#there's a human experiment sideplot

[mangoboogaloo2]

what's your hollow knight au... woah i;m so interested already

WOWOWOW hello :) I'm so glad u asked! Forgive me for the long post friend

1) Lost Kin Food Adventures/Also Hallownest Restored AU:

Part of me wants to keep it brief since I've story boarded a whole chapter of this I've kept but I got to edit it first (if I ever do ;-;)

- Lost Kin being a student and having an informal child/father type relationship Nail master Oro

- Lost kin learns that it's Nailmaster Oro's Hatchling day coming up soon, and they are invited by Sheo and the Nail Smith! Both teach them about birthdays/Hatchling day traditions

- They intend to make a cake! But learns that not many people in Hallownest don't know how to

- Although Lemm is a Relic-Seeker, Lost Kin learns that Lemm had heard of knowledge of adventurers cooking and baking, so they venture out to find the ingredients themselves together

Sideplot skirmishes/Character Moments:

- Hallownest is being rebuilt, and more bugs are flooding in! Hornet makes Quirrel an informal advisor to The Hollow Knight to help organize the kingdom a bit much to Lemm's chagrin

- Lemm × Quirrel: Lemm worries that Quirrel is not thinking about himself after seeing him devote more time to restoring to kingdom. This leaves Quirrel kind of hurt and they fight over it sometimes.

- Lost Kin figuring out themselves battling trauma between the Radiance and Pale King, trapped between void and light.

- Canon Drama: There's still tension between Oro and Mato and the Nailmaster family is tryna fix that

- Minor Drabble: Quirrel and the Hollow Knight reminiscing over their trauma and how they heal to being scared about rebuilding the corpse that is Hallownest

**(I'd imagine Quirrel here thinking fondly of Lemm when he says "it's okay to be useless" from the Stag Beetles and Broken Legs fanfic and somehow paralleling that to the Hollow Knight's new responsibility as king to not have as much pressure. That fic by Aryashi and relationshipcrimes on Ao3 is amazing, go go go)

Notes:

- I'D ASSUME Sheo, Mato, and Oro are all triplets since they're practically identical but for that AU they've hatched on different days

- After installing Tumblr, I've seen SO MUCH food AU Stuff and I'm excited I'm not alone :_) I can't remember the exact creators that I've seen tho sadge

- Its funny since with this AU it assumes that Hallownest's gastronomy (at least in the baking department) being underwhelming as heck. I mean most people in Hallownest are warriors so I don't expect them too kek.

- Battling the fine line betwixt reality and fiction because I've done baking research on what Lemm and Lost kin CAN cook realistically but then like can bugs digest milk? Can bugs make a human cake and eat it too? Or do I have to use realistic substitutes? (Help I learned cockroaches can make milk, now you can know about it too HAH but yea no don't want that)

- Finally, definitely wanna flesh out Lemm and Lost Kin's relationship but I'm not sure how they would bond over in story. Maybe over Lemm's curiosity over the Pale family history and why these bugs look all the same and Lost Kin wanting to just experience life suffering from possession from radiance and such.

^pg 1 storyboard (also I just realized, I don't know really if vessels are born ? So that's kind of sad)

This my most beefiest au that I will probably not fully write out (maybe)? Since writing is not my strength at all but thinking of character interactions is so fun. I have more different AU stuff but saving them for other days yes

[princess-of-the-corner]

Okay so. Interesting thought I'm having with the Todoroki sideplot in Chaos Children that Some Of You know about but we're gonna have a poll about it so!

In 'The Road to Hell', I have it that Enji's father's Quirk was a Mutation Type, giving him horns and a tail(which is why Enji called his Quirk 'Hellflame' instead of something nicer-sounding)

Obviously, I couldn't slap it onto the rest of the family despite REALLY wanting to. Partly to stick to 'Canon' for once, partly because I'd have to retcon things in the fic, and partly because story-wise I did like the idea of no one really knowing about the Mutation Type in the ancestry.

Though I have kinda decided that everyone did get bigger fangs from this it's just not always noticeable so it hasn't come up but it will lmao.

Anyway.

I debated on something when it came to the Toya/Dabi plotline.

Because I threw around the idea of Nomu!Dabi before, but then I got on the line of why he and Kurogiri are different from the others. Which led to me deciding that while they were experimented on they're different than the others. What happened to them was basically putting their unconscious bodies into simulations that would force Quirk Awakening(s).

Now.

With this, it gives me a possibility in the sense of, theoretically, an Awakening could either evolve a Quirk or it could pull something out of the recessive genetics.

Which would lead to Toya getting at least the tail.

And it would also help in the whole sense of why even his family doesn't immediately recognize 'Dabi'. Alongside the burns, hair dye and 'being dead' thing.

So I just. Want a little poll on if y'all think this is a genuinely good idea, of if I'm getting ahead of myself with the 'but imagine these characters with more non-human traits?!?!?!" energy

And for the poll:

[fandomwe1rd0]

the heck even happens in Rick and morty

Just gonna infodump on you cause you asked for it! Spoilers ahead! Infodump under the cut

So there is the Smith family, they are the main characters, you have Beth Smith, the alcoholic mother, Jerry Smith, the bumbling unemployed dad, Summer Smith, the badass sister, and of course Morty Smith, the 14-year-old anxiety-ridden poor boy, and the main character, Rick Sanchez, he's around 70 and is Morty's grandfather, and he has A LOT of issues. He's an alcoholic, definitely depressed, hates himself, and loves Morty more than he loves himself (Which isn't saying much since he hates himself, but still, he loves the kid a whole lot)

Ok, now we got them, I'll just quickfire everything that happens in season one, Rick has Morty shove megaseeds up his butt so they cam go through interdimensional customs with the megaseeds, and he almost gets kicked out due to pulling Mourt out of school, but the megaseeds dissolve just in time giving Morty temporary superintellgence, leading Beth and Jerry to believe that Morty spending time with Rick is making him smarter, when it's not, they leave and that opens to the first garage rant and brings up the iconic quote "100 years Rick and Morty!" Which will come back. Next Rick incepts Morty's math teacher to give Morty As in math, Scary Terry follows them, but they end up becoming his friend after Rick and Morty stop him from having a bad dream, and they get Morty's math teacher to get him an A. Next Morty goes inside a human body and tries to save anatomy park, a park inside of a human body, it breaks down at the end though soooo. Next up Rick gets trapped inside a simulation that aliens trapped him in so they can get his recipe for concetrated dark matter, the fuel for accelerated space travel. Nothing much of note, but we do get a cute protective Rick moment, when he finds out Morty was simulated, his first response was "You simulated my grandson's genitalia!? You diabolical sons of bitches!" He even tries to attack them, but is held back. Next up in a personal favorite of mine, Rick and Morty make a bet that Morty can have a simpe, fun adventure. It starts off rocky, and gets even rockier when we get to that infamous Mr. Jellybean scene, I assume I don't have to talk about it, you already know it probably. Thankfully, Rick is super sweet and understand, not only does he throw the bet so Morty will be happy, but he also kills Mr. Jellybean which has me CACKLING!

Next up is a plot important episode, Morty asks Rick for a love potion to make Jessica fall in love with him, for context Jessica is Morty's crush, Rick at first says no, but eventually relents, but since Jessica has the fuel, it spreads to the entire school, Rick comes to get Morty since he isn't affected by it, since the love potion doesn't work on any related to Morty gentically.A VERY tasteful choice in my opinion, Rick tries to fix it, but just makes a bad situation worse. Rick travels to another dimension where they died, Morty understandably freaks out, but then Rick explains the plan, they just slip into the places of their dead selves, and continue as if nothing happen. Morty is understandably traumatized from this experience, and then we move to the next episode.

Next up is a pretty meh episode, Morty gets an uhm robot, but it was actually a birthing machine, and because of this Morty gets a chld, he tries to be a good father, but fails since well, he's 14, and the baby was naturally very aggressive from the day he was born. There is a sideplot with Rick and Summer, but it's mostly just Rick being a sexist asshole

Next up is an episode I admittably really like, basically it just resolves around Rick and Morty watching interdimensional cable, and it's just nice to see them bonding, there is a pretty good side plot with the rest of their family seeing what their life could've been. Eventually Beth and Jerry divorce but get back together when they realized that they would've gotten back together in a nother dimeson. It's a very sweet scene

Next up Rick drives Summer to work and meets the devil, where his store sells cursed items, eventually he beats the devil by setting up a store that uncurses his items for cash, yeah, he's petty, and I love him. There's a side plot where Jerry goes to Pluto, but there's nothing of note there, we do however gets a sweet moment where Rick is happy to see Morty but hides it, he sees Morty and says while smiling "Hey!" then clears his throat, frowns and says "Hey." very slick Rick.

Next up is a really really good episode, its the first canon episode and it is amazing. We get to meet two iconic characters, Doofus Rick who is a precious cinnamon roll, and Evil Morty who is an evil boy. The council of Ricks think Rick is killing other Ricks, but Rick found out it was evil Morty, we also find out an important detail, Rick hangs around Morty because he uses his brainwaves as camoflague. And we also get a sweet moment where Rick cries from his memories of Morty as a baby

The last episode of season one is eh, it's not great, but it's not bad. We get to meet Rick's friends Squanchy and Birdperson but they don't do much, basically Rick just throws a house party when Beth and Jerry are out of town on their titanic themed getaway. We also get a sweet bonding moment between Rick, Summer, and Morty which is cute.

So that's season one, there are 6 more seasons, go watch it, it's great!

[amewinterswriting]

🦋 tell us about your current wip

🍄 name a song that represents your mc

My current blurb for Magic's Servant is:

A dark rural fantasy set in modern day Wales, featuring Talli, a teenager who is in way over her head. There's also a talking cat with a secret, shadowy manipulative demons, and immortal figures from Arthurian mythology locked into a vicious stalemate over the centuries.

On a more personal note, the way I approached writing this is a list of my least favorite ways to write anything ever, and as such, this has been a thorn in my side for years. I started off with the idea of a mysterious magic cat and an abandoned church. To explore who the cat was and why he lived in an abandoned church, I pantsed a whole film script over the course of a month (Script Frenzy, NaNoWriMo's forgotten and abandoned sister), which gave me a vague outline of a story, introduced a lot of main elements and scenes but also introduced a lot of loose plot threads, characters and sideplots that didn't really go anywhere. Worse, I really didn't feel like there was anything interesting or notable about my MC (which as we all know is utterly unforgivable in writing).

So over the course of the next few years, I wrote a lot of backstory, sidestory, continuation of the story and notes. I also rewrote some key scenes of the script. Some of which was in first person prose, some of which was also in script format and some of which was in third person. If this already sounds like a mess...well, it was. Which is why I procrastinated on doing anything else with it for years. (To be entirely fair, I still thought about it a lot, and thought about the themes I wanted to explore and other characters in that world and more directions I could take the plot in. But I procrastinated actually getting all my various drafts together into one readable manuscript in a single tense and narrative.) I also developed a lot as a writer, practicing longform fiction on entirely different work and finding a more coherent voice.

The main reason I'm actually working on it now is my wife. I realised while talking with her about it that there were interesting things about the story that I don't want just relegated to a hard drive somewhere, and I want it in a form that other real human people can read. Or as she said: you need to write the thing. So I spent an absolute age on Scrivener importing all the documents I had, even the scripts and notes and scenes I had three different versions of. Then I plotted out a coherent outline - where would it make sense for backstory to be placed between chapters? What backstory would make more impact just implied instead of outright text? What order do things need to happen in? Can I actually fit this subplot in this book or is this going to be better as a sequel? Scrivener was especially useful for the notecard feature - you can write up a quick sentence or two describing the chapter and move it around within the project, so I could play around with placement and get a feel for the flow of the plot. I also love the notes I can make for each chapter - since it can get complicated very quickly. I use them to make a note of what knowledge each character has by the end of a scene - especially because in the earlier drafts, characters (and thus, the reader) learnt far too much, far too quickly, so this refining draft has been about slowing down the rate of information and introducing more emotion. That means I need to know what characters know what information at an glance, since it's usually a lot less than I think it is!

Of course, the most important thing is that I now actually like my main character. I think this is something only time could fix - when I first wrote the first draft, I was an insecure teenager who felt like I wasn't notable or interesting, and I was writing a teenager in a similar situation. With time, I've grown and had life experiences and can also treasure the abnormal that seemed so normal to me at the time. In many ways, this is a collaboration with my teenage self and a love letter to myself.

Which neatly leads to the song that represents Talli, the MC. I have a few, but the one I've settled on is One Day by Kodaline. I think it sums up the experience of undergoing big changes that can seem overwhelming, the awkward self-consciousness of teenage years and not necessarily having the right help and support available to you. As the song asks: "how are you still holding on?" and that feels like a large part of Talli's struggle throughout the plot; barely holding on while powerful beings try to use her for their own convenience.

[gender-mailman]

I went from killing my former allies to kidnapping a scientist guy to having an acid on my arm to having Glitch trying to bite my fingers off to having two weird sideplots I restarted because he was being boring as heck where he tried to make ME bite HIM when he saw my fangs and tried to feed me the bot I killed because he was an asshole, and after the restart it went to him saying the shit NO human ever told me and destroying my heart with it

I have no words

Ah, the gay experience

[cocajimmycola]

(Dreamy sigh.) thinking about youtubers life 2. worst game i;ve ever played /silly

[rebelcourtesan]

Helluva Boss S2 Ep2: My Thoughts

MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW FOR THE NEW EPISIDE!!!!

Every episode of Helluva Boss has been excellent and this one is no less. That said, I will say I liked the Season 2 Premier a bit better than this one as it fills like a feeler than an episode pushed the plot forward. Yet, we got some GOLDEN moments.

Stolas having more 'bite' in his tone with others. He gives back verbal barbs to Stella while putting Blitz in his place about his bad memory.

Octavia wondering the human world and no one notices she's not wearing a costume.

HUMAN STOLAS!!!

Human Loona is back! I am so glad they are making so much use out of what I thought was a one shot character disguise.

The Moxxie and Millie mini sideplot was a bit of a waste to me. Sorry, I love M&M so much, but I was more interested in the hunt for Octavia than something that looked like they tact on just for M&M to be involved.

It looks like Blitz has a thing for Human Stolas. Loved the flirtatious caress and whisper which made him sweat.

Love Stolas being supportive of Blitz. Tries to protect him from security guards, speaks up for him against the showrunner, and encourages him to perform for a live audience. Also tries to rescue him from the mob.

Blitz having a panic attack about performing. It's been alluded to for a while that he has bad experiences performing for others since childhood and he glows when the audience response positivie, albeit unbeknowst to him they are taking cues from a teleprompter.

Loona backstory! Wow! This brings up SOOOO many questions! Are Hellhounds allowed to live autonomous or must they be in service to another demon?

Octavia and Loona having a tender moment. I know the shippers are going crazy. It was nice to see the two girls not only share a screen together, but also have a moment with Loona giving Octavia sage advice about fathers while comforting her.

[yackers]

Why Jerome Cheating Wasn't Out of Character and How It Actually Developed Him Further as a Person: an unproofread rant/essay by a bitch with too much time on her hands

okay first I just wanna talk about the circumstances round him cheating. Like he definitely could’ve made better choices and in no way am I saying he’s not to blame but he and Mara were very much broken up when he first started dating willow. Jerome was being a dick in the business competition, but it wasn’t exactly a break up forever kinda mistake. He apologised multiple times in varying degrees of big gestures, to which mara did not respond to or make any move to forgive him. Sure, a lot of this was to do with the sisterhood but it’s not like he knew that.

I think he only went for willow because not only did she help him with his schemes without question, she was also willing to take the punishment all in good fun. In no way were they right for each other but she messed around with him in the costume closet and had fun with her the way he never did too often with mara without being interrupted by mick. Mara then, a while after ignoring his various attempts came up to him and told him she’d forgiven him and they were now back together. He definitely should’ve just told her there and then that he had kissed willow, but he was already starting to question their relationship and honestly I still think it would’ve crushed her.

I think that Jerome only ever wanted to be with mara because he put her on a pedestal as some perfect unattainable girl. He pined over her for years before she showed interest. She was sweet to him and treated him as a human with feelings when the others often wouldn’t but I don’t think they were ever right for each other. They were cute in season 2 but although she helped him with his dad she constantly overstepped with him and poppy and always held a sense of righteousness over him like on donkey day. I think especially once they were in a relationship she expected him to be a different person for her in ways that would change who he was. He looks visibly uncomfortable with the nicknames and is constantly shown to be at her beck and call in a way that is less playful in comparison to season 3 Alfie and amber.

The whole trying to then get away with having two girlfriends whilst he makes up his mind on who he wants to date therefore makes perfect sense for his character as in truth he doesn’t actually wanna date either of them. Willow is fun but not serious and mara is serious but not fun. willow and him was only really ever a fling, as shown by how quickly she moves on. And Jerome is literally an asshole it would be unrealistic at this point in his development for him to handle the situation maturely and lay his feeling out to them because he barely knew what he was feeling and he is self identified sneaky. Are we forgetting that he used to manipulate Alfie for money, literally broke up mick and mara and consistently just makes the worst choices readily available to him. Yes he did gaslight willow and lied to mara but it’s nothing he hasn’t done before and was presently above doing again.

Joy being the one to find out first and see the comparison table is important to her relationship because there is all the worst parts about his character laid out on a platter for her. I think often mara completely avoided seeing how cruel and insensitive he can be at times and thought the others exaggerated it which is why she took the cheating so hard because she didn’t see it coming. But joy knows he’s flawed right from the start of their relationship, including his taunting of her near the beginning of the season. They also have a lot more shared experiences as shown during the ceremony scenes at the gatehouse. They’re both actively mad at each other but yet still come together against Alfie and Patricia and then the teachers. Mara never knew about anything Jerome went through in the first two seasons but joy did.

A really key part of his character development is when mara makes the cruel comment about his dad. I think if anything it shows how wrong they were for each other. Joy’s speech about being the bigger person is a turning point for him. Like mara, she wants him to be better but she says it from the perspective of someone who acknowledges that they too have done shitty things in the past. I think the ‘if you can bare it’ is important too, because she’s acknowledging to him that being a good person isn’t easy especially for people with upbringings and pasts like theirs. I think for the first time he actually feels understood. The ‘my lady’ scene confirms this.

Joy never requires him to be too mushy and vulnerable to her publicly. She’s playful and jokes around and anything sweet he says to her he says because he means it, not because it’s something he thinks she wants to hear. Their letdown washing date it so key to his growth like he’s able to joke around with her in a space where he can also freely talk about his dad and his insecurities about being allowed to scheme and be himself without having to be cold hearted because of it. He tells her she’s a good listener because he’s being heard without anyone looking out for poppy or his dad or the greater good over his own feelings.

One of the biggest signs he’s changed is when he knows that the play is a plot to embarrass him and takes it on the chin, admits he made a mistake and just hopes that it helps mara move on. And he just seems so much more into joy than he ever was anyone else, he even says it!! Unlike mara he isnt following her around like a puppy and doing as he’s told he gets distracted by her as she walks in the room and calls her names and is just!! I think the show is so good at writing couples that don’t have to be mushy and all over each other to show they care and mara is right they are kinda perfect for each other. They both have made mistakes in the past but they’ve grown up and there isn’t an unequal balance of a bad guy and a better girl who wants to fix him. He’s respectful of mara and backs away from joy around her without taunting and fighting back like season 1 or 2 Jerome definitely would’ve. He changed for the better organically on screen and I think his arc was done really well. You can tell by the way he he cries when he overhears about the revenge plot how much he really cared and he broke up with her to protect his own feeling but as soon as he realises that her feelings were genuine he tries to get her back. Not in flashy empty feeling gestures like before but by expressing how he feels.

Im not saying he didn’t develop a lot over the course of season one and two and that mara didn’t play a big part in that development but I think to truly be better he had to take a step back from pretending to be perfect to get the girl of his dreams and actually take the time to work on himself.

And in terms of the cheating/revenge plot line itself it had to be something big and time consuming this season that took up all the characters not involved in the mystery’s time whilst also giving them their own arcs and stories within it. sibuna were literally soulless for a portion of the season which could only work if they were distanced from their close friends outside of it like Jerome and joy because they were far too wrapped up in their own shit to notice. And they’re teenagers! Of course trying to date two girls at once and orchestrating the plot of John tucker must die is a dumb bad idea!! But so is literally every other thing they do in the show because they’re naive and half of them were left there by their parents to rot and have been kidnapped in the past of course they’re not rational!! I actually found the whole sideplot an entertaining break from the darker themes of the third season and throughout the whole season you can feel the characters are 17/18 instead of 15/16 like in the first season, there’s gonna be more romantic motivation to their actions.

In conclusion/ TLDR: just because a character makes mistakes doesn’t mean they lost their development or they were out of character. Interesting characters aren’t good people all of the time and thats what makes it entertaining.

[robiness]

various v8 expectations as of ch1 (by someone who's not watched but has seen spoilers + opening)

- spring's coming aka raven finally

- nora spring maiden sideplot start

- penny gets hacked but fights through it, ultimately proving her humanity (a la deviancy in detroit: become human)

- marrow begins to defect bc wtf boss, ironwood will probs shoot him but he survives

- oscar and oz have super secret plan from v7 finale. getting kidnapped by salem is part of the plan

- the sdc doing some saving the day thing at some point under willow a/o whitley

- jacques tries to get in on watts and ironwood truce but they just deadass ignore him (dont even acknowledge him trying to get their attentoon)

- team rwby enters relic-related situation but ruby gets separated and experiences something that will Change Her Forever

- winter vs cinder part 2

- bumbleby argument not about gay but like... Only Child vs Elder Sibling perspectives re: Ruby

- once again oscar gets punched bc oz

- neon katt using her provocation powers on actual enemies instead of peers (honestly this one is just a wish. i need it) (also i want her in a tundra just to see if she can walk)

- qrow gets friend (or dare i say... friendS)

[youtiaoshutiao]

i just finished "the romance of tiger and rose" and i have nothing to watch now :( do you have any cdrama recs?

hello!!!! sorry i got to this a week late my tumblr is like... neglected currently

anyway i’m so glad u enjoyed tiger and rose!!! i love it so much too :D for cdrama recs, omg it really depends on what u’re looking for!!!! i find it so hard to narrow down dramas that are my faves to recommend because i actually watch very little HAHA and i only watch to completion dramas that i really like anyway xD anyway i’ll just list a few that i’ve watched recently (meaning like... from mid 2019 till now) and really enjoyed!!!

period dramas:

- joy of life 庆余年 (2019): hard to describe this tonally because it’s v irreverant and hilarious yet moving and deep and suspenseful?! the first 15 episodes are fun and enjoyable but i think i really really truly got into it after that and became invested 100%. in my eyes it felt like a fervent love poem to life and the human condition especially towards the end. the characters are all very fascinating and there’s a lot of twisty plot twists. excellent acting and script writing. only caveat is that it’s the first season out of a planned 3 season series so it ends on a cliffhanger, and the female lead doesn’t really have as much agency compared to the other supporting female characters (mainly due to her circumstances and the role she plays i guess).

- young blood 大宋少年志 (2019): YOOO THIS is a huge lovelovelove for me, you have the most lovable squad consisting of 6 very different and generally lonely teenagers who get roped into this secret services thing where they deal with top secret government plots and stuff. and they start off all on the wrong foot and grow to LOVE EACH OTHER and RELY ON EACH OTHER and HAVE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. *sobs just thinking about it* has many supporting characters that are interesting and whom u also get invested in. It’s an original script written by Wang Juan 王倦 who also wrote the joy of life script, except young blood is 100% original and not adapted from a webnovel! just like tiger and rose’s script, which is also an original script written by Nan Zhen. this is SUPER SUPER rare nowadays in cdramaland which is why i stan these 2 dramas so hard hahaha. caveat: young blood also ends on a kind of cliffhanger/open ending, but it still felt like the arcs that the entire series covered in terms of character development were well completed so i was okay with it. plus there are lots of hints that there’s also gonna be a season 2, though I think Wang Juan is still writing the script for that.

- under the power 锦衣之下 (2019/2020): this is the drama that tiger and rose is sometimes compared to in terms of how it became so popular unexpectedly. i would wholeheartedly recommend this 100% solely for the OTP which is a Tsundere Embroidered Uniform Guard (Ming-dynasty secret police) ML x Bubbly/talkative/street smart Constable FL. they are SUPER SUPER cute and the leads (who are both my faves) play them super well and their romantic development is presented really organically. the outfits esp the male lead’s are A+++ also and make him look super super hot. i like the OST too. however everything else is quite mediocre lol especially the special effects and the meandering sideplots and there was a whole plot arc that didn’t really make much sense because a lot was edited out because of censorship. STILL VERY ADDICTIVE THO

- the story of ming lan 知否知否应是绿肥红瘦 (2018/2019): a very long drama (but quite normal by cdrama standards lol) basically about the ~journey~ and ~growth~ of our protagonist minglan, unfavoured daughter of a concubine of a relatively high ranking civil servant. it’s a very different vibe to a lot of other cdramas in that it’s very slice-of-life and slow paced, but i think it’s fascinating how it showcases how women deal and work with the internal dynamics of a household in a patriarchal society, and how that affects societal and political affairs as well. her OTP with an unfavoured son from another family (lol) is also very very delicious as it’s basically 2 people who have gone thru a lot of Trauma as children treasuring each other/learning that they too are treasured by the other and them building their own family and household against all odds and evil family members. it’s v long and slow paced as i mentioned earlier but it’s very very rewarding!! and i think many of my tumblr mutuals would agree it’s quite a favourite :D

modern dramas:

(i’ll admit that i’ve only had the brainspace the past 1 year for fluffy brainless modern dramas so all these are just for the FLUFF)

- skate into love 冰糖炖雪梨 (2020): uni drama where the FL re-picks up her true love speed skating after abandoning it for Reasons and gets back into it competitively. her OTP is her primary school deskmate who is an ice hockey player. the otp is very very fun!! the ML has a lot of resentment towards FL initially because FL was quite the bully in primary school but i really like how they resolved it and eventually the ML falls first and falls Really Really Hard and it is Delicious. the career aspects was quite well done also and i really rooted for the FL to rediscover her passion and pick it up again, and also for the ML to become better at his craft. caveat: i actually still have 10 episodes to go as i stalled because i know there’s a couple of episodes coming up that are going to be frustrating because of typical Misunderstanding and Miscommunication blablabla. but that’s pretty common lolol and overall it’s still a cute watch.

- the 致我们 series consisting of 3 dramas : 

1) a love so beautiful 致我们单纯的小美好 (2017): high school drama basically tsundere male lead x bubbly female lead, they’ve been classmates since young and are next door neighbours, female lead has a crush on him since forever

2) put your head on my shoulder 致我们暖暖的小时光 (2019): set in uni, female lead’s doing an internship far from her school, male lead is a physics student and his parents have a flat for him that is near female lead’s internship place, BAM THEY ARE FLATMATES!

3) the love equations 致我们甜甜的小美满 (2020): uni drama, female lead is a chinese language major who loves writing forensic novels online, male lead is a forensic science major.

all 3 are really cute lolol. i put these 3 because i just watched the third one two months ago and i feel like i have to mention it in the context of the first 2 haha. the first 2 were definitely hits both domestically and internationally. i feel the 3rd one kind of flopped? in terms of reception compared to the first 2 and a lot of my drama mutuals couldn’t get into it, and i can understand why because it did feel more unpolished? in terms of directorial choices/the editing/the acting/the script. but i still somehow really loved it for some reason, i think some parts of the ML’s life esp his relationship with his mum really resonated with me, and i loved FL and her friendships with her dormmates so so so so much. so i really rooted for the OTP.  i think objectively in terms of quality i would rate them 2 > 1 > 3, but in terms of feels... i loved them all. and it’s all just pure fluff anyway at the end of the day HAHA.

ok i’m running out of time writing this hehe but also a quick shoutout to my 2 favourite youth/high school dramas forever - With You 最好的我们 (2015) and My Huckleberry Friends 你好旧时光 (2017) which are sister dramas/set in the same universe and imo, are the pinnacle of youth dramas and what it means to capture the anxieties/stresses/mundane joys/pain/beauty of the Chinese/Asian high school experience. 

there are many others from before 2019 that i watched and enjoyed but i didn’t put them in hehe. and i’m sorry HAHA i actually don’t have much trust in my own taste LOL but i hope it helps!!

ohhhh and i’ve been trying to avoid starting on new dramas because of Exam Prep but there’s been SO MANY airing lately that i’ve been interested in:

The Bad Kids 隐秘的角落: apparently super well done suspense/thriller drama that’s receiving rave reviews everywhere!!

Love A Lifetime 暮白首: an original wuxia starring ren jialun (ML in under the power) whom i love so much and zhang huiwen

My Girl 99分女朋友: this is a modern day cdrama written by nan zhen!!! (who wrote tiger and rose) so i think it might be worth checking out :))

[thessaliah]

who do you prefer as final boss? olga or marisbury?

Marisbury, definitely. Olga has negative charisma to pull off the final boss in a convincing way (U Olga is too embarrassingly goofy), she’s ok as a character but she does not exactly command the screen as Marisbury did immediately. The shallow emotional connection to the cast makes the entire ‘we need to save her why she’s this way’ pretty unexciting as main conflict, to be honest (if was a sideplot, then sure, no problem, like helping Gerda or Patxi). If she had a rich backstory that wasn’t “oh we knew you for three hours and you were already dead, that was too shocking first experience”, then it’ll be fine. But sadly the only ones she could have shared that kind of heavy backstory are already dead (Lev, Roman, her own father, Kirschtaria), so this feels forced instead ofa genuine organic investment like Shirou agonizing about saving or killing Sakura in HF.

(But I’m intrigued by the idea of Goredolf confronting her, instead of her boring dynamics with Mash and Guda, because I felt Goredolf would be able to connect better emotionally because he understands her feelings and position better).

Though there’s the possibility is like FSN and is neither of them as catalyst of what happens even if they are definitely part of the problem. I think I spoke about this here and in some anime forums. This answers to two possibilities (that could complement each other, see FSN):

Humanity wished for it - like Angra Mainyu. Hints of Olga’s Grail nature like Solomon and Justaze brought up in some twitters. The torture of Specimen E (who is most definitely related to Olga) is probably a trigger. Moonlight Lostroom has that torture scene of featureless outlines that match the theory of “The accounts of David Bluebook take place within Chaldeas” - that’s why he’s shot by a featureless outline himself. Also Kotomine kind of narratively compared them, quoting his phrase in HF about the advent of Beast VII (her birth) in LB1 to Kadoc.

The Mastermind, or rather the one who got the ball rolling, was the first Animusphere ancestor. I spoke of this I think in Animesuki forum? I’m not crazy about it because it whitewashes too much to both Olga’s and her dad’s potential culpability just to spare the main named cast of any sins, and pulled a new character from just background hints. That it could be something in their bloodline, the Animuspheres, that make them Evil of Humanity-ish. With or without a Zouken or Jubstacheit that loomed over the “family” to insert their duty/wish/obsession or push the current heir in that direction. Maybe a consciousness that turned into an AI that influences the crest holder or whatever (Zouken does through the Crest of Worms). There are few indications of this: why Holmes said Kirschtaria’s magecraft was probably a reason why he was chosen among the Crypters (the same Magecraft of the Animuspheres) and his insistence Marisbury’s an ‘ordinary person with an ordinary sense of happiness’ (which conflict a lot with his human experimentation hobby, doesn’t it? Wth.); why would Roman insist someone with evil intentions couldn’t have summoned Solomon (if Marisbury was against the Human Order/Panhistory during the time of the War of Fuyuki, it’s unlikely Solomon would have complied his summon; Solomon did have awareness of his unethical nature but it aligned with the Human Order then; but after he became Roman, he was absent for over a year, who knows what changed after Marisbury activated Chaldeas); and finally, Lev in that Melty Blood crossover that whatever the Animusphere did begin 2000 years ago* . So unless Marisbury is revealed to be that old, then he couldn’t be the mastermind, so he occupies a role like Kiritsugu rather than the founders of Fuyuki Grail War or the ones who summoned Angra Mainyu from the plot perspective. 

*A similar statement was issued about the Escardos family regarding Flat (who is the result of 2000 years of research). I want to stop to point out Flat has a dual nature, one of which is a world-ending phenomena, and an artificial (?) personality/ego created that became dominant because he interacted with Waver and his class. They speak in different pronouns. It’s possible Olgamarie has a similar nature? Maybe. I like to see that weird crossover as some kind of foreshadowing/outline for the possible end of FGO and part 2. It even covers Sion’s involvement in part 2 plot.

(I still want Marisbury to be the boss because he’s got a perfect design and I want to see more of his cool smug self; him or if number 2 possibility rolls in, whichever ancestor/AI is possessing him).

[dillydedalus]

january reading

why does january always feel like it’s 3 months long. anyway here’s what i read in january, feat. poison experts with ocd, ants in your brain, old bolsheviks getting purged, and mountweazels. 

city of lies, sam hawke (poison wars #1) this is a perfectly nice fantasy novel about jovan, who serves as essentially a secret guard against poisoning for his city state’s heir and is forced to step up when his uncle (also a secret poison guard) and the ruler are both killed by an unknown poison AND also the city is suddenly under a very creepy siege (are these events related? who knows!) this is all very fine & entertaining & there are some fun ideas, but also... the main character has ocd and SAME HAT SAME HAT. also like the idea of having a very important, secret and potentially fatal job that requires you to painstakingly test everything the ruler/heir is consuming WHILE HAVING OCD is like... such a deliciously sadistic concept. amazing. 3/5

my heart hemmed in, marie ndiaye (translated from french by jordan stump) a strange horror-ish tale in which two married teachers, bastions of upper-middle-class respectability and taste, suddenly find themselves utterly despised by everyone around them, escalating until the husband is seriously injured. through several very unexpected twists, it becomes clear that the couple’s own contempt for anyone not fitting into their world and especially nadia’s hostility and shame about her (implied to be northern african) ancestry is the reason for their pariah status. disturbing, surprising, FUCKED UP IF TRUE (looking back, i no longer really know what i mean by that). 4/5

xenogenesis trilogy (dawn/adulthood rites/imago), octavia e. butler octavia butler is incapable of writing anything uninteresting and while i don’t always completely vibe with her stuff, it’s always fascinating & thought-provoking. this series combines some of her favourite topics (genetic manipulation, alien/human reproduction, what is humanity) into a tale of an alien species, the oankali, saving some human survivors from the apocalypse and beginning a gene-trading project with them, integrating them into their reproductive system and creating mixed/’construct’ generations with traits from both species. and like, to me, this was uncomfortably into the biology = destiny thing & didn’t really question the oankali assertion that humans were genetically doomed to hierarchical behaviour & aggression (& also weirdly straight for a book about an alien species with 3 genders that engages in 5-partner-reproduction with humans), so that angle fell flat for me for the most part, altho i suppose i do agree that embracing change, even change that comes at a cost, is better than clinging to an unsustainable (& potentially destructive) purity. where i think the series is most interesting is in its exploration of consent and in how far consent is possible in extremely one-sided power dynamics (curiously, while the oankali condemn and seem to lack the human drive for hierarchy, they find it very easy to abuse their position of power & violate boundaries & never question the morality of this. in this, the first book, focusing on a human survivor first encountering the oankali and learning of their project, is the most interesting, as lilith as a human most explicitly struggles with her position - would her consent be meaningful? can she even consent when there is a kind of biochemical dependence between humans and their alien mates? the other two books, told from the perspectives of lilith’s constructed/mixed children, continue discussing themes of consent, autonomy and power dynamics, but i found them less interesting the further they moved from human perspectives. on the whole: 2.5/5

love & other thought experiments, sophie ward man, we love a pierre menard reference. anyway. this is a novel in stories, each based (loosely) on a thought experiment, about (loosely) a lesbian couple and their son arthur, illness and grief, parenthood, love, consciousness and perception, alternative universes, and having an ant in your brain. it is thoroughly delightful & clever, but goes for warmth and humanity (or ant-ity) over intellectual games (surprising given that it is all about thought experiments - but while they are a nice structuring device i don’t think they add all that much). i haven’t entirely worked out my feelings about the ending and it’s hard to discuss anyway given the twists and turns this takes, but it's a whole lot of fun. 4/5

a general theory of oblivion, josé eduardo agualusa (tr. from portuguese by daniel hahn) interesting little novel(la) set in angola during and after the struggle for independence, in which a portuguese woman, ludo, with extreme agoraphobia walls herself into her apartment to avoid the violence and chaos (but also just... bc she has agoraphobia) with a involving a bunch of much more active characters and how they are connected to her to various degrees. i didn’t like the sideplot quite as much as ludo’s isolation in her walled-in flat with her dog, catching pigeons on the balcony and writing on the walls. 3/5

cassandra at the wedding, dorothy baker phd student cassandra returns home attend (sabotage) her twin sister judith’s wedding to a young doctor whose name she refuses to remember, believing that her sister secretly wants out. cass is a mess, and as a shift to judith’s perspective reveals, definitely wrong about what judith wants and maybe a little delusional, but also a ridiculously compelling narrator, the brilliant but troubled contrast to judith’s safer conventionality. on the whole, cassandra’s narrative voice is the strongest feature of a book i otherwise found a bit slow & a bit heavy on the quirky family. fav line is when cass, post-character-development, plans to “take a quick look at [her] dumb thesis and see if it might lead to something less smooth and more revolting, or at least satisfying more than the requirements of the University”. 3/5

the office of historical corrections, danielle evans a very solid collection of realist short stories (+ the titular novella), mainly dealing with racism, (black) womanhood, relationships between women, and anticolonial/antiracist historiography. while i thought all the stories were well-done and none stood out as weak or an unnecessary inclusion, there also weren’t any that really stood out to me. 3/5

sonnenfinsternis, arthur koestler (english title: darkness at noon) (audio) you know what’s cool about this book? when i added it to my goodreads tbr in 2012, i would have had to read it in translation as the german original was lost during koestler’s escape from the nazis, but since then, the original has been rediscovered and republished. yet another proof that leaving books on your tbr for ages is a good thing actually. anyway. this is a story about the stalinist purges, told thru old bolshevik rubashov, who, after serving the Party loyally for years & doing his fair share of selling people out for the Party, is arrested for ~oppositional activities. in jail and during his interrogations, rubashov reflects on the course the Party has taken and his own part (and guilt) in that, and the way totalitarianism has eaten up and poisoned even the most commendable ideals the Party once held (and still holds?), the course of history and at what point the end no longer justifies the means. it’s brilliant, rubashov is brilliant and despicable, i’m very happy it was rediscovered. 5/5

heads of the colored people, nafissa thompson-spires another really solid short story collection, also focused on the experiences of black people in america (particularly the black upper-middle class), black womanhood and black relationships, altho with a somewhat more satirical tone than danielle evans’s collection. standouts for me were the story in letters between the mothers of the only black girls at a private school, a story about a family of fruitarians, and a story about a girl who fetishises her disabled boyfriend(s). 3.5/5

pedro páramo, juan rulfo (gernan transl. by dagmar ploetz) mexican classic about a rich and abusive landowner (the titular pedro paramo) and the ghost town he leaves behind - quite literally, as, when his son tries to find his father, the town is full of people, quite ready to talk shit about pedro, but they are all dead. it’s an interesting setting with occasionally vivid writing, but the skips in time and character were kind of confusing and i lost my place a lot. i’d be interested in reading rulfo’s other major work, el llano en llamas. 2.5/5

verse für zeitgenossen, mascha kaléko short collection of the poems kaléko, a jewish german poet, wrote while in exile in the united states in the 30-40s, as well as some poems written after the end of ww2. kaléko’s voice is witty, but at turns also melancholy or satirical. as expected i preferred the pieces that directly addressed the experience of exile (”sozusagen ein mailied” is one of my favourite exillyrik pieces). 3/5

the harpy, megan hunter yeah this was boooooooring. the cover is really cool & the premise sounded intriguing (women gets cheated on, makes deal with husband that she is allowed to hurt him three times in revenge, women is also obsessed with harpies: female revenge & female monsters is my jam) but it’s literally so dull & trying so hard to be deep. 1.5/5

the liar’s dictionary, eley williams this is such a delightful book, from the design (those marbled endpapers? yes) to the preface (all about what a dictionary is/could be), to the chapter headings (A-Z words, mostly relating to lies, dishonesty, etc in some way or another, containing at least one fictitious entry), to the dual plots (intern at new edition of a dictionary in contemporary england checking the incomplete old dictionary for mountweazels vs 1899 london with the guy putting the mountweazels in), to williams’s clear joy about words and playing with them. there were so many lines that made me think about how to translate them, which is always a fun exercise. 3.5/5

catherine the great & the small, olja knežević (tr. from montenegrin by ellen elias-bursać, paula gordon) coming-of-age-ish novel about katarina from montenegro, who grows up in  titograd/podgorica and belgrad in the 70s/80s, eventually moving to london as an adult. to be honest while there are some interesting aspects in how this portrays yugoslavia and conflicts between the different parts of yugoslavia, i mostly found this a pretty sloggy slog of misery without much to emotionally connect to, which is sad bc i was p excited for it :(. 2/5

the decameron project: 29 new stories from the pandemic, anthology a collection of short stories written during covid lockdown (and mostly about covid/lockdown in some way). they got a bunch of cool authors, including margaret atwood, edwidge danticat, rachel kushner ... it’s an interesting project and the stories are mostly pretty good, but there wasn’t one that really stood out to me as amazing. i also kinda wish more of the stories had diverged more from covid/lockdown thematically bc it got a lil repetitive tbh. 2/5

[lynne-monstr]

All this about Magnus and S4, and I’m just over here thinking: what if the writers had the balls to make the Clave the villain? And that’s literally it? Maybe one B plot with the Praetori if they must, but the central conflict is a brewing Downworld uprising because tbh the Clave deserves it. You could get seasons (plural) worth of plot in that if done right. Why we always gotta be retreading past storylines?

the clave is the s4 villain i want to see! you can’t tell me that aldertree was the only bad guy running that heavenly fire facility. that place was HUGE. even if the entire clave isn’t corrupt, enough highly placed people must have been involved in order to cover it up and keep it running and pay its expenses and get the prisoners transferred.

speaking of that facility, where is the outrage from the downworld??? their people were being secretly experimented on and turned human against their will, and the plotline we’re getting is downworlders fighting over who gets to use the serum?? really!?

don’t get me wrong, it’s a legitimate thing to happen, i’m not saying it’s not. but i see that more as the sideplot to the main conflict of downworlders preparing for war over what was being done to them. i can even understand why the werewolves and vampires aren’t going too crazy - they can go get turned again. (but i would still expect them to be mad about it being done without their permission and knowledge)

where are the warlocks who have decided this is a dire enough situation to band together? magic is a part of their soul, the thought of it being taken from them should be inciting riots. why is lorenzo not getting constant phone calls from the rumors slowly being spread by survivors of that facility. or are they implying simon and raphael were the only survivors? where is the emergency session of the warlock council to destroy the serum and to research ways to prevent its use. a spell or an innoculation to protect them from having their very heritage stripped from their bodies. did anyone tell magnus about this???

what about the seelies? are they so focused on the morningstar sword that they don’t care about this? are they secretly making alliances with the warlocks, as the two main groups whose magic is truly intrinsic to their heritage.

i want to see the fallout in the shadowhunter ranks. no one knows who was secretly supporting the heavenly fire initiaive and who was truly ignorant.

where is the plotting? where is the fear? where is the anger? where is the uprising?

[sieben9]

“where bluebirds fly” impressions

{Quick request to anyone reading: I’m watching OUaT for the first time, and I want to avoid spoilers. So, if you want to discuss something spoilery, I’d be grateful if you could start a new post for that. Thank you!}

OK, first of all, a happy New Year, everyone! Hope the holidays treated you well.

And now, I will begin this impressions post by indulging in a weird food metaphor. It's been a while, I think I can afford one.

So, I do not like zucchini. At all. And really, it's not just "dislike", but all-out "the taste makes me puke" hatred.

This means that if a dish contains zucchini in any noticeable amount, I will not like that dish. I will probably not eat that dish. I can see it's good food, and that you put a lot of effort into it, and I'm sure it will taste wonderful--as long as you like zucchini.

pictured: someone who likes zucchini. metaphorically speaking.

Do you see where I'm going with this, yet?

More under the cut. (Don't worry, no more vegetables from here on out. Just some green people. Well. Person.)

So: this was a really good episode. Like, really, really good. I was impressed. It was well-structured, the flashback didn't distract, but add to the atmosphere, the sideplot was kept short and poignant, and the central character underwent some serious development.

Out of all the Zelena-centrics, I like this episode the most, hands down. But, well... Guess where the problem lies.

Like I said, she underwent some major development, most obvious in the fact that she stayed behind to fix the shit she helped break. (It's not entirely her fault the Black Fairy used her magic to power up the Crystals of Doom, but at least half her fault, I'd say). Considering her main character flaw, that's a huge step. And not only did she fix the crystal fiasco, she did it by giving up her magic. Something that very clearly terrified her, as the flashback showed. Instead of giving up the chance of human connections for her magic, she made the opposite choice this time. Good for her.

::sigh:: Look, sometimes you just don’t like the zucchini. It’s not a big deal.

One thing I have to say though: considering they didn't grow up together, Regina and Zelena sure have that sisterly bickering down to a [x].

Also, I have a question: why didn't they just poof out of that mine? Is that explained? I mean, I have a headcanon explanation, but I feel like I must have missed something.

And over in the sideplot...

You know, last season, I would have said that Emma wouldn’t be caught dead in one of these, but the recent wardrobe changes make me nervous. Please let this turn into a Magrat thing where she marries in the tattered remnants of her wedding dress that are poking out under the battle armor she had to put on to drive a bunch of meddling elves out of her home. Please, show. I'm begging over here. I may not be a fan of the couple, but at least let them have a proper wedding, if you’re gonna do it. (Also, taking bets, except not really because all of you already know what’s going to happen: wedding before, after, or during the finale? I’m hoping “during”, but I have some good arguments for the other two, as well.)

This plotline also had one of the most effective gut-punches of the episode, and maybe the season: Snow and David's little moment/not-quite-argument outside of the town hall. David worrying that they're rushing Emma into something she wouldn't really want for herself, and Snow being so scared that they--or worse, Emma--might not be around for the wedding if they don't... ouch. Just. Damn. I sometimes forget why I like this show so much (yes, still do, shush), but it’s moments like this that bring it all back. It’s just such a human moment, and some good, good acting.

Over in the other sideplot…

guys, she’s literally as helpful asleep as she is awake; don’t bother!

Yay, Blue is awake. ::the most unenthusiastic pom-pom wave:: OK, seriously though, I’m kind of glad Rumbelle don’t have to “hide” the woman in the back room anymore. That must have been awkward as all hell. I’m also glad nobody tried to pin the blame on Rumple, despite things really not looking great if taken out of context.

(And oh, that bit where Belle says she doesn’t want them to lose any more time with Gideon to the Black Fairy... my heart. I am not OK, please send fluff.)

By the way, am I the only one who breathed the biggest sigh of relief when Belle said “you couldn’t have known your mother was pulling the strings”? Because I did. I mean, damn, someone not blaming Rumple for everything that goes wrong? It’s such a novel experience! (To be fair, at least 65% of things are at least partly his direct fault, so it’s novel for several reasons)

And so, we’re left with the dramatic promise of next week being the villain-backstory episode.

and right on schedule for the finale, too

Mind you, it would have to be one hell of a backstory to make me sympathise with the child kidnapper/torturer even a little, but I’m definitely curious.

[osyamaris]

🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊 (I want the tea on ALL of ur ocs 👀)

im gonna talk about uhhhhhhhh… toxin, noham, and a rare game character because its Love Deadman Hour

so toxin is also a superhero universe character but shes actually not marvel!! surprise!! shes from an original universe and she was the first character i wrote for that universe. ive written her since i was eleven lol.

basically, shes lived her whole life in The Lab, under a man called Father. i wanna take a sec to point out this was YEARS before stranger things. so, she and several others are used for experiments to create superhumans, but most dont have powers and only develop extreme illnesses. shes one of the few who even survives, let alone actually develops powers.

no one in the lab is allowed to have a name (since theyre all kept there from birth or near it), and as an act of rebellion, she decides to call herself X, and carves it into a wall just under her bedframe. this gives her the inner strength to rebel even more, and she attacks an orderly during a test and runs.

her whole thing is basically that she was spliced with snake and toad dna. i honestly havent worked on the mechanics of that since i was eleven so like, dont @ me lmao. essentially, she has traits similar to that of a poison dart frog, so her body secretes a mucus that contains a strong neurotoxin. just a touch can paralyze a grown adult in minutes, and a higher dosage could easily stop bodily processes fully. this mucus also has a slight green hue, so it tints her skin. at best she looks somewhat jaundiced at all times

shes also immune to most poisons, she has long fangs, and her mouth is configured very not-human, so she has a small forked tongue and a gland that (when pressure is applied) sprays a venom… she spits venom. also, her eyes are all snakey too.

noham is another very old character! but not as old as toxin, i think i wrote him when i was like…. 14? 15?

he’s an alien, i wrote a whole culture and like half of a language w/ a different alphabet for him. his full name, sang noham (also transliterated as Sang No’am – the H after a vowel in latin lettering denotes that the emphasis is held on that syllable, since the writing system is syllabic) actually has a meaning. i forget what noham means, but Sang means “thousand”, and refers to his ancestry.

basically, noham is a member of a.. clanss? i guess? he’s a member of a clan that is considered “odd”, or an outlier, by many regions on his planet, because his clan evolved a split/forked tail. tails are like… a big cultural thing for them, theyre a huge part of most cultures’ beauty standards, so to have a forked tail is Kind Of A Big Thing. and basically, they used to be….. really poorly treated, and in the country noham lives in, they were banned from living within the cities and made to live in rural areas where there were often bandits, droughts, things like that. so his ancestor gathered an army that was absolutely TINY compared to the kings army, of all the able bodied people in the country of that clan, and they marched on the capital city. somehow, miraculously, they actually won the fight, though his ancestor refused to rule despite his victory. instead, he became a general. so now, being a general is like… its a family thing in the sang family. its basically expected of any firstborn, and the military basically hands it out if you can prove youre the real sang heir.

which is like, nohams whole holdup - he feels like hes got something to prove, but nowhere to prove it.

again dont @ me i was like 14 when i wrote this dkgjhdkgjh its got a lot going on with it that needs fixed badly

deadman dullahan… cant get TOO into his story cause i dont wanna spoil things and some of his backstory is like, a big plot point for his tiny sideplot, but hes SUPER fun for me to write

he, and all dullahans, are psychopomps!! they lead the dead to the next world

in this case, he leads dead humans into the world in which he lives, the Other World.

thts it. thats the name

hes so fucking old compared to everyone including many Otherworlders (who on average live longer than most humans) but for his own family and other psychopomps hes like….. the dead guy equivalent of……….. mid 30s? 40 ish??

because hes so old he doesnt like the thought of doing any one thing for the “rest of his life” because…. the time he has ahead of him is like……….. what hes already lived, again

hes just having a midlife crisis let him live

or mid-death, i guess

hes definitely kind of one of the wise-men archetypes of the story, like umma (which is a bit necessary for the type of story im telling, in a JRPG) but i like to think hes not, like, yknow. the hoity toity kind of wise man that makes you wanna break his own staff over his head

hes extremely mercurial as a person

and if you invite him into your home he’ll ignore you and only spend time with your animals. so you should invite him into your home

shockingly hes not got that much playtime………… hes important to the plot but still a minor character…….. F

try to make him do anything he doesnt want to do already and he will Punt You

also i posted about the screaming meemies a bit back. those are his. im not 100% on their relation to him but hes basically in charge of them

[zekeyspaceylizard]

I’m sure you’ve heard by now they are doing a live action Lilo and Stitch. So lets skip past the middleman and get to all the ways they could potentially screw it up. If Hollywood’s obsession with remakes the last decade has shown, at least 3 of these will probably happen.

1.) they make lilo and her family american. american as possible. living in the northeast or far south so they have identifiable accents. blondes.

2.) they try to make stitch look more like a dog and give him a more quadruped body and more bulldog-like face. bonus points for fangs jutting out of his mouth.

3.) they make stitch more alien, which for hollywood means more like a cloverfield monster or like the mios from godzilla. long bug arms and legs

4.) pleakley and dr.jumba do not appear in the film at all

5.) the unique colorful spaceships from the cartoon are replaced with videogame-esque space helicopters for "realism". expect lots of blue lights and turbine sounds with lense flairs.

6.) stitch now has superpowers and fires beams or corrosive goop from a part of his body. possibly bum for “comedy”

7.) the other 625 experiments play a large part in the film, and have a giant fight scene with an astronomical budget

8.) any and all mentions of elvis are removed so disney doesnt have to pay royalties.

9.) child protection services (and Cobra Bubbles) are now the villains and not just frustrated people trying to do their jobs

10.) at least one shootout with alien guns vs real human guns

11.) an E.T. reference in the trailer or film. glowing finger. trail of candy. just take a guess.

12.) stitch talks in full sentences. unfitting hot young celebrity doing a bad impersonation necessary. like with the Chipmunks films.

13.) stitch is made smaller and fluffier like a Pomeranian or a gerbil or sugar glider so its easier to make toys of him

14.) movie takes place in big crowded city instead of countryside or coast so stitch can cause as much damage to cars, buildings, and other dogs as possible and get the most out of their cgi budget. gotta have lots of shrapnel flying around.

15.) movie isnt about stitch learning not to be an asshole. its about nani and lilo learning to live with the fact their pet is an asshole. stitch stays the same.

16.) at least 5-6 jokes of stitch doing "dog" things wrong. like he pees on a fire hydrant and it melts or explodes into flames. or he plays fetch and drags back a hobo’s leg. snare drum. canned laughter.

17.) one reference to ALIEN where a smaller mouth comes out of stitch's mouth

18.) cgi on stitch is jurassic world tier and he looks like crap in every scene. everyone hopes its unfinished cgi. then the movie is released and the truth dawns on us.

19.) lilo is an outcast for trivial reasons and not because she's actually got interests normally considered bizarre amongst children. she will be as bland as possible. for relatability.

20.) Stitch now wears a space-suit at all times. It produces gadgets that help him do things. Nobody finds it weird for him to wear. Bonus points if his suit talks as well in a famous comedian’s voice.

21.) Angel, from the animated series, added to films plot to give Stitch a love interest. if not Angel, a new girl monster will be invented.

22.) stitch is now a species and not a science experiment and theres almost none of him left so we can shoehorn in a badly written message about conservation or poaching into the film's story

23.) stitch now eats something SILLY!!!!! to make kids laugh. like other dogs poop or car tires or something. remember the hong kong phooey and chipmunks trailers? yeah.

24.) rather than have stitch be destructive and dangerous, because we want kids to look up to him because hollywood are stupid,  instead he is valuable for some reason but has the ability to be invisible to hide from things

25.) sideplot about FBI trying to track down and capture stitch like men in black but devoid of humor. so like Men in Black 2 basically. (men in black 3 was great)

26.) popular american pop star (gaga, del ray, good charlotte, kendrick lamar) does a cover of a famous hawaiian song for the movie’s theme and trailer. it will be forgotten a week after the film premier.

27.) lilo is played by like a 12-16 year old girl instead of a very wee child. her problems will be angsty teenage problems. she will be a snobby jerk to her sister the whole film.

28.) lilo and nani will be portrayed as being fairly middle-class and not basically living in poverty with broken inherited crap from their deceased parents.

29.) lilo and nani's parents are still alive but are simply absent for some reason. alternatively, nani is now written to be lilo’s mother instead.

30.) stitch is now grey instead of blue for realism. animals dont have colors in real life, and they sure as hell wont when they are a cgi monster either.

31.) any and all references or allusions to hawaiian culture and life is removed from the film so that chinese audiences will be more likely to see it and not be turned off by seeing people that arent them, thus potentially killing off most of the film’s potential profits

32.) no actual elvis songs in the film. instead terrible covers by modern day dubstep / r+b / country artists are included instead. bonus points if lilo or stitch sing off key in one of the songs

33.) movie is barely about lilo and stitch. it is about lilo's new love interest, some new character nobody gives 2 craps about. it worked for Ghost Rider / Green Lantern, right?

34.) lilos obsession with photographing people on the island is changed to her photographing animals which is how she finds stitch in the first place

35.) alien council want stitch back. not because he's a criminal or dangerous but because he stole [insert macguffin] and gosh they need it back right away!!! bonus points if this leads to a chase scene on surf boards.

36.) alien council dont decide to forgive stitch and leave him on earth. they try to take him back by force and have to be defeated/blown up by either stitch/lilo/the army

37.) Ohana and what it means is never mentioned in the entire duration of the film.

38.) Stitch now makes generic monster sounds you hear in every movie. are you tired of hearing elephant honks slowed down by 600% yet? TOO BAD.

39.) Stitch is played by an actual dog and they superimpose cgi quills and an extra pair of legs onto it. when he talks his mouth will be CGI and look kinda crap. like those AIR BUD movies.

40.) they make stitch more humanoid and the movie is now a romance between him and lilo. everyone will feel really uncomfortable.