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When I think about the relationship between Melinda and Yor, and how Melinda felt drawn to Yor from the beginning...Instinct never misses and I think it was precisely that what told Melinda she should be close to Yor.

Yor is a natural protector. She is strong, empathetic and overall a good person. She probably makes her feel safe. That's why Melinda feels so happy whenever she sees Yor, that's why she trusted her and why she followed her advice.

And honestly, don't you think that's why Twilight feels drawn to her in the first place too? She just has this something about her that makes people feel safe.

We all need people like that in our life; strong people we can rely on. It makes me happy that someone like Melinda, who is going through a difficult time has someone like Yor.

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SPY X FAMILY MANGA CHAPTER 109 SPOILERS AHEAD

me when melinda desmond said her husband was an alien

fully went all twilight mode like: does she have schizophrenia???? any reason to have hallucinations and/or delusions??? is she FRFR??? like telepathy is possible but that was from lab experimentation so i thought like....it was all human generated??? but what if it's not??????

IS THAT WHY DONOVAN LOOKS SO WEIRD??? and demitrius by extension????????????

i have no clue, man

i know melinda has always shown symptoms of some sort of mental illness but me and everyone always kind of assumed it was due to the domestic abuse she faced but what if it's like......not just abuse??

i kinda headcanoned she had some form of bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder really

but this is

something new lmao

the cliffhangers with this manga are KILLING me hhhh

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Wouldn't it be funny if the identity reveal happened while Loid was in the middle of taking off his disguise, and Yor walked in on him lol

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i love them so bad they are my parents in my head

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a 2024 reading retrospective

so. i read a lot of fics in 2024. here are some of my favorites.

before i get started, please note that these are not in any particular order and these are not all of my favorites!!!!!!!! i wanted to include so many more but i just wasn't able to! also please don't roast me for reading stuff from more than two years ago :(((

anyway, here we go!!

1. Air by Cantare

as always, @cantareincminor knocks it out of the park. i'm a sucker for alternate first meeting AUs and Air is one of the good ones!! i find that it can be hard to find authentic sounding banter between yor and twilight, but cantare manages it somehow! they have such great and natural sounding dialogue. it's just a one chapter fic, but maybe if we ask nicely enough, cantare will continue one day 😏

2. like the wild geese by anonymous_viscacha

okay in all honesty, i read this for the first time last week and i scrambled to add this one to the list. it's a short one shot about a shared lunch break between yor and loid, but it's so sweet and endearing that i just had to put it on. i love love love it when people let loid and yor catch up on the childhood they lost because they deserve it. i'm kinda obsessed with this fic right now.

3. what happens outside by aerequets

it's kinda unfair that @aerequets gets to be a great artist and author but here we are. i'm not complaining tho because what happens outside is a delightful read. i enjoy exploring post reveal pre relationship twiyor and this fic is perfect for that!! it's also just really cute and reading things from yor's perspective is super endearing.

4. chaos theory by sarsaparillia

so ngl this one scared me at first because i do NOT like major character death fics and this one really seems like it, but this fic was unexpectedly wholesome and has a happy ending!!! it's short but bittersweet so i can't really talk about it without spoiling it any more. go read it! it's short!

5. eventually i fall into you, you attack my heart by princessguard

i know this is a controversial (and somewhat ironic) take but i usually really don't like eden AUs but. this fic is proof that there are always exceptions to the rule. this one is a short little story about a serious student at eden and the weird girl he keeps meeting in trees. i don't know exactly why i love this one so much but it do. it's cute and the epilogue got me grinning like a fool.

6. like real people do by Puolain

once again another alternative meeting AU. i dunno, man, it's just so much fun to see twilight and yor having the chance to be real people and accidentally fall in love which each other. i eat that up every time. great work @loveroma!

7. I'll Be There in a Minute, Dear by fluffmelange

i was SO CLOSE to putting fluffmelange's "Leave No Trace of Yourself" here because that one is SO FUNNY but alas, this delightful fic barely won out in the end. you know what you should do? read both. fluffmelange is keeping us all fed with short and sweet fics that are so much fun to read. this one is a favorite simply because the premise is so goofy and simple but i could 100% see it being canon lol. we are in your capable hands @fluffmelange.

8. I've Been Throwing Bricks At Your Window Like There's No Better Way To Say Hello by thesmallestfishinthesea

this fic has such a silly and simply premise but i love it so so so much. it's about the three times yor forgets her keys (plus one extra time loid forgets!!!!) and it's so cute to have a view inside yor's (often frazzled) mind. i don't know what else to say other than READ IT RIGHT NOW!!! great work @smallest-fish-inthesea!

this is not all!! i really wanted to include the wonderful works of @whateversawesome, @briefhottubcoffee, @spencer-is-alive, luinel, and more (ao3 literally went out just as i was typing this UGH what awful timing) but i wanted to do something to give back to this awesome community. fun fact, today is my birthday and there's a tradition in my family where the birthday person gives presents to others. so this is my present to everyone!! thanks for everything you guys and here's to another great year!

oh oh oh one last thing, i tried to link everyone's tumblr if they have one, so if there's an author on here who has a tumblr that i didn't link, let me know and i'll link them.

okay! thanks everyone!

(ALSO DON'T MAKE FUN OF HOW DIFFERENT SOME OF THE DRAWING STYLES LOOK IN SOME OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS, I WAS EXPERIMENTING WITH DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES AND THEY LOOK STUPID ALL PUT TOGETHER LEAVE ME ALONE😭😭😭😭😭😭)

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You know how elevated fandoms would get if we openly discussed stuff like Nightfall's emotional motivations without questions about shipping coming in because this has absolutely nothing to do with shipping. I just can't help looking away from how happy Twilight looks in Nightfall's imaginings. She's imagining their wedding and she doesn't even see herself smiling. Of course she would be happy if it happened (it won't), but the focus of her own fantasy is his happiness.

And what I'm trying to say here is that if the genders were reversed, if Twilight was a woman slowly building a relationship with a guy she's fake married to, and Nightfall as a guy came strutting in, all confident that he'll win her heart and make her happy, fully prepared to dedicate himself to her, with her and her happiness as his top priority, the fandom would be drooling over him. Think about how many love triangles are created because a confident broody guy appears who is willing to fight for his female beloved's heart even by steering her away from the one the fandom first shipped her with. Think about how many of those "dark, broody men" become fan favourites and blorbos. But the moment this happens with a woman we're ready to crucify her - even when the narrative itself wants you to sympathize with her.

Like, I'm not saying y'all should love Nightfall right the f now. But fandoms are weird in a way where they prioritize shipping and are also much more critical of female characters than they are of male characters. And Nightfall is the perfect victim for this combination... and it's just so sad because the narrative doesn't want you to do that. It doesn't want you to compare the two ships because it makes it clear that her fantasy is a dream that will never come true. There is no ship comparison to make because there is no other ship. It doesn't want you to hate her because it gives her traits that show that her true motivation is respect for Twilight, the guy we're supposed to connect with and root for - respect to the point where she doesn't even consider lying to him to get in his good grades.

Nightfall's story is not about her being the "annoying hypotenuse" or the "deceiving, seducing vixen"... it's currently tragic. She dedicates her entire being to make herself worthy of the man she's in love with, and that blinds her to what exactly he truly finds worthy in another person. So she ends up being the exact opposite of that and giving him a 100% wrong idea. And it's also, ultimately, not what will make her happy. No-one becomes happy by dedicating their entire being to becoming perfect for someone else, we become happy when we're accepted for who we are.

And idk Nightfall is an amazing flip on such tropes and it's done so simply that I honestly wish to see more of her, and to see her grow and realize where she's gone wrong and to try and focus on her own happiness. A happiness she can reach by being honest to herself first and foremost, and by not being aggressive towards people she thinks are being "obstacles" on her way towards it.

(anime only here, don't spoil me for the manga)

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I like the way Yor always comfort Damian.

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Just had an idea for one of the identity reveals!

The backdrop of this is that some spies of the highest ranks in WISE have been corrupted. They were approached by rich Ostanian politicians and were tasked with exposing their own agents.

During those exposures is where the WISE female spies were caught, and why Twilight couldn't find anyone eligible to play his wife. But also, to his complete ignorance, he was also caught in a trap. Operation Strix is a hoax, with the end goal of compromising Twilight and/or giving him so much work what with having a family and depending on civilians that he'll end up messing up and getting caught. It's a risky method, but Twilight is smart and it was one of the few ways of pulling him in a trap without him growing suspicious. The long-term part of Operation Strix is what keeps his suspicions away; the con of compromising their own best agent also needs to be long-term.

Anyway, one day Anya and her parents are on an ooting. An older man, a tourist from another city, "happens" to ask Loid for some directions and some advice on what to see in the city. He's actually a high operative and with their secret mouthing technique he's just checking up on Operation Strix, with Twilight cluelessly giving to him information he doesn't really care about.

But Anya. Anya can hear all of this man's thoughts about how it will soon be the time for Twilight to fall, to slip up and get caught, and then how HE will make a ton of money for getting rid of one of the biggest pests on Ostanian supremacy.

They go back home after that, seeing how suddenly Anya's mood plummeted.

A couple days go by, and not having found any other way around it, Anya simply decides to come clean to him. I can read minds, I have been reading yours since the moment we met at the orphanage, I know all about your mission... And I know that the man we met the other day wants you to be caught by the secret police. It's why they put you in this mission in the first place.

...

Yeah that's all I got. It would definitely go angsty, but Twilight would be convinced that Anya really wants to help him, and ends up trusting her about the corrupted operative. Idk how it would go next but I decided to share as it is, lol

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The way Anya has acclimated to being Loid's daughter so well that not once has she ever mentioned the orphanage or the other families she's stayed with but then has a really hard time hiding her knowledge of her father's real job will always be funny to me.

Like imagine being Loid too. To his knowledge Anya knows nothing about him being a spy, but knows that he adopted her. She asks no questions why she should pretend she's his biological daughter and that he's been in her life since she was a baby, has no problems acting like that's what happened, everything going fine and according to plan, but then during an important interview she almost spits out the word SPY out of fuckin nowhere

Yeah, no wonder his life flashed before his eyes lmao

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The thing that makes Yor Forger an amazingly written female character isn't that she has strengths and weaknesses. It's that her strengths and weaknesses are complex, varied, and just so human. Like I feel like people think that to write a "girl boss empowerment" character, she needs to be great at everything or that she needs to be one thing or the other. Like she has to either be strong and smart or gentle and motherly.

Meanwhile, there's Yor. She actively struggles to assist her first grader with homework and can't cook, yet she is incredibly knowledgeable about biology because of her side gig and can make one heck of a stew. She can perform inhuman feats of strength and parkour her way across a city, yet she's a total lightweight and loses almost all her coordination when drunk. Speaking of being lightweight, despite that, she is immune to many poisons. She can't handle more than a glass and a half of chardonnay, but pufferfish poison feels like nothing more than advil to her. She struggles to socialize and sees herself as a poor candidate to be a mother, yet she is the only member of her family actually getting close to Twilight's target because of her kindness. Also, while Twilight/Loid can look and act like a picture-perfect father, it's Yor that actually knows how to raise a child and how to talk to children. Without her, Loid would be screwed.

Yor, despite being a paid killer, is the humanity of her family. Anya is a child who, even with the ability to read minds, knows so little of the world, Loid is a spy who prides himself on his ability to disguise himself among civilians but hasn't actually known what it's like to be one since he was a child, and Bond is a dog, a future seeing dog, but still a dog. Yor for all her social awkwardness is what truly sells the Forger family. With any other woman, the Forgers wouldn't work because there would always be a strange sense of uncanny valley around them. Too perfect father, a child who knows everything but understands nothing. It's only Yor that makes it all click. A slightly ditzy yet weirdly ominous maternal figure.

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Bisou Bisou ? 🌷

(My first drawing on tumblr, ouin...!)

Po

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I don't now what was in Endo sensei mind the day he draw this illustration but if it was to serve,all my congratulations sensei.

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The fact that in episode 3 of sxf Yor is already like “yea I’ll have to kill someone to make sure my fake daughter gets into school” LIKE U HAVE KNOWN ANYA AND LOID FOR LESS THAN A MONTH!!?? She’s so wonderful and I adore this entire freak family and their endless devotion to each other

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*anya proceeds to read his mind and find out exactly how much love he needs*

this is the original reference image by @danielcalmdown (which was reposted on pinterest without credit :[ )

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Spy x Family merch updates and manga hiatus

I wanted to post about some recent fandom news, starting with the good news: while I mentioned in my 2-year anniversary post that we've been in a dry spell lately as far as SxF content, we just recently got a bunch of new merch/designs! (mostly from various Jump Festa vendors) I'll start with my favorite of the new designs, from HMV's Jump Festa set - Forgers in winter outfits ❤️

Next is the "French casual" set from Chara-Ani~ Bond's little red beret looks so cute!

Another winter outfit set, from Animate. Gah, this one's so adorable, too 😭

Next is merch from Ichiban Kuji. Not sure if it's for Jump Festa as well, but either way, I want the acrylics and the plate!

And lastly, Ensky's merch for Jump Festa - Forgers baking cakes/cookies!

Again for those who don't know, Jump Festa is a yearly event held in Japan in late December that's dedicated to Shonen Jump IPs. SxF will have its own panel with the four Forger voice actors in attendance. We've always gotten exclusive announcements and content at past Jump Festas, so fingers crossed it will be the same for this year! I'm gonna try my best to get some of this merch when it goes on sale in late December. And of course, if I'm able to make high quality scans of these new designs, I will post those as well!

Now onto the bad news, which most of you probably heard about already: the hiatus for the SxF manga has been extended to December 23rd. I believe this is the longest hiatus the series has had so far, and what makes this one concerning is not only that the date kept changing, but also the noticeable silence from Endo and other official outlets.

In the Japanese version of the manga, the last page of each new chapter typically notes the date the next chapter will come out. In the case of the most recent chapter, 107, it said it would release on November 25th, meaning Endo would be taking a break from the bi-monthly schedule, which isn't uncommon. But then, just a few days before the 25th, official English manga outlets like MangaPlus updated the release date to December 9th. It was disappointing since we had all been waiting longer than usual for the new chapter, but again, a second postponement wasn't too alarming...what was alarming though, was the third one that came just yesterday, only a few days after the last. People started noticing that official manga outlets had, again, changed the date for the next chapter to December 23rd this time.

The fandom got stirred up quite a bit when this happened, mostly out of concern for Endo's well being. What made me particularly worried was the fact that, while these hiatuses had been going on for the past month, Endo hadn't posted anything on his Twitter account, which is very unusual considering every month prior he's posted at least a few unique illustrations. Not only that, but the last thing he posted was this oddly cryptic image on October 19th, with text that says "Don't look for me." And he then deleted it soon after, which makes it even stranger.

But thankfully, Shonen Jump must have noticed the pandemonium happening in the fandom, because just a couple hours later, they made this statement on the official Jump+ Twitter, apologizing for the delay and confirming that chapter 108 will indeed come out on December 23rd.

This to me was good news, since their official statement about it makes it unlikely they'll change the date yet again. But some sort of explanation would have been nice, even a vague one. I'm not someone to spread rumors, but my own personal speculation (which could be totally wrong) is that there was some dispute between Endo and Jump. This is the only explanation I can think of as to why his Twitter would suddenly be barren for a month after he posted consistently for so long - my guess is that he has to get approval from Jump for all the illustrations he posts there. I don't know much about the inner workings of the manga industry, but I would assume he has some contractual obligations where he can't freely post stuff on social media without some sort of publisher's approval. It is possible he's just been too busy with Jump Festa and other things, but he's still posted at least a couple times a month even when he's sick or busy, so I don't think that's the main reason. Again, this is just my speculation that could be completely wrong. There's also the fact that they so quickly changed the release date to the 23rd, the day right after Jump Festa ends, which could indicate that Endo's been busy cooking something big to be announced there. Regardless, I'm happy we finally have a new chapter release date that's pretty set in stone now, though I won't feel totally better until we get clear acknowledgment that Endo is okay, either from himself on his own Twitter or somewhere else official.

Anyway, despite this setback, I'm relieved that SxF is still going strong with all the hype for Jump Festa and season 3. Between that and the new chapter right after, we'll be eating good this Christmas!

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just a cute anya

not too proud of this but eh

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For me personally I can only enjoy a love story if there is a solid friendship underneath. If I can't see these two characters existing purely as friends then I am not going to get invested in the relationship. I've never been interested in love as much as I am interested in companionship.

This is one of the reasons why I love Twiyor so much. I love seeing them hang out and talk and be vulnerable with each other. I love watching them fall in love with each other and get closer. Opening up and just growing you know.

Which is why I can not engage with 99% of fandom content because it's all based on the idea that they are in love with each other and just don't know it yet. So the progress isn't them falling in love it's them understanding that they are in love which I fucking hate. I thought this was a slow burn thing. I can't read any of the twiyor fics bc its like they're already in love and have the relationship of two people that are in love and I just don't think anyone did anything to earn that.

If you don't drag your ass back and give me all the sweet interactions and intimate moments and map out the way the characters feeling go from platonic to romantic istg I am gonna get a gun-

When I say I love slow burn I mean I love slow burn. GIVE ME THE SLOW. Fuck that love at first sight shit. I want that first kiss to be blindsiding but also just so fucking right.

And for that reason the very random damianya fic where the author was a bit too fixated on Anya's period will remain one of my favourite sxf fics. That shit was so slow burn they still haven't gotten together yet. That's what I want.