#with characters regularly invoked?

[variousqueerthings]

skip black sails season 1 this and skip mash seasons 1-3 that, it simply seems odd to not watch the establishing parts of a story the first time you watch said story because they aren’t as polished as later on (as they’re busy doing the establishing part), under the guise of considering them “less progressive”

[mutfruit-salad]

i find the way fans are already shipping cooper with lucy over her black love interest very telling of the clueless white supremacy and media illiteracy in the fandom. coop and lucy are obviously being setup as a father-daughter duo who need to learn caution/kindness from each other to survive, but these weirdos can’t have their white-man fave without a self-insert stand-in for 1 season. and the way people are glorifying cooper’s character is a load of bs - a morally greg white guy who realises he endorsed and was sympathetic to a massive war crime/political injustice… so he goes on to indiscriminately kill/hurt more people who have no idea of, nor say in the bigger picture that he was complicit in… is sooo boring and nothing new. also, giving him a biracial daughter as an accessory to show he’s Not Racist isn’t something we’ve seen half of a million fuckin times before 🤪 the way the show back-tracked on fallout’s message of blind american nationalism and militarism being a problem to It’s All Capitalism’s Fault, seemingly in reaction to the US currently endorsing and aiding in foreign war crimes, and past ones becoming common-knowledge, is horseshit on a platter.

I find the complete lack of a character for his daughter really horrifying- how she only exists to die dramatically for the sake of his sadness. It's odd because his wife is a well-established important character, yet their daughter is not allowed to be a person.

Fallout, in general, has had a habit of completely ignoring racism- presenting the prewar world as some fully integrated post racism utopia. Which is weird when the games regularly display overt anti Chinese (and broader anti Asian) sentiments in prewar logs and ads. This is a problem both the classic games AND the bethesda games have- racism has always been a touchy subject to the devs of the series and it seems like every game they've been content to ignore it, occasionally invoking it for horror or stumbling headlong into depicting it without realizing.

The way Ghoulgins regrets his past and just takes it out on everyone around him is absurd and plays into a lot of very hostile ideas the character peddles.

People shipping Ghoulgins with Lucy is baffling to me also considering he spends the entire series physically abusing her. People just don't want to acknowledge Max's existence, I have noticed. I know her and Ghoulgins get closer by the end, but it's after he's done just unspeakably cruel things to her- and you're right that it is absolutely framed as a father/daughter relationship.

I would also like to point out that the series has always criticized capitalism as well- but would generally frame it as sort of tangled up in American imperial ambition- with one feeding into the other. They were two halves of the same coin.

Vault Tec's entire existence in the classic games was selling smoke- profiting off of the extreme tension and stress of US military buildup- a process which would always inevitably end in disaster: either with Vault Tec going under or brinksmanship coming to its inevitable end.

Vault Tec (and the entire idea of luxury bunkers as a whole) WAS a critique of capitalism, and how it goes hand-in-hand with the American military industrial complex. It was selling the fear of annihilation to the populace. They didn't need to be some secretive controlling force to achieve any of this.

Making Vault Tec the sole antagonist, and the driving force of the apocalypse, is both deeply conspiratorial AND undermines the Cold War roots the series has always had- replacing the fear of American military buildup with a sort of hateful simplicity.

[bonefall]

Have you thought about in-universe explanations for why Crowfeather (infected king!) was the only member of the Sundrown patrol to receive an Honor Title? Especially Tawnypelt, because I recall you mentioning she was leading the patrol at one point! In a perfect world I imagine they'd probably all get one, but I figure you can't just go around changing major character's names willy nilly like that.

In a perfect world the names would all become Honor Titles but yeah I try to avoid renames. I COULD be convinced to giving Tawnypelt an Honor Title though.

If I gave her an honor title it would be something like Tawnytreader, Sunsetchaser, or Sunsetter. It's in reference to how she eventually leads the Great Journey west through the mountain, towards the setting sun INSTEAD of directly North to the Lake, so that the Clans could meet with and get supplies from the Tribe of Rushing Water. Her leadership of the Sundrown Patrol and leading the Clans during the Great Journey makes her an immediate hero.

Brambleclaw probably gave up his Honor Title purposefully. He hesitated when Firestar was in the snare, and Mothwing leapt out of a bush to free the dying leader. He's ashamed of his inaction, so I think it's actually very poignant of him to say;

"I understand why you're taking away my deputyship... may I also ask for you to take this title from me?"

"But why, Northheart? You want to become Brambleclaw again?"

"...I was happy to have broken from his legacy, at first. But now I don't think I ever will. I think I need to be reminded of where I came from, or else I'll put it too far behind me."

Like, really drive home that what I'm doing here with Bramble is a tragedy. Everyone WANTS him to get better, to be good at self-reflecting and make good choices. They want so badly for him to break free of his father's association and be a positive representation of his powerful bloodline. Be he never does.

It doesn't bring him joy to be the way he is. And there's times he's so, so close to realizing that he should stay away from power. But time and time again, GIVING him that power is a mistake, and on his end, he always takes it.

"Northheart" isn't as punchy as it could be though. I have to think about it...

(Especially since I like how in canon, the "bramble claws protect the camp" prophecy could have applied to Thornclaw just as well. Maybe I'll change it so it could have applied to Brackenfur somehow)

Small recap: after their deaths, every member of the patrol is exalted and will become Directional Patrons. The two tagalongs also get associations.

Tawnypelt: West, towards the Ocean

Crowfeather: East, towards the Wilderness

Brambleclaw: North, towards the Lake

Feathertail: South, towards the Tribe

Stormfur: Patron of those who Leave (he is not joining StarClan though, these prayers go, symbolically, unanswered.)

Squirrelflight: Patron of Missions, most often invoked for Salt Patrols.

Stormfur didn't get a title because the leader at the time was Leopardstar. She wasn't very reverant of the mission to begin with, and Stormfur never returns to RiverClan after she let him be exiled by the False Sign.

Squilf actually does have an Honor Title-esque name in Clanmew! It's Pishkafsheek; "Red Squirrel Soars (like a bird of prey)." "Sheek" isn't regularly used to describe prey movements.

[merakiui]

For the ask game :3

1. My favorite fic of yours

Must be clingy codependent Azul! I've read so many yandere fics but this one really made my skin crawl as Azul slowly descends into madness :0 (I do enjoy emotionally invoking stories very much :>)

10. A character/ship I didn't enjoy/think about as much before you wrote about them

Octatrio (mostly Azul, but all three of them). I simply never think much of them (if I see them irl I'd run for my life lol) but you are so creative with your ideas that you offer new perspectives for me ❤️

11. Something I wish/hope you write

Any characters that are not as regularly featured (because I love your writing and I just want to hear more thoughts on them from you, even as chitchats) but mostly Vil and Lilia my beloved 🫶

As for concepts, may I raise back otome game au 🥺 (I love to hear more of your rambles on the endless possibilities of this au)

(ask game)

:D I'm so glad you like clingy, codependent bf Azul!!!! He's so terrifying. I'm relieved those unsettling feelings could be felt because I felt so when typing it. I had actually just finished watching a true crime series when I was writing it. It frightened me to such a degree that I had to put that anxiety into writing and thus clingy, codependent bf Azul was born. <3

Thank you so much for enjoying the trio in my writings!!! I never gave them much thought in the very beginning. They've grown on me. Like pesky barnacles on a whale's back, they are forever stuck. I wouldn't have it any other way hehe.

I will definitely write more for other characters! Actually, when twst got its English release I made a tier list to show my friend how I felt about the characters. Since then, my opinions and tastes have changed. There was a category called "we can get dinner, but that's it" and I put Trey there. It's an inaccurate portrayal now because he has moved up into my favorites, as have many of the others on the list. I want to write more for Vil (starting with the omegaverse fic hehe) and I definitely want to write for Lilia more often!!!! He has a lot of potential... >:)

Aaaaa otome au my beloved!!! I would love to ramble more and brain rot on it! There are so many routes it could go. >w< I hope to make it my next big project after DRU is complete. I just love the idea of a reader who is trying to survive romance rather than fall into it. Reader tries so hard to avoid every situation that may lead to blossoming feelings, hoping to be unlikable and boring enough to avoid raising the affection meters of the main cast. But seeing as Reader is the main character, that's just impossible. orz if Reader encounters more than three romantic events in a single day, they're shuddering and thinking it's an omen for something much worse (the inevitable confession or those horribly cliché moments where they're destined to accidentally kabedon a character or fall into his chest or (worst of all) have a heartfelt, touching moment that establishes a deeper connection).

I have so many ideas for comedic interactions and jokes. I want to make a meta joke at some point in my outline, in which Idia and Reader are talking about video games and reality and Idia says, "Wouldn't it be easier if everyone had likability meters? Then you could just avoid getting caught up in useless quick-time events if you know the people around you hate you." And Reader, without missing a beat, very bluntly says, "Trust me on this. You don't want that. It sucks." On paper, the idea sounds great. In execution... ;;;;; not so much.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

Hmmm.

I'll say One (1) thing is favor of TotK's thematic attempt at talking about sacrifice, and perhaps the only case of narrative design aligning with the core of the story in my opinion. I think it's pretty interesting that, in a game that encourages you to fuse things together, losing their uniqueness as they are consumed into the new Enhanced Thing, as well as making complex and intricate machines from various parts, the plot regularly demand that characters become themselves parts for something larger than they are.

For example: Zelda, swallowing her stone to become a dragon, removing her own humanity. Rauru, fusing his own arm to Ganondorf then to Link, turning himself into a mindless dispenser of zonai power (and Link, as the receptacle). Mineru, having to be manually re-fused together, and even then just to help you in your journey. The Sages, accepting their role and turning themselves into mere extensions of your will, removing a layer to their own humanity in order to uphold their vow--literally letting you invoke a mindless copy of themselves in the form of white-eyed spirits, or forsaking their own identity in the case of the Ancient masked Sages.

I uhh still think it's a pretty weird vibe, that turning yourself into objects to be used for a Cause (=here Hyrule as a concept) portrayed as a good thing is uhhhh not exactly an idea I myself love personally.

(and that Ganondorf also makes himself part of a whole in various ways doesn't really make him that different from the cast: he should perhaps have been steadfast in refusing to change himself or resent having to change himself to create a clear ideological opposition but again the game is just not that interested in Ganondorf so vOv)

But!

I have to say that it's pretty internally consistent and pretty interesting, and I have to give TotK that at least.

[malachitebeck]

SPOILERS FOR DOCTOR WHO: THE GIGGLE (Also, Spoilers, I get a little serious and introspective under here. Shit's a bit of an essay.)

I will be the first to admit I have not engaged with Doctor Who as a franchise in a good few years. I stopped watching the series regularly around the end of Matt Smith's run, and while I tried to engage with Jodie Whittaker's season, the confusing release schedule meant that I lost that motivation and quickly let go.

But when I saw the initial trailers for these three anniversary specials, I will admit they likely had the exact effect on me they were probably meant to; drawing me, a wandering former fan, like a moth back towards the flame of the series as it was entering a new era of streaming partnerships and a boosted budget.

And while I enjoyed the first two specials and actually found them to be rather nostalgic in their own way, the ending of the third special has left an admittedly poor taste in my mouth that I can't sit with quietly. I usually don't make posts like this, but there's a first time for everything right?

I will admit, first and foremost, that The Giggle was not the story I had expected going in. I didn't know a lot about the Classic Episodes (or, well, episode) the Toymaker was coming from, and as a result was swept up in an intriguing fan fervor that posited the episode was going to take on a kind of meta-textual horror; addressing the fires that destroyed the film reels of the majority of the episodes in an in-universe fashion, depicting the Toymaker as this haunting entity the Doctor was struggling to remember.

Suffice to say the episode was not that. But I am not sitting down to write all of this simply because the episode took on a more... stale commentative approach to the internet and social media that didn't live up to the version I had constructed in my head. The creative team was never under any obligation to do so, obviously.

I'm writing this because of Ncuti Gatwa.

For a brief moment, when the characters were out on the helipad(?) of the UNIT building, I had what I thought was an epiphany. "This has been about Ncuti all along," I thought, "this approach to talking about internet discourse is a bit stale, sure, but allegorically it's trying to critically talk about the response to Ncuti's casting. Surely that's why they took this angle, it just didn't stick the landing."

I thought this because the regeneration was happening right at the climax of the Toymaker's speech about why he loved humanity and our worst "21st century" aspects, and because Mel, in the moment the Doctor was regenerating, took the time to hold his hand, smile, and remark that "all of your faces are fantastic."

In that moment, I tried to give the series the benefit of the doubt. I tried to believe that, while clumsy, they were teeing up the start of Gatwa's era by holding up a mirror to their own fanbase, trying to coax them into reflecting on the vitriol that they put him through, especially in the British Press and on social media.

But then the Doctor didn't regenerate. He Bi-Generated.

Immediately the common trope of the regeneration is tossed on its head. Gatwa and Tennant were on screen, together- defeating the Toymaker as a triumphant pair. Rather than going through the motions I was accustomed to in every regeneration I had seen previously, where the new Doctor is alone, adjusting sharply to their circumstances and needing to struggle for a moment to get their feet back under them before ultimately still winning the day and establishing themselves as as capable as they ever were; Gatwa was not only not alone, but was immediately being depicted as if he had simply always been there, not questioning the position he was in, not needing time to recover, just. Moving. Going.

But I thought perhaps this was just going to be fleeting. The concept of Bi-Generation being a myth of the Gallifreyan people and thus fair game to be invoked by the energy the Toymaker exuded was hastily explained, and since it had apparently never happened I thought there would be drawbacks, side effects. I was quickly constructing a reasonable way the show could still give Gatwa his space, his moment.

Then the fight ended. Tennant was still standing, triumphant and fine, and looked to be utterly unchanged. Still the Doctor in every physical aspect. He's being comforted, even, by Gatwa- the newly formed Doctor, usually the one reeling, is painted as being so utterly fine that he's able to be the shoulder 14 can use to lean on.

I continue to try to make excuses. As the scene in the TARDIS begins, sure I find it jarring that the 15th Doctor is comforting the 14th on mental health struggles he should reasonably also have, but they are trying to construct an out for Tennant. They've never done this before, but it's clearly setting up a kind of retirement- they want to give Tennant a unique sendoff, want to give the character a permanent resting place in the form of one final "adventure", the adventure of a normal human life with Donna.

But then Ncuti grabbed the fucking hammer. And it all started to sink in for me.

Not only was the 14th Doctor not gone, but he was still in a relatively vague position in the story. The final scene of him in the garden is nice, in theory, but the TARDIS, his own copy of the TARDIS that he magically had made for him, is quite literally looming in the background- reminding the audience that this is all potentially fleeting. Rose and Mel joke about 14 breaking his promises to slow down by sneaking away to take them on small adventures, and it just utterly hit me in that moment, that someone at the BBC, someone responsible for writing or maintaining Doctor Who as a titan of British Popular Culture, did not trust Ncuti Gatwa.

Because even if the fan response to this decision that I have seen thus far online has been positive, it's positive for a reason, and I am being kind when I say this, that I find disheartening. There are excited thoughts about what Tennant might get to do in the near future; thoughts of a potential UNIT series where he gets to star, appearances in the main series, his own spin-off as The Doctor.

But that's just it, isn't it? He's still the Doctor. In every way he is still there, in the universe. For now we are shown the character is at rest, has found peace, but even he admits that he doesn't think it will last, and neither does Donna, the other person supposedly trying to convince him to slow down and heal.

In the long tradition of the role of the Doctor, a tradition being commemorated through this very string of episodes, the role has been treated in a way like principal characters in a Broadway show. Each actor gets a special night to enter into the spotlight, the chance to make it their own for as long as they wish, and a fond sendoff the moment they decide they're ready for something else. The actors are not crossing paths, not really- not unless it is in a format meant to highlight their times in the role, something predicated on the idea that each of them, as independent beings who occupied it for a certain unique amount of time, are worthy of their proverbial flowers in their own right. They each make up the long canon of the role, but were each, individually, allowed to play it all on their own.

In this metaphor, Ncuti Gatwa has been double billed. In a history of this role being occupied by one actor, one at a time, he is the only one who is entering it with the previous actor still lingering- waiting in the wings, ready to be summoned on stage at any moment should the producers decide it would make things more interesting. He is not being trusted to carry the role on his own merits, intentionally or not. He, the first black man to ever occupy this role, is having the rules changed on him- and is acting out a story wherein his character is happy to accept that fact, is the one to grab the cartoon mallet from the floorboards and break the TARDIS in two, literally severing every iconic aspect of the character he should be allowed to embody all on his own into another person, who is literally handed a tool by the narrative to crop back up whenever he'd like.

In the scene on the helipad of the UNIT building, I thought I had had an epiphany. I thought what I was watching was an allegorical condemnation of an aspect of the fanbase that had refused to accept any actor who wasn't white occupying such a famous role in British Television history. I thought what I was watching was setting up something for Gatwa, was rolling out this metaphorical carpet for him to enter his first season on, bolstered by the fact he was being allegorically supported by former companions and a Doctor so adored they brought him back twice.

But what I was actually seeing, whether or not Davies or anyone else thought this aspect of it through, was that very thought process, that very hatred, being softly placated. That those vocal members of the British public and the audience at large were being told, "Not to worry! He's not the only Doctor," Wittingly or unwittingly utterly undermining Gatwa's run from the very start.

Simply put, the Doctor is a communal role, but not a role that has ever been shared. And this Special choosing now as a time to start? Left a deeply sour taste in my mouth. For now I will attempt to be hopeful, will tune in for Gatwa's Christmas Special and hope to all hopes he is given the moment in the spotlight he deserves... but if they lead Tennant out of the wings to thunderous applause? I only hope that my thoughts on the matter will make you all second guess clapping along.

[picklepie888]

How Final Space Handled the Love Triangle Trope Better Than Any Other TV Show

Love triangles- we've all seen them. They're the go-to for many writers when they want to add some romantic tension to a story. It's a trope that provides a quick and easy way to invoke drama in the plotline. And throughout the history of fiction, the love triangle trope has been executed in varying degrees of quality. And I mean a BIG variety of quality. If you ask me personally, I do not care for this trope. It's often been used cheaply, its scarcely executed the way it should be, it almost always calls for some kind of character assassination, and as of late, its just a widely overused (and misused) trope. However in recent years, there has been one (1) show that has done the love triangle trope in such a way that didn't make me want to gouge out my ear drums. And that would be a little adult animated sci-fi epic called Final Space.

Now to you readers who don't know anything about Final Space, it is a cancelled adult animated sci-fi dramedy show created by Olan Rogers for TBS and Adult Swim. The show is serialized with an ongoing story stretching three seasons, and follows the adventures of protagonist Gary Goodspeed and his crew of loveable misfits who venture across the galaxy in an attempt to save the universe from an evil cosmic horror known as Invictus. This show has all the good stuff that comes with an epic space opera: space travel, time travel, dimension hopping, planet exploration, alien encounters, and absurdly advanced fictional technology. But the heart of this show lies in the relationships amongst the main cast of characters. Throughout the series, Gary gains many new friends and allies whom he shares a deep mutual bond with and are willing to help him in his life threatening and seemingly impossible goal. Naturally, one of these characters is his love interest, Quinn Ergon, a former space captain who had a rocky start but gradually fell in love with Gary.

Now Gary and Quinn's relationship was at first one-sided. Gary fell for Quinn instantly, and decided from the moment he first met her that he would always dedicate himself to her. Quinn, who is a hardened soldier trained to always focus on the bigger picture, does not desire starting close relationships with many people due to the trauma of losing her sister during a battle. She was also put off by Gary's clinginess and apparent incompetence as a leader. However, by the end of season 1, she learns to open up to him more, and he learns to be a more reliable person to her. By the end of the season, they officially enter a romantic relationship.

Throughout the entire series run, Gary shows extreme devotion and loyalty to Quinn. Seeing as how hopelessly in love with her he is, it's pretty hard to imagine anyone else could cause their relationship to waiver. However, in the middle of the show's first season, Nightfall entered the picture. Nightfall is Quinn from an alternate timeline where her Gary had sacrificed himself for the greater good. Without her true love, Nightfall had fallen into a deep depression, until a cosmic entity named Bolo had granted her the ability to travel to other timelines. She then spends twenty years traveling to hundreds of different timelines in the hope of finding one where Gary survives, and lo and behold, that happened to be the timeline the main story is set. Although Nightfall is a variant of Quinn, the show's narrative treats them as two seperate characters. The two of them have distinctly different personalities, and differing relationships with Gary.

When Nightfall reveals herself to Gary, he is instantly attracted to her, and makes little attempt to hide it. In turn, she regularly expresses her own attraction to him. However, whenever these expressions start to get a little too physical, Gary will deny her. Telling her that he's only interested in Quinn. Although Nightfall points out that she is also Quinn, Gary rebukes that he only has eyes for his Quinn. This complication in Gary and Nightfall's relationship is brought to a head in the show's second season.

During the second season of Final Space, Quinn is trapped in another dimension, and Gary and the remaining members of his crew have to venture all across the galaxy in search of Dimensional Keys in order to make their way across dimensions and rescue her. In the episode "The First Times They Met", Nightfall once again attempts to make advances with Gary, only to be denied. Crestfallen by Gary's rejection of her, Nightfall retreats to the spaceship's 'Virtualasium', a full-scale virtual reality room that can download her memories so she can relive them in real time and replicate a digital version of the Gary she had lost.

Although the virtualasium requires all the ship's power to register Nightfall's memories, trapping her and Gary within the room and putting the whole crew at risk, Nightfall is still unwilling to let go of the love she had lost twenty years prior. It takes the pleas of the real and current Gary to disable the virtualasium, and delete the digital replica of the man she loved.

The episode concludes with Gary comforting the heartbroken Nightfall. Although Gary apologizes for hurting her, she assures him that there is no reason for him to apologize for loving someone else.

Now this. THIS RIGHT HERE. Is where so many love triangle subplots go wrong. Typically, the endgame for a love triangle is that the character recieving the romantic affection from two or more suitors has to eventually pick one, and reject the other(s), and enter a steady monogomous relationship with whomever they end up choosing. Then the character and their chosen suitor can then focus on their romantic relationship...but that still leaves the character's relationship with their rejected suitor(s) up in the air. Many different shows had tried to resolve this in a variety of ways. Sometimes the rejected suitor will remain friends with the character they loved, but the writers will often cut corners by not addressing or acknowledging the suitor's complex feelings of heartbreak while attempting to continue a friendship with the person who rejected them. Even worse, is that some stories tend to put the rejected suitors to the sidelines, having them sparingly be a part of the main character's life while they continue their relationship with the suitor they chose. Realistically, maintaining a friendship with a person you were romantically interested in that rejected you is extremely difficult, because those romantic feelings don't disappear overnight.

One other thing that love triangle plots tend to get wrong is having a character commit a detestable act that takes away any likeability for the audience. For instance, the MC may enter a romantic relationship with Suitor A, but cheat on them with Suitor B behind their back. Or Suitor A may attempt to say or do something to make Suitor B seem less desirable compared to them, be it lying or invading Suitor B's privacy to expose some secret. Or whenever MC rejects one suitor in favor of another, the rejected suitor may lash out, blame MC for their heartbreak, or try to guilt/emotionally manipulate MC into going out with them. Final Space manages to avoid all these mistakes.

After the events of "The First Times They Met", Nightfall sticks around with Gary and the main cast. The narrative makes it clear that she still has feelings for Gary, but from now on she respects his boundaries, no longer makes advances towards him, and comes to value him as a trusted friend. From here on, Nightfall has found a new motivation for staying with Gary: to reunite him with the woman he loves, so that he may not have to suffer the heartbreak she had faced when she had lost her love all those years ago. With this newfound selfless outlook that Nightfall had developed, this shows that the writers had actually found a way to use the love triangle trope to strengthen Gary's relationship with both Nightfall and Quinn, rather then hindering either relationship. It is through this romantic arc that Gary realizes that he truly does love Quinn, and his loyalty to her can never be wavered. And Nightfall learns to move on from the love she had lost and had desperately clung to for twenty years, deteriorating her mental health in the process.

In conclusion, the relationship between Gary and the suitor he rejected became stronger after they had confronted their complex feelings for one another. And the writers managed to do this without making any of the characters involved play dirty in order to invoke pointless drama. There was no lying. No cheating. No backstabbing. Just three characters ecperiencing complicated feelings that needed to be addressed in order for the air to be cleared. Other animated shows like Star vs the Forces of Evil, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal, or even *shudders* Miraculous Ladybug could learn a thing or two from Final Space. And I have yet to see any other show execute this trope in a better way.

[once-upon-an-animation]

Some thoughts on Trials of Apollo…

I’m rereading ToA since I don’t remember much. I like it better than HoO, but not as much as PJO. This may be either due to nostalgia, or just becoming more critical of Rick’s work over time. I think it’s the latter, as I’m also becoming more critical of the original series. Generally, I like how much research went into ToA, and I think Apollo is going to have a great arc. I love the inclusion of more minor gods too. I also like that the HoO characters are given to us in small doses, as I didn’t really care for most of them.

As for cons, I don’t like Meg that much. Her background is cool, but her personality is kind of annoying. I’m a little tired of the trope/pattern where most of the major female demigods are all tough, aggressive girls who regularly hit/are condescending towards their male counterparts. I think Hazel might have been the only exception? Anyhow, I would like to see more soft/gentle major female characters. The tough girl who looks down on her male companion is overdone. I also feel that Meg might be a little overpowered, but that’s just me.

I don’t mind that Percy and Annabeth take a backseat in this one, but Percy’s decision to do nothing does surprise me to an extent. I’ve always thought that fatal flaws were a lifetime thing, and given his flaw of personal loyalty, I feel like he should have shown more concern about the emperors and what it might mean for his friends. Maybe he ultimately decides to do nothing, but it would have been nice to see him grapple with the decision a bit more or show some regret/doubt in the his final scene with Apollo, just something to show that his flaw is still active.

I’ve always felt that Caleo was unnecessary, and was not all that happy to see them return in this series. Their relationship dynamic is kind of lame even for a couple that doesn’t even work that well together, so I genuinely do hope they break up. I liked Calypso more when we knew less about her; I don’t really love the way she was characterized in this series. Maybe it’s more of that tough condescending girl stuff that I’m tired of.

Jasper is a couple I also didn’t care for, but I have to admit, Piper’s reasons for breaking up with Jason don’t seem that convincing/seem a little contradictory. I don’t mind the breakup itself, I just wish the reasoning had been a little different or had been explained differently. The whole “Aphrodite kids are supposed to break hearts” thing felt silly and kind of negates the sentiments she had in TLH. Also, I wish Rick had let Piper explore her attraction to girls with a known character, not just a random mortal whom we know nothing about and literally exists to be a device. I’ve never liked “throwaway” relationships where major characters are involved, and Piper/Shel is no exception.

Jason’s fate invokes mixed feelings. On the one hand, it’s good for Apollo’s development and adds a sense of stakes to the story. On the other hand, depending on who you are, it may lack emotional weight. As we all know, Jason is not the most well loved character out there, and his introduction/arc in HoO is not what it could have been. As a result, Jason might lack meaning as a character for many, and his fate might not mean that much to some people. I’ve seen people argue that Rick chose this fate because he didn’t know what to do with Jason anymore, and I can see why people would say that. Jason was done a little dirty as a character from start to end and I think that’s the true tragedy.

I haven’t gotten to the book with Frank/Hazel, but I remember a little bit about what happens with Frank and his firewood and honestly? I feel like it was a little cheap. Frank should have either had the same fate as Jason, or should have paid some kind of price

[doctas-blog-of-stuff]

I ran Night of Blood and it was freaking awesome.

Okay, this oneshot was so freaking funny that I just need to make a post detailing the funnier parts of it.

Context: The 5 of us were new to warhammer fantasy RP 4e, and 3 of them had only passing knownledge of the Old World.

The plot: The characters' village is dealing with a severe and strange famine, so the governor gives out a bounty to whoever is brave (or stupid) enough to make the journey to the nearby capital to alert about this.

The Characters: -Kip: a fresh recruit guard in the village who loves gossiping, but keeps a secret unbeknownst

-Rita: A novitiate nun in the convent of the village, dedicated to the fertility goddess Rhya.(Yeah,her convent is not doing a very good job), also loves to gossip too and regularly gossips with Kip

-Gerardo: A drunk witch hunter interrogator, who has an obsesion with finding witches to the point of justifying that everything is a witch's doing.

-Sinbal: A body building carpenter apprentice who really needs the money to become a fully fleched carpenter.

And with that,some funny moments:

-The dwarf coach, of which they are travelling, crashing the carriage at the first signs of trouble because, surprise: he was never good driving to begin with.

-Kip jumping to attack a beast man, the beast man dodging and Kip running away after landing because she is too afraid to look directly at it.

-Sinbal fixating on the roof of a room totally ignoring that there is a half-eaten body on the floor, and later getting surprise by it.

-Rita seeing Kip falling off the roof through a window, just to see the mutant it was fighting fall off 3 turns later.

-Rita and Sinbal eating what they thought it was a really delicious soup, interpreting that it was mop water, and Sinbal still going seconds.

-Kip trying to escape from the second floor making a rope out of bedsheets, looking at it and saying "Nah, wouldn't work".

-Sinbal, sleeping on some bloodstained bedsheets, too sleepy to notice. Until he wakes up drench in blood.

-Kip trying to destroy some stairs, missing and falling head first into the floor, just as the party discovers someone is planning to ambush them.

-The party discovering the Tzeentch statue and Kip licking it.

-Rita and Gerardo tieing Kip so he can't kill himself and complete the ritual.

-Rita, Sinbal and Gerardo frantically trying to heal a cultist that tried to kill himself to invoke the daemon before he dies of bleeding.

-The daemon being invoked anyway because Sinbal failed breaking the statue, only for the daemon to get confused and ganged up to death.

-Kip miraculously untying itself with a kitchen knife, just to come back to the temple to see the daemon and get mutated into being even more stupid.

-Rita figuring out that kip tried to make a deal with Tzeentch to change his gender. -Rita trying to explain to some road guards everything that happened. It was freaking awesome, I love my friends for playing this with me and doing such a great job at roleplaying, and special thanks to @goatwithaplan(Kip) for making the later part so histerically funny.

[imminent-danger-came]

Hi there! I don't really see the appeal of tragedy because to me it means everyone dies, the end is just defeat, and there are no resolutions whatsoever to the conflict, but that might just be a me thing.

And! If you're into tragedy and badass woman in action, you should give the webseries RWBY a try! You like tragedy, heavy thematic shows, gray morality, and consequences? Also badass women. This show is also hopepunk, if you don't mind that.

Do you mind elaborating on SWK's self-isolating, self-sacrificing, and terrible communication issues? Those puzzle me but it may be because I'm denser than a black hole.

Have a great month! Sleep early regularly.

Let me just quote the Wikipedia definition of tragedy:

"Tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsis, or a "pain [that] awakens pleasure", for the audience."

For me, tragedy isn't just about the inevitable end—it's about the love and effort that was there despite it. I find real catharsis in that I think. But I also don't think a tragedy has to be full of death to be a tragedy! To me, MK's s4 arc of feeling that no matter what he does, he's just going to cause more pain and suffering is tragic. I think Wukong hurting the people he cares about while trying to protect them is tragic. But then there's also Azure, who died barely fixing the world he himself broke, ultimately failing to bring about the change he dreamed of. That's tragic!

So, I wouldn't say tragedies are only about death and defeat and that there are no resolutions. I often think of Orpheus and Eurydice, where every time you hope Orpheus won't turn around, but he does, and he does it out of love. And Eurydice can't blame him, because what can she blame him for except that he loved her. Both you and I and everyone we love are going to meet that same inevitable end, but our love and hope and passions still matters. A tragedy only hurts because someone cared.

Okay, completely switching gears here lol.

I watched the first...maybe 6 volumes of RWBY forever ago in high school, and I remember liking it! I got a really full list of things I need to get through at the moment, but maybe one day I pick it up again.

And, here's a meta where I talk about SWK's flaws (written post-s4 and pre-special)! I only go into his terrible communication and his self-sacrificial nature there, but when it comes to Wukong isolating himself I think that goes hand in hand with his tendency to run off ("I'm going to do what I should have done initially: stop the Lady Bone Demon—alone."). It's also what he did after sealing DBK—he disappeared and isolated himself on flower fruit mountain. It's just kinda what he does.

[gobstoppercowboy]

Okay so I finished watching Good Omens 2 last night and I just have so so many thoughts on **that ending** that I feel compelled to share even though no one’s gonna read it. (But it would be nice if someone took pity and did)

Spoilers below!

Okay. So.

The thing that literally kept me up last night and had me staring at the ceiling at 2am was Aziraphale’s “I forgive you” following the kiss.

Neil Gaiman (the brilliance that he is) has made it pretty clear that he wanted this line to be a multiplicity and to both confuse and invoke us as viewers to gather our own interpretation of the moment, and Aziraphale’s character at this point in the story, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve exactly … got my own solid interpretation, yet.

Initially, to me, giving the response of forgiveness implies that Aziraphale read the kiss from Crowley as some convoluted version of an apology. As if Crowley’s kiss was a messy “I’m sorry, but”, that Aziraphale just doesn’t know how to deal with or where to go with. We watch him stutter and struggle with himself before biting out his words of forgiveness — I don’t think it was said on a whim or by accident. I really believe that Aziraphale meant that “I forgive you” and had intended for it to land the way that it did. But I could be wrong, obviously.

However, what complicates this for the pair of them, is that I don’t think Crowley went into the kiss with any specific sort of meaning. He didn’t do it to replace words, especially not an apology. He’s adamant in his stances on Heaven and Hell and has been throughout the series — unapologetically so, which is the essence of who he is.

To me, the kiss was a “look at me, acknowledge me, see me for what I am” action from Crowley. He laid himself bare and put himself into the open — showing Aziraphale that this is his priority, that this is where he wants to be, and that under no circumstances will he be willing to return to Heaven for its ease or convenience, and never because it could be seen as the ‘right’ thing to do. It was Crowley telling him, “I don’t care what’s right and I don’t care what’s wrong. I care about this.” I’d say this is really emphasised by the physicality of the kiss — the grabbing of Aziraphale’s clothes, the forced prolonging of it.

It wasn’t an apology, and it wasn’t an “I love you”, either. I think it’s so important that that statement isn’t said aloud between the pair of them. Crowley has already expressed his love for Aziraphale in countless other ways that I don’t think I really need to recount. Crowley doesn’t struggle with showing Aziraphale that he loves him, what he struggles with is being open about what he wants to come from it — whereas, Aziraphale does not.

Aziraphale evidently wants their love to be able to translate as a catalyst for doing good, or saving humanity in Heaven, working together as Angels. He’s not trying to change Crowley from evil to good, because he already perceives him as being good — he just isn’t aware of how different the goodness is between them, and how much of an exception Aziraphale is to Crowley. Because, Crowley doesn’t care about doing ‘good’ or what’s ‘right’ — he just cares for what he knows to be true, or what he feels is important. It just happens that this regularly aligns with Aziraphale’s perception of ‘goodness’, because Crowley isn’t an evil person. Aziraphale aims to be ‘good’, Crowley aims to be true.

Crowley wants their love to manifest as a third party, in a way. He wants their love to be able to open doors for them, not confine them into one static room (ie: as he perceives Heaven, or Hell for that matter). Crowley doesn’t believe that their own personal freedom, and fighting for what they want, can intersect with the structure of somewhere like Heaven. But Aziraphale takes a more potentially naive stance on this, believing emphatically that it can because of their love for each other, because of their willingness to work together — not in spite of it, as Crowley does.

This then of course brings us to Crowley’s “don’t bother”.

This, I’ve struggled with unpicking a bit more.

As Crowley never meant his kiss as an apology, he’ll obviously interpret Aziraphale’s “I forgive you” in a different light.

It could be an effort to further reject the values of Heaven / religion in a wider sense; seeing forgiveness as one of those core Christian/‘good’ values that Aziraphale is constantly trying to measure up to or abide by. His “don’t bother” would therefore echo his utter exasperation with trying to understand Aziraphale’s determination to live by Heaven’s standard or rules, no longer caring if his bluntness hurts his feelings.

Or, Crowley could be highly aware of how his kiss was misunderstood by Aziraphale to mean an apology. Then, his “don’t bother” just highlights his disappointment in being so deeply misunderstood by someone who he cares so much for. He thought Aziraphale knew what he stood for and respected it — but this whole encounter has seemingly proved him wrong, thus Crowley’s defences have spiked again. After his monologue of vulnerability, of almost pleading with him, he forces himself back into himself. He chooses not to fight anymore, because if Aziraphale doesn’t agree with him immediately to begin with — then this isn’t a battle he wants to win. Because, above all, he wants Aziraphale to be happy. And if Crowley’s offer doesn’t bring him happiness, then he doesn’t want to force his energy arguing about it — and would rather just “not bother”, simply laying it all to rest and accepting his loss. If Aziraphale would be happier in Heaven, knowing that Crowley will never follow him, then so be it.

We immediately see Aziraphale panicking once Crowley leaves, leading me to believe that we’re probably gonna see some sort of apology arc in season three? But then again, the way Sheen acted Aziraphale in the elevator as the credits roll makes this maybe … not guaranteed? There was something very powerful going on in that little sequence. I think we’ll see new sides to Aziraphale’s character in season three.

Anyway! Going to try and wrap this up now before I embarrass myself even more.

Kind of TLDR: The kiss wasn’t an “I love you”, and it wasn’t an apology. We’re still yet to get either of these things (plainly and verbally) from Crowley and Aziraphale, but I suspect we’ll be getting them in season three.

[jenreadsstuff]

Small Gods thoughts...

When I first read this one, as a teenager, it was one of my least favourites. I just didn't get it, the way so many other fans seemed to get it. I don't know why, but it's likely because my experience of church and politics back in the mid-90s was limited to Sunday School and Spitting Image.

I think it's definitely one that you need some level of adulthood to fully appreciate. Now, it makes so much sense, but I also feel like I appreciate Brutha as a character so much more than I ever could have as a teenager. The courage it takes to resist your impulse to lash out at someone who has seriously hurt you, to say, we can be better than we are but only if we make the choice to do so, and keep making that choice every damn day. To have both power and knowledge, and understand how to use them wisely - Simony and Urn both have knowledge, but both intend to use their knowledge unwisely, without thinking about the long-term consequences. Brutha's proposition on the beach at the end - 'what if we fought, and then in the future, people ask why we couldn't have sorted things out on the beach when we had the chance?' - illustrates a recurring trope in Pterry's writing, which he also used in Johnny and The Dead, of recognising now that you have the chance to do things differently than your first idea suggests. It's a question I often find myself pondering when I'm trying to make a decision - what if this is my chance to think things through and make something better?

I like the Latatian jokes in SG - I think this book might also be the first use of nil illegitemi carborundum, which remains a firm favourite quote that I use regularly at work.

Also interesting to see Om invoking the 'million to one chance' effect.

Rereading SG was something I was particularly looking forward to when I started this reread project - it was the book I probably struggled to engage with the most as a young Discworld fan, so I genuinely appreciate having the opportunity to revisit it now as an adult. Also, at 16 I didn't know what a pederast was and Google did not exist then, so that's one more reference I now have a better understanding of.

[comicaurora]

Okay so 1: Absolutely spectacular visuals this page. Like desperate threads reaching to weave back into one another, those lightning strands. But also this page made me notice 2: I can't pluck from my memory a time when a page in Aurora Felt Like a transition. Like as in the narrative momentum throughout the comic is regularly at a rhythm and tempo and new story and character elements are slotted into place in such a way that makes each page feel like a piece of a tightly woven braid where we occasionally linger over the overlapping bends. Which left me kinda boggled when I realized this page felt much less like an intersection and very distinctly like a joint. Like 'Oh that is supposed to be there, it is serving a purpuse, but it's Full Transition and I'm not used to that happening'.

So to get to the question(s?) this prelude was meant to contextualize: What's your general north star for the flow you build up in the story? How big a role does that little 'better writer in the back of your brain' play in the zoomed out view of the comic vs moment to moment? Does it get particularly unwieldy, and do knots to the momentum sneak up on you?

Pacing is absolutely the hardest part of comic-making for me, and I tend to take a more diagnostic approach to it - it's more about fixing problems than laying rails. So when I'm laying out pages and rereading, I tend to consider these:

Is this scene feeling aimless? The problem is probably that I started on it before I found the next anchor event - the next key thing that I know is going to happen. I never start a scene before I know what point it's going to serve and what event it's going to establish. Every scene has at least one point to make, and sometimes the problem is the anchor point I'm aiming for is actually too far away - I need something to happen sooner.

Am I stuck, even though I know what happens next? Then I'm probably stalling on ending the scene and moving on to the next one. Scenes don't need to keep going past their logical breakpoints. Sometimes I just need to draw the next panel, even if I'm not positive what'll go in it, and then feel it out from there.

Am I dreading laying out the buildup to an event or reveal but feel I need the buildup to pace the impact? Then I don't have enough things happening in that buildup. Dread is the result of tedium, and if the buildup is just mandatory spacefiller it will result in tedium. Either the buildup needs to be shorter or more stuff needs to happen in it. This is when I have a lot of luck in letting the characters surprise me, since juicy character drama can fill a lot of holes that the plot leaves bare.

Am I spending all this time on the reread wondering "what happened to the other thing that's happening?" This is the danger with running arcs in parallel; if I leave one storyline unattended at a cliffhanger moment, I might be too hung up on wondering what's going on there to pay any attention to what's going on currently. As a result, I try to end scenes when the audience is given enough information to infer what those characters will continue doing offscreen. Running from point A to point B, invoking a spell, evenly matched in combat, etc etc. This usually means I need to adjust how the scene ended when it transitioned into the new scene - tie up at least one loose end before moving on.

When it comes to pacing, I think the moment-to-moment flow matters a lot more than the top-down roadmap of the plot. Something can look extremely simple point-A-to-point-B on paper, but translate to something a lot more involved when it's actually put on the page - in the same way that the script notes for an entire fight scene can just be "they fight and X wins."

The thing I struggle with most is balancing the Cool Moments with how much buildup is required to make those moments Suitably Cool. If I start dropping in random awesome moments with no buildup, they won't hit how I want. I've watched enough out-of-context "top 10 anime fight scenes" to know they only hit as hard as they should when you have the full context for why they mean so much. Without that it's just a bunch of noise and one-liners. I want to jump right to the good stuff, but if I do, it won't be as good. But pacing isn't just packing in filler between the Awesome Moments - that space is where you can fit all kinds of character moments that are impactful in other ways.

I wish I had a more eloquent explanation for what I think the rules of pacing are, but I really do just feel it out and go by the vibes. I'm glad it seems to be working so far!

[cookinguptales]

As I start writing a wwdits fic that leans a little more into body horror than my usual work, I have to say... it's kind of odd, writing body horror while disabled, especially when it very much is your own body that is the horror.

As a lot of you know, due to my myriad stupid illnesses, I deal with chronic and occasionally very dangerous low blood volume. (As in, chronic blindness & passing out, trained nurses often cannot find my pulse, blood pressure machines malfunction, phlebotomists use ultrasounds to find my veins and blood still won't come out levels of low blood volume.) This can be very funny when I'm in a vampire fandom, but also kind of a weird experience. Like... yes, I do feel in some ways uniquely suited to write vampires. I also do not have enough blood, crave it regularly, can't go out in the sun, etc.

But in some ways, I'm almost too suited to writing vampires? Like... if there's one thing I've learned with vampire media, it's that there's a line. If you're not trying to invoke a sense of sick sort of body horror, then you cannot go full hypoxia. It freaks people out. You have to be careful with things like skin color and temperature, because things can get too corpse-y too quickly and suddenly your vampire is just scary and not sexy anymore.

It's an odd line to straddle when writing fiction when it's not one you necessarily can IRL. Like I know that people tend to find gray/purple/blue skin viscerally off-putting in a lizard brain sense, and I know this because I have seen people literally flinch while looking at me on bad blood days. People who love me! People who are almost as used to my condition as I am!

(Hell, there are days when I look in the mirror and I'm like "ugh, christ!" There really is something very weird and corpse-like about it!)

And chilly Twilight skin is one thing, but when you start describing it accurately as bone-chilling, as warmth-sapping, as when people touch you, they instantly feel colder and it does not stop because you will never be warm, then uh. Yeah, again, we start getting more into horror story scenarios.

So... you kind of have to learn to scale it back. Put in an "acceptable" amount of what you deal with every day. They wear thick clothes in the house and force Guillermo to stoke all those fires because they're chronically cold. Their skin loses its color and goes a bit sallow, but not quite to the discoloration point. They get listless and crabby when they're low on blood, but they're not going blind and passing out in the bath.

Like... you saw it, kind of, with what they did with Jenna. Jenna really showed me that they know what it's actually like, but they purposefully chose to scale it back with the vampires. Because bro, when Jenna was on death's door I was like "yeah haha that's what it's like." But that was played for horror, as well as somewhat horrified laughter, rather than the fun kind of sexy humor you get in the rest of the show. There's that line, y'know? At a certain point, you have to draw away from what this stuff would actually do to a human body because that's uh. That's just a corpse. And people are generally not corpsefuckers.

But then, then you decide to write a story where you lean into it a little. Where a character is actually made sick by vampirism, or something very like it. You lean into the sickfic aspects of it, you lean into the body horror. And you realize... you're just writing your own body, the way it actually is, in all of its off-putting horror. It's the lying in bed for hours because you don't have enough blood to raise your head, it's the world spinning and the nausea that claws at you from the inside because food is necessary and disgusting and you can't stand the thought of it because you know it'll make you sick, it's your lips going gray and purple and white and your fingers being too weak to even hold your phone upright. It's the weird craving for blood that you laugh off, but uhh, it actually is kind of weird, isn't it?

It's becoming empty when you are not actively filling yourself up, because your body cannot maintain that homeostasis on its own.

idk. It's a weird, fascinating kind of feeling, writing true blood loss on a regular basis. Leaning into how actually awful it is. idk if this is cathartic or upsetting, honestly speaking. (I'm just talking out my feelings now, lmao.) I guess at least I can drink saline and wrap my hands in a heating pad and eat bloody hamburger and take long, long naps. These weird undead characters have fewer options than I do, partially because I have given them fewer options.

I guess the horror that I'm leaning into is actually what scares me this time... I mean, there are definitely aspects of it that I've never had to deal with (mostly... the murder parts) but. Hmm.

This fic may end up being more personal than I had anticipated lmao.

[variousqueerthings]

parallel watching from the beginning while watching s9, making me think more and more about trapper’s particular tragedy in this series of tragedies 

he becomes symbolic of hawkeye’s lack of catharsis and in bj’s jealousy of him, so that his own reasons for doing things become obscured by what they need him to be/turn him into/when they evoke him

and trapper is different to every other character that leaves in that he doesn’t get a clear wrapping up of his story (because of wayne rogers’ issues with the show), and it fits -- in a watsonian way it really really fits

post s3 there are stories that spell out things that have been building in subtext for awhile + subjects that are brought up with different angles again and again, but feelings that people have before that exist largely more as subtext -- and that’s the part of the story that trapper physically inhabits

later on trapper is picked at like a loose tooth but he doesn’t have a voice to actually do any of that explaining himself, so when you go back and rewatch 1-3 it’s very interesting to do that examination yourself (and you have a benefit that neither hawkeye nor bj have, which is that they have to operate on memory or stories, whereas you can pause the screen)

because trapper doesn’t say much about why he does what he does, you derive that he’s neatly creating a divide between war and home from context clues (cheating on his wife, getting especially melancholy whenever he reads letters from her and his daughters, deflecting when hawkeye mentions he’s married, not giving hawkeye a proper goodbye, the very particular advice he gives hawkeye about shutting your eyes/sleeping to forget about the war for a bit, the way he handles hawkeye’s bouts of extreme impulsivity, etcetc)

but he’ll never be able to say. in fact, it seems pretty likely that his plan is to go home and never think about the war (and by extension hawkeye) ever again, which is its own tragedy, because... well how can he not? the most he can do is  shut his wife and children out of his life, while he’s regularly invoked like some kind of spell by the people still in the place he pretends was a dream

hawkeye may feel like he’ll never get context or closure with trapper, and bj may feel intense anger and envy at everything trapper’s story has been that he can’t do or have, but trapper is never getting that closure either, nor did he ever ask to be anything more than a man trying his best to get through something horrible, same as the rest of them. he didn’t ask to be hawkeye’s stability, and he certainly didn’t ask to be bj’s predecessor (it works both ways...)

you understand hawkeye’s and bj’s pain and anger, but they’re both wrong (as is evident by the way trapper’s ghost hangs around) -- trapper hasn’t escaped anything at all, he’s still just as trapped as they are, only he doesn’t have his own voice with which to have some agency over his story, and if that ain’t a haunting I don’t know what is

[lav-and-roses]

Jophiel, The Archangel of Beauty

Jophiel is the archangel of Love and Beauty and is known as one of the most beautiful beings ever created. Jophiel is rather special to me because for the longest time I thought that only masculine beings could be archangels but after hearing the clearly feminine voice of Jophiel speak to me in a dream, well I was certainly convinced otherwise!

She was the Angel present in the Garden of Eden that helped expel Adam and Eve and later watched over Noah's sons as a teacher. As the Archangel of art, creativity, and beauty, she is the patron of artists, helping with artistic projects, thinking beautiful thoughts, to see and appreciate beauty around all. Helping to create beauty at home and at work, Jophiel is the Archangel for interior decorators and homemakers all around.

She also uses her powers to spark the imaginations of artists by giving them ideas and energy to carry out artistic ventures. She also helps the humans to see the beauty in all things, including other people. As an artist who also loves graphic design and character design with a passion with rather low self esteem, Jophiel is an angel that I pray to regularly and find her to be my patron and guardian angel. 

Her way of speaking to me is almost lyrical with the way her voice rises and falls like she´s singing a song and she also speaks through art pieces(no matter the format) and is assoicated with the color yellow(which I´ve been seeing a lot lately).

Doing any sort of creative pursuit with Jophiel in mind, allows me to connect with and invoke her into my life. But I usually use a specific art set I got from my birthday to commune with her.