#the best part about this silly problematic game is these two

[isfjmel-phleg]

Here, have some analysis literally no one asked for.

As far as I can tell, there are very few, if any, dramatizations of the original YJ kids that come close to their portrayals in the comics. For instance, there are plenty of animated and live-action adaptations that feature a Superboy/Conner Kent, but most bear little to no resemblance in personality and origin to the Kon-El of the 1990s/early 2000s comics. There are two versions that I am aware of that actually do specifically adapt the original Kesel-and-Grummett Kon, and these adaptations have something in common: they try to correct some of the problematic areas of the character's story.

Kon's first appearance in the comics includes such things as

his romantically pursuing and being pursued by adult women who are fully aware that he is physically sixteen but chronologically more or less born yesterday;

adults exploiting his naivete for their own gain;

and Superman's preventing Project Cadmus from killing him but doing nothing to keep him out of their ownership or away from the control of his corrupt manager.

This sets Kon up for a hundred-issue-long solo comic in which nearly every adult in his life fails him and he's left to blunder through life with minimal guidance while assuming everything that happens to him is either normal or his fault. It's a worrisome story, and while I do think it could be adapted as a deconstruction with full recognition that This Is Messed Up, neither of the adaptations I'm about to discuss have that scope and thus need to adjust some things.

First there's BBC Radio's Superman: Doomsday and Beyond (1993). This is an adaptation of the whole Death of Superman/Reign of the Supermen storyline that the comics were running that year. You can listen to the whole thing on YouTube; it's pretty good!

Kon's appearance in this adaptation is diminished from his role in the corresponding comics, most likely for concerns of brevity with such a sprawling story to cover. Nothing about the character is changed; he is a clone created by Cadmus who escapes, calls himself Superman, and joins in the climactic battle when the real Superman is restored to life. He appears to be a teenager, wears shades and a leather jacket, and flirts with every woman he meets. This Kon is voiced by an adult doing his best dopey teenager impression, which is hard to take seriously. Not that the character is very serious, but in moments when he needs to be heroic instead of the arrogant, petulant comic relief, it's not so effective.

The major change is in how his relationships with women are depicted. Tana Moon, the twenty-three-year-old reporter who gets her big break using him for a story and later goes on to be his love interest, is included in this adaptation. But instead of her eventually pushing for a romantic relationship, the interest is portrayed as completely one-sided on his part. He complains to her that she stood him up on an attempted date (...while calling her "man"), but she's too busy warning him that her employers are using him to respond. This Tana is also not complicit in the exploitation, unlike in the comics.

Roxy Leech is mentioned as the reason Kon so readily makes a deal with her father, but her role is nonspeaking, so her advances toward him as portrayed in the comics (including a creepy innuendo-ridden conversation over a video game played with joysticks) are omitted, and Kon just comes across as one-sidedly silly and immature rather than preyed upon. Which isn't...wonderful characterization, but relatively? less bad? than the original.

The full exploration of his tactile telekinesis and exact origins aren't explored (his last line is his conceding the Superman title back to Clark), but there's a line that does hint at the heart of the character. When trying to convince Tana to go out with him, he tells her he's been cleaning up his jacket and costume and insists that "if the original Superman was alive he'd be proud to have me for a clone." Not a line from the comics, but in keeping with his desperation to be accepted and meet expectations.

The need to correct Kon's story is more marked in the animated film Reign of the Supermen (2019). This is a much looser adaptation of that storyline and reinterprets Kon's backstory through the retconned lens of his being a clone of both Superman and Lex Luthor, created not by Cadmus but by LexCorp to be a pawn.

There is no Cadmus in this version, no Paul Westfield, no Dubbilex, no Tana Moon, no Rex and Roxy Leech. This Kon is still an exploited child, but this time that comes solely from Luthor, who is kind of a "stage parent" toward his clone and at one point almost kills him for failing to perform as desired.

This Kon is still very eager for female attention, but all his admirers while he's enjoying celebrity status are teenage girls around his (physical) age, not adult women. He still attempts to hit on older women, but this is portrayed as an effect of his lack of social skills, and unlike in the comics, the women are always disgusted. Mercy Graves complains that he's "too handsy" for her liking, and Lois Lane finds his attempts to flirt with her (starting by asking how old she is and insisting he's "old enough") "revolting."

Nevertheless, this version of the character has more adults who try to look out for him. Dabney Donovan, the scientist who created him, is kindly toward him and begs Luthor not to kill the boy--at the expense of his own life. (Cf. Donovan in the comics, who doesn't have that role and is rather villainous.) Even though Lois is annoyed by the boy, she's friendly toward him the few times they encounter each other. It's implied that something in his DNA from Clark makes him feel comfortable opening up to her. He confides his disappointment in learning about the human side of his DNA, and she reassures him. Almost like what Tana's role was intended to be for him, but minus the creepy grooming and using him to further her career.

Clark is taken aback when Kon addresses him as "Dad" when they finally meet, but he listens patiently to Kon's account of his "harrowing" life so far and refuses Luthor's demands for the return of his clone--"The boy stays with me!" Kon makes it clear that he wants to live with Clark. That doesn't work out, obviously, but the film's epilogue includes the newly renamed Conner's going to live with the Kents. ("Aww," Lois comments. "They'll eat him alive.") This changed ending is a practical choice, glossing over the comics' long complicated interval of his being more or less on his own, but it also rewrites his story so that more concern is shown for his welfare as a child/minor. He's being sent to a loving, stable home instead of being left to the exploitation of unscrupulous adults.

(...and then apparently this film series goes on to unceremoniously kill him off in the next installment, which negates everything, but for purposes of this discussion, I am choosing to ignore this.)

Anyway, here's where I should say something very intelligent about why adaptations make the choices that they do that would wrap all this up brilliantly, but this is all I've got. Except...note the difference in the adaptations' choices by date. The 1993 radio adaptation diminishes predatory behavior but tends to hold Kon in contempt for his gullibility. The 2019 film was more like THAT'S A CHILD and handled him mostly accordingly. Which I would consider a step up in character interpretation.

#comicsposting again #the film is BY NO MEANS Great Cinema #but its Kon is probably the best part #very close in personality to his canon self

[elcorhamletlive]

Hi, I recently came across your blog, and I am not sure if you're still interested in this topic at all, but I wanted to ask-- why do you think Will ending up with Mike wouldn't be fit or satisfying ? I am not necessarily a Byl3r shipper myself, but don't you think portraying a gay kid's love as something he gets to over with is kind of a problematic writing in itself?

Hi, anon! Unfortunately for my mental health I will always be interested in this topic, so don't worry at all about asking.

There are two parts to your ask, and I think I will start with the second, because it's the shortest. I don't think portraying a gay kid getting over a crush is problematic. I'm not a fan of the unrequited love plot in general, I think it's overdone and it's not a choice I would have made for Will's storyline, but the more time I spend in fandom, the more I run into gay men who tell me that the way Will's crush on Mike played out in season 4 was a heartbreaking but cathardic reflection of their own experiences. It's a very real type of heartbreak, and I now see the value of featuring it in media, even if I'm still critical of the way the Duffers have chosen to go about it.

With this perspective, I can't imagine how Will getting over his feelings would ever be "problematic writing". In fact, I would think the other option (him dying while pining for Mike, or just pining for him forever) is much worse. Will getting over his feelings for Mike by meeting someone else is a way to show that even though you might feel unlovable and lonely when you're a gay kid surrounded by straight people, longing for something they can't give you, that pain won't last forever, and you will find someone who loves you the way you want to be loved.

Of course, "getting over" is doing a lot of work in this sentence. There are multiple ways the Duffers could write Will moving on from Mike, and many of them are things I'd consider "problematic" (Will being the only cast member to end up alone) and/or unsatisfying (Will smiling at a nameless extra in the last ten minutes of the final episode). But I don't think the idea of "portraying a gay kid's love as something he gets over" is bad in itself. Sometimes you fall for people who don't love you back, and the best option in those cases is to move on, always. Honestly, Will forever pining after his sister's boyfriend would, in my opinion, be a way more problematic trope.

Then there's the matter of B*ler. Which I think is kind of pointless to discuss, because it's not going to happen. But if it did happen, it could be read as one of two scenarios: 1) the shippers were right and the Duffers had planned everything in the show to lead to B*ler from the start and 2) the Duffers had not planned B*ler from the start but changed their mind seeing how insanely popular the idea became after S4 (again: I cannot stress enough how unlikely I think both of these scenarios are). With option 2, I think it's easy to see why it wouldn't fit or be satisfying - changing your plans so late in the game to please the fanbase is silly, unintelligent storytelling. It shows you don't really have a solid vision for these characters and are willing to just go with whatever is the most popular concept at the moment.

Option 1 is the, obviously, the one shippers would argue is the most likely, but it's also the worst one, in my opinion. If the Duffers planned everything in the show to lead to B*ler, I think they did a poor job with their planning. I think expecting the fanbase to dissect things like background props and movie references as replacement for textual character development is bad writing. The idea of a "surprise" romance being written to catch the audience off guard for four seasons is, to me, ridiculous and mean spirited - it reeks of the worst angles of Spoiler Culture, the ones that argue that shocking people is more important than telling a good story.

And I think it does become problematic when the "plot twist" in question is the sexuality of one of the main characters. If Mike is gay/bi, why did this need to be a secret up until the very end? To pander for homophobes who would have stopped watching the show if it was about a romance between two boys? This reasoning kind of sucks, sorry. If Mike was meant to have a coming out narrative, then it should have been handled with respect and care, not hidden in obscure clues most of the audience would never pick up. Making a gay romance into a puzzle, a massively elaborated scheme meant to pull a "gotcha" on most viewers, is, to me, a glib way of handling delicate themes like sexuality and internalized homophobia. So yeah. I don't think it would be satisfying at all.

#will byers #antibyler #anti byler

[omeleta-omelete]

And here I am, late for sure, but finally with the second part of this ask game, featuring all the asked headcannons about Raz by @marooncookie! 🎉 Again, I tried my best to properly answer everything... and even though I had a lot of work with some of them but also with my stupid internet, I'm sure it was worth it!

The text wall of headcannons below is once again all organized by colors and emojis, to make your lives at least a bit easier when reading it! Haha! I hope you guys enjoy it! 👉👈

🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQIA+ headcannon - Raz seems to be an absolutely straight sweetheart, and that's it! He definetly will grow up to be the best boyfriend / husband ever, just like his dad Gomez Adams! XD

💌 Fluffy headcannon - my headcannon is that Raz has basically two ways to show affection: or he invests a little of his time to be with the ones he loves, or he helps everyone with something. Absolutely anything, as long as he knows that person will be happy in the end... which is kinda problematic, as we could see by his actions in Psychonauts 2, but I'm sure he will learn how to do it in a healthier way!

💔 Angsty headcannon - I have this headcannon that Raz will have a terrible dead due his relationships with the Psychonauts, at least in some alternative timeline or whatever. Basically, he would dig into stuff he definetly shouldn't be researching about (even if he was doing so just to fullfil his curiosity), and such research would led him to discovery the worst, shadiest things done by the organization. Confidential information about polemic psychic incidents, sanatoriums... stuff done for the government, that the government kept to itself. However, instead of stopping there, Raz would feel so mad and disappointed that he wouldn't stop his research, hoping to someday maybe fixing all the harm done. Did the government want it, though? Absolutely not! 🚫 So they chased Raz, aiming to eliminate him. But he, noticing the suspicious amount of dangerous accidents that were happening around him, started to doubt everyone, everything. He doubted the Psychic Seven, Truman, Hollis... even Sasha and Milla's true intentions. And the fear to see his loved ones getting hurt made him isolated... or almost, Lili was just too hard headed to walk away from her boyfriend's life. Until one day they couldn't hid anymore... and during a night mission, they died alone in a suspicious car crash.

🧸 Hurt / confort headcannon - after Psychonauts 2 ending, I can't headcannon anything but Raz finally reconciling with his family! After all, now that he realized no one never hated him, and now that the Aquatos are more opened to deconstruct their prejudices and accept their psychic side, I'm pretty sure things will be better. I mean... yes, I know that's not exactly a Raz headcannon, but anything would be more endearing than Donatella cooking Raz a huge amount of his favorite food, and after she silently watched stared him dinner, she would ask him to help her wash the dishes only so she could tell him about how she was not acting like the mother he deserved lately, about how she was sorry for having hurt his feelings... but of course without never saying these exactly words - she's still an 80s mother, after all. Or an embarrassed Dion talking with Raz while they cleaned up after a show, however, he ends getting so emotional after bear-hugging him that his eyes fill up of tears and he completely forgets about what they were doing before that. Now, Frazie surely would try asking Raz for some psychic training... in the weirdest way possible. Because first she wouldn't just talk with him, oh no! She would appear from the top a tree while screaming "HEY RAZ, CATCH IT!" rightly before throwing at him pinecone, in one of their old mind games. And everyday day she would play with him a different game, until he asked what the hell was going on... or until she finally got the courage to adress the issue.

🪀 Silly headcannon - Raz won't admit it to anyone, but the truth is that his job as a Psychonauts is the perfect excuse for his "pretending to be a super cool spy" childhood games stop seeming weird. I think he's a very imaginative kid, who's always creating new toys from scraps or new games to play with his siblings - specially when he's bored, or when Tala and Queepie are acting like if each one of them had eaten a whole package of sugar. Also, I guess he also likes to wander around all alone, or along his sisters (because they're just way cooler than his brothers) and visit all the tourist places in the small towns they pass by. I also love wholeheartedly the headcannon by @rachonaut on Twitter that Raz needs glasses but he won't admit it! LMAO

💤 Sleep headcannon - Raz is an easy sleeper. It doesn't matter if it's too light or too noisy. If he's trying to sleep on his bed, on the chouch or the floor... if everything is moving or still. He sleeps extremely easy, and once he falls asleep, nothing can woke him up but Frazie's way too loud snoring. Now, all of that stops being true when he gets distressed with something. Sometimes he's so pissed, afraid or anxious that he just can't sleep at all, not until he is certified that nothing bad will happen.

✨ A ship I like with this character - Lili, definetly! They're not only cute together, they also have an awesome dinamic! And as I already said on the first half of this ask game: they surely will develop a very strong psychic connection in the future, despite the many ups and downs they will go through as time passes.

🔪 A ship I don't like with this character - Sasha, or any other adult characters. Come on, that's straight up pedophilia and it's not acceptable at all! It's just gross, morally dubious (at it's best) and absolutely, absolutely illegal!

🎃 Something I think he's afraid of - besides fearing water like all the other Aquatos (oh gosh, I love how ironic their name is), my guess is that Raz biggest fear is to disappoint the ones he loves, specially his parents. I mean, that's actually something shown in both games, but specially in Psychonauts 1! During the Meat Circus, he's not afraid of dying at all - he's afraid to disapoint his dad, to not being able to live up to his expectations, and of not being loved because of that.

📦 Overall feelings about him - overall, I love Raz and that's needless to say! He's a good boy with a big heart and an awesome humour... he's complex, but not in an angsty way - let's be honest. The duality between his cool persona and his actual nerdy, way to excited personality is absolutely hilarious! 😂

📢 Favorite thing about him in canon - definitely, his humour. Raz has some hilarious puns and an immaculate sarcasm that must be appreciated!

🧨 Least favorite about him in canon - I guess I get so pissed about it because it's painfully relatable, but Raz, honey... YOU HAVE TO IMPOSE YOURSELF! Stop letting those adults to be so mean with you, you deserve better than that!

💬 Favorite line he said - honestly, Raz has lots and lots of awesome lines, so chosing just one of them was way more difficult than I ever thought it would be! 🤡 But after much consideration, I finally decided which lines will be honored today: the one about not drinking before noon, and the CAH CAH (or was it CAH-CAW? Was it hyphenated?) in it's entirety. They both made me laugh more than it's acceptable to laugh while playing games.

🔔 Unpopular opinion - I know that Raz is the fandom's darling (which is very reasonable), but portraying him as a little, helpless kid who suffers with what is just a projection of our own issues is just so wrong! Raz is a sweet but sarcastic ten years old, not a toddler who cries for his mama because someone was a bit meaner to him than usual. I know that self projection is perfectly normal, and that it's crazily easy to do so with characters we love. You absolutely can headcannon so many things as desired, but there must exist a line between a healthy amount of self projection and complete changes about how a character behaves to the point he / she / they becomes someone almost unrecognizable. The world isn't a shiny bunch of rainbows, and that's the best qualitie about Raz: he's strong enough to deal with life the way it is even though he will need lots of therapy later on . 😅

ALSO

I absolutely hate how the fandom portrays Raz as not knowing some basic, extremely popular stuff about pop culture in general. He grew up on the circus - not in a faraway countryside or isolated tribe (and I'm saying isolated, because lots of indigenous communities have intense contact with our globalized society). And he grew up in the 80s! So even if indeed Raz didn't have access to telephones and television in a daily basis, he still got the radio, the magazines and the newspaper - all three things being available almost everywhere -, besides being exposed to the ridiculous amount of propaganda spread all over the cities! Saying that he' never heard of the most popular bands, movies and news is not only a big stretch... it sounds extremely prejudiced to me!

🔈A song that reminds me of him - is it cliché? Yes, it is. But how could I dare chosing any other song but Rasputin, by Boney M? That song is Raz, and Raz... is this song! 🕺 Simple as that LOL.

Oof. So... I guess that's all for today! I really hope I could give you at least some satisfactory answers! 😅

Do you reader have any other Psychonauts related asks for this ask game? Go ahead and ask them all - answering you guys is always a pleasure! ❤️ Bye bye, and see you later!

#psychonauts #psychonauts 2 #my ask box is open #send asks #ask game #frazie aquato #dion aquato #donatella aquato #razputin aquato #psychonauts razputin #remembering that my ask box is always open to new questions #ask response #ask box #my ask is open #i was so damn pissed at the end of it geez #sorry if i sounded too agressive #i really gave my best here #part two #part 2

[nialltlynch]

five favorite fics that I've written (for writer appreciation day)

tagged by kat @sleepy-skittles thank u thank u 😘😘

5. in the garden sleeps a messenger — one of two non birdverse fics ive posted!! the target audience for this fic was me, twenty some odd years ago. ((love u bitch 🥰🥰)) anyway. edea and seifer have Thee Most Interesting Dynamic. it is insane to me how little there is about them. theres mommy issues. theres a highly problematic age gap. theres a concerning power dynamic. theres a hot evil milf with a banger aesthetic. theres the time loop or whatever the fuck was going on there. succession of witches defined my life for over a decade. seifer is into petplay i know this i know this. theres SO MUCH to explore here and it's all so underutilized in the game. this fic honestly does not even begin to get into but i consider it a decent first exploration and hopefully when i have time and energy i can do it a bit more justice. as it is though i really enjoy it!!

4. without a me there is no you —

She has the same blush rounding her cheeks and the same quiet, nervous laughter as the young Mór many years ago who muffled her kisses on Niall's mouth.

this bit was floating around in my head with perfectly clarity when i woke up one day and i immediately wrote out about six hundred words surrounding it on my phone before getting out of bed. im really interested in the implications of niall dreaming a docile sweet mannered replacement wife and i thought it would be interesting to explore it a bit from mór's perspective because she would be so impossibly biased. also thought it would be interesting if she fucked above mentioned replacement. this was my first time really trying to inhabit mór which, let me tell you, is really hard when the only canon information is scraps.

3. ambilevous — oh handcat fic, my weird little brain worm. all my fics are elaborate, long overstayed jokes in one way or another but this one i wrote specifically because the concept was just sooooo silly to me. absolutely absurd. certified kk comedy hour. it is, in usual fashion, a thinly veiled exploration of the more fucked up lynch family dynamics and how the barns arent quite what they seem but of course it is.

2. smoke alarms, smoke — my first exploration of the lynch family 🥰 it means a lot to me. i love this fic. the idea of the barns as a beautiful fairy tale ending had always rubbed me the wrong way and of course i love the slow desolation of locations through those that inhabit it which, really, what is the barns if not a haunted house waiting to happen. thats the part thats lacking (unfortunate!!) but i did get to write declan as a sad sad little kiddy which is one of my few life joys. i loved it when i wrote it and i love it now (which is saying a lot). while it isnt everything i want it to be i do very much love what it is!

1. it's a gift to be simple, it's a gift to be free — my aurora character study and probably the best thing ive written thus far...maybe ever. i honestly have no idea what the fuck i was on when i wrote this but god i wish i could get it back. some of my personal favorite prose comes from this fic. its a very personal fic in that i centered the emotional core on some of my own life bullshit. stylistically i owe so much of this fic to catherine valente's comfort me with apples which i had read around then (as if it wasnt obvious). i had already been thinking about aurora and her role in the lynch family but reading that helped solidify the tone i really wanted. this is another fic i sat down, wrote, and edited all in one night. i think if i hadn't posted it then it would've languished in editing hell so im very happy with what i put out.

oh and the recurring knife thing was because i was having feelings about knife maintenance, as one does. (if anyone wants me to come over and sharpen their kitchen knives and make you dinner lmk)

ive seen this passed around and lost track of who's already done it so if you would like participate then i am tagging you now. enjoy ((:

#kk writing #tagged stuff #late stuff too lol #i thought i was going to post a fic like froday or saturday and then cheat and say that was in my top five #BUT THEN #i was doing a ''quick'' final edit #and then i was like #oh this scene would b better if i #completely #..... #changed it #((^: #so here we are !!! #long post #im so sorry I talk so much

[soul-dwelling]

you think Okhubo is just incapable of doing a good story, or is it his vices that ruin it, and if he actually tried and took criticsm to hearth he could do something great? Like if he removed all the problematic and pandering aspects of his writting, could he archieve something great, or does he simply lack the "chops" for it without any fault of his own?

I’m going to end up rambling, so I’m going to divide up your question into parts and ramble about each.

(Spoiler warning for the endings to Soul Eater and Fire Force.)

“Do you think Ohkubo is just incapable of doing a good story?”

Having read an unofficial English translation of his final remarks in the last volume of Fire Force, and having looked at what turned out well in Soul Eater (both the manga and the anime), I do think he is capable of doing a good story–or, rather, that he has ideas for a good story. But I don’t think he has risen above what Soul Eater offered, because actually making that story work is the problem. 

On some days I think Soul Eater is a great story; other days, I think it’s just a good story. And I don’t think Fire Force exceeded beyond Soul Eater. I think that message in the last volume of Fire Force and how the overall series turned out show he had a big idea in mind (meditations on religion and human imagination; how people feel about death–seeing people around them die or their own deaths). But I don’t think Fire Force reached the potential Ohkubo was going for–or, at least, I just disagree with how he tried to respond to those meditations (as I’ve whined before: he simultaneously treats religion as stupid and something rational people shouldn’t believe in–while also saying humans are stupid and need religion to keep going; he has death taken more seriously in Fire Force, but rather than continue to take it seriously, he does death cheats for the sake of thinking he’s showing off the power of human imagination–Shinra re-making the world, Arthur using video game logic against Dragon, that fucking awful Tamaki fight leading to a random Karen disappearing). 

So, I’m stuck between one of two notions. It’s either that I just don’t like how Ohkubo handled his own messages, while having to acknowledge what good there was in artwork (even if I think Soul Eater was far more inventive in character designs, and even as I think a lot of the action in his works can be hard to follow) and what is creative in his works (but it’s hard to get impressed by the Arthur vs Dragon fight that Ohkubo’s annoying stans think is the best manga sequence of the late 2010s/early 2020s when it just comes across as a half-baked Scott Pilgrim ripoff). Or it’s that, whether I agree with his messages or not, Ohkubo just did not produce a good work. When his message just comes down to, “The power of imagination is what leads to religion, and religion is dumb, but people need religion to keep going,” it’s a silly message. 

And I think it’s a message that I don’t think was sustained well by the series, thematically like a mess. We have firefighters here to emphasize the meditation on life and death, but we need religious elements forced into the story to also make this about religion, and I think the two are in such tension without helping each other. This should work: combining these disparate notions should make something that is iconic. It’s memorable–for the wrong reasons, as I associate so much disappointment with the series. But it’s not like Soul Eater where that Gorillaz-esque visual style is iconic. There’s not a panel that I think summarizes the series’ disparate elements: there’s not a panel that shows both firefighting and religion in one image that I think is a summation to the series, not like that one promotional image from the anime of Maka and Crona, both looking like they are under the influence of madness, that communicates one core element of the series, or the shadows formed by Maka, Black Star, and Kid in the anime’s first opening, showing madness or familial influence overshadowing them. 

“Is it his vices that ruin it?”

I’m not even sure it’s his vices that ruin it, it’s what he does with those vices–and a lot of the problems aren’t vices, it’s him perving on underage fictional characters. 

Not to defend vices in fiction, but fiction itself tackles topics that either are not always going to be appeal to a mainstream audience, or are not for polite company. Comics creator Ty Templeton talks about how a story can satisfy all of the Seven Deadly Sins; I don’t quite agree with all of Templeton’s argument, but of course you can write a story that has vices–sex, violence, etc–and have it be a good story. But what makes it “good”? If your goal is just to have a really sexy story, sure, you can do that: there are plenty of “plot, what plot?” smut fanfics that work. If your goal is to make a really violent story, sure, you can do that: there are enough action films and animated series that are just bloodfests. But to make something really good or great, you need there to be something significant. 

This is the hang-up I have with the worst parts of Soul Eater and just about all of the ending arc of Fire Force: what is significant about dumb fanservice gags, what is significant about death being cheap and just here for the violence factor, if ultimately you aren’t saying anything through that use of sex and violence, and if you aren’t using them to move the plot forward in a meaningful way or a clever way or the best way to get that plot moving, and what is the point if it’s not only poorly done (not sexy, not really that violent) but actively distracting from the story (Black Star spying on Tsubaki at the end of the manga undermines getting anything significant out of their partnership), or undermining character progression (after all of her work to get stronger, Tamaki’s fight at the end reduces her role to only sex and leaves her in the ending of the series not helping her former team around the world–making her work to get stronger seem pointless because she’s just given up helping her team), or cheapening any feeling we get at the conclusion (why should I care about how bloody Arthur’s fight was if he’s just going to show up at the end completely healed?). 

“If he actually tried and took criticism to heart, could he do something great?”

I’m going to be weaselly and not quite answer this question, and instead answer another set of questions.

I don’t think he needs to take criticism to heart. Everyone has criticism to offer. A creator can’t respond to every bit of criticism because, eventually, the criticism is mutually exclusive and you can’t respond to one piece of criticism without failing to respond to someone else’s criticism: “Add more action!” “No, take out action!” 

But I do think he needs to take good criticism to heart, and that depends on the goal he has in mind. If his goal was to make a popular shonen series, he succeeded, so a lot of criticism I have to offer won’t help: I’m not in the age or national demographic for immediate sales of Fire Force to matter, especially when the final volume of Fire Force just outsold the most recent volumes sold of Jujutsu Kaisen and My Hero Academia. 

But if his goal was to make a memorable series, I’m not convinced. I wish he had made a story that said something more significant to make the religious thread as memorable as what we have had in other popular works. I wish he had made a story that made discussions about sexual objectification, controlling your own body and how you want to be seen, and the problems with fanservice more memorable. I wish he had made fights that were easier to follow and more dynamic. I wish he had started with more memorable character designs (the Fire Force designs just don’t stand out like Soul Eater designs do–which has its pragmatic reasons, the Fire Force Companies being a uniformed organization that literally wears uniforms, while the DWMA pretty much allows any costume). I wish that there was a fight in Fire Force that was as memorable to me as the Crona versus Maka fight, or All Might versus the first Nomu, or an action beat as memorable as Luffy telling Sniper King to burn the World Government flag.

Rather than listening to criticism, then, I wish he had a better set of editors who were directing him to something better. Again, “better” is subjective, and I’m not in the demographic for his story. But I don’t see Fire Force lasting like other series do. I don’t see it still being memorable like Fullmetal Alchemist, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, or even stuff like Madoka, Cardcaptor Sakura, Soul Eater, and other popular but not “the big three” / “tentpole” manga out there. I think a better editor would have directed Ohkubo’s talents to something that stood out and got the kind of attention other breakthrough manga have: there’s a reason Spy x Family exploded in popularity (and sold just about as well as the final Fire Force volume) because it fills so many gaps (the right mix of comedy, action, and meme-able image reactions, with just enough “sexy” about Twilight and Yor and just enough blood and violence without going over the line to be something too family un-friendly). 

“If he removed all the problematic and pandering aspects of his writing could he achieve something great?” 

Yes. 

Or, rather, if he took what was problematic, and made it something that, while problematic, is problematic because it lets you say something significant (you have to point out something problematic if you are going to respond to it, tear it down, or oppose it–you have to quote really awful language or show really horrible things to fight them), that would work. 

And if he took what was pandering and used it to make us change our point of view, that would work.

For example, he pandered to the audience with the ridiculous “Fire Force was a prequel to Soul Eater all along” crap. What if he instead used Fire Force to change how we look at Soul Eater? He wouldn’t have to contradict what he said in Soul Eater, but he could show a new understanding of his earlier work, and maybe respond to problems in that work: “Isn’t it weird how in Soul Eater I didn’t take death as seriously, while in Fire Force I have?” By making Fire Force a prequel, it still feels to me like regression to the earlier Soul Eater thinking. It also has the world go from taking death too seriously until they feel despair, to now just not giving a shit about death, which is just swinging from one extreme to another. If he used that pandering fanservice to enrich Soul Eater, rather than contradict its messages, worldbuilding, and canon, that would be incredible.

There are numerous series and franchises that add something late in development that has you re-read or re-watch what came before and gain new appreciation for what came before, or helps explain something that didn’t work before, or finally gives attention to someone or a group of people overlooked: Doctor Who, Star Trek, the Marvel Cinematic Universe–all have done something, sometimes poorly but other times really well, that takes old canon and enriches it. I don’t get that from Fire Force–I get a series that threw a monkey wrench into what we thought we knew about Soul Eater, and rather than giving a satisfying answer, is disappointing compared to what our own headcanon told us. 

“Does he simply lack the chops for it through no fault of his own?”

Ohkubo has shown he can draw and panel incredibly well. He has shown he can come up with such incredible characters with so much potential in their personalities, stories, motivations, and designs. He has shown an interest in complex ideas and a desire to try to figure them out. I think he has the chops; I just think his worst instincts (those vices) and a lack of guidance from an editor to direct those instincts towards something better (“take this vice, and use it this way to appeal to an audience without being gross, or take this vice, and use it to say something meaningful and not just cheap fanservice and pandering) has harmed what he could have accomplished. I think he recognizes complex ideas--but doesn't know how to explain them, or how to give satisfying or at least interesting answers to complex questions. I just don’t think Fire Force will ever be his masterpiece; a masterpiece should show all you learn and condense it to its essence, whereas I think Soul Eater synthesized all of his ideas and potential more clearly.

#dwells whines about fire force #long post #spoiler #spoilers

[fara-arts]

I have a new robo boyfriend and his name is RK800

Bonus with his dad’s dog (even androids need some downtime):

#detroit: become human #dbh #connor dbh #connor #hank anderson #sumo #sketch #i just... #had to draw my boy and his dad #the best part about this silly problematic game is these two #end of story #and WOW is connor pretty #it's very unfair #i love his dumb little buttchin #and his dreamy brown eyes #anyway back to work

[ace-trainer-risu]

oh here! i’ll come ask you for book recs lol. do you have any spooky and/or autumn-y book recs? or just your fave books :)

First of all, I'm sorry this took me SO long to answer. I want to say I've been busy but it's just been general [waves hand vaguely] life.

ANYWAY thank you for asking! I actually don't read scary stuff a lot b/c I'm a wimp, but I have a few spooky/autumnal books up my sleeves! Let's see what we've got!!

1) The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Let me just start by saying that Sarah Waters is one of my absolute favorite authors ever! All her novels are suspenseful, twisty historical novels with great female and queer characters. Although, fair warning, actually The Little Stranger is like her one novel that isn't queer, but it is VERY good. If you read The Little Stranger and like it, please read Fingersmith and/or The Paying Guests.

The Little Stranger is set in the countryside of post-WWII England and follows a mild-mannered doctor as he becomes increasingly involved in the lives of the family living in the local, increasingly decrepit, possibly haunted mansion. Think Downton Abbey but creepy. Strange things keep happening inside the house, from dog bites to mysterious sounds to creepy black spots. Literally just typing that gave me goosebumps. It seems like someone may be out to get the family, but who...or what? Is it simply the ghosts of their own painful memories, or is something more? Sarah Waters is excellent at lush, intricate historical detail, and she leans into that here to create an atmosphere of slowly building dread and horror and mystery.

That being said, as a person who isn't normally a fan of horror, I don't think this book is too scary. It's more of an atmospheric, psychological horror than a jump-scare, bloody horror. It's not a book that will give you nightmares (probably), but you might lie awake thinking about it.

Also. Pro-tip. As a haunted(?) house story, the house is obviously fairly central to the story. Dear fellow Americans, keep in mind that the British refer to the floors of a building differently than us. For Americans, the ground-level floor is called the first floor, the floor above that the second floor, etc. For the British, the ground-level floor is the ground floor, and the floor above that is the first floor, etc. There's all sorts of creepy references to characters hearing noises above them on the first floor, but I was just like, Why are they always in the basement?

2) Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia

This and the above are two very different books, and yet they are both set in the mid-1900s and both are about weird, creepy, maybe-haunted houses. What can I say, I like gothic fiction.

After our heroine, Noemi, receives a bizarre, borderline incoherent letter from her beloved cousin, she sets out to visit her in the literally decaying mansion she resides in with her husband and his new family deep in the countryside of Mexico. All Noemi wants to do is persuade her cousin to come back home with her, but her cousin's new in-laws are very determined not to let that happen...or to let Noemi leave either. Secrets abound in the bizarre house and even creepier nearby cemetery, and soon Noemi finds that she too is suffering from bizarre dreams and visions...although, are they just dreams?

This book is so weird, but in such a good way? I read it for a book club and every week we had increasingly bizarre theories about what was going on, we were googling alchemy and fungi and St George, and some of our theories were even right. Although definitely not all. Another very twisty one that keeps you guessing.

In terms of scariness, interestingly I think there's more overtly creepy and horrifying moments in this novel than The Little Stranger, but I found TLS more overall scary? But that may be because I read it quickly, which I think is the ideal setting for suspenseful stuff, and I read Mexican Gothic over a longer amount of time since it was for a book club. This one does have some more typical horror elements to it, but I don't think it's more creepy than terrifying.

3) The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

I listened to this one as an audiobook and the audiobook is excellent so would recommend that, but have no doubt it would also be great to physically read.

Oh my god this book...it's more thriller than horror, but I think it fits the brief. There were multiple moments listening to this book that I literally gasped or said "OH MY GOD!" out loud, and there are moments which are very creepy and horrifying. There's a particular scene in the backyard... Again, incredibly suspenseful and twisty. And the character development and character psychology is just! really really good! There's also really interesting and knotty feminist stuff which is a lot more complicated and nasty than some of the "girlboss" stuff which is popular right now.

Super minimal summary: All you really need to know is that it is a sci fi novel about a scientific researcher trying to pick up her life after her marriage has imploded, only for everything to go BATSHIT WRONG. Trust me, that's all you need to know, it's better to go into this not knowing what's going to happen or what to expect. I had no clue what this novel was about when I started it, and holy shit. Very good book, absolutely recommend this if you want some super suspenseful, creepy sci fi that will make you say "oh my GOD" repeatedly.

Okay, shifting gears a little now b/c autumn isn't just spooky, it's also cozy and restful and daydreamy!

4) The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker

This isn't maybe a cozy book per se, but it's a great book to cuddle down with on a dreary day and lose yourself in. If you've ever asked yourself, "What would it be like if you crossed Pride and Prejudice with Howl's Moving Castle except the wizard was way worse but somehow still sexy" - then you should read this book! I actually came across this book b/c I was like, I wanna read a book that's a portal fantasy but for adults, and this book was like OH here's everything you wanted.

It's about a grad student, Nora, who has totally stalled out on her dissertation and is at a shitty wedding when she accidentally wanders through a portal into a beautiful, fantastical fairy world. At first, everything is amazing and literally perfect...but surprise surprise, not all as is it seems, and soon everything goes to, how should I put it, shit. Nora escapes, but rather than returning home, she finds herself trapped in a far more dreary realm. But not one without it's own charms and it's own magic, and Nora finds herself the student-slash-sorta-captive of the crochety, sexy, maybe-killed-his-wife magician Aruendiel* and she begins to learn magic herself.

Unlike the above books, this is not a fast-paced, twisty book, and I think if you go into this expecting high fantasy along the lines of Game of Thrones, you may be disappointed. It's not really a typical high-fantasy novel, it's more of a cross of an 18th/19th century realist novel, a fairy tale, and a fantasy novel. But if you want that, then it's REALLY good! I loved this book! And the magic in it is so cool, something about the way its described feels so visceral and real and like you could really do it if you just tried hard enough. There is a romance and it's totally, intentionally hashtag problematic, but it's very laid back, very slow burn, so I think even if you aren't a person who digs romance you can still enjoy this. If you're looking for a feminist-leaning fantasy novel that you can just sink into and lose yourself in, this is the perfect book. You will long to magically fix broken plates.

5) The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner

Honestly I can't even justify why I think this one is an autumn book. It simply is. It's autumn colored in my head. It is the coziest book I have ever read about necromancy and crime. Also I just want to recommend it. This is another one that I listened to as an audiobook and it's also a good audiobook, for those who are interested. But it also means I will not be able to spell absolutely any of the character's names.

This novel follows Delly, an enterprising young scoundrel of a fire witch with a teeny tiny gin habit as she attempts to support herself and her hot-mess of a mom in the roughest neighborhoods of Fantasy-City-That-I-Can't-Remember-The-Name-Of. Lice...gate? When Delly comes across an advertisement for a bodyguarding job for young women for a hefty fee, it seems like the answer to definitely not all but at least some of her problems. She accepts, along with an interesting assortment of other sorcerous young ladies, including a wonderfully bitchy Absentia (my love), a young woman who can turn into a boar, boar girl's necromancer mother, and the very sexy part-troll Winn, who in my imagination looks like Gwendoline Christie and talks like Miranda Hart. Which. Perfect woman. Winn being a fine, wealthy young lady, Delly can't help but think to herself that it wouldn't be such a bad thing if Winn happened to fall in love with her and carried her off to be rich and spoiled the rest of her life.

Of course, things quickly don't go to plan, and soon Delly and her companions find herself caught up in wicked schemes of murder, drugs, and an undead mouse named Buttons who says BONG. I love Buttons SO MUCH.

This book is just a silly romp of a novel which worms into your heart and your brain. It's fun and cute and gay, and also it made me cry. I haven't stopped thinking, "Not quite regulation hammerball" since I listened to it like half a year ago.

Also, while I'm here, this novel is set in the same world as and features a few of the same characters as Unnatural Magic. Which is also a hell of a book. Literally the best bisexual relationship I have ever fuckin read. It's a winter book tho, so I simply can't go into it here.

Aaaaand...that it's! Happy autumnal reading :)

#things you didn't care to know about veronica #book recs #disastershy #i'm sorry it took me so long to answer! it's just been burning in my inbox for weeks and only today #did i have the courage and strength of will to get to it! #jk i just felt like doing it now :) #thanks if you read the whole thing!!!!!

[blu-joons]

He Forgets Date Night ~ Kim Taehyung

You lost count of how long you’d been sat at your front door, waiting for Taehyung to arrive and pick you up. You thought you’d gone mad, but as you checked your phone again, you were right on time, and he was the one becoming later and later.

His phone was only a voicemail, social media was empty, there was only one place he could be. Still dressed ready for date night, you hopped into your car, driving down to the studio, it was the only place you could think that he would be.

As you approached the studio, you saw that some of the lights were on, feeling a horrible sense in your stomach. As you got closer, the noise grew louder, looking in the door, you saw all the boys in the studio, pushing each other around, throwing balls at each other.

“Taehyung, hide!” You coincidentally heard as you placed your hand on the door, pushing it open, creating an eerie silence as they all stopped to see who’d walked in.

“Y/N, it’s nice to see you,” Jimin smiled, the first to walk over and hug you. Yet, he quickly stepped back when he realised you weren’t hugging him, keeping your frame as still as possible.

Your eyes glared around all the boys, focussing on Taehyung who stared back at you with a blank expression. You couldn’t believe how bold he was to be so confident knowing he’d let you down.

“You look really nice jagi, have you been up to something nice?”

“Only waiting for hours for my lovely boyfriend to come home so we can go on our date night we’d arranged,” you sarcastically responded, watching his expression drop, as soon as he realised.

“I completely forgot that was tonight Y/N, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to miss it.”

He stepped towards you, but you stepped back, finding comfort by Hobi’s side, just like you always did. He was your best friend, way before you’d met Taehyung, the only person you trusted with everything.

The boys made things worse, groaning across at him in disapproval of what he’d done, he felt terrible, guilty, knowing how important this was for you. “Why don’t you give me ten minutes, I can get changed, do my hair, and we can still head out together?”

Your head shook, biting down at your lip. The reservation had run out several hours ago, your hair was limp, your makeup had been removed sometime ago out of frustration.

“I don’t want to go out with you anymore, not tonight, you’ve already ruined it.”

He sighed, brushing his hands through his hair, deep down he knew that, straight away by the tone of your voice he knew that he’d hurt you, this date night was something the two of you had looked forward to for a couple of weeks, yet somehow he’d managed to mess it up.

The studio was a tip, a sign of how forgotten about you were, for hours clearly, they’d been entertaining themselves without a single thought about you. “It’s nice to see you’ve been keeping productive though whilst I’ve been sat at home.”

Ha appreciated that you were angry, letting your sarcasm slide without a response. “Let me make all of this up to you, please, I can make things right, tomorrow night?”

“It’s not as easy as that Taehyung, you have no idea how lonely I felt tonight. It was stupid, I spent hours staring out the window, yet you were here playing games, not thinking about me.”

“I honestly just forgot,” he assured you, moving closer towards you, “time ran away with me, we started messing around and I didn’t realise how late it was. Just, let me make this up to you, I promise I’ll do something special for the two of us, without forgetting.”

As much as you wanted to let everything go, you couldn’t, tough love was hard sometimes, but he’d hurt you more than he even realised, all the effort you’d gone to had been wasted, you never wanted someone to treat you this way in a relationship.

“You don’t understand Taehyung, I’ve sat around all night, and usually I’m understanding of how busy work can be, I’ve seen Hobi go through it all for so many years, but when you’re all here doing nothing but mess around, I can’t help but feel pushed aside, you’d rather just stay here with the boys then spend time with me.”

“That’s unfair, and not true,” he challenged, “of course, I want to spend time with you, I love you, this was nothing but a one-off mistake on my part.”

You glanced across at Hobi, who stared blankly back at you, then turning to face Taehyung. “The two of you are great together, Y/N’s just hurt right now, but you also know that Taehyung made a mistake, and he’s apologised for it as well.”

He knew the two of you all too well, but he knew what an incredible couple the two of you made as well, he hated seeing the two of you argue more than anyone else.

“I think I’m just going to go with Hobi tonight, I’m just annoyed right now, I need some time with him, someone who I know will always look after me.”

“I’ll always look after you, don’t be silly jagi.”

You smiled weakly across at Taehyung, he was right, he always did take care of you, except for tonight, tonight he’d left you feeling rejected and unwanted, those feelings were going to take time to get over and reconnect with.

“I’ll look after her Tae, don’t worry.”

He was reluctant to let you go, but as he looked into Hobi’s eyes, he knew it was probably going to be for the best. “Where will the two of you go? Back to his?”

Your head shook, “I’m quite hungry having been left alone when I had dinner plans, so I reckon the two of us could go and get some food, I’m starving.”

“Are you sure that’s what you want to do? You’re not doing it to be problematic, are you?”

You looked back at Taehyung; he was only starting to look as upset as you had done when you walked into the studio. Your head nodded, his heart sunk, he knew you were just getting back at him, but that didn’t make things any easier for him.

“If it’s what you want to do, we can drive to one of the restaurants down the road, but we should probably go now before they close,” he suggested to you.

You smiled, looking around at the boys, with the exception of Taehyung, grabbing his hand, walking out from the studio and down to his car.

“Y/N, I know he hurt you, but you’re hurting him to by being like this, don’t let this create too big of a wedge between you both, neither of you need that right now.”

“I want him to experience a night like me Hobi, then I’ll consider forgiveness.”

He’d learnt over the years not to argue with you, simply nodding his head, slipping into the driver’s seat of the car. “He might pretend to be strong, but he’s sensitive too, it was a genuine mistake he made tonight, just remember that whilst you’re with me tonight.”

“I know, and tomorrow I will talk to him, I just need some time with this one, he just left me there Hobi,” you reminded him.

“I know, but he loves you, and that’s what matters.”

---

Masterlist

#bts #bts imagine #taehyung #taehyung imagine #kim taehyung #v #v imagine #kim taehyung imagine #bts reaction #bts scenario #bts drabble #bts one shot #taehyung drabble #taehyung one shot #bts angst #bangtan #bangtan sonyeondan #kpop #kpop imagine

[jasperwhitcock]

Favorite Twilight blogs?

i’m always ready to answer this ask again because i love mentioning everyone i admire hehe. here are my fave blogs, my friends, & why they’re the best. ♡

@bellasredchevy ugh i love kae. do i have the power to appoint a ruler of the renaissance? no. but if i could... it’d be kae bc all her takes are the takes. i think her answers to asks are always either really funny and witty or just really smart. she’s super kind but she’s also a very no bullshit person because she’ll tell it like it is to shitty anons. she also has really cool life experiences that she’ll very casually mention and you’re like i’m sorry what. u worked w... tigers??? why can’t i let that go this is literally not the first time i’ve brought that up lmao. anyways, if kae told me to jump off a cliff (recreationally and recklessly), i’d do it. 

@inthemiddleofmymidnight i think kim is the first friend i made on here. she’s wonderful and insanely funny. maybe i’m just easy to make laugh but every story she tells truly makes me laugh out loud... and i’ll laugh again thinking about it later. she is truly a meme queen. her posts... chef’s kiss. also she will put team edward/team jacob shirts in ur animal crossing able’s sisters if u ask. i love u kimmie im ur biggest fan. also like me, kim would be afraid to dive off the cliff if we were cliff diving but then she’d be the one to PUSH me sdhjfhsj i just love her so much. her friendship literally means so much to me!!

@bellaskhakis nayana is the type to go from trashing edward relentlessly to simping for edward in 2 seconds. in real life she’s probably stressing over school but mentally she is in forks, wa in bella & edward’s lil cottage reading fanfiction. if u need recommendations, she’s got u. she’s a great listener & friend & her humor is like wonderfully chaotic. she’ll cry but then she’ll take that energy and drunk liveblog the twilight movies or buy a bunch of plants. if ur friends w her, she will send u all the funny tiktoks & that is LOVE. nay would think she would want to cliff dive but then need to talk herself into it while everyone else goes first and then realize she was the last person up there and freak out but then dive anyways

@cullen-collective omg kaity is such a great person to talk to. she’s like jacob – she’s an easy person to talk to. she listens but also really makes u feel comfortable & like u’ve been friends forever. kaity don’t read the rest of this paragraph i don’t want u to feel self conscious/overly self aware hehe BUT my fave part of kaity’s blogs as i’ve said to her before is like the literal stream of consciousness happening in her tags. why do i feel like kaity would run and JUMP. would she do a cannonball??? i would like to see it

@teamjacobthot my love for dij... unconditional. irrevocable. dee is just like COOL. why did i feel so lame saying that. she just has the best energy and i know i keep calling everyone funny but really dee is FUNNY. like kaity, she’s also the kind of person that i feel like you just automatically get along with & feel comfortable around. obviously we’re all here for fun but i feel like dee’s blog really embodies that fun like no other because either in her posts or notes or answers to asks... it’s the most chaotic unexpected topics that will truly kill u. im thinking of that freaking diarrhea ask she got that she just reblogged again... cursed. but i love her. look i’m not saying she WOULD bc i’m sure it’s probably much scarier once ur actually up there but i feel like dee would also be the instigator with cliff diving and do some kind of trick like a flip idk if she really would but MAYBE

@howlonghaveyoubeenseventeen emma is the ultimate sweetie. always down to talk abt cute dogs or painting or disney channel movies or how jacob is superior to all. she’s just precious and kind but ready to THROW DOWN for u in one second. i literally have been laughing at the same joke for like two weeks but when i said two hurricanes looked like they were coming towards houston she said “good thing i have two fists” shdusdjdkd. emma is the type of friend who would remind u that if u really don't want to jump off the cliff, don’t feel peer pressured bc u don’t have to. but then if u built up the courage, she’d be the one to hold ur hand and jump with u. ok i’m retiring the cliff diving thing i’m sorry i really RAN with that.

@kaquiche man i love taryn. i feel like taryn’s meme usage is always perfect & also she would definitely save ur life. she does ARCHERY ok she would protect us all in the event of a zombie apocalypse. i’m literally fighting the urge to say FUNNY again but it’s not my fault if everyone makes me LAUGH here. taryn’s one of the first people i remember seeing interact w my posts 🥺 she been supporting me since DAY ONE baby. i just love her. she’ll hype u up. she’ll always make u CRY with her twilight video edits. seriously if u want that emo twilight content to make u FEEL SOMETHING... this is who to follow.

@bellas-dumptruck-ass i love elaine and she’s going to laugh at me again but i really think elaine is so smart!!! like a genius... my brain could not process the info that she’s literally studying like it’s no big deal. elaine is so sweet ugh i keep saying that but everyone is just really super kindhearted here ok!! her username KILLS me. like i think this is truly peak comedy. her brand... it’s everything to me. classic memes & great tags.

@phil-dwyer-stan-account addison is SO SO nice and understanding and sensitive. if nayana is in bella & edward’s cottage reading, addison is in there baking bread and cookies and brownies. she’s beautiful and sweet and silly and has the disney channel TEA you didn’t know you needed. she’s another person that will instantly befriend you. she’ll go out of her way to really let you know that she admires you & is excited to be ur friend. the actual definition of a sweetheart. is she the real life esme?? she might be

@volturialice g... i’m lowkey her biggest fan. name a post that didn’t go off...i’ll wait. like literally all of her memes will make u laugh. u know what?? g IS the twilight renaissance. her latest midnight sun posts have especially been making me die and if you’re new here, she’s probably like one of the first blogs u have to follow. every time i see her username in my notifications... my heart is FAT 💗 also she writes fanfics so if ur looking for twilight fanfiction, she has a bunch & also a rec!!

@leahclearwaterdefensesquad kate is so kind & one of my go to people for tag games, but kate is ALWAYS providing the leah content that we NEED. also the lesbian twilight ship moodboards and PLAYLISTS. i also really appreciate how kate & @vampireguarddogs are always some of the first blogs i see that boost a lot of important talking points related to the series on racism. bc if you’re going to be in this fandom, there’s a lot you need to make sure you’re educated on since this series is problematic. like we’re all here to be nostalgic and have fun but we can’t do that whilst ignoring relevant conversations. dee & kae also always have great takes in these discussions too!

@edytheelizabethcullen ok i’m going to try & wrap this up bc i’ve been going on forever and there’s a lot of blogs i really love & admire, but i’ll finish by saying that alex is an actual angel and so intelligent and charming and u will have great conversations about the series with her!!

#sorry for this LONG ASS POST but u asked #ask #anon #faves

[ellaofoakhill]

My Thoughts on Boxes

Something has kinda been bugging me the last little while, that I like to think a lot of people can relate to. We live in a society that, generally speaking, likes putting things into boxes; we like analyzing and sorting and organizing. And there’s nothing really wrong with that in and of itself--frankly, I could stand to do a lot more of it in the more practical aspects of my life--but such a system only really works with things that easily fit into discreet categories, and the things that aren’t or can’t be easily sorted are either forced into a box where they don’t fit, or left adrift without any real place to be.

In particular, I’m talking about fiction. You have numerous genres that multiply by the day, and the age categories that stories within those genres are deemed suitable for. And don’t get me wrong, there are lots of practical reasons for those categories; they make advertising and the organization of bookstores and libraries dramatically easier, and for most stories, this system works great, with each finding the audience most likely to derive benefit from reading it.

But--again, solely my opinion here--this may have produced stories that are a lot flatter than stories written in previous eras (which had their own problems, I will NOT get into that today). By flat, I don’t mean boring, or a failure of the story. I mean that the story feels like it was changed to fit into the category it most closely matched. In the most egregious examples, I feel like things were either added to a story that did nothing for it besides make it fit its box better, or taken out that were either integral to the story or added a depth and breadth to it that improved the work overall, even if that made it harder to sort.

This makes me think of the Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch quote, “Murder your darlings”, but completely opposite to what he was getting at. The general interpretation is “Even if you like a given piece of writing/painting/sculpture/etc., if it does more bad than good for your work, you need to remove it for the sake of the art.” What I feel is happening is “You need to change your story so it fits the target demographic, no matter what it looks like at the end.” The former serves the story and its spirit; the latter sacrifices the story for... I don’t know, ease of advertising, perhaps? Certainly financial gain is involved there.

So my first argument against this jaded, greedy way of thinking runs thus. Look at the stories that are now considered classics of Western literature: look at Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice; look at White Fang and Call of the Wild; look at Dracula and Frankenstein; look at The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia (no, I couldn’t resist throwing in two classic fantasy titles, and no, I won’t apologize for it). If you haven’t read these stories, you probably should. Yes, they have problems that mark them as products of their time, but every last one of them has one thing in common: none of them were written with a box in mind. We’ve thought of lotr as a fantasy staple for so long that we’ve forgotten that, prior to its popularity, fantasy as a genre wasn’t really a thing. There were fairy-tales, yes, and stories with fantastical elements, but a genre of story with precise conventions? Not really.

Let’s zoom in on Tolkien’s work, for a moment. Look at his world and its origins, and it draws heavy inspiration from Old English and Scandinavian myths and legends. Look at his characters, in particular his four hobbits, and he drew from his love of the English countryside, his respect for the common working man (Sam, the gardener, literally carries Frodo, the wellbred young gentleman, on his shoulders in the final leg of their gruelling journey to the Cracks of Doom), and his horrific experiences in the First World War. Hilariously enough, a big part of the reason he wrote the stories was as a self-justification for his indulgence in and lifelong love affair with language invention (look at the huge appendices at the back of The Return of the King and tell me I’m lying!). Read his work and any and all interviews with him, and a “genre box” seems clearly to have never crossed his mind.

Putting aside the genre box for a moment, let’s talk age categories. The Hobbit was a story he invented for his children, and it does show. Look at the Lord of the Rings, and it is clearly at a higher level of reading comprehension, and written for a more mature audience; there’s less silliness, though he keeps the wonder at this wild, magical world. But where to put it? The hobbits run a spectrum from basically teenagers (Pippin) to almost middle age (Frodo is in his fifties when he embarks on his journey to Rivendell), yet they’re clearly his protagonists, though we also see some narration revolving around Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, all of whom are adults, though the latter two are somewhat younger for their respective races, whereas Aragorn is in his eighties (this being offset somewhat by the fact that he lives to over two hundred, but I digress...). We’re told today (falsely; VERY falsely) that the main character(s) should match the age of their target audience. Where does lotr fit, then, in terms of age category?

The answer you’re looking for is: not really very well anywhere; at least, not according to modern convention. As for my personal experience, I could and did read both The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion at age thirteen. I consider myself a fairly intelligent young man, but I was varying degrees of lost when I read those. When I re-read them as an adult I was fine, but that isn’t to imply that teens shouldn’t be reading lotr, far from it. There’s nothing in them content-wise one wouldn’t reasonably expect a teenager to handle, and there’s a lot of good, powerful story and commentary in there that’s relevant to this day.

My point is, the age category doesn’t really matter. If I may shamelessly plug my own work for a moment, when I was first writing tftem, and even as I’m editing and publishing it now, I wondered and still wonder about this age category business. There is nothing in these stories I’d consider inappropriate for kids, and anyone above the age of about 8, with perhaps a slight stretch to their vocabulary, could comfortably read every story beginning to end. Further complicating matters, my beta readers ranged from 8 to almost 80, and most of the spectrum in between. They all liked it; whether they liked it for the same reasons is moot.

Which leads me into my second argument against boxing and categorizing stories. The boxes aren’t very reliable. If I may change media for a moment, cultural convention says, as an adult, there is only a narrow sleazy strip of cartoon entertainment I should be watching and enjoying. That tiny slice of the cartoon pie is the only slice I avoid like the plague. Yes, there are stories that don’t appeal to me because they’re too simplistic, or are problematic in ways that I find repellent, or just aren’t executed very well, but aside from things aimed at toddlers and the aforementioned “adult” cartoons, any cartoon is fair game. Give me an interesting concept, or a fascinating character, or hell just give me a good laugh or line of dialogue or beautiful fight scene, and I’ll give it a try.

My point is (yes I had one, and no, believe it or not I didn’t forget it), don’t write or draw or create with a box in mind. You will murder the spirit of your darlings. The box does not exist to define what you, the writer, are allowed to do, or what you should do. At best, the box exists in hindsight, once the work is done, to tell your prospective audience whether your story was written for them. And even then, lots of fantastic stories don’t sit well in boxes. Some of them actively rip the boxes to pieces. Lotr is a story that transcends boxes, and as a result has many layers and rabbit-holes and nuances that you can pick up when you’re ready to appreciate them, however old you are. In many ways, it’s ageless.

I didn’t write tftem to emulate Tolkien, nor even as an homage to him, or C.S. Lewis, or anyone else. But I did want to write a similarly ageless story, a story that could be read and appreciated a hundred years from now, by an audience of eight-year-olds or octogenarians. Why did we ever start moving away from stories like this? They were the foundation of stories for as long as stories have existed on Earth. People are still reading and marvelling at The Epic of Bloody Gilgamesh!

Tl;dr: don’t try to force your stories into boxes; they suffocate. Write what you enjoy writing; chances are it’ll live longer.

#writing #my posts #the box must fit the story not the other way around #on writing #on publishing #tolkien #lotr #my thoughts on the industry and its flaws

[i-am-just-a-kiddo]

fic tag game

thank you so much for tagging me @cortue 💕 it’s always nice to hear about other people’s writing process/thoughts. i am tagging my dear @vishcount of course. anyone else who wants to share about their writing, feel free to do this and tag me in your post! 

Name: iamjustakiddo i just decided to stick with my tumblr username because i’m not really creative with my own nicknames. and honestly, i don’t mind just being kiddo online. 

Fandoms: during 2019-2020 i was most active in The Untamed fandom, though i have been taking a break lately. i still have some stories left that i wish to tell, so i hope some time in the future i can return to this universe. this fandom gave me so much, especially having so much fun with my dear friend vishie. i have a lot of fics for BTS as well, though it’s been a while since i wrote something there. all of them are AUs and i just enjoy drawing inspiration from the boys. last year i also dabbled with YYY The Series, Winter Begonia, Hwarang and Nirvana In Fire - all of these have been very fun, eventhough those were only a smaller projects. I also have an ongoing story for Narnia which i updated recently. Currently I have a WIP for Original Sin and my silly comic for Strangers From Hell - both of those i will never publish. And for the past two-three years I’ve had this idea stuck in my head for ATLA, so i hope i can get this down on paper at some point finally.  it’s interesting that i have dabbled in so many different fandoms recently, which is unusual for me? i link this to my difficulties with writing. sometimes i wonder if i should return at all or just give up. but i miss it too much, so i have not given up hope yet

Tropes: I don’t think i write any particular tropes? i write a lot of angst, a lot of introspection and character studies. i love slow burn, though i never actually manage to write ‘proper’ slowburn so it always feels too short. i love friends to lovers or enemies to friends to lovers. i love writing stories that are bittersweet. i guess recently i have become interested in writing relationships with more problematic sides to them, exploring these kinds of dynamics that feel very heavy? i am not sure why, but it’s interesting.  i guess the one proper trope my friend pointed out for me was Drunk Kissing, because apparently that happens a lot in my fics. 

Fic I spent most time on: Take Me Into Your Skin this is a BTS Mafia AU i wrote back in 2018 and took me half a year (Jan - Aug) to write, excluding the epilogue which i posted a year later. it was the first multichaptered fanfiction i had ever written and i still can’t believe it became more than 160k words in the end. the story feels silly at parts and i would probably change a lot now, but i am still very proud of it

Favorite fic you’ve written: it’s definitely my niemo (Nie Huaisang/Mo Xuanyu) which i wrote march-june 2020 and it left something aching in my heart ever since. it was a very intense process, but i feel proud of it. i did the best i can, poured so much time and energy into giving these two characters a story. it was a sad, heartbreaking journey which made canon only worse for me, but i still enjoyed the process. it will forever stay with me, probably. 

additionally i want to mention my silla taegi AU, because i had ton of fun doing proper historical research for that and creating more historical gay angst. 

Fic I spent least time on: To Wish Impossible Things it’s a taegi 70s-90s AU, about their reunion as adults after breaking up when they were teenagers. i wrote this story in one afternoon and posted it on the same evening? i think that was the only time something like this happened. usually i am not this spontaneous. but i enjoyed writing this so much and the scenario just didn’t leave my mind - writing a meeting between two adults, remembering their youth. it was so nice and i adored making the playlist for it as well. i think today i would go back and check for more historical accuracies because i did not research for this, but i forgive myself.

Longest fic: the previously mentioned Mafia AU with 167.535 words and 20 chapters. 

Shortest fic: my snippet for hwarang’s yeowool/hanseong with 777 words. today i regret that i could only write such a short piece for them, but that was the time my writing slump began showing signs and i truly did not have the capacity to give them what they deserve.

Most hits/kudos/comments/bookmarks: amongst all of these, my mafia AU wins again - the only exception is heart made of glass, my first wangxian post-canon fic i wrote, which has the most kudos. i never really understood why, but i guess i had good timing posting so early while ao3 did not have many fics for the untamed yet. 

Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: precious stone & fine jade - this is a oneshot i wrote for Wen Ning & Song Lan. i list this here because i have actually planned to write more for them, since i realised i need more. i always loved the idea of them befriending each other, sharing the fate of being undead in this world and yet dealing with it so differently? i want to write more about their relationship in my universe. am excited to see where it takes me and in actuality, i just want to see them hug. 

another one would be remedy, surging sea - it’s a oneshot for princess sook myung/ahro from hwarang. i just wish i could give these girls a proper story and make up for the mess hwarang left me with. this oneshot only gives a glimpse of what i have imagined for them and i wish i could expand the story properly. 

Share a bit of a WIP: i have a ton of WIPs but i am writing nothing currently. so i am not sure what to share here? i have shared my halted original sin project last time and now i have a few the untamed wips floating around that i don’t want to share. i have no current writing project but maybe i can talk about my strangers from hell comic? 

it’s a very silly idea, but i am drawing/painting this comic for jongwoo’s revenge arc. i am basically following the same trope as hannibal - jongwoo gaining moon-jo’s trust, becoming his ally and betraying him in the end. i will never finish this project, but that’s what i want to do, theoretically. i have the story and 15 pages outlined, but have actually drawn only 5,5 pages. after jongwoo’s betrayal and moon-jo’s heartbreak, i want these two characters to finally be on equal footing. their third act would be reconciliation and maybe true allyship.  thank you for tagging me again. it makes me miss writing but also makes me proud of things i have already done. 

#another one done #it's always fun #though i am feeling so bitter #every day i think: maybe today is the day #that i will return to writing #and i never do #sigh #tag game #writings #personal

[battybumboy]

But he was falling |Pt 2 | Thomas Thorne

Part two of And he was falling. I decided that leaving this story on a cliff hanger wasn’t fair. :p

There isn’t any other ghosts characters xReaders that I know of on the Internet... sooo... I had to make more!

Thomas Thorne x Female reader

Find and read part one here! :

Enjoy part 2!- xx 🍯

______________________________

Two glassy eyes look at the figure opposite them “Henry?”

“You shouldn’t be here! You’re a criminal!”

“I came to see you! You know how painful this day is!”

“You have no rights to be sad! You’re involved with the thing that caused this mess! You’ve picked your side!”

“I didn’t only travel here for that! I came to see you as well!”

“You shouldn’t have bothered! You need to leave!”

___

“L/N?”

“L/N?”

The pirate jumped at the feeling of someone tapping her shoulder and was immediately brought back to her senses by the dozens of eyes that were looking at her with expectant gazes.

“I’m sorry chaps, I must’ve started daydreaming. Repeat the question?” The other ghost, Julian, groaned in mild annoyance as the other ghosts sighed along with him.

“Who do you think would win a game of chess when we were alive. Me, or Pat?”

“Oh, uhm... that depends on how much chess you both played in your lives. Well, I knows that Pat was a man who liked many ‘a game so Pat I suppose. No hard feelings Julian- it’s just that if you were to play during your life... it would soon evolve into more than a game of chess.” This was met with a moment of agreeing murmers.

“I see your reasoning and I must say, you’re quite right.” The MP replied, “You know, one night, me and Margot- we were having a spot of chess- and, you see, we were slightly tipsy after having... one to many glasses of wine and I- we-” Julian’s speech was suddenly interrupted with a number of groans from his peers, all attention now lost from Y/N, “Anecdote, people! I’m telling an anecdote!”

“Yes. Very good, Julian. Now that this silly debate is over, which has gone on- quite frankly- long enough, we can get on with what I have to say.” The Captain spoke, “Right. I have a complaint about something we all know has been going on for quite a while now...” he paused to look at the blank faces surrounding him before resting his eyes on a particular person, “What ever is the matter, Thorne! You’ve been- sitting around like a pile of melancholy limbs ever since that argument we had! If this is about what I said, please know that it was a heat of the moment thing.”

“Oh no... it’s quite alright. In fact, it rather opened my eyes to the subject of my love for Alison.” This to was met with an ovation of groans as the poet continued, “I’ve realised that Micheal and Alison’s love is a bond unbreakable by a hand of no flesh. I shall cease my wooing for no where will it get me if I want the love of another but Alison. Me and Alison were so close, yet so far. Our ships are never to get closer, yet lie in the same port on opposite sides of the dock. I know that although my heart will suffer... I’m doing the right thing and everything will be ok.”

“Wow...” came the small reply from Julian as everyone looked at Thomas, his head bowed and eyes closed softly. An overwhelmed silence lay over the other ghosts as they looked upon their most irritating housemate in shock

“That’s a lot of emotional baggage.” Julian continued, causing Y/N to lightly hit his shin with the toe of her boot before giving him a half amused glare.

“Yes, t’was what I thoughts. Lots and lots of emotions.” Chipped in Mary.

“Quite melodramatic If you ask me.”

“Well it’s a good thing no one did then, isn’t it, Cap?” Y/N replied, playfully.

“It’s Cap-tain” the Captain answered back, fondly.

“Did I stutter?” she winked playfully before turning back to face the majority of the crowd before Pat spoke up,

“I believe it was very brave of you to share that Thomas.”

“Oh pl-ease! It’s not like there’s anything he doesn’t share with us!” commented the mildly amused MP,

“I think it’s healthy for people to share their worries with the people they love!” Kitty replied, as always the sweet ball of sunshine,

“I seconds!” Exclaimed the peasant Stuart lady,

“Quite” Lady Button responded

“Well I do keep some things to myself.” The poet said, a soft smirk on his features for proving the politician wrong.

“Really? Like what?”

“That would be none of your concern, Julian.”

“But come on!”

“One hasn’t the must to share every woe they bare, ought they plead not to” Y/N chided, always the voice of reason.

“Easy for you to say, Captain Secretive! We don’t even know your first name!”

“Tell that to Cap over there.” She responded, rolling her eyes so hard that, if she were to roll them any harder, they’d have fallen out of her head,

“It’s... Cap-TAIN, L/N!”

“She has a point though, Captain.”

“She only told us her name because I was also a captain and you can only call one of us captain.”

“I felt the need not to be problematic... if the newly dead were to kick a fuss then it’s curtious to fix the problem they mewl ‘bout” Y/N said, before winking for the second time that hour.

“Yes but most of these lot went two, maybe three, centuries without any clue of your name.”

“Guys! Please! Settle down! Secrets of our lives can be kept a secret, secrets in general can be kept as secrets.” Pat said, directing the last part to the forgotten poet of whome was looking more more conflicted by each jab the other three ghosts threw at each other.

“A lady always keeps a secret!” Came Fanny’s stern reply,

“Aye, thank you, Lady Button.” the pirate replied, sending a grateful smile at the lady whome was only older in appearance, yet so much younger in age.

“I believe that the only secrets that should be shared are ones at sleepovers about people you have feelings for and want to start pining but need advice on how even though it might be unaccepted because of reasons to do with religion...oh and the secret that you ate or stole something you shouldn’t have” Kitty exclaimed, still smiling.

“That was oddly specific, Kitty.” Lady Button responded, eying the happy Georgian woman.

“Oh yeah, that’s because I once ate more cheese than I was supposed to” she said with a giggle as the rest of the room looked at the naive woman, brows raised,

“Not that one, Kitty, the other one.” Fanny corrected

“Oh? Oh yes! Does a bit... Just make sure the person your pining isn’t at the sleepover. That would be awkward... oh and the friends you’re with are ones that are trustworthy- people might tell the church.”

“Does there be witches?” Asked Mary, looking at Kitty’s faultering smile before a look of nervousness,

“Oh, I hope not. Well, at least I don’t think so.”

“Rights”

“I think they have by now”

“What?”

“Oh, you were just saying right...”

“Well, I agree with Katherine. Secrets that are held close can be kept secret”

“But t’isn’t the greatest sin to ask advice and spead few ‘a rumour on the status of ones love life.” Y/N countered

“On the subject of love, all of us love food... and that leads us on to food club!” Pat exclaimed excitedly

“Whoopie-doo” came The Captain’s sarcastic response before Mary stood up to tell the group about the best way to make butter.

“Thorne?” Y/N whispered quietly to her melancholy friend

“Hm?”

“Remember... if you need to talk, ‘bout anything at all...”

“Right- yes... I’ll.. tell you.”

The poet kept mentally denying the fact that he was slowly but surely catching feelings for his housemate but the nagging at his mind never stopped... neither did the frantic butterflys in his chest or the urge to be near her. But he resided in the fact that it would possibly go away and turn out to be a silly phase. At least he hoped, for his heart couldn’t bare to be rejected... not again.

He looked at her soft features and felt a twinge in his quiet heart. Thomas couldn’t help but smile at her softly; He didn’t want to love again...

But he was falling

____________________________________

I hope you liked part two! Part one did ok so I’m making it into a series! -🍯xx

Part 3-

#reader insert #fluffy #six idiots #bbcghosts #bbc ghosts #bbc #ghosts #thomas thorne x reader #matt baynton x reader #piarate!reader #part 2 #thomas thorne #the captain #the captain is y/ns gay bestie #y/n is best mates with everyone #ok im soft for loving friendships #bisexual!kitty #but only if you squint #if you squint you can see #kittyxmary #y/n is best friends with julian too #kitty is very gay rights y’know? #gosh i love these babies

[new-world-hope]

I have a vague sense of tentative excitement for the Fallout series for a lot of reasons.

I've been waiting for something like this for like a decade

I have a vague appreciation for Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, even though I thought Westworld rapidly became too silly

The Expanse still seems to have held onto most of its identity when transitioning over to Amazon, is still good despite it, etc.

The opportunity to tell different kinds of stories in the Fallout universe is incredibly exciting! Wayside Creations proved that years ago with Nuka Break, and I feel like this would open the doors for novels, comics, etc.

However. Boy was Westworld, uh... silly? Westworld is a show that tries its hardest to seem smarter than it actually is, which is fine, I think faux-intellectual blockbusters are a great concept, but at the end of the day it's just a very silly show. Its constant need to mind-fuck the audience became exhausting after only two seasons, and my only hope for the same creative team behind a Fallout show is that they don't, like... do that.

I'm also worried they'll take a grimdark angle with the series' tone in order for it to stand out, or to have some focus-tested, Walking Dead-style "mass appeal." I think that's stupid and I don't think they'll do it, but the worry is there.

One of my biggest non-Amazon concerns is that they'll try to adapt the plot of one of the games. I don't think they should do that at all. That's always a mistake, it's why video game movies never work and is especially problematic for RPGs, where the player should have control over who the protagonist is. I guess, to be kind of fair, they already did that with the Vault Dweller and Fallout 1 when they canonized a version of that character and the game's story, so that's sort of already fair game. I just think there are a lot of other stories you could tell in the universe, more suitable to an episodic narrative.

But also just... Amazon. I worry about everything involved with Amazon. I'm still worried about The Expanse moving forward, and I'm worried that a lot of Fallout's main themes will shaved off to suit the corporation behind it. I also just fucking viscerally loathe everything about Amazon, and living in Seattle the past year and a half has only compounded that. But Fallout has been so incredibly critical of Americana from the word go, and its anticapitalism has always been a huge part of that, so the fact that it was picked up by Amazon... the irony is almost unbelievable.

But also, seeing "Executive Producer: Todd Howard" in the opening credits of every episode is too funny to pass up.

At the end of the day, the best way to move forward is to just have no expectations whatsoever, I think.

[into-september]

I’m putting this up as a separate post in case you decide the tea was too hot and take it down after all. But I’m also posting this becaues, well. I feel like this is at least in part my fault for having spammed my followers over the weekend *g*

I’ll just stress that point of complaint wasn’t “marichat bad, ladrien good”, but the fact that a good number of people go into ladrien spaces for NO OTHER REASON than to inform people that they don’t like it, which you don’t see nearly as often with the other sides of the love square - and that this is weird and looks unpretty indeed when you consider that the reversed situation is by far the most popular one among fans.

And with that out of the way, let’s talk shipping.

Ship civil wars are stupid and it isn’t even as if I dislike marichat per say. It just needs to be done exceedingly well in fic for me to buy it. Adrien has made it very clear that he wants to be loved as Adrien, not as Cat Noir (the silly daydream in “Frozer” and the reason those 25913 times happened); if he were to fall for Marinette, he’d romance her as himself, not as his anonymous superhero fursona. Likewise for Marinette: if she were to return Cat Noir’s feelings, she’d owe up to it as Ladybut, not start some kind of weird romantic subterfuge and lie even more to him. Marichat in itself isn’t something I’d have a problem shipping; it’s the context of ladynoir, adrinette and ladrien surrounding it that makes it hard for me believe it happening unless it’s an AU setting of some sort.

There is also, yes, the bit about the trope of “normal girl being wooed by special boy” getting incredibly old by now. (and, depending on how much you read into that, the problematic gender roles inherent to that setup) 

If I ever had a problem with marichat as a ship, then it would honestly be that it is incredibly FANON. I don’t mean that in the “it’s not romantic in canon” way ( god only knows that has never stopped me from shipping something) - the thing is that so much marichat content is built on a consensus of events that don’t exist in canon. You rightfully brought up the fact that LB and CN don’t do patrols in the show, and I’ll gladly be the one to say it: Cat Noir doesn’t regularly hang out on Marinette’s balcony to play video games and eat cookies. He came by once. In a moment where he had been twice let down and was seeking the comfort of a friendly face that happened to be within his field of vision. This could be argued to set a precedent for fic to follow, but fact is: in canon, it hasn’t. Marinette and Cat Noir aren’t the comiserating best buds of so many a marichat fic. If anything annoys me with the “best parts of all the love square” lists, it’s whatever people say about marichat. Because in canon, the thing we know about the relationship between Marinette-as-Marinette and Adriend-as- Cat Noir is that they get along as expected from people who are friends all four times they interact. And that’s all there is to it.

Which oddly enough touches onto something more general which I’ve long tried to vocalise about shipping.

Because here’s the thing with ladrien: IT EXISTS. There is an established relationship there, even though both parts are ignorant about it. It’s the epitome of soft pining; it’s the peak of bittersweet, because they both love each other but they don’t know that it’s reciprocated and they can’t say it because Secret Identities. That alone is enough to make this ship instantly 10x more fascinating to me, without even getting into how it would be the simultaneously happiest but also angstiest way for the two of them to come together. I’ll leave the rest of the gushing over this overlooked gem of a romance-that-never-was for another post, because you made one point that struck a note I’ve often considered myself: The appeal of the hypothetical.

Once upon a time when I was young and stupid and in fandoms with closed canons, I had honest problems seeing the appeal in doing ship things for canon pairings. What’s the point? What is there to explore if you already know how they fell in love, know how they got together, know what the relationship between them would be like?

Obviously, Adrien and Marinette don’t compare, because the only time we saw them interact as a couple was an episode where they had LITERALLY been deprived of their identities thanks to a mindwiping akuma and drew the wrong-but-right conclusions based on circumstantial evidence. Adrien and Marinette aren’t a couple, but given the fact that they indisputably would be under different circumstances, it’s honestly kind of hard to argue that they’re not canon. He loves her and she loves him, but a lot of those questions applying to non-canon couples still apply to them. We've seen one variation of them getting together that won’t run a second time, we’ve seen them as a couple when the only thing they knew about themselves were their names and the fact that they sure had a lot of pictures of each other, huh. But we know a lot about how they’d be in love. We know what it looks like for ladrien, for adrinette, for ladynoir. We know how that story goes.

But not for marichat. In fact, the marichat relationship is borderline non-existent in canon beyond the the bare bones that he’s the hero of Paris and she happens to be his friend IRL. And the very fact that it is non-existent might well be a boon for the fans: it leaves them completely free to imagine how it would come about. Transformative fandom is about filling in the blancs left in canon, and marichat has a lot more of those blancs than the other corners of the love square. All the while, it maintains the starting point of how fiercely these two care about each other - and the bonus that once the masks come off, the happy ending is a go.

(even if a lot of those blancs are a lot less empty than fans seem to think, thanks to adrinette and ladynoir very much existing and very much defining both characters. but that is a tale for a different day)

#miraculous ladybug #fandom #mlb meta #blah

[elizabethsharmon]

Now that s5 has ended what do you think about it? I remember seeing you be quite vocal about the season and then you just stopped and I was just wondering what your general opinion is. Did the fandom scare you away? :(

hey there! I kind of stopped being so loud about the show here cause at some point I just gave up about s5 and don’t worry, it would take a lot for fandom to scare me away and i’ll be back with my usual bullshit in 2 weeks with s6 clip by clip reactions ✌️ anyway, i was going through my archive while writing this to remind myself of what happened in each clip and what were mine and fandom’s reactions to it and somehow when I started writing this, it turned out I can’t stop and it got quite long so I'mputting it under read more:

So first of all may I just say that the trailer/firstclip was one of my favourite clips of all times. It was just SO GOOD and to meit was like a dream come true cause I was talking about dropping a clip andstarting a season on New Year since July AND THEY DID IT AND IT WAS E P I C,such a power move, I love it. Honestly everything worked there, the music wasamazing, it was so wonderful to see both squads partying together, it wasperfect, 11/10.

Then the season started and I absolutely loved thefirst two episodes, we really started to get into Arthur's head, to get to knowhim and his family, find out how insecure he is and how well he's hidingeverything from others, and Arthur and Alexia clips!!!! They worked so welltogether and were so cute and supportive, I said it back then that if they ruinthem I will never forgive them for that because what was the point of makingthem a couple in the first place?? I still don't understand that, I don't thinkI ever will... Fast forward to the first Wednesday of the season aka underwatermale gaze aka the moment I knew we're in for a ride and it won't be a goodone... When the clip started I was over the moon, I'm a swimming hoe myself andI loved that they used the pool for actual swimming, the cinematography wasbeautiful and I loved that they found a way to incorporate Lisa into the story.That was until Arthur dived and saw Noee... and sadly, this was the firstmoment I emotionally yeeted out from the season. Don't even get me started howwrong it was - 1. using the pool which is a sacred place in the show’smythology; 2. using piano music; 3. peak male gaze, objectifying Noee, andArthur staring at her even though HE HAD A GIRLFRIEND; they were setting it upas a love triangle from the beginning and after those 10+ weeks I still havethe same question about it as I had back then: why. It was also the first timefandom started to be hostile and the shipping war began, some people werecoming to my and my friends' inboxes, sending us anons to stop thinking theworse about Arthur, that love triangle will definitely not happen and thatDavid explained on his insta that they used the setting of pool in another waythan it was used in og s3... Well, jokes on you cause we were right. Anyway thatWednesday clip was to me the first red flag of the season, the first momentwhen some people started attacking others, when the fandom police started formingand suddenly you couldn't say anything because someone would jump on you andsend hate.

But I decided to let it slide, hoping that they reallywouldn't go there (spoiler alert: they did) and then we got Friday clips withelu housewarming (i'm still emo!!!) and Arthur losing his hearing permanently.It was absolutely heartbreaking to find out he lost hearing in his left ear 2years ago, it was a real game changer back then and suddenly everything changed- why he was looking at Alexia so intently, why he didn't cover his left ear atnye party, etc. I absolutely LOVED the way they handled the topic at thebeginning with Jerome explaining everything to Arthur and to us and I LOVED thepositive discourse it started within the fandom with deaf/hoh people teachingothers and explaining things without getting mad at silly questions - tbh to meit was one of the best parts of the first half of the season and I'm reallygrateful for it ❤️

Sunday clips with gang were one of my favourite in theseason, I think Arthur took us all by surprise when he went to elu's flat totell the guys that he can't hear and they were chaotic and supporting andamazing and wow, I really don't understand what the fuck happened and wherethey disappeared in the second half of the season. I loved that they hinted aturbex king Eliott and I kinda feel like that might come back in s6....... butanyway. The 7 amclips were absolutely one of the highlights of the season. They helped to buildsome sort of routine and Robin absolutely nailed them, I could feel howpowerless and more frustrated he was feeling AND I also felt betrayed that wedidn't get one on Thursday and Friday. Even though after the first pool clip Iwas dreading every single next clip there, I really liked that they were showingus that Arthur goes there every Wednesday, it really helped to get inside hishead and to understand him more and I kinda wish they hadn't stopped thatbecause it would be a really power move to keep showing that. Alexia in episode2 was just WOW, i can't believe there were people who were saying she andArthur don't have chemistry or that he should break up with her because she'snot supportive - well, she proved you all wrong. Too bad Arthur was too dumband self-absorbed to appreciate that.

BASILE/ARTHUR FRIENDSHIP. All their clips were solovely and heartwarming, I loved how different Basile was in Arthur's pov toBasile we knew at the beginning of s3; when he didn't want to leave Arthuruntil he said back that he loves him :'))) wholesome. I kinda wish we got tosee more of those two, they're definitely hanging out just the two of them andthat's what was lacking for me, those 3 or so clips of just the two of thembeing wholesome buddies were great but they were not enough.

The party clip on Thursday of ep2 was great, I lovedhow they're giving us little insights of deaf/hoh community and showing usArthur getting drawn to it. I wish that it wasn't overshadowed by love triangleand we got more of it, but I'll be back to it later...

Now, episode 3 and 4 were strong in the term of clipsbut those two weeks were incredibly boring when you were watching it in realtime. The breaks were too long, there were three clipless days each episodewith hardly any social media update and at times it made me forget about theshow completely. The bar clip in ep3 was great until they started sayingproblematic shit and tbh I was really starting to stress over Eliott then -first we got a hint that housewarming party was canceled because he wasn't feelingwell, now over a week later he's not feeling well again and Lucas' "he'smy boyfriend and i love him" was very cute and I loved it but it alsostarted to lead to misery porn and this dread didn't leave me until the end ofthe season and I'm still worried that it will play a part in s6 and it won't behandled well (disclaimer: this is not about the fact that they're talking aboutEliott's MI, it's about how Lucas started to act like a martyr and the way theystarted to show him acting almost like Lucille).

Episode 3 was also the time when I think it becameobvious that Arthur's short outburst of communication was gone and we'll haveto deal with next few weeks of miscommunication, sulking and hiding. Beginningof ep4 was another moment for me when I wanted to escape from this seasonbecause of the fandom police - they created as hostile atmosphere for the fanswatching in real time as druck stans did during s3, when you couldn't commentanything or say anything without other people jumping on you, calling you outand hating you, that for a moment again I was ready to give up on the show. Ireally wish I had done it.

As much as I liked stupid gang content in thecafeteria the whole clip was kinda odd and the 1,5 days break between the clipand laser tag was too much. I feel like the pacing in episode 4 really didn'twork in their favour and the clips could've been placed in another order sothat the breaks weren't so long. The laser tag was such a strong clip withbeautiful cinematography and colouring and it showed us Arthur's problems withsensory overload and again - I wish we could find out more about it because inthe end the clip was too short and cut abruptly only for Arthur to go to Noeeto see her dance in a scene that was pure male gaze, where the camera lingeredon her flat, bare stomach, a few times showing close up of her boobs. And yes.I am aware sing language is a bodily language. But the thing is that itcould've been shown differently, without so many objectifying shots, with Noeewearing different clothes, without Arthur staring at her with his jaw dropped.Arthur who - may i remind you - had a girlfriend at that time. I can watchgore, I can watch open surgeries, I can watch blood, and fight, and beating,and all that without the blink of the eye. i could barely watch the clip ofNoee dancing. I've never felt so sick after watching something in my life, Ihad to go offline for a few hours cause I was feeling so unwell. This was sucha fucked up scene to film in such a way, to objectify her, to use male gaze, touse piano music, slow motion, man looking at her in a predatory way, and thisscene was so wrong on so many levels itself but when you add to it the factthat Alexia NEVER got scenes like that and all her dancing scenes showed her basicallyas a quirky friend having fun at parties. And that's disgusting.

But let's move on to episode 5. I loved all the scenesin the asso, I loved that they showed Arthur actually going to LSF classes, Iloved how he confronted his father about it later. Though episode 5 was alsothe start of the boy squad becoming brainless idiots, lying to his friend,plotting behind his back, going to a concert without him. Episode of beautifulcinematography and skating scene that I watched trying not to think about thefact that Arthur is basically having a date with another girl while hisgirlfriend is studying for her bac, of an oblivious guy not wanting to stop itbefore it's too late and everyone's hearts will be broken.... I loved that hesnapped at the guys in the detention clip. I liked the following clip withAlexia, when they made her talk about her insecurities, showed us how strongshe is but also how fragile she is at the same time. But that Sunday of episode6 was the moment I ultimately realized I don't care any more about this season.It was already ruined for me. Alexia opening up, Alexia asking Arthur aboutNoee and him saying the worst ableist shit ever, Arthur breaking Noee'sheart... Those three clips made me realize that for me it's too late, thedamage is done, and I won't be able to enjoy this season for real. Alexia wasbound to get her heart broken, I was pitying Noee because it wasn't her fault aguy she had a crush on kept on leading her for weeks, and Arthur... I dislikedhim more and more and I just wanted it to be over.

I loved all clips with Laura and Melchior, the playfuldynamic in their interactions with Arthur was one of the best things of theseason and I can't stop but think that we could've had the same thing but withArthur, Noee, and Camille. Meanwhile Noee was reduced to manic pixie dreamgirl, a homewrecker, a plot device, and Camille was there only to translate(and later to be Mika's boyfriend). I really liked the clip with Noee andArthur reading her letter about cochlear implant, it was very informative andit was the kind of content I really wanted to see in this season. The onlything I hated about it - which was a recurring theme in clips with Noee... - isthat Arthur kept forgetting about Alexia and this was so unfair to her.

Now. The Valentine's Day. I loved the sourd datingclip, again, it was something that I wanted to see in the season and it was avery strong clip. But then the rest of the episode... I really wish it didn'texist. Jumping to the pool in clothes???? Arthur sharing his deepest trauma andNoee kissing him??? NOEE AND ARTHUR SHIPPERS JUMPING ON PEOPLE SAYING THAT SHEDID IT TO COMFORT HIM???? Sorry guys, I don't know about you but when myfriends are sharing something traumatizing to me I hug them or hold their hand,I don't kiss them with tongue. Also using a flashback??? It doesn’t go wellwith the show’s format, why was it even used???

Episode 8 was... Episode 8 was wild. And weird. Andstrange. And I don't really know what was the point of it. But despiteeverything crackfic farm au was at least entertaining and it was kind ofsomething we needed then after weeks of will they/won't they and hating Arthur.Whipped elu was everything, the fifi saga was hilarious and I rewatched itaround 50 times and it still makes me laugh - Maxence nailed it but ?? what wasthe point? they killed Eliott's bunny so that he would become vegetarian? Theywanted to traumatize him and cause him to have an episode that was cut in theend? (I really wouldn't be surprised, there are 2 clips missing from firstepisodes each, and probably more in the others). I really don't know what wasthe point. The 6h15 or sth clip was funny but if Lucas and Arthur hugging itout cause sorry bro / it's okay bro / bro / bro is what they're considering aproper apology then I'm sorry but it isn't. What's more, the pacing of thisepisode was incredibly off and the clips didn't add up and there wasn't anynatural flow to it - they should've madetwo clips on Sunday - with Arthur getting to the van and them arriving to thecountryside, two clips on Monday with 6 am and then Daphne and Basile, Fifitrilogy on Tuesday and then right after midnight on Wednesday Arthur and Alexiain the barn. Now, the cheating excusing convo... I was absolutelydisgusted by the boy squad and the fact that YANN who was cheated on in s1advised Arthur to not say anything... wow. Also I really don't like what Eliottsaid there, I understood it in that moment that he was mainly talking from aphilosophical pov that humans are never satisfied in general, but he was sayingthat during the cheating convo, right after he said that he cheated on his gfto get with his bf, he said it while Lucas was right there, knowing that he hasdeeply rooted abandonment issues and this is what made the situation worse. Ithink I'll talk more about the fandom reaction and team's comments later causethere will be a lot to unpack there so yeah, I'll leave it for now.

Because now let's move on to February 21, aka theFriday that changed everything. Can I just say that I have never seen a worseclip ever in my life? That wasn't skam. That was soap opera. And not even agood one. I can't even comprehend how they wrote THIS and thought it was good.I despise the choice of making Noee speak out loud with every fiber of mybeing. First they objectified her, reduced her to the plot device and 1/3 ofthe love triangle, and now they stripped her of her integrity for a guy who wasconstantly leading her on, who has a girlfiend. They made her so desperate tomake him stay with her that she lost a part of himself for him. And for who??For a guy who didn't give a fuck about her? Who constantly played with herfeelings? Who mocked her and her language and her culture and didn't do so onlywhen it was convenient for him? Honestly fuck him, fuck Arthur. And then A CARCRASHED INTO HIM LIKE ????????????? Someone please explain to me what was thepoint of that cause the only one I see was to provide a fandom with a greatfree entertainment.

Now, episodes 9 and 10 were overall much stronger thanthe past few weeks but it was already to late to salvage the season. We gotanother cheating apologists scene which was - again - absolutely disgusting,especially coming from Lucas - who gave Arthur the same advice he gave to Emma- and Yann - who was cheated on and knew from his own experience that stufflike that always come out in the end. It's like all their character developmentfrom previous seasons went down the drain. Arthur on the other hand seemed tohave a character regression with each passing week. I'm still appalled by whatLucas said - that Alex is their friend but Arthur is part of the gang. It wasdisgusting. And it was out of the character. And it was the worst possiblething that could've been said.

Coline's song was so beautiful and I was so happy thatArthur finally realized what he's lost, though I feel like all those intensestaring between Arthur and Noee was unnecessary again, it's like they couldn'tjust give us a break for one clip from them, it's like she was constantlystealing Alexia's moments, whether she was on screen at the time or not.

The clip with elu was sweet and gave us greatwholesome content, but it only confirmed that Lucas' abandonment issues woke upfrom their nap and I'm already dreading what they're planning to do with thatin s6, especially that according to the latest news Lucas is not very presentin the next season... The polyamory talk... It was odd. It felt force. Thebuildup to it wasn't done very well and what' more it was built on cheating.And that's doesn't bode well. It's also quite ridiculous how it took 1 minuteconversation with Lucas or even one sentence from him tbh for Arthur to go"oh yeah I'm poly. I think." and tell Noee that he loves her eventhough he spent the last couple of weeks denying that and pushing her away. IHATE that yet again they made her be so desperate and cry when he was tellingher this. That's not Noee they gave us in the first half of the season. Ireally liked the clip of Laura and Melchior and Arthur giving the presentationto the students but Arthur's grandiose speech to students and then to girls wasso strange, there wasn't any buildup to it, or more likely Arthur that we werehaving on screen from the end of ep 4 till the end of ep9 was gone and the oldArthur finally showed up. But nevertheless it was strange and not very fittingto the way how the story progressed.

NOW the last two clips - first was a little bit shortand I can't say I was a huge fan (though Eliott's kermit-like dance waseverything jdskjdkjjd) but the second clip was absolutely beautiful, we finallysaw Daphne talk, I'm still not sure what to think about Noee/Arthur (not reallya fan of how the story was resolved... or how it wasn't resolved), AND THEMURAL! LUCAS CRYING BECAUSE HE'S PROUD OF HIS BOYFRIEND! ELIOTT ONCE A YEARMAKING A MURAL OUT OF PURE LOVE! EVERYONE CRYING! ELIOTT NOT PAINTING HIMSELFBECAUSE HE DOESN'T CONSIDER HIMSELF PART OF THE SQUAD (although he is, I don'tknow why they don't understand it) and... Lola. But I guess I'll be back to itlater.

So now, I can't say I'm a fan of the season. I enjoyedsome of the clips, but overall it was a mess, love triangle and fandom and crewbehaviour ruined the season for me. I was absolutely disgusted but howprivileged fans acted on tumblr and on twitter. And yes. There are privilegedfans, fans who were shutting others up because they "don't want us to getour hopes up when we don't know what might happen", fans who were sayingthat "you don't know anything haha i can promise you don't know shit hahano i don't know anything and no i'm not jealous haha you just don't know buthaha tell me this oh how stupid you are", fans who were acting like afandom police all the freaking time, yelling at everyone to "wait and see!you don't know what will happen!". Well. We didn't. Because contrary to 5%of the "little ones-fans", the rest 95% is not privileged enough toget a special treatment, to be invited on set for filming, to know the detailsof the plot before the season airs, to know the bigger picture. It's not fair.If you really know everything then great, I'm happy for you, but let the otherswatch the show how they like, let them react to it clip by clip. Because mostof us don't know the bigger picture and don't know what will happen and how theissues will be resolved. And you are aware that the format of the show itselfencourages viewers to react to the events of the story as they resolve onscreen and through transmedia content, right? That's the essence of skam.Taking that away from the regular fans because you've been let in to some innercircle and know it all is absolutely disgusting. Don't interact with the fandomif you can't stand seeing people not agreeing with the writing choices,questioning what they watch and theorizing about what will happen. If you're soabove it, then just stick with the people like you, with those 5% or so ofknow-it-all and "enjoy" the show with them. Don't ruin the fun forothers. You're not better than anyone else. Don't act like it. Don't be ahypocrite. Don't act publicly as a fandom police, criticize everyone who sharesspoilers and call them out and write hateful posts, if you're doing the sameprivately, if you can't shut up when someone sends you a dm or a message offanon and suddenly you spill everything. Don't be fake. If you know stuff, thengreat, I don't know admit it and say that you want say anything or don't sayanything but then don't spread the spoilers and don't write cryptic comments inthe tags. It's not helping anyone and it's definitely not doing anything good.And to people on twitter currently posting what I guess they assume are vaguetweets about cast’s personal lives? Fuck you. You’re so loud, you know? Maybeyou think you’re talking in a special code only you and your friends can guessbut it’s so obvious and so disgusting, you really have no shame. Grow up andget a life.

Another thing that ruined the season for me was theway the crew was acting on twitter and instagram and I’m so so so disappointed by their behaviour,especially that I’ve always considered them as one of the most open-mindedteams who respect their fans and their opinions. Turns out they do that butonly when the reactions to the clips are positive. I mean, I kind of get it,obviously everyone wants to hear the praise, but you cannot ignore thenegative comments and fans’ concerns, especially that there were plenty of themthis season. And during social media age when it takes one click to see theliked posts or comments, it becomes obvious that the crew was only interacting (evenin such a passive way like liking comments or tweets) with fanswho were praising the show. All the negative comments and questions werebrushed off, saying that “the season will reveal its own truth” and that iffans will have any questions they will be answered after. Well, franklyspeaking, me and my friends have a list of questions that we’d love to get ananswer for:

- why was love triangle necessary?- why did they make Alexia and Arthur a couple in the first place if theywanted him to go after Noee?- why did Noee say she doesn't like talking out loud cause sign language is howshe communicates only to yell at Arthur to stop him from leaving, losing herintegrity for a guy who doesn't care about her?- car????????????????????????- cheating convos - why are they excusing it like that- treatment of Alexia & why did they include numerous comments about Alexia'sbody?- THE MALE GAZE - why did the camera focus so much on Noee's body, why was sheobjectified and why was she presented as a stark contrast to Alexia?- fifi?- p*trick and why the abuse was introduced so late in the plot and overshadowedimmediately by cheating and then followed by crackfic farm au?- why didn't we see any Arthur centered clips where he shows he likes art?- why did Arthur and space have no relevance in the season???- why are Lucas and Yann saying shit every time they open their mouths and whydid they forgot about everything that happened in s1?- the whole convo with the boy squad on valentine's day and how shitty theirreaction was - why?- why we didn't see any actual squad interactions on holidays and no realapologies?- why does the life of the characters always has to revolve around romanticrelationships?- why can't men and women be friends unless the man is gay?- what was the point of all the ship wars and skamlaserie photo withArthur/Alexia and Arthur/Noee *especially* after all the comments on twitterand on Instagram when fans were fighting already and it only made thingsescalate? Why not stop it, why pit fans against each other, why let it escalatelike that?- why draw parallels between elu and Arthur/Noee?- Why was Noee reduced to love interest and Camille to translator 90% of thetime and why don't give them similar dynamics with Arthur as Melchior and Laurahave?- how can Arthur see underwater?- Catherine - was she just a queerbait?- tuturo comment from the forum and Arthur's 'relationship' with 34 yo - whywasn’t it mentioned ever again?- how could noee not know arthur has a girlfriend since she was following himon instagram and he had photos with alexia there?- what happened with basile's birthday since they never celebrated them??- in samedi 11:04 (5x10) eliott says "i've got some croissants, do youwant me to heat them up?" which implies that he's already bought them andbrought them back to the flat BUT he's putting his jacket on as if he was aboutto leave and then he leaves and slams the door so what's the truth?

The crew completely invalidated the feelings andconcerns of the fans and what added fuel to the flame for me was thatskamlaserie post with Arthur/Noee/Alexia and caption that they can’t choosecause they love them both and… Honestly, who the hell works there. There’s beendrama for the whole week on twitter and under David’s posts on insta andinstead of finally end it, idk block the comments or just make a statement ORWHATEVER, they posted THAT on the official show’s account?? Why haven’t they stopped it? Why did they keep on pitting fans against each other up to the point that one twitter user started getting DEATH THREATS only because they translated some video??? Absolutely disgusting.@skamlaserie and @fr team: hate to break it to you but there's nothing wrong with being single andthere's plenty of teenagers who aren't in relationships in high school andthat's okay... maybe that's how Arthur should've started the season instead ofbecoming a cheater and leading on two girls at the same time just for the sakeof having unnecessary relationship drama which literally only created somepointless ship wars and put half of the fandom off watching the show... just saying.

Then, another things that rubbed me the wrong way werethe whole “canceling” discourse (that never really happened and I still standby what I said in the comments to this post so I’ll just direct you to it) and imposingthe one “right” interpretation on the fans - I specifically have the cheatingconvo from episode 8 in mind now. We all have a right to our owninterpretations of every scene, here many people saw it as Eliott’s commenthaving an effect on Lucas and his abandonment issues and started commenting onthat on twitter and David had to rush to explain that he hadn’t meant Lucas,that Eliott won’t cheat and that they won’t break up and will stay together.Well, the thing is that there’s such a concept as “the death of the author”which I suppose you can already guess from its name says that the author, theirbeliefs, backstory, opinions, etc. shouldn’t be taken into account wheninterpreting the text because writing (or in this case - a show) and creatorare separate entities and shouldn’t be correlated. First of all, thismetaphorical extinguishing of fire seemed pointless and like a mockery, seeinghow two episodes later it turned out people were right and Lucas really tookEliott’s comment personally and his insecurities and abandonment issues wereshowing up again; secondly, after that there were many comments from the crewabout how Elu will stay forever and never break up and maybe it’s just me but Ithink that was obvious, right? So why would they keep repeating that? Unless…something will happen in s6 that will make us doubt that and it’s a preemptive damagecontrol 🙃

So to sum up this monstrosity that I have no idea ifit even makes any sense BUT ANYWAY: I liked some of the things in s5 but overall Ireally really didn’t like it, some people in the fandom were incrediblyannoying and turned out to be fake and complete hypocrites, and the crew’s behaviour on socialmedia leaves a lot to be desired and I can only hope they will acknowledge anycriticism of s6 and won’t blatantly ignore fans’ criticism again. So that’d beit. If you read it till the end then you’re stronger than Sabrina giffingArthur getting hit by a car and I respect you for that cause even I haven’t reread it, have a nice quarantineand stay safe!

#skam france #skamfr #anon #answered #maggie talks

[sudoscience]

New In Town: Background Info

Click here for a version with working hyperlinks.

Although it's never explicitly stated by the games, I'm going to assume the story is set in the US, or at least a country like it. The existence of monsters likely altered the course of several events in human history, so it's possible things are actually radically different. For the purposes of this story, I'll assume most things are still the same unless stated otherwise, (e.g. the American Revolution was still in 1776, and World War II was still in the early-middle of the 20th Century.).

Let's also just go ahead and say the story takes place in 201X for now.

[For the record, I pronounce 201X as "twenty-ex-teen". I guess you could say it "two-oh-one-ex", but why would you? I also assume it refers to the whole decade, so, for example, when I say "the early part of 201X", that could mean anywhere between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2014.]

Navigation:

Humans and Monsters (Current headcanon)

Humans and Monsters (Old) (Preserved for posterity)

Footnotes

Master Post

Humans and Monsters

Humans and monsters have always coexisted relatively peacefully, at least as well as humans and humans. There have been some smaller wars over land and resources, but nothing like the war in Undertale (hereinafter "The War").

Someone still remembers that other universe, though. The universe where monsters freely used magic. The universe where a monster could absorb a human SOUL. The universe where the monsters were sealed underground and later systematically slaughtered by a human child. Perhaps that someone is W. D. Gaster. Perhaps it is Chara. I haven't decided yet. Until that time comes, I'll call that person Individual 1.

Individual 1 remembers the world of Undertale, but the version they remember is the one in which the genocide route takes place. After that world is destroyed, Individual 1 uses their DETERMINATION to bring the world back. They restore the world to long before The War takes place. Individual 1 convinces the King of All Monsters (who is probably someone other than Asgore) to strictly curtail the use of magic. It is Individual 1's belief that the only way to prevent The War from occurring is if humans never learn that monsters can absorb their souls. This is why we don't see evidence of magic in Deltarune.1

Sometime in 1965, a man in Twin Falls (Bill Hammond) learns of the monsters' hidden power. He attempts to alert the government, but it's years before anyone in power takes him seriously. Most people view him as a crackpot; he's this universe's Alex Jones. However, he begins to gain a following among the commoners, who take to calling themselves the Arcane Enforcement Unit. Hate crimes against monsters become more frequent, and the government establishes the Directorate of Inter-Species Relations to combat this.

Hammond's influence grows, and he runs for president multiple times, though he rarely gets more than 2% of the vote. In 1996, his campaign performs surprisingly well, but he is assassinated. His following was strongest in Twin Falls, and it once again becomes a hot spot for anti-monster sentiment, only this time it extends to humans who are considered "monster sympathizers", including Kris's birth parents and eventually Rudy, who is born around this time.

Paul and Judy Harper are DISR employees in Twin Falls. In 2003, the year Asriel is born,2 the DISR begins a joint operation with DHS and FBI to infiltrate the AEU, which is now suspected as a terrorist organization. The Harpers are assigned to the team, Operation Golden Flower, as undercover agents in 2005. In 2007, Judy becomes pregnant. Later that year, their cover is nearly blown. In order to keep their child safe, they begin making arrangements with some old friends of theirs, the Dreemurr family in Hometown. Their son is born in December,​3 and adopted by the Dreemurrs immediately. A few months later, Paul and Judy are killed; their death is not publicized classified in order to avoid jeopardizing the operation.

In the early part of 201X, an AEU supporter named Noah Trey Ullman is elected mayor of Twin Falls. This is when things really start to go south. Ullman incites violence against monsters and monster sympathizers. They usually stay out of the majority monster neighborhoods, but they tend to target monsters who are known to affiliate with humans. This is what prompts Rudy to move to Hometown.

Humans and Monsters (OLD)

Humans and monsters have always coexisted, but there's always been a lot of tension between them. For most of their history, they've lived more or less independently of each other. As humans began to industrialize, they began to expand and encroach on monster territory.1 Interactions with monsters became more frequent, as did altercations. While there hasn't been an outright war between humans and monsters, there have been frequent skirmishes, akin to the US and the Native Americans. There was a period where humans sought to make use of magic, primarily by employing the monsters. The monsters were often subjected to inhumane conditions, and uprisings, while infrequent, were not unheard of.

Knowing that a monster with one or more human souls could become a being of great power, this practice was eventually outlawed. Humans became reluctant to hire monsters at all, and most monsters eventually relocated to their own settlements. These are similar to Indian reservations, with the distinction that they are not considered sovereign. In order to keep things under control, the government created the Directorate of Inter-species Relations in the mid-19th Century. Under the pretense of fairness, the DISR banned the use of magic about 100 years ago;2 this would theoretically allow more monsters to be hired, so long as they weren't being exploited for their magical abilities. In practice, because magic is so central to a monster's existence, this drastically changed the monsters' way of life. Initially, smaller acts of magic were allowed, but as more monsters moved into settlements, their interactions with humans became less frequent, and the humans became more fearful, having only the legends and rumors to inform them rather than their own experiences. Eventually, all magic was banned, and the Arcane Enforcement Unit was created in 1956 to enforce said ban.

Of course, some monsters remained in the human cities. They felt they still had ties there, and refused to move. They are largely relegated to their own neighborhoods, and the AEU does its best to "gently encourage" them to relocate. Other than the AEU, very few humans interact with monsters.3

What happened five years ago?

There was a change in leadership at the AEU, and they became much more aggressive in their policing.

[I think this was a separate subsection because I originally planned on writing more, but now it seems pretty silly to have a subsection with just one sentence.]

Footnotes

Notes for New Info

There are several reasons I decided to scrap the old backstory, but this was probably the main one. I really liked the theory that Deltarune takes place after the Genocide Route, and I wanted to expand on that. I'm no longer sure I buy that theory, but I still think it's a cool idea. ↑

As noted in the "Headcanon for Existing Characters", I originally planned for Asriel to have started college early, which would further demonstrate how exceptional he is, and also factor into the resentment Kris wishes they didn't have of him. This is also his first semester of college, which is why Kris is so worried he'll have changed. I think I'll keep him a freshman, but increase the age gap between them. When Asriel gets back from college, he'll have just turned 19, while Kris will be turning 14 very soon. I'm assuming he's returning for Thanksgiving Break (and also that Thanksgiving still exists in this world), and this is the first time he's been back home since he left for college. ↑

Yes, Kris's full name is Krismas (no, not really). Their birthday is 22 December, and Asriel's is 15 September (unless there's an official birthday listed somewhere, in which case it's that). I hope it's okay if I write that Kris is biologically male, even though they identify as non-binary. Since I've already changed their pronouns in the main story, this is probably the only time it will ever be mentioned, unless maybe they go swimming or something. I got the idea from @caretaker-au and how they represent Chara as male non-binary (is that the right way to say that?); I know some people find that blog to be problematic, but I think that was more to do with them drawing porn of Chara and Asriel, not because they drew Chara as biologically male. (For the record, I was not aware of that when I started following them, especially since Tumblr banned porn a year before I even bought Undertale.) ↑

Notes for Old Info

Another reason I dropped this: I'm pretty sure this was inspired by @wolven0ne-universe's "Long Road" AU. Actually, there's a lot that was inspired by Long Road, even in the new backstory: the decision to have multiple OCs, the way magic supposedly works, humans exploting monsters for their magic, a shadowy organization that abducts monsters because of their magical abilities, etc. Some of this is attributable to the fact that I never read fanfics prior to playing Undertale, so some of these were "inspired" by Long Road simply by virtue of it being, like, the second fanfic I ever read, ever. (The first was "Flowey is Not A Good Life Coach".) Anyway, my point here is that I dropped this backstory in part because I didn't want it to be too similar to Long Road, not because I suddenly stopped liking Long Road. ↑

Here's an additional reason I changed the backstory: I wasn't sure if this was a believable timeline. I feel like it's plausible that human society would forget that monster magic involves a lot more than just a monster's ability to abosrb a human soul in just 100 years, but that doesn't seem like nearly enough time for monster society to forget that monsters can use magic. Plus, if monsters and humans have coexisted for all of human history, and monsters have been using magic for like 99% of said history, that seems like it could have created a lot of ripple effects that I would spend way too much time thinking about. Like, what if the existence of magic resulted in the first Industrial Revolution happening in the 15th Century? What would Earth look like in 201X if that were the case? I just didn't want to deal with all of that. ↑

Other than wanting to believe that Deltarune takes place after the Genocide Route, the next most important factor in my decision to scrap this backstory is that it's just really dark. The story has enough potentially depressing shit that I didn't need to add a monster Trail of Tears on top of it all. Plus, I was worried it might come across as racially insensitive. ↑

#New In Town #deltarune theory #deltarune fanfic #story notes