#he has such a complex relationship with death. i wish that was explored more but i get why it wasnt!!!

[ambiguousgrass]

So today I reread the wilbur van. Here's some my favorite bits :thumbsup: (more under the cut)

i want to dissect these literature class style

[unadulteratedsoulsweets]

A DC X DP #19 Our Pharaoh, Your Duke

Imagine dis…

I kept reading about Tucker as a reincarnation of a powerful Pharoh from the Ancient civilization of Egypt and he wouldn’t stop reincarnating as long as people kept making and improving tablets. I don’t know if that is part of the canon or if that episode in DP is just another Sam and Undergrowth situation.

Anyway, just a thought is passing by…

….

Tucker was enjoying his afterlife with his spouses, Danny Phantom the High Ghost King in the Infinite Realm, and Sam Manson the heir and apprentice to the Ancient of Nature Undergrowth. All three of them were enjoying a rare day off that over-laps each other’s schedules. Tucker became the high leader also known as The Pharaoh in the Egyptian section of the Infinite Realms when the old ruler wished to pass on and when he was able to prove himself to be powerful enough to protect his section in the Realms as well as wise enough to lead them to prosperity. Add the fact that he is married to the High King and bump up other ghosts’ attitudes toward him as he is one of the official consorts of the new King.

The trio was just in a middle of a picnic when Tucker started to feel dizzy accompanied by a headache. Both of Tucker’s partners look at him with worry and concern in their eyes, as Tucker is about to reassure them that he was fine when darkness suddenly invaded his eyes.

…

Tucker is so sure that he has his reincarnation in control but the fact that he suddenly had clarity after months in the standard of his new body. Tucker felt panic fill him, A powerful entity or not every time he reincarnates, he forgets his life before and during his time in the Infinite Realms to not disrupt the normal flow of events, he only recovers his original memories when he was in the brink of death or something is need to change.

He also is worried about whatever his spouse would do as he remembered being in their presence when he was forcibly reincarnated. But by the looks of it, whoever did target him knew nothing about the complexity of the cycle thus having his memories with him along with some abilities that were muted to something more discreet. Tucker was just glad that it was him instead of his spouse.

…

As a child, Tucker no wait his new name is Duke Thomas, took it upon himself to explore this new world as it is taking his spouses a while to find him, which led him to believe that this universe may be part of a small sector of which Clockwork cannot interfere due to the delicate relationship between time and its citizens. Tucker was ecstatic when he had seen the futuristic appeal around him but felt disappointed when he had a need that only the rich and those who have connections can own them. He felt his eyes widen at the mention of aliens and other world beings and people around seemingly saving the world daily, not because of the heroes his lovely husband is an interdimensional/universal Hero and King, but because it has aliens which made him think about the opportunities of bragging rights to his husband the moment, they reunited.

When Tucker/Duke took notice of the city that his parents decided to call home, he was already thinking about his wife’s reactions will be, it seems she will either fall in love with the architecture that screams everything goth and the amount of gargoyle around each building or joins a rogue named poisoned Ivy to her crusade towards nature. It also seems that some of his powers mutated that seems to focus on his eyes, to accommodate this new universe or is it to accommodate this new body, he wondered.

As he was growing up, he began to have doubts about his so-called ordinary family as Danny’s luck rubbed them off the moment they all said I do at the altar. He just hopes that it is something he can handle future he could handle. There have been rules and laws about protecting people with power that were later named as Meta humans, he breath a sigh of relief when he saw no mention of the Infinite Realms from all data base.

…

When Bruce took him into his ward it took everything in Tucker/Duke to not scream fruit loop at the billionaire much more when he discovered a hidden base below his mansion’s basement, he doesn’t know that if Bruce is an upgrade is a degrade at the fury persona. It just never occurred to him that one day he will be a daytime vigilante like the origins of his husband. Honestly, he can’t help but have a new profound respect for his husband when he was just starting, he may be in the daytime schedule but it still took time to adjust. He also had a family of an experienced team from the start yet Danny has only him, Sam, and his sister as safety nets, he is so going to spoil Danny the moment they all saw each other.

The moment he laid eyes on Jason he can’t help but hiss quietly at his state. A liminal at the verge of hunger, no wonder his random outburst of anger kept getting worse each time he lost himself. With little to no materials that can handle the contaminated ectoplasm as well to turn it into a pure ectoplasm he was able to make a filter, yet it takes too much time to purify a liter of it yet reveals a small vial of a pure version. Yet it was better than nothing, whenever he was tasked to get them treats and coffee, he would always put the small vial of pre-ectoplasm into his drink which greatly improved his mood but unfortunately, he was the one who kept doing errands as Jason won’t drink anything else without his secret ingredient. Cass had already noticed him doing something to Jason’s drink but shrugged it off seeing that it was improving his mood, but he can’t help but feel that there is another shoe about to drop.

…

He was right, there was another shoe waiting to drop. You know, with his experience with Danny Tucker should have already known not to jinx things.

A group of archeologists found a new hidden tomb deep within Egypt and decided to go exploring yet the new guy on the job seemed to have done something and unleashed an endless number of Egyptian soldiers that seem to attack everything in sight. Though they are not killing anyone anyone who was sliced with their weapons is immediately teleported to a prison deep below the surface and forced to live a life of hard manual labor like a slave.

Tucker/Duke was shaken awake by Stephanie as the news of the Egyptian soldiers made their way to the mainland and the soil of the US. Much worse is that these soldiers found themselves at Gotham harbor and Batman is calling in every vigilante in Gotham to hold off the army while the JLD finds a way to undo the mess, every member of the magical side of the JL has already interrogated the new archeologist whether he had stolen something or he had disrespected someone in the site. Duke was pretty sure he heard Constantine grumble at the fact that this would be much easier if mind control magic is present but no, it just had to be neither of the common reason when an army of the dead raises themselves from the dead.

Now when Tucker/ Duke was wakened up after he had just gone and stayed awake for the past 14 hours straight due to an exam that his dumb professor insisted on having despite having no to little effect on one’s final grades as well as a case that needed his vigilante self his full attention, much to say he is not happy.

…

At the battleground, other members of the JL have already gone into Gotham to aid Batman and his associates while others were able to evacuate the civilians and now joining in the fight. Every person fighting is starting to feel hopeless as this Egyptian army kept coming back at them while their fighters are getting wary and tired at each wave they faced. As some of the people of the JL were about to succumb to what looked like their inevitable fate there come Signal in his yellow-clad suit and looked like he just crawled out of bed, climbed the Wayne tower with a megaphone in one hand, and proceeded to… scold the army?

Some of them blinked at the ridiculousness while some seem to pinch themselves at the absurdity of the situation. How Signal kept screaming at the undead army how his GPA and sleep is much more important than their so-called invasion to return the Ancient civilization of Egypt to its former glory. As jaws began to drop as all undead Egyptian soldiers seems to lower their heads in shame as they listen to Signal scold them for what looked like a half hour scolding before he heaved a deep breath and ordered the soldiers to go back where they came from and return the prisoners to the living world.

Just moments before each JL and JLD members try to reboot their respective minds at what had just transpired a crack was heard seemingly echoing throughout the ruins and a green portal began to form. There, two beings came through a black-haired woman with plants crawling up to her arms and legs with a wreath on top of her head and a white hair man with a crown floating above his head and a cape that looked like made out of stars dragged Signal by the arm and dragged him back to the portal. Now all heroes are scrambling to make sense of what had happened in a matter of minutes as well as trying to get back their youngest brother back, Duke may be older than Damian but he was the latest one to be adopted thus making him the youngest by their standards.

…

Back in the Infinite Realms Duke is quietly sleeping sandwiched and snuggled between the loves of his life while wearing his Pharaoh regalia he just can’t help but feel like he had just forgotten something.

Meh, he’ll tackle that after he had his full rest with both Sam and Danny’s arms and presence beside him.

…

PS: If someone out there wanted to continue or make a fic about this you are free to do so, don’t forget to tag me though.

[starrylayle]

Marauders Fandom > "There is no canon !!" and other rhetorics

Guess who's back in their marauders phase after 2-3 years of being dormant lmao?? ((spoiler its me lol)). Anyways, a lot has changed since 2021 in this fandom so I just wanted to talk about the direction i think it's going.

I remember in 2020-21 the fandom started to boom in popularity on tiktok --> esp with the rise wolfstar + atyd. I remember people were so suprised with remus' characterization as 'rougher around the edges' instead of the 'soft boi' thing, and how that influenced the new wolfstar dynamic. [Just want to add that the atyd characterisation is much more complex than this and its one of my fave fics --> I'm more talking about the fandom at large's reaction to this)

And since fandom is incapable of having two nuanced and characters who are not stark opposites,, their roles were basically reversed and now Remus is the toxic dom alpha male and sirius is the cute girlyboy twink --- which um,,, the oc-ification is so real its embarrassing but whatever (omg don't even get me started on jegulus 💀)). I just assumed these would stay as headcanons. But now we have people saying, that 'we barely know anything abt the marauders in canon' or 'isn't the whole point of fandom to make shit up?' which i have sO many issues with so let me just try and compile my thoughts into dot points for the sake of coherency.

'we barely know anything abt the marauders in canon' ---> First of all, Remus, Sirius and Severus are fully fleshed out characters in the og series -- why do you think people would care enough to create an entire fandom based on their backstories if they were 2d flat characters in canon?? Like bffr. I saw a post on here (forgot who it was by, let me know if u know!) that said, 'I didn't cry over sirius' death in OotP just for ppl to say that we know nothing abt him in canon'. Like, its just mind-boggling to me lol.

'isn't the whole point of fandom to make shit up?' --> Ok y'all. For a fandom to work, there have to be some guidelines, some kind of source material, some point of reference so people can build upon it and make content. I think we can all agree on that. One reason why HP is such a popular place for fandom is the world-building and potential plots/storylines. I see some people argue that jk rowling was a shit writer anyways so might as well contradict everything she says. Now, I don't disagree with that point in particular, Jo is a pretty mediocre writer and a terrible person. HOWEVERrr, I'd argue that it is a lot more fascinating when people expand or work on the concepts in HP. JK Rowling has a lot of great ideas but executes them terribly -- I love when fic writes do this, which prolly explain why I love atyd as it is still very much canon compliant but executes themes on class, disability and queerness that jkr could barely do in subtext. This doesn''t mean I only think canon compliant fics are valid. That's not the case! I think as long as the charcterization is consistent to the character and the particular circumstances/world they're in, its fine! In fact, I love seeing how the same character would function if in a different place! I also love seeing explorations of the magic and magic systems in aus or fix it fics (or even canon compliant ones) that still fit in with the canonnical system that we know.

I guess what I'm trying to say I wish the marauders fandom explored the world and charcterizations more deeply instead of creating shallow oc-fied version of the characters that fit into whatever's trending -- like just write your own book or smth lol -- booktok will eat it up i promise.

Also, kinda related kinda not but um,,, why are we romanticising fascists -- like babe no evan rosier is not your babygirl he canonnoically tortured multiple ppl and became a death eater soo... not saying that I wouldn't want an exploration of his character or even a relationship with barty -- (who's not some cool dairk-haired edgelord but a actually a cowardly fascist murderer with blond hair -- yes the blond hair is important) -- I'd just want them to be portrayed as the not morally good people they are. Like,, if u want to oc-ify a character like pick someone whos not a death eater or has little info on them like dirk cresswell or frank longbottom,,, or ya know,, one of the MANY female characters in the fandom ((This fandom also has a problem with women and sapphic ships in general but that's a whole other issue lol).

I know this 'babygirlification' of death eaters doesn't mean to do this, but it also ends up watering down the themes of oppression, bigotry, etc and leaves us with not nearly as complex characters. Also one of the issues I had with the og HP world is that JK will introduce concepts like wizard racism and slavery and then just like,, not really do anything about it or just have half-arsed redemption arcs whilst not ever actually exploring the root of the issue. And now i feel like the fandom is following in those footsteps unfortunately.

Anyways, i've been rambling for too long so I'll just leave it here. Sorry if this came off as mean spirited in anyway,, I just have a lot of thoughts™ and my family is sick of hearing them lol. These opinions are not set in stone however so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject! At the end of the day this is fandom and we're supposed to have fun -- so yeah !! thanks for reading if you made it this far!

[kittyilana046]

THE DC UNIVERSE MASTERLIST - BATFAMILY EDITION

TTHE BATFAMILY MASTERLIST

Started: 12/18/2020

Last Updated: 12/29/2022

This master list is a collection of analysis essays, headcanons, and comic book panels posted by my favorite bloggers. I did not write any of the posts linked below, and I do not own any pictures used. All credit goes to the original artists and bloggers who created this content. 

I created this master list intending to archive my favorite posts. I am sharing it because I believe this list is a perfect jumping-off point for new fans who want a comprehensive guide to understanding these characters.

I encourage you to interact with original bloggers and also comic canon. 

Please send me an ask or DM if you want to talk about comic books.

Thank you 

~ Haleigh 

Links

DC UNIVERSE MASTERLIST

META / ESSAYS

Batman (Bruce Wayne)

Bruce Wayne outside of Batman

Bruce firing Dick vs. Dick firing Tim

Bruce Wayne’s childhood + a short analysis his relationship with Alfred Pennyworth

Do Bruce and Selina truly love each other?

Does Bruce love Damian?

Did Bruce love Jason?

Is Bruce a good dad?

Is Bruce nice?

Jason was Bruce’s beloved son and DC’s writers are doing shit.

Tips for writing Bruce Wayne

Batgirl (Barbra Gordon)

Thoughts on Barbra’s independence and how it affects her relationship with Dick

Batgirl/Black Bat/Orphan (Casandra Cain)

Does Casandra know ASL?

How does Casandra process anger?

Huntress (Helena Bertinelli)

Helena’s relationship with Tim Drake

Nightwing (Dick Grayson)

Dick Grayson’s moral compass + how Bruce’s expectations shaped him

Dick Grayson’s strengths and weaknesses  

Dick Grayson’s guilt complex

Dick Grayson and Temper

Dick Grayson and fashion trends

Dick, you’re so spoiled (Discussing and his relationship with money)

Do Dick and Jason get along in comics?

DICK I’LL BE THERE FOR YOU GRAYSON

DICK GRAYSON AND ALFRED PENNYWORTH’S RELATIONSHIP META

Do Dick Grayson and Roy Harper have commitment issues?

Does Dick Grayson wear a metaphorical mask like Bruce Wayne does? 

Objectification or Empowerment: how writers express Dick Grayson’s sexuality

Superman and Dick Grayson’s first meeting

What is Dick Grayson’s ethnicity?

Robin (Damian Wayne)

Do you guys ever think about how much of a crappy life Damian has been having since Rebirth? Because I do.

Is Damian sexist?

Proof Damian has a heart p1

Things I Wish Writers Would Explore More with Damian

Red Hood (Jason Todd)

Jason’s time as Robin

Jason Todd’s less known skills appreciation

Jay and Dick are musicians? What do they play?

Jason Todd and the Ladies: Post-Resurrection

Recontextualizing the death of Filipe Garzonas

The Jason Todd Book Club (books that Jason has mentioned in canon)

What kind of father was Willis Todd?

Where did Jason get his Respect Women Juice?

Red Robin (Tim Drake)

Does Tim Drake conically suffer from depression?  

How did Tim Drake’s trauma affect him?

Is Tim Drake insecure?

Is Tim Drake sexist?

I wanna talk about Janet Drake

Tim Drake’s childhood

The beginning of Tim Drake’s career as Robin

Was Tim Drake born a genius?

Was Tim Drake the CEO of Wayne Enterprises? What was his job at W.E.? Did he like it?

Your Tim Drake coffee headcanon is whack

Spoiler (Stephanie Brown)

How did the batfam react to Stephanie’s death?

What is the canon surrounding Stephanie’s economic status?

The Signal (Duke Thomas)

Duke is not a boring character – Here are some of his achievements

Duke thomas isn’t the sane one! A guide by pepper

Who is Duke Thomas?

MORE INFO HERE!

CANON VS. FANON

Batfamily canon things that we should not let fall into obscurity

Characterization cheat sheet: the batfamily boys

The Batkids views on money

What are in your opinion the biggest difference between the comic and the fanon versions of the other Batfamily members?

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

The history of the “Robin” title

The ages of the Batfamily kids according to Secret Files timelines

What are the Batkids legal names/adoption status?

HEADCANON

How would the Batfamily comfort someone who's sad? 

Is Dick Grayson demisexual?

Is Dick Grayson a romantic?

Dick Grayson and Kids

Would Bruce Wayne be a good boyfriend?

What would Bruce be like if his parents never died?

What should happen after the Ric Grayson arc ends?

What hogwarts house would jason todd be in?

Where would you sort the Batfamily?

THE ROBIN'S RELATIONSHIPS WITH EACH OTHER

All Robins are great and they all bring something to the table

Advice on how to write Damian and Tim brother dynamic

Damian & Dick: analyzing their relationship

Another analysis of Dick and Damian’s relationship

Do you think Dick and Damian have a brotherly relationship?

The Batboys calling each other brother

Where does the “little wing” nickname come from?

COMIC PANELS

Batman (Bruce Wayne) 

Batman #42 by Tom King and Mikel Janin (Bruce and Selina get captured)

Batman being a Batdad to his Batprincess

Banana Muffin is Superman and Batman’s safeword

Batman & Robin Eternal #22 (Bruce being kind to Damian)

Detective Comics (2016-) #1017

Gotham Knights #11 (“I am a model of mental health”)

How Bruce deals with trauma

Injustice 2 #51 -”Have you tried turning it on an off again?”

“My favorite superhero is Superman” “…He’s my favorite, too”

Robin (Damian Wayne)

Deathstroke #5 - “Mirrors” (2016) (Damian taunting Deathstroke)

Damian talks a lot in front of his favorite people

Injustice 2 #8 (Proof Damian has a heart p2)

Robin Son of Batman 011 (Damian being done with Bruce and Talia)

The Shadow/Batman #3 (Ra's al Ghul threatening Damian)

Super-Sons My Best Friend

Nightwing (Dick Grayson)

Everyone loves Dick Grayson

Dick beating up Bruce compilation

Dick is that type of brother…

Dick you whore

Dick imitating a crowbar

Unpublished pages of Nightwing #30

Red Hood (Jason Todd)

Batman: Urban Legends - “Cheer II” (2021)

Detective Comics (2016) #976 (Jason standing up to the Batfamily)

Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 - “More Time” (2020)

Red Hood and The Outlaws (2016) #52

Red Robin (Tim Drake)

Tim and Dick talking: A Compilation

[dazais-guardian-angel]

I'm finding it difficult to reconcile the fact that what I've always wanted and envisioned for Nikolai and his relationship with Fyodor based on fanworks and the very very little canon information we've had to go off of so far, will very likely be very different from what we actually get.

While I understand the appeal of Fyodor taking over Nikolai's body via his blood ability, and the inherent, romantic, ironic tragedy of that — for Nikolai, the person who yearned for freedom, to meet an end by having his soul eternally trapped in the body of the person he loved the most, while Fyodor lives on in his body, never truly knowing how much he was adored by him — I would just hate the idea of that happening now? It just feels far, far too soon for Nikolai to be dead, for his character to no longer have a role or a purpose; his mind and behavior is so utterly fascinating in all its bizarre contradictions, there's so much more to explore and discover with him, he's one of BSD's most complex characters, or at least he's set up to be, and I really hope Asagiri wouldn't throw him away this soon without doing anything more with him.

I never really thought that Nikolai would be the one to end Fyodor for good, way down the line (that can only ever be Dazai's job, to me, since he's his foil), but I always imagined he'd at least have some kind of role in attempting to kill him, since that's his ultimate wish. I imagined that it would be ugly, frenzied, unhinged, desperate, Nikolai finally being forced to acknowledge the horrible truth that's always been buried within his subconscious but he's never wanted to accept: that going against all human reason and killing someone he cares so deeply for will not, in fact, simply make those feelings go away, and will instead make them unable to ignore in his despair. The realization that he'll always be chained to human emotions, to love, no matter how much he thinks he can be free of them. And then, the ensuing breakdown from that. Yes, it's extremely fanficky lmao, but that kind of drama makes sense to me for him and them. It's interesting.

There was also the angst angle of Fyodor being immortal, and Nikolai's agenda perhaps stemming from wanting to save him from that, and being able to finally free him from it in the same way he himself wants to be freed. Killing being the ultimate expression of love, not too dissimilar to Mushitarou killing Yokomizo, both putting on an act of being hateful/vengeful/hostile towards the other in order to cope with the fact that deep down they can't bear the thought of them being gone.

But then we got Fyodor's "death" here, and Nikolai's reaction to it was so unbelievably underwhelming and calm that it made me question everything I thought I knew about Asagiri's writing skills him, and what the story is going for with him. And combined with this revelation now that Fyodor is (unsurprisingly!) immortal, but specifically in the way that he can be killed but supposedly resurrects endlessly (which I really like in of itself, don't get me wrong)... it makes me question what exactly Nikolai knows, or will know, and it somewhat destroys the potential angst we could get with them in the end, or at least drastically changes it.

If Nikolai already knows Fyodor can't be killed, that means we'll never get a moment where he tries to kill him and then has to face the fact that he did the deed and it didn't make him feel freed, and he instantly regrets it. It also means we'd never get a moment where he tries to kill him and then discovers he can't truly die, and the ensuing insanity that would occur from that. It also makes me even question the legitimacy of his reaction to Fyodor's "death" here... was it so damn apathetic and lukewarm because he already knows it wasn't permanent? I mean, I'd like an explanation for it feeling so ooc, it would make me feel better about that, but I can't deny that it would be disappointing to have yet another part of this arc that was just an act and not genuine feelings....

Now, that isn't to say that it's impossible to do anything interesting with Nikolai already knowing the truth. He could be wishing to try to attain free will through the illogical pursuit of an impossible task: in this case, killing Fyodor. There's a beautiful, tragic paradox in him wishing to attempt something to gain his freedom that he and we know is impossible, especially if subconsciously he takes solace in the fact that he'd be able to kill Fyodor without actually losing him for good. If Nikolai doesn't already know, assuming he's not dead he's likely going to find out the truth soon when he next sees Fyodor alive and kicking — I can't imagine a way he wouldn't find out. In that case, we wouldn't get the aforementioned scenario where he tries to kill him and discovers it's futile, which is the most juicy to me I won't lie, but I am still fascinated by the idea of how Nikolai will respond just seeing him suddenly alive again and having to process this after having just mourned him. It's interesting to imagine how he might respond to and treat Fyodor after at last knowing how it truly felt to lose him, and realizing how much he didn't want that, and then suddenly having him back. It might cause him to finally understand that his desire for freedom is unobtainable, and cause him to spiral, and fundamentally change their relationship going forward. An eventual tragic end for him such as Fyodor taking over his body would not feel out of place to me in that case, perhaps, but still not until we've had more time to see Nikolai reflect and see his possible change in perspectives.

I don't know, I'm just rambling at this point lmao. I know very well that so much of my expectations and desires for Nikolai and Fyolai are built up from fan content over the years just because there's been nothing else to work with, and that it's unfair to judge what Asagiri decides to do with him/them based on preconceived notions. Whatever he does could still be interesting in the end, even if it's not what I initially wanted or expected, and being open to being surprised is always a good thing. At the end of the day we still know barely anything about Nikolai, so it's not completely fair for me to judge something as ooc for a character we still know so little about.

But... it's because we know so little about him and have gotten so little of him, that at the very least, I'm gonna be really upset if he does die here from being possessed by Fyodor like people are worrying about. I really don't think he will, because I'm pretty confident the helicopter pilot is the one Fyodor swapped with/resurrected in the body of as per soup's theory, and again I'm not saying it wouldn't be fitting eventually... but I really don't want it to happen now. :/ I just think Nikolai still has so much potential as a character and so much more we need to see of him before his likely inevitable and tragic demise (however it happens), so whatever Asagiri decides to do with him I just really, really hope we don't lose him so prematurely; it would honestly be such a tremendous waste imo.

[spaceorphan18]

You may have answered this a hundred times before, if so, point me to your previous answers! How would you have improved Kurt’s story in canon? What are the major things you would have changed, and some of the niggles and minor things that drive you mad?

Hi! You know - I don't mind getting these kinds of questions again. My answers tend to change as the years pass.

I'm not sure if there's anything major I'd change? I don't mind the overall structure of his story (@snarkyhag - omg, I used the word 'structure' for the first time in forever, feels nice, lol.) But Glee has very jaggedy story telling, in that it does highs and lows but doesn't do details or in-betweens very well.

I think his arcs in Season 1 and 2 are pretty well done, and despite me always wanting /more/ - the show was about an ensemble, and he did relatively well. I really have no complaints there.

In Season 3, I would have liked his story to be less attached to Rachel and more on an individual path. Everything that happens in his story line (that isn't related to Blaine) is a consequence or set up of Rachel's story line, and it's maddening. I don't mind that he doesn't get into NYADA -- I wish he would have stayed out, tbh, but the narrative around him getting or not getting in should have been devoid of what Rachel's story needed to be.

I also wish he and Blaine had had more intimate moments -- I don't mean, necessarily, kissing/sex/romance -- but more moments where the two of them are just them together, in a more relaxed way. Hard to do in a school setting, sure, but things like the missing Box Scene from the Christmas episode sprinkled in more often would have been nice.

Of course - I would have loved so much more in Season 4. More fall out from the Break Up. More of Kurt exploring New York City. It would have been nice to see Adam developed as a real relationship for Kurt. Just seeing more of how he felt, and how he was struggling with moving, and being in a new city, and leaving friends and family, and missing Blaine, etc, etc. There's such a rich story there -- but the show, ultimately, was about a high school glee club, not up and coming college kids, and of course, Kurt's story still ended up tied in to Rachel's. (Of course - on the flip side Season 4 gives us such rich material to fanfic around -- so much good fic arose out of this era.)

Season 5 is hard to articulate - there is such a complex variety of things going on - with Finn's Death, the engagement, and all of Rachel and Santana. I wish Kurt would have more of his own individual story line. I know he got the band and Elliott - but what does he really want to do with his life? Again, I do wish we had Glee - the College Years for the full season.

I love the NYC arc - and the exploration of the Klaine dynamic, but I would have seen more the highs there, too. I realize TV needs conflict, and the writers knew where they were going with the story, but I don't think the June story line necessarily worked now that I'm this far out, and I would have liked to see them more navigate the ins and outs of a relationship.

Season 6 I would change less than you think. My biggest thing is that I'd rewrite the entire Klaine part of the Wedding episode. Kurt needs a catalyst (probably the one thing that still bugs me the most) to run back - the writing is just awkward.

But also - Kurt and Blaine don't get a single, private conversation between getting back together and the locker scene in Dreams Come True. I realize it's more about the show winding down - and that scene is essentially their 'happily ever after' moment, but it would have been nice for the show let Kurt (and Blaine) reflect on marriage and taking that next step. But also, having a conversation about how their lives are moving forward when back in New York.

The epilogue was nice, but I would have moved it farther than five years -- and I'm somewhat indifferent about them having kids, but twenty-six feels young for them being dads.

Idk, those are the major things. There are episode to episode minor-ish things, too, I guess. Like why did Kurt give back the tape in Michael? Why did he have to be a jerk to Quinn in On My Way? Stuff like that where I don't agree on the writers' charactierizations.

Thanks for the question, Nonny! It was nice to get back into writing meta!

[padmenaberriens]

about the queen's trilogy #1

i read the queen's trilogy (queen's shadow, queen's peril and queen's hope) a few months ago and i have some opinions that i've already shared with some friends who agreed with what i have to say! i remind everyone that it is exclusively MY opinion, from someone who has padmé as her favorite character and who felt very frustrated reading this trilogy.

i will never take away from ek johnston's fantastic writing, it's really very good (especially in the epilogues, in the book the writing is more common but it's still easy to read and that's a good thing), but my problems are what she did with padmé and her 'development'. i feel like the book has interesting narratives, but never goes too deep into it. of course, there are things that shouldn't be covered, like in queen's peril when it's about qui-gon's burial and there's a quick passage about what he meant to padmé. really, it was a simple and direct take, it wouldn't need any further elaboration because it's something simple.

but there's one thing that's not simple: padmé's emotions. understand me, i'm not saying that the book didn't narrate this, it did, it just didn't narrate it well enough. i love tsabin's character, her reflections and life philosophies are very interesting. it's just that the premise of the book is about queen amidala, senator amidala, about padmé amidala naberrie. having thoughts, speeches and moments about tsabin is extremely necessary too, after all, she was the closest handmaid to padmé with probably the most mixed feelings about her work. but i feel that many moments where tsabin's emotions were worked on, padmé's were not and these moments about sabé could have been used to be about padmé (which is, technically, the main narrative of the books).

It's very interesting to have the narrative about the tsabin, but I feel that even that is not worked on completely or clearly. I feel like Sabé was a character that EK felt safer working with because she didn't have enough content, but I still have frustration about not having enough of Padmé's emotions as a HUMAN. The construction of the persona she created as a queen and as a senator is extremely important, this work was really good, but I feel that the excerpts and paragraphs that portrayed Padmé were not enough. She is such a complex character, but even in her own book they didn't pay enough attention to her! this is very annoying, especially when Padmé is an extremely underestimated character and when she has the chance to show all her anguish, fears, dreams and despair it is shown from just one side.

i like read the narratives of thoughts she has, like how sad she is to see her handmaids (especially sabé) leave, but… and the rest? there are THREE books about her, so i want three books that explore what she felt at each stage of her life! It's extremely important that they focused on the issue of the handmaids of naboo, i'm even in favor of a book entirely about them, but i really wish her personality and impulsiveness had been explored more. padmé is not a perfect character, she is full of flaws and that's why i love her. maybe if the book had focused more on certain points about her reasons for being who she was during star wars, some moments would have been understood and not taken as script flaws (like her taking care of anakin after the tusken massacre or her death in revenge for the sith). i feel that tsabin's emotions and personality were explored more than padmé's.

another thing that bothers me deeply is when people take handmaids relationships as something especially romantic. for me, the focus should be: girls can love, girls can have friends, girls SHOULD love others and it doesn't always have to be romantic. what Sabé feels for padmé is something that is extremely open to various interpretations, my interpretation is a bit extensive and is not limited to just romantic love (which i think is a shame, and in my opinion, hinders the development of tsabin as a character). it's something so much deeper, so beautiful and poetic, but it's not always necessarily romantic. when ALL the handmaids say “my hands are yours” it’s not about loving each other with the intention of marriage and all (well, we have saché and yané but im talking about they relationship with padmé!), it’s about dedicating yourself to each other. honestly, this whole culture of shipping and wanting to bring couples together ruins a lot of things and that is included in this book. i understand some people, obviously, interpret sabé's love as something romantic, but limit it exclusively to that? no, my goodness, never! tsabin is a character who, amazingly, lived being someone's shadow for years, but still when they insist on talking about padmé to tsabin they only attribute the romantic and 'cute' side of it all. this complaint is perhaps more for the fandom than the books themselves, but i think if the writing had been more specific about tsabin's insecurities or how she managed to love herself and evolve later, people would interpret it differently (when i said this i want to say: people would interpret it not ONLY as a romantic love).

i'm never saying that it's wrong to like character y with character x, no! i'm just saying that i find the view that love is just about romance limiting, and that it is extremely problematic to attribute women to a single type of love as if that were a woman's role. of course, not everyone who likes sabédala, for example, thinks too much about it, sometimes they just want wlw representation and that's okay (although almost no one talks about saché and yané… they are married and have children, but where are the people talking about them? anyway! they should be talked about more), but tbh i can't take this ship seriously due to the fact that padmé never loved her in any other way and this is mentioned in the books.

i love the anguish that surrounds padmé's relationships, a lot is said about the tragedy of anakin skywalker, but what about the tragedy that surrounds padmé amidala? the people she trusts most left at some point in her life, the only person she loved romantically was possessed by darkness, she didn't even have the chance to raise her own children! are you seeing? reflections like these could have been covered in depth in the book, padmé is an extremely deep character and little is said about her. anyway! these were my complaints, maybe i'll say more and if you want to discuss or ask me something i'll definitely be willing to talk. kisses, seen you'll soon with more star wars (maybe hot) takes!

[whathorselegs]

Hi.... If you don't mind, can I ask your top 5 (or top 3) favorite characters from Bungou Stray Dogs? And why you loved them? And your top 5 favorite moments from the series? Sorry if you've answered this before.....

No need to apologise, I’m happy to answer! :D 

Lets see, fave characters, it’s so hard to narrow it down to just five because I love most of the BSD characters

Surprise to no one, Chuuya. I love my scrunkly boy. For as little as he appears in the main story he steals every scene he’s in, his light novels have so much character to explore. His backstory is wild. There’s so much for me to sink my teeth into in terms of character and so little there’s a lot of room to theorise. He has a fun personality to attempt to write as well. I have a lot of Chuuya posts so I won’t rant too much about him here.

Kunikida was definitely my first favourite character. Strict but caring, follows the rules but they are his own rules, reluctant mentor figure, thrown into a high position at such a young age, really smart but such a dumbass. Dazai’s character in season 1 wouldn’t nearly be so enjoyable if he didn’t have Kunikida to reign him in. I love his dynamic with Atsushi, he doesn’t want to be a mentor, but he doesn’t want this kid to get hurt. So he tries to land somewhere in the middle. He tries to get Atsushi to arrive at the right conclusion himself, he wants him to grow on his own, but will be there for him when he needs it.

Yosano, BSD needs more Yosano content. Again, I loved her dynamic with Atsushi during the train heist. Her and Kaiji’s conflict of beliefs about the value of human life and death was so interesting. Her past with Mori was definitely interesting too, but I am much more interested in seeing more of the present day Yosano. I don’t want her to be forced out into the field, because that’s something she doesn’t want, but I would love to just know more about her role in the agency. Her day to day. More of her beliefs. More exploration of how her trauma affected her ability to heal people. Is she even a real qualified doctor?? Did she actually go to med school??? Because some part of me wouldn't be surprised she didn’t, given her history.

Akutagawa siblings. I’m putting them as one because a lot of what makes Akutagawa interesting to me is his relationship with Gin. I love main timeline Akutagawa and all his complexities but Beast!Aku is golden. I love the Beast movie so much that when I picture Akutagawa I picture the actor, not the cartoon man, haha. They are both little creatures to me, I wish their dynamic was more explored. I wish Gin was explored more in general, pretty sure we see them the least out of all of Black Lizard.

Dazai. Here’s the thing, originally, I wasn’t much of a Dazai fan. I didn’t not like him, but he wasn’t my favourite. BUT then I started reading the real Dazai Osamu’s works and I love his writing. Rewatching BSD and starting the manga, after I had read some of Dazai Osamu’s works, gave me a better appreciation for the BSD character. NLH, Setting Sun, Flowers of Buffoonery and Dazai Osamu’s fairytale retellings, all very much affect how I view Dazai and how I write his character. I have a very love/hate relationship with writing him though because I’m constantly questioning whether or not he would do X actions, but then I remember the characters in the books would, so I write it in anyways, haha.

Honourable mentions: Aya, Kenji, Kyouka, Atsushi, Bram, all of The Flags, Lucy (Okay I’m going to stop before I list them all)

Favourite moments:

It’s got to be Chuuya fighting a literal dragon, right? I’ve rewatched Dead Apple a lot, I never tire of Chuuya throwing a building down a dragon’s throat. And of course Chuuya screaming Dazai’s name in the midst of corruption. Not even in a shippy way, but in the context of Dazai should be dead, as far as anyone else knows he’s dead, but Chuuya believes in his ability to survive. He believes even when it’s supposed to be impossible, if he uses corruption, Dazai will be there to stop it. And if he’s wrong, he accepts dying alongside him. That’s about as ride or die as it gets and I love it.

Atsushi jumps to save Kyouka. He has no reason to, other than despite all he’s been through, he still believes people deserve to live, they deserve to be told that. Kyouka was willing to die to stop hurting people, to pay penance for an ability she had no control over and Atsushi was willing to die trying to save her. I don’t care what people say, Atsushi is a good main character, I don’t care that he cries a lot or that he needs saving and losses fights. I care about how much he cares. I care that he sees good in people like Kyouka and Dazai, he sees the good in Lucy. Moments like this make me love BSD.

Similar vein, Lucy frees Atsushi. Helping Atsushi is a lose/lose scenario in Lucy’s perspective. The guild is all she has, the only place that has ever given her some value. Atsushi is the man that robbed her of that value. But in this confrontation she learns Atsushi is a lot like her, that in this one conversation he has attempted to understand her pain better than anyone else in the guild and so she takes a chance on Atsushi. She chooses to help him and Yokohama despite knowing it will cost her everything she has. And she does it with a smile on her face like it’s nothing. Love Lucy so much.

Ranpo can’t ride public transport by himself. This one is a little silly, but you see I am a neurodivergent adult who also really struggles with public transport. Trains scare the heck out of me, so I don’t go on them alone. Ranpo is just like me for real and it gave me a silly little serotonin to see it.

Okay, I tried not doing two Chuuya scenes but Chuuya showing up to save the agency in a helicopter and throwing bullets at the Hunting Dogs is also one of my faves. Especially as he was sent there to save them and then Kunikida goes and jumps out the thing and blows himself up anyway, it’s just funny. BSD does a good job of balancing action and humour and serious moments very well. This is supposed to be an epic sacrifice for Kunikida, his friends all think he’s dead. But looking at it from Chuuya’s perspective is funny. People say “Oh, why didn’t Chuuya do anything” like Kunikida really gave him a chance to. Maybe he did have a plan and maybe he didn’t get a chance to do anything because Tall, Blond and Explody over there leapt out the door.

[gmwsuperfan5467890]

Paper Girls

I read the comic in one day and binged the show in two days and let me just say, I am obsessed. I love all the wonderful, complex characters, the beautiful artwork, the engaging plot and of course, the wonderfully built-up main sapphic relationship. Because I read the comics before watching the show, I think I was a bit too critical of the show at first (especially because there were so many changes) but after the first two episodes, I began to fall in love with the show as well. There were some changes the show made that I loved and some that I did not like so much.

Changes I loved:

1)The development of Dylan and Alice. In the comics, he is referenced quite a bit and the audience can infer that he is a douchebag but other than that and the one interaction with Mac where he calls her a “butch” ,we don’t get much from him. But in the show, we see that he is a changed man, who has acknowledged how the trauma of the abusive home he grew up in has shaped him and how he in turn added to his sister’s trauma. He has grown and has apologized for his mistakes and loves and misses his sister. In fact, his sister’s death is what inspires him to change his life for the better and break the cycle of generational trauma. He treats both his kids and little sister so gently, the complete opposite of his dad. It was so heartbreaking when Mac had to leave her brother and the better life he could have provided for her behind.

Alice’s portrayal in the comics is heartbreaking. She doesn’t seem to care for Mac as much as Mac cares for her and is an absent parent. While the show seems to keep the same tune at first, we later find out Alice stepped up and took care of Mac and Dylan after Mac was diagnosed. Her love for her stepdaughter is abundantly clear, shown by how brings flowers to Mac’s grave on her birthday and her absolutely grief-stricken and hopeful expression upon catching a glimpse of her step-daughter in the graveyard. I absolutely love that Mac got to see that there were people who loved and cared about her (although they showed it too late). Overall, it was a beautiful and poignant plot line.

2) Erin’s martyr tendacies due to her being parentified as a child cause her to self-destruct. Erin was forced to take a lot of responsibility as a child because if her father’s death and because her mother couldn’t speak English. She made taking care of people her whole personality and pushed her own wants and needs to the side. When her sister and mother became more independent, Erin felt hollow and lost because she had no dreams and aspirations of her own, thus when her mother became sick, Erin subconsciously jumped at the chance to play the martyr/caretaker role again, feeling like she should have to handle this on her own and not realizing that her sister would also want to take care of their mother. This was definitely a more nuanced approach to Erin’s character and I loved the complexity that was added to Erin and Missy’s relationship, whereas in the comics Erin’s jealousy of Missy’s perfect life was only slightly hinted at.

3) I also loved Erin being angry at her future self and that being delved into a bit more.

4) I loved Erin and Mac’s friendship. We didn’t get enough one-on-one scenes of them in the comics.

5) I loved that they made Mac a cancer, partly because it’s also my zodiac sign and partly because it’s such a dark joke.

Changes I didn’t love:

1) 1999 Tiff wasn’t goth enough. And her bf wasn’t goth either. I also disliked that they used the fact that Tiff was adopted as a shocking secret. I preferred to have her know that she was adopted from the start like in the comics. The comics hinted that she had some abandonment trauma with her bio mum, I wish that was explored instead. I just feel like the whole secretly adopted plot twist is cliche and also implies that being adopted is a shameful thing and that’s why parents don’t tell their children that they’re adopted, which is a horrible thing to imply.

2) I’m sad that they cut out the plot-line of the girls saving Wali and Japho. I get why they cut it but I remember finding out that Japho was the Grand Father after they saved him and I was gobsmacked and flabbergasted, it was such a good plot twist.

3) I’m sad that they got rid of homophobic Mac. Once again, I get why they did it, I can’t imagine a child saying slurs would be greenlit on any tv show and the scenes where she’s homophobic to KJ are downright painful but it was so refreshing how they made they more stereotypical butch character have internalized homophobia and it paid off in the end when Mac accepted that she was gay and she wasn’t homophobic anymore.

4) Larry was there. I did not really care about Larry, although I got super pissed when he yelled at Tiffany twice. I was also really worried that he was going to be adult Erin’s love interest (which would have been weird and horrifying), luckily their fake dating scene hilariously showed that they are definitely not going to date. I’ve also noticed that the best scenes are when the paper girls are alone (or with their future selves) Larry doesn’t add anything to the story.

I adored the show and I actually loved that they made such huge changes. It keeps the suspense alive. There better be a season 2!

[iveneverbeenmorestressedinmylife]

Για το ask game Edgeworth και Ανδρέας

Miles Edgeworth 💅

First impression: OH I SHOULD GET INTO ACE ATTORNEY IMMEDIATELY THIS MAN IS GOING TO RUIN ME.

Impression now: I was one hundred percent correct in my assumptions. He did in fact ruin me. This man has the range honestly. He is kind. He is an asshole. He is traumatised. He has every subtype of daddy issues known to man. He is a bitchy gay queen. He is aroace-spec (to me). He is autistic. He has NO idea what to do with himself when he is not in a courtroom. He is insane. Ive seen it. I enjoy it. Amen.

Favourite moment: "thanks to you i am saddled with unnecessary.... feelings....". Everything about turnabout goodbyes. The talk with Franziska at the end of aa2. The talk with phoenix after the earthquake in aa3. I could literally never pick Just One moment sorry.

Idea for a story: ... I've brainstormed two (2) aus that involve Edgeworth with two different mutuals. The first one is the Eurovision au where vk just sends miles to represent germany in Eurovision and the second one is the ace attorney/παρά πέντε crossover me and @alalumin have been driving ourselves insane over. Out of the two, the first one is the most fleshed out but the second one i might actually sit down and write for one day. Thats about all the concrete story ideas ive had for this man so far dkskks. Everything else is just a jumble of vague angsty daydreams.

Unpopular opinion: hmmm a lot of people tend to ignore the fact that he was canonically suicidal after aa1 so i suppose that could count as an unpopular opinion? Like if he wasn't actually suicidal, the note meant that he straight up faked his death which makes him an even bigger asshole that he usually is, which in turn makes phoenix's misdirected anger and blame seem a lot more justified? Also a lot of people tend to ignore the fact that phoenix would NOT handle Edgeworth admitting that he meant the note literally well. And honestly im not really blaming anyone here. Their aa2 dynamic is sooo complex, Edgeworth hurt the people that cared about him by hurting himself and not all of them are ready to forgive him immediately and thats fine. I just wish more people would explore this whole thing instead of oversimplifying it yknow?

Favourite relationship: narumitsu obvs but honestly? The Franziska and Miles fucked up sibling relationship means the world to me, its like a really really really close second.

Favourite headcanon: does it actually count as a headcanon if its strongly supported by canon? Idk but he definitely avoids elevators as much as he can and considering that his office is in the twelfth fucking floor the man walks up a lot of flights of stairs. He must have thighs of steel skkskaka. Also i like to think that at some point after the investigation games he went to therapy and he finally (!) got some help for that unmedicated and undiagnosed canon ptsd hes been drowning in since he was nine years old. Also he got Pess because i love her. Maybe she is trained as a service dog. He would love her with all his heart and her death would kickstart a major depressive episode because god knows this man can't handle grief but in the end he could get over it. Maybe even get a second dog or learn how to deal with loss in a less self destructive way. Also i don't think he would ever be able to fully enjoy Christmas? Like sure his fathers death doesn't hurt as much anymore but i like to think that the nightmares rear their ugly head during the Christmas season. Sure, he IS doing better but some things never really go away. He can hang out at the prosecutors office or Wright anything agency Christmas parties without feeling utterly miserable but he doesn't enjoy the holidays as much as everyone else. Some people don't understand why or think thats its just another aspect of his charming personality but the people who do are sympathetic about it.

Ανδρέας Καλογήρου 🔪

First impression: γουαου ποιός είναι αυτός ο μαλάκας λολ. Ειλικρινά νομίζω την πρώτη φορά που είδα το παρά πέντε δεν με ένοιαζε πολύ σαν χαρακτήρας.

Impression now: κοίτα. Έχεις δει το μπλογκ μου. Ξέρεις πως νιώθω για αυτόν τον άνθρωπο. Ο Ανδρέας έχει θεματάρες. Έχει παγιδεύσει τον εαυτό του σε μια θέση στην οποία είναι και θύμα και θύτης και από την οποία δεν έχει τρόπο ή ιδιαίτερη θέληση να βγει. Κατά την διάρκεια του σόου πηγαίνει από την αδιαφορία για τους ανθρώπους που σκοτώνει, στην εμμονή με το να πιάσει τους πέντε και μόνο όταν τον συλλαμβάνουν και όλα τελειώνουν συνηδειτοποιεί πόσο μάταια ήταν όλα αυτά και πόσες ζωές έχει καταστρέψει συμπεριλαμβανομένης και της δικής του. Επίσης ο άνθρωπος είναι μούναρος 😔😔.

Favourite moment: το τηλεφώνημα στον Σπύρο στο φινάλε με στοιχειώνει τα βράδια.

Idea for a story: πέρα από το ο Σπύρος επισκέπτεται τον Ανδρέα στη φυλακή fic που βρίσκεται αυτή τη στιγμή στο wip hell μου έχει καρφωθεί στο μυαλό εκείνη η ατάκα που ο Παυρινός αποκαλεί τον Νίκο πρεζόνι και το τι μπορεί να υπονοεί για το Ανδρέας/Νίκος μπακστορι. Επίσης εκείνο το όνειρο που είχα δει ότι έχει κόρη και redemption arc, angst fic για την γενική κακομεταχείριση που τρώει από τον Παυρινό, το Ανδρέας/Νίκος καφενείο au το οποίο κάποιος πρέπει να γράψει σας εκλιπαρώ και το προαναφερόμενο ace attorney/παρά πέντε crossover στο οποίο εμφανίζεται ως μάρτυρας στην δίκη της Αγγέλας. Το πόσα από αυτά θα καταλήξω όντως να γράψω ποτέ είναι πολύ αμφιλεγόμενο τβχ αλλά το γεγονός είναι ότι μου τριβελίζουν συνέχεια το μυαλό.

Unpopular opinion: δεν ξέρω είμαστε στο παρά πέντε φάντομ, είμαστε δέκα άτομα όλα κι όλα κάθε άποψη μετράει για unpopular κσκσκσ. Αλλά απλά και μόνο για να πω κάτι. Νομίζω όντως προσπάθησε να αγαπήσει τη Ζάνα. Ο γάμος τους ήταν ότι πιο hand in unlovable hand και σφάζονταν όλη μέρα αλλά προσπάθησε να φτιάξει τη ζωή του στην αρχή τουλάχιστον, εξού και ο ευτυχισμένος χετεροσεξουαλ γάμος. Στο μυαλό μου ήταν από αυτά τα ζευγάρια που έχουν ημερομηνία λήξης και το ήξεραν και οι δύο. Μετά έπεσε στα βαθιά με τις δουλειές με τον Παυρινό και πήρανε επιτέλους διαζύγιο. Επίσης δεν νομίζω ότι με τον Νίκο τα έχουνε, έχουνε. Νομίζω έχουν μια ελαφρώς fucked up relationship όπου δεν επικοινωνούν τίποτα εβερ, απλά πηδιουνται περιστασιακά on and off και μετά απλά πηγαίνουν και τα φτιάχνουν με άλλους. Τουλάχιστον στην αρχή. Τώρα αν μετά το τέλος της σειράς βγουν ποτέ από την φυλακή θέλω να πιστεύω ότι θα μπορούσαν να φτιάξουν λίγο τη ζωή τους αλλά αν δεν βγουν ποτέ. Well. Πώς νιώθεις όταν συνηδειτοποιείς ότι αγαπούσες τον καλύτερο σου φίλο χρόνια τώρα αλλά δεν έκανες ποτέ τίποτα για αυτό επειδή απλά δεν τολμούσες να αλλάξεις τίποτα στην μοναδική σταθερή σχέση που σου είχε απομείνει στη ζωή σου και ταυτόχρονα ήσουν πολύ απασχολημένος να σκοτώνεις κόσμο; Πώς νιώθεις όταν συνηδειτοποιείς ότι τώρα μπορεί να είναι πια πολύ αργά; Γενικά head full many thoughts.

Favourite relationship: Νίκος/Ανδρέας δαγκωτό.

Favourite headcanon: ναιιι δεν νομίζω ότι αυτός ο άνθρωπος είχε καλά παιδικά χρόνια. Ή καλό πατέρα. Ο Παυρινός κυριολεκτικά του πετάει πράγματα και αυτός ο καημένος σκύβει να τα πιάσει 😔 babyboy έχεις τραύμα. Η μάνα του είναι νεκρή (ναι κυριολεκτικά αναφέρεται έτσι throwaway σε ένα επεισόδιο και δεν το έχω ξεχάσει ποτέ) και επιλέγω να πιστεύω ότι την σκότωσε ο πατέρας του. Μισεί τον πατέρα του και κατά βάθος μισεί και το γεγονός ότι μεγαλώνοντας έχει γίνει σχεδόν ακριβώς σαν αυτόν. Ξεκίνησε να καπνίζει στο γυμνάσιο. Επίσης δεν πιστεύω ότι τελείωσε ποτέ το λύκειο.

[dronarryfest]

Dronarry Fest Week 4 (Final Week) Masterpost!

And that's a wrap, folks! In week four of Dronarry Fest, we reminisced over nights of passion, explored cursed magical houses, baked together in Malfoy Manor, and discovered our soulmates, our latent Veela heritage, and our bisexual tendencies. This year's fest might be over (boo) but we certainly went out with a bang, so make yourself comfy and get stuck in to this fantastic selection of fics. Please make sure you mind the tags, and don't forget to leave a kudos or a comment for our wonderful MAs!  

The anonymous masterpost will go up later today, and author/artist reveals will be on Wednesday!!!

[FIC] Try as I might, I could not bring myself to hold you || T || 6.7k

"Happy birthday, myself" writes little Harry on his knee, on his ninth birthday. "Happy birthday, you" answers little Draco on the other, just a few minutes after. "They're bound to die a tragic death" says Molly Weasley, to nine year old Ron, the next morning. CW: mentions of transphobia

Your storytelling is beautiful, I’m hooked on this premise and these reimagined characters! - Schmem_14

This was such a unique, well-crafted look at how complex yet loving relationships could develop between all of these characters. Thank you for sharing! Always fun to see Dudley included! - oknowkiss

[FIC] The Sun, Shining Above You || E || 14.5k

Since joining up with the dragontamers, Draco counts his days in nights. Nights spent drinking in the commune mess, making poor choices he doesn't regret, for once. Nights he doesn't remember, and nights he wishes he could stop remembering. Then there's that night in Spain, caught in the circle of Ron's arms. A year of nights in Norway, caught in the heat of Harry's gaze. His first night at the Burrow, caught in between them both. CW: references to depression and grief, open/ambiguous ending

Omg this is like… if this fic was a person I would marry them. It’s perfect! - Vawobe

Amazing amazing fabulous magnificent. A triumph. - Maesterchill

[FIC] Let Be, Let Be || M || 10k

Ron's never had a place to really call his own, so when the deeds to an ancient magical house in Bulgaria appear in his Gringotts vault, he ropes in his Curse-Breaker best friend (and his Curse-Breaker best friend's Field Healer boyfriend) to come and check the place out with him. What he doesn't expect is wanton destruction, a Veela transformation, and the need for some serious conversations between friends.

And whoever said Draco Malfoy was bad at sharing?! CW: jealousy, opening up an established relationship

Oh my goddddd. Ron being the veela! The house inheritance! The descriptions of Ron's wings! Harry liking both of them being jealous and possessive about him! This was really fun and such a delight. I'm so happy for them! -TheGoblinMatriarch

Help me Jesus, phwoar - Moonflower_Rose

[FIC] Bad Company || E || 86.5k

Draco has a hard time coming to terms with the world after the war. Stuck on house arrest in a rapidly dilapidated Malfoy Manor, he's more alone than ever before. If only his parole officer wasn't Auror Weasley, not to mention the increasing pile of unread Owls from one Harry Potter... CW: suicide of a minor character, infidelity

i just finished this story in one go and this was just so good... you could see the relationship grow, you could feel the bitterness melting, you could feel all the love - simarjotkour

i love your story so far. It’s the perfect storm of angst! - Schmem_14

[under-lore]

Flowey’s descent into madness needs more attention

I really feel like the period of Flowey’s transition, the one that came after his first suicide but before the events of the game, has not had the attention of the fandom as it much as it deserved.

There is so much potential here, Flowey trying to make friend with everyone after learning of his power but slowly realising that everything eventually becomes predictable, that its always the same, until eventually those same words that he hears every single time lose all meaning to him. They are just “lines of dialogue”.

He stops caring about hurting people’s feelings since they’ll just forget anyways. Being friends with people is always the same, but seeing them sad, seeing them hurt, brought to the edge of what their emotions can handle, isn’t it so much more interesting ? So much more entertaining ?

It doesn’t matter since he doesn’t about care about them and can simply just undo it if he so desires, so he might as well just try to see what happens if he insults them, if he destroys relationships, if he can get people to turn bad, or eventually, if he kills them. At first just because he’s mordbidly curious, but eventually because its the only thing that he has left in his life as the human souls are out of reach, the determination to keep living and see everything this world has to offer. “Kill or be killed” becomes his motto. Its both the lesson that he believes he ‘learned’ from his first death as Asriel and the only thing that still entertains him at this point as Flowey.

But even then, eventually, it becomes tiring. Even seeing people beg for their lives becomes boring, he’s seen it all before. He starts trying more and more complex ideas and schemes to try and get new reactions out of people instead of the same boring ones, but eventually he understands that after so many times, he literally knows everyone’s personalities by heart to the point where he can guess what they’ll do before they even do it as they more or less do the same things every time and he’s experienced that thousands of times already. 

At this point, its like if everyone else in the underground was just a robot. Like they were all scripted. If Flowey does this, then they will do that and say this. Every time, without fault. They don’t even feel like living beings anymore. They are just like toys, toys that get boring, and eventually, that he gets sick of playing with. Every single one of them.

He had seen it all, there was nothing new left for him in this world.

He ends up as a sort of deity trapped in his own world and unable to escape. There are only a handful of things he still wishes to do, but those things happen to be the ones he can never do, no matter how many times he RESETS, such as getting the human souls or seeing Chara again. Eventually, he tries the only thing he had never tried : doing literally nothing at all (except talking to Papyrus a little bit, i guess). He just waits... Until eventually Frisk falls.

Overall, i just wish there was more fan content about Flowey’s descent into insanity. There are a few good comics and fanfictions about it but i’ve ran out of them a long time ago. I love Flowey, i wish this part of the character was explored a bit more by the fans.

[pyreofsunflowers]

I dislike soooooo much of the writing in Ultimate and how they handled the characters n the plot but I think the WORST thing in that entire show is the way they wrote Alucard...

He's monstrous, sadistic and ultra-violent - sure, that's not my problem. My PROBLEM is that he's written in this stupid try hard edgelord fashion, which is NEVER interesting EVER.

I want Alucard to be sadist, I want him to be a violent monster who can kill people in horrific ways without remorse. But I also want him to be a character, and a well written one at that.

in MY mind - it's more like he's able to keep his demons in check (especially considering he's a government agent - ? and Integra seems pretty cautious about collateral damage - ?) under a suave, classy demeanor that's still ridiculously imposing and scary but not necessarily insane. When he chooses to go crazy - he goes CRAZY believe me. I'm not one of those people who think the gore in Ultimate is too much or try hard, it's the best part of the show. That being said ~ I also like the idea that he's lost an element of his control - or that it's not as good as it used to be and he (somewhat regularly) slips up and lets his emotions get the best of him. Of course, I imagine that he generally regrets these mistakes - either because it scares Integra/Seras or because he hates himself for loosing control and thinks he should have been stronger. Depending on the context.

oh and should I mention the whole edgelord thing really doesn't work with him being Count Dracula? Who's very much not an edgelord?

I just feel like he could have been such a complex character - especially if they had leaned more into a romantic plotline with him and Seras. How he'd be so afraid of hurting her, but how she so desperately wants to be corrupted by him. WHEREEEEE was them fucking on camera HIRANO - i KNOW you draw porn.

So desperately do I want him to have his monsters just below the surface, I want him to be scared of himself and to hate himself for it. I want him to try and try to keep himself from hurting the one he loves, to try and tell her this isn't what she deserves - that she's too pure and too innocent for this life. And I want Seras to tell him 'no' to become a monster like him and to love him every minute of it. I mean - if this is the character he should have, in my mind it makes the most sense that it's explored through romance. Especially one as tragic as theirs, one that has lasted centuries and has always ended in death.

Like ughhh just imagine how goood it would be when Alucard realizes Seras is just as fucked up as he is and he's able to be himself around her. how much havoc they can wreck together. how nasty he can fuck her <- sorry. But that's defiantly part of it. Like imagine how nervous he must have been to touch her for the first time, how much taking her virginity would weigh on him considering how rough and sadistic he is. Hellsing is like the one show I think that would have benefited from a consensual sex scene between the two leads. IT WOULD have been soooo good and could have given su soooo much introspection into there relationship.... Ugh but I can dream Ig, and it seems people generally really like edgelord-card but personally I cant stand him. where's my complex characters dammit. whatever. this is for a gorefest anime that isn't even supposed to be deep. But i wish it was better, If you even care.

[marshmallowprotection]

To be honest, my opinion of V as a person is greatly influenced by how his choices affected the twins and Jumin, who are my three favorite characters. But, as I already said, I consider him an excellent character precisely because of the points you mentioned—His complexity and how multifaceted he is.

He's truly one of the characters whose mentality I'm most interested in exploring, and that's the reason for my dissatisfaction with his death. They just took him out of the picture, and that was it, because even if you can feel the weight of absence in the second Secret Ending it's not something that's explored.

I consider it as unfair as it's realistic.

But with his relationship with Rika being the focus of the first Secret Ending, I have more questions than answers about him.

And you know? Before the SEs I had no plans to play V's Route, in fact I fervently refused to do so, but now it's a necessity. I need to know more about him—His reasons, and also see him at his best, because from what I've heard, if I play Ray's Route and his AE first, I'll probably end up hating him.

Among Saeran's flashbacks, we are shown him and V having a short, sweet moment talking about the photograph, and Saeyoung really seemed to not only respect but also feel affection towards him, so I can't help but wonder what the relationship of the three of them would have been in a different situation.

- Assistant Anon

[You might enjoy Gladiolus.]

That is a long one-shot I wrote about what would happen if V and Rika decided to break up amicably and work on themselves while Saeyoung goes into the agency, and Saeran stays with V since he arguably has the most access to funds to properly hide him and be sure to erase any trace that might be found. V and Rika are friends, considering the RFA still exists, but yeah, they got help before the point of no return happened.

V gets to work on himself and be the Dad we all know he can be, but it's still bittersweet since Saeyoung is still stuck in the agency. But, I know in my heart that's an ending that Saeyoung wouldn't ever be upset about since he values his brother's peace the most... far more than his own happiness.

If you want something that feels like wish fulfillment as well as a universe where things seem to go a little bit better than they did in canon, that’s a nice story to read. 

V is a complicated person but I feel like you can better enjoy him if you go into his route without the preconceived notions that you already have. It's hard to turn off what you already know, but give him the benefit of the doubt and see where that takes you because that is how you learn how to understand why he is the way he is. 

If you want my advice, please, play V Route and his AE before you do Ray Route. It makes a huge difference in your playing experience! I've been playing since the start, so I had the benefit of being able to play routes and DLCs as they came out so the order didn't mess with me as it might with a newcomer!

Jaehee > Zen > Yoosung > Jumin > 707 > V > Ray is how I would suggest Route Order if you want to unlock the secrets of this game organically. The April Fools and Christmas DLC can be played after you get established with the game set up! Rika's Behind DLC can be played after V Route in my order, but if you want to push it off until after Ray's Route, that's okay, too.

[windsweptinred]

M and N for the asks!!

Thank you @honeyteacakes 💖 These were brilliant questions to answer. 😁

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

Hands down Unity Kinkaid. That woman is a Legend and I can't capitalise that L enough. Loving, kind, as sharp as frickin tack with the biggest balls in the entire cast. This is the queen who tamed Desire.. Desire! The devious little hell kitten that they are. Put me in the Sandman universe with homicidal nightmares, malevolent demons and bored Endless looking for some mischief... I'd feel completely safe by Unity's side. Plus, with Unity inevitably comes Desire. And that's a party I don't want to miss.

N - Name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

1. I'd love to see some different eras explored. With the Endless we have characters who have been around for billions of years! It's a history buffs dream! Yet, we as fandom tend to focus on relatively recent periods of time. I get it, that's where the ships are. And we love us our beloved ships. But there's so much unexplored potential out there. The ancient Egyptian or classical Greek period for example. Exploring the Endless's relationships with the gods at the height of their power. How did they each deal with gods and goddesses who's dominion bled into their function. Or the beginnings of creation. What were the early dealings between the Endless siblings and the Archangels for example?

2. In the same vein, more attention paid to the other Endless and their realms. We've analysed Dream and the Dreaming right down to Dream's very impressive haute couture footwear collection. We keep saying we need to throw far more fandom love at the likes of Death and Despair. So let's do it! Let's look into the unique complexities of each function. What falls under their domion? How this shapes the anthropomorphic personification they are.

3. A bit of a more personal one here, and something I've talked about at length with some of my mutuals recently ... But, putting a bit of canon, hedonistic, morally grey bastard Hob Gadling. Back into fanon, soft as feather pillow, left wing champion of the people Hob Gadling. I love the snuggly comfort blanket that is fanon Hob...but, let's give him his imperfections back. He's a far more interesting, layered character with them. It also puts Dreamling on much more equal emotional playing field. Instead of sunshine magical fix all/tragic storm cloud... A Dreamling where their shared past sins make it work. .. Dream will be intemperate, reclusive and cruel at times. He's half Nightmare after all. I think his propensity for immense cruelty is as natural for him as his propensity for great kindness. Hob will be impulsive, hedonistic and slow to learn, he always has been, probably always will be to some extent. I'm not sure he could have the postive outlook he has on life without these traits. But it's this greyness in Hob that means he understands the parts of Dream others reject. I've seen a ton of tremendous fics about Hob accepting Nightmare as a sexual kink. But Nightmare is more then that. How about Hob being a bit of dick means he can accept the dark parts of Dream's nature that others condemn him for? They can keep trying to be better together, to not let the bad out way the good. And that's OK. That's enough. Their love isn't built of the expectation of flawlessness.

[readingtostaysane]

What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma - review

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.25)

What I’d rather not think about follows the story of an unnamed female narrator whose twin brother has committed suicide. It spans over their childhood until two years after the death of the brother. It sets to deal with themes such as self discovery and complex relationships, both as siblings but also as individuals.

I’ll start with the critics:

The dynamics between the twins are odd at best, but I’ve also never had a twin, I only have a sibling and maybe they’re a kind of a different bond. Still I wished the novel had more bantering between siblings, to show an accurate depiction of family bonds. We do get the sense they love each other, but the brother is unlikable, which usually doesn’t bother me, and it didn’t bother me here, but I wish I had something more.

However, The novel deals with codependency and detachment in a very balanced way which I enjoyed.

The book includes facts about a lot of horrible historic people that harmed innocents. I found those references irrelevant and didn’t add much to the overall plot, nor for the development of characters. They served one purpose: to show that our narrator lived in the early 2000 and could google things, still I think it could’ve been shown without tragic holocaust facts.

Your gift isn’t a gift, it’s a defect, said my brother. You can’t keep your distance.

Eventually people grow out of their childhood and need to learn how to land on both of their feet alone, but what happens when you’ve never spent a second alone? Not even in the uterus? That’s why this book exists.

Our main character is very dependent on her older brother, and it becomes toxic and self-destructive very fast. This behavior causes the twins to have fights and disagreements and adding to the depression both of them have, they grow apart.

The novel explores self identity, forgiveness and personal boundaries within sibling relationships, however it never forgets to address the love that exists in that special bond.

Both of the siblings travel solo, have love relationships and different goals in life, we as readers follow their growth into their own selves, for better or for worse.

I can never get it right with you, said my brother. Why are you always so pushy? I’m trying to reach out to you, I said. Hello! Hello, said my brother. Here I am. He closed his eyes to concentrate on tasting the meat.

As the mental health of the brother deteriorates we see the author address a complex and sour topic: how do you help someone with depression. It’s the best part of the book and why it earned its rating for me.

Seeing someone you love succumb to depression is not easy, and you don’t always have to patience to deal with it. It most definitely not always end with a happy ending, in the end the brother still killed himself. I loved how the sister tried to reach out to him and he wouldn’t let her, because sometimes that’s what happens, people feel alone and they don’t want to be helped. This book does an excellent job at showing that without blaming the person who commits suicide. It also shows the flaws os someone trying to reach out, the sister could’ve done more, she could’ve paid more attention, and yet she didn’t but no one can say it’s her fault her brother is dead.

The author deals with this topic with such delicacy but at the same time such ease it really pulls you inside the story.

I’m trying to understand him. When someone says they love you but still ends up leaving, I can’t understand it. I don’t believe in that kind of love

This leaves us with the aftermath of mourning the death of a person who took their own life. It truly amazed me to see how the narrator went through different stages of grief in such curt pages. The anger and sadness both contrast each other in this part of the novel and yet none wins.

She’s still alive, he’s still alive, I thought every time someone walked by. She didn’t throw herself in front of a train. Everyone who’s still alive clearly thinks life is worth living. Clearly, I think life is worth living.

In the end of the novel the narrator still feels sad, as grief never truly goes away, but she also reaches peace with what happened. I really enjoyed reading both their journey into adulthood and dealing with the anguish and the happiness of life.

Many people might think this book doesn’t go deep enough into the grief, but I found it the perfect book at the right time for me. The small references of mundane things added to the story in my opinion, they felt vital to bring the characters to life and shaping them into real people.

I’ll end my review with my favourite quote:

I thought about all the love we have inside us and how only a shred of that reaches the people we care about