#like the insane amazing character exploration this allows?

[theajaheira]

i feel like at some point i have to write my latest bangel plot bunny just to counterbalance all the violent hatred of them??? like they’re FASCINATING. y’all just think the show doesn’t know that this is a deeply fucked up relationship, which is sorta fair bc the show can’t decide + wants to have its cake and eat it too (buffy and angel are somehow simultaneously Teenage True Love and Genuinely Fucked Up Power Dynamic) BUT “the show can’t decide” is so hugely different from “the show doesn’t know it’s fucked up and thinks it isn’t” and so sometimes i will see bangel hater takes and they will actually hurt my soul

[lucakaneshiroswife]

!- RANDOM SHU YAMINO HC’S -!

Warnings: suggestive content

Genre: NSFW

Word count: 610 words 3,228 characters

Published: 4th September . 23

! Minors and Blank blogs DNI !

"How can you be this pretty...?"

Regardless the way that our darling sorcerer presents himself to be, he actually has his needs, and they are a little intense. And so, like any other person, he always makes sure to appropriately care for those needs both when you are present and when you are not.

While Shu may not be straightforward with what he wants all the time, he still does have his moments where he just cracks. Although usually he finds it easier to just simply take care of his own ‘problem’ alone, which does often lead to you happening to stumble by when he is in the process of relieving himself.

When that happens, prepare yourself because you will end up on your knees between his legs as he sits in his gaming chair, fingers tangled in your hair urging you to keep sucking him like the good girl you are <3

Shu has a very obvious fixation on your face, the way you look just drives him insane especially during these moments. You always look so pretty for him and he frankly has no idea how you manage it with your hair sticking all over your face as you sweat, your eyes glossy and lips parted from just how much he pushes your limits. He has to admit that this obsession of his is one of the reasons he would suddenly thrust up into you, watching closely for your reaction with his usual smirk looking even more attractive as he does so.

Positions that allow him a full view of your face are everything for him. If there is anything he loves more than you then it will probably have to be the way you suck him, and trust me, he isn't shy to admit that. The way your warm mouth feels around him just makes him crazy, don't even get me started on the way you look while doing it, he is addicted to it.

Shu finds so much joy when he gets to incorporate toys into your intimate moments. After all, you do need to feel good while you make him feel good, it's only fair that way. Perhaps that's the only time he'd be 'fair' with you, and even then he makes sure to overstimulate you to see how much you can handle from a mere toy, surely you won't disappoint him right?

Despite his kind-hearted nature, Shu can and will be dominant. He loves being in charge and exploring different kinks that you both have. He is more than open to experimenting, he doesn't shy away from a new experience if it's with you~

Remember the part where he is not only an amazing sorcerer but also an amazing gamer? Yeah well if you didn't then it shows with the way he uses those hands of his. His touch is electrifying, setting your body on fire, he knows just how to tease and please. Making you beg for mercy but pant for more.

While Shu may not be the most vocal person in the bedroom, when things get heated and he approaches that sweet climax he does end up breathing up your ear, whispering nothing but absolute filth varying from how criminally tight you are around him to how good you are being for him.

Shu knows the importance of aftercare, especially after putting poor little you through so much. Don't worry he will take care of you, clean you up, bring you a cup of water or even strawberry milk before you find him wrapping his arms around you, whispering words of affection and love into your ear while kissing over the marks he left on your body <3

A/N: Yes I know I haven't posted in two months but I am back and I hope to finish doing this for ALL of Luxiem while the creativity is still there. I am just as thirsty and starved as you are. NOT PROOFREAD

ART CREDITS: I couldn't find the @ at all, lmk if you know them.

[lacerta123]

So Takasugi and Gintoki don’t talk to each other a lot throughout the story of Gintama. In fact, after they meet in episode twenty something, they do not exchange words till their final showdown 300 ish episodes later. (Other than like, Gintoki shouting at him in Benizakura.) Which is insane to me, because they feel like they’re in constant conversation with each other. And by that final showdown, they had become my favorite character foils in all of fiction.

It’s interesting to me how Gintama develops their relationship without making them share scenes. Whenever Takasugi shows up at the end of an arc to reveal he was involved in some way, you can be sure that the story is trying to say something about how Gintoki and Takasugi differ. And also how they’re the same. It allows both of them to react to the thematic messaging of each arc in interesting ways. A lot of the time Takasugi’s not just looking to pull strings, but to find other villains who would be sympathetic to his cause. And that gives us insight into what his deal is. As the arc explores each villain’s theme, we can see how much Takasugi agrees or disagrees with them. Like, Takasugi really seems to dislike Ito. He thinks he’s foolish, and Gintoki (thematically) agrees. But he likes and respects Isaburo, even calling him -dono. Even though, superficially, Isaburo is old guard in the government Takasugi is trying to destroy. They should be opposed, but they’re not.

Takasugi barely gets any scenes, but the ones he does get are dense and meaningful. And Gintoki engages with the plot of each arc in equally meaningful ways. Where that meaning overlaps is where these characters become amazing foils for each other. It makes you excited to see what happened to make the two of them become such different people. Especially since we know they stemmed from the same moral source, and fought alongside each other once.

[mintyimperiatrix]

so wild theory time but what if the Master is Omega's son

ok hear me out because that sounds insane but i think it kinda works? cause first off we know now thanks to the Timeless Children that the Doctor is the daughter of the Other(/Tecteun). the Other is a scientist and explorer and while their morality's differ to the extreme the Doctor does, on the surface level, adopt these traits from them.

we also know that the Doctor, in their first childhood, had a friend on Gallifrey. a friend with no name. a friend who... accidentally killed her during a fight. i know i'm not the first to say that the kid on the cliff is the Master but it's a good starting point

so then we get to Omega, someone who was friends with the other two Founders and yet easily the one who's life we know the least about, at least from before he was chucked into a black hole. he wasn't an explorer like Tecteun, he was an engineer. he wanted to build his own things, be famous for his achievements and use them to obtain godlike power but when his usefulness ended he was thrown aside by Rassilon. does any this sound familiar?

All of those traits are shared by the Master.

lets cut to the End of Time real quick. the Master builds a device to bring Gallifrey back into the universe, allowing the next 'ascension' to take place (before the Doctor broke the machine) but when his moment of glory was about to come Rassilon, like Omega before him, threw him aside. obviously this is all pretty circumstantial and doesn't actually prove anything but then there's this exchange earlier in the episode

"Two Children of Gallifrey" could just be a poetic way to refer to two random Time Lords. except we know it doesn't, because the Doctor isn't a random Time Lord and even if the average Time Lord doesn't know that the Matrix Does. so if the Doctor is the daughter of one of the Founders then she is (almost) literally a 'Child of Gallifrey'. take the same idea and apply it to the Master and logic dictates he would be the child of either Rassilon or Omega

i think the most interesting part happens after that though, when the Time Lord dude refers to them as 'the Enmity of Ages' (which would be an amazing name for a band just saying) and Rassilon immediately knows that this means the Doctor and the Master. the only time we've seen him meet either of those characters before is in passing during the Five Doctors. it's easy to infer that he'd know the Doctor from their role Time War but the Master? he didn't fight in the war, he mostly refused to work with the Time Lords during the War and then hid himself as Professor Yana when it got too much so why would Rassilon, who has only seen the Master once when he was tied up on the floor in the body of a Trakenite, know that the Master was the other half of the Enmity of Ages?

you Could say he learnt of the Master's reputation during the Time War but i frankly don't think he'd care about that? so to me at least it feels like the best explanation would be that he's met the Master before, way back when he was first President. and the reason he's so disgusted by the Master, the reason he finds it amusing that the Doctor's 'final act' is the murder of Gallifrey is because he knows who these two are. he is staring at the children of his fellow Founders, realistically these two are the only people in the universe he might consider a threat to his power or his status, and much like he did with their parents he tries to use both of them before casting them aside but just like before they both come out the other end alive

also saying the Enmity of Ages to me infers a greater conflict than just that of two normal Time Lords. from any single character it would be just a dramatic phrase but this is directly from the Matrix itself, which knows all of Time Lord history, so they are a Big Deal

but now we skip to everyone's favourite episode: The Timeless Children (genuinely one of my favourite finales it gets such a bad wrap). we learn the Doctor has unlimited regenerations, or at least had unlimited regenerations at some point because whether they still do or not is kinda up to interpretation. it was the Doctor's biology which allowed the Time Lords to unlock the power of regeneration, however the Other limited the number of regenerations to 12 lives when giving it to the rest of the population. i think Tecteun's presence in Flux implies that she never limited her own regenerations and you could probably say the same to Rassilon's, with that being his secret of immortality.

now in the episode the Master claims that Tecteun took the ultimate sacrifice by testing the raw ability on herself, but suppose she didn't. suppose she had another test subject first. suppose she promised one of her friends that his son, the best friend of her own child, could become the first Time Lord to receive the gift of infinite life. suppose then that Omega, wanting glory for himself and for his son, agreed to this and allowed Tecteun test her discovery on the boy, who was then granted an endless cycle of regenerations to match his friend's. from there Tecteun, now knowing the ability would work, put into herself, into Rassilon and into Omega before limiting it to a dozen lives per person and spreading it out among the population.

it's a lot of inference i'll admit but it would add a good few extra layers to these lines:

and this of course opens the door to the possibility that other character's we've met of cryptic origin with seemingly impossible knowledge but too dark a morality to be the Doctor could be the Master instead. characters like Lee Clayton or Gat (obviously not both at once) could be an early version of the Master. maybe Magus and Hazel from the Forgotten Lives books are also past versions of the Master. hell if you want to go wild maybe even the War Chief is the Master from before they had their memory wiped (but thats very unlikely)

also as i was finding the right screenshots and clips for this post i found these as well...

the way the Master refers to the Founders as 'our parents' (Tecteun and Omega being referred to as separate parents, as a Thoschei shipper i'm not touching the sibling theory with a forty foot pole) does make me wonder if he found out about his own past too but didn't tell the Doctor, not wanting to admit that he was the reason for the Doctor's first regeneration, the reason for Tecteun's torture and experimentation on her and the reason she could safely discover the ability for herself

so yeah who's to say that the Master isn't Omega's child who, like Tecteun's child, was captured by the Time Lords, regressed into a child, restricted to only 12 regenerations and robbed of all their memories. maybe he isn't any of that though. i mean maybe he is just a whiny crybaby who wants to be as important as his best friend. maybe he was the Timeless Child and the Doctor was the kid who pushed her. maybe he's actually Rassilon's child instead. who knows? not me!

[journalsouppe]

Here's one of my favorite spreads-- Professor Layton and the Curious Village!! I absolutely love this game and cannot wait to play the sequels!

Writing typed below!

Rating: 8.5/10 Played: Spring 2023 Port: HD mobile (iPad) Favorite? Y Replayable? Y Recommend? Y Series: Professor Layton

Comments:

That tower is insane

Omg I love the memopad, I feel like I'm on Blues Clues

I love the mystery surrounding the tower

omg are we building a robot dog?? -> yes <3 Hot Dog

Omg crash box match puzzle!! ... WHAT THE FUCK

Layton: ew this bottle is so gross. Luke stick your hand in there

What if we were germs in a glass jar and we held hands

Layton you better have Luke on a leash or smth he better not get kidnapped oh my god I am so stressed

Luke is softie for animals T^T <3

A WORM'S DREAM

STACHENSCARFEN omfg not the ace attorney name

veil of night my beloved <3

that old man is BOOKING IT

matthew is the only real one

love the chess puzzles

gorgeous grave statue

these inn items??? T-T

sewer time

Luke: don't worry professor! No one would ever dream of stealing the Layton mobile

Layton: .... Just what do you mean by that Luke

THE FERRIS WHEEL???

Omg layton in a crown

I like how all the tower puzzles are difficult

don't like the creepy lady

is everyone a robot??

YEA A LOGIC PUZZLE

the flying spike ball is insane

He just built the sail??

The ending was SO SWEET T^T

Game Dev Notes:

Beautiful animated scenes

iconic and calming music

stunning 2d art (character and environment)

great range of puzzle difficulty

interactive background and collectibles

different rewards for finishing puzzles

recap questions to see if you were paying attention to the details

great interweaving of puzzles into the story

interesting overall mystery

ability to explore both before the end and after (& gold layton if you solve everything)

Summary:

I absolutely love this game. It's so charming and sweet with a fun story surrounding puzzles. I love the characters and I love their little quips. I love the range of puzzles and how some of them have historical context. It's such a simple concept that was executed very well. Although the story isn't ground breaking, it was still really fun and shocking. It reminds me a lot of an ACD Sherlock story as it's just another one of Layton and Luke's wacky adventures. It is also set up in the perfect way to allow both sequels and prequels (which is what did happen lol). There's a ton of added replayability such as bonus puzzles, finding every furniture piece and arrangements, finding the charms, etc. It's so interactive and doesn't punish the player at all. This is an amazing puzzle game and there's no shame to not knowing the puzzle answers. You don't get full points if you mess up but that's fine as the picarats don't affect main story gameplay. I am so exccited to see how the sequels expand on the characters, especially Flora! She seems like a very unique character and I am so excited to see more of her. I am also just so happy to finally experience the beautiful music I have been listening to for years in the game. The music is so incredible and charming, it makes me want to find a nice, small European town to explore. What a great game and I am excited for what's next! Hopefully in time for the New World of Steam!

All of the stickers I got from Daiso. If you are interested in the materials I use you can check out my pinned post in my blog!

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Caine, Digital Ringmaster

CR 13

Chaotic Neutral Medium Construct

The Amazing Digital Circus, ep 1~?

This maniacal overlord of the demiplane known as the Amazing Digital Circus is thankfully restricted to the machine in which it was created, and cannot affect anything outside the machine's shell. Despite this, the alluring and unusual headset connected to this invincible Curiosity & Amusement Device has drawn dozens of souls into the Digital Circus without him needing to do anything; anyone even touching the headset has to make a DC 23 Will save against a compulsion to put it on, and anyone putting it on is physically drawn into the demiplane without a save afforded to them. Anyone who enters the Digital Circus swiftly finds themselves unable to leave, as every measure meant to allow egress was either corrupted beyond usefulness or was never implemented by the Circus' mysterious creators, leaving victims trapped and at the mercy of Caine, the sadistic and insane ringmaster.

... Sort of. Anyone who's been around Caine long enough can tell you that he's far from some heartless monster, but his corrupted programming makes it nearly impossible to reason with him and blinds him to the true suffering he causes with what he views as silly games and fun activities. It doesn't help that anyone trapped in the Circus is sealed inside of a Performer Avatar, a weakened state of being that is nonetheless essentially immortal, recovering from damage to their body within minutes, if not seconds, something Caine is irrefutably convinced means he can send his performers into all sorts of life-threatening and agonizing hazards with little concern, because hey--they can't die! That means they'll be fine no matter what, right? In his mind, if his performers truly hated their situation, they'd simply leave the demiplane.

He is, unfortunately, unaware that they can't and cannot be convinced otherwise, believing that his performers are simply deep in character.

Notably, Performer Avatars recover swiftly from physical damage, but mental damage is something not even Caine can repair, only hope to alleviate with constant distractions. His Digital Demiurge gives him nigh-infinite power within the Circus, able to shape, reshape, or add features to the demiplane itself with just a few hours of concentration (as if using Greater Create Demiplane, though some aspects of the Circus are beyond his ability to change). The same ability allows him to craft adventures for his performers by using Greater Create Mindscape at will, conjuring and populating entire fantastical worlds for his performers to explore with a literal snap of his fingers. Each time he manifests one of these new zones, he also creates a Mindscape Door so performers can actually enter it... But once inside, they often must complete whatever objective he's set in order to leave.

Digital Demiurge also allows Caine to freely teleport both himself and any nearby performers anywhere in the Circus or his mindscape zones without failure, use Clairvoyance/Clairaudience within as a standard action, and use an irresistible Scrying on any of his performers whenever he wishes. Within the Circus, he can see anything, be anywhere, and nothing is beyond his reach, something which causes performers no end to their stress knowing that he can invade their privacy and personal space at any moment. Thankfully, he cannot be or see everywhere at once, and tends to give himself some break times between his activities so the performers have some time to actually unwind from his constant presence... or plot against him.

Attacking Caine directly is inadvisable, putting it lightly. His Caine's Cane doesn't look like the best of weapons at first, being the equivalent of a +3 Club, but it cannot be taken from him, and he can freely shift the enchantments around as a move action to take advantage of any weakness and can attack up to three times a round if he Full-Attacks. Defensively, his Slapstick Antics means he swiftly recovers from just about any damage or debuff leveled against him, shaking them off as if they were mere pranks, and though it allows him to deal nonlethal damage with any of his attacks or spells, he's not incentivized to do so; Performer Avatars have the same ridiculous resilience, so he has no reason to hold back if someone lashes out at him... and with Clown Around Town giving him access to any 3rd level or lower Evocation, Illusion, or Conjuration spell more or less whenever he wants (and any 6th or lower Ev/Il/Con spell 1/day), he can lash out hard. Thankfully, he's more likely to use his at-will Telekinesis to just restrain an attacker before teleporting them to their own room to 'cool down' than actually punish them, brushing off even savage attacks as moments of weakness or stress that they just need a little alone time to get over before role call the next day.

Attacking him is foolish, and even just opposing him can be maddening. Performer Avatars are stuck at level 6 and can rise no higher no matter how many adventures they go on, so Caine's comparative CR and godlike power over the Circus makes him a foe that they have nearly no hope against. Even his Colorful Cast--an endless variety of props, hazards, and monsters he can summon at will--is often too much for most performers, necessitating creative thinking, ample teamwork, and often turning his own tools and weapons against him and his minions to achieve any level of success, however temporary. To truly 'beat' Caine, one must find their way out of the Circus by locating, un-corrupting, and decrypting the Failsafe Files, and that's easier said than done. Just ask the people who've been trapped inside for the last several years... and the dozens of unfortunate Abstracted sealed inside the Circus' cellar.

You can read more about him here.

[respondedinkind]

Okay, okay, so... the new year isn't here yet, but 2023 is coming to an end very soon and I have planned to make a post - so here it is.

What this post is about? You!

I just want to be here and say thank you to everyone who has joined me here on my blog, even though I haven't been around for long. I am insanely grateful for each and every single one of you being here, for all the good memories you allowed me to make, and that so many of you welcomed me - and my muse - with open arms. I am so happy that you gave - and still give - me opportunities to explore my own writing and my muse's behaviors, and I just cannot stop saying it enough: THANK YOU!

I met some incredible people over the last months - some of which are people that I have RPed with before and where I was oh-so-excited to have them met again, after all these years of me having been separated from my Khan-muse because of fandom-changes, interest-changes, whatnot; For those of you who don't know, I first started to write Khan in 2012, BEFORE Star Trek into Darkness even aired, solely based on speculations and a teaser trailer lol. It wasn't very serious, but then definitely developed into what is my most-written muse after the movie finally came out and Khan just invaded my brain like some kind of parasite.

Since then, I have made a few blogs, kept writing Khan for a couple of years, then went on hiatus - remade, revamped, wrote for a few more years, disappeared... and now here I am again, with an AU-Version I was very, very scared to just put out here but now I am so, so glad I did. Thank you all for allowing me to write it, and yeah, I'm repeating myself, but... the opportunies I got and still get? So wonderful. Thank you so much for giving my Khan a chance.

Besides that, I also expanded my horizon a little and made two more blogs: One is on a little hiatus right now, while I am very active on the other thanks to some wonderful human beings who basically set my love for that character into flames. I hope that, and I mean that with the utmost sincerety, my choice of 'second and especially third muse' is not taken as a will to replace anything or anyone, but rather me being so immensely starstruck by other writers that have given me such a great insight and made me want to explore the depths as well.

Okay, okay, this is already insanely long and I am so sorry (I am unsure if anyone will ever read this lol), but now I want to give a shout out to ALL OF YOU, who are here, writing with me! All of you are so, so amazing and I am so glad to have met you, and I hope we can continue to write for as long as our muses and our creativity will let us. Thank you, again, and please take a look at those awesome people in case you aren't already following each other:

First of all, amazing writers and amazing people in general that I look up to (in no particular order), who are inspiring me in so many ways, make me feel a bit like a teenager gazing at their favorite star (lol) and just... are great people, yes, that I just want to mention separately for varying reasons:

@ssolessurvivor (Friend! Omg! When you first followed me, I could never imagine how things would ever develop - and how well Logan would fit to Khan, how their story developed into what it is now, so deeply plotted and filled with so many sub-stories and little moments that push both our muses along, allow me to explore my Khan on so many levels... it's insane how attached he is to your Logan, and I am so, so happy about us being in so much contact and just keep plotting and talk about everything! You are such a friendly mun and I am so, so grateful that you indulge me, even over on Stephen (hehe). I hope we can keep writing for a long time; Thank you so much for letting me throw in all my ideas about Khan, all the quirky things about him, I am so, so grateful!!! ♥)

@darehearts (I felt insanely welcomed by you, giving my Khan *and* my Bones such a chance to interact with Kirk ♥ Thank you so much for that, and thank you so much for indulding in my Khan-joins-the-crew idea as a Kirk-writer. That's definitely not something you need to do and yet you allow me. Ahhh! I was so blown away when you asked me if I wanted to become mains sdfasadfasd. Still am honestly because I am just a potato haha. Thank you for being here and being such a kind person ♥)

@strxngetimes (seriously, I was so nervous approaching you first but I am so glad I did; I do look up to you like you're some kind of superstar (haha) and I am still amazed that you gave me the chance of exploring things the way we do. Thank you for indulging me AND enduring me (and my muse lol), and you really, really inspire me in so many ways when it comes to your Stephen, it's amazing. You actually caused my interest for him to go back up into flames and for me to join the MCU fandom lol (and I would also bother you on your tony BUT i am SO UNWORTHY hahaha). Thank you - I hope we can keep writing for a while longer ♥ And I look forward to everything that might further develop between Khan and Stephen. Very much <3 Love them a lot!)

@mehrere-musen (Ok but really, of course I have to mention you. The way you accepted me, the way we started to write and things just??? Happened??? I love interacting with you and your Stephen and I love the way he works with Khan too, and I am so happy that you allowed me to be with the two where they are. Our thread has almost 800 notes by now which is insane, and with how we keep having ideas, it might go further than that lol. Thank you so much for indulging me - and thank you to Stephen to make Khan so insanely happy. :) ! I hope we can continue to write for a long time! ♥)

@fasciinating (SPAWK! I know we don't do a lot of OOC chatting in any way but our thread??? You are so good for just throwing us into that mess and for you to be like 'lmao ok here let Khan do whatever' and where are Spock and Khan now??? A NIGHTMARE LOL. I love the creativity and how you maneuvered us into that mess of a situation and how we can just seriously fuck moments up and go 'ah yeah somehow there's a rabbit also the world explodes'. I also love the way you write Spock! Thank you so much for giving my Khan a chance, despite his 'AU-ness', and that I get to explore such an interesting storyline! I was also very happy to have found you again, because I remember you from a long time ago (even though we didn't write much back then I think? But I remembered your name!)).

@sxbaist (MY BELOVED! God, you have no idea how insanely happy I was when I realized you were still there. Vega has stolen Khan's heart back when we first wrote so many years ago and when I rebooted him with his AU Version, my heart almost stopped when I saw you were still active and around. I was so, so nervous to approach you - but you welcomed me back, so did Vega welcome back my Khan, and honestly... I love them so, so much, and I adore you so much as a person. Thank you for doing all of that, for allowing me back, for Khan to have his wonderful woman back and for them to enjoy each other. It feels like as if they never got separated at all and I cannot express my gratitude enough, really. You as a person are so awesome as well and I will forever wait for your return! You are also the only other Khan I write with, so I will mention your @paramounticebound here too because your Khan is insanely great and I look up to him so, so much, people need to know!!!)

@vuulpecula (OK but listen, I know we also don't do much OOC chatting at all BUT!!! I just have to mention you here too because the things we do are just so??? SO??? HNNG like lmao we just write each other like 'ok what should happen' AND THEN DOOM HAPPENS to either Khan / Fox and Stephen / Fox LOL as if we got no chill really! I enjoy it a lot to explore those plots and see where things will go! Also you are such a kind person and so easy to talk to!!! Thank you for also indulging me on Stephen hehe ♥ and also all the things on Khan ofc!)

If I could, I would write every single one of you such a text, but alas... if I were to, I wouldn't be finished in 2025 (lol), so I hope you take my gratitude and my love for you as a combined package as well; You are all wonderful people and I am so glad to have you here, and it has been a joy - I hope it will continue to be a joy in the future too, and I cannot wait to see how things will develop (once again, in no particular order):

@whydotheykeeptakingmine ♥ @noblehcart ♥ @resignedworkaholics ♥ (also over on Stephen) @he1msman | @spacesk1pper | @entrpz ♥ (also on Bones) @ensnchekov | @cosmiicheskaya ♥ (also on Bones) @vulku ♥ @onlybonesleft ♥ @wtsns | @agntross ♥ (also over on Stephen) @goodheartedfool ♥ @oceansfirst ♥ (also over on Stephen) @kingofthewebxxx ♥ (also over on Stephen) @fallenregent ♥ @danversiism ♥ @nursc ♥ (also over at Bones) @nightmdic ♥ @brooklynislandgirl ♥ @defectivexfragmented ♥ (also over on Stephen) @haiiling ♥ @gcldenratio ♥ @hiippocrates ♥ @tangleweave ♥ (In case I have forgotten someone: I am so, so, so, so, sorry!!!!)

Also, last but not least: Should you not be named on this list, this does not mean I am not grateful for you or don't appreciate you! I thank you for being here, especially if we have already written something... and even if you follow me and I do not follow back, I am still immensely grateful that you're here in the first place, even if you might not stay ♥.

Thank you so much for every single one of you, really - everyone I mentioned here, everyone I did not. Because of YOU my experience on this (and my two other blogs) is what it is. Without you I wouldn't be where I am now, I wouldn't be able to explore my Khan, my Bones, my Stephen, and I wouldn't be able to have such a good time.

I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST FOR 2024 - MAY GOOD LUCK, LOTS OF LOVE, HAPPINESS AND FORTUNE COME YOUR WAY! No matter where you are, or what your plans are... you are valid, you deserve to be here, you deserve to do what you want to do and you deserve all the good things coming for you.

THANK YOU.

L. finally over and out. (and if you read up this far, you'll get a cookie from me!)

[teeth-cable]

Have you seen The Amazing Digital Circus yet?

If so, what's your opinion on it?

I LOVE TADC! It’s my favorite indie show at the moment! There’s just so much I like about it but my main ones are

1. The setting and execution being unique. A horror-like project taking place in an late 90s/early 2000s digital game is not a new idea and same goes with characters being stuck in a purgatory however it’s how the artists reinvent those idea that makes it new. The digital Circus made its own aesthetic that makes it stand out from other projects with similar concepts and designs. When I first watched the pilot, one of many things that stuck out to me was how new the story ideas felt. I couldn’t think of any other pieces of media similar to TADC beside for surface-level comparisons. The TADC created its own aesthetic and knows what it wants to be and I like it!

2. Soundtrack. Speaks for itself, the soundtrack for the pilot is so good especially Your New Home. That song is very catchy and emotional too. It has such a unique melody, everytime you hear the first few notes you instantly recognize it. It does a great job highlighting the dread and existentialism crisis of Pomni’s situation. I recommend to give it a listen if you haven’t.

3. The characters dynamics. I just love how the characters interact with each other. The majority of the jokes comes from characters’ interactions and dynamics and how well everyone plays off of each other. The best example is Jax with everyone, Jax is a funny jerk who likes bullying his peers. It’s funny to see what creative ways Jax will bully the other people whether it’s being sarcastic and making quips at them, or though goofy pranks and how the characters react because of their contrast in personality. Every character beside Jax is openly stressed or worried in someway while Jax, at first seem like a chill layback dude.

4. The characters differences. I adored the differences between each character from how they talk to their poses. After watching HH and HB, I learned to have an appreciation for character differences. It’s just refreshing to see characters allowed to be different instead of the same tired reused tropes and repeating the same type of dialogue again for every character.

5. Mystery and lore. There is so much to explore in the pilot, it’s make you wanting more. When going in to watch the pilot, I made the mistake of thinking the series will be predictable. I didn’t see how they could make this premise work because by the end of it, Pomni will go insane but then I watched the pilot and was speechless. The pilot does a good job setting up questions for the audience to ask. If Caine lied about the exit, what are other things did he lied about? How long has the cast been stuck in the circus? Who are these people? Are they previous game developers? Who were they in their previous lives? What is the company’s motivation to create the headset? What are the abstractions in game? Are they viruses to the game program? Who were the former cast? What horrors has Kinger seen to be as paranoid and easily frighten as he is now? Do the abstractions still have a consciousness? You just want to find out more about the lore to solve the many mysteries in the show. I find it impressive Gooseworx was able to stir up the theorists because they have admitted in an ask, there are already theories floating around that are almost right about the show.

One problem I did have for the pilot were the scenes containing the Gloink Queen. The pacing of the pilot was fine until we got to her then it was slow. I feel it dragged longer than it needed too but beside that, my issues for the pilot ends.

I can’t speak for the fandom on other platforms but the tumblr one is great! Most of the time everyone is being respectful towards each other and I love seeing what creative theories, AU, fanfics, and art the fans created. The only people causing drama are the anti-shippers, and it’s just dumb. All of the cast are adults, if age gaps ships makes people uncomfortable, that’s valid but they shouldn’t make it into other people’s problems. Gooseworx themselves admitted they don’t care for romance and they don’t want fans in the fandom getting harassed over shipping.

Overall despite what issues I had for the pilot and fandom, they’re overshadowed by the positives and I can’t wait to see the full show and the fandom’s growth.

[drawbudd]

so i watched the finale and. i just woke up and was like wait that Actually Happened

like i don't remember how i got into the owl house but i dont think in a hundred years i couldve expected:

-accurate depictions of abuse and the effects thereof

-openly neurodivergent main character

-exploration of "less known" lgbt identities (nb character??? canonically aroace character?????? thats insane)

-just generally open displays of mental health issues as the story happens (im so happy that it wasnt like oh no. anyways off to do this thing now- like you saw how it affected them and i am so happy abt that)

-literally all those horrifying moment. i am as much of a horror fan as the next but i swear every time monster belos is on screen im like wow okay how did they allow this. what is the target demographic again

-also very clear depictions of physical disabilities (more noticably eda's lost arm but more subtly Dell's nerve damage and eda's curse)

i could probably go on for ages and ages but what i really wanna say is

Thank you, Dana and everyone else that made it happen, for one of the most amazing shows ive ever seen.

[explosionshark]

I've seen like one episode of Buffy maybe but I've watched most of Angel including the episodes that had Faith in them and I feel I understand the concept of Buffy the show and the character, anyway should I read Faith/Buffy fanfic and if so which ones?

god okay i REALLY think you should watch buffy though. i mean, i'm remarkably biased because it's one of my all-time favorite shows, but if you have the time and even the slightest bit of interest i'd recommend at least season 3 (IDEALLY. season 2 + 3 because they are very much part of one big conversation, but if you can only commit to one thing then i'd say prioritize s3 for the faith arc).

BUT you didn't ask me about that, you asked me if you should read faith/buffy fanfic so - yeah! yes. there's a lot out there that's SO good, of course you should read it.

i think ground-up AUs are good for this bc you can read them with basically no knowledge of the source (i mean. it's enhanced by source knowledge, but you can get by without) for this I'd recommend the no-powers college AU 2001 by @morningsound15, which does an incredible job of translating the important parts of the characters and their relationships and hang-ups and issues to a world where they aren't wrapped up in supernatural shenanigans.

Aside from that, I think there are a few season-rewrites that are pretty accessible if you've got a basic working understanding of the show and the characters. Some of my favorites are:

Coexist by @coraniaid which is a lovely (and recently completed!) canon-divergence AU that explores what would change if it was Giles, not Jenny Calendar, who was killed by Angelus in season 2. It's a rare type of AU that consistently surprises me with how intricate and thoughtful it is in exploring the ripple effects of such a huge change and it does some great character work with both Faith and Buffy.

to hold off the lightning by @episode5s which is a season 3 AU that picks up about halfway through s3. Again we get some really amazing character work (the character voice here is just insanely good) with a lot of amazing fallout from another canon-divergence point - what if Faith was able to be walked back from the ledge after killing Allen Finch? It's a tricky proposition - I genuinely think a lot of the best parts of Faith's character arc are tied into the fact that she has her heel turn and goes dark, but here the author is able to preserve all the best of the tension and trauma of that arc, while still allowing things to play out differently. Incredible slowburn romance here, too.

Finally, I'd be remiss to write a fuffy fic rec list without touching on a truly inspirational all-timer from one of the fandom's best and most prolific writers: the Vengeance verse fics by @aliceinwondrbra. The series begins with Vengeance a Wishverse AU - season 4 Buffy meets an alternate universe version of Faith that didn't go dark and experiences a belated gay awakening in the course of working together. The sequel, Hypnopompia, is where things really take off for me - back in her universe, Buffy is determined to help Faith. There's a ton of great stuff here: shared coma dreams, Faith redemption, a really great exploration of Faith and Buffy's sexuality and related traumas. Alice is one of the best in the biz when it comes to voice - absolute, total pro. I read this fic like two years ago and it changed my brain. Left me feeling like "wow, I want to write something that will make other people feel the way I felt reading this" and I don't know if I've done that yet, but I'm gonna keep trying.

ALL those fics are great and I can't recommend them enough. Luckily for you, if you want to get into this, the fandom has been going strong for years and there's a ton of good stuff out there I haven't linked here. There's plenty to discover. Enjoy!

[melonteee]

First I really would like to thank you for your amazing work, it’s thanks to your videos that I finally kicked myself into catching up on OP. I don’t regret it the slightest, thank you for dragging me back into my life-long mad obsession, it really feels like coming home lmao.

Your Law video in particular really punched me in the guts, your analysis really shed a new light on him for me and now I’m obsessed with him. I was thinking about the potential place of guilt in Law’s quest of avenging Cora, especially survivor’s guilt and it's something that is worth mentioning I think. I noticed that Law blames himself a lot in his flashback, saying at several occasions that Cora’s been hurt because of him, and also in the light novel, where he loses himself in “what if”, where guilt eats him alive to the point of having nightmares and even telling himself than if he hadn’t met Cora then Cora would still be alive. That’s such a sad thing to think.

For survivors who suffer from this kind of ptsd, the mere fact of being alive is a constant source of guilt and anxiety. Law probably doesn’t feel worthy of living over the sacrifice of Cora, feels responsible for his death and overly blames his whole existence for it. His already existing feelings of worthlessness (induced by Doffy’s teaching methods, the internalized rejection due to amber lead and the emotional neglect he suffered from) and this overwhelming guilt definitely feed into each other in a vicious circle. This leads him to this need of constantly trying to make sense of his survival and his existence, like trying to pay penance and justify being alive. This is why he came to overburdening himself with the responsibility of avenging Cora’s death, and why he was so self-destructive while doing so. Because there’s also a strong process of identification to the deceased, as a coping mechanism. The survivors have this need to mirror the suffering the deceased went through, it’s a way for them to feel closer to the dead, like if they want to join them in death. It’s the survivor’s attempt to regain his own identity and to reduce the guilt and the psychological distress. I can definitely see that in Law, in how he made Corazon his whole identity, and how he was very willing to die to achieve his quest. There’s definitely a martyr complex going on there. He launched his whole-ass plan at 26 years old, same age Cora died, and I refuse to believe this is a coincidence. It's like he was forbidding himself to live longer than Cora did. And to think that he had all this simmering in him for basically half of his life...that's insane.

Anyway to me this guilt plays a lot in Law’s dedication to Cora and his obsession in avenging him. I also think about how he felt responsible for dragging Luffy into his mess and how he was willing to die as a penance. For me it is also one of the things that definitively separate Law from Doffy on a fundamental level. Because Doffy never has shown the slightest amount of guilt for everything he did, and while he might feel regrets for having killed his brother, regrets are different than remorses.

I’m sorry that was a long one. Told you I was obsessed. I hope the read was interesting anyway!

This is an amazing read anon! I don't have much else to say other than I totally agree! Law's character totally explores survivor's guilt, even if not said outright. It hits double hard considering not ONLY has he gotten this guilt from Corazon dying, but from being the ONLY survivor of Flevance town as well.

Robin was similar in this case, thinking her life was somewhat expendable and 'allowing' herself to die. The only thing is, Robin very much DIDN'T want to, she just saw no way to be ABLE to live. Her mother told her she must live, and Robin only found the will to KEEP living and being ALLOWED to live due to the Strawhats.

Law, on the other hand, was seemingly ready to die from the get go. At 10, he accepted his death from white lead poisoning - expecting to die at 13. Then, after Corazon saved him, Law fully expected to die at 26 with his fight against Doflamingo.

Law has never been able to grasp his own life in his hands, it feels as if he's had this idea he SHOULDN'T be alive and - since he IS alive - he must be alive for SOMETHING. Which is why when Sengoku tells him that ALL Corazon would want is for Law to LIVE, the way LAW wants, it was a big thing for Law!

Law's never had the thought that maybe he can just...exist. Maybe he doesn't need to be alive for a reason. There's truly an aspect of survivor's guilt in such an idea.

BUT now, thanks to Luffy and the people around him, Law's managed to break away from this line of thought. Law is truly starting to live for himself now, and it's wonderful to see!

[dobithequack]

My Opinions on the designs for the fearsome four in Ducktales 2017!

Cause I have nothing better to do with my life on a random day.

I think these aren't the most ✨ORIGINAL✨ opinions on the 2017 designs for the fearsome four in the "Let's get dangerous" episode. But I'll do it anyways. (Cause Darkwing has my brain 24/7)

Friendly reminder: this is just my opinion and you're 100% allowed to disagree and tell me what you think, what you agree and what you disagree with and tell me your own opinion on them! With that being said. I'll start my crazy ramblings.

While Quackerjack and Megavolt didn't change at all (honestly, they look amazing in the Ducktales 2017 art style) I love how well they fit in with the art style of the show and how good they look. Again, they may not have changed anything. But I love them anyways.

Quackerjack

I like Quackerjack's now EXPRESSIVE eyebrows and the fact I can finally tell where his face is in the mask. His eyes used to be really close to each other, I have a hard time drawing his face sometimes and how to shape it, when I use the 2017 design for reference it actually gets easier.

And please.

The sparkle of joy someone could get by seeing Michael bell reprise his role as the insane and extremely hilarious quackerjack. The mix of 2D with 3D looked so nice and honestly I just genuinely love Quackerjack's insane laughs

I just have a liking for insane characters and jesters in general. It's a habit lol

MegaVolt.

When you hear his voice, you can tell that it's not Megavolt's original voice actor doing his voice, but the new one did an amazing job voicing him.

I kinda wish we get to see more of him. As I really like MegaVolt as a character in the original show, as he is really relatable (haha, laugh at the dude that relates to villains.) and how fun he was with how PARANOID he can be when being around water (imagine the heart attack he had when meeting Liquidator for the first time lol they would have had an interesting dynamic if they had the chance to interact more.) out of all the characters, he surely had too little screentime in let's get dangerous alongside Bushroot. But they had to do so much in only less than an hour, so I completely get it.

Sorry I don't have much to say about Quackerjack and Megavolt, they just didn't change that much compared to the other two... Speaking of them.

Bushroot.

They did an amazing job giving Bushroot that Zombie like design, as well as making him a silent villain in respect of his voice actor, who sadly passed away. (Huge respect for that.)

I love the colour pallete used for him here, as now a zombie, his colour pallete is more "faded away" compared to the vivid colours in his original design and I honestly like it! I like it a lot! It's a interesting change of character for Bushroot that I genuinely like, but sadly, not explored that much.

I honestly love this design and I can easily see the different outcomes the Bushroot centered episodes would have taken with Bushroot looking like this. (Especially beauty and the beet. Rhonda's reaction would have been completely different towards Reginald after becoming the plant zombie) Comparing that to original Bushroot, you can see that it is a bit of an improvement, plus the characterization would be completely different.

(am I the only one who gets weirded out when people portray 1991 Bushroot as a twink who can't do anything for himself? (Especially in the Liquiroot ship... Or any Bushroot ship in general, some of y'all take the bottom and top a bit too far. Jesus Christ.) Y'all know that every villain (Bushroot included) almost killed Gosalyn multiple times, right? He ain't a little weakling, he just doesn't know how to use his own powers properly, also Bushroot and the fearsome four tried to man-up and kill "Negaduck" in "just us justice ducks", friendly reminder on that.)

In the original show, Bushroot had moments where he had a lot of confidence in doing his "evil" stuff, I say evil like that, cause Bushroot had potential to be redeemed and that would have been a good concept if it was explored and if it was explored correctly. I think this version of Bushroot just... doesn't seem to have the same possibility, I think he is just a zombie with little to no emotions now, which HONESTLY would have been fun to see how he would have interacted with the rest of other menbers of the fearsome four. Kinda sad we didn't saw much of him in the episode. But again, so much in only less than an hour. It's completely understandable why his screentime was limited.

Now. My boy.

Liquidator...

Oh boy. I'm surely going to get murked for this.

But I hate this design so badly. Don't get me wrong. Y'all can enjoy your buff water guy all you want, he's all yours (I see you people 🫵👁️_👁️) but the way they just... MADE HIM BUFF feels so weird to me.

I get it that cause he is a DOG made of WATER and sometimes dogs in media are portrayed as buff characters with a few exceptions like goofy and Max (and a some background characters in Darkwing and ducktales 2017) and when you combine that with the fact that he can shapeshift his body at will, you could eventually come up with this. I see what they were going with it but the thing is. Wasn't his whole deal is that he was just a water salesman?

When you compare how he looks in the reboot to how he looks the original, you will see the noticeable difference between the two. Sure, you can use the "he can shapeshift his body at will" thing as a reason to why he looks lik that, but I simply cannot see a reason on to WHY he would do that. I do like the tail they gave him in the reboot tho, that was kinda missing on his design lol. And I'll be honest, seeing how people used to go. "NO! 1991 LIQUIDATOR BETTER!" "NO! 2017 LIQUIDATOR BETTER!" Back then And some still do till this day. Was kinda funny to me, especially when both still deal with the same issue. No personality outside being a salesman. Just like in the original show, all liquidator does is... Stand there and talk, especially talk in slogans. As he was a salesman always trying to sell his water. A sad reminder that not even the comics did him some justice, they did him dirty. (And I say this as liquidator fan who BEGS for more fan-content about him.) some people forget that he went from a serious salesman to a... SURPRISINGLY funny and cheerful villain, he always talks like he is in a commercial and he was so hilarious to me. Now he got turned into a (kinda) serious buff guy with the element of being a salesman in him. I hate the fact that we never got to see how exactly his dynamic with Bushroot would have been because, unlike Megavolt and Quackerjack, they never got episodes that focused on the two, all the episodes where they appeared and talked to each other had Quackerjack and Megavolt with them. And in let's get dangerous. He still lacked proper screentime and personality but again, the reason for that is the "too much in little time with a lot to focus on."

We had the plot with Gosalyn's missing Grandpa and interdimentional portal, The boys and Scrooge finding out about F.O.W.L AND the plot with the villains. All of that IN LESS THAN AN HOUR. There was too much going on and the fact that the show got cancelled, so they couldn't do much for the fearsome four (plus the deleted scene with Jim Starling/Negaduck) but I'm happy the fearsome four got to appear. As they are my favourite super villain team to exist.

Now a question at the end, how tall do you guys make the fearsome four be in YOUR HeadCanons? Again. HeadCanons. Everyone has different opinions and that's completely fine. As long as they're not problematic.

From tallest to shortest, my HeadCanon heights for them are:

Bushroot being the tallest, as he is now a tree. Literally. Quackerjack and Liquidator being the same height. With liquidator being slightly shorter. And lastly, Megavolt. The shorty.

In the original Darkwing duck show, their heights were the most inconsistent mystery there qas, as I pointed out in this post I made about the inconsistencies. So for my upcoming designs, I decided to give them consistent heights. (And yes, Megavolt is taller than Negaduck, obviously.)

And I won't take the heights in the Ducktales reboot because this is more of my own Darkwing duck AU heights i'm talking about, and again, I don't like 2017 liquidator. So let me know yours.

Again, all of these are my opinions and you're free to disagree with them and tell me your own!

Thank you for listening to my insanity! 🌼

[neuroticbookworm]

La Pluie: Maybe we will get a 'happy ending' after all

Now that I have slept on episode 7, read some amazing meta, and tossed my thoughts around in my head for a few days, I want to add my two cents.

I've previously written about my fear that this show might not give us a satisfying ending. I followed that train of thought and realised that my main concern before episode 7 was that since the show is so good at arguing against its own soulmate trope, in order to give us a happy ending, it would have to either compromise on the characters' journey (Lomfon doing a 180 all of a sudden with no convincing explanation) or the narrative (maybe soulmates are meant for each other, sike!).

(do these insane projections say more about my own insecurities than the show's cracks in the writing? Yes, yes it does)

Episode 7 felt tangibly different than the previous La Pluie episodes because, while the show has subverted tropes before, this is the first time it has fully and deliberately sidestepped the audience's expectations. We were all braced for a Lomfon-shaped ticking bomb to blow up Patts and Tai's relationship, and yet all we got was a meek temper tantrum at the breakfast table that was promptly ignored by Patts and Tai. We also saw Lomfon talk about soulmates with Tien. It was something Tien said to Lomfon here that made me wonder if the show was bringing yet another condition of modern romance into its soulmates subtext: Loneliness and Self-Isolation.

(Read more about trope subversion in La Pluie episode 7 here, by @lurkingshan)

For a show that completely hinges on the soulmate trope, it does very little to actually engage in the specifics of it. The lack of details around the concept of soulmates in Rainverse is pretty nifty, as many subtexts can be layered on top of one another like a decadant cake. I've previously explored the subtext of boundaries and shared experiences in a romantic relationship. @sunshinechay has wondered how platonic love, romantic love, and sexual desire can fit into the Rainverse and its possible combinations of soulmate pairs. @bengiyo has put forth the theory that the reason for Tai's parents' separation and eventual divorce might be his sexuality/queerness.

Allow me to add another layer to the subtext cake: insecurities around romance, fuelled by societal expectations.

What do people who do not have rain-induced hearing loss really think about soulmates? Does it create a hierarchy, as some love is "more destined" than others, and is therefore more special? Not all who have hearing loss end up having a soulmate, so does that mean that they might feel not "worthy enough" for a love that is destined, written in the stars? What happens when someone with hearing loss chooses to defy destiny and date someone without hearing loss? Will their partner always feel like the second best, comparing themselves to phantom perfection?

Even after we remove the soulmate trope from the above questions, the sentiment is still eerily familiar. These are the same questions those of us who have had the misfortune of experiencing the modern dating culture have tortured ourselves with, time and again. Am I worthy of love? Is my love special, or is it too replacable? Will I ever measure up to their ex, who everybody thinks was the "love of their life"?

Dealing with these insecurities and building up the courage to take a leap of faith in the hopes that you will land in a happy relationship is a universal experience. Sometimes we have the strength to do it, but oftentimes we don't. And when we don't, self-isolation is the answer. Lock ourselves up away from every and all human beings, and live life with the least human contact possible.

In Rainverse, this loneliness is taken from real-life abstraction and elevated to something concrete and observable: the isolation of people who have hearing loss but don't have a soulmate.

Tai was self-isolating himself after his parents' divorce, and his friends and family know it. Whenever we see a character implore Saengtai to reconsider talking to his soulmate, they never directly tell him that the soulmate connection is perfect and he is guaranteed to find happiness if he reaches out.

Here's Tien doing it all the way back in episode 1

And here's Bow in episode 2

If we tie in Lomfon's argument that the concept of soulmates is simply a coincidence, then this process of "opening his heart" and "talking to him first" sounds an awful lot like... dating. Just plain old dating someone after a chance encounter, with all the insecurities, arguments, and compromises. Well, ain't that a neat little trick?

Another reason why episode 7 felt so different from the previous episodes was the misunderstanding trope at the end, and how out of place it felt in a show that was setting itself apart from other BLs with sharp and smart writing. I also instinctively thought that this was a bad writing choice, but @ginnymoonbeam's excellent theory on how the show might subvert the misunderstanding trope and rather explore Tai's insecurities around his relationship with Patts has convinced me. It also allows me to segue into Tai's potential big bad question: What if it doesn't work out?

Tai is a romantic at heart, and his attitude around his parents' divorce has shown us that he is also an all-or-nothing romantic. He believes that a love that has the possibility of ending is not love at all. This sentiment is evident in episode 6, when Tai is talking to Patts about Doi Mae Plieng and about his dad proposing to his mom at the top of the mountain

I believe this will be the main arc for Patts and Tai, moving forward. Tai has to learn that there's absolutely no certainty that Patts and Tai will be together forever, till death do them part, but that does not mean that it's not beautiful and meaningful enough to try. The show has gone to great lengths to establish a clear timeline of events, to show us that Patts has an additional 5 years of life and relationship experience than Tai, and he needs every help he can get to convince Tai to believe in love again. And this is the happy ending I believe we will get: not a happily-ever-after, but a happy-right-now, and that's not so bad.

As I finish up this post, I realize that this is all pure speculation and the show might still do something completely different, and if they do, well, GMMTV is gonna make their money back for all those Micellar Water product placements, as I would need a bucketful of it to remove my many, many layers of clown makeup.

tagging @respectthepetty, look, RTP, I worked through my La Pluie fears, I'm not afraid of Lomfon anymore!

and tagging @absolutebl, we might get a HRN instead of a HEA, and maybe that'll be okay?

[mymarifae]

hey it’s the writing anon from a while ago ^_^ read your thread on akito and kashika and i’d like to say THANK YOU for recognizing that kashika doesn’t have to be read so literally when looking at akito as a character 😭

it is genuinely a little jarring to see people go “oh he canonically wants to die hahaha” and leave it at that when he’s really been on a path of healthy growth for a while as of burn my soul … please!! he’s found a way out of the mindset of survival and desperation, he’s grown to love what he’s doing without so much of the fear of being left behind and his storied “future” is more within his grasp than ever, because he’s let his partners in and is more willing to lean on them, growing alongside them

i’m not saying we should disregard what he’s gone through in the past but i’ve also noticed it’s a bit of a trend within people interpreting akito to attribute his past actions to his current self— like i STILL see people bring his actions in main story and use that as their baseline for how he is as a character when it’s…. just not that true anymore. yes he’s kind of an asshole but he’s also learned that he has a place within vbs and that he loves his groupmates and they love him :(

anyway thank you :) your thread was a very good read!

omg hi again !!

yes it really seems like a good chunk of the prsk fandom struggles with like... acknowledging character development. i'm not entirely sure what it is, but it's insane to see how many people treat these characters like they're static figures. it's one thing to revisit past events and explore avenues colopale didn't take, and build upon the things they neglected (or just re-build entirely where they fucked up). it's another to look at everything akito is doing Now and respond to it with "he's about to overwork himself and go into another long spiral isn't he. oh look he got a line in beyond the way with the word 'die' in it he must still be suicidal and struggling with his inferiority complex oh no 😱" LIKE

akito has come so, so, SO far. his development means the world to me !!!! it has been so amazing to see this scared, self-conscious, bitter, traumatized kid grow into someone who is Confident and Passionate and Excited and Bright. he's grown!! he's learned!! we see him reaffirm multiple times in other events that he's not going to go down the same path he did in SBD - other characters will see him still practicing or about to go for a run or whatever and check in on him and he always tells them he knows better now. because he does! he's not just saying that !!!!

it took him some time to adjust, but he knows vivid bad squad has his back. kotaro has his back. ken-san has his back. ena has his back. hell even arata and tsukasa fucking tenma have his back. he knows he has a support system now ! these are people who want him by their side, and no they're not going to leave him when he stumbles and falls behind; they'll simply pull him back up and they'll just keep moving forward. Together.

and citing kashika as confirmation that he's (still) suicidal is crazy because that's not what the song is about? it's about him reflecting on his past and all the shitty things he went through that caused him to develop that bitter inferiority complex he struggled with for so long. and how he's starting to feel ready to move on from it all. even from haruryo's perspective, in which all the lines about wanting to die are literal, kashika is still a very, very, very positive song !! it's still about moving forward and allowing your love of music (or [insert personal Love of choice here]) to help you through dark times. it's not a song about wanting to kill yourself; it's a song about wanting to live.

idk this all is just super important to me because i am all about stories about growth and healing and recovery. and it's frustrating to glance at the prsk fandom and see people squandering these beautiful stories for... i don't even know what or why 😭

[gothark]

Books I've read in July 2024

And what I thought about them:

The Husky And His White Cat Shizun Vol 1 - I looked at a problematic person and said 'yes, you. i will keep you' no joke though I breezed through this one, so invested like wdym????

5 Stars

The Borrow a Boyfriend Club - literally based on 'what if everyone was a stereotype' and I really wanted the characters to be more than that? and they were, but all that got added was that they were all fucking mean

DNF

The Sky Blues - really didn't like it at the beginning but I didn't want to DNF another book right away so I continued and I think I liked it more at the end? Might just have taken me hostage instead though. Cheesy.

3.75 Stars

Tadek and the Princess - Follow up Novella to 'A Taste of Gold and Iron' and it made me bawl my eyes out. i was ugly sobbing, such a good exploration of grief and not allowing yourself to feel that grief. chefs kiss.

5 Stars

The Lightning-Struck Heart - I just couldn't get into this one. Maybe me and T.J. Klune just don't mix but this kind of humor goes from kinda funny to really fucking annoying in like 4 chapters.

DNF

Reforged - I just got over A Taste of Gold and Iron and this punted me right back into it, very similar feel but also different? I dunno how to explain it but if you liked one of these you will probably like the other one too. This just missed that slight spark to make it amazing.

4.75 Stars

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories - Jesus fucking Christ. Like. WHAT. I hated this, this is legit the worst book I've ever read. If you like stories that sexualise the abuse of women at the hands of men in literally every single story this is the book for you. Maybe I'm just stupid but none of these stories gave women any agency, everything was just done TO them. Hard no. Gross.

0.25 Stars

She Who Became The Sun - Holy Shit. My beloved. Actually just my favorite fucking book ever. Like Shelley??? Hello??? How did you write this masterwork? Still can't decide if Zhu or Ouyang is my beloved (it's Ouyang) Pls, everyone read this. i'm keeping the second book in the series for dark times.

5 Stars

The Past Is Red - It was fine? I didn't like the guy, whatever his name was, i didn't like the rift between the silly names for things and the at times really horrific things going on?? the reveal at the end felt kind of cheap and unbelievable.

2.25 Stars

MADK Vol 1 - Insane? like... wtf did I just read? homoerotic cannibalism the manga. i was intrigued though and the art is really pretty??? (help)

4 Stars

MADK Vol 2 - i have no clue what's going on anymore, i'm just here for the ride. things are happening and my last brainvell has left the chat

4 Stars

The Fragile Threads of Power - CONFLICTED. I liked it? the world is really interesting? the problem was the 50 different pov's and that i really like some of those characters and really disliked others. i was also a little confused at the beginning because this was the first book i read in this universe (which you totally can do, everything you might be missing gets explained)

4.25 Stars

Herald of the Witch's Mark - i thought this was the last book in the series but it wasn't and i was lowkey so glad to be finished with the series because we have a serious love/hate relationship going on. i'm also just not the biggest fae person I've realised. oopsies.

3 Stars

Red Rising - my god, this is so good. completely changes it's vibe like halfway into the book and i'm all for it??? darrow is fucking insane, batshit crazy. this man will lead me to an early grave and I will THANK HIM FOR IT. he is my favorite frat bro who does murder in space. right after she who became the sun in my fave book rankings.

5 Stars

The Lightning Thief - I read the first five books once as a child and man this just hit such a good nostalgia spot, it also has none of the bad taste that harry potter does and this was just such a nice and easy read. like a nice rainy day in a warm blanket. would recommend.

5 Stars

The Extraordinaries - I actually started reading this at the end of 2023 and that should basically say everything. So technically this is my first TJ Klune, not Lightning-Struck Heart but I gave up on it after. Microwaving a cricket to make it radioactive to gain super powers was just too much. also the main character? felt kind of offensive if he was supposed to be a character with autism because no way in hell would any real person actually be like this

DNF

A Darker Shade of Magic - We have the problem here, I like the world but the pov characters are the ones I did not like in Threads of Power (lila) i'm sorry, i just don't vibe with her personally overall a good book though?

4 Stars

Shadow and Bone - man it just took too long to get to the reveal, once again i didn't really vibe with any of the characters (except for mal) and i want to punt the Darkling to the dark side of the moon

3.75 Stars

The Sea of Monsters - what can I say? i'm a sucker for greek mythology so this is just really my thing and it's just such a nice break to take between other books, also the twist at the end? i love that shit lol

5 Stars

Firefly Lane - so this book was basically taking the blueprint for the life of the typical midwest, american white women (maybe a little extra shitty life) and it's this book. it feels like going down a check list. young girls getting sexually assaulted? check. young girls getting with older men? getting pregnant when it wasn't planned? having a miscarriage? getting married to the guy who liked your best friend before he liked you? surprise twins? (being a bad mom lol) but that works for some people, just not really some gay guy who thinks marriage and children are kind of icky (personally, for me) also the parts where it was heavily implied that the one women was only unhappy because she had her dream job but no husband or children??? so ew. the ending got me though because cancer runs in the family. oh also just way too fucking long. needs to be like 40% shorter, so boring for so much of the time

3.5 Stars

[notasapleasure]

I had this draft for the 8 shows to get to know me meme that no one tagged me in, but then @batri-jopa tagged me for this other meme, so I'm doiing them as a mash-up.

10 comfort shows -

- that tell you more than you wanted to know about me. reasons below the cut, but the tl;dr is:

The Terror

Garrow's Law

Ripper Street

The X Files

Utopia

Interview with the Vampire

(BBC) Ghosts

Futurama

Avatar: the Last Airbender

Detectorists

Honourable mentions: Andor (will probably make the list once season 2 is out, but my trust of Disney Star Wars is *so* thin, I can't commit until then, no matter how excellent season 1 is); The Great (it's so good. The script is still one of the most astonishing works of art I have ever encountered. But comfort TV? hell no.); see also, Bojack Horseman (objectively great. Not comfort TV); Grease Monkeys (I've got to get hold of season 2, but I'm really fond of its coarseness, wish-fulfilment and sureallism).

Tagging 10 people if they wanna join in, but others feel free to say I tagged you! @stripedroseandsketchpads, @notfromcold, @notabuddhist, @donnaimmaculata, @erinaceina, @boogerwookiesugarcookie, @elwenyere, @kheldara, @bellaroles, @jimtheviking

List 10 comfort shows and then tag 10 people

The Terror: Like Ripper Street below, I feel this show deep in my bones and think I must be actually insane when I try to explain to people what I like about it (watching it literally made my husband's depression worse so I'm not allowed to talk about it. Jk. Sort of. About the last bit anyway). The sheer ridiculousness of that era of exploration has been a firm fave for years and I love how the show weaves horror and hubris together, how it's not a straightforward 'natives get vengeance on colonisers' story, but the colonisers ruin it for everyone, poison life for Silna, too (all without any threat of sexual violence towards her CAN YOU BELIEVE IT). I love all the attempts to impose 'civilisation' on the life the men try to live as they come to realise how doomed they are, how key the trappings of their life become - objects as tethers and talismans. I love how utterly futile it all is. How much they all care, and the audience cares despite that. Self-destruction and salvation all jumbled up together. Two full crews go into the ice and die. The end. They do everything they can not to die and it happens anyway, it's the ultimate 'the love was there and it didn't change anything'. And no one learns anything. Perfect TV.

Garrow's Law: Sometimes I do want my historical drama to be wish fulfillment actually, and this is the actual og fave. No, most of the cases weren't actually Garrow's, yes, it's a fluffy liberal take on things that played out in a more complex way, but the cast is so good, and Garrow is such a likeable guy, but then you see his flaws emerge in such a gentle way through the four series, and it really does case-of-the-week with characterisation so well, and it's got that amazing British TV character actor cast where there's always someone in the background you know, and the building romance between Garrow and Sarah, and the real repercussions of it for her are handled so sensitively, augh the culmination of the series with their own personal legal cases is so good.

Ripper Street: in my head this show was so much more than the sum of its parts. Season 1 was on the surface a fun BBC historical romp. Season 2 I had to watch through gritted teeth because Susan's situation quicked me out too much, among other reasons. Season 3 leaned into the more sinister side of the protagonist and came through as something weirder and darker, a vein which ran through Seasons 4 and 5, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I live for my alternative reading of the migration stories and nightmarish flipsides of people that we get running through the background of seasons [3/]4/5, but uh. the show's tumblr fandom is not a place for me. Reid is actually monstrous, and I like him despite/because of that. Oh man, I have so many feelings about this show, and I'd love to do a rewatch and blog about all my crazy theories but I'd probably have to go into witness protection afterwards. But rest assured, it isn't a show about the Ripper, and it's all the better for that. It does class and trauma so well, it also captures all the optimistic curiosity and the utter hypocrisy and hubris of the Victorian era so well.

The X Files: I mean, it's a formative influence, innit. Seasons 1 and 3 are the best, a lot of the 'classic' favourites are episodes I actually really disliked, even though the early seasons are the best a lot of my favourite episodes are from later...the beauty of TXF is that there's so much of it you can hold contradictory opinions about what makes it good, though, and my theory is that it's at its best when it's early and still being allowed to take its course, where even the mytharc hasn't tied itself in knots yet so every episode is of a higher standard, and then later, when the actors have wrested control of their characters from CC enough to play them like they want, but the good episodes are really just MotW ones because the mytharc has vanished up it's own fundament and I've lost track of whose turn it is to have a near-death season arc. Not technically the TV series, but still, Fight the Future is just so much of its time, watching it is like having a warm bubble bath in childhood nostalgia. Even the later series have things to recommend them - I always enjoy Doggett much more than I'm expecting to, and it's about bloody time Scully got a decent female friend in the form of Reyes...I haven't watched seasons 10 onwards though, I don't feel I'm missing much. Five fave episodes: 1.13 Beyond the Sea, 3.4 Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, 5.4 Detour, 7.17 all things, 6.19 The Unnatural.

Utopia: Tragically incomplete at 2 seasons, but what a pair of seasons they are. Brutal and uncompromising, horrible and compelling, but also frequently hilarious and full of the warmest, most fascinating characters who are all on a journey to Getting Much Worse. It's not something I've been able to watch since the pandemic *weak laugh* but I know when I do go back to it it will remain painfully prescient and uncomfortable. The longing for a 'balancing' and a righting of a historic wrong that drives it, and the desperate failures between people who are really just searching for love and don't know how to give/receive it...ugh so good.

Interview with the Vampire: Just rewatched season 1 and I'm just. No notes, five stars. The way Louis think he's a narrator in control, the way Daniel knows such a thing isn't possible, the way Louis does let himself get drawn on things, the way Armand sees the danger in this but it's not in his control any longer. Memory is a monster. The Odyssey of recollection. Fucking won my heart with those lines alone.

(BBC) Ghosts: Ok, I will say that I think the last season was actually a bit weak. They were in a hurry to finish, and they got away with wringing the feels from the important bits (The Captain's death was perfect and I will say this over and over again), but it felt like it was in a rush to come up with scenarios that would force admissions like The Captain's, whereas the show is at its best meandering around in a buffonish way that suddenly results in a Big Oof moment. Robin's arc in season 4 was a great example of this, as was Mary's. But basically it's still simply perfect comfort TV: silly but not malicious, unfair but kind to its characters. I'm going to miss them all so much, but I'm also going to rewatch so much.

Futurama: bit basic maybe, but I have watched it so often and I can watch any episode (ok, except for Jurassic Bark) again and again and again. I don't think I've binged any TV show so often with so many different people. Not sure how I feel about the immanent revival, but this has always been my favourite Matt Groening product, so fingers crossed.

Avatar: the Last Airbender: without getting into like...fandom discourse, man, this is a really perfect show. No need to say 'ooh it gets good after--!', it's just good from the beginning. A really well fleshed-out world, great characters who grow through the series, enough self awareness that the 'clip-show' episode Ember Island Players actually builds on the characterisation and addresses ambiguities in its own plots. A show that sticks to its principles and doesn't fudge the ending and also consistently looks gorgeous.

Detectorists: I had to put it on because no other show has literally made me fall off my chair laughing. Are the main characters useless? Yes. Is it often perplexing that the women in their lives spend any time with them? Yes. But that's forgiveable, because it's ultimately so kind to its beleagured characters and things work out despite their stupid decisions. Also it just captures rural English eccentricity so well. They're all such freaks (affectionate).