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silenceinternalmonologue · 3 years

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A Review of Loki (2021)

[The following is an exact transcription of Twitter user @/diolesbian ‘s thread linked here . They gave me permission to cross-post their thread on my Tumblr. Keep in mind that this review is fairly long and quite critical of the series. I agree with this review wholeheartedly, and would be welcome to discuss it with anyone else.]

Loki is a character who has died many times, but his own series may be his most brutal character assassination yet.

1. Loki’s role in the series. Instead of tackling Loki's most villainous state of mind in Avengers 1, the series literally speedran through his development in the subsequent films, after which they almost entirely halted his character progression.

Because this series was set right after Avengers 1 it had the responsibility of developing Loki further in place of The Dark World and Ragnarok. In Episode 1, this development was kicked off by having Loki watch a reel of some of his defining moments in the MCU, allowing him to see his future all the way up to his death in Infinity War. Sadly, this scene ended up being the most development he received in the entire series. And arguably, this isn’t even true development but more like a speedrun of his character up until that point, serving as a simple tactic to explain why he wouldn’t be acting all dictatorial and murderous during his own series. As soon as he had been made “good” (read: docile) enough to follow along with the plot, his agency was completely thrown out. From that point on, the series wasn’t about Loki making things happen but about things happening to Loki.

Loki was supposed to be the main character, but he wasn't the protagonist in this story. In fact, he was more of a side character than we’ve ever seen him be in the MCU before, perhaps excepting IW and Endgame.

A protagonist is by definition someone whose important decisions affect the plot, whose development is followed most closely by the audience, and who is opposed by an antagonist. Loki exhibited none of these traits in this series. Especially the latter half of the story, he was reduced to simply reacting to the revelations around him, such as the reveal that the TVA members were all variants and that Kang was the true mastermind behind everything. He never truly involved himself or acted based on any of these plot points, and hardly played a key role in what was supposed to be his own story. Even in the films, where Loki is a side character, he makes choices which impact the plot to a larger extent. He almost seems more like a background character in the role of protagonist than in the parts he plays in the films.

2. The antagonist. The TVA could have worked as the perfect setting for Loki to have a new arc. It’s a thematic antithesis to who we know Loki to be. But when this Loki turns out to not be who the audience thought he was the TVA’s thematic significance falls apart as well.

In Episode 1, the TVA’s Agent Mobius enlists the help of Loki the Variant to pin down a greater foe who we are told is another, more malicious version of Loki. Order and chaos meeting in the middle, teaming up to take down an enemy, who even happens to be the protagonists’ literal evil self: that works, it sounds promising. But this dynamic is soon undermined when Loki leaves with Sylvie. Still, the benefit of the doubt is easy to grant here: a story about tricksters is bound to contain twists. But by Episode 3 the series is halfway done and the TVA has been appointed as the main antagonist again: we’ve now established villains three different times. And then the Cloud Monster At The End Of Time is introduced, and finally Kang. In other words, the Loki series has no consistent antagonist, no one to pit its main character against. And this is where we once again miss out on an enormous aspect of Loki’s potential characterization.

Protagonists are always defined by an antagonist, whether a purple Titan, a flat tire, or themself. Loki is not given anything to define his morals, motivations, or development in opposition to and this is a huge oversight. Especially given the fact that Loki has taken on the villain’s role in the past: how is the audience supposed to know that the “bad guy” is now a “good guy” if there’s no “even worse guy” to stand up against?

3. The plot. A plot should show off its MC’s strengths and match their personality. The Loki plot hardly relied on his presence at all, he didn't play a key role. The story had so little to do with Loki that it seemed as though he has barely any impact on “his” narrative.

One of the most central conflicts in the Loki series doesn’t involve him at all: it’s between Sylvie and the TVA. This plotline was a good concept overall, but its main problem is that it’s practically the only conflict in the series. Loki himself, as mentioned before, isn’t set in opposition to anything or anyone. And thanks to his relationships with Sylvie and Mobius being weakened by conflicting storytelling devices, he appears to be in a bubble by himself away from the rest of the cast for much of the story. First he follows Mobius around, then Sylvie, then he wanders aimlessly in the void before following Sylvie once again and learning that Kang is a Really Bad Guy who he should be opposed to even though by this point he has interacted so little with the story unfolding around him that the audience doesn’t even understand why he should be choosing to play the hero.

The plot and the characters both suffer by being so incredibly unrelated to each other. A series, especially an MCU one, should tell an overarching narrative through the perspective of its main character.

In the beginning of the series, when Loki was still getting his bearings in the TVA, this lack of decision-making was more understandable, especially since some of his skills were still being shown-- he discovered Sylvie was hiding in nexus events, and he made the choice to leave Mobius and follow her. But by the latter half of the series he still hasn’t had much impact on the story or taken any actions of his own, and simply allows plot points to happen to him. Just because the Loki series had to introduce the TVA and Kang didn’t mean it had to forgo telling a story about its protagonist. If Loki’s story had been intrinsically tied to the overarching plot points, if his choices had been some of the primary factors determining how events ended up taking place, the series would have succeeded in every aspect. But instead Loki is pushed aside by the plot of his own series, a plot which subsequently ends up coming across as largely hollow and pointless due to its lack of character drive.

4. Loki’s arc. One of the main reasons MCU Loki is loved is for his excellent character development across his films. TVA Loki was extremely lacking in that aspect and chances to take his character in interesting new self-aware directions were thrown away without much thought.

Throughout the MCU, Loki is on a journey with many highs and lows. He goes from a bitter and disheartened prince standing in the shadow of his brother, to a self-loathing Jotun bent on destroying his own people in a desperate attempt to win his father’s love, to a half-mad partially mind-controlled dictator with delusions of grandeur fueled by his own insecurity, to a prisoner wondering what there is left for him to lose, to a savior of Asgard’s people finally coming to accept his place in what is left of his family, to a tragic sacrificial victim who knew he had to die so the true hero might live on. That’s a hell of a journey, incidentally shown in less than TWO HOURS of screen time, and the prospect of TVA Loki embarking on an equally stimulating one, this time told over the course of over four hours and shown from his own perspective the entire way through, was exciting. But as it turned out, this relatively simple expectation went completely unmet.

For a story trying to say so much about individuality and self-acceptance, the Loki series seemed to pass by every obvious opportunity to tackle those questions.

Sylvie’s introduction seemed like a good idea at first: Loki would be able to literally bond with himself and learn to accept who he is that way, and forays could be made to explore what Loki’s personality could have been like if he grew up under different circumstances! But aside from a scene or two in Episode 3, this was not how things ended up going. Loki didn’t come to any grand or important conclusions about his identity, he didn’t choose to act differently, all that happened was a vaguely-worded confession of pseudo-romantic feelings which was cut off in the middle, made no sense, and weakened the narrative in a whole host of other ways explained elsewhere. Loki’s encounter with other versions of themself in the Void was similarly meaningless: Loki didn’t end up expressing or demonstrating a single thing he learned from meeting all of those alternate selves, despite the fact that there was potential for massive self-discovery there.

Less than 2 hours of MCU screen time portrayed Loki more coherently than this entire series. Loki is loved because of how much he changes, and it felt like he didn’t in this series. He started off lost and stayed that way throughout the entire plot.

By the end of the series, it was impossible to identify who Loki had become. He said he didn’t want a throne, but it was not obvious why not. He looked sad to be betrayed by Sylvie, but never expressed what that meant to him. He seemed afraid once Kang was unleashed, but why? Why did he care about the Sacred Timeline? What were his motivations? Throughout the series the answers to these questions became less and less obvious, culminating in the final episode which ended without a single moment of reflection or explanation as to who Loki had become. He wasn’t a villain, but only because he wasn’t murdering people. He was in some capacity a hero, for… being against Kang, probably, but once again with no explanation as to why Loki had decided to feel that way. He never seemed self-assured in his heroism, as if he hadn’t chosen the role for himself. Again, making one’s own choices that shape the narrative are what differentiates a protagonist from a side character, but Loki did not do that in this series.

5. Loki and Sylvie’s relationship. Loki and Sylvie had the potential to be a powerful duo representing the process of self-acceptance but instead they were reduced to a strange pseudo-romance.

Despite Loki’s many developments in the films, he never truly liked himself. He has been known to act extremely confident and self-righteous at times, but this is merely the opposite side of the coin containing his self-loathing and insecurity. Having him literally meet and subsequently befriend himself in Episode 3 was a move towards developing this aspect of him and potentially teaching him to finally accept himself as he truly is, but this buildup was all shattered in Episode 4 when the relationship is portrayed to have romantic undertones. Instead of a powerful struggle to accept oneself, the relationship between Loki and Sylvie becomes a twisted thing which is memeable at best (selfcest LOL amirite?) and outright damaging to both characters and the very concept of loving oneself at worst.

Ultimately, Loki and Sylvie's relationship didn’t add anything to either character’s development and actively detracted from what could have been a touching story.

Romantic love is extremely different from self love; romantic love has connotations including dating conventions and sexuality which are impossible to ignore and in this case serve as a distraction. And on top of ruining a potentially powerful storyline, this strange relationship makes both Loki and Sylvie seem out of character. Loki is once again one thousand years old and he has never even had a true friend, so why would he possibly fall for someone after knowing them for only two days? Meanwhile in Sylvie’s case, Loki’s “feelings” for her cause the audience to pay more attention to her romantic life and gestures rather than her actual character and motivations.

6. Loki’s Sexuality and Gender Fluidity. Loki’s sexuality and gender has been shown in several comic runs, and the series was advertised as featuring this representation as well. But due to several fundamental errors and problematic storytelling this also fell flat.

Sylvie’s introduction filled many fans with hope regarding the portrayal of Loki’s identity. In the MCU neither of their LGBT identities had ever been touched upon, while the series introduced a female variant of Loki and explicitly stated their sexuality. But this portrayal soon unraveled, most notably in Episode 5, in which many other Loki variants were shown but not a single one besides Sylvie was non-male. On top of that, when TVA Loki mentioned Sylvie and referred to her as “a woman Variant of us”, the other Lokis agreed that that sounded “terrifying”. Why should a genderfluid being be afraid of a version of themselves presenting as a different gender? It read as both fluidphobic not to mention strangely sexist.

The pseudo-romance between Loki and Sylvie only aggravated the situation. Not only did the nature of the “relationship” seem to follow heteronormative storytelling tropes (falling in love after a couple days of knowing each other, one party being reduced to a love interest, valuing romantic love above any other type, etc) but it also seemed distressing and offensive to many genderfluid people. A romance between a male and a female Loki, one of which doesn’t even call herself by that name, seems to be implying that an individual becomes someone else when merely presenting as a different gender, which of course isn’t at all the case. The writing wasn’t necessarily malicious here, but it was certainly ignorant and potentially even harmful. The opportunity was there to translate Loki’s powerful comic representation into the framework of the MCU, but this attempt did not succeed.

7. Loki’s characterization. Loki is a chameleon, but there are certain traits fundamental to his character. These traits were either ignored or actively mocked in the series. The audience already knew “what makes a Loki a Loki", but the series threw that knowledge away.

Episode 1’s premise of stripping Loki of everything he is used to was an intriguing setup to ensure the discovery of the core of who Loki truly is. The only problem was that this truth didn’t end up being found at all. Mobius made fun of Loki’s most defining traits, such as his habits of lying to manipulate people and acting out of a place of insecurity, which seemed to be a signal for the narrative to forbid Loki from exhibiting any of those traits from that point on in any way. This reduction in Loki’s character was reflected in everything, from his lack of humor (in the films he’s even funny while he’s taking over the world!), the underpowered way in which he fought against Sylvie (he’ll use magic to dry his clothes, but fight with a damn vacuum cleaner?) to the way that he wore the same boring outfit in every single episode-- it may sound shallow, but clothes are important when presenting a character. Every one of Loki’s looks in the films said something about him and his state of mind, and sadly that bland TVA outfit seemed to convey that Loki really was nothing more than a subservient pawn in what was supposed to be his own story. Ironically, the writing stripped Loki of everything that made him Loki, and left us with nothing but a Jotun-shaped void to be swayed by the whims and wills of the characters and plot devices surrounding him.

8. Loki’s past and abilities. This series could have elaborated on aspects of his character which had been teased at in the films and theorized about by fans, but ended up being a disappointment in this aspect as well.

Aside from Loki’s characterization and development, something else the series ignores is much of his canon story in the films. Since Thor 1, a truth that always overshadowed Loki was his Jotun heritage. He struggled with it up until the time of his death, clearly visible in his relationship with his foster family. It’s understandable that Loki was supposed to be independent from Thor in his series, but that’s no excuse for completely ignoring this central part of who Loki is. It doesn’t matter how much he goes through or how much his circumstances change, this feeling of unbelonging sits deep in Loki’s core and should have been both explored and explicitly discussed in the series. A series all about Loki was the perfect opportunity for him to finally confront and explain his relationship with his heritage, and potentially come to terms with it as well. And this isn’t even to say how cool some more insight on Loki’s Jotun inheritance could have been-- hypotheticals aren’t the point of this review, but it would have been fascinating to see Loki reacting adversely to heat like he has been hinted to in the past or even using his ice powers like he did in Thor 1.

Loki's magic was tragically underused. It felt like he was stripped of all of his magical powers even after his TVA chains had been removed, and this was never explained.

A second huge oversight is his magic. His powers are all over the place in this series. They were always a bit vague in the films, but this series was the opportunity to set that right and explain exactly what Loki was capable of as a sorcerer, especially now that the MCU has embraced magic more than it had ten years ago. But instead, Loki showcased an inexplicable lack of magic use-- again, the vacuum cleaner fight can be presented as evidence. There is a single scene in which Loki says that he learned his magic from Frigga, but no information is given as to how much he learned or why he doesn’t always favor spells. His power levels are incredibly inconsistent (he forgoes using magic when first confronted by the TVA, but is later shown using telekinesis to save himself from being literally crushed to death). And, strangest of all, there is a scene in which he tells Sylvie that he “can’t” enchant living beings. Loki, the millennium year old Trickster sorcerer god, who can hold an Infinity Stone with his bare hands, reanimate Surtur in the Eternal Flame, and trick the average person using illusions with ease, can’t cast a little enchantment? And if so, why not? The series offered precious few explanations concerning Loki’s magical abilities and instead only raised more questions. And in this way, Loki is once again relegated into the background and left with not a single shred of any new characterization or development.

Loki contains multitudes, but the series reduced him to two dimensions.

This isn’t to mention every other facet of Loki’s story that could have potentially been explored to great success in this series-- his torture and subsequent partial mental influence at the hands of Thanos just before the events of Avengers 1 is one obvious example, as is his youth on Asgard, as are his suicidal tendencies (people don’t tend to survive falling off the Bifrost, and he knew that when he threw himself off of it), plus infinite other facets of him. Of course, it was both necessary and more interesting for this series to be its own story rather than one which lingered on past films-- but that’s not to say that none of these plot points should have come back, at least subtly, to play a role in this story. Plot points exist to be brought back later, not completely ignored. Otherwise a story may as well be written about a completely original character.

#loki #loki 2021 #loki disney+#loki discussion #loki discourse #loki spoilers #lokius #loki x mobius #loki x sylvie #sylki #marvel #marvel discourse #loki review #mcu loki #loki series #loki season finale #loki season 1 #loki ship

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tobiosmilktea · 4 years

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amor vincit omnia — akaashi keiji

↪︎ O2. I CHOOSE YOU

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a/n: i absolutely hated rewriting this chapter after it glitched out the first time 😔

since the beginning of your first year of university, you and the rest of your lovely friends had been eating in the library, specifically the large round table secluded and at the very corner for every meal without fail, and nobody really cared to stop you guys for two reasons. For one, no one really goes into that corner of the library that only collected dust, and two, you guys were there so often that you all befriended all the librarians to the point they stopped coming by to tell you guys to leave and eat in the canteen instead.

you were placed between daichi and kiyoko, counting the seconds by as they worked diligently in silence, munching on their lunch in the process. daichi tapped on the keys on his laptop rather quickly, the impact of each click being unnecessarily loud while kiyoko was cross-referencing documents and highlighting lines of never ending texts in a nice muted green color. tsukishima, on the other hand, was too preoccupied reading his book. eyes completely glued to the novel resting in his hands as he readjusted his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose. sugawara was out and about somewhere in the sea of towering bookshelves to find a book to read, mentioning something along the lines of—and you quote, ‘something to quench his thirst for entertainment.’

it was honestly just his fancy way of saying that he was bored out of his goddamn mind. perhaps you were the same, eyes wandering your surroundings for something, just something to capture your attention for a few moments. it wasn’t at all difficult, actually, considering how pretty your university was.

higashi university had always been your dream college. not just by its blatant aestheticism, but the academia as well. with tanaka and nishinoya being your main friend group during your high school days, it feels rather refreshing being surrounded by other incredibly smart individuals than constant brain rot.

(no offense to tanaka and nishinoya, you loved them to pieces)

and as your mind began to wander, so did your gaze. from admiring the library’s interior to looking out the window, your lips slightly curved down into a frown.

it was only noon and the clouds were already darkening the sun’s piercing rays that usually shone through the large domed windows of the library. it was going to rain soon and for a couple hours as well.

it’s quite peculiar to think about now after you received that damned chain letter. earlier this morning, while shoving on your wool sweater and trousers, that even the weather app on your phone didn’t show any signs of inclement weather until an hour after you texted your group chat in an awkward panic.

you didn’t really pine yourself to be so superstitious. if anything, you were the complete opposite, and yet, here you were worrying over the sound of rumbling thunder in the distance.

tsukishima lifted his gaze from the words printed on his novel as he pushed his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose. he flickered a look at you, a smirk appearing on his visage the moment he noticed the way you stared at a single drop of rain on the window, flowing down rather slowly.

that stupid letter of yours was still in your hand as well. he watched you fiddle with the corners, careful not to mess with the mahogany red wax stamp that sealed the envelope.

“have you thought about which poor, unfortunate soul you’re going to give it to?” he asked, smirk still annoyingly evident. this was the third time he asked you this question in a span of three hours.

you flicked your eyes towards him coolly before it fell onto the letter in your hands. "ask that question again and i’ll be sure to send it your way, tsukishima.”

“i’d like to see you try, honestly.” he muses, “your best bet is probably slipping it into one of your professor’s inboxes. maybe professor oshiro, by chance?”

“please,” you snort, “she only gave me one failing grade that i eventually made up in the end.”

“just give it to a random stranger,” daichi cuts in, eyes still glued to his laptop as he typed his fingers away. dark circles dusting his eyes like a dark shadow. law school was certainly doing its works on the likes of poor, poor sawamura daichi.

he shrugs, evidentially fatigued when he meets your eye.

“that way your grades won’t have to potentially deal with the consequences if your professor finds out.”

you nod, humming in response. that would be terrible.

sugawara then emerges from the maze of bookshelves, holding up a book towards you with a smile on his face. “found one,” he beams, tossing it atop the messy table.

you reach for the book as sugawara pulls out his chair whilst he mutters something to his daichi about his whereabouts.

“wuthering heights?” you say the title aloud and capture kiyoko’s attention along with it.

“yeah. have you guys read it?” the silver-haired boy asks. he takes your opinions quite seriously knowing how much of an avid reader you and kiyoko were. whenever he needed book recommendations or opinions, he would always go to you two.

you nod, “i quite liked it.”

“some parts tend to be slow, though.” adds in kiyoko, taking the novel from your hands and flipping through the pages briefly before slipping back over towards sugawara. “it should keep you occupied for a few days.”

you chuckle slightly, giving her a look. “you forget how slow suga is at reading. the few days it takes us to finish a book is a good month for him.”

offense coated sugawara’s expression as he lets out a scoff in retaliation. “don’t you have a chain letter to give to someone?”

“she’s stalling,” tsukishima teases.

“am not!”

“then want to go give it to a random stranger then?”

your brows draw together, “right now?”

tsukishima nods as he stuffs his belongings back into his bag. “i’ll come with you for shits and giggles.”

a sigh escapes you, rolling your eyes as you take a look at the letter one last time and wanting to laugh at yourself for doing all this. a full chain letter from front to back, with the first quarter of it is you viciously apologizing that you had to do this in neat cursive handwriting, all written in fifteen minutes.

you gave in.

“fine,” you huff as you grab your own bag as well.

“good luck,” kiyoko muses up at you as you squeeze past her.

tsukishima waits for you until you’re by his side, strides shorter than usual just to match your pace as you two navigate through the labyrinthine arrays of bookshelves. the letter was in your hand, all small and discrete for a quick and easy delivery to an unsuspecting victim. your palm perspired slightly as you kept your eyes open, scanning for an easy person as you were aware of the possible repercussions.

you could easily get in trouble for doing something this childish, but you were in too deep already.

“hurry up and find someone, we’re almost at the entrance already.” tsukishima hisses in a harsh whisper.

“i’m working on it!” you hiss back.

“working on what?” a familiar voice asks then, capturing both you and tsukishima’s attention, whipping your heads towards the owner.

kuroo combed his freehand through his hair while he had two textbooks tucked under his other arm. he gave you a smile.

you never really got close with kuroo despite meeting him at nationals a few years back. despite only talking a few times due to him being good friends with tsukishima, you knew he was nice, incredibly smart in the sciences, and yet oddly awkward for someone as good looking as he.

not him, you thought to yourself, too nice.

“a little project,” the blond immediately answers just like that. “our majors tend to overlap sometimes, so we decided to partner up.”

“nice, i’m here with my friends to study as well.” kuroo states, causing your eyes to scan behind them for any evidence of their rambunctious selves.

like kuroo, you weren’t close with any of them either. if anything, they were just mere acquaintances on the precipice of becoming strangers. regardless, they all seemed quite nice too from your lack of interaction with them.

tsukishima says something in response then, igniting a short little catch-up conversation with an old high school friend as you lay distracted. your eyes flicked down to a study table in front of you, one of the chairs just a foot shy from you had a satchel hanging off of its side. the brown leather flap was wide open with its owner nowhere in sight as you gave your surroundings a once over.

carefully, you made your way over the table, pretending as if you were taking something out of your bag as kuroo was being distracted by the blond. neither of them were looking at you fortunately. as you placed your bag back over your shoulder, you slipped the letter right into the open satchel right at the same time–the envelope falling and disappearing into the depths of the bag.

“i’ve got to get to my next lecture,” you say to the two men, giving tsukishima a sly wink that it was a job well done. “i’ll see you guys around.”

checkmate.

fun facts! —

after kiyoko graduated and moved to tokyo, (y/n) and kiyoko kept in touch by sending each other cute handwritten letters

no one really is aware of that area in the back of the library since no one goes in that section often (this is uhh,, an important detail for later 😳)

taglist: (comment or send an ask to be added!)

@channiechanchan @elianetsantana @suhkusa @agaashesmilktea @dwcljh @duhsies @thevillagehiddenintheinternet @kitsunetea @morpheus-rex @noeminemi @ntimacy @kurokenchan @kittyddandnyla @amboisez @komouri @stargirlara @itsmeaudrieee @immxnty @spicyshinsou @bombardia @yammerss @crescenttooru @tadashi-simp @sunanyaa @saikishairclip @marvel-ing-at-it-all @seijqhigh @normalisthenewnorm @allielozoya @peteunderoos @inflxxtions @peg-legz4 @kawafika @apollochjld @bap-kingdom @yongboxerrr @kenssister @galacticyoongs

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu smau #akaashi keiji #akaashi x reader #akaashi scenarios #akaashi imagines #akaashi smau #akaashi fluff

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fandom-scatteredthoughtsonpaper · 4 years

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Dark Obey Me AU Outline, Breakdown, Game Mechanic + Specifics, + Some Other Stuff

{Previous post}

Kickoff and Quick Summarization:

Leviathan won a new preliminary horror game with VR aspects from a contest to test the game out before its actual release and invited Mammon and Yuki (MC) to play. This experimental immersion becomes too realistic when Yuki's latent powers takes the experience of the game to new levels when the entire House of Lamentation is sucked into the virtualization. Yuki, now alone and confused to the rules of this blended world of reality and simulation, has to venture through the house and recover the brothers from the game's influence. The game seems a little rigged the more Yuki advanced, so is someone actually pulling strings off screen or is paranoia seeping in?

Type of AU:

Mirror Universe, Interactive AU (you can help build up the world of this event)

Potential tags:

Horror, Psychological, Bloody, Dark, Angsty, Possible Sexual Assault, Death Is Allowed, Bodily Harm

Brief (and Liable to Change) Explanation of How the Game Will Work:

-After the House of Lamentation is shifted and adapted into the game's world, the seven demon brothers are also adapted to the elements of the psychological horror genre and placed as progressively harder bosses that MC has to get through to advance the game and undo the effects of what happened.

-The brothers that MC has converted back to normal will stay on their side and aid them in rescuing the other mentally manipulated boys, some even serving as necessary requirements to further progress. They can roam around the house and their rooms can serve as a temporary safety spots, but MC has to be with them to ward off the game's influence from trying to appeal to their cardinal desires based on their sin they govern and controlling them again.

-MC can try to appeal to any brother at any time, but if they don't meet requirements the struggle will be a lot harder and the emotional toll will be more effective on the chosen brother. If MC fails to convert the brother, not only does the next attempt become tougher, but MC takes damage deemed appropriate by the game based on the sin of the brother.

-The only exception to this rule is Mammon. Mammon is basically the tutorial. He's a mandatory scripted event to teach MC how the gameplay will be, and how they'll make it further in the game.

-Each brother is equivalent as a boss. The only way to progress to the next milestone is to release the grip the game has on the brothers' minds, but it's not as simple as breaking a curse like MC can canonically do with their powers. MC has to make a connection to the altered version of the demons, and to reach that connection they have to tackle each brother's insecurities and issues. Not like resolve them entirely with a heartfelt speech, and voila, they're okay again, but really reach into their hearts and remind them that they're not what the game has turned them into, that they're more than their sins and valued individually by MC.

-Thus having the proper brother on MC's side makes that connection a lot easier when it comes to certain brothers. Once that connection has been made and the game has less control, then MC can use the pact they made in the real world as the final move to disconnect the hold the game has in the virtual world.

-Again, however, it's not as simple as a few deeply passionate words and the veils are lifted from the brothers' eyes. Certain items can be found in each bedroom that helps strengthen the pact to mean something aside from a vow between a human and a demon. Requirements are necessary for progress.

-The pacts MC has with the brothers is a key relevancy to progressing the game. Without trying to appeal positively to their insecurities/fears the game has a strong hold on their minds and the use of their pacts aren't as effective

Rundown of What I Mean:

Mammon is the first demon MC bonded with and that applies itself strongly to their connection and relationship, especially in this event. I might be biased here, and not to mention I'm trial and erroring the story with my MC, Yuki, but I believe Mammon has the strongest connection with MC because of how he feels for them, how empathetic he is, and how emotionally aware he can be.

Mammon governs greed and already easily succumbs to his wants in the real world, but as of now in the canon story, he's grown a bit away from his sin, because of his relationship with MC, like most of the boys have. He can put MC above his own desires, and that influence deals a lot with how MC saves him after he attacks them in their room.

Mammon wants to sell MC's body, bit by bit, blood, teeth, hair, organs, nails, etc., as a means to pull in some serious money in the black market. Greed completely takes over Mammon, and he has very little regard for MC's life. When MC tries to use their pact's powers on Mammon the first time not much is really done, because the connection wasn't made. However, being the tutorial, Mammon becomes less influenced quicker than the rest of his brothers. MC has to remind him he's not a total scumbag that loves only money while Mammon is choking them out. So time is of the essence, because MC is physically harmed in this reality and can die as well.

I'll have a rough draft of this scene up later to better explain the process.

So Basically:

MC has to find items or something meaningful to assist them in helping the brothers become aware while under the game's manipulation, and then making a connection to their actual selves that helps absolve the mind control before using the pacts MC has made to finalize the severance, although it's not totally gone.

How I Plan to Progress the Event (Susceptible to Change) and Suggestions That Have Been Implemented by Other People So Far:

-MC starts the event off at the Lord Demon's castle with Diavolo and Barbatos before returning to the HoL to play with Levi. Before MC leaves Barbatos gives them two coins and a cautionary warning [credit to @jinxed-rose ]

-The unstable powers of MC conflicts with the game and locks the HoL and its residents inside the virtual reality.

-The game treats the brothers as bosses and turns their worst qualities up to 11. The small glimpses of how we saw the brothers in the beginning of the game before warming up to the MC is how they're portrayed in the game. They're meaner, deadlier, and heavily warpped from their original selves.

-MC can physically be hurt and/or killed, so the more of the brothers they can rescue the easier the game will be to traverse.

-The brothers are ranked by the order of when they got a pact with MC. So the optional progression between the brothers would be Mammon, Levi, Beel, Asmo, Satan, Lucifer, and Belphie. The longer MC has been in a pact with the boys the easier it is to sway them out of their brainwashing, but it doesn't have to be in this order [credit to @felix-the-lemon-king ]

-Another option of progress with the brothers can be psychological fortitude. What I mean by that is the boys' durability to withstand breaking down from their insecurities being provoked. So Mammon's biggest fear is MC getting hurt so he's automatically the first boss and Lucifer would be among the last to confront because he's mentally strongest and that's where the issues would lie. [credit to 13ineedpills13 on AO3]

-Levi is an optional boss that can be done early or late in the game, it doesn't really matter. If MC goes for Levi first, he'll be relatively easy to return to normal, but if MC doesn't get to him until later then he'll be a lot harder to help. If MC attempts to rescue the others before Levi and succeeds the game will make him aware of this. Levi will get more and more enveloped by envy and jealousy and his insecurities will worsen, making it harder to appeal to him. [credit to @sunshine-apprentice ]

-The reason Levi is an optional boss to go after at any time is because he has a mystery that reveals itself later as the event starts ramping up and big reveal towards the end. It's not really a secret if you read the notes on prior posts, but shhh. [credit to @felix-the-lemon-king ]

-Lucifer is the assumed main person to look out for, because he is the elder, head of the house, and most powerful and sadistic. He watches from the shadows and sets up elaborate snares and ambushes to sike out and slowly breakdown MC. Beel is more frequent around Lucifer's bedroom.

Somewhat Established "Rules" of the Game:

-Each encounter with the brothers during the actual moments of fighting and struggling will be violent and dangerous. Injuries will be painful and won't magically heal after the fight is done. [credit to syvintri on AO3]

-Death is very much possible, but it's tough for the brothers to die. It's not that hard for MC though. So, perma-death is plausible, but it's evened out with the two coins MC gets from Barbatos.

-The end goal is in Levi's bedroom, but it won't be accessible until after the brothers have all been released from the grip of the video game.

-MC's room is the only actual safe room in the house, so it's basically the headquarters

-Beel is the guard that routinely patrols the hallways, but he can be lured away with food from an area for a bit of time

-Each brother's room has a way to help figure out how to un-brainwash the boys, but they are dangerous to go into

-Overcoming the boys' insecurities and sins are a key relevance in progressing the game

-Line up of the boys in order as bosses (potentially): Mammon, Asmodeus, Belphie, Beelzbub, Satan, Lucifer, Leviathan

Concerns and Questions:

There's still a lot of gaps and unfilled holes that I'm not entirely sure how to connect properly. Trying to figure out how to write the encounters between the brothers that are being manipulated and MC/the brothers rescued is going to be tricky. Making sure the boys' characterizations stay close to how they would be will be a challenge.

So my questions for you will help me figure out what people would like to see and also help me connect dots in the story and plot.

A matter to discuss, for instance, is what a comment said on AO3:

"I think them interacting in a proper manner storywise when they are brainwashed is impossible, and such a drag to read. They should only interact during battles, and after battles, as they go on and save the others."

How should I go about writing the progress of the story?

Should I write it like an actual fanfiction, all detailed and specific and going at a constant pace, or should I skip moments instead of writing every scene that could occur to stay fresh and steady-paced, or should I try to base the chapters like actual event lessons in-game where stuff happens briefly and isn't very long?

Or another comment:

"So maybe this is just me, but I think it'd actually be more horrifying if the 'game' wasn't perma-death. Especially if everyone remembered despite any sort of revives or resets and with in-game injuries actually being painful. There's a high potential for angst is all I'm saying. But I guess that lends itself better for a normal fic rather than a choose your own adventure thing"

How should I write the "fight" scenes?

Should they be brief yet detailed or meaty with the conflict as MC tries to resolve the situation before anyone gets too hurt oor would this be good moments for turmoil between the brothers to arise and brawls break out ooor... I don't know what else.

How would the angst and heavy trauma best be applied according to y'all?

What kind of angst would each brother go through as MC tries to rescue them?

Some other questions:

Is the line up of the brothers as bosses okay, or should they be reconfigured to make more sense? Should it be linked how psychologically weak to strong they are or how their sins correspond to the next?

What would they be like at their absolute worst? How far do you think they could dive into their sins if they didn't have morals?

How dangerous would the brothers be?

How would the game use each character's insecurities and fears as their driving point?

How would you like to see brothers interact with MC during the confrontation? Or with each other before/during/after?

If MC were to die what would be the best way to take them out that would really fuck up the boys and devastate the psyche? Any brother is liable to maim or hurt the MC, but which one(s) could actually kill them? Or if a brother took a hit meant for MC, who would be more inclined to step into the line of fire?

These aren't all the questions that I have knocking around in my head and stumping me, but they're the biggest ones. I would like to hear inputs from others, BUT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't feel inclined to answer everything that I've listed. Those are just questions that I thought of and put on this post as examples of what I'm trying to figure out.

Finishing Off:

So yeah. That's the progress I've made so far, both on my own and from suggestions and opinions from other people.

I'd love to hear what y'all have in mind or would like to suggest or a take on a matter for any scenes, interactions, or whatever. Even if it's ideas of your own that relate to something that hasn't been brought up or mentioned, feel free to comment it or send me an ask.

Something this extensive will require a lot of thought and work to be done right, so that's why I had the notion of making this an interactive AU

So, if you're interested or wanna talk about the concept, hit me up! I'm dying just to ramble about potential stuff or read viewpoints about the brothers that you want to see happen or stances for whatever.

#obey me #obey me au #obey me dark au #obey me mammon #obey me satan #obey me levi #obey me beel #obey me lucifer #obey me leviathan #obey me asmo #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me belphie #jess writes

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captainunderpantsfanpage · 3 years

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Genshiken Season 2

This show has done a pretty good job in my opinion at demonstrating otaku culture and aiding those not a part of the culture to better understand it. We discussed in class how otaku have shadow cultural capital that they obtain by disrupting the original to possess it. This is seen by the characters dressing up like anime or manga characters; they understand the fictionality of the media they’re consuming and are distant enough from it to possess it in the form of cosplay.

Another thing I noticed during these episodes was the discussion of crossdressing because Hato dresses as a girl when attending the club and doesn’t dress up during school. Otakus seem to be very understanding of expressing yourself and encourage each other to portray their favorite version of themselves. However, one character, I don’t remember her name, was not accepting of Hato crossdressing and vocalized her distaste for this. This made me upset to watch because Hato felt as though the club was the only place where she could be her true self and identify however she pleased, but that character made her feel uncomfortable about expressing herself. The show highlights how otaku share similar interests and are able to be their authentic selves around each other, but this interaction where Hato was told to just show up to the club as a boy made the concept of a safe space fly out the window, in my opinion. Hato then had to worry about how she was making other people feel rather than being herself. It didn't feel like the other characters in the club addressed the situation well at all when they initially found out (which was a whole other mess because they called Hato out rather than allowing her to say something when she was ready).

It was also interesting to see many characters having actual jobs because a big stereotype surrounding otaku culture is that they just never grew up. Seeing the characters continue being passionate about anime and manga while working a job disproves that negative stereotype because they are completely able to indulge in these media while being fully functioning adults that contribute to society. Overall, I thought the show provided good commentary on the criticisms that otaku face by conveying ways that they don’t fit into all of the stereotypes.

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septembersghost · 4 years

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for the reverse unpopular opinion meme ummm vanessa/ethan and elena gilbert in general <3

c r y ♥♥♥

Vanessa/Ethan, where do I begin? idk how to capture this well and succinctly! they’re a pairing that I didn’t EXPECT to captivate me so much, and then they quickly turned so many of their initial tropes inside out. you think she’s this mysterious, perhaps slightly aloof, determined Lady, and he’s the masculine, American, gunslinger with a troubled past - their first interaction, when he's sort of glib, calls her “darlin’,” and she just READS HIM, and then he asks, “You have a name?,” and she replies, “Yes,” with that enigmatic smile and walks away! then it’s like - actually, she is boundlessly empathetic and frighteningly perceptive, and she’s suffered horrific trauma, but it doesn’t define her, and she forges on through the dark, and he admires her for it. he is fascinated and impressed by her, and he’s wildly loving and surprisingly soft and not closed-minded (about her intellect, about the existence of the demimonde, about the tasks ahead of them). they’ve both suffered abuse, had their entire families stripped from them, both been beset by violence and darkness, some of their own making, and they’re drawn together electrically and yearningly. they both ache for a place to belong. (also, the Iconique bi aspect of the two of them, and never once do they judge each other for all that they know and uncover about their true selves. Dorian being infatuated by both of them? he’s ~problematic~, but you can’t say he doesn’t have taste). they both have monstrous aspects, yet in one another nearly find salvation. (that he says to her: “We are not like others. We have claws for a reason.” and she says to him: “Whatever you have done, whoever you have made yourself, I'm here to accept you. We're together for a reason.” I---!!!!) the fact that he manages to drive the demon back when she’s so terrifyingly possessed. when she asks if she can sleep in his room because she’s afraid, and you realize they give one another safe harbor. EVERYTHING in “Little Scorpion” when they go to the moors together. (has chopping down a tree ever been more symbolically loving? the discussion about their childhood fears! the fact that he teaches her to shoot, and she teaches him to dance! the way they fall into easy, comfortable patterns together, despite their terror and sadness. “Do you ever think what it would be like, to be like other people?” “Normal people? I try not to.” the score used for their waltz is one of my favorite pieces of music from the soundtrack.) the prompt said to not talk about missed potential which is HARD with them (the Wolf of God/protector thing was such a cool concept), but what we got on screen was so beautifully matched, they were like watching a dance, in and out of the shadows and light, magnetically drawn together, wishful and wistful. they both longed for connection and safety desperately, they were tender to one another in a world where they’d been brutalized (and it had “made us brutal in return”). that dream she’s forced to see at the end of S2 being suffused with warmth, and knowing how much she craves it, and seeing her turn it down for the sake of her own soul. the letter he writes to her tearing my heart out. (“your many kindnesses I will always carry with me. such generosity has not been a part of my life, and I thank you for your affection and understanding. in my most frightened and lonely moments, you were there, and such light you brought to me.” ARE YOU KIDDING, THIS IS MY WEAKNESS.) the IMPECCABLE Gothic Romance vibes of it all. it is very hard to effectively capture that and not lean too far into melodrama or to not feel like a facsimile of other Romantic couples, and especially since Penny Dreadful utilized characters and stories from preexisting media, they could’ve fallen into that, but never did for me. maybe because Vanessa and Ethan were both original characters? but the writing for them, the way they were more mirrors than they were opposites, the quiet and peace and understanding they found in one another, the way they became found family (the found family aspect of Penny Dreadful in general is a LOT) and never-quite-lovers, a missed breath away from their hearts being joined. I love them both so much and I’m sad about them forever.

***

ELENA, my best girl, my forever girl. I love Elena for a lot of the same reasons I love Dean, I can’t actually acknowledge her without saying that? they are closely related for me and have a lot of trait overlap. Dean was a part of my life for four years before Elena was, and Elena is actually another flickering flame that came into my world at the absolute lowest, ugliest point. seeing her as this young woman who is floating in grief, and yet still shines as a beacon of humanity with a recklessly brave and loving heart. her depression is really important to me and it gets dismissed or twisted a lot by people who unfairly decided to hate her, but it’s such an important aspect of her and about the way she’s moving though her life and coping. she is so compassionate, yet also able to be cruel and knife’s edge sharp. she suffers and is allowed to show that, to feel it. we see her begin to wake up out of the haze of loss and we see how many times she traverses the edges of it. she’s clever and tactical, but also makes impulsive decisions. she struggles and she’s self-sacrificing, to her detriment at times, and often despite others’ demands and even manipulations. she’s loyal, yet cunning. she’s radiant in a way that enthralls and draws in those around her, including the monsters (especially the monsters), and she herself is seduced by that other of the world. they say she’s a “special girl,” but it’s not because she’s a doppelgänger, she is NEVER a copy of a copy, she is fiercely her own. it isn’t her magical blood that makes her special, it’s her essence and the spark that makes her who she is. she got to be ruthless at times, she lashed out, she broke down (the scene where she burns the house down is inscribed in my brain, and it’s been years now since I rewatched TVD), but she also exuded joy and hope. she’s just so, so human and so made of love - its goodness and its darkness (again, the Dean parallels). and Elena has one of the most important lines from a show that has always stayed with me - her version of “I do my best to be brave” - “I’ll survive. Somehow I always do.” it isn’t valiant and it isn’t even remarkable, per se. it’s laced with sadness. yet she survives and withstands and keeps her heart open anyway. she always comes back to herself.

(Vanessa and Elena are without QUESTION two of my absolute favorite heroines of all-time, and there’s a whole other analysis I could do regarding the moments when they succumb and do become those beings with teeth themselves, and yet still how it’s their souls that persevere. through everything that befalls them, I just cherish them more and hold them closer.)

#arthurwilde #letterbox #ask games #filing this #she is without limits #we have claws for a reason #i bite my tongue and torch my dreams #TRYING NOT TO WRITE TEN PAGES ABOUT EACH OF THESE TOPICS WHILE STILL DOING THEM SOME SEMBLANCE OF JUSTICE

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rukakikuchi · 4 years

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LOONAverse theory - LOONA as LOONA (Dual roles theory)

So, in my redux timeline theory, I mentioned how I think that Jinsoul might've been acting as Olivia's shadow, her other self, whispering to her. I wanted to expand on this theory by pointing out more instances where we see the members of LOONA portraying dual roles.

To start, I do think there are some instances where one member actually stands in for another. Take for example, the scene in "Girl Front" and "LOONATIC" with the mystery girl running around the Odd Eye Circle members.

The official description for "Mix and Match" described them as a girl who was yet to be revealed, meaning they were a member of yyxy. But here's the thing; all four members of yyxy had extremely short training periods before debuting.

Yves joined Polaris in late September and debuted within over a month after transferring to BBC. Chuu's solo debut had already been planned out when she joined. Go Won debuted the same month she joined. And Olivia, having the shortest training period of all the members and all of K-pop, trained under BBC for one day before it was decided she would debut as the last member of LOONA.

However, Odd Eye Circle filmed the music video for "Girl Front" in August, before any of them joined. And while it's most likely meant to be Yves who is running around them, it can't possibly be her. So how did they have "a girl who has yet to be revealed revolving around Odd Eye Circle" if said girl hasn't even joined BBC yet?

Well, there was one other girl who made a cameo in "Girl Front". That's right, Hyunjin! And I've seen several people theorize that it's Hyunjin running around them (Loominosity even pointed it out in their misconceptions video: link here.)

Well, what if that actually is Hyunjin running around them, but not as Hyunjin? Hyunjin could simply be standing in for the yet to be revealed member, aka Yves. They look similar enough (both have long dark hair and slender figures) that this could be possible.

Still not convinced? Look at this screenshot from LOONA TV...

This is clearly for the scene of the Odd Eye Circle members sitting together, so why would Hyunjin be here if she only made a cameo? If she's here with them in this scene, it would make sense that she's the one running around them. (Granted, she is wearing a different shirt, but they could've changed it. You get my point.)

Of course, there's also instances of other people representing LOONA members (i.e. the boy ViVi is crushing on in "Everyday I Love You" is actually Yves), and then there's the "yyxy are all one person" theory (which I have already discussed), but I'm going to focus on what I believe are instances of members portraying dual roles within the LOONAverse.

-ViViD - Heejin plays a dual role as herself and a woman in black. Heejin works as a housekeeper for the woman in black in Paris.

-Let Me In - Haseul as herself and as the boy in white (yes, it's a boy!) who acts as her doppelganger.

-Singing in the Rain - Jinsoul's rap shows her in black-and-white, which I think represents her shadow self.

Jinsoul's rap could possibly be addressing Kim Lip. (If you recall, Kim Lip was intended to do a rap feature, but they gave it to Heejin instead.) Kim Lip is yin, Jinsoul is yang, and their MVs take place in day and night respectively; they are each other's other half and long to reunite.

-Girl Front - The other Choerry we see interact with Choerry prime might actually be Hyunjin. Since OEC is looking for the 1/3 members, this could be Hyunjin signalling to Choerry where she is.

“Girl Front” actually has several instances showing us another version of the OEC members following themselves (like at the end, where Kim Lip is watching herself from a distance). These could be the shadow girls watching over OEC (your shadow is always following behind you), or it’s related to the time loop the girls are trapped in (their past selves watching over their present selves.)

I've seen a theory that the "Choerry" we see interacting with Haseul and Yeojin is actually Hyunjin (they even had yellow clothes). However, I still think that is actually Choerry. And I've already gone over my thoughts regarding Hyunjin and Choerry's roles in the LOONAverse, so check that out if you're interested.

-Egoist - As stated above, I believe Jinsoul's rap is representing Olivia's shadow communicating to Olivia herself. Both Jinsoul and Olivia are linked to the image of a "fallen angel" (Jinsoul having been guilty of "the sin of swallowing the sun" and Olivia literally falling from Eden to Earth), so there's a significant connection between them.

I also find it interesting that in both instances of Jinsoul's rap in her and Olivia's solos, they put a distortion effect on her voice. Maybe this is an indicator that this is actually the shadow girls speaking.

...

This was a shorter theory, but I really wanted to point these instances out, especially regarding the case of "Girl Front" and "LOONATIC". Hope you enjoyed this! Feel free to share your own thoughts. Have a good day, and of course... Stan LOONA!

#LOONA #LOONAverse #Heejin #Hyunjin #Haseul #Kim Lip #Jinsoul #Choerry #Yves #Chuu #Go Won #Olivia Hye #LOONA Odd Eye Circle #LOONA yyxy #KPop #Music #Theory

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maelemonium · 4 years

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Rodimus had always thought that being admired 24/7 would do wonders for his ego and self esteem. He was right.

He knew he probably wasn’t the first choice for babysitting, but after Drift had failed to keep Megatron’s rowdy twins from tearing up his shared hab with Ratchet, Drift had commed his best friend to help keep the sparklings under control.

Rodimus wasn’t sure what he was expecting to find when he walked in. Maybe they were trying to overthrow Drifts authority and already establishing their own totalitarian government. Although he didn’t walk into a revolution, the chaos before him wasn’t too surprising.

Drift was in the middle of the mess of things all over the floor, one of which was one of his swords that must have fallen off its hangers on the wall. The lighter sparkling, Rodimus remembers as SunChaser, was crying and pulling away from Drift’s hold on his arm trying to reach the sword. Oh no, not good.

Roddy swooped in and grabbed the sword. Without looking at him Drift dropped SunChaser’s arm and rushed to the other side of the room. Oh yeah there’s more than one. Rodimus watched as Drift pulled the other sparkling, MoonDust, off the shelf of books that she was climbing like a ladder and pushed it back against the wall before it continued to fall to the floor.

Crisis averted, Drift finally looked at Rodimus and let out a vent he was holding in. Despite MoonDust starting to cry in Drift’s arms, SunChaser had managed to fall quiet.

“Thanks,” Drift breathed, and gently put the whining bitlet in his arms to his feet. “I don’t know what I would have done without another set of hands.”

Rodimus smiled and gave him a thumbs up. “No problem! Gave me an excuse to avoid another lecture from Mag-”. He stopped as he felt something bop his ped.

He looked down and saw bright blue and violet optics stare up at him as a tiny hand continued its noisy tapping. SunChaser started cooing at the attention he was getting and reached up with grabby hands.

“Pick him up! If you don’t he might start crying again.” Drift urged before turning around to find MoonDust sitting with an upside down data pad on her lap.

Rodimus continued to stare down at the tiny beeping sparkling before slowly reaching down and scooped him up under his arms. Now with closer reach SunChaser reached forward and patted Rodimus’ face and continued cooing.

“How sweet, he likes you.” Drift said getting down and turning the data pad in MoonDust’s hands the correct way. “He bit me as soon as he saw me.”

“Really?” Rodimus chuckled, tucking SunChaser under his arm and walking over. “and when did the sword fall down?”

“SunChaser rolled into a ball and started bouncing from all to wall and mangaged to knock it down.” Drift sighed and watched as MoonDust moved one of her tiny fingers along the pages as if the words meant anything to her.

“They roll into balls?” Rodimus exclaimed shocked, as if he understood and wanted to answer, SunChaser beeped as he wiggled out of his arms.

Excited beeping rung through the room and Rodimus watched as small whirrs and clicks came of the small white sparkling as he curled into a ball. With the final click of everything into place SunChaser immediately started rolling around with no direction or pattern.

“Do you think he’d like being thrown around?” Rodimus reached forward to grab the sentient sphere.

“Roddy! You can’t throw a sparkling!” Drift gasped.

“I‘ll be careful just slightly toss him and catch him.” Rodimus looked back at the bundle in his hands and started bouncing him up and down.

With Nothing but happy beeps and chirps coming from SunChaser, Rodimus started to toss him into the air a little bit and catch him. “It will be fine, see! He’s happy!”

Rodimus almost dropped SunChaser when MoonDust made a sudden loud beep and rushed past the two baby sitters. Followed right after there was a knock on the door. Rodimus fumbled with the round sparkling but managed to catch him before he transformed and wiggled out of his arms to follow his sister.

“It’s open!” Drift said standing up and moving to the door that now had two jumping sparklings at it.

Rodimus followed, standing in a significantly less graceful manner as the door slid open to Megatron. As soon as their only barrier was gone the twins started climbing up his legs.

“Rodimus, I see you came to help. I hope they weren’t too much trouble.” Megatron rumbled over the beeping bitlets he scooped into his arms.

Rodimus let out a small laugh as he and Drift glanced at each other.

Looking past the two and into the room around them, Megatron took in the damage. “I see…”

Since then Rodimus had been the go to baby sitter for SunChaser, while Drift watched MoonDust. It was decided that the twins were too much to handle for one mech if they were together. The sparklings them selves didn’t seem to mind, especially not with how much SunChaser was laughing while he was being tossed, (not thrown), into the air.

With how much the little thing loved being in the air, Rodimus figured he’d probably end up flying. Of course when Megatron found out what he was up to, Rodimus’ discovery was not enough to calm the rage storm of an angry creator.

Despite everything as SunChaser grew up, crew members started calling him “Rodimus Jr.” Or “mini Roddy” as Rodimus was rarely seen without his energetic shadow.

Rodimus sat in the captain's chair with SunChaser sitting in a “second captains chair” made specially for him with very important buttons being pushed every five seconds.

“Beep! Beeeep! Boop!” Sounds coming from the mini captain cut through Rodimus’s reading, but he didn’t have to spark to stop Chaser from pretending he was leading the ship.

“Roddy?”

Snapped out of his thoughts Rodimus looked down to see the little sparkling staring up at him. “What’s up little dude?”

“I wanna be like you!” SunChaser beamed up at him. “A really cool hero like you!”

Rodimus nearly cried.

Trying to write some story for some of my characters interacting with actual characters, i am far from confident with my writing skill go easy on me.

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inappropriatefangirlneeds · 4 years

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Gotham s5ep11 “They Did What?” Personal Review & Rambling

I DID IT .... I WATCHED THE GOTHAM FINALE

“We need to make it a bomb again.” Absolutely no warning cause that’s all no spoiler anymore for a long time

So I´m not sure if it´s good thing I´m watching this ages late, partly I guess I could be more emotional, partly not. It´s sweet to see how everyone and their aunt is teaming up for the city. “Well, this is gonna make one hell of a bedtime story some day.” With Nyssa al Ghul holding the baby I briefly totally forgot the plot and wondered where did that child come from again? And my brain went back to the (godawful) “Ra´s present for Barbara is a child” theory, and then I remembered oh no it was Jim ..and I was like .. eh, magic baby would have been the better plot. So that´s how we started this but at least Jim and Barbara were quite sweet, even with the child (I usually just cringe and crumble in sheer terror of what kind of responsibility a child is whenever one of those appears but they made it sweet) BARBARA KEAN & JIM GORDON were such a great team! Also Barbara just looks so damn fine, they really did good with that. And just bless the FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHERS of the Show , handcuffed Barbara taking out the guy with her legs > Jim later handcuffing Nyssa to keep her close to not get shot at < Good Stuff! * ~ 24:05 even up to the Steps of SELINA KYLE , Just the way she walked before fighting Bane was such a neat detail ”My father made his name destroying empires.” NYSSA AL GHUL I guess with more time she´s got potential but rushed like that her character is just boring.

“Can we really be so cavalier about the destruction of Gotham?” Oh OSWALD COBBLEPOT that´s part of why I fell in love with you. So he and EDWARD NYGMA go over the whole “listening to your heart never did you any good Oswald” spiel, and “I´ll miss you”, or “not so much”, Ed kind of is saying “don´t go” , but just not quite, the usual, you know, I can´t bring myself to care much but damn do I like watching their pretty selves talk through it. * Edward later follows Oswald, claiming it´s about the city, says the submarine can only operated by two people, and actual people, dog didn´t work. The usual. * Holy Shit, JIM GORDON ´s so gorgeous. It´s not like I had forgotten how pretty he is but damn that episode hit me hard again with Jim feels. Him over that map, going through their strategy. Daaaamn daaaaaaaaamn. * JIM GORDON & OSWALD COBBLEPOT in something that might as well be just fanfiction: “Oswald, come in.” / “Still have those eyes in the back of your head, Jim.” / “No. You just have a remarkably recognizable odor. Part dandy, part snake. After all these years, it hasn't changed. Drink?” / “No, thank you. Dulls the senses.” / “That's what I was going for. Surprised you're still here. Figured you'd be long gone by now. That storm you've warned me about for so long, it's finally here.” / “Sure, I could escape... with money, I might add... but then what? Stand on the shores of the mainland and watch the army burn it to the ground? Then watch tasteless industrialists and vapid politicians rebuild it? No. My life is etched on the walls of every alley and dirty warehouse here. My blood lives in its broken concrete. I'm staying to fight. For my legacy.” * LESLIE THOMPKINS caring about the people of the Narrows was great, I don´t know, if I like that she “abandoned” them in order to stand next to Jim but I can let it pass because of the way she did: She respected and trusted BARBARA KEAN to get them out. I can accept a plot that doesn´t pit those two women against each other (anymore). It was equally great that Lee just told Jim to “yes, go to your child”, and not to forget the scene where Barbara is thanking Lee for what she did, and “Barbara Lee Gordon” * Lucius is full on providing gadgets for Bruce, including that Bat Beacon that slowed down Bane. Nice but eh. Also they rehash Jeremiah´s plan to turn the city in a labyrinth to slow down the army. “We need to make it a bomb again.” Battery goes Bomb again, but eh, kind of fell flat for me

* HARVEY BULLOCK pointing out they are fighting SOLDIERS that are just following orders was a good touch. And it makes sense that JIM could brush that aside, he knows what they signed up for. That´s what you do, that´s what you accept. * Also I can stan a good story that rejects and is a slap in the face of the "NUREMBERG DEFENSE" so props to that! Just the execution fell so remarkably flat for me. I felt nothing then the people came back with Barbara, nothing when the soldiers pointed their guns at Bane. BRUCE WAYNE & SELINA KYLE Just Selina checking in with a “Bruce?” to make sure he actually wants to do that bomb thing was so precious. Also her recognizing that he is and accepting his choice. [Rant Below] Them later sitting on the stairs and talking was sweet too, except for what they talked about. SELINA KYLE MRs. & MR WAYNE So apparently they paralleled those in this episode 1. Selina´s shadow is just right under the painting of Mrs & Mr Wayne and Bruce just plants the bomb right in the middle of her shadow ~19:40) 2. Selina telling Bruce on the stairs she will be there whenever he needs her and Bruce replying that this is what his parents used to tell him. Which is a good setup for the kind of conclusion Bruce draws out of all of this but also I´m gonna rant about it below but first: 3. Bruce says his parents would have and did sacrifice everything for the city. He´s making the same choice but apparently can´t see that Selina has as much a choice to do so as he and Mrs & Mr Wayne have . So in the end I´m getting overly emotional, angry, hurt, let down to be precise: How dare BRUCE WAYNE leave SELINA KYLE behind like this?! Given the backstory that´s bound to be so much more painful than whatever Jeremiah or Bane ever could do. Selina has been through this after Jeremiah and she made a choice. She stayed, she thought and she was (not that that matters but let´s not forget it) damn good at it. I know Bruce thinks he´s making a “sacrifice” but how dare he take away this choice from her. How dare he hurt her like that.

* Most importantly though ALFRED PENNYWORTH in that COAT at the end looked so damn dashing. I´m in love. But I don´t like that they made a point of benching his character like that. He added plenty to the fight, he´s been in hospital before, he can add still contribute like he always did. Don´t let it end like this. Yeah I do need at least three seasons to magically happen before the 5th. OSWALY COBBLEPOT & EDWARD NYGMA Round #2 * Edward apologizes for freezing because of the grenade, Oswald understands. Edward gags when seeing Oswald´s hurt eye but claims it is just a scratch. * Back in a remarkable awesome looking place they lick their wounds: > Oswald feels not appreciated he wants “credit for our loyalty, our selfless bravery?” aka Love. > Edward however feels better than everyone else. He used to be “Shy awkward, pathetic Ed”. Not anymore. He´s better! “I don't want their thanks. Or their respect. You know what I felt, standing shoulder to shoulder with those people out there? Nothing. I... feel... absolutely nothing for those drab... boring people.” Never again. I've shown this city who I truly am once before, and I will do it again. They will bow to the Riddler, and they won't get up until I permit them to.” >> The notion of the “Thankless Job” is there too with Ed but Ed get his kicks out of separating himself from the people, he´s different and above them he doesn´t care about their opinion and has no real stakes in their well being. Oswald however obviously still want´s the recognition of said people, and he wants the good and nice kind, so it´s important that they aren´t miserable. However “Yes. You're right. Our accomplishments have been erased, our brilliant minds underrated. If they had let me run this city the way I wanted to, it would not be in ruins now. I had the men, the money, - the guns... “ 1. Oswald falls in line with Ed´s reasoning, appeals to his brilliance spleen but tweaks it for his need. Edward says he has to rule and they have to bow to him. Os says Ed is right, follows in line with Ed in reassuming a strife for leadership but adds his twist that this is necessary not so much because he (just as Ed thinks he is) is superior but because his leadership is “good” for the people. He´ll do good for them so they´ll like him. >>> Oswald wants to rule to not have the city in ruins and get praised for that >>> Edward wants to rule because he´s better and deserves so regardless of other imbeciles thoughts or needs. 2. Divide et Imperare Edward is quick to make sure to point a finger to an enemy and separate Oswald from Jim “Gordon took them.” Oswald just might as well try to go back to old methods and try build alliances with Jim and the law again, Edward recently saw Oswald and Jim kind of teaming up again and he just can´t have that. Just like Mr. Penn was in the way. Jim is a threat. One to be undermined at all costs: “Gordon took them. Why? Because he still sees you as Fish Mooney's umbrella boy, and he always will.”

3. One Ring to bind them. Edward starts with a selfish reason but is quick to put Oswald back into the plan. First there´s “I” suddenly he talks about a “We”: “I only came back to help him save this city so that I could take it for myself. We would be stronger together. No one could stop us.” 4. Do they believe each other?! Apparently they don´t because the both go in the hug with a drawn knife but are relieved when they don´t feel one in their own back. Which was really nice and fitting imagery. I can live with that “conclusion” but I have so much open questions. I really got to look for post that worked through all of this. > Oswald obviously must be weary of Edward because (I just have to believe) that he sees through the manipulating words of Edward. (as listed above) [[[ Especially the scene with Jim: They had a rather respectful, familiar interaction. I can´t quite believe that he follows Edward´s claim that JIM only thinks of him as that umbrella boy. I do think Oswald gets that Jim takes him serious, just well considers all his crime stuff to be wrong, and that´s quite a different thing than what Ed claims.]]] > What is Edward´s angle there? Yeah he might not have been able to operate the submarine alone but granted his speech it sounded like he would think that he is capable of taking the city for and by himself. Why is he appealing to Oswald to form a “we”? Just to get him in the hug situation and test him, asses a possible future threat to his claims? The only other proper motivation for that would be …. he likes Oswald. 5. “Brothers” Hahahah * Okay, but Oswald´s face when Edward and his mirror self do their thing …Damn …. * 8:26 Are the “Captain Jim Gordon” letters on his door window colour ??! * Jankey Piss Whiskey, what is Jim drinking? * Oh no, not the General

#gotham #gotham meta #mine Gotham full episode reviews #nygmobblepot #gotham s5ep11 They Did What?#bruce wayne

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daddysfangirls-marvel · 5 years

Text

70 years alone

warning: language, angst, sad, a bit of fluff

Summary: Bucky starts to gain memories of his time with (Y/n) and Tony pays her a visit.

70 years of grief

70 years of pain

Bucky had been having dreams about her every night for the past two weeks. But they weren’t really dreams but memories, memories of the past, memories of (Y/n) and Steve before the war. And they were just so perfect and beautiful it hurt when he woke up and found out it wasn’t real or just memory. He wanted it all to be real so bad. But then he didn’t.

At night he welcomed the dreams but during the day he pushed them away. He knew this woman but then again he didn’t actually know or remember this woman. It was hard and more recently it was starting to become a distraction he was starting to daydream about her. He didn’t really know what to do or who to talk to. He couldn’t talk to anyone no one really knew (y/n) but Steve and he definitely wasn’t going to talk to him he was devasted with his sister’s wish of not wanting to see him really hit him hard. He was in some way griefing for the loss of a sister who was still here.

He decided he’d go and talk to this woman, this (y/n).

Tony found (Y/n) history very interesting as well as her relationship and behavior towards Steve. He wanted to talk to her, learn more about her, and understand her better and her files weren’t really doing anything to satisfy his interest. And he knew Steve wasn’t going to help him the guy was just too messed up right now. So he decided to go and talk to her himself.

“Hey...” Tony said as he stepped on to the elevator looking at the numbers he realized they were both going to the garage. It was awkwardly silent he tried to fill it “ heading out?” and now it was awkwardly talking

“Yeah”

“Where to?”

“...places”

“oh... good, I guess”

“where are you going, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“(Y/n), Steve’s sister, I’m going to visit her in prison and talk to her,” Tony said casually he noticed when stiffed but and started looking at him sideways.

“I’m... I’m going to visit her too” Bucky said awkwardly he really didn’t interact with Tony a lot. Before there was this underlining tension that kept them apart but now the tension as seemed to fade and well they didn’t really know what to do with each other. This leads to a heavy awkwardness, like now, whenever they were alone. But then again this was Tony Stark and he thrived in any situation.

“Oh really, we should go together, save on gas. Let's go”

The car ride was weird. Bucky was awkward and Tony played music to cover up the awkwardness. Being at an hour the car ride was far too long. Both of them were relieved when they finally arrived.

“Hey if it isn’t Mr. Furious, what’s up,” Tony said as he greeted Fury at the doorway “ We came to see the Mistress of Death. We want to talk.”

“Barnes you can go down. Stark, I want to have a conversation with you” Fury waved him over as guards walked Bucky down to (Y/n)’s cell. Fury and Tony walked away slowly strolling down an abandoned hall.

“How you doing mean machine” Fury stopped walking and turned to Tony who but his hands up in surrender.

“Don’t”

He then returned to walking.

“I want to talk to you about The Reaper.”

The guards lead Bucky into a room and close the door locking it. His head snapped back so quick he was slapped with his hair. There was no handle on the door so he couldn’t get out. He was lowkey high key panicking.

“Hello?” he turned around to see a window on the other side of that window was (y/n) sitting in a chair strapped down. She looked nothing like the girl from his dreams. The cheerful, hopeful, positive which she presented in his memory was no longer there she looked intimidating yet exhausted like she’d given up on...everything.

“Hi”

“... hi”

Bucky cleared his throat and took a seat in the chair in front of the window. “ I... I’m starting to remember you. I’ve been having dreams about you... um...we’ve met before-”

“Yeah, when we were just kiddies-”

“No, I mean when I was the soldier with Hydra I met you then too. I don’t remember all of it I get flashes.” a look of confusion crossed Bucky’s face as the flashes came back “Could you tell me what happened?”

Hydra was targeting someone (Y/n) wanted to get to that person before they got to him. She wanted to know why they wanted him and what he had that was so important. She figures she could use that information against him or them.

She slid quietly into the window creeping into the apartment. She brought along her two blades as her rifle scythes would have been too big. She quietly tiptoed in the hall going to where she assumed her target would be.

She heard the floorboards creak and it wasn’t from her she saw a shadow coming her way she quickly ducked into a nearby doorway to hide. She listened as the person walked passed the room which she was hiding in. The guy was bigger than her target so it wasn’t him which meant Hydra got her first and this was probably one of their assists. She cursed in her head and tighten her grip on her blade. She shook her head. No problem she’d kill him like she had done the others.

(y/n) snuck up behind him and raised her blade ready to strike. She charged Suddenly he swung his leg back kicking her into a wall she fell behind a couch. She crawled away quickly as he started to shoot at her through the couch. Finding an ashtray she filings it at the wall it bounces off and hits his hand the gun falls out. She kicks off the wall and punches him in his face knocking his mask off She gets back up in a fighting stance but then-

“...Bucky?...James?” she catches his face in the moonlight and she can’t believe it. It’s him it’s really him. She relaxes in her stance and stands up straight. He’s frozen up just looking at her.

“Bucky, Bucky it’s me... I... I missed you. Oh god, I missed you.” She slowly walked up to him cupping his face and kissing his cheeks “Oh Baby, what did they do to you?” She brought him in a tight hug as she cried in his chest.

She felt his hand on her shoulder she looked up with a small teary-eyed smile.

“I don’t know you” Her smile falls as something sharp plunges into her stomach. That’s when she sees it there’s no spark in his eyes they’re dull and lifeless. She looks down to see a knife in her stomach she pushes away gasping. She walks backward holding her wound. This is not her Bucky.

He doesn’t move as she falls to the floor crawling backward and holding her wound still. He just watches her with those dull lifeless eyes. This was not her Bucky she began to cry. Picking up her blades she took of escaping back out the window and down the fire escape.

“ I didn’t really see you again after that. Expect on tv when you were accused of that bombing then joining the avengers.”

“I-I’m sorry,” he said his voice cracking as he spoke some memory coming back and it wasn’t pleasant.

“It’s alright I healed. Nice to see your head screwed on a bit better now” she said smiling a bit.

“I had left you during the war you hate me for that-”

“no, I don’t”

“but you hate Steve-”

“Steve had a choice you didn’t. You were drafted into the war if you didn’t go you would have gone to prison you had no choice. Steve had a choice and he went then he came back when you died and he had a choice to stay and he didn’t. Steve had Choices he made all the wrong ones... I begged him to stay both times and he didn’t he, left me. I needed him to stay both times and he didn’t, he chooses not to.” Her voice was dripping in despise and pain he could see it clear as day in her eyes. And it was all directed at Steve.

“I don’t feel sorry for him and I’m not going to forgive him. While I lived in Hell he took a 70-year nap woke up became a fucking superhero and has been living life in luxury ever since.

Why aren’t you angry?”

Bucky cleared his throat and started to fidget with his hands he didn’t like how the conversation was being directed at him now. “ It wasn’t his-”

“It is though. After you first escape Hydra the military gave you an option to return home but steve wanted you to join the Howling Commandos. Before that last mission, you were supposed to return home but Steve decided to take on one last mission and on that mission, you fell off a fucking train and into the hands of Hydra.

You spent 20 years being tortured and 50 years being used while that dumbass took a nap. We went through hell for 70 years, I was alone and in pain for 70 fucking years while he took a FUCKING NAP... I won’t forgive him until he has felt the pain I have” (Y/n) didn’t realize it but she was crying now tears were slowly falling down her face. Bucky wanted to reach out and wipe her tears away but the thick glass prevented him from doing so.

“I know what it’s like to be alone for a very long time, you and I have that in common, I also know what it’s like to be angry for a long time. It’s not good you don't want to live that life-”

“I’ve been living that Life since he left me. I don’t know how else to live.” She whispered

Bucky reached forward and put his flesh hand on the glass and gave her a small smile “ I’m still learning but maybe I could teach you.”

(y/n) smiles wiping her tears on her shoulder as her hands were bound down. She would have loved to take his offer she would have loved to be near him again to have him by herself again. She could start a new with him and easily left everyone and everything behind. Just him and her no one else that’s all she ever wanted.

“I’ve killed a lot of people. On my own account and of my own while I killed a lot of people. As much as I want to take your offer and be good for you they are not going to let me out... I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it Doll” he winked at her and she blushed. At that moment they seemed to be back to their old selves. But then it was ruined.

“Alright, terminator out it’s my turn.” Tony bargained in. Bucky sighed standing up giving Tony his time with (y/n).

“I don’t want to be alone,” she said suddenly “ I don’t want to be alone. Will you visit me, please?”

“of course doll.”

“So fluffy and pure. Now get out” Bucky rolled his eyes at Tony and gave (y/n) one last smile before having the door shut in his face. “ I don’t do well with emotions. Not mine, not others.”

“I can see that.”

“(Y/n) Roger, the little sister of Steve Rogers aka Captain America, the love interest of James Barnes aka Bucky aka The Winter Soldier, The Reaper credited with over 8 dozen kills both Hydra and Civilians. Although you and I know those numbers are much higher.” Tony said as he spun the seat around sitting in it backward he looked smug with his smirk as if he had the upper hand or knew something she didn’t. She didn’t like it.

“If you’re trying to get something from me you’re going the wrong route. Try again.”

Tony’s smirk fell into a small gentle and genuine smile. He started tapping away on his tablet. “ You’re not a bad person.” He slipped the tablet over to show a slide show of all the good things she had done in the past “ I mean you did all of this. You’ve saved lots of people over the years more than you’ve killed if these pictures mean anything. You worked with the red cross for a while. You were a nurse in War zones and third world countries. I mean if we push away your body count you’ve done a lot of hero work over the years.”

“This is going somewhere, right?”

“You’re strong and you’re skilled-”

“Speed it up”

“Join the avengers... We’d like you to join the Avenger.”

“What?!” she looked at him confused and bewildered. He started with her body count and now he was offering her a job as a superhero. “ What the fuck?!”

“I know it’s a lot to take in” He smiled smugly just watching her reaction he liked it. It’s exactly what he expected.

“You come here, give me a rundown of my background and history which is 80 percent bad-”

“eh 50 40″

“and you want me to join your super-duper hero boy band with all the other goodie two shoe children?”

“Yes,” Tony said. The truth was the only person in the avengers who was innocent was Peter. Everyone else had done bad things had taken life and had blood on their hands no one had clean hands. And honestly, there were people on the team who had filthier hands than (Y/n). Thor who literally had centuries of battles experience killing a couple of thousands and Loki who killed a good million or so people and tried to enslave the human race on his second trip to earth.

“Your crazy”

“prefer genius but okay”

“Fuck -”

“You said you didn’t want to be alone anymore,” Tony said basically throwing back a vulnerable moment that he wasn’t supposed to witness back in her face. He could the growing anger on her face after what he said he quickly continued. “You’ve been alone for a very long time. Wouldn’t you want to be with other people? You would be able to help people like you were already doing and take out Hydra too.” She just glared at him the more he talked.

“ You could be with Bucky” at the mere mention of his name her face softens into something almost innocent. “He said he would visit you but why visit when you could live under the same roof. You’d work together stop Hydra together. You and him.”

“And Steve.” She said her voice cracking as she spoke.

“Alright listen, I don’t really understand what’s going on between you and Steve and I don’t get it. If I had a sibling and finally saw them after 70 years I’d be clinking to them like a Koala bear but I’m not you. But if you want to join and be with Bucky you’re going to have to at least tolerate him.”

(Y/n) thought for a moment. She didn’t want to see Steve she was officially done with him she wanted nothing to do with him anymore. But she wanted Bucky she wanted to be with Bucky all these years all this pain and she finally had him. He was all she ever wanted. Ever since she was a little girl all she wanted was the apple pie white picket fence life. The Husband, the kids, the family dog, and the big house they called home. She wanted all of that with Bucky and only Bucky.

Now she knew she would never get that life it just wasn’t possible for her anymore. But she could still have Bucky.

“Alright... I’ll join your boy band”

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mesaylormoon · 4 years

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The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again - A Review

With the 41st anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on the horizon, it no doubt made sense for 20th Century Fox to capitalize on the lucrative nature of such an iconic property. Their 2016 remake of the cult classic would offer old and new fans increased production values with an all-star cast, better set designs, energized music and dance numbers, a more flowing narrative, and a special appearance from Tim Curry as the criminologist. In spite of all these additions to this updated version of the midnight movie sensation, however, it still falls fantastically flat.

Films often suffer greatly if the actors involved are incapable of presenting believable, compelling performances, and this remake employs nothing but terrible actors. Ryan McCartan and Nickelodeon starlet Victoria Justice fill the roles of Brad Majors and Janet Weiss, and they are what absolutely destroys the potential of this version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Both performers fail to capture the endearing personalities of their characters, and neglect to pay homage to the offbeat charm of their predecessors Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon. McCartan’s nervous, stiff attitude is apparent throughout, and contrasts distractingly with Bostwick’s friendliness, confidence, and eagerness to socialize with others. Brad Majors was not a particularly special character, but even in his dorkiest moments, Bostwick was able to convey a laid-back, likable energy for his role that this new actor could not.

Even worse than McCartan’s performance is the acting of his co-star, Justice. Words cannot express how unprepared this young woman was for film acting. This remake presents a terribly strong case for why her career should not have expanded beyond tween sitcoms, as her forced delivery and dramatically flighty behavior does not at all recognize the sweetness of Sarandon’s character. Janet Weiss was undeniably a damsel-in-distress, but in spite of her overreactions to meeting the Transylvanians, she was innocent, polite, gentle and wanted nothing more than a simple life with her fiance. Nothing about Justice’s acting echoes this sentiment, as she opts to shriek her lines at every opportunity and cower behind her love interest. While this behavior is similar to Sarandon’s characterization, Justice is clearly uncomfortable with naturally expressing fear. She always appears to lack direction, looking lost no matter where she is on set, and is too confident in real life to make a performance for a character like this believable.

Laverne Cox, Reeve Carney, Christina Milian, and Annaleigh Ashford play Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Riff Raff, Magenta, and Columbia, respectively. In spite of obvious attempts to respect the performances of the original actors, Carney as Riff Raff is the only person who seems to be trying to properly convey his character without losing the personality expressed by Richard O’Brien. He slithers, gives creepy grins, delivers his lines nasally, and perfectly captures the persona of the original Riff Raff. Unfortunately, however, the rest of the cast characterize their performances by role-reversing. Cox is a whiny, fay flailer who utterly lacks the seductive and suave charm of Tim Curry; Milian submits an overly energized, overly happy performance of the hot-headed, mischievous, subdued Patricia Quinn; and Ashford is hideously miscast as a disinterested Nell Campbell. Ashford’s performance is particularly disappointing, as Columbia is a vivacious, bubbly, and lovestruck girl who is likable in spite of her sometimes annoying behavior. Ashford is purely annoying throughout, pandering to an audience of angsty individuals who would have loved her acting in the 90s. Stanz Nair and Ben Vereen are about as obnoxious as their co-stars, but considering what small roles and little impact they make in the remake, they aren’t worth focusing too much criticism on.

The humor in The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again is as desperate as the film itself. Instead of allowing hilarity to originate from character interactions or witty remarks, characters will often flail, scream, and suddenly widen their eyes. None of these moments are funny and just make the film seem as if it’s pandering to a younger audience.

While we’re dissecting less significant complaints one might have with this movie, the sexual content is disappointingly erased from this reimagining of the source material. Perhaps this could be considered a good change, but part of the reason The Rocky Horror Picture Show appealed to adult audiences was because it was such a shamelessly sensual movie. The filmmakers were not afraid to show scenes of characters having sex, and audience participation screenings have always featured raunchy references. One could argue that this is a defining feature of the film. Considering the convservative nature of 1970s attitudes, this is definitely a quality that helped The Rocky Horror Picture Show stand out.

However, because the remake was filmed for television, this material had to be largely scaled down to the point of non-existence, and there is little to nothing appealing about characters’ more intimate moments. It’s a bit disappointing considering there are some particularly funny scenes in which characters mistakenly have sex with people they thought were their romantic partners.

The increased budget of The Rocky Horror Picture Show remake allowed the crew to create beautiful setpieces and conduct highly stylized music and dance numbers. Each of these updates added a surprising amount of credibility to the source material that the original did not have. The choreography of every dance is much more complex and engaging than the original, and excites viewers in a way that the first film couldn’t. As much as I enjoy The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the dances were quite basic, employing little movement beyond awkward kicks, unimpressive jumps, and slow steps. The remake, however, requires more physical and challenging demands of dancers, who must be much more synchronized and ready to move at a fast pace. It’s easiest to appreciate when watching the film for oneself.

The songs, thankfully, are all derived from the original movie, but instead of retaining the ear-grating sound quality of decades-past, group recordings sound much more harmonious, and individual singers are allowed to shine as a result of a more carefully chosen vocal ensemble. If there are at least some things I can appreciate about this reimagining, it would be these things.

As much as I would like to continue acknowledging these improvements, I also believe that focusing on the polishing of the singing, dancing, and casting of conventionally beautiful actors is one of the biggest problems with the remake. The improvements that are made in this iteration of The Rocky Horror Picture Show are superficial, showing less concern for the quality of the narrative and characters and more concern for the quality of the “show-stopping” production elements. The cast of the remake are all attractive singers and dancers, but the original actors were not. They were average-looking people in a film that performed poorly upon release. Everything about the first movie - from a critical perspective - was awful, but that was the reason it found such a dedicated following. The source material relished in its awfulness. The actors, their performances, the narrative, the set designs, the songs, and the choreography never endeavored to be masterpieces. Midnight audiences could simply enjoy the community they found by participating in something of a “bad movie night.”

In any other remake, the beautifying of cinematic elements would not be an issue, but The Rocky Horror Picture Show was not meant to be a grandiose work of cinema. It always felt more like creator Richard O’Brien’s passion project - a project that, although it appeared insane on the surface, was a body of work that was not meant to conform to societal expectations. It was - and continues to be - a film that unites midnight moviegoers by the very nature of its strangeness. Audiences fell in love with it because it likely encouraged them to be themselves, unapologetically. The original film even seems to embody this philosophy, as nothing about the story nor set direction makes any sense in the first film.

In spite of my harsh criticisms of most movies, I have to admire how unafraid creator Richard O’Brien was of sharing such incredibly unusual ideas with a massive audience. Given the mass walk-outs he witnessed and how he most certainly knew how odd his film would be, it was a courageous feat on his part to not modify his vision to pander to people who would have wanted to see something different - something that made sense.

This is why an “upgraded” version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show will never satisfy fans. Fans appreciate the original film for silently encouraging them to embrace their strangest selves, and for being an insane piece of work they can enjoy and share with others. This is the reason why it continues to be a sensation of midnight screenings and enthusiastic shadow casts. Most producers of entertainment don’t recognize that inserting their ideas of what would make a movie or TV show “better” often ends up disappointing the audiences they are trying to captivate. If the source material was good enough to earn a loyal following, it is likely because they fell in love with what they originally saw.

The producers of The Rocky Horror Picture Show remake, unfortunately, lacked an understanding of these principles. As a result, audiences new and old were left with a superficially polished experience that disregards the most important elements of filmmaking - as well as what made The Rocky Horror Picture Show so special to so many people.

#rocky horror picture show #2016 movies #movie reviews #remake

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klaineship2 · 5 years

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TDB Rewatch 2009 Episode 6x12

This is one of my favorite episodes of season 6. The show ended with 6.11 and this is kind of a bonus - a gift to the fans - since the show went into a completely different direction than it was originally supposed to go, the writers made some belated additions to the pilot. There is a huge focus on Kurt, who wasn’t supposed to be a main character originally but due to Chris Colfers amazing acting skills and a plot that many fans could relate to, he sneaked his way from sporadic background moments to one of the most fleshed out characters on the show. Every one of the original Glee members gets his moment, some bigger and some smaller, and they even managed to include Blaine in that mini-interaction with Mercedes.

I remember someone tackling the task to interweave the Pilot and 2009 into one big, all including double episode and I remember while watching it, sometimes it was really hard to tell which was the Pilot stuff and which was the 2009 stuff. Does anybody know if this video is still available?

Kudos to the Cast and wardrobe/hair department for transforming the characters back into their sophomore-selves. Even though they weren’t quite as successful with Kurt, lol. He has not only grown a few inches but changed so much that it was nearly impossible to transform him back into that chubby-cheeked baby Kurt. And his hair is cut so much shorter than it was back then, so even in that first hallway-scene, shot from behind you can already tell that this is not baby Kurt from s1. He’s got about 5 different hair styles in this episode. However, it amazes me how Chris Colfer compensates the ‘grown-up’ look with all his s1 mannerisms and that soft, almost shy voice. There are a few scenes in which he actually almost looks like his younger self.

Kurt’s friendships with Rachel and Mercedes take off here and it’s already clear to see what their relationships will be like in the future.

The performance of Popular (which is probably my favorite Hummelberry-duet, followed closely by For Good) sums up the entire Hummelberry-dynamic from the start throughout the series. The underlying competitiveness and Rachel’s constant need of pushing her ‘friends’ into the shadow to be front and center herself was spot on. The way Chris and Lea play off of each other is amazing. I love every second of that song.

Kurt’s friendship to Mercedes, though, is the complete opposite. There is only kindness and loving support and it’s such a delight to see the two of them discussing the ‘Finn-issue’ at the Lima Bean (is this the moment when Mercedes starts crushing on Kurt?!). Poor Mercedes, seeing her struggling with Rachel’s competitiveness and rejection and knowing that she'll get her fair share of the spotlight (even though Will promised it) makes me sad.

All my (very Kurt-centric) rambling thoughts in a somewhat chronological order:

the surprising start with Terri as Will’s wife, holding the glue gun like an actual gun is hilarious.

“I feel like I could die tomorrow and I don’t think anyone would really care... I’m not sure anyone would even notice.” a nod to Burt’s statement in s3 ‘Your Glee club saved my sons life.’

I love how it’s made perfectly clear that Burt already assumed that Kurt might be gay and how he and Emma don’t realize that they are talking about two completely different things.

Kurt sewing the sequined vest he’s gonna be wearing 3 weeks later for his Single Ladie’s dance with Tina and Brittany.

“This is an order! By the end of this week I want you on a team, or I’m taking away the sewing machine.” It’s a reminder how Kurt and Burt struggled with their communication in s1. Neither of them actually knew how to get through to the other person. They’ve come such a long way since.

Rachel steamrolling over Kurt with her non-stop babbling

“Kurt, you are adorable... but I just don’t think that this pale, sexy Keebler Elf look really fits in with my church choir.”

“I don’t know what song to sing, I don’t know what to do with my hands when I’m singing, I don’t know how to move all cool... like you do, because you’re you, and I’m... well, I’m this. But inside I’m more.” Oh Kurt, you sweet little muffin. Mercedes has already seen through your facade.

Tina and Artie being friends even before they joined Glee club.

The death glare Kurt is giving Artie and Tina’s cafeteria table, while walking past, covered in spaghetti

It’s nice to finally see Artie’s audition, though his song choice is somewhat questionable.....

“You and everyone else are gonna have plenty of opportunities for a solo; we’ll all take turns.” <-- This, Will Schuester, was a dirty lie.

Kurt almost raising his hand when Will asks who wants the Sandy part in the Grease-Medley.

Set up for Rachel-Mercedes competing about the Sandy part for Grease. (there is a cute little Kurt background moment where he watches them fighting in shock)

Will has been the one to start the feud with Sue by stating that his Glee Club is better than her Cheerios.

It’s made clear that Rachel is the most pathetic one. (Thanks, Terri.) The moment she senses a true competition she changes into destruction mode... did I ever mention how much her attitude annoys me?

The return of Matt Rutherford and Howard Bamboo. Yay

I was again reminded that the US are the country where an accountant earns more money than a teacher. This is a strange concept to me.

Kudos to the writers for successfully tackling the task of including Finn into the episode. He is mentioned constantly and they even tricked ‘him’ into the scene with Artie (when he pushes the wheel chair) and so it feels almost natural to see him in the final Don’t Stop Believin’ performance. Which is (except for the 10-seconds-intro) the exact same performance that we saw in the Pilot. I watched it parallel on my computer but I noticed that the lighting was much brigther in the Pilot than it was in 2009. Why did they choose to do that? Because of the melancholy of seeing Finn for the last time? idk

@todaydreambelievers

#TDB rewatch 2009 #6x12 #meta monday #todaydreambelievers #all queued up #on vacation

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miss-m-calling · 4 years

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Rare Pairs 2020 letter

Canons requested: American Gods (TV), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Starred Up, Witchblade (TV), 킹덤 Kingdom (Netflix)

Dear writer,

Hello and thank you for writing for me. I’m very excited to read whatever you come up with.

Without further ado…

Requests:

American Gods (TV)

Laura Moon/Mad Sweeney

I ship it. Yes I do. They had me at “gimme-my-coin-dead-wife”-flicks-him-into-wall. The snarky road trip was the best thing I never knew I wanted until it happened, and I adored every second of it, not to mention the upped shippiness in S2. They’re both such assholes and so fascinating, even if they start to mellow toward each other a bit, and all the gods/magic/resurrection stuff swirling around them begs to be explored further. Also I love love love how their dynamic is about equal parts spikiness, pathos, and humor (they’re funny! and the canon doesn’t shy away from putting them in ludicrous situations), and it weaves seamlessly between those three. Plus she’s half his size yet can and does beat him up with literally one finger, and then there’s the angst of he having killed her, feeling really guilty about it, and then bringing her back. And the way that their New Orleans adventure makes clear they have feelings for each other (S1 was more one-sided Sweeney -> Laura) but neither wants to admit it. And and and… yeah, I just love them. Canon-specific DNWs: Sweeney dying/staying dead (at least permanently), Laura as Essie’s reincarnation/descendant or a reincarnation/whatever of Sweeney’s wife from back when he was a king in old Ireland (or a lot of focus on those relationships), either Laura or Sweeney as an inanimate corpse in a smut scenario

My prompts are a combo of prompts I had after I binged S1 and others I added throughout S2. Even if some of this is addressed or hinted at in canon, feel free to diverge – canon divergences and canon-adjacent stories are my jam!

-Please give me either missing scenes from the road trip (if you can work in a divergence, that’s great - for example, I like Salim, but if you want to have him boot Sweeney and Laura to the curb and go off on his own, or Sweeney to boost his taxi before Salim catches them, or whatever else to have those two alone, go for it!), or a divergence from either season (instead of going to Ostara, they go where? to see whom? about getting Laura resurrected. Or things go down differently in New Orleans, or Cairo, or anywhere else) or something about these two post-canon.

-Laura discovers (how? you decide!) that Sweeney gave her back the coin after their accident – whatever happens next, some punching may be involved. (If nothing else, Mama-Ji mentions that the coin is now in Laura’s heart, and we saw Sweeney place it on her ribcage after the accident, whereas it was originally in her gut like she’d swallowed it. Laura might ask herself how the hell it moved.)

-Wednesday’s big war finally comes, and “don’t you dare die on me [again], you asshole” is a line either Sweeney or Laura (or both) might say to each other.

-Laura asked “What does Wednesday have to lose?” and the answer is…? (Yes, give me that sweet poetic justice. One possibility, though not remotely the only one, but as of S2E3 Laura is technically a god-killer...) Or later when she straight-up says she’s going to kill Wednesday, but is warned to bring power with her when she does, how does that work? How else might she damage Wednesday or ruin his plans, just in case she can’t actually kill him?

-At the end of S2, Laura hoists Sweeney’s dead body over her shoulders and strides off, seemingly leaving Cairo, Shadow, and all of it behind. Tell me what happens then – does she use Baron Samedi’s potion to bring him back, and whose is the blood filled with love she uses (does she still bleed? You could get creative here, worldbuilding is also my jam)? Does her/his coin play a part – and how come the coin still “powers” Laura despite Sweeney’s death? Does she bring him back another way, maybe figuring out how to keep herself around and be able to give Sweeney back his coin? Does he come back like she did, more undead than alive, or does his godhead, however depleted, help with that? That still leaves Laura to be fully resurrected too… Or does something completely out of left field happen – surprise me!

-Possible divergences from “Treasure of the Sun”: Sweeney manages to kill Wednesday, and then Laura rolls up, and then…? Or Laura rolls up and makes like Mama-Ji told her – destroys some motherfuckers? Or Sweeney gets killed temporarily but Laura brings him back, or brings herself back, or does something else with the Baron’s potion, and is Sweeney’s blood the one filled with love, or can we interpret voodoo spells in a non-literal way? Or what happens with Gungnir hidden in Sweeney’s hoard? And definitely how do they deal with each other once they meet up in Cairo, given how they parted in New Orleans (I don’t know what hurt more to watch: Laura deflecting at the diner, or Sweeney rambling drunkenly about her when Shadow finds him, or later on telling Shadow with such desperate sincerity to keep her away from Wednesday)?

-Or how about a wild divergence from the last several episodes? Sweeney and Laura manage to settle their differences (ahem, more fucking, on this plane of reality, might help) and don’t part ways before leaving NOLA. Or they roll up in Cairo separately but at the same time, and confront Wednesday together, and neither of them die (or die more, in her case). Or they’re there together when the police nearly raid the house. Or they have Wednesday (the ultimate cause of Laura’s death) and Ibis (a death deity) and Bilquis (a love/death/life deity) on hand, surely they can concoct some kind of resurrection thingamajig for Laura, and if they have to twist some divine arms then so be it. Or or or…?

-Wednesday told that luckless cop that Sweeney had been against the big gods’ war from the start, and while Wednesday lies, what if Sweeney decided much sooner to say to hell with Grimnir and his war and his having Sweeney kill random people? I’m guessing Sweeney too drank three glasses of mead so he can’t back out without dire consequence – but he does have a fierce, dead woman in his corner.

-They go to some as-yet-unnamed old god (feel free to bring in whatever mythology you want) in order to bring Laura back to life. Between Sweeney’s mouth and temper, and Laura’s mouth and temper, it doesn’t go well. Now one or both of them are in big magical trouble with a pissed-off deity and have to get themselves/each other out of it. Speaking of other deities, I really enjoyed their brief canon interactions with Ostara, Anansi, and Mama-Ji, and I’d like to see more of that, especially Ostara’s polite yet over-it attitude, Anansi very obvious over-it attitude and his dramatic flair, or Mama-Ji being one of the few capable of giving Laura pause.

-All the petty, ridiculous ways in which Sweeney’s bad luck manifests itself make me laugh (can’t help it, won’t even try), and I’m down for more variations on that theme.

-Sweeney and Laura fighting together, like they did on Mr. Town’s train of torture. Whether it’s a bar fight of their own making, or the big gods’ war they find themselves embroiled in, or something else entirely.

-Things happen and Laura finds herself in the position to throw Sweeney under the bus but also help/save him, and while he knows it’s only karma (he did kill her way back when), he can still be pissed off about it – how do they navigate this?

-Related to that, the Baron said: “In death is her true love, but she betrays him also.” If that meant Sweeney, or can mean Sweeney in the future (I don’t like destiny-wills-it stories, and they’re definitely not there yet, but they could maybe get there at some future point, and even then It Would Be Complicated), was the betrayal Laura rejecting him after the loa ‘fuck them,’ or is it something that hasn’t happened yet, and if so, what?

-Laura gets fully alive again, but traces of her (un)dead state remain – what are they, how does she cope, what price did she/he/they have to pay for her resurrection, and how does their relationship change? I’d especially be curious how it would work if they’re already a sorta-maybe-item and then she’s alive again and it’s weird in a new way.

-For reasons I’ll leave up to you, Sweeney and Laura have to stay put in a single place for a while and end up essentially cohabiting, regardless of what their relationship is at that point. Take “cohabiting” as literally or as creatively as you want – in any case, I’m sure it will be marvelously disastrous and amazing. If the place they have to stay happens to be NOLA, all the better, I find everything about that city fascinating. Or, if you wanted to use book canon, Laura and Sweeney (rather than Shadow) are the ones who have to spend time living in Lakeside and deal with its creepy Norman Rockwell-ness and with Hinzelmann.

-Slight or major AU from the opening of “The Ways of the Dead”: Laura has hitchhiked with Sweeney instead of going off in a huff with Wednesday, or she otherwise gets to New Orleans sooner, and she and Sweeney tear up the town together. Gimme bar fights, carnival shenanigans, all the food and drink porn, backstage craziness with the Christian rock band (Sweeney seems to have a backstage pass on a lanyard around his neck when Laura finds him)… Maybe they even cross the paths of some loa and it doesn’t get all angsty (for what it’s worth, I think the reason the sex magic didn’t bring Laura back to life was because she couldn’t accept the truth(s) revealed during the astral-plane sex and just ask Sweeney to prick his finger for the potion – instead she defaults straight to “this is all Wednesday’s evil plan” the morning after – not because the loa fucked them over). They were actually getting along nicely in those first couple of scenes in NOLA, only ribbing each other a little while still being their grouchy selves, before they got to Le Coq Noir. I wouldn’t have minded seeing some more of that.

-AU from the end of “The Ways of the Dead”: they still have their big fight (which was amazing as well as painful) or some variation thereof, but they don’t split up. (Maybe the reason is as mundane as Sweeney refusing to get left behind or they have a shared ride out of town, or maybe the more time passes the less Sweeney can afford to be far from his coin – or maybe the coin needs him close by to work at full capacity.) And then what?

-All the old gods hide their true appearance to an extent. A situation arises in which Laura sees Sweeney’s true, or at least old, self (I’m thinking of his surprise!poignant monologue about when he used to be a king, and him in full Celtic warrior mode in the S2 flashbacks). Or Wednesday’s war ends in victory, meaning the old gods again get belief, worship, and sacrifices. How does Laura, the ultimate skeptic even when she’s on the other side of the mirror, react? How does this new knowledge and new reality change her opinion of/attitude to Sweeney? Or to flip that around, if Sweeney were again relevant and believed-in, would that actually change his bad attitude and fix his issues (my guess is it would be complicated)? On that note, Sweeney’s decline from Lugh to king to leprechaun was more sketched in than really explored in canon, ditto I didn’t really get why he couldn’t seem to remember his own history except in snatches (the curse that made him a bird/madman of the woods?) – I’d love to see more about it and his (not) dealing with it, or with a reversal of that decline. Eorann told him long ago to adapt and change with the times – but what does that mean after humpteen centuries in a rut and becoming used to always feeling angry and unappreciated?

-The power of names, since they never use each other’s in canon: for all his “dead wifeing,” there comes a time when Sweeney (has to) call her by her actual name, and that’s a tricky moment for them to navigate. Or, Mad Sweeney is not his actual name, and true names have great magical power and so must be kept secret; Laura discovers or learns his name, from someone else or from himself; what does she do with that knowledge? Or, Sweeney gets to say “cunt” in a situation (sexual or otherwise) where, not only does Laura not peel his lips from his gums, but she finds that she can’t object, even though she knows that he knows that he’s getting away with it.

-So far in canon, it’s pretty clear that Sweeney has a lot of complicated but sincere feelings for Laura. Laura is still pretty focused on Shadow (or rather her idealized vision of Shadow and what their relationship might yet be), whom she seems to equate with her own lost-maybe-to-be-regained life, although that’s starting to change at the end of S2. For one thing, she’s starting to soften toward Sweeney as she realizes he’s doing things for her that are not all about getting his coin back (and her sparring match with Wednesday in “Muninn” as well as Shadow refusing to be called puppy anymore in “Moon Shadow” may finally force her to accept that her relationship with Shadow died alongside her and Robbie on that road in Indiana). Not to mention the shared truth revealed in “The Ways of the Dead” (bullshit was that just Laura’s truth!) and how Laura flips out rather than deal with it and Sweeney can’t spit out that it mattered to him either, or how obviously cut up she is about Sweeney’s death despite refusing to admit it. Tell me the story of how Laura stumbles her way to feeling – and acknowledging that she feels – more complex, maybe kinder or softer, really annoying for her blunt-force-trauma-personality things about Sweeney and about the notion that her dynamic with him is different from the way she tended to use men for her convenience without really letting them in in the past. Also I’m pretty sure that even if they can admit they feel the same – or sorta in the same ballpark – about each other, their relationship would still run on a lot of conflict, and I would so be here for it.

-On that note: in “Munnin” it also becomes clear that Laura has, without realizing it herself, started to rely on Sweeney. The “I trusted you” line made me think, whoa she’s too furious to catch herself doing it but this is huge for Laura, and the fact that she goes off with Wednesday (!) basically because she’s mad at Sweeney because she thinks he’s prioritizing his debt to Wednesday over her… Yeah, I would like to see that explored some more and/or to see Laura and Sweeney get to a point where they trust each other and rely on each other, and know it and accept it, however difficult the getting there and being there may be for them.

-Sweeney has this intense need to see himself as a brave person and someone worthy of the world’s respect – but his past and his long experience as just a leprechaun have chipped away at that. Add the guilt of having been the instrument of Laura’s death and then all the pesky feelings he develops for her, and it’s a lot. Obviously his final actions in S2 are his trying to reclaim that courage and nobility of old (also to spite Wednesday, who’s messed both him and Laura up), but I would love to read about his character development under different circumstances, where Laura is there all the way, as opposed to them parting ways and meeting up again multiple times like in canon.

-And since I’m on the subject of Laura, you know how she’s not actually an abrasive bitch all the time to everyone? And when she is, the people on the receiving end of it sometimes richly deserve it, or very occasionally they push back (ILU, Mama-Ji!), and anyway it’s refreshing to see a female character who defaults to confrontational and doesn’t bother flirting and accommodating others for the sake of social harmony? As much as I enjoy watching her rip into people (ahem, Sweeney), I also love it when she acts differently, like her genuine interest in getting to know Salim and her joy in seeing him again in S2, or her running passive-aggressive battle of wills with Wednesday. Her beginning to feel sympathy for Sweeney and her anger and disappointment when she feels let down by him are a part of that, and I’d love to see all that explored more. Nuance! Give me all the nuance and seeming contradictions in both Laura and Sweeney’s characters!

-Sweeney and Laura get drunk and wake up married. Or some sex and/or blood resurrection spell results in basically an unbreakable marriage bond, whether it also secures resurrection or not. Or marrying the dead keeps them (sorta) alive. Or being married makes it possible for them to share magical/supernatural abilities. They’re both pissed about it, but secretly having to make it work may not be the worst thing that’s ever happened...

-My perfect AG spinoff would basically be Sweeney and Laura tooling around America, looking to get her resurrected (whether they succeed or not is up to you), stealing ever more ridiculous vehicles, arguing/fighting and having those pesky moments where vulnerability and genuineness creep in – and fucking. So yessiree I’d be down for porn, including “it’s technically necrophilia/zombiesex” porn, including a canon-divergent first time, or their second time, or all the later times after they had their first time in NOLA in canon.

-If you wanted to throw in some worldbuilding, maybe something exploring living death. Magical bargains. What kind of favor did Sweeney do for Ostara that would be worth her bringing someone back to life as repayment? What other powers might Sweeney have – or have left from when he was Lugh? How long can a dead wife keep going before she’s “soup”? What other superhuman abilities might dead!Laura have? Can the dead do magic? What even are the rules governing and the limits of different beings’ magical abilities? For example, why can’t Sweeney just take his coin back, or why does Laura gain super-strength as part of her undead package deal? Is the hoard in the same space as the behind-the-scenes accessed through the merry-go-round, or it’s a different place? Why does the coin seem to start to “run down” the longer Laura has it? Why did Wednesday need Laura to kill Argus when he killed Vulcan himself just fine? What happens with Gungnir now it’s in the hoard – can only Sweeney get to it, has it been transformed somehow (it’s now the treasure of the sun), etc.?

If it helps your inspiration, you can find some of my meta and lots of tag-burbling about these two here. I have read the book though I remember it only in bits and pieces, and while I prefer the show characters and the fact that they get thrown together, you can use or riff on book material if you want, though I’d prefer a story that isn’t just a retread of the book. With reference to one of my DNWs, for this canon, describing Laura’s physical decay is totally fine. Also, Shadow/Laura don’t interest me except as a part of Laura’s backstory (so if your story wants to include Laura figuring out or having already figured out that pinning all her hopes on Shadow to make everything right is unrealistic, unfair, and not how it works – by all means, go for it!), and Shadow/Sweeney interest me not at all.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (TV)

Lenny Bruce/Miriam “Midge” Maisel/Susie Myerson

Lenny Bruce/Miriam “Midge” Maisel & Miriam “Midge” Maisel/Susie Myerson

I’m here for Midge’s adventures in the intoxicating, foul-mouthed, and often-frustrating world of comedy, so her dynamic with Susie and Lenny is where it’s at. I just love the interactions between these three, and between every pair combination among them: Midge and Susie bantering and swearing and tits-upping even when they irritate each other, Midge and Lenny bringing the pathos as well as the humor, and Lenny and Susie both being hardened old pros with still a little glimmer of starry eyes. I am good with either V-shaped triad/poly or hey, Susie (whom I absolutely read as gay) might find a way to be good with a full-on triangle… And as much as I like the comedy inherent in the characters, I also love that they’re all three, each in their own way, messed up people and dysfunctional to various degrees. So yeah, I just want Midge to hand the kids over to her parents, ditch Joel once and for all, marry (interpret that as literally or as loosely as you want) both Susie and Lenny, and for the three of them to ride off into the sunset to make comedy history. Canon-specific DNWs: anything above M rating, pairing any two as a / couple with the third as a & hanger-on, and while Lenny can still be his RL messed-up, drugged-up self – albeit the gentler version the show gives us – it would be good if he didn’t kick the bucket a handful of years down the line.

Most of these prompts are from before S3 dropped – feel free to work with canon or diverge however you see fit, I am all caught up now:

-Does Susie manage them both? Does Midge open for Lenny on tour? Does he open for her??? Or they become equal stars on the comedy circuit?

-Maybe Lenny joins Shy Baldwin’s tour, or they run into him while touring Europe or the US, or after Shy fires Midge, Midge and Susie cobble together a Midge-only tour of America and keep crossing Lenny’s own touring path, and they all tool around, and yes I would love as much period detail and geography porn as you can throw at me. And while Lenny and Midge have seen the world, Susie hasn’t – her reaction to different foods, languages, customs, landscapes would be spectacular to witness. Especially if “different” is someplace as close to New York as Jersey or Connecticut, or someplace as far away and different as, say, Japan.

-If they do go to Europe, somehow or other they also tour the Soviet Bloc. Cue culture clashes, getting followed (or thinking they’re being followed) by the secret police, getting hammered on vodka and herring and pickles, and then when they get back to the States, the Feds grill them. It’s all dead serious, and Midge and Lenny refuse to take it as seriously as they should, while Susie is trying but the whole thing is really pissing her off…

-Lenny’s burned out, and Midge is just getting started. This dissonance may or may not find some sort of resolution. One thing’s for sure: Susie has limited patience for both Lenny’s depression and Midge’s need to make everything pretty.

-Instead of going to Joel for a no-way-is-that-closure fling after the Steve Allen Show taping, Midge goes to have a drink or seven with the two people who have, in their own ways, always been there for her and never let her down.

-Midge goes on TV again, this time as the star: longer set, prime time slot, dressing room, the works. She’s dying of nerves. Lenny and Susie coach her through it.

-More radio work to make ends meet in between gigs: hilaribad period ads, hilaribad radio drama, running all over town to be on time, getting paid in all kinds of dubious merch…

-Midge and Susie head out west to make it big and stay with Lenny once they’re in Los Angeles, and it’s marvelous (ha ha) and disastrous in equal measure.

-More of Susie being the hypercompetent manager we saw especially in S3! (And please don’t dwell on her gambling problem, I was not a fan.)

-They all three get drunk, maybe with a hint of sadness if it’s the holidays (you can ignore my DNW about holidays, but please let that be just the background, not the lynchpin of the story) or someone’s birthday, and there’s a bar fight, running from the cops, eating greasy food at ass o’clock, and possibly kissing, not necessarily in that order.

-One or two or all three of them get arrested/have court appearances all over America and have to bail each other out, or find someone to bail them all out, or secure legal counsel – you get the drift. Or all three of them are trying to explain to a single lawyer what happened, talking over each other, the two pros not being able to resist landing zingers and Susie not being far behind, and the lawyer just getting more and more confused.

-They get in trouble some other way – offended patrons, surly management, shitty hotels, tour bus breaks down in the middle of Wyoming – and have to have each other’s backs because no one else will.

-Three-person road trip or tour, and only Susie knows how to drive. So Midge decides to learn, right then and there. And Lenny… Lenny may or may not be too lazy/hungover/lying about not knowing how. There’s supposed to be a rotation so everyone gets to stretch out on the back seat for equal lengths of time, but you know the system doesn’t work too well in practice. Also, they play games in the car to while away the time, and they do it their own way of course: I spy, cows on my side, yellow car, never have I ever, 20 questions, or riffing on whatever’s playing on the radio…

-They sit down to watch the moon landing (you can move it up a bit so it’s not happening a whole decade after S2) – by which I mean, Midge is all gung-ho about the moon landing, and Lenny and Susie are like whatever – and things don’t quite go to plan, but a good time is eventually had by all.

-It’s Yom Kippur again, and Midge wants to do the whole production: synagogue, breaking fast, the lot. Lenny and Susie would rather eat glass. Midge gets her way, of course. Does she decide to bring Susie and Lenny home to meet – or meet properly – her parents??? I bet Abe and Rose’s reactions would be something to see. (This too is an exception to my DNW about holiday settings – I just want stuff to get as crazy as it did the two times we saw Yom Kippur celebrated on the show, and for everything to still somehow turn out relatively OK.)

-Midge and Lenny have cheered each other up when the going got extra rough. I want for Susie to be especially down in the dumps – maybe her boozehound of a mother died and Susie took it worse than she does in canon, maybe some asshole told her she’s a shit manager and got her right in her insecurities – and Midge to rope Lenny into trying to cheer her up. And for Susie to fight them every step of the way but still be glad they care enough to try.

-Inspired by Susie’s brother looking just like her, by which I mean she and he and their sister look nothing alike, and by Lenny’s “she’s my mother” quip about Midge at the TV studio and then his “let me introduce my wife or maybe my sister” in Miami – Midge, Susie, and Lenny pretend to all be blood relatives, or mafiosi, or spies, or something else they’re not, while out in public, say in a restaurant. Just to be assholes and see how long they can keep it going before they break character or people figure them out, or call the cops, or something. There’s totally a bet on who corpses and breaks character first. Or, nice hotels ca. 1960 weren’t very big on letting unmarried couples, let alone threesomes stay in rooms together – pretending to be family might make that easier; forgetting what they’re meant to be to each other, or mixing up their backstories might make it harder. Or they’re just trying to save money by only getting one room, there’s only one free room in the hotel, or any other screwball reason you can invent.

-Lenny and Midge do a (comeback) tour of the Borscht Belt, and all the Steiner Mountain Resort guests (especially the gossipy old hens from the beauty salon) and staff go to see them – and heckle.

-Stuff happens and they end up performing at some hole in the wall place where no one knows who they are (or no one believes it’s really those people they’ve seen on TV) – tough crowd, but a good workout for the two comics, and if Susie gets to threaten to rip off someone’s head, all the better.

-Lenny and Midge honing their routines – and maybe developing a double act – and Susie being all “oh my fucking god, what the fuck!!! … They’re actually good. I’m so proud.”

-Sharing a bed with two other people is an ongoing project: who sleeps (or refuses to sleep) in the middle? Who gets up during the night and why? Who starfishes across most of the bed? Who snores, and how does this get handled? If alcohol or pot have happened, how does that affect the sleeping arrangements? Also, Susie and Lenny witness and react to Midge’s beauty routine, ‘nuff said. Or, for various reasons one person after another ends up decamping to another room/bed/couch, but it doesn’t help them get much sleep or even stay there very long (this is inspired by my love of Shirley Jackson and her short story/humorous essay “The Night We All Had Grippe”).

Starred Up (2013 movie)

Oliver Baumer/Eric Love

Yes I do ship it, I do, I do!

Ahem. Don’t get me wrong, I liked what the movie did with the father-son relationship and its influence on both men’s character development – but I really wish they hadn’t got Oliver out of the action before the story’s climax (not like that!). The final denouement with Love father and Love son was great, as was the hint at the end that Eric learned something in anger-management group and has a support network that will help him a lot. But. I would have wanted to see more of the intriguing dynamic between Eric the intelligent, semi-feral, yet not-incorrigible, young thug and Oliver the educated, dedicated, kind yet aware of his own potential for violence (what was he on about with “I need to be here”?), slightly older counselor. They had me at Oliver’s “I want him” and Eric later telling his father that Oliver’s a better man than Love Sr. Also the not-flirting and the push-pull in the scene when Oliver picks up Eric from his cell - yowza!

For this canon, my dubcon DNW does not apply.

Prompts:

-I would love to see Oliver return to holding his group in prison, so the two of them can interact more, either in the movie’s immediate aftermath or years down the line, as it’s implied that Eric will be serving a long sentence. Give me more scenes from anger management or the ribald, honest, free-flowing conversations in group, either with the other men present (I liked Hassan and Tyrone especially, among the group members) or a one-on-one session.

-An oblique or open-but-undramatic admission/declaration that they both know there’s something there, even if they don’t know what to do with it. Or, one or both of them knows exactly what to do with it, and the push-pull that would result from that.

-Dirty talk: used for arousal, as a defense mechanism, as a form of flirtation. Eric using slurs to assert dominance, and Oliver not letting him hide behind profanity, when he can use colorful language to express emotion and/or sexual interest. There could definitely be some verbal taunting/flirting about who wants/is eager to do what or is good at doing something. There may be some sniping comments about logistics and (lack of) condoms and barebacking and what men get up to in prison. There probably wouldn’t be deep discussions about sexual identity.

-An emergency in the prison requires a lock-down, so Oliver gets temporarily stuck in Eric’s cell or another room with only Eric for company. Things get porny and/or emotional.

-Eric is eventually released (you can handwave this so it happens soon after the movie or have it happen years later) and crashes with Oliver while he adjusts to the outside world. You guessed it: things get porny and/or emotional.

-How do they get to the point where both can cross that line from friends/whatever the hell they are and become, to lovers? (There’s Eric’s personal history and general discomfort with vulnerability, plus all the ways prison sex can be or make things complicated, and if it helps, I headcanon Oliver as either gay or bi and at least somewhat closeted, at work especially.) Who initiates and “directs traffic”? How does their always-contentious dynamic shift during and after sex? Is the sex an isolated (series of) occasion(s), or a progression/escalation over multiple encounters (how would I love especially an escalating series of encounters, let me count the ways)? Eric might seem like the logical initiator and/or dominant partner as well as using the possibility of sex to manipulate and exert control, but then Oliver might (or might not!) surprise him and is definitely the one more in touch with himself as well as aware of his custodial duty toward the men in the group.

-At some point in their intimate relationship (probably not right at the start, and probably not in prison, though if you can make it happen in prison, more power to you!), Oliver decides he’s going to take his sweet time and make Eric fall absolutely apart with pleasure, while using dirty talk to both arouse and empower Eric to own his desires – by that point, Eric is in a place where he can let that happen and enjoy it, even if he still talks tough.

-Role reversal: Oliver as the con (jittery, shut off, sticking out like a sore thumb in prison with all his fancy learning, yet no pushover) and Eric as the newbie counselor (kid from the wrong side of the tracks made good? Youthful hoodlum turned around his life, now trying to help others via tough love and lots of swearing and maybe a bit of manipulation when called for?)

Witchblade (TV) Sara Pezzini/Danny Woo

I used to love this show back in the day, and loved it again in all its hokey gloriousness when I rewatched it recently. Sara figuring things out and being a principled badass, but maybe out of her depth with the Witchblade, and her dynamic with Danny, whether he's a ghost or alive, it’s all catnip to me. Sara is not extremely quippy, she has a job to do dammit! and don’t look at her vulnerable side, just don’t look at it!, and I love that about her (she’s much harsher in S1, after Danny’s death, than in S2); ditto that Danny is somewhat softer than she is, but still can hold his own thanksverymuch (well, when the plot doesn’t require him to get nabbed by bad guys) and has a bit of a deadpan snarker side too. I’d love something that plays around with their canon dynamic from either season, or uses canon as just a starting point. Some of my prompts lean dark or horror-y, so don’t be shy about going there; I’d also enjoy a story in which the Witchblade itself ends up not being very significant (say, they start to investigate a possibly mystical case and then nope, plain murder). Canon-specific DNW: Irons and any version of Nottingham appearing (you can mention them if you need to).

Prompts:

-The Witchblade is more parasitic than symbiotic, and instead of Sara learning to control it, its feeding on Sara affects her more and more over time. Or, the visions and dreams ramp up into full-blown paranoia and/or disassociation. The Witchblade's POV, maybe (it is sentient)? Asking for help is the hardest thing for someone like Sara, but what are (more than) friends for? I’d also enjoy a dubcon scenario (exception to blanket DNW) where Sara really shouldn’t be having sex when her head is all messed up by the Witchblade’s influence, but... well... they do. The Witchblade canonically enjoys violence and bloodshed perpetrated by its wearers, so it stands to reason that it might lower other inhibitions too.

-Witchblade v. mythological monsters. In S1, even with everything else that's going on, Sara absolutely scoffs at the possibility of vampires. So of course I want: Witchblade v. vampires! The scarier and more feral, the better. Or, it's implied that the Witchblade was forged from a meteorite, so it's basically an eldritch artefact from outer space. Yes, please lean all the way into the Lovecraftian tropes! (The moon is turning red, the Old Ones are back, it’s the end of the world as we know it, but Sara’s got her partner by her side.) Or something from Chinese mythology, so Danny can kick extra ass. Or, for a silly take on Chinese culture: Sara and Danny in the world of Big Trouble in Little China, another old fave of mine, the entire plot of which revolves around… a woman with green eyes and an unwanted connection to the supernatural.

-The Witchblade has a reputation for abandoning its wearers just when they need it the most. True to form, it slips off of Sara’s fist, leaving her and Danny to save themselves with good old-fashioned guns, fisticuffs, martial arts, and of course having each other’s back.

-More of the psychedelic-ness in many of Sara’s fight scenes, where now she’s a woman in a leather jacket with a gauntlet on her arm, now she’s a knight in armor! Now her opponent is human, now he’s a wolf-shaped spirit of evil and hatred! Playing around with the characters’ senses and perceptions – yes!

-Instead of seeing only Danny and needing him to play intermediary for Sara to talk to other ghosts, the Witchblade makes Sara see ghosts all over the place, and it's getting to her. Ghost!Danny may or may not help with that. Or, ghost!Danny is basically always around, whether Sara can see him or not. He manifests when Sara is masturbating, and you can't really feel guilty if the ghost of your dead partner whom you’ve always had a thing for helps you out, and anyway you’re probably going crazy and none of this is real, so it doesn’t count anyway... right?

-Case fic/stakeouts and banter. Flirting to pass the long and stressful days at work. Quick and guilty sex because Danny's married. Slow and intense sex if handwave he's not married but “oh noes we’re partners, we shouldn’t be doing this, but somehow we keep doing it anyway.” Hooking up in the car. I've always headcanoned that they had a thing pre-canon which ended for Reasons, but they both kinda wish it hadn't, hence the hand kissing, and the “I can’t even touch you,” and the coffee bringing/stealing, etc. So feel free to play around with that.

-Undercover as married, undercover as a gangster and his moll (LOL at Sara as a moll, or have Sara as the gangster and Danny as her lieutenant/enforcer/arm candy), undercover as “they think we’re fucking, better fake it real good for the people listening in, oops shit got real fast, careful don’t say each other’s real name or you’ll blow your cover.”

-More timey-wimey shenanigans with the Witchblade. Maybe it allows Sara to manipulate time more than once. Maybe she starts doing it way too often, throwing the continuum out of whack (something non-linear would be very interesting). Maybe she and/or Danny remember some or all of what happened in S1. Something about all the multiverse versions of them, possibly splitting off from a dramatic moment. Time loops and feelings are a combustible mix.

-Apart from the super obvious shippiness, what I like about S1 especially is how Sara rolls with the weirdness the Witchblade has brought into her life, instead of reaching for rational explanations. More of that (I can't think of a better way to put it), and double extra brownie points if alive!Danny figures out at least some of what's going on with Sara's bracelet and somehow gets in on the action. Maybe a Danny saves the day divergence? Or how about a loophole that allows a man close to the Witchblade's wearer to wield it temporarily, but There Is a Price to Pay.

킹덤 Kingdom (Netflix)

Prince Lee Chang/Seo-bi

I fell so hard for this show. So hard! The beautiful production values, the wonderful cast, how the characters develop, how the show slowly but surely unfolds one reveal after another and packs so much into two short seasons, all the period detail, the genuinely tense action scenes, the moments of humor and intense emotion, the intertwining of political intrigue and zomg! really scary zombies, how the zombie outbreak works on multiple levels both literal and metaphorical…

I love the brave, kind-hearted, but sheltered prince, whose whole life has been so privileged yet shadowed by the possibility of death if he loses his position as heir, learning what it means to actually rule and lead people, to protect them and be protected by them in turn. And I love Seo-bi the fearless, dedicated, selfless physician, who notices things and figures things out regardless of whether this annoys the people in power. I love how instantly and fiercely loyal she is to him (not just because he’s the crown prince, but because she’s seen how brave and altruistic he can be) and how he immediately takes her advice and experience seriously despite her being a woman and a commoner in this super-hierarchical setting. Also, I love most of the cast (not a huge fan of Chancellor Cho, but he is an effective antagonist), and would be delighted to see any of them in fic too. Especially the loyal and funny and badass Mu-yeong (he was loyal, despite the Haewon Cho clan’s blackmail, and if you want to diverge from canon so he lives, I would not mind that at all), the even more badass and wounded and snarky Yeong-sin (or is that “Yeong-sin”???), Chang’s sparky, exiled uncle several times removed, and the terrifying and frankly unhinged young queen are my favorites. I even have a soft spot for that mostly-useless coward Cho Beom-pal, but really, they’re all great and I would love reading about them too, or just about the prince and the lady physician – whatever works!

Finally, before I get to prompts, I know a bit about the Joseon period, but we’re talking the bits and pieces I remember from a college class, and what I’ve read on Wikipedia and picked up from this and other Korean movies and shows. I know a bit more about some of the cultural background, like the Confucian values, the social stratification and feudal system, the gender segregation among the aristocracy, the wars with Japan, but again – my knowledge is limited. So if you want to teach me stuff about Joseon, go for it! If you want to invent or handwave stuff, as long as it fits the canon’s mood and broad cultural parameters, go for it! And if you want to treat me to some worldbuilding, period detail of any kind, and/or costume porn, definitely go for it. Canon-specific DNW: anything above M rating for sex (violence is fine).

Prompts:

Zombie fighting anything! Learning to survive in a society that’s rapidly breaking down, having to transcend their habitual social roles and challenging each other, anything! Maybe one of them teaches the other to hunt, or to make herbal medicines, or to fight with a sword, or heck, to cook or clean dirty clothes. (FYI I wrote most of these prompts before I was quite done with S2, and the time-skip took me totally by surprise. So while my prompts ignore Chang renouncing the throne, I’d also be down for the untold adventures of the former prince and his traveling companions, as Chang learns how to be just regular folks and they pursue clues about the resurrection flower, or for your take on what happens in S3. Use whatever works for you in my prompts in any way you want!)

Figuring out how the zombie infection continues to evolve and/or working together to find a cure beyond dunking the infected in water – whether that means to destroy large numbers of the undead, or to develop an antidote, or to cure and bring back those afflicted. One plot detail that really struck me: more experimenting with zombies, like Chancellor Cho started to do, might also hold the key to a cure?

Political intrigue anything! Having to fight zombies and/or factions at court with both friends and unexpected allies (not gonna lie, I would have loved to have seen the young queen unleashed on some zombies, even if that did not make her the prince and Seo-bi’s ally).

More road trip/survival/battle goodness – maybe Seo-bi offers Lee Chang some advice while they’re navigating their new situation, or she witnesses him developing his leadership muscles, and it brings them closer together than before. Or maybe a moment of humor, relaxation, or quiet affection on the road or in between zombie-slaying, especially if it catches them both a bit by surprise. Or one of them gets a non-zombifying injury (nothing too gruesome or life-threatening, please!) and the other one has to care for them – extra points if Seo-bi is injured and the prince kind of bumbles through the most basic things so she has to talk him through her own treatment. Or nightmares/being triggered by something, like we saw both Chang and Seo-bi react at the sounds of zombies growling and people screaming in S2E5.

We have seen Seo-bi insist on staying loyal to the prince, and Lee Chang rely on her repeatedly to the exclusion of all his other people – give me a situation in which he has to make clear his own loyalty to her, as a part of both his becoming a better leader and as a step in advancing their relationship. Or, there comes a time when Seo-bi really pushes against the rules of what someone like she can and cannot say or do to/around a crown prince – we’ve seen Lee Chang refuse to stand on his dignity to the point where so many of his interactions with commoners would end in the commoners’ death, but I imagine even he has his limits, and that kind of clash can only drive this dynamic forward!

Canon divergence in which Seo-bi gets sent to the capital and assigned to be the personal physician to the petulant, frustrated prince we meet at the start of the show (handwave the gender segregation and impropriety). She knows her place, but she also does not suffer fools or male nonsense. Sparks fly, social conventions get tested, zombies may or may not happen, and a new mutual understanding is born.

Canon divergence from the scene in S2E2 when Seo-bi finagles her way to being allowed to see the prince and he instructs her to resurrect Ahn Hyeon – what if instead of that, they came up with another plan of escape? Or maybe Lee Chang sending Seo-bi to spy on the queen goes a different way than in canon? And really, anything that requires those two to pass secret messages while grabbing each other’s hands and staring intently into each other’s eyes is A++ with me!

One theme which emerges gradually, and I really loved, is people having to compromise their principles to survive and ensure the safety of those they feel loyal and/or obliged to: Ahn Hyeon agreeing to turn the sick villagers into zombies, dear Mu-yeong having been a spy but also protecting the prince all along, Seo-bi resurrecting Ahn Hyeon, Lee Chang instructing her to do it as well as his thousand-yard-stare after having to finish off what’s left of his father… I’d love to see more such compromises, how their consequences ripple out, and the emotional fallout.

In addition to zombies, other magical and/or supernatural events and creatures start to appear in Joseon. If you want to bring in something from Buddhist mythology or Korean folklore, please do, and any and all worldbuilding would be awesome.

Post-canon something in which Lee Chang is king, possibly of only a part of the country (maybe a zombie-free enclave, or a part he won in a civil war against the Cho clan or a cadet branch of his family), and Seo-bi is there as his advisor, physician, and unofficial chancellor. Gimme policymaking to deal with the lingering zombie issue, and assassination plots, and servants/guards/ladies in waiting gossiping like it’s their real job, and all the palace intrigue!

Kind of related to the previous: even as a “spare” prince, Lee Chang can’t marry a commoner. Would he ever think to offer Seo-bi to become his concubine? I don’t think she’d go for it, and he might realize it, but maybe I’m wrong! Or maybe being intensely platonic/sublimating at each other is as good as it gets for them, and they’re kind of okay with that. Or they get married in secret and have to be very careful not to let slip anything by word on gesture in public, or not to let Seo-bi get pregnant. Or, y’know, one day or night on the road or in a fortified town, in between scavenging for supplies and fighting zombies, they decide to bone just because their lives are weird enough now to forget about propriety and all that jazz for an hour.

Role reversal: Seo-bi is the sheltered, willful princess fearful for her position (especially since she’s a woman as well as the daughter of a concubine only) and Lee Chang is the proper yet willful provincial physician. Do they meet as in canon, or under different circumstances (maybe she must flee the court to escape assassins, accusations of treason, or an arranged marriage, with or without bonus zombies)? How would their dynamic be complicated (and made awesome of course!) by the gender reversal? Also, burning question: does Princess Seo-bi already know how to fight (because she forced Mu-yeong to teach her back at court, of course), or does she have to learn once zombies/brigands/insurrection/whatever happen? And does Physician Lee Chang know one end of a musket or sword from another, or does he need rescuing at some point?

I realize that some of these prompts could work as well (better?) as a no-zombies AU, and that’s fine if you want to take it in that direction. Just so we’re clear. :-)

Likes:

I love pre-canon, canon, post-canon, canon-divergent, and missing-scene stories. I love character-driven and plot-driven stories equally, and I love fics which mix humor and angst/serious business when appropriate for the canon.

I love stories about characters at work and play, group dynamics, family dynamics (including constructed families), professional partnerships, friendships, alliances, rivalries, intimate couples (new lovers/first times as well as long-term/established couples), UST-ridden couples who are not just UST-ridden but connected in other ways too, etc.

I love irony, snark, humor as well as angst arising from the characters rather than the plot crowbaring it in, linear, non-linear, and 5+1 stories, hopeful endings, happy endings, bittersweet endings, worldbuilding, competence, spiky characters who keep their jagged edges and spikiness in adversity as well as when their lives are going well, square-peg-in-round-hole characters, characters who are their own worst enemies as well as those who can get over themselves when the occasion calls for it, characters with conflicting values which may or may not be reconciled/resolved, characters who treat each other with respect and as equals even if they hate/annoy/can’t stand/love to dislike each other.

I especially love workplace stories (this can mean anything from an actual workplace/casefic/procedural setting to anything that revolves around the canon world in which the characters live) in which the characters are competent and dedicated to the job, and while they may not be exactly friends and they may well irritate one another, they still manage to rub along to get the job done and maybe even grow to care about one another (much to their surprise and sometimes reluctance/discomfort). Or, if they can’t get along, show me why not and what’s preventing them from finding common ground.

In terms of ship dynamics, I love (where it fits the characters) banter, competitiveness or antagonism shading into attraction (this tension need not be resolved), oh-god-why-did-it-have-to-be-you-what-did-I-do-to-deserve-this, bickering yet loving couples, characters who are serious about their romantic interests, characters who think they are much better at flirtation than they actually are, characters forced to work together only to prove much more compatible than they initially assumed, fics which mix an exploration of characters’ professional and everyday lives with shipping. A dynamic I cannot resist is shipping a couple who are incompatible in some important way (they are ideological enemies, cop and criminal, spies from opposite sides, one betrayed the other or they betrayed each other), and while they love and want each other they’re also not willing to change sides or surrender/compromise their identity for the other’s benefit, and how they might (or not) make their relationship work anyway.

I don’t have any very specific likes for smut, other than smut fitting the characters – show me how their canon dynamics spill over into the bedroom (or other place of congress). I also like sexual scenarios that subvert expectations a little and surprise the characters themselves (e.g., the person who’s usually quiet or more passive taking charge, the more aggressive person goes with it possibly snarking or commenting on it as long as they can). And I like sexual scenarios that contain an element of competition, antagonism, oh-god-this-is-a-bad-idea-but-we’re-going-for-it-hammer-and-tongs, not wanting to admit feelings or show vulnerability except oops it happens anyway, whether the characters acknowledge it or not, or just people getting way more into it or being more affected by it than they thought they would. When it fits the characters and their canon dynamic, you also can’t go wrong with we-both-wanted-this-for-forever-and-now-we-both-know-it-so-here-we-go-diving-in-headfirst. For het and/or slash, oral, vaginal, anal incl. pegging, manual (ifyouknowwhatImean) – it’s all good. You can go as veiled or as explicit as you like, but please avoid excessive medical jargon – I don’t find a lot of mention of “penis” or “clit” sexy.

DNWs:

MPREG, A/B/O, knotting, D/s, kinks, incest, underage, genderswap/genderbent characters, xeno, non-/dub-con, torture and abuse (this and non-/dub-con can be mentioned if the story needs it, but please don’t dwell on it in loving detail or subject any of my requested characters to it), dwelling on bodily fluids (mentions of gore/blood and come are fine), toilet humor, character bashing, issuefic, gender/sexuality/race/ethnicity/religion/ability/identity headcanons, unrequested ships, soulmates and soul marks, major character death (meaning my requested characters being or staying dead by story’s end - Laura Moon can remain undead), serious illness or injury, pregnancy and children, holiday or wedding setting/theme, secondary characters shipping the main pair like it’s their job, reference to RL current events, 1st/2nd person POV, unrequested crossovers or fusions, AUs which have nothing to do with canon

#dear author letter #rare pairs 2020

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