#the writers imo just handled it so wrong

[velnna]

One thing I never see people talk about is that post-Cazador Astarion is essentially a virgin. Hear me out. Technically, he's experienced and flirty and knows what he's doing, but, at the same time, he's free to have actually enjoyable sex for the first time in his life. I see people's super sexy and skilled Astarion headcanons and hey, all the power to those people, but no one can convince me that Astarion doesn't come in 5 minutes. It takes him a while to get over it. Sorry and you're welcome.

god I almost went on a whole Astarion analysis spiel then remembered this is tumblr

My only disclaimer here is I don't discuss existing characters, I discuss my own versions of existing characters. I have opinions on other people's headcanons when I see them but it's not like with a character like Astarion there's a right or wrong answer to these things. He's immature and conditioned on so many levels that honestly for each HC there's some version of him that would fit imo

I don't really agree or disagree with the "he's basically a virgin" take, I think it REALLY depends on how you, as a writer, choose to interpret/handle the character in your HCs. He undeniably has a lot of experience with sex, a lot of trauma around it and a lot of pieces missing in his psyche to develop a healthy relationship with the whole thing. It could be that he does indeed just continue to be sexy and skilled bc that's what he knows, but with a change in circumstances eventually he relearns how to enjoy it that way. It could be that he needs to change that baseline behaviour to effectively get a "virgin" start at it. It could be that said "virginity" makes it sloppy and pleasurable to him, or has him conclude he's more on the ace spectrum and doesn't necessarily derive pleasure from it at all. You feel me? I think it's up to each person

"My" Astarion is a bit of a mix I'd say. He performs and knows what he's doing as a conditioned behaviour type of thing but with help and attention from a caring partner (or partners) changes things up and adjusts until there's new sensations and things get broken down. Which would lead to awkward sloppy "virgin" moments here and there.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk

#astarion

[kitkatopinions]

@kitestarry Thought I'd answer this comment in its own post. :)

Ghira and Kali are very much so stereotypical "Mom and Dad" characters imo, where Kali is kind of nosy and she's comforting and she's given that "no she can hit people with pans too" thing that people give Supermoms since like 2000 so they can say they're strong women without having to do any work, and Ghira is like overprotective and tells Blake she isn't wearing enough clothes and hates Sun because he's a boy who's interested in his daughter. And I don't like the stereotypical "Mom and Dad" characterization in any setting really, but since they're only featured in two seasons and are honestly not even sort of the focus of Blake's 4-5 arc (which is much more about her, Sun, and Ilia,) they're very paper thin characters I feel like. So there isn't much else to them. But on top of that, the RWBY writers do this thing where they'll make the teenage characters do dangerous stuff but do not care to write the "caring" parental figures in their life to actually do anything about it. Like, with Willow you can at least be like "well she's an alcoholic who had an abusive husband" which doesn't mean that her complete lack of presence until V7 and her lack of action in protecting her children is fine, but it makes more sense. And when then sixteen year old Ruby left home to go after Cinder and supposedly like a year later Tai still is completely not around, we could at least say "well, he knows she's with Qrow and he might not have known how serious everything was" which isn't a good excuse, but it's at least something. But, I believe Blake ran away from home five years before the start of the show, which means she was like twelve! And she ran away to be part of a group Ghira thought was dangerous and morally wrong (which is why he left in the first place.) Like, we don't know if Blake had a good place to stay for that whole time, if she ever went hungry, and the show fully tells us she was in a bad and unsafe relationship for part of it. And where were her parents? And then the Fall of Beacon happens after Blake is on TV during the Vytal Festival, and the whole thing just makes them feel like very uncaring bad parents. There's also Ghira's whole peaceful protest 'be nice to your oppressors and they might like you' 'we need to stop faunus violence' thing. Like many Faunus characters, Ghira's a mouthpiece for the severely badly handled fantasy racism plot. It's bad on Blake, but since she has a lot more character and role outside of that, it's easy enough to just clip it out for her for me. But because Ghira has been such a small role, it's a lot harder to dismiss for him. Like if you removed that sort of thing from Ghira's character, all that you'd have left is 'over-protective dad who doesn't care about finding his twelve year old runaway but will comment on her belly shirt when she comes home."

But also, I don't write for them to be honest. Writing for characters oftentimes makes me like them more because it helps me dive into the character concept more than the oftentimes lackluster execution. There are a lot of characters I didn't like that much, but then when I write for them, I find myself really enjoying them. But my sister and I first started writing for RWBY after volume six with a fanfiction that was an AU branch off starting at the end of V5. And the only fanfictions I've written either are branches off of that branch off or are Team STRQ era fics. So... Ghira and Kali aren't really part of things in my fics ever.

So yeah, it's a combination of them being thin stereotypical parents with very little interest to them, their apparent lack of care when their twelve year old ran away, and just never writing for them so they don't get the same treatment of me fleshing them out myself that other characters who are just as thin in canon might get that make me like them more.

#rwde

[mysterycitrus]

i dont know who a writer would be who could handle it (more ignorance on my part than lack of good writers though there is that too) but i’m curious what you think a real, earned redemption could look like for jtodd and if you would even want it.

i definitely think there’s a path, esp because so much of bruce’s philosophy relies on a genuine and earnest commitment to rehabilitation and restorative justice, but i also think (and maybe i’m wrong if anyone has comics recs lmk) but i don’t think i’ve seen a comic with the hard work of reaching out and healing/moving on from the past from both bruce + co and jason

i really love his character but especially now i don’t think dc knows what it wants to do with him so he’s in this perpetual limbo where he’s always on the edges of the batfam, a fringe black sheep member but a member nonetheless, still entangled with them

personally i would love either way but i wish dc would either separate him and let him do his own thing that’s not just punisher lite or really actually go through the process of making amends and fully integrating with the crew, learning to love and trust again and all that

omg this really got away from me so apologies for just word vomiting in your asks but yeah im curious dc puts you in charge of j todd’s next big character arc, what would you do with him

i don’t think that’s ignorance — dc is not known for hiring writers who can include and explore complex themes in their comics lol

personally i think the easiest way to trigger a redemption arc for jason would be take him away from the batfamily and force him to interact with other villains, specifically amanda waller and the suicide squad. task force z came kinda close to this, but didn’t push the concept far enough imo. jason’s interactions with black mask were some of the best parts of utrh — i want to see his ideology be questioned by people who do the exact same things as him, and are fully aware that they’re selfish and destructive.

the truth is that while jason is acting out and murdering people, he’s still bound to bruce. he is autonomously making decisions, but fundamentally he is choosing to stay. he’s choosing to be tethered. he’s choosing to care. seeing the indentured recruits of the suicide squad would be confronting to him.

i don’t think the happy family fanon dynamic will ever be possible without ruining every included character simultaneously, but that’s okay. that’s not what jason truly wants anyway.

specifically, i don’t think he’ll ever be able to work with bruce, which is why i find the jason + dick dynamic so interesting. you’re right — bruce’s fundamental mission is about restorative justice, and he would continue to reach out. dick, however, is a realist, and is extremely protective and territorial of the people in his care (tim, damian, the titans, etc) all of whom jason has hurt. jason has been shown on page to respect dick and his position, and simultaneously think he’s pathetic because he refuses to lose control.

for me ideally, he’d be someone on the very outskirts. i feel like dick and babs would be his point of contact — dick because he’s keeping an eye on jason, and babs because she has way less hangups about working with killers. otherwise? i think he’s lost the chance to properly bond with anyone who knew before he died. that’s the risk he took when he decided to become the red hood. that’s the tragedy.

but to be perfectly honest, the most restorative thing jason could do would be to leave the game entirely, and relearn how to live.

#jason todd #dc comics #dick grayson #batfam #the ask and the answer

[chaifootsteps]

Okay, so jumping here. I've been thinking and imo the 'Lilith' is Eve in disguise and Rosie is Lilith theory still holds true. This is brought to you by me going "We know Viv is a shitty writer, so from the writing already available, where would she lead the plot NOW?" and by my tinfoil hat.

We know Lilith is somewhere in Heaven (maybe even in Eden itself). Unless she pulls the weirdest explanation out of her hat for why she took a small vacay for 7 YEARS abandoning her daughter (with whom we know she had a good relationship with, IF that part of the pilot is still true. She never stopped to explain what parts of the pilot are still true, ffs.), Lilith would never. I don't even think she:

1) Would be allowed in Heaven, even by making a deal with Adam.

2) Adam's pride is too big for him to simply accept such a deal and Lilith's pride would be equally big imo. This interaction would never work.

So that has to be Eve. And Adam *has* to know that that's Eve. Or he doesn't, idc. Point is, it's far more likely by normal logic for that to be Eve. By Viv logic...? Not so much.

Which brings me to my second point! Rosie and her character. I did kind of feel the Mary Poppins vibes a bit, ngl. Horrible redesign, but oh well... The way she reacted to Charlie, her going "yeah, singing totes works here, in the *cannibal* colony!" and her giving that love advice + "we all did things we aren't proud of" + the fact that she's a "hellborn"? She has to be Lilith, sorry. Also also I feel like cannibalism isn't even such a big deal??? In the show I mean. It's literally so cartoonish it simply becomes a hellish quirk for some inhabitants. Sure Alastor, you're a cannibal, boo-hoo. I don't feel threatened by any of them, is what I mean. And even irl, I feel like yeah, it's gross and most likely getting yourself sick, but what makes cannibalism truly bad is the act of *killing* that person, ye know? In Viv's Hell that can't even happen, they'll just respawn, no problem.

And my final reason issss: Viv just ran so fast past 4 seasons worth of plot that imo she backed herself info a corner. The only things keeping the plot going are...Alastor's deal and who he made it with. It's probably Roo or Eve (or Lilith if Rosie is just Rosie), but I have a feeling like it can't be so simple with her, she has to pull a super complicated sayan explanation to make it seem like she just had us all guessing the wrong things, she's suuuuch a literary genius. And she loves musicals a bit too much (Adam is literally just Beetlejuice minus everything interesting about him), so pulling a Sweeney Todd sounds very in-character for her.

Now, speaking of Alastor....I haaaate how she destroyed his character with all the swearing and the petty edgelord-ness. She's not smart enough to write a smart chaotic presence/maybe potential villain. There, I said it. She should open a psychology book or some shit (she should've hired psychologists to coach her about writing about topics such as SA, addiction, sadistic/criminal personalities and so on, but we know she never put such thought into her work). Or at least a sensibility reader for her plot, smh. The overall tone of the show is jumping around faster than a bunny on electrolytes.

And as always, Alastor and Rosie have more chemistry than Charlie and Vaggie literally the "main" couple. They seem like a 30s married couple, tbh.

Also also super confused about Alastor's microphone and how she can hand it over to Charlie??? Why would he do that??? Are we supposed to understand he now cares about her? Handling his (presumably from the Adam fight) source of power to her just like that?? TWICE?!?

I understand his final lyrics are supposed to be "holy shit, I almost died for these people, what is wrong with me???" in a nutshell (+ that part about the contract), but we were never SHOWN how he became more attached to them??? We just have to believe him based on the talks with Rosie and Niffty respectively. What a joke. (Niffty got partially restored in my brain, at least).

-idk, Broadcast🎭 anon- (I know I DMed u, but yea)

Honestly? Even if this leak never comes true the way Viv planned it back then, I for one am having a great time speculating.

#Anonymous #Broadcast Anon #viv stuff #actual blog post

[gynandromorph]

It's okay not to answer, I know it's broad territory, but I really respect you as an artist and writer. How do you handle people misinterpreting or missing elements of your work, especially when they may still enjoy it and get something out of it? As an artist I'm struggling lately with knowing my work will always inherently be read differently from what I intended as a matter of the human experience, as well as me being autistic complicating my ability to communicate.

An addition to that last ask. I don't know if it's clear what I'm asking so I'll give some examples. A 50 year old man and a 21 year old woman will get different things from a movie due to their lived experiences. As a gentile reader I might miss jewish narrative themes in a piece of work. That doesn't mean it's bad for us to have experienced it, but as an author I find it frustrating when something is missed or misinterpreted, and I don't know how not to be a control freak about it.

i feel you, i have ocpd and being misinterpreted when i agonized and stressed about how to present my wording makes me want to light myself on fire and it's something i'm working on. writers are supposed to expect and account for different perspectives ahead of time, so it always sort of shocks me when i hear interpretations i wouldn't have thought about at all. i know logically i can't predict all outcomes, but it's still surprising anyway!!! but i generally feel a lot of distress about being misinterpreted because i'm afraid it'll label me as A Bad Person, so i think that's where the experience diverges. maybe investigating why you need to or want to control the way your work is interpreted would help as a starting point? i think having a larger audience helps, too... it means more people will misinterpret your work, but it also means you're more likely to have at least One Guy who interprets it just right and makes fireworks go off in your brain, but there's no way to control how big your audience is!

anyway, the ways to control how your work is interpreted, to the degree that you can:

you can make it simpler. the more parts a story has added to its complexity, the more it's going to be misinterpreted.

you can make the intended message more blatant. you can have a character say exactly what you want the audience to think or hear, or something very close to it. don't want a detail missed? make it bigger.

you can reprioritize parts of the story. basically think of a group of interpretations you want the audience to have if you can, and then put them in order of importance. then the story has a hierarchy to lean on wrt artistic decisions.

you can give the story multiple meanings. more targets to hit. if they're mutually exclusive, i find this works better... i like making my stories ambiguous with conflicting interpretations a lot. yeah, people are going to interpret the story wrong, because it was made in a way that will guarantee it is interpreted wrong in some way.

you can layer the meaning so that less literate audience members will at least get SOME of what you intended. basically, close to the previous strategy, but like a hybrid of that and "make it simpler" imo because you're constructing multiple interpretations that are all supposed to lead to one conclusion (like a persuasive essay or something), but can act as an adequate conclusion on their own.

all of these options have obvious qualitative losses. if you have anything in particular that is repeatedly misinterpreted or missed, it's a good idea to think about Why you're making those choices. consciously committing to a higher-risk artistic choice will help you feel more in control of what happens to it once it's done. the way your art is interpreted isn't totally out of your control, you are making decisions that add to or mitigate the risk of misinterpretations, and you can bring those choices to a more conscious awareness to see them and appreciate them. sometimes it'll feel like a begrudging compromise, but it'll still be Your choice ultimately.

on an emotional level... hopefully this makes sense. there's always going to be the piss-on-the-poor scenario and sometimes i just remind myself that some people are not as literate as me, but it's great we were still able to connect through a work that was probably difficult for them!!! it was a privilege to get to grow up with a good education, access to art and technology, strangers who want to look at what i made, and there are times where i take this for granted, and my expectations of readers are actually kind of unreasonable!!! some people are younger than me and say stupid things like i did, but they aren't able to understand things like me yet, and it's important for them to learn by figuring it out on their own!!! i was and will always be That Guy to other artists and other writers, and i want to give other people the same grace as i get. some people have wildly different life experiences compared to mine, and these experiences can be much more nuanced than i could ever imagine, but it's a little gift that they made my world larger by sharing theirs through my art!!! it's terrifying and embarrassing knowing that i don't know much of anything, even about something i have total control over, but the consequences of that aren't always negative. and possibly the saddest but most common way i deal with this is nothing more than accepting that no one is ever going to understand me on the level that i want to be understood. sometimes my frustration has come from a place of miserable alienation, where the need to feel Seen can be quite desperate. i've made art explicitly about Me, and i've made art deliberately hostile towards its audience, art that's said they don't get it and they never will, but they still bothered to try. i made a game that said no one will win here and they still played it with me, and i can appreciate that. in many cases, they actually know more about me than i know about them. but more importantly, it isn't my audience's job to take care of that emotional need -- in fact, as much as art is made out to be a mode of pure self-expression, i don't think they can. it's a reality that i don't like, but i accept it. art made to benefit others is a one-way mirror: you make them feel seen, but they should never see you, because if they see you, the mirror isn't working.

[slycooperconfessions]

This isn't a confession, I just wanted to have a discussion about this because I'm curious to see if anyone else feels the same way. Does anyone else feel like Sly 4 sort of retroactively lowered your opinion of Sly 3? Because I've realized a lot of the poor writing decisions in Sly 4 stem directly from flaws in Sly 3's own writing. For example, I hated the villain twist with Penelope in Sly 4. But I've actually seen a few people defending it, saying that Penelope was always kind of sketchy with her whole Black Baron persona. And to be honest, they're kind of not wrong. Sly 3 never really did give us much of an explanation for why the hell Penelope acts so different as the Baron. Honestly, as the Baron she's fucking RUTHLESS. She's willing to cheat and kill to win, is capable of fist fighting Sly on the wing of a moving plane, etc. Yet afterwards she acts all sweet, helpless and innocent and gets used as a damsel in distress multiple times, despite us seeing her combat capabilities as the Baron? Begrudgingly, I can kind of see how Sanzaru (or anyone else) could get the impression that there's something "off" about her.

I also hated the Carmelita belly dancing bit in Sly 4 and thought it was fucking gross. But to be honest, Sly 3 itself sort of set a precedent for treating Carmelita this way. "Carmelargea" from the Rumble Down Under level was maybe less overtly sexual but no less gross. They literally had us climbing up her pants for that fight. You can't look at that and tell me someone on the Sly 3 dev team didn't have a giantess fetish. So them skimping on giving Rumble Down Under a proper antagonist just so that they could instead have the Mask of Dark Earth as an excuse to enlarge Carmelita is... pretty sleazy, actually.

Then there was the whole Sly faking amnesia thing. During Sly 4 I couldn't help but feel like Carmelita was being a little hypocritical for her anger at being lied to by Sly. She literally lied too. She lied to someone she thought was an amnesiac about his identity. Which just sort of highlights how bad the end of Sly 3 is. They decided to have Sly and Carmelita start off their new relationship based on lies? Ok then.

I'm not sure if I would go so far as to say that Sly 4 changed my opinion of Sly 3, but there are some valid points here.

As far as Penelope's huge personality shift from the Baron to her normal self, I think it was partly to throw people off of the reveal that the Baron IS Penelope. Hell, Penelope even helps the gang in Episode 3 by defending their hangar from goons looking to wreck their plane, whereas the Baron seems to have no issues with foul play and engages in it often. Thinking about it deeper, the Baron might have become a full-fledged alternate personality for Penelope since she was using the ruse so often and got pumped up by people treating him as a celebrity. When she gets some sense slapped into her after fighting Sly, I think it snapped her out of this pattern and she was able to let it go. As far has how strong the Baron is, there's theories that the Baron suit is actually a cybernetic situation that greatly enhances her physical abilities, which I think holds water because her natural abilities are more tailored to her technical know-how and inventions. Once she abandons the Baron suit, she abandons the raw strength and ruthlessness the Baron gave her. I've held the opinion that her turning more villainous in Sly 4 is not necessarily out of nowhere, it was just written horribly and abruptly IMO. There's nothing we see leading up to it that makes it make sense, it just happens. Had it been handled differently, I think it would have been received much better.

As far as giant Carmelita...yeah, I got nothing. Probably a case of the "writer's poorly disguised fetish" meme because I remember being 11 years old thinking "This is...odd." But by then I had also developed an attraction to both Sly and Carmelita, so I rolled with it lol.

What do y'all think?

#Sly Cooper #Thieves in Time #Penelope #Carmelita Fox #Gaming

[lansangprincess]

To me, it felt like Darren was trying to communicate with Quinni but was just using the wrong words and doing it at the wrong time.

I agree, I think Darren was feeling really stressed with their issues with Ca$h and just didn't have the mental capacity to be sympathetic to Quinni in that moment. What struck me as a little off from the writers' part is that in s1, Darren knew exactly how to comfort Quinni in times of stress and knew that she can feel insecure about being "too much" so it is weird for me that in s2, Darren does a 180 on that saying indirectly that she is being too much to handle and later on after having some time to process, they still don't apologize nor make any attempt to. I appreciate Quinni apologizing for behaving the way she did because it was a bit of a petty retaliation thing but imo, she deserved an apology too. I can understand that it can be upsetting that despite the constant effort to mask and act accordingly to others' expectations, she still gets told by her closest friend that it isn't enough and so she acts out. I could understand if it was a stranger or an acquaintance but for it to be Darren made it feel like to me they weren't as close as I thought they were.

I hope it's clear though that this doesn't mean I dislike Darren for that or that I think it's a major oversight on the writers' part. These discrepancies happen in real life and no one's perfectly consistent but I'm just trying to make it clear what I think was the right thing for Darren and Quinni to do in this situation. At the end of the day, they're all on their separate journeys and friends fight once in a while. It's completely normal and I'm just glad they were able to resolve that sooner rather than later. <3

#lansangprincess thoughts #heartbreak high #heartbreak high season 2 #heartbreak high reboot #darren rivers #quinni gallagher jones #quinni heartbreak high #darren heartbreak high #amerie wadia #ca$h piggott

[sasukeless]

imo pretending kishimoto is an awful writer is as wrong as saying he’s a mastermind at it. i think he can write very rich and nuanced characters and relationships and messy but enjoyable plots and denying either of those is just being blatantly dismissive. there’s a reason why naruto still holds up till this day after all. there’s many things in his story that feel like “one in a million” and many others that just feels like they are too big for what he could handle but overall when people say nothing in naruto is worthy and the entire thing is bad so there’s no point in taking the time to analyze the manga, i have to disagree because well No, that’s not entirely true. yes, there’s plenty of works that are better and also plenty of works that are far worse like with any other thing out there doesn’t mean the entire manga should be discarded

#coming back to this to say #i still hate that man lmfao #but i also feel strongly annoying when someone tries to act smart and go “lol why are u analyzing naruto?” #as if there was nothing there #which says more about the person’s lack of reading but. yeah

[marzipanandminutiae]

I see you talking about ouat and it unlocked thoughts that have been neatly filed away for years so here I am, yelling them at you.

I assume at this point spoilers arent a problem anymore for you but you said you originally didn't watch past the frozen but a warning just in case.

I kept watching for quite a long time, but I quit after the whole thing with ruby and Dorothy because what? it just felt so incredibly forced and badly written? and I'd gotten so annoyed because before we'd already had the whole thing with aurora and mulan, which I was rooting for but okay, that didn't work out, too bad for mulan. then we get a perfect set up for ruby and mulan. and it's just. never mentioned again???? ruby comes back eventually but wtf happened to mulan? it annoyed me so fucking much let me tell you.

also I remember trying to write out family/relationship trees and stuff for ouat to see how weirdly convoluted everything got. was very impressed that it seemed they managed to avoid accidentally having incest or something in the show with everything that was going on there.

I have so many more things but this has already gotten way longer than intended. do you have a favourite part of the show? I'm assuming your favourite characters is either regina or emma?

Oh man all of that brings back memories. I didn't stick around long enough for Ruby and Dorothy, but I got the sense that they were doing it to try and counteract the "avoiding Swan Queen because homophobia" allegations.

(I actually don't think they WERE avoiding Swan Queen because of homophobia, necessarily. I think it was never their intent to begin with; they just happened to attract a sapphic audience who were deeply on the Enemies to Lovers train. I do think they may have indulged in a bit of queerbaiting, though, because of some Emma/Regina moments that happened after the writers definitely knew the ship existed. I think it was never going to be canon, but they handled it poorly once they realized that people saw it as an option.)

I stopped watching around Frozen for a couple of reasons:

On a personal level, I just got sick of seeing the characters I shipped with other people. That's not an objective problem; it's my opinion and not everyone will agree. But to me, Hook was a whiny insecure manchild and Robin had the personality of Clippy the MS Word paperclip, and damnit, I wanted Emma and Regina to kiss each other instead of them!

On a This Is Bad Storytelling level, I HATED how Frozen was integrated. Earlier stories had been a nice blend of traditional fairytales with Disney adaptation elements- Beauty and the Beast where Gaston and Chip are both kind of there but in subtler ways, for example, or Cinderella where her dress resembles the 1950s animated version but everything else is different. Frozen, though, was just...Frozen. The entire plot of the movie Frozen had happened before the characters entered the OUAT storyline, their costumes were identical to those in the movie, and while I've heard that they added some different backstory- it just wasn't the "Hans Christian Andersen story with subtle Disney touches" that I would have expected from earlier seasons.

Personally, I don't think the initial curse should have been broken in a season. I feel like that locked them into a pattern of having to continually invent a new Darkest Evilest Most Powerful Magic EVER!!!!! to top the previous season, and that took them to some really weird places (I heard they went to literal hell at one point?). The show had a cool premise and some interesting ideas- I loved how they managed to give individual kingdoms distinct cultures and even fashions. You can tell the "look" of Snow White's kingdom from Cinderella's and Cinderella's from Ariel's, etc.

Everyone who would watch an entire season of Abigail's Ancient Greek Steampunk-ish kingdom, raise your hands. Seriously, so cool.

But something went wrong, IMO around season 4. I'm not sure if the show had just outlived its original concept or had outside pressures pulling it in different directions or what. All I know is, as far as I'm concerned, the show ends when Emma and Henry leave Storybrooke in season 3A. Pity It Was Cancelled So Soon, etc.

(although OOC Matronly SnowTM would have been perfect for live slug reaction memes, so there's that)

#long post #ask #once upon a time #ouat #anon

[starsarefire824]

things i wish we could all stop fighting about:

1. bi mike vs. gay mike nonsense. believe what you want, but canon Mike dates El and we have not been shown anything else as of yet besides some subtext and hints towards him being queer. Until then...none of us know. until then...THEY ARE BOTH valid depending on how you read the character and the writing. i personally lean towards bi, but i generally believe in the show, if they go for mike being queer, he could most definitely be gay. if mike wheeler came out in the first episode and told me he is the gayest man to walk the planet i would be like....uhm yes. but also....if he’s a men leaning bi character or whatever other combination of bi he might be...i’ll also believe it. in the end, imo, if it’s made clear that he is queer and in love with will, his sexuality will probably not be labeled neatly with a bow on it anyway. so the entirety of the arguing is stupid.

2. the fact that teenagers may or may not have sexual desire and attraction and act on those instincts in some way makes people who discuss or explore it in writing somehow disgusting. it’s not. (ie. talking about the “hose scene” is valid, writing about teenagers feeling desire for the person they have a crush on is normal.) sex is normal. sexual desire is normal. it starting to happen as you go through puberty is normal. to deny this fact or make people feel weird about talking about is doing every teenager in this fandom that experiences sexual attraction and desire a very large disservice. there is nothing shameful about it. there is something shameful about making someone else feel disgusting for their completely normal feelings because they make you uncomfortable. and every show/film/book written about teenagers and their sexual lives has been written by someone who is mostly likely over the age of 18. so to say that fanfic writers or people who are in fandom discourse are somehow deviants is the most insane argument i have ever read in my entire life.

3. things such as pointing out how mike may have issues with food, el may be behind her peers in being able to handle a more adult romantic relationship, lucas facing racism, and will dealing with trauma that mimics sexual abuse are all legitimate and worthy of discussion. whether it makes people uncomfortable or not. these are topics that have been brought up/alluded to in the show, and they’re allowed to be talked about by the fans.

ok i lied. there are four.

4. stop shitting on people for their headcanons. if someone wants to headcanon will as asexual and homo-romantic there is nothing wrong with that. if someone wants steve harrington to be bisexual, there is nothing wrong with that. if someone wants max to be poly there’s nothing wrong with that. believe me, the people who headcanon this are usually very aware that it is not canon. we all watch the show. but if it’s fun for them to explore that with a character in writing or art or discussion then cool. it’s adding layers to the conversation around these characters and is valid. snidely saying you’ll block someone for a fucking headcanon is wild to me. i am all for blocking things that make you uncomfortable or if someone just annoys you....sure. great. but blocking every single person who disagrees with you is so silly to me because you are making your garden very small. it’s important in discourse to engage with people who have different opinions than you. as long as everyone stays respectful i encourage people with different opinions to interact with me. PLEASE. it’s the entire point of joining an online community. we bond over something we love and then have discussions about it.

#byler #stranger things #fandom things

[hecckyeah]

Hey! So, I know you probably haven't watched it yet, BUT: when you do, I must know your comprehensive thoughts on the latest Rookie episode!?!

ASK AND YOU WILL RECEIVE!!!

Okay, because I'm insane, I'm going to split this into two sections: not-chenford, and chenford.

SPOILERS FOR 6x02 UNDER THE CUT

First up, everything NOT-chenford-related:

Honestly they could have botched it, but it was SO FUN having Randy back for the wedding. "Sit down, German, I got this." i mean???? iconic. Also having him be literally in Pete's place and WITH HIS GIRLFRIEND? even more iconic. I'm a ride or die Randy fan, so all his scenes just made me unreasonably happy :)

it was understandably short, but I loved having Celina ride with Nyla, finally. It was kind of satisfying to see her get humbled in interrogation, because imo Nolan has been kind of lax with her training, letting her get away with things the other rookies would have been fired for. So it's nice that she'll spend some time away from him and with a *ahem* more experienced TO. hopefully. We'll see.

Ugh, my heart breaks for Aaron this season. Kid's traumatized for REAL. And his comment to Celina about not sharing things with the therapist because he wants to get back on patrol, not necessarily get better. That bothered me. I really hope they dig into that a lot. But I also hope nothing horrible happens because of it. He seemed so unstable, even when he wasn't drunk. I'm also very interested to see where this goes with his and Celina's friendship. Just a lot of good stuff that could be a really thoughtful and interesting story if handled right...

Aaaaand this episode confirms that I intensely dislike Bailey. Everything about her character is just trying too hard, like the writers were so tired of having Nolan date and break up a few times, they were like okay fine this one can stay, and even though they have chemistry readings in the negatives, they keep trying to push it even though it feels so wrong. I'd rather have Nolan be single the rest of the show than be in this stale cardboard relationship. But it's fine, they're not going to split them up now, so I'll have to deal with it lol

The whole thing with Oscar suing was SO rushed. Like, so insanely rushed I couldn't even be annoyed at him. I hope they bring him back and do it for real, because that was weird to kind of shoehorn in there just for dramatic effect.

EPIC COP TEAMUP IN SUITS AND TIES MY BELOVEDDDD. Seriously they all looked SO GOOD chasing down bad guys and beating people up. White dress shirts were truly the MVPs of this episode

Will Celina just. be wearing long sleeves the rest of her life? Seriously how long has she been a rookie already?? Most of Angela's pregnancy and maternity leave, so at least 10 months, if not more. Hell, she should be graduating from the program soon. The timeline in this show is absolute trash.

Speaking of-- Baby Wopez name drop when????? poor girl's been nameless for too long

James coming in clutch with the playlist was chef's kiss. I LOVE that man

ALSO JAMES AND WESLEY'S BROMANCE. "I went with a suit." "Me too. Mine has a tie." "Oh my god, same!" I CAN'T WITH THESE TWO. Probably my favorite bromance of anyone ever.

Finally, just in general-- I know some people were put off by how much stuff was jam-packed into 42 minutes (again. how???) but I think they pulled it off reasonably well. There was actually very good pacing, lots of comedy and angst and everything in between. I personally LOVED this episode and I think it deserves a few rewatches just to pick up on everything they threw at us. It has its flaws, but it will definitely be a 100th episode to remember, that's for sure.

AND NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE MOMENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR.

Chenford thoughts :))))))

But first let me just get this out of the way real quick-- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHLSKDJFOAHGOIJWE;LKTH;SKLJD;LFKHAGLJKSDFA;HLGKJLSKJDKFJDKJFKDJFKJDKFJDKFJKD OH MY GOSHHHHHHHHHHHA;LKGHSJNBMNMCC HELP KJAEHKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG IM HYPERVENTILATING AHGHGHAHSHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

okay, anyway.

Here we go!

I'm just a little bit torn on how they decided to approach this. On the one hand, it was nice that they were still able to work together and talk without excessive drama. Although... Tim shutting the door on her did hurt. Yeah. That hurt a lot. But I had really hoped that they would acknowledge that Lucy was in the wrong last episode too. She was being completely unreasonable and like Tim said, she was projecting. But in this ep, it seemed like she was validated and he was the one being unreasonable. While his trauma with Isabel is something they desperately need to talk about (like Lucy said), she was also reacting too harshly to it and being unfair with her accusations. But honestly, it's okay. We still have 8 episodes to sort it out and it seems like they're very much on the right track. I'm hoping they have a really really really intense, tearful, honest, raw, cathartic conversation about the whole thing. Seems like that's the direction they're going, so I won't hold my breath but it is something that needs to happen.

ALL OF THEIR INTERACTIONS were just so. hnnggg. so chewy. so much going on. THE LOOKS DURING THE WEDDING. hang on I'll come back to that in a sec.

The scene with the Hammer was NEXT LEVEL. (Also fun that they named the episode after That Scene, specifically. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........) For some reason I immensely enjoyed watching Tim get thrown around like a rag doll. Not sure what that's about. Never seen that side of myself before.

THE FORESHADOWING. That on-one-knee thing was more than I thought they'd give us, and OMG I ATE IT UP. The little pause, where Lucy's breath kind of catches, and Tim just seems kind of oblivious. THAT'S CINEMA, BABEY.

Kind of insane about Tim just passing out like that. Poor man.

CELINA MENTIONING LUCY'S BACHELORETTE PARTY????? hello even more foreshadowing :))))

The scene cuts back and forth when Lucy is helping with the cake and Tim with the flowers??? THEY'RE TELEPATHIC SOULMATES DON'T TALK TO ME.

And the fact that the lie detector was RANDY'S IDEA? I'm shrieking. "Ein wenig crazy," is definitely something my adhd bilingual ass has said irl

oh my lord how CLOSE she scoots her chair?? i'm melting

I thought it was kind of a nice touch to have Tim be actually surprised by the lie detector picking up his answer to the last question being a lie. Because honestly.... now it makes a little more sense: he's been lying to himself. Which is kind of an angle I didn't see coming. "I guess we do have a problem," sounds to me like he literally hasn't been able to admit to himself that he doesn't want Lucy undercover. Of course he wants her to make detective, that's not a question. Detective doesn't equal undercover. But he's been telling himself probably since day one that he's fine with it, that she's not Isabel, that he has nothing to worry about . . . and now he's finally seeing that he really is terrified. Something she's seen in him all along. And while their argument last episode was about more than just this (I still believe she was in the wrong for projecting so hard and making crazy assumptions about him), I think I can see where the writers were going with it.

THE I LOVE YOUS D E S T R O Y E D ME

Okay, back to the Looks at the wedding. Tim being all 🧍and scanning the crowd for his girl . . . Lucy delivering the Heart Eyes of the century . . . Them still sitting together because even though they're fighting, they're still each other's person, and nothing can change that . . . I'm going into cardiac arrest.

In my book, "We're gonna get through this" is a nice breath of fresh air and a bit of relief, but it doesn't mean they've worked everything out. Again, they need a good solid conversation. One that this episode was never going to give us, sadly. But it'll come!

ALSOOOO that moment when Aaron interrupts them and we see Tim's hand around her waist, I just OOF i need a moment

I AM NEVER GONNA BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS EPISODE. the foreshadowing, the parallels, the pining, the dancing, the fighting, the emotions, EVERYTHING. It was not perfect but it was WONDERFUL. 10000/10, I need to watch all their scenes about five million more times.

AND THERE WE HAVE IT. I'll definitely be posting more thoughts soon, but that's where I'm at for now. Basically I think they set the groundwork for a really solid, healthy relationship going forward. I LOVED their moments in this ep, absolutely top tier. The ANGST. I am eating up every second of it.

2 episodes down, 8 to go!!!

#the rookie #the rookie spoilers #chenford #asks #I'M SO SORRY THIS IS SO LONG #I'm physically unable to be coherent at the moment #I'll maybe have to do a deep dive sometime when my thoughts settle themselves :))) #thanks for the ask!!!!! #LOL you asked for comprehensive and that's what you got xD

[kinnenvy]

In defense of season five Brian Kinney

(this has been in my drafts for months because i'm scared to post it sjkfhs)

We all feel a certain kind of way about season five, it's like... kind of unfortunate from beginning to end lmao. BUT STILL the one thing that I will always do is try to defend that babygirl, I will carry him out of the storm of criticism princess style and take him home on a white horse.

disclaimer: this is a confused stream of consciousness and I will get some things wrong because it's the season I've watched the least lol.

Why does Brian act the way he does? We know why he acts a certain way throughout the series and to me his behaviour in s5 is not that unwarranted or different from the other seasons.

1) At the end of season 4 he asks Justin to move in, he talks about wanting to spend more time with Gus, but does any of it happen? no.

Justin leaves and Brian is happy and proud of him, but honestly I would also see why that would make him feel a certain kind of way. He already thinks he doesn't deserve love and companionship and one of the few times he asks for it he doesn't get it. He prepares a trip to go see Justin, but at the last second he decides not to go, he gets cold feet because it sound like Justin is leaving him forever. Sort of, kind of, but it's enough. The same happens with Gus (imo). Like he's accepted that with time all his relationships will end and no one actually wants him to fight for them, because no one actually likes him enough to want to stick around. But do you know who will always stay by his side? Michael. Until...

2) Confession... I don't hate the assimilation plotline. It was handled horribly, but I still think it's pretty cool they dedicated so much time to it. They were doing this in the early 2000s and now most lgbtq+ media can't handle to seriously get anywhere close to it.

Brian and Michael's roles are on the opposite spectrum of the debate and Justin ping pongs between them way too pointedly, because (imo) the writers decided to use him as a plot device instead of a character. (Unironically to me Justin feels the most like Justin when he is being a dick to his mom about her boyfriend) (and even then I find myself questioning whether s4 Justin would do or say any of that)

ANYWAY Brian sees his best friend/brother travel where he can't follow him. Michael has a family, he is married, he has a house in the suburbs, new, more mature friends and Brian is looking at him from afar, wondering why he suddenly thinks the life they've shared is a meaningless, shameful thing of the past. Not directly, but in a way wondering why Michael can't just accept him the way he is anymore.

BTW Brian might have celebrated the wedding of his friends... but that doesn't mean he changed his mind on weddings as a whole. Actually his wildest marriage nightmares are proven right by the two married couples he knows. He probably looks at Mel and Lindsay destroying each other, stuck in a legal battle with Michael /and/ Ben, looks at the kids trapped in that mess and is glad that will never be him.

UNTIL IT IS. Justin, in his infinite wisdom, decides he wants all of that actually and he tries to "tame" (quoting Cowlip) Brian until he leaves him behind because the domestication isn't sticking and him alone is not worth as much as weddings and kids. There's supposed to be something MORE. Staying with Brian suddenly means settling for something lesser than what Michael has. This process starts way before the break up (talks of... puppies?) and it's there where (imo) Brian just breaks.

No Michael, no Justin, constant talk of marriage and kids and divorce and custody. No one fucking cares Brian has a reason to behave the way he does. It's normal to want different things in life, but no one in the cast has experienced what Brian has and no one tries to understand it and understand what he wants and why either.

Brian's entire existence in the series is being questioned: his worth, what he has to offer, what he can't/won't give as well as what he can/will give, what HE IS, everything amounts to literally nothing. he is being left by everyone, he's wrong and not enough. Meanwhile he hates being alone, he's needy and touch starved and sweet, he needs his special people around, but why would he ask them to stay, when they make it so clear that they think he is not worth anything? (he's left with literally only Lindsay who is so bad at keeping her mouth shut and just offering support and Ted who's mostly just thinking about his own dick 24/7 and is more of a distraction than anything else).

The only gateway to attention and affection he has left is sex except that isn't working as well anymore.

[2.2) (little aside about Justin) To me he is a bit like a moth flying into bright, shiny things. He's still stubborn and driven, but in season five his decisions feel shallow, like he's doing things out of boredom. At the start of the season he's coming back from hollywood, where he was happily living in kinney-like debauchery, and he's disappointed to be back to his old life. So (imo) he finds a new thing to obsess over: marriage. Then he gets to go to new york and weddings, kids and manors are suddenly a thing of the past. This is why to me, in season 5 he's just a big nothing of nothing, genetically modified to accompany the brian/michael assimilation plot line and then Brian's ending.]

3) Confession n 2 I don't hate Brandon and even though the competition is SO cringe, it's meant to be that way (i hope at least), to me the way it ends is what makes it clear. We get a glimpse of season one Brian, broken and lost, terrified, hanging onto the one thing that makes him feel wanted, safe and alive (sex). He wins, but the ending to the competition is not satisfying, Brian doesn't claim his prize (he doesn't want it). We get an unsettling, super close close up on Brian and Brandon instead, the lines are not good, but the visual storytelling carries that scene effortlessly. Past and present looking at each other, the future looming over them right out of frame where none of us can see it.

Aging is a main theme throughout the story and to me it feels very fitting to ham it up towards the ending. Justin spitefully telling him he looks good after sighing and moping around for entire episodes can't fix Brian's lifelong obsession with the loss of his youth. Brian is left to deal with it on his own when it's at its worst. He is old and lonely, Brandon and the competition is an escape, one last glimpse at what it's like to be the young, hot, reigning stud of Liberty Avenue, while being fully aware that his time is up.

In conclusion, Brian has not taken steps back imo, he is struggling to come to terms with the changes around him, while also feeling confident about his own convictions. Sometimes he is bitter and lonely and we get to see him say extreme things, but he's also more well adjusted than he was in season 1. He knows what he wants but he's still scared to admit it. Partly because (and the failure with the moving in thing could be a factor in this) he doesn't think he should ask for anything, partly because the people he loves are expecting him to change even more and against his will.

A the same time, he is able to question himself because he has grown and worked through some of the trauma that shaped him, also he has found a new kind of intense love with Justin, different from the codependency he has with Michael (and Lindsay) and the surface level friendship he has with everyone else, which is something that has made him realise so much about himself and what he wants and would like to be.

For the same reasons he is able to look at his empire crumbling and accept it, because during the show he found other reasons to fight and stay alive. When those same reasons are taken away from him, or he doesn't find the courage to go after them, he tries to comfort himself through sex, even if it's unsuccessful, but he's not closing into himself like he used to. He still thinks he'll get Michael back eventually and he's happy to let Justin go if it means he'll find what he is looking for, Brian doesn't want another relationship he doesn't care for it, the only reason Justin became his boyfriend is because he forced his way into his life and his heart ugh cringe lol. Obsessing over sex, age and fighting with his loved ones is not necessarily a sign of regression, just a momentary way to cope with the world pulling the rug from under his feet.

He went from attempting suicide to celebrating being cancer free. He wants the people who make him happy to be happy, even if it hurts him. He's not possessive and he's not particularly brave when it comes to relationships, but he's also growing constantly, willing and unwilling he changes and moves forward in his own way, sometime turning to look at the past but with no excuses, no apologies, no regr[GUNSHOT]

Then episode 10 comes and a lot more shit happens that i could write another 20 pages about but im done for now lmao ok bye

#qaf #queer as folk #meta #queer as folk us #brian kinney #possibly my last contribution to the fandom rip kinnenvy on ao3 #i don't know why anyone would want to read this but i want it in my blog in case i forget how weird and obsessive i can get

[astrophileous]

Hii 😊 if your up for it could u write an imagine where reader grew up in a musically inclined family and has been hiding it from the bau team but mostly Spencer so he’s never met readers family so when the holidays roll around and readers family comes to visit Spence tells the team he want to meet their family and the team get curious to so they all follow him and show up to readers house to hear their family (reader included) play instruments and singing

(Thank for the consideration 🖤🫡)

Hi anon! First of all, thank you for considering me for this request in the first place, but I regret to inform you that I must reject this request and that I won't be writing anything for it. I will try to explain myself as concisely as possible, but it's still gonna be a long passage so I hope you bear with me. And I encourage my other readers/followers/just fanfic readers in general to read this as well because it's important.

The reason I decided not to write anything for this request is because I just recently stumbled upon a requested fic, written by another author, with an eerily similar plot to this one. There's a chance I'm making a wrong assumption here, but I did ask a friend of mine to compare the two requests, and she also agrees that they are too similar to just be a coincidence. And honestly, I don't appreciate people sending in their requests to me if they're just gonna copy it (with a few tweaks here and there) and send the same ask to another writer's inbox. It's rude. It's disrespectful. And from this point forward, I will be denying ANY request that comes my way if I saw you had already sent the same (or a very similar one) to another author beforehand.

Maybe some of you think this isn't a big deal, but for me, it is. When you send in the same requests to me and multiple other authors, it makes me feel depreciated as a human being. It makes me feel like you view me only as a robot/machine/an AI with no other purpose than to write you fics after fics after fics. I get it, it's harder to perceive someone as another human being when we're all hiding behind our online personas, but just like you and everyone else, all fanfic writers on this platform and I have our own lives. I'm not a fic-producing machine that you can just exchange for another one when you feel like I'm not posting or writing fast enough to your liking.

I know it can be frustrating. I know that some of you might not be as patient to wait longer for authors to publish your requests, but guess what? It's still not an excuse for you to treat us as less than human beings or like we're disposable! Especially when most fanfic writers are doing this FOR FREE. So it shouldn't matter if it takes fanfic writers a week, a month, or a whole year to write something, we still don't owe you anything because it's not like you're paying for us anyway.

I'm a full-time college student in the middle of writing my thesis. I'm running on barely any sleep as it is and as much as I don't want it, writing requests do have to be put on the back burner once in awhile. This is just something you have to accept as fanfic readers. If you can't handle it, then you can literally just take your request to ChatGPT or something and request it to write it for you. I'm not a fan of AI myself, but this is a much better option than just reducing fanfic writers to a fic-producing machine.

So yeah, with that said, I deeply regret that I must deny this request. I'm sorry if I made you wait too long for it, but again, it's still not enough imo to justify what you did. Even if I weren't as busy as I was, requests are still gonna take some time to write—do you know why? Because I always take time to make sure that the contents I post are up to a certain standard. Sometimes I'd even write multiple versions for a request and post one that I deem the best among the others. That's how much I care about the fics I'm putting out even when I'm doing this for free. Fanfic readers tend to forget that the 2000-word stories you managed to finish in a couple of minutes were born out of labors of love that could take DAYS for the writers to complete. And we do it all sometimes without being fairly compensated as well (have you seen the contrast between comments/reblogs and likes for fics in this platform???? It's APPALLING). So really, asking you to please please please not send the same request to different authors should be considered the bare minimum.

In conclusion, I really hope that you can put a stop to this habit for the sake of everyone involved. I'm not saying you shouldn't be sending requests to different authors at the same time, but just make sure that you give us different plots so each writer is given the chance to show off their creativity in their own unique ways. I apologize again if I seemed too hostile in this post, it wasn't my intention at all. Please don't be discouraged from sending another request in the future because of this. I just hope there was something to be learned from what I wrote here. I hope you have a good day! ❤️

#asktrophileous #zaranting #criminal minds #spencer reid #derek morgan #aaron hotchner #emily prentiss #jennifer jareau #penelope garcia #luke alvez #matt simmons #spencer reid x reader #derek morgan x reader #aaron hotchner x reader #fanfic writing #fanfic writer #fanfic readers

[lacependragon]

Listen I love the Bees. They're my preferred ship for the both of them. I love the healing and the tenderness and the trust and the giggles matched with the sarcasm and the jokes.

But. But.

I do genuinely believe that sometime around V7, RWBY became a soulless cash grab, and the Justice League movies really, really slam that home for me. And I'm sorry that was when the Bees got all their shit together. The characters could be in a much better story! But they're not, in canon. They're stuck in RWBY.

And RWBY, for me, has sucked since about the midpoint of V7. It feels soulless, out of character, like it's slapping the lowest common denominator in plots, reveals, and characterization, and it's so full of Bathos it's impossible to take seriously without feeling like the actual showrunners are making fun of you for enjoying the show.

I love the characters. I love so much of the lore. But it does, to me, genuinely feel like the last 3 volumes exist just to exist, that everything is solely about money instead of story, and that everything interesting and nuanced about this world has been sanded down and filed off to make nice smooth, non-corners so that everyone in the audience without any reading comprehension still doesn't cut themselves on any sharp edges because none exist.

And that's not even getting into my problem with the way the series handles tone across a single volume and multiple volumes. Which I think has been seriously failing since V5.

There's so much in the modern canon that fascinates me - the tree in Ever After and the concept of Ever After is one of the most interesting things RWBY has done in a while, IMO, but I wish it had been better thought out, better implemented, better foreshadowed. I wish it didn't rely on fairytales we've never heard of and didn't fuck with stuff we already knew without any sort of clarity.

In a lot of series I'd give the showrunners some benefit of doubt, but RWBY has proven multiple times that it doesn't care about clarity of worldbuilding, only coolness factor. So things aren't consistent, and they don't make proper sense, and they're changed whenever the writers think of something better - or that's how it fucking feels.

Not to mention I am still firm that the characters have been acting wrong for a while. Some more extremely than others, but in ways that are convenient to plot and comedy, rather than true to themselves.

If I wasn't so invested. If I didn't love so much. I'd just walk away and let it go. Gods know I've never finished a shit ton of series for that reason.

The problem is I love so much of RWBY and it's hard to just. Be so frustrated with it.

#lace speaks #rwby #rwde #i also wish the animators would make blake and yang visibly asian again #like they were during the v4-v6 arc #'atlas lighting' fuck off theyve been out of atlas in multiple things since thne #and its STILL PALE PALE PALE PALE PALE #fuck that noise #i miss theyre warm skin tones #rather than 'next to weiss on the colour wheel'

[ellesliterarycorner]

I did not really like hotd episode 8. Like going into it, everyone was like this is going to be the best episode so far, highest rated all season, and it just fell short to me. With all these damn time jumps, I feel kinda disconnected from all the characters. And my main emotion is just annoyed. To me Rhaenyra was just annoying. I genuinely wanted her to show me a reason why she would be a good queen this episode, to show even the smallest shred of good decision making this episode, and she didn’t really. She’s just been so passive. Every time something goes wrong Daemon or Viserys fixes it, and she keeps proving she has no political know-how. Like of course, Rhaenys is mad cause she thinks you killed her son and got married to someone else the same day. What did you think would happen? She would just be chill with it? Rhaenyra complains about how King’s Landing has changed so much. Girl, you abandoned it for six years. That’s why nobody likes you. If you really think Alicent is a viper at your father’s side, why are you not in King’s Landing working against her. She just came off really weak this episode. (Nothing against Emma D’Arcy; they’re doing great. It’s the script imo) That scene when Viserys walked into the throne room and the music swelled, I was freaking rolling my eyes. Like Rhae Rhae your father is clearly dying on his death bed and you can’t even be bothered to try and protect your children’s (illegitimate) claim to Driftmark yourself. You had to run to daddy. Which brings me to Driftmark. I’m honestly just disappointed in the handling of the Velaryons. Does no one else sincerely see a problem with Rhaenyra trying to push her illegitimate WHITE children onto the throne of a historically BLACK family? I don’t really care that Laenor loved the kids. It just felt off to me. No one sees a problem with Daemon just slicing the head off a BLACK dude for speaking the truth? But, nope, of course they had to just sprinkle in Vaemond calling Rhaenyra a whore to ‘justify’ his killing. Because up until that point, my man’s was speaking straight truth. But he couldn’t be even the smallest bit right and team black has to be justified so whoop misogyny. Ughhhhh. But whats annoying me the most in this show is that no matter what team they’re on all the characters seem so DUMB. Like just legitimately stupid. It’s quite obvious that Rhaenyra’s kids are bastards and yet she is absolute gobsmacked, confounded, shocked, whatever every time someone brings up their succession. It’s annoying because everyone does have two eyes. I just wish the writers would give everyone a little dose of smarts mixed with common sense. I also was really annoyed that they made the whole start of the Dance over a misunderstanding. I get what they were trying to do because their show Alicent is not power-seeking like her book counterpart even if the people around her are, so okay sure fine, but it felt dumb and contrived. I’m hoping things get better next week, but imma need everyone to stop with the silliness and the stupidity and wisen up, please and thanks!

#hotd #hotd season 1 #queen alicent hightower #alicent hightower #anti daemon targaryen #anti rhaenyra targaryen #anti team black #honestly anti everyone this week #im kinda annoyed #I’m begging everyone to grow brain cells please

[lizardthelizard]

OKAY! I have to know your thoughts on the idea of august as the author? I never really thought henry made sense as the author, & august literally was able to seamlessly add pages to the story book & had untold knowledge about the previous author. PLUS an indepth knowledge of the 'correct' version of fairytales & how magic worked in the enchanted forest despite being like 7 when he went through the portal. [have been discussing this theory with others & we all seem to agree that august shouldve been the author BUT 👀 as the president of the august fanclub I'm curious about your thoughts 👀]

(90% of the below was written last October and I'm SO sorry that it's taken this long for me to finish and publish this ask 😭😭 I was HYPED to get the ask, it was just sent at the wrong time)

HI!!!!! 🥰💕💕 It's always a delight to see you in my inbox, but ESPECIALLY with a question like this HELLO??? <3

okay okay SO .

I think that, for me, I understand why OUAT picked out Henry to be the Author. And imo, Henry ~kind of~ worked as the Author. I mean, he was the one that had been so involved with the storybook in the first place (and, in a way, bringing to life the characters in the book when he brought Emma to town to break the curse).

That said...I did read and enjoy a post you made a while ago about how Henry hasn't ever been a particularly avid reader (the most we ever see him read are comic books) and most of his focus is very specifically around THEE storybook and the change it brought him in his real life, rather than the stories and fiction itself. And, like.....you're RIGHT.

Anyway.....August. I have...mixed feelings about this.

On the surface, it's very appealing. August is already a writer. He DOES have knowledge of the previous Authors, yes, and a good handle on the storybook itself. And yes! He really does he have an indepth knowledge about the characters in book, thanks to his past in the EF. He was only a child, sure, but he was a child for a long time. He was a puppet for 20 years (thank you Season 6 for making that canon). He's met David's dad. He's seen Regina as the Evil Queen when she visited their village. He's been with Emma during several key points in her life and story.

AND YET...There are a couple of reasons as to why I can't quite jive with this theory, and one of them is simply that...He isn't allowed to be a good narrator. He's THEE unreliable narrator (he's literally named after the man that coined the term 'unreliable narrator'). And we've already seen how unsuitable Isaac was when he strayed from the path of 'recording everything exactly as it was'.

Now. I'm not saying that August would go full rogue like Isaac. But what I am saying, is that August has canonically already edited the storybook because he didn't like what was there. He took the Pleasure Island arc out of the book and hid them away somewhere because he didn't want other people reading that part of his story because he felt ashamed of it. I definitely don't think it would be a stretch for him to tweak elements of his own story (and maybe potentially other people's) if he felt he needed to. And ultimately, this would make him a bad Author.

The second reason that I can't quite support this theory is because...August is too involved in the storybook himself. To me, it feels wrong for a character in the storybook to also be the Author of said book. Isaac was literally just some dude from the 1960s that liked writing stories. Henry, although entwined with the book, was never actually in the book himself, so he can claim some distance between it too. And the only other Author that we see mentioned (?) is Walt Disney in a throwaway joke line, so...

Not to mention, despite talking constantly about 'being a writer' the only thing we ever actually SEE him writing is....The Adventures of Pinocchio. The main story he's interested in right now is clearly his own. (THAT SAID, I obviously won't deny that he loves to tell a tall tale (lemurs in Nepal, bullfighting ect). I'm not trying to deny that he doesn't enjoy telling stories, only saying that his main focus is HIS story right now).

Also, I hear you saying that August was super involved in the storybook and its history, and that he had a lot of knowledge around it (after all, he knew about the door and how to add and remove pages from the book) however, I would like to introduce here two wise old men: The Dragon and The Apprentice, both able to aid him in the Land without Magic, even at a time when August was seemingly doubting his own past/magic.

The Apprentice is particularly important here because I'm of the opinion that he gave August the missing pages from the book. I know that it's not unreasonable to assume that August typed those pages himself, but the illustrations make it a little more difficult to believe, if I'm honest. Can August draw? Yes, very well. We've seen his drawing of the Apprentice and it's very good (not to mention his skill as a woodcarver). But...to remember exactly what David's dad looked like, to the point that Killian is able to recognise him from that drawing..? Seems a little implausible to me personally.

Anyway, I've rambled a lot here but TL;DR:

imo, August is too involved in the story, too unreliable as an author, and probably not as knowledgeable about the book as he claims to be, in order to be a good candidate for the Author.

BUT!!!!! I do think it would be a fascinating avenue to explore in an AU ....👀

#august booth #ouat #I'm now imagining some kind of au where he does get the chance to tweak things #but it has this like...butterfly effect on everything and fucks things up for the whole of storybrooke #imagine. he only wants to change some of HIS story #but when he tries to erase his time at PI. he changes events around david's dad too #actually not just david's dad but also JAMES #asks #august meta