#it's because we write things where we care about the source material

[zolo-san]

I know I just rambled in the tag, but if you took the time to read all that, might I direct you to this post & my ramblings there as well~

Something about Zoro being one of the most misunderstood and mischaracterized characters in One Piece is funny (not haha funny, funny sad) to me because?? That’s literally how his introduction starts?? With people misunderstanding him and thinking he’s some big, monstrous demon who kills with cause and cannot be trusted or tamed.

Meanwhile the actual Zoro is a driven guy who is often both literally and figuratively directionless in life and found his goals in life through good people (first Kuina and then Luffy). He's tied up in the Marine base not due to those actual crimes he commuted (well not inherently anyway) but because he ‘disrespected’ a Captain's son and stood up for a little girl. He accepts the challenge they present to him and because Zoro himself is a guy that puts his money where his mouth is he assumes the Marines will uphold their end of the deal and let him go (note the actual shock when Koby tells him the truth)

He joins Luffy's crew but also outright says he’s not gonna let his goal take second place to Luffy or anyone else's for that matter, he bears the weight of two people's dreams, his heart isn’t going to be swayed by some pirate.

Speaking of Kuina, her impact and influence on Zoro's life isn’t talked about enough for my liking. She was Zoro's first friend, his first rival, his first goal. He looked up to her so much and his reaction to her passing cracks my heart in half every time because you can seem him just..go numb. Kuina, dead? Kuina, the strongest person he knows, gone? Kuina, who swore to him just yesterday they���d race to the top of the world together, doesn’t exist anymore. His blank face only cracking within the privacy of his sensei before he begs. He begs on his knees, tears streaming down his face please please please let me take Kuina's sword with me. Let me take our dream to a high neither of us could imagine. I won’t let her name die here.

On top of gaining the Wado Ichimonji that day Zoro also gained…fear. Not of death, well at the very least not his own, he gained his fear of not being enough. Kuina kicked his ass every way a person could and still died, what could someone like him do? So he trains…and trains…and trains some more. Overly, obsessively, constantly telling himself he’s not enough, he’s weak, he can’t protect anyone like this and everyone's death would be on him.

As for Zoro being cold and stoic that’s just…not completely true? He’s not stone, he can be excited or sad or angry just as much as most characters he just sucks at showing it canonically (Kuina thinks he hates her before their final fight after all). Sure he’s not as forthcoming about it as some of the other Strawhats but Zoro's more of an action guy anyway, he'll show his love with his protection and unwavering faith.

In conclusion, Zoro is a ridiculously stubborn, incredibly loyal, mildly emotionally constipated, do what you say/say what you mean kinda guy.

(Also that whole ‘Zoro would kill the whole crew if Luffy asked him to’ thing? Top ten stupidest things I’ve ever heard from the fandom and that’s saying a lot. He’s loyal not brainless and heartless guys if Luffy asked him to do that, he would never but I digress, Zoro would square the fuck up with him so fast. DPMO.)

[manytoonepoet]

I can't keep silent any longer: Shipping, having headcanons, and having your own interpretations about a character is absolutely alright... so long as it doesn't compromise the true essence of a character. If not, you are creating a new character of your own, much like how Disney is remaking its classics with, more often than not, unnecessary and unwanted changes that disrespect the original intent of the source material.

To be fair, there's certainly nothing wrong with shipping characters; it's fun. I ship characters myself. But what ticks me off is when they're too blinded by their own delusions and headcanons for this ship that that is the only thing they focus on instead of the incredible story this character has been given by the writers. Shipping is good; mischaracterizing characters for fun is not. That is where I'm throwing hands. And this applies to both Aventurine and Veritas as well. Aventurine is NOT the submissive bottom gae man who's extremely helpless and dependent in your ships. And, no, Veritas is NOT the big boy dominant daddy or whatever the heck that is in your ships. (I'm aware that they're not the only case, but given that I'm within the HSR fandom, I believe this is the best example I can go with as of now.) Every single turn, I see posts saying, "Aventurine is soo gae, man." "He's gae for Ratio, and he's not even hiding it." "He's gae and a masochist," and it is incredibly frustrating because Aventurine's character is so much more than being the submissive gae man for their ships. And what's worse is that whenever they get called out or reprimanded by it, they begin throwing slurs and labels all around like they own it. (Yes, I've indeed blocked all of the accounts with the posts I see that I don't like, but there's only so much that blocking can do.)

I've not been in this fandom for long, but I can tell that the majority of its people only care about which ship is better and who's gay and whatnot. For once, can we just enjoy and learn about a character instead of focusing on who's gay for whom and who's not? The writers certainly did not spend their time painstakingly writing stories for these characters only for them to be thrown out to the wind like it's nothing just because they're too focused on their sexuality.

And must we forget what Aventurine has to go through?

(I found both of these on Pinterest, credits to the original owner of these posts.)

These are only a few examples of what he had to go through. This is barely scraping the surface of what he had gone through, yet a lot of people only care about his sexuality, whom he could be gae for, how good he could be in bed, and so on and so forth. But what about his resilience? His perseverance? His bravery? His intelligence? His thought process? His strategy? Time and time again, he loses a part of himself, yet he continuously picks himself up even if he is ripping at the seams, even if he doesn't have the will to live. He lost his family, his friends, his home, his kind, the light in his eyes, the ability to see himself as anything more than a product, a weapon, the ability to believe he is deserving of love, companionship, the ability to believe he is worth more than those 60 Tanba, and many more. Aventurine should be a source of inspiration for us, not this; this is too much. And if one continues to view Aventurine, Kakavasha, as such, then I must tell you this: You are no better than his abusers, assaulters, the IPC.

[lonelyroommp3]

like sorry to be A Cunt but you can almost always tell when a singular f/f fic, or even more egregiously a popular f/f ship within a given fandom, exists primarily or even solely because of dutyfic/eat your vegetables reasons. it will be extremely obvious because of one or more of the following issues

often, it will be (subtype 1) two girls/women who scarcely or never interact, and have just been thrown together because they are The Two Most Prominent Women in a given work

sometimes it will be (subtype 2) two women who interact and may even have a compelling dynamic in canon. if you are unfamiliar with the source material you will be completely unable to tell whether a given f/f ship is subtype 1 or subtype 2 because either way they will almost invariably be written with absolutely no in universe justification for why they are together besides the looming doylist shadow of "well, they're lesbians!"

their personalities will be sanded down to the point of unrecognisability beyond vague archetypes such as "girlboss" or "soft girl" or "girl who is mean because she is in love"; any conflict faced within the story will be no more significant or high stakes than what you might find in a middling hallmark christmas movie

they usually exist as B ships in an m/m fic, with the primary purpose of acting as cute perfectly functional foils to the men who are allowed to have real conflict and problems. they will frequently be called upon in this capacity to give the men advice

when an f/f ship does get to be the primary dynamic, or even satisfy the otp: true filter on ao3, you are struck with the unshakeable impression that they would much rather be in the background of an m/m fic helping two guys get their shit together, sort of like watching a semiaquatic mammal try to gracelessly make its way across dry land

Q: but shouldn't we show this kind of bad writing more grace? after all, somebody might start out writing terrible bland eat your vegetables f/f but come to actually care about women in the process and end up writing better and less covertly misogynistic fanfiction. this is such a nice and charitable thought but i fear that this quite simply does not happen anywhere near as much as we might hope because the dutyfic f/f ship process inspires absolutely zero introspection on the part of its authors and readers

Q: most m/m fic is also based on bland archetypes that show no resemblance to canon, why aren't you complaining about that? first of all i love complaining about bad flanderised m/m fic too. secondly, people do not typically view writing or engaging with bad m/m fic as proof of your inherent moral virtue, unless it is being set up in a ship war against what many regard as fandom's ultimate evil, the het ship. but that is a conundrum for another post

Q: what happened to the "do it bad" philosophy? why can't we just let people write terrible fanfictions? well once again my issue is not people writing terrible fanfictions, it is that writing this specific type of terrible fanfiction is viewed as a moral duty, and any suggestion that you don't particularly care for a badly done f/f ship even for perfectly valid reasons is deemed tantamount to proclaiming that you are a raging misogynist, which leaves fandom trapped in a vicious cycle where we will never move past bland poorly written f/f ships because just writing an f/f ship, however terribly, however much actual misogyny and inability to view women as three dimensional beings capable of conflict and nastiness and horniness and whatever else may be baked into the fanon for a given ship, is viewed as the most progressive thing you can do in fandom

[ajastu]

god okay. sorry for yet another text post. but i'm just still thinking about the argument that veilguard is bad because the only option re: morality of your player character that it gives is kindness.

Now, to preface. I understand where this criticism comes from. Veilguard IS a departure from the general scheme of the previous games, in several aspects. And i understand how people would be upset at not having quite the same kind of options/ways to influence the world. It took me some getting used to, also.

What i do disagree with, however, is using that to claim that the game is bad, irredeemable, and also meaningless n soft or whatever.

Because it's really not. It's just different, with a different narrative focus. I've played the previous games several times, and as i said before, origins is in first place for me. Veilguard is a very close second. And i'm not more right or wrong in this opinion than someone who thinks datv is the worst game in the series.

You can still make choices that will influence the world in wildly different ways, they're just not... ''genocide or no genocide'' kinds of choices. Which i can see how some people would not consider the difference significant enough to be interesting for them personally. Which is whatever, im not their dad, i dont really care.

However. I think it's kind of weird to say that ''the game made me resent being a nice person'' or that "kindness you dont have the choice not to offer isnt worth a lot"

Like, game criticism aside. That is just an objectively weird thing to say.

There are ways to phrase that particular dissatisfaction in a way that will not make most people side-eye you. This is not one of those ways.

The thing is, it was a deliberate choice in characterization. Since game development at AAA scale is. an incredibly complex beast, i suspect there were many different reasons for it, and not all of them purely narrative. It is also not 2009 anymore. We are not getting another Origins, like, probably ever.

But. Rook is established in the very second cutscene to care about other people. It makes sense narratively, too, with Varric being the one to recruit them. Their backstory also shows that they gravitate towards the 'moral' choices. It's not bad writing. It's deliberate.

That does not mean that everyone has to like it. And i don't think the people who are upset about the change in this gameplay aspect are stupid or wrong.

We are all different people with different preferences, and i really am sorry if the game ended up being a disappointment for you. I know how it feels, and it does suck.

But i also do think it might be worth to examine the way people choose to phrase this complaining. The claim that kindness is somehow diminished in value if you aren't offered the choice to be cruel alongside it. I just think that, like. misses the point of what kindness is?

I know what those people mean when they say it, i just...fundamentally disagree with the sentiment. And i think phrasing it in this way is incredibly weird. sorry 🤷‍♂️

There is a better way to talk about this particular complaint. I just never actually SEE that being done. and i do think a lot of it comes from not actually engaging with the source material people are trying to criticize. Like, the person i sort of quoted earlier explicitly said they have not finished the game. If you never give something a chance in the first place, if all the information you have is second-hand, then i do not find your criticism valuable in any way. There is no substance to it, no backing. You are not proving a point, you're just chasing your own tail at that point. There isnt even a bone to chew. You've only heard of the bone. you havent actually experienced it.

Another part is people being too twisted up in the emotion of disappointment to actually see that they're not making compelling arguments, necessarily, and that they're actually being a tar pit.

I know not everyone thinks as much about the push towards dismissing the value of kindness for kindness' sake as i do. But like. It really is very weird to see this insistence that game bad bcs it didnt have the option to do a murder to an innocent person, or something. While also dismissing the horrible things we Are shown as 'not in your face enough'.

And honestly, personally? I dont love origins or any of the other ones specifically for the ability to choose the evil options. It's never even been a choice for me, because you can very well play the games without having to make the bad choices. theres always a workaround. And that workaround doesnt even harm u in any significant way. there isnt an actual like. terrible complexity here. I enjoy the dwarf politics quest a lot but ultimately, knowing the outcome? its EASY to choose Bhelen. Unless you're playing a dwarf noble origin, i guess. Rip Harrowmont 🙏 you would have made a terrible king.

And again, my personal opinion is not more right or wrong than that of someone who adored the prev dragon age games exactly because they allow you to make some terrible terrible moral choices.

At the end of the day. why are people still so pissed about a game that came out almost 6 months ago that many of them havent even played in the first place? Relax. take a walk if you can. Maybe move a snail out of the road if you find one. There tends to be a lot of them after it rains. Think about the ones that didn't make it. Try to find compassion for lives so easily dismissed. Maybe that will make you think about whether or not kindness on its own really is so lacking in value.

[monimccoythings]

The Beast Within

Sooo I was trying to write a feral!Logan but this oneshot crossed my mind and I just went along with it. I'll write the feral!logan I want to write when I finish the Wolverine's 1988 run. I think I remember mentioning back in my Retired!Logan headcanons that shall danger come for his family he would be ready and waiting. I wanted to dwell on that.

Summary: You awake only to find yourself and your daughters tied up by some unknown men that wnat to roleplay their wildest and scariest fantasies. Your only hope to survive lies on your husband; a man that gang would soon know they shouldn't have messed with.

Word count: 3087

tags: slight feral!logan, a bit of horror, gn!reader, happy ending, Logan loves his family and will kill for them. A bit ooc Wolverine.

tw: blood, death, attempted rape, non-con elements, kidnapping, swear words.

It had all happened so quickly. One moment you were entering your home with your daughters in tow, and the next, you were being knocked out by some masked men.

When you opened your eyes, you found yourself unable to move, having been tied to a chair, the cords against your wrists and ankles cutting into your blood flow. Yet you didn't fear for your life.

Desperately you looked around for Laura and your youngest child. Silently praying those assholes hadn't reached them. You nearly bursted into tears when you saw Laura tied to the couch, still knocked out like a light, but fine nevertheless; but that relief was short lived when you saw one of the men holding your youngest in his arms.

"Well, look who's finally up! I'm so glad you could join us."

You mentally counted them, There were about five burly men. All masked, to conceal their identities. A shiver ran down your spine when you saw they were all armed.

"Why are you doing this? What do you want?" Your mind went overdrive with the amount of possibilities. Where they from an anti mutant group? Have you been found out?? Logan had made sure your tracks were covered so nobody would know who and what he and the children were. Where they robbers, then?

"Hmm why would people do what they do?" The supposed leader of the group dramatically pondered. "Us humans always worry about norms, etiquette, social behavior, we repress ourselves..." you let the man rant about how our real animal natures were suppressed by society, you didn't care too much for that, too busy finding different ways to free yourself and save your kids.

"So, to answer your question. We do this for fun. Because we can. Because we aren't afraid to show who we really are." You felt the blood in your veins freeze when you felt the disgusting hand come near your crotch. These people were insane. If they were just robbers, you could just let them take whatever they wanted and wait until they left. Material things could be replaced, but his words implied something much much worse for you.

"Please, just take what you want and leave!" You knew you had to do something, anything just to keep those men away from your babies, just buy enough time for Logan to-

Logan! Yes, he would sense something was wrong, and come for you all! You just-

The man licked a long streak from your collarbone to your cheek, his hungry depraved eyes mirroring those of his accomplices.

"Oh, we are going to take it indeed." He licked his lips in anticipation, his fingers lazily undoing the buttons of your shirt. You felt the cold air in your exposed skin.

"Listen. My husband will come soon. You need to leave now that you can-"

He forcefully grabbed your chin, forcing you to look into his empty cold eyes. You didn't find any source of empathy or humanity there. His free hand started to unbutton your jeans.

"Then, he can watch."

The lights went out after that, startling the man and his crew. Some let out a few curses.

"Shut the fuck up! It's just the fucking lights!" The man bellowed towards the rest of the group. He signaled with his head towards the most dimwitted looking member. "Beta! Go check the fuse box!"

The man obediently complied with his orders. The fact that you could barely see, didn't do well for your nerves. They could strike any moment.

Minutes passed and the dude nicknamed 'Beta' hadn't returned. Which was weird, because the fusebox was in a small broom closet at the other end of the cabin, and the cabin wasn't really Charles Xavier's Mansion. You could tell that the man giving the orders was already starting to lose his patience.

"Dumb fuck, can't do shit by himself..." He mumbled. "Gamma! Go tell that stupid bitch to hurry the fuck up!" He turned towards you a terrifying smile on his face "I just can't wait to see the look in your eyes when we break you and the kids."

That was enough for you to lunge towards him, parental instincts activating like crazy. Unfortunately there was little you could do with your limited mobility. He grabbed a fistful of your hair and pulled painfully, you felt tears burning at the corner of your eyes but you refused to give him the pleasure of watching you cry.

"Listen here you little slut. Only I get to bite, only I get to kick, and when I'm done with you l, you'll be-"

"Alpha, he ain't here!" 'Gamma''s voice could be heard from the hall. That only fueled 'Alpha's' impatience.

"I ask him a simple task and he fucking gets lost! Look better or none of you are having a piece of this whore!!"

His eyes turned back to yours. A hungry, wicked look crossed them. His mouth went towards your neck, as much as you tried to resist you couldn't pull away from his strong hold in your hair. You let out a scream when he bit you, praying that he hadn't bitten hard enough to draw blood, but that only seemed to encourage him, just as his tongues was lapping at the bruising bitemark you heard someone scream from the end of the hall.

"OH FUCKING SHIT!!"

*bang*

*bang*

And then nothing. That seemed to alert the group, the leader, Alpha, immediately pulling away and releasing you from his vice grip.

"The fuck was that!?" He commanded "Beta! Gamma! Answer now!"

No answer.

With your heart in your throat you quickly took deep breaths, trying to recover a sense of calmness and normalcy that you knew was long lost. But you had to. Your kids were still unconscious you needed to protect them.

"Sigma. Get out and secure the perimeter."

'Sigma' didn't look very convinced but as long as he released your little baby girl everything would be fine. You could practically feel the hesitation in him as he lowered your daughter onto the nearest armchair and quietly exited the living room, gun in hand.

"Whatever the fuck is trying to screw with us, is going to learn this 'pack' doesn't go down easily."

Minutes passed of eery silence, each minute felt like agonizing hours. You thought it would never end until you heard a blood curling scream followed by the sound of glass breaking and something splattering against the walls.

That's when you heard it. An animalistic snarl. It was faint, but it was definitely there and filled your heart with hope like no other. This time you were surely going to cry from joy.

He had arrived.

You were saved.

Tears fell freely down your cheeks, you couldn't help the broad smile that formed in your features.

"Oh God he's here. He's here..." You repeated over and over like a mantra, as if you couldn't quite believe it.

"The fuck is this bitch talking about??" He backhanded you so roughly that you thought you saw stars, the sharp pain in your cheek was nothing compared to the huge relief you were feeling.

'Alpha' turned towards the last remaining member of his 'pack'. "What are you waiting for, dumbass?? Lock the fucking doors!"

The other guy didn't move for a few seconds, obviously scared at this dramatic turn of events. The tension between him and the leader was so thick you could cut it with a knife. You were sure he was wondering why he should risk his life for a plan that was going awry with each passing second. Maybe he was also considering shooting down 'Alpha' and be done with it.

Before he has time to live up that fantasy, he found himself looking straight at the end of 'Alpha's' Magnum. This was no longer a fun game for them. It had stopped being a game when 'Beta' hadn't returned.

"Lock. The fucking. Doors." 'Alpha's' voice was unusually quiet and full of promises of a world of pain if he disobeyed his orders. There was no other choice but to follow his lead, as always.

With trembling hands, the poor guy put the safety lock as best as he could. Once done, he breathed a sigh of relief, believing him safe.

Until a massive arm, broke through the glass of the door and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him a couple of inches off the ground. The man kicked and struggled, trying in vain to reach for his gun. When the hand released him, he hurriedly went for it before he was grabbed again but was stopped by three metal claws piercing through his skull, killing him instantly. The man fell to the ground like a ragdoll.

"Shit." 'Alpha' whispered, feeling for the first time that night true fear. "Shitshitshitshitshit!" His panic grew as he saw the killer of his 'packmate' kick the doors open as if it was nothing.

You couldn't see him, but you knew he was pissed like he had never been before.

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

'Alpha' fired bullet after bullet towards him. A single shot would have taken down a grown man. But this wasn't a normal man. Oh no, they had just gone after the family of one of the most dangerous men to ever live.

Logan slowly stepped into the moonlight and your breath caught in your throat. From his beard, to his clothes, blood was dripping, but not from the gunshotwounds, those were already healed. His sharp teeth, bared in a feral snarl were stained with blood, having used them to tear through flesh and bone. The icing on the cake were his eyes, those eyes that looked at you with so much tenderness and lust, that crinkled with happiness when they saw his little ones run towards him; they were just empty, void of any rational thought.

You shuddered at his primal display.

The man known just as 'Alpha' took a step back. For all his talk about how he didn't repress from his animal urges and how he was an alpha male, he found himself small and insignificant in the presence of a real animal. Every adamantium coated bone in Logan's body exuded dominance, power, strength; it was overwhelming. 'Alpha' knew if he didn't play his cards well he would end up like the rest of his 'pack' or worse.

Cold sweat formed on your forehead when the gun pointed towards you.

"One more step, and I'll shoot." His voice was deadly quiet, but you could hear the fear hidden behind all that bravado.

Logan stopped, a low growl building up in his throat. His eyes quickly darted towards yours and returned towards his enemy. You knew you had little time, as long as the 'Alpha' kept his eyes locked on Logan's; he wouldn't dare shoot you unless he wanted to have the slowest and most painful death there was, he just needed to think for a better plan of action, which gave you a wonderful opportunity to ponder about how you were going to get out safely, you had to act fast enough to give Logan some margin.

As quiet as you could muster, you started balancing yourself from side to side. Each second that passed increased your chances of ending up with a hole in your chest. A couple of swings more and-

"AAAAAAAAARRRGGGGHHH"

'Alpha' roared in pain when Laura out of nowhere, sunk her teeth and bone claws on his leg. Unfortunately, as a reflex, he accidentally pressed the trigger.

You would never be sure about how you got so lucky that night, as you fell sideways with the chair, the bullet barely grazed your shoulder. You had evaded death miraculously and there was a new hole in the wall.

Logan didn't waste his opportunity. Before 'Alpha' had the chance to kick Laura off his leg, he freed his claws and with a swift motion slashed his yugular vein with two clean cuts.

The blood splattered on his chest and face like a fountain. Alpha's body went limp and fell lifeless to the side. You let out a sigh in relief, as tears ran again freely down your cheeks.

The nightmare was over.

But not for Logan.

For a couple of seconds, he just stood there, breathing heavily, and coated in blood. Laura stood at his feet, looking at him apprehensively, as if sensing there was something wrong.

"Logan." You called for him reassuringly, but he didn't even look at you. You doubted he had heard you. His fists were clenching and unclenching, his knuckles were turning white. The veins in his arms bulged against the swollen muscles. His breaths came out in short puffs of air. Whatever he was feeling right now, you needed to pull him out of it.

His head turned sharply when he heard your youngest stirring. He looked at his bloodied hands and finally looked at you with a mixture of panic and dread. He didn't know what to do.

"Laura. Laura, sweetheart, untie me." She snapped out from her stupor and quickly tore through the cords, freeing you at last. You massaged your wrists, hoping to return your bloodflow back to normal. As much as you'd have loved to rest there was no time to lose.

You understood Logan's fear. It was already painful enough for him to have Laura watching him when he was like that, he didn't want the other one to go through the same trauma.

You quickly rushed towads him and he flinched back, still in shock. "It is okay, Logan. We're safe. You saved us. I'm going to take the girls to her room okay? He barely nodded, his eyes unfocused. You would deal with him later, now the kids were a top priority.

You would heal together, later.

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

He had scrubbed the floors clean until he thought he was going to pass out from the chemicals. He had hidden the bodies or whatever remained of them in a place where he knew nobody would ever look for them. Not that they'd be missed, he supposed.

It scared him how good he was at this. He should have gotten used to it by now, after all, he was the best at what he did, and what he did wasn't very nice.

It had been to good to be true. A sweet dream before waking up and facing reality. He had gotten sloppy and his family had paid the price. He didn't even know what those had wanted, nor did he care. One single look through the window and all sense of rationality had left his brain leaving only the animal that deep down he knew he was.

What would you think of him now? Did you regret marrying him? Knowing what he did was one thing, but actually witnessing it was another. What had transpired tonight would surely define your relationship for the rest of your lives

And Laura? He had worked so hard to erase the violence and trauma of her earlier years, to give her a normal childhood with a family. And he had just pulled her back.

He buried his face in his hands, grabbing chunks of his hair. He was a monster, an animal, a mindless-

He jumped and turned around with a snarl on his face and his claws ready when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Logan's tense muscles visibly relaxed when he saw it was just you, but he was still restless.

"Logan, it's okay. It's just me" You knew exactly was was crossing his mind. After years of knowing each other, you knew that the legendary Wolverine, the man that would take his secrets to his grave, could be easily read like an open book if you got close enough.

"Honey, this is not your fault. You came and saved us. We're here because of you." You couldn't bear the thought of him punishing himself over something that wasn't even his fault to begin with.

"I should have been there with you. I should have arrived sooner, then you wouldn't have to go through-" His gruff voice sounded so broken, so terrified, there was nothing you wanted more than to cradle him in your arms. "I'm a monster." He quietly whispered.

"You are not a monster. You. Are. Not. Not a monster, neither an animal." You cupped his face in your hands, looking into his eyes sternly.

"I-I lost control. I saw you there tied up and I lost it. Laura saw it, and our little-"

"Shhhh... They are alright. They are okay in their bedroom. Laura knew you were protecting us, she has always known." You ran your fingers through his wild hair, marvelling at how his tufts stayed up no matter the situation.

You gently guide him back into the house. You don't look at the toppled chair, or the hole in the wall, or the mountain of cleaning products. Neither of you wanted to think about that. When you reached the bedroom, you undressed each other, taking your time, memorizing every string of clothing. Your discarded attires formed a dirty and bloody pile in the corner.

Tenderly, like treating a very vulnerable creature, you cleaned his face, chest and hands with a towel. You could feel the raw power stored in that massive torso and hands, you knew what he could do with those. But you also knew how careful and soft he was around you and the girls.

You put on your comfiest pijamas and got ready for bed, leaving the mess of that night for the next day. Before he climbed in with you, Logan stopped and takes a step back.

"What's wrong?" You asked.

"Wait here." He hurriedly exited your bedroom, leaving you alone, baffled at his behavior. The last thing you wanted was to be left alone after that night.

Your initial confusion gave way to tenderness when you saw him return holding a daugther on each of his thick arms. Laura blinked groggily at you, annoyed at having been woken up from her slumber. You quickly craddled her in your arms, kissing her forehead.

Holding your youngest baby girl to his chest he got in bed, his free arm pulling you and Laura closer, trapping you in an embrace. He kissed your head, his soft breaths along with those of your daughters were enough to lull you to sleep.

You were safe.

Nobody was going to get you.

He would make sure of that.

[tainbocuailnge]

[post i am writing as self-exorcism] the more i think about this collab the more disappointed i get. and again this is without the investment of having personally read or watched dunmeshi I only know it from posts.

the way this collab event story is written, if you have no prior knowledge of the source material then you'd probably come away thinking dungeon meshi is an episodic comedy manga where a bunch of goobers eat inadvisable meals in a generic video gamey fantasy setting that is little more than an excuse for the existence of the funny monsters that they eat. which is not a bad thing to be, but the way everyone talks about this series gives me plenty reason to believe that's not what dungeon meshi actually is. even within the bounds of the event itself there's reason to believe that's not actually what dungeon meshi is, because there is a disconnect between what the event tells you and shows you about the characters.

laios is so interested in and knowledgeable about ecology that he is able to correctly infer that the gang is in a fake world right now because the ink spirits don't make sense, but despite this interest and knowledge being his primary character trait, after explicitly having spent several years in terra he apparently only just barely picked up the terran names for each of its animal people. similarly, marcille is presented as a magic academic who wants to learn about terran technology, but years after obtaining that flashlight that was her first step to figuring it out she still doesn't know what a drone is. we're told senshi knows a lot about how to forage for safe foods in hostile environments, but he repeatedly feeds the party dangerous meals for comedy. the overall tone of the event is comedic, with the party shrugging off things that would be super hyper death bad endings by arknights rules, but they still drop implications of a more serious tone like valarqvin being able to see many deaths in chilchuck's past and future, or senshi having firsthand experience with starvation driving people insane.

in that same ink spirits chapter laios mentions that the dungeon where they meshi was made by someone so meticulous about, let's say worldbuilding, that its ecology completely checks out despite being an artificial environment. arknights, as we know, is meticulous about its setting history to the point of having an etymology for the word "hot dog" in a world with dog people. but while the dunmeshi characters are presented as deeply curious about their environment with regard to their particular fields of expertise, the writing itself lacks the same curiosity. and thus these deeply curious characters spend several years traveling every corner of terra without learning a single damn thing about it.

this event blatantly does not care about arknights. it makes extremely basic lore mistakes like "the church of the deep priest is opposed to people eating seaborn", it grossly mischaracterises kal'tsit, it debuts ceobe's ability to turn into a cerberus with a handwave to a "special bloodline" and no deeper exploration than "funny dog hungry" and only two appearances in the damn event. it's baffling to have something in arknights which cares so little about being in arknights.

but what's even more baffling is that it seems similarly disinterested in its own source material. this collab does not make any attempt to accurately convey the tone or appeal of dungeon meshi. unlike the characters themselves, it lacks any interest in the world around its characters, let alone how the characters' knowledge of one setting would translate to the other. they wrote a dungeon meshi x arknights collaboration event that does not want to be either dungeon meshi or arknights. why even do the damn collab then?

[karereiko]

EDIT: If you see this post first, this is update of 2025, because Zaiko no longer works, here you can see probably more info about adding subs etc, but Morimu is no on Theater Complex and here is info: https://www.tumblr.com/karereiko/774930891629789184/theater-complex-town-platform-specifically-for

Hello, everyone from Yuumori fandom.

Guess what, because of Concert that will be held in July all parts of Moriarty the Patriot Musical (op1-op5) are available to rent and watch online. With my Morimu fanarts or other talks about it I often get asked where you can watch it, often my answer is that you have to buy DVD or Bluray to watch this wonderful adaptation of Moriarty the Patriot manga. I know it's a big cost and hard to get for some so Streaming like this is a great opportunity to watch Morimu.

Official twitter posted few days ago about this possibility and here is the post with all information about it:

1600 yen is great amount to check if you will like it and wach it because I think it's worth any money, director who made morimu clearly loves manga, he treats source material with care and even makes it batter at some times, there is also a lot less cuts than in anime, like a lot. May be little spoiler or not, but Baskerville arc is there and Durham date too, as well as many Sherlock and John stuff that was cut in anime, some things from Moran arc etc. this is already big selling factor, right?

Actors are amazing and they love and care for characters they play. I wasn't into any actor adaptations before Morimu, I was ok with musicals but not caring too much about them and Morimu sold me since first part and it only got better and better each part even if you think that's not possible. Songs are there to make emotions and moments deeper or to have real fun with plot they show, they are not there just for song to be there. So yes high recommendation for you all to check Morimu if you didn't saw it yet. The most amazing thing is that you don't need VPN to buy those streams.

I was going to write about this few days ago and was busy, good I didn't because I talked with friends in Yuumori fandom who knows morimu and we were troubled to recommend this stream to people who doesn't understand Japanese. Morimu is faithful adaptation so almost like 70% lines comes from manga and you should understand what's going on if you read manga. Still, with subs it's a lot easier.

Kana did amazing job in creating English translation for Morimu Op1-Op4 at this point, all who bought DVD/Bluray versions of Morimu are using those subs and if you decide to buy own copy after seeing stream then those subs works great with DVD/Bluray versions.

So we talked over the stream matter and from what we checked with this plugin to Chrome it's possible to play subs with Morimu stream after you rent it (It works only with Chrome but if you know other program like this you can try it on different browsers, we only checked Chrome and this plugin) :

The only matter is that Kana saved subtitles in .ass file format, but you can easily format them to .srt file format that this plugin plays with this site:

You just open subtitle file and save it as srt, and open it with plugin to your Morimu stream. If you will have any more problems with subs them write me a message and I will try to help as soon as work let's me.

I think this is the easiest option that creators gave us now to watch Morimu, it was never so easy to buy or rent it until now, you had to use crazy VPN programs and other stuff to just check on it. So this is best option since for sure it won't last forever. Such promotional streamings are only around when new part is coming up, currently Concert I mentioned.

So for other things I wanna to say. If you get your copy of Morimu then please don't share it, don't post it to any social sites. Company that makes Morimu is quite strict with that matter and they do search who uploads those musicals and strikes them down/ deletes files even on places like google drive. Even without it, it's a matter of love for Moriarty the patriot. As much as fandom wants more people to watch those musicals, any piracy might destroy our chances to get Op6, possibilities for future streams and other stuff. Currently with Op5 we reached end of Final Problem arc and there is hope that maybe one day New York arc will be done in op6. Any piracy, sharing and messy stuff might destroy such chance, so please if you hold dear MTP then respect those rules. Watching streams with your friends in closed groups after you buy it isn't bad but please hold from any public sharing (they would be taken down anyway, but it would still put us fans in very bad light).

I know end of this post was not nice but it had to be told. I hope this possibility will help you see Morimu and fall in love with it like I did. I would recommend at least seeing OP1 and OP2, it should hook you and OP3 is where everything hits even more than op1-2, more hits from songs, more hits from sherliam stuff.

Hope to see you in Morimu cult :D... ehem... fandom. May you have "wind" (for some Great Detective) in your heart like William....

[lastofthewardens]

okay fuck it i wasn’t going to post this but i'm having a moment.

i know we kind of know nothing at this point. a lot of filming has been away from the public eye since there are actors who haven’t been seen on set that we know for sure are in the show. plus anything we have seen is out of context. so really any assumptions would be jumping the gun a little bit, which means this is my disclaimer that i hope i'm completely wrong about what i'm saying and look very stupid later but.

it’s looking more and more like this show completely fumbled foggy nelson and kirsten mcduffie and just gave their roles to karen? which is crazy because as much as i love the OG show they already did that to ben urich (which they were criticized for by comic fans) and then of course there are the many debates about elektra among various sections of fandom. but repeating the ben mistake with foggy while also doing it 20x worse to a character that's even worse to do it to and then just giving kirsten NOTHING to work with is fucking crazy.

and as someone who also ships k*redevil, thought they had a real chance at something after s3, always imagined they would've been together in canon by the end of the OG 5 seasons they originally wanted, and wants them to be endgame (because sadly and unfortunately, neither show was ever going to make foggy and matt happen lol), this is so insanely off-putting to me, to the point that it may start putting me off things i previously liked if that’s what they did come next year when s2 comes out.

the way karen was originally ignored by this new show is wild and stupid, but i really don’t think the reverse should be happening like this or that karen should be getting literally everything now, all at the expense of the entire rest of the comic book cast, particularly dd’s most important longest running supporting character foggy and arguably matt’s best comic book love interest kirsten (she's SO much more than that too obviously, but like.. the new show isn't letting her be those things either?)

karen has been dead in the comics for a long time. i've always thought her show version should survive and that they shouldn’t kill her, and i stand by that, and i was impressed and glad when they subverted it in s3. but they could’ve kept karen alive and kept her a main character and gave her all the importance she deserves and even had a k*redevil endgame without it being done like this.

there's absolutely a world where they respect foggy's place and importance in matt's life and keep him included and alive, kirsten is treated as the badass she is and gets to do all kinds of law stuff with matt and foggy (and be a supportive friend, if they didn't want to do love interest, because they could still honor the spirit of their relationship), and karen still gets to be everything that was already awesome about her in the OG show.

the writing for this show (yes, even in the new episodes by the new team) is not good enough to justify the decisions being made or the disrespect to almost literally every character.

if you want to diverge from the comics, you don’t solve the issue of karen not being alive anymore by just deleting everyone else's relevancy and replacing every other character that exists with her so you can prop her up. she doesn't even need that, the character the OG show created in her was already awesome. you create new stories and show what having her around would’ve added. you bring back older stories she was in and recontextualize them. you respect the other characters that matter instead of taking things away.

you definitely DON'T antagonize and dismiss and disappoint fans of the source material who care about this stuff just to push your agenda. and this will just turn some fans even more against the ship and the character when they already had a hill to climb with some parts of this fandom. which sucks because i originally hoped that in a world where this show was good that people would change their minds about k*redevil and see it more positively, but now i feel like i can't blame them anymore. in the words of matt (apparently), 'fuck it'.

this new show is literally like a dark twisted mirror version of the series i love, like the ultimate be careful what you wish for, and i’m so sad about it today. wish it just stayed cancelled at this point.

[olderthannetfic]

whiny confession time: I do not care about being morally consistent one way or the other!!! it annoys the shit out of me when people are like “why are you so critical of (adult x minor, incest, abusive etc etc etc) ship when you like (extremely problematic ship in other fandom)??? you’re throwing stones from glass houses!!!” and other such bleating. 

dude, the reason I hate YOUR ship is because IT’S OUT OF CHARACTER you stupid sack of shit!!! my one and only criteria for whether a ship is “okay” is: Would he fucking say or do that? No? He would not? Then it’s shit!!! It’s actually really simple!!! The entire appeal is in the context of the canonical characterization, even if there’s an AU or crossover or dark premise or whatever else in play!! The characters should still feel like the actual characters, not some randos shambling around in their skins!!! otherwise make an OC and stop subjecting the rest of us to your flanderized bullshit!!!

It doesn’t matter if you age one of them up or make it wholesome or whatever other asinine thing you think will make it “morally correct” to me, it is INTELLECTUALLY WRONG not MORALLY WRONG because its FICTION and based off of inherently shallow portrayals of the characters in question. The ages or familial status or what have you have nothing to do with it!!! Stop trying to deflect my criticism of your bad writing and interpretation by saying I’m being moralistic!!! I don’t give a shit about that!!!

MY problematic ships are so blatantly homoerotic in the source material you would have to be willfully blind not to see it. YOUR problematic ships are based off of nothing but shit you made up because you’re trying to force romance where there is none, and obnoxious fanon mischaracterizaton. We Are Not The Same

(should note that I never actually say this to anyone unless they start getting real up my ass, i’m not that much of an asshole, but god i think it all the time. i am that person that your social anxiety is conjuring. i am such a judgmental bitch. i pray for the downfall of people like this. i hope they get a flat tire.)

--

[damthosefandoms]

hi hello i did it again. compiled everything i could piece together when it comes to ages of characters in the outsiders (and that was then this is now, and tex) universe, covering the book/movieverse and the musical characters. this time things are ten times more readable! and hopefully this helps somebody out when writing because i know this kinda thing helps me keep things straight.

some disclaimers below because i am just doing what i can to help organize things here and i don't know everything or have the same ideas as everybody and that's okay! some of it is canon! some i just did my best! this is just for fun!

edit: I’m in the progress of trying to add pages onto the spreadsheet for the specifics of the book/movie universe, the musical universe, and the tv show universe (to the best of my ability) in case that’s helpful. but everyone is going on the main page and it’s a big wip lol

there's a lot of characters that don't have canon ages (and the only one with a canon birthday mentioned in the source material is tex, which is so interesting to me)! feel free to do with that what you will. this applies to pretty much all the musical-only characters as far as i know (someone please lmk if this changes! and no i will not be making paul a high schooler the cast was Wrong for that!) but also many of the characters in tex and the outsiders.

i kind of went into this assuming tex took place ten years after the outsiders because i like nice round numbers like that. i think tex mentions star wars once (in the movie if not in the book) so 1977 felt like pretty much as early as it could possibly be. this is also why i went with 1967 for the outsiders and not 1965—if you lean towards the book timeline just subtract two years from everything!

on a similar note! i have (a lot of) reason to believe the outsiders takes place mid-september, no i'm not gonna elaborate rn but i feel it lines up well with tex being almost exactly ten years later, because that book starts in the early fall. to me that was then, this is now takes place in october because i always assumed the dance ponyboy shows up at was their homecoming dance and if i'm being honest, i don't feel like digging too deeply into that part of the timeline. at my high school, homecoming was in october. and isn't is nice for it to take place just over a year after the outsiders? idk. moving on

i dont care if they all would've gone to a three year high school fuck you don't ask me about their grades we don't do three year high schools where i live and im just a girl doing my best

if i forgot something i am so sorry pls be nice and tell me you all appreciated this because i am so not normal about these stories and characters that i spent all weekend on it and i need the validation

[sheeezu]

It's my first time seeing DPS shifter!! That movie is such a comfort for me (I know haha). I even got matching tattoos with my sibling based off of it with "Make your lives extraordinary". I would love to hear you talk more about it if you're comfortable with that. Do you maybe have any stories from that DR? Do you have an S/O there or made it different from the source material?

Hi :) I actually got a similar ask, asking about my dps society, it got lost in the drafts.

(I hope that person sees this)

(What fun boys they are)

My dead poets society dr

It was mostly based on the source material but a special someone does not die. Also I couldn't fit a girl in an all boys school, nor did I wanted to, so I went in as male.

It also took place in 1989, I wasn't going back that far.

I love Neil Perry, I wasn't going to leave him alone so we ended up as roommates, and adjusted Todd with Knox.

My S/O was my unassuming Neil Perry (ofc)

I actually have a lot to talk about, but I'm just going to break down how each character was like, kind of like a storytime which could fit in one post (if you're unsatisfied, you can always ring my inbox again, even disguise yourself by changing your tone of writing a bit)

Neil Perry

I'd like to say, this guy has no object permeance. If he get's excited then he becomes a literal hazard. One time, he pulled me so harshly by my wrist, to the point of dislocating my shoulder. disclaimer, he will vent out to you all night long if he's upset, not realizing it's 3am and you both have classes tomorrow, and you can barely keep your eyes open. Otherwise he's really sweet, and nice class participation as well. (idk why i mentioned that)

Todd Anderson

Todd, even though he claims "he can take care of himself", he can't. He's always lost, and childishly likes to ignore social cues. He's actually very gullible, at least with me. Other than that, for no reason at all, i'd sneak into his room to read his personal diary; like it was simply an interesting novel and not an invasion of someone's privacy, he wrote about every single social interaction he had that day.

Charlie Dalton

CHARLIE, CHARLIE, CHARLIE. other than his usual obnoxiousness (as seen in the media) he will get serious when required, personally for me, he had been the person I could tell ANYTHING to. He's responsible for writing inappropriate words in the bathroom stalls (this is the dr where i removed urinals, because excuse you, i am not man-ing like this; instead there were stalls) Sleeps with his mouth open, hits on every breathing things, but doesn't have interest in anyone.

Mr. Keating

I ASPIRE to be this man. Honestly throughout the lectures, when they took a weird turn, i was very much the "I'd like to be excluded from this narrative" type of guy.

He would never get mad if any of the student were to visit him, no matter the time, whether it was late at night, he never got mad at all!

I ended up having an entire convo on the multiverse with him, and he agreed and patted me on the back, saying "you're onto something, pal."

...

This was getting long, but tbh I enjoyed writing this (this had been in my drafts for weeks) im pretty sure their are only a handful of dps shifters, a handful of people shifting for THE BEST MEDIA EVER.

i get that your ask, requested a storytime, and this isn't that, i'm sure i'll make one, that'll actually be in the form of a story.

(also of course, some people are left out, will come to them later ..?)

...

[resolutepath]

⭐️ ― convincing portrayal of a canon character 💻 ― excellent writing 📚 ― nice threads to read 😍 ― admiring from afar

I'm picking two for each of these so I get to give more compliments, so let's go:

⭐️ ― convincing portrayal of a canon character

So firstly I'm going to say @hatefueled makes a great Boothill. Kero is clearly very invested in Boothill and I love the development that's been done both in his canon and across a range of verses. The way he is transferred to different contexts still feels very true to his core as a character and of course the way I feel he is truly so well embodied is within our dynamic against my Rappa. I really think Kero portrays Boothill so well and I love to see on my dash! and the second I picked for this one is @hxkerwxlf because I truly have not seen anyone embody Silver Wolf so well. I'm half convinced I'm actually witnessing the Silver Wolf on my dash. She has such a unique way of interacting with the world that is hard to replicate, but EKR is doing it so authentically and I really enjoy seeing it.

💻 ― excellent writing

Going to give this one to @guhamun first because I love what Shi does with muses. I've interacted with a couple now and seen a few more on my dash and I just think that they are so well portrayed. I'm always super excited to see one of our threads come up and I'm looking forward to seeing where they go because of the plotting we have done. The writing reads really well and they keep me invested in the plotlines and characters we are exploring so easily. and secondly I'm giving this to @deadn30n ! I just really love how you can see the sheer enthusiasm for the characters in the writing. You can tell how well the muses are loved because there is dedication and care put into writing them. It makes you care about them, and feel like you know them even if you aren't familiar with the source material. When I finally came to reading SVSSS and met Luo Binghe, I had a ah its you moment rather than a oooh new character because the writing was so good I recognised him first.

📚 ― nice threads to read

well this one's going to @caemthe because how can I not give it to Liri with the sheer amount of investment and background discussions that go into our threads. I thrive in seeing what Liri comes up with, and it always flows so nicely, builds up the moment that the characters are caught in and gives something fun to engage with. Genuinely such beautifully crafted replies, rich with character and plot and some of my favourite reading to do. A notification of Liri dropping me something definitely makes my day every time. and @starshinc of course because Pon's threads, particularly our Rody and Deku are always fun to read, and easy going and the perfect remedy for a blue day. I really love Izuku and how he engages with my characters and Pon's enthusiasm for this character. One of my favourites to have on my dash and the threads are so easy in terms of flow and readability without detracting from characterisation and plot that they certainly are a must have on my dash.

😍 ― admiring from afar

I'd say @seraphynm gets this simply because we're not interacting as much yet (but we will be once I get things going on my end!) A brilliant range of muses with some stunning characterisations. I really enjoy seeing what vega is doing and love the range of verses available. I really am a fan of crossover verses that are wellbuilt and this is exactly what I am being sold here. I'm really looking forward to interacting with more. and @muraenide also gets this, because again we're starting out but not quite there yet, mostly because I owe on the plotting conversation fkjdhfdsk But a really interesting muse who is clearly understood so well and has been dived into and explored thoroughly. The prospective plots I have been offered interest me thoroughly and I am looking forward to diving into writing together.

[thelargefrye]

🌷 SMALLS’ FIC RECOMMENDATION LIST.

i've seen a lot of fic rec lists circulating in the community recently and so i felt like i should also make one to support fellow writers who i think really deserve that extra love and attention.

so this is also an appreciation post because i have quite a few things to say. these are mainly writers that i enjoy reading and think need a lot more love and attention because let's be honest, they have amazing ideas and people are just sleeping on them.

so, i'll just jump right into it! make sure to send these writers love and reblog their works!!!

my best friend and person i share a braincell with : @sanjoongie

check out her master list.

like you want to talk about talent? topaz is the one who breathes talent and ideas that literally no one else is coming up with. like if i had to read only one person for the rest of my life, it would be topaz because her writing is just amazing. her moodboards that she makes for her works, perfect. everything topaz does when it comes to writing is amazing, and i'm so glad that she's my best friend and braincell.

and not only that, but topaz is just nice to be talk to! like she makes you want to repeatedly talk to her and she is so good at helping flesh out my own ideas. i wouldn't have written half the things i did last year if it wasn't for her.

anyways, i'm so grateful and proud to call topaz my braincell because she's so amazing, talented, and nice. it breaks my heart that more people don't talk about HER. like you want to read something different and so well written then you need to read literally ANY work topaz has written.

topaz, my lovely braincell, thank you for putting up with me and my shit 24/7. if it wasn't for you i probably wouldn't have gotten out of my writer's block. and just now that i love you and thank you for being an amazing friend and writer.

and if you've gotten this far, i'll just straight up tell you that this is topaz appreciation post. so now i'll link some of my favorite works by her and tell you why i love them:

twilight academy ( all parts ) ( rated : mature )

wizard professor!seonghwa x wizard professor!f!reader ft. ateez

this currently has four parts and is still ongoing and is literally SO good. like who else is writing about a professor au WHERE THEY ARE ALL WIZARDS. and not to mention the worldbuilding and history that is all mentioned and talked about. its so so so good and the smut in it is absolutely to die for. and the chemistry between seonghwa and mc is so good, i love when they go back and forth.

breed ( part one ) ( rated : mature )

ateez x f!reader ( most of the members are aliens with san and another member being human )

now THIS is an alien au done right and different and basically sum it up with one sentence its "alien!teez doing sexual experiments" (from @/morethingsfandom). like its just so good and the SMUT! THE SMUT IS WHY WE ARE HERE PEOPLE!! THIS IS WHAT SCI-FI SMUT IS ABOUT!!! like this is honestly pure pwp and a nice switch up if maybe twilight academy isn't your thing.

see? topaz does everything!

dragon oracle ( here ) ( rated : mature )

dragon!ateez x dragon!f!reader ( based off of my own dragon au )

THIS!! in my opinion is one of topaz's best works (i may be biased lol) and def my favorite from all time. topaz took my au and did her own spin on it and made it her own. she cared about the source material, asked questions, let me ramble, and then boom! a masterpiece was made. if you like my dragon au, then i highly, HIGHLY recommend you read this. and if you've already read... then read it again.

i wish it was me ( here ) ( rated : 18+ )

water bender!san x avatar!hongjoong x water bender!f!reader x water tribe warrior!yunho ( implied ot8 )

again another fic that is based off of mine but literally made it her own because topaz is just that talented. a "what-if" au for my alta series where mc is a water bender and with san and yunho. absolutely amazing and does so well with writing all the characters and their dynamics. a def read if you love atla!

sweet sorrow of evil ( master list ) ( rated : mature )

ateez x evil queen!f!reader ( members have different roles within the story )

this is a collab story between topaz and me and i couldn't make this post and NOT include this series that we are working on together. this really just shows what two authors can make when they come together. we co-wrote the prologue and are currently writing the first chapter. this world is our baby and i love and it has the both of us in a chokehold, i'm so proud of the world me and here built and i want everyone to see it.

and honestly, that's just the tip of the iceberg cause topaz has SO MANY more but these are just the ones that i always think about. like, i really suggest you all check out topaz's works. i have more of her fics on my fic rec blog (@comicsan) so if you want to see more of her and other fics that i have enjoyed then i would check that blog out.

please go show my bestie support, it would mean the world to me!

thank you 🩷

[trainsinanime]

I'm still considering whether I'll do any non-vague posting about this, but let me just say: Writing long and erudite posts about what you think is wrong with a French children's TV show does not absolve you from the accusation that you're doing… let's call it entry-level analysis. A post can be long and well-written and still just regurgitate the most basic, boring points, and some of them plainly wrong.

Actually maybe don't read this, it may be too salty itself.

"Adrien is sometimes too pushy", "Marinette is sometimes a stalker", "Alya is a bad friend because she's unwilling to bully a random new girl just because Marinette said so", yeah, yeah, we've heard it. More than once. Way more than once. Yes, even with receipts and quotes. Trust me, it's been discussed. These are the kind of standard hot takes of someone who is doing their first attempt at critical analysis, and I actually think on some level we should encourage that. I do believe fandom should be beginner-friendly in all regards.

But man, it can be annoying to read sometimes. Especially when someone uses these hot takes to justify the existence of salt fics. Let me be 100% clear here: Salt fics are not a reaction to flaws in the source material. Salt fics are materially different from fix-it fics. This becomes more clear when you track these patterns over fandoms, and in particular look at my favourite example over in Fairy Tail (sic).

That fandom has a number of fandom-specific plots, like some "angel of death sends main character back to relive the origins with the knowledge they had later" (also very popular in Harry Potter back in the day), but also one that is just 100% salt specific: It's about Lisanna, a childhood friend of the male lead Natsu, coming back from the alternate universe she was trapped in, and displacing Lucy, the female lead, who eventually leaves, sad and depressed, while nobody cares about her. The sentiments are all the same: Feeling depressed, feeling annoyed that your friends are suddenly interested in the new girl, feeling like you don't belong anymore, leaving your friend group to punish them and so on.

There are some differences as well. This whole thing was back in the days of Fanfiction.net, when crossovers were in a whole other section of the site and thus not easily findable, so the whole "…I'm going to run away to somewhere where people want me" never had the frankly hilarious addition of "…and when I'm there I'm going to marry Batman!", which spawned a whole sub-fandom in ML (its fans tell me that it's not all salt; I haven't bothered to check).

But the most important difference: The inciting incident never happened in canon. People just thought it might. In canon, Lisanna did return from her alternate dimension… and then immediately became a forgotten background character. Lucy and Natsu remained just as in love as they always had been, which is to say, very much except they don't seem to notice it. Their relationship was never strained even for a moment.

And still people wrote these stories that are functionally salt fics, with the same storylines, same emotions, same beats. Because salt fics are not about fixing what is wrong with the show. If they were, they'd spend all their time discussing the terribly fucked-up metro map. Salt fics are about exploring feelings of loneliness, isolation, "why are you hanging out with here when I told you she sucks" and just pure spite, in a way that you don't really see outside of pop songs. That is the end goal. The characters and plots are just a way to get there, and they will get twisted as necessary.

This is critical for understanding and discussing the phenomenon of salt fics. Alya is not actually getting demonised because she acted a bit stupid in one episode where everybody but Marinette acted a bit stupid. It's incredibly weird to hear this argument, and then all the supporting quotes for it, in the same post, right underneath, are all:

Alya: Okay, but do you have any proof? Marinette (angrily): Arrghlwargl! No!

Like, come on. Alya is getting demonised because people really want to. Because it works for the kind of story. These stories assume that it's Alya's job to always support Marinette unconditionally, and that any deviation from that, no matter how minor, is a highest order betrayal. And then they go full Count of Monte Cristo on her.

(Well, not really, that could almost be fun. Nobody ever has Marinette imprisoned for fourteen years, get out with the help of a hypnotist monk, use a buried pirate treasure to buy an island, then manipulate a telegraph line to… It's all just torn notebooks and such. Boring.)

The idea that people hate Alya for mostly valid reasons is just plain wrong and shows that you've missed a huge part of what's happening in the fandom. You could use all the Alya hate as an entry point into analysing what her role is in the show, how people in the fandom perceive her role, how people in the salt dom perceive her role, how her role and her personality shift depending on the needs of an episode at the expense of a consistent character and so on. There is some great analysis in that direction out there already, but more wouldn't hurt. "Alya is a bad friend sometimes because of Chameleon" remains an uninteresting take no matter how well you word it, though.

And that's just Alya. Adrien hate, for example, is its entirely own field. In short: Yes, some characters in this fandom are over-hated. Try digging deeper next time.

[blackened-angel]

Netflix Devil May Cry episode 1 review

Although it's the first episode, I've mentioned some stuff that happens in the other ones and I mention stuff from the games and other materials, so be careful of spoilers.

When I began watching the episodes, I kept a notepad open to write the stuff that I personally liked or disliked. Also, it's difficult not to compare to the source materials because after all, I'm not judging an original work, but you will see that I have criticized parts based on how they were presented.

Even without using the name DEVIL MAY CRY, to me it was a mediocre show because of its writing.

To be clear, if you liked the show, that's great, I'm only expressing my personal opinions as a longtime fan that was disappointed on how the series was treated. If you'd like to know more context about my disappointment, it stems from the producer of the adaptation that you can read about it here.

I would like to say that this is a pretty long post. I might not do the same for others but I hope that I can get some feedback.

First off, when the adaptation was released, there were people who said "Since when did Devil May Cry take place in America?".

DMC takes places in our world and in the first game at least, it took place in America. This information comes from the manuals of the first and second games.

The Vatican was also mentioned in the manuals. There are pieces of texts from "Demon World's History" that belonged to the forbidden library of the Vatican. I think that Fortuna in DMC4 took the place of that location.

-Ok, so, my problem is, and correct me if it was mentioned, but I don't recall if there was an explanation... How the heck did Force Edge end up in a museum? Later in the episode it seems that the scientist dude and Baines seemed like they didn't knew much about it? Baines asked Enzo about the sword and Enzo told the legend of Sparda and it's then that the scientist figured out the purpose of the amulet?

Like, I dunno, to me it sounds like even they, who should know that stuff, didn't knew that part from the legend?

So yeah...moving on.

The scene with the woman and her baby.

Okay, so it was a setup to lure Dante in order to get his amulet.

First, we see that a Plasma changes into that woman's baby and purposefully drops a rattle that gets carried by shadows into an alley.

I can only assume that some of the demons were nearby and saw the Plasma transform and where like "oh look, boss threw that thing this way, I think he wants us to lure that woman over here"...

The woman begged them to not hurt her child and one of the demons said "What daughter?".

I dunno, it's weird, like the Plasma could have just transformed into anyone, wait in the alley and scream for help while putting on a show with those other demons, since they seems to have been part of the setup for Dante.

Regarding her baby, she might be dead? When Plasma explained how its power works, it said that the person it copies has to be alive, but...alive just to copy them and then it can kill the person? Or would the appearance be lost if the subject dies? I didn't get how it works...The mother and baby appear in the last episode too, so...Is it the actual baby? Another Plasma? I'd say it's a plot-hole...

Another problem I had was how the scene after Dante rescues the woman. I think it was poorly executed...

She looked at Dante who was trying to break free from the Plasma. Like, if you saw a stranger acting like that near your baby, wouldn't you shout and try to get the person away from the kid right away? It seemed like she kept looking until Dante pointed the gun at the Plasma, that's when she went up to Dante. And she didn't see at all that her baby looked like a monster? Dante blocked her view that much?

A lady hitting him with a handbag managed to outrun him, the guy who was able to save people when a huge truck was crashing into a dinner and in the next episode he was dodging bullets...Like WTF?

-A rare occasion where I say something positive.

First I gotta say : fuck the quantum physics trope! I'm not a fan of Marvel/DC but I think that's where I heard it used the most.

Ugh, okay like I said, despite that, It is true that lesser demons can pass trough the portals, but they still need a medium in the human world such as the Marionettes in DMC1, but that doesn't apply in this setting because…demons were a branch of homo sapiens that adapted in the Demon…ahem, "Makai". That's the reason why they don't need mediums?

However, in this adaptation apparently the big demons go back to Makai after the seal that separated both worlds was put back...isn't it weird? I mean, if they went back because of that, Sparda should have stayed there too, right?

Isn't this another plothole? I mean, the issue with the portals that were mentioned is that they would only allow lesser demons to go through them. They went through them and even if the portals closed, they would remain in the human world, but the greater demons, after passing through a portal that was strong enough to let them pass through...they would get transported back to the demon world of that portal was closed?

Yeah...moving on.

The dinner scene. So, Dante was able to to rescue people while a truck was crashing into the place but he couldn't catch up with the woman from before?

Oh man, I mocked the way "Vergil" looks here but when the real one showed up at the end, I'd say that this "Vergil" looks better here. He actually looks similar to Dante, unlike the..giga chad in the last episode.

Also, how come the Plasma knew how he looked like? It sounds like he was mostly using his Nelo Angelo appearance, so how did the Plasma, who was a minion working for White Rabbit, knew how Vergil looked like?

-Lucia! She got captured so easily...The Protector of Dumary Island...

They probably haven't given her the ability to use her Devil Trigger because if she had done that, she wouldn't let herself get captured that easily. Since the last episode showed Arius, they probably wanted to have her transform if she fights him or something...

Also, how the heck did the goon squad find her?

Baines said 'find every demon hunter that you can", but DARKCOM didn't go after Dante. Like they had his adress because it was shown that he was in their database but they found Lucia randomly in the city? I'm only judging based on the episode provided me with...

Moving on to the scene where the scientist looks up Dante's records.

Also gotta say it's so weird that Dante let himself get arrested…I guess since he didn't think of himself as a demon,, he might be obeying the law to some extant?

Whatever, so let's look at the records.

Note that on that profile EC, meaning eye color, it says "blue" however, they are green and Vergil is the one with blue eyes :/

Uhm, was it actually important for the government to include that he makes jokes and that he refers to his missions with video game terms? I found that weird...It's like those things are meant for the audience even though we, the audience would see if he's like that.

Five plus years of combat experience against demons?

So, Dante has been taking demon-hunting jobs since he was a kid? He's supposed to be 18-19, but these records say that they don't know his age...Well, he was arrested before but that's something they either didn't ask him or Dante refused to say.

Again, his and Vergil's designs make them look as if they're much older.

Next up is the amulet…

When I saw this I was like "Is this some Steven Universe bullshit?" Like seriously? I recalled that Shankar was asked why the amulets had different colors like the ones from the reboot and this was the reason? Geez…I think they are exaggerating the idea that each brother must have everything with their signature color.

Also, I think it was redundant that Sparda's legend was mentioned twice and like Enzo was the one who brought up the sword and the amulet, while Mary didn't.

Like, there was that episode where one of the goons from her squad didn't even knew about Sparda, believing the others were talking about SPARTA the Ancient Greek city. Like shouldn't be common knowledge for DarkCom, but Mary had to give them a written report or something like that? So yeah, kind of weird that Enzo seemed to know more than even one of those members from the elite demon hunters...

groans

End of the episode I skipped the DDR part because I cannot stand flashing lights…

So yeah, this was the first episode. I might not do such a long post for others because I do not want to revisit them...

Let me know what you think!

[suzannahnatters]

Having shared my RINGS OF POWER s2 eulogy, and while assuring you all that I am also mourning the loss of one of the best things about the show, I would also like to take a moment to defend the decisions being made by the showrunners and writers here.

Before I get started, I just want to acknowledge the members of my writers' group. This post owes much to our discussions. Anyway, when it comes to Adar's death, there are three reasons why I'm not calling his death pointless, or blaming the showrunners for bad writing. The overall reason is this: Adar represents the show's efforts to treat Orcs like people. In this sense, his character was a blazing success. Look at us all, with a hopeless crush on an Orc? Success.

But let's go a bit deeper.

SIMON TOLKIEN'S EXECUTIVE MEDDLING

The fact that Simon Tolkien made an EXCELLENT call in asking the showrunners to keep Adar around for an extra season...still doesn't stop what he did from being executive meddling, or from causing tricky ramifications in the second season. Adar was a first-season antagonist, brilliantly well-written, but ultimately only intended to be a supporting character. The decision to keep him on, suddenly made him more charismatic, more mysterious, and more sympathetic. Given how he'd been set up as a warm-up baddie...season 2 suddenly turned around and made us think he was here to stay. The writers had cornered themselves: on the Tolkien Estate's behest, they had a dark horse who was about to run away with the show. I'm not going to fault them for going ahead with their original plan, because they would have had to retool subsequent seasons massively in order to fit in an Adar redemption arc, and you can't necessarily do that when the whole arc of your story is already planned.

JRR TOLKIEN'S LEGACY

All of us have written things we're not proud of. JRR Tolkien wrote a story world with something problematic hard-baked into the foundations: an entire race of beings for whom genetics determined ethics. Can you even imagine what it must have taken for him to get to the end of a long life spent in the dedicated pursuit of this story world, and to have the courage to admit that he might have been wrong? That really isn't something most authors are capable of. When Peter Jackson went to make LOTR and HOBBIT into movies, he did nothing to scrutinise this issue. His Orcs are flat: monstrous, comic, but never people.

TROP challenged that, and exercised significant skill, care, and wisdom in doing so. But they are still attempting a faithful adaptation of Tolkien's source material. We know where this story is going. Galadriel will end up in Lorien with her elf wifeguy. The Orcs will fall under Sauron's dominion and become his tools, enslaved to his will with the Ring. I did fantasise about Adar being Celeborn, and possibly some of his "children" getting to nope out of Sauron's dominion or even be turned into Elves. But we now know that was never on the table. The Orcs were always meant to fall to the Enemy. But here's the point: for the first time in the history of Tolkien works and adaptations, TROP allowed them the dignity of a fall. Going forward in the show, the Orcs won't be monstrous cannon fodder: they'll be people we knew, people we were pulling for, people whose deaths matter. They are, not a waste, but a tragedy.

TOLKIENIAN TRAGEDY

Look...there's nothing more Tolkienian than a beautiful disaster of a man who dies far too early.

And yes, I know that it's something we've seen before and wish storytellers would move away from - the Moment of Grace that never becomes anything more than a Moment. The villain who has a five minute redemption, then dies conveniently so that the heroes never have to work through the messy business of forgiveness and accountability (although I always did wonder how it would play to see a redeemed Adar, possibly Celeborn, living the rest of his life as a redeemed Uruk among people who hold an undying enmity with his children). It's happened so often that when I, Suzannah Rowntree, sit down to write a six book series where the irredeemable villain has to live and build a new and more accountable life for himself, there's startlingly little template for it, at least in Western media. We live in times that are starved for happy endings and genuine redemption arcs. I wanted so badly for Adar and his "children" to be blessed, and not cursed, by this narrative. So I get the rage. I get the grief.

But tragedy is still a valid art form. Again, all this is a function of the show successfully making the Orcs matter. And the reason the Orcs needed to matter is because they are about to be enslaved to Sauron. They were so close. They genuinely could have been good. Adar could have led them into an alliance with the Elves against their enemy - but instead, just like Celebrimbor, just like Galadriel, they are deceived by him. They turn to him out of fear that their father figure is treating them like cannon fodder, and now they have no one to advocate for them. And that's the tragedy of their situation.

We might all be a little tired of tragedy, but it's still valid, especially insofar as it never, ever forgets to treat its characters like people. Did the writers have to choose tragedy? No. Adar might have lived and undergone a redemption arc.

But the writers didn't have to give Adar a redemption arc, either. Any more than they had to so deeply humanise the Orcs and their father. It's not perfect writing, but it's not bad writing, either. Indeed, for a Tolkien adaptation trying to both honour the author's work and scrutinise his failings, in my opinion it's doing brilliantly.

And...honestly, I'm kind of happy that they left me wanting more, and better, for Adar. Because now I get to write that story myself.