#i'm shallow and like having a dog that people think is pretty

[kangals]

Congrats on puppy!! Is there a reason you wanted another rough vs smooth? Preference? The chance of two dogs with surfer bro bangs?

just preference! this particular breeder actually breeds mostly smooths so i would have made things easier on myself if i didn't care, but i'm stubborn lol. i do definitely like smooth collies, but i think roughs have a much more striking appearance. and being able to bury your hands/face into that ruff is glorious.

im definitely jealous of the lower grooming needs of the smooths, but i actually prefer the shedding of long-haired dogs over short. it's the same amount of hairs, but short hairs are stiff and fly up everywhere and stick into things like a million little eyelashes, vs long hair tends to sort of clump together and sink. one of my co-workers has a gorgeous smooth but every time i touch that dog i'm brushing little stiff hairs off me for hours. i'm fine with trading that for an extra half-hour of grooming per week.

[veritasangel]

if we're being honest

⋆ ˚｡⋆ any pov ୨୧˚ warnings: none ↣ just soft simon {wc: 1.5k}

There was a dating app on Simon’s phone, he hated the thing but hadn’t uninstalled it yet.

It usually all went the exact same with everyone who messaged him. They’d ask Simon some shallow questions and then instantly begin flirting. Sure, maybe that was what it was for, but it felt so forced to Simon and he never had an urge to flirt back.

He’d keep the conversation steady and at least try to get to know them. But then the sexual remarks would begin almost instantaneously. Maybe others would be okay with that, but not Simon.

He could hardly stand such topics with people he knew, let alone sexting a stranger, he never got the appeal. It was very clear that most of the ones talking to him had focused on the ‘soldier’ part in his bio and ignored everything else. 

He had actually been meaning to delete his profile because it clearly wasn’t working, but as he opened the app to do so, your profile popped up.

You looked pretty, a sweet smile too. He couldn't help himself and clicked on one of the other photos available, one of you smiling with a cat. He tilted his head as he looked at the giant fluffy cat.

'Hmm, might be a slight problem one day' Simon thought to himself as he glanced at his dog beside him. He was already getting ahead of himself at that smile of yours, alone.

He sighed, trying to shake away the thought of messaging you. He had opened the app to delete it, but there was something about you that had his brain, or maybe his heart, screaming at him to just go for it one more time.

Simon contemplated for a good few seconds but who was he kidding? He knew he would end up messaging you.

The first conversation with you was a breeze, you were throwing all sorts of jokes his way and honestly for a moment he thought Soap was pranking him because your humour was almost the same.

He’d later learned that you were nervous so the jokes felt like a better icebreaker and honestly it made him feel better to know you were nervous as well. The messages between the two of you were more like two friends getting to know one another, there wasn’t a hint of anything romantic even after you guys had been talking for a little while.

And maybe that’s what Simon wanted.

Falling for a friend felt much more real to him and if that friend was you, well he liked the idea even more. You were caring, funny, intelligent and honestly everything about you was what he wanted in a partner. You made him feel comfortable, even asking at the start what topics were out of bounds and as a man with a lot of trauma, that was a huge sigh of relief.

Eventually he got the courage to ask if you would want to go on a date with him, and thankfully you said yes.

Simon picked a nice restaurant a good distance between the both of you so neither one had to travel far. Everything leading up to it was perfect, but right as he was about to leave, he had a slight panic.

He had to call Johnny and try not to let it turn into a full blown panic attack. Soap kept him calm, talked him through it, even suggested that it'd be best if Simon probably cancelled the date. That last part wasn't really what he wanted to hear though, Simon didn’t want to cancel, he wanted to see you so badly. Needed to.

Eventually, after a long conversation, he reluctantly agreed with Soap, getting off the phone to send you the dreaded text.

Sorry, but I’m gonna have to cancel or maybe reschedule tonight's date. I think it’s the going out to the restaurant part that's setting me off and I just can't do it right now :/ Again, really sorry.

He puts his phone down and he already knows how this is going to go. You’ll think he’s a dick, send an annoyed response back and block him before he can explain...but instead his phone starts ringing.

"Si, you alright?"

He just takes in the soft sound of your voice as he takes a deep breath and collects his thoughts.

"Uh yeah-" he mumbles, "I'm really so sorry if I've wasted your time, you probably got ready and everything and I-"

You cut him off mid ramble before he can overthink anymore, "It's okay. "Talk to me, are you okay? Do you need anything?"

"I'm fine, feeling a little better, I just-" Simon begins, "Just had a little panic, it’s not you, don’t worry. I just haven’t done anything out and about in a while, I think the restaurant was a little daunting. I really apologise."

"You really don't need to apologise Si. I'm sorry you're feeling that way." you say softly, worrying about him over the phone and Simon knows it, can hear it in your tone.

"I'll be fine, love, really. Just wanted you to know it’s not a cop out. Swear I really wanted to finally meet you. Properly."

"Well I don’t want to push any boundaries so feel free to say no. But maybe I could still come over?" you say tentatively, "We don't need to go out to some expensive restaurant, could just be comfortable at your place...If you want of course, no pressure."

“Really?” Simon asks, hope emanating as he listened to your words.

“Yeah, I mean, honestly home stuff is cosier anyway.”

“I don’t have anything in the fridge.” he says, almost as if he’s trying to dissuade you. He doesn't want to of course, but he just thinks for a moment that maybe he's imagining you.

“Didn’t you say there’s a nice Vietnamese place near yours that delivers? I’m down for that.” you suggest.

“Really?” Simon repeats, an actual grin on his face now and he's thankful you can't see him.

“Yeah, why not?”

And that was that, Simon was already smiling to himself, thankful to everything that he hadn't deleted that stupid app when he was going to. Even his dog gave him a look of sorts and he just laughed,

She might be the one, little guy.

When you turned up, Simon absolutely forgot how to speak, all nerves and blushes as you hugged him. But it was good nerves, and ones that died down relatively quickly once he'd shown you around and spoken to you a little.

Honestly he found himself staring a little too often and had to keep reminding himself to not look too much like an obsessed weirdo. The evening flew by pretty quickly, you guys ordered your food, eating it in front of the tv. It was a real casual setting but he liked it and you did too.

The conversation was just as relaxed in person and even his dog liked you, snuggling up against your leg during the evening, not even sparing Simon a glance.

Damn traitor

“I’m glad you called.” Simon begins nervously, as he looks over at you, “You know, as in, instead of thinking I was an ass.”

“An ass for what?” you ask, confused. One of your hands absentmindedly rests on his arm and it's a feeling Simon could get used to, one that felt natural.

“Well...for potentially cancelling.” 

“Simon, you were anxious. If anyone has been mad at you for cancelling for that reason before, then they’re the asshole, not you.”

And he feels so lucky to have met you, grateful he went through with messaging you that day. The warmth of your presence, the natural ease of your conversation, and the genuine concern you showed meant so much to him.

This wasn’t just a random fleeting encounter. It felt like the beginning of something real, which is exactly what he wanted.

As the night grew late, you both found yourselves laughing at a silly movie, hands wandering slightly, but not too much. Honestly the two of you were so comfortable, anyone would think you were already 5 years deep into a relationship.

Your laughter was infectious, and for the first time in a long while, Simon felt a sense of peace wash over him. The worries that usually plagued his mind seemed distant, almost insignificant. Eventually, you both fell into a comfortable silence, just enjoying each other's company. His dog, fast asleep at your feet and a sure sign of approval if there ever was one.

“Tonight was really nice,” you said softly, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, it was,” Simon agreed, his voice equally soft. He glanced over at you, your eyes reflecting the soft glow of the TV. “Thank you for being so understanding.”

You smiled, a warm, genuine smile that almost made him blush again. “Anytime, Si. I mean it.”

“Can we do this again?” he asked, a hint of vulnerability in his voice.

“I’d like that,” you replied, your smile reassuring him.

And as the night eventually came to an end, Simon was laying in bed, a content smile on his face as he finally deleted that damned app, but this time for a good reason.

༄ cod m.list

© veritasangel ↣ 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴

[nezz-cringe-crib]

growing up is realizing that dipcifica was actually a pretty damn good ship and holy shit i totally misjudged this pairing.

i never really liked dipcifica mainly because of how it got represented by the fandom, but looking back on it, it would've made a lot of sense and it would've been beneficial for both of them to date each other. and even in a completely platonic sense, their dynamic worked well enough that they could've done a lot more together.

dipper is a very nerdy awkward guy, clearly. he likes solving mysteries and sometimes he gets a little in over his head because of it. and his silly little awkward teenage love life reflects all of these things. that little shrimp was disney's #1 simp, it's actually insane. whenever he'd start to fall for a girl it'd end up going pretty terribly because he'd have no idea how to just act like himself and he'd also become a little bit of a jerk. (i'm not trying to like dog on dipper btw. he's just a kid and these are all understandable flaws, especially at his age and at the time period gravity falls took place in). however, with pacifica, a lot of these flaws are manageable solely because of how they're introduced to each other. dipper hates pacifica at first and wants nothing to do with her, but eventually they're forced to work together and realize "huh. we actually make a really good team." for dipper, this gradual building of a relationship is really beneficial to him. he wouldn't just go head-first into simping for some random girl and he'd also learn to respect her as a person and realize when he's being a little bit of a dick. being with pacifica, platonically or romantically (though personally i think romantically would strengthen their pros more but thats just my personal taste), would've helped dipper become a better person.

this goes for pacifica as well. pacifica's homelife is extremely controlling and it's what groomed her into becoming the mean girl that she's first presented as. as the show continues though, it's clear that she doesn't really want to be mean to anybody. she only acts spoiled because she doesn't know what else she can act like. she wants to connect to people but she's been so forced into this fake rich life that she has no idea how to be genuine with anybody. that's why her having a connection to dipper is so important. dipper is a little blunt, and he especially won't hide that from pacifica because he initially hates her and her family's lifestyle, so this'll eventually help pacifica realize "oh shit. i'm kind of a dick. my family are kind of huge dicks." and we do end up seeing this from her in "Northwest Mansion Mystery". she learns how to be herself, learns who "herself" even means, and learns to stand up for who she is when she figures that out. also pacifica's pretty damn smart???? especially socially???? she could absolutely help dipper do a lot of things when it comes to mystery solving, and with her status it'll most likely be things that dipper could never pull off and never even thought about because that's just what he's used to. they'd both end up learning a lot from each other because they'd be dragged into environments that they're not familiar with, but the other is. and their different perspectives/lifestyles would help the other view their environment in a new light.

not only is their relationship genuinely really beneficial to the both of them, but i also just know that their dialogue and scenes with each other would be so damn silly i can't not say yes to it anymore. i also just personally like headcanoning them both as bisexual so that's a plus for me.

anyways, tldr: i was wrong about dipcifica and its actually really good, i just think people should really analyze their relationship more since the way the fandom presents it (or how ive personally seen the fandom present it) is a little icky and shallow at least in my opinion. yay for dipcifica being silly little goobers :3

[emeritusemeritus]

hello !! 🌷 i read spellbound and im IN LOVE with the way you write, so could i request a weasley twins x reader as well? if you don't want to write both twins in love with reader, then just fred </3

so the reader is a hufflepuff student who has been close friends with the twins since the first year at hogwarts, to the point of molly inviting her to stay for a few days sometimes. and the twins (or just fred) like reader so much as a best friend— until reader becomes more than that.

something "but you belong to me." with them. like, reader getting asked out and people confessing to her, but the twins are possessive of her; mysteriously, people who confess to reader inevitably get a wave of bad luck (because of the twins' pranks).

a more possessive side of them, you know? house of balloons has been on my mind these days 2!€+2(3 🤕

thank you so much ! i hope you have a lovely day.

Hi lovely, hope you are well!Thank you so much! I hope this is okay for you?!🖤

Warnings: minor sexual references, pranks, mild swearing. Possessive behaviour, slightly dominant twins. Love confessions.

Word count: 2.2k

You're in my world now, you can stay, you can stay

But you belong to me, ooh, you belong to me

Being best friends with both Weasley Twins had many pros and cons, of which you'd considered frequently over the years.

They were funny, charming and kind, kept you on your toes, you never went more than an hour without belly laughing. Your life was abundantly better because they were in it.

On the other hand, you got way more detentions, had to attend quidditch matches that weren't your own house and even if they were you were cheering for the wrong team because you were a Hufflepuff and they were Gryffindor beaters. Their family was far from rich, not that it ever bothered you in the slightest, but from another more shallow persons perspective you could see how that would be a factor.

Most importantly, they seemed to scare all the boys away you ever dared approach you. Like guard dogs they seemed to deter any boy away from you and in turn there was not a single boy good enough for you that you'd even shown interest in as Fred and George were always quick to point out their faults, making your crush disappear soon after.

It wasn't always like that but around your fifth year you seemed to take notice of the rather starling pattern of events that repeatedly kept happening. A boy would show interest in you, flirty looks that lingered and secret stolen smiles, maybe they'd even approach you and ask you to Hogsmeade, but most of them didn't get that far. You'd mention it in passing to the twins, catching them up on your days after having your owl classes spent away from each other and by the next day, all semblance of attraction would be lost. The boy would often not look at you, look fearfully at you or worse, would randomly spout big puss filled boils all over his face.

You were ignorant to it in the beginning, but then you began to take it personally thinking that someone was playing a joke on you, getting the boys to pretend to be attracted only to laugh with their friends behind your back.

"Angel I'm telling you that is definitely not happening," George had said to console you as you cried to them both down by the lake after hours.

"We'd have heard about it wouldn't we," he adds, gesturing between him and Fred who looks on at you with worry in his eyes.

"Yeah," Fred nods, "nobody ever says anything bad about you. You're not the kind of girl that would happen to anyway."

"What to your mean?" You'd asked, sounding more than a little pathetic as you sniffled, wiping your nose on the sleeve of your jumper and then casting a spell to clean it off.

"You're pretty, really pretty," George says, a gentle smile on his face.

"More than pretty, that crap only happens to the ugly girls and you are definitely not ugly," Fred says, throwing himself on the floor beside you.

"Probably just lost his nerve that's all," Fred adds, picking up a rock and trying to skim it across the lake.

After that night you watched the interactions closely, anytime a boy would try and approach you, putting on his best smile. Some were nervous, some where cocky but in the end they all ended up the same way, actively avoiding you. It was your sixth year now and you were growing tired of it, leading you to venting your frustrations to the twins during another late night adventure.

"I'm fed up of it! I want to experience going to Hogsmeade with someone,"

"You do that with us," George says with a cocky smirk, but you simply shoot him a glare as you carry on.

"I want to hold someone's hand, have them tell me I look pretty."

"I did that this morning," Fred interjects.

"I want to be dated, i want to be kissed, I want to have sex!"

"I volunteer!" Both twins say, immediately standing up with their hands raised, earning a roll of your eyes as you laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation.

"Both of you sit down and shut up!" You laugh, pushing them back to lean on the stone wall they were originally sat on. "I'm serious, I think there's something wrong with me."

"There's not a single thing wrong with you princess," Fred says, turning to George who backs him is with a slow shake of his head. "Those boys are just idiots, you're better off with us."

When the Yule Ball was announced and people started immediately bagging dates, your concern only grew as time passed and you weren't asked. It was strange, you'd see the boys looking at you, heard rumours they were going to ask you from your friends but then nothing seemed to happen. Until Cedric came along. You'd been friends since your first year, not overly close but friendly enough, you shared classes together and he was an excellent quidditch player, almost as good as George and Fred.

"Hi, um, how are you?" He asks, cheeks flushed pink as he catches you in the corridor outside the great hall.

"Hi Ced, I'm good thanks how are you?" You smile up at him, confused by his nervousness. His foot was bouncing on the spot and his hands seemed to fluctuate between being in his robe pockets to outside again, almost like he couldn't make up his mind at where to keep them.

"I was wondering," he pauses slightly, "are you with the Weasley twins?"

"Umm no I don't know where they are? I assume they're at dinner," you say with a frown, wondering why he was bringing up Fred and George so randomly. He lets out a nervous chuckle, placing his hands back in his pocket as he shakes his head slightly with a shy smile.

"No I meant, with them, you know," he says, emphasising the 'with' this time.

"Oh, no," you say with a smile, "not with anyone."

"Good," he says quickly before realising what he'd said. "I mean... sorry." It was almost painful to experience this, watching as he stumbled through his words. "I was wondering if you wanted to go."

"There she is!" Fred says, walking over to you having appeared out of the hall, throwing his arm around your shoulder and pulling you tightly to his side.

"Thanks mate, sometimes she wanders off, good job keeping your eye out for her, appreciate it."

Fred pulls you away and you're so stunned that you mindlessly follow him, your mind not able to string two thoughts together as you take a place beside them at the Gryffindor table, taking off your tie so you wouldn't be spotted amongst the crowd of Gryffindors.

"What was that about?" You suddenly ask, snapping out of your confused gaze and looking up accusingly at Fred who's devouring a chicken leg with as much tact and delicacy as Fang would.

"What?" He asks with mouth full of food making you squint at him in disgust as he asks stupid.

The next time it happened, you realised something was up.

Ron and Harry were discussing dates in study class across the table from you when they got the news from Hermione that even Neville had got a date, making him more depressed than ever.

"Y/n, you're a girl," he says, pushing back his hair from his face as he addresses you.

"What gave it away?" You snark, hardly looking up from your parchment as you finish up your sentence. Fred snorts on your right side and goes back to his own writing, if that's what you could call it with his terrible handwriting. You can almost feel George beside you tensing up, his shoulders squaring as he looks at his brother, watching him closely.

"We'll have you got a date? You could go with me," Ron says with a little shrug, unsure of himself.

"She's already going with us, back off little brother," Fred says suddenly, eyes snapping up to glare at his younger brother with the same viciousness as his tone.

"Since when?" You ask, eyeing him curiously.

"You want to?" He asks, wiggling his eyebrows at you. You look towards George who looks on expectantly and you relent, knowing that it would be better to go with your best friends than go alone.

"Fine," you say, "but no funny business," you warn them both, stretching out your index finger to point at the both of them accusingly.

"Never," George says dramatically, closing his eyes as if the very thought was unheard of, making you glare at him.

Apparently the word didn't spread quick enough about you going with Fred and George because only two hours later you were asked by Justin.

"Well I wasn't sure if you were going with them both or not, I heard it last week but you hadn't said anything since," he explains after you'd tried to delicately let him down.

"Wait what? Last week?" You ask, confused by his words. He nods slowly, as if you should know.

"Yeah I heard them telling Lee that you were going with both of them, which you know Lee, it spread quicker than jam on toast. No one really thought anything of it at first, I mean George said ages ago that you're practically dating them."

"Excuse me."

The realisation had your head spinning, had they really be plotting for this long. It was then all along?

"Oi Weasley and Weasley, open up!" You said loudly, banging on their dorm room door, having crept in with Ginny on the way in past the portrait hole.

"Our favourite girl, how can we be of service?" Fred asks as he opens up the door, giving you a brilliant smile. He's shirtless and you falter slightly at the unexpectedness of the view. When he catches you looking he winks playfully as he shuts the door.

"Still want no funny business?" He teases, hopping down onto his bed.

"I know it was you two," you say, catching George unaware as he walks out of the bathroom, seeing you stood by the door. "It all makes perfect sense now! You've been pushing the lads away haven't you! Practically bloody dating?" You shout, shooting George a thunderous look. "Bit suspicious that the last three blokes that tried to ask me out have a) magically developed a face full of boils, b) had his eyebrows burnt off and c) got a bloody black eye from your stupid telescope! Tell me now, is it a coincidence?"

For the first time, you see the twins share a look between themselves before their faces twist into guilty expressions.

"It's just," Fred begins.

"You belong with us," George says, taking a seat opposite where you stood on his bed.

"Excuse me?" You say, brows pulling together as you send them both a harsh glare.

"You're ours princess, you always have been. Just like we're yours."

You're speechless as you look between them both, seeing them looking back at you with expressions you'd never seen in them. They looked hungry, honest and slightly vulnerable, rendering you completely mute until you could find the right words.

"How long?"

"Can't remember," Fred replies quickly, honestly. "Before you first came home with us for the holidays."

"That was third year!"

"Second year then," he says with a shrug, completely unashamed to be answering so honestly, unashamed of his feelings.

"The bloody sorting ceremony if I'm being honest," George says a bit less bluntly, "but definitely when you threw that snowball straight at Fred's head for calling you badger girl," he says with a chuckle, making a smile appear on your face.

"I swear I've still got a mark from that!" Fred says with a smirk and you roll your eyes at his dramatics. "Should have been a bloody beater with that aim."

“I’ll beat you now,” you threaten playfully, watching as his face erupts with a devilish grin.

“Beat me off whenever you like,” he retort and you have to fight rolling your eyes again as a smile tugs at your face.

It's quiet for a moment, no one speaking, not knowing how to proceed.

"You really mean it? You… both…me?"

"Yup,” they both say, as if it was nothing, as if you’d asked them to borrow a pencil.

“Told you Angel, we’re yours, always have been. If you’ll have us.” They both look up at you with hope clearly plastered across their faces, eyes twinkling as they show their vulnerability.

“One condition,” you say, cocking an eyebrow up at them.

“Anything princess,” Fred says.

“No more pranks on lads that talk to me, not everyone was trying to ask me out you know.”

They look like they’re going to protest, not liking the idea of the lads talking to you especially if you were now theirs but you smirk and decide to put their minds at ease.

“Once everyone knows I’m yours, officially this time, it won’t be a problem.”

“And how to we do that?” George asks, squinting a little.

“Either of you ever given a love bite?”

[xerith-42]

Why Blaze is MyStreet's Most Failed Character

Blame the big bang discord for this post, I wasn't gonna write it until those fucks encouraged me.

Anyways here's an entire essay about why Blaze is the most wasted character in the entirety of MyStreet and I will literally fight Jessica and Jason Bravura with my bare hands.

To get us started on our harrowing tale of wasted potential and the best improviser Jessica ever hired, we need to go back a little. Back to Phoenix Drop High Season 2. We won't stay here long, I promise, I hate it more than you can possibly know. But the single saving grace of this absolute mess of a season is ya boi, Blaze. Introduced in the 18th episode of the season, airing on April 12, 2017, with the airing of Phoenix Drop High Season 2 Episode 18, Blaze was a character who started his brief tenure series with a bang!

Literally dude showed up and the first thing he ever did on screen as a character in a piece of media we can engage with is throw someone out of a window. We do not know this mans name yet and he's already left a lasting impression. Sure throwing people out of a window is common in werewolf culture, which I don't care what you say that's objectively funny, but it is bold to start a characters entire introduction with that. Blaze comes out of the gate swinging before he's said a single line.

And then after introducing himself he throws a dead bird at Aphmau to show off his hunting skills?? Okay so he's just that fucking weird and overly enthusiastic about things I guess! That's amazing! MyStreet always shines when it just lets it's characters be fucking weird without making a big deal out of it or talking them down for it. Dottie even says that it's romantic which is again just a great showing of Blaze's enthusiasm and lack of what might appear to be common social decorum because of said enthusiasm.

This is all punctuated and brought to a hilarious breaking point when Blaze's final showing of why he should be the new top dog at his school is when the crazy mother fucker rips his shirt off to literally flex about how he's one of the hottest guys in the school. And I'm going to be real with you, given Blaze's later characterization as a himbo, I'm pretty sure he doesn't actually care about this. He just says it because he thinks it'll boost his chances. Blaze is later shown to be a character willing to throw away his reputation for the things he cares about, but he does get a rather sincere moment with Aphmau, even if she's blushing the entire time.

It shows that Blaze is not only physically affectionate, but also weirdly comfortable with his shirt off. Because this is purely objective character analysis I will not be shoving my Blaze is autistic and has sensory problems with things touching his chest propaganda down your throats, but now that I've mentioned it once you won't stop thinking about it when this comes up.

The show admittedly fumbles the bag a little by having Blaze say in his internal monologue that he thinks Aphmau is cute and acts kind of like a tsundere, but this is Jesson writing so there's always bound to be a bit of That Shit. But in spite of that, Blaze is a character who has an instant impression that leaves a lot of room for comedy potential, and just good ol' fashion silliness. And while the werewolf plot of Season 2 is... bad, Blaze and the Werewolf Pups are stand out characters in the sense that their characterization leaves a lot of potential if they're in a different, better written story.

And even if the arc is bad, Blaze still is a quality part of it. His shallow but hilarious initial characterization gets built on in some really solid ways. Namely in how he acts as a force for good in Aphmau's life even if she doesn't realize or give him permission to do it. This entire season is about how the different men in Aphmau's life handle helping her in a crisis, and funnily enough, in a season centered around Aaron literally overthrowing Aphmau's new love interest, Blaze is the one who was consistently doing what was best for Aphmau.

Aaron fumbles the ball more than a few times, Ein is shown to be actively malicious, and Kai gets hate crimed. But Blaze, who's barely even a contender in this ship war, is constantly working to actually make things better while everyone else is pulling Aphmau away from what actively matters about her position. While Ein is manipulating her and Aaron is trying to prove that, Blaze throws caution to the wind and just does what he thinks is best to restore order.

But more important than that end conclusion is his true goal of standing up for Daniel. A wolf it is established he barely knew before this year, that Blaze is willing to throw his reputation and standing in a bull shit hierarchy because he's seeing how this hierarchy is hurting someone who doesn't deserve it. Blaze is the one who is baring his fangs and willing to throw hands when Daniel cowers away from bullies. By the end of the season Blaze has been given adequate screen time to not only show off his fun and maybe a tad out of touch side, but he's been given a real level of sincerity that's tied into the things he's enthusiastic about. He loves being a werewolf, and he extends that love to all the werewolves around him, until they start being dicks to other werewolves who are literally just sitting there.

At the center of Blaze is that inherent goofiness though. He's always cracking jokes, or the joke when he's on screen, and in a series that was originally pitched as a light hearted slice of life comedy in contrast to MCD's general misery, that sort of character is needed to keep the tone. Such is show in episode 22 when Blaze is reading a book on the Scientific Method to just learn more about science, but realizes the book is upside down.

But he actually understood it enough to properly apply the scientific method to this situation?? Iconic. It's played off as a joke of Blaze exploiting a loophole to get out of class, but even that's pretty smart honestly. Blaze may be a dumb ass but he's always willing to cheat an unfair system.

Episode 22 is basically a Blaze centric episode, which I did not expect, but now that I'm rewatching it for this post it might be the reason I love this character so dearly. It's not only the episode where Blaze manages to learn the Scientific Method upside down, but also stands up for Daniel in a really substantial way. Blaze is loud, enthusiastic, and strong, all traits that are celebrated by werewolf culture, and whether he realizes it or not, him just being around Daniel can do a lot to get bullies to back off. Everyone has seen Blaze toss a mother fucker through a window, they do not want to be on the receiving end of that.

He spends the rest of the episode trying to figure out what Ein's deal is when he hears that Ein went behind Aphmau's back on werewolf matters, landing Daniel in this situation. He hears Ein actively plotting against Daniel, but that is normal werewolf behavior. He concludes that he'll keep an eye on Ein. And this through line of "normal werewolf behavior" informs a lot of Blaze's decisions once he comes to the conclusion that Ein sucks and deserves to be undermined. He resorts to letting his actions speak louder than words and goes to violence after realizing that the wolves aren't listening to reason, they're listening to instinct.

He fights fire with fire, and while Aphmau might not approve, it's more effective than her soft rhetoric has been in getting people to be less of jackasses. This eventually lands him in hot water where he steps in for Daniel after Ein tries to get his goons to beat him up, and even if Blaze is fighting in a five v one, he still goes down swinging. And I'll say it, I think it's sweet that he calls Aaron after this happens. While it's clearly meant to be a thing of Blaze calling the last alpha because he's probably the only person who anyone will listen to, there's an important detail I think is easily overlooked.

He has Aaron's number.

He says he got it from the werewolf pups, but that means that Blaze went out of his way to make sure he could contact Aaron. He's the reason that Aaron even realizes Ein is playing all of them. Blaze is the catalyst for his undoing because unlike Aaron who's nearly imprisoned, heartbroken, and been hesitant to act in the plot as a result, Blaze doesn't actually care that much if Aphmau currently likes him because he's more worried about her physical and mental well being than whether she wants to kiss him or someone else.

How many Aphmau love interests can say that?

Can any of them say that?

Blaze can.

Blaze actually consistently shows a level of selflessness that's unfitting of how I've seen some people characterize him. He gives up his real chance to be Alpha because Daniel is so compassionate and earnest and genuinely deserves it. Blaze wants to believe in a future lead by people like Daniel and Aphmau where he might not have to keep fighting people to keep things sane. Blaze constantly gives up his pride, his power, his safety just to make sure that his friends are taken care of, or to effect real change in a school he's about to leave.

It wouldn't be long after Phoenix Drop High Season 2 ended that Blaze would make his debut in the main series My Street in the second episode of Season 5, airing only a few days after the end of Phoenix Drop High Season 2. Just like before he really shows up with a bang, literally throwing himself through the air between Lucinda and Kim just to catch a frisbee because Blaze is the most extra mother fucker ever, and then immediately proceeds to flirt with them. Iconic as ever. Short but sweet.

It's in episode 3 that it's revealed that Blaze and the werewolf pups kept Aaron company during his rehabilitation year. But from the way it's worded it sounds like Blaze was called in before anyone else by Aaron's parents. Based on the way they talked and actively planned together before, I wouldn't be surprised if Blaze was the first person who came to his mind when Aaron thought of a werewolf friend.

I think Aaron reached out to Blaze when he needed it.

And even though I've previously stated that I don't think Aaron's parents initially liked Blaze because by this era he's old enough to fully take on his persona as the cool stoner friend who's also a little insane in the most charming way possible, he has a good impact on Aaron. Aaron likes being around him, and maybe they smoke weed to help Aaron relieve some of the lasting pain when no one's looking.

Regardless of his methods, Blaze does an ultimate good in Aaron's life as a result of being there for him when he needed it. So much so that he was invited out to Starlight and is shown to be one of Aaron's main pillars of support. We are given scarcely little of this actual friendship, which is where the problem lies. While before Blaze was a surprisingly engaging part of an other wise terrible story, at least in season 5 the story is a lot slower and character focused. And Blaze can work in these moments, we saw him have real moments of sincerity before.

He gets some of it, but the issue is that Blaze isn't allowed to be alone anymore. The cast of MyStreet is huge, and Blaze is a character who is making his second major appearance, while some characters in the cast have been present since literally episode one. It's hard to justify giving him solo screen time when he's been in the series for such little time and we barely have enough time for certain significant characters to really have arcs (Lucinda). Most of Blaze's scenes are scenes with at least four other characters on screen, he's never allowed screen time without at least two other werewolf characters attached to him.

I don't object to Blaze hanging out with his friends, or even making new ones though out the season but... Would it kill the writers to let him have a scene with Aaron? Like. A single scene. Where it's just Blaze and Aaron. I mean just Blaze and Aaron without Aphmau there. They've done this before. They did it in the season Blaze showed up in. Just one scene where the two of them get to talk about literally anything would do so much. Even if they talk about Aphmau, it's better than nothing. It would strengthen both of their characters so much to be able to get a scene where they talk to each other not as conspirators who kinda know each other, but as real friends supporting one another.

Show that even though Blaze said Daniel was more compassionate than he was, Blaze still is a compassionate and even empathetic person. Show why Aaron was grateful to have him during his recovery. They have those scenes of Aaron at physical therapy, right? Why not have Blaze take him one time and just show how they interact then? The possibilities with this unrealized idea are endless, and that's genuinely upsetting. Opportunities like this present themselves every time Blaze makes an appearance, they even tease me by giving me scenes where Aaron is alone with a character he has little to no connection with, Maria.

Maria was a foil for Aphmau. And Ein was a foil for Aaron. And Blaze was a foil for Ein. There is no reason for Maria to really have a rapor that matters with Aaron. He doesn't really know her that well, she's clearly a friend by association, and it seems like an odd thing to focus on when Blaze is LITERALLY RIGHT THERE IN THE BACKGROUND OF THIS SCENE.

Why won't they let Blaze talk to Aaron? It's so infuriating. The closest we get is in episode 7 when Blaze attempts to calm down Aaron, but he's shown to be ineffective and it comes down to, of course, Aphmau being the one to talk him down. I swear to Hatsune the writers are making fun of me at this point. They're going "Oooooh you want Blaze to be an actually helpful and supportive figure in Aaron's life soooo bad." AND I DO!

I'm serious when I say the show is teasing me. I've been skimming through Season 5 and only watching the episodes when Blaze is on screen, and so far he has never been in a scene with less than 4 people in it. Never. And even in scenes where he gets to be at least a focal point, he's always limited because he has to share that moment in the spotlight with FOUR OTHER CHARACTERS.

Episode 14 is a great example of this. When the werewolf gang gets told they aren't allowed to eat at a restaurant because they're werewolves, Blaze makes it abundantly obvious that he's put up with this before and really doesn't feel like being hate crimed on his vacation. And he knows that actions speak louder than words and therefore joins Maria in saying they should "teach this establishment a lesson." Personally I think Blaze would've just thrown the manager through a window only to realize it's an outdoor establishment and throw him into the ocean. Which would be objectively funny and deserved because that owner was being cringe and racist.

I love the conversation that happens because it shows the unique way that Aaron sees things from passing as a human for most of his life. This has never happened, but he knows that further acts of violence as a result will only make it happen again. This is a great scene for Aaron. Not really good for Blaze, and the next scene makes him worse. I love the detail that Blaze is an instinctual person more than a planner, but it feels wrong that he doesn't even let Aaron consider planning. I know he wants Aaron to be more spontaneous but he should have more awareness of his friend and his habits and be able to accommodate it, not talk over it.

But it's Jesson, so misunderstanding even their simplest character is par for the course. At least episode 15 gives me Garroth and Blaze talking in the background, and I'm starved for good Blaze content, so I was eating this shit up. The problem with watching MyStreet this way is that Blaze... Just doesn't get a lot of moments... At all. There are some episodes where he doesn't even speak at all, and when he does get to talk in episodes, he gets a few lines in one giant ensemble scene.

I don't object to a show having an ensemble cast, or even a lot of characters with a few central ones, but it really is a detriment to the show that Aaron never gets a scene alone with any werewolf he isn't related to. Nana gets to talk to Blaze when she's having a crisis of her relationship history and experience, but it's just so Blaze can tell her the opposite of what she wants to hear. It's not a scene that feels like it was written for Blaze, because it wasn't. It was written for Nana.

And before some jack ass says it "Blaze is a side character he's not supposed to get a lot of focus" and I'm not asking for a lot. I watched every scene he's in in PDH to prove that it works

BECAUSE IT DID.

Blaze showed up officially in episode 18 out of 30, and he wasn't in every episode after his introduction. But the writers gave him a solid introduction, one good episode that spent most of its run time with him, and really good moments throughout the rest of his time in the series. All I'm asking is that Season 5 at least give me one of those things. Either a good episode where he and his relationship with Aaron is brought into focus, even if it's used as a vector to study Aaron's character, or just more sincere moments for him.

It feels like Blaze is a joke character now when he previously made it very clear he's far more than that.

And then they just forget about him. During the first part of the 3 part finale Blaze is there. He's the one who got everyone to gather at the docks because an mf wants to eat some scrumptious food. But when Aaron sees Ein and starts freaking out, Blaze is literally just not in the scene. At all. Not even as like a throwaway of someone who could've helped but failed, he just is not in the scene at all. It legitimately feels like the writers forgot about him entirely.

Blaze the minute the plot shows up:

He's there after Garroth gets turned and was apparently at Garroth's bedside trying to calm him down which I will be thinking about. A lot. I'll be thinking about how we deserved to see or at least hear some of it, about how the writers continue to tease me with an interesting scene that involves my favorite little fucker, about how heartbreaking it would have been to see Blaze and Melissa try to calm Garroth only for him to scream in pain and try to push them away only to reveal that Zane and Nana are able to hear the entire ordeal downstairs and Zane is panicking when he hears his brother screaming in pain. Just thinking about what we could've had if the writers actually cared about any of these characters.

And then after that he dies.

I'm not watching any of When Angels Fall because I know what's good for my health. I know what happens in Season 6 Episode 9 and that's all I need to know. It doesn't matter if the writers may have finally given Blaze an emotional scene, it doesn't matter if they finally gave him even a hint of character development, it doesn't matter if he made a connection in a real way. Because no matter what he did the result is the same. No matter what quality the writers might've pulled out of their ass, it would ultimately be in service of one end. From the start of this season these writers knew what they wanted to do. They wanted to up the stakes and add more drama to the show, and they wanted to do it by killing Blaze.

And I think I know why.

This is 100% a limited view, but I was on Aphmau Instagram at the time that this season was airing. And I ran a Blaze fan account. I talked to a lot of MyStreet fans during this time and I was constantly upset and disappointed that people didn't understand Blaze's character, or just didn't appreciate it as much as I do. Most people liked Blaze on a very surface level, or because he was attached to another character they liked. I found very few people who genuinely cared about him as an individual, probably because Blaze stopped getting scenes alone by the end of PDH, and because the Aphmau fandom (at the time) had more of a focus on shipping than character work and quality. Blaze was easily shippable with a number of characters, canonically shipped with Dottie a little, and had enough characterization that people cared about him, but not enough to get a large dedicated fanbase.

He was the perfect one to kill.

Enough people liked him because he was hard to hate, he was stapled onto Aaron's character with little regard for a story of his own, and his death could be eventually inconsequential. And it was! Blaze's method of dying is so bad it makes me physically angry!

I know the whole story for the last few seasons has been all about Forever Potions and turning people against each other, but just mind controlling Blaze and having him die while under mind control is such such a missed opportunity. There's been a disappointing lack of proper Aaron and Blaze friendship content, but they could have made up for it in this scene with just a few tweaks. Just have Blaze not be mind controlled at the end. He can still go on that rant about Aaron being the cause of all the bad that's happened, but then the words start to become... disjointed. Jilted. As if Blaze is struggling to say them because he knows that they're wrong. Aaron's his friend, there's no way he'd say that about him.

Have it break.

Have him look at his friend in a worse state than he's ever been in, and instead of approaching him with intent to harm, it's intent to heal. A final attempt at getting through to Aaron. And like the times before, it doesn't work. Aaron's angrier than ever and he isn't seeing or thinking straight thanks to Ein's bull shit. All he can see is an enemy in his way. Maybe he sees Blaze's eyes but Blaze's green eye is still Emerald Green, even if the control broke for a moment. Whatever reason, Aaron still attacks.

He doesn't realize that Blaze wasn't trying to hurt him until it's too late. Aaron's anger already ruined a friend's life, it already pulled all of them into the hell they're in, and now it's killed one of his best friends.

ONE CHANGE. THAT'S ALL IT TOOK. ONE SINGLE CHANGE TO MAKE BLAZE'S DEATH ACTUALLY MEAN SOMETHING.

Ideally I'd like it Blaze just didn't die at all, least of all before the finale, but if you're going to kill him off unceremoniously at least make it have some emotional weight. You've been neglecting him for an entire season and now you just kill him off? Just like that? Oh he gets to show up in heaven? How nice. Is it a scene where he gets to express regrets, remorse, or even give any insight into his feelings?

Of course it fucking isn't! Are you kidding me, that's not even close to what happens. I said i wouldn't watch When Angels Fall but

I LIED!!

I watched Blaze's death scene and his scene in heaven to make sure I knew well and good how badly they failed to kill off my favorite character! And man, the scene in heaven is just the worst! Blaze does a genuinely kind thing for Aphmau and decides to stay with her when she's alone because he doesn't want her to hurt. He saw how much pain Aaron was in without her. He just wants to fucking help her.

But Aphmau's too self absorbed to realize that and instead goes on a whole rant about how she always needs other people to take care of or protect her and how everyone else would be better off yadda yadda. What she doesn't realize and what Blaze eventually gets to tell her is that people were around her and took care of her because they just wanted to. Because she was nice to be around. And they never expected anything else, and never saw her as a burden.

And that's actually a really nice moment. Sort of. There's two major problems. First, Blaze gets cut off from telling Aphmau this at first because Irene has to go on a whole rant about Aphmau being selfish. And she is right in everything that she says, but it feels weird for Irene, who literally doesn't know her, to be making this judgement. This scene should have been Irene observing a conversation between Blaze and Aphmau were Blaze just tries to make her feel better.

And that would hopefully solve problem number two. Which is that what Blaze says is very genuine and heartfelt, but severely handicapped by the fact that he and Aphmau were only friends for a short period of time in High School, and an equally short period of time within the last few months. What Blaze says about why he likes being around her is true, but it would have a lot more weight if there was a chance for Blaze to have been around her as a friend more.

Fuck it, if you need Blaze to be on screen with at least two other characters, why was there never a scene of Blaze, Aaron and Aphmau just talking? Would a single scene of that fucking killed you? Just one scene would have made their friendships a lot more solid and therefore heartbreaking to lose when it gets torn apart.

Third problem, the scene ends with a focus on Irene. Blaze's words echo in her ears, and remind her of her friends. And I like that idea because I'm an absolute sucker for MCD, but it takes the scene away from the focus. This should be a scene about one of Aphmau's friends encouraging her to not give up even if it all seems lost. At least don't let her death be in vain by saying such awful things about her friends while they may be grieving. But Irene is brought into focus again because the show isn't about Blaze, or Aphmau apparently, I guess her Aphmau Main Character Powers overrides Aphmau's. She has more experience with them.

Blaze and Aphmau's very heartfelt dialogue is brought down by the fact that these two characters lives didn't intersect very directly out of high school. Through the course of Season 5 I never got the idea that Blaze was Aphmau's friend. Not to say they weren't friendly, I think Blaze adored her just as much as he did in high school, but as a viewer I was never shown that they cared particularly for one another. I believe that Blaze sincerely cared about her even after all this time, but that's not because of anything the writers did with him in these seasons. It's just because that's the kind of person Blaze is.

But their friendship not being strong really weakens the scene. This is a scene that I know for a fact worked as intended when I watched it as it was coming out. I was an overemotional mess of a 15 year old who hated how this series was going but kept watching it because it was almost over and I might as well get it done with. It pulled on my heartstrings and they sang and I cried. I cried a lot. This scene made me incredibly emotional, and it still got to me as an adult, but the devil is in the details.

Blaze and his arc might work on the surface. They work if you don't pay that close of attention to it. They work if you care more about the characters he's constantly around more than Blaze. And when I first watched Seasons 5&6, I still had a very deep attachment to a lot of these characters, especially Melissa, who he shares a lot of scenes with. So I felt... satisfied? I would've liked more, but I probably wouldn't have complained about what I got (his death scene not withstanding I always thought that was bad).

My my, how the times have changed.

If it wasn't obvious from the four thousand or so words you just read, Blaze is a rather unique case of these writers failing as writers. A rather unique case where the perfect character to fix a lot of problems with their show practically jumped up in the air waving his arms around and they still brushed past him to focus on a predetermined story he was shoved into. I don't think the writers ever really had a plan for where Blaze would go or what he would do.

A lot of Blaze's best character moments are when he isn't being written by Jesson. The reason I love the minigames so much is because there, Blaze's incredibly talented voice actor Jason Lord is actually really funny and pretty good at improv. Obviously some bits of the mini games are scripted, but a lot of them are just seeing how much voice actors can get into their characters, which he's fantastic at. A lot of Blaze's funniest moments come from this too, which is great when the writers turn him into a comedy character but the characters voice actor is funnier than they both are and is only a funny character when they don't have direct control of him. Lord is able to bring life to a character who may have been lacking it due to the simultaneously focused and unfocused way the series was written.

Blaze is proof of what happens when writers don't bother to develop their characters beyond the outline. The draft notes for PDH Season 2 said "there's going to be a wolf character who tries to become Alpha and instead stands up for Daniel when he's bullied." and then Blaze was born. The writers gave him some characterization as a treat to make the story work better, and then were done with it then and there. We fleshed him out enough, good character, time to put him in season 5 so people stop criticizing us for not giving Aaron enough friends.

But the problem wasn't a lack of quantity in friends, it was a lack of quality. It was a lack of scenes that let Aaron interact with other characters without Aphmau present. It was a lack of characters to point to that were real emotional connections Aaron had that weren't his last minute family or his girlfriend. It was a lack of attention given to the few characters that could've filled that role. Dante almost filled it in season 2, and Aaron and Garroth could have arguably become closer after everything in season 4, but at that point Aaron's entire arc became centered around Aphmau.

It was the fact that Blaze was one of the few people who ever directly reached out to Aaron and then was never given a scene alone again. It was because the writers wrote too many characters, tried to give the series a more direct focus, and then failed to account for the characters that were dragged along even if they didn't necessarily know what to do with them.

So when Season 6 came around and they decided to make the show super serious no really stop laughing, they needed characters to kill off to up the stakes. It's not like Blaze's character was going anywhere. It's not like they had a plan for him. Nothing was really being lost.

It's not like Blaze was one of the most sincere and dedicated characters in the series. It's not like he had one of the biggest potentials in regards to his relationship with Aphmau or Aaron. It's not like there was time spent proving that he could be a solid pillar of support in both of their lives even under dire circumstances. It's not like he was set up that way through individual scenes where he got to talk to each of them on a personal level. That definitely didn't happen.

TLDR: MyStreet peaked at season 2 and they fumbled the bag with the best chance to make it peak even higher and I'm forever bitter about it. Now get out of my house.

[balkanradfem]

I went swimming the other day, and lately the place where I go swim in the summer, has accumulated some male visitors, so I figured I had to stop using it. My last attempt to swim there ended up in a male swimming right behind me, even all the way to the other riverbank, and letting his dogs go after me, so I was terrified by the end of it, and did not have any good time at all.

So, I figured I'd just enter the river from the more inconvenient spaces, and waddle around until I found a nice place to relax. I found some cool rocks walking trough the shallow river, and then I saw exactly what I'd been looking for; a tree arching low over the surface of the water, branches horizontal to the flowing river. Water lights reflected on the tree bark were making a vibrant show, and reflecting back into the water, making it slightly shine in the shade of the tree. The area right next to it was filled with yellow water lilies, populated with little frogs.

I found myself pretty content right there, I put my bag with a towel on the tree branch where it was safe, and had a lovely time just sitting in the shade, looking at the pretty lights, enjoying the show of little fishes that came to nibble on my skin. After a bit of sitting there, I realized that something a bit uncommon was happening here – fishes were jumping out of the water! I have seen them do this before, but not in this amount; many fishes were doing it at once, at any second you could see 20 of them at it, all in one area. Some of them were doing such a great job they were managing to make a nice half-circle before jumping back into the water! The others would just peak their little heads in the air, and then fall back. I was having a great time watching this unfold, one fish actually made a perfect jump only centimeters next to my face.

Then, another cool thing, a duck charged right at me. Ducks generally don't seem to recognize me as people when I'm submerged and only my head is peeking out, they assume I'm a weird frog, but they don't usually swim right at me. I was avoiding to look directly at her, so she wouldn't stop, but when she got a bit too close, she did realize I was not in fact, a frog. Two other ducks joined her, but they kept their distance from me. The charging duck decided to avoid me, and swam close next to me, which made me happy anyway, as I got to see a duck from up close. I think the ducks were after the flying fish! And I just happened to be right in the middle of that event, so they went at me accidentally. The fishes kept on happily jumping for about half an hour, it was real fun. They seem so happy, I can only imagine how fast they need to swim up in order to jump like that, I have to assume they do it out of joy, or maybe they're in competition, in which case I could be a great non-gilled judge.

I am completely over my last swimming spot, this is the new cool place for me, I will be sat in there for the foreseeable future. I almost forgot how fun and adventurous it is to explore the river! As a kid I would do this for hours; I'd swim and walk and crawl my way trough any river close to me, following it as far as the currents would allow, finding beautiful new places to linger and relax in.

[bhaalble]

While I'm on my script doctor shit: I want to talk about Karlach.

Karlach's not dealing with the same level of narrative neglect/hasty rewrite fingerprints that Wyll is. As a standalone entity, her arc works. I Am Not Immune To Weeping at the Post-Gortash Fight Scene etc etc. But it does feel oddly discordant with the other companion quests. Karlach doesn't really experience any moral evolution or make meaningful decisions. When we meet her she's a kindhearted friendly hero, and she will be that regardless of whether she dies in Faerun or goes back to Avernus. She's incredibly likeable while she does that, and I also don't want to come across like I think her writing is shallow. But in a game where all the companion quests follow a pretty intentional pattern regarding the cycle of abuse, it sticks out like a sore thumb to me that the resolution of the Gortash plot doesn't really impact her character arc one way or the other.

As always I feel compelled to point out that this isn't me going "actually she's secretly a bad person and the game won't admit it". This is more me attempting to mine some more in-depth conflict, using the existing arc as a template. With that in mind, these are the changes I would make:

-Make the use of Soul Coins MUCH MORE of a character point. With how much attention is drawn to acquiring these things for the first time and a special dialogue choice for whether or not you'll have her use them, it feels very much like a dropped thread that it doesn't really go anywhere storywise. Leveraged correctly I think this could've been the chance to show a crack in Karlach's persona. She's your big loveable attack dog who's been having the worst decade, yeah. But she's also a survivor, who's not only been deployed into an endless conflict but who also hasn't had a single person she can trust other than herself. I think you could make more of a thing about how the conditions she lived in in Avernus forced her to make her peace with occasionally stepping on other people, even some innocents, so she could live to fight another day. There's shades of this in some of her conversations with the tiefling refugees already, she mentions to Dammon that she felt like she couldn't really do anything for Elturel. Push into that guilt, and with it, that denial. Have ten years spent with devils maybe just maybe given her a slightly more removed view of the value of a life that isn't her own?

-Whether the player feeds her Soul Coins or not I think it should be specified by Dammon that her routine use of them during her time in Avernus has sped up her engine breakdown by putting it into almost permanent overdrive. Its a damnation of Zariel (who probably knew what the coins were doing, but didn't care) and a startling moment for Karlach, that there are consequences for being cavalier with the souls of others. High Approval Karlach either asks to stop taking them (if the player has been giving them) or thanks the player for encouraging her to hold off. Low Approval Karlach will ask to keep taking them on the grounds of "in for a penny in for a pound", arguing that they can't afford to lose the advantages the player has seen it gives them (if they have been giving them) or becoming frustrated that the player is judging her and what she's had to do to survive (if they haven't).

-Make the reveal that the Steel Watch run off infernal iron MUCH MORE emotional for Karlach, as she realizes she was an experimental run for Gortash to do this. Double down on this when the player discovers that they have corpses inside them (also, put this reveal before the Steel Watch foundry quest can be completed). Its both horrifying on a gut level to find out the stupid evil reason for all her suffering...but also she can't help but feel culpable for LIVING. If she hadn't been strong enough to survive it the experiment might've ended there. Its not true but it is one of the worst thoughts you can have when you've just found out you're going to die anyways.

-I would make the relationship between Karlach and Gortash much more mutual and much more (initially) positive relationship. Have him be genuinely glad to see her, genuinely impressed that she survived the hells. Its what he always liked about her, her grit, her ability to face down impossible odds and come out the victor. Compliments that would've made her happy back in the day and now feel like a punch to the gut. Its all build-up, though, to the Choice which will define Karlach's route.

-By virtue of his experiments Gortash has gotten very good at working with Infernal Iron. And he believes he can fix Karlach's heart, in exchange for her basically taking up a more elevated version of her old job. He could use a bodyguard powered by hellfire and with a strong understanding of devils. Its also, just good optics for his man of the people image to have his right hand be some outer city kid elevated to greatness. He makes a lot of promises in that moment: she won't die. She'll get a chance to have a LIFE back, but now a life with all the power and security she could ask for. More than that, they could change things in this city. Give its residents better lives, improve things for all the little Karlachs out there. And after that...who knows? The Hells might be ripe for some conquest back. Gods know they've both got old scores to settle

-She takes time to think about it, and talk with the player. In addition to all the other hang-ups she might have this is where the Steel Watch comes up again, with her feeling like she's poisoned by that knowledge. A player trying to persuade her into taking the deal can point out, in the end its not so different from soul coins. Why draw the line now. If this Persuasion check is passed she can note that at least they could afford to be choosier with their victims, putting the worst baddies to use for the protection of everyone. That wouldn't be so bad....would it?

-You meet Gortash for a final time. If persuaded by the player to not take the deal (or if left to choose for herself with High Approval) Karlach will kill him where he stands. His soul rises in the form of Bane's Chosen and you have a proper boss fight. If persuaded to take it (or left to her own devices on Low Approval) Karlach will take the deal. This will mean losing Karlach from the party (with the exception of the House of Hope mission where she will appear Jaheira style) as she will be busy protecting Gortash. The player gains custom armor from Gortash and an assembly of Steel Watchers they can summon in the Final Battle.

-If she doesn't take the deal her endings play out pretty similarly to how they do in canon, either dying or returning to Avernus. This time, however, its with a new lease on life (or death). She's gotten to choose to be better than the things that dropped her here. She's still scared, still angry. But she's also proven something to herself. That Zariel and Gortash and them were wrong about her, and that she is much more than the mindless weapon they wanted to turn her into.

-If she takes the deal it unlocks a new ending for Gortash. Rather than come to the Elder Brain himself he will instead give you his Netherstone as a show of good faith, trusting you to take the chance to subdue the Elder Brain for your mutual rule.

-If the Player subdues the Elder Brain you and Gortash move it back underground, pretending to have defeated it and using the fear created by the mind flayer outbreak to rule the populace. Karlach in the Epilogue talks to you about how the two of you are making massive moves in the city. She seems to be trying very hard to convince herself at least most of the changes are positive....from a certain point of view.

-If the Player destroys the Elder Brain, Gortash skips town and takes Karlach with him rather than face his disgrace. In the Epilogue Karlach says he's starting to rebuild in another city state, "not tellin you where, though. Don't really think I want to have to fight you if you decide to come smash this one too....even though I'd definitely win." She seems extremely worn down in this ending and trying to cover it up. Gortash lost a LOT of favor with Bane having his plans blow up in his face like that and its made him. Snippy. Still, "its a living. And it probably wouldn't even be that if it weren't for him." The player can hint that it may be time for her to start moving on to a better environment, and she says only if she can find someone to do a more permanent fix for Ol' Rusty. Gortash still has to do check-ups almost monthly to keep her stable.

-She still keeps in touch with Dammon, though....who knows. He might have some new thoughts after seeing all the blueprints Gortash has drawn up....

[wannaeatramyeon]

You hit the nail on the head! I‘ll ask for more professional assessment: honest opinion on Crystal?

Following on from my ramblings about Sally Park. Oops! Edited to add in Zoe too.

Well written female characters in Lookism? Uhh...

When the bar is at an all time low, it's really not hard to step over it.

At this point, I've been pavloved to think that any female character that expresses a personality trait other than 'simp' is pretty good. Simp is fun when it's part of a list of characteristics (Zack, Ryuhei). Not so much when it's the only thing.

Long live PTJ, the greatest feminist. Anyway.

Female characters I like

Mary Kim

Love her. Empress of 2 seconds. Queen of my heart.

Surprisingly kept a platonic relationship with Vin Jin, showing quite a healthy mixed gender friendship. Sassy and smart. Loyal. Good taste in men (Jace). Is shown having a life and interests outside of a man.

On my hands and knees praying that PTJ doesn't ruin her. Kinda glad she hasn't appeared in a while so she is kept away from his incessant need to turn everyone into a love interest.

Lua Im

Once we got over the odd Johan panels, which I heard the Korean audience didn't like and I'm quite happy about, she's fine. And it's not that I care that much about Johan staying a single dog-dad, I just needed a coherent reasoning/build up why they would be interested in one another.

Lua has potential.

Sourcing intel, even impressing the likes of Gun? A little Muay Thai knowledge? Jake and Jerry scared of her? Lol. Ok. Good. Let's build on this.

Just please don't white knight her.

Crystal Choi (meh)

And Ms. Choi, because anon specifically asked. I really don't mind her? I know she's meant to be anti-Lookism but still judges people based on their looks eh. That's fine. Pretty realistic actually. Whatever.

She can be a bit bitchy for no reason. So can I. Handwaving all that.

What I do take issue with though, is her so called title of Business Genius. Please show me the chapter where she actually does something to earn that title besides the one where other people ooh-ed and aah-ed over her in the meeting with DG.

Wow she's sooooo gorgeous. Ok good for her. If that's the route they're taking her character then at least OWN. THAT. SHIT. Use her beauty and looks to sign deals and get what she wants. GOOD. DO IT.

Zoe Park (also meh... Wait)

Sorry anon, I think 'really well written' is a bit of a reach... She does have some decent character development, starting as quite a flighty, shallow girl and then showing that she has a heart of gold, liking both Daniels and. Huh.

Wait. You're right. She is pretty well written. She's selfless and kind and loyal to her friends, putting up with Logan's bullshit. There's enough of a character arc for her from the Zoe we're introduced to at first.

And I do like that she's good at maths too.

Wasted potential

Minseong Kang (Jake's momma)

Appreciate this is the older generation and from a much more conservative culture. Saying that, I am so over the slighted and bitter housewife rotting at home while her big powerful husband cheats on her.

And then some sort of marriage redemption cos they pop out a kid. Whatever. (Sorry Jake bb, I love you).

If you were going to do that, give me the most toxic red flag shit where they are constantly at each other's THROATS. Show me how they are equals. Can't live with or without one another. That's the good kinda shit.

Leonn Lee

I just. What the fuck was this.

A girl in Burn Knuckles? A group that reeks of testerone and (positive) masculinity? Show us why she joined! Show us why she stays. SURPRISE. Main character trait?? Having a crush on Vasco.

She could have been SO interesting. And she obviously trains, why not get her to fight?

Hate for irrational reasons

Joy Hong

Listen, she's not really in enough or significant enough for me to really feel one way or another about her. BUT. The reason I HATE her is because I was trying to write a headcanon involving everyone and then I got to Joy and I was STUMPED.

Sub in a plank of wood, and it would have the same depth of personality.

Truly. Who is she apart from Jay's sister and a Daniel simp? At least everyone else has something.

Others

I don't really think about them. Sera Shin has potential I guess.

And of course a special mention to Daniel's momma. She's not exactly a unique character, but who doesn't love her?

LET. THEM. FIGHT.

Lastly. Why can't we see women fight? Like the men's fights are realistic LOL. Ultra instinct? Smashing through walls? So why are women fighting men outside the realms of this.

And yes yes. Men are SoOoOoOo strong. But can they take a kick to the balls?

Are you saying Gun Park has been training his dick and balls and would be able to eat a hit there? He wouldn't go down like a heap of shit??

HUH. TELL ME THAT.

In Summary

Mary by and large is pretty well written. Lua has improved.

I don't care much about anyone else.

And I wanna see Gun, Goo, Sammy, Vin etc. get kicked in the balls in a fight.

[kiwinatorwaffles]

hmm. i'm usually not one to post about these topics but i think i've gathered enough thoughts on wilbur's abysmal apology towards shelby to form a cohesive message.

WARNING: the rest of the post will discuss abuse and also a lot of my personal experiences as someone who has hurt other people in the past. obviously not to the extent that wilbur has, but please move on it you don’t want to see it. thank you and stay safe.

being stuck in a hard place, whether it be living conditions, mental conditions, or any other factor, will naturally hurt the person going through those tough times. and hurt people hurt people. but i think there's a pretty Big Fucking Difference between doing bad things in the past and actually owning up to your actions after regretting it VS doing bad things in the past and turning a blind eye against those you've hurt to wallow in your own ego and misery.

i’ve experienced my fair share of abusive friendships, but when i was fifteen, i WAS the toxic friend. (yes, i’m aroace. friendships aren’t the same as a romantic relationship but they can be just as strong. i value my platonic bonds as much as allos value their marriages or date partners.) i was going through a huge depressive episode. it was tough for me, but during that time, i made fun of my friends' interests to their faces because i couldn't personally understand it, and i also vagueposted about the little things they did that ticked me off right where they could see it. it got to the point where they had to make a separate group chat to talk about their interests where i wouldn’t see it. i hurt all of them, and it ended in them confronting me about my actions. they put me in my place and called me out for my horrible attitude.

after seeing my friends' perspectives, i realized just how awful i was to them and sincerely apologized to each of them. i recognized their feelings towards my actions and didn't make excuses. even though i was going through a hard time myself, my abuse towards them was absolutely NOT justified. as i recovered, i made sure not to hurt them any more, and years later, our friendships are still going strong.

my experiences aren't nearly as extreme as what wilbur has done to shelby, but i think it's pretty fucking clear that his apology was flaming dog shit served on a trash dump. like, i was a fifteen year old. he's a Grown Ass Man with a big platform. he dug his own grave by talking about himself first instead of actually addressing his mistreatment of shelby first and foremost. he didn't even MENTION shelby by name. talking about his "strides to betterment" without even directing his apology towards the person he actually hurt is just pathetic. that whole spiel about how he "thought" the whole exchange was consensual is fucking wild. he didn't even apologize for that; he moved on right afterwards.

we can infer that wilbur has been struggling with being a person who has done bad things through his songs and lovejoy's music. he might have been going through a hard time and maybe even regretted it (though his apology really makes it seem like he's just doing it for damage control), that STILL doesn't validate any hurt he might have caused. the least he could’ve done is to sincerely apologize to shelby, even if she didn’t accept it. but he couldn’t even do that.

it's just disappointing that, as someone who has a platform of millions of followers, he displayed an act of shallowness. in the end, his attempt at sincerity fell flat and benefited no one, especially not the people he abused. if he had properly apologized, even if his apology wasn't accepted, it would've shown people in a similar situation how to apologize to the people they hurt in the past in a mature and sincere way.

so, yeah. FUCK wilbur soot. focus not on the fact that he has done bad, but that the one he abused didn’t get a proper apology. support shelby and other victims of abuse. listen to their experiences and spread awareness of these cautions. uplift their voices, not his.

for those who have connected to his and lovejoy's music that have gone through a similar dark time in their lives, i also extend my heart out to you. it must also be hard to see someone who reflected your struggles of betterment reveal himself to be someone who really hasn't gotten better at all.

but you don’t have to be like him. you don’t need to follow in his steps as long as you own up to your mistakes, even if you can’t talk to those you hurt anymore. in the end, what matters most is that you apologize in a sincere way and make sure you don’t repeat those mistakes going forward.

you CAN get better. if anything just so spite that british boy’s ass

thank you. kiwi out ✌️

[autumnmobile12]

Storm Hawks: A Pretty Fun Take on Feminism

I don't know how many people actually remember this show, or even watched it , but this is an episode that's stuck with me all these years so I want to talk about it.

For context, the plot of Storm Hawks itself is pretty basic: Evil empire taking over the world, the good guys try to stop them, shenanigans ensue because kids' show. The main cast members fall into pretty generic archetypes. too. We have:

Aerrow (the 'true blue' leader)

Piper (the smart one/the girl)

Finn (the funny one)

Junko (the buddy)

Stork (the neurotic one)

Radarr (the animal sidekick)

And we're off:

This is Storm Hawks Season 1, Episode Ten: Fire and Ice

There was a lot going on in this episode, including a climate change allegory, but for the purposes of attempting to remain somewhat concise, I'm only going to cover the feminism theme for this post. Episode ten revolves mostly around Piper, opening with the team attending a festival put on by the Blizarrians, a race of snow-dwelling, humanoid, rabbit-dog creatures with Canadian accents and stereotypes in their world. (Which might be offensive, but the show was produced by a Canadian studio, so they can make fun of themselves if they want.)

The Blizzarian team (aptly named the Absolute Zeroes) invite the Storm Hawks to come snowmobiling with them in the backcountry. Piper is enthusiastic about the invitation, being a skilled cartographer, so she wants to map out the terrain...only to be told, "Ladies don't do the backcountry training. You just stay back with the girls."

Aerrow, being a true friend, tells Piper not to listen and she can ride with him, but since she's apparently not welcome by their hosts, Piper doesn't feel inclined to go anymore.

However, when Piper goes to meet up with 'the girls' and hang out, Suzy Lu (pictured above) unexpectedly introduces herself as the Absolute Zeroes' Sky Knight (essentially their captain.) So she's the one in charge, not the men, leaving Piper with the impression, Okay maybe being left out won't be so bad after all.

Later on in the episode, Aerrow does call out the male Zeroes, telling them she is part of their team and she has every right to be there with them. However, the Zeroes meet his words with genuine confusion, with the original member who told Piper to stay behind saying, "But Sky Knights don't do the backcountry training. That's just for us squaddies."

He thought Piper was the leader and therefore didn't need to be there. Similarly, because he was the male, Aerrow thought he was the Zeroes' leader, not Suzy Lu. It's still a sexist assumption to think Piper was in charge because she was a woman, but it's definitely a fresher take than the typical, "No, woman stay home because woman weak."

Going further into the comedy of the situation, though, is the fact the 'training' the Zeroes do in the backcountry pretty much amounts to them messing around on the snowmobiles and pulling off crazy stunts. They're just 'boys being boys.' If somebody wipes out on their ride, everyone else will be concerned up until the moment the fallen team member stands back up and starts cheering to show he's okay. It gives off a vibe that's similar to parents sending their kids outside to play when they're too hyper.

Further proving the point they are a bunch of well-intentioned dorks, it's also shown that Blizzarians don't assume all women are in charge. When Aerrow suggests a solution to the aforementioned climate issue that was also going on in the episode, Suzy Lu declares, "I like your thinking." And then, as an aside to Piper, whispers, "I was wondering why this one was in charge." So upon meeting the group, she definitely had a moment of, Okay, this Aerrow guy is the leader, not Piper. Kinda odd, but humans are weird. Whattya gonna do?

...

Overall, the storytelling of Storm Hawks was a bit shallow, which doesn't often appeal to most adults, and that likely was a contributor as to why it didn't receive much attention outside its target audience. The world itself, Atmos, was an interesting concept; a world interspersed with mountain nations (terras) that rose up out of a hostile wasteland, so travel is achieved primarily by flight. This theme is seen throughout the series in the very culture as many of the characters are named after birds. (Junko (junco,) Stork, Piper (sandpiper,) Starling, Dove, Snipe, Wren, Finn (finch.) In addition to the flight, their machines were powered by these crystals that varied in type, purpose, categorization of how common or rare they were, so there was a scientific/magic element to it.

The writing was episodic in format, though, so the characters don't really have longterm goals and never really had development arcs that spanned much longer than a single episode. The conflict itself was effectively a world war, but unlike a series such as Avatar: The Last Airbender, Storm Hawks never achieved the level of seriousness or emotion that a war story demands to be compelling or really respectful of that particular theme in fiction. The characters of Storm Hawks and ATLA are fun and light-hearted, but the Storm Hawks episodes were really more goofy and child-like adventures. I mean, there is an episode where it is heavily implied the reptilian humanoids are carnivorous and eat people. Okay, fuck, that's hardcore disturbing, but the show doesn't really expand on that because it's a kids' show. Nonetheless, since it's there, you're kinda left with, Okay, either follow through with your darker themes or don't mention them at all. It's a cartoon, find a better balance than that.

There also wasn't much depth to the villains either and their motivations were really just chalked up to the standard, "We're evil." One of them was even former 'good guy' turned traitor ten years prior to the main plot, but his reasons for turning traitor were never explored or even revealed. Come on, people, what happened? Ambition? Greed? He saw the political structure of the side he fought for was fundamentally flawed and decided it was best to tear it all down?

...

However, the detail that I appreciate with this nostalgia series is the fact that there were female characters in positions of power in Storm Hawks. Most of the fighting battalions were mostly made up of men, sure, and I would have liked to see a more balanced male-female cast, but some of the teams were straight up led by a woman and there was at least one group that was exclusively women.

The main antagonist, the reigning monarch of the aggressive nation in the war, was also a woman. (Well, teenage girl, but you get the point.) What's more; she was 100% in charge. She was not influenced in any way by a male advisor, she wasn't spurred on by the memory of a male predecessor, she was never intimidated by her male generals. And she was intelligent. Throughout the series, she was a scientist, an engineer, and a fighter. (Unfortunately, in the last season, her mind started to go a bit, so she pretty much devolved into a knockoff Azula.) We even have the brief insight of her background where it's shown she inherited her throne from her grandmother, not another male ruler. Which either implies primogeniture inheritance regardless of gender or it's a matrilineal monarchy, which is interesting to speculate, but that would be headcanon territory.

...

It was a fun watch when I was a kid, but as an adult...yeah, lots of flaws, a great deal of loss in potential with world-building and storylines, and even as a kid, I knew the plots and humor of later episodes fell into a category that was more stupid than funny.

But if Storm Hawks had one strength, they had the groundwork of the feminism angle down pat and that is always appreciated.

[ghawst37]

An explanation to camuroland the shipname: "犬炎"

Although I do supposed that at this point everyone just used to "camuroland" as their official ship name. But as part of the eastern side of the shipdom, mashing their names together should be taken it with some extra steps, for the sake of self-indulgance haha.

So I propose a side one that is "犬炎"

I included it in the template that I posted as sort of a teaser. But I feel like it deserves a bit of an explanation, as a bit of an apreciation for kuso en translation(?) team, just on some parts. (spoilers, Camu's deserve to be praised, Roland however, was a miss. Kuso, how you have fell off.)

Camu: Crocotta in chinese/original is 卡穆 · 狂犬 And Roland: Flambeau is 罗兰 · 戏炎 What's super interesting to me is that their frame's name does not change in the japanese version (Camu is カム · 狂犬, Roland is ロラン · 戏炎) "But, you don't know chinese, how are you gonna make any of this work," well I'm Vietnamese, and I can use transliteration to aid me. And trust me it helped me understand these two on a much deeper level. In that vietnamese guy we trust, always :D

Their names are simple, "卡穆" and "罗兰" are simply "Camu" and "Roland" in chinese dialect. The fun part is in their frames' name.

Camu goes first. And I would like to say that the direct translation for his frame's name is so insulting because why are they calling our boy a "rabid dog"?? Although that's the thing, it's really what "狂犬" means. "狂犬" in romaji is "kuángquǎn", and in Vietnamese transliteration is "cuồng khuyển." And to my other vietnamese people, I agree this sounds a lot better than calling him "chó dại" haha. "Cuồng" is basically to describe something wild and uncontrollable, you can use it to describe a natural disaster as well as a person, in some cases. Pretty much means "crazy," but unlike "rabid" that's mostly only used on an animal. "Khuyển" is pretty much an untamed dog. This is when I have to brought this up because I had issues with this too, specifically the differences between "cẩu" and "khuyển," as both of these words are to refer to a dog. A "cẩu" is a domesticated dog, a house pet. Obedient and behave nicely to its master. And a "khuyển" is a masterless dog, barks and bite and misbehave and uh yeah.... has rabies (this came clear to me from a lil comedic story that I came across explaning exactly just that haha.) At the same time, it's used in a very insulting manner, to refer to a lowly, pathetic dog. Now I think I understood whoever made Camu's frame see of him. SMH But to my knowledge, "masterless dog" can also be used to refer to wild dogs, namely hyenas. Which is absolutely interesting, because it's believed that hyenas were the animal that inspired the legend of the creature "Crocotta." I think the english translation team deserves some credit for this one 0)-(

Roland on the other hand, is surfacely the less intersting when first roughly translated during his debut in the cn server.

"戏炎" in romaji is "xìyán", and that is "hí diễm" or "hí viêm" (either way has a nice ring to the ears.) During Roland's debut his frame's name was translated to "theatrical flame", which is so much better than what the direct translation gave me (because "play inflamation" sounds like... absolutely nothing.) This is worth pointing out at least imho, using "戏", in romaji and transliteration is "hí", translated to theaters is pretty shallow in terms of meaning. To put it simply, it's not just any general theater, it belongs to the combination "戏曲", "xìqǔ" or chinese traditional opera, Peking opera is what it's more widely known currently. Now I'm not here to give a history lesson on something I'm not very well-versed, but for what Roland does, consider to what Peking is with its combination of story telling, singing, dancing, martial arts and acrobatic performance, I don't think the theater they refer Roland to is "just western theater," the good ol we all familiar with. Especially with the martial arts and acrobatic performance, for what Roland is capable of (or consider his battle performance), he exceed just being some reality show performer. That's traditional art. Albeit Roland is referenced (quite heavily) on a Frankish knight, that's very much just a title, much like his role on the stage. It's always better to consider him as someone more than just his role. And that is where the localization and translation team failed to make justice of what his name could have been, or if only someone could have point it out earlier. "Hỏa" ("火") means literally fire, but "viêm" ("炎") is a blaze (literally two fire syllables on top of each other.) It can also be use as an adjective to describe heat in some cases. "Flambeau" is pretty much a torch, even much less meaning than "theatrical flame", but it gave me this idea that said flame is being contained within an object and/or a place. Although it's not even flame, but an even much larger fire. (A friend after hearing me telling them all this said that it felt like a very symbolic fire, it could be seen as Roland's passion for the art of performance, which I very much agree. It burn hot and bright but it also contains him, imprisoned him almost.)

That's a long dissecting section, so what does that leave us with? Well, I tried all combination with each syllables including ones from their names, and only the combination of "犬" and "炎" sounds the less cringe (haha) ("chaotic opera" "狂戏" could've worked if only 狂 isn't a very fitting adjective for 戏) If i respect the shipping community rule of name position (top's name at the front, bottom's at the back) then that gives us "犬炎". But personally, it's doesn't matter, the Vietnamese transliteration left me with "khuyển diễm" but I'll fw "viêm khuyển" as well.

Còn với những người anh em đồng hương của tôi, con ship này cũng có tên việt, là "Sói Lửa" (camuroland can be very international)

And with the usual english speaker, my friend have suggested "Blazing Canine" and I happily approve of the idea (it's so much better than my "hot dog".....)

And with that I would like to conclude my TED talk. Thank you anyone who reached this point (❁´◡`❁) I hope it gave you something, or wasted your time in a enjoyable way haha /gets kicked off stage

//And if anyone is like "why does Roland get such a long analyzation for his part," here's a diet one for Camu. While Roland's chinese name is just a dialect of his name ("ro-ran") Camu's does has a meaning but it's on its own is so good and I'm not sure if anyone has point this out yet, and I frankly don't think it would be very fair if i take Roland's frame name just to combine it with Camu's name. "卡穆", romaji "kǎmù", Vietnamese transliteration "khải mặc" (or in any case of you stubborn people like, fine "ca mặc", it doesn't change the meaning) means "a silent protection." Consider he always has us play where's Waldo, he's really just at the flank and back protecting everyone on his own in denser punishing zone, it's rather fitting. And it's not that he doesn't complain, it's just that whenever he does and curse at Roland hahaha

[dayurno]

I will say that I have a severe bone to pick with ao3 Neil but specifically with Raven!Neil and other similar Canon divergence fics in which people cannot write him in the Nest/in proximity to Riko without turning him into either Kevin or Jean, both in terms of personality and plot beats/importance. We could be having a real conversation about what that universe would actually be like and how a different upbringing would affect the Neil we know and instead Im out here being tricked into reading All For The Game 2: without all the parts I like edition

100% AGREE WITH YOU ON THIS!!!!!!! my thing with most raven!neil aus is that often his personality goes entirely unchanged, and it puts him in a position where, like you said, he becomes kevjean's weird divorce kid. to me, when an author writes the same personality in a different setting for raven!neil, it feels so... shallow?! easy?! truly almost lazy. i think a nathaniel who was brought up to be the butcher's sucessor would be so different from the neil who was raised by mary on the run they would be entirely different characters. i think the neil we know would be changed in irreversible ways by being raised as the butcher's first son, and his personality would be closer to riko's than most aftg fans i feel would be comfortable acknowledging

for me the fun part of raven!neil is the way neil would rock perfect court dynamics if he was raised as nathaniel. riko and kevin would not have been as close if nathaniel was there with them; i don't think nathaniel would take kevin's place so much as he would be in a position where he, as a first son and the direct sucessor of the butcher, would be in somewhat of an equal footing with riko inside the perfect court (but never outside of it, let it be clear). in a situation like this i don't even think kevin and nathaniel would have become friends — i think kevin would have still left and nathaniel would have been the number one hound dog trying to get him back, going way further than jean did in the books to make sure kevin is back where he belongs. actually now that i'm thinking of it i think nathaniel would be pretty close to how andrew is in the first book, which would be very interesting to see :)

jean's life would remain horrible either way. i don't think nathaniel would ever be his anchor so much as he would've been a necessary ally to jean, someone who steps between him and riko because he is in a position to do so and because nathaniel needs jean to keep up with him in court, so in a way that would help jean. i don't know how kevjean's friendship would go in this universe though: would kevin being less close to riko give them more space to be friends or would jean's association with nathaniel push kevin away from the perfect court as a whole? to be perfectly honest, i think kevin and nathaniel would compete to be riko's number two for a long time, and i don't think kevin would win. truly telenovela levels of drama

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Loki Episode 5 Coherent Thoughts

Spoilers for Episode 5. Once again, I have not rewatched before posting.

Most of this is lokius related because I'm still a damn fool.

I want the twist at the end to be that Loki gives Mobius (and the others) back his memories to give him the choice to go back to his life, and is just really sad about it, because he expects Mobius to want to go back to his kids who don't have a mother. But he gives him his memories of his past and they're... not what he saw when he found him. Like at all. I'm not gonna speculate on specifics (*cough* Theo Bell *cough*) but he doesn't have the responsibilities of being a single parent. And Loki's like 'No, but you had two boys,' and he tells Mobius about them and they both kind of realize at the same moment that they looked like Mobius but acted like Loki. None of that was real. Mobius made all that shit up and it somehow manifested. Because he's got it B-A-D for Loki, like a middle schooler with their first crush imagining an entire life with them.

Alternatively, I saw only one other post about this but maybe it's gotten some traction by now, but maybe Mobius's wife got Blipped four years prior. So the good thing is the boys are gonna have a parent in a year even if Mobius decides to stay with Loki.

Hi hello I'm still disturbed that these very young children have been possibly left home alone for eight hours (he says his shift is 9-5), and Mobius couldn't even answer the phone when they called. We don't see a babysitter. Mobius, this is neglect. For the children's sake, I fucking hope either A. they aren't real, or B. a more responsible parent is about to come back and take care of them in 2023. (Ugh, but Love having cousins who are about her age and just as chaotic as she is would be amazing.)

I've come up with the worst Dad joke and a way for Mobius to get out of his bribery with his kid he for sure cannot deliver on. He brings OB around for dinner. OB's timeline name (if I read the subtitles correctly) is A.D. Doug. ADDOUG=A DOG. And his TVA name is Ouroboros, the SNAKE eating its own tail. (Alternatively, you now know Loki, you can borrow his sons Fenrir and Jormungandr. Blended family.)

I know it hasn't been explicitly stated, but I thought the whole thing with Alioth in season one was meant to imply that Loki now knows how to restore memories. So why the fuck doesn't he try it in this episode? Even if he's pretty sure they're all where they were prior to the formation of the TVA, it's still after for him, so why wouldn't he at least try it? When he kept moving toward Mobius in the garage scene I thought he was gonna grab his head but he doesn't. (Maybe he was interrupted by OB, but he has ample opportunity later.)

It just needs to be said because I love history. I am obsessed with Casey being Frank Morris. Both he and Loki being central to these ongoing (technically) mysteries is amazing. Like unlike Cooper it is generally accepted that Frank and his co-escapees drowned during the attempt, but no bodies identified as the men were ever found (if my shallow dive into the wiki article immediately following the episode is to be believed). OB, your boyfriend's a convict lolololol!

AD Doug is still gender-neutral though. It's 1994 but my boi can still be enby. (I'm aware enby people existed well before this but, and the wiki is not being helpful, I think the specific term was coined in the mid to late 90s or possibly later, so OB may not have been aware of it.)

I don't think Marvel is moving toward Casey/OB (at least not before the end of this season, if we get another season it MIGHT be a different story), but fuck it would be so funny if they met so much later than lokius but were able to get their shit together faster than lokius. I think it'd check out for for everyone involved. Hell, maybe they're already together and it just hasn't come up yet to the group. That'd be funnier (bonus points if B-15 already knows though).

Loki for some fucking reason: Hold on, I gotta look cool and suave for this dork of a single dad who's already informed me at least three times of his own volition that he's single.

[yueyuw]

Contradicting to popular belief, Dennis is a very selfless person. Although when you first start the series, where he is depicted to be a very shallow person, only joining because he likes Makima and wants girls to fall for him (or some sort it's been a while since I've read the front).

As you read on you will realise the compassion he has. Despite being not even close to human since the start, and having to deal with the burden of killing his father, the death of his mother and living in the slumps, only longing for a normal life, he is one of the kindest people in the story (perhaps because he doesn't have a human heart anyways).

For example, he has kept Makima's dogs even though they are part of a past I would believe he doesn't want to remember. He kept them for Nayuta's sake AND for the dogs because he considers them a part of Nayuta's past + if he left the dogs behind they might go to someone abusive. From this example, we can see that he is kind because even though he could abandon the dogs (and meowy but he wouldn't do that because it serves as a memory of power whom he misses very much) which would help with his financial position, he didn't.

Example two, Nayuta. In the aquarium date chapter, Asa asks why Denji is so obsessed with selling things and making money. He answers that he wants to save money so that Nayuta can go to college because he believes that she has the potential and he wants her to have a normal life which he did not have. This shows he truly does care about Nayuta and that he brought her up well. The way that Nayuta acts is a product of it. Denji has created a space for her where she can express her emotions freely and grow up as a free being (maybe I'll do an analysis of her eventually and also he learnt all this from aki definitely I'm gonna cry)

In the recent chapter (chapter 133), it is shown that Denji chose to not transform into Chainsawman even though it is something he loves to do, something that brought him happiness because he is worried about Nayuta's life he wouldn't know what to do if he lost another person. He was willing to do degrading things (ie: yoshida scene btw i hate him now he was pretty at the start but now he's so annoying) for her and I really really admire that from him.

As said by Dennis himself, he does not fight for anyone, he has died again and again but he's never stopped and he was named my the people themselves in time of need. I think he is heartbroken they would take out a fake Chainsawman who stands for things he doesn't stand for, (because, again, denji doesn't have a human heart and I don't believe he has morals...) and I think he deserves better :)

Authours note: DENNISSS I LOVE YOUUUUU

[prongsfish]

thank you @fandom-trash-goblin for the tag!!

1. Are you named after anyone? nope :)

2. When was the last time you cried? i'm not sure actually, but definitely within the last 24h. i cry very easily

3. Do you have kids? noooo. i'd say i'm too young but actually i'm not all that far off from how old my mum was jeez... i don't exactly plan on following her lead in that though, she was quite young and atm i don't ever plan on having kids. i don't think i'd be a very good parent and i don't think i'll ever be ready to make a commitment that big.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot? i do sometimes but i'm not a very dry type of sarcastic, i usually over-exaggerate to extremes

5. What sports do you play/have you played? i played netball as a kid but i'm not very sporty... i also played a bit of volleyball in hs

6. What’s the first thing you notice about other people? i'm not sure honestly. just, their appearance i guess? i have a bad habit of judging people very quickly based on their appearance and other similarly shallow factors, so i guess the first thing i "notice" is just whatever category i put them in inside of my head

7. Scary movies or happy endings? these are two entirely seperate things, but in general my favourite movies have ambiguous or bittersweet endings so probably scary movies? i don't watch a lot of horror because i prioritise an impactful story over anything else and i don't like realistic scary stories, but i like general scary atmospheres and some of my favourite pieces of media are horror (donnie darko, the haunting of hill house)

8. Any special talents? not really? idk, there are things i'm good at, but not any interesting talents that come to mind

9. Where were you born? australia. that's the most specific you're getting sorry

10. What are your hobbies? doomscrolling, listening to pretentious music, consuming + talking about media, reading/writing fanfic, drawing, and... not much else really lol. i don't do much, and there are more things i'd like to do but i barely have time to do the hobbies i already have lmao. maybe someday i'll finally learn guitar...

11. Do you have any pets? none of my own but sue me i still think of the family pets as my pets, so two dogs and three cats :)

12. All-time fave piece of media? this is an insane question but okay uhh. i seriously don't know if i can choose... i think i have to say the social network, it's my favourite movie. normal people by sally rooney is close behind (the book, i haven't seen the show yet)

13. Fave subject in school? i pretty much hated everything until i understood what was going on and then i loved it until i didn't again, rinse and repeat. but probably economics or english lit!

14. Dream job? realistically, i'm on track to becoming something in finance, probably a financial advisor or an accountant of some kind. that's kind of my "dream" field because i've been set on it since i was like 13/14, and i enjoy it! but it's definitely a compromise between enjoyment and money. for a real dream job? if i had my way i'd be a uhh professional analytical thought haver. thesis statement writer, perhaps. unfortunately it seems like there is no demand for that kind of career so i will just stick with finance LMAO

15. Eye colour? brown

no pressure tags: @crackeds0b @xeme-starx @sapphos-queer-kid

[dailyadventureprompts]

Why are you so hostile to realism, historicity, and verisimilitude? Framing care for accuracy on the past is relatively frequently framed as reactionary in your posts when reaction is about imagined and mythic distortion, which, if anything, is in line with fanciful disregard for real history in favour of a cultivated and elevated version presented under the guise of relevant representation of a real period in time.

One of the best balms against both reactionary thinking and progressives stumbling into very obvious and discrediting mistakes is knowing the truth about the past—practicing material analytic thought is easily more useful than untethered moralism, even for if your goal is moral didacticism.

Because Anon, there is no "real period in time". I write FANTASY STORIES not historical analysis, which you might've noticed by the fact that there's magic and goblins and robots and a whole lot of other impossible things.

To focus in on "care for accuracy of the past", you'd have to be living under a rock to not realize that " It's not realistic" is a common dog whistle among those looking to gatekeep the genre and ensure it stays out of the hands of people like me, my friends, and 99.9% of the people following this blog.

I have a degree in history, so believe me when I say that I know "the truth about the past": It was an awful, brutish place, that would never have allowed most of us to survive. However, I'm under no obligation to include "the truth about the past" in my writing because I'm not writing about the past, I'm writing genre fiction, so the details of the world can be whatever I want so long as they support the themes of the story I'm telling and resonate with the audience. I only need to care about realism in the context of maintaining consistency within the story, and given that most of these stories features monsters from fairytales and pulp novels, that bar is pretty damn low.

Given the timing of this ask, it's very likely that you're writing in after reading my post about the inclusion of disabled characters in D&D and getting all offended when I called out assholes for using "realism" as a shield for their bigotry. If you're not one of those assholes and are really that much of a history buff, then congratulations you're a dupe: you've bought into the feint and made yourself into a shield for bigots.

If you'd like to try and prove me wrong, I'd invite you to write back in using a couple of my prompts as examples for how "practising material analytic thought" would make them better stories. We'll let the audience judge whether they prefer my creativity to your shallow excuse for "realism" and go from there.