thingy above, if you REALLY wanna play out a sex scene, it is highly advised you keep it to the DMs unless it’s agreed on that it’s…central to the plot ig…if everybody who’s on board with the project in the end doesn’t mind it, then cool, but please check with everybody. Better safe than sorry.

“Spore how tf do we communicate without a discord-“ if you really need to talk to everybody at once, make a post and tag everybody in it

If you have any specific needs or concerns (sex repulsed, trauma from certain topics, etc) please communicate that with me so that we can create a fun roleplay experience for everyone. We can get into technicalities when you DM me about it, but I will likely share it as an announcement to the entire group.

(@mean-gills @championofapollo @jinxneedssleep @apricityxys @medlabmech i’m just tagging y’all for signal boost and sign up bc nobody seems interested and i’m sad)

ROLES THAT ARE TAKEN (this will be updated as more people receive roles, and I’ll be linking their urls so if you wanna wrestle your blorbo outta their hands I don’t have to be the messenger. be nice kids):

Phil - me

Charlie - me

Sam - me

Techno - @apricityxys

Tommy - @mean-gills

Ranboo - @mean-gills

Wilbur - @championofapollo

Dream - @chocolate-milk

Niki - @azurecake16

Quackity - @azurecake16

Tubbo - @epicaxolotls

Eret - @x-ca1iber

Schlatt - @epicaxolotls

BBH - @chocolate-milk

Fundy - @chocolate-milk

[suspendedinbush]

hiiihihihihi hiii youuuu simmy my beloved loml you i juuust watched howl's moving castle for the first time tday (ik appalling srry) but the entire tim i was thinkinng abt you my beloved and now i want to know abt yr r/s au <33 as much details as you dont mind saying pls <333 bc i was thinking like it would actually!! work sooo well for them ike r being not that conventionally attractive , and growing old w/a big nose while s still finds him just soooo pretty and also being dramatically vian himself AND swallowing! a STAR! and having a heavy heart that belongs to remus like itys sooooo it fits sooo well, but Also howl being a welshman is making me think it could work either way too! esp w/the turning into a crow thing paralleling werewolf tranforms and sirius instead being the son of a mother who would sell him out like sophie im!!!!!! i also know yr basing the au sorta on the book so im wondering which roles ud see fit instead! but aah im just my brain is so abuzz im so excited for whatever u plan to do however u plan to do it! this got wayy too long srry love u MWAH

LAYLA OMG!! firstly hi hi hi hello love <33 SECOND YOU WATCHED IT!!! ahhh having a little party in celebration also tell me everything what did you think??? (i'm running into your inbox right now just so you know!) and you thought of me…literally handing you my heart on a silver platter!! MWAH yours forever <333

also okay the au… (under the cut because minor spoilers and also this is so fucking long)

it definitely started as like taking direct inspiration from the book with a few nods to the movie (like the walking on air scene because obviously) but it’s evolved a lot in the past months mostly because i felt that my sophie-remus wasn’t remus enough and needed a more remus-like journey and destination in the story (not sure any of this will make sense with absolutely no context about what i’ve actually written), and then adapting the story to fit r/s more in tone (i.e the war, queerness, rejection from society etc) i got carried away and things have expanded a lot. i would still say a lot more book inspiration than movie, stuff like michael's character (rather than markl) and the minor details that the movie brushed over, like sophie’s sisters & fanny & the ben sullivan+prince justin story line, i’ve kept from the book but there are definitely some things that i knew i would change that directly contradict:

firstly and the MOST crucial detail for me, remus isn’t secretly pretty all along!! like this is the thesis of the entire au actually, it’s not an ugly duckling arc! he doesn’t break the curse to be young and beautiful again but with more self-confidence, he’s just not conventionally attractive full stop. he’s plain if not ‘ugly’ and in no way particularly impressive, he’s only 18 and hasn’t even allowed himself the space to start figuring shit out. sirius falls in love with him while he’s old with no knowledge of what remus really looks like because knowing that appearance just wasn’t even a factor in s desiring and falling for him revolutionises remus’s view of himself and his assumptions about who sirius is and also…

sirius as howl is not really that vain! this might be a spoiler, but i'd say one of the big theme’s in the au is that everyone is lying and no-one is who they appear to be and/or especially who they SAY they are and it’s remus’s assumption that sirius cares a lot about looks and would only fall in love with someone equally beautiful. howl’s vanity & concern for his looks makes sense for book howl and that story, but i wanted them to be more r/s than howl and sophie so in the au sirius’s flashy clothes and hours spent in the bathroom are more about self-expression, queerness and non-conformity, the contrast of remus struggling with otherness, not fitting in and his failed masculinity (poor baby is too sickly for the draft :/ ) and sirius being so extravagant, rocking the boat, rejecting expectations for his masculinity and flourishing—as in he literally builds a moving castle and lives on the fringes doing whatever he likes and running from/against authority (also should mention the working title for the au is 'Sirius Black’s Moving Castle for Misfits and Runaway Curse Victims').

in terms of roles i do feel like sirius is the natural howl but i did consider what r as howl would be like, i think there is something to work off with howl’s insecurity and one BIG trait being a slither-outer and a coward…very r if you ask me, but at the end of the day i don't think sirius as sophie works and remus-howl would change his character and role in the story by a lot to make it fit...

like howl’s personality by itself is sort of neither r nor s, there are similar and contradicting traits, the vanity and cowardice being the most un-sirius but (maybe a spoiler here) even in the book it’s up for interpretation how much these traits are really howl or instead a symptom of lacking a heart or even a deliberate front. so it was quite an easy adjustment in terms of sirius doing the same howl actions but with slightly different more sirius-like motivations, whereas for R as howl i don’t think you could get him to act the same way.

not sure that makes sense but i think the howl-sirius parallel works because his role in the story is much much more suited to S, like you could write an R-howl playing up the insecurity and the slither-outer trait but to me there isn’t really a story there, like where would it go…because howl is already very comfortable in his position outside polite society: he breaks convention ostentatiously, relishes in mainstream disapproval for standing out and enjoys and actively encourages his terrible reputation (for heart-eating, draft-dodging and other failings in his character). once you give reason for the apparent vanity and cowardice, howl as the prodigy who couldn’t care less about living up to expectations is perfect for sirius.

the thing about sophie's step-mother is that both dwj and miyazaki refuse to write antagonists without nuance, there isn't a clear villain like you WILL empathise with everybody—and with sophie’s step-mother especially, she’s worse in the book until she’s not! despite sophie being so lonely and unhappy at home, the story is about overcoming her own fatalistic worldview and internal feelings of worthlessness & inadequacy rather than an external battle. her family especially her sisters care a lot about her and do want the best for her even if it’s sometimes misguided but sophie has to learn to stand up for herself and stop putting everyone else first (hello martyr complex). AND there's a lot of repression (which goes to remus like water to a fish), even allowing herself to want things out of life, like it literally takes her being cursed to be an old woman and being so ashamed of her predicament and having no other choice for her to finally leave her suffocating home because she is so afraid of challenging the world head on (which is sort of antithetical to sirius).

so yeah then with sophie-sirius not working… like it’s possible to write her family and the hat shop to imitate the blacks but the problem for me is the characters themselves are basically opposites so you’d have to abandon one entirely and it would either be a completely different story to hmc or a completely different character to sirius… (also talking about the characters i mean book howl and sophie but i honestly can’t remember what’s different/missing in the movie??)

and really remus was ALWAYS the perfect sophie to me like in the wip he’s certain that in failing to be a strong, healthy, beautiful perfect specimen of a young man who can fight for the country, instead being sick, unattractive + the nebulous but undeniable fact of his queerness means there’s some innate monstrosity or wrongness about him, and being rejected by his peers has confirmed it, so he represses, withering away hiding in the dark and it’s a mixture of thinking ‘there is nothing better out there nor am i capable or deserving of any better, this is my lot in life and i’ll make do’ that keeps him there. UNTIL he’s forced to leave and comes across sirius who has made a life for himself on his own terms and on the outside seems to have everything: beauty, talent, confidence, freedom but is very flamboyantly throwing people’s admiration & acceptance (everything that remus covets) back in their faces.

in the story sophie is quite resentful of howl in a similar way remus is of sirius (here and in canon i think) and like sophie, he ‘knows’ that he’s a nobody with no future and just expects to fail. also the hat shop is much more remus’s natural environment, exhibit service worker R: ‘he was little more than a puppet in grey felt—marionette strings binding him tightly to the shop, a little flimsy and worn through in places from dancing around for customers all day long. A walking, talking, hat-fetching piece of furniture.’

sooo those are my thoughts on the casting obviously just my opinion and personal thoughts on r/s. oh and the turning into the crow thing and being corrupted by magic, it wasn’t in the book but i have incorporated it only with a different character…and someone turns into a dog also not sirius...other quick points about the wip: peter has a big part in this might be obvious who as but he’s so fun in this one, petunia is also a sympathetic character, Hope is long dead (as per), Lyall dies in the first few sentences and Andromeda has more lines than James i think. i didn’t use the whole multi-verse plot line from the book, we’re in an approximate uk somewhere between 1910s and 40s but it’s more a vibe than a time period because magic and wizards are well integrated with the culture, politics and technology etc, Market Chipping & The Waste are in the Scottish highlands (so Scottish Remus and Lily), Sirius is not from Wales unfortunately but someone does live there (also if ur interested in the book i would highly recommend listening to the audiobook to get the full of effect of Howl’s accent). and the star swallowing/giving away his heart!! it's a major plot point so i won’t say too much about that but THAT SCENE….the one with howl in the field with the shooting stars!! yeah i’m so so excited about it, it’s sooo fitting for what i have planned and only another reason why sirius just couldn’t NOT be howl!

[themyscirah]

3, 8, and 25 for the locg ask game!

He's just so slay what can I say. Anyways Emerald Twilight is my all time fave for him, and also GL/GA is amazing and I love it (though it is dated). But no I do love him. He's SUCH a bitch sometimes though and I find it so fun most of the time (and others kind of frustrating. Harold, please why must we do this rn).

The moment that really got me interested in him as a character (and not just background to other GLs) was definitely Green Lantern (1990) #1, when he swan dives off a cliff in front of some campers, only using the ring to save himself and fly away at the very last second. It immediately made me realize something was incredibly wrong with him and it has captivated me ever since

Of my top 10, he's definitely the one I feel I know the least about, as I've always seen him more on team books (which is generally his forte but still). Something I really love about J'onn though is that he'd SUCH a great friend. Like in the Suicide Squad/JLI crossover when he sees Mari McCabe hanging out with C list villains and being suspicious breaking into the prison (bc the Squad was NOT known abt at this time) his first instinct isn't to be confrontational or fight like everyone else is doing, but instead to reach out and ask if she was okay and how he could help her.

Or like in nu52 JLA during the mind prison arc when he's helping and kind of mentoring Stargirl during their "escape" of the mind prison like <3333 he's just so good. Or in New Frontier when he befriends the government boss who spent the whole comic trying to hunt him down and experiment on him after he saves the govt guy's life at the expense of his own goals?

I just love how he's a hero character that isn't just like nebulously good and cares about all people, but specifically cares about the people in his life and shows that care in his relationships with them <3. Anyways I should read more Martian Manhunter. Especially bc Ostrander is one of my top writers on locg and I've been meaning to read more of his stuff

APHRA LETS GOO!!!! Another Star Wars character but she's the queen of my heart for real. Did a campaign to try and get her in my top 20 a few months back but her ongoing ended and I've read more since then so now she's no. 25.

Fave runs for her are ofc Darth Vader (2015) [which I need to finish] and also Doctor Aphra (2020) by Alyssa Wong. There's also her 2016 run (which I think was written by Sí Spurrier?) but I haven't read that one yet so idk.

As a concept Aphra is just SO inspired and I rlly do hope we get EVEN more comics with her and that she makes the jump to other media bc I NEED star wars fans to get me when I rant about my favorite morally bankrupt asian lesbian archeologist fuckboy. She's also polyam but that's not compatible w the fuckboy bit bc that's her committed relationship later on (character development!)

I also love that she essentially bullied Luke Skywalker into being reluctant friends with her despite kidnapping him multiple times and also working for Darth Vader

[julia-drusilla-xii]

What do you think Percy Jackson would be like if he was raised by Emperor Caligula?.

This one’s and interesting question. I feel like Sally would never get along with him so unfortunately, Percy gets adopted bc Caligula decided that he was dangerous yet useful and took out and Sally but he still young and never been to camp in this situation.

I feel like it’s ironic? Caligula did try to fight sea and collect the shells as spoils of war adkdnl (how accurate is this idk, but it’s a story that I hear often). And Percy is the child of Neptune’s greek counterpart.

If Percy were to get adopted, his fatal flaw is loyalty but he also has good morals. Technically, you can argue he can have the Luke arc after the events of PJO and the gods don’t uphold their promise by HoO bc there’s still neglect. If he had a villain origin story, it’s then. I think he’d be like Meg, and turn out to become an excellent fighter. That’s a given considering how the first book he had zero experience and still tried to fight Area 😂

If Caligula gets into his head, tell him that the his father is actually alive and an immortal no less (plus didn’t do some divine intervention and save his mom), I feel like that would also convince Percy to listen. There is no question that he loves his mom. He would be devastated. It could be like an Ethan situation, since I’m under the belief that Ethan joined the titan army out of duty and the want for more justice for his mom and the rest of the minor gods. Percy could believe he’s doing things to help other demigods. I don’t believe Caligula is quite the manipulator as Nero was but I also don’t believe he’d miss an opportunity. Especially during the first prophecy era. I like to think Luke got supplies for the Andromeda and the ship itself from the Triumvirate. And Octavian’s sponsors were also them. A lot of people believed recruiting Percy was the key once they found his heritage. I’m not entirely sure how he could’ve figured it out this fast. Perhaps a time before Sally met Gabe?

Percy could honestly be a terrifying villain who believes he’s in the right if above tactic works, preying on loyalty for his mom and moving on from there. Imagine a demigod who choses to fight a god, erupt a volcano, bend poison, and the most obvious fact - complete control over water turns evil or is associated to them. I’m sorry but the series would end quicker with direction (since camp tends to neglect to tell Percy things till the last second) and effective power (since aside from Luke, I literally don’t think there’s a lot that were willing to take him in a fight. I can’t even remember all the minor fights in HoO). You wouldn’t need to worry about “can you beat this 12 yr old?” if said child started off on your side since Percy was the main reason they couldn’t win.

[theragamuffininitiative]

Sorry for barging in like this but I wanted you to know how happy I am to discover a fellow Adam 12 watcher ( and enjoyer) in the year 2023!!

If you don't mind sharing your thoughts, can I ask you, what made you love the show? Or alternatively, what would you tell someone to convince them to give it a chance..

Hello nonny!

You can barge in any time 😊 ESPECIALLY IF IT IS ABOUT ADAM 12 !!!! I saw this message this morning and have been thinking happily about answering it while I wait for my car to be serviced lol, so thank you for that. XD

This is going to be a ramble, so buckle up. I'll put a tldr at the bottom for anyone potentially interested but with a small attention span, scroll to that. XD

Ok so what initially made me love the show is actually how I was introduced to it by a dear friend who had already seen it and we started watching together as a way to spend time together. 💗 I knew one of the officers was named Pete and I made jokes about always falling in love with the crime-solving Peters (I also love White Collar, Fringe, [parts of] the first season of Body of Proof actually I just love that Peter and nothing else and they did him dirty but I digress, and we can even throw Spidey into the mix). So I figured I would be a goner from the start and I was Correct, nonny.

I had such a good time watching with my friend (we especially loved screaming about how Jim is a dear and Pete is amazing, and also obligatory yelled "hi Mac!" every time he appeared, and how we would go from lol-ing to sobbing in two seconds flat every episode) that when she was unable to continue watching with me (😭) I kept on to finish. While I would have preferred to watch it all with her, I'm so happy she introduced me to this absolute gem of television and storytelling.

Ok, so beyond that: things that made me love the show specifically and that I think others should appreciate and watch it for (MY BELOVED FOLLOWERS GO WATCH ADAM 12, see below for reasons)....

1! The biggest is the two main characters. I LOVE PETE AND JIM SO DANG MUCH. They are the best TV officers, and two of my favorite characters. Especially Pete. But I love Jim's growth (they both have such beautiful arcs through the seriesssssss aaaaa) too. I love how he brings joy back to Pete. I love how Pete grounds Jim. I love how they love one another??? I love how protective they are of each other. One of the best character friendship tropes ever is "they make each other better" and Pete Malloy and Jim Reed are an excellent example of it. My whole heart.

2! If someone reading this was turned off by the fact that it is a show about two police officers, fair, but LISTEN. I love me a good procedural drama (see some of the mentions above), I love me a good buddy cop story. But you know what I hate? I hate how every single cop show has the characters do things cops should never do. These shows have a Problem of having their heroes go in without a warrant bc "it's an emergency, we don't have time for the red tape!" and rough up suspects and they don't hesitate to draw and fire on someone, and they bend or break the rules when it suits them to Get the Job Done. It irks me. For many reasons. AND ADAM 12 ISN'T LIKE THAT.

Pete especially lives by the book. And he teaches Jim to do the same. As a fun example, someone asks them to deliver a Christmas tree in their patrol car and Pete says no bc it's against the rules. But who goes to get the tree when off duty in his personal car??? Pete Malloy, with Jim in tow. Pete also turns in a dirty cop who saved his life and it is Devastating to watch. They do everything the right way and the Very Few times they don't it is clear that they Messed Up and they have to eat the consequences. For Pete, I can think of three times throughout the course of all the episodes that he clearly goes wrong. One time he is distracted, one time he is trying to save a life and endangers his own, and one time is really painful involving a child victim and the perpetrator and it's hard to watch and I can't imagine many people who wouldn't have done what he did there but the show even Addresses This and Pete says anyone who did what he did would have been wrong too and he faces the consequences without argument. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH GUYS. There are a couple dirty cops and cowboy cops shown in different episodes and they are Always shown to be in the wrong, to be jeopardizing everything that they should be holding dear. Even Ed Wells, a regular character, is a guy you love to hate bc he pushes the rules as much as he can get away with and Pete and Jim give him nothing but crap for it. XD Bless them.

3! I love the pacing! The episodes are half your standard episode length, which is great (terrible) for binging through lol. There is zero filler. Sometimes you want just a tiny bit more filler but it's so good, they just go pop pop pop from call to call, with Pete and Jim's relationship always playing out in the middle of whatever mess they are dealing with. Later seasons focus on a single story usually, but most early episodes are glimpses of an average day in the life of an LAPD officer and they are Rollercoasters.

4! It is surprisingly sensitive for a show made in the 60s-70s. There are definitely a few episodes that are a bit cringe to more modern sensibilities, especially dealing with racism. However! The stories featured there are actually done really well for the most part, and the heart is in the right place even if some of the writing is an unfortunate byproduct of the era. Also you have to laugh at the hippie slang that heavily douses some episodes, especially early on. It's a riot lol.

5! The series shows you these cops doing cop things that nobody thinks about: giving notice to a young woman about her husband's death, assisting other emergency departments, acting as peacemakers between various complaints, looking out for misplaced people, manning the front desk and phone calls, trying to keep people safe more often than trying to put bad guys in prison. I adore that. I think if more cop shows focused on that narrative, we would have more cops today who saw that as the true hero work. The show also explains early on how they don't often get the full story. Detectives and hospitals and lawyers and family members come in to clean up whatever mess the boys had to step into, and it sucks sometimes, but the final product is not usually their job, and they just have to take each call as it comes.

I could go on but this is already so long.

TL;DR

If you like procedural dramas (or maybe even if you don't) you should really give Adam 12 a try. Give it the first three episodes at least and see what you think.

It's a story about two officers who really embody "protect and serve" instead of whatever belligerent cowboy nonsense is pushed by most crime shows.

Pete and Jim would die for each other. They would also die for any random person they come across who needs their help, bc it's their job. They would also do mundane acts of service for each other (while griping affectionately about it) and anyone else.

It has so much heart.

IT'S REALLY FUNNY. PETE AND JIM ARE SO SASSY.

Pete has spidey senses. They are brilliant. He might also have a photographic memory. It was mentioned once and then never again lol.

If you like "clean" media, there is very little swearing/innuendo/gore/etc. This does not make it Light viewing, but it isn't problematic.

It will rip your heart out. Especially the episodes where it's one of the boys in jeopardy. 😭 "Hostage" and "The Search" and "The Princess and the Pig" and "Killing Ground" and "Suspended" and "Trouble in the Bank" and "Operation Action" and the finale stories my beloved and beloathed to name a few.

It will restore your faith in humanity, particularly of officers, even while you facepalm about people's stupidity (sometimes including the officers).

It has a good ending! Not the most complete tie-up of loose ends, but [spoiler] you know these guys are gonna be ok, whatever comes next. So you feel the fulfillment in the ending.

Ok I'm done now.

I love Adam 12 so much.

Thank you for asking. 😭😭😭😭

[muslimronanlynch]

okay so officially done with greywaren + had some time to think about it and yk i think the dreamer trilogy goes off, it absolutely slaps like it’s SO good. mi made me feel genuinely insane and i loved every second of it

greywaren imo is! okay! i like the resolutions we did get, ronan’s powers finally being explained was great, many of the character arcs were amazing, declan and matthew finally losing it was 10/10, farooq-lane burning is so sexy, chapter 12 my beloved, ALSO the implicationsss of ronan being some god-like forest entity who’s in love with adam the first man... yeah + him being part of the choosing to be human club alongside sir percy jackson... YEAH but then... i wish it didn’t feel as rushed and also if you’re gonna have this perfect epilogue years later you can’t be left with this many questions and loose ends

like why did declan’s entire outlook on his parents change in like one line (i wanted him to burn down the barns fr but alas), why are mòr and the new fenian just kind of there now, how do dreams go on without their dreamers now without a sweetmetal (i might have just missed that in the text), why was the whole nathan thing just randomly shoved in there, why was bryde such a Character only to randomly just kind of disappear, what happened with bouddica in the end, WHYYYY was there no real resolution to the matthew/declan situation, why were jordan and especially ronan barely in this book like i’m so sad about it honestly the potential...

not saying it was bad!! because i do think it was solid, and there were many things i loved but overall i think it’s the weakest of the three which is a bit tricky to end a series on bc you’re left with a bit of an anticlimax HOWEVER!!! ronan did get a sexy new tattoo so everyone cheer and clap

[nightly-ruse]

Just wanted to check out the Sky Spoilers especially after I heard a few things and man.

(((Spoilers Below for the second book of ASC)))

Nightheart is just a little brat? Like I knew he was already from the first book which I read half of until I got too bored to finish but he’s so obnoxious. Straight up insults Jayf, Brightheart, and Alder who weren’t even being rude?

He’s like fine until he’s like “wait was that an insult to me, to poor me who’s just bullied all the time” and then is ableist! Like dude what??? From the thread he says Brightheart does NOTHING for the clan, Jay can only mix herbs bc he’s blind, and Smth abt Alder I forgot. But dude just insults all of them who haven’t done anything besides stop his bleeding and laugh about him getting bit by a squirrel. Also before this he snapped at Flipclaw who was just being joking about it and he knows his words hurt the poor cat.

I haven’t gotten much farther in the spoilers bc I don’t care that much. Bramblestar is acting kind of out of it which is even noted by the cats around him so maybe he is being written with some brain diffrence(sorry I don’t know how to explain this)? I’ve seen a few posts abt him having maybe early onset dementia which could be interesting for him tho I hope it’s handled well. Squirrelflight also seems to be doing quite a bit of his work. She does all her deputy duties but also is keeping track of the green cough info, handling meetings and trying to puzzle things out while also trying to keep Bramble alright.

Nightheart also just seems so annoying with how he’s like “atleast my mom’s brother likes me. At least one cat in Thunderclan is my friend and cares about me unlike everyone else who just hates me :\”

But he only notes this after insulting the poor guy? I just don’t enjoy him at all. Dudes so annoying. I’m def not reading sky bc I don’t care at all. I’m fine just grabbing fandom info and making cool things instead. This arcs just so pandering to Night and it irks me too much to read. His chapters just aren’t fun to read at all and make me angry. Frostpaw seems interesting and I love more focus on Riverclan. Sunbeam I enjoy she’s funny to me but I like fandom interpretations way more than canon her, I also like reading about Shadowclan and how they are. Still not gonna read it lol that’s just kinda my thoughts so far

[transrightsyamaguchi]

thoughts on volume 2 of real

i was going to liveblog it like i did with volume 1 but i. got so absorbed i ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting. anyway (under a cut bc it's Long but it's mostly spoiler free):

i can See the nomiya-azumi-kiyoharu love triangle coming but i want azumi and kiyoharu to end up together so badly holy shit. especially now that i know just how long this slow burn has been burning. i love. straight people

MENTION OF THE WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL POINT SYSTEM!!! author did his research 👍

i changed my mind about takahashi i like what happened with his arc here. it might be because i went 3 weeks between reading the first and second volumes and had time to forget about his asshole behavior but man i felt for him. he's such a dick but you can't help but cry with him. out of all the characters you feel takahashi's anger/sadness/grief the most viscerally. and good lord is this boy going through the five stages of grief.

also re: takahashi i NEED to know how nomiya and kiyoharu react to seeing him again once he gets out of the hospital. we got a little sliver of nomiya reaction to finding out he's been hospitalized but i need the reunion scene. especially since takahashi's met kiyoharu before and even lost a game of basketball to him. that reunion will be so interesting. i don't even have predictions for how it would go but i think losing another game of basketball against kiyoharu would be good for takahashi in terms of character growth.

i cannot stress enough how masterfully done the scene transitions are here. the first volume too. i was wondering if that was a fluke but i think this guy just really likes Juxtaposition.

HI BABYGIRL!!! (said about an adult man who is the same age as me)

KIYOHARU BACKSTORY. god he's such a cute little guy. the eyelashes.

my heart was racing during the whole backstory sequence and THE VOLUME ENDS IN THE MIDDLE OF IT. i hope we see him get diagnosed---i can't imagine why we wouldn't? other than brevity purposes at least.

the whole "i'll confess to her when i break 11 seconds" thing. i had to put down the book for a second and wait for my heart to go back to normal. do you mean to tell me that (gestures to the backstory) all THIS happened and then he just. sat on that crush for five. years. not just him but azumi too. oh they're perfect for each other.

also they NAMED THE CANCER. i don't know why i'm so excited that a writer has done the bare minimum amount of research on a medical condition a character has but. you know. usually i don't even get that (gestures vaguely to yukimiya kenyu). i wonder if it's too much to hope for for kiyoharu to have a rotationplasty. probably. we'll find out.

one negative thing for all this gushing: i hope this series passes the bechdel test at some point. azumi is a good character but she's very Not Like Other Girls. i'm inclined to blame some of this on the fact that this was written in 1999 but. come on man.

i keep feeling like this is a bit too good to be true if that makes any sense. like. togawa kiyoharu is a disabled character who is fully capable of kicking ass but is also well-rounded with flaws and personality, who isn't constantly angsting over being disabled, whose character arc does not surround his disability (what's set up of his arc so far is that he quit his team because he's more competitive than the other players and he's bad at cooperating. bit of a kageyama complex. he'd have fun in blue lock). and he's cute. no way they're just Giving us all that. there has to be some sort of catch. i'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

hopefully the other shoe doesn't drop in volume 3 otherwise i have to return the whole stack to the library at once and that will be even more embarrassing than checking them out was. i spent so long at that damn self-checkout stand trying to cram all 14 books into my bag.

[petrichoraline]

Hiii let me chacha real smooth in your inbox for that "X or Y" game!

The Untamed or Word of Honor? Pat or Pran? To my star or To My Star 2? Pawin in Star in my Mind or in The Eclipse or in Never Let Me Go?

Gmmtv whiped boys edition: Palm or Tinn?

And would you rather eat Noey's over salted food OR Tan's 'dr bun wont eat that' instant(ly failed) noodles? -☆

<33 what a smooth sliding into my ask box 🥰 it's a tough road ahead from here on though, go make a cup of tea, i've prepared you a read

The Untamed or Word of Honour?

ohhh shit, okay. so.

cql was the most draining show - it's amazing and so enticing but i had never watched anything from the wuxia genre before so it was A Lot..i would not rewatch it tbh, maybe the special addition if i miss wangxian too much 💞 it's so tragic and i'm always at risk of The Feels when i come across any cql or mdzs post, not to mention the yi city arc which fucked me up in a particular way...

woh doesn't make me as emotional because everyone is insane? it's actually impressive how unhinged every single person in the show is, the stories are tragic too, especially the last episodes but i was kind of numb to it, decided to focus on my guys and their happy ending only ✌️

woh gave me wen kexing, visuals (the designs of the characters are wild, espeecially the ghosts, they're straight out of a children's book, so expressive and individualistic) and the most blatant expression of romance they could - not only could you feel the love through each gaze, touch and action but boundaries were pushed in terms of script and the portrayal of physical affection was more than what they had to do. also i'm obsessed with the lipreading videos <3

cql and mdzs are still distant to me and i feel like an outsider to the fandom but i feel the same way about woh. cql introduced me to wuxia, i see posts about it more often and i feel like i remember the characters and events better. not to mention i got into mxtx bc of it so i have it to thank for the blast i have when im reading svsss. so ig i have to pick the untamed? but woh really is special, i hope ppl watch it

Pat or Pran?

boyyy i would usually say pat no questions asked but i think about pran and how he's handled all that his mom put him through and how he clearly struggles in so many ways and my protective instincts are screaaming, he's such a brave patootie (or, yknow, patootie)..but yeah no, i'll say pat, he is so loving loving loving despite everything, so considerate, so caring, he's a bit of a jock, a bit of a theatre kid, a bit of a band member - he's straight out of high school musical but adorable

To My Star or To My Star 2

TMS2!! i am sure s1 is great but it just didn't leave a lasting impression on me, it was the second season that had me shaking in excitement and yelling at the screen and going through tumblr to read analyses and stuff. it made me care about seojoon and jiwoo soo much and even if in the future i find the first season better in retrospect, s2 is my baby (and it got me so excited bout daseul's vision for blueming 2 🥰)

Pawin in Star in my Mind or in The Eclipse or in Never Let Me Go?

ohh that's interesting..maithee, namo and phum are all annoying but supportive losers lol

i dont have much of an opinion on any of them like phum was a villain for most of the show and then he had a glow up and became a rich hottie with a cute boyfriend, namo was a decoy that suddenly became a part of the squad and i dont remember much about maithee in the og show honestly.. based on the our skyy 2 episodes, i'll go with namo - he gave off sweet supportive kid who just wants to be loved and that's pathetic and cute <3 (tho maithee deserves betterrr)

Palm or Tinn?

in terms of whipped, i think i'd go with palm. man is borderline crazy for nueng, it's impressive. with their our skyy 2 eps out it's confirmed it's not just teen hormones lol

when it comes to my personal fave...they're both precious and frustrate me a lot but ig i'd go with tinn - i think of his reaction to gun rawring at him, about him coming back with those grocery bags.. he's so intense and awkward and devoted but it's not in the way palm is (which makes even me a bit uncomfortable hahah)

eat Noey's over salted food OR Tan's 'dr bun wont eat that' instant(ly failed) noodles?

i cannot deal with salty food, i'm more sensitive to salt than others so whatever noey's cooking has got going on that makes others spit it out immediately? not for me. nuh uh.

i can't find tan's noodles but i found the chicken scene and boyy that is probably salty on top of burnt and with disgusting texture soo (also burnt on the outside raw on the inside is wildd)

yeah. noey's food. small bites, lots of water - if it's otherwise tasty then i'll take a day to finish it, it's cool. :') (on a side note they'd both look with such anticipation and nervousness and wide eyes and aaa reminds me of dfqc, i love it when bad cooks try their best and realise they suck lol)