#i think it would be fun for character development and for hijinks

[dreamsy990]

kh2 au where everythings exactly the same except roxas is hanging around sora chara style. hes not particularly a vengeful spirit but hes not very nice either. also nobody but sora can see him. hijinks ensue.

[midwinterhunt]

hello! do you have a favourite book? and if you do, a favourite scene?

So my LONGEST running favorite book is THIS GUY!!

(Sire note: my copy is held together with clear tape lol)(ALSO also, my copy has the alien on the front cover and human on the back, it would be cool to find the reverse like in the above example)

The book is a solid two inches this and it's paperback, and it's nearly 500 pages, so it's got some length

It fallows the main character, Daetrin (which is murder for my dyslexia because the a and e next to each other is the bane of my existence) in a post alien invasion world. The aliens, called the Tyr, have already taken control of earth. The war is lost. The point is moot.

Why i LOVE the story is that we fallow Daetrin who we at first assume is just Some Guy, as he's taken prisoner and shipped off into space. Of course he's anxious about his medication and everything which we are worried about, but oh god it is so much worse than we think at first!

See, Daetrin is one of a small part of Earth's population who is functionally immortal, can full on shapeshift, can only really digest blood without his meds, and is basically allergic to UV rays! And we get to see him escape, meet up with an immortal alien shapeshifter, and go on to actually fight against the Tyr for the first time in centuries.

my favorite highlights: (Spoilers, obviously)

The first time he tries to eat normal food without his meds and he gets so sick he turns into a wolf but he thinks it was a fever dream because he forgot he can shapeshift

Him gradually relearning how to be himself and not pretending to be human

The Tyr being a hivemind and every hundred(?) years they feel an irresistible tug to return home where they have a fight to the death for who gets to be the next hive mind host. This is also heavily dependent on a member who has developed a strong enough sense of individuality to actually overpower the influence of the hive mind.

Daetrin and his friend accidentally raise one of the aliens, name him Fred. Fred becomes the next hive mind host. We find out that the alien species is named after the host. The Tyr become the Fred.

(THIS IS MY FAVORITE SCENE IN THE BOOK) They almost get killed by a cult. The temple is honestly my dream house. It is described as seemingly built by a dozen different architects with no concern for what what previously existed. It was massive, windows opened to another wall with just a little gap, hallways led nowhere, doors were three feet off the ground, it sounded so fun!

Secondary character, a Marra, does not understand how physical matter works. Hijinks ensue. Marra are creatures of energy, who CAN'T die of natural causes OR be killed. They can choose to take on physical forms of objects or life-forms, and sometimes have to to interact with the world.

The secondary protagonist is Kiri, our resident Marra, who is on a mission to save her people. But that's not important right now. She crosses paths with Daetrin along the way, rescues him, actually, when he got caught outside during the day. They join paths as they can help each other.

Ultimately, Kiri chooses to join Daetrin after defeating the Tyr and running a few of her own errands. You see, the Marra only retain memories for a limited amount of time, and the people they used to be slip away into oblivion. So they like to choose a mortal companion, who they call Kreda, who can help them remember. Which is great, but mortals have such short life spans that it's hard to keep choosing and losing Kreda. but the human shapeshifters, they live forever so long as they aren't killed, and Daetrin has been so achingly lonely since the modern world began and he can't bring himself to love regular humans anymore. So these two became literally the most perfect match and help each other and live in whatever kinds of bodies they want forever.

Honestly this book had a major impact on how i approach writing because i saw that there is always a fun secret third option for any situation.

HOWEVER

if you were to ask which book has eaten my brain the most and which i am trying to get the most people to read

It's this bastard

This series follows Murderbot (that's its PRIVATE name, don't call it that. The last person to call it that got choked out) who is a human-bot construct Security Unit. Or SecUnit for short. The first paragraph is MB explaining how it COULD have gone on a mass murdering spree the second it broke the software that forced it to follow orders, but about three seconds before doing that it discovered it can pirate tv shows, books, and music so it has been watching soap operas on the clock for the past 33000 hours.

Yes, we all think it's extremely autistic.

Anyway, it had planned to just keep watching tv forever, but then it accidentally got emotionally attached to some humans, was bought from the company, ran away, made friends, lost friends, did occasional murder, acquired not-a-relationship and not-a-baby, and also made a corporation go bankrupt.

This series really is just The Author's Barely Disguised Hatred Of Capitalism, with an exploration of neurodivergency and trauma.

It's important to note, Murderbot is not autistic because it's a robot, it's just Weird. Other SecUnits are Not Like That.

My favorite scene is in Network Effect. MB is trying to help an old colony computer system that has been corrupted by alien remnants. It gets captured, has to rip a hand off to escape, to limps toward the source.

It finds the old computer, weakly pinging for help, and what appears to be a human corpse with thin tendrils and crystals growing out of it. Only the corpse is not dead, it gives off the most creepy zombie vibes and tries to get MB to be the new alien contaminate host. It's really hard to explain just how much fear Murderbot felt in that moment. Its systems were malfunctioning, it was infected, it was injured and trapped with a monster that was trying to do worse than kill it. And all this after spending days having one crisis after the next.

This video shows pretty good the TERROR of the situation.

But yeah, Murderbot has my favorite trope of This Thing Is Not Human But It Has To Learn How To Be A Person.

....actually

i think both books might fall under that trope

i have a type when it comes to stories and I have entire lists of stories with that trope if you wanna hear more

[renthony]

🏳️‍🌈

(Drop a 🏳️‍🌈 in my inbox and I’ll respond with a queer media recommendation!)

Disenchantment is probably the least-popular creation of Simpsons & Futurama creator Matt Groening, but I think that's a damn shame, because it kicks total ass. I think everyone was expecting "medieval Futurama," but it very quickly developed its own, narrative-driven vibe. This show has a long-term story. I'm re-watching it from the beginning with my husband right now, and there are hints at the endgame from the very first episode. It's awesome.

The basic premise is that Princess Tiabeanie of Dreamland (called Bean for short) is trying to escape being married off for an alliance between kingdoms. Alongside an elf and a demon, she runs off and gets up to drunken hijinks before stumbling into a huge mess of magical destiny, family pacts with Hell, and invasion from a distant steampunk kingdom.

Here's the trailer:

As for why I'm recommending it as a queer show:

So many people had an issue with the line "gender is a spectrum" being spoken by a genderfucky griffin laying an egg in season one that they wrote it off entirely. I personally thought it felt more like "the writers tried to do something trans-inclusive but missed the mark a little" than "intentionally making offensive jokes", but a lot of people refused to keep watching after that, so they didn't see the show's other queer characters.

Princess Bean is canonically queer. She has casual hookups with men throughout the series, and she eventually also enters a relationship with a woman. The characters Odval and Sorcerio are in a romantically-committed gay relationship throughout the whole show, and they have mixed-gender swinger orgies for fun. The series ends with an on-screen MLM marriage. The happily-ever-after shows two different canon queer pairings (one MLM, one WLW) happy and in love. It's great.

If you gave up on it/didn't bother with it because it seemed like it would be just another offensive crappy adult cartoon, please give it another shot. The story has all kinds of wild twists, there are multiple hot evil women, we get to see a shitty father actively learn how to do better by his kids, and the show is led by a gender-nonconforming, awkward, angry young queer woman who does drugs and drinks and makes bad decisions and has mommy issues that are literally from hell. I fucking love her.

Ask For a Rec | Other Media Recommendations | Support Links

[deadhands69]

hi jade!! i haven’t popped by in ages omg how are you?!

alsoo #4 for the writing ask game!

Hi Sydney!! I'm doing great, how have you been? How's life??

4: pick an alternate setting you would want to put either the main cast of your work or [specific characters] in— zombie apocalypse, medieval fantasy, regency era, office hijinks, etc. describe what it would look like and/or write 100+ words in this universe.

This is such a fun question! I absolutely love dropping characters into specific scenarios and AUs.

Hmmm I think dropping the League of Villains onto a deserted island would be interesting.

Shigaraki is fine until his switch dies and he has to find some other form of entertainment. I could see him taking up some weird made up hobby like collecting a specific shape of rock or something. He'd deny that he's losing it until he's amassed a huge pile of perfectly round flat rocks, looks at it, then walks away and never mentions it again.

He seems like he'd know a lot about really random things too which would be useful. Everyone is tying to find water and he just randomly knows how to build a distiller or something.

Dabi would do better than most people would initially think, he's an outdoor kid and I will die on that hill. After spending his childhood in the mountains to train then much of his life living outside, he'd build a great shelter. His quirk would be great for this situation as well.

He'd struggle with the sand on his wounds and running out of staples though.

Toga would get bored fast, there's no one to have a crush on. It's just the league and ewwww (her words.) She would bounce between all of the introverts, making them socialize for a little bit.

She'd probably find a way to make some really cool clothes out of random plants parts too.

You can't tell me Compress doesn't have a whole ass house or something on one of those marbles. I'm sure he could live on whatever is in his pockets for a while. He also seems like he'd get bored or bother the introverts too much.

He'd definitely put on a theater show for everyone with some of Twice's doubles.

Twice's quirk could be really useful! Only if he remembers how to make useful things though. I'm sure he could at least make blankets, tarps, pots/pans, etc. Unfortunately, I could see him going the most crazy being stuck on an island. He'd make a double of himself for company and get really paranoid.

Magne feels like she wouldn't get stuck in this situation. Idk why, she just seems too rational to put herself in a scenario where this could happen.

If she does, she ends up building a nice little shack, covers her needs quickly, then spends the time leisurely sitting outside of her beach house and watching everything.

Spinner would be so anxious at first but he'd pull it together and end up taking on all of the gardening or something. It starts with the small task of collecting seeds because that feels important and ends in a 10 acre farm with well a developed irrigation system.

His quirk would be nice for getting food out of tall trees as well.

Thanks again for asking! Question/prompt from this list: writing questions

[khywren]

For your get to know your fic writer questions!! ❤️❤️❤️🫶🏼 (Again, sorry for so many!)

13, 14, 18, 32, 33, 54, 56, 58, 65, & 77!

don't apologize, my friend! i'm always more than happy to answer these! ❤️❤️❤️ (questions are from this post.) 13: what’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

so the thing about this one… i don't actually know if i follow any "common" writing tips (or any at all, really); i just kinda do what feels natural to me and hope it all works out. i am absolutely not gonna tell anyone to do that because it's a recipe for chaos, but! i can give you tips that have become habits for me instead. so one thing that has helped me immensely when writing either a chapter or a one-shot is that i almost always start with the dialogue. it gives me a good structure for where everything is going and almost always serves as my outline. like, i have a general idea in mind for what i want to accomplish, but getting the dialogue down is kind of like coalescing some of those ideas into something tangible. so my entire WIP at that point will just be lines of dialogue in sequential order. then i write everything else around the dialogue. i know that's kind of a cracked way to do it and won't work for everyone, but i think the general takeaway is that you shouldn't be afraid to start a piece literally anywhere; you don't have to start with the opening sentence and end with the last sentence.

14: how do you write emotional scenes? do you ever feel what the characters feel? do you draw from personal experiences?

if i'm writing a scene that's similar to anything i've experienced in my personal life, i always draw from personal experiences as i feel like that makes the emotion more authentic. i do try to feel what the characters are feeling regardless of that; if i can get a sense for that, it makes finding the words to describe those emotions accurately. when i write those scenes i like to think about what each character is feeling, why they would be feeling like that, and what it is about their personality/backstory that would make them feel that way.

18: do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

titles are the bane of my existence. i hate them. i almost always title my fics after i'm done writing. many times i'll look to song lyrics because i find them helpful, but they can also convey the tone/general gist of the fic better than i can most of the time. i wish i was better at this, but alas. 😭

32: name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

ONLY three? 😭 i can and will gush about every single one of my moots all day long, so to make this easier on myself i'll pick three people based on my favorite thing(s) about their writing, kinda like separating them into genres or categories i guess? each of these people are incredible and amazing and i am very fortunate to have met them. go show them some love if you haven't read their work!

if you're looking for comedy, banter, and hijinks, look no further than @nerdallwritey. her series beauty and the bard is currently five parts long and has something for everyone! there's fluff, there's smut, and there's so much fun! her fics never fail to put a smile on my face and seeing a new fic in my inbox is like christmas morning to me. i adore the way she writes astarion, but everyone else always feels so genuine and perfectly in character as well. i've reread all her works several times and i cannot recommend them highly enough!

one of my favorite tavs belongs to @verbenaa; her longfic to eden is easily one of my favorites and one of the major sources of inspiration that got me to finish developing and writing for my own tav. if you're looking for incredible smut and a sassy, loveable tav, here you go! her prose are fantastic and the relationship she has between rin and astarion is such a treat to read. they play off one another so well! the last chapter really put me through the ringer in the best way and i cant' wait to see what else she has in store for us. she's also written some other one-shots and every single one of those i've read has been stunning!

one of my favorite all-rounder authors is @shewhowas39. her longfic juniper and starlight is a wonderful version of the game featuring her tav, June (who is an absolute delight and i love her very much). if you're looking for a wonderfully written durge fic you can really sink your teeth into, you've found it! there is always so much love and care and emotion in everything she writes, and it makes her work a true joy to read.

33: do you want to be published some day?

i think it would be fun! it's never something I've ever thought about actually doing, but i think having an actual book out there in the wild that i wrote would be really cool. who knows, maybe i'll have an idea for something some day.

54: what’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

hmm… this is tricky. for me, i really enjoy just getting an idea i'm excited about on the page and being able to share it with other people. i always feel accomplished when i finish a piece because it's very satisfying to create something from nothing; even if no one reads it, it's still exercising my creativity and engaging in a hobby i enjoy.

56: what’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

i'm not sure what parts of my writing are better than others, since i can only perceive it from my personal, limited perspective. however, as someone who came straight from academia and had never written fic until my first one-shot last august, trying to find my voice and seeing myself make genuine progress with that over the past year has been very rewarding! there are a few of my pieces that i really don't think hold up very well anymore, but knowing that i've improved since then is a good feeling. i always want to get better and hope i can keep doing that in the future!

58: what part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc.)

definitely the brainstorming. i love daydreaming and thinking about all the possible ideas i could have for chapters or one-shots. i love thinking about stupid little jokes i could add in, or emotional scenes that make me kick my feet like a teenage girl or do 50 psychic damage straight to my brain. plus, there's far less stress involved in that process, since i don't have to actually commit anything to paper at that point.

65: tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project.

i'm looking forward to getting over my current writer's block and finishing my kinktober prompts still! i'm very happy with 7/8 of the ones i've published so far, and even if the other 4 i was working on don't currently meet my standards, i'm confident i can come back and fix them up once i relax a bit and stop putting so much pressure on myself. i was having a ton of fun putting them together and i'm glad i participated this year.

77: do you have a favorite scene you’ve written from [Fanfic Name] story/chapter?

since you didn't specify a fic, i'll just write about something from my longfic, adrift~ i'm quite partial to the lake scene i wrote for chapter 6, when ysera finally gives in and opens herself up to astarion. on the one hand, it's a sweet moment of vulnerability for her, but also tragic in the sense that it's the moment she started to fall for astarion who is at this point very much still fully intent on using her for his own means. there's just a lot going on there for both of them and i enjoyed torturing myself while putting it al together.

[poloswoolish]

I'd like to talk about some, and I do mean some, things in Nuck Spenders' Spider-Man. So I'll do that thing I just said.

You can really tell that Spencer was trying his HARDEST to get this character back on track. However, during the end of this run, it started to fall apart. Turns out trying to fix over a decade of stories and characters is quite a difficult task. And, y'know, Marvel Editorial are the way that they are so that's unfortunate. But I'm not here to talk about, like, everything this run had because I just want to mention 2 things I really loved about it and dear god I don't want to talk about Kindred.

Thing 1: Confronting Yourself FNF

Peter and Spider-Man are basically two different people so why not make it as literal as possible? What wacky, silly, hijinks would ensue? A great analysis on Peter and Spider-Man. Spider-Man, without Peter's Peter-ness, isn't Spider-Man. He may have all the power, the jokes, the suit, but he's only a jackass. Not a hero, which is, like, his entire thing Spider-Man needs to be Spide-Man. Gorsh, it's almost like he's missing something. Pedro Parkmen has this, honestly, really... Martyr thing to him. Now, typically, that word has a religious thing to it, like, a believer in God choosing to suffer through shit all for their belief, but ignore that. Basically a fancy way of saying Self Destructiveness™️. He feels the overwhelming need to be selfless and responsible. He goes through so much shit but he won't give up anyway. All because of his Uncle's death. God, just let it go man. This is a problem, like, genuinely he shouldn't beat himself up this much over the selfishness he had when he was a kid. But that's why we love him!!! But without the cool spider shit he can't live with himself. He has this responsibility but not the power. Spider-Man can't be Spider-Man without Peter Parker and vice versa and I think Spencer doing this is so great.

Thing 2: Talk Tuah

The Podcast with Jonahaon is such a great, just, fucking, I dunno thing?? Over the years, Jonah has been developing as a character. Most relevant to this post here is that he learned that Peter is Spider-Man and even becane friends with him. So, here we are, a podcast between these two, yay!! I'm sure they'll have fun. During this, we really see how much Jameson has changed. Instead of just yelling at Spider-Man and accusing him of the opposite of what he was actually doing, or whatever, he's giving him genuine, concerate criticism. Woah! Peter cares a lot about what other people think of him. Very unrelatable. This is why he's all pissy when Jameson was saying meanie things about him. Spider-Man can be kinda an asshole and I think it's interesting seeing this be addressed. So many adaptations just REFUSE to show Peter being an asshole at all, unless he's wearing the black suit which is stupid because the entire fucking point about the black suit saga was how Peter's pain infected the symbiote but THAT'S AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SUBJECT FOR ANOTHER TIME PROBABLY???? Peter being a dick sometimes is pretty cool since it's kinda, sorta important. Like it makes him more interesting, y'know? Peter just being a good guy who never gets angry is boring because that's fucking bullshit. I guess it can make him more likable but, like, fuck you. He goes through hell and back all the time and he NEVER gets a bit mean or rude or anything? Anyway, I think this is a pretty cool little thing Spencer did since it makes Jameson much more developed and Peter is called out for doing actually wrong things.

[teh-kittykat]

Tron: The Animated Series (1986-1989)

What do you mean you haven't seen Tron: The Animated Series? It was my favorite cartoon when I was a kid!

So this all started as an exercise in how to explain why Sam inexplicably had merch for a 2010 movie in his 1989 house. In-universe there would have probably been toys using the 1982 aesthetic since that was what the video game used (and Sam DOES have an 82 Tron figure in his house!) but why the Grid stuff?

Enter THE CARTOON.

It was the 1980s everybody who was everybody made cartoons to sell toys. Encom made home gaming consoles by this point, and they would have had peripherals like Nintendo did. They had licensed characters like Nintendo did. You see where I am going.

Encom wants to sell Encom Gaming Power Gauntlets. Kevin wants to introduce kids to the ideas about the Digital Frontier since he's a futurist and knows kids will be mentally flexible enough to digest the new zeitgeist if it's fun and animated!

Production of the cartoon ran from Kevin's official retirement as CEO until his disappearance. Three official seasons with a fourth in production. Season three's airing was cut short due to the furor surrounding Kevin's going missing, but the "lost" final episodes of S3 were restored when the DVDs were eventually released for an anniversary collection.

The cartoon was also successful in syndication through the 1990s and early 2000s since it successfully anticipated the Educational/Informative movement-- Tron: The Animated Series actually does teach kids some of the basics of computer science around the silly adventure stuff. Think Captain Planet meets Captain N the Game Master for the overall tone of the series. It's not realistic, but you get the general concepts and issues.

The cartoon's popularity among millennials keeps Tron alive in pop culture to the present day. The IP remains a perennial revenue stream for Encom, and every so often they'll throw the fanbase something to keep the money going. (This is an ordeal to the program himself, since he has to deal with hackers sent by groups named after him on the reg.)

What's it about?

Young video game enthusiast Jethro "Jet" Keene lands himself the after school internship of a lifetime getting to work at Encom in a special new program for teenagers with attitude run by Kevin Flynn (voiced by himself).

However, it's not all fun and video game testing with the sweet new Encom Power Gauntlet. Thanks to some cartoon physics hijinks, Jet finds himself transported into the Grid, the Boss's new experimental computer system!

Jet gets to work with Clu (they hired a voice-alike for him) and Tron (ditto) to find a way back home to the real world, solving problems and learning how to code along the way... and that was the pilot episode.

Because this is a cartoon for children, Jet is naturally the regular User of the Grid instead of Flynn, though Flynn makes occasional appearances to dispense Yoda-like wisdom and is revered by all the programs inside the system as the Creator.

There are also no lasers or anything like that-- Jet does a silly toku-like thing with the power gauntlet to commute into the system.

Clu is more likable than in real life. He's mostly benevolent, trying to make a more perfect system but the show's writers actually picked up on the idea that making a perfect system is kind of an impossible lift and made it central to his character development. He's a little obsessed with copying the User world, and there's an arc in S3 where a lot of the conflict revolves around why can't programs be programs about it.

Tron's not a mayhem goblin, which is a crime. He's portrayed as a little bit Optimus Prime, since Jet's the primary mayhem source, and Fighting for the Users is otherwise his defining personality trait. He gets a surprisingly deep fate/free will arc in S2, since naturally several episodes revolve around attempts to reprogram him since he's the Champion and all. Afterward, he's a bit more chill.

Jet's storyline parallel's Kevin's real-life one a little bit-- a lot of the episodes focused on him as a character revolve around him trying to balance his double life.The cartoon also does not mention the time dilation jetlag. Jet, unlike Kevin, does learn how to ask for help, especially as S3 decides to diversify a little more and adds a girl intern, Paige.

S3 in general has a lot of emphasis on diversity and tolerance of others and their differences. The ISO-Basic tensions were running high in the real Grid. It was on Kevin's mind a lot. He was also starting to make thinks on introducing the ISOs to the rest of the world at the time.

Like Reboot in the 1990s, Tron has a lot of episodes devoted to video games and playing games on the Game Grid is a frequent trope. (Hardcore Tron partisans accuse Reboot of stealing this.) Unlike in Reboot, there's no derezzing the losers if the User wins. Games are sometimes the entire plot and sometimes an obstacle or diversion from solving an episode's actual problem.

Since the Grid is open in Tron, there is a recurring cast of villains in the form of viruses and hackers from other systems in addition to technical problems that have to be solved through coding and computer science know-how.

The fourth season didn't get much past a few animatics for the S4 pilot, but what was there got a release for the fancy anniversary collections as special features. Design docs indicate that some new characters were about to be introduced-- Jalen and Radia. Kevin Flynn disappeared while voice actors were being cast for these roles.

NGL I am extremely mad this wasn't a real cartoon.

[wingingatol5223]

Ooooh whats your opinion on Sunstreaker?

Ooo thank you for asking :00

Unfortunately he's not in a lot of things, so I really only have opinions about g1 and idw. I absolutely love g1 sunstreaker. He and tracks are The Guys With Funny Voices That I Like For Nebulous Reasons tm. There isn't much to them but they're silly and have fun designs :)). I think the biggest fumble regarding sunstreaker is that he should've been in more episodes and interacted with more of the cast lol. I'd love to have seen he and Sideswipe get into hijinks (probably caused by Sideswipe lol). As for idw Sunstreaker itsss hrrmmmm. I feel like there's a lot of ideas there that could've been executed better. He should've had more of a identity before what happened to him imo. Like, iirc, they kinda just drop him into the story, traumatized him, and then dropped him like that one Toystory meme w Andy after the d-void mess. I especially didn't like how, despite being the victim in all of this, Sunstreaker isn't really focused on as a person. Like, they do sometimes, but the story feels much more focused on the human character (forgot his name lol), Hot Rod, and setting up Skorponok. They do bring him up later on which I found a bit interesting, but it really frustrated me that Sunstreaker was still pretty much delegated to "guy who suffers" after being rescued by Ironhide and repaired by Alpha Trion. And after everything that he goes through, he's still placed on the side line and minimized to just his suffering/trauma. **What annoys me more about this is that we see him after d-void, he's in the background crew of the lost light and we see him briefly in Hoist (?) Spotlight. More couldve EASILY been added to his character, and we could have actually watched him grow and process his trauma. But we don't, he's just in the background the whole time which is such a waste. Especially because Sunstreaker was involved with some pretty inportant plot points ever since he was captured on eath. You'd think the character who RATTED OUT THE AUTOBOTS would get focus or at least some attention in a comic that focuses on characters relationships with the autobot and decepticon causes (Drift, Megatron, Tailgate, Cyclonus, and Brainstorm). The only possible reasons I can think of Sunstreaker getting next to no attention/development whilst aboard the Lost Light is due to the large cast or not wanting to be too connected to idw's previous stories ("Oh, Sunstreaker was involved with the plot a lot, maybe people will be tired of him"). I think both reasons are bullshit tbh, Sunstreaker doesn't have to be a main character to get focused on, Trailbreaker wasn't lol. And the second reasoning is just lazy (which is why I'd like to think that wasn't the reason lol).** I think that idw Sunstreaker could've been so good, but he was just fumbled cause the authors treated him as a vessel for angst more than anything >.>. Granted, I could be misremembering a lot of this, I read idw in high school and it's been awhile since then lol. Ultimately he's a cool guy who needs to be in more things. I feel like modern tf media just cycles through the same 5 guys, which is a shame cause tf is KNOWN for having like a billion characters lol. Please,,,,use them hasbro,,,I beg,,,,

Sorry about being vague when talking about idw, I don't know who has and hasn't read it, don't wanna accidentally spoil lol.

Edit: fixed some grammar/spelling mistakes. Added in a whole ass rant about Sunstreaker in mtmte/ll (inside the *'s), I realized I had more thoughts on the topic after I posted lol

[cultivating-wildflowers]

You’re on the third book already?? Omg!! Do you mind if I ask your thoughts?

I just started it! My library has the audiobooks 😅 And ABSOLUTELY I will share my thoughts!

First, on the audiobooks themselves, I LOVE the narrator. She does a fantastic job with the dialogue and pacing. My only complaint is that she mispronounces Sidheag's name. She says "sid-hey" instead of "she-ah" (or "she-ak"??).

The books themselves are so so much fun. The cast is obviously the best part, and I love how every character, even the minor ones, stands out. I keep getting a couple of the teachers mixed up, but otherwise they're all very distinct characters who serve the story well. Sophronia's friend group is delightful. And Sophronia herself was a pleasant surprise. Based on her introduction, I was worried we'd get the usual fare of a girl going "Oh, but I don't want to go to finishing school and be made into a lady! I want to wear trousers and climb trees and read books and be independent!" and then sulk for the whole story. Sophronia took it as an intriguing challenge and leaned into the quirkiness, and doesn't complain about corsets and dresses all the time, which I loved. (As the overarching story progresses, she's turning more toward the very special, very cool young person poised to stun the world with her prowess, which I'm iffy about, but I still love her character.)

And I ADORE a good steampunk Victorian setting, and Carriger writes hers so well. Some reviews point out that this is a YA spin-off of an existing adult series, so she spends less time explaining the world of the story, but it doesn't feel like the world-building is lacking; for me it's a perfect balance of explaining some details and letting the reader extrapolate the rest. The characters have relatively historically appropriate sensibilities and tastes and approaches to life (insofar as they can when vampires and werewolves exist), which I really appreciate.

The writing itself? Splendid. There's fun and hijinks balanced by moments of gravity, like when Sophronia realizes this isn't all a game and her actions can have devastating consequences. The pacing flows so well without feeling rushed. I would have liked to see more of the classes, especially in the first story, but it makes sense why those were summarized in favor of developing character arcs.

The only thing that confuses me is character ages. Sophronia starts out at 14, and I assumed it was a young-ish 14, but then about a year later she's already 16 and I don't think there was any mention of her birthday. I do like her being a little older given the developing romance plot line, but I'm still a bit lost there. (Also, this is just personal taste, but it's weird to me that the werewolves are functionally immortal and [I think??] women don't turn into werewolves. Weird choices to me.)

Oh, and I'm not a fan of the grumbling about how restrictive corsets and skirts are but, again, that's mostly personal taste lol.

Anyway, it's all very fun and light-hearted and a good change from the volume of horror I read in October. I would love to hear more of your thoughts on them! But keep in mind that I'm only like four chapters into the third book.

[gerrydelano]

4 or 5 for the writing ask game?

4. pick an alternate setting you would want to put either the main cast of your work or [specific characters] in— zombie apocalypse, medieval fantasy, regency era, office hijinks, etc. describe what it would look like and/or write 100+ words in this universe.

honestly? i have to come clean. the first AU we made for this story was a hunger games AU, and it actually helped us develop a shitload of stuff for the main story LMAO. some TW for under the cut of mentions of sex trafficking and exploitation, finnick style etc.

ask game

firstly i have to celebrate that it gave us osa, a bear shifter who is ayla's mentor for the games and in the original story is another captive in the fighting ring who helps her stay sane. osa is a big fat butch and she's hot and married and so fucking excellent i love and aspire to be anything close to half as cool as she is someday and also yes i am aware that her name means bear in spanish. would you believe me if i said we picked it as a name and made her a bear before we knew that. LOL.

but yes THG AU okay so. i also have to be upfront, when me and ren make THG AUs we tend to focus on the post-games finnick side of things because that's just the part of the story that resonates with us both the most and it's important to us to explore those kinds of stories, also like... life after the games is the bulk of the story until a revolution takes place, and not every AU actually contains characters who can slip easily into katniss' position so sometimes they're just existing and exploring that is the meat of what we tend to do sometimes until a revolutionary figure naturally comes across. moonstained already features a character (pruitt) being sex trafficked while ayla is Some Other Kind Of Trafficked With Hints Of Sexual Exploitation Because What The Fuck Do You Think Happens To Women In That Kind Of Underground Fighting Ring Setting In General so like. it's not far off to place them in that kind of situation in another universe, it's more true to them than pretending it wouldn't happen.

pruitt is the first to enter the games. he's in D1, and a career like his mother, lavinia, was. (she was reaped properly and no one volunteered for her. LOL.) but she's famous for being a very charismatic and lethal killer, so he's favored to be a legacy win, and that gives him trouble in the games with the other contenders. she actually convinced him to volunteer for someone a little earlier than he was supposed to, age wise, and it's a really fucked up situation to put him in. however! once he's actually in the arena, he mostly hides and doesn't kill anyone until the very end, at which point he takes on the last three careers when they come for him. canon pruitt refuses to kill for lavinia's evil purposes, but he does have a body count of 3 until the end of book one because he snaps and kills people who have actually abused him personally, or are in the middle of posing a threat to casey. sometimes those people overlap! a la first gunman in the alley. eek!

but there's a big nasty strangle-stabbing fight with the last one and he just keeps stabbing after the cannon fires and it's replay-material on the broadcast which is un-fun. but he's pretty and mysterious and quiet when he gets back and it creates intrigue, which leads to interest from weird people, which his mother has no small hand in facilitating because it probably happened to her too and she thinks it's normal/fine/even beneficial, and she has no problem exploiting pruitt in general to get what she needs: security and wealth. so pruitt just kind of lives this life and is primarily alone in it until a bit after ayla and casey each get involved.

ayla and casey are from D7, ayla's mentor is osa (butch bear<3) and casey's is sal (a guy from his support group in the canon story, who is a tiger shifter! also a big fat burly guy who is so fucking chill and excellent but he definitely almost killed his father who MAY HAVE killed his mother when he was 16 so that's a man with some rage in him. love you sal.) ayla's arena is a Colosseum, while casey's was an abandoned city block/urban jungle sort of situation.

they're a bit of a spectacle, too, because they're twins and were in back-to-back games. ayla had been reaped first, as a boy, because she hasn't come out yet in her district and to her parents but now that she thinks she's pretty much guaranteed to die anyway, she wants to do it as herself. she comes out during the interview portion of things and it's Intriguing and Interesting and Fresh and Startling and all those annoying things the capitol ascribes to normal ppl's lives, but it actually gets her some fans and supporters because it's also brave and different and makes her stand out.

when she's being interviewed she says something to the effect of, "yeah, it's funny coming here with secrets. if i tell you, do you promise not to tell anyone? [glances at the audience as they laugh]" and her stylist gives her a light cape on one shoulder and it's made so she can swish it off and pin it around her waist into a skirt. not a cinna-level dramatic quick change but a bit of fun and very attention catching.

so they pretty her up and she gets to live this tiny piece of her life in a way she never thought she would have access to in a million years and then she cries herself to sleep because it's all a dream, it's all temporary, it's not going to last because her life is slated to end so soon, but surprise! she's a FIGHTER. to a degree she didn't know she had in her. i think we ended up saying she bites someone's throat out (call to her hyena shit in canon) and later when she gets facial feminization surgery, they sharpen her canines without her consent for The Look and osa is SO PISSED. but she tries to vibe with it because at least she's getting resources here and she's finally some strange version of the self she didn't even dare to dream of back home.

but alas. even before i made her trans, it would have been a struggle for her to NOT end up finnick'd, but being trans actually cements that as a distinct risk because of the fetishization and exoticism that people pin on the backs of trans women, and she did a little too good of a job making herself special. the thing is, though, she's also just emotionally different after the trauma of the games; she's sharper, snappier, harsher, quicker to lash out. if she said the wrong thing to someone while getting used to her new station in life, there could be consequences.

and so casey is reaped, due to some rigging.

he relies on snappy humor and hijinks to survive and it actually works. he has a few replayable moments, too! shenanigans with fire escapes and such. he doesn't expect to win any more than she did, but he's also riding a bit on the tailcoats of her victory in terms of sponsors and it's a big fucking mess in general.

he doesn't know how to engage in the capitol parties and crap but ayla ends up doing party drugs and shit, and pruitt is like... weirdly inseparable from his mother until he escapes to drink a shit ton of alcohol just to get away from her and eventually one day casey sees pruitt and ayla laughing uproariously by a table together and they don't even remember what was so funny but it's a significant moment because until NOW, pruitt had seemed like some random untouchable piece of shit career like all the rest of them, but he's also just. so solitary and has sparklies in his hair and casey is the only person to really notice that his mother always has a hand on him somewhere and it's really uncomfortable actually.

there's more development and plot stuff going on but there is a scene where casey witnesses some abuse from lavinia on a balcony and pruitt is mortified but casey makes it a point to try and be closer to him after that because clearly every victor here is fucked up in some way and it's not JUST ayla and her obvious suffering (even though she tries to roll with it still) it's not JUST him and having to watch her suffer (and eventually deal with his own bullshit because Spectacle) it's just a phenomenon that cannot be denied and it needs to stop.

and then we have philomena.

she's in D13 originally, and she has infiltrated the capitol in some way on instructions from diana, the coin figure, to get information for the revolution. part of the revolution here is her bringing to attention that the victors are not happy with the arrangements they're stuck in and many of them want out just as much as some of them like the false sense of security. she's scouting for people who would be willing to help and manages to get them in contact with the movement and if anyone is the actual driving force behind anything, it'd be her probably. her or ayla. though me and ren like to have people kind of share the burden of the revolution rather than force it all onto one figurehead, especially since their stories all differ so much from katniss' like there's just a bunch of finnicks and they're adults by the time anything happens for real and it's wild.

we have more little extraneous details than that but i THINK i'm done for now LOL

[pulim-v]

Hello! How are you?

For the character ask game, how about Barney or Norma? :)

Hi Heart! I'm doing well, how are you?

Going to respond for both lol

Barney

one aspect about them i love

Ok it's hard to say something that doesn't feel like a backhanded compliment (like "oh he's so cringe I love him" or "oh his fear of facing his problems is so well developed I really like it") so I'll go with:

His sense of style is unironically really good. Weird, maybe, but he's got some drip (the cardigan esp is a nice touch)

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

I genuinely don't know LMAO I haven't really seen much fandom drama abt dead end

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

Hmm, the show didn't allow this (for budget reasons I assume) but I think just like in the comics, he doesn't just use blue hair dye, he tends to change it up and use like a different color every week

one character i love seeing them interact with

Logs!!!!! Their dynamic, especially in s2, is really fun! I love how they balance each other out :]

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

Honestly? Badyah! She didn't get that much screen time, and as such her interactions are mostly limited to Norma and Logs, but I think her and Barney could have a really cool dynamic ^w^

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

I'm basing this off a fanfic I read once that I really like but I think he kinda struggles with finding a balance of foods he likes without being too unhealthy, and Logs really helps with that! Being the Health and Safety guy means he knows a lot about how to make sure what his boyfriend eats is healthy and still stuff he likes :]

Norma

one aspect about them i love

You're My Frankenstein!!!!!!!! Aka I love how her special interest was written, it's done in a very realistic way where it's not just Something She Really Likes but a real part of her character that sorta shapes her arc (especially as the series goes on)

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

Again, not immersed in the DEPP fandom enough to actually know what people think about her lmao

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

Hmm, I feel like Norma's music taste is a pretty interesting subject - it starts out as being Just Pauline Phoenix but eventually branches off, mainly into the types of music that some of her friends like but like generally just getting more and more diverse as she tries to not be into stuff Pauline made as much

one character i love seeing them interact with

Her dynamic with Barney is a very fun one, and as we see her get more and more interested in demons and magic, she develops this really cool bond with Pugsley and Courtney as well, so I really can't choose lmao

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

Man I WISH we actually got to see how her and Zagan's relationship developed, what was shown in the end of s2 seemed interesting as hell and they could have gone in a lot of really cool directions (I really should read Deadendia)

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

Tbh I think her and Logs could get up to hijinks together in a lot of fun ways - as I said with Barney he could most likely be a good cook that makes sure she likes her food (while maintaining nutritional value), but I also think he could help her buy clothes that were comfortable for her without just being The Same Clothes She Always Wears, yk?

Thanks for the ask! I'm not that good at coming up w headcanons, but I hope you enjoyed this ^w^

[garuye]

Hi hi hello!! I just wanted to say that I adore your art, specifically your mer!Jonathan art!! Is there a story behind all the au characters that you’ve drawn so far, or a plot you have in mind for the au beyond silly hijinks and shenanigans? /gen

Regardless, thank you for sharing this au with us here!!

Thank you!! :D

It was someone else's suggestion to begin with, and I rolled in the brainrot for a bit, and then rolled along more with what others continued suggesting. Now there've been so many neat takes (half of which are still in my inbox im sorry i don't know how much i'll get to) that I can't decide between this or that and have just taken to being goofy about it. I think the selling point of pirate era aus like this is in how believably you can execute the background lore, historically and otherwise, and I'm not very good at that, so there's a point where it gets hard to imagine the scenarios properly...

But yes if there were to be a linear story within the au, I'd love it very much, that would be the best version of it. The sexy period au with mature themes, deep feelings, and dark sea lore. A girl who is just a bit jaded and aloof who meets someone so completely out of her depth (literally) that she can't help developing a fascination, new and unexpected feelings, allowing herself the vulnerability of love, etc. I don't picture her being super edgy or anything, just maybe not being in touch with her feelings, or not used to having relationships she feels she can be vulnerable in. Like. I genuinely think the most important part of the au is Erina. It could be point-for-point Phantom Blood, mermaidified and liberties taken, but Erina being a pirate is the special spin that makes it unique and adds all the new spice to the dynamic.

Tl;dr, I don't trust myself to create the version of the au that I'd like the most so I'm just vibing and having fun (admittedly also why jonathan's only fishy feature is his tail, in this house we do in fact enjoy a mer design with more fishy features)

[ifuckingloveryoshu]

IM BACK IN THE GULAG AGAIN! HELLO. I've been grinding out my college courses and this is part of it. Ryoshu is my f/o and I set her as my fictional partner in this mandated child raising simulation for my child development class. I am well aware all of this is out of character but I don't care. I named the fictional partner Ryoshu to make this more fun for myself. If ya didn't last post, this is an adopted son named Yuzu because I'm not creative.

Under the cut is just the work. That is all. Sharing it helps me actually be productive for once.

I have found out the term for being very angst and mad after giving birth. It is called Postpartum Depression. My headcanon with Ryoshu is somehow, her partner is dead, I haven't thought why yet, but postpartum depression hits Ryoshu like a truck once Yuzuki is out. After a long period neglicted her smoking habits, she finds herself reaching her fingers to her lighter sort of stress. A few days after the birth, she set Yuzuki down on a table and physically distances herself away because she can't handle this thing in her life right now. She's irritated, annoyed by the shill cries coming from the infant's mouth. Her fingers twitch and her hands unconciously reach for a box of cigaretes collecting dust next to her. She walks out of the room and takes the longest drag she has in over 41 weeks (the time it takes for baby to develop in the womb)

And she never really stops smoking again after, again. But, it didn't become a problem again until the events of Hell Screen. Anyways.

Man, I forgot this woman is employed. Very nice of Limbus Company to give her six weeks. I can't imagine them being that generous any other time. There's probably a catch. I can't imagine Ryoshu using all those 6 weeks, I more expect Ryoshu to dip and leave two weeks in and not say anything. Not that I think she'd become an absenty father on pupose, but once she realizes or thinks this new child is in safe hands, she would never express it out loud but she's the breadwinner to make sure this child is going to make it out in the City ok. In those weeks, I bet she'd either whip me (or whoever partner she has) into shape so I don't mess baby Yuzu up, or she's taking me and the child into the bus weither anyone allows it or not. She refuses to compromise and I doubt after what happened to Virgilius, at the very least Virgilius would try to negotiate with The Company to drop us off at a safe location or somehow get a room in the Corridor. You know those rv children? It's no way to live but that is effictively what will happen to Yuzu. No sense of being grounded in one place and that will cause its own slew of problems, getting exposed to the concept of mortality early (Or maybe getting the misconception that everyone just revives after dieing, they just need a local clock to rewind them) or I don't know. Horray childhood trauma for Yuzu /j Man the cycle of violence will 100% repeat itself. Ryoshu barely interacts with the kid that is hers. I don't blame her.

I'm picking "I will quit work and stay home with the baby until Yuzu is old enough for daycare and will continue to work." but can you imagine hijinks with the Sinners and a child, and out of everyones child, Its Ryoshu's child? I am now imagining Outis yelling at the other sinners not to drop the baby. I can imagine the baby vomiting on Rodya's face. Gregor somehow makes the baby laugh as it plays with his little cockroach anntenna if he had any.

Its the adopted baby, Yuzu. For refrence, the right answer is "I will teach my baby self-soothing techniques and put them down in the crib before they are completly asleep." and that's the one im putting but realistically, it would be either adapting to the scedule or using the strict scedule I feel. I'm not sure but it would be difficult entrusting anyone else with the baby.

This is why I don't like babies.

I'm singing to the child. Props on the devs of this for adding the option "Leave Yuzu in their crib and walk away."

Right off the bat, Number Two is dangerous. Do not give your children to a neighbor you don't know well. Even if you feel you know them well, you probably don't its safest not to. Be careful about all of these. I'm going to leave out exactly why. YOU NEVER KNOW and its not your fault when people take advantage of Your Trust. Don't beat yourself up too hard, but ASAP if there's any signs of anything bad going on with anyone around them, you need to find out for the safety of your child. It's also rare your child will 'lie' about something bad happening with relatives. Its rocky and I say this but there is never a one size fits all thing and don't 100% trust your gut actually because doing that feeds into pre-existing biases you may have at that given moment. I can't tell you what do do but if your reading this, please do reseach and think critically.

It's either "slow to warm up" or "difficult" so I just put "slow to warm up". I think Difficult would be more realistic but im indecisive and id be here all day if I didn't chose anything. Also in all honesty I do not like my fictional baby and I want to punt the baby out the window but don't tell Ryoshu that she'd kill me. I swear ill warm up but im 20 im too young for a baby. Ryoshu's too traumatized for a baby, were stuck with this thing. ok? Agh. I am hissing at the fictional baby. I'm stressing too much about the fictional child I was forced to raise.

It's mostly heathly foods if we can help it, no problem. Im the poor sap getting healthy baby food or making it. Having a fictional baby makes me angry at the world. I hate babies.

I don't know the answer to this one. Baby gym classes for bonding and shit.

If anyone living in the City asked to put anything on my baby, I would drop kick them. No. In the real world though, yeah thats fine, I mostly trust you.

Reading and talking both is the way to go.

I need to save the rest of this for a reblog. Give me a bit.

[skaldish]

re: the last ask you responded to, I love the description of your relationship with Loki so much! It sounds exactly like what I'm seeking in relationships with deities. I would love to hear more about how you developed a connection that is so playful and fun, and what that looks like in day to day life (whatever you're comfy sharing of course). It just made my heart so happy, like I could feel both of you smiling as I read :)

Well, to be honest, I befriended Loki purely by accident.

Years ago, before life got hard and my creativity was sapped dry, I used to write tons of original fantasy stories. By extension of this, I also made tons of OCs.

One day in 2014, I decided I wanted to create a character who was the epitome of a magnificent bastard—an absolute conniving, rakish, and hilarious sonofabitch—and after months of trial and error I finally struck on an energy.

I was ecstatic to finally get the character down, but as time went on I noticed he seemed to do what characters normally don't do and act outside of my own whims and desires, like he was autonomous. He gave me no inspiration for his story, but tons inspiration for hijinks we'd get up to together (which I would then draw pictures about). He would also sometimes just...leave my head for days or weeks on end before returning. All of it actually weirded me out for a bit, but ultimately the joy of the relationship outweighed my fear of not really knowing what was going on.

But this ignorance couldn't last forever, and three years lafer my character revealed himself as Loki. To say this broke my brain is an understatement; it shattered my concept of reality, and rebuilding it was legitimately one of the hardest, scariest periods of my life.

So it wasn't all playful fun. There was an initiation involved. And the strife it caused nearly convinced me to kick Loki from my life for good.

These days I understand my cluelessness was actually what saved our relationship. There's no way I would have interacted with Loki on the basis of who he is, had I known he was a god. I would have interacted with his role as deity, rather than his personhood.

I guess the trick to fostering relationships like this one, is to interact with deities as people, first and foremost—people who have their own opinions, agency, values, and personalities that aren't beholden to archetypes or societal roles. Interact with them on the basis of who and how they are in relation to you, rather than as deities, archetypes, and/or allegorical devices.

Likewise, avoid slotting yourself in a role in relation to them. You are likewise a person, and not a societal role or archetype. Communicate your genuine thoughts and feelings. Be yourself, however you may be in that moment.

And then see what comes of it.

I did not (and do not) intentionally craft my relationship with Loki to be playful. Our relationship is playful because we play together, and we play together because we enjoy it.

I likewise did not intentionally craft my relationship with Eochu Bres (minor Irish deity, Brigid's husband) around discussions of philosophy and magic. We end up discussing these things because they're topics we're excited by and enjoy talking about together.

While I do have more cordial interactions with deities I don't know very well, even these are still rooted in being genuine. I don't hide how I feel (which is very often "shy and awkward") but this seems preferred over any performances, no matter how lavish.

So yeah. Be yourself, not who you think you need to be to please them.

[taweretsdagger]

45,31,7 :)

yayy thank youuuu <33 :)

7. What kind of common romance tropes do you enjoy and what kind do you dislike?

i don't read much romance so i'm not super sure what the common tropes are! are they similar to fanfic tropes? (i guess why wouldn't they be?? fanfic tropes had to come from somewhere right??) i did read a few emily henry books a year or two ago, so i'm trying to think back to those. there was definitely some fake dating in happy place, but it was a little different bc the couple was pretending to be dating after they'd broken up??? definitely not as fun as the jaunty hijinks type of fake dating i'm more used to. but i still remember liking it i think! book lovers was kinda enemies to lovers too, and i liked that just as much as i tend to in fic. in general there aren't many tropes i really dislike, i think most can be done well! on the flip side, they can definitely all be done really poorly haha.

31. Do you mostly read through e-reader; reading app on phone; on your laptop; a physical copy; or by audiobook?

i go back and forth between ebooks on my ipad (primarily through libby <333) and physical copies. i have several library cards and a sizable library of my own, so most of the time there's too many options to choose from :') my life feels like a constant fight against my TBR list. usually i read two books at a time, and i try to make one of those one that i own (or borrow from a friend) since i don't always finish library books before they get returned (as is currently happening with salem's lot lol)

45. What book(s) would you sell your soul to get a TV or movie adaptation of?

hmmmm this is tricky because if i'm going that far the adaptation had better be GOOD. maybe that's implied??? (idk i always take these questions so literally lmfao.) anyway, yeah. let's assume it's gonna be really really good. i have three answers i think: 1. priory of the orange tree, because i neeeeed to see all the dragon training stuff. and that whole part of the book's world (i don't remember any of the place names) seems super cool. i feel like their visuals in particular would be really colorful and vibrant?? also the sisterhood headquarters in the desert area (more names i don't remember lol), i pictured that kinda like the atreides' home on arakkis in dune. 2. pachinko. i love a multi-generational story and that one was so emotional?? i got really attached to all the characters which i remember being impressed by because there were a LOT of them. so a show made from that book in particular could potentially pull off lost-tier character development. 3. haunting of hill house, which i know already exists but i have not seen it. and i've heard it's good in its own right, but that it's not like the book. so i really want an adaptation that's like that book!!!!

book asks!

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

You know, seeing fans go on about the shorts with...

"This is why the assassinations would get boring!"

Or

"How can you stretch this episode out?"

....Except they are SHORTS...they aren't suppose to be full length episodes.

Obviously a full length episode would be more detailed and have something more going for it, if one actually puts thought into said episode.

Fans wanna say

"Oh the assassinations would get boring!"

But then completely ignore the fact that other shows, which follow a similar formula of going through the same beats within each episode and are fun to watch and entertaining.

Hello...Scooby Doo? Perhaps one of the most successful franchises out there and guess what they did?

Each episode had the gang go around solving mysteries, cooked up by someone haunting a place.

To say nothing that the Grimoire is basically a free "do whatever you want" card of plot magic, which they could have done interesting things with....but that got flushed down the toilet the moment Season 2 started.

But let's put a pin in that for a moment...right...fans also wanna say that...

"Well...the show is about Blitz and his relationships and we should explore Hell!"

...

Ok so tell me then....why is it for 2 Seasons now, the only guy that Blitz has truly interacted with for any length of time and development...is Stolas? Who he has NO RELATIONSHIP with?! The two know diddly squat about one another, even within just sex according to Full Moon they know diddly squat.

Instead of you know...the other actual main characters of this show(Moxxie, Millie and Loona) and the other side characters who he had actual relationships with(Verosika, Fizz and Barbie). You know, the characters that are actually meaningful to Blitz for his own character development?

Fans also wanna say

"Well not every relationship is perfect."

HI YES...you realize that Blitz' relationships with the aforementioned characters WASN'T PERFECT either right?!

Stolas became an irrelevant character with introducing Asmodean Crystals and the fact that I.M.P. was killing in Hell(which makes S1 also pointless). Blitz had zero reason to approach Stolas in Apology Tour, other than...because the writing forced him to do so. He never had to approach Stolas ever again....but he did so. I can only imagine what sort of plot contrivance were going to get later, in order for the two to be together.

But let's just sideline all those other characters...which you could build 2 whole full Seasons around, for a character who doesn't matter anymore.

It's funny how it said to be also "exploring Hell."

But what does that even really mean, when we don't really explore Hell? All were getting into as far as 'depth' is concerned, is Stolas and that whole drama involving him.

Yeah sure, we have seen some other Rings...but honestly? That's bare minimum, we aren't actually getting into the details here....we don't really see how other Hellborn live, the worldbuilding is just shallow on the whole.

Even the Goetia is pretty shallow, because it's all having to revolve around Stolas and how 'sad' he is....it's just not anything interesting.

Also they say "explore Hell."

Yet they have a business that operates OUTSIDE of Hell? Thus taking away any sort of further exploration of Hell, when the episodes take place on Earth. Yeah that's really logical.

But circling back a moment to the whole assassination thing....

I don't think anyone's saying that they should have just stuck to assassination hijinks. What I'm seeing though, is the focus should have stuck to that as well as exploring the relationships between the I.M.P. members....was not the pitch for Helluva Boss something like...

"Join these assassins as they take out hits as well as learn to survive in Hell and eachother."

^ I'm kinda phrasing it weird, as I'm sure that's not really the case, but I'm pretty sure it's something along the lines of that with the description for the show.

But what do we really have? 3 out of the 4 main characters are just sidelined, a side character has basically become a main character and even the only original main character out of the 4, is just getting shit on and doesn't need to be around the side main character anymore in a realistic sense, but writing is forcing it.

Anyway I'll pause here, as this got really long winded.

Nah, you are right you summed up everything wrong with this series. It got lost at the beginning of season two when it showed that they started focusing on Stolas. And from there lost the premise and as a result the quality as dropped.