#so their relationship is not so negative imo. at least in this au

[jichanxo]

re: senseific, i don't remember if you've talked about it, but i was a little bit surprised that it was sawa who suggested kitakata as an advisor for amasawa. yeah it's been 13 years, and in the game their relationship is not particularly hostile, but i still wait from her the "fuck that guy" attitude towards him xD speaking of (and this, of course it doubtly would be The Theme, but will you talk about their relationship or just mention that stuff happened and they got over it? or not at all?

you all know the drill ↓

Considering the outcome of the Kusumoto situation in sensei au, I don’t think her feelings towards him would be so negative. He mishandled the situation at first, sure, but he realised it was serious, and I think he did everything he could to make things right. Of course, effort alone isn’t enough to make up for all the awful things that already happened because of him, but it must count for something, right? Kitakata was willing to admit he was wrong, presumably apologised, took responsibility, put in the work. I think Sawa sees that. That he’s flawed but ultimately sincere and trying.

Her impression of Kitakata isn’t wholly positive – she’s levelheaded and sees his flaws very clearly, especially now as his colleague (he’s prone to mess and disorganisation, and I see him as being kind of lazy and inconsiderate at times in his day to day). He perhaps doesn’t deserve her respect, and Sawa is definitely the better teacher, but I think her presence helps hold Kitakata to account. She expects quite a bit of him, and Kitakata knows this, wants to be the person that she expects him to be. Kitakata’s wish to change and do better is sincere, but I think he might slip back into old habits if he wasn’t diligent, and Sawa’s presence helps.

She certainly expects Kitakata to at least hear a student out when they go to speak to him, and she’s known him long enough to notice him with a mystery novel or two. Why not ask him to help the mrc? ...well, I dunno. I’m not married to the idea. But that’s the train of thought.

I don’t know how in depth I’ll go with those two, mostly because I’m approaching the Sawa-Kitakata relationship from the angle of Yagami seeing that there’s something going on there, but not knowing exactly what. So for the most part, it’s not going to be something that’s spoken about outright. But their relationship is interesting and I think it speaks especially to Kitakata’s personal motivations and shortcomings in a way that can’t be done any other way.

[moonshynecybin]

please give me all your thoughts about the Academy boys in this world, I am thinking about two of them right now :

— Pecco (who definitely knows he’s attracted to Luca, might be starting to realize he has feelings for him as well, maybe they’ve fooled around or maybe Pecco has been too scared to do anything yet) : I can’t decide which way he would take the whole thing and what he would focus on (either the good things and how that might mean he could have what Marc & Vale have in the open one day or the bad things and how the world sure isn’t ready for talented™️ gay motoGP riders so there is no way it would ever be okay for him) which has a direct incident on how he treats his relationship with Luca

— Bezz : 17 yo Bezz who obviously doesn’t hate Marc because this is 2016 but he’s heard Vale complain about him a little through 2015 and heavily through the 2015-2016 break and it might have influenced him a little but I think he would genuinely feels really bad and sorry for Marc (and how he was the most negatively impacted/compromised by those photos) and could tell him so, and also go quietly ‘I don’t know if I could ever do that’ [the whole going public thing] and Marc telling him he doesn’t have to, not if he doesn’t want to

forced coming out au and the academy boys.... my white whale.... no but literally!!! since its set in the 2016 season the academy is full of sensitive little gay teenagers at this point (pecco's like 19 luca is 18ish bezz is 17) and like.

pecco and luca were around for the good times initially but also the entireeeee divorce, so like it IS insane to them to see marc and vale making out in the paddock tbh. buttttt !!! theyve also seen how they were when they were friends, so they have the groundwork. its not ENTIRELY out of left field.. actually bc of this i think luca knows rosquez arent actually together (he sees he perceives he can tell vale is being weird) and he has um. inklings that things are unresolved and tense, while pecco (who is young and newer and doesnt know vale as well) thinks they are 100% together for realsies... which means LUCA is very aware of how this is a PR thing that his brother and marc have been forced into, while PECCO thinks the power of gay love is saving the day... so its a reversal of their usual dynamic a bit... like luca sees the pitfalls/violence of the situation and pecco is coming out of his shell, testing the waters, being cautiously optimistic for the future of gay riders in the paddock... i think once luca tells pecco that its fake it is. AWFUL for them ! pecco thinks its rejection (its nottttt) and all of that careful scaffolding of hope collapses. truly takes them way longer to get together here as a result. pining for MONTHS luca thinks he blew his chance and doesnt ask again...

and for BEZZZZZZ like. truly all i think about. i think without the years of escalating and calcifying rosquez tension to be absorbed by him he gets on with marc like a house on fire i really do. sublimated into the werewolf pack really fast they VIBE they are very SIMILAR they are insanely LOYAL they like their PEOPLE! so in my mind (like you say) bezz has some realizations and instead of repressing it, he decides to talk to marc (a lil less fraught than his HERO valentino i think) and marc nearly cries lol. it is honestly a very healing experience for them both ESPECIALLY marc after the trauma of coming out. like. marc thinks if he cant have his privacy and everything is awful with valentino at least he can do this for a young racer who reminds him of himself... very sweet imo

[sollucets]

rowan’s gmmtv2024 report:

hi everyone im back from my interview (i dont know yet but i’m hopeful, cross your fingers for me) and im supposed to take a nap before work but i have to yell a bit first you understand

(positives)

1. pluto……. oh my GOD

you guys dont get it i was Really into midnight museum june. i tried my best to watch a lot of things i really didnt like just for namtan tipnaree. i like her So Lots. and namtanfilm i just fully….. had no idea. absolutely none. but it works!! i love it!!! the plot is bonkers (your dead(?) twin was the girlfriend of a now-blind girl that you're lying to now?) and under normal circumstances i wouldnt be interested but namtanfilm Killed this trailer and i also know im going to have Bad second couple syndrome re: whatevers going on with ciize. i love ciize so much.

this was so so soooo good n unexpected . girls kissing onscreen at My gmmtv announcement? :') plus their bathtub scene & that princesses moment.. yeah. that fucks

2. my golden blood

photo proof of me going mildly ballistic about the rumors last week. i did indeed say a few unholy things shortly after this. and to have it be a VAMPIRE BL? gods save us all im going to be so annoying. i was a twilight kid you know it im going to shovel this into my face with abandon

im so down for vampire au fanfic main character princess gawin honestly. wanted by supernatural creatures for his sexy special blood! bridal carried! blood on his university top!!!! i love it i love it i love it

is this objectively a tad embarrassing? yes. are the special effects painfully cheesy? yes. do i care? no 💜

3. peaceful property

this was just so fun to watch the trailer :’) i really love the found family vibes i was getting plus the over the top ghost shenanigans. i’m a casual tay tawan enjoyer & i do really love jan (alex&nim / newjan in warp effect were very fun to me). the trailer felt very warm n fun and bright, so im down. im into it

4. the trainee

we are in “sure i’ll watch that” territory now instead of extreme excitement but i thought this trailer was really fun & cute. i love view, obviously, so the amount of screentime her character got was good for me, and im 👀👀 about those girls. and offgun’s relationship seemed really fun & genuine :’) this seems nice! dont let me down!

5. wandee goodday

i think this looks fun! its a higher heat but still silly, which suits, and it appears to have fake dating which is a weakness trope of mine. also this is one of my bingo squares (adult non-office bl) so yes absolutely ill watch this. thank you p’golf but Please can we get podd Something this time

(mixed feelings)

6. kidnap

i have notably dissonant emotions about ohm pawat (lets not get into it) but i do actually enjoy this kind of forced proximity plotline even if i fear what theyll do with the opening kidnapper/kidnapee relationship. i feel… Something…. about this? yes. something is being felt. there is hope for me here, maybe, perhaps. really though if they want to keep him they should give ohm a smiley role again someday. it feels like everything ive seen him in since bb is all…. violence generational trauma death etc (for the worse imo)

7. gemfourth kiekoi

i think they can do it and it’ll be cute... gemfourth suit aoki and iida well. its just…. i dont know, i have an instinctive ‘noooo’ reaction to this remake. i like kiekoi soso much and i worry a lot. it does not have the exact charm for me.

also for me i wanted something a little different out of gemfourth. they have the range. but again, i do think theyll do well enough with this? so i'm mostly just being..... idk. :<

8. we are

i will at the very least attend e1! but this is too many couples for me if im honest, and they dont seem to be gunning to do anything super interesting. i do love aouboom & i like pondphuwin a lot (i Love pond’s hair in this trailer btw bless) but …. im not invested enough to make it interesting on its own. and [pouty baby voice] i wanted aouboom leads

(negative but ill try to be brief)

9. ossan’s love (the most negative of them all. look away. im so sorry earthmix i love you)

you guys are going to give earth pirapat a fucking complex before he even turns 30. he BETTER be playing haruta (i know hes not). this is just so silly!!! gmmtv doesnt deserve to have this one! this is not right for so many reasons but the most important is that they have no actual correctly aged men. no no no i am so so opposed. and theres not even a trailer 😰 you guys cut that shit out

10. ploy’s yearbook

looks…okay, its giving 55:15 a little bit, but the filmjoong adopted siblings romance threw me so violently that i doubt ill even consider touching it. absolutely not, you guys. gmmtv failing to be normal about siblings yet again! even though i like several of these actresses a lot i really.. i cant do it. also..... is earth a high schooler or is he forty.,, i feel like they're gaslighting us somehow. pairing him with namtan will not improve this situation for me you can't get out of it so easy

(miscellaneous extra commentary no one asked for)

11. only boo (?)

this looks cute? but not in a way where ill watch it unless i have nothing else going on. also unless im mistaken... was that milkbook??? innovation. love it

12. high school frenemies

those boys should be being gay about it instead of whatever shit they're actually doing. very nearly gayer than some of the bl trailers. i do not like this kind of genre thing but viewjune are there so ill still at least consider it.

13. summer nights

incredible how little i can care about something so fast. i'm not like, seethingly angry or anything but it's incredible, truly, how fast any trace of interest dropped away

i dont have anything else to say about the trailers! i will not be addressing the music here as it pains me in many ways.

finally, the personal elephant in the room: no firstkhaotung at all :< you guys know what i am, so obviously i indulged in a little dramatics about it this morning but i do understand. there's a part two that we've now been thoroughly assured they'll be present in, and also they have a show that's actively airing right now, so i'm not too worried. i did sort of expect a minor role for one or both of them at the very least though? but if they actually get a break out of this i'll be happy. please rest boys

(also khaotung on school rangers is, objectively, hilarious. sorry baby they're gonna make you do tasks)

okay! that's all! perhaps nobody wanted to know this

[crayolacolor]

simon infinitytrain?

send me a character and i'll list the below things about them | accepting!

HELLO ANON. i do not know if you'll ever see this because it took me ten years, but here i am, answering you.

FAVORITE THING ABOUT THEM:

fun fact: simon infinity train is the reason i have a disclaimer about me getting attached to tragic antagonists in my pinned post. so you can probably make an educated guess what i like about him.

he's just. such a well written character. i love how his negative character development was contrasted against grace's positive character development. i love how the writers did a really good job of making him infuriating and sympathetic at the same time.

i'll go more into my thoughts on him in a later section, but yeah, the tl:dr is he really just is my character type hahaha.

he's just a really complex character and imo the writers nailed that.

LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT THEM:

okay well, this answer changes depending on if you mean from a writing perspective or a 'him as a person' perspective. from a writing perspective, 100/10, no notes. i can't think of anything i disliked.

from a PERSON perspective. episode 6 makes me want to murder this man <3 i want to put tape over his mouth every time he speaks in that episode. it's somehow WAY worse than when he's just straightup being an over-dramatic anime villain at the end of the season.

FAVORITE LINE:

oh there are many. i need to rewatch again. but the ones that live in my brain rent free are ALL after his downward spiral begins:

"teamwork begins with two people trusting eachother. but you? you're no person." dramatic effect. extremely traumatizing for everybody who's ever watched this show. 10/10

"i liked what we had, but you made me do it! you betrayed the apex. and you betrayed me." again, dramatic effect. really gives you a feel for what's going on in his head, i think. 10/10

"why would i ever want to change if i'm always right!?" iconic. i think this is the one people remember the most from him, along with the one from ep 5.

BROTP & OTP (combining because my answer is the same for both):

grace. lol. full stop. hopefully i don't have to explain that i am VERY AWARE that their relationship was unhealthy in many, MANY ways. that is what i like about it. i'm a huge fan of messy relationships in fiction. i am a self proclaimed angst fiend.

the tragedy of it all is 100% the appeal of it for me, from either a platonic OR romantic standpoint. i love that. and yes, i do ship them to an extent- but NOT in the "i think they should have gotten together in canon" way. again, the angst is the appeal!!

i admit i do also enjoy aus where they fix their relationship, but not INSTEAD of the canon, more so in ADDITION to the canon. i think it's a fun alternate route to explore, but i deeply adore what the infinity train writers did with them in the show and that will not be changing.

NOTP:

literally any of the protags from the previous seasons. y'all, simon and grace are 18. you can't be shipping them with the 13-14 year olds. please stop. (nobody here! i mostly see this on ao3, honestly.)

RANDOM HEADCANON:

i think simon has been back to the cat multiple times in secret.

i really like the theory that he got some of the apex's tech from her. the main thing i have to support this is this line from the episode where he returns to her cabin in book 3:

"i knew you'd have something. you always do."

particularly i think there's a good chance he got the unmodified gravity boots from her (and likely modified them himself) and possibly also the number tracker.

UNPOPULAR OPINION:

oh i'm sure a lot of what i've already said has been an unpopular opinion, haha. i'm one of those people that's so in the middle in a debate that both sides of it have reasons to disagree with me.

i really like simon. he and grace are my favorite characters in the show. there are parts where i feel really bad for him, and parts where i want to yell at him and hit him over the head with a very large stick.

i see his death as a tragedy in universe, but also a really good writing choice on the part of the infinity train crew.

i don't think they secretly had a scheme to make us dislike him. i think it was written in such a way that it makes sense that some people would have a viscerally negative reaction to him, and others wouldn't. he's a very complex character and that's good writing!!!

i think the tragedy was the point, which is something both people who like him and people who hate him seem to completely overlook in a lot of cases. it's either "woohoo! simon died!" or "killing simon was bad writing he should have been redeemed >:/" not "oh this is really sad but i love it from a story perspective."

i don't think he was "irredeemable", per-say. the fact is, he was faced with a pivotal choice in episode five, and he picked the wrong one. he chose to double-down. i love that. i really do. i love the downward spiral. it's painful in the best way. i would not change the canon show for the world. again, 100/10, no notes.

but i can also see a universe where he made the right choice. i was writing a fic about that, once. (which admittedly has some characterization issues which i would fix if i tried it again.) i think it was possible. and i think that's a fun route to explore too. not a better route from a writing standpoint, but a good one.

i have so many more thoughts but this has already gotten really long, and i have two more questions to go, lol. but if you want to hear anymore you're free to send me another ask about it!

but, for now, moving on.

SONG I ASSOCIATE WITH THEM:

someone else on tumblr pointed out that "the moon will sing" by the crane wives is a good fit for simon @ grace and now i can't unhear it.

and, finally, FAVORITE PICTURE OF THEM:

anime villain simon my beloved.

[destinyc1020]

Oh girl, your blog is an oasis for those of us Austin appreciators that are in other fandoms. I just read some tomdaya blogs claiming that Austin is a social climber 🙃. A guy that has been working in Hollywood since he was a preteen. I see many similarities with him and Z: their middle class parents encouraged them to act to deal with their severe childhood shyness and were grinding for many years in child entertainment. Then they really had to dig deep to be able to be taken seriously in the industry

Yeah, a lot of people would have liked if Vanessa and him had stayed together or at least stayed friends, but their relationship was not brief or springboards for fame. Vanessa's career has not been easy after HSM. She has had some nice projects but not huge success. And Austin stayed with her through it all. At the end it seems that he got so obsessed to get Elvis absolutely right that he neglected his relationships (even with his own family). But everybody that meets him remarks how nice and endearing he is

Anyway, thanks for keeping this space

First of all, thanks so much for the kind words Anon. 🥰

It's nice to be known as an "oasis" lol. 😄

Yea, I try to keep my blog pretty much fun, positive, and lighthearted for the most part. I like discussing a wide-range of things on my blog, but I don't enjoy ppl being negative about others for practically NO good reason. 🥴

Personally, I think some ppl are unnecessarily hard on Aus (or his voice) for some reason. I just hope it doesn't end up making him self-conscious about his voice or whatever. I don't know him personally, but he seems incredibly sweet and grounded, and everyone who meets him says he's very kind and genuine. I just don't get the hate for him honestly. 😔 Thank goodness he's not very big on social media.

Even Tom has hinted at the fact that he's had to take a break from social media for his own mental and emotional health, and worrying about his looks, etc. Even so-called "fans" can make you self-conscious sad to say. 😔 I just think ppl these days can be unnecessarily cruel online and don't realize that celebrities are REAL ppl, with REAL feelings that they're talking about.

You don't have to like everyone, but to "just not care for someone" "just because", or for petty reasons, when you don't even know them personally, and they haven't done or said anything horrific in the public eye is just weird imo, and not my style at all. 🤷🏾‍♀️

There are soooo many more horrible ppl out here to hate or dislike who really have said or done some crazy hurtful things. 🥴

Re: The Zendaya Similarities....

You know what Anon, I never really thought about it, but you're right. 🤔 Both Z and Austin came from humble beginnings, and their parents probably encouraged them to get out of their comfort zones to try some acting because they were both extremely shy growing up. 😊 I know Z was so shy that ppl were worried when she was in school. I can definitely relate because I was really shy growing up too, and I had a hard time speaking up or raising my hand in class. I was so quiet! Rofl 🤣 Austin is still pretty shy... you can tell... but I think acting and being someone different onscreen has really helped him to get out of his shell, just like with Z.

As much as I complain about Sam's writing and the length of time it takes to film that show lol, I think the Euphoria role especially really helped Z to get out of her comfort zone and to be seen as a "serious actress".

Re: Vanessa...

Look, I loved her and Austin together, but the fact is, they're no longer together, and that's that. 🤷🏾‍♀️ And it's not like she was Meryl Streep, and he was some penniless, out-of-work actor lol. Dude was working.... and even was on several popular shows. True, it was mainly fluff stuff, but let's not re-write history here. Vanessa was more popular and well-known obviously due to HSM, but it's not like she was in the stratosphere and he was in the depths waaaaaay down below lol. 😂

Anyway, I'm not gonna pretend to know exactly why they broke up.... That's btwn them. 🤷🏾‍♀️Fans can speculate all they want, but I try to remember that only THEY know the reason. It could be smthg simple as they were already having difficulties and were just trying to stay together just because they had been together for so long. Who knows? Either way, it's not really my business. As long as they're both happy with their new significant others (and it seems like they are! 😃) that's all that really matters at the end of the day imo. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Nobody tells me what to do, what to be interested in, or what to post on my OWN freakin' blog.

ANYWAY.....

With all of that said... No, I am NOT going to "shut up about Austin Butler" like that one Anon suggested. 🙄 Who are they, my mother???

Sorry! LOL 😁😅

[serceleste]

doctor strange in the multiverse of madness

Saw it a couple weeks ago! Had been really looking forward to it, for a lot of reasons. I liked it, but tbh I wanted to like it more than I actually did.

- The main issue for me was that I didn’t buy into the central premise of Wanda as the villain, post Wandavision. It’s not that I don’t believe she has the potential because she 100% does, after all, this is the same character who in the comics went “no more mutants” and in the MCU mind controlled an entire town. It’s that they didn’t convince me that the Wanda who understood the wrongs she committed in Wandavision and genuinely regretted her actions would then immediately turn around and go full ‘I don’t give a shit who I have to murder to steal this other woman’s life and her kids’. I gather the Darkhold was negatively influencing her but IMO they didn’t sell it all the way as ‘this is why, it’s not really Wanda’, and even if they had, honestly I find that a cop-out. So anyway it was hard to appreciate the movie for what it was when the whole time I was just thinking ‘this is not Wanda wtf’. Which is a shame, because I think a villain Wanda I believed in would have been great, and she certainly was pretty scary.

- But I did like a lot of parts of the movie! Especially just Stephen himself. I LOVE HIM.

- I loved America, and I loved her relationship with Stephen. So good. (And at least they kept her moms, though I’m honestly not surprised they managed to avoid yet again showing a character as LGBTQ+.)

- Wong is so great. I was about to be so fucking mad that they killed him off, in my head I was just like ‘no they didn’t no they didn’t he’s FINE’ until finally they showed him okay. Him trying to get Stephen to bow to him was the best.

- Loved the Illuminati! And what a fun way to include some AU things we don’t have in the main timeline, like Maria!Captain Marvel, and Captain Carter (CAPTAIN CARTER OH MY GOD SHE WAS SOOOOO COOL). Xavier in his hover chair! With the cartoon music! I was so surprised to see what’s his name as Reed. (I always think of him first as Emily Blunt’s husband, lol.)

- There were some really cool visuals, notably the montage where America and Stephen are moving from universe to universe. I also liked the fighting with musical notes, and Wanda fighting through reflections.

- Zombie Strange was fucking weird but I liked it.

- I think they used Christine well, and I believed that Stephen genuinely loved her but couldn’t figure out how to be with her, and I believed in her importance to him. I really liked the last scene of him and the other universe’s Christine together, where he finds a sort of closure and peace.

- Also loved Stephen being faced with all the other Stephens’ bad choices, and then being able to make better ones himself, even to the point of saving America when she herself was at peace with that not happening. I got a little teary when he helped her find her own control.

- And for all that this way of doing villain Wanda didn’t work for me, I still cried when Billy and Tommy were scared of her and she realized she had become their monster. That really got me.

- I want Young Avengers Billy (and Billy/Teddy!!) SO MUCH but I was still pleased to see the Wandavision versions of him and Tommy again because the child actors are so charming.

- I loved the goat dude. Glad he’s okay!!

- CLEA! CHARLIZE THERON! CHARLIZE THERON AS CLEA!!!! Oh my fucking God. I almost jumped out of my seat and cheered. Marvel, thank you for this gift, holy shit.

[oddlypinecestious]

How would your perfect pinecest au look like? Like which tropes or themes would you like to see more often? 🌸

Oh, hello ^^

Hm, I'm not really one for GF aus, let alone pinecest ones, but there are a few things that I like.

I think the core thing for a perfect Pinecest au for me is keeping Marbles and Dipstick as twins (or at least related). So definitely the theme of shipcest and forbidden love.

As for tropes? Hm, I do really like the soulmate au, I think it would fit well with Pinecest. There are fics that have done them, but not enough imo. Plus, the idea of soulmates really fit with twins idk.

And maybe also more established relationship stuff? We get a lot of fics of the twins getting together (or getting broken up) but I want more fics where their relationship is actually shown in detail. Like, how do they keep things a secret? How do they make it work? How do they interact with the other? Stuff like that.

Maybe also more older twins. Like how is their relationship when they're middle aged? What if they only started dating when they were well into adulthood? How are they able to keep a secret relationship for so long? Does the relationship have negative effects on the twins?

And to be the opposite of that, what about kid twins? Like >12.

Also, also. I want more fics/aus focused on my girl Marbles! A lot of them have Dip as the MC, and I'm not saying that those are bad! But I feel like Marbles would be such an interesting character to see the pov from in a Pinecest story. And honestly in more stories in general, the girl's an interesting character

I feel like I'm rambling too much, and not really giving a good answer. Sorry about that, I do hope that does sorta answer your question lol

[meetmeatthecoda]

It’s bonkers how Liz and Ressler can literally have sex and then still be on a last name basis with each other. Even Red calls her Elizabeth lmao. But seriously, if K—nler is endgame, is this really the writers’ idea of romance? Barely any buildup, BOOM they have sex, then these awkward, forced ‘moments’ between them? *deep sigh* Idk, maybe I’m being harsh, but I guess I feel like the least they could do (if they won’t give us Lizzington) is give us something decent to watch. What are your thoughts/theories on this mess?

Hello, dear anon!! ❤️ Firstly, omg, I know!! All the “Hey, Keen.” and “What, Ressler?” is so intensely romantic 🙄🙄🙄 The thought of Red calling Liz just “Keen” is so laughable to me. As you so rightly say, he at least calls her by her full name, which is much more telling imo than any robotic surname crap. (Plus, he would never call her “Keen” bc it’s her fake name from her fake marriage to her fake husband, but I digress.) Regardless of whether it’s Lizzie or Elizabeth or Agent Keen, it still sounds like music coming out of Red’s mouth. Whether that music is a funeral march or a symphonic poem... well, it varies 😒

ANYWAY you make such a good point!! If we’re striving to be objective (which is a pretty unobtainable goal for me at this point), there is  n o t h i n g  inherently romantic about K**nler. I’m sorry, but to me - no matter which way you slice it - there’s been absolutely NO romantic coding with these two over SEVEN SEASONS, really only a handful of scenes together at all that mostly consist of “STOP! FBI!”, and very few personal/meaningful moments. And of those VERY FEW moments, they all appear to me as platonic/work friends/colleagues. And listen, I’ve always liked Ressler and Liz as BFFs. Liz always offered a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on about Audrey in the good ol’ days and Ressler did the same about T*m, plus I’ve always loved how Ressler offered to “rough him up” in that gruff, brotherly way. There was never any jealousy between them at their respective romantic partners, like there always is with those Will They/Won’t They ships. And I think pilot!Ressler hating Liz’s guts gradually morphing into them being best buds over the ensuing seasons is super cute. But it’s never screamed “romance” to me. There’s been no anticipation, no build-up, no close calls, no nothing. My prime ship example for that sort of thing is Caskett from Castle. They spent 4 seasons building those two up with plenty of close calls and jealousy keeping them apart for as long as they physically could before they finally came together with fireworks. There has been zero of that with K**nler. (Lizzington on the other hand? Yes. Not to mention all the Lizzington suggestions FROM RESSLER: ”Sounds like someone’s jealous Uncle Red’s got a new crush”, “You in the dog house or something?” - but I’m slipping into my Lizzington googles, so I’ll stop there.) Not to mention I’ve never really liked Ressler as a character. Sorry, no shade to Diego, but it’s not exactly a dynamic character. And TPTB have a marvelous reputation of tabling characters until their designated plot lines and episodes, with no measurable growth or continuity in between, so it always feels forced to me. To just throw a long forgotten character - whose only role in the past 11 episodes has been driving around and answering phone calls to catch the weekly blacklister - in my face once a season and say, “LOOK, WE THOUGHT OF SOMETHING FOR THIS DUDE, REMEMBER HE CAN TALK?!” and expecting me to feel invested is wildly unrealistic imo.

In conclusion, anon, I don’t think you’re being harsh at all, rest assured that I have been much harsher in tags, DMs, and especially my own head about this so-called “romance”. I think you’re definitely correct that they could at least give us something decent to watch with time, a true romantic build-up, and a satisfying culmination. I mean, I know this is primarily an FBI-mystery-mythology-government-action-procedural-show but... AS SOMEONE ONCE RIGHTLY SAID, “I think it’s a love story.” and babe? ..... this ain’t it. I’m sorry, Lizzington remains the only pairing on this show that has had a veritable phone book of romantic tropes written for them, including - but certainly not limited to - tense undercover operations, dancing, jealousy at other partners, killing for each other, actual DECLARATIONS of LOVE,  T H E  L I S T  G O E S  O N, not to mention I’m of the steadfast opinion that they were the initial endgame for the show, and that’s a hill I am prepared to die on. I HAVE and WILL go down with this doomed ship until the end of my days. Amen.

As for my thoughts/theories on this mess, I am flattered that you’re interested enough to ask, and I think I probably gave you way more than you bargained for in the ^above^ rage!typing 😂 The only things I would venture to add are: 1) K**nler is a barely a ship by my admittedly high standards and, if it is indeed intended to be The Great Romance™ of the show, TPTB did a piss poor job of making it AT ALL satisfying 2) The current “plot line” is an inconsistently written, infuriating, OOC across the board, “twists” pulled out of a hat, PIECE OF CRAP mess, and I’m so over it and 3) I have genuinely no idea how they plan on digging themselves out of the sizable RED VS. LIZ hole CRATER they’ve dug themselves into and, if they plan on having even a mildly successful season 9, they had better claw their way out soon bc, by all accounts, pretty much nobody likes pathetically-evil!Liz and most are rooting for heart-of-gold-&-incredibly-sympathetic!Red in every single way. Sooooo... idk. I’m really bored by the whole RuSsIaN oPeRaTiVe arc and I wish we could fast-forward to the season finale to see if they plan on making any effort at all to improve the core relationship of the show, or if they have indeed given Liz up to mannequin-man and revenge-filled-rage-induced-mentally-unstable-out-of-left-field-evil-Kaplan-hallucinations and Red over to simply sad-lonely-romantic-tired-puppy-dog-who-deserves-better.

At any rate, thank you dearly for this ask, anon, it turns out I had a lot of negative feelings (surprise, surprise) that needed an outlet and I hope it wasn’t too painful to slog through!! Feel free to send another/more asks to keep the commiserating going!! I have dearly missed asks in what’s left of this fandom, but my ask box is still open!! 🥰 I will continue writing fic and shipping Lizzington pretty much in AU now as, unfortunately, that seems the healthiest and only remaining option 🥲 Much love to you!! ❤️❤️❤️

[pebblysand]

[the thoughts on canon-compliance you did not ask for.]

last night between 2 and 3 in the morning (look, i couldn’t sleep, got up to write, then got caught up, okay? don’t judge me for my terrible sleeping patterns please) i had a super interesting discussion with a few people on the hinny discord channel about the definition of canon-compliant-ness. i think this is fascinating because to be honest, before getting into the hp fandom, i didn’t even think this was something one could disagree about. to me there was what was canon, and what wasn’t. a very black-and-white sort of system. i’m finding that it’s not.

through the discussions that i’ve had both on my fics and other people’s fics, it seems that i can narrow down - in the hp fandom - three elements of canon.

i. the events of the books/films

now, as a general disclaimer, you can obviously argue about whether the films are ‘canon.’ you can also argue whether cursed child is canon. there’s a lot of elements which differ between those and lots of opinions about how to look at them. personally, i tend to ignore cursed child. as to the books v. films, i pick and choose what suits my story more. generally, that’ll be the books. but for instance, i’m writing a harry&hermione friendship one shot right now, and there are a lot of movie-isms in that story because that is an aspect that was more explored in the films. however, for the purposes of this post, i’m mainly considering the source material to be the seven books. nothing more or less.

having said that, to me personally, that’s what ‘canon’ is: the events of the story and the characters that gravitate around those events, as described in the source material. things like: tom riddle killing lily and james, or harry, ron and hermione rescuing the philosopher’s stone. anything departing from that is, de facto, an ‘au.’ the whole world of what-if scenarios: what if Harry was sorted into slytherin, what if dudley was a wizard, all of those, to me, are aus.

generally, both as a reader and a writer, those are not scenarios i’m particularly drawn to. my default answer to those what-if scenarios is: ‘well, if harry is sorted into slytherin, there’s no story.’ or at the very least, there’s no story as i know it, and if there’s no story as i know it, then i’d rather read/write original fiction. it’s obviously a very personal preference and there are exceptions to this preference. i loved the changeling [1] for instance, and love the self-aware style of dirgewithoutmusic’s aus [2]. but as a general rule, that is not my preferred genre.

now, aside from the what-if scenarios, there’s also the question of filling in the gaps of the story itself. like, i find it interesting that we only make tsunamis [3] is labelled as ‘canon-compliant’ because i get the feeling that a lot of people would disagree that a fic in which hermione is harry’s first kiss is canon compliant. but, by exploiting the silence sometimes left by the author and turning it to your advantage, are you writing an au? is a negative space canon? is silence canon?

again, as a matter of personal opinion, i would not push my definition of canon-compliance as including blank spaces. to me, as long as it does not contradict the letter of the text, adding in events to the books to suit your story (i’ll address character in point ii) does not make your fic an au. to give another example that was brought up to me regarding my own work, i don’t believe that the events described in chapter nine of castles [4] are au because they exist in a blank space of the books. the fact that harry didn’t notice the 1:1s between ginny and amycus doesn’t mean they didn’t happen, it just means that they’re not in the positive space described by the books.

ii. the characters/characterisation

(as a quick vocab note, please note that below, i’m using the terms ‘ooc’ to mean that the characterisation of a character in a fic is not canon-compliant. they’re synonyms to me.)

now, while the above was pretty straight forward, i believe that this is where i perhaps differ from the masses in my interpretation of what “canon-compliance” means. more i discuss with people, the more i realise that i don’t really think there’s a real ‘canon’ characterisation. or at least not in the big things. like, yeah, it’s canon that harry likes treacle tart, because that’s a fact. but anything that is down to psychology or perspective of the character is, to me, generally up for grabs.

as a human, i believe that there’s things that people do, events that they go through, that condition them to act a certain way. while there is a core to every human being, i personally believe that in life, anyone would basically be capable of doing anything, given the right circumstances. i’ve recently - rightfully - been told my writing is all about the power of choice in our life, the reasons why we make those choices and the people those choices lead us to be. for example, do i think i might murder someone tomorrow? probably not. do i think i might be capable of murdering someone in wartime? perhaps? i don’t know, that’s not the world i live in and my life choices have not lead me to find out the answer to that. however, my point is: to me, good ‘characterisation’ is down to the circumstances and choices outlined in any work of fiction. hence, good characterisation is essentially, to me, equal to good writing.

i often say that good writing could make me believe anything and i mean it. i don’t tend to gravitate towards these fics because these ships are not my personal taste but i genuinely believe that good writing could make me believe in drarry or rarry if it tried. it’s funny because over the course of the discussion yesterday on discord, this was brought up ‘well, no one tags drarry as canon compliant,’ and i’m kind of like, i don’t know whether or not they do because i don’t read it but if they did and none of it contradicted the events as detailed in the books, perhaps it could be? like, that would take really good writing (imo), but good writing has - on occasion - made me believe in dramione a couple of times, so why not? in ‘til the sirens come calling [5], good writing made me 100% believe that harry and hermione would have an affair together. in we only make tsunamis [3], it makes me believe that they had this quiet little relationship building throughout hogwarts that we never knew about.

now, though, i suppose the question isn’t: do i believe it? the question is: is it canon? and, i think that’s where i differ from most people because to me, it is. to take ‘til the sirens come calling [5] as an example, i believe the fic is an au because hermione marries victor krum in the end. that’s going against the hard fact presented by the epilogue, and thus makes it an au. but i don’t believe the concept of a harmony affair is inherently au, because nothing is inherently au, character-wise. it’s about how you write it. how those people get to that place. that’s what makes canon-compliantness, in my opinion.

for example, for that fic, truth be told, we don’t know what those nineteen years include per canon, so they could very much include an h/hr affair. and whilst i don’t believe that the characters as they are in the books would have an affair together, i believe that the characters as they are presented in the fic, with the events and hardships that they go through, definitely would. good writing, to me, is - in part - recognising that characters are moving on a spectrum and that whilst their decisions/actions might not make sense in book-verse, they make sense in fic-verse. good writing is convincingly moving your characters from book-verse to fic-verse, and it not feeling ‘off.’

if it does feel off, that is bad writing to me, and that is also ooc-ness/non-canon compliant. it means that for whatever reason, the writer has not successfully transitioned and explained said transition through the events outlined in the story. with the right prose, you could make me believe draco decided to take on a career as a ballerina dancer after the war, and it would still be ‘canon-compliant’ to me. on the other hand, i have read fics (i won’t name them because that would be shit and also i don’t keep track of my ‘bad’ reads) where harry, ginny, hermione, or ron all act according to book canon and yet, their motivations felt off to me and completely ooc because the writing didn’t successfully lure me in. specifically, there was a lack of character evolution that i found uninteresting. i read mostly post-war stuff because i want to see my characters grow up [6].

as a last, additional note on characters, i also think that the characters in a story only exist within the prism of how we view them. this means that to me, locking my own understanding of a character's personality as 'canon' is particularly difficult because my understanding of a character is unique. i believe there are as many harry-s or ginny-s or hermione-s as there are readers. so i think saying someone's interpretation of a character isn't canon-compliant is odd because i don't actually believe there's any wrong or right answer. as i said, do i believe it likely that draco would become a professional ballerina? no. but if that works within your understanding of his character as described in the books, who am i to say that is or isn't canon compliant? i'll admit, the idea makes me sort of lol though.

iii. tone

lastly, i’ve come to find (in potter particularly) that canon-compliance might include tone. as in: hp is a story that is a) written in a certain style and b) written for children/young adults.

regarding style at a), this is honestly the main reason why it took me 15 years to write potter fic, despite the fact that i’ve been a fan for even longer than that. i genuinely thought you had to write like jkr. and i, well, don’t write like jkr. i love the books, but i don’t even particularly like her style. i like: camus, and sorj chalandon, and sally rooney, and dirgewithoutmusic and copper_dust [7]. i have zero ambition to write like jkr and don’t particularly want to read stuff that is written like her stuff either. it’s a style that imo works for her, but it doesn’t work for me as written by other people. i don’t particularly think you need to stick to her style to be canon-compliant.

which brings me onto my actual point: b) hp is a story written for children. young adults perhaps, for the later books. it sometimes explores dark themes but the writing style, the tone, etc. is lighthearted enough that it appeals to a younger audience. there’s snogging but there’s no sex, there’s violence but the torture is mostly off-screen, etc. issues like sexual assault, substance abuse, etc. aren’t explicitely brought up in the books, although they would one hundred percent fit in a book about a war that wasn’t necessarily aimed at children. the question is whether this setting and tone is part of what we call ‘canon-compliance.’

honestly, i don’t know. i didn’t think so until it was brought up to me that castles might be a dark!au and i was like: maybe? like, if you want it to be? i know what i like to read in fanfic: i love the exploration of serious themes that were not explored in the books, or explored differently due to the fact that they were written for children. one thing i will say and insist on is that i don’t think castles is all dark. i actually make a point of having lighthearted moments in each and every chapter, even just a notch, because i am attached to the fact that life as a concept is a mixture of good and bad, and you could laugh at the funeral of someone you loved, again in the right circumstances. but yeah, to me the post-war world is dark. so if tone is part of canon-compliance, then yeah in that way castles (as well as most of the stuff i read, to be honest), is a dark!au.

as a last side note, i’m not sure what that means for my other, lighter stuff though. like are the wolf’s just a puppy [8] or slipped [9] more canon-compliant than castles? i never thought about it in those terms but perhaps? it really opens up a world of questions in my mind and i don’t really have the answers to them.

conclusion:

so in sum, as a reader, what i mean as ‘canon compliant’ is basically a) the events as described in the source material and b) the characterisation of characters as they are at the start of the fic. if character evolution is sufficiently justified and well-written in the following thousands of words that the fic has, then said characterisation can still be canon-compliant, even if the characters act different than they would have in the source material itself. i’m a fan of good writing and good writing can make me buy into literally anything. it takes me places that i've never been before and convinces me that those places are the ones i should be in.

as a writer, i hope that regardless of 'compliance,' whatever i write at least makes ‘sense’ to people within the universe, even if they don’t consider it canon-compliant, per se. i feel like i can’t really be the judge of that. from the discussions we had last night, i feel like there are as many versions of what is and isn't canon-compliant as there are people.

.

.

---

[1] the changeling by annerb

[2] the boy with a scar series by dirgewithoutmusic

[3] we only make tsunamis by disOrdely

[4] castles by yours truly

[5] ‘til the sirens come calling by vexmybones

[6] as a side note and to take my own stuff as an another example, i totally agree that harry in castles isn’t harry in the books. i don’t think there’s much debate to be had in that assertion. i wrote him like this frankly because every other fic i’d read didn’t. they often had him sort of continue to be perfectly himself after the war, which i felt wasn’t speaking to me on a deeper level. imo, i think the war’s done a lot of scarring and the fic is about him growing into a new version of himself. so, to me, if i get a comment that says ‘i don’t think harry would act this way but i really love your writing’ it’s somewhat flattering but also confusing because i don’t really understand how one can enjoy the writing but not the characterisation. to me, they’re so intrinsically linked. what the comment tells me is: i think you did a very poor job at explaining character evolution and justifying character x’s [harry’s] choices but i still like your writing, somehow? i suppose that’s nice, but it doesn’t particularly compute in my brain. like, if the character feels off, it means the writing feels off and thus, why are you still reading? i appreciate all and every comment that i get but it doesn’t mean they always make sense in my own brain. if i’m honest, these comments often send me into an ocean of self-doubt about how shit my writing must be.

[7] copper_dust’s work and profile.

[8] the wolf’s just a puppy (and the door’s double locked), again by yours truly

[9] slipped (and said something sort of like your name), same.

[birb-tangleblog]

the skinny legend that is Hector

What I love about them: “Effective Use of Limited Screentime” KING. But fr, I love his history with the other characters and connections to the lore; it goes a long way toward making him compelling despite a lack of canon material. 

He’s insanely dedicated and loyal, and an extremist- but he genuinely believes that he’s protecting the world, and his cause is objectively noble. He’s presented as a ruthless, cruel antagonist, and a dangerous threat to the party- but then has a total reversal and becomes a weirdly sympathetic victim himself. And at the end of the series, he’s deemed worthy of riding off into the sunset with the good guys! There’s so much duality and imo it’s fascinating! 

What I hate about them: only 1 ep :( 1 speaking line in the finale :’( Chris pls :’’’(

Favorite Moment/Quote: Probably his duel w/ Adira- but also his apology + intentionally unsealing the Tree. Both moments say a lot. 

What I would like to see more focus on: Might be an odd choice but- I’d actually like to see more focus on his negative traits? And just more nuanced portrayals in fanon!

Like honestly, I see RatGT-era Hector as... pretty unstable? Not crazy- but irrational. Tending towards paranoia or fanaticism, and up to his neck in sunk cost fallacy- worsened by years of isolation. That’s before everything else he goes through happens, and he still has to face his failure and the realization that so much of his life amounted to nothing. He’s... kind of an asshole! And very flawed! None of that just goes away.

In a lot of fanon/fic tho, he bounces back pretty quick, shrugs the past 25 years off, and just quickly mellows/becomes the local kooky feral man. And that’s a fun, amusing interpretation, I enjoy it too- but as a fan of the char, I’d love to see more takes and works really diving into the nitty gritty of his mental state and him coping, processing unresolved trauma/issues, and act putting in the work to change his behavior/mend his relationship with the other characters... or at least acknowledging that as a process. 

What I would like to see less focus on: Less treating him as part of a matched set/single unit with Adira, OR as an accessory to Varian. I know that sounds contradictory based on my own AUs and answers lmao, but... I feel Hector’s own character outside of being a caretaker or uncle often get lost when there’s a lot of focus on Var.

Favorite pairings with: Adira, Quirin, and Raps, you know the drill. 👌 I also kinda like the idea of Hector harboring unrequited feelings for Edmund? W/ varying levels of tragedy/pining depending on the take. 

Favorite friendship: Varian!! Hector mentoring him and being the ‘cool older family member’ is such a fun thought. I think Var would be pretty starstruck/happy to get to know Hector too! Also (obviously) Adira! The dynamic of them giving each other a hard time, while still sharing that bond and deep familiarity/sense of understanding means... so much to me man.

Favorite headcanon: SO MANY, but Hector being touch-starved + having PTSD from getting mind controlled twice are oldies but goodies. 

[azuwulastan]

Azula (of cooourse)

omg <3 ofc

Why I like them

she is like, the perfect mix of tragedy, comedy, and skill ... so much fun to watch and even more fun to try figure out wtf she’s thinking. like in some ways she is so aged above her years but also so immature like a child bc of this bizarro upbringing she has. she just has this enormous depth and complexity like.. she is an awful person in many many ways - in particular the way she threatens ty lee to recruit her, the way attacks zuko’s insecurities in their first encounter shown in the show, the whole burn down the earth kingdom thing . but then she’s so fragile and naive in some ways? broken relationships, broken family and no one to love her. my heart. she thinks she’s unloveable and it just hurts to see a 14 year old think that way.

i think its these many sides of her that makes me love her- because there are always things to think about her.

also imo she is funny? why didn’t aang laugh??

Why I don’t

cruelty, manipulation, controlling tendencies, the way she is mean to ty lee and makes her cry. she also enjoys fucking with zuko a lot which is still uncomfortable to watch but at least she’s not ranked higher than him so the power differential is less pronounced. also... imperialist monarch who loves her status and is a fire nation nationalist? ya hate to see it

Favorite episode (scene if movie)

i mean.. the beach is excellent for obvious reasons. but crossroads of destiny is one of my favourite episodes like.. her mind

Favorite season/movie

ugh can’t choose! bk 3 bc it humanises her but bk 2 bc she’s such a bad bitch lolll

Favorite line

“Oh, sounds like the firebending is back on!” also - when she admits to ty lee she’s jealous.. girl........

Favorite outfit

im partial to her b2 look. so comfy? and the earth kingdom look , and the heavy arnour from bk 3? and the fluffy socks she wears in the comics? okay i like all her looks

OTP

tyzula duh. but with caveats. kazula is a close second in an au

Brotp

tophzula brotp is something i wanna see. toph would neg on her and she would hit back. they’d be very well balanced .

also lo and li. i wanna see her hang out with them

Head Canon

she’s got a bad stealing habit - she likes the thrill and feels terribly entitled to everything around her.

she has a somewhat secret love of theatre and romances she just pretends she doesnt

she has a very complicated relationship with femininity - partially bc she wants to emulate her father and strength and can’t do that by being traditionally feminine, partially bc of the way ursa enforced feminity on her, partially bc she’s a baby dyke

she absolutely used to make ty lee play the dragon emporess when they were kids. mai would watch and zuko would play the water spirit

the best time of her life was when she was kicking around the earth kingdom with her girls

there are large parts of her childhood she totally doesn’t remember

ursa really did resent her and did not truly love her (it happens :( )

she actually likes mai a lot more than mai likes her

she would be really bad at drawing or painting or free form sculpture but really good at something like ceramics or screen printing or like... embroidery

Unpopular opinion

ummm idk? i like to pretend she’s nicer off screen but thats probably wishful thinking. its hard to have an unpopular opinion when im in my own little corner of atla tumblr where we are all azula stans. although i think plenty of ppl find tyzula objectionable (fair)

A wish

she learns to love and works to heal her relationships w people, she finds a creative outlet, she undoes her fire nation brain washing and works to undo the harm of her ancestors on the world, she chills out for five mins

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen

i mean she did kiss chan so... what worse could happen? also like.. the entire events of the comics set after the events of the series

5 words to best describe them

perfectly broken (fic title up for grabs), hardened, beautiful, mean

My nickname for them

she is such a bitch

[plounce]

what is, in your brave and genius opinion, the best characterization of mollymauk

okay here’s a couple things i think people should keep in mind

the first thing is that taliesin is a player who chooses when to speak, rather than speaking all the time. so molly isn’t actually super talkative or hyperactive or always starting shit - he goes along with things, steers himself where he wants to be sometimes, but is pretty chill except for when he goes ham.

molly is yasha’s best friend. this is his most significant relationship by far in the party. they both love their independence, but he has to be someone who is yasha’s best friend and who yasha feels safe and comfortable around.

if he feels sad or bad, he’s not going to dwell on it. this bitch is living to be happy! he’s not going to mope and sulk and sigh, he’s going to distract himself as best he can. “why let myself feel sad when i can NOT think about what’s making me feel sad and instead think about something that i LIKE?” so there’d be a tendency towards repression, but i think he tries to talk with yasha (who he feels really comfortable and not-judged around) before he explodes. he’s pretty self-aware.

he isn’t given to extreme outpourings of emotion, and would honestly hate it if other people (besides yasha) saw him having one. i think the most unrestrained we saw him in canon (regarding negative emotions) was when he was blindingly angry that yasha was abducted. after that - probably his frustration and defensiveness when he was being interrogated in ep 14.

genuinely doesn’t give a shit what people think about him. he’s spent his whole life being chased out of town with his family unit, he’s got a pretty thick skin. laughs or shrugs off people who reject him. it isn’t a forced coping mechanism - it’s just what he does. he’s got no time for that - onto the next town.

he is a herd animal. has only ever existed in a big dysfunctional found-family unit. he’s not going to cling to people, he knows that sometimes things end, but he needs to be in a group. doesn’t super care much about people outside of that group beyond basic human decency (see: giving money to people the m9 were attempting to cheat), such as his treatment of toya vs his deliberate distancing from kiri. he only lets himself be close to people who are more of a sure thing (for given values of that).

likes taking care of people. knows the value of creature comforts. remember when he bought all that nice food for the party in like ep 25? he likes cooking for people, likes feeding people. he can’t solve all your problems, but he can make sure that being hungry isn’t exacerbating them.

values control over himself. he’ll get drunk or high, sure, but that’s him doing that to himself. a part of him is always very paranoid that lucien is going to subsume who he is now (which adds to his ‘live for the life you have now bc you could die at any moment’ lifestyle). i personally like to take this a step further and make him kind of annoyed when other people make him feel things he can’t control. however, through all of this, he copes pretty well - unless it’s lucien, obviously. having a crush on somebody that he can’t make go away: annoyance, attempt to repress, attempt to ignore. more of lucien’s powers coming to the surface: drink all night.

would not sexually harass people.

is genuinely a very fair person. will do a lot of things for a laff. weird sense of humor in certain ways - see when he put the gold in the burnt out tree. superstitious, but only about certain things. thinks a lot of common superstitions are total bs (walking under ladders, black cats, etc) but he has ones he’s quietly very mindful about. spiritual.

he is a good person, but he’s a bitch for laughs. he is careful not to go over The Line, but The Line is different for everybody and he was raised in a circus - he’s okay with using charm person if it isn’t going to harm or traumatize somebody (and speaking of charm person - cmon yall, it’s dnd, people use charm person, it’s not really a valid thing to put on a yfip post unless they do something super evil with it). he’s a bitch and a bastard but one of his core tenets of existing is “leave every place better than you found it.”

likes to give little gifts, and is willing to share what he has with others as long as he can experience it with a friend or two. see: giving yasha the silk flowers, constantly asking caleb if things are magical (which imo is born both from curiosity bc he’s never hung out with a wizard before so magic is an interesting weird thing he isn’t interested in learning, as well as wanting caleb to feel valued and included in a way that caleb is capable of accepting), and sharing the skein with beau.

he has middling charisma. he talks too much when he’s trying to get information from npcs - he has more fun asking than actually being good at getting what they need to know. he’s off-putting and kind of weird and a bit mean? it’s kind of ironic that the member of the m9 least likely to cheat you (besides caduceus) gives off some of the least trustworthy vibes. he’s not gonna be the party face and honestly isn’t inclined to be. he has his people and that’s what matters to him.

can i just say that it bugs me that so many people have made him a lounge singer in their aus? 1. his charisma isn’t good enough for that 2. his default attack is making his voice so bad to hear that people taken damage from it! his singing voice is probably more of a joyful yowl than a smooth croon.

tl;dr he’s chill. be chill about him. he’s genuinely just here for a laff m8 x

[bloomingtalent]

cc-sasuke: Naruto (fandom), SasuHina (ship), Hinata (character)

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: Sasuke hands down!

Least Favorite character: Hmm...I think that is probably Danzo

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): 1. Sasuhina 2.Minakushi 3.Narusaku 4.TemaShika (though I don't ship them as much as the others) 5.ObiRin

Character I find most attractive: Sasuke lol

Character I would marry: If I had too...perhaps either Sasuke or (Naruto)

Character I would be best friends with: Idk...maybe Tenten or Hinata

a random thought: I have always wondered where Kabuto's loyalties lay, particularly because he attempted to kill Sasuke but saved Hinata during the Chuunin Exams.

An unpopular opinion: I really wanted Sasuke to go through with his revolution and see how it'd change everyone's lives, at least in an OVA or something.

My Canon OTP: Narusaku! (I know they aren't canon now but they have been hinted at in canon a lot).

My Non-canon OTP: Sasuhina.

Most Badass Character: Sakura! (Sasuke is a given but I wanted my answers to be different lol)

Most Epic Villain: Idk...I always thought Orochimaru was creepy, especially in part one

Pairing I am not a fan of: Naruhina/Sasusaku

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): So many tbh but I will go with Hinata cause she had so much potential

Favourite Friendship: Narusasu, even with their flaws

Character I most identify with: I think Hinata, minus the love interest

Character I wish I could be: Hmmm...maybe Tenten or Sakura, ignoring some of her flaws.

002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you:

When I started shipping them: Before part 2 came around and because of one image I saw of them lol

My thoughts: I feel that even if they wouldn't have ended up together, they could have been good friends, particularly in childhood and bond over the fact that they are ignored by their father and in shadow of their sibling.

What makes me happy about them: That there are so many subtle similarities between them and there was never any negativity concerning them.

What makes me sad about them: That they haven't spoken to each other at all!

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: I think I've seen a few fics that make Hinata bolder than she really is and it irks me cause she doesn't need to be like that to make the dynamic work.

Things I look for in fanfic: Good canon representation, slight horror as well, whether AU or not.

My wishlist: I have too many but the main one I have atm is Sasuke actually killing Naruto and becoming Hokage and Hinata trying to deal with this and whether she'd try to oppose him as others have tried.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: For Sasuke...I think maybe with someone who doesn't just blindly love him but actually sees him more than handsome so perhaps some unknown girl/civilian even (I don't ship Sasukarin really). As for Hinata, I think...maybe Lee (or Kiba) would be nice? Because they would pay attention to her more than Naruto would imo.

My happily ever after for them: I think Hinata will stay true to her words and stop chasing Naruto while Naruto helps Sasuke get justice (with either Sasuke or Naruto as Hokage) and they could meet when the branch member seals are being abolished and so, start getting closer to being acquainted. Time will then, do the rest.

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you:

How I feel about this character: I feel she had a lot of potential with Kishi not giving her enough attention and SP giving the wrong kind of attention to her.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Sasuke, Sakura, (Lee maybe, Kiba a little), Shikamaru (I blame @theonecoolnara and their recent reply for this lol) I think I need to write more to see with other characters.

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Nejihina

My unpopular opinion about this character: I had really hoped that she would be able to move on from Naruto because she knows he likes Sakura (he called her his girlfriend while she was present) and I hate how people fail to see that Naruto's ignorance of her confession is mostly overlooked.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish she would've never had those thoughts about Naruto's hand during Neji's death and that she got more than one panel of standing in front of his grave. I wanted her to at least try and ask to get side branch member's seal removed.

Favorite friendship for this character: Sakuhina (especially if we were shown more and that doesn't involve love interests). Another one is Nejihina

My crossover ship: Mephisto and Hinata (I blame @serasarc for this and their lovely shenanigans we make up for this ship).

[theyilinglaozus]

I'm very happy that you like the office!AU, it's quickly become one of my favourites! I absolutely agree with you in preferring WWX's CQL death, to me it is somehow comforting that his last action was, in fact, one that he had control over. His loss of control in MDZS is incredibly devastating to me, I honestly can't even describe what it does to me :') The fic I found was take him (save him) by an anonymous writer on AO3, fair warning it's a dead dove kink fic but his condition is... woah -✨

It also very much hurts me how much LWJ loved WWX, and it must have been so terrible for him to just... let go, but he loved him enough to do it and ahhh honestly these two are probably the most tragic, well written relationship I know of. But crossing over to less heartbreaking matters, today's question I have for you is what sect could you see yourself in? And which one couldn't you ever live in? This is kind of like the Hogwarts houses question just better imo😂 -✨

Oh gosh I absolutely agree. Wei Wuxian’s death in either adaption is sad enough as is, but at least in the drama it’s more controlled for him. The novel is just ... I found it brutal. I also just like in general that Lan Wangji doesn’t just ... hear about it later like he does in the novel. It’s devastating for him enough to know the man he loves died, but during one of the rare times he’s not there to try and protect him and while he’s so injured from his punishment for helping Wei Wuxian? Ouch. 

Thank you for telling me the fic title! I think I have seen that fic floating around after searching it up! I hadn’t read it yet because I think I was wary with the tags. Although I gotta say, I had a moment just now where I misread the notes and thought they said ‘The Handmaiden’s Tale’ rather than just ‘The Handmaiden’ and just went ‘... huh. I didn’t expect the Handmaiden’s Tale to end like that’ 😂 Was very confused for a second until I realised my mistake!

Ooh yay sect talk! 

As much as I would absolutely love to, I very much don’t think I could be in the Gusu Lan sect 😔 I’d probably end up breaking the rules left right and centre without realising it, and although I do prefer having a schedule to my day I doubt I could do the ‘wake at five, sleep at nine’ routine. Musical cultivation? I would love that. The aesthetic in general? So beautiful! The (generally) calm manner of most in the sect? Sounds very peaceful to me! But I also love animals too much and would just want to adopt so many as pets. 

I’d probably fit in nicely in the Yunmeng sect, honestly. Lotus Pier seems like a beautiful place to grow up and live in, and it seems a bit more relaxed. Of course there’s still hard work to do there, but to end the day on a boat on the lake? Sounds pretty good to me. Purple is a nice colour to wear too, and pets are allowed! Plus I like that the sect motto is ‘attempt the impossible’.

The Jin sect seems a bit too excessive to me, but that’s likely just due to those in charge of running the sect throughout the story. With someone like Jin Ling in control it probably get’s a lot better, but it’s not for me. And I do like the Nie sect too, but the whole ‘dying of qi deviation’ is a bit of a negative 😂

What about you, CC? Which sect would you likely be in, and which one is a big ‘not for me’? As for Hogwarts houses, I’m a Slytherin. What’s yours? 💖

.... Slytherins’ being ambitious and Yunmeng having the ‘attempt the impossible’ motto really do be fitting together nicely, don’t they?

[lightbringcr]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

tagged by: i stole this from @cutmystrxngs tagging: anyone!!

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

My muse is:   canon / oc / au ( dependent on verse ) / canon-divergent / fandomless 

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO. 

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. ( I have no clue. I know a lot of people that find her attractive, and a lot of people who don’t. *shrug* )

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES? / NO / IDK. ( Maybe not physically, like compared to Garen, but she’s definitely strong emotionally. She’s learned to love herself at least and accept change & what not. )

Are they underrated?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO / MAYBE ? (Main story? I can say that she was a big part of the Demacia changes, considering she’s the only ‘mage’ they’ve chosen to acknowledge and intertwined besides Sylas (give me Sona lore please.) but other than that, if you don’t care about Demacia, it’s not really the main story.)

Were they relevant for the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG. (She may be Riot’s poster girl, but she still isn’t the main character. See above.)

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO / MAYBE ? ( I’m assuming only Demacia (obv) & Noxus really know about the Crownguards or at least have heard of them. Demacia is sort of isolationist & so I don’t see her being known around the world. Maybe in older lore, when she was out and about on missions and actually spying. New lore, probably not. If they had heard of Crownguards, they’d probably think of Garen first. )

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. ( Depending on who you ask. )

How strictly do you follow canon?  — I really try to stick to canon, but of course there needs to be some leniency in my opinion. If I very strictly followed canon, I think I’d be bored LOL. I like trying to mix a bit of old Lux’s personality with new ( since I was deeply in love with her before the lore changes. ) and try my best to make her unique. New Lux is definitely fake in a different way as it is with hiding a secret, but old Lux being two-faced, resentful and cold resonated with me. That being said, I still respect the canon, because I like the direction they’ve taken with Demacia. 

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  —  Lux is already an inquisitive, curious person, so it’d be easy for her to find any way to interact with people / muses she already deems interesting. She wants to see and experience the world for herself, and she’s rather friendly ( unless you somehow show her that you aren’t. ) so it’s easy to make friends with her!! She tends to break traditions and rebel against the standards / life that was set up for her. She loves learning, especially about people, so she’ll have a grand time with your muse -- that is, if you like slow burn / any relationship development. All in all, she is a sweet, adventurous and sassy girl. She wants to meet all kinds of different souls. Need I say more?

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  — I don’t know. I’m biased and totally love her. But some people might find her a bit annoying, or look at her on a surface level and assume that’s all there is to her or find she’s airheaded. A peppy, light mage who spews bullshit about positivity and what not. Faking it to make it. Or what have you. I dunno, I think she’s telling herself to stay positive more than anyone else. She also doesn’t have a tragic backstory, she grew up quite nicely and I’m surprised her mother didn’t shove the annuller at her and just let her sass her like that. She was lucky, to say the least, in comparison to Sylas, and she’s quite young, literally doesn’t have any life experience compared to other champions. Maybe some people find her cliche and overrated.

What inspired you to rp your muse?  — I wrote her way back when in 2012. Or something like that. Fell in love immediately with her upon reading her judgment in the JoJ and wanted to give RPing a try. Took a break for a while and decided to take a step back from her, to see where I wanted to go with her. She’s absolutely my favorite character, let alone champion. Still love her to this day! 

What keeps your inspiration going?  — MUSIC. Honestly, music helps my muse so much. Any song that reminds me of her or any ship I have with her, or any song that reminds me of a hardship she’s faced, it helps so much. And obviously, my friends here. They are always so supportive of me. Heck, I might not play her as much anymore in League, but she still has a special place in my heart.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES …? / NO. ( I think so, but I doubt myself ALL THE TIME, or think I could change something else about her, or make her more likable. I think... she’s alright for the most part? )

Do you frequently write headcanons? YES / NO. ( Sometimes a random headcanon will spring to my mind and I’ll need to write it down. Most of the time, I don’t bother writing it down since I need to consider it more. Or I think too hard about it and think ‘ nah, that’s not right. ’  )

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO. ( I used to write them a LOT MORE. Years ago. About Ez/Lux. Now I kinda write them in my Google Drive. )

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day?  YES / NO. ( She’s too cute. )

Are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO. ( Half & half. I’m always wondering if I’m messing it up or making her too nice or forgiving. If that is even such a thing.  )

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO. ( I think my writing is okay for the most part, I do want to work on descriptions / using more detail and similes/metaphors in my writing. )

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO. ( Yes. I get emotional for a lot of things. )

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?  — If it’s constructive and about my WRITING, then yes. Portrayal doesn’t matter to me too much. One person can have an opinion about how Muse A would react to a certain event, and another person could have a different one. It’s all subjective at that point imo, unless it’s obviously something that a majority of people agree on. But I’m not going to bring people down for their portrayal and I expect people not to do that to me either. If you simply don’t like my portrayal, you don’t have to follow/interact. There’s plenty of different potrayals of Lux too, so I’d be confused if someone felt the need to hark on me about it. It’s really that simple.

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  — Yes!! They let me think about small details or situations that I wouldn’t really think about otherwise. I love them.

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  — Sure. I’m open to discussions, in case I missed something that was said by Riot or something along those lines. But if it’s something that wasn’t explicitly stated, like Lux’s favorite dessert or whatever, I doubt we’ll change our minds. We can agree to disagree.

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?  — Shrug. As I said above, that’s their opinion and how they see Lux. Everyone sees her differently. I’d probably be a little offended, because I put work into her, but that’s about the only thing. 

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  — Shrug. They wouldn’t be the first nor the last person to tell me they hate Lux, whether it’s because she’s too popular and gets all the skins, or that she’s basic, or whatever. I really don’t care?? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of her. Just please don’t shove it in my face if you hate her or bother talking to me about it. If you love her, please DO shove it in my face. 

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  — Yes, sure. I always welcome feedback. I also know I use too many commas and am trying to work on that, but yes. If you could help me improve my writing in a NICE way, then I welcome it.

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?   —  I think so. I don’t like rushing people or demanding their time. I’m also open to writing any plots or ideas you have in mind. The only reason I won’t like you is if you obviously disrespect me. 

That’s about it, congrats for filling out!

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised thoughts on Silver Snow:

When I finished Golden Deer, I said that it had felt like a more traditional Fire Emblem story than Blue Lions. Silver Snow is that but even more so (though GD is still the most trad-FE cast, IMO)

Having already played those two routes, it felt very much like a whirlwind tour of them both, plus another battle thrown in at the end - a battle that probably should have been harder, but I (completely accidentally) built the bulkiest Byleth imaginable, especially resistance wise, plus high magic - and so, by pairing high defensive stats with Nosferatu, I tanked every attack that came my way 

Gaming, for me, is just doing whatever the hell I feel like, stumbling into good results, and then pretending that I did it on purpose

I spent the whole battle with the Dragon Tales theme song stuck in my head. Kind of killed the mood

I really enjoyed that after wrapping up both the Edelgard and TWSITD plots, they basically Persona 4 you by trying to convince you that the whole game’s done now and all that’s left is to chat with everyone - though unlike in P4, there’s very obviously something left to do because they give you a whole month of prep time, rather than just one day

I felt the same way about this on Golden Deer - none of the characters are appropriately shocked by Rhea’s highly questionable actions 

Also - she says she’s going to explain the whole truth! And she doesn’t! Only the Byleth creation stuff! The other revelations from Golden Deer are missing! Rhea! Why! Are! You! Like! This!

This is actually a problem I have with this game as a whole - they want to keep certain lore and secrets exclusive to certain routes, but it results in every story feeling in some way incomplete. Like, Fates gets a lot of crap, but at least you did get a full story from your half (third? never played Revelation) a game for the price of a whole one. Blue Lions gets the worst of it, I think 

Plus, when you know some of said secrets, it makes characters who refuse to share them in other routes seem weirdly (and sometimes, contrivedly) cagey about things they really do not need to be cagey about. See: Claude refusing to tell Dimitri and Byleth in Azure Moon that he wants to End Racism, and instead vagueing about ‘achieving his dream’. This is not Edelgard wanting to conquer Fodlan and dismantle the entire social structure, Claude, your ideals really are not so controversial that you need to be this coy. Dimitri and I are cool, we getcha 

My one sentence review of the whole game is basically: Great characters, great world building, great gameplay - but really, really frustrating plot structure

I’m also really upset that Seteth does not have a dragon form

Speaking of Seteth, I married him this time around. I mostly decided to do it for laughs, but while Byleth/Dedue is still my number one Byleth pairing, I came to really, genuinely like them together. Seteth is one of my favs, now more than ever

It helps that romancing Seteth feels a lot less... creepy than romancing most of the students. I like Linhardt, but romancing him felt very weird to me because I couldn’t get over Byleth having first known him as a 16 year old under their care. Dedue, for the record, doesn’t elicit this response  because he doesn’t really feel as much like a student to me? Role-wise he feels a lot closer to the knights, and it’s just that he's been enrolled as a student for convenience’s sake, which makes him and Byleth feel more equal than they do with most of the other kids. Helps that he’s also on the older end

Anyway, Seteth and Byleth would be the nerdiest couple ever, is the impression I got from their ending. The confession scene made me laugh in how ‘oh we’ve got a lot of work to do - btw wanna get married? - sweet, now let’s get back to work’ it was. Mark Whitten is a gem

It’s also the the first time I felt like the game was actually shipping me with a main lord (Seteth taking that role in the absence of the box lords on this route). Haven’t done Crimson Flower yet, so no opinion on the Edelgard/Byleth relationship yet, but regarding Claude and Dimitri my (pretty damn controversial, possibly a bad idea to put out there) opinions on them with Byleth are that

Claude and Byleth are platonic bros, regardless of Byleth’s gender. I just don’t get any feeling of romance from their relationship at all, and so pairing them off feels weird (to me, personally - I don’t hate the ship or anything, though)

Meanwhile Dimitri 100% had a crush on his teacher at school, but after more than five years of enduring trauma after trauma, and then half a year of beginning to heal (whilst fighting a war culminating in the execution of his step-sister), Dimitri is nowhere near ready for a romantic relationship. And when he is, I wouldn’t want him with any of the main cast, Dimitri x Village Girl OTP. I guess if it has to be anyone, I’d be okay with Mercedes, maybe Marianne - hell, maybe even Claude - but really, I just want him to get a fresh start. I think that’s the healthiest option for him, in the end

I do think it’s a pairing that could work in an AU where Dimitri doesn’t have any of the experiences he has in canon, though 

And again, this is just my personal reading

I’ll also admit that I may be influenced by the fact that his two most popular pairings are with Byleth and Dedue, who I greatly prefer with each other. Mostly because I love Dedue with all my soul and his ending with Byleth is by far his happiest, in my eyes at least. It’s the only one where he puts some distance between himself and Dimitri and evens out the power balance in their relationship, which makes me happy because oh boy, the Dimitri/Dedue relationship is super interesting and compelling, but also (again, by my reading) all kinds of unhealthy as it’s presented for most of the game - power balance issues like I say, the fact that they tend to indulge, even encourage, each other’s worst instincts and behaviours, mutual guilt complexes - like I say, it’s fascinating, but damn screwed up. IMO, they’re one of the best examples I’ve seen of how unhealthy relationships aren’t always the result of one bad person, and how two good people can end up being very bad for each other

Though it is, again, a pairing I can see working (and actually being incredibly cute) in an AU where they’ve lived less horrible lives

And it’s not like I don’t want them to be friends, I just want them to also develop healthier boundaries and equal levels of respect

oh my god none of this has anything to do with silver snow what am I doing

But hey, speaking of Dimitri - I flip flopped on whether I thought his death was handled better or worse here than Golden Deer. It was given, I felt, more appropriate gravitas, but again suffered from ‘Dimitri’s dead! No, Dimitri’s alive! Oh wait, now he’s dead again’ in like, three successive scenes. And then you see his... ghost? I guess?

Dimitri really seems to get the short end of the stick on routes outside his own. Claude’s non-Deer roles were, in both cases I’ve played, much stronger and more fitting, and Edelgard is Edelgard

Maybe he’ll be good in Crimson Flower. Please. I miss Dimitri mattering. He’s probably my favourite of the three

There’s a point - obviously I don’t fully know Edelgard yet, but from what I got from the White Clouds section, above anything else she strikes me as an incredibly realistic depiction of a slightly edgy, extremely idealistic, but also highly naive and short-sighted teenager

Her whole goal, it seems, is meritocracy. She hates the crest system and the nobility, and she wants to create a system of equal opportunity. I can get behind that, but I really hope she’s prepared to accept the fact that true equal opportunity is basically impossible without recreating The Giver, as inequality is always more complex than one single factor being to blame for everything. Has Edelgard considered other limitations that make true meritocracy difficult to achieve? Has she been working on, say, a comprehensive benefits system? Or is she more of a libertarian type, and so primarily all about negative freedom and removing direct oppression? I hope Crimson Flower goes into detail on this, I’d be genuinely interested to know

I also find it interesting that she gets very angry about the fact that people hurt her and her family as a means to their own ends, so she decides that her own ends are to eliminate the system that lead to that happening - and she doesn’t care who she has to hurt in the process

This isn’t a CinemaSins *ding* plot hole observation, I genuinely think it’s interesting, and not actually that unrealistic

I also suppose her goal is no less naive than End All Racism By Being Nice To People, but Claude isn’t killing and persecuting people in attempt to achieve that, so it invites less scrutiny

I do wonder if I would have felt more strongly positively about her if she’d been my first playthrough. I do believe she’s a person that sincerely means well, and she’s certainly sympathetic, but - hmm. I’ll make my mind up when I finish CF

Anyway, paired endings. A few that I got include Raphael and Bernadetta (by far my favourite Bernie ending so far, seriously, what is that Caspar ending), Shamir and Leonie, which was cute and goofy (as Leonie’s endings tend to be, I notice, I do like that girl), Felix and Dorothea (not my favourite for either, but cute), Sylvain and Mercedes (the same but even cuter), Cyril and Petra (which felt wrong, partly because I love Cysithea a hell of a lot, and also because despite knowing there’s only about a year between them, Petra looks so much older pre-time skip), Ferdie and Marianne (super wholesome and sweet), and Linhardt and Caspar (my boyyyyssss that I refuse to ever separate again)

Not sure what I’m going to aim for on CF aside from keeping those boys together and also Ferdie/Hubert, as I’ve Heard Things

Flayn and Manuela have an A support so I figured they had a paired ending and it turns out they do not, which means Manuela was alone forever and Flayn ran away because apparently she hated having Byleth for a step mother I guess, rude

My Byleth (Myleth?) was prepared to be the best step mother in the history of the world, so offended

I realised ‘Javelins of Light’ is one of my absolute favourite tracks in the whole game. Mostly because it sounds like something out of Danganronpa, which made me nostalgic

I also like ‘Guardian of Starlight’ for somehow managing to sound like a Danganronpa/PMD: Explorers crossover track

I love how out of nowhere the Immaculate One fight is. It really does just feel like they needed something to distinguish the route from Verdant Wind outside of Claude not being around, so they just had a map that was less cool in every way except for the dragon

Is there an explanation for why Nemesis doesn’t show up on this route?

Also - I didn’t mention this in Golden Deer thoughts but I also found that final battle way, way easier than it was probably meant to be because I’d made everyone into a flier and so the floor damage hazard was meaningless

Which I totally did on purpose and not so I could make a stupid joke post about my all-wyvern team 

Anyway, in conclusion, Silver Snow was a good route, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would (I’d kind of thought it was just going to be GD without Claude, which isn’t... totally wrong, but it’s got some other stuff going on too), I liked Seteth getting to have a bigger role, I thought it had the best final boss (if not the best final boss map), and I liked that I got some more Dragon Lore (never a bad thing)

please don’t yell at me for my controversial shipping opinions