#idk why she hates dorian lmao

[solarisposting]

thoughts on 1989 TV?

I've not yet actually listened to the whole thing because of life hectic-ness, namely foot surgery that has made fun things like Consuming Music I Love suck a lot. So I'm listening all the way through today while I do some scanning for work! This is gonna be a sort of "live react" stream of consciousness thing that I'll ideally edit before bombarding you with my Thoughts :-)

In general, everything sounds so much crisper and I am LIVING

I've always been kinda meh towards style aside from the last chorus, but there's something sooo much better about style tv!! Haven't listened to the OG 1989 in ages, so I'd need to compare to really explain it (and it might be obvious, but I'm not the greatest at remembering the little details from pre-reputation albums bc rep was my first as a a Fan™️)

Her matured and vastly improved vocals are to die for and have been throughout the ~taylor's version~ journey. MWAH!

OOTW is already a gorgeous song, but tv is, again, just so...!!!!!

AYHTDWS is already one of my favorites, so the rerecording has me EMOTIONAL it's so beautiful. Hold me I listened twice (which I consider a sin on full listen-throughs of albums, though I AM a horrid sinner, so)

I still hate shake it off, but this one's much better. Milder hate, more like distaste now, sort of like a mushy thing on the bottom of my shoe instead of the bottom of my sock

IWYW makes me sprint thru the streets at 5 AM even with my recently removed stitches owie

WHAT IS THE SECRET SAUCE HERE?? Do the drums sound better? Idk!

I know bad blood is considered cringey but listen. It's also so fun and the cringe makes us free. Maybe the harmonies on the chorus have more parts?? Gdi i need to do one to one comparisons with all of these. Already salivating over the Kendrick Lamar version at the end of the album I'm excited for him

It's official that 1989 tv has made me really like songs I've been ambivalent or mildly positive towards (like style and wildest dreams now), so that's like actually huge imo

Everything is so pretty! (I'm half asleep now help I'm at WORK)

I Know Places is one of those TS songs I rarely listen to and then I listen and am like "why the fuck aren't I listening to this one daily" and IKP tv has me feeling that More Intensely

Clean is yet another fave and clean tv makes my very soul tremor. Don't look at me for a week

Wonderland continues to be a fucking transcendental experience that electrocutes my spinal column <3 the bridge is even MORE earth-shattering than it was in the original. please see my original thoughts from 4.5 years ago

these feelings re: Wonderland still stand and always will

The first chord of YAIL kind of sounds like the first chord of Give Great Thanks by Dorian Electra lmao

Still not crazy about YAIL but the lyrics and the ****** lore...phew!

New Romantics tv is suuuch a good example of how gorgeous tayla's lower register has gotten. It's so much richer and I guess more well supported?

I've heard that Slut! is actually emotional af...not ready

"I might as well be a joke in love" HOO BOY I SEE NOW WHAT FOLKS HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT

"Got lovesick all over my bed" is SO !!!!!!

Okay yeah Slut! is so fucking good

Say Don't Go has me reeling. I can see why it didn't make the final cut (she is just a little too unlike her brethren to the point that, imo, she wouldn't fit well into the original album as well as the songs that made it do), but it's soooo ggoooooOOOD!!! It gives me almost like...cousin of 1989 and Lover and Midnights vibes?

Now That We Don't Talk...!!!! These vault songs fucking rule, dude.

The end of NTWDT 🤝 Mastermind??

The I broke my own heart 'cause you were too polite to do it ⏩️ I broke his heart 'cause he was nice pipeline and how it rejects the continuation of a cycle of passivity while simultaneously continuing the emotional burden carried by women in their relationships!! And also a cycle of cruelty! These are half-baked thoughts but they ARE thoughts I'm having!! An english degree was wasted on me because my textual analysis skills are still so juvenile,,

Is It Over Now Boo From Fleabag Moment

I WAS RIGHT THE KENDRICK LAMAR BAD BLOOD VERSION IS SO FUCKING AJGKDHAGXGBX AHHHHHH (dats me yellin)

#wow this was an Experience WHEW #ann with an ie #i love you for prompting me to do this anon #i also didn't end up editing anything lmao

[pearblossommina]

ToG Read-a-Long, Queen of Shadows, Day 1

GUYS when I bought these books i mistakenly received TWO copies of Queen of Shadows so I mailed one to my friend! They SAID they’d read along, because they still haven’t finished the series either, but also idk if they’re gonna read along.

Books are hard

(But no one can stop me I’m a huge fan of Celaena and this series sooooo)(shirking literally all other responsibilities)(and reading books instead) (HERE WE GO)

Ch 1

LET’S GO

hi Dorian i’m sorry you’re sad

Listen

I’m sad too but also I am excited to be reading this book

(I keep forgetting that the tone has RAPIDLY shifted and we are in the worst timeline rn) (everything sucks and nothing is fun)

Ch 2

I wanna know what color she dyed her hair

(This is so awesome!!!!!!!!) (I can’t wait for her to start exacting revenge)

(Kill baby kill)(slaaaaay queen!)

Ch 3

I have so much rage in me for Arobynn it’s not even funny

(God he’s so disgusting.)

GET AWAY FROM HER GROOMER.

I have no idea what Chaol is doing but my thought is that maybe he’s here trying to hire someone to help him rescue Aedion?

Ch 4

AEDION, don’t give up. Chaol is planning a daring rescue (I think)

Ch 5

So - who is this lady

I can’t think of any ladies actually.

Does she have a name and have we met her before?

Ch 6

I think maybe we’ve never met her before. She says her name is not important. Well lady, I’m still gonna root for you, even if you don’t feel important.

(Go, weird sewer lady, go!)

Hi Chaol

I missed you

Are you planning a daring rescue? What are you up to?

Ch 7

Oh Nesryn! Hi!

Ooh boy this is rough

I thought maybe they could… be friends… even after the breakup

Guys, guys. You should try and work togetherrrrr

This is heartbreaking, I hate when mom and dad fight.

“Dorian is my king” Chaol, you’re precious and I fucking love you. LMAO you loyal piece of shit. You absolute madman.

“She knew herself well enough to admit that the relief was partially that of a coward- that she didn't have to face Ren and see how he might react to who she was, what she'd done with Marion's sacrifice.” Ugh why is she being so hard on herself????????

GIRL GO TO THERAPY

Ren and Aedion do not hate you, no one hates you, I promise. Not even CHAOL hates you. I think he’s just upset about Dorian and misses getting snuggles. Deep down that’s what every man wants… snuggles. It’s not your fault you guys aren’t in love anymore. Please, please, please stop being so hard on yourself.

I’m just ready to devour this book at this moment.

My hope is that our good guys can conquer and kill some of our villains, but also, I know this is book 5 of 8 and I might have to waiiiiit a little bit before. Ya know. The defeat of evil and the saving of the day.

A girl can dream.

I’d also LIKE TO SEE SOME ROMANCE SJM please my crops are dying

I know it’s hard to work in when everything’s intense intense intense like this but

Can we get some soft moments please

I NEED IT

#tog read along 2023 #queen of shadows #let’s gooooo

[starlightbooklove]

Let's talk about Nesta Archeron and ACOSF

Pt 1,

Something that I have always been in Acotar is half Nesta, that is, neither pro nor con, because she is a character that I cannot completely love and at the same time I cannot completely hate.

I just like her.

Nesta was a bitch, to her sister, to her father (With reason to do so in his case) and to everyone in general, she was unbearable to me and I remember that the first time I read Acosf I didn't understand anything and I was very conflicted about how to feel about her more than anything.

It was after I reread that I formed a clearer idea and that is that SJM fell short with her, her redemption arc was nice, but it could have been much more, (It needed to be more)

And funny enough is that even some of her stans agree with this (There are too many ACOSF fics).

And the funniest thing is that she has already done it, Chaol's book made me completely change the way I see him to the point that in my opinion he is the most developed male character in TOG together with Dorian, because he really seeks to fix things with those he feels and knows he did wrong, while with Nesta..., there was sex, a lot of sex, sometimes too much sex, and her arc was lost.

(And no, I'm not forgetting the training or the book itself).

Now, Having said that, I can emphasize good things that were done with his character, beyond the fact that she saved feysand lmao, that's the main thing, second to her representation of depression and the self-deprecating thoughts she had about herself, hit hard 🥲, because it does happen, and her trauma around being all cold and mean to defend herself after almost being abused, The whole thing about the cauldron and, on top of that, the death of her father, was something very well constructed, and her shitty attitude is good in the sense that it goes with a character in that state, how many times have I seen characters That are like this because simply what they have been through has made them sour? A lot, But on her, who already had a shitty life being a shitty sister, it didn't look good, because throughout the whole process, even when she tells herself that she doesn't want to be like that, SHE IS A BITCH, You can't fucking deny that.

The book itself is contradictory because it takes to the extreme 'what I want to do and I think about it but I don't do it', that doesn't happen like that all the time, many times, if you want to change, you grab your balls and you're a damn good person because you want to improve, even when it means leaving your comfort zone, Nesta came to that point very late in the book, her attitude is not simply dry, it's downright hostile, and many people confuse that.

Hostile and dry are not the same, Manon for example, is dry with those who love her, but not hostile (all the time), that is why she is such a beloved character. Rowan, at first is hostile but then he's just Rustic and that's it, because it's his way of shielding himself. Shit, Even Feyre becomes dry (and confused with hostile a lot by some fans) the first time she visits Velaris, (with all reason) but again, to shield herself, and this does not take away the affection for the character because we can empathize And understand why.

With Nesta, we understand why and we don't understand why at the same time, and that in a way, is the point, hurt people hurt people, but why did SJM take her so far if she wanted to give her an arc of redemption? And if she took it that far then why she didn't really make her go through her steps and try to fix her mess?

A character that grows is the one who is self-aware of what she did and does something about it, something for real, and the book end just when she was starting LMAO.

Now, it may be that the intention is that all of that was the journey and the end of the book was the beginning of her "i'm gonna try" era, which would make sense, but 😬 idk, i hold on to that. The book is good, and they empower her quite a bit, and that, taking away everything else, makes her a pretty good character, which is what her fans praise about her book, but I definitely think it could have been better.

I will touch more on the topic in depth.

There is a second part 😉.

#acosf #nesta archeron #pro nesta #anti nesta #sarah j maas #sjmaas #acotar

[ghostiewriter]

I finished KoA🥲

I fucking new gavriel was gonna die I had a feeling and I thought I’d prepared myself for it but I did not and I was fighting to hold in my tears cuz I was not by myself at the moment and it fucking hurt. All those years he could’ve had getting to know aeidon😩 l know it was like he finally accepted his dad after that but it still hurt.

Bro and the thirteen sacrificing themselves for Manon 😫😫😫😫😫 I actually couldn’t hold in my tears for their deaths. Idk if it’s because out of all the characters stories Manon was one of the most captivating for me besides aelin. I absolutely loved her character arc and development, I could never get enough of her chapters and hated when I had to wait more than 5 chapters for her to come up again. And asterins story was so incredibly sad but she’s no longer separated from her human love and child🥹 (not me talking about these characters like they’re actual people)

Also she and dorian better have gotten together after the book I was really rooting for them and I hate I didn’t get to see them finally fall into a romantic relationship with each other. They were so fucking cute 😭

Sorry this is all over the place but I hated reading aelin getting tortured I felt so helpless and was so mad at cairn and Maeve for all the shit they did to her but it’s ok cuz Rowan skinned him alive and maeve finally died in the end :)

Also my appreciation for Rowan and aelin’s relationship after she was rescued went way up. He was just perfect for her and I love them together. I felt for aelin so much, all the shit she gave up for everyone and when Dorian’s dad have her the message from her family 😫 and when she was breaking a little and her mom was comforting her omg my heart was breakinggg.

I loved seeing the soft and vulnerable side of lorcan when he and elide finally got together it was adorable. Idk what it was about their story though I just felt like it was a bit rushed in a way after she avoided him for the most part which was understandable I guess I just really wanted to see a whole conversation about what happened and for him to beg on his knees even though he couldn’t lmao. But it was understandable since they were in the middle of a battle and she was terrified she lost him. Also Lord Lorcan Lochan 🤣 I fucking love them

Lysandra is amazing I love her and I’m glad she didn’t immediately forgive aeidon for all the shit he said to her. I understood why he was mad but this mf took it so personally like my dude get over yourself and stop treating the woman you love like shit!! That being said when they finally got together I was very happy for the both of them😌

Also Yrene fucking Towers ending erawan😏 love her

Omg and them when aelin and chaol finally met up with Dorian 😭 I love all their friendships and it was actually so heartbreaking when the war was done and everyone had to leave back to their countries :(

There’s so much stuff I could say more about but that would be really fucking long and I feel like I’ve gone on enough for now. It was a good read even if it broke my heart over and over again

OH BESTIE I SOBBED DURING THIS BOOO I GET IT AHSHSBSJZBSNSB

The Thirteen sacrificing themselves and Gavriel’s sacrifice genuinely got me, I wasn’t expecting it to make me sob but they did😭especially Gavriel like he just started having a relationship with his son!!!!

ELIDE AND LORCAN ARE SO CUTE AND THEY ARE ONE OF MY FAVS!! Still pissed we never got that smut scene tho, we were robbed!!

But I adore Yrene and I need more Manon and Dorian and just everything was so🫠and the wee scene with Dorian realising he was named after his dad? KILLED ME

anyways, now you can move onto acotar🌚you’re gonna LOVE IT

#ask #throne of glass

[maastrash]

AND MY FRIEND IS ONTO CROWN OF MIDNIGHT

Here is a thread of my friend reacting to Crown of Midnight! Find her Throne of Glass reactions here :)

OMFG DOES SHE REALLY HAVE A QHOLE ASS HEAD IN THE BAG SHES CARRYING

Ugh this fucking asshole of a king I cannot

He really sent her out to go kill her friend

What a dick move

AHHHHQKWJSKANSOQ AHHHHHHH CHAOL IS SO CUTEEEEE

I literally love their relationship omg

They are so cute together

OMFG CELAENA ISNT ACTUALLY KILLING ANY OF THEM SHE IS LETTING THEM ESCAPE AND FAKE THEIR DEATHS WHOLLY FUCK 

Who is this bitch roland I dont trust him

SHOTS FIRED

She just left dorian's annoying ass after some useless dinner

Shes visiting kaltain in her cell rn

By the cauldron I sense a brutal friendship brewing between those girls

I'm so fucking excited for them to take some kings bitches down

Oh jesus fuck kaltain is mad

She reminds me sm of elain omfg

THEY ARE BOTH MAD BROKEN AND TALKING ABOUT SOME OBSCURE SEER SHIT

HAHAHAHAHHS I NEED ARCHER AS MY FUCKING HUSBAND HE IS SO HOT

Archer is gonna fucking die isnt he

Omfg I like him I want him to successfully fake his death

"Honestly, she sometimes wondered if there was something a bit wrong with her for being able to cry so easily." BITCH IF THAT AINT THE FATTEST MOOOOOD

OMFG SHE GOT SLICED WITH POISON THE BITCH IS ABOUT TO DIE NO NO NO NO NO

SOMEOME COME TO HER RESCUE PLZ

BIIIIIITTTCCCCHHHH

CHAOL MY BABY OH MY GOSH

I smell a mating bond bitch.

That harp chic is a fucking badass

SHE BECAME FAMOUS JUST TO GET INVITED TO THE PALACE AND SHOVE MAGIC SONGS IN HIS FACE

She is the definition of petty and I'm all here for it

She also made celaena cry

So um sister shook

HAHEIRNICNEISMWOXUWNOSNWINA MY BABIESSSSSSSSSSS.

MY HEART MY HEART OMFG

Meanwhile there's fucking Dorian moping around being all pitiful omfg get a life you lil bitch

YOOOOO THE PRINCE HAS POWERSSSSSSSS

THE POWERS HAVE AWAKENED. I REPEAT THE POWERS ARE HEREEEEEEE

DOMESTIC CHAOLAENA IS EVERYTHING

IBIBTCRXYVKIYCTXONOJOHT MY HEARTTTTTT

THIS IS SM BETTER THAN DORILAENA

OMFG CHAOL’S A NAUGHTY LIL WHORE AND IM ALL HERE FOR IT BITCH

BUT. I. NEED. THE. SMUTTTTT.

Bro the amount of magical foreshadowing got me fucked up

I cant wait till shit blows up and powers are exposed

IS THIS WHERE THE SEX HAPPENS OMFG OMFG

OMFG SENTIMENTAL CELAENA IS EVERYTHING

Oh bitch It's happening 

YESSSS

Omg "Fleetfoot was with Nehemia for the night"

Bitch they are fucking

Chaoleana is happening tonight bitch

Happy birthday to chaol he gets celaena's pussy as a present

OMFG CELAENA IS A QUEEEEEN SHE DID THAT SHE RLY DID ALL THAT

MY HEART HURTSSSS

SJM IS THE REASON I HAVE UNREALISTIC RELATIONSHIP EXPECTATIONS FML

@ myfutureboyfriend read all of sjm's books and GET SOME FUCKING IDEAS

JEBDISBXIWBOZFHAUS THIS IS EVERYTHING

...no words. I have no words

I. FUCKING. CALLED. IT. CELAENA'S PUSSY AS HIS BDAY PRESENT BITCH

KSNXUWBUZNZOZJAUSBAJ THEY'VE FUCKED IN A BROOM CLOSET

SIS I CANNNNNOTTTTT I LOVE THEM SM

#lol #shes chaolaena trash #idk why she hates dorian lmao #crown of midnight #reactions #sarah j maas #throne of glass

[its-an-inxp-again]

SP/so vs SO/sx

Not sure how much this can be generalized since it's only my personal experience. When I was a pre-teen my best friend used to be a so/sx 6w7, while I am 9w1 sp/so. Sp dom vs Sp blind... some stuff went down and it’s fascinating to analyze such differences to me (I feel like I'm fascinated by sp blinds in general wtf).

She was the V immature of the pair, throwing herself in any possible weird experience she could have just for the sake of it. She would always cause so much drama it was legit concerning and I always was on the sidelines, not participating and sometimes suggesting her to stop, but did she listen to me? Never, and also, in some ways, I think I did in fact understand her desire to feel alive and feel stuff and do dumb stuff, possibly in that I am sx-blind and I won't fucking allow myself to do that, while she totally did. I guess, I don't usually pay any mind to my sx-blindness but the only time that it kind of felt like I was missing on something was when I would spend time with her? And also now that I'm actually studying the instictual variants I guess I'm starting to realize it (but also not really there's a shit ton of work to do). She would always act as if she was the protagonist of some weird 19th romantic novel but, make it dumber (we were 11-12 after all, how smart could we be?).

I deeply, deeply understand her need and wish to be like a novel protagonist. I do think of myself in that way quite often. But while she did it by acting and getting actively involved in stuff, I’ve always done the same by hyper-interpreting my simpler, more boring experiences (9 basic bitch here, feeling attached to something while being withdrawn and out of touch with your body results in amazing fantasy sky castles). She was never satisfied by this.

If she wanted intensity, she would create it by idk, doing some dumb stuff she would for sure later regret. While she went on to feel so alive, I would stay in the back overthinking my more boring life. An example would be that while she actually acted so that everyone around us hated her and shunned her, I would simply feel and think I was being shunned as well, but in practice I would never do something that would elicit a strong reaction out of others. I basically fantasized about it. As you can tell her being a Social Dominant I guess she got the sx juice she wanted through social stuff (her reputation, going against the social system (social 6s often do that)).

In so many ways, if I were to simplify it, she was a mixture of Dorian Gray and Heathcliff and I was Des Esseintes. She was an edgier version of Dorian Gray, wanting to experience everything but make it dark and painful and tormented (a là Heathcliff), not once holding herself back. Des Esseintes, on the other hand, would also feel like a misfit and a tormented soul but he did so by staying inside his house and hyper-interpreting his experiences to an insane degree, until he basically starts to hallucinate. He barely goes outside of his home and when he does everything seems weird, scary, magical in its own way, and while a bit creepy that’s also part of being sx-blind I think? You secretly want that way of feeling alive via the dark things in life (not sure if my fixes have a part in this as idk other 9s may not relate to this maybe) but also you want to go about it safely (sp) and by not exposing yourself (9), so it becomes like wearing a pair of glasses that adds a layer of poetry and beauty and suffering to an otherwise normal, boring and inane reality (again, 9 fantasy shit). But that’s about it. It’s a magical pair of glasses that at times I feel like I can remove and put on at will when I’m bored and I feel like I want more out of life. Outsourcing sx if you will w/o ever acting on this shit. I relate to Des Esseintes even though he was possibly a sp 4 but whatever I guess...

My old friend, being sp-blind, of course did not feel the same need for “safety” and had nothing to hold her back, really... the 6w7 sp blind brings a lot of energy and a way to never be able to fucking stand still, so yeah... it was so fascinating to see her act that differently from me, but also empathizing with her desire to get MORE out of life and dive into the darker aspects of it. I guess that’s why I sticked with her even when I thought she was being unreasonable and annoyingly melodramatic. Most people would shun her and don’t get her ways and while I can’t say that I got her, I would at least sympathise with her wish to experience more and be dramatic, even if I couldn’t quite elaborate it at the time and I superficially thought she was being too immature (this is so funny, we were fucking 10 and we were already doing instictual stuff with me acting like the adult one idk. Also w1 may play a part in this shit. Me being sp dom felt like I was supposed to check on her but also I didn't really do it because it was fun to tag along with her dumb stuff). But while she had the courage(?) to act on such a wish, I did not - I never had it, and instead compensated by having an hyperactive mental landscape...

There was a Wilde’s quote that went like, “the artist always represents what they themselves cannot live and experience”, or whatever, and I’ve always related to it way too deeply, lmao. I would represent, think, imagine, write the stories, and instead she would actively live them. Also Wilde was a so/sx so I guess that means something

While I may be bitter, because even as a sx-blind I at times feel....... like I want to live and get involved in stuff more? also I guess 9s have a way to dissociate with their life quite easily so that doesn't help (a sx-blind 7 would probably feel like they're getting involved more). Plus possibly having a 5fix makes it worse? it kind of sucks tbfh. Like it feels I've been dissociated since I was 4 yo and never got back to actual earth wtf. 95x sp/so may be the most fucking boring thing on earth + it may bring a neurotic need to keep your little bubble untouched by real life and finding security in that bubble, to the point that you're actually missing out. Idk. I may *do* stuff to make me feel like I'm going around with people more but it doesn't really affect me that deeply so yeah... fuck all of this. It's not even the same as being stuck in your comfort zone? I guess it is but again I may at times challenge myself in some small ways and have new experiences but it's like nothing really reaches me idk.

Again, I usually prefer to go about stuff safely (aka not disrupting my little bubble too much), and in this way, I’ve always had way less regrets than her - so in this, I’m actually fine with my way of playing it safe. I like letting myself wear that pair of glasses when I feel like it and call it a day. I’ve always been content with very little...

Though honestly I’ve not been hanging out with her in years (at least 8 years, wow) and while I do hear from her I can’t say I can get to see how much she’s changed, lol

It was weird, you’d expect that with such a melodramatic friend the break up would be at least as dramatic, instead it has been quite the opposite - we simply slowly stopped reaching out to each other once we had nothing much in common anymore, and something else going on with our lives, lmao...

Also I mistyped her as a 4w3 in the past but it's so funny I got that little about the enneagram and IVs and somehow got her IV right at first try wtf I guess she's just that obvious

#enneagram #enneagram 5 #enneagram 4 #instinctual variants #so/sx #social instinct #long post #sometimes i say stuff #ennea5 #ennea4 #enneagram 6 #enneagram test #ennea9 #enneagram 9 #ennea6 #ennea 6 #ennea 9 #sp/so

[nochiquinn]

campaign 3 episode 8: loreian

I'm late bc Power Rangers The Movie and also bc I was trying to avoid whatever this is

my kid riffed "it's thursday night" into "it's thursday butts" and frankly idk why comedians are still trying, she's clearly perfected the form

chEtney

I still extremely enjoy chetney's art

"call me when you get your shit together" he was never heard from again

I'm already doing my "other people are asleep" fingersnaps

travis just made this character so he could react to laudna in-character like he does in real life

"I'm so confused!! :D"

liam's inability not to call old characters grandmother/grandfather

saM

"why are you so mean to meeeeeee"

oh no he broke travis

tonight is just 4 hours of corpsing

...no pun intended

"BALLS" my kid WOULD fit right in

"I'm dorian's friend"

mala: friends of dorian

"hi my name is chetney, I killed santa"

"not that fourth one"

oh I just processed the design on robbie's shirt, that's nice

HEY WALL

trek out to the Hubble

do not tell fearne how much money you have you will not wake up with it

mariSHA

sam

UNPROMPTED WHISPER

"essence" [kill bill sirens]

oh we're just gonna unpack this right here at the table huh

"like werthers" sam

OH

it's almost gotta be cyrus right

"maybe I could throw something at him"

"laudna's making crazy eyes at you what's she saying"

"my very good friend" gay

orym: just fuckin - just get up here

I adore travis' little elf shoes sfx

I'm love him

I've had to stop actually snapping bc I was hurting my fingers

orym: I am SHORT you KNOW I'M HERE just STOP

DM's mercy

just pictured the guy with his shoes pinned to the floor with tiny chisels

c h e t n e y

I love robbie's "stop making me acknowledge my backstory" noises

"first you had a flask now you ARE a flask"

"is your dick out?" "...I'd have to look"

HE

travis' face lmao

[shakes dorian until his backstory falls out]

"I don't trust them" SIR

I am offended on their behalf

"I believe THAT part" chetney

imogen: [nokia ringtone]

🎵 tip me over and pour me out🎵

"just because they're different doesn't make us strange" "but we are very strange"

"like a reverse baby bird" oh I hate that

HEALING POTION KEGGER

in the presence of family dorian has developed a younger sibling bitch response that I greatly enjoy

matt: zanotto me: [psychonauts hell]

dorian you showed him it was POSSIBLE

the long pause before and after "dorian"

"escort work" can mean a couple of things lmao

"handle those swords"

"please don't tell mom and dad" "that would require me to talk to mom and dad"

cyrus what

OH I also heard it that way

travis

is it weird I would watch an entire show around cyrus' story

I want a weird west fantasy train robbery

(I want weird west fantasy everything)

good to know anxiety and social awkwardness runs in the family

orym is very disappointed in you

cyrus needs to stop calling me out as an oldest sibling

"what do you think that MEANS"

upcontinent

"""go to vasselheim"""

the mysterious npc in a flashy cloak to socially anxious disaster pipeline

ashton

oh no they're stockbrokers

no dorian you just almost put on a vestige of the fckin spider queen that's much better

"who's your employer" ashley

"are there conventions" "not lately"

BRONTE

I swear we heard that at one point in exu, am I going crazy

"b r o n t e with a [kchke]"

bronte wyvernwind!!

that's so fucking cool???

"I didn't think I'd get this far"

this sounds like some one piece shit, I'm into it

robbie's mind blowing in the background

relax she's just putting it out there

don't leave alone after dropping all that lore

death flags death flags

stop talking about how good you are at fighting

"she grows on you" "I would burn that off"

cyrus you fuckin HIMBO

if cyrus dies I riot

mattholomew

matthew

MATT

gonna fight him in the parking lot

slasher film starring chetney

reani my beloved

(no I didn't realize this had dropped)

...okay that's pretty much how the first obann fight went tho

fearne

ashley. travis. c e a s e

"it's how we met" cries

do you wanna be a big shot

"was it grog" samuel

"that'll be useful" it's ashton, will it really?

we're not telling them about the stone? we're keeping that a secret? dorian? sir?

[nextdoor voice] this information has been reported to the police

"fearne takes a bong hit out of fcg"

fearne don't be a dick

awww

fantasy xanax

oh shit I tried to come up with something like this for a setting, now I gotta file the serial numbers off

"a layer of black material" "oh, LA Square"

leeroy no

"how are we supposed to focus on anything, travis"

laudna

chetney

y'all

oh he's not getting his deposit back

"dire wolf attack" WEREWOLF

matt: werewolf travis: :D matt: also ghosts travis: D:

"I put my vacuum arm on" we found it, we found the hoovel

"air d&d"

as opposed to an expected dire wolf attack?

"I cast detect thoughts" BINGO

pate no

boutta get frumpkin'd

MATTHEW

"dead in 2022!!"

for THREE WEEKS

#critical role #spoilers #crititag #liveblog #reaction post

[myth-carver]

Brief thoughts on c3e1 and the new folks........

Overall: Eh, it was okay. CR has a winning formula with their style of actual play, they're almost always a joy to watch onscreen and that was no different last night, but I came away feeling more like I was watching a oneshot or another ep of ExU rather than the new Critical Role campaign proper. Not super into the new cast and very disappointed that literally half the table is reused people we've seen before -- I enjoyed ExU's cast but that was sold as a separate thing and seeing them here is jarring, especially absent the rest of the Crown Keepers. Between reused characters, all the new permanent changes to the format, not even being 100% certain who in this cast is going to stay or later go at this point... It just kinda feels weird :/ But I'm excited for the Marquet setting and it took me a really long time to warm up to the c2 cast too, and it's early days yet. So I'm willing to have my mind changed, and fortunately for me, I'm more a fan of the cast themselves than any particular characters they've played anyhow. Taking a wait and see approach overall.

Imogen: She seems sweet, I love her character design, I'm very partial to purple hair lmao. Other than that I don't find her that interesting so far but Laura is a good RPer so she'll probably be fun to watch. Maybe she'll be able to join Orym in stewarding the group's brain cell lol.

Laudna: Marisha's doing an accent??????? She sounds amazing and I love the performance. Laudna certainly has a lot of intriguing stuff going on, I enjoy a character with mysteries to dig into. She doesn't inspire me fannishly but I'll look forward to finding out what her deal is. I'm ngl I'm super disappointed that all three of our girls this time are really femme though.

Ashton: Kintsugi earth genasi is an absolutely inspired concept that I hope Taliesin patted himself on the back for a lot because he Earned It. That said, aggressive punk with anger/authority issues is a trope I find super super annoying and he's already rubbing me the wrong way constantly :/ I hate that I'm just not into the only human-adjacent nonbinary character on the main cast, it really sucks. It's also driving me crazy how much the colors of his costume intensely do not match his green and purple and gold body even slightly lmao, it's really unpleasant to look at.

FCG: This is now an FCG hate blog, lol not really but holy shit I hate this character so much, Mr. Riegel I'm literally already tired of your joke character after less than 1 episode idk how I'm going to endure a whole campaign of them. Liam why would you do this to us 😩 a lot of people seem to love them a lot so lmao I'm anticipating for me this is going to be a Caduceus situation where my resentment of the character increases due to never being able to get away from posts about him. I don't want any more robots on my fantasy show, if I wanted robots I'd go watch an actual play of a sci-fi tabletop game instead...

Orym: Best boy from ExU returns, which is cool since I super wanted to know more about him in ExU, but wow does it suck they decided to actively make ExU a worse show by not going into half the cast's backgrounds and leaving it literally an incomplete story to accommodate bringing these cast members into c3. If that was the whole purpose of ExU why not just announce that instead of being coy like this??? The way ExU ended left a really bad taste in my mouth and honestly dampened my interest in seeing more of these characters. That said though, my love for Orym at least somewhat remains and Liam is usually the cast member whose character taste matches my own the most, I look forward to seeing where he takes Orym in the future. Also, if our speculation about his OOC origins during ExU turn out correct, cool to have the first gay male character on the main cast.

Dorian: Other best boy from ExU and a surprise appearance by Robbie! All three of the ExU folks I thought meshed with the CR style amazingly and it's fun to get to see him again. Very curious what dirt FCG apparently seems to have on him. And I wonder when we finally get to learn his real name... 👀

Fearne: I overall don't like Ashley's RP, which I know is ironic because I love Yasha so much lmao. But I feel like Fearne is, of everyone Ashley's played on stream, the character that seems to most match with her personal style and comes most naturally to her, it's fun to see her RP with such confidence. She's really good at invoking the fey vibe, both the sweetness and comedy and the undertone of menace. That said, Fearne's general behavior hammers my secondhand embarrassment squick absolutely like crazy lmao and it's going to be rough to have to watch that for an extended period, I find her frequently almost painful to watch tbh. I'm excited that a fey in the main cast means we'll be seeing Feywild stuff though!!! Maybe even my eladrin warlock's old patron Lady Elmenore 👀

Bertrand: Sorry man I didn't care about you in the oneshots and I still don't lmao, too obnoxious for me. It heavily seems like he's here as a guest though -- I just hope this doesn't herald something weird like Travis finishing his appearance and then bowing out of the cast, please bring a second character when you're done being an NPC Travis don't go away :(

#critical role #negativity tag for filter #c3e01 spoilers #cr spoilers #long post #my posts

[tabriscadash]

I was asked this on my old blog right as I set about transitioning to this one, so...

The first character I ever fell in love with: for DA:O, dare I say Daveth? What can I say -- I irrationally got incredibly attached to him. otherwise, DEFINITELY Morrigan, and I have crystal clear memories of my first run through Lothering and looking at Morrigan like 😍 the whole time. For DA:2/E, Carver -- unless you count Anders & Justice since I knew of them from Awakening beforehand, in which case probably Justice. For DA:I, it’s a toss-up between Vivienne or Cole -- I technically liked Cole first but SPECIFICALLY in the supporting material (Asunder), and didn’t vibe with him anywhere near as much in the game, AND I got him as a companion after I got Vivienne, so probably Vivienne.

A character that I used to love/like, but now do not: for DA:O, I guess Oghren? I never loved him, but I liked the idea of him because I really liked the dwarves/Orzammar side of DA’s worldbuilding -- but he’s such an unlikeable character that I just.. don’t vibe with him at all. I debate recruiting him every single time now, and I don’t think I ever do his personal quest (in the base game OR Awakening). for DA:2/E, I don’t really have anyone that fits -- but I REALLY wanted to like Merrill and Aveline more than I did, and especially in Aveline’s case, I can’t stand her and genuinely think she’s the unintended, secret Big Bad of the whole game. for DA:I, probably Cole, bc I was really into the idea of a little walking-corpse serial killer animated by a spirit as per the book, but that’s not really the vibe in DA:I, and combined with the somewhat patronising/ableist language and how significantly he is infantilised (including by the fandom) I just got put off him. I do still like him, but not as much.

A ship that I used to love/like, but now do not: for DA:O, I don’t really have one? I guess see my DA:I answer, lol... for DA:2/E, has to be Anders - I don’t think he’s OOC in 2, but I think his writing does so little with him and he feels v. reductive. Where his relationship could be SO interesting and angsty, it instead is written in a really dull and/or cringey way. It would have been nice to see Anders more like the Anders of Awakening near the beginning of the game (rather than random, infrequent and questionably rare snippets), and then see the progression of his relationship with Justice as the game went on -- I want more interesting abominations, PLEASE. for DA:I, listen I cannot express to you HOW EXCITED I was for my planned Lavellan to romance Sera… also I used to be way more tolerant of Cullen x Amell/Surana ships because, like, hey dark ships are fun, right? But since Cullen’s ~wholesome whitewash~ in DA:I, and his fandom clamouring to absolve him of any wrongdoing ever.. it’s boring to me.

My ultimate favourite character™: for DA:O, probably Sten? or Morrigan. They’re both fantastic, and also are significant comfort chars for me. for DA:2/3, honestly, probably my own Hawke -- I feel so hugely proud of her, and can’t imagine I’d enjoy the game anywhere near as much had I not played it as my Hawke. If not her, maybe Sebastian or Carver? for DA:I, I really love Vivienne, as well as Blackwall, and Solas is a great character even if I probably would not say I liked him.

Prettiest character: for DA:O, we all know it’s Zevran. for DA:2/E, I think Aveline -- although her aggressively bland colour-scheme lets her down in a major way (although I respect her dedication to all orange all day every day). There’s just something about her arms -- very Abby from TLOU:2. for DA:I, maybe Josephine? Ser Barris is very pretty, too...

My most hated character: for DA:O, I really didn’t like Alistair, Wynne and Oghren, and of my companions - Oghren is probably my least favourite. He’s vulgar and also profoundly uninteresting. for DA:2/E, it has to be Aveline. There’s just something about ineptitude and a complete, wilful refusal to take accountability for your actions that I can’t stand. It would be okay if it was an intentional character flaw, but the game/narrative treats her like she’s lawful good and it really annoys me. for DA:I, maybe Iron Bull? He was a huge disappointment for me. I also really dislike Sera, Cassandra, and Varric. I’m so sick of Varric - I never want to see him again.

My OTP: for DA:O, I really loved Zevran’s romance -- but I am also very amused by the fact that Leliana got to ‘love’ status with Kallian accidentally, AND I got the ‘love’ glitch for Justice (👀) and Velanna. I do sometimes wonder about an AU where Kallian is forced to make a politically expedient marriage with Nathaniel Howe for diplomatic reasons in order to consolidate her position as Arlessa, and it being an entirely platonic arrangement (it’s not like anyone expects an heir from an infertile Grey Warden) -- and maybe Zev and Nate kiss sometimes, who knows? I also LOVE my Darkspawn Chronicles AU where Kallian and Nelaros are a happy, married couple each hiding their skills with weapons from each other like dumb, cute sweethearts. They shelter Zevran when he fails to kill Alistair and a poly couple evolves. for DA:2/E, I love the IDEA of a Seb romance that isn’t so strictly conditional around the structures that abused him -- he should be allowed to love, chastely or otherwise, but free from the Chantry OR his position as prince/heir. I’d LOVE to actually have a romance with him where you can actually challenge the abuse he’s experienced. for DA:I, Malika doesn’t have a canon romance (although I think when I replay, I’m going to romance Josephine!) but I think Blackwall has an amazing romance. Solas’ is also iconic, it must be said. 

My NOTP: for DA:O, I really dislike Alistair in a shipping capacity; he’s immature and says a lot of misogynistic shit and I don’t think he’s the worst for it, but I don’t really vibe with shipping him, having played the game as a female city elf. for DA:2/E, I wouldn’t say I have one, particularly? although I really dislike Aveline’s relationship with her husband simply because it seems incredibly inappropriate, given that they work together and she has power over him -- and because I dislike her, generally, I don’t feel inclined to do something nice for her. for DA:I, I suppose Sera/Lavellan -- although I’m not AGAINST it, it just really isn’t for me, having attempted it. I also don’t really vibe with Dorian x Iron Bull. Something abt the way the game handled BDSM and their relationship banter specifically I don’t really like.

Favourite episode quest: for DA:O, probs Orzammar/the Deep Roads. I really love the dwarven lore! and, of course, Fort Drakon is really funny, even though it’s not canon in my game iirc. for DA:2/E, maybe the murder mystery with the serial killer, where ultimately Leandra dies? I also really enjoyed all the companion quests. for DA:I, The Descent (just, all of it, lmao) and everything to do with the Avvar. Crestwood also BANGED.

Saddest death: for DA:O, it’s frankly a fucking INJUSTICE that Shianni gets murdered if you make her Bann of the Alienage -- the idea of that happening whilst Kallian is in Amaranthine and unable to protect her :( genuinely very upsetting. I go back and forth on who is made Bann, tbf, so idk how canonical it is: I think maybe Cyrion would get it, but I’m also endeared to Soris holding the position, with Shianni as Hahren. for DA:2/E, Bethany. I wish both twins had had the chance to reach Kirkwall :(. Let Leandra die instead. for DA:I, maybe not the saddest death, but the most memorable for me was that one sleeping dragon in the Hissing Wastes.. leave her alone. Stay out of a womans’ business.

Favourite season game: DA:O!

Least favourite season game: DA:I.

Character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but I hate: for DA:O, Alistair. I cannot deal with his complacency and hypocrisy. for DA:2, I really disliked Merrill but I honestly cannot remember why. DEFINITELY Varric -- I hated how the game forces you to be his best friend, and if you’re low approval, you have to endure these pointless pissy little comments with this little anti-dwarf centrist pissant. After the expedition, I literally have no reason to put up with him, and I NEVER take him out. I hate that he plays the same role in DA:I, too. for DA:I, the Iron Bull was hugely disappointing, and I also really don’t vibe with Cassandra. She just seems very wishy-washy and complacent and hypocritical, and many of her comments about other cultures seem snide for literally no reason other than bigotry. 

My ‘you’re a piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: for DA:O, lbr probably Sten. Mans is gonna launch a HORRIFYING invasion in the next game iirc and frankly, I’m ok with it. Just wanna see that big bastard again ❤🥵. for DA:2/E, I LOVE Gamlen, ok? for DA:I, I am not sure if I have one.

My ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: for DA:O, if any of you so much as LOOK at Velanna wrong, it’s hands. That includes Bioware. I also feel incredibly protective of and sad for Morrigan. for DA:2/E, probably Sebastian -- I feel so sad for him, and so frustrated by the limitations with the game. for DA:I, I’m honestly not sure.. maybe Josephine? I don’t really feel this way about Sera, but I do think she deserves better from the game and its writing, and also from fandom: there are valid criticisms of her, but the hate she gets is not proportional to any valid issues with her -- and gee, I wonder why that is.

My ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: for DA:O, I did use to find Cullen x Surana/Amell intriguing as a dark ship -- I actually hc that Neria Surana is actually Nelaros’ sister, and have dabbled with it as a dark ship. I also am interested in Loghain/Alistair - which each pretends the other is someone else. Alistair is wooby, hate ships are, in general, fun -- so long as we acknowledge that they are, indeed, unhealthy ships. for DA:2/E, I kind of feel like Sebastian romances are, invariably, kind of dark... and, similarly, Anders romances -- especially with certain red Hawkes, The way it ends is, invariably, bordering on fucked up. ALSO Hawkecest is weird and wonderful: GET WITH IT. 

My ‘they’re kind of cute, and I lowkey ship them, but I’m not too invested’ ship: for DA:O, I joked about Velanna x Leliana once and I’ve not been able to stop thinking about it ever since… Velanna x Sigrun is also something that can be so personal. Ariane x Finn is adorable and are paid DUST by Bioware AND fandom. I actually am really into Anora x Nathaniel & NO I will NOT explain myself; it’s a crackship but it’s MY crackship. for DA:2/E, Isabela x Fenris is super cute, but I don’t pay enough attention to them to really have super committed thoughts & feelings on them. for DA:I, Blackwall x Josephine is cute as a background ship; I also think Maryden x Cole is sweet.

#meta #mun

[abruisedmuse]

11, 14, 48, and 50

11) Ships that annoy you and why

E/riel- How much time we got? Lmao. Tbh it's Az's intentions or lack thereof with her and the shippers.

Tamlin with literally anyone- Dude is seven degrees of fucked in the head. Mentally and emotionally he is not stable and needs to fix himself and make amends waaaaay before I even consider him with someone.

Mor with a male- she prefers a woman so

Beron x LoA- now this I know I don't need to explain

and don't hate me for this but...Celaena and Dorian- I thought it was kinda tacky 🤷‍♀️ and I'm sucker for the guard trope. Idk I always saw Dorian as a friend and nothing more. Put it this way. Dorian = mortal Fenrys, Chaol = mortal Rowan.

14) How do you view Rhys’s actions UtM?

You're really trying to get me in trouble nonnie 😅. Do I understand the drastic measures he took? Yes.

Feyre's arm he had to twist and inflict pain because she wouldn't say yes. If he didn't she would have died. But I mean there could of been other ways. He could of just sassed Feyre, healed her and left. Then at the end be like just a FYI since I helped you, you owe me and you're staying with me a week out of every month.

The magic paint, in the barely there outfit. I get that too..it was for her benefit. To make sure no one tried to touch her. But one. He could have left her in her cell. Instead, mainly to fuck with Tam, he brought her to the party. He put her in that situation in the first place. It was an immature move on his part. Again, I understand the paint and essentially drugging her so she didn't have to witness whatever tf went down at those parties (tbh I think Feyre would've been more disturbed to see the events unfold). However, the whole thing could've been avoided.

48) Any part of the plot in either series that you would change?

These are probably more so complaints lmao

For TOG-

ugh. I wanna say the thirteen dying but I think it was important for Manon.

Gavriel should've lived.

Chaol and Celaena should've been a little longer

Chaol hating Aelin majority of QoS. That whole side plot annoyed me cause he sent her away. What did you expect dude?

Aelin and Lysandra not involving Aedion on their plans

Acotar- I don't have much since the series isn't finished.

The no c-section

Lucien's entire plot. Throw him a fucking bone okay?

Speaking of, I wish Lucien got Feyre out in acomaf. We all know he wanted to help her

The Illyrian rebellion. You can’t tell me they just. Oh. OK. Our bad

And I touched base on utm

I don't think you can call it a plot but Rhys' holier than thou view of Feyre. She makes mistakes and it's okay to call her out on it

Acosf Amren

50) Who is a better male lead? Rhysand or Rowan? 

Answered here

Sjm asks

#feysand #anti e/riel #Tamlin #mor #lady of the autumn #doraelin #chaol westfall #celaena sardothien #aelin galathynius #aedion ashryver #lysandra ennar #tog #acotar #sjm asks #ask #answered #anon

[bigskydreaming]

This isn't a meme thing or anything but I was wondering if you had a top ten favorite characters from books? I actually end up getting a lot of good book recs from reading your blog so I was just curious lol.

LOL I wasn't going to do this ask because I was like ugh I suck at top ten lists because I can never pick just ten. But then I thought about it for like, five whole seconds and realized I DO have ten standout characters in answer to this so its like oh hey, learned something new about myself today! Lmao.

Anyway, in no particular order:

1) Anyanwu - from Wild Seed by Octavia Butler - Can not stress how like fucking...formative Anyanwu's character was for me as an abused kid who first read this when I was like 12. The book heavily deals with the back and forth across centuries between these two immortals, Anyanwu and Doro, as Doro basically tries to control her every which way he can, and Anyanwu just defies him at every turn, and it just....you love to see it. She's a bad-ass and I adore her.

2) Prince Corwin and Merle Corey/Merlin - from Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny - Yes I'm cheating but its me so you should have seen that coming. Another fave series from when I was in middle school, its ten books in total, and the first five are in Corwin's POV and the second five are in the POV of his son Merle/Merlin. So I maintain it counts. And is fine. Shhh, let it go, Elsa said so. ANYWAY, I actually probably like Merle better than his dad, because I mean, lbr, Corwin is a total asshole. But he's MY asshole, y'know? Wait, that came out wrong. Don't quote me there. But you know what I mean. Merle is a lot more level-headed, and quick-witted I think, and I like his supporting cast of relatives who want to kill him and he sometimes want to kill more than his dad's supporting cast of relatives who want to kill him and he always wants to kill, but like. Both are Valid. Also shout out to Fiona and Rinaldo, with a side shout out to Flora, who are probably my next three favorites from the series. Dara would be up there too but she knows what she did.

3) Elric/Corum/Dorian/etc - from the Eternal Champion books by Michael Moorcock - Look I'm already cheating so why not continue on a theme. But basically this counts too, I'm just saying. See Michael Moorcock's big project going all the way back to the 60s was he created a fantasy multiverse of different dimensions where this one Eternal Champion, meant to balance the scales between the Lords of Law and the Lords of Chaos, like, is reborn over and over again in different incarnations but who are all essentially him. So Elric of Melnibone, Dorian Hawkmoon, Corum I can never remember his last name.....they're all essentially the same guy.....but they're all at the same time very very very different, and they have extremely different storylines. But I maintain if you're gonna read one you kinda gotta just read them all, all Pokemon like and such forth, because the real beauty of these books is seeing the familiar traces of the Eternal Champion threaded through each of these incarnations but also contrasting how different they are from each other and like, looking at what makes them so different each time and how much it stems from their environment and situations, etc.

4) Civet - from the Dragons of the Inland Sea series by Laurence Yep - This is a kids' series, like for ages 10-12 kinda, but easily my favorite from when I was a kid. I reread them so many times, and I love pretty much all the characters from Shimmer to Thorn to Monkey, but Civet was always a standout. She's essentially a tragic character and her ending is bittersweet, but like.....she fully knows who she is and what she's about and makes no apologies for that, and she ends on exactly the note she wants to. Like, her story and her characterization was pretty damn dark for such a young-aimed series, but that's part of what drew me to it, it managed to capture the tone it set out to convey but in a completely age-appropriate way, and in an era when most books aimed at kids dumbed down most of their story concepts and themes, this one was refreshing for just being....real. Despite being blatantly fantasy. Also the Boneless King is one of the best villains ever, despite being deliberately over the top a lot of the times....idk what it was about him, but he was just chilling.

5) Jack the Bodiless and Diamond Mask - from the Galactic Milieu series by Julian May - These are linked as well because they're a couple and their stories intertwine so much that there's no real point in separating them y'know? That's my story and I'm sticking to it. But anyway, they're a weird choice for me because Julian May is hit or miss for me overall....I HATE her Saga of the Pliocene Epic, which is technically in the same universe as her Galactic Milieu series, but they have totally different vibes and the latter series doesn't contain any of the elements from the Saga of the Pliocene that I loathe, so it just works. Plus it has Jack and Diamond Mask, and like.....I don't actually know why I love them so much? They're just so different from pretty much any other characters I've ever read. Like, May does a lot of really high concept stuff across the board, but Jack and Diamond Mask are like.....high concept character wise? If that makes sense? Its okay if it doesn't. I'm literally just spitting words out here. Honestly, its hard to say anything specific about them because so much of their characters conceptually just doesn't make sense without knowing the in-universe concepts that led to them even existing, but like. They're weird and off the wall but still astoundingly human for all that and I love them.

6) Naomi Nagata - from the Expanse books by James S. A. Corey - I mean, if you've seen me ramble all the Naomi love in my live-watches of The Expanse TV show, this should be no surprise, but my love for her in the books like, exists manifold. She's great in both, but the books cover so much more content-wise, that her character has so much more room to breathe and be explored in all kinds of directions the TV show never touches on. The funny thing is, I actually prefer the TV characterizations overall....I think the authors of the books are actually pretty shit at characterization a lot of the time, but the basic thread of Naomi's character is consistent and the sheer abundance of story material she has in the books like.....keeps me going back to them even just for her. Her conflict with Marco in the books in particular just has so much more depth than in the show....like, I don't hate the show's version at all, anyone who's seen my posts there knows that lol, and I'm not actually even sure which version I actually like more in terms of that particular storyline.....but I just love that both versions are so different, while still being recognizably the same, y'know? I don't even know. Nobody knows. Its a mystery. Just nod and say yes, shh, its fine.

7) Locke Lamora - from The Lies of Locke Lamora/The Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch. This is an odd one for me, because in one sense Locke is a very contrived archetypal character from an author that doesn't always pull it off as successfully as I feel he thinks he does.....like, what I mean is Locke is inherently that type of character that is SUPPOSED to push buttons and straddle a line between likable and unlikable....and to be fair, that is VERY hard to pull off without at least some of the time falling on the wrong side of that line and alienating at least some readers. But there's something very genuine or sincere feeling about the character underneath all that, which is ironic for a character who is an acknowledged pathological liar and hardly ever tells the truth....like I said, its an odd one for me because I can't actually put my finger on what makes this particular character work for me when so many similar characters just bug the crap out of me.

8) Damien - from Black Sun Rising/The Coldfire trilogy by C. S. Friedman - This one is a whole fucking lie because I don't actually even like Damien that much lmao, but the thing is, I don't have a particular fondness for any of the characters in this series? But I gotta put it on the list anyway because I just love the world in this series so much, and its practically a character in and of itself. Like, so this was a science fantasy series set on a distant planet in the future but otherwise steeped in fantasy archetypes about spirit creatures that only Adepts could see, and like, Fae and life energy and sorcery that had roots in scientific principles but was otherworldly all the same. And that's like.....all literally my jam, and so I can't deny that this series was very formative for me even if its not the best example of those concepts. Its just the one I tend to go back to the most in my mind, like....the world and its characters are very standout and larger than life for me, even if they don't specifically APPEAL to me? They're impactful all the same. Its another odd one. I'm odd. You just kinda gotta roll with it. Its a thing. Its factual.

9) Yeine Darr - from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin - This was a tough one because I love literally everything by Jemisin and all her characters are just so....ooof. They're very very real, even in the most fantastical of settings. I have mad characterization envy every time I read her stuff, but like. Its so good. So really the struggle was picking one character or even two, because I mean, The Fifth Season and its sequels are easily her best known works and have a ton of fantastic characters, and I think her Dreamblood duology is vastly overlooked but in the end I had to go with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms even if just cuz of nostalgia. Its the first of her works and when I first started reading her and so its just.....anyway, if I was gonna go with that, it had to be Yeine, because she's so central to everything and also just....fantastic. Nahadoth and Sieh are also standout characters who get mentioned a lot in talk of this trilogy, and they're both such big personalities that at times they kinda overshadow Yeine, but Yeine has such a compelling.....undercurrent to her that she never actually gets lost in the shuffle even when surrounded by all these larger than life gods, and just. You love to see it. I do anyway. And its my list so nyah. But also if you're gonna read Jemisin, read everything Jemisin. It just makes sense, y'know? Good for the pores.

10) Cayal and Arkady - from The Immortal Prince/The Tide Lords by Jennifer Fallon - All the other Tide Lords can rot, but Cayal is hilarious in a depressing way. He's a ten thousand year old immortal whose greatest wish is just to die, which is how he meets Arkady who is a historian who just wants to like....know everything he knows once she realizes he actually is the figure of legend he professes to be and is so mad at him for not really giving a shit about all the weight of history he's been present for, but Cayal's just like, umm, I LIVED it so that's why I don't care, I'm allowed to not care, that shit hurt. Did you miss the part where one of the other Tide Lords threw a fucking meteor at me? And Arkady, distinctly unimpressed, is just like....I thought YOU did that, to Jasper. And Cayal's like, no that doesn't sound right. And Arkady's just like, you literally JUST told me that story. And Cayal's like, huh. I must have been lying. I do that sometimes. And Arkady's like, I thought you never lie, that's your whole thing? And Cayal's like, ahah, but what if THAT was a lie too? And Arkady's just like, bitch I hate you so goddamn much, how are you the worst of all the Immortals while still the only one who will actually talk to me and answer my questions. Cayal's like, we may never know.

Anyway, there's my list but like there's a lot more obviously because I'm me, I don't do moderation, its against my religion, but also I have to stop some time and the ask was for ten and those were the ten that popped into my head so they must be the right ones! Probably. Until I change my mind at least.

[dalesception]

the way da:i tries to silence elves voices just pisses me off. like, dorian tells straight to your face that being a slave is not *that* bad and YOU are the one being scolded if you disagree with him. wtf?????? you can’t tell cassandra that you don’t care about ‘making space for the maker’ because you already have your own gods. i mean. why did she think it was okay to ask such a thing in the first place lmao. briala story is? not? even? told? and ppl treat her like she’s the bad guy throughout the whole thing... leave my baby alone okay... and! your only elvhen companions (as long as i love them) despise you and your kin. sera self-hatred for being an elf isn’t even solved by the end of the game (?). well i’m not talking about solas here since he’s evidently... a villain... wow... surprise surprise... the villain is an elf... not once in the whole game you can tell that ‘dalish are s*v*ges’ (yikes) woman to f#ck off. basically i feel like there is a lack of actual ‘i’m not ashamed to be an elf’ answers. da:o was so much better about it and i miss that kind of dialogue options. idk (also i want to make clear that this is not a cassandra or dorian hate post, but what i DO hate is that there isn’t the possibility to take the dialogue a step further—like leliana in da:o, for example)

#da criticism

[wanderingpages]

sjm is on my nerves again tonight cause I just realized the mc mates made all of them come alive and realize life was worth living after nehemia/danika/feyre herself died. what ducked up misogynistic bs sj has to kill the hot best friend so some random asshole guy can come in and Wake Her Up Inside?

Hahaha wake me up (I can’t wake up) holy fuck what a song god it was before it’s time truly.

Idk who Danika is, I stopped caring about feyre half way through the second book ngl (but I still read to the end becuase I wasn’t mad about it I just wanted to know what happened. It didn’t really move me. My face was impassive mostly, occasional “huh, that was interesting I guess” but a whole lot of “why do they all think they’re more clever than they are???”(She didn’t fool anyone w her spying, LUCIEN BEEN KNEW FROM DAY ONE FFS(also fans, correct me if I’m wrong but shouldn’t nesta be The One, since she technically actually truly has hate in her heart for faes??))), but Nehemiah. Her death HURT me. Like what in all fuck. I want a rewrite where Nehemiah is the real ~~~~fireheart flaming bitch queen~~~~ like she was the only one who cared!!! About!!! Her people!!! but as an aside, did aelin ever even talk to Rowan about Nehemiah? I can’t for the life of me recall a scene like that but it’s been a while, maybe I skimmed it.

I don’t hate the books but they’re big enough for me to realize there are many things wrong. I do not like this best friend dying to further plot - further romantic plot- rip Sorcha too. Which is another thing, I can’t remember becuase I read the first 5/6 books at once then waited a year or whatever to read the last book and so much shit happened in the last book like I couldn’t even begin to keep up, but when Dorian started courting sorcha, did she say she had been the nurse tending the trios wounds since day one? Why the fuck did she not have a name until the same fucking book she died in???

Also side bar, idk why the whole thing about dorians dad not knowing his name made me go 🥴🥴🥴 cus why did I already know the kings name was also Dorian?? Was it obvious or did I transcend?? Either way it was such a lackluster plot twist (like the answer to the riddle being love lmao like ok) Idk anyways I don’t hate the books I just hate a lot of things In the books that just don’t add up (plus are cringe - tell me nah, did Rhys nut to the thought of his unborn child cus uhhhhh okay anyways)

#asks #also i still hate aedion just gonna put that out there #feel like i have to remind everyone that i hate him #him being aedion #whom i hate #book talk #tog #acotar #hoeab #also can someone tell me of they follow fae rules in hoeab? cus why doesnt sjm just give up and call them bitches elves if thats the case #lmao it seems like i rant about these books too much but there are thingsbi genuinely like about them

[fynslife]

Thoughts re Bryce x Hunt (HOEAB)

(spoilers, duh / also spoilers for TOG and ACOTAR)

TW: I do mention canonical abuse and drug use in passing

I recently finished Crescent City (HOEAB) after putting off reading it for a while given the numerous reviews about the heavy world-building in the first 300 pages or so. Safe to say I have some thoughts on the novel, namely that I think it’s the weakest of Sarah’s works when considered in the same vacuum as TOG and ACOTAR. I’ll probably do a full review at some point, but today I just wanted to say a bit about my thoughts on Bryce and Hunt as a couple, because I need to know if I’m the only one that feels this way lmao.

I think what’s bothered me most about the pairing of Bryce and Hunt aka Quinlar, is that I don’t really feel that Bryce had a choice in her relationship. Please hear me out. In their respective series, Aelin and Feyre both, in my opinion, have a good level of autonomy over their romantic choices, and I don’t feel that this is the case for Bryce. In TOG, Celaena/Aelin initially chooses between Dorian and Chaol, and then later finds love with Rowan. We see Aelin develop through her relationships, experience her perspectives and priorities change and therefore we as readers are happy with the choices she makes that eventually lead her away from Chaol, and to Rowan. Aelin grows as a person and realizes what she both needs and wants in a partner as the series progresses, which allows her to find and accept her mate. Throughout the series, Aelin has always had romantic options, so seeing her end up with Rowan feels natural and right, and comes after she has explored relationships that naturally dissolve on their own.

Similarly with Feyre in ACOTAR, while the situation is different in that Tamlin is abusive, Feyre still retains autonomy in her choice of romantic partner. Rhys doesn’t try to stop her being with Tamlin, he just works hard to give her the space to sort through her emotions and work out what she wants and needs on her own. When she does choose Rhys, we as readers know exactly why as we’ve seen their relationship blossom from her perspective, and so we support it! Feyre doesn’t choose Rhys because there are no other options – she chooses him because time and time again he has proven to be her match. Rhys earns Feyre’s love, and this is against the backdrop that Feyre is beautiful and desired by most Fae, so she really could have picked anyone!

In contrast, when I look at Bryce and Hunt I feel there’s a bit of a sticking point. At the start of HOEAB we’re presented with Connor, and throughout the novel we get insights into how Bryce feels/felt about him. Bryce’s thoughts essentially boil down to she knew they were going to end up together and she was happy and excited for that future. The only reason they hadn’t got together yet was because she wasn’t done with her party days and she was nervous about how strongly she felt for him, at least that’s how each Connor flash back read to me. It’s evident, in my opinion, that he was her mate. They knew it and so did everyone else. It was only a matter of timing, but they were unquestionably, inevitable. Bold of me to say, I know. So when Connor died (I had no idea that this was coming as I didn’t read the blurb beforehand) I was blindsided. I kept expecting him to come back somehow, as to me it was clear that he was the preferred romantic partner for Bryce. Cue Hunt’s entrance to the narrative.

If I sound a little bit salty now, it’s because I am! Hunt is introduced and it becomes clear that this is going to be Bryce’s new partner, based on that fact that aesthetically he fits the descriptor bracket of both Rhys and Rowan respectively. In my opinion, their romantic arc is a bit lazy. To link this back to what I’ve already said about TOG and ACOTAR, I feel that Bryce has essentially no choice now when choosing her partner. The relationships we saw her in before Connor died were marked as frivolous and meaningless, and her would-be boyfriend is then murdered before Sarah even tries to lift their relationship off the ground. This leaves Bryce with no significant former romantic relationships (unlike Aelin and Feyre) and really no other romantic pursuits as the book progresses. We are immediately supposed to jump aboard the Quinlar ship, even though we have no one else to root for. Hunt is (at this moment in time) Bryce’s only viable option for a romantic interest in the novel. 

Bryce doesn’t choose Hunt because he’s the best person in the line up, she chooses him because he’s the only person in the line up. Yes you can debate that once they’re friends this is a different case, but initially, and for a good portion of the novel, Hunt is the only viable male we see her interacting with with any sort of regularity. Does this not feel slightly Tamlin-esque to anyone else? Not in terms of abuse, as Hunt clearly does not display any abusive traits, but in the sense that when Feyre/Bryce are at their lowest, Tamlin/Hunt appear in the narrative, and provide them with the ‘love’ and support they both so desperately crave.

Now this isn’t to say that Bryce and Hunt don’t have some good moments, because they do! What bothers me, is that unlike Feyre and Aelin I don’t feel that Bryce has had the same space to choose her partner. I think Sarah knew that if she didn’t kill Connor right away, the Bryce x Connor ship would be too strong and wouldn’t leave the door ajar for Bryce x Hunt. I think she knew the only way she could’ve made Bryce x Hunt the preferred ship would be to completely torch Connor’s character in the second or third book, or to kill him off at a later point. I personally don’t feel that Bryce and Hunt would’ve ended up together, had Connor not been killed. I recognize that you could argue the murder is a necessary plot device, but I think it’s a lazy one! Killing off Connor is the easiest way to avoid having to resolve ship-conflict, or having to explore the idea of loving two people at once if that’s the route she wanted to take idk.

It’s possible SJM will bring Connor back in a later book, I noted that there are necromancers in this world so it’s not completely off the table I don’t think, but if she does I worry it’ll just be a throwaway plot line to solidify Bryce and Hunt.

As the novel is classified as an “Adult” read, I just wish that SJM had done more to explore grittier aspects of romance. Ie. the loving two people at once, dealing with grief and loss and seeking an equilibrium after that, or even just a more serious look at Bryce’s drug abuse?! There were so many opportunities that I feel got skipped over in favour of a hastily patched together romance (forged by trauma no less, yikes) and an at-times hard to follow murder investigation.

As I said at the start, I think HOEAB is the weakest of SJM’s books that I’ve read, which is disappointing, as we know she can do better. It’s also worth noting that I don’t hate Bryce and Hunt together, I just feel that Bryce lacked autonomy in her romantic choices because SJM quite literally killed off her only other option. I would’ve liked to have seen some deviation from the norm of love interest – I’m as much a fan of wings as the next person, but must all the key love interests be aesthetically the same just in different fonts? Could we not have run with the sexy werewolf just this once?

Anyway this was a bit of a ramble, but did anyone else feel like this? I have a lot of thoughts on the book but none of my friends have read it yet and I need to process with someone, so pls do hit me up xo

#bryce quinlan #hunt athalar #connor holstrom #danika fendyr #bryce x hunt #bryce x connor #quinlar #crescent city #house of earth and blood #hoeab #cc hoeab #hoeab theories #tog #acotar #feysand #rowaelin #rowan and aelin #feyre x rhysand #feyre x tamlin #feylin #sarah j maas #sjm #sjmaas #love interest struggle #dorian havilliard #chaolaena #chaol westfall #celaena sardothien #doraelin #it's just my opinion

[moderately-competent-bird]

Legacies reaction post 2.13

I HATE that wolf look. Why are they doing this?

lol yeah but they wanna hurt you alaric

Jadeeeee, omg omg

ohhhh dark josie, we love it

god this is already so creepy,

Landon what is actually wrong with you, you stupid dumb boy, I love you

I love how he’s so confident in her. In TVD everyone was trying to keep elena in a damn bubble. but he’s like “Hell yeah, Hope, you go beautiful deadly gf.”

TOP MEN. yes, of course

aaksakhg;khg TEEN WOLF, lmao I’m done

omg omg Lizzie Lizzie Lizzie

Lizzie’s sick oh no (she’s not gonna die. They wouldn’t give me heretic Lizzie that easily)

KAI, YOU CRAFTY MOTHERFUCKER

“Don’t be scared” bitch I’m scared

oh Dorian, you dumb bitch, why would you let him in

“Expert on prison worlds” NO DO NOT, DO NOT TRUST THIS MAN

“Dark evil temptresses aren’t really my thing anymore.” MG I wanna be like you.

Josie’s so fucking scary rn, and when did she have time to do eye make up to go with her new evil appearance lmao

Does Dorian not take vervain? How fucking dumb????

Don’t punch Landon, wtf

ooooh Kai is gonna try to get Alyssa on his side, this not good, code red

wow finally Alaric making a decent decision

We’re really getting NO Lizzie content are we, wtf

oh no oh no oh no, I don’t like. Hope plz be careful

FUCK, Kai you crafty bitch, oh no fuck

We’re 30 minutes in, there’s a lot to do, barely any Lizzie content, I would like to die

RAF. WE GOT RAF. OMG WTF

I think Lizzie might push her dad through the door

oh shit Seb’s waking up

Hope can save anyone she wants, shut the heck up, she’s Hope.

LANDON PLS CRY, YOU GOTTA CRY ON HIM

ok this wolf shit is so...bad. WHY.

Wow Sebastian saved Alaric whoa. 

ugh, idk, I know it was the right thing to do but I hope they find a way to get Seb out. But I’m glad he did a good thing. Maybe Alaric will want to get him out of the prison world

LANDON BIRD

BIRDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

MY BIRD BOY LOOK AT HIM GO

Awww, she astral projected to him. He doesn’t deserve it but still.

He apologized, thank god

I don’t want Thomas Doherty to be gone so soon, I’m MAD okay, I Love him

they gonna kill kai 

“This feels a little anticlimatic” I mean...same, kinda.But they had to kill him. Bless Chris for coming back

JOSIE’S STILL DARK

#Legacies #Legacies spoilers #there I put my entire meltdown in one post

[vecna]

Oohh for the fandom meme! Dragon Age?

Send me a fandom!

Oh boy, this is going to be spicy.

It’s also very Anders-negative, so apologies up front.

The character(s) I first fell in love with:

I’m actually not sure which was the FIRST, but it’s a tie between Morrigan and Alistair. I saw fanart of them going around at the time Origins first released, and that’s what got me to try the game! 

Alistair was a breath of fresh air, because at the time, I was used to warrior men in games being all Edgy and Rough, and he was the total opposite and a sweetheart.

And Morrigan was just instantly my goth wife, and had Claudia Black as a VA, so I was sold immediately.

Both still hold a special place for me!

The character(s) I never expected to love as much as I do now:

Loghain is the main one. He does a lot of truly reprehensible shit in the first game. But once I sat down and read the prequel novels about young Loghain, plus saw what he’s like if you recruit him, he grew on me A LOT and now he’s a top fave.

Nathaniel I expected to hate as soon as I saw his name + who his father was, but then the expansion came out and I ended up loving that dude almost immediately. I really wish he was around more after Awakening, and also really wish he’d been a romance option, especially for a Cousland haha.

Merrill is a weird one because she was totally uninteresting to me in DA:O, so when they announced her as a companion in DA2 I was like, “Ehhhh.” Then they punked me by making her adorable and sweet and now I love her.

Plus a bunch of side-characters like The Architect? I liked him a bunch in the novel + Awakening – although I found his Plan in the novel much more appealing. But as the years have gone by, I keep surprising myself at just HOW disappointed I am he’s never appeared again haha.

The character(s) everyone else loves that I don’t:

There’s a few, and all of them will get me yelled at, but here we go.

First: Isabela. This one’s a bit complicated, but it really just boils down to her attitude towards how you play your character. I actively dislike characters who are super sexual – regardless of gender. But Isabela in particular bothers me because she’s constantly pushing her lewdness and sexual humor on you, and when you try to discourage it, she admonishes you with, “Well, you’re no fun.” Her whole character is just… like that for me. Super pushy, overly lewd, gets uppity when you don’t have the same ~liberated~ opinions she does, and this is all played up in the writing like she’s this Empowered Woman the player absolutely must love, especially if they’re playing a male character lol. I hate her for the same reasons a lot of people hate Liara in Mass Effect, but with the addition of pushy lewd jokey characters always rubbing me the wrong way.

Second: Iron Bull. I’ve written a lot about why he makes me more uncomfortable than any fictional character I’ve ever encountered, and I just outright hate him, he makes my skin crawl. If you want details, feel free to DM me, I don’t really want to rant about it again publicly.

Third: Anders. Again, I’ve written a lot about him before, but. I hated him in Awakening, for a lot of the same reasons I hate Isabela in DA2. But the changes they made to him in DA2 are just kinda :/. While I absolutely agree with him about Mage Rights, the level of preachiness they added to him drove me nuts, and the fact that you’re painted as a Bad Guy if you don’t like him blowing up the chantry. And from a purely OOC standpoint: He’s become a figurehead for all the aggressive Discourse people in the fandom, and if I see someone list Anders in their sidebar bio, I know pre-emptively that their blog is going to be full of 6 page long essays of meta about how everything is Problematic, and no thanks.

To a lesser extent, I’m also not fond of Zevran. But in his case, it’s not anything major like the others, I’m just tired of Bioware’s habit of making the bisexual characters overly lewd sex-focused rogues/deviants.

The character(s) I love that everyone else hates:

Loghain, lol.

But also Sebastian Vael? There’s so much about him that I find genuinely fascinating, especially regarding his backstory, and his struggles between his feelings of responsibility to his family vs his dedication to the Chantry and bettering himself. He’s such a dear character to me, and such a pivotal part of any playthrough, I’m always blown away when I remember he’s a DLC character and many people don’t have him.

HOWEVER Anders being the fandom darling means that people tend to unfairly shit on Sebastian for reacting poorly to the Chantry explosion. People also like to label him as a poster child of a White Straight Church Boy, while refusing to acknowledge he’s… not straight, and not exactly a church boy either lol.

Also Vivienne, but I think that one’s really self-explanatory. I love her, and she gives a really needed perspective on the Circle, since most of the mage companions previously were apostates. But of course, she gets written off as a Chantry apologist, and an uppity bitch, when people would def love her for the same traits if she was not black lol.

The character(s) I used to love but don’t any longer:

Justice. And by extension, Anders. A lot of people like to rant about how Justice ruined Anders, but I always saw it the other way around.Justice was my favorite character in Awakening. The whole concept around him, that he was a Fade spirit who took human form and was experiencing life for the first time was SO fascinating. I felt like there was so much to explore there with his character.

Buuuut then they had him merge with Anders. With the narrative being that he WAS a spirit of Justice, but the moment he connected with Anders, it corrupted his entire spirit into something he wasn’t anymore. So essentially, the character I used to love no longer exists, thanks to Anders. And it reminds me of that phrase recently, about how the destination is so terrible you can no longer enjoy the journey? I can’t even appreciate Justice in Awakening anymore, knowing what happens to him.

To a lesser extent, Corypheus. He was SO COOL and the premise of him was AMAZING when he first appeared in the DA2 DLC, but then Inquisition had to go and turn him into a weird shallow mustache twirl villain.

The character(s) I would totally smooch:

None? Idk I don’t really have the Smooch Fictional Character gene.

The character(s) I’d want to be like:

MAEVARIS TILANI. May I one day finally have the confidence in my identity that she does, and also marry a sweet bear man who adores me.

The character(s) I’d slap:

Too many to list, really. Probably Anders.

The pairing(s) that I love:

THERE’S SO MANY. And most of them are with the PC, because I generally don’t ship NPCs together. But my top 3 are:

M!Hawke / Fenris is my ultimate OTP in the Dragon Age series, by a long-shot. Not even sure where to start on how much I love it, but two damaged guys leaning on each other to work through their respective loneliness and trauma is MY JAM. And lmao I love silver-sideburned Hawke chillin in retirement somewhere but being a supportive husband while Fenris goes off hunting the Bad Guys, it’s great.

Solas / Lavellan is a close second, with the caveat that I increasingly prefer it with a male Lavellan. Having the Inquisitor in love with Solas just changes the entire tone of the game for me, for the better, and him actually being the villain trying to end the world while in love with this normie elf is just (chef kiss). Too bad I’m burned out by how overly spammed it is.

Dorian / Inquisitor is in third, I will just always be fond of how it’s a story of the Inquisitor helping Dorian be happy with who he is, escape an abusive family, and realize that he’s allowed to be loved. Good shit good shit.

Some others:

Warden / Morrigan is probably my favorite Origins ship, and that only intensified with the way she talks about the Warden in Inquisition, esp if they’re Kieran’s other parent. What a cute goth family, regardless of the Warden’s gender, cause you can pry Bi Morrigan from my cold dead fingers.

Cassandra / Inquisitor might have a lot of Romance Cliches, but I adore it – although, similar others, I increasingly prefer it with a female Inquisitor. I actively dislike the weird no-homo rejection with her, and come on, a lady Inquisitor being her Knight In Shining Armor is just good storytelling.

Cullen / Inquisitor, for a lot of the same reasons as Cassandra. I love me a cliche romance, but I’m also fond of the narrative w/ him of someone he loves helping him heal through the lyrium withdrawals and take time to rest.

Josephine / F!Inquisitor is just adorable all around, and wholesome, and great.

Varric / Hawke COME ON HOW WAS THIS NOT AN OPTION.

On the rarepair end:

Sebastian / Hawke doesn’t seem like it would be a rarepair – you’d think everyone who loves Cullen/Inquisitor would love this one too. I do! But alas. That said, I’m also pretty aggro about this one with a male Hawke because SEBASTIAN IS CANON BI. WHY WAS HIS ROMANCE STRAIGHT.

Maric / Loghain is a rarepair I will take with me to my grave LOL. Never forget the scene where Maric thought Loghain was leaving, and bolted across the camp with almost no clothes on to beg Loghain to stay. Come on.

Nathaniel / Cousland is dear to me, and I love it so much more than Alistair / Cousland haha.

Greagoir / Wynne, I can’t believe this got validated in canon ahhhh.

The pairing(s) that I despise:

Again: THERE’S SO MANY.

Iron Bull / Dorian is my least fave by a longshot. Again, I have written about why I hate this pairing a great many times, but it’s awful and toxic and makes me deeply uncomfortable, and I could happily go the rest of my life without seeing anything about it ever again. Please keep poor Dorian away from that man. He deserves someone that doesn’t sexually harass him until he’s finally worn down into dubious consent (while drunk) and then outted to everyone about it.

Isabela / Fenris. Sorry, but it’s just bad writing that Fenris bails on Hawke because the physical intimacy triggered his PTSD and he needs space to process, but then will turn around and have a casual sex relationship with Isabela instead. Yikes.

Anders / Fenris. Aveline / Isabela. Alistair / Morrigan. All of the DA2 Hawke/companion rivalmances. I don’t enjoy “these two people hate and antagonize and want to kill each other… but they fuck” in any form.

Cullen / Amell. Yikes.

And basically ALL of the canon wlw pairings in this series suffer from the fact they have men writing them, and as a result they’re almost always some kind of abusive or racist, and skeeve me out. See: Celene / Briala, Leliana / Marjolaine, Branka / Hespith, etc. Please Bioware, I’m begging you to consult some actual queer women. It’s insane how badly they’re treated compared to how the canon mlm couples are written.

FINALLY, I recognize this will be the most unpopular of all, but. As much as I love M!Hawke/Fenris, I just honestly cannot stand seeing F!Hawke/Fenris. There are some pairings where I’m so attached to the m/m or f/f version, I cannot deal with the m/f version anymore, and that’s one of them. (The others are mainly non-Bioware.)

#LONG POST #REALLY LONG #SORRY #misc: text #misc: asks #misc: meme #series: dragon age #gen: bioware #utopianoverlord