#previous recs

[xxplastic-cubexx]

Hi!! Your Cherik is so good and gorgeous 🤩🤩 If you don't mind wanna try to draw some Fall of X Cherik please?

thank you so much !!

i have a couple of ideas relating to the fall of x period specifically since theres. A Lot i wanna play with, so i hope this lil thing may be a satisfactory start :]]

and the obligatory bonus:

[hedwig221b]

NEW STEREK FIC REC MASTERLIST PAGE

[go to the page]

So, I have found out that tumblr only allows 100 links per post the hard way. Spent an entire day crafting a separate fic rec page for you, so nothing will stop me now! Enjoy!

[lambmotifz]

i consider u wincest expert of all time. u understand them. that being said do u have any more wincest fic recs?? esp ones w bottom sam/dominant dean?? ive read ur recommendations and u have the best taste ever so i am so curious

thank you! so glad you enjoyed the recs. honestly i don’t think i’m a wincest expert at all, i just prefer canon power imbalanced wincest over their fanon (fixed) dynamic

fics ♡

heart of worms by Ninni (sam sheds his baby skin during an autumn in detroit. angst ensues.)

skirting the issue by formalizing (sam hates every second he’s not the sole focus of dean’s attention. careful what you wish for.)

i feel it way down (way down) by formalizing (dean eventually gets out of hell, but angels have nothing to do with it. sam is willing to make a lot of exceptions to his morals and principles in order to have his brother back.)

howl series by trojie (if you could only see the beast you’ve made of me.)

you take my self, you take my self control by Wallissa (salt lines, gun oil, iodine, fifteen cups of water a day, five hours of sleep, his spine is straight with responsibilities. there’s so much, so much to do, to see, to take care of, but you can’t clean a shotgun in the dark, can’t translate latin texts, can’t patch up worn jeans.)

more fic recs

list i list ii list iii

[phantomchick]

✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩

Jason Todd/Batfamily/DC Comics

Tsunami by doublecheckyoself

The last thing Bruce expects to find at a scene with an unresponsive omega in heat is his long dead son, heat-sick and desperate to go home to a place he can no longer name. ...That is exactly what he finds. Platonic a/b/o my beloved.

Ad Infinitum; Modified by familiarities (twistsandturns)

Tim is hunched over his computer, bouncing between a report for B (Batman, not Bruce) and a spreadsheet for B (Bruce, not Batman) when Jason stumbles into the cave. If it weren’t for the fact that Jason had been in a somewhat good mood lately, Tim probably would have been a little more concerned about this fact. Still, it’s weird when, instead of ignoring Tim’s existence like he usually does, Jason walks over to him directly and says, “I'm in a time loop and I don't know why. Fix it."

> MYLING by vfx_batman

The myling comes into existence when a child is unwanted and therefore killed by its mother. They are forced to roam the earth until they could persuade someone (or otherwise cause enough of a ruckus to make their wishes known) to bury them properly. -- paraphrased from the 'Myling' wikipedia entry. -- What happens when the Myling learns of his victim blaming, and learns he will never be laid to rest?

good by okayokayokayokayokay

He says nothing. He does nothing. “It’s like they erased him completely,” Oracle says. Cass disagrees.

good by impravidus

Bruce isn’t foolish enough to mistake this man for his son, for Jason, but everything about him tugs at his mind. Jason was four foot ten, barely scraping a hundred pounds on a good day. Despite his twiggy form, he had round cheeks, clinging to the baby fat from his adolescence. His curls were unruly and his eyes were the brightest blue, always scrunched with delight or mischief. This man is everything Jason was not. He’s tall, broad. Every feature is sharp and defined with a strong jaw and muscles that nearly rival Bruce’s own. His eyes are dark, almost dangerous, his mouth set into a frown. He is in a worn pair of dark jeans and a blood stained leather jacket. There is nothing about this man that should make Bruce think of Jason, and yet there is.

Too Much Fucking Salt by pez_the_platypus

A rural housewife instinctively understood the law of quantity into quality. Add a pinch of salt to a soup and it tasted better; add one pinch too many and you ruined the batch. Jason had been in limbo for a year and a half, trusting things would get better even though everything just seemed to be getting worse. It was something small that set him off, but really, it was an accumulation of a lot of things that led to this. He was going to kill the Joker.

IRIS Log #1548 by deadchannelradio

A Disclaimer From Your Friendly Neighborhood Oracle: The following is a transcript of Patrol Communications Audio written by state of the art transcription technology, IRIS (Interpretation of Recorded Intelligence Software). IRIS was created to provide easily searchable records, automatically, and eliminate the need to transcribe each patrol audio log manually. That being said, IRIS is still experimental, and may not always be entirely accurate. - (01:25) Red Hood: (Mild static) (Out of breath, slurred) You motherfuckers. Put some fuckin- Batman: (Shaking) Red Hood- Red Hood: Shut up. Put some fucking respect. On my name. Start fucking copying me. I just got thrown fucking. Um. 40 feet. Into a fucking uh. What's it. Ditch. I'm still fucking conscious. Batman: Red Hood, do not move, we're en route- Red Hood: What'll I win if I stand up. Batman: (Loud) Do not stand up.

forgive us(as we forgive those) by anD_nOw_tHe_wEaThEr (CryMeARiver3465)

"There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well - or ill?" ~ East of Eden, by John Steinbeck. Jason Todd's one lasting salvation relies on the fact that he has never once killed an innocent person, even for all his pit-maddened attempts. He didn't kill Tim. He didn't kill Bruce. He didn't kill anyone who didn't deserve it. Not once. He's killed the deranged, the murderers, the child traffickers, the rapists, the abusers, the Joker. None of those people are innocent. His voice still shakes when he prays. ~~~ Aka: Jason Todd is the only Catholic in his family. He is also the only murderer. Good times are had by very few people in this fic. I just want the brainrot to cease.

seventeen going under by BoneRot19

"Where's your pops?" Terry shouted down the sidewalk. "Dunno," Jason said. "Haven't seen him in a week. I stopped goin' lookin' for him a long time ago." Hell, Jason was happy with the man's absence. Maybe it would stick, this time. "He owes me fifty bucks." Terry, closer to Jason now, was still shouting. Jason spun around and started walking backwards. "What'a'ya know," he said. "Me too." -- AU where Jason is seventeen, his parents are alive, he works nights at a convenience store, and everything is about to go to shit.

Rising from the Ashes by Teen_Angst5127

Jason wakes up back in time and decides now that he is back in he is going to change a couple of things and keep others the same.

Admirer by AstraEntropy

The many, many times Jason stirs Slade’s interest, and the one time Slade finally tells him about it. When the kid turns to him with a victorious, impish grin, something warm and light swells in his chest, and Slade finds himself returning a fond smile before he’s even aware of it. Oh, the realization creeps on him once he’s back alone at his hotel, he’s down bad.

For morale! (Employee of the month) by Katzynia

Explicit sladejay. The Knight is even more irritable then usual. Slade will get to the bottom of it, and fucking fix it.

Your Boy That Was, Your Son That Is... by Lynlee494

Pre-Under The Red Hood. Jason witnesses a gala attendee sneak something into Brucie Wayne‘s drink. And it‘s fine, obviously. Jason is going to have a good fucking laugh and know he can continue his business tonight in peace with Batman out for the count. He could even go abduct the bird or set the manor on fire! He can even - he can… ...watch Bruce get lead out of the room by a stranger. Fuck.

Star Wars

The Good He Seeks by orphan_account

After killing the Emperor, Darth Vader agreed to serve the fledgling New Republic and destroy the last true-believers of the Empire he had once helped create. But he's living on borrowed time.

Tortured Soul by Blackdragon0665

After his death Darth Vader was merged with his younger body during the clone wars. And now he has to learn to live in a world that he had destroyed. All the while trying to save the past to prevent the horrible future he lived. Not easy to do with everyone suspicious of him after his collapse. This is an Anakin Skywalker redemption story

Naruto

All Roads Lead by Macchiato_Dreaming

Generally speaking, one does not personally meet the King of Hell after death unless one has fucked up tremendously in life. Someone becomes no one becomes a prince in the Land of Wind. Tensei of Sunagakure has a hit list, a god of the underworld breathing down his neck, and plenty of time to figure things out while he tries to make this house a home. Hopefully.

Boku no hero academia

Dustverse by CeiaOfSilence

In a world where All For One was killed long ago, Shimura Tenko is going to be a hero. Her parents might have thrown a wrench into her plans, but she refuses to give up. No matter what it may cost her. But becoming a hero is more than just fighting villains. It means standing up for herself in a world where she's labeled as dangerous first and a person second. It means inspiring others, confronting evil both overt and banal, challenging power structures, and lifting up her fellows. Tenko can destroy anything she touches. But can she build a better world out of the ashes?

Avatar: The Last Airbender

suffering will be your teacher by soopsiedaisies

Zuko falls asleep on the evening of his official coronation, when he’s twenty-one-years old and has finally reached his majority. Zuko wakes on the morning of the Agni Kai with his father, eight years earlier. This is annoying for several reasons, like the fact that the War is still ongoing, that he has zero friends, and that Ozai is not in jail. It’s time to scheme.

Pride and Prejudice

Mr. Bennet Travels Through Time by AMarguerite

Exactly what it says on the tin. Mr. Bennet is actually a time-traveler from the 1990s, who ends up in Regency England and profoundly hates it. Featuring: quite a lot of fake science, some real history of science, and rather a lot of jokes about Uranus.

[obstinaterixatrix]

Bibi is a bubbly girl who’s deeply obsessed with Peter, the cutest boy at her high school. So when she sees a random girl talking to him, Bibi invites her to a sleepover with malicious intent… only to have a surprisingly nice time! That’s how she makes friends with Amy, a shy and sweet girl who agrees to help Bibi get with Peter. But as they cook up all sorts of love schemes to win Peter over, Amy’s place in Bibi’s heart grows bigger and bigger by the day…

now that I Love Amy has been licensed, I wanted to make a rec post for it…! here’s an f/f webtoon about high schoolers in the 🇺🇸USA🇺🇸. the author has stated that she loves yanderes and her goal for this series was to write a happy ending for a yandere, so it’s a zany and dysfunctional series with a lot of love for its own characters.

being a love letter to yanderes, I’d say the series keeps fairly lighthearted (no actual present murder) while having darker gags/plot elements (references to past pet death, past abuse, past attempted murder, past actual (?) murder, ableist language, etc.). the tonal dissonance is done pretty well in my opinion, plus the art and writing is super charming. check out the introduction to amy

bibi doesn’t even see her as an actual person at first, so the relationship development is really fun with how she gradually swaps targets from ✨the most popular boy at school✨ to some random gloomy gal lmao

great balance between vaguely threatening and genuinely heartfelt

super charming and unique, if you like any of these panels you’ll probably enjoy the series so support the official release~

[chericheribaby]

Beyond The Horizon

Chapter 1. Magic 🪄

Jegulus | M | 8.4k | 1/12

Magic comes from the earth. At least that's what James has told his son all his life. But when the magic turns against them and starts poisoning the planet, the last thing James expects is to go on a journey to find a new home, lightning years away from his family, from his son. Even though he's not alone, he doesn't know if Regulus Black is really someone he can trust to have his back on this mission. But as James will come to learn, not everything is as it seems. For instance, he has been wrong all this time. Magic doesn't actually come from the earth. It comes from the universe.

✯✯✯✯

An Interstellar AU no one asked for lmao.

[friedfriedchicken]

I FELL ASLEEP BUT HERE'S MY @secretsolenoid-revived FOR @artandwritingwithscorpion, based off of their fanfic 2>1!!! I was SO happy with this piece because I really loved their rarepair and then I got matched with them?! WE STAY WINNING!!!!! Please please PLEASE go check out their Chromia/Perceptor fics because wowie these bots sure do make me ill when I think of them <3

[beedragony]

i am once again thinking about spideypool!jerejean

[whirlingstarz]

Ok perfect example of what I was looking for literally smacked me in the face and I’m going to share it:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/41462832/chapters/103978983

(It’s a part of a series but works as a stand alone if you want, imo) PLEASE support them oh ma GAWD I loved their fic

[dragonshoardofworks]

Ecto-Implosion Time! (Extra)

...So. This one should be a surprise for @ikiracake as well, because I didn't tell them that I made it in time for the end of @ecto-implosion's posting week.

꒰(@｀꒳´)꒱

I still have no idea how I managed to make this one so pretty because. I like it. So Much???

*goes feral*

Here are the links for the previous posts with related chapters, thank you again Ikiracake for Imploding with me! (Also, thanks @teacupsandstarlight for rubber ducking me on the art side! 😘 )

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Fic

(One last time, Trivia under the cut!)

This, y'all, was the whole reason I made the Team so large in the first place.

The freaking Ginyu Force Pose.

I regret NOTHING!! ꒰(@｀꒳´)꒱

That being said, now that the fic and this drawing are both finished, there is one last trivia about the color choices I used.

The Team has all the primary and secondary colors among them:

Tucker is Yellow

Wes is Orange

Val is Red

Sam is Purple

Jazz is Blue

Everyone is Green (skinned)

[dw-flagler]

In this post, I will attempt to calmly, reasonably, and in-a-good-faith-manner argue all the points raised by tumblr user @library-bat-girl in the following posts. I am starting a new thread so as not to further destroy the original poster, @skitterenjoyer's, tumblr notifications. Worm (+MHA) spoilers ahead. This will be a long post.

Firstly, I would like to apologize on the worm fandom's behalf. We will not engage in ableism of any kind. I sincerely hope that this was a singular incident and @skittersdrippygirlcock will be better about this in the future.

"MHA has better characters,"

My Hero Academia's primary achievement, I think, is managing to make many decently well rounded characters in a fairly short time-span. It certainly has very good visual character design, with easily memorable character designs, like Mina Ashido or Tsuyu Asui. Most of Class 1A is shown to be more than single-note gimmick characters. For a story with such a tight schedule, and only so much page real-estate, that's impressive! For instance, a character decidedly outside of the main cast, Fumikage Tokoyami, is shown to have more to his personality than "is an edgelord," showing a humility and friendliness that is highly against-type. This is very different than a lot of its peers, especially in Shonen manga, where side characters (and sometimes even main characters) are never more than their tropes (see Fairy Tale, One Punch Man*, The Seven Deadly Sins, or Black Clover). My Hero Academia does clear that bar, by making side characters little more than their tropes. This is to say nothing of the primary cast, who, again, is largely defined by tropes and easily slotted into standardized interchangeable Shonen roles. Rival, Love Interest, Rival but Nice About It. Additionally, MHA has an uncomfortably sexualized main cast, for one composed primarily of minors.

This is compared to Worm, in which many characters are fully realized and could have been the protagonist (and often were in older drafts of the story, due to Worm's 10-year development hell). Every character that gets an interlude, and most that don't, all have fully realized interiority, traumas, and wants. In fact, this is one of the major themes of Worm. Every character, from the protagonist Taylor, to characters so minor they're seen only once (see Damsel of Distress, Dauntless), to major antagonists and monsters (see Jack Slash, Bonesaw) all have their own story, even if this is never shown on-screen. There are no "side characters" in the same manner as in My Hero Academia, because every character is a protagonist of their own story, and not in a trite "life is so beautiful" way.

Taylor isn't the center of the universe, there's an entire world outside of her 3-block bubble. The mechanism by which all characters get their superpowers means that the mere fact of having powers implies this about them. Even the seeming exceptions, aren't (see Alexandria, Garotte). Taylor is a good character. I don't even know how to elaborate on that. She just is. Worm does not have the character Minoru Mineta.

"a better plot,"

What... what is the plot of My Hero Academia? For the life of me, I can't seem to recall. I can tell you the general formula of most of the arcs for the first ~2/3rds of the story. Class 1A goes to do a hero high school thing, like do rescue training, or on-the-job training, or on-the-job-training, or on-the-job-training (they do it like 4 times for some reason), the League Of Villains shows up (even when it's seemingly not the league of villains it actually is the league of villains) they fight about it, the class beats all the villains, and Deku beats up strongest bad guy and also breaks his bones. Repeat step 1. But like. What's... the plot? The League of Villains is evil and wants to kill people and do bad stuff. They explicitly do not have greater motivations. There's generally themes of passing-on-to-the-new-generation, so there's Tomura Shigaraki as the arch nemesis to Izuku Midoriya, just as All Might's Nemesis is All For One. Eventually they fight a big fight about it and I stop reading because I find out about Worm. From what I understand (I have not read the conclusion) the series ends without addressing any long-running questions, wrapping up any character arcs, or concluding anything in a narratively satisfying manner. As if severely rushed.

Worm, there are maybe 15 main stories going on simultaneously, which are all tied into the final confrontation with Scion. The most obvious is Taylor's and the Undersiders' story, about taking over Brockton Bay and defeating Coil, which is a smaller part of Coil's story about taking over the bay, until their confrontation with him in arc 17, when it supersedes Coil's story, and then intersects with Cauldron's story, the Traveler's story, the Case 53s' stories, the Wards' story, all of it, in arcs 18-19. This is one example. A great deal of attention is spent making sure the reader knows that Taylor, the Undersiders, Coil, all of them, are bit players in a very large game. Despite this, it's never hard to follow, because Wildbow, while lacking some of the more flowery prose, manages extremely well at making his stories easy to understand.

"I feel like even people who like Worm can agree that Worm is not the most consistent piece of fiction ever written. The disjointed way it was written meant that emphasis was primarily put on 'What Wildbow thought was cool in the moment', [sic] and the story RADICALLY shifts gears every time a new arc starts."

What? Huh? Worm is extremely consistent. Like. 1.1 to E.x. It's, like. Not disjointed? Oh my god, are you talking about interludes? Is that what you mean? The interludes shift gears? Because that makes sense. It's one of the hardest things about worm, yeah. It's gripping! The interludes are a great idea to expand the world of worm, but the problem is that taylor's story is so intriguing that stepping away from it to focus on something else is hard, no matter how individually interesting. I want to read about taylor's escalation spiral, not the travelers! (As opposed to My Hero Academia having random escalation and de-escalation between arcs with no real explanation. We're reading about lives-on-the-line battles with child-slavers and then move to playing on a playground with little kids? Best I can think of is that this whiplash is intentional, but this is never communicated to the reader. Worm does not do this. Any de-escalation is met with the explicit understanding that this is merely a period of calm before things get even worse). Taylor's story wraps up in an extremely narratively satisfying fashion, following her story to its logical conclusion. There were so many ways it could have been avoided, but there was really only one way that it could have ended.

"better worldbuilding,"

This actually offends me. MHA could have had great world-building. It doesn't. Every potentially interesting bit of world-building is backpedaled out of or stopped before it could get anywhere. Or it's just never elaborated or expanded upon. Everyone having a superpower could have been cool, but the implications of this are nonexistent. The reasons for this having no real implications, that being the banning of quirks, also has implications that are also immediately backpedaled out of. It's been hundreds of years since our time, yet life is exactly the same. Nothing ever happens. Endeavor is a cool concept. I like Endeavor. his existence implies such interesting things about the world, how important hero ranking is to these people's lives, that he would create this horrific system of domestic abuse to try and get to the #1 spot. What does this say about this system of heroes that operates like a popularity contest? It could have said a lot. It says nothing. What does the League of Villains, a league of people who call themselves out-and-out villains, who base their ideology in opposing this system of heroes, say about society? Nothing. On purpose. Worm does something with this. One Punch Man does something with this. My Hero Academia puts it in the story, and lets it sit, unused, for a decade.

Worm has... unique world-building. Because it's both good and bad at the same time. Worm's #1 feature is its world. It's brilliant, full stop. Triggers, The Birdcage, the PRT, Exclusion Zones! Why does the status quo exist? what does it say about that society? What does it say about our society? Why hasn't society radically changed from how it is in our world? This is explained. This plays into the themes. The story wants to say something about this world, and so it does. There are characters whose stories explicitly delve into these themes that are set up in the worldbuilding, like Armsmaster, or Battery, or Bonesaw, or Coil, or Piggot or Alexandria or Taylor herself or Brian or Lisa or ANY OF THEM THEY ALL DO THIS. Sorry.

Anyway, the bad part is that the actual world is not well built (and is kind of racist). What's going on in Europe? There's a 3 blasphemies! a 3 what? never explained. What's going on in Asia, aside from Japan? China is a monarchy for some reason. Why? It's never elaborated on. India gets a little bit of elaboration, we're told its different but not how it's different. Wildbow uses machine translation wrong and names some guy caliph of dogs. This is like worm's #2 problem honestly (#1 is Amy). Wildbow tries to make the implication of a well thought out globe without actually making a well thought out globe.

"stronger themes,"

It really doesn't. As I said in the worldbuilding section, MHA makes a point out of not saying or doing anything. I don't know if editors made Horikoshi walk back the more ambitious story beats or what, but there are multiple points in the story where the author pretty much looks you directly in the eye and goes "This Story Isn't Saying Anything At All Even Though It Looked Like It Would. Lmao."

Worm has lots of themes. I think Armsmaster/Defiant's story is my favorite. His entire character arc (which is fully realized despite him being a background character for nearly the entire story) has a point to it. It says something. It's misanthropic and uplifting simultaneously, and manages to feel like it earns both. It's a shared theme with Bonesaw/Riley's story, explored in two different ways.

"Meanwhile MHA establishes an actual overall theme/message right from the start that expands and develops throughout the story. The worldbuilding is informed by the message, which informs the characters arcs and the people they become by the end of the story."

I notice that you never actually say what that message is. What is it? Like, for real. I'm not being confrontational or anything, like what is the message? Cuz' I can't think of one. My Hero Academia, at its very core, is a defense of the status quo. Much like its world-building, but much less forgivable, because it does do something new and unique with its world-building. MHA could have done some extremely interesting stuff with its early implicit critique of heroic society as shown with characters like Bakugo, or Shigaraki, or Endeavor, or Overhaul, or Midoriya himself! It just doesn't! It doesn't do stuff that Worm does do!

Worm does have a message. It has a lot of messages, actually, some that the author disagrees with somehow. Prison abolition, for one. We know Wildbow loves prison. Anyway, the big one is in the subtitle: doing the wrong things for the right reasons. Taylor's constant spiral of escalation, her dwindling attachments to her friends and greater focus on treating herself like a soldier is prevalent, and it is to be avoided. Taylor isn't a sin-eater. They don't exist. From what I remember, this is sort of explored in Deku's character arc for a short period of time, but much like everything else in MHA, it is backpedaled out of.

The funniest is "don't text and drive" though.

"Just on a basic level the way that the audience is meant to feel about Taylor oscillates wildly between being directed to think of her as a misunderstood victim of circumstance, or history's greatest monster."

That's kind of the point. Like. the audience isn't meant to look at Taylor the same way throughout the entire story. It's meant to change as she changes. Taylor's opinion of Taylor changes. The mistake here is saying it "oscillates wildly." it doesn't. It's a slow and steady change for the worse, as Taylor gets more violent and starts throwing away greater and greater parts of herself to become more like a robot and less like a person.

"But a bigger issue in general is tone. It's very focused on being dark and gritty and edgy, and it makes the mistake a lot of consciously edgy media does. IE: it thinks that all it has to do to be smart is be bleak and/or graphic. It doesn't really try to say anything, in fact it contradicts itself throughout the book as I mentioned before, it just throws in extremely graphic scenes and content periodically to remind the audience how fucked everything is."

Did you read the boys and think it was worm? What? It's not being smart when it's bleak or graphic? I actually personally like the endbringers or the slaughterhouse 9, and not because I like watching people suffer. These things exist for a reason. It's not being dark for the sake of being dark. The heroes could stop the slaughterhouse 9. We see that, when they almost stop the slaughterhouse 9 (it's explicitly shown that they are stopped from destroying the slaughterhouse 9). The question then becomes why don't they? It's a grim, brutal calculus, and one that wasn't worth it. That's the point. The Endbringers are different. It's not until arc 27 that they're really explained. You could either read them as a criticism of Eidolon or of ableism, honestly. I mean, it wasn't intentional, he didn't create them on purpose, he needed something to fight, because without that he's nothing. His powers are all he has.

"Worm spends so much time trying to be edgy that as with a lot of edgy media the edginess loses all impact quite quickly and becomes sort of cringe."

I don't really think so, but like. Okay. I don't think this is a reconcilable viewpoint (none of this is really but this especially), so like we're probably gonna have to agree to disagree. The only thing I can really think of as edgy for the sake of edginess is Amy's arc. But even that's not really true. It's meant to be an utterly avoidable tragedy that could never have been stopped because of the people involved. Much like Taylor, actually. Amy could have stepped back from the brink, but she didn't, because Amy could never have done that, and nobody else was willing/able to help. It's supposed to be a thing where you sit back and think of all the tiny ways this could have easily been avoided, but wasn't.

"When body horror happens it still has impact because it's not happening constantly."

I mean, I guess. But like. I never got desensitized to the body horror in Worm. It hit pretty consistently for me throughout. As opposed to MHA, where it was usually walked back by the end of every arc. I never felt much tension or suspense because it felt as if there weren't actual consequences. In Worm, when Brian was strung up on his nerves, it felt disgusting because I was fully aware Worm would explore the ripple effects of this. It felt entirely possible he would die there, or never recover, because Worm didn't pull its punches. MHA did. This is a matter of opinion. We'll just have to agree to disagree about it.

"But most importantly - you root for the heroes because the world actually seems like it's worth saving."

that's just, um. sorry. I'm really trying here. That's just. Uh. Dumb. Do you root for Batman cause Gotham is a nice city? Everything's worth saving, that's, like, at its most basic what the concept of a superhero is about.

"Not only that but MHA simply does villain protagonists objectively better than Worm."

um. No? There straight up aren't villain protagonists in MHA. The villains are the POV characters for, like, one arc? You know what, here's a good spot for it. It's stated throughout the story that Shigaraki and the League of Villains have a goal, beyond just death and destruction. They're here to stop the corrupt society of heroes (that MHA hints at the existence of before backpedaling away from), and bring about a fairer society. But then, and this part pissed me off, one of the characters, I think Bakugo, says: "you're just using that as cover! you just want to kill people, you have no noble goal!" and shigaraki's like "dang you caught me." and then it happens again with Deku! Because My Hero Academia is allergic to saying something. Nope! They're villains! No moral depth here! They're Villains, We're Heroes, Go Put Them In Jail.

This is opposed to Worm, where- "The characters of the villains and their origins are used to highlight the flaws in the Superhuman society"

"Most of the villains are only villains because society failed them in some way, and the specific ways in which that happened become big plot points that then play into the future arc of our heroic characters."

I had to walk away from my computer for this one. It's hard to be civil. It's really hard. Polite and reasonable.

So Worm is about this. To even say this without a shred of irony makes me thing you've never once read a single word of Worm and are doing this purely as bait. Or you've read all of Worm and are doing this purely as bait.

"They're actually extremely complex in a way that ends up being fundamentally important to the overall story - where in Worm the villains are either based heroes fighting a corrupt system or they're histories [sic] greatest monsters... until they're presented as heroes again."

I think I get it now. I really think I do. You're not supposed to agree with all the characters. Like. Worm is inconsistent, in that it follows the perspectives of inconsistent people. Of course Triumph and Armsmaster don't agree on what is right! They're different people, they have different perspectives!

"See. Worm fans keep saying "This is Bait." It's not Bait, you all are simply ridiculous and obsessed with this series to such a degree that you feel compelled to say "This is Bait" instead of just... ignoring it, because you have no actual counterargument."

Perhaps worm fans are inclined to believe you posted rage bait because you brazenly walked into another fandom's post and wholeheartedly proclaimed that the thing they liked was Stupid Idiot Bullshit For Fucking Morons, and refused to elaborate until prompted, at which point you said several things that are demonstrably false about Worm.

"Your only response to anything I've said is pedantry, bigotry, and deflection. If it was obviously just bait why are you engaging?"

Well, I'm engaging because I've been in a foul mood since I woke up this morning. Also because you, again, said some very rude and patently false statements about a story that I really enjoy and find narratively rich, even in its faults.

"MHA's characters do fall into archetypal shounen character roles - but they are all given a solid amount of focus explaining why they are like that and developing them into something bigger."

Again, as I said, it's a genuinely impressive feat to have an ensemble cast like what My Hero Academia has, and give so many of the characters a degree of depth, with such little manga to work with. I think worm does it better, but worm doesn't have to be economical about it. MHA does. The problem I have with this statement is that it becomes a question of scale. How much bigger? They're no longer defined by their tropes, instead defined by their opposition to their tropes. It's still a one-note character, you've merely changed the note from C to C sharp.

"so almost every member of the cast has an arc that either develops them past the person they initially seemed to be or explains why they're like that."

This is probably my favorite part about MHA. They do have arcs! I love ensemble casts! it does a much better job in this than all of its contemporaries, even One Piece. However, they are comparatively simplistic arcs that all follow a similar formula.

"I've heard people say MHA is neocon or pro-establishment but the story literally concludes by showing that society HAS TO FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE or the same problems that created the villains in the first place will keep happening. The entire time skip specifically focuses on the fact that for eight years the main characters have been forcing change in the world and addressing the issues the villains brought up."

Now, I'm going to be clear. I stopped reading My Hero Academia around chapter 275. I don't know the exact number, but it was the latest chapter in ~mid 2020. I would occasionally attempt to reread, in an attempt to catch up, but give up around chapter 200 out of boredom. I don't know exactly how the story ends, but I have read ~2/3rds of the story. I feel this gives me a pretty good understanding of the general tone of the story, unless it wildly changes tone at the 3/4ths mark, which you have explicitly said it does not, as it is extremely coherent and consistent. Therefore, I believe I can state with some degree of confidence that MHA does not do that.

I would certainly believe that it tries (and fails) to SFP it, but SFP does not promote a fundamental societal change. That's the problem. Strong Female Protagonist was willing to come up and say that Alison lived in a fundamentally unjust world, even if it was never willing or able to offer real change. And hey. You do what you can. I sincerely doubt My Hero Academia is even willing to call its world fundamentally unjust, from the 200+ chapters that I did read.

"In the case of the actual main characters, they have extremely comprehensive character arcs."

Adding this behind the last point just so that I don't have to reiterate I haven't finished the book. I am, however, very much not inclined to believe the actual main characters had extremely comprehensive character arcs.

Which plays back into the initial theory that ANYONE CAN BE A HERO.

man, spider-man did that better (not a real argument, but like, spider-man totally did that better). Not least because midoriya specifically could not become a hero were it not for all might giving him a power.

No, the Villains don't get happy endings,

Why not? Why do they go to jail, even the ones who changed and wanted to redeem themselves? Endeavor never goes to jail. He did some horrible stuff. He's redeemed himself in the eyes of the story, right? Anyone can be a hero, right? So why not them? Why haven't they redeemed themselves in the eyes of the story?

You may wish to turn this back on me and ask why doesn't Armsmaster go to prison? Because he's similar in some respects. But worm never calls prison justice. (for some reason, even though wildbow totally loves prison). Prison is punitive, a tool for those in charge to control those it manages to capture. Maybe some deserve life in the birdcage. Many don't. It doesn't matter. Because the birdcage isn't a tool of justice. It's not meant to be. it's a box to put the uncontrollable capes in, until they can be used as meat shields. So Armsmaster doesn't go to prison because the story says explicitly there is no point to it. But MHA? MHA says there is a point to it. Endeavor needs to go to prison if he wants to atone. He's escaping justice every second he's outside.

I have actually read Worm, and for the first half to two thirds I loved it.

Weird. That's exactly how long I really enjoyed MHA. Not, like relevant, to anything. Just odd. I mean, I don't actually dislike MHA. I think it's fine, actually. It feels like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to me. Funny (when Mineta isn't around), bombastic, and a good time, even if I don't think it's super thematically rich.

I'm not coming at this from the perspective of someone who has never seen any of the merits of Worm, I'm coming at it from the perspective of someone who really liked it, gave it a fair shot, and was eventually disappointed when it ended up not tying together right.

See, this makes me more inclined to think it's bait, actually. since you said "Oh yeah. MHA is published. MHA's been an ongoing publication with a large following for ten years, in a notoriously competitive industry. Now this might seem kind of unimpressive, it's a very low bar to clear I know. But it's one Worm hasn't, so. I dunno, I'd say that's fairly objective. Now you may think "Yeah, but Trash fiction gets published all the time." And that's true but again - Worm hasn't. The worst piece of fiction you can think of got published and Worm didn't. You wanna be an asshole about this? The thing you love is so mid that it was self published in 2013, couldn't get picked up for professional publishing until 2019 and as far as I can see has stayed in development hell since then." in your previous post. Sure, perhaps we can say you were pissed at the time, but "the thing you love is worse than trash fiction, an altogether nothing piece of literature that isn't even worth the paper it would hypothetically be printed on" does not strike me as the words of someone who "really liked it, gave it a fair shot, and was eventually disappointed when it ended up not tying together right." In fact, going back through your other statements on the story, you seem to have genuinely disliked it from the very beginning, on grounds of being too edgy (which I can fully understand the logic of): "IE: it thinks that all it has to do to be smart is be bleak and/or graphic," thematically incoherent: "It doesn't really try to say anything, in fact it contradicts itself throughout the book as I mentioned before, it just throws in extremely graphic scenes and content periodically to remind the audience how fucked everything is," and utterly devoid of purpose or meaning. "When it does introduce new lore that new lore is almost always overly convoluted and acts as a catalyst for things happening, but not really things happening that play into a wider theme or message. It's just "Oh and here's this team of god-level serial killers who are gonna string a dude up by his nervous system." Like yeah, cool visual, but what is any of this actually saying?" This does not sound like a ringing endorsement of the first half of Worm to me. In fact, this sounds like you hated every second of it.

"And frankly given the number of comments that are just people saying "Bait" - I don't think any of y'all have engaged with this in a fair or honest way"

I'm going to reiterate on my previous statement. I like my hero academia. Capeshit is my favorite genre, it probably always will be. They're my favorite genre of story. While I find the themes—or lack thereof—extremely frustrating, I still think of it as fun. I gave it a fair shake. I would probably really enjoy the ending if I didn't have a reading list that was 300 books long.

[rhythm-of-lesbianism]

something about tv sitcom slowburn straight couples that activates the part of my brain that actually cares about romance. i can't stress enough how specific this is. straight slowburn book? yucky. straight slowburn couple in a fantasy or scifi series? no. but if there's a man and a woman and they want each other so bad but refuse to admit it in a 20-minutes per episode comedic series with too many seasons i will eat it up

[teruel-a-witch]

Fic rec

Vanilla Twilight (1700w, e) by Black_Calliope

“At times it hurts,” he whispers, so softly that it’s barely audible. And Danny watches him, imprints the shape of Steve’s lips in his memory as Steve says it, lets it pour out of him like one of those powerful torrential rains that usually precede the rainbow, words slowly dripping from his heart. “I love you so much that it hurts,” he says, forehead pressed against Danny’s.

It’s scary, the intensity of it, how Danny suddenly wants to guide one of Steve hands on his own neck, wants to feel strong fingers tightening around flesh, cutting his air, giving a new meaning to the word love as he knows it, so they can rebuild it together, shape it into something new and just theirs. “I know,” he exhales against Steve’s lips, wrecked. “I know.” 

~~~~

this is one of my go-to rereads, a lovely little romp in the ocean, so beautifully and evocatively written, it's practically poetry in prose, painting vivid pictures and impressions, highly recommend this fic and this author, steve and danny's love for each other seeps through with every word (and it's also scorching hot 🔥).

[phantomchick]

✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩

You Need Prayer (I Guess It Couldn't Hurt Me) by WonderlandPup

Jason opens the door, stepping out of the booth like someone emerging from purgatory. His eyes are red-rimmed, and too sharp. Too tired. Too green, where the blue should be. “Doesn’t it ever piss you off?” he asks suddenly. “That people like me are expected to come back from things like that and still be good?” Slade looks at him for a long moment. “You came back. That was enough.” Their eyes meet, and it steadies something in Jason’s chest. A moment’s respite, from being a monster. “Let’s get back to it.” OR Jason is still learning why he came back to life; Slade will go with him through Hell to show him he's worth it.

> FORTITUDE by vfx_batman

Bruce is waylaid when he finds an adolescent beside the Batmobile clutching a detonator. [Red Hood: Lost Days #2 Canon Divergence.] Very little surprises Batman. He has helmed the defence of Gotham for fourteen full years and counting, and over that time he has faced all manner of threat. City takeovers; plagues, earthquakes, transportation hijackings, brainwashing—nights that canvass the entire spectrum of the human experience. Over time he has come to expect the horrors. Has learnt to brace in advance and prepare his stomach for the novel reveal of another sick trick. But tonight it is not some new depravity that startles him. It is instead the ingenuity of a figure cloaked in fabric imperceptible to his cowl’s thermal scanning. An invisible man creeping away from his car. Batman laughs and the stranger whips his head in his direction.

To Rise by scandalsavage

Jason finds out the Penguin killed the asshole who donated sperm to bring Jason into the world. He lost his friends (his family, really). Got beaten to a bloody pulp by the man he considered his true father (considers, really, even now). Then Roy dies, and Bruce is being Bruce, and something's gotta give.

Requiem by scandalsavage

He blinks as his brain takes it’s sweet fucking time processing what his eyes are seeing. “So you’re me, huh?” the kid says, rocking back and forth from his heels to his toes like he can’t sit still for three god damn seconds. “That’s pretty cool. You’re huge.” Jason hates him. He hates those stupid fucking curls. He hates that stupid bubbly energy. He hates that fucking earnestness, that eagerness to please. He hates that goddamn costume. He hates the way the kid clings to Bruce’s shadow. He despises that hand Bruce has on his shoulder.

Left Out by alittlefoxedup

Jason is not invited to help with Gotham mayhem. While contemplating life, Deathstroke shows up to collect a bounty.

why im not a bad brother and why damian owes me a trix yogurt and why bruce also owes me a yogurt for keeping a secret from alfred and why alfred owes me a yogurt bc i had to deal with this mess and JEAN SHRIMPTON WANNABE CAN GET ME A SPOON by Anonymous

that one fic about the trix yogurt

give me a dream by envysparkler

Bruce wakes up to see someone creeping into his bed. resurrected-Jason-returns-to-Gotham au

he’s your hero, forever your son by uncorrectgrammar

The memorial case glows in the cave. Jason walks in its shadow.

Bruce still keeps the past on display, even as the present slips through his fingers.

The Magicians and The Red Hood by LeantheBean

The first sign that something was really wrong came when Jason found a half-digested body in the dumpster outside his safe house. The second sign was when the Marvelous Madame Mishka—the polish fortune teller from 26 B—left a flyer on his door offering him a free tarot reading. The third sign was when he got a text saying that Batman wanted to talk about new patrol routes. Nothing to do but ignore Bruce and try to figure out what the hell is eating the good folks of Crime Alley. Neither is going to be easy, but only one has the makings of being deadly. Jury's still out on which. Or, in an attempt to avoid his family, Jason Todd fights extra-dimensional horrors, lets a chain-smoking magician crash on his couch, and accidentally gains a reputation for competence among Gotham’s magical community.

In Another Life by LERDM

In another life, Jason finishes his training with Ducra and actually takes the time he needs to come to terms with what has happened to him. He comes back to Gotham, not with murderous intent, but with the goal to make sure that no Robin is ever killed again. Basically, Jason protects the crap out of the Batkids while Bruce drives himself somewhat insane trying to figure out who the newest Gotham vigilante, Ghost, is.

floor collapsing, falling by Pinknight22

Tim thinks Jason is immune to fear toxin, so the best (and only) plan they have to combat Scarecrow's new formula is to test it on him and get an antidote ASAP. Jason might've been bluffing when he said that the poison didn't affect him - but he'll be damned if he lets Barman see him scared. Again. So he accepts. Unfortunately, the Lazarus Pit's unexpected side-effect forces his family to live through his most painful, terrifying memories with him. And none of them know what to do.

lurched like a stray to the arms that were open by Mysana

Jason wakes up whole and alive. He doesn't know what to do, so he goes home.

Wings over Gotham

“Eighteen years ago, an earthquake ripped through Gotham City, and in the aftermath, instead of helping, the US government sealed the city under a ‘quarantine’ and left them to die. Two years later, when signs of life and even civilisation were still detectable inside the shattered city, the government sent the military in to reclaim and rehabilitate Gotham. Gotham has not forgotten, and they have not forgiven either.” An AU where an altered version of No Man’s Land happened while Bruce was in his late teens/early twenties, and Batman was born in the hellish crucible of a trapped city that was left for dead and then violently retaken. Gotham may pretend to run by mainlander rules for the sake of those who would have died otherwise, but under the surface, Bruce, Jim, Leslie, Ivy and Oswald and their pack keep their own council, and look with jaundiced eyes on the mainland. This story also includes a very non-traditional variation on A/B/O, where alpha and omega are expressed via psychic auras and not biologically, and those same auras allow platonic empathic connection between pack members.

I need your love before I fall by ThaliaJackson

Jason's plans are all coming together nicely — Black Mask is poised to release the Joker, Batman is more suspicious than ever, and Jason has the Replacement right in the sights of his scope — it's just a shame he shoots through Nightwing's grapple instead. OR AU where Red Hood hurts and then kidnaps Nightwing instead of Robin

we're all ghosts by envysparkler

Tim is woken up by Bruce Wayne's screams.

Son of Shiva by rafamarkos5998

An AU about Jason being Lady Shiva's son, and yet being something else. He dies again, comes back to life again, and decides to figure out what to do next.

a million dreams by CaptainOzone

A magical something-or-other pulls Mary and John Grayson from their final performance, mid-fall, and spits them out into a grungy alley with no idea how they got there, much less why they're there now. And to make matters worse, Dick is nowhere to be found.

Insane or not insane- that is the question by AlrightWhatsAllThisThen

Jason Todd is back in Gotham. Not for vengeance. For justice. Armed with an MD and a decade of silence, he’s determined to put an end to the Joker’s crimes for once and for all. Reconnecting with his estranged family in the process is an unavoidable evil.

A Fractured Inheritance by hispnaicin

Jason Todd cannot accept Dick has changed. It goes against everything he believes is true.

CRAZY QUILT by medusaceratops

Bruce Wayne finds himself trapped inside of the newest innovation in interrogation technology. The real shame is that this technology just doesn't seem to work.

Naruto

in which shikamaru is an alien parasite and nobody minds by sunburnhurts

The thought that he doesn't belong in this world worries Shikamaru quite a bit. The thought that no one seems to mind worries him more. They really should be more concerned. What if he eats one of them or something? He'll just stay in the woods until further notice.

JJK

Back in 2006 by ioiites

Ah, the 2000s—a time when bullying was basically a national pastime, and everything was just outdated enough to make your skin crawl. So, after pulling some “selfless” (read: mildly performative– you just didn’t want the girl next to you to get the ick) stunt that got you shot in a library, you wake up in 2006. Engaged. To Naoya Zen’in. A walking, talking nepo baby with a superiority complex. Lucky you. One of the funniest self-inserts I've read, if you can get used to the whole 'You shrug' second person narration, it's a treat.

DP / Danny Phantom

Dream Lantern by Marsalias

Nocturne needs something neither alive nor dead, awake nor asleep, willing nor unwilling, something caged, but uncaptured, hungry, but full, complaisant, but steadfast, to light their way through the Dream Wilds to the object of their longing. They know just the thing. Or, rather, just the half-ghost. (Danny needed to catch up on sleep - but not like this.)

Marvel

And Then There's You by Sineala for phoenixmetaphor

Explicit Steve/Tony. Arriving home at the mansion, Steve finds Tony in need of some first aid. He provides it. Then he provides something much nicer.

[gayestcowboy]

mad because i ordered more business cards and they ended up being off center in a way that probably shouldn’t have passed quality control. maybe not quite mad enough to ask for a replacement but mad enough to use a different manufacturer next time

[runnning-outof-time]

K’s Reading List — JUNE

Hey there! Thanks for stumbling upon this reading list! I figured that as a way to support the lovely writers within this fandom that I’d compile a reading list of all of the stories I read over each month.

June was a wonderful month filled with incredible stories. Below is the list of stories that I read. I hope you will find some that you like as well!

As always, please make sure you heed to the warnings on each fic!!

@fallatyourfeet

No Negotiations - Tommy Shelby x Reader

@darklydeliciousdesires

Improper - Young!Luca Changretta x Reader — contains 🔞 NSFW themes!

Storm - Tommy Shelby x Reader Drabble — contains 🔞 NSFW themes!

Arthur Shelby Drabble — contains slight 🔞 NSFW themes!

Untitled - Tommy Shelby x Reader

John Shelby Blurb

@zablife

Nothing Gold Can Stay - Tommy Shelby x Reader, Aberama Gold x Reader

Stolen Kiss - Tommy Shelby x Reader Drabble — contains 🔞 NSFW themes!

John’s Return - John Shelby x Reader

@look-at-the-soul

A Night At Delux - Modern!Tommy Shelby x Reader

@shelbywhiterose

Mio Amore - Tommy Shelby & Reader , Luca Changretta & Reader

@brummiereader

Uptown Girl - Tommy Shelby x Reader (on-going series) — some future chapters may contain 🔞 NSFW themes!

@holacia3

Tommy Shelby x Magic-Time Traveler Reader - moodboad and blurb

@little-diable

The Devil’s Son - Cowboy!Tommy Shelby x Reader AU — contains 🔞 NSFW themes!