#i just think that they should have explored peters character more and given more of a shit about him

[horrorknife]

common ground

part 2

[aithusarosekiller]

Things I think marauders aus can utilise more to add more depth and references:

Disclaimer: I'm not criticising people or telling them what to do I just think these aspects would be really fun to focus on

- Peter's silver hand. Yeah in canon he only gets it in 1995 but modern aus aren't going to follow the canon timeline! If you care enough to keep Remus disabled in aus I think Pete should be allowed his prosthetic, we can have more than 1 disabled character. He could've been born without a hand or gotten some form of illness or into an accident, there are so many ways you can cover it. If you feel weird about keeping his hand but getting rid of the way he got it, he could've had a messy past in organised crime that led to him losing his hand before his friends found him and helped him to pull out of it. He needs more background in general so that's a really cool way to cover two things in one,

- Regulus being a huge fucking martyr. We get a bit of this but I would love to see him making even more gigantic, unproportionate sacrifices, including his own life. It's one of the main things we know about him, he's all or nothing on everything so I think it's fun to look into how different situations can bring out that intrinsic part of his character.

- Dorcas' anger. She had so much rage and strength that she was able to take on Voldemort himself. She destroyed large parts of his army. If she gets angry, that rage in uncontainable. I feel like people shy away from that too much and aim to make her too palatable but her anger is so fun to explore and completely changed her character and motivations. She doesn't have unpredictable rage, it's very calculated and directed, but it's there. She probably carefully considers everything before it happens and that's why she's so powerful. She knows her skills and she knows how to use them.

- SIRIUS' ANGER AND UNPREDICTABILITY! He is so changeable and instinctive. He doesn't often think about consequences before he does things and tries to move on from situations in which he may have wronged someone with shocking swiftness. He never really considers how his actions may effect others and it will take a really strong word to get that through to him. That man is so damn stubborn. Let him be unreasonable, he doesn't need to be perfect all the time. He was raised in a house swarming with pride, you don't just suddenly abandon that.

- Marlene's connection to her family. We know her family are all killed together so what's her bond with them? A lot of people say she didn't get along with them -especially not her father- but is it more deep than that? Does she still have a sense of duty to them that draws her to visit them in the hopes things will fix themselves?

- Remus' self-preservation and self-pity. Does he do things because he wants to or because the people around him influence him to? He's more passive than active and given the choice, he'd remain in hiding during times of struggle.

[about-faces]

I'm still loving Gotham Nocturne and I wish it was getting the love/respect/attention is deserves. I've spoken several people who haven't been reading the current Detective Comics run because they're Batmanned Out (good lord, do I get it) and they see it as just another attempt at some kind of "ultimate Batman story with Batman fighting the ultimate evil," which I strongly disagree with.

THAT SAID... as time has gone on, and the story seems to be reaching its finale, there are a few things that stand out of me as problems with this epic storyline.

1.) It's one of the most egregious examples of "writing for the trade paperback." This simply isn't a story that's meant to be read month-to-month. It's too slow, with too little "happening," at least on the superficial level. Paradoxically, it's NOT a story that should be binged! The best comparison that comes to mind is Better Call Saul, since that's the only other example of serialized media that's meticulously slow-paced yet INCREDIBLY RICH for those willing to engage with it on its level rather than expecting it to be Breaking Bad (or in Nocturne's case, a typical Batman story.) Ram V is capable of writing super-engaging monthly issues, as the fantastic Rare Flavours proves, but that brings us to...

2.) The story is sprawling. Maybe even TOO sprawling. When it comes to people who are sick of Batman, I try to sell them on the fact that this story is about GOTHAM AS A WHOLE, right down to the villains who call it home, and how everyone there is as intrinsically a part of Gotham as Batman is. But ensemble stories like that are tricky, and it makes the focus feel all over the place at times, with alternately too much and too little attention being paid to the main players, Batman included. It's a balance that was handled beautifully with Batman: The Audio Adventures, but it seems a bit more awkward here. Again, it's hard to pull off!

Like, we have characters pop up and then vanishing without explanation. We got Azrael back in the AzBats armor for the first time in decades, like, holy shit! That should be a HUGE development! And then, poof, he vanished! There's simply no time to explore Jean-Paul's character because there's so many other things the narrative needs to explore.

This feels like it would have really benefited from a companion series, something to focus on the characters the way the backup stories have done, but just more so. I think about how Peter Tomasi would write companion books to the main big storylines written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, and Scott Snyder, and how he'd focus on character, which always enriched the greater "big important storyline." Which, in turn, also brings me to...

3.) The backup stories have really lost a lot of their punch since they stopped being written by Si Spurrier and were taken over by Dan Watters. Watters is incredibly capable, make no mistake, and his Cheshire/Lian Harper story is one of my favorite parts of this entire saga. But by and large, his tales focus more on the spooky and weird sides of what's happening with Nocturne, whereas Spurrier's stories were more focused on characters navigating the weirdness of the events. As a result, Spurrier gave us what I consider to be some of the very best stories about Jim Gordon, Harvey Dent, and Victor Fries ever written. I really miss those, and how they enriched Ram V's (possibly overly-ambitious) narrative.

Ultimately, Gotham Nocturne feels like the Batman equivalent to an arthouse film, which means it's going to be appreciated by a handful of nerds while leaving most other fans cold, and I can't really blame them. If anything makes me sad about all this, it's how all this incredible character work with Bruce, Harvey, Victor, Talia, and others is going to be ignored. Hell, it already is, given the complete lack of acknowledgement we've seen in other Bat-books for what's going on in Nocturne.

At this point, I just hope it sticks the landing in the finale, because I want to be able to have a complete, satisfying epic to recommend to people who want something a bit richer than the typical "guy in Bat costume punches clown" stories we usually get.

[practically-an-x-man]

random question- do you headcanon any x-men characters as neurodivergent?

Oooooh man don't get me started-

The short version is, yes. I think there are a lot of characters that are coded as neurodiverse in some way or another, more characters where the manifestation of their mutations could be an allegory for neurodivergency, and even some "lighter" headcanons that I wouldn't want to see in canon but think have good storytelling potential outside of it.

It's a common headcanon that Scott is autistic, and I agree with it. I also think Hank is autistic, but it manifests differently in him than in Scott. I also headcanon that Scott gets chronic migraines, though I'm not sure whether that qualifies as neurodivergency or not.

Prodigy is AuDHD for sure, just by the nature of his powers - he collects skills, takes a new hobby and learns as much as he possibly can about it, masters it, then ends up dropping it and moving on to the next one? I know AuDHD is more than just that, but as someone who does the same thing, it definitely speaks to me and I think he's a good character to reflect that.

Peter Maximoff absolutely has ADHD, he's basically ADHD incarnate.

Erik has PTSD six ways from Sunday, I don't think that one even qualifies as a headcanon. Logan also has PTSD, along with Forge and most/all of the mutants who were drafted into the Vietnam War in DOFP (Alex Summers, Toad, etc.)

I do headcanon Dazzler as having some form, maybe multiple forms, of synesthesia. It could be comorbid with her mutation itself, given her abilities are to change one form of sensory input into a different form of sensory input, and that's effectively what synesthesia is within the brain. In general, I subscribe to the idea of superpowers that genuinely affect multiple aspects of a person's life - it's not just a press-a-button power to turn on, it's woven into their mind and body and genuinely affects how they interact with the world.

I also think any telepath would have to qualify as neurodivergent, given their view on the world is innately impacted by processing the thoughts of everyone around them. I don't know that there would be a specific "label" for what they experience, and I think it varies from person to person, but it's definitely a form of neurodivergency.

I also feel like clone characters are innately neurodivergent, especially in relation to developmental or age-related disorders. Studies of actual cloned animals tell us that they're more prone to neurological conditions and tend to develop age-related mental and physical disorders much earlier than they should, so I think there should be at least some sort of reflection in mutant clones like Laura Kinney. Healing factor of course would negate some of the effects, but I could see her with dyslexia or dyscalculia, or perhaps some form of memory disorder. And of course, in Logan (2017) she has a sort of selective mutism tied to trauma, which could be an neat thing to explore in writing her even outside the context of the movie.

I think there are a lot of characters that would be interesting to explore if they had some form of neurodivergency, even if it's not my headcanon for the canon character. These aren't necessarily what I'd want to see from canon, but I think it brings dimension to their stories and could be neat to explore how it interacts with their mutations.

I mean, it would be neat to see Husk with some form of sensory issues, since it would bind up with her mutation in an interesting way and could make for a cool plot. Take her mutation as a metaphor for dermatillomania, where picking at her skin becomes shedding her skin as her mutation manifests, which at best is unpleasant and at worst could be outright dangerous.

And it would be interesting to explore schizophrenia or psychosis in Magik, especially from a social perspective, since her manipulation of Limbo would no doubt be seen as a psychotic episode by others around her (angsty, but a strong metaphor for the hoops actual people with those conditions have to jump through to get recognized), and even from her own perspective it would be interesting to see how she learns to separate her actual, tangible mutation from the things she might experience with her neurological conditions.

[madame-mortician]

My Personal DBD Wishlist

So Dead by Daylight released the Year 9 roadmap, and Jesus Christ there are a LOT of licenses coming to DBD for this year and the next, so I wanted to share my personal wishlist for licenses, concepts and ideas that I want to go to DBD. Keep in mind, this is all my opinion and none of this is stuff that I think is coming, they're just things that I'd like to come, y'know?

A Second Silent Hill Chapter

Now this might seem pointless since we already have plenty of Silent Hill characters in the game, but we also have plenty of Resident Evil characters so let me dream. Personally, I'd want an outdoor Silent Hill map, showing the foggy streets. For Killer, I'd either want Walter Sullivan or Claudia Wolf, though depending on the killer power, it would work to have Claudia as the killer (to tie with Cheryl more) and have Walter be a Legendary. As for a survivor, I feel like Henry, Eileen and Harry are the only ones that could really work, since I don't think Vincent or Angela would suit the game very well. Similar to how Legion received Robbie the Rabbit cosmetics, I think perhaps Nurse should receive a Silent Hill Nurse cosmetic and maybe Hag could get a Sakura Head cosmetic. Again, this is all a personal wishlist so I doubt this will ever happen but it's fun to pretend.

A Second Saw Chapter

Yes, we're doing this. So for a map, I'd go with the Catacombs from Saw 5, where the Fatal Five's games occurred. That way we would be able to explore multiple trap rooms, just like how Gideon's Meat Plant goes through multiple trap rooms from Saw 1-3. It wouldn't have to be an exact replica, the Meat Plant map sure isn't, so some other locations could even be thrown in there like the Glass Coffin room. As for characters, I'd personally go with Mark Hoffman as the killer, and either Jill Tuck or Peter Strahm as the survivor (or maybe both.) I think having a full-blown new chapter might be a little too much, especially considering that Mark and Amanda would act the same way, so a second idea would be that Amanda receives a bunch of Legendary cosmetics changing her to the other apprentices (Hoffman and Lawrence), with the only issue really being that those characters also wear pig masks, but to that I say Legion all has the same mask, yet there's four of them so hush. Tapp could get Legendary cosmetics that change him to Jill or Peter, or hell even Adam and Matthews could get in on the action.

A Second Evil Dead Chapter

So Evil Dead is one of the most iconic slashers of all time and it was completely ROBBED in DBD. Sure Freddy was kinda screwed over, and the TCM chapter didn’t even come with a survivor or map, however Evil Dead personally means more to me and it just sucks to me that they could only get AVED Ash, and not the iconic Evil Dead 2 Ash, or hell, even AOD Ash would’ve been nice. In my dream, hypothetical second Evil Dead chapter, I’d give Ash an Ultra Rare that turns him into AOD Ash. I’d also include a killer, either Evil Ash or Deadite Cheryl, and I’d either add Mia as a new character, or make her a Legendary for Ash. If Deadite Cheryl was the killer, I’d include Ellie and Linda as Legendaries, and if Evil Ash was the killer I’d probably give him a Baal skin.

An X Chapter

I think an issue with DBD is the lack of modern horror licenses. Sure we have Stranger Things, but that’s already over 5 years old. We haven’t gotten any modern characters beside them. Granted, there isn’t a lot of iconic horror films releasing nowadays that aren’t reboots or sequels, so that’s hard however X is an iconic and new franchise. Pearl as the killer, Maxine as the survivor, it’s perfect. You could argue Pearl being younger would make it confusing between her and Maxine since they look the same, however if Pearl is given animations that look unique enough, she’d be different enough to Maxine to not confuse them.

More Resident Evil Legendaries

So with Silent Hill, I wanted another chapter despite the abundance of content however with Resident Evil, I feel like we don’t really need entirely new characters. Resident Evil already has 2 killers and 4 survivors (4 killers and 9 survivors if you count Legendaries) whilst some licenses don’t even get 1 killer (Evil Dead my beloved.) Despite this, I still do wish for more content. Resident Evil just has so many iconic heroes and villains that are great for killers and survivors, however to include all of them would take up like 20 chapters and by that point it wouldn’t be fair at all to the other licenses who get nothing. I personally really hope for Lady Dimitrescu and her Daughters to come as Legendaries, the only issue being that I can’t tell who they should replace. In my head, I can kinda see Dimitrescu being a skin for maybe Plague but the power doesn’t fit that much IMO. Same problem with Dimitrescu’s daughters, I’m just not sure who they could be if not new characters. It’s simple for characters like Barry, Sherry and Ashley to be introduced, just make them skins for Leon and Jill, but it’s way harder to introduce new unique killer skins. My other bet would be to have Lady Dimitrescu be a skin for Nemesis, and have her daughters as the zombies, but that feels like too much work.

A House of 1000 Corpses Chapter

I’m not even sure what their powers would be or if there’d be a survivor or not, but I’d want the Firefly Family in this game, asap. I’d either have their chapter come with 2 killers, Captain Spaulding and Baby Firefly, with them both getting legendaries that change them to Rufus and Otis respectively, similar to Legion. Again, not sure on power, since they’re just regular killers, but I’d want Baby and Otis to be more psychotic and quick, with Spaulding and Rufus being slow heavy-hitters. Instead of the house, I’d have the gas station as the map, with most of it being outdoors but including a small indoor area with the front registers and the dark ride. It would be similar to the Greenville map.

A Junji Ito Chapter

This one is a bit of a unique one, since very other one here has a movie or game models to base themselves off of. Junji Ito has manga and anime, with irrelevant live action movies, so if they added anybody they’d have to make them fit the style. Although Junji Ito is my DREAM chapter, I didn’t think it would work… until now… Since Castlevania recently got added, they adapted the video game/anime designs for DBD and they look amazing. Not only are they anime-ish but also fit DBD’s art style, but they look good and not uncanny/bad. My point is, now I 100% believe they could add Junji Ito characters with no problem. My dream would be a mix of multiple stories, so Tomie would be the killer, Kirie/Shuichi would be the survivors and we’d get legendaries of characters like Souichi and Fuchi.

A Fatal Frame Chapter

This is one of those ones I highly doubt is going to happen, but I would love it either way. I'd go with the Silent Hill route where we get a map, a killer and a survivor with the survivor getting multiple Legendary cosmetics to account for the magnitude of popular protagonists in the franchise. I'd personally have the default be Rei Kurosawa since she's arguably the most popular protagonist, and she would come with Legendary cosmetics that turn her into Ruka, Yuri, Mio, Miku, Miu and Misaki. The killer could be Sae Kurosawa, though honestly any of the ghosts could work as the chapter's killer. As for a map, I feel like the best one would be Minakami Village, however again, any of the maps could work, hell maybe they could even do the Saw route, where they merge a bunch of locations into one map. The killer could have a new unique item, similar to how Sadako comes with tapes, or Xenomorph comes with turrets, the killer could come with cameras.

Springtrap

Yeah, yeah, very original I know. The truth is, I'm a huge FNAF fan and have been for a long time, and even though Springtrap is not my favourite animatronic in the series, he's definitely the most popular and the only one who could really work as a "main killer" (especially since the other animatronics have mostly become "good guys.") Of course, they could always bring in Legendary cosmetics to turn him into Freddy or something, but for now, Springtrap works the best and a lot of people want him so why not? Edit: YIPPEE!!

Elvira

I know survivor-only chapters are less fun than killer-only chapters since survivors are basically just skins, but shut up. Anyways, we’ve already had celebrity cameos, with Nicolas Cage, who is technically a horror actor but isn’t strictly known for horror like some better characters. DBD is branching away from horror nowadays, but I’d still love to see horror themed celebrities make appearances. Elvira is the biggest one I can think of, known was an iconic horror legend for being a gothic host for horror films. Her connections to horror would make her great for DBD, as she would have lots of comedic lines relating to these slashers she’s now with, similar to Nicolas Cage.

A Proper 2v8

So they recently announced 2v8, however it's only with the original 5 killers and a select few survivors. I understand they want to test the waters, and also they are adding new things and gameplay mechanics to their mod, however, I personally just want a regular 2v8. Two killers, 8 survivors, just that. No classes, no weird new mechanics, just regular DBD with double the characters. Of course some things would have to be changed so that it's not unfair, but not to the point of it being a completely different thing.

[rriavian]

Do you consider Morpheus' Corinthian and Daniel's Corinthian two different persons ( i mean nightmares ha ha) playing the same role? To be more clear- do you consider them like Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker and Tom Holland's Peter Parker?Or do you consider them as the uprated version of same software? Like Corinthian 1 is Windows 10 and Corinthian 2 is Windows 11?

I am asking about your interpretation. Not necessarily it has to be based on canon.

PS. Not sure if I should write my own interpretation here. But anyway, I am gonna write it.

For me, Morpheus and Daniel are completely different personifications. Like- yes they are both doctors/pilots/teachers/bankers-whatever really. But they are different persons. Doing the same job doesn’t make them the same person.

On the other hand, My understanding of Corinthian is completely opposite of "Dream 1 and Dream 2". No matter how different Corinthian and Remade Corinthian are- they are the " same personification" to me. It's like same person getting a second chance to life after coming back from coma state. I am personally not too eager to use "Cori 1 Cori 2". For me, they are both the same " Cori".

L

Sorry for my English if it's too incoherent.

Oh you love to make me think don’t you! I think my interpretation is still in flux; I’ve not read the comics, or seen a lot of super spoiler-y panels bar a few of the big ones, and the show is also still quite far off this storyline. 

I suppose the truth is that the existence of the second Corinthian is a narrative element I struggle with, because to me it’s not very satisfying. I enjoyed how the show handled Dream making Gault a dream, because it was very clearly a cosmetic change, but with the Corinthian it feels like it would be a lot more. The idea of recreating isn’t an easy one (doesn’t feel like a great match for the themes of the story either), as it just seems like a very simplistic way to get a character to change without them actually growing. And this change is entirely against the characters will/doesn’t even involve the Corinthian doing anything at all.

Which is quite chilling given how his rebellion was very much a quest for agency.

The idea of the Corinthian rebelling, spending 100 years sticking to his choices, and then being unmade only to be recreated with everything suddenly being fine, with all the reasons he had to do what he did seemingly gone/resolved, just doesn’t feel very satisfying to me. 

I’m still holding off on a full judgement until I’ve reached that point in the narrative, but there has to be some trajectory for me to really get on board. What did Dream alter in that moment of recreation? If it’s a new character with the old one’s face/name/memories but apparently none of their motivations then why should I care? And if there was a reason for not just making a completely new character as Dream’s second attempt at a masterpiece then what was that reason because I’d love to know what that is!

It’s probably because I’m not there yet in the story, but right now I don’t see it, and so I’m not sold on it.

Perhaps everything was somehow resolved while the Corinthian was unmade. Perhaps all he needed was a really good nap. Perhaps he got therapy while chilling as a skull. Joking aside—and finally looping round to actually answering your question—I think there has to be continuity between the first and second Corinthian because, unlike Dream, he’s not really the combination of two distinct identities. Well, in a way he could be, Dream not so much remaking him as giving him something more, not cutting out but adding a balancing factor. Upgrading the software to use your turn of phrase :) 

I think that’s the interpretation I go with in Transmutation, and that fic was essentially me exploring what the complexity of identity could mean. It’s the interpretation I go to for Dream as well. Also—just to reference a spoiler I have seen from the comics—the panel of the second Corinthian choking Loki out when looking for Daniel?

Listen: that’s the same nightmare for sure.

[auxiliarydetective]

The OC Halloween Challenge - Day 22

You can find the challenge here!

Today's prompt was...

Solitude Causes More Wounds Than It Was Meant To Heal

Fear is increased when one is alone by themselves, or cut off from civilization like an reclusive island. Focus on your characters in the horror of isolation; are they forced to recognize who they truly are on the inside? Do they practice the law of nature or nurture? Do they keep their morals or own laws?

Once again, I made a poll to determine today's victim and I realized lots of my followers are in need of a hug so...

Spooky hug for you! This actually fits with today's winner/victim too because it's...

Charlie Drake!

-

Ray reluctantly unlocked the door to the Firehouse, the police forcing themselves past him the moment they could. The once-Ghostbusters followed, Ray entering last. Inside the Firehouse, the only thing that was still in its proper condition was Ecto-1. Everything else was covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. Immediately, the cops started searching every nook and cranny, every closet and shelf, every cupboard upstairs in the kitchen, every cabinet... And the car, of course. Winston, Ray, Egon and Peter exchanged worried and annoyed glances. Mostly annoyed, in fact. Winston was mostly worried though and Egon was observing everything happening around him as if he were on a bust. Really, with the way he looked at the cops roaming around, with their hands all over his carefully crafted equipment, you would think he was just waiting for a ghost to jump out and rip them to shreds. Venkman seemed to have the same hopes as he whispered:

"You don't think one of the traps is still loaded, do you?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Ray murmured.

"I think a ghost attacking the cops might actually make your situation worse," Winston whispered. "They'll just blame it on you and make your charges even worse."

Egon said nothing. After turning everything upside-down and hurling every speck of dust around the house, the cops left, reminding Ray, Egon and Peter of their trial the next day. Then, the police cars sped away.

"Well, now we're really in trouble," Egon mumbled.

"Boy, you said it," Ray sighed. He leaned against the hood of Ecto-1 in resignation. "Man, I really wish Charlie were here."

"Yeah," Peter chuckled, "he could smack those guys into next week!"

Before Winston could repeat his statement from before, Egon interrupted:

"That's exactly my point as to why we're in trouble. Charlie didn't show up."

"Well, we did encourage him to explore the world," Winston reminded him. "For all we know, he could be in New Zealand or something. How should we know? He didn't even leave a note or call or something."

"It's almost like he wants nothing to do with us," Ray murmured.

"Well, we did almost kill him," Peter quipped. "Twice."

"Three times, actually," Egon corrected. "Still, I don't think he'd just leave without saying anything."

"Yeah, now that you mention it," Winston reminisced, "he's never been the type of guy to just stay quiet about things he didn't like. And the last thing he told us, he said we could reach him at the Firehouse."

"You think he's just been hanging around here for four years?" Peter asked. "Sounds too boring for Charlie."

"Precisely," Egon declared.

"You think he somehow got stuck here?" Ray asked worriedly.

"It's very possible he turned sick, in a lack of better terms, and maybe didn't notice it." Egon held out his hand, showing off the ring that Charlie had given him. "Do you still have yours?"

The others nodded, their hands joining Egon's in the space between them.

"Remember how shiny they used to be? Now they're tarnished."

"That's just what silver does, it tarnishes," Peter said. "Come on, Egon, I thought you were smart."

"I tried polishing it," Ray threw in. "But it didn't work. I figured it's just because it hasn't been around Charlie in a long time, but... Oh god, Spengs, you don't think-"

"Remember how Charlie was before and after we defeated Gozer?" Egon continued his interrogation, but his voice was a little weaker now, shaking slightly. "Specifically, what changed?"

"Well, before that, I don't think he ever slept," Ray recalled. "He'd always be going on busts with us and then to his night shift right after that and hop right back into Ecto-1 the next morning. I didn't really think about it too much back then, but it became even more obvious when he dropped his other job. He was constantly on his feet."

"Yeah, I remember how much that ticked me off when I joined," Winston sighed. "And after we defeated Gozer, he started actually sleeping, didn't he? Didn't it also take him a whole week to recover from the explosion on the roof?"

"My theory is that he never fully recovered," Egon said darkly. "I tried to form a thesis on what might have happened in terms of psychokinetic energy when we destroyed the temple and afterwards to find out what effects it might have had on Charlie. Before we fired at the gate, it was steadily leaking psychokinetic energy into our world, meaning the very same energy that Charlie most likely lives off of. When we reversed the particle flow, it destroyed Mr Stay Puft in the explosion, very similarly to how Charlie... almost died... when the containment grid exploded. Only this time, it didn't destroy Charlie's physical form like the first time around. But it still must have drained him off all the extra energy he had to spare, which is why he was so tired all the time. It also left lasting damage, which is why he had to sleep from then on."

"So what, he relapsed?" Peter asked. "He seemed mostly fine last I saw him. Barely even slept anymore. What happened that could've caused that? I mean, I didn't see any big psychokinetic explosions since we disbanded."

"That's the point, we disbanded. There were no more ghost sightings, meaning there was very little psychokinetic energy in the area, which must have had an effect on Charlie eventually. I'm assuming the rings we're wearing might have had some effect on his recovery as well. He did call them mutual insurance. And with them gone, what's the only source of psychokinetic energy left?"

"The containment grid," Ray murmured.

"You think he locked himself in there like in a bacta tank?" Peter mumbled.

"No, he wouldn't do that," Winston declared. "He knows there's no way to get back out."

"He's probably somewhere in the Firehouse," Egon theorized, "and he's probably sleeping or unconscious. Dormant, you could say. If we can get some energy back into these rings, maybe we can wake him up."

"Ghost defibrilator. Right on my finger. Fantastic."

Still, nobody had a better idea. In fact, it was the only idea anyone had. So, the former Ghostbusters headed into the basement to do the reverse of their usual profession and actually summon a ghost this time. They placed their hands against the surface of the containment grid. Immediately, it felt like a jolt of electricity rushed through their bodies and they pulled their hands away, the rings unbearably hot, then suddenly icy cold, glowing in an alabaster sheen. The lights in the basement flickered, making them fear another blackout.

"I think it worked," Peter mumbled.

"Charlie?" Egon called.

Suddenly, one of the boxes of screws from the nearby shelf flew in Egon's direction, hitting him in the arm. But that was only the start. From then on, more and more objects started hitting Egon, Peter, Ray and Winston.

"Are you sure that's Charlie?!" Winston asked, ducking out of the way of a wrench.

"It has to be," Egon replied, trying to make his way to the staircase but being blocked off by the desk.

"I think he's mad," Ray said weakly.

"Mad?!" Peter echoed. "He's pissed!"

[variousqueerthings]

THESE ARE ATTACK EYEBROWS!

alrightalright new Doctor new Season and also confession that I cannot help comparing where I'm at with the M*ffat run with the new special and the Classic!Who I'm watching, which is perhaps unfair, but then maybe my guy should stop putting out overlong needlessly complicated Stuff

However consider: Peter Capaldi!

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 5/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 6/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 2/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 8/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 3/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 8/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 6/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 4/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 5/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 6/10

FULL RATING: 53/100 (if I can count….)

Alright alright, let's get this party going!

OBJECTIFICATION: this episode has one of my least favourite scenes of the whole of Doctor Who, because not only is it sexism, it's male gaze via lesbians, in which M*ffat really really sucks at portraying lesbianism that isn't partly a straight man's fantasy and partly weirdly het... the scene is of course when Vastra has Jenny posing in her corsetry... undergarments? idk what clothes are called, apologies, and Jenny thinks she's being painted, when actually Vastra just wanted to look at her being (uncomfortable) pretty while she was doing the important brainy work

she then dismisses Jenny's complaints about why in the world she's been posing for so long with telling her how she brightens up the room and that it's for "art" -- we'll get more into their dynamic in a biiit

PLOT-POINT: Clara is ostensibly the point of this episode -- new Doctor, new face, and she's unsure how to feel about it, because apparently she really fancied Eleven's pubescent charm. This reminds me of The Christmas Invasion in which Rose has a similar journey of figuring out how she feels about the new Doctor, except of course that Rose's internal and external life is a big focus of early Doctor Who, and she also had no idea that the Doctor could just explode and become a totally new body

also the Doctor was unconscious for a lot of it, and the question of what was going on + when you track the timeline the poor girl probably hadn't slept for a million years properly aside from fainting after having the Time Vortex in her head... she's going through it, we're seeing the journey, there's big aliens fucking about, she's stressed! it's all about relearning that trust and a new relationship, and while there's a subtext of romance, it's not pushed at you, so much as this was something deeply important and now it's been unsteadied unexpectedly

Clara's journey by contrast is one in which we met her family for the first time properly-ish an episode ago, most of her arc in her first season was being a mystery, her "fancying" the Doctor was likewise introduced in the previous episode, and crucially... she already knows the Doctor regenerates, because as per M*ffat's own writing she's literally seen all the previous faces (also Capaldi is objectively hotter than Smith, so jot that down, but I can forgive that, personal taste and all that)

there's also a whole weird little "test" scene between Vastra and Jenny that's ostensibly about tolerance but does that common M*ffat thing of having some good lines out of context that aren't really properly about what's happening right now. do I really like the idea of the Doctor as young in order to fit in/be accepted? unclear, need to think about it a bit, but maaaybe, considering how I read Eleven, who perhaps gets away with being a bit fucked up by Appearing Young, versus Twelve who's immediately got everyone going ahhh what is wrong with you bestie????

but it's muddily mixed in with the whole fancying thing + Vastra thinking Clara is hot or whatever, it's all... me not liking a lot of Vastra's dialogue generally, which feels like M*ffat trying so hard to be deep and mysterious (the one word test from last season as well)

there ARE a couple of things I like, in that I do want Clara and Twelve to reassess where they stand with each other, and I kind of like Twelve being a mess that's abandoning her because he has no idea what his emotions are doing or who he really is or what's going on... especially that last scene of Twelve having a little stuttery sorry, that works for me, look at this weird alien grandpa that speaks like a child at times, what do you feel about that Clara?

the build-up is... rocky, especially everything with Clara opposite Vastra, the latter of whom mainly seems to exist to extol the Doctor's godlike virtues and bully her wife/maid and sound clever

I ALSO like when Clara is facing the bad guy and is clearly very scared but still trying. I liked that from s7b Clara, who was often very openly scared, but still tried

COMPLEXITY: the problem with this episode is that it could be a standard 48mins easily and be better for it. there's nothing technically wrong with it, but there was no need for a dinosaur, no real need for a lot of the dialogue, and many scenes could have been trimmed

also after several episodes that are Quite Long that don't need to be, I'm beginning to grow tired of it. thank goodness we're heading into average episodes again at last

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: I mean, new Doctor. it's mainly the Doctor that's got some stuff going on, but again the last scene. reminiscent of End Of The World (chips? coffee and chips? I haven't got any money)

there's also a new character who's arrived... and it's The Master! and yes, she's got a bit of that M*ffat DNA, but man Michelle Gomez is so good, so so so good! Scottish Bastard Aliens let's do this!

COMPANIONS MATTER: Clara kiiind of... so she doesn't necessarily do much, but there is that... thing. of her figuring out where she stand with this new Doctor, and that's quite important

the Paternoster gang do more actiony-based things and it's... I mean, fine, I guess. they're not companions, and they're mostly more sci-fi elements to all of the plot, rather than what A Person can do

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: I will say that Capaldi is instantly more workable for me. even some of the stupid hangovers in dialogue from the Matt Smith era flow better with him. I don't like the whole monologue at the dinosaur, it's pointless and this episode is an hour and 15mins (this fuckn dinosaur), and the Doctor designating humans as "pudding brains" for ages and the general dismissive "I'm so smart, you're so stupid" attitude... well I can buy it a little easier from Capaldi. also I know that Capaldi's Doctor eventually tones that down and I mean... it's giving Grumpy Old Man rather than Petulant Child

there's meaning, there's point, the Doctor feels more grounded than before. speaking of grounded, I like that the Doctor isn't all-powerful. a lot of this is surviving a bit on your wits, staying one step ahead, and there's also the bit at the end where we don't know if roboboy jumped or was pushed... it's perhaps controversial as choice, but I'm going to sit on it a bit more, especially with the tone this era has inherited of a more Alien Doctor that is trying to reground themself and their values

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: uuuuum so the thing here is that these droids are basically the same as the ones from Girl In The Fireplace. now, regardless of how one feels about some of the thematic handling of that episode, and the Thing M*ffat was showing early on of a preference for writing about "Important Monarch-Related People" and other such things, the droids were really fucking cool in my opinion, and the plot of them getting shit wrong in their brains and causing a massive disruption in one person's life, fascinating

it's a great One Off Idea

but we all know M*ffat's no good at One Offs so here we are doing a slightly worse version of it. M*ffat this is your own episode you're referencing, why are you beating this horse? (like the time M*ffat insisted on an actual horse jumping through a mirror even though it was very stupid and people told him to please drop it... oh wait, that was Girl In The Fireplace....)

“SEXINESS”: okay well aforementioned "art" scene I think is a lot of the Thing that irks me about the writing of Vastra and Jenny, where I wish I liked them more, but I cannot stop seeing the way they're written as an unexplored power-dynamic -- rich vs working class, powerful alien "simple" human, Sherlock Holmes genius rich type and simple maid (who, granted, sometimes gets to beat people up, we like the action stuff, even if I'm not a fan of the sexy leather and I feel like a traitor writing that M*ffat! you've made me dislike sexy leather lesbianism in something how?????), and while all of this is occasionally pointed to, it's only ever as a joke

this includes things like Vastra flirting with (at?) Clara in front of Jenny, when they're ostensibly a monogamous couple and Jenny isn't happy about it, or Jenny pointing out that it's weird she's "pretending" at being a maid in private and being brushed off

INTERNAL WORLD: it's Victorian London, but it's the "these kinds of episodes" Victorian London, which has never felt like much other than a bit of a backdrop. we're not really exploring Victorian London, it's just where the Paternoster gang happens to be and so we get big dresses and hats

also a big Dinosaur is there and that's unimportant and doesn't change things I suppose

POLITICS: it's so... there. as an episode. so not a lot of politics, but how does it write lesbians? eh, not the most horrible thing I've seen -- I genuinely like the acting of the characters and we do get one big ol' kiss this episode (scifi vibes, but this is a scifi show), which is framed reeelatively romantically -- we did have Jenny dying in the Name Of The Doctor and Vastra having many emotions about it (just remembered how her being emotional about her partner dying was an invite to getting harassed for being too emotional and silly just like a womaaaan) (I also still think about how Jenny still calls her Ma'am for some reason... like yeah, that could be a hot prolonged roleplay, but it definitely isn't, except for the way it is because of the guy writing it knowing that it doesn't make sense but it's kind of a hot prolonged roleplay... does that make sense, idk)

we're in Victorian London, some robots are stealing peoples bodies and it's not about anything really

also we had a baffling line from Vastra espousing her fighting the bad guys as "for the British Empire"???? what does she care about that???

(also Clara says they should call the police more often, which is kind of a joke, but also no you shouldn't)

FULL RATING: 53/100 (if I can count….)

the worst thing about this episode is actually that its story does not justify the runtime. it is so long and it is so average

Peter Capaldi is a wonderful wonderful actor. Michelle Gomez is immediately great: "He can be very mean sometimes. Except to me of course, because he loves me so much. I do like his new accent though. Think I might keep it" <- this could have been so eye-rollery, but she makes it work and makes me shiver and knowing this is The Master is sooo 👀👀👀

the story is so-so. Clara is still moooostly under-utilised/underappreciated but with some good moments that will (if I remember correctly) continue to thread through their relationship of Clara not being quite sure about this person, who is clearly a bit on-edge and confused: "The man I hope you are with, believe me he is more scared than anything you can imagine right now. And he needs you"

Clara's place in this story is still constantly buffeted by the wind. the things that do come up "person he knows the best (I guess, comparatively)," and "someone who fancies the Doctor" is kind of the weakest part of that, when actually what's going on is more interesting

[mk-wizard]

Top 10 Media that deserve a reboot

Now, this list might be controversial to some, but hear me out. As an artist and storyteller, I don't believe in bad ideas. Just badly executed ideas. I am going to list 10 media that I do believe had potential, still have potential and had great plot ideas as well as characters behind them, but could have been better. In fact, I believe they deserve another chance because the medias themselves were not bad. They were just done bad, but as the remake of Resident 2, 3 and 4 have shown us, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Note that there are also spoilers ahead and I will not include the Acolyte on this list because it still ongoing and I will not list a media that isn't finished yet. That isn't fair.

1- The Mummy (2017) - This adaptation of the Mummy had potential as it was frightening, it had a good plot and the idea of it being the doorway to a bigger universe was good buildup. Also, this take on the Mummy was the stuff of nightmares in all the right ways. I mean, even visually, she was frightening especially with those trademark eyes. I loved that. However, I find they did too much, too fast with hinting at a bigger universe and should have focused solely on the Mummy. With that said, if you just fix that and clean up the other mistakes, it could succeed where the first try failed. Maybe even succeed at finally opening up the door to that bigger monster universe we never got to see.

2- The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy - I have not given up on Star Wars nor shall I because it still giving us new stuff that is that is good or at the very least, has good potential such as the Clone Wars, Rebels, Andor and The Bad Batch. In fact, even the sequel trilogy itself had potential, but it's biggest mistake in my opinion was that it chose the wrong character to be the hero. It should have Finn not Rey. In fact, I think Rey should have gone down the path of the Sith with Kylo Ren being a red herring big bad. It's second biggest mistake is was the choppy storytelling. The three films did not feel cohesive and the lack of respect for legacy characters was not very nice. I would not have killed off Han, split up Han and Leia, and so on. It needs a reboot with some tweaking.

3- Spider-Man 3 (the Raimi films) - This one makes me sad because it was not bad, but the forced inclusion of Venom really did leave a mark on it (no pun intended). Even Sam Raimi knew that including him in the film was a bad idea, but his hand was forced. In all fairness, the characters acting out of character didn't help either especially when Peter kissed another girl for publicity. Peter Parker would never do that especially when intending to marry Mary Jane. If this film was rebooted the way Raimi really wanted it to be, it would not only be great, but give this series the jumpstart to continue onto the plans he had for his Spider-Man film series.

4- Marvel's Spider-Man (2017 cartoon) - I have another article that explores in detail everything wrong with this cartoon, so to keep it brief, it introduced many great fresh ideas that I loved such as turning Harry Osborne into a hero, making Doc Conners into a bad guy from the get-go, the first cartoon introduction of Miles Morales, great story arc ideas and more. However, I find that the story's downfall is that was too watered down and kid friendly. This cartoon should have been aimed at older teens, Peter Parker should have been the focus and the ONLY Spider with crossovers being put to a minimum, taking its time with the storytelling, less humor, more grit and seriousness, making Doc Ock into an adult, and eliminating that gifted school altogether. Spider-Man needs his own cartoon more than ever, but one where he is shown as a hero not a clown.

5- The Walking Dead TV Series - I have great memories about this show and I was cool with it not following the comic. In some ways, that was its strength, but after season 3, the show lost its way. It stopped being emotion driven, the human element was gone and character development as well as relationship development was gone. Not to mention, the seasonal rot (pardon the pun) began to show. I think this show's greatest downfall was that it went on for too long and should have stopped while it was ahead. With that said, it deserves a reboot where it can retold and remain polished and well written from beginning to end.

6- The Incredibles 2 - I love the Incredibles in general. However, the sequel... it's a mixed bag. I like that the story was continuing, I liked Screen Slaver and I liked that the world was being explored further, but I did not like that it was just a sub-par retelling of the first film while featuring Elastigirl instead of Mr. Incredible. Don't get me wrong, I love Elastigirl/Helen Parr, but I think the way the Incredibles should have continued (as mentioned in another article I wrote once) was as a TV series where the characters age and develop. I mean, who wouldn't love a family sitcom-superhero TV series? Continuing the story is a must, but with new plots and having the story actually progress.

7- Every Pirates of the Caribbean film after the first - Like the Incredibles, the first film was perfect and having the story continue was a genius idea, but it should have continued as a TV series. I love Davey Jones and Jack having his own adventures, but I did not like how the character unlikable especially Jack Sparrow. I admit he is a pirate at the of the day, but he was one with a good heart. By the end of the series, he was a horrible person and I didn't like that. In many ways, I wasn't even sure if I liked any of the characters with how they became in the end. Moreover, Barbossa should have remained dead. Period. That doesn't mean this franchise doesn't deserve a reboot. It does and the characters should have developed in a way that makes them likeable. Maybe even have Jack grow up a little. There are so many things you can do with pirates.

8- Every Robocop media that came after the first film - Hear me out please with this one. I find that all of the sequel media of Robocop had great idea and concepts that could have worked, and still would work. Even the remake had some good points. The problem is, all of them could have been better. Even the video game was a lot of fun, but from a storytelling point of view, it too had the same problem all of the other media did. The plot was not progressing and Robocop/Alex Murphy would keep regressing as a character back into acting like a robot. Robocop needs a reboot sequel where the story actually goes on and all the progress he made as a man in the first film gets carried over to the next chapter. A good example are the comics, but even them too... they fall into the trap of the story being stuck. I want to see a sequel where the world of Robocop actually moves on and where things happen beyond Robocop just saving the day. Most importantly, I would reboot the sequel media as an episodic TV series. Not a film. Alex Murphy's journey is too complex and long to be told in just one or two movies.

9- Batman Beyond - I can't say there was much wrong with this series. I think it was pretty flawless and Terry McGinnis did indeed come into his own as the next Batman. My only complaint about it is how it ended. Terry McGinnis does not need to be the convoluted genetically modified son of Bruce Wayne. It defeats the whole purpose of him being his own Batman and own man in general. I think Terry should remain unrelated to Bruce and for their bond to just spiritually be foster father and foster son. It was just fine like that. If I also had to find another thing wrong with this series is that... it ended too suddenly and too soon. I would love to see Terry don the Batman identity again. He was cool and I miss him. Plus, there is still so many things that remained unresolved.

10 - Spider-Man: One More Day - It is quite obvious what went wrong with this storyline. It not only retconned Peter and MJ's marriage and family, it retconned their adulthood and character development. After that, the story of Spider-Man in the comics has just never been the same. While presenting a story where Aunt May was dying and Peter was faced with the choice of saving her at the cost of erasing his new life or keeping his new life while accepting Aunt May passing on was a good idea... having Peter choose to save Aunt May and give up his new life he worked so hard to build was a mistake. Rather than retconning this comic, I think rebooting it with a much better message would fix everything for Spider-Man and the Spider-Man community in general. Just when Spider-Man is about to make the deal with Mephisto, Aunt May herself catches wind of what Peter is going to do and, like in the video games, stops him from making the selfish decision of only saving her. She explains to Peter while getting ill is not ideal, she is old to begin with and even then, got to experience many wonderful things and got to see him grow up and get married. Plus, erasing his life with MJ wouldn't just negatively impact his life, but also MJ's and the lives all those he touched around him. Aunt May would convince Peter that her life alone is not more important the many lives that would get changed without consent. She has accepted that her time has come and that both Peter and MJ must accept it too with grace and not let any devil tempt them to do otherwise. In the end, Peter and MJ turn down Mephisto's deal which does result in a fight which Spider-Man wins with help. It also ends with Aunt May succumbing to her illness and dying, but her soul is at peace and as much as everyone is heartbroken by her passing, Peter and MJ see all the friends surrounding them in their time of mourning and accept that allowing this to happen was the right thing to do. Aunt May was important to them, but so is everyone else who is still here with them, everything they made together and everything that is going to happen after. It also ends with MJ discovering that she is pregnant which drives the point home all the more.

And that's my list. What do you think?

[shmowder]

Twyrin is a bop, it's like the Alone in the Town from Silent Hill 2 of Patho 2. When those sad clown noises kicked in in Haruspex Is All Alone... I really like that one.

My favorites from P2 are Useless Science (Victor + Yulia's houses), Deep Dreaming (Maria + Saburov's (I think?) houses), Childhood Grave (Nutshell), Doctor's Dead, and Mourning of the Gone (I have no idea when these two play), along with most of the Theodor Bastard tracks.

Love love love the contrast between yandere Yulia, Victor, and Aglaya. Your characterization feels right for all of them; they're so distinct from each other but I love em all <3

The meta elements of the game are something I haven't given much thought to and I hope they're explored more in P1! Like I know technically the game is a play - Aglaya, Mark, Tragedians will address you the player, everyone's an actor, but I know there's SO much more to it that I just kinda gloss over.

Finished P2 today!! It was great. I had stacks of leftover eggs. Big Vlad said I have the heart of a dove. I found Clara less annoying this time, hooray. The conversations you have with the kids on Day 10 😭💔 I remember the last few days being emotional but wow. Both of the main endings make me sad, as I'm sure they're supposed to. That being said, Diurnal 4ever. Now, onto the Marble Nest.

Did you know there are lizards carved in to the stair railings of the Broken Heart? It's cute because Peter Stamatin's animal is a monitor lizard :)

I'm not really in the Pathologic fandom either lmao. Just someone who likes x readers who also liked playing P2 and found your blog at the best possible time and now I may have a hyperfixation and I'm genuinely excited to play P1, wonky graphics and all :) I understand where you're coming from with not wanting to get canon, fanon, and your own opinions muddled up ^^

-

Competent reader who already is an established, independent person in the world! Ooh I can see why you're fixated on the sword one... I like the idea of a healer who works with the Dogheads. I'm fond of the cannon one, too. Generally reader who nebulously exists to be loved by [character] is my lifeblood, you know, just a projection of the idealized self or whatever. But when the reader really feels like a fully formed person - well, it might limit the projection possibilities but it allows you to better explore *why* the character is interested in them to begin with. <- Not meant to be negative btw, I'm just getting tired and forgetting how to craft sentences 😅

What you said about noticing your anons' style and reading between the lines to determine what they might like is so genuinely sweet I am just 🥹🥹 I'm so glad you think it's fun! Somehow you managed to read my mind with Mea Columba despite me not even telling you it was my request until you were done already but truly it was like that fic was beaming directly into my soul or something <33

Don't worry, I don't feel pressured ^^ Thank you, though, and same to you of course! I don't want you to feel pressured, either. I can see this becoming an endless circle of not wanting each other to feel pressured 😂

🐿️ anon

Oh useless science is absolutely amazing! I like pathologic's tendency to subtly poke fun at its own characters in the soundtrack or environment design. It's both cruel and so delicious.

I'm happy you enjoyed the Yandere HC! I tried to give each of them their distinct vibes. Yes they are characters who have a lot in common and call be grouped under the umbrella term of "seemingly cold and smart" but they are still so different.

Each of them holds contrasting principles, value different traits and views life and other people through contradicting lenses.

Aglaya searches for the meaning of life in every nook and cranny, takes all possible answers into consideration no matter how small.

Victor is part of something bigger than himself, bigger than humanity even and thinks the meaning of life should be shaped and scouplted.

While Yulia views it as more of a string of fate situations, life is simply a long series of coincidents. Reality branching with every decision you make and this thing called free-will is simply your mind coping with living in a reality out of your own control.

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I'm lucky to have had someone like you stumble into my blog <3 You really do make the game more fun for me and I got to explore so many different sides and scenarios because of you. I enjoy these talks and hearing about your thoughts.

Woo congrats on finishing P2! Eggs are really the miracle of life aren't they? forget the polyhedron, it is the eggs which solved the famine! And omfg big vlad comment is kinda 👀 that man is really a romantic at heart isn't he.

And yes I do hope you'll enjoy P1! Once the wonky graphics become the new norm, you'll get as attached to them as P2 characters- God P1 Aspity makes me want to steal her out of the game and keep her safe in my pocket for eternity.

-

I didn't actually know about the lizards but once you mentioned it, I started seeing them everywhere! This is the bar stairs railing picture you attached:

But you also can notice a lizard in Andrey's concept art too! on the fan he's carrying around.

Andrey's symbolic animal is the shark so the lizard here is definitely meant just for Peter. You don't even find the lizard in Peter's own concept art, showing his loss of identity maybe? Or how Andrey's keeping his memory alive.

It is a little sad, how much more important Peter is to Andrey than the other way around. One will always care for the other more.

A lizard and a shark, how uniquely beautiful.

Talking about siblings, Capella has the butterfly while Vlad the younger has the bear. Maria has the cobra while Khan has the hedgehog.

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Yeah, the more specific a reader gets, the less inclusive they become. However, sometimes that makes them even more popular amongst reader in a surprising turn.

Maybe because it builds a story better? Like they are still a blank state in some areas but giving them one gimmick makes them stand out and pull in people who wanted to see that gimmick explored.

Think of how much of an interesting dynamic a Doctor Reader would be with Daniil or an army general reader with Aglaya.

A kin reader with the Rubin or a bartender with Andrey. What if we just throw Daniil out the window and make the bachelor role a reader insert then have it be Reader x Victor or Reader x Artemy?

The detailed ideas I previously described started as simple concepts too, one gimmick, one trait and a blank state reader. Then I filled in the blanks the more I thought about it because it was fantasy for the sake of fantasy at the time.

If I ever turn them into legit readers I'd clean them up and remove some parts. Simplify their concepts as much as possible so there is room for other people to add in their own detials.

The dogheads reader started bc I wanted a character that carries a cool sword around and thought "hey khan likes sword maybe he will let them into the polyhedron" Then it spiraled into a noble knight reader who tries to remain chivalrous but prefers the past to the future unlike the utopians.

The herbbride x reader was because I wanted to smooch a herb bride pls let pls :"(((

A plague doctor reader who is actually equipped to deal with plagues and has the cool bird mask and everything rather than having Daniil improvise.

Detective reader is a favourite, they're more of a noir Detective and a drunk loser? Think Harry from Disco elysium but a younger version who is still more put together and eager to solve crime.

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I'm happy you liked Mea Columba <33 I enjoyed writing it and exploring that side of Victor.

[acewitch-writes]

i dont think remus can be solely blamed for not believing in sirius blindly tho. that doesnt mean that sirius cant be angry, but like, the entirety of the wizarding world was convinced sirius did it both because there were witnesses that heard peter scream how sirius was to blame for james and lily's death, then saw him sirius "kill him", and sirius was driven mad with grief and practically confessing when they arrested him. that doesnt mean it wouldnt be interesting to explore that while recognizing remus' flaws (there's a lot of fics doing that), but like. it's not so black and white. was remus supposed to suspect peter, his other bff and the new martyr? and given that sirius also suspected him, so we can probably infer there was even more going on that we dont know about. idk i think it's more interesting when both characters are both right and wrong at the same time (while holding both accountable AND giving them their rightful moments of anger, ofc, i hate one-sided shit lmao)

I agree! I will defend Remus to my dying breath. There's definitely a LOT more nuance than "Remus should have trusted Sirius."

Remus never had malicious intentions with anything he ever did. When he distanced himself from the Marauders during the war, he had orders from Dumbledore to stay quiet about his secret missions. And I know we all hate Dumbles around here, but Remus respected and revered him and was terrified of disappointing him. So obviously he went along with it.

So now Sirius is starting to suspect him because Remus can never explain his whereabouts. They're fresh out of school, living in a world that hates werewolves and Remus is already struggling enough that James has to support him financially. There's so much story to explore during this short period of time, themes of prejudice and class divisions and discrimination. It makes sense that Sirius would consider the possibility that Remus could be lead astray when the "bad guys" were promising to make life better for werewolves while Remus was fighting for the "good" side that made no such promises.

So no, we can't place all the blame on Remus. He was a kid, too, thrown into a war immediately after school. He knew that he was the only werewolf on the Order's side, and the weight of that must have been overwhelming for REMUS, the coward with a predisposition for running away from his problems (a trait of his that Sirius was probably well aware of, further cementing his belief that Remus could be the traitor).

Remus believing that Sirius could have betrayed James is one thing I really struggle to get my mind around. I like to imagine that some part of him doubted his guilt, but as a werewolf living alone in a society that hates werewolves, recently bereaved of every person he had ever loved, I don't think there was anything Remus could have done even if he was in the right state of mind to do it. Especially not when Dumbledore, the man Remus looked up to the most and the one he would be most likely to address these doubts with, also seemed convinced of Sirius' guilt.

The way the fandom tries to blame one or the other (these days, usually Sirius) for what happened to James and Lily is frustrating. They are both very flawed characters, and they both have things they need to answer for.

I hope this is coherent. I feel like I just rambled in circles.

[dilfdoctordoom]

The prompt you got about justice for Peter perfectly illustrates exactly what's wrong with vol 3. The movie focuses on abuse victims getting healing, closure and set on a new path they deserve except Gamora who it blissfully ignores is one of the biggest victims of all.

She's not given multiple scenes to explore how she feels about a family she was robbed of. She's not given any scenes about what it was like to be 9 years in the future, find out her abuser murdered her and that she would have to build a new life while lots of other people know her as a guardian never got to be. Her own struggles are absent in vol 3 and that echoes through the fandom/audience.

You mentioned some people think this is feminist because she doesn't end up with Peter and that's really sad. Being single doesn't equal automatic feminist win and if people's feminism isn't intersectional or taking context into consideration they're doing it wrong. Gamora being loved, supported and fought for by Peter and the rest of the guardians in the other movies was not anti feminism. Especially with her being played by a woc. It's more obvious when you see people absolutely adoring how all of vol 3 is about Rocket getting loved, supported and saved by everyone.

Being sidelined, kept away from regaining her superhero team, having no arc of her own and miniscule representation on merch is also not feminism. More women, more poc, more diverse heroes, more women included on merch etc are all things fandoms have said they want and vol 3 said bye bye bye to a lot of that with Gamora. It's as if more people are happy she's not with Peter due to troubling concepts of what makes a strong female character than angry she was murdered. That's the exact opposite of feminism.

I'm sorry if this reads as ranty. I don't mean for it to. It's just getting harder to be at peace with this being the end of the road for Gamora. I don't think she was a perfect character but I do believe she was one of the best they had in the mcu before her murder. I am still trying to grasp what it means that they wanted to murder the first woc lead character we had so her abuser could advance and what it means that nothing about vol 3 portrayed this as something heinous we should all be upset about it.

This does read as ranty and this is the perfect place for that as I am consistently ranting about how Gamora was ultimately treated.

Gamora's very presence ruins everything Vol 3 aims for. The message of escaping your abuser and living your own life, becoming your whole self, falls hilariously flat when she's included. You cannot try to have that message alongside fridging a woman to make her abuser more sympathetic.

Add in how this movie even brought up Thanos's abuse-- it's treated as a punchline for the most part. The only time it isn't a joke (like with the eye scene between Nebula, Gamora & Peter) is when Nebula says "it's worse than what Thanos did to me" after finding out what happened to Rocket. That line drives me crazy; abuse isn't something that can be measured, as a basic thing, and if Gunn really wanted to try that... tell me which one of these characters is 70% cybernetics.

Gamora's such a non-entity in this film. Of course she gets to be mad at Quill-- but she doesn't get to speak to the others Guardians, doesn't get her new relationship with Nebula fleshed out, gets a single throwaway line about her alternative self having escaped Thanos. Does she know the details of how she died? Does she know she sacrificed everything for Nebula? Does she know she begged Peter to kill her?

We have no answers. Fuck, it's barely acknowledged that she knows Thanos murdered her.

I get that Gamora is green, but people really don't seem to get that she's played by Zoe Saldana, a woman of color, and how that does impact things. WOC get held up to very different standards and while there is obviously overlap in harmful tropes, it's insane to pretend that there aren't different ones applied to women of color. Acting like Gamora being robbed of a love interest that brought her true joy is feminist isn't a girlboss move; it's fulfilling a trope that women of color don't "need" a love interest.

What happened to Gamora was just sickening and so was the fandom response. There are a million think pieces on why what happened to Natasha was wrong; there isn't even a quarter of that for Gamora, when hers was, objectively, worse. I despise what happened to Natasha but god, at least it wasn't done to uplift her abuser.

I think it's also very telling how these characters have been treated post-mortem; Natasha received a solo movie & was memorialized in Hawkeye. Gamora... gets everything that mattered to her stripped away like it's nothing, her most important relationship (with Nebula) goes stagnant, and her horrific murder is brought up as a silly little joke.

Yeah, Gamora's treatment is rooted in a lot of sexism, but also a lot of racism and it's that second bit that has heavily impacted how the fandom reacted.

There's a lot of overlap between misogyny and racism in regard to the Guardians women, specifically, Gamora and Mantis, and there's also this strange refusal to see it addressed.

Seeing the interview Zoe Saldana gave recently really made it worse, IMO. She spoke about how even she wanted Gamora to return to the Guardians, but that wasn't the story Gunn wanted to tell... so now, just like us, she's left hoping that maybe in the future, Gamora gets to have her family back.

The Gamora aspect honestly killed the Guardians trilogy for me. I think it breaks the established pattern of the past 2 movies in a bad way, is nonsensical a finale to that story, and is overly reliant on downplaying the suffering of women to glorify a fucking raccoon.

[caatws]

I can't speak for the merchandising but when it comes to gotg rides Mission Breakout is set just after vol 2 so there would be no need to change anything about it because of vol 3. Not that I think they would change the ride anyway. The newer ride is Cosmic Rewind and it's supposed to be taking place during or around vol 1. Gamora is of course included. This ride came out last year and I don't know when or how it was decided but I have been wondering if the whole rewind to vol 1 theme was picked so Gamora could be included.

I have mostly loved Gunn's work when it comes to gotg. I think he's typically thoughtful and nuanced when dealing with the abuse and trauma plots. However I don't think he had the ability to deal with Thanos killing Gamora. Gamora needed way more attention and her death should have been one of the most serious issues gotg ever had. I don't know what the perfect solution would have been but part of me wishes they would have given Gamora a solo movie or show handled by someone more willing to do the work needed to give Gamora's murder closure and Gamora an arc that was about finding a way to give back to her rather than take away. The mcu wanting to deal with hard and complicated issues is great. Being unprepared to see them through to the end or research what those situations are really like, isn't so great and honestly can send out a bad message. Vol 3 treats everything Thanos did with nonchalance. Gunn also uses the time and space since Endgame mostly in a negative way for Gamora. Vol 3 has Rocket and Nebula as much better friends and the entire basis for this is Endgame. At the same time it only lightly touches on Gamora and Nebula's relationship even though Endgame showed that was the most important thing for both of them and the entire catalyst for Gamora having confidence that her arrival to the future might be okay and they could win against Thanos. He ignores that 5 years working and being friends with other people could pose an issue for Rocket and Nebula when the guardians came back from the snap. Especially Nebula who hadn't been on the team before. It's like none of that time mattered at all. Then with Gamora he treats her time after Endgame as if it's created a permanent wall where she can't connect with these characters or be part of the guardians. And now here we are with Gamora being excluded and her value as a character being questioned which is the exact opposite of what you should want for a film about abuse survivors.

you're so right on all fronts here! i think gunn is extremely talented and everything else has been generally handled well and beautifully; for me personally it mostly only starts to all unravel when i consider the gamora situation, but looking past that, i think most of the characters got pretty solid arcs/moments/etc across the 3 films, especially considering the chaotic context of trying to fit into the greater mcu.

i'm glad rocket got the attention and care he did in this film, esp knowing how much it meant to gunn, but like i mentioned yesterday, i think it would've made more sense to put this particular story between vol 2 and iw, since the effects of iw/eg are hardly even explored in the film beyond peter grieving, the ravager gamora storyline, nebula's presence, and just other random details.

and i'm not just making up reasons to sound like a hater here lol like i've LITERALLY been saying since 2021 when mcu content resumed post-covid that, in general, one of my biggest gripes with post-eg mcu is the lack of rly going into the effects of 1) the 5-year time skip, and 2) the snap itself on most of the characters/stories, and unfortunately vol 3 ended up falling into the majority of films/shows that didn't rly deal with it much.

and my issue isn't necessarily gunn not wanting to deal with all that on top of the rocket story he wanted to do, but just like...we didn't have to make it a post-eg story then lol

in my ideal world we'd get like a vol 4 that is post-eg where it's just the gotg grieving gamora and searching for the new one, or perhaps even rectifying the whole original issue by bringing original gamora back or merging her with 2014!gamora etc. but either way, i think gamora's circumstances in her life and death warranted her getting a story just as much centered around her and driven by how much the other characters love her just as much as rocket did.

but yeah like you said anon, i just don't think gunn - or markus, mcfeely, or the russos bros for that matter - were equipped to handle this kind of storyline. and that isn't a bad thing! that isn't even a criticism of their work. it's just a literal fact that not all storytellers are equipped to handle every kind of story. and i don't think it should be A Big Deal to simply say that a white male storyteller may not be the best choice to tell the story of the consequences of a woc abuse survivor getting murdered by her abuser like lol. (bc when white male storytellers did tell that story, it was to show how the abuser actually Loved her and how there are parts of thanos we can still sympathize with UWU)

this is not even a radical opinion. this is quite literally the whole point of movements like #ownvoices and giving bipoc/queer/etc creatives jobs in directing and/or writing films/shows that center their identities.

like it literally is not that deep to suggest that local middle-aged white man james gunn (who's already made it clear that rocket was His Guy from the beginning, so we already know which character he'd prefer to focus on) was maybe not The Best Choice to write a story abt a woc surviving and escaping her abuser only to end up murdered by him in the end. he had his chance to show he was equipped to tell that story and he didn't, the end, case closed. it's as simple as that, and i don't wanna hear any dissenting opinions from white ppl, honestly!

[gamora-borealis]

I think with vol 1 Gamora we see her have a slow transition from beginning to end of the film and she softens over time. She had a plan in place to leave Thanos and was ready to risk distancing herself from him. She goes from quick to anger and having almost no trust and fear of vulnerability to letting her guard down a little. We can see her nodding her head to Peter's music and offering him a gentle smile by the end. In vol 2 she's grown some more and is closer to the others and more open, but she still has rough spots and doesn't trust new people easily or read every emotional situation. Then of course by the end there's more growth and deeper relationships to the others. We get to see a solid arc of emotional and mental healing. We're allowed to understand the good and bad parts of her and to connect with her story. In Endgame 2014Gamora is just like vol 1 Gamora. We see how hard she can be but also that she cares and has a good heart. In vol 3 Gamora is very much like vol 1 Gamora only a bit rougher because she's a ravager now. But also she's basically vol 1 Gamora who didn't get to ease into changes. She was thrown into the future, found out she had been killed, was dealing with both 2018 and 2014 Nebula and had to then jump head first into a potentially universe ending battle against her abuser. If that had been me I would have had a nervous breakdown. There's so much that was going on and vol 3 never allows that to be explored. Her entire significant experiences in the future all happened between Endgame and vol 3 where people couldn't emotionally connect to it. The guardians aren't given space to sympathize with her and the audience is left with undefined backstory and no real plot for Gamora in the film.

Lots of people have been deliberating on 2014Gamora and I think the most simplistic answer is they never should have killed 2018Gamora. Especially with only one film left. The contrast between her death in Infinity War and how James Gunn has handled characters deaths with far more agency and dignity stands out a lot. But in vol 3 it's so much more in your face how Gamora was treated compared to the other characters. In Infinity War she dealt with Thanos mostly on her own, was emotionally abused and then just as she's telling her abuser what he's done to her isn't love the movie allows her experience to be silenced when Thanos throws her off the cliff and actually receives the soul stone. Afterwards we are never given a chance in any other movie or show with the guardians to see them all angry or sad about what happened. In vol 3 we see every member of the team openly distraught over Rocket's situation. When he faces his abusive past he's not alone. When he stands up to his abuser his feelings aren't shutdown and he gets to win.

I think vol 3 had a number of nice character moments for Gamora and I was particularly happy she got to stab the villain. There are many aspects to the writing and characterization that are great. But it's hard not to notice Gamora's treatment compared to all the other characters has been pretty awful since IW. I saw lots of people excusing what Thanos did to Gamora after Infinity War or saying she wasn't really abused because Thanos got the soul stone. I now see some of those same people talking about how Rocket's abuser was actually a bad person and what he did was unforgivable. That alone tells me Infinity War should never have happened. Nobody should have been left feeling Gamora deserved what happened or that it was justified. James Gunn has said he signed off on and was okay with how Infinity War went down and I try to respect that but I don't understand him signing off on the message Infinity War sent about Gamora's abuse compared to the message he put out about Rocket's abuser. I don't get allowing a prominent character who was on her way to easily having one of the strongest arcs in the mcu, ending the trilogy the least developed character with the least amount of relationships to a story that she helped shape.

Yes Yes Yes! Great write up anon.

I think there could have been more Gamora stuff in Vol. 3, but it clearly was meant to be a Rocket-centric movie and there was so much going on considering they had to fit in Adam as well, so more stuff with her would have taken away from all that from a writing perspective. Not that that's fair to her character at all, but story/time-wise and knowing that Rocket is Gunn's favorite and this was meant to be his movie (whereas the last one was a little more Gamora and Nebula heavy), it makes a lot of sense.

We also have to remember: the timing of the James Gunn drama may have affected this too. The first time we see the Guardians again being in Thor 4 where it's just supposed to be kinda goofy and short was not ideal. This movie is 3 years late, and there were some changes made to the script (not huge, but probably some side-plot Gamora and Adam related stuff because the movie was further up the timeline now).

One thing I liked in Vol. 3 is they kind of have a moment where they take a jab at the "magic cliff" and how it doesn't make sense. I also struggle with Gunn's decision to sign off on her death. He seems to care about these characters a lot, even if Gamora isn't maybe his favorite like Rocket. It makes me wonder how much say he actually had in all of it, and how much it was just reassuring the fans (I'm skeptical of statements like this having become a Supernatural fan since 2020 lmao). From a writing standpoint, I can see how "Gamora having a big emotional death and Peter fucking everything up" sounds appealing, especially since they were desperately trying to figure out how to incorporate the soul stone and give the movie emotional depth. The soul stone was originally supposed to be tied to Black Panther/Wakanda, but their director wanted the movie and T'Challa's powers to be rooted in Wakanda/Africa (the flowers) and not some weird space thing (which makes sense!). So they probably came up with the Vormir idea and approached Gunn with not a lot of options. If Gunn had been the sole writer of IW/Endgame, I'm sure that even if he still chose to kill Gamora, that the stuff after Gamora's death would have been handled a lot better (as we see with Rocket and his abuser in this film). It's clear that Gamora couldn't have been brought back though because that would have meant Natasha also would have needed to come back, and the Avengers people clearly wanted her to stay dead (and that's a whole other problem ugh). Gunn probably was given story points he had to work with in IW/Endgame and write dialogue for, which I feel like he did a decent job of (Gamora spoke her mind as much as the story allowed and tried to sacrifice herself).

A lot of people have pointed out that sexism probably has some to do with how Gamora has been treated too (like if she was a male lead would it have played out like this). And you know, I don't think James Gunn is purposely trying to be sexist, but the dude is flawed (and admits it) and his writing used to be more problematic than it is now. It's maybe still a blindspot for him.

I'm also potentially processing this all differently because I purposely spoiled myself on some Gamora details last weekend before going into the movie (yesterday) to prepare myself (because if not I can get wayyy too invested and it hurts a lot). So I've had some time to think about all of this at a meta-level before I saw the film. I think I'm generally happy with how it turned out considering what happened happened in IW and can't be changed now. I kind of liked that Gamora had all this growth in Vol. 2, idk what path she would have taken in Vol 3. Everyone had to go discover themselves at the end. Would Starmora have broken up then? Adding the new challenge of making it a different Gamora was kind of more compelling in some ways, although I absolutely hate that that meant she had to die to get there (maybe if it was the same Gamora with no memories that would have been interesting).

I'm also very used to filling in all the gaps of what isn't on screen because that's just how my fanfic brain works, and I feel like Gunn writes such strong characters that it's easy to imagine stuff offscreen (and maybe that's what he wants us to do). So like, just because some of the Gamora / Guardians mourning her stuff happened offscreen doesn't mean it didn't happen. Gunn would probably agree with that. It still sucks that we didn't get to see it though.

[batrachised]

What are your favorite non-LM Montgomery stories/fandoms (if you feel like sharing)?

This question sent me wandering down a memory lane! It's actually rare for me to participate in fandoms online, although I'll gobble up funny tumblr posts and fics if a particular story latches onto my brain--star wars is really the only other one I'm active, even if that is primarily just writing fic. I think the only other fandoms I've ever gotten really into are Star Wars and Merlin. Between those two, Merlin definitely is the favorite although Star Wars is probably my favorite story. Sorry to the Star Wars fandom, but there's this weird sense of entitlement I've observed (that's present in any fandom to a degree tbf) about how everyone should interpret the characters op's way or they're basic, and that x opinion is not only bad, it's also immoral. Given how big the fandom is and how there usually isn't one dominant opinion but rather factions, the resulting (and usually hypocritical) squabbling disinterests me. I don't want to feel like I have to have a 'star wars political party' to engage with other blogs haha ("oh i'm dni about this ship but pro jedi" etc etc), especially as I'm the sort of person who will explore different interpretations for fun. That's partly why I have loved my LMM peeps so much, because even where there's disagreement, it's usually civil and more importantly, fun :D

anyhow, now that I've gone completely off track haha and told you about my NONfavorite fandoms, I'll sheepishly actually answer your question. I really loved Merlin when I watched it, because I love me some non-gritty fantasy with a sense of humor and a "chosen one" storyline. I have spent many a glorious hour reading fic where Merlin reveals his magic (ah! the catharsis!) and will probably spend many more. In a similar ilk, I've always had a soft spot for Spider-Man in my heart, specifically the older and crankier teacher Peter Parker version from the comics because he's the Ideal. Both of these are further back on the memory lane (more of high school batrachised than Charlotte lucas period of my life batrachised), but they are still near and dear in my heart.

Now in terms of my favorite stories, for THIS question I had to pull out that bad boy, the bulleted list!! (😱) I generally prefer children's fiction to YA nowadays because I like stories that have something to say, and while there are certainly YA books that fill that gap (I'm about to list several! and btw i'd definitely include THG in that), the expectations for children's novels are such that there is usually a "moral," while a good chunk of YA seems to be more "hot people kissing" and a lot of adult fiction is just dreary to me. I don't really participate in the fandoms for any of these below because first of all, they don't exist lmao, but also I didn't feel the need to change or add anything to the story.

Ella Enchanted. I love Gail Carson Levine's fairytales, and Ella is a refreshing and unique idea. When I say I love fantasy stories, what I really mean is that I love Ella Enchanted. I love how Char and her are friends first, and the scene at the end where she [censored for spoilers] and so gets her happily ever after still influences my writing today.

A Monster Calls. Weeping, on the floor, every time I read it it destroys me. I love its gentleness towards grief, and I love its brutal honesty. I also love its recognition of the power of a story. Sometimes I see (and say myself!) "It's just a story," but stories are powerful and should be treated as such. They aren't worth more than people, but they can teach you much people are worth.

Strange the Dreamer. This novel was gorgeously well-written, and its main character is an absent minded librarian who goes on an adventure--how could anyone resist! I remember recommending it to someone and they stayed up very late to finish it haha, they couldn't put it down. It's too wonderful.

Frog and Toad. Yes, they're picture books, And what about it !!? These picture books are cozy and well-written and have more to say than many a long novel I've read. Plus my blog name and brand require inclusion of a toad related bullet.

The Power and the Glory: I just wrote a post about this one, but anything by Graham Greene always makes me stare at the wall afterwards questioning my life. Funnily enough, this is dreary like the other adult fiction I dismissed, but although it's a hopeless situation with hopeless characters, Graham Greene's writing is strong enough this to have become one of my favorite books. Normally after I read fiction like that, I just feel depressed. This book, while dreary, was thought provoking.

A Canticle for Leibowitz. A post apocalyptic novel...that's not about fighting zombies or a book version of an action movie, but about monks. I know that's a complete reduction of the plot, but the idea of a post-nuclear world from the perspective of monks was such a unique idea, it grabbed my brain and didn't let go.

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking. I love all of Ursula Vernon's work for her sense of humor. They're always very well written and I nod along to myself at different points thinking "correct," as the narrator discusses how true love is spending time debating your favorite type of cheese, or how baking so wonderful because you put in all that effort and have chocolate chip cookies at the end to show for it.

Holes. This book not only ties every plot thread together satisfactorily, it does it with a bow, it's that well done. This was my favorite book as a child and has stood the test of time because it's still one of my favorite books as an adult.

Up a Road Slowly. Of all the books on this list, this is the most LMM similar. It definitely is sexist, I'll warn, but the characterization can be incredible. The uncle stays with me as a remarkably complex but well written character.

Heart's Blood. The best Beauty and the Beast version, full stop, thank u very much !! In general Juliet Marillier is one of my favorite fantasy authors.

Calvin and Hobbes. there's really nothing to say here other than it's perfect haha.

A Deadly Education. A take on the magical school--that's dark and intriguing. What if Hogwarts was trying to kill you? i never got into harry potter myself because I read the books when I was slightly too old for them, so this was one of the first "magical school" books I read that captivated my imagination.

James Herriot. I love the old tv show (haven't seen the new one), but i love the books more. Siegfried and Tristan are hilarious, and James Herriot is similar to LMM in that he takes a simple and ordinary setting and bestows it with magic through his writing.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith novelization. "Puh-lease," you might be thinking, a movie novelization? Listen to me. Listen. I went through a period in my life where I'd casually read movie novelizations for the fun extra scraps of details. Normally, I'd idly flip my way through and be like eh that was okay, it's a novelization so whatever. I picked this up, and was left being like like what the actual fuck did I just read. This novel is incredible. It's so good that it changed my tepid feelings on the movie and prequels to "ROTS is now one of my favorite stories." I finished that book thinking "where was this movie??" I don't know what Matthew Stover was on when he wrote this, but it singlehandedly redeemed the prequels for me.

Other non book ones: i love the LOTR movies (and books but I don't reread them often), the narnia movies, Stand by Me, the secret life of walter mitty, the prince of egypt, greta gerwig's little women (sobbing. on the floor.). and v for vendetta. I also love New Girl because Nick Miller. In general, same with books, my favorite movies tend to demonstrate a distinct moral imagination and grit rather than just focusing on the journey of a character's emotional health. (ergo, I find prince of egypt much more interesting than turning red, although turning red was a good movie!)

There's also Dear Enemy from Jean Webster (aka the author of daddy long legs) bc her work is also similar to LMM, buuuut it literally and explicitly supports eugenics (a character will occasionally and casually say "we need to let those irish die for the good of society") sooo if you choose to read, know that that's in there depending on your comfort level with gross historical period conventions. (the goodreads reviews are kind of funny because people are like well I liked the story but, um,)

thank you for this ask and your patience with my meandering response!! it was a lot of fun to think of "hmm, what have I stayed up to 3AM reading fanfic for in the past," and you're tempting me to revisit some of these stories :D

[mouseratz]

also im fine with reed being a piece of shit as long as he's niceys to sue has a touch of wifeguy. can someone be autistic and evil and NOT a misogynist. please ......I'm a big believer in "characters being messy and freakish adds something but sexism don't". and uhm. yeah. early ff already has plenty of that. also bonus points if sue herself is kinda fucked up; she can still be generally kind & still the Heart of the group (ff despite the title works well with Five Man Band (trope)), but she deserves to get weirder if she wants. you know.

also I DID see a post saying the thing is butch. Ben and Alicia SHOULD be lesbians. that actually is perfect to me this will require more exploration on my part......

Johnny's good. asshole little brother. perf. I do think he's gay though in text he's not really interested in women aside from the appearance of having a girlfriend and he talks about both peter and spiderman a LOT even when neither appear in any given issue. don't sexualize him I think he should at least start as just an obnoxious kid who yes originally just tagged along on the flight/accident because sue was there (Although the loss of their mother & the estranged father makes them make a lot of sense as tight-knit siblings, they may genuinely be afraid to be without the other too long because of that background.)