#cause they're definitely interesting

[fromtheseventhhell]

"It's normal for siblings to fight" Okay well it's not normal to be extremely classist and look down on your sister for being non-conforming. Or to go to the woman who ordered the death of your pet to tell her about your father's plans, when he specifically warned you against doing so, because you want to marry the boy you saw attack your sister and her friend (contributing partially to said father's death and your sister being unable to escape on the ship he chartered). Or to think of your sibling as unsatisfactory in comparison to another when you believe her to be dead. I notice that none of the "Sansa and Arya are going to reunite and instantly have no issues" crowd ever acknowledge any of this, which makes it seem like they don't actually believe what they say about their relationship being normal and easily reconciled. People wanting them to have no issues simply because they're siblings is another example of how fandom likes to flatten complex characters and relationships. They get reduced to being bickering siblings when their conflict runs deeper than that. If the author is telling you that they have "deep issues" to work out [X], I don't understand being so adamant about ignoring said issues. I also get the sense it's about ignoring the capacity for a certain character to be flawed, but that isn't going to change the fact that her "slip of the tongue" is very likely to be revealed and a source of further conflict 🤷🏾‍♀️

[fantasy-nerdddd]

The rooftop scene(s)

Today I'll talk about the rooftop scenes. Mainly the first one, from The Hunger Games, but a bit of both. Both of them are quite passable at first, but mean a lot, each in their own way.

In Catching Fire, Chapter 11, Peeta says to Katniss while working on the plant book: "You know, I think this is the first time we've done something normal together." Well, the rooftop scene is the first time they have done anything fun together. Not drawing some plants, not staring at each other's eyelashes (cough cough KATNISS YOU THIRSTY LITTLE GIRL), two teenagers laughing and having fun together just days before they need to go into an arena and kill each other. So rebellious, having fun with your opponent and getting closer before the games, just behind using CPR in the arena. Also, it is the first insight that there's something more going on. Because for Effie to not to train Katniss on walking on heels, it means that Katniss won't need the sponsors.

The first rooftop scene... Well there's two more? I think? The first one is in a garden, however the garden is still on the rooftop so I'll count it. I think these scenes played a big role later. And I also think they are proof that Snow had bugged the rooftop, too. Lavinia was only acknowledged by Peeta in two moments. One, where he covered for Katniss and said that she was Delly Cartwright. That was for just a moment, and for all Snow knows, it wasn't even a lie. And when Katniss explained to him how she knew her. That Katniss didn't protect her. And I think Peeta seeing the girl Katniss couldn't protect being brutally killed, might have helped with the hijacking later on, because it would prove in his mind that Katniss just didn't care about any life, or even worse wanted to see suffering, and that she was heartless towards everyone, not just him. He'd think that anyways, but seeing Lavinia die in the hands of the Capitol just underlined this.

And of course, the elephant in the room... The "I don't want to be another piece in their Games" rooftop scene. Firstly, even though Katniss is the unreliable narrator that she is, we can clearly see Peeta's true character in that scene, if we are not too caught up in Katniss' thoughts and can consider the possibility that Peeta isn't lying. That he values self-awareness, agency and staying true to yourself. Personally, that made me love him even more, wanting to resist the corruption. And of course, that makes his character arc even more tragic. That he became exactly what he resented. A piece in their Games, a monster he's not. And that is another reason I think Snow was watching them the entire time. Snow could have known from the Games that Peeta was against violence. That he adored Katniss. That he'd do anything to save her. But he couldn't have known that Peeta's dying wish was to stay true to himself. Not to be changed by the horrors of the Capitol. He couldn't know that Peeta would absolutely resent himself once he was lucid enough to realise what was going on. And also, yeah I am going to add that this scene might be my favourite foreshadowing of all time. I don't know if Suzanne had planned it all along, she probably didbut I like to think that she didn't, and instead her decision to hijack Peeta went like this:

Suzanne, rereading her own book: I'm stuck. What could I possibly do that will move the plot forward? But doesn't seem cheap? No, I have to reuse an idea. It'd be out of place to just invent facts about Panem. Wait a minute. I could turn a fan favourite (and Katniss favourite) character into an insane 17 y/o so that Katniss will be desperate for revenge and the story has a bit more Angst. The readers will hate me and I don't give a shit

Or maybe

Editor: The love triangle isn't working.

Suzanne: I know. I have expressed my opinion towards the love triangle

Editor: Yes, but it sells more. And you cannot just abandon the idea.

Suzanne: Who says that Katniss can't choose her own boyfriend in the middle of the book and not the end

Editor: Listen... There's still a lot people who like Gale. You can have anyone win her. In fact, I would advise you to stick with Peeta. But the idea of a romance between Gale and Katniss has to have a satisfying ending. So no one can doubt Katniss' decision. But it also needs to feel like a hard choice. Or maybe make it impossible to choose between them anytime before the end.

Suzanne: What if I make Gale kill Prim?

Editor: Wha-

Suzanne: And make him unfathomably annoying the entire book and have him become a violent b*itch because of the war.

Editor: What's preventing Katniss to choose-

Suzanne: What if I make Peeta go insane?

Editor: What!?

Suzanne: What if I make him go insane? He's already in the Capitol, it wouldn't be a hard feat

Editor: But then Katniss couldn't choose either of them!

Suzanne: Not permanently, idiot! You know I have a weakness for Peeta.

[wizard-irl]

Modern crystal healing: It opens your ~chakras~ you will attract ~abundance~ you will ~connect with the universe~

Medieval crystal healing: This shit makes you invisible, stops your periods from hurting, and makes your husband love you.

[lunar-wandering]

head hurty

[ruvviks]

what is the event/main cause that made roksana cut her mom off?

now this is interesting to talk about because it would be a very gradual process spanning over many many years but it would all come to explode during the events of the broker, despite that fic focusing on vitali; the events of that fic affect his whole family even though it doesn't elaborate much on the effects on his siblings. i initially had several chapters dedicated to roksana but had to cut it short and put it all in one chapter only but when i go for the rewrite i'm putting all of the initial ideas back because it's IMPORTANT. she and vitali are so similar in so many ways but also not at the same time. anyway ok yes here we go

so for roksana specifically she's kind of been a background character in the family ever since she was young. you'd think that after two other kids her parents would know how to parent her correctly but instead they just kind of let her do her thing and she got away with everything, which was nice in a way because it gave her freedom within the house itself but outside of that there was just nothing there for her. with the whole world to her disposal but nobody there with her to help her or keep her company through it all life just got suffocating to her in a way :(

she felt trapped in her family and her brothers always got the spotlight (mostly negative attention, since mainly their mother nadya was always just angry at vitali and after vitali left home daniil just kind of became her new therapist; but roksana did not really pay attention to this, all she saw was her brothers getting attention and not her), so roksana ended up fitting herself into all the boxes her parents wanted her to be in just to get some attention from them and get the love that she deserved. she was the family's poster child, but at the same time this whole role was an act of her, acting the way people expected her to act to get some respect and it was actively chipping away at her psyche, it stopped her from actually growing up and becoming her own person if that makes sense?? her personality was just fabricated specifically for her parents. but that's not who she was or wanted to be. but she knew nothing else

roksana and her father matvey have always had a very professional relationship. he was always busy with work and didn't do a lot of parenting so roksana came to see him more as a guy who lived under the same roof as her rather than her father; in the broker this escalates with matvey seeking revenge against vitali and roksana getting dragged into it and becoming a messenger girl in it all, but by then she's entirely neutral towards her father so there's not even bad blood between them when she stops talking to him; he's just a stranger to her. this is what much later allows her to hesitantly come back after vitali and matvey have made amends to try and build up that relationship again

roksana and her mother nadya however are a different story. the main difference is that roksana always hoped that nadya would understand; that she would understand the position roksana was in and understand her anger and her misery and her sorrows and regrets and that she would try to make it easier for her, give her some relief from the burdens she had to carry. but nadya refused to listen to roksana and refused to take her seriously (much like how she had always treated vitali; important to note that vitali is a trans man and to nadya he was still "her daughter"), not allowing her to show any sort of weakness because she herself had by then long killed her own weaknesses within herself and she expected roksana to do the same

and nadya got what she wanted. roksana grew up a cold and bitter woman, she let her anger win (contrasting vitali who after all this time STILL chooses kindness; if the roles for him and roksana had been reversed, though, he would have turned out the same as her, but the contrast and parallels between vitali and roksana is a story for another time) and she knows it's nadya's fault and she HATES her mother for it. she hates what nadya turned her into and she hates that she never got a normal childhood and she wants nothing more than to get out of there. this is why she vanishes from night city after her appearance in the broker fic, and why initially it is entirely unclear if she'll ever come back

so basically to summarize, nadya robbed roksana of her childhood and her softness and her ability to become her own person by forcing her to be the poster child of the family, and in classic dobrynin family fashion roksana tends to take grudges to her grave, so i don't really see her forgiving her mother for it any time soon. add to that the fact she sees nadya as the cause the entire family started crumbling apart in the first place (whether or not this is true is at this point very hard to tell because like, how far can you trace something like this back and who can be held responsible for what etc etc, but especially taking into consideration she never respected vitali's identity which is what drove him away from home, then did not allow him to reconnect which is what got him into arasaka, and THEN pushed matvey to get revenge after vitali indirectly got them fired at said corporation, and all of THAT is what drove daniil away from home and what caused roksana to change so drastically i'd say it's safe to say she is one of the bigger players in it all LMAO) AND doesn't feel comfortable around her anymore after her affair with ravager (nadya did that while still being married to matvey; they're divorced now), and there you go. mother privileges have been revoked

that being said, roksana does wish things were different. she stuck around for much longer than her brothers did almost in an attempt to fix things?? which again parallels vitali with how he also ends up trying to fix things in the broker fic but basically both of them fail and that's why roksana ends up leaving, she doesn't see the point in staying anymore because there's nothing there for her anymore :(

she does eventually come back to reconnect with vitali (most of their past beef was caused by twisted perspectives of the other's life at home as a child + daniil's rancid behavior bringing out the worst in both of them) and matvey (what i said earlier about them being strangers; no bad blood so an attempt can be made), but nadya has been cut off entirely and so has daniil for roksana because of how similar he is in his behavior to their mother, i talked a bit more about that here

this got very long i am so sorry i am positively insane about this family and all the dynamics. basically the tl;dr is that nadya gets worst mother of the year award forever and always

[thesnowflake18]

Help what does this mEAN?!?!

[sysig]

Muscles are fun (Patreon)

[hms-incorrect-quotes]

mind: a scourge to purge-

heart: okay i’m really enjoying this diss of me here, it’s… great but. scourge??? like warrior cats??? i thought i was the only one who read it who’s your favorite-

mind: not the character. the WORD. that WASN’T INVENTED BY WARRIOR CATS. ANYWAY due dilligence is all, silent sad outbursts

‎

[danthropologie]

I need to point out that in the daniel homecoming video they used the australia practise debrief as the behind the scenes look with daniel listening... you know, the practise where checo made mistakes and then blamed it on the car. You can even hear him again on the video saying 'we have a lot of work to do' as opposed to max who before that only said that the track was dirty. I just find it funny that they would choose THAT audio to put in the video. Like why that particular audio? This is also right before daniel says he will share his opinion if he's feeling strongly about it lol.

i'm not saying they're setting checo up (using his own bullshit against him) but!!! the evidence doesn't lie!!!

[omarwolaeth]

It's such a tiny innocuous thing that really doesn't matter, but I feel like calling duel monsters a children's card game (when it's fundamentally baked into everyday life, and your social existence is judged by what you play and how you play it so very intensely, for everyone in-universe) is an absolute injustice to what it is for that universe of people.

[introspectivememories]

tim and bernard give off major sasaki and miyano vibes

[theroseempress]

Dino ask time! I'm gonna pick my favorite dinosaur for this - Carnotaurus!

DINOSAUR YAY

Carnotaurus - share a scene that contains some cool worldbuilding

Yeah, so here's the thing, I haven't actually gotten to the 'proper writing' stage with any of my WIPs, and thus all of my worldbuilding simply sits either in my head or a document. However, I am in the proper writing stage of what I'm calling Renegades (a superhero story which is only in that stage by benefit of not having gone through the script stage first whoops), and here is a snippet from that!

Ft; a few tidbits about Ira's powers and also Ira's dynamic with Trick and HB. Does that count? I'm going to say it counts.

Ira strode down the hallway, staff tucked under his arm. I need a damn drink. Ira’s powers burnt off most kinds of alcohol too quickly for him to get drunk, but there were a few kinds that made him at least fuzzy-headed. (And yes, maybe this wasn’t a good time for it, but there were enough capes around that Ira could just suck in some extra energy and clear his head anyway) Biting back a growl, Ira resisted the urge to blast a hole through the nearest wall, instead clenching his hands into fists. Eversor. Destroyer. There were very few capes that dared to mess with Ira, especially when he was angry. And Ira was angry. He contemplated portaling to the kitchens instead, then shoved the idea away. His skin felt like it was tingling; that was never a good sign for his control. Make a portal now, and next thing you know he’d be blowing the building up. (Ira’s control over his powers was much shakier than most people realized. Paris and Laurel were the only other people who knew the ins and outs of Ira’s power as well as he did. Raw energy was much harder to manipulate than it seemed, and with his powers’ lack of an off-switch, Ira was a conduit for any he passed. … He was glad Paris and Laurel stayed around, much as he worried about losing control. There weren’t many people who would befriend a ticking bomb)

[holdharmonysacred]

Started writing a post about unit blorbofication and story depth in FE in light of the latest round of past FEs VS 3H VS Engage discourse, someone remind me to go back to writing it later when I get my brainpower back.

[drakonovisny]

i wanna play as dark urge and do some fucked up shit after i finish my first playthrough 👁️👁️

[infizero]

dr3 is sooooo fucking stupid for like so many reasons but biggest ones i will always champion is 1) there being a real chiaki that the AI was based on is STUPID, 2) changing it from junko being a master manipulator who manages to prey on the remnant's weaknesses and convince them to willingly join her to her just straight up brainwashing them is SUCH a dumb and lazy move and completely removes so much of their depth, and 3) while admittedly kinddd of sweet its WILDLYYYY ooc for hajime (AND THE OTHERS) at the end of 2.5 to just. act all friendly towards nagito as soon as he wakes up from his coma LIKE. mf that would take SO LONG for them to forgive him for all the shit he did in the program

[woodnrust]

I bought this new spray deodorant that's eucalyptus and birch scented and it's such a nice change from sandalwood and orange; every time I get a whiff I'm like mmm I smell good. Feels nice feels fresh and clean