#but if im not having fun with it and i think it has genuine narrative and logistical issues i think thats fair to mention

[byrdblood]

I read your entire rant about how the fandom snases in the fandom and how they treat nm and killer and the others and how they treats dust and his obvious schizophrenia and as a fellow psychologically nerd I salute you and I am SO SICK OF PEOPLE IN THIS GODFORSAKEN FANDOM DEMONIZING CHARACTERS WITH 9BVIOUS NEURODIVERGENCY AND MENTAL HALTH ISSUES OR JUST COMPLETELY IGNORING THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE LIKE AHHHHHHHHHH 5HANK YOU FOR CALLIMG THEM OUT like okayokayokay. I have to chill 4 a moment but THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I love digging apart the mind of undertale aus snases and figuring out how they tic but sometimes the stories make me so pissed off because their is SO so much potential like i have written quite A few analysis analysis and hypotheticals on them and argh the way people just ignore and dismiss the Canon and what's right in front of them them feels like the dismissal of their characters. I understand theirs fanon and it exist but wish I saw more Canon. Just... it a breath of fresh air to see someone like this.

here's the thing - i genuinely, most of the time, do not dislike fanon.

in fact, i think it's fantastic that there's so many flavors of interpretations, not just because it's a sign of a healthy fandom, but because it offers accessibility. there are people who cannot handle morally grey (or outright evil) characters even with sympathetic narratives, or who come home from a long day of work-hell and can only stomach something soft & easily-digestible - and that's not bad! earlier in my fandom days when i was recovering from living in an abusive household where i had no privacy (and where my bitch-ass cult-wannabe father explicitly preyed on my ocd by telling me god was watching my thoughts at all times), exploring some of these grey moralities through a christian-washed lens was the only way i could consume them; anything else would have been too much. so it's only because of fanon being so vanilla-cookie that i really got to be introduced to the fandom in the first place; i can't hate it for that!

my problem, several years later, is with canons that have fantastic, agonizingly interesting premises, but whose executions end up being lackluster, and the fact that the fandom's response has been, historically, to take that premise and shove it into the little block-shape toy box they already had even when it doesn't really fit - and i especially find that frustrating when either phenomena are clearly borne of fear, either because of the weird puritanical bullshit that's been rabbit-breeding in this fandom since the early internet shipping wars, the fear of portraying something "incorrectly" and being dogpiled for it (often by the aforementioned group), or even due to misinformation and an unwillingness to do the bare minimum of research. (maybe im a fucking nerd for loving wikipedia so much, i don't know. i watched Annihilation for the first time last night and had to pause the movie 37 minutes in to send my boyfriend voice messages - which he described as "would be fun to animate" - ranting about how the main character - supposedly a biologist - clearly had never entered a science classroom in her entire fucking life. (otherwise loved the movie! last 3/4s were - wow! horrifying!!))

i don't know. for a long time i bit my tongue on shit like this because i felt silly about it, but i don't know, man. i really like utmv; it's the one fandom i always find myself coming back to when other interests get put on the trophy shelf to lovingly stare at from afar. there's just so many good, interesting ideas in this fandom. the universe that it sets up is so wide and full of so much potential. but ive never seen a story that really... gripped that potential the way i wanted. (some that came very close! and many that didn't, but that i loved regardless!) i don't even think my OWN stories could reach my expectations, because i'm very much an amateur writer and the vast majority of my energy is taken up by work (and generally the stress of poverty/unmedicated ADHD), but i don't want to let that stop me from enjoying my hobby!

and as long as i'm making things, i'm gonna at least try my best to make them cool - and a part of that, for me, has always been trying to make them make sense, without losing their fantastical charm.

[atthebell]

honestly like, if you asked me what two possible mcyt events could you ever come up with to put communities at each others throats severely, i would've said "election" and "giant pvp event that last multiple days" and it's honestly a little amazing the team didn't see the issues that would so very clearly arise from both of these (though i do think the elections were mostly handled better than other mcyt elections i've seen, most of my issues came down to the way the debates happened, the waaaay too big of a percentage the audience vote had, & the fact the ending date kept being extended). i keep trying to remind myself like things will get better once we move onto a new arc in the server to get over purgatory, and it's been two months...

yeahhh it's like. big moves that frankly from the start we all knew would cause issues. the elections to me was SUCH a red flag like. mcrp elections never go well and it's a miracle they turned out as okay as they did, but the whole process and the aftermath was a bummer and felt deeply unnecessary.

and yeah we've talked about purgatory in gc before but just. i can't even express how awful it was imo and how it continues to fuck the overall narrative as well as individual characters (and the ccs!!). and like you said a huge pvp event (that lasted TWO WEEKS!!!!) with lore stakes makes everyone lose their shit and accuse every other team of being toxic or not caring enough about the nebulous theorized end result-- it was a recipe for disaster, it felt like players were being used to playtest an event, and it was just not fun. like, i loved bolas, im glad they managed to push through it in spite of literally everything, but it sucked so bad several of them had to take long breaks. like, that's not fun.

in general though i am hoping desperately that shit improves, waiting with bated breath for the return of baghera and cellbit (and jaiden and charlie as well eventually!) and for the overall story to feel less railroaded, and i do genuinely want to have hope that it will get better soon. and that they don't pull huge crazy stuff like this again in the future, or at least make it more optional for players to engage with.

[silverislander]

have discovered a new enemy while doing research for the honours essay. why are you pretending to understand psychology and BLATANTLY misinterpreting actual terms and concepts in order to tear down a movie aimed at teenage girls, my good bitch. i'm going to start biting

[vaugarde]

this is probably the meanest thing i have to say about the wc fandom but sometimes ill see a take and ill go “good on you for your analysis skills but i think you are giving the erins wayyy too much credit”

[ooctlt]

Hey Harrow.

You seem super cool, and I'd like to get to know you better. But I don't want to be an invasive dick about it... So!

What boundaries do you have regarding questions from us?

Your family, childhood, and religion are off limits... Anything else we should avoid?

OOC PSA:

all of you are concerned about harrow but please understand that this has actually become counterproductive. ive received a minimum of five asks asking to hug harrow, kiss harrow, give her a nice day; theres people asking about the details of the ninth and its particulars; ive gotten asks describing harrow as "concerning" or "scary" which goes back around to being a little bit weird and infantilizing about someone who is just mentally ill and unmedicated. before you ask no im not giving her meds, and although i love worldbuilding i think its more fun for people to deduce what the ninth is like though slipped details instead of overt explanation.

this ask was sent by a friend as an inside joke: i dont want to make fun of people who genuinely mean well, but i am not kidding when i say that some asks genuinely just sound like this. i still enjoy drawing asks for you all, but going forward im going to heavily limit things answered from harrows POV and im going to find alternatives for answering "one panel questions" aka stuff like "what accessories do you like?"

in case you didnt notice this runs on a daily queue, so everything is more fun when i get to draw multiple panels to a narrative instead of singular trait answers. im likely going to save the latter for simpler doodles for a power hour or something like that

"but SAM how do we ask questions then" have you ever read homestuck? its the ==> arrow prompts. kidding. not kidding.

[narwhalandchill]

spicy take incoming but i kinda wish ppl werent so desperately attached to and protective of this moniker of Great Big Brother 100% Perfect So True And Real when it comes to childe bc honestly. he really isnt (perfect or even that good at times) and to me acknowledging the ways both he and his family (for enabling him) are in some ways kinda just. doing teucer incredibly dirty in the long term but only with the best of intentions in the short term is so much more interesting than just pretending hes a flawless brother?? like it only adds to the drama and irony of it all man like theyre rly so dysfunctional as a family unit its great. even if hoyos likely never exploring that shit in its true depth it still lives rent free in my head for sure lol

like. you rly dont have to turn ajax into some sort of unfeeling uncaring monster of a shit brother to acknowledge that he does, in fact, repeatedly make incredibly reckless and selfish choices during his SQ with teucer and in general by choosing to obstruct the truth of who he is from lil bro so completely?

like this stuff can be nuanced and coexist with his absolutely 100% genuine commitment to protecting teucers bubble of a worldview (and w the theme of childlike dreams and wishes being so prevalent in general who knows what could be cooking w that one in particular) and his loyalty and love for his family without just having to whitewash the dumb shit he does lmao

like just bc hes capable of and willing to face the potentially grave repercussions of absolute bangers (🙄🙄) like teaching an actual fucking child to consider ruin machines fun besties and 100% insta ready to fuck himself up by protecting teucer at the cost of aggravating his still-unhealed injuries from the liyue AQ when dottores abandoned lab turns out to be more lively than expected doesnt. make that choice not a very irresponsible one yall im begging 💀

like. hes the adult here . the entire situation unfolding as dangerously as it does in the factory is Absolutely all on HIM for not being able and/or willing to disappoint teucer by just . Doing the mature thing and sending him away to safety because HES gotten too attached to this idea of being his lil siblings' loyal knight and perfect brother that Always finds a way to surpass the expectations no matter the cost its a role HE wants to keep playing despite the risk

like its So obviously a pride thing for him too and thats so fucking interesting because Of how flawed and questionable the logic is!! like yes he truly cares about teucer and ensuring he has a great unforgettable time during this impromptu escapade in liyue like thats not up to debate but the point im trying to make is that the choices he makes are Still very much intertwined with his ego and overconfidence and not really based all that much on Whats Actually The Best Approach Here. he improvises a way to give teucer the best mr cyclops outing he has ever seen bc HE wants to be the one offering him that experience and ends up biting off a bit more than he can chew and he can only blame himself for that one and This Isnt Fucking Sustainable

like i dont think that makes him evil but i do think it showcases his arrogance and flaws in a very concrete way and is a part of why calling him a perfect brother or at least one without an asterix just. rubs me off wrong lmao

like idk feel free to keep calling him that if its important to u and all if u want idc (and i do to some extent get why this defensive narrative of insisting hes great no issues at all emerged bc i remember 1.1 some ppl acting like hes childcare satan for how he treats teucer lol) but. at least like . Be willing to chip in to fund the therapy teucers going to need for those lifelong trust issues in the future man 💀

Bc Thats The Other Thing. now tonia and anthon i dont consider a part of this bc at least they Know hes in the fatui and hiding the gory details of ur harbinger job from ur baby sibs is like. fair enough and reasonable. but. crafting an Entire different AU version of yourself and feeding it to your baby brother as what constitutes actual reality surely is a choice of all times like ajax ily but genuinely . What the fuck if you were real id throttle you

AND HIS FAMILY ENABLING IT THE ENTIRE TIME ITS CRAZY LIKE. As a person with multiple siblings both older n younger with some similar age gap cohorts involved. God id snitch so fucking fast i dont think ppl rly stop and think much abt how objectively horrifying this shit is from teucers long term pov 😭 in the best way obviously given its fiction like its so scrumptiously awful and dysfunctional .

(& just in general man im just so obsessed with the way ajax 14 basically broke the eggshell of his past life and emerged to rise towards his destiny drowned in the guts and gore of the place and people and community he once called home unconditionally. Bro he fucked that town UP and now his family relations will never ever be the same its so fucking Delicious. those 3 days missing and what followed are just Actually a literal fucking horror movie when you stop blindly stanning our ginger menace, forget ajax' side and take the pov of his family and morepesok in general Why Are People Not Talking About This)

like. its not that i dont understand Why this is sth childe ended up doing as i said Thats The Point. its human. teucer is the only one in the family who wasnt there during that fateful 3 days/months . Like yea anthon and tonia were prolly sheltered from most of the carnage back then too but they still Know where he was sent when he became literally uncontrollable and almost killed the neighbors (everybody & their mom loves demonizing his parents as if his demon spawn ass left them a fucking choice JFEJSJSJSKDKS) . like its at least Known.

but then theres teucer.

And like. teucers the Only one with whom ajax can even pretend to have that delusion (ha) of normalcy and a family that hasnt seen him gaze into the abyss and stare back bloodied and grinning ear to ear . like. hes the only shot childe can have at even playacting some crude imitation of normalcy before Everything and even That comes with an expiration date hes fully aware of. so theres just lies after lies after lies and the fact that even his family just. if not actively partaking in the charade then at least silently allows the entirety of it to happen to teucer whos the Only fucking one out of the loop is just..... dude its not fair on him At All

Misleading teucer THIS much is just. its fucking horrible man but i GET it. thats why its so delicious man i GET it but god its just . imagine being teucer in this situation.... thats his entire fucking World shattered once the truth comes out. Everyone close to him has been lying to him his entire time. They all knew and they let him be misled. Like sure he might be happier Now with ajax dutifully protecting that childhood dream of his but after that. Just. sit on this for a bit. after everything do we Really think teucers just going to understand why it came to be and see it as worth it???? Will he really????

yet at the same time as awfully cruel it all is its just So human!!!!! Its so human of both ajax and his family to use the innocence of the only child that was spared the aftermath of worlds best/worst 3 month abyss training camp to indulge in this flawed false reality where their third son didnt walk into the void and come back hungry for More until only the fatui could take him and even then it only spurred him on further on that path. Like its all an act and a lie and its just. Not fucking fair on teucer but hes still doing it and theyre letting him even tho they Know it wont last theyre all looking teucer in the eye every day and letting him believe like man....

like in both the entire ruin factory sequence And in general hiding the truth from teucer as extensively as childe does hes being incredibly selfish but at the same time its selfishness only rly in the way all people are when it comes to Wanting to be seen a certain way by the ones they love and care about. and thats what makes it so interesting. bc as much as the choices he makes are dubious (or like. this decision makes sense to him. a morally bisexual total omnivore ethics-wise narwhalpilled since 14 who sees exclusively in abyss shrimp colors and acts accordingly) both they and the motivations behind them are also just. So very human ones . as terrible as the implications and eventual inevitable downfall of those choices can (will) be.

like. is it not that much more fascinating to consider all the ways that childe is neither a particularly exemplary nor an egregiously bad brother just one that. Happens to be wired weird in the head and proud and flawed and with a track record of heavily suspect decision-making but that also very much genuinely loves his family man. Like i can love that about him without dismissing the fact that theres parts to how hes treating teucer that 100% can and imo rly should backfire horrifically bc. It really just is that fucked up

hes not a good brother hes Worse AMD better than that and also not alone in this like. his family is an active fucking part of this . But like still . Is he trying his best with his abyss shrimp colored vision ? Yes. Is his love genuine? Absolutely. What are the marks? 3/10 meet me in the office after class mister youre just actually horrible (affectionate) 😭

A perfect brother? Not My Ajax man 🗣🗣 and like theres SO MUCH to explore in that it makes me so sad you just. Never see any of it p much in fanworks bc we all just call him best bro and whatever and thats that like its so sad. this family is terrible horrible awful and no good and they deserve it but also didnt deserve it it was misfortune it was fate it was inevitable . justice for teucer man i need to get him in therapy asap

[bogkeep]

some time ago i watched This Video about ergodic literature and got inspired to get the book S. by jj abrams & doug dorst. i've finally started reading it and i have Thoughts

the video i linked shows and explains the premise of the book, but here's the tl;dr - two students(ish) are writing annotations in the margins of a novel called 'ship of theseus' by mysterious author V M Straka while passing it back and forth. they are getting to know each other as well as trying to solve the mystery of Straka. it's a non-linear epistolary story told through a footnotes, scribbled comments, and inserts such as postcards et cetera.

there's a couple reason this book caught my eye in particular:

- i love "two people getting to know each other through letters/accidental text messages/notes" trope. it may just be the internet denizen in me but i'm a sucker for characters who get to know each other through text.

- immediately intruiged by the mystery author's name, Straka - it means magpie in czech, so i feel like i'm getting a head start on the mystery because i'm the specialest little boy in the world!!!!

- it looks cool as hell

(i purchased a used copy that was apparently a library copy so it feels extra Authentic hehe)

ANYWAY i'm still very early in, but i have many impressions to chew on already. first off, i really love the whole premise/medium, and it looks Really Good. there's a lot of really cool details that make it look authentic (if we ignore the COMICALLY LARGE MARGINS) - the book absolutely looks like something i could find in my grandparents' bookshelf. the comments being written in different colours of pen to signal when in the chronology they were written is very good. everything is pointing to a Very Fun and Immersive reading experience.

howeverrrrrrrrrr

while i Am having fun so far, there's also a lot of details that keep shaking my suspension of disbelief. like i am trying my best to hold on to it - im accepting the Comically Large Margins and the silly premise that these two people absolutely had to pass the book back and forth to communicate. like i am fully on board with that. it's just... i feel like this book is trying to Appear more clever than it actually is?

i think maybe the main problem for Me Specifically is that it's pretending to be a book written by a Probably European author and translated to english, but S. was so obviously written/created by americans and not intended to be read by someone who knows any of the languages they're dragging into this.

i was correct in assuming Straka is meant to be czech, as ship of theseus was originally written in czech - but it's weird to me that the narrative is completely uninterested in like... the original? there is a foreword by the translator, who goes on and on about the mysterious circumstances under which v m straka died, but the fact that the original language is czech is mentioned in a *footnote*. i would think a foreword by a translator would, realistically, say more about their credentials or their actual process of translating. or is that weird??? i took a class in classical literature in uni where that's kind of a big deal so maybe i'm biased???

BUT ALSO the fact that straka's identity is So very mysterious and very possibly a pseudonym... if you're like, genuinely trying to untangle this mystery, wouldn't you make a note about the meaning of the name??? like wouldn't you put a picture of a magpie on your conspiracy board about it?? Straka is absolutely a valid czech surname because most czech surnames are seemingly random nouns or adjectives, but if you think it's a pseudonym then someone made a very deliberate choice!!!! HELLO!!!!!!

then they listed the names of people who are thought to possibly be v m straka (of varying nationalities), and like okay maybe i'm nitpicking but i has to take a pen and fix some of them. they used SOME special letters for some of the names but very sporadically - they wrote vaclav instead of václav, and ekstrom instead of ekström... like at least be consistent if you're going to ignore special letters!

the worst language offender by far is this:

if you want "the monkey dances" it's "opice tancuje". you could also do "opičí tanec" for "the monkey's dance". this particular abomination is causing me physical pain.

one of the first inserts i ran into was a letter written in swedish + a direct translation:

GUESS WHAT I CAN READ SWEDISH TOO... i can't tell if the "original" letter is supposed to be the swedish or the english one - while the swedish seems to be grammatically correct (I THINK), it extremely reads as Something Written In English And Getting As Directly Translated To Swedish As Possible. it reads very stilted and oddly phrased. i get the impression i'm not actually supposed to be able to understand it, it's just here for Flavour, and that's fine! this one i can easily justify as the swedish being the in universe translation.

here's another very small thing that made me sigh very deeply

"at what point does this book stop being straka's alone & become *theirs*?" THE BOOK IS CALLED SHIP OF THESEUS. AREN'T YOU GUYS DOING LITERARY ANALYSIS OVER HERE??? IT'S THE FIRST CHAPTER AND YOU'RE JUST SPELLING OUT THE PREMISE TO ME TO THE POINT OF CONDESCENSION.

like. okay. maybe not everyone knows what the ship of theseus refers to (also i want to point out it feels like a very english language phrase to me. it Does exist in czech but it doesn't sound like a good or catchy title i think) - but i really do feel like two university students doing a deep dive into this book + author would 100% analyse the meaning of the title, that's like 101 level stuff!! this comment would be so easy to save - just have Mr Black Pen add a quippy comment about this being a bit on the nose, or pointing out the aptness or irony of the title, Anything. it would add so much to the believability for me.

like i didn't study literature at a higher education level so maybe i'm completely off base, but i DID study art history, and it seems almost absurd to me that these characters are doing so much digging and mystery solving about the author's mysterious past and rereading all of his books to find out more... and not engage with the basicest basics such as, the original text(s) pre-translation, possible cultural contexts, tHE TITLE... why are they drawing connections from choices made BY THE TRANSLATOR that absolutely would not be there in the original czech!! !!???!!!????!!

anyway my biggest actual problem so far is that i'm really struggling to read the actual ship of theseus. i have fun reading the annotations, but the actual book... i am Struggling. i've never been any good at reading ~*The Classics*~ so it might just not be my vibe, but i'm not sure if TOS is even a Good Book? like in this universe it's Allegedly a classic and very iconic or whatever. and obviously it's a challenge to write A Classic that makes its mark on history. and gods know there's discourse about whether or not The Classics are actually good books and that's way above my paygrade. but idk i couldn't get through chapter 1 without skimming through it because it kept boring me so bad.

i suspect i might just, keep reading the annotations storyline and not bother too much with the 'book' part of the book. i genuinely wanna see where the story goes!! despite my complaints i Am sold on the emotional core of it.

i think the premise rules so hard but i really feel like the authors are too monolingual and american and maybe haven't read that many books????? i can't speak on the latter but the former.............. maybe im the one who's too european

[perenial]

gene im so glad you said this cause I haven't seen anyone else comparing it to the book as source material for like character and tone but i am So sure that if terry was alive the season would not be like this but i fear good omens fans dont realise how big a factor the lack of terry's influence is?? or like they forget that good omens was never just neilman???

ok before i go any further: i rly don't want to detract from anyone's enjoyment of the season and everything im going to say comes from a place of love for a) the original novel (& season 1 to a certain extent bc it got me back into it lol) and b) tv as a medium so like peace and love on planet let people enjoy things etc etc

but

like u said, terry's influence on the book was enormous – what makes gomens gomens is the balance of his genuine warmth and precise understanding of humanity tempered with neilman's sardonic voice and general like.....savvy approach to storytelling? i guess u could call it? anyway what rly helps the book is that it took them years to write it, passing ideas back and forth and rewriting each other's work until their voices blended seamlessly and a well structured capital-s Story was created. when i praise the book for being self-contained i think a huge part of that comes from the circumstances in which it emerged: two authors with complementary styles writing in a v particular time period where they had both the space to play with their ideas and the constraints of the novel as a storytelling format from which to craft something extremely specific.

adaptations are a tricky business and a tv version of gomens produced literal decades after the book was always going to have some unique challenges, but i don't think that's a bad thing bc the challenges could prove to be creative opportunities to take both the established audience and those new to the story by surprise. my biggest hot take here is that i don't think translating a story into a different medium means it has to follow the original narrative exactly, bc each medium has its own ways of communicating information and these structures, rules and traditions in turn inform what that story is. what matters more than following a story beat-by-beat is capturing what that story is about at its core, what themes and messages and ideas it works through and how.

all this is to say i never expected tv gomens to be a perfect reproduction of the book and if it had it been, it probably would have been worse off for it. that being said, there are parts of the book – like u said, its tone and character – that needed to have some fidelity in order to pull it off, and for the most part s1 did that bc it was still working predominantly within the bounds of the novel & its core ideas. while i did have some issues w how neilman & amazon adapted some details and characterisations, i generally rly liked s1 – it reminded me of why i loved the book and it was just generally fun to watch.

s2 was. not that fun to watch

a few positives before i go ham w the critiques:

the hair & makeup + costumes were fantastic (although i feel like s1 was slightly better re: makeup?)

the sound design & score made some of the more awkward scenes bearable and thats no mean feat imo

david & michael gave incredible performances w what they were given – michael especially managed to salvage aziraphale enough that his complete 180 didnt feel completely tonally dissonant (more on this later)

the detail of the sets is NUTS and i genuinely want to see more of hell bc of how intricate and fun the props look

i actually like gabriel/beelzebub!! their getting together montage worked for me, although they could have spent sliiiightly more time establishing what it is they like abt each other so much + why gabriel wanted to stop armageddon 2.0 so suddenly

the opening scene, although not on par w the novel's & s1's, was visually gorgeous and thematically resonant (although neilman owes me royalties for ripping it off from this shitty fic i wrote back when raphael!crowley was all the rage lol)

now w THAT being said:

like i said yesterday, the pacing was fucking awful. flashbacks are hard to work w at the best of times and the way they were used in this season felt so needless, especially the 40s one in ep 4 that takes up like 90% of the episode. in both flashbacks + present day there were scenes that dragged for no real reason, dialogue that looped back around on itself to stretch out the runtime, and weirdly enough places where there should have been character & plot work where there just,, wasn't any?? for example, maggie & nina's night locked in the café – some parts of the dialogue in later episodes made out that they'd had some rly deep conversation abt how they feel about each other or even that they'd had an affair, but that isn't clear from those scenes in the café. i'm not saying we had to see that conversation in its entirety but that there needed to be more connective details – either in dialogue or direction – that gave that part of the story coherence.

(there were pacing issues w the editing too but i don't want to jump down the editor's throats on this one bc im more focused on writing & direction issues)

the second major problem that i mentioned in my tags yesterday is the protagonist shift, which is an issue that started in s1. aziraphale & crowley are side characters in book gomens – significant ones, yeah, but still somewhat peripheral to adam (& anathema who counts as a deuteragonist imo). this works incredibly well w who they are as characters: they're Just Some Guys who happen to be involved in this epic biblical-level bureaucratic nightmare and importantly, they don't want to be in the spotlight. the arrangement was created so that they could explore what it meant to be themselves away from the Big Narrative; literally any time they get involved in larger affairs is bc the plot is alive and caught them unionising on company time. the last fucking chapter is adam (& god) being like haha u guys are alright keep it sleezy and letting them go. like. hello. neil u let them go.

but then!! tv gomens s1 does something interesting at the end w the body swapping addition that i dont totally hate – it gives aziraphale & crowley the extra bit of character work that brings them slightly more adjacent to their book selves. see i kinda view tv a/c as the younger, less settled versions of book a/c; they're still caught up in the immediacy of being key players and haven't fully realised that earth is their home. i haven't watched s1 in a while but one scene i remember rly clearly is crowley throwing all those astronomy texts in the air and angsting abt when he was an angel; i remember it bc his anguish in that scene feels a lot newer and rawer than book crowley's feelings about falling. when tv a/c do their bodyswap, it gives them the chance to land a blow against heaven/hell in a way that solidifies their allegiance to earth in a way that more closely resembles what book a/c have been abt the entire time (still adjacent, though. not parallel).

the reason why this works is that it does one final pivot to orient aziraphale and crowley as almost-main characters in a manner that makes sense in relation to a) their book selves and b) the position the tv show has placed them in. a combination of factors made tv a/c feel a lot less mature than their book counterparts but at the end of s1 they're sort of facing the same direction the book ended in, albeit through their own flashy late 2010s means.

when s2 was announced i was.......apprehensive bc to me, that felt like a satisfactory ending. i get the impression that amazon saw how wildly successful the adaptation was and was like oh shit we could make way more money out of this and neilman, having all those undead darlings that he and terry killed in the process of whittling the book into a workable novel, jumped at the chance to resurrect all those half-realised ideas. but not only were those ideas probably discarded for a reason, they've either been laying in wait for years unworked or they're new inventions, which means they weren't molded in the way that the book had been. like i said before, book gomens underwent years of rewrites and creative collaboration, and i think that process was what made it so good; s2 didn't have that. even if some of terry's ideas made it into s2, his influence is still missing bc he and neilman weren't in dialogue the same way they were in the book (and in some ways s1 bc i know terry was involved in the process of adapting gomens to screen before his death).

i don't think it's a case of newer fans forgetting terry so much as it is the context of terry's involvement being so removed from the current circumstances that certain aspects & discourses (i.e. is the s2 finale queerbaiting (no), does binge watching change the viewership experience (yes), etc etc) about the show overshadow other discussions that would usually be taking place. and before anyone says it's a case of neilman forgetting terry, i definitely don't think it's that either bc thats. yknow. wildly disrespectful. but also there are larger systems and structures at play than one writer no matter how much beef i have w him and his decisions, bc ultimately he's just one guy (a powerful and wealthy guy, but just a guy) and there's a wider cultural shift happening rn towards rehashing old stories without understanding what made them successful in the first place, and that same culture just doesn't allow for much, if any, constructive discourse analysis

so yeah

[whack-your-worries-away]

batterie is so interesting because like. i both dont see it and i see it at the same time. they’d be so cute together but they also have not an ounce of chemistry.

Batter is a character that shows no emotion, and characters like that are usually given the trope of “doesnt react to partners flirting but secretly loves it” but Batter is different in the way that he just doesnt feel the emotion at all(it makes him very hard to write about).

Zacharie is a fun character, but also has the unique trait of being fully aware of his place in the narrative and thus would have no reason to form a relationship with the guy murdering the world around him.

Of course an AU could be made without these restricting things, but whenever i try to write about it it feels like im stripping them of their uniqueness, the bits that make their characters interesting.. man

(OFF is old and i dont think anyone even genuinely ships them anymore but i just wanted to ramble<3)

[seokjinnie-ah]

read: playlists are super down below so keep scrolling!!

Our Life: Beginnings & Always.

Hello Hello! Welcome to my first ever post on tumblr that just had to be about my ultimate top tier favorite visual novel of all time..Our Life: Beginnings & Always or OL:BA for short.

This game has such a special place in my heart that im afraid I’ll forever be attached to it because at this point it’s not even a phase anymore lol. I still remember that heated summer day of scrolling down on my steam shop out of boredom and i kept getting recommended OL:BA but back then i really couldn’t care less and would not even spare a glance on it until i got so fed up of it popping up in my recommended for the next few days that i decided to finally check it out.

Reading what it was about made me curious but what really got me downloading it was because of the customization of our character/characters.

And finally into the game i was! I remember when the story started, i was very surprised already by the environment, narrative and world building of the game. It truly felt like i was part of it and i didn’t get bored at all. In fact right from the start i was hooked already!

I loved ALL of the characters that was introduced, i love the fact that it was SO multiple choice that it felt like you were really integrating yourself/oc onto the game and that you’re not just forced to say the same thing as a different choice or feel as though your options are limited. Its definitely a game that you’re supposed to replay over and over because its just that fun!!

And as someone who has never had a great childhood and adolescence, absentee parent, chaotic household, unsupportive friends, want to be understood (you know…this and that) i was so happy that this game was doing that and it genuinely gave me hope to live despite going through the darkest of times in my life :)

This game has changed me into a better person and made me want to be the best version of myself that i want to be in the future! I will infinitely recommend this to anyone who wants to have a feel good game/read (+1 it will make you cry!!)

Anyway enough yapping 💀 Time to get to the point.

Here are some playlists i made dedicated to the lovable characters of OL:BA that i personally listened to during my walkthrough and may relate to their route/lore ;)

read: playlists are super down below so keep scrolling!!

1# COVE HOLDEN

the og love interest!

summer with cove holden.

this playlist is the epitome vibes of the game (growing up with them and having fun, making memories.)

from beginnings to always with cove holden.

spoiler alert!! MARRIAGE DLC WOOOO!! really love this one cuz its all full of cute romance and wedding songs. i also put some songs that i think mc and cove would have when they get kids :3

#2 DEREK SUAREZ

MY PERSONAL FAVORITE!!

DEREK IS JUST SOOOO AAHHHH He’s my ideal man and i KIN him so bad you dont even know!!!

derek suarez crushing on you.

THIS PLAYLIST. IM TELLING YOU. one of the FAVES i made!! the pining, secret crush on mc for a loong time, the angst GOSH. so cute. every song in this plays a part on each moment with him i swear

#3 BAXTER WARD

ANGST MAN.

5 years after baxter ward.

one thing i noticed about our life is it lacks certain angst aspects when the baxter dlc didn’t exist YET back then. like i LOVED the fight between mc and cove in mcs room and i wanted it to escalate more ngl just cuz i LIVE for angst! but if you want to get real hurt you should choose baxter. this playlist focuses more on the last step of his dlc and its full of taylor swift songs.

baxter ward.

honestly this playlist is catered more to his vibes, his character (i listen to this playlist and i imagine edits of him lol) but i guess some songs are related to his story/lore? i made this waaay before 5 years after baxter ward and when the baxter dlc didn’t exist yet and we all just knew him to be as the new neighbor in sunset bird but people like it i guess so here it is xD

anyway thats all for OL:BA series! GB Patch is cooking up Our Life Now & Forever and it’s not released yet! just on demo on steam and itch! i already have a playlist for it but so far i have only made Qiu Lin (one of the leads of the game) i also have a privated filo inspired playlist for baxter if you want to listen to it let me know so i can put it up in public!

[crimetimesteadicam]

ok @morporkian-cryptid tagged me to do this fic author interview so here we go...

if you would like to do this, i am officially tagging you, yes you, right now. tag me back so i can see your answers

1 How many works do you have on AO3?

i got 40

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,044,749

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

sorry like none of these are lupin iii. a blight on my lupin iii blog

Wabisabi (991 kudos) - Spirited Away. idk it's short and cute, read it

BONES OF BLACK MARROW (952 kudos) - Homestuck. the infamous cyoa cannibalism sex fic. scrolling through the things people say about it in the bookmarks is always so funny

Cum mortuis in lingua mortua (925 kudos) - Homestuck. no clue why it has so many kudos lol it was like the first long thing i've ever wrote (a whole decade ago??? jesus). it's a d&d/discworld joke

Vanitas vanitatum (914 kudos) - Homestuck. the same d&d/discworld joke except the LI is turbo depressed. notable for being the only fic i ever outlined and edited and that's why it whips

Supermassive Retinol Overdose! (677 kudos) - hey look, a lupin fic made it on here!

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i do when i have something meaningful to say besides "thank you!" i don't have a lot of thoughts about my own work so therefore i tend to not respond if there's not a direct question :( my head is empty. i always respond to every single comment on the last chapter of longfics though because i'm always impressed people read that far lol. genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for reading all that

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

idk uhhhh i wrote a series once where two of the main couples break up at the end, but it wasn't really angsty

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

they all end pretty happily

7. Do you write crossovers?

if i did it was so long ago i don't remember it

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

no but people used to send passive aggressive hate about my art in fics once in a while. hasn't happened in like 2+ years

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yes. every kind. EVERY KIND

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

a bot will sometimes scrape my high kudos homestuck fics and plant them on a junk ebook site

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yeah i think like 7 of them got translated into russian and do numbers on ficbook.net

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

in the past me and my friend would sit around a laptop and scream laugh write our way through crack fics

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

right now it's jiglup and fujilup

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

i finish almost all my WIPs because i'm a freak. if i don't finish a WIP it's because some dramatic life event happened. this has only occurred two times

15. What are your writing strengths?

im a funny binch

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

i don't outline or edit or re-read any of my fanfic. i just type it and then eyeball it for typos and then post it. i COULD outline and such to really make the narrative nice and tight, but i don't find it very fun to do (for fanfic) and this is like, my relaxing wind down hobby. i just wanna have fun haha. the only reason my fics like, make sense, is because i write at least one ending scene first thing and always aim for that, and also i write out of order so i kinda know the route of the story

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

it's fine if it makes sense to do it there as a narrative device

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

h-hetalia crack fic.....

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

once i figure out how to draw zenigata it's over for you bitches. luzeni hours on da clock

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

for lupin iii fic, i like Lightkeepers the best

[daenystheedreamer]

OH for the ship grid: i had time on my day off and wanted to see what the most popular gay ships on asoiaf ao3 are (so what is popular when you exclude m/f tags and ships) so the following ten for the meme: aemond/lucerys, alicent/rhaenyra, theon/robb, sansa/margaery, theon/ramsay, renly/loras, jon/robb, aegon ii/jacaerys, tormund/jon, sansa/daenerys can’t wait to see where u place these, peace&love 🫶

HERE MY FRIEND again the makes sense axis is a combo of 'does it make sense in canon' and 'do i understand why people ship it' so if it looks a bit weird thats why 🫶 ship discussions udner the cut mwah

aemond lucerys.... look i get it. i do get it. 1) urge for yaoi 2) there are crumbs you can bake 3) cute actors. i understand. im deep in the yaoi trenches i understand seme uke i get it i get it. but also the idea its like Canon or an accurate reading of either character is soo...... lucerys is not a femme fatale or an ingenue. he is a plot device. and aemond.... aemond's 'obsession' with lucerys is more one bred from insecurity as opposed to yaoi lust. but i do get it. one love to the lucemond people. wish u guys would be normal about the UNDERAGE luke actor. he's an adult now but can we not do countdown shit. weird as hell...

rhaenicent #1 its literally canon. its subtext its textual its openly a part of the narrative. the complex web of sexuality, womanhood and patriarchy that seeps rhaenicent is so compelling. alicent as a lesbian and rhaenyra as a butch/lesbian/bisexual/trans/dragongender are genuinely compelling analyses of the characters. #1 foreva

im normal about throbb now<3 i think in canon the theon bisexual analysis is interesting but not super vital to his character. his sexuality and manhood certainly, but i like throbb more cos i like theon rather than on its own merits.

sansaery ❤️ i enjoy sansaery as a way to explore sansa's character and specifically her as a lesbian. both characters are fun and interesting but its high up cos it has a special place in my heart<3

im not really into thramsay i have no thoughts on it. one love to the thramsays though u guys are warriors. i think it has wayyy more sub/textual basis in canon than throbb

renloras is just canon so i dont have much thoughts on it. its sweet! make me sad. rip babes loras you would have loved gymbro culture.

jonrobb is meh to me idk 🤷‍♀️ theyre fine as brothers and there's not much analysis to be had of their relationship beyond that. one love to the brocons ig. cousincons

aegon x jace is beyond nothing to me sorry 😭 but thats mostly cos im not super into the dance or hotd beyond rhaenicent. i get why it exists but there's little to no basis in canon to bake nor does it have much analysis. one love to the jacegons of course

JONMUND... okay book jonmund is meh whatever but show jonmund is real to me. jon post canon is operating a cozy bed and breakfast with tormund in alaska beyond the wall. one of my fave crackships. he's kissed by fire!

daensa🍋❤️ i love u daensa. very important to my bi!dany and lezzo!sansa thoughts. song of ice and fire 🫶

[graceful-not]

Turnabout Big Top is unanimously the worst case in the entire series, but you know what REALLY pisses me off about it?

IT COULD HAVE BEEN GOOD.

Like- GOSH, it's just. IT HAD SO MUCH GODDAMN POTENTIAL AND THEY RUINED IT!!! I WANT TO RIP MY HAIR OUT LISTEN;

- Flamboyant famous slightly haughty magician that's secretly Southern Farm Boy? I LIKE THIS. IM MAD THEY DIDNT DO MORE WITH THIS, THIS WAS A GOOD CHARACTER QUIRK!! his stage name being Max Galactica and his actual name being Billy Bob Johns?? NOT THAT BAD!!

- Ventriloquist man who's personality is almost opposite of what his puppet's is, and who Interacts directly with it? I GENUINELY ENJOYED THE BEN-TRILO SCENES! THE DYNAMIC WAS FUN!! (also Ben being unable to function without his puppet what is going on with this man) HE WAS AN INTERESTING CHARACTER!!

- Acro?? Acro. Like. up to this point in the ace attorney series we haven't had a culprit like him, someone who did what they did and SUPREMELY regrets it and understands that it was horrible etc etc and doesn't try to defend their crimes whatsoever because they KNOW it was a horrible thing to do; I THINK ACRO IS INTERESTING!!

- HINTS OF MILES AND WHAT HAPPENED?? PHEONIX+FRANZISKA GRIEF?? tired asf gumshoe?? (we don't talk about his "dead body, stage left" line enough)

BUT THEN THEY TURNED AROUND AND

- The stupid fucking love triangle good god this is the worst part I'm going to vomit Regina is 16 AND IT. EUGHHH. I WILL NEVER FORGIVE THE WRITERS FOR THIS, SERIOUSLY, THEY HAD THESE INTERESTING CHARACTERS AND INSTEAD OF EXPANDING ON THEM they made them fucking predators I just. god.

- REGINA IS A FUCKING CHILD, WHO HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD, AND THE NARRATIVE IS TRYING TO FRAME ACRO KILLING HER AS.. SYMPATHETIC?????? (Imo I think it makes Acro's grief more fascinating, and exploring his mental state is super interesting, but I know a lot of people have qualms with this, which I understand. Like. WTF Acro???)

- the stupid goddamn solution to the case good lord it was so dumb. so.. so fucking CONSEQUENTIAL. like. GOD.

TLDR; I hate Big Top because it could have been a genuinely interesting case, but it was ruined for such SMALL reasons that really had no positive????? like. getting rid of the bad stuff and replacing them w/ other things (Max and Ben could still have a rivalry ffs especially considering how vindictive Trilo is) and like??? HHHH. sorry I just hate how dirty this case was done there's so much good shit but the bad shit is just so... bad..

[laurazepamwrites]

I need to rant.

I'm getting real tired by the amount of shit Junkrat is getting from other characters. Yeah i get that hes a criminal, (who isnt in OW at this point?) Hes a junker and like the rest of the junkers is looked down on as a society but his latest interaction with Baptiste has upset me for a number of reasons. The interaction goes:

Baptiste: Whats wrong man?

Junkrat: Oh nothing, just beginning to think no one likes me.

Baptiste: Maybe if you stopped stealing and blowing up everyones stuff?

Junkrat: Is is even worth it? If i dont get to do what I love?

How sad is that? Has he ever had any positive interaction in his life to question if its worth trying to do better. You have your Reapers, Doomfists and Moiras who are genuine wicked people..literal terrorists, who for some reason have much friendlier banter and dialogue then this young man who lost his whole world in a catastrophic event at just 5 years old. No shit he became a product of this new and cruel environment of kill or be killed, where you had to steal to survive and fend off other desperate survivors and savagery. Of course hes abit touched in the head, who wouldnt be? It looks to be his mum died either in the omnium explosion or after so was he actually raised by anyone as a child to know right from wrong? And yet he is still genuinely friendly, outgoing and trying hard to connect with others. Sure, hes annoying, loud and obnoxious but jfc hes trying. And most characters just shit on him, hell even Roadhog gets friendlier interactions. Now this is what pisses me off about the writers. Here we have an obviously neurodivergent character who they have barely scratched the surface on. Hes fucking intelligent, How did he learn chemistry, mechanics and engineering? hes obviously had a horrific past, how and what did he do or have to do to survive? What the fuck is this treasure he found and is this going to be important lore? This just seems to be ignored in favour of making him a pest. Theres a reason hes my favourite character and why this upsets me. Hes like me, Hes the only character i actually relate to. Dont get me wrong Im not into blowing stuff up but as a neurodivergent I see so much of his personality similar to my own and i know all to well how familiar it is to be treated like he is. I try and fail to connect with others often, i get pushed away, made fun of for my quirks and personality and it fucking hurts. Junkrat is not stupid and he notices how hes being treated, I know how he feels and it fucking sucks. I really hope the writers are using this as an opportunity to develop his character arc, i know narrative designer Justin Groot is a Junkrat fan so im holding out some hope. Let Junkrat grow, let him heal, give him a fucking break and give him some fucking friends!

[rosekasa]

HELLO PERSON WHO DEFINITELY DIDNT REBLOG THAT ASK GAME JUST BECAUSE I WANTED TO ASK QUESTIONS HAHAHA NO DEFINITELY THAT WAS NOT ABOUT ME

💖 Which of your fics is your pride and joy? (is this like asking you which is your favorite child)

🎭What genre of writing comes easiest to you? (hee hee it doesnt just have to be about fanfiction either !!)

🙌What's a line or paragraph of yours that you're proud of? (your writing is so beautiful if someone else already asked you this PLEASE still answer it again with another line or paragraph 🥺 I'm begging)

🍎What's something you learned while researching for a fic? (I KNOW you look up and learn lots of things while writing)

⏳If you could go back in time and tell your younger writer self something, what would it be? (🥺🥺 you always have such insight)

HI PERSON I DEFINITELY DIDNT REBLOG THIS FOR I LOVE YOU AHDJSJS

💖 Which of your fics is your pride and joy?

like poles of a magnet for SURE. i adore that fic. im not really sure why im so attached to it but it's really my baby. i love it so much

🎭What genre of writing comes easiest to you?

oh youre gonna think im so lame. it's essay writing. ahdjsjdkaksk. i think i told you before but i write book reviews for every book i read and my writing feels so Natural then because it's like. every line has a purpose to prove my point about the book. whenever im feeling rusty with narrative writing i find myself telling myself 'okay pretend this is an essay and this whole story is trying to prove your thesis about the characters' ahdjsj

🙌What's a line or paragraph of yours that you're proud of?

bren 🥹 ily. my hanahaki wip is really fun and i feel like has a lot of good writing because it really demands a lot of descriptiveness. i have this section when adrien sees gabriel for the first time in a while that i kept scrolling up and rereading

He knows, logically, that this is his father. You can't forget a face like that, the face you searched for in vain at every fencing tournament, piano recital, fashion gala that you knew full well he hadn’t attended but you were tired and wanted an adult to hold your hand and guide you around the crowds. 

It is that face. But a mimicry of it, like a portrait with the wrong proportions.

He’s gaunt — it’s the first word that comes to mind. His eyes sit deep in their sockets beneath his glasses, jaw a sharp trapezoid attached to his cheeks. It’s not just a matter of losing weight over the months — which, even if it was, would be a surprising deviation from the seventy-five kilos he had not shifted a decimal of a gram from in thirty years. It’s everything else, the biology hidden behind the layers of perfectly-tailored clothing, and well-combed hair, and skin, although pristine, textured like paper over the canvas of his skull. 

🍎What's something you learned while researching for a fic?

did i ever tell you about how when i went to paris last year i literally knew where everything was by arrondissements because ive searched them up so many times for ml fics. i think it was even specifically rue lepic that i remember the most because i once wrote about ladynoir patrolling around there and it turned out to be the road right next to my hotel (yes, we got a hotel in pigalle, my paris knowledge did not supply me with what exactly pigalle is known for,)

⏳If you could go back in time and tell your younger writer self something, what would it be?

literally not to lose that unwarranted confidence i had. at age eleven i was pounding out 50k+ word multichapter fics for my first fandom and like. the plots are so questionable. but when i reread them now im genuinely impressed at the quality of writing i had at that age. i think as i hit 13/14 i went through that phase where i was like ohhh my god i was sooo embarrassing when i was a kid and that insecurity really hindered my writing progress! i think creativity needs you to be unapologetic and cringe. that's when the best stuff is made because it's Real

i love you bren!!!

[dthclws]

im curious now and i like to hear ppl talk abt characters so! what is it about damian that makes him compelling to you? what do you like abt him/his character? (genuinely <3)

well. robin son of batman was really the comic that like cemented damian in my heart like its so crazy the art the writing (most of the time) the characterization is so. gutwrenching like he KILLS me in that comic. idk just his struggle with having to reconcile his desire to be what he was trained to be vs his idolization of his dad. damian in his early stuff is just constantly going What do you mean its bad to be ruthless and merciless and violent im trying to be you. and bruce goes. Who??? told you that?????? very funny. to me. horrible attitude horrible behavior he’s so stubborn but i love it. and there are so many reasons that he is the way he is especially when you realize that like. damian has literally never ever had fun or let himself have fun he doesn’t know how to PLAY with other kids and the batgirl panel where steph realizes this and gets a bouncy castle and forces him to. have fun. makes me crazy he’s a little kid what the hell. and son of batman even has some call backs to previous comics like theres this part in batman and robin (i think) where damian crushes a bat in his hands bc he got frustrated to show that its just like. natural for him to act that way bc thats what he was taught to do. violence is natural. and then when damian realizes he doesn’t actually. like violence that he doesnt want to hurt people fuuck dude he’s just a little boy trying to do what he thinks he’s supposed to do and then reckoning w the fact that he’s WRONG. and theres this panel in son of batman where damian is laying on his back in the batcave and staring at the skeleton of this bat he killed without even thinking of it. and he has like tears in his eyes. the potential of his character development is sooo compelling i just wish they gave him that chance. not to mention maya in son of robin as a perfect narrative foil for damian all the responsibility to family and the pressure of a legacy and what it means, whether they placed it on their own shoulders or not. soo good. and they’re silly. also damian’s pet goliath SIIICK SICKENINGG. one punch man image. What’s with this sassy lost child