#not really critical of either character?? but ask to tag

[antevault]

Can’t Sleep, Can’t Breathe by Digital Daggers is so c!dream&c!sapnap and here is my case

“Dire straits and dirty consequences

An invitation to your personal disaster

It's a point break

Another guilty conscience

And I won't stop you til you get just what you're after”

straightforward for the most part; sapnap is calling him out, saying “you made your choices, and here are the consequences.” even if dream hits his point break- becomes overwhelmed by the guilt and regret and tries to atone- sapnap won’t stop. he’s going to see this through, no matter what happens.

“I'm taking you down with me

I'm taking you down with me

Til you

Can't sleep, can’t breathe

You met your enemy

Can't sleep, can’t breathe

Won't get no peace with me”

beginning is very literal. sapnap is laying his life down to put an end to dream’s influence. he’s been hunting dream relentlessly for months following their first encounter in snowchester, where dream tried to manipulate sapnap back to his side or at least into obedience, but sapnap stood his ground and made his intentions clear. in that encounter, dream met his enemy, and it was his brother.

“You tried to tempt fate, be careful what you wish

I'll take you deeper and strip you of salvation

It's a crusade to bring you to your knees

It's what you wanted, your last manipulation”

dream broke out of prison and continues to use the revive book- “tempting fate” as it were. because of this, XD dropped the death book, and now sapnap has the ability to not just kill dream, but “strip him of salvation” or render him unable to ever be revived. wielding this power, he’s now on a death march to track dream down and remove him from the board permanently. in a way, going to see dream now would be doing what he wants; sapnap has the Nightmare set, so by going to dream, he’s “returning” it.

the chorus repeats, then…

“The lower you go the less that you'll know

You're sinking to the bottom now

You're losing control

The lower you go

You're sinking to the bottom now”

as dream has continued acting increasingly monstrous, he’s lost allies who could have given him information, and he’s burned bridges that could have saved him. by choosing to rule through fear, he’s ultimately losing more control than he could have maintained ruling more amicably. as far as sapnap is concerned, dream has no allies and no friends who would offer him aid. his debt with techno is squared and everyone else has turned on him. he’s at rock bottom and there’s nowhere to run.

so yeah basically this song is HELLA dream and sapnap, from sapnap’s perspective. he’s resigned to this horrible thing he wishes he didn’t have to do, but he still feels a sense of righteousness and justice for taking dream out, and a quiet catharsis in going down with him, hand in unlovable hand. from his perspective, he is a hero forced by fate to sacrifice himself and slay his brother, thus saving the world. he feels dream has forced his hand, and he’s furious with him for that. they could have been happy if dream had only stayed in prison like he was supposed to. why couldn’t he just stay inside?

it doesn’t matter. sapnap made a promise, and he will pay any price to keep it.

[fanby-fckry]

🕸️ angie-fluffy-bootz Follow

24 min. ago

time sensitive question how flirt boy

🕸️ angie-fluffy-bootz Follow

2 min. ago

thanks guys

#the fucking radio demon parody account replied to my post #with extremely UNHELPFUL advice #and charlie #is ur advice unisex? #bcuz if thats how you got vaggie #im judging you both #irl source

( 697 notes )

⚪️ Anonymous said

r u dead?

📻 real-radio-demon Follow

4 hr. ago

Ha! Bold of you to assume I can be killed :)

📻 real-radio-demon Follow

4 hr. ago

Show your face and per’’haps,’,’. I’ll come~.to you

🎀 charlies-angel Follow

32 min. ago

This account is fake. Nobody knows where Alastor is, anon. Stop wasting your time.

#this parody account is in really poor taste

( 14,581 notes )

🕸️ angie-fluffy-bootz Follow

Jul 1

if I make it outta this alive, I’m gonna tell my crush I’m in love with him.

🕸️ angie-fluffy-bootz Follow

Jul 1

fuck

🕸️ angie-fluffy-bootz Follow

1 hr. ago

ya know, I don’t think I’ve confessed to someone and meant it in over a decade?

🕸️ angie-fluffy-bootz Follow

53 min. ago

haha would it be crazy if I said I forgot how?

#its literally part of my job to flirt with people #then i catch feelings and suddenly #i get all tongue-tied #i cant fall back on my old scripts either #he hates bullshit #he wants me #the real me #but the real me doesnt know how to do this!!!

( 268 notes )

💀 be-gay-do-crym Follow

2 hr. ago

apparently people are canceling @.niffty-lady ? wtf?

🌕 m00nlight-h0wling Follow

1 hr. ago

they are and it’s actually the stupidest thing i’ve ever seen

#and the bar was really fucking low #considering the amount of dumb chaotic bullshit my dad gets into ↯ #niffty lady

( 22 notes )

👓 creepz0 Follow

3 hr. ago

It’s time to CANCEL @.niffty-lady

Here’s why:

Niffty LITERALLY KILLED a man in cold blood and now PROFITS off of his death

This so-called “lady” is INCREDIBLY rude to fans, ignoring requests leaving fans on read and answering asks with a NASTY attitude. NOT very lady-like if you ask me

Is associated with the VERY PROBLEMATIC @.real-radio-demon (self explanatory)

Writes TOXIC and PROBLEMATIC ships (spidermoth, radiohusk, reylo 🤢)

Writes NSFW when she herself is CHILD-CODED

PROOF is under the cut ⬇️

. Keep reading

#callout post ↯ #niffty lady #anti niffty lady #niffty critical

( 5,101 notes )

📻 real-radio-demon Follow

3 hr. ago

Despite popular belief, I am not dead!

Well, not any deader than I’ve been since 1933! Hahaha!

↯ #is alastor dead? #ha! no ↯ #alastor the radio demon #real radio demon broadcasts

( 147,381 notes )

⚪️ Anonymous said

isn’t it disrespectful to write fics about someone you killed irl?

🪡 niffty-lady Follow

4 hr. ago

I have no respect for Adam. Hope this helps! <3

#answered ask #anon ask

( 136,247 notes )

📺 voxblr4k Follow

5 hr. ago

Is the radio demon dead?

. 96,460 votes • remaining time 6 days, 19 hours

#polls ↯ #alastor the radio demon ↯ #is alastor dead?

( 19,292 notes )

🪡 niffty-lady Follow

6 hr. ago

Forbidden Fruit

Adam x Reader | 10k words | Rated E

⚠️ Major Character Death

Tags: Smut, Whump, Sinner Reader, Forbidden Love, Bad Ending

After a night of reckless passion, you quickly became Archangel Adam’s favorite sin. Your love, as forbidden as the fruit of Eden, was destined to end in tragedy.

https://archiveofoursouls.hell/works/63595697

#niffty lady fic #adam x reader #angel x sinner #sinner reader #smut #whump #forbidden love #bad ending #rpf #aoos link #aoos fanfic

( 49,933 notes )

📻 real-radio-demon Follow

6 hr. ago

Well, it looks like I’ve got some time on my hands!

I’m sure many of you have burning questions you’d like answered

So, ask. me. any’,thing. :)

#ask me anything #ama ↯ #alastor the radio demon #real radio demon broadcasts

( 16,628 notes )

🐍 x-hiss-lord-x Follow

Dec 12, 2019

i can't have beef with the power of friendship trope because if someone wanted to hang out with me i'd probably reconsider my stance on turning the city into the 10th circle of hell

🐍 x-hiss-lord-x Follow

Dec 12, 2019

besides i can always just redirect my dark urges towards being violently protective of my new friends. there's no rule that says you can't do that.

🌈 hells-disney-princess Follow

7 hr. ago

I found Sir Pentious’s old voxblr blog, and I think I’m gonna cry

🌈 hells-disney-princess Follow

7 hr. ago

He made the ultimate sacrifice to protect his friends and the hotel during the extermination. He did exactly what he said he would in this post.

I wish I could thank him for everything he did for us. And I wish I could’ve done a better job of protecting him.

I don’t know where Souls go when they get erased; I don’t know if they go anywhere at all. But I hope that wherever Sir Pentious is now, he’s with people that he considers his friends.

#rip Sir Pentious #we miss you #irl source

( 348 notes )

📻 real-radio-demon Follow

8 hr. ago

↯ #alastor the radio demon #real radio demon broadcasts #the ink spots #we’ll meet again #Voxify

( 4,102 notes )

⬜️ voxblr-meta Follow

9 hr. ago

Fanby’s Fake Dash Masterpost

#meta #fake tumblr dash

( 3 notes )

[leverage-ot3]

Is leverage redemption worth watching? I love Leverage but idk if i could enjoy the show if hardison isn't in most episodes or if the reboot sells out in some way.

okay so I showed up to this ask like four months late with a smoothie so I'm sorry about that BUT

does redemption have it's flaws? yes, I will be the first to admit that!

however, as someone who deeply loves leverage, the characters and what the show stands for, I still can find myself enjoying redemption.

there's one post that's in my drafts talking about the differences between the og and redemption and the so-called universe physics (how logic works in both shows and how they are the same/differ) and there are definitely some differences. there are some really good posts comparing them in the tags and I'll try to tag them as watch redemption when they come up!

I'm going to be really honest right now and say that (no shade) I feel like redemption s1-2 were lacking because john rogers was not a main writer for them. devlin and the others are great and know their stuff, but redemption was missing some of the grit (balanced with everything else) that the original run had. redemption is more fun and lighthearted (where the og was still fun and had comedic elements but also had a more jaded perspective). I think part of that change is the absence of nate as a character and what he brought to the table, but the other part of that is very much the way the show is written overall

I have seen some criticism about parker being a caricature of what she was in the original run (ex: how she goes to a child's psychologist and uses puppets sometimes, is overtly weird, more loud about stuff, etc) BUT I will say that I think there's some nuance to that

I don't think the child psychiatrist thing is infantalizing- some methods of therapy work for people more than others and that is me speaking as someone who works in mental health. if play therapy and stuff like that work for you as an adult, good for you! whatever works for you is more than enough the overtly and loudly being weird thing I really do think can be taken either way. in the original run part of parker's character progression was that she was learning how to interact with people normally (or at least more efficiently), but her being more out about that now can be taken as she is more comfortable in her skin and acting like she wants because she is surrounded by people who love and support her. maybe she doesn't want to (or have to!) mask all the time and I don't see a problem with that

HOWEVER! there are certain criticisms that are related to her characterizations and overlaps with her autism and I don't want to speak over the autism community about those aspects and how they have manifested in her character in redemption so I'm leaving it there

as for the hardison being absent aspect- I was REALLY afraid of that at first BUT the loss isn't so deeply impactful when you have characters like breanna and harry added to the mix. I went in ambivalent about harry and excited to have breanna (a canon queer) joining the team, but I have come to love and cherish both of them dearly and wouldn't want to replace them or lose them as characters in this found family ensemble. I think the writers handled aldis' packed schedule really well and even though he isn't there in most episodes, his presence is still very much around. parker and eliot talk about him and reference him when he's gone. so do sophie and breanna, even harry. he isn't on the screen but the relationships he's formed with the other characters and the impact he's had on them is very evident.

there are some takes from users about whether or not the ot3 was queerbait, un-canoned, etc in redemption. I have a lot of thoughts about it and a lot of them are incomprehensible but what I can say is that I have renewed hopes for the progression and canon development of their relationship now that john rogers is back as the main writer for s3

[vampirecatsw]

Transmigrator Kaito AU

part 2:

(lol i haven't written any resembling a fic for this au yet but feel free to ask questions)

Kaito's favourite manga is Detective Conan. Instead of crossing over with Magic Kaito, it crosses over with Yaiba.

The Yaiba content annoys Kaito to no end because he's jealous~ He's like "Ugh, crossing Conan over with say like, a Phantom Thief would be perfect! Not Yaiba! >:("

He's definitely read and written Kaitou KID / Detective Conan crossovers HAHAHA

(I still need to do more research about Yaiba but I know there's Yaiba characters in dc so that's why I chose this. Sorry I don't know much about Yaiba but I thought it would be a fun idea)

Kaito picked it up when his dad died and still reads it to this day. Yes, it's long running series too :)) He reads it in his downtime, including before and after heists. He's basically memorised every detail.

Out of all the characters, Conan/Shinichi is Kaito's favourite character. When Kaito got frustrated, he always came back for him. And he's a huuuuge fanboy as well! He knows all the little details >v0 and admires Shin-chan a lot.

I'm still deciding on making this romantic ShinKai or queerplatonic (like some third thing other than platonic and romantic) but eh it's still in the air ig. Kaito adores Shin a lot either way.

Kaito doesn't know that in the final chapter of Conan, it was revealed Shin and Ran decided they had a sibling relationship. Kaito keeps trying to wingman them in increasingly absurd ways that makes Shin think he's actually trying to serenade Ran.

When the final chapter is going to come out, Kaito goes on a heist but everything goes wrong. He ends up finding Pandora, but Snake finds him first and manages to mortally wound him. As he bleeds out on the rooftop, Pandora drenched in blood and lying in his limp hands, Kaito's last regret is how he never got to read the final chapter of Conan.

More details below cut:

~

Suddenly, Kaito wakes up to a vicious pinch in his cheek.

"Ba-kai-to! Wake up! I've been calling you for the last 5 minutes!"

"Ow! A-Aoko?? Wha-"

Kaito raises his head and sees... his normal classroom? Huh? Was everything just a dream? That final heist?

Kaito quickly pats down his chest. Nothing hurts... except for his sore throbbing cheek, and he's clothed in his normal school uniform, not the KID suit.

He keeps glancing around, trying to find any differences. Aoko's still standing in front of his desk, hands on her hips and a concerned look on her face. The classroom hasn't been filled up yet and the board is still freshly cleaned from yesterday, meaning it's the morning and class hasn't started yet. Akako hasn't arrived either. And Hakuba's reading a newspaper about Kudo Shinichi...

Huh?

Kudo Shinichi???

Kaito lunges over his desk. "Hey! Give me that!"

Hakuba is too stunned at the sudden attack.

Kaito rapidly skims through the article .The paper crinkles in his trembling grip.

"Kudo Shinichi, the Heisei Holmes has done it again! He solved another case flawlessly last Monday..."

Hakuba adds hesitantly, "Yes? Kudo Shinichi. He's been making a name for himself recently. It would be a pleasure as a fellow detective to work alongside him one day."

Hakuba says this all naturally, like Shinchi's been real this entire time. Like he wasn't just a manga character yesterday.

Kaito gulps ...There's no mistake. The impossible has happened, and Detective Conan is somehow real.

~ Kaito in this AU is just... a Kudo Shinichi fanboy. He's absolutely ecstatic to challenge Kudo Shinichi. He's even more excited to amaze his critic, and every time they meet, Kaito's pokerface works overtime to hide his delighted blush and adoring grin on his face. Jii is so confused but also very supportive.

... Kaito really wants to squish Shin-chan's cheeks and tease him until his entire face turns a pretty pink, dangers be damned.

Meanwhile Shinichi keeps getting annoyed by this clingy thief who keeps coming back for more. What's so interesting about him anyways??? Why does he keep teasing him???

(This au also includes pre-conan and during conan. Kaito is extremely charmed by Conan and his pokerface works extra-overtime than when he met Shinichi. If that is even possible. After every heist he screams in his pillow and recalls every moment)

Extras:

Kaito takes a solid week to slide himself into the Kudo Shinichi fan-server and cement himself as the Shinichi Expert. After a month he actually gets elected as co-president. Yes he's absolutely insane.

Kaito regularly sends fan letters to Shinichi, even after his 'disappearance'. They always wish Shinichi the best and includes random funny snippets of Kaito's day. They're addressed as "Kai-san" and are pretty polite. They always come with Kaito's genetically engineered blue and red roses that he grows in his garden. He doesn't gift the blue roses to anyone but Shinichi haha

Akako does exist in this universe. It's just that she sensed such a major disturbance that she stayed at home and researched it vigorously to make sure the fabric of space-time wasn't unravelling.

Kaito is like a proud peacock whenever Shin/Cone shows up. He literally pulls out all the stops and Jii is confused, yet very supportive. Agasa who provides the gadget just sighs at the huge and absurd list. It doesn't escape his mind that it happens whenever Conan/Shin attends a KID heist.

OVA 1 is really fun so I thought it would be extra funny for it to be somewhat plausible in this au. Not sure if Yaiba would be turned into a manga series when Magic Kaito becomes the main crossover (if that makes sense). When Kaito robs the sword, he would use his knowledge to cause the most chaos. Yes Kaito read Yaiba out of spite, and also 'know thy enemy, know thyself'

[all-thestories-aretrue]

There are many jokes floating around the shadowgast nation about the nature of Caleb and Essek's relationship (eggplants and winky faces abound), and most of them are good natured and perhaps true (eventually or at some point). I find most of them entertaining and sweet, but some of what I have stumbled across post-reunion have highlighted that it's only a joke up to a certain point to me.

Please keep in mind that everything in this post is my opinion and my opinion only. I'm not asking that anyone agree with me. This post is mainly for me because I felt like I needed to make it.

I have seen several comments/posts/tags in many different places talking about Essek and Caleb and that scene in the reunion, and describing it as horny or saying they can't keep their hands off each other or following up that conversation with sexual intimacy. I know a lot of these comments or conversations are not malicious or ill-intentioned, and I understand that people are excited for the first new content in nearly 2 years.

But, one thing I have appreciated about Critical Role is the variety of sexuality and genders represented, including various asexual and aromantic identities. Essek is confirmed by Matt on Twitter to be demi (romantic or sexual is unclear to me so it could be taken as either. If anyone has any other sources I would greatly appreciate them). As someone who identifies as aspec, I deeply appreciate the representation that Critical Role has given me.

The shadowgast scene in the reunion was not sexual to me. It's only been six months since the end of c2, which granted, I have not completed yet. As of this writing, I am in the middle of episode 133. Whatever is going on between Caleb and Essek is still very new, especially for two people who thought they would never have love. An aspect of being demi is that it takes time and closenes and a strong emotional bond for romantic and/or sexual feelings to develop. Six months, to me, feels like an incredibly short time for those feelings to take root for Essek even if he is on the path of developing them.

Seeing people make light of Essek's sexual attraction or feelings for Caleb or treat them as common place or casual, even innocuously, has made me feel as though this aspect of Essek really is ignored or forgotten about sometimes. Not by everyone nor, I would even doubt, the majority. Maybe not intentionally or maliciously or maybe it's a lack of understanding about demisexuality or aspec identities.

This is a feeling I have had for a while, and I mean this about nothing in particular but rather a sum of the parts I have encountered over the months.

In addition, I think Essek's sexuality can be overshadowed by how sexual Caleb can be/is. He makes comments throughout the entirety of the campaign that directly or indirectly reveal his sexuality, and that part is clearly important to him, even if he has not acted on it in a very long time.

I am not saying that Essek is NOT sexually attracted to Caleb or that their relationship does not involve sex at some point or at the time of that scene. I do think, at the very least, that Caleb and Essek would have a conversation about it as some point, and I find it likely it would turn sexual. At the very least, Caleb is attracted to Essek. Liam has confirmed that. I would guess those feelings are a combination of romantic, sexual, platonic, etc.

But I cannot imagine, and again this is my opinion, that feeling sexual attraction or acting on it for the perhaps first or second, maybe third time, is not a life-altering moment for him, let alone acting on it. From what see of his character, he's extrmely gaurded, extremely lonely, extremely shameful. Showing his emotions and attraction to Caleb, or to anyone really, is an extreme show of trust and vulnerability, and I don't think it should be taken lightly.

Treating it, at least in those early months, as though it is common or casual, something taken for granted, feels, to me, as though it undermines the importance and gravity of Essek's feelings, whatever they may be. Further, it undermines aspec identities, relegating them to sidelines if it is even acknowledged at all. I feel as though a lot of the jokes ignore Essek's demisexuality and how integral it is to how he builds relationships and interacts with people.

As someone who is aspec, I find it disheartening to see these sort of jokes and offhand comments being circulated about a character who is confirmed, canon aspec whose identity centers on deep bonds that take time to develop. Applying sexual under/overtones to scene where a small chaste kiss and an innocent pet name are shared feels like, in a way, a forced sexualization of a new, developing relationship that may never turn sexual.

There is such little aspec representation in media, and Critical Role does a fantastic job of showcasing a variety of aspec identities which is so, so rare. To turn around and have the fandom ignore or disregard these identities (intentional or not) that the cast and crew work hard to incorporate feels bad. It makes me feel as though I still have to fight for my identity to be seen and understood by people who, theoretically, support and want to understand and respect various identities, who claim to love Essek and Caleb and their relationship. It hurts.

I have spent a lot of time convincing myself that I and my sexuality belong in the queer community, that I deserve to have a voice, that I deserve to be respected and heard. With my feelings about Essek and his demisexuality, I didn't feel right standing by any longer and remaining silent when these portrayals were bothering me.

I am not asking anyone to change their opinions, to agree with me, to change the fic they write, the art they draw. The Critical Role fandom is beautiful and amazing and absolutely incredible. I have met so many kind, caring, wonderful people since joining. It's an experience unlike any other. But, I needed to make this post for me and anyone else who was feeling like me.

[fontasticcrablettes]

not sure if anyone's asked this before, but

a common criticism of Vesperia is that Yuri is never really punished for the vigilantism conflict, but I feel that the fandom's proposed solutions are too extreme or boring without much regard for his established character

have you ever had ideas on how you'd rectify this? whether it be a rewrite of certain parts of Vesperia or fanfic ideas

I've definitely thought about this before. I think the issue is that the game tried to address it with Sodia's attack on him, but due to the change of writers between acts 2 and 3, the payoff for that never really happened.

The set-up is there. Yuri spends act 2 inflicting his justice on those he has determined have escaped justice, and the act concludes with Sodia enforcing her own justice on him. But then act 3 comes, and those ideas are never really brought up again. The closest we get is Yuri calling Sodia out in Capua Torim for not carrying through her resolve and giving up on Flynn despite her earlier dedication to him. This could even be interpreted as "Yuri's vigilantism was fine actually" because the lesson he seemed to take from it was "If you're going to kill people, commit to the bit."

I've had a few ideas about addressing this. Disclaimer that I'm a novelist, not a game writer, so my thoughts are around what would work if this story was a novel and not necessarily considering gameplay needs.

The first consideration is that I don't think the game ever intended to 100% condemn Yuri's actions. Rather, I think they were going for a middle ground between his and Flynn's methods. Neither purely solo vigilantism nor a single man rising through the ranks and taking control of the Knights will save the world. You need a bit of both, and not to go to the extremes of either. So, I think it would be against the spirit of the story if Yuri was resoundingly punished and all of his choices punished and portrayed as wrong.

But... some of them should be. Flynn's side of the justice question was about working within the system, and the flaws of his choices smacked him in the face with Alexei's betrayal and realization that his actions to work within the system had led him to aid a coup. The closest thing Yuri gets to a comeuppance like this is Sodia stabbing him, which doesn't really get adequately addressed.

And after all this preamble ("#Nightfoot is bad at brevity" is a tag for a reason) I can finally get to some of my ideas for things that could have happened in the game to strengthen Yuri's character arc.

1. Repede

I think Repede is under-utilized. Yuri is not a very talkative guy when it comes to his own feelings. He doesn't want to burden his friends with his issues, so if he's going through some inner turmoil about his choices, he won't talk it over with his friends unless they bring it up first.

In a book, this could be easily solved with internal narration delving into his thoughts, but in a visual medium, he has to verbalize these. Repede could have been a perfect solution to this. They already set up Repede being a confidant when he got that title for being the only witness to Ragou's murder, but never did anything with it.

I think it would have fit Yuri's character to open up to Repede - to talk things over with his dog whom he knows will never tell another person and won't talk back - in a way he wouldn't want to with one of his human friends.

2. Alexei and Duke

There's a parallel between Flynn & Alexei and Yuri & Duke that could have been stronger. I've always been fond of the idea of Alexei and Duke being old friends who grew apart and became enemies over their dispute about how to handle the corruption of the empire. It makes them a neat parallel for Yuri and Flynn, and a dark shadow of what they and their friendship could become if they keep drifting away from each other and into more extreme deeds.

3. More Sodia

Having Yuri fall victim to the same sort of vigilantism that he inflicted on others is a great plot beat, but then it never really gets addressed again. Sodia does this huge thing, and then we never see her again until pretty late in act 3.

This kind of ties in to me talking about "Yuri and Sodia forced to work together" fic, but what if this happened in the game? What if there was some scenario where Yuri and Sodia had to go off alone together and actually talk to each other and having some messy shouting matches and acknowledge that they aren't so different?

4. Comeuppance for Yuri

Now an actual proposed scenario to "punish" Yuri for his choices. My idea is that when Yuri leaves his friends behind in Halure near the end of act 2, he makes it all the way to Alexei by himself. Rather than his friends catching up with him in the Quoi Woods, Yuri makes it all the way to Zaphias and confronts Alexei alone at the Sword Stair. There, he promptly gets his ass kicked.

The rest of the party catches up to him before Alexei can finish the job, and at that point it can switch to the whole party fighting Estelle as Alexei leaves, as in the game.

In the Quoi Woods scene, his friends call him out for trying to lone-wolf it and point out to him that he does in fact have good friends who want to help him. By shifting this reunion to the Sword Stair, just after he's almost died and fucked everything up, not only is he forced to learn that he can rely on his friends, but that he should.

5. Replacement for Ragou

It's briefly mentioned that there's a new magistrate in Capua Nor and that he's much better than Ragou and the city is so much better off now. This feels like a wasted opportunity to me.

I propose the group returning to Capua Nor in early act 3 to discover that Ragou has been replaced, but that the new guy is almost as bad. Maybe not "feeds children to monsters for the fun of it" bad, but still corrupt, still oppressive, still another head of the Empire's rotting body.

This forces Yuri to confront the idea that while he solved the immediate problem of Ragou not being punished, he didn't actually create any sort of system change. His methods alone are not the solution to justice because picking off the worst of the worst does nothing to change the system that produces and enables those people. While Flynn's focus on changing the system abandons people who suffer while he slowly reforms things, Yuri's focus will never create lasting change and just leads to him playing whack-a-mole with whatever pieces of garbage the corrupt system spits out next.

They need each other, and neither their methods are the solution in isolation. They can't do it alone. In the very last scene of the game, Duke tells Yuri that he's strong, and he replies, "That's because I'm not alone." That's the main message Yuri learns over the course of the game! Yuri goes from a lone wolf to someone who supports the help of his friends and that he's stronger when he's backed up by bonds of friendship. Showing Yuri that simply killing Ragou on his own was not enough, that he needs the cooperation of his friends all working on the same problem from different angles, strengthens that message.

6. Same Choice, Different Decision

This is one of my favourite literary tropes and such a simple way to demonstrate character growth and change.

With either some or all of the proposed changes above, let's end the game with Yuri having the chance to go after Duke alone. He has an opening to break off from the others, but this time, he doesn't. He takes everything he's learned about the necessity to work together and the importance of relying on others chooses not to be a lone vigilante this time. He proves that he has internalized the idea that he is strong because he's not alone.

7. Dark Enforcer

This sidequest could (should?) have been incorporated into the main plot. There's no reason for a storyline that directly parallels the main protagonists' journey and confronts him with the possible downfalls of his approach to be an easily missable sidequest.

---

So, there are some of my ideas! I've thought a lot about this over the years and tried to cut this down to just my plot changes that would directly address Yuri's vigilantism arc.

I think Yuri is often unduly criticized for having "no growth," because I think that just isn't true, but I do think the game flubbed the development of it. He's clearly changed his mind about being a lone vigilante by the end, but when did he emotionally process this? The pieces are there, they just aren't utilized to their full extent.

These are also all ideas about changes to the game itself, but I think most of them would also work as the basis of a fic, either canon divergent, post-game, in squeezing some scenes in.

[kess-in-the-perthchimzone]

In defense of Dangerous Romance

I am genuinely so confused by like 80% of the criticism I have been seeing of Dangerous Romance and since it increasingly has moments it drowns the tag, I felt compelled to take some time to put thoughts to paper in defense of the show. Obviously there is always going to be an extent to which a piece of media just doesn’t work for someone personally, which is totally fine! For example, I will never be obsessed with OF no matter how much I enjoy seeing the gifs on Saturdays, because at my heart I’m a big ole romantic sap and it is REAL MESSY (affectionate).

But there are two things I really don’t understand I’ve seen said about DR —

Feedback about the overall tone of the show — specifically that it wasn’t as dark as expected or that the bully scenes weren’t more dragged out. And the reason this one confuses me is because I feel like people just made up this expectation in their minds?? There were TWO trailers and TWO (now three) music videos about Dangerous Romance and they are absolutely chock full of two boys being obsessed with spending time with each other — smiling at each other, giving each other cheek kisses, holding hands, etc. Did people not watch those? It’s not really fair to say that a show isn’t what you thought it would be when the show pretty accurately so far told you exactly what it would be.

Complaints about the B plot being prioritized right now. Let me explain this one a bit. To use a very familiar example, there’s been a lot of discussion this week comparing Bad Buddy and DR. Bad Buddy had two major plot points: the conflict with the friends, which was prioritized in the first half of the show, because it was lighter and more prone to shenanigans; and then the conflict with the families, which ripped our fucking hearts out.

Right now, Kang is yes, getting a little more development (the B plot). But here’s the thing — he had to develop for Sailom to be able to be with him. He had to start growing and changing as a person for that to be possible. And at the end of the day we are watching a BL — where the end goal is for the two main characters (because there are two) to end up together.

I also find some of the criticism of Kang’s storyline to be inadvertently condescending towards Sailom. Because while the show has Kang saving Sailom repeatedly via external actions (primarily getting him money), Sailom is also doing the same to Kang. But his saving is internal, so less visible. Kang would have continued to drown in his own misery and anger and cruelty if weren’t for all of Sailom’s interventions. To me, Sailom is the hero in Kang’s story.

It seems pretty undeniable to me that Sailom’s story is going to become the significant focus in the back half of the show. Going back to the trailers, we know we’re going to see Saifah get arrested, Sailom returning to escorting, and Sailom getting held hostage (not sure this is quite the right word) just to name a few.

All of these are focused on Sailom. All of them are either directly tied to his poverty or will have repercussions on his financial situation. Yes, Kang is present for many of these moments that we’ve seen, but he is the second love interest in the show?? So I would be pretty freaking disappointed if he wasn’t.

If at the end of these 12 episodes all that happened is Kang played the rescuer over and over, then becoming Sailom’s sugar daddy, I will join people in critiquing the plot. But I’m willing to be patient because I believe they are going somewhere and I think it’s going to lead to a beautiful payoff.

But right now, as fun as it is as a plot device, DR is showing us pretty clearly that the way Sailom is financially dependent on Kang’s family is NOT healthy for them long-term, despite the ways has allowed them to bond and develop feelings (exhibit #1: Sailom having to ask permission to go home to sleep the night Kang rejected his confession). What will matter is if Dangerous Romance will allow them to meet on equal footing at the end - to not have Sailom be reliant on Kang, but instead be a more equal partner (who can still be allowed to occasionally enjoy what Kang might want to give him).

This is (hopefully) ultimately a love story about two people from very different backgrounds who will make things work despite all odds and I, for one, am so excited to be on this ride.

[oceanwithouthermoon]

least favorite saiki ship and why ?

IT SCARES ME THAT THIS IS ON ANON. WHAT IF I SAY THAT I HATE A SHIP AND THEN IT TURNS OUT THE PERSON THAT ASKED THIS IS LIKE THE CEO OF THAT SHIP OR SOMETHING.

... its torisai LMAO.

i dont like saying it on here much cuz its one of the most popular ships in the fandom (the number one most popular ship is kubokai, and im not a fan of that either ☠️ i just think theyre the ship you get from looking at the show/manga purely at surface level and just picking two characters that are close friends and saying 'they should date' even though they wouldnt actually fit together.. i just dont see it personally lol.. OKAY ANYWAY SORRY-) but i really dont like torisai 🧍🏻‍♀️

(im about to talk about sa under this, fair warning)

i literally just posted today about people shipping things in ways that mildly trigger me, and torisai shippers do it pretty bad !! for some reason, mikorei shippers and yumetori shippers etc dont really do the thing that torisai shippers do where they romanticize sexual assault in the way they write them.. im not sure why that is, maybe they think that men cant be sa'd in the way women can ? they think cuz its a gay ship that its okay to write tori sexually harassing and assaulting him (+acting like its cute, not tagging it accordingly with warnings, etc) ? crazy. especially since saiki is implied to be a victim of sa (or at least is canonically a victim of sexual harassment and attempted sa) by his brother..

that whole thing is something i genuinely think is awful and nobody should romanticize sa, but toritsuka isn't inherently awful and still had potential and good character development, so that alone doesnt really make the ship that bad since the shippers are the problem.. i actually used to be okay with it until the shippers ruined it for me, but thinking critically about it (and thinking about WHY the shippers believe that their dynamic is so sexually abusive) did make me realize how much the ship sucks anyway.. (imo !!)

its partly because i project onto saiki, but i already mentioned how saiki is canonically a victim of (at least attempted) sa, and i reallly believe that he would not be interested in dating someone who is so obsessed with sex to the point where he canonically sexually harasses people and tries to peep without their consent !! he is literally an sa victim, obviously that would make him so uncomfortable!!

their friendship at the end of the series is nice and one of the most developed in the series, so i get where people got the ship from, cat tank incident invites a lot of content about them... but toritsuka still has a lot of work to do on himself before he can date ANYONE, and ESPECIALLY a literal sa victim..

when he saw saiki as a girl, one of the first things he did was DIRECTLY ask him about his boobs.. WHY WOULD HE DATE HIM AFTER THAT SKSNKAKAMSK..

actually lol, when i made that post today about ship content that triggers me, part of that was specifically inspired by torisai shippers lol.. (not all ofc and no hate, it just isnt my thing !! torisai mutuals i love u please don't unfollow me..) ive seen multiple people post about how they love torisai BECAUSE they would be absolutely awful for each other and bring out the worst in one another.. like hmm.. great for you if you enjoy that, but that is entirely why i DONT ship it !! i hate ships like that, i love my fluffy healthy romantic ships !!

okay anyway anyway, i love their platonic friendship, they care about each other lots, theyre one of the most developed in the series, their friendship has lots of potential, etc.. i just dont see it romantically !!! maybe in the far far future, but definitely not at the point they are at the end of the series..

[demiaroacejolynekujo]

This post contains some spoilers from The Amazing Digital Circus. This post also contains critiques in regard to Vivziepop, Helluva Boss, and Hazbin Hotel. Vivziepop stans (as in the people who defend her work and her as a person) are not allowed to interact with me. Any Vivziepop fan who sends me asks (especially Anon asks) will be deleted. Any fans who DM me will have their message deleted and will be blocked. Finally, anyone who screenshots this post and makes a post tagging me in it to defending Vivziepop will be blocked.

I'm not trying to get people to harass Vivziepop and harass anyone who is a fan of her. And I'm not trying to stop people from supporting Vivziepop and not trying to make people feel bad about supporting her either. Watch whatever you want. Take this post with a grain of salt. And if you get somewhat upset with the criticisms I have for Vivziepop, then that's your problem.

Vivziepop antis and critical fans are allowed to interact.

Earlier today, I watched The Amazing Digital Circus, and these are my final thoughts.

Honestly, the pilot was really good, and I'm looking forward to it finally becoming a full-fledged series. And I'm looking forward to it expanding the Lore as well. I'm curious as to how Pomni got trapped there in the first place and other stuff like the void and the exit door thing.

What I appreciate it is that it didn't need copious amounts of swearing, unlike other comedy web series like Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss. There were swears, but they were more spread out and brief on top of the swears being censored.

Even though Gooseworx has worked with Vivziepop in the past, I find TADC to be leagues better than HH and HB. I've seen a video about the drama surrounding Gooseworx, but from what I've seen,the stuff they have done is much more tame than the shit Vivziepop has pulled.

I hope to see more Amazing Digital Circus content to come out in the future. I'm interested as to see where the series will go. Unlike Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, it didn't feel like I was watching something that felt like it was created by an edgy middle schooler. The female characters had much more personality than the ones from HH and HB, despite it being just a pilot.

Another thing to point out is that the cast of TADC had a lot of fresh faces to the voice acting industry, unlike Hazbin and Helluva Boss, where Vivziepop relied on casting big name actors in order to garner more attention to her work. And I'm going to be fully honest, I find it really sus at the fact that the OG cast of HH couldn't return because they didn't unionize in order to get their roles back. A lot of them were fully new to the industry, too, which is the sad part. I wish that Vivziepop wouldn't rely on hiring big-name actors in her work and would hire people who are very new to the voice acting scene who are desperate to land a role as some of them rely on voice acting as their main source of income.

To end this post, I just want to point out that I'm not blaming Vivziepop for the fact that the original cast of Hazbin Hotel didn't get their roles back. But at the same time, that whole situation feels questionable to me. Until I hear the full story about it, then I'll decide if she should be held accountable or not. However, the whole hiring big actors thing has been a critique of mine for a while on top of the use of the r slur in Helluva Boss (even though it was only said once and was almost again, it shouldn't have been used at all as it's an ableist slur and I'm a disabled person who has been called the r slur many times in the past). I'm fully aware that HB takes place in hell, but using hell as a way to excuse the use of the r slur is ableist. It's still ableist to call someone the r slur regardless of the setting and the context. The r slur should never be used as a way to call someone stupid. I'm not sure if Vivziepop wrote the script herself, but whoever is in charge of the script should be careful of the type of language they use in the show. I'm fully aware that both Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel are adult shows, but it doesn't mean it's an excuse to normalize offensive and bigoted language. It doesn't help that the shows poorly portray women (like how Millie is just reduced to being Moxxie's wife and likes killing) even though the creator of both shows is a woman.

I'm just gonna stop here for now. I'm going to go back to waiting for more Amazing Digital Circus content to come out.

[twig-tea]

City Boy, BL, and when Queerness is "Allowed"

Alright. @stuffnonsenseandotherthings tagged me in a post about City Boy and asked if I'd seen the show, because I hadn't mentioned it. I chatted with them in the comments for a bit and came around to what I want to say about this show.

For those who haven't heard of it, this is a Korean BL framed as "real"; the four actors play characters with the same names as their real names, their social media accounts treat the events of the vlog episodes as real to their lives (both their personal accounts and the show accounts, as far as I can tell), nothing on the channel says this isn't real, and the show is framed as though it's actually happening and is filmed by the actors themselves as slice-of-life, with some 'found footage'-style additions. The season is over, but the accounts still post shorts with the actors acting as the characters, and they still do lives "in character".

First, I've seen the show, and it's very well done. The acting is good, the chemistry is good, the visuals are good, the kissing is good, the story is good. If they hadn't framed the show this way I would have been shouting about it. If you want to check it out, it's on YouTube for free with subs. Check out stuffnonsenseandotherthing's post linked in the first paragraph for more about the show if you're curious.

But I was uncomfortable with the way this show has been made and marketed, and so I've stayed quiet about it.

Here's the thing. In addition to the very real problem that fans have with separating the actor from the character, chemistry from real feelings, and business gay performances from being freed from the closet, there is also something really insidious about the way people are allowed to be gay in play only, but real gay men are often hated on by fandom. The things "straight" (I put in quotes because a lot of assumptions are made all the time about BL actors) actors are allowed to do that gay men are not is infuriating.

Several months ago two of the men who appeared on His Man S1 decided to create a BL together. These are two gay men who were "shipped" by fans but did not actually date in real life. They filmed a vlog in the style of 'what their 1 year anniversary date would look like' (clearly labelled that way, but the video itself was immersive), and they got so much hate that they took down the video and backed away from making any more, and made a public apology. The criticism was that it was "cruel" to the feelings of one of the men acting in the video--infantalizing, insulting, and just more evidence that fans do not understand the difference between reality and performance.

I should say, the main shipped couple from S2 of His Man who did get together also make vlogs--real ones about their actual lives--and they seem to be thriving, thank goodness. They have more subscribers and around the same number of viewers as Cityboy_Log. But they had the power of being promoted by the show they were on partially behind their success, and they get a lot of suspicious comments about whether they are 'faking their relationship for views'. They are affectionate but not performing any heat the way City Boy does, and while they both seem pretty shy and not like they're dying to make out on camera anyway, I'm certain they have to temper what they do and show on camera in order to maintain their paid partnerships and magazine spreads. Ironically the same actions that are getting the actors of City Boy attention are what would likely get SeongHo and JunSeong "cancelled".

Anyway. All this is to say, CityBoy_Log is well done but I worry about it as a concept, and what it's setting its actors up for (and what its encouraging in fans). One change of not using the actors' real names would have been enough to make me cool with it, but it is what it is. If you're going to watch it, please watch it knowing that it's not real, and knowing that Korean gay men would not be able to make it either as fake or real content without being rejected by the audience.

[antianakin]

So to start with, if you don't like this blog and the things I post on it, nobody's putting a gun to your head asking you to look at it. Feel free to block me, blacklist my username, block the anti and critical tags I try to use VERY frequently, etc. Nobody's asking you to look at the things I post and, quite honestly, the fact that you felt the need to leave me this message tells me that between the two of us, you're the one being unhealthy because you felt the need to tell someone innocently staying in their own lane that they're participating in fandom wrong rather than just... moving on and doing fandom in a way you enjoy more. If you want to see something else, go look at a different blog or make your own posts. Nobody's stopping you, least of all me.

But to actually answer the question you didn't ask, I made this blog because I wanted a place to make the kind of posts I wanted to see. Yes, it's a venting blog. That means sometimes I vent about the same thing more than once. Breaking news: people in fandom talk about the same hyperfixation more than once sometimes!

My best friend in the Star Wars fandom happens to be someone who really likes Anakin. So whenever I disliked something about Anakin, she was not the person I could go to in order to discuss it. Well, not always anyway. Not when I got particularly bitter about it. And at the time that I made this blog over a year ago, I didn't have anywhere else to go to vent those feelings, so I made one for myself. I made myself a tiny safe haven where I could simply write those feelings out that I never really saw anybody else making or discussing. This wasn't intended to be a popular blog. I expected it to get about two followers total maybe and a LOT of haters.

Instead, I've actually heard from a number of people that this blog let them feel seen. That the things I've written have felt really relatable to people who just can't connect to all of the Anakin love that tends to exist in the fandom. Because yes, Anakin's been the villain since the 1970s, but you must not have spent a lot of time in this fandom because that is NOT a thing that a lot of his fans tend to remember or even believe anymore. According to a good number of Anakin fans, the Jedi are the real villains and Anakin is just a tragic victim who didn't really do anything wrong. And even a lot of the people who DO recognize that Anakin is the villain of the story often still tend to like Anakin as this tragic character and will primarily post positive things about him. So for those of us who just... don't LIKE Anakin very much, there isn't as much content out there for us. You either accept all of the Anakin love along with the content for the other characters you like or you just... don't consume very much content within the fandom. Or you find a very specific niche to try to stay in that you like better, I guess. But Anakin's the main character of the main saga, he's hard to avoid entirely.

So this blog helps provide one little safe haven for others who just... don't like this character much.

And that's not even the entirety of this blog anyway. If you had scrolled through it much, you might've noticed the fic rec lists that have nothing to do with Anakin at all and are actually a lot more aimed at being Pro Jedi. Because this blog is just as much about loving the Jedi as it is about disliking Anakin. You might've also noticed the extensive AU concepts I've written a few times, one of the most recent of which actually ended up leading to Anakin surviving ROTJ and figuring out how to stop being a Sith and getting mentally healthy. And Anakin's not even the only character who's GOTTEN criticism on this blog, the pinned post on this blog lists a good 10 characters I've had to add to it because there IS going to be criticism for them here, too, from Satine and Bo-Katan Kryze, to Aleksander Kallus, to Crosshair and TBB as a show in general, to Padme Amidala herself. Not to mention some criticism of Ahsoka, as well, sometimes. I'm an all access kind of hater I guess, I like to have a varied diet of characters I complain about.

So yes, it's a blog named antianakin because the url wasn't taken, I thought it was funny, and it works as a WARNING for anybody who sees my posts or decides to come onto my blog. Obviously it doesn't keep EVERYBODY out who shouldn't be looking at them, look at yourself for a good example of that. But I like to think it's helpful. Yes, this is a venting blog where I allow myself to be negative and complain about characters I don't like in a space I have created for me to do that in. This does not mean that I am not EVER positive about Star Wars, it doesn't even mean that I'm never positive about Star Wars ON THIS BLOG. It just means that this is a place that I am allowed to be salty in, it is a place where I put my most bitter thoughts and feelings and throw them into the void that is Tumblr just to get them out of me.

This is MY safe space, MY little fandom haven. Nobody asked you to be here, so if it doesn't feel safe or even just entertaining for you, you're more than welcome to leave and go find somewhere else you like better or create your own little fandom space where you can create the kind of things YOU want to see. I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

[mcytblr-archive]

Early MCYTblr Interviews: wormweeb

our interviewee today is @wormweeb, author of the cowboy au, nominee in the 2020 MCYTblr election, and overall MCYTblr veteran. below is a transcript of the questions and answers!

Q: What do you remember most fondly about “Early MCYTblr”? (2020-2021)

A: I think early mcytblr had the perfect mix of being an insular, small community with enough people actually posting (whether it be shitposts, art, fix, etc.) to keep the community alive. Perfect reblogger-creator ratio, I think. I loved seeing the familiar notifications from blogs that frequently RBed my stuff and familiar Urls in the tags (which I probably checked daily lol). There was this infectious energy that made being in the fandom so fun, with all the inside jokes and interactions and inter-blog familiarity.

Q: Do you recall your experience in the first MCYTblr election? What was it like?

A: Honestly, there was a lot of anxiety. I didn’t have many friends in the fandom in the sense that I didn’t often DM with people or talk in discord servers. I was kind of reclusive, so having to reach out to find running mates was nerve-racking! And then being thrust into a huge discord server with a bunch of other people I didn’t really know at all… It was all bizarrely anxiety-inducing. I didn’t really care about the results that much, since it was kind just a popularity contest (no hate, just true). I think the elections were cute and fun, another sort of fandom activity that I think only could’ve worked in an insular but involved fandom.

Q: Building off the last question– in my time archiving, I’ve seen people both hold you in high regard and condemn your blog wholesale. Is it odd to be talked about as a pseudo-historical figure in MCYTblr culture? 

A: It’s mind-boggling! When I did all my posting as wormweeb, roughly July 2020 to august 2021, I was 16/17 and literally never left my house due to quarantine. It’s bizarre to think I was influential in that microcosm of a fandom, because I was truthfully just Some Guy irl. It was weird to see the extremes of how people treated me, with some users (much younger than me, I should add) treating me like a cc, with other people acting like I was a toxic supervillain.

At the time, I was deeply concerned with my image in the fandom. I reveled in the shocked reactions to some of my more… avant guard posts… but I was also really bothered when people talked badly about me. I wanted to be liked and popular, but I also wanted to be shocking and critical. I had contradictory motivations behind my posting, which I probably lead to such polarized reactions to my presence in the fandom.

Ultimately, I think it’s super interesting to see how people talk about me — whether they remember me as ‘that one crazy truthing blog’ or the cowboy au author or a proto-critblr poster or a toxic bad takes poster, etc. I don’t take any of it too personally any more, thankfully.

Q: Do you think that MCYTblr’s cultural shift away from crit and ‘truthing’ has been an overall good or bad thing? 

A: I can’t really say. I think it’s natural that as a fandom expands, the most palatable takes will become the dominant ones, and any unpopular criticism / trutherisms will be pushed to the fringe. I can see why some people thought criticism was toxic and truthing was intrusive, but truthfully, I don’t think it reflected any poster’s moral character. I’m not involved in mcytblr anymore, so I don’t know exactly what the state of the current fandom looks like.

Q: Do you ever find yourself missing 2020-2021 MCYTblr? If so, what do you miss the most?

A: I often do miss that era of my life. Truthfully, I miss the attention and (infinitesimally small, microcosmic) cultural import I had. There was an exciting thrill that came with getting notifications every second of the day — that’s not an exaggeration either. I liked having people leave deranged asks in my ask box, or ask my opinion on some random streamer micro controversy, or people asking me when the next chapter of my fanfic would come out (lol). I, of course, miss the other elements of being in an active fandom — the fanfics, the fan artists, the familiarity between blogs,

However… I also know I was mentally unhealthy during that time. I was isolated, so it was fun and exciting to be an ultra-micro celebrity, but at the same time, I took it way too seriously. Because I painted myself as some sort of moral guardian, the great Intellectual Critiquer of content creators, I was terrified to make any bad takes… which, ironically, I made a lot of. I had painted myself into a corner both being dteam critical and (unfortunately) a genuine dteam stan at the time.

Q: Several in-jokes have lost their context (jewge, ancap dream, tradwife george/dream, homophobic dream and sapnap, republican dream, mega milk sapnap/george, etc). Would you like to provide their context, for archival and media literacy purposes?

A: Here’s a rundown for all of them!

“Jewge” was actually sparked by warpedfungusonastick, which I helped popularized. There are a few old videos where George’s friends called him jewge, and that combined with his ashkenazi last name led me to speculate he was jewish — for what its worth, im also jewish. Unfortunately, I think those videos of baby jewge have been lost to time. But nonetheless, that spawned a mini-jewge fandom, which jewge fanart!

Tradwife George and dream… I don’t know even know. I think the idea of “male wives” was trending on general Tumblr at the time. There was already this fandom idea of Dream being a “needy top” and George being the sugar baby/bitchy/uninterested love interest, which I just transplanted onto the idea of tradwifery. Dream as the doting tradwife, George as the unloving tradwife, etc.

Republican/Anarcho-capitalist dream — Ah, this one is kind of embarrassing!! I was really into jreg, and I was, for the first time ever, exposed to political ideas outside of the generic democrat vs republican dichotomy. I was really fascinated by right-wing libertarian or “ancap” ideology, and I already saw dream as a kind of self-made capitalist success story. At least, that’s what he portrayed himself as. My critique of dream and calling him ancap/republican was kind of a baby’s first leftism moment for me… but I nonetheless think the jokes were mostly funny.

Homophobic dream / sapnap — They gave me republican vibes. Dream especially, with some of his older, unsavory tweets, reeked of edgy gamergate humor.

Megamilk sapnap — I didn’t really pioneer this one! I believe this was mostly a Tumblr user who I think was pandascanpvp, or it was Plates gayminecraftmen (or both).

I’ll use this opportunity to catalogue a few more obscure wormweeb-pioneered AUs.

Homestuck au! I think I imagined it as dream = dirk, George = Jake English. Colournotfound (rip gone but not forgotten) did so much of the sustaining of the au.

Scott Pilgrim au. Dream = Scott, George = Ramona. Fundy = envy. This one got fan art!

Q: What was your physical, mental, and emotional reaction when kaceytron pulled up your crit post on stream?

A: Baffled. Excited. God, I wish I had clipped it! I still have a screenshot. I desperately hoped she would read it to dream (who joined the stream later). That felt like I had peaked as a cc stan blog… having a C-list streamer pull up my post on stream. Literally google searching “dream queer baiting” because she didn’t even know what she was accusing him of, or how to support her argument.

Q: Is there anything else you particularly want to share or talk about? 

A: I was just want to say that although I don’t watch or support any member of the dteam any more, I still am proud of the cowboy au. It’s kind of a relic of the time (especially the gnf and Maya mxmtoon stuff). The general response to the fanfiction was… wow!! Everyone who commented on that fanfiction was so exceedingly kind. People even drew fan art. I am still happy to have written something that, despite the inherent cringeness of it, positively affected so many people.

[odessa-castle]

NLTS might just be one of my favorite fics of all time. The characterizations, the banter, the tension - it's all 10/10 (and I loooove all the little nods to Shakespeare).

Your Cazador is truly menacing and has such a looming presence for a character who doesn't appear much on the page. You mentioned in an earlier ask that you deliberately built Cazador and Astarion's dynamic on the emotional language of intimate partner violence (which I think is so heartbreakingly accurate). If you feel comfortable, could you talk a little more about that choice, why you made it, and/or how it shaped your writing?

Beyond excited for part two!!

Thank you so much! NLTS has come to mean a lot to me, and I'm glad this story means something to other people, too.

As far as Cazador and Astarion's dynamic and IPV goes, I think I did mention in the tags that I had a lot to say on the subject, and I do, but I'm going to put it under a cut for fairly obvious reasons. Read on at your discretion.

So! Vampires. You can do a lot of things with vampires, and with the sire-childe relationship in particular. I'm not going to do a whole scholarly review here or anything, but suffice to say that it is inherently, to some degree, a relationship based on power and control, and the transgressive nature -- the blurring of boundaries between parent and lover, the interplay between sex and death, etc. -- is part of the horror and part of the appeal. Also, biting is sex, and the issues of consent arising from the former are extrapolated onto the latter. Again, there's a lot of room to play with metaphor here, depending on the story you want to tell, but if it's not kinda fucked up, then why even bother?

Astarion and Cazador's relationship is likewise one where a number of different lenses can come into play, depending on what you're interested in exploring. I do think one of the draws of Astarion's story is the way that it takes certain conventions that pop up around vampires and strips the layer of metaphor away -- Astarion's sexual abuse is explicitly a part of his story in a way that I (and many others) didn't expect to see presented so frankly. And I knew I wanted to do some of that metaphor-stripping myself when I wrote this.

The fantasy/supernatural elements let you really go to some extremes when you're writing about Astarion's abuse, and Cazador is awful enough that almost any horror you can come up with is something he'd plausibly do to Astarion. And there are some evil geniuses in this fandom. The things I've seen people do with torture and body horror, with mind control, with sheer sexual depravity -- chef's kiss. I love you guys. I don't think that's where my strengths as a writer necessarily lie, though, and it wasn't quite what I wanted in terms of either theme or tone for this story. I wanted both Wyll's and Astarion's loneliness and low self-worth to be grounded in something really emotionally recognizable, in part so they could recognize these things in each other, and I wanted to show off the...quieter moments of their trauma, almost. The critical voices they've internalized; their self-censoring and self-deprecation; the things they've normalized that really shouldn't be normal, actually.

I'm not going to get too deep into the nature of my interest in IPV. Suffice to say that I have both personal and professional experience in that area, and that like all artists, I bring pieces of myself into the things I create. What I can say is that I don't think I've ever encountered an IPV survivor who didn't experience some form of emotional abuse as part of that power and control relationship, and that a lot of survivors have talked about how that can be the hardest thing to recover from, because it gets so deep inside your head. It warps the way you view yourself; it distorts the way you see the world. You carry your abuser's voice with you, whether or not they're there. And it's not easy to make it go away. It's not easy to make the emotional conditioning go away, to disentangle the survival mechanisms you've had to develop once you no longer actually need them to survive. These things hold true with, like, basically every form of ongoing abuse, they're not necessarily unique to IPV, but they're a big part of IPV nonetheless. (And they're certainly things we see from a lot of the companions in-game, Astarion very much included. Gotta love how his immediate response to you initiating the breakup conversation is "did I do something wrong?")

I do know that discussions of the exact nature of Cazador's abuse of Astarion can get, uh, fraught. I do think Cazador's sexual objectification and possessiveness of Astarion are, well, text, and Cazador certainly uses other people as proxies to enact sexual violence on Astarion. I didn't include, and don't plan to include, any outright sexual contact between them on-page because I think the point comes across clearly enough without it (and because jesus, enough stuff happens on-page in NLTS, there needs to be a balance if I don't want to turn the story into one giant downer). For me, the crux of their dynamic lies in one of Astarion's first descriptions of Cazador: a man obsessed with power -- not political power, but power over people.

Cazador might think of himself as rational and in control of his own actions and passions -- a lot of abusers will tell you that they're just being logical, you're the one bringing your emotions into everything -- but in reality, he is obsessed with his control over Astarion. When he feels like that control is being threatened, he sees it as a direct assault on his own self-image and power and masculinity, and he takes it out on Astarion to convince them both that Astarion still belongs to Cazador. I don't think Cazador wants Astarion's love, necessarily; I don't think he knows what love actually is, anymore. I think he wants Astarion's true submission -- and he's never going to get that, because Astarion obeys him out of fear, not trust, and trust is what submission actually requires. (As is choice, which is also a thing that Cazador does not and will not give Astarion.) Basically, the closer Wyll and Astarion get, the more Cazador gets caught up in these dominance games, and those are ultimately him pissing on a lamppost rather than him accomplishing anything.

And I do write him as fixated on Astarion to a degree that he isn't with the other spawn. He doesn't really care about Dalyria taking Branwyn as a lover, for example, because whether rightly or wrongly, he doesn't perceive that as a threat to his control over her (or as a threat to his own self-image); he could tell her to stop, and she would, without him needing to compel her obedience. But Cazador doesn't feel as secure of his ownership over Astarion, for good reason, and that plus his sexual obsession makes him act Totally Normal about all this.

In NLTS, Cazador is, generally, not reacting to what Wyll and/or Astarion are actually doing. He's reacting to perceived threats to his ego, whether or not those threats have any basis in reality. Cazador breaks Astarion's rib because he wants to break Astarion's rib. It's not even sensible as a punishment, but it makes Cazador feel powerful, and it makes Astarion feel worthless. As I mentioned in an earlier post, he makes Wyll's gift to Astarion all about himself instead because it's a way of soothing his ego, and because, at that point, he's still thinking of Wyll as an easily-controlled dupe. Things change once Wyll duels Lord Andoril -- Cazador's proxy and mouthpiece -- over Astarion, and wins. It doesn't matter what Astarion did or didn't do. It matters that, to Cazador, someone publicly challenged his ownership of Astarion and got away with it, and Wyll is the kind of threat that (at this point) Cazador can't simply have killed and be done with it. The fallout for Cazador's business prospects isn't great, sure, but it's also not really what he cares about most. But really, the thing most getting in the way of Cazador's political ambitions in this story is...Cazador himself. Even if he'd tell you otherwise, because Cazador's not exactly self-aware.

This is also the point where Cazador being low-key annoyed that Wyll wants Astarion for something other than his body turns into Cazador becoming Big Mad about that fact, because Cazador cannot handle the idea of Wyll laying claim to some part of Astarion that he himself doesn't have access to. (Yes, this is a really fucked-up way for him to frame the fact that Wyll, you know, sees and values Astarion as a person. But well, Astarion is not and never has been a person to Cazador.) On some level, Cazador isn't wrong about this, either -- Wyll genuinely is a threat to his control over Astarion. But because Cazador is a petty, jealous little tyrant of a man who doesn't understand love, he catalogues this threat as Astarion offering his submission to another man. Astarion having his own autonomous wants and desires is, obviously, not something that crosses his mind. When Wyll is exiled, Cazador fully gives himself over to his inner green-eyed monster, and abandons all pretense of self-control or calculation. Cazador forcing Astarion to enjoy -- or well, take physical pleasure in -- his own rape is, among other things, Cazador trying to brute-force Astarion's submission.

The thing about power and control relationships is that the abuser never really feels secure in them. Nothing is ever good enough; everything can become a new ego threat. Cazador is alone, and he's miserable, and really, he's made himself that way.

One commenter really hit the nail on the head in Chapter 14: I was like "oh now wyll won't be a useful political tool," as if Cazador was some kind of evil political mastermind, rather than an evil horrible monster. There is, indeed, an evil political mastermind in NLTS -- but it's Enver Gortash, not Cazador Szarr. Gortash does more in half a chapter than Cazador does in basically the entire fic. In NLTS, Cazador is not a monster because he's a powerful and terrifying supernatural being -- although he is also that. He's a monster because he's a jealous tyrant who can't see past the tip of his own nose. And honestly, I think that makes for a scarier villain.

[underrated-adversaries]

Have you, like me, been submitting your favs to every poll you see only to pretty much never get in because you're, like, the only one to nominate them? If yes, then you've come to the right place!

This tournament is for underrated characters & ships (they will be separate polls within this blog) that you really want to have a chance but they just can't against the Doctor Who's and Critical Roll's of the world, all you need to do is submit them in one of the attached forms which you will choose based on what you want to submit. After that, when we've either reached the week mark or rounded up an appropriately daunting amount of submissions, whichever comes first, we will have prelims which will probably be the longest lasting round. All and I mean all submitted favs will be in the prelims pretty much no exceptions unless they break the rules. Speaking of!

~The Rules~

(sorry they're so long)

• While the media the favs come from doesn't necessarily have to be underrated the fav has to be. For example Ace Attorney in it of itself wouldn't be underrated but characters could be, you could theoretically submit Ron DeLite and have him get in but you couldn't necessarily submit Edgeworth and have him get in.

• That being said I will make some caveats for things from super popular media like Star Wars for example because while a character could be underrated when somethings that popular its bound to have a ton of people know it no matter how underrated or obscure, I may be swayed with some convincing but don't get your hopes up.

• Some things I will inevitably have to ask about, because while some things are super popular I inevitably will not know something, so if I ask about something that should be common knowledge please don't make fun of me.

• Harry Potter isn't allowed here both due to the super popular media clause and also because I'm trans and don't want to worry about that stuff in my silly little tumblr tournament.

• Don't go ham on threats no matter how joking please.

• I am one person and also I've never done a tournament before and therefore know practically nothing about setting up brackets, please take this into account if you want to criticize however I end up doing it.

• Feel free to send propaganda in my asks! Also please tag me in it! Reading propaganda is my favorite part of other tournaments!

Additional notes - Macaque, Sun Wukong, MK, Mei, and Red Son from Lego Monkie Kid are all confirmed entrants as is Sebastian Debeste from Ace Attorney.

Confirmed ships are Shadowpeach, Spicynoodles, and Chimera also from Lego Monkie Kid if you want to submit other characters and ships from Lego Monkie Kid go right ahead!

Mod is @melodemonica

Character Form

Ship Form

Since a lot of other blogs seem to tag other blogs for reach I'm just gonna tag my favorites - @powerpolyculeshowdown @autismswagsummit @angerissuescompeticion @i-need-to-fuck-that-old-man @qpr-competition

tags are in order: underrated adversaries - main tag/for character polls, adversarial relationships - tag for ship polls, olly commentary - pretty self explanatory just olly's (the mod's) commentary, underrated advertisements - propaganda tag, askversaries - ask tag, alternate adversaries - other polls

[sleeplessdreamer123]

Fanfic Idea! (Modern Lucemond, Where Lucerys writes smut)

Lucerys was a smut writer and he was proud of it. He just didn't tell anyone from his family because gods would it be awkward to know they read his smut, especially since most of his male leads happen to have long white hair and have either heterochromia, with a purple eye and a blue eye, or an eye-patch, while his partner would usually be a young person with brown hair and eyes. Yes, he definitely didn't need his family to know he's been crushing on his uncle and using his very image to write about every single sexual fantasy he ever had. So he kept quiet about the online books he already published in a pseudonym, and just said he was a slow writer whenever they ask.

Aemond, however, happened to be a fan of his books (unbeknownst to Lucerys, of course) because although most of the sex scenes happened to be unrealistic at times, it also happened to have a lead character that described his nephew perfectly, being railed and dominated by another character he relates to. So much so that he was getting suspicious.

Next family dinner was at Rhaenyra's home, so Aemond excused himself and took the opportunity to snoop around Lucerys' room, finding his laptop and being greeted by thousands of tags about sex positions and bdsm rules. Along with confirming his suspicions about his nephew writing sex books about them, he also happened to read a draft of Lucerys' newest book, and decided that he should...help his dear little nephew in his new project.

Lucerys was sent to check up on Aemond because he was taking an awfully long time, only for Aemond to open the door to his room with his laptop reading excerpts from his new book. All because he forgot to close the freaking tags.

He was ready to get on his knees to apologize and to beg his uncle not to tell the family about his dirty little secret, but instead of criticizing him and calling him a disgusting, dirty slut (he might have enjoyed that), Aemond offered to help him. Write smut. By doing the deed. By dancing the tango. By actually fucking him to know how sex actually works.

Lucerys was hesitant, until Aemond casually said they could also ask Aegon (aka the loudest, loosest mouth of the family) for helpful tips on...smut writing. Since he was a slut himself.

So Lucerys was roped into letting his uncle fuck him. For his book. And he's not enjoying it. At all. Really. He doesn't enjoy it when his uncle rails him. He doesn't look forward to it at all.

(Except he totally does).

[miithriin]

Full thread here.

Context: The actor of the character Arondir, from the series The Rings of Power, Ismael Cruz Córdova revealed that he had to hired an on set therapist to deal with the racist backlash he faced. He also states that his Paypay was hacked, people found out his address, his friends got nasty messages on he himself got death threats.

And of course the #RespectTolkien crowds is loosing their minds again, claiming that all of this is bullshit, he is lying and they won't believe it until he shows 'evidence' that the racist backlash he faced actually existed.

Maybe they should go and check their own posts. (Source post.)

Some time ago when the first images of the Lotr Magic the Gathering Cards were shown and people were livid because Aragorn was black, remember how someone went ahead and "fixed" the art and made him white. There was also a black cosplayer who was got hate for his cosplay as a guard from Numenor because "there are no black people in middle earth!! 😡" And now this. I am really fucking tired of people in this fandom spewing racist bullshit under the thin veil of "providing criticism" and "preserving Tolkien's legacy" and it annoys me off even more how the majority of people either actively ignores it or even goes on to support these people

Also, this isnt an invitation to talk about how much you love/ hate the the Rings of Power. Literally not the point of this post

In addition; if you feel the need to discuss with these people, don't tag Ismael in it, because he has asked specifically to be left out of stuff like that.