#I also blame him for a lot of fictional tropes I like

[phoenix-arts7]

Clearly I have a type when it comes to my men.

[darkcircles4lyfe]

it's a story about hands (reprise)

Yeah, okay, today's the day.

I gave my blog that title for a reason, you know, and it has loomed over me for years because the hand motif is absolutely everywhere and you could go on about it forever.

Maybe that's something I'll never actually attempt to do, but this chapter, we reached a breaking point.

Before I continue, I need to give a big, big disclaimer: I do not have a physical disability, so I'm not able to speak about that from the standpoint of representation as a first-hand perspective. I have at least listened to enough disabled people to know that fictional characters who become amputees only to miraculously gain their limbs back is, um, a trope. Disabled people in general being "healed" is a conception we would really prefer to avoid here. Not to call people out, but I don't think we're giving enough space to acknowledge that.

I don’t feel comfortable making the judgement call about what should happen. I’m leaving that open. I also don't want to downplay people's emotional reactions. Honestly, I don't know if I can accurately define the line between acknowledging real pain vs. ableist pity. But I’d like to talk about the possibilities of what could happen. Other characters have definitely gotten permanent disabilities as a result of their hero work, or even just the side effects of their quirk. But, for better or worse, I don't think this case is really about representation. Not that Horikoshi won't do that justice. He might. What I'm saying is that's not his purpose for having Izuku lose his arms. It's meant to be symbolic, so we can explore what it means. The other thing I’m keeping in mind here is that Horikoshi is notorious for playing with our expectations, like, alllllll the time. I mean, just take a few chapters ago for a classic example. Eri appeared at the end, and we all assumed she was about to take some sort of action to save someone with her quirk. Then, immediately following, we were given an explanation for why that wouldn’t be happening. And now it’s clear he wanted to do that “fake out” not just as a silly cliffhanger prank, but specifically so we would know not to suspect that Eri could be the miraculous solution to Izuku’s loss of his arms. Rest assured, there is no easy way out of this.

The expectation at play in this particular instance is an old one. It’s very understated, but its subtext has burned so brightly, you’d be a fool not to notice it. It sits with anticipation like one half of a call and response. Man, I was so certain. Lots of people still are. I was really looking forward to printing the panel where it happened onto a t shirt and wearing it proudly. All the hand motifs in this story radiate thematically from a single moment, the one that started it all for Izuku.

It raises all kinds of questions about the act of saving, who needs saving, why, what does it mean, what are the dynamics of power, politics, honesty, exploitation, compassion, pity, disdain, sacrifice. Katsuki has dealt with many of these since he first rejected Izuku’s hand. While Izuku was the one who was convinced Katsuki would keep on rejecting him…

…Katsuki was the one who kept that moment in his mind all these years and eventually came to regret it.

Katsuki is the one yearning for that hand-hold, the one who has imbued it with so much more weight than it ever originally had. Izuku, in contrast, does not allow himself to dwell on what he wants. To illustrate this difference, we need to look at another piece of foreshadowing:

Ugh, do y'all remember when lots of folks were complaining about how there never seemed to be actual consequences for Izuku's destructive treatment of his own body? I don't blame them, I was concerned and confused about it too. There were several "fixes" along the way. Recovery Girl healed him, but left a physical reminder. Then he started training to fight with his legs… sometimes. Then he got support items. All of these were unsatisfying non-conclusions because they didn't present Izuku with a lasting enough impression to change in a meaningful way. They didn't address his core, his origin.

Of course, that all changed this chapter. Now it looks like our frustration was inflicted intentionally. With the current context in mind, all of these moments look more sinister, like this day was always gonna come because they kept putting bandaids on a deep emotional and psychological wound. The problem is pretty much spelled out for us here:

As Katsuki put it, he just doesn’t take himself into account, ya know? He doesn’t care what happens to him. And he lies about it, to keep others from worrying, to keep them safe. To keep them from returning the favor and putting themselves in harm’s way for his sake. His motivations are noble,

…but what about the little boy inside Izuku? Who saves him?

This is all about Izuku giving himself up to the point that he literally has no more to give. The thing is, I bet he saw this coming. He knew his limits and decided to keep going anyway, because his personal safety and wellbeing are not important. Now that way of thinking has come back to bite him because the fight isn’t over yet, and he’s already made his sacrifice. So now we know who will be more distraught over this. Not Izuku—Katsuki.

It’s not about Izuku becoming disabled, it’s about how Katsuki wanted to use the intertwining of their fingers to communicate that he would never let go. Never stop valuing him most. Never let himself make the mistake of rejecting him again. Never let Izuku be so reckless with his life. To say: “we are in this together.”…if only Katsuki believed he deserved to be able to say such things. To reach out his hand would have been the ultimate way to simply imply them and let Izuku be the one to decide. Then, to feel their hands clasped together would be more than either of them dared hope for, but so beautiful, so right. A moment they’ve waited their whole lives for.

Yeah. That’s what we were expecting. We’ve been so comfortable. Horikoshi gave us all the signs. He tempted and teased us over and over. BUT. You know he does this thing were he gives us a desirable, completely plausible and simple thing to look forward to, and then he snatches it away. And THEN he replaces it with something much better, something we were not expecting at all because it seemed too good to be true. That’s exactly what happened when Himiko snatched Izuku away, and we were robbed of the chance to see him and Katsuki fight together. In hindsight, though, I’m glad things went a different way because now there’s so much more depth and angst on display. Likewise, in the present moment, we may consider how, as one door closes, another opens.

As wonderfully meaningful as the hand-hold would have been, perhaps it is still too simple a resolution for Izuku, for his and Katsuki’s relationship. Tbh, it could have been done like 100 chapter ago. At this point, there’s so much more potential. There are a couple of ways it could go. If Izuku stays armless, Katsuki will be forced to use other methods to get his point across. He’ll have to do something else, or say what he means, or both. Yes, I’m talking about what you think I’m talking about. If I say it, I just might jinx it (lol), but I mean it. I’m being serious. Either way, if Izuku did get his arms back in the end, I’m sure that it wouldn’t be an easy fix. It would be hard-won against Izuku’s self-destructive mindset, and/or by Katsuki’s conviction. Again, I say this knowing it is not meant so much as a representation of disability, but as a representation of Izuku’s greatest character flaw taken to the extreme. I know this might sound harsh, like, hasn’t he been through enough? I get that, but… I’ve said it before and I say it again: Izuku is stubborn as hell.

I wish I had a resounding final note to end this on, but I kinda don’t. I’m not sure what’s best. Now we just have to wait and see what Horikoshi has in mind.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

When I first saw a Miraculous Ladybug salt post it was the usual Lila takes away all of Marinette's friends Adrien does nothing Marinette becomes super successful Lila gets exposed blah blah blah

When I see posts like the ones you post where people give actual constructive criticism about the characters and not favor one character over the other has made me realize that these are fictional characters and its not their fault they are the way they are. Also they're 14 what kind of 14 year old makes good choice's? Especially when they have the fate of the world/universe on their shoulders

If anything the character I really blame is Master Fu. He was obviously meant to be some sort of mentor figure for them or at least Marinette's mentor. He was the one to tell and encourage Marinette to keep everything a secret from Adrien. Comparing him to other mentor like figures in the world of superheros he isn't really all that helpful.

Compared to DC Ladybug and Chat Noir do not have any adult superheros to help them. In DC younger superheros have entire superhero families to help them out and if not that than they have other adult superheros to help them or they have an actual team. We know that other miraculous holders exist and the order is back I have a vague idea as to why they can't help but I still find it weird as to why they are around if not to help. Like phones and the internet exist do they not?

Sorry for they rant, I want to know what your thoughts are on this?

Your rant was fine! I don't think that I've talked in depth about mentors as a concept and I should both because I love mentors and because Miraculous has completely failed to give us any good ones. This is a writing failure not because good mentors are required, but because the show chose to have mentors characters and then not use them.

Before I get into the topic at large, I want to start with a brief discussion of mentors in shows aimed at young children as Miraculous' intended audience is young children and that fact is worth keeping in mind when discussing what Miraculous did wrong and some of the ways that you can fix it.

Shows aimed at kids generally avoid adult characters in major roles for the very obvious reason that the intended audience is kids, so you want the kid and teen characters to be the stars. This doesn't mean that adults aren't allowed to save the day or have important roles. It just means that they should be used sparingly. This is why mentors are a great addition to kids shows. They allow adult characters to be deeply involved with the plot without anyone expecting them to intervene because that's not their role in the story. They're not here to be the hero. They're here to guide the hero.

One of the powerful things about this setup is that it allows the writers to give the real kids watching at home real advice about real life problems. For example, if Marinette comes to Fu to talk about feeling alone and overwhelmed, then he can give her real, practical advice that would apply to anyone who is feeling alone and overwhelmed, but no one expects him to directly intervene because he's supposed to say hidden.

A lot of these elements apply to mentors in media aimed at older audiences, the rules just apply for different reasons, so I'm going to stop reminding you that Miraculous is for elementary school kids and focus on the failed mentor issue as it would be an issue no matter what Miraculous' intended audience was.

When it comes to bad mentoring, a lot of people focus on Fu and I get why. At first glance, he's the classic wise old Asian man who is supposed to be there to guide the protagonist on her mystical journey (not getting into the racism issue here, just know that I'm aware of it and that Miraculous dropped the ball on this in a lot of ways even though they absolutely could have made it work.) But Fu isn't the main focus of my ire because, while the writers seemed to have designed him around the mystic Asian trope, they never actually wrote him like a mentor.

He doesn't train Marinette and Adrien in the ways of the miraculous. He just sneakily gives them their miraculous and then disappears from their lives for quite some time. So he's not around to get them properly started on their hero journey. That's strike one for the mentor role.

Strike two is the fact that we never actually see him mentoring Marinette. I don't think that she ever went to him for advice? If she did, then it wasn't a big element of their relationship. When I think of Marinette and Fu, I picture her going to him to grab a miraculous or two before booking it back to the ongoing fight and that's about it. The guardian training she supposedly had was all off screen, so we have no idea how close they were or what he even taught her outside of potion making. Even that wasn't really him teaching her something. It was them working together to figure out a puzzle because Fu never completed his own training, making it impossible for him to properly train a successor.

Strike three is the fact that - outside of the King Monkey incident - Fu never gets directly involved in helping team miraculous. He's never gives them feedback on fights or works with Ladybug and Chat Noir to strengthen their bond. He doesn't even help them track down the two missing miraculous or hand out the temporary miraculous on Marinette's behalf, a choice I still find super weird. "This fight is super hard and we need help, so I'm going to leave Chat Noir to fight alone while I go get said help!" is absolutely nonsense logic and one of the many examples of the writers desperately needing to let Marinette hand her responsibilities off. Why wasn't this Fu's job?

This brings us to fix one: if you want the guardian to be a mentor - which is a role they arguably should have - then the guardian needs to be actively involved in Marinette and Adrien's lives in an on screen way. For this to work in the context of Miraculous - a show that really wants to focus on the teen characters - then the guardian probably needs a teenage apprentice who isn't Marinette and that apprentice will be the one doing the mentoring.

My pick for this is Luka for two big reasons. The first one is that his calm personality is perfectly suited to a mentor. The second one is that it seems insane to me to have the snake be a temp holder. The snake should be watching every fight, but staying out of the actual fight so that they can use their power whenever it's needed. That's the perfect role for a mentor character to fill. Someone who is active in the plot, but only ever as a support because their power stops them from getting more involved.

Moving on to the bigger issue.

As I said up above, Fu doesn't actually get my ire. While I wanted him to be a mentor, he never once filled that role and he didn't really need to because the show already had mentor figures that it was actively using and using poorly. Those figures are the ancient magical creatures that follow our heroes around, dispensing terrible advice whenever they feel like it. That's right, as much as it pains me, Miraculous' biggest mentor failures are Tikki and Plagg.

The miraculous did not need to have magical creatures associated with them. They could have just been magical jewelry that Fu handed out and explained. Instead, the writers chose to give us the Kwamis and I don't disagree with that choice. I like the Kwmais! The problem is that they're used in the most lackluster, asinine ways you possibly could.

The Kwamis are not presented as oblivious to the world and unable to give advice. They give lots of advice! The problem is that advice tends to suck! I can think of many examples of times where the Kwamis made everything worse, but let's look at the one that grinds my gears the most: Plagg's actions in season four.

In Rocketear - the episode where Nino gives Adrien an incredibly inaccurate picture of why he knows Alya's secret identity - we get this:

Adrien: I still can't believe Ladybug entrusted Alya and Nino with those Miraculous. Plagg: Of course she did. She's the Guardian. Adrien: But they're a couple and they know each other's secret identities. Plagg: So...? Adrien: So, why does she make it a rule that we can't know each other's identities but it's okay for them? Plagg: She's the Guardian, the Grandmaster Cheese Ripener, and you and I are just cheese on the platter. She decides what's on the menu.

Hey, Plagg, maybe don't tell your clearly upset and vulnerable teenage holder to just suck it up and deal with it when he's feeling alone and betrayed? Maybe encourage him to talk to Ladybug about his feelings so that he can get the full story? Knowing that they learned their identities during the Scarlet Moth incident would probably do a lot to smooth over Adrien's hurt feelings.

What's even more rich is that the episode Kuro Neko lets Plagg go off on Marinette for not appreciating Chat Noir:

Ladybug: What's gotten into him? I didn't do anything. Plagg: Didn't do anything? Well yeah, you did! You've been neglecting a very classy piece of camemebert on your plate for too long! And as a result it got runny, and moldy! Ladybug: What? Cat Noir never gave me any camembert. Plagg: Of course not, Cat Noir is the camembert! For a while now, you've been neglecting this camembert— I mean Cat Noir, and going on adventures with the all other cheeses! Ladybug: But he should be happy about it, it gives him more time off. Plagg: Cat Noir doesn't wanna have time off, Ladybug! He is in love with you! And your persistent calling on all the other heroes has broken his heart.

Dude, if you saw all of this going on, then why didn't you say something??? You and Tikki are in the same location for multiple hours five days a week. Go tell her how your holder is feeling and figure out how to fix the situation! Or be an actual mentor and encourage Adrien to talk to someone about his feelings! At the very least, cut up a wheel of cheese, sit down, and listen to your kid so that he feels less alone!

Also what exactly do you want Ladybug to do to fix the problem you presented? Let Paris burn until Chat Noir decides to show up to today's fight? Refuse to use the temp heroes even if it means losing a fight? None of those are valid solutions when the problem presented in the episode is Chat Noir missing fights. Especially when we know that he's doing it on purpose. Why are you yelling at her instead of working with her to come up with an actual solution? You are such a terrible mentor...

To be clear, I don't think any of this is intentional. I don't think the writers want Plagg and Tikki to come across as actively hurting their teenage charges via bad advice. I think Plagg and Tikki are supposed to be seen as good and helpful, but they can't fill that role because they're tools of the narrative and the narrative has really wacky views on what good advice is. Thus nonsense like the example I discussed above or Plagg and Tikki picking new holders instead of guiding their holders through an identity reveal.

I personally adore letting Plagg and Tikki be good mentors in my own stuff. It falls under the same category as Alya and Nino being terrible friends on screen. I acknowledge the problem and then delight in fixing it by writing the exact opposite setup because what is fanfiction for if not heavy self indulgence?

[alanaartdream]

I’m surprised everyone forgotten all the drama Butch himself created during Danny Phantom and Tuff Puppy days were coming to an end or fact Butch loved the Cosmo as a bumbling idiot husband and Wanda as the nagging wife trope gag; most often the writers & artists had to fix up his mistakes and many would would complain how treble it was to work with him

It wasn’t Timmy Turner’s fault Wanda & Cosmo became this way butch just liked playing up dumb cosmo and nagging Wanda gag way too much

Half you sound like married couples blaming their kids on their marriage failure when it’s on the couple themselves when you blame Timmy Turner for Wanda & Cosmo relationship going sour in later seasons of the original show

Luckily these characters are all fictional characters but if they were real it sounds you’re all looking at a 10 year old child causing all the troubles he had to go through and was to blame for all the other characters around him when a lot of the adults around him were failing him;;

I believe it’s more Timmy’s human parents that caused the stress for Wanda & Cosmo I mean honestly they had to care for a neglected (as well as abused) 10 year old and try to teach him right from wrong because his Birth parents were not doing their jobs as his parents

Also there were times Timmy’s birth parents were treble to each other in the show and it would be Timmy who had to deal with the fall out and then Wanda and Cosmo would try their best to help Timmy through it

Also yeah I blame butch himself for things going the way they went and kinda glad he doesn’t have as much of control for fairly odd parents a new wish

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Alan & Jeff Forever!

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Jan 2024 Wk 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

The Sign (Sat YT) ep 10 of 12 - I am a little concerned that this is getting too big for its britches, rather like Phaya’s recently recovered snake… shall we say? Adding in yet another character at this juncture isn’t the best idea. Still, I love how this show makes me cackle laugh with grandmas + Yai and then TENSION.

It’s a wobbly kind of balance but a balancing act is happening nonetheless. It makes the pacing of this show good. It may be all over the place but I'm never bored.

Pit Babe (Fri iQIYI) ep 11 of 14 - No trash talk this week, I was charmed & delighted. Who knew I would actually enjoy this show? Certainly not me. (not much of a...) Trash watch happening here.

Cooking Crush (Sun YT) ep 8 of 12 - I am pretty much skipping most of the 3 chef friends, and all of the side dish action (sorry Neo). And with OffGun apart for most of this ep, it didn’t hold together since they are the glue. Sigh.

Last Twilight (Fri YT) ep 12fin - Okay let’s talk about it.

Mhok should have gone off with someone else. Day treated him like shit and never once apologized. To assume an apology isn’t necessary is to pity Day in the exact way he didn’t want. (On a complete aside, one of my favorite Thai restaurants back in my mispent youth was in Hilo, HI… ah memories) meanwhile the "passing escalators trope" activated in the land of malls (it’s been a while my old friend).

Anygay, I hold that Mohk was not a fault and Day was the one who needed to apologize.

Although they did have one of BL's BEST ever face touch moments. 

In conclusion: 

The story of a blind man and his caregiver falling in love. Mark is great. JimmySea are spectacular. The support cast is GMMTV-good. And for the first 3/4 this BL was something rather special. But it was let down by its ending (for which I entirely blame the author). In order to like this show you must buy into the premise that Mhok was in the wrong and caused their breakup. If you don’t believe that, you won’t like this BL. Also "fixing a disability = true happiness" is gross messaging. For me, endings counts for a lot and this one was ultimately “happy” but felt like a failure. 7/10 and I was sorely tempted to go as low as a 6/10, so it should count itself lucky 

I dithered my darling BLabies... I dithered A LOT over this one. But JimmySea alone held this one up.

GMMTV we gotta talk. You're fielding some of the world's best pairs right now. It's time to get them equally good scripts.

For Him (Thurs iQIYI) ep 9 of 12 - This installment had too much of the side couple in it. Although it was nice to see First/Dream (Twins) again. He's still a cutie, even playing a straight. 

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) ep 23 of 24 - I have to say I’m very glad we are on the last installment of the series. Narcissistic hairdresser starts seeing a spirit in a mirror. Turns out to be a friend from his youth who he thought was dead. This one is kinda sweet, and I find the premise interesting. Is the kid actually dead and a spirit? Or is there something else going on? I am intrigued. And I like the actor playing the kid in the mirror. I suspect this will be sad tho.

Time the series (Thai Gaga) ep 3 of 10 - I don’t exactly know what is going on. And frankly I don’t particularly care, either. So far nothing seems to be happening, and I really intensely dislike one half of the main couple. DNF welcome 2024 here we go 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Love For Love's Sake (Korea Weds iQIYI) 1-2 of 8 - based on the Manhwa Love Supremacy Zone by Hwacha (they should have kept the original title). I adore the premise. IRL person has been sent into fictional universe to save a side character from doom. Fantastic. Every fanfic author's dream. Also, I love that our POV was the bad boy in high school so there’s also a redemption arc going on. I adore this kind of isekai (if you wanna call it that). Puppy/cat pairing too! 

Although I Love You and You AKA Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 3 of 10 - Oh my goodness they too cute. Basically dating. Although only one of them realizes it, and he is such a drama queen. It’s GREAT. Also they are both so damn gay. I love the supportive bestie trying to cope with the girl who has a crush on his gay bff. 

Happy Ending (Korea Tues YT) 1 of 3 - Strongberry is back and it’s very them and very atmospheric and cute. I’m enjoying it. 

Sahara-sensei to Toki-kun (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 7 of 8 - Japan giveth and Japan taketh away again. Look, I just like the lost love teacher/teacher couple better. I'm assuming they'll have to do a time jump in the final episode to make this one work at all. 

I am SO GLAD we have KBLs back on our screens.

It's done

What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) 10 eps - will binge when I have any spare time. 2024 is crazy busy for me so far.

The Servant and the Young Master - from Vietnam so I assume it's on YouTube. I never even noticed. Anyone?

Began Beginning (Myanmar YouTube) - Is TRUST Entertainment bringing us the first ever Burmese BL? I don't know if it's really the first, but @heretherebedork vouched for it, so I will give it a watch through.

Beside You (Thai ????) - a 3 ep short that's supposed to have aired but I can't find it.

It's Airing But...

[NO INTERNATIONAL] Cherry Magic (Sat YouTube) ep 3 of 12 - yeah Japan put the smack down on our boys. Sadness. You can use a VPN if you like. Read all about it here.

Ossans Love Season 2 (Japan Gaga) - 5 years later, will anything have changed? This is Japan so… probubly not. I won't be watching this. I disliked Season one and actively hated the follow ups. No thank you.

Playboyy (Thurs Gaga) 14 eps - Dear Playboyy, it's not you, it’s me… I hate you. You’re about as deep (and as palatable) as a shot glass of cum. While I'm sure you’re someone’s kink, you're my weakest link. Goodbye. I DNFed this at ep 5. Frankly I'm impressed with myself for getting that far.

The Whisperer (Sun ????) 10 eps - Ends next week. Thai horror BL that ALSO involves cheating (what joy is mine). I don't think even the perfect single dimple can motivate me to watch. Word is... it's terrible.

7 Days Before Valentine (Weds WeTV) 10 eps - Giving me Luminous Solution vibes. I'm waiting to binge if safe.

Dead Friend Forever (Thai Sat iQIYI) - horror, meh, tell me if it's worth my time?

In Case You Missed it

All my year-end round ups:

TOP 10 BL Trends of 2023

Top 10 BL Secondary Pairs of 2023

2023 BLs Best Trope Execution Awards! TOP 10

All the BLs Announced for 2023 that didn't happen

BL 2023's Best:

Back Hugs Thailand & Elsewhere

Cute Bits of Domesticity

Boys Feeding Boys

BOOP!

Best Cuddles

Heads in Laps

Touching Head Touches

Thailand Put His Head on Your Shoulder

Put Your Head on My Shoulder (not Thailand)

BEST KISSES (not Thailand)

BEST KISSES FROM THAILAND

Next Week Looks Like This:

2/2 City of Stars AKA Fueangnakorn (Fri YouTube?) 10 eps - An actor falls in love with a programmer and the narrative intends to “explore the ramifications of being public figure in the social network era who must endure critics, bullying, and defamation.” Looks like another Lovely Writer/Call It What You Want sort of thing. But helmed by Star Hunter? Chaos will ensue.

2/2 Anti Reset AKA Anti-Reset (Taiwan Fri Gaga?) 10 eps - from Vidol (who aren't doing us very proud right now) - Human and robot find love.

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Say what you like about this show (and I have) they do some very gay cuddling. (Him the series)

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

This show, damnit, so close to being genius. (Last Twilight)

I don't that's a hardshi,p grandma ... although it may be a hard ship... get it.

I'll stop now.

(The Sign)

(Last week)

[jaylleoo14]

Thinking of a punk Floyd and cottage core Jade, and sometimes they would switch styles to throw people off >:3 (Also can we please ignore that Floyd literally has so much drabbles-) Look, if you've read my DNI already you should be familiar that I do like more of these darker and toxic topics/tropes in fiction. But I was thinking of a bullying one where the tweels try and make you more dependent on the other so they could trap you ukno? Now personally, sometimes I dont think i’m too big on like the bulliedxbully but LIKE AHHHHHHHHHHH omgomgomgomogmg the brain is ROTTING!!! Punk Floyd bullying you into having you to rely on Jade and Jade cooing you with sweet words as he comforts you, only to bring you back to Punk Floyd. Or Cottage Core Jade manipulating a situation or spreading some false rumors about you to have you get into a fight, only for Floyd to be around and save you from the situation. And its just the same repetitive process till you slowly break and become theirs.

The only way to have Floyd become nicer to you is to start hanging out with him more. But you dont want to hang with him, I mean, who'd want to hang out with their bully am I right? Though Jade's piercing words make you reconsider because he isn't going to be there to comfort you forever. You might as well be on better terms with him. So you do. You try to fearfully make an effort to get along with Floyd, and surprisingly why is he a lot nicer than before? Yea sure he still teases you and treats you a little roughly but he acts a bit more tender than before and much more mindful. Around this time though you begin to become wary of Jade. Sometimes you seek refuge in Floyds arms because of the things Jade tends to say, and with these two scary guys hanging around constantly, you seem to get more isolated from your friends. Jades work behind the scenes to spread some little "words' ' towards your friends and every time you come back to hang out and talk with them they inch away further. Their faces are shown with a mix of fear or discomfort. And you know this is Jades doing because he's always there when you turn around. He knows you know. But could you honestly blame them? They just love you so much! They want you to themselves, and yes they have shared nasty fights about it but the results came in and lord and behold. It's on a positive note that they will be sharing you. Maybe not so positive for you, but very delightful for them. They just love that fearful look in your face, the frustrated tones in your voice, and how adorable and cute you look overall. Not only that but Floyd loves it when he cages his arms around you whenever he teases/roughly plays around with you. And Jade loves it when you go to him, burying your tear filled face into his chest or shoulders from the aftermath of Floyds bullying. I can imagine Floyd getting all whiny a little after as he comes over seeing you hugging Jade trying to seek some sort of comfort and that satisfied look on his face. Jades brushing your hair as you continue to cry in his wool knitted sweater and now Floyds is just irritated. He's coming over and pulling you off of Jade in such a forceful manner that it catches you to stop crying for a moment. He's holding you close to himself and slightly aggressively patting your back like one would to calm down a baby, positioning you on his lap for a more comfortable hold. "Ahhhhh jeez stop huggin' Jade like that. Here, look, I'm sorry okay? Shhhhh just be quiet now." His hold on you is tight, as if wanting you to just let him do this. Like he's always done. Though it doesnt exactly help with your tears. "Oh look, you're making them even more scared fufufu." God you hate this. The way you have no one else to turn to other than Jade and Floyd, but when Floyds around you cant help but hide yourself from Jade when he makes you feel a sort of humiliation. "Hm? Now lookit' here Jade, you're makin them all shy." Floyd brings his free hand to your head, pushing it down gently to the nook of neck with your stifled tears. "Shy" was the wrong word to describe it, but he knew that he was just underplaying it. "They're shaking," Floyd remarks. "It seems so. Is something wrong (y/n)?"

The audacity... THE AUDACITY OF HIM ASKING THAT! You have to be around them, its either one or the other. Because whenever you're not, they ensure that something happens just so you could go back to them once again. "Here, why dont you come into my arms (y/n)? I'll comfort you better like i've always done." Jades extending his arms out to grab a hold of you but Floyds tugging you away. "You've already got enough time with them, its my turn to have shrimpy to myself." You can only stiffen yourself a bit in his hold, continuing to just let yourself sit on his lap as you lay your head on his shoulders. Nothing but sniffles as you try and calm down. Jade is deeply displeased with this, a darker look shadowing over his face. “Oh? I’m pretty sure I was talking with (y/n). You should learn when to know who's talking to who Floyd.” You can feel a fight brewing up, slighting clenching your hand onto Floyds fishnets over his black shirt. “I dont give a fuck, shrimpy’s mine. Piss off.” 

Floyds beginning to get into a nasty mood himself, and Jade is starting to also get heavily irritated with you being in Floyds arms instead of his. Though with a slightly strained smile but dark glinted eyes, Jade speaks in a low tone. “Yours? We agreed to share, and they certainly dont look comfortable-” 

But before Jade could finish his sentence Floyd goes in and kisses your wet cheeks, his black lipstick smeared and now planted and marked on your wet cheeks. “Too late~” You were definitely caught off guard by this, a slight gasp squeezing out of you. And with that, Jade snaps. He’s pulling Floyds head back with the most viscous strength and Floyd lets go of you. You fall off of his lap so suddenly and so abashedly. Now on the floor, your eyes still being red and puffy, your cheeks being a tad bit moist from the leftover streaks of tears, and now a black kiss mark, you watch as the two brothers start to go all out on each other. Floyds going in for nasty punches and Jades pinning him down. Jade’s jealous. Ohhhh so jealous. Not once was he able to give you a kiss, but Floyd has? Not only that but he got to leave a mark of the kiss as well. Things are starting to get bloodied between the two with their completely enraged fistfight, throwing each other around and taking in powerhouse swings of kicks. The sheer monstrosities these two are, it only makes you wonder what else they are capable of. “S-Stop it!” You’re not quite sure why, but you felt the need to do something about this. If you just left, well it isn't that hard to make you come running back once things have calmed down. And just as intended, they stop mid-fight and turn to look at you. Floyds black eyeshadow and black lipstick are all smudged, his face bruised and scraped. Jade shares a similar look, his hair no longer neat and more ragged looking. Parts of their clothes are ripped and torn, Jade's fist is raised in the air as the other is clenched at the collar of Floyds shirt. Floyd has his foot dug into Jade's side, a hand on his neck and his hand clenched into a fist stopping mid air. 

Shit, all you wanted to do was have them stop. But you never actually thought of what to do. You sat there on the floor, still shaken up by witnessing their short but brutal fight. And Jades the first to speak. “Ah, look how shooken up they are. Apologies, I didn't mean to show you such a perturbing sight of me.” Both Jades and Floyds grip on one another loosen up and they both look over at each other. And despite their beaten faces, without needing to speak another word it was like they both knew what to do with those unsettling big grins of theirs. “Ahhh I’m in so much pain because of Jade. He’s such a big meanie you know?” 

“I find that hard to believe when I have all these bruises on me.” They both come back over to you, eerily crawling over. Another wave of fear is ushered out from your throat and you scoot yourself back, only for the both of them to lunge forward and grab your ankles to pull you towards them. “Hmm what's this? Are you trying to run away from us?” 

“Yea, after all that fighting for you Shrimpy you want to run away?”

“You are the reason we fought.” 

“Its only fair you settle it considering you were the one that started it~”

“W-what? I didn’t-” They both tug you down against them further, each one on your side. They wrap their arms so possessively around you and despite just having a fight, they seem to be having a more gentle approach towards you. “Hmmmm though It’s still unfair if Floyd gets to leave his lipstick on you, it bothers me. I want to leave something on you too…” His sudden low voice tickles your ear and you dont really know how to react to this situation. But your hearts beating a bit faster now, and they both seem to know what it is they were doing. “Hey hey shrimpy look at me,” with your head turned over to look at Floyd like he asks, he lets out a satisfied smirk sprawled onto his beaten and makeup smudged face. Jade on the other side goes into gently peppering kisses into your neck and slowly digging his teeth in, taking advantage of the open chance given from Floyd. You react strongly, and to ensure you stay in place they ensure to hold you more firmly. “Just a little nibble. Just a small one. I dont have lipstick on so I had to take other measures, apologies (y/n) fufu” They’ve never made such big romantical advancements like this before, if you can call it romance. If so, then it’d be a very very messed up version of one. But in their arms like this, it felt so comforting. Why have you only been in one's arms when you could have been in both? This has just been so exhausting, and with somewhat mixed feelings despite all that had happened, you go in and kiss Jade on the head. “WHAT?! THAT'S SO UNFAIR!!!” Quickly, you go over to kiss Floyd on the forehead too and he’s quickly more pleased, a pout still forming on his face however since you didn’t pick him to kiss first. Tired. That's all that you are right now. And to just please them, you indulge yourself to them as well. And with the three of you tired, you just lay on the floor with you starting to doze off. And Jade and Floyd start to become content snuggling themselves next to your sides. What reason was there to bully you when you’ve already accepted the situation now, you were theirs, and they’ll make sure everyone knows that. Starting with you. 

Hehehehehe I love the tweels >:3 i wouldn’t mind if Floyds lipstick was smudged on my cheek hehehe ^w^ (Or sandwiched in between them) I mean why pick one when you can have both! Indulging in myself because I deserve it🤞🤞

[last-flight-of-fancy]

I would love to hear your trans alphinaud and lesbian alisaie headcanons or more about the subtext you see! Especially alisaie.

AHHH oh gosh i would love to answer!! Though I must admit that these are built from many (MANY) small moments across the whole game more than a few easily pointed at examples, which means its.. kind of difficult to pull up (and remember) all the evidence.

That being said, i do still have Many Thoughts about it :DDD

First off trans Alphinaud was set into my mind very early on by one simple fact: identical twins are almost always born the same sex. like almost invariably, with the very rare exceptions needing some wild extenuating circumstances. and you cannot tell me those two are fraternal.

now ofc this is fiction, and a fantasy world besides. who's to say the writers knew that particular fact? well good news! alphinaud presents a *lot* of other common trans experiances, which are scattered throughout the msq and optional side dialogue.

(shoutout to me for having the exact same thought four years apart before and after playing the game myself. i have absolutely no memory of the first post at all because i also have no memory of watching my partner play shadowbringers even though i definitely did. rare adhd memory loss win! i got to experiance my favourite thing for the first time twice!)

post 1: dated 2019, talking about how alphinaud is extremely trans coded, being an identical twin of a different gender to his twin, cannot swim, is body shy and *extremely* hesitant about using public showers, and having interests that are traditionally coded as feminine in fiction.

post 2: dated 2023, the same thing but this time talking about how wonderfully alphinaud and alisaie are made to complement each other in opposite ways.

he cant swim: related to the body-shyness and hesitance around the showers, its VERY common for trans people to experiance these things due to dysphoria and societal perceptions. i myself started experiancing this (even though i LOVE swimming) when pubescence started to hit. (it sucks!) alphinaud was probably one of those ones who realised VERY early what he was (logic boy who is too dang smart for his own good) so he just.. never learned to swim at all. kept his nose buried in books instead.

traditionally feminine interests/abilities: sure it could be trope subversion, but personally i think theyre also things he just enjoyed before transitioning and thus continued to do.

and one more that i can remember off the top of my head: alisaie's reaction to estinian mistaking her for alphinaud.

"but alphinaud has no problem with being mistaken for-" let me explain, i swear it makes sense.

see, alphinaud is a little logic boy at heart, we know this. he knows he and alisaie share their features, that is simply a fact. alisaie though? alisaie is ruled by feeling, and reacts accordinly. most notably the Incident when she first meets estinian.

what i find especially interesting about this is that prior to that moment with estinian, neither of them appear to have much issue with their similarities. it's only after shadowbringers that alisaie reacts with such contempt

(probably not helped by her not liking estinian much in general lol)

what this says to me is that some time before or during ShB, alphinaud told alisaie that the way people mistake him for her does bother him, but he can't blame them for the mistake considering the circumstances, so he just doesn't mention it.

alisaie however can and will blame them and thus the next time someone mixes them up (rip estinian) she EXPLODES. because it's not about her. if it was about her i honestly dont think she would care nearly as much. but it's about her brother, and how dare you hurt her brother's hidden feelings by not being able to tell them apart.

(completely seperate headcanon but i do think that estinian is faceblind as fuck, which means he never stood a chance on this one, poor guy)

okay now for lesbian alisaie <3

what WAS it that thancred said about battle scars and maidens? and whyfor are you thinking about this alisaie? :3

also: Tesleen.

also also: Emery (A Malm in her Shoes short story)

fr tho alisaie pays attention to and talks about girls a lot. in a way she never does about boys. bringing up my complementary opposites wrt the twins thought from before, it honestly could've been another way the writers COULD have done that, having alisaie attempting to impress boys with her athletic skills the same way alphinaud tried to impress girls with his artistic ones (something he is teased about repeatedly). like the absence of this potential parallel is almost suspicious tbh...

once again, any one of these things in isolation is probably simply a choice in writing, but all these things together spell out to me one thing: alisaie likes girls. exclusively.

(im sorry you wanted lesbian alisaie thoughts more and i have less of that than the trans alphinaud ones, but if you come back in 3-5 years when i've finished my second msq run i will have compiled a far more complete list of evidence for both complete with screenshots, probably lol)

[zeroducks-2]

2/16/20/22/25 violence ask game GO

Help I realized now how many are there lmfao alright here we go

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

Actually I don't really have it? I mean I do have a preference when it comes to blorbo roles in bed but it's not that strict. I don't think Dick would ever top WITH SLADE though, and my compelling argument is that he prefers bottoming and Slade wouldn't fucking let him top lmao

But then again this IS the choose violence ask game, so I am gonna choose violence:

I'm fed the fuck up with the whole "if you have strict sex roles for your blorbos you are a reactionary fascist enforcer of gender stereotypes whatever, or anyway the heteronormative society brainwashed you, especially if the 'shorter man bottoms' and the 'bigger man tops'". Like shut the trap man. First of all cause my sexual preferences are not up for political scrutiny because they are just that - sexual preferences when it comes to fiction - and second because this is the exact kind of piece of shit virtue signaling antis do, injecting moral and political bullshit in what people do for harmless fun in their free time. And third because acting like in real life people didn't have strict preferences for topping or bottoming makes me think you never interacted with real life people.

Like yeah lots of folks are versatile in bed. There are also lots of folks who are strictly tops, and lots of folks who are strictly bottoms. Go out and talk to people, you will find out incredible things I promise.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

The whole "batfamily" being a happy wholesome family with all of them being supportive loving siblings UwU and living all together in Wayne Manor each one with their cute little personalized room that Alfred cleans every morning after breakfast. These folks do not communicate with each other and have never lived together. They lack the basics foundation to be a big happy family. Yes they love each other, yes some of them are closer to each other than others, and yes there are moments of tenderness, but why the hell would anyone push this Hamtaro-esque "everyone lives in a wholesome house of happiness🌻✨" bs is completely beyond me.

It makes no sense and it's just so utterly divorced from the actual state of canon, and from just everything that defines these characters as individuals and as a group.

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

Well the DC canon is so vast there's actually lots of canon I found boring. I guess when it comes to blorbos, I was not able to stomach the entirety of the Ric Grayson storyline. Like honestly it was most of all boring as fuck.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

EOBARD BEING IN LOVE WITH BARRY.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

"You guys don't write about/draw/create meta about female characters because you're sexist"

I've explained why this is utter bullshit many times but to be honest, with DC it is especially annoying. There is a HUGE fandom for female DC characters, even for those that have not appeared officially in comics for more than a decade. DC has some of the most beloved, celebrated (and famous!) female characters IN THE WORLD (Batgirl, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Harley Quinn), and if there aren't decent titles dedicated to them you need to blame DC, not the fans. Also sometimes there are decent titles with their fanbase of art and fanfics and metas, and yall complaining just because you're addicted to virtue signaling.

"Ah but Zero! I like X female character that appeared a total of 10 times 25 years ago, and all I can find are Jason Todd fanarts!" Let me stop you right there my friend, and ask you whose fault is it that X female character hasn't appeared in 25 years, which means no one fucking knows who she is so they don't draw fanarts and write fanfictions. DC comics executives, or the fandom? You think I'm happy that post reboot they acted like Cassandra and Stephanie didn't even exist? You think I'm happy that Barbara's struggle and journey to learn to live with her disability and become the backbone of the superhero society was thrown in the trash? You think I'm happy that Pat Trayce is relegated to ONE ridiculous cameo in Deathstroke 2016? Or that no one has seen Jenni Ognats since the fucking 90s? IS ALL OF THIS THE FANDOM'S FAULT, OR DCs' ??? (I'm done)

AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE PEOPLE WHO GO "bUt zErO iT'S miSogynisTiC to bReaK uP a HeT CaNoN shiP to pUSh tHe faNoN gAy cOUpLe" You don't belong in fandom and you clearly have no idea how it works. And if you DO know how it works, you're either a psyop or a hardcore homophobe, or both, and you don't belong in fandom and you should fuck off faster than light. (okay I am actually done now)

Ask game here!

[crazycoke-addict]

My biggest ick when it comes to movie and TV tropes, when they give abusers redemption arc instead of giving the victim an incredible arc. Because in real life, Abusers will never change. I know that tv and movies are meant to be an escape from reality, but there are times when they still ground itself in reality itself.

Writing about an abuser or a rapist and having them show remorse and be taken hold accountable does sound good on paper. But the redemption arc is out of the left field. Many times, when it watches or hears, the fictional abuser decides to change himself. The damage has already been done. For example, Endeavour realised his wrongdoings and how he treated Rei and the kids after he ended up being Number 1. After All Might retired as number 1 hero, Endeavour surpasses, which is something he is determined to do, but when he gets it. It felt like it was nothing.

You could argue that Endeavour's obsession with All Might was the main reason why he chose to abuse his kids. But I don't think that's a good reason why to change because Endeavour had a lot of time to reflect on his actions towards his family. But it didn't start until he became the number 1 hero.

The way people treat Rei is very despicable because many will find to blame Rei and try to defend Endeavour. Yes, Rei married him. Yes, she chose to have children with him. But she didn't choose to be abused or didn't want her kids to abuse or neglect. I think that Rei was optimistic about the marriage and believed that they could work out. Yes, she wanted to have another kid. But I think she was fine with just having two. It seems as though Touya was born as a duty, while Fuyumi was born out of respect. It felt like she was given the choice when it came to having kids. While she probably did have a choice to have Natsuo and Shoto, It didn't feel like it was 100% her choice.

Yet, people like to say that she was the aggressor in the relationship. I hear over again whenever Victim snaps and does something due to the abuse and trauma they suffer. When Rei burned Shoto, she was in a severely bad state. She also immediately tries to heal him.

People act like Endeavour's treatment towards his family wasn't as bad as many claim it was. So, Endeavour neglects Touya by not helping him with quirk or even trying to find any research about. Telling a kid to stop using his quirk isn't enough, in my opinion. Endeavour already saw Touya as a failure. The minute the doctor said that, his quirk leaned towards the mother. Not mentioned he neglected Natsuo and Fuyumi, than when he gets his masterpiece of Shoto. Shoto goes through so much harsh training. On a few occasions,when he abused Rei through physical or mental.

By saying that, it was Rei's responsibility involving Touya. I'm sorry, but why should it only be Rei's responsibility that Touya doesn't hurt himself? Why is that? Because his quirk is in more in line with hers, even though she probably has never seen a blue fire quirk except the fire whom she is married to. Touya wants attention from the parent who sees him as a failure and won't even bother to help him. Yet, I hear fans defend this kind of action.

Another example of letting bad people have redemption arcs even though they don't deserve it is Bryce Walker from 13 reasons why. Bryce Walker raped and assaulted many girls at school, and one of them ended up committing suicide. In Season 3, they decide to give Bryce Walker this supposed redemption arc. Where he tries to be a better person. But that doesn't end well because Bryce deliberately injures Zach because Zach has been seeing his ex. Which shows any ounce of empathy that Bryce ever had with the people whom he hurt is not there.

It's crazy to me how Clay calls out on people like Justin or Ani who defend Bryce by saying things like, "He's still a person. He wanted to be a better person. " whenever Clay points out that he was also rapist who raped Justin's then girlfriend, Jessica, and even wasn't a great friend to Justin himself. If Bryce wanted to prove that he changed, then he should've reported the crimes himself to the police. But he doesn't do that. Because rapists like Bryce don't want to hold themselves accountable.

I hope that this trope dies down.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

ARCEE (TRANSFORMERS) (CW: Transphobia)

1.) Transformers has had a troubled history with female transformers as a whole. They didn't really even exist until Season 2. And while they've all gotten the short end of the stick until recently, Arcee, who kinda ended up The Main Girl (sorry Elita) has gotten the brunt of this mistreatment. Mostly talking G1 here.

Toys kept getting cancelled over and over even though she's a main, important character of Season 3. She didn't get a decent widely available toy that actually resembled her G1 version (first one was a Botcon exclusive Blackarachnia redeco which I disqualify because convention-exclusive spider is not what I was looking for, and Binaltech is just kinda a pink and white robot who looks nothing like her, just with her name slapped on) until 2014. I wish I could use bold here, because there's no such thing as uppercase numbers. Before that, you just kinda had to look at the toys from other canons and squint because Hasbro doesn't think the pink girl toy will sell well.

And misogyny present in the fiction? A lot can be summed up in a couple words, namely, "Furman, why?" While most people go with his excuses of not believing in Cybertronian gender, it really comes across as him seeing men as the default, neutral state of being, and women as something that must be explained. Poorly. Explained very poorly. Not to explain things in Tv Tropes terms, but I have to, it reeks of the 'Men Are Generic, Women Are Special' https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MenAreGenericWomenAreSpecial trope.

Let's get us started with Prime's Rib. Oh my goodness, Prime's Rib. So, Furman doesn't believe in Cybertronian gender (and male is seen as default), and this has reflected in his writing. He's going along perfectly fine writing his dudes in the US run of the Marvel comics, Arcee entirely ignored… but what's this? The connected UK comic has her. He can't just ignore her. So, well. He needs an explanation. Explaining a plot hole isn't bad. It's how he did it. Arcee was created in response to a feminist mob who was mad Cybertronians were all guys. I don't think I need to explain this one.

I'm too tired to explain her treatment in IDW now. Something something unnatural attempt to introduce gender into a genderless species, something something, really weird uncomfortable treatment, it's a long story and I'm not an IDW expert, read the TFWiki page for Spotlight: Arcee.

I'm sure there's more in other media, but I've blathered on way too long and I'm starting to get frustrated and tired and AGH FURMAN WHY. He's gotten better, too, definitely not judging his present self over comics that are from many years ago, but asdfghjkl

Ok fine, one more thing. This isn't G1 but Michael Bay stated in interviews that he gleefully killed her movieverse version off specifically because he didn't like her. It's not NECESSARILY misogyny motivated. I wouldn't deem it misogyny coming from a different director with a different film series. Transformers writers have had personal beef with random characters which they wished to unceremoniously kill off before--Animated Beachcomber comes to mind, even if the writers never got the chance. But it's also Michael Bay's Transformers we're talking about here. Can you blame me for thinking that?

Arcee has gotten better treatment in recent years. Furman's clumsy attempts to explain Arcee's gender in tbe IDW run were slowly retconned into some pretty decent trans rep by other authors, she's really just come into her own as a character. But it was a long and rocky road to get there, and I believe we all need to acknowledge that.

2.) Was initially introduced in the 80's transformers movie only after being strong armed by Ron Friedman, being the first female presenting robot to be seen in the show. bright pink, cause, ya know, female. has the most romantic involvement of any transformer ever across all transformations media, cause, ya know, female, and god forbid she be her own person when hasbro can stick to her to Some Guy. she was made trans in the 2005 continuity and was immediately made berserk as a result. marvel made her a freak science experiment to shame feminists. why does the robot have curves when no one else does istg

i love her too much to stand by idly while she's treated this way

3.) hasbro keeps trying to convince people that her and elita-one (another pink fem character) are actually the same. "who cares same lore different names. what do you mean they're different characters?" and constantly flips their lore, designs, and names around with every single FUCKING continuity ie transformers rise of the beasts where they use arcee's design but call her elita-one SMASHES MY HEAD INTO THE WALL bro there's a whole group of autobots called the "female transformers". i don't. there's so little female representation in this series that hasbro decided the best way to fix it would be… segregation, ig. arcee is apart of it obviously. elita-one leads it. reminds me that i should (and maybe sick a couple friends on this poll) make a submission for elita because JESUS CHRIST hasbro fucked her up also apparently in some continuities arcee is trans. upon getting bottom surgery it fucking. idk how turns her berserk?? it's so weird. mind controlled/sleeper agent in like half of the fucking continuities for some reason. in every single one of these continuities she either gets with Springer or Hot Rod and ends up betraying them. every single time why does the robot have boobs

NAOMI MISORA (DEATH NOTE)

1.) I know everyone is gonna submit Misa but honestly she had it worse.

She gets introduced as this competent lady who's gonna help find Kira but then she just, decides to show some teenager her real ID as a show of trust and whoops that's Kira.

Also part of her introduction was her fiance going "You don't need to worry about this tracking down the killer nonsense, you're gonna be my wife, you should just be worried about raising kids in the future :)" or some shit. And it's barely addressed, because she just fucking dies.

2.) She was the only woman in the series to show any level of competence. She figured out more about how the death note works from some small context clues than L did in considerably less time. She was apparently so competent that the author decided to kill her off despite initially planning to make her a main character, fearing she would distract from the L and Light rivalry.

3.) the victim of “writer doesn’t understand women and also hates them” disease. Like, seriously, the author of Death Note could only imagine a female FBI agent as the fiancée of another, more senior FBI agent. The main character Light kills her fiancé Raye Penber (in honestly a really tightly written and cool episode) and so she tries to figure out who killed her husband. Unlike Raye who only figured out that Light was Kira as he was dying because Light basically told him, Naomi figures it out a lot sooner so oops guess she’s gotta die because she’s too good at her job.

[devyuence]

Controversial take: People's hatred for Mew is related to their attachment to real life ship which takes the fun out of Only Friends (at least on their end)

This is going to be my random thoughts and I had a couple of shots of gin and tonic while writing this so excuse me. I am gonna mix up the real-life and fictional scenarios so sue me, I guess.

Before anything else, I like ForceBook a lot but I can understand if TopMew will not end up together. For the most part, I see Top as a person I can never like in real life and you cannot blame me if he just gives me bad vibes.

However, I want to know more about him and how their story unfolds. I actually want TopMew to pull a 188 Men's Group wife-chasing crematorium trope (look it up) or an ending like Cruel Intentions.

In addition, even if I will be proven wrong soon, I will still defend Mew. He is just complex and reminds me of myself. Someone who just wants to graduate with flying colors in an Asian society (SEA to be exact) then came along Boston pestering him about his virginity.

Now you know my biases, let's get to the real reason why I used the said title.

People are hating Mew for cock-blocking Ray and Sand. Calling him names and anything but never Ray. Never Ray. I am actually glad that happened because at least Sand knows that Ray is still hung up on Mew—even if some viewers will say that it is not love but more of the idea that he loves Mew. Again, Ray is still hung up on Mew (or has lingering feelings) and I am glad he stopped what they are doing. At least Sand had a heads-up, a warning that he is just a rebound.

If we go back from last week, people hate Mew for ditching Ray and P'Jojo had to explain that Boston and Syrup forced him to go home with Top. You will not see people making threads gaining hundreds of likes of how Boston is a bad friend for Ray—it is always Mew that is the face of betrayal. Never Boston because he is not a threat. Or Neo. Or Mark. Unless Nick hooks up with Sand. Lol.

This leads me to the conclusion that some of the viewer's hatred for Mew (or Book) stems from how he intervenes with the existing ship. People nitpick everything he does. Some shippers feel threatened about his existence—may it be in the series or real life. His ghost ship with Khao (or Ray with Mew) annoys the hell out of people. In some clips with Khao and Book sailing RayMew, fans are saying First is jealous and Khao should pay attention to him. This is somehow converted to how people pity Sand even more and dislike Mew in the series. Ray can be an alcoholic and Mew saves his ass multiple times but Ray can never do wrong. Even if he wants to drive while drunk. Never Ray because Ray is Khaotung. LOL.

Some are also saying that only Ray cared for his friend group when in the very first episode, the first cut at that, Mew is picking up Ray's drunk ass. Hell, he even reprimanded him (R) for picking fights while drunk. Now, people are saying that Ray should have continued the deed with Sand instead of taking care of his friend who does not care about him. That or people throwing a pity party for Ray by being a true friend when it was implied that Mew is always the table keeper, taking care of his drunk ass and it did not happen only once.

I know some of you are raising your eyebrows right now but I mean, everyone just tends to nitpick about Mew. Or Book. Before, I had seen people calling him bland and boring. Like a cardboard without personality. People are like: How the hell Ray even like him? Now that he is showing his true colors, people are calling him scheming and manipulative.

When Mew did not let Top go further from his advancements, some are criticizing him for acting like a kid and virgin (he is btw). When Top did not pick up his calls, people are saying that he is evil and manipulative. That he deserves it. When Boston does something problematic, people will say he just have insecurities and unresolved daddy issues. When Nick installed that in the car, people will say that he is just in love and obsessed. When Ray wants to crash his car, it is because he has mommy issues. That they are just kids and needs guidance but Mew? Mew is hated for acting like a kid aka stopping Top when he realized he is not ready. That he deserves getting cheated on. That he is the most evil guy. Hell, even Top, according to viewers cannot be an assault victim because he is not played by an actor who is a crowd favorite.

See what I mean people? Like make up your minds. You love to psychoanalyze other character's personalities and why they are behaving but Mew (even Top) has no excuses. Heh.

In addition, people are questioning why Mew did not call Syrup or Boston. Bruh, Syrup cannot drive. Boston is yeah, Boston. Also, some viewers say that Ray does not really love Mew but is in love with the idea of him or because Mew cares for him. Some even theorized that he has an Oedipus Complex. Now tell me, Mew does not care about Ray but the reason why Ray is still hung up on Mew is because he is caring? Make it make sense, please.

Some viewers will disagree with me, especially those who have a strong attachment to their own ship, but I wonder if they are still having fun going through hoops and hoops and throwing pity parties over characters? I, for real will still defend Mew but I acknowledge that he is gray. I wonder if they will combust if we get a RayMew kiss in the next episode? I wonder how they feel seeing everyone in the Only Friends casts are friendly with each other?

Anyway, I just said what I said.

If your hatred for a character is unreasonable and you see him as a threat (esp in real life). I think you need to reevaluate and ask yourself why. Or maybe you just need a Sand, a shrink. Either way, everyone in OF needs therapy.

Cheers to people who consume this drama for pure bliss and whatnot. The not-too-invested crowd with real ships. The messy crowd.

If the show is not for you and you want chummy cutesy BLs, you can save yourself, honey. This is Jojo we are talking about. If you think that you have the right to watch despite nitpicking everything (I mean we all have the freedom), okay. Please feel free to do so.

However, if you think this will not affect how others, even the directors, will see your fandom, I am speaking in general, well, you are in for a ride. Idk, be sensible I guess.

I do not even know how from an OF meta, I ended up saying something about fandoms. Guess alcohol in your system really does wonders. I will never hate the actors for their fans though. I just think that this is something that people need to think about.

Like if you have seen the reception in the F app and T app, it's more welcoming but the former chicken app? It is a more restrictive echo chamber that dismisses discussion because again, it is dominated by big accounts of shippers.

We are only in Episode 3, I hope everyone is ready for the chaos not just in the show but in the fandoms.

Anyway, I am done editing this. Hate me but I said what I said.

PS. For the Mew defenders out there, hi! I love you! For my cutesy Forcebook fans, how is it that we like unproblematic besties? Toughen up though! It's gonna be a war zone.

From your resident Mew defender until the end

XOXO, Yue.

[amkalus]

~~~

Figured I'd introduce myself properly to this wonderful community! I am Ann (26). Primarily interested in exploring archetypes, symbols, and fairy tale elements plot-wise, as well as physical and mental health issues character-wise. I write fantasy and science fiction (and occasionally historical fiction).

About me:

Majored in Psychology and English with Creative Writing (English is my second language)

Writing is basically my lifeline, I get depressed if I don't do it

Infatuated with myths, legends, folklore—and history

Questionably obsessed with the mad genius trope [I blame Victor Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, and Gregory House for this]

In love with the sea and all things age of sail [I went for a swim during a black-clouded thunderstorm on a cold September afternoon once, that's how down bad I am]

Can't write a short story to save my life [you shall only find novels beyond this gate, traveler]

My WIPs:

Oh boy, I've got a lot of them, but I'll share the main ones briefly. [bonus, emojis for vibes lol]

The Sea Whisperer (finished, 122k words) 🌊⚓🌩️

Already have a post about this YA adventure fantasy (seek #The Sea Whisperer) and planning to add some more, but here's the premise once more:

The fishing village of Galacair has been the only home Earwyn’s ever known. Between the mysterious illness that plagues her and the villagers who consider her cursed, surviving gets harder with each dreary day. But there are whispers coming from the sea which ceaselessly beckon her, and an ominous vision of a calamity that haunts her dreams. Earwyn fears they could be a part of her illness too, and that madness has befallen her. The only one who seems to know something about it is Galacair’s lighthouse keeper, whose tower is as strange and remote as he is.

Wrote this story because I wanted to bring some awareness to PCOS syndrome and the difficulties of living with it. But also because of my aforementioned love for the sea, including tall ships, shanties, and magic.

I've been querying for this one for 6 months with no success. Likely to undergo new revisions/editing.

The King's Steward/The King's Embroiderer 🗡️❄️🔥

A loose retelling of a quite obscure Nenets fairy tale called Kotura, Lord of the Winds with a Skyrim-esque Scandinavian-inspired medieval setting. A sort of fire vs ice battle going on. Definitely in the YA range. Very likely to be a duology!

Aira Alderkvist knows she's destined to become the kingdom's best and most beloved embroiderer, in the court of the king. She met him once when she was a child, alone by the snow-clad woods, and no one believed her. But she will finally prove her skill and that her story was true at the upcoming obeisance.

In the capital city of Vallholm, Sorena Froradottir prepares to abandon her post as a steward imposed on her against her will, and flee. However, on the night of the king's obeisance where noblemen and commoners gather, jarl Ravnan Jarnsen unexpectedly usurps the throne. Sorena must decide between deserting the kingdom in the hands of a tyrant rumored to be using forbidden fire magic... or leave, and find a new life unburdened and free.

So far I have 18k words written on this and a detailed plan chapter by chapter, which I will hopefully stick to (doubtful).

To All the Royal Subjects in the Land (working title because this is too long and cringe?) 🍁🕸️🎭

This is basically a dream project for me, for I have always dreamed of writing fantasy comedy. Only, I played myself cause medieval-based comedy is hard as hell? Honestly, though, I absolutely love wracking my brain with it. You can't be a writer without being at least a little masochistic, I think.

This is an NA/Adult fantasy rom-com [Mrs Maisel meets Beauty and the Beast], and a gender-bent version of the Russian fairy tale The Princess Who Never Smiled, in which a clever traveling jestress who values her freedom above all faces a joyless Prince.

Soon after entering a kingdom where joy and laughter are forbidden, Sarai realizes she'll be forced to break a foul spell if she wants to leave. And she grudgingly agrees. But it promises to be no easy task when this withering kingdom is caught in endless autumn, the Prince's odd, mist-veiled castle seems to be crumbling each day, and his knights are ever-so eerily quiet.

Will likely share more about what this story features in other posts! This is currently sitting at 22.5k words.

Sentinel Chronicles Series 🚀🌌✨

This one is probably closest to my heart. My first project ever [started writing this series 7 years ago], and have a detailed plan for 5 books in total, with more spin-offs for a side character very likely to appear later.

The first book [Transcendence] is finished at 96k words, and the second is written halfway. Transcendence is Star Trek meets House MD adult science fiction. It's a space adventure with aspects of science mixed with philosophical elements and a dash of humor. I have a very found-family-centered theme here with the crew. And a (very) slow-burn romance that would spread over the 5 books.

The story follows eccentric science genius Ashton Axolem as he attempts to take on scientific issues beyond his understanding with the help of Doctor Amelia Harper, who, like everyone else, is convinced mixing madness with science will never result in anything good. But her close encounter with Axolem leaves her questioning her understanding of both madness and goodness.

Will probably be blogging a lot about this one because I've had years to form it in my mind lol

Thanks for reading, that was a bit long! Hopefully, I set up some sort of tag system for all those WIPs soon.

[stormblessed95]

Hi, sorry if it's late, but can I ask for your persoal top favorite queer books and (maybe) your top fav fanfiction (from any fandom but your all time fav)? Thanks so much.....

Also why do you think mlm or wlw romance is more interesting than mlw (het) romance?

Feel free if you want to ignore the last ask, thanks for your blog....

Why do I personally enjoy gay romances to het ones? Preference and taste probably. I also tend to enjoy the angst, longing, tropes, passion, etc in the way its written more than I do in the ways those things are written between a straight couple. And that's not to say I don't enjoy straight romances either! I have plently of het ships I love too, and a few good romances that aren't gay 😂 I just have a preference, and that's okay! As for recommendations!! I have a LOTS! If you want to tell me about what YOU like to read, I can give even better recs. But for in general, some of my favorites...

I have posts about QUITE A FEW here already that you can check out (please do)!:

^ you'll find queer characters in most of the lists of recs honestly at least somewhere. BUT I do have posts specific for Sapphic, Achillian and Ace recs there. So start there!

I'll also throw in that I'm recently quite obsessed with fantasy Sapphics with swords in my books lately! So books like "The Jasmine Throne." "This is How You Lose The Time War." "Priory of the Orange Tree." "Gideon the Ninth." "Girls of Paper and Fire" and "Legends and Lattes."

Come back for me if you want more!

And some of my favorite fics (of various fandoms! Exciting!) In no particular order, I'll link a few for you!

That Isn't Nothing by Taekookschanbaek

(I KNOW OKAY, in my defense I didn't realize the authors name until AFTER I read and loved the fic lmfao but it IS SO good, I promise lol)

Fandom: All For The Game

Ship: Andrew x Neil

Summary: "A look into the lives of pro exy players Andrew Minyard and Neil Josten. The world says they hate each other, but when Andrew gets transferred to Neil's team, their teammates begin seeing something else between them."

In Which Neil is a PR Nightmare by CoverYourEyes

Fandom: All For The Game

Ship: Andrew x Neil

Summary: "Eve was not the best person in the world. Sometimes she didn’t hold the elevator open when she saw people rushing to catch it from the other side of the lobby. Cutting the line at Starbucks was a semi-regular action. But Eve did not deserve to be Neil fucking Josten's publicist.

**********

Or, the one where Neil does what he wants, picks fights with reporters, discovers Twitter, breaks the internet, and really shouldn't be allowed out of his house. Andrew does nothing to discourage him."

The Men In Apartment 22B by jjmash

Fandom: All For The Game

Ship: Andrew x Neil

Summary: "Andrew and Neil's new neighbors are extremely confused about the two mysterious men in 22B. Are they dating? Are they in the mafia? Are they rival assassins who've fallen in love? As always, the truth is stranger than fiction."

Blame It On My Youth by youreyestheyglow

(Locked fic, you need an account. This fic is THICK but it's by far one of the best Andriel fics I've ever read or just in general. SO GOOD and so emotional and so sweet and so cute)

Fandom: All For The Game

Ship: Andrew x Neil

Summary: "10 years after the end of The King's Men, Andrew and Neil have decided to foster a kid. They have low expectations for themselves--they're not exactly ideal parenting material--but at the very least, the kid will be safe with them. But neither Andrew nor Neil do temporary very well.

Full disclosure: highly character-driven, minimally plot-driven."

(Wangxian and MDZS IS my newest hyperfixation and I love the juniors dynamics fics so much lol)

The One-Body Problem by metisket

Fandom: MDZS

Ship: Wei Ying x Lan Zhan

Summary: "The good news is that Lan Jingyi has found a mentor, friend, and constant companion through the difficulties in life.

The bad news is that that’s because he’s been accidentally possessed by the Yiling Patriarch."

Operation Old Men by Chiharu

Fandom: MDZS

Ship: Wei Ying x Lan Zhan

Summary: "An ill-fated parent teacher conference reunites Jin Ling's wayward uncle with Sizhui's father. AKA: A matchmaking disaster as told by Jin Ling, Sizhui, and Jingyi."

And Time Is But A Paper Moon by Sami

Fandom: MDZS

Ship: Wei Ying x Lan Zhan

Summary: ""Zewu-Jun. You once told me about a house surrounded by gentians, where you visited once a month, and how Lan Zhan still waited there, even when the door no longer opened."

Xichen feels light-headed. He feels shocked, and angry. He has never told anyone such a thing, but Lan Zhan is giving Xichen a look of utter betrayal.

"You told him?" Lan Zhan whispers. "When?"

Wei Wuxian takes Lan Zhan's hand. "About twenty years from now."

*******

Wei Wuxian starts again from the beginning."

(the first time) he kissed a boy by buzzcut__season

Fandom: Sk8 The Infinity

Ship: Langa x Reki

Summary: "Reki is insecure about his lack of kissing experience. Langa just wants to help him feel like he's good enough, even if teaching Reki to kiss means breaking his own heart."

The Gambler by MooeyDooey

Fandom: Sk8 The Infinity

Ship: Joe x Cherry

Summary: "Joe and Cherry run into a problem. Conspiracy theories have started to surface in some fan forums of "S" that the two of them are secretly dating one another.

Both of them agree that the idea is absurd, but can't agree on which one of them would be the better boyfriend if they actually were dating. So they decide to have a competition, to see who can be the better romantic partner when pitted up against one another."

The One Where Nico Has 30 Boyfriends by a_million_stars

Fandom: PJO

Ship: Will x Nico

Summary: "“Seriously? Me and Lester?” Nico looked ready to kill him. “If you keep speaking to me I think I’m going to throw up.”

Or, a new friend from college desperately tries to figure out who Nico's secret boyfriend is. He messes up. A lot. If only Nico didn't have so many weirdly close friends from high school."

Burgundy (not Maroon) by Eggplant_Crusader

Fandom: Wednesday

Ship: Wednesday x Enid

Summary: "They're driving each other insane. It can't last. One of these days, one of them will surely kill the other. Enid wants to avoid that. Wednesday can't wait."

Like Everything Glows by Annie_Vi

(One of the only people I'll read RPS fics from. Everything this woman writes is gold, this is my favorite though, and the first i read of hers)

Fandom: BTS

Ship: Jimin x Jungkook

Summary: "Jeon Jeongguk watches the sun rise and set on the water every day without wondering what may lie far beneath the surface. One nighttime walk along the beach upheaves his entire life, sending his human morals into a tailspin as he questions what his beliefs really are."

(I need more shows with good wlw ships that have good fics too!! If anyone has any good recs, send them my way!! Also there are so many good fics I've read that i realized i never bookmarked and now i cant remember what they are. Lesson learned. Bookmark everything! Thanks for the ask!!)

[honestlyyoungtyphoon]

The decision Min ho took is something a lot of people in a abusive relationship do in real life.I have read somewhere that on an average it takes 7 attempts(there is an explanation for it) for one to leave an abusive relationship permanently. It does take multiple attempts for someone to finally leave their abuser because of this fear of loneliness. So hopefully it could be the same for Min ho.

But what bugs me is when people say Min ho going back Wukyung is the right decision because he will be 'lonely once again' or he is too 'broken to be fixed' when it is not. This sort of thinking is reinforcing the idea that victims of abuse should stay with their abuser and its dismissive of those who are in an abusive relationship.The scary part is people believing it and agreeing with that kind of idea.

You're correct that victims of abuse often go back to their abusers. And children who grew up in abusive households also get into relationships with abusers (subconsciously) cause it's familiar to them.

As for the rest, those people don't care about Minho or victims of abuse. They only care about their fetish ship where the abusive guy does heinous acts to the MC but it's okay cause it's hot. I've seen some of them saying Minho as a victim doesn't count cause he's a man.

I've also seen some saying WK beating Minho is like making the meat tender for dinner. Disgusting, I know but twitter seems to attract those kinds.

People might say, it's just fiction. No biggie. But fiction influences people, consciously or subconsciously. It'd be stupid to deny it.

"Fiction says the truth through lies"- not my quote.

Anyways, I really hate the trope of normalizing abuse like it's something hot or cute.

To me, a consensual loving relationship is the hottest thing. Unfortunately in yaoi fandom and in many manhwa fandoms: abusers are forgiven by the readers because they cried for one chapter 🤡🙄

Screw Wookyung and his rape apologists.

I don't blame Minho for going back to WK cause he did the same with Duna. He wanted to be with her even though she humiliated and hurt him.

He needs outside help to get out of this toxic situation. If only he had someone to help him out. 😔

[yaksha-lover]

Yandere question anon here. I completely agree on Rook and Malleus being on the list and Jade and Floyd aren’t too surprising. But I’ll be honest, you picking Jamil completely caught me off guard. That’s just not a character I immediately think of when looking at who would be most likely to have “yandere” tendencies.

But in the end, like you said, all of the boys are easy to twist into a yandere archetype. Though do you have any personal favorites? A specific depiction of a character or theme to a fic?

Haha maybe that’s just my bias that slipped in then because I’ve started to like Jamil a lot and read some great yandere characterizations of him. I do think that Jamil tends to slip under the radar though for how unhinged he can be, both in book 4 and events (as he should tho, I would be like that too after what he’s been through).

I’ve written a bit about this before, but (imo) Jamil has a lot of other priorities that occupy his mental/emotional energy than seeking out or just getting into a relationship. So IF he does, I expect it would have to be something that really gets his attention, enough that he’s willing to forgo his general misgivings about people and the world, and actual put effort into maintaining the relationship (taking away from his own personal time and agenda).

Also, I think there’s something to be said about how his forced submission and subservience to Kalim’s family has affected his thoughts on relationship dynamics. Jamil never wants to be at the mercy of anyone’s whims again. How can he avoid this? Complete control and dominance in any relationship he’s in. Jamil wants to be the one deciding things, the one who gets to have power for once. That’s sort of why I see him as potentially falling to a ‘yandere’ type, not obsessive in a delusional or romanticizing his darling way, but in a ‘I deserve something good after everything I’ve suffered way.’

As for depictions I like (pls no one judge me💀, this is just fictional), I pretty much enjoy almost every trope. I have a big interest in reading yandere fics, because I just find it very fascinating to combine genres like horror and romance (or even horror and comedy).

This is probably already obvious because he’s the main character I write, but I really like any multitude of yandere Malleus depictions. Protective Malleus? Possessive Malleus? Jealous Malleus? Insane Malleus? Delusional Malleus? Mean Malleus? All of them are great.

I tend to enjoy mean yanderes in general, and considering nrc is a villain school, I think a few of them fit in well in this trope because of their innate personalities. Leona is another one of my favs, and he definitely isn’t the type to be forwardly all sappy and cute even with someone he likes, so I tend to feel his meaner depictions are more canon and just more interesting. ‘Yeah he likes you, is obsessed with you even, but you’re never going to know it’ type thing.

In denial yanderes are also great, I like the dichotomy of being entirely obsessed with someone but also your own brain not being willing to process that obsession for what it is, instead blaming it on something like hatred and resentment. The mix of feelings of love and lust and hate and guilt are really interesting to me. As for twst boys, Rollo definitely comes to mind for this trope, or even maybe Sebek?

I also really like more manipulative yanderes who seem very innocuous at first. The type to be your friend, to cry and guilt-trip you into staying with them over going on a date with someone else, who always clings to your side. I think this works well with characters like Epel or even Azul.

Anyway, thanks for asking, it was fun to reflect hehe.

[authoralexharvey]

INTERVIEW WITH A WRITEBLR — @thetruearchmagos

Who You Are:

Arch || He/him

I'm a Singaporean student, writing in his spare time as a coping mechanism against the World. Worldbuilder at heart, with Writing, then Art, coming along to help me express all that

What You Write:

What genres do you write in? What age ranges do you write for?

Action, fantasy, poetry, and sci-fi. Middle grade.

What genre would you write in for the rest of your life, if you could? What about that genre appeals to you?

Techno-Thriller. I can read fantasy well enough, and Sci Fi has that aesthetic appeal to me, but the themes, subjects, and tropes have been fascinating to me for a good while. Really, the right answer would be "anything set in My World"

What genre/s will you not write unless you HAVE to? What about that genre turns you off?

Romance? I like sappy love, but creating an entire work with the immediate expectation of love, and with that love as its sole goal, turns me off. Might be a misunderstanding of the genre, but that's about it for me

Who is your target audience? Do you think anyone outside of that would get anything out of your works?

I have no idea! Techno Thriller is a thing from a good whole ago, like Tom Clancy stuff, so I doubt there's much of a following to begin with. I'd say people my age, more or less, but that's pretty wishful thinking

What kind of themes do you tend to focus on? What kinds of tropes? What about them appeals to you?

Well, call it the conventions of the Genre, but military themes with a heightened focus on the technical aspects will come up a fair bit, as will some possible but hopefully not clichés of Military fiction. Personal bravery, the all encompassing totality of War that sweeps away the personal sacrifice under its scale, brutality and violence of conflict, and the toll it takes on ethose it touches. Again, blame Tom Clancy, specifically Red Storm Rising, Red October, and Cardinal of the Kremlin. I just really like reading the uber detailed, panoramic descriptions of the action as much as the fighting, and I'd love to say I can make something of that calibre

What themes or tropes can you not stand? What about them turn you off?

Chosen Ones. Holy cow, I hate it. I can't really put it into words easily, but in my writing I try to make it clear that everyone is both equally important, and equally not so. I feel like the trope is an unhealthy one at best, and actively puts down people's worth due to their simple and immutable characteristics at worst, whole offering a simple and sweet answer to a complex and cruel reality. Also, it's just so thoroughly stupid

What are you currently working on? How long have you been working on it?

A lot of things at once, really. I consider my Project at heart to be the Setting, "The 12 Worlds", which has been my baby for two years or so by now. I write the stories for that World, not create the World just for the stories

Why do you write? What keeps you writing?

To express, to test, to vent. I like getting A1s for English, after all! But seriously, these days I do it for the sense of getting something done, and the joy of seeing other people's opinions on it. That last one, though…

How long have you been writing? What do you think first drew you to it?

As far as "my" writing goes, a little over a year, or more? Hard to say, I guess I always took pride in my writing skills in school, and reading so much as a kid I was allured by the notion of creating the written word.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Is that how you got your inspiration for your current project? If not, where did the inspiration come from?

Reading, and looking at my Genre, real world events from now and the past. Certainly, yes! Specifically, a lot of things in the "recent" time frame of what I call the "Great Wars" are inspired by the various tropes of a Cold War Gone Hot scenario, and the older stuff gets inspired by real world histories

What work of yours are you most proud of? Why?

The 12 Worlds, always! Though if you mean a specific written piece, hard to pick a favourite child. A current big one, the Chapter length Bristling Skies, might take the cake. It's I soured by my favourite chapter of RSR, Dance of the Vampires, and it's where I've really let loose with my techno thriller edge

Have you published anything? Do you want to?

Nope, but I do want to!

What part of the publishing process most appeals to you? What part least appeals to you?

Dknt know much about it, so can't say. I guess editing, sibce of I write something I usually do et ediy it before release, and I hate to lose my Work

What part of the writing process most appeals to you? What part is least appealing?

Worldbuilding! Editing stuff

Do you have a writing process? Do you have an ideal setup? Do you write in pure chaos? Talk about your process a bit.

Nit really? I like quiet, I guess, but i write eher u can

Your Thoughts on Writeblr:

How long have you been a writeblr? What inspired you to join the community?

Hard to define when I entered, I think. I guess I just thought the games seemed fun, then I discovered tagging people in my writing, and now we're here

Shout out some of your favorite writeblrs. How did you find them and what made you want to follow them?

@lividdreamz! My first friend on this hellsite, and someone I shall forever be indebted to for lending a listening ear to my stuff! @athenswrites, @muddshadow, @moonscribbler, @dogmomwrites, and @marinesocks also get a shout out from me!

What is your favorite part about writeblr?

Getting writing feedback and responses, I think.

What do you think writeblr could improve on? How do you think we can go about doing so?

I'm not usually one for this sort of thing. I guess getting a greater variety of tag and Ask games might be interesting?

How do you contribute to the writeblr community? Do you think you could be doing more?

I just post my stuff, and do some games occasionally. I guess I could be, but I doubt I have the nergy for much more

What kinds of posts do you most like to interact with?

Other people's writing, though that's dependent on whether I find it my thing

What kind of posts do you most like to make?

Text writing, occasionally Art and straight up Worldbuilding stuff

Finally, anywhere else online we may be able to find you?

Discord and World Anvil! Plus, I'm considering starting a Blog related to one of my projects