#so i went into good old tumblr and i searched them up to find some good content

[gffa]

Over the last week, I decided to go ahead with bookmarking all the fics I've recommended over the years on AO3 since I abide by tumblr poll results always (and man pour one out for all the fic that never made it to AO3 or has since been deleted, sooooo many gems lost to time!) and it was a bit more than the ~3,000 I was expecting:

Hopefully, this will be easier than browsing the hundreds of recs posts I've made, since you can filter for any of the author's tags now! These are mostly focused on Star Wars and DC fandom, but I did my time in the anime mines and occasional tours through some TV fandoms or movies. You can dig into everything unfiltered and start your own filtering, or the bigger fandoms you'll find:

MAJOR FANDOMS: Each of these should have 100+ at minimum and, in the case of Star Wars, literally almost half of them are in that fandom. Look, Star Wars fandom might be a trash fire in a lot of ways, but it is ON FIRE with some good fic. (Older bookmarks not guaranteed to match my current sentiments, especially re: the Jedi, but they did catch my fancy at that point in time!)

STAR WARS: - All Star Wars -OR- All Star Wars minus the Obi-Wan/Anakin ship - OR- Nothing BUT Obi-Wan/Anakin

BATMAN/DC: - DC can sometimes be tricky, but you can do a Batman* search and get most of them (though, sometimes Nightwing* or Young Justice* or Superman* will catch some of the others). Honestly, though, you might want to just do a search for what character or dynamic you like and have fun from there, because otherwise you're getting a face full of my Dick Grayson Is The Center Of The Universe And I'm Making That Everyone Else's Problem agenda. ;)

MARVEL/MCU: - Marvel* will probably get most of the various properties, though you may want to filter for Defenders* or Guardians of the Galaxy* if you're interested -OR- Marvel* without the Thor/Loki - These focus a lot on the Thor* fandom if you want to witness the results of like 8 years of constant voracious reading in that fandom (Minus the ship), because, seriously, I read a LOT of Odinson family fic. - Bonus, just do a search for Maximoff* to find some really good X-Men: First Class-verse because, listen, I have been ALL ABOUT the Maximoff twins since long before the movies or MCU brought them over and I will DIE ON THE HILL of "Marvel, make Magneto their bio-dad again or I'm never reading another comic of yours ever".

TOLKIEN/LORD OF THE RINGS/SILMARILLION/HOBBIT: - Tolkien* -OR- Hobbit* -OR- Lord of the Rings* searches will turn up most of my Elf-hunting, I primarily focus on the Sindar Elves, but look I can't resist my problematic Feanorian faves or that I will die on the hill that Fingolfin is the best ever. (You have NO IDEA how sad I am that so much fic on Stories of Arda or FFNET is not easily bookmarked on AO3, sob. I externally bookmarked a few of the bigger ones, but sooo many shorter faves are missing from my recs tag.)

CLAMP: - X/Tokyo Babylon legitimately bums me out because it's not a huge fandom and yet so much of what was written was pre-AO3 and lost when CLAMPesque went down or was never brought over from Livejournal, yet this fandom (well, the Seishirou/Subaru pairing) still burns brightly in my heart.

MINOR FANDOMS: Ones that probably only have under 100 bookmarks (often around the 20-30 bookmarks range), but will at least give you a place to start! ANIME/MANGA: Bleach | Cardcaptor Sakura | Dragonball | Finder no Hyouteki/Viewfinder | Katekyou Hitman Reborn! | Kuroko no Basuke | One Piece | Sailor Moon | Madoka Magica | Naruto | Princess Tutu | Trigun | Weiss Kreuz | Yuri!!! on Ice

BOOKS: Chrestomanci | Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

DRAMAS: Nirvana in Fire | The Untamed -OR- Modao Zu Shi

TV SHOWS/MOVIES: Community | Game of Thrones -OR- ASOIAF | Good Omens | Hannibal | Highlander | The Old Guard | Our Flag Means Death | Stranger Things

VIDEO GAMES: Dragon Age: Inquisition | Final Fantasy 8 | Genshin Impact | Okami

BANDS: Arashi

All right, whew, that was actually a fun project, despite how much work it was to hunt down a lot of older faves to see if they were on AO3, hopefully you'll find this useful!

#lumi.txt #fic recs #star wars fic recs #batman fic recs

[kyra45]

Keys guide to scam spotting (v2)

Hi! I’m Key (Or Jess depending on which blog you know me from) and I’ll be telling you some better information and detail on how to spot a scam account be it a pet scam or a donation scam. All information is based on my own experiences and I’ll try to keep this post accessible so the only big text is the title. This information should help in understanding how these scams work and how to spot them without having to do too much work. As always, if you appreciate what I do and want to show it, sharing these info posts helps other users see it and learn about blogs that might send them asks.

—

What is a donation scam? - A donation scam is when someone is being deceptive to get money by claiming they need mutual aid or support. For example, they are using the story from someone else’s fundraising post in order to get donations and won’t tell anyone their lying. This is called a donation scam. While the story may be legitimate, it is a story stolen off someone else and means the real person isn’t getting the support they asked for because someone else is using it. These stories are often stolen off Facebook/GoFundMe or even Instagram and could come from a private account or group so searching wouldn’t come up with a source. The images may also be stolen from somewhere else too.

How do you spot a donation scam? - Donation scams are usually easily spotted if you take a closer look at the information being given. Stolen stories will often have certain parts removed and replaced with the information the scammer added themselves. Sometimes the post may be composed of two different parts and won’t sound right if you pay close attention. For example, part of the story sounds fine but then the second part of the story seems out of place and doesn’t match up with the beginning. Another thing to check is how old the account is and if you have timestamps on you can see if an older post is backdated. You can also check to see if the account has tagged certain blogs in their post though this isn’t always a sign of a scam.

What is post backdating? - Post backdating is changing the dates of a reblogged post to look older then it really is. While this can be used with good intentions, scammers often use this to trick people into thinking their account is years old or even a few months old. The one way to find this is by turning on timestamps in dashboard settings and checking ‘other notes’ in reblogs. This is the only way to see the true date something was shared. Accounts who backdate posts will often claim someone told them to do it or they’ll say they didn’t know it was bad. However, you can not accidentally backdate a post.

Did the account contact you first? - A common occurrence is that you will get scam asks if you share a popular or trending post. Usually these accounts send asks to anyone they find without care of who it is and might lie as well if you ask them how they found you. In general, a brand new account shouldn’t easily find you unless they were watching the notes of popular posts. Occasionally these new accounts will even send asks to certain accounts they shouldn’t know about unless they have seen the account before. If your DMs are closed, the ask may ask you to message them because it’s urgent but all they will do is ask for money or ask you to loan them some money.

—

What is a pet donation scam? - A pet donation scam is where someone has went and looked around for vet fundraisers online and then took it for themselves by saving the images and story while erasing any links that would lead to the real pet getting support. They will then repost it to tumblr and say it’s actually their pet needing urgent care with the post title being very large and in red text for a sense of urgency. Sometimes they’ll say they can’t use GoFundMe because it has a fee or something else. This is a scam because they are not the owner of the pet and have stolen everything meaning no funds sent will be towards the actual pets care.

How do you spot a pet donation scam? - A common way of a pet donation scam is by how old the pinned post is and how many posts are reblogged on the account. Usually there is only a few posts shared and always shared around the same time and then no more. These posts all come from a trending topic, a fandom, or are popular posts. Another thing is checking the bio in Google search and seeing if it’s been took from someone else as the scammer never makes their own bio. Reverse image search their pfp to see who it really belongs to in case they stole it. Another important thing is to check their link and see if it matches up with the vet bill. Since most pictures are stolen off a private group, reverse image search won’t find them. The name they may have is likely not their real name and is stolen.

Did the account send you an ask? - Regardless of what the ask says, it usually requests you to answer it privately or message them so they can tell you thanks. These asks may have several emojis in them as well but their always just copy/pasted and sent to multiple users all at once on a daily basis. The private answer is so the ask won’t show up if someone is looking it up. If their post is public, there shouldn’t be a reason to need a private response to an ask you have sent to many people unless you are trying to hide it. Messaging these accounts is useless because they’ll lie to you when you ask them questions back or just ignore you.

—

What is a fake check scam? - A fake check scam is when a generally blank account with no pfp will message you after you used certain tags and ask you if you still need help. Even if you have links to send support, these accounts will ignore that in order to ask for your personal information such as phone number or banking details. They will then offer to send you a check. This is a fake check and cashing it won’t be scamming the scammer. You will lose money instead and the scammer will already move on to someone else. Never give them your private information.

Are there any other scam types? - When you tag posts, you’ll often get messages from accounts claiming they can help you get more attention on your campaign but you have to pay them money or go off-site to contact them. These are fake support accounts and they always use stock images while pretending to be officially affiliated and act like their Digital Marketing title means their not trying to scam you. They get defensive when called out and may start insulting you when they figure out you are already aware they aren’t legitimate.

—

What is a funeral donation scam? - A funeral donation scam is when an account posts saying someone has passed away but the images they used are actually took from someone else and may be photoshopped. Bills may be edited to suit their story and names may be changed to someone else’s. This isn’t a real common scam! But it’s happened a lot lately but the basics are the account will steal someone’s pictures and pass them off as theirs and when caught will say they were forced to or know it’s wrong but did it anyway.

—

In closing, this is information regarding common scam types you’ll find on tumblr. It’s always suggested to pay close attention to asks you get it they fit the criteria of being sent from a scammer. Answer the asks publicly and call out the blog. The scammer may block you as a result, but it’ll help your ask be seen it someone has looked it up. I suggest never spamming asks to share your pinned aid post because unfortunately scammers do this and you shouldn’t ignore people saying to please stop spamming. Always check to see if someone is comfortable getting these kinds of asks too because it won’t look too good if you have sent them an ask when they say please don’t.

As always, not everyone asking for support is a scammer! Legitimate people are out there. It’s just unfortunate scammers have made it harder for them to get help. You can always do your own research and compare it to what others have given and come to your own conclusion.

#scam #donation scam #pet donation scam #how to spot a scam blog #psa #important information #long post #longpost #pet scam

[olderthannetfic]

As someone who's college age: yeah, there's a TON of people my age who don't know how things work and don't try to learn. Can't unzip a zip file, want to know where to download anime but haven't tried looking it up, ask things on subreddits a Google search or quick search on the wiki would answer, ask questions answered in FAQs or by professors or in the syllabus, say they can't download and install a new browser or app or program because they don't know how and they never think to look up how to do so, go months without logging into their student email because no one explained to them how to do so and they never thought to ask anyone how to do it, go months without washing their laundry because they don't know how and they also don't know how to look up instructions on how to do it, don't know how to cook and can't Google a recipe so they throw things in a pan and pray it works out, don't understand how to back up files, don't know how to attach a pdf to an email to send to a professor, cannot manage to put stuff on a USB drive + go to the library + print it off of the library computer, etc.

I spent most of freshman year teaching people things. The year after, my patience got more frayed and "Google it" started coming out of my mouth a lot more. This last year I gave up and now if people fuck themselves over, that's their decision. I'm not going to stand there begging people to do basic things they should already know how to do.

It was really funny when someone from Career Services came to talk to us about resumes and said we didn't need to put down 'can use Microsoft Excel' on there because everyone knew that and all but three people said actually no, they didn't. People who are 40+ really think we're all good at tech by default, like we fall out of the womb clutching a little phone already making spreadsheets in Excel or coding computers or whatever.

Meanwhile in reality you see a ton of people posting on tumblr going, "How do I post fic on tumblr?" whose blogs proudly state that they're under 18. The thought that you could just type into a Word doc and then copy and paste onto here never hits. And it's not going to.

I hate to break it to millennials and older people but yeah, actually, my generation does in fact have morons. We're not a moron-free demographic. I'm pretty sure moron-free demographics don't exist, tbh.

--

It infuriates me that my father (in his 80s) is always saying to me that he needs to find a 12-year-old to explain his tech to him. I (40s) keep telling him it's more like a bell curve or something. We had a blip of people being taught in school or having their asses kicked about technology. But then it went away again.

I think we made computers and then phones much more accessible, which is great, but we forgot we still need to teach people things. I know not everyone got explicit instruction in school even in my era, but it seems like the US, at least, phased some of that out as we started assuming The Youth automatically knew it all.

That said... in my day, college freshmen were also terrible about doing their laundry, so some things never change.

[koohito]

BY YOUR SIDE | KAMISATO AYATO

tags: FEM!reader, marriage trope, dad ayato, alternate universe, OC (kaizen kamisato), casual inside joke, fluff everywhere (plenty of kisses), reader and ayato can’t keep their hands to themselves (❁ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)

wc: 2K

a/n: as my first tumblr fic, i initially wanted this to be shorter (abt 600 words) but i got carried away. also, i wanted this posted on fathers day, but then again i need to make tons of revisions so im a tad late (just pretend this was posted during fathers day hehe). I HOPE U ENJOY ◕⩊◕

Ayato came to a halt, enamored by the sight of you and your two-year-old son sleeping peacefully on your shared bed. 

The rainy, lazy Saturday morning at the Kamisato estate seemed to have a cast a tranquil spell. Having finished his morning shower, Ayato donned his khaki shorts and polo shirt, ready to start the weekend task that waited him. The papers on his office table beckoned for his attention, but the gloomy weather and the empty side of the bed tempted him to abandon his tedious work.

Your son had rolled over to your side, holding onto your nightdress while resting his cheek against your chest. He must have rushed to his parents’ bedroom upon being startled awake by the loud thunder, luckily finding the doors unlocked. Unconsciously, you cradle your son’s head, gently nuzzling his temple. 

A tender smile graced Ayato’s lips as he observed this scene. Gods, seeing his two most cherished beings in such serenity made him wish to freeze time in this moment. Ayato tossed his hair towel lazily into the hamper before taking out his phone. It’s not even 8 o’clock yet. He captured two pictures of you and your son, snug and cozy, and decided to make one of them his lock screen. Just as he was about to give in to the temptation of returning to bed, a work email notification from one of his business colleagues caught his attention. His jaw clenched abruptly, and he let out a soft sigh. 

Approaching your side of the bed, he carefully pulled the comforter over you, making sure not to disturb either of you. Leaning in, Ayato pressed a gentle kiss on his son’s hand still clutching your hip. Then he placed a tender kiss on your exposed shoulder, followed by another on your temple. You stirred briefly before drifting back to sleep.

~

You knocked on Ayato’s office door, peeking inside to check if he had any scheduled calls before entering. “So, you’ve been wearing my fuzzy slippers! I was searching for them everywhere,” you exclaimed, grinning as you noticed him tapping his feet on the ground with your slippers. Approaching him, you stood behind his swivel chair, wrapping your arms around his chest from the back, your face nestled beside his. “Morning, Ayato,” you greeted, peppering the side of his face with affectionate kisses. 

“These slippers are so comfortable, I’m sorry,” he chuckled, setting aside some of the papers to cup your cheek, his eyes still fixed on his laptop screen. “And good morning to you too, my love. Did you sleep well? Is Kaizen awake?”

“Mhm,” you replied, planting a final kiss on your husband’s cheek. “It would’ve been better if you had joined us back in bed,” you remarked while smoothing his chest. “Have you had breakfast yet?”

An hour later had passed when you finally woke up. Your son was no longer nestled beside you, so you assumed he must be in his room or with his father. Swiftly changing your nightdress into something casual, you went through your morning routine. “I only had orange juice this morning and I planned to cook breakfast, but I had an early meeting,” he explained as you watched him organize his papers, neatly tucking them beside a non-fiction entrepreneur book. He swiveled his chair to face you, pulling you onto his lap. “Anything you want for breakfast? I’ll cook,” he offered, wrapping his arms around your waist. “Or, if you prefer, we can go out today since the rain has stopped.”

You genuinely wanted to spend the day out together with your two boys, to make up for the busy weekdays. However, you couldn’t help hesitate as you hadn’t prepared any itineraries for dining or strolling, and the damp weather didn’t make it easier. “I do want to go out honestly, but I’m not sure where we'll go yet. Plus, I know you’re busy with work today, and I don’t wanna trouble you,” you admitted, reaching up to tuck a strand of your husband’s hair behind his ear. A small, tight-lipped smile graced your lips as you offered your thoughts. 

Always so considerate, Ayato thought fondly. He let his gaze linger on you for what felt like a minute before leaning back into his chair, pulling you in closer to him, allowing your head to rest on his shoulder. “I’m done for the day, my love, so you don’t have to worry,” he reassured you, his thumb tracing idle shapes on your waist. “I know a place that serves breakfast, and we can take a stroll there afterward. They also have a kids’ area that our son will love. We can even stay there for lunch and dinner as well.” Ayato breathed in the scent of your shampoo, planting a quick kiss on your head. “That is, if you want to.”

“Absolutely, that sounds like a perfect plan,” you responded blissfully, the corner of your lips curling up. You shuffle slightly against his lap so you could face him fully and cupped his face in your hands. “Thank you for thinking this through and making time for us, even though I’m sure you still have unfinished business waiting on that desk,” you said, giving him a peck on the lips. “Regardless, it’s the weekend, my love. You deserve some leisure too. I’ll even treat you to a massage place if we come across one today,” you chuckled, gently stroking your thumb on his face. “I love you.”

Ayato had a teasing response in his mind, but you surprised him with a gentle kiss. The citrusy taste from the orange juice he mentioned before mingled with the kiss. He hummed, pulling you closer by the hips as the kiss deepened. He realized that he didn’t need a massage when being with you was the the way to relax. No matter how busy he is with work meetings, he made it clear that his priority was managing his time for you and Kaizen. With a smile on his lips, he caressed your neck, his thumb lightly brushing your jaw. 

Three years of marriage, and you never ceased to be deeply enamored by this man. Each day, he managed to make your heart swell with affection. “There’s a kaitenzushi place nearby,” he broke the kiss, and you opened your eyes. “I remember you saying you wanted to try their nigiri sushi before,” he recalls his memory on you watching a video about this sushi train, gushing over how badly you wanna try them and wondered how many dishes you both could finish. “How about we go there for dinner later this evening?” Ayato suggested, lightly nipping your lower lip. “Yeah?”

You nodded in response, endeared the way he remembers. “Okay,” you said, beaming, and he grinned in return. His expression softened into fond amusement as you leaned into the palm of his hand. Your mouths coming together once more, yet before he could lengthen your kiss into another extent, your son came rushing adorably into the room with a ball in his hand. 

“Mimi!” he called out in his sweet baby voice that startles you and Ayato. Quickly making space between you but still seated on your husband’s lap, you turned your attention to your son. “Mimi, I, I sit on Dada too,” he exclaimed, his cheerful features and curios eyes assessing his parents before dropping his ball and extending his arms towards you, waiting to be picked up. Kaizen giggled, and you smiled back broadly, reaching out to him tenderly. However, Ayato beat you to it as he scooped up your child in one arm, settling him on his lap.

My boys. It was amusing and heartwarming to realize that despite your son inheriting only the hue and shape of your eyes, he looked like an exact replica of his father. You smiled inwardly, silently watching both of them interact. The way your son’s face lit up with laughter in his father’s presence was a striking resemblance of the two of them together. It's truly amazing, you thought. 

You playfully poke your son’s cheeks, making him giggle with delight. “Do you want to take a shower with mommy, baby?” you asked giddily. “We’re going out today, all three of us!”

He squeals with joy and reaches out his arms towards you. “Where we going now, Mimi?” he asks as you lift him up, his arms resting on your shoulder while he stands on your thighs. “I go… go eat ice cream today!”

“Mhm,” his father agrees, patting him on the head. “You can shower with mommy first, and then we’ll get you ice cream.” Ayato clears his throat, his arms slipping around your lower back. You turn your head to look at him, unsure of what he’s about to say. “Unless… Mimi wants dada to join you guys in the shower too?”

“Oh, please,” you say, rising from his lap and swat his shoulder. Carrying Kaizen with you, you give your husband an incredulous look. He burst into laughter, and you can’t help but shake your head, trying to suppress a smile. “Dada has already showered, baby. I think what your dada needs to do is eat his breakfast.” You raise an eyebrow at Ayato. 

But your son’s innocent eyes blink at you, and in that instant, you know you’re in for some negotiations. Kaizen not only inherited Ayato’s features but also his stubbornness, or maybe he got it from you. “But, but I want Dada, Mimi! Dada shower too!” he squeals, squirming himself free from your arms. “Dada shower too, please.”

Ayato continues chuckling from behind you, standing up and taking Kaizen from your arms. He grunts playfully as he lifts the boy higher, holding him tightly. Kaizen giggle in excitement in return, swinging his arms in the air. You follow behind them as your husband start walking out of his office. “Kaizen,” he calls, and your son immediately looks at him. “Do you want dada to shower with you?”

“Oh my god, not this again,” you mutter.

“Yes! Me and, and Dada, Mimi shower too!” Kaizen responds.

“Alright, little man, we’ll do that some other time, okay? We’re going to swim in the pool, too. How’s that sound? You like swimming with Mimi in the pool, and we’ll bring your rubber duckies to play with,” Ayato says, kissing his son’s temple. “Would you like that?”

“Yes, dada. I play with duckies at the pool,” he responded, turning his head towards you. “I swim in the pool. Mimi and dada outside the pool, dada.” Kaizen giggle, his dimples popping out from his plump cheeks. “You and mimi shower only.. I play ducks at the pool!”

Just when you thought you were witnessing an adorable father-son conversation, Ayato bursts into laughter again. “You don’t want us to join you in the pool? Mimi will be sad, baby,” he says, trying to contain his laughter. 

“Um, I give Mimi duckies! Mimi will be happy, and I give you duckies too, dada!” your son says innocently, clapping his little hands before hugging Ayato’s neck and facing you. “Mimi, I give you duckies in the shower, okay?” he tells you with his big doe eyes. 

Goodness, who could say no to this little pumpkin? “Sounds good to me, baby,” you reply, ruffling his hair. 

“You sure you don’t want mimi or dada to swim you with you in the pool, Kaizen?” Ayato asks.

He shakes his head while still on Ayato’s shoulder. “Mimi and dada… and duckies in the shower!”

Ayato reaches his free hand out behind him, waiting for you to intertwine your fingers with his. He turns his head towards you, giving you a subtle wink as the corner of his mouth curls up. Your heart flutters. 

“Whatever you say, pumpkin,” your husband says, a hint of amusement in his voice as he guides you towards your shared bedroom. “Mimi and dada will stay in the shower then.”

You can only chew the inside of your cheek and give his hand a light squeeze. You son is too smart for his own good at times, but this time you just let it slide, grinning with adoration. Feeling a surge of fondness for your two boys. 

#ayato x reader #ayato x y/n #kamisato ayato x reader #genshin impact #genshin oc #kamisato ayato #genshin fluff #genshin x reader #genshin impact imagines #genshin fics

[whispering-ways]

•♡✿⁠ tulips and katsudon ✿♡•

✿ summary: you and izuku go on your first date after crushing on each other for quite some time

✿ pairing: midoriya izuku x reader

✿ tags: no warnings, just fluff! :)

✿ notes: hi everyone! this is the first fanfic i've not only posted to tumblr but also the first i've written in general, so any constructive criticism is appreciated <3 it's also on my AO3 (whisperingways)

You’re searching for your earrings when you hear a soft knock at your door. You turn your head toward the door before calling out, 'Just a minute! I’m just finishing up in here.' Upon opening the door, you see Izuku standing there with a bouquet of flowers, looking as cute as ever. He is practically red all over as he all but thrusts the bouquet into your hands.

'Th-Those are for you; I remember you mentioning that tulips were your favorite, a-and I know that your favorite color is pink, so I picked them up for you. I hope you like them!' Izuku says with a slight chuckle.

'Thank you so much! Come in real quick while I put these flowers in a vase,' you say, opening the door wider so that he can come in. He carefully brushes by you and stands near your door as you fill up the vase at your table. As you run the vase under the faucet, you become more excited for your first date with Izuku.

You’ve been classmates for three years now, and while you've been friends for a long time, it was only in the past year that you started to fall for him. It has been hard not to, honestly. He is one of the sweetest, kindest boys you've met, not to mention academically driven and passionately loving everything and everyone he cares about, including you. He has also filled out over the years. All those years of training have given him a lean build, but he still retains that same old boyish smile that you love.

What you didn’t know is how he adored you as well. Yes, he thought you were absolutely adorable and gorgeous, but he also loves your personality. He admires how hard you work towards improving your quirk, striving every day to be the best hero you can be. He appreciates how sweet you are, not just to him, but to everyone around you. You have this caring aura about you that makes you so likable. He thought someone like you would never like him back, so he was content being friends. So, to say he was surprised to find a little note from you asking him out would be an understatement.

And that leads us to this afternoon, the first date. You two decided to go to a nearby restaurant for lunch, a tiny mom-and-pop shop that you suggested solely for its signature dish: katsudon. You"d have to admit, things seemed a bit tense at first, but as the day went along, you two slowly fell into your usual comfort.

"Wow! This katsudon is amazing! I mean, I really hate to say it, but it might even be a little better than my mom"s, but only by a little bit," Izuku said.

"It definitely is really good. I"m glad I got the spicy one though. You know, that reminds me of when Katsuki made that super spicy ramen. Kaminari took a bite of it, and he seemed like he was going to explode or something. Poor guy just kept drinking more and more milk!" you said with the most harmonious laugh Izuku had ever heard.

You both kept reminiscing about memories from the dorms until it came time for the bill. Although you insisted on paying for your meal, Izuku paid for both of you, saying that his mother raised him to be more gentlemanly than that. As you walked back to the dorms, the conversation continued, and as you neared the dorms, it was clear that neither of you wanted the date to end just yet.

"So um... would you happen to be free for just a little while longer? It"s okay if you"re not, but I know there"s this art museum nearby that I heard might be a little interesting," Izuku asked, wringing his hands. "Admission is free and all, so don"t worry about fees, but would you like to come with me?"

"I"d absolutely love to, Izu!" you said, elated that the date didn"t have to end just yet. "Would you maybe like to hold hands while we walk there?" you asked nervously, wondering if it would be too much too soon.

Izuku lit up like a Christmas tree. "Yes! I-I mean, yeah, that"d be nice. We can definitely hold hands," he said excitedly, offering his hand to you. You placed your hand on top of his, and you could have sworn you turned beet red. His hand nearly engulfed yours, and you loved the coarse feeling of it wrapping around yours. He interlaced your fingers together, and you both started the walk to the museum.

The museum was about a 15-minute walk from the dorms, making the stroll in the cool spring breeze absolutely lovely. Once you reached the museum, the receptionist informed you that they have a traveling exhibit about past heroes and art created with their quirks, which piqued both your and Izuku"s interest. You both looked at all the artwork pieces in awe while Izuku stood beside you, analyzing every piece, never letting go of your hand in the process. On the walk back, all you could talk about were the beautiful pieces of artwork.

"I think my favorite piece had to be those stone sculptures done by the creation quirk artist. I mean, it"s gotta be really useful to create all the tools you need at your disposal and definitely a great way to store things. What about you? What did you like the most?" you asked, looking into Izuku"s eyes, which seemed so much brighter than you last remember.

"I loved that one installation by the strength quirk user! I"m no artist myself, but it"s very creative to use that sort of magnified strength to create a huge installation, not to mention the use of her engineering background. Using both the background and her quirk to create an interactive, domino-effect-esque installation that allows all ages to enjoy the art was absolutely ingenious in my opinion. Plus, the use of colors was really- oh God, I"m rambling, aren"t I? I"m so sorry," he exclaimed, looking down towards the ground.

"Don"t worry, you weren"t rambling at all. I think it"s cute, honestly," you replied, sending Izuku into a tizzy.

"W-Well, I"m, uhh, glad you like it. You"re pretty cute yourself," he said, beet red, squeezing your hand.

You both kept talking about the exhibit until you reached the dorms, and Izuku walked you up to your room. "Thank you so much for this date, Izuku. It"s been nothing short of lovely, truly," you said, gently holding both his hands in one of yours, with a soft smile painting your face.

'Honestly, the pleasure was all mine. I never thought you’d actually ever want to go out on an actual date with me, so this has all been like a dream come true. In fact, I was going to ask... whether you’d be interested in possibly having another date sometime soon?' Izuku asked tentatively.

'Yes, I’d absolutely love that! Just text me the day and time you’d be free, and we can plan something out if that sounds good to you?'

'Perfect! Well, I guess this is goodbye then, huh? I’ll see you in class tomorrow?' he said, looking up at you with that boyish smile that you oh so adored. It’s clear that neither of you wants the date to end, but it's a school night, and you both prioritize having a full night’s rest.

'I guess so, Izu. I hope you have a nice evening, though. And again, thank you so much for making this day as lovely as you are!' you beamed. You thought about it momentarily and then gave him a quick peck on the cheek before wishing him goodbye and closing your door, leaving him a blushing mess.

You slid down, back against your door, giggling like a schoolgirl at the kiss. Something about it just made your heart absolutely burst with giddiness. You were already daydreaming about what your next date was going to be like. There was no way you were getting any sleep tonight.

#bnha mha #mha x reader #mha #bnha fanfiction #izuku midoria x reader #izuku x reader #bnha izuku #mha izuku #izuku x y/n #ao3 izuku #izuku fluff #deku my hero academia #deku midoriya #deku x reader #deku fluff #izuku midoryia x you #izuku midoriya #deku mha #midoriya deku

[letoasai]

No one remembers Anime Spiral

What do kids even do on the internet? I'm genuinely asking. Everything revolves around social media and that's fine but what do they do. Are their cool things they can do anymore?

There used to be websites and you would just wander the internet on the family computer. Newgrounds. Gaia Online. Neopets. Yahoo Games. Quizzila. Live Journal... I'm not saying they were all great but they were something to do and... no i'll commit, they were great. I wasn't worried about posting pictures of myself when i was busy watching a flash animation of Dragonball Z that someone put painstaking hours into.

A lot of younger kids and teens don't know how to download something and save it to a particular folder on their computer because they've never used a computer. Meanwhile we were somehow... coding our Myspace pages to have a particular background. When did we acquire that knowledge?

In 2004/2005 i went looking for Inuyasha pictures, as one did, and i stumbled upon a site of people posting fanfiction? Sign me up... Anime Spiral was the wild west of chaos fanfic writers. People would make banners for their work that would sit in their summary sections. God help you, but those seizure inducing flashing colors were going to get your attention.

People would write anything, stories, poems, lyrics. People would post art and open commissions for people to ask for things in the comments, and the OP would just do it... There were frantic collaborations. Some were really good. Some were really bad.

There were chaotic originally stories with random anime characters thrown in for fun because who was going to tell them they couldn't? Some people just ranted to anime characters and i will always remember Ask Sesshomaru where you'd ask Sesshomaru a question in the comments and the next chapter he would answer every.single.question. The fact that it was probably a 16 year old girl writing that just didn't matter.

Some people just posted picture of anime characters. They did all the internet searches so you didn't have to! They were harder to find then.

The comment/response section to this day... was the best format i've seen on a fanfic site (imo). It was so easy. I miss it! I miss going to my word processing class and pulling up that site and chatting with people in the freaking comments of whatever...terrible story i'd posted at the time. I was probably so proud of it then but yikes...

The notification system was good and it was easy to talk to people without it feeling intrusive.

Maybe Anime Spiral was Tumblr before Tumblr.

I met two strangers on Anime Spiral a week apart. Internet dangers weren't as obvious then as they seem now. Those two strangers became two of my best friends. It's been nearly twenty years and they are still so prevalent in my life.

I met my best friend on that site. That seems so impossible to me now. We never would have met otherwise and i can't imagine my life without them. We were so upset when Anime Spiral went down. We missed the ugly green and mustard yellow template to this day.

It wasn't a great site, it had it's problems... It had a lot of problems but at the same time, it was a great site. It's hard to find people who even remember Anime Spiral anymore. Going to FF .net or Fiction Press afterwards felt like... a downgrade somehow. The systems overly complicated and it lacked...something.

I do enjoy the hell out of AO3, it actually checks all the boxes for a great writing site, but i'll always remember the chaotic nostalgia of Anime Spiral.

What do kids do on the internet now? Is it safe? Is it just selfies, gossip, and bullying? Do you have a little dragon you can take care of? Neopets could take up a lot of their attention. I don't think 2024 Neopets is the same as 2005 Neopets and that's a shame.

I have no idea. I feel old.

#Rambling #ignore me #i do miss Anime Spiral though #Anime Spiral

[hellsite-detective]

*sighs in relief* (anon looking for the red blog with a blue eye pfp)

My most notable post, and the one this blog reblogged multiple times that brought our paths across each other, was a "do you love the color of the sky" post, but I made it extra long. Like, several times as long as the original. It was evil, I know. It was for April Fools. The blog I'm looking for reblogged it from me en masses, a good 20-40 times in a row. That's what made me take notice of them. Most of the time I just reblogged posts, but that one was a special occasion. I also had a bunch of back and forth posts with a different mutual, tagged #homeskillet, which might be unique enough to be of use? Oh, and one of my most popular posts was a Awsten from the band Waterparks that I edited to have transparent hair so it would change color with your blog theme (made that for a friend). Maybe that would help? The blog I'm looking for never reblogged that post, but it still might be worth something?

My old blog used to be ftinally (currently on anon because my new url is extremely similar, but I've had too many bad experiences with sending asks off anon and then getting a bunch of hateful asks in response that I'm wary of attaching my url to asks).

The title of my blog was "don't write yourself off yet", like the Jimmy Eat World song. It was only deleted around September/October, so the trail isn't too cold yet. Hopefully some of that information is useful? Thank you so much for looking into this!

finally... a lead. first thing was first, i saw the mention of "do you love the color of the sky" and jumped for joy. see, i'm very close with Madame Curator, @hellsite-hall-of-fame. and dare i say she is the Queen of the Sky. i went to her and asked for any extra long color of the sky posts, to which she sent me two different variants. however, neither of these were gettin' me where i needed to go. luckily, i was provided a blog name i could track! doin' quite a bit of diggin' i managed to stumble across the aformentioned Awsten post. now, i know that i was told that the missing person hadn't reblogged this one, but at least i could confirm this was what i was lookin' for.

so, i went down to my ol' pal, Google, to see if they knew anything about "tumblr ftinally." and they handed me a whole laundry list of links. it was time to meticulously check every single one of these. i was hopin' to stumble across the color of the sky image that my client had mentioned. unfortunately, i wasn't findin' the color of the sky post. however, i went back to the Awsten post and thought i might be able to use that as a lead. problem was, that wasn't gonna do me much good. usin' the Wayback Machine and searchin' for the blog's address also wasn't doin' me much good, and i was gettin' worried this was gonna be a dead end.

i hate to do this again, but is it possible you have any defining characteristics of that color of the sky post you made? any accompanying text, tags you may have used, or even original image files and could reverse image search? and of course, feel free to message me this information in private if it's too personal to share in an ask, or not mention it at all if you're not comfortable!

additionally, when you say "red blog" do you mean the blog had a red theme, or the blue eye was on a red background in the actual image? that also may help to narrow the search!

i will not give up on you, anon. i will find your mutual if it's the last thing i do!

Post Case: Under Investigation

#im gonna find this #i swear on my life i will see this case through to the end #ask #hellsite detective #post case under investigation

[sipsteainanxiety]

SHAY SHAY SHAY HELLO 🤭 CAN I GET SOME OF THEM RECS PLS I NEED MY DOSE OF BKG LMAO can never get enough of him fr

i hOPE U R HAVING A GUD DAY N GOOD LUCK ON THAT EXAM OML

HELLO HELLO MY DEAR i just went searching and there are some fic recs in this ask and this ask as well!! also since u r a die hard bkg stan like me i went searching in my likes!! some of these fics are fcking old - like from 2018/2020 - but they r the ones that i would recommend!! ALSO NOTE THE ONES THAT CONTAIN NSFW AND BE MINDFUL PLS!!!

pit stop by hollowedpurple

charade by ihatebnha (caitie hi) nd him being sweaty

i will always return by crikeygatormate (outlaw bkg!! multiple parts + has nsfw be careful!)

breath of a dragon by moonbelt (dragon king bkg!! also has nsfw!!) this fic changed my life

pumpkin spice & everything nice by petrichorium (hi lori ily)

your biggest fan by simplybakugou (hi mira) (thats a smau!!) and also shut up and kiss me, turn back time, off the deep end (mermaid reader!)

movement by unbreakableleeji (PIRATE BKG & MERMAID READER!!)

angel with a shotgun by gemstoneconstellations (multiple parts) ALSO RLY GOOD!! and this is a kiri fic but hero by another name is part of the same universe and is so. so good!!! (badass firefighter reader!!)

number neighbor by myherowritings (smau!, sof isnt active anymore but her bkg >>>) and alsoooo the language of flowers

ua's freaky friday by kaistarus and will you social distance with me? (THAT HIT ME SO HARD BC IT WAS PEAK COVID TIMES)

happier by iguessilovebakugou (multiple parts) THIS IS SOOO GOOD

and these are fics in my likes that i've saved but havent read yet that looked good!:

whispers of the heart by k-atsukidayo, and also wonder love, stained in gold, the biography of a heart

stare by nekokoafanfictions

you suck at cooking by cellotonin (cookie return to tumblr WHEN?!) and alsooo finding love (and finding you there)

strength comes in many forms by reddriot (fantasy au!!) HI MISS ZEE WHERES PT 2 ALREADY!!!

sunflowers don't grow in the city by eremikan (mind the warnings!!!)

god bkg and goddess reader by hanji-is-life

the dragon raid by dienamights (fantasy au!, multichap)

the forbidden flame by vampyrsm (fantasy au!! has smut!)

tall buildings blinking to airplanes in the snow by princematcha

reader wearing bkg's costume by professionally-unprofessional and selfless

sick by spicyness

kiss & tell by simpliheavenli (multichap!)

to save a dragon by strawberry-nugget (fantasu au!! mind the warnings)

it rains, so then you drown me by diesukitsuki

lunar captivity by ghoulraki (mermaid au)

reader w a mind reading quirk by katsushimaa

strawberry jam by smashboxgirl26 (cowboy bkg!!)

wrong number, asshole by not-me-simping-for-blasty (smau i think?? multiple parts)

prince bkg and maid reader by aikugo

excalibur blue by bluebellhairpin (pacific rim au!)

we should just kiss! by sems-diarie

the regent by azerlinsblog

i'd also go look thru my shay's treasure hoard tag since thats where i rb a lot of fics i like!!

#im too nervous to tag the authors LMFAOOOO #sipping tea with shay #bkghq #ngl me going thru my likes made me realize that a lot of the fics in there r things i havent even read yet #bc i hoard things LMAOO #I ALSO DONT RMB SOME OF THE FICS I /DID/ READ TOO WELL #MEMORY GO BRR #i wasnt joking when i said some of those fics r from 2018 ive been here a long time #phew #i WILL still make an ao3 fic rec list i think #ALSO TY I HAVENT STUDIED YET FOR MY EXAM I MADE THIS LIST INSTEAD KDHKDFJ

[moqi2004]

I'm making a post because I haven't seen anyone talk about this on Tumblr. Just some advice for those wanting to do the No Mercy route so they don't end up like me.

Steamworks spoilers under the cut. If you're doing No Mercy I assume you've done at least one other route. Read this BEFORE going too far ahead!

In the Steamworks, BEFORE you head into the green computer room where you'd normally turn off the power, make sure you kill ALL of the enemies in the area until you get the usual "But nobody came" message.

Yes, I went too far ahead before doing this and also saved. Seeing the Axis fight was coming up, I went back to deal with any stray enemies, only to find that I wasn't getting any encounters at all. Confused, I ran all the way back through the Steamworks without a single encounter.

After going to the internet and inquiring with Reddit, I found that I had accidentally ABORTED the No Mercy route! Now it took me a good few hours to beat Ceroba (after a week's break because I was sick) and I knew I didn't wanna do it again. Luckily it seems Reddit has a couple fixes but as of posting this I haven't tried them. I'll do so and then edit the post with how it goes. Here's the reddit post I'm referring to.

This sucks cause I'm someone who adores this fangame! I think I wouldn't be as upset if not for the warning they gave me in the Dunes about killing all the enemies. I'm surprised such a glaring issue was missed. Hoping the devs get this fixed ;w;

EDIT: Okay yea I managed to get it fixed! Although it involved going into my files and doing a little bit of messing with them. Plus, a lot of the instructions on the Reddit post itself were hard to follow, so imma write down some of my own.

The method I used involves you downloading a save file someone uploaded to the internet, which sends you back to just before the Axis chase. This does also give you that save file's items so you will lose what you had there. Here's how to do it:

Paste %appdata% into your taskbar search bar. That's the bar that has all your open/pinned apps down at the bottom. If you're on desktop reading this you can see it right now.

Click the %appdata% folder that appears from the search results

You will have ended up in a folder titled "Roaming". You will be able to see it in the top bar to the left of the searchbar in the file explorer. To the left of where it says "Roaming", it will list "AppData". Click there to go into that folder.

Click on the folder named "Local"

Scroll down until you find a folder that is titled "Undertale_Yellow"

There you will see your saves. Using this you can download the new save that I mentioned. I did get a popup tab that I was able to close which didn't cause any issues. I would recommend you use an adblocker just in case. If you don't trust it or feel unsafe, then maybe this method isn't the one you want to try. The file is completely fine though, I downloaded it at my own risk and everything's okay.

Once downloaded, open your downloads folder in a small window and have the save location from before also open. Either copy paste the new save file in or drag the new one from the downloads folder to the save folder.

Replace the old file with the new one when your computer asks. If you want to save your old file just in case you can make a copy by right clicking and copying the file, then pasting it to a different location.

There is another method Reddit suggested where you edit a kill counter but I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. I really hope nobody else ends up in my position and has to edit their save in this way.

#undertale yellow #uty #undertale yellow genocide #undertale yellow no mercy

[siriannatan]

Flower Husbands Fantasy Thing

Inspired by these beautiful designs by @applestruda on Tumblr. Go see all their pretty art.

I might have based a lot of Martyn on the old sheriff

Being the winner of the tournament to decide who was worthy of challenging the demon king was never on Scott's life plan but here he was. Couple of weeks away from the capital and the Grand Oracle who said the whole thing about the tournament. Searching for a very specific smith. A smith who - according to the Oracle and the King - was capable of forging a demon-slaying sword strong enough to kill the Demon King. At least they knew more or less where said Smith lived. And after some asking in the nearby town - the local Vigil church folk were no use but a certain tavern owner knew the man Scott was looking for.

So after couple more hours of fighting with the forest, Scott has finally reached a small house with a smithy next to it nested in the woods. "Hello? Anyone there? I'm a knight from the capital?!" Scott called out after tying his horse to a low fence. She had no issue and just started nibbling at the clovers the whole clearing seemed to be covered with. "Smith Martyn?"

"I hear you, ya' whippersnapper!" an angry blonde man with a cane grumbled and mumbled as he came from the back. "What do the capital idiots want from ol' me, huh?" he asked as he completely ignored Scott and sat by the door to the house and pulled out a pipe.

"Apparently I'm supposed to kill the demon-king, at least according to..."

"Not with that toothpick you ain't," Martyn huffed. "JIMMY!" he yelled into the house what had someone drop something metal and yelp in pain - maybe it landed on their feet?

"They did tell me to..."

"Of course, they told you to find me I'm the best. Too bad for you I ain't going on any adventures. Lucky for you I know more or less where you can find the proper stuff to make the sword you want, and I'm willing to give you my apprentice. Wait here a second," he said and went inside. "Hurry up you slow-poke, grab all your important things, we're leaving...!"

With nothing better to do with himself, Scott stood there and tried to ignore even more yelling coming from inside. Was this really who he was looking for? The swords displayed in the smithy did look to be very good quality so he didn't think he was in the wrong place.

Jimmy had no idea why Martyn was telling him to pack. And the damned old man, as always, refused to explain himself so he just packed - light as he was told and left the house. What he would love to be warned about was the handsome knight currently waiting outside, one had on his sword. Dressed in silvery armour Jimmy recognised as mythrill - not a cheap material, with a white tunic with a red pattern at the low edge with a cyan overcoat. No helmet, but that made Jimmy's problem worse. He could see his handsome, flawless face, soft, fluffy cyan hair, and bluish-cyan eyes.

And he was staring at all the swords Martyn had Jimmy make for his training. And he didn't have that dumb look most of their visitors had when looking at them. And while his sword was clearly of a good make Jimmy was tempted to maybe get him to switch it for one of his. Just because Martyn always said the two of them were the best smiths out there. A knight in mythrill armour should have the best sword, right?

"Move it, Jim," Martyn's cane smacking his head had Jimmy move out of the way with a disgruntled expression. 

"Mister knight here needs you to forge him a sword to kill the demon king, so here," Martyn passed him a journal Jimmy has never seen before, "is my journal, should tell you two where to find the right tools, materials and the workshop."

"But..." Jimmy was about to protest. Forge a sword to kill the demon king? Could he really do it?

"You can do it, you learned from me boy," it was probably the softest he ever saw Martyn. "Grab Wednesday, she's faster and a sword. You too knight-boy, if you two hurry you should be in town before sunset. Trust your instinct and nothing else. And if you let my apprentice get hurt demon king will be the least of your worries," Martyn huffed and Jimmy just then noticed he had a bag of his own.

"What about you?" the knight asked what Jimmy was about to ask.

"I'll be off to the capital after I set this thing burning. Gods know these fools will need me. Stay safe. Stay vigilant. May the gods keep you safe," he explained and turned away, obviously already done with them. He would not question why Martyn wanted to burn the smithy. Demon King was involved and possibly had his cronies already looking for Martyn... The old man could take care of himself. At least Jimmy hoped he did.

Jimmy just sighed and started doing as told. Sword first. "If you feel like you don't need one I'll be not offended," he told the knight.

"You made these?" he asked, already looking over one of Jimmy's most recent creations.

"Yeah, the boss doesn't really smith anymore so I had to learn pretty much from his words alone," Jimmy sighed and picked out a random sword. It wasn't like he even knew how to properly use one. "My training did not include how to swing one effectively," he quickly clarified. "Um... I'm Jimmy just... I don't..."

"I'm Scott, technically it's sir Scott, the Flower Knight but I'd rather you don't call me that if we're to travel together," the knight said with a frankly too-perfect smile. "These are all really good swords," he praised and Jimmy felt himself blush a bit. "I can teach you how to defend yourself if you'd like," he offered and grabbed two swords. One a bit longer than the other. Jimmy didn't question it as he packed a few tools and maybe a couple of daggers. Just in case.

Scott was kind of glad he got the pretty avian apprentice and not the grumpy old smith if he had to go on a quest collecting all the stuff they'd need to make the sword. And how hard can keeping one smith alive be? Especially if they are cute and hard to miss with their pretty golden wings and hair. And tall. Dear gods, Scott liked tall men too much for his own good. And to make it worse Jimmy wore baggy clothes, and was a smith, meaning who knew what was hiding under his turtleneck shirt, wrap-up sweater and blue vest. No matter what was under there Scott was pretty sure Jimmy could pick him up. Mythrill was known for being durable, strong and light.

"I'll get my horse ready..." Scott smiled after picking out the swords. He might need an extra sword before they get the special one made. And these were made by Jimmy, making them even more special. Even with just a short peruse, he knew the sword he picked would work perfectly for him. And that the sword Jimmy picked would not work well with how tall and lanky he was. Why he grabbed a second, longer sword?

Poppy, his horse, helped herself to the clovers at the edge of the clearing. She did straighten up as Scott approached, shortly followed by Jimmy and a calm chestnut horse. Wednesday he assumed from what the old smith said. Speaking of, the old man was still moving shockingly quickly around the place. "Will mister Martyn be okay?" he asked but mounted Poppy as Jimmy mounted his horse. She did not look too happy to carry the young smith.

"Martyn's damn hard to kill and much more skilled with a sword than I am... How far is the capital anyway?" Jimmy almost seemed to shrug.

"Like four days at a moderate pace... depending on the weather and the route," Scott gave a rather generous estimate. "And how many and how long breaks you'd take," he quickly added.

"Oh... He'll be fine with Blitz, he's a fast one," Jimmy nodded. He didn't look too convinced but Scott nodded along. No need to scare him too much. They were likely to encounter worse things along the road.

"From what I saw a dragon would not take him down," Scott grinned. "Shall we? The road down the mountain's quite rough."

Jimmy took one more look at the smithy and nodded. With a heavy heart, Scott nodded and led the way to town. This would be one heck of an adventure but he would do all he could to keep the young smith safe. Luckily Scott was more than just a tournament knight.

#my stuff #my stories #fanfiction #empires smp #third life smp #3rd life smp #flower husbands #scott smajor #solidaritygaming #jimmy solidarity #martyn littlewood #inthelittlewood

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

after a year long break, I replayed TFS

I haven’t been too active in the twdg fandom for about a year now, only popping in from time to time to talk about the Clementine comic or to answer the occasional ask. 

A lot has happened- I got into the Dragon Age series and created a side blog dedicated to it, got a new job, played a LOT of Stardew Valley, read Clementine Book One enough times to make me weep all for the sake of a review, gave Skyrim a second chance and that went terribly, went on the search for a good sapphic romance novel but have yet to find one, replayed Fallout: New Vegas and remembered why it’s my favorite Fallout game, and it’s November so I’m crying about nanowrimo.   

I haven’t touched The Final Season, or any Telltale game, since September of last year. My interactions with the fandom on this blog have been scarce, especially when you look at the way I used to post in 2018-2021 by comparison. But I got an email the other day from tumblr telling me that this blog turned 4 years old. I began looking through all of my old content and that inspired me to boot up TFS and experience it once again to see if my opinions changed.

Spoiler alert: A lot have. 

I wasn’t planning on writing a post like this when I did my replay. After all, as I’m working on this it’s nanowrimo. I may or may not be an anxious mess, it’s fine, I’m fine. 

I’m aware that the fandom isn’t exactly thriving at the moment but I feel like I need to get these feelings out of my system.

Y’see, it’s fascinating. I spent years running this blog- so many themed nights, talking with you guys and answering asks, writing fics, getting into dumb arguments, saying dumb things, and streaming the series on Mixer and Twitch, and for the most part? My views/opinions on the series were fairly consistent. There are a few exceptions, like my feelings on Minerva as a character changing or why I now choose to leave Lee at the end of S1 rather than shoot him, but everything else I was rather sure of. 

So imagine my surprise when I finished and many of my opinions changed. 

Turns out, time makes a fool of us all and spending a year away from the fandom and the series has shifted my perspective quite a bit. I’m able to set aside those rose-tinted glasses, but not get rid of them entirely. 

I still stand by TFS as being a fantastic conclusion to the series. It was the ending Clementine deserved, and it’s still my favorite. 

I believe the overall plot holds up great- Clementine and AJ find a new home. They have to fight to protect the people that become their found family. Clementine potentially falls in love or finds herself a best friend. The bond between Clementine and AJ is strong but tested in each episode. And to make matters emotionally complicated, the antagonist is someone from S1. 

It’s flawed, sure, but point me in the direction of a plot you believe isn’t and I’ll find something to nitpick just to spite you. 

I couldn’t imagine a better continuation/end point for Clementine’s story, and I will forever be grateful that this is just as much AJ’s story as it is Clementine’s.

I think this is the best looking game of the series. The school is something to admire for how beat up and overgrown it is, and the walkers are so decayed they’re practically walking skeletons with some flesh clinging to their bones. The character designs are great. The controls are easy, gameplay for Telltale games always are. The only time I had any trouble is the section where you have to distract the walkers so that James can retrieve his mask. I died three times before I was able to complete it without killing a single walker.... I did it all for you, James! 

I also prefer the over-the-shoulder camera versus the fixed camera of the previous games. A lovely change, that one. 

Oh, and the collectables!  I love the collectables, that was such a great feature to implement into this game. Giving Clementine and AJ their own dorm that you can decorate with things you’ve collected makes it feel like home, like this is where Clementine is going to stay. For a lot of people, the last time Clementine had a room was back in S1 at the motor-inn, and she does have a room with AJ if you stayed at Wellington. I just like collecting things, man, it’s fun! Love it, I collect every item!

A big problem I do still have with this season is it’s only four episodes. Yes, it’s still a damn good season, but it always gives me a sense that it’s this close to being the best game Telltale ever created. So many things fall short and it sucks because they were so close, y’know? If they had just one more episode, they could’ve had time to cross the finish line.

I know that some of the developers have said they only needed four episodes to tell the story they wanted to tell and that’s why a fifth episode was cut. If that’s true, then I believe that might’ve been a mistake. If they said it was just a budget thing [and knowing Telltale, that probably was the more important factor] so they cut an episode and had to find a story they could tell in four, or cutting an episode meant they could improve things previous games were criticized for. I’d be more inclined to forgive it if that were the case. 

But if it was just a creative choice and they could’ve easily had five episodes, it’s one that prevented it from surpassing two games that I would consider the best they ever made: Tales from the Borderlands and Batman: Enemy Within.

However, I’m aware that adding one more episode could’ve caused the season to crash and burn. Fair enough. We’ll never actually know how things would’ve turned out had they stuck to the five episode structure the previous installments followed. It might’ve become bloated, or dragged into boring territories, or more characters would’ve been killed off to fulfill a kill count, or more choices would need to be implemented that would’ve only furthered the illusion of choice these games are often criticized about.

The pacing can feel really rushed in a lot of spots, especially with the final episode. And yes, I know the fast pace was intentional, I watched the commentaries. Just because it was intentional doesn’t magically fix anything, it’s still a problem I have with it. 

Lilly and the delta could’ve used more fleshing out. Most of the Ericson crew are underdeveloped. I would’ve liked to interact with Louis and Violet more before the Marlon confrontation, as well as more opportunities to interact with the others. 

Speaking of characters, as much as I would love to write these grand essays about each character and what worked, what didn’t, all that… I don’t have time. Some will get longer sections than others, and I’ll discuss any opinions that have changed, as well as things that stuck out to me as I was playing.

Normally I’d start Clementine and work my way down to the antagonists, but fuck it, let’s start with our antagonists and work our way up. 

Lilly, Abel, and the delta are terrible but in a good way

Fighting the raiders in this game feels like a final stand, y’know? These delta assholes want to kidnap people to fight in their war and they feel justified in this because they see those opposing them as worse. The delta aren’t the real baddies, they’re just trying to survive by any means necessary and they need people to fight, otherwise they’ll lose everything they worked for... but a lot of morals get muddied and downright tossed out in the process where these kids they’re taking, abusing, and traumatizing aren’t really people to them until they submit. 

Lilly can have Louis’ tongue cut out and not bat an eye because he isn’t a person to her, he’s a “recruit” who stepped out of line. They’re all “recruits,” but that gets complicated when she sees Clementine as a person. 

The raiders are a bunch of pieces of shit, no doubt, and they deserve what they got in the end for what they did, but I do like that you can look at them and say “I understand you want to protect your home and your people, that’s an honorable goal, one that mirrors our goal.... but this isn’t the way to do it, you’ve lost too much of your humanity and it will be your downfall.” 

Honestly, I think the Delta vs Ericson group dynamics and what they’re willing to do to survive is interesting to compare and contrast. 

Like the delta loses Abel in ep2 during the fight, and we get to interrogate him at the beginning of ep3. He tries to tell Clementine that Lilly’s on her way to get him but we all know that’s not true. The delta cut their losses. Despite needing people to fight in their war, they’re quick to kill, maim, or abandon and it has little effect on the group as a whole. They’ll just get more recruits, Abel is expendable, replaceable. Lilly’s upset when she hears what his ultimate fate was, but I wouldn’t say she’s distraught because she cared deeply about him as a person.

But then you have Ericson where losing two members, Marlon and Brody, rocks the entire foundation of the group. It causes rifts in relationships because they value each other a lot more as individuals. They’re younger, and the group is way smaller. Marlon’s betrayal left wounds, Brody’s death scared them, and the decision of what to do with Clementine and AJ wasn’t an easy one and they fought about it. When Aasim, Omar, and Louis/Violet get captured, the group doesn’t decide to cut their losses and more forward. That’s something Marlon would do. Instead, they risk so much to infiltrate the boat and save them. They’re not just three lost bodies, they’re people, friends. They plan to blow up the boat to kill the raiders so that they can’t harm anyone ever again. 

I like an antagonist who mirrors the protagonist. Lilly and Clementine, delta and Ericson, what are they trying to do? Protect their home and people against an enemy, to survive, to have food and water and a chance to live in a world where the dead roam. But their methods? Very different. They’re not on the same scale and again, the moral compasses are all over the place, and they treat their people differently. 

Both Clementine and Lilly are leaders who go to great lengths to protect their communities, they’ve both suffered a lot of trauma, their father figures play a big role in who they eventually become for better or worse. They both wandered alone until they found people and a home, a reason to keep going, and now they’re desperate to protect that because without it, they will have nothing left and that’s terrifying.

Plus, there’s the bonus of realizing Clementine could potentially become Lilly if she went down the wrong path. I mean, look at some of the shit she pulls in ANF. No one wants to hear that but there is it. What’s important is Clementine makes it clear that she’s not Lilly... and I hate to say it, but if Lilly lives, there is a possibility that she could change for the better, too, and I kinda like that. 

Not excusing the bullshit she pulled. The only reason she’s even alive is because she manipulated her way into murdering James before the boat exploded. It’s hard to believe a woman who forced Minerva to relive the trauma of being forced to murder her own twin sister just so that Lilly could make a point to Clementine, or as mentioned before, having Louis’ tongue cut out. Or murdering Mitch... kidnapping children in the name of survival, brainwashing.... just a lot of bad stuff- it’s hard to believe a woman who did all of that could ever possibly change. She certainly appears unredeemable. 

However, in the end she’s left with nothing but the weight of everything she did and knowing she did this to herself yet again. Might be the push she needs, and I’ve seen worse characters not waste their second chance. 

Or you can just have AJ shoot her and then she rots. After all, your choices do matter, yes? 

I know I’ve given Lilly as an antagonist shit in the past, complained about how they could’ve picked a better character to bring back, she sucks and I hate having to deal with her, blah blah blah...

but well actually Lilly is a great antagonist, ignore past CJ, past CJ doesn’t know anything and she’s dumb. 

In my opinion, Lilly was the best option for a character to make a return as an antagonist. Yeah, yeah, “what about Christa??” I hear you, but Christa wouldn’t be nearly as compelling and this whole cry for what happened to Christa is old and tired and I think we should just accept that we will never, ever know. 

Lilly is such a piece of shit, she’s so terrible, I hate her but I also really, really like her as the central antagonist. 

And look, I know so many people in this fandom don’t like nuance, they want a simple good or bad answer, especially with characters and other things they don’t like because it’s easier since “brain thinkies made hurt happen no like.” Which fair enough, I can totally relate, that’s an exact quote from me whenever someone tries to talk to me about Loghain from Dragon Age: Origins and I don’t have the emotional energy to deal with everything I know of him from the books that play into the game so I go sit in my sad corner and ignore everything.

but c’mon, look at Lilly and tell me she’s a poorly written, one-dimensional villain. You can’t! If you do, I will point my little finger at you and loudly declare, “I respectfully disagree.” 

She’s fucked up, she’s got her head up her own ass, she really wants to be in control as this intimidating, scary bitch who won’t hesitate to put a knife to your throat whenever she feels like it. She uses her power to manipulate and cause harm so that she never has to experience the helplessness she felt when she was alone and had nothing. She waltzes into Clementine’s cell with such threatening energy, but she’s also relaxed because she knows Clementine can’t do shit. And she’s impressed. She’s genuinely impressed at what Clementine almost accomplished. She sees that Clementine is the golden goose that made this entire trip and its losses worth it. Even if the delta lost everyone they captured but still had Clementine [and AJ] then it would still work in their favor. 

With Clementine, she hesitates. She shows little sprinkles of humanity and it throws her off kilter. Honestly, it almost feels like a performance in the cells, y’know? I’ve given Lilly shit for appearing sympathetic in ep2 only to turn around and be a nasty asshole in ep3 which I still do somewhat think, but this time around? Watching Lilly’s body language and the way she speaks does make me believe it’s all a part of some game she’s playing. Deep down, she’s still the scared little girl who wants to pretend she’s a tough bitch no one can hurt, and that’s the performance. And everyone buys it. It only cracks with Clementine. 

To me, that shows just how far gone she is. The others aren’t people, they’re “recruits.” They’re expendable despite the fact that the delta are supposedly at war and need people to fight. Lilly doesn’t want to see someone like Louis as a person because then she has to face the reality that she’s become a monster who believes cutting someone’s tongue out is necessary. She’s become the St. John’s who definitely didn’t see Mark as a person, and justified cannibalism with “all the dead do is eat people, it’s a waste! We were brought up not to waste, those folks were gonna die anyway, we do what is necessary to survive!” 

THAT is the kind of shit she’s going to have to face if you spare her and she’s alone again. 

It gets worse when she goes on about her father and it gives me this eerie feeling to hear the way she speaks knowing that Larry probably did more to traumatize her than just “he let our power get cut to teach me a lesson about turning the lights off, no more ice cream” like....... what the fuck bruh

I could honestly go on and on about Lilly as the main antagonist but I still have everyone else to cover, so I want to cover Abel next. 

Stinky man bad and that’s good

I think he’s another great character. The dude’s name is Abel and he smokes hand-rolled bible cigarettes. He survives losing an arm. He’s a fucking dumpster fire who spends most of his screen time getting the shit beat outta him. He’s a huge creep, and he looks like the kind of man who wouldn’t shower for a month but then drench himself in axe body spray as if that’s the same thing as bathing. 

But he’s a damn good character. I love that AJ is scared of him, that Abel is what AJ has nightmares about. It fleshes out AJ’s character while also establishing that Abel is scary. We meet him and you watch him approach Clementine and you just know this dude is a creep, you know he’s hiding something beneath the false chill he seems to have, and you know he won’t hesitate to hurt Clementine or AJ over some food. 

He also has no attachment to Clementine like Lilly does and he’s all “what the fuck is this??” when Lilly wastes time talking to her, trying to convince her to come peacefully. Abel is focused on the job and he’s got unfinished business with them if you pushed him out the window. Oh, speaking of which, the dude gets bit and survives because he either chopped off his own arm or he made it back in time for the raiders to do it... hate him all you want, but I’m impressed he survived. The dude’s like a cockroach- a scrawny, ugly little cockroach.

Also he has a magic shotgun that somehow misses Clementine but manages to hit AJ so that’s pretty cool. 

And the fight with him at the end of ep2 is soooo good. He gets his shit rocked and it’s great! Then the shot of him realizing he’s fucked as the Ericson crew surround him is *chef kiss*

His interrogation scene in ep3 where he breaks down, begging to not become a walker is my favorite from him. Like Lilly, he’s a piece of shit, but he’s at the point where he knows he’s going to die and everything hits him all at once. He talks about how it wasn’t supposed to end up like this and things got out of hand. The dude is broken, he knows he’s lost and all he wants is to be put out of his misery so that he doesn’t turn. 

He shows some humanity in the end and again, I know some of you don’t like it when antagonists do that, it’s so much easier when they’re one-dimensional and pure evil… but that humanity, that’s the beauty and horror of it! Abel’s an unredeemable piece of shit but he’s human and that’s scary. 

Minerva is not only a victim of the delta but of “uwu-ification” and it upsets me because she’s a fascinating, tragic character but the Minnie crowd are more interested in sexualizing/romanticizing her because they think she’s hot

....is the title of this section too blunt? Meh, I don’t really care.

Look, If you like Minerva, great. So do I. Even if you like the uwu-ification of her but aren’t pushy or obnoxious about it, then fine. I’m not criticizing you, I’m criticizing the “Minnie crowd” who are usually found mostly on instagram, but also on reddit, sometimes they pop up on here, and there are a few on wattpad and AO3. Or in my inbox under anon... I’ve gotten my fair share of Minnie crowd anons that were rather unpleasant.

I wrote an entire post about her and why I keep cringing at the Minnie crowd who seem to either toss away her trauma [and let’s be real, her character as a whole] because they feel it gets in the way of their fanon or they romanticize it because heeeeyyyy wouldn’t it hot if she and Clementine fought and then made out? Wouldn’t it be hot if she tried to kill Clementine and Violet?? CJ, you just don’t get it! Man, it’s soooo hot that Minnie’s tortured and sad and fucked up and feral and traumatized, like she killed her twin sister, let’s give her a new girlfriend to fix her trauma or turn her into a caricature to add some questionable drama to violentine~

Hm? What’s that about “a chip on my shoulder?” His name is Tim and he hates this shit, too, what of it?

Listen, I will never not have a bone to pick with the uwu-ification of Minerva, okay? I fully admit it. I think it’s an insult to the well-written character we were given and it only happened because she didn’t meet the flowery expectations of thirsty fans.

It personally annoys me that over time fans stopped caring about Minerva as she’s portrayed in the game in favor of turning her into a caricature who’s main character traits are that she likes girls and she’s mean. She is an excellent, complex antagonist with one of the most memorable death scenes in all of TWDG. She’s a tragedy. 

She’s an example of what the delta does to its recruits and.... I don’t understand how you can say you love her as a character when you erase everything about her except her sexuality just so that you can ship her with someone she canonically hates and attempts to murder more than once, or force her back together with Violet which Vi doesn’t deserve that, I’m sorry, but she doesn’t!  

Actually it kinda reminds me of what some DA fans will do to Anders. Listen, I shamefully, bitterly admit to being a serial Anders romancer in DA2, okay?  And uwu-ification happens to him and it makes my brain mad!

I know uwu-ification happens to most characters to some degree within fandoms and it’s usually fairly harmless. I’ve heard every counter-argument and excuse you could possibly throw at me to justify it with Minerva. And look, I’ve definitely taken part in uwu-ification of characters in the past and I’m not proud to admit that, I’m trying to be better at appreciating characters for what they are while not being overtaken by fanon, y’know? So I get it, but at the same time this is an exception where it makes me physically uncomfortable due to the attitude of the Minnie crowd and I hate it.  

Minerva's a goddamn tragedy. She was traded away with her sister and the raiders broke her! They broke everything about her!

Y’all wanted her to do a 180 and turn on the delta for us and that was never going to happen! We knew that from the moment we finally met her! She’s too far gone, she’s only in two outta four episodes, there isn’t enough time to develop a redemption arc for her! She wasn’t ever going to have a change of heart! She’s not the Grinch, you can’t just say some pretty words and then her heart grows three sizes and suddenly a years worth of brainwashing and trauma are gone! She is a broken person now who would need years of professional therapy and god knows what else to recover! She considers the delta, the people who forced her to murder Sophie, her home now, her FAMILY! She is a tragedy we were never going to save! 

She’s surrounded by a shit ton of walkers, shooting and chopping away as she watches the raiders, the people she now calls family, fall one by one. She’s yelling at the walkers to get away from them, she doesn’t give a single shit about the Ericson crew, she doesn’t even wonder where Tenn is. 

Then a walker bites her and she keeps going! A fucking walker bites off part of her face! And she just fucking shoots it and touches the wound! This girl was so far gone from reality that she’s turning into the undead herself but instead of giving up, she wanders through the forest, singing Don’t Be Afraid, all because she wants to find Tenn so that she can murder him so they can be with their family again and y’all don’t care! Why don’t y’all care?? Erase it, none of that actually matters!! 

She’s such a great, complex character but hardly anyone gives a shit about her unless it’s in the context of her sexuality. It is so goddamn frustrating that I know only one person willing to have a discussion with me about her actual character instead of just going “no, you’re wrong!” and then refusing to elaborate on why I’m apparently such a piece of shit for thinking clemerva is toxic. 

I just- what else can I say that I haven’t already said? This playthrough made me appreciate her so much as a character and as a “final boss,” so to speak, and knowing in the end that she got what she wanted because I chose to trust AJ makes my skin crawl and I love it. What a good consequence to that choice, as tragic and unfair as it is, holy shit. I take back any shit I might’ve said about it being a shitty choice, I was wrong and dumb. 

God, what a tragic antagonist, she’s so good and I wish she had more actual appreciation. 

Dude, Marlon’s pretty great ngl

I have an entire character analysis I wrote for Marlon already, so I won’t spend too much time on him.

I believe Marlon holds up wonderfully as ep1′s secret antagonist. He’s a great character and the writers did a great job of establishing him as friendly but cautious when Clementine first meets him, then elaborates on how he handles his position as the group’s leader. He’s stressed, he’s holding a lot of guilt, fear, and shame for what happened to the twins, and now he’s brought two more mouths to feed into the group. We get an idea of his longtime friendship with Louis, how he butts heads with Aasim over the safe zone, and how he handles his frustration and anger… as in he usually doesn’t handle it well and opts for the “everything is fine” route when things are clearly not fine. 

And I know I’ve said this a million times… but the final confrontation with him at the end of ep1 is perfect. The rain, the thunder and lightning, the confusion, everyone rushing outside to find AJ pointing a gun at Marlon who is covered in Brody’s blood, so many emotions and accusations being thrown around, god it’s so good. 

Though there is one thing that has changed for me after doing the replay after all this time: I’m glad Marlon died in ep1. 

I know that sounds terrible coming from someone who used to always go off about, “Man, Marlon should’ve been determinant! AU where AJ shoots him non-fatally and he survives the season! He gets kicked out of the school and picked up by the raiders and has a redemption arc!”

Not so much now. I think Marlon’s role as it is in ep1 is perfect. The only things I would change would be a bit more information on his friendship with Louis and the other characters commenting their feelings about his leadership. But other than that? They nailed it. 

This season didn’t need a Marlon redemption arc. Sure, it would’ve been nice, and I would’ve liked more Marlon just for Ray Chase’s performance alone. However, this season isn’t equipped for something like that which would need time and great care to do well. Three episodes wouldn’t be enough, and it wouldn’t be important enough for the overall plot that it’s entirely possible it would’ve ruined an already great character, or taken away from the other great elements of the story and its characters. 

Just like Minerva, Marlon was never going to get redeemed. He wasn’t built for that. 

His death is great, though. He, Brody, and Minerva have the best executed deaths this season for sure. It’s built up well considering it’s the confrontation in the rain that ends with a confession, only for AJ to shoot him in the back of the head and kickstart a huge conflict within the story. 

Marlon’s a great character, he serves his purpose well and once again, I found myself truly appreciating him for what he is rather than being butthurt that he didn’t get a redemption arc that wouldn’t’ve worked anyway. 

James is so damn interesting, where is his spin off story? Oh wait, Skybound nO, IGNORE THAT-

Dude, I fucking love James. 

This guy is fascinating as hell and if I had any faith in Skybound producing good content related to TWDG, I would ask for a spinoff story about James.... but they made the Clementine comic instead and so I’m politely asking them to keep their stinky, greasy fingers off of him instead. 

God, where do I even begin with James? How about the fact that this dude is an ex-whisperer who wanders around wearing walker skin so he can blend in with herds? He keeps a barn full of walkers as a means of “protecting” them from harm? because he’s so alone with his own thoughts and memories of who he used to be that it warped his perception of the walkers? to where he now views them as “something in between” and he believes being a walker sounds peaceful? and when you consider that walkers don’t think, they don’t remember, they just wander and eat and exist? that’s something that would sound appealing to someone so lonely and full of shame? 

Like… James is so sad. I feel bad for him. Even if I don’t agree with this idea that walkers have something human in them, more so because I hope they don’t, I still respect his wishes to not kill the walkers when he asks. I’m willing to listen to him explain how he thinks, and I try to respond as politely as I can while also keeping my Clementine’s attitude in mind. 

And he’s STILL sad in the end no matter what his fate ends up being. Either he’s stabbed in the back by Lilly and left to become a walker, or he witnesses a child kill Lilly and it breaks a piece inside of him where he loses it and tries to separate AJ and Clementine. 

Which can I just say that while I understand not liking James because he’s a hypocrite if he makes it to the cave scene, I can’t agree that it’s poor writing. 

Yes, you’re right, James IS a hypocrite and that’s the point! 

It makes sense with his character! He’s pulling the “I will make peace with violence” card and it’s irrational, it’s bullshit. It’s a huge breaking point for him. This whole time he’s been on about wanting peace, that walkers are something in between and that’s why he protects them, why he feels conflicted about giving his aid to Clementine to save her friends. It’s like he’s so worried and afraid that he’s going to revert back to who he was, or that others are going to become like he was that he’s overcompensating. It’s bad enough that it blinds him to the danger Lilly still possesses even if she’s down with a gun pointed at her. It’s as AJ says, James didn’t see what she did, he has little context for who she is, and he’s more concerned that AJ is the one with the gun. Though, I would argue that he’d still try to stop you if it was Clementine holding the gun, but either way. 

In the end, he’s either killed as your friend, or you’re forced to confront him as a friend turned antagonist and try to convince him that his argument isn’t as cut and clear as he wants it to be. 

I find him compelling and I love what they were able to do with him in such a short amount of time. 

Also, in my playthrough, I spared Lilly so James died and came back as a walker and I can’t look at him like that without remembering the nightmare that was half the fandom talking about how hot walker James is and how they’d let him eat them........ that happened and I wish I could pretend it didn’t hhnnngggg-

Rosie is best girl

Telltale giving us an animal companion and NOT killing her off for dramatic effect? Nawwww but it worked soooo well in MCSM with Rueben!

Oh wait, no it didn’t, Rueben’s death was hilariously bad. Whoops. 

I want to kick off getting into the Ericson crew by informing everyone that Rosie is best girl and I am forever thankful she survived to the end of the season. I love that they brought back Clementine’s trauma with dogs from S2 and allowed her to warm up to Rosie at her own pace. 

I like to think of Rosie as an apology to us from Telltale for what they did with Sam in S2... y’know, forcing us to deal with a smaller Clementine getting attacked by a dog and forcing her to either kill him or leave him to suffer.

Instead of that, we have Rosie who mostly chills out around Ericson, fights off walkers, bites the shit outta Abel, and goes on a fishing trip with AJ at the end. 

What else can I say? She’s a lovely addition, thank you.

Omar exists

Omar is a character who exists in TFS and really, that’s about it. 

I mean, sure, he’s the group cook and he gets shot and kidnapped, and he survives to the end, which good for him.

Yeeeeeeah so I don’t feel strongly about Omar one way or the other. The most entertaining thing about him is knowing his history as The Chef God Omar and how Telltale got in on the joke by actually thanking Omar in the credits alongside Clementine’s eyebrows. That’s a lot of fun. 

I do have my own backstory for him that I wrote forever ago but just Omar in-game? Meh. He’s there. He does some stuff. He survives. That’s about it.

Unfortunately Willy is a character I don’t feel that strongly about

I feel bad for not liking Willy as much as I used to while doing this replay. Really, he only becomes interesting in ep3 when we get development with him coming to terms with Mitch’s death. 

I don’t have any real complaints about Willy, other than maybe the chronic masturbation joke which was pretty cringe. Though the game still got a chuckle outta me for Clementine pointing at Louis like “Don’t you dare” when AJ asks what that is, only for Tenn to lean over and tell him anyway.

I like how Willy’s reaction to Mitch’s death was handled even if their relationship was severely underdeveloped. They’re both side characters so I give it a small pass, especially with showing Willy mourn and lash out at Tenn. I do appreciate how Willy came to the conclusion that it wasn’t Tenn’s fault and that he shouldn’t have shoved Tenn down, and he knows he should apologize. It’s good to see younger characters admit when they’re wrong, be sincere in their apologies and move forward in a better way. I also like that he takes over as the Ericson crew’s bomb maker, following Mitch’s notes and doing research in books, all that. 

Y’know, I would split the Ericson crew into two categories, with the first being the more fleshed out, essential characters who fill an important role, such as Louis and Violet. You can’t remove one of them without removing a huge part of the story. 

The second is the category Willy falls into, which is characters who are given a bare minimum of development but don’t carry as much significance, they’re there to fill a seat at the table during the happy ending. If you wanted to, you could switch characters around, or remove them, and not much would change about the plot. Willy could’ve died and Mitch lived, and things would’ve played out the same just with Mitch mourning Willy’s death then making a bomb to blow up the boat. 

Willy’s fine, he’s likable enough. That’s all I got. 

Mitch is.....not great uh oh what the fuck

.........................no seriously what the fuck?

Yeah, so Mitch isn’t a great character, and as I type that I can feel myself taking a sledgehammer to a huge chunk of the foundation holding this blog up. 

Aside from Louis and Clementine, y’know who was a big player in my blog content? Mitch! 

Y’know what other ship along side clouis had a big impact on my blog? Jamitch! 

Now I’m sitting here with a lot of questions.

He’s not a bad character, that’s not what I mean when I say he’s not great. No, he’s a fine character who fulfils his role in the game. He can be a dick, he’s the one who calls the vote to get Clementine and AJ kicked out, but he can also be quite funny at times. There is a moment of softness with him that you only get when you choose to burn Ms. Martin. It’s interesting that he knows how to make bombs... but then he dies so that we can have a kill count and it’s like.... huh. I remember being a lot more pissed about that.

His death is still dumb, don’t get me wrong. Running at Lilly like that was a stupid thing to do and it lead to a gruesome, painful death for him. 

But someone had to die and Omar wouldn’t’ve impacted anyone soooo.... Mitch got some development so that we’d feel bad seeing him get killed, a true The Walking Dead death. 

One thing that’s apparent to me now that I’m revisiting this after so long is how bloated my head was with canon, fanon, headcanon, “I don’t like this so it’s bad and it should’ve been this instead,” fixating on things outside of the game rather than it in, building off of each other and creating au’s....

It’s me taking off those rose tinted glasses to look at a game with characters I adore and knowing I only thought some of them were so great was because I projected my ideal version onto them. I have fics written about Mitch that explore his character because I liked him, he died, and I was like, “I don’t like that, I can fix it, I can fix everything I don’t like and then it will be better,” so I did. 

But now I look at Mitch and he’s in the same category as Willy, but he’s also just another tally on the death quota. He’s not a favorite anymore and that’s kind of a bitter thing for me to swallow. 

I will say, I’m still curious about the idea of jamitch as far as “what would these characters say to each other if they met?” but would I say it’s a big ship for me now...? Not really, and not just because they’re two characters who never canonically meet or because I no longer think them meeting would be interesting.... it’s just, I’m no longer attached to Mitch so any ships with him hold little appeal to me. It’s actually bizarre to go back and read my jamitch stuff because it doesn’t even feel like it came from me. I don’t think I ship it anymore.

Oh look, my foundation is crumbling, aaaaaaaahh-!

I like Mitch, he’s a jackass, he didn’t deserve to die, but he’s definitely not a favorite anymore and it gives me a lot of mixed feelings that I don’t quite know where to put yet.

Brody is… okay

So… it’s probably not a great sign when my favorite Brody scene is when she turns into a walker and hunts Clementine in the basement, huh? 

Here’s the problem with Brody… you only get more character development with her if you go fishing in ep1, which I never do. Because of this, my interactions of her consist of her introducing herself, then the next day she panics and calls me stupid for pushing Abel out the window… then she tells me the truth about the twins and Marlon kills her…. So I can’t say I’m invested in her character until we get down in the basement, and by then it’s too late. She’s another character who exists in this story to give crucial information before dying.  

But damn, fighting off walker Brody is one of the best parts of the game. The atmosphere, the guttural groaning, the thunder, moving through the dark with only a flashlight as a defense, wonderfully executed scene. 

Other than that, though… I can’t say she really compelled me. I even watched Violet’s full romance on youtube for her section, and it obviously included everything for when you go fishing and yeah, Brody’s nice and she does have a great purpose in the episode. You get a sense of loneliness from her but this scene isn’t really about her… well, it is but the main focus is on Violet and us interacting with her to help repair the relationship with Brody more so than the scene being about Brody herself. 

And yes, her being the only other person to know about the twins and keeping the secret with Marlon is interesting. You can tell she’s reaching a boiling point that Marlon’s trying to keep a lid over but the steam's rising, water’s boiling over, and Brody confesses everything to Clementine… then Marlon kills her and tries to pin it on Clementine. 

I do think there’s a discussion to be had about why Brody didn’t come clean before and what that says about her character. I just wish the game wanted to have that discussion a little more before she died. 

She completely points the finger at Marlon whereas he claims they’re in everything together. So, is Marlon lying or is Brody unwilling to accept she’s just as responsible for not stepping in or coming clean earlier? Did Brody keep everything a secret because she was scared of Marlon or was it to save her own ass? Perhaps some of both? I dunno, and I’ll never know because she died.

Oh, also... this is probably the point where I should mention my history as a briolet shipper.

I don’t think it’s a good ship anymore. 

You can’t hear it, but I’m laughing... I’m laughing because aside from clouis, all of my other ships are just crumbling and I can’t save them. 

Looking back I’m pretty sure I only shipped it because I felt pressure to give Violet a girlfriend after all the shit people gave me. Sure, I genuinely liked it at the time but let’s be real, it’s another case of slapping two pretty girls together and saying, “look, girlfriends” because we’re dumb and easy and like to pretend as if that’s enough... which I don’t believe it is. I hate when people do that and here I am... just slap a walker mask on my head and call me James because whoops, I did the thing I hate! I am shame! I’m trying not to do that anymore!

But yeah, Brody’s fine, she served the story fine, and her walker scene is bitchin’. 

TWDG where everything is the same but Aasim wears a shirt that says “wasted potential”

I’m actually kinda mad about Aasim. 

No, really, I’m mad. I still look at this dude in ep1 and say, “wow they really set you up as important and then did nothing with you, huh?” 

Because yeah, why have a character who pointedly challenges Marlon,  who you can choose to spend time with, who stood in between extremes when it came to the vote,  why set up an interesting character with pay off when you can just NOT do that? 

Why pay off his conflict with Marlon by having him act as leader, effectively leaving both Louis and Violet out of the leadership position to bring in more balance? I’m sorry, I know the Violet crowd hates me for saying Aasim should’ve been leader instead of her but I truly believe he was the better option.

I don’t like the direction of putting her in a leadership position because I believe that should’ve gone to a neutral party between her and Louis..... y’know, Aasim.  I understand a lot of people look at that as part of Violet’s arc of a not liking people to suddenly being in charge of a group, and fair enough, it should make sense but I look at the way she's written and I can’t help but think she’s not a good leader, I’m sorry. 

She doesn’t have the skillset and she doesn’t gain the skillset over time. Yelling and belittling people, not trying to level with them or see things through their eyes, not taking the entire group into consideration when having Tenn bring Clementine and AJ to the funeral, it’s not good and it unbalances things. 

Aside from Clementine, no one wants to talk to her when there’s an issue. It’s actually one of the funniest moments in ep2 when Aasim and Willy are arguing, Violet yells at them “guys, what the fuck!?” and instead of telling her the problem, they immediately turn to fucking Louis who is just standing there like “I don’t... you don’t have to scream at each other? stop looking at me, I’m not in charge??” They should feel comfortable talking to their leader but they don’t and that’s a problem! And it doesn’t even get better in ep3 because Clementine pretty much takes charge from that point no matter what! So?? What are we doin’ here??

“Oh but Aasim would be a bad leader because he got mad at Willy! He doesn’t have the skillset!” 

Character assassination might be too big of a term for this case... but I’d call this character abandonment, as in they set Aasim up for this position and then didn’t follow through with it so he’s left behind in a puddle of mud to sink slowly. 

In ep1, Aasim does show some leadership qualities in the way he puts the group first and develops back up plans. He challenges Marlon about the safe zone, he’s not unkind to anyone other than Louis, but you get the sense that that’s just their dynamic and it’s nothing malicious. Aasim’s responsible and he clearly cares about the group’s future. The dude keeps a journal to document everything so that they don’t repeat their mistakes. 

When it comes to Clementine and AJ, he isn’t blinded by his feelings of either “AJ murdered Marlon! He’s dangerous!” or “Marlon sucked anyway, it’s fine, I want them to stay.” 

He votes for them to stay because he knows Clementine and AJ are capable survivors and them staying increases their odds of surviving what’s to come, but he doesn’t just brush what happened under the rug or pretend it’s all fine and dandy. 

Don’t you dare tell me no one else stepped up when you made it clear Aasim was willing to stand up in ep1. His character made the most sense! Plus, he always ends up getting taken away by the raiders. If he were the leader, then that’s another blow to the Ericson crew- they’re without a leader once again, and now it’s Clementine’s turn to step up. 

But noooooo, instead we get “Oh uh.... I guess he has a crush on Ruby now... and he’s mean to Willy.... that’s about it. Oh and there he goes, getting kidnapped byeeee Aasiiiiiim~”

Nonsense, I say!

I like Aasim, he had a great start and no pay off. He and Brody were characters partnered up with Louis and Violet, suggesting they’re both important. Brody’s character had a pay off, and Aasim’s didn’t.... unless you count him getting together with Ruby as pay off but rusim is a bland ship. 

Yeah, I said it, rusim has very little going for it and I don’t know why any of us shipped it. I mean, they don’t talk to each other. We never get an actual conversation between them. They don’t flirt. They don’t have chemistry. He gets dared to give her a kiss and she punches him. She never shows any affection toward him and his affection toward her comes outta no where because they didn’t know what else to do with him and I think that’s a waste! 

The writers just pointed at them and said, “they’re holding hands,” and the fandom went “ohmuhgawd they’re holding hands!” because we’re easy and dumb and predictable!

They could’ve had chemistry if the game didn’t wait until the last five minutes to show them holding hands and feeding each other. Sure, it’s cute that they hold hands [though the feeding each other thing is weird] but any npcs could hold hands? Ruby could’ve held hands with Omar and I still would’ve gone “oh that’s cute.” 

Hell, now that I say that, Ruby and Omar getting together would’ve at least been funny after they set up Aasim liking her.... well, okay not funny for Aasim, but I would’ve laughed and I’m more important, buddy. 

Aasim is yet another case of this season almost having it but falling short. Should’ve had him replace Marlon, both Louis and Violet would’ve benefited from it. 

Ruby is great, I reeeeeeally like Ruby

I’ve always liked Ruby but I feel like this time around I truly appreciated her. 

She’s a character who teeters between the two categories I’ve talked about. She’s one of the more fleshed out characters in the Ericson crew, but she’s not quite on the same level as Louis and Violet, y’know? We see her consistently throughout the season, we learn more about her each episode, and she lives to the end to fill a seat at the table… where she spoon feeds Aasim and I quietly judge them for it. 

Ruby has one of the best introductions, too. She literally stomps up to us like, “‘Bout time you woke up! yer little boy bit me! >:[ shoulda took a boot to his head!” and then she stomps away! It’s so good! Plus, AJ’s apology scene with her is sweet. 

Ruby’s a charming character with a lot going for her. She’s established as the groups nurse, she learned to patch people up from Ms. Martin and that scene where the two are “reunited” in the greenhouse is heartbreaking. Ruby was a little girl with anger issues and you feel her grief when she looks at Ms. Martin’s decayed and overgrown corpse and says, “I just wish I could make her look like she did.” 

It’s a great character moment to show us how deeply Ruby feels things, y’know? She doesn’t try to hide her feelings, she wears her heart on her sleeve and there’s no shame in that. 

She throws a party [”hootenanny”] in ep3 when we’re at our lowest point. She wants everyone together the night before a dangerous rescue mission so no one has to be alone and scared. Hell, she even tries setting up some games so they can laugh and forget reality for a little bit... only for it to bite her in the butt when she brings out the student records and the reality of how many students have died since the start sinks in, then Louis/Violet share their backstories and Ruby is just like “....I guess I’m not a game person, I’m sorry” like she’s so damn sweet, I can’t. 

I loved having Ruby around, what a great character. 

Weirdly, I don’t have that much to say about Tenn but I feel like I should since he’s one of the more important characters in TFS

I think Tenn’s a sweet kid albeit naïve and somewhat of a screw up, but I don’t think those flaws are “bad,” y’know? 

Lots of people put Tenn in the same category as Ben, Nick, Sarah, and Gabe and act like the flaws these characters carry are poorly written or straight up bad just because they don’t like that character. 

The character gets in the way and messes things up for the group, therefore they’re a bad character, all that. I disagree with that logic. A character can be a well-written screw up. I believe Tenn is the more well-written “screw up” of the bunch since he has a lot more time devoted to him and you never get the sense that the writers dislike him and just want to kill him off quickly. 

His potential death was well-thought out and makes sense for his character- Minerva’s beckoning him to come to her so they can “go to the place where everyone gets to be a person again,” like he knows she wants to kill him and he hesitates before AJ tackles him to the ground. He refuses to cross the bridge because goes back for Minerva and fights against Louis or Violet.

And yeah, people still give him shit because it’s easy to look at this and call him stupid rather than looking at the inner turmoil he’s going through in that moment. He’s witnessing his sister- who he thought was dead-  being eaten alive by walkers and he wants to save her even if she’s unsavable at that point. There is no logical thought, he’s not listening to Louis or Violet, Tenn has tunnel vision where his sister is at the end... but so is death and we don’t know if Tenn’s actually aware of that or not. 

Everything happens so fast, and a quick decision from AJ seals Tenn’s fate, as well as the fate of Louis/Violet. Someone has to die on the bridge, otherwise you’re going to lose both of them and it’s not fair, it’s bullshit... and it’s great as far as a scene and consequences of your choices go. 

For me, Tenn always dies on the bridge. Not only because I’m a selfish hoe who refuses to let Louis die, though I will admit that’s a pretty big part of it... but for me, it makes more sense for Tenn to die on the bridge rather than Louis or Violet. I hate giving Minerva what she wants, but my Clementine would trust AJ and that’s what leads to that decision... and it’s brutal. 

Tenn left a big impact on AJ, he was his first real friend and believe me, I see the appeal of the ending where Tenn survives at the cost of Louis or Violet’s life even if it’s not for me. 

Tenn’s idea that one day the walkers will be gone is a fun one, if not bittersweet. Sweet because it’s refreshing to meet a character who has an idealistic hope for the future, but bitter because that future may never happen, and if it does, it won’t be anytime soon. 

He’s a neat character to have thrown into the cast, as well as a tragic addition to the kill count. 

Violet and I have a long history together

Ruh roh, Shaggy, we’ve reached Violet’s section. I’m sure some of you scrolled right over everything else to get here and since you’re in such a hurry, allow me to not waste your time: 

In my opinion, Violet’s okay. For me, she’s at her best in ep1, but after that she loses me. I can’t even say I like her anymore because her character falls flat, especially in Louis’ route. But her route doesn’t hold up any better. I can’t help but compare her romance with other wlw romances in games I’ve played and they beat her out by an alarming amount... well, with the exception of Chloe and Rachel from LiS. Those two are some of the shittiest love interests I’ve ever come across and Violet is leaps better than them. So... a point to her, I guess. 

I don’t see the appeal of her as a love interest and it never feels like her scenes are hers. They feel more like things the writers jotted down and said, “hey that’s cute” but they don’t tie into her character well and I think that’s a waste. In fact, give Violet a “wasted potential” t-shirt, too, she and Aasim can be twins.  

There it is, take it and run. For the rest of you, allow me to go more into detail. 

And just as a note: when I refer to the “Violet crowd,” I’m not talking about ALL Violet fans. Like with the Minnie crowd, I’m talking about certain fans that irritate me. They’re the ones with an agenda to convince people Violet’s the only valid character/love interest/route in TFS while ignoring or romanticizing her flaws/mistakes in an unhealthy way but try to convince you they’re ideal. They’re incredibly hostile to everyone who disagrees with them. They’re the ones who have blown up my inbox for years. 

Violet and I have a long history together that goes- “Oh yeah, I love Violet, I just prefer to romance Louis!” to “I like Violet, she’s a good character but she has a lot of flaws, I wish I liked her romance as much as you guys do but I get it,” to “yeah, she’s fine, I like her...” to now where I’m like, “......yeah she’s not great, I don’t really like her.” 

I’m aware that my dislike of her has a lot more to do with the Violet crowd than Violet herself. Y’know, all the anons calling me names and telling me to delete my blog, the one time my discord server was spied on, and vague posts that would cause people to send me like “hey, I think this is about you :/” asks because of who it was and how the timing added up too well. Of course I’m going to associate Violet with that shit and that’s going to affect my overall opinion of her. 

I tried, okay? It’s not like I looked at the surface, decided I didn’t like her, and then actively chose to be an ass. I genuinely tried to see her the way Violet fans do but I believe this is just a matter of liking different things, y’know? 

It’s been a year, I went into this replay wanting to like Violet so much. I wanted to write this post like, “I finally get it, y’all! I love Violet and I love violentine! Hooray!” and then there would be peace, we’d all hold hands and sing together until dawn! ...but no, that didn’t happen, I’m sorry. 

I’ve been away from the shitty side of the Violet crowd, I don’t have pressure on me to be overly nice just to keep the peace in a thriving fandom or fear that my followers are gonna be upset that my opinions have changed or the worry that I’m gonna get Violet anons yelling at me to just admit I hate her and fuck off as if it’s important to them that I say it.

Which now that I think about it, y’all really did the self-fulfilling prophecy thing, didn’t you? Thanks for that, here’s a gold star for your effort⭐I’m sure it was worth it. 

And y’know, it doesn’t make any goddamn sense. In theory, I SHOULD like Violet. I should be more into her romance route but I don’t feel the chemistry and Violet’s character is another case of this game almost having it but not quite. 

And in the name of being fair, I even rewatched her full romance with Clementine on youtube [sorry, I didn’t want to sit down and do another 10 hour playthrough okay I had no time] because in Louis’ route I’m obviously not going to spend as much time with her. You miss a lot of information which results in her character feeling unfinished. 

But before I talk about her romance route, let’s talk a little about Violet’s cell scene in Louis’ route since my opinion has shifted on that: I don’t hate it for what it is because it does it’s job. 

Violet loathes you after you let her get taken. She hates and blames you for everything, then she attacks you so that you don’t fuck up again. Because her trust in you is completely broken, the consequence is she stays on the boat with Minerva only to be blinded in the explosion after Minerva ditches her. Her end card even straight up tells you she hates you. 

No, I still don’t believe she was brainwashed/tortured on the boat, I still think certain devs are full of it for that. If you wanna interpret the scene that way then you’re welcome to, just don’t get pissy when I don’t.

I feel like I shouldn’t need anyone who worked on TFS to tell me crucial information outside of the game rather than showing it in game. There are signs of manipulation from Minerva, and Violet’s clearly pissed off and in a vulnerable state after being captured. She’s been told that if anyone steps outta line, they’ll kill someone she cares about, so she complies. She’s bitter, she’s hurting, she feels hopeless and betrayed and Clementine is there to take the brunt of those feelings. 

If the intention of this scene was to show us she was brainwashed and tortured just as bad as Louis [because remember, the Violet crowd will insist this is the only valid interpretation] then why didn’t it? 

Why is she behaving like she’s just pissed off? Why aren’t Aasim and Omar as scared as they are when Louis’ gets his tongue cut out? Why doesn’t her end card say she was traumatized after her time with the raiders like Louis’ end card? Why does her end card say she despises Clementine? Why are you allowed to tell her off when you’re not allowed to tell Louis off in his cell scene? If Violet isn’t just mad then why isn’t that reflected in how Clementine treats her versus how she treats Louis in his scene? Why did you also need to blind her in ep4 if her torture was just as bad if not worse than Louis losing his tongue? Doesn’t trauma dumping onto Violet throw off the balance of things? Why aren’t you making it clear what happened like you did with Louis? 

You didn’t need to clear up what happened to Louis outside of the game so why do you have to do it for Violet? 

Oh wait, you did make it clear- she pissed at you, no longer trusts you, and she stays on the boat as a result of that.

The end consequence of not saving Louis is he loses his tongue, and not saving Violet results in her being blinded. Violet’s consequence just happens to come later, and because of that fans got pissed that Louis was maimed but Violet was “fine.” And instead of just saying, “There’s one episode left, wait and see,” certain developers got defensive and tried to appease players. 

If you look at the scene the way it was written, it’s good. If you look at it the way certain developers told you to, it’s poorly done. And you can argue with me all you want, this is one of those things that you’re never going to change my mind about. We can agree to disagree. 

Moving away from that, let’s talk about her romance route. 

I give credit to Violet in ep1. I genuinely like her. It does a great job of establishing her character and hinting that she’s a potential love interest. 

I still stand by Violet being full of shit that she didn’t know Clementine and AJ were staying in the twins room and used Sophie’s pencil box as an excuse to check on them after things ended awkwardly in the card game. I like that, it shows that she’s not really opposed to us being there even if having someone in the twins’ old room brings back painful memories. 

You can tell she hasn’t had anyone else to really talk to since the twins died as she ends up saying a lot more than you’d expect. This is a rare moment where I do feel some chemistry between her and Clementine as they’re sitting on the beds facing each other, especially when you have Clementine admit that she’s not great with first impressions or people in general, too.

I’ll even give Violet a pass for being a jerk to Brody. Yeah, it’s poor behavior. It makes things awkward when Brody is just trying to be friendly with Clementine only to have Violet throw in an unnecessary, sarcastic quip, but it’s the first episode. It’s good to establish flaws so we get to see growth. You understand why there’s tension, and Violet making things weird fits in with her whole “I’m not exactly a people person” thing.

Oh, and when you appeal to her against Marlon, he tries to manipulate her with his bullshit, “they were my friends, too!” and while I heavily disagree with bringing a weapon into the mess as that just escalates things, it makes sense with her character and acts as juxtaposition with Louis deescalating things by stepping forward without a weapon.  

So yeah, I actually really like ep1 Violet.... but then the rest of the season happens.

First of all, I love Minerva as a character but god does she hold Violet back. It’s always one step forward, two steps back with Violet and her deal with Minerva. The mentions of her ep1 were fine, but then it just makes me roll my eyes when I realize what they’re doing here. 

And to be fair, I think I’m just sick of the whole “queer girl love interest has an ex-girlfriend who causes trouble and gets in between the couple we’re supposed to root for” plot point in games and books that when I see it, I make a disgusted noise so strong that even Cassandra Pentaghast herself would be impressed. 

My grievances about that aside, I don’t care much for the star gazing. As a concept, it’s sweet but it never feels like Violet’s scene. I get that the bell tower represents the isolation Violet has from the rest of the group, and we’re supposed to feel special that she’d bring us there... but the mini-game fucks with the pacing and the scene feels disconnected from Violet. Hard to explain, but lemme try. 

I made this post about how I think Violet should’ve been into basketball and how a better alternative to the bell tower scene would be her and Clementine shooting hoops together, how an activity Violet’s interested in [and I mean genuinely interested in, she doesn’t actually know anything about stars despite what the Violet crowd claims and that’s why they make up their own constellations] would’ve benefitted her. The writers never seem interested in telling you anything Violet likes, it’s always things she doesn’t like or the things she sad about so it’s hard to get to know her. 

That’s the problem, I think. I feel like I never got to actually know Violet as a person during her romance and that’s a problem. I know her backstory, I know she’s conflicted about Minerva, that she’s not a people person, I know she cares about Clementine... but what does Violet like? And I swear on Andraste’s flaming knickers, if you say “chicken nuggies lmao” I’m gonna be very disappointed in you-

Ahem, I mean, what does Violet want? What aspirations does Violet have for the future? What did she want prior to the apocalypse? Why doesn’t she have anything to call her own the same way Louis has music? 

It’s like they focused too much on her deal with Minerva that they forgot to make her more than just a romance... if that makes sense? She doesn’t hold up on her own and I believe that’s a waste. Louis stands on his own as an interesting character outside of Clementine and Violet should as well. 

The walk back to Ericson starts strong with her admitting she was stupid about Minerva and how she tried not to care about Clementine. That felt like a good character moment... but her wanting to rename the school is meh. 

Again y’all, this close to an overall great scene but then it nose dives. She says Ericson never felt like home, she couldn’t picture it as a home, because of the name and then just decides they should rename it and it’s lame. I’m sorry, it’s LAME! Hate to break it to you, Vi, but the name isn’t the problem. You didn’t want to leave because of the name, you don’t want to stay because of a new name.

I like her freak out on AJ after he shoots Tenn, because yeah Violet it turns out excusing murder baby’s actions isn’t so easy when he kills someone you actually care about huh? But, her final talk with AJ at the end isn’t as impactful as it could’ve been, especially when compared to Louis’.

Speaking of which, love that double standard of “Louis is a shitbird for being mad at AJ for killing Marlon and taking two weeks to apologize, he put them in danger, Clementine would never date him!” and “oh my god let Violet be mad at AJ! He killed Tenn and she’s really sad about it okay! She doesn’t have to forgive him after only a few weeks, stop invalidating her feelings, THIS is how Louis should’ve handled things!” yeah because they’re the exact same character in the same exact situation therefore they should react and handle things the exact same, mmhmmm, you’re not full of shit or anything, go off.  

Huh? Wha- yes, I know Tim’s on my shoulder and he thinks it’s dumb too, hush-

Violet’s fine, she just isn’t for me and I don’t think that’s ever going to change no matter how much time passes. I wish I liked her more. 

Louis is the best non-playable character TWDG has given us, it actually makes me emotional

Look, this post is long. I still have Clementine and AJ to cover and a final thoughts section to write and I don’t have time to give you the in-depth analysis of Louis that you deserve, but I can give you a more tame version while linking some to other posts I have. 

Here’s a post diving into his actions in ep2 and why everyone hating him for voting Clementine out is really dumb, and a post ranting about how heartbroken he would be if the Clem comic were actually canon, and this T5F I did of my top 5 favorite Louis moments, and honestly just scroll through the Louis tag on my blog, there is so much that I can’t link without bloating up this entire post. I just... I don’t have time to give you everything and I don’t want to be more repetitive than I already am. 

Louis is my favorite character in TWDG across all games. I fucking love him. I was reeeeally worried that I would replay TFS and not be as invested in his character or route but oh my god, his story holds up so fucking good. I’m struggling to put it into words. Even today, Louis remains one of my favorite characters across all the games I’ve played and his romance with Clementine? I die, don’t bother burying me, just toss me into the ocean to be fish food, I cannot handle it-

If I were to make a tier list of all of my favorite male romances from games that I’ve played, he would still be in S-tier with my other absolute favorite male romance, Alistair from DAO. And given that I haven’t been around for about a year, this is a TWDG blog, and I haven’t been comfortable enough to begin gushing on my dragon age blog yet, you don’t know- you don’t have ANY idea how strongly I feel about Alistair fuckin’ Theirin, okay? You have no idea, and if I told you, you’d think I were a crazy person! Which fair enough, I may be BUT that’s not what we’re here to discuss! My point is, my S-tier has two slots and in those slots are Alistair and Louis, THAT is how well Louis holds up. 

Louis’ back must ache after carrying this season because without him, TFS would’ve been significantly worse... okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. In reality, Clementine and AJ’s backs must also hurt because the three of them carried this season. 

I’m excited, can you tell I’m getting excited? I fucking adore Louis. 

I just- where do I even- I want to talk about everything but I can’t. From his introduction to his backstory to his romance route, I have few complaints. As a character he grows so much in a way that feels like natural progression and not once does anyone have to actually say, “Wow Louis has changed so much” because no one has to, we actually get to experience it. 

Louis starts off as fun but unreliable, he doesn’t take most survival tactics seriously which annoys characters like Marlon and Aasim, he values living among surviving and knows that any day could be their last so might as well make the most of it, even if that causes him to neglect chores and responsibilities. He’d rather keep his head down and not deal with conflict, he places all of his trust in Marlon, doesn’t ever question his leadership, and let’s face it, he’s a little dramatic. 

But god, he breathes so much personality in every scene he’s in. Even if he’s just somewhere in the background, you feel it. He’s a kind person who doesn’t want to fight. Disagreements, sure, he’ll have those with Aasim or Clementine, but he doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He doesn’t want the life they’re surviving for to be wasted away and sees the value in enjoying it. He plays piano and music is so heavily weaved into his character and I love what that brings to his backstory and the romance scene in ep2. 

Everyone gives him shit and he just takes it, y’know? This dude has self-esteem issues and that is one of the beautiful things about his character, he grows into someone you can depend on, someone who will step forward for what’s right, risk his life to save another. He begins to see the value in his abilities and it’s an uphill struggle for him. 

Louis, one of the kindest people at Ericson, was sent to that school in the first place because he caused the divorce of his parents over music lessons. He was a spoiled rich kid who didn’t get what he wanted, he didn’t want to hear what his father had to say, and he was vindictive. He calls himself that, he calls himself a “vindictive fuckhead” with so much bitterness, so much disgust with himself.

For a YEAR, this little shit used his father’s wealth to make it look like he was having an affair and made sure his mom saw everything. Then when they had a big fight, he played right into it. When the divorce was final, he fucking told them everything! That’s awful! Holy shit!

And so they dropped him off at this school and that was that. 

If you stay silent after he finishes the story, he even says he doesn’t know the person he’s talking about, it’s like all they have in common are the same name. He has so much shame welled up inside him for who he was and knowing that he’ll never see his parents again, never get to tell them he’s sorry. It’s so well-executed. 

Shocking, too. No one could’ve predicted that would be his backstory based on what we knew of him. Hell, most assumed he came from an unkind family and that’s where his self-esteem issues came from but nope! The opposite, actually! Wealthy family, loving parents, and Louis was a brat. 

I love it so much, and to get it after the build up of getting to know him for three episodes just.... to quote myself on one of my previous posts: “He finally puts it all out there and now Clementine knows what kind of person he was before he arrived at the school, what he was capable of before she met him. That wall [between them] is gone....  Louis knows first hand what can happen when feelings go unchecked, when resentment is held onto, when you don’t apologize or try to repair mendable relationships, when you’re vindictive and bitter and take it out on others. He’s been there and now he’s here, and he holds a lot of that with him. You can see he does in the way he talks about himself and struggles with confidence in his abilities.” 

and then he plays Don’t Be Afraid afterward, it’s beautiful, it makes me emotional seeing how glossy his eyes are and the way he looks up as to not cry, I can’t-

Another scene that I can’t get enough of is when you appeal to him in ep1 and he stands between Clementine and Marlon, hands up, and tries to talk Marlon down... even after a year, I STILL got chills. Appealing to Louis for help is so beautiful, it’s a beautiful scene of conflict. Louis knowing what the right thing to do is vs his loyalty/fear of Marlon, the way he looks at Clementine vs how he looks at Marlon, the moment where you’re holding your breath because it seems like he isn’t going to help you only for him to slid into frame to shield Clementine. Marlon realizing Louis chose Clementine over him, that the one person he thought he had control over has turned on him and with Louis, everyone else does the right thing and steps forward. 

And of course, “Your relationship with Louis has changed.” I CAN’T

Okay, another thing I adore is how much emotional depth Louis has. He can be incredibly funny, and he definitely plays into the persona a lot in ep1. Actually, one of my favorite things about both Louis and Violet are how their personalities subvert how open you’d assume they’d be with Clementine. 

Violet is presented as intimidating, closed off, bad with people, so you’d think it’d take a lot to get her to open up to Clementine when that’s not the case. The first time she and Clementine are alone [well, AJ’s there but y’know] she opens up a lot more than you’d expect with little effort on Clementine’s part, something that’s a trend in her route. 

But Louis is presented as friendly, talkative, and fun, so you’d think he would be open with Clementine right off the bat... except he’s not. Louis doesn’t tell you anything about his past that actually matters in ep1. He doesn’t tell you about his friendship with Marlon, his relationship with the twins, or anything really significant about him. He says small things like how he hates cantaloupe or used to like baseball. You know he likes music due to his introduction. 

In ep1, he doesn’t know Clementine. While he likes her well enough, he doesn’t trust her enough yet and trust isn’t easily won from him when it comes to that stuff. But then you go hunting with him, you choose to deal with the walker with him, and he opens up about his view on survival... then he sends you away because oops, too much sharing, too much chemistry. 

That’s the thing, though, you don’t get that one moment unless you choose him. Like... actively choosing him is a big point in his route. I know that seems obvious, but I’m serious. Every time you choose him after the hunting scene, he’s genuinely surprised. Appeal to him? Choose to help him with the piano? Choose to save him? Every time he gives you the sense that he’s like “...but why” 

He even questions you about it in the dorms if you saved him during the raid. You can straight up tell him it’s because he’s too important to you and he’s still shocked, then pulls a face like “.........but why”

I don’t want to sound mean about Violet, but choices where you choose her feel different, like she’s not surprised you picked her. Especially after ep1, it’s like it’s a given you picked her. She never questions, she never thanks, it’s just assumed “yeah you picked me, of course you did.” and it’s probably because she voted for you to stay, and that’s very different in Louis’ route.

He rarely offers up anything further until you pursue it. That’s a trend in his route. It makes the moments where he chooses to open up unprompted even more significant, like with the piano scene in ep2 or the reveal of his backstory in ep3, and especially the walk back to Ericson in ep4, THAT scene is so fucking good because it’s him finally fully opening up and letting Clementine in and hhhnnnngggggggg sooo goood~

One last thing I wanna bring up that I love: When Louis screams “FUCK YOU!” at Minerva in ep3.... it’s so fucking good. As I said before, Louis is such a kind hearted person, he never wants to hurt anyone and he beats himself up whenever he gets emotional and lashes out at anyone...... but in the cells, he’s fucking pissed. Like, we don’t even see him that pissed off after Marlon dies, and the closest we see him get that upset again is when AJ shoots Tenn. But even then, he didn’t tell AJ to fuck off, he just said, “what the fuck!?” and that’s very different. 

And I don’t blame him for being furious in that moment! He just heard all the shit Lilly said and Minerva just let everything happen. Now Lilly has AJ and they’re screwed.  Hell, he might even be missing a pinky finger now! And he just calls Minerva out on her bullshit and tells her to fuck off, and her reaction is just perfect. 

Oh and then of course, he shoots Dorian and it’s pretty rad... I mean, he doesn’t think so, he’s super upset about that one, too. But I thought it was great. 

As for Louis’ romance route, it’s just *chef kiss* holy shit.

I actually did a T5F on the top 5 reasons I love clouis that is still accurate and covers pretty much everything so I won’t get too crazy.... but lemme gush a little more please?

Their chemistry is fantastic, they bounce off each other so well, they’re not afraid to call each other out on their bullshit, they’re not too proud to apologize and move forward together as better, stronger people. Louis is great with AJ even after what happened to Marlon and that speaks volumes for his character. 

Louis never looked to the future until he realized he could have a future with Clementine and AJ and that’s why him asking her what their dream home would look like is so significant and Clementine always promised that she and AJ would have a home and they finally found one with someone who would do anything to protect them, someone willing to forgive, apologize, grow, and be emotionally vulnerable when needed, I just-

She carved a heart around their initials, he named the song he wrote after her.

I cry... I cry so much

another quote from myself on my T5F: “Their chemistry is strong, deep, and romantic, they powered through so much unavoidable bullshit, they worked hard for their relationship, they’re comfortable and not afraid to lean on each other when needed, they get comfort from being together but aren’t afraid to disagree on things because they know those disagreements aren’t stronger than they are. With AJ and everyone else at Ericson, they’re a family now rather that a group of misfit survivors, and they’re working to change things for the better for Ericson. I love everything about them and damn it, they will be happy together every single time I replay TFS because that is what they deserve.”

Now that I’ve ranted about how much I love him, what I’m NOT going to cover is the whole thing with AJ and the vote because I’ve gone on and on about that, so I’ll just say this: 

If you’re mad at Louis for his vote, valid. 

What’s not valid is trying to convince everyone he is solely responsible for Clementine and AJ getting voted out when he was not the only one who voted. The vote was brought up by Mitch, and it probably wouldn’t have been brought up in the first place if Clementine and AJ weren’t at the funeral. Louis is not responsible for Abel and Lilly showing up, and he’s not responsible for AJ getting shot. He’s not any less of a valid love interest for his vote, his vote makes perfect sense with what he is experiencing the morning after what he witnessed the night before. Stating that any relationship between him and Clementine couldn’t work because he voted against them as if it’s a fact is an ignorant dismissal of his character, his trauma, and his apology to Clementine and AJ, and your agenda is very clear. 

The endgame stats being higher for Violet does not mean Louis is a bad love interest, and no, Melissa Hutchinson saying she likes violentine does not mean clouis is invalid. You can tell someone is desperate to have their choice validated when they use a voice actor’s opinion as evidence in their argument to convince others that their choice is the only valid option and everyone else is wrong. 

We get it, you don’t like him and that’s fine, you don’t have to, but please don’t act as if people who do like him are in the wrong for doing so, and don’t try to cover it up with a “but I DO like Louis though I swear” because it’s transparent. Trust me, I’ve been there with Violet, I understand why you feel pressured to tack that on at the end of your “Louis is a shithead” post but stop, it doesn’t do what you think it does, I can tell you that from experience. 

At least if people were honest, I could go into their posts like, “okay they don’t like Louis so they’re going to be more harsh/critical of him,” but when they say they do like him after not saying a single nice thing, that just tells me you’re lying because you’re afraid of getting attacked. Again, I feel that, I’ve been there with Violet. It’s not fun. 

I also feel it’s only fair that I talk about the Louis crowd, too. Like the Violet crowd, they’re obnoxious and hostile toward everyone, their arguments are usually surface level, and they annoy the piss outta me. I don’t have as many bad experiences with them since we like the same character, but that’s where our similarities end. 

The argument is usually, “Louis is better because Violet’s such a bitch, she BETRAYED Clementine in the cells, she’s a TRAITOR! She’s using Clementine as a rebound and she doesn’t care about AJ and that’s why she stays on the boat with Minerva.” 

So y’know... lame, no nuance, no actual discussion or further explanation, nothing. 

Also I feel like the Louis crowd attacks Violet’s appearance a lot which is gross and a sign that their arguments ring so hollow that they can’t think of anything better to prove “MY choice is the correct one” so they resort to things that don’t actually matter and then act like it proves their choice is the right one.

“Violet? You did her route? but I think she looks weird, so you’re stupid.” 

Like... how is that anything? What is that accomplishing other than making you look stupid? 

But yeah, the Louis crowd hyper-fixate on Violet’s betrayal the same way the Violet crowd hyper-fixate on Louis’ vote. It’s treated as a smoking gun of “this proves that YOU are wrong and why MY choice is the only valid one,” but it’s not, it’s not a smoking gun, you’re just being a dingus. 

There is a difference between discussing how the reasons behind those choices made by Louis and Violet are a result of the inner turmoil and pain they’re going through and it causes them to make a mistake that they eventually turn around from and just.... “Louis is a shithead who voted them out and Clementine could never love him after that” and “Violet betrayed Clementine on the boat because she loves Minerva more and Clementine could never forgive her after that.” 

 Why y’all can’t just chill and agree to disagree, I’ll never know. 

ANYWAY... I don’t wanna leave Louis’ section on a sour note so here’s a reminder that he had a pet turtle named Geoff, he lost the 3rd grade spelling bee to the word “recommend,” and he still remembers his grandma’s phone number after all these years. 

God, I love him. 

Boy am I glad AJ didn’t get cut from this game

AJ’s still one of my favorite characters in this game and I’m glad his relationship with Clementine is at the core of this story.

He’s a fascinating character study and I can’t get behind the complaint that “oh but he isn’t a realistic portrayal of a five-year-old!!” like I’m sorry, do you know what a five-year-old is? They’re dumb and loud and if he was written that way, you’d just complain that he’s annoying like Duck was instead.

Sorry, Duck, love ya but you cannot deny that a majority of players hated Duck  for being a hyperactive child. Players would be like, “Gawwwwd when is this kid gonna die?? He’s annoying, I hate him!” when S1 was released. 

This is a game about zombies, okay? and if everything were realistic then AJ would’ve died in S2. Use your suspension of disbelief. 

I find AJ so interesting because he’s a child who was born into this post-apocalyptic world. He doesn’t know what it was like to live in a world before walkers. He never had a long-lasting, stable home and aside from Clementine, all of his other caretakers either died or gave him up. He’s grown up in a world that is cruel, unforgiving, scary, and where killing is normalized as a means of survival. Whether it’s walkers, animals, or other people, he learns early on that that’s just the way it is now. He knows how to shoot a gun and god, what a fucking thing to have to teach a child. 

Really think about the lessons Clementine teaches him, too. Some aren’t alarming, like checking for windows or always knowing where an exit is. But then you get into “Always aim for the head,” or “Don’t hesitate,” or the big yikes of, “Save a bullet for yourself.” 

I stand by the fact that AJ was in the wrong for shooting Marlon after his surrender, but c’mon, what did you really think he was gonna do the moment he got his hands back on the gun and saw the opportunity to “stop the monster” to protect Clementine and the others? 

Clementine isn’t perfect and she isn’t always right, but she’s doing her best to teach AJ how to survive the way Lee and many others taught her... but she’s forgetting that AJ is so young and he doesn’t have a fully developed concept of the world before. She also misses crucial point that Lee made with her when teaching her to shoot, like how if it’s a walker, then aim for the head. But if it’s a person, that’s different. Walkers are always the same, they always have the same goal... people aren’t that easy. 

Remember the fight between Javi and David in ANF? Clementine will either point a gun at David to stop the fight, or she’ll shoot him. She doesn’t aim to kill him, she doesn’t want to kill him. She’s aiming to break up the fight, that is a moment where killing isn’t necessary and would only cause more problems with those around her. Gabe would be distraught, Javi would react depending on how you play him, and Kate would freak out, too. 

If you choose to shoot Kenny to save Jane in S2, same thing. She shoots him to break up the fight, but the shot happens to kill him after you share some final words. 

Hell, the one time she does shoot someone in the head during a fight in ANF, it’s an accident [even though she knows better that to point a gun at anyone without the intention of shooting] and is treated as the wrong thing to do and you can either cover up her mistake or you can make her confront it by telling the truth. 

But then you have AJ who doesn’t have the context, that experience. He’s taught to aim for the head, so he does, and it’s a mistake. 

AJ shooting Marlon is complicated. He doesn’t realize he did something bad until everyone reacts and then he’s like, “....but I aimed for the head? Marlon was a monster? He was dangerous? Clem?” and you can either reaffirm that he’s justified, or you can teach him why he was wrong and about atonement. 

AJ doesn’t want people to hate him, he doesn’t want to hurt them or make them sad. He wants to make friends and have a home. He wants to protect Clementine the way she’s protected him. He has doubts, he doesn’t always know the proper words to explain how he feels, and he gets frustrated which causes him to act out. He wants to play games, and learn, and make connections with people. But, I can see why he would be scary, too. Especially with the way he talks sometimes. 

When he calls dibs on Abel, you can express how you don’t like the way he’s talking and tell him it’s not a game, and honestly I don’t think it’s a game to him. He’s had nightmares about Abel, he’s scared of Abel, he’s is a monster and AJ believes that if he can kill the monster, he’ll be gone and everyone will be safer. He’s expressing that in a worrisome way, though. 

Or the one some like to point at when arguing that he’s a bad character: when he says he liked killing Lilly. Yeah, not great, and it only manages to set James off more during that whole fight. But AJ explains himself that killing Lilly made him feel powerful [not a great sign] and it made them safe and that feels good. 

Plus, YOU told him to do it... I know y’all don’t like taking accountability for your choices when they backfire, I feel that, but he looked to you for what to do in that moment and you said to shoot, so he did and it set him off. Half a clip right into Lilly, whoops, betcha she didn’t see that coming. 

There is a discussion to be had about that choice despite it not having a right answer, but I don’t have time to go in depth so just know that I can see both sides. 

But both Marlon and Lilly’s deaths are pointed at as a “See?? AJ’s a bad character!” by the anti-AJ crowd.

Yeah funny enough there is a crowd for AJ but this one happens to be viciously hostile against him to where they go out of their way to argue with everyone that he’s “a bratty, stupid, annoying psychopath who loves murder and is badly written and that’s not even how five-year-olds act lmao you’re stupid” and just like the other crowds, they’re desperate for validation and it’s hard to watch as they make asses of themselves. 

Again, you don’t have to like AJ and you can be critical of his development and choices, but maybe harassment under the guise of “well it’s just my opinion” isn’t the best outlet for your frustrations. Just sayin.’ 

So much about AJ gets lost on those people, usually on purpose because god forbid we don’t always deal in absolutes, and it’s a shame to see a character that the writers put so much time and effort into be so underappreciated. 

Oh and on the opposite side of things, I do want to point out that flipping it so that AJ’s just a widdle uwu baby who should never held accountable because he baby and everyone else is wrong to dare be mean to him or Clementine.... is also not great. It lacks understanding and depth of the character or the characters around him.

To end on a happier note, another thing I love about AJ is how funny he can be. I mean, his apology to Ruby when you tell him to lay it on thick? When he excitedly informs Aasim that he likes fish? The fact that he interrupts your date to throw a gross ball at your head like “look what I found!!” The way he laughs at the Beat Nick joke but doesn’t understand it? When he catches you smooching Louis/Violet and is just like “what’cha doin’ over there??” 

He can be so damn funny. We tend to focus on the more serious side of his character but c’mon, look at his funny little dance during the party. It’s cute as hell! 

There’s so much I didn’t cover about AJ but like with the others, I don’t have the time to give you a huge analysis, I can only give you the things that crossed my mind as I was playing... which was also too much to fit in here but still. 

AJ’s great, I adore that kid, so glad he wasn’t booted from the story, thanks Telltale. 

God what’s there to say about Clementine? She’s complex, flawed, well-written and I adore her 

Alright, last character..... but seriously, what can I possibly say that I haven’t said before? 

I’ve written a lot of posts about Clementine, like this one about why I have her leave Lee in S1 and how that ripple affects her choices in TFS, or how I feel like putting Clementine up on this pedestal where she can do no wrong and saying players SHOULD agree with everything she wants [namely in ANF] is a disservice to the growth and nuance of her character, gone on and on about why I think Louis is the best option for her as a love interest and how that plays into her development, why her relationship with AJ is so important, why the damn Clementine in the comic doesn’t hold up-

BY THE WAY.... tangent, but I actually feel second-hand embarrassment for the Clementine comic which is a feeling I do not appreciate.

TFS Clementine and Comic Clementine are not the same character. I’ve experienced more depth sitting in the kiddy pool I bought my dog to play in during the summer than I experienced with the comic. My salt levels still haven’t gone down after writing that review... Amos deserved better, good god...

The comic rings hollow because it lacks everything that makes Clementine compelling in the games. You can tell it was written by someone who has only played through the games once or twice instead of a writer who worked on the games and understands the character. 

But forget the comic. It’s not canon anyway and if skybound tries to tell me otherwise, I will politely tell them I’ve agreed to disagree. And that they can go suck an egg. Politely.

Back to the one that’s actually good, I believe Clementine is one of the best characters Telltale ever gave us. She’s set a high standard for me when I go into other games. We’re lucky to have four games with her, and while I can’t say I absolutely love all four Clementine’s [I still have a lot of conflicted feelings about ANF Clementine] that’s totally fine because overall? She’s had a helluva bumpy journey and it brings me a lot of joy knowing she’s finally found a home and a family to care for her it. 

I feel a connection to Clementine’s personality this season. She’s come a long way from ANF [thankfully] and I love seeing her more balanced out as a hardened survivor who can be a goof sometimes. Having AJ back in her life brings out a softer Clementine that I missed. 

She cares so much, y’all. Clementine cares so, so much about AJ and everyone at Ericson that she’s willing to put herself in grave danger to protect and save them. She’s fought for so long, had her heart broken over and over again, has faced death every damn day, and now she finally has a home.

And it’s not even a question. Once her friends are taken by the raiders, she doesn’t even hesitate in telling everyone that they’re going after them, that they’re going to end this. 

Then after everything, she gets bit.

Oooohhhh the emotions I feel thinking about the barn scene with Clementine dying and AJ begging her to get up. But she knows, and even worse she knows that AJ now has to deal with her, either by leaving her to turn or by killing her with an axe and just

“I need you.” I CRY

Her bond with AJ is so good, her chemistry with Louis is so good, her determination to fight, her sense of humor, her moments of vulnerability... it’s all so goddamn good. 

Also, the Lee flashback with little Clementine. Look, after already being emotional during Louis’ song, only for it to cut to the train and hearing Lee’s voice again... damn it, they knew what they were doing and I’m so damn easy, it made tear up, okay? I admit it! 

I honestly don’t have that much else to say? This post is long enough as is so perhaps that’s a good thing. She’s amazing, a beautifully written character that I hold a lot of praise for. 

Lemme quote myself once again, this time from my review of the comic because this still sums up how I feel: 

“This isn’t like Clementine in TFS where you do feel she’s mature. She has to be, she has a child she’s raising and protecting. She has to be strong and smart for him. She has to be the adult in their relationship… but she has those moments of vulnerability to remind you that she’s not an adult, she’s a teenager who was forced to grow up too fast and it hurts.

In ep4 of TFS, when they’re in the caves after getting separated from the group, she and AJ get into an argument. She tells him that he’s just a child, and he throws it right back at her- “So are you.” and you can see it on her face… y’know?

You want her to be happy, you want to give back the childhood that was taken from her at the start of the apocalypse, you want her to overcome every obstacle thrown her way.  You understand her feelings about Lee, why he meant so much to her and why she struggled to let him go even after accepting that he was dead.

You remember that she is a teenager who makes mistakes, she doesn’t know everything, she fucks up. She’s doing everything she can to protect those she loves. You feel that she wouldn’t hesitate to give her life for the little boy she raised. She still has a lot of growing to do but you don’t doubt that she’s gonna do it..... TFS Clementine, amputation or not, she would’ve charged that damn boat herself if it meant saving those she loved.”

In conclusion: I still love TFS, even if things have changed for me 

Before I wrap this up, I do hope that everyone understands that my criticisms of characters, story elements, or of the crowds aren’t meant to be a criticism of individuals who may disagree with me. I'm not criticizing people for liking Violet or people who dislike Louis, or even people who view Minerva through an uwu-lense. I'm criticizing the terrible behavior from those crowds that make everyone uncomfortable and accomplish nothing.

Being critical of a character, plot, or of the fandom is fine. If a post is critical or even harsh toward a character, I may not agree and would argue with the points, but that's fine. I’m sure plenty of you will take issue with my points for characters like Violet or Minerva. We all have different interpretations and one of the fun things about fandom is getting to express that, to have discussion and debates, but it’s all in good fun. The point is never to intentionally make someone feel bad or to fight. 

It's when people get into guilt tripping, lying, gaslighting, name calling, using accusations of homophobia/racism against people not because they’re displaying those awful behaviors but only because they do/don’t like a character, sending hostile messages to people, or trying to convince everyone that their thing is the correct thing and the other thing is bad therefore they should feel bad, that's what I'm trying to criticize here when I bring up crowds. 

They’re an unfortunate part of the whole thing, every fandom has ‘em. What's sad is that crowds who would need to read what I’m saying in this section aren't going to. They're gonna scroll to the parts they know will make them mad and then leave. Oh well. 

I want to say that if you made it this far into an incredibly long post, thank you. If I had another gold star I’d put it right on your forehead and then give you a cookie, but I already used my gold star in a comment toward the Violet crowd and then Tim ate all the cookies, so.... sorry about that. 

The Final Season is excellent and I had a lot of fun even if I was conflicted with a lot of my previous opinions and work. I know I’ve somewhat moved on from TWDG and Telltale games, but hell, I’m still here. I’m not going anywhere for a while... after all, who else is gonna read the next two Clementine comics 9 times each to write in-depth reviews so you don’t have to read them yourself, hmm? No one, because they’re not ridiculous! 

But as far as consistent posting, writing fics, and doing themed nights, I have moved on from that. Not to say that I won’t ever pop in, y’all are always welcome to send in asks but y’know. I spent a long time working on this despite it being nanowrimo and I should be working on my project, but I still have some passion for this series that I wanted to share. 

It’s bittersweet, really. While I’m glad my ninja fam held up beautifully, I’m still bummed about the rest of the Ericson crew. Especially Mitch, god he was one of my favorite characters and now I barely feel anything for him, it’s sad. 

I will be home all weekend, supposedly working on nanowrimo, but if this post sparked something then feel free to shoot me an ask. I’ll answer a few if any come in, and we’ll see where it goes. 

If you want to follow me elsewhere, as I mentioned before I do have a dragon age side blog: @stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage, and then my main blog is @cj-writes-stuff.

Thanks y’all  💚

#twdg #twdg tfs #twdg clementine #twdg aj #twdg louis #twdg violet #twdg marlon #twdg brody #twdg james #twdg mitch #twdg willy #twdg aasim #twdg ruby #twdg tenn #twdg omar #twdg minerva #twdg lilly #twdg abel #long post #tfs analysis #twdg clouis #twdg violentine #twdg rusim #twdg briolet #twdg jamitch

[iamalasagnagirl]

recommend me some good ronance fanfic pleaseee 🙏🏼

Get ready, there are my absolute favorites so far

by annabeeus

Honey

Post-Vecna and Nancy really needs to take a shower. Problem: that requires her being alone for more than ten seconds, which is not something Nancy is sure she can handle. Solution: Robin. Words: 3274 Chapters: 1/1

savior complex Nancy meets Robin's parents, and it goes just about as well as they'd expected it to. Words: 3313 Chapters: 1/1

why can't i be you? Robin Buckley is deeply, depressingly, hopelessly in love with Nancy Wheeler. Luckily for her, the feeling is more mutual than thought.(Little slices of life in a world inhabited by two girls who can't help but orbit each other). Words: 4193. Chapters: 1/1

Bonus: you should also read all the prompts on their tumblr @nancywheelersgirlfriend, I highly recommend them

by red_banner

the stairs creak as you sleep (it's keeping me awake) Nancy is teaching Robin how to shoot a shotgun in case music doesn't protect her from Vecna, as the Party cannot be left without a sharpshooter. They are both in for a couple of discoveries. Words: 18101 Chapters: 3/3

now the halftime air was sweet perfume (while the sergeants played a marching tune) Three years after Vecna, Hawkins welcomes the whole Party for the summer. Nancy and Robin are still uselessly in love. Words: 76,112 Chapters: 7/? WIP

by uselessdisasterlesbian

And I'll Be Okay, Admiring From Afar Robin Buckley knows love stories aren't made for people like her. She's read enough books and seen enough movies to know that in the end, the guy gets the girl. So when her own feelings for a not-so-prissy journalist expand beyond mere friendship, Robin panics and tries to play matchmaker. After all, she's always wished happiness for her friends, and that's all Nancy Wheeler is - a friend. Words: 4318 Chapters: 1/1

It's Not What Good Girls Do In getting to know Robin, Nancy gets to know herself. It gets gay from there. Set vaguely after volume 1 (and prob volume 2) of season 4, as a speculation of what the future post-Vecna could look like for the pair. Words: 4157 Chapters: 1/1

by HooliganStyle

summer of '86 serie:

makes me want to try her on Nancy keeps Robin company at Family Video some warm night in June, and tries not to think about that electric feeling crackling inside her chest. Words: 2413  Chapters: 1/1

there’s nowhere that I wouldn't go It's been three days since Nancy and Robin went from not-so-plutonic buddies to nuts-about-each-other gal pals, and the whole gang's going river tubing! Nancy contemplates what it means to fight for happiness, over and over again. Words: 2866 Chapters: 1/1

i feel it in my body, know it in my mind Nancy wakes Robin up to spirit her away on a long drive to Indiana's weirdest roadside attraction. Robin is forced to face her fears that she's simply a queer anomaly in the story of Nancy's life. Words: 3315 Chapters: 1/1

meet you where the spirit meets the bones Nancy and Robin have to tell Steve what’s been going on between them. Robin and Steve hash it out, while Nancy gets high with Eddie. Words: 4673 Chapters: 1/1

the only heaven that I know Steve has a summer barbecue, and Nancy attempts to move past some trauma. Max and Nancy share a moment of care and understanding. Robin and Nancy finally find themselves alone and uninterrupted in a house with a soft, flat surface; hot, sexy times ensue. Words: 5273 Chapters: 1/1

by stxrdrifter

would i ruin my salvation? Look, but never touch. Admire, but never love. Robin Buckley knew the rules. Don't fall in love. Words: 5242 Chapters: 1/1

to hide from the sky that watches me Nancy Wheeler comes to terms with her sexuality, and her religion. Words: 9136 Chapters: 1/1

by cityseeker

we'll deal with the aftermath In the middle of the night, old rocks turn over to show their ugly bellies. In the middle of the night, people go searching for their real feelings – and unfortunately for Robin, it’s always the middle of the night in the Upsidedown.  Words: 4186 Chapters: 1/1

blue nights, red mornings Robin reaches for her. She slides a tentative hand towards her, palm up, knuckles skimming over Nancy’s thigh, the tips of her fingers twitching ever so slightly. Nancy stares. And stares.  She wants to tell Robin, don’t offer your hand to me. If I hold it now, I might never let go.  or: Robin is Nancy’s safe place. Words: 4516 Chapters: 1/1

i'll keep you safe (in these arms of mine) Eve was evil because she hungered for what she could not have. Eve plucked the apple when she shouldn’t have. You are never compelled to give into your hunger. That’s what her mother had told her. Had specifically warned her. Though she never would have guessed that Nancy would end up here. In a bathtub, next to a temptation in the form of a girl.  Words: 4323 Chapters: 1/1

by moonflowerdamie

lost in admiration (could i need you this much?) “Are you sure?” She manages to croak out, voice wavering a little, and Nancy finally turns around. “Yeah.” She confirms and Robin’s falling all over again. “Go to prom with me, Buckley.” Well. How the fuck is she supposed to say no to that? Words: 6075 Chapters: 1/1

i'm burning up (all i see is red) Nancy proved that Robin is hers to Vickie. Now she wants to prove it to Robin, too. Words: 5998 Chapters: 1/1

as the world caves in (it's you that i lie with) “Holy shit, Wheeler, I thought we lost you.” She breathes into Nancy’s hair, still crying a little. Nancy pulls her face away from Robin’s chest, tugging the headphones off as she glances up at Robin with watery eyes. Between the mind-numbing relief, the lingering panic and the feeling of wild joy, something else sparks in Robin’s gut as Nancy stares at her. It’s familiar, achingly so, from years of wanting and not having, and it flares to life with a previously unknown intensity as Nancy keeps looking at her. Because Nancy Wheeler, even dirty and tear-streaked and shaking, is still the most beautiful creature Robin’s ever seen. Words: 4970 Chapters: 1/1

take my breath away Sometimes, she likes to imagine that she and Nancy are the love interests in one of the dumb rom-coms Nancy makes her watch on rainy days; perfect for each other, compelling, inevitable. That’s how it feels with her sometimes, like they were always going to end up here. Words: 1858 Chapters: 1/1

in the darkest little paradise “You wanna know what it is, you wanna know why I don’t like you?” “Oh, please, enlighten me.” Robin spits back and takes another step closer, eyes ablaze. “It’s because you’re an asshole!” Words: 3959 Chapters: 1/1

all's well that ends well (to end up with you) “Shut up.” And she pulls Robin back down to her lips. Nancy doesn’t know how long they stand there, making out in the kitchen like a couple of horny teenagers. It’s long enough that Nancy’s senses are overwhelmed by Robin enough for them to miss the footsteps coming up the stairs. “Oh my god, my eyes!” Words: 14048 Chapters: 1/1

luck like a button (can't stop pushing it) by diogxnes When they’ve left, Robin says, carefully, “They’re cool.” “Huh? Oh—” Steve is flustered, and if Robin weren’t still feeling so off-balance herself, she’d laugh at him. “Yeah. Nancy seems nice.” “You exhibited some remarkable self-control, not flirting with her with her boyfriend standing right there.” (In which Robin makes some friends, finds a family, and, in spite of herself, falls in love.) Words: 24765 Chapters: 1/1

you know there's not another moment to waste by BluejayBoi Robin and Nancy hang out a lot. They're friends. It's not dating. It's not. Robin's certain. Until she... isn't. Words: 4421 Chapters: 1/1

hearts burn quick by caughtontape She gets like this sometimes-- nervous around Robin in a way she’d never been around Steve or even Jonathan. Nancy thinks maybe she was never really in love with either of them. It was too Blockbuster-film perfect, too dramatic to be real. But at least with them, she knew how she was supposed to act. She doesn't know how to act around Robin. Words: 19330 Chapters: 1/1

I hope you can find something you like 😌

#nancy and robin #ronance #ronance fanfiction #ronance fanfiction rec #ao3 #robin and nancy #robin x nancy #nancy x robin #fanfic recs

[kyra45]

Guide to spotting donation scam accounts

I am aware there is multiple guides posted by other accounts but this one is my own based around my posts I’ve made over the months of running this blog. If you already know how to spot scams, then good! Someone else might not.

If you appreciate all the work I did to make this post accurate and easy to understand, feel free to share it and link it to anyone who might need info. If you want to show thanks in another way, I take pocket change by tips. My pinned post also has links to quick access posts that are about scams.

Not all blogs who ask for aid are scammers! Legitimate people do exist it’s just that scammers will take their information and use it as their own in order to get the money for themself. This post is most meant to be a through guide into finding these scam posts more easily at a glance.

So here is a guide to spotting donation scam accounts under a readmore as it is a long post.

Check how old the blog is by seeing if their archive is enabled. You can also guess this by scrolling the blog and seeing if the posts made are entirely random or seem to come from a certain trending tag. Also check the date of the reblogged post by turning on timestamps. Backdated posts are when a user reblogs a post then goes into post editor and tries to make their reblog look older then it actually is. A common mistake is the new date is even older then the post itself was made meaning the user has went and backdated the post to make their account look older than it is. If the archive is disabled, you may only find ~20 posts shared within seconds of the others.

If they sent you an ask to share their post, did it request you to answer privately? People who are requesting aid are generally wanting a public audience to share their post and would not generally tell someone to answer their ask privately unless their up to something suspicious. If your ask says to answer privately, try using tumblr search to see if it was sent to multiple users. An example of an ask is below.

(Image has alt text! But I will still copy/paste the ask below as well.)

“hi!! I hope you dont find this ask strange, weird or whatever you call it :( Just wanted to ask a favor if you could possibly check the post I pinned for my cats? It’s on this blog, please do check if you have a spare time and reblog/boost it. Im so sorry if I did bother you, just need some help. Please do send me a msg to reply or answer the ask privately, please 😭 🙏 🙏 🐈 “

These asks are known as scam asks, though most commonly sent by blogs that are using content stolen from a legitimate fundraiser for a pet that is needing veterinary care. They are sent to multiple users who have shared a popular or trending post and is sent regardless of it the user would share the post or not. As it stands so far, most accounts who send these asks are scams.

Another type of donation scam is when a user will save the medical photographs of someone’s fundraiser and repost them to say it’s theirs. These can be graphic hospital images stolen off Instagram/Facebook and used in a fabricated story claiming it’s the users grandparent or child of who needs help. Most often, though, there is multiple images used that may not match up with the story itself. Scammers may even fake a funeral fundraiser using a similar method of stolen content.

Above all, donation accounts also will steal Instagram photographs to impersonate people and give them made up names. There are cases where scammers have made fraudulent GoFundMe’s with stolen images and made up stories about sensitive topics in order to get money. It’s important to pay attention and see if the suspected scam account is answering questions about their situation or if their asks and messages are turned off. This is usually a sign they may not be legitimate and are avoiding any questions about their legitimacy.

You may also want to pay attention to the support links given that lead to methods of sending cast. If the local currency isn’t matching up with the given information, it may be sign of a scammer. The most common example is someone asking for $USD but the local currency would be something else and they don’t supply a currency conversion anywhere in their post or explain why it doesn’t match. However, this is just a common scam tactic.

In closing, there are other minor ways to spot donation scam accounts. Such as searching their username up in tumblr search or just asking them to send you more information that relates to their situation. Above all, one of the best things you can do is examine the askers blog closely and see if there’s anything suspicious and do your own research before asking around.

And remember, always report confirmed scam accounts for phishing like so:

Report -> Something else -> Illegal uses or Content -> Phishing

#scam #how to spot a scam blog #long post #longpost #psa #important information

[kirathehyrulian]

💚🧡Wayward Sons Zine 2022🧡💚 🌧️Alleyway Rendezvous🌧️

(Please do not edit/alter. Feel free to reblog, but please do not repost. At the very least please give me credit.) | Zine•Tumblr | Zine•Twitter | Zine•AO3 | Zine•Download |

Summary: Sam and Dean meeting up in an alleyway for a hunt on a late rainy evening. [Ao3]

For more art from me please check out my “myart” tag here on Tumblr. 👇(Art Notes and Bonus Art below the cut) 👇  

 Art Notes: I've been stuck in a drawing rut so bad lately. It was a struggle making this piece. But, I signed up as a pinch hitter, so I was determined to keep my word when they called on me. It's funny because I find drawing younger Jared/Sam and younger Jensen/Dean to be so intimidating because there's just a big limit on references from their younger years. But, then the mods made a post about being worried people would drop and that worried me. I'm a supporter of gencest and wincest things so I did want the zine to succeed.

So, I signed up as a pinch hitter with half of me hoping that I can do something at least half way decent if they call on me and the other half thinking that they probably won't even need me. I'm just a back up in case someone else can't do their work. But, come to find out for some unfortunate reason someone did drop out of teen section and I was called to make good on my promise. And for what it's worth, I did make good on it.

The mods gave me somewhere around, I guess, 2 months? I got most of March and then all of April to finish. Starting from March 5, I started brainstorming questions and ideas right away. I asked if there was a collective zine theme besides the boys being teens. The mod told me the main theme was them growing up together. And I was going to go for gencest (though if people want to see it as wincest Idc, go ahead) I chose the option to have the boys doing regular teenager stuff with a hunter twist.

After that I asked if there was any additional info I needed and if I needed to be aware of what others were creating so we all didn't create the same stuff, mainly because the last Zine I was in the mods were worried about that. There wasn't any additional info that I needed, but the mod I was talking to did say go ahead and run any ideas I had about what I wanted to do by them and they'd check if I was doing something too similar to another artist. So, five days later I came back with two ideas that I was toying with, "a hot summer day stuck in a cabin/house/motel, or Sam and Dean in some kind of a dark back alley with neon lights". The response I got back was that the latter idea was the most unique. So, I went forward with that idea.

So, before I started sketching Sam and Dean, I obsessively searched for refs of young Jared and Jensen and saving what I could find to my drive for ease of access. In the zine guidelines the teen section said 15-18 years old, which didn't specify if that meant 18 for Sam or 18 for Dean. I took it as 18 for Sam. Which even though gives me a bigger range to work with, ends up making Dean technically a legal adult than a teen. But, I don't specify the ages in this piece so I feel like there's some plausible deniability with Sam being somewhere in his later teen years but before Stanford.

Anyways, I tried to concentrate on refs around those times, but Jared's youth on the internet is pretty much non existent especially compared to Jensen. But, I tried my best even though I ended up mainly using refs from when Jared and Jensen were young adults. I did try to make them look younger than the refs tho, especially Sam. I shortened his chin a smidge and made him noticeable shorter than Dean who's leaning against the wall, not even standing at full height. I also had to brainstorm what kind of hairstyle I wanted to put on Sam. I decided to give him something similar to his main season 1 hair, but a little shorter in length. And that's mainly because I wanted this to look like Sam, rather than Jared and his other roles. I'm not sure how I feel about the final results. A lot of this work was me not really having concrete directions and me just playing around, for better or worse.

When I started, I sketched Sam and Dean first and then tried to sketch out a background that made sense for their positions. I keep trying to do backgrounds, but I don't know if I'm getting any better at them. It's definitely not my worst, but I feel like it could be better somehow.

On March 30th, the first check in was due and I had pretty much finished my sketch. I changed my mind on it being nighttime with neon lights in the background and wanted to color it with daytime in mind. I thought daytime might be easier to color and render. And, I told the mods that "I feel good about my progress, and I'm pretty sure I'll be done before April 25th," which was the final check in on the schedule.

After that I made the line art and colored in the base colors. I put a free texture on the brick wall, and copy, paste, and vertically flipped a reflection of the background building for the background pavement. I added in the signs and fonts with Photoshop Elements 15. But, when I started to add shading and lighting, I changed my mind again. I wanted it to be raining, and the boys are taking cover by some kind of overhang in the alleyway. But, I still wanted it to be daytime, but on like a really cloudy evening where light is barely shining through the clouds. In the end, it ended up being darker than I initially was going for. So, it like full circled back to nighttime by the end.

As some late additions, I added water drops to the foreground, because sometimes water gets stuck to the camera lens, windows, glasses, or eyelashes in rainy scenes and I thought it'd be cool. And, I added a faint passing car light to be the main light for Sam and Dean's shadows on the wall, or at least that was the idea, anyways. I also did try to add graffiti to the wall too, but it felt really distracting so I ended up making it really faint.

Towards the end, I pretty much got sick of looking at and fiddling with it. I get somewhat obsessive sometimes, where I can't let things go. And, it's like the little things in this piece would be driving me crazy, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I was at that point where continuing to try to fix whatever I was bothering me had just as much a likelihood of making the piece worse. So, on April 18th, I turned it in. And then, I waited for May 2nd when the Zine would be officially posted. The next day after I made and submitted my personal art posts. And that's pretty much everything.

Looking back at it now, I'm pretty happy with how my Sam and Dean turned out. I need to work on my background and composition skills (those seem to be what I always struggle with the most) but overall I feel pretty good about the whole thing. I probably need to force myself to experiment more with free flowing, simple, blurry styles instead of my go to where everything has a defined shape. But, saying it vs actually breaking out of my comfort zone is an up hill battle.

Bonus Art:

This is just a peek behind the curtains. I took out the rain, reflection, fog, atmosphere filter, some of the lighting, the car light, and one shading layer. In some ways this version is better for being less complicated, but I do like the moodiness in the official version. I'm mainly sharing this to compare and contrast with the main, and to show that yes, I did intend for daytime initially when coloring, lol.

Enjoy, if you can!♥♥♥

#gencest #samdean #weechesters #teenchesters #sam winchester appreciation #dean winchester appreciation #personal space who? #waywardsonszine 2022 #myart

[occasionallyprosie]

Devotion - Chapter 2

Link meets a certain ex-guidance fairy, one of the few souls in existence currently who is older than him. She asks Link to stay.

AO3 Link

Tumblr Chapter 1 Link

Link roamed the depths of the forests, searching for a place he could start again. Someplace he could maybe build his own house, maybe start a small farm, really just live quietly and individually.

"Look! Look! He's magic!"

"And old! You see it! But he looks young!"

"Sir! Sir!" 

A crowd of fairies fluttered around him, many colors but mostly shades of pink or blue or even yellow and green. A pink one darted up to him.

"Are you old?" She asked him.

Link laughed, smiling warmly at them. "I am very, old, ma'am."

The fairies grew excited and a lavender one appeared in front of his face.

"Are you immortal?" She asked excitedly.

Link kept a warm smile but it faltered in his confusion that he let show. "I am, why?"

"Oh he's perfect!" The fairies squealed.

"Come! Come!"

"You have to meet her!"

"The Great Mother has been waiting for someone like you!"

Without many options, Link let the fairies drag him off to a Fairy Fountain.

He wondered at the forest as it grew more magical, more doused in sugary magic.

He was pushed in front of a pond and a fluttering blue fairy flew to the center of it. In a flash of sparkling light, the blue fairy transformed to a young woman, a fair height taller than Link, but physically seemed to be about his physical age.

"Hello," she said, her voice clear and smooth. "Who might you be, that my daughters brought here?"

"He's immortal, great mother!" One fairy exclaimed, flying colorful circles around Link.

"And pretty too!" Another tapped Link's nose and he startled.

"He looks strong!" One darted between his arm and side, he jerked to hold his hands against his chest, a bit alarmed.

"He would be a great lover!" One said and Link's eyes went wide.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh..." the Great Fairy held her head. "Begone with you all! Go!"

Squealing and cheering, the other fairies all rapidly disappeared and Link was eyeing the Great Fairy warily.

"My apologies for them," she said. "I fear I made a mistake in telling them that I crave intimacy and love. I am Navi, the Great Fairy of this spring to which you have been brought. Might I know your name, immortal soul?"

Link hesitated a moment before he nodded. "I have been called many names, Great Mother. I currently use the name Raven."

"Raven," she repeated. "Welcome to my spring, I hope you find it to your liking, Sir Raven. I hope to grant you rest from your travels." She hesitated before drawing closer, eyes roaming his figure as if inspecting him. "You... Are not Hylian, not if you are immortal."

"I'm a spirit," he confirmed. "A sword spirit taking Hylian form."

"So you are." She came even closer, her hand reaching out and almost touching his arm as she grazed her hand down it. "A man... immortal... but not filled with ambition and hatred?"

"My only ambition is to guide the future generations," Link said carefully, managing to shift away from her slightly. "For them to be safe and happy. But I have done that for some centuries now, and would like to rest and take... take a vacation from the world of politics and... hylians."

Navi smiled. "Then I bid you good luck on your endeavors and I offer my spring as a sanctuary of rest for you."

Link almost thanked her and moved on, but he hesitated. Though he had no intentions of giving the Great Fairy what she apparently wished for, he wouldn't deny that a companion, a friend, who wouldn't fade away wasn't... wasn't incredibly tempting.

"For how long?" He decided to ask instead.

"As long as you wish."

"You might get sick of me."

"I doubt I could."

Link was fine with being Raven for a while. He would prefer to be able to live out some time with people who wouldn't rapidly age, mature, and then die in the blink of an eye. If only for a little while.

Link liked Navi, he thought the world of her and she was a good friend. She was friendly, engaging, and kind. He found her to be a kindred spirit, not unfamiliar with loss.

It went on for a while, a couple centuries, before he couldn’t stay anymore. He had to move, go somewhere, do something. He'd spent a long time with the fairies, doing a variety of things between learning magic, protecting the forest, and hunting monsters nearby, but he needed something new and even the enticement of someone who wouldn't disappear and leave him could make him stay anymore. His wanderlust was far too strong to ignore anymore.

Though there were tears shed, he did leave, and instead returned to the greater lands of Hyrule only to find it desolated.

It was destroyed, the golden age he had left in in had fallen to ruin. Of course the kingdom was still there, but... it was truly a fallen kingdom.

A couple years passed and he sensed it. He sensed the Sacred Realm tremble and some whispers entered his mind. Someone warning him about...

The Triforce of Power.

It was happening. It was repeating. The cycle was repeating.

There was a hero, the whispers told him. Your hero would come... and you will seal the darkness as you are meant to.

Link prepared himself. He gathered items, stocked on potions, he was a true veteran of this hero business and he wasn't letting some kid have to deal with it unprepared.

He met someone unexpected, a young boy who was soaked in familiar sugary magic.

Their name was Link, he supposed he would have to come up with a name to call himself to avoid confusion.

Under the guise of an old man, he gave the boy many things and each time he told him, “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.”

He had shadowed the kid, Link, protecting him often and saving the kid a fair few times without his knowledge. He was scared of letting them get hurt, he quickly figured out that the kid wasn't just who he thought he was.

Though the sugary magic that shrouded the kid was undoubtedly Navi’s, and Link could pin the goddess’ divinity in the kid’s blood that mixed with courage, that courage wasn’t just inherited.

The kid had the Triforce of Courage. This was the next hero, the current hero.

"Hey kid," he called when he met the kid again in a cave. He hid his face with a hood this time and didn't dawn the appearance of an old man. "You know, it's dangerous to go alone."

The kid laughed. "I know! You said it before!"

He chuckled and he walked over to him. "I know. So why don't you show me where we're headed next?"

"W-What? But—"

"Link, let me help you." He knelt down in front of the kid, eleven years old, and he pushed his hood back. "I'm not an old man, I'm not a Hylian either. I'm a spirit, and I'm here to protect and guide you. Let me do that, please."

Link stared at him. "O-Oh... But..." he slowly nodded. "Okay. What's your name, Mr. Spirit?"

He hesitated before ruffling the kid's hair. "You can call me Dev, how's that?"

"Dev... Okay! Come on, Dev!"

Dev smiled a bit sadly and he went along with the kid, the little sprite... a mix of fairy and divinity.

“Between the two of us, Ganon doesn’t stand a chance!” Link exclaimed, energy hiding the terror Dev could see so clearly.

“Sprite,” Dev said, stopping him. "You know you--" of course he didn't, Dev hadn't really told him, had he?

Link faltered, more confused than anything. "Is something wrong?"

"Link," Dev started, "I can't fight with you, I'm sorry--"

"What?! Why not?!" Link yelped and that terror he'd previously hidden was clear and on display. "No, no, I can't face him alone!"

"Hey, hey, you won't be alone," Dev promised, guiding Link to sit as they spoke. "I told you I'm a sword spirit, right?" Link nodded, listening raptly. "I'm the sword spirit of the Master Sword, the Master Sword is the weapon that is used to fight the darkness. You won't be alone, but I can't fight with you when you're wielding me."

"Wielding... you," Link said slowly. "Wait, then--I don't want to wield you!" He exclaimed, he looked almost affronted. "You're my friend! My-my-- My mentor and guide and-- I don't want to wield you! Why can't my sword work?"

Dev sighed softly, but with a glance at the Magical Sword he did hesitate. He was going to tell the sprite that no other weapon would be powerful enough, but... the Magical Sword was imbued with divine magic, he had forged that sword specifically to replace the Master Sword because Dev couldn't exactly wield himself. Of course that was before he decided to put down swords altogether and take on a far more supportive role, but...

"I suppose it could. It would be far harder and your blows would not be as strong, but..." he chuckled and ruffled Link's hair, "with a bit of courage and stubbornness, I think you could do it."

"We could do it," Link corrected, smiling widely as he looked up at him. Dev hid his sadness upon seeing just how much of a child Link was, barely even twelve now. "We can do it."

Dev chuckled softly. "As you wish."

Dev was a bit surprised by Link's second adventure. Zelda didn't quite recognize him at first, she was young when he left after all, so he couldn't blame her at all.

"So you're the spirit of the Master Sword," Zelda said slowly.

Dev rolled his eyes. Link was over with... the Zelda who hadn't been cursed, and therefore unaware of their conversation. "You don't have to be so formal, nightlight. But I do go by Dev now, if you don't mind."

She smiled. "I suppose that would make things much easier." She glanced at the other Zelda. "Perhaps I should think of one... where did you think of nightlight from?"

"Wow, taking away my special nickname for you?"

"Of course not! Just... taking inspiration." She smiled warmly.

Dev laughed softly. "The northern lights, because of that time your mother took you to see them and I came along as protection. I don't know if you remember that, but your mother called them nightlights for you, and you didn't stop drawing them for months after."

She nodded. "Aurora then," she decided. "I can be Aurora."

"I think that suits you," Dev said softly, giving her a warm smile. "Though, that kiss..."

Aurora went red. "Y-You saw that?!"

"Nightlight, I see everything," Dev deadpanned, though he was smirking. "I should warn you though, you're related."

Aurora's eyes went wide as she looked rapidly over at Link, who was unaware of the conversation. She looked back at Dev.

"He—Truly?"

"Mine," Dev lowered his voice. "Apparently. I can sense it, at least, he's inherited wisdom and courage and his mother is definitely an old friend of mine, I haven't figured the logistics, but... He also doesn't know. I haven't mentioned it at least."

Aurora frowned. "I see... He's my little brother them," she said decisively. "Even if he's unaware. I'm not telling him for you Un— Dev."

Dev shot her a grin. "Of course not. I'll do it eventually... Soon. I'll do it soon."

He had to, whether he wanted to or not. Link deserved to know, even if he may hate Dev for it.

Dev still didn't know how Navi had Link. He was a sword spirit for Nayru's sake, he shouldn't be able to procreate! Beside that, they never even did anything that would've logically resulted in a child. It had to be magic, but he also didn't know of any spell or ritual that would do this.

Link was just talking. Dev was listening to his Sprite just talking animatedly about a plant they'd found.

Then he was gone.

"LINK!" Dev dove for Link when that portal appeared suddenly, but it shut right behind Link, who had yelped as he suddenly fell right through it.

Dev hit the ground, horrified and shaken by what he'd just witnessed. Link was gone, taken by some portal that screamed darkness and divinity.

"No, no, no—" he couldn't sense him. Even when they were separated by practically the whole country, he could sense him. That specific mix of sweet, saccharine magic dousing the clear, natural courage and underlying wisdom. The magical fairy forest that marked Link.

He couldn't sense him.

Where was his kid?

Next >>

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #lu legend #fanfic #lu hyrule #legend lu #sword spirit legend #dev legend #ao3 #hyrule lu #lu aurora #lu dawn #prosie writes #devotion au