#i’m going to describe them now

[puppyeared]

Forever and ever

[barnabyboppins]

Hopefully lukewarm take (i haven’t checked)

I recently finished reading the Heroes Of Olympus series (having read pjo immediately prior) and I think it’s pretty shitty that the worth of all of our good guy characters are, to a notable degree, measured by their ability to find and engage in romantic relationships and are then greatly defined by those relationships. (Disclaimer; I don’t think I’m in a justified position to discuss lots of the racial criticisms for HoO but I do agree with a lot of em and that aspect does factor into this topic)

7+ important recurring characters is quite a lot of people to balance, even in a five book series and all of the non-pjo characters suffered immensely for it. But one character arc I anticipated over and over again that never ended up happening was any one character finding fulfillment from the non-romantic relationships around them by de-prioritizing the idea of a perfect someone in favour of accepting the support of their friends/comrades/campers/family/etc. (Second disclaimer: I don’t expect a novel saga from 2010 to have characters declaring their orientations (or lack thereof) aloud but the idea of a character learning to define themself by or through something outside of romance isn’t a new one)

I think Percy and Annabeth are very cute and work well as a couple (are they the only white couple?) and I don’t really see any chemistry between Piper and Jason (I feel like they’re on very different paths from each other and Piper stagnates greatly in favour of supporting jasons development) but I think literally every other Good Guy character had the potential to not need romance in their arcs. Frank could have been raised to praetor by consensus and recognized by his peers and grandma, actively validating his growth rather than him achieving great feats and no one noticing or really caring except for Hazel. Hazel could’ve been shown learning about the modern day with Frank and Nico during downtime and reconciling her identity and trauma with the diversity of today while discovering a new freedom in acceptance (from the Seven) of who she is from back then and who she may yet want to be (and also not dated a 16 y/o at 13).

Leo, Reyna and Nico were the main ones I was thinking would forgo the need for a partner at least as a necessity for their growth/healing as all three have severe familial trauma, are distanced from other demigods socially somehow, and all were explicitly ousted from conventional romance in-writing.

Initially with Leo I had hoped he would confront his struggle being the “seventh wheel” by expressing how he was feeling overlooked as a friend (and as the ONLY shipwright) in favour of everyone’s romantic interests, which would lead into further emotional vulnerability in the party but, that never happened save for a few stoically non-communicative gestures of support to Frank and otherwise weird hang-ups on Hazel before he fucked off to Calypso, letting his friends think him dead for weeks. Leo lacked connection and felt inferior and less important than the rest of the Seven and the narrative validated that by only fulfilling him through an a Rapunzel-like hot babe trapped on an island who is physically dependent on his emotional dependence on her. That’s not a recipe for healthy relationship! I related to Leo initially as an aromantic person with 9 siblings, half of whom are already coupled so it was very disappointing when I realized by the third book that RR just didn’t take what was to me the most obvious arc for a character who is vitally important to a team but least noticed. Also the Hazel-Frank-Leo pseudo-love shape didn’t need to happen, at least in the way it did, and I think the Leo-Hazel-Sammy weird love thing was stupid.

I think Nico and Will are a very cute couple and I’m looking forward to reading their book when I come around to it but I felt unsatisfied that the thing that got Nico to stay at camp after 5 books was a guy who had little significant presence until the last book and not like, any of the other deeply important connections he made during his journeys? Nico’s been talking about never returning to either camp for a while and none of the Seven or Reyna (I think) thought to check in with him? I get that Will is supposed to be like the first person to insistently want Nico around but if Will really is the first then that’s kinda fucked up given the whole like, eight books worth of people he’s met. It’s a bit fucked up that after years of Nico’s presence, seemingly the first connection to anchor him down is an unspoken suggestion of a romance

Reyna’s character journey confuses me because I don’t if I missed or forgot it but I don’t remember her having a conclusion to her internal struggles. Aphrodite telling her she’s doomed to singledom gets brought up again and again and it’s mostly just to make you feel bad for her. She doesn’t tell anyone else. She doesn’t seek fulfillment in the platonic or familial connections she has. They visit her house, trauma dump about her abuse AND fakeout her sisters + the hunters + the amazons deaths just to have Reyna be even more hurt. Reyna and Nico come to understand each other while they’re travelling but by the conclusion of the series she’s just gone back to her isolating and stressful role as the praetor, but now with more work to do! Aphrodite’s words are never explained and their veracity is never tested and all it serves is to give Reyna more misery porn.

I guess what I’m saying is I think the story would have been better if The Seven & Co had a little more connection with each other and not just with their respective partners and if we could have seen some internal growth come from that.

[reliablejoukido]

Someone just gave me a shit sandwich comment on a fic and it’s like… don’t do this. Don’t do this to me and don’t do it to other people.

[honeynclove]

ur romance options are:

vampyr bloodedge- the emo guy you met when you first entered the castle... pretty aptly named, but doesnt seem to belong here....

lord roscelyn valor laurent-evander gardinier- the vampire lord, very insistent you use his full name. nobody does.

darien- lord roscelyn v... im not saying all that. roscelyn's most trusted servant, his right hand man. always seems to know more than he lets on.

H.S.- the quiet, towering vampire hunter. not much else is known.

DARIEN HMU NEEEOOWWWW 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤

[megamcm]

How am I supposed to sit here, sleep even, knowing that Percy Jackson and I have both called our moms in the middle of the night crying about how we have no friends and we want to go home. How am I supposed to sleep knowing Percy Jackson and I both have said “I think I finally made some real friends” only to be betrayed and hurt by them in the end. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE knowing Percy Jackson and I both deep down feel like we’re broken. FUCK.

[jaevy]

your room was square

i once noticed from there

in your bed, as you slept

and i held my breath

everything had its own place

and i wondered what space would i take

in the order you kept

[melrosing]

anyway in an absolutely wild turn of events I think I’m free of my hideous job and like. substantially richer for it??? lmao 2023 you really owed me

[starlooove]

We are NOT the same, I say Duke wasn’t Robin bc he said he wasn’t Robin and We Are Robin was unfortunately not taken as seriously by the batfam as I would’ve liked.

YOU say Duke wasn’t Robin so you don’t have to include him in ur fanfics and fanart without feeling guilty, and u conveniently use this to also ignore the only woc in the batfam all the damn time unless it’s time for her to be a silent badass or translate ur faves emotions to whoever tf he’s talking to.

[cecenyss]

Okay listen. Listen okay. Dumbledore’s moral failings are a result of poor writing.

Like jkr goes out of her way to describes Albus Dumbledore as this paragon of virtue who’s constantly trying to do the right thing and he’s practically omniscient and one of the only reasonable people in the entire wizarding world

And then she turns around and goes “but he didn’t check on the boy he left in the care of a Muggle he had been warned was going to mistreat him by someone he’s known for years” and he didn’t check for eleven years.

And then after that when Harry’s envelope literally said cupboard under the stairs nobody checked on that?? And hey hey McGonagall was the only one who’d see that letter actually she was the one who signed it so that’s poor writing on her character too

But this is about Dumbledore not her

And then nobody double checked on Sirius Black and whatnot including Dumbledore (and that’s not just Albus?? Like Remus didn’t, nobody else who knew Sirius didn’t) which is frankly ridiculous because he had friends and what can be assumed was an active social life given he was friends with James Potter who everybody falls over themselves to sing the praises of at every opportunity

This is, I think, an issue with writing an overpowered character in general. You describe them as virtually all-knowing, but then don’t come up with reasonable explanations for why they wouldn’t know certain things that need to be unknown for the plot to progress. You give them awesome powers, and then struggle thinking of ways for them to be thwarted.

When this isn’t done correctly, the only possible explanation for the fans is to make the op character in question an asshole. They didn’t care enough to check that a child was safe or they didn’t feel like vouching for the safety of someone else so they just didn’t or they allowed people to become collateral damage even though it would’ve been a perfectly viable solution to let things play out another way.

It’s so annoying to me that people do this but it’s also perfectly understandable because in reality the character is fundamentally contradictory; there’s no real way to reconcile the ideas that “Dumbledore is intelligent and wise” and “Dumbledore didn’t bother checking on an infant who actively had terrorists gunning for him for over a decade.” Those two things just can’t coexist without some serious bending over to make them make sense.

But they have to for the story to make internal sense, because it is a bad story. It’s just bad writing, there’s no way around it. And that’s a really difficult thing to swallow, even after coming to terms with jkr’s bigotry. Because even when she was just transphobic and racist and just kind of a bigot in general I could still say “well, the story was good, but it sucks she turned out so bad.” But I really can’t say that anymore. And that hurts so, so bad.

[rosicheeks]

🤦🏽‍♀️

[archersartcorner]

Sometimes u look back at old Homestuck artists’ works and get the immense desire to draw those AUs where the ancestors raise the trolls from hatching. Primo wholesome AUs…

IDs under cut!

[ID: Six doodles, drawn traditionally in black pen, showing the Vantas trolls from Homestuck in an AU as referenced in the caption, where the ancestors raise their descendants.

The first image is of the Signless, referred to as Kanaan, and Beforus Karkat, referred to as Kardin, sitting together. Kanaan is nervously holding close a little grub Kankri, while Kardin is reassuring him. Kanaan says, "I just don't know..." Which Kardin responds with, "You'll be alright, Kan. I'll be here for you." There's two notes around the doodle from the artist, the first states, "Also wanna practice with pen again..." The second is under an arrow pointing at Kanaan and Kardin, which states, "Hatch mates, raised together. Closest human proximation is siblings."

The second image is Kanaan holding grub Kankri again, this time little Kankri wrapped up in a blanket, like one might swaddle a human baby. Kanaan is looking off panel at something that’s caught his attention.

The third image is of grub Kankri, all curled up. He appears uncomfortable, trembling slightly. A note next to him says, “If you’re cold, he’s cold. Sweater.” Off panel, Kardin says, “Give him a blankie. Or something. Warmth.” Kanaan says after, “Small baby…”

The fourth image is technically two panels. The first “panel” shows Kanaan looking down at his hands, nervous expression on his face. Someone behind him has their hands gently on his shoulders, and is saying, “Be careful with him…” The sentence continues into the next panel, which shows what Kanaan was looking at, holding a very small grub Karkat in one of his hands. The other person continues, “He’s a lot smaller than Kankri was…”

The fifth image shows Kankri at a later time, about 6 years old, no longer a grub and wearing a big ol’ sweater, looking off panel at Kanaan, who’s nervously asking Kankri, “Kankri, baby, have you seen your little brother?” There appears to be something in the poofy collar portion of his sweater.

The sixth image continues from the fifth. Kankri lowers his collar, showing little grub Karkat, curled up and napping away peacefully. Off panel still, Kanaan exclaims, “Oh thank goodness…” Kankri nervously explains, “He was cold…” Kanaan responds, “Ah - thank you for watching him, baby.”

END ID.]

[garoujo]

if anyone is looking for me i’m going in the warmest shower of my life to cry about star’s new hanma fic for the next 4 hours

[starbuck]

the fact that i don’t have time to fall in love right now is literally SO unfair.

[jack-gourdon]

Jrwi episode 98 spoilers

I’m having totally normal late night thoughts about this episode.

I just imagine as Gillion is laying on this table, trying with all his power to stay awake, in a fully delirious ramble, constantly asking May where Chip and Jay are as she can only just reassure him that they’re coming. Not because he’s concerned for himself, but in his state completely forgot they left to go save his life, and that he’s worried for their well being. Until the very end, putting everyone else’s in front of his own needs. And as the remaining of his strength begins to leave him, where his vision starts to fade, his hearing goes quiet, and his breathing slows, tears pool from the corners of his eyes and they trail down the side of his face as he can do nothing but sink into this abyss, so tired. He doesn’t fear his death, but he mourns that it’s happening, that Chip or Jay aren’t here to see him off. But maybe it’s better for them to not see him in his final moments.

And in this darkness, he can do nothing but sink further and further down, suffocating. Until there’s this golden light that appears from above, and it grows brighter until it engulfs him into it.

His eyes open. And he’s on the ship, Chip was telling Ollie about these cookies filled with raspberry filling, Jay was navigating the ship and besides her sat this shirt round grey creature with a puffy striped tail, it’s peaceful as they sailed along the waves. It feels like he can breath again, the pain on his chest gone, this ever looming dread hanging over him is gone. This was nothing more than a dream, but it would be a calm one.

[justanotherfanartist]

idr who it was but somebody I reblogged a post on a while back in which I dumped a bunch of random personal stuff in the tags if you see this this is for you 🙏🙏 also I’m lying I’m just a yapper

[soft-serve-soymilk]

when your right shoulder gets infected 😔