#in my gross adult arc

[jankwritten]

you know what no. i don't think any of the pjo characters should be ripped actually. WITH THE EXCEPTION of annabeth who would have the drive and dedication to actually properly develop muscle and keep it on and shit like that. She has a routine that she follows every day and she's built like a brick wall because of it.

the rest of them fuckers? no. no nono. leo literally has baby noodle arms. nico can lift heavy things but he can't hold them up for long and often is the one who needs a break first when moving furniture/heavy boxes. Reyna and Jason are the next closest to "ripped" but literally they're just like, slightly above average atheltic build, that's all. Neither one of them has abs (Reyna does but only if she flexes). Percy is also just a little bit above average, he doesn't have huge crackling muscle arms, he's smaller, slighter, he's built like a swimmer - his shoulders are broad but that's about it.

idk why i'm thinking about this oaisudaoisduoasdiu I guess I'm just on that train of thought where the PJO characters in the books are just like....normal teenagers. Like they're not ripped for the gods ultra attractive obviously not mortal creatures, they're....teenagers. Kids. Every time Leo stands up he looks at his chair to see if he left a butt-sweat stain. Nico has like 4 scraggly gross little beard hairs that he REFUSES to shave no matter how much Will/Jason begs him. Jason has acne scars and an unbeatable breakout on his cheek because he cannot stop rubbing his face. Every single one of them has yellow teeth because fuck knows they can't be bothered to wait around for a sink to be open in the communal bathrooms every morning. Piper swears by dry shampoo she hasn't showered in 2 weeks. Annabeth constantly forgets to put on deodorant. (All of them forget to put on deodorant oh my god they all smell SO bad all the time). jason and percy do that thing that guys do where you rub your leg hair really hard until it knots up into a ball and then you yank it out. like why do teenagers do that. i dunno but Jason and percy do it.

i dunno guys, i guess i'm in the "mundane is magical" kind of mood lmao i just want. to let these guys behave as if they are in real life for just 15 minutes. Frank Zhang sweats through 4 shirts a day. Hazel does that gross loogie shit and is spitting CONSTANTLY. let them be GROSS.

[crimeronan]

i've seen a couple people in the notes of this very good post about fictional polyamory by @thebibliosphere say things along the lines of "oh, i've been doing it wrong :(" or "how do i know if i did this right??" or "i should probably give up and start over, i wrote this badly :(" and. no!!!!

(i AM seeing far MORE people say "oh, this clarified and helped me so much, i think i know how to fix issues i've been having with my own story" which. YES!!!!)

listen. if you're a monogamous person who's writing a polyamorous relationship, and you've been focusing mainly on The Triad and All Three Together All The Time as the endgame, that's literally fine. that's a perfectly acceptable and strong starting point for your plotting, imo. you do not need to give up on a story that you've started like this.

but the things discussed in the post Can and Should improve your execution!

you can keep the same plot beats and overall relationship arc 100%. polyamorous relationships are infinite in their formations, every one is unique. "basically a monogamous romance but with three people" Does exist, as a relationship type. you're not hashtag Misrepresenting (TM) poly people with it

BUT i do think it will help to read up on some poly people talking about how their relationships Differ from monogamous ones.

so i have outlined some basic important concepts about polyamory.

MORE IMPORTANTLY though, i've broken down some questions that you can answer throughout the writing process to strengthen your individual dyad relationships, your individual characterization, & your characters' individual feelings/experiences. this is a writing resource have fun

future kitkat butting in to say i spent over two hours writing this and it definitely needs a readmore. it is also NOT comprehensive. but everything should be pretty simple to follow! feel free to reblog if you find it helpful yourself or just want to reward me for how gotdan long this took KSLDKFJKDL.

i've grabbed quick links for a couple of the important concepts, some have SEO pitches in them but the info largely seems to be good. (if i missed anything Egregiously Gross on these sites i should be able to update the links with better ones later, since they're under the readmore.)

sidenote: this is NOT meant to be overwhelming, despite the length. if you can't read all of this, that's Okay. you do not need to give up on your writing.

here we go:

compersion!

compersion is a BIG thing in a lot of polyamorous relationships. it's joy derived from seeing two (or more) of your partners happy together, or joy derived from seeing your partner happy with someone else.

compersion is really important as a concept because it highlights that every individual relationship within a polycule is different -- and that that's a GOOD thing. it's sort of the inverse of jealousy.

by the "inverse of jealousy," i mean that instead of feeling left out and upset and possessive, you feel happy/joyous/content.

i can use personal experience as an example: it's a Relief for me when my partners receive joy/support/sex/romance/etc that i can't (or prefer not to) give them. and i love seeing my partners make each other laugh and be silly together.

it's 100% okay for a poly triad not to be together 100% of the time, it doesn't mean that the third member is being left out or not treated equally when two people do things alone together.

(i have individual dates with my partners all the time! PLUS larger 3-and-4-person date nights.)

if the third member DOES feel jealous or left out, then the polycule can have a conversation to figure out what needs/wants aren't being met, and solve that. this happens semi-regularly in my polycule, as it will happen in any relationship (including monogamous ones)! it's just part of being an adult, sometimes you have to talk about feelings.

metamours!

a metamour is someone who is dating your partner, but ISN'T dating you. this may not be relevant for people writing closed three-person romantic sexual triads, but it's a super helpful term to know.

the linked article also lists different types of metamour relationships with some fun phrasing i hadn't heard before. the tl;dr is: sometimes you'll be domestic cohabitation friends, sometimes you'll be buddies with your own friendship, sometimes you might not interact much outside of parties, every relationship is different.

there's no one-size-fits-all requirement for metamour relationships. sometimes polyamorous people will end up dating their metamour after a while (has happened to me), sometimes polyamorous people will break up with one partner for normal life reasons, but remain friendly metamours.

the goal of polyamory is NOT for EVERYONE to fall in love. it is 100% okay if this happens in your story, it happens in real life too! but it is also 100% okay for characters to be metamours without ever becoming "more than friends."

(sidenote: try to kill any internalized "more than" that you have when it comes to friendship. friends are just as important and special and vital as partners.)

of course there are a million ways for messiness to occur with metamours within a complex polycule, exactly like with close-knit platonic friend groups. however this post is not about that! there's enough "here's how polyamory can go wrong" stuff out there already, so i'm focusing on the positives here :)

open versus closed polyamorous relationships!

i'm struggling to find an online article that reflects my experience without directly contradicting at least SOME stuff. so i'll give a quick rundown

google has a bunch of conflicting definitions of open relationships and whether open relationships are different from polyamory. the general consensus seems to be that an open relationship prioritizes one partnership (often a marriage), but that each partner can have extraneous flings or long-term commitments (most often sexual in nature).

this is not typically how i use the term wrt polyamory. the poly concept is pretty simple. a closed polyamorous relationship is one with boundaries like a monogamous one. there are multiple partners in the polycule, but they are not interested in having anybody new join said polycule.

an open polyamorous relationship tends to be more flexible -- it just means that IF someone in the polycule develops mutual feelings for a new person, it's fine for them to become part of said polycule if they want to! the relationship/person is open to newcomers.

some groups will need to negotiate this all together, others will just go "haha, you kids have fun." just depends on the individuals!

with open AND closed polyamorous relationships, the most important thing is making sure that there's respectful communication and that everyone is on the same page. but there's no one-size-fits-all way to do that.

i wish i could give you guys a prescriptive "You Must Do It This Way" guide, but that's.... basically the opposite of what polyamory is about, HAHA.

feelings for multiple people!

i was gonna tack this on to the previous section but decided it warranted its own lil bit.

a defining feature (....i'm told?) of monogamous relationships is that a monogamous person only has feelings for One individual at a time. they only want a relationship with one individual at a time. or, if they DO have feelings for multiple people simultaneously, they're still only comfortable dating one person at a time & being exclusive with that one person.

this is perfectly fine!

the poly experience is generally different from this. but once again..... polyamorous people all have different individual perspectives on this.

for me, i have never been able to draw hard boxes around romantic vs sexual vs platonic relationships, & i love many people at once. my personal polycule lacks many strict definitions beyond "these are my chosen people, i want to forge a life with them indefinitely, whatever shape that life takes"

some poly people feel explicit romantic or sexual attraction to multiple people at once, some poly people feel almost no romantic or sexual attraction at all. i'd say that MOST poly people feel different things for different partners, which is not a bad thing!

some poly people are even monogamous-leaning -- they have just chosen one romantic partner who is themselves part of a larger polycule. (so this monogamous-leaning person has at least one metamour!)

or alternatively, they might have one romantic partner AND a qpr, or other ways of defining relationships. (this is a factor in my own polycule!)

i made this its own point because if you're writing a straightforward triad, this is unlikely to come up in the story itself -- but it's worth thinking about how your characters develop/handle feelings outside of their partnerships.

like, is this sort of a soulmateship, 'these are the only ones for me' type deal? in which they won't fall in love with anyone else, and can be fairly certain of that?

that's pretty close to typical monogamous standards but you Can make it work. just be thoughtful with it

alternatively, can you see any of these characters falling in love Again after the happily-ever-after? and how would the triad approach it, if so? what would they all need to talk about beforehand, and what feelings would everybody have about the situation?

it's worth considering these questions even if the hypothetical will never feature in your actual canon, because knowing the answers to these questions will help you understand all of the individuals & their relationship(s) MUCH better.

i've been typing this for nearly two hours and there's a lot more i COULD say because... there's just a lot to say. i'll close out with some quick questions that you can ask yourself when developing the dyad dynamics within your triad

first, take a page and create a separate section for each individual dyad. then answer these questions for every pair:

how does each pair act when alone?

how do they act differently alone compared to when they're with their third partner?

are there any elements of this dyad (romantic, sexual, financial, domestic, etc) that these two people DON'T have with the third partner?

if so, what are they?

are there any boundaries or hard limits within this dyad that aren't shared with the third partner?

if so, what are they?

partner 3 goes out of town alone for a few weeks. what are the remaining two doing in their absence?

(doesn't have to be anything special, it's just to get a sense of how the two interact on a day-by-day basis without the third there)

what is something that each partner in the dyad admires about the other -- that they DON'T necessarily see in the third partner?

what problem do These Two Specifically need to solve in the story before their relationship will work?

how is that problem DIFFERENT from the problems being solved within the other two dyads?

doing this for ALL THREE dyads is VITAL imo. that way, you develop complex and nuanced and different relationships that all have unique dynamics.

those questions should be enough to get you started, i hope

then After you've charted the differences in relationships, you can start to jot down similarities in the overarching triad. what does one person admire in Both of their partners? what are activities that all three like to do together? what are boundaries or discussions that all three share?

but the main goal is to figure out how to Differentiate each relationship!

a polycule is only as strong as the individual relationships within it. if two people are struggling with their own relationship, adding a third person won't fix that.

(UNLESS the third person is the catalyst for those two to, like, Actually Communicate And Work Their Shit Out. i just mean that the old adage of "maybe if we just add a third-" works about as well to fix a miserable non-communicative marriage as, uh, "maybe if we have a baby-")

AND FINALLY.

if you're not sure whether your poly romance reads organically to poly people, you can hire a sensitivity reader with poly experience. if you can't afford that, you can read up on polyamorous resources like a glossary of terms & articles actually written by poly people. (and stories written by poly people!)

you can also just.... ask poly people questions, if they're open to it. i like talking about polyamory and my own relationships so you're welcome to send asks if u want, i just can't guarantee i'll answer bc my energy levels fluctuate a lot and i don't always have time.

polyamorous people are in an uphill battle for positive representation right now & so the LAST thing i want to see is authors giving up on their stories bc they're worried about getting things Wrong. well-meaning and positive stories that treat this kind of love as normal, healthy, & aspirational are So So So Needed. even if you guys end up with some funky-feeling details.

seriously, if you're monogamous then you probably don't have a full idea of Just How Nasty a lot of people can get about polyamory. i wish it DIDN'T mean so much for you guys to want to write nice stories about us, but it does mean a lot. and it means a lot that you want to do it WELL.

in conclusion. this is not a prescriptive guide, it's just a way to raise questions. and also, you all are doing FINE.

[darthenderson]

So, I went back and rewatched Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World (at the same time). Heres the thoughts:

I watched Girl Meets World before (when it came out in like middle school/high school; I’m in college now so it’s been a while) and since I’m a Boy Meets World fan I thought I would go back and rewatch it.

Boy Meets World is amazing. The storylines, the characters, everything else; I will always love that show and I often rewatch it.

Girl Meets World is 95% hot fucking garbage. Like I get it’s a Disney channel show- it’s not going to be the greatest thing ever- but good god this is a mess. The writers didn’t really get to tell the story they wanted because of Disney, at least I hope that’s what happened instead of actually thinking that this would be on the same level as Boy Meets World.

—————-

The 5% of the show I enjoyed was:

- Eric’s episodes

- Eric and Tommy’s reunion

- Eric and Jack’s reunion

- Seeing more of Cory and Topanga’s relationship

- Some of Shawn’s episodes

- Some of Farkle, Smackle, or Maya’s scenes (definitely not a lot of them though)

- Stuart Minkus’ appearances (and Jennifer too)

- Feeny and the other original characters making cameos too

———-

The rest of Girl Meets World I kinda hated.

For example:

- they did Angela dirty (like, wtf? They acted like she wasn’t close friends with Cory, Topanga, and the other characters before she left in Boy Meets World; it seemed like they made some of the characters mad at her (Riley) for no reason at all, she did nothing wrong in my opinion. And I would have loved to see more of her, like as an Aunt to Riley and Auggie or something)

- they did Jack dirty too (he would’ve definitely stayed in contact with at least Eric and Shawn, being as close as they were on Boy Meets World. And why wasn’t he at Shawn’s wedding? Also, we should’ve seen more of him after the semi formal episode, and jeric should have happened)

- no Rachel appearances (I would have loved to see her again, and she did stay in contact with Eric, as mentioned in the show, so she could’ve come back)

- the annoying ass Riley, Maya, Lucas love triangle

- the fact that they still didn’t make jeric happen (I need them to happen. They would be so cute! Just look at them:⬇️)

- Mr Turner not having more scenes (I hated that he wasn’t at Shawn’s wedding- like we knew he was in NYC, he could’ve been there- and that he wasn’t in more scenes, especially ones with Shawn)

- the whole “Maya is turning into Riley and they have to stop it” arc. (It was- like the love triangle- annoying, long, and unnecessary. And people do change in high school- and often do a full 180 to their personality; I know I did, and on the Boy Meets World universe Harley Kenner did too. I didn’t even notice the change until it was outright said on the show, and I think the characters discouraging this was just wrong. Yes, Maya did change a lot throughout the show, but that is good. It shows growth, it shows a character arc, that her life is getting brighter and she has more hope, and I still saw Maya as the same character at that point. Anyway, I think that this whole arc was just bad, but I think that Maya still was a good character- she was just poorly written sometimes)

And let’s not forget the two biggest reasons I hate this sequel:

- Joshaya (that relationship was creepy as hell now that I’ve watched the show as an adult, in middle school I didn’t really see why people disliked it, but now I get it. I mean at the end of the series Josh is a FRESHMAN IN COLLEGE (around 18) and Maya is a FRESHMAN IN HIGH SCHOOL (around 14 or 15), them doing what they do on the show is illegal. And Josh saying that he’ll “play the long game” too and wait for her? Ew. Just ew. That makes it so much worse; it implies that he’s waiting until she’s 18 or in college and that’s just disturbing and disgusting for a Disney channel show and in general. Overall: Joshaya is gross and illegal and should’ve never been a thing and other characters should not have encouraged it on the show)

- “Girl Meets Farkle” (the infamous autism focused episode. I loved the fact that it had representation for autism, but I hated the way this episode was handled and written. This was by far the worst part of the show for me. I hated the way that some of the characters (Riley, Maya, Lucas) reacted when Farkle said he might be autistic. They acted like it was some horrible thing to be autistic, (which- as a human being and recently diagnosed person with autism- I found offensive) seriously they acted like autism was going to kill him (I’m not joking, that’s how they reacted) and they even went as far as to make Farkle mask who he was in one scene when Farkle said that he identified with some signs of autism. Like, all he wanted was support from his friends when he was getting tested and figuring things out, and all he got was hate from them. And I hate that other characters (and the writers of the show) didn’t see this too and change things or put a stop to it. They also used some outdated language to describe the spectrum on the show, which didn’t help things at all. For a lot of people and viewers, this was the first time they really learned about or saw anything about the spectrum and autism and this is just a horrible way to learn about this. Additionally, I loved Smackle’s whole story and telling how she got diagnosed, but I hated how some characters (Riley and sometimes Maya) treated her throughout the show. As an example: Smackle, as shown in the series, doesn’t often like hugs or physical contact (like me sometimes) and she makes it known, but Riley still fucking tries to hug her constantly and it’s so irritating! I know that if I was having a moment like that, as I often do, and someone tried to hug me like that I would be very uncomfortable and upset, so this whole thing they do with those interactions on the show just pisses me off. Overall: this episode of the show was offensive and horrifying, mostly because of the way the show frames autism and the way that the other characters react to Farkle and his potential diagnosis and Smackle with her actual diagnosis.

—————

In conclusion to my long ass rant:

Me at Boy Meets World:

Me at Girl Meets World:

[emotionally-clumsy-soldier]

ATTEEEEN-TION!

The name's Sgt. Jane J. Doe. I'm the best damn killer America's got! 48 years young, transmasc, bisexual polyamorous. War vet and amputee (my left hand). I've been a mercenary for going on a decade now and I don't intend to stop now! Welcome to my damn blog!

I'll give you a warning right now, son, I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to fight. To win. I ain't friendly, never have been and I never will be.

When you're a merc, you have to be real adaptable to bullshit. I've kept a combat log of everything that goes on here:

#soldier's radio - Talking. Rambling. Cussing. The like.

#incoming signal - Got a question? I keep 'em here. Come to visit? I also keep those here. You are under constant surveillance, maggot!

#teleported bread - Reblogs. They're my posts now. You will act like they're original!

#zoldier arc - A log I kept of that time I turned into a zombie.

#tacitus traumas arc - ...

That's all you're getting out of me. You want more answers? Pry 'em out of me!

Here's my old intro. Do with it what you will.

ooc/ boundaries and more info below

here is his ref:

other info about jane: he's autistic, he's an amnesiac, and he suffers from ptsd (primarily the robot wars, as you'll see brought up on this blog a lot) and schizophrenia.

despite his tough talk, he's not all that hot. he's a big softie when he lets his guard down - if he lets his guard down.

he mainly stays in his dorm, or if not there, the mess hall. he has a trainee under his wing at the moment (@mentally-anarchistic-private) and he stole his prosthetic from a sentient soldierbot (@spiritually-divine-soldierbot).

my name is box btw! i go by they/them and my tag is #box's lockbox. i'm 21 years old and i love to draw !!

i'm not straight-forward with my writing. you have to read between the lines. i'm not gonna just give you answers, you have to work for em ;3

BOUNDARIES:

don't godmod, please. (ie write yourself or your ocs into jane's backstory, write jane for me, etc).

no ableism, sexism, racism, etc. i will not take any nonsense about jane being any of these things either.

do NOT send jane weird fucking asks, such as implied nsfw, intense gore, or anything else under that vein of things. you WILL be publicly shamed. just because i'm an adult doesn't mean i want your shitty gross "jokes" or "angst prompts" in my inbox.

this blog is run and maintained by @angelcovesys. any and all drawn art is done by @mxboxlocks.

[shadowed-dancer]

I watched the Netflix atla and I have thoughts

I will break them down into positives, negatives, and assorted, but if you want the short version: it's better than the M Night Shyamalan film.

Positives

I like that Zuko's crew is the 41st division. It's a cute detail, and honestly I had always wondered how they chose soldiers to accompany an exiled prince

I actually liked Suki's characterization. Like yeah, I believe that girl has never had contact with outsiders. And I think her chemistry with Sokka is great! I can't wait for her to come back and see more of the world (her "thank you for bringing the world to me" line is cute when you consider he brought her an air, water, and fire bender... less cute that her village almost got destroyed but still)

Hot take: I don’t mind that they cut Sokka’s sexism arc. It was minimal in the original series to begin with, and with the pacing of the Netflix series it would have been pointless and rushed. I truthfully believe that if they hadn't mentioned the cut beforehand, 5 people at most would have noticed it was gone

Wow Koh the Face Stealer is SO MUCH WORSE in live action. So gross. His face BLINKS. 10/10 to whoever designed that, I hated it and recognize that it was perfect. I look forward to seeing it in my nightmares (also I don't mind the change of "don't show any expression". It still works)

Gyatso telling Aang that it wasn't his fault and that he wouldn't have been able to do anything was so sweet and important to me, especially with all the other adults in this series being turned into Grade-A assholes. It’s been a while since I watched the entire original series but were the adults THIS mean about it in the original? I know the occasional random townsperson would say "you abandoned us" but I don’t remember people like Bumi or THE OTHER AVATARS blaming him like that (I know this is the positive section but just to be clear, the positive is the Gyatso scene. Turning everyone else so mean will be touched upon in the negatives)

All of Gyatso's scenes were actually amazing. I cried. Also finding his body hit so much harder in live action.

Leaves from the Vine playing during Lu Ten's funeral and then again when Iroh chose to go with Zuko... I tearbended HARD at that one

I think they did a good job merging three story lines into Omashu. I know it may bother some fans, but for the time they had I thought combining all of those together within the city was clever. Plus, since we see the city get taken at the end of the season, we feel more invested since we spent more time there! (I'm also glad they didn't destroy the Northern Air Temple... that always bothered me)

The sets are lovely. They look so similar to the original show and it makes me happy to simply see these places come to life. I got so giddy seeing Omashu you don't even understand

I like the interpretation of Aang’s tattoo. That was actually the one thing I liked from the M Night Shyamalan film (intricate designs rather than a straight blue block) and I feel this is an even better interpretation (the designs are more subtle until he lights up)

The wink and nod to the great divide (and other episodes like the pirates) was cute. I do wish we got to see some adventures of the kids bonding, but boy am I glad they didn't feel the need to adapt the great divide

I liked that they sang secret tunnel a little early. The second the mechanist brought up the secret tunnels I burst into song on instinct, so it's only fair the characters do the same

I liked Zuko having a notebook on the avatars. Of course he would have made that. And I liked that Aang used it as a reference

I liked how they teased the "my cabbages!" line before giving us the real thing. Just a fun thing for fans of the original

Negatives

The first episode had so much exposition it actually felt exhausting. Also Zuko really came out of the gate swinging with his motivation, eh? No nuance or slowly unveiling why he wants to capture Aang? Ok...

Ozai confused me. After finishing the season I believe Ozai's motivation was "sacrifice the weak to become strong, use Zuko to fuel Azula to be better" but it felt so confusing to get there. There was a point where I thought he genuinely wanted to see Zuko grow and find the avatar, and while it's fine for Zuko to think that, it felt weird for us to be jerked around like that (especially the in-between point where it feels like he prefers his banished son to his spy-catching daughter).

I also don’t like the way he acts with Azula (again, I know it's an act, but it's a bothersome change). He calls her performance below average. What happened to "she’s a true prodigy, just like her grandfather for whom she was named"? When characters like Mai and Zhao have to tell us "he's just playing games" it feels like they are telling rather than showing. "She's a true prodigy" SHOWS US he has a very obvious favourite. "He's playing with you" TELLS US that he's lying, and we therefore need to just accept that Azula is actually his favourite even though nothing he has done supports that

I don’t like that Aang was heading North due to a premonition from Kyoshi. I always liked how "the avatar must travel the world and find their own teachers in order to care for the world". Why not let him look for teachers? It enforces the idea of the avatar needing to care for all nations in order to protect all nations. I feel like it was supposed to go for this new direction of “the avatar must do it alone” but unfortunately I don't like that message as much

I mentioned in the positive section, but so many of the characters are weirdly mean (specifically the adult characters). I feel like they are trying to go for a message like "childlike mentality isn’t bad and it’s this innocence that will succeed where adults failed" but it just comes across as every grownup but Gyatso being the worst. Why are Kyoshi and Kuruk yelling so much and blaming Aang for everything? I feel like the goal will ultimately be to prove them wrong, but I do not like this characterization

Zuko’s scar needed to be SO MUCH WORSE. Something I love about the original is that every time we look at Zuko, we get a horrific reminder of what kind of person the Fire Lord is. It didn't just make his skin a little red, his eye is stuck in a permanent squint. His ear is shrivelled. You can tell that it was BAD. Here? He could cover it with makeup if it bothers him that much. Where's the texture? Where's the ear and eye damage? Sometimes it looks more like a birthmark than a serious injury. At the very least, take away his eyebrow!

Sokka and Katara’s being trapped in the spirit world was lowkey a little dumb but I get what they were going for (it's more urgent than them needing to suck on frogs). It just makes it seem worse when Aang is sitting there chatting with Zuko about his brushes. Like I loved the conversation but the fact that Sokka and Katara's lives were in danger (along with the villagers) makes Aang seem weirdly dismissive in that moment

Also... I just realized while typing this, but did they give us an ending to Hei Bai being in pain? Did I completely forget the resolution to that or was it not shown?

I don't like that Zuko chose to fight in the Agni Kai. Seeing him on the ground begging forgiveness and THAT'S the kid Ozai scars and banishes is way more impactful than "he fought but didn't go all out"

This shit went off the rails in episode 7. Why is Yue a fox who just chills in the spirit world? What happened to Tui and La? Push and pull? Yin and Yang? I got confused somewhere along the way

Am I the only one who felt the Yue and Sokka kiss came out of nowhere? She literally said she called off her betrothal when she was 16 (before meeting Sokka) because that dude wasn't the right guy. But then the kiss immediately after implies Sokka is the right guy??? The guy you didn't know existed??? Or are we supposed to infer that she fell in love with him in the spirit world? Either one is so bad pleasssseee

I infinitely prefer Zuko trying to save Zhao and Zhao choosing to die out of sheer stubbornness, compared to Iroh killing Zhao to save Zuko. Like yeah, he'd do anything for Zuko, but I felt that crossed a line (and was less impactful)

Assorted Thoughts

They mentioned the mother of faces, are we gonna see Zuko’s mom get addressed at some point? Or was that just a wink and a nod for fans who know?

The kids are pretty good actors but Katara’s sometimes feels like she's… in a school play. For lack of a better description. She's not bad, it just doesn't always feel natural or as expressive as she could be

Yue's actress on the other hand... look I don't like insulting child actors but her performance was not my favourite

Meanwhile, I loved the casting for Zuko and Aang. I like this slightly-less-angry Zuko, and Aang's actor has such a sweet face that it hurt me to see him sad

I wish we got to see an Agni Kai between Zuko and Zhao. Simply because establishing it early helps introduce us to this idea. It makes it more impactful when Ozai declares Zuko must fight, since we now know what that entails

I feel like the series is at its best when it's doing it’s own thing (the Gyatso scenes, Suki's new characterization, Lu Ten's funeral) and is at its weakest when it's trying to copy the original

[runawaymun]

if you don't mind me asking, what's wrong with kataang? i haven't watched avatar but i know the plot through osmosis, and wanted to hear your thoughts on that

Ah okay! Let me try to explain...

Caveat 1: this will probably be a bit rambly Caveat 2: it has been a long time since I watched either At:LA or TLoK, but I have watched it both as a kid (teenager, really) and as an adult multiple times.

My problems with kataang is kind of split into two categories: problems with the ship based off of who they are as characters from a writing/themes/narrative arc/messaging standpoint, and problems presented by how the creators of At:LA and TLoK - Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konieztko (not Aaron Ehasz you're doing amazing sweetie) treat the characters and seem to think about the characters, based off of choices that they made in the telling of the story, especially how the characters are treated in their endgame scenario in TLoK (which, notably, Aaron Ehasz didn't write for due to creative differences).

TLDR: IMO Kataang ruins the character arcs, they're bad for each other, and the writers did a disservice to Katara in favorite of their pet meow meow -- which hurt both character arcs and legacies, ultimately.

My chief issue is that Katara and Aang are bad for each other, romantically. They bring out the worst in each other. They're bad at holding healthy boundaries, bad at communicating, and the ship itself is very unbalanced. And I wouldn't have a problem with this if it was recognized by the narrative or the shippers, but the narrative treats them as a great love story when really it's anything but. I won't get into age differences -- because by the time they marry a two-year age difference is very negligible and I don't really think it's a good argument against the ship (even if I do think that shipping a 12 year old boy with a 14 year old girl is insane like what 14 year old girl WANTS to date a 12 year old boy. 12 year old boys are gross haha <3) -- but let's talk about it from a thematic and character growth standpoint.

Aang's arc is fundamentally about not running away from his problems, and learning to step into his role as the Avatar. He struggles with responsibility, struggles with emotional regulation, and struggles in the tension between being very much a 12-13yo kid, and being the Avatar, who has to save the world. His arc is beautiful. It's done SO WELL. And he manages to stay true to himself and I love that for him.

Katara's arc IMO is fundamentally about learning to fight for herself, and not just for others. Katara is very maternal. She has had to grow up extremely quickly in the face of losing both parents at a young age, and understanding that she has to live in constant fear of being murdered for her waterbending abilities. She constantly has to stand up for herself, and has a bad habit of suppressing difficult feelings in lieu of helping others work through theirs. This culminates in Katara taking several seasons (iirc) to actually properly talk to someone about her grief and the burden she is carrying, and to learn to set healthy boundaries -- to help her friends and to grow into a strong warrior and work on herself.

The problem here is that the narrative, over and over, forces Katara to emotionally regulate Aang, and this is never really addressed. They have really poor boundaries and she's always mothering him -- Aang is not a partner for her. He doesn't often reciprocate the same level of support that she gives to him -- mostly because he is twelve. Katara, narratively, acts like a crutch for Aang to lean on. Aang actively holds Katara back from setting healthy boundaries and growing into her own person.

They have an emotionally imbalanced relationship, and again -- Michael and Bryan really don't ever try to rectify this, and I think also they're just really bad at writing romance idk. Because over and over Aang makes passes at Katara, and Katara never really expresses interest. That could be down to Katara being bad at expressing her emotions, but it really doesn't feel like it. The last straw for me -- from a narrative standpoint, is the episode where Aang confesses his feelings to Katara, Katara literally says "I don't know how to feel. I'm confused." And Aang, without asking, decides that this is the perfect moment to kiss her.

Which, fine. They're kids. Kids make mistakes. They don't do things perfectly. I'm fine with characters making mistakes. But for a kids' show that's pretty intent on helping us all learn good life lessons -- this is never addressed. Katara is never given the chance to say "Hey, I didn't appreciate that." Aang never is made to apologize for crossing a boundary. It's treated as just a big stepping stone toward their incredibly forced romantic arc. And I hate hate hate when stories tell boys that the appropriate response to a girl asking for space to sort out her feelings/being unsure is to oh, just kiss her, to help her figure it out! instead of, I don't know, let her make up her own mind and give her space. "I don't know" is not fucking consent, and they shouldn't treat it like it is. Especially not in a kids' show.

Which-- yeah, that kind of leads well into my second problem with Kataang - which is how the creators of the show treat it. To them, Kataang is endgame, it is in the "DNA of the show" as one put it. Which is very weird to me because it is so, so poorly done, and the writers really seem to care so little for Katara. Why do I think this? Because of how they choose to treat Katara in TLoK.

Katara, in her 80s in TLoK, is relegated to a healer and teacher. She's insignificant to the story when characters like Zuko and Toph get much cooler entrances and scenes. She's stuck being a passive bystander to a war (Katara would never.) She's stuck being a healer (Which, sure, she is. But so much of At:LA she chafed at being put in that box! She's also a fighter, goddamnit!) -- and some people have tried to say "well what do you want an 80 year woman to do?" and I don't! fucking! buy it! Characters in At:LA were badass fighters well into their 80s, like Hama (the fearsome bloodbender), Pakku (the Waterbender), Iroh (y'know...), and most notably, Bumi, who is 112 fucking years old. Don't give me "80 year old Katara sits on her ass at home while the men go out and do things and Zuko, at the same age, is literally riding around the world on fucking dragonback." I won't have it. It's Katara slander, I tell you! Let that old woman be a badass!!!

And the writers even go so far as to erase her from her kids' lives! They never talk about her!!! It is always about Aang! Always Aang! And you just get the impression that Katara dropped absolutely everything to be "The Avatar's wife" and SHE DESERVED BETTER RAUDGAHSGH

She doesn't! even! get! an honorary statue! On the very island on which she should! be a war hero! Aang does! Toph does! Zuko does! EVEN SOKKA DOES. The ENTIRE Gaang gets a statue, except Katara. That is a deliberate art choice! WHY did they leave her out?

They absolutely destroyed her ENTIRE At:LA arc in TLoK, and I am honestly not even surprised because the writers have said outright that Aang is a self insert character, and that Kataang is "that childhood romance that we both wanted as kids". Katara, in their brains -- and idk maybe this is unjust-- but she seems to be just the amalgamation of those 14 year old girls that wouldn't give them the time of day when they were snotty twelve year olds, except they're writing the story so of course Aang gets the girl.

Anyway, this doesn't even go into how there are infinitely better choices for Katara, and how Aang's arc is worsened by having a romantic subplot, and etc. etc. I could go on forever about how much I dislike Kataang from a narrative standpoint.

Literally my first thought when I heard they left the Netflix show "due to creative differences" was: "Oh my god, is it because there's no kataang???" and now that there's confirmed to be no kataang and that they may be going a zutara route instead, I'm convinced that's why.

Because it's "in the DNA of the show, you see" they have broken with cocreators before over their pet self insert ship and the narrative treatment of Katara (Aaron Ehasz), and I don't see any reason why they'd change.

alkdasdlkgh anyway. God. Thanks for the ask! Sorry about the really long anti kataang rant aslkdgh. This got kind of aggressive but I do feel very strongly about the treatment of Katara. My girl deserved so much better.

[i-am-suffer]

Reasons Why I Hate Zvtara, In No Particular Order

It’s so, so, so basic. Please, can we move on from the Hero Girl x Villain Boy/Good Girl x Bad Boy ships? They’re done to death by now, and I’m really tired of them.

Zuko and Katara are similar in the worst ways. They both have volatile tempers and cases of extreme stubbornness, and any long-term romance between them is likely to end with explosions and tears.

There’s nary a hint of romantic tension between the two in the actual show. In fact, there’s only five episodes (yes, I counted) where Zuko doesn’t see Katara as an obstacle, and where Katara doesn’t hate Zuko’s guts. I prefer ships with a good, solid foundation in canon, or with an interesting enough pairing to warrant any deviations. Zvtara has neither.

The pairing puts Katara with the ruler of a nation that destroyed her home and her culture. She would not like that.

Zk shippers mischaracterize both of the people involved. They cast Zuko as the sexy, brooding bad boy, or the soft UwU abuse victim with zero (0) flaws, or as a combination of the two. And they cast Katara as the sweet, innocent damsel in distress who needs saving from evil abusive incel r*pist Aang, which leads into my next point,

Zk shippers demonize everyone who gets in the way of their tOtAlLy cAnOn ship. According to them, Aang is (as previously mentioned) an evil abusive incel r*pist who feels entitled to Katara. He’s literally twelve/thirteen years old, calm down. Also according to them, Mai is a toxic jealous bitch who is the only reason Zuko’s redemption arc didn’t happen sooner so he could end up with Katara. Mai was one of the two people who unconditionally loved Zuko throughout all his emotional and moral turmoil, and yet Zks conveniently ignore this. (It’s almost like the ship has so little basis in canon that the shippers have to turn everyone into completely different people to make it even remotely plausible, go figure)

Many Zk shippers seem to be projecting themselves onto Katara. This is why y/n exists, guys, stop turning someone else into a hotter version of you.

Zk shippers sexualize both Zuko and Katara, but especially Katara. They 👏 are 👏 traumatized 👏 children. It’s frankly gross how much these two are thought of as having an ultra-sexy adult relationship with each other. Also, Katara is fourteen. Please stop sexualizing young brown girls.

The canon ships are just… way more appealing to me. Kataang? Adorable. Sukka? Wonderful. Maiko? Smart, sweet, and sarcastic (and my comfort ship). Even non-canon ships like Toko, Azulaang, and Maikka have so much potential. Zvtara is fairly bland, and yet zks are raging about how it is absolutely canon and you (specifically) are wrong for not shipping it. It’s a crack pairing at best, and it’s not worth tearing down other people’s ships for.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is not a vessel for Zvtara, so stop treating it like it is

Thanks for reading my post. I’m going to bed now. Good night Tri State Area.

[lol-jackles]

Damon is very popular with the fangirls I've seen online, but it's worth noting that critics and audiences alike consider the first 3 (and maybe 4) seasons of The Vampire Diaries to be the best, and those are all Stefan centric seasons. TVD did the thing where they switched the protagonist from Stefan to Damon midway through the show (basically gave him the Dean myth arc treatment), and I think the show suffered for it: the plot took a backseat and the romance became the priority (and it wasn't even done well). But you might be right about Stefan being more popular with the GA: the more adult viewers, even the ones who used to like Damon when they were teens, seem to prefer him over his older brother after a rewatch of the show (at least that's what I've gathered from online forums)

It's expected that Damon the bad boy will be the fan favorite, they're fool-proof designed that way. Just like Dean Winchesters is the SPN fandom favorite, helped that Sam girls love Dean revolving around their Sammy.

Ah, interesting, thank you for sharing that. Huh, switched protagonists did they. You may know how I felt about SPN season 10, my favorite punching bag season. Enough time has passed that I'm starting to look at season 10 with some level of endearment like how racoon look at trash. Ever seen that commercial of two talking racoons?

One racoon to the other: Racoon #1: Eww. This is awful. Try it.” Racoon #2: “No that looks gross. What is that?” Racoon #1: “You got to try it; it's terrible.”

Yeah, kids mature and grow out of the bad boy/girl infatuation. They'll still like Damon because he reminds them of their first crush. I don't know if he was like Dean Winchester who represents freedom, so adult fans will fondly think back to Dean to remind themselves of their own wayward youths. But when it comes to storytelling, it's the protagonists we understand and relate to.

[mamawasatesttube]

Jail! Jail for Knockout for 1000 years! (Sorry, I don’t know who else to send my sb94 thoughts to)

i love sb94 thoughts keep em coming <3 but LITERALLY FOR REAL. fucking gross. firstly like the fact that karl kesel and co (and literally everyone involved in the publishing process of this comic) were all just like haha sex workers probably talk about teenage boys like this, and thats a GOOD thing!!!! LOL!!!! adult women preying on sixteen year old boys is sexy!!!! disgusting. go directly to jail do not pass go do not collect $200.

but also the fact that later dc decided that a good character to make canonically queer is the one who is first introduced in an arc where her entire thing is being a goddamn pedophile and grooming a teenager who's also less than a year old. i HATE it here.

[dalekofchaos]

My alternate Ghostfaces

Did a post like this before, but thought I'd go more in depth.

Scream 1. I would never trade Billy and Stu for the world, but I do have some scenarios.

Randy and Tatum.

Randy Meeks' motive: He's obsessed with horror movies and was in love with but Sidney wasn't in him. He wanted to make Sidney suffer and get revenge. Also he was planning to blame Billy and Stu.

Tatum Riley's motive:She just wants to kill her cheating boyfriend and all the girls he slept with and to her NO ONE is good enough for Sidney. She doesn't want to kill Sidney, she wants her all to herself. aka Yandere Tatum.

Scream 2.

Nancy is the mastermind. Murphy and Lois the sorority sisters are the people who get their hands dirty. They were OBSESSED with Sidney in all their scenes and they did nothing with them. Their motives would be wanting the famous Sidney Prescott in their Sorority House and for her to die in their Sorority House.

Scream 3.

Milton as the mastermind and Roman and Angelina as the killers.

So here's my little pitch for the Milton story,

Milton is the mastermind. He essentially wants to tie up loose ends. If the story of Maureen gets out, his studio and the Stab franchise is finished. So Milton decides to use his son Roman and his new actress for Sidney to kill all ties to Maureen Prescott, finally ending with Sidney's death. Roman's motive remains the same and Angelina's motive is her cut motive was her being obsessed with Sidney, taking the role of Sidney and wanting to become Sidney.

So I thought of giving Roman a redemption arc. Milton keeping Roman in the dark about how he raped Maureen and when Sidney tells him, Roman is conflicted. Sidney kills Angelina and then Milton has Sidney where he wants her and remarks. That this is like when he took her mother and before anything gross can happen, Roman shoots him dead.

Roman turns himself in and down the line Roman would be the key to helping them in future Ghostface cases while also having Sidney and Roman grow closer as real siblings, almost akin to what Sam and Tara are. Speaking of. Roman could've been what Sam and Tara needed. He knows what they're going through, that inner darkness and especially being related to a monster. He could've also helped resolve any issues between the sisters.

Scream 4.

Jill and Rebecca Walters.

Jill's motive remains the same.

Rebecca’s motivation would be she wants a juicer and more willing victim star to sell out and make significantly more bank while possibly cashing in herself with her story of being “close” to Sidney and the heart break of losing her.

To Jill Rebecca is the mother she never had and the perfect agent any star could ever have. To Rebecca, Jill is the daughter she always wanted and someone who could easily replace Sidney.

Imagine this. She brings Sidney back to Woodsboro. She’s a shady publicist and her motive is to make a profit off of Sidney’s death and make Jill into the perfect victim that will make them both famous.

Now we could have Charlie or even Trevor as killers just to give us 4 killers since Scream 4 lol Jill strings them along, Charlie is obsessed with Jill while Trevor is doing this to be forgiven for cheating. Charlie and Trevor kills the teens while Rebecca kills the heavy adults. In the end Rebecca and Jill kills them and frames them as the killers. Jill would do her self-injury while Rebecca would rush out the door as the screaming witness telling everyone what happened.

Jill doesn’t kill Rebecca. When Jill learns that Sidney survived. Rebecca insists that she lets her handle this.

Much of the same happens but with Rebecca in the Jill in the hospital role. When Sidney hits her with the MRI Sidney says “Rebecca, you’re fired”

The final scene would be for Sidney, Gale and Dewey coming for Jill. Only to see that the bed is empty. Jill is on the run with a promise that she could return to hunt Sidney.

Scream 5. Two scenarios. Either Vince Schneider and Amber or Tara and Amber

Vince and Amber.

Vince's Motive. Embracing his uncle’s legacy and attempting to turn Sam into his partner for her to embrace her father’s legacy. This time, the Macher is the mastermind and groomed Amber to be his partner like Richie did. Amber's motive remains the same.

Making Vince the mastermind could have added an extra layer onto the lambasting of toxic fandom.

Like, Amber could still have 100% been the toxic fan, but you could add on a commentary about how her being as entitled and angry as she was about the Stab movies not doing exactly what she wanted was what allowed Vince to take advantage and groom her into doing what he wanted.

Which is what Richie did too, but adding in a little twist that Vince didn’t actually give a fuck about the Stab movies would have been a nice bit of frosting on top of things.

Sort of like what Mrs Loomis did with Mickey, with how truly terrible people can and do manipulate impressionable kids into doing horrendous things.

The one thing I would change is I would save Dewey’s death for Scream 6 and the big death would be Richie is killed instead of Dewey. We get one moment of Sidney, Dewey and Gale together. Dewey is with the Carpenter sisters. The Vince reveal happens and Vince mortally wounds/knocks Dewey out. Sid & Gale kill Amber while Sam kills Vince.

And Scream 6, same movie but the motives is Ethan and Quinn are Vince’s siblings and Bailey is Vince’s father and we see one more Ghostface, Leslie Macher and it’s the Macher’s revenge against the Carpenters.

And as for Dewey’s death in Scream 6. Bailey kills Dewey. I feel like one cop killing the other would’ve worked better, especially since Bailey is a dark reflection of Dewey.

Tara and Amber.

Amber’s motive is a mix of her original motive and Richie’s motive mixed into one. . Tara’s motive would be Sam left her. Her father left her. Her mother is the town pariah who constantly leaves her for work, Wes was obsessed with her and the only guy she liked was stolen from her. Her life was shit and it started the moment that Sam left her. All she had was Amber. They became best friends, shared their love of horror and became girlfriends.

See the rest of my Tamber au for more

Scream 6. Either go with Jason and Greg or even better. Make Sam and Tara the killers.

Jason and Greg was the most interesting thing about Scream 6, SO OF COURSE THEY KILLED THEM IN THE BEGINNING AND REPLACING A TRUE CRIME GHOSTFACE STORY FOR REDOING SCREAM 2, BECAUSE OF FUCKING COURSE! Yeah, I am STILL pissed about Jason, Greg and the Woodsboro subreddit's lost potential.

Sam and Tara.

Fuck it. Melissa wanted to do it and Jenna can do evil good!

Imagine all the attacks on Sam's character and Sam being framed for Richie's murders are all a result of Gale's book. Gale changed the actual story because it would sell more. So Sam decides to get revenge.

Sam does the New York murders and believes she's alone. She's not. Tara is there to make sure Sam succeeds. What Sam and Tara do not realize is their friends are helping them. Mindy helps cover their tracks and Chad is the muscle.

Yes The Core Four are the Ghostfaces in this alternate Scream 6.

One by one Gale's life falls apart. The lies and slander are revealed to all. Sidney outright abandons her and refuses to talk to her. Kirby refuses to help her. "You made your own bed, you're on your own, Gale." And anyone that could possibly help her is dead.

Gale is alone in the Ghostface shrine to confront the consequences of her actions and the monster she created.

One by one, the four of them corner her and then they all mask off.

Sam wears Billy's mask

Tara wears Amber's mask

Mindy wears Jill's mask

Chad wear's Mickey's mask

"You had to know this was coming Gale. All you had to do was write that book about Dewey, but no, you couldn't let Ghostface go, could you? You had to destroy our lives and now you'll pay for it and all the lives you profited off of."

Sam and Tara draw their knife and gut Gale.

They pinned the blame on Quinn Bailey and Ethan Landry.

[chaosandstardust]

I was thinking, maybe things could have worked out if only they had made Rin really an adult in hny. Maybe if they had said that Sesshomaru wasn't visiting her or if they had explained their relationship...I don't know. It would still gross me out but maybe... I could not feel the vomit reflex?

What do you think? ses*in was a good idea but poorly executed?

To be perfectly frank, no, I don't think that making SessRin a thing in Yashahime was a good idea. Was it poorly executed? Yes. Could it have been executed better? Yes. I've spoken about different alternatives that could've been done at length on this blog, such as giving Rin a bigger role as the twin's mother in Season 2, but I personally don't think that SessRin would ever be a good idea. I see these posts as a "gun to my head, this is what I'd do" moment rather than "this is what they should've done". (BECAUSE WHAT THEY SHOULD'VE DONE IS BRING KAGURA BACK!!!!!!!!!)

Mostly because I find the concept of Sesshomaru being changed by a small child with whom he has no reason to be aligned much more interesting without romance hanging over it. I still think his "redemption" arc is absolute shit, but Sesshomaru at the beginning of the story is hated for abandoning a child he had a responsibility to and he ends the story by taking responsibility for a child that he had no responsibility towards. It's at the very least an interesting beginning to a redemption arc. (SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP OVER HOW MUCH RUMIKO DROPPED THE BALL)

And even in a world where SessRin was written absolutely perfectly, you'd always have that hang-up when it came to the ship, and it would give a weird vibe to the scenes from the original. I admittedly haven't rewatched Inuyasha in at least half a decade but I remember when editing I would watch clips of the two of them and it's just...weird. It's weird thinking about it, seeing this adult and this child alone together and knowing that they're going to end up married.

I'm not saying it couldn't be done well, I'm sure there are fics that have done it, but personally, my take is "Do we need to do it that way?" I've definitely said in the past that I could wind up shipping them, now, in hindsight, I doubt it. It's just weird to think about it.

Then again, I can't picture Sesshomaru getting married to a human for the life of me. And if he was ever going to be in a healthy romantic partnership it would need to be someone who'd call him out on his bullshit regularly, and I can't see any version of Rin doing that without an insane character shift. She'd be completely unrecognizable from her child self, which isn't a bad thing but I'm still not crazy about the idea.

Kagura is the only one who comes close.

[bcbdrums]

About your soul fan mail post:

I don’t think anyone’s upset about Spirit receiving attention from women. It’s more of the fact that he cheated on his wife about 57 different times. Soul continues to be loyal to Maka while Spirit floats around.

I’m not saying Spirit isn’t like a good dad or that he doesn’t deserve slack but it’s not the same scenario here.

Spirit cheated? My short response: prove it.

I actually really appreciate what you said. I appreciate your thoughtfulness about the topic and that you didn't jump to Spirit being wholly unforgivable, like I see a lot of fandom do. (And a lack of condemnation of other characters for other sins, arguably more grievous...) But I really want to address this topic, and you've given me the perfect opportunity.

And to be clear, my own viewpoint on cheating is that it's wrong. Plain and simple, it's wrong. Physical, mental, emotional... It's all wrong. It's not something I agree with on any level.

In any case, talking at length about Spirit Albarn is something I love to do so here is my argument that will stray as far as to suggest: he never cheated at all.

LONG text post under the cut, includes both manga and anime context.

What proof do we have that he cheated other than the perception of a five year old? We have Maka's flashbacks at the very beginning, we get to see her trauma from her dad's supposed cheating. But before I get into Maka's possibly incorrect perception...

Where is her mother???

Seriously, where is the woman? I propose: she left soon after Maka was born. I propose that she either left the world of Shibusen entirely, OR that she left to work at one of Lord Death's other locations around the world. And clearly...she did not come back.

Evidence:

Maka's favorite memory of her mother being the divorce. Maka says that clearly and without hesitation, and even Crona who has no concept of a normal family life knows that this is bizarre. How on earth could her favorite memory of her mother be...the divorce proceeding???

The mother was not at Maka's kindergarten graduation. Subjective point, you say? Yes, perhaps. But how would Spirit have the opportunity to dance with other moms if his wife was there? (Not that dancing with other people is wrong, which I'll come back to.)

No family photos include the mother. But she's the one taking the pics, perhaps? Still... Any normal photo album is going to have photos of the mother and child. And since Maka places her mother up on a pedestal and loathes her father (on the surface), why does she have photos with her father but not with her mother...?

In the clown arc of the manga (I just call it the clown arc, forget the chapter names) when Maka and Soul learn the Devil Hunt Slash technique, the clown attacks her mentally/emotionally and...which relationship does it attack? It attacks her father. If her mother is sooooo special to her, why doesn't it attack her mother? And we see more of her actual feelings about her dad. But this most isn't about Maka, so moving on from that...

Now, what's this all have to do with Spirit cheating or not cheating? And an incorrect perception on Maka's side of things?

Now, we're back to my original post about Soul getting all the fan mail and such. So let's start with...just who is this man?

Ahem. Spirit Albarn...is an attention whore. And he likes women. Both these things are true. We see the brief moment in the manga of Azusa looking at a teenage Spirit hitting on a girl. But more telling is Spirit's adult behavior.

In a manga/anime loaded with disgusting fanservice and misogyny (and misandry for crying out loud, but one thing at a time) there was ample opportunity for writers to give Spirit some gross behavior... But they did not. Not once. We never see Spirit behave lewdly toward women. Not one single inappropriate glance, comment, or action. It never happens in either canon.

What DO we see from Spirit?

We see that this man...likes...to drink. He's likes to drink and he is a happy drunk. And he likes being around people who are happy.

We see (in the manga) that he will lie and build himself up to get more attention, when he was making up stuff to Risa and Arisa about how he is the real power in Death City, not Lord Death.

We see him enjoying the company of the cabaret girls, putting his arms around them, and that is the most he ever does. He's more physically affectionate in the flashback with Azusa to that teen girl than he is to the cabaret girls.

Now, is going to a bar or club, or to some place like...say.... Hooters... cheating? Subjective again. My personal opinion is yes. In this sense, I do think Spirit cheated. I think putting his arms around the cabaret girls at all is a level of cheating. But probably a bigger chunk of the world considers going to a club a normal social activity, and would disagree with my opinion. Meanwhile, the women are just doing their jobs. It's their job to give the customer attention and to sell drinks.

Also we must consider that this man has shown himself repeatedly to be an emotional basketcase. At the club, the women merely mention his wife or Maka and he goes all to pieces. Every single time. You really think this man would be emotionally resilient enough to get into bed with anyone else? Let's be real... He doesn't stand a chance of following through even if he's thinking it.

But back to who is this man? Spirit Albarn is...a celebrity.

Spirit isn't just any death scythe. He is Death Scythe. He's Shinigami's personal weapon. He is the biggest celebrity one can be in Death City and in this universe. He's gonna get far more than fan mail. He's gonna get women following him around (like Soul had), stalking him, falling all over him, coming at him in public for photo ops and autographs and who even knows how far some crazed fans will go...

Which brings us back to little Maka.

Maka seeing him surrounded by the waitresses at the club? Back when she was only five, he was still a new celebrity and would still be getting crazy attention like that. The women Maka saw on the street? Who is to say it's not a photo op? And the one that makes no sense is Spirit dancing with the curly-haired woman at what was clearly based on the surroundings some very large fancy event... It's normal to dance with people other than one's spouse??? That's a normal social behavior, not cheating at all. Now if they're up grinding on the person, that's different... Spirit wasn't doing that anything we saw, nor allowing it to happen to him.

Also.... Back to her mother's absence... Why was Maka at this party watching her dad?? Escaped the academy's daycare room perhaps?

How did she see her dad with the women on the street?? Maybe he didn't want his little girl in the fan photo and told her to wait for him for a minute, since these adoring fans ran up?

Who was watching her (rather, not watching her) that she was able to sneak out of the house to follow her dad to the club?? Where he was surrounded by way too many women for that to just be waitresses, those were fans admiring the celeb.

Maka's mother is not there. Her mother has not been there. And poor tiny Maka is probably deeply confused, needed to cast blame, and is going to draw understandable (wrong) conclusions from seeing her daddy with other women all the time.

I repeat, Maka's mother...was not there. Now let me phrase the same statement differently... Spirit's wife...was not there. She left them!

I repeat: cheating is wrong on every level, and I personally don't think he should have been at the club. But let's assume I'm right, that his wife was never there... And really, really think about this.

It was a teen pregnancy. The woman was supposedly some incredible meister, but...then she got pregnant. She's not going to be out fighting kishin egg monsters and whatever while in her second and third trimester. Having a baby...ruined the woman's life. No more battles for her. Bye-bye fierce warrior, hello stay-at-home mom. Hello post-partum depression, perhaps. I honestly think she ran away from it all. I don't even think she went to work at another branch of Shibusen, I honestly think she just...left them.

And so Spirit is married in name, married on paper... He may have truly and genuinely cared for that woman. He may have genuinely tried to make it work. He did marry her after all, and he raised Maka lovingly and attentively. But a marriage is two people, and Spirit...was very clearly alone.

The overall point is: nearly all of Spirit's actions make sense given the total context. He's an attention whore. He likes women. He's the biggest celebrity there is. And we don't see him do anything gross or lewd. We see an effectively single dad... A happy drunk forgetting not to put his arms around the women who are paid to give him attention and sell him more booze, because he's lonely and desperate for affection. That's ALL we see, in both anime and manga. That's the extent of it. That's as far as we see him go, and nothing implies he went any further.

So again... I don't condone cheating. What I don't understand is why the fandom at large won't seem to cut him any slack. Especially when the evidence weighs heavily on his side.

Thanks for your thoughts, Anon!

[hockeyisforthegays]

What made you want to write/come up with the idea for heroine?

OOHH thank you for asking i will do my best to answer. some of the details are probably lost to "i didn't store this in my long term memory" tho alsdjjdlska.

so. ok. i was an anime-only at the time and started thinking about it in some form mid-season 2 airing, because like, well. i've never written a fix it fic before, i dont think, but i knew shibuya was gonna wreck shop and it did. but i think hidden inventory arc was a pretty big piece of the conceptual puzzle here too because--

well honestly what a lot of it came down to was: i love yuuji. i love gojo. i love the yuuji-gojo dynamic and i'm always wanting to explore it, have since s1.

and then when i saw?? hidden inventory gojo?? that sure was SOMETHING like omg my man was a bitch. the dichotomy between teen and adult gojo is my muse. so the idea of how yuuji would experience teen gojo....

i remember as a kid in other fandoms reading a couple of fic that had that basic premise of "character time travels and has to fit in with the previous generation as youths" and obviously those left a pretty big impression on me. cause i think abt them all the time. wherever those fics are now they're definitely creditable for heroine existing. but tbh i started writing the first scenes just to see what would happen and then--

then i basically went. oh if yuuji met geto suguru would it be fucked up or what. and then i started that scene and they went no actually, have you considered we have things to bond over? specifically eating gross shit? and then they ran away with the story together and a lot of things kind of followed from that. so another source of inspiration really is just the suguyuu dynamic which i had literally never thought about until i put them in a jar together and shook it. can you say your fic is inspired by itself? cause it a little is.

speaking of how i started writing mid-s2 actually so obviously there wasn't the immediate intention to have "yuuji ate mahitorb" be the source of his abilities. i was at first operating off the theories that sprung from the s1 yuuji-mahito + yuuji-todo + s2 yuuji-choso fights that yuuji inherently had some kind of soul-based ability that affected memories. before of course we learned that choso is just that brocon and todo is indeed just a maladaptive daydreamer for real. (if you read carefully you can probably identify the point where i started catching up with the manga LOL but the first handful of chapters were powered by speculation and spoilers alone)

... tbh some of our plot points, like yuuji not having some memories, are literally a case of "well. i havent figured that out yet, so let's say he doesn't know." asldjalskjdal i have since worked out the mechanics of the fic and its lore and i think it's stronger for having them be mysterious to yuuji but it IS funny to think about how i was just like AND I'LL FIGURE IT OUT LATER. writing heroine is just trust falling into my own arms most of the time

[art-making-grat]

yeah what a wholesome and healthy and nontoxic and normal ship 🫥

edit: apparently the horrible things bakugo did in episode one were a low for him and he was better before. he still did it just cause he’s not always like that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. what if midoriya actually killed himself hmm? also can people stop interacting if you aren’t an irl this was for my irl mutuals. I’m trying to get a life and you guys aren’t helping /lh

there’s some stuff going on among some my mutuals about minor shipping pro shipping and like toxic ships so I thought I would provide some honest opinions about the main focus of these discussions which is bakudeku. it’s weird they are kids and people are writing smut about them. writing smut about kids is disgusting. bakudeku is toxic if im being completely honest. even if bakugo is getting some sort of redemption arc or improving or whatever it doesn’t automatically erase years of bullying and abuse. even if they are fictional, writing child porn enables predators. if that’s not enough it’s also normalizing sexualizing minors like for example one of my mutuals said something about a lot of ships are of minors. why do you think that is? it shouldn’t be but it is normal for people to sexualize kids. there are probably a big number of bakudeku shippers who are full grown adults. it’s icky. shipping minors? sure I guess. sexualizing them? fuck no. but that’s what happened here and it’s so fucking gross. idk how this came up but since other people have been talking about it i thought I would share my feelings on the topic as well. im probably missing stuff feel free to reblog if you wanna discuss im happy to talk about it.

[opinated-user]

The “Lily wrote Stockholm but someone else wrote in the sex scenes” excuse is even more dumb because, even if it were true, Lily STILL would have written a story about a pedophilic relationship being all wholesome and good until the poor UwU predator dies.

In a certain light, this is arguably just as bad of a red flag as writing straight up CP, because while it wouldn’t have been written for the purpose of creepy sexual gratification, it would have been because Lily would believe in her heart of hearts that a relationship like that, regardless of whether the predator and the child are sexual or not, is an ideal or normal relationship in some form. Even if she hadn’t written a single sex scene (which we know she did), it still goes to show that all of the rhetoric AROUND the sex scenes still applies and are still REALLY REALLY creepy.

You could make the (shitty and weak) argument that a graphic sex scene could have been written impulsively, or as a joke, or as a random vent (which still doesn’t make it less creepy or disgusting, but you know, “benefit of the doubt” or whatever) But if you write a tragic “love” story about a predator and their victim, that implies authorial intent, rhetoric, and a desire to create some form of representation. You can’t justify it or disguise it as anything else. It’s just a desire to normalize this type of abuse by portraying it in a nonsexual context, as if it is like any other type of relationship and not a form of abuse (which Lily likes to do, such as her example of teenage siblings having a “consensual” relationship and how their father should condone it). And that would be just as gross as straight up porn, personally, just in a more insidious and subtle way.

like i said before, writing stockholm by itself could have been nothing that LO wanting to be edgy when she was a young adult, not necesarily a reflection of her true beliefs... i'd say if it wasn't because she absolutely did use that fiction to justify the actual grooming of a real life minor, by shipping Ink Rose with Josh. not to mention how LO is the one who insist, more than anyone else, that what you write is always a reflection of the writer and the sex scenes only ever exist for horny purposes, not narrative ones. i have no doubt in my mind that stockholm was made 100% sincerely. that is the true reason why LO denies authorship now, because she has enough self awareness to know that people won't be cool with a sympathetic pedophile no matter how many tumblr posts she makes.

she didn't manage to convince people that pokemadhouse wasn't a creepy pedophilic incestuous nighmare, which is why she has been steadly deleting traces of the arc representative of this for months now.

[kingsandbastardz]

Finished episode 39. May not have a chance to get to 40 until later next week but kinda working through my feelings which are mixed about this episode:

DFS standing front and center with Sigu sect when receiving thanks is so amusing to me. He's a head taller and super visible too. Just the one prominent Jinyuan Alliance representative.

A part of me feels bad for child Shang Gudao - he lived his entire childhood being the afterthought, with less talent and ability over all. But as an adult, I'm just grossed out by him. Like by his age he should have....like. Found a monk to get friendly therapy from, joined a monastery, become an emo poet. He had options. Though with his karma, maybe he'd end up with evil versions of all of the above.

Why did Shang Gudao's meridians explode? Did his energy backfire through the broken meridians somehow?

Never trust emperors no matter how good their reputation is. D:

I still feel like the bug storyline would have been served better by focusing instead on a Di Fortress arc that leads to mind controlled super assassins storming the palace like attack dogs or something. Because as of now, Di Fortess feels like it's separate from rest of the series and just a blip in DFS's character background. While the palace stuff needs an additional episode to flesh out the emperor and the politics they hinted at

Over all, i enjoyed the episode! Buuuut I found there was a weird emotional disconnect between when the trio were working together and later on when the battle is done and DFS gives them the Styx flowers. It felt like the two were emotionally closer to DFS during the fight, but in the later scene, everyone was taking a big step back and deliberately resetting themselves to an earlier time.

Like FDB repeating an earlier line "You do have a conscience!" As if he's been consistently surprised at DFS doing anything altruistic. I know LLH never explained anything to him, and FDB bought into the demon sect narrative (which tbf is understandable - heretical sects have a reputation for reason) but he's seen evidence first hand that DFS does have it in him to help ppl if he wants to? So i find this flip flopping in attitude strange. He goes back and forth with being familiar and then acting like he doesn't know him at all.

I find it interesting that LLH equates fighting with promises of friendship between the two. Which, I think he thought dfs getting married to him, i mean, being friends that drink and look at the moon together, meant dfs had agreed. To be fair, dfs talks around it without promising anything, but I can see why llh would think otherwise lol.

LLH also repeats an early line to dfs, "You need to break your habit of eavesdropping."

Maybe it was all for the sake of emotional security, but I kinda want to shake them because I thought they moved from this point. But here they are, walking everything back so far they're repeating old lines from earlier episodes. 😬 Boys.