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stereotypicalsanriofemme · 6 months

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day 2: roleplay

cw: teacher student roleplay, both roles played are consenting adults

Full piece hidden under more button cuz it’s hella long 😭

The draft under your miniskirt made your thighs rub together, trying to provide some form of warmth over your freshly shaven pussy.

This had to be one of the fucking stupidest ideas you’ve ever had. What kind of cliche porno plot was this? The cute student in a miniskirt with no panties trying to seduce their hot professor who oozes dominant energy— seriously, you couldn’t have gotten more unoriginal. But…if it worked, you’d finish with an A and a good dicking to boot.

(Your insistent thoughts suggest that maybe it’ll end up as something more. You immediately shut it down as a college student’s delusions.)

Raising a nervous hand, your newly manicured nails pressed against your palm as you knocked on the door to her office. Biting your lip from anxiety made your mouth full with the taste of candied cherries, sending a shock of adrenaline through your body as the words “come in” radiates from behind the door.

Your hands wrap around the doorknob and you turn it, ignoring the nervous throb in your stomach as you walk in. She’s sitting there, refined and perfect at her desk— in a two-piece suit today, the lip ring set to the right a reminder of her wild, former youth.

(She had mentioned in her lecture early in the semester of being big in the alternative scene. Somehow, the image of her with heavy eyeliner, piercings all over and grungy clothes made you even hornier.)

“Ah, it’s Miss Sappha,” the professor said, raising a brow and looking at you. “What brings you in here?” Her eyes rake down your body ravenously, staring at the meat of your legs and the way the high socks you wore squeeze your thighs ever-so-delectably. A part of you cheered inside knowing that it’s working.

“Well, sir,” you said, twirling one of your pigtail strands between your fingers. “I’m sure you know about my grades right now, seeing as you’re in the process of grading my final paper…”

She hummed, staring at you with dark eyes peeking out past her face-framing dark hair. “Yes. Just barely scraping by an A-. You had everything perfect, I’m just afraid you didn’t manage to hit the argumentative criteria. You were lacking in your persuasive speech. Too…passive,” she said, eyes flicking from you to her computer. Somehow, that damn word felt loaded.

“Well, uh…” you said, watching her take a sip from her tea. Fuck, why were you backing out now? You managed the walk across campus with no panties on, you can fucking talk to your professor. “I…sir, I know how you’ve stared at me.”

She choked on her tea. “I beg your pardon? You’re delusional,” she said, face flushed.

Somehow, the spike of red in her face just boosted your confidence. “Hm? Then why are you blushing?” You teased, taking a single step closer to the desk. She made eye contact with you, flushed beyond belief. “Professor, I want to strike a deal,” you cooed, taking enough steps to sit upon her desk ever so slightly. “I’ll give you what you’ve been dreaming about, and…you give me an A instead of a B+.”

She’s breathing so much harder now, and your eyes flick down to the way that she’s grasping her chair handles and her crotch is straining. Oh my god, she’s hard from just the proposition.

“I…I could get fired. I couldn’t. You’re a student,” she stammered. “It doesn’t matter what desires I have. I can’t risk my tenure.” Her pupils were blown out and you can tell from the strain in her slacks that she’s…far from small.

“Well, it’s good that I’m officially graduating once you finish my grade, hm?” You teased. “I’m sure you can keep a little secret for one week. C’mon, professor…I know you want to.”

Her jaw tensed heavily. “You little fucking minx,” she spat, resolve finally snapping. “Fine. You want your goddamn grade? Come over here and prove it.”

Your heart rate spikes as you prod around the desk, feeling the wetness of your cunt stick between your thighs. Slowly, like prey avoiding the predator’s potential pounce, you stand in front of the professor before saddling yourself on her lap, bare cunt pressed against her straining cock. Her teeth bare just a little in a silent growl, hands forcing their way up your shirt to grope your breasts.

“Little fucking tease,” she snarled. “Coming into class looking all cute and orderly. I just wanted to fuck you till you sobbed in front of that goddamn lecture hall so everyone knew what an insatiable bitch you are.”

You moaned, grinding your pussy against her dick, wracking a groan out of her in turn. “Please, sir, I want your cock,” you pout, aroused beyond belief.

“You won’t be saying that when you’re fucking choking on it,” she said in response, taking the luxury of biting down on your shoulder and sucking little red marks into it. Each flick of her tongue and scrape of her teeth against supple flesh sent another shockwave through your body. Grabbing you by the hips, she lifts you up with unknown strength, setting you down onto the ground as she stood up properly. “Kneel and stay,” she demanded, unbuckling her belt and reaching into her boxers to pull her cock out.

You ignored the way seeing her cock made you salivate and instead chose to take the tip into your mouth, suckling and staring up at the professor. She already looked wrecked, cheeks flushed and grip in your hair desperate.

“You can do better than that,” she stated, looking down at you with an amused smirk. “Suck it properly, you fucking whore.”

You moan around her cock at the utterance of such filthy words and force yourself down deeper, creating wonderful suction around her warmth and sliding up and down. She let out a moan of pleasure, feeling the hot warmth of your mouth around her dick and letting herself get lost in it. You were good— so good, keeping your throat nice and open so she could fuck your mouth how she pleased.

Pulling you off from her cock, you let out a noise of displeasure as you were forced off.

“Bend over the desk,” she ordered. “I want to come while inside of you, not in your mouth…as much as I know you’d enjoy my cum, I want to see it leak out of your pretty cunt instead.”

You whimpered and nodded, ignoring how your cunt was dripping onto the goddamn floor now and instead bent over the oak desk like an obedient little girl. Your head felt full of cotton by now, enjoying every moment of the sweet bliss submitting to her treated you with.

“Oh fuck, you’re a whore,” she moaned over the slick sounds of her working her cock. “Fuck. You didn’t wear panties? Did you take them off in the bathroom?”

You shook your head. “No, I…came here like this,” you admitted, hanging your head bashfully. However, you weren’t allowed to let it stay hanging for too long because the head of her cock was suddenly pressed up against your cunt.

“When’s the last time you got fucked?” she demands, grabbing your pigtails and wrenching them behind your head as a barbaric handle. “Last week?”

“Mm, not since I started your class,” you mumbled, and that was apparently all it took for her to ram her cock into your cunt.

You let out a scream, trying to drop your head but it was forced back up with the pull on your pigtails.

“This is me being nice, you know,” she said, starting to speed up and fuck your pussy without abandon. Every thrust battered your insides, making you yelp and moan. “If you had sex, say, a week ago, I’d be so much meaner. What do you say to me being nice, baby?”

“Th-thank youuu,” you slur out, letting a hand drop down to stroke your clit. “Thank you for fucking me, sir…”

“That’s a good bitch,” she taunted in response. “Keep fucking taking my cock.” Every slap of her hips against your ass let you feel the friction of her cock inside, her balls slapping not close enough to your clit for it to feel orgasmic. Her hips continued to jackhammer inside of you, each thrust unforgiving and strong, desperate to mark your insides as her own.

“Fuck, m’not gonna last longer,” she growled, bracing her hands above you and hips stuttering before one final slap and a spurt of warmth inside. You moan at the sensation, the band inside of your stomach finally snapping as you came with a full-body shudder and a wailed moan. Each pulse felt like an orgasm in itself, and finally the intensified feeling lessened as she slid her cock out of your cunt, a pool of white dripping out of your pussy in response.

“There you go. That’s what you wanted, hm? I’ll give you that A since you were such a good fuck,” she said, smacking your ass.

There’s a cold that passed over your body before she returned with a blanket and a warm cloth, wiping over your cunt to clean up the wetness around your thighs. “You okay, baby? How was that?”

“I can’t staaaaaand,” you complain from her desk, her gaming keyboard pushed out of the way for it. “Who gave you permission to fuck so hard?”

“Hey, it was you who came up with the fantasy,” she teased in response before pressing gentle kisses down your back and soft fabric wrapped around you. “I just deliver what my princess wants.”

#lesbian nsft #sapphic nsft #wlw nsft #nsft #butch bait #daddy k!nk #lesbian #sapphic #butch daddy #butch lesbian #butch nsft #bunnykinkvember #dom/sub #wlw #nsft concept

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thatone-brightstar · 8 months

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Some The Bear & The Fox behind the scenes!

(cause I had to make some executive decision but many of these deserve to see the light of day)

Amy’s notes: This is mostly pure fluff but MDNI just in case lol. Also let me know if you want to see more cuz i got a shit ton of these :)

~~~~

*This is the alternative ending to chapter 3 if Fox would have said yes from the start, but i love to make us all suffer so i took it out:

You could have been there for an eternity, both afraid to break the bubble you had so cautiously created around you, but knowing you had to. You had been gone far longer than to be justified by getting drinks and your phone hadn’t vibrated because it had been left inside your purse… along with the money you would need if you were going to get drinks.

“You’re gonna have to pay for drinks.” You whisper to Carmy, your lips brushing over his with every word.

“I’ll pay everyone’s tab, I don’t fuckin’ care right now.” He whispered back, catching your lips into another sweet long kiss.

“No, seriously. We gotta go.” You managed to say in between kisses and laughs. He planted his lips by your ear and inhaled your perfume, and you had to stop a gasp threatening to escape. “The faster we go,” You turned to whisper near his ear. ”The sooner you can get me out these clothes.”

His body tensed around you before a ‘fuck’ shaped breath left his lips, and when he raised his head, you could see his pupils had only left a thin ring of blue around them. You pretended not to notice how your words had affected both of you as you pecked him quickly on the nose then swiped your thumb over it to erase the trace of your lipstick.

“C’mon.” You smiled, then intertwined your fingers with his and reopened the door to go back inside as two completely different people than the ones who had walked out.

~~~~~

Chapter 5 instead of Carmy’s panic attack:

You had been the one to finally decide to go visit the beef family after days of absence and Carmy gladly agreed to pick you up around noon when he was running some errands, ‘Anything to get them off my back’ he had said, but he was secretly happy to see you again. Besides, he had already tried to explain on the first day that due to… personal priorities, you had decided to take some time from the restaurant.

Marcus had thrown a piece of sourdough he was kneading at Richie’s head, asking if he had scared you away.

“You know what, that’s a great question Marcus,” Carmy played along, crossing his arms and turning to his cousin. “Richie, did you? Scare her away?”

“Fuck you, I didn’t do shit to her.” He defended, taking the dough from his head and throwing it back at Marcus. “Plus, fuckin’ Carmy had already called dibs so it wouldn’t be fair”

“Richie, you asshole, you can’t call dibs on a person-” Syd yelled at him from across the counter, at the same time Carmy had called “No I fuckin’ didn’t, what am I, twelve?!”

They had begun arguing it the middle of the kitchen about what Richie had or hadn’t done to scare you off, then Tina broke it off when she asked loudly if anyone had taken the Paprika off her spice rack because it wasn’t there; only to be found under the table by the remnants of other spices scattered underneath. Carmy excused himself into his office as his ears flared up, similar to the way your cheeks did when he told you the story over the phone that same night.

~~~~

Also chapter 5 but at the beginning:

He celebrated the big achievement by stopping for dinner and driving to your house after closing on Thursday. You had snuck him in while your grandfather was asleep in the living room, under the glow of the TV and through soft pulls and giggle-filled kisses, he was shoved into your room. It was strange, how the boyish actions felt foreign to his strained soul, but didn’t stop the whispered laugh of excitement.

He had never been inside a girl’s room before, not counting his sister’s, and it was exactly how he assumed it would be. Cream colored walls were barely visible under the many framed artworks, pictures and various sized mirrors. Potted plants invaded a small corner near one of the windows while your bed took up most of the other. A pile of clothes laid discarded by your closet door and a nice lamp on your nightstand bathed the space in a soft blue glow. It felt intimate and beautifully lived in, like he was seeing a small part of your soul.

You had dinner on the fire escape by the window, enjoying the gentle breeze and the hum of music playing from inside your bedroom. He was worried things would be weird, not really knowing where you stood or what this even was. Then you joked about how Richie wanted to bribe you to go back because ‘fuckin’ Carmy can’t stop mopin’ around’ and that was confirmation enough that you two were fine.

‘Wait ‘till they find out you’re the one who fired me.’ You had said between sips of your drink and when he answered ‘Let’s just hope they don’t find out we fucked on Tina’s station’, your eyes doubled in size and a dark tint appeared on your face still visible in the low lighting.

He left around two in the morning, when the conversation had died down into a comfortable silence and your head rested in the valley of his neck, with one of his arms wrapped around you to protect you from the cold. As much as he enjoyed the soft sound of your breathing and the heat radiating from your joined bodies, he knew he shouldn’t stay. It would be too soon and the last thing he wanted was to scare you away for real this time. So before you fell asleep completely, he kissed the crown of your head and removed his arm from around you, softly whispering his parting.

You guided him quietly to the entrance of the apartment, still lazily rubbing your eyes, and thanked him for dinner and for the visit.

‘Maybe next time I can-uh cook you somethin’... instead of buyin’ it’ He whispered in the silent hallway as he scratched his head nervously, laced into his words was a tender promise that made the skin on your face heat up.

You nodded enthusiastically and raised on your sock covered feet to leave a sugary kiss upon his lips, sticky sweet honey trickled down his throat and kept him warm as he arrived home and settled on his couch to rest his eyes.

~~~~~

Thanks for reading, key byeee 🩷

#amy writes #the bear & the fox #the bear fx #carmen berzatto x reader #carmy berzatto #carmy the bear #carmy smut #carmy x reader #the bear tv #carmen 'carmy' berzatto #the bear & the fox #carmen berzatto smut #the bear fic #carmy berzatto headcanon #carmy berzatto fluff #carmen berzatto imagine #carmy berzatto x reader

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snugglesquiggle · 1 month

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Do you like juzi or vuzi more

i'm gonna ramble hella hard about this, sorry, but that's the bargain you strike when you shoot an ask my way

but there's a fun story to my answer. you see, V/Uzi was actually my first interest, and in fact when i started kicking around the idea of writing Murder Drones fanfics, the first idea i seriously tried to work out was a V/Uzi fic

(for the curious, general shape of the idea was that Uzi encounters V first, railgun wipes her memory, fails to befriend her like she did with N and has to run away. Uzi then sneaks out again and again, exploiting the railgun-induced amnesia and errors to try and get through to V, leading to a kind of mutual rivalry as V tries to figure out why she keeps having gaps in her memory.

pretty sure it was going to escalate to Uzi hacking into V and potentially going dubious places. the working title for that fic was "Somnabulation". which means sleep-walking, so it would have been kind of ironic for Somnabulation to be the mind control fic and Hostile Takeover the one that spends half its wordcount in memory simulations)

but i'm rambling.

i never ultimately figured out how to make the V/Uzi fic come together into something i liked. and i didn't have that much motivation to do so, as there are good V/Uzi fics out there, like This World Couldn't See Us or Hold On Tight To This Time, This Place

but, as you'll quickly discover if you search the tag now, J/Uzi fics are a lot less numerous. i did like some of what i saw there, so i didn't have a full on "if i don't do this, nobody will" kind of motivation driving me

but then one day, out of the blue, a single thought occurred to me, an observation, comparison, an answer to the question of "what could a relationship between these two possibly be based on?"

and then the whole fic just crystallized around that thought.

(what was thought? i'll leave that as an exercise for the reader, or perhaps i'll save it for a minor reveal later on in Hostile Takeover. it's not very profound, but when it occurred to me i did have the distinct feeling that i'm not sure anyone had thought of the connection i just made.)

and i want to emphasize, when i say it crystallized, i mean it seriously came together, all at once. on October 31 last year, i jotted down the outline, initially as something to post in a discord brainstorming channel, but then i spent all evening writing more and more, and came out the other end with ten thousand words of notes and scene sketches

but anyway, all of that yapping is a long way to say

at the start i preferred V/Uzi (V was my favorite character, and J barely registered as anything but a joke to me), and i began writing Hostile Takeover essentially as a writing challenge or puzzle to prove something, or even just as a practice run for the fic i really wanted to write.

but i think my phrasing here gives the game away, doesn't it? i think very few people would write nearly 160k words in four months out of mere intellectual curiosity

so to finally, finally answer your question, my favorite is J/Uzi and by a long shot. the relationship absolutely grew on me as i wrote it. i'd genuinely go as far as to say my hot take is that it's actually easier to have J/Uzi make sense than V/Uzi, if you're being truly faithful to both characters. is this because J has less character to be faithful toward? shut up.

i think the biggest factor here is that in the course of writing HT, V stopped being my favorite character. i still find her a lot of fun when i'm reading her in other fics, but writing her has just brought a lot of her flaws to the forefront, and it's hard not to be increasingly frustrated with her character. (is this self-inflicted on my part for writing a plot where V causing problems is the central driver? maybe)

but yeah, i've found myself so much less interested in V/Uzi as time goes on. one of my mutuals has describe vuzi as something to the effect of the blander, safer alternative to juzi, and don't look at me i'm just misquoting him.

#hostile takeover #i'd tag the ships i'm talking about but i dont want vuzi fans out for my blood #love yall #my answers #my squiggles

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doubleaspectrum · 7 months

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Ruby Gillman, A Lesson on Earning Moments (Spoilers)

So, I recently watched Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken. Overall, it was… well… it wasn’t particularly great. It had potential, but I would most likely prefer the fix fics that people either have written, are writing, or will write.

Now, I could say what everyone else has already said, or I could go on a tangent, but how about I just try taking one writing lesson away from the movie instead?

Today’s lesson is on earning your moments, with Ruby Gillman standing as an anti-example.

You see, when I saw the scene where Brill talks Ruby out of her obligatory “My actions made everything worse, so I’ll start moping before the final battle” moment, I flipped out.

Looking back at the scene, what he said to Ruby word-for-word was, “I could never understand why [Agatha] chose to leave the ocean. Until, I saw the awesome life she created on land. And I realized, your mom chose her own path. She chose you.”

Now, this sound like something that should come out of the tail end of a character arc. It contains an admittance of bad understanding, acknowledgement of a transformative moment, and a declaration of new ideals following said moment. Overall, it’s a summation of somebody’s character development.

You see where I’m going with this? My problem is that Brill is acting like he’s just conquered his character arc, when most of his time in the movie has been:

This

And… you get it by now

My point is that with Brill’s comic relief antics dominating his character, he had no arc! So getting to say, “I didn’t get it at first, but I do now” isn’t earned in the slightest!

It wouldn’t have taken a lot to earn this moment either! He may be a dumb marshmallow, but he’s a well-meaning marshmallow! All we’d need is to have some moment which fits his character and still progresses him to the “I get it” moment that would justify his speech!

The solution would be either bonding with Agatha, or bonding with Ruby. I could see how either of those would be structured too!

For Agatha, all Brill has to do is express any emotion beyond “happy puppy” when he’s with her.

Seriously! She left home without an explanation and he makes it clear that he looks up to her! All he would need is a moment to say, “I missed you” and the conversation could take off from there!

Such a moment would force Agatha to respond and that could give Brill a chance to understand why she left. Heck, it would benefit Agatha too! Being confronted with the idea that her choices have harmed her family would force her to reflect on her actions! She could either go out of her way to justify her choices, or show some remorse at having hurt her brother’s feelings. It would be a revelatory moment that would show us how to see her character.

Sorry about the tangent, I’ll get back on topic.

The alternative to get Brill to his “I get it” moment would be to have him bond with Ruby.

What I’m thinking in particular is for him to act as a firsthand witness to Ruby and Grandmamah’s relationship. Grandmamah’s ideas of making Ruby the heir to a warrior kingdom is shown to make Ruby uncomfortable. If Brill was shown reacting to this, and if he took into account any accusations Agatha had about Grandmamah being a controlling mother, then it would have helped him have a “So this is why Agatha left” moment. That would validate a later claim that he understands that Agatha only wanted what was best for Ruby.

Overall, what I’m saying is that an emotional revelation should have emotional buildup. It makes the character’s actions flow in a logical manner, and it gives us a chance to determine their natures. But when you have the emotional revelation without the buildup, it’s jarring. If we can’t see how it happened, then it doesn’t make sense to us why it happened at all!

To sum up the lesson, take your time to give characters moments to have emotions and react to the events and ideas they’re exposed to. It’ll give moments to develop their relationships, character traits, ideologies, and most importantly, their character arcs.

If you give characters the time to become who you want them to be, we’ll get to enjoy watching it happen.

#movies #criticism #wasted opportunity #ruby gillman teenage kraken

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dandylovesturtles · 10 months

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For the writing meme: 11, 16, 24

11. Link your three favorite fics right now

AH NO questions like this are so hard... ok I'll do my favorite completed and my favorite ongoing that I'm subbed to.

I'm basing this on how much I reread them lol

Completed:

who're you hiding - Leo gets sick and hangs out in Donnie's lab.

all the things that I could live without - Disaster Twins post-movie recovery fic.

Panic Buttons - Leo has a panic attack and Raph helps him (cw that the panic attacks depicted are very graphic)

Ongoing:

The Old College Try - Disaster Twins go to college.

Three-Sided Coin - Three Leos from three different points in the timeline get transported to an alternate dimension (I think??).

call me here (I will appear) - Leo dies in the Prison Dimension and comes back to his family as a ghost.

Bonus (some favorite fics not from ROTTMNT):

Poor Wayfaring Stranger (Final Fantasy XV) - AU where Cor finds MT!Prompto and brings him back to Insomnia to take care of him. Idk how else to describe this fanfiction. It's one of the best pieces of writing I've ever read. It basically reconfigured my brain.

ikanaide (Project Sekai) - Tsukasa gets sick and his friends take care of him.

(do you take this jerk to be) your one and only (ATLA) - AU where Zuko is engaged to Yue and Sokka does not like that (though his reasons change over the course of the fic, if you know what I mean).

(putting the rest of my answers under the cut because this got long lol)

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

OH GOD SO MANY they basically don't stop.

Of the ones I feel confident I will write at some point, there are... 5 I think. 100ft is one of them so I won't talk too much about that.

The other chapter fic I want to write is my take on the "save everyone in the doomed timeline" style fic, and I've talked about it before. I've been tentatively calling it "Donnie and Mikey's Step-by-Step Guide to Saving Your Doomed Family," or just "Step-by-Step Guide" and, like I've said, it's intended to be heavily B Team focused.

The idea came from my interest in the time between the end of the Season 2 finale and the start of the movie, a time where Leo and Raph fought a lot and Donnie and Mikey had to lean on each other. They've always been close but in the movie they're downright clingy, with Donnie reflexively tucking Mikey under his arm or holding on to him in so many scenes, and like a lot of other people I interpret this as a consequence of Raph and Leo's fighting and the tension it created in their dynamic. But I also kinda shy away from that actual time period, because if you stay canon compliant with the movie it's kinda hard to have an actual resolution to that tension without overwriting it some way. And I know some writers thrive in that limbo, but I am not one of those people haha. It's just not something I'm personally interested in writing myself.

So this fic will be set in the immediate aftermath of the film, where things are kinda resolved but not really because Leo and Raph are still too seriously injured to have an actual conversation, and Mikey and Donnie are still left in uncertainty of what their sibling bond will look like when all is said and done.

And what better way to distract yourself from the growing tension in your own family than by involving yourself in someone else's problems - specifically the problems of yourselves from a doomed future?

I'm really excited about it... whenever I get to it haha.

24. Worst writing advice anyone ever gave you?

I caaan't remember if I've told this story here but if I have I'll just tell it again lol

I grew up in a really small rural town that happened to have a very small private college in it (the entire campus could have fit in the commuter parking lot of the state college I went to). Every now and then this college would host some kind of speaker or a workshop that was open to the public, and this was a big thing because my town didn't get a lot of that kind of thing coming through it. One of these workshops was hosted by a published author, and it was a class for beginning fiction writers. I was around 17 or 18 at the time, and me and two of my other friends (who also wanted to be professional writers one day) were very excited to sign up.

I mean, I can't stress to you guys how hype we were for this. You'd think we had backstage tickets to a Lady Gaga concert. But our town didn't have a lot of people you could talk to about this kind of thing. Getting advice from someone who had actually gotten their books bought and published by an actual publishing house was a big deal to us.

So we get to the workshop. We're the only teenagers there, but we weren't worried about that. We were the nerds in high school, we were used to this. We all sit down in the same row, pencils and notebooks ready to go. Ready for wisdom!

She asked the group to give a short, punchy summary for a story idea we each had. Like the straight A students we were, my friends and I all put our hands up first. She called on me, and I rattled off my back-of-the-book style summary for something I wanted to write, a fantasy novel about dragons and swords (I was a dragon girl).

I remember she gave me this nasty look and said, "Oh, you're one of those."

She preceded to go into a prolonged rant about how genre fiction is pointless; how there's nothing redeemable about fantasy worlds, how it's empty-calorie entertainment, the potato chips of the literary world. Books, she said, are supposed to be about real things. Contemporary and historical fiction were the only worthy genres in this woman's mind.

I don't remember a lot of the advice that came after that, I just remember sitting in my chair feeling dejected and stupid.

I think about that sometimes, and how one person can be so wrong. Genre fiction may be set in fantasy worlds or sci-fi futures, but it's still about real things. Real emotions and real struggles and real philosophical questions. If you cut yourself off from fantasy and sci-fi just because it deals with unreal or theoretical concepts, you cut yourself off from a broad spectrum of human self-expression.

Anyway, she may have sold a few historical fiction novels but I have 250K hits on AO3 so who's laughing now, lady

#writer ask game #fic recs

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stelladoesstuff · 1 year

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Okokokok. I watched Watching and Dreaming several hours ago at this point, and the hype still hasn’t gone away. So here were are: Welcome to Stella’s ranting about different parts of the Owl House finale to cope with the absolute insanity in my brain.

This is all incoherent rambling.

OWL HOUSE WATCHING AND DREAMING SPOILERS BELOW

1. Raine. Raine Whispers is a fucking badass. They were fighting against being possessed not only by the Collector but by Belos at the same time, and still managed to break through TWICE. The Collector lost control over them the first time, and they managed to push Belos out second. And then. After ALL OF THAT. They get up and chase Belos into the throne room to try and stop him from possessing the Titan. Absolute powerhouse.

2. King’s DAD???!!! Bi-gender icon, over here wearing a bad girl coven t-shirt and pajama pants. And a tiny Hooty sticking out of his eye?? Gosh, I really wish he’d been able to talk to King, but the bread pun message hit hard regardless. He’s been watchinggggg ;-;

3. Eda and King’s reactions to Luz’s ‘death’ were HEARTBREAKING. And the Collector processing the concept of death- that entire sequence hurt. Seriously, I cried twice during that scene alone- once when Luz died, and once when she came back. Eda and King immediately calming down from their rampage upon seeing she was okay I’m not ok-

4. DARIUS AND HUNTER. All of the parent-child reunions were adorable, both Gus and Willow seeing their dad’s again dhdhdh, but Darius and Hunter’s little moment aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. And Eberwolf too! I really wish we could have gotten more, but the show gave us so much with what little time Disney gave

5. The flapjack tattoos. And Hunter being a palismen carver. AND HIS NEW PALISMEN- I heard Dana confimed the new bird’s name was Waffle and I love him so much. ALSO HUNTLOW SIDE-HUG???? I’m going to need fanfics for all of these ships and moments to cope with this finale istg. I’ll probably write a pile of them

6. RAEDA EARRING SWAP. I was already crying watching the end credits, and then I spotted Raine’s earring on Eda and immediately had to rewind. I didn’t even notice Raine wearing Eda’s earrings until I went back- canon or not, I’m interpreting the earring-swap as a boiling isles alternative to wedding rings. Sue me.

7. DALADOR CONFIRMED??? I now need content about Amity and Hunter being step-siblings because that shit is hilarious. And when Amity and Luz eventually get married that would make Hunter her brother-in-law ddhdhdh I’m fine. Also, Alador removing the coven sigils- we love to see it. And the fact that Odalia is nowhere to be seen is perfection

8. LUZ GOT HER QUINCENERA!! Lilith tried XD

9. Lilith and Hooty’s reunion was everything I hoped it to be. Their friendship means so much dhdhd. Lilith aroace icon u.u

Ok, that’s some things out of my system for now. I might be back with rambling round two later because I’m sure there’s a dozen tiny details I’ll notice upon rewatching and looking at other people point things out. Till then, I shall be writing fanfic and drawing fanart :D

#the owl house #the owl house spoilers #watching and dreaming #watching and dreaming spoilers #toh spoilers #rambling #toh rambling #raeda #luz noceda #eda clawthorne #willow park #hunter toh #raine whispers #king clawthorne #STILL SCREAMING AND CRYING

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bg-sparrow · 6 months

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20 Questions for Fic Writers!

I'm finally getting around to doing this after @professorsaber, @mythical-bookworm, and @daryfromthefuture tagged me! Sorry for the delay (it's been a week)!

Under the cut because it seems I felt the need to write my life story today as it relates to my body of fan work. :)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I'm currently sitting at 51.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

650,606 (of which 58K are shared with co-authors)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Predominantly Back to the Future with a lot of Pirates of the Caribbean, Iron Man, and National Treasure in my rearview mirror. I've also contributed one-shots/ small works to 19 other fandoms over the years!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

What to Expect When She's Expecting - (137) - Iron Man

Where You Were (Time Circuits #3) - (95) - BttF

Where You're Going (Time Circuits #1) - (72) - Bttf

Principles of Compromise - (70) - Pirates of the Caribbean

A Fracture in the Space-time Continuum - (69) - BttF

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Most definitely! I love interacting with the people who have taken the time to read and comment on my work, even if it's a simple thank you!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Ooo hoo hoo. I might have to poll some people for this one. My first reaction would be There Are No Roads (Time Circuits #2.5), but as the ending is technically an alternate series of events, I'm not sure it counts as an official 'end'. I'm big proud of it, though, because most initial reactions were somewhere along the lines of "oh my GOD." :)

That being the case, Once Upon a Time in the West wins hands down, mostly because I didn't even see the plot twist coming until the fourth chapter of this six-chapter fic! And it delivered an epic sequel!

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oof. Don't come at me like this; I'm just now realizing how much angst I really write because I've narrowed it down to maybe two of my Ao3 fics? Sheesh.

I'm going to go with the only 5+1 fic I've ever written, The Manner of Giving. It was five times Marty failed at giving Doc a gift, and the one time (the end) is when he succeeded.

Where You Were (Times Circuits #3) also gets a nod because it's the end of my trilogy rewrite, and I like to think I ended it on the happy note everyone deserved.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've never gotten a scathing flame of a review, thank goodness. I did have someone ask me on FFN once why I was writing an OC for Marty when he had Jennifer in canon, and while it was tempting to just say "don't like, don't read," we ended up exchanging a mature and constructive dialogue and respectfully parted ways.

I also once, long ago, before I ever planned to seriously pursue writing, had one of my fics added to a "Worst of the Worst" fandom collection on FFN. It was a terrible fic written by an inexperienced teenager, but I still find something like that distasteful and uncalled for, mostly because, as the author, I wasn't able to remove my work from the collection. And it's still there. And I'm still mad about it. Oddly, it's ensured I hold myself to a high standard and never put anything out there that could be considered for a "Worst of the Worst" collection again. So, screw that guy, and thank you.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No. I've never wanted a tell a story where that was essential to the story. Now, I've recently included/ alluded to more mature situations in the last year for the first time in my 20 years of writing to get me out of my comfort zone, but no graphic, extended scenes.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I have! And the craziest crossover I have is FFHQ. Imagine all the characters in all the fandoms in one giant office park drawing up contracts to appear in fics, meeting with fanfic authors, collaborating on crossovers, etc. It's a lot of paperwork, meaning each character has a secretary. That's a lot of secretaries, so there is a list of "subs" who fill in as floaters when a secretary is out, and this crazy crossover follows three OCs as they bounce around random fandoms each day. This baby is my crackfic, the idea I escaped to in those eight years of depression when I wasn't doing so hot. If you're up for it, I promise it's lots of fun!

Honorable mention goes to the BttF/Elf AU I wrote for our server's Secret Santa exchange last year: Pennies From Heaven.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

*inserts Ben Affleck smoking meme*

Yes. And it's… I'm just very over this form of "flattery".

When I was still in high school, I was writing a pretty successful National Treasure fic when a reader told me they found the story on another site. The person who stole it was writing author notes at the beginning, like "Find out what happens to them next time! I've got great stuff in the works!" I emailed that website, and they kindly took it down and banned that user.

Last year, I had someone on Wattpad steal the Time Circuits Series, rename it the "Flux Capacitor Series", and switched out Emma's name with "Dawn". Two things that had me cackling: When I have Marty call Emma "Em," Marty was calling Dawn "Da," and you could see several places where Emma's name wasn't backspaced all the way out of the text. I confronted the "author", and they wisely took it down, telling me it was just so hard to write it themselves. You bet your ass I have this person still on my alerts list to keep an eye on them, and once a month, I am searching Wattpad for my own fics.

Novel HD/ Novel WW also stole Time Circuts off Wattpad for their website, scrubbed my name from it so that it said it was written by "Anonymous", and put the stories behind paywalls. I caught wind of this about a quarter of the way into the last story and took everything I had off Wattpad. I saved the links but they no longer work, and I can't even access the website anymore. I'm not sure if it's gone or if, because it is a foreign site, they somehow blocked our region from accessing it.

I also had FictionHunt take all of my stuff off FFN! It took several months, but I finally got them to remove my stuff from their site. I might not have minded so much if they had asked me, but that's too hard, I suppose.

There was one website called MovieFanficChains way back in 2005 I gave permission to to host my PotC fics, but aside from FFN and Ao3, that the only place with my permission to have my stuff.

If you see my work elsewhere and it has not been linked back to me, let me know. I'll do the same for you. :)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I've done a few roleplays with @daryfromthefuture, where I wrote for Doc and she wrote for Marty. Our most well-known roleplay-turned-fic would be the 1885 scarlet fever sickfic Lean on Me (When You're Not Strong).

I've also been part of the silly blind writing game in our Discord server aptly named Back to the Future: Discord.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I don't know. This is hard. I'm a romantic, and I make the excited Andy Dwyer face every time a ship is hinted at. I have so many I love, but the mainstream ones that immediately come to mind are Tony/Pepper (Iron Man), Sherlock/Molly (BBC Sherlock), Jamie/Brienne (Game of Thrones), and Reylo (Star Wars).

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I wrote a National Treasure story in high school called Another Clue, and it was one of my first real attempts at an OC insert. It did fairly well, given my talents at the time; I incorporated an OC, but I focused on crafting a canon-like treasure hunt more, and a lot of people complimented that.

So I started a sequel, One More Clue. It built a bigger story around the first, highlighting a treasure hunt that required the help of a rival and two friends seemingly trying to out-betray one another. I got about 12 chapters and 69K into One More Clue before life took over. I last updated it on June 1, 2010, and I left it at quite the cliffhanger with Riley turning Ben into the FBI only to learn the FBI guy was working for the rival and UGH, I keep meaning to go back to it. I have all the notes!

The problem is, I would have to rewrite Another Clue at this point because it's a hot high schooler's mess. You could tell as I wrote One More Clue that I was applying what I was learning from my writing classes in college. While Another Clue didn't have that luxury, it showcases some strengths that compelled me to pursue a writing major (AKA I can make a decent history-driven treasure hunt).

So, while I could finish One More Clue if I really wanted to, it would be pointless unless I overhauled Another Clue first. Which I've thought about. Because National Treasure is my guilty pleasure. I'm just fairly certain no one would be around to appreciate it if I put all that work in now. :)

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've consistently been told it's dialogue, and I find myself agreeing with that. The single lines of dialogue that turn a whole story on its head or tell a whole story of their own are what I live for.

This is the DUMBEST example, but there is an episode of Spongebob Squarepants where Mrs. Puff is freaking out because she gave Spongebob his boating license just to finally get him out of her class, and she's spiraling. She arrives at "I'll have to change my name, move to another city, and open another boating school!" or something like that.

And then her voice just goes dead flat and her eyes narrow and she says, "No. Not again."

And I lose it every time! But you know there's a WHOLE story there just by that little bit of dialogue! I love that! And I love implementing it where I can, whether it be in a comedic or dramatic setting.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm wordy. When I give myself a word count goal for a project, it inevitably goes over, but it gets shaved down some in editing.

Thankfully, I got a hard lesson in this in one of my college writing classes. I turned in a prose-y poem I was quite proud of, and in the next class, the professor handed out copies to everyone. We proceeded to workshop (i.e. destroy) my work, whittling the word count down by half when it was all said and done. And while I was mortified at the time, I've since thanked my professor a few times for that day. That one lesson lives in my brain every day, and I am right back in that classroom every time I edit a work, trying to figure out what the most succinct wording is, what is un/necessary, and how to play with my line breaks. Criticism is daunting but so, so worth it if you can find the courage to apply it!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I did this for the first time in Once Upon a Time in the South. I have a headcanon that Buford's baby momma is a Spanish actress at a small theater in Pine City, and he had to get something from her. This woman speaks very little English, and it was a challenge to stay true to that because (a) I don't speak Spanish and (b) my brain just struggles a lot with foreign language translations. Me being me, I wanted the most accurate and realistic translations I could get, ones that didn't sound too formal. Then you add in the fact that it's 1893, so there's a time-period language barrier, too. Ultimately, I'm happy with the end result, but I don't see myself going out of my way to do this again.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Pirates of the Caribbean! What a fantastic playground in which to practice storytelling! What really got me hooked on this "I might try writing for real one day" thing was listening to the writer's commentary on The Curse of the Black Pearl DVD when I was 15.

Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio gave excellent insight to this story I was enamored with and how they came up with it! "We had Sparrow and Swann, so we figured we shouldn't give Will a bird name" cracked me up. They covered everything — what challenged them, what rules ("guidelines") they stuck to ("leave the kiss for the end"), stuff like that. But what lit me up was hearing the entire backstory while the credits rolled, about how Barbossa was Jack's first mate until Barbossa committed mutiny and all that jazz. There was so much story to the story! That was a big, big day that influenced me. :)

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Oh, gosh. This is tough because the favoritism depends on the reason!

I'll forever love Principles of Compromise because after abandoning it several chapters from the end and not touching it for eight years, it was the first story I came back to and finished before returning to the Time Circuits Series. It was the first plot-heavy story with canon characters I attempted and completed (most of my works up until that point had been rewrites or headlined OCs). Finishing it was the stepping stone to all the writing I've since completed (30-some works)!

Favorite all time though? I'm a mom; you can't just ask me to pick a favorite kid, and this is just as mean. :)

(But for real, it's probably a tie between There Are No Roads (Time Circuits #2.5) and Once Upon a Time in the East )

Tagging @retro-hussy, @jowritesfanfiction, @writingwife-83, and anyone else who wants to play!

Thank you so much for tagging me, friends!! I don't know why, but I love doing these! Sorry again it took so long for me to get to. ❤️

#20 questions for fic writers #ask game #tag game #answered asks #fanfic #fanfic writing #fan fic writer #back to the future #pirates of the caribbean #national treasure #iron man #ao3 #bgsparrow

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nerdby · 11 months

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I both am deeply concerned for and deeply disgusted with the fanfiction authors on this site.

I love fanfiction especially Marvel and Loki fanfiction just in case the profile pic wasn't a dead giveaway. But while reading fics on this app, I've been noticing a very triggering trend which goes a little something like--

Avengers treats love interest like shit but the love interest forgives them as soon the Avenger confesses because they wanna be worshipped by them and be associated with the Avengers.

And like I knew there was something familiar about the plot, but I couldn't really figure out what it was until I roasted someone this morning for hating on Rob Pattinson for being in Twilight. Cause Rob loathes those movies and for very, very good reasons aside from the fact that Edward is a controlling, stalkery, manipulative dick who wants Bella to be a kept woman with no close friends other than his own family or people he's hand-selected from the vampire community, there is all kinds of cringe shit going on behind the scenes with the author of the series Stephanie Meyer.

Meyer is a self-proclaimed conservative Mormon who has bragged about never swearing or seeing an R-rated movie, and that makes me so sad for her. Cause aside from the fact that she is missing out on some of the greatest cinema of all time, it sounds like she has the personality of a literal twelve-year-old. Like Stephanie Meyer is stuck in a neverending LARP session where she roleplays as a puriteen influencer.

🤮

I'm referring to Mormonism as LARPing cause you are seriously delusional if you think that shit isn't a cult, and it only gets more disturbing there. Like all of the Twilight characters are named after people from her real life and the pedo-wolf love interest Jacob Black is named after

Stephanie Meyer's brother.

Fucking YIKES😬

But anyway getting back to the point, I finally realized that the fics I've been reading have all been ripping off the plot of Twilight. Especially the ones with Loki as a love interest cause for some reason the fic authors on this app all have degradation kinks and are desperate for Total Power Exchange relationship dynamics.

For those of you who aren't in the know, a Total Power Exchange dynamic is when a sub agrees to allow a Dom to control certain aspects or sometimes even all areas of their personal life. Basically, it's when you get off on having a controlling partner.

Edward and Bella have what could be considered a TPE dynamic except that the difference between their relationship and a real TPE dynamic is that Bella never consented to Edward controlling every aspect of her personal life. In BDSM the key to a healthy relationship is open and honest communication -- Safe, Sane, and Consensual, right? I mean, that's the key to every healthy relationship but it's especially important in BDSM because of the sadomasochism aspect. Some people take it a lot farther than just spanking.

And aside from the aforementioned issues this trend concerns me because Twilight came out when I was in high school, right, and I went through a serious Twihard phase. It's fucking embarrassing. It was also dangerous because not only do I have a super abusive mother who did not give a shit about what I did, I also had a whole bunch of undiagnosed mental health issues -- thanks, mom🙃 -- and ended up internalizing a lot of what I read in Twilight because I had zero media literacy because of said mental health issues.

So I ended up fetishizing abusive relationships, I got married way too young to an abusive asshole and had a string of abusive relationships after we divorced, I got raped, and ended alternating between couch surfing and homeless shelters for a while. And it was all because of Twilight.

And you could be like, "Well, it's not Stephanie Meyer's fault that your mom's a cunt and you were stupid." And you're right. I take responsibility for my own questionable taste, but there's also a little something called artistic integrity.

Artistic integrity is a personality trait kind of where an artist -- IE Stephanie Meyer -- gives a shit about their audience and the media they are putting out into the world. They aren't doing it for a cash grab -- they're doing it because they have a story to tell and a message to send. One that is important, culturally relevant, and asks important questions -- their work is political. It questions the social norm. These things, in my opinion, is what makes something art -- it separates art from trash.

Stephanie Meyer has no artistic integrity.

She didn't stop to wonder if readers like me or with issues similar to mine exist -- we do and, yeah, I'm kinda bitter about it. That is why Twilight is a problematic series -- that is why everyone from Robert Pattinson to Stephen motherfucking King has roasted that series to hell and back.

And I know someone out there is gonna be like, "Well, Rob said he lied all the time bac--"

Well, Robert fucking Pattinson is an actor and a damn good one.

And he wasn't lying when he said that Edward Cullen was a whiny, pathetic, suicidal virgin. Ya know how I know this -- because I read the books, for one thing, and for another I paid attention.

Like have all the Twihards out there suddenly forgotten when Edward tried to commit suicide by stepping out into the sun half-naked, so he could he trigger the Volturi into curb stomping his ass? Or when he straight up told Bella that he wouldn't fuck her until AFTER they were married cause there was just one rule that he wanted to leave unbroken?

It was in the movies, so if reading is too hard for you there ya go.

And, yeah, I'm triggered right now and no, I'm not sorry cause if you are knowingly ripping off the plot to Twilight to use for Marvel fanfiction and give absolutely ZERO shits about your readers' mental health you are a shit person. I don't care. I'm not sorry and that brings me to the part that is most concerning about this situation.

I know that there are other ND and mentally ill users on Tumblr. I know that some of them have the same issues I had growing up because of lack of access to mental healthcare. That means that some of these authors are doing this subconsciously: Some of them aren't even aware that they're copying Twilight or why it's wrong or why they need to be concerned about having artistic integrity. And to you guys, I am truly so so sorry and I really hope you are able to get some sort of help or at least talk to someone about this.

But the rest of ya -- the ones who truly do not give a shit that I know exist because this app is crawling with TERFs, radfems, and tradwives -- that movement was popularized by white supremacists by the way. Look it up. And those people are abusive, self-obsessed cunts with a perpetual victim complex that don't care who they hurt cause they will always, always, always try to blame someone else for their actions.

You guys -- the abusers that decided to basically plagiarize Twilight to boost your reblog numbers for your fanfics -- are shitty people.

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goblins-riddles-or-frocks · 2 months

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also the complicated interpersonal dynamics are so interesting sdfgd what was the darkling's reaction/thought process when the tsar stated that his son was to wed Alina? does the royal court suspect anything going on between alina and aleksander? bro is NOT being subtle 😭. he's doing this shit right in front of everyone's salad-

Re: this fic

I talked about both points a little bit in a previous ask. I was initially considering having that scene where he’s informed of it actually from his POV, but I liked the emphasis on how he told it to Alina and how she recounts it to Nikolai.

For reference, this is what she says:

I think he’s being pretty honest about what actually happened (gasp).

The way I picture the actual conversation going, I think the Darkling and a couple advisors, and the Apparat (who’s getting way too annoyingly ubiquitous) are trying to brief the Tsar on things he does not care about and get him to okay particular things that suit them etc. The Tsar gets impatient and shoos everyone off but singles the Darkling out like *you* stay. Side note, I think it’s really funny that he has no like natural sounding title or name to be called by a superior. The Tsar is obviously not going to call him “moi soverenyi” so… I can’t think of any alternative that isn’t mildly insulting??

Anyway the Darkling is fully braced for a very annoying time, and sure enough the Tsar opens with like how disappointing the long awaited sun summoner has been, and the lack of results. And how disappointing he has been. None of this is quite eyebrow raising yet, just white noise. The Tsar could have a particularly nice nap and suddenly decide that the Darkling is his best friend. He’s generally mercurial so the finer points of his mood don’t super matter to him. But then he gets into how Alina wouldn’t deserve an engagement to Vasily. And that is a record scratch moment lmao. The Darkling internally:

He’s of course already jumped two steps ahead, and assumes that the conclusion of opening with this, means that the Tsar intends Alina to marry Vasily despite all these caveats. Which imo says something about him, and it also says something about the Tsar that he means it very literally lmao.

Anyway it’s too absurd for the Darkling to feel like insulted about it in the moment. It’s more just bewildering and fucking crazy. He also just does not take the Tsar at all seriously, coup plans or no coup plans. He thinks it’s just as likely that he’ll change his mind the next day. (This is hm too much arrogance on his part tbh, I don’t think that’s actually plausible)

Then the Tsar’s finally like okay so all this is why she’s going to marry Nikolai instead. Which is itself I think hysterical to him that all this preamble about Vasily wasn’t even important. I do think that’s the point where he is starts to think strategically about the engagement though, both as something that might actually be happening, and that could be very advantageous.

But with the realization that maybe this isn’t just drunk rambling also comes the annoyance that the Tsar is very much encroaching on Grisha affairs, and also just Alina generally.

This isn’t in the text but I think there’s something of a power struggle happening where the Darkling tells the Tsar that the Apparat is too opportunistic and oversteps, while the Apparat says the exact same thing about him. The Apparat was more successful in the last round, so the Tsar’s more annoyed with the Darkling and wants to remind him who he answers to. That he can just make arbitrary choices like this, and also marrying Alina into his family does somewhat wrest her away from him as a pawn. (My arbitrary answer to “why was the Darkling planning a coup now, when he could have done so at literally any point in time in the centuries of Lantsov rule?” general is just that the Apparat was stirring things up. Even if they ended up working together by the end)

And the Darkling is very aware of all of this and will be more mad about it the longer he thinks about it lol.

As for what the court thinks, it varies to an extent. I think his reputation for keeping very separate from everyone else, and the fact that he’s ageless and immortal, has been doing a lot of heavy lifting, up until the start of the fic at least. And before all the drama began, he had been pretty careful to keep things secret (even if it was more motivated by keeping Alina at arms length than by actually caring about no one knowing). But yeah he is uh… not being that subtle anymore.

I think generally like everyone can tell that there’s some conflict happening between him and Alina.

Here’s a snippet from the next chapter actually

So yeah, the existence of drama is very very obvious. But the question of like what they’re fighting over or the exact nature of their dynamic is pretty open. I think he’s kind of been thought of as her de facto guardian almost? So people aren’t quite jumping to the conclusion that they’re having an affair. But they can only be so messy and dramatic before more people catch on.

#grishaverse #shadow and bone #i ramble sometimes #all the bendy punctuations #éminence grise #meta #of my own fic rip #long post #alarkling #darklina

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basedkikuenjoyer · 5 months

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Hidden Scenes for a Snowy Queen

Doing something kind of simple because Christmas is gonna be slow. If you celebrate hope you're having a Merry one. We're having some friends over for lunch, making a big pot of curry! Tomorrow we'll have what I guess you could call a tale of two girls out of time. Today...it's been a while and I don't think I ever did this just all at once. Yesterday we talked about how Kuma's alternate vantage point flashback sets a precedent because that's what makes Kiku's role in Wano weird. You could do that so well. The key is having specific points an attentive reader can guess at what may come up:

A bit of a weird one but one you gotta mention. Getting through having such a big presence in the arc and never opening up about the month at Tsuru's Teahouse. Focusing on what that blank slate revealed about what you really want. Coupled with more of her own perspective on Bakura Town.

End of Act 1. Cutting off the way we do leaves a lot of room to have said more than just what happened to Luffy. Taking responsibility is a big, believable thing to add on.

Night with Chopper at Tsuru's is a blank check for character building, but mainly showing what we know about being the quiet leader of the breakout plan.

Where were you when the gang went to rob Yasu?

Don't sleep on Luffy being a sharp dude who probably thought of Iva the second he heard what he heard about Kiku in Udon and would know now's not the time. Especially when Act 3 for him gets tied up around a foil for Kiku that doesn't understand the concept. All of this weird way of going about things is because our core point revolves around tact, etiquette, sensibility.

Ending Act 2 gives you a lot of little ones with plenty of room to play with. Returning the Nidai Kitetsu, how the Sunacchi element comes back up and honestly just having a friendly time in the grove. Something got her to "Torao-san." Biggest thing that makes me wonder though is just into Act 3, how the armor scene is so weird but couched in mentioning Jinbei followed by an interesting interlude for Tsuru that drops a big, if understated reveal for Kiku. That piece of context, Tsuru letting her think she was getting away with being incognito, is critical because it's an existing example of this kind of storytelling.

Special note how the flashback in general is perfect. Casually folding Izo in makes it a big, big deal for Kiku and we get pretty much her whole life...except for the interesting personal drama points you'd expect based on the character we'd set up. Specialer note for leaving a perfect opening to roll Shanks & Buggy into when you found out about big bro's decision.

Then this one could go a lot of places but how we seed the idea that Kiku was maybe a little more Toki's retainer by the end. She doesn't talk about Oden much, there's a nanny vibe with the kids that makes sense if you think about it, the actual Rashomon-style subtle reveal of where she was in the jump forward scene. But it was already hinted from here in the example of how Toki rehabilitated Oden's image:

The Raid is a different beast altogether. It's showtime, there's no trick. Kiku just has the odd one out internal Akazaya emotional journey that bounces off the Straw Hats. Did you notice or was there too much going on? Yamato is the star right? Don't think about the enormous butterfly effect potential if he hadn't dragged Luffy away from meeting up with his samurai buds. Seriously, you have it here, all the potential in the world. Luffy plus the samurai could have beaten Kaido quick, Yamato dragging Luffy away hampered that but it was a necessary step to setting up the Awakening. This all fits as an interpretation of Toki's prophecy. Essentially, "Play your part even if you're unaware of the deeper meaning. Because the world depends on what happens tonight."

And of course finally, the aftermath. Skipping Ryokugyu when the fight makes a specific note of "people about to leave shouldn't be here" is one thing...adding that to Ryo hammering the other shoe dropping on the caste theme with Urashima? Playing coy with you and that absence as we set up our endings for Carrot & Yamato?

I still don't know what to think. None of this is new, I was saying it by the end of Wano. While we've been on Egghead a while it was always playing with similar themes and now this Kuma flashback started and ended setting important "precedent." Our idea for a plot resolution looked a lot like how Ginny saved the day at God Valley and Kuma showed us how much POV can change what you thought you knew. We'll get back to the why tomorrow but it felt worth it to reiterate why there's so much potential. I know this bag of tricks has been out of style for some time but it just feels like ground I've seen other series walk so well, the only innovation is letting the trans girl be the mysterious ingenue rather than her vain, worldly foil.

But of course...nothing is weirder than this girl hopping over into the Academy universe and doing the exact same thing, just way less subtle. You already had Kikuhime & Kamatari hanging around a girl that just on her own started off being one of the most meta characters in a silly series where 4th wall gags are a rare final frontier. Call it copium or hopium or whatever cool Gen Z slang you wanna use, I'm ready to keep huffing it well into a new year at this point.

#one piece #okiku #post-wano musings

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jakesuit0 · 5 months

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Fionna and Cake Review

Mirroring the first episode of the series, “Fionna and Cake” throws us into a new world with absolutely no context. Watching this for the first time with no outside knowledge leaves viewers dumbfounded (definitely check out some reaction videos for this one in particular). Not just from the opening scene, but from Adventure Time’s very first variation on its intro. Natasha Allegri, the creator of Fionna and Cake, sings it. There’s some cool details, like a gingerbread version of Rebecca Sugar replacing the usual Gingerbread Muto, based on her storyboard partner. “Fionna and Cake” ends up being the perfect encapsulation of what makes Adventure Time so special, a feat possibly only matched by the series finale itself.

It’s super fun seeing alternate versions of the characters, a trend that started here. It’s gimmicky but who cares. The designs are pretty much all superb (thanks Nat!). My only criticism is the baffling decision to make Cake’s eyes white after Allegri’s original art got them right with blue eyes. The casting is just as good. Madeleine Martin (Fionna), Roz Ryan (Cake), Neil Patrick Harris (Prince Gumball), and Grey DeLisle (Ice Queen), make for the best guest voice cast of the series. They sound like the perfect genderswapped versions of the main characters, capturing the core of the regular characters while reflecting their subtle differences. Giving the characters similar but altered personalities really pushes this one over the edge. Fionna is as heroic as Finn, and gets uncomfortable being open about romance like he does. She’s a little more mature and takes situations a little more seriously, as girls mature faster than boys. Cake has the most distinguishing traits. She’s sassier and Jake’s laziness is replaced with a more unfiltered, provocative attitude (“tell Gumball you think he’s hot!”). We don’t see a ton of Prince Gumball, as it’s technically not him for most of it, but he’s the closest to his genderbent counterpart. He even has hints at a darker side, lying about the jelly kinders being alive. Ice Queen is just as creepy and perverted as Ice King, but is more outwardly sinister. When you sound more like Azula than Spongebob, that’s bound to happen. Even her ice magic created clouds are darker and more foreboding. It’s her best and most significant role to date. The characters are just as fun as the main cast are in seasons one and two. If the series was about this version of the world instead, it would still be a great series, and it would have been interesting to see how these characters would have developed differently.

Prince Gumball, like Princess Bubblegum, doesn’t view Fionna as a romantic interest. He invites Fionna to the ball as his “pal”. The age gap is just as much a roadblock as it is for Finn and PB. Ice Queen attacks Gumball with a slush beast. She has the ability to create water and foam, in addition to ice. Ice King lacks this ability, although he probably could conjure liquid water in a hotter environment. This could be tied to Ice Queen’s backstory as a water nymph, explored in Natasha Allegri’s dubiously canon Fionna and Cake comic miniseries. After Fionna seemingly defeats Ice Queen, Gumball flirts with Fionna and asks her out. Cake pushes her to pursue PG, more so than Jake ever does. Cake tags along on the date, as Jake does in “Burning Low” and “Ignition Point”.

They meet with Prince Gumball and Lord Monochromicorn. In addition to having a sick design, Monochromicorn speaks in morse code instead of Korean. I headcanon him as deaf. Too bad it’s his only appearance in the series. It’s funny that the series never acknowledges him as Gumball’s pet/best friend again, like how the PB/Lady dynamic was mostly dropped after “What Have You Done?”. Gumball gives Ice Queen a badass crystal sword. I love how it's just as cool as any of Finn’s swords. They really make sure to put these characters on equal footing to their counterparts. It’s hidden inside a bouquet of flowers, showing that Ice Queen knows what Fionna really likes. I like how it subverts the gender dynamics. Girls can like swords too! She also picks up Prince Gumball a few times which is cool! I did think to myself that there’s no way she has the upper body strength to do that, but realized neither does Finn at this age and I never questioned that! Fionna assures Gumball that she’s not thinking of butts after saying she’ll kick his in a race, meaning that she definitely likes his ass. I’m glad that Cake points out that they were the ones doing the actual work in the race.

It would be a huge missed opportunity to not get to see this version of the characters sing, especially when they have Neil Patrick Harris. It’s a simple song, but the best of the series so far. The background of the sky with the fireworks, as well as Fionna and Gumball’s hair blowing in the wind, make it truly beautiful. It’s reminiscent of “A Whole New World”. Unlike the scene in Aladdin, Fionna gets to fight during it! I love the blend of action and romance here, it would have sucked for a story about girl Finn to just be a straightforward date. No wonder these characters became so popular. It gave girls a great character to see themselves in and showed that girls can be just as badass as Finn.

Fionna returns to the treehouse after being asked to the ball as Gumball’s girlfriend. I like the detail that BMO still looks exactly the same, considering he’s genderfluid. Fionna straight up puts on Princess Serenity’s dress. It’s not my favorite Sailor Moon inspired outfit she ever wears, but it’s still gorgeous. There’s some new genderswaps at the ball, most notably Marshall Lee. He was originally going to have a few lines here, but they were cut for time. Rebecca Sugar begged Pendleton Ward to let her work Marshall into the story elsewhere, but he didn’t let up. If this was the only Fionna and Cake episode, I definitely would not have cut his lines. But, I think it’s for the best that they saved something that fans so desperately wanted for another episode. Lumpy Space Prince is there too and it’s funny that he looks exactly the same besides the mustache stubble. We’ve also got Cinnamon Bun with a green dress, a bow, and boobs. I assume CB would have the same name.

Trigger Warning (Sexual Assault, Feel Free to Skip the Next Two Paragraphs)

The next scene is really intense and I’m glad they somehow got it past the censors. Prince Gumball takes Fionna to his bedroom, locks the door, and starts undressing. It’s a mislead that he’s about to sexually assault her, which is so dark for this show. She backs away and is clearly uncomfortable. They really didn’t shy away from the intricacies of the different gender dynamic, and the danger that girls face from predators. If it were Finn and Princess Bubblegum, it would be just as predatory, but I don’t think Finn would have the exact same reaction. I think he would be shy and embarrassed, but not fearful.

Ice Queen reveals herself. It’s a great twist and I like that it sidesteps the problematic nature of Gumball dating Fionna. Fionna’s dress being torn in half is great symbolism for Fionna. She can be feminine and wear pretty dresses if she wants while still being a strong, badass warrior. Both sides are Fionna! Cake hears Fionna shouting “get it off me” from downstairs. She also senses that Fionna is in danger. This plays into both the instincts of a pet as well as the duty women feel to protect each other in situations like this. Fionna defeats Ice Queen and frees Gumball. This leaves Cake to find Fionna and Gumball alone in his room, with Fionna’s dress ripped off and his hand on her. Cake immediately jumping to the obvious conclusion is pretty reasonable, even if it is hypocritical that she spent the episode encouraging Fionna to go out with an adult.

Cake tries on Ice Queen’s tiara, which Fionna knocks off, saying she might “catch her crazy”. It’s interesting because it suggests that Ice King is aware of the effect the crown has on him on some level. Part of Ice King must also see himself as a villain, so there is some amount of self-awareness in him somewhere. I’m trying hard not to address the elephant in the room, but I do like to think Ice King is indeed the one who came up with the finer details and specific lines of dialogue, which is supported by the ending. The real Gumball asks Fionna for a date, which doesn’t make much sense, so I also think that’s just Ice King’s input. Fionna’s mini-speech about not needing a boyfriend and already knowing herself is a really nice ending to her arc in this story.

Seeing Fionna and Cake profess their love for the Ice King is really jarring on a first watch. (Lord Monochromicorn says “ice” in morse code here!) All of this being fanfiction from Ice King makes the character even more creepy and unsettling. He’s forcing a young boy to listen to his story of a girl version of himself falling in love with him. I don’t think he’s actually a pedophile (“Mortal Recoil”), I just think he’s a fucking weirdo. He put a lot of innuendos in, like Fionna and Gumball emphasizing how large his ball will be and Cake’s tail sticking out at Mo-Chro, in addition to the sexual undertones of the bedroom scene. The episode tosses aside the whole “Land of Aaa” name, an early idea, with Ice King mentioning Ooo in the context of the story. It’s corny but I do wish they stuck with Aaa instead. A lot of the fandom uses it anyway. And yet another episode that ends with Finn and Jake frozen!

This is the most experimental the show has gotten and it’s cool to see them branch out. It’s also the first time Finn only gets a cameo, although his analogue is still the lead. Putting a twist on this world gives the episode license to tell a simple story focused on classic Adventure Time tropes: Finn’s crush on Bubblegum and thwarting the Ice King. Changing the genders of characters is a popular thing for fandoms to do (rule 63), so getting an actual episode with the concept is such a terrific gift for fans. This is one of those episodes that only Adventure Time would do. It paid off, being the highest viewed episode of the first three seasons, and spawning its own massive fandom and line of merchandise. The episode’s outline was much easier and more boring than it ended up being. It called for Fionna going on a date set in a restaurant and didn’t even include Ice Queen. Adam Muto and Rebecca Sugar, who storyboarded the episode, strayed away from the outline to make something much more interesting.

This episode being Ice King’s fanfiction is pretty ingenious. I understand the disappointment some people felt at breaking the world of a story they were invested in, but this is fixed later on anyway. It also cleverly ties into the backstory behind the episode and the themes of the series. Natasha Allegri, who was the lead character designer for the first two seasons, remaining on the series as a storyboard revisionist for season three, essentially created these characters as fanart, drawing them for fun and uploading them to 4chan. Just like the episode, her comics were a little more adult than the series. They’re hilarious and I consider most of them canon! Her comic of Fionna getting her period is a must read. Even the names of Fionna and Cake were suggested from 4chan anons! Pen liked the drawings enough to want to make it into an episode. There’s so many writers who have worked on the show with their own interpretations of Ooo and its inhabitants, and there’s even more fans with their own headcanons and personal versions of the series. Adventure Time can be whatever someone wants it to be. The series is a success because of all the different ideas brought to the table from a collaborative storyboard-driven show and because it can speak to so many different people. It’s great to have an episode celebrating that. “Fionna and Cake” was born from and is a celebration of fanfiction!

Grade: A+

#adventure time #finn and jake #ice king #fionna #fionna and cake #fionna the human #cake #cake the cat #ice queen #prince gumball

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litfeathers · 1 year

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Behind the scenes of Evelyn's Journal

Since this was a bigger project, I thought I'd make a behind the scenes post to talk about how it came together, and share some easter eggs!

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Firstly, I want to impress how long it took to record and edit this thing. An almost 15 minute long runtime is a MARATHON! It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun and definitely worth it!

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The wanted poster and meetinghouse graffiti are direct references to my fic A Most Certain, Strange, and True Discovery of a Witch. This is the poster Evelyn grabbed on her little vandalism excursion:

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The frustrated look that Evelyn described Caleb making was this absolute classic:

(the wet cat gene is strong)

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Evelyn’s bird drawings are a reference to her book of bird sketches from my fic There Are Owls and Witches in These Woods. Her sketch book has been passed down the generations of the Clawthorne family, and is my explanation for why they all have human realm bird palismen! They use her book for ideas! :D

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Did anyone notice something special or significant about the day Evelyn and Caleb had their picnic? 😏

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There is an AU where I kept this in /j

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This is a cut line. I am not sure if this is me talking at the end, or Evelyn lmao

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...the reason I was watching Elsewhere and Elsewhen in my sound booth? I was listening to Philip’s accent to figure out how Evelyn would imitate Caleb ahahahha

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If you…let’s say…recognize Evelyn’s cackle?

*Slowly puts her finger on her lips*

Shh. No. No, you don’t. /lh

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The light spells poofing at the end? That is actually Eda de-transforming from harpy mode at the end of Reaching Out! It was such a nice, clean poof! No background music or dialogue to work around! *chef kiss*

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If you've read my fics, you can consider this story an alternate ending for There are Owls and Witches in These Woods. Everything up to the week in which this journal was written remains the same. There is a divergence when Evelyn decides she needs to protect Caleb by breaking off their friendship. Let’s just say that evening played out very differently. I'll let you guess and imagine for yourself what happened when Evelyn tried to break things off with Caleb. But I will give you this hint: his wish was very important. 😉

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This is the sketch I sent @bananadramaaa to show what I wanted for the cover art. Behold my artistic skills:

It was so cool to watch the cover art come to life! It was only the second time I’ve ever commissioned an artist (and first time commissioning something complicated), and it was such a positive experience! If you need art for something and their commissions are open, I HIGHLY recommend them!

(Also we snuck a few easter eggs into the art ehehehe)

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And it's time for some final thoughts.

I wanted to do something REALLY cool to sort of…I guess serve as a love letter to The Owl House? This show has been an amazing ride, and I wanted to create something as cool as I could to show my appreciation!

I wanted to show my gratitude to this silly, funny, wonderful, heartwarming show for existing. And to thank it for getting me writing and voice acting again. I am so grateful I decided to sit down and watch it last summer. I was lured in with the promise of witches and magic and owls, and ended up with a story that spoke to me so deeply.

Thank you, Dana. Thank you, crew.

And for anyone who made it this far, thanks for checking out my silly recording, and for being interested in my rambling. I hope you had fun!

Seriously. Thank you. 🔥🪶

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duhragonball · 1 year

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Dragon Ball Super 047

Fuck!

It’s the Zamasu Saga.

Son of a... !

*groan*

This arc is the drizzling shits. It’s easily the worst part of Dragon Ball Super, and it’s far, far worse than anything in Dragon Ball and DBZ. Is it worse than Dragon Ball GT?

You know, it might be. I would say it’s definitely as bad as GT, which makes it pretty vile. Part of the reason I’m rewatching this is to figure out the answer to that question, but... you know, life’s too short for this. I’m sitting here trying to compare the worst of the worst, trying to decide which turd sandwich is least appealing, and I feel like this isn’t a good use of my time.

I’m not gonna do the “Roaming Lake” bit like I did before. For a time, I considered comparing each episode of this arc to the best episode of GT, except I really can’t decide which one that is. I keep thinking back to that one where Goku said General Rildo was stronger than Majin Buu. That one seemed a little better than the others, but it was still an awful episode. I’m not sure I can compare these things properly.

I’m just gonna go through this thing, and point out similarities to GT as I find them, and we’ll see if we can figure out an answer when I get to the end. Okay? Okay.

So we’re in the Future Trunks Alternate Timeline, which hasn’t been seen since Dragon Ball Z Episode 194. I think several years have passed since Trunks defeated the Imperfect Cell of that world, but I’m not sure how long it’s been.

What is certain is that things have gotten much, much worse. This episode opens on Trunks sneaking through a ruined city while some shadowy villain keeps blowing it up. Then he makes it to some dingy secret laboratory, where Bulma is preparing just enough Time Machine Fuel for a one-way trip to the past.

Then their mysterious enemy barges in, destroys Bulma’s equipment, and then kills her. Trunks flees, knowing that he cannot save his mother, and the trip to the past is the only hope the world has left.

So that’s our first GT comparison: Killing off underutilized characters as a substitution for genuine drama. GT set up elaborate death scenes for Majin Buu, Piccolo, Krillin, and Android 17, which all fell flat because those characters barely got to do anything in GT anyway. Future Bulma is a really cool character who didn’t get a lot of screentime in the Androids/Cell saga of DBZ, so this whole arc could have been an opportunity to do more with her. Instead, they just kill her off five minutes into the first chapter of the story. And for what? To motivate Trunks?

I mean, let’s seriously think about this. If this was such a great idea, then why didn’t Toriyama have the Androids kill Future Bulma in the original Androids/Cell saga? Well, for one thing, that would be too fucking dark. Trunks had already lost his father and all the other Z-Warriors, and then finally Gohan. Killing off his mother would literally be overkill. More importantly, it mattered that there was someone waiting for him back home. Someone who believed in Goku and the others, and knew they could make things right.

We’ve barely gotten started, and I’m already pissed off. I know this is an easy thing to look past. So many characters in this world have already died, but it’s a big deal. One of the Zamasu Saga’s many, many sins is the way it tries to just repeat the Androids/Cell Saga, just as Dragon Ball GT tried to repeat story beats from past Dragon Ball stories. This arc is basically determined to hit the reset button on the whole dystopian future concept. All the rebuilding we saw in DBZ Episode 194 is erased. Trunks victory over the Androids and Cell is made irrelevant because of this new menace, and the only solution is another desperate time trip to get help from the past. At best, this arc can only be a warmed over retread of what we’ve seen before. But they already fell short of that pathetic goal when they made the mistake of killing off Future Bulma.

Back in the present day of the main timeline, Goku’s crops are ready for harvest, and he invites Piccolo to help him, since this is the sort of training he used to do with Krillin as a child.

Then Krillin shows up and mentions how Vegeta has gone back to Beerus’ planet to train, so Goku teleports after him so he won’t get left behind.

Then the boys all eat jumbo cups of instant ramen! This shot looks like the one of Goku, Toriko, and Luffy from that crossover special, and it turns my stomach. Just three goofy pals, eating a wacky snack together! Must be Dragon Ball Super!

This is probably meant to contrast the bubbly peacetime of Goku’s world with the living nightmare of Future Trunks’ world. They did this a lot in the Androids Saga too, except the contrast wasn’t quite so sharp. It worked in DBZ because things were kind of grim in the present day, but the characters still had hope because they could still fight and train. Trunks’ warning from the future was that they would be doomed to lose their next battle, and the conflicting themes of the arc were Goku’s defiant optimism versus the seeming inevitability of fate.

It worked in Dragon Ball Z because Dragon Ball Z was all about the world teetering on the brink of disaster, and the only thing holding the line was a bunch of guys shooting hand lasers in their pajamas. The only way to raise the stakes after Frieza was for a guy to come from the future and tell Goku he had already lost and the world was already doomed, so Goku could look him in the eye and say “I’m still going to try.”

It worked then because Z stands for the end, but not yet. Super stands for “let’s bring back some old IP and see if we can cobble together a sequel.” Super is Goku being a total goofball and Vegeta having a rod up his ass at all times, and nothing ever really matters because Beerus and Whis are always the strongest characters in the room, and they won’t let anything too serious happen because they enjoy eating Earth food too much.

While they eat, Goku talks up how much fun the Tournament of Power will be whenever it finally happens. This is the thing that makes the Zamasu Saga really stand out from GT, because at least GT never taunted me with the idea that something good would actually happen later. This whole Zamasu Arc just keeps gloating about the fact that the Tournament of Power can’t start until we get through this crap first.

“Tee hee! Fifty more episodes until something cool happens!”

Back in the future, Trunks makes his way to a bombed out apartment building, where he meets Mai, who is now an adult in this timeline. They share a can of meat, and talk about how Bulma died for this one-way trip to the past. Before she got killed, Bulma said there would be a chance for Trunks to return, but he doesn’t know what she meant.

Trunks has a cool flashback to some cool shit in Dragon Ball Z. The coolest shit, actually, since it’s mostly footage from the Cell Games. I miss Cell so much. He was the best.

So Trunks and Mai head to West City, where they plan to use the Time Machine in the wreckage of the Capsule Corp. building. Trunks believes that their enemy, “Black”, can track Trunks’ ki, so he has to suppress his powers and travel as discretely as possible.

And yet Black still tracks him down, just like how he followed Trunks to Bulma’s lab at the start of the episode. He puts up a fight, but if that were going to work, things wouldn’t have gotten this bad.

Mai tries to distract Black with a shotgun, and that... doesn’t work.

Trunks rushes to her side and declares that Black has killed her. So for those of you keeping score, Mai has “died” 1 time in this arc. This is stupid for a couple of reasons.

First, they just got done killing off Bulma. Killing Mai in the same episode is just redundant. I mean, they shouldn’t have killed either of them, but both is a step too far, and they killed them both in the same episode.

Second, Mai survives this, because they’re going to tease killing her again later in the arc. That’s how creatively bankrupt this shit is.

One of the defenses I see of Dragon Ball GT has to do with whether Akira Toriyama contributed to, or approved of the series. The logic is that you have to like it because his name is on it, and he provided some character designs and other art assets to the project. If it was bad, then he would have repudiated the whole thing from the start. Conversely, some GT critics use the lack of Toriyama’s involvement to justify hating the series. It sucks because Toriyama didn’t write it, end of discussion. Both of these arguments are stupid.

Because Toriyama did plot this Zamasu arc. I don’t know how detailed his notes were, but I’m pretty sure most of the shitty ideas in this thing were his. And even if they weren’t his, he didn’t do nearly enough to correct course. I respect Akira Toriyama a great deal, but this Zamasu arc makes him look like a hack.

The episode ends with a clear view of the main villain, and it’s an evil Goku wearing a black costume and a Potara earring. This probably would have been more of a shock if they hadn’t given away this character’s design in the opening credits.

This was a big deal in 2016, as the fandom was genuinely intrigued by the mystery of this new villain. Could it really be an evil Goku? How could it be, when the Goku of this world died of a heart virus decades ago? Maybe it’s a Saiyan lookalike, like Turles. Maybe a bad guy switched bodies with Goku, like Captain Ginyu. Maybe it’s an android designed to imitate Goku. Maybe it’s an evil future version of Goten! Wouldn’t that be wild?

I think there was some fringe theory that the heart virus that killed Goku somehow gained sentience and reanimated his corpse. Maybe I came up with that one. I can’t remember.

And the potara earring just raised further questions. Where’s the other earring? Where did he get that one from? The design of Goku Black was certainly good for making the audience ask questions. Everything about this guy’s look is a mystery.

Also, fans just liked the idea of an evil Goku, whether it was a corrupted Goku or just an impostor. One of the most popular legacies of this arc is the fan character “Chi-Chi Black”. I’m not sure where it originated, and I’m not sure there was ever a single concept to Chi-Chi Black. Sometimes she was the real Chi-Chi seduced to the dark side by Goku Black, and sometimes she was just an impostor using her likeness. I think the only consensus was that it would be cool to have a girl version.

But a mystery is only as good as its solution, and I’ve spent this whole post telling you how awful this saga is. That should tell you how impressed I am with the big reveal. The shot of Goku Black looking down at Trunks is probably the high water mark of this whole saga. One episode in and it’s all downhill from here.

#dragon ball #dragon ball super #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #goku black #goku #vegeta #beerus #whis #trunks #mai #bulma #grand zeno #piccolo #goten #chi chi #cell #semiperfect cell #gohan #fuck the zamasu saga forever

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gerogerigaogaigar · 11 months

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Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy And The Poor Boys

After three albums of progressively cleaner tighter production the boys of CCR decided to go and do one more sloppy style. While the main hit Fortunate Son still has the crisp production of their recent output the rest is closer to the swampy slop of their debut. There's a solid amount of funk influence in their blues rock and it makes Willy And The Poor Boys stand out among their discography. There's a solid mix of politically charged and party songs that makes it very emblematic of the CCR style.

Beastie Boys - Licensed To Ill

I've said already how I love the Beastie Boys. I think they are one of the best at their type of flow and on their debut they are probably the most focused they ever were. Now I do think that focus comes at the expense of a fun looseness that permeates their next few albums, but it does mean that all the songs are more fully realized. I imagine that if Brass Monkey or Girls had been on Paul's Boutique instead they would have been a minute long each but here they get to be some of the Beastie Boys most well remembered tracks. Also a totally weird thing to be able to say about a hip hop record but the guitar solo in No Sleep Till Brooklyn rips.

Etta James - At Last!

I've known the name Etta James for a long time but I've never knowingly listened to her until now. Her blend of traditional pop, soul, and rock actually caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting that kind of crossover energy from a female pop singer from 1960. The more rock and doo wop stuff was good but the more traditional pop/soul stuff was amazing. The title track and her version of Stormy Weather especially were amazingly delivered. James' voice is husky and rich, with a lot of toughness and it somehow works most beautifully with the more delicate songs. It gives them a sense of wavering confidence.

The Who - Tommy

On the face of it Tommy is an album about a boy who is stricken deaf, dumb, and blind by childhood trauma, experiences every kind of child abuse imaginable, and finally is cured of his condition only to immediately become an abusive cult leader himself and finally lose all of his followers when they realize he's a fraud. It's a lot and it's densely packed even as a lengthy double album. I find it to be very thematically interesting and, though I won't analyse it here, ideas about the cycle of abuse, a representation or Plato's allegory of the cave, and a condemnation of spiritual guidance in general are just a few of the things that I personally read into the lyrics on Tommy. It's a shockingly intelligent album from the band who once made a fake ad for baked beans. Musically this is also the most complex and mature thing The Who would ever write. Already a talented batch of musicians they show off harder than ever with Pete Townsend proving that he could arrange as well as any classical composer, John Entwistle pulling out the French horn on more than a few tracks, Keith Moon just completely obliteration the drum kit at every chance, and Roger Daltry successfully vocalizing the emotional depth of the story's various characters. As an attempt at real operatic formula it features an overture repeating motifs, and even a few interludes that could be called the rock version of recitative. It's bigger and more dramatic than any Who album before or after. It more than lives up to it's reputation and could stand to be more seriously analysed from a literary standpoint in my opinion.

Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out

Coming out towards the end of the riot grrrl scene of the 90s Sleater-Kinney's third album manages to be a little cleaner and more nuanced than their contemporaries but no less angry. They deliver a hard hitting punk adjacent brand of alternative rock that is aware of grunge but is very much doing its own thing. The feminist themes common to the riot grrrl movement are on full display and nuance is out the window. There's no time for nuance when you are raging against the patriarchy and as a bonus Sleater-Kinney are not one of the terfy riot grrrl bands.

T. Rex - Electric Warrior

Electric Warrior is probably the most important release for the glam rock genre. There's this hint of folksiness mixed with a glitzy sheen and those two things are somehow not at odds with each other. The lyrics? Damn this shit is horny. Marc Bolan was exquisite at expressing sleaze without making me feel uncomfortable. There's this combination of cheek and haunting atmosphere that leaves me with the impression that Bolan is singing about fucking to keep something scarier at bay.

#500 album gauntlet #creedence clearwater revival #beastie boys #etta james #the who #sleater-kinney #t. rex

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