#Also idk how obvious it is but that line should be read in a rather condescending key lol

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

not enough discussion about the gavins' complicated relationship with feminine-coded/beauty products, i don't think.

[gentlelass]

Literally my first thought when I saw the Lackadaisy Ingenue mini episode

[deerspherestudios]

Hi there! I just wanted to let you know that I love your games! Mushroom Oasis especially has an especially place in my heart. Mychael is such an interesting character and one of my favorite types of yanderes—not violent towards his object of affection but still manipulative and willing to cross lines even if he feels guilty about it. Thank you so much for the work you have done; it’s obvious this game is a labor of love and I am looking forward to see how the story progresses.

In the meantime, I have to ask, do you think there might be a future option where the player can cook for Mychael? Totally okay if that is a little too specific. Cooking is just a love of mine and I love to cook for people I love and I feel that is something that Mychael would appreciate.

Also—and forgive me if you have answered this already—but I was curious to see where Mychael’s affection lands on the scale you created by the end of day 3. Or would there be more than one answer since it seems actions taken on this day might start to split between the platonic and romantic routes.

Thank you again for your time and for creating this wonderful game. Your art is so lovely and you have a real knack for fun character design.

HELLO!! Thank you so much for the kind words!! For me personally I've never been a fan of "if I can't have you no one can <3" type yanderes so knowing that it's a shared sentiment means a lot!!

I actually have something of an idea where MC does something nice for Mychael for a change in Day 4!

It was closer to buying a gift and the players can choose what they'd get for him but adding a cooking/baking option (or a more diverse set of gifts rather than just shopping for it) seems like a good idea! As usual the script is still cooking so we'll see!

As for the charts, they're answered here and explained here!

Also,,, idk if you'll ever read the addition below but I'm holding back on gushing rn because uh, this is for you personally but it's basically an appreciation post for being one of my fave authors <3!!!:

AAAA A A 11 !! ??

I'm gonna try and articulate myself in the best way I can but I have been a FAN of your writing since??? Gosh, 2015??? I was following your blog back when the pfp was a torchic (and a treecko i think??) and the header was Swiggity swiff Gotta Yiff ?? Idk if you're comfortable with people knowing of your writing but let me know if I should edit anything here!!!

I LOVED your writing so much it was silly and witty but you can do drama and heart and spicy just as well it was a major inspiration!!! I genuinely though it was a little goof when I saw you were following my blog the other day and THEN YOU SEND ME AN ASK??? IM, , , THROUGH THE ROOF, I would mention my fav fics of yours by name but I'd be outing myself but the scope is huge <3

I've been thinking of how to respond to this all DAY and decided to just be honest but but just know I love what you do <3 Admittedly idk if you still write these days but either way I hope you're doing well!!!! <3

[hiraya-rawr]

so i betrayed you, my love– (2/5)

Xiao Version || Childe Version || Thoma Version || Gorou Version || Ayato Version

synopsis !! Part 2 of “You Were The Enemy All Along” featuring the aftermath of betrayal and confrontation, with more depth to their stories! (Part 1 of each character was also included to make reading convenient.)

contains !! some character lore spoilers / a little violence / dialogue heavy in some scenes / reconciliation but also complicated relationships mending together / cameos of other characters! / might be easier to understand if you knew the lore of the characters 

notes !! This was commissioned by the wonderful @mh8 who allowed this to be posted in public for everyone to enjoy! and honestly childe scares me to write bc I've barely written anything for him but I tried to bring out his charm? idk 😭

CHILDE

wc !! 2.4k

The noisiest of them all. He doesn't understand at first, tries to deny it by making jokes. The prank is up, what are you still doing? It's only when your betrayal becomes painfully obvious does he allow himself to laugh. It's ironic to be surprised coming from his line of work. He should really be used to these things.

"If you're this desperate for a fight, you could have just said so," He laughs, "Though, I warn you comrade, I won't hold back this time." It's so easy to drown in the adrenaline of battle and if he doesn't think hard enough, it feels no different than any of your usual spars together. There's a battle crazed look in his eyes at the thought of not holding back with you, but it's odd how numb he feels as Foul Legacy takes over. 

Whether or not he wins the fight, the result remains the same; with him lying in the middle of the battlefield, mask still on, staring blankly upwards. He thinks of the abyss he fell into as a child, and briefly wonders when did it all go wrong.

— Before Him

You sighed in relief, a long day of training was finally coming to an end. Dottore was not an easy harbinger to be a rookie under; aside from the harsh training requirements of a Fatui Agent, you also had to deal with a lunatic scientist for a mentor. You were lucky enough to have the doctor more distracted on conducting his experiments rather than training fresh meat like you. 

You leaned against a wall. You were in an isolated, snowy village, a mile away from the nearest Fatui training ground. It existed quietly, the villagers were as cold as Snezhnaya in that barren wasteland. You knocked twice on the concrete behind you, then an additional four times, then once more.

“Agent (Name), report.” A voice muffles from behind the wall, a figure you can't see.

“Pulcinella adopted a strange boy. . . He's coded as Childe. They say he fell into the abyss. He's quite strong, we've only sparred once but I know there's something off with him.” 

“Hmm. A peculiar new recruit. I've heard from the other agents.” Muttered the figure of the shadows. He doesn't talk much. You know it's to keep identities hidden and to avoid letting you know too much lest you get caught and the information forced out of you (and believe me, the information will be forced out of you).

“You think he could rise in the ranks? Perhaps become a general or diplomat?” You question quietly.

“I think he could be the next Harbinger.”

A sharp intake of breath, surprised. A Harbinger. The next and possibly youngest one after so long.

“Continue your work. Do what you believe is best for our organization. Leave any files you found useful under the gap.” Were his last orders before hearing the footsteps walk away. Work was never easy; you dealt with loneliness most of the time. The only comfort was when an ill-reputed plan of the Fatui failed, knowing it was only possible through your contributions and warnings. For every plan you thwarted was a step closer to revealing your identity and getting killed for it.

Yes, you're prepared. You've been preparing for it ever since you joined the Fatui.

With a sigh, you went back to the training grounds. 

— With Him

There’s a reason why Diluc Ragnvindr survived the hunt by the Harbingers when he sought out revenge in Snezhnaya. That should have been the first red flag for Childe. You were transferred early under his platoon, just when he was solidifying his position as a Harbinger. You were the subordinate he sent out to represent the 11th and, having the approval of Dottore (The old geezer, what a wack. Should he really be trusting a mad scientist? Childe questions this everyday) he trusted you enough to do your job.

Yet, the winery-heir-slash-fatui-serial-murderer escaped Snezhnaya with the help of those damned underground pests they've been trying to get rid of. Honestly, Childe could care less about the guy— if anything, he was immensely excited to try and pick a fight with him! But it still hurt his pride that one of his early missions as a Harbinger didn't turn out well. He needed to prove himself to the Tsaritsa after all! If not to at least make Pulcinella proud.

Going back to you.

It was always him and you; you and him ever since you transferred; sparring blade against blade. It was easy to get along when you were one of the only trainees close to his age, even easier when you managed to keep up with him in everything, bloodlust and all. 

You were his match and he was yours, or so he believed.

“Say, why did Dottore transfer you anyway? Did you get kicked out, pissed him off somehow?” Childe once asked, boots scraping the ground as he dodges an attack from you flawlessly. Despite Dottore’s rather crazed way of managing his platoon, agents were given a handful of benefits for being under a high ranking Harbinger with a budget larger than the others (Experiments don't pay themselves, you know!).

You huff, a little tired from the onslaught of keeping him entertained in battle, “No, didn't he tell you? I requested for transfer.”

“Oh really? What, did the good looks of a new Harbinger catch your eye?” He teases, going on the offensive once more as he sprints to slash his blade. You block it with yours, trying to push him back with force. When he does pull back, getting pushed a few meters away as hir boots skid on snow, you scoff.

“Good looks? If that were the case, I would have transferred to–”

He immediately sprints ahead again, blade nearly catching you off guard as you block the attack.

“Aww come-” Slash. Block. “-on! Don't tell me you're not-” Kick. Jump. “-even a little bit enraptured by-” Hit. Block. “-me?” He huffs heavily, finally catching your eye as your blade stays on his, pushing each other back with all your strength.

“Hmp. Must you be so arrogant?” You strain out, matching his force before– “Maybe. . . maybe just a little bit.” You avert your gaze at the very moment he catches sunlight in your eyes. Childe pauses, his grip on the blade loosens momentarily at your admittance. You take the chance— kicking his stomach back with force as he skids across the training ground, the sword clattering on the ground.

“Does this mean I won?” You giggle, your weapon still in your hand as he looks at you from where he crouches, a smile on your face.

Maybe it's the butterflies that erupted in his stomach, but he laughs out loud. Childe wonders to himself; Is this the thrill of battle? Or something else? You tilt your head in confusion.

“As if! I haven't even gone all out yet!” He yells enthusiastically, “Agent (Ņ̸̛͕͔̏̓ͅa̶͍͊m̸̲̫̄͝ȩ̴̹̙̄̀ͅ.)”

Your smile tenses. Your heart beats. Pensively, you also wonder to yourself; Is this the success of a mission? Or . . . something else?

— After Him .

You should've known.

You should've known, you should've known, you should've known that the Fatui would never have let a betrayal such as yours go so easily. The past few months after him was spent laying low, hiding from daylight and any chance that you could be recognized. A large bounty was on your head and the Fatui weren't cheap by any means. The organization shielded you as much as they could but even you had missions you had to continue fulfilling. You’d gladly risk your life for the better good; after all, if you didn't, you wouldn't have went undercover in the Fatui anyway. 

But now, he was chasing you.

It's back to the snowy forests of Snezhnaya, sprinting and dodging all the tall pines in your way. You hear him gaining speed from behind you, hydro blades swishing as they cut through branches, unbothered to waste energy on dodging. Distantly, the sound of a Fatui gunner prepares his shot. You immediately switch directions, a pyro blast landing inches from where you once were. It’s followed by more blasts, each hitting a little closer to you until—

“Ah!”

It grazes your shoulder, blood escaping the wound and soaking your clothes. You don't stop running, adrenaline keeping you alive and conscious. Childe barks something out in Snezhnayan. You’re too distracted with running to understand what he said, but the Pyro Gunner stops shooting and soon enough you focus on escaping.

A clearing appears in your line of sight. A field of snow and endless white and—

Crash! You're knocked off your feet, landing on the snow. You feel him on your back as you quickly force him away, rolling to the side and kicking. It's a blur from there on— a flurry of kicks, punches, scratches, the snow around you forming the most unrecognizable snow angel.

Until his hydro blade was on your neck as he keeps you pinned underneath him. No amount of sparring could've prepared you for a battle to the death with a harbinger. Your breaths fog together with every exhale, the proximity feels bad for your heart but finally, you get a clear view of the face you haven't seen for months.

“I win,” He says, an ever-so-childish grin on his lips, “Any last words?”

It astounds you how casual he is, as if you weren't running for your life just moments ago. Sparring had always been his favorite game but this wasn't like the other times. You do as you were trained (by both the Fatui and your organization)— you keep your mouth shut. Last words are worthless in the face of the enemy, you’d rather bite your tongue off.

“Hmm. . . the (Ņ̸̛͕͔̏̓ͅa̶͍͊m̸̲̫̄͝ȩ̴̹̙̄̀ͅ) I know would have barked back some words. You would've scoffed.” Childe says, the blade pressing deeper onto your neck, drawing beads of blood to the surface. “Or was that some personality you made up? Was it fun for you?” 

Silence.

The smile falls off his face. Something darkens in his eyes. “Alright. You won't talk, that's okay. Anyone who would dedicate their lives living undercover naturally wouldn't respond. I can respect that.” He starts, the blade doesn't move an inch on your skin, the snow numbing more of your back, “But at least answer me this. Not for your organization, not for you. . . answer it for me; was I ever anything to you?”

Silence. Keep quiet.

Something unrecognizable crosses his face. There’s a smile on his lips, but his eyes are pained.

“You know,”  He whispers, leaning down closer to you. “Whenever we sparred, did you feel anything? Anything at all?” His face contorts to a mix of frustration, “Because I sure as hell knew I loved you. I can differentiate things, (Ņ̸̛͕͔̏̓ͅa̶͍͊m̸̲̫̄͝ȩ̴̹̙̄̀ͅ.)! I knew what was bloodlust, it wasn't just me being battle hungry. I’m not dumb! I knew— know I love you!”

As if wanting to hide from your gaze, he hides his face on the crook of your neck. Forehead to the snow, blade stilling on your skin. Despite how cold everything is, the warmth of him seems enough to coax you in.

“. . . At least tell me how much of it was real. Please.” He mumbles slowly. Did you mean to cause this much anguish? Did you have to go fall for someone like him? 

The words fall from your tongue before you could even catch them. The lack of hesitation, the urge to come clean; “Everything. . . everything was fake. Even my name. (Ņ̸̛͕͔̏̓ͅa̶͍͊m̸̲̫̄͝ȩ̴̹̙̄̀ͅ.). It's fake.”

He freezes over you, listening intently. Snow falls quietly into the ground, you wonder if you'll be buried in— caved to become timeless underneath the ice. Briefly, you think it would be fine if it happens if it's with Childe.

“I know it's hard to trust me, but please— loving you,” Pause. You feel tears well up in your eyes, blinding your vision of the descending snowflakes. “Loving you was real. Is real. It was the realest thing I had in that life under the Fatui. I’m so sorry, Childe, I’m really sorry. And I’m sorry we have to end like this.”

“You mean it?” He asks, hushed.

“Yes, yes, archons I mean it.”

“Then what's your real name?”

Your breath hitches, “(Name).”

“(Name).” He repeats.

The awareness of the metal on your throat becomes all too obvious. Breathing too hard would cause it to press more against your skin. You try to calm down, trying to accept the falling of the snow (the fall of you) as the end of your life nears and suddenly—

the blade is retrieved. You hear the shuffle of leather as it's placed back into its holder. Blinking, bewildered, you glanced up at him only to see his boyish grin.

“You honestly didn't think I'd kill you, right?”

Your mouth falls open. You want to hit him.

“You're going to let me go?”

“I mean, I did kind of let the traveler go back in Liyue.”

“The senior Harbingers reprimanded you for that!” You sit uo, hands flailing as you grab a handful of snow to throw at him. He lets it hit his stomach, laughing.

“It's fine, it's fine! The higher ups don't really care about me as much as they do the others anyway,” He shrugs nonchalantly, “It gives me a whole lot of leeway. If I say I don't want to kill you, they'll just nod along.”

You stare at him longer than you mean to, holding his cheery gaze as the snow continues to settle around you. How quiet and peaceful to exist with him in that space. 

“Is this really okay?” You ask and he falls silent with you.

He looks away to the white horizon, speaking in a softer voice, “Well, of course not. You still betrayed me, I still got hurt,” He inhales, “But you love me. I think that's all that really matters, no?”

Tears well up in your eyes. You can't bear to think how close you were to losing your life (losing him) and how easily he pushes your lifelong conflicts aside. So who cares if you played for the opposing organization? Who cares if you struggled with love and truth?

You've faked yourself for so long but Childe would still embrace you, lies and all.

“Come on, the snow must be cold.” He extends his hand, gesturing for you to take it, “Sooner or later the other scouts would be arriving. You should keep running east.”

“Ajax–” You start but he hushes you gently.

“We won't be seeing each other for a while. I don't know when we’d meet again but. . . you know, I’m sure it'll work out if it's us. So don't cry anymore, (Name).”

Stiffly, you nod. It was this moment that you tried to memorize everything about him— his eyes, his ginger hair, the way your name -your real name- falls off his tongue. You replay every sound he made to say such a name, just for the sake of remembering.

“Now go—” He pushes you to the direction, “Don't worry! I won't let them catch the love of my life!” He grins widely, hydro blades appearing in his hands once more as you nod towards him, tear stained smile in response. Your feet take you away, further and further away as you hear the familiar sounds of his blades against his own agents. Icy wind whipping against your face. You can't help the laugh that escapes you, surely the agents would think their blood-crazed superior is in another one of his impulsive moods. 

You pity them and envy them all the same.

~

notes !! thoma is up next, featuring some of our fav inazuma characters <3 ill edit it into a post once my finals settle down (currently cramming in a cafe) I hope you guys liked this one

childe // i really tried to fulfill that he's the more talkative of the bunch! and honestly with childe’s history of forgive and forget, i dont think it's a surprise that he’d easily forgive MC and brush everything under the rug. if anything, he kind of likes the complexity as far as i could tell! by the way, did you like the inclusion of “before him, with him, and after him”? i think it was a poem or a dedication in some book. I really like the thought of it since it's a good way to divide timelines. BY THE WAY do you like the parallels? In part 1, he was left on the snow looking up at the sky. Now in part 2, ur the one on the snow looking up at him :D

[exo-raskreia]

Imma rant about Ichigo and Orihime cuz your blog has waken a outrageous fire in me!! And rightfully so! I agree with literally everything you said(btw Karin and hitsugaya are endgame for me too🤭🤭)

Ichihime makes literal sense and it genuinely sucks as a ship and i don't get why the shippers are satisfied with the results. I asked my friend who he wanted to be endgame and answered Ichigo and Orihime cuz they are a better fit. LITERALLY HOW?!! I didn't go psycho on him cuz if Ichigo and Rukia ain't your cup of tea then fine. But why are people answers automatically always Ichihime?? Is it cuz they are canon??? Where the hell was the build-up for it then?! It is nothing compare to ichigo/rukia or orihime with tatsuki/uryu. Idk if Kubo was trying to punk us by pairing them up or not. I feel like he didn't plan our their relationship properly! People say it was obvious from the beginning that ichigo likes her back but i sure as hell didn't see it! Maybe i'm just salty and refused to see the signs cuz Ichiruki is the best ship( and i had a crush on ichigo since forever soooo... 😖😖) ?? I've always been a rukia and ichigo fan rather cuz they actually had the chemistry and insane connection. I'm so mad that they weren't endgame. My girl Rukia was elite why didn't Ichigo went for her and vice versa?? Don't get me started on the poems, the speechs, the way ichigo always and always thinks of rukia. Like the ingredients for the cake was perfect, why the hell would you put gasoline in there💀💀

Some people say that cuz the show is shounen and not a romance, i shouldn't be upset about ichihime ending up together and not be mad of lack of their romance. I'm not expecting ichigo and orihime to have some epic EPIC love story or anything just make it more sense for ME at least. If Ichihime was some side-ship then i wouldn't care as much, but this is the MC of the show i want to see something greater than what we received! If they were to have a love story(ya know a real one) then they should've played it out like in Fruits basket

Ichigo and orihime actually remind me alot of kyo and tohru from fruits basket. And they're all very similar to think about it! Ichigo and Kyo: the grumpy orange haired protecters that have a heart of gold. Orihime and Tohru: the loveable sunshine character that are super traumatized but still manage to keep smiling. The only difference is that Kyo and Tohru actually have the emotional moments and had the chemistry and ya know they actually TALKED and were ACTUAL FRIENDS(as in kyo didn't treat tohru like a acquaintance) before dating. But since Orihime is so much like Ichigo's dead mom, their relationship would've been like Yuki and Tohru. I know the comparison might be dumb to do cuz they are very different anime and different genre but still!! Excuse me for caring so much about that my fav ain't canon. Yes this is a shounen anime but they could've at least squeezed in a bit of the love story of the mc to show they actually care about it. The MC of the show has a better and stronger bond with his bestie than his own wife. Like how is my girl Orihime not bothered by it?! Should've end up Tatsuku i swear. I mean they're literally Nana and Hachi!! 🍓🐶✨

I feel like orihime just exist to be his love interest and that's it! Girl had the potential to be a great character that ain't always there to be the love interest. Her becoming a housewife was insulting cuz what do you mean she ain't a robot destroying a city (i can't remember that scene from the earlier seasons but something in between those lines🤣) I do like Orihime enough but not that much cuz it's Ichigo this and Ichigo that. Like girl i get it. I wanted(and still do) him too but don't settle for being the second choice) HOMEGIRL YOU HAVE OTHER LUCKY DUCKS THAT WANNA BE WITH YOU!!

And another thing: I read somewhere that: just cuz Uryu had a crush Orihime that, that doesn't mean that Orihime should be together with him.... Okay then why can't that also imply to Ichigo and Orihime?? Like why just cuz "She'll fall for him in every lifetime" doesn't mean that he has to do the same too!! Rukia is already the queen of his heart mind you

BUT ANYWAYS!! It's a shounen after all so i shouldn't be expecting the mc to have a well-written love story and not to have high hopes of the MC love interest to be something more than that. But whatever at the end of the day they're CANON and have a kid together so all i can do is cry about it and live in fanfiction.

Ahem, I'm done with my rant thank you 😌 (And yes anti-IchiRuki fans I'll still be salty in my 40s cuz of the ending and I will never shut up about it just cuz they have canonically have kids)

No worries, anon! You've come to the right place! Let it all out~

Not surprised your male friend would choose Ori. Typical. For dudes like him, her appearance, superficial crush on Ichigo, & the word "canon" being slapped on are enough for them, despite there not being any actual chemistry between IH. It is also a common trope in other manga/anime, so they convince themselves that it was meant to happen, but it doesn't mean it makes sense for every story, especially not in Bleach's case; it doesn't make narrative sense if they actually looked into it.

(Canon ≠ good. Just look up what went wrong in 'How I Met Your Mother' or even 'Game Of Thrones' S8).

(While on the subject, since Rukia is a much better written character than Ori, if she had a body like Ori's, & Ori like Rukia's, even less dudes would care about IH 🫢, since they never even have good arguments in favor of it that aren't the 3 things I mentioned already up top).

Ichigo & Rukia had the most chemistry in the entire manga/anime, & it baffles me when people didn't/don't (wanna) see it. I went into Bleach almost blind when I first started watching it & IR really stood out. Their bond is right in your face, playing along the border between platonic & romantic, making you wonder what exactly it is, but knowing they aren't just mere friends. In the manga, I was constantly awed & amused by how borderline romantic it came off as, despite having already watched the anime (which did not do the manga justice in many ways; and then antis claim IR was mostly anime-based, PLEASE 🙄). Kubo really wasn't playing when it came to these 2. What a freakin' troll.

Haven't watched Fruits Basket, but I can see what you mean. Grumpy & Sunshine is a fun trope, however, as you said, IH just didn't have what it takes. If Kubo had wanted to, he could have properly developed IH at some points in the manga, such as the Fullbring arc, & it wouldn't have to be anything big, as Bleach is not a romance. He could have opened the arc with those 2 already going out, like them holding hands as they head to school or something, maybe showing some flashbacks of them talking things out, comforting each other since HM to show how they got together. Instead, in those 17 months since Ichigo lost his powers & contact with Rukia, you're telling me Kubo couldn't make IH bond? Instead, Ori's still pathetically pining after him while Ichigo is still thinking of, longing for, Rukia! How am I supposed to believe IH was meant to be endgame?!

Orihime had more chemistry with other people than the man she ended up with 💀. I personally ship her with 2 other men (Ishida & Ulquiorra). She was different with them. One selflessly cared for her, had her at the forefront of his mind in her own rescue arc (unlike Ichigo), while the other challenged her, found her fascinating & wanted to learn more... Not to mention they both protected her from Ichigo a couple times in the HM arc.

She really did have potential to be a great character but it all kept going down the drain, never achieved her dreams nor goals. She kept regressing as the story went on, especially when it came to Ichigo. She was never able to encourage him nor fully support him & was usually a complete damsel in his presence (he even seemed annoyed by her during the Ywach fight, which mind u, she was only there cuz there was no one else left & Ichigo had no choice?). She was more interesting whenever she wasn't around him. All her best moments were when she wasn't thinking about him. Saving Tatsuki? Bonding with Ishida in SS, standing in front of him to protect him in the Fullbring arc? Bonding with Ulquiorra (the only good thing she did the whole HM arc)? She could've done more in HM but didn't. In TYBW, she didn't do anything special, couldn't even encourage Ichigo & was treated like a ragdoll by Ywach. This is how Kubo wanted us to remember her. She was mostly reduced to fanservice by the end (and she's still not as popular as Matsumoto or Yoruichi in that department 💀). I sometimes think he didn't like her all that much with how he treated her character...

While watching the anime, I seriously had been hoping she'd get over Ichigo in the SS arc when she wistfully said Rukia was a very special person to him who changed his world (oh, boy, was I in for disappointment). Right off the bat, there was nothing interesting/exciting about her interactions with Ichigo (I was shipping her with Ishida by this point). He was just so blasé with her, I almost felt bad for her & it only kept getting worse. I then hoped she'd finally get over him after the traumatic experience at the dome in HM, but her ongoing silly crush made my eyes roll & lose hope in it. LIKE GIRL, HE'S HUNG UP ON ANOTHER GIRL, & U SHOULD'VE STOPPED PUTTING HIM ON A PEDESTAL BY NOW; HE'S NO PRINCE CHARMING & ESPECIALLY NOT FOR U WHEN HE BARELY GAVE U A SECOND THOUGHT IN UR OWN RESCUE ARC & ALMOST GOT U KILLED LIKE 3 TIMES & U HAD TO GET SAVED BY ULQUIORRA & ISHIDA, LIKE-

Orihime doesn't have anything in common with Masaki other than maybe their appearance (which imo, Masaki looks more like short-haired Matsumoto anyway?). Besides the cheerful part, their personalities are very different. Masaki was more like Rukia: brave, strong, selfless, teasing & annoying Isshin/Ichigo, etc... IR has actual dynamic parallels with IsshiMasa in the narrative... Kubo just copied IR moments, especially considering he wrote as he went... So, don't be fooled by those morons who go by appearance alone & even those weird lines in one of the novels (Oedipus complex anyone?) instead of the legitimate parallels between IR & IM shown in the manga, such as these:

What was going thru Kubo's head if he supposedly "intended" for IH to happen? Ichigo & Ori had more chemistry with other characters than with each other. Kubo went about this all wrong. Bleach not being a romance is no excuse for shoddily pairing up characters in the end. In a few scenes scattered throughout the manga, he could've implied them. Every time they interacted, their relationship should've progressed somehow. And he actually did this with IchiRuki. (In regards to Naruto, for example, Kishimoto at least admitted he didn't put enough effort into his ships by saying romance was not his forte & he's not good at writing female characters, but at least most of the ships made sense & esp NaruHina had actual good moments scattered throughout the manga...).

Sigh, I've said this before, but why can't more battle shounens be like Fairy Tail when it comes to developing the ships throughout the story? There'd be less drama. Even Gintama did a better job at developing the main ships, lol, that if they became canon, hardly anyone would've been surprised (they were somewhat implied if u squint, tho 🤪).

There are theories Kubo wanted to spite Shounen Jump for their treatment over the years so he ended things this way (and maybe to spite the fans too, since his manga sales had been on the decline for years). Ever heard of the "choosing unhappiness" theories? Basically, remember that Ywach said he'd come back at Ichigo's happiest moment? Well, he didn't come back at Ichigo's wedding with Ori, not even at the birth of his son. He came back when Ichigo reunited with RUKIA after 10 years.

So what could this be telling us? That Ichigo chose to be unhappy by not getting with the one person who made him the happiest. Rukia gave him that push by choosing unhappiness first (since she knew Ichigo couldn't make the first attempt to) & married Renji, who in turn, also gave Ichigo that push to go for Ori. IR chose unhappiness to defeat Ywach. Could this actually be what Urahara meant when he said he'd leave everything to "Kurosaki-san & Kuchiki-san" after his defeat in TYBW?! (we deserved the IR tag-team we never got in the final fight, screw Kubo)

One could also say his friends chose unhappiness to help too? Ishida becoming a doctor he'd never expressed interest in & seeming isolated from the friend group (maybe not agreeing with the farce they're all in), Chad becoming a boxer instead of using his fists to protect, Ori marrying a man who doesn't love her & she knows never will, Renji marrying a woman who doesn't love him & never will (and whom I think he doesn't love either? My view on that here)... Isshin is nowhere in sight, could it be he also doesn't wanna be a part of this farce in which his own son chose to marry a woman he doesn't love?

Still, everything about this ending is so wrong, makes no sense, a bunch of retcons too. Heck, remember the rebuilding of Sokyoku Hill in SS? Made Ichigo destroying it meaningless 🙄.

Anyway, I didn't mean for this post to be too long. There's so much to rant about lol. There's also so much to make fun of 👀. As I said in this post, IH was never popular & never will be. Kubo himself can't bring himself to give them content & his affiliates (like Shounen Jump, Studio Pierrot, etc.) can't be bothered either, as IH doesn't sell. Canon for almost 10 years & still no official couple/family arts nor merch 😂. If they end up getting thrown a bone in the future, the fact it took them that long would still be laughable.

In the end, it's best to ignore canon, its fans, & engage with what you like. It also doesn't hurt to sometimes make fun of Bleach's failures~ Kubo has made it so easy, can you blame us? 🤷‍♀️

Also, glad u like HitsuKarin as well 🤭. Would you believe it's my #1 Bleach OTP? I had brainrot for it a few years ago, like I literally scoured almost every bit of content that I could find, & while it's died down, I just know that if Kubo &/or his affiliates were to feed us HK content now, I'd eat it up like a starving dog-

Sorry for the late reply, anon! 😓 Been having brainrot for a different fandom, if u can guess

[watchfuldeer]

“in the alternate universe where eps 8-9-10 didn’t get rewritten”

Wait, rewritten how?? May I ask? Should I?

i wrote way too much sorry

they were rewritten to include shiv being pregnant, which hadn't been written into the season until that point. everything in 8-9-10 relating to shiv's pregnancy was an extremely hasty last minute addition, which is why it made no damn sense narratively when they dropped it into the beginning of 4.04, in a scene they filmed towards the end of shooting. every person who said in the interim between s3 and s4, shiv is not fucking pregnant, was in fact entirely correct, and they didn't plan to write it at all and it sticks out like a sore thumb in terms of succession's otherwise quite delicate plotting. which is especially disappointing given the huge payoff that paying close attention had during s3.

so, it scuppered their plot big time, but they just about clawed it together, if you ignore like. every emotional beat between episodes 1-7 lol. which is a real shame! i'm sure jesse had good intentions. but yeah, that's why they were rewritten. i think 8 and 10 weren't even rewritten to a substantial degree, but 9 is hanging by a thread in terms of cohesion - it's the only episode where they had any time to put 'oh shiv is also having a baby' scenes in, and reading the scripts it's just so clear that other stuff not only hit the cutting room floor but got swept away completely. connor is pretty much a non-entity after 4.08, for instance.

as for tom and greg (and shiv and matsson, and greg and matsson, and that whole mess of a love square) i think reading between the lines there are things missing. i can't say for sure what they were, but the script books were highly edited for publication, and no way is jesse ever going to personally give me a straight answer to the question 'what was shiv's actual arc in s4, before it became She Is Pregnant', or 'why did you prevaricate in the edit on tomgreg and tomshiv to the detriment of both, but mostly at the expense of tom, which felt really weird while watching the season because where the fuck did he go'. and yet, i think the denouement for both was really fucking good. stuck the landing despite taking a bizarre, last minute route there.

but yeah, if tom and greg did bang, it was 4.09. because the final scene for tom and shiv in 4.09 > first scene for tom and shiv in 4.10 makes very very little sense for either of them. it's like something else happened for tom at the end of 4.09 than what we saw. because the beginning of the finale he's with greg like yeah we're divorcing byeeeeee, and like wouldn't that have a lot more weight if he'd done anything other than be so eepy at logan's wake, while greg was crawling on his knees for tom to mencken and had that deleted scene with ewan. wouldn't greg almost betraying tom in the finale be higher stakes if they'd slept together, wouldn't it be more obvious and devastating that tom invites shiv into the car because she's suddenly more useful as his wife because of the decision she made at the vote... i simply think it would have been delicious.

huge caveat that this is just my thoughts. just my lil ol theories and thots. i read scripts and think about this stuff alot and have kept an eye on behind the scenes shenanigans. maybe shiv slept with matsson instead! maybe greg did! idk! but there are hanging threads that were snipped imo, rather than wonky plotting from the outset.

[iiinkos]

made a tma avatar! the text is me rambling about their backstory n stuff, but since i had a headache, was making stuff up as i went along, and i was writing fast it is very incomprehensible

they’re mostly based on the crisis i had about if tma were real, would i want to become and avatar and live or just die to one of the entities

and also they’re a kid because i am way too into childhoods being ruined

i’ll write down their info under the cut! enjoy :)

name: harper tran

gender and sexuality: agender aroace

pronouns: they/them

status: avatar of the end

nationality: mixed filipino & vietnamese

age: 14

relations: oliver banks, gertrude robinson, jonathan sims

backstory:

harper grew up in a big family and the others never really paid attention to each other, so they often ended up wandering out when they were bored, eventually leading to their first encounter with a fear (the desolation)

they escaped but it kept happening— they went down a spiral (lmao) after recognizing the building used in a history lesson (robert smirke building that they had an encounter in)

eventually met gertrude who decided (after harper gave their statement) that they should know about the fears and whatnot

after that they dug deeper and found out about becoming an avatar & decided that they’d rather die than become one of those things, so they started being less and less careful about their self preservation, but that also led to the fears targeting them more

they managed to escape each time, but also getting closer and closer to dying each time, they came to gertrude for advice every now and then on how to deal with the entities

gertrude died and was replaced with jon though, and while jon didn’t have their answers he was fun to bully (and harper cared about him, but they wouldn’t admit it)

but eventually they died to a hunt avatar, who stabbed them in the chest

they chose to die, not thinking about the fact that the end could take them

they woke up disappointed but got up anyway to check out their wound, putting on a jacket to cover it up

while walking down the streets to the hospital they notice something weird about the people— some are injured heavily, some have their veins colored a toxic green, some they could see their organs, slowly dying, and none of them noticed

some’s injuries and whatnot were more obvious than others, they decided to check on someone whose weird thing was the most obvious (an old person with their heart)

the old person had a heart attack and died, and it made harper feel more energetic

they ran away and had a breakdown, tried to find a place where no one was dying (very, very hard) but met oliver instead, who showed them how to exist and be chill

they’re vibing now with oliver, just being immortal and kinda petty

notes:

i tried to base them off of martin’s line “you know, i think (the lonely) always had me” being that he was already showing signs of being a good fit for the lonely before he was actually turned. they were indifferent to the idea of death, which is why the end saw them as a good fit

i like writing them because they r just. so tired. gave them the energy of someone going thru a midlife crisis despite being a teenager lmao i might actually share a writing thing of them idk

they do NOT have a fashion sense. they put on a shirt and pants and that’s good enough

the ends of their hair are white because that’s my favorite oliver hc :)

alr thanks for reading my rambles!

[goldenbloodytears]

Lurker back, thanks for answering.

I kinda can see Danny getting away with murdering his father as self defense, like it was a open secret how crazy he was and that not only scared mom away but also made Danny really sympathetic to the community and local cops. Idk I'm not from the states so don't know how law really works there, but makes sense in my head, can see him seeing that as a admission of guilt from the whole community that they just let his dad do whatever he wanted until someone else intervened.

Welcome back anon :)

Yeah, my thoughts was basically along the lines of that Danny’s dad has probably gotten physically abusive at times—I question whether he’s done enough to get somebody sent to the hospital… I’m placing money on yes. Like… he’s running his own personal boot camp, I think it’s pretty reasonable to get evidence that would back up being under “extreme stress.”

But at the same time, proving your case in court is as much having a good lawyer and a lot of luck as it is that the evidence be in your favour.

It’s something for me to spin around in my head…like there’s just so much to read into about Danny and his relationship to his father.

There’s obvious idealism, a bit of idol worship, but also an edge of dislike, the festering of an old wound just beneath the surface that’s begging to be picked at.

I think his dad was a very inconsistent parent, tending towards aloof with strict standards of how things should be done (boot camp will do that to ya) but when his standards are met, or rather, exceeded, he can prove a surprisingly warm parent.

I picture his mom as being a bit warmer in temperament, and a little more indulging… but conflicting in interest with Danny and his dad. Like… the old man isn’t going to care if young Danny gets into a fight, he’s only going to care that he wins and will praise him if he does so—but mom is going to be upset that he got into a fight at all.

Just the kind of parenting to make you feel deeply confused.

I can only imagine what the aftermath of the killing blow was like…

[mako-neexu]

smut fic so crazy i have to document my thoughts no matter how incomprehensible. (delusion below)

that kind of love is delicious. but idk where to start... theres so much to say.. but i guess ill do it level by level like in the novel? nah, i think i will do it randomly..

but of course, what i like the most was the way the 'game' is set. where ritsuka could get one favor/help from oberon each level in the dungeon. but the condition is that he won't be by her side unless she calls for him to help her. which is seriously??? makes me insane. iirc she had a line where she said while in the 2nd or 3rd floor (i think) that "It's almost as if Oberon wants me to depend on him..." the dynamic is making me throw up from so much excitement. i also like how he made her vocal about what she wants www even if she got assaulted by tentacles or that one lewd mors (which was honestly creative lmao like jp fandom is a genius ww), the half-helplessness she feels pushed her into calling for his name (sometimes with those sighs 😉) and request for help from the 'torture' she 'suffered' from.

ALSO theres that midsummer night's dream title that changed from D to EX like that was really hot asfkjdghlk like assimilation with oberon.. later turns into being the same as him and her soul fully belonging to him as his mate. ritsuka's body is remade to be the same as him like sdkjbskjdfgjkf

i thinked what shocked me the most was the 'safe room' level. i knew something was up but as soon as i saw how ritsuka was so frantic to drink the water and fruits prepared by oberon, the end notes shocked me??? i LOVE IT so much kasjdfkjdsfgh so thats why the title gained was 'gochisousama'. apparently they were from the autumn forest itself and it reminded me that you should NOT eat what a fairy offers or else.. of course we know the consequences. but according to the end notes, its for the sake of loneliness, of hunger, of this distance from oberon that made her suddenly crave for him so much that she couldnt help but consume what he prepared..i also like how he included a bunch of sex toys dkjfdkjgjkbdjkf my face feels so hot reading it i love it so much..

during the progression of the levels, ritsuka also acquired blue markings on her back which is butterfly shape marking asfljdfgjh which meant that, of course, her body and soul is being tainted in oberon's.. (i think this solidified further when the mors came inside her ww)

but what made me laugh was the marriage contract XD he also wrote it in probably british? or what fairy language is used in morgan's kingdom www still the method to sign it was just both delicious and bizarre www

still, the way the game is set is just??? i love it too much. oberon pushed her in 'his' direction but still made sure she had room to decline and go back. but the exit was already obvious since you only have to go back and the 'dungeon' only led to the bottom which was the opposite of a way out- or rather.. she refused to think about it and resolved to meet oberon- see the real oberon instead of the illusions themself, who she wanted to see. the end, the conclusion, fulfilled by her desires which the flames were fanned by oberon when he set this up.

near the end, the lantern still gave her hope, which would have been the perfect entrance for artoria to bust oberon's ass and save ritsuka ww but this is between obeguda, with the goal of claiming ritsuka's entirety for oberon and 'returning' to that abyss where separation is nonexistent.

"I don't want to betray this light..." That lantern still burned in the end after all. But oberon's question really was a nail in the coffin ww

"If that's the case then I'll ask you," Oberon's voice quietly trembled, "Where in the world is that hope(light) of yours?"

and the words broke ritsuka??? so good.. askjfhsdjkgh the light shined the way to move forward. but 'forward' to where? if the exit and the outside world is that way, why didnt this light point the way? why did the light keep shining so brightly? why was that light burning? and the sense of resignation and defeat washed over her. she doesnt even know why she ended up in such a place the moment she was at the final floor. the feeling of despair was delicious it was so great im clawing at my chest...!!!!

she could only stutter with that feeling of despair! as she tries to find a reason for that lantern that she carried with her!!!

and its just like in the garden!!!! the garden!!!!! "It's alright, Ritsuka. That's enough. You can relax now. Whether its over or still in the middle of it, you can let go." you can finally be free. you can rest easy. so just rely on me. you've done enough!!!

there was also that "fallen star" title. i think its the best. it really does remind me of lb6's ending and his views on titania ueueue

seriously this kind of courtship... www it also reminds me of kairi's previous works which included a similar theme.. but this time three authors worked on it so thanks for the collab yomoko-san, kanonige-san and kairi-san herself

[roseworth]

What don’t people like about Tom Taylor’s Nightwing run? (Genuinely asking.) I haven’t read any other Nightwing runs in full but I have read some old one-shots like Old Friends, New Enemies (alright) and The New Order (absolute garbage), as well as the entirety of New Teen Titans and the 2003 Titans run. I’m not that emotionally invested in Taylor’s run. Every time I see Babs as Batgirl I get so angry my vision blurs but besides that I just kinda read it every month like “that was kinda fun” and then I forget about it. Do people dislike it because of how frivolous it is or is it too two-dimensional a representation of his character or…? I’m just confused because I love being a hater but I see him bullied a lot more than other authors who deserve it more (like Scott Lobdell, who we should guillotine) and idk why (besides the obvious ableism problem with Babs, but that’s a company wide issue). I hope this ask isn’t annoying or unintentionally rude or anything. I’m genuinely just curious. I mean, hey, if we’re all lining up to attack Tom Taylor with hammers, I’ll get in line but I gotta know why, y’know?

idk why everyone else doesnt like him so i cant speak for anyone but myself (i also havent read any other full nightwing runs so maybe my opinion doesnt count hfsadkjhfsaj)

but personally my biggest problem with it is babs being batgirl :/ even batgirls is making half an attempt to put her in the wheelchair sometimes, but this run feels like its going out of its way to make babs be batgirl

other than that there arent like. Major Problems its just bad lmao, the writing feels so forced all the time and its like hes structuring the whole story around moments that he wants (like dick hugging bruce and calling him dad) but then all the moments seem unearned because he barely built up to it and it feels out of place. also theres like,,, no actual plot. he keeps pretending that theres actually a story but then nothing happens every issue

not to mention the way he writes dick is so. ugh. its like dick cant do anything with help which is really annoying bc hes getting knocked on his ass by random villains every month and then its like "oh but he has so many friends and the titans are here to help him <3!!!!" and then that happens 50 times

anyways. i think that a big reason he gets a lot of hate now rather than someone like lobdell is because lobdell isnt currently writing anything (afaik? hes not writing anything that i care about at least fhdjsahfk) so even though i want him to die hes not in my line of vision and i have no object permanence. TAYLOR on the other hand is writing multiple books rn and i see people hail him as one of dc's best writers and its sooo frustrating so i hate him. he also annoys me so i think he should die

most of what annoys me personally is that he writes the most bland stories with no actual characterization but there are still people acting like hes gods gift to earth in the form of a comic writer ://// like hes not a good writer, hes writing moments that are intended to be screenshotted and posted on twitter instead of writing stories

im not trying to convince you to hate tt or anything ofc, theres nothing wrong with his nightwing run (other than the ableism which like you said is prob more of a dc editorial thing than him specifically) so if you enjoy it thats great, godspeed 🫡

[misireads]

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

[ physical book, read in finnish & english ]

the story of a man who starts off as stale as if the colour beige was a human. he's a diligent office worker in a government department that evaluates orphanages for magical children. he's so good at making bland, objective reports that the stuck-up management of the department decides to send him to an orphanage for particularly troublesome monster children, hidden away on a remote island in the middle of nowhere. the man takes a train there, fearing for his life because he's pre-emptively so scared of these children.

on the island, after a rough start, he befriends the children and begins to learn how he's been living a stupid, prejudiced, boring life with no colour in it whatsoever all this time. also he falls for the leader of the orphanage and they have a gay little romance.

👨‍💼🌊🧚‍♀️

➕ obvious first things first. this is a gay love story, i'm all for it. a really soft and sort of mundane one about two middle-aged men too, where them being gay isn't a big deal, actually it's probably the smallest deal of them all. lol the romance was incredibly cheesy but you never see THAT in literature

➕ it's a hearty story about prejudice and acceptance. magical beings in this world are so viscerally hated that nobody cares about your sexual orientation or skin colour, but if you're a dragon or some shit then YUCK! EW! STAY AWAY FROM THE CHILDREN YOU HEATHEN! it's kind of amazing. this is also completely void of any mention of religion which i enjoyed. all the bigoted hate and prejudice in the entire universe is truly just packed into there existing magical people in this book. i personally felt it first and foremost symbolised the lack of empathy for people with disabilities (both physical and mental) because there are so many nudges towards that, but it's probably just in general also. angry goodreads reviews are saying it's a very poorly executed nudge towards native americans actually but i'll run with my own interpretation anyway

➕ hands down my favourite thing in the entire book is lucy. he's the reason i originally kept reading at all because i was so enamored by a little 6yo satan. i could have read a whole book just about him really.

➖ well this is a tough one to review. basically what happened was that i took the finnish translation from the library. and i kind of fucking hated it. it's a very literal-feeling translation, a lot of the dialogue is so stiff you barely understand what the characters are sometimes talking about, the language felt very infantile. i don't think the magical creature translations really work. they turned talia into a goblin instead of a gnome, that's a whole fucking different creature? there are just many many things i don't like about it. then i suddenly had to return the book to the library so i put a reservation on the original english one, thinking if i'm gonna finish this, it has to be in english. so i got that one and had no issues with the language or anything else whatsoever. i should definitely have read in english from the beginning. i didn't return it to the library yet so i might go back to the beginning and revisit some of the scenes in english to actually understand what happened

➖ this is like.. well it's not a very small children's book, and not exactly for teenagers either because the contents are so softcore, i feel. it's either for rather childish adults or for pre-teen children, maybe. edit: actually i don't see anyone call this a children's book online, just "YA" which it fucking isn't. much confusion. are you telling me this nonsense is a book for adults. either way, although the message is very good and all, the whole book is hopelessly childish in a way that made me feel like it didn't need to be. it's just a bit too simplistic at times, like helen's character, she does a 360 in a matter of a couple of lines with very little basis. idk how to well put it, maybe that it felt like there's ingredients for more here and that the characters are built in such a way that they could have been so much more if only the book took itself more seriously and went deeper at all instead of staying so surface level and turning everything into a joke. the entire plotline was also very predictable, basically you can tell what happens as soon as linus it sent to the island and that doesn't make a very exciting book to get through.

➖ i hated linus so fucking much in the early chapters lmao i get it that it's all about his growth but man. the premise of his character is that he's excellent at his job, very good at being objective, does his background work super well. then he goes to this island job and is immediately mad prejudiced (although working with magical kids is literally his job, this job he's supposedly so good at, but now he suddenly can't take them anymore), proceeds to not even read the files of the children. he goes to this orphanage that HE KNOWS from THE INFORMATION HE GOT has been as it is for some time, and the first thing he does is hate all the children on sight and decides that lucy will kill everyone in the house any minute now and he's the only force stopping him. although he knows perfectly well from the beginning that lucy has been living with the other kids all this time already without anyone dying. the only difference is that he's there now so why would lucy suddenly blow the place up (other than to kill linus because he's so insufferable, which would have been 100% fair). it was so nonsensical, it felt like the story was just made up on the go without any thought put into if it makes any sense how linus is reacting to things. actually i just hate reactionary characters in general like stop being a fuckign buffoon imbecile and use that brain of yours that's so big. he's literally even complaining about his fucking cat all the time, jesus christ let her be a cat. is it supposed to be funny? then mark down the humour as another minus because it's not

➖ i seem to be the only person on earth who thinks this (edit: goodreads says i am not, in fact) but i wasn't that big a fan of how hard this kept hammering in the EVERYONE!!SHOULD!!BE!!ACCEPTED!!! message, i prefer subtler ways of storytelling tbh not every single scene needs to be about this.

➖ the world building could have had a bit more substance. not much was said about the system of magic existing in this universe so it was all a bit vague.

⭐ score: 3 -- a lot of negative thoughts again but overall i rather liked this, despite my ranting (and being shocked that this isn't for children). i guess something about this touched me deeper than i realised because i was AGAIN crying at the end. what's with me crying at the end of books these days??? what's happened to me. i don't cry at things. i'm probably ill and should call in sick to work

[submarinerwrites]

c.s. lewis, the four loves

★★★☆☆

in the four loves, lewis seeks to “describe and define” the nature of love as it relates principally to christ. the book is based off of a 1958 radio program, and it’s divided into (perhaps surprisingly) five chapters: non-human loves, affection, friendship, eros, and charity.

i recall reading the screwtape letters back in 2021, and finding that it reignited my sense of christ at a time when that sense had really been dulled. when i found the four loves at my local used bookstore a few months ago, i needed to buy it and therefore paid far too much (seven whole dollars how can they ask that for a one hundred and sixty page USED book) to have my own copy.

truthfully, i did not begin enjoying the book until the last two chapters. the first chapter, non-human loves, was perhaps to me the most distasteful, due to lewis’s approach to nature and patriotism. i disagreed with the notion that nature has nothing to teach us—mostly because my belief in dialectical materialism means that i DO think nature has a lot to teach us—and i disliked even more the idea that patriotism has much, if anything, to recommend it. enough said.

affection was mostly a boring chapter. one thing i will say is that lewis has a way of making even deeply uninteresting ideas sound incredibly compelling. there were some absolutely off-the-chain good lines in this chapter, but very little content imo.

chapter three on friendship was perhaps more interesting. a lot of what lewis says regarding friendships between men and women is very dated, even for the late 1950s, and i didn’t necessarily appreciate that. i enjoyed what he had to say about friendship as something that reveals the beauty of mankind.

i should note that the friendship chapter also has a several-pages-long diatribe on why male friendship isn’t secretly homosexual. which okay. but then immediately afterwards he compares friendship to the smoking club in the famously heterosexual herman melville’s famously heterosexual novel typee. like. dude. the homoerotic subtext was obvious in the nineteenth century why did you think that was an appropriate example to prove how NOT homosexual male friendship is.

actually that’s something else i want to talk about. the examples lewis uses to explain each type of love are probably seventy percent literary, rather than biblical. idk man i know you’re a professor of literature but when i pick up a theology book i’m looking for biblical interpretation and exegesis. many missed opportunities methinks. especially wrt to friendship, where he could have talked about saint peter and his betrayal of christ at an absolute MINIMUM.

okay that’s probably all my complaining out of the way. there were parts of this book that i adored beyond belief: parts that struck at the very core of me. honestly i think reading just the last two chapters is sufficient—i’d consider skipping the first half of the book.

in the opening of his chapter on eros, lewis discusses sex frankly and beautifully. i don’t really want to try to paraphrase it; he describes desire and the act of love with an incredible precision that i really enjoyed. he also talks about the need not to take sex so seriously, which is something i agree with intensely; he reminds us that lovemaking is deeply undignified, that laughter and levity have a place in the bedroom, and that our bodies are absurd and love to betray us.

and this quote: “pleasure, pushed to its extreme, shatters us like pain. the longing for a union which only the flesh can mediate while the flesh, our mutually excluding bodies, renders it forever unattainable, can have the grandeur of a metaphysical pursuit. amorousness as well as grief can being tears to the eyes.” like that bodied me. what the fuck clive.

also really enjoyed how he discussed the idea that sex has the element of ritual to it. to lewis, there’s this idea of playacting pagan roles of dominance and submission through sex, which he links to the idea that nudity is not a natural state. instead, nakedness is to him a kind of universal costume that destroys the individual identity, much like an actual, symbolic mask does. i liked this in connection with the idea that sex is a kind of destructive force.

lewis also describes marriage itself as a trial that can be failed. i loved the gravity which he attached to the act: he reminds us of the part of ephesians where fake-paul writes that christ-as-bridegroom gives his life for his wife, the church. that’s how profoundly he views marriage. the chrism comes in the sufferings, not the joys. he reminds us that we have to work to keep the promises of love even when that romantic love isn’t present. again, marriage as a trial which can be failed. catch me sobbing on the floor.

this leads us to the last chapter, charity, a chapter which made me want to walk straight into the ocean. he talks briefly about saint augustine’s confessions, a passage which i actually specifically remember reading as a sophomore in college lol. i remember thinking it was sad but not being able to fully express why. lewis does, perfectly. augustine reflects on losing a friend, and draws the conclusion that he ought not to love anything but god. lewis writes:

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin or your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell... Christ did not teach and suffer that we might become, even in the natural loves, more careful of our own happiness... We shall draw nearer God not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armour. If our hearts need to be broken, and if he chooses this as the way in which they should break, so be it.

HOLY SHIT. when i tell you those paragraphs had me on the floor.

i honestly think that might be where i end this review. lewis also has a lot to say about grace that i enjoyed—specifically the idea that love happens essentially in spite of who we are, while grace, which does not depend on what any of us are, opens us to loving and being loved more completely—but none of it ripped me open the way that quote did.

i thoroughly enjoyed the final two chapters of the four loves, but i really could have done without the first parts. in some ways they felt like they’d been pasted in front of the last two chapters to add context, not necessarily because lewis thought they truly added meaning. the potency of those final chapters is really what redeemed the book in my eyes.

[that-chaoticace]

Romantic Comedy reader here! Yes I did finish it and thought it was super cute although I totally did not expect it to take a Covid turn lmao. I’m not sure how well the email segment of the novel would translate on screen and tbh I preferred the TNO setting to them in California. But a cute and fluffy read for sure! I’d give it an enthusiastic 3 out of 5 stars.

I would LOVE to see PDD in more projects (their movie was so funny!! they’ve got such an endearing quality as performers) and I really want to see Madelyn Cline in more projects, I think she’s super talented, also very endearing, and Glass Onion showed more of her range so I’ve been itching to see her in another good movie. So yeah, dream casting for sure.

Ok, and I think this kind of feeds in to me not liking how obvious it was that Danny’s character is Pete Davidson (whereas Sally had elements of like, Liz Lemon but ultimately she’s her own character) , but it also bugged me that he essentially ended up with Cazzie David when in reality is cheated on/broke up with Cazzie for Ariana. Honestly they should just give you or me the spec and we can revise accordingly 😂 I’d still want to see Danny and Annabel end up together, like George and Tess in 27 Dresses. I’ve thought so much about this haha

THE COVID TURN … I’ve read some books where authors preface it’s a modern world but an alternative universe because no COVID… it’s crazy to think authors have to say “warning: no COVID exists in this book” rather than the other way around¿ idk if that makes sense ANYWAYS

Enthusiastic 3 out of 5 is a mood. I am reading more books now that I’m done with grad school and Romantic Comedy was one of the firsts to get me back into reading, so I have if a 4 out of 5 on my Likewise app. I’ve got a long TBR list to get through and am hoping to experience some 5/5 would slay my boredom demons type of books lol (always open to recs and you seem to be on it!!)

Agree the email part would probs have to go along the lines of You’ve Got Mail, but it wouldn’t be as good as You’ve Got Mail bc the whole point of the movie was to have interspersed email convos… yeah, the more I think about it the email part probs couldn’t translate well to the big screen.

MORE PDD PROJECTS IN 2024 AND BEYOND; I think this is the most important thing I have to say lol. I couldn’t stay in it to win it with OBX for plot reasons, but acting-wise, she’s great and would love to see her do more 100%.

GIVE US THE SPECS 🫶👏

The Danny character also tickles my brain bc it’s like a combination of Pete and Colin Jost and idk how to feel either… but ig he didn’t end up with Annabel if we think about how Pete didn’t end up with Ariana?? From a writer’s POV, I think those side characters weren’t explored enough, especially for characters that had an immediate impact on the main character aka LETS REVISE

Thanks for coming to this ask inbox, this is fun 🥰

[slytherholic]

Now I'm a very anti-AI person, and I would love a way to easily make sure I don't support any AI content. However, please be really cautious and sceptical about using these types of AI dectector tools, as they are typically pretty innaccurate and from what I've heard can easily falsely flag genuine writing as AI.

Neurodivergent individuals are particularly prone to getting their writing falsely flagged as AI. I've seen instances online of autistic students talking about getting their genuine work/essays/etc flagged as AI and being unfairly penalised for it in school or college. And as an AuDHDer it's now become a nightmare scenario in my mind that someone could mistake my own writing as AI.

So I decided to test the detector mentioned above, zerogpt.com, myself and found the results not so clear cut. I tested multiple exerpts of writing that I know for a fact contain no AI content, because they were all taken from my own writing. Yes I'm putting myself on the line here, because hey since I'm also autistic and ADHD, maybe we can get an idea of how the creative writing of a neurodivergent fares in this detector, since I've heard so much about that whole issue. Plus, really the only way for me to 100% conclusively know that a piece of writing has no AI is if it's my own. I got results ranging mostly between 0% to 15%, but one exerpt of writing I put in even came out as 28.21%, which immediately made me feel the results from the above post might not be so clear cut, since I know for certain there is no AI generated content in any of the writing I put into it, unless we're counting using a spellchecker as AI generated content.

I then sadly broke my streak of having never used ChatGPT and asked it for some drarry fanfic, since I figured it would be good to test how the detector website does with some writing that is 100% definitely AI generated, rather than basing results on just speculation. I tested two pieces of fanfic provided directly by ChatGPT with no editing. Just direct copy paste. The first chapter it gave me came out as 74.59% and then I asked it to write me another chapter and that came out as 69.43%.

These results actually seem a lot more clear cut, although then I thought, well if someone's going to post an AI fic, presumably they might at least edit it a bit first to make it sound less obviously AI, since what ChatGPT gave me was kinda janky, and had some pretty obvious inconsistencies even if a lot of it sounded reasonably okay. So I decided to waste some time I should really be spending on my own writing, to try and edit the 74.59% one a bit to try and fix anything that felt really obviously off or had a weird flow to it or just didn't make sense. I figured this might give a more accurate read on what kind of percentage a work mostly based on AI generation, but at least edited somewhat, might get. After spending probably about half an hour editing the roughly 1500 word piece of ChatGPT generated fic, to fix the stuff that felt really obviously weird/AI generated to me. Rerunning it through the zerogpt detector, it still came out at 71.45%. To be fair there was deinfitely still stuff in the piece after I edited it that didn't feel quite right, but I really didn't want to waste that much of my time on this, when I've got other shit to be doing. I'm sure you could get that down further if you were to really extensively edit the piece, and spend hours rewriting and rewording it. But if you're going to put that much time and effort in, it doesn't even make much sense to me to use an AI generator in the first place. Like at that point it'd probably take about the same amount of time to just write the damn thing from scratch in the first place. Idk, I'm genuinely not very familiar with using these kind of AIs, so maybe there are better ways to word the prompt to get a more human-like result from the beginning. For reference I just put in "write a 2000 word drarry fan fiction, about harry potter returning to hogwarts for 8th year".

In conclusion, based on my own experimentation, I personally wouldn't trust any result below around 40-50% (at least from this specific AI detector), as actual evidence of AI use, unless I had some other compeling evidence to suggest that was the case. I don't know what fics were used in the two example screenshots above for suspicious fics, but for me personally, there'd have to be some extremely good reason to be suspecting AI use to count an 18% or even the 36% as any type of actual proof. I'd say maybe over 50% I might start to assume AI use is likely, but even then I'd take it with a grain of salt, just in case.

Because while it was mentioned in the post above that this isn't a case of instigating witch-hunts, I can see how this could easily turn into that real quick. And it's likely most of the victims would be neurodivergent peeps, which I could see ending up being kind of ableist and exclusionary, which just makes me feel icky and I want no part of that.

For me personally, I'd only consider even bothering to check a work from AO3 in this AI detector if I already felt like it sounded weird and AI-like. And honestly even then, I probably still wouldn't bother with the detector and instead would just exit out of the fic, since presumably if I feel like it sounds weirdly written and like it might be AI, I'm not enjoying it anyway.

Anyway I think I've spent at least 2-3 hours now what with researching and testing and experimenting with this whole thing. So I really need to stop and go work on my actual project I'm supposed to be working on right now, even though it could be interesting to see how some other detectors fair compared to this one. But anyway, hopefully this is useful to someone!

About AI writing

After reading this post by @drarryspecificrecsdaily, I've realised that there might be more fics AI written than I thought.

I'm vehemently opposed to this fake stuff.

And it turns out I've already read an AI fic... A drarry…

In my personal notes, I noted that it was well written, very academic, but that unfortunately it quickly became too fluffy, too mawkish and that it was as if Harry and Draco (Hogwarts teachers) were the only characters in the castle. I flew through the whole of the second half.

So I'm quite happy that my instincts weren't wrong.

I compared the alleged AI fics with a few that I love. I use zerogpt.com.

The verdict is pretty clear-cut, even if you can only analyse 15,000 characters for free.

Suspicious fics :

Fics that I know for a fact are written by their authors :

So from now on, for recent fics, I'll be systematically checking. It's not a question of fomenting witch-hunts, but of favouring real authors.

I don't castigate carp-mouthed selfies ig hollow influencers in order to support with my clicks their ao3 equivalents.

[tagsforbookcontent]

Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Status: Unfinished. Book 4/5.

Summary:

Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.

The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.

Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.

Words:  ~ 205260 | 622 Pages

Rating: E

Warnings:  violence, sex scenes

Category: F/M | F/M/M

Additional Tags: romance | kidnapping | hurt/comfort | smut | meet cute in a brothel | family issues | fighting as foreplay | he was a vampire and his best friend a werewolf can I make this any more obvious | who wouldn’t want to have sex in the middle of a battleground| she’s just a normal girl or is she | she fell first, but he fell harder | lots of fighting scenes | you like to read smut? The main character, too| is this how a love triangle should actually look like? | IDK, but at least they had a threesome / betrayal | found family

Relationships: Poppy/ Hawke

[applesbloominthefield]

BRIDGERTON S2 REVIEW WITH SPOILERS (and comparisons to the book)

bridgerton s2 was lovely! I to be honest dont know where to start. though i guess i should start with the obviouse stars of the show.

The chemistry of Simone and Jonathan is impeccable and I could not ask for a better casting.

Kate and Anthony's plot were well thought out in my opinion, and I loved the gutwrenching-ly good slowburn the show delivered. The lines were very well written, and I'm grateful that they chose to make them fall in love with each other naturally and in their own pace rather than the rushed feel in the books. I like that they weren't verbatim FORCED TO MARRY BECAUSE OF A BEE! but still incorporated that fear of Anthony's without making it a huge phobia of the bees itself rather than his own fear of the memories of his father's death, losing his father, and what his family especially his mama and him had to go through.

though to be honest, i also quite liked the book's version where Eloise was the one to have witnessed her father's death, i feel as though it would make her relate much more with Sir Crane (IF her love plot would follow the books).

back to Kate, the one thing I really wished they would've put in the show is Kate's fear of storms. I loved that Anthony's irrational fear of bees were dimmed, and I know it would've added to mere subplot in the show, but I think Kate's fear of storms and the story of her biological mama's death would've bonded them more rather than just their lust for each other in the beginning, for example, the library scene in the book i think is better than the one in the show.

The ending felt rather anticlimactic to me, and i truly don't know why. I don't know if it's just me, i dont know if it's because i set up too high of an expection for a grand ending, of course i'm happy for them, and i still love the ending, but i dont know why i cant help but feel like they couldve done better? OR IDK MAYBE IM JUST A SUCKER FOR WEDDING SCENES IN MOVIES AND SHOWS AND WAS A BIT DISAPPOINTED THAT THEY DIDNT SHOW IT? thats probably it

Eloise's plot this season was chef's kiss! And I don't have much to say about her character and the comparisons in the books.

I at first, was shocked to watch that in the show Edwina actually fell in love with THEE Lord Bridgerton, because in the book she just felt kinda burdened and (i feel that she feels) uncomfortable with the whole trying to find a spouse who'd be able to support mama and Kate too; plus it was really obvious to her in the book that Kate and Anthony were smitten by one another.

I do like that Edwina, in the show is sure and strongheaded in what she believes in and wants for herself, even if in the beginning it might not seem that way.

The Featherington's subplot about the mines etc, PLUS THE WEIRD THING GOING ON WITH LADY FEATHERINGTON AND THE NEW LORD FEATHERINGTON is kinda weird and uneccesary me thinks, but idk maybe it's because i dont really care for them except for Penelope.

Penelope's plot this season was meh, but that's because I suspect she'll have a more bigger role in S3 or even have the third season be for her and Colin (since we did find out that Shonda said she would not go in order according to the books, and we were left by that cliffhanger of Colin saying he would never court Penelope which is not much of a cliffhanger should you want to read the books) Also, i really dont like how she was selfish enough to keep Eloise from meeting Theo, like I know she was trying to protect herself, but SHE LITERALLY could've gone to another print shop LIKE PAYING A BIT MORE AND MOVING, IN THE SAME TIME AS TO NOT HURT YOUR BEST FRIEND'S FEELINGS OR EXPOSE UNWANTED SECRETS IS WORTH IT DANGIT, and Eloise and Theo could enjoy each other's companies much longer.

Colin's a dumbass. A literal dumbass. Everytime i see his face and the decision he makes i just go "dumbass..." I literally do not hate him, but you get it right? like? right?

Benedict's plot for me was also meh, though I do not wish for the showrunners to make him a drug addict please! ISTG it wont add any substance to his character

Im far more interested in Francesca's plot and how they're going to manage to mend it in the third season.

Gregory and Hyacinth always cute as ever, and I LOVED that exchange between Gregory and Anthony, also that ball scene of the Sharmas and Bridgertons dancing together!!

Daphne's role wasnt that significant in this season but that's to be expected, but I loved how even if she is younger than Anthony by age, she knows more in terms of emotional intelligence than him (even if all the Bridgertons seem to share one single brain cell :))

The Queen's plot is also interesting. I can see how she loves The King so, but is so sad and heartbroken by him at the same time and how she wishes to be able to repeat time just to seep in the good old days with His Majesty.

ALSO LADY BRIDGERTON?? LIKE I EXPECTED MORE FROM YOU GIRL!! But then again, i think it kinda made sense for her not to push so much since in the beginning of S2, she pushed and Anthony just kept being more aggravated at her, but like idk i guess i just kinda missed how she pushed Daphne, bcs come on, a mother's feelings are never wrong.

Lady Danbury's always-meddling and never-minding-her-own-business is great although sometimes annoying, I can see why it's definitely of use.

I DEFINITELY LOVED the fact that in the show, they clearly chose to marry each other because THEY DO love each other and are brave enough to declare so.

SONG CHOICES THIS SEASON WERE QUESTIONABLE?? WHY HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE BY CALVIN HARRIS? WHY NOT LITERALLY ANY OTHER SONG IN THIS WORLD. i liked the song choices in S1 better tbh.

LETS GIVE A HUGE ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE CREW! I HAVE TO GIVE THEM A SPECTACULAR APPRECIATION FOR THEIR ATTENTION TO DETAIL, AND DEDICATION TO MAKE THIS SEASON THE SHT! especially the writers pls :,) i thought the i burn for you scene in s1 was pheww, but there are 3 scenes in s2 that just melted my being away, which were the HONOR line scene, CONSUME MY VERY BEING - LILIES scene, and last but not least the YOU MUST FEEL IT, BECAUSE I DO line scene.

Overall even with room for improvement for the next season, or things they could've done better (for me) this season was wonderful, and im always a sucker for a good enemies to lovers plot <3

Kathony! You will always be famous!