#“i know it's a lot of tags but I promise they're all relevant”

[englandsgirl18181234]

So question, for those few of you that have read my fics. I'm a bit stumped because I've got so many fic ideas to work on/write and I'm wondering which ones you guys are most interested in.

So I'm gonna make a poll!

For those that don't know, I'll put the fandom, pairings, and summaries for the fics and AU's under the cut

Odysseus/Penelope/Athena, Athena & Apollo friendship

Astraphobia: Epic The Musical/PJO, features Athena with brain damage after God Games

When Athena protests Zeus's intent to throw Annabeth and Percy back into Tartarus for refusing Godhood when they had died, only she and Apollo know just how permanent the consequences of her actions will be. But as the death of a Goddess shakes the heavens to their foundations, Athena finds herself in a place she never truly expected to end up.

My Sanctuary: Naruto, Waring Clans Era, features KeanBlade's Centering and Half Hatake Tobirama

Madara/Tobirama, Touka/Izuna

Tobirama is stabbed in the back on a mission and left to die only to be picked up by a trafficking ring. A few months later, that same trafficking ring gets ahold of six year old Kagami Uchiha, who ends getting thrown into Tobirama's cell. When Madara hunts down the men that have his nephew, he gets a lot more than he bargained for.

Hunter's Moon: Naruto, Waring Clans Era, features KeanBlade's Centering and Half Hatake Tobirama

Madara/Tobirama, Touka/Izuna

Tobirama is betrayed and left to die, only to be captured by a trafficking ring instead. When that same ring gets ahold of 12 year old Kagami Uchiha, the two take the chance it gives them to escape and try to get home. But the closer they get, the more dangerous things become, and the enemies on their heels are gaining fast. And Tobirama knows better than to think he'll make it out of this alive, even if he manages to get his cub home safely.

The Heart That Beats In Me: Naruto, Waring Clans Era, features KeanBlade's Centering and Half Hatake Tobirama

Madara/Tobirama, Touka/Izuna

When Madara is ambushed after a mission gone wrong and taken captive, all he can think is how annoying it's going to be to escape on his own. But it turns out to be a blessing in disguise, especially when the 'monster' his captors put him in a cell with ends up being a thought to be dead Tobirama Senju, who ends up being much more important to him than Madara ever thought possible.

Supers In Amity, Title TBD: Danny Phantom/Justice League, features Ghost King Danny and Liminal Amity Park

Gen

When the GIW call in the Justice League and they actually show up, Danny is more upset than concerned. Especially since it's been more than 2 years since Amity Park's last distress call. But with the GIW getting steadily worse as time goes on and the Justice League poking their noses where they don't belong, Danny knows he has to intervene before the League gets their info about ghosts from the wrong sources.

Chthonic!Apollo AU, Title TBD: Epic The Musical/PJO, features Athena with brain damage after God Games

Odysseus/Penelope/Athena, Athena & Apollo friendship

When Phobos and Deimos attack Athena after a meeting and trigger the worst seizure Apollo has ever seen her have, he can't stop himself from attacking them in turn, even turning his bow on Ares when the other god attacks him for it. But when Zeus decides Athena is faking and that he attacked Ares for no reason, the Fates show him exactly how badly things will go if they stay. So Apollo makes the only choice he can. Take Athena and run.

[specialagentartemis]

hi artemis! a friend I made during artfight who doesn't have a tumblr account asked me to pass a question on to you!

they're wondering if you know of any good resources for researching more modern history. This is what they were interested in specifically:

"i am trying to think of somewhere i could find information about when cars started appearing in songs and i am absolutely blanking on how i could find things about this

i know the library of congress has a LOT of stuff [and a really good system for filtering the search results] but… i don't even know what i would enter into the search bar sjdhgj. cars?? songs?? the spread of motor vehicles??"

i know this isn't your specific area of expertise but i thought you might still have some thoughts, or be able to point them to someone else who could help. also, they asked me to tell you that you're very cool and they like your posts :) (i concur)

Aww, thanks! <3

Hmm unfortunately, this is not really a topic I know anything about. This is a combination topic/time period I don't study, and a method (corpus analysis) I haven't really done.

But I can talk about how I would go about it, because starting research from scratch is a specialized skill and it is Daunting.

First, I go to Wikipedia on my topic--let's try the Wikipedia page for "Lyrics." The "Academic Study" subheading has no references--pity. Ignoring most of the article text, I scroll down to the references. Scanning them, they're not that helpful, but "Further Reading" suggests Moore, Allan F. (2003). Analyzing Popular Music. That looks potentially useful! File that away.

All right, now I go to academic databases. My own university's library database and JSTOR are my first options. Let's try some keywords--technology in popular music. Hm, no, that's mostly turning back books and articles about the technology used to make and disseminate popular music, not references to technology in the lyrics. Wrong tack. Try technology popular music lyrics. Little bit better--it turns back The Bloomsbury Handbook of Rock Music Research, that sounds promising. The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, sounds like it could be a useful reference too. Still, this turns back a wide variety of things, none of them about cars. All right, "technology" was too broad a concept. We want to know about cars. Try cars popular music lyrics and automobiles popular music lyrics.

Aha! Here's some good stuff! "Sentiment analysis of popular-music references to automobiles, 1950s to 2010s" (Wu et al. 2022); "Experience economy in the making: Hedonism, play and coolhunting in automotive song lyrics" (Askegaard 2010); Driving Identities: At the Intersection of Popular Music and Automotive Culture (McLeod 2020); "Communicating cars: television, popular music and everyday life" (Alam 2020, a chapter within the book Race, Taste, Class and Cars). Now this is what we're talking about!

And reducing my search terms to cars in popular music, I turned up a book called Popular Music and Automobiles. Jackpot!

Tbh research is trying various keyword strings, and then sifting through a dozen irrelevant result for every relevant one. Identifying relevant-looking books and articles from titles and abstracts is also a skill. JSTOR is good but arbitrarily limited; Google Scholar is pretty good; Library of Congress has records of nearly everything but is in my experience kind of overwhelming unless you know precisely what you're looking for. University library databases are the best, if you have access to any.

However, once you've hit on something specific, the LOC is really, really good in this way: you can go to the page for the book you found--here's "Popular Music and Automobiles"--and then look at the subject tags. Automobiles--Songs and music--History and criticism is its own subject tag! You can see what other books have that subject tag!

... looks like, including Popular Music and Automobiles, it's only four. (and one of those is also McCloud's "Driving Identities," lol.) But, hey. That's two more books about the topic you didn't know about before!

These are the tactics I use when I want to research something new! Hope some of this was helpful.

[princess-of-the-corner]

BNHA AU Masterpost

I have one for the ML AUs so now a BNHA one!

Same format of the AU's name, a short summary, and relevant tags!

Chaos Children:

My main au! My personal headcanons, addition of plotlines, yadda yadda. This is Canon to me now.

A lot of this isn't tagged because it's my main thing so I just forget sometimes but this also encompasses both Todoroki tags (Todoroki Protection Program and Endeavor Fires His PR Team)

Tags: X X X

CC Next Gen

This is an eventual offshoot of Chaos Children and, as is obvious, is about the nextgen kiddos. Does already have a Masterpost for the kids' bios

Tags: X

Monster AU

Basically take Canon and replace Quirks with everyone being some kind of monsterous species! Jokingly called the 'Monster High AU' because the kids are going to monster high school.

Does have some funky character dynamics due to the lack of Quirks and Heroes and the system as a whole.

Tags: X

Amnesia!Dabi:

When Toya/Dabi wakes up in a sketchy clinic, he doesn't remember jack shit and runs for it. Thus fucking up all of AfO's plans. Even when Dabi does join the LoV (out of the assumption he must've been a villain before and wanting some ability to maybe discover who he was), he's not as useful because he doesn't remember any of his problems.

He starts remembering some things during the Forest Training Camp/Hideout Raid arc and after everything goes to shit he decides to grab Himiko(basically adopted her as a little sister) and book it once again, ending up turning them both over to the Heroes and finding out who he was.

Various shenanigans of Dabi reconnecting to a family he doesn't remember(thankfully in this au they're already in therapy) and also them leaving gets the rest of the LoV to fracture and further fuck up AfO's plans.

Tags: X

Vigilante au

Izuku turns down All Might's offer and becomes a vigilante instead. Intends to infiltrate the LoV to take it down from the inside, but finds out AfO is his dad and uh. Time to collect that inheritance! Jokes aside, Izuku kills AfO and takes over his criminal empire, but shuts everything down and gets the LoV running as a vigilante squad instead.

Also Himiko gets OfA because Izuku helps her get her life together and yeets her at All Might.

Tags: X

Villain?Izuku

Dad for One au! Technically all of these are DfO AUs. But in this one, AfO finds out about Izuku's existence. He plays a normal parent for a while but kidnaps Izuku when the boy is about 7-8.

Izuku is treated kinda like Yoichi 2.0. AfO takes care of him well, but he's not allowed to leave. He's not fully 'in the vault' yet as Izuku is still young enough to be relatively obedient, but he's getting older and more defiant.

Izuku and Katsuki never had a falling out because Izuku knows he inherited his father's Quirk. Thus she is devastated when he's kidnapped and actually went to therapy. Then ofc later (probs during the Shie Hassaikai arc), they run into each other and Katsuki kidnaps him back and refuses to let go.

Tags: X

Dark Comedy

tw: sexual assault

Due to *gestures to above tag*, Enji commits some very justified murder. But in getting an alibi for said murders, he ends up having to pretend he's been having an affair.

This au swings wildly between taking a dark subject seriously, and the comedic shenanigans of everyone trying not to get caught. This the name 'Dark Comedy'. It is very full of tonal whiplash. I am saying this as a warning because it is NOT for everyone but I do promise that the genuine dark stuff is taken seriously it's just the other stuff that gets wild.

Tags: X

LoV Babies

A handful of members of the LoV, and also Hawks because ofc he got dragged in, get hit with a Quirk that de-ages them. They de-aged both physically and mentally, now fully believing they're the age they were turned to. Only able to turn back once they confront the childhood trauma they're about to face.

Kurogiri is now a 17 year old Oboro. Dabi is now a 5 year old Toya, yapping nonstop about his dad. Tomura is now a young Tenko, wondering where his family is. Hawks is now an itty bitty Keigo, an absolute cryptid child. Himiko, the only one who doesn't have a name change of these fuckers, is very small and oh so nervous about fighting the instincts of her 'monsterous' Quirk.

Naturally Oboro yoinks the kindergartners away from the LoV and to UA which. Causes even more shenanigans.

Tags: X

[ratasum]

Ugh okay. Some thoughts. I have specifically tagged this as soto critical so that if you enjoyed it, you know what you're getting into. These are my opinions. If you enjoyed it I genuinely am thrilled for you, no sarcasm at all, but my usual disclaimer remains that I did not. I'm not gonna come at you or attack you for enjoying it, I promise; we all have different opinions and that is good and valid.

(Not that I hated it entirely; I actually love a lot about it. I just was not thrilled with everything in the end.)

I've also specifically censored names so they don't show up in those characters tags to the best of my ability.

First I'd like to go over what I actually really did enjoy:

The new maps are visually stunning. I'm on the fence about the heavy reliance on Skyscales, but they're creative and interesting to look at and fun to explore.

Love P*itha (though not like that I just think she's Neat I need to clarify that) and the Krypt*s. Really wish we could've spent a lot more time digging into the power structure there but I like that they think WE'RE the ugly ones.

I've been gnawing on the shadiness and cult-like nature of the Astr*l Ward since the jump and am really hopeful their behavior gets treated with the gravity it genuinely deserves.

It was nice to see Z*jja again, even if my opinion of how she was handled is... well. We'll get to that below.

The W*zard Vault is a HUGE improvement over the daily system, don't @ me. Love being able to spend my fun bucks on whatever I want whenever I want without being bogged down in "ugh it's x days until I can get clovers or a tome."

I'm keeping R'tch*kk, Glade, and Z*zel. Fr*de too. And L*hr. No one can stop me.

All that being said...

Glad they admitted they bit off FAR too much. SotO felt too big for its britches after the first drop, and what could've been really interesting things got shoved into closets and out windows to make way to hurry along to the next beat. Everything was equal parts rushed and a slog, lore buried in journal and hidden text over and over and over. The pacing was absurd.

To say nothing about how miserably they flubbed Z*jja's story. What could've been a really interesting dive into what she went through as she maybe journeyed into and through Nay*s with us, her going through a will she won't she until deciding in the end that maybe ascension was the best option? Nothing. Hurriedly mind wiped off screen before the second drop even hit and shoved completely out of the narrative with barely any relevance to the story as it stood, despite how loudly anet banged the pots and pans of how super big and important her arc was.

You literally could replace her with a lamp and it would change practically nothing about the story. She wasn't even relevant to the greater story at all. Why was she even there?

To say nothing about those really juicy drops of how shady the Astral Ward was, between the bits in the fractals, G*lrath's threat, the "something has gone wrong" status effect at the end of the third drop, and none of that was followed through on.

And I say this as someone who loved the first drop immensely, liked what we were seeing, was genuinely intrigued... and then nothing.

I really wish we could've either stuck with the ward, or had the ward be barely introduced before being tossed into Nay*s and spending most of our time there so that we didn't have all this setup that felt like it dangled.

I'm glad to see they took the criticisms on the pacing and story content to heart, though, and maybe it'll improve. Still feeling a bit stung, and there's a LOT I'm still planning on rewriting (gonna tweak some stuff with the knowledge we'll be addressing the ward again... hopefully. Z*jja's still not there though sorry not sorry anet).

I'll remain cautiously optimistic in the meantime.

[tuherrus]

Could you do a TL;DR of the whole Kino thing, please?

i can't promise that this will be much shorter but i'll do my very best for you anon!

DISCLAIMER ONCE AGAIN DO NOT HARASS KINO OR DO ANYTHING STUPID, i'm not your dad but use some common sense

i'm pulling info from the doc currently available here and asks and messages i've received which are available in the tag kinodraws on my blog, everything is alleged, use your own brain and make your own judgement on whether you wish to support kino

kino (they/them), current account kinodraws on most platforms, is a fairly popular online artist and now tattoo artist who has for years on various accounts scammed people out of money via unfulfilled commissions, fundraisers and recently even a charity zine (the doc mentions a bunch of other allegations of bad behavior and random stuff like ghosting webcomic companies etc but i'll try to keep this brief and focus on what i feel is most relevant)

some of kino's previous accounts and their scamming related to them:

PAISELEY, currently permabanned on furaffinity, here's a livejournal of a bunch of people corroborating their experiences being scammed by kino through unfulfilled commissions

CAPONE, also permabanned on furaffinity for the same reasons

RIVETS, permabanned once again on furaffinity for scamming

ARTIST BEWARE PAGE, the user got a refund after nearly an entire year of messaging kino about the subject

RUN ME THROUGH ZINE, all pages of which kino deleted, the proceeds of which were supposed to go to charity, you can find a lot of the things related to this on my tag and pinned post it was an ofmd zine and was very badly managed (missing artists and pieces etc etc) that ended up never being released kino ghosts the zine, deletes the pages and pockets the money made (allegedly $1300 but we have no real way of knowing how much the proceeds actually were), posts a falsified receipt only after people pressure them to speak on the matter after months of silence, people contact the charity and the charity reports kino donated just $1 kino once again goes silent and only after a giant uproar they FINALLY donate the money to the charity, but not before they blame someone else for not posting receipts about it (it was kino's responsibility) and guilt tripping people about how they've been harassed (again i do not condone harassment but people literally wanted them to just donate the money where it was supposed to go in the first place and they refused to even address that nor why they forged the first receipt)

kino also has a tendency to make expensive frivolous purchases (electronics, a hot tub, tattoos, a custom chair....) time and time again once they've scammed money out of people via whatever method they've chosen (they often post about these purchases too after deleting whatever emergency commissions post or a post asking for donations), and while far be it from me to tell someone what to do with their finances, they can't seem to stop scamming in order to get money

so i'd strongly suggest not supporting kino! they manipulate, lie and steal and claim they're a victim of some mass bullying campaign when in reality they've spent seventeen years scamming people out of money and people are getting rightfully angry! they also will likely continue to do so as long as people give them money

again use your own brain when reading people's testimonies about kino, a lot of them in the tag on my blog, but i believe these people and that their experiences are real considering the number of messages i've received (some of which people wished to remain private)

kino's made their bed and i want them to finally lie in it, so even if one person is convinced not to support kino via all this information then i'll be satisfied

i'm sorry this still got so long!

[saphscorner]

it's been way too long since i've written bdoc, but inspiration struck! taking it back to my #bdocrevolution roots with this one LMAO

word count: 575 pairing(s): bdubs/doc warnings: none general tags & vibes: winter, fluff, banter, a bit of flirting, trees (<- i promise that's very relevant)

"Such a nice day for February," Bdubs muses, "you'd think that going for a walk in the winter wouldn't be all that nice, huh?" His gaze shifts from the dull gray sky back over to his companion who matches his pace in comfortable strides.

"It's not bad," Doc agrees. "Would be nicer in the spring though."

"Aw, what, are you complaining about the cold?" Bdubs grins, taking half a step closer to Doc to nudge his shoulder.

"No, no, the scenery," says Doc. "It's so dull. No color, no leaves on the trees, not much to look at. Besides you, I guess."

Bdubs huffs a laugh, rolling his eyes. "The trees aren't pretty in the winter?"

"No?" says Doc, "they're kind of ugly."

"Ugly? No way!" Bdubs protests with a laugh. "Yeah they're pretty with the leaves, but when they leaves are gone, it's like... you can actually appreciate the tree itself! You can see all the branches, and really understand them."

Doc hums, but says nothing, still seemingly unconvinced.

Huffing, Bdubs grabs his arm decisively and pulls him off the trail. "Come on, just look with me for a second, Doc," he says, gesturing up the trunk of a broad oak tree.

"I'm looking," says Doc, "but what am I looking at?"

"The branches. There's almost this level of predictability to the way they grow. See, if they grow at more of this forty-five degree angle here, it means the branch is weaker," he gestures at the angle of one of the branches situated lower on the trunk of the tree. "But one like this, more of a straight out branch is going to be a lot stronger," he continues, standing up on his toes to gesture at a branch higher up on the trunk. "Did you know all that?"

"Actually, no," says Doc. Though Bdubs is still gazing up into the branches, he's only looking at Bdubs, transfixed on the way his eyes seem to light up when he talks about something he's passionate about.

"Exactly," says Bdubs. "Because you don't just get out here and look around enough." Satisfied, he smiles, running his hand over the bark of the tree.

"Maybe, but I still think it would be prettier in the springtime. Not to say it's not interesting right now."

"You're unbelievable," Bdubs says, though his smile defies his words.

"Maybe I'm just saying we should do this more often," Doc suggests. "Come back out here in a month and see how the seasons change, and see what else you can tell me then?"

Bdubs blinks. "That's uncharacteristically sentimental of you. Are you just looking for a way to spend more time with me?"

Doc fights a smile as he shrugs, hands retreating back to his pockets. "Maybe I'm just interested in learning about the trees. You did teach me something new today."

Bdubs folds his arms over his chest, rocking back on his heels with a smug little smile. "Or maybe you're just interested in anything I have to say."

Doc's smile cracks through his expression, though he's unrelenting as he steps back onto the path. "Couldn't possibly be that."

Laughing, Bdubs just shakes his head. "Don't think I don't know you better than that!" He brushes Doc's arm with his own as they fall back into step alongside each other.

Despite his persistent, Doc's smile is genuine. "Is it a yes for next time then?"

"It's always a yes, Doc."

[scorpio-karma]

I honestly really don't get it, why after all these years, are people still obsessed and invested in TVD or with the cast? That show nothing but a complete shit show and dumpster fire garbage from start to finish (though the first few seasons did a better job in hiding it, because the show had promise and potential). Nothing  but one problematic thing after another and just so much negativity and toxicity surrounding it. And a lot of your stances raise a lot of questions and put a lot of things into perspective for me. 

First, it's so funny to me that you single out Nina for being a mediocre actress and using that as a reason to say her career after TVD flopped, or that she hasn't done anything since leaving the show. Because the majority of the TVD/TO cast (with the exception of only a few select), were also mediocre and not particularly good either. And honestly, what did you expect from a CW show, of all things? Also, the other cast members haven't done anything or gotten jobs after TVD either. 

Second, only singling out Nina for being problematic and doing shady things, when all of the TVD cast, including your dear and lovely Kat Graham, have done a lot of fucked up, problematic, and shady shit as well. Absolutely none of them are innocent or saints. Ian acted like a straight up, petty, and bitter manchild after he and Nina broke up and he got with Nikki Reed, while Nina handled that whole situation with grace and maturity, even with how shitty both Ian and Nikki treated her. On top of that, he's a fucking abuser who threw away Nikki's birth control pills, coerced her into pregnancy, and bragged about it publicly on a podcast as if it was something to be proud of. 

Third, singling out Nina for supposedly being racist (which to my knowledge, I've never seen her make any racist posts or comments), but say fuck all about Matt Davis, the biggest racist piece of shit in the whole show. Or Nate Buzolic, who on top of being racist, is also a raging homophobic and anti abortion rights. Most of the men on the show have done way worse than Nina or any of the girls, yet I don't see any posts from you calling them out on their shit behavior. Because as always, men can do the most abhorrent shit, they can be racist, homophobic, sexist, misogynistic, they can abuse, rape, or even kill somoene, and still have people defend and support them. But god forbid women aren't perfect and have flaws or make mistakes and fuck up. 

And you all wonder why the TVD fandom had such a bad rep back then, and still continue to have such a bad rep now. The very definition of toxic. 

First of all sweetie, you seem to be responding to some old ass posts from like 2019, so you the one that's still obsessed. Second of all, if you searched my Tumblr thoroughly (which I know is hard given Tumblr piss poor searching system) you'd find posts critical of all cast members. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only one I'm not critical of is Trevino because he knows when to stay quiet. And lastly, I'm definitely only skimming that whole message because you're clearly an unhinged Nina fan who went searching for shit to be mad at since they're tagged as "anti" meaning your not the audience for these opinions. Maybe find more recent and relevant criticisms before blowing up someone's inbox anonymously with a dissertation as to why they're wrong. In fact, maybe put this in an actual response to that post so they know what the fuck you're going on about.

[cobra-creampuff]

OTP ask for Roy/Jamie - 12, 20, and 60

Do they have many heated arguments? How do they smooth things over?

Mary you know they do. Although, I think they're all the type of arguments that like. You only have to do them once, and then you've got it. Growing pains type of shit, ykwim? So they do get into a lot of arguments at first, and fewer and fewer the longer they're together as they reach each one and move past it. As for smoothing things over, they do things hmm como se dice? Right. They say I'm sorry and This is why I was upset (if they know) and Here's how you/I/we can do better (if relevant and they know). And maybe sometimes in between that and the fight, there will be some sort of distraction and/or bonding activity to break the tension, if necessary. Literally every fight they have is exactly like Sunflowers. Conflict -> Acknowledgment of Conflict -> Something to Feel Better -> Apologies & Explaining. It's simply correct.

Choose one song that perfectly describes their relationship.

I honestly have not had one jump out to me yet, but I promise I will post about it and tag you when it does (and it will).

Who pulls the other closer when they’re sleeping?

Tbh, I don't really think either of them. Jamie is and incredibly snuggly person, but only when he's awake. He's a stomach sleeper (canon) and he sleeps hard as hell. They generally stay about the same amount of tangled up together that they fall asleep in. Cuddling is something that they consciously decide to do.

OTP Asks

[apocalypticavolition]

Wheel of Time Season 2 Episodes 1 - 3 Thoughts

In my reread - which I won't be doing today, or probably any day that a show episode comes out in the immediate future - this is the part where I'd have some sort of snark warning about spoilers to shoo away the viewers who might not have blocked the relevant tags for some reason. This is about the show, but I will be discussing a few things that will be spoilers to show-watchers only - and if you haven't caught up at all then obviously I'll be spoiling the show.

After seeing Apple TV's Foundation blossom into this beautiful and entertaining show that had almost nothing to do with its source material, I figured I could come to Wheel of Time's second season with an open mind. And hey, episode 1 of the show made me think that we were over the rough part. Yeah, I had to meet its plot changes in the middle, but if I was willing to do that, the show seemed to promise that I would be rewarded. After the three episodes released so far, I'm not quite sure. I want to love the show, but I'm not a show lover.

And yeah, it starts with the opening. Jordan's world is one in which evil doesn't prosper and makes no illusions about being an alternate system of morality that good guys just besmirch because they're meanie pants. Having a little girl pet a rape-and-murder machine that's purring at the prospect of human contact isn't a great start for me, and frankly there's just something about Ishamael in this scene that feels like Nandor from What We Do in the Shadows, which isn't a worthwhile comparison.

Nor does the new show intro excite me. The previous season's over-focus on the Aes Sedai felt to me like a mistake overall but the concept of the opening sequence was still strong. I wanted to see it change and evolve over the course of the eight seasons, but now we're just given a few seconds of a snake devouring itself. It's a major step backwards.

But these are quibbles. I know they're quibbles. If they were the biggest kinds of complaints I had against the show I'd move on. Things get a lot stronger from there, showing us some great TV! Let's break it down:

Moiraine and Lan: Moiraine is not taking being shielded well. This is a legit reaction. Her misery is clear and the bath scene is a great contrast. Lan's attitude isn't much better. It's well-acted, well-set, and seeing changes like Verin being folded into Vandene is good! Like I said, I get that it's TV, I get that there have to be changes, and this little change works. Heck, Bayle Domon showing up works. He's fun, Moiraine fucking him over is fun, it's good TV. It's a little frustrating that we still don't know what the poem is (I mean, I know as a reader but still), but that's all in good fun.

But I do have problems with the division forming between Lan and Moiraine. Not that it's happening at all, under the circumstances it makes perfect sense. However, the characters and narratives taking the stance of, "Moiraine is suffering trauma so she's allowed to be as cold to her best friend of twenty years as possible and he just has to take it" does not work for me at all.

Then there's the Fade sequence. In the next episode, Lan will apologize for not sensing the Shadowspawn coming, which raises the question - why didn't Moiraine sense them coming? She's shielded, not severed. Why did the first Fade go down so easily? Why is Lan so terrible at fighting Fades when he spent his whole life training to do so? At least Verin saves the day. Really, Verin is awesome in general and I have no complaints, she's everything she should be for this adaptation.

And then comes the double dose of cruelty. First we get a summary of how Lan and Moiraine met, based on the New Spring novel, but we leave out the coolest part, which frankly only does Moiraine dirty. Though, they do Lan dirty too by making the sexual assault he suffered something to laugh about as a funny cultural affectation instead of the rape that it clearly was.

And then things go downhill. Book Moiraine might have been cruel in setting up the transfer of her bond to Lan, but she didn't make it happen right away and she didn't explicitly tell Lan she never thought of him as an equal. Her behavior is abhorrent and unheroic and while Moiraine's always been on the utilitarian side of things, this is just more than I'm willing to deal with. It also only makes Alanna feel skeevier as a character, which is impressive considering all the rest of the stuff she pulls. And that's it. They're gone - and frankly, for show Moiraine all I can say is "good riddance".

Wondergirls: Egwene is overall good, Nynaeve starts well enough. I don't really like Nynaeve's getting to skip the novice phase taken away from her - I feel that Rafe's love of Egwene consistently tears down the characters around her and now that she's chiding Nynaeve that she should be happy I feel very vindicated in this belief - but I can live with it. Nynaeve choosing to suffer rather than address her block is good. The Aes Sedai politicking about how to train Nynaeve and who should be her mentor is great! Egwene's jealousy is in-character.

Nynaeve training with Alanna's Warders though, while impressive, feels like mostly an excuse to give those two a few extra lines. And Alanna feels genuinely skeevy in this incarnation; I had thought her advice to Egwene was just inappropriate metaphor until the characters clarified, and at that point I'm just wondering why Alanna is supposed to be a positive representation of polyamory if she's clearly trying to groom Egwene on the side. Like, at least Liandrin being a bad mentor and person overall is clear from her interactions with Nynaeve. Of course, much less about Liandrin is clear in general. She steals medicine as if an Aes Sedai wouldn't be able to obtain such things without question)

And then we meet Elayne. Book Elayne is a sweetheart, only stuck-up in the most basic of ways (taught to walk around with her nose in the air). Show Elayne makes several faux pas and doesn't seem to present much reason for Egwene to want to be her friend. "I haven't seen a soul", she says, surrounded by servants. She says she spent six summers in Tar Valon but her attitude screams six summers in Seandar. Sheriam at least seems like she's gonna beat some sense into her, but I shouldn't be rooting for that outcome, should I?

Meanwhile, Nynaeve follows Liandrin out of the tower and discovers her dark secret, a son dying of old age. At first my associate and I thought it was all going to be some kind of ploy to impress Nynaeve and influence her ajah choice, but it's all legit. I thought that Liandrin having a son was fine, but my friend is less convinced and there's something to be said for that. Liandrin's attitude doesn't scream, "son she's outliving", and it adds to the sense of incoherence to her character.

Elayne just barely manages to recover as a character during the drinking sequence when she chews Egwene out, which also sets her up nicely for her bullshit. Not sure what I think about the convenient drama of Nynaeve overhearing Egwene bitching about her, but at least it kind of goes places. It helps explain why Nynaeve's so vehement about the testing, anyway.

Her testing is... where things start really going downhill. The beginning is fine (though the whole "attacked by bandits" thing doesn't work for me at all for the Two Rivers - not in the last season, not in this one), and the middle is a good adaptation, but then we hit the end. The fake out's good, but then... Ugh. In the books, Nynaeve wills the portal back, but that's not what happens here. Further, Liandrin's motivations remain incoherent: if she's a Darkfriend working to bring about these peoples' downfall, Nynaeve's death (a huge loss for the Light) shouldn't be something she's this upset about. Like yeah, corrupting her would be more fun, but a win's a win. But the Shadow doesn't want wins in this episode. It wants to lose as hard as it can.

Sheriam is also a bit odd here but since she may not know Liandrin is Black I can buy her behavior as being generally shitty while covering for herself. I mean, "your grief is your own" is so unnecessarily cruel that it's clear that she's Black. That said, not sure why she's discussing arches with the girls when my impression is that the test was supposed to be something of a secret until the novice was ready to advance. Nor do I think Elayne is done any favors with her absolutely hollow condolences - Sheriam was more believable as a sympathetic ear.

Egwene confronts Liandrin, which leads us to yet another situation where somebody on the Shadow could easily eliminate one of the five ta'veren but absolutely refuses to do so because... it wouldn't be sporting? She then tries to save Nynaeve while Elayne talks her out of it, but makes absolutely no difference whatsoever (ah well, at least she isn't personally responsible for bringing Nynaeve back). Then Nynaeve... does come back. For no apparent reason. Apparently every other woman who entered this segment just killed themselves after missing the first door out. At least book Nynaeve forces the arch to reappear - show Nynaeve only forces the scenario to stop being scary and the arch shows up anyway.

Perrin: I thought that Marcus was the weakest actor last season, and while he's grown quite a good deal, it also feels like he's been given the least to work with. He's with mostly new characters bar Loial, who doesn't get the love and attention he deserves. Everyone in his sequence exists to push him along, and he doesn't have much going on just yet as he's reacting to what goes down. I do like how they're representing his power, and again combining Elyas and Hurin is the right sort of choice for TV, but I feel like Perrin was meant to be bouncing off of at least Mat at this point. His writing is very on the nose when he and the Shienarians are burying the Darkfriends, it feels very much like we're just being told what he feels instead of being shown it.

But hey, while the woman in the house horror sequence was not remotely something Perrin went through, and it was pretty changed, I honestly didn't expect it to show up at all, so I'm calling that a win for him. It's well-acted too, he doesn't have too much dialogue telling us how he feels so it works. That said, his place in the world gets a lot less certain as we go on - I assumed he was in the east like the books, but he seems to have crossed thousands of miles to go west considering what happens. Why are the Seanchan here? Why is Perrin where they are? This isn't a coincidence, it's blatantly forced.

Also sorry not sorry but the damane outfit isn't dehumanizing like it should be, it's just dumb. The damane in Perrin's arc is, as far as I'm concerned, named Little Miss Binky. Speaking of LMB, it bothers me a bit that she can sense all these channeler women when in the books the testing required the use of the a'dam. This is a random-ass village, there shouldn't be two sparkers. And Uno should not be fucking dead and no amount of Suroth's nail batons is going to make it okay for me (okay actually there is an amount but the season isn't going to run that long so same thing).

We end Perrin's arc in these three episodes with him waking up in a carriage with Ishamael, being stabbed to death as part of the Shadow's plans to bring about-- No wait, that would be competent. Instead, Ishamael is super interested in Perrin's character development (why bro?) and lets Perrin escape with Elyas while the two ditch Loial (unforgivable).

Mat and Min: Being imprisoned at this point works based on where the story ended up, but Liandrin is just kind of a cipher throughout his story. She's clearly relishing the opportunity to be evil editing him out of the letters she reads, but this is about as evil as she gets beyond the wrongful imprisonment. Why does she give him cakes in the next episode? Why is he being kept alive for months on end? There's no clear motivation for her character - if she's being a villain, she should have offed him long ago. If she's following Tower procedure in some fashion, it should be clearer.

Mat manages to make contact with Min - no one noticed his efforts, which is fine, but it stretches credulity that none of Min's captors notice that her wall is suddenly damaged after this. They're great friends and I love this for what it is, or rather what it seems to be. It really helps their relationship - though not her characterization - that he's not interested in having her read his future. Shame, considering what she sees.

After some more time, Nynaeve's apparent death prompts Liandrin to set Mat free. He almost goes to help Egwene, but then decides to ditch her because fuck Mat's character, amirite? One actor ditched us so all Mats have to be shitty now even when it's a central facet of who he should be. Then he doubles back to Min - why is he doing things in this order, this is the least logical order - but it turns out that this whole thing is staged by Liandrin and that Min is working with her. What the actual fuck?

Rand: I'm not loving how little attention he gets in the first episode, but whatever. The main problem is that his motivations are obscured to us for such a long period, and we aren't really given a clue as to how he figured out this was an option in the first place. At first I simply thought it was weird that he'd go to Cairhien when he knows he's a time bomb and that being a nurse-type made sense considering his overall sense of altruism.

Really, most of the hospital stuff works in isolation. The soldier suffering from PTSD is a nice touch and it helps build up the Rand as Aiel foreshadowing that the show hasn't had much time to get to yet. I don't like that Rand is cheating on Lan with another teacher but TV shows I guess.

Then we jump into a darker Rand. He stalks the asshole orderly and assaults him, in part with the power (though this seems to be unwilling). I thought this might be madness coming on early, but the truth isn't much better. Of course, before we find it out we get to see Rand hook up with Lanfear. Book Rand was clearly compelled and overwhelmed by a hottie being interested in him, but this atmosphere is gone here as well. Rand took one look at the slippery slope and said, "Watch how fast I can get to the bottom!"

And meanwhile, Lanfear is bizarrely self-aware! "I pretend you're Lews Therin," she all but says. "Go ahead and think of other women while you're having sex with me, your crazy and obsessive stalker!" The Forsaken are cartoonishly evil people because only someone cartoonishly evil would sign up to work under Satan. They shouldn't try to argue that they're actually good guys and they shouldn't have healthy standards in their romantic relationships!

So Rand's secret plan was to get close to Logain, which just... Why is he here? He's a war criminal who had an army of loyal fanatics! Even with the severing, he's way too much of a risk to toss amid the general populace for exactly the reason we see: a young man who can channel goes to him to learn how to carry on his traditions! Logain being Rand's teacher might be a good way of combining book characters, and he's certainly an awesome actor, but there's not enough of this stuff.

Rand learns more about the hunt being called, which is just going to raise further questions. I will note "Queen of Illian" and thus have to ask: have they relocated Berelain in this show? Have they just gender-flipped the king? These books don't need gender flips like they seem to like doing with her and Farstrider.

Then Rand and Lanfear end up at a fancy party. There's no clear explanation for how they got in, nor why the royals would be confused about Rand and Lanfear's identities. She lives at the Foregate, people! He's renting a room! The foreign prince thing doesn't work in this context! Then Rand gets an awkwardly designed infodump about the cruelty of the royalty and the reveal that the Hunt is a fake. Presumably the whole thing is supposed to be a fake that isn't happening outside of Cairhien, but that's not actually clear - and after a long sequence of Rand's arc being well-written if objectionable for his hunting down a man and beating him half (?) to death to steal is job, it's just a low note.

But hey, we get to see Logain be psycho and Lanfear be psycho, so that's pretty fun. Not really sure where Logain's gotten the impression he's the descendant of a man that is most famous for having killed his entire family, but that's crazy for you I guess. Rand also burns down the inn, an incident which everyone treats as no big deal despite the general flammability of everything in the vicinity.

Closing Thoughts: The TL;DR of all of this is, "Just as I got comfy with it, it got weird." Rand is darker than he should be at this point, Mat continues to lack the loyalty that defines him, Moiraine is awful to Lan in ways that the narrative gives no hint it disagrees with and past and future sexual assault is on the table for him, Nynaeve loses the behavior that justifies her being special and just survives by fiat, Elayne is way too awkward and rude, and the Darkfriends pass up every opportunity to eliminate or properly capture Mat, Perrin, Egwene, and Nynaeve, all of whom should be high priority targets. This season started strongly and I hope it can recover from these hiccups, but I'm worried that little details will continue to fail to add up like this.

[red-revival]

🏳️‍🌈 for any/most OCs??? So i can get more familiar with them!!!

WHOOOOO. I will be answering with as many ocs as physically possible so get ready for a very long read past the cut :). Pronouns are listed in order of preference

Emari: He/him and They/them! Genderqueer trans man and homosexual. Specifically uses homosexual as a label and not gay, partially because he just likes how it sounds better, and partially because he likes that it can't be softened as easily

Amarya: It/Its and He/Him. Transmasculine(his gender is. A bit of a mystery even to it. Dying messed with his sense of self a bit) and gay. Used it/its in life as well as in death

Doc/Callian: He/Him exclusively. Trans man and bisexual. Absolutely a disaster abt it too, starting out the campaign with 3 exes, one of which hates him, a guy he turned down not being able to get over it and turning out as an enemy, and a tragically missing partner. The dice decided this grumpy asshole of a man is the most desirable medtech in night city

V: She/any/all. Most people use she for V but like. They couldn't care less. Ids as a polyam butch lesbian, and presents himself as androgynously by his species standards as possible. She even goes so far as to make sure her feathers don't interact with light and makes her wing shape as textbook as possible, since feather patterns and shape are what's considered gendered by her species. By human standards she would be considered transgender, but it's expected that most eivu will transition at least once in life, so there's not really a distinct label for it in her culture

Mirzam: All pronouns, with no preference! Coded herself to be homosexual and have every human gender. That's not a joke or exaggeration, there's a little section of his code entirely dedicated to gender(s) and sexuality

Izanthe: Varies! Most people use he/him for them, though. Weird little changeling who's gender and sexuality are both variable. This character doesn't even have a tag yet I think bc he's new and a random stardew farmer again

Zephyr: She/Her. One of my only cis characters lmao. Butch lesbian, though she's a bit grumpy about her power(which makes her body made of diamond) makes her so glittery since that messes with her usual presentation a bit

Seri: He/him, They/Them. Transmasc and bisexual. Poly but too busy with monster hunting to ever have time to actually date multiple people. Very very very gnc, also goth

Eerie: It/Its, He/Him, They/Them. Another of my very few cis characters. He's the same species as V(her eldest kinda-brother actually!) so that's. Weird as hell by their standards. Bisexual in theory but you wouldn't know it. Had too many heartbreaks via not aging and decided to focus entirely on his work. Emotional repression is so fun

Melha: He/It. Trans and demiromantic/sexual. Has only ever fallen(both in the romantic and fallen angel sense) for one person, a mortal doctor named Novus. They're messy as hell and argue frequently, but they both enjoy arguing as somewhere between a kink and a sport so. Honestly it's the best dynamic either of em could get. Fun fact, when naming himself he just shortened his deadname(which translates to "beloved doll"). His true name, Melha, just means "Beloved"(or love, or darling, or affection. Any synonym of love, closely tied concept, or affectionate petname. The word Melha in his language isn't a direct 1:1 translation, so it can mean a lot). The fact that the name he chose for himself means love is thematically relevant to the story of Cavernous Divine

Novus: He/Him exclusively. He wasn't in the oc list I gave but I love him so he's here. Trans man and homosexual. Debatably demisexual as well, but the jury is out on if he's actually demi or just obsessed with his work and Mel is enough of a brat to get his attention. I promise these two love each other and are good together even if it doesn't sound like it

Ghost puppy: They/any. Also he doesn't have a name yet. Genderfluid and bisexual! Uses It/Its exclusively in her spectre form because puppy. And by puppy I mean giant fucking werewolf church grim. So like. A big puppy :)

Altair: They/them, He/Him. Hasn't really had much opportunity to label their gender or sexuality for tragic sad backstory reasons, but they're transmasculine. And over the course of the game he'll learn more abt his sexuality as he gets to actually safely interact with other people in a somewhat normal environment

Lythrum: He/Him for Lythrum, They/Them for the whole collective, and She/Her for the sisters. Lythrum is the human head(and main consciousness) of a half-hydra collective, who is transgender while his sisters are cis, so gender gets a bit complicated. Thankfully his sisters are cool with hanging out taking naps on his shoulders while he lives as a trans man. He's also biromantic and asexual! His sisters don't really care about romance or sex as much as they care about sleeping, biting people, and stealing his snacks when he's not paying attention. Mischievous little ladies <3

Zephyra: He/Him, They/Them. Trans man, gay, and demiromantic/sexual! He was always focused on either surviving fighting monsters or surviving navigating the human world as a changeling. It wasn't until he really felt safe, and someone saw him exactly as he was and still loved him, that he felt any attraction at all

Dysphania: She/Her and They/Them. Transgender woman and bisexual, likely demiromantic as well. In the game I played her in most recently, she had a wife and 3 kids. They were lost to the same apocalypse she escaped, but she hasn't felt romantic attraction for anyone since her wife. Still thinks people are hot, but doesn't really do anything about those feelings because she was busy trying to kill a god and wish her family back to life(and also was still clinging to her wife's memory)

Luma: She/He/It/They with no preference. Bigender(male and female) and bisexual! Also polyam

Ok bonus round with more CaDi npcs bc I love em. These'll be shorter, mostly. Most are gods except the last few

Avhrena: She/Her only. Trans woman and aromantic! In an admittedly very weird qpr with Aesir

Kera: It/Its and He/Him. Genderless and demiromantic/sexual. Only ever loved the previous night god

Mirai: She/It with no preference. Transfem and bisexual! Married to Alimin

Old Summers: He/It/They. Aroace. Also his gender is GRANDPA. Not man. Not guy. Not dude. Grandpa specifically is is gender. This is the death god btw

Balra: She/Any. Genderfluid bi/ace, but her genders are very divine. The closest genders you'll get from her to mortal genders are Lion and Weapon

Aesir: It/Its exclusively. Genderless in theory? Aesir's consciousness is weird tbh, somewhere between a god, a scarecrow, and an entire flock of ravens. It is aromantic though, and in a qpr with Avhrena

Avir: It/Its, She/Her. Agender bear(in both ways) who doesn't label its sexuality because it's too busy eating its own priests. Probably poly, but again, too busy eating her own priests

Alimin: She/Any. Not quite cis, not quite trans, it's. Complicated. But a lesbian! Married to Mirai

Miure: It/Its. Giant centipede in gender and sexuality. What does that mean? Fuck if I know, the idea just dug itself into my brain when I made Miure like the grandpa gender did with Old Summers. I cant get the centipede gender and sexuality out of my head anymore, they're stuck there

Mikra: He/Him. Transgender man and aromantic! He's a seal :3

Qirik: She/They. Cis woman and bisexual. She's also a seal :3

Lukra: oh how could I forget them.... they/he/it are preferred but is fine with she/her as well! Bisexual and aromantic! Our favourite shapeshifting god of love. Fun fact, all his clerics are trans because he views choosing to change in order to be openly ypurself yourself despite others' protests to be one of the most determined kinds of love. This fun fact and even the exact phrasing of it is extremely relevant to the story of CaDi

Anomallow: They/Them exclusively, but is frequently reffered to with she/her since they're not out. Agender, biromantic and asexual. Considered the perfect 'woman' of beauty and elegance by both Veratian and mountainborn standards, but has never felt pulled to any particular gender

Hiza: She/Any. Cis woman and aromantic, far more interested in watching and trying to predict people than in any attraction to them

Old Man: He/Him. Cis man, gay and grey-ace. Still, he hasn't exactly had much opportunity for romance in his current situation

Helian: She/They. Transfem and an ace lesbian. She's also very puppy-like, right down to a big (soon to be)mechanical tail that whips around and knocks shit over. She has to wear a big ballgown in her lab to restrict her tail's movement so she doesn't damage machinery

Mysterious Nameless Imp: They/Them. Nonbinary, bisexual, and very very very very VERY lost

Isia: They/Them and He/Him. Genderqueer lesbian. One pc met them briefly when they were a child, but later in the story they'll be back :)

[rahleeyah]

Ok this is too much for tags pls forgive me while I work my way thru it

rotps is That Girl like the unmatched high of seeing Olivia and Elliot reunited after ten years, I promise I'll behave//if I heard your voice//were you and Kathy Stabler friends//we were both referred rotps is iconique and I will never be over the fact that we actually got Elliot back and the way this reinvigorated the fandom is stunning and they're both so pretty and they acted their little asses off but

It is a fucken mess of an epi imp. The attempts to be ~relevant with current events, jumpy case shit, the frankly atrocious camerawork and lighting that was a hallmark of SVU production at that time and made me physically nauseous in some points and also resulted in visually ruining some really important shots, like. The eo shit HIT it was so good but a lot of the plot work is a miss.

But

Olivia stopping him in interrogation?? The fight on the roof?? Just her fucking eyes? Showstopping.

And 500. My baby boo. My darling. The fact that they took the time on the 500th episode to center Olivia, to say she is the heart of the show, to explore her as a person - talking to her son about her mother and purposefully evading the truth to protect him, the threads of her feelings about her mother (a relationship that by default has become a foundational part of the show even tho Serena has been dead for 20+ years) and her coming to the realization that Serena was trying to protect her, maybe even saved her, even tho the way she went about it was all wrong, us seeing Olivia's unwillingness to acknowledge her own victimization, her romanticism and tender hopefullness, the examination of the established fact that Olivia still, after all those years in SVU, believed that she and Burton were in love and did not see that he was taking advantage of her until she was forced to, the absolute devastating human moment of her in the hallway listening to girl from impanema, and grieving (and drinking...), the way we hadn't seen her fuck anyone since Tucker but she went straight to bed with Burton (her unwillingness to let anyone go, her desperate longing to have a love she's lost returned to her), Nick being the one to support her thru this (friends for life Nick Amaro), the final shot of her alone throwing the tape away and making the choice to move forward for herself, by herself, the flashbacks...

I think I know already what the general consensus will be, but I have to be true to my heart. It's 500 for me

playoffs (round 2)

episode descriptions under the cut

rotps -> the squad rallies around det. stabler to find the suspect behind a threat to his family (imdb) aka elliot stabler come back episode! moments of note (to me), "where's the exit?" rest in peace kathy stabler. an icon. a hero.

500 -> amaro and olivia's ex-boyfriend burton lowe ask svu for help with overturning a wrongful conviction in one of cragen's old cases (imdb). moments of note (to me), olivia fucks . melinda warner sighting! nick and liv fight. "i'm just time traveling."

[flightfoot]

So, that one ask about Luka got me curious: Do you have fic recs for Luka being an actual, fleshed out person? I know you read a lot of fic and you mentioned it specifically, so I thought you might? I'd be interested in really getting into his head. Bonus points if there's Lukagami involved (since that's my preference), but stuff about Wishmaker or Desperada or any other episode were he was particularly relevant should be the most interesting? Or Couffaine/Jagged family stuff. If you do, thanks!

Sorry it took me nearly a week to answer this, but there was a fanfic one my radar I needed to read first, since I suspected it would be perfect for this list. And I was right!

In The Shadows by @19thsentry-blog is the best Luka fic I've ever read. I just finished binging it today, and am looking forward to reading its sequels!

On one side is Luka, 140-year-old Snake Miraculous holder and keeper of the Guardian's secrets, on the other is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, a relatively newly minted hero of Paris and Guardian of the Miracle Box. Each is looking to fulfill their promises to their now gone mentors to reunite the Kwamis and keep them safe. Sounds simple--until you throw in a rocky start, the Atlantic Ocean, Félix Graham de Vanily, and a whole host of secrets…and suddenly simple becomes complicated (story of Marinette's life, right?).

Yes, this is a Lukanette fic. I don't normally read those since I've had enough bad experiences during my early days in this fandom (particularly while season 3 was airing) with Adrien, Alya, the class, etc getting demonized in those sorts of fics, that it put me off of the pairing as a whole, even though the pairing itself is fine (I happily read poly fics that include Lukanette so long as Adrien's in there too, since those have historically been pretty nice to all the characters).

This one I decided to take a chance on, since I read one of 19thsentry's more recent works (See This Chance, a FeLuka fic where Luka's a ghost, it's under 4000 words so if you want something bite-sized it's a good read), was impressed, and decided to give "In the Shadows" a shot since it had an interesting premise and the sequels sounded like they were nice to Adrien and Alya, with the second fic featuring Alya as Scarabella and the third fic going into Adrien adjusting to adult life post Hawkmoth-defeat.

I wasn't disappointed. I adore how fair it was to all of the characters, From Luka to Adrien to Marinette to Felix, and even though it's tagged as having slight Master Fu bashing, it's fair to him as well. Felix received some of the most interesting characterization in fact. He's not exactly the greatest guy, and he's not super well-liked for good reason, but he is intriguing and I found myself enjoying watching his machinations, as well as him very obviously getting a crush on Viperion that he resolutely tried to ignore. 19thSentry's love for FeLuka shown through here quite a bit.

Luka's a little different since he has a very different backstory in this fic than in canon, but he's still recognizably himself. We get to see a lot of his thoughts, feelings, concerns, and baggage, and while his feelings for Marinette are an important part of the fic, they're not the driving force behind his entire character, he's got a lot of other things going on.

Honestly even if you're normally put off by Lukanette, I'd still recommend this fic, just for the plot and characterization alone, it's really solid and deserves FAR more attention than it's gotten.

---

Now as for other Luka fics, ones that build out his characterization while still being recognizably him, I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up this next fic, though it's not Luka-centric by any stretch of the imagination.

one does not love breathing by @wackus-bonkus-maximus

All of Paris watched as Hawkmoth murdered Chat Noir, taking the Black Cat Miraculous for himself. Ladybug swears revenge, but her enemy—and every miraculous in his possession—disappear without a trace.

Six years later, a new team of villains launches an attack for the last remaining Miraculous: Volpina, armed with new powers; Queen Bee, with questionable loyalty; Argos, the new holder of the Peacock Miraculous; and Cat Walker, who Ladybug hates the most.

Takes place after S4 - Strike Back.

I adore this fic for so many reasons, but as far as Luka goes, this is the fic that gave me the best insight into why Luka might have lied to Ladybug in Wishmaker about not discovering hers and Chat's identities, and didn't bring up that he knew them in Ephemeral, when it was relevant. One of my biggest issues with Luka has been my inability to get into his head, to see what he could reasonably have been thinking and feeling that makes his actions and characterization in the show make sense. Wackus delivered here, really showcasing what he might have been thinking in those cases, with Luka not wanting to rock the boat, afraid of causing harm, until a catalyst came along and spurred him to action. Luka's characterization in one does not love breathing may not be the focus of the fic, but it's one of the parts of it that stands out the most for how unique and exceptional it is.

---

When Feelings Are Too Big For Words by ClockworkCaptain

When Luka takes a gig playing for a drag show he's falls hard and fast for the drag queen Buttercup who uses her performances to work through her own emotions. Meanwhile Adrien's been using drag to work through his own emotions and thinks maybe Luka coming back into his life and showing interest might mean a second chance.

Made for @mlsecretsanta 2022

I greatly enjoyed this one-shot, seeing Luka's feelings about "Buttercup", and him getting to know Adrien a bit better. It's a fun read!

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Come Take My Hand by @carelisswriting

Luka heard his soulmate for the first time when he was ten. All he knows about her is that she likes fencing. It's just a coincidence that Kagami likes fencing, right?

(Lukagami Soulmate AU, written for the Miraculous Ladybug Secret Santa Exchange!)

You specifically mentioned liking Lukagami, so I recommend giving this one-shot a shot! I loved seeing Luka figure out that Kagami was his soulmate especially, with Kagami having figured it out first.

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Forced Perspective by @emmalylis

A bodyswap akuma hits Ryūko and Viperion, then promptly vanishes. While Ladybug and Chat Noir track down the akuma, Luka and Kagami must live each other’s lives. Along the way, they discover some things about each other.

Another Lukagami one-shot here that I think you might enjoy! They both have to live with each other's families, which is interesting.

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Transparency by kopycat_101

Luka and Juleka come out of the closet.

(An apparently very thin, very transparent closet, but a closet nonetheless.)

A story about two siblings, the complications of family, standing strong in the face of hardship, bonding, and supporting one another no matter what life throws at you. Told in three parts/three days.

You asked for some Couffaine family stuff, and this is some of the best I've seen, with it mostly focusing on Luka's, Juleka's, and Anarka's family dynamic. Jagged isn't their father in this, partially because it wasn't revealed as canon yet, and partially because the author didn't feel like using that (at the time) popular headcanon.

---

I hope these help satisfy your craving anon!

[fandomtrumpshate]

Signup Tips for First-Time FTH Creators

Never offered an auction in FTH before and not quite sure what to put in all those text boxes? We've been doing this for a few years now and have seen what types of offerings are most effective, so here are a few pointers to help you get started:

For everyone:

It’s okay (and even encouraged!) to offer only one auction if you are new to creating for FTH. This auction is reliant on an honor system; bidders need to trust that creators will follow through on their promised fanworks. We do a lot of followup, but ultimately we can’t make the fanworks ourselves – we have to trust that you will follow through on your pledges. It’s tempting to offer as much as you possibly can, we know. But defaulting on your promised fanwork(s) can result in you being banned from participating as a creator in the future, and we want to see you and your wonderful work back again year after year! Trust us; start small, and see how it goes for your first round. 

Make sure to use those Portfolio Links! A lot of people who are new to the auction worry that they're not "popular enough" to get any bids. But many people browse FTH specifically to find new creators whose work they love! If you include links to your AO3, Tumblr, DeviantArt, etc, people who aren't familiar with your work can get an idea of your style and decide if they want to bid.

If you link to your Tumblr (or any website that uses a tag system), try to link to the relevant tag (many people use "my art" or similar) if possible. People are more likely to look through your work when they don’t have to do additional searching for it.

We only put the ~100 fandoms we expect to be most popular on the drop-down menu, but you aren’t limited to just those options! You can always write in any other fandom in the "Other" box. Yes, you can offer three write-in fandoms! If a write-in gets more than a couple of offerings, it may be added to the drop-down for the next year.

If your fandom has unique terminology, be sure to explain it! For example, in some fandoms "fancam" refers to a fan bringing a camera in to a concert and filming the performance from a different angle than official videos; in others, it refers to a video collage of footage of a particular performer from across performances or media they've been in.

More tips for each type of fanwork under the cut!

If you're offering a written fanwork:

Avoid the "Any fandom" option. People looking for fanfiction (or other written fanworks) tend to want someone who is familiar with their specific fandom and/or favorite characters/pairing. If you choose this option, your auction also won't get any specific fandom tags, and that is where people tend to look for fanfiction. Choose the 1-3 fandoms you're most interested or most comfortable writing in.

If your interest in a specific fandom is waning, it's not a good idea to offer it for FTH in the hopes that a good prompt will help you find that spark again. One of the most common reasons that creators default on their auctions is because they lose interest in the fandom, and you might get banned from future auctions if you can't fulfill your fanwork promise. If there's really only one fandom you feel like writing in right now, stick to that one! Don't feel pressured to offer multiple fandoms just because the option exists.

Put the pairings you're most interested in as well as your favorite tropes in the box asking if there's anything you're particularly interested in focusing on. Some people get very detailed here, which is great as long as you're careful to note which things are "this would be cool" and which are "I will ONLY write this." For example, "I prefer the book canon to the movie" is different from "I've never seen the movie and can/will only write book canon."

If you don't have much fanfiction posted, this box is extra important. This is your chance to let people know that even though you've only ever posted one Blorbo/Scrunglo fic, you've been reading a ton of Eeby/Deeby and would love to get your hands on them.

In the "NOT willing to address" box, be sure to put your hard nos. No matter what, you will not be held to any expectation from a bidder that you address anything you list here. This can be pairings, media adaptations, kinks, tropes, themes, whatever.

Be realistic about length. If it takes you six months to write a 5k fic, that's totally fine! But it’s probably a bad idea to offer 50k, given that you will need have it done by the December 31st deadline. No one will be upset if inspiration runs away with you and you end up writing far MORE than promised. But we (and your bidder) will expect you to hit whatever word count you choose as a minimum.

If you're offering fan labor:

Unlike fanfiction writers, you should seriously consider using the “Any Fandom” option! If you're just offering general beta services for a medium-to-large fandom, there will probably be plenty of interest just from that fandom. However, if you're offering up your specialized knowledge as a paramedic or culture-picking for a country that not many AUs are set in, consider whether you'd be willing to help with a fic from an unfamiliar fandom. Remember that you'd just be looking at the topic you're knowledgeable about, and wouldn't be expected to know characterization, etc. There might not be anyone in your fandom who happens to be looking for insight into the emergency room right now, but you might just make someone's day in a fandom you've never heard of!

Be realistic about what skills/experiences you can -pick for. We don’t require proof of how qualified you are to -pick for a certain topic; we trust you! But there is, for example, a difference between being familiar with a country’s culture because you consume a lot of content from that country, and being familiar with that country’s culture because you have lived there and experienced it yourself. Stick to subjects you have lots of real-world experience with.

There is a space to let bidders know exactly how much and what type of experience you have. You can put things like “bachelor’s degree in [subject]”, “native [language] speaker”, “[x] years of experience doing [hobby/job]”, or anything else you can think of that will help potential bidders understand how you can help them. 

If you're offering art, videos, or podfic:

The “Any Fandom” option is a bit of a toss-up here. It's useful for many people in these categories, who are willing to look at references, sort through clips, or read fanfiction for fandoms they've never heard of. And, like with fan labor, you might be making someone's day who's in a tiny fandom with no podfic, for example! Unlike written fanworks, a lot of people do look through the “Any Fandom” tags for these categories. However, be realistic about what you are willing to do. If you know your motivation is tied to the fandom, or you're really not confident in your ability to do work based on things you're not familiar with, don't feel obligated to put “Any Fandom”! It's just something to consider.

Be specific about what exactly you're offering. We give some options for artists like painting/drawing, moodboard, etc, but feel free to give more detail than that. The more the bidders know about what they can expect to get, the more confident they'll be about bidding.

If you're offering an “other” type fanwork:

Make sure it really belongs in “other.” Fanwork offers in the “other” tag don’t show up when people search any of the other tags. This category is really useful for truly unusual offerings that really don’t fit anywhere else, such as digital typesetting of a written fanwork, or a guest spot on someone’s podcast (both of which we’ve had, from time to time, in past years!) But if you think that your offering might catch the eye of a potential bidder who is browsing through the “written fanwork” or “fan art” tag, you are probably better off signing up in that category, and then using the “other” subtag.

Feel free to use these tips as you see fit! Also check out this google doc created by @hkblack if you'd like a preview of the questions before you actually start filling out the form.

If you have more specific questions pertaining to your sign-up, please reach out to us as fandomtrumpshate @ gmail . com and we’d be happy to try and help. :)

[marscia]

Hi! I don’t know where else to turn to, but I am 24 and I am a senior in college. I’m supposed to be graduating in the summer of this year w/ a BA in international relations and a minor in counterterrorism. I am not a math or science person in the slightest and I never have been. My major requires intro into microeconomic course a lvl 200 course and I am retaking it for a third and final time. I have never in my life taken a class three times and quite honestly I am TERRIFIED. I had A’s in all of my homework’s, but the tests determine your grades. I just cannot seem to grasp the concept and pass the course. If I fail at this a third and final time I will be academically dismissed from the major i worked so hard to get into. I am so fearful and distraught that this is happening on my senior year and I don’t know what else to do besides tutoring and everything else. I am terrible when it comes to studying because of my anxiety and I cannot for the life of me find interest in the subject.

I am at my wits end and I don’t know what else to do

Oh hi, I'm also graduating from uni around the same time and I know pulling through to senior year isn't easy - you're already doing a great job as it is

Lvl 200 courses are scary so I understand where you're coming from. And I've also had to suffer through practicum work in my sophomore year because of anxiety, so I get that. Tutoring helps but only to a certain extent... have you tried consulting with the prof in charge or your advisor at least? In my case, professors have always been very accommodating when it comes to this kind of thing so it's always worth a try asking them for a workaround. I know the thought of asking your prof for help is terrifying but the worst thing they can do is say no. Though tbh they're more likely to help you out so it doesn't hurt to try. You might need to like schedule a proper consultation for this instead of just talking with them over email (Idk about you but I always prefer to talk over email lol just because it's easier and faster, but in some cases you might need an in-person consultation). Your candidacy for graduation is an important point to discuss and for them to consider. And just be honest! Talk with them the same way you're talking to me now, I promise it's okay

If disinterest is another issue, have you tried making friends/acquaintances who are majoring in the field of study in question? Just to kind of have someone to give you the push. But then again finding friends at uni isn't exactly easy so maybe you can look into the #stem studyblr tag and follow as many blogs as you want. I personally find studyblr to be v helpful in that aspect. You don't have to like post or anything but just seeing relevant posts on your dash really helps a lot in motivating yourself to work/study.

Wishing you luck! I hope this helps, and feel free to message me if you ever need to <3

P.S. I'm not a stem major so if anyone studying stem has some useful advice pls don't hesitate!

[the-indigo-symphony]

We've posted about this a bit before, but is it ever... weird to other systems that so much content about DID goes out of its way to talk about childhood trauma even when it's not relevant to the conversation?

Like, if it's relevant – if it's something you genuinely want to bring up – by all means, talk about it; I'm not out here furious that people talk about the correlation between childhood trauma and disordered systemhood. But it's brought up so often that it feels like I'm having to ignore whatever the person says about childhood trauma to listen to them talk about the disorder; it feels like some of these creators are being held at gunpoint to mention their trauma in every video or every fanfic and it's just like?? You don't need to do that?? This barely related lore dump is distracting from the lesson or story you're trying to tell me; please just give me the fun fact or cool story without going off-topic. Is someone pressuring you to constantly bring up these personal details about your life every time you open your mouth?

And not to mention how they'll use this as a springboard to make sweeping statements about the experiences of everyone who has their disorder. "Everyone with DID hates themselves and their alters and wishes they were a singlet and –" actually, we're just chilling. Don't know why you're going out of your way to imply we don't actually have DID just because we're accepting of who we are. I get a lot of the people who say this are trying to educate those who see DID as just a fun party trick or whatever, but it's not really good education if you're making incorrect generalizations about your own community.

I guess all this is to say that we feel pretty estranged from the DID community due to how often it focuses on trauma and self-hatred. If someone does talk about the positive experiences they have with their system, they immediately have to follow it up with a thousand disclaimers about how they know DID is the worst thing ever and they're so sorry for experiencing joy and they promise their life being okay-ish for half a minute doesn't mean the rest isn't a living hell. It just makes us so uncomfortable and honestly seems pretty hostile to anyone trying to recover from the trauma everyone is so obsessed with. Like. Okay, have fun with your pit of despair, we'll be over here in the plural tags where we don't feel pressured to take a bat to our feeble self-esteem and bring up memories of trauma whenever we want to make a system joke.

TLDR: it's a little strange and alienating that so much content about DID brings up childhood trauma even when it's not necessary or relevant to the topic at hand, and it gets downright uncomfortable when people act as though hating your disorder/thinking about your trauma 24/7 is a symptom of having DID that you must show at all times.

(This is a personal vent post about trends we've seen on TikTok and Tumblr and may not reflect your experiences. If you've had better times in DID specific communities, I'm happy for you, but that's not what this is about. And for the love of fuck, don't bring up syscourse on this post.)

[galvanizedfriend]

I was listening to a podcast today about fandom/fanish stuff and there was a discussion about the state of fandoms in general and how people seem to be interacting or responding less and less to content creators. It's something that's been happening all over, but it becomes more glaring in older fandoms that seem to be shrinking (such as my little piece of hellsite here). We could talk about reasons why and all, but I don't think there is one single reason. More like a combination of several different things. Fandom spaces moving to discord, people losing interest, newer fans having some different ideas of how to interact with stuff due to arriving in fandom with an experience that comes mostly from TikTok/Instagram/algorithm-driven platforms, etc.

I've written about this in the past, but I feel like it becomes more and more relevant with each passing year. Since I have some new followers as well, just wanted to remind yall of the importance of giving positive feedback to your fave fanish content creators.

The only way content creators have of knowing what they're doing is being seen and appreciated is if you tell them. And the only way their content can spread is if you help them. This is not to say you have to share and comment on stuff you don't like, but if you *do* enjoy it, then yes. Writing comments on tumblr or hearting posts are great, don't get me wrong. These are awesome and everyone loves them. But the only person who sees those are the OPs. The way to help content spread is to reblog it. On AO3, it's to comment and kudos the fics. That's how you make stuff stand out. I don't know why people won't even leave kudos anymore, it's literally just pressing a button, but it's been happening a lot.

I promise you there is nothing wrong with leaving comments on old fics or reblogging old stuff on tumblr. This is not instagram, nobody thinks you're stalking them. Doesn't matter if the story was posted a few days ago, a few weeks, or even a few years. Or if the gifset has been going around for a decade. I know I don't speak only for myself when I say it makes my day to know people are still reading my older fics, or starting a series that I finished writing years ago. And as for newer stuff - there is really no better way to encourage your fave writers and creators in general to keep doing what they do then to show them you're there. Doesn't matter if it's a single line of comment on AO3, or a reblog with no tags whatsoever on tumblr. It works just the same as long-ass comments and a gazillion screaming tags.

When you spend weeks working on something, hours every day, and it feels like nobody cares, it's really discouraging. Some people deal very well with doing stuff for themselves, and that's awesome, but most people get super motivated through validation. Be it to continue something, or to start something new. It can be super scary to share stuff with others publicly - it is for me, to this day, I get super nervous posting stuff, just freaking out about how people are going to react, and I know how important having this validation is for me, which is why I feel so strongly about this. I know I can consider myself somewhat lucky in my current fandom because I seem to get a kind of traction that not many authors do these days, at least with one of my fics, but even then it can feel a bit discouraging to see that general atmosphere of silent contemplation of stuff spreading.

I know we have loads of new people around, so please, please, don't underestimate the power of your support! It really does magic! Sometimes, getting an awesome comment might encourage people to continue stories they had practically abandoned. Or to post something new. Or to finish that update you've been waiting for. It does not bother anyone to know they have readers eager for their stuff, and when they do publish/post it, it's super important to let them know you were there and you appreciated it, because that's the only way we know. We cannot just guess.

So if there's any content creator out there that you follow, admire and whose work you'd like to see more of, be it a fic writer, or a video maker, or an artist, or someone who makes edits and gifsets, *anyone* creating stuff in your fandoms, don't hesitate to let them know. Show your support, KUDOS the stories, reblog their posts, leave comments whenever possible - *on the actual stories*, if possible! Let people know they're not screaming into the void. Fandom is also about community, and there is no better way to create that feeling than to share - experiences, ideas, content, anything. It's how we keep our blorbos alive and thriving even years after their original habitats have been extinct (or made toxic by crappy showrunners).

And as always, this is a reminder that my inbox is always open to whatever. If you want to share recs, talk about a fic you read, about the shows, silly blorbos, or if you have a thought or a question about something I've made, so long as it's not disrespecting anyone in fandom, all's fair. I do not mind at all.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk, hope you have a wonderful week!