#we can be the generation of sp fans that changes these things

[asteria7fics]

I am absolutely in the mood to read an essay about Kyle's portrayal in fanwork 👀 i could read South Park analysis till the cows come home

Alright alright I’m ready to get into this haha.

A couple of things before I start, everything I’m about to say is just my opinion, yeah? I’m no expert, I just think that the way the fandom treats Kyle in a lot of circumstances is… questionable :)

Oookay, let’s GO!

So believe it or not, I don’t actually read a ton of fanfiction. I don’t really have time these days, and when I do I’m so painfully picky about the way certain characters are portrayed that it’s very hard for me to find fics I really vibe with. That being said, I see a lotta shit on this fine website.

Let’s get the obvious shit out of the way. I do not think Kyle should be the default bottom in ANY ship. If we wanna really get into it, my personal take is that this is a holdover from yaoi/fujoshi culture that is so painfully steeped in heteronormative bullshit of one person needing to be the ‘dominant’ and one needing to be the ‘submissive’ even outside of the context of kink. Essentially, one character has to be the ‘girl’ and one has to be the ‘boy’, even in a homosexual relationship.

I’ve blabbed about this before, but I don’t think I’ve ever talked about why I don’t think that Kyle should be the default ‘submissive’ in his relationships.

First of all, Kyle is just not submissive. At all. Or I should say, he isn’t often. I think the only context where he tends to submit is with his mother, and if you really want to sit here and defend your choice based on him having ‘mommy issues’, I guess you can technically say that.

Personally, I see Kyle as being very headstrong and, honestly kinda intense. While this hasn’t always been super consistent in his personality early on in the show’s run, it’s certainly has been now. I mean, he was willing to shoot at his friends’ moms in The End of Obesity because he believed so strongly in what he was doing, and why he was doing it. Kyle’s stubbornness and unwillingness to waver on his morals and values is a driving force for conflict in the show, like, all the fucking time, whether he’s correct (as in, the creators agree with his stance) or not.

I bring up his personality in the early run because I do think a lot of the issues I have with his characterization now comes more from early fandom portrayals than anything that’s actually currently supported by the source material. As an example, Kyle being the weakest physically of the main four makes a lot of sense in the context of those early seasons, but it doesn’t really work with his current characterization, if I’m being honest.

This isn’t to say I dislike him being sickly, mind you. I actually think that can be really compelling if Kyle has to grapple with the fact that his physical weakness is at odds with his mental strength.

Hoooowever, I think this has to be done in a really specific way, and this sorta brings me to my next point.

Why are we out here victimizing Kyle so damn much? Like, I get it, bad shit happens to him in the show (don’t talk to me about Humancentipad) but why are we just tormenting Kyle for seemingly no reason? Are we in the middle of a dead dove arms race?

I do think this ties back to this idea of Kyle being a default submissive, and I’ve certainly not always been kind to the kid in my own work but damn you guys are fucking mean to him. What did he ever do to you??

I suppose tormenting characters is sort of… par for the course in any fandom, but man I just don’t see the appeal of it being Kyle that’s getting the brunt of the abuse, especially when he ends up being reduced to a helpless, pathetic little thing. Like at that point just pick a different character, I mean Butters is right there you guys.

I’m not going to act like any one ship leans more or less into these tropes either, I think all sides of the fandom are guilty of disregarding a lot of what makes Kyle’s character compelling in the show. I will, however, take a moment to complain about some of the popular ships that Kyle is in.

Kyman: You know how I feel about these two. A stellar dynamic with so much problematic shit bubbling under the surface. Let’s disregard the inherent discomfort around an open anti-Semite and a Jewish person being together because… I willingly ignore that to ship Yentlman in my main works (rip self read). Even without that bit of their relationship, these two are just too goddamn similar. Both stubborn, both going to extreme lengths to prove the other wrong, OR enabling one another to do some pretty shitty things.

I think Post Covid did it best by showing how they BOTH bring out the worst in one another. While I enjoy these two platonically, I don’t personally enjoy romantic ships that are this toxic.

I’ve also expressed before that I think a fic lives and dies on how Cartman is written, so while this post is about Kyle’s depictions in fan works, I do think we have to consider the way the other half of a pair is written as well.

I got some really lovely tags on that one post I reblogged and word vomited all over that brought up how Cartman, supported by canon, is a severely traumatized individual, and how that can support a more sympathetic view of him (I’m not tagging the person in case they don’t want to be involved in discourse like this but I appreciate your insights and you made a very good point, if you are reading this).

This does, however, bring up a whole other host of issues with their dynamic. If we’re romanticizing the idea that Kyle is some kind of moral savior for Cartman then… man, idk. You guys are gonna have to help me on this one, is that common in the ship? Is Kyle playing therapist with Cartman, and that’s how we’re justifying sanitizing him?

Also, say it with me now, there is no way in sand hell that Kyle would let Cartman top him. I know, I’ve read it, and I can see where the idea is coming from but come on. Kyle is too prideful for that shit. Now if y’all start giving me Kyle topping Cartman and making him fucking beg for that hot Jew sploog then MAYBE I’d be able to get behind this ship.

Style: Oh you thought my preferred ship was safe? Haha no ma’am, because Style shippers are the fucking WORST when it comes to feminizing Kyle.

I respect the Style shippers that came before me with their football star Stan and pissbaby twink Kyle, I really do. However it’s time to move on. I made this point in a previous post (that I know you’ve seen my friend, much love for your support on my hot takes) but for those who didn’t see it, I really believe the thing that separates Kyman shippers from Style shippers is that Kyman shippers tend to treat Kyle like an equal to Cartman, while Style shippers really lean on Kyle being weaker than Stan to make their dynamics work.

What’s really funny to me is that what I think makes Style work in its best iterations is when they are truly treated as equals, because they absolutely should be.

Now I may sound like a hypocrite here because I know I play around with power dynamics in my Styles quite a bit, but I think I make it very clear that even when Kyle is technically bottoming, he is not necessarily submitting.

I also can give credit where credit is due, Kyman shippers do not shy away from how much of an asshole Kyle can be sometimes. Style shippers though? Man, I understand wanting to lean more on Kyle's positive traits (he IS a very empathetic, friendly, driven person that always wants to do the right thing) but he can become 'too good' very quickly when you don't balance those things out with his negative traits.

Kyle is pretentious. Kyle thinks he knows best even when he really doesn't. Kyle is quick to anger and sometimes cares TOO much, to the point of getting carried away and making things worse (rip to Canada).

The only negative trait Style shippers are pretty consistently on board with is him being hotheaded, which is fair! But also? To stay consistent with my current branding, that's like seasoning all of your food with just salt and pepper. Like sure, it adds flavor, but we all know the dish could taste so much better if you sprinkle on a little something more.

K2: I am... Utterly indifferent to this ship. Like, I've seen some cute fanart? But I've never partaken and it doesn't really interest me, sorry gang.

Cryle: Another ship I've never really partaken in, but that makes significantly less sense to me. It's giving crack ship, which is fine? But from what I have consumed a lot of people sort of approach them with all the worst aspects of both Kyman and Style. Craig is not as compelling as Cartman as a foil for Kyle, so when people do lean into the evil Craig headcanon that was common in early fandom, it seems they also lean into the pathetic, victim Kyle tropes that are common in Style works.

I'm sorry if y'all love this ship, I'd never really paid it any mind until recently and while I have read works that included them that I thoroughly enjoyed, I don't think I'll ever root for them to be endgame.

And if your favorite Kyle ship isn't here, sorry to say I don't know enough to speak on them (in fact I shouldn't have even brought up K2 for that reason, but I figured someone would probably mention it since it seems pretty popular).

Look, this is a mess and I am certainly not the authority on characterizing any of these goobers. But you asked, and I hope you enjoyed my silly little opinions. This is in no way meant to be constructive, but if you guys want something more organized and constructive breaking down how I characterize Kyle or any of the kids, you know where to ask!

[spjohnv-blog]

If you're familiar with the South Park Archives, pretty much the only SP fansite still online - there's over eighteen years of history there, pages and renders for tons of characters and locations, thousands of screenshots, a pretty dedicated staff, transcripts of every episode, and so much more. When I made my start writing shitty fanfics, it was a super useful resource, and that was a small chunk of what it is today.

FANDOM has today unveiled a new Offensive Terms Policy which continues a trend in the last few years been suggested in events like Community Connect, where it has previously been suggested wikis avoid references to canonical sex. The avoidance of slurs is something I would be super supportive of generally -- we don't need to see that kind of stuff on Wookiepedia or like, a wiki for Bluey. It'll keep people from vandalizing children's wikis with adult content for kicks. I am generally in favor of content filtering, especially for family-friendly-oriented content.

...but, this is going to cause a lot of problems for the South Park Archives, a show with a major character who frequently uses slurs and is firmly anti-censorship. You don't need to be an editor to think about that. If you're a fan, you know what kind of show we're talking about.

This is a show with episodes called "The Biggest Douche in the Universe", "Major Boobage", "Reverse Cowgirl" and "Titties and Dragons". There are songs like "Fuck the Police" and "Jacking it in San Diego". There is a character called 'Retarded Fish'. The names of these songs and episodes, bear in mind, are legally registered copyrights, not our choices -- how do you change that? Move an article to Episode 1601? What about "Fuck the Police", which isn't even a South Park original song?

You can clean up a synopsis, and formalize language on a character page, I've done both of those things when I was an editor, but you can't undo all of this. How do you?

That's not even getting into the transcripts pages, which are intended to be 100% accurate to the actual dialogue, continuing the tradition from the good ol' South Park Scriptorium...

Within the day of the policy change, FANDOM has already started to make changes to remove slurs from the transcript pages that are unable to be modified as it is directly related to global policy. I don't know that the staff were communicated with about this personally either, but I'm not in the know like I used to be.

No doubt some of this move is prompted by advertisers - FANDOM previously cited advertiser feedback as a motivation for inserting all sorts of videos on top of wiki pages (similar to their later push to include AI-generated content) and understandably many advertisers may not want their brand name mere inches from a discussion of cartoon eight-year-olds using slurs. I mean, shoot, I wouldn't if I were in charge of a major company, and I get someone needs to keep the lights on, but...

I don't know man, it's a shitty position to be in. It's a well-intended policy that I'd support in almost any other context but literally this narrow exception, and I definitely hate the thought of looking like I'd be defending use of offensive terms, but like, how do you cover "everything" about South Park, an explicitly adult show that is so firmly anti-censorship, that builds entire episodes around these kinds of jokes, or even analyze it from a critical perspective, in such a family-friendly, sanitized way, without betraying its spirit and creative intent?

You can imagine how many staff members there are probably scratching their heads or bashing them into lamp posts, trying to figure out what to do or how to move forward after this. They could apply for an exception, but would it even be granted? What would the alternative be? Are restrictions like this worth it or do they render the whole thing moot? How much responsibility lies with FANDOM? Are advertisers forcing the whole internet down this road? There are so many questions in the air on this. I certainly don't have answers.

[pardonmydelays]

maybe there's more context but i noticed a lot of the time, public criticism for projects lands really heavily on lmm's shoulders. the reason why i'm saying this is because i binged his projects and its reception. apparently, when in the heights 2021 came out, there was a lot of discourse about the lack of afro-latino representation in the movie: this itself is completely justifiable and good. we shouldn't be scared to critique and start conversations about media. but i was a bit confused because all of the blame was put on lin and not the director? maybe you can provide more context here: i know he's the show's original creator and is famous, so he's reasonably gonna get more scrutiny; and he did have a role as a producer, but he talked about how they tried to take out the piragua guy, etc. so i assumed he didn't have full control, and usually, the director is the main focus, no?

and of course that period where people hated the song in the little mermaid and the movie being eh was his fault, and even the bad songs in wish somehow being his fault (despite him not being part of that lmao). i'm an international fan that recently listened to in the heights and was really impressed, so i wasn't aware of all of this.

and then the projects of his that were well received seem to have this begrudging energy. people liking tick tick boom (which he directed) but heaping the praise on andrew garfield (who deserves it!!) and not any for lin? like wtf i thought y'all love to make him the sole focus of critique.

these are just my impressions based on some heavy online surfing, and i wanted to ask your opinion!

i actually agree with everything you said here, anon.

let's start with in the heights (2021). i don't know if you're one of my mutuals, but if you are, you probably know already that i am not afraid of criticizing the movie. maybe not because of the lack of representation (i am a white woman so i feel like it's not my place to say anything about this but i totally understand why others can feel excluded), i have other issues with it tho. but, as far as i can tell, lin was not responsible for the casting & yet he was the one who apologized. so they basically said they were talking about casting afro-latinos but they ended up with actors who were just perfect for the roles in their opinion (also, leslie grace, the actress who plays nina, is, in fact, afro-latina). & yes, they were trying to get rid of piragua guy, mostly because they couldn't find anyone who could play him & they asked lin if he could do it (he wasn't supposed to be in the movie AT ALL & he only agreed cause he wanted to save piragua guy). so yes, they put all the blame on lin but those were not exactly his choices. also, speaking of lack of representation, did we already forget about what he did for people of color on broadway? cause i saw so many people calling him racist & it's just... are you sure we are talking about the same guy?

about the scuttlebutt, i have so many things to say. well, first of all, lin was only responsible for like, three songs in the little mermaid? wild uncharted waters & for the first time? damn, those songs are really good & i know most people agree. but there's also the scuttlebutt. so the hate comes mostly from people who hate awkwafina & her voice in general, they find it annoying. well, guess what: this song was supposed to be annoying. maybe it's hard to say when you just listen to it without any context, but damn, just watch the movie & then it makes a lot of sense. second of all: the main audience? kids. & as far as i can tell, the kids absolutely loved it. not every song has to be a masterpiece, some songs are JUST FOR FUN, let's not forget about that. i know a lot of people also complain because it's rap, well guess what, this is lmm we are talking about so what did you expect? it's just his thing, it doesn't have to be everyone's cup of tea, but damn, it's not gonna change just because some people don't like it, deal with it.

speaking of tick tick boom, i absolutely loved the movie & i agree, andrew garfield was incredible, but yes, i haven't seen anyone talking about lin, like??? he literally directed it. i saw one comment on polish website tho that goes like "lin manuel miranda, keep this name in mind cause he's gonna be huge one day" & i was like oh boy, i have news for you... (i'm sorry i hate my country so fucking much).

i'm not even gonna say anything about disney's wish because there's no point. he had nothing to do with it, absolutely nothing, & people still blame him... this is just ridiculous. come on.

i saw a twitter thread some time ago where someone was trying to prove that lin is a bad person in general & honestly, spending so much time online just to prove that someone is problematic is insane to me. go touch some fucking grass instead of being a hater.

honestly, i wish i knew why people hate him so much, yes, i know he is not perfect & he made some mistakes in the past (he even apologized for some of them) but there are so many celebrities who are much more problematic & yet they will hate on lin & try to paint him as evil. i will never understand this.

[saltyskeletonkidpasta]

I dont get why people like jack gibson. Not only do I think he's annoying and irrelevant I also think he so so gross and creepy and somehow the writers and fans love him?

I just cannot get over him implying he didn't need p*rn after maya made a comment about her and carina in the next room. Like hello these are supposed to be your friends have some respect it's not hard to not be creepy. And like dropping the pot of sp**m all over the carpet and he didnt even clean it up they made maya do it...absolutely revolting how the HELL is that supposed to be funny? If you found 5x16 funny please stay away from me I dont trust you. And to top it off another gross seed joke..which we already had like him giving them flowers would've been sweet but he immediately ruined it unnecessarily, and him making the entire thing abt himself like I dont wanna know what kind of porn he's into, I dont care abt what he wants/his involvement. I dont get how people think he is so kind and considerate like have you ever heard him talk? The locker room scene fe pissed me off so much like at what point was any of that to do with helping his friends out? It was all me me me..that was his whole motivation. He even went as far to call marina's potential kid a "little him" which after maya melted at the idea of a little CARINA that's like..devastating then was banging on about his "legacy" or whatever like mate this isnt abt you..even in 5x16 maya and carina having their discussion abt a pretty serious issue (being their trust) and jack just butts in like "uhhh well this isnt helping MY issue tho like seriously? Idk why the writers had to make Jack's bio family appear in that way like could they not do it ANY other way? And even if they really did have to do it that way there is no excuse for ALL of the focus to be in HIM and what HE wants and the disgusting dialogue used along with the annialation of carina's character. No one in there right mind would go for that and they even went as far to have carina freak out abt the idea of him NOT being involved right infront of maya aswell? That is so disrespectful to maya and to carina's character and to queer women in general. Carina had always been the smart independent mature one so fuck knows what the writers were thinking? And then it was all completely irrelevant anyway. They didnt even really delve into Jack's bio fam much and carina barely even cared he left.

Also he eats chicken in literally the grossest way I've ever seen then put the bone in the BEDROOM BIN like that is just gross who tf does that especially when it's not even your own house?

And he literally stood right outside marina's bedroom door while they were having sex and after his previous gross comment abt him being able to get off on that..that's disgusting🤢 I dont get what the writers were thinking like they do know who their audience is right? I dont get how they can read over anything in that storyline and think "oh yeah this is so good people will love this"💀 that's actually embarrassing for them but also they're disgusting for even trying it. Ngl I'm pretty sure queer women dont like being fetishised by straight men and like having sex in the same vicinity esp after comments like that..I mean he even asked maya if carina was like "good and ready" or something like bruh..you dont ask that!? I'm sorry but I dont care how awkward he is, I'm very awkward myself but I'm not creepy. It's just human decency to respect boundaries and not say things like that but jack had never respected boundaries throughout the entire show but this was the worst of what we saw of him but they didnt even have him leave afterwards😭 literally all they had to do was change Maya's line slightly like no dont go play music loudly get the fuck out!

That and exposing marinas private info to andy AND vic without permission..he had absolutely no right to tell them especially andy as it was really soon after and marina specifically said they wanted to wait and discuss things further before the next steps and he just blurted it out first chance he got.i really wish they'd let them have a go at him for that. Okay marina should've been much more clear and set proper boundaries beforehand and it would've been nice if paperwork was mentioned but still he is supposedly a "trustworthy guy" (despite him always being the least reliable and most likely to cause trouble on the team since day 1 but the writers were hell bent on giving him another redemption arc) and that is such a break of trust. Then with no consideration to the team or any of his friends just bails without a warning and left the station leaving andy at one of the most traumatic times of her life and left little pru after she lost her dad and lied to everyone yet was literally down the street for like 3 months...

He bailed on the clinic after like 2 sessions of it being open then ben and carina carried it to keep it going they could've very easily let it go under especially carina as she doenst even work at the station? Yet first thing he does when he sees it again is criticise..its not like they were scaring people off the clinic always looked super busy? He is just so ungrateful to what he has.

He made maya's injury all abt himself in 6x07 and how hard it would be for HIM to lose her and was confiding in he literal wife abt this then didnt even go and visit maya in hospital or find out if she was okay? And dont get me started on the whole pam thing in 6x09..listen I didnt like pam but you cant just go peeking in a private medical cubicle especially when you literally k ow there is a pregnant woman in there?!? And the absolute AUDACITY to accuse carina of cheating with his track record. So glad ben put him in his place especially when he implied he'd interfere if it was ben and bailey aswell like how fucking rude are you? but then it ended with him getting coddled again with him being sad boi :( and ben being like "dont worry you arent losing ur family" like this isnt abt you jack..also YOU are the one who bailed on the team and keeps disrupting its trust..? Thays just being a hypocrite like what abt you and andy, You and eva, you and maya, you and vic you and eva AGAIN? Like he was criticising carina when less than a month before he was sleeping with his dead teammates wife who he also slept with when he was still alive and was some what to blame for his death?

I hate him idc what anyone says he is the worst character simply bc he was so unnecessary. Like the only way the writers could keep him relevant was shoving him into business he didnt belong in.

[anime-addictt]

Enneagram 3

Need: To be the best in whatever they do. And make it a huge part of their personality.

Belongs to: The assertive heart triad, who's brilliant, societal-conscious, and capable of playing a story that everyone around them would like.

Threes are great personality types to be around. They are motivated, extremely productive and conscious about the environment they live in. And the work they do is IMMACULATE. They want to be that person people who talk about. They love the spotlight, and understand the obstacles one must face to maintain it.

But underneath this vanity, is a super insecure child. Threes are taught that love is conditional; it can only be earned if you have what the world desires. This is completely different from 2s, as they tend to "give" to get love.

Which is why 3s work hard at their desired game - be it finances, beauty, or politics - the three would always try to have a upper hand. Because looking good, and being something everyone will love is more important than self. Unhealthy 3s have the tendency to look down on those who aren't particularly ambitious, create positions to make themselves look good, and put people down to make them look worse.

3s, along with 6s and 9s are completely detached from their self. They struggle to introspect and reflect on their actions, due to suppressing their intelligent centers.

Wings:

3w2: The more prideful 3s. They try to meet the expectations that people have set for them, and expect people to applaud them for their success. They care about being seen and loved, more than being the best. A lot of them do tend of have pick me energies.

3w4: The envious 3. They want to be seen as the best. They care less about being wanted because their vanity lies more in their success. They are also the type to have one specific area that they'd want to succeed in, and will be anything to be good at that.

Subtypes:

Sp: The type that wants to be good at things, for the fear that they'd lose things around them. Now, this would make them sound a lot like 6s or 1s, however their vanity over their successes is evident, no matter how much they try to hide it. Another interesting quality of this subtype is that they tend to have vanity in no vanity. Which means they'd like to downplay their successes a lot of times, just to fit in with the "successful bunch" or with people in general.

eg: Miyuki Shirogane

He takes pride in being the school president. In fact, for someone who comes from a low-income background, the distinction of being the school president acts as a protective blanket against Kaguya, and the rest of the school. He became the school president in the hopes to get noticed by the people he wants the attention from (Kaguya, his mother). The status of being the best is school is a safety blanket, and nothing more.

Sx: They don't tend to talk a lot of themselves. This type wants to earn love and appreciation by making the person bonded to them successful. Their entire personality becomes about their prized possession succeeding, since they assume that their "success" is its own.

eg: Ai Hoshino

Ai's need to find a love where she would be accepted is the motivating factor behind her being successful. She begins by thinking that this would be attained through her career as an idol. Someone's dissatisfied with her performance ? Not a problem. She works on it and perfects it. So much to the point that she starts to believe that her fan's love for her is what she has always wanted.

But then, she ends up having the twins. Which completely changed the way she viewed love. Ai started pouring her everything into her kids, albeit having a successful career as an idol, and a new career in the field of acting. And finally, towards the end of her life, we get to see the satisfaction. The happiness and the pride she received by devoting a part of her life for her children. How eventually their success sounded even more beautiful to her. Her entire life revolved around making others feel like they made her a success story.

So: Your typical 3. They want to be seen as successful. To them, a lot times, the fame that comes from success is more important than the success itself. They firmly believe that being seen as successful by others makes them a success. That they're finally worth of the applause, and love they receive from the rest of the world.

Eg: Oikawa Tooru

His entire self-image is around his ability to play volleyball. He felt great about his skill, and truly thought he was amazing...till Kageyama showed him the difference between talent and hardwork. Despite working his hardest, and doing his best...Oikawa just couldn't accept that there was someone better than him.

He considered it to be an insult to win matches by going to Shiratorizawa, because he would be shadowed by Ushikawa. You can see how image oriented he is throughout his interactions with Kageyama and Ushijima.

[cathkaesque]

actually i would be interested in your thoughts on hierarchies and hierarchical organising. i'm a communist myself but i keep also not settling into one kind of idea about hierarchies since I do agree about non-hierarchical organising not getting work done, have heard this from some organisers i know, but also I still need to do more reading around this and we've also had discussions on this in our group, so i do want to know more if you want to talk about this. ty!

Hiya! I have a lot of thoughts about this. I've had good and bad experiences of both. I am extremely delirious at the moment so this might not make sense, but

I think you've seen my post I just made on non-heirarchical organising and I'm really not a fan of horizontalism as both a practice and an outlook. A lot of these approaches stem from a very 2000s anti-globalisation movement idea of being the change you wanted to see in the world and creating the conditions for revolution by creating microcosms of total democracy. The result is that these organisations tend to have really weird, byzantine structures that only people who are well versed in the lingo can negotiate effectively. There was also a weird fixation on not having meeting chairs in the free education campaign I was on the periphery of, and these meetings tended to be pretty chaotic. Strange things about hand signals as well. There have been big moments in the last few years where organisations using these practices have suddenly swelled in ranks and then not being able to capitalise on this. Going back to the free education movement, there was a huge mass meeting at the start of the semester at my university, I think it was in 2012, hosted by the students' union which had been partially captured by people from the free education movement. Everyone wanted to get on with talking about how to take the campaign against the fee rises forward...but first we had to come up with a structure that wouldn't involve heirarchies. The discussions were long and boring and dominated by people who were into that approach and it ended up killing the whole thing. I think this practice has lost a lot of its explicit ideological appeal since the collapse of the social movements that emerged from the 2000s. A part of that collapse can be linked to these practices.

The issue with more hierarchical organisations is that work tends to end up concentrated among a very small number of people, who then end up dominating the group and/or burning out under the workload. Only a small number of people get the experience of carrying out the tasks of organisation. My experience of the SP was of an extremely heirarchical organisation, where political perspectives and activity were very much set by the viewpoint of the centre of the party and then translated to branches via the full time party workers. There was no way for the membership to replace or remove the leadership of the party (something that became a big issue when the 50 year long general secretary Peter Taaffe starting developing dementia) and the only input they had into policy was amendments to the perspectives document, which was essentially a discussion of what we thought was going to happen the following year. The document was written entirely by the central leadership and amendments were often diluted. This structure was unable to take on new initiatives or ideas from below, and when presented with a problem that it wasn't expecting (the SP had always thought that there was no way for leftists to take over the Labour Party, and then that happened with Corbyn) it wasn't able to easily come up with new approaches that fitted with the time. Increasingly the active part of the party was really the full time apparatus, with the membership as their foot soldiers whose role was essentially to fundraise to keep said apparatus solvent.

That being said, it did provide a good source of political education. The practice of weekly lead offs (short 20 min lectures followed by discussion). I developed as an activist while in the organisation, became a competent public speaker. However, every lead off ended with a response from the speaker where they integrated the questions that were raised into the established party line. When that line fell apart, there were diminishing returns.

I also don't really think organising based on command and control systems is appropriate to neoliberal societies. I remember hearing, I think this was discussed in an account of the Hong Kong uprising, of widespread distrust of "the stage" - people did not trust or want to listen to established political organisations. The issue we have today is our culture is hyperindividualised and people (rightfully) are suspicious of those who want to exert control over them or give them orders. People's political perspectives are totally disoriented and heterogenous. A lot of these opinions are also, frankly, stupid. So any appropriate structure would have to both be able to take into account these and facilitate the construction of consensus among participants, and crucially political education and not political education in the form of wrote learned Marx Engels Lenin, memorising quotes and dogmas rather than engaging with the thought as a living methodology, and an investigation on how the world works. The focus of any political organisation should be building the political capacities of participants in the organisation.

Generally a lot of my ideas for what a good structure would look like come from Walter Citrine's ABCs of Chairmanship. An organisation is based on a membership - people who have agreed with a fundamental set of positions and agreed to contribute to the running of the organisation (i.e. paying dues on a sliding scale based on employment status). Members are organised into local branches; functionary positions in this branch should, if the organisation is small, rotated between active participants so everyone can learn how to undertake these tasks, or directly elected at a regular general meeting if the organisation is larger (i.e. 50+ members say). National policy should be set at a national conference, where branches propose motions to be debate and voted on by elected delegates. A motion is passed at a branch level . It's a very bog standard organisational approach - but I would kill for their to be a radical left organisation that was based on member democracy rather than democratic centralism or horizontal consensus.

I do feel that issues with structure are a feature of political stagnation and disorientation rather than something inherent to one approach or another. A consensus based or top down structure that is made up of people who are engaged in good work, with a good idea of what they are doing, and believe in what they're doing, will always be healthier and more dynamic than an organisation with the perfect structure which is inert.

But yeah, I'm totally delirious with covid, so this is a stream of thought, but hopefully something made sense in there.

[jasontoddthings]

Dean Anon:

You asked why I reblog stories by a certain writer, because you see my reblogs as suggestions on your feed, and you don’t understand because “there (sp) literally the WORST Jason todd ever”

I am answering your ask as a post for two reasons:

1) To protect the name of the writer you mention (because, let’s face it, you’re hoping they’ll see it and be upset). If there are other writers out there that you think write him better that maybe I hadn’t run across yet, you’d have suggested them, and you wouldn’t have used an anonymous ask.

2) Because I realize that English may not be your first language, and I’m not going to embarrass you by reblogging your other grammar and spelling mistakes.

I also believe in encouraging young writers and generally being nice to strangers, because have you looked at the news lately? There is WAY too much nastiness, violence, and general fuckery out there in the world, and I don’t want to add to it if I can help it. Plus, in another fandom I have a side blog on, I see so much arguing and bullying and hate, and again - I’m not going to take part in it. I’m sorry you don’t appear to feel the same way.

Hurt people hurt people. I’m guessing someone has hurt you in some horrible fashion at some point in your life, if you feel you have to resort to cyberbullying people to try and control what they choose to reblog on their pages, instead of being a sensible adult and scrolling past things you don’t like. There are over 8 billion people on this planet; mathematically, it’s impossible for us all to agree on most things - look at all the religions, political parties, etc. out there. At least we’re allowed to have our own pages on sites like this, where we can post things we like to read and not what we’re told to. It’s why we post MDNI on our fics, so we can read mature themes and mature characters, because we’re supposed to be mature people and not act like cranky children on the playground.

I know you know Jason Todd is a fictional character and not the subject of a non-fiction biography. Fans’ definitions of cannon depend on which Jason they’re thinking of, because Jason changes with every writer in the comics, the games, the movies, and the TV shows. We can’t all be Chip Zdarskys, Neil Gaimans, Shakespeares - and they didn’t start out being the literary titans they are, they had a learning curve from their first story to their current bodies of work.

Am I a writer? Nope - I write articles, technical reports, boring things with no literary value, but I love to read. It’s how I found Tumblr in the first place. Do I like everything I read? No, of course not - if a paragraph or two in to a story I don’t like it, I stop reading and scroll on past like a mature adult. If I read a whole story that someone took the time to write and share for free, even if I wasn’t over the moon about it, I’m going to thank them by commenting something positive and reblogging it. If we don’t complement and reblog things on this site, authors get discouraged and don’t write, things don’t get reblogged, and this site dies.

Know what also discourages authors, especially if they’re insecure about their writing? Bullying and hate-posting. If there’s a problem with something like duplicated sentences/paragraphs in a story I will comment about it (because I’d want someone to do it for me so I could correct it). I would never presume to tell an author “X wouldn’t do that,�� or “this is awful,” unless the author *specifically* requested constructive criticism (and then I’d sure as hell be respectful about it), because there are as many Jason Todd’s out there as there are people to write about him. I’m not a Nazi - unless I’m commissioning a story and paying the author to write what I want, I would never presume to tell an author they’re wrong or something is the WORST. I can almost guarantee you, as bad as you think an author is, there’s always someone out there in the world writing the character in a way you might consider even worse.

Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe the author hasn’t read a lot about that character? Or they’re young with not a lot of life experiences to draw on, so they’re writing what they know? Or they’re new to writing, or (whatever language) isn’t their first language? Or, for characters like Jason Todd, The Winchesters, Matt Murdock, or thousands of other characters out there who didn’t have happy childhoods (if they even had a childhood at all), the author wants to read about the character as a young person, and are writing the AU or medium-adjacent they want to see out there? I’ve not seen many fics on young Jason, and I was curious to see what they’d come up with, especially as he’s doing a lot of the things I did at that age (but far more vigilantism than I did - I just did roller derby). Whatever the reason they chose to write about young Jason in their world, they envisioned it, took the time to write it, and shared it - that took a lot of time. I took the time to read it to the end, so I reblogged it to thank them - because it’s my blog and I decide what I want to share on it, not you. Simple as that.

Just because the character doesn’t act the way you want them to doesn’t make you right and the author wrong. You’re entitled to your opinion, just like they’re entitled to theirs. Writers don’t get better unless they get encouragement, find a mentor to give them constructive criticism, and read a lot of things (not just about their favorite character) to help them learn what they like and what they don’t. Maybe you’re a writer yourself - if so, you must have a thick skin (not because of your grammar and spelling, as English may not be your first language) but for your willingness to be so disparaging about another writer that you take to sending anon messages to those that reblog the author’s work to try and get them to stop. If so, I’m sorry someone in your past hurt you and showed you that treating others the same is acceptable behavior for an adult. At least reading the stories of the author you disparaged in your ask to me has given you an opportunity to learn what you don’t like, and will hopefully inspire you to be a better writer yourself. I also hope that after reading all of this, if you bothered to read to the end once you realized you haven’t changed my mind, you’ll be a little kinder to other authors and treat others the way you’d like to be treated. You may be anonymous here, but Karma knows your face, and she keeps score even if I don’t.

[sportsbroad121]

The Evolution of Sports Broadcasting: From Radio to Live Streaming

Sports broadcasting has undergone a remarkable transformation over the decades, evolving from humble radio broadcasts to today's high-definition live streaming. This evolution has not only changed how we experience sports but also how athletes, teams, and leagues interact with their fans. This article explores the journey of sports broadcasting, highlighting key milestones and the impact of technological advancements.

Early Days: The Rise of Radio Broadcasts

The history of sports broadcasting can be traced back to the early 20th century when radio emerged as a powerful medium for sharing live events with the public. Radio broadcasts allowed fans to follow games in real-time, bringing the excitement of sports into living rooms across the country. One of the most famous early broadcasts was the boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier in 1921, which drew millions of listeners 해외스포츠중계.

Television: Bringing Sports to the Masses

The real breakthrough for sports broadcasting came with the advent of television. The first live sports event on television was a college baseball game between Columbia and Princeton in 1939. Television brought a new level of immersion, allowing viewers to see the action unfold before their eyes. Major events like the Olympics and World Cup became global spectacles, captivating audiences with their visual and emotional impact.

The Golden Age: Iconic Moments in Broadcasting

The 1960s and 70s are often considered the golden age of sports broadcasting. This era saw the rise of iconic broadcasters like Howard Cosell and Vin Scully, whose voices became synonymous with their respective sports. Memorable moments, such as the "Miracle on Ice" during the 1980 Winter Olympics, further cemented sports broadcasting as a cultural phenomenon.

Digital Revolution: The Rise of Cable and Satellite

The late 20th century brought another major shift with the rise of cable and satellite television. This enabled sports fans to access a wider range of games and events, including niche sports and international competitions. Channels like ESPN became household names, providing 24/7 coverage and analysis that appealed to die-hard fans and casual viewers alike.

Internet Age: Streaming and On-Demand Content

The 21st century ushered in the era of streaming and on-demand content. Platforms like YouTube and Twitch allowed fans to watch highlights, interviews, and even live games from their computers and mobile devices. This democratization of content gave rise to a new generation of sports broadcasters, from independent commentators to professional esports casters.

The Role of Social Media

Social media has also played a pivotal role in sports broadcasting, enabling fans to engage with their favorite teams and athletes in real-time. Platforms like Twitter and Instagram have become essential tools for breaking news, sharing highlights, and building a global community of sports enthusiasts.

Technological Advancements: Virtual Reality and Beyond

Looking to the future, technological advancements like virtual reality (VR) promise to further revolutionize sports broadcasting. VR allows fans to experience games from the best seats in the house, providing an immersive and interactive viewing experience like never before.

Challenges and Opportunities

While sports broadcasting has made tremendous strides, it also faces challenges. Issues such as broadcasting rights, piracy, and the saturation of content present ongoing concerns. However, these challenges also present opportunities for innovation and growth, as broadcasters seek to adapt to changing consumer preferences and technological advancements.

Conclusion

The evolution of sports broadcasting has been nothing short of extraordinary. From the early days of radio to today's world of streaming and virtual reality, each era has brought new opportunities and challenges. As we look to the future, one thing is clear: sports broadcasting will continue to evolve, driven by technological innovation and the passion of fans around the world.

Sports broadcasting isn't just about watching a game; it's about connecting with the athletes, teams, and fellow fans who share our love for sports. Whether you're tuning in on the radio, watching on television, or experiencing it in virtual reality, the magic of sports broadcasting lies in its ability to bring us together and inspire us with unforgettable moments.

[1moreoffkeyanthem]

wife wife i have no music taste, but you feel musical to me! will you drop any songs you relate to your universes stans, kyles and style in general? if not music books, other characters, pieces of media, quotes, poems? i am insatiable darling <3

YOYOYO!!!!!!

First of all hello my wife my wife the love of my life! (I did in fact ride half of my first year of college on a music scholarship)

OKAY so you know how heavily I associate Fall Out Boy with Stan in general (mostly bc I like projecting and I’m a gremlin abt fob) SPECIFICALLY Infinity On High (I know we’ve discussed this before and yes I’m still unhinged abt the 27 rm thing) AND I’ve said a LOT abt OrangeJuiceVerse Stan being musically inclined as one of his main outlets.

(I will be mainly sticking to ojv bc that do be my main focus atm)

So Stan will play literally whatever on the guitar and he can improvise SO WELL!!! Like it’s wild but he’s just like eh it’s a casual hobby but he hears a song and immediately knows the basic chord progression and bpm he’s the king of countermelodies too. Kenny will start playing something and then Stan will pop in with the most gorgeous harmonies and just…. fall in.

Stan will listen to ANYTHING he especially loves songs with a story (I’m sticking to ATLCTS for him being a Tenacious D fan bc I very much enjoy that) and Kyle, while Stan is all “LISTEN TO THAT CELLO BREAK” Kyle Is all fully into the lyricism and losing his shit about RAINDROPS ON ROSES AND GIRLS IN WHITE DRESSES AND SLEEPING WITH- (I feel like they have similar tastes but for different reasons if u get me)

My Kyle’s for sure are lyrics gremlins. Stan will be like KEY CHANGE KEY CHANGE but Kyle will be WAIT LOOK THE STORY HOLY SHIT SYMBOLISM(smh they whole ass watch musicals together and neither of them stfu) (losers)

(This is unhinged I’m eepy) so song specific idk man but I feel in my soul that Stan’s hopeless romantic ass serenades Kyle on a regular basis ESPECIALLY when he’s in an Emo Boy Mood like this man thinks he’s Orpheus or something ALSO Stan is incredibly specific about having certain playlists for every single situation and the “Super Best Spicy Time” playlist is INCREDIBLY LAME!!! (I’m talkin Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls and Mr Brightside was playing during their first time) like they are losers your honor

On FOB Stan I’m currently specifically feeling him with What A Catch, The (After) Life Of The Party, From Now On We Are Enemies, Golden, Fame< Infamy, The (Shipped) Gold Standard, She’s My Winona, Disloyal Order, A Little Less Sixteen Candles, Heavens Gate, SOPHOMORE SLUMP IS SO STYLE OMG

Sorry that was a lot I’m very passionate abt the fob Stan thing

EVERY LAME ASS SAPPY LOVE SONG IS EXTREMELY STYLE TO ME!!! If We Were Vampires by Jason Isbell, I’ll Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab For Cutie, LINE WITHOUT A HOOK?!? Nothing Matters But You by The Young Veins, Northern Downpour and When The Day Met The Night by Panic, I Think I Love You by Tenacious D, All I Ask Of You from Phantom (btw I saw someone draw a style phantom of the opera au it slayed so hard), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John (there’s this scene in a fic I read where Stan plays it for Kyle on his guitar and I lost my mind), ofc Carry On Wayward Son, Accidentally In Love by the counting crows, Turn Off The Lights from the Vices and Virtues bonus tracks, As Long As You’re Mine from Wicked (I feel like Kyle fuckinh loves Wicked) All I’ve Ever Known from Hadestown.

OJV Kyle for sure listens to the acoustic versions of pop songs and is SUCH a sap (he won’t admit it as much as Stan tho) like he’ll pause a song after a particularly clever or romantic line and just be like DID YOU HEAR THAT! Stan writes songs every once in a while and whenever he writes for Ky he always tries to paint a story because that’s what Kyle likes help I love them so much

As for other media I associate w the boys, bruh lemme tell ya the sp brainrot is so real I physically cannot watch or read anything without imagining a couple as style (literally last night my partner and I were watching the picture lock of the last feature we worked on and I’m over here looking at the two main characters like hmm who is Stan who is Kyle I’m the WORST)

Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure is so Them to me holy shit like best friends getting into situations and being obsessed with each other I love that shit (u can’t tell me Bill and Ted aren’t in love)

This comes as no surprise to anyone but Lord Of The Rings for sure, especially since i decided that they speak elvish to each other on the regular

I’ve also said it before but!!! As a massive PJO/Riordanverse fan, THEY ARE SO PERCABETH CODED!!! We got Stan/Percy as the reluctant hero who everyone looks to, Kyle/Annabeth as the badass short tempered voice of reason, like DUDE.

(Also I hope you know how much your fics have influenced my mindset like I’ll drive past Taco Bell and be like o look style moment and I saw Fireball at the gas station and thought abt rm Stan)

Anyway this is long as SHIT I’m completely insane it’s fine THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK ILY

[magicalgirlmindcrank]

Very excellent overworld level design, some extremely loveable characters, and a handful of good bosses. Really easy to get side tracked trying to figure out one of the literally hundreds of small navigational based puzzles while getting from place to place.

Dungeons themselves are where most of the flaws shine through, puzzle solutions occasionally needing finicky and extremely precise aiming. Less extreme but still fairly precise aiming under a pretty tight timing restrictions happening often. Easy if playing mouse and keyboard (which has its own unique issue to offset it), but nightmarish on controller. A good share of rooms, what felt like the majority in later dungeons, took a while to understand what it was asking, and fairly often a while to execute. Failure in an attempt asking you to reset the entire puzzle manually, in part or full, too often to not grate.

Bosses fall largely into four categories - boring, immensely challenging due solely to damage output, non-apparent puzzle, and good. Most fall in one or two, but there's a notable handful of really enjoyable rights.

One of our biggest issues with the game is the dodge - they put fucking ADP in the damn game. Even with a really high flash step, and taking as much focus and dodge improvements as we could, it never felt much more than positional. This isn't as big of a deal however, because perfect blocking is wildly easy. Not only is the timing easier, and the damage negated upon success, the fail state for messing up a perfect block is very often a regular block, which massively reduces damage taken. Not to mention that unlike dodging, there are armor skills that generate SP, pips you earn in combat and spend on flashier abilities, on block.

The combo meter in game is one of its best mechanics, rewarding aggressive play with better drops and increased rate. It also really adds to an already very fun, deep, and customizable combat system! If you die you lose everything since the combo began, but keeping up an S rank is the best way to farm for various materials.

Speaking of, we're never a fan of mindlessly collecting secondaries and such to make trades, especially when every area has their own stuff. That said, it's on the inoffensive side as far as those things go. However, we did the majority of quests and killed a lot of stuff just to keep levels up and for fun, so this may seem more annoying to those less willing to do so.

To get critical on a more meta level, we find the usage of CrossWorlds itself somewhat questionable. Textually, it is the MMO Crosscode is set in, and on a very basic level facilitates the plot. However, the actual interaction with CrossWorlds as a player is, well, very much like playing an MMO. Almost every bit of NPC dialogue can be spacebarred through without missing anything of note. A few jokes perhaps, but it becomes very apparent as the game progresses that the only interactions that matter are the ones with fellow 'players.'

I just can't help but feel like this was a missed opportunity. Even up to the end of the CrossWorlds portion of Crosscode, we felt like we were waiting for the shoe to drop. For the lore to have mattered. Hell, it wasn't even all that complimentary to the main plot, it was just pretty standard MMO type lore. If you aren't going to do a twist that the lore was all secretly based on an actual ancient religion, you could make the message match.

We don't wanna end on a negative note though, so we do wanna add that Lea is a very well written character. We did not expect to become attached to her as we did, but she's a charming little fuck. Emilie, despite her failings in being French, was also delightful. Almost all the cast is enjoyable, but those are my two faves. Really wanted them to kiss at the end but oh well.

Anyways, yeah, 8.5/10. We haven't played the DLC yet though, so if that changes our opinion, we'll reblog with more.

Crosscode! 8.5/10.

[yuzu-all-the-way]

Prologue Hachinohe Day 3 (live broadcast) - impressions

It's been more than 12 hours and I thought it's time I write down my thoughts and feeling about the last day of Prologue - both an ending and beginning.

Generally, Prologue was definitely a success and it surpassed my expectation by far. I never doubted Yuzuru and he delivered. This time, knowing what to expect in terms of emotional damage, I was not as phased by the video edits, but, inevitably, I teared up during SEIMEI, screamed during Change, Otonal and Etude - after a short respite when he talked and I was desperately trying to understand (and obviously failing) why he was talking about SEIMEI, quad jumps and triple Axels - back to tearing up through R&J 1.0, screaming and feeling great during A Fleeting Dream, and finally, tearing up again during Haru, Yo Koi. Emotional rollercoaster is an understatement.

(Sorry for the long sentence, but there really was no breather during Prologue, so neither is one here.)

It felt like he had much more energy than in Yokohama Day 2 and I appreciated that he paced himself enough that Yuzuru was able to complete the ice show clean! I genuinely don't know when about 2 hours passed - I was so engrossed into the show that I simply did not acknowledge anything else, just Yuzu skating... and talking ... and wearing a hoodie ... and laughing... and skating ... skating ...

Truly, best experience ever - the only thing that can top it is to see him live in a freezing arena.

I'm too lazy to add photos here, I already put together the majority of which I found in the Prologue Hachinohe MasterPost.

Anyhow, the show itself was not surprising, it was simply engaging and worthwhile - I was happy to not be overly emotional. But theeeen...

Parisienne Walkways, but like, extreme Hoochie Coochie Man mode was, as it happened in Yokohama, a hard whiplash, yet it got dethroned by the BIGGEST whiplash the Yuzu's fans ever experienced (at least, from the general reactions, it seems like it).

A short From Russia with Love encore, small Yuzu on screen and big Yuzu on the ice, lights out, then a video... 26.02.2023... Ice Story, GIFT.

Yeah, that was definitely the surprise of the year (my year starts with 19th July, I guess). Nothing could've prepared us for the major news about ANOTHER one-man ice show EXCLUSIVELY for one-night at the Tokyo Dome. Yuzu's life feels like a movie and we are the audience who can never guess the plot twists.

Because of this exciting news, I don't even feel sad that Prologue has ended. I'm normal - because I know we'll see him in 2 months and there's no longer that pressing question "What next?" because we already have the answer.

Yes, Prologue was the perfect beginning for Yuzu's pro career, it also proved that he is a mastermind and capable of engaging hundreds of thousands of people around the world for 2 hours (or more) straight (the stream I was on had about 60K people watching and I bet there were many more watching through other means).

I have to give it to Asahi TV, they gave us performances from previous days, too - we still want the full show, or, at least, I do, but this is a good start. I never imagined I'd love seeing Yuzuru skate again to Somebody to Love nor that I'd watch the Mission Impossible skate on repeat because... he's just so cool (biased, I am).

Otonal, seeing it twice (I think it was from today's broadcast the 2nd time around, too) healed my tiredness and made me so energetic. Definitely my favourite Yuzu SP.

Now, onto waiting for GIFT and for Yuzu to update his YT channel.

[thedrarrylibrarian]

To celebrate their new direction and get some insights into the how and why the blog is changing, I invited @sitp-recs to chat with me. We knew we'd have so much fun, and didn't want to leave any patrons out, so we recorded our conversation to share. I'll be DL, in bold, and sitp-recs is SP. I hope you enjoy getting a bit of behind the scenes of how we run our blogs, finding balance in fandom, and our friendship.

DL: First of all, Happy New Year! I’m so glad we could finally sit down and chat like we’ve been trying to do for….4 months now? 5 months? Lol

SP: Happy New Year! I’m so ready for 2022. Hopefully it will be a gentler year to us all. And I know, right? It’s been months and so much has changed between then and now, but I’m happy we’re doing this to start the year. Good omens! Thanks for the invite by the way, I’m really humbled by it.

DL: You’re so welcome! I’m ecstatic to have you, so I’m glad we made it work. And a gentler and kinder year is the best wish for 2022. Did you set any New Year’s Resolutions in relation to your blog?

SP: That’s a great starting point, actually. I posted about it recently and rather than a few bullet points, mine was a long and mildly chaotic rambling lol. Rigid resolutions and numbers scare me a bit and I’m trying to take it easy this year. Mainly, I hope to keep doing what I love but find more balance along the way. I want to read more, comment more, write more single reviews and be more present for my friends. It’s kinda generic, I know, but I want to establish a low pressure environment so I can continue enjoying the blog now that it’s entering its third year.

DL: You and I have talked before about how running a fan blog, while sometimes time consuming, should always be fun. Did you feel like you’d gotten to a point where it was no longer fun this year?

DL: This year being…last year lmao. 2021.

SP: Sadly, yes. Although, to be fair, it was way more related to what I was going through in real life and less related to fandom in general. I changed jobs at the beginning of 2021 and have been dedicating a lot of time and energy to it. The first semester was a complete nightmare and I was barely able to read anything, let alone write recs. It’s particularly frustrating to watch the fandom flourish when you can’t keep up. I got overwhelmed between the buzz surrounding new fics and the pressure I put on myself to keep the blog active by posting recs and giving something back to the community. That’s when I decided to stop making reclists, as they basically took all my free time away and were adding to the stress rather than being a fun, relaxing activity.

DL: That’s something I very much relate to. As much as I’d love to read fanfic and make rec lists all day, I have other responsibilities. Finding that balance is so important. For me, it’s doing about 1 rec list a week and a Happy Hour on Fridays when I can. I’ve also stopped trying to find lost fics. I feel like that’s in more capable hands with @lostdrarryfics Sometimes I get asks that are like “I’m not sure if you are still active…” and I'm like “...I just posted last week?” and I just have to laugh. It feels like that “I'm not dead yet!” scene from Monty Python. I love putting out content and rec lists, but it’s a hobby. Sometimes real life and responsibilities take precedence, and I’ve always tried to be very honest about that. As your friend, I’m so proud of you for putting those boundaries in place and finding your balance. So now that you’re not doing rec lists, what can we expect to see on your blog?

SP: That’s exactly it, and I think that unfortunately, Tumblr gets tainted by the social media immediacy thing, considering we have so many different demographics mixed together. Everyone is at a different point in their life, and setting up boundaries can be incredibly hard when it’s about something you genuinely love to do, but it’s necessary to keep a healthy relationship with both fandom and real life responsibilities. I don’t want to rule out all reclists because I still very much enjoy making them - but I won’t be doing them on demand as I used to, probably just some specific lists like the one I did for my 2021 favorite works. Other than that, I plan to keep on boosting artworks, microfics, rare pairs and fandom fests when I can. As for the single recs, I’d really love to include older gems, as I did in 2020. When I started the blog the whole idea behind it was to celebrate both classics and lesser known works, and some of the best fics I discovered that year were published between 2010 and 2015. So I’m hoping to highlight those again, and hopefully send more readers their way.

DL: Ooooh, I love that! I think there’s so much great content that gets overlooked because of “classics” so I love finding those hidden gems.

We’ve talked about some of the stressors of running a popular fandom blog, but I certainly don’t want that to take away from how much we both love to do it. Part of the reason you’re working to find this balance is so that you can keep blogging because it does bring so much joy! What’s your favorite part about running your blog?

SP: You’re right - creating this blog was one of my best decisions and a major highlight in these otherwise dark, uncertain times we’ve been living for the past two years. Reccing, for me, is a very special kind of therapy. I love the catharsis it brings, and the way I’m able to freely express my thoughts and feelings about a work that somehow I really can’t translate when I’m leaving a comment on AO3. I love the idea of just… putting my thoughts out there, hoping to find echo but without really considering my audience or expecting something in return, if that makes sense? It’s a very liberating process and hey, I get to practice my English while I’m at it, so that’s a nice bonus! I also love interacting with both creators and fellow readers. I love getting feedback like “Wow, thanks so much for thinking of my fic. This made my day!” just as much as I love hearing “I found this fic thanks to your rec and now I’m obsessed.” It’s so incredible to think that, despite not being a creator, my words could still move someone, even if it’s just one person, and inspire them to either read that work or go and create their own. That’s real magic!

DL: That’s such a lovely answer! I completely get what you’re saying about interacting with fellow fans. Writers often make my day when I read their amazing works, so it feels so good to give that acknowledgement back to them. I love seeing their positive reactions when I’ve included someone in a reclist or featured them in a Happy Hour. It makes me happy to make them happy. You’re absolutely right - it’s a special kind of magic.

One of my favorite things about your blog is how personable you are. You always come across so warm and friendly in all of your posts. I love that. It was one of the first things I noticed when I first followed you.

SP: That’s such a lovely compliment, and the first time I really stop to think about my approach as a blog owner, but yes! I’ve always been the communicative type. I like to think I’m a welcoming presence and I try my best to come from a place of kindness and empathy while respecting my personal boundaries. I’ve always wanted the blog to feel like a safe space that respects all reading preferences, ships and tropes, even if they’re not my own. That’s why I’m so adamant about promoting rare pairs too, as I personally love so many of them. Fandom can be a very hostile space for those communities, so I try my best to stay away from any kind of toxic discussion that doesn’t belong in a positive space.

DL: I love that. I recently read a fic that had Pansy/George as a background pair and I thought it was a really fun ship (don’t worry, it’ll be on my Late Christmas List). What’s a pair that you never would’ve thought of but really enjoy?

SP: Ohh, I’m curious to check that one out! I love fanon Pansy because she’s so shippable. That’s the beauty of being in the HP fandom as a multishipper - there are so many possibilities and so many talented authors trying their hand on rare pairs. I feel really lucky to be experiencing fandom at this point in time. As for your question, a few years ago I’d never have considered reading Golden Trio fics, as in Harry/Ron, Harry/Hermione, and Harry/Ron/Hermione. I used to perceive their dynamics strictly as sibling-like friendship and could not see them interacting romantically at all. I really can’t give you a precise answer on when that changed and I felt comfortable to explore this OT3 (probably as I got more and more interested in the “friends to lovers” trope, and found a compelling summary by an author I trust and love!) but I decided to give it a shot and now I love this triad in every possible variation. I’m still a bit picky about the kind of dynamics I enjoy with most of my favorite rare pairs, so I don’t read them as often as I read Drarry!

DL: Oooh, I actually love a good triad. I haven’t looked at the prompts for @hptriadfest yet but I think they start posting in April. Maybe they’ll have something new for you to enjoy!

SP: Won’t ever deny a good threesome!

DL: One of my favorite things to ask is what are you currently reading? Both in fanfic and in real books?

SP: I’m….so very ashamed to admit that I haven’t read real books since finishing my Master’s two years ago, but I’m hoping to change that this year! Of course, the popular Captive Prince series is high on my list. I’ve seen so many artworks on Tumblr and I just know it’s going to be right up my alley - Drarry similarities and all! As for fic, I just finished oldenuf2nb’s last advent fic called The Magic Behind the Camera with photographer Harry and magazine editor Draco. It’s a lovely read for those who enjoy the identity porn trope! I’m now debating whether to pursue a long or short fic next. Any recs?

DL: Of COURSE I have a rec! I just finished a shorter fic that I really enjoyed. It’s called both that morning equally lay by @janieohio. It’s a remix of Auror Conley on the Case by @frenchmarshmalloww that was also fun. Have you read them?

SP: I haven’t! Ohh, gotta check these out ASAP! Love that summary, and 5k is a perfect length for me. God bless short fics!

DL: Don’t get me wrong - I love a long fic - but I adore short fics. I love a quick bite sized fic that I can get into and finish while I’m waiting in a line or read quickly on my lunch break at work. Also, for books, can I recommend The Guncle by Stephen Rowley? It was one of my favorite reads of 2021. It’s a pretty quick read packed with lots of bittersweet emotions and family moments.

SP: That sounds perfect, thanks so much! And I agree 100% about short fics. They’re very practical as you said, and can be just as much, if not more, nuanced and emotionally rewarding. I’ve read so many brilliant short fics in the past few years. We have some incredibly talented authors exploring shorter forms.

DL: Absolutely!

SP: I can’t believe I got recs out of this!

DL: I can’t help myself! I’m like one of those grandmas who keep trying to feed you, even if you’re not hungry. “Here honey, have another fic rec. You can pack this one up and take it with you!”

SP: It’s in our nature! We just can’t help screaming about our favorite fics and authors!

DL: Exactly! Which, speaking of! Do you want to share any favorite Drarry fics?!

SP: I think @letteredlettered's The Boy Who Only Lived Twice will always be my top favorite. I reread it all the time (despite being 50k) and get the same incomparable thrill I got when I first read it so many years ago. Lettered is definitely a personal favorite for me, the majority of their fics hit all of my boxes. Their most recent fic By the Grace is one of the most compelling, nuanced, and emotionally satisfying masterpieces I’ve ever read. Then I have to mention Far From the Tree by aideomai who pretty much blew my mind with this brilliant and devastatingly tender time travel epic - and I’m not even that invested in the 8th year trope!

DL: I loved By the Grace! I think I put it on a rec list immediately after I read it. I remember feeling like “Oh my god! Do people know about this fic!? Everyone needs to read this RIGHT NOW!”

SP: That was my reaction too! It was so mind blowing!! And so very different from Letterd’s usual style - more focused on dialogue and character development. This excerpt will always live rent free in my head:

Harry’s heart leapt into his throat, and all thoughts of solace or freedom or courage left him. “Do you mean you …” He trailed off, then cleared his throat. His hands twitched again. “You did say you remade every cell.” “Potter, you fool,” Malfoy muttered. “My body doesn’t know how to make a cell that doesn’t love you.”

DL: Ugh. What an excellent quote. With that loveliness, shall we end it there?

SP: Yeah. It’s been so lovely to chat with you! Thank you for the invite!

DL: Thank you for your time!

[leportraitducadavre]

I always felt that the Uchiha massacre was not a gov operation in P1. Itachi’s sadist behavior doesn’t make sense if he was good all along. He could’ve followed orders and been cruel at the same time, but after the reveal his character changed so much.. do you think Kishi planned to write it? I’d be anti-Itachi but I’m not since he doesn’t make sense at all. And imo Kishi tried to write Sasuke+others as both falling to the dark side and being the victim of shinobi system at the same time, and he should’ve stuck to one.

Let’s take into account the fact that Itachi is good by Konoha’s standards and those can (and should) be questioned. Itachi represents the romanticized notion of the loyal-patriot soldier who sacrifices his sanity (and "soul") for the general welfare of his country/village.

I don’t think the concept of Itachi was particularly bad -it highlights the contradiction that Itachi didn’t sacrifice his wellbeing, rather, he “sacrificed” the lives of others to maintain a particular order. The problem with Itachi is in the execution: the narrative pushes the idea that Itachi is still good despite the contradictions with what he or other characters claim he did/does, versus what his actions actually entailed for those he killed (UCM), who he tried to save (Sasuke) and those he sacrificed for (Konoha), and that’s because Kishimoto didn’t let himself (or SP, who knows at this point) to explore and allow fan-favorites characters to simply fall from grace. I’ve said this in the analysis I made of his fandom:

Liking a character doesn’t automatically mean condoning its actions but because that subjective appeal became more and more the reflection of the reader’s ideals (for some reason I’m not here to trace), those two actions merged, which translated consequently into demanding the narrative’s validation of our tastes.

I wouldn’t know if Kishimoto planned the UCM to be a government operation from the very beginning, but I wouldn’t deny it simply because the execution was flawed. From the first chapter we see how corrupt and immoral the shinobi system is, furthermore, we were lead to believe that Naruto would simply grow to change it from its central core -particularly after Wave (the fact that later on he doesn’t it’s a different subject), so it isn’t as if the basis for Konoha’s cruelty weren’t there: Neji’s arc is simply marvellous because it displays rather clearly the things the government is willing to condone in exchange for blind loyalty. I think Kishimoto has great premises (particularly when they’re tied with characters’ arcs) and he develops them rather well until the very end, where he simply just -turns around and acts like nothing happened.

[the-bau-quinjet]

But with you, it’s different...

So, I’ve combined two of my great obsessions: Criminal Minds and Taylor Swift. Pretend the reader is Taylor Swift in the sense that she wrote and recorded the songs, but that’s it. Also, the songs are all out of order and not from the albums so just pretend that’s okay. I don’t reference the albums, but individual songs and yeah. It’s honestly kind of a mess, but also makes me happy. This is part 1! I have most of it written, so I should be able to post the other parts pretty soon. I think there will be 3 actual parts and then a short epilogue! Last thing, Spencer is a little out of character. I (try to) explain that later!!

Summary: Reader is a famous singer with a murderous stalker. Spencer has to go undercover to protect her. 

warnings: mentions of murder, anxious reader

Word Count: 7940

You weren’t expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen tonight. It was just the usual Saturday night. Honestly, you were looking forward to having a boring two weeks off. You absolutely loved touring and performing and seeing your fans, but it was going to be great to have some time just to write again. Writing music has always helped you de-stress and get your emotions out, and you were supposed to finally have a chance to do just that. However, the universe had different plans. Plans that involved the FBI.

This was your second night in DC. It was the first of some of the bigger cities on your tour where you were doing two shows, so you are even more exhausted than normal. You really only just started the US leg of your tour, but the two weeks off was well earned from the Europe, Asia, and South America legs.

 As you begin to perform the second to last song, you start to feel the familiar sadness you get when finishing a show. It’s almost as though the adrenaline rush from the excitement of so many screaming fans is wearing off and you can’t help but feel a bit sorry that the fun is coming to an end. After so many performances though, you’ve learned how to hide the emotions and give the audience your best fake smile. The last song is where you have some real fun, so just make it there.

 As you duck off stage to change for the final performance, you can’t help but notice the small group of people conversing, quite tensely, with your security team. They don’t look like the normal fans who would try to sneak backstage, too official. You make eye contact with one of them. He looks to be about your age, but you’ve never been great at guessing. There’s something about him that makes you want to find out exactly who he is right now, but you can’t. 

You’re left wondering about his identity as you run back onstage for the grand finale. You feel a genuine smile appearing as you feel the heat from the fireworks and listen to the happy cheers from the crowd. You’re last song goes off without a hitch, but you’re exhausted. There’s nothing you want more than to just shower and sleep, but there’s always a buzz about the cast and crew that prevents anyone from leaving right away.

 “Thank you for a great second night DC! Goodnight!” You shout into the mic as you duck back offstage to ride out the post show high. You are still chatting with some of the dancers you’ve become friends with when Carrie, the head of security, comes up with one of the men you saw arguing with her earlier.

 “Y/N? Can I talk to you for a minute?” You turn, surprised to see the stern man standing behind Carrie. “Yeah, sure.” You turn to excuse yourself from the dancers, wishing them a goodnight before turning back to Carrie.

 “We can go do your dressing room, that’s where the others are waiting.” Carrie says with a nervous smile on her face.

 “The others?” You ask confused, jogging to keep up with the brisk pace she has set for you and the stern man. “Who are we talking to?”

 “I’m sure you have a lot of questions. We will explain everything as soon as we meet up with the rest of the team.” The stern man spoke quietly, but with confidence as he followed behind you and Carrie. Before you could ask anything else, you were being ushered into your dressing room, coming face to face with the other two people you saw arguing with Carrie earlier. The first one you notice is a woman with jet black hair and fierce eyes. The other is the tall, lanky man you made eye contact with.

 You’re a little excited to get a closer look. He looks a little awkward at first glance, but you can tell he’s a sneaky sort of attractive underneath the perfectly placed tie and the comfy cardigan. Before you can get too caught up in how good looking these three strangers are, you turn to the stern one and ask “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” Your tone clearly indicates the confusion you’re feeling. 

 “Ms. L/N, my name is Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner. I am the Unit Chief for the Behavioral Analysis Unit at the FBI.” You can feel your eyes go wide as he shows you a badge with his picture and title. Before you can respond, he begins talking again. “These are SSAs Emily Prentiss” the woman gives you a reassuring smile and slight wave, “and Dr. Spencer Reid.” The sneakily attractive one nods his head in your general direction.

 The woman just introduced as Emily chimes in “we are here because we believe there is a killer targeting fans of your music. We have been tracking murders for the past two weekends. The first was in Louisville, Kentucky, then Columbus, Ohio, and then two right here in D.C.”

 “I was just in Louisville… and Columbus.” You feel yourself beginning to get dizzy as you try to comprehend what the agents are telling you.

 “Yes, and now you’re in DC.” The boss man is talking again. “We made the connection this afternoon as you had two shows here in DC.” The room is starting to spin as you listen to the man talk. “After more digging, we found each victim had purchased a ticket to your show. Additionally, they all had social media accounts dedicated as fan pages to you.” Agent Hotchner continues speaking as you nod along, trying to comprehend how this was happening. You don’t even realize you are tuning him out as you begin to sway on your feet. You can see his mouth moving, and the growing look of concern on his face is the last thing you see before the world goes dark.

 --

 You can hear a faint beeping as you begin to wake up. For a moment, you are blissfully unaware of the murders before the memory of meeting the three agents comes back to you. You instantly sit up and look around, trying to figure out where you are. You can see a very muscular bald man through a window, talking to someone in scrubs.

 Scrubs. A nurse. You are in the hospital.

 Your heart rate begins to calm down before skyrocketing again when you hear “Ms. L/N?” from the other side of the room. Turning with wide eyes and a scared expression, you throw your arms up to defend yourself from the unknown voice.

 “Sorry! Sorry, uh- I didn’t mean to scare you! I’m Dr. Spencer Reid.” Instantly you relax again at the familiar face. You drop your arms back to the bed, shifting into a more comfortable position before asking “Okay, Doctor. What’s wrong with me? Why am I in the hospital?”

He looks at you with a sheepish expression, rubbing the back of his neck before he admits, “Oh, I’m not that kind of doctor. I’ll go get a nurse or someone. Try to think back on what you remember before waking up here.” He shuffles out of the room as you try to replay the conversation with the other agents.

 Well, it wasn’t much of a conversation with them doing all of the talking, but still. The unknown man from outside your room window and the nurse he was talking to come into the room with Dr. Reid. The nurse begins checking your vitals as she asks you some questions.

 “Hi there. It’s good to see you up. How are you feeling?” She wears a small smile.

 “Oh, um, I feel fine. I think. I’m just confused about how I ended up here. I remember talking to the agents at the arena, but that’s it.” You close your eyes as you try to remember more, but nothing comes to you.

 “That was only about 45 minutes ago, dear.” The nurse’s kind voice helps settle you. “You fainted while the agents were talking to you. They brought you here. You should be good to leave in a few minutes as long as your vitals are good.”

 “Thank you.” You return her kind smile as she marks information on your chart before leaving the room.

 “Ms. L/N, this is SSA Derek Morgan.” The Doctor Agent is talking again.

 “Please, call me Y/N.” You rub your head, continuing to try to remember more about your condition. Before either man in the room can speak up, a new thought occurs to you. “If I fainted, why doesn’t my head hurt? The floor in my dressing room is not soft.” You look between the two men for an explanation.  

 The doctor shifts his weight from foot to foot a blush appearing on his face as Agent Morgan speaks up. “That is because Pretty Boy over here” he claps a hand onto the doctor’s shoulder “caught you before you hit the ground.” “Oh, um… Thank you.” You can feel the blush beginning to form as you think about his arms being around you.

 “It was no problem, really. Can we ask you a few questions?” He moves on quickly. “Oh sure thing Dr. Reid. Or Agent Reid. Agent Dr. Reid?” You can feel the blush growing as you ramble.

 “Just Sp-Spencer is fine.” He cuts you off before you can continue suggesting different honorifics. “What do you remember from what Agent Hotchner was telling you?”

 “He said someone was mur-murdering fans of me.” Tears spring to your eyes as you think about it. “That someone was killed in Kentucky and Ohio and then two people here in DC.” You squeeze your eyes shut, willing the tears not to fall.

 Get a hold of yourself.

 You feel a new weight on your hand before hearing Spencer begin talking again. “Take your time.” You open your eyes to see him patting your hand delicately. He moves back after you take a few deep, calming breaths.

 “I’m sorry. I just feel awful knowing people are dy-dying because of me. Is there anything I can do to help?” You choke on the words a bit, realizing the full gravity of the situation.

 “Do you recognize any of these people?” Agent Morgan pulls out photos of three women and one man, handing them to you to sift through. He seems to be staring at Spencer, but you just focus on the pictures. You can feel the tears building again as you realize who they are.

 “I do.” You take another breath before continuing. “I haven’t met them before, but they are all really active on different social sites. I try to talk to as many fans as I can ya know? They are why I am where I am. Is that why they were killed? Oh god. No no no no.” Your breathe increases in speed as you think about everything that is happening.

 “Hey, hey, hey, none of this is your fault.” Spencer is patting your hand again as he tries to calm you down. Just then, the nurse comes back with some paperwork for you to sign in order to leave.

 “You are free to go Ms. L/N. Just sign these forms and hand them in at the desk on your way out.” She exits the room swiftly.

 “Would you mind coming back to our office to finish talking?” Agent Morgan asks.

 “Of course not. Anything I can do to help.” You turn in the forms before following them to a black SUV. Spencer opens the door for you to get in the back before he slides in next to you. You don’t even have the brain power to consider why he isn’t sitting in the front. You just grab his hand and squeeze it, unable to get the thoughts out of your head that this was all your fault.  

 “This is not your fault. You had no idea what was happening, and now that you do you are trying to help.” Spencer looks at you reassuringly as he squeezes your hand right back. You simply nod back. You don’t trust yourself to speak without crying. You just need to calm down before you get to the office.

 About 15 minutes later you pull up to the FBI building that houses the BAU. They must’ve brought you to a hospital near Quantico. They lead you through security up to the fifth floor. You walk through a set of glass doors, passing a few desks before entering a conference room. “Do you need anything? Coffee, water?” Spencer asks as Agent Morgan leaves the room.

 “Oh, um, no I’m okay for now.” You stare at your hands as you go to sit down. “Actually, could I get a jacket or something?” You gesture to what you’re wearing as you ask. You haven’t had a chance to change yet, meaning you are wearing a black, sequined romper that is basically a leotard with how short it is. Perfect for performing, but not exactly FBI attire. “Of co-course! I’ll be right back.” He practically runs out of the room.

 A few minutes later, he pushes the door back open. “Here’s some clothes you can change into if you want. Or just a sweatshirt.” You look up from your position in the chair, rising to take the clothes.

 “Thank you.” You look from the clothes to him realizing you need to change, but are in a room full of windows in an unfamiliar building.

 He catches on a few seconds later, leading you out of the room. “The bathroom is this way!” He squeaks out as you both walk down a hallway outside the glass doors you came in. “I’ll wait here to show you back.” You smile as you brush past him, whispering thank you as you close the door.

 You instantly take off the romper, sliding on some FBI sweatpants and a matching sweatshirt that smells like vanilla and new books. The scent is oddly comforting. You would think a standard FBI sweatshirt would smell new, but this scent is calming your nerves. You fix your makeup as best you can before heading out of the bathroom. Spencer is a few feet away talking to a beautiful blonde woman. She looks effortlessly gorgeous. She smiles as she notices you, waving you to join them.

 “Ms. L/N, it’s lovely to meet you, although I do wish it was under better circumstances. I am SSA Jennifer Jureau, but you can call me JJ. The rest of the team is waiting for us to join them.” She smiles kindly, but you are frozen in place. You feel like a deer caught in the headlights.

 Spencer grabs your arm lightly, pulling you out of your trance. “It’s okay. Just breathe.” He whispers as the three of you start walking back toward the conference room you were in earlier.

 He lets your arm fall back to your side before guiding you back into the room behind JJ. You freeze again upon entering the room. You recognize Agents Hotchner, Prentiss, and Morgan, but are surprised by the other two faces. There is an older man with salt and pepper hair smiling kindly at you. He reminds you of your father. Then there is a very bubbly blonde, in a very colorful dress and matching glasses.

 They introduce themselves as SSA David Rossi and technical analyst Penelope Garcia. The unit chief begins to describe the case again, going slower this time given your earlier episode. “We believe the unsub is targeting fans of yours who he believes is unworthy of your attention. He worships you and views his victims as people who are not devoted enough to you.”

 You can’t decide how to respond, so you wait for another agent to continue. “Do you know of anyone who might be overly obsessed with you? Maybe they sent you letters that were a bit more personal than normal?” At this point, you decide you are done being controlled by this situation. What happened to those people is awful, but you can’t change it. You need to be strong to help prevent it from happening to anyone else.

 “I haven’t finished my fan letters from this week yet. I try to go through as many as possible, but there is only so much time in a day.” At this point you are pacing. Walking around has always helped you with thinking things over. “There is one letter that sticks out from three weeks ago. That was before the murd-” you stutter on the word. “Before anything happened though. Could that be relevant?” You ask, looking hopeful. If the agents are surprised by your change of attitude they don’t mention it.

 “It might be. What did it say?” Agent Hotchner asks, the same stern expression adorning his features.

 “I don’t remember all of it, but it looked like it was written on a typewriter, so it stood out. It said something about how they wondered if my hair smelled like peaches after I finished a show. I thought it was weird because my shampoo is peach scented, but how could they possibly know that? I figured I must have met them in passing, you know. I meet a lot of fans just walking around the different cities. Something just felt weird about this letter though. Like a bad feeling. I mean, my hair doesn’t really retain the scent of my shampoo all that much. So how could he know that unless he knew what shampoo I use? But actually, I use a personalized shampoo so I can change the scent every time I but it- it must’ve been a lucky guess, right? Maybe I just look like I would use peach scented shampoo” You feel like you are talking a mile a minute, but you can’t get yourself to stop. You practically fall back into your chair as you finish rambling about the letter, looking up to see unmistakable expressions of concern on the agents’ faces.

 “What? What does that mean? Oh god- How does he know my shampoo smells like peaches?” You look between all the agents as they seem to be communicating with just their eyes. You resort to taking calming breaths again. They’ll fill you in eventually, you need to breathe. You drop your head between your thighs as you push your chair away from the table. Breathe in for 7 seconds, hold for 7, and breathe out for 7. This always helps calm you down before a show.

 You choose to ignore the agents quietly talking to each other again as you focus on slowing your heart rate back to a normal pace.

 “Ms. L/N?” You look up exasperatedly, “Please, just call me Y/N.”

 “Then you can call me Penelope!” The woman has such a kindness to her that you can’t help but smile back at her.

 “What can I do for you Penelope?” She seems a bit surprised, but she responds in kind.

 “I just wanted to ask if you wanted some coffee. Or water or anything?” You smile at her kind gesture, rising from your seat.

 “Actually, some tea would be wonderful. But, please, let me come help you. These guys seem like they need to talk and it would probably be easier if I wasn’t in the room.” You smile as you walk out the door, leaving the agents slightly stunned at your observational skills in your distressed state.

 Penelope follows you out and leads you to what you assume is the break room. “We don’t really have much tea, but I know where the good doctor keeps his private collection.” She whispers conspiratorially as she searches through a small cabinet. “Aha! Here it is.” She presents you with a pretty impressive collection of teas. You opt for the simple peppermint. You have always found peppermint tea the most soothing.

 She hands you a mug before gesturing to the Keurig on the counter. You place the teabag in the cup, selecting the largest cup on the machine, and brewing hot water for your tea. The two of you don’t say anything while it steeps. Penelope speaks up when you move to sit down at the small table.

 “I just have to say, I am a huge fan of yours.” You can’t hide the smile that forms on your face. You have always loved meeting fans. They are just so sweet and you appreciate them beyond belief.

 “Thank you so much!” She seems a bit relieved at your response. “That’s honestly so nice to hear right now. I kind of feel like a mess.” You gesture to the oversized clothes you’ve got on.

 “Please, you look so gorgeous right now. It’s amazing. Your music is amazing too. I absolutely love Begin Again! It’s so romantic!” She gushes over the song.

 “Honestly, that one took me forever to write. I was in a pretty bad place after a bad breakup, convinced I would never love again. Dramatic, I know.” You roll your eyes at yourself. “But then I saw these two people in a café, and they just looked so happy. The idea of a new love forming so casually right in front of me was beautiful.” You smile thinking about the couple, wondering if they are still together.

 “Wow, so you can really right about anything?” She looks while asking the question.

 “Pretty much. I mean, they won’t all be good. It could be the tiniest moment or a huge thing in my life. Inspiration comes from everywhere. A lot of songs actually draw from multiple experiences, not just one thing. I could totally see myself writing a song about you.”

“No way! That would be insane.” You smile at her enthusiasm.

 “I’m serious! You just give of this energy that is so positive, it’s hard to remember ever being sad. I think it would be about how confident you are. Something like…” you trail off as you begin to hum, setting up your phone to record. “You’re the only one of you, baby that’s the fun of you. And I promise that nobody’s gonna love you like me!” You hum a few more bars before ending the recording.

 “That was insane. How do you do that?!” She has a wild kind of excitement in her eyes.

 “I don’t know. You just inspired me.” You grin at the shocked expression in her eyes.

 “Sing it again!” And you can’t help but give her what she wants.

 You hum a bit more of a melody that could work before jumping into the words you already said. You add a few more here and there, but nothing concrete. In your focus on singing, you don’t hear the door open behind you.

 “I’m the only one of me, baby that’s the fun of me. Oh oh oh. You’re the only one of you, baby that’s the fun of you. And I promise that you’ll never find another like me.” “I don’t doubt it.” You turn in shock to look at the person behind you, seeing none other than Spencer Reid in the doorway. You don’t notice the flush of embarrassment on his cheeks that you heard his comment, just like he doesn’t notice the matching expression on your face. Penelope though, she notices. And, she can’t wait to tell Derek.

 Spencer clears his throat before speaking again. “We’re ready for you to come back in if you’re up for it. We want to talk to you about a plan to keep you safe.”

 “Sure thing.” You grab your tea from the table before you and Penelope follow Spencer back to the conference room. You sitting cross-legged in your seat. You feel much calmer after chatting with Penelope. Song writing has always been cathartic for you, and it is reassuring that hasn’t changed.

The agents waste no time getting down to business. “We believe the unsub has broken into your tour bus. If the letter was from him, it would explain how he knows about the peach scent.” Agent Rossi starts.

 Agent Morgan continues, “It’s an easier target than a hotel room or your personal home since fewer people would be securing it.” You nod along with them. You are determined to stay strong through this.

 “We want to completely ensure your safety, so we think it best to send an agent to stay with you while we work on the case.” Agent Prentiss chimes in. You feel like you’re going to get whiplash looking between all their faces.

 “Since we haven’t ruled out people on the crew, we want this to remain as secret as possible. We will inform the head of security on your team, but other than that the agent will be undercover.” Agent Hotchner, stern as ever, appears to be studying your reaction.

 “Okay.” You sigh. “Okay, I can handle this. I’ll be fine. I’ll have an agent with me. Who’s going undercover? Do you have a cover story planned?” You look at Agent Hotchner with nervous eyes.

 “We wanted to plan the cover story with you to make it as believable as possible. What are you planning on doing for the next few weeks?” You consider what your plans consist of. Honestly, nothing but songwriting.

 “I plan on mostly working on songwriting. I usually go to cafes, parks, or anywhere really with people for inspiration. If I already have an idea, I’ll write from my hotel room or from home if I’m there. If any of you have any musical experience, then we could make up a cover story about a new writing partner. Nobody would really question it because I write with new people all the time.” You glance around the room to see if anyone is willing to take you up on your offer. Nobody says anything for a minute. They are communicating with looks again.

 Penelope chimes in “Reid knows how to play the piano!” You can’t help but latch on to the statement as you turn toward Spencer.

 “Really, that would be so helpful! I normally write to piano or guitar and then add any additional instrumental later in the studio. If you can play, then the story would look even more believable!” You are actually getting excited about this idea working out. You finally feel like you’ve helped them with something. They probably could’ve figured it out without you, but still.

 “Yes, I can play. I mean, it’s just mathematics if you think about it.” Spencer responds quietly, like his mind is somewhere else.

 “Reid, if you feel comfortable with it, that story sounds like great cover.” Reid nods at Agent Hotchner. “Great. You can go to your place and grab some clothes and anything else you’ll need.” He says to Spencer before turning his attention to you. You watch as Spencer walks out with the rest of the team before turning to meet Agent Hotchner’s eye. “It’s best if we stick to your plans as closely as possible. If the unsub is someone who works with you, he will likely notice if you start changing your behavior too much.” You nod in response, mentally going through everything you do from day to day.

 “Agent Reid will stay with you in your hotel room if you are comfortable with it. That is the safest arrangement since he will be close by if anything happens. We will also have agents tail you when you go out in public. We’ll have a rotation of agents in the rooms around yours each night to allow Reid to rest as well. He knows how to contact us, but we will program our numbers into your phone as well for backup. Do not hesitate to call any one of us if something feels even remotely wrong, no matter the time. Do you understand?”

 Again, you nod in response. It’s a lot of information to take in and honestly, you’re still thinking about sharing a hotel room with Spencer.

 “We will need to see the letter you mentioned earlier if you still have it. We would also like to go through the fan mail you currently have and any new mail that comes in. If you see anything else that feels off or seems suspicious, tell Reid or call one of us. If you remember anything else, tell Reid or call one of us.” He gives you a questioning glance to ensure you are following.

 “Basically, tell Reid everything. Got it.” You try to remain lighthearted even though Agent Hotchner’s serious expression hasn’t waned in the slightest.

 “It’s good to see you’ve got a good attitude about this. It’s hard to remain calm, but it will help limit any suspicion on the part of the unsub. We don’t want to escalate his plans. Do you have any questions for me?” He gives you a reassuring look as you contemplate everything he’s told you.

 “What does unsub mean?” you blurt out, surprising both of you. “Sorry, that was loud.” You cringe. “I just meant, why do you call the criminal, unsub?”

 You can see the faintest of smiles on his face as he replies, “Right, we can get pretty wrapped up in a case. It stands for unidentified subject. We try not to assign nicknames or anything to the perpetrators as it can affect their behavior.”

 “Right. Behavior.” You try to sound like you understand, but honestly this is so much different from all the detective shows you’ve seen. Apparently, Agent Hotchner notices and explains more.

 “We catch criminals by analyzing their behavior and trying to predict what they’ll do next.”

 “Like psychology? Nature vs. Nurture and mental disorders?” You ask, suddenly very curious about how this all works.

 “Yes, just like that, although we normally go a little deeper.”

 “So what can you tell about this unsub? That way I know what to look for.” Agent Hotchner seems pleased with this question.

 “The unsub is a man, likely 25-40. Age is the hardest thing to predict, so don’t follow that guideline too strictly. He likely suffers from antisocial personality disorder stemming from negligent parents and has always had trouble interacting with people. He is highly organized, which usually indicates high intelligence, but in this case could be due to the time he spends alone planning. His lack of social skills has resulted in him only working menial jobs. He won’t have worked anywhere for more than a few months before finding a new job since people find him odd or off-putting. He has always felt as though he deserves more because of his self presumed high intelligence. It is possible you met him in passing and any act of kindness toward him resulted in an obsession with you. He doesn’t have the courage to approach you, so he watches from afar or online. That’s how he found his earlier victims. Since you don’t have any shows in the next few weeks, his MO might change slightly. That’s why we want to be so cautious and make sure we can ensure your safety.” You sit quietly for a moment, trying to picture anyone who fits the description. You try to meet the people who work with you, but you certainly don’t know everyone. You were honestly hopeful the description would point you toward a suspect, but you’ve got nothing. “I can’t think of anyone like that, but now I know what to look out for. Thank you Agent Hotchner.” “Please, call me Hotch. Do you have any more questions?”

 “Just one, you said earlier that maintaining a sense of normalcy will prevent us from escalating his plans. What plans exactly?” You were nervous to ask this question, wondering if you really wanted to hear the answer.

 “We don’t know exactly. It is possible the unsub has been trying to work up the courage to talk to you, but since you won’t be doing shows, it is unclear how he would make contact. Reid and the other agents will be looking for anyone who appears to be in a lot of the same places you are. If you notice anyone more than one time in a day, don’t hesitate to-“

“Tell Reid or call one of you. I got it.” You smile at him again. “Thank you again.” He nods as you both exit the room. Spencer isn’t back from picking up clothes yet, so you aren’t sure exactly what to do. Penelope notices you searching the room and waves you over to her. She is talking with Agent Morgan.

 “Y/N! I was just telling my Chocolate Thunder about the song you started earlier. I just need to know, what does this fine specimen inspire you to write?” She sounds so excited you can’t bear to let her down. You study the man in front of you, searching for something to sing. You don’t know why, but there’s a certain sadness in his eye. He hides it well with his masculinity and the clear smirk on his face, but you know he’s been through some shit.

 You don’t want to kill the mood though, so you stick to something a little lighter than past pain. “Well, Pen, I have to say he looks like a heartbreaker.” This only encourages the smirk on his face. “The type to love ‘em and leave ‘em.” You have had a song in the back of your mind for a while so why not break it out now. Penelope shrieks as you start humming, drawing a crowd. Again, you set up your phone to record. The rest of the BAU agents crowd around Morgan’s desk as you start singing.

 “Magic, madness, heaven, sin, saw you there and I thought, oh my god, look at that face. You look like my next mistake.” That draws a few chuckles as you continue humming. More words pop into your head as you think about past relationships and what the media loves to say about celebrities. “Screaming, crying, perfect storms. I can make all the tables turn. Da dada da da, Keep you second guessing like, Oh my god, who is she. I get drunk on jealousy.” You hum some more, really getting into the flow of the song. “Cause darling I’m a nightmare, dressed like a daydream.” The group claps as you end the recording.

 “That was actually pretty impressive.” Agent Morgan smirks at you some more.

 “Well, to be honest I’ve had the melody in my notes for weeks, but I just couldn’t think of the right words.” Yet again, his smirk grows.

 “I guess I’m just that inspirational.” You choke back a laugh as you roll your eyes. You hadn’t realized the size of the crowd you had garnered. You can’t help but knock him down a few pegs.

 “You know what, I changed my mind. Agent Morgan’s song would be called I Knew You Were Trouble.” The entire group laughs at that one, but all the sudden you actually have another idea.

Before long, Penelope is asking you what songs you would write about the entire team.

 “Start with Hotch!”

 “Well, Hotch is so serious. So it’s kind of hard. His face just screams ‘I’ve been through it and dealt it out’. Maybe something like… your string of lights is still bright to see oh, who you are is not what you did, you’re still an innocent.” Even as you half sing it, the one line feels like it could lead somewhere big. It’s not quite right, but it’s a start.

 “That’s so cool. Do me next! And please, just call me Emily.” You nod at her as you think back over your previous interactions.

 “Alright, don’t get mad but something just popped into my head and I can’t un-hear it. They say I did something bad, then why’s it feel so good. Most fun I ever had, and I’d do it over and over and over again if I could.” The smile on her face told you everything you needed to know, but so did JJ.

 “You absolutely nailed it. That is Emily to a tee.” JJ chimed in. “I’m kind of scared to see what you can come up with for me!” Your head is swimming with lyrics and melodies, but it has been so long since you’ve had this much fun writing music with a group of people. It’s become such a solo activity for you, but these people just have so many stories to tell.

 “Okay, let me think.” You pause as you observe JJ. You can tell that she is such a sweetheart from the few hours you’ve known her, but you know you would be intimidated if you went to high school with her. “Sorry to be blunt but, you’re so gorgeous, I can’t say anything to your face. Cause look at your face.”

 “Why thank you!” JJ smiles as you defend the lyric choice.

 “I know you are so sweet and I of course don’t mean to say you are just a pretty face, but you really do have a pretty face.” The group chuckles again and nods in agreement. “Oh, wait! I’ve got another one. You took a Polaroid of us, then discovered, the rest of the world was black and white. But we were in screaming color.” That one came out of nowhere, but it felt right.

 “Beautiful. Okay, okay! Rossi’s turn!” Penelope says right as the man walks out of his office.

 “My turn for what?” He looks skeptical of the group, but in a loving way.

 “Y/N is coming up with song ideas for everyone! She just did Morgan, Hotch, Emily, and JJ! She did mine earlier. So it’s your turn!”

 “Well then by all means, be my guest.” You close your eyes as you think through the words swimming in your head.

 “While, Rossi, you have a kind aura. You seem like a parent to this group of rowdy children. Reminds me of my dad.” Again, the group laughs. You begin humming, lightly patting the desk in front of you as you think back on memories of your own parents. “I don’t know why all the trees change in the fall, but I know you’re not scared of anything at all. Don’t know if Snow White’s house is near or far away, but I know I had the best day with you today.” This tune was softer than the rest, more emotional. Everyone stops laughing as they listen to the soft melody you created.

 “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to kill the mood.” You feel slightly awkward with the new found silence.

 “Please, bella, that was beautiful. You really know how to read people.” Rossi hugs you as you blush, thanking him for the compliment.

 “That only leaves the resident genius. What would you write about Reid?” JJ poses the question and suddenly all eyes are on you. In all the commotion with the other songs, you didn’t notice Spencer exit the elevator. He walked in soon enough to hear the question. Deciding not to interrupt the conversation, he hangs back to listen to your answer.

 You can feel the blush heating up your face, subconsciously hugging the sweatshirt he gave you to wear earlier. After all the short melodies and lyrics you’ve come up with, you are way too tired to put your feelings toward Spencer into words.

 “I’ll be honest, it’s been in my head all night.” You begin to hum, knowing this would be a song about how you felt when you first saw him backstage, to when you spoke to him in the hospital room and all the little moments since then. “Your eyes whispered have we met…” you fill in for lyrics you’ve yet to write by humming. “All I can say is it was enchanting to meet you.”

 “That was beautiful.” Spencer says from behind you. You jump in surprise, nearly falling out of your chair. You didn’t even realize he was in the room.

 He looks sheepish as he apologizes for scaring you. “Are you ready to go?” He asks, reaching out a hand to help you up. The rest of the profilers share a knowing look as you rise from your seated position. They all wish you a goodnight as you and Spencer enter the elevator to head to your hotel. The ride to the parking garage is quiet. You keep humming that same melody, looking for the right words to fill in the blanks.

 Spencer leads you to another black SUV opening the passenger side door for you to get in the car. He tosses his bag in the back before getting in and starting the drive.

 “Penelope said it was my turn, did you do songs for everyone?” Spencer beaks the silence. You turn in your seat to look at him before responding.

 “Kind of. Mostly just ideas of songs. Morgan’s was the most put together, only because it was a song I already started. I recorded the whole thing though. That way I won’t forget any ideas. I can play it for you when we actually start to write some music!” You are honestly surprised by the range of ideas you have.

 “Wh-what? You actually want me to help you write songs? I th-though that was just a cover.” All of the sudden Spencer seems nervous and shy. You put the ideas swimming through your head on pause so you can devote all your attention to him.

 “Spencer, don’t worry about it. You don’t have to come up with any profound lyrics or brand new chord progressions. But, since we are going to be spending a lot of time together, you do have to talk to me. Otherwise it would just be weird.” You try to lighten the mood. You can tell by the way he relaxed his shoulders it worked a little. He nods in agreement as he parks the SUV in the garage dedicated to the hotel you are staying in. You take the elevator straight up to the 11th floor. It’s honestly reassuring to be able to lead him somewhere after everything that happened in the past few hours.

 You dig around in your bag- that somehow followed you on your journey from the arena to the hospital to the FBI building and now back to your hotel- to find the room key. No matter what you try, you can’t seem to slide the key card into the slot in the right way. Every time you try, the little light glows red before beeping indicating the door is still locked. After the fifth try, you are about ready to scream.  

 Suddenly, you can feel the heat from Spencer’s body as he slides up behind you to take the room key. He slides the card into the door, wiggles it around, and then slides it back out. To your surprise, the light glows green and the door unlocks. You must be exhausted to be this shocked at the fact he opened the door. You can’t even seem to force your feet to move. You just stand there like a fool, mouth agape.

 “Why?” Spencer turns to look at you with a confused expression. “Why couldn’t I… How did you…?” You just point to the door. He places his hand on the small of your back, guiding you into the room. He places his bag just inside the door before he turns around to close the door and lock the deadbolt.

 Even after he led you into the room, you turned around so you could keep staring at the door. You don’t even realize you started crying. Spencer guides you to the bed and tucks you into the blankets. You know that you are going to wake up in an hour because you never sleep in pants, but you just don’t have the energy to fight him on it. He turns off the lamp, but before he walks away, you grab his arm.

 “Can you stay?” You have never heard yourself sound so frail. You squeeze your eyes shut, willing the tears to stop. Spencer looks conflicted, but ultimately sits down next to you, his back against the headboard. You lay next to him in the dark, not quite touching. Once your breathe calms enough that you can talk without bursting into tears, you ask “how do you do it?”

 “Do what?” You smile at the sound of genuine concern in his voice.

 “How do you deal with this kind of stuff all the time? I feel like I’m falling apart. I want to be strong about it, so I can help. But then all of the sudden I can’t keep it in anymore. I just… how do you make it seem so easy?” You feel sniffly again, but you try to focus on your breathing.

 “It’s not easy. I hope it never becomes easy. It’s gotten easier, of course, but the minute I stop feeling everything is the moment I let them win. To feel pain in situations like this is human. Somebody wise once told me our best defense is our ability to empathize. It’s a completely natural reaction to experiencing something so traumatic. 70% of adults in the U.S. have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives. That's 223.4 million people. It would be...” He trailed off.

 “It would be what?” You angled your head up to look at him even though you couldn’t see him in the dark.

 “Oh, it’s nothing. I tend to ramble. I’m sorry.” He sounded so dejected, you couldn’t stop yourself from reaching for his hand. You had to shift on the bed a bit to reach his arm, so you ended up leaning your cheek against his thigh, tossing your arm over his lap in a sort of make shift hug.

 “I like it. It’s calming… and informative.” You couldn’t help but smile into his leg. “People who complain are just jealous.” That actually makes him laugh, but it doesn’t sound like a happy kind of laugh. More like a self-deprecating one. “I’m serious. You are clearly smarter than everyone else is, and you are sneaky attractive. There is a lot to be jealous about.” You dig deeper into his lap as you squeeze his hand in yours. The last thing you remember before falling asleep is the feeling of Spencer running his free hand through your hair.

--

You wake up slowly, eyes adjusting to the dark. You can just make out the numbers on the bedside clock to be 4:37. You must have fallen asleep talking to Spencer. Your head was still resting on his lap, his hand in your hair. You untangle yourself from the sheets to rid yourself of the extra layers that woke you up. It takes a few minutes of digging around in the dark to find one of the t-shirts you normally sleep in. In that amount of time, Spencer, still sleeping, rearranged himself to be laying on the bed rather than leaning against the headboard. You stopped for a minute to observe his sleeping form. He looks so at peace compared to the furrow of his brow and the glint in his eye that normally mean he’s thinking too hard.

 As soon as you lay back down in the bed, Spencer gravitates toward you. Before long, your head is resting on his chest, his arms wrapped around you. You breathe in the scent of vanilla and new books; the rhythmic pattern of his chest rising and falling lulls you back to sleep.

Part 2

tag list:

@mac99martin

[captnjacksparrow]

Why do so many ppl rejoice over the fact that Hinata likes ramen, something that was a "Naruto thing"? Something that's not even canon. The anime just added more silly filler of her loving it.

NH fans have been losing their minds for forever over her eating more ramen than Naruto/enjoying ramen in general.

My thing is, why can't Hinata have her own interests? Why must she share this specific Naruto trait of loving ramen? In my opinion it's just another example of bad writing for female characters in this series. Except it's not Kishimoto's fuck up this time, it's SP's.

I can see the humor in the quiet creep consuming more than Naruto, who seemed like a bottomless pit. But I hate Hinata and her filler content. They couldn't just give her her own damn thing, it had to be something she and "her guy" share. And the dumbass fans cry out "total waifu!!" over it.

Why do so many ppl rejoice over the fact that Hinata likes ramen, something that was a "Naruto thing"?

For Boys, they always dream of having such 'a waifu' as their life partner. A Girl who never questions, who likes to follow the Man's path without any question like 'Your way is my way' kind of Girl, Who is ready to die for him, who never have any dreams or preference of her own so that she can always dedicate her life to his whims... That’s why Boys like these ‘Hinata loves Ramen’ things. For Girls, Ummm... Purely Self-Insertion purpose. Just by stalking and guilt-tripping a boy, Hinata got the popular boy in their town. So far, she did nothing special or useful for him.... Compared to unconditionally loving him without Guilt-Tripping, Starting to like Ramen is something very easy to do, isn’t it???... Hence Girls can easily self-insert into her. My thing is, why can't Hinata have her own interests? Why must she share this specific Naruto trait of loving ramen? In my opinion it's just another example of bad writing for female characters in this series. Except it's not Kishimoto's fuck up this time, it's SP's. Well.... If she had her own thing, that would make her character looks extremely OOC. 

And I don't think it's a bad writing from Kishimoto's side or SP's side. Because I have seen Kishi written good and decent female characters having their own interests and stuffs eg, Tsunade. He intentionally wrote Hinata in that way and that SP is trying to exaggerate her into this Angelic Goddess.

Now, Tell me, Anon... Since when did Hinata displayed any characteristics of having her own interests????? You are claiming that Kishimoto fucked her up... As If Kishimoto wrote her so well in the beginning and then towards the very end he made her into a Housewife...... HE WROTE HER PERSONALITY TO REVOLVE AROUND A BOY RIGHT FROM CHAPTER 34...... And he never intended to change her... Not once. 

That's why I refuse to get into this 'Kishimoto is a Misogynist for writing Hinata and Sakura in a despicable way' Train. He wrote them intentionally to be like a brainless doll whose life choices entirely revolves around the boy because he wanted to show how Sasuke is better for Naruto than Hinata.... and how Naruto is better for Sasuke than Sakura. It doesn’t means he hate or disrespect women.

Hinata is a character who shares many similarities with Sasuke. But Sasuke was the one who did everything right when it comes to Naruto and all Hinata did was stalk, cry and guilt-trip.

Refer to this post about How Hinata said many things that she would do for Naruto but she never did any of those but Sasuke ended up doing everything for him... [Link] I think Kishi wanted to compare and contrast between Hinata and Sasuke to show that Love has no Gender... Meaning... "There are people who will say, 'I Love You'... 'I would do anything for you'... 'I want to stand by you'.... But they will always expect something back for all their efforts they put on you... Whereas there are some people who never say anything out loud but they would show their love through their Actions and they would never expect anything in return..... Find such people and love them back"..... This above meaning perfectly suits for Sakura as well. I think rather than looking at a character for their Gender... like male and female... If we start to look everyone as Human Characters... then I think we can enjoy this series. But wishing for 50-50 representation for Women with a strong character development in a Shounen Manga is extremely pointless. 

I am aware that there are many other Shounen Manga with good female character development. But Naruto is not like other Shounen, Right??? Tell me How many Shounen series has a Bond like SNS?? Every SNS fans were saying the same thing that, there’s no other bond like SNS in any media. Because, Kishimoto wrote his main characters to be obsessive about each other and finally made them to find love in each other in a nuanced and round about way. Plus he was doing this from Chapter 3. 

And believe me, Sakura and Hinata type of characters exists in real life. I’ve been screwed up by a Real life Sakura many times. Kishimoto specifically chose those kind of Selfish & Insensitive characters to contrast with Unconditionally Loving & Sensitive characters like Naruto and Sasuke. 

Bad Writing or Misogyny has nothing to do with it. If that’s the case, there is this other 51 page One-Shot Manga named Mario which was also drawn by Kishimoto... [Link]. I suggest you to read it... It’s very good. The Female Lead's character, Saori, was very interesting and equally competent to his male lead, Mario. If Kishi was a real Misogynist, he would've made her into another Sakura and Hinata. But he didn't. This Saori girl will blow up your brains if you think about touching her. 

If he can write this kind of layered Woman Character in a span of 51 pages... I am pretty sure he could’ve done a lot better for Sakura and Hinata if he wanted to. But he simply chose not to.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Persona 3 Definitive Ideas

A compilation on things they could add to a definitive edition of Persona 3 (either via remake or remaster). If it starts with bold it’s a main point and starting with an italics is a man subpoint (unless it’s the gameplay mechanic side aka the first point, that one’s subsection gets it’s own little bolded section). Assume Journey for most of it, I tried to mention when I was talking about The Answer by itself. 

Edit: I started this a few months ago, decided to just re-read it and.....I cant think of anything else I want to add to it (probs will after I publish it, I’ve made this list like 1000 times now over and over).  

Edit 2: (lol found my old 2015 ver I made, it’s a lot smaller but still might be fun to look at and compare)

Now, in no particular order except to make it flow the best (aka it’s not a ranking on what needs to be in there at the top, it’s just one leads into the other and helps it stay organized...aka I want all of these):

Gameplay fighting Mechanic:

An option to have FES tactics or P3P party control and have it tailored to that balanced. “Silly the game still has the tactics setting in P3P!” Yeah I know, it’s even there in P4/G and P5!” (RIP to fellow fans who went two dungeons plus in P4 with your chars on “act freely” u_u I know your pain). But no, FES and P3P’s tactics aren’t balanced the same, tbh P3P party control isn’t 100% balanced as it could be. So it’d be an option menu setting, and by changing it (options being: “Tactics Only” and “Party Control option”, it’ll change the AI of the enemies. You can still do tactics in Party Control, but it won’t be balanced the same way as Tactics Only.

Give both MC’s the ability to wield multiple weapons again. Be it in Tactics Only mode or in general.

Make Fusions cost SP again: While I do think the items are a novel idea, maybe replace them with a diff special spell that’s not as powerful as a fusion spell. 

Add more fusion Spells for MC

Let teammates do fusion spells too: Don’t give me “team attack” BS whatever you called the P4G ones, those are fusion spells. Give me teammate fusion spells damnit! (I saw the Aki/Mitsu fusion spell with the Pachinko machine Atlus, you can hide it from me!)

More ways to level up stats and gain SL points. We can do this a few different ways:

Add dialogue in places that’ll boost stat points. This is something P4 had ABUNDANCE of and it was really fun. P5 nerf’d it sadly. This should be easy since they could just add it to existing dialogue (ex: getting all of Yukari’s Answers to the Fuuka rumor correct raises knowledge, or picking a flirty option when you first meet Aigis gives you an increase to “charm”

Making/brining lunch and having it together, eating at the cafe together, same for dinner, or having karaoke night, introduce a hot spring/communal bath area, invite to movies (outside the movie week thing), or do a fortune/prayer that just costs money but not time (or have it available at night since there’s a lot of dead space at night). You know in P4/5 stuff. 

Add more (fluff/filler/fun) events. Now that we’ve solved the tight sched issue out of the way as seen above), now we can add more bonding moments. Optional and mandatory (tho I’d prefer most be option, unless the mandatory ones don’t take a time block away).

Maybe stuff that was Anime (or manga) exclusive. ex: P3 2nd movie has Makoto hanging with Shinji/Ken/Aigis for the summer festival (well I guess in this case, they just add a new unlockable event for that existing bigger event)

Get rid of certain mandatory events: There is really only like...one event I can think of, and it’s Mitsuru’s mandatory study/summer school event (the other would be a sports team event, but we could tweak it to giving you something additional in return). It’s a waste of time, esp if you’ve already maxed your knowledge (ESP on NG+). If the player has been getting top rank on exams and/or has max knowledge up to that point, we should be excluded. 

Incorporate the Phone games. Tied to the “add more events,” but it doesn’t exactly mean that we’ll have them incorporated into the story’s events (aka stopping the story flow during the Yakushima trip to incorporate Persona 3 EM). Luckily, both FES/P3P/P4G introduced ideas we can use to be able to access this content without breaking the story’s flow. We can (bolded games are the more meaty ones we’d probably want):

1) Pull an FES where it’s a separate game mode ala The Journey vs The Answer. (games that would fit this: Aigis’ First Mission and P3 EM)

2) Pull a P3P where it’s a new door in the Vision Quest Room....or just add another door to Tartarus like Vision Quest/Monad Depths. (games that would fit this: Persona 3 EM)

3) Pull a P4G: it’s a mode you can access within your playfile once you’ve unlocked it (aka the little trivia game) (Games that would fit this: P3 Escape, P3 The Night Before, QIX, Chaining Soul, Illust Puzzle, P3 CR/Pachinko exclusive events)

Add a Female Version of the Answer. Self explanatory. Considering this game is based heavily on a “butterfly effect,” and while it does have a lot of differences, The Answer is def the best place to showcase some of the BIGGER changes this effect has. Aka, it’s not a 1:1 same thing as the male’s and thus has it’s own merit of existing. Hell, Atlus could even use it to tease future titles. XP

Updates to the Answer in general: 

Add a goddamn compendium!

NG+

Difficulty setting (”Boo Silly! You just want it easier!” Ok but what if they could make it harder too? Ah got you now.)

A new unique persona or two (prime Personas? unlocked after seeing their past? special Athena fusable on NG+) (*see more on prime personas below in the “new Personas” portion)

Vision Quest (I’m a fan of Vision Quest and other fun stuff like the VR Challenges in P5R...but the setting is def the Vision quest, you can add P5R challenges type stuff in there)

Add more SLs to both Male and Female. This doesn’t exactly mean new characters. It can be.....

Allowing them to SL with each other’s exclusive SL’s. You can think of it something like....What P4 did with Sun and Strength, you have a choice. Basically, male can SL with people that were originally FeMC exclusive and vice versa. The caveat is it might be harder to start that other SL. (ex: Hamu has to go to a store to buy a gaming station and the game to SL with Toriumi, and it has a fairly steep financial barrier so it might be better for her to go with Saori). I would also say maybe Rio/Saori aren’t......date-able for reasons in their SL, and they probs act differently compared to their FeMC!Side counterparts (cause they are talking to a boy). Regardless, we see a different side to these characters so it’d make it worth wild to SL them on both sides. But most importantly, it means MaleMC can SL with Junpei/Aki/Ken/Shinji/Ryoji! Maybe he can’t save Shinji (that’s the beauty of the butterfly effect) but you can still see a new side of him and have different SL compared to the FeMC!

New chars to SL: A Fem!Pharos/Fem!Ryoji (always found it weird that Pharos/Ryo looked the same on both sides, it be a choice on the FeMC’s side like with Liz/Theo....like in the title screen when you select her the game could be like “you feel a strange energy within you, does it feel more feminineor more masculine?” and there we go). It’s a what if let me vibe!

A pen pal (or it can be a new online friend tbh) who’s arcana is “Fool 22,” was originally going to be a Your Name/super natural pen pal thing but maybe instead it’s the non SEES leader version of the MC you didn’t choose. Half I want some variation of the MCs to interact but also......setting up future sequels maybe? 8U

Edit (see I knew I’d forget something): SL with Strega. Similar to Fool 22 and Male!Hermit, an online friend. Strega members deserve to be more fleshed out. Plus iirc P3P artbook made blogs for all the chars, so an online friend thing could really work.

New Romances: Mainly for FeMC, her well is dry for stable romances (the only two who stick around the entire time with additional events is Aki and Ken....Ken....KEN! Whyyy???) Just let Hidehiko be optional, or give us another char, or Mamoru. MC is swimming in romance options, and for reasons I don’t think he’d be able to romance Rio/Saori (one likes his friend, the other is hella gay for FeMC but the possibility is there for Saori at least, P3 is def the ‘stan the bisexuals” the game). Not against more romance options for MaleMC, but I think we can all agree FeMC is hurting bad. ;w;

Friend Routes for the MaleMC: self explanatory. “But I liked the force romances, I don’t want to friend them.” Ok strange, strange straw man I’ve made up, but consider....more content! Just in general! And you can choose not to! :D If you still wanna be a gigolo then more power to you!

More cheating route repercussions. Add what was in Vanilla/FES back in (P3P doesn’t really have it/removed a lot of it). Bring the jealousy mechanic back...BUT ONLY for romance flagged routes (otherwise it doesn’t exist, we don’t need “Kenji’s sad you haven’t hung out in like 3 months BS). Add a Christmas event too ....maybe Valentines day (they may have “forgotten” a lot of things, but the convos when you say “bye” to the SLs show you dated them so.... 8U I’d say it’s possible).

Add a few more romantic SL events for Aigis:  You have no additional spend time option with her. No Christmas event. It’s mostly the former, but just adding another extra event would be nice (I know the narrative and story importance favors her heavily as a romance option, and I’m not complaining, but I’d like.....to have the ability to reciprocate her more).

More SL events: Think the fun extra/optional dialogues you get if you talk to an SL at night in P4G. Obvie you’ll get points for hanging out with them.

More optional run-in events: Not really relating to SLs. Example, when you go shopping with Dojima in P4G and you overhear other SLs talking to each other (such as Yukiko/Kanji and if she should dye her hair)

New Personas: I’d say more relating to NYX, maybe only the male can unlock certain ones and vice versa (but they can both be saved in the compendium and thus the other can use them on NG+, similar to the dual Orpheus’)

Prime Personas for party members: instead of 3rd tier personas (cause due to how P3 chars get their 2nd tiers it will cause problems for future entries, at least we can BS reason and say that “prime is a temporary change” or some BS), instead they’d get prime personas that are tied to SL stuff rather than their overall main resolve. They’ll get a prime persona with one new special ability. Prime can evolve into prime so it’s possible to miss seeing a normal 2nd tier or never seeing a prime first tier. Here’s an example

Junpei (if you are fast enough to max him before his story roadblock and thus before his story evolution): Hermes->Hermes Prime-> Trismegistus Prime.

Aigis (can’t be maxed before evolution): Palladion->Athena->Athena prime (or call it Pallas Athena, or you can save Pallas for The Answer)

P5/R’s Picaro Persona versions (purely cause they made the models kldsj;fa)

FeMC specific personas: Aurora, Nyx/Nox (persona), Eris, Thanatos Prime, Fem!Messiah Prime, Fem!Messiah, and Fem!Orpheus Telos

MaleMC specific personas: Aether, Erebus/Erebos/Scotus (persona), Eros, Thanatos Prime (diff color, I’d really like if the MC’s Thanatos’ ha diff colors too), Messiah Prime. 

More costumes/skins:

FeMC needs her christmas costume???? Where is it? 

Where is MC’s butler costume too???? 

More costumes in general, new and ones from later games.

Give the ability to change a persona’s “skin”: A cosmetic change to Personas for party members. It’ll include the following:

Initial look

Initial Prime

2nd 

2nd Prime

Picaro

Arche (P3 Em variations, like a reverse persona type of look supposedly)

Reverse (IF Arche doesn’t apply as Reverse)

“???” from the Answer’s variation (aka it’s grey scaled)