#I already have so much written & plotted out

[josephandrewstarkey]

drew and reader have a toddler but they are broken up because reader thinks that drew and odessa are together. drew came to pick up the toddler and they start arguing over nothing because they miss each other so much.

ty for your request anon, i hope you like it!

second chances

warnings: slight angst

disclaimer: this is absolutely no shade/hate towards odessa, this is simply just for the plot <3

words: 1.036

❧ drew starkey x reader

The familiar sound of Drew’s car pulling up in the driveway sent a wave of tension through Y/N. She adjusted her grip on their toddler, Harper, who was happily babbling in her arms, blissfully unaware of the heavy silence that had settled between her parents for weeks.

It hadn’t been easy since the breakup. Y/N had thought she could handle it, but every time Drew came to pick up their daughter, the ache in her chest only grew deeper. It wasn’t just the end of their relationship that stung—it was the constant thought that he had moved on with Odessa. The rumors, the paparazzi photos, they all painted a picture that was too hard to ignore.

As Drew walked up the steps and knocked on the door, Y/N’s pulse quickened. She let out a slow breath and opened the door, greeted by the sight of him—his tousled hair, the familiar warmth in his eyes as he looked at Harper. For a moment, her heart faltered. Despite everything, seeing him still made her stomach flip.

“Hey,” Drew said softly, his eyes flicking to hers before focusing on Harper, who squealed with joy and reached out for him.

“Hi,” Y/N replied, handing their daughter over, careful to avoid letting their fingers touch. She couldn’t handle that right now.

Drew cradled Harper with ease, making her giggle as he kissed her cheek. For a moment, there was a pause, a heavy silence that neither of them knew how to fill.

“I’ve packed her bag,” Y/N said quickly, gesturing to the small backpack by the door. “Everything she’ll need for the weekend.”

Drew nodded, bouncing Harper slightly in his arms, though his gaze lingered on Y/N. “Thanks. I’ll have her back by Sunday night.”

Another stretch of silence filled the space between them, awkward and stifling. Y/N clenched her jaw, her mind swirling with all the things she wanted to say but couldn’t. She didn’t want to argue in front of Harper, but the frustration, the loneliness—it was all building inside her, begging to spill out.

And then it happened.

“So… how’s Odessa?” she asked, the words sharper than she intended, bitterness lacing her tone. She regretted it as soon as they left her lips, but the question hung in the air between them.

Drew’s brows furrowed, his hold on Harper tightening slightly. “What?”

Y/N crossed her arms defensively, her voice quieter now but still tense. “You two seem pretty close lately. The pictures... the rumors...”

Drew’s expression darkened, and he shifted Harper in his arms as she started to squirm. “Y/N, there’s nothing going on between me and Odessa. You know that.”

“Do I?” Y/N’s eyes flashed with hurt. “Because all I see is you spending more time with her than—”

“This again?” Drew interrupted, frustration creeping into his voice. “You’re really going to bring this up every time I come here? You think I don’t miss you? Miss us?”

Y/N’s breath hitched, the raw emotion in his voice catching her off guard. But she wasn’t ready to back down. “If you miss us so much, maybe you shouldn’t be cozying up to her in every photo.”

“I’m not cozying up to anyone,” Drew said, his voice rising slightly as he shifted Harper to his hip, trying to stay calm in front of their daughter. “I’m doing my job, Y/N. Odessa is a friend, and you know that. But you’ve already made up your mind, haven’t you?”

Y/N’s eyes filled with tears, but she blinked them back. “I made up my mind because you didn’t fight for us, Drew. You let us fall apart.”

Drew’s jaw clenched, his gaze softening as he saw the hurt written all over her face. “I didn’t want to lose you. I still don’t. But you keep pushing me away.”

“Because I can’t compete with her!” Y/N cried, her voice breaking. “I can’t compete with everything your world demands. It was always the two of us, and now... now it feels like I’m on the outside.”

Harper, sensing the tension, began to fuss, and Drew immediately began soothing her, rocking her gently. His eyes never left Y/N’s, though, filled with frustration, pain, and something else—something deeper.

“You’re not on the outside,” Drew said quietly, his voice thick with emotion. “You’re the one I love, Y/N. You’re the mother of my daughter, and you’re the only one I want. Odessa... she’s just a friend. That’s it.”

Y/N stared at him, her defenses crumbling as the weight of his words settled in. She wanted to believe him—God, she wanted to believe him so badly. But the pain of the last few months had built walls around her heart, and it wasn’t easy to just let them down.

“I miss you,” Drew whispered, his voice raw. “I miss us. This… this isn’t what I want. We’re a family, Y/N. I can’t keep doing this if we’re not going to at least try.”

Y/N swallowed hard, her heart aching as she looked at him, holding their daughter in his arms—their little family that felt so fractured. “I miss you too,” she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. “But I don’t know how to fix this, Drew. I don’t know how to trust that it’ll be different.”

Drew stepped closer, his free hand reaching out to gently cup her cheek. She didn’t pull away. “We fix it by talking, by being honest. Not by pushing each other away. Please… let’s try. For Harper. For us.”

Tears slipped down Y/N’s cheeks as she closed her eyes, leaning into his touch. She felt the weight of his words, the sincerity in them. Maybe they could try. Maybe they could find their way back to each other.

Opening her eyes, she met his gaze, filled with hope and longing. “Okay,” she whispered. “Let’s try.”

Drew let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, his thumb brushing away her tears. “I love you, Y/N. That’s never changed.”

“I love you too,” she whispered, her heart finally beginning to mend.

And as Harper giggled between them, oblivious to the pain and healing happening around her, Y/N and Drew realized that maybe, just maybe, their family wasn’t broken after all.

[nyashykyunnie]

I'll be honest even if I am a big Jinwoo fan I wouldn't defend this man like going to war saying he is the strongest or saying he has the perfect story.

My definition of perfect story is and always will be Heaven Official's Blessing, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultuvation, Scum Villain's Self-saving System, Husky and His White cat Shizun, Little Mushroom and Nan Chan.

Jinwoo is undeniably strong, but emotionally he would've been written better. We should have been given more about his struggle about losing his emotions, his struggle at the fact that he may no longer feel love and maybe it could have been a plot where he struggles to interact with his family knowing he can't feel emotions as much. We should have been given more insight to Jinwoo's depression in his E-rank era. He also went through death multiple times where is the ptsd? He went through war alone he should have more struggle. Sure, chalk it up to him already being disassociated with his emotions but buddy??? Even if he was I'm sure this man must feel a huge emptiness in him as he represents the abyss. What about that plot where Byung-gyu warned about his powers? awe aren't given any sort of sht about that. It was just said and done. We never witnessed Jinwoo struggling with his powers eating him from the inside out.

His powers affected his quality of life in a positive light, but its also a sort of punishment for Jinwoo since he cheated death and defies human biology. We could have been given a plot where Jinwoo is feeling frustrated with himself. Also he watched precious people die around him, wdym this guy has no severe anxiety? I would have personally suffer from constant panic attacks. Even if he places his shadows on everyone this guy must still have some anxiety atleast come on.

Jinwoo would obviously have depression and anxiety with what he's been through.

We can even have a plot where since he is an INTJ and they are known for thinking with their heads most of the time, we could have a Jinwoo who rationalizes things way too much. Or we could have a Jinwoo who rationalizes things to avoid the crippling depression and emptiness he feels after achieving his status as a monarch. There is so much room for us to make Jinwoo more interesting.

Jinwoo has so much potential in suffering with himself yet were just given perfect mr boy powering through everything. Which is good. You can have that plot of Jinwoo powering through everything but atleast show us situation where we can see the broken and battered him so that when he is victorious over them we as the audience feel rewarded for his triumph.

I love this guy don't get me wrong. But I wish we could have been given more emotional attachment rather than just being slapped with "Cute uwu boy turns emo and edgy" randomly. Atleast properly show us his inner turmoils in his transition

[annawayne]

Odd question, though I'm willing to ask. Any words of encouragement for writing a story/fanfic? (Aiming for Aruani as of speaking this.) Were there moments you wrote something, then it got drafted to the side because it didn't feel right with where it was going anymore, losing ton of progress. How does one manage to like.. jump out of that loop and pick themselves back up? Is it best to just say "screw it" and write what you feel is best and not overfocus yourself on a little segment endlessly? I've read some of your work and it's really incredible, inspiring too! So, I just wanted to hear anything to help, if possible? Thank you for taking the time of your day to ask this, I hope I didn't come off bad in any way or jumbled my words up.

Hello anon!

First of all, thank you so much for this ask (and no, the question is not odd at all, everything is fine!), and thank you so much for your time reading my stories and for finding them even inspiring T^T I appreciate and cherish it so much, thank you!

As for your question, I would say there's one good and one bad news. It's the same thing - there's no ultimate way for writing. Good news, is because there's no "right" and no "wrong" ways, the only "right" way is the one that matches with you. The bad news - everyone should find it on our own, since we are all so different, and it's not easy at all.

But! I also think that it gives us a lot of freedom and creativity to experiment and to try new things. One of the best pieces of advice I definitely can tell everyone is - to forget all the books you want to write, not to write a "perfect " book, and all you need to do is just write that one book you're writing now. I think that one of the major problems for all of us is that we KNOW for a fact what's the good literature is, so when we write our own stories we always compare ourselves with the certain pieces of writing, forgetting in the process that we write OUR own story. Not the one that's already written and had such a huge impact on you. That's why, I think, all of us need to just distinguish where the book had an effect on us as inspiration to write OUR own book, and where we desperately want to write the same book - maybe, with another plot, twists and topics, but with trying to reach this level of impact. And this is where this trap hides, when we see something not as an inspiration to give our own story a life, but as something we want to make too, but the truth is, it's unreachable. Not because you're not capable, but simply because this story was written by another person who lives in another circumstances, and that's why your story will never be the same - because you're different person with different life with different experience and with different heart. And this is beautiful!

A lot of people would advise you to read to write better - and it also makes sense and, of course, I'm also in the same boat, however, we have to remind ourselves here that these books - are not ours. What we have - is much more valuable for us because it's our story we want to tell, and no one, expect us, can't do it better.

I think that it's another problem that may be the reason, sometimes, why we are stuck at some particular place without knowing how to move the plot and the story forward - without even realising, comparing our story with something that is already written and looks so mind-blowing.

We see these other stories already as perfect, forgetting one simple truth that every single word written by another writer - it's also a hard work they went through, and, most likely, they also struggled with the same issue as we do, looking at the books they admire and thinking, "Damn, I'll never write something as good as it is". But all we see is a wonderful text, that seems to us just incredible and perfect.

So, I just want to tell you, anon, that your story is already incredible because it's yours and nobody will write it better than you. We're all so different, and our stories - too - and this is the beauty in it, something that is impossible to replace and to imitate.

I guess, that once we can accept that our story won't be the same you admire and not because you're worse - no! Absolutely no! - but only because all the stories are written by humans, and every human - a whole universe, we'll all feel much better. And I think, that, foremost, it's the most important advice to start with, since it leads to everything else.

I hope it was some kind of help!

(And apologies if it didn't... If you wanted some practical advice - please let me know, I'll try my best too if I'm competent enough for it; I just focused primarily on encouragement, so I hope it was some kind of help T//T)

Thank you one more time for asking and for your words about me stories, and remember that your story - is impossible to compare because every story is a living being, and all of us are different, and this is our power and beauty (⁠｡⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠｡⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠��

[jujumin-translates]

[A3!] Sakuya Sakuma | [SSR++] The Garden that Bounded the Four Seasons | Courtyard Time Capsule: Spring

Citron: …And to make a long story short, that is that.

Tsuzuru: Yeah, I didn’t get any of that.

Citron: That is why I am going to use the time thing to put into a capsule!

Masumi: That’s way too hard to follow.

Sakuya: He’s talking about a time capsule. Like how each troupe is burying a time capsule in the courtyard.

Sakuya: That’s why we all have to decide on one thing to put into it.

Citron: Please decide by next week!

Tsuzuru: Ohh, a time capsule, huh? Sounds interesting.

Itaru: Sweet, I’m gonna bury my billing records.

Masumi: That’d be pointless.

Chikage: I suppose it’s nice feeling the impermanence of worldly things, isn’t it?

Sakuya: Putting billing records aside, it should be something that you’ll be able to look at in ten years and really feel how the time has gone by.

Itaru: If that’s the case then maybe I could use one of those… Just last week, I bought a bunch of copies of the software for this one game to get a store-specific bonus, so maybe I could throw one of those in or something.

Tsuzuru: Why game software?

Itaru: Maybe it’ll become some legendary game in ten years.

Chikage: Just out of curiosity, what’s the review average for it online?

Itaru: 3.2 stars…

Chikage: Seems like it could become very legendary indeed.

Citron: You are not being very imaginative. You will not be surprised when we open it up! 

Masumi: Well, I guess that’s fair, but what exactly should it be then?

Citron: It should be something with more heresy! 

Tsuzuru: Sincerity?

Sakuya: Something with sincerity… Maybe something handmade?

Chikage: Something we made with our own hands would definitely carry more feelings ten years from now than ready-made products would.

Itaru: Hey now, let’s not ask for something unreasonable again…

Sakuya: (Something handmade… I wonder what I should bury.)

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Citron: …Hmmhmhmm, scratchy and prickly~.

Sakuya: What are you sewing, Citron-san?

Citron: The item I am going to bury in the time capsule!

Sakuya: A felt doll?

Citron: Yes. This is the plan!

Sakuya: Whoa, it’s a new Citron Junior! 

Citron: A Sleeping Beauty version! It is very romantic to wake up after sleeping for ten years!

Sakuya: I see! So he’s a Sleeping Beauty because he’ll be sleeping underground for a long time.

Sakuya: (Citron-san really is amazing. That’s the perfect theme for a time capsule and it’s a really Citron-san-like thing to do.)

· ❀ —– ٠ ❀ ٠ —– ❀ ·

*Knock on door and the door opens*

Sakuya: Tsuzuru-kun, Masumi-kun, the room we’re rehearsing in for afternoon rehearsal has changed.

Tsuzuru: It’s already about time, huh?

Masumi: I’ll be there once I’m done.

Sakuya: What are you making, Masumi-kun?

Masumi: A picture frame.

Masumi: I’m going to put my favorite recent photo of the Director in it and then bury it in the time capsule.

Tsuzuru: That’s like idol-fan worshipping behavior…

Masumi: I’d be really happy to be able to compare the Director’s smile here to her smile ten years from now.

Sakuya: I see! That really is an idea only you could’ve come up with, Masumi-kun.

Sakuya: Have you decided on what you’re gonna bury yet, Tsuzuru-kun?

Tsuzuru: It’s not really that much, but… it’s handmade, so it should work.

Sakuya: A notebook?

Tsuzuru: It’s got stuff like the plots for story ideas that I’ve had to scrap so far written in it.

Tsuzuru: Maybe the stuff that I’ve had to scrap because I couldn’t handle it now will be something I’ll be able to write about ten years in the future.

Sakuya: I’m sure that ten years from now, you’ll be an even better writer than you already are, Tsuzuru-kun!

Tsuzuru: I hope so.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

*Knock on door and the door opens*

Sakuya: Itaru-san, Chikage-san, the room we’ll be rehearsing in for our afternoon rehearsal has been changed.

Chikage: Ahh, got it.

Itaru: Gotcha.

Sakuya: By the way, have you both decided on what you’ll be burying in the time capsule?

Chikage: I’m thinking of bottling up an extra hot spice combination that I’ve come up with and then burying that along with the recipe for it.

Chikage: This is the best combination to me currently, but… I might come up with an entirely different recipe ten years from now.

Chikage: I think it’d be fun to compare them.

Sakuya: Spices! That’s a very you thing, Chikage-san. I bet the Director would love to know that recipe too.

Chikage: I bet she would.

Itaru: And I’m thinking of making a homemade strategy guide to bury with the software since I’d never hear the end of it from Citron if I only buried that.

Itaru: It’s basically just a notebook with a hand-drawn map, gameplay notes, reviews, etc.

Itaru: I used to write out strategy guide notes by hand, but now that I’ve got the wonder that is the internet, I don’t really do that anymore.

Itaru: So I’m gonna try unleashing my little gamer boy heart again.

Chikage: You say that as if you’re not still basically a gamer kid.

Sakuya: That seems like it’d be more memorable than if you just put the game in.

Sakuya: (It’s incredible how everyone’s found something that’s so uniquely them… Just what am I going to bury?)

· ❀ —– ٠ ❀ ٠ —– ❀ ·

Sakuya: (Hmm, the sun is so warm and nice today.)

Sakuya: (Our time capsule is gonna be buried in this garden and then we’ll all dig it up ten years from now…)

Sakuya: (Ten years from now… I wonder how much everyone will change, including me. I’m really looking forward to digging it back up.)

Sakuya: (But before that, I need to figure out what I’m going to bury in it…)

Sakuya: Hmm…

Izumi: Ah, looks like I found the first guest.

Izumi: Omi-kun made gâteau au chocolat. Would you like to have some with me?

Sakuya: Sure thing!

Izumi: What are you thinking about?

Sakuya: I actually haven’t decided on what I’m gonna bury in the time capsule yet…

Izumi: It seems like the other troupes that buried theirs before put a lot of different things in theirs too.

Izumi: Pictures, poems, design data, autographed balls, keys for a treasure hunt, things they use on a daily basis…

Sakuya: I’m thinking of making something homemade, but I’m not particularly good at making anything…

Izumi: Being homemade doesn’t mean it has to be good.

Izumi: The feelings you put into it and the reason you made it are more important, don’t you think?

Izumi: It should be something that’ll make you happy when you dig it up ten years from now.

Sakuya: I see… I guess you’re right.

Sakuya: I was also just looking forward to digging the time capsule up in this courtyard and imagining what it’ll be like.

Izumi: That reminds me, the first generation said that this courtyard was full of their memories, too.

Izumi: This courtyard really is a special place for MANKAI Company members, isn’t it?

Izumi: It’s full of fun times, happy times, troubled times, and lots of other times too.

Sakuya: Yeah! It’s a place that I really, really love too.

Sakuya: --Ah.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Citron: Alright, it is time to put our things in the time capsule one by one!

Tsuzuru: Alright, I’ll start with mine since it seems easy to put in.

Itaru: Mine’s flat too, so it’ll be fine being at the bottom.

Chikage: Mine can go next.

Citron: I will put mine in too~. Good night, Junior~.

Masumi: I’m putting my picture of the Director at the very top.

Itaru: That’s a disgusting amount of bubble wrap.

Tsuzuru: I think you might’ve over-wrapped it a bit.

Sakuya: Alright, mine can go in next then.

Chikage: A watercolor painting? Did you paint that, Sakuya?

Citron: Ohh! It is of the courtyard’s scenery!

Sakuya: It honestly kinda sucks, but… I borrowed some art supplies from Kazunari-san and painted a little bit of it every day.

Sakuya: I hope this view of the courtyard I love will still be the same in ten years when we all dig up the capsule.

Sakuya: I painted this with that wish in mind.

Itaru: I’m sure it won’t change.

Citron: Just like our bond.

Sakuya: Yeah!

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I wouldn't really agree that boys are just arm candy in magical girl shows and only there to look cute. Yeah, sure the girls' friendships are the focus, but the boys are usually very much involved in the plot and most shows do explore their feelings about the odd things that happen due to magical shenanigans even if they aren't in the know (It's why ML baffles me even more with how they screwed up Adren's arc when he's the deuteragonist, when all these boys are supporting cast and get well rounded arcs)

I'm not much of a winx fan, but the specialists were very much not arm candy. Did the girls talk about them being cute? Yes, it's what teenage girls do. Did the narrative suggest they were good looking? Yes, but that's standard for most love interests in any genre. But we still got scenes with them talking amongst themselves about how they themselves feel and they got a fair share of badass fight scenes even if they wield no magic. A large amount of episodes actually included the boys and girls working as a team solving a mystery or fighting a villain. The girls might deal the finishing blow but the boys were still integral to the plot.

I hope this doesn't come across as hate, it definitely wasn't my intention. I'm just a bit too passionate about the magical girl genre.

I do think you have a good point with ML having a problem choosing a genre or blending two genres successfully.

For the CCS fans, I will add though that Cardcaptor Sakura had both Tomoyo and Syaoran serve as sources of motivation for Sakura. And both Sakura and Syaoran collecting cards even if Sakura is the only one who could seal them and yet never made you question whether Syaoran was even necessary for the job the way ml does with Chat.

I wasn't trying to say that boys have no part to play in magical girl team shows or that they're always treated as having no lives beyond the girls, that's why I mentioned that the Winx Club boys - aka, the Specialists - have their own (mostly off screen) lives and occasionally show up help the girls:

the boys are usually off doing their own thing and only occasionally show up for a date or to give the girls a ride on their cool bikes or magical spaceship

Even then, this is certainly a simplification of the roles that they play in the story, but I kind of had to simplify their roles down to their base components for the original post's discussion as I was talking in broad strokes of how these stories are written.

In terms of those broad strokes, the Specialists are absolutely only there for shipping fodder. That's why each one is assigned to a girl from the start and why their main role in the narrative is supporting their assigned love interest or causing relationship-based drama for their assigned love interest. If it weren't for shipping, then the Specialists would not exist.

While the Specialists do have fleshed out characters and may even effect the plot, the execution of those elements is designed around the girls. A really obvious example of this is the character Timmy, who has character development as the boy's tech guy. Why is he into technology? Because he's the designated love interest for the fairy of Technology and we have to show why they're a good match. Along similar lines, the boys don't really get plots that are removed from the girls because this is the girl's show. Every episode features one or more of the Winx, but the boys are optional and often don't appear.

This is because, narratively speaking, the boys are just love interests and that brings us back to Miraculous' big problem. You can't have a show where Adrien is written like a Specialist while also being part of the Winx Club and where Alya is written like she's part of the Winx Club while technically being more of a Specialist in terms of power set and actual narrative role.

I'm was thinking back to my memories of various Winx Club plots to find one that really highlighted what I mean here and I remembered that one of the big dramas in season one was the reveal that Bloom's love interest - Sky - was in an arranged marriage and had just never told her. As it turns out, that's a great example of what I'm talking about re Adrien!

Is that plot line technically based around Sky and letting his life effect the plot? Sure, but the fallout of that reveal revolves around Bloom, not Sky. The story doesn't really care how Sky's feeling as the conflict progresses. Instead, it focuses on how it affects Bloom and her friends because of course it does! She's the main character. It would be really weird if that plot suddenly focused on her side character love interest and his friends during one of her darkest hours/biggest moments.

Think of that and then consider how the ending of season five is written. Notice any similarities? Sure, this is Adrien's family drama, but because he's just a Specialist, the focus isn't on him. It's on Winx Club member Marinette and Adrien only shows up at the end for a kiss. That is the problem. That is what I'm talking about when I say that Miraculous will randomly write him as if we're watching a magical girl team show where Adrien is just the love interest.

In fact, let's really dig into this example because it's a good one.

You can have a look at the transcript for the finale episode of Miraculous season five here and see for yourself that Adrien doesn't even show up on screen until the final scenes when the big drama is over. The Winx Club wiki also has episode transcripts, so I took a look to see what happened in Winx land during the arranged marriage reveal plot (I love that this is a thing. It's so useful for fact checking myself!) This is the script for the episode after Bloom learns the truth. Sky does not appear even though his lies and family drama are the fuel for this episode's events, which are a major part of the season's arc. Note how perfectly that matches Adrien's writing?

Similarly, Sky's dialogue in the reveal episode is all about Bloom. He's worried about her learning the truth and thinking less of him. To match that, here's Adrien's only real dialogue in the penultimate episode of season five (full transcript):

Adrien:(Covers his ears.) I cannot transform... (Looks at his ring and tries taking it off.) Plagg: What are you doing?! Adrien: I'm not in my right mind. I'm too angry — at myself for falling short of Marinette's love, at my father for sending me here in London, at this stupid app and these rings that use my image... it makes me sick! This nightmare is giving me the horrible feeling that, if I transform, I'll get akumatized and destroy everything with my Cataclysm — Marinette, Ladybug... (Takes off the ring and hands it to Plagg.)

Switching back to Winx. After Bloom learns the truth about Sky, bad things happen because she's depressed. This results in her and the Winx going off on a journey to learn the truth of who Bloom is. After the girls share this big plot moment and Bloom gets her mojo back, the boys show up to be their ride home and to give Bloom her romance moment where Sky wins her back by declaring that he broke off the arranged married because he loves her.

Sky notably doesn't get an arc about choosing between his arranged marriage and his true love. We don't even know that the marriage is broken off until he tells Bloom because that was never really a conflict as far as the narrative was concerned. Of course he's going to pick Bloom! He's her designated side character love interest! He only exists to be with her. We don't need to treat this as a serious thing for him. The arranged marriage plot was never about him anyway. It was about giving Bloom a reason to have a darkest hour moment that moves the plot forward. Similarly, Sky calling off the marriage is nowhere near as important as him telling Bloom that he's called off the marriage to be with her in a grand romantic gesture.

This perfectly mirrors Miraculous' season five ending where Adrien doesn't appear until after Marinette is done fighting her big girl power fight against his father. As far as the writing is concerned, that fight isn't about him. His connection to the villain only really matters in terms of how it affects Marinette's actions during the final battle. Then, when the battle is over, Adrien shows up to give Marinette her big romance moment because, while the plot may be driven by Adrien's family, he is not a Winx club member. He's just a Specialist. Or, in the words of the head writer:

[image text: She's Barbie, he's Ken. You don't like it. I get it. It won't change. Anything else?] (The full, even more damning context of this tweet can be found here.)

What else can I say other than, "I rest my case."

Oh, and also that I didn't take this as an attack. I just thought it was a good opportunity to really dig into the nuances of this and what I was talking about in that original post as I never know how obvious this stuff is if you don't closely study story telling. As this case study hopefully shows, if a show is about a group of girl friends using the power of friendship, then their love interests may have important roles, but the boys are never going to be more important than the girls and most of the boy's screen time will be focused on romance and how their existence effects the girls because it's ultimately the girls' world. Without them, the show wouldn't exist. Without the boys? Well, then we just wouldn't have a romance plot.

[sygneth]

I have always admired people who could write one fic or draw a comic for years because I am living in a constant fear of not finishing what I have started. Not in a 'maybe something terrible will happen to me' way, but simply knowing myself and that after a couple of months or years, I will catch a new fixation and finishing the old story will become hard. And yeah sure, I have heard people say "You don't have to finish if it doesn't interest you anymore" or "It's your art and you decide what it will be about" and I fully agree, but I still love those old things I came up with you know? I still love these characters and I want their stories to be told, but at the same time there already are new characters with new stories in my head and I want to tell them too.

[dolokhoded]

my one season 4 complaint is Where The Fuck Was Aneesa

[thedeerman]

hey chat not gonna lie, the fact that i decided to post DYWTK chapters twice a week means that i've already written like three fucking weeks of content and I am so fucking impatient guys. Im so impatient. so uh, yeah. I might be upping that to three chapters a week for my own sanity lmao

[sysig]

One better (Patreon)

[spacedkey]

the eternal struggle of reading webcomics/manga/manh(w/u)a that i think are really good but have cringe ass titles so i can't recommend them without someone doubting my sensibilities and taste in stories

[wintaerbaer]

have i mentioned that one of the reasons twds 6 is taking so long is because i changed the ending of the series 🫠

[lover-of-mine]

Wip Wednesday!

I was tagged by @disasterbuckdiaz @alyxmastershipper @911onabc and @cowboy-buck

I've been posting a lot of the wayf fic so I'm gonna switch it up a bit and post something from my Buck breakdown fic. This picks up right after this other snippet of it. There's also another snippet here (if you read this one please know I don't write linearly and I legit wrote the climax of the fic before writing anything else and now I'm here trying to make it make sense kspakalal)

At this point of his life, after everything, Buck knows better than to hope for the best. To pray it's a coincidence when he knew this was the highway Eddie needed to take to get to Pepa's. The place he knows Eddie and Christopher are supposed to be at that night. But he's frozen in place, foolishly looking around as if he wouldn't have noticed Eddie before. He knows he's still in the truck, if he wasn't he would've made his presence known. He would've been helping people. "Bobby?" Buck calls, voice strained, and the captain turns to him with a frown, eyes shifting to worry when he takes in the look on his face, "that's Eddie's truck," he says, watching as Bobby looks from him to the truck, and back at him.

Imma tag @bucks118 and @housewifebuck as usual if they feel like sharing

[mcybree]

"if you happen to fall in the subcategory of people who are really into third life and also rain world lets talk. please. i have an au come back"

i am staring at u with my artificer plushy in my hands

*walks onto the stage. taps mic.* um. Jimmy sliver of straw incident. *jumps off the apron breaking all of my bones immediately upon contact with the floor*

[saunteringvaguelydownwards]

****

Motherfucker, y'all got me writing again, what the fuck?

[loverboydotcom]

my experience as an autistic writer is my silly little story honestly feels like an alternate version of this universe that i just have access to for some reason and spectate which is why it feels so real because as far as im concerned it is real what else would it feel like to have entire lives playing out inside your head? but i don’t think i can just say that to people unless they feel the same 👍

[emily-mooon]

Sometimes I just feel like writing a fic where chapters are episodic and I don’t have to elongate an event cause I finished it in one chapter.

And this is where I pull out a fake presentation talking about a 1930s Jancy au that is a slow burn friends to lovers where they get into weird situations and go on adventures like it’s a book written by L.M. Montgomery and has a similar energy to Little Women.