#polycules would solve so many shipping problems

[th3-r4t-k1ng]

Listen, im just saying most shipping problems can be solved by being a multishipper and polyamory.

[minetteskvareninova]

Minette watches Medici, part 21 (The Holy See)

-Objectively, this episode wasn't nearly as good as the previous one. Subjectively, it was the best, and that was for the one and only reason: Caterina fucking Sforza.

-Those two things aren't as disconnected as you might think. Caterina honestly felt like a bit of a deus ex machina. Yes, I know Riario being an ungrateful bastard who treats her like shit was set up very well over the previous episodes, so she doesn't technically qualify, but like... For all their efforts, the Medici's victory is ultimately trough no real contribution of their own.

-Well, at least it turns out to be relatively hollow, or at least causing more problems at the moment than it solves. No, really, I actually liked that part a lot! Lorenzo needed to have been taken down so many pegs I cherish every defeat of his, and this one was just written so damn well! Like, the fact that his victory was hollowed by the exact same thing that allowed said victory in the first place (a.k.a. the papal armies not being payed)? POETIC CINEMA

-I am not sure about the portrayal of Caterina from a historical point of view. Like c'mon, this was one of the toughest women of the renessaince, and in this show she's worried about her peace and her unborn baby and being chummy with Clarice... *sigh* Look, man, I just thing we've had enough "silk hiding steel" types in this show, okay? Why can't we have one single unapologetic bitch, or even like a more masculine-leaning type of lady? Also, in history, her husband was at point living in the town Forli, which he ruled along Imola, and they had like six children already, also also he was killed four years after his uncle's death by some political rivals, who sought the Medici support, but never got it (so much for real Lorenzo having a "consumed by vengeance" arch, lol).

-Well, at least as far as "silk hiding steel" types go, she's one of the best ones around. In fact, purely as a show character, I actually love her? Plus, she clearly likes both Lorenzo and Clarice (their fireside chat was lowkey gay and don't you dare dissuade me of that notion), so she can join their polycule, which - nice! Once I get around to writing that Clarice x Lucrezia D smut, I will add her too for sure. For real, tho, I would be madder at every woman in this show wanting to fuck Lorenzo if he didn't actually earn it by looking like Daniel Sharman.

-This show really wants to tone down the depravity of renessaince papacy; a doomed endeavour if I ever saw one, and also you have literal Girolamo "the anti-renessaince papacy activist" Savonarola in your show, the fuck are you doing?! And Carlo's "minor bribery is fine, but larger-scale bribery isn't" stance is pretty stupid, like dude, I hate to break it to you, but once you enter this game, you're in it to win it. Like, the rival candidate is literally supported by Lorenzo's greatest enemy, and he has the chance to destroy said enemy right then and there. Of course, in the previous episodes, Lorenzo had a lot of opportunity to forgive Riario and difuse the tensions between them, but that ship has sailed years ago.

-Honestly, Caterina's secrets are hillariously tame, like I get that this show tries desperately to not be The Borgias, but seriously, what do you mean SOME of the cardinals have mistresses and take bribes?!

-Then there's Giulio's forgiveness towards the murderer of his mother, which... Actually kinda works with both his show character and IRL Clement VII. being a surprisingly decent dude for a renessaince pope? BTW if you've seen The Serpent Queen, the character played by Charles Dance is basically Giulio decades later. Of course, it wouldn't be me if I didn't point out that while Giulio did want to join the church since young age, his career would be limited (as was Carlo's) by his illegitimate birth, which is why he at first tried a military career as a member of the johannites. He only became a priest after Lorenzo's death, but whatever.

-THE SAVONAROLA PLOT THICKENS. That's all I have to say about it. That part of the episode was pretty awesome, no notes.

[hiccanna-tidbits]

WHAT UP @ohlooksheswriting HAVE AN INDIRECT CONTRIBUTION TO HICCUNZEL MONTH

SO I think my main reservation about shipping romantic Hiccunzel has always been the fact that I stan Hiccanna and Jackunzel so hard, like. I simply cannot look at Rapunzel x Hiccup and NOT go “but what of Jack and Anna??? Are they now fated to not find true love??? They’re gonna be so sad D:”

So the obvious solution all along was to have Hiccup and Rapunzel date Anna, Jack, AND each other, EZ

And HiJack and Annunzel are pretty solid gay ships, so like??? It kinda WORKS???

And thus the RotBTD discord came up with Hijannunzel, which might well be the most blursed ship in existence XD Legit poly ships are too powerful. Once you start shipping them, it’s like “oh, this solves SO many problems??? And also if they all got married and got a tax break they’d be OP as hell??? And having a 3-way support system of awesome people to kiss and cuddle and hang out with would be SICK???”

ANYWAYS! I decided to style this so that I put a thing I think each pair would bond over between their pictures because I think it’d be neat!!!

Rapunzel & Hiccup: Art!!! He sketches, she paints, and they definitely draw each other and nerd out over different art styles together!!! Catch them on an art museum date any day. They’ve also definitely made art of each other, and the rest of the polycule. Rapunzel & Jack: Outdoorsy winter fun!!! Like Rapunzel is literally ALWAYS down for a gigantic, Extra snowball fight and you can’t change my mind. Punz just really likes being outside (I mean, she was locked inside for years, can you blame her???) and appreciates all the seasons, but like...overappreciates winter because she figures it could use the love XD Anna & Jack: Sweets!!! I am 1000% convinced both these kids are sugar junkies. Anna has a preference for chocolate obviously, but Jack will devour anything with a sugar content Tooth would absolutely not approve of. They also both adore hot cocoa, and you can’t change my mind. Anna & Hiccup: Dragons/animals in general!!! Anna’s such an animal whisperer in Frozen 1, like. She gets three ducklings to jump into her hands, befriends Hans’ horse, vents to her own horse, and sees a guy talking to his reindeer like a buddy and just immediately starts doing the same thing. Ain’t no one convincing me Anna wouldn’t think dragons were the coolest shit ever, and she would try to (perhaps unwisely) befriend every single one.

Couldn’t include in this one, BUT ALSO:

Jack & Hiccup: Flying and thrill-seeking!!! Like they both seem to be hardcore adrenaline junkies, if Jack letting the wind blow him around every which way and Hiccup literally inventing a funky winged device so he can fly with Toothless is anything to go by. These two would really love flying and exploring together! The adventures AND the poor decisions would be unparalleled XD Rapunzel & Anna: Flower appreciation!!! They both dun got big springtime vibes, and would probably be constantly picking wildflower bouquets for each other. I feel like they’d get into gardening, and try to befriend all the pollinator bugs--even the scary ones XD Love that they both have floral motifs, and Anna’s is a sunflower while Rapunzel’s is...a literal sun flower XD Also love the idea of them bonding over girly stuff in general, and doing things like dress-shopping and meadow-frolicking together :D

Anyways, they all share an apartment and have movie and video game nights where they all get into a cuddle pile on the couch and it’s wholesome and fantastic. They also like to crash fancy parties paired off and then stage dramatic “reveals” where they get caught cheating on each other and make a whole production out of it, solely to be chaotic. Also to snack on fancy little cheese blocks on toothpicks and crostini. Have a great rest of your night.

Pic credits available upon request!

[astro-break]

Right back at you: shipping, idol games, and Saint Seiya. :p

Ho boy i have opinions. I have so many opinions. Especially on the idol side lmao.

Shipping:

obligatory shipping is fiction and tag all your things correctly. Write what you want and ship what you want bc again shipping is what you think would look good together not what is canon or healthy. what you ship is not reflective of who you are, yeada yeada

1) shipping slash parings as a fixed pairings isn't a sin. yes irl the concept of fixed top and bottom is kind of ridiculous as an attempt to heteronormalize queerness and many couples switch but shipping is fiction. you're allowed to break away from reality as long as you're aware that gay couples irl don't conform to one set role

2) Shipnames like spiritshipping was cute even if it was hard to tell who was being shipped. confusing as all hell yes but still cute

3) Idk if this is unpopular or not but shipping is not inherently romantic? Its relationshipping, relationships come in all shapes and forms. You can absolutely pair characters together in platonic, familial, whatever manner you want. Shipping is not automatically romantic! (though please do tag your shit properly... i don't want to read a platonic relationship when im browsing the slash tags)

4) Polyculing a ship definitely doesn't solve every problem but it sure makes them more interesting!

5) My absolute favourite shipping trope of all time is when person A is head over heels obsessed with an oblivious person B, full on stalker, possessive, and pining so much you could probably grow a whole forest from it. What person A doesn't know is that person B is equally obsessed with them. God i love that so much, just two people so obsessed with each other that they don't care about morality, they are each others morality.

A slightly different but no less tasty flavour is that person B knows and enables person A for non-malicious reasons.

Idol Games:

1) idol games don't need to be dark to be fun please stop making everything dark and edgyTM sometimes we just need good fun songs and thats it

2) on the same vein but idol games with dark themes doesn't automatically make them good. I7 succeeded because it touched upon how fan culture is inherently toxic and the pressure that idols face both on a corporate and public front. Enstars was good because it tackled very real themes like self belonging, the aftereffects of bullying, unresolved trauma and the many many vicious cycles that arise from it, and capitalism. Just inserting dark themes willy nilly without care for what topics you're addressing will get you nowhere and just makes you seem silly and an asshole

3) The plot of forming an idol group to save your school is cheesy and overdone. Forming an idol group to save anything is just such a dumb plot point

4) a very enstars specific gripe: the sakuma's are vampires or at the very least use vampirism as a coping method to deal with a dominant genetic illness. They aren't human, never have been never will be.

Otherkin/copinglink in my hot takes? inconceivable

Other character hot takes include: Kanata is a fallen god who has lost his followers and those who try and worship him are doing it in a fundamentally wrong way thus never restoring his power. Only Madara knows how to properly worship Kanata but refuses to do so as he wants him to live as a human. Kuro is absolutely a dragon youkai and simply didn't want to think up of a convincing name and named himself dragon oni to throw everyone off. Mika is a discarded doll who is learning to be human. Sakasaki practices modern magick and does incorporate science in his magick, yes those two can exist together. The idea that flowers rejuvenates Ritsu actually makes sense? Flowers contain sugars and water which can be accessed through biting and are known to have herbal properties which would theoretically combat whatever genetic ailment they have. Rose petals specifically are associated with collagen and skin care which would be a perfect option to use in order to combat sunsickness. Flowers are also equated with youthfulness so yeah. it makes sense why flowers could act as an emergency store for vampires

5) idol game fandoms suck. plain and simple. you either get fanwars, character discourse, or kinnies and neither of them are things i have energy to deal with

Saint Seiya:

1) saint seiya was good in the sense that it was quintessential shounen. There is so much shounen gumption stored into those bronze boys its not even funny. Makes for a great template tho (its why every new StS series keeps adapting/remaking the 12 temples and nothing else...)

2) Poseidon and the Marina did very little wrong. Most of the Poseidon arc was kickstarted by Kanon who had a very valid reason for waking up a grumpy primordial (possibly cathonic?) god from his sleep. The other marina were protecting their home and following orders much like the bronze saints. It just so happens that their goals didn't quite align

3) Kuruma really doesn't do justice to any of the characters. theres so much potential in everyone to be really interesting but he just... doesn't deliver.... Silver saints, the secondary bronze saints, female saints, just those alone carry so much potential but nope. nothing is ever done with them. Marina and Spectres too. Even asgardians have so much going on that it is fascinating just to speculate on what they could do and what they could bring to the table.

4) Half of the StS experience is creating a whole cast of OCs for the universe. I feel like its a rite of passage at this point and its half of what makes staying in the fandom fun

5) If you don't treat the netflix adaption as an adaption and just as a standalone show its actually not that bad. y'all just want to hate