#even 'they're an awful person but they're fun' is much more appealing than that

[eviltothecore13]

Is it just me or has fandom overall...changed a lot in how it talks about its favourite characters over the past few years?

It used to be people who really liked a character would be like “this character’s the best at everything, they can do no wrong, they’d win every fight, they have a plan for everything, they’re the coolest cleverest most attractive person in the whole story!!!”, and like...that could go too far, it could be annoying or just really really inaccurate compared to canon (I used to know a Jill fan who insisted that Jill could easily beat every single character in the series in a fight--and look, Jill is very cool, but Chris was canonically the best in hand-to-hand combat at STARS and was also training HER in marksmanship, Jill is of course extremely capable but...she really does not have to be the best at everything to prove why she’s your favourite...for that matter, Wesker fans who were like “Wesker in RE5 has to be a clone/a fake/whatever because the REAL Wesker would never LOSE because Wesker can’t make mistakes!”...always made me go *stop, please, it’s embarrassing*), but it did...make sense why someone who really loved a character would say these things about them?

But now it seems like the kind of comments people make about their favourite characters, and the way they portray them in fics, are...pretty much the opposite of that? People will be like “my blorbo is SO STUPID! they’re so useless they can’t do ANYTHING! they’re a pathetic weak little wet paper bag!”

Like, a few years ago if I’d seen a post saying things like that about a character I’d assume it was written by someone who hated them?

And obviously...sometimes a character you love is kind of a dork, or makes some silly mistakes sometimes. Other times a character you love is a terrible evil person. I’m not saying everyone should equate liking a character with thinking they’re perfect. But...most popular characters AREN’T actually completely stupid and incompetent at absolutely everything, and I can never quite get my head around it when people seem to hold this view of a character and it’s clearly not true, like...if you really think they’re pathetic, stupid, and can’t do anything right...do you really like them that much?

I’ve seen fandom call characters stupid/idiots when they are either science geniuses, or they’re brilliant inventors who build sci-fi gadgets, or they’re scheming chessmaster strategist types who manipulate all the other characters for years and come very close to taking over the world, or maybe they just canonically speak several languages and are well-read, or even if canon doesn’t focus much on their intelligence you’ve got characters like Chris who was a USAF fighter pilot--which means he has a degree, judging by the timeline probably an Air Force Academy one, which means he was likely in the top 3% of his high school classes and DEFINITELY didn’t “barely scrape through” as I often see headcanoned (not just by people who want to bash him but people who are like “I love him! He’s such a big dumb himbo! He’s so stupid!!” like. what.)

Similarly I see characters who are canonically very confident and self-assured, never really doubting themselves for a second, and who canonically react to things going wrong by calmly adapting their plans and moving forwards without ever getting discouraged, get tagged on posts about “pathetic wet paper bag men who’ve never had a good day in their life and an insult from a child would make them cry”.

Or characters who are shown in canon as dangerous, powerful and near-fearless fighters get written in fics, by people who say they’re their favourites, as spending all their time crying and flinching and not even trying to defend themself from whoever’s attacking/trying to hurt them (and not because they went through some major trauma previously in the fic that left them in this state, either--often the fic is set during canon and the character is just...like that rather than something having happened to change them from who they were at that point in their life in canon)... personally, while I enjoy whump, whumping a character who’s ALREADY weak and helpless and spends all their time curled up in a corner crying BEFORE whatever you do to them in the fic can easily just feel like kicking them while they’re down and is honestly boring because it doesn’t show anything NEW about the character, so it’s particularly odd to see fics written that way when the character in canon is exactly the confident powerful type that I do think is fun to whump.

(For a specific example, RE canon is that Wesker and Sergei had a rivalry and Wesker seems to view Sergei mostly with disdain and see him as an annoying obstacle. Wesker never gives any sign of being scared of or intimidated by Sergei, and certainly doesn’t seem to start panicking the instant Sergei enters a room. And even before he had his powers, he had extensive combat training by the time he met Sergei, and Sergei being taller and heavier doesn’t inherently mean that Wesker would be defenceless and go down in one punch in a fight, or even that Wesker would LOSE a fight against him. Canon doesn’t depict Wesker as a helpless victim for Sergei to beat up...hurt him by all means but it’s OOC if Wesker doesn’t give as good as he gets.)

Oh, and characters who are canonically master manipulators who are experts at getting people on their side and gaining their trust being portrayed as so socially awkward and clueless that they’re incapable of holding a conversation without coming across offputtingly weird...

Maybe I’m the odd one out here but I can’t really get why you’d want to present your favourite character as LESS capable, LESS intelligent, LESS brave or confident or powerful or whatever other impressive traits they might have in canon? Like I wouldn’t go so far as to say I ADMIRE all my favourite characters, because some of them are murderous evil monsters, but...I generally do see them as either having some kind of admirable personality trait (courage, integrity, confidence, determination... or maybe just a lot of charisma and a good sense of humour, though I feel like charisma tends to overlap with confidence a fair bit...), or at least as being very good at what they do. I can kind of get the appeal of the “sweet and kind and caring but not that bright ‘golden retriever man’ type”, even though they’re not usually MY type, because I know some people primarily like characters who they think it would be good to be friends with (and most of those types of characters aren’t USELESS, at the very least they tend to be good at listening and being supportive), but when someone’s favourite character is a bad person AND they seem to think they’re stupid, useless, incompetent and pathetic on top of being evil it’s like...so what do you even like about them?

[altraviolet]

TFOne!

I enjoyed it! Spoilery thoughts under the cut.

The scenery was so artfully and beautifully done!

-The way Iacon was built, with buildings coming up from the ground and down from the 'sky,' was so pretty! Actually, it's not until just NOW that I'm realizing how that works. The buildings are basically stalactites and stalagmites underground- attached to the ceiling and floor of an unimaginably huge cave.

-The surface! A fantastic feeling of awe as the characters rode up to the surface to find the stars and the landscape and the colors. The changing/rippling surface was super intriguing and I think that some of the first canon descriptions of Cybertron included that element - constantly changing landscape - but, citation needed. The wildlife and the flora were so pretty. I personally would've loved to see more about that, but I know in a kid's movie we have to focus on other things xD

-The character designs themselves I'm not super in love with, but they're not bad, they're fine. It was fun to watch the background for familiar characters, and MY GOD the "Jazz gets doorwingies and they bounce" moment was SO CUTE! Loved that.

The writing was totally fine. We definitely get invested in the characters. It was very nice to see the friends -> enemies pipeline in action. The moment Sentinel Prime mentioned his dead fellow Primes I thought, "lol bet you killed them" and yeah. As each scene progresses, you can easily predict what's going to happen plot-wise. But, you know, kid's movie, lol. You have a pretty simple premise, a few characters, some good dynamics... yeah, it did a good job balancing all that. If it weren't a kid's movie, it could've cut back on the 'humorous' moments (or made them less slapsticky) and spent more time on other things, and still retained the positive elements :D

Some things TFOne did very well that I hope future offerings from the franchise adapt:

-focus on smaller group of characters (especially if in a movie. a comic or serialized show can support a larger cast)

-focus on NOT THE WAR. we've seen it. we've seen iiiiiit 😭 give us more 'day in the life.' mining, racing- these are all nice glimpses into previously established, normal things. TF is science fiction: leaning into the worldbuilding for Cybertronians will add soooo much to the storytelling

-no humans 🎉🎉🎉🎉 this is a personal preference of mine, of course, but I would much rather watch the robots interact with each other, and their culture and their world, than see them come to earth and do the "revealed to humans" thing for the 4000th time. also, the humans are usually so annoying. my god. let the robots be the human analogs- that is what sci fi is. we see ourselves in other worlds, etc etc.

Where do we go from here, story-wise?

A quick recap of the conflicts in TFOne:

-OP-D friendship turmoil

-Sentinel Prime('s lies) vs the reality of the world

-Cybertronians vs Quintessons

By the end this changes to:

-OP vs Meg, and by extension, Autobots vs Decepticons

(-Sentinel Prime is dead)

-Quintessons are still out there soooo...??

It's a natural segue to The (civil) War, but the external threat from the Quintessons still exists. It'd be interesting to see what a sequel did, addressing that. OP would be fighting two fronts... which would naturally push the Autobots to finally abandon Cybertron, which is what leads to Earth landings and meeting with humans. But the movie ends with Cybertron overflowing in energon: now it's even more appealing to the Quintessons.

idk man. I'd love to see a different solution to what we've seen before.

anyway, this is long enough. I do recommend seeing the movie, if you can. It's visually stunning and fun. I hope it does well so that Uncle Hasbro dumps more money into this kind of storytelling.

On a personal note, I saw this with the 2 friends I saw RoTB with last year, and afterwards, we posed in front of the giant poster stand thingy in the movie theater lobby. My friend held up a finger like ☝️ as in "one" as in TF One, lol, so now when I think of this movie it comes with that sign

TF☝️

[notyouraryang0dd3ss]

One lowkey thing that kinda drives me insane about Taylor Swift is discussion about her music. I don't know how to explain this properly but... (sorry for the long ask)

She's not an excellent singer. She's fine, but as a good example from her own discography: look at Florida feat. Florence. Florence singing her verse made me wake up in that album and made me realize how the song could've been delivered! She sings it in a much more interesting way than Taylor did. This isn't even to speak towards other popular artists like Beyonce, Ariana, Lana, Olivia, Billie, etc. who all have their own signature vocal styles and delivery that are impressive and make their songs.

I don't know. It feels bizarre to have one of the biggest pop artists in the world to have such mediocre vocals. TTPD as an album I feel partly got killed because of the way she's so samey about her vocal delivery.

But her fans would say no it's not about the vocals, it's the songwriting. But then TTPD songwriting was meh and just awful at some parts (the 1800s racist line is weird. period. I don't care whatever essay defense they give it). What now? What's the appeal? Why does she get to release something mediocre and get all the attention and praise when some artists have released great albums this year?

Then there's also when she gets the weirdest praise for the mildest things that other musicians have done. Album eras? "Oh, she's so cool and different for that!" No, she didn't invent them, shut up. An album of fictional songs with a story? They act as if concept albums don't exist! The most minor of genre shifts (she's primarily exploring different types of pop) are treated as experimental and groundbreaking. The most milquetoast and shallow political music she ever wrote (YNTCD and The Man) are seen as iconic moments of speaking out. Like what?

It's just frustrating me. I remember when someone told me she screamed in some songs in TTPD (Who's Afraid of Little Old Me and The Black Dog iirc) and I listened to that album and I thought they were joking with me because what do you mean scream??? Why does she get praised for so much mediocrity holy shit!

I think this is why when I hear people say that there's swifties that only mainly listen to Taylor and Taylor-adjacent artists, I believe them. I feel like they're making so many impressed remarks about her work because that's all they know. That's how we get genre takes like someone saying Rep is punk or how they want her to make a rock album. I feel like that's how we get stupid stuff like Gaylors too. Because why listen to actually out queer artists if you can just reimagine your fave artist as queer?

Honestly, I just don't understand the attachment to her music? Every time someone tells me it's because she's relatable, I just shake my head because she's never been relatable to me, even back when I enjoyed her songs. Maybe I'm too un-USAmerican for this, but she was never very universal for me. I enjoyed her because she did fun pop songs. But now I've realized she's so frustratingly shitty as a person, I can't listen to her.

Sorry for the rant, but it's been hard to find a space for this without getting attacked by swifties (especially as a poc).

(1/2)

[antianakin]

Why do you think people are fascinated/like the Dark Side? IMO they’re all cringe losers at best and space nazis at worst. I don’t get the appeal at all.

The main message of Star Wars is that anyone can fall to darkness, the path there isn't quick and starts with being scared. We've all been scared before, we can all relate to how that feels and how we've reacted to it. We've probably all reacted to it BADLY in one form or another before. And this message is primarily given to us via the villain characters, most obviously through Anakin. So it isn't particularly shocking that people relate to Anakin or any of the other many villain/antagonist characters that Star Wars has given to us over the years (from Anakin to Dooku to Maul to Ventress to Barriss to Bode Akuna to Reva Sevander to Baylan and Shin to Dedra Meero and Syril Karn, the list is almost endless).

Because these characters are so relatable and often started from such promising beginnings, it's often very easy to want them to do better because you want to believe that YOU can do better in your own life, too, that you can live up to your own promise. Even if you feel like you've hit rock bottom, even when things seem impossible, there's always the option to do better and be loved.

By comparison, a lot of the more heroic characters aren't shown to be struggling as much or aren't struggling with the same things. Mace's struggles are pretty much all external, they're more about exposing flaws in the system around him than about exposing his own personal flaws. Obi-Wan's primary arc is about learning to have faith in the will of the Force and in someone else, something a lot more cosmic and ethereal and cerebral than Anakin's arc about being scared of losing people.

So yeah, they're awful people, they're complete and utter losers, but that is, in some ways, what makes them relatable to so many people. These people become the worst they can possibly be, they hit absolute utter rock bottom, and the message still always remains that they CAN do better if they wanted to. They always have the choice, no matter what atrocities they commit. And that's a powerful message that's going to grab a LOT of people, by design.

The other end of this, however, is just aesthetics. For some people, the Dark Side aesthetics are just fun. Sure, they're space Nazis, but they're also just fictional characters. Enjoying a fictional character, even a space Nazi, isn't a crime. People can enjoy the fictional character and recognize that they'd hate this person in real life at the same time. I do! I've said more than once that I genuinely really like Palpatine. Is he a space Nazi and the personification of pure evil? Yes. But he's just SO entertaining, he's so INTO being evil in a way nobody else is on Star Wars and I fucking love that. I love how much joy he gets out of murdering people. I love how well he's able to just switch strategies when the scenario starts to change in a way he doesn't like and he turns an opponent's victory against them in the 11th hour. I just enjoy him as a plain dealing villain in the story (most of the time, I'm less entertained by his Sequels appearance). A lot of people have this same feeling about characters like Maul, or Ventress, or Aurra Singh, or literally any other villain you can think of. Sometimes it's just not that deep. Palpatine makes me laugh because he's a fictional character who doesn't exist and the consequences of his choices will never affect me because they aren't real.

I've liked many a villain or antagonist character, my dislike for some of them doesn't mean I don't like ANY of them. A good villain/antagonist can often be what turns a story from good to great, and they're often designed to be enjoyable.

[fractualized]

hi randomly picking your brain here! (imagine a literal batjokes brain picking situation though...)

I really like stories with a villain/hero ship, but I feel like they're always in favor of the hero -- tons of aus and potential with reformed joker (AND I LOVE THEM!!!)

but also, I personally love corruption AUs, and I love the idea of the villain reforming the hero. pulling the hero to the allure of the dark side and finally accepting some of the appeal that villainy brings to the table. being able to foster their love in an environment where their desire is no longer focused on others but themselves... and I know some of that happens with the batman who laughs, but I was wondering if you had any thoughts on joker successfully corrupting batman?

maybe it would be a fundamental crack in their foundation and wouldn't work in some iterations, but I love a challenge! maybe joker could convince Bruce that joker+batman on the same side of evil is less damage, more control, and more fun than batmanvs.joker on opposing sides. maybe less death would happen if Batman would play by jokers rules for a while! I feel like Bruce would at least explore the potential for that in his own head, even if he may not agree in canon, typically... even if it's just to play the long game and come back out again a stronger hero.

what do you think? 🫀

I haven't toyed around much with the idea of Joker corrupting Bruce. I've written Bruce doing shady/awful things, but they stem from his own issues and are usually, uh, bad for Joker.

The Batman Who Laughs basically illustrates why the idea's never grabbed me. Joker has built his life around acting in opposition to Batman. That's what he thinks is fun, getting under Bruce's skin. If Batman joined him in pure destruction, the challenge between them is gone. It's not their roles. It's why Joker considers TBWL an offense to the natural order. And more simply than that, I think Joker would get bored. It's the same as when he succeeds at killing Batman: yay, he did it! And… now what? It's easier to see Joker being reformed— or "reformed"— because there's still lots of ways he can start shit. 😂

Plus on Bruce's part, I can't think of a reason he would take that kind of turn that doesn't feel like a stretch, other than having his brain chemistry altered as in the case of TBWL. Like I did have the idea once of doing an inverted Halfway Across, in which Bruce gives up and joins Joker— but part of the inverse is that this story is a comedy and Bruce is just really bad at being evil. He'd drive Joker nuts by only stealing what they really need, giving people a chance to escape traps, freeing animals Joker tries to test on, etc. Which gets at the "less damage" aspect you mentioned, but I could still never think of a great reason Bruce would cross over to start with, even a goofy comedy reason.

But then again, that assessment is based on more modern takes on the characters. I could see it more with earlier versions, when Joker is obsessed with Batman but his crimes revolve around getting money or jewelry or funsies. Bruce is goofier too, and he hasn't, you know, dealt with any dead children.

And of course there are AUs, like in Telltale, where John starts out wanting Bruce's approval so it's easier to see him compromising with Bruce than your standard Joker. So you could have a universe where Bruce isn't as stringent about his principles— but then it feels less like corruption, and you lose the fun!

Hmmm, there is Omega in Last Knight on Earth. Joker was not a fan, but maybe we take a similar scenario. There's an utter catastrophe, and Bruce is broken, and when he has the choice to rally his usual worldview like he always does, Joker is there and convinces him otherwise. But then I still come back to: would Joker get bored? Maybe that's just part of the story. Joker is entertained by guiding Evil Novice Bruce for a while, but inevitably turns on him, mocking him for abandoning the principles that made him such a great nemesis. And then Bruce realizes he's truly lost everything! 🙃

[kyouka-supremacy]

What are the things you like or appreciate about shin soukoku? /gen

(˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

I like sskk! I like everything about them. I feel like there's just so much to unpack about them, and there's no end to it!! After all this time I'm still finding out new possible dynamics and ways to interpret their relationship, it's so much fun. They're both very very complex characters, and their dynamics together are pretty awesome? There's the whole deal– I hate myself, so I have to hate you, because you're just like me. It's sooo cool. It's nice to see characters who hate themselves so much, but who also try to do better (Atsushi), try to be better (Akutagawa). They're both so so complex individually, and I simply adore what becomes of them when they come together. I think that when they're together, their individual characterization shines the brightest, because they're souls precisely created as parts of the same whole. And I've written about this forever ago, but I really like how their journey goes from hating each other to loving each other to loving themselves, I think it's a very nice concept to explore.

It's just a... Low-pressure ship in a lot of ways? It's something very very comforting to think about for me. As a ship, it constantly feels like saying “yeah, you do kind of suck. That doesn't mean you can't be loved.” It's just such a sweet sentiment for me!! It's not saying one shouldn't try to be better, but sometimes you do feel like you're utterly bad and unlovable, and there's no helping it; and sskk is there telling you “look. Here's two of the worst people on earth. One of them is unlovable by definition. And they still have in them to love, and to be loved.'” It's just :')

I genuinely love how both of them are kind of awful people. I mean, there's probably not a single thing about their moral code I agree with. But for some reason that makes them very compelling to explore? It's interesting to engage with characters that share worldviews so strikingly different from mine. Them having such fucked up ideals, so many flaws and selfish goals, makes them feel terribly human, and also makes them very sympathetic, in a way. They're a true mess, but one that reminds me so much of how sloppy and incoherent humans are like. Them being so distant from me greatly adds to their appeal tbh! Generally, I have a very strong moral code, and I try to do the right thing, while they're terribly selfish and self-survival driven. I'm mostly perceived as a woman, and they are two men with superpowers who fight and die for each other. I like reading about characters I can't see anything of myself in! I already have enough of myself irl lol.

Now that I think about it, I really really love how they don't mince words. Again, it's something personal, but I heavily dislike the habit of using euphemisms to sugarcoat reality. Sometimes things are unpleasant and ugly, and trying to deny it feels insulting more often than not. Sskk are always very direct, and never hesitated to tell what they think to the other's face, even if it comes at the cost of throwing insults; weirdly enough, it's something I appreciate. I think deep down, they appreciate it too.

The perspective of having someone who makes your true nature emerge is nice. Again, instead of mincing words and faking it, it's nice to imagine there's someone who could see them for who they really are, and loves them still. It's compelling to explore the true terror anyone would feel from being completely naked in front of someone else, but at the same time the sort of relief that comes with it? “This is the part of me I've always beaten up and suppressed and hidden. Look! Isn't that deeply disgusting? Yet that is nothing but the real me.”

The whole complementary-in-everything thing hits that specific part of my ocd brain that has me do stuff like organize my posts in a coherent string so that every post is connected to the previous, have every post posted at a round number timespan, count the pixels in every single picture I trim etc. Atsushi is mostly white in his design and Akutagawa is mostly black but the colors are reversed when they use their abilities combined. Atsushi is good and Akutagawa is evil. Tiger & dragon & cat & dog. Blue and red. government-affiliated job and mafia. Healthy and regenerating vs. sick and decaying. Loved & hated. Attractive and hideous. One loves reading and the other finds it unnerving, one knows how to cook and the other is a cooking disaster, one likes coffee and the other likes tea, early bird and night owl, so on and so forth. Then, the fact that when they come together they end up looking so deeply similar is kind of neat, it's like there's some sort of Hegelian synthesis in their love.

Their canon moments are truly great and exciting. I care relatively little about the amount of moments a ship has in canon– an interesting dynamic is an interesting dynamic no matter their screentime, right? And you're free to imagine what the characters interacting would be like in your head any time. And while I still like to believe their relationship would still be very compelling even without the moments they share, wow. Their canon screentime is crazy, it's outstanding. I think the depiction of their dynamics in canon is exceptionally good, and extremely well-written. The “the words of your past are fundamentally unrelated to who you are now”, the Atsushi wearing Rashomon, the “you damn fool // hurry up and go”, the “just the two of us?”– they're all such epic and sublime moments, every time they leave the reader gaping and bewildered and, frankly, wondering if that really happened. And their scenes are so consistently homoerotically charged!! From the “it's been reserved solely for you today” to the “the man-tiger's my main dish” to the “their eyes met. Akutagawa's lips moved, mouthing the words I found you” to the “once this is done, I'm going to teach you things other than ‘killing’ ” to the “as long as I can't deny your very being, I'll never be able to move forward” to the “don't touch me! Disgusting!” to the “I'm sorry”. From Akutagawa piercing Atsushi with Rashomon to kicking him to getting unnecessarily close to his face. From every second they've spent admiring each other to the way they call out each other's names with so much passion. The list goes on forever. And chapters 84-88 are short to a masterpiece. The characters' growth is madly well-executed, how we see them go through it almost step-by-step, and it's all so consistent, and it's all so human.

Finally, the picture that made me go “Ah! There's something about them!” for the first time. It's very dear to me :)

It's got Atsushi being cute and Akutagawa looking at him with a fairly undecipherable expression that yet is distinctively non-hostile, and this precise illustration made my brain go “Wow, what if Akutagawa actually had a soft spot for Atsushi. What if there was tenderness in his eyes.” Then it all went downhill from there ahah

[jellysxtarr]

Explaining and (hopefully) proving Melanie Martinez is a bad person in general and shouldn't get supported !!

I want to start off strong and say that no, I don't support Timothy's actions and they shouldn't get justified for the things she has done. Want I do want, is for Timothy and other victims to get justice on their SA case or other. (SA is not a joke, believe the victims!!)

This post has multiple sections and will cover (almost) everything from top to bottom, take some of my words with a grain of salt as they took me months to find and even provide. Of course, if you do have any more information I couldn't find myself, I will look into it once mentioned and update this post eventually.

1. NFT's

This was pretty well known if I remember correctly, Melanie sold NFTs featuring a crying elephant, a duck looking into a mirror, a claustrophobic teddy bear and a flying cow that was..well, lactating. (Oddly it seemed sexual too which is yikes!!)

Those NFT's still exists and can be viewed right here.

The only reason I'm mentioning this is to bring it back up again, even with how minimal is may seem to other allegations, it's best to bring up past behaviors and what not.

NFT's are bad, they're harmful for the environment, buying, creating or even selling NFT's can cause pollution or e-waste, they're unnecessary.

2. CP (Child Porn)

This allegation has recently been outed, Melanie has been doing CP with none other than her own character Crybaby. I have seen that others made fun of it too (which honestly, isn't funny! Don't make jokes about child porn even if it's a fictional character!! Most things that happen in fiction happen often in reality).

Melanie has posted a "work in progress" drawing featuring her character topless, A CHILD, topless. Drawing a child (Crybaby) even if it's a fictional character (albeit, it also did count has Melanie's weird persona) anything of a child drawn sexually can legally count as CP, which is absolutely disgusting.

I would mention the coloring book too, but as I didn't see all the pages I shouldn't comment on it much. But from what I have seen, it's worth to mention it in this section too.

3. Pedophilia

A strong word but it's worth to mention. I'm sure Melanie's theme about "infants, children" and whatnot are obvious. Those childlike songs with a undertone of sexual stuff can be easy to ignore if you don't listen to the lyrics.

Melanie Martinez's whole theme revolves about her character, Crybaby, who goes through stages of life while growing up featured with sexual stuff. I want to still mention that Crybaby is a CHILD. It's unnecessary of Melanie Martinez to make a child appeal sexually even (cough, Pacify Her music video, Training Wheels lyrics and music video).

Another thing I wanna mention is K-12, a movie and album once again revolving about children. The movie was bad (and, if I remember correctly, even she worked with a pedophile on set while aware which is a big yikes!!), as far as I saw, everybody has seen that the "Teacher's Pet" song and scene was unnecessary to add (considering the character was also nude in that scene, it's once again CP).

While the characters don't have a specific age, they're in high school!! HIGH SCHOOL, they're still children for crying out loud.

In short, Melanie has shown pedophilic behavior in albums and songs.

4. Bad Treatment towards friends and Co-workers

While it isn't as, "well known" per say, it has been said by Gina Frey (i deeply apologize for the bad quality in that image! Finding this was very difficult and I can't seem to find one with one that was more readable) who was friends with Melanie back then has said she dealt with Melanie Martinez's awful behavior and treatment towards her, I want to add that Allison Balchi had shortly mentioned she didn't get the best treatment either.

Stella Rose (she will once again be mentioned in a different section) also appears to be on the same boat as Gina Frey And Allison Balchi.

While I am not sure with what exactly has also happened with the artist of the Crybaby coloring book, the artist has mentioned that they don't want to do anything with Melanie anymore and won't return to her either (from my choice, it was best to add it here since the artist not wanting to do anything with Melanie anymore can count here).

5. Rapist Allegations

Before you go and mention "well!! Innocent until proven guilty!!!" This won't work, it's GUILTY until proven innocent. If you were brought to court you would not even be near innocent but counted as guilty.

I think we all know this has resurfaced (and thank God it did! This allegation is not a joke do NOT shove it aside), but it's also obvious which side people are on.

Timothy Heller has returned to the internet to speak about her SA case once again, while negativity has returned, a fair share took Timothy's words seriously and drove away from Melanie. Even with the mention of it being "debunked, Timothy lied Melanie innocent yippie!!" That is false.

Timothy didn't lie, Melanie has out right stated that it did happen, too.

A lack of no doesn't mean yes. And, even with some extra words added, she never said no stands out the most. Melanie made two tweets, one admitting the situation and the other THANKING her fans for bullying Timothy off the internet. How do you people not see anything wrong with that??

"Timothy got the dates mixed up!! Oh and the pictures don't add up either!!" I will be blunt and say victims of SA wouldn't remember the dates, that would be the LAST thing a victim would care about. And about the pictures, Timothy's gallery was bugging out, someone else who had the same type of phone Timothy had said that they had also have something like that happen.

Some screenshots about messages Timothy had sent were fake, edited, made up by Melanie's dickriders to silence Timothy.

Allegedly, when Timothy first said her statement about Melanie back then, one of Melanie's fans hacked her account, changed everything around it and left it with a laugh. Which should also say enough about Melanie's fans.

But Timothy wasn't the only one, Madeleine Carina and Stella Rose have also said something when Timothy spoke up about her situation, which by surprise got ignored as Timothy was at the center of everyone's attention.

I want to say on Madeleine's statement that she was peer pressured into saying yes to sleeping with Melanie, which is once again, NOT consented.

Getting pressured to say yes even if you DON'T want to COUNTS as a form of sexual assault and it flies over everybody's heads. I hope the victims get justice, it's sad to see that millions of people would rather believe a potential rapist (with oh so many allegations on her back already) than a potential victim.

I want to once again say, believe the victims! It's scummy of people to be well aware and still brush it off when it's right in front of their face (and seeing how people on TikTok act with wanting Melanie to rape them instead is fucking repulsing).

Melanie isn't a great person, her silence on the current situation says a lot, even going as far to ignore them. I hope this is her fucking down fall cause she honestly had it coming, she does not deserve her fame.

[humorisstoredinthetits]

Chansaw.

So am I the only one who finds Chansaw kinda... boring? Not to say its a bad ship or its unhealthy or that there's a fundamental issue with the paring, I just feel like out of all the Heather x Veronica or Heather x Heather ships Chansaw is the least interesting.

Like for example;

(Also I will be talking only about canon, bc fanon opens up a whole new can of worms, plus fanon is based off the characters and their interactions from canon)

Chandlamara - My personal favorite, there's so little between them in the show, but what we do have lays foundations for so much. We know that Mac considered Chandler to be her best friend, she took her to school more often then not, and that her death threw a wrench into Mac's mental stability. And from what we can tell from their interactions, Mac was the only person Chandler didn't treat like shit, never telling her to shut up or demeaning her. There's so much that can be done with the how and why between them, like why does Chandler seem to respect Mac? Why does Mac consider her to be her best friend? With them, sometimes less is more.

McDuke - With McDuke, Duke hurt Mac badly over the course of the show, and for a relationship to EVER exist between them, Duke would have to undergo significant changes as a person, forcing her to confront her shitty actions. The struggle for her to change mixed together with the desire to change for Mac is the meat and potatoes of this ship. There's a lot for Mac too, because in all honesty she is under no obligation to forgive Duke, what she did was awful, but at the same time she sees the effort Duke puts in and the sincerity in her apologies and maybe, just maybe, she slowly starts to forgive her.

McNamayer - Veronica is Mac's Knight in Shining Armor during the show, rescuing her when she was at her lowest, so naturally Mac would start to develop admiration and a genuine friendship with her. And for Veronica, after the craziness with JD, Mac is a normal person for her to turn to, and proof that some people can change, which is Veronica's whole thing. They're the closest thing to healthy in Heathers, because they can both rely on each other to help during the darkest times.

Chanduke - Going from the most healthy to the least, Chanduke would be an absolute nightmare if it was canon. Chandler and Duke are horrible to each other, there's no doubt about it. That's part of the intrigue with them. How can two people who hate each other's guts also love each other? What keeps them together when they clearly can't stand the other? The other part is how they would make it work. Just like McDuke, they would both have to change drastically, and part of that would be confronting the other about how they've been treated and having to move past it. It would be a rocky road, but that's the fun in it.

Dukesaw - Duke and Veronica have a lot more common than they would like to admit. They're both rather intelligent, bookish people who have nasty tempers and tend to gravitate towards toxic people (Chandler and JD). Obviously they would have some chemistry, and it would be interesting to see them recognizing bad influence's in the other's life, but fail to see the exact same thing in their own. Like Duke calls out Veronica for hanging out with JD bc he's insane and brought a gun to school, while Veronica calls her out saying that she's one to talk, she is friends with Heather fucking Chandler, people call her the Demon Queen for a reason, only for them to both slowly realize that they are hypocrites.

Now to give Chansaw some credit, I can see the appeal. Enemies to lovers is very popular for a reason, hell I even mentioned it as why Chanduke is so intriguing to me. Plus, the aspect of taking someone under your wing is a good setup for a relationship story, but at least to me it's just so overdone, like there's only so much you can do between them before you get bored with it. Not to say all Chansaw fics and art are bad or boring, just that I myself am bored with how same-y it all feels.

Aaaand thats why I like PolyHeathers+Veronica so much, because who cares about which dynamic is better when you can just have all of them at the same time /j

[doggendoodle]

It's especially interested how bad the Minecraft movie feels when you compare it to other video game movies nowadays.

Like. For example, the Mario movie in concept was simple. Adapt the basic structure of what a Mario platformer is (person gets kidnapped and Mario saves them) with Mario's alternate backstory of being from Brooklyn as an excuse to make him an easier viewpoint character. And Super Mario is THE video game franchise so it's an easy money grab.

Except they didn't make an easy money grab. They made a kid's movie that respected the kids who play the games, they made references to the games and incorporated them into the movie in a way that enhanced the story, and they did this while still understanding the spirit of the franchise.

Mario and DK being rivals but still coming together to fight a greater evil. The Bros.' relationship being the emotional core of the movie. Bowser being portrayed perfectly as a goofy yet still threatening villain. They even incorporated Mario Kart into the story without it feeling tacked on. They took the world of Mario seriously and treated it with respect - they made a world that's goofy and charming but still lived-in, without making it edgy or "realistic" just to "appeal" to adults.

Most people apologising to Minecraft Story Mode are probably doing it as a joke, but like. They already understood this and worked through it. Even in the first game which features a grand adventure, the adventurers are people from the world of Minecraft, and the epic invasion was a horror unleashed by accident, like the Wither it's based on.

Later episodes and seasons play more into the inherent fantastical elements of Minecraft, with the Far Lands and the End as eldritch, alien places. They also reference the community aspects of Minecraft: power-hungry server admins, fan-created games like Spleef, fantastical redstone contraptions, even the Minecraft YouTuber murder mystery.

And even being a movie instead of an episodic game isn't an automatic death sentence - hell, if you really wanted to stick to the base game of Minecraft, you could showcase the joy of exploration that is a much more common and more core experience than big epic boss fights.

That moment in the trailer, where there's a log floating in the broken tree and the boy reaches out for it? The one at the start where they're looking around at the world and the camera lets us see the surroundings? Those are great moments, because that's how it feels to play Minecraft. I've seen and heard kids play the game, I know that's still how they experience it. If you're going to make it into an epic, make it into an epic journey and show off the world. The vistas we've seen do genuinely look gorgeous, like someone transplanted

Even the visual design plays into this. The weirdly realistic mobs Detective Pikachu/Sonic style do not work. Detective Pikachu still looks uncanny to me, but the world of Pokémon is meant to be similar to the human world, and Pokémon are meant to be animals. The world of Sonic is Earth, and the redone design for Sonic and the other animal characters is beautiful; it really does feel like Sonic exists in a world overlaid on ours, more fantastical but still in reach.

The Minecraft movie trying to have its blocky cake and eat it too just feels like a shoddy compromise. The wolf howling at the moon doesn't look epic or awe-inspiring, it looks bad - in fact it's not even on model. They deliberately made it look blockier, for some reason. The invading piglins have realistic armour, and clothes, but their bodies are desperately trying to fit the voxel shapes and it all feels at odds. And of course the pink sheep and llama look god awful.

Combined with the human characters being Regular Humans, it feels more like some random friend group making a home movie than a fucking big budget production - and honestly, it loses some of the fun and appeal of portal fantasy.

I will say, it does look like they will visit the Nether at some point.

[ID: screenshot from the trailer. The scene is dark and lit by lava waterfalls originating above the frame, but the scenery resembles a Bastion. There are several piglins staring at the young male main character, whose head is peeking into frame. End ID]

Given they're shooting for the "marauding piglin" angle it's probably too much to ask, but the scene cuts away at this point instead of transitioning into that standard shot where all the mobs roar at the main character, so part of me is hoping that maybe this scene won't be at the climax, and we'll get to actually experience the piglins as nuanced mobs.

[illarian-rambling]

Thanks for the tag @gioiaalbanoart!

Writblr Interview

Short stories, novels, or poems?

Oh, definitely novels. Even my short stories are pretty long lol

What genre do you prefer reading?

Fantasy, sci-fi, anything fun :)

What genre do you prefer writing?

Definitely fantasy with some heavy steampunk flavor

Are you a planner or a write-as-I-go kind of person?

I'll usually plot out a vague plan for each chapter, but no further than that. Short stories, I pretty much just wing it on.

What music do you listen to while writing?

It's gotta be instrumental or I can't pay attention. I tend towards a mix of video game music, classical, and jazz. Each of my characters has their own spotify playlist linked in my pinned post, so if you're looking for 6 to 8 hours of instrumental music, be my guest :)

Fave books/movies?

Favorite books are anything by Sanderson, the Foundryside Trilogy, and the Kingkiller Chronicles. My favorite movies are the lotr trilogy.

Any current WIPs?

My rotating roster is Honor's Outcasts and The Mystery of the Mortal God. The Final Voyage of the R.S Starbreaker is one I keep on backburner, and I'm currently working on an untitled short story.

If someone were to make a cartoon out of you, what would your standard outfit be?

Probably my work clothes ngl. A fishing shirt tucked into cargo pants, tucked into mud boots with a sun hat and mosquito net. My hair is in pigtails and I'm covered in bug spray. I probably smell musty as hell.

Create a character description for yourself

A tall young woman with a fuckass blonde bob, probably a checked-out expression on her face, and really awful tan lines. She's always wearing a necklace and usually some painted boots. The aesthetics are somewhere between punk and rustic.

Do you like incorporating people you actually know into your writing?

Nah, it's never appealed to me

Are you kill-happy with characters?

Not really, but I've been known to make exceptions

Coffee or tea while writing?

Girl, water. I need hydration lol

Slow or fast writer?

I'm not sure what the metric is exactly, but I'd say decently fast, though it depends on how my life is going also.

Where/who/what do you find inspiration from?

My own brain, books and shows I like, dreams, all sort of places

If you were put into a fantasy world, what would you be?

Probably some sort of alchemist who lives in a basement and eats toads

Most fave book cliche?

Thwarted prophecies. I love it when something goes wrong in a way that's correct to the letter. This is a little ironic, as if never written a prophecy once.

Least fave book cliche?

When characters are overly whiny, but especially when they whine about cool stuff. Like, sorry your shape-shifting abilities are making you question your humanity, but rip to you, I'm different. The only exception to this dislike is if they're whiny in a funny way. Anything is forgivable in literature if it's entertaining.

Fave scenes to write?

Probably those high tension fight scenes or anything with emotional stakes that isn't just a ton of dialog

Most productive time of day for writing?

I'd say early afternoon, but I have more free time to write at night

Reason for writing?

These characters are my friends. Giving up would be abandoning them. Also, I legitimately enjoy reading my own writing.

I'll tag @thecomfywriter @albatris @sm-writes-chaos and anyone else who wants to play :)

[arthurtaylorlester]

whispers into your inbox "jmart was the worst thing that could have happened in tma; it wrecked Jon's character and is the most transparent 'how do we not have our mc become suicidal?' I have ever seen. TMA then falls into the hole of the only important or good enough relationships being romantic, discarding previous character development to throw everything into romance solves all ~ ♡ I hate it and I hate how much Jon is woobified and infantilized in the fandom to drool over Martin and I hate how everyone acts like their relationship is good, when I think either of them with 5 years of a normal life would realize how awful the relationship was for both of them." Anyway lol I expect no response or post of this I am just being spicey on anon

oh anon you thought i was gonna see a take like this and not post it?

i need you to out yourself to me because goddamn this is an interesting take!

look, i love jmart, but even with 5 seasons of development they still somehow managed to feel rushed?

i disagree in that their relationship being unhealthy is a bad thing for them, because like the appeal of podcasts for me is the fucked up relationships. fucked up characters = fucked up relationships, yknow? like john and arthur from malevolent, normally, they'd hate each other without much of a second thought, but that's not the point, they love each other despite that, and that kind of extends to jmart for me.

i also totally agree with the fandom criticism, woobifying jon is like the only tma content i see on twt and it is soooooo annoying.

my personal qualms with tma however is in part the lore decisions and how the fandom treats the lore (and also the whole podcast).

s1 is easily the best season, mostly because you have no fucking idea what's going on, but after s2 things really start feeling like they're being drawn out, at least to me? like i think season 3-4 couldve been one thing, and um. season 5 is fun if you like jmart and the eye ig. i know most of this is a gross oversimplification (not forgetting yall basira&daisy fans) but after the core cast of season 1-2 i could not really get the other characters being fundamental in the story (not georgie. i love georgie)

don't get me wrong, the not-sasha arc was amazing! but after tim died, and martin fucked off for most of a season being sad, i was a bit bored. the buried isnt interesting to me sorry.

and also they under-utilize basically every fear, including the eye, and the one that upsets me the most is the stranger. oh what is it? circus and clowns ig. LIKE OPEN UP YOUR EYES THE WORLD IS OPEN TO YOU THE UNCANNY VALLEY AS SO MANY NICHES PLEASE

and by the end of the show, it just feels like they keep rotating the same 3 fears, and the others just kind fade into the bg

and then there's the fandom. i'm sorry but some of you guys act like tma is the end-all-be-all of fiction horror podcasts. when it's just not. sorry, but the magnus archives, after s1, just isnt scary. you know what's going on, the fears! which are neatly tied into these categories of oddities!

and the show explicitly states that the 14 fears categorization is arbitrary and that they all bleed into one another, but the fandom just. ignores that? like i've heard so many people go to other podcasts and say ''oh x is so eye avatar-coded!!'' and then x just has some vague eye symbolism that isnt even the point (this is about arthur lester)

and like i don't understand how tma manages to be the most mainstream fiction podcast nowadays, when welcome to night vale is right there ! and yes, i am implying that wtnv is objectively better than tma, because wtnv despite running for 12 goddamn years has never bored me with an episode, and it has roughly the same amounts of episodes! they both have similar formats that could repetitive quick (radio show vs statements) and even though i'd say statements have more creative freedom, wtnv still manages to not be boring. this might also just be a fact of better and more varied authors but hey, this is just my opinion

i want it to be clear that i'm not trying to start discourse, i still like tma! the fanartists are some of the most talented artists i've seen, and the fics are just aughhhhhhhhhhhh /pos

[demonsfate]

Pretty much this. In the end, all the condemnation for Jin's actions, the pointing fingers and accusing him of "being bad," is just general hatred for Jin. Even if TK6 never happened, I'm sure people would have other reasons to hate him. (Other common hate not including TK6 actions is that he's boring, a homophobic slur, whiny, or a Kazuya clone).

I think the reason for this really boils down to Jin being a hard character to like. I don't think he's unlikeable at all, the dude's my favorite character... but I think it's hard for the general audience to really get into him. Lee & Kazuya are easier to like due to their "charming" personalities. Lee is oftentimes funny and very flamboyant. Kazuya is may be an awful awful person, but he's confident, expressive, and badass. Meanwhile Jin doesn't have any of those traits. Jin is much more reserved, and he limited in his expressions. Jin is also a much more "negative" man - which ppl usually dislike. Jin hates himself, Jin hates his powers, his family, his life, Jin is suicidal even. Even though all of Jin's reasons are justified, people view this as "whiny", that's why they gravitate to Kazuya - as Kazuya may have had a bad life, but he accepts himself & his devil powers rather than rejecting them as Jin does.

Most people prefer exaggerate characters - characters that are zany or "fun." Jin's stoicism tends to bore many people. Not only bore people, but confuse them, too. Although I do blame TK6 for being the primary reason why "Jin doesn't care about anyone!!" or "Jin doesn't like people!!" is such a popular take, but another reason is simply because it's hard to see Jin care about people. Jin absolutely does, he's just not... as expressive with his feelings, therefore this isn't a fact he's shouting from the rooftops. To understand Jin's character, you really have to watch him, rather than be spoonfed the information. You can see that Jin cares a lot, but through his actions - not his expressions or sometimes, even statements. You have to watch certain character endings to get the full gist of Jin. It's a lot harder than watching Lee throw a rose in the air whilst laughing and shouting "EXCELLENT!" Which is more entertaining and quicker to consume.

Like another example is how when Bloodline dropped, there were actually quite a few people saying that the anime finally gave Jin "personality", and others saying the anime was what made them like Jin. The funny thing is, the things they listed about how the anime made them like Jin (beyond being more emotional) was list of things they didn't know about it that the anime showed. Which uhhh... they would've known had they tried to get into Jin's character by either watching all his scenes throughout the games, or researching his character. But again, Jin is a harder character to get into - therefore, people are less likely to be interested in trying to.

Because Jin is difficult to appeal to people, people are likely to be more biased toward the ones they DO like. Lee is entertaining to them, so they're "shocked" that he was a villain despite all the signs being literally there. Or how SO MANY people were saying that Kazuya was more deserving of a redemption arc, that Kazuya should be the main character & Jin be the villain, even though Kazuya is literally doing the same shit Jin was except for even worse reasons. But people are willing to excuse these actions from these characters because they like them so much. Just how they're willing to condemn Jin for the same flaws just because they don't like him, and it gives them more reason to hate the character.

Anyways, I personally think Jin is a very amazing character when written correctly. I think if people were to look at him closer & learn about him, as well as not just disregarding everything due to TK6 and the stupid inconsistencies, then maybe people would enjoy him more. Hell, I've had people here tell me that they started liking Jin more because of my blog. I just get tired of all the double standards, too.

[stressedjester]

Been playing the newest Harvest Moon game (Winds of Anthos) and while I find the gameplay fun the character designs are definitely not for me. Like not even ugly or anything, just very plain and uninteresting which imo is worse than "ugly" designs

Like, compare these two

While the designs for the new game (right) aren't awful, they're obviously very plain and more akin to your average anime guy whereas the older games (left) had so much more care put into the designs and they put personality into their character designs

Feels like they're aiming for plain-ness with their characters instead of making them actually interesting to appeal to a wider audience after they split from Marvelous honestly

[asterkiss]

Prompt: “i thought you went to bed an hour ago”

Maybe some fluff? 🙇‍♀️

This took on a life of its own and I'm gonna have to do a second addition to actually get to the fluff. (>___>) Random AU in the future where Bill has somehow become Mabel's dysfunctional demon room mate who she keeps in check. Why? How? No idea!

-SWEET DREAMS

Mabel was sat in the kitchen, hunched over the table with tongue poking out in avid concentration. She just had to add two hundred more rhinestones to this shirt and it would be finished!

Easy.

She was so raptured in her crafts, she didn't even notice the figure entering through the door until they spoke.

'What the heck is that?'

The brunette paused, raising her head to find Bill staring down at the shirt with a look of distaste. Undeterred by his response, she replied:

'My shirt for Dipper's party tomorrow! Wanna help?'

'Pass.'

Yeah, she doubted he would. 'Okay, well if you're not gonna help then why are you even here? I thought you went to bed an hour ago.' She hadn't seen him around the flat since he left to go watch some weird television show.

Bill snorted as he slid into the seat opposite her. 'I don't sleep, I'm a dream demon. I invade the minds of others whilst they're asleep, that's it.'

Mabel paused. 'You don't sleep? Ever?'

'Don't need to, demon privelege.'

Mabel had forgotten about her bedazzling and was now offering the blond her full attention. 'But sleeping's so fun, and dreaming's like the best part of it! Just last night I had a dream where Zac Efron was my chauffeur to school. That was so fun. Oh Zac, you scallywag.'

'Sleeping's stupid! You basically waste eight hours of your day laying unconscious and being completely vulnerable and easy pickings.' A shrug. 'Guess I shouldn't complain, makes it easy for me to manipulate you guys.'

Mabel's eyes narrowed. 'Hey.'

'I mean, it made it easy. Obviously past tense. Don't do that anymore. Scouts honour.'

She rolled her eyes at his less than believable response and the cheesy grin plastered on his face.

'But I stand by what I said, sleeping's dumb and boring.'

Mabel pursed her lips together. 'You wouldn't say that if you had someone to sleep with.'

Bill shot her a look and she quickly added:

'Not like that! I mean literally just sleeping next to someone in the same bed, you weirdo! Even just a pet!'

Bill blinked. 'What difference does that make?'

'Well, you get cuddles and can stay warm on cold nights. Plus, it feels nice and comforting and if you have a nightmare, you can just roll over and hug Waddles- or, uh, the other person.'

'Hm. Don't see the appeal.'

'Urgh, forget it.' It was like talking to a brick wall. He'd totally ruined her motivation for bedazzling as well.

She called it a night and went to sleep in her double bed surrounded by twenty stuffed animals.

>

It was three hours later in the middle of the night that she awoke to a hand on her shoulder.

She groggily opened her eyes to the sight of a pale face inches from her own. On instict she slammed her fist forward only to have it halted with impressive speed. There were very few who could stop an attack from her. Such as:

'Wait, Bill?'

'Sup.'

Her eyebrows furrowed and she sought out the clock in her room. 'Urgh, it's like 3am. Why are you in my room?'

'Let's sleep together.'

'...eh?'

He smirked. 'Not like that you sick pervert.'

'I'm not-!'

'I figured I'd give what you said a try, and since you're the only one around what d'ya say?'

'Uh...' An attractive guy was asking to share her bed. Granted, it was Bill Cipher though that only made the request even more bizarre.

He quirked an eyebrow. 'Cm'on, I don't bite.' A pause. 'Much.'

'Okay, fine!' She just wanted to go back to sleep. Although that prospect was seeming less and less likely the more her heart rate picked up.

She felt the covers shift as he shoved off her stuffed unicorns and slid in. 'Jesus Christ, how many stuffed animals do you have?'

'Never enough and- hey, don't touch me with your weird cold feet!'

'Aw cm'on share the warmth, Shooting Star. I'm freezing.'

'I thought you said you did't feel the cold!'

'I feel it, it just doesn't bother me.'

'Then keep the ice blocks at the end of your legs away from me, you dorito!' She already regretted this as she turned her back towards him and curled in on herself. 'Either that or get out and go back to your own room.'

'Okay, okay, I'll behave.' She felt him settle behind her, though she was still on high alert. But as the minutes ticked by and he remained quiet, she began to ease up, gradually unfurling her body.

But it was still impossible to sleep!

'Why did you change your mind?' she asked, cutting through the piercing silence.

'I change my mind a lot, I'm funny like that.'

She glanced back over shoulder, narrowing her eyes. 'If you try to pull something, I'll punch you in the eye.'

'Jeez louise, relax.'

'Then be honest and stop lying! Why did you really come in here?'

She could feel him scowling at her through the darkness. 'Tried the whole sleeping thing, and it was awful. Lotsa screaming and nuisances I'd rather forget about. Was a big pain in the ass.'

She blinked. So, he'd had a nightmare?

'So that's why I came here,' he said cheerfully. 'You said sleeping together helps you forget that weird stuff so here I am. And guess what, you were right. You make quite the good distraction when you keep wriggling around like a worm cut in two.'

'Wha- gross!' Did she wiggle that much? 'And you should try sleeping again, maybe you'll have a nice dream.'

'Shooting Star, it's cute and naive you think like that but I'm literally made of nightmares. I don't have any good dreams in me.'

'That's sad.'

'It's true!' A pause. 'I mean I guess there's-' He cut off abruptly and she arched an eyebrow at his sudden silence. She could make out his profile in the darkness but that was it. She rolled over so she was completely facing him.

'There's what?' she asked, prodding him to speak.

'....Nothin', forget it. Demons and good dreams don't mix. It would never work out.'

She frowned. 'You just need to learn how to have nice dreams, it's like learning anything new. If you want, you can watch me for practice. I can be like your fun teacher.'

'What?'

She poked him. 'I'm cordially inviting you to pop into my dreams tonight. I'll show you how exciting it can be.'

'What happened to you punching my lights out if I invaded your dreams?' He still had a bruise from last time.

'Tonight's a one-off. And you better behave! No turning ribbons into human inestines, that still makes me wanna hurl.'

'Oh yeah I forgot about that, heh.'

'So?'

He turned over so they were facing one another in the bed, and she became acutely aware of how close in proximity they were. It was fine. It was just platonic. Totally platonic. So what if she could feel his breath hitting her skin?

'Alright, deal,' he said, voice quiet and the way he said it made her heart tug slightly. Haha, weird. A warm hand covered her eyes and she swallowed thickly.

'Sweet dreams, Shooting Star.'

She fell asleep, and the real fun began.

TO BE CONTINUED

[susandsnell]

🌻

I almost missed this one!!

I'm a big fan of all kinds of gothic romances, absolutely morally bankrupt characters (and the fucked up ways they might fall in love or lust or obsession or something in between), villains and foes and psychosexual nightmares, all that good stuff. I do not believe fiction needs to be moral or didactic in this respect. I say this as a preface to what I have to say next because I think it's a genuinely unpopular opinion:

This is an Edward Rochester hate zone.

I cannot abide this man. I hated him when I was thirteen, and I hate him at twenty-five. (I believe I once wrote "he should have gotten crispy in that fire" in some free reading assignment or other.) His Byronicisms all fall just in the wrong way for me, in large part because they are gross in a way that feels painfully real that isn't fun to read about, and they aren't tempered by any traits to recommend him. I find him not at all interesting and entirely unsympathetic. The only time I ever liked him was when he was doing the most with the drag act, but even then that was pretty loaded.

This all makes him a realistic jerk so he is perhaps well-constructed and well-written, but I for the life of me have never gotten the appeal of this dickwad. He's so mired in his own privilege and unearned self-pity that I genuinely find him to be insufferable. This is a bit bizarre to me as I have adored characters who have done objectively far worse and behaved far more cruelly and violently than he ever did, but again, as asserted earlier - I can get into an awful person being awful if they're doing so in a way that's interesting to witness, and/or if this is balanced out by humanizing elements. Heathcliff abuses women and children and kills innocent animals and he's still intensely sympathetic. Sweeney Todd did all of that and I feel for his plight and love his wry sense of humour and capacity for deep love. The Vampire Chronicles' entire thesis is that even the truly monstrous among us are made human by their ability to connect to art and to one another. To clarify, I know that a character need not have suffered/had a tragic backstory to be sympathetic or interesting just as people we know don't require xyz to be deserving of compassion (for instance I enjoy Dracula being The Worst because he's interesting, he's irredeemable with some zazz), but in terms of what he feels and how he acts, I cannot find any avenue for this connection to come in. I know that it's not uncommon as a modern reader to feel horror for Bertha Mason rather than at her (and it's not '''purity culture"/Puriteens/whatever paper skinned English majors are coming up with now to dismiss any critical discussion of books they like to feel this way!), and this plays a large part in my reading, but he's also cruel and dehumanizing to Jane in a way that feels very much like a Victorian era equivalent of negging/overpraise, which strikes exactly the wrong nerve in me compared to other destructive romances I've liked. That's not to say that one is more or less realistic than another, and comes down to personal bias, but I feel what I feel, and this is a free opinion sunflower emoji ask lolol.

I understand Jane Eyre and like most of it. I understand what a huge step it was as a protofeminist work, the reversing of the power balance by having him be humbled and reliant on her by the end, the emphasis on Jane's freewill and self-worth in the face of her horrific struggles and turmoil.

I cannot grasp wanting to be around this man for more than five minutes. Truly no judgment to those who get something out of this guy, but I just Don't See It.

[mega-ringsandthings-world]

Oh Rings—can I call you rings?— with every Analysis and au you post my mind becomes intrigued you really understand and get to the heart of are favorite sometimes divorced most times fight couple that is Mishanks. I adore it and your post make you day.

But this Loguetown AU... now, that's some sadness and angst waiting to happen. And genius, truly. It makes sense to draw all these pirates and people to the execution and snap them up as they come rushing in. I'm guessing a lot of Marines and civilians died, but I’m sure that was a sacrifice the World Government was willing to make. Did Doflamingo get caught? He’s got friends or at least blood high up, so I assume he wasn’t caught for long.

And I’m certain just as how Shanks isn’t our fun-loving, calculating Yonko, and Mihawk isn’t our ever-bored, apathetic gardener warlord, as we know and love them in the future. Familiar faces will definitely have differing personalities, yet to face the horrors of paradise and the new world, yet to have their Sabaody arc(or maybe this is their Sabaody) and oh Mihawk you ambitious, vicious, little teen you. I can’t wait for you to earn your new epithet, i’m sure it will be… bloody. And I’m also assuming in this timeline that whoever decides to bring him the offer becoming a warlord is laughed at and then bisected for the gull.

Also total forgot Dragon. Mans is in his prime.. I’m sure he got away maybe he even run into a blue haired red nosed clown? Maybe not we can only guess but ahh that’s the fun of it! Who lives who dies who becomes a revolutionary? pirate? who gives up? that’s what it is really all that aren’t they?

All that to say, I love this au I will now place it delicately into my one piece brain au folder we’re it will be chewed on like a pit bull with lock jaw.

Rings is great! I have to say, I'm thrilled my mishanks posts are such a hit, with you and everyone else enjoying them! I was having fun putting my random thoughts on them out there, and now it's even more fun. Angst and sadness is the key! Maybe it's horrible (and I'm not apologizing for that, lol) but I love drama and discord and awful high-stake situations. And what can give more angst than messing with Shanks right after Roger's death? And throwing Mihawk in there for the ride? The entire pirates-are-captured-by-the-World-goverment-at-Roger's-execution is one big excuse to get Shanks and Mihawk into Marine custody together, where they have only themselves to rely on. And since they are going to meet and fall in love in Marine captivity (they will be there a while) their dynamic will be more intense from the start. Their natural connection + the trauma bond. There's going to be a huge fight and many dead for sure, because none of those pirates are going quietly, but the marines had a plan from the beginning, of course. If they didn't they wouldn't have been able to take anyone. And I will say that they were also gunning for Shanks specifically. For reasons. The marines/admirals/world goverment will certainly be the villians of the story. Doflamingo knew enough to get out of dodge before anything went down, as did certain other people. Coincidence? Well, maybe not. I do love young!mishanks, so Mihawk and Shanks being earlier versions of themselves is half the appeal about this AU. You can see their older selves in them, but they are younger and there's everything that comes with that. They are not quite the men they will become. (and that goes for all the other characters too!) Which means they can be hurt much, much more easily.

I said this was one of my darkest wips because Bad Things are going to happen to them, it won't just be threats or easily patched wounds. This being their Sabaody is spot-on! Everything will be All Right in the end, but they're going to go through things to get there. Mihawk's rise will be bloody. (so will Shanks') and maybe it's too early to talk about this plot, but they're also going to get revenge. through some interesting means. After what Mihawk suffers in the time spent as a captive, the very idea of him becoming a Warlord would be nothing but the highest insult. (That's not to say that becoming one is off the cards, but that's a different story) Ahh, Dragon. He's one of the ones who gets away, with someone else important. Buggy having got away is crucial, because him being free comes into play later. I don't plan on killing many people, but making them suffer is fair game. And this entire scenario is going to change the course of the future for sure. All that is too say, I have all this I need to write and get out there to you guys already, lol. I love how much you love it!