#it's not a crime to write a compelling story about your favorite character

[madwheelerz]

Okay, like, what is up with y'all these days. Why are you going after the literal backbones of the fandom right now? The artists and the writers are what are holding it together and you decide it's a good idea to harrass them?

Over what a haircut? A story that doesn't suit your tastes? Newsflash move on. You don't have to look, you don't have to read. Go be miserable by yourself.

All the complaints about a "dead tag" lmao, you're about to see what a real "dead tag" looks like if you aren't nicer, tf.

[boyfriendgideon]

as yr favorite local jason todd fan sometimes i get so fed up with the apparent inability of most dc comic writers to write a class conscious narrative about him.

and yes, i know that comics are a very ephemeral and constantly evolving and self-conflicting medium.

and yes, i know they’re a profit-driven art medium created in a capitalistic society, so there are very few times where comics are going to be created solely out of the desire to authentically and carefully and deliberately represent a character and take them from one emotional narrative place to another, because dc cares about profit and sometimes playing it safe is what sells.

and yes, i know comics and other forms of art reflect and recreate the society within which they were conceived as ideas, and so the dominant societal ideas about gender and race and class and so on are going to be recreated within comics (and/or will be responded to, if the writer is particularly societally conscious).

but jesus christ. you (the writer/writers) have a working class character who has been homeless, who has lost multiple parents, who has been in close proximity to someone struggling with addiction, who has had to steal to survive, who may have (depending on your reading of several different moments across different comics created by different people) been a victim of csa, who has clearly (subtextually) struggled with his mental health, who was a victim of a violent murder, and who has an entirely distinct and unique perspective on justice that has evolved based on his lived experiences.

and instead of delving into any of that, or examining the myriad of ways that classism in the writers’ room and the editors’ room and the readers’ heads affected jason’s character to make sure you’re writing him responsibly, or giving him a plotline where his views on what justice looks like are challenged by another working class character, or allowing him to demonstrate actual autonomy and agency in deciding what relationships he wants to have with people who he loves but sees as having failed him in different ways, or thinking carefully about what his having chosen an alias that once belonged to his murderer says about his decision-making and motivations, you keep him stuck in a loop of going by the red hood, addressing crime by occupying a position of relative power that perpetuates crime & harm rather than ever getting at the root causes, and seesawing between a) agreeing with his adoptive family entirely about fighting nonlethally in ways that are often inconsistent with his apparent motivations or b) disagreeing and experiencing unnecessarily brutal and violent reactions from his adoptive father as if that kind of violence isn’t the kind of thing he experienced as a child and something bruce himself is trying to prevent jason from perpetuating. because a comic with red hood, quips, high stakes, and familial drama sells.

it doesn’t matter if it keeps jason trapped, torn between an unanswered moral and philosophical question, a collection of identities that no longer fit him, and a family that accepts him circumstantially. it doesn’t matter if jason’s characterization is so utterly inconsistent that the only way to mesh it together is to piece different aspects of different titles and plotlines together like a jigsaw. it doesn’t matter if you do a disservice to his character, because in the end you don’t want to transform him or even understand him deeply enough to identify what makes him compelling and focus on that.

and i love jason!!!!! i love him. and i think about the stories we could have, if quality and art and doing justice to the character were prioritized as much as selling a title and having a dark and brooding batfam member besides bruce just to be the black sheep character are prioritized. and i just get a little sad.

[idrellegames]

I have three questions! One, who was your favorite crime lord of Rona to come up with? Personally I’m partial to the Viridian Lady, but that just might be me. I know we didn’t exactly explore all of them in depth, but the idea is super interesting to me.

Two, what are Aeran’s thoughts on having kids? Whether it’s with the MC or not, would he want to become a father?

And three, if you could choose any side character (so not necessarily a LI or Aeran) to further develop and explore (like in their own spin-off) who would it be?

Oooo good questions!

1. I think it is a tie between the Lady and the Count since they are the focal crime lords and I've spent the most time with them. The Viridian Lady mostly resembles her initial concept, although many factors around her changed (Hera didn't originally exist and the MC was going to have the option to seduce her to get information, but that got rejected long before I even wrote the villa content). The Count was originally supposed to be a weasly little human lord who had gotten exiled to Rona from the Empire and hired a group of mercenaries to do his dirty work for him. That uh… changed? Rather drastically once I wrote the original fight branches in Episode 1 Route A. I don't know what compelled me to change him from human to melusine and re-write his entire history, but I got there and a whole different character emerged from the depths.

2. Aeran does not want children. Ever. He was born to a single mother and raised by a foster father, he has a lot of hang-ups surrounding this topic. He's very careful when it comes to sex as he doesn't want any accidental children he doesn't know about (given that's what happened to him with his own biological father).

3. Probably Rhodarth or Veyer? Both have a lot of interesting aspects to their history that would be fun to explore. Rhodarth has his whole history with the Corsida Brightblades, and Veyer travelled the world before getting assigned to Erenvor. But I also have to shout-out crime wives Anselma and Hera, they have dozens of stories between the two of them.

[holylustration]

Dopamine Week #2 - Author Recommendations

This Dopamine Week, I would like to give a special call out to two very important people: my betas, @pallysuune and @qogoist.

You'll know @pallysuune for her many, many works. She has 36 pieces of fiction for the Rogue Trader fandom alone and writes for a variety of minor characters. If you feel an ache in your soul because you want more Nocturne of Oblivion, or Achilleas, or maybe even Calcazar or Kunrad, Pallysuune most likely has you covered.

Beyond just their sheer creativity, one of the things that I really love about Pallysuune's stories are how accessible they are. I don't feel like I need a vast understanding of Warhammer 40,000 to get into them. The plots are compelling and the characters feel organic, and everything I need is right there within the confines of the wordcount.

I will also say that her ability to humanize minor characters is truly unparalleled. In playing Rogue Trader, I didn't think twice about Kunrad or Achilleas or everyone's favorite Harlequin. And then in strides Pallysuune, dangling stories like Moonlight and Shadows or Master of Gossip as a carrot before me! And now I have but no choice to stop and read when I see them.

So, if you haven't already, I'd urge you to give her stories a look. You will find something there to scratch an itch that perhaps you didn't even know you had.

I have the pleasure of calling @qogoist my best friend and my love, but you will probably know him as 1000_Otters. Not only is he a purveyor of badass boss babes, but he is also kind enough to let me borrow his Rogue Traders from time to time (sidearm, anyone?).

Otters has two stories to his name in the Rogue Trader fandom, both of which are highly enjoyable reads.

Now, can you believe that this man decided to make his debut entry into the Rogue Trader fandom by posting Theodora von Valancius dommy mommy smut? That takes serious guts, which is why you should give A Good (little) Soldier a read. Not only is it funny and sexy, but it has a surprising amount of heart for a one-off piece.

His second story is A Rogue's Gambit, which is a Jae Heydari/Female Rogue Trader long-fic. Otters is taking a thoughtful approach to correcting the course of the Jae romance, without losing the soul of everyone's favorite cold trader. There's one chapter up so far (and more on the way!) so now is an excellent time to get invested. His Rogue Trader, Alethea, is an eminently cool cat crime lord that you just can't help but like.

Without these two, I would be hopelessly lost in a sea of typos and repeat words, with trite plots that go no where. So, this Dopamine Week, please join me in showering them with love.

[marshmallowprotection]

From all game timelines... In terms of writing, do you have a favorite Rika?

Oh, hands down?

If you're asking me for the most compelling arc that not only forces her to take accountability for her crimes from the very beginning, but also helps her get to a much-needed point of self-actualization where she can work on herself from prison getting the very help she needed from the start? Then, I'm going to tell you the Rika I enjoy the most is in Ray Route and the After Ending's Normal End.

The reason why the RAE's Normal End is Normal is because Rika is the one who makes a stand against Saejoong, rather than MC who's helping Saeran get the story behind his father's life so he can process what he needed, a deeper understanding of himself and pain so he's able to move on the way he wants to.

Rika taking a stand to say to tell Saejoong what she's thinks of him and HERSELF is one of the most poignant and powerful moments for her as a character. She tells Saejoong like it is, owns her shame and grief, admits that she needs help and to face punishment for a laundry list of atrocities she's committed. She tells him he needs to pay up an face his sins as well. She doesn't mince words and to see Rika Kim own everything she's denied is cathartic.

I stand by my statement I've always said. I want Rika Kim to take accountability for her actions.

I want her to face the prison sentence she deserves for everything she's done wrong, but I also want her to have self-actualization while she is facing her punishment for the rest of her life. She has to live with what she's done, and while it is just viable to hope that she lives in discomfort for the rest of her days, much like Saeran, I want her to find some peace over what she did suffer in life at the hands of those awful adoptive parents and the pastor who did unspeakable things to her.

I want her to live with what she's done. I want her to stay awake at night and think about all the awful things she has done to other people, and I want her to understand the depth of pain that has been inflicted on people because of her actions. But, I also want her to have the opportunity to heal from what she could never heal from to begin with. She needed a therapist who would be committed to her emotional needs rather than ignore the problem at hand and treat only surface level issues.

She still needs someone to talk to about her guilt and shame over Sally, her years spent feeling like a monster as a child until she took ownership of being called the devil to fight back against her pastor and her parents, and how devil and angel themes grappled with her on the inside for years as she struggled to find a sense of self outside of masking. She deserves the opportunity to talk to someone about those things. 

Having that chance doesn't excuse or erase her actions, because cool backstory and motive doesn't equate to an excuse for crime. I can't I have to point that out but narratively speaking, Rika is hated for a lot of justifiable reasons but for the people who think she's an interesting person and want to see her find some peace while facing DESERVED PUNISHMENT FOR HER CRIMES shouldn't get kicked over and over to hell and back for saying they like her in any capacity.

That really has nothing to do with your question, I just feel the need to say it because anytime I answer a question about her or Jihyun in a capacity that talks about their crimes, sometimes it gets twisted up as people think liking a character somehow equates to justification of their crimes.

Seeing Rika Kim own up to being a criminal was cathartic to me as a victim. Sometimes, you want that person who hurt you to own up to what they've done and walk right where they deserve to be. Like my love Saeran, I hope she finds some peace with her trauma, but I don't want to see her again after this moment, and this is the end to Rika's involvement in our lives as far as I'm concerned with my timeline with Saeran Choi.

For the people who haven't played the RAE Normal Ending or aren't particularly interested in doing so, I'm just going to paste this down below for you to look at. 

[charmwasjess]

For the Love Fandom asks, how about 2, 3 and 12?

BLUE!!! Thanks for stopping in!! <3 :D

2) a headcanon you weren't sure about at first but have come to like!

This question is so funny to me because my first instinct is like "welllllll <the first headcanon I think of> is not technically a headcanon because it's clearly what the narrative is suggesting" and then I realize that's exactly what someone obsessed with their own headcanon says. :D

But yes!! I answered more specifically here and here! <3

3) a character that fandom has helped you appreciate

Ooh, for sure Komari Vosa. I'm preparing myself for the rotten tomatoes here because I have some genuinely unpopular opinions about both Komari and the whole Legends Galidraan storyline, which I've seen centerpiece in some of my least favorite takes. But without getting into all of that, I think I wasn't a huge fan of Komari for the crime of that association and also because it seemed like some of her Legends storyline/concept was kind of tangled up with Asajj, a character I frankly just liked better.

But I actually love how fandom treats her now, and love seeing her get to go on adventures in fic and art. (The fandom tendency to grab a Legends/EU Jedi and cherish and love and breathe new life into them is so gorgeous to me.) @bolithesenate deserves a lot of the credit for my coming around to love and appreciate Komari, not just because I love the way she draws and writes her, but because she frames her in such a compelling and interesting way in chatting about her that makes me see the character in a fresh, delightful light. Like I never realized how Komari is just the classic Dooku apprentice: extremely strange and extremely confident within that strangeness, like Rael and Qui-Gon. Dooku sure loves his oddball-and-glad-about it Padawans.

12)compliment someone else in your fandom

I was so hoping someone would ask this one because you're all fucking famous to me. :D If anyone wants to ask it another 20 times, I'd be happy because it was so hard to pick just one person.

@calcedon79 was some of the first Dooku and Sifo-Dyas fic I read when I came back to the fandom. Her writing has such beautiful depth and warmth to it, it's like looking into a gorgeous piece of colorful stained glass. When I started writing again, I remember when she first kudos'd one of my stories, my friend was like "DID YOU SEE WHO IS IN YOUR KUDOS" and I was like "AHHHHHHHHHHHH" :D :D like a celebrity appearance?!?! So - it turns out she's an incredibly kind and generous reader and person as well as a great writer. And now getting to be a part of our collective virtual hang here in the mines on Tumblr is so so cool to me.

[terminatorbuns]

Understanding Puss in Boot: The Last Wish through its villains (but mostly just Jack Horner)

By @terminatorbuns, with special thanks to my wife @da-manta-ray

We don't talk enough about the villains of Puss in Boots, the Last Wish. I mean we do, I just want to talk about it MORE.

It's been a while since this movie was released and I'm glad to see all the discussion and discourse around all the ways that this movie has excelled in all technical and writing aspects. I love discourse and analysis and I've been dying to share some of my own thoughts about this movie since release. There's so much to talk about, but for now let's talk a little bit about the very impressive way this movie handles villains.

To be clear, I use "villain" to mean antagonist, people who oppose the main characters. In this movie, the villains are Goldilocks (plus bears), Death, and Jack Horner respectively. I'm not particular about semantics, villain is a cooler word to say, and they all commit crimes anyways, so whatever. Having said that, Puss in Boots has one of the most impressive uses of villains I've ever seen in a movie, delivering three extremely compelling villains in a two hour window when many longer films struggle to even deliver a single good villain. Not only that, but each villain in Puss in Boots represents a completely different villain archetype, each with a different role to play in the story, and each one executed to perfection for their respective roles. I think everyone who has watched the movie has come away with a favorite villain, and so the intention of this essay is to explore in depth the archetypes that each villain represents, their implementation, and the significance of each fairy tale chosen (yeah, it's important). As an analysis nerd, maybe I can bring to your attention some things about your favorite villain that you had not considered, maybe give you something to think about the next time you get into a friendly debate about who is the best Puss in Boots villain.

Because it's JACK HORNER. HOLY SHIT is it Jack Horner. This is THE Jack Horner essay, I need people to understand how big brained the execution on this narrative behemoth is, this is the ONLY reason this essay exists. Jack Horner is on an entirely different level of writing to the other two, LET ME SELL YOU ON THIS. The team at DreamWorks poured liquid narrative gold into this titan of a villain and this essay does not stop until I fully explain how much narrative genius is on display here, they have worked TOO hard for their work to go unappreciated. You can actually just skip to the Jack Horner section that's where the hot, hot analysis is. We have to talk about 18th century political discourse, galaxy brained narrative framing devices, and Jack's significance to the core themes of the Shrek franchise. I have lost sleep researching Jack Horner, this rabbit hole is DEEP. I'll talk about each villain in depth, but we stan Jack Horner in this house.

1. Goldilocks, the sympathetic villain

Goldilocks and her supporting bear family is the sympathetic villain archetype, villains who oppose the hero's goals but who otherwise have understandable, likable motivations that make an audience want to see them win. The strength of this style of villain is to serve as secondary protagonists: when the audience likes a villain, the audience wants to see them complete an emotional journey just as much as the main hero characters. Sympathetic villains are exceptionally strong when they are working towards the same goals as the heroes, because their motivations are inherently relatable. It's the same motivation that the good guys have, after all.

Goldilocks is one of the more well known fairy tale properties of the three villains and that lends itself well to her villain archetype. The fact that audiences are already familiar with the Goldilocks story, combined with the fact that she gets the most screen time of the three villains, gives the audience a lot of context and backstory to understand Goldilocks as a character, and relate to her more easily. Her supporting bear family is written to be lovably goofy and it's easy to get attached to this lovable family. They fulfill the sympathetic villain archetype by being as lovable as they are.

The recontextualization of the original Goldilocks fairy tale as a found family story is also a very clever choice. The repeated line "too big, too small, just right" is used in the original fairy tale to describe Goldilocks trying beds until she finds one that fits her, but is cleverly reframed in this movie as a metaphor for Goldilocks trying to find a FAMILY that fits her. The bear family that adopted her is "just right" as a permanent family for Goldilocks, yet she must struggle with different ideas of family before she is able to settle on her "just right".

The Goldilocks subplot easily parallels the journey of Puss, Kitty, and Perrito. Goldilocks and our main heroes are all in conflict over the wishing star, but ultimately both parties end up discovering that their needs are met by embracing their respective found families, no wish required. Puss, Kitty, and Perrito all suffer from loneliness and require each other's company to be truly happy, just like Goldilocks needs the company of the bears to be happy. And so, Goldilocks ends the movie not as enemies to Puss' party, but as allies, sitting next to Puss' party, celebrating their similar victories together. A classic and clean execution of a sympathetic villain.

2. Death, the symbolic villain

Death is an example of a symbolic villain, which is a villain designed specifically to symbolically challenge specific traits or beliefs held by the protagonists. Symbolic villains may have personal motivations but their primary narrative significance is the effect they have on the hero, and their job is to highlight the fears and anxieties of the hero and to force the hero to face their fears. To this end, symbolic villains can often have little or no personal motivations, at which point they are also known as force-of-nature villains, villains that function more as a threatening force than as a person with needs and wants. Force of nature villains don't even have to be people, a tornado can fill the role of a force of nature antagonist.

Death is a very obvious choice for this role, one of Puss' primary anxieties is his fear of death, and there's no better symbolic villain to challenge this than "Death, straight up". He qualifies as a force of nature villain in a very direct way by being a literal embodiment of a concept, threatening and unavoidable. The choice of depicting Death as an incarnation of the big bad wolf also has some significance. He doesn't have any narrative ties to the original incarnation of the big bad wolf (or the wolf from Shrek), but the big bad wolf is a well understood cultural shorthand for "fairy tale bad guy". Indeed, that's what Death represents for this movie, he plays the role of a fairy tale bad guy, and his depiction as the big bad wolf hides his true identity until later into the story.

It should be noted that the personal motivations of a symbolic villain barely matters, and that's very true of Death. He has minimal screen time to explain his motivations, because it's not particularly important. More interestingly, what little we know about his motivations are not particularly likable or relatable. Many have made the mistake of understanding Death as a neutral, noble party just doing his job as death, but that's not true of this movie. It's NOT Death's job to kill Puss in Boots, his job is to take Puss' life when Puss dies of normal causes. Death isn't supposed to stab people personally with a knife, he just wanted to kill Puss for fun. It's fine because Death isn't meant to be sympathetic, Death is a dick in this movie, straight up.

Since symbolic villains have everything to do with the hero, they are most effective when they force the hero into action. Death's presence forces Puss into retirement, then it forces him on the journey to find the wishing star, and shows up along the way to pressure him further. He forces Puss into a very sincerely depicted panic attack scene, and that's what symbolic villains do, they push our heroes to reveal things about themselves, their needs and wants and anxieties, so our heroes can then confront those things. The visual execution on his threatening presence also must be commended, since everyone knows how dangerous DreamWorks made him look. I have no notes, he's just cool as fuck.

3. Jack Horner is the unsympathetic villain

Alright we're starting to wade into the Jack Horner waters here, but we'll start with the baby surface level analysis of Jack's villain archetype. Jack is the unsympathetic villain, a particularly monstrous one, who no one likes because he's a dick. His motivations are surprisingly fleshed out more than that of Death since Jack at least explains his backstory, but his motivations are trash because he's trash. The heroes barely interact with him and his motivations add very little to the journey of the heroes. Unsympathetic villains are often like this because their role in the story is to simply be unlikeable, to be such a shitty person that their eventual failure delights the audience with a sense of catharsis. That in and of itself has its own kind of narrative strength, entertainment is still the ultimate goal of any piece of media, after all.

He's reminiscent of classic Disney villains such as Jafar and Scar in a number of ways: he's petty and power hungry despite having minimal backstory reasons to be so, and his depiction is not conventionally attractive (although those are some BROAD shoulders). He's also partially queer-coded in the same way as the classic Disney villains through his very unconventional masculinity: he's temperamentally flamboyant, and he's even got the pink hair to boot. Queer coding in villains is a complicated discussion I'm not qualified to discuss in depth, but it can be surprisingly enjoyable to see joyful unconventional masculinity on screen even if the context is an evil villain. We want to see him scheme, and we want to see him fail; The audience just wants to see him do stuff because he's so fun.

Jack embodies the unsympathetic villain well in his simplicity, all his actions are motivated by petty greed and he approaches every situation with uncomplicated evil. I would ask you, is this really all there is to this incarnation of Jack Horner though? YUP, turns out that's it. However, like the other two villains, Jack Horner is inspired by an existing cultural text that influences the development of his narrative. I have explained the motivations behind the other two, I will do the same for Jack.

THIS is where the fun starts.

4. Welcome to 18th century political discourse

Jack Horner's original text is the least well known property out of the three villain origins. "Little Jack Horner" is an 18th century nursery rhyme that's short enough to be read word for word in the film, and short enough to be included in this essay:

Little Jack Horner

Sat in the corner,

Eating his Christmas pie;

He put in his thumb,

And pulled out a plum,

And said, "What a good boy am I!"

That's the whole thing, some kid eats a plum out of a pie. However, even in its early days the Jack Horner rhyme became (somehow) associated with the themes of greed and opportunism. Let's try to follow the logic: we have some kid, CLEARLY financially privileged enough to receive a pie for Christmas, decides to steal a plum out of the center of the pie, ruining it with his dirty kid fingers before anyone could cut the pie to share, then he has the gall to declare "what a good boy am I"! THIS FUCKER. The pie is the wealth of the common man, or something, and the plum is, like, the fruits of their labor, and this BOURGEOIS child is reveling in his destruction of the economy with his hunger for profit (and plums).

It sounds stupid because it IS stupid, but the association stuck and found use in a surprising amount of historical literature and political writings. I can just rattle off examples from the Wikipedia article: English poet Samuel Bishop uses Jack Horner as a critique of the Civil service bureaucracy, the satirical novel Melincourt (1817) has 5 people sing a song describing how they misuse their trades to fleece the public that compares themselves to Jack Horner, etc, etc, there's like 6 more examples. Also fun is the fact that educators in the 1800's have made attempts to sanitize the Jack Horner rhyme by adding verses that describe Jack Horner totally sharing his pie afterwards because it's the good ethical thing for little boys to do. Jack Horner shows up in war propaganda, it's absolutely wild.

This is the historical context behind the little Jack Horner rhyme, the reason why Jack Horner represents capitalistic greed and cruelty in the movie. I had to look this stuff up after the movie, who even knows about this stuff, but the writers have seriously done their homework to find a nursery rhyme with a historyc this interesting, and it's fascinating to see how they worked to recontextualize this rhyme into a movie villain for Puss in Boots. I say this, because the next layer of Jack Horner's narrative construction is even more interesting.

5. Jack the Anti-Pinocchio

Drew like a dark, fucked up version of Pinocchio, haha. Just a glimpse into my dark reality. A full stare into my twisted perspective would make most go simply insane, lmao.

Jack Horner's screen time is punctuated with references to the story of Pinocchio, who I'm sure we are all familiar with. Jack's intro flashback features Pinocchio and he spends a lot of time with "ethical bug", the very shameless clone of Pinocchio's cricket. On one hand, this is a very clever way to contextualize Jack Horner using a better known media property, but on the other hand, the choice of Pinocchio is very deliberate because Jack Horner is used in this movie specifically as a dark, villainous reflection of Pinocchio. 2022 is truly the year of Pinocchio for bringing us three Pinocchio movies and ending the year on the Anti-Pinnochio: Jack Horner.

Pinocchio is the story of a little puppet boy, naive to the ways of the world, learning how to be a "good boy" through trials and tribulations. He fails to listen to his father and his companion cricket sometimes but he ultimately learns a sense of morality and kindness. Compare and contrast this to the use of "good boy" in the Jack Horner rhyme, where Jack ruins a pie then ironically declares himself a good boy. This is where the parallels start: Jack Horner at multiple points calls himself a "good boy", but he has done nothing good to earn such a title. Everytime he says "good boy" it is not only a reference to his own rhyme, but as an ironic allusion to the story of Pinocchio as well.

Consider the appearance of Pinocchio early on in Jack's introduction scene, where Jack is upstaged by Pinocchio's magic puppet show and becomes jealously possessive of magic. The significance of that scene comes from the fact that Pinocchio's magic body is NOT a net positive advantage for Pinocchio: as a puppet Pinocchio struggles to fit in with human children, but the only advantage to his magic body is his ability to entertain crowds for stage shows, if he offers his only asset up for commercial exploitation. Not only that, but Pinocchio's magic forces his nose to grow when he lies, so it's as much a liability as it is an asset. Jack is jealous of a socially underprivileged child for the ONLY advantage Pinocchio has, planting the seeds of Jack's characterization mere moments after his introduction.

Jack's journey with off brand cricket completes his characterization. We see him abuse his men against the advice of cricket, but we also see that he perfectly understands cricket's advice, he just has no interest in being good. Contrast this with Pinocchio, who also fails to heed cricket's advice, but only because he is naive and fails to understand the nuances of the advice. We also learn how he was overwhelmingly privileged in life but still wishes for magic, the only privilege he's ever been denied, and his intention to hoard it from everyone else. Jack is written with the intention of filling the role of the monstrous, unsympathetic villain, and so it was a very deliberate and intelligent decision to frame him as the moral antithesis of a "good boy", the moral antithesis of Pinocchio. What morality Pinocchio has to learn, Jack disregards completely and declares himself a "good boy" anyways. Each of the three villains in this movie is designed around their respective archetypes, but Jack Horner takes his design prompt and fucking SOARS.

6. The Shrek Cinematic Universe

Let's take a brief detour through the history of the Shrek franchise.

In 1994, Jeffrey Katsenberg was ousted from a chairman role from Walt Disney and went on to co found DreamWorks Studios. The original Shrek movie started development the year after in 1995, as a very loose adaptation of a now very obscure children's picture book of the same name. It is often said that Shrek was written as a cynical parody of the fairy tale films of Disney as a form of revenge from Katsenberg. Disney films at the time were known for being family friendly and moralistically pure and full of beautiful, wholesome heroes on noble quests, and Shrek sought to subvert those expectations deliberately. At release Shrek had become an amalgamation of various fairy tale stories, featuring many parodies of Disney properties such as Pinocchio and Snow White. The humor was crass and irreverent to contrast with the properties of Disney, with a story focused on the uglier, dirtier ogre Shrek learning to become an unconventional hero to a fairytale kingdom.

It turns out the market was indeed craving the kind of off beat fairy tale that Shrek had become, as an alternative to Disney's clean, beautiful properties. Shrek's celebration of unconventional beauty and its clever parodies of classic fairy tales both struck a chord with audiences, and the Shrek franchise has been a DreamWorks classic ever since. The two Puss in boots movies are spin-offs of the Shrek franchise. Both Puss in Boots movies differ from Shrek in the way that they use fairy tales: the fairy tales are still different from their original contexts, but they are much closer to their original meanings rather than fully comedic comedies. The first Puss in Boots was a moderate success while the second Puss in Boots is critically acclaimed and seems to be on track to revive the entire Shrek franchise.

I want to highlight the strategy Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has found for handling its fairy tale properties, and how it contributed to this film's current success. Puss in Boots has figured out the storytelling potential of becoming a sort of cross over film for multiple fairy tale stories, recontextualized for a modern audience, but with more faithfulness and sincerity to the original text than the Shrek franchise before it. It's reminiscent of the very popular Marvel Cinematic Universe, but for even older public domain stories. In a way this is still within the spirit of Shrek, it still makes use of an ensemble cast of reimagined public domain fairy tale stories to construct a new, modern narrative. It even has some parallels to the original Disney properties that led to the creation of Shrek, as Disney also built its brand off the adaptation of the same public domain fairy tales that make guest appearances in Shrek.

This style of storytelling has the unique power of reviving older, forgotten media properties into fresh new narratives, made even more complex by blending multiple stories into a single movie and forcing them to develop new meaning through interacting with one another. This approach does an incredible job of capturing the essence of Shrek: Shrek himself is a lesser known property elevated to the status of a cultural icon through his interactions with an exciting ensemble cast of comedic fairy tale imaginings, and the Shrek franchise is responsible for bringing attention and meaning to even more fairy tales and nursery rhymes, some well known, some not. Might I remind you, Puss in Boots himself was not amongst the most popular fairy tales such as Pinocchio and Cinderella, the properties that were themselves brought to fame by being associated with the Disney brand. Shrek is often praised for its celebration of unconventional beauty, and while this is true for its celebration of literal unconventional beauty features, it's also a celebration of the revival of the unconventional, forgotten stories of the past that have the potential for new life.

I say to you that Jack Horner is the perfect encapsulation of this, the spirit of the Shrek franchise. This excruciatingly simple 6 line nursery rhyme, kept alive throughout centuries through artists extracting a comical amount of political meaning from it, now revived once more by the talented team at DreamWorks. Jack Horner had the least well known origins of the three villains, many people didn't even know the nursery rhyme going into the theater, but the amount of care put into his narrative construction is a monumental testament to the power of narrative reinvention. All this, at a time when the Shrek franchise itself was in decline and required its own reinvention to survive. This, when Puss in Boots 2 required bold new changes after the lukewarm reception to the first Puss in Boots. A daunting task, but if a property as obscure as Jack Horner can be revitalized with such vigor, then so can the Shrek franchise.

I'm tearing up about Jack Horner why the fuck is this happening.

[fernsam]

Kendrick Lamar - A hip-hop Genius

Bitch don’t kill my vibe. I’m sure many of you recognize this line from the famous rapper Kendrick Lamar. That was the first song I heard from him, and got more into him as I heard more and more. Although I have listened to a considerable amount of his songs, I have never really looked at the deeper meanings behind his work (I know. It's a crime). I’ve always known that his songs usually have complex themes but I have never actually figured out the whole story. In fact, I don’t really know much about Kendrick besides that he makes good music and is considered one of the greatest rappers of his generation (so seriously: I know nothing). This post will hopefully figure out what exactly helped him gain such a title.  

Background 

In Compton, on June 17th, 1987, Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (like the song? :O) was born and became one of the most influential rappers of the 21st century. Compton was an area that was plagued by violence and poverty. According to Britannica, Kendrick grew up in a high-crime area of Compton and began writing rhymes as a teenager relating to this. In 2003 he released his first mixtape called Youngest Head Nigga in Charge, which impressed a record label known as Top Dawg. I tried to look for this mixtape but surprisingly it was not online. Although the mixtape is hard to find, Kendrick explained in an interview with HipHopDX that the record label told Kendrick he “sounds just like he’s Jay-Z.” Also, a lot of people in his life and at school were talking about him made him, which made him realize the influence that he has. 

Kendrick: “Damn, my shit is really making an impact on the city and go full force with this shit.”

Discovering the influence music brings as well as his upbringing in Compton, Kendrick Lamar had found something to shape his music and storytelling around. 

Rise to Fame - Section.80

In 2011, Kendrick dropped his first album: Section.80, a 14-track tape that received a high amount of praise. Through this album, Kendrick uses his storytelling abilities to address complex social issues. Medium described the album as “a meditation and analysis on the vices and pitfalls that follow his generation, all while painting a loosely-tied narrative about two women, Keisha and Tammy.” 

According to Genius, the reason for the name of the album is that in 1982, Ronald Reagan cut funding to the Section 8 program in half. This means that he believed social programs were not necessary and his campaign increased the divide between the rich and poor in America. I have learned about Reagan in history class and his Cold War policies, but I never thought about the effect it had on the poor. I even loved the song Ronald Reagan Era, but hearing the context makes the song hit harder. 

The first song on the album is literally called “fuck your ethnicity.” This is one of my favorite songs on the album because not only is the instrumental a bop, but his message is very empowering. Kendrick is trying to express how race is leading to more division between people and he welcomes anyone who can understand his story. He also introduces two characters: Keisha and Tammy to explore two different stories of people who grew up in Compton. The characters are explored on their own in other songs. For example, Keisha’s Song (Her Pain) talks about how prostitutes get treated badly by their boyfriends. The women are vulnerable, and it's a challenge to keep fighting. 

The album as a whole reflects on issues like the crack epidemic, gang violence, and the effects of Ronald Reagan's policies on the African-American community. Kendrick was able to incorporate musical abilities, such as rhyme patterns and unique instrumentals, with narrative abilities to produce a compelling first album, but this was just the first album. I feel that although Kendrick nailed the narrative component, all of his songs were not musically interesting. He had his high moments, with killer songs like HiiiPower and Rigamortis, but there is room for improvement in terms of making it sound good. And he improves just that through his second album: good kid, m.A.A.d city. 

A Turning Point -  Good Kid, M.A.A.D City 

As mentioned previously, the first Kendrick song that I heard was Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe. This song came from his second album, good kid, m.A.A.d city (gkmc), which was released in 2012. After this album was released, Kendrick exploded in popularity. It “debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart” and Kendrick was even nominated for seven 2013 Grammy Awards, including Best Album and Best New Artist. Although he didn’t win (which I think showed how stupid the Grammys are imo),  Kendrick continued to gain millions of fans and supporters, even making major TV appearances such as performing on SNL. His fan base grew as well, with not only hip-hop fans, but more college students and alternative rock fans. (I have no idea where alternative rock fans came from but thanks biography.com.) 

Like Section.80, this album continues the narrative approach except in a more autobiographical sense. The album paints a vivid picture of Kendrick's personal teenage experiences in Compton. The title itself explains how he is just a good kid in a crazy city. Interestingly,  according to Spin, "M.A.A.D" stands for both "My Angry Adolescence Divided" and "My Angels on Angel Dust," indicating the juxtaposition between his desire to maintain innocence and the chaos of his environment. Along with his complex themes, he also upgrades the musicality and there are a lot of musically pleasing songs on this album. 

A song on this album that encapsulates the artistic genius of Kendrick is Swimming Pools. Without looking deeply, this song sounds like a song you would drink and vibe to (which is what I always thought), but looking at the lyrics there is so much more deep stuff going on.  Kendrick talks about how peer pressure affects alcoholism. The irony is that although this song sounds like a club song, it talks about the negative effects of alcoholism and how much it is normalized in Kendrick's environment. Tying a metaphor between a swimming pool and alcoholism shows how easy to drown in either. Even towards the end of the song, he builds on the overarching story by talking about how K. Dot’s (a character of this album) actions led to his brother being killed. 

Listening to the whole album was such an experience. As Pitchfork put it, “It feels like walking directly into Lamar's childhood home and, for the next hour, growing up alongside him.”  Kendrick discusses his struggles with the effects of gang violence, drugs, and poverty in his community. I wanted to discuss certain songs that I really enjoyed, but honestly, Kendrick did such a good job with the consistency. I was going through my playlist to see which songs I liked and I realized I have most of the songs except the first song and the last two songs (Real and Compton). Maybe I’ll convert and like these as well one day. The music and lyrics speak for themselves, and the entire album does a great job of keeping a narrative theme as well as maintaining this sort of serious yet chill vibe throughout. 

A Masterpiece - To Pimp a Butterfly 

Just when you think an album can’t get any better, Kendrick Lamar releases To Pimp A Butterfly (tpab) in 2015. Kendrick continues to keep the narrative theme and explores society as well as self-worth. This time, however, there are even more unique musical factors such as jazz, funk, and spoken word poetry. According to Britannica,  the album broke a Spotify record because it was streamed more than 9.6 million times within a week of its release. President Barack Obama even declared a song on this album his favorite song of 2015. He also finally won the Grammys (I still don’t like them) with best rap performance and best rap song (both for “Alright”), best rap/sung collaboration (for “These Walls”), best music video (for “Bad Blood”), and best rap album (for To Pimp a Butterfly). 

Considering how successful this album was, what made it so good? The diversity. Like good kid, m.A.A.d city, and Section.80, tpab follows the typical narrative story that Kendrick had previously portrayed; however, this album has a lot more variety of characters and includes a lot more themes that relate to society as a whole. There is also a lot more variety in terms of genres. Although this is a rap album, there is half a jazz band present at all times, a pianist, a sax player, slam poetry, and sound effects (according to Pitchfork).  

“ALLS MY LIFE, I HAVE TO FIGHT.”  Alright is a song on tpab that showcases the jazz aspect of the album. The music is so catchy and just makes you want to shout the whole song. Although this song is very short, Kendrick shows how he is going to escape his troubles. It’s a simple idea: “we gon’ be alright.” Under the surface, however,  this song creates awareness of police brutality. In fact, in 2015, the Black Lives Matter movement used the phrase  “we gon’ be alright” to protest against police brutality. 

Throughout this album, Kendrick delved into the depths of black identity and societal struggles, painting a picture of personal conflict within racial injustice. Although I love this album, unlike gkmc, I only really liked a half of the songs on this album. But when I did like it, I REALLY liked it. I appreciate the experimentation and am happy on how this album turned out. Alright is probably one of my favorite songs, but I also really love King Kunta, The Blacker the Berry, These Walls, i, and How Much a Dollar Cost. 

Continuing the legend - DAMN.

Continuing his streak of groundbreaking albums, DAMN. was released in 2017. This album earned Kendrick his first Billboard No. 1 single with HUMBLE. and won the Pulitzer Prize for Music, which made him the first rapper to receive this honor. According to Britannica, HUMBLE. won Grammys for Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song, Rap Performance, and Music Video. That is a lot of categories! This man is just collecting everything (and rightfully so).  

In DAMN. Kendrick used a raw, more direct narrative. This album is a lot more broad and explores the themes of fate, spirituality, and the complexities of the human condition. And although the album sounds simple, there was a lot of conspiracy that followed the release of this album. According to Medium, Kendrick confirmed a theory that the album could be played in reverse, telling two different stories: weakness and wickedness. 

In a more broad sense, This album had a lot of hits like DNA. and HUMBLE. Honestly, comparing this album to the others, this album is not one of my favorites. I liked a few of the songs but in terms of diversity, I felt that it was lacking. This is more of a contemporary and mainstream rap album, which is fine. I like the idea of how the album tells two stories. I feel like listening to it backward was interesting, especially considering how the first song was DUCKWORTH. (one of my favorites from the album). Hearing the little reversed part from DUCKWORTH reversed back blew my mind. According to Genius, that audio symbolized “a flashback or a wormhole representing Kendrick’s life”. Kendrick was able to use his outro to portray such a unique idea. 

Expanding outside of Albums - Afterwards 

Throughout the releases of these albums, Kendrick has been featured in many great songs. For example, family ties, made me find out that Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar are blood relatives (they definitely act like it). In 2018, Lamar produced an album that was from and inspired by the famous movie Black Panther. Think about that: he made music for a famous Marvel movie.

He also again won a Grammy for best rap performance. In 2022, Kendrick Lamar performed at the Super Bowl halftime with the infamous Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, and other hip-hop stars. In the same year, he released his fifth studio album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. It won Grammys and produced some banger songs like N95. 

The Influence

Kendrick Lamar is not just a rapper; he's a storyteller, a social commentator, and a visionary artist. Watching his journey, either through directly listening to his albums, or watching how much he has grown as a musician, is definitely an experience. Fans are invited to be a part of his lifetime from the streets of Compton to his present global success as an artist. That is what is so amazing about him, Kendrick Lamar started off great and just kept on getting better. It’s no wonder that he is called one of the most influential rappers of his generation. 

Not only is his music in a league of its own, but Kendrick was able to use his fame in the hip-hop world to make an impact on American culture through his insight into Black culture and the flaws of modern society as a whole. What I really enjoy about Kendrick is that he creates a space that allows everyone to listen to music. As a casual listener myself, his songs sound good and are so unique. He also manages to not sound too preachy throughout the whole process, which is pretty impressive. Kendrick Lamar does the inconceivable and can successfully tell a compelling story while also making banger music.

[tranakin-skywalker]

character bashing in sw fics is so funny to me bc it's always like... "well my blorbo may have commited war crimes BUT AT LEAST HE WASN'T A BAD JEDI DAD" (i've been reading a lot of qui-gon stuff and it is rough out there... people always complain about qui-gon leaving obi-wan on a war-torn planet with child soldiers but they never ask themselves if obi-wan had bad vibes or was unpleasant to be around). u r literally writing about star wars characters. every one of them sucks. it's part of loving star wars is to accept all your favorite characters are horrible except maybe like... grogu. grow up.

Excuse you, Grogu ate that frog lady's eggs which is clearly worse than any warcrime.

No but seriously the shit Qui-Gon gets just perplexes me. There is so much good stuff to dig into with his character and instead people just skip right over that and go straight for the bashing. He can be such a compelling character!

Even just excluding the Jude Watson books and just going of canon, there's so much.

Like, just the implications of being trained by Dooku, the kind of childhood that would have been, and thinking about the reasons Dooku had for joining the Sith. That was his father figure, that was what he grew up in the shadow of! Makes me insane to think about the kind of person that would create!

Or the reverse, the kind of person Qui-Gon would have to be to shape the Obi-Wan we know.

Like, just the things you can fill in this character with from the negative space around him.

If you want to make Qui-Gon into a bad dude you're gonna have to try harder to sell me on it lmao.

Another character that gets bashed on so much is Mace Windu and like, I'm not going to touch on the racism present in that but like. He can be an antagonist in the narrative without being written as an outright dick, you know? His character works really well as a source of conflict in a story but you gotta put the work in to make it make sense for who he is and his motivations instead of just making him shitty for shitty sake. I hate how often fandom puts Mace in stuff and makes him 'guy who is a dick to Anakin for no reason' instead of making him a complex and compelling character with honestly pretty valid reasons for his tension with Anakin. (also i hc that just being around Anakin gives Mace shatter-point induced migraines so Mace can't help but be a little snappish anytime he's near Anakin for more than 2.5 seconds. But because Anakin's brain is a traumatized rat on a wheel spinning round and round in a self destructive spiral, he takes Mace bitching at him as a sign that Mace hates his very existence when really it's like Mace looks at Anakin adn thinks: that motherfucker (affectionate))

Sorry- my sleep meds are hitting hard so I am probably writing gibberish

[ambrossart]

It feels wrong to say “the girl who SA’d Henry” is my favorite character as if I’m like “yeah it rocks that she did that” but I just find her to be one of the most compelling characters in the story so far in the same way that people tend to find Henry sympathetic and compelling despite him doing literal hate crimes. Especially when her classmates were badmouthing her and even Evelyn couldn’t help gawking at her body, you get the idea that she is really messed up but the way she’s treated by others doesn’t help. The scene where you really humanized her and has her humming that melancholic song and being very compassionate toward Evelyn, sandwiched in between the rest of the story driving home that she’s just a lying creep and a loser and a predator, hit me in the gut. She reads as being so lost and in over her head. I do think there’s a trauma to being seen as a sex symbol as a minor (and this being the 80s I realistically can imagine how resentful other girls are to her) and I’m always filling in my own headcanons about how warped her relationship to sexuality is, and the long distance college boyfriend (who she probably had to grow up quick for) probably doesn’t help. I think the story of a girl trying to fill a role that’s expected of her and then regretting it when she’s shamed for it immediately after is so real. You don’t excuse her making false reports but you can understand why she thinks that’s the only way to salvage herself after she’s shamed for giving into the pressure people put on her to do it. Feels sad that she’s so desperate for anyone to sympathize with her or see her as a person with feelings that she’ll lie about it, and even then she’s just further hated for lying. I don’t know. I’m always so fascinated by more problematic characters, especially when it’s a female one. (I’m one of the assholes who voted Steph in the last poll so I guess I have a type! (Also to the other person who voted Steph: YOU’RE A REAL ONE)). Anyway! I love that you don’t write all characters as two-dimensional mustache twirling villains or Mary Poppins clones with the kind of boring character flaws that you say on a job interview. At first I was worried that Evelyn’s only faults were being TOO CARING or TOO PERFECTIONISTIC, but I think the tiny glimpses of selfishness she’s showing and the big reveal that she’s physically forced herself on Henry before have me more on board with this story than ever. 👀 I love watching the perfect “mommy gf” type character get deconstructed. I think everyone is in this fandom because we like how dark and inexcusable but still sympathetic the male bullies are in IT, but I think seeing female antagonists (or better: female protagonists doing meaningfully problematic things and having to atone for it) feels even more unique and interesting. Ok thank you, happy writing, queen, I am so excited for the next chapter 🙏

Don't worry, you're not gonna get any judgment from me for voting for her. Voting for her doesn't mean you condone her actions. Besides, Paper Men is a story full of problematic characters, so it would be hypocritical for anyone to judge you when they're probably thirsting for Patrick Hockstetter, the most problematic character of all. 😂

Your headcanon is honestly pretty similar to the official backstory I have for her. Unlike Evelyn, Manda Bosch blossomed at a very young age and has been sexualized her entire life. She lost her virginity in middle school. A lot of her early relationships were with older men. Her current boyfriend, Matt, is not significantly older than her, but he is older than her, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's only with her for the sex, and he probably cheats on her while he's away at college. Despite what Liz says, Manda is not a "dumb, drunk slut" who's out to steal everyone's boyfriends. That's just Liz being a mean girl. I think Manda's true self is actually very kind, flawed but kind. She offered Hannah-Beth some gum in class. She was very sweet to Evelyn when she had no real reason to be. These are sophomores and Manda is a senior. She should be ignoring them like everyone else.

But sometimes Manda gets lonely (especially with her boyfriend away), and she relates to men the only way she knows how: through sex. She knows that's what men want from her because that's what they've always wanted from her. Then you add way too much alcohol to the mix and it's just a recipe for disaster. She does falsely cry rape occasionally (out of shame), but I guarantee not all of those accusations are false. Manda has definitely been assaulted more than once, probably by men like Martin.

I think the situation with Henry was a very unfortunate mistake. Manda was at the party with her boyfriend. He drank too much and passed out. Manda, drunk herself, wanted to be close to somebody—anybody—and she chose Henry because she assumed he would want it like all men want it. Henry, it should also be said, does project a lot of false bravado. Although he's not flirty like Patrick, he tends to make some pretty inappropriate and sexually aggressive comments to women. He did this with Evelyn when she was asking for the shirts back. He did this with Beverly in the movie. So Manda had every reason to assume that Henry would be fully on board. To be clear, I'm in NO WAY blaming Henry for this situation. It doesn't matter how he acts at school. Obviously, he wasn't comfortable and Manda should have respected that and backed off immediately... but she didn't. Then Henry got triggered and he got violent and things got way out of hand.

Fast forward to school on Monday, now all the senior girls are shaming her for sleeping with a SOPHOMORE, and not just any sophomore—HENRY BOWERS, who is not popular at all. If it were Patrick, the girls would slap her on the back and congratulate her, but Henry? Nobody wants anything to do with Henry. He's not the fun kinda dangerous. He's just plain dangerous. He's radioactive. Everybody knows to steer clear of him (everyone except Evelyn, apparently). And I think Manda felt embarrassed and ashamed and panicked. Plus I also think she doesn't remember a lot of what happened that night apart from him suddenly freaking out on her. If she did, she would feel extremely guilty and horrible for putting someone in that position because that's not who she is. She's not Martin. She's just someone who made a mistake... a very big mistake.

Lastly, to speak on Evelyn's situation with Henry a little bit: I wouldn't say she "forced" herself onto him. I do think she made a huge mistake in her timing. Henry was in a very fragile state that day. He was upset and in a lot of pain. That was NOT the time for her to put the moves on him. She was being very selfish and got caught up in her own feelings and that was wrong of her, but she didn't force him to do anything. He was a fully willing participant... until he wasn't. Henry withdrew consent and left because of his own issues. It had nothing to do with what Evelyn did. Her timing was awful, but she didn't sexually assault him or anything.

I know the details surrounding that situation are still a little fuzzy. They will be explained clearly because she and Henry will discuss it at some point. Until then, we'll leave it as it is.

Oh my god, I wrote way too much. I'm so sorry 😂

[oonajaeadira]

Hi! Just wanted to say I LOVE your work!! I love the emphasis on world building and giving the characters so much dimension and life and not making it all about smut. Not that I mind some good smut. ;)

Your PATS stories and the Ezra bookshop stories are wonderful and stuck with me for days.

Have you ever considered writing about Marcus Pike?

Thank you, friend!!! I'm so glad you're enjoying my silly little stories. I also like some good smut...but I'm finding more and more that I need that connection and trust and that's my kink... Did I just come out to myself as demi? Maybe. *shrug* Anything's possible!

ANYWAY.

You know, I should be into Marcus. He's such a domestic king. But something about him just never caught me. I keep trying to put my finger on what that is, and just keep coming back to "there's not enough character there; he's just a nice guy and I can't do much with that other than break his heart in little pieces and I don't wanna." I know that's not fair to Marcus and I'm sure a lot of folks find him very layered and compelling, but he doesn't seem to have any strong characteristics/ways of speaking/faults to explore/spaceships or monsters....I find him a little bland, I'm sorry!

I'm also a sci-fi/fantasy girl (which is a strike against him), and I a sucker for the 'stache (so there's another). I know absolutely nothing about crime shows or police work (you'll notice when I write Javi Peña or Jack that I steer clear of the actual work they do), so that isn't an area I feel comfortable writing in.

I like Marcus. I really do. And I'll occasionally read fics he's starring in. But I don't have any plans to write him. <3

But! I'm going to direct you to Marcus Pike fics that I've loved!!!

Marcus Pike + Stars by @something-tofightfor

Lovelight by @simpingcowboy

Closing Time by @insomniamamma

In Love's Debris by @fictitious-little-stitious

Desperado by @writeforfandoms

Of Punchbowls and Pincushions by @leslie-lyman-writes

And, of course, there's my favorite "Marcus" series of all time. His name is in quotes because there are MANY Pedro characters in this series, but he's the main one, even though you see him the least. Still, if you love Marcus and you know your Pedro boys, you really should read Infinity Cube by @littlemisspascal. If you haven't yet, you're in for a real treat.

[ticklishraspberries]

hiii, what fandoms are u into rn?? and maybe tell me about them, if u wanna?? use this as an excuse to ramble.. in desperate need of something new to be obsessed over HAHA hope ur having a good night 🫶

hi hi!! i love to yap so you have asked a dangerous question!! i do have a whole page of my fandoms on my carrd but i'm gonna try to sell you and my followers on some of my more niche ones rn lol

baldur's gate 3 has some of the most compelling characters of any video game i've ever played. i will admit, it isn't a game for people who don't love games, it can take like a minimum of 80 hours to finish the game, it's kind of difficult, and it's all based on dnd so the combat and stuff might be confusing for people, but the ROMANCE and friendships and characters are so fucking incredible. i have only actually romanced astarion but shhh.

barry is a t.v. show on max that i think is one of the greatest shows ever made, and not just because i have a huge crush on bill hader who writes, directs, produces, and stars in it. it's a dark comedy about a hitman who hates his job and wants to become an actor instead. there's a great gay couple (i will not lie and say they have a happy story though) and one of the best written female characters ever imo. it's a star-studded cast, 4 seasons, but the episodes are only 20-30 mins so it goes by fast. if you don't mind violence, this is genuinely a 10/10 piece of media for me.

death note is my favorite anime of all time, one of my top fav shows, and i have a manga panel from it tattooed on me. it's a masterpiece that mixes supernatural horror, crime-solving detective drama, insane homoeroticism, and existential/moral dilemma. it's not very long and people say it gets bad after a certain episode and i genuinely wish all those people a very get well soon because are you kidding me??? i think it's a great intro to anime.

saltburn was such a good fucking movie and i know you've probably seen the memes and everyone talking, but i genuinely loved this movie and would love to write a felix/oliver fic lol. it's pretty disturbing and has a lot of things that the average viewer would be freaked out by, but i am genuinely not that shocked/grossed out by most things in media so i just love this movie, i gave it 5/5 on letterboxd and so did my partner.

the great is a show on hulu that is a historical comedy (that is self-admittedly not historically accurate, so if that would annoy you, this one's not for you!!) about catherine the great, empress of russia, and it is genuinely one of my favorite shows ever. it's got incredible female characters, some pretty good queer rep, doesn't use the time period/country as an excuse to not have representation. it is so funny, heart-breaking, sexy, and just so goddamn good. it did unfortunately get cancelled after season 3 but i think they knew it would be cancelled and left it off in a decent place (from the spoilers i know at least, i'm still watching). there is a lot of vulgar content (sex, sexual humor, gross humor, swearing) so if that's not your vibe, don't even bother, lol, but if you like enemies-to-lovers, period dramas, or watching elle fanning act like a fucking psychopath, plz watch and then talk to me about headcanons.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks....

Oh boy, that's a difficult question given how many favourites I have but I'll do my best to answer!

(Under the cut though because I'm physically incapable of being brief about media I'm passionate about)

In no particular order:

James Flint (Black Sails) - a complex and almost poetic show with an equally complex and occasionally ruthless lead. He's a pirate captain on a revenge quest against England for taking his previous life and loved one away from him- I did not expect a show set in the 18th century to have a queer lead, much less one treated with so much respect and written as this multifaced and hard to judge morally. Just a warning though, the show gets dark and comes with a pretty extensive list of trigger warnings, so please take that into account if you're interested in watching!

Astrid Nielsen (Astrid et Raphaelle/Bright Minds/Astrid and Raphaelle [depending on translation]) - not a big crime drama guy, but she's one of a kind protagonist of a one of a kind show. A brilliant archivist and assistant investigator played by an equally great actress (Sara Mortensen). One of the only autistic leads out there and treated with such respect and attention to detail I cried several times watching just from how relatable Astrid is- I've never seen any representation like this before and certainly not for a female lead character. She's a genius but not emotionless (quite the opposite, in fact), never infantilised and her friendship with Raphaelle is beautifully written and takes into account their differences as a young ND woman new at her job and a neurotypical experienced detective. Astrid needs Raphaelle's perspective and help just as much as she needs hers, it's wonderful. This series does admittedly get queerbaity at times (imo) and Astrid faces occasional ableism, though it's always called out.

Kenzo Tenma (Monster manga/anime series) - hands down my favourite thriller out there and Dr. Tenma is a deeply honorable, determined and exceptionally kind man even despite his entire life falling apart, even towards the main villain who's a literal serial killer. I'd compare him to Aang (ATLA) in terms of how dedicated he is towards helping people and staying true to his morals. Incredible protagonist of an incredible story.

Donna Noble (Doctor Who) - she's so fun! The show was right to call her the most important woman in the history of creation, she's everything to me. Funny, lovable, strong, sarcastic, deeply human, I'm so glad she'll be back soon even if it seems like a brief guest starring type of deal.

Jolyne Cujoh (Jojo's bizzare adventure: Stone Ocean) - when I say I want complex female leads, not just strong ones, Jolyne is a good example of how they should be written. She's allowed to swear and be angry and imperfect, makes mistakes and deals with the consequences- all while being a great friend, caring daughter (despite daddy issues, her dad did admittedly kinda suck) and a smart fighter in the face of likely the most powerful villain in the series this far. There are uh... several problems the author has in terms of his writing of women, but Jolyne was so good.

Raine Whispers (The Owl House) - my beloved bard! They were such a good addition to the show both as Eda's ex (who she's still in love with) and a rebel witch! I loved their determination, they were smart as well (totally see why Eda fell for them so hard, same). Disney sucks for cutting the show short, I know they would have gotten more importance had the crew been allowed to make a full third season instead of several eps to wrap up the story :(

Xie Lian (Heaven Official's Blessing) - he gives me so many emotions... So deeply sad and yet so loving, one of the most compelling and complex protagonists I've seen- can't say too much without spoilers, but his backstory made me weep. Season 2 of the animated show just started, he's now a priority blorbo & both the animation studio and his actor do such a great job! Please do be warned, just like with Black Sails the trigger warning list for this series is LONG. Truly puts the 'dark' in dark fantasy.

Lee Dongsik (Beyond Evil) - a show that will emotionally punch you in the gut and kick you when you're down. He's a detective labeled as an insane weirdo and a potential murder suspect, but most of that is due to intense trauma and a (bad) coping mechanism. The show can and will make you question your view on every character and has so many twists, if you're a fan of crime dramas it's a must watch & Lee Dongsik is a super complex and fun to watch lead.

Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist) - this show entered my head years ago and refuses to leave, and this boy is so well-written and such a good example of how to make an engaging and likeable action/fantasy lead! Even before I got into anime my best friend kept recommending me FMA as a series for everyone, she was right- it's universal and Ed is a big part of that, I love him so much.

Korra (Avatar: The legend of Korra) - this list couldn't be complete without one of my favourite animated series leads! Great character development, strong and determined, realistic, very cool overall! I had such a crush on her in high school. Can't not mention her relationship with Asami, they paved the way for more openly queer characters in animation and will forever be famous <3

[veliseraptor]

Hii! How are you? Hope the new year is treating you well

Love your Jiang Cheng/Meng Yao/Xue Yang everything, they are all excellent characters (especially JC my beloved)

Wanted to ask why you don't like Nie Mingjue? (Totally genuine btw, I'm mostly indifferent towards him but I like hiw tou do character analysis and am curious?)

Happy new year and take care :D

oh boy, okay. I waffled for a while about responding to this only because I tend to...avoid wading into things that might get me in trouble, and this feels like something that could get me in trouble, because I'm talking about my (negative) feelings on a relatively popular character and that can provoke some pretty intense responses.

but I don't really want to foster that impulse, at least not all the time, and I try to be fair when I talk about these things, so, hey, might as well. under a cut for anyone who doesn't want to read the following (counts) nine paragraphs of rambling about this subject

first off I feel like I should say that it probably seems like I dislike Nie Mingjue because he comes into conflict with Jin Guangyao, and while that isn't not true, characters being in conflict with each other does not preclude me liking both of them. I mean, I would hope that was obvious.

I think the biggest reason me and Nie Mingjue do not vibe is actually - and this occurred to me as I was writing this response - the same reason that I used to dislike Stannis Baratheon back when I was active in the A Song of Ice and Fire fandom. (Not so much anymore, mostly because now I just find him kind of funny. Sorry, Stannis.) Namely: he's inflexible and utterly convinced of his own rightness/righteousness.

One of my least favorite qualities in a person is self-righteousness, and while that can work for me in a character it very much doesn't here, I think because it comes with that inflexibility. Nie Mingjue's sense of morality and order is rigid with very little room for his judgment being affected by circumstance or external context. To him, those considerations are irrelevant at best and viewed as excuses at worst.

I'm someone who is, meanwhile, allergic to universal statements, particularly universal statements of good/bad, evil/righteous, etc. I don't like them, I'm incredibly wary of them, and while, again, me disliking these things irl doesn't necessarily preclude enjoying them in a character, it is going to be at least somewhat of a barrier. I feel like it would be less of one here, honestly, if I didn't feel like fandom often endorses Nie Mingjue's perspective on this, as opposed to acknowledging it for what I think it is actually in the text; I have more I could say on this but I'm already writing an essay so I'll just note that I think the fact that Nie Mingjue's corpse can't distinguish between Jin Ling and Jin Guangyao is thematically important.

I don't need a character's morality to align with mine to like them, obviously. The greater crime is finding a character frustrating or irritating, and that's what this particular quality of Nie Mingjue's does to me.

"But what about Xiao Xingchen," I can hear somebody saying. "Doesn't he have the same rigid perspective?" Yes, arguably; his also breaks horribly over the duration of the story, and that's the part of his arc that I find compelling! I find Xiao Xingchen most interesting when his initial understanding of the world has been irrevocably changed and he has to reckon with the fact that justice is not as simple as he thought it would be.

I also - and I know how this is going to sound, I feel like - do not vibe with characters who really strongly believe in state-supported violence. I don't care if characters kill people - the more the better! murder all you like, my darlings! - but I do care if they're advocating the death penalty from a position of political power/authority. Which is actually not a distinction I'd necessarily realized was important to me, but apparently it is. As far as my fictional taste goes: personal violence is fine. State violence is not. I'm sure there are exceptions here (there usually are) but it is generally true that the more violence comes from a position of authority/power in the sense of "this is structurally supported by some form of government/systematic structure", the more I'm going to feel badly about it and the less kindly I am going to feel toward the character in question.

Nie Mingjue is very, very invested in state-supported violence and very eager to dole it out on a personal basis. We see it with his almost killing Xue Yang while Xue Yang is on trial; we see it with Jin Guangyao, multiple times. "Well, they were guilty!" Yeah, I know, that's not the point. The line Nie Mingjue draws between legitimate/illegitimate violence doesn't work for me.

There's also some other stuff that's more fandom-related around the fanon characterization Nie Mingjue often gets that frustrates me because of the way I feel like it increasingly departs from the text, which has (as usual) more of an impact on my feelings about the original character than it perhaps should. Probably because I feel like it's such a misreading of the point of his character. Everyone in fandom is extrapolating from the character on the page/screen - lord knows I do it. But I do feel like I have a limit that I hit where that extrapolation feels like it's reading against the text and what the text is saying, and/or making them a "type" built on a generalized mold, and that's where my patience really runs out.

anyway this has all been very wordy and probably unnecessarily harsh but...I think some of it was useful for me in terms of thinking out just why, even beyond fandom-related frustrations, Nie Mingjue was never a character I could care about or like.

[sitp-recs]

Hidden Gems by @moonflower-rose

September has been crazy, all those Christmas sex babies driving me up the wall but hello yes, here’s another bday gift this time for one of the coolest people in this fandom, Rosie Josephine Moonflower! Reading fics for this post was the easiest thing ever because I’ll never get enough of her fab writing, always bold and on point, full of wit, charm,brilliant characterization, hilarious dialogue and a lush take on sexy romance with all the feels. Rosie delivers my favourite combo of tropes with excellence every time, it’s really a crime that these fics don’t have as many kudos or comments as they deserve but I’m here to make things right!

For those who recognize her username from LJ, Rosie has been around for ages and we’re lucky to have her coming back to share new treats with us. She’s not only super talented but also has a fantastic grasp of Drarry flirting erm banter which is one of my favourite things in fic. I get so excited whenever I see a new story of hers, because I know it will be a fun ride mixing the best crack, angst, smut and romance we could ask for, satisfaction guaranteed. Imo her most delicious trademark is that unbeatable sense of humor, so charming it makes every fic become your new favourite thing with organic dynamics and cool, relatable characters. Her take on Ginny is especially dear to my heart as I came to admire and enjoy her presence in fics over the years.

Once you get to know Rosie it’s easy to see why her stories are so lovely and compelling - her cheerful, witty and no-nonsense personality is a delight to be around. Thank you Rosie for being a wonder and for gifting us with so many incredible fics! I can’t wait to see what comes next. I hope you have an incredible day!!! 🎉🎉

Counterparts (2005, Mature, 1k) - a brilliant and tender look into their life together, full of fun and small intimacies as we learn about this fabulously messy Draco through Harry’s smitten eyes. “Draco is demanding, but Harry is accommodating” is one of my favourite lines ever and I can’t stop thinking about it. What a treat!

Draco hogs the bed. Harry loves it.

Receipts (2022, Mature, 2k) - hands down one of the funniest, most charming short fics I’ve read this year, creative, sexy, with brOTP goals and Drarry + Ginsy combo! I adore the witty dialogue and sweet Harry making Draco blush. This is a perfect showcase of Rosie’s talent at short form, superb humor and characterization, you won’t be able to stop laughing your ass off :D

Pansy and Ginny have made a stupid wager and Draco may be the one who comes away a winner.

Breakfast (2006, Explicit, 3k) - never thought the idea of a naked Draco learning how to make Harry breakfast would get me all emo but here we are. Yet another delicious portrait of sexy, fun and tender domesticity, so lush and full of happy feels I can’t stop smiling! Come and feast 🥘

Breakfast is Harry's favorite part of the day.

The World of Management (Or, Harry Potter and the Office Romance) (2012, Explicit, 15k) - fabulous office romance with A+ push-pull banter and a chaotic smooth flirt Harry driving Draco mad with want and exasperation, what’s not to love? This is a must read for all those who enjoy Drarry & politics, light and fun, scorching hot and very sweet with a charming and confident tea lover Harry + competent bossy Draco, just as we like it. Can’t have enough of “oh, have a day off”/ “how dare you!”.

Draco Malfoy is the heart and soul of the Department of Magical Games and Sport. The only thing standing in the way of professional bliss is his boss. And Harry Potter.

In Dreams (2011, Explicit, 38k) - I’ll never stop screaming about Rosie’s opus, one of the most brilliant and intriguing case fics I’ve read with a breathtaking opening and superb character development and Drarry dynamics. Please please PLEASE read this today and come scream with me about your new favourite fic. You can check the rec I did for it here.

Harry wasn't expecting to ever see Draco Malfoy again. He also wasn't expecting to walk into a political conspiracy that morning either, but apparently that's exactly what the day has in store for him.

[genericpuff]

I love procrastinating!!! So I will help you procrastinate as well! Let's see...mind ranting/rambling about your favorite and least favorite Lore Olympus character design?

omg uhhhh hmm

at THIS point in time in the story, I'm not too sure, as every character sort of feels like they're just at a standstill right now.

I guess in terms of favorites atm, Minthe is up there. She's just got so much more depth than all the other characters, even if that depth comes at the cost of her being pushed by the narrative as the hot mess. At least her being an abusive POS is being recognized though, y'know? I'm always down for problematic characters if the narrative actually does something with them. I'm just really hoping her recent arc isn't the end of her involvement in the story, I wanna see an actual resolution to her character arc 😭

I also really like Hermes and Poseidon, just because they're such bros. Poseidon is great at playing mediator between Zeus and Hades' drama and Hermes is such a wholesome bean. I'd love to see them utilized more beyond being just comic relief sidekicks.

But honestly, now that I think about it... my favorite has to be Hephaestus. Not because he's more compelling or entertaining than Minthe or Poseidon or Hermes, he just gives me such soft & stoic older brother energy and I'm kind of a whore for that FDAJKLFDASJKL I wanna just hang out with him, y'know? ♥

In terms of least favorite, I know it's such an easy answer, but Hades and Persephone, not even because of all the problematic stuff! (altho that def doesn't help LOL) Their worst crime is literally just being boring-

S1 Hades and Persephone were great because we got to see them each on their own and sidestepping around their attraction to one another, S2 onwards though has really been watering them down to being just "playing house" romance fluff and it's a real shame. Their story basically ended before it even began so now everything since S3 started just feels so dragged out and pointless. We've gotten too much external conflict "keeping them apart" and not enough internal conflict in their actual differences. Like, where's the bickering? The disagreements? I know those things shouldn't be normalized as being part of a "healthy relationship" but this is a romance story dammit! There's a reason drama and romance stories are full of toxic people and blatant misunderstandings, because it's entertaining! There's nothing relatable or interesting about a couple who's completely functional with zero work required and does the same cute shit every day. Give us the spice! Give us the character development!

(I'm also REALLY starting to hate Daphne, she's toxic af with how she treats Thanatos and their relationship feels like a copy of H x P but reversed... but that's another topic that I'm gonna get into in a future essay post!)

ETA: I'm re-reading your question and realizing I may have misunderstood, I know the writing is a part of character design as well but were you wondering more about my favorite art design? :0 So if that was the case, my least favorite is probably the nymphs, there's literally so much uncovered territory and so many of them are Persephone clones. Literally the only way to tell their 'origin' apart is color and sometimes elements like water hair but again, it's rarely utilized (the most we see of it is with Minthe's body turning to mud when she's angry). It just feels so boring and lazy, give us leaf hair or tree bark skin, something to indicate that they're not just spray-painted people with cosplay elf ears!

Hebe also falls under this category for me, she's pretty much an exact copy of Hera and that's pretty depressing to see. Why don't we ever seem to get any interesting color mixing between the Gods and their children? Even Hades dream kids were all blue, why not purple? Why are both Artemis and Apollo purple, why not any hints of gold in there?

As for my favorite, Amphitrite! (when she's actually drawn properly!) She's got such a unique design, she actually LOOKS LIKE A WATER NYMPH, and she absolutely radiates queen energy. S1 Hades was also pretty great. And ofc again Hephaestus because ✨swoon✨