#// rant/explanation below cut??????

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

One thing that irks me when playing the game is how silver’s sleeping disorder is reacted to by the other characters, especially the teachers. I mean like, I get on some level that they’re all based on villains so they’re not going to be the nicest, but you’re telling me you see a kid just passing out out of nowhere constantly and the first thing they do is say that he’s lazy and berate him for something he obviously can’t control? Even if his condition isn’t a medical one like narcolepsy and is part of his curse/blessing, it’s still debilitating and affects his daily life. I don’t expect twisted wonderland to have like, disability protection but give the kid a break man he’s trying his best 😭. It also bothers me when other students are like “yeah man I get it schools boring I get sleepy too”. Like, yall have seen him suddenly fall asleep standing up and in random places on campus, it is so obviously not the same thing! And then Silver apologizes for it like every time! no! stop it! don’t apologize for something you literally can’t control

Sorry for the rant. It’s just been something bugging me because its so similar to how real world disabilities that aren’t physical are often brushed over by people and it gets me feeling heated 😭

Oooh, that's an interesting analogy 🤔

Before I talk more on the topic, I want to open with a few disclaimers: I will be discussing various characters’ reactions to Silver’s blessing/curse-induced narcolepsy (for lack of a better term), which may parallel real-life reactionary behaviors related to persons with disabilities or disorders. Know what you are reading, and please skip this post if you do not feel emotionally equipped to take it in.

Additionally, I want to make it clear that I am NOT defending any of those behaviors in this post. I will be attempting to offer in-universe explanations, NOT excuses, for why characters may act the way they do in regard to Silver’s condition. This doesn’t make the behavior any less unacceptable.

That’s all! If you’re all set, feel free to proceed below the cut.

I think, from the perspective of the students, it may be difficult to know what's going on with Silver?? Of course, that doesn't make their reactions or their behavior okay, but it's more understandable where they're coming from. Many young adults (unfortunately) aren't educated on and don't have experience/knowledge of how to handle situations where a peer displays abnormal behaviors. This may be especially true at Night Raven College, where the students are described to be very prideful and primarily concerned with themselves, or, if they help at all, they expect something in return. Many of Silver's classmates may not know him on a personal enough level to be familiar with his affliction or care enough to intervene if he falls asleep standing up. I doubt that most students at NRC would think of a peer beyond how they initially present, much less even consider factors beyond their control.

Additionally, others may not feel a need to step in due to the "bystander effect", a psychological phenomenon in which people are less likely to offer aid if there are others present. The theory goes that everyone just assumes someone else will do something about the situation, which has the unintended result of no one doing anything. Since Silver often falls asleep in public places, this could, in part, explain why so few bother helping.

I guess another component of it could be that some of his peers have simply gotten used to it by now?? (Several characters, even first years like Ortho, indicate that they anticipate he will fall asleep like 80% of the time.) Silver's a second year, so maybe NRC students did notice and attempt to assist in the first year, only to become annoyed with it when the symptoms persisted and so it could have led to peers thinking it's a "normal" thing for him.

I get the sense that Silver doesn't exactly go around telling everyone and anyone about his condition in detail (not that he has to, but I'd imagine that this lack of communication probably doesn't help his classmates' perception of him). He tends to describe his condition as "a personal problem" or blames himself or a lack of diligence for his symptoms. And honestly, I don't blame him for that; he didn't learn about the origins of his curse until book 7, and no doctor Lilia took him to could help. What else could Silver feasibly believe when all else fails? It must be his own doing. Silver has numerous voice lines apologizing for dozing off again and actively seeks out ways to "correct" or counteract his sleepiness. When this is how one presents their own condition, it may naturally cause those around him to believe that the sleepiness is "his fault"/due to his own actions. "Maybe he stayed up late last night," Ruggie suggests. Even Kalim, someone I'd consider Silver's friend, makes similar assumptions.

I will say that not every character is rude to Silver about his sleepiness. Vil might berate Silver for "playing the part of a sleeping princess" and Floyd might tell him, "People walk here. Find someplace else to snooze," but Ruggie appears to show some concern/shock for Silver when he shows up in the school store barely being able to stand, Jade tries to wake him up gently, etc. I'm not sure if the writing being inconsistent here was on accident or not, but I do think that some of the... less than desirable... behaviors may be because the narrative treats Silver's condition like a charm point most of the time. Like... Silver's sleepiness is often used to "sell" his appeal to fans ("Look at how cute he is! Eepy boi!"), or used for comedy in-universe (like when he uses Sebek as a pillow or when Silver blatantly falls asleep in a conversation or in the middle of an important event like the race in White Rabbit Fest). Because of this, rarely is his condition actually treated with the seriousness it would get if this were a real-world disability.

I think there’s a debate to be had about these kinds of impolite comments coming from Sebek though. Sebek is Silver’s childhood friend, so Sebek must be accustomed to the narcolepsy at this point and we’d normally expect him to be most sympathetic about it. But nope, Sebek actually frequently criticizes Silver for letting his sleepiness get the better of him. The majority of other students’ harsh comments towards Silver actually come from Sebek. He drops lines like:

“Don't you dare tell me you're falling asleep again, Silver!”

“His blatant snoring is infuriating.”

“Wake up, Silver! You're blocking Malleus's path! It's absolutely disrespectful!”

“If you don't cease at once, I'm leaving you on the side of the walkway!”

“It’s not as if you've been enchanted by a fairy. You’re just lazy!”

This all sounds horrible and mean, doesn't it? And they definitely are. But hold on! Sebek also says things like, "You're nodding off while walking AGAIN? A proper retainer of Malleus should hold his head high! High, you hear me?!” and, “Please, don't [volunteer yourself for this task]. You'll just end up nodding off. You must accept this is beyond your capabilities and let it go.” The former can be seen as telling Silver to do his best as Malleus's retainer and the latter is advising Silver to back down rather than push himself past his limits. That's not just me being optimistic or giving Sebek the benefit of the doubt just because he's a character I happen to like--Sebek has a known history of phrasing compliments and encouragement in a very rude manner. It's a trait of his that earns him endless ire, and something that Silver often finds himself apologizing to others for. Sebek is also a person who values constant self-improvement both in himself and in others; his cold attitude towards even his childhood friend can be interpreted as his own way of wanting Silver to do his best in spite of his condition. This… isn’t always a good thing though, as this thinking is ultimately ableist and runs the risk of pushing people—himself included—into dangerous situations that may out their wellbeing at risk.

This isn't to defend every single thing Sebek says about Silver's condition though; some of them are definitely too much, even if Sebek is granted as much leniency as possible. Do his comments come off as ableist? Absolutely. Is it his intention to be ableist? I don’t believe so—but that doesn’t negate the fact that his words are needlessly cruel, even if Silver doesn’t perceive it as such or take offense to it. Oftentimes Silver agrees with Sebek’s assessment, which again loops us back to how he already blames himself for his state and could parallel real world disabled peoples’ guilt and shame for just… being the way they are. Us, as the outside onlookers, are of course more likely to perceive Sebek’s words as rude because we’re projecting our own experiences onto what we’re seeing. Of course we don’t want to see a friend saying these awful things to another friend—but between Silver and Sebek, they seem to be mutually okay with this dynamic of pushing one another to “be better”.

I understand that it can be frustrating watching Silver have to say sorry for something that he can't control, but this is most likely a deliberate writing choice for his character arc—and depicting that flaw isn’t bad in a vacuum. Silver is someone who struggles with his self-worth, something we very much see come into fruition in book 7. He worries that he's not doing enough to "repay" his father back, and that it will be too late for him once Lilia departs from NRC. Silver frequently apologizing for his "shortcomings" (ie his constant drowsiness) is probably an extension of that lack of self-worth. He blames himself for his lack of alertness and actively tries to "be better" for a reason. It feeds into the ever-so-ironic cycle of "Silver is sleepy" -> "Silver thinks he must work hard to not inconvenience his loved ones and prove his worth to Lilia" -> "Lilia loves him anyway and he just doesn't realize it yet". (The whole reason Silver is even here right now is because of Lilia's love for him; he would still be sleeping were it not for Lilia.) Perhaps they'll be able to formally reunite in the waking world and wrap up this arc with a neat little bow... with his father telling Silver that yes, he is enough as he is now. Maybe Lilia will even say something along the lines of, "Never apologize for what--or who--you are, Silver. You're my son, after all! You should be proud of that."

This makes me wonder if Silver’s curse will ultimately be lifted in the end or if it will persist…? Because if it does get lifted, then it loses some of its strength as a parallel to irl conditions (since some don’t just poof away). Within the meta of the game, Silver then also loses some of his “appeal”, since sleepiness is a cute trait associated with him. I can see why it would happen from a narrative perspective though—ridding him of the sleepiness could be the ultimate “proof” of Lilia being able to truly love him, which is the condition the blessing requires to be dispelled

What really baffles me, however, is how some teachers are depicted interacting with Silver. The asshole students of NRC, okay. I'd believe they'd be callous towards one of the few nice guys at school dozing off. BUT THE TEACHERS????? 💀 Usually it's not that bad (they tell Silver to keep his eyes open or to wake up), but MAN. In Silver's Labwear vignettes, Crewel berates him for nodding off in class again, grants him a makeup assignment, and says, "If you like sleeping so much, [formulating a sleeping potion] should be right up your alley." He even withholds Silver's credit for Potionology until he receives that sleeping potion. Crewel also berates and punishes Silver in other instances, such as his Dorm Uniform vignettes: "Naughty pup. You think you can sleep through my lesson? [...] What a quick apology. Are you actually sorry? [...] You don't look remorseful to me. Hmph. As punishment, you must collect the reports everyone is turning in at the end of class. Do not miss a single one, and you are to bring them straight to me. Is that clear?" It feels a little… much, especially considering that it’s not like Silver chose to fall asleep midclass, especially as a second year. Then again, Crewel probably doesn’t know about Silver’s condition either so he most likely attributes the behavior to laziness, as Silver does himself. I’d say that Crewel should still at least know a little better as an adult but 💀 many adults have no clue themselves, especially without a formal diagnosis.

Does NRC not have a, like... Disability and Accessibility Center to coordinate with teachers and give certain students assignment/exam extensions??? Therapy, healing potions, and medical mages + regular doctors and dentists exist in this world, so why wouldn't they also have disability support??? 😭 That seems like a HUGE oversight to me. (Get on that, Crowley/j) In all seriousness though, this may be the result of differences in culture?? It might be expected in western countries to have some disability accommodations, but from what I understand, there’s a loooot more stigma in Japan so these services may be lacking (not to day that western countries have perfect accommodations though). Yes, NRC is based on a British boarding school, but ultimately the game is Japanese in origin and therefore might be running off of Japanese notions of what constitutes as “appropriate” support for the disabled. (The way seating in classes are arranged in-game already derive from Japanese schools; alphabetically by last name.) Maybe that’s why Crewel didn’t seem to be willing to make exceptions for Silver…? But even so, this could mirror how western societies also have trouble identifying and adjusting to those with disabilities. It can be hard to get treatment or even mindfulness from peers, especially if you don't have a formal diagnosis (which is the case for Silver; no medical mage knows what's up with him).

Those are my thoughts on the topic ^^ Again, I completely get why seeing the staff and students reacting this way to Silver’s condition makes you (and others, I’m sure) upset. There’s many uncomfortable parallels with how people irl are insensitive to “invisible” disabilities or disabilities in general. It also doesn’t help that Twst tries to both present the condition as a serious matter while also using it for comedy and marketing as Silver’s major “cute quirk”. Getting mixed signals here!!

I hope that this was at least able to grant you some new perspective about why the characters behave as they do. Some of it does seem to be the devs struggling to balance the tone of the stories they want to tell, but some of it also feels like intentional characterization (whether of individuals or of a certain dynamic between a duo) or setting up for an arc.

It would be interesting if we got an event where we explored more of the health industry and attitudes about like… magic-induced conditions, illnesses, etc. Silver is one obvious case of this, but we also know medical mages are A Thing. I’d love to learn more about these!

[nicktoonsunitebigbang]

The basic rules and explanation for the event!

Stay tuned for the Writer and Beta Sign up Forms!

Discord Rules below Cut!

Bullying, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other kinds of intolerant behaviors are strictly forbidden.

Ship or other types fandom hate/discourse is not allowed.

Trolling/harassment is not allowed.

All NSFW content is age restricted and must stay in the proper NSFW channels.

Self Ships/Selfcest are not allowed.

Suicide jokes are not allowed.

Triggering content must be tagged or spoiler tagged. For concerns about posting triggering content contact a mod before posting.

Adult/Minor ships are not allowed, even if aged up.

Venting/rants are not allowed in this server. This is an event server and we wish to keep the vibe positive. If you need resources reach out to @stujet9rainshine,

Unsolicited Critiques/Constructive Criticism isn't allowed. Only provide critical feedback when/if asked for it.

Keep all Questions for the Mod Team in the ⁠ask-the-mods channel

All gore must stay in the appropriate channels.

All characters involved in NSFW must be over 16. This includes aging up characters as necessary.

[tiredandoptimistic]

TSC Fandom Survey Results

The time has finally come for me to share my data! For those unaware, I've spent the past week running a survey in which people ranked TSC books, characters, and ships. In the end, 50 people filled out my survey, which is way more than I expected! About 23% of the people who looked at the survey filled it out, and everyone who started finished it.

First off I'll post the simple rankings from each category, and below the cut I'll show the more complex results with explanations for why people voted the way they did.

Best series: 1. The Infernal Devices 2. The Mortal Instruments 3. The Dark Artifices 4. The Last Hours 5. The Eldest Curses 6. The Wicked Powers 7. The Secret Treasons

Best main girl: 1. Tessa Gray 2. Clary Fairchild 3. Emma Carstairs 4. Cordelia Carstairs 5. Dru Blackthorn

Best main couple: 1. Will/Tessa/Jem 2. Will/Tessa 3. Clary/Jace 4. Jem/Tessa 5. Julian/Emma 6. James/Cordelia 7. Dru/Ash

Best side couple: 1. Magnus/Alec 2. Simon/Isabelle 3. Thomas/Alastair 4. Kit/Ty 5. Kieran/Mark/Cristina 6. Charlotte/Henry 7. Sophie/Gideon 8. Gabriel/Cecily 9. Helen/Aline 10. Grace/Christopher 11. Gwyn/Diana 12. Lucie/Jesse 13. Ari/Anna

Best side character: 1. Raphael Santiago 2. Lily Chen 3. Maia Roberts 4. Ragnor Fell 5. George Lovelace 6. Catarina Loss 7. Livvy Blackthorn 8. Jessamine Lovelace 9. Luke Graymark 10. Jocelyn Fairchild 11. Maryse Lightwood 12. Eugenia Lightwood 13. Jordan Kyle 14. Robert Lightwood 15. Jaime Rosales 16. Michael Wayland 17. Amatis Graymark 18. Camille Belcourt 19. Nate Gray 20. Charles Fairchild

Best younger sibling/child: 1. Max Lightwood-Bane 2. Rafael Lightwood-Bane 3. Mina Carstairs 4. Max Lightwood 5. Tavvy Blackthorn 6. Alex Lightwood 7. Zachary Carstairs

Best villain: 1. Sebastian Morgenstern 2. Valentine Morgenstern 3. Annabel Blackthorn 4. Malcolm Fade 5. Axel Mortmain 6. Asmodeus 7. Shinyun Jung 8. Benedict Lightwood 9. Tatiana Blackthorn 10. Belial

Best side book: 1. Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy 2. Ghosts of the Shadow Market 3. The Bane Chronicles 4. Secrets of Blackthorn Hall 5. An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters and Denizens of Downworld 6. The Shadowhunter's Codex 7. Better in Black 8. A Sea Change

Huzzah! Putting this all together has been so much fun for me, and I want to quickly thank everybody who participated! I also want to remind everyone that this was just for fun, and no reason to get mad at anybody. We're obviously never gonna agree on everything, we just need to respect each other's opinions.

If you want to know the nitty gritty of how every character was ranked, how the different series measured up against each other across categories, and why people like or dislike various books and characters, then keep reading below the cut! I made a spreadsheet, please come gaze upon my beautiful spreadsheet.

Here we go, time for the real shit!

Be warned, you will probably read mean things about characters you love and nice things about characters you hate. Angry rants about how you can't believe anyone would think that way belong in DMs to your friends, not the notes of my post. I do welcome discussion, just nothing that's targeted at other people. Also, I will be doing my best to explain people's opinions, that doesn't mean that I agree with them. I'm just trying to document. If I'm sharing my genuine personal opinion on anything, I'll make that clear.

You'll be seeing screenshots from my big spreadsheet throughout this thing. Here's your key: Columns represent characters/ships/series, rows represent a ranking. Each cell shows how many people assigned that rank to that character (for example, the intersection of 3 and Sizzy will be the number of people who voted Sizzy as their second favorite side ship). At the bottom there will be the average rank this character received, which was calculated by the program I used for the survey. I have all the columns color coordinated by which series each character/ship belongs to, and each column will have one box outlined which shows the rank that character received most often (as in, the intersection of Sizzy and 3 is outlined because Sizzy got more #3 votes than #1 #2 #4 or #5). Some columns have multiple boxes outlined, in the case of ties.

Make sense?

Alright, let's go!

First off, it's everyone's favorite series. As you can see, TID was significantly ahead of all the others. TMI and TDA were neck and neck, frequently switching back and forth for that #2 spot. TLH was a bit lower than the other three, and TEC, TWP, and TST all ranked dramatically lower.

To explain why they liked TID, people talked about finding the series nostalgic, enjoying how the characters are woven into the plot, the historical setting, and how it expands the worldbuilding of TSC while still working as a contained story. People also mentioned enjoying specific characters like Will, Jessamine, and Gabriel. By far the most common comment though was just that people love Herongraystairs. The only negative comments came from people who said that they didn't find the concept interesting, and were disappointed by the lack of their favorite modern characters.

Talking about TMI, the most common positive comments were that the series was fun, nostalgic, and had the best cast of characters (specifically Alec, Magnus, and Simon). People also enjoy the modern setting, the interpersonal relationships (especially Malec), and how the world is seen to develop from where it was in the historical era. TMI has the fewest haters, but some people said that they just didn't find it as captivating as later series, or that they were put off by the incest plotline. I also received the criticism that the characters are annoying, and that the story could have been compressed into fewer books.

For TDA, a lot of people mentioned finding the characters relatable, enjoying the plot, and liking the Blackthorn family dynamic. The characters and ships who got specific shout-outs were Blackstairs, Kierarktina, and Mark. People also like the modern setting, found it to be emotional, and think that it effectively juggles a large cast of characters. Plus, people appreciate getting autistic representation from Ty. It has a solid number of detractors too, who say that they don't like Blackstairs (especially Julian), Thule, the Cohort, or the focus on Faerie politics. They also say that it has too many plotlines, takes itself too seriously, and that the last book (Queen of Air and Darkness) made them drop the series.

While TLH was ranked last of the main series, I'd like to point out that it has the same number of #1 votes as TDA, signaling that it has a similar number of intense fans. The difference really comes in with the lack of #2 or #3 votes, showing that people don't tend to be casual fans of the series. By far the most popular thing brought up by TLH enjoyers is the characters, and how they build an interconnected web with lots of fun dynamics (including developed family dynamics). People also like the number of queer and POC characters, the cozy vibe, the historical setting, the drama, and the ships (especially Herondaisy). The most common critiques all come back to the plot; that the main story is weak or even incoherent, and the series is stretched too thin across a number of side plots. People also dislike the lack of communication, and think that the characters don't feel like friends. Another complaint is that the world doesn't feel like a natural extension of TID, especially because the characters are so invested in mundane social structures like balls and reputations.

TEC is our first truly controversial series, and the main divide seems to be between people who think it's unnecessary fan service, and fans who feel serviced. The reasons I was given to like the series are the additional page time for Malec and the TMI gang, and that it fleshed out the TMI timeline. On the negative side, people say that it feels like a cash grab and that LBOTW didn't live up to the expectations set by RSOM. Overall though, the biggest reason that people ranked it so low was just that they hadn't read it.

Here's where we get into the series that were doomed to fail in the rankings because none of us have even read them. While TWP has a solid number of prospective fans ranking it in their top three, most people left it at the bottom because it hasn't come out yet. The people who expect to enjoy the series are the ones who enjoyed Dru, Kit, and Ty in TDA, and the ones who expect to dislike it are the ones who didn't enjoy those three in TDA.

So, TST was probably not fair to include in this list because I got a solid number of respondents who hadn't even heard of it, but I'm convinced that if it were ever to come out it would be in my top two series overall, and I want to see what the people think. While it didn't get anybody voting it #1 based on potential like TWP did, there were still some people saying that they would be excited to read it because of Waywood, the Luke/Jocelyn/Valentine drama, and the morally gray characters. On the other hand, there's the people who just don't care about the Circle and don't want to read about them.

For main girls, Tessa, Clary, and Emma were all pretty close in the average rankings. Cordelia and Dru fell a bit behind, but also had their share of committed fans.

When talking about Tessa, people brought up her intelligence, maturity, and their nostalgia for her character. They also like that she's a book lover, has cool powers, isn't annoying, starts out messy before maturing, and is strong-willed. By far though, the most common comment was that they found her relatable. The downside to this relatability is that her detractors say she feels like an obvious reader insert, and is overshadowed by more interesting characters like Will, Jem, and Jessamine.

Clary had the most positive comments, and people love that she's funny, creative, blunt, fearless, iconic, and handles all the bullshit the world throws at her. (My personal favorite comment was the person who called her "my beautiful unhinged princess"). More than anything though, people love Clary for her development. She starts out as a relatable 15-year-old, but over the course of six TMI books and all her later appearances, she grows into a hero. She's also of course incredibly nostalgic, since most TSC fans were introduced to the world by either her or Tessa. On the downside, people say that she works better as a side character than a protagonist, and that she's overshadowed by the rest of TMI. They also think that she made bad choices throughout the series, and find her annoying.

What people love about Emma is that she's strong, funny, complex, badass, and a bit of an asshole. They like that she's allowed to have an attitude and still be treated as a cool and compelling woman by the narrative and the other characters. Plus, she comes across as having a clear voice that makes her feel like somebody they could be friends with in real life. Most of the people with specific complaints about her either didn't like TDA overall, or thought she was treated as an extension of Julian who never fulfilled her individual potential. Some people also found her badass bad bitch persona to be more exhausting than endearing.

Cordelia is probably the most controversial character in this category, with long lists of both positive and negative traits given by the fandom. On the bright side, she's fierce, badass, kind, and relatable. People also like to see a woman of color thriving in 1903 London, and how she embodies the concept of a warrior. Looking to the negative, people largely just don't find her particularly engaging. They say that she's inconsistant, flat, and had no development after Chain of Gold. They also complained about her making bad decisions and having a weak relationship with Lucie.

Everybody had the least to say about Dru, and most people said that they ranked her last just because they don't know enough about her to like her more than the established characters. What her fans do enjoy is that she's relatable, blunt, sassy, and a fat goth girl who's giving 2015 tumblr emo. The only real complaint people had was that they found her annoying in TDA, but everyone who left comments like that also acknowledged that she was 13 in TDA and will probably be more engaging once TWP gives her time in the spotlight.

Moving into the main couples, TID continues to sweep as Herongraystairs takes the top spot (and came incredibly close to taking the entirety of the top three). After that, the couples are spaced out pretty equally and follow the same pattern established by the previous two categories.

Now, Herongraystairs received arguably the most bonkers majority in this entire survey. Nearly half of respondents ranked it as their #1, and only a couple outliers put it in their bottom three. What everybody loves about this ship is the angst, how willing they were to sacrifice for each other, the raw emotions, how perfectly the three balance each other, and the ideas about fate. They also like how all three of them are compelling characters on their own, have unique relationships in pairs (Wessa, Jessa, Heronstairs), and work even better as a complete unit. Will and Jem already loved each other, but they could only fully develop once they had Tessa; creating this tragic yet beautiful cloud of possibility. People also like the polyamorous aspect, and wish that they were a canon three way relationship. More than anything else though, what was commented again and again was simply "they loved each other so much." What else can you say? Well, I can say why a couple of people dislike the ship. The only reasons I was given was that the person didn't like TID overall, and that they prefer Jem and Will with a purely platonic parabatai bond.

Moving on to Wessa, people like their banter, the crazy build up to their relationship, and how they bonded over books. They also love how gutwrenching the relationship is, especially once you get to the epilogue of Clockwork Princess. The only complaint anybody had was that they aren't Herongraystairs, and the relationship is incomplete without Jem.

People of course love Clace for the nostalgia factor and how it's the relationship that introduced them to TSC, but most importantly people like how the two of them are just so horribly down bad for each other. They're cute, fun, and have good chemistry; forming the heart of the TMI gang and of the Shadowhunters world. What people don't like is that they're basic, getting overshadowed by other couples in their own series. The upside is that they get better in their appearances that came after TMI. There are of course also the people who don't like the incest plotline and felt uncomfortable reading about that era of their relationship.

Jessa was solidly in third for most of this survey, but Clace pulled ahead of them in the last day. Though they came in behind the other TID ships, they're still beloved by the fandom. People like their dynamic and enjoy Jem as a character. The downside is that the ship makes them sad because of the tragedy of their situation, doesn't include Will, and gets overused in the modern series.

As for Blackstairs, people see their relationship as beautiful, a good example of friends to lovers/forbidden romance, and worked in well with the plot of TDA. People also like the soulmate aspect. Their haters sure had a lot to say to counterbalance that though, and complained about how the relationship is melodramatic, overly intense, toxic, and codependant. I also got a few respondants who said that they just dislike Emma and Julian as individuals, and that Julian's behavior towards Emma is alarming.

Herondaisy is continuing TLH's grand tradition of coming in near the end while still maintaining a dedicated team of fans. The good stuff is how much James loved Cordelia, and that he spent so long unable to say anything, but once he was free from the Gracelet he never let her forget his devotion. Their love was powerful enough to break a hellish enchantment, but still felt like a friendship built on a shared interests like books and stories. The most common complaint about this relationship was miscommunication, dislike of James or Cordelia as characters, and not understanding why the two like each other (other than mutual attraction). There's also people who just don't like TLH and generally aren't invested in their story. The other main complaint was that the James/Grace and Cordelia/Matthew subplots felt unnecessary and overly drawn out (which of course connects back to the miscommunication issue).

Morgenthorn suffers from the same issue as the other TWP representatives, and largely got low marks because their books aren't out yet. Some people think they're shaping up to be iconic though, while others still aren't sold on the premise.

The side ships are where things start to really heat up. Based on their average rank, the pairs form a couple distinct tiers. First, is Malec, Sizzy, Thomastair, and Kitty (the fan favorites), next is Kierarktina, Chenry, Sophideon, and Gabrily making up the middle of the pack, then we have the less popular Haline, Gracetopher, Gwynburn, and Ghostwriter, and in dead last with by far the lowest score there's Arianna. (Sorry to the u-haul lesbians). I think it's quite interesting how most of the ships are clumped together with other ships from the same series.

I'm guessing we all knew that Malec was gonna come in first. People love the nostalgia factor, of course, and they also love how the ship is queer, iconic, and just generally sweet. It's a case of opposites attract where the two of them help each other grow and reach for things they never thought possible. Both Alec and Magnus believed that they'd never be truly loved for who they were, and yet together they were able to create a life and family. Not a single person had a bad thing to say about these two.

Continuing the popularity of the TMI gang, Sizzy came shockingly close to beating Malec for first. They didn't get as many #1 votes as the other top ships, but they were still voted highly by more or less everyone. On the surface this couple is cute and funny, but what people really love is how perfectly they match each other. While they look like opposites at first, they're actually incredibly well-balanced. Everyone expected Isabelle to break Simon's heart, but he's able to stand up to her without being a dick and he sees her for who she really is under all her defensiveness. Plus, they're great individual characters and encourage each other to grow. They only negative comment they got was one person who finds them annoying.

Next up, Thomastair comes in to prove that there are at least some parts of TLH that are pretty universally adored. People like how Thomas saw the good in Alastair from the start, and watching his schoolboy crush develop into a mature romance. They like how Thomas helped Alastair accept love into his life, and Alastair encouraged Thomas to become confident in himself. The two of them were able to create their own world in Paris, which allowed them to escape the roles they felt trapped in. The characters are of course loved as individuals, and people got especially attached to Alastair and think that he deserves good things. People also like their communication skills, in contrast with other TLH couples. The only real complains people had with the ship was that it's connected to a series they dislike overall, and falls into the bully x victim trope.

Kitty is another ship that anybody who spends any length of time in the fandom will not be surprised to see in the top quarter of this list. They're beloved as characters, and even people who dislike TDA say that they were some of the best stuff in it. Fans enjoy how Kit understood Ty from the start and Ty felt truly comfortable with Kit. They also like how Kit can't make amends with Ty but still keeps his secret (shout-out to the person who described them as being in "doomed yaoi purgatory"). People also say that they have great chemistry and a lot of potential. What people dislike is really just that they haven't had time to fully develop, since TWP hasn't actually come out yet.

The next top ship is Kierarktina, which is where we exit the "pure adoration" tier of this list. People like the characters and all their different dynamics, and think that there's a lot of potential for growth with them. They also like the fact that they're a canonically polyamorous ship. The complaints I got were that the relationship feels rushed, and that Cristina seems to fetishize Kieran and Mark's relationship.

Getting into the TID ships all nicely chunked together in the middle of this list, people like Chenry for their arranged marriage setup, where both of them love each other but saw their feelings as unrequited for years. They also like Charlotte and Henry's combined autistic swag. What makes people hesitate is their lack of pagetime.

For Sophideon, people of course love the individual characters, and especially appreciate how Gideon adores everything about Sophie. The only downside is how little of them we get on the page.

Gabrily came in lower than Sophideon but did receive more #1 votes and fewer #13 votes, proving that they have a higher number of committed fans despite being less popular overall. Those fans like how the two of them loved each other for what they were and always had each other's backs. Nobody had any negative comments about them.

Haline is another mid-tier ship that didn't get many comments. What I did hear is that people like how their struggles were worth it because they had each other, and ranked them low because of their lack of page time.

Gracetopher is probably the most controversial ship on this list. If we were just going off of who received the most #1 votes, they would be fifth overall (that order would be Malec, Kitty, Thomastair, Sizzy, Gracetopher). Unfortunately for them though, we are also factoring in all the people who ranked them dead last. As this form received more and more submissions, I watched this couple gradually climb from second-to-last to the dizzying height of fourth-to-last in the overall rankings. First off, what people like is how they truly see each other. Christopher was overlooked by his friends for his intensity and Grace was only ever treated as a weapon and a seductress, but they genuinely respect each other and bond over their shared enthusiasm for science. Looking at the negatives though, most people saw their dynamic as underdeveloped and unnecessary. Lots of people dislike Grace and don't believe that she should have received any redemption, and even people who are sympathetic towards Grace still dislike that Christopher was so quick to forgive her after how she treated one of his best friends. A few people also said that they like Grace and Christopher's dynamic when it's platonic, but ranked it low as a romance. People were also upset by Christopher's death, and feel that it ruins the relationship for them.

For Gwynburn, the only positive comment I got was a couple people saying they're cute, and the only negative one came from somebody who didn't like Diana because they felt she was an irresponsible guardian to the Blackthorn kids. Most people ranked them higher than the other ships at the bottom of this list, but unfortunately they just didn't have enough extremely high votes to pull them ahead.

Ghostwriter didn't get any specific positive propaganda, though some people clearly do enjoy them. Most of the negative sentiments came from people who just found them uninteresting and generally didn't enjoy TLH. They also see the pairing as having wasted potential, and felt frustrated by the lack of consequences for Jesse's resurrection. They saw Lucie as boring and dislike Jesse for his mistreatment of Grace.

Despite being ranked last, Arianna fans still came in to share what they liked about the couple. They enjoy the characters and Anna's butch swag, and some people who don't like them together still enjoy the concept. What people largely dislike about the two is Anna as a character, and how she treated Ari and all the other women she had flings with. While not everyone was ready to give up on them because of Anna's flaws, they were frustrated by how she didn't resolve her issues or try to be better by the end of the trilogy. There were also people who thought that the ship didn't get enough page time, or who didn't connect with Ari as a character. People were also disappointed in how Ari was punished by the narrative and by Anna for not being ready to come out of the closet when she was seventeen and dependent on her bigoted parents.

Oh boy, time to dig into the biggest category (which still feels incredibly cut down, my original list was over 50 characters). Side characters are obviously a point of hot debate, since everybody has their favorite guy who the narrative forgot about. The most popular overall characters were all old favorites introduced in TMI, then there's George, Catarina, Livvy, and Jessamine (who all swapped around a fair bit), before we get into a large chunk of characters who either inspire mixed feelings or get forgotten entirely, and bringing up the rear is two of the most hated characters in TSC.

First up, we have what I think is the biggest sweep of the whole survey; Raphael Santiago. He got about a third of the #1 votes, which isn't quite as dramatic a majority as Herongraystairs in their bracket, but far more impressive when you consider the sheer number of characters competing against Raphael for the top spot in this section. People think he's funny, iconic, and relatable. They love his sarcastic and grumpy sense of humor and his begrudging responsibility for the people around him. They also like his relationship with Magnus, as explored in "Saving Raphael Santiago" in The Bane Chronicles. The most common comment I got though was that people appreciate him being canonically aroace, and they remember him as their first experience seeing an aspec character in media. He received no negative comments (and few people left him out of their top ten).

Our second place goes to Lily, who got points for her iconic sense of humor, haunting backstory, and compelling relationships with both Alec and Raphael. She received no negative comments.

People like Maia but apparently don't have much to say about her. The only comments I got were that she's hot and a bad bitch, plus she overcame her difficult past.

Ragnor is appreciated how grouchy and melodramatic he is, and how he fits into the warlock friend group with Magnus and Catarina. I'd also like to shout-out his friendship with Raphael, since I love seeing them bond over their haterism. He received no negative comments.

George also didn't get many comments, but people grew attached to him very quickly and felt strongly affected by the tragedy of his death in TFSA, except for the person who said he felt like he got killed off for shock value.

People like Catarina's relationships with the other warlocks. I also want to point out her incredible selflessness and how she's even committed to helping people who hate her. She received no negative comments.

Livvy got the second most #1 votes after Raphael, and yet she's only #7 overall (ranked choice voting strikes again), and it looks to me like people either love her or don't care about her. What they love about her is the tragedy of her death and her relatable sense of responsibility towards her siblings, plus the continuation of her story in TWP. The only negative comment I got about her was from someone who didn't feel sad when she died.

Jessamine is seen as a fascinating and tragic character with a lot of potential depth who deserves more love. She got some low marks from her lack of page time though, and from people who found her attitude annoying.

Moving into some TST characters, Luke is noticeably higher than all the rest of his high school/fascist cult buddies. People like him for his dad vibes, and dislike him for his holier than thou attitude towards other members of the Circle. (Shout-out to my IRL friend who called him a DILF this morning).

Jocelyn didn't get many comments, and none that were positive. I'll chip in to say that I like how fierce and strong-willed she was when she decided to betray her abusive husband and raise Clary alone in NYC, and appreciate that she always tried to do what she thought would protect her daughter (even if it often wasn't actually what Clary wanted or needed). The people of the survey think she's a bad person and don't think that Clary should have forgiven her so easily for the way she lied to her. She moved up pretty far in the last day of this survey, but that was mostly due to other characters dropping in the rankings.

Maryse was behind Robert for most of the time this survey was gathering data, but her fans came in at the end to bump up her score. They like her relationships with her children, especially Jace and Alec, and are curious about her life before TMI when she had to deal with a loveless marriage and losing her brother to the mundane world. The only negative comment I received for her was someone who disliked how she treated Jace while he was being unfairly accused of working with Valentine.

While Eugenia is generally liked by TLH fans because she's funny, feisty, badass, and has a compelling relationship with Thomas; she scored fairly low overall because most people don't feel super attached to her due to her lack of page time.

The only positive comment I received about Jordan was that it was funny when he spent time with Jace and Simon. Mostly, people think that he was a toxic boyfriend to Maia and an awful person overall. They especially disliked that he and Maia got back together, even though he'd previously assaulted her after their breakup. Despite that, he's managed to make his way up from the bottom five of this list.

Robert is more controversial than his ex-wife, receiving more negative and more positive votes than her. People like his relationship with Michael as explored in "The Evil We Love," and how his personal issues with queerness bled into his relationship with his son. They enjoy both the angst of his difficult relationship with Alec, and the hopefulness that comes from his ability to grow as a person and try to be better for the sake of his kids. Folks who are less compelled by the angst just flat dislike him for his bad parenting. His ranking dropped dramatically in the last twelve hours, since I guess the people who can't forgive shitty parenting all showed up at the end.

People who like Jaime enjoy his attitude and see him as complex, and all the negative comments were about the age gap between him and Dru.

Michael is a character who seems to suffer from being nobody's favorite. No one had anything negative to say about him, but the only positive comments were in regards to his relationship with Robert, and the highest anybody ranked him was #4.

Amatis is somebody else who I believe suffered from not having any real fans. The only comment I got about her was that they ranked her low because they don't know much about her. The highest anybody ranked her was #6, and only one other character on this list has a highest rank that's lower than that. Nobody got mad at her like they did with Jordan or Jaime or Camille, but no one loves her like they love those three, so she ended up lower than them overall.

Camille got a fair number of high votes from people who enjoy her dramatic diva energy, and a lot of low ones from people who think she's just an awful person.

And here we have the first of the two most hated characters in this list. While he was dead last for almost an entire week, Nate finally managed to claw his way up to 19th place. Nobody had anything nice to say about him, and nobody ranked him higher than #7. I'll say that I find him interesting as an extension of Tessa's character and arc. People didn't have particularly complicated complaints, they just think that he's selfish, mean, awful, a traitor, a liar, an asshole, and completely irredeemable. Oof.

Even though he ended up in last place, Charles is distinct from the rest of the characters ranked this low because he actually does have a handful of fans who put him at #2 or #3. They think that he's an interesting character to study, even if he's an awful person. They also find his relationships with Alastair and Matthew to be compelling (though unhealthy) and relate to his place as an older sibling burdened by high expectations. As for the negatives, there's a whole laundry list. People see him as gross, annoying, selfish, awful, and boring. They hate his predatory relationship with Alastair in-universe, and which he was handled better by the author out of universe. I got one comment that said he felt like he was written by a straight woman, and in general people don't like how his arc was written.

Now that we're through with two of the largest and most controversial categories, let's move onto the one nobody cares about. I will admit that I included the children in this survey purely out of an interest in hearing if anybody had reasoning for preferring one small child over another.

Also, since we have two Max Lightwoods, I differentiated them using their middle inititals; Max M for Max Michael Lightwood-Bane, and Max J for Max Joseph Lightwood.

Okay, so what I have in the positive column for every single kid on this list is more or less just their association with their parents. People like the Lightwood-Bane siblings because they like Malec, they like Mina because of Jessa, Tavvy because of the TDA Blackthorns, Max J because of the TMI Lightwoods, Alex because of Gabrily, and Zachary because of Cordelia and Thomastair. Negative comments were also often linked to parents, like ranking Mina low because they dislike Jessa, or disliking the Lightwood-Banes because their existence feels like fanservice and they don't believe Alec would be a good father at age 20. Rafe did get the positive comment that his story in GotSM made the respondant cry.

Positive comments for Tavvy focused on people feeling like they know him better than other kids on this list, and being excited to see more of him and his relationship with Dru in TWP.

Max J got comments talking about how much more character he has compared to the babies, and how the tragic end to his story strongly affeced people. People got attached to him from his love of manga, and appreciate how he symbolized the innocence that Alec, Isabelle, and Jace needed to fight for.

Alex and Zachary were ranked last by almost everyone, though they all made it clear that they bear no ill will towards these kids. Zachary did get one committed fan who loves the way he brings Alastair's arc to a close, and is excited to see more of him on Thomastair's BiB story. I think it's noteworthy that they have the same number of #1 votes, Zachary got more #2 and #3 votes, and Alex got more #4 and #5 votes; showing that once you discount the people placing them in the bottom two, Zachary is in fact more popular. (I'm assuming that most people who put them in the bottom two don't actually prefer one over the other).

The villain category was particulary interesting to me, because reading everyone's comments made it clear that many of us are working off of different definitions of what makes a good villain. The biggest question was whether a character being sympathetic made people see them as a great villain or a terrible one. The other cool thing about this category is you can see that almost all the villains from the same series stayed next to each other in the ranking.

For as high as Sebastian ranked, he got relatively few comments. What people do like about him is that he was more relatable and redeemable than other villains because of how Valentine raised him, and yet he still went on to do unjustifiable things. They also think he was funny. The main complaint he got from several people was that the demon blood storyline made him a boring and badly constructed villain, since he had no free will in his own evilness. Also, y'know, the incest thing.

Valentine may not be ranked as highly as his son, but he did get far more specific compliments from people. They love to hate how logical, strategic, and pure evil he could be; as well as the way the story built up to him by showing the impact he had on the world. He was a skilled manipulator who convinced people to sacrifice everything in the name of his twisted values, and worked as a chillingly accurate representation of fascism. He also served the greater themes of TMI by allowing the leads to deny the violence and hatred passed down by their parents. Some people also just enjoy the Circle era characters. The only bad thing anyone said about him was that he's generic, one of a million bigoted middle aged white men in fiction.

Annabel and Malcom switched back and forth in the rankings a couple times while data was being gathered, since most people voted for the two of them as a unit. People like how tragic their storyline was, and how they served as foiled to Blackstairs because they too were people who loved each other enough to burn down the world. Ultimately, it was their sympathetic anti-Clave motivation that got most people to love them. The two points people held against them was that they're too sympathetic and thus not really villains, and that Annabel's potential was wasted in Queen of Air and Darkness. The folks who dislike TDA also dislike them on account of their association with the series.

Mortmain is our solidly mid tier villain. People across the board saw him as a simple pure evil force that the heroes had to win against, and the main question was whether people loved him or hated him for that simplicity.

The only reason anybody gave for enjoying Asmodeus was his association with Alec. The few negative comments he got were all about either his lack of page time or how his motivation being centered on his inherent evil made him uninteresting.

Shinyun is a more complicated character, and her reception was complicated as well. People like that she's associated with Alec through TEC, and that she showed how evil she was by rejecting redemption when it was offered to her. There were also some mixed feelings expressed about her place as a cult survivor, since that's a very human trauma that was not given enough dignity by the narrative. Negative opinions all came down to her lack of page time, and people who either never read or actively disliked TEC.

Benedict Lightwood might be the lowest anything from TID scored in this entire survey. People who enjoy him mentioned how he created realistic angst for Gideon and Gabriel, as a manipulative father they needed to learn to rebel against. What people think makes him a bad villain is that he's not a villain at all, just a generic shitty dad. Also, multiple people commented "worm" with no explanation.

Sadly for the villains of TLH, this isn't the way they were supposed to be the worst of the worst. While some people enjoyed Tatiana for her chaos and irredeemability, especially the way she abused her own daughter for years, overall she was seen as a boring letdown who could have been interesting if the narrative didn't treat her as pure evil. Maybe she could have had potential if she was allowed to be the main villain or if the story acknowledged the ways in which she felt abanoned by the Clave, but that's not the story we got.

As for Belial, nobody had anything positive to say about him. They thought that his plan was stupid (especially for a Prince of Hell), and that he was boring, annoying, and just generally underwhelming. He also received the same complaints as Asmodeus about how demons are uniniteresting villains because their only motive is their own inherent evil.

And here was have our final category: the side books! It's no surprise to me that the short story collections came in first, and that the unreleased books don't have a lot of fans yet.

Our most popular pick was Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy, which people love because of how it followed up on TMI storylines while also expanding upon the world. It gave readers a look into characters they enjoy like Alec, Mark, and James, and of course the most popular comment I got was people gushing about getting time with Simon. They love the Sizzy moments too, as well as Simon's friendship with Clary and the rest of the TMI gang. It also got points for George's heartbreaking death, and for how much fun it was to read when it was serialized in 2015. The two stories people mentioned as their favorites were "The Evil We Love" and "Nothing But Shadows," showing how people enjoyed getting to look at points in the TSC timeline that aren't explored by other series. The only negative comment it got was from a person who finds Simon and Isabelle annoying.

Coming in at a close second, Ghosts of the Shadow Market is beloved mainly for its connection to Jem and Jessa. People enjoy that it served a purpose in the overall TSC plot, and showed how love can be born of tragedy. The stories people brought up were "Every Exquisite Thing," "The Land I Lost," and especially "Cast Long Shadows." It received no negative comments.

While The Bane Chronicles was the least favorite of the anthologies, it still clearly won the love of the people. They enjoy it mainly on account of Magnus, especially for his friendship with the other warlocks and his romance with Alec. They like how funny it is, and feel like it has the same charm as the early TMI books. The only negative comment I got about it was that it's boring.

Secrets of Blackthorn Hall got points for the wholesome and iconic vibes, and the interesting format of being published through tumblr. Someone also described it as a home renovation show in a haunted house, and people brought up being glad to see characters like Mark and Mina and ships like Kitty and Blackstairs. Some people just didn't find it interesting though, and others disliked it because it had so much Julian and Blackstairs.

An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters and Denizens of Downworld probably got the fewest comments in this category. The people who love it appreciate the stunning art and interesting details about the characters, and all the low votes came from people who haven't read it.

The Shadowhunter's Codex is the oldest companion book on this list, and clearly didn't hit like the later additions to the canon. The only positive comments I got were from people who enjoyed Simon, Clary, and Jace's comments written into the margins. Generally people just didn't find it interesting, and saw it as a textbook that didn't even provide new information about the the world of Shadowhunters. There were also people who either didn't read it or couldn't finish it.

Better in Black of course hasn't been released, but people are excited to see their favorite couples back in action. In this survey, I got specific comments from people talking about Herondaisy and Thomastair. It still ranked pretty low overall, mainly because none of us have read it yet.

A Sea Change was most people's bottom pick, just because it isn't out yet. (My theory is that it ranked lower than BiB because BiB got everyone hyped through fandom engagement when we all debated which couples would be included, and that BiB appeals to fans of ten different ships while ASC only has fuel for Matthew fans). Predictably, the people who expect to love ASC are the ones excited to see the next chapter of Matthew's journey.

And with that, we're done! I'd like to once again thank everybody who participated, especially the folks who gave long or detailed comments. I had to simplify and summarize a lot in this post, but I truly enjoyed reading everything you all had to say.

I also want to take some time at the end here to address some questions I got about why stuff in this poll was set up the way it was. First, I got a lot of people saying that Kitty should have been considered a main couple, either in addition to Morgenthorn or instead of them. I get that we (so far) have a lot more Kitty material and that most of the fanbase is far more invested in them, but I'm counting the "main couple" as the one that includes the main girl. I also got some people confused by my choice to include unpublished works like TWP and Seasons of Shadowhunters, and while I understand that perspective I still stand by my decision. I know it's not fair to the series and that people can't accurately rate things they haven't read, but I wasn't trying for that kind of accuracy; I was curious about how much people love or hate things that aren't out yet. I'd love to see how TWP and SoS factor into these rankings once we've all read them, but for now I'm happy just hearing what people expect to think about them.

Also, everyone who left random silly comments or told me their favorite characters and scenes, y'all are the real ones. I did this whole project out of my love for this series and my interest in learning why people think the way they do, and I've been amazed by the positive response. This series and world is so incredibly expansive, and I love that all of us are able to find the different niches of TSC that make us happy.

If you actually read through all this, you're awesome and thanks for supporting my passion for turning emotions into numbers. If anybody has any additional questions, I am here to chat!

Taglist:

@edwinspaynes @helenofblackthorns @whaliensdream @iovelaces @darcyolsson @sankta-wraith @magnus-the-maqnificent @blue-silver-hammer @ineedmoremalec @kingslayerzzzz @thevagabondexpress @cara0765 @uncertified-shadowhunter-14 @elytrianemrald @thomasslightwood @starrieshq @blackthornobsessed @alastaircarstairsismybff @angeldaisies @dissapointmentsrus @bananacakepie

[thejesterfrog]

"Prometheus" Raincode Minibang 2025

(CH.5 MDA: RAIN CODE SPOILERS BELOW!)

Super happy to have gotten to participate in this Rain Code Minibang hosted by @snivyartjpeg ! I got the honour of making an illustration based on @draconicsparkle's Makoto and Yuma-centric fanfic, "Prometheus"! <- Which you can read here!

Unspoilered illustration + explanation of the piece below the cut :)

Rant about the drawing below ~ again, please go read the fic here!

I wanted to try and capture the different emotions Draconic wrote about that Makoto went through during his experience in the lab: The hopelessness, fear, and the revelation of how much harm the scientists were willing to bring to him to achieve their goals.

I really like the end product and composition of this, but unfortunately, most of my memories for this drawing are associated with a boatload of stress. 4 days before the deadline of June 30th my cat sat on my computer and ended up corrupting my file for the drawing. (And knowing how slow of an artist I am, a terrible panic-driven crash out followed. No cats were harmed ofc, just my soul.) I had to trace over everything from the one screenshot I got before it all happened and redo all the rendering work with the time I had. 😭😭 So if it looks scrappy in places, that's why.

That aside, I still had fun doing the expressions and lighting for this! Everyone working on this project was so nice and understanding. It was such a pleasant environment to be in! :3

Extra! - If you've ever been interested in my sketching process, here was the first draft I came up with vv

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY RAINCODE!! ☔☔

[donelywell]

I love your at so much!! It’s so soft! But what do you mean by ‘Hedgefox’? You mentioned it a couple of times but there’s no explanation on the page?

Thank you! And I'm glad you asked! >:D (I'm basically waiting for people to ask for this stuff, or else I'm just gonna hold it until I eventually post it way later down the line)

The HedgeFox is this AU's equivalent of the Werehog, but since wolves are HUGE, I changed the species to a Werefox (plus Sonic and Tails being the same species is an adorable bonus).

He wasn't cursed by Dark Gaia when the world split apart, he was just born a were-being.

(super rough idea of what the different moons do to his appearance)

I go on a super babble-fest, so there's an entire rant below the cut.

When a Super Moon (3-4 times a year) appears, Sonic's HedgeFox form increases from 56 cm to 65 cm to reflect the roughly 14% increase the moon appears to be then and becomes 'super charged' in a sense.

He becomes super paranoid and overstimulated when it's a Super Moon, thinking goes into more primal instincts, with him calling Tails his 'cub' even.

A Super Moon to a were-being in this universe is a nightmare, but it gives you plenty of time to realize what's about to happen so you can find a spot to hide (kind of to protect others, but mostly to protect yourself from the sensory overload you're about to face).

The cycle of a Full moon takes place in normally 3 nights in a row once a month.

Night 1, Transform. Day 1, Revert to normal. Night 2, Transform. Day 2, Revert to normal. Night 3, Transform. Day 3, Revert to normal until next full moon cycle.

But for a Super Moon, it goes a little differently.

Night 1, Transform. Day 1, Stay in form. Night 2, Super Moon Further Transform. Day 2, Revert to Normal Full Moon Form. Night 3, Stay in form. Day 3, Finally Revert normal until next full moon cycle.

Yep, they remain in the Full Moon form even during the day when it's a Super Moon, it saves them energy from going straight from their base form to their Super Moon form.

Their power is basically doubled on a Super Moon, but that just leads to them being incredibly paranoid that they'll harm someone they care about by accident.

During a Super Moon, Sonic cannot release Tails. He seriously tries, knowing that he's being overprotective, but his mind is too clouded with worry that he can't even begin to fight it (not really that Tails minds, it does though worry him that his dad is going through so much in his mind and all he can do to help is just be in his arms). After Knuckles joins the party, they learn that he can finally release Tails if Knuckles is nearby, but he still has to keep a sharp eye on the kit.

A Micro Moon is a lot more simple. Due to how far the moon is, they can actually choose whether or not to transform into the were-being, but it's 14% smaller and half as strong as normal.

Ehem- uh, sorry for the rambling. I really like the Werehog and well, since this is my AU, I can make it stay. >:) It probably doesn't make any sense, sorry about that.

[monowritestoomuch]

My Entry for the Karmor Mini Contest!

Hello everyone! Mono here! This is my Karmor, Vin! Here’s some details and my little rant below the cut—oh and I’ll be posting his backstory sometime later in the week so watch out for that!

Since I was asked for a little bit of lore, you, my dear friends, are getting a RANT TIME ™

Okay so to start, here’s a little intro:

Name: Vince “Vin” Ennio Amato 

Age: 27-28(somewhere I haven’t decided he just looks much older, might be the trauma)

Pronouns: He/Him

Sexuality: Gay🏳️‍🌈💅

Nationality: British 🇬🇧 and Italian 🇮🇹

Height: 5,10-5,11

Hair: It’s mostly brown but has one main streak of white and several duller or grey ish streaks due to his own powers + stress + crow 

Eyes: Sea green, like his mother and sister. 

Music Taste: He likes shit from Conan Grey, Madelline, Alec Benjamin (sad boy at 3 am eat your heart out fr + punk rock (think Hobie brown)

He’s a pretty quiet guy (obvi), but he’s mostly observant. He does however, have a temper that has a short fuse. He doesn’t like getting angsty, hates it, actually, but he somehow always seems to be—

He also has minor tics/Tourette’s because I have tics and mine are pretty much a lot so I’m projecting totally not—*gets dragged away*

He has eyebags that last an infinite amount of time because he never fucking sleeps you cannot catch him lacking—

He’s has scars on his hands from some lore that I’m choosing not to reveal yet because I’m so nice 😊 

Power explanation time LESSGO:

<- They look a little green in the photo but the scars are cyan.

So he has litchenberg scars, otherwise known as lightning scars. But he wasn’t struck by lightning, or maybe he was, I haven’t decided yet and bro’s memory is in the shits anyway—

But when he’s normal, not using his powers, they’re an odd gold-brown color on his skin, lightening more and more yhe less and less he uses his powers.

When he uses his powers they glow a cyan, kind-of like the hextech from arcane. His powers are unstable as holy hells, LIKE THE ARCANE (can you tell I recently got into Arcane?) and hurt him, in a sense? Let’s just say after he uses his powers, the scars will ache like hell for D A Y S. And there’s no way to fix it either, pain meds don’t work on him either :)

Essentially his powers are electricity based, AS ELECTRICITY POWERS ARE OP AS HELL AND I WILL STAND BY THAT.

So he basically surges electrical currents through his body, but they’re magic so. Anyways, his eyes, which are usually sea green, will glow a cyan color. 

Usually when he uses his powers, you’ll hear the sound of thunder and then the sound of a lightning strike. Then everything goes white and he hears ringing. Sometimes he’ll pass out, but most times he’ll be awake. His powers drain his energy severely though, so despite how tired and sleep-deprived he already is, it gets worse. (RIP Vin’s sleep schedule that he’s literally never had lmao).

After he uses his powers, he’ll be like freezing cold for a while (because that’s an aftereffect of being struck by lightning) and sore as all hell. He also will have more trouble sleeping as using his powers makes his nightmares worse + crow likes to torture him.

Final extra detail, the jacket he wears? Yeah, that one? That was his father’s. :)

Hope you like him and I’m happy to have participated!

[pestoskopi]

Pines twins au where Ford is in his 50s but Stanley is 23 years old. (Explanation below the cut)

A homeless Stan finally admits defeat and shows up on his brother’s door step with tears streaming down his face and he’s greeted the same way as he was in the show. It takes Ford a minute to realize who the person in front of him is but when he gets a good look at the kids face he drops his weapon with a soft; “Stanley…?”

Stan can’t even get out an apology for randomly showing up before Ford immediately kicks into older brother mode and bombards Stan with questions. Asking what’s wrong, what happened, are mom and dad okay, how’s Sherman? Stan tells him Fillbrick kicked him out and he has no where to go.

Ford doesn’t even think twice before telling Stan he can stay with him. He couldn’t stand the thought of turning his baby brother away when he had no where else to go. They hadn’t talked since Stan was 17 but he knew that his brother never asked for help, he always figured out his problems on his own.

So the fact he was standing here, on Ford’s porch, repeating apologies in between sobs and mentally cursing himself for doing exactly what Fillbrick said he would do, was a big deal. Ford tries to calm him; he pulls Stan into his chest and holds onto him tightly, telling him that it’s okay and that he’s here now.

When Stanley does calm down, Ford brings him inside so he’s not out in the cold for any longer. He gets him settled onto the couch and makes him hot chocolate. Stanley is able to better explain what happened and Ford listens silently, waiting for Stan to finish before he gives his opinion.

He finishes his statement with letting Stan know that as long as he’s alive he will //always// have a place to stay and have someone to love him. He panics when his little brother starts to cry again except this time it’s tears of relief instead of sadness.

Stan rambles on about how life was after Ford left. He repeated a few times how lonely he was and Ford felt a stab of guilt everytime the words left his mouth. Leaving was the hardest decision he had ever made.

His baby brother was his everything, he was the entire reason Ford stayed in New Jersey for so long. He wrote to Stan in the years they were apart but never heard anything back. He had always assumed it was because Stanley was mad at him for leaving him and the letters became less and less frequent until eventually they stopped.

He knew now though that, it couldn’t be true, because Ford was the first person Stanley came to when he gave up. He was the first person he broke down to. And the first person he admitted how lonely he was to.

Stanley didn’t do that. Everyone in his life knew that. He didn’t give up, he didn’t ask for help, he didn’t //want// help, and he certainly didn’t admit so easily how he was feeling inside.

But Stan was exhausted and hurting. His body ached from sleeping in his car and his mind felt gone. Sometimes he would push his seat back and stare up at the ceiling and by the time he snapped out of his trance, hours had gone by.

His head buzzed painfully and his mind swirled in bouts of dizziness occasionally. He was tired of feeling this way and knew very well he couldn’t go on like that.

That first night at Fords cabin was probably the best Stan had slept in months. Maybe years.

He had forgotten how nice it was to sleep on an actual mattress, and how nice it was to be able to relax and not feel as vulnerable.

He never had window covers for his car. He swore for months to get them and never did. So now sleeping in a secure room, in his brothers house was the best feeling to him.

I’m not sure how to end this little rant so yeah, that’s it :) I’m excited to actually write stuff for this!!

And all credits to Wolfy for this idea!!! I saw their art from 2024 and couldn’t help myself because they are so cutie :(

Even tho they’re the same age I’ve always thought of Ford as the older brother and just about screamed when I saw Wolfys post.

I needed to write something for them cause I’m also a HUGE fan of mullet Stan and I need more opportunities to write about him :)

(This also is lowkey inspired by @artsymeeshee because I love love love her art and it makes me want to write more cuddly Pines twins and this little au seems perfect for that :))

[jukti-torko-golpo]

Kalki - Concept

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ UNDER THE CUT.

So I got a prompt...banana leaf green+futuristic...and this idea struck. This is a rough sketch that I will hopefully make a final version of. Below is the explanation as dumped on a friend on whatsapp at 3 AM.

this is KALKI He is drawn as a non binary She has an appearance of what people frown upon and judge ekhon piercing, heavy tattoos, black, side buzz cut etc jewellery will be punkified version of some traditional jewellery like makar kundal punk version OF that kalki is said to have a sword and kalki alternatively refers to light which cleans up the darkness hence a light saber style sword which crackles with lightning and it is white symbolising knowledge and purity on their sword wala arm is a tattoo of Ananta sesh naag and the other one has the tattoo of a shankha on his chest is a lotus symbolising Lakshmi because they are cutus that way dark lipstick and heavy almost drag kind of eye makeup looks like a rebel young person symbolising that the collective youth when they fight for knowledge and what is right against generations of mistakes and oppression…they become the actual Kalki. this is a concept art. forgive me for ranting at 3

[trekkingthroughtrek]

TNG Watchthrough: S1 E12 – Datalore

Lore! I find myself surprised at how many recurring characters are established in this first half of the first season. We've had Q (twice!), the Traveler, Lwaxana Troi, the Ferangi, and now Lore. I would have guessed, if you had asked me to guess, that those introductions would have been more spread out over first few seasons, and that these early episodes would have had more one-shot monster of the week type aliens that we never see again. It's neat to see all of these foundations being laid.

More thoughts, and yet another rant about Wesley, below the cut.

I didn't know or had forgotten that data's origin was a mystery at first. I was like, what do you mean the mystery of data's origins, he was built by Dr. Soong, even I know that.

"Hold the memories of four hundred and eleven people." Oooh, this is kind of neat actually. Even if he doesn't have their day to day experiences it's a neat explanation for why he might know or understand some things and not others in a sort of patchwork way depending on what the colonists experiences were.

I'm wondering if this is one I actually saw once upon a time. This place where they found data with the secret door behind it is familiar.

"Data, we don't know that this can become alive." "It is very important for me to know that, sir.  I never dreamed it was possible I might find some link with some form like my own." Aww. 🥺

“Does it appear to have all your parts?” They're doing a great job selling the awkwardness here.

Lore waking up is suitably creepy.

"Your referring to him as an it suggests that I, too, fit into the category of a thing." Love this. You tell him data.

"Which requires I now ask you a very serious question. Since the two of you are closely related to each other." "The answer, sir, is that my loyalty is to you and Starfleet. Completely." "Thank you, Commander. I was certain of that." Okay Picard, clearly you were not certain of that if you had to ask. And like, would you ask your human officers if they were going to betray you if they had family come aboard?

I like the gradual reveals of Lore’s trickery with the bit with Riker on the bridge and Data calling him on lying about who was built first. It sets up a nice sense of dread that Lore is clearly deceptive, but we don’t know yet to what extent that crosses the line to evil, and data so clearly wants him to be someone he can have a relationship with.

“Our computer has constructed the image of a great crystalline entity which feeds on life.” Oh! The crystalline entity! I’ve heard of that!

The crystalline entity is very pretty.

Ah, the famous “Shut up Wesley.” This is so irritating. You literally sent him explicitly for the purpose of finding out if Data was doing anything suspicious. If you weren’t going to believe what he told you you should have sent someone else. Picard is being a jerk, Wesley is right, again, I do not understand how people watched all these episodes and decided to hate on Wesley. There was one(1) moment in like, The Battle where he was kinda a smarmy know it all, but other than that it’s been Wesley is earnest and correct and the adults are dismissive jerks to him about it.

“Are you prepared for the kind of death you've earned, little man? […] I promise him exquisite pain unless you obey me too, brother.” Excellent. A+ threats Lore.

“Lore's gone, sir. Permanently.” Well….

“Ensign Crusher, are you able to return to duty?” Sure, fine, I guess this is nice, but like, would it kill you to apologize Picard?

[sadalmostlesbian]

America Runs On Corn!

(featuring me ranting about sustainable agriculture in the form of a fanfiction excerpt below the cut... and why I think District Eleven was Panem's most important District)

Underneath the artillery hangars, cavernous halls were already beginning to take shape. Scientists from above ground, clearly out of their element, milled about, placing soil in raised beds. The seed samples his platoon had collected in Eleven sat prudently in glass vials, waiting to be planted. 

The research he had been tasked with for eighteen months finally revealed its importance– the Capitol must have known about the rebellion in Eleven, perhaps it had taken root years ago. And they were petrified. Thirteen, Three, and Five were the Capitol’s pride, their shining beacon of advancement, but the outer districts: Nine, Ten, Eleven– those were their life force. No society, no matter their technology nor military strength, could survive without something as simple as food.

Nine produced the bulk of their diets in the form of millions of tonnes of ration grain, but Eleven was Panem's champion of biodiversity. Wheat crops died out frequently in Nine, ravaged by disease that swept through monocultures just as quickly as a wildfire would decimate a brushfield in District Two. 

He remembered a picture he’d seen in a textbook when he was still in school that read, cheerfully: Panem Runs On Corn! Our thanks to the people of District Nine. It was true, corn grown in Nine was turned into feed for cattle in Ten, fermented into ethanol to power the trains in Six, hydrolyzed into syrup as a cheap alternative for sugar. But for all its importance, it was ridiculously easy to wipe out. Once, when Arvada was ten, there had been some kind of soil virus that infected that year’s corn stock. Beef shortages followed, and interdistrict travel was entirely halted, leading to a famine of sorts in Six– who relied on the steady usage of their vehicles for revenue. 

Wild corn grew in Eleven, its multi-colored grains hard and unappetizing, so unlike the sweet yellow stalks that coated the plains of Nine. But it was resilient– even if one plant were to die, withered from disease, the one beside it would remain unphased. It was the same for wheat and wild rice, soy, fruits and vegetables of any kind. The wild ones survived while the engineered ones– blueberries plumped to the point of bursting with hardly any flavor besides a sickening sweetness, oranges with berry-red flesh created out of pure scientific greed– died out at the merest hint of hardship. 

He and the other officer recruits in his platoon had taken those wild plant strains and subjected them to all kinds of agricultural torture to test the extent of their durability. Now, those same seeds were being lovingly tucked into soil in l’abri. 

Was this the Capitol’s foolish replacement for Eleven? Surely it wouldn’t provide enough food for the entire nation. A few thousand square meters underground could hardly replace the sprawling vastness of an entire District. The moment the thought crossed his mind however, it was superseded by another, far more realistic, explanation– it was very possible the Capitol didn’t intend to feed Panem at all, and would leave its people to starve while they cowered away, taking l’abri for their own.  

What would become of them, the trench diggers that worked meters ahead of him, prodded along by the ever present threat of death strapped across Arvada’s chest? Brielle’s warning seemed to echo through the room, drowning out the deafening roar of machinery. “Where will we go when they need this place for their own?”

Six months, he repeated, looping the phrase in his mind like a prayer. Just six months, and you’ll never have to look at this place again. 

[annbeez]

What do you think would have happened in complicated girls if chandler never got to veronica in time?

Like, I know its chansaw endgame and they would obviously defeat jd (thank god. Fuck that dude) but what iiiif they hadn't? Would JD have succeeded in blowing up the school? Would he force Veronica to run away with him? Would he kill chandler? Would he do it in front of ronnie?

Well, anonymous, it would be a Bad Time.

(Long answer below the cut with some Very Bad Things so please exercise discretion.)

I'm assuming we're keeping everything else the same, just that it takes longer to get to Westerburg.

So, JD has the time to answer the question, "Okay, it's my fault, what are you going to do?" The answer he eventually settles on is that it doesn't matter if it's Veronica's fault or not. If it isn't her fault, blowing up Westerburg is the cure. If it is her fault, it's the punishment.

Put in that position, Veronica resolves to stop him or die trying, but she just doesn't have the ability to force the issue. She tries to physically stop him, and he has to hurt her to get the situation under control, but eventually he drags her out of the school and she watches as it goes up in flames.

In the light of the flames, JD rants at her, trying to get her to understand how everything is better now, how she's free now, while she sobs on the ground. He gets angrier and angrier as she's being willfully obtuse and refusing to understand, and eventually he throws her in the trunk of his car and drives off, sure that she'll come around.

Heather arrives not long after. She's seen the smoke before she gets there, but she had hoped that there was some other explanation. Now, looking at the burning ruins of the gym, and nobody around, she has to face the truth. Heather was in there. There's a good chance Veronica was in there, too. Something breaks inside her, something she'll never get back. She's overwhelmed with two urges: she wants to kill Jason Dean, and she wants to die in the process.

She can't go back home, she can't go back to the McNamara's, and she has only one lead on where to find JD, so she goes to his house. Big Bud has no idea what she's talking about, and is mostly amused at this blonde high school girl holding a gun and ranting at him. When he figures out she's talking about JD's little girlfriend, he's shitty about it. Heather grits her teeth and warns him to shut up about Veronica, but Bud Dean isn't about to take orders from a high school girl. Pushed this far past her limits, and goaded by this asshole, Heather kills him.

Part of her expected it to make her feel better, but she feels so much worse. She's lost everyone she cares about, everything she ever built, and now she's become the sort of person that Veronica wouldn't even love anymore. She goes to Martha's house. (She doesn't even know where that is, she has to stop and check a phonebook.)

By this point, there's a manhunt out for JD, and there's an officer posted at Martha's place, so when Heather shows up with blood all over her and carrying a gun, the situation escalates quickly. Heather half wants the cop to shoot her, but even as fucked up as she is she can't bring herself to draw on someone who had literally nothing to do with this, so she just confesses to killing Bud Dean, and they take her into custody.

Early the next morning, JD catches the news on the radio in a 7/11 in the next town over. He drives out onto the highway, finds a place to pull off out of public view, and drags Veronica out of the trunk. It takes her a while to get her senses together. Her body's screaming from her injuries and from sleeping in a half freezing car trunk with her hands bound, and she's cried so much her throat is raw. And JD is talking about... his dad?

He's not mad that his dad's dead, exactly, he's mad that Heather did it. It was his right to do it, not hers. She keeps taking things that belong to him. Veronica gets that now, right? She sees what the Heather Chandlers of the world really are?

Veronica's not sure what to do. If she refuses to go along with his ravings, is her body getting dumped in this ditch? Does she even care, anymore? Heather and Martha are still alive, she cares about that. She'll do whatever it takes to keep them alive. (Even if Heather has blood on her hands, now. She can't really bring herself to grieve Big Bud Dean.)

She tells him she gets it. She's over Heather Chandler, can't believe she ever felt anything for her. All she wants to do is leave Sherwood behind and go some place they can be together, they can be happy.

JD's so relieved, he's so happy. He kisses her, and holds her, and tells her he loves her. He makes sure she says it back. He promises her that they're going to go build a life together, and they're going to make the world so much better, it will be everything she's ever dreamed of.

He just has to kill Heather Chandler, first.

Veronica desperately tries to talk him out of it, tries to say anything to make him stop, and he gets angrier and angrier, until finally he's hitting her again and throwing her back in the trunk.

The thought occurs to Veronica that she has spent a lot of time unconscious in the last couple of days, and that's probably not good for her. When she comes to, she's in the passenger seat of the car, duct taped to the seat, facing the Sherwood police station from a parking lot across the road.

It's a small station with only two holding cells, and usually only a couple of cops around even under the best of circumstances. Now, with the manhunt for JD on, there's almost nobody at the station. Why would they ever look for JD here?

JD's got one last bomb, and he's going to deal with Heather and then they'll go live their happily ever after. Then he's gone, making his way over to set the bomb up against the wall where the holding cells are.

Veronica flails and struggles to get loose. Her legs are taped down, and her arms are still bound behind her back (and her shoulders are probably permanently fucked up from all of this). She tries to break the window with her head, but all she does is give herself a concussion. Eventually she settles on the cigarette lighter. She manages to get it started, yank it out with her teeth, and get it behind her back. It burns her hand and scorches her blazer and it fills the car with the smell of smouldering polyester, but eventually it melts away enough of the tape on her wrists that she gets her hands free. Then she rips her legs loose and makes a break for it.

She's in no condition to fight JD, but fortunately, for once, the cops are actually where you need them to be, so she runs into the station screaming. One of the officers manages to get around to where JD is in time. JD tries to pull his gun, and the officer shoots him down, and it's finally, actually over.

They make Veronica get medical treatment before she's allowed to see Heather. When she does, she's barely Heather. Even at her worst, Heather is always made up perfectly. But this girl is a mess, a tangle of blonde frizz around sunken eyes and a gaunt face. Veronica was so relieved she'd saved her. Now she realizes that she didn't. Did she even save herself?

Veronica tells her how sorry she is about Heather, about all of this. But Heather says she doesn't blame her. She tells her she's looking at a minimum of 15 years. Probably more, because her parents won't pay for a lawyer, so she's going to have to deal with some public defender.

Veronica promises she'll wait for her. But Heather tells her no, instantly and in a tone that allows for no argument.

Don't wait. There's nothing left to wait for.

[lady-quen]

Character inspiration meme!

[tagged: not tagged, saw people doing this on dash again since I follow lots of roleplay blogs haha decided to do this for my only proper OC]

[tagging: @ambalambs , @hexenjagd , @cursedfortune , @rostomanologist , @commander-wame , @missbadafker (for any of your characters!), @lyhil , @harukehn (hii I like your plants... I am tagging you both if that's okay :) @scribesofcalamity I want! 👏 to know 👏 the cool inspos!!! Also I'd tag all the pretty plants in the fandom but I'm not sure who likes dash games ^^, so if you see this and feel like doing it, you're ON! Feel free to say I tagged you!]

Also you know I had to do it to him (choose this as his profile picture)

Anyway! Explanations go:

1 - Bloodborne - Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower - largely self-explanatory. I would have exchanged her for Genshin's Raiden Shogun for the more accurate "draws swords from own body" visual, BUT the fun part is I actually didn't know she did that. So the Baal sword and Mael's solid shadow weapons are a complete coincidence 💀

Furthermore, Lady Maria's general aesthetic influenced my own design a good deal. Sadly, necromancers can't wear medium armor.

2 - Hollow Knight - God of Gods/Shade Lord - just the vibes for his Shroud... or is it something more? :P I guess we shall see once I iron out some plot points. Some people might know because I rant in DMs. Devouring darkness my beloved. Inspiration for a potential "corrupted form" for a fractal where the story went really wrong.

3 - Norse Mythology - Fenrir - core inspiration. Chain/binding motif, being something dangerous, even to gods. Power that needs suppressing. Everlasting hunger, being the doomed being with the potential to doom others in return. A... specific relationship with the sun. A certain someone losing a hand within the mouth of the beast.

His swords are named Dromi and Lædingr after the first two chains that bound Fenrir. He's currently looking for a way to devise a "perfect spell" to allow complete control over his volatile magic and stop the demon essence from further warping his body and affecting his mind - that spell, or perhaps item, being Gleipnir.

4 - Tower of God - Khun Aguero Agnes - personality and mannerisms inspiration, particularly post-The Departing. "The Commander when he locks the fuck in." Devilishly intelligent and not afraid to utilize underhanded methods, but ultimately a good person. A true silver tongue. Moderately to severely grumpy at times. Dramatic flair. Gay boy rizz.

5 - Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress - Ikoma - the survivor. Undead but won't take the L and keeps on going no matter what. Self-engineered restraints to keep his affliction under control, dog motif, being willing to do terrible things to his own body simply to stop himself becoming a monster. A heart replaced by a core.

6 - Legend of Vox Machina - Percy de Rolo - I have actually not watched this show yet (I really damn need to) the visuals, the gunplay, the demonic possession and those deep black eyes with yellow irises? Checks out. I made Mael in 2014, so, again, coincidence, but it's a really good-looking coincidence :-)

Also, template below cut!

[re-ikrmso]

curly a stronger man than me cause if jimmy was talking all that shit to him on his fucking surprise birthday party i woulda started crying. new hc that curly was on the verge of tears, trembling lip, shaky breath upset while cutting his cake,

i like to also think that since not only were the rest of the crew like . able to pick up that jimmy’s being an asshole, and didnt hold a grudge against curly, i like to think they didnt hold it against curly also because (tied to my hc) they saw how upset he was

mention of s/a below, rant about curly + vent seeping in below

also cause. i been a curly, i view his talk with jimmy mainly as damage control to try and get him to not do anything stupid, anything decisive he could’ve possibly done was cut short by the ship goddamn crashing. yes i still agree curly kinda messed up handling shit like. the s/a already fucking happened. whhat is he supposed to do to undo it. i feel like some of the discussion sounds more like “why didnt curly stop jimmy”

thats why i have no issue with “what would you have done? anything.” curly didnt fucking know. i do think…he really wouldve. but now he has to deal with trying to make sure jimmy, a COPILOT wont fucking lash out again while they’re stuck in space.

and while some people do interpret the “kills 99.9 percent” flashing across the scene as curly thinking about helping jimmy get anya an abortion, it’s just a fucking thought. and priority on friends is something natural.

either im a exponentially fucked up person but if my friend did a shit thing my first thought would be “how can i help this”.

then again, this is coming from a person who will literally throw up trying to legitimately criticize or badmouth my former(?) friend that i was ride or die for. so go fucking figure. do people really drop thier friends that easy? (urgh. me when i got nearly thrown out/doxxed by my friends over false allegations)

but even so, that was just a moment. he wants to mediate shit. i do sincerely, sincerely think curly would have done something if he had the time to realize things and what he could do. murder is not a genuine solution. tying your COPILOT up is not a genuine solution. shoving your friend into a fucking cryopod without explanation is not a good idea nor would curly realistically think of that. Keeping an eye on Jimmy 24/7 by himself would be impossible/hard, and letting the crew on would need to have him and or anya tell them what jimmy did. and i hardly doubt anya would be on board to tell everyone else so quickly. like. but then the ship CRASHED. so we’ll never fucking know but i really like to give. a benefit of a doubt here.

or maybe im projecting a “what if” onto curly. hoping he was able to do something. when i failed. but curly is a fictional character that i am probably missing nuance on. so it is what it is.

[thewhumpcaretaker]

I've seen an idea going around a few whump blogs that if you support whump or other darkfic, you also have to support pedo fic. This rings clearly false to me, but the problem is these people will only accept logic, not feelings, and I can't explain it beyond "sexuallizing minors is wrong, duh." You're one of the few people I've seen with well-thought-out takes on this kind of thing, so I was wondering if you might be able to help explain the underlying logic of this principle? (and especially how it's different from other kinds of darkfic/whump) (No pressure tho!)

Thank you so much! I really appreciate that somebody is getting value out of my rants, haha. Okay, response below the cut. CW: discussion of ethics in writing, including violence and CSA

First, a definition: I'm defining "pedo fic" as fic that sexualizes minors or assault against minors, in the manner of smut rather than, for example, a traumatic backstory for a character who is now recovering.

Number one, just from a "liking things" perspective, you don't really have to justify yourself. If you don't like it, you don't like it, and you don't owe anyone an explanation. Most proshippers already agree with this, except they treat that as a pathology on your part - they would call it a "squick" or a "trigger." Sometimes it is, but in fact it can be opinion too, and you have a right to opinions as much as they do.

So okay, from a logical perspective, why would somebody hold the opinion that pedo fic is wrong but all or most other darkfic and whump are fine?

I've seen a lot of posts saying that "we are the 'torturing characters for fun' fandom," and like…that is just not a monolith. Some of us are torturing characters for fun, whereas others are comforting characters for fun, or imagining being tortured for fun. And what do we mean by fun? Some of us mean the satisfaction of seeing a conflict unfold, seeing character development, seeing general drama, etc. Others mean sexual pleasure.

I've talked about it more elsewhere, but sexual engagement with fiction is participatory. You aren't just reading or writing, you are doing an action. Not an action with a real victim, but an action within yourself: getting aroused, and getting off. The fact that there's no real victim doesn't negate morality. It still matters whether you are treating the concepts you're engaging with and the hypothetical characters you're engaging with in a respectful and consensual way, because you're a real person.

So okay, some of us are in the "getting off on torturing characters fandom." Let's think about whether it's possible to be respectful and consensual within ourselves while in that fandom. Guess what? It very much is possible! That is not a morally indefensible fandom to be in, because torture is not contradictory to consent! Getting off on inflicting physical pain or seeing someone in physical pain is okay - you will find people who enjoy that and have a great time. Getting off on inflicting mental pain is okay - you will find people who love to play with mindfuckery in the bedroom and this is what safewords are for. Getting off on loss of control is okay - there are plenty of people who willingly give up control in the bedroom (again, safe words are here for a reason.) Getting off on comforting people who are in pain or being comforted when you are in pain is okay - you will find lots of people who really enjoy that, even folks who consider themselves vanilla. Getting off on dark characters/villains is okay - you will find lots of people who have done awful things and yet deserve pleasure and forgiveness.

In all of these above cases, the thing you like is, at the end of the day, not contradictory to consent. It still respects other people as autonomous beings.

How about getting turned on by minors? Is that okay? No. There's no situation in which a minor can consent to being sexualized. If someone likes that, then the thing they like is not respectful to the autonomy of other living beings. That's…bad. I know that may be difficult to hear, and it may make people think we hate them, but I honestly don't.

Writing fic like this is not even good for the person enjoying it. Like yeah, there's no thought police, I'm not going to crawl into anyone's brain and arrest them for fantasizing about this stuff, nor do I want to. But they are hurting themselves, if no one else. They're alienating themselves from the full degree of connection that is possible between living people, of which consent is a vital part. To get sappy for a moment…respect for consent is a large portion of what makes love the extraordinary thing that it is. If you love someone (not just romantically but in all ways), you are willing to let them go and to consider what they want and what's best for them. Sexualizing them when they are a child is inherently contradictory to this.

"It's a coping mechanism/it's how I deal with my trauma" is an explanation, but the coping mechanism isn't healthy, so the next step from there is to challenge it, not indulge it. If you told me you hid yourself away in your house and daydreamed all day "as a coping mechanism," and you couldn't stop even if you wanted to, I'd say, "Well…you're not hurting anyone else, but you're hurting yourself. You're cutting yourself off from real relationships and putting all of your most passionate sexual and romantic energies towards fantasies that can't/shouldn't come true. It seems painful. Maybe it's worth talking to a therapist?" And I should know, because I've been stuck in maladaptive daydreaming. Believe me, it doesn't end well to cling to relationships that will only ever be possible in fiction. (Not say maladaptive daydreaming is equivalent, by the way - just making an analogy.)

So yeah, that's my argument personally. I hope that makes sense and I hope that anybody who may have felt attacked while reading this is okay and takes some time to think and take care of themselves. I always give this disclaimer, but I really don't hate anyone or want anyone to be hurt. If you're planning to use this in arguments with people…just make sure you're not pushing them to some point of awful distress, because that's just harassment and not likely to change anyone's mind even if it's well-meaning.

[sawtastic-sideblog]

⚠ season 3 episode 18 911 spoilers below the cut ⚠

Abby's explanation to Buck is a crock of fucking shit!

I mean she just left him and never spoke to him again. She should have called and told him.not to wait anymore.

I wasn't the biggest fan of her character to begin with but after this. Jfc.

I have so many things I want to say but I can't form them into words because I can't get over how stupid and selfish this woman is.

Honestly she reminds me of Meredith from Grey's Anatomy.

A not so likeable character because she's selfish, melodramatic, and is always throwing herself a pity party over every inconvenience. Not to mention treating romantic partners as disposable and projects theor own problems onto others.

Not to say there's not some redeeming qualities there but honestly few and far between.

I'm glad they wrote her out because Buck can do so much better...with Eddie.

Okay go about your doom scrolling rant over.

Also Maddie and Chimney what? Hurray but ew children

[spioderman]

rant about antisemitism around tlou below cut, be warned 🙃

1. not true, he has never stated it’s a criticism of Hamas

2. the creators have not identified with the term ‘zionism’

3. once again calling jewish art “propaganda” is such a reductionary way to engage with it.

4. the idea that he unconsciously critiqued the government and authority he lived under and observed most of his life is so reductionary and shows exactly how little people seem to view jewish artists: we are pawns for their moral games, unable to see what impact or influence we have, simply propaganda machines for zionism. not free living people who have our own complex realities, identities and relationships with these things. i genuinely don’t understand how so many seem at ease coming to this position, treating jewish artist as morally dubious on site, not given grace to expand and express trauma and grief, lest it contradict the political moment. jews don’t owe you explanations, but honestly as an artist druckmann has made it pretty clear his critiques of the army and authoritative state of israel, and I would argue more prominently, america. this isn’t some big question, he’s never discussed his art as a moral critique of hamas or palestine, but his own emotional responses to violence, and the shame and guilt that comes with that.

the complete misinterpreteding of his art is profoundly disturbing to me. and im so tired of this misinformation being so wide spread and accepted. i truly wish any of these people cared to examine their biases around jewish experience and art, and whether their projecting their beliefs about jews and israelis onto the art in ways that the artist never intended or desired. he has never claimed this was about critiquing hamas, i just don’t understand how people can misunderstand a story this much.