#i constantly commit the sin of having a good time in this fandom

[fairydares]

i can't express to you how fun it is to write a character who doesn't know Natsu is her dad while she's getting to know him and having her think/say stuff like "this dude is a fucking dork" and "don't you know ninjas are supposed to be quiet" and "this is a grown-ass man" and "how the hell is he so strong?!" and "don't you know who biggie is???" ngl to u this will be hard to give this up when the time comes.

[purplemninja]

A depressing revelation about Six's ending

2 months ago on the LN subreddit, I made a theory post where I say how Six may have had powers all along and didn't use them until the end, similar to Mono, and this wasn't the main focus of the post but in it I also mentioned a new way to interpret Six's ending and I compared it to a scene in Avatar: The last Airbender where Iroh teaches Zuko how to redirect lightning, the important thing being that lightning is a metaphor for abuse.

A person named Skrappo made a fandom wiki blog that goes into full detail on this new way to interpret the ending of LN1 (crediting me) and I will copy and paste it here for more people to see (I'll divide it between his blog and my comment with "---------" as a border, so to avoid people being confused between his info and mine)

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Credit goes to PurpleMNinja for the original idea.

In an interview, Little Nightmares' "Senior Narrative Designer" Dave Mervik said that he believes that both Six and Mono got equally bleak and hopeless endings. This has confused many fans ever since LN2's release. How could Six's fate be just as bad as Mono's? Mono is trapped forever in an infinite times-loop of betrayal, torture, and depression; while Six has become extremely powerful and has escaped the Maw, taking out anyone who stood in her path. I think I have realised why he believes this.

Let's take a look at Mono's story. He is a small child who has a bag over his head to hide from the world, to try to forget that it hates him. Throughout LN2, he continues to lie to himself, pretending that the world doesn't hate him, he is constantly hiding. But when Six is taken and he is confronted by Thin Man, he has had enough. He accepts that the world he lives in hates him and accepts who he truly is, using his newfound powers to defeat Thin Man and take control of the Pale City. I think we can all agree that this is his most badass moment. But it all amounts to nothing, as he is betrayed and left to sit and rot for the rest of his life in that little room. Until he is stripped of his humanity and turned into the Signal Tower's slave.

Now let's look at Six's story. Like Mono, she is a small child who is in a world that hates her and wants her dead. Unlike Mono however, she doesn't try to pretend that it doesn't. Instead she chooses to be a survivor. Her greatest fear is death, and she will do anything to avoid it (and really, can you blame a 9-year old child for wanting to live?). However, despite living in a world that is kill or be killed, Six still tries to cling on to her childish innocence, she tries not to give in to darkness. Throughout the series, we see her doing many good things; trying to save Raincoat Girl, befriending Mono, hugging the Nomes, etc. But every time she tries to show kindness it backfires. She fails to save Raincoat Girl, she is betrayed by Mono (from her perspective), and she is forced to choose between committing cannibalism by eating a sausage or eating a little Nome like all the other ones she had befriended previously. She ultimately decided that eating the Nome was a better alternative to cannibalism (not realising that the Nome was another child). However the eating of the Nome pushed Six close to her breaking point. She has tried so hard to remain pure, to stay innocent, but every time she is given nothing but heartbreak and guilt in return. I believe that Dark Six is a representation of her inner darkness, her shadow, the animalistic sinful part of her that will do as many immoral actions as it needs (and maybe more for fun) to survive. When Six has her final hunger bout, she realises that truth. She realises that if she wants to live, she has to give in to her shadow, she has no other choice. She eats the Lady, and gives up the last bit of innocence she had left. And now, with the Lady's power, she can finally take revenge and fight back against the horrible monsters that had been treating her like an animal. She walks down the dining halls, massacres the Guests along the way, she is finally able to fight back against the world, to rise above the world. She walks up into the sunlight, finally out of the Maw... and she is met with an endless ocean. We hear a boat horn in the distance, but it is likely nothing more than the Guests' ship leaving. She has spent her whole life being ruthlessly attacked by the world around her, and now that she has finally gained the ability to fight back, it holds back... it leaves her alone. After going through living hell, being forced to do things she didn't want to, and giving up her innocence, she is met with a dead end. It has all been for nothing. She is still stranded, and all she can do is stand there, and look out into the sea, knowing that there is no way for her to escape...

This is why I think that Dave Mervik believes both endings to be equally bleak. Both characters go through so much trauma, leading up to them finally breaking and rising above the world that hates them, becoming able to fight back, and then they are both met with a dead end. In reality, Raincoat Girl and Runaway Kid had it the best. They both died and were able to escape the nightmare, but Six and Mono are forever trapped, alone and hopeless...

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TL;DR - I compare Six's ending to Zuko being taught how to redirect lightning because both characters have been most notoriously abused by the worlds they live in, and after much struggle they eventually are able to fight back, but their worlds leave them there with nothing to fight (Six gets a few guests, but that's it). Making them suffer so much and not grant them any sort of payoff when they're finally able to dish it back out. (I know how the rest of ATLA goes)

I slightly imagine the world wanted Six to either die, or suffer so much but be left stranded when she's able to fight back so that her struggles, sacrifices and losses don't end up with some sort of payoff or reward, making her go through so much to avoid death just to be met with a dead end when she manages to plow through it all. Either way, the cruel world wins.

If that's not a massive middle finger, I don't know what is.

And this new realisation on the ending of LN1 only adds to the tragedy of Six's story, which I've gone into full detail here.

And since I've probably made you very sad, here's some music I think is best when thinking about this interpretation of Six's ending:

[peskellence]

Tag games-Ask a fic writer

Thank you @sunwarmed-ash for the tag! 💖

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

13 on my current account, so not a massive amount 🫣 I'll level with you fine people, I have been guilty of committing the sin of deleting fics (or entire accounts) when I decide I'm no longer proud of them... I've never done it with any of my DBH stuff, but I have done it for basically all other fandoms I've been involved in. I have since learned the error of my ways and to orphan rather than delete after losing some of my all time faves to other writers doing the same 💔

2. What fandoms do you write for?

Active - Detroit: Become Human (also toying with the idea of writing some BG3 fics... 👀 I blame my Neil Newbon fixation)

Former (may return to) - Ace Attorney (AA)

Former (will not be returning to) - MHA, Death Note, Hetalia, Teen Titans.

3. Top five fics by kudos:

With Love, Signal Red - AA

More Than Our Parts - DBH

With Love, Miles Edgeworth - AA

With Love, Phoenix Wright - AA

Part Of You - DBH

4. What's your total ao3 word count?

234,659 (almost half of that consists of a single story 🙈)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try my very best! Someone it takes me a while though 🙏

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

It's probably a toss up between stay with me. (DBH) or With Love, Phoenix Wright (AA) - although I'd argue that the latter doesn't count because it's a prologue to a longer story, so not really an 'ending'

I also wrote a DBH flavoured retelling of Carrie once—a fic request called GAVIN. For anyone familiar with the story of Carrie...yeah, you already know that doesn't end well. 😬

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

You see I love me some 'angst with a happy ending', so a lot of fics I commit to follow that formula. I'll say that More Than Our Parts has the happiest ending, just because of the sheer scale of Hell everyone went through in order to get there 🥲

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have received criticism on my works before, but nothing I'd say was intentionally hateful.

(Unless you're counting some of the reviews on my ancient FF.net account—but I was 14-15 when I wrote most of those stories, and I'm going to put up my hands and say the hate is 100% valid 🙃)

9. Do you write smut?

Is it even one of my fics if I don't shoehorn some smut into it? 🤷

10. Craziest crossover?

That would be the only (technical?) crossover of Detroit Become Human x Carrie

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope not 😭

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not—if that ever happened I would probably be so flattered that I'd just keel over and die 💖 (affectionately)

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

I have not, although I imagine that would be fun! I'm open to offers if any fellow authors are interested 🫣

14. All time favourite ship?

Ughhh, do not make me choose just one...I'm going to bend the rules and give three different answers according to slightly different criteria 🤏

First Ship I Ever Wrote For/Got Invested In-

Beast Boy / Raven (DC/Teen Titans)

Ship That Got Me Through A Difficult Time/Ultimate Comfort Ship-

Phoenix Wright / Miles Edgeworth (Ace Attorney)

Current Favourite-

Gavin Reed / RK900 (DBH)

15. What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

That knowledge stays between me and the unhinged notes app I keep on my phone

16. What are your writing strengths?

(Self promotion makes me uncomfortable one sec—) I would say my characterisation/dialogue and vocabulary? I have also been informed that I am good at 'setting the scene', creating for immersive backdrops.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Awkward sentence structure, spelling and grammar (I use a checker for that) and both over describing with lots of fluff and under describing with flat descriptions. I can never get the balance right 😭😭😭

I also have a nasty habit of reworking things constantly, as well as being overly ambitious with my ideas and then worrying the pay off is disappointing 🥲 meaning it takes several decades to publish anything.

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

When I tell you I was balls deep in the Hetalia fandom during the latter half of my teens— I am extremely familiar with language switches in dialogue, does not bother me in the slightest.

(please add translations at the end though 🙏🙏)

19. First fandom you wrote in?

The OG Teen Titans cartoon from the 2000's 🫡 I embrace my heritage, but also will not be directing anyone to my ancient FF.net account as it makes me want to peel off my skin and jump out the nearest window.

(I have long since forgotten the log in details, so it will exist as an enduring time capsule to the time I was a moody teenager blasting MCR on the playground and complaining that no one understood me.)

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Perhaps it's recency bias, but I am going to say More Than Our Parts. I poured my heart and soul into that story and I'm (mostly) very proud of it.

Tagging my beloved @wedonthaveawhile as I imagine most of my DBH friends have probably already been tagged 💖

[mdhwrites]

Do you find it rather funny that some (not all) of the people who wanted Amphibia's third season to be filled with angst, panic attacks, tears, grief and parental drama, also wanted a perfectly happy ending to the story rather than the bittersweet one we got? Like, ironic much?

There's a reason why I frame fandom desires for angst to be about shipping and prestige. That they want the high emotions and the claims they can make because of those elements but not what actually comes from it. In other words: Fandoms want Yesterday's Lie's ending from The Owl House.

For those unfamiliar, this is EXACTLY at the half series mark for TOH. Luz's, the main character, mom has just found out that her daughter ran away for the Summer to a different world and when she had to choose between going home or staying there, she chose to stay there. She immediately starts blaming herself and pleading with her daughter that she'll do better but next time, she promises to return, please!

And, Luz, to her credit, is a good daughter and says yes. The sequence is powerful, real, human and tragic. A real acknowledgement of how awful Luz's original choice was while keeping Camila in character of being as caring as she is. A moment that will theoretically solidify the two's bond but to undo will take a LOT of work as Camila will now be forced to stew with this pain as in the moment of the promise, her daughter is ripped away from her again.

It was also a moment I knew COULDN'T matter.

The show simply didn't allow for it. This isn't Amphibia where the girls had to adapt to their surroundings and still had elements about the human realm they liked. Luz isn't surrounded by creatures who are entirely unlike her and thus will always have to deal with some slight element of isolation. The Boiling of Isles of TOH is Luz's home. The show CONSTANTLY reinforces that this is where she belongs. That this isn't just where she can be happy but potentially the ONLY place she can be happy. Her social anxiety vanishes. She can find like minded people. She can live out the fantasies that she always chooses over reality. By the time of Yesterday's Lie, she has not just a found family but also the first friends she's implied to have had in a long time and her first girlfriend. Her life is on the Isles.

So you have literally spent HALF of your runtime reinforcing this. That maybe Luz needs to learn some lessons but her life is with the weirdos. On the Isles. You can't just pivot from that thematically. Not without shifting the show HARD. You have to take a show where Luz's every action has either been shown as positive or able to be fixed and now acknowledge this very real act of monstrousness on her part and the lengths one has to go to fix such a break in trust, let alone when the very next episode wants to portray it as something that is actually really messing with Luz's head.

Of course... That episode also includes Luz lying. And not just that episode. In fact, she will CONSTANTLY lie and break the trust of her girlfriend, and her friends, for literally the rest of the series. This cardinal sin of Luz's, lying to her mother, suddenly becomes a defining trait of hers to an extent never present beforehand. And mind you, it's not universal. To Luz and Eda, she is willing to tell them literally ANYTHING. Her girlfriend though? Fuck her.

It does make the show darker to constantly have your main character be a fucking asshole who whines about the consequences of their actions more than they actually learn from them but does it make it better? Does it make it more mature? Does it make enjoyable? No. Because it's a thematic and tonal betrayal of EVERYTHING that came before. Not that Luz ever managed to really learn anything before but they weren't nearly so blatant about her REFUSING to learn. Worse yet, this isn't a character flaw thing. Lying is one of those things we can all agree is bad but there are NEVER consequences for it because, well, the show still commits to Luz not just being the protagonist but also the hero.

And so this big moment, Yesterday's Lie's ending, is eventually just dropped. Something I could have told you was going to happen the day after the episode came out. It couldn't fit what the show had said about its main character so far and NO ONE would be happy with an ending where she actually keeps to the promise. Undoing the promise also would have cheated the moment, which dropping it does too, not without truly proper build up and reasoning, something the show struggled with in general.

So like many a fanfic, it does this big, super angsty moment... And then never continues it. Those most affected never actually show growth or change from it. It's almost episodic levels of bad how much people just keep forgiving Luz's actions and seem to forget about these really important statements, or how Luz blatantly keeps ignoring everyone around her, and eventually her own words in S3, to keep angsting about this but not actually dealing with it.

And Amphibia, to finally loop back around, did this itself. It took Marcy out of the story in order to have its big break in tone but not have to really deal with the fact that that moment should have had a big impact... On Marcy. Yes, it's brutal for Anne and Sasha but for them, it's just a complicated friend getting potentially killed. For Marcy, it is a betrayal, near death AND she has been pushed away by her friends for her actions. She as a character just isn't compatible with the show, not without the tone of a finale or her being effectively high/drunk to keep her from actually properly acknowledging anything.

It is a narrative tightrope, let alone for kid's media, but Marcy IS a much more expendable character than your main character. Even then, S3 of Amphibia is genuinely about many of the things that the fandom wanted. Her parents are TERRIFIED about what might happen to Anne. Anne can barely keep it together for the first few episodes and makes mistakes she might know better about if not for how she is trying to make her life any less complicated and scary than it already is. The Plantars are really the only ones who don't follow this stuff but even then, episodes like Spider-Sprig still let us see that being outsiders here, when Anne is accepted back in their home, digs at their brains. They also help even out things and keep the tone consistent with the rest of the work, even while it does deal with some of the ramifications of its choices.

It's not perfect but it is what AMPHIBIA can do. Without a future series, it was never going to go as far as these fans wanted.

Though... If you are looking for an Amphibia that might even be tiptoeing up to the line of being for Adult Swim rather than a main kid's programming block, definitely more teen rated with the amount of damage it has, while keeping spot on with the tone of the original and genuinely trying to be mature with its storytelling, I recommend checking out Dr. Neque's Amphibia vol. 2. I jumped in once the trio got back to Amphibia and have been loving it so far.

Even that version of Amphibia knows that it can't be doom and gloom all the time though. That the charm of Amphibia is partially from how absurd and fun it is. How over the top it can be with its silliness and fun. We admittedly just had a fight that was... ROUGH but for similar reasons as to why True Colors was so brutal in its ending but in a state that I think is better narratively by not quite going so far. That's all I will spoil though.

All of this to say that fandom likes the emotions of angst but not its consequences or how it can damage a narrative overall. How you do need to actually be ready to tackle that properly if you want to tackle it at all or else a small trickle of angst can quickly spoil the pot, let alone an entire, rancid apple like what would happen if most fandoms even got a single episode of what they wanted.

After all, TOH fans got what they wanted from the end of Yesterday's Lie and that is the episode that turned my heart on the show. I am SO happy that there is no equivalent for Amphibia.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[viscerax]

Hi, I was wondering if you had any general Vance headcanons? Like what his favourite subject is, what aftershave he uses (if he uses any??) and just general things like that? Thanks 🤍

Vance Hopper HC's

His favorite subject is math. He won't let people know but he's a total fucking math nerd. Specifically, Algebra. He hates Geometry tho

No clue about the aftershave thing but uhm, he's one of those guys who likes a clean shaven face. He doesn't care if people give him shit for it, he cannot stand having any stubble. Its more of a texture thing then anything, but he says "the chicks dig it"

I'm sorry guys but he would be one of those guys that spray whole cans of Axe body spray. You can smell him the moment he enters a room.

We've all established he hates getting his hair wet. He's like an angry cat. I also think his mom does his hair/is a hairdresser so she's very particular and strict after he gets his perm done.

He used to play basketball but got kicked off the team for fighting one of the other team members cuz they tripped one of his teammates on purpose.

We've already established within the fandom that hes autistic, and to expand on that, I think he often gets nonverbal. He doesn't like speaking a whole lot, and words just don't really process in his brain sometimes. People just think he's just a brooding and silent guy, but really his brain is running 500 mph and he's not focused on talking at that moment.

He stims with his feet a lot. Kicking things, kicking his feet into the dirt. He does the tappy feet thing when he is alone or with people he really trusts. Also makes little huffs and squeaks when he's nonverbal and excited.

Secretly likes wearing eyeliner.

I think if he was born in modern times, he would listen to so much ICP. Like my man would be obsessed with that shit. His favorite song would either be Imma Kill You or To Catch A Predator

He believes in ghosts and is secretly scared shitless of them

Another modern music thing, but he would lose his shit over Ghost, specifically Cirice.

His favorite candy is warheads probably. Anything that normal people would have a pained expression while eating. He loves sour candies, and he carries them around for when he's feeling overstimulated, because they help to ground him.

Chews gum constantly. Never mint gum. Its always some kind of fruity gum.

My man will absolutely tear up a bomb ass street taco. Absolutely fucks it up.

Loves unholy combinations of food. Will dip his oreos in nacho cheese (its really good yall should try it) and also gets like all the flavors of sodas from fountains. Like all of them and then drinks it like he didn't just commit the unholy sin of mixing sweet tea and powerade and Pepsi and mountain dew in one cup.

Secretly likes being acknowledged as pretty. Whether someone calls him a pretty boy or just compliments him the way they would a feminine person, he really likes it.

[thejadecount]

Me: *pulls out a chalkboard from nowhere, covered in notes and red string, eye bags the size of Mount Olympus*

GUYS IVE FIGURED IT OUT

The MarcNath Hexagon

So we all know how Ladybug/Marinette and Cat Noir/Adrien have a lovesquare.

Well because these fuckers have akumas and superhero identities, they have a love hexagon.

Behold:

Rooster Bold x Caprikid: They’re the most strange and shy with each other, but also very blunt and honest with each other. If that doesn’t make sense, basically they don’t talk that much because they’re always so busy with akumas and such, but when they do, their conversations are about them being heroes and the stress it causes and such. They strangely have the best communication skills out of all of them when it comes to actual emotions.

Rooster Bold x Nath: Rooster Bold is confident with Nath like how Reverser is, except he isn’t shameless and morbid and can get flustered at times, which Nath enjoys. Imagine, a superhero getting flustered over him.

Rooster Bold x Evillustrator: Ah yes, the classic enemies-to-lovers trope. Whenever Rooster Bold shows up to help the heroes defeat Evillustrator, the Akuma instantly puts on his gentleman mode and starts complimenting and flirting with Rooster Bold like his life depends on it, while Rooster Bold is just sick and tired of his shit and tries to defeat him (but he secretly enjoys it).

Marc x Caprikid: Caprikid treats Marc like a prince, and always knows what to say and do with him. Marc always gets flustered and giggly and such when Caprikid’s with him, because the hero treats him so well. Caprikid just likes to make him happy.

Marc x Nath: The classic best-friends-to-lovers, the MarcNath fandoms original ride-or-die ship. You know the drill and so do I. The two work on a comic book, get stuck together in a bunch of life-or-death situations because of akumas, and sin crushes on each other, but try to hide it the best they can. Luckily, Alix is there to stop them from being dumbasses.

Marc x Evillustrator: Oh, Evillustrator is definitely a yandere and will beat anyone’s ass if they even look at his sweet, precious, innocent Marc. At this point, everyone has learned not to come near Marc if Nath’s akumatized or else they’re dead, most likely quite literally. Marc gets easily flustered and surprised by him, and tries to prevent him from hurting anyone or destroying anything the best he can. And even though he is a little crazy, the dates he makes for them are pretty good, so…..

Reverser x Caprikid: They’re just constantly bantering back and forth, flirting, arguing and insulting each other while still fighting. But neither can manage to make the other flustered or angry and catch them by surprise, so they’re just stuck in a constant state of saying the most embarrassing, shameless things out loud while fighting. Ladybug has learned that if she needs a distraction for when Reverser is out, she gets Caprikid.

Reverser x Nath: It’s just Reverser being a tsudere and Nath enjoying all of it. Context:

That’s all you need.

And finally

Reverse x Evillustrator: Crazy ass evil duo. Will commit crime and murder for each other. Most shameless, violent, morbid and flirtatious of the pairings. Utter psychopaths. The only wait to possibly defeat them is corner one of them and threaten the other. They care more about each other than the Miraculous any day. That, or just let them have their fun with Chloe and Lila and stop them right before they get killed, which works just fine for Ladybug. Everyone hates it when they get akumatized together because it means they have to deal with all their shit.

[bonsai-babies]

In s3, first episode, when Sam hides at Miyagi-Do, her grandpa's old house, she and Daniel have a conversation about what's happening at that time and there's a detail in it I would like to discuss.

At some point, Sam, frustrated and defeated, says "I thought we were the good guys". And this is very telling of how she and honestly most of the fandom see heroes: incapable of having or dealing with mistakes. Because the moment you make a mistake, you are unworthy of being thought of as a good person.

Not only is this notion stupid, but dangerous. Mistakes do not take away your worth, the way you feel and choose to deal with those mistakes will just reinforce the kind of person you are.

Sam and Daniel are harshly judged for doing an effort to do good in a scenario against them and failing to do so. While other characters do no effort at all and are praised for punishing the ones who try and fail sometimes.

We are constantly told by the script to do that. To estimate a mediocre person for accidentally succeeding than to wish these mediocre or evil people would at least try and grow, because we are too angry at the good ones for committing mistakes.

I'm glad that Daniel answers his daughter reassuring her that they are still the good guys. "At least we try to be". And that's very telling of who these two characters are. And it's true. They try. They might do shit but do honestly try.

Following that, he encourages her to face the UNFAIR consequences of what happened. Which is also great. I love this father-daughter connection. Daniel is a good unperfect father, and Sam is his good unperfect daughter. They exist in a world where they are allowed to deal with their imperfections -- even if in bad light -- and having fallible hero figures matters, mostly in times like ours. No one is an unproblematic fairy. Our idols will fail and we better start accepting it.

We also better start paying attention to what kind of mistakes we choose as unforgivable because we might punish a small sin too harshly and accept a much bigger and messy sin like nothing had happened.

[kinkymagnus]

Hi again. Don't feel pressured to respond to this, as it sadly has nothing to do with Magnus (and I feel like a traitor even writing something that doesn't have Magnus in it at all). But it's pretty much impossible to raise this point with any other members of the fandom as many of those also seem to be book stans and it's like committing a cardinal sin to even raise this point with book stans. But, from a purely tv-show input, the parabatai bond doesn't seem all that great. It didn't keep Valentine from throwing his parabatai to the wolves (literally). It didn't keep Jace from going behind Alec's back about things. The two times they used the bond in the show for Alec to track Jace it put both of them in great danger, and if pain is shared through the bond, it would be debilitating in a fight. (Think about how Alec pretty much collapsed when he felt Jace die). This is a HUGE disadvantage. I just don't get why everyone seems so hopped up about it. It doesn't seem at all great to me, but I might be biased because I'm so very in love with Magnus and Malec as a ship, that maybe I'm just unfairly pre-disposed to dislike any other "meaningful" bonds Alec is supposed to have with other characters? So I thought I should get a second opinion on the matter. But, again, don't feel the need to answer this, if the topic doesn't appeal to you.

Hope you are doing well with classes and everything. Remember to stay hydrated!

LITERALLY im not going to have a lot to say but literally i hate parabatai and everything about it. it just feels like a) another excuse for incest/pseudo-incest b) another excuse for look at these white guys, c) COMPLETELY INCONVENIENT AND MAKES NO SENSE

as far as i can tell it literally didn't give them that good a boost in like. synchronicity or in general battle skills like it's supposed to make them better warriors who are super in sync with each other but like bitch where all it does is hurt them both lmao??? also remember when jace died and alec was lal like "OWWWW" for like a minute and then was like "oh no! anyway" iconic of him

and for me like. while i do love malec as a ship, i'm all for alec and izzy's meaningful relationship! it's just that jace specifically sucks both as a person and like especially in how he treats alec. and i'm not just saying this because i despise people shipping them (they're BROTHERS and jace is THE WORST and magnus is RIGHT THERE y'all KNOW it's only this popular cos jace is white and magnus isn't) but because jace literally does constantly treat him like absolute dogshit for no good reason and no one seems to care

both the parabatai bond as a concept and even more so particularly alec's parabatai bond is just. bad <33

[htmlerror]

☕ + wfa

i do not like wfa with ham, i do not like it, sam i am.

I have a lot of problems with Wayne Family Adventures. The idea for it is solid enough, but the execution is. bad. I've put my thoughts below the cut because this got long, so I hope you don't mind me going in depth on my feelings.

Duke Thomas as a POV character - I'm plagerizing heavily from my convo with @phamtai about this. Def check them out for more info and better insights than mine into the character. Duke is extremely well established in canon despite only having been around for a decade or so. Remarkably, it's taken until WFA to butcher his character. Duke in this series is too polite. He's too clueless. He's been presented as the Relatable Kid archetype that he doesn't fit. In canon, Duke has never not been self-assured. He's a relatable character, yes, but not because he doesn't know what's going on. He has experience as a hero long before the batfam became involved. And since then, he's bonded with them. WFA doesn't show his connection with Cass, his dynamic with Bruce or Jason, and completely ignores his conflicts with the family. In a supposedly family-focused product, those are damn near cardinal sins. He may as well be a totally new character. Duke has been watered down so much for the sake of this series. WFA could be a vessel to explore so many things about him that we don't see a lot of on the regular page. We could see a dive into the parallels between him and Bruce, the full psychological impact of losing his parents, epecially in contrast to Jason, how his world view and morals differ from Batman's, the daily consequences of his powers, or the fallout of his mourning independently for the friends he's lost. But those would be interesting angles WFA doesn't seem eager to explore. If you can't imagine a version Duke punching a cop just because they're a fucking cop, you're doing it wrong. Another issue is, unfortunately, Duke's role as the only Black batman member. I shouldn't need to explain why it's problematic to be showing his as constantly less knowledgeable and presumably skilled as the other bats. (No, it doesn't matter that Dick and Damian are drawn with dark skin. Dick has been written as a white man for nearly his entire existence. The person who retconned that is notoriously racist and has spent years defending her inclusion of sexual assault in her writing. I have no issue with Dick being Romani, but just changing the color of his skin is not the way to do it.) DC has recently had a push towards inclusion, on the page an behind the scenes. This is good, of course. Though if they really are committed to representation and inclusion, it needs to be an effort seen across the board. Faux pas like this paint a pretty obvious picture.

The Webtoon format is shit - Webtoon is a great platform for indie writers and artists. It's not my style of content, but I get the appeal. IMO, it's ridiculous to accept a professional comic publisher shitting out 12 page fluff pieces. Yes, the weekly comic format has been phased out for a reason. Yes, halving the workload is a possible way around that restriction. But there just isn't a good enough reason to do it. It's a pretty obvious ploy to seem "hip" and "get in with kids these days." It's lazy and frankly kind of embarrassing. For anyone who doesn't know, a standard comic book is usually 24-28 pages. This isn't an arbitrary number, it's part of the format for the art form. That length allows for necessary plot developments in a serial story line while also giving the characters, themes, and artwork time to breathe. Furthermore, it's what most comic readers have come to expect over the decades. Halving that wouldn't necessarily be a problem, there are plenty of examples of well made shorts out there, but coupling that WFA's love affair with single panels and splash pages is a major issue. Say you make a 12 page comic with 4-6 panels per page. You have 48-72 panels to work with. You can sit a compelling story into that, with or without heavy dialogue. But bring that down to 12-24 panels, and you have one of two options: either 1) ultra-compress your narrative or 2) reduce the plot to compensate. Ignoring the formatting choices, WFA is a convenient reason for DC to keep the worst of the status quo in the bat titles. There's no need to acknowledge criticism of Bruce's treatment of his family when they can simply point and say "Jason's throat hasn't been sliced open here! And look, Damian hasn't been left with the crushing guilt of his grandfather's death! We even let Tim exist as his own character!" WFA doesn't change anything, it shows that DC is aware of its problems but would rather outsource them than put in the work to fix it. There's a special kind of rejected feeling that comes with being told "I hear you, I just don't care.

Fandom isn't bad, but - Everyone is familiar with the incorrect quotes format by now. Sometimes they're funny, most of the time they tend to over-saturate. WFA is like if a incorrect batfam quotes blog was a comic. It's a steady supply of one-liners and references, sure, but it lacks any real substance. If that's what you like, I can't fault you for it, but it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. The way the batfandom has piled onto the "this is the best thing ever" bandwagon is concerning to me. There has been good batfam content in canon, you just need to know where to look for it. The lack of critical analysis of the project and dismissal of critiques is always an alarming pattern, but the way WFA has come to be the odd face of the fandom is just bizarre. It's everywhere, as you know if you've ever tried avoiding it. Thinking about WFA being the default interpretation of these characters makes me nervous. They lack the depth their canon counterparts. I don't care if you enjoy WFA, I do understand the appeal of it, but for the love of the gods, take it down from it's pedestal.

WFA is... fine. It's yet to commit any sins too egregious, but, like all DC properties, it's a ticking timebomb. I won't be surprised when it goes off, and I can't say I'll be sad to see it go. Ao3 has better content, anyway

[paragonrobits]

some random facts about my mom that probably would tell you a lot about what she was like and thus the influence she had on me, since I deliberately took after her more often than not:

1. she was a HUGE rose quartz stan, she would always go ‘YEAH THAT’S MAH GIRL’ when she was doing funny or cute things

2. she would routinely go online and yell at people who were committing fandom sins, in her point of view. you know those people who make REALLY bad takes that are inexplicably taken as canon by fandom? she would yell at those kinda people. personally i felt it was a case of preferring to stay in my own lane but everyone has different fandom experiences i suppose

3. she wrote gay porn (since her preferred fandoms were generally pairings like that). she was vaguely aware that I also wrote smut, sometimes for friends, and we had a tacit understanding that we would carefully go out of our way to avoid reading each other’s ‘work’, in that respect. she was also REALLY intense and particular about characterization and getting them Right

4. when I was young, she used to refer to particularly awesome, cheer-worthy moments in shows as ‘Mel moments’, for the actor Mel Gibson prior to the reveal that he was antisemitic, racist garbage. After we started watching the live action Transformer movies, she instead started referring to these as Optimus moments, because Optimus Prime is so goddamn awesome that he inspired a LOT of these scenes and moments (and we retroactively considered Optimus Primal in Beast Wars to be a walking talking personification of these as well).

5. I’m PRETTY sure she broadly considered Keith David’s two most beloved roles in our book, Goliath from Gargoyles and Anderson from Mass Effect, to be essentially the same character. like, an AU version, at least

6. she happily maintained an extremely petty hatred towards my dad, and loved constantly insulting him and spread the word of his continous fuck-ups and terrible life choices to everyone she possibly could. one time my dad suggested having a big family dinner and inviting her to play nice with his girlfriend and she said, basically: “No. fuck you”. she did this every time he got a new girlfriend.

7. She would read my SFW shipping fics, and she would start shipping the pairings in them, even for characters she actively disliked or did not ship,. she would also get mad about this. ‘WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO GOOD AT THIS’ she would complain.

[aparticularbandit]

so - saw that episode again (and also started jtv again because...want to go through the first fourteen episodes again for soulmate au purposes) and here are the things i gleaned!

1) jane thought rose was 38 instead of 51. like - i know we harp on the 51 bit but this time it’s the 38 bit that stuck out to me.  not because there’s an age difference there of thirteen years (yikes) but more because of the age difference that would be between lu and rose.  at the end of the series, lu is roughly 45.  in fandom, we usually put rose at three years younger than lu (because bridget is roughly 3 years younger than yara), but jane is here making rose seven years younger than lu. and here is why that is important (and also indicating a missed opportunity that i would have liked them to delve into more): jane is seven years younger than rafael.  jane is mentally putting the age gap between rose and lu as the exact same as the age gap between her and raf, where lu stands in for raf and rose stands in for her.  this is just another bit of that mental paralleling that we see jane do between herself and rose - or the writers do between jane and rose - that we see coming up again in the episode: rose making the claim that this isn’t jane’s love story, it’s hers (when we, as the viewers, know it is the other way around); jane setting them up as good vs. evil in that final confrontation (and the parallel of rafael coming to save her vs. luisa coming to kill rose)--

even before this, there are instances of rose/lu meaning to be a parallel of jane/raf.  rose constantly saying that she and lu are the greatest love story ever told (as compared with jane’s preoccupation with telenovelas and her love story turning out to be one); rose and lu having literal fireworks over their first kiss as opposed to the dramatics that we see happening with jane’s “first” kisses with her respective love interests (the fake snow falling with michael; the blossoms with rafael (not her technical first kiss, but in context, i think you understand what i mean).  both love stories are shown with that telenovela flair to them so that there is a contrast between them.  you can even bring up jane and her different janes (critic!jane, drunk!jane, etc.) and compare them with the different masks that rose wears as sin rostro.

(you can make a fandom argument here.  i don’t feel like making it, but you can, technically, make it.)

to an extent, rose is a negative version of jane where her love - and her obsession with her love interest - destorys her, changing her life for the worse instead of changing it for the better the way it does with jane.  (and you can make the argument that jane tries to make the appeal that lu should be her michael and that rose should move on to find her actual raf, but idk how much water that holds).

we can also look at jane making rose and lu’s age gap similar to her age gap with raf as a way of her trying to connect to their love story as she writes her novel.  for most of her writing time, jane’s relationship with luisa is...rocky, at best, if it’s actually there at all.  you could make the argument that she didn’t actually really start understanding writing luisa until the flashback chapter in s4 and used that as her basis for writing her, but the point is that most of what jane wrote about luisa and rose would be built from what little she knew.  those parallels would be her insertion.

i’m just surprised that she put rose in her place instead of lu.  but that may be due to rose was emilio’s trophy wife, so she has to be the younger one, which - says a lot about what jane thought of emilio (from the little time she spent with him and the stories she likely heard from raf) that he would be married to a woman she thought was seven years younger than his oldest daughter.

(there is also the potential thought that jane thought rose was 38 at the beginning of the series and that rose was 51 at the beginning of the series - which, you know, would make more sense in terms of where authors would talk about their character’s ages, which would make rose, what, 59? at the end of the series?  (a year a season with a three year time gap would be eight years - s1 isn’t really a full year, but there’s a time jump in s2 re: petra’s pregnancy, so i’m evening it out - so 59?  almost 60?  idk.  jtv, maybe make things a little clearer here.  actually, don’t.  it’s more fun to speculate.)

2) where rose was stabbed through by the statue (which probably wouldn’t have happened anyway, that thing was probably made of styrofoam or some other lightweight material that would more likely have broken under her weight, but i digress), she probably still could have survived.  with some immediate medical attention and a lot of constraints, probably.

or faked it, to be fair, but let’s not go there.

the statue stabbed through the lower half of her torso, approximately cutting her in half.  but not entirely.  idk, in a telenovela sort of way, she could have survived that.  i just think i originally thought the statue stabbed, you know, her heart, not her lower regions.  so maybe she couldn’t have actually survived that.  it just feels like it’s more likely there than otherwise.

idk i have less proof for this, just a general feeling.

3) xo is really good at keeping secrets to the benefit of other people.

this is less a that episode thing and more of a starting jtv over again thing but like!  she spent all of jane’s first twenty-four years letting jane believe that she had wanted an abortion and alba convinced her to keep her instead of the other way around so that she could protect jane!  and she kept the secret about rogelio for just as long and let alba think she didn’t know who the dad was and was just a random hook-up (because she didn’t want to be with rogelio then) because that was the better option!  like xo is a determined woman who is actually very good about protecting her people and that’s something i hadn’t noticed before and like, yeah, i might have a higher appreciation for xo now.

4) luisa is definitely wearing the same dress when she goes to jump off the bridge that she is when she explains to jane and raf and petra and xo that she artificially inseminated the wrong woman.

it’s the same blue dress.  she literally went immediately afterward to try and commit suicide and rose talked her out of it, like, i’m wondering - i know that lu was supposed to die when roman apparently did (but aaron actually did), but i’m wondering if the bridge jumping thing was a callback to the original plan (and if in that universe, luisa’s death was a suicide and not a murder by sin rostro.  not that aaron/roman’s murder was.  but you know).

5) also luisa and no patient confidentiality why are you telling rafael that jane works at the hotel where is your privacy woman

there are probably more but, uh, gonna stop there for now.  maybe will bring up more later with further episodes!  will see!

[starlightervarda]

Hi, I read your post on bullying in the TOG fandm and I 400% agree. I understand your frustration, I'm frustrated too, a lot, and I'm white! I'm grateful the fandom has people like you, so I hope you won't be mad if I say that condemning a whole religion (protestantism), and accuse a whole race for crimes committed centuries ago is not fair. I get what you were trying to say, but I must admit, put like that, it hurts a bit. it's a vicious cyrcle, you can't fight prjudice with prejudice :( Peace!

Hi nonny,

I don’t think you read what I wrote clearly, or understood what I was complaining about, let alone my frustration. I suggest you go read it again, carefully, without getting offended.

...Where did I accuse a ‘whole race for crimes committed centuries ago’? Kind of hard for me to do that because I don’t believe in the American concept of race. I don’t consider Slavs to be the same thing as Scandinavians. I don’t even think the Irish/French are the same as the English/Dutch/Germans.

Criticizing the damaging effects of White Saviourism is not me attacking ‘white people’. Criticizing the patronizing and stifling influence of Anglocentrism is not me being prejudiced against Northern Europeans. Me calling this behaviour social-imperialism is not supposed to be hurtful, it’s calling a spade a spade.

I really don’t understand where you got this idea from.

I didn’t ‘condemn’ the sect of Protestantism, I’m pointing the cultural issues it’s influence has on the quote-unquote Enlightened, Advanced and Progressive Western World. That the behaviour we see from Anglophones/WASPs in general and online is line with the Puritan values that were born from this kind of extremism.

Witch-hunts in Protestant lands like Britain, New England and Germany into the Early Modern Era, is not an opinion. It’s something that happened in these lands who since that time have constantly claimed to be more civilized and rational than others and this behaviour persists into this century. I even gave examples of how something dumb you could say as a child could be held against you and used to demean and destroy you decades later, how the demand for people to share their traumas to justify their actions then still be judged and spat on, is born of Puritanism. From a culture that doesn’t believe in absolution/repenting/purging your sins/that you are capable of change.

I literally said “It never fails to amaze me how the loudest collection of edgy atheists behave like the religious fanatics I grew up living in fear of. They see no irony in this.” I’m criticizing their mindset.

I really have to ask, why you think me complaining about manipulative racist behaviour, gaslighting and psychological harassment, is me ‘fighting prejudice with prejudice’? The ‘vicious cycle’ here is purity culture, ideological extremism, and the demand we all bow down to one mindset or perish. This is the kind of thinking that doesn’t allow for discussion or change, this is what I’m complaining about.

Do you get what I meant now?

Nonny, I need to sit, take a deep breath, and ask yourself why you had this response to all the points I made. Because if you’re not one of these people, I’m not calling you out. If you are, and felt called out by it, then don’t get upset, recognize that this is a problem and work on not doing these things and being better.

Hope you have a good weekend.

[softschofield]

a guide to the secondary characters of 1917

inspired by @a-beautiful-struggle-of-life because saying “i wanna fall in love with all these characters too omg” is just such an open invitation and i couldn’t resist ♡♡♡

sergeant sanders: “yes, well, sorry to disrupt your crowded schedule, blake, but the brass hats didn’t fancy it in the snow.” the sergeant of blake and scho’s platoon. the one to first introduce us to our boys so we have to love him for it

lieutenant gordon: “a couple of little treats.” he’s soft. i love him. he’s just the hype man of erinmore, like does he want to agree with another one of his proverbs? another one of his quotes? another one of his shakespearean monologues that he learned off by heart at eton? no. he’s so tired. he doesn’t want to hear another fancy sentence in his life. “wouldn’t you say, lieutenant?” he wants to say i could not possibly give a smaller fuck, sir, but can he? no. let him sleep

sergeant: “YOU’RE GOING UP A DOWN TRENCH YOU BLOODY IDIOTS” he doesn’t have a name but MAN did he have a cultural impact. like he changed my world with that line. the delivery? the poise? the hint of a snarl? no one else could ever and i’m afraid that’s just the facts. he was probably mad because he just had a tiff with leslie and he got the day of the week wrong. he thought he had it this time. he didn’t. he never does 

private kilgour: a bloody waste of space. THE softest boy. somehow managed a perfect :o in real life. how did he do it? no one knows. dermatologists HATE him. owns a cute scarf that he's managed to actually keep clean. probably has a blanket stashed somewhere. he’s just so, so gentle, he deserves nothing but good

lieutenant leslie: “for any sins thou hast committed.” you already know. you already KNOW. every time i saw this film there was someone who whispered “moriarty!” the first time it was me. he’s just so tired. a lieutenant shouldn’t be in command of a company. everyone is dead. his only friends are the orderlies he forces to hang out with him in his smelly dugout because all the other officers are in bits and pieces. the orderlies are trapped. they can’t escape him. gallows humour. he just needs a rest. we love him. was absolutely checking schofield out for the majority of their scene together. i've written about how they absolutely seem to have history and i'll say it again: they do. gay

the idiot who thought it was tuesday: one of the orderlies that leslie is holding prisoner solely to bully. when no one else is around they probably cuddle while leslie has a cry and the idiot who thought it was tuesday (TIWTIWT) comforts him and tells him he can do it

private atkins: “hey, it’s alright, it’s okay.” one of the two to find scho trying to haul blake’s body along. the gentlest giant. parry’s back-up, like he looks like he’d be in charge because he’s all big and tough-looking but then weedy, hot-headed little parry is the one doing the talking and atkins is just hovering behind him being soft. loves and supports his friends. they remind me so much of an iconic cartoon duo but i just can’t put my finger on it, but you just know they’d get into mischief because of parry and atkins is just “i don’t know about this” but of course he goes along with it

private parry: “you alright, mate?” he single-handedly made everyone in the cinema jump when some random english guy suddenly spoke when no one else was supposed to be around. he’s tiny but in charge and we truly do love to see it. lowkey feral vibes. you just know he’s a little bit chaotic and snarky and he’d challenge anyone twice his size to a fight, but he’s also gentle and worries about schofield so much when he doesn’t know him at all and i Love him the very most  

captain smith: “it doesn’t do to dwell on it.” the dad. the warmest, most calming dad. gives great hugs. he’s tired because he has to spend all his time trying to keep parry and cooke apart because if they ever met and conspired all hell would quite literally break out, like they’d be too powerful together and he knows it. has a cane for the aesthetic. he’s completely traumatised but he has to keep it together for personal pride and for his boys

colonel collins: “they at least could have retreated with a bit of grace, BASTARDS.” i quote him daily. he truly is just the stuff of legends. we love to see it 

colonel collins’ driver: “no, sir.” if he and lieutenant gordon ever met they wouldn’t even speak, they’d just fall asleep on each other. they’re both so exhausted by their superiors. when will they be free

private rossi: “welcome aboard the night bus to fuck knows where.” we love him!!!!!! we really do love him!!!!!!! scottish. soft. he and jondalar are best friends and jondalar teases him constantly. genuinely lovely, observant, empathetic. he talks about the pointlessness and bleakness of what they’re doing when no one else dares think on it too much in case they break down and i love him for it. probably goes home to become a war poet

private cooke: “HERE, DRIVER, HOW ABOUT YOU TRY TO KEEP IT ON THE BLOODY ROAD FOR A CHANGE” ABSOLUTE feral vibes. he’s just a public menace and we love him

private butler: “alright, alright, keep your ‘air on.” i really do just love him. he’s the one who tells the story about scott and beaufoy and eventually rallies everyone together to help scho push the truck, but to me he’s better known for being the scrawny little icon with the especially prominent red x on his sleeve and the moustache who’s just so GRUMPY all the time. like why is he so GRUMPY? i love him

sepoy jondalar: “i hope you get there.” it’s recognised in the script that he did the best impersonation of beaufoy, we love to see him excelling. gentle. loves schofield with his entire heart and he’s only just met him. there are a few iconic duos in this film - scho and blake, parry and atkins, bäumer and deserving more - and jondalar and rossi are one of them

private malky: “you could do with a new set.” my FAVOURITE!!!! the script says rossi says that line but i am CONVINCED it’s malky and i will stand by that. sounds like george harrison from the beatles. a soft lad who quietly teases cooke TWICE in one and a half pages with the most bashful kinda voice. he and cooke are another iconic duo. i love him so, so much. gay. they all are but malky especially. all the gays ride in that truck, that’s why smith, The Gay Dad, chose to put scho in with them

driver: “oh, piss off.” he and cooke have an iconic dynamic and it’s only one line long. you just know cooke is always giving him shit, it’s a running gag that’s famous throughout the whole company 

lauri: “chil-dren? you?” the queen of deserving more. she’s only something like 17 and she’s probably an orphan raising another orphan. if you’ve seen 1917 and don’t love her with your whole entire soul then you get shot on sight, like i literally do not make the rules. the softest, strongest girl. a lesbian

private bäumer: “ENGLÄNDER!” the king of not keeping his goddamn mouth shut. at least two people in this fandom ship him with kilgour and i am one of them. a soft twink. i love him. if he weren’t dying he would have loved being straddled by scho and i can’t blame him for that

private müller: “bäumer? BÄUMER!” the one who was throwing up. he’s like kat from all quiet on the western front, the older veteran who takes the fresh recruits under his wing. he did not deserve to lose bäumer like that and honestly the grief in his voice when he realises what’s happened HAUNTS me. i really do love him so much. he felt guilty about deserting. he had so much depth like every other character who was barely on screen for half a scene and i hope he made it out of the war and did okay

private seymour: “well he’s not one of ours.” i just love his accent, i’m sorry this one is purely selfish. but i do love him so much, he was instantly ready to LITERALLY pick scho up and just take him with them and that’s pretty iconic. like he was just going to adopt this random, half-drowned soldier who showed up out of nowhere with no rifle or helmet or pack. his now

lieutenant richards: “what the HELL are you doing, lance corporal?” my FAVOURITE secondary character. like i say that about all of them, but i love him, lauri, malky, rossi, and parry THE most. honestly has some of the most iconic moments in the whole film. that squint he does at scho after “what?”? the stuff of oscars. he loved scho so much. the fact that he so desperately wanted to believe that what he was saying was true breaks my heart. genuinely such a good person. i love him. he and captain smith are husbands and dads with a bunch of idiot children

major hepburn: “well done, lad.” he’s like, an actual disney character. like his face, his voice, they just scream disney side character. like a good version of the guy from the princess and the frog. i love him so much. he’s so kind

medical officer: “i have NO idea. move along, lance corporal” I JUST LOVE HIM!!!!! he’s so cranky!!!!! get him some scissors!!!!

[demytasse]

Which sin do you think Izaya would be? I was thinking Envy or Pride, but I can't decide which :/

Ohohoho~ you've come to the right person! One who shakes off their drowsy, morning fog upon reading a prompt such as this and speaks to the void in absence of the opinion seeker, "ah yes, this aligns with my interest—to feverishly research what will back or deny my instinct, and humour my guilty pleasure to gain or refine my knowledge, that of a topic that I'm no guru." To whom will immediately dash to the keys, gulp down their coffee, and pay no mind to the outside world in order to fulfil the request and voice the following (as well the preceding to the priorly proffered following, and seemingly the proceeding to the original intent of the initial following)...

*ahem* Let's disregard my caffeine-induced wordplay.

     Envy—would be the quickest assessment of Izaya as he has a proclivity to be envious of others. Specifically, he’s coloured green by what Shinra had at a young age, a life-defining and adamantly sought after goal while he was aimless; of what Shizuo gained over time, the world’s acceptance of his dirty soul, and furthermore he’s jealous of the sentimental bonds that other acquaintances have. Greedily, without cognisance, he wants what others have: acceptance and a connection to humankind even though he wants to believe that he doesn’t desire to have it.

Though all in all, Pride covers his entire character.

Pride is the most serious of the seven sins and with it brings the highest punishment; it’s believed that the devil himself was wrapped so tightly with pride that it transformed him into his namesake. It’s the definition of selfishness and egocentric ideals—a perversion from seeing oneself as part of humanity, one of a community, at level with thy neighbour and equal to one’s peers. Simply, sinners of Pride don’t consider themselves average but superior to others as a god. Right out of the gate, those aspects can be connected to Izaya, and to set a keen visual to his prideful air is the ever-so-poignant scene—of him looming above his chessboard while he’s setting the stage and circumstances for the Raira trio and defining the roles of other people in his game. I would stick a screenshot here, but I’ve already used it for a long-ago analysis, and with the internet’s prevalent use of it, if you don’t know exactly what I’m talking about, assuredly you can type ‘Izaya’ into Google and it would show up on the first page...I didn’t check that claim, I’m not going to check...so let’s not quote my joke... Anyhoo! Back to the point of Pride: those who are defined by the sin tend to put themselves and their desires above all others, therefore anything they do in pursuit of whatever they want is paramount; any sacrifice is warranted and easily brushed aside as justifiable.

And Izaya acts all according to his will. He steps on others and sacrifices people in order to reach his achievement—or enlightenment as he would say. Perhaps it’s his claim that human observation is an innocent hobby, but it’s not simply as such. Ultimately his playful deeds are what other people might define as acts of evil and with that, he’s their villain. Rather explicitly he doesn’t see himself as a sinner for his hobby, just an indulgent, admittedly narrow-minded and focused. Though that matters little in this case, as he tends to ignore the immoral aspect of what he does, and it’s not even a thought in his mind that he should atone for how he negatively affects others—individually or as a whole—and that isn’t exactly something admirable, more so narcissistic.

Even so, it’s an echoed fandom assessment that Izaya is mentally weak, in spite of that he’s intelligently strong, unrelentingly foolish, and stupidly purposes his cunning and wit—he’s his own foil that destroys himself; it’s a sinner of Pride whom constantly puts themselves on the chopping block as a slave of their will just as outside parties are.

(I nod at Wikipedia ingratitude of the following quotes, not to say I only referenced the site, ahaha...seriously.)

“What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.”

"(The proud man) is like a partridge in its cage acting as a decoy; like a spy,he watches for your weaknesses. He changes good things into evil, he lays his traps. Just as a spark sets coals on fire, the wicked man prepares his snares in order to draw blood. Beware of the wicked man for he is planning evil."

     Now, it’s a common defence of Izaya that he’s not evil, and overall that’s true of his character. However, to properly pin him a sin it’s important to consider how others perceive him as vanity is innately tied to society and he very much cares of his image—it’s that intense focus of how one is positively or negatively viewed that’s a direct attribute of Pride. So while Izaya’s intent and furthermore actions are self-indulgent and not specifically to toy with others, it’s how others feel themselves to be victims, tangled in intricately set up traps that make his deeds seem ill-conceived and make him evil to the public eye. Really, who’s to blame them? Izaya’s not exactly innocent, I’m sorry (not sorry) to say. And finally, in acknowledgement of hubris; overconfidence and arrogance—prideful behaviours that are driven by ego are foolish challenges to the gods, acts committed in order to be seen as worthy beings of prestige and high regard. To which this should go without saying: that pomp and circumstance, that flamboyant charade and dance is exactly Izaya’s purpose of his trials, it’s inexplicably what rules his character arc, as he desperately flounders to gain worthy attention of a certain valkyrie to seek admittance into Valhalla. What a fool he was to head in that direction. It’s alright to say that I overuse that pun.

     So yeah, to sum it up, Izaya’s a greedy little ball of envy, but he shades himself with an umbrella of Pride.

[scotticky]

forever, my love

taehyung x reader (gender neutral)

summary: you hoped that you and Taehyung’s love would be eternal, and in a way it now is. a angsty romance story with the nostalgia of Halloween around it.

warning: death and gore. please don’t read it you’re uncomfortable with these.

author: I deleted all of my old fics so that i could reboot this account to have content more relevant to the fandoms i am now in. this is my first since the reboot, and i’m hoping that i’m able to write more. sorry if its mostly incomprehensible, it kept getting deleted and i also wrote it in the middle of the night.

When I was afraid, he would rescue me. After I insisted that I wouldn’t be scared if we watched a horror movie, he would sigh knowingly and comfort me when I jumped and shook in fear. When the dark would envelope my world late at night, he would remain my light. 

He himself was not completely fearless, but he would always face his fears so he could be my hero. Taehyung was everything I could ever need, and in return I gave him all I ever could. He cured my greatest fear by simply existing, the fear of being alone.

We met at a haunted house, where I was working as an actor. Despite me being easily frightened, I thoroughly enjoyed the job. It’s only downs were when I would occasionally make a little kid cry after jumping out at them.

In full clown makeup and costume, on Halloween night, I popped out at a young blonde man. He proceeded to sock me in the eye out of shock. He felt so bad about it afterwards that he bought me a beer from the bar that neighbored the haunted house, and offered me money because he felt guilty.While I obviously didn’t take his guilt money, I did end up getting along with him and exchanging phone numbers with him. 

“I really do feel so bad about hitting you, but if you think about it, my punch was a bit of a blessing. I mean, we wouldn’t be sitting a bar together tonight if I hadn’t. Maybe you should be thanking me instead?” he speculated to me after he had downed four beers. 

I fell for his odd behaviors and awkwardly charming form of flirting hook, line and sinker. That’s how I met the bleach blonde boy who entered my life like a whirl wind and never stopped turning things around. But in commemoration of our first meeting, every Halloween we would both dress up as clowns.

I wish I could understand why he chose a boring person with tons of college debt, trying to work it off by dressing up like a dead clown nightly. Why he chose me over the plenty of gorgeous and rich bachelorettes that he could surely have instantaneously. After all, with looks like Tae’s, he could have easily been a model.

I made sure he understood just how beautiful he was to me constantly, because he seemed to forget how amazing he was too often. I hoped he would never ever leave my life, and he never did.

Even as we both went downhill, even as we both cried and suffered, he stuck with me. And for that I am eternally grateful.

But in times that deserve the greatest appreciation, all I can do is fear when the peace and happiness will end. I should have been able to guess that nothing as good as I had would have lasted. For every good gift such as my Tae or my dream job, life takes these blessings back in ten fold.

It was the night before Halloween, and I was sat in the upstairs of me and Taehyung’s condo. He was out somewhere for the night, a random bar where he had met up with his best friend Jungkook. He had invited me to go out with him that Friday, but I had opted to stay home instead. Little did I know that not going with Taehyung that night would be the worst decision I ever made.

I had been putting the final touches onto our clown costumes for the following night, but I kept getting distracted from my working by a small silver band. The way it graced my finger in an almost perfect way still shocked me even though I’d had the ring for a week now. Taehyung had proposed to me the week prior, and I was beyond excited to be able to spend the rest of my life with him. To be able to call him my husband someday.

As I was in the middle of sewing the last bead onto my costume, I heard Taehyung come in through the front door. He got home much earlier than I had anticipated, so I walked out to make sure that everything was alright. I paused at the top of the stairwell in slight shock as I noticed some things that didn’t add up.

The door was left ajar, with muddy footsteps leading through the foyer. I could hear heavy grunts, clanging pans, and things shattering on the ground. All I could do in that moment was stand, frozen in place, trying to assess what I should do.

Time moved painstakingly slow and I couldn’t move at all. I wish I had been braver then, but without Taehyung I felt helpless. I could only watch as the intruder noticed me at the top of the stairs, as he stumbled and glared up at me, obviously intoxicated. I watched as he decided for me that my story would end.

I’m sure the noise was loud and intrusive, all of my neighbors could probably hear it. Maybe that’s what made him run away without any of the items he had originally come for, or maybe he already felt guilt for the sin he had only just committed. Dumbly enough, as it came towards me, I could only think of just how much it sounded like the fireworks that me and Tae would set off on new year’s. And then I fell.

I laid on the ground, absorbed in thinking about small trivial things that I would never get the privilege of experiencing again. 

Nothing in life can ever prepare you for just how much death hurts. It’s the combination of both the most excruciating emotional and physical pain. I could hear the blood seeping out of new hole in my chest, dripping down the stairs. I could feel the warmth leaving my usually flushed cheeks through my draining blood.

I heard Tae pull up in his truck, and the pitter-patter of his feet as he ran up the wet stairs. His shaky hands held onto my shoulders like it might bring me back if he held tight enough, and I felt the sweat rub off of his palms onto my forehead as he brushed the hair out of my face. He got out his phone and dialed for an EMS, constantly whispering to me about how he was sorry, about how I would be fine and not to worry.

What was he sorry for? How would I be fine? How could I not worry? I wished he would stop looking at me with such a heartbroken face, it only added to my suffering. But even with a face wrecked by sobs and covered by tears and snot, he still looked beautiful.

I wanted to tell him all of this, let him now how much I loved him, but my body couldn’t move. I felt the air emptying out of my lungs in a shaky breath that was surely my last. With that last breath, I hoped to anyone who would listen that I could stay with Taehyung forever. I could tell it was futile, but people in love wish crazy things.

My vision faded, a telltale sign that I was leaving. But after a flash of white across my vision, I could see Tae again. My vision was back to normal again, and furthermore, I didn’t feel intense pain anymore. I watched Taehyung sobbing into the chest of a dead woman.

All of these events, had happened five long years ago. I sit at the top of the stairs everyday, waiting for him to come home from work. I wish I could comfort him and make everything okay. But when I try to hold his hand all he does is shiver and walk away.

[drtwit]

RWBY and the Shades of EEEEEEVIL!

Villains aren’t exactly uncommon, in fact, you could say they’re a constant thorn in the side of reality that only exist to make a story complicated. They hurt our favorite characters, monologue a second too long, spout threatening one-liners they probably spent weeks in front of the mirror preparing, and sometimes they even have the audacity to have sympathetic qualities just to mess with us even more. In short, they’re a bit rude. However, we’re not here to talk about the sympathetic and redeemable qualities of our nefarious opposition. No comebacks here. No, we’re here to discuss the bushy mustache twirlers, the little Hitler youths, whiny brats and the candy thieves who have a pronounced hatred of puppies.

With pure evil characters who are there to break the story over their knees and practice their maniacal laughter, it’s often that writers forget to incorporate the character’s motivation, or at least fear the mention of that motivation. See, I find that many people find it hard to recognize that even for the most insane and cartoony of bastards, there is a reasoning, however twisted, behind their actions. The Joker commits crimes to spark chaos, push Batman to question his moral code and prove life is just one big joke. Darth Sidious wants to control the entire Galaxy and believe that nothing can be allowed to surpass him, not even his legacy. Zamasu wants to fulfill his image of a perfect universe and see’s Mortals as a stain upon reality. Prince Lacroix wants a bigger dick... Oh yeah, and something about fearing super powered Asians and the apocalypse, but I think he’s just racist. They have motivations and their actions are fueled by how they reason they can achieve their goals.

In RWBY, we have our fair share of evil ice cream flavors. Power hungry Fem Fatal? Darwin’s Edgy Fangirl? Sinster Overlord shrouded in mystery? Extremist swallowed by his hatred? Mustaches? We have them all, so feel free to choose your poison. But the one I want to talk about to illustrate this trend is the most pure evil of the bunch: Jac-ass Schnee.

This blight upon the good name of a bitching stache has been a point of apathy for me in the show, both as a character who always managed to feel like a background character forced to be an antagonist and as poorly done part of Weiss’s arc. He’s the best example of what happen when you need a character to always be a villain, no matter the scene, no matter the context, he always has to be hatable and pathetic to make sure you still hate him. This leads to a rather inconsistent character.

There’s a previous point of contention the fandom had with his post-volume 3 portrayal, where both in the way Weiss acts and how he’s mentioned prior to volume 4, there seems to be a disconnect to the abusive corporate worm we’d eventually meet. In the first three seasons, he and his company is something that Weiss clearly tried to emulate, something Weiss seemed to take enough pride in to be such a snob about it, something that Weiss goes out of her way to defend against accusations from Blake. You get the idea that Weiss’s father is harsh, distant and negligent, but that he’s still someone Weiss seems to hold a little affection for. Go to volume 4 and the way the two interact make it suddenly makes prior Weiss moments rather questionable, she seems suddenly very clear about how much she doesn’t like him, he’s very obvious with how much of a dirt bag he is and the everything we learn about the SDC and Atlas elite in general make it hard to think Weiss wouldn’t have agreed with Blake back in volume 1. Hell, I found it odd how Winter back in volume 3 cared about Weiss not returning her abusive father’s calls, you’d think Winter would be like “Yeah, fuck ‘em.”

But okay, maybe it’s just some subtleties missed, Jacques is the straight up corporate sleazebag, doing anything he can to get that payday. He has money, and he knows how to use it, dominating the market and knowing which shortcuts to take to move things in his favor. Now, let’s strip away these elements to the concrete core of the the type of evil Jac is. His evil is one of apathy towards morals in the face of greed. He wants money and power, and doesn’t care what he has to do to get it. He’s a good business man who’s worked his way up the ladder. This worked for volume 4, he uses Weiss as a symbol of sympathy towards future buyers at a party, he pretends to care about the fall of Beacon to look good and slaps Weiss when she starts to threaten that with her antics.

And then here comes volume 7 to take him down in the lamest way possible. We have the build up: Weiss running away, the songs about her wanting to break free, the whole motivation of bringing the SDC back to it’s former glory, the fear of having to return to Atlas on her own, ect. He’s her personal villain and as such you’d expect her returning home after he’s had two volumes to build up his already substantial power during a crisis where his business is needed more than ever, he’d take on a rather daunting role as secondary antagonist to Watts and Tyrian. Our first scene with him in volume 7 tells us the answer.

He storms in, easily loses his cool, is revealed that no one really likes him, Ironwood makes it clear he has very little power here, he’s unable to do anything other than throw petty insults at Weiss and immediately he’s stopped being the corporate bastard he’s supposed to be. This continues with the rest of the volume with him, where the writing seems to make him multiple villains at the same time and reduce him to Watts’s mindless flunkie who could have been replaced by any character. His actions don’t connect to his motivation and situation, there’s nothing that makes me believe that he actually reasoned that this would advance his goals.

He’s a ruthless business man who brought the SDC from poultry earnings to a global monopoly. But he doesn’t have one lick of charisma or cunning to the point he thinks taking away people’s jobs will get them to support him rather than hate him.

His company is constantly facing controversies, accusations and attacks with apparently everyone hating him. But he has shit security and isn’t the least bit paranoid of bugs from potential journalists in his house.

He wants money, power and security. But goes along with Watt’s plans that clearly weaken Atlas’s defenses and isn’t suspicious at all at Watts wanting admin access to Mantle’s entire system with no attempt at insurance in case the clearly suspicious mad man doesn’t stab him in the back.

He doesn’t care about Weiss at all, she’s simply a means to an end, even disowning Winter for joining the military. But he still let Weiss attend Beacon, went back to get Weiss from Beacon when he had Jac 2.0 on standby to be his heir.

He’s a man who’s been in the game of feeding people bullshit for years to justify his bad deeds. But he immediately crumbles the moment he’s accused of anything.

He wants to sweep all accusations of unfair labor practices under the rug so they don’t damage his business. But apparently he allowed faunus to get branded with his logo.

On and on it goes, where his motivation is thrown away because “He’s evil, he doesn’t need a reason to do bad things.”. Joker wants to push Batman over the edge, thus he creates a situation that fucks with Batman’s moral code. Sidious wants to crush the Galaxy’s hope, so he constructs a symbol of fear big enough that it can be seen looming overhead from the planet below. Zamasu wants to purge the universe, so he takes the body of the man who embodies the ‘sins’ of mortals and travels to another timeline to make sure the much more powerful Gods and Zeno can’t interfere with his plans. La Fuckwad knows that everyone is looking for an excuse to get rid of him and knows the apocalypse might be coming, so he manipulates a fledgling vampire to get him the sarcophagus of an ancient vampire so he can absorb that refine ‘87 vintage blood wine and become powerful enough to survive.

You can see how they reason they need to do the things they do to achieve their goal. What connects A to B. The only way Jac’s action sync up with his motivation is if he is such a profound moron that Weiss besting him means nothing. “Wow, you beat the illiterate kid at reading, well done.”

As I stated earlier, Jac is viewed strictly as a bastard, strictly as Weiss’s antagonist, in every scene the show has to push in our faces that he’s the bad guy and that Weiss is superior to him. He never gains an advantage over Weiss, or puts Weiss in a difficult situation, he never has a real chance in this story. He is there to be arrested by Weiss. Every scene changes him to be the villain it needs for him to be for us to hate him the most. So, in some he will be calm and composed to frustrate us, while others he’ll be made to yell like a petulant child to make him pathetic and other’s he’ll just be stroking his mustache. His first confrontation with her ends with him getting slapped down and humiliated, then he’s just a yes man who does what Watts tells him to do with no thought or agency, then Weiss just walks into his party, get’s handed victory on a silver platter and arrests him.

That’s it. You got your ice cream flavors, and all of them can be pretty good on their own. However, if you get a bunch of them, stick them in a bowl and then just take a few bites and leave ‘em out in the sun, all you’re gonna get is regular intervals of a muddy looking puddle that eventually becomes grey sludge.