#And they say this show is badly written…

[rareomens]

Oh hey, no. Don't do that. Please.

This is a bit of a read but I've spent a long time thinking and editing, and I'm saying this all gently but seriously.

I imagine the above was NOT intentionally said to prick anyone's emotions, but this kind of comment on Rare Omens prompts is like saying it about any of them. It reminds me that so many of these pairs are only tolerated at best by the majority of folks in the fandom. (Every one of these prompts has people who don't like or even actively hate them. Take a look at the prompt list in our pinned post, and marvel at that statement but know it to be true.)

This prompt month event has a "don't like? ignore it and move on" policy. Trust me from experience with my own rare ships: we hear the disgust or hate enough, we know others aren't into it.

If you don't like something, that's okay! If you want to talk about not liking it, that's also okay. BUT PLEASE don't reply to people who are clearly having their fun in a post. It's not necessary and it only makes people feel badly to see it directly in the notifs. It only digs away at feeling welcome to whatever we get from enjoying a pair (or OT3, or polycule, etc). And that can lead to feeling unwelcome in the wider fandom the rest of the time... which is absolutely devastating to feel.

You can post separately and start a conversation to find people who feel similarly if you feel strongly and want to have those conversations—though hating on rare pairs/characters is common and such posts are probably not necessary. Anyone doing so: please DO NOT TAG a ship in your tags when hating on it. Bc the people most likely searching that tag? They DO like it, and don't need to wade through a bunch of negative comments to find fellow fans.

I started Rare Omens bc it was hard to find transformative works for ships I liked (be it as a couple or ANY OTHER way you can pair characters up—as a reminder: it doesn't have to be NSFW; it doesn't have to be SFW either of course). I wanted to find other people who enjoyed what I enjoyed. And to help people experiment with making stories and art they otherwise might never have thought about. And it has gone really well! I've seen NSFW ships, and friend ships, and respected enemies, hated enemies, and AUs of all shapes. Participants over the years have mentioned that they never would've thought to try writing certain characters in stories or draw them off on adventures. THAT, I love. We know there's ever anyone out there excited for their faves and waiting for it.

I also want to say...

I saw this reply earlier today but I was out at a showing of Macbeth where I made the acquaintance of a bunch of Good Omens fans (ranging in age from 20s to 60s at a guess). One of them even cosplays Metatron, and their Crowley and Aziraphale showed pics. It was real fun to see them include a rarer character in their cosplay group. I didn't have a chance to reply to this until now, and I'm glad I waited. I'm thinking about that cosplayer too: it can be disheartening to see "your" rare character excluded from the fun of transformative works.

Right. All this to say:

Please be kind to your fellow fans, even when they're playing with the dolls in ways you would never.

We don't have to force ourselves to like anything or interact with it (in fact: don't interact, talk privately to your friends who understand), but we gotta let people have their sandbox too. Because if we're excluding our weirdest and wildest takes, the most gloriously crackfic pairings possible, then we're not safe for anyone. We're not transforming anything.

Ship and let ship.

Thank you.

[UPDATE] Docdust and I have chatted. They've adjusted their comment. They are friends with the others and meant it in a positive way. So new addendum 😅: inside jokes outside our groups can be seen by others who might not know our history or what we're doing with RP.

I'm glad no one was really hating on a pair. And I'm equally glad to have Rare Omens' stance on it all written out here. Thank you all for continuing to be supportive of each other!

It’s Rare Omens 2025 Day 4

Aziraphale and Metatron!

Are the Guardian and the Voice lovers, enemies, siblings, friends, work colleagues? Share your prompt fills of the Guardian and the Voice and tag us.

You can also post to the **AO3 collection** Rare_Omens, which we'll check regularly throughout the prompt month.

[ninadove]

hi!

i’m so sorry if you’ve already made a post or answered an ask like this before, but i remember you saying a couple times how the lovesquare is queer-coded.

i think that’s such an interesting observation, and i was wondering if you’d be willing to elaborate on that a little more?

i’d love to hear your thoughts!! and thank you for taking the time to read this. :)

Absolutely Anon! Thanks for dropping by! ❤️🖤

I’m sure there are a lot of wonderful, more complete posts on the topic out there — my Sentikids tunnel vision means I don’t always grant other characters/relationships the attention they deserve. That being said, here are some things that popped into my head:

1. Secret identities

You know ‘em, you love ‘em. Secret identities are the core of the show — the very reason the Love Square is a square! Hiding part or the entirety of who you are for safety reasons is a theme most queer people unfortunately relate to, and the great thing is that we get two very different perspectives on the matter from our two protagonists.

For Adrien, Chat Noir means freedom: being away from his father’s grasp (read: from a power structure that tries to sculpt him into something perfect and bland — more on that later) allows him to become bolder, funnier, more like himself or at least more like the person he wants to be — which very prominently features being in love with Ladybug, aka exploring romantic connections outside of Kagami, the only acceptable option for Adrien.

And yet… Chat Noir is also something dangerous. When Chat Noir gets rejected, Adrien tries to renounce his Miraculous, aka to bury this part of himself as far down as possible; when Chat Noir gets unmasked by Ladybug, the object of his affections, IT’S THE LITERAL END THE WORLD (twice and a half now). There’s an entire post to be made about Cat Walker and Aspik and Adrien folding himself into what he thinks Ladybug’s perfect partner should be.

The point is: Adrien being himself puts him (and the people he loves) in harm’s way, both emotionally and physically. You see the themes, I see the themes, we cry together and hold hands.

Marinette, on the other hand, fucking hates being Ladybug for most of the series. She wants to be a normal girl (!) with a normal life (!!) and it’s just not happening. The reason? There’s something about her that no one knows yet (!!!) ‘cause she has a secret (!!!!).

If anything, being Ladybug keeps getting in the way of her romantic shenanigans: she can’t be with Adrien/Chat Noir because Apocalypse, she can’t be with Cat Walker because her Lucky Charm doesn’t like him, she can’t be with Luka because she has to lie all the time! Not only that, it endangers her friendships as well, as seen in The Gang of Secrets. Look at the wording of her talk with Alya in this episode:

“I won’t try to figure it out our force it out of you. If you can’t tell me what’s in your heart… it’s your right.”

“Will we still be friends?”

“Marinette, I’m your best friend, and I’ll always be. That’s why it kills me that I can’t help you with whatever’s making you feel so alone.”

[…] “You know why I broke up with Luka? Not because I don’t like him! He’s amazing! It’s because there’s something that I can’t tell him. You know why I have to forget Adrien? For the exact same reason. You’re right! I keep secrets, I lie all the time, I lie to my friends, to my parents, everyone, and the worst thing is I can’t do it any other way. […] I tell you, things will never be the same between us again, it will mess up everything — maybe even destroy it!

“Marinette, I’m your very best friend.”

“And I… I’m Ladybug.”

If this isn’t a coming out scene, I don’t know what is.

Of course, Marinette progressively steps into her role as a superheroine and learns to navigate her relationships accordingly — but she’s still carrying this secret that sets her apart from the rest of the world. It’s the othering, isolating part of queerness, and it’s really well portrayed throughout the seasons.

2. The Adrigaminette-to-Lukadrinette pipeline

I cannot not mention it, because what the hell was going on here.

Adrigaminette felt less like a love triangle and more like the girls voting themselves out of the polycule in quick succession. We got an entire episode of the three of them running around, holding hands and jumping in ballpits together. Both Adrien and Kagami went heart eyes over Marinette’s loose hair.

Then André came in with his cart and clown shoes and said “Nah you can’t all share the Magical Ice Cream Of Romance. :( Yeah sorry my ice cream is for two people and two people only. :( Also I guess I could serve Marigami and Marigami only but the flavours would taste gross together. :( Don’t look into the subtext too much” HE JUST HAD TO RUIN IT FOR THEM DIDN’T HE

I’m really happy he ruined it for them, for bird reasons, but still. Adrigami is also the one time we get to see Chat Noir ruin Adrien’s love life, and most of the fuel for my aroace Adrien thoughts, but I digress — LUKADRINETTE

Luka is in the unique position of knowing both Ladybug and Chat Noir’s identities, aka the most secret part of their souls, and immediately went in repression mode in Wishmaker upon finding out his two crushes were basically soulmates. It pays off in Migration, when he becomes their de facto safe place, the one person they know has both of their backs no matter what. Just look at the way they all look at each other:

With Marinette knowing she does not have to lie to him anymore and Adrien being Adrien. I’m sorry but in my mind they both independently proposed to him right then and there. This is the timeline I live in now.

Parenthesis over. Let’s get back to business:

3. Feligami Adrinette

By which I mean the themes explored throughout their relationship.

Adrinette’s story has always been about rescuing Adrien from the abusive environment he grew up in, as Marc and Nathaniel so helpfully drove across through their delightful storyboards:

(Note the gender role reversal here, blurring the lines between Marinette and Ladybug as she takes on the role of the knight in shining armour, while Adrien is the princess locked away in her tower… Adrien’s gender deserves another other essay in itself, but for today, let’s just agree that he is Not Cis.)

In S5, this theme escalates into a full-on Romeo and Juliet situation. Gabriel and Tomoe are of course the main obstacles to Adrinette’s happy ending: given A. Gabriel’s history of forcing his son into a mold, B. the strict expectations placed on Tsurugi women and C. the oppressive, uniformly white world they want to create through Perfect Alliance (Perfect!!! Alliance!!! Rings!!! Marriage!!!), it’s not a stretch to see them as the messengers of a certain vision of masculinity, femininity and relationships. You see it, I see it, Marinette doesn’t see it because she’s too busy sobbing on the floor, which finally brings me to my favourite thing ever:

“But Nina!” I hear you protest, “you’re making everything about Feligami again!” To which I reply: first of all, yes I am. Second of all, you can’t stop me. Third of all —

Third of all, characters don’t exist in a vacuum, and this is particularly true of the Adrinette & Feligami quartet. Kagami’s name literally means mirror; Felix is a foil to Adrien, of course, but also to Marinette (and Gabriel and Emilie and a bunch of other characters and I love him so much but let’s not stray too far from the point). Of course Feligami is going to parallel and contrast Adrinette, especially since Felix is Aware of the Themes and Motifs and has decided to make it everyone’s problem.

So in June (!) 2023, a little thing called Representation (!!) aired.

There are sooo many things to say about the queer-coding of the Senti-lore in general and of Felix and Feligami in particular. Today, though, I want to draw your attention to the way the kids talk about themselves at the end of the play, drawing clear narrative links to the Love Square (and most specifically Ladybug):

“You know what it’s like to not be able to love the one you want.”

“To constantly fight to save the people you love.”

“To have to lie all the time and never reveal who you truly are.”

[Wipes a single tear away] They grow up so fast…

At the end of the day, this is what both Feligami and the Love Square are all about: embracing who you are and the love you feel, no matter its form, in a world that perpetually tries to enslave and/or kill you for it. I don’t know about you, but I find it hella queer in nature.

Thank you for coming to my DUUSUTalk! 💙🦚

[raggedy-spaceman]

Why am I seeing people suddenly saying Good Omens s2 was actually badly written? It was a fun little journey into the lives of Crowley and Aziraphale with lower stakes than s1, it was a lot of fun and that’s what it was supposed to be, fun. Does the fact that the plot is simple and a little goofy means it’s badly written now? Why? Not every show has to be mind blowing high brow super deep and meaningful, sometimes they can just be silly. 

Hell, What We Do In The Shadows is 5 seasons of dumb vampires doing stupid stuff with no plot whatsoever and it’s one of my all time favourite shows, sometimes we can have just that and it’s ok!

[dellinah]

You know what. Who wants a damn ramble.

These two pieces of media are very unrelated but I promise they make me feel similar things in opposite ways

Maybe bc i watched both in the same week but anyway

I've seen both Mufasa 2024 and HB several times having their writing and plots compared to "fanfiction" and obviously it's an insult and people never go any deeper than that but I'm tired of accepting that fanfic-y plots aren't hella cool sometimes and that it's all the same bc it's really not and also man it's really not that deep in the end oh my God

Bc you know what. We write/read fanfiction bc we want silly guilty pleasures that we rarely see in "professional" writing and we want to see those cool tropes happening. But then when those tropes do happen people complain that it isn't professional enough??? So what the fuck do you want then

Like Loona having a demon feral wolf form is PEAK deviantart 2012 furry fanfic headcannon but also. That's so fucking cool man. I love her. People ask oh why does she have a demon form but man why should she NOT. Yeah you'd see it in fanfics but isnt that bc we want it. It's in character and in universe and it's cool and I love it bc it's so random but it doesn't destroy the universe and it's COOL it really doesn't go deeper than that man

Meanwhile Mufasa writing is fanfic-y in the way that it has a lot of tropes that you see in TLK fanfiction (white lions, made up lion biology, etc) but it's also BAD bc it's sooo badly connected and the pacing is terrible but also they don't even DO anything cool with it. It doesn't do anything new or exciting with the wacky ideas they decide to use. It doesn't do anything cool with white lions. It doesn't do anything cool with Mufasa being adopted. All comes and goes and leaves no impact.

It'd be the same if they'd randomly introduced Loona's wolf form while she was on the phone or smth. Literally nobody would find that cool the way we are now bc it's hella cool THE WAY they did it

Like fanfics can be bad or good and that's fine bc the only reason they exist is to be self-serving and I give them all the right to be as dumb and as badly written as they deserve and for some people it's just stress relief and some people are literally 11yos having fun. Do whatever you want

But when you have some kind of production then yeah, we expect some level of quality. I just don't think that being "fanfiction level / fanfic-y" is inherently bad you know. It's about how you use it

Both Loona being a feral demon and the whole Mufasa movie have a lot of fanfic tropes but one of them used it in cool ways and the other used it in dumb ways but the tropes themselves aren't the problem you know

I just don't think that fanfic tropes are inherently bad and I'm tired of acting as if they are. Fuck I love THE LION GUARD over Mufasa because The lion guard actually does cool stuff with whatever they did and embraced it being as insane as it is while Mufasa just threw random stuff and didn't do anything with the tropes they used. I would be SO INTO Mufasa having white lions and ghosts and magic and fights and lion monarchies if they bothered to do anything cool with it.

I don't know man. It's not that deep. Sometimes stuff can be silly but also cool. Media can be silly and fanfic-y as long as they write it in a cool way. Which Helluva Boss did and Mufasa didn't and that's the point

Have a great night

[eyebulb]

Exactly.. I've seen so many people who are so hyped about the Stolitz storyline.. so Idk where they get off thinking their opinion is the only real one. Same with saying that it's badly written just cus it didn't go the way they thought it would. Like dang.. do as any normal person would and just stop watching instead of spreading your hate around like a weird pissing contest. I personally don't want fandom to get involved in any writing done for any show. Fan service feels ingenuine and fake almost 100% of the time and I'd much rather just be an onlooker for another artists vision. I'm an artist myself.. and there's nothing more soul-crushing than doing stuff ONLY for other people. You gotta be passionate about your own product otherwise that disinterest is gonna leak into your creation... Helluva Boss is 3 years behind it's writing so really our opinions are irrelevant for where the show goes and I'm SO happy with that. I myself don't care what they do with the plot honestly.. I fell in love with the characters and as long as they stay true to who they are (growing included) I'm gonna enjoy watching anything they do. At the end of the day, this is a story about Blitz, the Helluva Boss himself, and his life. Stolas is his love interest, meaning he'll automatically get a spot in the plot. Lots of people like him, myself included. And honestly, I'd much rather take a romance where you get to know BOTH characters equally instead of the love interest just being there to be the "partner" and nothing else. Happens way too often in straight media.. there's a reason people like to ship with the friend over the actual lover.

People criticizing helluva boss for being focused on stolitz really do think their opinion is universal, and that EVERYONE would agree the show took a turn for the worse, when honestly me (and I guess other people as well) only really started gaining real interest in the show when the stolitz story picked up.

Not that I'm saying that's the only right direction they could have taken (since I don't have this weird desire to dictate what other creators do with their projects), but it just happened naturally for me. I've been watching the first few episodes (while trying to fill the void hazbin has left in my heart lol), generally enjoying but not too invested, and then gradually, the more Stolas and stolitz I got, it consumed me entirely.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, at the end of the day, it's about taste. My taste is maybe closer to the creators, I love romance, I love redemption, I love characters like Stolas (he very quickly became my favorite), and I'm completely okay with sacrificing some of the original premise of a murder business (as fun as it is) to focus on these elements.

And it's totally okay if some other people were disappointed and liked the beginning better. I don't understand being that aggressive about it, but oh well, that's their issue not mine 🤷‍♀️

[sludgekludge]

can you elaborate on your feelings on vassago?

this blogs becoming what i use to kill time while i wait for my laundry to finish hi. first thing i did today was spill my entire water bottle on my bed. i think vassago is, at best, introduced too early, and at worst, shouldn't exist.

best case is that i think they gave him a poor introduction with functionally no personality outside of 'are you winning son' 'OMG STOLAS!' i genuinely don't get what people like about him. he doesn't do or say anything substantial. it's bc he's yaoi bait and that's it

worst case i think he's just a bad character for the plot. it seems like this dude has some history with stolas (if we ignore that stolas awkwardly does not acknowledge the weird fan behaviour whatsoever lmfaoooo) when stolas was like…established to be living this miserable lonely friendless life. no one likes stolas and he's not respected by his peers. he seems to have pretty bad people skills, and that's being generous. the one real light he has in his life aside from his affair partner (an affair of which should be motivated by that loneliness), allegedly his daughter…and fucking guy we've never heard of until now hiii vassago hi!!! i'll eat my words if i'm wrong but i can't really fathom how stolas having 1 guy who's been in his corner this whole time aids in his narrative, like, at all.

utterly baffling introduction. it's awkward and bizarre. it acts like we should already know who this guy is, almost. if he's going to be important later, fine, but he should've been introduced later then. mastermind was basically nothing. it's barely an introduction at all. equivalent of like, someone asking me to introduce myself, and all i say for 5 minutes is I UFUCKING LOVE THE COLOUR YELLOW, like ok. what else man

[kingsragesqueal]

stolas asking blitz "have u ever apologized to anyone?" is literally so fucking wild because yeah, yeah he has actually?? have *you* ever apologized to anyone? i can only think of two times u've apologized and both of them were to octavia, after you fucked up majorly and ignored her needs and made her feel unloved and alone. also did u ever apologize to blitz for *takes out comically long scroll*

coercing him into a sexual relationship (he admitted it was wrong, but never apologized)

using him as an object in more way than one, including putting out a cigarette on his horn (99% sure that imps have feeling/sensation in their horns. he didn't seem to be in any pain but tbf we know he's into some freaky shit....but STILL)

calling him an "impish little plaything," "itty bitty imp," "blitzy," etc

embarrassing him in public and dirty talking to him on the phone with your daughter in the same room

treating his entire race as a whole like complete and utter trash then denying it and basically saying "UM i don't see color (species) uwu~"

trying to make him feel guilty for not rescuing you when he was taking his daughter to get a very important shot that literally prevents her from dying which she is five years overdue for already, a daughter who is also terrified and needs his support (being a supportive dad? what's that lol)

so many other things i can't even think of rn

no? no. then shut the fuck up u ugly ass bird

[goemon-fan]

This was easily one of the best Lupin episodes

[purpleshimmer]

I know Arcane is good because despite there being two characters that I hate (marcus and finn) it feels wrong saying I hate them because they're such well-written and interesting characters

[itspileofgoodthings]

okay but just thinking about how dark it is that Anthony’s kind of ultimate fantasy isn’t marrying Kate —it’s being married to her sister while lusting after Kate, his honor about to SNAP

[mortysmith]

Fuck you season five episode nine genuinely some of the worst shit they clobbered together

[soukeyed]

got so caught up in the euphoria of replaying sa2 and shadow05 that for a minute i lived in a world where his current character of just being a prick for no reason didnt exist

[nopejustnoped]

the combination of kishimoto‘s misogyny + dudebro misogyny + fujoshi misogyny turned into Extreme Maximum Intensity Misogyny and changed the whole anime landscape in regards to misogyny discourse

To me it kind of feels like badly written female characters used to be a downside to shounen (albeit a downside used as a shield by dudebros to call female characters whatever they want without receiving backlash) and now its part of its appeal.

[glamfellens]

.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

You know, I'm glad that some of us take the step to embrace things that we like even if they're "cringe" or "objectively bad"

But perhaps we could take the next step forward and embrace the idea of reading into books/shows/movies/etc even if they don't seem deep. Perhaps we could understand that the two kinds of media aren't either "shallow and meaningless so you're weird and brainrotted to read into it" or "incredibly and profoundly deep in every way so if you don't analyze every single angle of the thing then you're brainrotted". Some media is deeper than others, but all I propose is that no matter how deep it seems it's acceptable to dig into the thing and take the media seriously instead of just assuming that because of ____ thing (such as target audience or how cringe it is) the media not deep and will never be deep and everything good about it happened on accident.

[spicyicymeloncat]

Okay here’s another controversial “Green family take” tell me if I’m wrong.

“People who hate Harumi and Lloyd family dynamic ignore that Lloyd and Morro also shouldn’t have a family dynamic, when Morro did the exact same thing”

Because besties I agree I honestly think green cousins doesn’t make much sense either since yknow Morro and the whole possession thing, but at the same time if you look at canon, they just aren’t the same thing and yknow I need people to actually stop looking at Harumi as the girl version of Morro and the only reason we hate her is because she’s a girl.

Because she’s not.

Like yes I agree there’s definitely a lot of bias towards Morro, if he was woman he would be demonised to hell and back but since he’s man then he is adored, and vice versa with Harumi and sexism fucking sucks.

But Harumi and Morro are different guys. Harumi is portrayed as worse in canon in Lloyd’s eyes. Yeah Lloyd got possessed by Morro and that’s obviously bad tm but other than what people assume possession entails, Lloyd was never as shaken as he was with Harumi.

In s5, we never saw Lloyd be conflicted about the possession thing. He had no fear of Morro. We have no reason to believe that a ghost possession feels worse than being a sleep and maybe having a vague awareness of what’s going on. He barely mentions Morro after s5. And I will say I think this is a writing flaw, obviously it would’ve been cooler if Morro actually had some kind of impact on the ninja, but regardless this is the canon. Lloyd hates Morro but he’s not traumatised yknow. It’s not to the point that Harumi got to.

I feel like getting possessed should be worse than getting lied to, but Harumi did on top of it, start a cult in his name, Kill actual Characters (the royal family and Hutchins) and then kidnap Lloyd and his mother and his uncle and then resurrect his father removing vital parts of his father’s mind/personality/emotional cognitive abilities etc. on top of that she also nearly killed the ninja and wu (which Lloyd believed she did).

Somehow she was much more dangerous than Morro was, she was a much more successful villain.

Additionally I would say Morro has more of an excuse to be seen as family, even if I I’m less of a green cousins fan. Because Morro and Wu actually have a father son relationship, in which Wu was actually responsible over Morro. They had a normal albeit imperfect dynamic before Morro left. Regardless of Lloyd and Morro’s interactions, that dynamic was still present even in the very end.

It doesn’t mean and Lloyd and Morro have to be buddies, just because there’s a family connection doesn’t mean shit (this is the show of found family have we learned nothing? Blood connections don’t matter, only friendship).

But like in comparison to Harumi and Garmadon’s absolute parody of a relationship, where Harumi turns to the man who doesn’t remember what love is and asks him to be her father (at this point neither of them know what “father” even means), Morro does have a family dynamic and Harumi does not.

So in response to the original quote, Morro has a much more solid claim to any kind of family dynamic bc his relation to Wu is much more family esq, and also he was bad yeah, but the show portrays Harumi as worse especially in Lloyd’s opinion.

I just don’t like the argument that Morro and Harumi have done the same things, when the severity is definitely different imo and they aren’t just copies of each other. Imo it’s an oversimplification to reduce their characters down to each other.