#ftr i don't care that much

[squeepotatoes]

[iamanartichoke]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but as a creator -

I am fine with "the audience" -

downloading my fics

printing my fics

copy/pasting or screenshotting my fics

sharing your saved copy of my fics with anyone else who might want them in the unlikely but never impossible case that my fics are no longer available on ao3

making a book of my fic(s) and running your fingers across the pages while lovingly whispering my precioussss

doing these things with anything I create for fandom, such as meta, headcanons, au nonsense like 'texts from the brodinsons,' etc

I am not fine with "the audience"

doing any of the above with the purpose/intent of plagiarizing my work or passing it off as their own in any capacity

feeding my work into ai for any reason whatsoever

Save the fandom things. Preserve the fandom things. Respect the fandom things.

Enjoy the fandom things.

[sortanonymous]

I kinda got a fic involving one of these two to focus on (spoiler alert: it's the cooler one, and I don't mean the one HAL tried to make look cooler), but I'll just drop a meme like this and maybe save any possible rant for another day. Or hopefully someone else will beat me to that.

[ohmeadows]

it's a little insane to me how intense people get about who tops or bottoms in the ships i write. like idk i will look at an artist or writer depicting them in different positions than i myself mostly write them in and i will go "wow this is so neat i love OP's vision i wonder what led here i want to know more" instead of launching into a rant like "UGH i hate THIS character x would NEVER BOTTOM LIKE THIS here is MY ESSAY ABOUT WHY YOU'RE WRONG!" like nobody asked and you're killing the vibe, babes, go home

[evilkitten3]

hi gang! i know it's been,,,,, literally years since i started working on my fairy tail rewrite but i do want to assure anyone still interested that it is still something i'm working on. however, perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot has changed since i first started the project, so i wanted to give some updates on things people have expressed interest in in the past:

-i toyed with the idea of aro/ace erza for a while and while i do genuinely love the concept, i ultimately decided that it wouldn't really fit into what i want to do with her character. so tragically i can't fulfill this initial idea. i'm a little disappointed myself tbh but i actually really like what i came up with for her part of the story, so... hope this wasn't what anyone was looking forward to the most.

-when i first mentioned rewriting ft, i said there'd be no fanservice. however, having thought about it for some time, fairy tail is a series where somewhat dirty jokes have been since the start, and i don't think it's entirely fair to get rid of it altogether just bc the last couple of arcs forgot to do anything else. i will however promise that no one is going to be less important than their own boobs.

-the relationship between gajeel and team shadowgear will absolutely still be important, but i don't intend to put gajeel or levy in a relationship with anyone, including each other. this isn't really about whether i like the ships involved or not; it's just that i actually ended up putting a bit more of a spotlight on this little faction than i'd intended to (tbh i'd been pretty sure gajeel and levy would have somewhat more minor roles, but fortunately it looks like they'll stay major supporting characters)

-lucy and her family are going to be marginally more complicated than what we got in canon, and while i don't plan to give away too much too soon, there might be some hints towards what's really going on there significantly before i actually unveil my masterpiece (i am ngl so so SO happy with my version of the heartfilia family. i feel like it's both somewhat original and also fits within the world of fairy tail. idk if anyone else is going to be enjoying keeping up with the heartfilias as much as me but i sure hope so. whoa boy)

-natsu spends a lot more time looking for igneel. not like 100% absolutely dedicated nothing else matters or anything (bc that's just not natsu), but it is his main motivation throughout a good chunk of the story, so i'm hoping to bring that into play a bit more.

-i've been pretty clear on this part since the beginning, but ultear and siegrain are going to play a much bigger role in the early parts of the story. this is both bc i adore their dynamic and bc crime sorcière is unfortunately not going to happen. just getting that part out of the way now. as much as i adore them, it just doesn't work here. i don't intend for them to usurp the story or anything, but they definitely have a much bigger and more direct impact on the plot. also like reasons for doing things and better publicity than most of the rest of the council.

-i simply am not going to have the time to give natsu's parents the screentime they deserve, but i promise to give them as much as i possibly can. unfortunately, they really don't matter all that much in term's of natsu or zeref's parts in the story, but there are a couple of other characters with fairly strong ties to them, so it's not like i'm going to ignore them entirely

-cubellios is and will forever remain a snake. hiss hiss

-none of the other manga side stories (including 100 year quest) are going to be taken into account whatsoever. i simply do not care <3

-zeref and mavis's relationship is deeply, DEEPLY important to the plot, but it absolutely isn't romantic at all, so sorry if you were hoping it would be. also i tried my best to make mavis significantly more interesting (plus yuriy, warrod, and precht. especially precht)

-none of the big 4 ships will happen. this isn't due to me not liking them for the most part (i mean, i don't but tbh that really isn't relevant here; i have no problem with writing for ships i don't ship myself if it works with the story), it's either bc it doesn't fit into these versions of the characters or it just didn't end up happening. i know this is gonna put some people off, but i hope you'll give it a try anyway once it's done; i ended up trying out a few things i'd never thought about before and really enjoying them, so hopefully i won't be alone in that.

-the celestial spirits are currently one of my bigger roadblocks writing-wise bc while they're also very important to the story, they rarely get enough screentime to showcase anything other than their powers and One Quirky Trait. and there are so dang many of them; it's kinda hard to balance. however, i know what i want to do with them in the long run, so it's more a matter of getting them there and not having them effectively turn into lucy's somewhat talkative pokémon. also, the spirits aren't property– they've made a contract with their wielder, and this is very very relevant. they are also not human. you may want to keep those two things in mind.

-if a character dies and you see their body and their body is definitely 100% checked-their-pulse-and-tried-cpr dead, that character is dead. it's a fantasy story, so i'm not going to pretend there's no possible way to un-die, but i will say this: consider whether or not dying a likely-traumatic death and then coming back is a good thing.

-there will be ocs. this is basically unavoidable due to what few changes i've made, but i'm hoping they'll at least be enjoyable ocs. most of them shouldn't be relevant for a while anyway

-there are, and i cannot stress this enough, characters that may for some reason have something to gain from lying to the heroes. or to other villains. or to themselves. characters lie, or twist the truth, or are wrong, or a bajillion other things.

-whoever you're expecting the final badguy to be, you're wrong

-lastly, and this is easily the most important, i have completely changed irene's character design to one of mashima's concept art versions of her. if you've never seen it, here's the piece of that sketch collection i'm talking about:

^that's my irene. love me some unhinged old ladymom

[hostilecityshowdown]

if all you can do with your luchadors is repeatedly unmask them on television, you're already too far gone and need to seriously rethink even agreeing to book these people in the first place.

[scare-ard--sleigh]

mmmmmmm interesting, i actually prefer my lgbt rep to be fucking on screen with no tenderness 💖

[cassandraclare]

*sighs a bit* Okay. Guys. I have been asked this question a lot, and answered it a lot. I don't know how to give a better answer — Dru & Ty&Kit share significance as main characters — so I guess I'll talk a little about comparison and structures.

First, all series have different structures. I don't think it's super useful or predictive to try to map an upcoming, unknown book series onto an existing series. In TLH the main character was Cordelia, everyone else was secondary to her, and people's roles and the significance of them altered from book to book. It was a big ensemble cast and they mostly stayed put in London especially in book 1.

TWP focuses on a smaller group of people. It also has a very different structure. In book one, Dru is not with Kit and Ty. They are in different places, both of which have their own stories that are significant to the plot. There is no way to see Place One without following Dru. There is no way to see Place Two without following Kit and Ty.

I know that TWP is a long way off. I know there are people who are very angry with me that there's such a gap, but there isn't anything currently I can do about that, or about the fact that I don't yet have the schedule for my upcoming books. That rests in the hands of several different publishers who must coordinate the release times and production schedules for four different series. I am not withholding any information about when these books come out. I simply don't know it yet.

I understand that TWP being a long way off makes for anxiety, and that those who are worried Kit and Ty will somehow be secondary are looking for tiny clues in microscopic details — micro-reading the of placement of the word "and" in my newsletter and such — that are meaningless, but I get that it all comes from anxiety. (FTR, those worried Dru will be secondary are equally anxious.)

I think there is only so much I can say. Because there's a big gap between TLH and TWP everything I do say or every image or hint about it is freighted with a weight of assumption it can't really support. Anxiety is always going to trump reassurance. And truly, at the end of the day, if you only care about Kit and Ty and find the idea of a Dru story tiresome, you will feel like they got shafted because when you absolutely hate a plotline, you will always feel like it's taking up way too much space. That's just how our minds work.

I've been doing this long enough that I know no book can survive a hostile reading. I know that Book Three of a trilogy is the one people hate until they don't. (When Clockwork Princess came out people hated it so much I considered quitting writing!) I know that it's wonderful to love a character but can also be a problem for people when I put out books that aren't about that particular character or dynamic. I know that for a lot of people, Sword Catcher and Ragpicker King are just tiresome things that have no business on my schedule because they're not Shadowhunter books. And I get it. But I also have to block it out, because I've been writing a long time, and I've gotten to a point where I know that I have to write the thing I want to be writing, because if I don't, if I sit down and try to force myself to write something I'm not feeling like writing at that time, I'll be making myself physically and mentally sick. And that's no good for anyone, really.

I suppose the positive thing is that, while this would not have been true five years ago, I am at the place where I want very much to be writing Wicked Powers. I missed these characters and am glad to be back with them. I consider this a story in which there are three main characters. And that is all I can say right now because it's all that I know.

(And this was much more of a general response to a lot of things than a specific response to this question, but I did feel like it was stuff that I needed to say. Creators are at the end of the day, just people. Sometimes we are powerless to reassure. Sometimes we are tired. Sometimes we are wrong. Sometimes we try things and they don't work. Sometimes we can't explain to you what our story is going to make you feel, because only reading it is going to tell you that. This may be one of those times.)

[ambrosiagourmet]

I notice no one has asked yet so for the character thing: laios! Or if you want to go for a less common one: the winged lion

Laios!!!!!!

First impression

Honestly its hard to even limit this within the confines of starting the actual manga. I genuinely think I'd have to say my real first impression of Laios was the "autism be damned, my boy can work a grill" joke that gets passed around a lot 😭

Impression now

Older brother.

Loves his friends and family so much. Let him infodump!!!!! A guy that can character arc so hard he becomes a king because its the only way to deal with the things he can no longer let himself look away from. A guy who wants to eat a good meal. A guy who wants everyone to eat a good meal.

A guy who can be all that and still kind of pettily complain that he doesn't get to hang out with monsters anymore & can mope about it soooo annoyingly. A guy who decided to eat the concept of all-consuming hunger because it was the only way to deal with the problem so he might as well try. A guy who can completely change his life by deciding to share his special interest. A guy who can imitate a dog really well.

Favorite moment

Don't make me choooose... okay I'm gonna do three:

1. Assembling Falin's bones with Marcille

The humor. The patience. The slow realization that, despite how absurd of a task it is, it is actually all possible. The moments of admiration for the way skeletons work, the love of the details, the care of assembling all three skeletons just to make sure they get Falin right. Iconic scene.

2. Killing Falin

"Unable to make myself accept. Unable to make myself resist" lives in my soul now idk what else to say. Life is so vibrant and horrifying and raw and beautiful and to let yourself fully be a part of it you must take up space. You must consume. You must fight. You must take and be taken from. Ourgh

3. Talking Marcille down

I love that he looks so goofy on his way up to her. I love the context of how much he refuses to give up on her leading up to this, and how he refuses to give up on her now. I love how everyone is part of this scene, but he's the first one to cross the threshold. I love how she almost blows him up but can't do it (fun fact: this exact situation/post was how she killed Mithrun a couple of chapters ago. It was close).

I love the way he appeals to her mostly just with messy honesty, and I love the silly three rules callback. It's such a sweet chapter.

Also honorary mention for the final page of the story, which gets me every time.

Idea for a story

I'm actually currently fiddling with a longer story concept dealing with the question of Laios needing an heir. Dungeon Meshi is grounded enough in politics that it genuinely feels like a question that the characters will have to grapple with at some point. At the same time, there's no way that like arranged marriage and even having kids in general are not messy topics for Laios and I don't think anyone involved would want to force him to be miserable.

(I also don't personally like the idea of Falin as his heir ftr, bc I think forcing Falin into that role sucks and I don't think anyone would go for it)

So how DO they deal with the issue? Idk! I might write a long meandering story about it! Maybe! I want to, at least.

Unpopular opinion

Ughhhh I don't realllly want to poke this with a stick but yeah I definitely think my most generic (apparently????) Unpopular Opinion with Laios is just that his relationship with Marcille is meaningful and loving. I personally don't view it as romantic and they mean a lot to me as a platonic-life-partners kind of thing, but I also think that dividing relationships in general into Ships TM and Definitely Not Ships isn't really appealing to me personally. I just care them.

(at the same time I really do worry about trying to write about them and it being taken as romantic despite me very intentionally not framing it as such. idk, navigating this stuff is complicated.)

Favorite relationship

UGHHHH LIKE. It is probably him and Marcille. But it's so hard to rank that against him and Falin. Both relationships mean a lot to me and I love them and I love to think about them.

Because him and Marcille have more on the page interactions to dig into and because I don't see them discussed as much, I do tend to gravitate to Marcille & Laios stuff above all else. But like.... don't make me actually commit to picking.

Favorite headcanon

I can't think of a strong answer for this so I'm going to make one up on the spot: I think he giggled to himself soooo much when he included the winged lion in his king outfit but made it so that it looks like the wolf head is eating it. I think he continues to giggle about it years later. I think he gets dressed in the morning and puts on his cloak and goes "get ate, idiot" as he fastens it around his shoulders.

Oh actually for a more genuine headcanon related to the story thing I mentioned above: I think Laios is really good with kids but would be scared of having any of his own. I think he'd have trouble with the classic "I don't want to mess them up the way my dad messed me up" abused kid struggle.

[scoobydoodean]

the thing about emma vs amy is they’re literally not comparable at all really!! one HAS KILLED PEOPLE WITHOUT REMORSE (arguably, it’s been a while since i’ve seen the episode) and the other… HAS NOT! a comparison i have never seen people make that is actually so much better, so much more interesting? emma and that dude in metamorphosis, the rugaru. both are supposedly “monsters” who will inevitably kill somebody and thus deserve to be killed as a preemptive measure (even though they haven’t actually hurt anybody yet), as argued by sam about emma and dean/the other hunter about the rugaru. the difference? DEAN DECIDES TO TRUST SAM AND TRY TO HELP THE DUDE. sam on the other hand disregards dean’s wishes and any possibility of emma making the right choice.

i’m convinced that the only reason people compare emma and amy is because “dean admits he was wrong to kill her” (which isn’t actually what he says but people don’t really care about the exacts). if they were to look at any other episode where the definition of monster is argued, they’d see that sam is usually on the side of “give them a chance” (and ftr dean is too almost all of the time) UNLESS it’s a “monster” associated with dean… why are sam’s morals different for these people? for emma?

sorry i know that’s a long rant, but every time i see the emma vs amy debates it boggles me that metamorphosis dude is never brought up too! also i hope this all makes sense haha

Emma and Amy aren't even remotely comparable. In any way. Emma and Amy's son who Dean didn't kill? Yep. They are directly comparable. But Amy and Emma? Get outta here! Jack Montgomery (Metamorphosis) and Jack Kline (two Jack's!) can both be interesting Emma parallels. Especially when comparing how desperate fans are to coddle Jack Kline from so much as experiencing a negative emotion when he's brainwashing people from the womb, bursting out of his mom's body like something out of Alien, and actively strangling innocent black store clerks to death.

Contrary to the belief of people who don't watch the show but are always making wide-sweeping claims about what happens in it, Sam and Dean have a long history of trying to protect "good" monsters (including from other hunters!) from 2.03 "Bloodlust" and onwards (2.03, 2.17, 4.04, 5.06, 6.02, 8.04, 12.04, 12.16). There's a weird disk horse that's opened up in the last several years that Sam and Dean are always indiscriminately killing monsters who don't deserve it all of the time because "supernatural power bad" and that just isn't true. Like. Actually look at the cases they go on? Sam and Dean kill murderers whose crimes are committed supernaturally which is going to allow them to get away with it and/or continue doing it. They don't kill people just because they're "different"—in fact, the entirety of season 2 is about not killing people just because they're different, or because of some alleged inescapable dark destiny.

I've spoken before about how "Bloodlust" is treated by fandom as an episode where Sam stands on some sort of moral high ground from the beginning about the existence of good monsters, but that isn't what actually happens in the episode. Sam ends the episode with zero remorse about any previous hunts John ever took them on while Dean thinks back and wonders if they hurt people who didn't deserve it at some point (no questionable hunts in season 1 FYI—and the majority of them are ghost-related).

The way that Sam can compartmentalize/let go of his past actions and move on is useful in their field of work, but in contrast with Dean's tendency to feel eaten alive by guilt, it often results in fandom disk horse where fans follow Sam's lead by compartmentalizing and burying and excusing his actions as if they never happened, while putting everything Dean does under a microscope because his visible guilt implicates him in the eyes of fans. Because Dean spends several episodes feeling bad after 7.03, he must have done something super duper bad and horrible and is the worst person alive, and Amy didn't deserve to die. But because Sam doesn't ever show a single shred of remorse after 7.13 and Dean doesn't ever talk about it again, Sam must have been in the right. It's actually bizarre when you think about it—Sam's lack of guilt ought to be chilling to fans, but instead, it's often used to absolve him of wrongdoing... and for all their flaws that everyone is always harping on, I do think Bucklemming intended Sam's actions and his attitude after to be chilling. They don't intend him to be seen as "in the right".

Dean buries what happens with Emma down deep, and it's obvious why. He can't take another hit like this in season 7. Not after Cas and Bobby. He buries it deep down like he buried Lisa and Ben deep down. In addition... if Dean wanted to bring Emma up, who the actual fuck would or could he have talked to about her? Bobby's dead. Cas is dead. The only person left in Dean's life is the person who killed his daughter, and Sam made it very clear that he didn't give a shit how Dean felt about her being dead. In fact, he lectured Dean for hesitating to kill his own biological child, and said she "wasn't really his". Then when Dean disputed that claim, Sam immediately called him crazy and acted like Dean's actions (trying to push a monster kid who hasn't hurt anyone off a terrible path) are out of character when they ARE NOT (2.03, ALL OF SEASON 2, 4.04, 5.06). Even 7.03 itself supports Dean's actions with Emma as in character, because the ACTUAL Emma analogue, Amy's son, is not killed by Dean. So yeah. Who the FUCK was Dean going to talk with this about? Given Sam's long and storied history of behaving as the thought police, if Dean had so much as looked too sad in his presence, Sam would have lit into him all over again, and what fucking good was that going to do?

And yeah teehee Sam doesn't want Dean to have too many friends. More than one often-dead close friend is too many.

[leupagus]

A few thoughts in re: working elections:

We need more people doing it. DESPERATELY. We are BEGGING YOU TO WORK FOR YOUR LOCAL BOARD OF ELECTIONS. In New York State, it's a four-hour training one day and then a full day on Election/Primary Day (you can also work early voting but it's not required).

If you can get those four days days off from your work, I BESEECH you to do it. We are staggeringly understaffed; 90% of our workers are over 50 and are overwhelmingly WOC. That's because these jobs are seen as menial and unglamorous, which they are.

(FTR, not one of the women I work with is retired. They have other jobs that they took off for this.) I was at my polling location for two hours after polls closed last night because of a technical issue that we didn't have enough workers to handle in a timely fashion.

It is a difficult and tedious job and you don't get paid much (you do get paid though, that's nice). It's also absolutely essential to our democracy and, not to put too fine a point on it, I'd like at least some of the people who talk politics all day to actually WORK for it.

If you can't/don't want to do it, that is totally fine—you should absolutely still care and talk about our politics and electoral issues! But please consider checking out your local BoE and attending an info meeting at least. I've met wonderful people working here; you will too.

(taken from bluesky thread)

[wrestlingisfake]

Spent a few days mulling over Tony Khan's decision to air the CM Punk/Jack Perry footage. But my gut feeling hasn't changed. This won't help AEW unless it convinces everyone Punk was 1000% in the wrong that day, and I don't believe it will.

What's clear is that the footage was reviewed by various parties within AEW--including lawyers--and it was damning enough that they could fire Punk without paying the rest of his contract. But that doesn't mean showing the footage will persuade wrestling fans to reject Punk's "a man's got to do what a man's got do" approach to conflict resolution.

I don't know if any of the footage can back up Khan's claim that he feared for his life during the incident. Punk rejected that claim, but I doubt he disputes the reports that he "lunged" at Tony. It's more likely that Punk simply thinks a "real" man would have no reason to be afraid in that moment. In any case, keeping this issue alive doesn't seem to do AEW any good.

The biggest risk is if the footage--or whatever the Young Bucks say about it--provokes Punk into making a response someday. The best case for AEW is if the segment is so airtight that Punk decides to shut up, or if his clapback is as incoherent as the "pegwarmer" promo. More likely, though, he'll fire live rounds that make AEW look stupid. AEW can only retaliate by trying to make Punk look even worse, but Punk doesn't care as much about looking terrible as AEW ought to care about not looking stupid.

The only upside I see is if the segment somehow has anything to do with the kayfabe storylines within AEW. Like, I assume the Bucks will tie Punk's misbheavior at Wembley to their tag title match against FTR, or their "we're the jackass EVPs Punk said we are" gimmick, but I'm not sure how. Or maybe the footage will lead to the Bucks "exonerating" Perry to set up his return to AEW as their sidekick. But these are goals that could be achieved without talking about Punk at all. Which brings us back to the original point--this just isn't a hill worth dying on.

[dilf-in-peril]

"Oh, you wanted the real Punk, you wanted Pipebomb Punk? Well, you got it, you got your pipebomb, your muffingate" [chuckles in the crowd] "and it was more real than anything I ever said up on stage in the WWE. You got the real Punk, Max, and just like y'all" [Punk gestures at the crowd] "you just couldn't handle it." [some boos] "No, I know this is difficult for all of us, but stay with me here, I have something to show you people.” [Punk takes out his phone] “My conversation history with Maxwell Jacob Friedman.” [MJF makes a dash for the phone but is held back by FTR, Punk is visibly amused now] 

“Monday, September 5th 2022, the night I punched Matt Jackson in the face." [crowd gasps] "Message from Maxwell Jacob Friedman, three in the morning: Are you okay?" [nervous giggles in the crowd] "Monday, September 5th, the same day, 5 pm: You stupid old man, why didn't you just keep quiet, you're ruining everything." [some cheers] "Monday, September 12th, 10 pm: You can call me if you want to talk." [faint laughter] "Tuesday, September 13th, 1 am, that's three hours later: Please respond." [loud laughter] "Tuesday, September 13th, 2 am, that’s an hour later: I hate you. Thursday, October 20th: I hate you so much. Sunday, November the 19th: I did it. I’m the champ. I wish I could have taken the belt off you." [mixed crowd reaction] "Saturday, December 25th, Christmas Day: Merry Christmas, Punk. I hope you have a lovely day and the arm is healing alright. See you soon? Christmas tree emoji, menorah emoji, red heart emoji." [devastating silence, cut to Max’s mortified face] 

"Y'all wanna know how many messages I have sent to Max in those fifteen weeks between my little backstage altercation and Christmas Day? Zero. Because I don't care about you, Max, you are nothing to me, you're not even a blip on my radar. You can scratch at my door, you can talk shit about me on twitter, you can quote my promos all day, copy my mannerism, copy the way I talk and walk, all in a desperate attempt to get my attention, but I'm still just gonna leave you on read." [crowd erupts into laughter, MJF is fuming] 

"Max, I once called you a less famous Miz, and I have to apologize for that. Truth is, you are nothing but a less famous CM Punk and now that the real CM Punk is back, the only thing that's giving you any relevance at all in this company, in this whole damn business, is the fact that you stole this belt from Jon Moxley, who shouldn't have been wearing it in the first place, because I am the rightful AEW World Champion. PG Punk is dead, but I am here and I'm old and I'm hurt and I'm tired of working with you." [crowd cheers] 

"And, Max, for your own good, I suggest you spend more time wrestling in the ring, and less time trying to get the attention of older men, because when you get that attention, this Sunday, November 13th, Chicago, Illinois at the Full Gear pay-per-view, you won't be able to handle it."

[evilkitten3]

Hi! Sorry to bother you, but I've only just discovered your blog. How's the Fairy Tail rewrite coming along/is there anywhere I can read it?

no worries, i'm very botherable! the ftr is still very much going to happen, but i haven't been able to summon up the motivation to get much actual writing done lately, so it's currently not available to read. i know more or less what i want to happen and how i want it to go, but it's a monster of a fic, and i don't want to do that thing i do where i get halfway through a project then abandon it.

so the current plan is to handle it like so: there are several arcs of varying lengths, so i'm going to have multiple arcs finished and ready to go before i start posting. the first two arcs (saving macao + daybreak) are fairly close to canon, so i've compressed them into being two chapters each and i'll probably post all of those fairly close together once they're finished and then start slowing down as things deviate from the original story. i'd like to have everything up through the oracíon seis arc finished before i post anything at all (which sounds like a lot, but that's just the first fourth of the outline. there's a reason i've gotta pace myself here). i'm considering this to be "part one", even though - if my outline holds true - it's nine arcs spread out over eighty-five chapters, and (for ao3) each arc is going to have its own "story" just to make things a little less overwhelming.

"part two" will kick off with the edolas arc and either go through the grand magic games arc or stop just before it, depending on how things go. like i said, it's an absolute monster of a fic (i have been working on this for literal years now jfc), and the outline spans 23 arcs/340 chapters, not counting any "extras" i might decide to do later on. a lot has changed from my original idea of the story, but i really like where it seems to be headed!

(btw, anyone can feel free to ask me any questions they want. i can't promise to answer every single one bc spoilers, but i can promise to do my best. also, sometimes talking to someone helps me spot plotholes or realize there's an opportunity i've missed/something to add, which is really helpful! i'll answer all the asks, even if it's just to say "unfortunately i don't want to spoil anything so i can't tell you yet", but if it's something that won't affect the overarching plot, i might answer. if you have questions about which ships will be happening then that's fine too, but hopefully people will be interested even if their otps don't show up or aren't portrayed quite how they'd prefer. i'd also like to state that some things that may seem similar to canon are intentionally made that way to keep you in suspense as to where i'm deviating and where i'm not. some things will be obviously different, but some things will be a bit sneakier. so be aware ;P)

[beevean]

hey so ftr i am muslim, and i'd like to add that even giving that trait to n!isaac in particular is hella questionable imo if game!Isaac's whole deal is that he is so fully, mindlessly devoted to dracula's cause that he's willing to commit genocide on his lord's behalf, no questions asked, and because they do mostly keep that characterization with him in the show's version, once you tack on the 'muslim' trait it gets problematic, fast. it basically amounts to a really stereotypical post-9/11 islamophobic caricature of all muslims being war-mongering jihadists, so blinded by and justifying atrocities committed with 'faith'. and the fact that they also kept n!isaac as being especially sadistic doesn't help with the comparisons to the taliban or ISIS - if they were trying to be clever and expand from "CHURH BAD" to "ALL RELIGION BAD" message, they well and truly fucked it up and n!Isaac ends up being terrible representation

like, i used to be just kinda "meh" towards n!Isaac in that he's not really as impactful as the original Hector and Isaac's characters since he has such a middling stance and really not much on-screen development to even get to that point, but after connecting these dots i actively dislike him. just...what the hell was Netflix thinking??

Thank you for your input! I don't want to speak on behalf of others so I appreciate your insight :)

Another thing is that it gets emphasized in the mangas that Hector and Isaac are heathens? Blasphemers? They create life which is literally copying God's work?? Hector in the MF manga goes for a whole page about his disillusionment with God:

And Isaac in the PtR manga sarcastically reassures Hector that all the people they've killed "will go to Heaven soon", with an implied "we won't".

They're both sinners, and they're aware of it. Hector feels guilty about it, Isaac couldn't care less because Dracula comes above all else. Neither of them have a reason to believe in any religion - not even Hector regains his faith in God, even after falling in love with the religious Rosaly.

Sure, this is all about the Christian God, but I doubt N!Isaac would be treated any better by other Muslims of the time, would he? He's still a necromancer. He's still sinning left and right. Why would he believe in Mohammed's teachings, profess his faith with pride, and still accept to devote himself to a monster hellbent on killing innocents? This kind of deep seated hypocrisy needs care to be explored!

Anyway... yes, you make a good point. As I said, in a vacuum a Muslim anti-villain would be an interesting concept, especially since Christians are not afforded the same intended complexity. As it was done in NFCV, a Muslim villain who twists his Prophet's teachings to justify his self-imposed extremist mission of eradicating human life to "purify the world" is... yikes. Actually, now this quote feels particularly gross:

"Dracula will bring a pure world into being. I believe that. I believe him. I want, of all things, a pure world. A clean world. Where there is only loyalty and only love."

Yeahhhh I can see why he comes across as a jihadist. ew.

Now, sure, he allegedly grows from this, he eventually decides that life is worth living and he'd rather leave humans alone. But it doesn't help that his religion is mostly brought at the forefront of his character in S3, when he's in "humanity sucks" mode, but in S4 there's no mention of his faith.

[myrddin-wylt]

Do you think Caroline would have the same relationship that Alfred does with Arthur ie. the dutiful daughter? Arthur's righthand helper?

Yes! Arthur adores Caroline just as much as he does Alfred, and he's incredibly proud of her and trusts her immensely. if anything, I think Arthur relies on Caroline more; he parentifies Alfred, but Caroline gets parentified on two levels: Arthur looks at Caroline and frequently sees his mother Habren, so Caroline is parenting herself AND him. this is not helped by the fact that Caroline and Habren have basically the same temperament.

Arthur is honestly pretty weird and selective about which gender roles he does and doesn't push, but in the end it comes down to whatever's most useful or prestigious for him. Caroline gets a full education like Alfred, she's taught to hunt and shoot and take care of herself like Alfred, she's taught to lead and manage and administrate like Alfred. but she's also expected to do a ton of emotional labor that Alfred isn't - not just mental load work like managing the house and/or social events (Alfred does that too, after all), but Arthur is fairly likely to traumadump on Caroline where he'd NEVER do that with Alfred because, frankly, Arthur is pretty bad about the 'men don't show weakness' thing. like he hates the fact that he himself cries and feels ashamed of it even as he's resting his head on Caroline's shoulder, but with Alfred he feels an added pressure to model and embody it as well. I'm not sure when Alfred actually sees Arthur cry for the first time, but he's at least a teenager or adult; Caroline, meanwhile, is a lot more accustomed to the tears than Arthur would ever admit.

so somehow the answer is yes but worse because they're even more enmeshed. the result is that Caroline becomes jaded pretty quickly and honestly develops actual contempt for Arthur for a long time. prior to the world wars, she looks down on Arthur and thinks he's a bit pathetic. this is deeply unfair of course but, well, emotional enmeshment with your child is Bad and can have Adverse effects on your child and relationship! go figure.

Ftr, I will never let go of the headcanon that not only are Alfred and Caroline better at math and finance than Arthur, but prior to independence they'd do his taxes and accounting and budgeting. Caroline in particular would give Arthur explicit allowances for certain things and he just let her because honestly she knows what she's doing and it makes his life so much easier (and historically women were expected to handle household finances anyway at least until the Early Modern period. that damn Enlightenment again!) But Alfred didn't want to tread on his father's toes so he'd just be passive aggressive about it lol.

as an aside note, Caroline has a significantly worse relationship with her siblings that only starts improving in the 21st century because, well, Caroline's an arrogant bitch. the exception is with Jack, she consistently thinks he's a delight and cool as hell since their first meeting in the mid 19th century. Matthew and Eliza not so much.