#i will reread it... sometime.. with the respect it ???????? deserves? does it deserve respect. i think it deserves a little at least surely

[wyverncult]

goodnight

[foodsies4me]

March Malec fic rec!

A very big thank you to @just-add-butter for this month's suggestion: Animal transformations! As usual, I'm keeping it to one fic per author, bust several of these authors have multiple fics that apply and even more fics that are wonderful. And, if you want to add you own recs in the replies, tags or reblogs please feel free to do so! (Also if someone has a theme for April please tell me so I can get that list out a bit sooner than at the very end of the month, lol)

I have tagged the authors whose Tumblr account I know, but if you'd prefer I not tag you, please tell me so! I don't want these to be annoying for the authors.

One-shots:

Hop into my arms by @malecfan09: Magnus gets turned into a bunny and it's adorable, what more do you want me to say? This is just fluff, fluff and more fluff.

Summary

Magnus has been magically turned into a bunny by a rogue warlock and Alec looks after him until the spell wears off. *** Flufftober 2023: Day 18 - protecting and Day 20- reading together

Shake Your Fetters Loose by Dreadwyrms: Alec gets turned into a dog and Magnus is NOT a dog person. Post canon with married Malec and again lots of fluff.

Summary:

An investigation into a rogue warlock goes very, very wrong, and Magnus learns he’ll never ever really be a dog person. AKA the one in which Alec accidentally gets turned into a dog.

Everybody (does not) want to be a cat by Falazure: One of the many, many Magnus or Alec get turned into a cat fics on this list.

Summary:

Magnus has suffered worse things in his long life, but being turned into a cat was still up-there on the list of rather annoying inconveniences.

Deepest desires (give in) by @myulalie: Another kitty Magnus fic based on a drawing by @misawkward.

Summary:

Were-cats are good luck by shadowhunters' standards, so when a black, jewelry covered cat appears at the Institute, Alec pays him his respects. He needs it, considering the messes Clary and Jace keep dragging him in. Alec certainly doesn't expect the were-cat to take a liking to him, and even less to start flirting with him...

the catastrophe of success by @alexanderlightweight: A personal favourite Magnus cat fic of mine!

Summary:

Magnus Bane was the most eligible bachelor in the Downworld, sought after by everyone from mundanes to Seelie Princes but a man tired after centuries of heartbreak. In an attempt to gain a respite from his admirers, Magnus proposed a deal. A key to his loft and a path through his wards guarded by his cat, if anyone managed to take the key, Magnus would grant them a date.

Multi-chapter fics or series:

The dragon!Alec series by @to-the-stars-writing, who is perhaps the queen of the dragon Alec fics. I have read and reread every single one of them.

Summary of Building a Clan (aka part one in this series)

Keeping secrets was never easy. Alec should know – he was keeping quite a few. Sometimes it was hard to remember who knew what secrets. The chance of slipping up, the damage that could cause, was unthinkable. There were too many things about himself that he couldn’t let just anyone know. Too many things that marked him as wrong or different, even if he didn’t understand why sometimes. His family were the only ones to know his biggest secret, one that could get him killed if he wasn’t careful. Bad enough that his parents had once been a part of the Circle and extremely close to Valentine himself. If any Shadowhunters – or, Angel forbid, the Clave – ever found out that Maryse had allowed Valentine to inject her with something, mixing what she’d been told was more Angel blood with her unborn child, the ramifications could be catastrophic for their family. More so if they ever found out it wasn’t Angel blood that he’d injected the fetus with. It was dragon blood.

The Warlock's Cat by @dreaming-marchling, which I already put on my end-of-the-year rec list, but it deserves to be here again because So Good. Kitty Alec fic!

Summary

Pain raced up his arm. It was a sharp throb that radiated out. More than a broken bone. When Alec went to flex his hand to see how bad it was he couldn’t. His eyes snapped to his own hand and there was no hand. There was no him. By the Angel… Alec scrambled up on uncoordinated legs – too many legs! – that trembled underneath him. He panted and looked down at himself as best he could. Dark fur. Two paws, one still scorching with pain. The ground not even a foot below him even though he was standing as tall as he could. Reality was screaming at him and Alec couldn’t accept it. His brain couldn’t wrap itself around what was in front of him. That bastard had turned him into a cat.

Shoelaces and Precious Metals by @violet-renegade: Another dragon!Alec fic that is angsty and sweet and just a very nice read.

Summary

Magnus loves Alexander, his proud dragon Shadowhunter, and he knows that Shadowhunters don't display their relationships with collars the way Downworlders do. Magnus always thought he understood what that meant for him and Alec. As it turns out, Magnus didn't understand at all In the early months of their relationship, Alec had let himself wonder about what kind of collar Magnus might offer him. Sometimes, he'd even indulge in the thought that Magnus would coordinate Alec’s collars with his own outfit, marking it clear who Alec belonged to every time they went out. And then Magnus doesn't ask. And doesn't ask. And doesn't ask.

Hearth and Home by @molly_jae: And another Dragon!Alec fic. Yes there are a lot of dragon fics!

Summary of Ichor and Cuddles which is the first part in this two-part series:

“Alexander, I love you,” Magnus sighs, throwing his head back with a thud against the hardwood floor. “But unlike your lovely scales, ichor does not just slide off my limited edition Marc Jacobs jacket, or these pants you love to see my ass in.”

The Warlock's Familiar by @harkasun: Another cat!Alec fic!

Summary:

For over five years, Alec Lightwood has been denied his birth right: that of a familiar to be claimed by a warlock. When he finally finds that warlock, having talked him down from the ledge of Brooklyn Bridge, he despairs to find that the man wants nothing to do with him. With rising pressures from his family, and his warlock’s steadfast determination to shut him out, Alec must talk his way into Magnus’s home and heart. The only question is: how far will he go to claim his fate?

[admirableadmiranda]

Since they seem to be a hot topic, what is your opinion of Lan Xichen, Lan Qiren, and Jiang Yanli?

Like personally they rub me a wrong way to varying degrees. Not because they are bad people but mostly little things. I will admit that I have to reread the book, so fics and meta might be coloring my view. Anyway, what are your thoughts on them?

Hi! Thank you for waiting for me to answer this, since they are often such hot topics I had to wait for a day in which I was prepared for dissent in my notes to answer.

This got quite a bit longer than intended, so cutting for length.

In order of your listing of them:

Lan Xichen:

I think that he is a great character, I quite enjoy his personality type, his virtues and his flaws. He is a man who wants to do well in the world and does his best to treat those he knows with equal respect without being blinded by what others say about them. Unfortunately this creates a double edged sword as he will only accept his own opinion and that of those he trusts implicitly on matters, and he is not the best judge of character in the world, thus leaving him open to manipulation in a way that can cause a lot of harm given his position.

I do think he's a much better person than many of his generation and almost everyone of the previous generation. He has his flaws and blindspots, but he does not resist changing in the same way they do. Of every clan leader we see in the narrative, he is the only one who makes the effort to choose differently in the present over the past. His flaws do not doom him to death in the same way that it does so many others and in the end, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji do not give up on him, both of them considering him and worrying about him in their own way.

Lan Xichen makes a point of calling Wei Wuxian Wei-gongzi at all times, even when others around them refer to him with much worse and rude terms. He treats Jin Guangyao with genuine respect and tries to use his own attitude and treatment of Jin Guangyao to shame others into treating him better when they do shun him simply for being of lower rank and who his mother is, and he maintains this even when they aren't around. Considering the amount of people who cannot do this to their faces, that says something about how he wants to treat people in general. It is simply that his blind spot of wanting to trust those he knows to be good as well causes a lot of incidental harm, which he knows and will have to live with. I think he's an excellent character and does not deserve the treatment he sometimes gets from fandom. I can understand more passive trusting characters who want to care for those around them not always vibing well with someone, but it really irks me to see such traits praised in one character and bashed in another, such as those who bash Jiang Yanli for them while praising Lan Xichen and vice versa.

Lan Qiren

In all honestly, Lan Qiren is a character who how sympathetic I am to him really depends on the work and the timeline. In MDZS proper, he's kind of a toad, he very much is the negative side of conservatism, who holds grudges against the children of people that he disliked when he met them and allows his rigidity and stubbornness to color every interaction he has. He very much does cause unnecessary problems and he deserves whatever Wei Wuxian wants to throw his way in the end for refusing to let go of old bitterness and move forward.

However, there are a few areas in which even in MDZS proper I can feel sympathetic to him. His older brother was the pride and joy of the Lan Clan, their heir who would be the next leader after their father stepped down/passed away depending on which came first, but due to the snarled mess with Madam Lan and the decisions that they kept secret to just the two of them to the end of their days, he is pushed into a position that simultaneously never should have been his and is not truly his to have. He is saddled with the responsibility of leading and running their clan while his brother is in seclusion, yet he is only acting clan leader, lacking the true power of the title and ability to act as he needs while his brother remains in seclusion and as clan leader at the same time. That couldn't have been an easy bridge to walk and I do sympathize with him for that. He probably would have been a happier man in a world where he could have gone and lived the life he enjoyed without having to step up where others faltered for decades.

However, that is not an excuse to take it out on children, and my sympathies end there.

Jiang Yanli:

Jiang Yanli is a sweetie who has done the best she can in a world that leaves her little room to impact anything. She's a gentle soul, someone who prefers to lead a quiet life with the people she cares about, raised in an abusive household that she was born into. Such a thing always marks people's souls when they have to survive from the first things they can remember. She is in an engagement where her betrothed treats her terribly, where her mother transparently does not care about her outside of using her to hurt the people she loves and there is not much she can do about it beyond what she does, shielding Wei Wuxian, caring for Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng and speaking up in their defense to outsiders who would hurt them.

She isn't perfect, no one in this novel is, but she really does want to do well by the people she cares about and she goes so far to try and help Wei Wuxian when Jiang Cheng won't, even facing down Jin Zixun and everyone around him to demand apologies and respect when they insist on demeaning him, up to the point where she chooses to save Wei Wuxian's life even after he killed Jin Zixuan and she doesn't know why. She doesn't have to know why to know that she still wants him to live. There is a reason why her positive influence is so important and it's that which leads Wei Wuxian to start helping and caring for her son who has been raised so poorly, knowing that she would want better for Jin Ling and resolving to step up for him in her absence.

In a world which frequently demeans kindness, she chooses it over violence and hatred as her mother and brother would not. She deserves better than what she got, and in a good world, Wei Wuxian would get to keep the girl who chose him as her brother even when the rest of the world refused to respect that. I really like her.

In short, I guess I like all of them for being the characters they are and can see them as well rounded characters with their own weaknesses and flaws. Lan Qiren I care about far less than the other two, but I actually really like Jiang Yanli and Lan Xichen and would rate them up quite highly together (and ship them for a much happier pairing for Jiang Yanli). Jiang Yanli and Lan Xichen are very similar in character in many ways, and I think to demean one for traits the other has is to not respect either of them.

But that's just me, of course. I know that I can write as many words as I want and still people will disagree with me. As long as they give me the right to keep my opinions as well instead of trying to convince me out of them, we can still get along just fine.

Thanks for the ask! And thanks again for your patience too.

[wacky-nameless-inventor-24]

Does Akita try to get revenge against Gyro in your new au? And does he try to get Boyd back under his control? 👀

Also, would you say one of the biggest differences between this Mads and your main 2017 one is that he doesn't have the clone loyalty (turned love/obsession)? And would you say that makes this Mads even more irredeemable, and with less limits?

Allllsoooo, were you inspired by the song 'Partner In Crime' for Mads teaming up with Akita (which you've strongly hinted does not go well for Mads)?

Aaaaannnnnd, if you can answer this, what would you say is the biggest difference between how this clone feels nobody takes him seriously and how Gyro feels/felt the same about himself? And does Mads try to recruit Gyro, like "Join me, darling, you know what it feels like to be misunderstood and overlooked by everyone, even Scrooge! We'll be the perfect pair, and together we'll get the respect we deserve!" (like your main version of Mads in your series).

Yes, he does! And we'll seeeeeeeee 👀

Yeah, most likely! Mads in this AU just... really doesn't care about Gyro? Like at all? Yeah they'll yell at him sometimes about how he can't understand their clone angst, but there isn't much beyond that. They also do have less clone angst- they've been able to separate themself from Gyro entirely so they don't care when other people call them a clone (derogatory). XD It's enough for them to know they're separate and that's it. And this Mads is more silly and less threatening/genuinely evil, so yeah it gives them less limits but also they don't do much to make themself irredeemable.

I wasn't, actually! I was rereading old fenro fics and came across one about Akita and it just turned into this. XD Though it's funny that this au started the same time I first heard that song ssldkjfdlskj

Oh, probably quite similar! I haven't developed this one's feelings about that much, but yeah I think that's a good start to figuring that out is relating it to how Gyro feels under appreciated. No, they don't, like I said they really don't care about him much. XD

[jackienautism]

I just saw that post about your thoughts on the counselors and I'm curious, have there been any major changes since then?

i just skimmed the post youre talking abt (i write a lot huh) but honestly? i haven't had TOO many major changes since. JUST REALIZED ITS COMING UP TO AYEAR SINCE I POSTED IT IN MAY? THATS SO CRAZY TO ME WTF but anyway

nvm ill read through exactly what i said. the post is here btw

dylan: still pretty much the same opinion as back then LMAO i did have a more recent convo abt dylan (which def changed some thoughts abt him. esp related to his potential adhd and lack of a filter) but i stilll don't like him, sorry

nick: same thoughts as before honestly. i still think he doesn't deserve abi in the slightest. and his involvement w/ emma's dare still makes me very upset, ESP when the fanbase refuses to acknowledge his involvement in it lol. i dont doubt that racism comes into play w/ nick and his whole lack of a story and such, but i jut. i cant stand him

jacob: i take back the flip flop thing btw. i lowkey cant stand him. but to be honest:? ive gotten WAAAY less tolerant of male characters in general lately. and jacob is not exempt from this lol. i have yet to play TQ again (it's been quite a bit) but! maybe after we play tonight things will change. ill prob rb again if things do

ryan: HOWEVER. DO YOU KNOW /IS/ EXEMPT FROM MY "I HATE ALL MALE CHARACTERS" MINDSET? RYAN ERZAHLER. 100%. i love him lots and ppl r very mean to him fo r no reason. i talked abt this briefly in my angourie!cady post but just. when characters show certain autistic traits that YOU ALL cant deal w/ or understand, suddenly theyre a shitty person? they don't care abt their friends? theyre boring? KILLS YOU

max: he also is a pretty respectable guy to me i love you max. but as i said originally. i dont rly think abt him much

emma: she def had the biggest shift for me while playing the game for the first time!!!!! but in terms of like. if anything changed from when i wrote the original note? i dont rly think so tbh. reread waht i wrot eback then it rly makes it seem like i hate her 😭😭😭😭😭 I PROMISE I DONT..... I ACTUALLY LOVE HER SO MUCH...... SHE MEANS A LOT TO ME....... i just cant stand how she acts towards abi sometimes. def my biggest criticism of her. but at the same time. i understand WHY she acts the way she does. she means sooo muchto me. and esp seeing all your talk abt autistic emma? i just think that makes sooo much sense fo rher.and i LOVE it so much

kaitlyn: i dont even feel lik e going throuhg it all but. i feel like she may have gotten a little lower since i wrote that post? just bc i tjhink toooo many ppl think shes better than she actually is bc of her association w/ dylan? it pisses me off sooooo bad. and ive made posts abt this before but like. her character in general still aggravates me 😭 and i DO still stand by what i said in that og post. theres jsut... shes not that complex sorry guys. esp compared to EMILY? lLIKE. i know its unfair to compare the 2 but its pretty damn obvious that thye were going for another emily in kaitlyn lmao and they FAILED. MISERABLY

abi: oh.. abi oh abi i love you. i still hold her so close to me. she is so me for real (beats anyone up who says tjhat she's Them) i mean who said that

laura: LOVE U LAURA!!!!!!!!! i still dont have like TOO many in depth thouhgts abt her but just. know ever since i began roleplaying as her shes become THAT much more beloved and :] i love you girl

THAJK YOU FOR SENIDNG THIS IN!!!! AND SORRY FOR TAKING A BIT TO ANSWER

[markantonys]

towers of midnight prologue-chapter 16

the opening quote is from loial’s book about rand!!!! which must therefore get finished and published!! i feel like a proud mother!!!

graendal DID escape! you can’t keep a girlboss down. i suspected she might have because it seemed too anticlimactic an end and No Body No Death (honestly i kept suspecting sammael wasn’t really gonna be dead since iirc rand balefired him from somewhat of a distance and didn’t really see him go down, but then i think moridin confirmed that sammael was balefired and is beyond resurrection), but i wasn’t sure how it could’ve been possible - turned out that it was actually aran’gar and delana who did the compulsion on the guy rand sent in and they were balefired, thus undoing the compulsion.

i love how everyone keeps saying “we must march for the last battle” and then they just set right out for it. like, where are you going? nobody sent out invites for the date, time, and place of the last battle. are y’all just gonna show up at shayol ghul and hope for the best?

we catch up with galad, who’s leading 7,000 whitecloaks through a swamp. “i refuse to feel [the swamp’s] bite, for i am proud.” proud of being a fuckin whitecloak?

“valda’s misdeeds had tarnished the entire order.” you mean more than they’d already tarnished themselves by being a whole organization dedicated to persecuting channelers?

“doing what was right was the most important thing in life.” then why are you a fuckin whitecloak?

“the children have met...hostility [in andor].” as they should!

“light send that elayne held the lion throne.” she does and she will kick you and your friends’ asses for being fuckin whitecloaks. good luck getting sanctuary from her!

okay it’s out of my system now. (update from rereading this after having finished writing the whole post: [narrator voice] it was not out of her system.) i do like galad but i think that he deserves 100x more bullying than gawyn does and yet he gets 100x less, so i have to even it out!

but for some equal opportunity bullying: “light send that [elayne] had escaped the tangles of the aes sedai, though he feared the worst.” trakand brothers realize that elayne is an intelligent adult capable of making her own decisions challenge.

“there were many who would use her as a pawn, al’thor not the least of them.” hey! show your double brother (half-brother and brother-in-law) some respect! “she was headstrong and that could make her easy to manipulate.” as opposed to you, galad, the absolute pinnacle of wisdom and worldliness. i’m certain nobody has ever found YOU easy to manipulate!

“to abandon the children now, after killing their leader, would be wrong.” actually it would be right because then they would be in chaos and could be wiped out! “it’s as simple as that to you, isn’t it?” “it should be as simple as that to anyone.” well SOMETIMES i like galad, other times he is too holier-than-thou for my tastes. lawful good characters don’t tend to be my cup of tea. or lawful anything characters. i love my neutrals and chaotics.

in conclusion, i’m here to report Yet Again that everything about galad’s whitecloak storyline hits VERY different for a show-first person, and i’m wondering how the show could ever make the audience not despise him for the rest of the show’s run after he joins them lmao that’ll be interesting to see. like, i can only retain respect and affection for book!galad by separating the book!whitecloaks (largely nonthreatening buffoons with a hidden evil sector that galad didn’t find out about until much later) from the show!whitecloaks - who might be set up in that same way where galad and the average whitecloak is unaware of valda and co’s crimes, but since the audience was introduced to valda and co first and not “regular” whitecloaks, that’ll be a hard sell.

fain pov talks about Worms. what the fuck are these Worms. i don’t want to know but i will surely find out soon.

i almost forgot that fain got the dagger from the tower and still has it. so maybe mat’s dagger plotline does indeed have more left to come! i kinda wish it was already wrapped up tho, mat has too much on his plate (despite having spent several books dicking around on a circus roadtrip). rj planning the books was like “rand gets the chosen one storyline and all it entails, mat gets the dagger and the horn of valere and luck and ancient memories and military strategy skills and a whole army and the aelfinn & eelfinn and the seanchan and a prophecy hero/villain romance, perrin gets uhhhh [shuffles through notes to see what’s left] wolves i guess” lmao i would love it if the show took the same approach as @butterflydm​’s fic series and gave the horn to perrin (since it seems he’ll be on the hunt for the horn in s2 and mat won’t) because mat has way too many Things going on and should offload some to perrin who doesn’t have enough! but idk how likely that is since i think the average book fan would riot if show!mat didn’t get to blow the horn (which, okay i’m sure it’ll be relevant again at the last battle and maybe i’ll eat my words then, but so far it’s been such a tiny part of mat’s storyline that i don’t understand why people are so attached to it)

me: ugh i don’t care about this random farmer me finding out that this random farmer was the guy who gave rand and mat a ride on his cart during the Great Cauthor Roadtrip:

as seen here and with hurin’s reappearance last book, all you have to do to get an emotional reaction out of me is to connect something to The Good Old Days!

rand’s giving some real jesus vibes in this scene. just wandering up out of nowhere dressed in ragged clothes, causing miracles, dropping some cryptic yet comforting words of wisdom for the times ahead, making those who see him feel oddly safe and at peace.

but god rand is so funny here. the farmer’s like hey did you get lost in the mountains and rand says, “no. i’m not lost. finally. it feels like a great long time since i’ve understood the path before me.” and then the farmer says that if rand was hoping to hunt then he went the wrong way because there’s nothing back there of use and rand says, “i wouldn’t say that. there are always things of use around, if you look closely enough. you can’t stare at them too long. to learn but not be overwhelmed, that is the balance.” like bro jdkjfgh you need some refresher lessons in how to interact with normal people in a normal way. he went from darth rand straight to jesus rand and did not stop on any middle ground.

“you’re him, aren’t you? the one they’re talking about?” “it is likely. men are often speaking of me.” because men are obsessed with him and want to fuck him and he knows it.

“meeting those eyes, almen felt a strange sense of peace.” just the opposite of how everybody felt meeting rand’s eyes pre-epiphany!

galad wakes up imprisoned in asunawa’s camp and discovers that - offscreen - asunawa & co have been murdered by whitecloaks loyal to galad and he is now officially lord captain commander. too easy a victory but the last battle is coming so things have gotta move along.

“galad didn’t feel wise or strong enough to bear the title he did.” as if lord captain commander of the whitecloaks is a title that deserves any respect whatsoever. “but the children had made their decision. the light would protect them for it.” no actually i hope the light DOESN’T protect them.

i continue to be frustrated that galad’s “joining an organization whose entire ideology is based around considering people like his mother and sister darkfriends who must be eradicated” plotline resolved in “galad leading that organization and handily removing the few corrupt guys whereas the rest are good actually” instead of “galad realizes the entire organization is fucked up and destroys it from the inside” but whatever

i WILL say that later on perrin notes that all the “good” whitecloaks do smell rabid/crazy/whatever and galad is The Only One who smells normal, so maaaaaaaaybe there is still hope for galad to finally wake up the rest of the way and destroy the organization for good? but i won’t hold my breath.

“[egwene] stepped into her dream, and into [gawyn’s] embrace. they stood in a small stone-walled room shaped like her study in the tower, yet decorated like the common room of her father’s inn. gawyn was dressed in sturdy two rivers woolens and did not wear his sword. a more simple life. it could not be hers, but she could dream...” 😭 egwene has always been the most ready, nay EAGER, of the ef5 to accept her duty and leave dreams of a simple life behind, so it really Gets me when she feels wistful for that simple life!

egwene has a prophetic dream that tells her that something terrible could happen if she doesn’t find mesaana and stop her. i could’ve told you that without a prophetic dream jdfkg

saerin has a scar on her face whose origins she’s never been willing to explain. mesaana???

RAND IS AT THE TOWER TO SEE EGWENE!!!!!! REUNION TIME!!!!

apparently siuan has the Talent of seeing ta’veren? did we know that already? then why didn’t she make moiraine become amyrlin and go dragon reborn hunting herself if she can see ta’veren so easily?

upon finding out siuan bonded bryne as a warder, rand’s only response is “elayne will be interested to hear of that.” ❤️❤️

rand asks what kind of amyrlin egwene is: “‘she’s an incredible one,’ siuan said. ‘one of the greatest we’ve had, for all the fact that she’s only held the seat a short time.’ he smiled again. ‘i should have expected nothing less.’” ❤️❤️❤️

rand gets a mysterious sealed letter from an aes sedai named tiana. oh my god i bet it’s another one of the mysterious For Reeling In Ta’veren letters from verin like the one she gave mat!!! i can only conclude that rand’s instructions from verin will be “marry mat” just as mat’s will be “marry rand”

“‘rand,’ egwene said, softening her tone. ‘i’m going to have some sisters talk to you to determine if there is anything...wrong with you. please try to understand.’” egwene talks to rand for 10 seconds and immediately realizes he needs to see a mental health professional jkfg god bless her

“there didn’t seem to be madness in his eyes. she knew those eyes. she knew rand. light, she thought. i’m wrong. i can’t think of him only as the dragon reborn. i’m here for a reason. he’s here for a reason. to me, he must be rand. because rand can be trusted, while the dragon reborn must be feared.” ❤️❤️❤️

“she looked at him and remembered the youth that he had been. the earnest young man. not solemn like perrin, but not wild like mat. solid, straightforward. the type of man you could trust with anything. even the fate of the world.” ❤️❤️❤️

overall, the reunion was far more positive than i had feared! egwene’s recent empathy for and understanding of rand has carried through to seeing him again in person, and Jesus Rand was very calm and respectful of egwene’s authority and of being in her center of power. the only snag was that rand told her he’s going to break the seals and needs her help, and egwene understandably thinks that’s a horrible idea (especially since rand was just like “we’re gonna break the seals and replace them, but i have no idea how to do this. figure it out by next month. bye!” lmao no wonder egwene is skeptical). could be setting up for a larger clash later. but i’m excited at the prospect of male and female channelers fiiiiinally working together!! the dragon reborn and the amyrlin seat!! my foils and co-protagonists!! and oooh egwene knows how to make cuendillar so maybe she can make new seals for the prison when they clear away the old ones!

“‘[rand] might be persuaded [against breaking the seals] by people that he trusts.’ or he might be forced to change his mind if confronted by a large enough group united to stop him. it was now more vital that she speak with elayne and nynaeve.” bold of you to assume that the narrative will ever grant elayne 5 minutes to talk to rand, egwene 😔

“‘but the witches are evil!’ ‘perhaps,’ galad said. once, he might have denied that. but listening to the other Children, and considering what those at tar valon had done to his sister, was making him think he might be too soft on the aes sedai.” forget what i said about liking galad, he sucks actually. he had his day in the sun when he killed valda and then immediately squandered my affections.

“the questioners are at fault.” “part of the blame is theirs. but it is also because those who would do evil look with disgust and resentment upon those who stand for what is right.” oh, there i was thinking galad was about to admit that the non-questioner whitecloaks also share blame, but no, of course, it is the fault of evildoers who resent them for being so pure and good! once again, coming from my show-first impression of whitecloaks, it’s just sickening to read a “good” guy saying this shit about them and believing it wholeheartedly.

and he has THE NERVE to cite helpful lessons from morgase when he knows full well that the whitecloaks see her as a darkfriend!!!

“we follow no queen or king.” “yes, and that frightens monarchs. i grew up in the court of andor. i know how my mother regarded the Children.” i think. maybe. just a hypothesis. but MAYBE morgase hated the whitecloaks because they are dedicated to persecuting women like her and her daughter, not just because they don’t report to any monarch. JUST a THOUGHT here, galad.

“my mother was no darkfriend.” “excepting her, of course.” of course galad is not prejudiced against channelers! his mom is a channeler and he likes her, thank you very much! it’s just all the other ones who are darkfriends!

“and yet there was such a thing as being too zealous.” galad saying that about someone else, bitch look in a mirror!

can’t believe GAWYN is the hated trakand boy. his only crime is being kinda dumb! at least he never joined a religious extremist group and grew to genuinely believe all their bullshit! at least he only thinks aes sedai are annoying and untrustworthy, not straight up evil! fuck galad all my homies hate galad. i hope elayne and morgase beat his ass if/when they see him again.

thankfully, we now return to the superior trakand boy. he is investigating a string of murders in the white tower which egwene later reveals are most likely mesaana’s work. gawyn describes a man as handsome without adding “to women” to qualify it #BiGawynRights

the handsome man is the captain of the tower guard who seems hostile to gawyn in a way gawyn doesn’t understand, but then he figures out that the guy feels threatened that gawyn’s gunning for his job and so gawyn takes a moment to let him know, in a subtle way that won’t reveal gawyn’s noticed he’s insecure or anything, that all he wants is to be egwene’s warder. respectful king!

“gawyn forced himself to keep his temper. once, that hadn’t been nearly so hard.” rand parallels!

speaking of rand, “in his heart, gawyn wanted to meet al’thor with sword in hand and ram steel through him, dragon reborn or not.” [michael scott voice] that’s what she said. “al’thor would rip you apart with the one power, he told himself. you’re being foolish, gawyn trakand. his hatred of al’thor continued to smolder anyway.” smoooooolder. i want you all to know that gawyn is smoooooldering and unable to think straight on account of rand. gawyn wants his Homoerotic Duel with rand so bad and yet if/when they actually meet rand’s just gonna be like “aw hello brother-in-law!” and not care at all. funniest dynamic in the world.

i suppose i can see why people think the gawyn romance is a waste of egwene’s time and only hinders the Hot Girl Shit she’s trying to accomplish, but i for one enjoy it and find it very interesting! i like seeing a different side to our resident Career Woman, seeing how she struggles to balance her personal and professional lives. heart vs. duty is a theme i’m all about! i agree that not every character and particularly not every female character needs a love interest, but i also hate the modern-day fandom narrative (not necessarily WOT fandom, but in general) that Strong Female Characters™ are made less by having love interests. and like, it is so clearly gawyn who is egwene’s love interest and not the reverse jkfjg so that’s excellent. and also, after seeing how SOME characters in this series just roll over for their love interest and become an entirely different person to please them (sideeyes min and mat), it’s refreshing to see egwene and gawyn both refusing to compromise on who they are and what they want, even if it would make getting into a relationship with the other person easier. so much of this is exactly what we could and should have gotten with rand and elayne, with all their political clashes and sometimes-conflicting duties and burdens of leadership and issues of wearing one face in private and another in public (“the amyrlin cannot be served by those who refuse to see her authority” “but isn’t it important to have people who know you for yourself and not the title?”), so i’m glad to get it here since i was deprived of it for randlayne.

graendal is now hiding out in a dank cave. “everyone knew that graendal could not stand a lack of luxury. that was true. but the best part about being predictable was that it allowed you to do the unexpected.” once again i am saying that graendal is the stealth most competent and dangerous forsaken (except for moridin i guess). female characters who make everyone think they’re just dumb bimbos but are secretly incredibly cunning are my kryptonite! unfortunate for rand that he didn’t actually kill her, but story-wise i’m glad a bad bitch didn’t go down so easily and anticlimactically!

graendal talking about the Pain Of Soul that rand’s balefiring of the whole fortress will cause him: “semirhage had been corrupt to the bone from the start. but others of them had taken different paths to the shadow, including ishamael. she could see the memories, so distant, in moridin’s eyes...yes, he knew exactly what al’thor was feeling.” is this a crumb of Ishamael Tragic Backstory???? man i reeeaaaaaally hope the show does a lot more with forsaken backstories and actually shows us what they were like before they became evil, and especially their friendships with lews therin and the pain of that betrayal. i want my feelings to be hurt!

“it will break al’thor, ruin him, if he loses aybara.” aww even the shadow knows they’re besties 🥺

“during the first weeks following her silent abdication, she’d hoped to find a way to return to andor, so she could be a resource for elayne. however, the more she’d considered it, the more she’d realized that she had to stay away. everyone in andor had to assume that morgase was dead. each queen had to make her own way, and elayne might seem a puppet to her own mother if morgase returned. beyond that, morgase had made many enemies before leaving.” noooooo i need my full morgase-elayne-gawyn reunion!!!! (i have rescinded galad's invite to the family reunion, and he doesn’t deserve to be rand’s brother either)

it’s so heartbreaking that morgase still has no idea that gaebril was a forsaken and that she was under compulsion, and thinks just the same as everyone else that she only became a fool for a man

lan being followed by the other borderlanders nynaeve sent after him:

“trollocs in the two rivers?” it’s more likely than you think

we’re setting up to finally resolve perrin vs. the whitecloaks and i truly could not care less. oh, i should mention that perrin’s had quite a bit of pov so far and i just haven’t commented on it bc i have absolutely nothing to say about it jkfg i know some people love the wolf stuff but i was never into it, to me perrin’s wolves and whitecloaks plotlines are just about as boring as the faile kidnapping plotline.

number of women whom mat, in this one chapter alone, spends a paragraph describing how hot they are and then hastily reassuring us that he has no interest in them since he’s a married man now and claiming that he’s only checking them out in order to be a wingman for various friends who aren’t even with him at the moment: 4. he’s gonna cheat on tuon so fast it’s unreal, and good for him

“mat would have given her his best smile - there was not a woman he had met who did not melt for his best smile” not mat doing the exact same thing he complains that elayne allegedly always does! i love it

“he had sent word to [elayne] but had not gotten a reply. how was that for gratitude? by his count, he had saved her life twice. once should have been enough to reduce her to tears and kisses, but he had not seen even a peck on the cheek. not that he wanted one.” JSKDJFGK mat is SO desperate for kisses from elayne!! and so sulky that he has yet to receive any! don’t worry mat, she AND rand are very appreciative of you and will both give you so many kisses when you see them again.

“there was no avoiding royalty now! not for him. at least tuon was pretty. and good at playing stones. and very keen of wit, good for talking to” mat, have you considered: elayne is all of those things as well and also has the advantage of not being evil? also lmao at mat claiming tuon is good to talk to??? footage not found

“that siege was over now, and a new queen - the right queen - held the throne.” mat would have been elayne’s #1 supporter and her loyal captain-general i’m so mad!!

“for once, there had been a battle and he had missed it...an entire war had been fought over the lion throne, and not one arrow, blade, or spear had entered the conflict seeking matrim cauthon’s heart.” now you’re just rubbing it in that mat Should Have Been part of that plotline but wasn’t!

mat and thom are wondering who could possibly make them a gateway to the tower of ghenjei if verin doesn’t come back. elayne is right here! you know she can make gateways! tho of course at the current moment elayne hasn’t replied to mat’s letters and he’s fretting that she might never invite him to talk to her.

“for an aes sedai, i kind of like verin” awww mat!

“talking to [norry, who’d given the band permission to camp near caemlyn] meant elayne knew mat was here. she had to. but she had sent no greetings, no acknowledgment that she owed mat her skin.” mat is so desperate to see her!

“he had a slight fondness for teslyn, against his better judgment” “‘remember, should you ever come to the white tower, you do have women there who are in your debt, matrim cauthon. i do not forget.’ he took [teslyn’s] hand. it felt as bony as it looked, but it was warmer than he had expected. some aes sedai had ice running in their veins, that was for certain. but others were not so bad.” awww mat! and he offers her extra horses after having made a big stink about not giving the aes sedai extra horses in the last book! it’s a shame the aes sedai are leaving just when mat’s attitude towards them has become bearable lmao

and teslyn weaves air to fly mat out of the gholam’s reach (he’d taken off his medallion to try hitting the gholam with it) and he’s not even That scared about being touched by the power!

the gholam: [threatens to kill tuon] me: oh my god PLEASE do

mat mourns and feels guilty for the band members who died because the gholam was trying to get to him, and they aren’t even women!

“[one of joline’s warders] always seemed to be looking for someone to murder; each conversation with him was an interview to see if you fit the criteria.” LMAO sanderson’s mat does come up with the best descriptions of people

“are you going to swear at [elayne] too?” “of course i am. how else is she going to trust that [the letter] is really from me?” true love ❤️❤️

perrin’s asha’man are learning how to link with aes sedai. “grady had mentioned that creating a circle this way seemed to require the men to gain control over the women.” of course it does 🙄 why? literally give me one good reason why saidin-saidar circles would only work with a man in control.

“‘my lord, the taint is gone. i’m not going to go mad. that means...well, i always had a reason to fight. but now i’ve got a reason to live, too.’ looking into the man’s eyes, perrin understood. what must it have been like? knowing that you’d eventually go mad and need to be executed. likely by your friends, who would call it a mercy. that was what perrin had sensed in the asha’man all along, the reason they held themselves apart, often seeming so somber. everyone else fought for life. the asha’man...they’d fought to die. that’s how rand feels, perrin thought.” 😭😭😭 once again i am saying No, You’re Wrong, Non-Min-And-Nynaeve Characters Do Care About Rand Actually, They Just Aren’t Allowed To Spend Time With Him

“bornhald looked at him. ‘it is you. the light has delivered you to us.’ ‘unless it has also delivered you an army three or four times the size of the one you have now,’ perrin called, ‘then i doubt very much that it will matter.’” JSKDFJ perrin’s best clapback to date

perrin, upon seeing galad, who makes every single person who’s ever laid eyes on him swoon, whom mat straight up said was as pretty as a girl: “most women would probably call him handsome.” PROBABLY. perrin really is the most heterosexual character in the book hjdkfg

yes i know mat calling galad as pretty as a girl (this was back in tdr) was meant as a sexist insult and not mat thinking galad was as attractive to him as a girl would be..............but was it really though?

ELAYNE!!!!! RETURN OF THE QUEEN!!!!! RECALLED AS SHOUTING THANK GOD IT IS MY WIFE!!!!!!

talking about the imprisoned nobles who opposed elayne: “‘you could execute them,’ birgitte said. they both [elayne and dyelin] stared at her. ‘what?’ birgitte said.” birgitte: do you want me to kill that guy for you? because it sounds like he sucks and i will totally kill that guy for you

elayne is going to move on the sun throne! she explains later in the chapter that she’s worried about rand creating an empire and a successor coming up to claim it and keep it whole should he die in the last battle, in which case andor would be surrounded by the seanchan empire + rand’s successor’s empire + the borderlanders, hence elayne wants to hold cairhien herself to prevent this sort of Dragon Empire from happening. these are the kind of things that would be FASCINATING conflicts to see in rand and elayne’s personal relationship and yet we are completely deprived! why the fuck don’t we EVER get to see the two of them dealing with stuff like this? such a waste.

“in one step i could become one of the most powerful monarchs since artur hawkwing.” Good For Her!

“‘if someone is going to go out of her way to insult me, then i at least want to be aware of it. if only so that i know whom to behead later on.’ norry paled. ‘figuratively, master norry.’” jkdjfjg i love her. also, the norry-mistress harfor-essande holy trinity have gotta be my favorite tertiary characters i’d say (lini too, but i feel like she’s a slight step above tertiary, tho not quite secondary)

elayne receives mat’s letter!!! the letter is another example of “sure it’s a dumbing down of rj’s mat but it’s hilarious so i don’t care” and also it confirms that mat thinks elayne has a great ass which he “hardly ever spent any time looking at” and this is the most important piece of canon information i have ever received. then birgitte tells us that mat also has a great ass, which is the second most important piece of canon information i have ever received.

hi i’m mat i’m 19 and i never learned how to fucking read. lmao no but show!mat especially i COULD totally buy not being good at spelling words. show!mat i could buy not knowing how to read or write at all, there are definitely not any books in the show!cauthon household! book!mat however did previously write a perfectly good note to elayne in acos so inconsistency yes yes on the other hand that note iirc WAS transcribed in his own pov so maybe he just thought he was spelling everything right. also, i think it would be great if mat gained like beautiful formal old tongue writing ability with his past memories but still just does not fucking know how to spell anything in his own language dkfjg

anyway, elayne’s reaction to the letter and learning that mat escaped ebou dar and is ok and is now in andor: “so many emotions and questions welled up in her. birgitte stood upright, frowning, feeling the emotions. ‘elayne? what is it? did the man insult you?’ elayne found herself nodding, tears forming in her eyes. birgitte cursed, striding over. master norry looked taken aback, as if regretting that he’d brought the letter. elayne burst into laughter.” 😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️ SHE IS SO EMOTIONAL AND SO HAPPY she loves mat so much!!!!!

elayne is arranging a meeting with mat!!! matlayne reunion is imminent!!!!

“mat is...a particularly dynamic individual. he can be very useful when properly harnessed. when he is not - which is most of the time - he can be an outright disaster.” jdkjfg elayne knows her man

elayne is thinking about how useful mat and the band will be to her and hoping to use them to take cairhien! this is exactly what i’ve been fucking saying! he should’ve been here all along!!

“elayne loved [rand]. but she didn’t intend to see andor become merely another part of the dragon’s empire.” “the woman in her cringed to think of planning for rand’s death, but the queen could not be so squeamish. the world was changing.” 👏👏👏 and again, so similar to egwene’s heart vs. duty conflicts with gawyn but elayne is never given the opportunity to actually explore these WITH rand. because for some godforsaken rand was stuck with the one girlfriend who offers him nothing interesting narratively speaking.

speaking of, we go from elayne to TWO (2) chapters IN A ROW of min pov which is a crime against me. but i know rand’s plotline is small in this book and i assume min won’t do shit at the last battle, so hopefully i won’t have to put up with her too much for the rest of the series.

nynaeve: “i knew rand al’thor, and the boy still inside him. the man he’s become frightens me. i always told him he needed to grow up. and then...and then he did.” 😭😭

alanna has vanished after receiving a note with a red seal. another of verin’s little mystery scavenger hunt notes she’s just been sending out all over the continent?? maybe this one said that alanna has to attend the cauthor wedding that verin is setting up so she hastened off to the venue verin gave in the letter.

“min had long ago tossed aside all sense of decorum for her towering sheepherder.” yeah i fucking know min. also, i kept forgetting to say this before, i’m so annoyed that sheepherder became min’s thing for rand because it was originally LAN’S thing! how dare you stand where he stood etc.

“it let her see a part of him that others were never allowed.” not like he has 2 other allegedly equal partners or anything, min. elayne and avi think about each other’s relationship with rand frequently and sometimes min’s as well, but in her own pov min truly does not EVER think about elayne and avi or acknowledge that they’re part of the relationship unless they are standing right in front of her forcing her to acknowledge it. she really does see herself as rand’s one Real partner.

rand fiiiiiiiinally seems like he’s actually going to treat the maidens as capable warriors and let them fight for him and tell them when he’s planning to go somewhere and let them come with him if they wish! this SHOULD have happened after sulin’s awesome speech to him back in book fucking 5, but better late than never i suppose

“i do think you need some new insults, however. the ones you use are wearing out like last year’s lace.” hksjhdkfjg Jesus Rand is so bitchy, love that for him.

rand needs min to figure out callandor. is this going to become min’s second (2nd) contribution in 14 800-page books? (with the first being helping siuan escape) also like. why is she qualified to be the person figuring this out. she doesn’t know shit about channeling or ter’angreal! elayne should be doing this!

rand pardons cadsuane. cadsuane says “i trust you see the error in your deed. it strikes me as unsuitable that i should need ‘forgiveness’ or a ‘pardon’ in the first place.” so clearly she has learned absolutely nothing and not changed in any way. what was the POINT of her??? is The Thing she taught rand just that she brought tam to him which led to him learning to laugh and cry again? anyone could’ve done that! literally anyone! tho i SUPPOSE rand wouldn’t have gotten paranoid and tried to attack tam if he hadn’t been sent by someone rand was so mistrustful of. so then cadsuane’s purpose was to be so fucking bad at mentoring rand that she made him mistrust her enough to attack his own father upon hearing he talked to her lmao

“[the nobles] looked oddly out of place in the stone’s courtyard, where everyone else had a purpose.” okay i KNOW min did NOT just shit on OTHER PEOPLE for being useless 💀💀

“she’d never been fond of those who thought themselves more important than everyone else.” hey sorry was it not just last book when you were thinking about how you were the most important person in rand’s life because you’re The Only One Who Knows Him And Sees Him? and how you’re superior in this regard to his close friend who has known him since he was born? and are you not constantly acting like you’re rand’s one “real” partner despite being in a poly relationship?

weiramon is a darkfriend???? shit!!!! never saw THAT coming! after all the times rand was bitchy about how stupid he is jdkfjgh

we just saw tam in ghealdan with perrin but now he’s in tear with rand. i get that the timelines of the 2 plotlines aren’t synced up (perrin, mat, and elayne are still in TGS time) so it’s not confusing or anything to keep track of that, it’s just weird lmao. but i don’t know what else sanderson could’ve done - clearly there was way too much remaining material to allow for wrapping rand’s, egwene’s, perrin’s, and mat’s pre-last-battle-plotlines all up in a single book, but if he’d told all 4 plotlines concurrently across 2 books then TGS would’ve just ended halfway thru 4 different plotlines with no real resolution to anything, which would’ve been lame (i mean. not that rj didn’t do that frequently jkfjg)

“rand - who had faced forsaken without a tremor - was afraid of his father. rand took the last few steps in two sudden strides and grabbed tam in an embrace. he stood one step down, which brought them near an equal height. in fact, in that posture, tam almost seemed a giant, and rand but a child who was clinging to him. there, holding to his father, the dragon reborn began to weep. ... ‘i’m sorry father,’ he whispered. ‘i’m so sorry.’ ‘it’s all right, son. it’s all right.’ ‘i’ve done so much that is terrible.’ ‘nobody walks a difficult path without stumbling now and again. it didn’t break you when you fell. that’s the important part.’ rand nodded. they held each other for a time.” 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

absolute crime that that moment was from min’s pov instead of rand’s

and now rand introduces min to tam as someone who is very special to him. what do you want to fucking bet that rand is never going to even mention to tam that he has 2 other girlfriends and that neither elayne nor avi are ever going to get to meet tam and that he’s never going to have any idea that their babies are his grandchildren 🙄😤

in the tel’aran’rhiod hall of the tower: “there, set into the glass below the flame of tar valon, was a large segment in the shape of the dragon’s fang. that wasn’t part of the original window...did this window represent one of those, another world where dragon and amyrlin ruled tar valon side by side?” it’s about yin and yang it’s about balance it’s about two sides of one coin it’s about two parts of one whole!!!! it’s about rand and egwene being foils and co-protagonists!! earlier during the linking scene the asha’man said that he felt Whole while channeling both saidin and saidar together.........there was that thing rand heard about “the two must become one”..............what if the endgame will be the one power becoming whole instead of split into saidin and saidar, and everybody can channel both uniformly??? like how the true power isn’t divided. rj did love his gender essentialism so i’m skeptical that this will Really happen, but i wish it would!

egwene tells nynaeve that the seanchan attacked the tower and nynaeve just. does not ask for any details or have any followup questions lmao

awww egwene asks nynaeve for advice on how to handle being in a position of authority as a very young person whom people don’t respect as a superior, since nynaeve was in that situation as wisdom ❤️❤️ full circle moment! and through this conversation the two of them are finally able to reach an understanding about egwene outranking nynaeve, a role reversal they’ve both been struggling to handle ever since book 2. we love to see it!

elayne arrives too and i finally have my full wondergirl reunion!!!!! “you did it, egwene! we’re whole again!” a line later i realized elayne was talking about the tower being whole again, but my first and preferred interpretation was the wondergirls being whole again 😭😭❤️❤️

they make chairs to sit on and elayne makes herself a throne dkfjg i love her your honor. and egwene sits in the amyrlin seat but nynaeve just a regular chair: “nynaeve looked from one throne to another, obviously dissatisfied. maybe that was why she’d resisted these meetings for so long; egwene and elayne had risen so far.” aww baby! it’s okay you’re the queen of malkier now actually!

elayne about rand: “he’s awakened. he’s warm now.” ❤️❤️ then she tries to brush the words off as just some dumb thing that popped out, but egwene’s already been suspecting for a while that she’d bonded him and this just confirms it. “why didn’t she wish to speak of it?” because what would have been a very nice randlayne solo bond turned into an illegal 3-way bond that elayne did all the work for so that min could reap all the rewards 😤

nynaeve finally finds out elayne is pregnant! if she sees rand again this book and neglects to tell him i will call sooooo much bullshit! god it would’ve been SO easy to just throw in a line of elayne saying “don’t tell rand, i want to tell him myself” or something so that it could justify why So Many people know of elayne’s pregnancy and are in a position to tell rand but just have not done so lmao

“light! i didn’t think i’d let rand out of my sight long enough for that. when did it happen?” nynaeve did you forget the time in caemlyn when elayne whisked him away to ~speak privately~ and you didn’t see him again for many hours

“nynaeve generally did see the right way things needed to be done, so long as that right way didn’t involve her being wrong.” jdkfjg my beloved

elayne continues to get out of swearing the three oaths by saying what if it’s dangerous to do while pregnant lmao good for her

so much love for nynaeve repeatedly saying that rand will be completely unattended (but for cadsuane) if she leaves him. i know she’s only referring to aes-sedai-interests-wise, but also, i’m choosing to interpret that min doesn’t count for shit in her mind. as it should be!

not nynaeve slamming elayne for spending the last few months “mooning about and dreaming of rand al’thor” when elayne is the only goddamn person (besides egwene) who has done ANYTHING for the past several books, and NYNAEVE is the one who’s had no plotline but fussing over rand since like book 7! nynaeve really was sidelined beyond belief in the second half of the series after being one of the strongest players in the first half.

update: nynaeve just figured out how to Heal madness!!! she is back in the game! “i can’t let myself begin to think that nothing i do matters. that’s what the dark one wants.” ❤️

nynaeve has a convo with rand and does NOT tell him that elayne’s pregnant SMH!!!! maaaaaaybe she assumes he already knows? or maybe we’re meant to assume that offscreen elayne did ask her not to tell him? or, good god, are we meant to believe that nynaeve is actually trying to mind her own business for once? but fuck man i should not have to do these mental gymnastics to justify somebody neglecting to tell her best friend that his long-distance girlfriend whom he hasn’t seen in months and may never see again, and who is also her best friend, is pregnant. i mean, this is nynaeve! rand AND elayne both trust her implicitly! if anybody was going to play messenger about the pregnancy it should be her!

anyway, rand tells nynaeve about how she shouldn’t let the white tower “ruin” her because she’s Better than all of them due to having visible emotions, which i’ve seen quoted often as an empowering quote for nynaeve or as a nice tribute to her and rand’s relationship, but tbh i find the whole thing fairly condescending and irritating. i wouldn’t want nynaeve to change either but there’s no need to pull a Not Like Other Girls Aes Sedai about it. just because people care differently than you do or don’t emote visibly doesn’t mean that they don’t care at ALL, rand! “moiraine cared. you could see it in her, even when she was calm.” i mean yeah and you only got to realizing that about her after knowing her very well for a very long time. have you considered that the “emotionless” aes sedai you’ve only met in passing are actually the same way and you just don’t know them very well?

maybe i chugged TOO much White Tower Propaganda Juice during egwene’s plotline last book jkfjgh but this passage just got my goat!

rand says that the two women he’ll use callandor with will be definitely nynaeve, and then PERHAPS aviendha or elayne. PER FUCKING HAPS!!! they are, allegedly, rand’s committed partners to whom he is PSYCHICALLY BONDED and he can literally feel all their emotions, yet he only PERHAPS considers them among his most trusted saidar users????? you fucking know that if min could channel he would’ve listed her as a shoe-in. I HATE IT HERE!!!! it’s so true that the bonding changed absolutely nothing about rand’s behavior or mindset. like, you would THINK that the average warder would consider his aes sedai his #1 most trusted saidar user!

narratively speaking i would love it if the other woman ended up being egwene and we got her, rand, and nynaeve all doing the callandor thingy together, but idk how likely that is

nynaeve describes rand’s madness as “thousands upon thousands of the tiny black thorns pricked into his brain, but beneath them was a brilliant white lacing of something. a white radiance, like liquid power. light given form and life.” interesting. so he WAS really going saidin-mad for real (not just normal trauma reactions) but the epiphany put a bandaid on it? how? what does it mean? what does it all mean? maybe we will find out more later, but for now my mood is “not to be a lazy reader who expects to have all the information handed to me but considering how hugely important rand’s whole mental health situation is to the story, i wish it would be explained a little better and more clearly” lmao

“i will need to send someone [to the black tower]” oh my god no SHIT rand jkfjgh they’ve been running rampant and unsupervised for 7 books despite NUMEROUS warnings you’ve received about how bad the situation is getting!

egwene discusses mesaana with some of the black ajah hunters, two of whom (saerin and seaine) are on my Mesaana Disguise Suspicion List i think, tho frankly i can never keep track of all the minor aes sedai so who knows. i hope it’s saerin so that “‘from what i’ve been able to learn about her,’ saerin said, ‘mesaana was good at preparation. she excelled at it.’” will turn out to be the meme of obama giving himself a medal jdkfjg saerin DOES seem to know an awful lot about mesaana’s personality and motivations despite claiming she could only find “tales, rumors, and whispers”.................

i appreciate that faile (like many characters) shows growth and self-awareness and regret/embarrassment over her past behavior under sanderson’s pen, but i feel like she’s doing that FAR more than any of the other characters and it’s starting to feel like the author breaking the fourth wall and being like “i know faile was the series’ most despised character up to this point and i’m trying so hard to fix that” which is annoying because, while she certainly had her bad moments, i still loved her and felt the fandom hatred of her WAY overblown and unfair.

“what would the two rivers folk do if he stepped down as their lord?” go back to the way things were when they were just fine without a lord for many generations, probably. i mean i get that they need a stronger government system now that there’s been a population boom with so many people coming to live there from other regions, but couldn’t they just invent a beefed up version of the women’s circle and village council or something instead of going straight to feudalism?

faile gives us some saldaean marriage culture information (the shanna’har anniversary celebration) and also shares the anniversary-esque tradition that tam told her he used to do with his wife (once a year they packed a picnic and hiked to a new place in the woods and spent the day there together 😭) and i am thriving!! different cultures’ marriage/romance traditions my beloved!!

“how can i feast while my people are being held under threat of execution and while the world itself may die?” “if the world itself is going to die, is this not the time when a man must take time to appreciate what he has? before it is all taken?” faile could’ve done wonders for rand earlier if she’d been around to give him this outlook damn

and then they communicate! they confide in each other! share the secrets and insecurities they’ve been silently worrying about this whole time! “each word spoken made him relax more...in telling her of his struggles, he felt some of his burden lift.” ❤️❤️❤️ WE LOVE TO SEE IT my god how did perrin and faile become the most healthy canon couple jkfjg i guess with the competition being the likes of rand/min and mat/tuon the bar is on the fucking floor. even lan and nynaeve are dishonest with each other more often than not tbh and gawyn and egwene are currently Going Through It (tho they ARE attempting to communicate and just still disagreeing, so points to them for that) and of course rand/elayne and rand/avi don’t ever fuckin see each other so they’re disqualified from even competing here.

“those brotherless had been with the shaido, and they had attacked and killed men under perrin’s protection. no act of kindness would redeem that. they deserved their deaths. that gave him pause. the whitecloaks probably said very similar things about him. but the whitecloaks had attacked first.” FUCKING THANK YOU this one goes out to that one anon who was trying to argue that perrin and hopper were in the wrong for attacking the ~innocent and harmless~ whitecloaks back in eotw. the whitecloaks attacked first!

“‘you, husband, always seem uncomfortable when we yell. i’m very glad you’ve begun to stand up for yourself, as is proper. but i have asked much from you to adapt to my ways. i thought, tonight, i would try to adapt to yours.’ those were words that he had never expected to hear from faile. it seemed the most personal thing she could ever have given him. embarrassingly, he felt tears in his eyes, and he pulled her tight.” ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[shikabootay]

Fic request!

Hey how are you, I'm sorry if you find this controversial it doesn't have to be a romantic one, but can you do Neji and Hinata?

I don't find it controversial, and I know incest is more accepted in the east but I can't in good conscience do a romantic thing with Hinata and Neji.

[Edit] I just reread your request and you said you were okay with something a little more platonic. So I have something for you! In The Tea Room by me, Shikabootay

Hinata and Neji were sitting in the tearoom, the door open to let in the smell of rain. They were supposed to train together, they decided to just sit and talk, even though there wasn’t much talking. Both of them sat in silence and both were okay with that. With Neji being a jonin, he hadn’t been able to do this much, so Hinata had thanked him quietly by pouring his tea for him. Neji thanked Hinata with a nod of her head and began to sip away at the warmed tea. There never was much they could talk about, but Neji knew what she would want. “Today is Naruto’s birthday,” Neji said quietly, looking over his teacup to see Hinata freeze for a moment as she began to pour her own drink. She took a deep breath and looked over to Neji, knowing her blush was present. “Is it? I didn’t know that…” Hinata stated. Feeling a little awkward, she began to look at the door behind him. Neji chuckled inwardly. He knew Hinata would know when his birthday was, but went along with the innocent act. “I heard he is going to be coming back to the village soon. No one knows when though. It makes me wonder how he is doing.” Hinata’s face turned an even deeper red. She kept her gaze behind Neji, but her hand began to shake a little. Neji wouldn’t be the guy he was if he didn’t notice the tremors. He sighed and placed the cup on the table in front of them. “I am not going to judge you if you like him. It is kind of refreshing to hear that in this day and age.” Hinata smiled softly, finally looking Neji in the eyes. “He means a lot to me.” She finally said aloud, feeling much better after saying it. Neji nodded his head, picking the teacup back up to swirl the liquid in it. “He is a good person overall. I sometimes regret the way I was cold towards him.” He stated simply. The younger Hyuuga nodded, happy to have heard that. “You know, if you tell him that I am pretty sure he would put it all behind him.” Hinata commented, wondering what Neji was going to say. It took him a while to be this complacent, to be this relaxed. She was still fascinated about how much he had changed in the past few years. It was like after the fight with Naruto, he had started to slowly change from the angered, self centered boy to this teenager before her. “Maybe one day I will. I am sure he does not hold anything against me. He seems like that type of guy.” Neji agreed before sipping at his tea. He began to shift the way he was sitting to get a little more comfortable. “Well… I’m glad then.” Hinata spoke gently. “As much as I respect you, Neji-san, I like the idea of anyone being nicer to Naruto-kun. He deserves it. I am glad for both of you.” Neji was a little confused. He looked over to Hinata as if to ask what she had meant. She took a sip of her tea, understanding why Neji was taken aback by that. “If you apologize to Naruto-kun, then it shows the steps you’ve made to better yourself. Do not think that I have not noticed, you are trying to better yourself as well.” Neji didn’t know what to say. It was weird how he went from trying to kill her during their first Chuunin exams to having tea together. Neji nodded his head in thanks. “Thank you. It is always good to know that someone notices.” Neji said, bringing the tea to his lips. The rain had finally stopped. 

If anyone would like a fic, check out my pinned post here You can check out my other fics here on Ao3. Thank you!

[remyfire]

It sure was Flootz's! Love Is a Sacrament, and god that's another I've reread several times because I just LOVE the dynamic at play there. It also hits so many of my "interests", so to say, and truly is such a good showing for that ship. I also love that even though it's a modern AU, they're still written exactly the same, just with the added bonus of actually being married.

And y e s I can definitely see that! I need BJ to confront the parts of himself he doesn't want to acknowledge the existence of, please and thanks. I know there have got to be things he represses and ignores, and I'm sure Sidney can tell too, but BJ never lets him get close enough to figure out what those things are. But BJ babygirl sometimes you have to talk it out! And truly if you wrote more fics of them I would read every single one.

I could definitely tell something was up in that scene in Eye for a Tooth too, Margaret may get fed up with these boys but she's not outright cruel or vengeful. I was so interested to see where it was going, and BJ's reaction did not disappoint. Admittedly I don't really ship them however I absolutely respect that rarepair, and even platonically I can sooo appreciate that care and softness he showed her! It was all acting and she was in on the plan but it's still so clear that BJ wanted to make absolutely certain she was okay the whole time and god just what a man. Everything he does is underscored with so much love and I love the little moments we can see it like that hand hold and check in!

As for Mulcahy, I definitely see your point about the wanting recognition vs the Catholic teaching of selfless help. I also thought it was interesting that the immediate next episode was Dear Sis, where we see Mulcahy struggling again with feeling useless and unrecognized in the unit. I loved Hawkeye's talk with him and trying to show him he was wanted, I think he really deserved that. And as a former Catholic myself, I find the idea of the dismantling of a belief system you've followed your entire life soooo interesting. And the fact that Mulcahy has managed to hold onto his beliefs for so much of the war tells me that any questioning he does would be painful and long-felt, and that just makes it even better. Any introspection with him would be fascinating and would take so long to dive into, like you said, but damn it if I'm not having some thoughts of my own.

(God bless the MASH writers who decided to give us shower scenes in literally any of the episodes they appear in. Also that chopper pilot is correct, because I too want to blow Mulcahy's back out. I think he deserves it.)

And P.S. please don't apologize for the length or rambling! As you can see, I'm fully able to match your energy in that regard. I love getting the peeks into other peoples' minds like this and also writing obnoxious character studies in tumblr ask boxes. So ramble away!

It's always interesting to see what transposes well into a modern verse and what doesn't carry through, right? I respect authors that can make it work for them so easily because I struggle sometimes to really manifest ideas of what would be the modern equivalent of being trapped in a very small area with a very small group of people to essentially evolve the characters into the ones we come to know and love. Like, they are not the same people when they get there as the ones who leave, and the majority of the reason they become who they are is due to the stress, the constant psychic damage of it all.

I realize ofc this is the autism of it all, really, me making things overly complicated for myself as an author 😂 But it's fine

That being said, justalittlegreen did it in a way I really enjoyed with her "A Full, Rich Day," which is BJ/Hawk/Trap and setting them in a modern verse where they're all in residency together, and having the frantic and sometimes incredibly heavy/grief-stricken moments really pulled it all together for me in a way that just hit. So I'm always turning thoughts like that over and over in my head to figure out what might finally inspire me to possibly try something similar one day in my own work.

(also please, don't worry, you don't have to tell me you don't ship BJ and Margaret. I am the captain of their canoe with roughly four other individuals as passengers, just paddling our way through the ocean. I assume that no one else ships them, trust me 😂 )

If you're not careful, though, you're gonna get me talking about just the sheer husband-coded nature of BJ and how he is constantly looking for ways to microdose on that aspect of himself while being so far away from Peg. It kills me. Man is out here carrying Margaret around any chance he gets, being so respectfully tactile with the nurses—a hand on the shoulder or the arm—his instinct to check in on them when he can tell something's wrong. Like, YES, so much of it is that he is genuinely an incredibly good man, but it's such an interesting part of his character to me, how often he'll go out of his way to do these things and genuinely seeming to get a degree of personal fulfillment out of it, bless his heart.

I am fighting tooth and nail to hold Mulcahy back in my brain right now. Lovely, sweet man, genuinely misguided in many circumstances, fully aware of a lot of the pain that he brings by nature of being a Catholic priest (I have a lot of thoughts about it regarding the S8 episode "Yessir, That's Our Baby" that are always trying to bubble over, so lemme know if you have some yourself when you get there haha) and yet still so keen on his mission all the same, whether it's compassion or conversion. And Dear Sis, fucking Christ, what a whammy of an episode. That conversation between him and Hawk in it lives rent free in my head. God. Did you know this is a good show? /lh

[the-force-awakens]

compatibility

gender neutral reader; modern au (roommates), while neither are explicitly stated, autistic!poe & autistic!reader, reader has chronic headaches, ungodly amount of pop culture references. rated teen for some slightly spicy yearning on both these dork's parts. incredibly self indulgent. (read on ao3)

“I could pilot a Jaeger.”

You tear your heavily-lidded gaze away from your television to the man lying beside you; Poe's eyes are still firmly on the screen as the camera pans lovingly up Gypsy Danger, his arm tucked behind his head to prop it up, his other hand playing absentmindedly with his necklace. 

You'd woken up with another one of your frequent headaches, and after watching you try to push yourself through the pain, Poe had promptly declared a pajama day and pulled out your DVD collection, hauling out all your favorite movies and TV seasons with an impish grin and a bold declaration you'd work through as many of them as you could in a single day. 

It was one of many, many perks of living with one of your best friends; with Poe's oddball work hours and you currently in between jobs, it meant that pajama day could happen even on a Wednesday. 

“You say that about everything,” you can't help but point out. 

Giving Poe shit was one of the cornerstones of your relationship, something he expects at every turn and dishes right back at you. You've known each other for years and you still can't help but marvel sometimes at the implicit trust and understanding you share: how much more easily your snark comes around him. 

“I don't say it about everything,” Poe retorts indignantly, turning towards you as though you've conferred a great offense upon him. “When else have I said it?”

You count on your fingers: "You've said it about the Enterprise —”

You were about to tap your second finger to make your next statement but this visual makes you hesitate, coming way too easily to the forefront of your mind: he would look really good in it.

“I stand by that. I bet I could pull off the uniform too,” Poe says with a wink, before his face screws up. “Well maybe not the original series uniform. I could probably pull off the Deep Space Nine ones.”

The one drawback to having your best friend as your roommate? Your not-so-little crush on him, that has only increased by a tenfold since moving in with him. How could it not, when every morning he's already got the coffee pot going for you, his cheek still pillow-marked and his curls mussed when he gives you a sleepy ‘morning’ in a rough voice that never fails to make your heart stop, or when you catch him curled up in the afternoons on the weekends rereading books he's loved so much the spines are worn and faded, or how he fusses at you when you grab more bags of groceries than him out of the car just to prove you can?

“You wouldn't look terrible in it,” you allow before hastily continuing on with your list, "and you said you could pilot the TARDIS, which I still disagree with. The Doctor can't even pilot the TARDIS. There is no piloting it, you're just along for the ride.”

“I bet she'd let me pilot her. She does River.”

“The way you drive?” 

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“I'm just saying, you're my designated driver, I know what you're like, Mister veer into oncoming traffic-”

Poe groans, looking heavenward for patience. “For the last time, we were turning in to the parking lot and I had plenty of time to make the turn -”

”And traumatized me for life in the process -”

“Thought I did that when we did the donuts?”

You frown but there's little sincerity in your frustration and Poe knows it, so you don't feel guilty by agreeing. “That too. No way could you fly the TARDIS.”

Poe shakes his head, adamant. “If she lets the Doctor, she'd let me. And I'd be a much better pilot, give her the respect she deserves: no kicking the console or pushing her outside where she wants to go. I'd fly her real gently. Enthusiastically, but gently.”

Your brain shouldn't snag on that combination of words, it really shouldn't. It also shouldn't make your stomach flip pleasantly or make you feel warm all over, but they do. 

A little more forcefully than necessary, you grab the bag of Doritos laid between the two of you (purchased specifically by Poe because they tend to make your headaches better when the Tylenol fails) for something to do with your hands and you pray to Raleigh Beckett for strength not to let your mind stray too far into the little fantasy you've conjured of Poe's hands skimming along the curves of your body, just as enthusiastically as he swore his flying would be. 

Your mouth is dry even before you pop a chip in, and you tell him as primly as you can around a mouthful of nacho cheese dust, “Real gently or not, she's still the one in charge.”

Poe's voice is nonchalant even as a tiny grin tugs on his lips: “Eh, it's more fun that way.” 

You choke a little, accidentally inhaling some of the dust sooner than intended. Grabbing your water bottle from your nightstand, you take a couple sips to regain your oxygen and composure. “I don't think you can claim with full confidence you can fly all of those. They're all joint operations, partnerships. You couldn't do it alone.”

“Nah, I couldn't.” Poe agrees, reaching into the Doritos bag to grab a handful from where you've left it in your lap. “But I never said it'd just be me, did I?”

“No?”

“I didn't?” Poe's eyebrows furrow contemplatively, clearly running back your previous conversations in his head, still engrossed in the film even though he's seen it way more times than you and has all the lines memorized. “Huh. I guess I didn't. I mean, it goes without saying for the Jaeger. You can't pilot those alone.”

“Nope,” you pop the 'p', licking your fingers clean, so focused on the task that you miss the way Poe's eyes catch on the movement, a near inaudible sharp intake of breath making his lips part slightly. 

It takes him a second to realize you're still talking, and a second longer for him to process the words: “You'd have to find someone you're drift compatible with.”

“Whaddya mean 'find?'” Poe asks, looking genuinely surprised. “You'd be my co-pilot.”

And it's something about the way he says it, like he's shocked you hadn't already considered this, the way his expression softens: it makes butterflies soar in your belly. 

You press your lips together to try and tamp down a smile but there's no use, it breaks free anyway and you admit shyly, “Yeah I guess we are drift compatible, huh?”

“Exactly,” Poe says with a satisfied nod. “Besides, if I'm flying the TARDIS, I'm not gonna take off without you.” 

You swallow hard, unbearable fondness making your heart swell, as the intense urge to burrow yourself as close as possible into him rushes through you: it's a feeling you're well familiar with by now and you don't feel the least bit self conscious in acting on it, scooting closer to him and laying your head against his arm. 

Poe stretches it out like he always does to wrap around your shoulder, and he murmurs, “This is gonna make your headache worse.”

“Worth it,” you tell him with a little yawn. You've both fallen asleep on each other more times than you can count. “Besides, the chips helped.”

You barely feel his lips against the top of your head when he kisses you. “I'm glad.”

[alectology-archive]

ACoS chapters 5, 6, 18 partly, 27:

(since those are the chapters where Faile and Berelain makes appearances)

Me before starting the reread: I’ll try to approach this with an unbiased opinion (<- lying liar who lies because she read the title “A broken crown” and thought that was a very cool chapter name for Rand’s POV and then realised it was actually Perrin’s POV and decided that Perrin is very melodramatic and annoying)

I went ahead and made a wholeass gif just because he was annoying me that much, if you were wondering how well this reread went. 

I guess this counts more as reading the interesting things that other characters have to do or say since I sort of skimmed the chapters more than rereading it because I’m not sure I could survive that.

- I’d managed to find a soft spot for Min this past month or so but she’s... still wincing after dumai’s wells?? why didn’t you let an aes sedai heal you, girl. I’m aware this is probably not her fault. I don’t feel particularly rational now because I’m annoyed by how she exists to make Rand feel Guilty and serves no narrative purpose as a character besides Damsel in Distress. ugh.

Perrin’s first (1) opinion is already setting my teeth on edge. shut the fuck up, Perrin. I know the books and fandom like to poke at Mat acting indignant about being a lord and developing a taste for finery - I mean, he can afford it so I don’t see what the problem with indulgences are - but he’s a very empathetic person and always treats servants and soldiers with a lot of respect! He understands the motivations which guide them and never begrudges them for acting based on fear! Not everybody can survive standing by their principles - and sometimes they just don’t have the power to do so. I think I’m particularly annoyed by the fact that this observation follows his notice of servants choosing to wear a certain house’s colours while not really making a similar or more critical remark about the nobles who also accepted Colavaere’s rule.

I also just hate the way Perrin’s inner monologue sounds. Not my cup of tea. It’s not just the whining - it’s even the sort of vocabulary, he uses. I get the impression RJ is trying to push for the “he’s just a humble blacksmith” angle with it, but Perrin... very much has a taste for receiving respect that he thinks he deserves. He lords his power over the more capable women in his plotline and prevents them from doing anything Actually Useful, so. 

Rand was so sexy for this. Brandon Sanderson wanted this for him when he wrote the gathering storm. His downspiral was done okay, but it failed to hit the mark because he was too afraid to really push Rand’s buttons or isolate him from Min in any meaningful manner because he clearly loved her best out of Rand’s girlfriends. And liked the idea of him having sex with her (which is also an RJ problem, let’s be clear).

Like, again. RJ sets the mood so well. He knows how to make you feel the sort of dark vibes radiating off Rand when he’s slipping into Dragon Reborn Mode. 

- goddamn, can Perrin learn to think about anything except Faile. 

- Perrin: *notices details like the asha’man not sweating only because he has his wolf powers*. Also Perrin: why don’t the people in the hall realise the men are channelers?

Yeah, this paragraph fundamentally highlights my issues with Perrin and Min as characters. Min is always trying to insert herself into situations that would undermine Rand’s image and always tries to make everything about her (not pictured here, but it’s fully what she does in WH-KoD). She doesn’t have the political acumen or mind necessary to survive being Rand’s girlfriend and does nothing to try and remedy that - I was never sold on her interest in philosophy, and it didn’t help matters that she always behaves like a fourteen year old. On a similar note, Perrin is self-absorbed, has no sense for politics and doesn’t have to apply himself to learning the intricacies of taking care of people or navigating Daes Dae’mar the way Rand does. Sure, Rand got away with a bunch of silly Daes Dae’mar moves in TGH - but that was partly for comedic effect and he eventually learns the necessary skills! Unlike Perrin! Who only scrapes by because of the girls politicking on his behalf! Ugh.

I am so, so sad that randlayne didn’t get the screentime it deserved :/

- Perrin is the kind of guy who essentially treats Rand with a “You’re depressed? You could just stop being depressed!” attitude that I really loathe. Compare and contrast this with Mat patiently listening to Rand ramble about his duties in chapter 5 of lord of chaos. Perrin could never!!!! Mat really is the better friend of the pair but gets the worser reputation for having the unreliable narrator thing going on more strongly than any of the other characters.

- Have I mentioned that I love Annoura? I love Annoura. Rand’s relationship with Annoura and Merana are definitely some of my favourite Rand/Aes Sedai dynamics. Also Annoura and Berelain have romantic history because I say so.

Once again... why does Perrin generally talk about women like this, lol. It always sounds like he’s pleasantly surprised to discover that women have brains. 

Unlike Perrin, I would choose to appreciate Faile for her political ability instead of her beauty after she helped Rand corner Colavaere into admitting her crimes. It seems Perrin is only capable of appreciating her beauty and pretty much hates everything else about her (why did he marry her, then?)

- To stop myself from making 10 more notes about how RJ Writes Rand I’m going on record to say I love how RJ writes Rand in this chapter. The parts where he’s talking to Lews Therin... the one where he breaks and remakes the crown... this scene is iconic from beginning to end. It might have been one of my favourites if Colavaere’s plot wasn’t bogged down by Rand’s inability to kill women, but that unfortunately affects my enjoyment of it to a great degree.

The little nuances and subtleties and wording choices make all the difference! Which is why Sanderson’s writing is so severely lacking - the very arrangement of his words in a sentence grates on my nerves, lol. I think this is also my cue to mention that Rand is one of those characters who’s extremely enjoyable to read from another person’s perspective even if you don’t like his POVs, specifically. 

This is so funny. I would have loved to see a proper Faile/Rand conversation in the books.

I, as a person, lie constantly and all the time and just for fun sometimes so Perrin should shut up. I’ll probably use this gif whenever he annoys me henceforth.

Reasons I love Mat: he’s a “women who are dangerous and can probably kill me” appreciator

Reasons I hate Perrin: he barely qualifies as a feminist

- the language of fans that Saldaeans have going on seems so random tbh, sdjfdfgdf. 

- I hate how clingy Min is. She’s always physically attached to Rand in a way literally no other female character is with their love interests.

- Perrin has learnt a little bit of the language of fans? I find that hard to believe. He literally refused to take lessons in Daes Dae’mar at one point, I think? Maybe it helps that it’s a cultural thing and not a Manipulating People thing although I disagree with the books that he’s a good leader.

- Wheel of Time insults are so bad, and I’m always periodically reminded of this fact. Why are they so bad. 

- I... do think RJ is trying to do something with Perrin’s character and his paranoia for Faile’s safety specifically because Elayne and Min don’t get the same treatment - but I don’t quite understand why or what. The show’s introduction of Laila made sense, in that context, but is also one of its This Shouldn’t Be A Thing In the First Place choice (the unnecessary Perrin/Egwene/Rand love triangle which doesn’t serve any real narrative purpose, for instance, which fully made me cringe a bit because it gave me war flashbacks to some of the terrible YA books I’ve read - and it really does Laila dirty in the process too). The show should’ve just entirely done away with Perrin’s overprotectiveness because I don’t care for that sort of thing when it’s done in such a heterosexual manner - I would’ve vibed more with it even if it had been a Rand/Elayne thing because Elayne and Ilyena are supposed to look slightly similar.

you literally did not give Berelain a proper no. Is there some commentary about sexual harassment here? I don’t know, but all three ta’veren definitely face varying degrees of harassment at different points in the series. I would have to do a proper reread to really dissect my feelings on whether Berelain respects Perrin’s boundaries or feels Perrin is encouraging her, but I’ll hopefully get a vague idea about what direction my feelings skew towards as I continue to read. RJ was probably just pulling the sexy woman trope and trying to get Perrin to pick between really applying himself to his duties and dithering around because he disliked the idea of married life and its constraints (answering the call, more thematically speaking, I suppose), but that’s just me guessing at this point.

(which are again major Mat themes but somehow the fandom seems to have decided that Mat disliking the idea of marriage is bad but Perrin being involved in a disastrous one and Rand not marrying the literal person he got pregnant is not a big deal. what.)

I just know faile and berelain had hate sex.

(although I definitely don’t vibe with Faile’s insults for Perrin - they always really made me uncomfortable. This paired with Perrin getting violent enough to scare Faile into locking herself into a room... idk what RJ was doing.)

- The sentiment of Perrin wanting to lie down and die on Faile’s grave if something happened to her would’ve been really romantic if it had been applied to any couple except literally them.

- Faile is now asking Perrin to mourn her for a decent period of time if she were to die and then instructs him to take a new wife. Perrin is able to smell that this is the truth but says that he doesn’t believe her anyway. There is absolutely no winning with him, wow. 

Rand saying “I need to know” twice. He desperately needs friends and allies he can rely on and he’s afraid he’ll get a rejection and is starting to equate it with an ending of friendships :/

- On principle I agree with Perrin asking Rand to not treat the Aes Sedai the way he does - and it’s good that it’s explicitly challenged, especially for the men reading the series, since a lot of them don’t have the reading comprehension necessary to pick out that what Rand did to the Aes Sedai was not being framed as a good thing. But I’m also very annoyed that Perrin practically has no concern for Rand and doesn’t comprehend the fact that his choices stem from his traumatic experiences! He’s severely lacking in the empathy department.

This is technically from chapter 7, but I need to keep a track of the number of ‘cutting Rand’s hand’ jokes RJ pulls the same way he makes several strangulation jokes with Mat. I think my eotw count for strangulation jokes was 3 before I paused my reread?

- Rand blushes a lot in the books even post-book 4, lol. I’m kind of surprised by the frequency - but again, RJ is fully writing a comedy as much as a fantasy. 

- And Berelain’s angry confrontation of Rand after being asked to leave is the last we see of her in Cairhien! I’m devastated! I loved all the politicking and governance she did in Cairhien and her relationship with the Wise Ones was so sweet in lord of chaos. I really miss this era of her character. Having reread the throne room scene where Rand confronts Colavaere, Berelain’s dismissal was fully contrived - RJ wanted it to happen, so it happened! Dobraine is the first and only noble who speaks out against Colavaere which is what prompts Rand to really appoint him as Berelain’s replacement - and while I like him, the fact that Berelain is the one being displaced because of him makes me really mad. This is fully operating on the same levels of I Need X Plot To Happen as Mat being conveniently replaced by Bashere in lord of chaos, too. And all the girls conveniently forgetting to tell Rand that Mat was trapped in Ebou Dar - while I was reading the series I thought Rand waged a war on the Seanchan because he learnt that Mat was trapped there - so it was sort of baffling to see Mat’s absence never being brought up again. 

- Anyway, onto chapter 27. “To be alone” is once again a title that would’ve made me very sad if it was one of Rand’s POVs - but it’s Perrin’s.

Again, Perrin/Faile is written in such a bafflingly convoluted manner. I would think RJ was trying to discuss domestic abuse - except I’m pretty sure he definitely wasn’t.

- Sulin leaving Rand to accompany Perrin is also one of the silliest things to happen in the books, wtf.

- Oh hello! Seonid! Edarra! Masuri! Selande & co! 

- Why do the asha’man do salutes? lol. I suppose RJ is trying to indicate that they’re more of a military institution than the White Tower is.

???? why does he talk like that all the time? 

But I’m... done with his sections of the book! It was very short, all things considered - especially because I skipped the first few chapters where Faile and Berelain didn’t make an appearance and skimmed the passages where he was monologuing to himself. But I didn’t quite find the chapters where Berelain was actively pursuing him - I thought those chapters were in ACoS but I’m assuming they’re probably in LoC. I might try to pick it up tomorrow and figure out how I feel about the whole Perrin/Berelain situation.

[lightlycareless]

chapter 32 finally here,,, im so late getting this ask in but this chap HAS been rolling around in my head,, getting chewed on ,,

we got SO much backstory in this one to work with and its SO cute too- like, not only does it work as such a good narrative contrast to the current relationship going on, what with eiichi and minako actually being able to have 1) respectful disagreements over taste 2) REAL playful banter that doesn't end up in some sort of argument or with horrifyingly thick tension 3) most importantly both people want to be there and see more of each other- its also just a very very sweet scene overall

AND it goes on to even show him properly standing up for her, supporting her career, sweet gift exchanges,,, n naoya is just cringing at the end of it. you FOOL. you should be taking NOTES rn

(also y/n met naoya first at the goodwill event,,, that has to have been mentioned before but i blanked on it till now. god. i hope we see that at some point i can only imagine)

y/n i think you SHOULD have just started crying in the store there after the story. just start sobbing. freak him out a little bit. he deserves it

naoya trying to ask genuine questions for once (at least i think he is!! just not,, really coming thru in the tone of voice but hes giving it a go) and just getting. almost entirely ignored. hes TRYING your honor- and what did he BUY?? what is in his pocket i know it cant be a whole record that would not FIT

this whole chapter and the last couple are SO funny bc y/n is (understandably) assuming he's being purposely malicious in ignoring/misunderstanding her and girlie,,, he's just that stupid actually. like he IS an asshole but also? very stupid. he is not getting the signals you are sending and when he does its like a funhouse mirror version his ass does NOT get it!!

"you like sweets?" "how do you know,,," "i figured after you ate a lot of cake at our wedding" "*oh my god,,, he's been watching me so closely,,, hes been stalking me*" GIRL,,, THIS IS THE MOST NORMAL BEHAVIOR HES DISPLAYED. the paranoia (again, understandably) is kicking our ASS rn okay this all makes sense actually rereading the next section like yes. it IS a nice fairly normal gesture of being attentive to what someone likes UNTIL its the last guy on earth you want being aware of you at all EXACTLY

the next few scenes REALLY make the contrast between their and y/n's parents relationship so dramatic bc like i was saying- the banter is just SO different because they do not actually trust each other here. that and its got a very different theme to it- the hiding it under the kimono comment would not have gone well with ANY woman i imagine. "meant it as nothing more than a joke, obviously" NOT OBVIOUSLY MY MAN

and of course,,, the final bit,,, handing the sweets over to naoaki instead,,,, i can not even IMAGINE how chp 33 is gonna start. hes just gonna straight up fall to his knees right there in anguish. pass out maybe. y/n and naoaki having a lighthearted little chat while naoya sobs and dies five feet away. i can't wait. incredible chapter once again

Hello!!

Aww, don't worry! If anything I should be apologizing for being a bit late to reply 😅 stuff happened, but I'm finally here hehe! And overall, I'm super happy this chapter was to your liking, since I love writing backstories... although I'm self conscious from time to time about it because it might be considered boring or irrelevant—and I get it, sometimes we just wanna know what's going on with the main plotline, but at the same time… I’ve been wanting to give certain characters more context. Especially Eiichi and Minako, who hold a special place in my heart. though I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again!! they’re PERFECT, OK?? They’re nothing but loving, caring, understanding and everything in between... and it's my favorite trope of all time!!! I eat that shit up every single time idc it never gets old for me!!!

Ahem.... anyways lol.

The scene that heavily resonated with me of all that occurred in this chapter has to be how Eiichi and Minako were beyond excited to have children... because comparing it to Y/N and Naoya... it's very sad.

If Y/N were to get pregnant somehow, his reaction would certainly be negative. However, there’s a catch with this specific topic which I’ll develop a bit more in the future hehe. But yeah, she's definitely not living her parent's story, not even close.

And same. I’m really disappointed in Naoya’s reaction too, but what did we expect… it’s not like he’s going to suddenly understand the value of this information 😭😭😭😭 Our emotionless little trash bag could never... Ugh, I would be ashamed to even cringe if someone shared me something so intimate… he could’ve at least been a bit more discreet about it 😭 didn’t he get some kind of training in how to behave in these types of situations??? Like from the elders or something??? Since he’s the heir, you know… ??? Guess not.

As for the goodwill event, I’ve only sprinkled mentions here and there :> I think the first one was when Y/N told she saw Naoaki’s technique (same as Naoya’s) in said event, which was coincidentally Naoya’s first event lol. I only remember this cause I recently re-read the chapter where it happens 😂 I’m starting to forget some things… oof. Anyways, Worry not, this moment will be in the story 😊

Omg imagine if she started crying?? I think Naoya would somehow manage to make the situation even worse 😂. Kind of those awkward pats in the back, tell her “if I buy you something will you stop crying?” like she was a child or something lmao—and y/n would definitely be like “Are you serious????”

Overall, Naoya needs to try harder. Waaaay harder. But more than that… he needs to be accountable for the things he’s done—Y/N is not reacting positively to him because he’s just out there acting as if nothing happened! Or if he somehow acknowledged that it did, he still feels like he's blaming her for it, like it's her fault for overreacting to his abuse, and then blaming his brother over it!

Ughhhhhhhhhhhh Naoya needs to wake up, seriously!! I really don’t know what he needs to see or hear to finally understand he’s the problem 😭😭😭😭 And Ranta isn’t of much help either… but maybe he’s doing all that because he knows how he is hahah that he won’t react outside of essentially being compliant to him 😅 being Naoya’s “friend” must be a nightmare.

And with the whole Naoya being attentive to her is reminds me of this meme lol

Just something I noticed while drafting, I tend to use the same phrases when writing their dialogue—it’s kind of sick, isn’t it? I’m tormenting Y/N all ways possible LMAO. (this is actually something I’m very self-conscious about… please forgive me 😭 Also damn I wish I had a FC for Naoaki... I mean I do but I want to reveal that on the character profile hehe)

But yeah, being reminded of that is like... you're already freezing, and someone decides to throw you another bucket of ice. You're like damn???? was that necessary?? She certainly didn't need to be told that he's keeping a closer watch. (Ah... if only the circumstances had been different, I would've been like... oh, how sweet of him) YIKES.

Now that we’re talking about the differences between their relationship towards Eiichi and Minako, it made me wonder how she would take that comment if it had been them instead.

I think Minako would be either like "what are you babbling about?" at first. HOWEVER, if she’s feeling kind of frisky and we know she be like that with him lol, I think she’d say something instead like “There’s something else I’d like under my kimono” and Eiichi would just, yeah. short circuit. 9 months later, Hinata came to be. HAHAHAHAHAH

It’s all in the context really, some couples are more comfortable with certain topics, others are not and the only way to establish that is through communication—unfortunately, even though Naoya and Y/N may be married, they’re not a couple by any means 😭😂. So yeah, that was waaaay out of pocket. I would’ve slapped him if I didn't have to fear for my life immediately afterwards 😭😅😂

As for the next chapter... if he passes out by seeing Naoaki and Y/N… good. It’s what he deserves 😊 Although something else is going to happen that I think will certainly rattle him—oh, whoops. Spoilers. 🤪🤪 (I’m really excited for you to read that chapter jkahgjkajgkaj)

Anyways, thank you so much for coming back for another update!! I know I always tell you this, but I don't think I can ever, ever write down how truly grateful I am to have your support... 🥺❤️ I'm always looking forward to your comments, hehe, they're very motivating, inspiring, sometimes fun to read... overall, I greatly enjoy them—they've certainly made writing this fic more fun ❤️❤️❤️

I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week, take care, and hope to see you soon!!!

[cerealmonster15]

wait jamil/azul/riddle? 👀 im intrigued

fjjkfdasjkdfjkljkldfjklkljd yes i felt compelled to meme them,, bc i love them,,,

listen [takes ur face in my hands] LISTEN TO ME!!! i just think theyre NEAT!!! i'll yell under the cut in Detail bc ill probably get Rambly

so. unless youre new here i probs dont need to explain the jamil/azul part LOL [but i mean... i WILL.... i CAN... im always locked and loaded to scream about those two l o l jfdlks] [gestures to second half of book 4 and a few scenes early book 5] [gestures to jamils lab coat vignette + azuls PE vignette] [gestures to jamils masterchef/cullinary crucible vignette which isnt in engtwst yet] [gestures to a brief but really funny scene in book 6] [gestures to a brief scene in floyd's ceremony robes vignette] god when will jamil be a buddy for one of azuls cards [it's floyd that buddys azuls PE card even tho hes not in that story lol]. WHEN will they have a duo SSR attack. i will lose my mind the day that they do, mark my words.

riddle/azul is something ive lowkey always liked but it's grown a lot more recently. riddle honestly is just SO funny with any of the fish trio kldsjf. but like, he and azul are each other's dorm outfit card duo partner, and wayyyy back in the prologue theyre the ones that team up and chase grim down when he's running loose. they both respect each other's skills/intellect, like im p sure in that prologue when someone was like "oh riddle good work with grim" he was like "no, that was due to azuls quick thinking" [or maybe azul said it about riddle, idr lol]

and, i wont get into details/spoilers since neither of these are out in engtwst, but the second halloween event and book 6 both showed that riddle and azul see each other as rivals / respect each other, but also love to bully each other kjlfsdjklfjkdslfjdsj. got there are so many good moments between them in those stories. they spend a lot of time together in book 6 especially, so that's had them on my mind again more often, and i cant wait to play them when they reach engtwst :'D

and then jamil/riddle kinda have that 'no nonsense' vibe about them. like on one hand, i know jamil expressed empathy with trey once [a vignette story but i forget which one - treys ceremony robes MAYBE?] bc the two of them have housewardens that are a handful LOL rip riddle, BUT!!! there's also a vignette [pulls out my phone actually i cant remember which one LOL]

ok yea i was right lmao , riddle's PE uniform story has jamil like "oh hi, thanks riddle for babysitting kalim" and riddles like "no problem, you deserve a break sometimes" [rip kalim who's just like :D???? huh???] anyway also rereading that reminded me that jamil also in that one manages to diffuse the situation of riddle almost getting mad at kalim, by shutting kalim up and being like "hey riddle since youre so good at flying can you. do that. can u show us right now please" and then he does and kalim and jamil are like "damn hes real good at flying" and it's CUTE!! i mean, calculated moves on jamils part l o l but i still think it's sweet he's acknowledging riddles skill and had the ability to handle riddle's temper pretty smoothly.

ALSO riddle and jamil both bicker with azul a lot and i just think that's a funny thing they have in common fkdljfdklsj i love joking with people that theyre the anti fish alliance, two Red Dorm Boys that are Bothered By Fish Boys. and YET. it'd be cute if they held hands with fish boys 😌 and each other 😌 jkldfsfjl

ALSO!!!!!!!!!!!! i am pppppretty sure it's been said in a few different instances that octavinelle and scarabia, and possibly one or both of them + with heartslabyul, are like test score rivals usually. riddle himself i believe is like top of his year in every academic subject or something. azul and jamil are also shown and stated to be Very Smart as well, and i just want the three of them to be rivals so bad post book 4 when jamil is Unleashed lol.

also riddle and jamil are just 2 of my top 5 fave characters in twst SO. i think about them a lot. begrudgingly azuls probably also in the top 10 with the tweels bc theyre funny 😒😔😤but im mad about it LOL. god. i did not like the fish boys at all when i started twst but theyre just so fucking funny all the time. and i do love comedic potential so the fact that jamil and riddle are 2 characters that Get Annoyed with azul is Very Funny for me. i think they should unionize in their polycule jkfldfjsdlkj

okay okay okay im gonna stop here or else i will keep adding things Forever BYE!!!!!!!!!!

[nouies]

helloooo, lou! 💙

i have seen how much hate the creators in this fandom get. and i have been feeling really anxious to post whatever i had in mind. but there is first time for everything, huh?! 🥶

it's so nice to change a whole recipe to match your friend's preferences. and cook for her. it's like not a lot of people do it anymore, respecting others' wishes and decisions. 🗣️

have you been to other concerts? 🧞‍♂️

actually, the miscommunication was my fault. i reread your last reply and realized that you said "rule out". i didn't know the meaning of this phrase until now, so i checked it out and now i know what you meant. but do people go hiking/biking/etc on dates? i would never... 🐳

english is not my first language as well, and a lot of times the language barrier leads to miscommunication. but your english is amazing and i think you are great with words. 🦋

louis is such an awesome person. his interests and visions are really wonderful. it's so good you both have so many things in common. 🌀

okay, i have a funny story. when 1d formed as a band, i was eleven years old. my classmates were obsessed with them. so i was like "i won't be like the other girls" and i was showing disinterest every time someone was talking about them (but at the same time i was secretly blasting more than this. the only reason i love that song that much, was because of niall and louis' solos). and i listened to their songs occasionally on the music tv channels (their singles). and for the time the band was still touring and making albums, i just didn't vibe with them, and even think about them. when zayn left the bad, i read it somewhere and that was all. but when the next year mind of mine came out, i fell in love with his voice. so, all in all, i would say zayn. i have been listening to his music for years and i just have really soft spot for him in my heart. 🫐

my questions for the day: what is your favorite tv series? can you share one fun fact about you? 🖌️

hope you have a lovely day,

- your secret valentine 🦕

p.s. don't let the last emoji betray your vison for me, because in fact i'm quite short.

hi valentine!! 💓

listen, don’t think of any of that yet. there are horrible ppl around but i still believe there are some good ones left. i understand feeling anxious, trust me that i always feel that way whenever i’m posting something new, but don’t let the haters win. their goal is to stop us from creating so if we do stop, they’ll win, and they don’t deserve to win. if you truly feel uncomfortable sharing anything, then it’s fine too. at the end of the day, creating something in the fandom is supposed to be fun and if you’re not having fun, then it loses its purpose.

anyway. yes, we’ve been best friends for almost 13 years so i just want her to be happy and comfortable. :) and she does the same for me, like every time i visit her house, she makes sure to buy me tacos from the stand i like.

last year i only went to see Aurora and to the fest where Niall performed, this year i’m going to see a mexican artist called Yuridia and in june i’m seeing Louis. 🤧 have you been to concerts lately or are you planning on going to one soon?

no worries!! tbh i sometimes use verbs that i’m not sure abt but i’m too lazy to google lol but it’s fine. idk if there are ppl who go hiking but i’ve seen ppl who go skating ???

omg you’re way younger than me lol 1d came out when i was starting uni lol but your story is very cute, and tbh it’s very understandable bc i feel like as teenagers we either want to fit in or we want to be unique. at the end, i’m happy that you found someone who resonated more with you. Zayn is a great artist and he seems like such a sweet soul, i want to squeeze his cheeks lol

my favourite tv series is mindhunter, and i’m still sad we got only two seasons of it :( i love jonathan groff so much. idk what could be a fun fact abt me… like, i’m just thinking abt facts but idk if they’re any fun 😭 had to ask for some help but you probably know how much i love fics, and i when i write for a fic fest, i read the rest of the fics (which i thought it was the norm but apparently it isn’t), so my fun fact is that i read every blff fic the day it was posted, maybe with the exception of the 100k one bc it took me three days but the rest of them i read them on each day they were published. and now my brain is fried hdjdhdjdhd

thank you, valentine! i hope your day is awesome as well. 🤗 (and i’m quite short as well so we’re twinning!) <3

[luxeavenger]

hi!! adhd nonnie here, thank you so much for what you said it made me feel a lot better 🫶🏼

for the seasonal depression thing, we talked about it VERY briefly and I don’t really think it’s an issue (nor did she) past like, ya know normal (for me) fluctuation depression. I also live in an area where it’s already rainy and cold, and then during winter it gets dark at like. 4. so I don’t feel as if it’s really affecting me past like, normal levels? If that makes sense? also I’m in college, so everyone around me is kinda sad and anxious cause finals and what not

but yeah a diagnosis isn’t even necessarily what I need, like yeah it would be great, and it makes the most sense from what I’ve read, but in regards to medication it’s not even something that I think I need or even want. Even if I don’t have adhd, it would be nice to hear like “hey I don’t think you have this but clearly something is up, so here are some options to make it better”

idk it was all just a mess and the dr had a look on her face of like pity like “damn this girl really thought she had adhd because she’s having a little trouble focusing”

anyway, on top of that the after visit summary notes was like “she does blah, she does this, she doesn’t do this, she she she she” (I use all pronouns, but don’t really like an excessive use of she unless it’s by people I know) which like, it’s not like the dr knew or anything but it was kinda a slap in the face after the whole meeting went terrible

I’m on break rn and when I get back I’ll talk to my friend about the clinic, maybe I’ll have better luck there where someone will actually listen to me 🤠 also I’ll keep in mind the nurse practitioner! I’ve heard some good things about them

anyway sorry for ranting again, I hope I’m not too annoying. i hope you’re having a good time, I hope the holidays are treating you well 🫶🏼 omg also your pipsqueak fic I love it so much I’m gonna reread it tonight

bby don’t apologize for ranting. sometimes you just gotta. sorry it took me so long to answer. the holidays are always bad for my mental health and this one was no different

you’ve got plenty of reason to be sad/upset/confused/mad. tbh that doctor really shouldn’t be practicing medicine with a piss-poor attitude like that. idk, she may be perfectly competent, but her bedside manner blows chunks

i’m excited for you to go to this specialty clinic. because, like you said, there’s clearly *something* going on here. so it’d be really nice to have someone on your side that cares enough about you to stick with you and suss it out

at the very least it’d be nice to for you to see someone who can respect your pronouns

i would for sure let whoever you see about this next/in the future know what you’ve experienced with this doctor, and what you expect from the new doctor. that way there’s zero chance for miscommunication

bad experiences suck. HARD. but you learn from them. so it’s important to take everything you learned from THIS bad experience, and use it to help you take control of the next experience

you deserve someone who will care for you with kindness and compassion

i hope you’re well nonnie. and i hope the holidays were kind to you. i’m sending you love and lots of gentle hugs 💜💜💜

[m1ckeyb3rry]

🌫https://m1ckeyb3rry.tumblr.com/post/688070326722101248

agreed! people hate her for that one thing but seeing it from her perspective kinda explains it. she seriously thought she was doing the right thing bc she was in a war for the past 4 years and was a child who was eager for people to respect and recognize her, even if it wasn’t the right thing from our perspective. gabi def does not deserve all the hate lol

and i like that y/n is flawed. it’s refreshing to read about someone who isn’t perfect, because if they did the right thing all the time or always thought in a way that we agreed with, we kinda just see things from a narrower perspective. i think you make your y/ns flawed whilst still making them very likeable with lots of good traits!!

yeah i def don’t know what you foreshadowed with friedrich, maybe if i reread sometime i’ll catch it but genuinely nothing comes to mind😭 i thought him quitting the candidacy or running away, but i don’t think that’s quite it so???

its interesting that hhg y/n’s moral code doesn’t align with levi’s because they grew up together, but it’ll be interesting finding out what she thinks is right and wrong, even though it’s not necessarily just those two things lol. i feel like y/n is definitely gonna have questionable beliefs but she’s got to have something in common with eren at least since she’ll be a jaegerist in the future.

NAHHHH don’t worry y/n here didn’t gave off the idea any sort of.. brother complex😭 i think you wrote her quite well because it really does seem like she just admires and appreciates the role he’s played in her life so definitely not lol

tbh perfect y/n’s annoy me so I love making mine flawed even if they’re occasionally annoying because of it LMAO.

HAHAH I will not confirm or deny anything. I guess you’ll have to wait and see 😁

Her and Levi are very different which is funny because yeah they grew up together but they internalized everything very differently. Part of it is because she had Levi to take care of her but Levi had no one and part of it is because she’s just in general not as caring as Levi. Her attachment to Levi is also a big driving force for her actions so that’s another thing that Levi himself doesn’t really have which is why they’re both not that similar as characters.

AHAHAH I’M GLAD SHE SEEMED NORMAL LMAO I WAS WORRIED 😭

[necronatural]

Kim dokja for the ask meme /o/

i got this request 3 times.

favourite thing about them

I can't choose this man has so many layers. The SLAVISH devotion to the concept he cannot be the focus of someone's experience of living really up there, as well as how he is so fucking cringe. Man most deserving of being the protagonist of a tropey webnovel

least favourite thing about him

I think repeated exposure makes even his worst traits endearing. I hHAAAAATTEDDDD him when the novel started but now when I read it i feel so much love.

The qipao and garterbelt thing though

BrOTP

Help. Jung Huiwon I think. She has sooooo much fun being his asskicking right hand she thinks its so funny and awesome. even though she doesnt respect him

and of course han suyeong the way they absolutely ricochet off each other yet are in perfect agreement driving around in an expensive car racking up the $$$ was my favourite moment with them

OTP

dokhyeok -_- juhankim starts picking up later but im missing a lot of context feels so bad...

nOTP

yu sangah. listen he has really fascinating relationships and ways of engaging with people but i would have quit the novel if they went with a choice so painfully straight man pandering

Random Headcanon

In a 'celebrity AU' kim dokja would be a vtuber using vrroid studio default presets with 5 followers who doesn't speak but he's insanely good at the game he plays. sometime he does speedruns on old games no one cares about and constantly hits just shy of world records with his shitty preset vrroid studio model with motion capture from his old android phone.

sorry that isnt a headcanon its just so important that you know this about him. stop making him an idol like in your terrible yaois

Unpopular Opinion

Speaking of idol AUs i think he is done SOOOOOO dirty from cumbrain yaoi fans that came from other webnovel fandoms and it's overtaken it in ways it didn't with MXTX novels despite not being BL which is HEADACHE INDUCING the need to take KIM DOKJA AT FACE VALUE? KIM DOKJA??!???? jail for 1000 years for anyone who comes out of ORV believing the things kim dokja says about himself. like listen kim dokja himself is the kind of person who takes the things he reads at face value it's a part of why he develops such a complex relationship with his rereads he is not a guy that is invested in motivations i shouldn't love him but hate the fandom in a novel innately about the reader and the process of different ways of interpreting a text but holy shit. trying to find what yaoi archetype he fits into is the most darksided way of viewing a text literally i understand how hunger games book fans feel when i see this like leave katniss alone!!!!!!! but its for a slimy webnovel power fantasy protagonist.

favourite picture

funniest guy in the world