#i think this is another case of people really trying to force real-world ideas into a very unrealistic show

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

I've gotta admit, the take that Ed and Stede are "running away" from their problems at the end of s2 absolutely baffles me.

The thesis statement of this show, as we know, is "a lot of the things we are taught about being a man are wrong." Harmful ideas of what it means to be a man are at the core of Ed and Stede's issues with themselves: Stede struggle to feel like as much of a man despite loving softer things, Ed's feeling forced into a hyper-masculine caricature of himself. These are the core problems at the heart of these characters, obviously there's more to it but when you boil it down that's what we're working with. This is why Stede's trying to live up the ideal pirate image in s2e7 is important; he's getting a taste of what he thought he wanted so he can choose to leave it behind for what's really important. Ed, too, is still struggling at the end of the season with figuring out who Ed is, once he can break free from the Blackbeard persona.

What would be solved by sailing away, planning to continue as pirates at the end of s2? How would that be addressing their problems or helping them live more authentically? Ed has wanted to leave piracy since we met him, and yes, Stede enjoys piracy, but the idea that piracy is the true and right end-state for him is a very basic reading of the text I think.

Ed and Stede making the decision to try building a life together in their new shack isn't running away from their problems - it's Stede prioritizing Ed over a life of piracy, because piracy isn't what he wanted in the first place. He wanted to be a part of something, he wanted to marry for love, he wanted to be appreciated for who he is. It's Ed finally realizing in the finale that he can use violence as a tool to protect the people he loves, but he's also allowed to step away from it. Will the inn idea work out? Maybe. Maybe not. Who cares? It's not the inn that's important, really, it's that they're both choosing to commit to each other and taking this step towards living more authentically.

We already know exactly what "running away from their problems" would look like, and it's the plan Ed proposed in s1e9. He wanted to run away to China so their old lives could be "gone, dead, never were." Ed just wanted to forget about his past, and Stede was riddled with guilt - wherever they go, there they are. The difference between that plan at the end of s1 and Ed and Stede's new plan at the end of the s2 is, first of all, they're both all in and they know it, and, secondly, they're both getting a lot better at meeting themselves where they're at.

[agender-witchery]

Canto IV was really good

Project Moon does a cool thing that I really like with their stories, which in theory isn't really anything special, but I see so few stories do this that it really does single Project Moon out in my mind.

Each Project Moon game is in a dialogue with itself, having a discussion about politics and philosophy and society in general. They universally present the status quo as Not Great which is... evident for anyone living in the real world, but importantly to me, they do not present any proper answers to this.

This isn't to say that Project Moon stories are fence sitting nonsense that call for the importance of meeting in the middle, that's your own decision on whether you think that's worthwhile. And Project Moon DOES express opinions in the world they have created, so they're not cowards in that sense either. It's pretty clear, at least to me, that they believe things in our world do have to change, that the vision of capitalism that exists in the City is horrendous, and that we in the real world are on a clear trajectory toward the world of the City if action is not taken.

However, the way they frame the two opposing sides of each argument they present is important. And key to that framing is that in every game you play antisocial, morally dubious murderers. This is a constant. The people you're fighting aren't the good guys, but hey, neither are you.

In Ruina, when it comes down to the final confrontation with the Reverberation Ensemble, you are presented with two opposing ideals. Carmen and the Ensemble would love nothing more than to see the world torn down in its entirety, built back up in their own imagining of an ideal society. The Librarians, on the other hand, are there to fight against that notion, that the world they have as it is can be changed.

And while I definitely fall on the side of "maybe there's hope to be had in this dying, hellish apocalypse" I do GET where the Ensemble is coming from. I GET what Carmen's trying to do. It's a naive and childish attempt at creating a better world from the ashes of the old, an idea whose inevitable result is tyranny, but to someone who's already experiencing tyranny, tyranny but this time you're on top seems appealing. And I also understand that, for the Librarians, even if the ultimate goal here is to create a better society without that sort of tyranny, well you're kind of murdering people to achieve that.

And I think all this plays into why I enjoyed Canto IV so much. First off, the main conflict in Canto IV isn't between Limbus Company and another group, it's the conflict between K Corp and the Technology Liberation Alliance, which can be further distilled down to the conflict between Dongrang and Dongbaek.

In the case of K Corp, they're a bunch of utilitarians, people who say that even torture is acceptable if it leads to lives saved. And they quite literally do this, torturing the Tearful Thing in literally every possible way, just to produce the tears needed for regeneration ampules, forcing it to cry for the sake of others. Dongbaek doesn't even fully refute that this might be useful, but she does assert that if you're going to go to these lengths, there better be a foreseeable end to it, you better be curing EVERYONE.

And then we have the TLA, a bunch of anprims who aren't exactly wrong in the assertion that the way technology is used within the City causes immeasurable harm, but do come to the wrong conclusion that ALL tech needs to be incinerated. And, for them to come against K Corp specifically is significant, because sure, K Corp literally tortures people to produce their ampules, but the results are tangible. Lives are, in fact, saved, even if we discount the K Corp Security that will cut their own limbs off just to get healed.

And where Canto IV manages to stop saying "both sides bad" is in bringing Limbus Company back into the equation. A third party, who doesn't adhere to the ideals of either side.

Does Limbus Company have perfect answers to resolve this conflict? No, you're still a bunch of murderers. But they do present a third perspective, that instead of looking only at total harm done and coming to the conclusion that torture is acceptable, and instead of looking at all the injustices caused and coming to the conclusion that the entire world needs to be reset, through exploring the fathoms of Yi Sang's EGO, we can come to consider the possibility of caring for the individual. That yes, this world is fucked up and living in it can itself be considered a crime against humanity, but that doesn't mean you can't help someone in a way that doesn't hurt someone else. Yi Sang went from being horribly depressed with nothing in this world, someone who desperately wanted to die and couldn't even be afforded that mercy, to someone who finally smiled. The world is still fucked up, and we don't really have a solution to that, but we at least made it a little bit brighter for one person, and in the future, we can keep doing that.

And also? Canto IV introduced Alfonso so really it's just the best chapter.

[cocained]

crime plots part 3: (part one | part two)

tw: drugs, guns, mention of murder, etc.

two people who are drug dealers, but together! they run a successful business and besides being colleagues, they are also highly in love with each another.

a group plot kinda based on baby driver where a bunch of criminals are brought together for robberies, or anything really, and splitting the money in the end. they all know each other because they worked together before or just met somewhere down the line and they all have different talents and connections (friendships, love, exes or rivals). the team usually changes depending on the job, but the boss think this particular team works well so it becomes a consistent. they work different together on cases, things go wrong and sometimes it goes really well. this can go many ways! hook-ups, break-ups, arguments, saving each other’s lives, almost getting caught, etc!

a world infamous hacker is known for their ways that are impossible to crack. their activities could vary from hacking notorious businesses to darker stuff like having their own cyber criminal organization or working with the most dangerous people in the world. either way no one knows who they truly are, until the hacker gets hacked and receives voice/video calls or even a package or a visit to their house! from there on things could go either way: working together, threatening to expose one another, wanting to learn from one another... bonus: after a while they fall in love but it’s long distance so what they do is they hack into each other’s phones and toy with each others lives bc they have no idea what privacy is and omg imagine the angst!

i’m a gangleader and you’re a rookie trying to prove themselves and i have a soft spot for you because you’re cute, so i help you out. i teach you things and bring you along to places just so i can have your back. and people in the gang start talking shit, but i get highly defensive and if anyone else tries to make a move on you i might lose it. plot twist: i get injured and you’re taking care of me.

we’re both part of a different crime family and to settle the decade old war we are forced to marry each other. but we spent our entire life hating each other because people that we cared got killed because of this war and for years i was under protection so i could never do what i wanted because of you. now muse a is a little bit scared of muse b bc they’re just normal and muse b is a lot more involved in the industry, killed people and god knows what. muse a also had to break up with their previous partner because of the arranged marriage. and let’s be real, this was never meant to last and at some point they’re starting to cheat on each other and that’s when the possessiveness begins and arguments turn into them slowly starting to care about each other.

i’m a stripper/prostitute working for you and honestly i don’t love doing this, but i need the money and it’s the only way to get close to you and i’m honestly breaking my own heart having to see you with other entertainers bc let’s be real, you barely know i exist

i work in the emergency room and you keep coming in with bullet/stab wounds and crazy stories about how you got them and i don’t believe you so i confront you one on one and tell you what i think is really going on here, you’re a criminal aren’t you?

someone close to me got killed and in order to find answers i dive into their world, only to find out they live a double life full of crime. no one knows i’m going undercover as an innocent rookie and i try to get close to the people involved to get answers. of course, i meet a love interest that either i get along with from the start and helps me with adjusting into this new life or it’s like an enemies to lovers sorta thing. only to realize after a while that it’s too late to go back to normal and now i’m the one that’s living the double life and as though that’s not enough, the answers i’ve been looking for are not what i expected them to be...

muse a is a detective in a murder investigation, they always give it their all, but this time they’re told to do so by all means necessary. a murder of someone ‘important’ or maybe an expected serial killer! muse b is an inmate charged with murder and they’re highly intelligent, very cooperative and their murder is just very similar to the one that just occurred. hence the reason muse b is asked to become the criminal consultant for a reduced sentence, helping muse a with their investigation because who can think like a criminal better than a criminal? optional: muse b is sending help from the outside world to help with the investigation there too (and protect the detective!)

i’m rich as shit and when they say you don’t become this rich by being an good person — they’re right. a lot of it is drug money (or something else?) and it’s a secret i’m planning on bringing to my grave until one day my house keeper/pool boy/gardener/??? overhears one of my phone calls and instead of them taking the hush money to keep this between us, they want to go on a date.

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

Hi! Thanks for your last response. I have another question but more so for the writer in you. In an AU where after both marriages to Daemon and Laenor Rhaenyra has had no children at all but not of her own free will (so no kids with Harwin), how would that affect the characterisation of Viserys, Rhaenyra, Alicent, Aegon?

I have my ideas of course but I'm curious what you think 😀

Okay I had to think about this one a bit but I actually think that in this scenario the Dance probably wouldn't have happened.

If Rhaenyra has no children at all, Aegon is her heir by default. In this situation, it's not really worth risking a war to put Aegon on the throne earlier, especially because Rhaenyra now has an actual vested interest in keeping her brothers alive. The thing is, although sometimes we hear that Rhaenyra had to have children to secure the succession, the succession was secure through her brothers and their children, strictly speaking. Having your very own bloodline on the throne is not strictly necessary (just look at Elizabeth I), it's a want, not something needed for the good of the realm. So in this situation its in Otto and Alicent's best interests just to wait her out. Worst case scenario, Rhaenyra outlives Aegon (and if he's still hard drinking in this world, this isn't unlikely) and Aegon's child succeeds him which means....

If all else remains the same, the thing to do would be to pursue Baela as a bride for Aegon (how convenient for me!). In this scenario Daemon isn't getting any closer to the throne than that unless he attempts to usurp Rhaenyra with the Velaryons, and for all that he sucks I just can't see him doing that. A Baela/Aegon match would be a smart move in any scenario, but in this one it's ideal because the only real threats to the succession now come from the Velaryon line and Daemon's chaotic self, and if you neutralize the Velaryons you neutralize Daemon too because any resistance Daemon could possibly mount would always depend upon Velaryon backing. Otherwise he's just one guy with a dragon. That said, if Rhaenyra dies at a normal-ish age, Daemon is likely going to be long gone by then, so he's really kind of a non-issue in a world where he only has the two daughters by Laena.

Alicent is probably a lot more chill because her sons are not really in any danger. Instead of being obstacles for Rhaenyra, Rhaenyra instead needs them in order to prove that the succession is handled. Rhaenyra might actually have some motivation to bond with Aegon at the very least, seeing as he is her heir. And honestly, it's pretty likely that Aegon is a bit more well adjusted in a world where he doesn't have a sword of damocles hanging over his head the whole time, and in which his mother can just be a regular old slightly neurotic repressed lesbian (and hell, in this scenario maybe she and Rhaenyra could actually have a discreet affair. hmm...). Viserys probably still ignores his non-Rhaenyra children but maybe that fucks them up a bit less because it doesn't feel like he's actually trying to get them killed, it just makes him more of a regular asshole father (if the regular asshole was a king).

In a lot of ways, this would kind of be a win-win scenario, so it's interesting that so many people jump on the "Rhaenyra had to have kids to secure the line of succession, what was she supposed to do, force Laenor??" thing. Clearly Rhaenyra didn't have to have kids, she wanted to, which is absolutely her choice and her right, but it also makes her a lot like her father.

[akookminsupporter]

JIMIN'S (REAL) FACE

Jimin, your son of a bitch. You did it and what a way to go.

For a couple of weeks now in my mind, there have been several opinions forming about Jimin and the direction of his career and why I believe he will achieve many things as a Solo artist. When Set Me Free pt.2 was released those ideas evolved, but the core of them remained the same. Jimin was destined for great things as a Solo artist.

A week ago when I decided to make a post where I would write all those thoughts I didn't think it would be like this one. I thought it would be a post where I would say a thousand things sometimes without saying anything at the end, but after listening to FACE, and after reading the lyrics, I decided to do this differently.

Art is a curious subject. Complicated in how simple it can be. Maybe that's why I've never been good at understanding much about it, but one thing I do like about art is that everyone can give different interpretations to a piece of art, sometimes the interpretation will even be different from the artist who created it.

In the last couple of days, I have read some interpretations of FACE and what it means. Many agree on some opinions and others do not. Today I want to give mine.

Jimin has already explained in several interviews what his album is about. His feelings during the pandemic and after the world opened up again. Based on that I came to personal conclusions from his journey in FACE. Maybe what I say is different from what you think, maybe what I say is different from what Jimin says, but as I said, that's the beauty of art and FACE is art.

I think Jimin said it in one of his interviews, FACE is chronologically ordered. Each song describes a moment of his struggle, of his feelings, of his being, so I will try to explain how I understood the story that Jimin told with his album.

SET ME FREE PT 2.

The first song we heard from the album was Set Me Free Pt.2. A song that I personally believe describes the culmination of Jimin's journey. Jimin told us beforehand that he IS free. That he no longer cares what others think of him. Jimin told us up front that the dark world we would find in FACE is no longer his present but his past. He wanted to assure us from the beginning that he was fine.

In the interview with Rolling Stone, Jimin said it. He has already overcome everything that FACE describes.

"I don't know how people are going to react to the music, but I actually was able to completely resolve and move on from all those feelings of being lost. I'm perfectly okay now."

So yes, Jimin is finally free but I'll talk more about that when I get to that point in the story or when I get to Track 5.

FACE-OFF.

Jimin said that the album represents his feelings during the pandemic and this song perfectly describes how he felt, but it also describes so much more. I made a post yesterday giving my opinion of what I think Face-Off means and I still stand by that opinion, but today I add another layer to it. That song also signifies the battle Jimin had with himself.

The pandemic, 2020 in particular was a time when we had too much time on our hands. Too much time with our thoughts and too much time connected with other people.

I do believe that it was during this time that Jimin really knew the intentions of some people close to him and the realisation of that hurt. You see, I think Jimin is one of those people who doesn't let everyone into his inner circle and when he does it is special. Jimin is a person who likes to give, acts of service are one of his love languages. And when you betray a person like Jimin, it hurts.

But now I also think the song is about himself. The battle against his inner self. The battle against his true self.

All that time we were confined to our homes, it forced many of us to think. To evaluate and re-evaluate who we are, who we were and who we want to be. I think that was the case with Jimin.  I think Jimin during that time finally had to face himself. His demons and his true self.

There has always been this "discussion" in the fandom about whether or not Jimin is LGTBI+, for some it's obvious, for others it's not. The problem with this debate is that many read the word LGTBI+ in relation to a man and immediately think of the word Gay, forgetting that a man can also be bisexual. Bisexual erasure is unfortunately very normal in the fandom and in society in general.

Jimin once talked about how he pretended for a long time to be something he wasn't. He pretended to be this strong man. He pretended to be this strong, masculine man that society and the industry expected him to be. That time he also said that he wasn't like that anymore, that he finally was who he was, but I don't think the fight ever stopped. At least not for a long time.

When you confront yourself you go through various states of emotions. Denial, anger, desolation, understanding and finally acceptance. I believe Face-off is at least the first two of these.

Remember the video I shared where someone explained the choreography of Like Crazy? I think Face-Off is the beginning of that, but rawer, angrier, more... lost.

If you notice, all the songs on the album don't have a conclusion or solution, except for the second to last track.

I think in Face-off the inner Jimin finally says everything he feels, finally vents his frustrations and complains to the outer Jimin that he gave him everything but still let him down. And the outer Jimin lets him, lets him get it all out, is finally willing to listen.

INTERLUDE: DIVE

Dive is literally a pause in the story. It's where Jimin took a step back and decided to think. He decided to maybe think about everything that happened in Face-off. It's interesting but not surprising that Jimin here used two of the places where he's perhaps happiest, the stage, talking to his fans and running. Remember all the times he's said he discovered that running was good for him?

LIKE CRAZY (MAIN TRACK)

And we get to the crux of the story.

I think Like Crazy is a conversation with himself. The whole album is a conversation with himself, that's why the use of autotune in some parts of the songs, by distorting the voice doesn't sound like Jimin because it's not, not the outer Jimin at least.

I think to really understand Like Crazy you have to see the video and the choreography as well. It's all connected, it's not a coincidence, Jimin doesn't work like that. It's important to understand that.

Like Crazy is Jimin's acceptance in a way that something has to change and it's at the same time a self-questioning of whether it's worth doing.

Same cliched story, just like on TV/It's getting more familiar/Did I come this far to find the me that you knew? /Yeah I know You know/I know

But despite that I think Jimin still struggles in a way, not to deny his inner self but to keep hiding it until he gets to the end of the song and realises he can't do it anymore.

This will break me/This is gonna break me/No don't you wake me/I wanna stay in this dream, don't save me/Don't you try to save me need a way we/I need a way we can dream on

In the end, all that's left is... understanding and acceptance and all the fears that come with that.

Alone again.../What's the point?

ALONE

The simplest way I could describe this song is catharsis. Alone is a catharsis of feelings. Of doubts. Of questions. Of self-recrimination. It's what comes after accepting the truth. It is the real confrontation with your actions. This song is Jimin saying out loud his fears. It is the acceptance out loud that he was living a lie. That's why I think the word lie was repeated several times because he kept trying to lie to himself, to say that everything was fine but no, it was a lie. He was lying to himself. Alone is a pretty deep song. She does not seek solutions and offers no consolation, on the contrary, she is perhaps the darkest state Jimin reached before finally being free.

SET ME FREE PT.2

Freedom. In Set Me Free Pt.2 Jimin finally gets rid of everything, mainly his fears. Here Jimin finally understood that he has the power and that's why it doesn't matter what anyone says. Jimin finally understood that he can be unstoppably him. As he wants. But Set Me Free Pt.2 is also a juxtaposition of the whole story. In Set Me Free Pt.2 Jimin presents himself as society and the industry thinks he should be, look. Masculine, strong, tough. The music of the song also sells that idea, but the lyrics do not.

I think the lyrics, the choreography and the set design of the MV plus Jimin's outfit are a major fuck you to those standards. It's like Jimin is defying everyone. Challenging everyone's opinions about him. About who he really is.

Set Me Free Pt.2 is Jimin basically saying I can play the game too but in my own way. In this song, Jimin understood that he controls the narrative.

Personally, I think Jimin's real freedom is that he understood that other people's opinions of him don't matter. Jimin's real freedom came when he finally decided to take the power away from his fears and his detractors. I think that's why Jimin demands to be set free because they no longer have anything they can use to keep him locked up.

At the end of the MV we see a Jimin dressed in white. With a soft and determined expression. Soft Jimin we could say. In the end, we saw the other part of Jimin. In the end, he basically said: I can be both.

In the end, Jimin understood that he can be whoever he wants to be and that people can interpret him however they want, he doesn't care anymore.

LETTER (Hidden Track)

This song has the fandom debating. Is it for the fans? For the other members? For Jungkook? What if the song is for all of them?

Letter the sunset after the storm. The lyrics of the song are the reflections you write on paper of everything you experienced after so much darkness. Letter is a warm embrace. A sincere thank you. Letter is literally a promise that now he will take care of you.

But the question that surrounds this song the most is, why Jungkook? And the answer I think is simple. Because it has always been him.

Jimin and Jungkook have a particular relationship. Different. Intimate. I don't know what label it has, but it's special. Jungkook is the person Jimin is always looking for. He's the one he laughs with, the one he has inside jokes with. The one he cries with, the one he gets drunk with, the one he practices with, the one he's happy with. Jimin has always been there for Jungkook and Jungkook has always been there for Jimin so what better person to share that promise with than him? what better person to share his new journey with than Jungkook?

FACE is an amazing album, Jimin not only showed who he is as an artist but also who he is as a person.

Jimin confirmed with this album that he really gets what he wants. That quiet work well done gives great rewards. I will never be able to express how proud and grateful I am to Jimin.

This post ended up being longer than I thought it would be. I don't know if I managed to say everything I wanted to say in it. I don't know if what I said is well said.

If you made it this far, you may have disagreed with me and that's fine, as I said at the beginning, that's the beauty of art. One piece can have multiple interpretations.

[tackytigerfic]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you so much for the tag @lettersbyelise. loved reading yours here!

How many works do you have on ao3?

63 under my tacky account and I think 2 under my brasstacks account.

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

On my tacky account: 358,302.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Only HP so far (plus, inexplicably, one Witcher fic even though i wasn't even really into the show let alone in the fandom). I have an idea for a Steve x Eddie fic (stranger things) and an F1 fic (i don't know the fandom or the real life people at all but I am obsessed with the writing of @boxboxlewis and have, fatally, had An Idea for a galex fic as a result. pray for tacky, i can't afford another hyperfixation, the one i have is bad enough). but they will probably never get written, alas. i barely get my drarry stuff done!

4.. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I never check my stats - i don't have them blocked or anything, it just doesn't occur to me. I also think it's a really unhelpful way of judging the merits of a fic. Fandom is supposed to be fun, and a fic can be great in many different ways for many different people, and none of that can accurately be conveyed by how many hearts people leave. That said, I appreciate every reader i get so much - I never ever imagined people would read my fics so each person who does gets a whole lotta love from me. However for the purposes of this ask i did go into my stats section to have a look and here we go, it might be a surprising one as i suspect Modern Love is probably my most recced:

If It Takes All Night: quick oneshot i wrote for Lock Down Fest, forced bonding, quidditch buddies, friends to lovers.

A Lick and a Promise: My first long fic, a case fic involving an auror/unspeakable team who go undercover as Hogwarts professors to solve a crime at the school. oh and they also happen to be fuckbuddies already.

Modern Love: My own favourite, also my longest fic (so far, mwahaha). Muggle world Draco, depressed Harry learns to love himself and falls in love with Draco along the way.

Through the Window, Clear Skies: 1.4k of love story. so fond of this one as it's the first fic i wrote where i felt like i had finally clicked stylistically. it was the start of me learning to write in my own style rather than trying to emulate the fics i loved to read.

And One to Play: Gosh, i actually do not really remember what this is about. auror partners? Harry loves clothes in this one i remember. And it's about weather magic. I was so proud of this one when i wrote it and really learned a lot at the start of my fic writing journey.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Just like Elise, I would love to but I fell massively behind after Modern Love posted and never got my momentum back. I am currently about 3 years behind though i do try to reply whenever i can. i absolutely treasure comments and i really miss interacting with readers. at the moment it's a choice between writing new stuff and replying to comments. i also never ever mind when an author doesn't reply to my comments so i figure people will allow me the same grace.

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

Some people might say it's Last Offices as that's MCD, but my own choice would be The Quiver of a Heartstring because of the sheer hopelessness of it. Depends on your particular flavour of angst i think.

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

Most of my fics are cheerful, I suppose Modern Love as there are two follow up fics so you get to see them happy in both of those, as well as in the epilogue?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not much that anyone tells me about! Someone did feature one of my fics (ironically, the one with most kudos) on some horrible mean-spirited blog about crap mary-sues, which was probably the most out-and-out horrid thing i've come across. i wasn't upset by it, but i did think it was a surprisingly shitty thing to do about anyone's fics! I also had someone leave me very very long comments on one of my fics asking me to explain why I made Harry so mean, and then went on reddit and posted some long posts about the same thing (naming the fics they had a problem with, including mine). bizarre! i have never had out and out hate comments, thankfully. just the usual WELL ACKSHULLY type "concrit" that really just means "i didn't like how you did this, so i'm going to let you know in detail about it". to which i say, off you fuck, buddy, and learn some self-awareness. and brush up on your grasp of fandom etiquette while you're at it.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes i do, not necessarily all the time and sometimes it's more M or T rated hints. I read fic for the romance and sex is part of that. and i write what i want to read.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

No i don't, though after chats with my resident F1 expert @sweet-s0rr0w I wondered about writing a racing AU where one of them crashes and ends up in a fiery inferno but walks out of it. only they've come back wrong.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of, i would absolutely hate that though.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

earlier fics yes, but now i ask that people not translate my fics. this is because if i need to delete all my works off AO3 at any point, i would prefer to have them all in one place to scrub them. i know it doesn't work like that but it's just one of those irrational worries i have and it gives me the illusion of control!

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

Yes! Body Electric with @shealwaysreads which is a Drarry bodyswap. And Dreaming Skies with @sweet-s0rr0w which was the Dron dragon-tamer getting together fic of my dreams. love a collab, what a privilege to get to work with such talented people!

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Drarry absolutely 100% no questions asked. I've never had another ship and never will. my brain just isn't made that way. it's a pain but it is what it is.

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

None, i have quite a few WIPs but I feel like I could go back to any of them at some point. I'd never say never on a fic tbh. if i started writing it, i had a reason. some WIPs i have from years back are: quidditch fic where Draco buys the team Harry plays for, Master of Death Harry fic where he is reckless after the war and Draco dies due to trying to keep up with him, and Harry has to go get him back... umm political fic about a corrupt Ministry where Dudley has a magical baby and Harry and Draco take the kiddo (and Dudley!) and go on the run. i probably have more that i've forgotten.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Not being disingenuous but it's harder for me to appreciate my strengths as I tend to be too immersed in my own writing to have any distance. I think maybe, going by what people have said, I am able to capture a mood? And i write love in a loving way.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

From my own perspective, my weaknesses are being too slow (it takes me ages to write anything), inability to focus for long, and not being a good plotter.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Yeah, I think that's fine! i'm not sure what this question refers to tbh 🤔😂 I mean, if it works in the story then it works. I have never done it myself other than in Our Little Life which is a multiverse fic where Harry gets visions of multiple other lives with Draco through space and time. In it they speak Middle English, Latin, Irish... i think that's all?

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter. i actually wrote an angsty Draco x Ron oneshot YEARS ago (it was called Take This Longing and i went by perfidia back then and i can see the link on the wayback machine but the fic itself is lost sadly.. or actually that might be a good thing) but then I never wrote anything at all ever again until i started writing fic in 2019. i have never been in another fandom and i don't think i ever will. i don't know why i've imprinted so hard on these two idiots but here we are. I have also started writing original work in recent years, again not something i ever imagined doing but it's lovely and satisfying in different ways to the way fic writing is! so i feel very lucky tbh.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Probably Modern Love. It is exactly the fic i wanted it to be, and people who read it seem to get what I wanted to give. and you can't say fairer than that.

Tagging @blamebrampton @boxboxlewis @citrusses @epitomereally @maesterchill @mintawasalreadytaken @porcelainheart3 @shealwaysreads @skeptiquewrites @sweet-s0rr0w @teacup-tai if you fancy it! and anyone who wants to play.

[kanansdume]

Hello! Your pro-Jedi posts are so precious in mostly anti-Jedi rhetoric circulating around fandom and canon (sadly). So I wanted to ask: have you read a novel Ashoka by E.K.Johnson? If you haven’t, I hope you don’t mind some spoilers and a small rant.

I didn’t expect a lot while getting to it, but it still rubbed me wrong. Cannot remember specifically, but the general idea was ‘The Jedi were so trapped in the past and dogmatic, so they’re partially to blame for their downfall’. After reading lots of Jedi-defending meta, it just hurts.

One moment I remember most, though. After Ahsoka and Bail Organa save population of a small planet, occupied by the Empire, Bail calls her a Jedi.

Ahsoka: I’m no Jedi.

Bail: But you act like one.

And I’m just: yes! Yes, you do act like a Jedi! You meditate the Jedi way, you think the Jedi way – how come you’re not a Jedi? Only because you weren’t knighted? Meta-speaking, Kanan, Ezra and Luke also weren’t fully trained by the community, but they still are Jedi. Especially in a non-Jedi Imperial world. And non-Force-sensitive population in-universe won’t see the difference between a fully-trained Jedi Knight and an almost fully-trained Jedi Padawan – they’re still ‘Jedi’ to them.

I felt like this novel enforces the current idea that Ahsoka is better that ‘those stupid old dogmatic Jedi of the Prequels’. Sorry for the rant and thanks for reading.

Thank-you, I'm glad you've liked what I've managed to contribute to the pro Jedi fandom!

As for the Ahsoka novel, I haven't read it (but I don't mind spoilers since I don't ever plan to). I read like the first two thirds of Queen's Peril and then got bored and then I started hearing some pretty nasty things about E.K. Johnston and have refused to ever pick it back up again or ever read another of her books. So I'm not at all shocked that she's part of the Jedi critical crowd. It's even LESS shocking that it came out within the Ahsoka novel, just given the way Ahsoka as a character has been going for YEARS. It sounds like it's handling the issue in the same basic way a lot of people have done, nothing unique there.

If I'm willing to try to re-interpret the "I'm no Jedi" stuff into a more pro Jedi version, Ahsoka doesn't see herself as a Jedi because, unlike all of those other characters, Ahsoka LEFT the Order before it was destroyed and before she officially completed her training and never rejoined it. Kanan never left it at all, it was just destroyed around him (the same is true for Cal Kestis from the Jedi games). And he does TECHNICALLY get Knighted by Yoda during Rebels and takes on a Padawan, hallmarks of a Jedi Knight. Ezra and Luke never had an Order to join to begin with, so their willingness to identify themselves as Jedi isn't dependent on having officially joined the right organization so much as it is about having learned from someone else who identifies as a Jedi and being told their training is complete. Both Ezra and Luke kind-of reach that point with Kanan and Yoda, so they never question their identity as Jedi.

Ahsoka is in the VERY unique position of having not been a Jedi OFFICIALLY when the Order was destroyed, which leaves her in slightly more limbo than most others. She HAD the ability to rejoin it before it was destroyed, she just didn't, and now she has to kind-of move away from the idea of needing to be a part of the Order before she can call herself a real Jedi. She also never has a master tell her she's done with training. In both Kanan and Cal's cases, their masters died to protect them and so someone else (Yoda and Cere) has to step in to finish the job. For Ahsoka, her master is STILL ALIVE, he's just now a Sith and is trying to kill her. Nobody steps in to try to finish the job he started with Ahsoka (nor does Ahsoka really ever seem that open to it). This ALSO leaves her in a little bit of limbo in a way nobody else is.

So I'm generally willing to sort-of re-interpret her choosing not to identify as a Jedi within this context to make it less about feeling like she's better than all the other Jedi and more that she feels STUCK in how to get back to that identity in a way nobody else is. Just because she still meditates and tries to help people doesn't make her officially a Jedi when she intentionally left the Order for a reason. She chose to stop being a Jedi for a reason. In the Prequels Era, just being a kind Force sensitive person didn't make you a Jedi, so it works for me that Ahsoka would insist that she ISN'T one for a while, even when she looks a lot like one to an outside perspective. I could even see a more Jedi positive narrative taking the fact that she still acts and thinks like a Jedi in an interesting direction for her.

It's easier to utilize that interpretation in Rebels where Ahsoka is GENERALLY more positive about the Jedi and, despite not really identifying as one herself, she seems fine with getting lumped in as a Jedi along with Kanan and Ezra. She intentionally seeks Kanan and Ezra out for "Jedi stuff" once or twice during season 2. She ONLY brings out the "I'm no Jedi" line when Anakin throws the Jedi (and the fact that she'd left the Order) in her face during their confrontation before he's explicitly revealed to be Anakin (which means Ahsoka can still pretend he's NOT Anakin and be angry that this is the person who KILLED Anakin instead). She seems like she might be on the path towards becoming a Jedi again by following these two people who are slightly further ahead on that path than she is (and then she sees Anakin as Vader and she gets blown right off of that path all over again apparently). Ahsoka isn't the main character of Rebels and the entire narrative is about Ezra and Kanan coming together as teacher and student to become true Jedi by learning compassion and selflessness via sacrifice. Ahsoka can't overshadow or outshine the two main characters by making her seem BETTER than the two characters who are explicitly learning to become Jedi by emulating Prequels Jedi, which is helping her.

It's HARDER to utilize this interpretation within something like, say, the Ahsoka show, where it's absolutely clear that its take on the Jedi is NEGATIVE. Sabine calls herself a Jedi, other people call her a Jedi, but Ahsoka explicitly states that she doesn't want Sabine to be a Jedi AT ALL and never identifies as one herself. She calls the Jedi failures and implies that it's because they were elitist. She and Sabine constantly refuse to abide by Huyang's standard Jedi protocols and seem to see them as useless and old-fashioned. There isn't a SINGLE thing about the Jedi that is represented as positive in this show, which makes it decidedly difficult to pretend that Ahsoka is refusing to identify as a Jedi simply because she's in a particular emotional limbo about it that she needs to work out. Instead, Ahsoka refuses to identify as a Jedi because she associates being a Jedi with being an elitist asshole apparently and might only start reclaiming the title when she decides that she can sort-of... be a new kind of Jedi that's better than the old ones (not unlike what Baylan claims to be doing with Shin). It's DECIDEDLY anti Jedi in tone and I'm generally unwilling to try to rework the entire fucked up narrative of the show to try to pretend that it isn't. The Ahsoka show is an explicitly anti Jedi narrative and that's just... the facts of the matter. It sucks, but it's true. It's not worth me putting in any more work than that.

I haven't read the Ahsoka novel, so I don't know whether its tone is closer to Rebels or the Ahsoka show. If it feels to you closer to how the Ahsoka show landed, my advice would be to just purge it from your canon. That's the nice thing about Star Wars, you can pick and choose what's canon to you and what isn't. If it doesn't work for you, you can straight up pretend it doesn't exist. As far as I'm concerned, the Ahsoka show never happened. It's stupid and doesn't deserve to be considered within my canon. If, however, it feels closer to how Rebels ended up, my advice is to see if you can find some way to re-interpret some of the more Jedi critical pieces or just pretend THOSE parts don't exist and separate it out from the parts you DO enjoy.

[catonator]

Funny heading to a blogpost on videogames that’s some sort of reference

Look, I already used the ctrl+alt+delete quote in a blogpost title. It’s February 2024, and it’s already a very wild year for gaming. We’ve had more layoffs than with the entirety of 2023, games shown off at events seem to be stagnating, interest in the art is waning. Youtube is filled with “modern gaming sucks” doomer blackpill videos. It’s a miserable time.

Is gaming just over?

Well, no. Of course not. The Sonic franchise has lingered for decades despite consistent failure. Games are more resilient than that.

Humanity’s relation to computing is still pretty fresh, and I’d say that despite the size and scale of a lot of it, we’re still going through major growing pains. Concepts like video games, the internet and special effects are still pretty new, despite being around for twice or thrice as long as most of the people reading this have been alive. Internal combustion engine -powered cars were invented in 1808, made mass produced in the 1910s, and even then it took until the 1950s for them to be common enough for the US government to bother designing cities around them. In the present day, many have come to resent the car-centric design mentality, even though the driving (no pun intended) factor behind them was mainly the same as with technology today: scientific and technological progression is unquestionably good, and therefore new and successful ideas should be pushed and relied upon as hard as possible. What could possibly go wrong?!

Video games are far from the only medium which is seeing similar problems. Movies have suffered greatly from a capeshit infestation, in which the abuse of VFX artists is valued over, you know, basics of good filmmaking, and the general public is clearly sick of it. On the internet, we’ve decided that megastructures like Twitter are better than forms of communication we’re good at, and it’s gone horribly wrong. We’re still learning the “do”s, “don’t”s and “who the fuck thought this was a good idea”s of tech.

Games as an artform are as alive as they ever were, but the sheer scale of the operations has grown to a point where nobody can really understand it. The numbers behind playerbases and the money traffic have so many zeroes that you can’t even fathom the number. Even if I used some metaphorical figure, like 20 000 cars. Shockingly, despite how console sales haven’t really increased in numbers (the top selling console of all time is still the PS2), most of the top-grossing games of all time are relatively recent. This implies that the behaviour of consumers has shifted from purchasing a variety of different kinds of games into purchasing fewer games of fewer different kinds. And I don’t think it’s a case of customers deciding to shift over naturally.

In the past decade or so, the gaming industry has decided sensible experiences are a way of the past, and the future is making games for debt and making back the money with horse armour and other garbage the general public doesn’t really want.

But we’ve seen this shit before. In the 90s, 3D was “the future”, and 2D pixel art or hand-drawn art in general seemed to go the way of the dodo for polygons and ““realism””. About a decade later, 2D art would see a resurgence and in some cases overtake the big lads in lasting impact. In the end, people crave personal stories, varying ideas, and interesting ways to tell them. Not much has changed since ancient Greeks, besides that the medium of storytelling has largely shifted from some guy standing on a stage, trying to explain another world, to electronic devices actually showing us the other worlds.

I think as we play out the Icarus stories in real time, we’ll also learn when boundaries are pushed too far, and the scale of the bullshit simply collapses in on itself. When that happens, the public is forced to step back and reevaluate the ways we thought were the future, and what really is better for all of us.

When a storm flattens a forest of dead, decrepit trees, the sun and rain can now reach the ground and cultivate a new generation of different plant life. Once hidden beneath the dead corpses, now able to grow and bloom in a way the old generation never could. You should just keep doing what you think is right. Now’s the time more than ever to be the backbone of a better industry, for many applications of tech, from games to communication. And it’s better, if the backbone comes from the grassroots, and isn’t defined by the megacorporations. Because those cunts will never learn from their failures.

[shutupineedtothink]

I finally landed on a Siuan theory/analysis re: 2x07! And it works prettyyyy good if I do say so myself. At the least it’s plausible. Probably. No book spoilers because I haven’t read the books, this is a show only theory. Read on at your own risk!

Background: So, at first I was on board the “Moiraine and Siuan planned this whole thing daes dae’mar blah blah blah” train. Mostly in my emotional turmoil after watching the episode initially. But, I was forced to dismiss that pretty quickly in light of some of Siuan’s lines, namely “That boy must not leave this city.” And “You lied to me.” She has to believe both of those things are truths to say them, so her somehow being secretly on Moiraine’s side still and them having conjured up some plan together doesn’t match up with either of those lines. Sadly. So that’s pretty much out. If this ends up actually being the case, I look forward to how they explain themselves out of it.

Second theory is of course that it’s playing exactly as we’re seeing it, which ultimately does work and when I can take the emotional dagger to my heart out of it, is objectively really excellent storytelling and character work. These are two women, trying to do the right thing, trying to save the world, and their love is sacrificed at the altar of duty. Duty over love is a theme that’s absolutely pounded into us with many characters, so it makes sense. (As Lan points out to Rand also in this episode, “you were born to protect this whole world, not just the people you love.” That’s kinda where Siuan and Moiraine are at too.) Plus I love the idea that Siuan comes face to face with the very real if unfathomable possibility that Moiraine has been turned to the dark based on her actions and general cageyness for the last six months, and that’s really what motivates every choice Siuan makes, up to and including invoking the oath rod. Really great stuff, brilliant subtext, two thumbs up.

However. There is a third option. *rubs hands together gleefully*

I heard some people saying Siuan could be under Compulsion, which definitely piqued my interest, because we’ve had those breadcrumbs dropped earlier in the season already and it would be nice foreshadowing for this. But most of the conversation I’ve seen seems to be around Liandrin being the one to do it. Probably because we’ve alluded to that already this season, so we know she is capable and has done it before. A tool in her dark friend toolkit, if you will.

But Liandrin being behind it never sat quite right with me either. Compelling Sheriam to change some logbook is one thing, but controlling the Amyrlin seat, for hours if not days to make this happen, is quite another. Idk what kind of strength Compulsion requires, but I bet it’s not nothing. And as powerful as Liandrin is, I don’t think she’s stronger than Siuan Sanche, or would be able to pull one over on her fast enough to make this happen. Plus, Liandrin is off doing other shit in this episode. If she was really implicated I feel like she’d be at least lurking around the other Aes Sedai. Maybe I’m wrong… but I don’t think I am lol.

So, who does have the power to do this? Who else has the means, motive, and opportunity to make this happen? There’s really only one other person.

The other scene stealer of 2x07, ya girl Lanfear.

There’s several bits of dialogue in this episode that back this theory up, both Compulsion in general and Lanfear being behind it, so let’s run from the top.

First, some general evidence that Compulsion might be happening.

Rand and Siuan meet, Rand gives his cute little introduction, Lan has prepared you I see, what else has he told you about me? Then Rand gives this line:

“That you’re not exactly what you seem.”

Interesting choice of words, writers— I mean Rand. He could have said a lot of things there, even directly repeating some of what Lan told him about Siuan, but no. And if you’re already thinking Compulsion, that’s a pretty strong nudge from the writers to PAY ATTENTION to Siuan Sanche, because maybe what she’s doing is not what it seems, even the person she IS in that moment is not what it seems. (Even if the surface level read totally makes sense and still works thematically!) This also wouldn’t be the first time that the writers seem to use the characters to say something/poke fun that’s more directed at us than the actual plot. So I definitely wouldn’t put it past ‘em.

Second, and this is kind of a throw away, but when Moiraine and Lan come in later, Lan says “this isn’t what we agreed to.” This is pretty easy to explain away, but I think it’s still notable that Lan and Siuan had some kind of conversation earlier, perhaps on their way to Cairhien, about what they were going to do in regards to Moiraine and/or Rand. And at that point Siuan at least implied that she was going to help Moiraine and Rand, not cage him. Again, pretty easy to sidestep with aes sedai truth-lies/evasions, but it’s also possible at that point she actually had no intention to cage Rand. Because she wasn’t under Compulsion yet.

Alright, still going in chronological order here, so now we’re getting into some Lanfear-did-it specifics. And I do love-hate this one.

Moiraine and Siuan are arguing over what to do about Rand, then this:

Siuan: “Can you imagine, Moiraine, if one of the forsaken got their hands on him?”

Can YOU imagine, how absolutely giddy it would make Lanfear to make her say this, to Moiraine’s FACE, knowing full well she’s got her hands all over Rand and then some? Come on, son.

Ok jokes aside, here’s the kicker.

Rand and Moiraine in the cell in the sun palace, Rand meets Lanfear in the dream world, Rand goes up to her and says “I’m in a cell, the Amyrlin’s holding me.”

And Lanfear says, so smug, “I know.”

Um, girl? You know?? HOW do you know exactly? I definitely dismissed this on the first couple watches as oh, Lanfear just knows things, but like, no. The Forsaken aren’t omniscient. Now, could she be teleporting herself here and there and spying on everything that’s going on and that’s why she knows? Sure. But that’s boring and I’m on a roll here so let’s keep going.

She knows, not just that Rand is in a cell but specifically that it’s the Amyrlin that’s holding him there, because she herself Compelled (Compulsed?) Siuan to do so.

Ok so motive. Why would Lanfear do this, why spend the effort?

1. It's definitely fun for her. 2. She sets up this scenario where she gets to “save” Rand from the big bad aes sedai, he has no choice but to ask her for help, she LITERALLY shows up in her white knight in shining armor outfit, and she ultimately hopes this helps convince him she actually cares about him and wins him over to her side. (As she tries to tell him in the finale, I’m the only one who cares about YOU, not just what you can do. Mhm sure girl.) And 3. She gets to actively pit the rest of the aes sedai against Moiraine, who she absolutely hates.

And in doing all of this SHE MIGHT NOT EVEN HAVE KNOWN about Moiraine and Siuan! That's just icing on the fucking cake! It works either way, because if she did know by forcing Siuan to tell her about their mission and she somehow gets Siuan to admit she loves Moiraine (however that interrogation goes, idk the specifics of compulsion but the show writers are playing fast and loose with the rules anyway), well now it’s game on baby because Lanfear will absolutely be using that info to wreck both of them. If she didn’t know, and her whole motivation is the first three reasons above, then she definitely finds out at the end of 2x07, because she was definitely lurking around the corner listening to that whole exchange between them and it made her fucking night.

And finally, there’s Lanfear’s last line of the episode (I think): “Lucky for you, a broken Amyrlin is more useful to me than a dead one.” Double meaning alert! Siuan is literally lying broken on the ground in that moment, but maybe she was already “broken” well before that, being under Lanfear’s control. (And there’s your Egwene/damane parallel too, damn.) And therefore Lanfear knows exactly how she’ll be “useful” to her.

This whole strategy by Lanfear could also be forecasted from a couple episodes back, when she asks Ishamael why he didn’t just kill Moiraine at the Eye. He basically tells her the same thing, that Moiraine (I believe he uses the words “aes sedai” specifically) is more useful to him alive than dead. So mayyyybe that gave her this idea to manipulate an aes sedai for her purposes, except while Ishamael is playing the long game, she goes full tilt and mind controls the fucking amyrlin seat.

On Siuan’s side of things, every bit of dialogue she has/action she takes makes sense under the assumption that Lanfear is influencing her, because she would “believe” everything she’s doing. Now I don’t know exactly how Compulsion works (in case you couldn’t tell), if it’s like someone else actually making you believe/do things you wouldn’t normally do, or if it’s more of a you’re trapped in your own head and not in control of your body sort of situation, but it works either way. And boy let me tell you, if this theory is correct, that makes Sophie Okenedo’s performance even more impressive than it already is, because it really works either way: Siuan is genuinely doing what she believes is right for the fate of the world and has her stone cold face on to do it (until the very end) OR her “real” expressions/feelings are mostly being masked/faked by the Compulsion and what she’s being forced to do by Lanfear. It tracks! Either way! Insane!!

The other big reason I think this theory works is because of what we find out in the finale — we learn from her conversations with Bayle Domon and Ishamael that Lanfear has been pulling the strings to make this whole season happen all along. (Cue It Was Lanfear All Along music lol). She sold the bits of cuendillar (although I don’t really get why… just for the money?), she seduced Rand, she played Ishamael, all of it. So why not this too? Why not control the Amyrlin seat, if she has the capability and means to do so, especially if she means to take Ishamael off the board and sort of become the de facto leader/strongest of the forsaken. Not really their leader, I know, but it’s a good power play for her is what I’m saying.

Finally, I think this could put us in a REALLY fun place for season 3, with stuff happening at the tower. We could have scenes with Lanfear, Siuan, and Liandrin. We could have Siuan acting increasingly more malevolent or just off somehow, and while most sisters are going with it, Alanna or Leane maybe starts to get suspicious (more Leane please!). We could have Moiraine send the wonder girls back to the tower, ostensibly to continue their training but also because she needs informants to know what Siuan is planning now (which kills her obvs), and because I would love to see them Scooby doo their way through some shit, the three of them figure out what’s going on and somehow (with Alanna’s help?) free Siuan from the Compulsion. Idk but it could be so much fun you guys.

Or, I could be totally wrong. Maybe this is totally not how Compulsion works. I don’t mind either way. This was a super fun thought experiment. But man, if this theory is in any way correct, this will be some of the most twisty TV/dialogue writing I’ve seen in a minute. And, you know, I’m trying to make fishwives happen here! Cmon!

Shout out to the Post Show Recaps podcast deep dive of 2x07 for questioning how Lanfear knew that Siuan had Rand captured and finally clicking this all into place for me. If you’ve got any other pulls from the episode or the season in general that back this theory up, please share in the comments!

[thefastestelementalmasteralive]

procrastinating school work so let me talk about my starwars (Anakin) aus

There's that lion!Vader Au, if I named it I don't remember the name but basically, either Anakin doesn't tell Padme where he's going or she doesn't go to Mustafar. might actually have R2D2 with Padme as her bodyguard or Anakin just didn't want r2 to know what he did to the separatist leaders. anakin doesn't come back from Mustafar because when he leaves the planet, the force decides 'okay, enough atrocities for the next... two decades.' and transforms him into a lion and sends him to a green planet. Sidious finds him a year later and decides to just build a gladiator ring and throw him in there to execute the people he wants dead on television.

19 years later Luke, Leia, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Padme, Cody, and Rex all get captured and are sentenced to be executed as a group with some other non-important people. Anakin eats the non-important people and vaguely recognizes some but tries to kill Luke and Leia because he doesn't recognize them.

SITS au - sith in the senate au - me trying to explore my favorite arc (mortis) and what would have happened if Anakin left with the son (and the daughter) and the father let Ahsoka and Obi-wan go thirty minutes later but Anakin is nowhere in sight when they go back to the real world. this is also the au where the Tusken massacre is really addressed in this au, in others it didn't happen, obviously in lion!vader it did since it only changes in rots. i don't know if it's really a character study that I'm doing for this au but I'm actually writing an essay on Anakin for my writing class and I'm so using elements from this for that and from that for this.

(please- someone stop me from making Barriss run away from the Jedi and Anakin adopting Barriss after she ends up on Tatooine and Anakin gets over his initial feeling of 'YOU D:<')

14!au. i have no other name for it as of right now.

anakin gets found by Palpatine and Shmi dies (i think) but surely its not you Pal Friendpatine's fault :0

Anyway, Palpatine finds Anakin at like... 5 and adopts him and brings him on his path to becoming chancellor and then the clone wars start at the Naboo blockade, Palpatine started cloning **early**. no, I have no idea how old Jango Fett is, why do you ask? anakin befriends some of the clones and takes an interest in politics because he thinks he can convince then senate to stop creating clones and just recruit normal civilians to the army.

this au is inspired by Hazbin Hotel song 'you didn't know' and some brave group of clones tries to plead their case to the senate, ankin watches in on it, nala se mentions the chips in the kaminoan rebuttal of clone rights and Anakin FREAKS. palpatine tries to calm him saying 'they are to control them, they're dangerous otherwise' and basically dooms himself. also, Anakin specifically has wings. see, I subscribe to the thinking of 'Anakin can shapeshift due to his unstable DNA' Edit: I Found it! @thewildballyntynesgrow or mballyntyne on Ao3 with their series 'A Wild Thing to Tame'. Anakin leaves taking a majority of the coruscant guard with him and goes back to Tatooine and starts freeing a whole bunch of planets over the years. the meeting in the senate takes place when he is fourteen, the empire starts when he is seventeen. Anakin adopts Boba and Galen Marek. anakin and the freed outer rim either hide rebel bases or use their revolutions as distractions for the empire.

Retconned rebel Anakin Au. aka, Barriss is the same age as Anakin and befriends him and Ferus eventually befriends him, and Anakin is closer to those two and some others than Obi-wan and Ahsoka (who is Obi-wan's padawan) Barriss never bombs the temple, the empire rises but the original empire dies like a year into the reign and another emperor rises.... Emperor Obi-wan Kenobi and his daughter Ahsoka how are both overly attached to rebel leader Anakin Skywalker and are both trying to adopt him and turn him to their side... by kidnapping Anakin's family. (rexanidala). anakin adopts so many kids, most of them are force-sensitive and want to fight so he lets them reluctantly but those not young enough to choose or fight are sent to live with Rex, Padme, Luke, Leia, and their grandparents; Dooku and Plo.

Ventress and Anakin Swap au, sort of. anakin got nabbed from his mom by Dooku. Dooku never found Ventress, Obi-wan does instead. Obi does not train Ventress but they are friends forever after. ventress tries forcefully redeeming the seventeen-eighteen year old Sith lord and it only sort of works. he defects but really only after he finds out about the slavery in creating battle droids. Anakin isn't really a separatist general, he just has a specialized group of droids that he rebuilds after fights with Jedi. he never fights clones with droids.

after defecting Anakin plans with Ventress and decides to free the outer rim then take the former slaves that will join him and start up a third party to the war. inspired by 'blood oath' by the art of pleasing princes.

okay so for this next au, named Anakin Umakkar, The rain storm. sources are ADragonsFriend and @fialleril or fialleril on a03, and @clawedandcute or ClawedandCute (Adi_Fire) on a03. and songs this au is inspired by for this au is (and in order) Puppeteer, Done For, Hell is Forever, There are Other Ways, What Did I Miss? and Respectless.

Umakkar was a name I first read about in a book called 'Elder sisters' by ADragonsFriend. I first heard about Ekkreth in Fialleril's books. the concept of Anakin staying on Tatooine was inspired by ClawedandCute's book and au 'The Accidental Sith'

Anyway, Qui-gon and the queen's ship never stops on Tatooine, but the clone wars do not start early. a solid two months into the Clone Wars, it is revealed that Jabba the Hutt has been dead for a year, and Tatooine has freed itself from the huts. Senator Padme Amidala and Jedi Obi-wan Kenobi (and Padawan Ahsoka Tano) are sent to Tatooine to try to get Tatooine to align with the republic. now please listen to Puppeteer and Done For (no, Anakin does not turn any clones into pigs, just like any non-clone serving in the army ). once Obi-wan draws his lightsaber on Anakin, Anakin just swipes it away, unhurt, and has him and other... three (Cody, Padme, and Ahsoka)locked up until he decided to hear them out. (cue hell is forever, the last lines being, "the freed outer rim has found both the separatists and the republic to be the enemy" ya know due to their armies) then when it looks like Anakin is gonna do something to them to send a message to the republic, Obi-wan pleads with him and mentions the Sith Dooku mentioned and any evil smile on Anakin's face slips away into annoyance "Sidious, huh?" and in 'There are other ways' fashion tells obi-wan about Mortis and other wells in the force that might be better for the Jedi to focus at. when asked why he had that reaction to the 'Sidious' character, he implies that Sidious has reached out to him to join either side of the war, like once per side.

he sends Obi-Wan and the Clones that want to return on their way and a year later decides that enough is enough and heads to Coruscant under the pretense of negotiating. palpatine sets up a committee to welcome Tatooine to the republic only for 'respectless' to happen and Anakin starts arguing with Orn Free Taa, then Palpatine himself and once Palpatine leaves, turns to the Jedi in the room and says "yeah, you might want to look into that..." and leaves.

Detached Mortis god au: inspired by the ocean saga

switching up the timeline here, Rako Hardeen happens, the Wrong Jedi arc happens, *Then* mortis happens. Anakin is alone on Mortis, he decides to stay, Padme is pregnant, the empire rises, Padme survives and joins the rebellion, Ahsoka becomes Fulcrum. Obi-wan joins the rebellion to help train Luke and Leia. Luke, Leia, Han, Ezra and some others start on a mission, but it starts off rough. Ezra decides to pray to a Force Diety he or Ahsoka met once and the diety appears and decides to grant them safe passage to the actual start of the mission as long as they keep Ahsoka, who they meet up with later on the mission, safe. if they accept and fail, another god is going to have a really big problem with them. they accept and all goes well until the last day of the mission, everything falls apart and Ahsoka is separated from the group and captured. the gang decides they need to go back to base to think and plan. on their way back their ship is seemingly attacked but they cant tell by what, they crash land at base and get out of the ship, not the falcon, only to meet two dragon-like-creatures, and a portal opens and a very pissed Anakin steps out. he kidnaps a bunch of rebels and puts them in the world between worlds and tells them they only get their people back when Ahsoka is safe. Obi-Wan and Padme only make it to the hangar this goes down once Anakin has stepped back through the portal.

[jurgan]

Slay the Princess and Process Theology

“You’re on a path in the woods. And at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a princess. You’re here to slay her. If you don’t, it’ll be the end of the world.”

“Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” -Matthew 9:13

I recently listened to a sermon about “process theology,” a subject of which I know little. The shortest summary I can give is that it holds God is not absolutely constant but changes in response to actions of humans and the wider world. This idea has quite a bit of biblical support- both Moses and Abraham successfully argue God into changing his mind, and Jesus at one point appears racist, calling a foreign woman a “dog” before being argued out of it. The preacher kept apologizing for the subject being dry and esoteric, but I was on the edge of my seat. He stated that people often see the God they expect to see, and that got me thinking about Slay the Princess. StP is a game I have played through several times over the past few months. I don’t want to get overly specific in case anyone reading wants to give it a shot, and its meaning is vague enough that each player will see it their own way. It’s a pretty easy game to play; there’s no real challenge, it’s more like a Choose Your Own Adventure book where the story unfolds and frequently stops to give you a list of options for how it should proceed.* What is interesting is that the Princess acts in response to your actions even if she couldn’t know what they were. For instance, if you approach her with a knife in hand, she is suspicious and cold, whereas if you approach unarmed she is hopeful and warm. This is not because she sees what you are doing, but because your own expectations color how you see her.

Through multiple replays, it becomes clear that the Princess is not one thing, but that she shifts between different appearances based on your own choices. There is a give and take between Player and Princess where each affects the other and is affected in turn. The third actor is the mysterious Narrator who instructs you to slay the princess with the claim that doing so will “save the world.” While he can occasionally force you to act, for the most part he is limited to trying to talk you into seeing things his way, and the Princess conversely tries to talk you out of killing her. The power of “persuasion” is, to my understanding, a major part of Process Theology. Each time you play the game, the Princess will seem different. It becomes clear that she is not a mere person, but something greater that you can only see one aspect of at a time.

“We are oceans reduced to shallow creeks.”

Am I saying the Princess is God? Maybe? There are a lot of valid interpretations, but this one might track. You’d have to play the game to decide for yourself, but what it comes down to is that her existence is only meaningful in relation to the player. These contrasts fill our lives. In Genesis, God separates the water from the land, yet the two are never truly separate. The world is full of these contrasts that aren’t really in conflict. Matter and energy. Particles and waves. The holy and the broken. The philosopher Heraclitus (thought to be an inspiration for the Gospel of John) was taken by the idea of “unity of opposites.” The player and the Princess are constantly at odds, yet their conflict defines each other.

“There is no constant! There is no center! Everything that is exists only in relation to everything that isn’t!”

And the world around you both also changes depending on how your relationship develops. Sometimes she is powerful and godlike and the cabin becomes a temple, sometimes she is vicious and feral and it becomes a cave. Sometimes you close yourself off to her, sometimes you become so close as to be inseparable.

“Does it matter where one thing begins and another ends?”

There is in fact a sort of theology in the game, a conflict between the Shifting Mound and the Long Quiet. The former is dynamic and impermanent, the latter static and immortal. You have the option of choosing between the two at the end, and neither can be reduced to good or evil. The Quiet is the traditional Platonic view of God as “immortal, unchanging,” while the Mound is the relational God of Process Theology. But the Mound allows for change and growth, while the Quiet promises a sort of eternal dullness. And if God values relationships and growth, the same must be true of us.

*https://www.slaytheprincess.com/ for a trailer and information about how to play. It’s available on Steam now.

[kitkatopinions]

Speaking of characters like Whitley, do you ever wonder why they add so many new characters into the story only to quickly forget about them/kill them off?

I think some of this is a little bit just the nature of shows like RWBY that build in plot and locations. The kids need teachers and classmates at Beacon, not all of them can be orphans and/or only children, there's kids from other schools coming over for the Vytal Tournament, Salem needs to be able to match forces, and each location needs people too, plus on top of that there is a need for threats and drama outside of just supernatural end-of-the-world stuff which gets you characters like Jacques, Cardin, Cordovin, and theoretically Fennec and Corsac and Ilia, etcetera (though those three were part of the wildly bad White Fang arc, so...) The problem comes with giving focus with not a lot of real follow through, leading the story to be far too packed with way too many characters that we as an audience are supposed to care about when it's not going to matter later on.

The main eight and Qrow all have a lot they need done for me to consider this any sort of good, but the show never gives them proper focus, instead just piling on more that needs dealt with (case in point, V9 not actually dealing with anything and instead making Ruby try to commit suicide which will obviously also need lots of focus to get properly worked out.) And on top of that, they seem afraid of giving any proper down time, and they overload the cast by making side characters but then giving them enough focus that they by all rights should also matter from here on in but not enough focus to do more than take attention from the mains (case in point, making Maria and Pietro important enough that they should matter to the mains and/or others but then giving them very little to do and then abandoning them out in the tundra with none of the mains acknowledging their existence. The problem really isn't the number of characters in this show, but rather how the writers handle them. They're very good at packing RWBY full of ideas and concepts and then not giving any of them the proper follow through, and the characters are just another part of that. They brought Neon and Flynt back in V7-8 just to have them fight in the fall of Atlas and who knows if they're even going to be names on a memorial let alone have their deaths matter or impact the mains at all.

And as for killing off some of the characters they introduce, I also wouldn't have a real problem with that if it was better done. Shows like RWBY need a little death, to keep the stakes up, and said deaths should include characters the audience likes and knows or else the stakes aren't high anyway. But RWBY's V7-9 deaths feel more like cheap shock value deaths where they try to introduce (or reintroduce in Penny's case) characters and make them likable and important just to kill them without any real care towards consequences or reactions or whether or not the character was established enough to justify the response in other characters and basically just not having the deaths matter anyway. Clover was speedran into a rushed "friendship" with Qrow just so he could have a giant reaction to Clover's badly orchestrated death, and meanwhile Ironwood's death just happened without it mattering to anyone. Penny and Ruby's reunion and subsequent friendship in V7 was lackluster at best, so it feels even more like she was killed for shock value and for Jaune's stupid arc and then the writers felt no need to even acknowledge the fact that Jaune killed her. Etc. Etc.

This ask kind of just turned into me ranting about this, lol, but yeah, I do wonder why they put so many characters into the story in more significant roles only to ditch them or kill them. I think a big part of it is just because they have to introduce characters but don't know how to just leave them in more bit part roles and always have to try to make them more involved. I also think they keep introducing new characters that they want to make matter because... They really don't seem to have a lot that they want the mains to do but they need to keep things interesting. For instance, Weiss wasn't given much focus in Atlas despite the fact that she should've been heavily in focus during that season, but then they introduced tons of new characters and conflicts to fill the run time.

But also, the RWBY writers have a big 'bigger is better' 'quantity over quality' problem. Just like they introduce big story beats only to forget to treat them with the proper weight or make them have any natural consequences, they introduce lots of characters that they want to be relevant only to get in over their heads. I've said it before and I'll say it again, RWBY's number one selling point is that it's brimming over with so much potential and good ideas, but its biggest problem is that the writers always fumble on execution and don't give any of it the proper treatment or care, and the overly bloated cast is definitely part of that.

[olderthannetfic]

How does one get out of such a cult-like group as with said bnf? Sorry, may not be the most appropriate venue, but you are also the only one I know of entertaining such.

--

Usually, it starts by them waking up and then reaching out for help.

I think many people in a cult-like or abusive situation see someone else's personal account and go "Wait... why does this seem so familiar? Oh shit!"

It isn't always even the same type of toxic thing: A description of an abusive family wakes someone up about their religious group, or a documentary on people leaving self help cults makes someone take another look at their family dynamics.

But very often, they don't wake up right away. Some external force separates them from the person who's warping their thinking. Perhaps they're thrown out or perhaps they try to walk across the border to Canada and are firmly but politely turned away and then forced to call their estranged family. (Seriously, read kumquatwriter's account. It's fucking wild.)

--

If you're asking me for actual concrete advice for yourself, then it depends whom you're trying to rescue.

Rescuing other people rarely works. How far are you willing to go? How much of a right do you have? Kumquatwriter's mother spent years saving money and talking to a therapist, preparing to swoop in the minute the abuser's hold finally faltered, but that's something you do for your child, not your casual internet friend.

Most of the time, if your friend falls in with a bad crowd, you need to cut them loose and leave them to it.

If you're asking about you yourself, then you're not in this same situation at all. Nobody asks about this until the scales have already fallen from their eyes.

If this is what you're after, then I'm guessing the problem is that you have sucky friends, but they have blackmail material on you, and you're afraid to leave because they'll retaliate. The first thing to do is to assess the level of real world danger and take steps to neutralize it. (That would be if they know your employer's phone number or something.) What you should do depends on what kind of dirt they have on you.

If you live with a cult... uh... there are nonprofits that help deal with that kind of thing and I think your problems are above my pay grade, but there are organizations out there that will help you escape. I'm guessing you wouldn't have phrased things as above though.

If the danger is more to your emotional well-being, your online friendships, your fandom reputation, etc., as is commonly the case, then that's emotionally painful but far less complex. You can either slowly withdraw, perhaps using "school's busy" or something as an excuse, or you can burn your current fandom identity and make a new one.

I'd change fandoms for a while if your old friends are really nasty. Turn off anon everywhere. (Actually, most people should do that. Clearly, I don't, but for most people, it's the smarter choice.) In fact, wherever you can, turn on those options where only people you follow can interact with you.

Not relevant to the recent events but highly relevant to many toxic fandom friendship situations: If you've been part of a pack of bullies and/or publicly espoused ideas you now find abhorrent, it's time for a new identity and a fresh start.

Culty shit tries to convince you that outsiders are all Mean and Scary, and one of the first steps is realizing that many people are perfectly nice and won't judge you for being manipulated. But, at the same time, you don't actually owe the world a public performance of leaving the group, and it can be helpful to have a clean break.

Kumquatwriter had some in-person and money shit to apologize for, and I salute her for putting all that out there, but she also did that after some therapy and solid family support, and it took guts.

The vast majority of people who send me asks like this are guilty of no more than posting a few "Bad fiction harms people!" posts and hanging out with assholes in a discord, and most of them have a way worse support network. It takes a pretty robust individual to do their growing and changing in the public eye. In a lot of cases, simply starting over makes more sense.

What you primarily need is space and privacy and then, once you're on firmer ground, some new friendships with some healthier boundaries. Look up people talking about being "ex antis" if you want some examples of how this kind of thing tends to play out.

--

But yes, as I imagine you noticed, I tend to reblog fandom drama of this type because I want people to know what the patterns look like. It's a lot easier to quietly ghost toxic people once you know they're toxic than to figure out that your friend is not your friend in the first place.

I won't say I'm invincible. Nobody is. But my junior high was basically a cult, and it gave me an early inoculation against every creepy self help organization and fandom clique I've run across since.

[valittlecorner]

!? Do Cozmez actually Trust each other !? ☆ (VD predictions)

- Hey! After reading through the lyrics for Trust Nobody, I feel like it's being strongly hinted that Nayuta is getting tired of Kanata's attitude towards certain things while Kanata is very stressed thanks to his PTSD. I believe there's an insane mix of unfortunate events going on that made stuff turn out this way. Even though I can't understand the VD (where are the people who sub those istg) just the overall vibes and lyrics of Trust Nobody lend me to believe this is the case. So let's speculate about what's going on!!

☆ Part #1 ☆ The lack of Trust (based on Trust Nobody lyrics)

- If you pay attention to the subs, it looks like there's a constant discussion going on through the whole song. Every Kanata verse keeps talking about all the stuff they've gone through as brothers, and how he doesn't Trust anyone besides Nayu. While Nayu acknowledges this, he still pretty much says the opposite about Trust. We have quotes from him like:

"It can't be helped that all can't be mutually understood, pushing values and correctness onto each other, there's no way that can be called Trust. As long as we live, there'll be a difference in our strides."

- Nayuta believes there's no trust between him and Kanata, and that's completely normal. They haven't seen each other for 2 years, Kanata had to deal with strong trauma and changed a lot overtime, while Nayuta was pretty much frozen in time and his life just restarted. Nayuta was used to the old Kanata, so he seems to be bothered by current Kanata. I'm guessing Kanata has been very overprotective (as usual) and trying to force some ideas onto him (like for example, try and make him NOT trust anyone but him). I don't think Nayu can measure just how miserable Kanata becomes when they have disagreements, but he does know he usually starts having a breakdown, so he probably doesn't know how to go around it without getting a frustrating outcome (for him) of Kanata leaving him mid sentence or just exploding on his face. This isn't anyone's fault, they just need to talk it out, but considering Kanata's stubbornness, its really hard for Nayu to even try.

☆ Part #2 ☆ The consequences of Fame? (based on VD sample)

***I'm pretty sure the first part is actually happening, but this part is more based on speculation and what I can gather from the VD without subs, take this with a grain of salt.

- For context, the VD sample seems to begin in an interview. The interviewer brings up Buraikan, which annoys the twins, but especially Kanata. After Buraikan mention, interviewer says another thing which greatly offends Kanata and leads him to complain with Nayuta, who tries to calm him down so they can continue, but Kanata just left all together leaving Nayuta by himself. After this, Kanata encounters some fans, featuring a kid and some girl invading his privacy and taking pics. Kanata reacts violently which scares the fans, until Iori comes to the rescue. SO for what I can gather Kanata seems to not be taking the fame too greatly, which can also impact Nayu's annoyance towards his attitude as of late. Kanata's mind must be pretty busy just by dealing with the stress of being with the REAL Nayu, who's a changing human being (not an illusion now) and is way harder to protect of something like that incident happening again and just the outside world, and this with going to interviews that bring out other artists all the time and pretty much ignore Kana's efforts for achieving his dreams + fans harassing him must be really messing with his mental state, which ends up harming Nayu since Kanata seems to be in a terrible mood without Nayuta knowing why. This can also be a factor as to why Kanata acted the way he did and their overall lack of trust, since

Kanata can't trust Nayuta to survive alone and Nayuta can't trust Kanata to let him live and explore by himself.

- Okay so, this is all I have!! We'll see how close I was when the actual VD releases.... Shiver me timbers. I love analysing Kanata but it's 3am so excuse any grammar errors or typos. 😭😭

[qqueenofhades]

out of sheer curiosity, what are your thoughts on (if you've seen it) the movie "the death of stalin"?

I have seen it -- a few times in fact-- and honestly, I think it's brilliant. It plays fairly fast and loose with the history and condenses events over weeks/months into a matter of a few days, but a) it's not presenting itself as a historical documentary by any stretch of the imagination and b) in this case, the black comedy/satire is an especially effective approach. Russian humor, especially political humor, is generally very dark, possibly for obvious reasons, and that fits well in terms of the subject material. Secondly, what it does very well is to demonstrate the essential absurdity of life under an absolute dictatorship run by a guy who can either make a joke with you or kill you (as Nikita Khrushchev, played by Steve Buscemi in the film, had an actual quote about in re: what dinners were like with Stalin, and how you were never exactly sure what was going to happen at the end of the night; he could call a car to take you home or straight to prison).

See, for example, the opening scene where Stalin wants a recording of the performance and they have to all rush around madly, kidnap another orchestra conductor, and shove in people off the street to make the acoustics sound right, because if they don't fulfil the request perfectly, there is a very real chance that they will be sent to the gulag. The depiction of a bunch of random people getting arrested for literally no reason at all (and then hastily un-arrested) is also accurate. The Stalin-era NKVD were literally given target numbers of how many people they were supposed to arrest in any given city or region, regardless of whether those people had done anything wrong. It was a completely arbitrary and nonsensical system run by a man who, thanks to being called "Uncle Joe" in the American press during WWII, is still often generally treated as "not that bad" or less than the equally murderous and capricious dictator that he was.

What this does is to demonstrate the sheerly ludicrous ways in which people are forced to act to please an aging tyrant, and the consequences if they don't. As well, so many movies portray the Nazis/the Red Army/insert stereotypical baddie here as maybe evil, but also cool and competent and dashing and serious and otherwise really good at their job. And that is... not true. Hitler was regarded as a clownish loser both before and while he was in office, the Nazis were losers who also happened to be really good at killing people on an industrial scale, and these glamorous, serious portrayals give them a gravitas they don't deserve.

The saying about the banality of evil is also applicable here: we always want to assume supervillains have some grand complicated intellectual plot, but nope, it's just "kill people, steal their stuff, and take over the world." By treating the last years of Stalin's rule as the shitshow that they were, and exposing the essential absurdity of the Soviet system, the film relentlessly demystifies the idea that authoritarian regimes, despite (or even sometimes seemingly because of) their cruelty, are actually smart, well-organized, or highly functional. Instead, they're just a bunch of corrupt idiot cronies trying to keep their homicidal boss happy, get their share of the pie, stay out of trouble, and so forth, and a film that actually shows them as such, rather than evil but competent and cool and good at their jobs, is particularly relevant in this dangerously once-more-authoritarian-curious day and age.

(Also, of course, Jason Isaacs obviously stole the show.)

[night-market-if]

I feel like the ROs are MCs in their own way where their relationships with each other are just as important as the PCs.

I can see why some people would be annoyed by this because they’re used to IFs where everything is very centered towards the MC/PC, but this IF is not like that and it’s why some people are so bothered by the ROs relationships….but I feel like that just makes them more real??? Like in real life, even if you’re the “Chosen One”, for example, everyone else still has their own lives and agendas and they don’t always include you, the same way most people aren’t going to throw all that away for you.

The tension between Bella and Gabriel is there because it’s personal to them and wouldn’t make sense if there wasn’t any given their situation. Milo and Malcom literally dated and knew each other for years, they never really broke up…Malcom died. There was no real closure, how are you going to expect there to be nothing when Malcom comes back to life??? Both pairs knew each other for so long and were very close, and then weren’t for whatever reason, and now they’re both forced to confront it head-on. Just because you were there for a little while (compared to the amount of time they’re known each other) is not going to magically fix the hurt and/or erase the feelings they have (romantic or not depending on the case).

And that’s the whole point. It’s messy but it’s real and true to life. Their relationships are just as important as yours as the MC/PC, and effect the story just as much.

I hope this came off as I was trying to make it, but it’s just with everyone talking about being jealous (take that word with a grain of salt, I’m not sure how else to describe it) of the ROs relationships with each other…I just had to say something.

This story is so wonderful and awe-worthy. The complexity of everyone’s relationships is just what makes it so much better to me. Keep staying true to your characters <333

I think that was all really well put. I'm not really bothered by people upset or jealous (and like you I will say take that with a grain of salt because I think it is not so cut and dry). This story is different. I don't read a lot of IF's. I am very very aware that I don't have the mechanics of a lot of the more popular ones out there. And when I started looking into making this a bit more like other IF's with stats and what not, I realized I would hate writing that. I'm going to be honest, I probably wouldn't have finished the Night Market if I had to keep track of so much coding and stats. That's not to say I won't do that in the future with another IF's, but Night Market to me feels different. It feels like a world that you are reading about and just looking at what would happen if you turned left instead of right. It's not everyone's cup of tea and that's okay. Mainly, I have a cast of characters (MC is included) and they are all now navigating this problem together. Each of them are bringing baggage to the table. Each of them have different opinions and ideas. And I am much more interested in writing the story that explores that. I'm not in this to lose my passion. This story has brought so much to me at a time that was shaky. I write it for me and am excited when people want to join me on this journey as well.

There are always going to be people who are going to have uncomfortable feelings about how these routes are going to go. I don't devalue how they feel. However, I think the thing to remember as a reader when you feel uncomfortable, it is not up to the author to change that for you. It is up to the individual to remove themselves from the situation, or in some cases, maybe examine why this is something that bothers them so deeply. I can't be a part of that. I'm telling a story.