#Also probably a lot of unpopular opinion in relation to writing

[your-unfriendlyghost]

sodapop patrick curtis thoughts on my desk by the end of the week or ur DONE /j

How I feel about this character

  Uh like he’s perfect and should be my wife i think

  Nah but fr Soda’s one of my favorite characters ever. He’s sweet and all, but he’s so much more than that. Pony says he’s movie-star handsome, that he can go from gentle one minute to “blazing with anger” the next, that he gets drunk just on living, and understands everybody. Soda’s a Kerouac-style “mad one”- “mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes Awww!”

He’s a guy who’s sensitive but strong, a “bawl baby” who’s tough, he’s probably got ADHD and dyslexia, the school system failed him. His folks died and left him holding his brothers together by a thread. He’s pretty but not pretty enough for Sandy to stay. He might end up dying in Vietnam, and thank God that isn’t canon, but it’s still there. He’s happy to live life simply, behind a white picket fence with a wife and kids- hell, he’s thrilled to. But that’s not gonna happen, at least not for a while, because Soda is a tragedy. But he loves his brothers and his friends so much that he becomes a beacon of hope despite it all.

  I love Soda. Honestly, this barely scratches the surface of how I feel about him. I haven’t even touched on the adrenaline junkie stuff or the ways he’s sometimes so relatable to me that it hurts. 

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Steve, and sometimes Evie. 

  I’ve found I’m a friends-to-lovers enjoyer, so Stevepop scratches that part of my brain lol. To have someone who’s got your back through thick and thin, aware of your flaws but in spite of them- well, ain’t that the dream? The angst of it being the 60s makes it interesting to me too, because there’s a lot of ways to handle that. Man, when I first read the book I didn’t get the hype for them at all, but idk. It clicked. I get it now. 

  And then Steviepop is my roman empire lol. It’s all I love about Stevepop, but Evie adds even more complexity. I like her a lot and I love writing her, and I love writing her with characters who I also love. There is absolutely no canon anything to back this ship up. But dammit that’s the point of fandom.

  I will say though that I like exploring Soda’s dynamic with Sandy, but I don’t really ship them. I think the fact that Sandy left him (and I mean cheated on him, even if that can be read ambiguously) implies that there’s something about him that could be undesirable, romantically. I don’t mean cheating is good or that people deserve it, just that in this case, the idea that Soda’s an imperfect boyfriend adds layers to a character who is mostly just positives. We’ll never know Sandy’s POV on it, and I don’t think Soda will either. Sandypop to me will never have closure. That’s what makes it hurt so much. That’s what makes it relatable

My non-romantic OTP for this character

  I mean honestly? Steve. I know this isn’t really fair, since I like Stevepop and all, but idk, there’s no one else who I think it could be. 

  Steve’s a character who’s cocky and troubled and prone to assholeish-ness, but even he loves Soda. He knows about Sandy and gets angry on Soda’s behalf at Pony for mentioning her, which means Soda can tell him- angry, tough Steve Randle- about sensitive stuff. And Soda, who I think is a little in love with everyone he meets and could have anyone he wants, sees this bastard and sticks with him. He sees the parts of Steve that Pony can’t. Parts that make him worthy of being his best buddy.

It’s been said before, but no matter how you look at it, romantic or platonic, they’re each other’s person. I don’t think I could put anyone else in this slot.

My unpopular opinion about this character

 I have a few lol.

1- I see a lotta fics and takes where the whole “drunk on living” thing is a lie Soda feeds Ponyboy, and while I like that take, I do also think it’s totally possible and even plausible that Soda really doesn’t drink and Pony’s view of him (in that aspect) is right.

  I dunno, I mean, I know firsthand what it’s like to just get drunk on adrenaline/excitement. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug, and the rush from it is better than any other high I’ve had. Thrill rides make me act as stupid as someone drinking- when I’m excited, I lose all ability to filter thoughts or fight impulses. I’ve done all sorts of dumb moves- climbing onto tables, singing loudly without knowing or caring if it bothers people, play-fighting my buddies so hard we both get genuinely injured, standing up in a convertible going down the freeway... (This is obviously anecdotal and not real evidence or anything, but like, duh. This is an opinion piece lol.)

  I guess what I’m saying is that there’s a lot of interesting things that can still be done with a Soda who genuinely doesn’t drink. (Or at least not much.)

2- I love darker takes on Soda. I love when people dig into his addictive personality, his temper, his relationship with his looks/self image, all that stuff. I love his flaws, and I especially love when they co-exist with his earnest sweetness and genuine sensitivity. In a few of my fics, I’ve explored some slightly darker Sodas- Sodas who are impulsive, pent up, semi-narcissistic and occasionally manipulative. I haven’t delved deep into it or anything, and I usually keep his character wholesome, but I love it when other folks don’t. 

3- I actually really like the Vietnam War storyline. I mean it hurts, but it seems plausible. I hate the idea of him dying there, but I like exploring the idea of him being drafted. Hell, maybe he even enlisted. The military is known for being a good way to earn enough money to pull one’s family out of poverty, and this paired with the flawed ideas of masculinity and strength of the time lead to a really interesting version of Soda’s future.

  I’m real glad it isn’t canon though.

4- This isn’t technically unpopular but brown eyed Soda will always be canon to me. I like Rob Lowe’s Soda a lot but man….he coulda used brown contacts, yk? /hj lol

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Well I still think it’s a crime his emotional monologue got cut outta the original version of the film. Thank God for the full novel version, but man, still.

Woulda also have been cool to see him mentioned in That Was Then This is Now, but I get that SE Hinton wasn’t trying to make an Outsiders sequel really.

Idk, Soda served his purpose, I think. 

tl;dr- I love him

[miyuskye]

HERE I GO with this super interesting event from the All Ships Ship Week event hosted by @ficwip

The ship dossier! And what ship I could've dossiered if not my current hyperfixation, aka Jon/Elias??? Sooo, the thing with loving a podcast is that you don't get a lot of official art, since the physical descriptions are also very scarce by author's choice. BUT! they recently made a TTRPG game based on the podcast, which these semi-canon designs. My personal image of the characters in influenced by the huge amount of fanarts circulating around, but, probably an unpopular opinion, I like these designs too. With reference to the image, the top one (not in the ship sense) is Jon, aka the Archivist, aka the pet project/obsession and the bottom one (again, not in the ship sense) is Elias/spoiler, aka the mentor/obsessed.

It would have been great, if I did actually understand the assignment and not gone off the trail with a full AO3 statistical analysis. Under the cut because probably not a lot of people are interested in my ramblings. The dossier is intended for both people familiar with the series, but also for people who know nothing about it. Warning for sparse spoilers about the whole TMA series (not TMP since I still have to listen to it!) (as I said, Elias is a big spoiler himself lol)

Let's begin this trip with a biiig disclaimer. Sadly for us avid AO3 users, the AO3 fandom does not represent the fandom in whole, so these stats are based only on the number of works in the AO3 context. Looking around at non-fanfic related site, i.e. reddit, I know there are some JE shipper there too, though I can't really be sure in what percentage with respect to the non-shipping community (or the people only shipping the canon couple). Links to the guru of fandom stats! toastystats (tumblr), AO3. There's also a github repository but I personally found it a bit cranky to use and it doesn't use an AO3 updated DB, though for big data statistics is fine due to the central limit theorem but for smaller fandom/tags it might be a bit inaccurate. Also the code is in python 2, which is now a bit difficult to use. I personally made my stats by doing targeted searches using the AO3 search function! Super easy to use, albeit a bit repetitive. Stats were made on Oct, 19-22, 2024. Again, I think the results won't change much through the years, especially regarding the main TMA tag data, but who knows if JonElias will surge in popularity (hehe it's a distant hope, I'm pretty much sure that the population distribution is already well-established).

TMA (The Magnus Archive) is a horror podcast, following the events of Jonathan Sims, aka Jon, aka the first part of my ship, who works at the Magnus Institute. This Institute is a facility researching in supernatural events and records supernatural encounters in the form of statements given by volunteering people. Jon is the Head Archivist, meaning he manages the statements and records some "odd ones", as per request of the Head of the Institute and his direct superior, Elias. Sooo yes, he's also his boss. :) lovely for them.

My lovely idiots are the 3rd most popular ship! Such a big achievement for me, who I usually ship obscure ships. As of today, we have 1434 JE works out of the whole 29751 works in the TMA tag. Way to go, JE community, let's keep this up!

The Jon/Martin ship is actually canon in the podcast, so that big percentage, compared to other fandoms, is largely explained by that (instead of simple popularity like Oikawa/Iwaizumi in the Haikyuu fandom). My other favorite ship is Jon/Tim, and I proudly contributed to that 2.78% (ofc also to the 4.8% of JE but it seemed quite superfluous to write).

Fun fact: speaking of spoilers, Elias' character tag in AO3 is a MASSIVE spoiler. It was what ruined the plot twist for me, because I looked for fanfics around ep 40ish (out of 200) and got that spoiled :( I understand why AO3 did that, because before the reveal the tags referring to Jonah and Elias were separated and I guess they wanted to unite them (since I also read some Jonah/Jon works before the reveal - all of them ended up having Elias being somewhat connected to Jonah OF COURSE, but I believe that before The Reveal there was also the belief that Elias was one of his descendants. I became part of the fandom after that, though, so it's just speculation based on older posts I came across).

This is probably my most favourite slide. JonElias has the highest Mature-to-Gen ratio (based on the AO3 rating system) with respect to the other ships. Jon/Martin, being 40% of the works also leads most of the general fandom stats, so it's more correct to actually cite the ship that makes the stat. I also believe that a lot of the more Gen-oriented fics feature Jon/Martin due to them being canon, that is also one of the possible factors influencing their and the whole tag ratios. Due to this, I believe that the Elias/Peter ratio might actually influenced by that, since they're a non-conflicting couple with the main one and are thus frequently included in their fanfics. The other fave of mine also has a higher Mature-to-Gen ratio than the general one, but not as high as JE.

Jon is the main character, so it's obvious that he is the most cited in all the works. Elias is the villain, so it's not so strange. Also, this refers to the characters tags, and this means that Elias might be included as a character even in other ships-based works. I believe the same happens with Tim, since ships with him have a lower presence in the fandom, but he is the third most included character. It's probably because he gets included into most of the Gen/JMart works.

These are the most used AO3 tags for the JonElias main ship tag. Do I really need to explain? They just do the talking in my place lol

A few words on the Alternate universe tag: AUs are somewhat canon in the show, due to plot-related reasons, and I believe this gives us space to imagine, stories where Jon is as deranged as Elias without denaturing canon. I personally believe Jon has the capacity of being feral as, if not even more than, Elias. Canon showed us a glimpse of what we could have but ended up not getting, again, due to plot-related reasons. Some fanfics are based on those glimpses. Also the Do not Archive will be an interesting topic to talk about later!

These are the most used tags for the individual characters. Some of them are also matching but not in their JE tagged works. For example, the tag Fluff might be present in 12% of Elias' works but more than half of those works are Jon/Martin-based works, so he's included in the work but, in a way, not actively participating in the fluff. Also, Jon is canonically asexual, hence the related tag! A few words on that, this doesn't and rightly won't stop people from producing M and E-rated works with him and characters (not necessarily Elias), contrary to what some people might think. And I assure you, as an asexual person, that no one of the JE fanfics I read (even the ones without the Asexual character tag) erased Jon's asexuality. If anything, the ones where Jon's asexuality was present and acknowledged were also my favorites!

Small digression on the Do not archive tag. I noticed that both JE and Elias' tag had a percentage of works being under that tag. Which is used when an author does not want the series staff to read their works. It's mostly used on M+E works (77% of DNA tagged works are M or E rated on AO3), as one would expect. At first I guessed it was related to the pronounced M-to-T ratio of the JE tag (which is even more pronounced on the DNA tag), buuut it turns out the main cause was just a quirk of the data/bias of the data case. As I said, there are only 1434 (as of end-October 2024) works in the JE tag and this means that this number can be biased by a single external source, which causes the shift in the data. This means that this is not a trend!

By excluding the cause from the analysis, the Do not archive tag percentages for JE are still higher than the other ships, but not by such a large margin (around 7% which makes sense).

Nothing to say here, the series reaching its peak in terms of fandom response and also due to COVID making people consume more media content, the JE rise followed the general raise of fanfics in the TMA tag. Which isn't surprising but not to be taken for granted either! Another sad but probably not a trend fact is that Jon/Elias production was slightly more flourishing during the earlier years of the series (especially 2018-2019), than it is now. This might probably related to a ship actually being made canon or probably fandom disappointment in the TMA finale (which I can understand). I read in a lot of earlier JE fanfics very excited comments about "omg I can't wait to see him and Jon in s4/5" and I was like *sad violin noises*, because they didn't get the amount of (canon-expected) interactions the JE fandom thought they would get. Again, this is just speculation and to be taken with a grain of salt.

Unexpectedly, M+E JE works have more words that Gen-rated ones (expected on the JE tag due to their M-to-T ratio, but kinda unexpected compared to the whole TMA tag).

JE fanfics are slightly more kudo-ed and bookmarked than the general fandom trend.

A conclusive remark, is that I made this just to see what behaviours could be extrapolated from such a tiny tag in an otherwise medium fandom (as for 2020, median number of fanworks in labelled big fandom was 45k. Havign roughly half of that number means that TMA is, on AO3, a medium fandom to me).

Anyhow, I wish you happy JonElias day which for me is once again every day since twp months ago :)

[alpaca-clouds]

Vampires - and the Curse of Immortality

Something I notice a lot in vampire-related fandoms is, how harshly my viewpoint on vampires differs from most other people within those fandoms. This might be, because I generally speaking see myself as part of the death positivity movement. And that is a big thing that often gets into conflict with the way how many see vampires.

See, in general vampires originally were horror not just because they drank blood, but because they were immortal. Sure, there was a big religious aspect to it. Because they were immortal and even if they died would automatically either (depending on the exact story) be doomed to wander as a ghost or go to hell, they were cursed to never be able to go to heaven. And that was an aspect of the horror.

But... Even going past it: Immortality is a curse. You do not want to be immortal, even if you think you do. Not even in some magical way in which you really do not suffer any ill consequences from it.

And I mean, vampires already suffer consequences in terms of not being able to go out into the sun and everything.

The reasons for that are quite a few.

For vampires there is just the fact that vampires are the few immortals among mortals. You will be surrounded by people who will die long before you. Live long enough and the world will be unrecognizable to you. You might actually see culture, you grew up in, crumble to dust.

Just imagine the world from the perspective of a vampire who grew up in any old culture. Be it ancient Greece, or ancient Rome, or the Vikings, or any culture outside of Europe, that ended up... well, collapsing in one way or another. Imagine how everything you grew up with is gone suddenly.

And if you live long enough you will see the same thing happening over and over again.

I am talking about this right now, because I have noticed how many people within the Castlevania fandom, do still hope that Lisa will be transformed into a vampire after the end of the series so that this time she is going to be immortal.

But the thing is: The series never answeres the question of why Lisa never became a vampire. But... I think it is pretty clear that the answer is, that she just does not want to be. Because she is intelligent and she knows the downsides of immortality. So, she simply does not want it. And because Dracula actually loves her, he accepts it.

There is probably a reason, too, why most of the vampires we see are rarely older than 500 years.

In Castlevania the only vampire we know to be older than that is Morana. And she is going to be old enough to not have seen one civilization fall, but several, given she is (according tie Katie Silva) a good 3000 years old. And just... imagine. Being so old. What you must've seen. It is going to be hard to not just go insane with all of that. (This is the reason why I write Morana so very weary of humans - she just has seen too much violence done by human hands.)

And while Olrox is just a mere 250 years old, you can also extend this onto him in a way. Given that he has seen his civilization be destroyed (even though his culture survived).

All of that is the reason why I have a tendency to let a lot of vampires die on the long term - or cure them of the vampirism. I mean, in my BG3 stuff, the end scenario is going to be for Astarion to be healed from the vampirism, because... Well, being an immortal vampire actually just sucks. (Doubly so in the DnD world, where it comes with even more drawbacks.)

I mean, all I am thinking is: Looking at some other vampire stories I know... What is the sense of living forever, if you are just miserable?

So, yeah: Unpopular opinion. Dying is okay. It might be preferable to being a vampire forever.

[bikananjarrus]

Elzar for the breakdown because I miss him

chip thank u for giving me the opportunity to talk about elzar 🙏 i miss him real bad too :(

(this got longer than expected but i have feelings about him)

how i feel about this character:

oh man, i just love him to bits. he was my favorite pretty much from the moment he showed up on page, and he's still my favorite. he's bisexual. he's a bit of a bitch. he will pout and get very sad if he doesn't get enough attention. he's a weird little jedi and just wants to be left alone to do his weird little experiments with the force. most of all i think i just love how much he tries and doesn't give up, even when he wants to, even when he's at his lowest. he's the heart!! and i just love him a lot!!

all the people i ship romantically with this character:

avar and stellan. they're the only ones for him because they match his freak <3 i'm a polycule truther, but also i love him and avar together, and also thinking about him and stellan makes me want to walk into the ocean so!

my non-romantic otp for this character:

HIM AND TY YORRICK!!!!! obsessed with their bitchy bisexual + brash lesbian dynamic. went from trying to kill each other (really just ty trying to kill him for stealing her lightsaber. understandable) to drift compatible besties. i love them <3 and no i'm not bitter that we haven't seen her at all since and elzar hasn't talked about her why do u ask

but also, cheating and giving you two more, i love him and orla's friendship, and his friendship with lina. he just keeps collecting these women who take one look at this depressed suicidal wet cat of a man and go yeah, we'll take that one.

my unpopular opinion about this character:

i am thankfully not involved with the corner of the fandom that argues about this, and this definitely shouldn't be as unpopular of an opinion as it is, but ELZAR DID NOTHING WRONG ON STARLIGHT and i will DIE on that hill! sure he killed chancey, but he had spent multiple days on a sinking space station with force creatures that were eating away at all the jedis' states of mind, and he saw somehow he knew to be affiliated with the nihil (their enemy!) and thought she was further sabotaging the station, so he stopped her. should he have asked questions first, swung lightsaber later? yeah, maybe. but he did what he did and it's fine and it's also not his fault stellan died. stellan knew what he was doing when he went down there. even though elzar blames himself, it's not his fault!

relatedly, fandom sure gives elzar a lot of crap for this when avar did almost the exact same thing. she would have killed lourna dee if keeve hadn't stopped her, and avar had a lot more murderous intent behind her actions than elzar did his. but no, let's go ahead and demonize the brown member of the firebrands instead of the blonde white woman.

one thing i wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon:

oh so many things. but really (and i understand this is probably a bit of a side effect of having multiple authors writing these characters across many years) but i think canon has introduced SO MANY cool storylines and possibilities for elzar and hasn't followed through on a lot of them. and now we only have one book left with him, and i'm a bit worried that it will be an unsatisfying conclusion for him :/

his force visions, for one. introduced in lotj, mentioned again towards the end of rising storm, and then not really talked about again, even though he was clearly connected to everything going on with the nihil and nameless through his visions. connecting him as a foil to azlin and not really going anywhere with that (which, i haven't read tears of the nameless, so there may be a bit more there, but still).

(okay, DEFINITELY probably an unpopular opinion, but it's related to what i'm talking about here, but i didn't love temptation of the force quite as much as the rest of the adult books, and i do think it diverged from plot to focus on the romance, which is fine, because i thought the romance was done very well, however. again. when we have one book left, now there's too much to cover and i feel like elzar took a step backwards idk)

overall, i think if you had to pick one character to be the protagonist of the adult books, elzar (or bell) is the strongest contender, and i feel like the authors keep forgetting that.

Give me a character; and i’ll break their ass down

[trivalentlinks]

🔥 - i'd like to order an unpopular opinion on leverage, please!

Sorry for the very, very late answer, but to make up for it, have two unpopular opinions:

The first one's a bit of a cop-out. I think it's the less popular opinion, but probably because most don't care that much either way:

I head-canon that Damien Moreau is actually a banker/financier, ie, his primary source of income is actually derivatives investments and market prediction, and all the buying countries, arms deals and other such clandestine activities is just to give markets slight pushes in the direction he wants. (I've previous talked about this here (my last reblog addition))

This opinion seems "unpopular" in that the more common reading is that he's a mob boss who just calls himself a 'banker' to make himself sound cooler than he actually is. Which I think is a totally valid reading, consistent with what we are shown in canon! Like, he's all about image, and it's totally believable that the entire financier/banker persona is just that.

One reason I prefer the actually-a-banker reading is, as I described in the other post, because I like the parallel with team leverage and their "alternative revenue stream". This is also why I like to head-canon that when Eliot and Moreau were starting out (after Eliot met Toby and left the PMCs with his newfound conscience), before things got bad, they actually did good--only destabilizing horrible, abusive dictatorships, using their alternative revenue stream to help people. The parallels are just so compelling to me this way.

Another reason I prefer the actually-a-banker reading is that it's more relatable to me. I know people who work as financiers (hedge fund/high frequency trading/crypto firm founders or high-level quants etc).

None of them (that I know of) would actually do illegal things to manipulate prices, but it sometimes seems like if they were a little less risk-averse, a little less ethical, who knows? And when they tell me about the people they know, people they describe as "if you took a person's stats and dialled 'ethics' all the way down to zero"... These friends think anyone too stupid to see through a cryptocurrency white paper deserves to lose their life's savings. So when they say someone has ethics dialled to zero, well. You don't wanna know.

On the other hand, I don't know anyone who's anywhere close to being a mob boss.

-

Here's a more genuinely unpopular opinion, in that I think most people believe the opposite, and actually do care:

I really like Jimmy Ford. I find the character very relatable and very compelling. I feel like a lot of people in the fandom just write him off as a bad father, but I don't think that's fair.

I talked a lot about this here (skip past the "..." paragraph; above that were my old early thoughts about Moreau, before I reformulated them to be my current thoughts)

As I mentioned there, I see in Jimmy Ford every parent who didn't understand their kid, but loved them, and as Jimmy said to Nate, that's more important.

Every parent who grew up at a different time, in another country, in a harder, less forgiving world, who wants to ensure their kid can survive that old environment, without realizing that that isn't the kid's world anymore, that their kid is actually thriving in this new world, the one their parents sacrificed to raise them in

Every parent who flipped out when their son decided to major in sociology instead of computer engineering, because they could never have made a living with a degree like that

(but he's going to do more than make a living with that degree; he's going to make a difference)

Every parent who constantly monitors their daughter to ensure she waits for marriage, because in the old country she would have been shunned or worse if she didn't

(but she's not there right? her parents worked and sacrificed and bled to bring her up in this more forgiving world)

Every parent who sits next to their kid for hours a day until they get their daily hour of piano practice done (and yells at them until they do every day, disturbing their neighbour, who's just trying to focus on doing her research and grading her students' papers, not that this is personal or anything), because the parent managed to survive and to move to this country by working relentlessly at everything they did and can't imagine a world where a 7-year-old is allowed to play and to find their own interests

(but they will, maybe not then, but one day, years down the line, they may even end up liking music)

Maybe it's that I'm a kid of immigrants who knows a lot of kids of immigrants, but I think I'm more forgiving of people who raised their children in a culture different from their own and struggled to adjust to that.

[another-lost-mc]

Heyy I'm absolutely in LOVE with all your works and obey me worldbuilding lore and the OC's that come with it it’s been so enjoyable to explore through the tags 💗💗

Since you've fleshed out a few characters that we don't have that much info on in the game for example Michael & Uriel I was curious on how you perceive Lilith or if you haven't thought that much about her yet, I'm kind of curious to see how people see her since she's also quite a vaguely discussed character in the story (unless she's convenient for the brothers sorrow lol) but otherwise mostly glossed over character wise except one lesson in NB

Again your works and ideas are amazing and looking at your WIP's I'm super exited to read anything you'll write I hope you have an amazing day or week!!

Before I launch into my unpopular opinions, thank you so much for your kind words!

Anyway, about Lilith. I'm not a huge fan of MC being Lilith's descendent but that could be because of Lesson 16 in general (and there are A LOT of things I could say about that whole mess). Lilith is one of those convenient plot devices that pops up when needed and kind of fades into the background to be forgotten about again. She's just kind of there.

When it comes to exploring Celestial Realm/angel lore and her role in Lucifer & Co's fall, things get more interesting. Mostly because when I think of Lilith, my first thought is something like, "She knew the rules and broke them, what did she think was going to happen?!"

Mostly, Lilith is a great example of how flawed the Celestial Realm is and how unforgiving Father is, and angels appear to be the worst sort of hypocrites when they can't even follow their own laws. I don't completely blame Lilith for what she did, even if her actions were very self-serving and short-sighted. I think she was motivated by genuine love and affection which I can understand and relate to and I admire that. Part of me thinks (hopes) that she did it knowing she was breaking a very important rule, but maybe she hoped that there would be room for leniency (I think she would've accepted a milder punishment willingly).

Maybe her demise could've been prevented if the Celestial Realm were a more forgiving place. I think it ultimately comes down to Father's rigid rules and what appears to be a lack of compassion or flexibility for angels that struggle to follow them. It says a lot about the way the Celestial Realm functions that Father would rather destroy an angel for defying him than allow Michael and the other Seraphs to find an alternative outcome.

I don't really write about her character very much. The closest thing is probably the wip Azra x Meta story, but she's only mentioned a few times (before and after they fall). She's the catalyst for the Celestial War, and that has a huge impact on the Devildom - it's hard not to mention it. After Lucifer falls, he and Azra have a very tense conversation about how they both ended up in the same place for the same reason, but in their new home they still have trouble finding common ground.

[lusthurts]

sebastian and blaine for the character asks <3

ahhh hi bestie im so excited to yap about these two <333

sebastian smythe

how I feel about this character

Sebastian is the love of my life <3 I'm obsessed with writing this character and reading this character and consuming any and all content related to this character.

I have sooooo many head canons about him, and the way I feel about him/his backstory/his personality has evolved a ton over the years, even since I've been writing about him. He has that snark and edge that I love to a character with a clearly very interesting past that we have complete creative liberties to explore. it's so fun and I love him !

all the people I ship romantically with this character

BLAINE! seblaine is of course my otp, and no ship will ever come close to them for me in terms of the extreme brain rot obsession I have because of them - I love that they sort of balance each other out and have this undeniable chemistry that's pretty monumental for both of them and leaves a lot of room for us to explore

I don't think anything will ever come close to them for me, and I fully cannot bring myself to get behind kurtbastian no matter how much I love enemies to lovers as a trope (though when my mutuals write kurtbastian I still try to read it lol)

I did enjoy writing jeff x sebastian in how bright we burn (totally snuck up on me on accident - he needed to be with one of the other warblers for plot reasons and I picked Jeff because they're always in shots together in canon) but that's not something I think I'd ever be super into on like,, a bigger scale - I love it as a platonic ship though

my non-romantic otp for this character

honestly, the warblers as a whole - I really like the idea of Sebastian not really fitting in anywhere/never feeling at home anywhere before dalton and being very reluctant to get close with them at first which resulted in him coming on a little strong/trying to take control rather than trying to develop meaningful friendships, but then by the end he's found he really cares about them and wants them to succeed and finally feels like he's found a home and core group of friends

OH and i ADORE his friendship with cooper in the I'll be there for you series - their dynamic together is fantastic and I think probably the best written friendship for Sebastian that I've ever read

my unpopular opinion about this character

I'm not sure if this is unpopular or not, but I do really like that he's an imperfect person who clearly has a lot of growing up to do. He acts like an asshole and he is one kind of a lot of the time, but even the things he does maliciously aren't meant to be that harmful, and there's clearly a complicated person beneath the surface. I love slutty Sebastian and snarky Sebastian and bullying/blackmail/assault Sebastian so so much

I also don't like the idea of him being "soft" or immediately comfortable in a relationship with blaine just because he's the person he's meant to be with - a lot of my head canons about him revolve around him having a kind of unhealthy relationship with love/relationships, and I don't think it's realistic that they'd just immediately be in a happy relationship. I love fluff as much as the next person, but I definitely don't think their problems end when they get together.

one thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon

obviously seblaine - even if they'd just given us a little bit behind the scenes (what were those phone calls and texts??? they were clearly good friends!!)

I wish he'd been around more after season 3 - I realize because of real life reasons this was impossible, and he probably would've been back quite a bit if it wasn't for the flash, but I would've loved to see him develop friendships and plots and sing more songs and maybe have a relationship or two

blaine anderson

how I feel about this character

he's one of my first favorite glee characters and one of the main reasons I still love this show

I think I relate to him more than I relate to any of the other characters in the show - he has that passionate, overachiever, ruthless drive for success thing that Rachel has but he's also clearly very anxious about things and experiences depression and has some attachment issues, and I think all that makes him a much more complicated character than he's given credit for

all the people I ship romantically with this character

Sebastian ofc - see above lol

I used to be a huge blam fan - I haven't read or written them in a long time but I still think this is probably my second favorite blaine ship - they have a lot of chemistry together with a lot of fantastic scenes and development in season 4 specifically, and I think this would've been a cool path to go down during their senior year in the post-kurt/mercedes era

I also used to love klaine (prior to realizing how toxic that relationship was lol) - they were def cute in season 2, and they were probably one of the first queer ships I saw on tv that I felt that attached too. I think if handled better in the later seasons they could've been great, and I think if they're written well they can be a lovely ship - I played blaine in a glee rpg during covid (dark times lmao) and I found writing klaine with a person who really cared for writing Kurt's character well to be super fun

my non-romantic otp for this character

definitely sam & tina! blamtina is my favorite trio in the show, and I think their friendship felt very realistic and well-developed, especially for something that really only existed to that extent for one season

a close second would be rachel - I think blaine and rachel definitely get each other in a way the other new directions don't really, and I enjoy their dynamic a lot, especially in the beginning of season 6

oh and the warblers. he referred to that group as a brotherhood and then just,, left ? makes it hard to believe they were as close as he said, but I also will die on the hill that he must've had strong relationships with those guys if they got him from how he must've felt post Sadie Hawkins to the guy that was confidently singing the lead at every performance

my unpopular opinion about this character

while I do think he was occasionally too whiny and treated as a caricature in the later seasons, I also think a lot of that was the natural progression of his character given the circumstances he was dealing with. I think it's very natural for insecurities to come up when you go from where he was at in season 2 (star/lead vocalist of the warblers, admired and beloved by his peers, confidently helping Kurt through the bullying and trauma of McKinley) to season 3 (ignored/disregarded by ND's leaders like finn, only getting the occasional line or two in performances, treated almost exclusively as Kurt's boyfriend)

he was more interesting in seasons 2 & 4 when he was single than he was at any point during his relationship with kurt

one thing I wish had happened with this character in canon

seblaine !

or honestly getting to see him in any romantic relationship with someone other than Kurt (karofsky doesn't count lol we all collectively pretend that didn't happen)

why do we know like nothing about his life !! he's one of the major characters in the show (second in solos only to Rachel I think?) and yet all we get are a few one off and very concerning lines about his dad??? then his mom randomly shows up at the wedding??? and cooper's there but only for an episode and then never brought up again??? girl what I need to know his lore

[longeyelashedtragedy]

Frank James Lampard OBE 👀

ougughgh, you whipped out the order of the british empire? 🫡 😳 maybe i was wrong to judge them teaboos back in the superwholock days (that's a JOKE)

@protect-daniel-james i'll respond here but i might use your ask to post some more Photos cause i'm not sure how to pick just one photo of the Long Eyelashed Tragedy

favorite thing about them: uhhh...so much? he gets me right in the FEELS, man. he tells on himself constantly and seems to be completely unaware. sadboi footballer with pretty dead eyes who loves to Read and took a little notebook with him on the team bus. the intersection of having it easy/privileged childhood & traumatic things that shouldn't have happened--i relate. exhilarating to watch his old performances and he seems like he'd be fun to have a conversation with. fascinating to analyze, this all feels sort of reductive...i'm very Fond of him and some of it is hard to put into words, but i feel very "what's not to love?" about him lol. and he has such a Narrative. he's very easy to write about though it probably doesn't turn out well at all (sounds great and deep in my head though)

also i find a lot of footballers hot but don't really experience significant attraction to them but he is an exception you know what i'm just going to end this here

least favorite thing about them: he lost weight after everton BOO HISS

favorite line: omg, frank james lampard OBE is funny because he's often so intelligent and articulate and then just whips out the WEIRDEST/most cringe thing out of nowhere. some examples:

-his "fight" with klopp on the touchline

THIS wtfery:

these BANGERS:

this classic example of childhood trauma "too old when you're young and too young when you're old" (what some ppl would call "entitled male athlete" but like..i know better than that lol). it's also just patently RIDICULOUS he was like 36...bolding is mine for the classic lines

But it was while on a night out in Manchester during pre-season that the ex-West Hamer star showed his new American team-mates exactly how ex-Premier League stars like to party.

Columbus Crew centre-back Josh Williams was with NYCFC at the time and he told the story to the Athletic.

...“This place is packed, multiple levels. And as soon as we walk in, you could see everybody recognise Frank. And it’s just me, my teammate and Frank and all the energy is just on him.

"He picks up a bottle, this huge bottle of Grey Goose, picks it up, opens it, just starts downing it. Passes it to me and goes, ‘Boys, we’re not putting this down until it’s fucking gone.’”

The trio passed the bottle around three times when the rest of NYCFC showed up.

After about an hour in the club, Lampard approached Williams and asked him about 'that game you Americans play where you throw the little balls — he’s talking about beer pong.'

ok let's see...

brotp: random one but i recently learned that he and ian wright are friends? and i just love that so much both as a gooner and a person. wrighty complements him well and is very...respectful lol. if we consider lamperry to be only one-sided romantic, then definitely lamperry

notp: franko x steven gerrard...there's only One situation in which i've enjoyed that ship (and it was an au). it does nothing for me normally, and i personally don't find stevie g attractive, so! again, it's like an "ew get it away from me" notp, it's just not my vibe.

otp: i mean...lamperry requited. franko x cousin jamie jamie jamie ....maybe someday they can give romeo and juliet their happy ending. and of course, frank and mason...i just really like this ship so much and it keeps my brain so entertained...even though it's not "healthy" and doesn't end well. these ships are all SO good!!!

random headcanon: oh gosh idk...i don't think i have any "headcanons" because everything he says and does in public just kind of tracks. bet he's done coke lol. idk

unpopular opinion: HOO BOY!!! here we go!!! i am aware that i have a wooby nature, but i actually like that about myself. i'd rather approach someone--anyone with softness and then tone it down when i decide they're a dick, than be uncharitable for no reason. that's my way and that's how it's gonna be! so that said...franko gets accusations of "arrogance" and i...i don't see it at all. it might come from his disingenous press conferences at chelsea and everton, but i see that as a man who has horrid self-esteem, was used to being treated by media and fans like a Starboy, and once he started doing badly, had no idea how to handle professional failure--not one single idea. remember on "diary of a ceo" over the summer when he said his first chelsea sacking was the first time he's ever failed professionally? that's insane. Like, imagine making it to age FORTY-TWO and not having a legitimate school or career disaster. that's insane to me. so he just put up a front and got cranky and defensive and funky about where he placed the blame (and to be honest--he has not done a good job as a manager, but he also wound up in some pretty dismal positions. taking chelsea caretaker manager was really shooting himself in the foot because that season just needed to be put out of its misery lol). i'm not saying he's a bastion of humility, or some misunderstood coaching genius, but i don't see him as any more or less arrogant than someone else. idk--i see a weird level of contempt for him that doesn't really feel deserved? he's just a sad sack. sort of a hubris tale in a sense, but also a tale of a man who is still stuck as a kid in some ways...i need to stop before i write a really bad dissertation lol

uh that said...

song i associate with them:

finally a footballer i can give a good answer to this for!!!

name me a better combination than me x lamps x pink floyd x this summer! comfortably numb, shine on you crazy diamond (all of it, but particularly sections vi-ix), wish you were here...

(i know this sounds basic...i know there are more i'm not remembering)

"money" in some ways because i listened to it while writing "visited upon the sons" (it hit me afterward that the fic and the song are structured in the same way...the chicken or the egg?)

from the oooold first days of the lampardverse:

behind blue eyes/a well respected man

also! wouldn't it be nice kind of reminds me of him and cousin jamie loool

favorite picture of them:

dude idk! i really love looking at photos of him! this is granit levels of difficulty...i Cannot choose so let's go with this sad sack from the blessed everton days:

[voxofthevoid]

for the ship ask game, i saw you say you ship Nobara/Maki and Maki/Mai so i am curious now what you like about them (i love them too 😌). and Higuruma/Yuuji

(something i will never get tired of saying: love your goyuu fics! :D also i am tempted to finally watch Hannibal just so i could read your fics)

*chokes* THOSE FICS ARE TEN YEARS OLD, PLEASE, YOU WON'T RECOGNIZE THE WRITING. I sure don't. Anything I wrote pre-2018 makes me skitter away in fear.

Ahem. The ships. Good choices!

Nobara/Maki

Ship It

What made you ship it?

I was pretty 👀 after that one scene where Nobara leans on Maki's shoulder and says she respects her. Maki's reaction, while mild, was pretty cute, and it's also the most...sweet we see Nobara act with anyone. It was then followed by Nobara recruiting Yuuji to basically support Maki during the GW event, and I was sold at that point. That one manga cover where Maki and Nobara look like they're on a date certainly helped.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

They're both sharp-edged people who get a little soft for each other, and I like that. I also think their personalities would intersect and interact in fun ways—not a lot of outright complications, a bit of reserved communication that would probably get talked out, etc. And this may sound odd, but I like how the way they get along and are less prickly with each other doesn't come across as "they're pals because they're gals" but as people softening due to romantic interest. Won't lie, it's once again too tame to really light my brain up, but we've got Mai/Maki for that.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Hmm, nope, don't think so.

Maki/Mai

Ship It

What made you ship it?

I'm a simple man: throw me a sibling relationship with fucked-up vibes, and I'll happily ship it. But honesty, this writes itself. Their interactions during the GW event alone are pretty compelling, especially the clash between Mai's abandonment issues and Maki's more practical approach. Then we get the utter gem that's the Perfect Preparation arc, and holy shit.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

I love me some tragedy. The part where Maki tells Naoya that no, she doesn't have a heart because "she took it with her" lives rent-free in my head. Post-Mai Maki, from the grief-fuelled massacre of her clan to the visions she has of Mai in relation to the sword she became, makes me fucking feral.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I think they should make each other worse.

Higuruma/Yuuji

Ship It

What made you ship it?

To be honest, I think my initial draw to this was that it reminded me a little of nanaita. And I've always approached this ship as Higuruma reminding Yuuji of Nanami somewhat, so you can imagine how satisfying it was to see canon itself draw a parallel, albeit with their deaths. But even disregarding the nanaita influence, I'm pretty damn fond of this ship. I absolutely love every single one of their interactions, especially the last fight and the flashback where we see Yuuji talking alone to Higuruma.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

This is highly specific, but the way Higuruma can't look Yuuji in the eye to the point he threw/lost their fight because of it and then fucking dies while making serene eye contact with Yuuji is going to haunt me for as long as I'm in this fandom. Can you tell I love tragic shit?

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Just my usual "let Yuuji fuck that grown man" agenda.

And thank you! You're a gem, as always ❤

Ask can be found game here.

[claudiadiaries]

lan wangji!!! btw I still have your numbers ask im saving it for tonight lol

Thank you Cor <33 sorry for taking some time with it

My first impression idk I remember thinking he was very pretty and funny lol. I just really liked him from the start.

My impression now Probably one of my favorite characters from any media and also the only man in the world. Like this post.

Favorite thing about that character I like that he's very serious and kinda boring and methodical but very intense and commited not only to people but to his own principles, and his emotional journey tring to reconcile that. He's kind but not nice which is such a interesting contrast to me personally, esp since he's not like agressive, which is kinda common when writing characters like that. Also I love that despite struggling so hard to connect with people he's a teacher, and a very good one at that! Mentor characters are so good I love them. He's also very silly <3

Least favorite thing He is not very developed and I would love it if his relationships with other characters were more explored. His family life is so interesting, I love seeing how each person interprets what happened and how that reads into his relationship with justice and love.

Favorite line/scene The feeling of walking on a single plank bridge til it's dark doesn't feel so bad :) 'what is black? what is white? who is right? who is wrong?' is also a GREAT line

Favorite interaction that character has with another character So many of his scenes with wei wuxian are great but I love his conversation with him at the waterfall in the last episode. That one sect meeting where he stands up for wei wuxian and talks with mianmian after she quits the jin sect also has a lot of good interactions.

A character that I wish that character would interact with more I would love to see him interact more with jiang yanli wen qing And mianmian firstly bc he already has a lot in common with them and seems to respect them. Wen qing esp bc I think she's def more wary of him than of wwx even before burial mounds happened. Also the fact that he defended her and wen ning when they gave themselves over to the jins and we never saw it haunts me like What was all that about!!!

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character Spock even though I only watched 10 episodes from star trek in my entire life. Every bl manga love interest that is serious pretty hard to read but deeply earnest and commited. And choi taek from reply 1988 but only slightly bc I never finished it.

A headcanon about that character Related to the next question but I do think lan wangji would love many genres other than classical or traditional music... especially blues/jazz/r&b. For canon compliant hcs I like to think he's one of those people that had a hard time making friends as a kid but grows to be very beloved by their community, not as hanguang-jun but as lan wangji. He gets along especially well with housewives and little kids <3 I also like to think he's kinda vain lol

A song that reminds of that character Soldier of love by Sade

An unpopular opinion about that character So many but if you go into mdzstwt my most unpopular would be that I hate daddy dom millionaire lwj that characterization pisses me off so bad. But I think to compensate that sometimes people avoid talking about his class position as something that influences his actions a lot, which is a shame bc it's one of my favorite aspects of him! Esp in contrast with wei wuxian, who is more familiar with non-cultivators and is, very crucially, the son of a servant that dessected to help war refugees. Please can we go back to making horse girl lwj headcanons that was funny.

Favorite picture

[lauren-no-why]

No idea uhhh either Cobb Avery or Z'Oiseau or both perhaps idk

Yeeeeahhhh!!! okay I have admittedly way more thoughts about Cobb Avery than Z'Oiseau so while I do think the latter is a super fascinating character who I definitely need to spend more time mulling around in my head, we're going with Mr. Ender here for now. Maybe if I wind up with extra time later tonight I'll revisit this for the spooky blackbird man.

First impression: WHAT A COOL DUDE. I mean, watching the music video was one of the very first things that clued me in to the existence of the lore and it's nice that it's mostly a self-contained little mini-story that tells us so much about him in under 5 minutes. Big fan of our undead revenge murder hero living out everyone's not-so-secret fantasy to just fucking kill the rich bastards who ruined your life. Relatable.

Impression now: I mean same, but now I've also had a whole lot of time to consider all of the social and political and cosmic horror implications so it just only gets better. It's not just an undead dude coming back to kill Andrew Winthrop. His is ultimately a story about a working class man from a colonized and marginalized population of people in this country gains mystery cosmic horror powers to take power back into the hands of those people. People much better-educated than I on Chicano history have written extensively about US colonization in the regions that were formerly Mexico until their land was stolen from them, and so Cobb Avery's story, while set in the... 1950s? sort of? also has extremely strong echoes of the outcome of the Mexican-American War in the 1800s, and meanwhile extends the power fantasy out beyond him to the gang he has assembled which particularly in the film are shown mostly to be working-class nonwhite folks (and certainly mostly Latino but not exclusively) who have suffered from discrimination, deportation, racism and lynching and so many other awful fates throughout our country's history, and it's those people now who have been able to build something for themselves that puts the power to destroy back into their hands with Cobb Avery as a sort of dark folk hero.

idk I think about this a lot. I'll stop. I'm bordering on that other essay I threatened to write.

Favorite moment: Man.... so many. But the one I personally find really really satisfying in the music video at least is when the one girl stabs him and he just sort of smiles, and it's at that point they realize this dude is the best thing to ever happen to them and they are now ride or die for him and his cause. Coming together to defeat capitalism under the banner of a freaky undead guy.

But runner up in terms of how deeply intrigued I am is when Buck smacks into him in the movie and just gets temporarily flung into his own future in that dark forest after he's been black-brained. Cobb Avery what the fuck are you, man. Like what REALLY are you. I have a lot of thoughts and a lot of questions.

Idea for a story: I have an unfinished WIP that isn't really a story with any real plot but a reflection by Johnnie (so far, other character POVs would work here too) about how it feels to have this nonhuman creature living in their midst. This thing in human shape that was human once but is definitely not quite human now. I really love exploring the idea of Avery returned as someone who has very little grasp on who he once was except for the memories that drove him to revenge, and that somehow that scrap of humanity is filled out by the sort of dark World Ender entity that he is now a part of. More cosmic horror, and the gang as cultists who take his eagerly granted permissions for chaos and violence and just run with it. But because I don't have any actual plot I probably won't figure out how to finish writing this.

Unpopular opinion: Once again I don't think there are enough opinions in general for me to have one that's unpopular here. I think we all agree that whatever he is, the dude is a badass.

Favorite relationship: Not with any particular individual but with the gang as his thriving band of trouble, almost a force of nature themselves that spills forth not to exactly follow his instructions but simply to interpret his desire for destruction in however they like. But also, then, their reliance on each other as a family, with him at the center as some sort of inscrutable nonhuman leader they're in between respecting and worshiping, and how he meanwhile molds them into what he wants them to be by selecting leaders to serve directly under him and letting them loose. It's not a hierarchy it's a miasma. Found family but extra fucked up.

Favorite headcanon: I guess particularly my interpretation of what he is now, as being something much less human and probably slipping farther and farther away from it, except for those core retained memories that drove his revenge. Maybe he's soft for someone every now and then who reminds him of his wife, or daughter, but never in a way where that person could really be close to him or get to know him as a person, because he is a fraction of a much larger and older thing that sees them as a means to an end at best, and as little more than bugs to be occasionally herded otherwise. More alien, more monstrous, while he slicks back his hair and enjoys a cigarette and appears on the surface to be just another guy.

[yakkolicious]

ask game, ask game... hm... allan?

First impression: I was a typical little girl when I first saw Allan, and when I saw him in Taco Mia, I didn't hate him at all even though he had those scary eyes! He looked like a guy who acted tough but was soft to me. Like he needed a hug.

Impression now: Allan is one of my favorite boybosses. Blorbo from my games. If anything happened to him, I would be very upset. He's a huge part of why Papa's Mocharia is my favorite game! I just saw he was playable, could not pass up the chance to play as him, and now he's my all-time favorite Papa Louie character.

Favorite moment: Customers generally don't have a lot of unique moments, but my favorite Allan-specific one is probably the finale GIF of Papa's Next Chefs 2020 where he's just laughing evilly and standing behind Akari. His stance looks protective (even though I doubt Trishna could take Akari in a fight and Zak is absolutely useless in one) and that makes the Allari shipper in me very happy.

Idea for a story: Oh, I have a lot of AU ideas involving Allan, but I don't think I'll go through with them. I also do have that Taco Mia series I've been slacking on and Allan-Maggie relations are a huge focal point, but not sure when (or if considering how bad my school workload has been these days plus chores and rotating hyperfixations and my ever-growing watchlist) that'll be. Maybe I could use a writing prompt for some more Allari fluff in the future? I think I need to write some fluff with those two in the future.

Unpopular opinion: I think Allan is a lot softer than other people think he is and doesn't actually enjoy violence. I think his bullies instigated all their battles and Allan only fought to defend himself because talking and being jokey wasn't working. Nowadays, I think Allan relies more on the intimidation that comes from his looks, and if things are serious between people he cares about, he'll try to get them to talk it out. I will say that wouldn't apply to Munchmore baddies though if he ever got a chance to fight them.

Favorite relationship: Allari. I LOVE Allari and I'm sad that it isn't more popular. They have such a fun dynamic as a couple! They also fit pretty easily into popular ship dynamic types for those who like that. Also, I'm 100% convinced they're canon and Flipline is waiting for the right moment to confirm them.

Favorite headcanon: Honestly I like most Allan headcanons that come from Tumblr, so it's really hard to choose. I will say I headcanon Allan and Liezel are friends, and I definitely stole that from @magicmindless, so I'm gonna say that one's my favorite if I liked it enough to steal it.

[wriokitty]

im asking this just to know so dont need to answer as its related to your unpopular opinion! make a post confirming if you need but i just wanted to take a guess :3

is your unpopular wriothesley headcanon something related to him being a family man? cause i know it's a very popular headcanon and might upset people //gen

again, no need to answer and have a good day <3

Ur good JSHDH no my unpopular opinion was leaning more towards a sexual preference but I don’t wanna mention it bc I think far too many ppl enjoy this hc for me to say it without offending ppl/making them annoyed at me bc they think I’m wrong LOL

But I do think he can be a family man tbh. I don’t disagree with that hc exactly, I think he really has GREAT potential to be a family man, and I don’t really think he would dislike the idea of fatherhood but I do think he’d consider whether or not he’s an ideal candidate to raise a child bc I mean, raising a child under water with no sunlight in a prison is not the best place you know? I don’t think he would willingly raise a child in those circumstances—as in, I don’t think he’d have a planned pregnancy with his partner. BUT if the situation arises (like an unplanned pregnancy) where he does have to raise a child, I think he’d happily step up to the role. But I also think he sort of defaults to a lot of worst case scenarios of what could happen to him + his partner and how that might potentially lead to his child in the system and he absolutely refuses to let his child go into the system like himself. Realistically, I don’t think he ever really sits and thinks, one day, I’m gonna be a father. I think he more so just thinks, damn one day it’d be nice to be a dad but sort of accepts that it’s probably not in the books for him.

All that aside—I see a lot of ppl write wrio to spend the daytime in the fortress doing his duties, and coming up at night to the surface with reader in a shared home in fics, and I think that’s honestly a rather realistic possibility for him if he were to ever get into a serious relationship, so in that case he could probably consider a family with children in the picture. But I’m very convinced that if he was with a partner where they both were in the fortress 24/7 he would not consider children at all. Not willingly planned, at least

[cool-mint]

Thoughts on Xingqiu if no one has asked yet?

the Lad.........<3

First impression: I was happy to have a Hydro character and I thought his marital arts theming was cool (the backflip really impressed me xDD straight up went :0 when I used his skill for the first time. wtf boy you are made of Springs), but I was otherwise not digging into lore or characters much when I started and I liked him because he was a useful character to have with Kaeya.

Impression now: Look. Okay. *pulls you really close* He's my little guy. He's my little number one guy. I appreciate that he's so useful AND such a neat character. I think he's well-written, and a fascinating person. There's so much to unpack about his family and the reasons he acts the way he does, and I spent way too much time before I started writing for him and Lotte thinking about it.

Favorite moment: when I switch him out too soon after using his burst and his dialogue gets cut off so he says "witness the power of goo" because it's silly and always makes me laugh I didn't get to play the mystery event with him and Kazuha, Venti, and Ayaka, but I did watch it later and I love when he finally has to confess things that make him look like a loser nerd like "I stayed up too late reading my book" and "my handwriting is dogshit"...he's so perfectly poised all the time it's fun to see the real Xingqiu come out when he's embarrassed. I think it's okay that everyone makes fun of him for his handwriting, he's talented at everything else, this is his Achilles' Heel (without the downfall part) and it keeps him humble.

Idea for a story: Already writing it (sort of, it's technically more focused on my oc but Xingqiu plays a major part)! It's The Stag and the Rabbit (unfinished), and also the offshoot Through the Storm. It's mostly a budding teen romance with Life and The Fatui Getting In The Way™️.

Unpopular opinion: I don't engage with the fandom at large much and there's not a lot of Xingqiu content that I've seen that's not also Chongyun-related, so I guess I should say that from the very beginning I've always just appreciated them as bffs? Like...I get the shipping insofar as I get any shipping between friends, but they honestly just have huge close friend vibes to me. I'm not bothered by the ship at all, but it doesn't compel me.

Favorite relationship: I'M SO SORRY THIS IS PROBABLY BORING BUT IT'S HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH XU............like...the guy who works for the Feiyun Commerce Guild who got put on Xingqiu duty and I guess they never let him go home after that?? They are like surrogate father and son to me. Anyway I have a LOT of feelings about Xu and his relationship with Xingqiu. Admittedly, almost all of it is headcanon, but it started out with me reading between the lines a lot so. *slinks off before I start talking too much about it*

Favorite headcanon: His maternal grandmother is from Fontaine, and his mom spent some time growing up in Fontaine, which inspired Xingqiu's aesthetic preferences and his connection to justice.

[brinkworth]

Hiiii!!! Severus and Lily for the character game 💞💞

Ooohhh fun! Okay, Lily first!

How I feel about this character

Love Lily! How could you not, you know? She literally saved her son and the wizarding world with the ferocity of her love. I love that she was described as cheeky and vivacious, and that she clearly had no problem holding her own against James/Sirius or anyone else when they went against her values.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Mostly James, but I've read some Marylily that I've loved too!

My non-romantic OTP for this character

In canon, Severus. I don't think her friendship with him was necessarily healthy at times, but I do find it really interesting for both of their characters, and the impact it has on canon overall is too big to shove it to the side.

In non-canon settings, I love when she has a strong friendship with Remus. Not one where they're rolling their eyes at their dumb boyfriends, but one where they're a little offbeat.

My unpopular opinion about this character

The girlbossification of Lily Evans makes her, at times, insufferable. I think people feel the need to make her everything. Very "not like other girls". Just let her be a normal person with limitations and flaws, please.

Also, that she liked to have fun! I see her written a lot as the swotty prefect with her nose in the air, but I think she liked risk and I don't think she liked to be held back. She was probably a challenge, and James Potter liked a challenge!

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon

Oh my gosh, just MORE. More Lily Evans and more Lily Evans on her own, not as she relates to a man in her life. I wish there had been letters she'd written to Harry, or that he'd discovered things markings that his mother had made in the castle. In a canon-divergent setting, I remember reading a theory once that Lily was a descendent of Godric Gryffindor, and I think that could make a killer story.

Now Severus!

How I feel about this character

Oh boy. Well... I think he's a really interesting character. He showed a lot of bravery in what he did in canon, spying and getting close to Voldemort, and it's clear he had a lot of remourse over what happened with Lily. But oof. Making Harry pay for the sins of his father...

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Misery. 💀 Just kidding. I've not read much Snily, but I can see it in certain settings. I want to see someone write about that period of time when Snape and Peter are shacked up together during Deathly Hallows!

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I actually really like the bitchy relationship he has with Bellatrix in the few scenes we get to see them together. I also like his relationship with Professor McGonagall.

My unpopular opinion about this character

That Sirius was an ass for taunting him with the whole whomping willow thing, but Severus made a conscious decision to go down there, with a suspicion of what he'd e encountering. Also, in PoA, when Snape comes to the shack to drag Sirius off to the dementors, he had Remus' wolfsbane in his hand, when he saw the map. So he set it down and then went down to the shack, knowing it was a full moon. He's just as much to blame for Remus turning that night and endangering everyone as Remus.

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon

I wish we'd been able to see behind the scenes on some of the things he did when he was spying with Voldemort. To get back in his good graces while working at Hogwarts, and after not looking for Voldemort/coming to him when summoned during GoF, he must have been very convincing.

[georges-chambers]

hi! may i pretty please have your thoughts on your namesake george chambers for the character asks?

if you've already been asked about him then how about george hodgson instead? thank uuuuu!

Thank you so very much for both of these, I'll be delighting in answering both <333

George Chambers

First Impression: 'Oh! that's just a little guy. he looks kind of like me. such a little guy though, I'm sure he'll die next time I see him.... okay maybe next time... okay Definitely this-no?? oh wow.. wait did he Ever. actually die.'

Impression now: I have learned much more about his family and background than I expected and personally, I think he's a bit of a strange little freak (affectionate)

Favorite moment: Well, since he only has like 10 or less lines, and I've scraped all of them for So Much Meaning, its hard to choose, but I'm going with, "What's it lik to shoot a man?" because I really do think it best captures the fact that this is a little guy going up to one of the highest ranking cop soldiers on board (a rank his father once held. he may have very likely heard many stories from him about his life during that time) and just asking 'what's it really like to kill someone👁👁'.

Idea for a story: I've been thinking about writing about him and Golding when Golding was staying at the camp of the main members of the Expedition who were not mutinying undercover and the fact that Golding said he and Chambers saw the creature, and they would've shot it if 'we had our wits about us'. I chose to read this as him having had some interaction with Chambers at some point he knew Chambers wouldn't want to tell people the details of, which I'm just. I've been thinking about a lot. Because maybe Golding also Knew Chambers was scared to tell anyone what they were actually doing even if it would have implicated Golding, maybe he knew Chambers still felt a type of loyalty he didn't, but maybe he also knew Chambers was even more afraid of some sort of punishment. So eventually I Will need to write about what they were saying/doing.

Unpopular opinion: I'm not making him particularly nice nor do I think he was. There's the interest in the marines and the military of the empire but there's also the fact that, interestingly to me, he did come from probably the best-off background among the ships boys, and the line about, 'That eski girl' wherein He seems to have a new suspicion she's somehow connected to bad things happening no one really seems to. suggest to him.

Favorite relationship: In the book 'Graves od Ice' by John Wilson (no relation to the Franklin Expedition AB. To my knowledge.) I love whatever was going on between him and David Young, and I headcanon something similar to have been happening in the Terror (though the characterization of Young is very different). In the show of course I'm like many others and rotating whatever was going on between him and Bryant in my mind often.

Favorite headcanon: If counting historic things about him as canon (because otherwise, all of that), I love the backstory from Graves of Ice involving him having known David Young beforehand and I may constantly go with that. So much going on with them that I'm often thinking about.

George Hodgson

First impression: 'Okay, don't know his name either but he's very blond so he should be easy to keep track of'

Impression now: Well, there's just so much going on idk where to start. What if a very strange, very fluffy white cat were A Guy.

Favorite moment: Something about the fact that he was eating human flesh seated as the only real officer apart from all the other mutineers with a plate and fork on his lap of course as if, despite the fact that he has now literally become a cannibal, and despite the fact that he's not even united with the others, he's. somehow Above Them. Something about the completely silent way everything he's done has lead up to exactly that position exactly then.

Idea for a story: I don't know whether being born about a century earlier would have fixed him or made him worse but I'd like to see it. Honorable mention to the time I had a dream there was a surprising amount of George Chambers/George Hodgson ao3 fics (less than 10 but that alone was surprising)

Unpopular opinion: Idk if its that unpopular but I feel like the fandom doesn't often acknowledge how he did personally know at least 2 of the Erebite lieutenants/officers (Fitzjames, Dundy, and Des Voeux, maybe Stanley?) and while I like the dynamic he has with the Terror officers so I completely understand their interest in that, I'm into it too, I wish his dynamic with the Erebite officers got more attention.

Favorite relationship: Very tough choice, but I love most Hodgving content and in a non-shipping (necessarily) way, I'm very fascinated by the potential dynamic between him and Des Voeux, who, historically, he'd have met in the Opium war when he was in his earlier 20s and Des Voeux would've been like 14. And whatever Hodgson has going on with Crozier is Very interesting to me.

Favorite Headcanon: I like to think there's a lot going on there gender-wise. The Marie Antoinette Carnivale outfit . Lives in my brain forever. And again, the Des Voeux dynamic is basically purely my historical speculative headcanon, but its special to me.