#its a fantastic dynamic to read and it makes sense for them but do not do this irl it is not a good actual dynamic

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

The generational progression of team dynamics is truly so funny to me.

You have the Justice League and they're all coworkers. They're friendly and polite with each other but they don't really hang out together outside of work. Two of them might transcend the work friend dynamic and buddy up outside of work (i.e Barry and Hal or Ollie and Hal or Bruce and Clark) but you will never see all of them casually hanging out for fun.

Then there's the Titans. These guys are friends. They all have busy lives so they maybe don't see each other as much as they'd like to but they're all deeply bonded with each other. They make a point of planning big get togethers with each other unrelated to work. They know each other's deepest secrets. Their kids consider the other Titans aunts and uncles.

Last but not least there's Young Justice. Young Justice is the definition of unhealthy codependency. They're all best friends and they act like siblings but they might also all be in love with each other? Kon dated Cassie, hit on Cissie, flirted with Bart's clone and had a dream where Bart was in a cheerleading outfit and was with his other love interests and then just everything with Tim. Cassie dated both Tim and Kon, and then there's everything with Cissie. Bart admitted that Cassie made him 'like girls' (?), took Cissie to a dance, and is extremely close with Tim and Kon to the point where it could just be unhealthy codependency but it might be something more. Honestly this entire group is so intermixed and codependent it's insane. They go from 'i love you so much you are my best friend' to 'i wanna make out with you' so fast and with barely any breathing room. They are constantly with each other and hang out at least once a week. They cannot exist separately.

[novelconcepts]

Another year, another absurd amount of books read (296, because if I wasn't reading or writing this year, my brain was on fire). I was asked again for my top books of the year, so here we go: 2023's top 10, in no particular order.

This was the first book I read of the year--literally, vacated the hangout with my wife and sibling-in-laws to sit on their couch upstairs and eat through it. Do you love The Fall of the House of Usher, but wish for a nonbinary protagonist and a lot more mushrooms? This is the book for you! (T. Kingfisher is fucking rad, I made a concerted effort to only list ONE of her books on here, but honorable mention goes to The Twisted Ones for fucking me upppp.)

A gay, post-apocolyptic Pinocchio retelling involving copious robots, found family elements, and a cool-ass treehouse. Klune always hits for me with his unrepentant queer family dynamics and sense of humor. Honorable mention to the first two in the Green Creek series (although that's got a lot more...adult elements in among the werewolves, you've been warned).

I thiiiink I found this through The Homo Schedule podcast (PSA: if you missed out on Jasmin Savoy Brown and Liv Hewson doing a podcast together, now you know better), and it wrecked my shit. Tons of trigger warnings, as this is a memoir about abuse within a queer relationship, but it's so beautifully written. I personally suggest listening to the audiobook first, then standing anxiously behind someone at a book warehouse sale, hoping they'll set down the only paperback copy so you can swipe it.

A fantastical-historical reimagining in which the KKK is filled with literal monsters, and Black women are resistance fighters armed to take them out. Visceral and intense, and truly an excellent horror story.

Just. Such a soft time travel story about a daughter and her father and cherishing the time you get with loved ones. I was thoroughly unprepared for how lovely I found this one. It's very kind.

Spooky house, take-no-shit redhead, protective sibling elements, bisexual recluse with a sword who really just needs a nap. I haven't found a Harrow book yet I haven't slapped five stars on. She's so good at character and atmosphere, and I'm always surprised at how fast her stories race by.

The whole Daevabad trilogy (of which this is the first book) is just magical. A girl from the mortal world finds herself embroiled with the centuries-long prejudices and wars of djinn in a fantastical city. It's one of the rare stories of its kind that does have a love triangle, but doesn't feel like a love triangle; it's far less interested in the insufferable "who gets picked" than it is in the actual horrors these people are both perpetrating and coping with. It's an intoxicating ride.

Fuck You, TERFS: the book. Given that fact, there's obviously quite a lot of transphobia to deal with, but it's very clear that those people are wrong, and it's a super-engaging (and super-oh-god-what-comes-next) witchy time populated with queer, protective, interesting characters I'm excited to see again in the follow-up.

Have you ever wanted a haunted house story with visceral imagery and a rather lovely twist? Gailey has you covered. As much as I enjoyed The Echo Wife, I think I actually loved this one more, and it makes me so excited to see what else they've got up their sleeve.

One of my final reads for the year, when I was just churning through hardcovers at the speed of sound. I love this book. I recognize it won't be for everyone, but it takes so much of what I love about IT (one of my all-time favorite books, despite its flaws) and twists it through the lens of an author who escaped the Mormon church. It's horrific, it's fantastically abstract in places, it explores childhood and memory, imagination and abuse, and almost every character is queer. It's a great "I simply cannot sleep until I've finished" read.

[lintpuzzle]

In sharp contrast with olesia.love’s rejection of yugioh’s themes of friendship, clyde-side’s fic ‘keep the light shining’ embodies yugioh’s themes of friendship and human connection more powerfully than the original.

You’d think that’d be impossible to do considering, well, the everything about the original yugioh.

But I remember coming from the show as a little kid wondering why Tristan even exists as a character. He starts out as Joey’s bully lackey character and then when Joey turns good, he stays at about the same level of relevance, to the point that Duel Monsters didn’t know what to do with him, and we got a whole arc of him turned into a robot monkey.

This picture kills me. “Tristan as a robot monkey.” Jumping the shark if I’ve ever seen it.

Why should I care about Yugi’s friendships with Honda if the show can’t even bothered to care about Honda? （ーー；）for god’s sake, even when they manage to turn his robot monkey voice into a human one they STILL don’t believe he’s the real Tristan, like how’s that for the power of friendship?

Thus, even though the Fanfiction for the show I read as a 5th grader didn’t make any sense (there’s no canonical explanation for the amount of hikari yami group fics I read as a kid), they were in spirit of what the show was missing: the natural chemistry, banter, and dynamics of the actual close friendships the show was championing. My first taste at a queer friend group, before I even understood what that meant. (Notice that Tristan is NOT included in the Yamis Hikaris.)

Thus, it was a genuine shock when I came out of Keep the Light Shining with a genuine respect for Honda as a friend Yugi’s outside of Joey. He’s just such a cool respectable guy!

And the best part is that the fic leverages the elements already present in original Yugioh to do so: the horror of prolonged isolation.

Yugioh’s season 0 is this perfect corollary to the phrase, “Don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” Friendship for both Yugi and Yami Yugi in season 0 embodies “Don’t know what you’re missing till until you’ve got it.” Neither of them have had a single friend before, and the show manifests this as Yugi attracting preternatural amounts of cruelty from complete randos and a supernatural bloodthirstiness in Yami Yugi.

This prolonged isolation thus is what drenches season 0 in its terrifying atmosphere, and the companionship and connection the two reach in Death T makes for a surprisingly natural explanation for the more family friendly nature of Duel Monsters’ Yami. Friendship in season 0 means more than just inspiring speeches, it literally changed the tone of the entire show! From terrifying murderous Aesops to a 4Kids Dubbable merchandising machine, from cruel bullies to heartwarming companionship.

Similarly, IM OBSESSED with the isolation and fear throughout Keep the Light Shining. It’s oppressive, anxiety inducing, and depressing. An anxious people pleaser’s worst nightmare come to life. A haunted lighthouse with fatal rocks ashore, and SPOILERS nobody who could help because you were too scared to put your foot down when your boss backtracked on giving you a partner, and now you’re all alone on an island that means you harm.

All by yourself in dangerous waters.

And yet, there are still life rafts. Moments of light peaking behind the clouds, if you will.

It’s frankly fantastic how the fic captures the all encompassing paranoia of being all alone at a scary place, and then contrasts that with the simple comfort of just being around other people. The island feels almost normal when Joey’s taking lunch with Yugi, the fear of a poltergeist is nothing to the warmth of sitting with Marik and Ryou by a roaring hearth, blanketed by their soft reassurances and bickering, and even the poltergeist becomes a source of comfort—he’s proof that you’re not alone.

And Tristan somehow FITS RIGHT IN!! He’s not Joey’s knock off lackey, he’s the coast guard to your unknown waters! A quiet in the storm, his gentle professionalism is a balm to Yugi’s nerves as Yugi struggles with the protocols of terrifying storms and shipwrecks. Somehow, nothing is more comforting than opening that intimidating radio in the middle of nowhere and hearing Honda’s calm voice on the other end. HONDA! The most useless character in Yugioh!

It captures exactly WHY a friendship calmed down the wrath of a 3000 year old spirit, what made Yugioh so endearing in the first place! And while the original is great, this fic’s portrayal is so visceral. The power of friendship is not a speech that saves the day; just your friend’s presence is enough to keep us sane!

[sneverussape]

Rarepair Tag Game

@snapesnailtape tagged me for this and imma give it a go. thank you, snail! :)

no pressure tags go out to @wellpresseddaisy, @greens-your-color, @momo-t-daye, @mmad-lover and @owlzerness, but anyone who wants to do this, pls feel free.

answers and fic recs under the cut!

--

i don't have a lot of time or bandwidth to read to read fics outside of my main fandom at the moment (my evergreen trash man, sev) so i'll focus on that. if i think up any other rarepairs from other fandoms, i'll include them, but the fact of the matter is a lot of the other fandoms i'm in don't have quite as diverse a set of characters as this universe, so it's not as easy.

also general disclaimer that i read any and all pairings as long as the plot interests me, so i've probably seen this man shipped with everything at this point :)))

without further ado and in no particular order --

snilch. trust me, i wasn't sure about this pair either but, as with many others, the fic Father to the Man by Delphi absolutely floored me and convinced me of its potential. i think i read The Lad is Gone shortly after and it was just...i was sold. sold, i tell you. adjacent readings that i can recommend is one where filch is the main character but sev shows up a lot in it too: ozma's Squib series on ff net is fantastic. (also features filch accidentally almost killing sev with his newfound powers and rolling in guilt for it)

snetunia. this is just a delightful and guilty little pairing that i absolutely love. they're more alike than they are different, given their personalities and their view of the world. petunia is cynical, hateful and spiteful, and is an excellent mirror to snape and his own flaws. A Part of Yesterday is one of my fave fics for them and so is Abide in Me (Love is Not Enough). A Fish Without a Bicycle satisfied a sense of fluff and Always is a poignant little fic wherein they're all miraculously friends, which was a refreshing change.

snagrid. just rediscovered this quite recently actually because i remember there used to be a site dedicated to this pairing. Thief in the Night rekindled my love for it. there's just something about a gentle giant and an acerbic potions master with their massive size differences and the fact that hagrid really doesn't care for sev's frilled-lizard act that makes for fun reading. they also make for good friendship fics, like in It Was the Tea!

stonks. it was @chiwi-la-capybara's story, The Itch, that really hooked me into this pairing. i loooove the dynamic and potential they have, with tonks being a clumsy and fun-loving cop while sev is just...the way he is. :)) Escape is a good action-filled fic too and has them both playing the roles they're assigned to play.

toby/eileen!!! you know i had to put this in. i count them a rarepair because i'm of the what-if-toby-and-eileen-actually-did-get-along line of thinking. one of the most recent ones i've read is Over the Edge which i think captures their relationship(s) perfectly.

i've lost so many good fics over the years due to forums shutting down and links being thrown to the wind but if y'all have other recommendations for these pairings pls share! :)

[psychewritesbs]

Right.

So... apparently there’s fans who believe that Athrun loved Lacus and that is why the memes about Kira stealing girlfriends exist. But I must admit I never got the impression that Athrun ever saw his engagement to Lacus as anything more than a political alliance that was in everybody’s best interest.

And watching GS again I have to say I am doubling down on my headcanon because... well...

Their dynamic is so...

Basically Athrun is so not emotionally available to Lacus... like at all. 

It’s so Scorpio of him to put up emotional barriers any time she tries to get close. Like in the screencap above where he actually refuses her touch and walks away from her.

And I get the sense that in the early episodes of GS Athrun didn’t understand what it meant for him to want to open up to someone and to actually want to be  present in a dynamic with someone. 

His dynamic with Lacus was something that was an expectation set by others after all. So there’s an element of forced interaction between the two of them.

Yes, there’s all the haros he’s given her, so there is definitely a sense of Athrun expressing something about his inner self through the creation of objects that he then gives her. 

It’s just that given the current state of their interactions early on in GS + the fact that their engagement is very likely the result of a desirable political alliance because of their respective fathers, there’s an element of “doing what a good fiancé would do.”

I’ll not deny that he very likely cares for Lacus. I think it’s completely undeniable actually--the haros being evidence of it.

It’s just that in a situation such as theirs where they are initially forced to interact with one another because they are to be married someday, I imagine both Athrun and Lacus came into this engagement thinking “ok this is who I am supposed to marry” instead of “ok this is who I want to marry.”

And so the basis for their dynamic is this forced interaction that they both have to make work because other people have told them it needs to work. Both Athrun and Lacus then brought their own personalities into the dynamic in an attempt to meet this external expectation.

I also have to say that as a fellow water sign, I can’t imagine that Athrun found it satisfying to not feel an emotional resonance to Lacus. I say that because if he felt that emotional resonance, his attitude towards her would be different.

Instead, he appears to be annoyed by her...

Hell, he didn't even seem to want to go on a rescue mission to find her when she disappeared and was picked up by the Archangel.

And even if the marriage wasn’t arranged by their parents (I don’t remember honestly) and Athrun and Lacus are childhood friends and he proposed to her...

He’s kind of a cranky and mean fiancé to her if I’m honest...

I love Athrun but that was a dick thing to say, Lacus was worried about him and he turns his back on her and gives her a nasty answer. 

It doesn’t surprise me that Lacus ended with Kira because, unlike Athrun, Kira was able to meet her emotionally where she was at.

So I think that’s why later on in the story Athrun says that Lacus is his ex-fiancé because he was an idiot. He simply had not realized what he wanted because he was doing what was expected of him.

Living to fulfill other’s expectations without looking into one’s heart is always a recipe for disaster and unhappiness.

I think this is my third time watching GS (I swear just how I only read Soul Eater for Soul and Maka, I only watch GS for Athrun and for asucaga) and it’s really cool to be able to discern Athrun’s character arc at its early stages because part of his growth revolves around overcoming his daddy issues so that he can open up emotionally.

Ah, of course, I have to say that this ramble is inspired and influenced by this fantastic analysis that I found on the topic by someone else who agrees that Athrun cared for Lacus but didn’t love her in the romantic sense.

I have to admit that seeing how Athrun behaves with Lacus and comparing that to how he behaves with Cagalli is a dead giveaway of the state of his relationship with Lacus.

Anyways. 

Is there anyone out there in this fandom that still nerds out about this stuff?!!!!!!!!!

[444lpblue]

Heavenly Delusion #1 - Heaven and Hell

Heavenly Delusion #01 Screenplay: Makoto Fukami Storyboard: Hirotaka Mori Batte Scene Storyboard: Tetsuya Takeuchi- Episode Director: Hirotaka Mori Animation Director: Yuuko Yoshida, Ryouta Furukawa, Ai Watanabe Assistant Animation Director: Mayu Gushiken

I… I mean, what can I say? Welcome to Heavenly Delusion, folks. If you haven't watched the episode, go do it right now! What are you doing here? And if you have, let's talk about it.

Heavenly Delusion has been one of my most anticipated anime of the entirety of 2023. The manga is gripping, thrilling, and fun in its characters, making it one of my favorite manga of all time (definitely in my top 5). And how was the anime? I don't want to sound like a fanboy gushing over everything, as that would be biased and totally not good for someone who tries to write about anime objectively. But, I really don't have much else to say except gush over it. My review will not contain any spoilers from the manga, nor will I try to sneak in bits and ruin the experience for you, so anyone can feel free to read this.

You start off the episode by being greeted with luscious green and bright red tomatoes and are introduced to this beautiful facility with seemingly children to teenage students running around looking happy. But in every shot, there's a constant sign of this almost chilling vibe to the whole place. The music, unlike the bright atmosphere the initial moments try to portray, is soft and almost solemn in its delivery.

Eventually, the camera pans to Mimihime (in a fantastic shot), who's overlooking the other kids as her friend, Tokio comes to talk to her. There's still nothing wrong with this whole situation but the use of voyeuristic style shots by Director Mori Hirotaka creates an unnerving feeling as if someone were secretly recording them. It's disconcerting, and the shots felt as if they could have been done in real life. This sense of creepiness makes the situation feel odd, despite no clear indication of anything wrong happening. Then we're introduced to another set of characters, Maru and Kiruko

While the placement of the shots is similar and just as great, the environment is largely different. You get a huge feeling of "density" as soon as they switch to these two. The bright greens and heavenly location are now gone, replaced with abandoned buildings and overgrown grass. I can't find another word to describe its visuals except "dense". It's all so dense. The beautiful background work by Kaneko Yuuji is so detailed in its presentation that it's almost hard for my eyes to perceive all the details at a first glance. The colors of a dead, desolated city would likely be drawn as dull and lifeless by many other people, but the use of bold colors and heavy shading creates a beautiful presentation that complements the character design greatly and serves as a great contrast to the environment of the facility. I can go on and on about the specifics of the scenes as there is an endless list of shots I've loved from this episode, but I can't make this just a summary of the episode word by word.

For all you animation fans out there, the action scenes in the episode were delivered with much more flair than I even expected. The dynamic camera work during all of it (hell, the whole episode, not just the action) was simply incredible.

My thoughts on the episode are already too long so I need to start wrapping it up. The backgrounds continue to be a highlight throughout the episode.

I'd also like to point out how the direction manages to enhance the tension and creepiness of the scene beyond what was depicted in the manga. It's almost like the scene is right in your face, yet the portrayal is still indirect and subtle. We barely got to see the hotel lady's face as she's reacting to Kiruko and Maru's words, but the small actions and smartly placed shots are what make all the difference in changing the mood of the scene. You don't see it directly, but boy, does it raise chills.

There was also a change to the order of some things, which I thought gave the anime a much stronger point to end on. It ends with the old lady from the facility confirming to Tokio, who became curious about the outside world from Mimihime, that there is an outside world, but that "it is a filthy world, a hell where abhorrent monsters lurk." I think this sends the message of the show clearly and augments the effect of the title Heavenly Delusion. Is the outside truly hell? Is heaven just a delusion?

[leporellian]

As a Figarohead and met hater I'd love to know your opinion on 'The Ghosts of Versailles'

realized i never got around to this, sorry!! the TLDR is that i think ghosts of versailles has some interesting ideas but i wish it hadn't applied those ideas to the 'third figaro opera' that it wants to be.

to start this at the root, i am Aware of the third figaro play beaumarchais wrote. i have Read the third figaro play. it isn't good. i can't really fault beaumarchais for it, because... well it was written in 1791 in france and it isn't hard to imagine why there might have been a noted downturn in quality during that particular time, but the thing is it lacks any sort of dramatic through-line with the other figaro plays. i GUESS it continues the shitshow that is the almavivas' marriage, but otherwise half the characters are straight up gone and figaro and susanna themselves are afterthoughts. the villain is like, a weirdly one dimensional hatesink. this isn't even getting into the absolutely bizarre and uncomfortable idea of the countess and cherubino becoming a relationship, because.... well, you know, Everything about that. so in short the 'official' third figaro play kind of blows chunks and, for the most part, people ignore it for good reason.

(also, while beaumarchais authorized performances of it he did not authorize its publication- do with that information what you will.)

however, because people like things that come in threes, people still try to make third figaro operas. but instead of taking only very loose elements from the third figaro play and then setting out to write something better- which feels like the logical solution here- people instead try to make the third figaro play work. which i don't really think it can, because you're essentially trying to stage what is a 1am ventpost with characters, but you know.

the ghosts of versailles does have some really interesting ideas. i like the idea of commentating on how we treat opera characters, and i like the 4th wall bending opera-in-an-opera idea because i love metatheatre. and i think this would have worked if this were another opera, or even if this opera didn't try to set itself up as the third figaro opera and instead was an opera that happened to have figaro in it... but it designates itself as the third figaro opera, and this is where this idea sort of backfires. the first two figaro operas are silly and fantastically slapstick, but they are also grounded in realism- we as an audience comprehend them as occurring in a 'real' world. to make the third figaro opera a more surreal metatheatre thing doesn't make sense considering the rules already established.

there's many other problems with it too. the very uncomfortable countess almaviva/cherubino thing still persists, and while beaumarchais's third figaro play had the semi-justification of 'is set in the 17th century and was written in the 18th century so ideas about minor consent weren't really there the way they are now', this opera was finished in 1991 and also takes place outside of reality so there isn't really an excuse to keep that in. why is marie antoinette there- she feels lazily tacked on as the figure of 18th century france that we are most likely to recognize, and her being there does not add any dramaturgical value to the work. (and also it becomes really weird given the Themes of the first two works- like, why are we trying to sympathize with the rich people suddenly, helloooo!). i think it leans too much on its predecessors at times instead of trying to do its own thing. the problem of the villain in the play making little dramaturgical sense is not addressed. it doesn't even really do anything interesting with the dynamic between beaumarchais and figaro, given figaro was a loose caricature of beaumarchais himself. but more than anything, the opera does not really justify its own existence, and it doesn't answer why there needs to be a third figaro opera.

why should there be a third figaro opera, actually? it's so, so hard to do. figaro himself is very hard to tackle given how he needs to be distanced from the audience yet already has opened himself up to them in marriage (see my earlier figaro audience proximity analysis). the count, who feels as though he should be the 'last' villain, has already been the villain. the third play beaumarchais wrote is an absolute mess. i think there's directions you could take a new take on it in, but you'd have to spend so much time figuring it out- and then there's the pressure of the other two parts being written by mozart and rossini. and then... well, it would be so final, wouldn't it. figaro is a trickster. tricksters aren't final. imagine trying to write a sendoff for bugs bunny- how do you do it? the trickster always lives on. i'd rather pull something along the lines of what massenet did with the cherubino opera and keep making spin offs- figaro on all sorts of adventures, because figaro by design cannot 'stop'. (that being said, if you want a third figaro play for whatever reason and you need somebody to write it- hire me!)

but the ghosts of versailles is still the best attempt at a 'third figaro opera', given that the other 'third figaro operas' range from completely forgettable to 'genuinely one of the worst operas i've ever heard of', so i'll give it that.

[icannotreadcursive]

So, since totally cheating on today's OC-tober prompt, I am having some thinky thoughts about my relationship to fanfic AUs and what "AU" even means.

I do not think of myself as someone who writes AUs, and yet I very rarely write things that are canon-compliant. As I just said to a couple friends "I canon diverge HARD and I love me a “what if” but I do not “AU” in the coffee shop etc sense".

And that's the thing, when I say "AU" pretty much exclusively mean a story where the characters exist in a setting different from canon and have done so all along. Not "the world of canon but with some details changed" and not "the world of canon up to a point."

I think I've written one (1) actual AU ever, and I'm more likely to read AUs for Marvel and DC comics stuff which, by their nature, already have about a million canonical AUs anyway, or for media I'm not super familiar with or don't actually like so my interest in the canon setting is low to begin with.

From certain authors I trust, or on friends' recommendations I will read almost any kind of AU, but it's a reasonable generalization to say I just don't like them.

For me, a huge part of a character is the context they exist in, so when you take them out of their canon setting my interest drops a lot. And yes, I do know that some AU fics do a lot of really interesting things with translating a character's circumstances and dynamics from canon to an AU setting, which--for me--exploring that dialogue between the canon circumstances and how they've been rendered in the AU is the entire point of having an AU at all and just about the only thing that makes them worth reading, but too often they feel like dolls with familiar names and faces just grabbed and stuck in a different story entirely where they can't be the same characters I know, and I therefore absolutely do not care about them.

Especially for source media that's sci fi or fantasy where those fantastical elements are so deeply ingrained in the characters' experience and sense of self, I utterly fail to see the appeal of AUs that strip the characters of that context. To me, a lot of the fun of sci fi and fantasy is exploring the impact that the fantastical elements have on characters, so the impulse to do the opposite of that reflects a view of and relation to that media and those characters that is so alien to me I cannot fathom it. I have a similar, if somewhat inverse, issue with a lot of the kinds of AUs that introduce fantastical elements (they tend to feel shoehorned in to me) or switch out one set of fantastical elements for another (there was already magic there to be explored??? was the canon magic not good enough for you???). Overall, most AUs end up making me feel like, why did you bother writing this as fanfic for this media, since you clearly don't actually want to write about this media or its characters as they exist.

I'm not saying y'all who love to write and read those kinds of of stories are wrong, I'm saying I will never understand you.

All this culminates in my moderate frustration with the handling of the Ao3 [Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence] tag. Because it stacks under the general [Alternate Universe] tag, I can't just exclude that tag and free myself of all the coffee shop, modern setting, no powers, vampire, mafia, high school AUs I'm just not interested in without also removing all the "what if things when differently after episode 3?" type stuff I am into.

Cuz, to me, canon divergence isn't AU, it's canon divergence. Those + canon compliance are three different modes of engaging with canon that I think most fanfic people have an innate understanding are different from each other. It bugs me that one gets stacked under another just on the grounds that it's not the third one.

Most of the time when I'm writing fic it's either an exercise in "how would I have handled this story/filled in these gaps" or its me experimenting with how things could have gone, treating canon as a control group. Either way, there's a grounding in the canon setting the absence of which is what, to me, makes an AU an AU.

The way I see it, because my fics have that grounding point, they're simply not AUs no matter how far they end up diverging, since they're still set in the same basic world.

[reachexceedinggrasp]

Yeah I enjoyed boarding school-genre (St. Mallory's etc.) books when I was little--- my grandma used to get them for me. I wasn't big on HP because it was boarding school genre minus a female protagonist, and not nearly as fun or as silly. Overall my issue with HP's reception is that it's very intentionally a riff on that genre, not fantasy (and you can see this with the historic aversion to categorising it as fantasy at all, like rejecting the Hugo award). Even right down to what you describe with Snape in that linked post is that his archetype is very common in the boarding school genre (mean teacher who is secretly nice) that I knew immediately he was going to be a Good Guy the Whole Time, though the way it's done is with more emotional gravitas and probably more moral condemnation than those teachers ever warrant, since the nature of HP evolved. Imo the silliness/whimsy never sat right with its serious war narrative and that's not for the better, because the former is what the setting is really all about. But regarding Snape, I think the reason his reception wasn't anticipated is because he's probably one of the archetypes most directly translated; when figuring him into the more serious narrative, much more resonance slipped through.

Anyway! I really wanted to know whether it was DHr or SHr that you were into because I find which of those people ship to be interesting lol. It makes much more sense that SHr fits into your BatB paradigm, though I have definitely read plenty of renderings of DHr which play into that idea--- those tend to lean into inventing more complexity for Draco than there are in the books, though, and yeah I would say on average DHr leans much more rivalshipping. I know what you mean about being picky with fic and slipping into something more casual since that's basically the majority of my fandom experience. If I'm genuinely serious about something (e.g. most of my OTP's) I have to write the fic myself lmao. Reylo is probably the one exception to that where I never ended up writing very much just because canon was So Good screams and there were a rare few handful of fics which leant more into that characterisation we both seem to prefer--- I generally just enjoyed daydreaming with Reylo and theorising than anything else lol.

Anyway, good tidings on your fandom adventures and thank you for indulging my nosiness ✨

Yeah, pretty much. People seem to want to group HP with high fantasy and it has no business there, but you can see where the impulse comes from. It's structurally unsound because of the war plot and heavier themes clearly not fitting into the whacky boarding school setting. The genre conventions do not get along with what she's trying to do with the war and it leads to bigger and bigger problems as the plot progresses.

I think them being classmates who have known each other as peers since childhood fundamentally changes the stakes and makes your job pretty difficult as far as trying to set up a B&tB dynamic. They're much more suited to doing a play on Romeo and Juliet. Where with SSHG, half the work is already done for you, the set up is built in, all you need is a reason to force them to spend time together.

I did end up needing to write my own reylo fic for exactly this reason lol. That, and the fandom refusing to provide Ben resolution with Luke. But the reylo AU machine is fantastic, a nigh-endless font of stories to read.

[coldgoldlazarus]

Tales Of The Masks is such a funny book to me.

---

Because if you look at it from the perspective of its framing device? I'm not a fan. The mask hunt conceit worked well in 2001, when the Toa were just starting out, needed to learn to work together, etc. Then repeating that the next year with the Krana felt a bit more forced, but was still sorta acceptable. But doing it a third time with the Nuva masks felt deeply stale, even as a kid, and on top of that felt like it ran counter to the premise of the Nuva Masks being one-of-a-kind upgrades brought about by their transformation. That's not even if you also consider the whole thematic angle of the mask's power extending to those in their vicinity, something something Unity something.

Looking for masks that really shouldn't make sense to exist in the first place, somehow got overlooked when they were searching every nook and cranny in 01, and just felt on some level sisyphean after gaining and then losing the Golden Masks that had all that stuff in one nice package anyway, just never really sat right with me. And now I have an extra layer of frustration from it given how some people point to that as proof of the early years being shallow and kiddie, unlike the later years with their edginess and violence.

But at the same time, when you actually read it, Tales Of The Masks also kind of embodies a lot of what made the early years so great; the fun dynamics among the Toa, the island's many mysteries and more and more signs that the Turaga knew so much more than they were letting on, and just some genuinely sweet moments of development of these initially-simple characters, taking advantage of the breathing room afforded to them by the lower stakes, that the Ignition years just couldn't or didn't make time for.

---

Idunno. It's frustrating to me, because I've seen people lately dismissing 01-03 as nothing but shallow collectathons, and honestly it feels like G2 made that same mistake to some extent. And on some level I can understand where they're coming from, because yeah, it did lean on the collection aspect a little too hard at times, to its own detriment at times. (See again, all my complaints about the Nuva masks.)

At the same time, I feel like painting it as just "good guys find masks, fight bad guys, end of story" is just, a painfully reductive and bad-faith reading of those years, when they had so much else going for them.

The worldbuilding wasn't as broad and expansive, but it felt more intimate, with the MNOG games in particular really fleshing out the Matoran culture and day-to-day; while also leaving enough open to the imagination, paired with the pervading sense of mystery and unknowns waiting around every corner, to use that as a launching-off point.

The characters were pretty simple, yeah, but they worked great as part of a dynamic, with distinctive and enjoyable personalities thst could be played off each other to fantastic effect - and still are, given a lot of the posts that circulate the Bonkle corner of tumblr.

And heck, even the supposedly simple "good versus evil" conflict wasn't what it seemed at first glance, with the Rahi being innocent animals under Makuta's control. The Bohrok ultimately turned out to have a good and important purpose, that whole conflict only happening because of the series of catastrophic events that led to the Matoran being displaced to where they weren't supposed to be in the first place. And even Makuta himself was supposed to be more sorely misguided than genuinely evil, until his rework in 2004. (Whereas the later years, if anything, felt a lot more straightforward and shallow about that a lot of the time, even if the presentation was more visceral. Why do the bad guys do the bad things? Because they want power. Why do they want power? Because they're the bad guys.)

---

Point is, I feel like Tales Of The Masks is kind of an interesting case study of both some of the best and worst aspects of the early years' writing both evident in full force. For many years I considered it my least favorite of the Chronicles books just because of its framing device, and it was only on revisiting it more recently that I was able to re-evaluate my opinion, and appreciate the genuinely good stories contained within. I just wish certain others would give it that same reconsideration.

[aurora-313]

Here's a question I've had on my mind- is there evidence in one of the tie-in novels or something (cuz heaven knows we didn't get anything in the manga proper) that isshin was the twin brother of kaien's father, or did you come up with that on your own? If the latter, what made you decide to take that route?

Not to say anything's wrong with that! It's just the personally I always got the vibe that isshin was a younger brother if anything. Not to mention he looked pretty young in the flashback of how he met masaki. I know, I know, aging is weird in soul society, physical appearances are meaningless but still- physically speaking, I'd put isshin during the flashback at early to mid 20s. (Which I assume was by design, so isshin wouldn't look too much older than a then-17/18 year old masaki.)

If he was a twin, I'm guessing isshin was the "younger" twin which is why kaien's dad was clan head and isshin was a branch head (kind of like hinata and neji's dads in naruto).

Follow up question- how old chronologically do you headcanon isshin and kaien to be as of black and blue, and how old physically does kaien look currently? Isshin looks middle-aged thanks to losing his spirit powers and aging like a normal human up until now, so how old physically do you think he was during the flashback?

I'd started this story before I even knew the novels existed, a lot of the things I've discovered as I've written BB were through osmosis. I've since read the novels and while I like elements of them, the world-building and such, I hold them in generally dubious regard. I'm kind of going with my own timeline here, so please excuse my liberties that don't marry up to canon.

As for Isshin himself.

Isshin having an elder twin brother is something I came up with to add more layers to the Shiba clan dynamics in BB verse. I wanted to instill a sense of history and weight behind the family's relationships with one another. This doesn't contain spoilers so I'll explain the relationship with Isshin and Inei here (and present a brief summary of Inei's character+history):

Inei is Isshin's older twin. Consequently he was intended to be the next family head when he came of age. But Inei was born extremely frail. I haven't pinpointed exactly when he died from his failing health yet, but its somewhere between a little after Ganju was born to after Kaien received his first Seated post in the G13 (I'll decide by the time its referenced in the story).

To cope with his physical frailty, Inei bore an ultra stoic demeanour that'd make Byakuya look like the poster boy of emotional displays. Professionally, he knew he couldn't swing a sword so he'd dedicated his life to studying all forms of kido, eventually earning his place as Commander of the Kido Corp (trivia: Tessai was his second in Command and protégé) and becoming one of the most revered Kido masters in Soul Society's recent memory. (Kaien might be a genius, even he can’t hold a candle to his dad... yet.)

While his children loved him dearly, Inei obviously wasn't the most emotionally available person in the world and lacked the social skills to really help them with more personal dramas (even his marriage was a rare instance of the Shiba clan agreeing to a political match).

Which is where Isshin comes in; the opposite side of the coin.

Inei's extreme stoicism was fantastic for professional discussion, but poor for delicate matters. Which is why Kaien mentioned the Shiba trio would often speak to Isshin with matters of the heart or seek emotional advice. Consequence of which, all of them (especially Kaien in recent decades) saw Isshin as their second father.

As a loyal younger brother and second son, Inei's ailing health is a key reason why Isshin was studiously attentive in medical lessons at the Shin'ou Academy (I've headcanoned he spent a couple decades in Squad 4 before joining the 10th).

Outside his own legitimate personal interests in the field, Isshin would apply what he learned to support Inei in any way he could. I think that perhaps a sense of guilt motivated his actions as well; that Isshin felt guilty for being born healthy while his older brother - the next clan head - was not, so he 'owes' it to Inei to help him in every which way he can.

Naturally when the Shiba trio came along, Isshin would take an active role in helping raise them too (along side the rest of the clan) to ease Inei's burdens. And when Inei passed on, Isshin saw it as his responsibility to look out for the Shiba Trio in his brother's place.

I apologise for this bit of rambling, but like I said, I'm trying to infuse a history behind these characters that give a certain nuance to their interactions, beyond 'Oh you're my crazy uncle I get to see at family celebrations every now and again'.

So I hope this answers why I chose that route.

As for their chronological ages:

Kaien is in the realm of 380-400 years old and physically late twenties to very early thirties. Kukaku's roughly 20 years younger and Ganju's about 100 years younger than her.

Isshin, I have as about chronologically 580-600 and physically in his mid-forties. I think living and ageing as a human did a lot to make him more physically mature.

Side note: I have this theory/pseudo-headcanon that a soul's aging in Soul Society is entirely/ largely dependent on how nourished that soul is. More nourishment = longer lasting youthful appearance. Which is why the vast majority of Shinigami have such youthful appearances, they have access to all the best resources to maintain themselves.

[butmakeitgayblog]

Hey babe, first, wanted to let you know that it hasn’t stopped raining in my town you know since when? since you posted that midwestern Clexa fight, coincidence? Don’t think so 🤨

Second, been bombarded with that ops show too and I agree 100% with you, both in the copaganda aspect (they lost me at the mention of marine’s and middle east terrorism)and the thing about this new ships. I want to stop a moment in the answer you gave me a time ago about this wn comeback, so, even if they write them well (at first), never forget who’s behind these shows and suddenly this thing we haven’t heard about gets popular cos it has a wlw couple with amazing chemistry, they get increase in viewers so they explote it to promote their next season and then what? Sound familiar? We just can’t trust them anymore.

Third, I super totally agree with you on the Clexa lightning in a bottle. As one of the newer Clexa fans (next week will make one year since I saw the second season and told my sister “I’m sensing a little bit of the gay vibe in here, wonder who of the two will die”) I’ve seen already most of the shows one sees named in the conversation about wlw couples and let me tell you, only this one got me hooked both from the beggining and way long after its ending (hell it got me into tumblr and twitter, things I’ve never done before and I even bought a book about it “El legado de Lexa” to know more about this shitstorm her death caused). Whatever IT is, they have IT. I honestly prefer reading fics about them than get invested in a new show.

Fourth, do you really wouldn’t recommend Clexa to new fans? I mean, yeah we got hurt but they’re more than their sad story, they’re this whole community and I think that’s a beautiful thing. Personally? I wouldn’t recommend the loo but I’d tell them about Clexa warning them beforehand so they can decide for themselves? There’s this dialogue on a media fic comparing someone with a really good book that you can’t put down or let go, that even if it made you suffer and you know the ending, the feeling you got reading its unique and you just wanna keep back to it, and that’s this thing to me.

Finally, I love how you apologize beforehand if your opinion that you posted in your personal blog offends the people who asked for it and came to said blog willingly and with the intention to read it. You humble polite kiddo *pats you in the head affectionately*

Sorry about the long rant 😬, en resumen, this new show? not sure I’ll watch it, Clexa is the “el que no conoce a dios a cualquier santo le reza” of ships, I’m leaning more into the recommed Clexa side of things, we love you and your opinions.

And we need the reconciliation so the sun can come up in my town again.

There's a lot here 😅 not complaining tho!

Ok so the first real thing I gotta answer is about would I rec theloo and Clexa to people who haven't heard of it. My honest answer is would I rec Clexa fic? Yes. The show? Maybe, but it'd come with A Lot of caveats 🥴. Because the thing is, and I may be alone in this thinking idk, but I'm not really sure if someone can appreciate the entirely of Clexa and Lexa, and Clarke in particular, as characters or why their dynamics and eventual love story were so amazing if they didn't watch the show. While the Clexa movie is fantastic at showing their chemistry, there's things that happen within the show that effect them and speak on who they are as individual characters that aren't ever really included in the supercuts because they aren't together in them. Which I agree with! The thing is already 3+hrs long lol. But it does matter for context and it does hold weight in their story, both together and individually, so I would have to say to really get them you have to watch the show at least up until 307. I know there's people who write fic who haven't watched the show at all and I just... no shade! But I can usually tell. Cuz it shows.

But in that same breath the show got so fucking stupid and nonsensical I, in good conscience, have a very difficult time telling people that they should watch that hunk'a shit 😒 Season 2 was its best, let's just be honest, and season 3 was JRot's bullshit Frankenstein creation that he used as a way to shoehorn in this fucking AI plot from a movie or show (I can't remember which) that didn't get picked up but he was just convinced it was brilliant. He wanted to be GoT meets Star Trek or some shit so badly I just know he was pissing himself watching dailies. So overall it's such a double edged sword because yes I want more people to love Clexa, but at the same time the show overall is so gd bad I don't wanna put them through it.

About the Ops show, someone said it is copaganda which I expected, and not even actually enemies to lovers?? Which baffled me but apparently one of them is undercover and using the other one to get to their father or something? That's not enemies to lovers 🤨 that's manipulation. Which ok fine I'm down with that in fiction but if one party is unaware of your nefarious ways and is just interested in you then that's not... that's not EtL. That's just I was trying to trick you and caught feelings/I had feelings and then found out you were a liar. False. Advertising. 😤

Lastly, I'm a midwesterner we apologize for everything 🥺👉👈 knocked into a chair with my knee today ans accidentally apologized to it before realizing myself 😔. But really it's mainly because I know how easy it is online for people to think everything is a personal attack on them or their tastes when it's not, so I find it's just safer and more pleasant to remind people that I am just a person stating their own personal opinion, and it's really not ever anything to get upset about 😅

[can-of-pringles]

Hey!! Here to talk about fanfic with you!

Is there a fandom or character that you want to write for but haven't yet? Why is that?

Is there a fanfic that you would rewrite or look at again if you had the chance? (Personally I think your writing is fantastic but I know we as authors are our own worst enemies, and I'm curious to see your side of it)

What's your favorite part about Similarities so far? Of King and Lionheart? Of your Ariel fics?

What's one line from any of your fics that you're especially proud of? And why do you like it? (Particularly artful, really captures a character, great humor, etc.)

What's your favorite trait to give a character trait? Physical or personality. What's a trait in yourself that you often see in your characters (past neurodivergence and queerness, I mean individual personality traits like confidence or sarcastic humor)

Your writing is amazing bestie!! So excited to see what you do with Eliŝka!

Hi! Thank you!

Fandom wise, I'm not sure. I haven't consumed any new media recently except Vol 3. So I guess MCU? (If you don't count my Wandavision and X-Men crossover fic)

As for character, I haven't written anything for my newest OC, Eliška Hasek, and I'm itching to get started on that. Oh, also another OC, Tessa Hayes (Lee Quinn's birth mother) there are things in place I should do first before I start on these projects.

Probably majority of my fics from 2019 or 2020. And the first Kaia fics probably need a revamp.

For Similarities, I enjoy being able to write about Henry and El in a more domestic setting since escaping the lab and writing about their bond growing. Though funny enough I am looking forward to writing more of the future plot and angst with Beatrice.

King and Lionheart, I feel like it's still in its early stages but despite that has shown a lot of potential or progress if that makes sense? I also enjoy writing about Dream having to interact with a character so different than him (Lee) and having them learn to get along and their dynamic.

The Ariel ship! Ok, where do I start? I guess honestly it's a little fun to drag out the fics and have my readers waiting excitedly for when the big confession happens. I'm sorry I like to torture my audience 😈 but also Arith and Iriel banter is so fun and rewarding to write. I feel like they've come a long way. And you know what I still plan on writing stuff for them even after y'know 💀 because people read essentially prequel stuff all the time.

One line from any fic.... oh this is tough. Why do I feel like all my best stuff isn't published yet lol.

Ok so more than a single line (oops) but from King and Lionheart.

“I understand your warnings, but I would like to go with you, anyway.” She looked up at him with a determined glint in her eyes.

I think it just sums up Lee's character so well. She's bold, stubborn, and dedicated.

Favorite trait to give a character? Physically wise I think I either have to say freckles or piercings. Personality wise... I guess unique? Now hold on let me explain, I don't like to write about characters who fit a mold or something like that. That's boring. There has to be a little bit of going against the norm. Not fitting in but rather standing out as an individual.

I really hope that wasn't confusing or too much of a basic answer.

As for the last question, I think I tend to have a dry sense of humor and I like writing characters with a similar sense of humor.

Thank you very much!

[jcs-study]

Hi again! I have a few questions to ask, but firstly, I’d like to thank you for introducing me to the 1992 Australian Cast! While some of the orchestrations haven’t aged well, I still think that their takes on the Temple and King Herod’s song are the best ones I’ve heard, and the cast is all around fantastic. I think Kate Ceberano’s interpretation of Mary Magdalene is now one of my favorites. Now, on to the questions:

1.) What’s your favorite interpretation/staging of Superstar (the song)? I’ve always loved the 1973 film version, with Judas and the Angels in the amphitheater. I think it made clear that the whole event was a hallucination, and I love how the exuberance of the Angels was contrasted by Judas’ frustration and general desperation.

2.) Are there any foreign language stagings/recordings of the musical that you like in particular? I’ve always really liked Camilo Sesto’s version. There’s also the Swedish version with Ola Salo, which a lot of people here like for its dynamic between Jesus and Judas (speaking of, have you seen the Swedish production yet)?

3.) You’ve talked in some posts about a hypothetical production of the musical, with a preference to more minimalistic staging. How would the staging and set/costume designs for that be like?

Holy crap, we can fit more in the ask box than we used to! Nice! Okay, so let's go through this point by point.

The Australian revival cast is easily a "best of the Nineties' Top 40" smorgasbord, musically speaking, for good or for ill. You've got an opening of "Everything's Alright" that calls to mind "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" from The Lion King, a "Simon Zealotes" that veers uneasily between C+C Music Factory and Right Said Fred, a "Pilate's Dream" that might as well be "Sadness" by Enigma, an "I Don't Know How to Love Him" that sounds like a softer version of what Luther Vandross was doing on "Power of Love," and a "Superstar" that stops just short of EMF's "Unbelievable." (If any reader doesn't recognize these references, a) man, do I feel old, and b) look 'em up; as cheesy as I make them sound, they are enjoyable, for the most part.) But for every moment like those, there's something like the imaginative use of percussion and sitar in "The Temple," which quite effectively conjures up the desired "sleazy Indiana Jones-esque bazaar" effect, and of course, the brilliant "arena rock" Herod. I especially like the chorus of "Oi"s toward the end when Herod gets fed up with Jesus' non-compliance. (That said, I do wish someone other than Angry Anderson had sung it.) Plus, when so many other productions of JCS were treading safe ground, the '92 Oz cast took risks, and that's what I tend to like in a JCS.

That's a question I've never been asked before, not that I haven't given the number some deep thought. (I've gone through times when I debated whether or not it made dramatic sense for Judas to be the one singing the song, never mind how it was staged.) On balance, I like the '73 film version the best of what we have, but I don't have a favorite staging of that song.

I have a ready answer to the foreign translation question as I work on the book's recommended listening/reading/viewing chapter. As recordings go, I'm fond of the original French, Spanish (here meaning Camilo Sesto), and 2001 Hungarian revival casts. Viewing-wise, I rank the 2014 Swedish arena tour highly. It's a bit dreary and dystopian-looking, but especially noteworthy for a) being fully staged (which can't be said for other popular arena versions of the show), b) offering a Mary in Gunilla Backman that proves older women can do the part justice, and c) exploring the Jesus/Judas/Mary triangle in-depth, with loving, gentle chemistry that makes what happens to them feel all the more personal. The acting is so clear and direct that the language barrier shouldn't be an issue, and the singing is impressive.

I have talked about that quite a bit; I've written about it at length before on my main non-Tumblr blog. I think I'll post those thoughts over here sometime and put them in the same place as all my other JCS scribbles. Thanks for planting the seed!

[hawkhills]

masriel

bless 💕 chaotic-ass answer for a chaotic-ass ship, I have so many feelings about them

What made you ship it?

if I'm being honest I have no fucking clue what it was originally - I first read the trilogy at age 10-11ish and I distinctly recall getting that specific ship-based neuron activation going on despite it not making any sense at all at that time to me

but right now as an adult, I'm finding myself deeply fascinated by the apparent psychological depth of their fucked up relationship, and the amazing ways they push and pull each other. granted, it might mostly be cause of the fantastic work the writers in this fandom do (lbr pullman has not given us all that much), but I can't recall any other ship I've ever been invested in with this kind of twisted, soul-wrenching, all-or-nothing kind of a dynamic. it's just?? so fun and addictive to think about??? there's so much to unpack and explore there, and I just can't get enough arghhh

I also kinda sorta think it might be some sort of weird escapism-like mechanism based on how my own life is? like when I myself was a sad little lonely blob I was prone to get invested in ships whose dynamics were ultimately cute and healthy. now that I've been in a healthy, stable relationship for a long time, I seem crave content that explores fucked up, dysfunctional relationships with a larger-than-life, albeit destructive kind of love. I can't think of any ship fitting this criterium better than masriel lmao

also they're fucking hot and the smut writers in this fandom are literally insane istg yall write the best sex scenes ive seen in my almost 15 years of reading m-rated fic

What are your favorite things about the ship?

I really wish I could make it not sound so cliche but I can't - I'm such a sucker for this larger-than-life attraction and passion that burns so hot it literally scorches everything on its path, the people involved included

also ngl the abovementioned smut @hbo release the m-rated masriel cut you cowards

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I don't really know what's unpopular and what isn't, but judging by the majority of fic I've read it seems that people headcanon them literally just going at it the moment they first meet and being unable to keep their hands off each other. and while yes, HOT, I do prefer depictions of their younger years with a more slow-burn approach - you know, angsty glances, self-restraint against everything, and - I cannot stress this enough - the attraction being intellectual even more so than physical. give me all your scholars falling for each other over mutual work au's

[morrow-dim]

I came across “Remember, I Am the One Who Took Off Your Cape” the other day and can’t stop thinking about it 😭 Thank you so much for writing it!! 🖤💛 Have you been enjoying Triple Crown so far (and are there any other BL webtoons you’re enjoying)?

Hello, Anon! I haven’t posted on Tumblr in nearly a year (11 months!). I had to reset my password. 😅 But it’s great that Tumblr’s notif system still works because I’m so keen to talk about BL webtoons! 😍

But before that . . . wow. “Remember, I Am the One Who Took Off Your Cape” will (probably) be my sole contribution to the fandom, but it’s close to my heart. I’m touched that you’re touched by it! 😭 I’m also embarrassed to say that I’m only 4 episodes in to Triple Crown. (Yikes!) I had a lot of hesitation because I have issues with Tappy Toon (I’m only on Lezhin or Tapas these days). Then I got distracted by Solo Leveling (yes, I’m about to rec the webtoon), which I devoured in roughly three weeks. Am now waiting for the side stories. Whatever hype you’ve heard about Solo Leveling is true (and I’m currently trying to finish a fic). Although it’s not BL, you don’t have to squint very hard to find those ships. 😉 But getting back to Triple Crown . . . I’ll get there eventually! Though I have to say that the ‘Prologue’ is the perfect webtoon. ❤️

So, aside from Solo Leveling, I have two BL webtoon recs for you and both can be found on Lezhin. They’re character-based stories with art styles that I enjoy. Neither are as gorgeously drawn and colored as Kingmaker, but really, how many webtoons are? What these two webtoons have going for them is brilliant storytelling.

1. “Do You Still Like Me?” Technically, this is an ABO webtoon but it features two alphas, which is the most interesting dynamic to me. The relationship between the two leads is fantastically developed and very rich. The webtoon is a slow burn that begins with a ‘fuck buddies’ trope. (It’s a contract relationship. Literally.) I’m also attracted to the inter-racial aspect of it since one of the characters is Korean and the other British. Most of the story takes place in London. I’d go so far as to say that the way this creator treats the alpha-alpha relationship has fundamentally changed how I view alpha-alpha dynamics moving forward. The structure of the webtoon is also complex, moving between multiple (contemporary) time periods and places. If some parts don’t 100% make sense the first time you read them, have a little patience. The creator always rewards you. When the pieces fall into place, I’ll go over certain episodes and think, ‘Wow. That has even more layers than I originally thought.’ Highly recommended. (This is an ongoing webtoon in its second season.)

2. “The Beast Must Die” This webtoon is my favorite webtoon of all time, BL or otherwise. It’s also one of the darker webtoon I’ve read because the central character – Kang Moo – is a true psychopath. The creator clearly researched psychopathy so that his/her depiction of it is fairly accurate and the situations created very plausible given the conditions of the webtoon. When I decided to jump into fanfic, I read the two books that are referenced in the webtoon just so I could have a basic understanding of the condition. I won’t spoil the plot for you, but I love this webtoon to pieces. It begins when the two main characters are university students and spans over a decade. Like the rec above, the dynamic between the two leads is truly unique. I have never read anything like it in the webtoon world. However, I’d warn you that the weakest part of this webtoon is the second side story (it was infuriating, tbh), but the main fic, the first side story, and the side tracks/collections are exceptional. (This is a completed webtoon.) Kang Moo is an utterly compelling character. (And gorgeous. Really gorgeous.)

That’s it from me, Anon! I bet you’re a little sorry now that you asked for webtoons I’m enjoying after reading all my rambling. 😂 There’s more! (There’s always more. 😉) But these two are a cut above the rest, as is Kingmaker. ❤️