#it's both funny and sad actually how simple fandoms make characters become and i like adding more complexity

[attractthecrows]

i think the main thing that bothers me about fanon families (because i am a picky pedant) is that for the most part, they ignore things like how said families would impact the characters and overall story. like it's one thing to add siblings and other random relations just for flavor, I can't judge there, I do it myself... but you gotta keep in mind how they slot in. who are these people related to? how are they similar? what are the common learned behaviors of the family - because they're there even if said character makes a purposeful break from said family - and how do they manifest? why and where is this person even involved in the story?

like don't get me wrong, this sort of playing around is a lot of fun. but it's fun (to me anyways) because people are so complex and there's so many facets to them, so there's all sorts of ways for their bonds with others to interact and add flavor to the plot.

[fragranceman]

what makes the dsmp’s story stand out

Why the dsmp is so special and why it distinguishes itself amongst the insane amount of media that we could be consuming instead right now.

So basically, this is really obvious and simple and i think we all kinda know it without thinking about it but i still felt like writing it down because it’s super important to me.

The thing that makes this story stand out amongst so many others (apart from the fact that it’s a mc rp lmao) is that all the character’s are treated like people. What i mean by that is that they can’t be treated simply as ways to further the plot, they can’t just kill off characters in favor of contributing to some other character’s arc, they can’t have stuff like “manic pixie dream girls”. and that’s because each character IS a real person, if they tried that, if someone suggested that stuff someone in the discord call is gonna go “hey, what the fuck man, you can’t just kill me off like that”.

Each character is therefore special, none of them can be 2d because they are people, they all exist as people instead of being plot devices. There aren’t any extras (except arguably the guests like drista, lil nas x, etc) there aren’t really any side characters*, because it’s everyone’s story, all the characters have someone sitting there that actually care about them and are interested in making that character special, they won’t be neglected.

that’s also why, often the characters just… don’t fit in tropes. they don’t really exist the way normal character’s do, they don’t have this “purpose” that movie or books characters do, like hero, trainer, soft character that teaches the main character about love, comic-relief, or love-interests that’s only there for 3 chapters because they die for the mc to teach them about grief.

They’re only there as, themselves. They don’t fit in one trope because people don’t do that, there’s more to them then that, they’re complex. they’re closer, more similar to real people than anything that’s been made in a really long time, and that’s because they all have a person to take care of their little character. 

there was this really cool thinking written by @/mt-words which i’ll link here about techno not fitting in a trope and that possibly fucking with people’s expectation of his characters. i think the idea that we’re so used to getting the same tropes regurgitated back to us over and over again that we don’t know how to handle stuff that doesn’t fit in them is very funny (and also a bit sad). Like, has media really become THIS repetitive and unoriginal??? But i digress.

anyway, time for quick examples, i was watching the “healthy competition” stream from 07/26 and i noticed something cool. So basically c!wilbur asks c!ranboo to ”pick his brain” and then asks him a bunch of questions about his morals and they discuss his alignments and other similar stuff right? And we can see clearly that c!wilbur is completely baffled at the stuff c!ranboo is saying about him not disliking anyone and not really having any strong stances at all. he just genuinely doesn’t understand c!ranboo and can’t relate at all.

Yet 10 mins later, he’s pouring his heart out to him and more importantly he’s talking about how he feels like c!ranboo really gets him. Obviously they are super similar in lots of ways, like their paranoia and anxiety, how they’re both kinda people pleasers, etc.

the fact that they can be in complete agreement on a topic and be so similar in certain aspects while also being complete opposites and being genuinely confused at the stuff that’s coming out of the other’s mouth on other topics really shows how multifaceted the character’s are, how 3d and real they feel.

I’m going to be adding another example from a post i just read by @/shrugofmud here it is :). It’s basically about how c!jack and ghostbur are cool because they balance comedy and drama. I’m gonna talk more about c!jack here. basically he’s comedic relief and he leans into that role right? but he’s also so much more than that, the way he balances the jokes and the clear comedy of his plotline with the sadness and loneliest he clearly feels and let’s that seep through in his jokes. He’s more than one thing, he’s more than comedic-relief, he copes with humor and covers his desire for a sense of belonging and to be heard by a bitter hatred and desire for revenge on c!tommy.

They’re more than just one thing, they aren’t reduced to a trope or a key personality trait the way characters often are. there’s so much to them, different parts of their personality that work together to make a whole, like a person :)

I also believe this is why the fandom as so much character analysis material and just keeps going, but it’s also why there’s so much disagreement on the characters and their personalities, like “oh people are villanizing c!wilbur too much” or “people are reducing c!niki to her villain arc and turning it into a ‘girlboss moment’” or “people are making c!tubbo too soft”. the character’s are harder to write into fanfic properly or analyze because you have to take into account all the different subtleties of them.

some people chose to focus on certain aspects of the characters, aspects they find more interesting or aspects they relate to, while other’s chose to focus on other aspects, which causes a bit of confusion.

It’s what makes this story so original and cool to think about and make the character’s so fucking compelling. It’s what makes me sit down for 6 hours straight and watch VODs so i can better understand different characters, it’s what makes me excited for each lore stream. it’s how human they are, how real they feel.

And this is why i’m the biggest believer and will always push for STUFF CAN BE TWO THINGS!!

[awigglycultist]

Pt 1 of The Guide: Starkid/Team Starkid/Starkid Productions (SK). I can't really think of much to say about them as whole. They make musicals and few webseries. I love them. They got started off in 2009 in college thanks to Harry Potter. I'll get into the more later.

Little White Lie (LWL). This is a webseries not a musical but it has plenty of songs in it. This was actually made before AVPM though it wasn't uploaded until after. It absolutely screams early 2000s. Everything about it is very early 2000s. Will probably give you the same vibes as Zoey101 if you watched that show. Ends on a cliff hanger, they were gonna make a season 2 but never did, tho there is a summary of how it would've gone. Its pretty short. It's good, it was one of the first things they made so not 10/10 but it's certainly not bad. It's Dear Evan Hansen but better.

Summary: Brother and Sister Duder and Sami Reese are a band that suck. After someone else gets into an accident they decide to lie and steal all their music to make it big.

A Very Potter Musical (AVPM). Was the first musical of theirs to go on youtube (bc it was cheaper than making DVDs for their family), and launched Starkid bc it went viral in the Harry Potter fandom, and thanks to this they kept making musicals and putting them on youtube. Made back in college, it's simple, funny, especially if you like Harry Potter, not amazing quality, and that goes for several of their early musicals, but hey it was 2009, it's kinda a mix of a few of the books and doesn't really take place durning a set year of school. Have you that hufflepuffs are particularly good finders? Or heard the audio "did someone say Draco Malfoy!?" both of those come from this. Also btw there's three Very Potter musicals and together their knows as A Very Potter Trilogy (AVPT). Also, Starkid hate JKR so dw about if you'd be supporting ppl who support her.

Summary: Uhm I'm honestly not really sure how to explain the plot to it. Ginny tries to get with Harry, Harry tries to get with Cho Chang, the tri wizard tournament happens, Quirrell has Voldemort attached to him and Voldemort plans on destroying Hogwarts.

Me and My Dick (MAMD). Ppl have anthropomorphic genitals. It's pretty sexual. But also funny and honestly a pretty sweet and cute story when get past the innuendos.

Summary: This dude named Joey is best friends with his dick (named Dick). He has a crush on this hot popular girl. Meanwhile his friend Sally has a crush on him. Joey and Dick get into an argument and quite literally Dick like unattaches himself and runs away.

A Very Potter Sequel (AVPS). Takes place in their first year of school. It's probably the most liked of AVPT, and it's definitely my favorite of AVPT. Warning the depiction of Umbridge in this is a bit transphobic but they've apologized for this.

Summary: Lucius Malfoy wants to get rid of Harry Potter once for all, so he travels back in time to Harry's first year at Hogwarts to do so.

Starship. Quite long. Imagine The Little Mermaid but instead of Mermaids it's a planet of huge bugs and instead of ppl on a boat it's astronauts. Or maybe imagine the Bee Movie but space. It's great. Theres also a subplot romance of a robot and one of the human astronauts. It's hilarious, it's fun, it's a good story, it's a long one, definitely one of my faves. Not gonna explain the plot bc it really is very similar to the plot of The Little Mermaid, but also it has more characters and is better (sorry Little Mermaid, space bugs are better and cooler).

Holy Musical B@man. A Batman parody. It's more like Lego Batman then any other Batman movie. It's a parody, it's not serious, it's just stupid and silly and fun. Lots of puns. It's ridiculous in a good way. My dad likes this one. Have you heard "I wanna be a modern dancer!"

Summary: Batman is sad and lonely. Superman is a jerk. Alfred finds Robin and is like "hey Batman check out this orphan kid!" in an attempt to get him a friend. They ofc become best friends. Sweet Tooth (basically The Joker) wrangles all the villains together to properly take over Gotham for once and for all.

A Very Potter Senior Year (AVPSY). Sorta fan fair, and it's a sweet ending to the trilogy. A lot of ppl are put off by the stage and the fact they're holding scripts, but: they performed this at a convention, and they only had two days to rehearse. So if you can look past that it's good (at least imo). Takes place in their last year. Long.

Summary: Gildroy Lockhart is a new professor at Hogwarts and everyone's lost interest in Harry and only cares about Gildroy and Harry is not happy about it, until he find out that Voldemort has returned.

Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier (or just Twisted). It's like Wicked but for Aladdin. It's amazing and awesome and fantastic and the best. An amazing mix of humor and seriousness. Amazing music. Amazing story. Amazing acting. Literally everything is amazing.

Summary: Aladdin but Jafar is the protagonist/hero. Trailer

ANI: A Parody (or just ANI). It's a parody of Star Wars. Also makes Darth Vadar the good guy for the most part but not really inspired by Wicked like Twisted is, in Twisted the point is that Ja'far is the good guy, in this its not the point. A lot of ppl don't like ANI bc they find it not very funny and the way the music is done strange. It's not a typical musical, the actors on stage aren't the ones singing, they still have choreo to the songs tho. Personally it's definitely not my favorite but it has some really funny characters in it though I'm sure it's best enjoyed if you actually know Star Wars.

Summary: Anakin is a little loser man and no one likes him but he used to pod race and he now he's gotta prove that he still has it in him and pod race once again. Trailer

The Trail To Oregon (TTO). It's a parody of the game The Oregon Trail. It's got quite a bit of potty humour, well particularly the ending, but overall it's still very funny. It's, I believe, the shortest SK musical. My dad likes this one a lot too.

Summary: Follows a dysfunctional family and their journey down the Oregon Trail. The dad is an idiot. The mom is overbearing but also the only one with sense. The son is a 7 yr old boy so ofc he's stupid too. The daughter is a typical teen girl. And the grandfather hates the dad (his stepson). The daughter falls in love with this mysterious cool man who then kidnaps her! Oh no he evil! The family breaks apart but then ofc has to bands together to save their daughter. You also get to pick the ending you want, it's all really the same ending you're just changing who sings and getting to hear a couple different jokes. Trailer (skip to 1:23)

Firebringer. The dawn of humanity. Dumb cave people. Dumb gay cave women. Like ANI it's not the funniest as a whole to me or to most people, but it does have one of the funniest characters, it does also have some really cool music. But it is a really fun and great story. Have you ever seen the "I don't really wanna do the work today?" vine/meme? Or heard the "what if I tried something new and it-" "backfired!" audio? Both of those come from this.

Summary: Zazzalil invents the spear but Jemilla is like "no that's dangerous!" the whole thing is kinda about safety vs innovation. Also Jemilla is the leader of the tribe. Then Zazzalil accidentally discovers fire and kicks Jemilla out and becomes the new leader. Turns out fire is very dangerous oopsie! Also there's this big saber toothed tiger thing that everyone's afraid and they decide to go kill, Also the ending is VERY suprising and unexpected (although the writers somehow thought everyone would except it) Trailer

Movies Musicals and Me (MM&M). It's a short webseries wheres there's no real plot exactly. It's just an excuse really to make parody songs for fake musicals. It follows a guy whose been in all of these musicals and is iconic and stuff but he's also super egotistical and the series has him going through singing different songs for the musicals he's been in and talking a bit about them along with others who were in those musicals with him or directed or produced or are a fan or something also taking about him and how Great™ he is. Trailer (which explains the series better than I did I feel like)

VHS Christmas Carol (VHSCC). It's they're shortest musical, being only one act, and unlike their other musicals it's 100% songs. It's easily one of my favorite Starkid shows and I could watch it a million times in a row. It has some the best songs of all their shows, it's so hard to choose a favorite.

It's the classic Charles Dickens tale A Christmas Carol but a musical and in the 80s! Originally it was done in 2020 with everyone in front of greenscreens and edited together to give it an 80's vhs tape vibe. In 2021 they a did a short live run of the show still with an 80's vhs background and 80's clothes, this is the version that's on youtube. Trailers: first, second

[rawr-ily]

A Stupidly Long Bokuto Analysis

CEO of thought dumping and calling glamorized rants “essays”

I already made a character analysis for my kin character (Oikawa) so here’s one for my favorite/ultimate comfort character :)

"The world" is a recurring theme with Bokuto. He has a strange habit of always looking at the bigger picture. By which I mean, he doesn’t really look out for little details. He's simple minded, so he takes things at face value. Tokyo isn't enough for him. Japan isn't enough. Asia isn't enough. He wants the world. He doesn't care if it seems like too much, or if it's unreasonable. He knows what he wants, and he's going to get it.

This is more noticeable in the manga. For example, there's the iconic "No matter what they say, we are the protagonists of the world" . Yes, I know Akaashi is the one the says this line, but it really mainly applies to Bokuto. We know Bokuto has this strange sort of charisma that makes him ridiculously likable to pretty much anyone. Now, I REALLY didn't wanna make this about Akaashi, but it seems like that's actually Furudate's intention. It's almost as though he didn't want to give us direct access to Bokuto's thoughts for most of the series. Instead, how did we get that? Akaashi. Akaashi is the narrator for Bokuto's thoughts. Bokuto is so random, so unique and strange, that it wouldn't make sense for us to have access to his mind. Yes, we get direct thoughts from him time to time, but Akaashi is the one who really tells us most of it. He's there to filter out Bokuto's thoughts because it would be too strange for us to understand. We would never be able to figure out Bokuto because he can't even figure out himself. That's technically Akaashi's "purpose" in the story. I don't mean that in a bad way though. I would explain more, but I wanna keep this about Bokuto as much as possible.

ANYWAY, we can sort of see Akaashi as an "extension" of Bokuto. When Akaashi says "we are the protagonists of the world", he is not talking to himself or the reader. He's talking to Bokuto, because he knows Bokuto wants the world. Another thing about this quote is that he begins with "No matter what they say..." This kind of made me to a double take. Why would someone say they aren't? But then I remembered in the manga, we get a scene of Bokuto running with some classmates. It was probably for a gym class of sorts. It's Bokuto's turn to set the pace for their run, and everybody's upset because he always goes too fast and too overboard. Bokuto doesn't really notice, and he goes forth anyway. However, after a while, he looks back and realizes nobody is running with him anymore.

Sound familiar? Kageyama's teammates left him in the same way Bokuto's did. They couldn't keep up, so they abandoned them. We're more familiar with Kageyama's past, so it's a bit easier to understand Bokuto's if you see that little parallel. I might be reaching a little here, but it's possible that people have told Bokuto that the world doesn't revolve around him in the same way Kageyama was mockingly called a king. It's a common thing said to people like Bokuto, who don't really understand much outside their own head. It's not a bad thing, but many people misinterpret it as arrogance or a disregard for others. Bokuto's charisma apparently didn't work for everyone, considering how annoyed his classmates were; I think it's a possibility that people made some snide remarks.

We also see that Bokuto is actually incredibly desperate for validation. He constantly brags about his amazing talent, always wants people to see the cool things he does, and thrives off compliments. He wants attention, and that's not a bad thing at all. It just means he wants people to acknowledge how great he is, and he feels happy when they do. That's really just scraping the surface of all that quote tells us, but I want to move on to something else.

Another recurring thing about Bokuto is his use of the word "ordinary" It seems that he doesn't really understand what the word means, but I think he knows its meaning better than anyone. Bokuto using the word first stood out to me when Fukurodani player a difficult match against another school in Nationals. I'm not too familiar with the timeline, so correct me if I'm wrong. Bokuto told the rest of Fukurodani that, up until that point, he was "an ace coddled by his team" and now he's ready to be "just an ace". He wants to be an ordinary ace, which seems quite strange. This is Bokuto, and wants to be ordinary?

Bokuto has a different understanding of "ordinary" than most people do. He's simple minded, not stupid. It's not that he doesn't think; he just thinks differently. He's that unique type of person who thinks out of the box by default. When most people think of ordinary, we think of boring, plain, normal. It's been given a negative connotation by most people. Bokuto doesn't listen to connotation.

Remember that he takes things at face value? This is an example. To us, ordinary is boring. To him, it's a goal. Bokuto sees ordinary as what things are supposed to be. He wants to be an ordinary ace. Aces are supposed to be the awesome, powerful stars of the team. Aces are supposed to be the best. He wants to be the best. Therefore, he wants to be an ordinary ace. It took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to fully understand that entire bit, to be honest.

It's actually more clearly stated in one of the last manga chapters after MSBY vs. Schweiden. Akaashi interviews Bokuto for the manga company he works at, and Bokuto tells him that he has become "ordinary". Akaashi is confused and tells Bokuto that he has never been ordinary. Bokuto laughs and makes some remark about how Akaashi didn't realize just how ordinary he's become. We get a little throwback to Akaashi's 0.5 second thought process, and he realizes immediately that Bokuto doesn't use the word "ordinary" like he does. Even more impressive, he seems to also realize exactly what he means by it. Akaashi tells him that he (Akaashi) was mistaken and Bokuto is actually "super ordinary".

THIS PART TOOK ME A GOOD TWENTY MINUTES, AND AKAASHI DID IT IN 0.5 SECONDS. He's the real master at Bokuto analysis. Though Bokuto doesn't get enough serious background, so he's a difficult one to analyze. It's also much harder to put him into words? Again, he's a very unique character. He even has a surprising amount of duality in him. Though we as a fandom perceive him as an optimist, it seems his mood swings often force him into a state of overwhelming pessimism. I actually find it quite funny. It's almost like his left brain and right brain are fighting a battle, and left brain almost loses but summons the strength to momentarily completely overwhelm right brain before it takes back control. I got a very strange visual from that though.

Regardless, it just means I think his mind tries to balance out his naive optimism with intense flashes of pessimism. Bokuto gives his all to EVERYTHING. That's actually sort of an issue for him. If he's happy, he's VERY happy. If he's upset, he's VERY upset. He wants to be the best at all he doesbecause he just wants to have fun. He's not having fun when he loses, so he doesn't want to lose. It's so simple, but it's strangely inspiring. It's the straightforward answer to Tsukishima's question. Why do we push ourselves to be the best when we know there is no such thing? What motivates us? Our desire to win. What makes us want to win? Our desire to win is fueled by hatred for losing. Why don't we want to lose? We don't want to lose because it's not fun. Why isn't it fun? It just isn't. Bokuto doesn't try to dig for those answers. After all, why is anything the way it is? What does it matter? He doesn't care as long as he's enjoying himself.

I suppose that's one of the nice parts of being so simple minded. He's able to enjoy life to the fullest because he doesn't want to focus on things he doesn't like. That means his future character growth will be about having to do things he doesn't like because that's a part of life. It'll actually be quite sad to watch Bokuto grow up. What he needs to do is find a balance for all the duality in him so he doesn't need to give up his childishness or force out his mature side. If he can find a balance, it just means he'll be able to do both when he needs to. If he can do that, he'll get through everything life throws at him. He can still have fun.

He doesn't get enough serious screen time, so I can't really say anymore about him that can be reinforced by things from the anime or manga. This was only around 1.5K, so hopefully it was a pretty easy read? I still don't wanna edit this, so just tell me if things don't make sense! Also, please remember that Bokuto IS NOT AN IDIOT, SO PLEASE STOP CALLING HIM ONE IF IT’S NOT FOR COMEDIC PURPOSES. Thank you :)

[crispyapplepies]

AkuRoku Defense pt 2

Axel and Roxas’s ship has had one of the most bizarre fandom journey’s i have ever come to witness. It has gone from being one of the most popular ships maybe ever, to being dead cancelled over a supposed age gap and I find that completely unfair, especially when it speaks to so many innocent people who emotionally depend on the ship, (yes innocent includes the spicy people because art literally is not a crime). So its time to defend it.

Brief Review on Nobodies vs Aging

First of all, l already explained in part 1 what the Nobodies Don’t Age thing means but I’ll go over it again briefly, since it can be confusing, though also many people seem to demand their hands be held rather than use their imaginations to understand. Even so, here’s the short version just for a review:

-A person in KH is made of a heart, body, and soul.

-The body reflects the heart in KH. (See: replica bodies taking on the appearance of the heart that’s inside them). 

-A nobody lacks a heart, making them just a body and soul. They’re advanced zombies of sorts.

Nobodies do not age because they have no heart for the body to reflect. This is why they won’t change until they form one. Change includes age

-Ergo, you can imagine any age you like for Axel to be nobodied, cuz he was frozen at that age and did not change for 10 years. Not until he met Roxas. 

We’ll come back to this again later.

Axel Loves Roxas Canonically

Second of all, Axel loves Roxas and you are allowed to interpret that as platonic, familial, or romantic, I don’t care as long as you’re not forcing that idea on others like the ship police. That said, people are allowed to explore how romantic this love potentially is. 

And what you might like to know is that the canon is even open to this. Axel’s love for Roxas is canonically expressed, and if you would like, you can even interpret that love as romantic. See below:

We are going to look at the japanese translation because AS ALWAYS good old SENA is here for the straights and erases the gay, like clockwork. 

In English, Axel says this:

Axel: I wanted to see Roxas. He...was the only one I liked... He made me feel...like I had a heart. It's kind of...funny... You make me feel...the same...

Axel’s line here in Japanese:

Axel: I wanted to see Roxas... I loved him. Being with him... it made me feel like I had a heart. I feel it from you, too... the same kind of....

You may notice that as romantic as the line “he made me feel like I had a heart” sounds, the original can be read as wAY gooier, specifically cuz of this word:

好き: "suki"

Now here’s the thing. Japanese is a pretty vague language which is why context is so important for these things, as well as what you say, and what you don’t say. 

“Suki” is a very key word here because it is often used in romantic confession scenes.

(I have no idea what this panel is from, I apologize lol) 

It CAN mean something casual, like “I love video games”, but considering Axel is saying this with his dying breath, I don’t think we should be treating it as some hyperbole. He is referring to a person and it is meaningful. However. It is still a word with plausible deniability. Japanese has several words for love, “ai” for example being one of the most inarguable means of referring to romantic love. So choosing “suki” still leaves room for the homophobes to disregard it as something not romantic. Which makes it objectively inconclusive. Here is the thing though… they specifically chose that word, suki, a word which IS so often used in a romantic context in many anime and manga. 

They also chose to use that word rather than something objectively platonic. Which means you also cannot conclude Axel did NOT mean it romantically. Given his devotion to Roxas, and the fact that they chose this word of all words for him to say… I’m personally going to assume it’s romantic. You are free not to interpret it that way. But I am because I am considering the fact that they did not choose something strictly platonic. 

(My translator friend actually freaked out when I showed her this, she’s translated and seen enough confession scenes to know what connotations that particular word comes with lol). 

If you’ve read my queer coding doc, you may recall I also go over how this is one of the most important tricks with queer coding. You write something that CAN be viewed as queer but with plausible deniability for straight people to ignore it. It’s a means of protecting oneself and the text from homophobic oppression. It is a legitimate practice. So even though it can be denied as a queer text, it can also very very well be viewed as a definite queer text. We are choosing to queer it here. It is not as explicit as it could be, but it is still very bold, suggestive coding considering the homophobic world we live in, and especially with KH2 being released in 2004. 

“But Age Gap!” (ughhhhh)

We’re back to this cuz I also finally have the Japanese version of that infamous page in the Day’s novel to look at.  

I hope you’ll forgive me if I get a little bit salty but I don’t like to repeat myself lol so I’m gonna try to keep this section short and to the point.

In this interview with Nomura, he expresses that nobodies do not age, and they exist as they were at the time of becoming a nobody. He then suggests Xemnas seems 30 ish.

Now I truly do not care to hold your hand through the process of thinking creatively because you should be using your own imagination, if you have one, to think critically and creatively about what this idea means.

Kingdom Hearts is a FANTASY game. Nobodies are a FANTASY concept. They can break ALL the rules about real life that you want them to. But I will go ahead and explain this for you even though I’ve already done it many times, in this very document even and in other meta posts.

The body reflects the heart. Nobodies are frozen as they are from the moment they are “born”, which is to say the moment they are created. Glorified zombies. They aren’t going to age unless they form a heart. Why does Xemnas look 30? He has a heart! Or he was formed 10 years after TerraNort defected. You tell me. Why did Ienzo age? I dunno, you tell me! Either he formed a heart and didn’t know it, (he’s passionate about his work, he loves Ansem the Wise, any number of things could’ve made him form a new heart), or he was nobodied later in life. Axel is frozen at whatever age he was when he was nobodied, all the while Ienzo could’ve been nobodied 10 years later. It’s a fantasy, and these are fantasy rules. That scenario can happen. YOU decide. Until the canon tells us for sure, your imaginations can run wild with explanations. Even if the canon does tell us, you can still imagine whatever you want for your own headcanons. Freedom is amazing, it’s salty and sweet. 

Now let’s talk about that annoying page in the Days novel people keep shoving in my face.

This one right here. The official english translation is this:

That’s not the worst translation I’ve seen them put out there. But let’s look closer at the Japanese:

 Here, Axel says he thinks Roxas is about 10 years separate from himself, but things like age don't exist for nobodies.

Already that’s making a lot more sense to me for nobodies since we are told nobodies do not age. As such Axel speaking like he is 10 years older would feels almost contradictory when he has no heart and cannot change. 

This wording is important. Recall me saying that Japanese is very vague so all of the context matters. No one is denying that 10 years passed between Birth By Sleep and Axel meeting Roxas. However. Nobodies don’t age.

(please dont make me explain that a third time in this essay alone)

The Japanese and English both express that age does not apply to nobodies, (as discussed above^^^^) and the Japanese furthers this with its wording. They have 10 years of separation between Axel being nobodied, and Roxas existing.  

Axel saying in English that Roxas is simply 10 years younger than himself is rather misleading considering the ambiguity of the original. I can’t fault the translators too much for not understanding this nobody concept so well because it is obviously confusing. However, I do not think Axel was saying Roxas is literally, in real life human somebody terms, 10 literal physical years younger than him. He is expressing that he became a nobody 10 years ago whereas this guy became a nobody very recently, and it shows with how little he can even function right now. A zombie who has been wandering around with no heart for 10 years meets a fresh zombie wandering around with no heart for 1 day. 

I know antis are gonna use it against us no matter what, but at least know that akuroku is not inherently pedophilia nor is it inherently an adult/minor ship.

In many of our headcanons, Axel was frozen at age 18 or 19, with Roxas being 16. Absolutely no one is required to view them with a big age gap because imagination is free and you literally have no right to police it, but also because the canon expresses these nobodies as beings outside of the realm of age. They do not operate under real life rules or somebody rules. Think of Steven Universe where Rose was thousands of years old but only “grew up” as a person when she fell in love with Greg, a human in his 20s-30s who asked her to consider other people’s feelings. Consider the mind of a nobody as a state of Neverland. You aren’t gonna age unless you step out of it and change. Mature. Isn’t it sad that Axel did not feel like he had a heart until Roxas? No wonder people ship it!

Coding is Obvious

Finally I wanna conclude on a simple thought. This interview right here? I’d be curious what the original Japanese actually says lol but the english translation of it says that romantic akuroku was not Nomura’s intent. 

Here’s the thing though. If you know anything about queer coding, you know that using romantic coding between 2 male characters is signaling something. It is not something you should ignore. It would not be there if the characters were meant to be viewed as objectively straight. And for something “unintentional”... there sure is a lot of coding at work here.

From Axel pinning Roxas down and asking him to come home in a very sexually suggestive pose,

to watching the sunset in sheer bliss together just enjoying the peace of reunion,

to watching the sunset together while talking about what LOVE is, specifICALLY romantic love,

To this. And I already told you what this was in Japanese.

I’m not saying Nomura lied…

But I am saying that a whole staff worked together to create these games, and it is very difficult for me to believe that no one thought to say “these characters appear to be romantic, let us change the scene to be more platonic” if the characters were not meant to be romantically suggestive. 

Tl;Dr I wanna live in the timeline where people let you ship akuroku lol

[number-1-kuaidul-fanboy]

Punch Out Wii Boxers Ranked

Thought I’d give my opinion on this since I’ve already expressed biases towards/against certain characters. I will be including Donkey Kong and Doc Louis but not Little Mac (because he is the objective best). The list will go from 15: the worst, to 1: the best. Before I start, I’d like to say that all of these characters are good, well-crafted characters, it really just comes down to personal bias who you prefer. And with that, let’s get started:

15. King Hippo

King Hippo is barely a character. Everything he “says” (there are apparently translations) just boils down to being hungry and he has no personality outside of that. I don’t hate him, but I don’t really care about him. His fight is also pretty boring all things considered. The contender fight is pitifully easy once you know what you’re doing and his title defense fight can go on for a long time and get very monotonous. At least his music’s kinda cool.

14. Super Macho Man

As someone who lives in America, I hate Macho Man with a burning passion. It’s not because I’m “patriotic,” it’s actually kind of the opposite. I’m not offended by his stereotype because it’s mean, I’m annoyed by his stereotype because it’s accurate. I deal with people like this on the daily: in the news. His catchphrases are obnoxious (except sometimes when they’re cut off. That’s kinda funny, admittedly) and he’s egotistical even compared to some of the others. He’s the type of person I actually want to punch in the face so I thank Punch Out for giving me that opportunity but I still hate the character. His match is fine. It’s a bit too easy in both contender and title defense compared to Soda and Bull but hey, at least they tried. His music’s alright.

13. Donkey Kong

Don’t get me wrong, I love Donkey Kong’s inclusion in this game. I think it’s amazing that Nintendo made a match for one of their most famous characters and the fight against him is very unique and challenging to win by KO. That being said, I never really played Donkey Kong so I don’t really have the connection to this character that others do. So yeah, great cameo, not one of my favourite fighters.

12. Bald Bull

Sorry, Bald Bull fans, but I’m not the biggest fan of this raging lunatic. In fact, he kinda creeps me out. People make jokes about Great Tiger being a furry (which he is), but Bald Bull straight up acts like a bull to the point of literally assaulting the poor referee. It’s kind of gross. To that same point, he is also completely shameless about his horrid anger issues which is personally not fun to watch. I get that he was driven mad by the paparazzi (or whatever that cutscene was trying to convey) but it’s still pretty over the top. I’m also not a big fan of his fights. It’s not too terribly difficult in contender mode (except the stupid bull charge) but it’s downright ridiculous in title defense. I firmly believe that his title defense match is the hardest in the entire game, yes even more difficult than TD Soda and TD Sandman. I cannot express with words how much I despise the star punch gimmick. Getting the star punches is frame perfect, making it feel like luck, and getting hit once makes you lose them all. And you need those stars to even knock him down. Seems a bit extreme for the middle fight in the world circuit, doesn’t it?! I was at this fight for hours and was over the moon when I finally managed to beat him. Also, his music kinda sucks. However, I put him over Macho Man because despite everything I just said, I don’t actually hate Bald Bull. I hate his fights but I don’t hate him personally like I do with obnoxious american.

11. Soda Popinski

Oh boy, Drunk Man. I don’t really see many reasons to like him but not any to hate him either, apart from his stupidly difficult fight, that is. I actually find it pretty easy in Contender. There’s a lot of strategies to knock him down really fast and his pattern is pretty basic. As for title defense, did they really need to make it that ridiculously hard? Yeah, there are tricks to make it easier and he has a set pattern but getting into the rhythm of that pattern is incredibly difficult and one slight mistake sets you back to two stun punches. It’s beyond frustrating. And yet the game deems him and Bald Bull to be easier than Macho Man. Why? As a character, Soda is just kinda there for me. It’s fun to make jokes about his steroid soda at least. Also, his music is for some reason one of my favourites tracks in the game. It’s just so epic.

10. Bear Hugger

Alright, now we’re onto the characters I actually like. Bear Hugger is a fun character. He’s one of the more exaggerated stereotypes though I can’t really say for sure whether this one is accurate or not but I’m guessing the maple syrup and hockey stuff at the very least is. I also love the squirrel. It’s implemented into the fight kind of oddly, but it makes his title defense fight pretty enjoyable. It’s a difficult fight but not one I’ve lost recently. The contender fight is fun too, it’s definitely one where I get to spam a ton of star punches. His music is good too. Not much to say on Bear Hugger, he’s fun but I like the other characters more.

9. Disco Kid

Kinda sad that the Wii version only introduced one new character to the roster but at least it was a fun character. Disco Kid’s matches are not a challenge. Contender mode, title defense, he’s one of the easiest fights in the game. He makes up for that by being incredibly over the top flamboyant and cocky, this time in a fun way. I like that he dances throughout his whole fight, I think it’s cool when every little aspect of someone’s match ties into who the character is. Disco Kid is a flamboyant dancer and that is perfectly shown through his mannerisms in the fights. I especially love how in Title Defense, he’s not really bitter or determined to beat Mac he’s just like, “Oh a dance club? This is cool, might as well work this stuff into my boxing routine.” It’s pretty excellent. I’m not a huge fan of disco, but his theme music is pretty good.

8. Aran Ryan

If there’s one thing I’ve seen since joining this site, it’s a lot of Aran Ryan. People on here really love this guy and even many of the YouTubers I’ve seen play this game say he is one of if not their favourite character in the game. Personally, I think he’s a little overrated. However, I do still like him and see why other people like him. He’s sort of a “love to hate” kind of character with him being a complete psycho that’s probably a sadist and a masochist considering how he seems to enjoy being punched and beating the hell out of everyone. It’s fun in a twisted way. His fights are also both pretty fun. Everyone really likes the cheating aspect and yeah, it’s pretty ridiculous that he can literally bring in a weapon and get away with it. However, it also makes his fight stand out from the others. He’s so horrible that he’s just fun to beat up. It’s also the only world circuit fight in title defense that I don’t hate with every fibre of my being. So yeah, fun character, with excellent music might I add.

7. Glass Joe

Here’s another favourite here on Tumblr. To be honest, the fact that people on here liked Aran Ryan didn’t surprise me at all. In fact, it seemed perfectly in character. However, it did surprise me to see how many people liked Glass Joe. I thought he was kind of underrated before but now I see that he’s getting the love he deserves. I love how even though Glass Joe is in every way a french stereotype, he also directly defies the stereotype of the french being quick to surrender. He lost one hundred times and still didn’t give up, becoming determined to defeat Little Mac after earning the headgear. It’s unironically really admirable. Glass Joe’s fights are never a challenge. Contender, title defense, champion’s mode, motion controls, he’s always kind of a joke. However, he is meant to be a tutorial fight for new players and this game gets much more challenging as it goes on, so it’s understandable. They did do a good job at making him more challenging in title defense, but it was still pretty easy at least in my opinion.

6. Von Kaiser

Von Kaiser’s a little underrated in this fandom. Maybe I’m speaking from bias, since I have so many headcanons about him but I really do think he’s a good character. He is just as much of a coward as Glass Joe and isn’t a much better fighter (his contender and title defense fights are both incredibly simple) yet Von Kaiser has a significantly better record than the rest of the minor circuit and even Bear Hugger, with 23 wins and 13 losses. He must’ve gotten those wins from somewhere and I doubt they were all from Glass Joe. That combined with the fact that Kaiser is the oldest boxer in the game (42) makes me think he was once a great boxer but has now passed his prime and refuses to give up, sort of like Glass Joe, but a little more tragic. Regardless, it’s fun to speculate. And I feel kinda bad for Von Kaiser, I mean the dude gets beat up by kids and basically goes mad after being beaten by a seventeen year old boxing newbie. Also, his music is pretty intense despite the fact that he’s treated like a joke by the game. Like Glass Joe, they did do a good job of making Kaiser more difficult in title defense by giving him a one hit KO and plenty of fake outs, though I don’t particularly struggle with either of those.

5. Sandman

Sandman is scary as hell. None of the other boxers really intimidate me, even the one with ridiculously difficult fights, but Sandman is a different story. Everyone else in the game has some kind of silly quirk even when they are serious but this guy is deadly serious about boxing. I mean, they introduce him by showing him beat the shit out of everyone you just faced before, some of which the player may have struggled with. It’s a great introduction for a final boss. His fight in contender is certainly the hardest in that mode and while I didn’t struggle with his title defense fight as much as TD Soda and TD Bull, it was still incredibly hard to beat. And unlike TD Soda and TD Bull, he actually has final boss vibes, so he does deserve his rank (unlike some other characters). Similar to Aran Ryan, his fight also requires the player to be more on offense, at least in my experience.

#4 Doc Louis

Doc Louis is severely underrated in this fandom and just in general. I love how encouraging he is to Little Mac even when he loses repeatedly, I love his silly tips that more often than not are cheesy dad jokes or puns. He’s just a good wholesome dad that loves his chocolate. I love him. Sadly, I have not played Doc Louis’s Punch Out so I don’t really have a perspective on how the fight is apart from videos online but it does look pretty fun, and it’s freaking Doc Louis. How can you not love him?

#3 Piston Hondo

This guy is also kind of underrated, maybe because he’s a bit vanilla? I don’t know, but apart from Sandman, he is undoubtedly the most serious about boxing. It’s actually a bit scary. I mean, this dude can catch a sword in his bare hands and outrun the bullet train, he could easily become champion after Little Mac retires. In fact, for me at least, his title defense fight is the most challenging fight in the major circuit for me. Yes, harder than Bear Hugger and Great Tiger. Those fake outs and speedy Hondo Rushes kept getting me. So yeah, very dedicated to boxing. He’s also just very respectable in general, keeping a calm demeanor throughout the fight and even bowing to show respect. He also doesn’t laugh at you when you get knocked down like literally everyone else does. (Apart from Don, but he still taunts you by asking if you want more.) Yeah, he gloats, but he’s a good sport. It’s nice to see someone who plays fair amongst a crowd of cheaters.

#2 Don Flamenco

Yet another character I’m surprised doesn’t get more attention in this fandom. I dunno, maybe my opinions are just weird. That being said, Don Flamenco was always going to be one of my favourites as he is the only foreign speaker in this entire game I can understand without subtitles. Though even if you don’t know spanish, Don’s character is still very clear and very amazing. Like, I’m sorry, but his contender intro is the best sequence in the entire game. You know immediately what he’s all about and it’s just so beautifully over the top to see this try hard dance his way into the ring with a rose. Actually, “beautifully over the top” is a great description for Don Flamenco in general. He hits every note of the “Spanish man” stereotype in the first few seconds you see him: being a bullfighter, getting all the girls, dancing the flamenco, and just being handsome in general. I don’t know if that last one is an actual stereotype but it’s undeniably true. And none of that is a bad thing. He is a positive figure, if a little cocky, and all of these things that the game could make fun of him for (the NES version certainly does), are actually shown in a positive light. I’m not too fond of bullfighting being shown in that light but it is very popular in Spain so… eh. Also, I do like that Don Flamenco fights like a bullfighter in the ring, baiting you into “charging” or attacking before countering. It’s a nice detail. However, it does make the fight a little too easy. In contender mode, even without doing the infinite, I barely have any trouble with him. He’s easy to get stars off of, his attacks are not that hard to dodge or counter, and if you do the infinite combo, you can destroy him in seconds. In title defense, he is more difficult for sure, but he’s the easiest fight title defense fight in the major circuit. That being said, holy cow is he amazing in title defense as well. He was already over the top in contender but in title defense, after one loss might I add, he acts like it’s the end of the world and becomes completely emo. This could’ve been completely obnoxious or stupid but in my opinion, it makes him very entertaining. He’s just so fun to watch in general, I love his epic music, and I love this angsty telenovela character. Amo al personaje Don Flamenco. El es tan entretenido y guapo. Necesita más amor. Because I mentioned that I know spanish earlier and the first first thing people always ask me is to speak some so there you go. Onto number one.

1. Great Tiger

If you’ve seen my other stuff here on Tumblr, you probably knew this was coming. My very first post on Tumblr, as well as the second, was about Great Tiger and I have tons of pictures of him in my likes. I guess I just have a thing for charming arrogant divas. Seriously, while he’s not as over the top as someone like Disco Kid or Don Flamenco, Great Tiger is a total diva and kind of a show off. He’s always using his clones to glorify himself or taunt you, which would normally be annoying but for some reason, it’s not in his case. And it’s not because I don’t know what he’s saying, the inflection in his voice makes it clear enough that he’s trash talking (and I’ve looked up translations). It’s because Great Tiger has a sort of cold determination, like he is ready to destroy you first, glorify himself after, probably the reason he doesn’t have a taunt, unlike nearly everyone else in the game. He is completely focused on the match and very cool-headed as well. He’s very respectable, even when he’s literally telling you to go drink your mother’s milk. On a side note, I looked up those translations as a kid and I still can’t get over the fact that that is something he actually says. Like, what on earth Nintendo? Still, it’s kinda funny to me. Anyways, I love Great Tiger’s fights. His contender form is fun and I love that intermission scene where he switches places with Doc, showing what a likeable douche he is but his title defense form is my favourite in the game. I really love the magical element, what can I say? The flashing jewel is like a game of Simon put to boxing, I love that he teleports all over the place, the Magic Rush is gorgeous bullshit, and the fight keeps me on my toes but not to the point of being impossibly hard. It’s also fun to experiment with certain elements of the fight, because it can be incredibly varied depending on what you do. just really fun. Whether I do the special knockout or play through the whole fight, I have a fun time fighting Great Tiger. It also helps that his music is spectacular, my favourite in the game. I dunno, those bongos just feel so good on the ears. Great Tiger is also just really interesting in general, and I feel like there’s a lot of unanswered questions about him. How does he have magic? (I know the NES version has an explanation for this but the Wii version does not and is substantially different.) What is the extent of his abilities? Is the jewel the source of his power? It seemed to be directly linked to his corporeal clones in title defense. Is he even of this world? I don’t know, but damn it’s fun to speculate on. I’d love a story just about his backstory, how he got his magic, how he became a boxer, I care about that stuff. So yeah, Great Tiger is the most interesting character in this game, and that’s why he’s my favourite. (I also low-key crush on him, but that’s subjective :)

Anyways, hope you enjoyed my list, it was kinda long, but I have a lot of opinions on this game and this is a good place to put it.

[fallen-gabrielle]

Headcanon about Numbuh 999

Her background and relationship with Monty

It is really a shame that we didn't get to know more about Numbuh 999, a.k.a. Nigel's mom. It is revealed in the very last episode. Kinda too late to explore the character, huh? Well, that's what the fanbase is for, isn't it? Headcanons and theories is what gives the fandom some content while on hiatus (or because we won't get anything canon ever again since the sequel will not be a thing).

I tried to piece together the few information we had in the cartoon to give her a backstory. Things we know for sure:

she was the first girl operative of the 7th age of the KND, she has a long lost brother who is the father of Numbuh 10

...Okay, that was fast. Most of the following is based on some personal experience and knowledge of the mid 60s. I headcanon that Monty's rebellion happened in the early 60s. Also, I gave her a headcanon name, because she needed one. I refer to her as "Margaret".

So, how did kids got lost/separated ? I'm going with the divorce of their parents. And my train of thoughts starts here to follow a logic path.

She went to live with their mom and he went to live with their dad. Simple. But 999's journey just had begun.

A single divorced mother in the mid 60s was actually not well seen by society. So they would always shame the mom for ‘failing her marriage’ and 999 would constantly be reminded that a girl like her with that kind of background would never be able to do something good in her life. Teachers back then loved to shame a kid for living with a divorced parent. Being a victim of adult tyranny, when she learned she could make a difference by joining the KND, she didn’t hesitate. But of course, joining a ‘boys band’ was actually difficult, most of them thought it was ridiculous for a girl to fight. ‘Girls can’t fight! They all cry when being slighted touch, don’t like getting dirty and so on!’ Would be the arguments the KND use to exclude her.

Monty was actually neutral about girls (mostly because he didn’t really know how they work since it seems his mom died and thus not having a womanly figure in his life before). It was with the ‘girls are also victims of adult tyranny’ argument that sold the idea of having girls operatives (people keep saying that girls should act in a certain way and not speak for themselves, for exemple). So yeah, 999 wasn’t part of Monty's rebellion. She joined the KND some time after.

I believe with that in mind that she was extremely cocky, and showing off her toughness. Most of it was only a facade, because she needed to. She would totally have disobeyed direct orders just to spite her hierarchy and piss off Monty, because she didn't like to blindly obey to a boy (also, she secretly enjoyed to piss him off, cuz annonying the guy always so serious and sure of himself was funny to her). ‘I am a woman of action!’ is totally one of her lines. I just like the idea Nigel got some of his ‘free spirited’ temper from his mom, while he got the rest from his dad. "It's okay to ask for help" Why I believe this quote fits 999:

Like I already said, she was constantly reminded that, as a girl, she couldn’t be as strong as boys. She fought her ass off to prove herself to everyone and was always scared to ask for help, that would make her seem ‘weak’. At some point in my story, she yeet herself in a battle/mission when Monty actually ordered to not engage. Leaving a kid completely on her own kinda triggered Monty’s trauma from losing Ben to the social services, he really didn’t like to see a fellow kid all alone, so he went after her. They both get separated from the bigger group, and in the end they still did the mission with plan a (which Monty thought it would be too dangerous, so that’s why he said ‘do not engage’ but she didn’t listen). Thing is, she twisted her ankle in the precipitation, and Monty immediately proposed to carry her, but she said she was able to walk (spoilers, she really couldn’t). At this point, Margaret always defied Monty’s orders and authority, because she thought he was just being bossy for the sake of being an annoying boss for the girls, while he just didn’t care if the operative was a boy or a girl, as long as the work was done well. He was just always thinking of every different outcomes for each situations, because he didn’t want to repeat the only mistake he made: thinking that his father was the only source of evil in the world and thus didn’t see the social services coming for him and his bro. So he started to think about all possibilities and really pondered his decision. He was kinda sick of her behavior and they had a heart-to-heart talk. He asked her what was her problem, and she answered him that, as a boy, he couldn’t understand what it was like to be told how to act and what to become according to their society and adults. Except that Monty did understand: his father always tried to make him the next head of the family, thing Monty never liked. She also told him that her mom would get the "blame" in her parents’ divorce, and that the men in her family (father and brother) left her and her mom alone. While Monty couldn’t understand what I felt like to be in the middle of a divorce, he could a least relate to her for being separated from her brother too. He then tells her that it’s not a crime to ask for help when we really need it. It means we know our limits, and this is the first strength we can have. He then convinced her to heal her ankle (he was good at healing injuries, because of Ben), and you know, he wasn’t exactly the best when he was talking to girls, so she asked him if his mom ever taught him how to talk to them, to which he answered in a deadpan tone it was kinda hard for her to do it since she was already dead for years. Awkward silence as she realised that if her family was fucked up, other kids had it even harder, and felt ashamed for thinking he was being pretentious: he was just hiding some big sadness (and girl, you haven’t heard of Ben yet, so brace yourself). It was also the first time Monty ever mentioned his family to a knd operative other than his best friend so it was a weird moment for him to think about his mom since he never did it all this time.

In the end, they completed the mission, and after that,  they started to see each other, to learn more about themselves. Their relationship grew until they fell in love. When he felt really at ease with her, he told her everything about his family: who his dad was, what happened to his brother. He was kinda scared at first, because he thought she would reject him if she knew his origin. Since he loved her so much, he needed to be completely honest with her (and he already knew about her family’s drama soooo). She then told him that he wasn’t responsible for his father’s sins. That he shouldn’t feel guilt for something he never did. Her feelings for him didn’t change. In conclusion, their relationship was rocky at first, and then evolved through talks and learnings.

Some more details on her here.

[ppnightshade]

My Top Favorite ships of the decade (2010 - 2020)

Now, who doesn’t like shipping? Mostly, we feel lonely and we want to experiment romance to fill that gap. And what a better way to do it by taking two characters and imagine romantic stories of them. Now, I’m also a big shipper myself, and believe me, I got a lot of ships 

However, some ships are more cute than others imo, and this is why I’m making this top 5 of my favorite ships of the last decade 

As always, this is only a personal opinion, and I hope that you enjoy this special post for the 14th (even though it’s a bit late, but the flu was killing me xD)

So, let’s start!

5.- Finntress

After what Finn had went though all the show, I was starting to think that he would never be able to find a true lover. But then, “Flute spell” appeared

I’m ngl, I never believe I would ended up loving them. We know that Finn had failed before with PB and Flame Princess, and it was a bit sad to see him as a lone guy

But I found something cute on them. Like two wild hearts together. The way they syncronize their flutes, it’s just unique

In addition, we can see how they develop their relationship in a cute and innocent way as the show progress. Her phrase “We both know you're totally in love with me” and the fact that she gave him an elk’s heart, make us see that she could accept his feelings in the end. 

Of course, the ending of the show have left us some doubts about the ship status. But, after all the teases, I’ll consider that they ended up together c:

4.- Penashi

My first OTP ever in a fandom, Penn Zero and Sashi Kobayashi. The part time hero and the part time sidekick

Well, first of all, we see that through the show, Penn appreciates the assistance of Sashi, calling her even the smartest and toughest of girls. He even takes in mind all the advices she is giving to him in some missions, and even, he says that she is “the glue of the team”

We can also see a bit of jealously between this two dorks. Penn was always jealous of how Blaze was earning Sashi’s heart with ease, and he was trying through all the episode to get her attention haha. But it’s not only on his side. Sashi didn’t like him to get close to some girls, like Pirate Maria or Orchid. Jealously between them is kinda funny, but cute xD

Their funny moment is when Penn says to her “Sashi, he's not even human, it's just not gonna work out”, when she made a good comment about Blaze. Looks like Penn wanted Sashi a lot 

Even if the show was a bit short in my opinion, Sam Levine made a good job showing the teases in this ship, not rushed, and with an amazing finale, a kiss between them. Believe me, getting your 1st OTP canon is such a unique experience and a feeling you will love for all your life

3.- Penball

My favorite ship in TAWOG since it’s released. The love between a cat and a “magical peanut”. 

We all know that they had a crush on each other from the start of the show. However, what it makes this ship so special it’s the slow development. They don’t became a couple from a day to another (or from an ep to another)

They started with small blushes, kisses on the cheek, and even had problems hiding their feelings... but everything they did was calmly. Even if we know that they would become endgame, it wasn’t that fast-formulate ship we see everyday. Their love was hidden for 2 seasons, but sure enough, it was worth the wait

It also teaches us a lesson, when love is pure and true, not even physical differences can destroy it. In “The Shell”, Penny was scared that Gumball didn’t go to accept her because of how “ugly” she looked. However, he didn’t care about it, he still loved her. 

I got a lot more ships in TAWOG, but sure enough, this is my favorite one. Pure love in a ship, even though they had their small fights and misunderstandings

2.- Radnid

Through all 2019, this had been my favorite OTP. Rad and Enid. The two bodega-workers that have a deep story together

I’m not gonna lie, with “Second First Date” I was in doubt in shipping them, but after seeing some teases of them (like Rad wanting a hug in “Let’s take a moment”) and the fact that even KO and Mr Gar ships them, made this my OTP

We see them as two simple teenagers that have a lot in common. They love the action, they watch each other’s back, and most of the time, they spend their free time doing some good pal’s stuff. In addition, we cannot deny that there were their small moments that made us ship them in like “Special Delivery” or “Red Action 3: Grudgement day” (this last one, with a bit of doubts)

And also, after watching the two young guys in the finale, I made my HC that they ended up together, and have two kids, and they lived happily ever after c: (and yes, finale is up to the spectator)

Actually, this was actually my top 1 in this list, but there was one ship that managed to fill my heart with pure cuteness

1.- Charlastor

Caught me off surprise, I never thought I would be able to find an amazing ship like this. Alastor and Charlie. What to say? 

In just one pilot, I got a lot of stuff to say. First of all, the dance scene. Isn’t it cute to see both of them dancing together? Those close encounters, those lips almost close to each other (like if they wanted a kiss), and the way they enjoyed that moment. Just gold

Then, let’s see their personalities. Two demons that like to dance and smile, have an optimistic feeling most of the times, and in addition, they got that chemestry that made us see them as a cute pairing

Also, what to say about all the sweet things Al said to her. “Sweetheard” “Charming Demon Belle” “My dear”. I mean, which lady doesn’t like those nicknames? 

I know that the show have more to give us, but I’m hopping to see more scenes of both of them c: 

And this is the end of my top! This was made only for fun, and I hope you enjoyed it :) 

[evilelitest2]

I have an impression that some fandoms (like Lord of the Rings, Warhammer or Berserk) attract Alt-Right/Neo-Nazis a LOT more than other fandoms (like Song of Ice and Fire). Is this fact problematic for those fandoms?

Oh this question is difficult because I keep finding myself fans of things that Nazis also like, so a lot of my time is spent trying to drive them away from things that I like.  I’m a big Lord of the Rings and Berserk fan (not so much Warhammer) and Nazis showing up is a big problem.  I”m just going to talk through the examples you mentioned as to why Nazis like themt

Lord of the Rings has a lot of themes that Nazis are attached too, its has the conservative theme of loss of glory as things were great in the past and steadily degrade over time, morality as an absolute, a great war, and a largely male dominated story. Nazis tend to be attrached to very mythological stories which Lord of the Rings is, which is deliberatley written  Also the story is full of Catholic themes and imagery (though it is not an allegory cause Tolkien hated that.  Finally, Nazis have a huge fetish for Nordic/old Germanic history, and Tolkien was a Oxford Professor in Norse/Germanic mythology, and LOTRS is both Catholic and Pagan in a way that Nazis like.  So on a surface level the attraction makes sense.  however if you aren’t you know...stupid....then Nazi attraction to Lord of the Rings makes no goddamn sense

Tolkien hated the Nazis.  like he really really hated the Nazis, there is a great instance where he wrote a letter about how much he despises that the Nazis were ruining his field because people kept associating his work with the Nazis.  

Lords of the Rings is about a bunch of people of different races unifying and putting aside their bigotry in order to fight against a force of evil, with people who are close minded or intolerant being shown as bad.  No character in this work.  In the background of Lord of the Rings, one of the major reasons why Gondor fell from grace was that one faction of their monarchs were super into fantasy race science and tore the nation apart (which tolkien shows as bad) and the Numenoreans are British style Colonialists and that is shown as a bad thing.  

While Lord of the Rings has an almost all male cast, what is funny about LOTRS is how...unmaco the whole thing is.  War is not presented as glorious but a sad necessity, and the characters who love war inevitably fall (Feanor, Boromir, Thorin) while those who hate war do better.  Men are shown to cry regularly and are very emotionally expressive, and the book clearly values tenderness, mercy and softness more than traditionally masculine traits.  Unlike most works which lack female characters, LOTRS doesn’t feel like it is about marking an male only space, it feels like he just forgot to include them.  It is really telling that Tolkien was a Beowulf scholar, but his protagonist, rather than being a hyper masculine hero figure like Beowulf, is the sensitive kind and nonviolent Frodo.  

Its also worth noting that as a vet of the first World War, Tolkien doesn’t seem enamored with the glory of war, in fact glory doesn’t play much of a role in his books, war is devastating and scars those involved, Frodo himself can’t find peace due to his battle wounds 

Tolkien is really Catholic and as such there is a huge focus on forgiveness, mercy, and the inevitability of human failure and the importance sympathy.  He is less interested in the power of WILL as fascist works often are, and more about the acceptance of weakness as part of human nature, hence why no person can ever actually throw the ring away.  

Tolkien was also a bit of a Judeophile, he was really inter Jewish culture.    He was also anti colonial, anti Apartheid (he was from South Africa),   Tolkien’s work do have issues with race, but his issues were the anarchic views of race.  

Finally, Lord of the Rings, while it does have some parts of it that are problematic, is in many ways anti conservative.  It is nostlagic for the past, but characters who attempt to regain what has gone past (Elves, Sauron, Feanor) inevitable create more evil than if they had just accepted that the past is past and moved on.  Despite his drawing on Norse mythology, the story is not about a dramatic last battle, but living in a changing fading world.  

Berserk is...more complicated.,  Because while i’m a huge berserk fan, there are things in it that Nazis would like 

Firstly, Berserk is a very Nietzschian in philosophy, its about the power of will, individual struggling against destiny, Great Man narratives with most people being idiots, super grimdark, anti Christian context, a mythic story, its hyper masculine and its ultra violent.  And also quite sexist.

  Gust at first glance could fit a sort of fascist idealized version of a man, and if you only read like the first two chapters of Berserk you might see it as something which Nazis would like it.  Except what makes Berserk good is that it is beyond that, if it was just a violent power fantasy it would have faded with the 90s, what makes it good is when it moves beyond that sort of thing. 

 Even if you don’t read the story as a gay relationship between Guts and Griffith (and you are wrong if you don’t), it is about the self destructive nature of toxic masculinity, in fact that is what separates Guts from Griffith, Guts is able to start to move past his need to be cruel and open up, while Griffith doubles down and destroys everything he loves.  I have a lot of thoughts on Berserk.  

Warhammer Fantasy is complicated in terms of its relationship to fascism, if you are interested I can talk about that latter, but Warhammer 40k,while starting out as a punk anti totalitarian parody, has by this point become almost entirely co-opted by the Far Right in terms of fandom.    Because its a grim-dark parody of totalitarianism that nevertheless creates a world that conforms to a fascist world view, and while the Imperium of Man is an evil administration, it is also the one we are expected to sympathize with as our primary point of view characters.  

So it is really interesting that by a contrast, Song of Ice and Fire, despite being also a grimdark re-imagining of a popular genre, doesn’t really have a fascist fandom.   So here are the reasons for it.   

The story is pushing back against the mythologize of the middle ages that is so prominent in the fantasy genre, a mythologize that fascists themselves love.  Martin depicting medieval society not as a time when things were were simple and there was a clear image of glory war, instead it is shown as being just as murky politically as the modern day 

There are a lot of female characters and toxic masculinity is presented as bad.  Also lots of homosexuality 

Individual human will, while being a factor, is less important in the world of Song and Ice and Fire compared to the larger forces of history which are outside individual control

The story is explicitly anti Romantic and themes like “the Nation” The people” “Faith”  ect, instead all of these are shown as construct made by people

The story is also humanist, and avoiding both the absolute morality so beloved by fascists, but also it doesn’t really demonize people, most characters are shown as a mix of flaws and virtues.  

Interestingly some fascists do like Game of Thrones, but that is another matter.  

[pi-cat000]

Whumptober No. 15 & 16: Scars & Pinned Down

Fandom: Mystery Skulls Animated

Characters: Arthur, Lewis, Mystery

Summary: A year after Lewis returns the gang investigate a strange house. (PART 4)

(PART 1), (PART 2) (PART 3)

NOTE: Kind of follows the prompts but not really. Like, maybe if u squint. 

.

“…Save Vivi.”

For his last words, they’re pretty good. This is Arthur's final coherent thought before the world dissolves in a burst of blinding light. It doesn't hurt. One second he is alive, investigating a case, and the next second he’s not. Simple as that.

Arthur is not quite sure what happens after. All he knows is that, at some point, he gains enough coherency to start noticing the dark nothingness around him. With a growing sense of self, he begins to actively observe his environment. There is nothing to observe, but he still tries.

Eventually, Arthur begins to wonder. 

'Is this it?' His question goes unanswered.  

Is everything just going to be dark nothing from now on? Is it going to be nothing for the rest of eternity?

It is a rather grim prospect. Was death supposed to be like this? All he has as a frame of reference is Lewis and it’s not like he has ever asked Lewis what dying was like. Their relationship was strained enough as it was. No need to throw fuel on the proverbial and, in Lewis’s case, literal fire.

Maybe he should have asked…Maybe he should have tried harder to reconnect. But, it’d been hard. Some scars took longer to heal than others…like a lot longer. Mutually, he and Lewis had decided to take it slow, understanding that rebuilding their friendship after all the hurt and misunderstanding would be a slow process. In amongst all the healing and finding a new way of existing around each other, they’d started to grow close again. And then Arthur had gone and died like an idiot, leaving both Vivi and Lewis behind.

Well, he hopes he left them behind and they aren’t all dead, floating around in their own personal voids. He really hopes Vivi isn’t dead. He really hopes Lewis is still with her. He desperately wants them to be happy together.

The longer Arthur spends thinking, the greater his want to see them okay and happy becomes. With nothing else to occupy his thoughts, the want soon turns into a need. A burning, desperate need. The need consumes him, eating him inside out. Never has he wanted anything so badly. Not even when he was searching for Lewis and losing night upon night of sleep to nightmares, had he felt this powerfully. Slowly, a pressure builds, growing stronger, feeding into his longing.

Arthur finds that he isn’t as okay with death as he had initially thought.

This can’t be it. He won’t accept it.

Just when Arthur thinks he might collapse into himself, crushed by his unattainable desire like a star going supernova, he explodes outward. The darkness is dispersed, evaporating into a white haze.

....

..

.

“What the…Hey…Ah…”

Arthur hears a familiar voice.

“Mystery! Arthur’s star is glowing!”

That’s Lewis. Arthur latches onto the sound, following it further into the light.

“What do I do? You said this would take another week!”

IT’S LEWIS! He still can’t see properly, everything is blurred, but that is definitely Lewis’s voice. Arthur struggles so respond, becoming increasingly frustrated when sound fails to produce itself.

/That was a rough estimation at best. Quick, stand back. /

The second voice is deeper and directionless, coming to Arthur from all angles. Mystery, he recognises, before listening intently for Lewis again.

“Wait! We can’t do this here! Not after we wrecked the last room…/

/There is not much we can do about it, unfortunately. I am sure Vivi will understand./

Vivi? Did Mystery just say Vivi? In a ripple of brilliant light, not unlike the blast which had killed him in the first place, Arthur explodes into being. Instantaneously, he goes from disembodied nothingness to occupying space. Accompanying his materialisation is shockwave of yellow energy. There is the sound of furniture scraping along a wooden floor and the crash of objects falling to the ground. Arthur pays the chaos no mind, twisting around, trying to locate his friend.

“Lewis…” He says, spotting the familiar figure. Lewis is human in appearance, wearing his purple vest and grey pants. He seems surprised, ruffled by the explosion, staring right at Arthur.

Arthur, he doesn’t even notice himself move, appears right in front of Lewis with a barely audible pop of displaced air. Smack, he runs into Lewis, pushing them both back. For that second, knowing that Lewis right here, touching him, is all that matters. 

A hand lands on his shoulder, gently inching him back. Arthur can feel the heat of Lewis’s aura and the echo of muted emotion. There is a hit of concern underpinning deeper burning anger which seems to be the source of the heat. He would be afraid, but the anger isn’t directed at him. Weird...but nice...

“You’re okay,” He whispers. His voice is a bit distorted, echoy, but it’s nothing he hasn’t grown used to hearing from Lewis before the ghost had figured out how to change it.

Then his brain catches up to his emotions, and he realises what he may have implied. “I mean, you’re dead, obviously, but you’re here. I’m sorry, I mean, I’m happy you’re still here. I’m not happy you’re dead…ugh...”

Shit. This is a disaster. He tries to step back but can’t because he isn’t actually on the ground. He is floating. Lewis probably hates him all over again! No, that was an overaction. They’d already sorted that stuff out... Why is he having trouble thinking?

“Where Vivi’s?” He asks instead, flailing around, trying to regain his balance. As he asks, he turns to the door. Is Vivi through that door? He needs to see Vivi. He needs to see her right now!

/Stop him!/

Arthur hears Mystery’s order while also registering the fact that he is now standing by the door with Lewis behind him. Did he just teleport? A hand catches his shoulder and Arthur spins, lashing out, disoriented by the change of location.

“Arthur calm down. You’re…”

A wave of that yellow energy forces both him and his assailant, which turns out to be Lewis, away from each other in a violent pulse. Arthur bumps back into the door and Lewis stumbles, floating a few feet up into the air to stop himself from tripping over the bed at the centre of the room.

“Sorry!” He panics, “I’m sorry. I need to find Vivi.” 

After spending all that time thinking about seeing Lewis and Vivi, it has become all he wants. Before he makes good on this declaration there is a spark of red and Mystery is no longer dog. All Arthur has time to do is think ‘danger! That’s dangerous!’ and Mystery’s many tailed form is on top of him. The weight of the Kitsune pins him to the floor.

/My apologies Arthur, but it is probably best that you do not go tearing through the middle of town in broad daylight./

“What…no, I won’t…I just need to find Vivi,” He tries to escape, wriggling to get free. However, Mystery’s weight isn’t entirely physical so the effort just leaves him drained.

Lewis, he is a skeleton now with flames burning a radiant purple, drifts forward to examine Arthur. Arthur quietens, gawking. Did Lewis always burn that brightly…The colour is kind of mesmerising.

Lewis gives him a funny look, “What’s wrong with him?”

/New ghosts are erratic with a one-track thought process, as I am sure you know./

/I suggest you find Vivi. Hopefully, seeing the two of you together will calm him down enough so that we might have a rational conversation./

“Yeah, okay…” Lewis, shifts back to human, grimacing. Arthur’s kind of sad to see the flames go.

“She’ll be happy to know he’s up at any rate.”

. 

If you want to know more about this challenge I have an intro here

Completed Prompts: Shaky Hands, Explosion, Delirium, Human Shield, Gunpoint & Dragged away, Isolation, Stab Wound, Unconscious & Shackled, Stitches, ‘Don’t Move,’ Adrenaline, Tear Stained

[amandaoftherosemire]

... Only Happy Accidents

Fandom: Marvel AU

Pairing: Steve Rogers X Reader

Characters: Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff

Author: @amandarosemire

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 4,669

Format: Two-part One-Shot

Warnings: Smut, 18+ only, fluff, smuff, language, unprotected sex (Steve doesn’t have diseases, but Steve is fictional. Use a condom.)

Summary: After a lab accident leaves you under the influence of a chemical cocktail, you can no longer hide your deeper feelings for your dearest friend, Steve. You’ve never told him, convinced he would be kind, but uninterested. Now that you know that Steve is as attracted to you as you are to him, will the change to your relationship be a good one?

A/N: I’ve been fighting with my headache disorder, so I can write because I’m a touch typist, but I can’t look at a screen for very long. But because I’m feeling so bad in general, I’ve been counteracting that with nothing but fluff when I’m not ruining lives in my WIPs. Speaking of, I hope finishing out my Steve fluff with fluffy smut makes up for some of that. 😉

No Mistakes... here

Only Happy Accidents

Your back made contact with Steve’s bedroom door at almost the same moment his lips made contact with yours. You made a little 'oof' noise as the force of his body meeting yours pushed the air out of your lungs. "Sorry," he muttered against your mouth.

You giggled, then hummed, “‘S okay,” because you were not complaining. Steve's hands were gripping your ass firmly as his mouth fed greedily from yours. You had your hands in his hair and were considering climbing him like a tree until you were wrapped around him again. The way his fingers were digging into your flesh, you suspected he'd be all too happy to assist you.

Once Bruce had pronounced you recovered and rational once again, the energy between you and Steve had changed. There was nothing standing between you now.

That knowledge had settled beneath your skin, warming and charging it as you walked back to Steve's rooms to, ostensibly, talk about the change in your relationship now that you were no longer the mad science equivalent of three sheets to the wind.

You’d decided you didn’t really need to talk when Steve, blushing and stammering, had calmed the moment you took his hand in yours.

He had looked down at your fingers twining with his, then up to the soft smile on your face, and something inside him settled. He smiled sweetly in return, bringing your hand up to his mouth to brush his lips over the back.

Your heart kicked once, hard, then settled into a fluttering rhythm in response to Steve and his ridiculously pretty face. The expression there was one you'd seen a hundred times, but it never failed to make you melt a little. His mouth was quirked up in a sweet, crooked smile, his eyes crinkled adorably at the corners and warm with affection.

Now, however, you knew that warmth came from more than simple affection. You’d felt Steve’s arousal against you, had seen the shine of desire in his eyes when he’d leaned in to kiss you and his reluctance when he’d pulled away. That knowledge made it easy to reach out, to soothe his nerves with a soft touch and even softer eyes.

He breathed in the scent of your skin, then started moving faster towards his rooms. He wasn't certain what was going to happen next, though the laughing smile you shot him when he pulled you into a faster walk had his hopes soaring.

"Why didn't you ever say anything, sweetheart?" Steve couldn't help but ask. You had placed a polite but firm wall between the two you from the moment you and he had become friends. It was clear that had it not been for the lab accident, you would never had made your deeper feelings known. He was afraid that you didn't actually want what the kind of relationship he did, regardless of how you might desire him physically.

Your expression was infinitely tender as you squeezed his hand gently and hurried to keep up with him. "Why didn't you?"

"I didn't think you'd want me to," he murmured. Sadness settled around his eyes and made your heart hurt. The two of you had arrived at his rooms, but he paused before he walked through, turning with a guarded expression.

You could see the nerves and insecurity chase each other across his face and softened like butter in the sun. You stepped forward, certainty flowing through you. You lifted your hand to his cheek. "May I come in?"

Steve grinned, his heart lightening at the look in your eyes. "Always," he replied, drawing you by the hand through the door.

Once the door was closed behind you, you were moving into Steve's embrace with the same confidence you'd shown under the influence of the chemicals. The confidence came from understanding; you knew Steve needed both honesty and directness.

You wrapped your arms around his waist, nuzzling into his chest and throat with your nose and mouth. He hummed softly and closed his arms around you in return, snuggling you into the warmth of his body.

"Steve." You breathed his name, and the sound sent a shiver down his spine. It took him a moment to focus on what you were saying. "Your friendship is one of the most important relationships I have. I never told you how I felt because I never thought you'd want me back, and I couldn't risk something so crucial on a longshot."

Steve's arms tightened, both shock and indignation rocking through him. "A longshot!?" He sounded downright insulted on your behalf, making you laugh a little under your breath.

"Uh, yeah." You infused your tone with all the exasperation you could muster. "You're… you! You're so good and loyal and true, but funny and reckless and wild. To be your friend was…” You struggled for words for a moment, almost irritated to have to explain it. Was he blind to how fucking exceptional he was? “…like a miracle! I didn't want to be greedy.”

Steve’s eyes blazed as his head dipped to yours. His arms pressed you tightly against his chest and his mouth met yours with no shields, no guard. Your heart stumbled in your breast as your eyes fluttered closed in the rush of emotion.

You slid your arms around his neck and pressed even closer, meeting his kiss with the same passion he was pouring into you. You’d never felt needed like this, craved like this, like he was starved for the taste of you. You were delighted, happy to feed him, not to mention relieved and euphoric that you hadn’t destroyed everything you valued with a dumb mistake.

Steve broke the kiss to rest his forehead against yours, his breath fast and excited. “Be greedy,” he growled and took your mouth again.

You didn't really have an option. He was giving you everything he had. You didn't hesitate; you devoured him and gave back eagerly. When he lifted his mouth from yours only to bury it in your neck with a groan of need, you let out a shaky laugh and a quick, “Okay!”

"Mmm-hmm." Steve chuckled a little even as he hummed, testing the texture of the line of your jaw with his lips. He was enthralled by the scent of your skin, enchanted by the feel of your body pressed against his. He couldn't help it; his hands wandered down to close around your ass. The little happy sounds you were making in your throat were humming against his lips, making him smile against the satin of your throat.

“Steve," you murmured, and the throaty sound of your voice combined with your words had his cock twitching in his jeans, "take me to bed.”

Steve stooped, his hands sliding down to your thighs, and boosted you up, wrapping your legs around his waist as he supported your weight easily. He turned toward his bedroom with a happy grin on his sweet face. “Yes, ma’am.”

Which is how you found yourself breathless, with your back to Steve's bedroom door, giggling at his eager mouth on yours as he let your legs fall to support you. You'd suspected he'd be sweet, but he was seducing you with the soft, greedy kisses he pressed to your mouth. Your lips softened against his, your heart melting at his almost shy sweetness.

Gently, with all the affection you'd been holding back, you feathered kisses over his mouth, his cheeks, his nose, his eyes. You wanted to adore him, to drown him in warmth and softness to make up for all the hard and cold he'd had to face in his life. When you opened your eyes to see that gorgeous half-smile that lit up his face, your breath caught a little at how stupidly beautiful he was.

His arms came up to wrap around your waist and all of a sudden the room was spinning. You quickly realized Steve had turned and was carrying you to the bed. Fucking finally.

He set you down next to the bed, his hands sliding down immediately to cup and rub your ass cheeks. You were starting to suspect, by the amount of time you'd had your butt in his hands that day, that Captain America was an ass man. Considering how much attention he was paying to yours, you were going to assume he approved.

You slipped your hands under the hem of his too tight t-shirt. You didn't know how he always managed to wear t-shirts at least one size too small for him, but you thanked who or whatever was responsible with the fervency of the devout. You took a shaky breath at the velvet silk of his skin, your heart throbbing whenever your fingertips found a divot or stripe of scar tissue from a lifetime of fighting and war. Your hands caressed each scar with a tenderness borne of love, of the need to give him a haven, to help him forget.

Steve was starting to feel dizzy at the sensation of your fingertips traveling ever so gently over his skin. He hadn't felt this breathless since before the serum. If he didn't know better, he would swear he was about to have an asthma attack, so exciting was the feeling of your hands on him. He'd never been touched like this, like he was infinitely precious, with infinite tenderness. It took his breath away.

You took his breath away.

You slipped your hands further up inside his shirt until he took the hint and stripped it off. As soon as he did so, you were doing the same with your own, desperate to feel his skin against yours. Steve slid his hands up your bare spine and bent his head to yours with a low moan as soon as you slipped your arms back around him, sliding your skin against his with a purr.

Steve would have taken your lips again, but your mouth was busy kissing and sucking at his throat even as you shimmied out of the sweats he’d loaned you earlier. “I’d like to make love to you, Steve.” You paused to smile sweetly as you slid your hands up to his shoulders. When you pressed down, he didn’t resist, sitting on the edge of the bed with eyes bright with anticipation. You climbed onto his lap, one thigh on either side of his, slipping your arms around his neck. "If you don’t mind. 

“I don’t mind at all," he replied, his voice a little breathless as his hands came up to close around the cheeks of your ass again. Your mouth twitched as you took his lips again.

The anxiety that had been gripping the back of Steve's neck eased as soon as you guided him to the bed. He had been trying to figure out what to do, terrified he might make the wrong move and upset you, or even worse, scare you, when your hands, confident and firm, showed him what you wanted. The relief made him a little lightheaded, but that also might have been the feel of you climbing into his lap.

You combed your fingers through Steve's hair, reveling in the sensation of the thick silk running over your hands. You lifted your head and fisted your hands to gently pull his head back so you could scan his unbelievably beautiful face. His eyes fluttered open and you felt a brief moment of intense jealousy for the thick dark lashes that rimmed his bright blue eyes.

Your eyes were caught in his, adoring that gorgeous touch of green that took his eyes from beautiful to extraordinary. "How are you this fucking pretty?" you whispered, your voice an ache of desire that shuddered through him.

Steve smiled; his heart had been racing, a little scared by the intensity of your expression as your eyes had devoured his face. To hear that you were thinking similar thoughts to those he'd often had about you, his hands slid up the smooth skin of your back to press you closer. He didn't know how to respond, so he ducked his head, his cheeks flaming.

Your heart sighed, charmed and seduced by the sweetness of the big, gorgeous man you found yourself happily twined around. You giggled, an unusually bubbly laugh pouring out of you as you kissed him exuberantly all over his cherry red face. You threw your weight behind it, tumbling the two of you to the bed in a tangle of half-clothed limbs.

You found yourself on your back, Steve braced on one arm over you as the other hand slid up your thigh and over your hip. His touch was feather light even as his hand continued up over your waist and under your shoulder to pull you close as his head dipped to close his mouth around yours.

Steve had placed his knee between yours and was slowly sliding it up to part your thighs in a move so smooth you were hopeful that he'd gotten out of his head a little. The way he was pressing your breasts to his bare chest and his tongue was curling around yours, any nervousness was dissipating. You couldn't be nervous if you tried, the confidence from earlier lingering though the chemicals had worn off. You rubbed yourself against Steve like a cat, prompting a groan from him.

"I love the way you feel." Steve's voice was low and warm, pouring over you like honey and cream. You arched into his hands, shyness and shame washed away in the pure desire you could hear in his voice, see in his eyes, feel in his touch. "You're so soft," he continued as he dipped his head to brush his lips over the supple underside of your jaw. "It's like heaven."

You purred in response, beguiled by the tenderness with which he was making love to you, but becoming impatient in your rising passion. Steve's thigh was now riding against the core of your body and the slight stimulation was making you crazy. However, every touch was a tease, and you were about ready to move onto satisfaction.

You ran your hands over Steve's back and shoulders, testing the play of muscle and panting at the perfection of his skin. You hiked your thigh up over his hip, pulling him gently but inexorably on top of you. You wanted that big, sexy body over you, around you, inside you and you hoped Steve would be willing to fulfill that need.

Steve was only too delighted to fulfill any need, wish, want, or fantasy you might have. If you wanted him on top of you, in between the smooth columns of your thighs, his body finally pressed tight against yours, he would hardly refuse you. With a growl, he braced himself on his elbows, a hand on either side of your head as he kissed you again, both gentle and voracious. With soft lips and painless nips of his teeth, he drove you higher with just the caress of his body pressed from breast to knee against yours.

Now that you had Steve where you wanted him, rubbing against you and sucking tender kisses from your mouth, you arched to unsnap the clasp of your bra. Unconsciously sensual, you tossed the garment to the floor, under Steve's glittering eyes. "My god," he breathed as he sat back on his heels to take in the sight of you bare breasted and wiggling out of your underwear with impatient cheer.

As soon as you were nude, your busy hands were at Steve's waistband, unbuttoning his jeans and dragging them down. Steve laughed and rolled to get rid of the rest of his clothes. You stopped him for a moment when he stood next to the bed, completely naked to your gaze for the first time. Your eyes drank him in, amazed that anyone could come this close to Greek god status and not be an asshole, not to mention mesmerized by the proud erection you were more than ready to put to use. Your voice throbbing with emotion, you looked up at Steve and breathed, "You're almost as beautiful outside as you are inside, Steve."

The sadness around Steve's eyes cleared for a moment, and your heart lifted when, with a grin, he came down on top of you, this time nothing between you. When his cock slid through your already wet folds, thanks to your efforts to twine around him as thoroughly and tightly as possible, Steve murmured against the curve where your shoulder met your neck, his teeth testing the muscle there, "Are we in a hurry?"

"Nope," you whispered hotly back, your breath coiling into his ear where you had been putting your tongue to work on the skin behind his earlobe, something that had him inexplicably shaking in need. "We have all the time in the world," you continued as you rocked your hips slowly, sliding your clitoris against that tempting erection.

Steve rested his forehead against your shoulder, then realized that your tempting breasts were only inches from his lips. He dipped his head further and his hand came up to cup and knead your breast, lifting the nipple to his mouth.

Once his mouth closed over your breast, he began these long, slow sucking pulls that seemed to connect your breast to your cunt, making your core clench. You tilted your hips until the tip of his cock was resting at your entrance.

"Isn’t this out of order?" Steve asked with a moan and a shudder as he resisted the urge to plunge in and ride you like a madman. Your skin, your scent, your slick were all intoxicating him, going to his head and making him forget everything but his need to hear the slap of his flesh on yours.

Your hands were buried in his hair as you savored the anticipation of the moment he would slide inside you. "There is no order," the sex in your tone made Steve tremble in reaction, "I want you inside me. When is up to you.”

Without another word, Steve slid sleekly inside you, his eyes glittering with lust and fixed intensely on yours. Your eyes were fluttering with the effort of keeping them open and on his as you shuddered out a moan you'd never heard yourself make before, need and relief melded.

But you'd never had Steve gliding inside you like he was made for you, the perfect fit. He was rubbing deliciously against your walls, the friction both raw and smooth. When he was fully seated, he paused a moment to pant. It delighted you to know he was as affected by what was happening between you as you were.

"I couldn't wait another second," he murmured, and you melted at the sight of red tinging his cheeks even as he rested thrust to the hilt inside you.

You laughed tightly, your body drawn taut as a bow in anticipation. Though you were soaking wet, you were also stretched almost to the point of pain around him. You could feel him throbbing inside you and were grateful for the pause to catch your breath. "Thank god for that," you moaned in reply.

You gasped when he chuckled as the rumble of his laughter had him moving slightly, sending shockwaves of sensation through you. The tiny motion was exciting rather than painful, however, and had you softening around him. Once he felt you begin to relax, he flexed his hips experimentally to test your response.

He couldn't have been more delighted when you purred in your throat as your eyes fluttered closed and you tightened your thighs around his hips. Steve could hardly believe that this moment was real, that he wasn't dreaming for the hundredth time of making love to you. Part of him was terrified he'd wake up at any moment to discover that none of this astonishing day had been real and he was once again watching you from afar.

Then your eyes were opening to catch his as your lips curled in a sweet smile and he knew nothing in his imagination could compare with the reality of you. Your hands released their tight grip in his hair to slide down and cup his beautiful face. "I can't wait another second, either." You spoke throatily as you began rocking your hips gently up into him, even that small movement delicious enough to have you shuddering.

Steve laughed a little, with a shaky breath, utterly enchanted by you. Smiling at the happy sound, you used your hands on his cheeks to draw his mouth down to yours even as he began to match your rocking movements with gentle thrusts of his own.

Though this tender lovemaking was exquisite in its own right, soon neither of you could stand the restrained sensation. Your arms snaked around his back to hold him closer, your fingers sinking into muscle to grip tight. He shifted his weight so he could thrust harder and faster into you, tearing his mouth from yours to bury it in the curve of your throat with a low growl.

The sound had you arching and moaning in response, loving the sensation of his chest brushing yours as he stroked ever more quickly in and out of you. The feeling was driving you mad, but you never wanted it to stop; you felt like you could live like this, wrapped in and around Steve for all eternity.

You'd turned your face toward where Steve had his mouth pressed to your throat, sucking gentle kisses into your skin. The feeling was sending tremors through you, the sensation combined with those his cock was creating as he pounded ever harder into you. Your mouth wasn't too far from his ear as you breathed commands he was only too happy to obey.

You were climbing higher with every second and had no ability to form coherent sentences anymore. Only one or two words passed your lips at a time, but as they were in the vein of "faster," "harder," "right there," or "god, yes," he wasn't asking for anything more than that. In fact, the sound of your voice telling him how best to please you was the most erotic thing he'd ever heard.

Holding onto his control by his fingernails, it was taking everything Steve had to not let go. He was amazed he'd lasted this long in your tight grip, but he wanted to see you come more than he wanted anything.

With a growl, Steve pushed up until he was sitting on his heels, taking your hips in his hands to shove faster and harder into you. Moaning, you stared into his eyes, yours glittering with lust as your hand came up to rub circles into your clit. Steve's eyes flicked back and forth from your face to that busy hand, his frame quivering with the struggle to not come on the spot.

After watching your movements for a minute, Steve gently moved your hand to replace it with his own, mimicking your motion perfectly. In no time you were coming apart, melting tingles spreading outward from your core and through your body to your fingers and toes and up over your scalp. Steve never stopped moving, either his hand or the steady rocking of his hips and it kept you trembling at the peak of your climax far longer than you'd ever experienced before.

When your moans became desperate and your hands were clenched fists in the sheets, your body arched and taut in the aching pleasure, Steve snapped his tether. One hand hiked your thigh over his hip, his hand closing around your ass to knead the cheek. The other hand came down onto the mattress next to your head as he bent over you once more.

This time, however, Steve was shoving into you faster and harder than ever before and the sensation after the climax you'd just experienced had you nearly climbing the walls, over-sensitive, but somehow again climbing to peak.

"I ca-- I can't stop," he moaned, his forehead resting against yours, his eyes slits as they devoured your face.

"Don't stop!" you cried in a rasp, your body already rocking back into him, chasing the pleasure he could give you. "Who said stop!?"

Steve was smiling at you even as he came inside you with groan, his thrusts erratic but with enough force to push you over the edge into another shuddering orgasm. His smile only widened when you moaned out your pleasure while he bucked into you in ecstasy.

A little while later, Steve sat up from your embrace to drag the blankets over the two of you, concerned by the shivers he’d felt run over your skin. Once he had you covered, he lay back down to pull you close again. “Stay?” he whispered as you snuggled back into his warm embrace.

"As long as you like," you murmured back, happier than you'd been in a very long time. You and Steve hadn't discussed much about the changes to your relationship this day had wrought, but you weren't terribly worried about it. Between the way Steve had taken care of you and the way he'd made love to you, the future seemed incredibly bright.

Steve's arms tightened around you. "I won't be asking you to leave, sweetheart," he replied as he brushed his lips over your forehead, cheeks, and nose on the way to your lips.

You giggled, your heart soaring. "Then don't be surprised when you can't get rid of me."

"Promise?" he asked, smiling happily against your mouth even as his hand wandered back down to your ass. You could feel Steve hardening against you yet again and lifted an amused brow as you nuzzled at his mouth with your own.

Even in the dim light of Steve's bedroom, you could see his cheeks flame even as his smile twisted crookedly. You smiled sultrily and whispered back, "I promise," before taking his mouth in a long kiss designed to enflame. It wasn't long before Steve was pulling you on top of him this time.

Nearly a week later, you finally caught Natasha alone, sitting at the communal kitchen counter having a cup of coffee and reading the news on her phone.

"Natasha!" You spoke warmly, a genuine smile on your face. You had been trying to corner her for days. If Steve hadn't kept you so occupied, the two of you spending every spare moment together in the typical enchantment of a brand-new, highly anticipated romance, you may have succeeded before now. Still, you didn't have an idle need. "I'm glad I caught you. I had something important to talk to you about."

"How can I help?" she answered, looking up from her phone with an unusually warm smile, at least for her. Steve had been in the best of moods for days now. As long as you made him happy, she was your best friend.

"I discovered that my accident last week was no mistake; my workstation was sabotaged," you said seriously, but with a twinkle in your eye. You had a prime suspect; you were talking to her. "It's odd, though. It seems like it was done only to spray those specific chemicals in my face."

"That is odd," she replied with a slow half-smile. "What a happy accident to befall you. Why tell me, in particular?"

"Because if you didn't do it," you laughed, as you opened the cupboard over the coffee pot for a mug, "you'd be the best person to look into who did."

"And if I did?"

"Thank you." You threw a grin over your shoulder that fairly sparkled with all the love and joy you'd discovered this past week. Natasha could see you couldn't make Steve unhappy, not as long as you adored him just like this.

"You're very welcome."

Natasha smiled warmly at you; it was nice to be appreciated for once.

The End

Taglist:

@hellzzzbelle @suz-123 @cheekygeek05 @lbouvet @rishlo @diinofayce @bibliophile1773 @thatawkwardlittlefangirl @miraclesoflove @badassbaker @geek-and-proud @nerdy-bookworm-1998 @destiel-is--endgame @irritated-bisexual @peaceinourtime82

[bigskydreaming]

Thinking about dc fandom always shitting on Dick's fashion sense and something else came up. My mutuals have turned into kpop fans, they keep posting these highly fashionable dudes' hq pics, they wear skirts, lace, ruffles, feather, glitter, all the colors.. They look good most of the times, they're not afraid to wear furry slippers or pigtails or prints, it's not what I'm used to seeing in white dominant industry. I bet Dick's fashion choices are like that n not what tasteless fanarts show.

I mean, I get what you’re saying, and I do agree in part, but also….that’s still not quite the entire issue for me.

Like…its basically just annoying the things people come up with to try and ‘bash’ him while still claiming to like the character, because honestly I believe that’s all it is. Just looking for excuses to make fun of him, and its so juvenile and pointless. There’s literally no basis for thinking Dick makes poor fashion choices in canon except for his costumes, he’s literally been a model, a socialite, a spy, and he’s routinely cited as being considered in-universe one of the most attractive people in both his civilian and superhero personas.

Like…people don’t generally fixate on the attractiveness of people whose clothes they’re busy mocking, you know?? LOL. It just makes no sense! When super hot people wear super weird clothes…..the comments are still usually about how they’re super hot, lmao. Look at like…things like the Met Gala. THAT’S the kind of ‘out there’ it takes for people to weigh in on celebrities wearing outfits that people find ridiculous despite their celeb status and attractiveness….

So, unless we’re pretending that Dick Grayson habitually wanders around wearing the equivalent of a celeb costume for the Met Gala ball in his civilian outfits…..nobody is focusing on his bad fashion sense when he’s just Dick Grayson, ergo….there is zero basis for saying when Dick Grayson is being Dick Grayson, he has no idea how to dress himself, or look good. In that respect, its that simple, y’know? 

Because the other thing is (and this is mostly where I disagree with you in execution, even though I get the spirit of your ask - like, I agree his fashion choices when he IS trying to stand out might be more eccentric than most people would usually go with, but he’d look damn good regardless) but I just mean….in his civilian persona, Dick never even really WANTS to be noticed, most of the time! He DOESN’T try and aim for the spotlight when he doesn’t have to be the center of attention like at some gala he’s forced to attend. He LIKES to blend in, go unnoticed….this is a guy who is fiercely fixated on being his own man, and KNOWN as his own man, noted for HIS accomplishments, HIS identity….not being seen as Bruce Wayne’s son first and foremost, or the Wayne Heir before all else….he just wants to be Dick Grayson. He’s never really liked the attention that comes with being a public figure due to being Bruce’s ward or son, at any point.

So its like…what about that suggests that he’s someone who either consciously or unknowingly goes around attracting attention with outfits that make him a public spectacle? He’s not some oblivious, air-headed ditz, he’s extremely aware of his surroundings at all times, lol.

Not a single thing about the fashion disaster fanon overall makes any sense, under any degree of scrutiny, unless you’re just committed to….making a mockery of him.

And the only thing it can be traced back to, the ONLY thing….are his costumes and his mullet.

Let’s tackle the mullet first - guys, its an anachronistic hairstyle. Its something he only had DECADES ago, in a time period when people actually wore their hair like that in the US. Get over it. EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER has similar periods in their history, lol. And yet, its only him that’s singled out as being so unfashionable he was wearing a mullet in fics set only five years ago, whereas everyone else’s hairstyles of a different era are left in that era. C’mon. Its transparent.

Which brings us back to his costumes. The pixie boots, the leotard, the Discowing with its bright blue and gold and scooped neck and high collar….

Now THOSE are unfashionable, fandom says.

Well see the problem with that, fandom….is by every canon out there…

DICK DIDN’T DESIGN THOSE OUTFITS TO FIT FASHION STANDARDS.

He wasn’t TRYING to win the good taste award and approval of the society he was in instead of his circus home, not by his own choice, and which frequently sneered down at him and tried to make him feel lesser. And the classism some of us are referring to when we mention this….is the assumption that his motivations are irrelevant, its only the approval and standards of ‘mainstream society’ that matters in whether or not his costumes are deemed ridiculous or not.

Except…..Dick’s costumes were designed not for fashion, but for SENTIMENTALITY.

They were meant to be reminders of where he came from. A way for him to hold on to his roots. For his circus past, his parents, his origins to be represented in his superheroics every bit as much as the skills he learned from Bruce and others.

It was his way of saying he at least had never forgotten where he came from and he never would, BECAUSE HE’S PROUD OF IT.

Shockingly, he’s PROUD of being a superhero who came from the circus….which is literally the only reason he was ABLE to become a child hero in the first place, because that’s where he attained his acrobatic skills that gave him enough of an advantage despite his age, that he could actually MAKE it as a superhero and vigilante.

The entire Robin legacy that’s at the center of so much of fandom’s conflicts and preferences….

IS BORN OF THE CIRCUS. THAT HE WANTED TO WEAR REMINDERS OF. TO BE COMFORTED BY VESTIGES OF HIS CHILDHOOD. MEMORABILIA THAT HONORED HIS FIRST FAMILY.

Robin doesn’t EXIST without the circus.

And frankly, as much as people dismiss this as being not that big of a deal, I find it gross, same as I do the jokes about his name. 

Because this is a fandom that is COMMITTED to defending the sentimentality and origins of their various fave members of this iconic found family.

Upholding where each of them came from as being just as iconic and important as where they ended up, as members of the Batfamily….

Except for Dick. Except for his circus roots. His costumes, honoring his roots. His childhood nickname, holding onto that last connection to his parents.

Only Dick isn’t allowed to have his sentimentality, without being made an object of mockery and silly, childish jokes. Because the circus is just funny, its not meant to be taken seriously, even as the object of an orphan’s deep and profound loss. Because his name is another word for penis, that’s all that matters, not that its one of the only mementos of his parents he actually managed to hold on to, that nobody could ever MAKE him give up or lose.

And that’s so….frustrating, irritating, and just….sad, y’know?

Because its not about the jokes. Its about the hypocrisy. Of trying to find deep meaning and introspection in the childhoods and origins of every single other member of this family except for the first one to actually MAKE it a family….because in his origins and childhoods, most people can’t be bothered to find anything but jokes.

Its all connected. Of course so many people have trouble acknowledging Dick’s traumas, his agency, his boundaries…..when they’re still unable or unwilling to get past the point of acknowledging his origins as a REAL place that REALLY mattered to him, just as much as the origins and roots of every single other member of this family.

When you treat where someone came from as a joke, a joke is all they’re ever going to be to you. Because shockingly….where we all come from, is kinda integral to who we are as people - whether real OR fictional.

[italkaboutbooks]

An in depth review of Aurora Rising//Part 2

If you haven’t already, read part one here.

So welcome to the second part of my ramblings about this novel. Last time, I talked about how chapters 18-24 were some of the most confusing and infuriating chapters I have ever read, and how I hated that.

I’m actually going to complain about it a little bit more in...

Pacing!

Aurora Rising’s pacing is...questionable at best. Bad at worst.

So the novel is split into three parts. You know how some novels have specific parts like part 1 and part 2? That’s used in Aurora Rising. Immediately, the three act structure comes to mind. I understand that it may be used for movies more but hear me out.

The basics of structure and pacing is that, by the end of the second act, you’re nearing the climax. Basically, the story should be increasing in tension, because the antagonist is usually at its most powerful at this point.

Aurora Rising doesn’t do that. Or maybe it just failed me and not you for some reason. But if you remember the end of part 2 aka chapters 18-24, you would know that the characters succeed. And what that success does, is lower the tension. Because the heroes won the battle and they’re feeling pretty confident. That doesn’t raise the stakes in my opinion. I feel like if Auri actually was taken, then there would be stronger stakes, but the pacing failed in that regard. So it’s another big complaint from me.

There’s nothing really remarkable about plot of pacing for me to comment on. So let’s go to the next part.

Characters

For this section, I am simply going to rank the main cast aka the squad, and tell you my thoughts about them. 7 being my least favourite character and 1 being my favourite. I’ll talk about their relationships which each other in a separate section.

7. Zila

Zila doesn’t have a personality. She is the stereotypical “smart” person in the group that doesn’t express emotion. Or in this case, has none. She’s a robot. She has no interests, no motivations, and we’re not given a backstory. She has nothing. I personally believe that the authors didn’t even care about her. They just added her there to be smart. That is all. She shows a smidgen of an arc near the end, but it’s not even the bare minimum. I wished the authors actually put effort into Zila because it’s obvious that they didn’t.

6. Tyler Jones

Tyler Jones is the definition of the bland white boy. He is one of the worst protagonists I have ever seen in a book. Why does he suck so much in my eyes? Because he’s perfect. He’s handsome, he’s good at everything, everyone likes him, and even if they don’t like him, they at least respect him. He never makes any mistakes, doesn’t have any flaws, and has dimples. He is infuriating.

Personally, I like flawed characters. That’s what makes characters and stories interesting. If you give me a character who essentially wins every battle, I will think that they are the most bland and boring person in existence. Your characters need flaws, especially your protagonist! Remember chapters 18-24? Yeah, another complaint about that part is making them succeed just makes Tyler more of a Mary Sue.

Also there’s a scene in chapter 12 where Tyler says he doesn’t want to kill a Terran because he’s a Terran and acts like killing his own kind is unheard of. ....Aurora has a lot of explaining to do for you buddy.

Tyler gets the second worst ranking because at least he is allowed to experience emotions, and the authors tried to give him an arc. (But does Tyler really have an arc? Because I didn’t see it.)

5. Cat

I have mixed feelings about Cat. I talked before about the arc that I thought she was going to have. And the arc she gets...well it’s kind of disappointing.

Cat’s character seems to be that she’s in love with Tyler (for some reason) but he rejected her and now she’s just trying to cope with it but doesn’t do it well. She dies, but dies knowing that Tyler actually loved her all along and I don’t really like it. But at the same time, I do?

See, when I read the ending of the book, I was sad. Cat died and I was sad because of that. I’ll give the book merit for that, (especially since I’ve been slandering it.) It made me care about a character’s death. But at the same time, I don’t like that Cat’s arc was essentially her getting over a man. It feels cheap to me. My idea for her arc was her learning to listen to others opinions more and make her more loyal, which is not dependent on a man. So I don’t straight up hate Cat, but I would make a lot of changes to her character and arc.

And also she’s kind of annoying. She’s says bloody way too often and I thought the authors did that so she could be “unique.” Apparently Cat’s Aussie...somehow. I’m so sorry to Australians everywhere, I’m sure you all don’t talk like Cat.

4. Scarlet Jones

I don’t really like Scarlet all that much, but I like her more than Cat. Here’s the thing: she’s immediately better than Tyler because she actually has flaws. Which I like. She cares about her friends and the squad members. She’s a sweetheart, and I like that. Her motivations are understandable in a way, but I also relate to them which kind of makes me hate her.

Also she does some questionable things that don’t make me hate her, they just confuse me, and creep me out. For starters, she has a list of all her exes. I don’t wanna judge her because I really don’t hate her, but that’s creepy. Also there’s a scene where she drugs two guys for their uniforms, and she takes them to a hotel room, and leaves her bra there, along with some kiss marks, to give to illusion that she had sex with them. She said something along the lines of “Gotta leave some evidence.”

First of all, that’s not how you commit a crime. (For legal reasons, this is a joke.) When you commit a crime, you make sure that there’s no evidence so that you don’t get caught. Second, leaving signs that these guys had sex with you tells them that they had sex with you under the influence. They didn’t give their consent, meaning you’re making them think that you raped them. And when you think about how males usually are the ones to drug and rape females, it just becomes even more questionable.

I also need to point out the fact that her name is Scarlet, and she has red hair. Wow. Amazing. So original. Aside from that though, she’s okay.

3. Kallis 🥉

Kal is a good character. He got the number three spot and I think he deserves it. I liked reading his POV chapters the most. It shows how he’s trying to hold back from his instincts to kill because that’s how he was raised. He’s a tsundere in ways. Cold and harsh on the outside, but deep down, he does care about the greater good. We don’t really get a warm side to him in the first book, but it’s there, I promise.

2. Aurora 🥈

Auri is baby, okay? She’s had to deal with loosing her family and life in one day. Even less than that. She had to deal with visions and hallucinations and new powers of telekinesis in a very short time. Home girl was going through some crap. But through all of that, she still manages to be a sweet girl. She’s never mean to the others, except for irritation at Kal. She tries her best to stay optimistic, and I think she went through the best arc in the group. (Although it’s kind of on the nose.) I love Auri and I think she deserves all the love.

1. Finian 🥇

Finian De Steel? Did you mean, the best character is Aurora Rising?

I love Fin with my entire heart. He is literally the best. He is so funny and snarky and easily has the best lines. But he’s also the most sympathetic in my opinion, along with Auri. You learn about his past and how people tend to treat him differently because he’s disabled, and how he has a hard time connecting with others despite wanting a connection with others so badly.

He’s a great character. I also think they represented his disability pretty well. He has an exosuit which makes him move, but it’s not treated as a cure. The suit gets damaged which affects Fin’s mobility, and he experiences pain because of it. So I think they did a good job with that. And he’s just awesome in general.

I understand that the humour in this book is pretty juvenile. However, some of Fin’s lines actually made me laugh and smile, and I usually don’t laugh or smile much. Humour is subjective and I’m not going to stand here and act like mine is the best. My sense of humour is bad puns and inside jokes between my family so...it was fine for me. Granted, Fin was the only character who actually was good at humour, so there.

Character Relationships

Yes, I think that this needs a section of its own.

Let’s start simple. Tyler and Scarlet. They’re both twins, with Scarlet being the older by like a minute. I think they were written pretty well as siblings, except for the fact that Scarlet calls Tyler her “baby brother” in her internal dialogue/narration including spoken dialogue. Siblings don’t call each other that, I promise you. As someone who has a sibling, reading fictional characters call each other that makes me cringe so much.

Then there’s Kal and Auri, who are essentially “soulmates” in a way by the end of the book. They aren’t canon or anything, it’s just extremely obvious that they’re endgame. Kal told Auri that she was essentially her mate and that they were fated to be together. Some people saw it as some Wolf alpha shiz, I saw it more as soulmates personally. I don’t think that they’re a bad pairing, it’s kind of cute sometimes. But to me, they don’t feel like two people who have feelings for each other. It just feels like a pairing that is usually a popular ship in fandoms.

The best way for me to describe it to you is this. When I see Kal and Auri together, I don’t think, “Oh these two characters have great chemistry. They could be romantic partners.” No, I think, “I feel like fans of this book ship them really hard.”

So in a way, their relationship may be cute, but it doesn’t feel real, because I’ll always see it as something the fans created and not the actual authors, which doesn’t even make sense to me. I’m not even trying to hate on shippers, this pairing just confuses me.

By bigger pet peeve is that the authors seem to want to pair up every other character, because by the end of the book, Fin and Scarlet seem to crush on each other. It’s really annoying when people think that romance is the end game.

I’ve also read reviews where the readers were upset at how heteronormative the couple pairings were. And I agree with them. While reading the book, I always thought Fin was gay. To me, he was coded as gay or bi. Also, there’s a scene where Tyler kisses Kal because a guard was about to catch them. Seeing how the book was released in 2019, I can see how LGBTQ+ readers were disappointed that their identities were used as a really cheap way for the characters to get out of a situation, and not give them actual representation.

(Personally, I wouldn’t mind if Tyler got caught, maybe then he could actually have consequences for his actions.)

But you see, these relationships are okay to me. Not perfect. Definitely room for improvement, but they don’t upset me. But the found family, aka the whole squad, disappointed me. Not enough to make me not want to get the sequel, but enough to make me write about it.

You see, what I was expecting was enemies to friends. Nobody wants to be in this squad, so they constantly argue and mess up their mission because of it. After some near death experiences and real stakes, they start to become friends until they actually see each other as family in a way.

But we don’t get that. At least, I didn’t feel like we got that. Because this found family feels forced to me.

Despite them not liking each other, they don’t argue. They give each other insulting banter, but that doesn’t count as actual differences of opinions. We’re not even shown them disagreeing with each other. We’re told in one of Auri’s chapters, but that’s not enough for me. And it doesn’t correlate with the fact that they didn’t fail a mission. Technically yes, they failed the first one, but because the GIA came to stop it, it didn’t feel like a failure to me. And that was their only failure. They did everything else right, despite them being so different, and hating each other and etc.

The one time we actually got a real disagreement was in chapter 18, and we already know how I feel about chapter 18.

So yeah, their found family is cute and all, but I feel like it could’ve flowed more naturally, so that it would make sense. I remember Kristoff comparing this book to Guardians of the Galaxy on goodreads, which I feel like is insulting to GotG. Because in GotG the characters actually hate each other and go to jail because the first thing they did when they met was fight. So yeah, GotG did it better in my opinion.

And that’s enough for part 2. I can’t believe I have to make a third part, but hopefully it will be the last. If you read this far, thank you. You should consider following me because I might want to do more in-depth reviews like this.

Part 3

[migleefulmoments]

So... Abby responds to her family's intervention by obediently telling them she'll stop (ie. lying to them). She then immediately tries to find ways to keep the blog in secret, hiding behind various usernames, lurking on her coven's blogs, more time deleting posts from both blogs we know about. Meaning, instead of getting help, she spends even MORE time online engaging in more batshit crazy crap to cover her ass. Yeah, sure, that doesn't signal dire need for mental health intervention AT ALL.

It looks like that is what is happening.  We will have to see what the future holds. What does Abby do? 

So far the fandom is flailing. Cassie got a couple of anons- one that reads like those anons Abby used to send herself as it covers all the issues they are most upset about so perfectly well (My comments in parenthesis and italicized:: 

Anonymous asked: Even if I am unsure about CC itself, I don't buy M*arr*n. I just don't. And the other side is using doxing and the fact that you and others say things they don't like about M as an excuse to do so and as a way to detract from the fact that their couple goals have some pretty big, glaring plot holes in their love story. I've not seen anyone on this side of the fandom out or dox anyone publicly as a way of humiliation. M gave up her privacy by dating D, but Abby didn't and they were wrong. Period. 

cassie1022 answered: Nonnie, I swear every time they diagnose us as mentally ill or say we’re bitter hags, an LGBTQ angel gets his or her wings. We all know my beliefs, but there are MANY people that are like you and don’t know for sure about CC but sure as hell know Miarren isn’t a normal, healthy relationship. (Funny thing, I don’t remember anyone diagnosing Cassie as mentally ill. Cassie is alwasy the wallflower that nobody wants to dance with and she tries so hard to be part of the fun people. Last week she was sad because I hadn’t sent her a “hate” message (See comment in last post below) 

Even if I remove D from the situation, I would still think M is a lazy, spoiled toddler with no discernable work ethic coupled with a superiority complex that rivals the Cheeto in Command of the US.

You are absolutely correct. Our fandom just wants to be left alone. We don’t send hateful asks to the other side. We don’t have to. They feel they have the right to dox CCers because they don’t like what we say about M, a woman that would light a cigarette from the flames engulfing them and not call 911 to help them. I mean, honestly, it doesn’t get much lower than mocking someone’s death. Plus, as you correctly said, M put herself in the spotlight “dating” D. If she didn’t want that attention, she would have stayed in the background. There are plenty of celebrities married to non famous people and we don’t see them at every event like we do M. (It is BAFFLING to me that they can’t comprhend something as simple and obvious as the reasaon they “see Mia everywhere” is because they fucking stalk her and they hyperanalzye every photo Darren is in looking for her. If they started stalking Ben Feldman they would see his wife just as much as they see Mia).    

Bottom line is what they did to Abby was deplorable, but, just like their kween, they feel justified in doing whatever they want. This isn’t the first time they’ve crossed a line with regards to my friend, but it was the worst.

notes-from-nowhere Anon, they love to throw the guilt of their actions on our shoulders, it’s how they justify what they do to themselves. They need us to be the bad guys otherwise what is the only option left? (I never know what the hell Notes is trying to say- throw the guilt of our actions on their shoulders? I’d love an example of that. I can’t imagine what guilty action I put on their shoulder. As for needing them to be the bad guys or what do we have left? OMFG are you kidding me? We critcize the cc fandom for being misogynistic, homophobic, bullies who attack  Mia, Darren, Ricky and their own Nonnies. They have viscioulsy attacked people in their own fandom who dared to question them. But the biggest reason we push back is because THEY LIE. All the damn time. So what do we have left? Being on the right side, being correct, not lying, not needing to lie, and the joy of watching Darren live his best life)   

Leka got a couple of asks but her answers were weak, confusing and pointless. It’s clear she isn’t ready to take over as their leader. She repeated Abby’s main talking points, tried to use big words to sound smarter and basically ended up not making a lot of sense:

Anonymous asked: I could be wrong, and I hope I am, but I think the character on the HW poster holding the girl is D's character, it would fit if you look at the other guys on the poster, maybe this is already the first hint to show D's character is not gay and so technically not breaking the no more queer roles rule his team set for him. It won't make it any better because it's still a career on the bag of LGBTQ+ people with it's teams but it's technically not a broken rule. I just really need for things to change, I want them to so bad, it kills me seeing someone so kind in a situation like that, and I truly believe D is one of the kindest people in that horrible town. He deserves better than M, I wouldn’t even mind if he goes onto another beard but she and RR just need to go. I really think it’s crazy people still think everything HW is real and PR relationships don’t exist, I wished that place was just better and had a moral compass, people deserve more it kind of shows just how jaded this situation has made me, I can’t even enjoy amazing promo material without directly twisting it into something negative, I don’t want to be this way and if I feel like this I can’t even imagine how D must feel. He is stronger than I’ll ever be living through hell every day, even if he’s not ok he’s still here and holding on, I don’t know if I could in his position. Sorry for the long message and the unneeded negativity, I guess I just had to vent a little

*********************************

Leka answered: So let’s look at the way HW is described:

“Each character offers a unique glimpse behind the gilded curtain of Hollywood’s Golden Age, spotlighting the unfair systems and biases across race, gender and sexuality that continue to this day. Provocative and incisive, HOLLYWOOD exposes and examines decades-old power dynamics, and what the entertainment landscape might look like if they had been dismantled.”

I do consider this the very intriguing thing about the news. (And it just goes to show that believing everything you’re sold is being utterly and completely ignorant.) Let’s say you’re right because ofc it’s possible. How does R/aymond fit in here? Given the excessive way team shit has pushed that article, a technicality won’t be good enough. There has to be a better plan. This doesn’t match what’s been said in his name.

What I think is this doesn’t necessarily have to mean much. You know very well what you see doesn’t have to be the (full) truth. That doesn’t just apply to the real HW. Especially considering the time period of this show. And let’s not forget the pap pics we got at a gas station. This doesn’t rule out SB as an inspiration. I would advise anyone to read up on him. We don’t know at this point. As we keep saying, the best thing to do is to wait and see. I’m certainly interested in finding out more.

As time goes on, the danger of this situation keeps becoming even clearer to me. D deserves much, much better. He’s incredibly strong, but the most toxic person in his life needs to go and she’s more than welcome to take the jumping jackass with her. That’s definitely the most important thing right now. (I’m curious what the danger of Hollywood is?)

awesome-fanfictionada: @leka-1998I’m just wondering - it must have been D who got himself this job on HW, right? Couldn’t this have been done on purpose to counter that ridiculous statement - which wasn’t even accurate, if the source was that interview where he stated that he wouldn’t want to be a casting director? Could in this case RM be a friend?

leka-1998:  @awesome-fanfictionada Yes, he did that himself. Again. And he said the show’s been sold late in 2018. According to an article that came out later, it happened in February 2019. Not true.

HW has been a thing before that statement was made, which is indeed very different from the answer D himself gave during the interview. That’s what makes the article seem like sabotage by team shit. And standing in RM’s way is never a good idea. So while I will obviously never like him, I’m reserving judgment on his current role until we know more.

Anonymous asked: The underlying issue in general is really that social media has made it so people think they get an accurate glimpse into the lives of celebrities, when in reality social media, like everything else that is publicly released about them, is used as a marketing tool. People are actually more inauthentic than they've ever been because they feel pressure to maintain a certain image for social media at all times. So anyone who decides D is living honestly, it's because they want to believe he is.

Leka: True, nonnie. Just look at the text lines that are becoming more popular again. Not nearly as genuine as people want to believe. In D’s case, what has to be brought up? M. Oh Halloween and her amazing shopping skills praised on SM. The work fam honeymoon pic promoting the place they stayed at. Coa/chella for the H&M ad. Mardi Gras posted shortly after the mockery to promote the designer. I could obviously go on. Most of what we see on SM shows the person the 10 year crew wants him to be. And what looks like a split personality if you compare certain posts. Which brings me back to ‘they want to believe’, as what you’re saying clearly isn’t a secret. Anyone can choose to ignore it but at this point, if that’s the case even though you’re more or less paying attention, it’s really a conscious decision.

Oh btw, there’s a HW IG account now and it already has a D follow. Imagine that. R/oyalties co-stars, anyone?

Flowers didn’t get any asks. Amazing since she has more followers than I do and she bragged about getting more “notes” than me.  She did answer azscc who posted an odd rant that baffles me.  Who the fuck is azscc and who is posting anything about her? I realize I am not the only person in this fandom posting about ccers But I just checked all the blogs that I know of and nobody is talking about her; 

azsc  its so weird how chillarrens call me a bully while i only say something rude towards them if they write bullshit towards me. and its just ironic how chillarrens go around calling people bullies while they are the reason why tons of cc accounts use their accounts private or don’t post their opinions and etc. the real threat to the fandom are people like you. so instead of going around throwing shit on people and calling them “mental, delusional...” get a life. no cc believer goes around hunting for chillarren pics and insult the account owner so why don’t you all grow up and realize no one has to agree with your opinions. every crisscolfer blog/twitter page/insta acc basically stan accs never asked for your opinions on their pages so why don’t you just let it go? no one cares about what you all say or do so why are you forcing it this much?

call me a bully i am pretty much okay with that. its obvious that people are unable to understand basic sarcasm and irony and i am not judging because to actually understand what people say you have to at least have an average IQ level. and if you don’t have it, it’s okay but that doesn’t mean you can twist people’s words and post them all over the internet. but its lowkey really funny that i only had my instagram acc for something like 4/5 months and i received over 300 hate/insult/blackmail/death wish messages and etc. and who are you people to call us bullies? (Nobody is a Chillarren. Darren and Mia are married and Chris and Will are in a long-term relationsihp,  Nobody has to “ship” them in order to believe they are together. In America, we accept that when someone introduces their wife or their boyfriend they are telling the truth. It is customary to address that person as their wife or boyfriend respectively. The crisscolfers on the other hand, must use a fandom ship name because they are shipping two people who are not in a relationship and never were. All evidence indicates Chris and Darren are no long friends; they are nothing more than former co-workers-friendly and polite when they see one another but no longer involved in one another’s lives. Chris and Darren both have denied (more than once) that the were ever in a relationship).  .   

flowersintheattic254 I have never in my whole time here posted an anon to a Miarren account. I have no desire to. I’m confident in my beliefs.

The interesting thing for me is that I’ve been here for about four years now and in that time I’ve seen the head of the fandom disappear, other people disappear because their families have been doxed, established long-term cc blogs with a wealth of history deleted without warning. I myself have had my daughters threatened.  This sort of stuff doesn’t happen anywhere in the fandom but here here. If we are a bunch of delusional crazy middle-aged women then this shouldn’t happen. (Who was doxed? Who dissappered? It’s all “liar liar” with everything ccers say. In the last 4 years Abby has been the only leader of the cc fandom. Michelle left between 4 and 5 years ago because her outrageious cc comments threatened her ability to raise money for her little Klaine-fanfic rip-off movie. I vaguely remember someone asking flowers how her daugther’s would feel if they read what she writes- hardly a threat. If there was something more she never posted any proof. As for blogs being deleted- so was D-Criss News.  It happens. The only cc blog that I know of that disappeared was DisneyPrincessModelWorld’s original blog which had was a hot mess of lies and catfishing. She visciously bullied Mia. Hardly someone to mourn their blog being deleted). 

It’s shocking that an actor may lgbt causes such drama. (HUH?)

Flower’s comment is so disingenuous. While it is technically true -she hasn’t sent me anons, she HAS instead publically ridiculed me and frankly, I can’t see how that is any different? I’d say it’s worse because they wanted their followers to see what they wrote and the only way to ensure that is to post it on their blogs. Flowers and Abby posted many public “Michy” posts.  Here is her most recent: 

flowersintheattic254Oh and I guess Michy sent us all some hate today.

I guess I have way more followers than you and only about 4 that send hate. You haven’t for ages.

I think I have over 70,000 hits currently to my blog. I must be saying something interesting.

He’s been married allegedly for a year and people still doubt. That’s gotta hurt you. Anyway......

✌️

ajw720 Michy told me today today that the outing couldn’t possibly be promo, because JS was only cast in September!  What a moron who clearly doesn’t know how HW works.  Sweetheart, it was ANNOUNCED in September;)

I was waiting for a few more months, but in 4 years, since i have been tracking, i have almost a million! (976,695 to be precise).

It is amazing that so many people care about what us bat shit crazy, irrelevant, psychologically unstable, threatening, hateful tin hats have to say!  And that does not include people reading on their dash or that hit you on the app!  So yep, Michy, clearly what we are saying is being monitored by someone.  And clearing making people think!! But you keep wasting your time writing for your audience of 4:)

cassie102 I feel left out, Michy didn't come at me today. Must hurt like hell knowing you're a joke that perpetuates a bigger joke.

leka-1998 Birds of a fake feather flock together. When the right person says tomorrow’s Christmas, tomorrow’s Christmas. Get ready, everyone.

If I narrow it down to the last six months, about 10,000 btw. Hm strange.

flowersintheattic254 @ajw720 the number of hits you have give me oxygen. If Michy thinks they are haters then she is delusional. People know when they are being sold something fake and they look for answers.

[jordanrosenburg]

The Reboot Bubble

When your favorite TV show ends, how do you feel? Lost? Depressed? Lonely? All of the above? I am someone who usually sobs at the end of a beloved TV show. The end of Avatar: The Last Airbender still gets me, I can remember crying when Awkward ended, and even having not watched the last two seasons, I absolutely bawled my eyes out at the series finale of Glee. There are times we want the shows we love to go on forever. Adventure Time was on for over ten years, a dystopian cartoon about a boy and his dog. Even though I was sad, I knew it was time for it to come to an end. That was a show, much like Glee, that I had stopped watching before it ended. But like a good, true fan, I watched its finale. 

I think we feel sad when these shows end, especially the ones that last for many years, because we have grown with many of the characters. I started watching many of the above shows when I was in middle school and high school, and some didn’t end until I was in college, or even after college. It’s like a piece of our younger selves end with it. We wait for these shows to pop up on Netflix or Hulu, so maybe once in a while we can fall down the rabbit hole again. Usually I have to ask myself, “Am I really going to put myself through this again?”, as I push play to rewatch Glee for the seventh time. 

Not every show I rewatch gives me such emotion. I can contently watch reruns of That 70′s Show or Sex and the City and pretty much not feel a thing. I will admit when Eric and Donna break up I feel sad, but not enough to cry! 

I think it’s when our favorite TV shows end in a way that we didn’t like when we feel like it should come back for one more round. Fix the mistakes it made, let the characters we love be happy. Some of us turn to fandom to help cushion the blow. We chat with each other, read what others have to say, or even read fanfiction to help us grieve the loss over one of the things that would help us escape for a little while. 

Reunion specials started happening. These could be simple panels when actors get together to answer questions about a show. Or even as witty as the Seinfeld season on Curb Your Enthusiasm. A lot of people wanted to see their favorite characters together again. One of the reasons I had actually made an account on Tumblr back in 2012 was because The Legend of Korra had come out and I wanted to see how other fans had felt about the sequel series to the show I held so closely to my heart. As much as I wanted to see the characters I knew, I was happy to see new characters in the same universe. 

And then...Fuller House became an extension of Full House. I couldn’t even get through the first episode if I’m being honest. Watching all of the actors turn to the camera and make a funny face after making a joke about the Olsen Twins really turned me off. Gilmore Girls had a four episode reboot. I would say this one of the first, worthy of note reboots. I think most fans were disappointed with how the show actually ended, so getting to see these characters ten years later helped fill in a lot of gaps. I won’t get into how I felt, but I will say I didn’t love what they did with Rory. I was sad to see that she didn’t end being a successful journalist as she had hoped, but such is life. Will and Grace got a reboot around the same time, or shortly after. A show, ahead of its time, had come back. I would have been fine with just a reunion special, but a whole season was made, and then a second season was picked up shortly after. Clearly, there were some stories left to tell. 

Murphy Brown had a failed reboot, which came to no surprise. Did people really want to see a woman in her 60′s going through the same problems she had in her 30′s/40′s? But the networks must have seen how well Will and Grace was doing, and hopped on the bandwagon. Many networks are realizing that the 90′s nostalgia is alive and well. Whose Line is it Anyway also comes to mind. Another beloved show, but this time with a new host and some new comedians. A bit of a face lift, but still funny. Roseanne, now The Connors, was something I was surprised to see comeback. A program that truly showed what a middle class family looked like, and how they lived. This show came back at a good time because many other sitcoms today are all rich families. Is Modern Family only modern because of the different races and sexual orientations depicted? I know a lot of families, and they do not live nearly as comfortably as these people. 

Roswell New Mexico is an example of a reboot that no one really asked for, but am so glad it happened. This is a show that, to me, is the true definition of a reboot. They took the good stuff from the original, recast the entire thing with adults playing adults, not adults playing teenagers, and gave this show a fresh new spin. I sat and watched the original series, and it had its moments, but there’s a reason it only lasted three seasons. This new version of it is something I can see lasting for many seasons to come. 

I know everyone says they want a F.R.I.E.N.D.S. reboot, or an Office reboot, but do they really? Wouldn’t you rather see someone die a hero than see them live long enough to become the villain? 

What made me want to write this in the first place was because I was on Facebook the other day and saw that a reboot of Reba had been green-lit...SERIOUSLY REBA? A show that I know only because they would show re-runs on ABC Family. Don’t get me wrong, Reba wasn’t the worst show in the world, but what stories do they really have to tell that warrants 12-24 episodes? AN ENTIRE SEASON? I could see a reunion special on Netflix, a tasteful hour, to an hour and a half of Reba roasting Barbara Jeanne would be great. 

Rocko’s Modern Life and Invader Zim both have specials on Netflix right now. Rocko’s Modern Life did it right. A quick special, twenty or so years later, that pretty much made fun of itself. I haven’t been able to watch the Invader Zim special yet, but I’m sure it will be done in a similar way of just answering the burning questions fans have. Even Hey Arnold came out with another movie a couple of years ago. This was something fans wanted for years! We all wanted to know what happened to Arnold’s parents. We finally found out, and it was great. Do all of these shows have a chance of coming back with a full season? It depends on the ratings and what the creators of the shows want to do, but these small specials are enough. It’s good fan service. 

But now the networks are just getting greedy. Not only is getting harder to watch TV because every network now has their own app, or they will, that you need to pay for to use, but it seems like every network is rebooting just to make profits! Netflix made watching TV without cable a cheaper option. Now I have to pay for all of these apps separately just to watch TV? Is cable going to become the cheaper option again? Or are all of these shows going to be exclusively on these apps? It’s ridiculous! 

I digress...Let’s talk about Disney for a second. Raven’s Home became an extension of That’s So Raven. I will say, I think this reboot was done right because it’s about Raven and her kids, but now even shows like Lizzie McGuire are getting rebooted. Yes, we’re all excited to see Hillary Duff back at it in the big city, but who are the target markets for these shows? Are people my age sitting down to watch them? Are families watching these shows together? Do the younger generations know or care about the original shows? High School Musical is also coming back, but this time it’s mocumentary style about the kids who actually went to east high that also do theater. At that point I’d just love to see the original cast do another movie. They really missed their opportunity for High School Musical: 10 Year Reunion if you ask me. 

I just want to know when will it all end? Are there truly no original ideas left out there anymore? Are we only able to produce TV shows based off of ones that have been off the air for years, only to bring them back? What’s next? Dharma and Greg, a modern Mork and Mindy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer??? Let’s go back to thinking of these shows fondly, and letting the good ones rest as they were. Eventually the networks will run out of shows to reboot, and the bubble will burst. 

[nonbinarysasquatch]

I’m in Love

As I mentioned in my very first review, when I was a child I imagined myself in TV shows (or movies or musicals etc.) I’ve always had a very active imagination that I kept to myself for a long time (really until I was 30 and started writing fanfic.) It’s a big part of why I relate to Rebecca. It’s not the only reason but it’s certainly a big part.

What’s interesting about this finale is that it is as surprising as it is completely predictable. That Rebecca would realise she loves music isn’t surprising but that it wasn’t really about musical theater per se is surprising. I mean maybe it is still about musical theater but that’s not a future we are privy to. That can only exist in our imaginations.

That Rebecca doesn’t pick any of the guys is obviously not remotely surprising. It would’ve been surprising if she had. But the specific ways it went down were surprising and that they tipped their hats a little to Greg is surprising. But more on that later…

The final six words were a surprise but they are a surprise that makes perfect sense. We were all thinking “This is what happy feels like” but that’s too surface level. It’s telling not showing.

It’s not just that musical theater was a bit of a red herring but in a way music is too. The music only matters in as much it is who Rebecca is on the inside. The entire show has been about identity and it’s been staring us in the face the entire time. The show is called Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and from the beginning it’s been not only exploring that concept but has seen Rebecca endlessly trying on different identities, always struggling because she was never allowing herself to be herself.

When Paula tells Rebecca to just be herself back in episode 2.04, she reacts with revulsion. “Who would want to be that?” The identity she’s most comfortable with is the one she’s kept hidden. It never occurred to her to actually bring that out until Paula finally asks her why she stares off sometimes. Presumably all of her friends have noticed this from time to time (we can assume Rebecca has imagined far, far more songs that we as viewers have ever seen) and none of them have stopped to ask what was up. Maybe they just accepted it as a Rebecca quirk.

Where does Rebecca go next? I can envision countless futures for her. I like the idea that maybe she writes enough songs to go on a bit of a tour. It’s kind of a mess but she has Heather and Valencia with her (Paula is busy) to keep her company.

Maybe she takes things further. Maybe she tries to write a musical. Maybe she moves back to New York. I’m sure I’ll write fanfic someday but for now I really don’t know where I see her going.

The other characters…

Paula: Paula took a stand and it was great. She’s come so far. I was a bit nervous they might force her to quit her job but I’m glad it didn’t go that way.

Heather/Hector: Hot tub. They got the best ending if I’m being honest.

Valencia: Valencia proposed in a very Valencia way. I sort of question why they ever had her move to New York since narratively it ultimately didn’t matter. I think there are a lot of missed opportunities with Valencia but those aren’t really the fault of this episode in particular.

Josh: I’m so glad the magic thread got picked up again. I was really excited when it got brought up again in 4.08. For the record: I hated the idea of him becoming a model and I’m disappointed the fandom was repeating that over and over as if it was somehow the only piece of information anyone retained about Josh (he’s hot!) But the show gave him a good ending. Incidentally, Josh was the only one of the three guys who made an effort to date people other than Rebecca this season.

Nathaniel: Nathaniel got as good an ending as one could want. He quits the law firm and moves to friggin Guatemala to be a lawyer for an animal sanctuary (it’s not a zoo. Theoretically, sanctuaries can be more ethical… or they can be worse.) I was surprised that he both 1. Seemed to most assume he was going to win but 2. Actually handled the rejection the best.

Greg: Honestly, Greg’s ending came a few episodes back with the Serrano’s soft open. While Rebecca didn’t end up with anyone they did clearly tip their hats a little to Greg. He got the full explanation of what happened. He also told Rebecca he wouldn’t wait for her but a year later he was still single. I still kinda feel bad for Greg. After 3 years he can’t get over her. Or maybe he has? It’s hard to say. My thoughts on Greg since he’s been brought back are complicated and I’m sure I’ll make a separate post going over that. I think Skylar did a good job and the writing was generally good. Do I think it worked? Not fully. Do I think it served the purpose Rachel and Aline wanted? Probably.

WhiJo: WHAT ON EARTH. Who knew WhiJo would get the dark ending? I mean I guess it could be darker but he’s the only character that kind of suffers a minor tragedy. Perhaps this is his karmic price for the role he played as an agent of chaos at the end. In a funny sort of way, WhiJo was the final villain. On the other hand, things with Greg, Josh and Nathaniel were about to spin out of control anyway. Perhaps he just gave that chaos a more manageable form. Either way, not the role I would’ve ever expected for him back in season one.

Darryl: Darryl’s ending is cute. I think it’s interesting how little drama there was in the couples who work out. April and Beth are mostly blank slates. Neither of them define their partners. Darryl Whitefeather is probably the best handled bisexual character I’ve ever seen. They managed to avoid all of the bad tropes for the most part. And it’s surprisingly rare to see a male bi character have relationships with men and women over the course of a show. Traditionally bi male characters just end up with dudes and end up being bi in name only. Or they just flirt a lot or had sex with women in the past. But Darryl was handled pretty naturally. I don’t think all of the show’s handling of queer characters was perfect (though given the crap that’s out there, eh, I’ll take it) but Darryl was solid.

Jason: He was sure in this episode. Actually, I’m gonna derail my Jason comment to talk about the fact that Jim was in the final lineup. I think in Jim’s mind he and Rebecca really have had a ton of tension for years. Who knows maybe they date for a while. I kind of hope Rebecca does a lot of dating.

AJ: AJ was one of the best things about this season. He wasn’t a super engrossing character or anything but Clark was always a delight. I’m sad we didn’t get to see more of their roommate banter because I bet it was amusing. Also: Rebecca pays AJ and he pays her back in rent? I mean, I guess but there’s something funny about that. She can’t legally take it out of his wages, to be fair.

The Songs:

Eleven O’Clock: Does what it needed to. It’s a good selection of songs. For once, most of my thoughts on it are tied into my thoughts on the episode.

West Covina (Final Reprise): THE FEELS.

And that’s that. It’s both a very different and very simple finale. In a good series finale, you’ve already done the work so that when you get to the finale it’s the only place left to go. I think they mostly pulled that off. When evaluating the show in retrospect there will be a lot of ways to do it. It was more successful at some things than others. This is far from the last things I will have to say about this show.

Just remember: Romantic love is not an ending.