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sepublic · 1 year

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Lumity and Conflict

We’ve all talked about Lumity being a really healthy relationship, a refreshingly healthy one at that, but we should also appreciate how the writers manage to have this AND portray conflict in a way that isn’t contrived, too.

Take for example, Follies at the Coven Day Parade. It’d be SO easy to have the conflict come from Amity going ahead with checking Luz’s videos, and then have her and Luz argue over the breach of privacy, like in a lot of media. But instead, Amity KNOWS it’s wrong, but at the same time she can tell Luz has a problem and a tendency to keep it secret, which forces loved ones to call her out until Luz finally confesses and asks for help!

So Amity’s conflict is whether or not she SHOULD go through Luz’s phone, and it resolves in a healthy manner because she goes to Willow for advice. That of course continues the plot thread of these two attempting to reconnect after their sorta reconciliation in Willow’s mindscape, and sets up the eventual confrontation between the two in Labyrinth Runners, regarding Amity still continuing to underestimate and condescend Willow, even if from a place of good intent.

And that’s so much more interesting than Luz and Amity drama for the sake of drama, because now we get to throw in Willow and Amity’s dynamic and check up on how it’s developed, set up how it WILL develop, all while having Amity manage to do the right thing, but with some meaningful struggle and discussion, sympathetic and nuanced given her legitimate concern for Luz (rather than insecure snooping for the sake of it) and her issues of bottling up, on her way to do that!

And we do see Amity struggle with insecurity over her and Luz’s relationship earlier, but she doesn’t take it out on Luz; Instead, we have her struggle with Hunter as the two are paralleled and contrasted in their relationships with people they care for and feel the need to impress, due to the abuse of their childhood! Again, more interesting and less stereotypical than Amity being the toxic, possessive lesbian trope.

And Luz and Amity still have conflict WITH each other, like in Reaching Out, but it manages to avoid feeling contrived because it isn’t drama and jealousy for its sake, it’s about uncovering an aspect of Luz’s past, a fundamental experience, while also following through on addressing a character flaw she’s displayed for a while! Thereby advancing Luz’s growth instead of creating a reset for both girls to work through all over again. I like that Luz and Amity are allowed to be a healthy couple and have conflict, while also still navigating that conflict in a pretty healthy way.

I think it’s a nice message to kids about how your relationships can be healthy and still not be perfect, if you put in the time to communicate and work through those problems, because every relationship will have issues. But what makes it healthy isn’t the absence of issues, it’s how both parties handle them together.

Plus, Lumity still struggles with conflict, albeit together, both of them facing another problem; There’s stuff more lighthearted like Any Sport in a Storm, in which we get to see Luz and Amity struggle with an issue, but they do it mutually. There’s no drama or problem between them, it’s the two tackling a separate thing together and we get to see them interact and have fun with no concerns about their relationship. There’s still conflict and there’s still Lumity, but we see how they actually function as a duo together in synergy, how they approach outside things as a unit, without the dynamic itself at stake, just a shared objective. The conflict isn’t between Lumity, it’s Lumity VS Something Else.

Then we have Clouds on the Horizon, which is Lumity coming together, to fight against Odalia and her control, her abuse and disapproval; It’s only Luz and Amity’s love for each other prevailing, no doubt about their standing with one another, against an outside force, Odalia. Dana said she and the writers intended Lumity to act as a sweet counterbalance to a lot of the angsty struggle, and indeed it provides some light-hearted relief seeing the two just get along and be happy together! But they still manage to balance and spice it up with some conflict sometimes, without jeopardizing the relationship because it’s not contrived conflict either.

It’s Lumity against an outside force, or it’s Luz and Amity navigating being in a relationship, while being both relatively mature and understanding about it, AND allowing room for insecurities for them to feel and work through. Their relationship doesn’t feel more precarious or toxic because of the problems, it ends up feeling MORE healthy because Luz and Amity take the time to acknowledge and work on them (unlike Raeda, who are messy in their own compelling way).

And we still do have Luz genuinely mess up (such as her and Amity’s separate conflict with Kikimora that episode), she gets to be a flawed individual who makes mistakes, but it’s not out of a macho disregard or apathy for her girlfriend; Likewise, instead of expecting Amity to settle as the unconditionally supporting, demure GF, the narrative does make a point to Luz that she has some responsibility to let Amity in, and that Amity can only take so much of it, and she’d be right to set those lines for Luz to cross!

There is conflict between Luz going off and being a hero, getting into trouble, and Amity having to back her up; But it’s a conflict that takes the side of Amity and others who played that role, which is refreshing to see. They both take care of each other, which I’ve already discussed how Amity does, but don’t forget Luz did it plenty in S1, then in Eclipse Lake, especially Clouds on the Horizon where she plays a role of support to Amity going out and getting into trouble, enables her GF to be the one up to mischief! It’s really neat, is all.

There’s conflict in getting Lumity together, but for all the buildup of coming together in a relationship, we also get to see them navigate being together as the second half of their storyline, rather than the ending. So it’s the reward of Will They or Won’t They culminating in They Do, coupled with the narrative of them AS a relationship, not just becoming one, both ends of the spectrum. Wonderful balance.

#the owl house #lumity #luz noceda #amity blight #meta #analysis

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saltydkdan · 9 months

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Thoughts on Strohiem? (From Jojo)

It’s… rough. I have OPINIONS ABOUT HIM.

For those unaware, or have forgotten. This particular ask is about the character of Rudol von Stroheim from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. A Nazi Major that is introduced in Part 2 of the series. I have always wanted a proper moment to spotlight how much I dislike this character. And not just how I dislike him as a character, but how I dislike his general inclusion in the story as well.

Listen, I LOVE this series. But even I have my limits. It’s because I love it so much that I critique aspects like this in the first place.

Warning, I’m about to word vomit about this because I’ve been DYING to talk about this somewhere.

BIG DISCLAIMER: These are my thoughts and mine alone. I know there’s a lot of… interesting anime fans out there that might disagree. I’m not here to debate on stuff like this, I don’t want to hear your contradictory thoughts on the subject. If I see a single person say I’m “virtue signaling” by saying I don’t like the Jojo Nazi character, I am going to mail you a pipe bomb (in the hit game Minecraft for Windows PCs)

Stroheim’s existence (or at least, how he currently exists in the story) is not handled all that well in my opinion. Like… not at all. I like to poke fun at it, but I genuinely think Araki fumbled the bag so hard with Stroheim and it's more and more unbelievable the more I think about it over time.

No matter how you shake it, Araki fully wrote a historically accurate Nazi character into Battle Tendency and proceeded to give him a redemption arc and make him a member of the supporting cast. Now of course, I know that Japan has a fascination with a lot of German stuff, so within that context I can kind of get why he exists in the way that he does, but it just feels weird and in bad taste.

Contextually, it makes sense. Do I like it? No. No I do not.

To address the elephant in the room, I get it. Araki really loves to write evil villain characters, and then having them be redeemed, or switch over to the hero's side after a certain point. I actually really enjoy this trope especially in Jojo! It’s one of my favorites. Especially how it’s handled in Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable.

However, writing a redemption storyline for characters like Okuyasu and Rohan is fundamentally different from writing one for Stroheim.

First and most obviously, unlike other characters, Stroheim’s whole character is based on an actual real life totalitarian extremist hate group who committed horrible atrocities across history (and still does to this day).

As if that wasn’t enough, he quite LITERALLY commits horrible atrocities ON SCREEN. Sacrificing an entire room of innocent people to Santana (the first of the Pillar Men) so that the German’s can awaken and study him in their secret lab.

Everything about Stroheim feels like it’s very intentional at the start. He is clearly set as a villain from the beginning, and it works fine. However once he self-immolates and blows himself up to destroy Santana, the story seems to continuously frame him more and more as an ally/hero from that point onward.

After he returns with his cyborg body, the fact that he’s a Nazi suddenly takes a back seat and now he’s continuously just framed as a “patriotic” soldier. Legit, the moment after he shows back up, Joseph internally comments on how he’s “not exactly a bad guy”.

Some people will argue on how it’s a bit more complicated than that, since Joseph also thinks about how he dislikes that he’s a German Soldier. But directly after this, he also states how he’s still happy Stroheim isn’t dead. If anything, from this point onward Joseph acts towards Storheim in a similar way to how he acts towards Caeser. Even if they aren’t best friends, Joseph still has positive feelings towards Stroheim, and I hateeeee that.

In the anime, they even make sure to call him a “German Soldier” and not a Nazi. The avoidance of that word really struck me as them trying to avoid that subject because they knew the way the character was treated was strange.

So anyway, as I was trying to say. Redeeming villain characters is one thing, but redeeming a villain character that is straight up a literal Nazi is something else entirely. Especially when like, not to nitpick, but Stroheim never walks back the more extremist beliefs that he for sure subscribes to.

-And if you’re one of those weirdos who tries to make a point by saying “well, he never outright says what he actually believes in! Maybe he is just fighting for Germany for his own reasons.”

My dude, he’s literally described as a “Patrotic Nazi”. What the fuck do yoU THINK HE BELIEVES IN?

Also as a final addition to this rant, I also don’t quite like how weirdly normalized that Araki makes the existence of “german soldiers” in his story even outside of Stroheim. Nazi’s are weirdly commonplace throughout the plot, and while it contextually makes sense since they kicked off the main conflict, they are almost always weirdly painted as neutral or even straight up good guys (after the Santana fight). Which is just really strange to me.

Like bruh, you mean to tell me that Caeser fucking Zeppeli is casually frieNDS WITH ONE OF THEM? BE FUCKIN FR ARAKI LOL

It also sucks how Stroheim is so increasingly present leading up to the final act. Like MAN, GET THIS MOTHERFUCKER OFF THE SCREEN.

The only good thing about the inclusion of Nazi’s after Stroheim’s initial sacrifice, is that we get to see the Pillar Man murk a shit ton of them on screen. Like, fuck yeah dude. A great way to power scale and show how powerful the Pillar Men are as antagonists, without me feeling bad that they killed a bunch of people to do so.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents that nobody asked for. I still LOVE Jojo, I think it’s a masterpiece of its genre, but it’s because of my intense love for it that I criticize it’s missteps so heavily. I hope that my wording on this post is done well, I had to re-draft it a second time after accidentally deleting it once, so I have a feeling it’ll come off a bit scrambled.

That being said, thanks for the Ask!

#saltydkdan #salty asks #jojos bizarre adventure #jojo's bizarre adventure #long boys

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white-poppie · 2 years

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Pure Imagination

Request: Hello!! Can I request a soulmate AU with Killua, Kurapika, Feitan and Chrollo where they finally meet their soulmate?

Poppie note: Happy Yorknew Day! The smile on my face whenever someone requests something for Kurapika 🤎. Soulmate AUs are one of my favourite things to write, too much fluff, but you know what I love even more? The bittersweet feeling :))

Pairing: Killua, Feitan, Chrollo, Kurapika with Gn! reader

Hunter x Hunter (ハンタ x ハンタ)

𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐚

AU: you share scars/whatever you draw on your body with your soulmate.

This wasn't the first time Killua was meeting you.

The first time he crossed paths with you was 6 years ago; when he was 8. He felt as if time had stopped for him. There was this dull ache in his chest, pounding against his vessels, coiling in the maze of his stomach, only to be taut again when he realised that his family would kill you.

The tiny scar on his palm, a tiny and irregular shape, indeed no one else could have it. He was on an assassination mission with Illumi, hiding in a shop; he rushed out when he saw the target, only to bump into you.

He apologized and helped you up, gasping at the sight of the scar, and before you could question him about his reaction, he was gone.

After a few hours, for the first time your soulmate sent a marking on your arm, "I saw you today, wait for me. I will come back for you.--Killua Zoldyck."

It didn't take you long to figure out, your soulmate was no one other than the Albino boy. Since then he slowly sent you small messages, until today. Today, you received an address.

"Hi," he breathed shakily, feeling that giddiness and longing all over again, his hair was more settled down and his height had increased a little, "...hi soulmate...I mean Y/N."

You gulped and bit your lip to stop yourself from crying out, "Hey Killua."

Finding the most courage he could muster, he shakily took your hand in his. He was here to stay, he wouldn't leave, never again.

𝐅𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐧

AU: The first words that your soulmate says to you are on your wrist.

Your friend was an asshole.

He took money from some infamous troupe and now you were being questioned by a tall blonde woman and a guy who looked like a samurai in a dark dungeon, tied up to a pole.

"I told you, I really don't know where he is or where he kept the money, I didn't even know he was involved in this stuff!" you cried out frustratedly.

The blonde woman sighed and called for one of her subordinates, "Feitan!"

"Take it from here," she clicked the heel of her stilettoes.

The raven-haired man breathed in annoyance and sat in front of you. His dragon-monolid eyes, scratched the very core of your being, tantalizingly.

"So, what do we have here?" he said to you and a strangled gasp of pain left your throat--the pain on your wrist, it was burning.

His eyebrows scrunched into a thin line, "what the hell are you doing?"

"My wrist...it hurts so bad!" you cried out and Feitan's eyes widened in surprise, those words were too familiar for his liking. He looked down to his wrist, to see the marks fading away with a slight sting.

It didn't hurt as much as you were whining, you had to be one of the sensitive types then, his favourite~.

"To think I would meet you here, out of all places," he said breathlessly, but there was a mischievous glint in his eyes that scared you, "hey there soulmate, you and I are going to have a fun time~"

𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨

AU: Red string of Fate

Chrollo looked at his Rado wristwatch for the nth time today. He wasn't used to it, the calmness. The non-rushed routine of work. All the members of the tropes were gone for a mission and he was free for the day, so he decided to go for a walk along the coast.

Chrollo, although hated to admit it, was still waiting for his soulmate. He was past the age, true, but a man can dream, right?

The small red string on his pinky was always so loose. Indicating that you were far away.

For the last few weeks, it itched due to the incredible tautness, his palms fell clammy with each shortened length of the string. He could simply wait for you to come...maybe you might, maybe you won't.

But my oh my! You were killing him with the wait!

Chrollo ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath and before he could think...he was running in the direction of the string.

He ran and ran, a faint drizzle came that soaked his clothes wet and stuck his raven hair to his forehead.

He had been a coward for far too long now, he wasn't going to stop anymore.

He came to stop when he saw the string end, looking up he saw you crouched to a small box on the corner of the road.

You felt a tug on your side of the string and looked at the man.

"What took you so long?" he asked breathlessly due to all the running.

"Cat," you picked up the feline from the box and showed it to him.

"Huh?" Oh man, his poor heart, you were too cute!

𝐊𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐤𝐚

AU: you can see your soulmate's emotions through a ring on your finger. The colour changes to pink when you meet your soulmate

Blue. Your soulmate ring almost never changed its colour. When it did, it was for the worse only. For as long as you can remember, your ring had always been Blue, Dark Blue or Red.

Melancholy, Depression or Rage. You have never seen any positive colour on your soulmate ring. Your heart ached for him, for a person you had never met.

The ring was getting warm. He was close, your soulmate was close, but he could be anywhere! Your eyes searched frantically for him, this was your last chance to meet him.

Seconds turned to minutes. Minutes turned to hours. You sighed and sat exhausted on a bench, holding your head in your arms, you twiddled with the ring.

A blond boy was sitting next to you. On one hand, he had multiple silver rings while on another he had one singular--the colour of his ring hadn't changed too: orange, frustration.

You looked back at your ring. It was dark blue in colour. Your throat felt dry like a desert when you looked at it...you were looking forward to it.

Your dry throat soon let out a gasp when you saw the blue morph into pink. Your expression was returned by the blond boy next to you. His ring turning pink too.

Your lips trembled when you looked at him. Shocked by how such a frail body could be the temple of such heart-wrenching emotions.

His eyes were glossy as he looked at you, voice-cracking as he spoke, "Hi I am Kurapika -hmph!"

And before he could've completed his sentence, you embraced him in the tightest hug possible.

His heart was palpitating out of his chest and it took him a while to relax into the hug. That's right, you were his soulmate after all.

You were going to be there for him, making sure that he never felt those wretched emotions again.

A/N: mann I am so in love with Kurapika :,)

Tags: @akumicchi @jazzylove @futuristicallykawaiiturtle @kristaline2dmensimp @rintaroubby @nanaseishiro

Hunter x Hunter (ハンタ x ハンタ)

╰┈➤ Book order details (Request Rules) ╰┈➤ Special customers(Taglist)

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aroaceleovaldez · 3 months

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hey! hope this isn't weird but i wanted to know why you think artemis wasn't up to standards even in the original pjo series. you reblogged from me and so i had front row to your tags on the post about zeus jaja i've not seen people talk a lot about her and it got me interested as i'm a classics student!

- @zoebelladona 🌙

HELLO OH BOY okay so I have half a rant already about Artemis in terms of Rick and general aphobic tropes in the series. see: that open letter on twitter. i still need to transfer that to tumblr. fun fact: Rick replied to that post but deleted his reply at some point. probably because two replies after he replied to my post and word-of-god confirmed Reyna to be ace-coded he left social media for a bit.

Fun times! Anyways.

The thing I dislike about Artemis as she's depicted in the series, besides her constantly appearing as a teenager and the aphobic tropes with that [see: open letter linked above] - which on some level is slightly more excusable than other examples given she's a goddess of young women, but given how he writes Athena, Hestia, and the Hunt instead leaves a bad taste in my mouth - and other similar aphobic tropes with her, is her whole weird anti-men thing (which is also, in itself, also an aphobic trope in this particular circumstance). I understand TTC was written in 2007 so that flavor of radical feminism that Artemis and the Hunt is clearly supposed to be was only just coming into major public awareness and the flaws in the ideology (and the inherent bigotry, particularly transphobia and racism that often comes with it) weren't as well recognized at the time. But in hindsight it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth for obvious reasons and is one of the things from the first series that severely aged poorly in my opinion, and I greatly dislike that in every subsequent retcon of the Hunt for other reasons Rick more or less retains that aspect.

Secondly... it doesn't make sense from a mythological standpoint? Because there are multiple examples of men being Hunters in Artemis' retinue. Even ignoring Orion, no matter how you go about shaking that stick (which for the record I really dislike how Rick retconned him in the series/wrote him in HoO), Hippolytus is a very notable example. Literally his big whole original shtick was he joined the Hunt because he didn't like romance and Aphrodite got so pissed about him not needing her (romance) that she killed him. And even when Aphrodite was trying to ruin his life he held on to his virtues and vow to Artemis (refusing advances even when his life was on the line). He is otherwise totally chill and devoted to Artemis. Some versions of his myth has Artemis have him resurrected after he dies (by Asclepius, which is why Asclepius is punished for reviving the dead). This also obviously doesn't address the major glaring logical flaw in Artemis hating all men which is... Apollo. Especially within the series he seems to be an exception for no reason, despite Artemis also very overtly having a "brothers are not an exception to the no-men rule." And from a modern queer standpoint, it obviously begs the question of stuff like gender identity within the Hunt and if you bring back the radfem stuff it gets real bad vibes real fast. Which also sucks when you particularly look at historical/mythological descriptions of Apollo and Artemis and how they very poignantly encompass defying gender roles and expectations particularly within their cultural contexts.

And every time Rick tries to retcon the Hunt, he somehow manages to make it kind of worse, particularly with the oath. I have a whole personal thing for how I think to best rectify all that nonsense in a way that isn't horrible and is related to some of Artemis' aspects in a more sensible way (buried somewhere in this monster of a post. Honestly i'd just recommend ctrl + f search "Hunters" on that post and it should be somewhere near the first ping there). In there I also go into some of my other thoughts for the general meh way the Hunt is written in the series, mostly being aphobic tropes and random death fodder.

So yeah. Basically, tl;dr: I am personally not a huge fan of how Artemis in the series is halfway to being a terf and chock-full of aphobic tropes. And I need Rick to stop retconning things into the ground.

#pjo #riordanverse #hunters of artemis #artemis pjo #analysis #< yeah sure it warrants that tag #ask to tag #zoebelladona #ask #i really need to transfer that open letter rant to tumblr #still amused that rick replied to it within like an hour of me posting it but clearly didnt read it #long post //#also heads up this is only like half-proofread cause i'm ill right now #so i apologize if it's nonsensical at all

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grainjew · 1 month

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Nikaposting Pt 3: Joyboy was Shandian

This is the third of a series of posts about Nika & associated religious practice in the One Piece world. As I write and post the rest of the series, I’ll add links to this header.

Pt 1: Crypto-Religion | Pt 2: Symbology & Syncretism | Pt 4: Sun God Tropes

Enormous credit to @oriigami for being my discussion partner through all of this and having a substantial influence on the final product. Check out our ao3 series Joyful for a narrative rather than analytical take on the Nika tradition, and definitely go read her OP blog @kaizokuou-ni-naru for meta and translation fun facts.

Joyboy. What’s his deal?

Context note: This post makes the assumption that Joyboy was an awakened user of the Nika fruit. I don’t think that’s a particularly disputed take but I wanted to make sure we were clear on that to start with: To these posts, Nika is a mythical figure with a cult of worship and an incredibly potent wish attached to his name. And Joyboy, like Luffy now, was a user of the fruit created of that wish and harmonized enough with its nature to awaken.

We know basically nothing about Joyboy, but there’s just enough there for some really fun theorizing. This post will be shorter and more speculative than the rest of the series, but I think it’s a fun enough concept that I wanted to add it in.

So: Here’s why I think Joyboy was Shandian!

Let’s start with the obvious- Oda definitely re-read Skypiea while he was planning out the Nika stuff. It’s widely known that the Nika pose and the rhythm of the Drums of Liberation were pulled directly from the Skypiea dance scenes, especially the mid-arc one with the wolves. I’d add that the concept generally of Luffy being silhouetted against the sky in a pose & percussion instruments taking on a symbolic liberatory role (the bell and the drums) can also be traced back to this arc. The visual choice to have Who’s-Who’s imaginary version of Nika dressed stereotypically “tribal”—not a design choice I feel particularly positive about but a design choice Oda would make purposely—also evokes Shandora.

Skypiea was also the arc where we encountered the Shandora poneglyph, which is eventually revisited in the same arc we’re introduced to Nika and Gear 5 (that is, Wano), and which is the poneglyph pointing to the location of Poseidon, the Mermaid Princess, in Fishman Island.

We know from Joyboy’s poneglyph apology that he was a surface-dweller who was nonetheless a great friend of Fishman Island and of the Mermaid Princess of the time. His apology was addressed directly to her, for breaking a promise to her and her country. Similarly, the Shandians held the protection and eventual delivery of their poneglyph as a tenet of extreme importance until Robin took that burden from them onto her back. I doubt such a precious friend of Fishman Island would leave the location of Poseidon with anyone other than a nation he trusted absolutely- with his own people, the shandians.

Skypiea and Fishman Island are also arcs with a very pronounced thematic parallels/opposites thing going. Briefly:

They’re both set either 10 000 meters above or below the surface of the blue sea, in unfamiliar environments that require their own methods of fighting and navigating.

They feature longstanding conflicts the Straw Hats have sort of blundered their way into regarding oppression, power imbalances among cultures and classes of people, and very flawed but ultimately compelling depictions of real-world issues.

Their ruling parties are named after real-world religious figures (Skypiea’s God; Fishman Island’s King Neptune and Queen Otohime).

And silliest of all, Luffy has to be nerfed in both arcs because otherwise the final battle will be over in about one second lmao.

I think it’s safe to say they’re at least connected on a thematic level, and it’s my connection that once upon a time in the forgotten history, Joyboy, shandian friend of the Mermaid Princess, was that connection point.

It’s also notable that Shandora was a great nation back in the Void Century (indeed one of the three disconnected rays sun symbol nations, as well as a sun god-having nation - see pt 2 of this series of posts), and is the only nation other than the Ancient Kingdom that we have been explicitly told was brought to ruin during that time. Of course there’s infinite reasons the Twenty Kingdoms could have had to wreck the place, including “they were in a war,” but a strike at the home of that most problematic user of the Nika fruit seems particularly in-character.

And even if none of this convinces you that Joyboy was a child of Shandora, I sure hope you can agree that we should all be giving Skypiea some very close reads in the coming years!

#nikaposting #joyboy #opmeta #meta tag #zephflix original

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idrellegames · 10 months

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Do the asks about romances annoy you or frustrate you? You seem very unencouraging and almost dismissive when you answer asks about romancing.

It is certainly not my intention to be discouraging or dismissive, and if I have come across that way, I do apologize for it. I am genuinely extremely happy that folks are invested in the story and characters and are having fun with it! And I am very grateful for the amount of asks I receive and that Wayfarer's community is as active as it is.

But with the asks I have been predominantly getting, the focus is a bit misaligned with what the game is. I have said repeatedly that Wayfarer is not a romance game. There are not ROs or RO routes in the standard sense and romance tropes (especially those surrounding jealousy or possessiveness!) should not be applied here.

Some of what I get is treading very close to the line of "How would the ROs react to XYZ", which is not a kind of question I enjoy answering (it's in my ask guidelines). There is a lot of shippy stuff in my askbox, which isn't a bad thing! It's a sign folks are excited! I've even talked about this previously in this ask here, where I said that my main gripe is less to do with the asks and more to do with expected genre conventions.

But ultimately a lot of those questions do brush up against my boundaries as a creator. And some asks are the kind of thing that are better asked to the fandom--between friends or in the player-character channel of the community Discord--and not addressed to me, the creator.

When it comes to fandom stuff, the developer doesn't have to be--and honestly shouldn't be--involved in a lot of the shipping, romance and headcanon stuff (unless their game is finished and they want to). I don't think there should be an onus on me to engage with every ask to the same degree, especially if that ask misses the mark of who my characters are or where the story is going. I get a lot of asks with romance questions that include Veyer on it, even though I have said that they are aromantic and not a romance (even their interactions with the MC do not have ❤️symbol next to them - their tryst scene has a whole different icon - and they don't gain romance points).

There is a wealth of other types of questions to ask.

As a friend put it: interesting questions get interesting answers, repetitive questions get short answers. Questions that would be a spoiler get a "wait and see". And some questions don't get answered at all.

This isn't me being dismissive; this is me keeping my boundaries intact.

#wayfarer #wayfarer if #romances #answered

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batrogers · 2 months

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"Feral" Tropes

For Clarity: I have written pretty much every single trope on this list at some point or another myself.

(Yes, including extremely ill-advised arson, non-verbal and illiterate Link, needs help with his hair, and spends weeks in blood-stained clothes.)

These can be funny tropes, dark tropes, ironic tropes, heartfelt tropes, and cathartic tropes.

[Art of my Minish Cap Link, by @l3ominor]

Why do people find “Feral” link so polarizing, then?

I’m gonna go over what makes a fantasy, character agency (or deliberate lack thereof), and – because I’m AO3 trash forever, and because I think it’s the most useful thing here – tagging.

It's also like 2000 words, whoops.

I’m using “feral” here to say that Link is positioned as either failing to adhere to expected social norms, or positioned as outside them. Social norms are part of civilization: a structure of rules and expectations that are positioned as the “height” of human social achievements. Meeting them makes you a good, normal person who is respectable and respected; failing them can make you anywhere from imperfect to exile to enemy.

“Civilized” is a moving target that’s defined by others. Anyone, at any time, can be constructed as a failure just because someone wants to do that. Similarly, other features – like slavery and war crimes – can be considered “civilized” because that’s just what the dominant power does. Being “civilized” isn’t inherently good; it’s also not inherently evil. Civilized social rules also include stuff like charity, hospitality, and similar social welfare stuff.

Basically both “Civilized” and “Feral” can mean whatever you want them to mean, but there are some common ways it goes wrong.

Again. I have written 90% of these in various ways. These are not inherently wrong; the frustration often arises from presentation and lack of clarity, which I’ll address below:

The first is infantilizing the character, creating them as helpless.

Wild can’t bathe himself and doesn't see the point in being clean; he doesn’t do anything with his hair. He’s so dumb he eats rocks; he'll eat too much or anything at all, and he has no objection to being treated like a child. He doesn’t know language or how to read or write. If transmale, he doesn't understand his period and thinks he's dying. He was literally raised by a wolf. He can't do anything right. It's presented as fair and just to pin him down to clean him, because he cannot do it himself.

The fact the wolf is supposedly Twilight, who should be striving to get him to other hylians is irrelevant. Real youth react to their period thinking they’re dying, but this is associated with literal children, particularly ones raised completely ignorant of their own bodies and of sex.

The second is othering them, treating them as antisocial.

Other people react badly to him; he has no manners, he smells; he never tells anyone what he's doing. He's afraid of other Hylians; he's indifferent to them, and wants nothing to do with them. He doesn't understand how to function in a group. He'll wander into a trap carelessly, and drag others with him in pursuit of something pointless.

In the case of Hyrule, he lives in a cave and this is strange, bizarre, and horrible, rather than a thing that is in the actual historical record and is a dry, temperature controlled and easily protected place to sleep.

The third is to make them dangerous, a savage thing.

He solves his problems by lighting things on fire, uncaring of the damage done. He bites and growls when upset. He'll kill a monster with his bare hands; he'll show up in town covered in blood and filth.

He's an abomination; he's literally not human at all.

IIII

Probably you read that list and had checkmarks going off in your head. I like that one; I don’t like that one. People never do that right; I’d handle this way better if only—

Good. It’s a fun list of things that can be good, if done to your taste.

A lot of these touch into disability tropes; some edge into racialization ones. A lot are dehumanizing. People have a lot of feelings about both, good and bad, and feeling your way through it by writing is normal, expected, and okay. You do not deserve to be punished for writing something “bad” while trying to understand what you like. Many of these fall under care-taking tropes: someone needs help, and they feel awkward asking so they just want someone to step in and “Fix it” without the humiliation of having to ask.

That’s fine. But if you want to change it up: let Link ask. Let him reach out. Let him initiate the help. There’s a very different feeling when someone pins Wild down to clean him, versus when Wild works up the courage to ask “Can you help me?”

Because yeah, brain damage is complicated. He could have just about any struggles you imagine, but what can be frustrating for others seeing this, over and over, is that he’s treated like a permanent child or an animal. He always will need taken care of; he always needs someone to step in. It is right and just to force him to submit to care against his will...

He never has anyone ask if they can help him, either.

How much sweeter can the care be when he’s willing? When he initiates? When he has agency in his own treatment? Because too many people who need help are not given that choice. Some readers are turned off because the force is all too real, and all too painful to see reflected in what they came to for escapism. One person’s care-taking fantasy, is another’s real life trauma.

Escaping society and it’s pressures is also a fantasy, one of independence and freedom all its own but again, a major feature here is choice. Does Wild have choice? Does Hyrule? Is this presented as of course they don’t belong, or as a reasoned decision, or as a result of being driven out by real violence from others?

All different stories. All different fantasies.

And being the agent of violence is a fantasy, too. “Burn it all down” is a valid emotion (I write variations on it myself, although not this one.) Think of “Kill Bill” and “Fury Road.”

But with an ostracized, feral Wild there is the reflection of real violence against the marginalized communities whenever they express frustration or rage at their treatment. The wrong person being dangerous can get them killed. Of course this is polarizing.

Ironically, this category includes the one trait that Wild displays in the Linked Universe comic that didn’t make the feral list: emotional dysregulation. He loses his temper; he lashes out. He gets upset and jumps the gun... but it’s not cute, it’s not pretty, it’s presented very well in canon (Warriors is frustrated with him, but not seriously angry.) But it doesn’t suit the feral take, because it’s too mild for the violent fantasies, and too adult and human for the innocent ones.

IIII

My first advice about writing this is to be more clear about your tags. Spoilers are always a thing people worry about, but some things can be improved with clarity, and conflict over “bad writing” is one of them. “Feral” Link can mean literally any combination of the above, but those are all wildly different things. Narrowing down what happens in your fic into more specific tropes will both help people who want to read what you write to find it, and help people who will be upset avoid it.

It just common courtesy. I tagged a recent fic “Drunk arguments”+ “Politics” because that argument could go a lot of ways. Someone who’ll read political nonsense may not read sex and may not read crack. It doesn’t say anything but the subject matter, and it doesn’t need to: the question of whether this will turn into politics or sex is a way to direct people in or away according to their taste.

Is this required? No. People make mistakes or have bad days or just don’t want to, and don’t deserve punishment for it. But it’s a tool at hand to filter your readership to better match you, one you shouldn’t disregard.

If you want to adjust how you write, frequently the aggravating factor is in the presence (or deliberate absence) of agency, and in evoking sympathy over pity. There’s also a way to balance traits in just like, the general sense of making the story more complex: nobody is one thing.

For an example from my own projects, I write my version of Minish Cap Link combined with the first Four Sword game. The second time he used the Four Sword changed him into something not-quite-human. But even prior to that, he was non-verbal and skittish; he bit and hissed, he has visible injuries on top of the later changes. I have two fics that present two different ways to frame much the same event: he gets upset and lashes out, and legitimately terrifies the people around him.

In one story, he is restrained. The people doing so are treated as villains for it; you see his fear and panic, and Zelda’s rage over his treatment. In the other, he is calmed by another of the Links, and even in an outside perspective it is made clear that Minish is reassured, relieved and desperate for comfort once his fear has passed – and he trusts the person who talked him down (who did not hurt him) to give it now. He doesn’t have to “behave” to be treated as human, but I also don’t have to make him act “normal” to do so: the framing of how he’s treated by others does it. He’s also clean, well-kept, polite, sweet when he’s calm, and playful.

Similarly, because I have multiple characters who are all non-verbal to varying degrees, I can get away with a lot of variety. I can make one a total bitch, and I don’t have to worry that he’s going to be “bad” representation because if people don’t want a bitchy non-verbal character to relate to, there’s two others to choose from. Balancing a “feral” trait with a mix of signals creatures a nuanced character that isn’t just a ball of Whump.

(Although again: nothing wrong with a ball of Whump if you’re in the mood for it. I have my balls of Whump fics, too.)

Some of the other weird things can be done as just misunderstandings: Is Link eating rocks because it’s polite to join the gorons? Did he realize he was weird and could eat rocks as a child and now does it to joke around? Does Hyrule get to be exasperated at the others pitying his cave? Letting the weird be weird but legitimate can be fun, or even funny: Hyrule lets the others sleep cold in tents while he’s warm inside.

Readers get tired of one-note characters no matter what they’re like. I’ve heard the same complaints about “Dad” Time as I’ve heard about “Feral” Wild, and about Twilight. The fix isn’t to throw out what you like; it’s to build it up into something more. It will never be to everyone’s taste, but you can have a dirty little gremlin who, no matter how inhuman they may seem, is still treated like a person.

Dehumanization is far too prevalent in the world right now, and a lot of us desperately need somewhere to escape it.

Now I’m gonna go write me some fluffy Wild asking for hair brushing. After spending all week chewing on this, it sounds like a fun challenge.

#Linked Universe #Hello it's me again #but people did ask #this is opinion not prescriptivism #LU Wild #LU Hyrule #Zelda fanfic #BOTW #TOTK #disability tropes #disability in media #dehumanization in media

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inkblackorchid · 7 days

Note

Hi! How do you feel about the Crashtown mini-arc?

Ahhh, Crashtown. Honestly, I’m extremely in two minds about the arc. See, here’s the thing. When I watch it, it’s a great deal of fun. It’s a very self-contained little story that has all the necessary setup and payoff built into itself, and the cowboy aesthetics in Crashtown’s unique setting, while technically still being part of 5Ds’ largely futuristic canon, are absolutely hilarious. Not to speak of the excellent dramatics, what with Kiryu being in his depressed bitch era and needing the Power of Friendship to remember why it’s nice to be alive. So, in isolation, I find Crashtown very funny and its self-contained story compelling.

However, sometimes, I get a little frustrated knowing how many episodes this arc takes up, because where the larger narrative is concerned, Crashtown accomplishes… Well, nothing, unfortunately. It doesn’t interact with the main plot in any way, doesn’t develop Yusei’s character in a particular way (because we already knew he’s a special kind of loyal-as-a-dog-devoted when it comes to Kiryu; if anything, Crashtown only shows us that he’s also a little more gullible than usual when Kiryu gets brought up), and while it does give Kiryu meaningful character progression, he’s sadly never relevant again after this point in the show (literally the only two times he shows up after this point is during the flashback of everyone cheering Yusei on during his duel with Z-ONE and in the epilogue as he loses to Jack). Worse yet, the whole arc begs the question of why only Kiryu and no other dark signer got this kind of tying-up-loose-ends treatment. (The answer, I believe, is that he’s specifically the dark signer who has the strongest ties to Yusei in particular, which awards him special treatment. That does nothing to justify why Carly, who I’d go as far as saying is at least equally important to Jack as Kiryu is to Yusei, doesn’t get anything like this, though, and is instead sidelined because she has amnesia. You know. Amnesia. Everyone’s favourite trope. Which Kiryu, curiously, also doesn’t have.) And considering how often I lament about the things I wish 5Ds canon had spent more time on, I don’t think it comes as a surprise that it leaves a slight, bitter aftertaste in my mouth that an arc like Crashtown that adds nothing to the larger plot or any character other than Kiryu gets so many episodes while many things I wish the show had addressed don’t get a single one.

So, Crashtown’s kind of a mixed bag for me. I think the best way to sum it up would be this: If you handed me the reins for a full 5Ds rewrite, one of two things would happen. Either the show would gain another twenty or so episodes where I’d try to give all the other dark signers similar treatment as Kiryu in Crashtown, developing both them and the main cast members they interact with more (and also try to make them at least show up one more time before the Ark Cradle arc, even if only to cheer Team 5Ds on during the WRGP), or Crashtown would be left on the cutting room floor entirely, because if the only way to improve the main cast and plot were to find time for all the necessary adjustments within the exact same episode count we already have, Crashtown (and all of the pre-WRGP arc’s pure filler episodes) would be the first thing to go.

Don’t get me wrong, the yeehaw arc has excellent aesthetics, excellent dramatics, and is great fun every time I rewatch it, so I don’t fault anyone for loving it to bits, I absolutely get it. My inner overanalyst/canon rewriter just can’t unsee how many episodes it took up that were desperately needed for other stuff sometimes.

#yugioh 5ds #yusei fudo #kiryu kyosuke #kalin kessler #ask the orchid #the way kiryu was awarded closure while the other dark signees weren’t #is a major reason for why I wrote Architect and why Misty is a recurring character in my Aki fics btw #it just doesn’t sit right with me that several antagonists who had such interesting personal ties to the main cast #were later abandoned entirely #even though the show literally had a built-in solution to allow each of them (minus Roman) to appear again and possibly redeem themselves #but yeah #I love Crashtown in terms of entertainment #I’m just sometimes a little miffed about it in terms of narrative relevance and episode count #orchid rambles

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sweetcloverheart · 1 year

Text

Clover Rants Miraculously: Complexity

Miraculous suffers badly from complexity addiction and it’s gotten absolutely worse since season 5 started. Character routes can’t be predictable or just being A to B to C anymore - no, there has to be a twist every minute, they have to deconstruct all the tropes and chara types, they have to keep the audience on their toes every second or else! No one’s allowed to predict anything and things can’t be simply as they appear. However, they also lacks the patience to make the complexity they put in relevant or meaningful. As a result, character growth becomes flat as their personalities and values are changed or reverted back to previous stages to suit whatever the plot needs, with opinions that seem ripped straight from reddit pages and twitter threads that seem to lack any understanding of the topics they’re preaching. No one is allowed to contradict or question anything and status quo must be maintained at all costs, even as it bogs down all the new plot elements and lore they try to bring in. It wants everything to be “deep” without actually doing any work in digging for it.

Which is why the canon Chloe salt, Marinette’s bullying backstory, sentikids, and the Gabriel thing fall flat in their jobs to get everyone to subscribe to the writer’s sole interpretation of the characters/plotlnes they present (and nothing else) - because the writers want the benefits of creating a deeply thematic work that goes outside the bounds of its genre without actually doing anything to create said depth.

Chloe can’t just be a dumb mean girl bully with a sad backstory to explain why she does it - nah, she has to represent the worst of humanity and parallel an abusive parent and monologue about how she has no soul and everyone’s stupid for thinking she does and turn out to be responsible for every bad thing to everyone ever, but the writers will never actually address any of it meaningfully while actively trying to pretend that any implications they made about her character or backstory doesn’t exist or act like it was actually this super malicious psyop done by Chloe herself and we just imagined seasons 2 and 3 in a collective mass hallucination.

Marinette can’t just be cringe about her first crush because she’s a teen and that’s what teens do when it comes to first crushes - nah, she has to have this completely out of nowhere and nonsense dramatic backstory about a prank by Chloe and Kim that justifies all the (kinda borderline creepy) stuff she pulled in the start of the show with PTSD and now you can’t make fun of/criticize her or your mocking a trauma victim you jerk (all while these issues get solved in one episode and all the other reasons to properly explain her flightiness around Adrien are either swept under the rug or just ignored due to inconveniencing their insistence of pushing this “Dating trauma” storyline that somehow only effects her with Adrien and not Luka or Chat Noire for reasons)!

It’s not enough that Adrien (and Kagami and Felix) is an abused kid trying to get out of his father’s controlling grip and come to his own as he explores expanding his boundaries and learns to stand up for himself - nah, he has to be a magical slave golem with 180 different flavors of awful implications baked into the lore of how his creation works and no feasible way for him in canon to actually break away from his dad on his own or with help, with the ending (if it makes it to the final draft/actual episode) regarding it making his entire journey of self-actualization and independence basically meaningless

Gabriel can’t simply be being an over-the-top control freak because of losing his wife and have that be shown as unreasonable - nah, he needs to be given Marinette’s exact same backstory (minus the bullying but I would not put it past them at this point) to justify why he’s totally in the right to be ruining children’s lives and terrorizing citizens and should totally be allowed to win in the end. It’s not that he’s unfairly putting the responsibility of his grief onto completely strangers and poorly justifying it with the idea that it’ll restore his family back to their idyllic days and benefit his son - in the end, guy’s just “a man who loves his family”, so let’s just forget about all the terrorism and emotionally abusing his only living child and focus on the important stuff, like the fact that Chloe and Lila are both the devil and more evil than him.

(Speaking of) Lila can’t just simply be a consummate liar who develops an irrational hatemance against our leading lady for pointing this out - nah, she has to turn out to have a gajillion different damn fake families and even faker aliases to jump through when she get tired of it or they get compromised, and all with it’s own naming system! Are her eyes actually green? Does she really have hair? Is she even Italian? Who knows - certainly not the writers! Isn’t great you invested years of interest and headcanons into a character who turned out to be a complete sham and whom the writers are now going to use to recycle the S1 villain gimmick because the Butterfly is the only villain allowed to exist? I sure am!

The writers want their story to be overly complicated and “deeper than average kids cartoons” but they want to retain their “silly simple cartoon” format and while it’s possible to do, the show runners seem adamant in not taking the steps forward necessary to achieve it, causing a constant conflict in both the show’s genre and character narratives that hurts it’s plotline

TLDR: In the immortal words - pick a lane my dude

#Clover Rants Miraculously #ML Salt #I spotted a queuety

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indigovigilance · 5 months

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I was just reading through some of your meta, and was thinking about your one about Maggie being possessed by an angel. I was wondering if the fact that Nina is played by Nina Sosanya, who also played Sister Mary in season one, might be connected. I'm a bit late to the Good Omens series, has that ever been addressed? Seems odd to recast an actress as a different character in the same show, especially a show so detail orientated. Seeing as Maggie and Nina are mirrors for Aziraphale and Crowley, I'm idly wondering if they being secretly an angel, and former demon worshiper would simply would be to add an extra dimension, or if there is something more sneaky afoot. Like spies for each side watching the shop or some such.

Oh, my dear friend, it goes much deeper than that! Do not be bashful about arriving late to the game: I also did not watch S2 until about a month after it dropped, and didn't arrive on Tumblr until a month after that (literally made an account for the first time to join this fandom). The fact that I'm getting these asks at all is evidence enough that anyone can catch up. So here we go!

read on Ao3

(forgive the quality of some of these screengrabs, I'm having internet issues and Amazon is taking it out on the quality of my video)

Nina is played by Nina Sosanya, who in season 1 played Sister Mary Loquacious (I still love that name):

...and Maggie is played by Maggie Service, who in season 1 played a satanic nun as well, Sister Teresa Garrulous (inspired):

But the recycling of the first season's cast doesn't end there!

Shax is played by none other than the illustrious Miranda Richardson, returning after her delightful season 1 portrayal of Madame Tracy:

Reece Shearsmith plays Shakespeare in Season 1 and Furfur in Season 2:

Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss who plays Mr. Harmony, and Steve Pemberton who plays Mr. Glozier, the [zombie] Nazis in both seasons,

worked together on the award-winning show League of Gentlemen. An article about it even appears on David Tennant's website (which I just found today, doing research for this response!). It's a fun little read, I recommend it for anyone who's interested in "the making of" type stuff.

Gatiss was also involved in Doctor Who, which is of course was (per my humble opinion) the crowning glory of David Tennant's career until he stepped into the snakeskin boots. The article indicates that all these actors have prior relationships with David Tennant and Michael Sheen and were very pleased to be cast for this show.

But notably, only Nina and Maggie are named after their actors. Given that they also play out a whole slew of fanfiction tropes (I don't think this connection has ever been written out in meta format but it is alluded to in various YouTube clipshows) it seems to be a Doylian *Clue* that something is a little bit wrong about these characters and their alleged romance.

Other than that, I think the fact that cast is being reused only tells us two things: First, these are wonderful actors and why go looking for new talent when you already have the best? Second, they love this work and they love working together on it, and the actors wanted to return just as much as Neil wanted them to continue bringing his vision to life.

I'm glad you enjoyed Maggie is Possessed, one of my very first metas! I can see that you are going in order along my meta index. If you would like to keep reading on this topic, others have contributed their thoughts on the subject, and I've linked some choice readings below:

Can't You Hear Them? by @vidavalor The Grand Unified Theory by @noneorother which addresses the slew of purportedly human characters that have oddly angelic/demonic traits What's Up with Maggie? - a chain started by @iammyownproblematicfave that I and others have contributed to

I hope that this line of inquiry gets more attention in the future. If you haven't already, the docs below are great resources to bookmark as they are constantly being updated by teams of dedicated clue-searchers:

Good Omens Crackpotting Theory Tracker Hunting for Clues

~~~

I love getting asks like this, thanks for giving me something to do while I wait for my laundry to finish. I'm so so happy that more people are arriving in this cuddly communal crucible of creativity, it's been a great community for me and I hope you join us on this whirlwind adventure of piecing together the million-piece jigsaw puzzle that Neil left for us to play with as we await Season 3!

#indigovigilance answers asks #good omens #good omens 2 #good omens maggie #good omens nina #shax #shax good omens #good omens meta #furfur #reece shearsmith #miranda richardson #madame tracy #good omens production

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opinated-user · 1 year

Note

As a tv tropes mod, Lily’s request is… a bit odd, considering that tv tropes pages simply are not made for creators, but consumers of media. What Lily thinks it’s the priority, but how others perceive her work; whether she thinks it’s right or wrong is aomething beyond her control. Death of the Author and all that. I do believe there is a process to remove the page, but I don’t know if Lily has followed through with that (and keep in mind, it’s entirely possible that she did, I just don’t know for sure).

As for vandalism, tv tropes pages tend to attract differing opinions and voices. Sometimes you get bad faith people who just want to write pure nonsense, but deliberately trolly additions usually get rooted out quite quickly (and mods who consistently do weird stuff can get banned I believe). That being said, I don’t think what Lily is complaining about is genuine vandalism. From what I’ve seen, the biggest reason mods complain is due to what seems to be persistent Lily fans (or sockpuppets) who go back and edit the page to be a lot less critical. Lily describes this vaguely as “Lily Orchard Drama”, but it’s quite clear that her fans (or sock puppets) are instigating and downplaying a lot of the more controversial elements that mods address in her fanfics.

There is one account in particular that I suspect is actually Lily (I fear naming names and potentially pointing towards someone innocent). That person’s history reveals that they have edited basically all of the tv tropes pages pertaining to Lily’s various fanfics and adding onto the Steven Universe page by poking fun at it (adding to the Broken Base page and Warp that Aesop, which is a page that intentionally takes a story’s moral and takes it super literally for laughs). It’s all up Lily’s alley. This person has argued with other mods about how they are acting in bad faith and being needlessly cruel with their points, and, as a result, the pages were locked.

If this person is Lily, then the page is locked purely by her own actions and refusal to compromise.

sounds about right.

#lily orchard

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samthehyena · 3 months

Text

Sam's Guide To Writing Chatfics

Step 1: Read chatfics

Browse your local ao3 for chatfics to find what you like in them and what stuff makes them difficult to read.

One of my favorite things about chatfics is how much a username can reveal about a character - plus it's a great way to include puns. The trope of having characters change their usernames based on the flow of the story is also very fun (e.g. in my Togachako chatfic Himiko changed Dabi's nickname to Dad-bi and Hawks' name to Pop-eyes after they basically adopted her). Chatfics are also a great way to balance having a lots of characters talk at once.

Now one of the things I have a hard time with a lot of chatfics is that it can be difficult to keep track of who is who - especially if it's a story with a class group chat. One way to mitigate that issue is to periodically have your characters address other characters by their name. Having usernames directly relate to common HCs or very specific traits unique to the character is also a good route to go with (e.g. 3D_Printer for Yaoyorozu Momo).

Step 2: Find character voice

Since character interactions are the foundation of chatfics, characterization and imitating the way your characters speak in canon is important.

To get a character's vibe right I usually start off by watching clips on YouTube so I can get a refresher on what kind of words they use, how formal their register is and most importantly how to make characters with somewhat similar personalities more distinct.

For example, Tsu and Jiro in my Togachako chatfic have a lot of similarities in the way I write them. Both have a bluntness to them and won't take anyone's shit. So I try to differentiate them by their role in the conversation. Although both make blunt commentary, Tsu has more of a stating the obvious angle while Jirou adds her dry sense of humor to the fic via sarcasm.

Another thing to consider is how a particular character would realistically text. Which characters don't use capitalization because they couldn't be bothered? Who relies heavily on emojis to reflect how expressive they are in canon? Who uses abbreviations and makes Internet references because they seem like they'd be tech-savvy? Who always writes in full sentences and super formal?

Step 4: Humor

Chatfics work extremely well for banter and can tie in well with broader meme and Internet culture, making them the perfect platform for humor (oh, my beloved Crack Treated Seriously Tag).

I find that a particularly effective way to incorporate humor into chatfics is by weaving in fandom inside jokes since the rapid-fire back and forth for the convos suits that well. (e.g. Toga Himiko literally being thought to be a vampire).

There's also all sorts of room for jokes like someone not understanding an Internet reference or a character making typos - oh dear lord, I can't think of anything else of substance to say for this section.

Step 5: Plot or no plot?

Ah, the big question! Some people like how chatfics can be silly slice-of-life stories that are fun and episodic without an overarching plot, and others want more conventional linear storytelling out of their chatfics.

Both are great routes to choose! I tend to write chatfics with some sort of plot (if we want to generously call it that), but my two cents on chatfics that aren't plot driven is to focus on the same group of core characters so that readers can get investigated in their dynamics and interactions.

Now for plot-driven chatfics one thing that I keep in mind is justifying why this story needs to be a chatfic rather than a full-length prose story. Maybe there's a catfishing storyline. Maybe conspiracy theorists meet through an online forum. Or for a specific example here's the summary of my Togachako chatfic: "Ochako's friends are suspicious of her online girlfriend. For all they know Himiko could be a villain, a serial killer or even a vampire."

The fic's plot hinges on the chatfic format since otherwise the online relationship aspect doesn't hit quite the same.

Of course, you don't need your chatfic to be one-hundred percent chatfic. If there's a plot-point where you think it would be nice to incorporate introspection to make emotional moments hit or have characters interact IRL, go for it y'all!! The way I like to do this is by just switching between chatfic and prose sections. Other authors split off the prose parts into their own one-shots (The Todoroki In-Laws series is a very well-executed example of this).

Step 6: So Formatting

The bane of my existence tbh. A lot of authors have neat coding tricks up their sleeve or go the extra mile to add times for each text for ultimate immersion which is very cool.

But alas I am lazy. When drafting my chatfics I use the characters' initials or sth and then I add all the usernames and formatting later.

Screenshot of one of my chatfics:

Step 7: PC or Phone

Whether you prefer to write chatfics on your phone or laptop/computer is up to personal taste. I've done both depending on my mood.

The pros of typing on a phone is that it makes accessing emojis or kaomojis easier - plus it's easy to get in the headspace of characters who are texting. And you get to write your fics while being all snuggled up in bed. The downside is autocorrect which makes typing a lot slower especially when I try to add distinct ways of texting.

The pro of PC is that it's easier to switch between full length prose and chat fic sections and I at least type faster on my laptop. Of course the caveat is that emojis tend to be less accessible via Google docs and word ... Or at least there isn't as much variety as on a smartphone.

So yeah just go with whatever feels right. I find chatfics pleasant to write while traveling since I don't need to whip out my entire laptop on a plane and can draft chatfic on my phone instead

Step 8: Have fun!!

Ultimately there are no rules, this stuff is just my takeaway. Do whatever suits your fancy because fanfic is all about being self-indulgent and YOU having fun.

#chatfic #writing #writing advice #fanfiction #mha fanfiction #bnha #bnha chatfic #togachako

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spop-romanticizes-abuse · 8 months

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Howdy! Same person who stayed anonymous so I wouldn't get harassed by fans here, and I have another thing to say.

People think that media like this may not have an outside influence on the world, but in reality it does. It may seem stupid, but the media portraying relationships like these as normal caused me to stay in an abusive relationship for two years. I apologize if it's oversharing, but I used to watch shows like this all the time when I was younger (Not sharing my age because then people will try to claim I have no idea what I'm talking about.) and this, paired with other personal events in my life, made me think that relationships like these were normal and healthy. Luckily, I now realize they aren't.

The glorification of bad characters who have little-to-no redeemable qualities or ways to justify what they did just because they're "hot" or "sexy" needs to stop. It causes people to glorify abuse and abusers. I used to be a major SPOP fan and, shamefully, a Catra simp, so I could keep going on about a LOT of stuff this show does, but I won't.

I, once again, apologize for oversharing and for how long this post is. Thank you for addressing all this in the show despite the criticism you're getting.

you don't need to apologize! i'm so sorry you had to go through that and i hope you're out of that relationship now. this is exactly what i've been saying. i can understand why some people may want to believe that c//a is a good ship, especially considering that this is one of the very few queer representation we have. it especially concerns me that kids watching this may take this as good representation, i've already seen posts saying stuff like "i want what they have" or "i want someone to look at me the way catra looks at adora".

the only reason i spotted the toxicity in the show early on is because i was also in a close (platonic) relationship with a person who was very much like catra, and i was in the process of figuring out that this isn't normal. i tried to get myself to root for catra, but i just couldn't. and it confused me that the fandom didn't see the problem with this show and instead acted like it was the biggest masterpiece to ever exist.

relationships in the media are rarely realistic, especially the enemies-to-lovers trope. it may look exciting in a story but it very rarely works out irl. more often that not, when it does work it, it ends up being an abusive relationship like c//a. but there are healthy fictional relationships that you can look up to, and those ships don't get the attention that these toxic ones do, because they are labelled as "vanilla" and "boring".

the point of this blog isn't to start unnecessary beef with the fandom or demonize the show. it is to help people understand the red flags in catra's and adora's relationship. when consuming a piece of media, it is always wise to be open-minded and critical, because even the best of the best can have flaws. it's the same as reading the classics while also acknowledging that they were a product of their time, and most likely had some problematic ideals embedded into them.

i think it's still okay to like catra as a character. i like a lot of villains myself, because they are complex or sympathetic or just plain fun to watch. but you need to still acknowledge that these are objectively bad people, regardless of their motives. i've seen a few catra fans who admit that catra's redemption was rushed and that they didn't like c//a either. i respect these types of fans a lot, because they are able to like a character without being blind to said character's flawed treatment.

anyway, if any of you want to see actually healthy relationships and good queer representation in media, i suggest shows such as The Owl House, The Legend of Korra, Infinity Train, The Dragon Prince, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Steven Universe and Arcane. please don't settle for the toxic relationships. not only are they not good representation, but they are actively harmful for the community. it's time we stopped romanticizing abusive relationships just because they are angsty and have "sexual tension".

#ask #spop #spop critical #anti catradora #spop salt #spop criticism #spop discourse #anti catra #she ra

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seance · 2 years

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What are your thoughts about season 3 of TUA?

Let’s start with saying I’m now comfortable with admitting I liked it more than s2. Until episode 4 I was seriously worrying about the pace of the plot, it felt very all over the place but once the various storylines started to unravel, I was definitely curious about the direction they were pulling us towards. So there’s that, even though nothing can ever top S1 in my heart and that’s cause s3 suffer from the very same thing that made s2 so difficult to digest for me the first time around: tone inconsistency.

I want to make a huge disclaimer before I continue and that is: this is obviously an opinion I formed thinking about the show with a critical approach like I do with everything I enjoy, I like to think and talk about it “seriously” and then putting those thoughts into perspective if the context of said piece of media requires it. So don’t think I don’t know why the writers have chosen to give the show a lighter feel, a more nonsensical vibe etc. I’m not trying to over dramatize anything here, this is just something I really care about and I find it engaging and entertaining to talk about it with other people more in depth. ♡ At the end of the day, it is just a show about wacky interdimensional stuff.

THE CONS

With that out of the way I can surely tell you the one thing I disliked completely was Luther’s treatment and writing which I have already addressed in this ask but to reiterate I personally find the way they jumped from one characterization to the other incredibly jarring. This is not to say he can’t be the fun, affectionate one, I love that about him, love how it can be read as a deconstruction of the persona Reginald forced him to be to keep him complacent (stern, hyper responsible, detached) BUT it’s all taken to an extreme with him. Like they didn’t know what to do with his character after S1 so they decided to dumb him down, give him all the comedy gimmick, never again explain his train of thoughts and just leave it at that.

To add salt to the injury they immediately threw him in one of my most hated trope: romance at first sight. This is totally a me problem, I want everyone to know I acknowledge this but it’s a huge mood killer for me. I can uphold my suspension of disbelief for eldritch tentacles and time travelling teenagers but I draw the line at ‘I was moping and whining about my sister having married another man two hours ago but now everything I do or say will be for the sake of this random alternative dimension woman I just met in my old living room’. I’m sorry but no, it immediately antagonizes the characters for me, you do this and I can assure I’ll have to work twice as hard to even try to care about them in the slightest and it honestly sucks because I don’t think him and Sloane aren’t cute or don’t work in general. I just wish we could have seen at least SOME build up to it? One shred of her personality that didn’t involve her very sudden immortal love for Luther? It shined through in glimpses here and there but it still felt forced. That fact that he suddenly discards his family and even says her name as he dies, I mean c’mon. You have to SHOW me changes in your characters, you can’t just TELL me it’s there, this is the kind of writing that gets on my nerve. Especially because it wouldn’t have taken a genius to write it a little bit more consistently and still making it work. They had to finally separate Luther and Allison, which is more than fine (even tho I wish it wouldn’t translate in ‘they never interact normally again’), Luther needed to gain a new purpose, a sense of independence after being let down by his dad for one last time in s2 and having come to terms with his disillusionment and isolation. I’m really not a fan of implying he finds all this in a romance instead of building the characters separately and then maybe having the romantic relationship has a bonus, it would have felt 10x more natural and there wasn’t any reason to sacrifice their sense of self. The show made a point (S1) in characterizing the Hargreeves as people who have super powers but incredibly real, overwhelming, gritty and relatable problems. This entire storyline felt so disconnected from that kind of vision, I simply couldn’t get behind it.

A similar thing, in a less messy form, happened to Diego. Don’t get me wrong, I know they take care to insert bits and pieces of siblings interactions here and there but I’m starting to notice how they really struggle in actually managing their dynamics in a consistent, diversified way. Diego was basically isolated from his family all season. Not narratively speaking, it’s just that they always had him spend all his time with Lila and Stanley. Y’all, Lila gets to spend time on her own with Five and Diego don’t. He is just suddenly in dad mode and that’s it. He doesn’t have one single 1vs1 meaningful interaction with anyone else (brawl scene with Allison notwithstanding, that one I liked very much). Where with meaningful I mean somehow serious and/or relevant to the plot. This is the same character that gave us an incredible insight about him AND the others through his dialogues with Klaus (I have the sneaky suspicion they completely separated them in s2 cause of all the shipping but I’m still mourning them), Luther, Five and even Viktor. If you really think about it, we understand what life in the Academy was like at first through Diego’s eyes. I was honestly sad to see him kinda estranged now, they exacerbated his ‘slice now, ask questions later’ side and called it a day. Again, I know I’m generalizing on some things, he had some cute exchanges but in the grand scheme of things they just fell short to my eyes. Yeah, he had tears in his eyes when Klaus died but still they decided to write the scene like a gag and make it about him and Stan. As usual the new characters can only be developed at the expenses of the ones we already love and that’s why I find it so hard to grow attached. Anyway, my feelings about this are also totally biased and I know this, I never could grow fond of his relationship with Lila (I have an incredible resistance against putting female characters in all these little boxes right away: girlfriend, wife, mother, you have to fall in love immediately or we don’t know what to do with you, oh here you go then be plagued with thoughts and anguishes about your value as a woman once you get pregnant etc.) plus the ‘style’ of their dynamic is really not my cup of tea (constant teasing, manipulations and such) and that’s just about different taste in media tropes so yeah. I’m indifferent about them now, I like both as single characters and I guess I’m just feeling stressed about their story possibly being only about parenthood from now on. Again, totally makes sense for Diego, with all his internalized daddy issues, his sense of insecurity and his overcompensation, I’m glad they feel secure in their relationship and everything but god I wish the writing was different and didn’t hyperfocus on a single dynamic leaving out everything else. Also why did we see him grow into his powers, deviating bullets and such in S2 and this time around he barely touches his knives?

I’m gonna try and speed up from here about the other things that left me kinda eh: there are several plot holes I think? That break up the immersion for me. Like, this is a genuine question if anyone else want to pitch in but isn’t Reginald’s plan basically a retcon to S1? If he always knew about Obsidian and the sigil (and it’s implied that he did since he very conveniently adopted seven children for seven stars/bells in every timeline) and he specifically sent Luther to the moon to guard Abigail (personally preferred the version where it was ACTUALLY meaningless, ‘cause it was such a pivotal point for Luther’s development ugh), why the hell did he kill himself in S1? So the siblings could get together and save the world, that’s what we are told. But if they really had succeeded then what? He was dead, how did he think to put everything in motion then? He says something to Klaus about him expecting his son to summon his spirit and then we’re told in the same breath he purposefully raised them to fear their powers so how did he expect that to work? It could have been his plan all along, you say, the timelines, the dimensions… how? How could have he known that Five would be back? That Klaus would throw the journal into the trash? That Leonard existed and would have found it, that his plan to manipulate Viktor would work, that reconciliation among the siblings would be shaky at best, that they would end up in the 60s, in the same city where he lived years before they were born etc. they are just too many variables. Maybe he was not really dead? No! Klaus finds him in the afterlife so???? I have many questions about that, I hope they’re gonna go over it in s4 at this point.

I’m incredibly sorry to say, I still don’t care about the Sparrows. (picture me saying this like the “You know what I'm about to say it I don't care that you broke your elbow” kid) It was inevitable, there were just TOO many characters and the writers have proven times and times again that they struggle with balancing too many characterizations at once, something had to give. As a concept, they were incredibly interesting but the first three episodes, where it seemed like the main point of focus would have been their conflict felt so weird simply because it was based on something too silly like trespassing (as they put it, they didn’t manage to convey the real reasons very well). Zero depth there about their real motivations, the relationships they shared etc. We vaguely understand they weren’t really close from what Sloane tells Ben but then again, they talk about avenging their siblings in a scene and don’t care in the next, I don’t know everything about them felt strange, like they really were just some placeholder npcs that were never intended to take up much space. So I honestly felt nothing when Jayme and Alphonso died, don’t honestly understand why they wouldn’t tell us ANYTHING about Christopher, was he supposed to be some kind of comedy relief? If so I’m completely off that target audience. Fei and Ben were the only ones that kept me going in those few initial episodes, their dynamic was interesting and kept the tone of the series a little more serious which was what I personally needed. I’m disappointed they took Marcus out in less than an episode, those crumbs we got about his personality and the possible interactions with Viktor and the others were interesting. Also it’s totally not my place to say, but it didn’t really feel right to yeeet another black character this way.

With Sloane, as I was saying it was really just about wasted potential. I look forward to know her better (I know they aren’t gonna get rid of her so easily) but damn if I wish it wasn’t framed by the romance arc. Her powers are super cool? She’s obviously incredibly smart as we gathered from that 3 lines exchange she has with Five as they try to trap the Blitz. She’s very sweet, I liked how she was so open to know every Umbrella better if given the chance and Genesis’ performance was really good! So fingers crossed.

Ben’s everything felt like a huge scam ngl. I had the distinct impression they had cut a lot of content about him, like the Jennifer storyline. Everything about his character was, once again, told to us instead of shown. Kinda like a grocery list, you know? So yeah, he’s jealous, he’s resentful, he was once number one than he wasn’t anymore, anything else? He had his moments for sure and I understand the direction they wanted to take with him, I just think it would have benefitted from more careful writing. As a rule of thumb, I always prefer to see less stuff happening if that means it’s going to be written better instead of a thousand shallow plotlines.

Still not over the fact that they didn’t truly take their time to explore what it meant for everyone and especially Klaus to see him again. Luther, Diego, Allison and Viktor mourned him when they were sixteen. Five didn’t see him for forty-five years just to be told he died without being offered a real explanation. Klaus mourned him twice without having said goodbye and he was the sibling who knew him better than everyone else. Did you notice how everyone described Ben this season? He was the best of us, so sweet, so soft, so timid, so good. That’s what they remember from their childhood. Klaus tells Sparrow!Ben his brother was a dark cloud, he was annoying, he was relentless, he was a scold but he was THEIRS and they all loved him, Klaus loved him for it. Their bond was tried times and times again by the life they both had to lead from childhood to adulthood and it was strained in the end but it was also real and very deep. Episode 8 does a good job at making us see what really is going on inside their heads and how Sparrow!Ben is actually feeling the weight of the comparison. It was worth expanding imo, with Klaus especially being allowed to grieve.

The last real con I want to address is of course the elephant in the room which I kept for last cause in my opinion it’s exactly the monster child of this whole inconsistent writing: Allison and Luther’s scene. I won’t insult anyone’s intelligence by reiterating the fact that the act itself was horrible and not something anyone should ever condone but I think the real problem here is what they decided to do after. That scene was meant to show us viewers how desperate and how low Allison had fallen into her grief. It feels incredibly wrong to say but narratively speaking it could have made sense, it was indeed a very shocking, very intense scene. Emmy and Tom both did great in conveying how terribly wrong everything felt in that moment, how the actions of the characters were being portrait in a negative light which is obviously the intent here. I do not agree with never showing bad things on any media because these are things that happen every day and they tell a story. Allison’s struggle has always been about her relationship with her powers and validation, this is not all there is about her but it’s part of her identity as a character. While I am glad they framed the situation as wrong and that she stops shortly after in realization, what I do not agree with is how after that the writers basically never address it again. What’s the point of showing such a scene if you aren’t ready to write the aftermath with the same dedication and careful attention? If they knew it had to be that way then it would have been better not to put it in the show at all. Cause it wasn’t vital to Allison’s breakdown but could have had an important connotation for both her and Luther (how often do we see men portraited as the victims?). All they left us with instead is a half-assed message of ‘it wasn’t a big deal, you see?’ and that’s wrong cause it's a huge disservice especially to Allison’s character which is actually one of my favorite and represents something even more important for many of the viewers.

THE PROS

Whew, that was heavy. I’m sure I didn’t even touch all the points I wanted to address but honestly, we all need a little more positivity right now so onto what I liked instead! I’m at 2777 words, I’m gonna try to summarize for real this time oh my god.

Compared to S2 the siblings spent more time together actually talking and communicating. Not enough to avoid the usual trope of ‘sibling x disappears and not one notices’ and/or ‘I’m not actually gonna pay attention to anything you said’ that’s getting on my nerves lately ngl. But at least we had some more quality time among them and a good understanding of how closer they all got in the last few weeks.

Viktor’s coming out was handled in a very sweet, tender way. From what I read trans viewers appreciated it too and I think that’s really important. Absolutely loved the easy affection and immediate understanding from everyone else, it didn’t feel forced or anything, just personal enough to make it very soft and believable. On that note, it was a joy to see how Elliot’s and by proxy Viktor’s confidence skyrocketed after he was finally able to act in a body that felt more like his. His smiles were so contagious and I loved to see him so assertive and involved this season. His relationship with Allison is one of the most complex of the entire show and it made sense they focused on that to tell part of S3’s story but I look forward to see him interact with his brothers more in the future.

With the exception of what we have already addressed, Allison’s path was the most engaging to watch. Emmy was outstanding this season, I’m so glad she got her moment to shine because she’s a terrific actress and what happened to her character this season was something worth telling. Allison’s rage was a long time coming so it didn’t surprise me they chose that route, in this case even tho we don’t really know much about Claire and Ray (who’s still my fave extra character from s2, the only one I grew attached to) her motivations don’t feel forced or out of place because what’s matter is what we saw through her eyes. We just need to know how important they are, especially Claire, for her and that’s something that’s been consistent since S1. I related to her anger this season, grief is not all about sadness and withdrawal, it’s even more often about fury. And considering how she’s right about the others trying to minimize her anguish because it’s been 30 years and they’re still learning how to really exit survival mode where all it matters it’s your own well-being, her downward spiral makes total sense. Anger is a protective emotion but it swallows everything else more often than not, in her case it took away her inhibitions regarding her powers and the moral courtesies she usually extended to others and now felt weren’t really reciprocated. It was sad and intense to see her grow apart from everyone else but I’m curious to see what the reckoning is going to be.

Klaus and Five were part of why I liked this season way more than S2. I’m biased since they’re both my faves but I was just so glad to see them interact more in a less snippy way. This season addressed Five’s conundrum from a different perspective: he has lived all his life with the weight of something massive like the end of the world on his shoulders and he never had time to fill his head or his heart with anything else except this impeding sense of doom and responsibility. But he is tired and just like Luther, he is disillusioned because the universe seems intent in proving him wrong, in ending just the same no matter what he sacrifices to prevent it. It was very telling to see how this knowledge (that there wasn’t anything else he could do) liberated him instead of putting him down. He was finally able to soften his cutting edges, get to know those siblings he fought so hard to save better, let himself be known, indulge in the little things. To Five, trust is everything and he never trusted anyone, we are repeatedly shown this. Now he finally let himself lean on the people who know him and care for him and didn’t find them lacking. Confiding in Klaus, talking honestly with Viktor, being open to work with Lila, genuinely caring about what Luther wanted to do before dying, sharing an easy camaraderie with Diego, noticing what was wrong with Allison. He was so attuned to the human aspect of it all and that’s what, in the end made him choose to jump on the star against every instinct he had had up until that moment. Reginald keeps insisting on their similarities and it’s true, they’re similar in intellect, motives, methods but there are lines Five will never cross time and time again cause he’s willing to learn and part of him won’t lose that hope that kept him alive all those years in the apocalypse. His biggest vulnerability transforms into his biggest strength every single time and that’s something Reggie can’t take from him. Ps: loved his scenes with Lila, they’re really fun together and it’s interesting to see how their past in the Commission gives them this very peculiar vibe that only they share, their own rhythm. That said I would have loved to see him interact more with Ben and maybe it would have made more sense that at least part of Klaus’ storyline with Reginald would have been Five’s instead.

Last but not least, Klaus. You all know I could talk forever about him but that also means I probably already said everything I wanted to say in my various gifsets. I was afraid they would use him to completely redeem Reginald to our eyes and that didn’t really happen so I’m glad. I have to say, I kinda gaslight myself into finding a plausible reason why Reginald chose him to infiltrate the family since the show didn’t really bother with telling us. First of all, there’s the empathic aspect to consider. Klaus is one of the most, if not the most empathic sibling among the seven of them. It all gets mixed up with is erratic behavior but we are shown time and time again how much he cares. And that’s usually also his downfall because people tend to either abuse or distrust this part of his personality. What he lived through as a child and the instability that kept characterizing his years on the streets and his addiction made him maybe more fragile to emotional manipulation because he never really had anything to himself that wasn’t taken away violently afterwards. The number of interpersonal relationships he manages to maintain in the present are all dependent on his input for now because people don’t really seek him out. So for him, the possibility of rewriting part of his past with his dad, the most traumatizing figure in his life, was incredibly tempting and I get that. I don’t actually think he would have just stood there and got himself killed in that horrible way time and time again but I guess it was for plot and comedy (sigh) reasons. I appreciated seeing him grow into his powers, him remembering what really happened in that mausoleum but I have to say it was maybe more Robert and Colm’s performances that brought that intensity to life because like with everything else about Klaus, the writers have this habit of letting heavy important shit just slide, with every other character always underreacting or not caring at all. It was also all very short lived since everyone lost their powers now, hopefully not permanently because what the fuck. I’m just ? about why Reggie decided to leave him to die if he knew he needed the kids to activate the sigil (without Klaus he would have sacrificed Allison instead and that’s ic but the more the better, in theory?) maybe he was just afraid Luther’s ghost would manifest and tell him what really happened? I don’t know, it was heartbreaking to see (yet another betrayal from someone Klaus had grown to trust) but also a little bit thrown out there. The realization he comes to aka him not belonging to the living world, not deserving to live even because of his mistakes and the life he led was absolutely crushing, they immediately had to ruin it yet again with the funny lines but one day I will have my revenge and I hope he can have a real heart to heart with his siblings where they ALL listen to each other.

Okay I’m surely forgetting something (Reginald is an incredible character and even tho they keep tweaking him like they do everyone else, Colm manages to keeps a consistency to him that makes him absolutely compelling, just like Aidan does with Five. Very appreciated) but this is already impossibly long and impossibly messy probably.

To summarize, it is clear that S1 will never be topped, it was the perfect balance of serious topics treated seriously and light intervals of fun. But they had years to write it properly, now with Netflix it’s all about speed and the general public. To me, this will forever feel like a loss but I can only hope we’ll still get to enjoy the show overall like I did with this season in the end and maybe take it a little less seriously that I do.

#replies #the umbrella academy #anonymous #long post /#tua negativity /#but also positivity i swear!#i want everyone to know that if no one ends up reading this #that's so valid and understandable honestly #i've written fanfic shorter than this #i can't even proof read it cause i have to run #but i really hope i was able to convey at least some part of my thoughts <3 #tua meta

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soleilnomoon · 2 years

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OKAY, one more!!! And I'll stop harassing you (for a lil bit) how about Reader scores a spot in a major competition TV show that makes the participants do extreme/weird challenges (think Squid Game but maybe less deadly, or it can be deadly that's up to you). On your first day of the competition Y/N has been partnered with a handsome and over-confident (Gojo!) stranger you instantly despise. Enemies to lovers trope. They have to work together to win or will they just sabotage each other? \o/

hi babylove🥰️🥰️🥰️, you're always so patient for me, i could marry u, yk that??? anyway, i had way too much fun writing this, and if i didn't stop, we'd have a 10k fic on our hands (not that i'm complaining bc you of all ppl know i would write that for u if u ask it of me), but gojo is a menace and relatively tame!!! sort of!!! this def is leaning more towards the squid game route, which is probably why it'll have to have a part 2 (maybe a 3 or a 4, who knows) anyway, yk i'm a sucker for enemies to lovers, that's my ultimate jam ❤️️

3.4k words (shh i know), sfw (slightly suggestive), 18+, mdni; angst, angst, angst; reader is broke as hell and gojo is obnoxious af; the competition is definitely shady, and the host doesn't make anything better, but we all love a good mystery, right? no real warnings other than gojo is a pretty mfer who needs to sit his pretty ass down somewhere.

several stacks of envelopes litter the kitchen table, accompanied by an untouched plate with a now cold breakfast — a poached egg, thin slices of burnt, buttered toast, a few measly grapes, and half of a banana. lukewarm café con leche sits a small mug with a faded design on the front and a chip on the handle, surrounded by torn pieces of napkin, the piles growing by the minute.

a light flickers in and out from above, the last working bulb as the others have all gone out and are too damn expensive to replace; the air conditioner went out a week ago, and, even with the windows open, the heat somehow finds its way into the apartment building, cooking its inhabitants without a second thought.

after staring at a suspicious spot on your wall, your vision blurs and you blink rapidly in the hopes that it’ll return properly. you stopped opening the envelopes after you found the fifth bill. everything is due, and you have nothing to show for it.

“damn it.”

hot, bitter tears roll down your cheeks, ones you ignore and don’t bother wiping away; a pink envelope catches your eye and you grab it without thinking. there’s no return address on the front, but your name is written in an elegant script with silver ink.

you briefly wonder if it’s another wedding invitation, which only makes you laugh out loud — your friends stopped inviting you ages ago, after you kept flaking. a familiar ache plagues your chest, and you rub at it absently; you don’t like thinking about stuff like that, about friends you couldn’t keep, about promises you kept breaking. it was never intentional on your part, not really, but circumstances brought you to where you are now.

there’s no going back.

ripping the envelope open, you don’t see anything inside but a small business card at the bottom. it’s completely black save for an address that’s printed on the front in white ink. blinking repeatedly, you turn the card around, don’t find a name or even a business logo. strange. very, very strange.

“whatever, probably nothing serious.” you toss the card in the trash and clear the kitchen table.

more pink envelopes find you as the week goes on — on the windshield of your car, tucked neatly under your windshield wiper; on top of your keyboard at work, where you look around suspiciously to see who could’ve left it there; and in your tote where you carry groceries, which surprises you as it wasn’t in there before you went into the store.

“fine!” you exclaim loudly, tossing the last envelope onto your messy bed. “i’ll go to whatever stupid address you keep trying to lure me to.” you’re not sure who you’re talking to, but clearly someone desperately wants you to see them. and, after all the bullshit that life’s thrown at you, what do you have to lose?

your life? your dignity? your sanity?

on your day off, you decide to check out the address in question. it’s a little over an hour away, but you don’t care. curiosity gets the best of you, has you driving faster than usual — you tend to stick to the speed limit most days — music blasting as you eat a granola bar, giving yourself a mini-pep talk as you try to guess what could be waiting for you at your destination.

when you arrive, you’re surprised to see a crowd of people outside of an isolated building. you suppose that this is where your mysterious stalker wanted to go, so you keep to the back of the crowd, hoping to just hear what they have to say and leave. the card sits heavily in your wallet; you’re not sure why you brought it with you, but you didn’t want to take any chances — you’re stuck in your thoughts and barely notice the crowd has quieted down significantly, parting swiftly to allow for a tall man to stride through. he’s dressed sharply — slim fit suit with a tie to match, hair neat, face blemish free. everything about him screams elegance, but something about his eyes — the sharpness of his gaze, of how he commands silence without even speaking — sends a chill down your spine.

you’re rarely spooked, but something about him tells you he’s not to be taken lightly.

“welcome, welcome,” he says after a while, a small mic is attached to the lapel of his suit jacket, and stands on the small stage in front of the crowd. you hadn’t noticed it before — probably because you’re all the way in the back, but you strain your neck and try to listen anyway. “you all have been chosen to participate in a competitive show, where you have the chance to win millions of dollars.” that gets the crowd going. you jump when everyone starts shouting and clapping, voicing their approval of the grand prize.

with a tight-lipped smile on, the man continues, “it won’t be easy, but if you put in hard work, it’ll be worth it in the end.” you find that his words are vague enough to absolve him — and whoever is financing this endeavor — of whatever happens should something happen to the participants. no one else seems bothered by this, though, and you know you shouldn’t get hung up on it, but your gut is rarely wrong about these things.

“sounds like a load of shit,” comes a smooth voice behind you; with a slight frown, you turn around and are greeted with a cheeky grin from the person behind you. he has on a pair of dark sunglasses — so dark you wonder how he’s able to see through them — with an all-black attire, a startling contrast to his pallid skin and frighteningly light hair — so silver it’s practically white. you don’t like that his voice is pleasing, you also don’t like the way he shoves his hands in his pockets and tilts his head as he towers over you.

gojo satoru isn’t necessarily strapping for cash, but he loves a good challenge — plus adding more money to his reserve can’t hurt; the idea of fame and fortune is lucrative enough to make him want to participate freely. he’s noticed that most of the people gathered here today are either in dire financial situations or just like the idea of being on TV. he pities them, and you, apparently.

he spotted you immediately when you arrived, having been there early enough to scope out the competition — you were the last one to come, and you didn’t seem apologetic for your tardiness. he runs his tongue along the back of his teeth, noting how pretty you are, despite looking like you don’t want to be bothered — and, naturally, he wants to do just that; push you and see how far you’re willing to let him dig until you snap.

something tells him it’ll be a sight to see.

despite having chugged two energy drinks, you still feel tired. you run a hand through your hair, tugging on a particularly stubborn curl, brown fingers untangling it, fuming when it doesn’t cooperate the way you want it to, as he watches closely. you can feel his eyes on you, but you’re not sure — again, his sunglasses are too dark for you to tell.

“do you need something?” you ask carefully, eyes narrowing, plush bottom lip jutting out as you attempt to figure out his angle. “if not, leave me alone.” you swivel around and face forward again, attempting to tune back in to whatever bullshit they’re trying to sell to the crowd about the competition.

“ouch,” gojo says while rubbing his chest absently, “not the friendly type, huh.” you roll your eyes at that, let out a frustrated breath and keep your face forward.

“something like that,” you mumble, mostly to yourself, but he hears you loud and clear.

“don’t worry, that’ll change soon.” he sounds so fucking sure of himself and it pisses you off. you ball your hands into fists, nails pricking your skin; he notices the tension in your shoulders, in the stiff way you keep your head and neck straight, and snorts quietly. he places a hand on your shoulder and you practically leap out of your skin, shimmying out of his grasp, eyes widening — your brown eyes aflame, your anger bubbling quickly. he laughs and puts his hands up, an apology dangling off his tongue, but you cut him off before he can say anything.

“look, i don’t know what your fucking angle is,” you say venomously, arms crossed over your chest, “but the next time you touch me, i’ll cut your hand off.” you’re not serious, but you hope your face is bitchy enough to deter him from trying that again.

gojo simply laughs and tucks his hands back into his pockets. “noted, shorty.” for some reason, the nickname that never really bothered you before, truly grinds your gears now.

“whatever, just stay away from me.” you move forward to give yourself some space and realize that the man on the stage has disappeared and everyone is being ushered through the front doors of the building by several people in matching uniforms. you hesitate, watching the crowd move away from you and from gojo who — for whatever reason — decides to hang back alongside you.

lips twitching, he glances at you, amused by your standoffish behavior. “scared?”

you blink in surprise, but your brows slope downward as you stare him down. “of what? this?” you scoff and start to walk to the building in question. “never. i’m not afraid of anything.”

this is the first of many lies that you’ll exchange with gojo throughout the duration of the competition.

the interior of the building reminds you of a ritzy hotel — glamorous, expensive, the floors so shiny they can be used as mirrors — and you frown at the thought. you’ve lived in the surrounding area the majority of your life; you’d know if there was a hotel of this caliber here. gojo explains that the building was recently bought and renovated over the past year, which makes sense, but still doesn’t explain why the outside is so bland and empty.

again, you feel an uneasiness crawl into your stomach; something doesn’t feel right. when you look over your shoulder, you see two more uniformed employees stationed at the double doors — almost as if they’re blocking you all in — and others patrolling the area. you try to look around inconspicuously, but eventually follow the others to the main ballroom. it’s more than spacious enough, chairs and tables strategically placed around the room. you take a seat in the back corner and grab one of the complimentary bottles of water that sit on a shiny tray in the middle of the table. it’s an expensive brand that you can’t find readily in stores. you wonder how much it cost to buy so many cases, wonder how many thousands of dollars you could make if you stole them all and drove off without looking back.

the water is surprisingly cool, running down your throat smoothly; you feel refreshed and pissed that it tastes so good — meanwhile you’re stuck refilling your reusable bottles using the crappy tap water back at home. the man in the suit reappears on stage, commanding everyone’s attention as the lights dim. he, once again, welcomes the crowd to the competition.

“before we can begin, there are a few clerical things that need addressing.” his voice booms around the room, and the lights come back on as the uniformed employees make their way around the room, passing out thick packets of paper. “your contract is binding,” the host says gleefully, a sly smirk on his lips, making you narrow your eyes, once again feeling that something is very off about this whole affair. maybe you shouldn’t have come at all.

your chair makes the loudest scraping sound against the floor when you scoot away from the table and stand up. an employee blocks your way and you raise a brow at them, lips pressed together as you attempt to summon all of your patience in order to speak politely.

“please, move out of my way.”

they don’t move and the host turns his watchful gaze towards you. “ah, ah, ah,” he waves a finger in disapproval, “no one can leave until we finish the presentation, okay?” his smile doesn’t reach his eyes, everything about him is fake but something in his tone makes you hesitate before taking a seat again. “excellent” he claps his hands together and continues droning on about the contract. “please read through everything carefully before signing. it’s your standard contract, basically outlining that you cannot sue us if you get hurt while performing some of the stunts.”

murmurs break out amongst the other contestants, to which the host follows up with, “but rest assured, you will all be perfectly safe. all of our courses have been tested, this is just in case, you know? we all need a little guarantee in life, right?” he laughs and the crowd laughs with him — save for you, gojo, and a handful of others. “alright, folks, take your time and hand the contract back to any of the uniformed employees. there’s a section where you can check whether you’d like to continue competing or not.” and, before he steps off the stage, he scans the crowd, and ominously adds, “just know, that it’s in your best interest to stay and see this through ‘til the end.”

“nope,” you mumble to yourself, flip through the thick packet and chew on your thumbnail anxiously. “this shit’s suspicious as fuck.” there’s no way the others can’t see what you see, right? you’re not the only one who thinks all of this is bullshit. you flip to the back page and sigh, opening your water bottle again and taking a small gulp. you turn your head and see gojo — he’s much too tall for the chair, long legs spread as he takes up more space than necessary. he has a sleek jaw, slender nose, and relatively nice lips even if all they do is spew nonsense.

immediately you scoff at the thought, hating yourself just a little the longer you look at him. and then he does the worst thing possible; he takes off his sunglasses, places them neatly on the table, leans back against the chair and closes his eyes. impossible, absolutely impossible. his fair lashes curl delicately around his eyes, and he rubs his eyelids briefly before opening his eyes again.

it’s your fault for deciding on that moment to drink more of the water — water that you choke on — it’s also your fault that you keep looking at him. you knew, even with the sunglasses on, that he was handsome, but this? this was absurd. something much more breathtaking than a diamond, glittering more than gold or silver, he radiates a graceful beauty that pisses you off. he catches you looking at him and the corners of his lips curl upwards as he tilts his head, hair falling over his face from the movement.

“oh, hell,” you say out loud, forcefully squeezing the life out of the water bottle unintentionally, the liquid shooting out of the open top and splashing on your face. a couple people snicker around you, and gojo tries to hide his amusement but fails. irritation prickles underneath your skin, bowling over the embarrassment you feel over spilling water over your self — again, you’re at fault for staring for so long, you should’ve looked away when you had the chance.

your face heats up and you scramble around and grab some napkins to dab up the water.

gojo, meanwhile, focuses back on the contract before him, taking a deep breath before flipping through the pages with his lithe fingers. speed reading is an art that he mastered a long time ago — and contracts weren’t anything difficult, he could read them in his sleep. there are a few predatory clauses that stand out to him, glaringly obvious ones that he’s sure the host banked on the contestants being too ignorant to sort through.

he lifts his head to count the employees again — there are twenty-five currently in the room with concealed weapons, which strikes him as odd; if this is just a competitive game show, then why would they need to be armed? he files that away to investigate later, but more importantly, he’s reached the last page of the contract.

while the host didn’t exactly lie, there are two boxes there — but opting out of this competition before the allotted 30 days are up, puts you in a lottery for the next one, and so forth. basically, you can’t get out of the contract with this unknown corporation, unless you complete the minimum requirements. his theory about the competition falls into place; accepting their invitation is the first step, willingly entering the building is the second, and the third is signing the contract. no matter which option you choose, you’re doomed to compete. he bites his lip and slips his sunglasses onto his face, hating how bright the light is inside.

the contract also outlines the requirements for competing — there are 100 contestants in total, and everyone will be paired off into groups of ten; these groups cannot be changed without clearance from the host or whichever manager is running the game in question.

your brows furrow together as you try to figure out how to get out of this, not wanting — or caring, really — about competing anymore. without you knowing, gojo changes seats so he sits directly across from you.

“i take it you’ve read the contract, right?”

his voice slides down your body, thick like honey, and equally as tempting. you hate it, you hate him, and you hate that you’re actually looking up and engaging.

“obviously,” your voice is clipped, terse, you don’t want to talk to him more than you have to.

“so you know, your best bet is to partner with someone inside the group, right?”

you know what he’s getting at, but you hate that it’s him who is suggesting it.

“your point?” you don’t bother drinking from that villainous bottle of water again for fear of choking in his presence.

it’s cute that you keep pushing back against him, that you don’t want to like him — he can tell. that stubbornness might be your downfall, but he doesn’t hate it; in fact, he might just like that part of you.

“my point,” he leans forward, and you flinch, his cologne a rich, earthy mixture — sandalwood, warm cinnamon, and amber — choking you as he continues talking candidly with you, “is that we should work together. it’s obvious there’s something much more sinister at play here. it’s good to have allies.” you watch the way his mouth moves, take note of how white and straight his teeth are, and for some reason, you’re wondering if running his mouth is all he’s good at.

cheeks aflame, you cough into a closed fist and consider his proposition. “tempting,” you pretend to think it over, but in all honesty, he’s right. but you don’t like it, don’t like that you haven’t found anyone else to partner up with, and don’t like that he might be your lifeline in this competition.

“let’s start with introductions, yeah?” he places his hands flat on the table. “gojo satoru,” he says briskly, and then grins cheekily, “now you.”

you blink slowly and sigh, tugging on your curls in frustration. “fine, i’m y/n.” he already knew that, though; he knows everyone’s name in the room, actually — he’s done his due diligence, he just didn’t think he’d be stuck with a bogus contract. he’s sure they’ve also locked the doors to exit the building too.

“well, y/n,” he drawls, extending a hand for you to shake, “let’s make sure that we come out on top.” you know better than to trust a smooth talker like gojo, but you place your hand in his anyway, surprised at how cool his skin is, and shake it firmly. you hope you’re not making a mistake, hope that your body will stop making you think impossible things about the man before you, and hope that if you must participate in a bogus competition, that you’ll actually win the money.

after all, what will all this be for if you can’t manage to do a simple task like that?

#fic request #this took forever but i am done!!!!#sora i hope u like this ily sm #jjk imagine #jjk x reader #jjk x y/n #gojo satoru #gojo satoru x reader #gojo satoru x y/n #gojo x y/n #gojo x reader #gojo is a menace without even trying which makes him the worst kind #i can't believe i typed this in a few days who am i

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