#you can never go home etc tropes my beloveds

[kimpossibly]

— dating dick grayson

ੈ✩‧₊˚ sfw & nsfw under the cut

PAIRING: dick grayson x fem!reader WARNINGS: there is some nsfw content underneath the cut (i labelled it so it can't be missed). there are also mentions of fighting, cuts, bruises, general vigilante stuff. SUMMARY: just some cute (and some spicy) headcanons for dating our beloved nightwing

NOTE: I love writing for this character so much — specifically because I've heard from sooooo many people that my boyfriend looks exactly like him. It actually became such a recurring joke with my friend group that we dressed up as Dick & Barbara Gordon for homecoming. But the resemblance is so uncanny it's actually insane — hence why I love this character so much. I hope you guys enjoy this thing I wrote at three in the morning!!

ੈ✩‧₊˚ sfw

Dick is so protective, just as a person. Of family, of friends, and especially of you.

If you're a Titan like him, he's the first to jump to your side in a fight — not because he doesn't think you can handle yourself (he knows you can) but because he can't bear not having you in his eye line during a fight. If something were to happen when his back was turned, he'd never quite be able to get over it.

In the middle of the fight, he's constantly shouting to you, asking if you're okay, if you need help. And after the fight he's the first one to you, asking if you're hurt.

And if you're a civilian and you somehow get caught in the middle of his work? Oh my God this man will lose it. His top priority disappears and is instantly replaced by making sure you're safe and well out of the way of danger.

The 'patching up each other's wounds' trope is strong with Dick

He always wants to know how and why each little cut and bruise got there

❝ Wait, where did this one come from? ❞ ❝ Remember when the guy pulled out all those little throwing knives? ❞ ❝ Ah. ❞

I feel like his love languages are words of affirmation and physical touch — he loves both giving and receiving them.

He'll always pull you aside to tell you he loves you before he goes into a fight.

He'll reassure you with forehead kisses instead of kisses on the lips. They just feel more safe and comforting.

But the ultimate way he makes you feel safe and comfortable is by cuddling. He loooooves cuddling.

Nothing makes him happier than wrapping his arms around you and holding you tight to him. He loves falling asleep that way, tangled up together, because it lets him know that you feel completely safe around him.

He knows he can be an imposing person, so he always does his best to make you and everyone else feel safe around him.

And let's be honest, that man is a giant teddy bear.

But he can be pretty scary when he wants to be.

Like I kind of said earlier, if someone is messing with you, he's the first one to be by your side to defend you

At the end of the day, he loves coming home to you and knowing that you'll be there for him every step of the way.

ੈ✩‧₊˚ nsfw — mentions of hickeys, oral (f & m receiving), praise, roughness, fingering

Dick is a pretty selfless person — he's always concerned about other people, he's a bit of a people pleaser, etc.

Thus I firmly believe he's a giver over a receiver.

They don't call him Dick for nothing—

He also definitely has a praise kink, both for giving praise and receiving it.

His favorite, of course, is calling you a ❝ Good girl ❞ and telling you how well you're doing.

He loves to go down on you. There's nothing he finds more beautiful than looking up at you from in between your legs, seeing your face contorted in pleasure as he brings you over the edge.

He also looooves when you pull his hair. It's a sign that he's doing well at making you feel good. This ties in with the whole praise thing.

He never pressures you into anything and always makes sure to get consent before doing something.

He also loves to wake you up by going down on you. He obviously asked for consent the night before, but he just loves the surprise of it.

Or he'll even just wake you up by pressing kisses to your neck and gently fingering you

It isn't until you're awake and moaning that he'll smirk at you and say good morning.

The auDACITY

And if you want to go down on him? I mean...he won't refuse.

I don't think his initial instinct is to be very vocal, but once he feels perfectly comfortable and safe with you, oh Lord is he vocal.

He's a very gentle person in general, but every once in a while he needs to let off some steam.

You'll come back from a fight and you'll barely have the time to shut the bedroom door before he's pulling you to him and kissing you.

The suit stays ON

He can get a little rough, but he always makes sure that you're okay with what he's doing.

But he loves after care — and he's great at it too

Like I said earlier, he's a cuddler, but if you're both up for it he'll jump in a shower with you

He doesn't normally like to leave marks because he doesn't want the others to start asking questions, but every once in a while he likes giving you a hickey or two.

But he places them strategically on your collarbone, where they'll be just barely hidden by your shirts and revealed by the merest tug on the neckline (and yes he does take advantage of this)

You're a little more enthusiastic about hickeys than he is

Luckily, in his, er, line of work (???) hickeys can more often be explained away as bruises

Like if it ever gets brought up, he just brushes it off.

❝ What's on your neck? ❞ ❝ It's uh, just a bruise. ❞ ❝ Oh. Looks like a hickey. ❞

Dick will just kind of freeze up, caught of guard by the directness of that statement, and you'll just smile and wrap an arm around him, pressing a kiss directly to the so-called ❝ bruise. ❞

[thewritetofreespeech]

Could I request Alucard (Castlevania) finding his beloved's art room, that is filled with various forms of art of him? Paintings, sculptures, poems, etc.

He doesn’t want to use the term ‘stalking in the night’ because he feels like it’s a trope for half of his blood line and Alucard doesn’t like stereotypes. But that was what he was doing.

It wasn’t for anything nefarious though. Night after night, his beloved would sneak off into some dark, deserted portion of the castle alone. With just the two of them there were a lot of spaces like this in his father’s old home. It also wasn’t as if they needed to spend all of their time together. Alucard appreciated that people needed & desired space. He himself needed it from time to time. It was just the pattern that had left him curious.

With his natural born stealth and tactical advantage of growing up in the castle, Alucard followed just behind them as they walked through the dark corridors and through one large, old, heavy door near the end. Almost forgotten by everyone. The dhampir arched a manicured brow and gave them a moment, and when they didn’t come out Alucard pressed on. Opening the door with much more ease and finding the room filled with a surprising amount of light despite it’s clutter. “What are you doing in here?”

He heard his lover shriek once in surprise, and something like sticks fall on the ground before it was followed by a larger commotion. “Damnit!” They cursed before they picked up what fell as Alucard came closer. A canvas and paint brushes now right side up off the floor. “What are you doing here?!”

“I asked you first.” Alucard told them as he looked around. “What is all this?”

He knew the castle very well. Although there were secrets his father kept from him, a vaults worth of art was not among them. Before he changed Dracula was actually a great patron of the arts. Finding beauty in almost all artistic expressions. So this was a new addition to his childhood home.

“It’s just…a hobby.” They confessed. “I find it soothing.”

“Art can have that effect on people.” He agreed as he looked at one of the pieces. Like his father, he liked art, but had no knack for it. Only the art for the sword had been his gift. “I meant more what is all this doing here? Why hide all this?”

“I don’t know.” They told him honestly. “I guess I just thought they weren’t very good.”

‘Not very good?’ Alucard arched his brow again as he looked at the works around the room. They were all wonderful. Even the unfinished pieces. “I never made any money selling them. And no one ever seemed interested in my art. So I just keep them here. I don’t have the heart to throw them away.”

“People are philistines. And you shouldn’t throw them away.”

Alucard picked up one of the landscapes and looked at it. He remembered this place. From one of their travels. “Can we put this in the dinning room?”

They seemed surprised by his ask. “You want to?”

“I liked this lake. Those trees. I’d like to remember it while we have meals. Think on that picnic.”

He went through the other pieces and asked if he could put up more. They weren’t his to decide what to do with, but he wanted them to encourage them to put it out. “Are you planning on turning the castle into my debut gallery?” They finally ask.

“If you’d let me.” Alucard replied after he’d collected over a dozen paintings, sculptures, and displays to bring out into the light. “Or at least a private gallery.”

They blushed but let him continue to go through the pieces. When he was done, Alucard came over and gave them a soft kiss. “You should never feel that your talent is less than. Your work is incredible. You’re incredible. You shouldn’t keep it in these dusty rooms for no one to see.”

He took the original picture he selected and left. Giving them privacy to paint while he went to hang this in its proper place in the dining room. He’d come back for the others later. Ready to bring them into the light, when they were ready.

[xx-vergil-xx]

Can I ask what pushed you to end Hounds the way you did? It's a fantastic ending, but I'm curious. I expected the Fates to revive Dream, or allow him to inhabit a new form (such as one made by Daniel, so that Dream becomes a dreamthing), etc. But instead, his death is made to have never happened. Which makes it partly feels like Hob's whole road trip journey was for nothing since he lost all those memories and connections with Matthew, the Corinthian, Delirium, Despair, Desire, Death, etc. (thank god he kept the farmhouse). But it's almost like he traded all those memories and connections for Dream. Unless I missed something while reading (I was crying very hard).

Again, fantastic ending, and I'm also glad it's a happy ending. But I'm curious as to why you didn't go in the other direction

howdy! thanks very much for the ask — an excellent query, one which i’m happy to answer

(verg of the future: this answer ended up long! there’s a short form at the top here and at the end <3)

in brief: he did make that trade you described! but not strictly for dream — it was the price of swapping genres!

an explanation:

what i had in mind while planning and writing was less the idea of erasure of prior narrative action and more a subversion of the expected genre, in particular the genre tropes that follow dream in the original arc of the comics, where his story is very classically tragic (with the understood weaving of hob into that tragedy, this being a dream/hob telling and all)

for reference, i also drew a lot of inspiration for hob’s road trip odyssey from the aeneid, an epic that is, yes, about the founding of rome but also (at least to my reading) a fundamental tragedy — the cost of founding rome is aeneas’ home, many of his friends, much of his core family, and the very end of the story is not some victorious depiction of the glory of rome to be (which we do get earlier in the book, with the ekphrasis on his shield) but aeneas, overcome with fury and loss, killing a man who begs his mercy. i’ve always felt that the aeneid, while certainly stepped in the expected amount of roman nationalism, is centrally about a single man and his singular suffering as an instrument of higher destiny.

i wanted to model hob’s arc around the aeneid (minus, y’know, some of the chunks that are strictly battle sequences <3) both because intertextuality is a huge part of how i wanted to handle hounds (story about stories, made of other stories, etc), but also because hob and aeneas are fundamentally parallel characters — nomads with exceptional ordinances, permanently displaced by the passing whims of higher powers, men who are made to reckon with both extraordinary wonder and extraordinary tragedy regularly while still, at their core, just being human. that’s what makes aeneas so compelling — he’s just a man. and so is our beloved hob — that’s his whole thing, his whole narrative function and his whole central ideal, humanity

so then, approaching hounds with both the thought of the sandman’s original tragic contours (see: the whole lead-in to daniel. christ above is the way that goes devastating to read) and the man vs fate core of the aeneid, i was considering a lot of things about how to mess around with both notions without gutting them entirely. i tend to dislike tragedies that become un-tragic without some sort of Serious Payment For It (not to say i don’t like happy stories because i very much do! but i get ticked off when high stakes get deflated too quickly) and i didn’t want to undermine the very real fact that the Fates are typically not versed in notions of empathy and/or leniency, and that dream and hob and those around them did experience and endure devastation and loss, and that death is a fact typically immune to argument.

the world of sandman is not one with easy answers, and to my mind there’s no such thing as a bargain with the Fates where you break even. for hob to get what he wanted, something had to be given, something dear and vital and real. there’s more to what hob actually gives the Fates than he verbally stipulates, which i tried to address largely via the corinthian and his perception of the situation, especially those last conversations with dream in the “swamp”. i have a lot of options about the corinthian in his function as “dark mirror” having a blistering clarity of understanding much of the time, which is why i foisted the onus of those complexities onto his dialogue, rather than hob, who (and i say this with love) is a creature of bias and often blinded to greater repercussions of his actions insofar as they extend beyond his immediate objectives/enjoyments, or dream, who can see the bigger picture but i think often really keeps himself from doing so when it comes to anything at all that’s personal (king of stories has a blindspot for his own). what hob gives the Fates actually costs him almost nothing, in the long run, if we operate with the idea that he cannot remember, nor is there any lasting effect from, his 600-ish heavily-relived years. there’s narrative and symbolic weight, of course — he gives them love as an oath and as nostalgia (sidebar: his driving force is an almost pre-nostalgia, a continual love of the moment as the moment is passing, but anyway) (cuff links), he gives them in a captured moment the lovely discomfort and simultaneous brilliance of being alive (the hook, the finger prick the blood), and he gives them a rich and complicated experience of humanity (those 600 years). but practically, what is actually taken from him that he doesn’t just get back?

only those few months — and in them, a web of real and known connections, all of which matter, and all of which change his understanding of and relationship to things like grief, and loneliness, and fear, and forgiveness. those are important changes, real changes, that would affect how he operates in the world going forward. that development is gone. he returns instead to the (of course, fought-for and hard-won) stasis of what was, which becomes what will always be. in making the Fates and their judgement more complex, he has actually made his own life less complex. now, i’m not going to sit here and argue that “suffering has inherent value” or some shit like that because i think that’s bullshit! pain is just pain. but he does lose experiences which would have shaped him in new ways, and, i think, good ways. even important ways

and he may well be shaped towards similar courses with dream (especially re: learning that lesson about loneliness — i think hob suffers from the curse of always, ultimately, being alone (immortality etc there’s so much discourse about this), and the road trip was in part about him learning that though it is the simplest path it is neither the sole nor the best path), but he certainly doesn’t learn them the same way, with the same faces, with the same acuity and clarity and intensity.

the thing with the Fates (to me anyway) is that you don’t ever just win. maybe you can get what you want, but it’s not easy (it make take a thousand repetitions of your lifetime until friction and the touch of your hands wears the sisyphean boulder down to a pebble — like the parable of the bird scraping its beak on the mountain), and it’s sure not free.

so yes, those months are lost. that’s a big part of the price. and we don’t know, at the end, how much of that thing he really gave ultimately comes back — his new relationship depths with deanna or cori or the other endless, those things aren’t seen. the main arc is resolved — hob and dream — but there are still pieces missing. he loses a piece of his human experience, he gets tossed back around through the wringer of his life (which is often distinctly not pleasant), and he is, as he ever was, a character with a path whose impetus and dictation rest heavily on external forces. even in attempting to channel his life elsewhere, he still has to bargain, and is still subject to the choices of the fates, and in some ways the story remains irrevocably a tragedy, in that one way or another it has loss in a central place. in the latter half of hounds hob really became my attempted version of an aeneas type — a man with a quest and a fated directive, a deeply human and flawed individual, who can alter the path and even irrevocably change the genre of his own narrative, but only at cost.

of course let’s be clear! some of all the actual rendering of this ended up as it did partly because i am not always a clean writer, and for that i apologize! but i did genuinely want that sense of gaps — of faces and voices given over to the gravitational well of the principal narrative arc of hob/dream versus the Fates. i think those things are gone. the narrative is forcibly re-centered around hob and dream, and in doing this — in shifting the story genre — other ties and bonds are not just cut, but unwoven entirely. when you change the kind of story you’re telling, the change is done at the expense of something else. kind of like how there’s a fixed amount of matter in the universe? you can’t create or destroy matter — to make something new you have to take from another place. (sidebar: wow i’m realizing something about my fundamental storytelling beliefs right now! laws of physics! anon your ask has really got my cylinders firing, and most sincerely thank you <3)

still, they might come back. though i didn’t write it as fully as i could have (i will freely admit there was a great deal of burnout at play towards the end there), i had a lot of thoughts re: repetition and density, namely that if you stack a thousand repetitions of a lifetime against each other it’s the equivalent of writing a word over and over and over on a page. when you erase it, the channels remain. language flows most naturally in the direction once etched for it. maybe hob learns those same lessons and knows the same people in the same way — maybe he and the corinthian find that odd patch of common ground, maybe he takes a long drive with delirium through rural maryland. maybe there are echoes. maybe even if it is gone what was still shapes the topography. maybe a kindness or a word exchanged still ring out when you can’t see them or remember them. while the milestones of our lives rippled the most visibly, i think we’re shaped a thousandfold ways by accumulations of small things we can’t distinctly remember. only a feeling of a thing, or the negative space it leaves.

well. tl;dr — i didn’t want to let hob get away without actually giving anything up, nor without his choice to bargain affecting others besides himself in equally irrevocable ways (sidebar: at his core is a selfishness that is both charming and ignoble — he wants to do a good thing for dream but also he makes a call that changes a plenitude of lives other than his own, and i don’t think he really asks, he just does — grey areas are his whole gig to me), because nobody makes a deal with the Fates for free, and changing genre has a price tag. it was my effort to make the tone of the whole beast more authentically sandman-esque, since sandman does a lot of that sort of water-muddying, especially when using understood narrative models/archetypes/etc etc

i am. sorry this was as long as it is! jesus! but i’m sending it off all the same. anyways, anon, thanks very much not only for your lovely kind words and the high honor of your tears (no pulitzer could mean more to me than knowing a thing i wrote really moved someone, seriously thank you) but also for giving me a blank check to go buck wild and ramble about my own damn writing and Things I Just Think <3 i hope you have a lovely day/morning/noon/night, and thanks a bunch for dropping by <3 <3 <3

[idyllic-affections]

can we get more big brother!kaeya with sibling reader please :3 maybe more angst over the ragnvindr family situation or fluff abt kaeya being affectionate w his sibling. it’s up to you really i’d be fine with anything !!

you should know i'll be there for you.

summary. what is kaeya like as an older brother?

trigger & content warnings. mentions of some dude being weird towards [name].

tropes, pairings, fic length, & other notes. fluff, hurt/comfort-ish. kaeya & younger sibling!reader. 0.3k words. they/them pronouns for reader.

author's thoughts. hello lovely!! we love kaeya requests in this household he is my platonic beloved (no i am not caught up on kaeya lore but sshhh its okay). i say that about every character i like tbh but its fine, i mean it no less genuinely every time i say it <3

kaeya's a very affectionate guy. i like to think so, at least.

his hugs are so safe and warm. he squeezes his sibling tight enough to where its comforting but not tight enough to harm them in any way.

he is a very good cuddler too!!!

if his sibling is having a bad night, he's totally cool with letting them curl up beside him or against his chest. he genuinely does not mind. if anything, he also really likes the contact, because it helps him relax too.

he'd literally never let anything bad happen to them ever, and he makes sure that they know that.

"i've got you," he'd murmur, kissing the top of their head. "nothing's going to get you while i'm here."

i imagine that he ruffles their hair, punches their arm (gently), etc etc. he's really really affectionate.

he also comes to their defense so fast fr

oh? someone's making them uncomfortable?

not on kaeya's watch.

maybe some old drunkard's being weird with them.

kaeya's very attuned to their needs, you see, and he's very attentive to their emotions.

the second he senses something is wrong, the second he notices any kind of discomfort on his sibling's face, he's at their side. he'll snake an arm around their shoulders, and with a charming laugh paired with a dangerous glint in his eye, tilt his head down at the one responsible for their unease. he'll smile, musing, "i think my dearest sibling has had enough socializing for one night, hm? let's head home now, shall we?"

kaeya just wants them to be safe and comfortable. his sibling is a million times more important than his wine.

no-one would fuck with the cavalry captain, anyway, so not a single soul would dare fuck with his sibling unless they genuinely had no sense of danger.

overall he's a 9/10 big brother

had to remove 1 point bc he is mean and does definitely make his sibling do things for him LMAOO /lh

please consider reblogging, it helps me out quite a lot!

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

3, 16 and 20 for loving fandom asks! 😊

3. a character that fandom has helped u appreciate

wen kexing from the novels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! also zzs from the novels and zzs from the show and wkx from the show but this isnt!!! about them!!!

16. a tiny detail in canon that u want more people to appreciate

we talked about this before but i really like how rise of phoenixes handles the crossdressing trope. quippe quest mentions this in their videos at some point i think; feng zhiwei is allowed to actually look like a man when she dresses up as a man, and the additional layer her crossdressing shenanigans add to the exploration of her arc that ends in her being completely stripped from all she has at the beginning (agency, autonomy, freedom, value) is all the more gutpunching. i look at her being all unrestrained (as a person) when she dresses up, moving around freely and doing what she wants (as per her nature), and then i look at who she is forced to become once the emperor finds out about it and it gets public. its honestly horrible, like a horror movie (feng zhiwei fmv horror edit?). so the maturity and nuance with which they approach and utilize it is smth i wish would be talked about more, if only because its so dear to me personally and i think everyone should talk about it all the time

,,,, ,,, actually this probably doesnt really count as a tiny detail //w// , ,, i thought of it because theyre so casual with it in canon!!! though feng zhiwei‘s ~real gender~TM is a plot point, the show doesnt really make a fuss around the crossdressing in itself (compared to how other stories usually handle it). so i thought of it as tiny and a detail even though its not really tiny, and its more the attention to detail that i would like for everyone to appreciate forever.

HERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE ANSWER: zhiwei‘s long ass hair that she takes down at the end of the forst day at the academy when sits in the window just before going to bed . everyone is talking about ning yi‘s hair but!!!! what about hers!!!!! its literally right there!!!! its such a beautiful scene, she looks so good. and i think its the only time she ever takes down her hair where we see it right? right? it doesnt happen at all at any other point :) surely :). so beautiful when u can take down your hair of your own volution in a world where taking your hair down signifies vulnerability and can unmask you as a woman! :) :):):) great scene where zhiwei is in full control of her fate and pursues her happiness and taking her hair down in the privacy of her room, with only gu nanyi to see, is such a big show of trust (in him) and faith (in her future) :) im fine why do u ask

20. your very first fandom

oh this is a mean pick!!!!!! me having like a hole in my head etc!!!!! but one of my earliest beloveds media that i could count as me entering a fandom of any kind is the donald duck franchise. dont really have a better name for it. i could call it the Mickey Mouse Franchise but that would be A Lie. mickey mouse has nothing to do with it at all! i had fan magazines and would dress up as phantomias and would spent time reading comics with my friends and brother and i would annoy literal strangers into lending me their comics if i so much as sniffed out that they had a collection at home. i also drew and wrote fanart and fanfic, though i never finished anything, my aspirations were too high for my fragile constitution also known as patience and stamina TvT. smth thats STILL a problem tbh. i cant write short stuff yet keeping it up for so long is Hard. anywhomst. i remember looking at the pictures before i learned to read and making up the story in my head so this being my first fandom might not be that far off!!!!!!

beloveds fandom asks game

[commander-winterberry]

avae you'll never guess whose romance route id pick in a dating sim. :) (its velichor, my beloved poisons man)

answering both @creativebrainrot and @silvesi ... its Velli's big boobies isnt it?

OKAY HERE COMES A LONG TEXT BC ITS FUN THINKING ABT THIS ROMANCE ROUTE in a typical VN game ajkdsfjhkfgahdjkgjhkg

So you picked Vellichor, the mysterious, brooding, and fairly cold guy but it's his boobies, his massive bandokers and the fact that he’s built like a brick wall that are so attractive. Maybe.

His dating route is complicated, you prolly would need a dozen trial and error runs or an online guide to figure out what dialogue options catch his attention. He’s a mystery to unfold, a poison to break down into its components, a big boobied specimen to study.

His dating route would start off by encountering either during his solo walks around the city, or during a ministry mission or maybe even during an underground black market where you both are in the same poison shop heh

You have to catch his attention quick and fast, he has a lot of calculations going on in his head, so butt into his mind like a thorn. Show you knowledge about poisons or dark ritual magic or history, that will at least promise a conversation, but to prolong it, go for the less than lawful dialogue options. He likes sarcasm, so be witty but not too loud.

what i imagine his dating route will lead to is something action packed. Underground mission, assist him by pursuing some criminals to beat them up and get back an artifact or forbidden books for his own interest. Usually he works solo but if he likes you enough he accepts you at his side. Naturally that means first rows of watching him and his big boobied muscles in action.

Because we need classic dating visual novel tropes, you get hurt in the action but nothing too bad. the fight ends successfully and Velli carries you back to his apartment to patch you up. in his sacred home you are not alone but several pets are watching you with big eyes. He’s an animal person. Pet his cats and gain their affection for his affection bonus points.

here comes the hot romance when he is patching you up: intense eye contact, you can ask him any question, and ofc hes wears no shirt while he’s close to you while his hand so carefully wrap the bandages around your wound. (just ignore the aggressive cat food begging in the background) if you want, he can distract you from the pain by infodumping about poison/toxins etc. his voice is very, very nice to listen to when he is passionate abt a topic

If you successfully made your way through his dialogue options and raise enough affection points, you or him can initiate a kiss (or a hug!) heh bonus: you get to see his thorny tail

The kiss is hot, i'll leave it at that. After this, you feel your lips tingle and a little bit numb. Of course he tastes like poison.

Bad Route? He just never engages with you at the start of this dating route in the first place. man got other things to do

theres prolly a dozen other routes or romantic moments such as as him teaching you various effects of poison through kisses or smoking together on rooftop overlooking new kainengs night's landscape - he can be surprisingly romantic but also intense with teasing

[pastafossa]

Hi pasta!

Good luck with the storm and also fingers crossed your fiberglass nightmare ends soon <3

I wanted to start writing some matt x reader one shots, but I’m kinda new to writing. Do you have any tips on how to start and actually finish anything?

Ty! I know the room will be worth it in the end because it desperately needed some insulation, but damnnn this is just a nightmare that I'd like to be over LOL.

I can give some tips on starting and finishing, absolutely!

Remember that there's no real pressure with fanfic - it's either for fun or something you can use to hone your skills. This means that either way, it's ok if it's not perfect. You win just by writing, learning something new, or enjoying yourself, so try to remember that if the anxiety monster grabs hold and wants you to give up.

There will be a point while you're writing where you'll likely think what you're writing sucks and should be burned. This happens with every art form, whether it's painting or writing or wood carving. Just shove the screaming voice in a box and tell yourself you can fix it in editing (truth).

Tropes are fun for a reason, so my advice is to start small and pick a beloved trope you can do a fun little drabble on where there's an obvious endpoint. Think Matt having the sniffles and needing care, or him and reader trying to bake Christmas cookies (flirtations and smut optional). These have the benefits of having a clear end which can help when you're worried about finishing. The cookies get baked, or Matt starts feeling better, so there's always this neat little finish line you can direct yourself towards.

You can also grab something from a prompt list! It can be a kiss prompt list, or a hurt/comfort one, smut, fluff, etc. Things with action generally work nicely for one-shots; quotes can be a little harder, but don't be afraid to look at those if you want to try!

If you can't figure out how to start, consider trying this: skip a lot of the initial stuff. If they're baking cookies, you can jump right into, say, Matt coming home to Reader who's already got the ingredients out and ready to mix, and the oven turned on. It'll be made pretty clear in the scene and via dialogue what's happening, so you don't need to include grocery shopping and deciding and finding the recipe, etc etc. This way you can jump right to the fun stuff.

Don't worry about wordcount. When you're new to something, it's alright if it's short, although you might end up going longer!. If you were playing a game and starting at a low level, smacking at a dragon with 50k hitpoints doesn't make a whole lot of sense. You start with rats you can easily shank in 3 hits as you level up. If you have a clear end point (boom, cookies), and a topic you know you can kill, then all you have to focus on is getting there.

When you're writing, just try to write. Let it all flow, get the words out, run with your story idea. I know some people argue about editing as they go, but in my experience, this doesn't work. Editing as you go slows you down, it makes you second guess yourself, and you begin to doubt what you're writing. You're way more likely to stop writing. What you want is word vomit, because absolutely everything can be fixed in editing. This is what I do for TRT and one shots, and it's served me well. Spelling errors? Ignore them. Clumsy sentences? Fix them later. Get your idea out while the muse is hot and save editing for the next day after everything is done.

I hope these tips help! The biggest thing is honestly to just jump. When I first started writing fic as a preteen, my stuff was about the quality level you'd expect, but that's just because I was new to it, and I'd never have gotten to where I am if I'd stopped. Just takes some learning and leveling up. <3

[retvenkos]

⚡️for sokka!! also i hope you’re doing well and able to find some happiness today💕

sOkKa mY BeLoVed??? king????? i've missed writing for him.

1-3 random headcanons i have about them:

sokka is a traveler. after traveling the world with the gaang, he never really got that sense of adventure to leave his bones. he's gone everywhere, forced all of his friends to go on a Life Changing Feildtrip with him somewhere, and has learned so much (history, skills, culture, etc.). however, he always goes back home. how could he ever leave? too much of his life is tied to there - his family, his people. he's always coming back with more outlandish tales and more trinkets and souvenirs for everyone, and he sleeps the best when he's at home.

sokka is also big on pen pals. he has friends all over the world, now, and he writes to them often and at length. he likes to include drawings on his letters to aang and zuko (very rarely on katara's letters - she never ApPrEcIaTeS tHeM aS sHe ShOuLd.) and while his art skills haven't improved very greatly, they're still some of the best things aang and zuko have. it's honestly impressive, though, the network that sokka has built. he makes friends often (and increasingly easily in his older years) and he is able to cultivate those relationships even over such great distances.

sokka actually has one of the most extensive and diverse personal libraries you will ever see.

an au or fanfiction trope i think the character would do well in:

cLEARLY an academic rivals to lovers au! can you imagine the potential of this? you are a well-established student getting top marks in many of your classes, and along comes this new students who took a gap year to travel around the world and he starts beating you in some of your classes??? and coming second in others??? and he obnoxiously uses an entire BOX of highlighters when taking notes in your lectures, and when you give an answer or opinion he'll smugly refute it with a different claim of his own, and you both can go back and forth for literal hours if no one stops you,,,,,,, and at some point you're working in the library late at night absolutely Struggling with some class you're not that talented in, when sokka sits down across from you because... well, yeah, all the other tables are packed, that's true, but probably because he just wants to annoy you. and so you work in silence for a long time, Suffering over this assignment that you have absolutely no clue how to do, when sokka caves and offers to help you with the assignment. maybe there's some back and forth, or maybe you're too tired and just say yes, but he helps you. and of course, he clever as hell and knows tricks that are actually helpful (his study habits are actually really good, you should take notes on how to take notes and review tbh) and when you say thanks, he gives you this smile that just— wait. what are you thinking? nonono - this is sokka we're talking about. and clearly you have to repay this debt - wouldn't want him thinking he has the upper hand on you, right? so you let him know if he ever needs help... well, you slip him your number. for academic reasons. he probably thinks of a million and one jokes right then and there, but he just says thanks. which you weren't expecting. huh. but it's not too long after that he takes you up on that offer to help. and perhaps it becomes a pattern. and perhaps you're spending most nights at the library together, and then the other's dorm, and then just going out for breakfast because,, and oh, no. this wasn't supposed to happen. was it?

where they should be taken on a date or relaxing day off:

not to continue to promote my headcanon of sokka being a traveler, but vacations abroad? or trips to a new town? or even just going out to camp for a few days? all of those are perfect. sokka just loves getting out. preferably, he'd like to stay in a town so you can sleep comfortably and enjoy yourselves in style, but he's honestly cool with anything. but also,,,, just doing tourist things is so fun. going out to shops. eating at fancy restaurants. buying overpriced souvenirs and getting supplies for trips... he loves it. make a list! write down ten things you want to go do for the weekend! he adores itineraries and tours and tourist attractions that zuko claims are money pits. it's about the experience, don't you know?

a song, book, or poem that reminds me of them:

this doesn't remind me of him per se, but i have a feeling sokka would vibe with the diaries of franz kafka for some reason. why? idk. i just get the feeling he'd strong opinions about it asdfgfdsdf

[just-a-silly-little-whumper]

3, 4, and 8 for you!

13, 26, and 39 for 3 ocs of your choice!

From this ask game.

3. What are your favourite tropes?

Intimate whump my beloved. Drugging/poison are also big favorites of mine. And anything with altered mental states (mind control, brainwashing/conditioning, amnesia, general delirium, etc).

4. What are your least favourite tropes?

I'm generally not a fan of tiny whump. Also, whumpee-turned-whumper and whumper-turned-whumpee generally aren't my thing. It depends on how it's done, though. No shame to people who like it, of course, just not for me.

8. Favourite kind of Whumpee?

I like a whumpee that is generally scared/submissive but has occasional moments of defiance. Who has some capacity of fighting back but doesn't for whatever reason. It makes it more interesting to see when they do fight back— what causes that and what comes out of it. If that makes sense.

~~~

13. What is the worst thing that could happen to you right now?

"Losing Elze'ith," Altair says immediately. "I'm a survivor. I can take a lot of pain. But he's my strength. He's what makes this all worth it. If I lost him, I think I would just give up.

"Although..." His voice goes quiet, and the manacles around his wrists and ankles clink as he shifts nervously. "Sometimes I wonder if I've already lost him. He's different now. I don't know what to make of it. And that scares me more than anything."

26. What is your favourite torture method?

Lord Denholm huffs. "I'm not some barbaric torturer. Everything I do has its purpose." He crosses his legs and thinks for a moment. "But I suppose I can sate your curiosity. There is a reason why I like to drug my light so often. There is something so delectable about his distress and helplessness in that state. It leaves him so open to anything else I might be in the mood for. I'm looking forward to trying the same with my little ruin, as well. In fact..." he smiles. "I'm rather looking forward to making them both witness the depths of their partner's suffering. I think it will be quite illuminating for them both."

39. Do you want to take revenge on whumper?

Elze'ith goes very still for a moment. Then he takes out a journal and starts writing. Eventually, he turns it around and pushes it forward.

"No. I told him at the very beginning of all of this that I never wanted to hurt anyone, and that hasn't changed. I just want him to stop hurting us to go home to be left alone Altair and I to be free again. Nothing else matters."

[liugeaux]

A Definitive Ranking Of Every Incarnation Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Seven years ago I was so butt-hurt by an Uproxx article that I wrote a response with my own TMNT incarnation ranking. Was I right to do it? Absolutely. Do I regret it? Not at all. I stand by that ranking and where the TMNT property was in 2017. Read it here.

What HAS happened though is multiple versions (incarnations) of our beloved turtles have been rolled out in the past 7 years and I think it's time to re-rank them. This will be similar to the reposts common in this blog, as it will have a lot of old content, but it will be a full-on refresher with a brand-new definitive ranking. Here we go!

17. Saban’s Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation

The Next Mutation is the worst. While technically a hit TV show, TNM is a reimagining of the Turtles in a similar style to the hyper-popular Power Rangers of the time; and created by that same production house. It was too goofy, too Japanese, and pandered to a completely different audience. Any charm or goodwill the original show still had was flushed right down the drain after the launch of The Next Mutation; not to mention the introduction of the cringe-worthy Venus, the fifth Turtle. The Next Mutation is best forgotten, but sadly never will be. 

16. Japanese OVA - Mutant Turtles: Superman Legend

Not included in the original list because I didn't think it was a substantial enough incarnation to include, Superman Legend is a gem if you like weird 90s anime. If you don't, skip it. When I say skip it, I mean it. It doesn't feel like a Ninja Turtles story and while styled after the Fred Wolf TV show, it drips of cheesy anime tropes and is, at times, hard to watch. I include it here as almost a warning against possibly watching it.

15. Konami’s Video Games 

At the time, Konami’s video games seemed awesome. The arcade games and the classic NES games gave children exactly what they wanted, a way to control their favorite turtles and fight the foot. In actuality, the original arcade games were built as quarter-eating button mashers. There was little nuance to the games themselves and the home console releases were either bad (that first NES) or were trying to recreate a game on a platform for which it wasn't designed (TMNT II, Manhattan Project, Turtles in Time, etc.). If you wipe off the thick film of nostalgia, it's easy to see these games really aren’t that good.  

14. Platinum Dunes’ Movie (Series) 

The two Platinum Dunes movies have a style to them, and it's best we leave that style in the 2010s. Everything from the Incredible Hulk looking over-design of the characters, to the disasters of plots, there is very little to like about what Michael Bay’s production company did to our beloved Turtles. The films have some decent action and comedy, but a lot of the creative directions taken leave the heart of the Turtles unrecognizable. Out of the Shadows was better than the first film and did a good job capturing the feel of the original cartoon, but it still committed a lot of the same sins, despite being the "right kind of dumb".  

13. Fred Wolf’s Original 1987 Animated Show

It’s funny how the most popular of all the incarnations is also one of the worst. The original cartoon is a victim of its era. The animation is bad, the plots are silly and sometimes nonsensical, and many episodes are just thinly veiled advertisements for the mega-successful accompanying toy line. Still, there’s a charm to that old show that made it popular for a reason. Presented as the figurehead of late 80s cartoons that it is, it might be a masterpiece. Presented in a vacuum, apart from the craze, that old show can be unwatchable. This incarnation is another victim of nostalgia and is probably best experienced through t-shirts and merchandise, not through actual experience. 

12. Image’s Vol. 3 Comics

Die-hard Turtles fans love to point at Image’s short-lived run of comics after Mirage’s first hiatus as being “Amazing”. “Volume 3″ to which it is referred, was planned as a continuation of Mirage’s colorized Vol. 2. Sadly, it followed many of the tropes of late 90s comic books. It was more violent than its predecessors and even went as far as having two of the TMNT get deformed. Donny becomes a cyborg and Raph’s face gets disfigured. At the time it was a fresh take on the characters and seen as bold and unpredictable. Because of this, it should hold a legit chunk of respect, but in practicality, it wasn’t great. 

11. Batman Vs. TMNT Crossover Comics and Movie

This is, by far, the hardest incarnation to rank. It's not bad, and in most ways it's great. However, taking a generic version of the TMNT and planting them in a story beside The Dark Knight creates an un-winnable situation. Character development must be spread across two universes and cannot be too in-depth, because you can't stray too far from the core essence of either property. Fans love this version of the Turtles and I don't blame them. It boils the 4 brothers down to their core traits and, through solid writing, creates an entertaining romp that plays into both properties' tropes. Where the Batman/TMNT crossover succeeds in entertainment value, it completely fails in compelling story-telling.

10. Archie’s TMNT: Adventures Comics

More comics from the 90s! Archie’s TMNT Adventures was less an Archie production and more a shadow Mirage title that was created mostly in-house under the eyes of Eastman and Laird. Its origin as a spin-off of the TV show made for a unique niche. Many of the stories and characters resonate to this day and If I were listing my favorite TMNT comic artists, Chris Allen would be in my top three. One of the title’s strengths was the secondary characters. Verminator-X, Armaggon, Ninjara, the Mighty Mutanimals, and Cuddly the Cowlick, are all great additions to the greater mythology of the series and many of them have returned in other media. As much fun as these were to read 30 years ago, a distinct lack of character development in the TMNT, and a heavy handed environmental agenda being pushed make these hard to read today. Those Future Turtles are the bomb though…

9. TMNT: Mutant Mayhem

I have thought long and hard about where Seth Rogan's take on the TMNT belongs in the pantheon of turtle stories. From an entertainment standpoint, it's fantastic. The film is incredibly funny and breathes fresh energy into tried and true character archetypes. Does it represent the legacy of TMNT as a franchise? I don't know. We've been promised a lot more of this incarnation, so our questions will likely get answered as series staples like Shredder and The Foot get introduced, but as it stands, Mutant Meyham is a fantastic anomaly ripe for exploration.

8. New Line’s Original Movie Trilogy

America’s love for the original movie trilogy is justified. They captured a moment in American Pop Culture that was unique and somewhat bizarre. On the surface, a lot of the dialog can be cheesy and eye-roll-inducing, but that’s what the 90′s were. Looking back at them, the only one that holds up as a GREAT movie is the first one. The effort put into bringing the comics to life, while dabbling in the silliness of the cartoon, is visible. There’s more emotion in that first movie than most would care to admit. I’m not going to call it a masterpiece or anything, Actually, I am gonna call TMNT 1990 a masterpiece. The second two movies are what keep this incarnation from being higher on the list. The Secret of the Ooze is embarrassing and TMNT III is boring at best. The care that went into the first film just wasn’t there the second and third times around. 

7. “TMNT” Animated Movie

The Turtle’s franchise timeline can be divided into 3 phases; Phase 1: Eastman and Laird, Phase 2: Laird only, and Phase 3: Nickelodeon. The “TMNT” animated movie was released during Phase 2, and because of that, it has Peter Laird’s influence all over it. During his solo time with the Turtles, Laird had very specific ideas about what he wanted to do with the characters and what stories he wanted to be told. Not goofy, not over-the-top, not too dark, and maintaining the series’ comedic overtones, TMNT is a weird movie that feels like a release that fell out of another dimension. Despite its plot being the most non-TMNT-ish story ever told, there is still a handful of scenes that are quite wonderful. The epic fight scene between Leo and Raph at the close of Act 2 is worth the price of admission. TMNT is a beautiful film that has a charm unique unto itself and it’s really a shame a sequel was never made.   

6. Rise of the TMNT

I'm sure putting Rise in the #6 spot can be seen as a bold move, but I stand behind it completely. Rise is possibly the most controversial version of the Turtles to date. Odd, and unnecessary changes to the lore and characters turned a lot of fans off of the project before it even launched. Taking a more comedic and short-attention-spaned approach to TMNT storytelling alienated many viewers, which means Rise lives on its own little island. Fans of Rise, LOVE IT, with good reason. It's hilarious, irreverent, sharp and stunning. By taking enough influence from anime to make the show look great, but not enough to make the show look ridiculous, Rise succeeds at looking better than ALL of its predecessors. Narratively, it takes some time to get to the significant story beats, but considering most TMNT stories aren't interested in telling a long-form story, Rise's approach to slow-drip-plot, is masterful. The Rise movie is a fantastic exclamation point on a series the creators knew was already dead. I almost understand why someone wouldn't like Rise of the TMNT, but it's hard for me to think someone gave it a fair shake and still didn't see the brilliance of its bizarre take on the TMNT.

5. Nickelodeon’s 2012 Animated Show 

After the Viacom acquisition, the impending TMNT cartoon show was an uncomfortable unknown. How closely would it stick to the lore? Would it go off the rails and break the series? Would it be too kiddy for a classic fan to enjoy? All worries were washed away when the show debuted in the Fall of 2012. Featuring the most fully realized version of the 4 turtles to date, Nick’s show was a breath of fresh air. There’s a spark to its dialog and it’s obvious the creators were proud to be working on TMNT. It's hard not to chuckle at least once or twice during every episode and unlike most kid shows, it's easy to care about the over-arching story. The changes made to the base origin and characters can be confusing, but each one has been interesting in its own way. As my good buddy Jeff often says about, it's a beautiful melting pot of everything TMNT. If you haven’t checked it out yet, Nick’s TMNT reboot is more than worth a watch.  

4. IDW’s TMNT Comics

The first real content to come from the post-Nickelodeon buyout was the IDW-licensed comic line. Not only did they immediately start frantically reprinting the old Mirage books, but they also launched a new ongoing title set in its own TMNT continuity. Without a doubt, this run has been the most exciting thing to happen to TMNT comics since…let’s say Mirage’s Vol.1. By taking a brand new origin and mixing old characters with new characters, Eastman and Waltz have found a way to re-tell a lot of TMNT history without telling any of the exact same stories we already know. My only real complaint about the book is that its a little too obvious that Nickelodeon has placed certain story restrictions on them. I.E. The Turtles don’t ever kill anyone, and death as a whole is kept to a minimum. Consequently, the book sometimes lacks the teeth of the original Mirage book.

3. The Last Ronin

After 9 years of a fantastic ongoing TMNT comic, IDW decided to stretch its legs and pull an idea out of the Eastman and Laird idea archive. The Last Ronin, is a stand-alone TMNT tale originally outlined by both co-creators Eastman and Laird. It's dark, violent, somber and bold. TLR is easily the best TMNT comic to hit the market since 1992's City at War, and it deserves the same reverence. Truth be told, outside of the original conception of the series, Peter Laird had little to do with its story. The volume was such a success, a teaser was written into the last book that introduced a new generation of Turtles into the fold. This birthed the Ronin-verse. As silly as that may sound, the transition to a new quartet of Turtles has been healthy and fun. The Last Ronin 2 starts later this year and I have no worries that the new TMNT will be built with respect to the originals. That's a feat in and of itself.

2. 4Kids’ 2003 Animated Show

The 4Kids Animated show was produced during the Peter Laird years and with a few exceptions it’s a love letter to fans of the Mirage comics. Unlike the original show, which took the loose concept of Ninja Turtles and built its own little silly world, the 4Kids show took many of its stories directly from the comics and carried a tone closer to that comic's run. Sure some things had to be changed because it was still a kid’s show, but the entire run feels like it's what Laird wanted to do the first time around, but not having complete control got in the way. The best part is that it has aged remarkably well. Despite all episodes being 4:3 SD, the characters and stories still pop to this day. Which, in the end, is just a reflection of how good the source material is.

1. Mirage’s Original Comic Series 

Of course, #1 had to go to the Mirage run. Sure, a lot of things can be said about how disjointed the entire experience is, and how bad some of the guest contributors were during the height of the TMNT fad in the early 90′s, but at its core, the Mirage run represented so many different things. It was the start of what would become one of the most successful creator-owned franchises in American history. Mirage was built from nothing (hence the name), and ended up taking over the world on the strength of the characters they created. Vol. 1 of the comics was an instrumental piece of content in the indy comic boom of the 80s and was a flagship, “creators have rights” book. The canonical stories from Vols 1, 2 and 4 are the turtles at their most honest and raw. Eastman and more-so Laird weren’t afraid of taking chances and even the stories that didn’t pan-out HAD to be respected. So, what incarnation is the absolute best? It's the Mirage comics, without a doubt, by a wide margin. Say all the good things you can imagine about the other incarnations on this list, but none of them are "Capital I" Important. Sure, they were great, charming and even dabbled in amazing, but Mirage rewrote the rulebook, and that’s something that will never be usurped. 

Cheers!

Addendum: The following incarnations were omitted because they didn’t make a significant contribution to the greater TMNT story.  

All TMNT Manga, The TMNT Comic Strip, The Action Figures (they aren’t being included because they are just an extension of the shows and movies, but they kinda had a life of their own), Coming Out of Our Shells Live Tour, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, The 4kids Based Dreamwave Comics, Later TMNT Video Games (Konami, Ubisoft, and Activision Published), The many other crossover comic book series out there.

[parallelroutes-old]

what made you choose this muse? // is there any other muse in this fandom ( or any other ) you’d like to RP? // what are your favorite RP tropes to play? (angst, hurt-comfort, etc…) // what’s a song that reminds you of your muse?

what made you choose this muse?

i like playing chaotic and spontaneous gremlins who are silly, weird, cool-looking, punk/goth, and seem empty/depressed deep down. hits a lot of nice 'oh that's my type of rp character' energies. and you will also get a mini story here too.

tbh when i looked around the internet for random series fanart in 2010, i ran into pics of him and genuinely used to think he was ... kinda ugly ngl. i have never liked the old design. personal pref. but i went hunting for random new fanart last year/2022, where i found his new design and was like "wtf that's the same guy? this is the best glow-up of the entire decade?"

that preference ties into why i only rp him as post-future arc? he is just... not attractive to me whatsoever before showing up with a new design LOL...

is there any other muse in this fandom ( or any other ) you’d like to RP?

Enma-kun, my beloved ♪

what are your favorite RP tropes to play? (angst, hurt-comfort, etc…)

80% my absolute favorite is other characters changing their opinions of him, esp if they're reluctant in some way. hurt/comfort, usually as comfort. fluff. deep convos. Wise Advice. atonement!!!

i struggle with making my own full AUs and making OCs takes so much effort for so little payoff rp-wise, so i just. i will let others make the AUs/OCs and i just join them in the party. gladly. bc i love both of them.

what’s a song that reminds you of your muse?

current: i actually don't have one for sure yet? i'm still feeling out the verse so idk. right now i'm gonna guess green day - boulevard of broken dreams. mostly for that "i walk alone with my shadow bc that's all i know." aspect. see also:

I walk a lonely road The only one that I have ever known Don't know where it goes But it's home to me, and I walk alone

I'm walkin' down the line That divides me somewhere in my mind On the borderline Of the edge and where I walk alone

previously i had it as GLIM SPANKY - In the air because it was intended to be the 'parallel worlds traveling' thing, which i have not really been using. i will also skip luz's cover of Ikkitousen because that gives future arc byakuran vibes and you have just now been told how i feel about that, lol.

4YL: cristina vee's english cover of bad apple. ( thank u neo-chan. )

Will tomorrow ever come? Will I make it through the night? Will there ever be a place for the broken in the light? Am I hurting? Am I sad? Should I stay, or should I go? I've forgotten how to tell. Did I ever even know? Can I take another step? I've done everything I can All the people that I see I will never understand If I find a way to change, if I step into the light Then I'll never be the same, and it all will fade to white

this is just kind of the verse's whole vibe? the whole... living with people who only know 'you' of yesterday and don't want to see anything else - and a lot of them can't. but you don't want to be that person anymore.

that's why he's so sad and different. the entire point is to get him to 'move on' from the past and what he did. i should really go explain things and why you will primarily get the deep convos out of this verse, not current. eventually. i don't have much energy lately lmao.

[peppermintbee]

OMORI has poor writing (Part 1)

OMORI stans, just block the #omori hate tag now because I’m going to use it to vent my frustrations with this game. If you love this game, I am not going to try to convince you otherwise. I am glad you enjoyed it so much. I am glad it means a lot to you. I’m not here to take that away from you. I honestly wish I felt the same way!

However, if you are like me and finished the game feeling disappointed, underwhelmed, and maybe a little frustrated, then I am here to say you are not alone. OMORI--while having the right set pieces for an interesting game--is a narrative mess.

I’m splitting this into two posts. This first post is about problems with the plot. The second is about problems with the message/moral. 

(Note: I use “OMORI” in all-caps for the game title, and “Omori” in title case for the character name.)

Spoilers and criticism below.

Part 1: Plot Writing Lies

There’s a book by Brian McDonald called Invisible Ink which is about how to write a compelling story (you can read this great book online for free here). There’s an explanation of the writing “lie” that I find myself frequently thinking of. A “lie” in this context does not mean something is literally untrue, it means something FEELS untrue, unrealistic, improbable, or unlikely. For example, if a character gets shot in the leg but manages to do parkour, this is a “lie” since it seems unrealistic for that to happen. If a character witnesses their beloved parent’s death and shrugs it off, it’s a “lie” because that reaction seems highly unlikely.

In OMORI, the plot is held together by multiple little lies that--try as I might--I just couldn’t bring myself to believe.

1. Sunny’s friends care about him, and vice versa

A major theme of the game is how friendship can overcome any obstacle. Friendship gets Sunny over his fear of heights, spiders, and water. Friendship is what Sunny remembers before the final boss fight, and allows him to face his guilt and defeat it (and prevent him from committing suicide). With the photobook and dialogue you are reminded over and over and over and over and over again that Sunny’s friends love him unconditionally.

However, I just couldn’t bring myself to believe it. The childhood memories are cute but shallow, boiling down to simply hanging out and eating treats. Plus, Kel and Aubrey fight constantly, with Aubrey even physically hitting Kel when he steps out of line. Hero and Mari behave more like babysitters than true friends to the younger kids. 

But at least the other kids interact with each other. Sunny, on the other hand, showed nearly no affection or consideration towards his friends. He floats through the memories like a ghost--he could have been completely absent from all the photos and it would have made little difference. I was ready to accept this as Sunny being an unreliable narrator and not thinking he was a good enough for his friends, but this never contradicted. Instead we are given even more memories where Sunny just silently exists there being “cute.”

[Sunny enriching the lives of his friends by LARPING as a cat.]

Because of the lack of meaningful interactions between them, there was nothing in the game that made me think that these 12-15 year olds would have a strong enough bond that would survive 3-4 years of no contact after finding their friend hanged. In fact, that discovery only drove them farther apart. The only person who I could believe actually had a close bond was Basil, who almost literally filled that trope of being the friend who would help you bury a body (or in this case, help Sunny cover up the accidental manslaughter).

The writing fix for this would be simple: instead of showing us the same boring birthday and beach scenes over again, give the kids memories of overcoming some age-appropriate adversity together: heartbreak over an unrequited crush, anxiety over homework, sports injury, lost dogs, divorced parents, running away from home, bullying, etc. Set a precedent of the friends supporting each other through good times AND bad times. Without such backstory, Sunny’s friendships allegedly giving him the courage to overcome his guilt feels like a lie.

2. Sunny abandoning Basil in the bathroom scene

One of the most confusing moments in the game was Sunny’s negligence when Basil has his first breakdown in his bathroom. This part of the game is player-controlled, which is a strange writing decision because all you can do is click on Basil and various bathroom amenities over and over which completely saps the urgency out of the scene. When you try to leave, Basil begs Sunny to stay, but (due to a lack of player options) Sunny walks out without a word. With no option to talk to him OR get help for him, it makes Sunny seem exceptionally cruel to Basil. In fact, I was starting to wonder if the game was setting up for some sort of twist that Sunny DIDN’T care about his friends, which would fix some of the confusion in point #1. However, as we know, that is not the case. Therefore, Sunny’s negligence/apathy towards Basil’s pain feels like a lie.

The writing fix would be to make it MORE clear that Sunny is intentionally running away from Basil. Make it a cutscene, or, give a false choice such as “Leave Basil? Yes / Yes”. After Sunny leaves, Kel should make some remark about Sunny looking odd, “You look sort of shaken up, is there something you want to tell me?” then hit it home with Sunny shaking his head. This would make it more clear that Sunny is intentionally hiding Basil’s state, as opposed to just being a bad friend. As it stands, it just felt like a writing mistake.

3. Basil and Sunny working together to stage Mari’s death as a suicide

This is the plot hole that I see the most complaints over, but it’s so big I have to address it. Accidentally pushing Mari down the stairs I understand, but the rest is too absurd. Below are some of the “lies” that the writing tries to get away with:

That Sunny and Basil wouldn’t just claim she slipped and fell.

That either boy would even come up with this sick plan.

That they wouldn’t back out of this idea during the multi-step process (carrying her downstairs, outside, getting the jump rope, tying a noose, putting it around her neck, stringing her up, hiding the evidence... This is a series of multiple decisions, not one quick accident like the initial push.)

That it’s not the image of Mari’s death that traumatized Sunny, but the image of what they chose to do to her body that traumatized them. I understand the image of Mari hanging is more dramatic, but they literally did it themselves so why is that more haunting than Sunny killing her?

That Mari’s true cause of death wouldn’t be immediately obvious to the parents, the police, the friends, EVERYONE. (I’ve seen fans try to get rid of this plot hole by hypothesizing that the parents knew and covered it up, but the evidence of this is circumstantial at best. The father saying, “You’re not my son,” is unreliable since it happens in Sunny’s headspace. Divorce is common after the death of a child, and, at the very least, Sunny’s mom doesn’t show any evidence of knowing what happened. The way it is written, only Sunny and Basil know the truth.)

The ridiculousness of this twist is so extreme that it completely broke any immersion I had left. Frankly, the reveal that the happy, loveable Mari committed suicide is a far heavier and more realistic twist than a crazy murder-cover-up story is.

Additionally, it seems like Basil was only written into this scene in order to make Sunny the true victim of what happened. After all, Sunny may have pushed her, but it was Basil who came up with the demented cover up. (This is apparent from just the photos but the datamined Truth Album confirms it.) By having Basil come up with the plan, the game splits the guilt between the two of them to make the kids easier to sympathize with. It’s problematic because if Basil was not in the scene, there would be no way to justify what Sunny did to Mari. So why is what they did easier to accept when they worked together?

Fixing the writing lie: Sunny lies and says that Mari slipped. Remove Basil from the scene, and instead have Sunny confide in Basil which forces Basil to become a co-conspirator and burdens him with the terrible truth.

4. Sunny’s friends forgiving him and Basil for what they did to Mari

Last but not least, the story heavily implies that Hero, Kel, and Aubrey will forgive Basil and Sunny for what they did to Mari. I found this to be almost as unbelievable as the staged-suicide stunt.

It feels like a lie since the group’s friendship is never established as anything beyond shallow hang outs from 3+ years ago (see point #1).

It feels like a lie because this is hot off the heels of Aubrey being so distraught over Mari and the following fall out that in the last three days she 1.) attacked Sunny and Kel with a nail bat TWICE, 2.) Stole Basil’s photobook, and 3.) Shoved Basil in the lake. This trauma is still very fresh for her.

It feels like a lie because the complexity of the staged-suicide is so extreme, one would be hard pressed to forgive ANYONE for doing that, be it friend, foe, parent, sibling, lover, etc.

I’ve seen fans argue that the ending is not about forgiveness, it’s about telling the truth, and I want to believe that. Really. If the ending was about Sunny starting his redemption arc by telling the truth no matter what the consequences are, that would be a meaningful lesson. But the writing does not support that. The ending headspace segments are focused on assuring Sunny that his friends will support/forgive him no matter what. To do this, the game shows us the shallow photobook memories (again) to show how much they allegedly care about each other. Then, when fighting Omori, Sunny remembers these quotes from his friends, which directly correlate to their unconditional support:

KEL: Friends... Friends are supposed to be there for each other.

AUBREY: I hope you can find some peace... or you know... some happiness.

HERO: We made the mistake of leaving each other when we needed each other the most. This time... we’ll stay together.

BASIL: Maybe one day... things can go back to the way they were before.

The really direct evidence that this ending is about getting forgiveness is this quote from Basil in Sunny’s headspace:

[BASIL: “AUBREY, KEL and HERO are good friends. You have to trust that they’ll forgive us.”]

This is one of the last scenes before Sunny tells his friends the truth, proving that obtaining forgiveness from his FRIENDS is in fact the leading motivation for Sunny’s actions.

Fixing this writing lie is easy. Instead, adjust the writing to be about telling the truth, not about how much the friends will still love Sunny. Have headspace Basil say, “Even if they don’t forgive us, Aubrey, Kel, and Hero deserve to know the truth. It’s the only way to make things right... or close to it.”

Conclusion

OMORI is undeniably a cute game with a strong visual identity, and has a premise that could make for a very compelling experience. However, the sloppy plot and weak character writing cause the potential of this game to be squandered. There are other issues as well that I chose not to cover for the sake of time, such as the poor pacing of the dragged out dungeons and the bizarre, unrealistic behavior of characters in the “real” world. 

However, there are a few more glaring problems with OMORI that I have to address: In part 2 of my critique, I break down what may be the biggest problem with OMORI’s writing: the message.

[ Link to Part 2: OMORI’s Message is Mishandled and Distasteful ]

[disengaged]

pegs my beloved could i please request a list of top canadian cinema in ur opinion (no rush ofc, just when u get the chance !! ) thank u 💘 & if that's too vague, just horror would also be dope :-)

YES ... YES I WOULD LOVE TO 🤩💘💘💘

disclaimer that i'm not all-knowing and i probably left a bunch of good shit off of here (& i Know you've already seen a bunch of these), but here we go:

HORROR

The Mask (1961) - evil mask commands the wearer to kill people ...... this movie FUCKS. super psychedelic. do not watch it while high, u will have a bad fucking time

Black Christmas (1974) - possibly THE best slasher film ... basically the prototype for "killer hunts group of sorority girls!" trope, but super witty & unnerving & not even that sexist

The Brood (1979) - demon children yeahhhh!

The Changeling (1980) - man loses wife & child, moves to new home, gets haunted

Scanners (1981) - uhhh ... telekinesis! the last 10 mins make the entire thing worth watching

Videodrome (1983) - mind-infecting torture porn, debbie harry is there for some reason

Cube (1997) - 6 strangers wake up in a room, then have to get thru puzzle rooms & death traps. sorta Saw-ish, but more sci-fi

Subconscious Cruelty (2000) - indie film comp of several "vignettes" ... real weird & gross tbh :-)

Ginger Snaps trilogy - teenage sisters & werewolves, duh. the quality drops significantly after the first film, but 2 & 3 are filmed in my city so they're fun for me to watch >:-)

Les sept jours du talion (2010) - a dad tortures the guy who killed his daughter, that's the plot

American Mary (2010) - body horror & r*pe revenge that's not just ... actively misogynist at every single turn

He Never Died (2015) - henry rollins is a cannibal, among other things. the last half is kinda hilarious

Les affamés (2017) - québécois zombie movie, kinda got panned by critics but it's beautiful !!

What Keeps You Alive (2018) - lesbian couple on vacation, one tries to murder the other

Possessor (2020) - cronenberg jr.'s second full-length film endeavour! corporate assassins use brain implant shit to control & kill other people, the gore is fuckin unreal ... also themes of motherhood, family etc

NOT HORROR

C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) - québécois movie abt a gay kid growing up in a french catholic household with his brothers, trying to like girls & failing

Eastern Promises (2007) - all actual russians hate this movie, but it's visually stunning

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (2010) - as a canadian i'm legally obligated to promote Rush at every turn :-) also i've seen this doc over a dozen times & it's just .... brilliant, RIP neil

Goon (2011) and Goon: Last of the Enforcers (2017) - hockey bro comedies, main character is THE ultimate himbo <3 (yes these are comfort movies for me)

The Twentieth Century (2019) - i still don't even know what this is. it's a fictional user biography of one of our former prime ministers except there's. a cactus & some foot fetish shit & a seal clubbing contest ....?? it's just fucked lol

hope this is an ok list !!! i've rlly been making a conscious effort to watch more cancon & québécois film this past year or so, but it can be hard sometimes cuz uh. Yknow . americanization .... :'-) & if anyone else has any other fav canadian films, by all means drop them in the replies !!

[the-real-tc]

Heartland Grows Up

This serves as a sort-of “review” of the first three episodes of Season 14, since I don’t think there’s a need for a blow-by-blow analysis of all of them. I will say I am thoroughly impressed by what I’ve seen so far; more than I have been by any new season of Heartland I have seen.

Now that we’re all up-to-speed on the biggest thing to ever happen on our beloved show, let me just say definitively that I am at once surprised and impressed the Writers had the guts to take this shocking plot development to the limit. 

We all saw the signs. Graham Wardle was getting restless. After spending more than a decade as Ty Borden, the guy felt it was time to move on. He’s been moving on for quite a while, and the show was suffering because of it. 

I am fairly easy-going when it comes to my entertainment. But one thing I can’t abide is lazy writing, or drama for the sake of drama. 

Ty dying is not “drama for the sake of drama”; at least not in the usual sense. This turn of events was not some out-of-left-field scheme to shock viewers. This was a carefully considered plot to facilitate Wardle’s permanent departure.

I feel quite sad for the fans who watch Heartland just for the cutesy happiness of the Amy and Ty pairing. I could say more about what I really feel about all the (what I feel to be) spiteful, bratty comments from other viewers, but I won’t. Suffice it to say I think killing off an important character like Ty is the single most important development that could have ever happened to the show.

Ty’s death has now catapulted the show into realms that were never before possible. In my opinion, the show—at its core—has always been about A Girl and Her Horse. Yes, it is also an ensemble show, meaning we have secondary characters whose lives we care about and whose side stories help flesh out the Heartland universe, but let’s face it: every single character could depart and the show could still go on—with the exception of Amy Fleming. Those who know me know if there’s any pairing on the Show I’m most interested in—it’s Jack and Lisa, so whatever happened with Amy and Ty was just a matter of course. They were the central pairing we were supposed to root for (and I did), care for (and I did). But there’s a burden when you’re the “it” couple on a show. How do you keep things fresh and interesting without resorting to the same old tropes and predictable relationship woes? 

Sure, Heartland could have limped along the way it always has with the horse-problem-of-the-week, but for how long? How vanilla is that? If that’s what floats most the viewers’ boats week-in and week-out, more power to them, I guess. For me, I’m thrilled to have something meatier after so many seasons of increasingly bland fare. How much longer could we have suspended our disbelief that Ty was “away” for whatever reason? Untenable, and unsustainable. Ty had to die for the show to be reborn; or maybe for the show to mature a little. 

Already the first three episodes of Season 14 have demonstrated Heartland can handle heavier drama than characters getting stranded in a snowed-in cabin or silly teen rivalries and love triangles; it can handle more than plane crashes and greedy poachers, improbable hostage takings and kidnappings. Heartland can do raw grief, and the actors have been knocking it out of the park. 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, because I appreciate so much all the care that’s been taken to do justice to Wardle’s departure/Ty’s death: the Writers are giving us permission to grieve. Too often in TV a character dies, their friends and family are shown to be upset, sad, sorrowing, etc., for maybe an episode (two, if we’re lucky), and then that’s it. Sometimes, we don’t even get that, and while we would like to be given time to process a beloved character’s death, the TV show must go on, and so it does. We aren’t given permission to mourn the character because we don’t get the cathartic release of seeing the other characters mourning.

Not so with Heartland. They’re doing it the right way, in my opinion. Jack told Amy there’s no right way to grieve and everyone grieves differently. I get the impression this is going to be a recurring theme throughout this season as they all come to terms with what happened: Amy was numb for a whole year. Tim and Jack repressed their anger in their own ways. Lily fell off the wagon hard. Georgie apparently buried herself in her studies. Lou ignored it and focused on her mayoral duties. But watching them all dealing with what has happened means I can release my emotions, and the brilliant part is I don’t feel manipulated into crying. In fact, I’ve had to make a good effort not to sob out loud at some of the scenes, though tears have certainly flowed on a few occasions. 

Ty had to die to get the show past its creative rut. That may sound crass and callous, but I’ll reiterate it’s the best thing that could have happened to the Show at this juncture, and that’s no knock on Graham Wardle. Had he been willing to be 100% invested in the series until its conclusion instead of this one-foot-in-one-foot-out scenario, perhaps things might have been okay. They could have coasted along, telling very middle-of-the-road stories like always, and the fans would have continued to come back to the very comfortable, safe, predictable Heartland universe. No complaints. No grievances. Everyone goes home happy and content. I would also have hung on, if not out of plain loyalty and the enjoyment I get from interacting with fellow fans.

Well, we all just had a massive wake-up call, and I’m here for it. Heartland has grown up, thanks largely to the massive risk taken by the Writers, and by the excellent performances by all the players—Amber Marshall in particular—who has really dived deep into the depths of exploring Amy’s grief. I hope the Canadian Screen Award folks take notice, because this is some of the best acting I’ve ever seen from her. 

I’m looking forward to seeing what else is in store for us in Season 14, and hopefully beyond.

[michael-drummey]

Achilles x Patroclus: Part 2, Harmful Stereotypes in Modern Media

**Since my last post on this blew up! Here is just a little more on the subject & some of the nonsense I have seen & experienced on said topic online & in other forms of media**

For anyone who needs proof that Achilles & Patroclus were always and originally presented as a gay couple in a committed relationship mapped out in The Iliad (see my original post here) SOME in our society (not those who are properly educated) like to project harmful & stereotypical LGBTQ+ tropes on Homer’s material & their representation in other forms of media that are still prevalent today such as:

 “Gay as not the Main Character” - The Iliad starts with the lines “RAGE: Sing, Goddess, Achilles’ rage,” so right at the start this Story we meet Achilles; obviously he is crucial in the story’s plot, yet even for his importance in this story it is not named for him, the focus is on Troy. Achilles is “Greatest of all the Greeks” but is remembered for all his bad qualities, while others like Agamemnon who is also deeply flawed or Odysseus, get the recognition of trying to reason with Achilles, and are seen as the more reasonable leaders set on winning the war. Achilles and Patroclus get reduced to just once aspect of the story, then once they are dead, we get The Odyssey and our new main boy Odysseus. The wily & super straight war hero trying to get home to his darling wife and son, which leads us to our next trope...

“Bury your Gays” - Achilles and Patroclus are obviously coded as homosexual even though the Ancient Greeks did not have a word to use for gay, but it is none the less glaringly obvious. Patroclus is killed by Hector when he rides into battle to help his fellow Greeks and retain Achilles’ Honor, thus setting in motion the events that will unleash Achilles’ Rage upon Hector and the Trojans. We also find out later in The Odyssey Achilles died when Odysseus meets him in The Underworld where he stands off with Patroclus so check check for both stories. This is a huge piece of Homer’s story, but so many times Patroclus is forsaken and treated as a plot point not as a character who’s fate changes the course of the story, they view him as a “gotta go” kind of sidekick to Achilles.

“Depraved Homosexual & Loose Bisexual” - Either perverse and/or murderous the “depraved homosexual” trope portrays the gay character as possessing all quirks and qualities one/society considers undesirable. Achilles is vengeful and refuses to fight when Agamemnon tarnishes his honor, then when Patroclus is killed Achilles is completely inconsolable, wishing to end his life, he weeps for days on end in bed with the body of Patroclus. When he unleashes that grief (The Rage of Achilles) he is reduced to a killing machine hellbent on nothing but avenging his beloved’s death, which eventually will lead to his own demise. He is rarely referred to as a 3-dimensional character with complex emotions from this point on. As one who has suffered in this war, lost his honor & lost the love of his life, which has caused all that is human in him to die as well; he succumbs to his pain. His wrath is what so many know him for even if they haven’t read the story, They just see him as a ferocious warrior, but so few know the full context behind his actions, or love to claim he did what he did because his “best friend” was killed. Some forms of media love to also portray them as bisexual, where we are given over the top sex scenes, and shown two men who are meant to be “less than” for their sexual freedom/lack of sexual morals. While it really has nothing to do with that and just creates more biphobia and erasure. We are never are shown them happily and honestly committed to each other, which leads us to our next stereotype.

“Everyone is Straight” - SOME Historians, Scholars, Writers, Movies love to predominately present characters as “all straight or only straight”. Since The Iliad was recorded people have been debating if Achilles & Patroclus were an item or not. Personally I think the evidence is overwhelming and plain as day, (you do not share a tent & bed with just your homie, Rage as Achilles did at Patroclus’ death, then keep his body in your bed yearning for his “μένος” (menos) aka manly vigor and semen, then get your ashes buried together in the same urn, just for someone to say “They were Best Friends Forever!” There is more than enough evidence to say Homer wrote them as gay, but some love to throw the “Briseis Argument” out there saying he intended to marry her, and she was his girl, ie. lots of gratuitous sex scenes to follow. If that were so, why does he only take her into his bed once at the end of Book 24? He had 10 years what was stopping him? And why did he wish her dead when he receives the body of Patroclus? Truthfully you would be sad your friend died, but at least its not your lover, right? Unless, wait what happened to Achilles when Patroclus died?... oh right, that’s the reaction of a man who has lost his best friend, lover, basically entire world, so “Bye Briseis!” you were a broken man’s booty call, time to move along. (Not that there is anything wrong with being a booty call, but in The Iliad that’s what Homer gave us to work with and this ones more directed at Hollywood and Straights™ who like to ignore all historical context.)

Now we know that these tropes did not exist when The Iliad was recorded, and Homer did not set out with the mind set “gotta kill these gays!” the word homosexual did not exist until 1869, it is not like being LGBTQ+ people just popped up then too. But viewing the story with some of these lens we can more clearly see these modern tropes and stereotypes 1. Can exist in pieces of art and literature despite the time the story was told. 2. Hurtful stereotypes affect the way people translate & view stories, peoples, cultures, etc. A prime example I still find it shocking when people say “weren’t they just cousins!?” (NO) 3. Not thinking critically and thoughtfully about such a piece, prevents others from truthful experiences, and devalues the meaning and emotion one gets from reading or telling such a story. 4. It is modern weaponizing & blatant erasure of those LGBTQ+ (fictional and non-fictional characters) that came before us to present a false narrative of heteronormativity. 

In the end, as I stated, Homer did not use these stereotypes, these stories would have been sung and told in a way that captivated its audience, which they obviously are still doing today. Homer is a phenomenal storyteller, truly a classic and one of the best, but some still feel the need to straightwash these characters. So next time someone tries to say Homer never wrote Achilles and Patroclus as gay lovers, there is no evidence in The Iliad to support it, and that we cannot look at them through a modern lens. Or call out others who choose to ignore history, facts, and context, you can say “You Can! and Yes, Achilles x Patroclus are 100% in a committed gay relationship!” 

[thetypedwriter]

The Captive Prince Trilogy

The Captive Prince Trilogy Book Review by C.S. Pacat 

Now, one of my absolute favorite things to do is to re-read. 

Many people find this strange. 

How do you enjoy a book you’ve already read? They say. You already know what happens, isn’t it boring?

In short, the very simple, very concise answer is: no. 

I adore re-reading my favorite books for several reasons. 

One, it’s comfortable. I love slipping back into a world flush full of characters I cherish. It’s like slipping back into a warm bed on a cold morning. Re-reading the Harry Potter series for me, for example, is the same sort of reasoning people watch Friends over and over again or whatever amenable show of their choice. 

It’s easy, it's familiar, and it’s beloved. 

Second, often with re-reads you are able to pick up on things that you missed the first time you read through, or even the second. There is symbolism, foreshadowing, and minute details that become glaringly obvious in retrospect and whenever I discover one of these tidbits I become overwhelmingly jubilant. 

Third, sometimes nothing else sounds good. If I’m having a book lull and nothing seems to catch my attention, I know I can return to a treasured novel or series and that it’ll satiate whatever reading needs I have at the time. 

This happened to me very recently. As my to-read pile dwindled down to books given to me by others that I held trivial interest in, I resorted to re-reading a book series that I love to death: All for the Game trilogy. You can find my review of this series here. 

More commonly known as the first book in the series, The Foxhole Court, these books have continually given me merriment and joy every time I’ve read them, including this time. I read all three novels in about four days and I enjoyed every single second of it, even though this is the third time I’ve read the series start to finish. 

After finishing The King’s Men, I was once again bereft of reading material and woefully bored. Hence, as any normal person does, I resorted to fanfiction and to looking up books that people found were similar to The Foxhole Court. 

To my surprise, on every list was a trilogy I had never heard of called The Captive Prince. Scoffing in skepticism-how could something even compare to my beloved foxes? I decided with circumspect that I would “try” out this series. 

I was very much right. The Captive Prince trilogy almost had nothing in common with Nora Sakavics’s The Foxhole Court other than the hate-to-love trope (but it’s not like Nora invented that by any means) and slow-burn romance. 

That being said, I very much enjoyed the series. 

The trilogy was first self-published by author C.S. Pacat in 2013, the same year that Nora Sakavic self-published The Foxhole Court. What a good year for literature. In all candor, the authors and their backgrounds seem to have more in common then their series do. 

The Captive Prince revolves around Damen, the true and rightful heir to the throne of Akielos, being sold as a slave to the prince of Vere, Laurent, by his own brother who has usurped the throne after the untimely death of their father. 

Thus unfolds a truly complex and intriguing series involving intricate world-building, political machinations, Damen’s lofty goal of trying to go back home and take his rightful place on the throne, Laurent’s ongoing war with his uncle, the current Regent of Vere until Laurent comes of age, and some truly surprising twists and turns. 

This trilogy took me blissfully by surprise. 

Is this trilogy a romance? Yes, it is. Very slow burn and with the aforementioned enemies-to friends-to lovers trope that we’re all enamored with (don’t even pretend otherwise). I saw the synopsis, caught wind of the word “slave” and almost gave in and tossed this book away permanently. 

I don’t like relationships with unbalanced hierarchies of power. In truth, it makes me uncomfortable because I truly think the relationship can’t be mutual, equal, or consensual when one person in the relationship inherently has more influence and control over the other. 

I thought Captive Prince was going to be another smutty, cheesy, poorly written rendition of a “slave” being given to a prince and low and behold, they fall in love anyway despite the numerous and lengthy immoral implications within that framework. 

Much to my surprise, the Captive Prince took its own turn. 

Number one, while Damen is sold as a slave to Laurent, there is nothing explicitly sexual in nature that occurs between them (much) until further later on in the series. This is mostly because of Laurent himself, who loathes Damen for reasons that I won’t get into. 

The society they live in, however, does not have the same chaste control that the Prince of Vere does, but instead of coming across as lascivious and self-serving, the gratuitous display of sex and sex slaves in the novel actually serves more of a commentary of being toxic and something that Laurent wants to change once he is properly king. I appreciated this commentary. 

Secondly, Damen and Laurent’s relationship was genuinely good to me. Often with books of this romantic and superfluous nature, the relationship seems fake, forced, or like I said before, inherently unbalanced and therefore coerced. 

However, Pacat does a very good job of insisting that while Damen is technically Laurent’s slave in status, he is never actually Laurent’s slave in action, belief, or treatment. It was very refreshing to see how much power Damen amassed, even with his slave status, and the control he was able to wield and hone. 

Laurent and Damen also authentically compliment each other. Where Laurent is cold and calculating, Damen is warm and trusting. Where one is manipulative with mind games another is strategic on the battlefield. They meshed well together. A fact that Pacat showed time and time again. They made each other better. And in the end, they both realized this as well. 

Thirdly, this series was truly well written and didn’t focus solely on the romance. For a trilogy found under the romance section at Barnes & Noble, I was chagrined to find that for the most part, politics, war, scheming, and an overall plot heavy series dominated most of the pages. 

While Laurent and Damen’s relationship does have focus, it wasn’t the only focus, and if anything, their relationship played well and clearly into the events that were going on around them. 

That being said, similar to The Foxhole Court, please be warned that there are triggering aspects of this book. Namely rape, slavery, prostitution, drugs, violence, torture, etc. If this is something that is concerning to you, please research the warnings and risks attributed to this novel before diving head first. 

Lastly, people, the sheer vocabulary of this series was astonishing. I had to look up so many words that I didn’t know. Instead of being annoying, I loved this. I love learning new words. 

However, reading YA most of the time does not stretch my vocabulary limits. This book certainly did and I wholeheartedly appreciated it. Some words included: chamois, dishabille, chicanery, sobriquet, nascent and damascened. I will be very impressed if you know all these words without having to google them like I did. 

I know I should have probably written separate reviews for all three books in the trilogy, but because I read them one after another and in such a short amount of time, the whole series kind of blended together for me in one gargantuan novel. 

I can’t say that I hated that. Lengthy books are an absolute prize when you’re enjoying them. In addition, Pacat released short stories with differing material, one is an epilogue type of deal and most of the others show insights into side characters from throughout the series. They’re all very fun to read if you needed something more like I did once I was finished. 

Recommendation: The trilogy as a whole was really fun and surprisingly well-written. Damen, Laurent and other characters were continuously fleshed out and the writing itself was nuanced, symbolic, and just fun to read. The world-building, while not the most incredibly original thing that’s ever surfaced, was still gripping and entertaining. 

It was almost like a fantasy take on Ancient Rome or Greece, which is very much up my alley anyway. The romance wasn’t cheesy, but was instead fluid, dynamic, and situated well within the plot as a whole. It wasn’t the Foxhole Court, but that’s okay, because what can be? Better off to be something new and distinct than trying to copy something or someone else. 

As Oscar Wilde once said, “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.”

Indeed, Mr. Wilde. 

Score: 8/10