#I WILL put this one in the show/character tags because there are like. actual Thoughts™ here and not just me screaming lmao

[musical-chick-13]

Oh my god, oh my god, Mamao x Suirei!!!!

YEAH

Obligatory "I have not read the light novels, so some of these questions probably get answered," but. Every single thing about this dynamic makes me to the real life equivalent of the eyes emoji. Why does Suirei give Maomao a warning when she wanders into a forbidden area of the court? She didn't have to. Given the other court ladies' reactions to Maomao, that might have even been a risk. Suirei's very complicated assassination plan has been in the making for a while, and letting anything about it slip is definitely a risk. Why give Maomao any hint of the "resurrection drug" and test her in the first place? Is she looking for an ally? Is she just happy that someone might be able to keep up with her medicinal knowledge? Does she have any sort of sympathy for Maomao because of this? Why does Maomao think she's capable of identifying whether Suirei would be the type of person to kill herself when she barely knows her? Maomao has met other intelligent people (who she did not ever think were going to kill her with a scythe), why are her respect for and excitation over Suirei so intense?

Suirei was able to catch onto Maomao's interest in medicine almost immediately, just from seeing her go somewhere she wasn't supposed to. Maomao takes note of what she smells like. And when she's complaining about not having Suirei's drugs, the memory we see onscreen isn't of the hill or of Suirei gathering herbs or of the coffin, it's just...Suirei standing up, looking into the distance and specifically mentioning morning glories--it wasn't of her specifically mentioning the Resurrection Drug, it was of her saying the comment that was specifically meant as a test for Maomao (okay, yes, I know this is a stretch, let me live).

And a lot of this is wrapped up in the fact that finally someone in Maomao's orbit also possesses medicinal skills and is good at making use of them. But given how committed we've seen Maomao be in regard to making sure harmful behavior gets acknowledged as harmful (such as her intimidating defense of Lishu's food allergies, absolutely losing it over the poisonous face powder, turning Fengming in, actively putting herself at risk of violence to stop the ceremony that was meant to assassinate Jinshi, even her refusal to refer to her parents as her parents and have a relationship with Lakan), for her reaction to Suirei trying to destabilize the entire political atmosphere to be not only a lack of condemnation but active enthusiasm for her intelligence is...that is a HUGE deal.

We haven't really seen Maomao get this feral over anyone on a personal level. And Suirei has no logical reason (that we know of) to take an interest in Maomao (who is a complete unknown and possible roadblock to Suirei's plans) at all. I am very much looking forward to seeing more of them when season 2 happens (and in the light novels if I get around to reading them), and I hope this ship gains more traction because THEY GREATLY COMPEL ME.

[silverraes]

10 BL Characters I Would Hit With My Car

big thank you to @buddhamethods for starting this. I thought it sounded like a fun idea and just had to participate because I have Opinions™ :)

I am hitting some of these characters with only the best intentions and some of them out of pure spite

1) Shin (Bake Me Please)

if you've seen me post about this show or if you've seen it yourself, you know exactly why this guy is on here and also why he's the main reason why I just had to join in on this trend

square up, Shin, I'm hitting you with my car for all that bs and also to help with your character development a little <3

(I didn't find a fitting gif so have a pic as a great summary for why he's on here instead)

2) Way (Pit Babe)

listen I love him. after all if evil why pretty? but he's also a b*tch and he deserves to get hit by a car a little. as a treat. he's my pathetic little meow meow and I love to see him suffer (affectionate) <3

I'm also doing this as a public service so that Babe and Charlie can stay in their weird mama & papa boyfriends era without Way pulling his mind fuckery tricks on Babe

3) Kim (Kinnporsche)

hitting him with my car very lovingly simply bc he made Chay sad and we can't have that. maybe a little car accident can get him to actually admit that he's head over heels in love.

(and also because this man is way too pretty and I need to confirm that he's actually human)

4) Top (Only Friends)

listen. I believe that all of the Only Friends characters deserve to get hit by a car a little. all of them. but this man dared to say that he was serious and then went ahead and slept with someone else so. there's that.

5) Xue Yang (The Untamed/MDZS)

the most evil fucker for absolutely no reason. completely irredeemable. has the world's worst reason for being evil. I love him so much.

this guy is so fucked up that he managed to spend 3 years being all domestic with his nemesis only to realize that he actually developed feelings for him after he had already caused his death

there is absolutely no way to fix him but I'm still hitting him with my car for the amount of emotional damage he caused me with those god damn pieces of candy

6) Akk (The Eclipse)

I love him to bits and that is exactly why I'm knocking him tf out. very lovingly and rather softly but enough to give him some time off. because he deserves a break from all of the absolutely godawful authority figures in his life and what they're putting him through

7) August (Last Twilight)

this fucking b*tch.

I don't think I need to explain why I'm coming at him full speed. this is an act of public service, your honor, I'm doing nothing wrong.

8) Phee (Dead Friend Forever)

okay I know we've only had him for one single episode but this man is already stressing me out with the way he just threw away his cigarette bud in the middle of a god damn forest. sir what are you doing.

I'm only preserving the environment by hitting him with my car and getting him out of that forest, really

(also I can't pinpoint why but this guy is sus af and I don't trust him)

(the scene of crime, your honor)

9) Sprite & Zee's mom (Twins)

after @buddhamethods already took care of Zee (thank you for your service), I am volunteering to take out their mom. this woman needs the world's biggest wake-up call and since her own damn son ending up in a hospital didn't seem to do the trick, maybe herself ending up there will help

10) GramBlack double feature (Not Me)

the absolute audacity of these men to not be in love? after all of that?? I'm hitting them with my car because maybe ending up in hospital beds next to each other will finally get someone to admit that that G did not stand for Eugene what the actual fuck

(listen there are barely any scenes with actual Black and Gram together I'm working with the smallest of crumbs here bear with me)

tagging all of my moots. all of you. if you consider me your mutual, consider yourself tagged.

[haemosexuality]

i went insane rambling on the tags of this post about princess bubblegum and ran out of space so i copy pasted it here so i could finish writing. under read more bc idk

tbf i dont think i would say pb is like... Good. well actually. wait. im gonna go on a rant.

i think it depends on how we classify ''good''. what makes someone a good person? what makes someone evil? thoughts or actions‚ past or present‚ etc. i honestly dont think i can firmly say bubblegum is either good or evil. shes one of the few truly morally grey characters ive seen. like

no matter what you think makes someone good or bad she has most certainly been bad in every single way. and also good in every single way. hm.

. she is not a naturally empathetic person. thats not to say she doesnt care about people‚ she does‚ and sometimes those feelings influence her actions a Lot even if she doesnt realize it. but also‚ even when it comes to those she cares about‚ emotional empathy is a struggle. shes the definition of thoughts over feelings 100% scientific brain facts and logic. she is Very egoistical‚ she likes being in control and having power over people (not bc shes power hungry per se but bc thats the best way to keep control over others. shes Logical. and if she has control than nothing can go wrong)‚ she likes not being questioned and she did and still does often disregard other peoples rights and privacy to get what she wants and to be on top/have control over them. she does care‚ about a bunch of different things in a bunch of different ways‚ but caring about someone/multiple ppl and naturally feeling empathy are different things. she needs to make an effort to take other peoples feelings into consideration‚ and while not feeling empathy and etc obviously has absolutely NOTHING to do with morality‚ the thing about pb is that most of the time she does not make that effort‚ and actively does things that hurt other people for her own gain‚ or for Science™ or the Kingdom™. she doesn't care ab how other people feel or their privacy and she does like government crimes and mass murders and a surveillance state about it. she cares deeply about her people for example‚ but not really them as individuals‚ shown when she likes fucking kills them or put cameras on their bodies etc. shes more worried about them surviving than their autonomy. she cares about finn‚ but specially at the beginning she treats him more as an asset than anything‚ and does shit like implant a gps on him without him knowing. and while shes Always liked control and been all logical alpha brain and shit‚ and struggled with sympathy‚ she used to care a lot lot more. or better, she used to Allow herself to care and to love and to feel‚ she build herself a family because she felt lonely and she loved marceline deeply. but like the post and the show said she kept being hurt and she needed to protect an entire kingdom alone‚ which meant repressing all that to fucking hell and back. so she slowly just build up and let her ''no sympathy no feelings only Facts And Science'' side rule until she forgot anything else

and thats how we meet bubblegum in the show: manipulative and head of a dictatorship and with no one she truly cared about close to her, doing awful awful things and not taking time to remember about others. what are morals. being just so very fucked up

like

your thoughts and brain and whatever do not make you evil. your actions do. but her actions are terrible and she does the things she does bc sympathy and caring do not come naturally for her, but being waaay to super mega smart and wanting control Do and she has hardened and isolated herself enough that she has no one to like, pull her out of that. keep her in check. remind her to make an effort to consider other people.

in the show, we see her begin to try and be good again. by letting other people in, by letting herself feel, letting herself be a Person outside of being a Princess and a Ruler and a Scientist, she begins to make that effort again. and bc shes like a war criminal that comes not only in the form of apologizing for those who are or were close to her and she was awful too, but also destroying the surveillance system and stop spying on people. she tries to begin having good actions. she realizes what she had been doing, and feels guilty about it (for... probably the first time honestly. she was very indifferent about it before. everything she did was the most logical thing to do, after all.) i say shes still firmly morally grey tho bc while shes no longer like Evil, she still. goes back to spying on people and etc. shes still Like That, just toned down. all that show that while shes getting Better shes still not good, and probably will never be, because thats just how she is. crazy scientist manipulative pink candy princess. shes the best

she was also never truly evil tho bc even at her worse her actions were not to cause harm! Most Of The Time! and when they were to cause harm it wasnt just bc she was idk a sadist or something, it was with a goal (usually the neutral goal of Science or the good goal of protecting her people) in mind! Theyre still not excusable tho bc they did cause harm! a lot! to a bunch of different people! and like she does care a lot she loves marceline she loves finn she loves netty and she loved shoko but she just doesnt KNOW how to love people and all of those feelings are like behind a brick wall in her brain so she just tries to science everything out and it doesnt always work. like ARGH such a good character. such a good morally grey character. i ❤ bubblegum. i love watching the show and flinching at all the terrible shit she does and being like jesus christ bubblegum what the fuck

anyways here are more good pb analysis

xxxxx

i want to keep ADDING THINGS but this is huge so im just gonna reblog a bunch of posts ab her now goodbye

[cat-vase]

OOOO how do you think block and christina would interact in the future when they're both adults since block was just randomly adopted by the puppingtons?

i’ve had the entire night to think about this, but i still really don’t know! while i’m trying to develop these characters we don’t see much of more, i haven’t thought this far ahead yet! 

i think... she would be happy for him. that he got out of their household, i mean. and while the puppington household isn’t much better, at least he has shapey, y’know? and that means she’s alone, but... you can’t not be happy for your siblings, even if their happiness directly reflects into your sadness. ... speaking about that from experience. i feel like she has a lot of fondness in her voice when she talks about him with orel, when he shows up to trade him for shapey (and fails), but maybe that’s just her liking orel and me seeing what i want to see.

i think it would be really weird to have your sibling be... not your sibling? anymore? just a distant friend, so close yet so far away at the same time. at first when they’re adults (and can finally see each other again without either ones’ parents being in the picture) i feel like it’d be really awkward, especially if they don’t have much in common? but eventually, due to Sibling Magic™, they’d get closer and closer with one another and be really sweet :) aaaand maybe a little menace-y. and they’d probably joke about the whole situation, once it’s been a while. “i’m disowning you!” “you already did!” “BLOCK NO-”

block and shapey would definitely be the duo of the ages though, and christina would tag along like “PLEASE don’t accidentally create mustard gas in your bathroom”. that might be their dynamic, actually! they’re not super close, but still love each other and want the best for each other :) eeeeven if they drive each other crazy. maybe block becomes a firefighter because if he’s going to light stuff on fire, he might as well learn to put it out, haha 

[bulletnotestudies]

*✧ — End of the year reading tag! — ✧*

okay, so my reading's finally picked up again this year and i thought i'd compile a couple fun bookish questions and turn them into a tag game - i might be reinventing the wheel here, but i haven't seen one like it in a long while :)

Did you reach your reading goal for the year (if you had one)? yes!! my goal was 15 books and i'm on my 32nd book atm (actually, i'm reading 3 books rn, so ig u could also say 34th)

What are your top 3 books you read this year? well i reread the six of crows duology, and i was competely killed dead by the atlas six and gideon the ninth <3

What's a book that you didn't expect to enjoy quite so much going in? oh 100% gideon the ninth. i'd never read anything of that particular blend of genres, but the writing was also different for me, going in. the book ended up being fantastic tho, i really recommend it to everyone! (honorable mention to the atlas six, since i went in with minimal expectations bc of negative reviews i'd seen but it was so *scream*)

Were there any books that didn't live up to your expectations? one last stop definitely fell a bit flat for me. the main story just didn’t captivate me as much as i would've liked, but the incredibly fleshed-out side characters kinda made up for it. possibly the best cast of those i've ever read. i also didn't really get what i really wanted from take a hint, dani brown, lore, and the meet cute diary.

Did you reread any old faves? If so, which one was your favourite? i just had to reread six of crows bc of the netflix show coming out, and i also reread the dream thieves - no i will not choose between them:)

Did you dnf any books? despite the gorgeous writing, i didn't finish wolfsong - the age diff just didn’t feel comfy for me. i also put 1984 on hold, but that's just because it's a bit more demanding than my usual reads, which is to say it requires some brain power which my tired med student body cannot provide during the academic year haha (will def continue it tho!)

Did you read any books outside your usual preferred genre(s)? gideon the ninth, again - this sci-fi-horror-fantasy blend was truly sth unique and it's inspired me to read more of both sci-fi and horror (well, horror lite sdfghjqk) i did also finally finish this is going to hurt and it was lovely, so i stocked up on some more non fiction for next year:)

What was your predominant format this year? physical! i've gotten back into actually buying books to treat myself + my best friend landed me some

What's the longest book you read this year? from traditionally published books, i think it was crooked kingdom at 560 pages (but also i read all the young dudes vol.2 which has 590 pages sdfghqjk)

What are your top 3 anticipated 2022 releases? icebreaker by a.l. graziadei, the atlas paradox by olivie blake, and we all fall down by rose szabo

What books from your tbr did you not get to this year, but are excited to read in 2022? lmao so many - i'm 100% a mood reader, so these are just a few i didn’t get to: good omens, if we were villains, call down the hawk, norse mythology, the 2nd & 3rd book in the shades of magic series

i'm obviously tagging my Certified Knife™ friends, as well as @selkiestudies and @wherepoetsdie :)

if i didn't tag you but you see this post and want to do the tag yourself, tag me, i'm always interested in seeing your answers!

[stomp-that-ho-regard]

(same anon) ur totally right abt those two I thought I was the only one who couldn't stand either of them (and their entire posse of FOLLOWERS who. truly followed them w cult-like vigor) bc of the power they wielded by touting themselves as 'true rational' when anybody who dare said "hey c/r ain't all that and what they're doing... this ain't right" would get thrown under the bus as they'd make 'rational' posts abt how these ppl who questioned c/r were clearly of inferior intellect and didn't Get the Superior Intellect of C/R.

another one of them is c/ranesbyibycus and these three had a fuckall trinity of touting themselves as "ships everything and ships nothing! so we have true neutrality as a council™ to have rational CR opinions!"

like... yall think this most mediocre (calling him mediocre feels generous) white man who constantly puts whitewashed art on the reel, says racist and orientalist bullshit repeatedly and makes non-apologies when held accountable; makes lesbophobic comments ON AIR in the show and gets away with it— you put this absolutely detestable fucker on a pedestal and tut yourselves the self-proclaimed Leaders™ of this "thirst cult" dedicated to him.

You're some kind of hypocrite to think you're very "Logical" and "Take No Sides" when you talk down to the people (especially marginalized communities and fans of colour) who react emotionally and point out C/R's slew of fuckups... if THIS dude is the hill you're ready to die on lmao.

Not sure "rational" is a word I'd use for any of you clowns.

They’re always condescending to critics and treat them like morons. If it’s about the company, “they don’t understand business.” If it’s about the narrative, “they don’t understand storytelling.” If it’s about the characters, “they don’t understand nuance.” (Nuance was and still is their favorite word.) It’s self-aggrandizement.

And the LTC thing. The exaltation was always SO off-putting, and the farthest from normal or rational you could get. Then you add in all the problematic things about him that they would so quickly explain away or downplay, and vehemently say his critics were ‘reaching’. Also, if you noticed, none of these people EVER defended anyone else in the cast with even close to the same amount of vigor.

But, they have no biases, right? 

c/ranesofibycus! That’s the one. Every time I’ve tried to remember her URL, I kept calling it cranes of hibiscus lol

Anyway, yes, her too. She was the person I referenced in one of my old posts. After Matt reprimanded people on twitter over the ‘Jester ageing up’ drama, she posted this...

That was the first post that made me wary.

But, I was actually okay with her for a while. Because even after everyone else started turning shitty, she wasn’t calling people crazy or delusional, or making passive aggressive posts in the discourse tag or in OUR tag, like some assholes loved to do. She actually did keep a cool head even through all the chaos. One example, after the backlash that Liam got over his playlist pick, “She” by Dodie. She didn’t like that some people were sending nasty things to him, but she understood why it was upsetting to some people, and even admitted that she was confused when she saw the song on there. And that IS a completely rational reaction. 

That was the difference. I never felt any underlying nastiness coming from her posts, unlike the other two. b/eetlemancy became openly nasty to everybody, and l/uck had the passive aggressive vagueposting (but not so vague) down pat.

The post that finally soured me on c/ranes, was this one...

And it was in the Beaujester tag! When I first caught it while scrolling, I thought for sure it had to have come from either b/eetlemancy or t/hebeaubar, or r/edjennies, or any of those extra shady, holier-than-thou (mainly BY) blogs. But when I scrolled up and saw her URL, I was shocked.

And look who was in the notes...

[twisted-legacies]

What fairytale archetype are you?

the wicked witch

“All witches are selfish, the Queen had said. But Tiffany’s Third Thoughts said: Then turn selfishness into a weapon! Make all things yours! Make other lives and dreams and hopes yours! Protect them! Save them! Bring them into the sheepfold! Walk the gale for them! Keep away the wolf! My dreams! My brother! My family! My land! My world! How dare you try to take these things, because they are mine” – Terry Pratchett. The witch needn't be wicked, though she can be. Cannibalism is never out of the question. She lives in a gingerbread house, or one standing on a chicken foot. She meddles only if asked, and the unwise often ask her. The very wise do as well. Those in-between prefer to give her distance, something she appreciates. She appreciates her solitude almost as much as she appreciates her cat.

I like this one with Quentin honestly and think it fits Quentin pretty well on so many levels! I will even try to play with this during the Halloween event-As I made her a witch for the event (it’s a Hocus Pocus reference which I originally meant to show Quentin is a girl, but now that I think about it-It’s almost fitting for her because she’s almost a classical witch in the modern world. Explanation of what I mean below.) 

For one, Quentin’s general character fits the archetypal witch almost too perfectly-Quentin is a solitary woman with lots of power at her disposal who tends to keep to herself unless the plot demands so. Quentin herself doesn’t drive the plot-She’s alongside Yuu and Grim for the ride since she cares for her dormmates. All that happens to her isn’t really her fault despite what she thinks-but she chooses to get involved because Yuu and Grim need help. Quentin honestly wouldn’t really be too plot significant if it wasn’t for the fact Yuu and Grim are in Ramshackle dorm as she mainly acts as a mother figure to Yuu and Grim and anyone else in Ramshackle than anything else in the story. While she is pretty powerful-she honestly doesn’t use it unless the plot calls for it because she just. Doesn’t feel it necessary most of the time.  

Quentin also considered not like everyone else due to her past since she’s seen a lot and being in that dorm(tm) known for trouble, and she is willing to do things others wouldn’t dare to try. Quentin admits she’s not above doing anything if it means survival, either, and in game has used dirty methods to get what she wants. Like in Chapter 5 when she got violent because she felt the people around her was being disrespected by Vil’s behavior, and flat out threatened the model with dirty tricks to get Vil to realize he’s in the wrong. Which, is implied to have actually worked (in a backwards way).

Quentin also is seen riding a broom during PE (shhh Everyone does it but BE NICE for comparison reasons) and has some cats on campus that she’s associated with. For one, Quentin has Grim that acts as like the witch’s familar trope to her being a witch-because the two live together in the same dorm and Quentin treats Grim a lot like a cat letting him go wherever he wishes and climb on her shoulders when Grim wants to be and while grim is magical, most of the time Grim kinda just. Lets Quentin do the hard work while he sits there and sasses people; While the other cat, Carwyn (which while is actually Quentin’s cat) fits more of just the aesthetic of being a witch. And Quentin lives in a remote place on campus that’s lowkey creepy and people don’t like.

I haven’t really thought of Quentin as the classical witch archetype, but now that it’s been put in front of me I feel like I’ve smacking people with the most obvious signs Quentin is a girl. It’s like I didn’t even try to hide it while Quentin is doing her best to do so.

Tagged by: @crowsultations​ and @underaseaofmuses​! Thank you Kei and Multy! Thank you for the food for thought, it was really cool! *kisses both of you*

Tagging: Anyone who wishes to try it and needs an excuse!

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

hi apologies this is the only way I can publish this ask due to Functional Website. sorry to answer this so late I unironically had to take a few weeks to decide if this was simply too cringe to post publicly. thanks for your understanding. anyways:

I’m assuming this is in response to these tags but how funny would it be if you’d just sent me this based solely on my Vibes?

Ok Anon I’m going to have to curtail my obnoxious gushing to you here because there’s already so much ranting to do in this post, so let me just straight up tell you it was extremely sexy of you to ask me this and you should def hmu if you’re single and also not put off by the following insanity.

That said, let’s get into it. First off, important notes:  

1) I should stress that this is Fake News FPF (Fake Person Fiction), not RPF. There’s a whole post to be made about the whole FPF concept (hey boys! commit to the concept next time! using your real names for your weird improv skit characters makes everything weird and uncomfortable for the rest of us!) but the gist of it is that no, this is not about any Real Live People (TM), this is about the Funny Characters created for the Funny TV Show. Blustery closeted drama queen Stephen, mild-mannered totally unfazed Jon, incompetent unhinged idiot Steve, etc. The Colbert Report, not The Late Show. You get it. Moving on.

2) The phrasing of this question gave me an absolutely wonderful vision of like, a version of SPN where the Winchesters are going around doing all their bullshit and meanwhile the cast of The Daily Show are just in the background commenting on it all and maybe John Oliver gets incidentally murdered by a ghoul at some point. This is the funniest thing on earth but unfortunately back when I made this my kid brain was just going to town in weird ways so when I say “Jon Stewart was there” I mean I decided it would be cool if he fought the fucking devil.

And now it’s readmore time, because I’m assuming the general public has no desire to get into this any further. One day I will have to answer to mobile users for my sins. Mea Culpa.

So idk if you know this but the TV show Supernatural was actually originally called Unnatural and the original concept for the show had a reporter going to investigate urban legends. Wow, I said, watching season 5, I’m so glad they didn’t go with that idea. Wow, I said again later, watching season 10, I wish they’d fucking gone with that idea, because I hate this show so m—

So in my AU Jon Stewart is a reporter going to investigate urban legends and it’s super cool!!! And he learns all about Hunters and goes from being a hapless civilian in need of saving to a badass fighter who uses his quick wits to defeat monsters!! He has a whole arc full of character development!! Can you IMAGINE.

But it’s not just him! I put in a bunch of correspondents and other assorted characters from TDS and TCR and gave them different roles and wasted my entire youth. Like Stephen Colbert is an angel because he’s a religious fanatic and comes from a cruel repressive environment and is kind of a dick. Steve Carell is a demon because I wanted an excuse for the other characters to be mean to him and make him cry. John Oliver is a witch because he looks like Harry Potter. I thought everything out perfectly.

Anyways I obviously created full seasons’ worth of plotlines, rearranging and changing stuff from SPN canon to make it more fitting and also less terrible and also, of course, gay. BUT we’re not going into all of that here we’re going to try to answer something resembling your question.

So I think the plotline that’s the most fun from Jon’s POV is definitely defeating the Horseman Pestilence because in my version it starts with an exciting quest to get the Staff of Moses (criminally and kind of insultingly underused in the original SPN btw like it was there for one ep and they CUT IT INTO PIECES???) which he then uses to subdue Pestilence to get the ring and also heal everyone in the hospital and also accidentally cover the surrounding area in a (no longer) endangered species of tree frog. Very successful adventure all around, although at the end of it the Staff turns into a snake and slithers away because sorry Jon, can’t let you have that extremely OP item until you really need it again…….

My favorite plotline, though not Jon’s as he is miserable during it, is my retelling of the s8 closing the gates of hell arc, because the SPN writers dropped so many balls in that one that it turned into a hilariously fun ballpit for me to play in. But that whole thing would take A WHILE to explain so I can’t inflict it on the world unless explicitly asked.

So yeah none of this actually answered your question that I’m sure you regret asking at this point. Sorry about that :( You did give me a chance to talk about this idea I’ve been obsessing over on and off for years on end though so uh, wow, thank you for that! Thanks. Means a lot. I am going to end this post now before I say something insane to you. You SHOULD hmu later tho if you’re still out there. Could be fun. Could be soulmates. Carry on my wayward anon!

[reigningsniper-a]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; mun & muse - meme.

TAGGED BY: @dolcetters​

TAGGING (don’t feel obligated to do it!): @canisfuria​, @hariolor​, @creepiitus​, and idk anyone else if u wanna

FILL OUT & REPOST ♥ this meme definitely favors canons more, but i hope oc’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. multi-muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

—————————————————-

MY MUSE IS:  CANON / OC / AU / CANON-DIVERGENT / FANDOMLESS

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES (???)  / NO / IDK (i mean i would say yes but also it’s not like i see posts in the vein ste.ve rogers being a perfect beautiful sculpted human)

Is your character considered strong in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK (she’s not an alchemsit but she’s a fierce fighter without relying on strength)

Are they underrated? YES / NO (we could get into my thoughts on interpretation and people boiling her down to things but that’s none of my business)

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO / MAYBE

Were they relevant for the main character?  YES / NO / MAYBE

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO / MAYBE (this feels multi faceted in that people who were aware of the war and stuff know who she is, but she and mustang both find ed in resembool, and literally no one takes a moment to acknowledge the notorious hawk’s eye and flame alchemist are just. there. the only real recognition of their pasts are when scar tries to kill ed in east city. )

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL (.........depends on who you ask. again. war history. some would consider her a hero, some a criminal, etc)

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON? ♠ || i’ve got a tendency to pretty strictly follow canon - in this case simply because in my opinion the facets all gel and there’s a hell of a lot to work from and go off of when rping. lots of people seek to do canon divergence with their characters, but i’m pretty happy to play my main verses as they were in canon! another one of my muses i do canon divergence with but that’s bc....the dceu is a mess. and lmao. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ BUT. there are some of the vaguer facets of riza’s character that are likely canon divergent/fanon. i’m not going to convince myself into thinking i’ve got a finger on arawaka’s pulse for hawkeye and assume my background for her father and mother when she was a child was the way things actually went, or what happened when riza showed mustang her father’s research and he spent his time decoding it, etc... those are mine because not everything is explained in canon. and! that’s! fine! and for those who do canon divergence, whether minorly or severely - u go beech.

SELL YOUR MUSE! AKA TRY TO LIST EVERYTHING, WHICH MAKES YOUR MUSE INTERESTING IN YOUR OPINION TO MAKE THEM SPICY FOR YOUR MUTUALS. ♠ || do you fancy yourself a woman in combat who refuses to die? literally? do you find most mainstream female characters who are strong only labeled as such because they’re unemotional hardasses who are tossed aside in canon because it’s all about them boys who would probably be lost with them anyway? well beech you’re in the right place, cuz riza hawkeye won’t put up with that bullshit. resilient to her core and pragmatic in regards to her past, she makes no qualms about her misdeeds and sins from her time in a bloody civil war and the workings of a mysterious dark underbelly in her country. she works to do everything she can to eradicate the roots of the conflicts. but make no mistake, she acknowledges her acts as her own, even in the face of such a situation, and will take any punishment deemed necessary once the time comes. this lady will literally die for the people the loves and those she’s never met so they will not suffer, but fights tooth and nail to keep protecting and fighting against insidious forces.

NOW THE OPPOSITE, LIST EVERYTHING WHY YOUR MUSE COULD NOT BE SO INTERESTING (EVEN IF YOU MAY NOT AGREE, WHAT DOES THE FANDOM PERHAPS THINK?).   ♠ ||  i mean. people gravitate to their own types of characters. some people might be mainly interested in just the protag and the main villain(s). most people i’ve seen who are totally disinterested in riza tend to look at the surface and really only see that. which is a very strict, disciplined soldier. and i don’t really...think that’s a hot take. a lot of woman characters are boiled down to their basic outward persona while their male companions are given more analysis and consideration. it just comes with being more prominent in most media tbh. and especially mangas. there’s a LOT of mangas in the same genre as f.ma that have male protags. and there are people who also would have riza shooting her gun willy nilly for comedy (and while that seems to be a thing in the 03 anime...we don’t know her. she doesn’t go here). and then there’s the entire ‘problem’ many members of the fandom seem to have of riza daring to be gutted at the prospect of roy dying bc of course she’s a woman and therefore (even if not conscious), the immediate reaction is ‘oh she’s only crying bc she loves him’ which a. bitch. that’s a valid and real reason for someone to be so clearly affected by someone possibly having been murdered and b. i go into more detail on the stakes and repercussions if he were to actually die in this post here. even if i ship them to hell and back, y’all are missing the point. i’m sorry. (but to be fair i don’t think people who think that tend to find riza totally disinteresting. but sometimes they do because of it and i’m. how dare someone be sad that their longest friend and someone they’ve put faith in to lead a long poisoned country into the light BE UPSET ABOUT IT-.)

[musical-chick-13]

What OTPs in your fandoms do you just not get? 🖤

Salty ask list.

Most of them, if we're honest.

I mean...okay, there are some that I don't get because they hit tropes I don't like. But if you like those tropes or dynamics or want this specific thing for one of the characters, I'd understand why you'd like that ship. (Like J*ime/Br*enne. Not for me, but I understand the theoretical appeal for people who are not me.)

But there are many where my feelings are, "Even if you like this trope/dynamic, I don't understand what any person could possibly get out of this." The answer to this question is for ships that fall under this category.

(NOTE: THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I IN ANY WAY JUDGE OR HATE PEOPLE WHO DO LIKE THESE SHIPS. THEY ARE SIMPLY NOT FOR ME. I AM HAPPY FOR YOU IF YOU SEE SOMETHING I DON'T.)

Some of them are probably obvious. Raúl/Sofía from CtrlZ (which I've DEFINITELY already talked about at length), Ch*ck/Bl*ir (HE SOLD HER!! LITERALLY!!!! THERE IS NO COMING BACK FROM THAT!!!!!!!!!!!), R*ylo (if you wanted a "moral conflict from hero/villain tension, DarkShip" kind of thing, the movies didn't deliver on that because they tried to woobify him, but if you wanted fully woobified Kenneth, they didn't bother to make him likeable, so I genuinely personally don't understand how anyone could be in any way satisfied with anything that happened regarding this ship). I was never into T*n/R*se (but that's just because I didn't really care about either of these characters, and also look at what happened to the love of my life Martha as a result of it). I also am not into that era's dr/m.aster pairing for the same reason of "not really caring about the characters." j0ner*s I think had potential, but I felt like the entire development of their relationship was extremely rushed (he was her prisoner for most of it, and they were fighting for like all of season 7 and then suddenly he's like, "Oh you are EVERYTHING to me" and I was like, "dude, how." I was actually excited to see this one play out because of the differences in how they both viewed power and what J's more simple, present-oriented wants were, versus D's broader, more ambitious, future-oriented goals, as well as the fallout of their being related and how that would compare to the way everyone in-universe treated J/C, but then they just...didn't explore...any of that...at all.......)

But I think, honestly the biggest one is probably Th*smin. Like...aside from people just wanting 13 to date a woman, I cannot find any reason why someone would ship this at all. (I will henceforth refer to the "Th" part of the ship as "Th" and the other half as "Y.")

I'm going to put the rest of this under a cut because apparently I have more Things to Say™ about this than I initially thought I did. Also spoilers for the latest episode of the show in question. I won't tag them because if I do it will end up in the show tag, and some shipper will actually kill me for saying this, oh God, this is how I die isn't it, try to get Lea Salonga to sing at my funeral.

Again, this is ONLY MY OPINION, and I harbor no ill will toward anyone who likes this ship, nor do I think they're a bad person or something because that's really stupid.

Like...Oh, God, I'm going to get shot for saying this aren't I. I just don't think...their relationship is...built?? On anything???? I get Y's crush, because yeah, sometimes if you're a Super Cool Smart Wacky Alien Who Intimidates People and Shows People the Wonders of the Universe, someone is going to develop a crush on you. And I think the development of that was set up really well. But the alien in question?? She has NEVER indicated any type of romantic interest in anyone. And all of a sudden it's, "I wish we could be here forever" and "If I were to ever Settle Down™, it'd be with you" (which...girl...you did settle down...twice...once with your wife on Darillium and once watching over The Vault......like..... what..........???). She has never shared anything personal with Y and has never interacted in any way with her that was different to how she interacted with anyone else, up until this last episode. Most of Y's growth has been done apart from her supposed love interest. What is this relationship even based on???? Even people who do ship this in earnest, how could they possibly be happy with what they've gotten???????

I just...I think ultimately the thing that Bugs Me™ is that Y just doesn't...feel like a fully complete character sometimes to me. Everyone in the show keeps talking about how she's "One of the best people" and don't get me wrong, I do like her! But she's nice and competent and gets along with people, and lots of characters on this show are nice and competent and get along with people? I don't understand why she's so Special™. And that wouldn't usually be that much of a problem for me, but that Special™ness is cited as the reason why Th likes her. And then they expect me to believe that this alien lady, who has never been able to open up, discuss her emotions, or handle anything with any degree of maturity, who is practically allergic to emotional honesty, is all of a sudden willing to take the initiative, with pretty much no angst at all, to talk about her romantic relationship with a person she is full-time travelling with and thus would be extra interested in preserving the status quo with? (Presumably because, again. This character is The Most Special™. So things are Different™ in this case.)

And don't even get me started on how she clarified that statement of "one of the best people" with "even my wife." Like if you're just going to try to elevate the New Love Interest to be So Much More Important and Special and Better than the old one, I'd rather you not mention River at all. Yeah, yeah, that's probably not what Chris meant but it sure read that way on paper to me as an audience member.

I just cannot see this erratic, emotionally troubled alien who Struggles To Be Good, who is constantly going through an identity crisis, who is first and foremost a mess ever romantically bonding with someone who isn't also at least a little messy. And that's the thing. Y isn't messy. Not even a little bit. Even when they had an opportunity to introduce mess with the Mental Illness Implied Depression episode, they did nothing with it.

There's...there's not actually anything unlikable about Y at all. And so not only do these two characters seem incompatible to me, I find it very hard to be invested in Y sometimes. (See previous answer about how characters being ideal or hyper-capable will never be resonant or escapist to me.)

And I guess just (haha, getting personal, I'm so sorry I know that absolutely no one signed up for this)...why is it never people like me who get to Fall In Mutual Love With The Wacky Smart Charismatic Space Alien? Why do the people who get the Exciting Love Interests or who are seen as Desirable™ and Special™ always have to be the thin, pretty, "normal" ones under 35 who don't ever fuck up? Why do the messy characters or characters with emotional/personal issues of who have to take awhile to figure shit out never get to be happy or fall in love (if they even get written at all)? Even if a character with mental illness does get to have any of that, it's always in one context: the symptoms are crying prettily and it's not shown affecting their life in any significant way after the piece of media establishes that they have it. (Which uh, surprise surprise, is what happened here.) It's like, "Oh, mentally ill people can have Love and Happiness and Respect and Cool Story Things, but only if they come as close to resembling a neurotypical person as possible." You can't exhibit any of the ugly parts of mental illness (or really of just...being a human, really, it doesn't even have to be if you're mentally ill), because otherwise you're Not Worthy of [insert whatever happy ending trope here]. Everything women have to do to be Worthy of Love has to be Soft and Pretty and Personable and Universally Likable, and I've just seen that story too many times for it to interest me in any way anymore.

Like...Idk. There's nothing here of substance to me, and it also happens to hit basically every single trope that annoys me, so I'm just -_-

[writerbri-archive]

christinaxlr8 replied to your post “a bunch of scattered thoughts about 8x05 Yes, Jon is complicit just...”

1) grow up and stop with the slashes in names, it's a fictional story m 2) we know she was on a warpath but the bells did trigger her into rage. It was a replica of when missandei was killed. And she didn't accept a surrender 3) don't try to give any meaning to this season, nothing has made sense and Jon is literally being set up as the HERO™ 4) they are building to Sansa taking the throne and for Jon to kill Dany... it's not more complicated than that.

Okay. Well I’d usually ignore this but I’m having a shit day and I’m miserable so I may as well take advantage and be bitchy enough to answer this bullshit.

1) I use slashes in names to keep it out of the tag for people who like the character and don’t want to see criticism of her in their tag. It’s out of respect, you absolute fucking moron. Something that a lot of other fans don’t really get considering I see countless hate posts in the Sansa tag. Is it fiction? I mean, I thought I was seeing a real life documentary playing out on my screen. Please tell me more about this fiction that you speak of.

2. Seriously, use your brain. The bells didn’t trigger shit. The bells were a sign of a surrender she was never willing to take. They didn’t somehow reach inside of her and pull out this madness that’s been there all along. Tyrion begged her to accept the surrender and she didn’t agree to it. She never intended to take their surrender. Her rage was already burning. Her vengeance wasn’t satisfied. There... were no bells when Missandei was killed so I’m pretty sure that’s bullshit. What part of her choosing to make people fear her don’t you understand? She literally said it out loud.

3. Since I am in fact a grown ass adult, I pay bills and everything and it really sucks, I really don’t need some pissy little child coming on my post and telling me what I can and can’t think and what I can and can’t post on my damn blog. Since you seem to have zero interpreting abilities, it really doesn’t surprise me that somehow you’ve... not gotten the message that Jon is one of the heroes if not the hero of the series. What show have you been watching? And what exactly has he done to piss you off? Is it because he no longer exists to prop up your fave? :(

4. It’s actually incredibly complicated but once again, I recognize that you aren’t so good at the interpreting thing. If you’d look at any of my posts, I’ve made it clear that I don’t want Jon to kill her. I hate the idea of it. I don’t even want Sansa on the Iron Throne. It’s an ugly ass chair that needs to be melted down and forgotten. But if this series ends with my girl rightfully in power in the North, exactly where the fuck she belongs, then good for her.

5. I really don’t give a shit if you hate Jon or if you hate Sansa or if you hate the whole damn series now. That’s your choice. My choice is to keep watching and theorizing about this series that I still like, though I’m conscious enough to be critical of it at the same time because *gasp* it’s possible to like and dislike things about the media that you consume without throwing a hissy fit when things don’t go your way. Let’s be real, if Sansa decided to go and set fire to King’s Landing to blow it all up with wildfire only to be killed by Jon because she’s gone all bad guy, y’all would be putting on your party hats and praising D&D’s writing.

Your temper tantrum has been quite amusing for me but I’m done now.

Get a damn life.

[nerdygirlkerrie]

Top Ten Sports Anime Husbands

So I saw this thing going around tumblr not long ago and thought I would adapt it.  Anyone wants to do it too, feel free, but I’m not tagging anyone!

These are ordered, more or less by importance to me lol  Gonna be long

10.  Fuji Syusuke

Probably my first yandere, way back from high school.  Tenipuri was probably also my first real sports anime.  I literally thought he was a girl for like the first three episodes lol  But despite being, imo, possessive and teasing, he’s fiercely loyal, and will fuck shit up.  The lazy genius

9. Seung-gil Lee

I love me a cranky Korean boy.  I feel him on a spiritual level – I don’t like the general public and am suspicious of those trying to be friends with me lol  I also have terrible fashion sense and love my pet to death.  He’s just really interesting, and so vicious… already might be a theme 

8. Narumiya Mei

There always have to be one arrogant ball of sunshine, right?  Mei is so larger than life – completely a drama queen, but somehow without being super obnoxious.  He has the skills to back up his arrogant.  He is smol and extra™  (Although, is 5’7 really that short?)  He looks cuddly though, if you can get him to be still long enough lol 

7. Kakei Shun

The epitome of sarcastic and chill.  Kid was hanging out with an American street gang drinking at like 13.  He’s a badass, but not mean.  Is completely unintimidated by Hiruma.  You can almost feel the eyeroll when he deals with his teammates, but he’s loyal to them.  Intelligent and smoking hot 

6. Haibara Jirou

True smol and 100% adorable.  He’s 90% hair, but it kind of makes you want to run your hands through it.  He’s the heart of his friends and is surprisingly sweet.  Has a great sense of humor and is really, really caring.  Kind of secondary mom friend.  Unintentionally, and intentionally funny.  Plus has an adorable confidence issue.

5. Otabek Altin

Like Kakei, he’s the chill one.  Serious and mature, he’s surprisingly kind.  Somehow puts up with being surrounded by a bunch of extra fools.  Does things his own way, but is also pretty much the mom friend.  Secondary smol one, but it doesn’t even matter cause his shoulders take one’s breath away~

4. Akashi Seijuro

Anyone that knows me, knows that I fucking love yanderes.  I don’t know why, I just… do.  Like if I met one in real life I would run screaming, but in anime? Dayum.  Akashi is lethally intelligent, a little psychotic in the beginning, but he owned who and what he is.  I like characters that have no sense of humor but are some how funny anyway. His nuances make him super interesting. 

3. Yukimura Seiichi

Basically the Akashi of Tenipuri, right?  Control is his trigger and he has to always be in control.  One of three smiling evils on this list – looks pretty and sweet, but will fucking eviscerate you if given a reason.  Like Akashi, he’s delightfully non-functional, but is somehow terrifying despite, and not because, of this. 

1. Kominato Ryousuke

Okay, so I couldn’t choose a number one.  I love the last two equally.  Ryousuke is probably the most functionally savage character I’ve ever seen in sports anime (for like, non-creepy, legitimate yandere).  He’s not gross, but he will fuck you up.  Has an adorable complex about his height (smol and terribile™).  Wears that yandere smile beautifully.  He teases everyone, and can absolutely be vicious if provoked, but he’s not nasty for the sake of being nasty and is actually pretty awesome older brother figure.  To both his real brother and the other players. 

1. Miyuki Kazuya

Man, I don’t even know what to say about this emotionally constipated idiot catcher. He’s so beautiful it practically hurts to look at him, but he’s pretty messed up to.  He pushes people away using teasing and brutal honesty, but is actually pretty lonely inside.  He is also one of the most supporting boys in all of Seidou and is always going above and beyond for his teammates, he just shows it badly.  Doesn’t know how to interact very well, leading to some pretty big blunders (ie Nabe situation), or what to do with friendship.  Probably didn’t even realize he had friends until well after he’s named captain.  Being captain overwhelms him cause again, he’s bad at people.  But no one cares more than him.  Says he’s cold and uncaring, but probably the biggest softie, besides Mochi lol 

Honorable mentions in no real order:

[fille-lioncelle]

Hello, you have been identified as An Awesome Writer™! Congrats, you rock! So that all of your readers can shower you with some extra love today, please tell us your favourite five (or as many as you want) stories of yours and why you like them and then send this to another five fic authors you think deserve this title! ❤

Thank you so much, anon! This was such a wonderful message to get. ❤I’m going to assume that you’re from SKAM fandom and thus limit this to SKAM fics. ;) So, in no particular order:

“that’s how you know” -  Isak/Even Disney’s Enchanted AU. This is silly and borderline crack, probably? As close as I’ve ever gotten, at least. But I had so incredibly much fun writing this (and not just because I wrote it between about 21:00 and 04:00 and was definitely loopy by the end of it). I also think that it actually does work remarkably well for them and I think I did a good job of adapting the movie plot into something that works for the SKAM characters.

“don’t you keep it all to yourself” - Isak/Even coffeeshop season 3 AU. This was the first fic I ever started writing for this fandom, and for that reason alone it’ll always have a special place in my heart. But I also really like alternate canon AUs and I had a great time with this one. I think it’s also the only time I’ve really done the ~SKAM structure~ with date tags for the scenes and such. I tried SO HARD to make that somewhat realistic. Shout out to @skamskada’s skam map so I could look estimated travel times from place to place up on google maps.

“live happily with sugar on” - Isak/Even…. idek what to call this AU. Everyone I know refers to this as “the berry fic” because I really just wanted to write Isak and Even having a sunshiney picnic with All The Berries. Instead I wrote a rather involved first three dates and a fate-ish backstory. I actually have a bit of a complicated relationship with this because I think some parts don’t quite work (mostly the fate-ish bits), but I also really really like the dates I sent them on. I think I did the atmosphere quite well here, of being on a date and not wanting it to end.

“The One Where Eva Meets Noora The Summer Before Nissen” - Eva/Noora pre-series AU. I’ve always loved “what if Eva and Jonas never got together” as an AU thought and this is partly where this idea came from. I think the structure of this works well, and I also really liked getting to sketch out a more involved friendship for Eva and Isak in this one. (I love the potential of that friendship so much.) Plus, femmeslash. ;)

“Nothing Softer Or More Flexible” - Isak/Even film school/they meet online AU. This was my bigbang from earlier this year and though it’s not really what/how I’d originally planned to do it, I had a lot of fun here playing with non-traditional narrative structures and incorporating different text formats.

… I just realised these are all AUs. Oops. I do love writing canon fic, especially the small domestic ones, but it’s a little harder to pick any of those over the others.

And because I Am Like This (and also I had 111 fics to choose from and I’m a bit of a show-off), here’s a BONUS ROUND!

“SKAM fic week 2018″ - I genuinely think all of these are good? I don’t know what happened in this week of June, other than me going slightly round the bend because I was writing several k every single day and weeping less or more gently in @nofeartina‘s general direction for comfort and encouragement, but I like all of these. They’re definitely some of my favourite things I’ve written. All the AUs came together really well imo and even though some of them *coughmagicalrealismAUcough* were damn frustrating to flesh out, I love them all.

“You and I (and the blue sky)” - The alien!Even fic I wrote with @nofeartina. I didn’t want to put collabs on the actual list, but I had SO MUCH FUN writing this. i’ve never written this trope before and I had so much fun worldbuilding and bugging Tina to no end with small anatomical and cultural details. I also really like how romantic and sweet it came out.

[jaggedcliffs]

I was tagged by @veliseraptor!

Hello, you have been identified as An Awesome Fic Writer™. Congrats, you rock! So that all of your readers can shower you with some extra love today, please tell us your favourite five stories of yours and why you like them and then send this to another five fic authors you think deserve this title!

Unfortunately for Plot-Related Reasons

This is one of the shortest fics I’ve written, and probably the only fic aimed at being more comedy than drama. Or at least drama with what I hope is a good punchline. Honestly, part of the reason I like it is because I thought of it, wrote it, and posted it in maybe one or two sittings. Rather than, you know, months or years.

Pleas to the Stars

This fic was kind of a journey for me while writing it. I had the general outline and big emotional points early on, then slowly added to it over the course of several months, which I think helped with the diary-like feel. It was also a bit of a journey for me, since the original title was Pleas to the Void - which conjured a more hopeless and empty feeling. I also wasn’t sure if I would add on a second chapter or not. But somewhere along the way, I changed the title, and solidified the 2nd chapter; I think that gave this fic more of a sense of hope, and the feel that someone is listening (aka Frigga). I’m also proud of myself for learning a bit of new computer language just to include the loss and return of the ink. And also how many people write in the comments about how much this fic destroyed them.

Delicacies

Ever I saw this gifset from this interview before Thor: The Dark World came out, where Chris Hemsworth joked that toasted Frost Giant was a Asgardian delicacy, I started imagining scenarios where “but what if that was true”. But I honestly thought people would be jumping all over that joke to write meta and fic, except no one that I saw ever ran with the idea. Apparently I was the only one interested in exploring the possibility of cannibalism (you’re welcome). By the time I started putting it to paper/Open Office Document, I had so many different scenarios in my head, I was wondering which one to choose, and was glad I decided on 3 different scenarios with 3 different POVs  I’m happy not just with how it turned out - especially since the third scenario wasn’t one that had been in my head for a while - but that people actually liked my accidental cannibalism fic.

One Step Away

This is my big emotional bash of a fic. It’s also a long-game attempt on my part to heal the rift of the Odin-family. It was meant to be just plain family whump, but somehow dovetailed with politics. I enjoy writing how the upsets and missteps in this family drama, and the impacts they have on Asgard and the nine realms as a whole. 

more than one truth

This fic idea popped into my head the day after The Flash s3 finale aired. Despite being so short, this fic took me a long time to write - it was surprisingly complicated despite being essentially one person talking to himself in a void. I wanted it to be perfect, and hit all the right emotional notes, and move smoothly from each of them without seeming like either Barry or Savitar was OOC. I had the image of the ending on my head so clearly, along with the last line, and I wanted to write something that hopefully approximated the feelings that the last issue of Loki: Agent of Asgard did for me, but with Barry and Savitar. I’m no Al Ewing, but I’d like to think I did a pretty good job closing out these characters, and I’m just going to pretend that this ending happened for Savitar instead of the one in the show.

Hmmm, I tag: @claricechiarasorcha, @pennflinn, @mikkeneko, @mrsgordo84, and @gracenm.

[david-talks-sw]

Hell, let's add it all! Excellent points made in some of the reblog tags and I just had to share them cuz they're too well-said and important to just be hidden in the tags.

@smhalltheurlsaretaken said:

I think a big 'problem' is that it's Samuel L. Jackson *specifically* playing him, and people have that idea of Sam L. Jackson in their minds that's very informed by his other roles and pretty antithetical to Mace... but this isn't a Tarantino movie or Marvel or snakes on a plane. It's Star Wars and he's a warrior monk.

The whole zen thing is pretty unprecedented in his career and I think people have been trying to reconcile their idea of a brash uncompromising rude man of action (and VERY American roles) w/ mace, and it doesn't work, and they interpret so much of what he does through that filter.

Sam L. Jackson doesn't usually play super empathetic or emotionally open guys? Well, now, Mace can't possibly understand Anakin's feelings or be interested in understanding them.

As if Sam isn't a spectacular actor who can pull off any role - even the zen head of a space order of warrior monks.

This point is one that stuck with me a couple of months ago from this post and I can't believe it never crossed my mind to include (considering how much time writing this took...!). But the above tags also go hand-in-hand with the following ones:

@bailorganamybeloved added:

Black men are always perceived as more aggressive, especially dark skinned black men. That's why nothing he does is taken in good faith by a majority of SW fans.

Totally. And if people project the "angry black man" stereotype on Samuel L. Jackson when he is clearly playing a warrior zen monk, when he doesn't say the word "motherfucker" once or is never nowhere near as loud/angry as his characters in other movies... there's the racism, right there.

@acewizardinspace said:

Yeah, lets be real here for a second we know why people don't like Mace in particular and it is racism. Plain and simple. And it is something we have to acknowledge so we can better stand against it. People are going to claim lots of reasons for disliking Mace. They might even believe that is the 'truth' behind their dislike. But in a racist society, we all have certain predispositions that we need to be aware of and constantly challenge so we can be better.

I don't believe he would be so hated if he was white. I just don't buy it at all. If he was white, he would be the guy who 'sensed something wrong with anakin' or 'did his best in a bad situation' or 'the bad ass who did what he had to do like any good action star'. But because he is an unapologetic black man with strong moral convictions who does not bend to the white protag's wishes...

And you can make a lot of arguments like "well he didn't have enough screen time to show his caring side so of course--" "So of course" what? Of course people jumped to the LEAST CHARITABLE view of his character? Yeah, buddy, that is racism.

And he got a lot more screen time in The Clone Wars to show what he is really like, to show he GOT ALONG with Anakin (because this is all some care about... clearly if you don't get along with Ani you are EVIL. ugh). Yet people nitpick that show to find reasons to hate him. Why? Do I need to say it? It is racism.

Mace consistently tried his best. He failed to save the galaxy because someone was plotting against the jedi for years THEN he was BETRAYED. He almost won if Anakin didn't stab someone who trusted him in the back for his own self interest. Mace didn't just fail. He almost had the bastard and I will be forever angry about that.

Great meta op. Sorry I went off in the tags. I just have Thoughts™ lol! When will this fandom stop hating the black man for not changing his whole life and culture to better suit 1 white fascist (who could leave whenever he wanted to)?

First of all: wonderfully put! And actually I'll add one more thing that just crossed my mind on the subject of "Anakin betraying him for his own self-interest." Another argument used a lot is:

"Mace had gone off the deep end during this scene, he had fallen to the Dark Side and was about to go against the Jedi way, Anakin trying to save Palpatine was the "Jedi" thing to do."

No. Just... no. Mainly because the creator himself makes it clear that Anakin's saying "he must stand trial" isn't about the Jedi Way or due process, he doesn't give two shits about all that stuff.

"You can see now, that it's very clear that [Anakin] he wants [Palpatine] to go on trial so he can pump him for information about how to get these powers." - Revenge of the Sith, Director’s Commentary, 2005

But also because every point Mace makes is accurate.

You wanna arrest Palpatine? He's got the courts and the Senate in his pocket, he can bribe OR Mind Trick (being the most powerful Sith in history) his way out of jail, and Mace doesn't even know this but with one phone call Sidious can just butcher the whole lot of the Jedi by uttering three words: "Execute Order 66".

He's not "gone off the deep end" he's making a rational cohesive argument.

Which brings us back to what @acewizardinspace in space was saying about how, if he was white, people wouldn't project the "he's turning evil" narrative and instead would probably be interpreting the scene how it was meant to be interpreted:

Mace - who tried to ARREST Palpatine multiple times - is making a logical-but-harsh decision for selfless reasons... and Anakin is grasping at straws to stop him from doing that for selfish ones.

why do so many people hate on Mace Windu?

'Cause he's too much of a badass for them to handle! Jokes aside, this is a subject I came across a few times. If I had to guess why?

1. "Mace was a jerk to Anakin!"

A lot of people see Mace as "always being antagonistic towards Anakin". When - if you look at the facts - that's not really true.

In Episode I, sure, Mace initially votes to not let Anakin into the Jedi Order. But shortly after, when it's put to a vote a second time, Yoda is the only one still not wanting Anakin to join.

Implying... that Mace was cool with it!

Hell, there's even a non-canon comic that covered this, with Windu actually arguing letting Anakin into the Jedi Order against Yoda because he thinks Anakin will bring Balance to the Force.

In the comic, he also suggests giving Qui-Gon’s lightsaber to Anakin.

In Episode II, he's actually defending Anakin. He and the Council are confident in Anakin's ability to have his first solo mission, praising Anakin's skills and - in a deleted scene - even reminding Obi-Wan to have more faith in his Padawan.

Finally, in Episode III, at a first glance, it looks like Mace is indeed written in a way that makes him antagonistic to Anakin (the same Anakin who turns to the Dark Side in the same film, so maybe his instincts weren't so off after all...)

A lot of people say "he says he doesn't trust Anakin!" and I've already covered what that's really about here:

TLDR: he says he doesn't trust Anakin when he's 1) on a secret mission 2) with Palpatine. Which makes sense, because Anakin isn't exactly subtle and he has an emotional attachment toward Palpatine who everyone can see has Anakin wrapped around his finger.

Also, if you wanna count it... the novelization of Revenge of the Sith justifies this by the unbearable stress he is under.

A stress due to the Clone War and his whole Order being drafted into being warriors when they're supposed to be diplomats, thus causing hundred if not friends of his comrades to die (and don't even get me started on how hard the loss of clone lives must weigh on him).

Jedi of the Republic: Mace Windu writer Matt Owens seems to echo this sentiment:

"The Jedi are like atomic bombs: they have so much power, but they really don’t want to use it. Mace is a masterful warrior who doesn’t relish fighting. Such use of his power goes against his code, but if he doesn’t use it, what will become of the Republic? As a member of the Jedi Council, he is under pressure because he is a leader. He’s forced into an uncomfortable situation where he is doing something he doesn’t entirely agree with for what he believes is ultimately the greater good. But he has to be sure of himself because he has so many others looking to him for direction." - Matt Owens, Star Wars Insider Special Edition, 2021

So it's not personal toward Anakin at all, but Anakin's whining and making it all about himself certainly isn't relieving the stress.

But hey, let's suppose he is a dick to Anakin in Episode III (he's not, but let's go along with it).

That's still one movie out of three. So if there's a change in attitude toward Anakin from Attack of the Clones to Revenge of the Sith...

... what spurred it?

What event would make Mace go from telling Obi-Wan to have faith in Anakin to having him be adversarial toward him?

It would've been nice to see that in an episode from The Clone Wars, which partially exists to fill in the gaps between AOTC and ROTS.

I mean, was there a time where, for example, Anakin prioritized saving Ahsoka over a bunch of people in a building, leaving Mace to do it himself?

Still, we get moments between them, and they're not all negative:

They have fun banter, at times, right? But then we hear Dave Filoni say that Mace had an issue with Anakin from day one.

"You see, Mace Windu’s the guy that tells little Anakin ‘no, he will not be trained’. You cut to Anakin and he’s like, ‘What??’ There’s this look on Anakin’s face like, 'I’m gonna remember that, you’re a negative, why are you doing that?’ So you have to look at it, the Jedi are - though they mean really well for Anakin – they’re always telling him 'no’. They’re always saying 'no, you’ll be expelled, you’ll have to leave the Jedi Order’. [...] So when you get to that point-- all these things I’m talking about get you to that point where Palpatine’s on the ground and Mace Windu has a lightsaber at his throat and he’s saying “he’s the traitor”. So Anakin’s there and he’s choosing between the guy that’s always told him “no” - that, while he respects him and [Mace’s] not a mentor, but he’s a fellow Jedi - and the father figure [of Palpatine] who holds the key possibly to immortality and you saving this person you love in Padmé." - Dave Filoni, Rebel Force Radio, Star Wars Fan Days III, 2009

So... I honestly don't know who to listen to.

If we're meant to see Mace as "negative toward Anakin" then the episodes failed to convey that properly.

If we're not, then why is Dave Filoni saying the above?

Same thing goes for the recently-published novel Brotherhood, written by Mike Chen.

Like, I want to give the novel the benefit of the doubt and say "yeah, but we're only seeing Mace through Anakin's eyes, so of course the opinion is biased and exaggerated." But then I hear Mike Chen say stuff like this...

"And, like, [Anakin’s] constantly pulled in every direction and the finally, when you go from that to Revenge of the Sith where it’s like “hey, my wife is going to die unless I listen to my cool uncle, who has never been mean to me” and then you have Mace Windu who’s like “TAKE A SEAT, SKYWALKER!” y’know, it’s like who’re you gonna listen to? It really makes sense, it feels very organic, from that perspective." - Mike Chen, Beyond the Blast Doors, 2021

... and it's clear my arguing "unreliable narration" would just be me expressing a headcanon.

2. "Mace represents everything wrong with the Jedi"

Then, another argument I heard once is that he embodies everything wrong with the Jedi Order. As said in this comment here:

Wow, that's a whole bunch of hate hurled in Mace's direction.

Also inaccurate.

The fact is, Mace is - like most Jedi - a space shaolin/buddhist monk. He's incredibly wise and spiritual as heck. But when it comes to it, he's a no-bullshit kind of guy, especially when considering the Jedi being forced into a war.

As Samuel L. Jackson put its:

"Mace is a voice of reason. He thinks before he speaks. He's pretty calculating, mostly even-tempered, and he's not to be trifled with. He knows that the war is coming and he has a pretty good idea who is behind it. [...] Mace Windu has known Obi-Wan Kenobi for a very long time. Mace was a contemporary of Qui-Gon Jinn. He understood his faults and admired his qualities and can see that Obi-Wan has taken on some of Qui-Gon's strongheadedness by wanting to train Anakin Skywalker." - Samuel L. Jackson, as reported in Star Wars Insider: The Skywalker Saga Collector’s Edition, 2021

That doesn't mean Mace isn't compassionate or empathetic. On the contrary:

Here’s Mace taking down a criminal who was using child soldiers.

See that teenager who shoots at him in the final panels? At the end of the comic, he tries to have her freed.

Then, here’s Mace going out of his way to save a Twi'lek girl.

And this post, right here, lists a ton of examples of Mace putting others before himself in The Clone Wars.

Oh, you wanna go Legends? Let's go Legends.

Here’s Mace before and after saving an old lady from thugs.

Here’s Mace being kind to a starving Sith worshipper who tried to start a mob to kill them, choosing talk and mercy over violence.

Here's Mace praising Anakin!

One time, Obi-Wan almost died on a mission. Mace stayed by Anakin's side the whole time Obi-Wan was undergoing surgery.

Here’s Mace calmly agreeing to disagree with a Jedi who thinks the Order shouldn’t have joined the Clone War.

Hell, here’s Mace being nice to animals.

Mace Windu embodies everything right about the Jedi Order.

3. Misc "arguments"...

A number of silly, small things I hear sometimes:

"Oh he called her 'citizen' what an asshole!" He refers to her the same way she referred to herself. Ahsoka's been gone for months she doesn't have context and letting her into the fold in that particular instant would spell disaster. It's not personal, Mace even gives her a respectful nod before the call ends.

Then there's:

"Mace never apologized for the way the Council treated Ahsoka!" Because Plo Koon apologized on behalf of the whole Council.

“You have OUR most humble Ahsoka.” Plural. He’s speaking for all of them, nobody contradicts him, thus showing they agree. It’s a 22-minute TCW episode, they’re not gonna have each Council member apologize individually. It’s common sense. I'd also hazard that the "this was your real trial" line lingered from the first draft of the script as originally, Ahsoka didn't leave the Order at the end of "The Wrong Jedi" and prolly got promoted to Jedi Knight.

Also:

"Mace Windu once believed himself to be the Chosen One, he was jealous of Anakin!"

Uh... I'm just gonna post this one again...

Then there's this one I read which just made me cringe:

*sigh*

Yeah that TOTALLY sounds like something Mace “You Can’t Kill The Zillo Beast 'Cause It’s An Innocent Living Creature” Windu would do.

Intentionally leading his Jedi brothers to slaughter is so typical Mace “Get The Men To Safety While I Risk My Life For Them” Windu behavior.

So, why do some fans not like him?

I honestly dunno.

The only other reason I can think of (like the other Jedi, he's not as flawed as Anakin, some see him and the Jedi as holier than thou, he's nothing like Luke Skywalker) is explored more in detail here:

[scumbagmordremoth]

Answer questions about your writing, then tag people with new questions.

Tagged by @thefreelanceangel

1. If there was only one character or piece of writing that you could show someone, which would it be and why?

Followers of this blog will not be familiar with this name, but if I had to choose this characters best incarnation I’d have to say my favorite of all time is a character of mine named Lucy. Different parts of Lucy were the base upon which I which both Reese and (conceptual) Caoilhain were written. In fact Caoil’s first profile’s personality description was just a copy paste from an older variant of Lucy that I’d played elsewhere. (even Lucy herself is kind of a rewrite of my first Ultra Mary Sue but I like Lucy better than Casandra because Cas only ever failed if I wanted there to be dramatic tension. Lucy has actual flaws and limitations.)

"Canon” Lucy is a pawn piece in the holy wars that drive the plot of my fictional universe. She had been isolated since birth in preparation for a ritual that would do things that were important(tm). While Lucy understood the outside world academically, she had never once been allowed outside out of fear it would corrupt her purity and make her unworthy of the ritual. Queue a rival group taking out the cult before their plans could come to fruition. Having not been prepared for her presence and unsure if she was a cultist or a prisoner, they took Lucy under wing for some time and from there shenanigans ensue. This combination of total naivety and holy purpose made Lucy perfect for Sylvari (Wyld Hunts yo).

It also makes Lucy and her subtypes particularly fun to put into different backgrounds and see how they go. Lucy has almost always been most defined by her empathy and how almost no amount of interaction with the outside world can actually dilute her goodness. Lucy often gets depressed, battle worn, sometimes she had PTSD by the end of playing with her in whatever world she’s thrust into. Lucy almost always suffers from a profound sense of loneliness for holding herself up to nearly impossible ideals. She often struggles with her sense of self worth and understanding the difference between selflessness and self martyrdom. Most of all, while often being placed in a shitsack world, Lucy almost always finds a way to navigate that world without giving up on hope.

And that Is why almost every character I have ever based off of this one has been one I’d like to show off to the whole world. While Lucy’s actual story is analog to the story of another and Lucy herself is not the main character, she is probably my favorite of all time.

2. What is the genre you absolutely cringe at the thought of writing? Is it because of the tropes, the usual writing style or something else?

I dunno if this is a genre really, but I don’t like writing sex scenes. UWU OOOWWOAHAHHEEE OMG I KNOW. So backwards amirite what kind of GROWN ADULT doESn’T WaNNa Rp SeX????!!!?//11/1!! But I don’t. Honestly. Get over it.

I mean I’m not a prude or anything and let’s be real I read erotica all the time. It’s entertaining. But as an asexual the truth is that I don’t really understand what’s sexy and what’s not and I probably don’t get the same things out of erotica that other people do. I couldn’t really write a scene like that by myself because I just don’t...find anything sexy? I mean I can guess. I have a sense of aesthetic pleasure and I mean I’m not a virgin or anything. But picking the right words to describe sex in a way that sexual people will identify with is hard and more often than not unless the point or draw to your book is a sex scene you can almost always completely omit the scene and loose nothing of any real value

As for RP well ppl tend to get a little too into their ERP and I honestly find the idea of participation a little disgusting. (Not the idea of ERP itself. You do you. Just, myself participating. A stranger potentially jacking off real time to an activity I’m participating in.) Not to mention it’s way harder to extricate yourself from a ship with a fukkin weirdo who has decided they’re in love with you if you’ve ERPed with them. It’s just a weird space I don’t like going into unless the RP as it happens is some kind of ridiculous shit where I like turn into a flower or just type the word uns unf uns and maybe some dialogue the whole time. Also what if they’re a child and they fucking lied to you about their age? Fuck all that noise.

I feel like the very few times I’ve ever attempted to draw or write sex it’s turned out very cringey and reminiscent of that old man trying to use hip slang terms to relate to young people. You can tell I am not part of the “in group” here. I mean there’s been a couple of times where I’ve role played, I guess “heavy” scenes. You know they’d probably at least get a pg13 rating. Clothes came off, there was some petting. But those I usually played because the foreplay had interesting and potentially relevant dialogue that was going on and eventually the fade to black still happened and skipped straight to pillow talk for more dialogue relevant to character development.

3. Would you rather edit your own work or edit someone else’s? What do you genuinely want someone to do when they edit your work?

tbh this ones hard bc like...In the past I used to specifically make friends with “writing buddies” and we’d exchange projects periodically in hs and early college. (many of these projects were  comics that I actually still have!) Having a constant string of feed back helped with a lot of things for me beyond mechanical perfection and even just my tendency to not be able to focus. Gotta write if you’re gonna have something to trade! If you’re writing to compete with someone else, you start doing better. Since we both like writing and drawing we also get to enjoy reading and looking at art! So editing and critiquing is literally how I used to make friends and is probably the reason I have like no adult friends. I never learned how to make friends like normal people.

Seriously the thing I enjoyed most about my college courses was the critiquing period. I was a solid average in the class, not the best or the worst, but it was definitely pretty exciting to be surrounded by artists and writers and getting good, honest feedback. I never improved so much, so quickly. Not only do you learn from the honest feedback of others but you also learn from earnestly trying to critique other’s work. What did they do successfully? What did they do unsuccessfully? How can I incorporate these lessons into my own work? 

The sheer energy of being with people who love to produce creativity is so invigorating.

I love(d) working with other people.

Unfortunately, my self confidence is very delicate in this particular area ever since a shitty pseudo relationship with someone who would insert himself into and ruin all my hobbies/friendships/recreational activities in the hopes that I’d become he and his wife’s BDSM submissive slave girl if they had no other rivals for my time and attention. RP remained intact only bc he did not consider internet friends to be REAL friends and never inserted himself into my online communities. (Joke’s on him. I reconnected with an old friend and moved out via one of those online communities). 

The fact that I can’t draw or write or try new things while anyone is physically near me without crippling anxiety or panic has definitely contributed to a stagnation-even degradation-of my skills in several creative areas and the passing up on opportunities to learn various other skills over the years. Sometimes I feel rather silly for letting the cruel antics of just one person ruin such a huge part of my life for as long as it has. I used to sing and write and draw all the time and I’m sure a part of this pervasive and self defeating depression that keeps coming back is as much from giving up on those hobbies as it is from poverty and brain chemistry. In fairness to myself I am finally starting to unravel some of the many neuroses I developed between 2012 and 2015 so maybe someday I’ll be able to sing in public and find some writing buddies again. I always scoffed at people who played relationships that CURED THEIR DEPRESSION but Matthew has been an amazing help (and has probably dealt with more meltdowns related to wanting to see my creative work than someone who related to me through creativity should have too).

But until then my editor has to be a therapist who knows how to navigate convoluted abuse coping mechanisms lol

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