#I can think of two examples off the top of my head but they���re such massive spoilers that I can’t in good faith mention them

[tickety-boooo]

S1 final camera angle

Ok I literally JUST woke up for the day and this is what was in my brain: the gomens brainrot runs deep. I have to write it out and I shall from the coziness of my bed on a rainy morning :D This is gonna be a longish one!

Been thinking about this thanks to @vidavalor's post. As a fandom we know that Crowley and Aziraphale always position themselves the same way: Zira on the left, Crowley on the right (from our pov).

But wait! What about that final scene at the Ritz? It ends with a zoom-out of the two continuing their conversation: From Behind.

Why did they film this perspective? It's odd given that the rest of the scene is shot from the other direction. It breaks the 180-Degree-Rule, which is a "rule" in filming that prevents confusion for the viewer about where the characters are and what the action is in the scene. If there's an imaginary line between two characters, the camera cannot pass over that line when filming because then the pov changes.

This zoom-out is an example of a "Reverse Cut", it's literally the opposite of what we've seen for the rest of the scene. So why? They could have zoomed out from the table in the other direction, maybe sending the camera through the window for a cool effect.

This is shot this way on purpose. This is like a private viewing for the audience. We aren't in the audience's position anymore, we're in Crowley and Aziraphale's position. The two continue their conversation, which we cannot hear, so it's still a private moment for them even though we're getting a glimpse of it. I have to go back and watch again to really find examples but I think this is the scene that confirms the idea that when in private, Crowley and Aziraphale break their position rule (whether through them physically moving, or by way of the camera and how the scene is filmed), implying that it is something they do for public appearance. Like with this scene, they're still obviously sitting down and in the same place, but now the audience is welcomed into their pov for a moment. We are now part of the positioning outwards to others.

@vidavalor wrote about a footstool near the couch in the bookshop that would put Crowley on the left (in our pov), and that's one of the earliest scenes in the show between the two of them where they are completely in private. Here are some more examples I can think of off the top of my head/ what gifs I could find to use xD

Calling out specifically any time they're in the car; Aziraphale never drives, so Crowley is ALWAYS on the left (our pov), and it's always a private moment between them, no one else around. Look at the scene where they arrive at the hospital and how they get out of the car. They both specifically walk to re-position themselves on the "proper" side. (I can't find a gif of the whole bit but this scene here:)

This scene also has a brief bit where they switch positions again; they're reminiscing about a personal memory, 1941 and the magic show (even though the audience wasn't aware of it yet before s2).

Actually the whole bit at the hospital is very involved with camera angles (it would merit its own post at some point for sure.)

Calling out the Wall Slam™ Crowley on the left, Aziraphale on the right, UNTIL they are interrupted by someone else and the scene is no longer private, and the camera flips position for the rest of the scene.

Also Rome. Oysters. This one's odd, there are two very brief reverse cuts in this scene.

And lastly, this key shot of them going to their respective offices. This one stands out to me because it's not a "private" moment between them, but it shows that their "public" position matches how they have to arrive at Heaven and Hell. Aziraphale and Crowley actively go out of their way to position themselves relative to one another in public in such a way to face Heaven and Hell. And in this shot, we get to be a part of their pov. We get to be on their side.

[nothingenoughao3]

Why we wanna transition to Mad Scientist (or, revulsion and queerness in horror)

(Hi, @ash-eats-film! This is the thing I mentioned!)

Horror has a few baseline emotions it tries to inflict on the audience. This has been written about for decades, most famously by Stephen King, but the baseline elements most writers agree on are as follows.

Dread: Anxiety over what is about to happen

Terror: The fear of what is occurring right this second

Revulsion: Being forced to interact directly with what's happening right now

Black comedy: Being tricked into laughing at either the terror or the revulsion

Horror: The trauma response to what just happened

A great example of this can be seen in The Evil Dead II (YT link that doesn't include the full context, but does have the, uh, money shot). There's the dread of realizing there's something in the root cellar; the terror of when the Deadite pops up in the trapdoor; the combined revulsion and black comedy of Ash jumping on the Deadite's skull/the door, popping out its eyeball which shoots into Bobby Joe's mouth, and then the horror of what just went down rolling over Ash and his current companions.

Often, revulsion and black comedy go hand in hand. That's because they're tension relievers. The revolting thing becomes ridiculous, and you laugh at how ridiculous it is. This lets you settle down in the midst of the gore and death, just slightly, just enough to get through it... so the horror can fully set in for you, too, once it's over.

You also, often, question your own stability if you laugh in the middle of a gross-out horror scene: "Am I sick? Is there something wrong with me for laughing at X?" This is even worse if the villain starts laughing--now you're questioning whether you're IDing with the monster. Are you okay? Is something wrong with you?

Revulsion is often framed as the slutty member of the good, proper, morally-upright brigade of horror. We have a name for folks who seek out gross-out horror--they're gore-hounds, a term that is virtually always pejorative when applied to other people. We call certain types of horror "torture porn" or "gore porn", as though it is inherently sleazy and sexual to rely on this specific emotional reaction. (Note that we don't have "black comedy-porn", or "dread hounds", even though a dread hound sounds really fucking cool.)

Not to go off on a huge tangent, but I think the issue with media that overly relies on revulsion is that it's unbalanced, not that it's bad. A movie that's nothing but dread never has any emotional payoff. A movie that's nothing but terror never lets the audience relax back into their seats and, paradoxically, will become boring (imagine two hours of jumpscares).

So forth and so on: all aspects of horror rely on each other to survive. That includes scenes that make you go "Awww, sick" while nervously cackling.

Here's the thing: in previous generations, revulsion was similarly understood to be an essential part of horror, but what led to a revolted reaction was very different.

Lovecraft (boo this man! BOOOOO) understood the power of revulsion, which was the source of a lot of his strangest and most vivid descriptions. It was also the source of some of his most bigoted ideas working into his stories. The undercurrent of "non-WASPs are evil because they are repulsive" is as pervasive in his work as "the universe is incomprehensibly vast". You kind of can't get around that.

But there's another thing Lovecraft did to generate revulsion. He wrote a number of stories where an unhealthy focus on corpses, graveyards, graverobbing, and the like is, indirectly or directly, associated with sexual perversion. 

How many, you may ask? Off the top of my head, there's "The Loved Dead", "In the Vault", "The Disinterment", "Pickman's Model", The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, "The Hound" and "Herbert West: Re-Animator". All of these tales share certain themes, which don't repeat beat-for-beat in each tale but do overlap:

Male character becomes obsessed with dead bodies--whether that's stealing them, having sex with them, desecrating them, or resurrecting them.

He is comfortable around death and the dead to a degree that is unusual, sometimes explicitly stating that he prefers the smells/sights of death to those of life.

Terms like "fiendish", "hellish", "abnormal" and "perverse" are used to describe him; his gaze towards dead bodies or to experiments may be framed as "leering" or "speculative".

He is frequently a twink; often described as being frail, if not noticeably beautiful; he may recall being mocked for being "bookish" or "weak" as a child.

He is superficially charming in a way that gets him by in polite society, but not long-term nor in-depth.

He often ensnares an otherwise "normal" man to share his obsessions, effectively recruiting him as an assistant... until the "normal" guy realizes he's about to go on the chopping block (or, in at least one story, already was on the chopping block).

Their crimes involve a lot of sneaking around late at night, locked doors, whispering so they don't get caught (or they'll be killed), secretiveness, glee at getting away with it, and frequently, sharing the same living space.

The Unrepentant Evil Dude is often killed at the end of his tale in a way that implies vigilante/mob justice is at hand. 

The other may be allowed to live if he's very sorry and frames the whole story as being the fault of the other guy, or he may die too while affirming his horrible demise as just, even if it terrifies him.

(One could make an argument that Wilbur Whateley fits into some of these tropes. It's me I'm one)

If this all sounds very gay, Lovecraft probably would have agreed. He had as dim a view of homosexuality as he did on most other things that were Outside The Norm. In other words, we were supposed to see Richard Upton Pickman with his ghouls and think, "Ah, yes, this is a metaphor for queerness", only we were supposed to be revolted by that revelation.

This same attempt at revulsion can be easily read into Victor Frankenstein, and probably more Mad Scientists than I can name offhand (but feel free to in reblogs). Frankenstein's "crimes against nature" were connected to dead bodies as well, and likewise involved a lot of sneaking around, locked doors, and worry about what would happen were he caught with this naked man-thing he's keeping in his dorm. His crime, as with his parody character Herbert West, is creating life outside the bounds of heterosexual cisgender sex. This was meant to revolt readers' sensibilities as much as the whole cutting-up-corpses-and-stitching-them-back-together thing would.

This is why, if we're being honest, "Re-Animator" and "Bride of Re-Animator" are not necessarily gay… they're homophobic. This might be controversial, but stick with me.

I feel like Gordon and Yuzna were tapping into that old-fashioned Revulsion Handbook, including from the source material, which thematically linked Herbert West with queerness. (I'm using "queer" a lot here, but I would personally include trans-friendly readings under that rubric; I'm using "queer" in the analytical sense and not solely in the identity sense.) This means that, ironically, a lot of what we could point to as queer subtext is actually homophobic text.

This is reinforced by the novelization of the first film, written by a homophobe who got Trumpist brainworms later in life. He wanted to make West repulsive to the reader, and therefore, he tried to make West more gay. And IT WORKED. 

To be clear, I'm not accusing anybody, other than the novelist, of being a homophobe. There's a difference between possessing internalized bigoted beliefs which express themselves in writing, versus utilizing tropes originating in bigotry because That's What's Done Around Here. (I can understand why others might not perceive a meaningful difference.) Like the Cuzco lizards, this queerness-as-villainy is definitely a stupid thing ported in from the source material.

I do think that this is why everybody but Our Queen Barbara Crampton seems embarrassed or nonplussed by all the transfags pestering them about fellatio tapes. It's because they don't get why this thing appeals so much to us. It shouldn't. If anything, they should be canceled for having yet another queer-coded villain, along with a number of other plot choices of questionable taste (I'm looking at you, The Head Scene, and I don't like what I see).

Only, uh, it didn't work out that way long-term, did it?

I thank Cronenberg and venereal horror for this, in part. Brutally queer despite not being explicitly gay, venereal horror is what happens when the characters should be revolted, but aren't. 

This kind of thing is horrifying for crossing the line twice: first by being disgusting, then by having characters respond as though it is exciting, or sexually stimulating, or if nothing else, normal. They are perverse. They leer at the dead and the subjects of their experiments. And the disgusting monsters at the center of these narratives are celebrated. Their twisted sexualities are explored with the same brave frankness other filmmakers give to milquetoast cishet missionary nonsense. Their political views are given life and air, and usually, they're right. Their deaths, if they come at all, are framed as tragedies brought on by society's sick rejection of the flesh their brave experimentation.

Cronenberg's the dude who unironically thinks that Shivers (trigger warning for literally everything) has a happy ending. My man David's got subscriptions where others have issues.

Venereal horror has given us a new metaframework for looking at the repulsive, the monstrous, and the problematic and responding to it… differently.

Now here's another thing: Lovecraft likewise provided a structure for embracing the grotesque and the queer.

Pickman, the Decadent artist, paints photorealistic, enormous portraits of ghouls. Literal flesh-eaters. He is fascinated by them, comfortable with them. "Model" heavily implies that Pickman is a ghoul changeling--switched at birth with a human child. This leans into Lovecraft's ideas about heritability being a major source of horror, of course, and seems run of the mill until you get to The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

In there, Pickman appears again, but this time as a ghoul. He has cast off his human social shackles and joined the beings he loves, beings who understand him and support him. Kadath is notable in that the ghouls are actually... like... reliable, loyal, and morally good? Carter's opinion pretty much is, "They do eat human corpses and they smell awful, but they're all very nice and want to help me on my quest, so maybe they're not so bad (if not as good as the cat army)".

This feels like Lovecraft acknowledging that his entire approach of linking queerness, death, and revulsion is fundamentally flawed. Once you become familiar with the repulsive, it becomes not-really-that-repulsive-at-all. You can find beauty in it, and amusement, and love. Pickman embracing his ghoulish nature isn't all that different from Seth Brundle's overall lack of revulsion at his body's transformation. And it's not that different from what a lot of transmasculine folks go through, either.

It's not that transmascs, trans men, and/or transfags don't see what West does as crimes against nature. It's that we're all very fucking tired of being accused of crimes against nature. We're tired of not being able to look at socmed without finding accusations that we're disgusting perverts who sneak around behind closed doors to corrupt innocent, promising people to be our lackeys and partners in crime.

Hell, I refer to my wife as "my partner in crime" not because it's a cute way of acknowledging how well and how much we work together both in life and creativity. It's also because we could have been arrested for our relationship when we got together.

We were illegal.

There was a lot of sneaking around and whispering and trying not to get caught and "what if they call the cops on us if we're clocked". Can I tell my friends about this? Will they reject me or rat me out? Where am I safe? Nowhere. Best to lock the door and then check it again to be sure. Best to be very quiet.

Best to act like a graverobber trying to get their grisly wares back home before good, decent, Christian folk see them.

So when I hear "Blasphemy? Before what God?!", I read it as (whether he's ace or aro, gay or achillean, trans man or transmasc or genderfucked) a queer slogan of defiance, instead of a defense of graverobbing, corpse desecration, and non-consensual resurrection.

We're told we and our bodies are repulsive, so being told that Herbert is also repulsive makes him more relatable. Instead of wondering what the hell's wrong with him for shooting up reagent, we all theorize that it's actually T or has similar effects--because we're all told that T is a toxin that will horribly change and disfigure our bodies. He dresses in a three-piece suit for school, and instead of reading him as a stiff and overly-formal little freak, we assume he's layering up because he hasn't found a hoodie he likes yet. 

He cackles at his horrific creations, and instead of saying "What a fucking freak (anguished)", we say "What a fucking freak (affectionate)" and laugh along with him. Who among us hasn't taken apart our Barbies and tried to combine their parts with the Kens? What is a doll, or a human, but a collection of parts to be rearranged? Haven't we also been told we're freaks for rearranging our own parts?

We've already been told by society at large that we are Herbert West. We're just embracing it, in the proud tradition of venereal horror fans who are not revolted when they ought to be, and I think that's delightful.

[atopvisenyashill]

thoughts on the grand northern conspiracy theory?

it makes some points but i think most of it is deeply silly and relies on far too many leaps in logic and characters acting in a way they would never act all to push a “jon will be king” theory, which as i’m sure everyone knows, i am a big hater of.

The basis of the theory is that the Northern lords are purposefully playing Stannis & the Bolton/Freys against each other so they can take each other out, and free the North up for a Stark King & Northern Independence. That, on its face, I fully believe. It’s the details in the theory that I don’t fully buy into.

It’s basically canon that the Northern lords & ladies are really taking advantage of the chaotic politics & lack of a real centralized leader at the moment to make their own political moves. Some examples here include:

Arnolf & Cregan Karstark are explicitly doing this, something Alys comments on and something several other lords point out: "My uncle declared for Stannis, in hopes it might provoke the Lannisters to take poor Harry's head. Should my brother die, Karhold should pass to me, but my uncles want my birthright for their own." They don't really care about Stannis, they want Harry dead so they can have Karhold.

Alysane Mormont is potentially working off orders from her mother, when she says here, "Five, we were. All girls. Lyanna is back on Bear Island. Lyra and Jory are with our mother. Dacey was murdered." Even though as far as we know before that, all of Maege's girls were at Bear Island (except Dacey, who was with Maege in Robb's campaign).

There's the Umbers refusing to fight each other while picking two different sides, and this theory here that it was likely a plan between Mors and Hother to keep the Greatjon alive.

The Manderly Of It All re: very obviously using his granddaughter's anger as a cover for his own brutal plans for revenge and a Stark restoration.

The North is all clearly playing the game & attempting to oust the Boltons & Freys from power. I also don’t think the grumbling for Northern Independence would have died down since Robb died - if anything, after their King is brutally, viciously murdered, his mother’s corpse made a mockery of, his little Queen now a prisoner, and his sisters married off to enemies & humiliated, I imagine the calls for Northern Independence have gotten louder. This is a people that has suffered not just death and violence, but a lot of humiliation on top of that, and all of that is the perfect recipe for some sort of nationalist call for independence.

But the theory has. Some points that I just cannot co-sign because they make absolutely zero sense to me.

The idea that the only thing stopping Jon from being king is Jeyne being pregnant or the witnesses of Robb’s will being dead is just silly. He isn’t Ned Stark’s son, he is Lyanna’s! That puts Robb’s entire will in question, and you can bet your ass that there will be some grumbling or discussion about whether Winterfell should bypass Ned‘a line despite him having TWO true born sons and TWO true born daughters still alive, or whether it goes to Lyanna and therefore to Jon. The succession question is just NOT as simple as the meta makes it out to be because it completely ignores that Jon is, I cannot stress this enough, NOT actually Ned Stark’s son.

The meta is right that it’s likely Maege & Gallbart got a message to Howland because Theon notes that there’s been attacks by craggoman. But. Howland is one of - possible thee only - person left alive that knows Jon is Lyanna’s son. There is just no way he doesn’t have a strong opinion on whether Jon should inherit winterfell without knowing the truth.

Irrelevant but it’s really mean to Jeyne Westerling. Whatever role she may have - even if it’s to die in the prologue of TWOW - her life and her death are important regardless of whether she’s pregnant! She is the widow of a King, and if she dies by LSH’s hand, it’s going to be a huge point in showing us the violence in the Riverlands. Maybe the continued breakdown in the Riverlands, Lady Stoneheart’s anger, and Jeyne’s defiance of her family is not relevant to the King Jon pushers, but it IS thematically relevant to the plot thank you very fucking much. THE GIRL IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS THE BOY.

More relevant to this point is there’s just no way in fuck that Lady Stoneheart is trying to crown Jon. “oh she has bigger problems” she is going to crown one of her children if she crowns anyone, likely Arya, not her husband’s bastard who she fucking hated & asked to be banished to a glorified penal colony. Look at Brynden’s comments about Jon:

The Blackfish narrowed his eyes. "Did your father arrange for that as well? Catelyn never trusted the boy, as I recall, no more than she ever trusted Theon Greyjoy. It would seem she was right about them both.

Cat hates that kid so much she wrote letters to her uncle talking shit about him but we are supposed to believe this is proof she wants to crown him? When she's so far gone she's willing to kill Podrick and Brienne off a perceived slight against her? When she's heard several rumors that her daughters may still be alive and well? No. Don't buy it even a little.

Also, Brynden is flying Robb’s banner bc Robb was his family, because he loved Catelyn, and because what else is he supposed to do when he’s in the middle of a siege?? This point is silly and nonsensical.

Harwin as the Hooded Man - i mean. there’s nothing for or against this really, but also the Theon Durden theory aka Theon is the hooded man and doesn’t realize bc he’s having a psychotic episode, is much more believable to me & much more in line with everything that’s happening in theon’s chapter.

So like. Yes, the basic premise of “the northern lords are desperately looking for a stark, any stark, to make king/queen in the north, bc they are tired of All This Bullshit” is something i completely agree with. I do think it’s likely Maege has been in contact with her daughters, & that she and Gallbart made contact with Howland, who is about to enter the scene in a big way. But all that ish about LSH, the BWB, and Blackfish? Absolutely not. LSH is about Arya’s story (and Brienne & Jaime’s), not Jon. Stoneheart doesn’t care about the politics in Westeros; she cares that she followed all the rules and it got her family killed, so now she will break every rule there is to get revenge for her slaughtered children. she is Alyssa Arryn except she has the power to cause a lot of suffering before her tears drown her. she is not wasting her second life crowning jon snow!

[arabic-langblr]

hi there! may I ask if you could share some examples of filler words/phrases in Levantine dialects (like 'well', 'you know', 'I mean' etc are used in English)? thanks so much; your blog is so helpful!

Hi anon!

Thank you for your kind words! I'm happy you find my blog to be helpful!

Alright, I'll tell you a list of filler words and interjections from the top of my head :

خَلاص (ẖalās) or alternatively خَلَص ẖalas

This one is very popular filler. I know many non-Arabic speakers who incorporated this word to their daily vocabulary. Literally it means that's it or it's enough, it's used as a filler.

خَلَاص قٌلْتِلُّه / ẖalas oltello / that's it I told him مَهُو خَلاص عرفنَا / ẖalas ʿrefnā / ummm... that's it we know.

مَا هُو mā hou ( alternatively pronounced as مَهُو ma hoo)

It's similar to خلاص, it means "that is", I personally use it a lot especially when there's a long justification or a story to be told.

يَعْنِي yaʿnī

This means "it means" but it's used like the fillers "like" and "that is" are used in English or even "ummm". I think this one has the best potential to be a versitile filler. For example : يَعْنِي... مَا بعَرِف شُو قَصدُه / yaʿnī .....mā baʿref šū 'asdo / um.... I don't know what he meant كَان قَصدي- يَعْنِي- عَن المَدْرَسِة / kān ʾasdī -yaʿnī- ʿan el madraseh / I meant... uhhh ... about school

أصْلًا aṣlan

This means "originally" but can be used as a filler especially when someone is being defensive. أصْلًا مَا بدي/ aṣlan mā beddi / it means "I didn't even want it" أَصْلَا عَاديَ / aṣlan ʿādi / when said angrily it means something within the line of " I didn't even care" or "hmph! whatever"

يوووو عاد Yō ʿād or ييييي عَاد Yeeee ʿād

Ok this one is hard to translate so I'll give the context. When saying one of these two, or sometimes خَلاص عاد ẖalās ʿād, you're expressing you're anger at something annoying that is really repetitive. Like someone is nagging at something again or a problem keeps re-occurring. Basically you're being impatient and expressing how annoyed your are. عَاد literally means "he came back" or he returned in MSA, but it's used as an interjection or filler in dialects

ييييييي Yeeee / يييي عَلينا ʿaleina or Yeee

These are used like "oh no" or "oh my goodness" For example if someone remembers that you remember that the cake was still in the oven even after they left the house, they will probably yell "yeeeee" after face palming

أوف off

this is used when you hear something that exceeds your expectations. For example you anticipated that the dress was for 40 $ but it's for 400$, you would say "offf" and then walk away. Sometimes "off" is also used to express distaste or being bored

[snorkling-in-sodasea]

Ghost F-Kers Rant

Because yeah, I'm pissed at this episode. I initially liked it but that's literally just because it had the fucking Stolitz drama that I'm so sick and tired of at this point to the back. It may be how the episode even happened but it was still to the back.

Then I read YMMV on TV tropes for this episode and realize that, under Informed Wrongness, Blitz is a fucking douche. Again.

And now I'm right back into hating Blitz so I don't like the episode as much anymore.

It's amazing. It truly is. Stolas is literally the only reason I can ever care about Blitzo. When Blitzo is being made to care about and fall in love with his abuser and sexual extorter. Take Stolas away, though, and I go straight back to hating Blitzo and wanting him to suffer.

And no, I don't mean 'suffer' like that fucking constant trauma dumping that the show writers seem to do with Blitzo in every single episode now. I'm talking about making him suffer comedically.

Eustace Bagg from Courage the Cowardly Dog. Dan from Dan Vs. Those two men are grown up entitled babies and yet, I can feel for them far more than I ever can Blitzo. Eustace and Dan definitely don't need a sexual abuser like how Blitzo does for me to feel sorry for them and/or like them

Maybe that's because of two major things that are coming to me off the top of my head. For one, the writers made sure that Eustace and Dan got as much shit as they gave. Or at the very least, they often made sure to remember that they're assholes and should be punished for it

The other thing is probably that, more often than not, it was funny. It wasn't just cathartic when these assholes got consequences for their jerkass behavior. It was also funny. Sure, Courage the Cowardly Dog and Dan Vs. are comedies but maybe that's it. Helluva Boss really was better off being a comedy and nothing more, so that way, Blitzo can suffer like Eustace and Dan and that would've been perfectly fine

Because really, nobody's ever held accountable in the right way. As in, the actual fucked up shit someone does, especially if they're in Viv's favor, actually get held accountable for that shit. It's treated as no big deal that Blitzo has always stalked his employees and tried being their 'third' against their wishes. Stolas is constantly written like his worst flaws are just not being aware or missing the hint, like his racism and fetishizing ways aren't a thing he does, as well as neglecting his daughter the very second Blitzo re-entered his life. And getting into Hazbin Hotel, and just to give a couple of examples for that show, only a fucking passing mention is made about Angel always violating Husk's boundaries and apparently Husk isn't a bad guy for taking his frustration out on everyone and airing their dirty laundry when it was only Angel who was bothering him at the time. At least if Helluva Boss was strictly a comedy that made assholes suffer comedically, then I wouldn't give as much of a fuck (I don't know about Hazbin Hotel but I'm staying focused on my rant for Ghostfuckers here)

But yeah, I hate how, in this episode, Blitzo nearly bankrupts the company that Millie works in and she's the one who says sorry to him. Like, does Millie seriously not realize the end result that would've affected her? Sure, Blitzo may have given her a new life she loves but he was threatening to end it. And worse, he couldn't have been bothered to care or even think about how his incapability of managing his personal shit without dragging others into it would have affected the employees he claims are his family

Come on, Millie, your and Moxxie's jobs were on the fucking line! If anything happened to your job, then you wouldn't be able to stay in your apartment building. You wouldn't be able to have the city life. And if you can't stay in the city, where you were so damn happy to be in because it proved you could be more than a simple farm girl or, at best an underpaid goon, then you. Would have lost that.

You would have needed to go back to the farm where you were worried you'd be stuck in for the rest of your life. And honestly, you're lucky that you even have someone to turn to, somewhere to go, even if you hate it. Because I'm sure there's so many people who become downright homeless all because they're out of a job. But yeah, even though you're lucky, Millie, Blitzo's actions would have still left a negative impact on your life that you never would've wanted

Let's not forget how it affects your husband, too. Moxxie would have preferred the in-laws over Crimson, yeah, but it's still not gonna be a happy life for him. Not when he's with people who just barely hide their disdain towards him. That means Moxxie's life is also going to be severely negatively affected, his life would have taken a turn that he would have never wanted, and it's all because fucking Blitzo decided that a pity party for himself was the most important thing ever

Honestly, Blitzo only seems to be caring and selfless in comparison to Stolas. When it comes down to it, Blitzo will still make himself the most important person in his own life. And yeah, that does make itself known when he's in a 'mood' because there's people out there who would legitimately rather throw pity parties than actually overcoming adversity or personal problems

Blitzo was looking to adopt a kid at the pet pound but he didn't want a 'sad-looking' kid. He didn't see poor souls that shouldn't be there, he just saw the place potentially providing a convenient sap who can 'learn' to love him. He just adopted Loona because... she's the prettiest? I'd like to believe 'he saw himself in Loona' but either those kids earlier were a different type of sad from Blitzo himself or Blitzo just saw a pretty, crying girl and wanted to save her (in a platonic way, I just don't know how else to phrase that)

Blitzo wanted to get together with Barbie despite how it's the most obvious thing ever that she doesn't want him in her life again. Blitzo still goes out of his way to find her, being hostile the very second he doesn't get answers that he wants, makes Barbie out to be the bitch that he voluntarily took a week-long search for her, and never calls off the hit that would cost Barbie her job. Blitzo obviously had to know during the verbal confrontation that the target for Moxxie's job is someone Barbie needs for her own job. Yet, when the physical confrontation happened, Blitzo never stops Moxxie from killing the guy. It seems nice on the surface to offer Barbie help when she was out of a job but, given his general attitude in Unhappy Campers - specifically towards Barbie in this case - and the fact that Blitzo lets the hit happen even though he should know how it would affect Barbie, it just comes off as Blitzo wanting someone around who would notice it when he dies. Even if Blitzo didn't think of making Barbie dependent on him so that she'd have an excuse to be around him and give him a chance to 'mend' any broken bonds, it's still clear enough that he decided that his livelihood is more important than Barbie's thanks to, once again, never calling off that hit. Probably the most insulting part is that Blitzo offers help like his general nasty attitude towards Barbie and complete disregard for her personal wishes wasn't going to be an issue at all. Oh, and let's not forget how Blitzo spent months not knowing that Barbie checked out of the hospital, meaning that he never had a desire to talk to her or check up on her for months. That just seems, at least to me, more like he only cared in Unhappy Campers about a bond with Barbie for his personal gain

Blitzo may have cared about Fizzarolli but he had the fucking gall to play the misery game with the guy who lost his limbs, which means that his very lifestyle is affected and it's only lucky that Fizzarolli even secured new limbs and a job to keep living. After all, Blitzo may have been thinking about his mom but it's not like Fizzarolli didn't have people, too. (At least I hope so, since Viv, for all the new characters she creates, rarely ever gives almost any named character more than five connections to others) The thing is, Fizzarolli would have needed hospitalization and care and most people in the circus would have been either dead or too busy to do so. Some might even think of Fizzarolli as dead weight and wouldn't want to even bother. In fact, as awful as he's actually allowed to be, Cash Buckzo is notable for being willing to do so, especially for an unrelated young man. So yeah, Fizzarolli is lucky that he even had anyone wanting to take care of him, especially since I can't hold hopes for anyone else in the circus, and that's even more true since he's never had any parents or blood-related family appear in the show so far. So to shorten it, Fizzarolli lost his limbs, his anatomy - at least until he got new limbs - his very lifestyle and possibilities for the future with or without Ozzie, any friends he could have lost to the fire, and, to some extent, the ability to live peacefully thanks to the fucking trauma. But no, Blitzo decides to act like he's the one who lost more than Fizzarolli ever did, because he fully believes his own pain is what wins the misery game. The guy who only got fucking scars from the fire (I'm not saying that losing his mom isn't a big deal but I still believe Fizzarolli wins the misery game since that's how Blitzo wants to play)

And like I said, even if Blitzo was actually genuine when he first gave jobs to Millie and Moxxie, Blitzo sure couldn't give a fuck that he negatively affecting their futures in this episode thanks to caring only about satisfying himself and throwing a pity party for himself. Blitzo can't even give 'unconditional' support without attaching conditions to it; he legitimately thinks a coupon is needed to leave Millie and Moxxie the fuck alone because he apparently thinks that caring about their boundaries isn't worth anything if there's nothing in it for him

So yeah, I do agree that Ghostfuckers is better than other episodes of this season. Then again, it feels like I'm given a whole batch of burnt cookies and the latest episode is just a cookie not as badly burnt as the other ones.

That's not really a good thing, if you're just not as bad as the others. It's just that Ghostfuckers is a cookie that tastes good when I ate it but then I'm discovering, to my dismay, a downright awful aftertaste

[bellaxgiornata]

Big congrats on 2.5K!!! You deserve all of the success!!!

I don’t remember if I hit send after typing this earlier in the week but I had a difficult question!

What is your favorite episode of Daredevil? Or even a favorite from each season!

Thank you so so much, friend!! ❤ And don't worry, you definitely hit the send button but you really did send me the most difficult question out of all the questions I received, so I was really trying to think before I answered it 😆 Especially because I have been doing a very slow re-watch of Daredevil and it's been about 2 years since I last watched it all the way through, so I don't remember off the top of my head which episodes would be my favorite. Especially because I have favorite scenes that I've watched over and over and they're scattered throughout different episodes. But my answers for what are currently my favorite episodes are below the cut!

Season 1 Episode 10 Nelson V Murdock

Yes, that episode. I both love and hate this episode SO MUCH and that's why I ended up picking it as my favorite from this season. I don't think any other episode of Daredevil actually affects me quite as much as this one always does no matter how many times I've watched it. I love seeing the glimpses into Matt and Foggy’s friendship over the years and seeing how important they've become to each other. And it hurts me so damn much when Foggy finds out the truth about Matt and goes off on him like he does because I can feel both of their pain in this episode. Like Matt suffers a lot of physical pain throughout the whole show (and especially in this episode) and that makes me want to take care of him and help him, but that stray tear when Foggy is going off on him on the couch??? And that broken face and his fidgeting hands when Fog is just done and leaves??? THAT HURTS ME. EVERYTHING FOG SAYS HURTS ME. But so does the pain I feel for Fog for having been lied to for so long. It just makes me want to lock them both in the apartment and force everyone into a group hug with me and not let them leave until somehow they fix everything 😭

Season 2 Episode 4 Penny and Dime

It was hard to pick one episode for this season for many reasons, especially because Episode 5 shows us Matt's two very different relationships (even though Karen isn't quite a relationship). And as a fic writer for him, that plays a big role in how I write him romantically and how I write him handling relationships since I can actually see the few examples we really get of his love life here. And they're vastly different from each other. But ultimately I think getting Frank’s backstory in episode 4, watching Matt come rescue him and then having that very emotional moment in the cemetery where he's telling Matt about his daughter and what he lost is probably my favorite scene out of the whole season. Frank is just so vulnerable and Matt can see the redeeming and human bits of Frank here. Which I think is incredibly important and plays a big role in why Matt wants to take his case to keep him from getting the death penalty. I think it's a big moment between the two and it got me in my feels the other week when I was re-watching it.

Season 3 Episode 13 A New Napkin

There's a lot of great moments in season 3 but I think the final episode is the best. After watching Matt’s struggle through the whole season after the loss of Elektra and his senses, to slowly gaining those senses back, to pushing his friends away to keep them safe, to how he decides he won't let Fisk ruin who he is by killing him after wanting to the entire time... There's a lot of growth in Matt in this episode. He even tries to begin a relationship with his mother despite that whole messy history after finding out the truth about her. And the way he comes back to his friends at the end instead of trying to push them away and pretending he can't be Matt Murdock anymore is such a big moment. It's truly my favorite part of season 3 seeing how everything comes together in the end. And I've been dying to see where things went for everyone after this episode ever since it first aired but we never had the opportunity. So I'm hoping Born Again gives us some of what I was hoping to see since Netflix couldn't continue the show.

[thatgirl4815]

A few thoughts re. your post about Top/cheating double standards - I feel so bemused bout ppl who say they felt conflicted bout the Sand/Ray love scene cos it was cheating (if nothing else, just listen to the scoring! If you were meant to feel icky about it the music would tell you so! The way it was scored and filmed is 100% meant to convey a sense of romance and love and *fucking finally* - nothing about it indicates shenanigans are afoot!), because at this point literally EVERYONE knows Mew is faking his relationship with Ray - Mew knows it, Ray knows it, the audience has always known it. Just because they haven't explicitly verbalised it doesn't mean they don't know it. The last time they saw each other Ray accused him of still loving Top and Mew didn't deny it, nor did he try to stop Ray from leaving (some ppl might even consider that as good as a break-up...). Now compare that to Top: at the time of the Car Incident, both him and Mew have genuine feelings for each other and are genuinely having a go at making something of it; they are on good terms - they part on good terms. Like you said, yes Boston messes with his head, but that's literally all it takes to get him to cheat. Okay, ppl will bring their personal povs/experiences re. cheating to the table, as is their right, and I get that it's an emotive subject (and one for which I too have basically zero tolerance), but I'm not sure how anyone can say with a straight face that those two scenarios are comparable let alone that what Ray did was worse. I keep seeing ppl watch the Ray/Mew end scene and come away from it happily acknowledging that Mew consciously using Ray explains his indifference to Ray/Sand, whilst simultaneously still condemning Ray because they don't seem able to extend that reasoning to Ray's own behaviour - Mew's not the only one clued in! IMO there's no way Ray would be out there having ridiculously hot make-out sessions with Sand if he believed for one second that Mew was genuinely falling in love with him (or even genuinely trying to). Even when he's high as a kite in ep 8, it's obvious he knows what's up - when your so-called boyfriend (who up until a hot second ago repeatedly and flatly denied having any romantic interest in you whatsoever) recoils from you in private but plants one on you in front of his ex in public...like Ray said, you get the hint! You can argue semantics about cheating and sure, in an ideal world they'd have had that open and honest convo then and there because yes, it's always better to communicate your feelings instead of running away to interrupt a perfectly lovely platonic bestie sleepover, but have they MET these characters??? They're walking disasters! It just fascinates me that you have Mew, the so-called victim of Ray's nefarious betrayal, not only shrugging it off but actively giving Ray his blessing to have as much sweet sweet sex with Sand as he wants, and yet parts of the audience are still like 'I dunno, still feels wrong...'

As far as Top is concerned - like you, my issue with his character isn't so much the cheating, it's how two-faced he is: he's a completely different person in his interactions with anyone who isn't Mew/someone Mew is on good terms with. And to be honest, I like him the best in those scenes! I do believe he's trying to be a better person for Mew, or at least he thinks he is, but as other ppl have pointed out, at the moment it's only performative precisely because he doesn't bother when Mew's not around to see it/won't hear about it. Sand is the obvious example - even when Top's ostensibly offering him an olive branch, his words may be conciliatory but his tone of voice/facial expressions are anything but - they ooze scorn and smarm! And you could argue that he's making progress (not telling Mew about Ray/Sand, or bout him saving Ray from arrest), but to be honest I enjoy the Top that turns on a dime the second Boston or Sand show up (I love his chemistry with both of them - that little Top/Boston scene at the party in ep 8 cracked me up) because that keeps him interesting - you're always waiting for the facade to drop!

Excellent points all around! Your bit about the use of music and tone to highlight the purity and positivity surrounding the SandRay scene in Ep9 is really telling. Like you, I see a lot of people resisting the narratives’ attempts to guide us towards a positive/negative outlook on the plot—not to say people should not push back against these details when the characters’ actions are deserving of scorn, but these details give us a good sense of the characters’ head spaces. They wouldn’t be there if they weren’t meant to inform our impression of these situations.

The entire RayMew talk is so necessary to the conversation of whether SandRay is considered cheating. I won’t fault the pushback to a certain extent, because I can’t say that anything in this show is the most straightforward. But like you said, these characters are messy. In a perfect world, yeah, they’d lay everything out on the table and have the “what are we?” discussion before going forward with other people in any way. But especially for someone like Ray who is so conflicted in his feelings (and so clearly struggling to accept that Mew has never, and will never, love him romantically), that just isn’t plausible. The most important point to me is that MEW DOESN’T CARE. He might as well have said it before with how blatantly obvious it was. Like, what is Ray supposed to think about the status of your relationship (which was never explicitly defined) when you refuse to kiss him in private but make out in front of your ex-boyfriend?

Gonna list a few of your claims here that I connect with a lot because you really said it best:

“…when your so-called boyfriend (who up until a hot second ago repeatedly and flatly denied having any romantic interest in you whatsoever) recoils from you in private but plants one on you in front of his ex in public...like Ray said, you get the hint!”

“IMO there's no way Ray would be out there having ridiculously hot make-out sessions with Sand if he believed for one second that Mew was genuinely falling in love with him (or even genuinely trying to).”

I don’t think anyone is arguing that what Ray has done is the best way to handle the situation objectively (at least, no one that I’ve seen), but just that the circumstances and evidence we’ve been presented with are not 100% aligned for Top and Ray and should thus not be treated as equally wrong. When the characters themselves are not only demonstrating these lack of feelings but calling them out verbally, there’s substantially less room for the “Ray is just as bad as Top” thing. And I do expect to get flack for this but honestly, in my viewing experience, viewing the situations as objectively as I can, what Top did is worse for the reasons you outline. And this is not me saying that Ray can do no wrong. It’s in consideration of what was expressly defined by each couple.

Regarding Top’s character in general; Top is two-faced, and I also enjoy that aspect of his character because it’s the only thing that really gives him any dimension. I wish Mew could see him when he interacts one-on-one with Sand and Boston because I have a feeling that would enlighten him to aspects of Top’s character that he’s hidden away. The funny thing is that Mew seems to have suspected this right from the start, yet he hasn’t ever seen this part of Top.

[ivyial]

Canonicity in the Context of Ships (and Ship Wars)

Essentially, what makes a ship canon? Does it even matter that a ship becomes canon?

So, disclaimer before we start:

1. This is my interpretation of the meaning of "canon" and what it means for a ship to be canon. As always, I'm open to disagreements and constructive criticism, especially if it can tame the constant aggression in some fandom spaces

2. I like ships, but I don't support ship wars because they're all fucking pointless and if you're a grown adult or close to being one and you're still harassing people over ships on the internet, you're a fucking loser

That being said

As we all know, online fandom spaces have developed their own vernacular over the years: canon, fanon, headcanon, OC, AU, OTP, the infamous 'Dead Dove: Do Not Eat', etc. Fandom slang has also evolved since it was first coined. A prime example of that would be the use of the term "lemon" to refer to erotic fanfiction, which while still used, has suffered a sharp decline in favour of the word "smut" (although smut has its own use and meaning outside of fandoms).

The word "canon" is arguably one of the most important words in fandom, since it refers to the official source material from a game, book, TV show, movie, whatever form of media said fandom is about. In essence, it's the official story: what actually happens and what was intended by the creators. Some universes are easily accessible and the canon isn't really subject to much debate. Most TV shows have very straightforward canon: assuming that everything is contained within, let's say, 5 seasons of 22 episodes each, with no spin-offs, movies, or exclusive bonus episodes, the canon of the show will be laid out in these episodes. That's it. Some other fandoms will be much more obscure: think of game franchises such as Resident Evil, where many games have been released over the years, remade, and some have been largely forgotten and can even contradict the current version of events. In this case, it can be much harder to define what canon is, which events are official and still applicable to the story and which should be discarded completely. (And I have to say, as a law student, canon is weirdly reminiscent of the hierarchy of norms, but that's for another day.)

I could discuss the importance of canon in fandoms, but that's irrelevant to the point of this post. Let's talk ships. I don't need to explain to everyone what a ship is. There's no point of contention there. In most media where romance is either dealt with or hinted at, fandoms, and therefore, shippers, will jump at the opportunity to write about or make art of their favourite ship. However, there's always something rearing its ugly head and contributing to the toxic atmosphere in fandoms: ship wars.

Ship wars are in essence extremely simple, and I'm sure we've all been in a fandom that participated in a ship war, whether we were involved in it ourselves or not. Long story short, shippers argue over which ship will become canon. Writers are toying with the idea of two or more major ships and teasing that both have their chances. So, in the end, it's all about who comes out on top and who becomes official.

The canonicity of a ship is a lot more complicated than the canonicity of media itself. I'd argue that even if the canonicity of the story is simple, it's likely that the canonicity of ships will necessarily be harder to draw conclusions about. So you can imagine how complicated canon is when it comes to ships from franchises that barely know their own canon.

Since I've seen a lot of arguments over canon ships in the Resident Evil fandom as of late, and this is what inspired this post, I will be using this example primarily - and since ideally I'd like this post to reach fandoms outside of RE, I'll be explaining and illustrating my examples. Other fandoms and ships might also be referred to.

1. Canon, semi-canon and non-canon

When it comes to ships, there are 3 main ways to describe them:

- Non-canon: quite straightforward. The ship has not officially expressed any desire (even implicit) to get together whatsoever. They may or may not interact in canon, and if they do, there's just no romantic interest there. Non-canon does not necessarily refer to a ship being into each other but not doing anything about it, as this is characterised as:

- Semi-canon: there's something there. Maybe both characters like each other romantically, maybe it's one-sided, maybe there is potential but it could either sail or be ruined completely by Character A's reaction to Character B's feelings. But overall, the general consensus seems to be that semi-canon ships have not acted on their feelings. This definition is not set in stone - we'll come back to it later.

- Canon: yay, your ship has sailed!! The pairing has officially been confirmed. The characters have acted on their feelings and you have won the ship war.

These are the general definitions of canon ships. And if you think they're clear and satisfactory, in what world are you living?

2. Past canon vs current canon

You finally got around to watching the season finale and there it is: Character A and B confessed and kissed. Finally, it's canon, and you can gloat on social media about how you were right all along.

But then it turns out that by the final season, your ship breaks up, and Character A gets with Character C. Even worse, Character A stays with Character C and the show ends with them being officially together. What the fuck.

So, what does that make your ship? It's officially a sunk ship, sure, but what about its canonicity? Should it be considered canon? I mean, they dated for 2 seasons. So technically, there was a period of time when your ship was canon. It just isn't anymore.

This is the first hurdle we meet when trying to define a ship as canon. It all hinges on the when aspect of it. This is also where ship canonicity differs from story canonicity. Storywise, the ship is rooted in canon since they were together at some point. Shipwise, however, they are not canon anymore, since they have broken up. It's canon that they happened, but they themselves aren't canon anymore.

At this point, I would argue that most people consider that a ship that is together by the end of the show/game/movie/book etc., by the end of canon essentially, is canon. Don't worry, we're still far from having solved this.

3. What does it take for a ship to be canon?

You will have noticed by now that, so far, I have instinctively referred to a canon ship as a ship that is together. I'd argue that this is what most people think of when they think of a canon ship.

But what does it mean for a ship to be together? Do we mean that they have to be a couple? Is it marriage, is it a relationship, is it friends with benefits? Or is it a simple kiss and confession? Do they even have to make out, or have sex, or put a label on their relationship?

This is when we venture into the territory of canon vs semi-canon. Earlier, I defined semi-canon as a ship that has feelings for each other, or is one-sided, but no one has acted on their feelings. Mind you, this is the definition provided by the Internet.

Let's say Character A confesses to Character B. Character B feels the same way, but they don't want to get into a relationship right now. The show ends there. I mean, technically, they like each other, right? That much was confirmed. They acted on their feelings by confessing. Technically, that gets them out of semi-canon territory. But does it get them into canon territory? Nothing came out of the confession, really.

We can't in good faith argue that two characters confessing is enough to make them canon, since the term semi-canon also exists, and could very well apply depending on your own definition of it.

The problem lies in defining what it takes for a ship to be canon. If we go back to the very roots of canon, it's confirmation that a ship has an official romantic nature.

Is liking each other enough? Doubtful: if a main character flirts with a minor side character, who reciprocates, does that make them canon? They're into each other. But it would be ridiculous by fandom standards to deem them canon when the side character might never be seen again and has no real bearing on the story.

Truth is, what makes a ship canon fluctuates depending on the standards set by the media itself. If a piece of media is heavily romance-based, canon will most likely be defined by the ship that makes it out in the end, the one that has proclaimed to be a couple. If the piece of media is not keen on romance, and never creates romantic relationships between characters, it might be enough for the fandom to consider canon a pairing that has simply alluded to being into each other.

Whether the last example is good enough reason to hail a ship as canon depends on the fandom and the shippers. Some might think it's a stretch, some might think it's more than enough.

One possibility would be to look at the writers' intention for the pairing, read interviews if they're available, etc. However, most of the time, franchises have changes in writers over the seasons/games/movies, and it gets even worse when you take into account franchises that are adapted from another source material - say, Game of Thrones vs ASOIAF: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss' intentions for the characters certainly differ from George R. R. Martin's intentions.

I'm going to start using actual examples now, to better illustrate my point. I'll be using Resident Evil ships, like I said. RE, despite having constant ship wars, is not famous for making ships canon or focusing on romance at all. The most you'll get is indicators that two characters are into each other or you'll get established relationships that are not subject to ship wars since they have no other love interest (see Mia and Ethan Winters: married couple, established as part of canon and the validity of their relationship with regards to other characters is never questioned). As a matter of fact, you could probably argue that the Winters are the only canon couple in the REverse.

Most RE ship wars happen as a result of Leon ships, the main ones being Aeon (Ada/Leon) vs Cleon (Claire/Leon). There are other Leon ships out there, mainly Chreon (Chris/Leon), Serennedy (Luis/Leon), Leshley/Eagleone (Ashley/Leon), and many more, but they don't engage in ship wars because they have the common sense to be normal human beings about their ships. (Seriously everyone, chill the fuck out.)

Aeon shippers are known for one thing: banging on and on about how their ship is canon - which, in their eyes, automatically discredits all other Leon ships (what's the point of shipping if it isn't to win, right? I'm obviously being sarcastic). Which, knowing the canon nature of Aeon, makes it the perfect test subject for this discussion and post.

Are Ada and Leon into each other? Sure. Ada confessed to falling in love with Leon in OG RE2, they flirted in OG RE4, Resident Evil: Damnation suggests that they have shared at least one night together, and in RE6, Helena guesses that Leon has feelings for Ada. These events, however, have changed in the remakes: Ada no longer confesses to being in love with Leon in RE2R, though she does kiss him to manipulate him, and they don't exactly flirt much in RE4R. But then, by discussing this, we'd end up discussing what is canon in a game franchise plagued by obscure secondary sources of canon, and that's not what I plan on doing here (I also severely lack the extensive knowledge to do that).

Despite all of this, Ada and Leon never actually get together. It's a constant game of cat and mouse, will-they-won't-they, whatever you wanna call it. Since they are on opposite sides of the same fight, it's practically impossible for them to get into a normal, healthy relationship. Going back to what I said about the canonicity of a ship being defined by the standards set by the piece of media itself, you could argue that Aeon is canon by those standards: since they can't get together, it only matters that they have shown reciprocated feelings towards one another.

However, that's not entirely true, is it? RE hasn't set those standards for romance. It doesn't act on ships, but it hasn't deterred romance as a whole: look at Mia and Ethan Winters. It is possible to get into a relationship in RE - now whether it is possible to get a happy ending is entirely less likely.

But I mean, there are other love interests for Leon that aren't on the side of who he's fighting. Look at Claire, or Ashley, or hell even Jill. We can't, as a fandom, reasonably ignore the flirting that went down between Claire and Leon in RE2R (and Infinite Darkness at times) and Leon and Ashley in both OG RE4 (though he does reject her at the end of the OG) and RE4R. And he was probably trying to flirt with Jill a little in Death Island, too - he's a bit of a whore (affectionate).

How do you even define the canonicity of a ship in a universe like RE, in which most characters can't form normal, healthy romantic relationships? Is it enough to kiss/sleep together (Aeon)? Is it enough to unabashedly flirt and to practically be parents to a practically adopted daughter (Cleon)? Is it enough to share all sorts of romantic tropes and overtly flirt with each other (Leshley/Eagleone)? What happens when you start removing all of the events that used to be canon, but might not be anymore/be part of a different canon than the current one?

4. Conclusion (kind of)

I really want to offer a definition of a canon ship that suits everyone, but every time i come up with one, I bump into yet another wall. Tentatively, we could define a canon ship as a ship that has, by the standards of the piece of media they belong to, acted on their desire to be together in a lasting manner that disproves all other potential ships for the characters. I'm sure that can be perfected, and there might be elements of this definition that can be refuted, but this is how I would characterise a ship as canon. Which would, you guessed it, make pretty much every Leon ship non-canon in the context of the REverse as a whole.

The one true conclusion of this post, however, is that shipping amounts to playing with Barbies and should not be taken so seriously. There are a lot of shippers who know that their ships have no chances of becoming canon, yet still choose to have fun with it, make content for it in their own space, and some of you guys are dicks enough to go and bully them over it. Go outside, take a breath, and understand that canonicity is not the be-all and end-all of shipping.

I went a bit overboard with this and I'm sorry (not really). I'd love to know everyone's opinions on what makes a ship canon, if there's scenarios I haven't considered, etc! Constructive criticism is more than welcome and as always, my ask box is always open <3

[stabbyfoxandrew]

I like to collect my questions, so I don't spam your askbox every time a random thought pops into my head. Instead, I just do one big spam because apparently I collected way more questions than I expected, ups. The Angel Neil AU is just so cute, I want to grab its (metaphorical) cheeks and squeeze them. It's also sad, and funny, and interesting, and you balance it all in such a nice way. I've also always had a thing for otherworldly beings, so it just all adds to my obsession for this perfect creation. Anyway, here it goes.

Can angels be re-assigned if they don't like their protectee? Like, if they really really hate them. Does Neil ever get cold? Can he just manifest an outfit, or does he have to physically change (could he manifest the angel outfit that Andrew has been daydreaming about hehe)? Can he teleport? For example, if Andrew was in danger and he was far away (i.e. on a roof), would he have to physically walk/fly there? Can he phase through walls? Can Neil see other guardian angels around, or would they also have to "turn off" their invisibility? Does he always have to be within a specific radius of Andrew? How far high has he flown? Does he have to breathe? Has he touched the clouds? Have Aaron, Nicky, and Kevin all talked amongst themselves about Andrew's absences? Or has each one just noticed separately? Has Kevin noticed? If so, what does he think of it? Speaking of Kevin, how is he feeling lately? I hope Kevin has a guardian angel somewhere too, the poor guy deserves it.

I hope it wasn't too much, it was more than I remembered having :') ily too, how is your week going?

Aw hon, you can spam me anytime. But I totally understand saving up questions. Either is fine. <3 By the way, I’m really sorry it’s taken me so long to get around to answering. I literally said to send me questions and then didn’t answer for two weeks. TwT I’m so sorry. orz

Ahh. Thank you for all the compliments! <3 I also have always loved the supernatural. Werewolves, vampires, demons, angels. They’re all such fun creatures to read/write about. :D 

Answers for your questions under the cut because this is almost 900 words and I don't want to block everyone's dashes because most people probably don't care.

Yes, I think that angels could be reassigned! If absolutely necessary. Because imagine changing your charge and the new one is worse! And you’re stuck with this shittier one till it dies? And if you let it die on purpose, you lose your job and stop existing? Like… D: Yikes either way.

But, most angels don’t talk to their charges. They watch from overhead and intervene when they need to. During down time, most angels generally just hang out with other angels. But… Neil doesn’t know that. And even if he did, he’d rather be with Andrew than some random winged bitch. You know?

Neil can and does get cold/hot!

Neil is still wearing the outfit he died in. He could probably use his Angel Powers to create different clothes, but he doesn’t know how. And besides, these clothes are fine. (Me: You died in them, Neil. / Neil: But they’re comfortable.) But yeah! If he really wanted to, nothing is stopping Neil from popping into the mall and stealing some clothes. Like…  he’s stolen before. And he’s invisible now. It would be so easy. He just doesn’t care to.

If Neil asked, Andrew would buy him more clothes and bring them up to the roof. But as we know Neil has a hard time asking for anything. So he won’t. 

Yes. Neil can just PING to Andrew. (Mild spoiler for a much later part of the fic so skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid! Before they met, Neil wasn’t a great guardian angel. He thought of being an angel as his second chance at life and wandered around doing whatever he wanted. Until he first felt that pull and realized Andrew needed him. And he popped right to him.)

Neil generally just follows Andrew however his human is traveling. If Andrew is walking to class, Neil walks beside him. If Andrew is in a car or on the team bus, Neil sits on top of the vehicle. He’s thought about taking a free seat in the bus, but he’s afraid he’ll accidentally Become Visible and freak Andrew out. So he hasn’t done it yet.

I hadn’t really thought about it, but why not? :) He can be invisible, he should get other Ghost Qualities. So, sure. He can walk through walls, disappear, and fly! (Sorry for the Danny Phantom reference. But not really.)

Neil hasn’t seen any other angels around. He will eventually! (I’m not sure if they’re purposely hiding from him or not.)

He doesn't have to be in a specific radius of Andrew. There's no limit to how far away he can be and he tested it a lot when he was first given to Andrew.

He enjoys flying, but he never strays too far. At least, not since that first Incident. Sometimes when he’s bored out of his mind, he’ll go up, up, up and glide back down until he gets tired of that. But it stretches his wings and he can see all sorts of things from so high up. :) 

Neil does breathe. He probably doesn't have to have to, but it's a habit carried over from his human life so he still does.

He probably flew through some clouds early on. I imagine learning to fly on your own would be difficult, so controlling the Come Down Aspect would’ve been challenging for him.

Oh yeah, I think they’ve all definitely noticed. And Aaron keeps asking the others about it, but they of course have no idea where Andrew’s been going so they just shrug. Kevin also hates that Andrew keeps disappearing, because hello. This man is supposed to be his partner now, at his side and keeping him safe/sane. But he knows that all he has to do is call Andrew and he’ll come back. So he’s not that worried. Nicky thinks Andrew has met someone, either a girlfriend or a friend group, and he’s happy for him. 

Kevin is feeling alright lately. His hand is getting better by the day and the team is… Well, it’s not getting Worse. So he can’t complain too much. Also, he does have a guardian angel. :) 

Oh my god, you’re absolutely fine! <33 Like I said, I want to talk about my fics. I want to answer your questions! It’s fun. And it helps me, you know? Like, I hadn’t really thought about the Nicky/Kevin/Aaron situation before. (Sometimes I forget there are other characters in this fic because it’s usually just Andrew and his angel.) But your question made me think about it. And now I have a new idea for later! :) So thanks. <33 

Also, the past two weeks have been… A blur? Like always. :’) I don’t really know. I mean, I’ve been trying to write more and working on the kevjean vampire thing. And also I’ve been playing a lot of Webkinz, one of my favorite childhood pastimes. So… Yeah. :) I hope you’re doing good! I love you. <333 Thanks for the questions and the patience. <333 

[fruitsofhell]

Started watching one of the 10 million FNAF VHS series instead of doing homework, and its (purposeful) garbage cheap edutainment game vibes reminded me of the not garbage but aesthetically unpolished soley in the UI department and nothing else game Sheep Raiders for the PS1. And then it made me think, man I should make an analog horror series about sheep raiders cause I'm the one person on earth who cares about it. But then I actually started having these really deep thoughts about the spirit of childhood media consumption that analog horror twists into fear -- that like, 'I saw something OFF in a game/cartoon that wasn't supposed to happen and maybe I'm the only one who ever did!!' But also that can be a very comforting and fun emotion in a way...

My love of Sheep Raiders is because it incidentally intersects two things I care a lot about - early 3D game aesthetics and Looney Tunes - in a very beautiful but ultimately goofy way and it feels very made for me in that sense. Things like its dumb looking menus reinforce the fact that it is a niche unpolished project made for god knows what market that has found itself lodged in my brain. Sometimes you look at a game you never played and you just know had you the chance to play it as a child you would have lived in it effectively. And I think what makes a good creepypasta/analog horror thing appealing is that it reminds you a bit of that feeling when you've seen something unpolished enough times that its quirks and skips stand out to you more and more, and you can find something unsettling in that with reflection. I did not grow up on VHS tapes but I did grow up almost exclusively on movie disks that I would watch so many times they began to skip, or that certain oddities of tone started to stick out to me, or that I felt like the characters and I had formed a bond.

I want to find more analog horror/creepypasta revival stuff that embraces that Way Children Interact With Media Fundamentally Differently niche. I think best example off the top of my head is Angel Hare, which I recommend not cause its super scary - its actually very not - but because of that it explores fictional character bonds and nostalgia more blatantly. I own one of their kickstarter plushes cause I just think the series is neat for that even if it gets kinda corny. It uses analog horror as a framework to tell a very different kind of story about PSA edutainment characters that is dear to some ideas I want to write about myself. Namely escapism and guardianship.

I guess to bring this back to FNAF -- someone recommend me a FNAF Analog Horror that is not super bad with the scopophobia and is about Michael/some kid re-examining their relationship to the animatronics as childhood fictional friends and mascots turned living nightmare and chariot of trauma!

[sailtomarina]

Hate you

“That is not what Professor Vector meant, and you know it!” Hermione snarled, slamming her hands down on top of the desk so hard their ink bottles threatened to fall off.

It was with quick reflexes that Malfoy snatched them away from the edge and slid them back to safety. For what had to be the millionth time that term, Hermione hated herself for appreciating anything about the blonde git.

Why, oh, why, did he have to be her partner in Advanced Arithmancy?

She cursed her duties as Head Girl and the rest of their classmates for leaving the seat next to Malfoy open when she came waltzing into the room late. She had no choice but to sit next to him on that first day.

She couldn’t just say no when Professor Vector announced their seat mates would be their partners for the rest of the school term. Hermione had an example to set. She not only had to put forward the first foot towards inter-house unity, she also knew how important it was to show others that forgiveness was a living, breathing thing. 

She couldn’t just preach the gospel of healing post-war; she had to live it.

So, she accepted the assignment without complaint.

She’d nodded at the announcement as if it was only natural that she partner with the boy who’d bullied her since childhood, who’d taught her all about blood purity, who’d let murderers into their school, who’d seen her scream and bleed, and who had now returned along with scant few others to re-do their final year.

She hated him. She also pitied him. More importantly, she hated him.

Today, he’d had the nerve to try and correct her part of their current project.

He took a deep breath before replying. “You can’t just assume that Scranton’s Formula applies in this instance. There are additional variable to consider—”

“I am not assuming!” she protested. “Scranton fits too perfectly to not be correct and whatever ‘other variables’ might exist don’t matter when the answer is obvious.”

She knew she was right. She couldn’t not be right, particularly with Malfoy thinking otherwise.

“Does that mean you’re already aware of Livingston’s Theorem?”

Hermione sputtered at the term, “Of course I’m aware of it! Livingston is not applicable here, or anywhere, really—”

“Why not?” Malfoy sat down and she absolutely hated that he did. It was like he expected their argument to take a long time.

“Livingston was a quack! Anyone who takes Divination into account like he does obviously knows nothing worth my time.” She refused to sit. She was right and there was nothing else to discuss.

“You are aware Arithmancy and Divination are related fields, right?” he pressed.

“They were such that Arithmancy evolved to include actual facts and data, rendering Divination completely useless.” She’d concede at least that much.

The few students still remaining behind in the classroom looked warily over at them almost like they were worried the two would break into a fight. Hermione wanted to roll her eyes at their unnecessary concern. 

“Why don’t we both submit our findings and we’ll allow Vector to decide who’s correct?” Malfoy suggested.

“Professor Vector.”

He looked amused at her correction, and it was that smug twitch of his lips that sent Hermione over the edge.

“God, I hate you,” she muttered.

All traces of a smile faded from his face, replaced with a grimace that vanished nearly as quickly as it had appeared. Hermione had the distinct feeling she was looking at a mask that only pretended to be Draco Malfoy.

“You’re welcome to write whatever you want, Granger. I’ll still include my own research and we can make it clear that our opinions and findings differ. Professor Vector should appreciate the additional viewpoints even if I’m wrong,” he said stiffly.

Before Hermione could respond, he gathered his belongings and walked away.

Hermione didn’t think she owed him an apology for snapping at him as she had, but she did feel a little hollow at the way he’d just taken it. Their arguments always seemed to end that way—she’d inevitably get so wound up that she’d say something cutting, something true, and he’d just…accept.

She wanted to feel satisfaction at turning the tables on the git, but instead all she felt was a lingering sense of incompleteness. Did she want to keep punishing him? Did she resent his presence at Hogwarts? Did she regret testifying for him?

No. Her answer to all three was ‘no’.

So then why did she keep acting the way she did towards him?

“I hate him,” she repeated quietly.

As she walked towards the doorway, she paused by the bookshelf lining the wall. In a moss green cover, title glinting silver, was Walter Livingston’s Reinterpretations on Arithmancy. She stared at it, chewing her lip, mind rapidly rehashing the details of her research.

She sighed and slid the book into her bag.

WC 821

Twitter prompt from DramionePrompts

Cross posted on Tumblr and AO3

I've missed writing Dramione shorts! I've been so wrapped up in larger projects with the fests I've signed up on, that I've neglected keeping up with the snippets I like. This one doesn't have much romance, but there is a hint of something...more...if you squint hard enough :P maybe acceptance? maybe someday friendship?

[bloody-wonder]

2023 reading wrap up

sort sort sort i love to arbitrarily sort😌📚

*i decided to get even more creative this time and named the tiers after different things from the books featured on this list. see explanation below🙃 **the following series i read in full are represented only by the first book: the aurelian cycle, the radiant emperor, the winnowing flame, sorcery of thorns, monk & robot, lilywhite boys

so in 2023 my reading was heavily curated: i challenged myself to finish at least 5 series i started a long time ago, to start at least 5 new ones, to read at least 10 classics, at least 5 dark academia books, at least 10 books not in english and to re-read at least 5 books i've been meaning to re-read for some time - and i did well at all of these challenges except for the last two (missed the goal by one book in each case). it's still difficult for me to find books in languages i can read other than english which i actually want to read as well as prioritizing re-reads over new exciting books😒🤷‍♀️

but overall i would say this was a good way to organize my reading year. i like planning, i like structure, i like crossing things off different lists so completing these challenges gave me a great sense of accomplishment. but more importantly, i feel like they achieved their respective purpose: i returned to stories i fell in love with years ago and finally followed some of those journeys to their end. i discovered new fun journeys - some of them so exciting i had to finish the series immediately and some that will last me for a few more years to come. i finally feel like i trained my classics brain muscle back to its glory days and i can't express how pleasantly surprised i am to see one of those dusty tomes i read by the dozen as a teen on my top 5 again. i rediscovered my love for dark academia. i did read books in different languages and some of them ended up quite high on my tier list as well.

at the same time i had plenty of opportunities left to mood-read. boy parts, my favorite book of the year, for example wasn't a part of any challenge. the same goes for semantic error which i picked up at random during the bl manhwa revival i experienced at the end of 2023. so my top tiers ended up being a mix of different genres, the new and the old series and books, the expected and the unexpected faves.

i wasn't trying to read a certain amount of books this year but surprisingly i managed to read even more than last year (when it comes to the page count). and as for the quality, i do have a better feeling than i had in 2022 too. while i didn't manage to regain the heights of literary enjoyment from the golden era of 2019-2021, i think i'm on my way there :)

here's another curious wrap up thingy @magpiefngrl tagged me in! very representative of my reading tastes, though i must say i have only 6 unread kj charles books left and i'm starting to get concerned about what i'm going to do when i inevitably gobble them up in 2024😬

what about you guys? please tell me about your reading year! you can do a tier list (if you're a virgo) or the my year in books overview (if you regularly update your goodreads) or just write a post, if you want to. or you can also ignore me and go have a fantastic year😉🍾🎉🎆🎄

@figuringthengsout @fugitoidkry @pinkasrenzo @fandomreferencepending @counterwiddershins @magpiefngrl @sugarbabywenkexing @weirdsociology @theodoradove @doh-rae-me @venndaai @sixappleseeds @oliviermiraarmstrongs @bookish-moony

goodreads │ old yearly wrap ups 2020 2021 2022

explanation of the tier titles under the cut (if you even care)

spermaceti is a precious substance derived from the head of the sperm whale that may or may not be the whale's sperm. these are the books i absolutely loved. the vibe is that scene from moby dick where they are all on deck slicking each other with spermaceti and chanting "sperm!🙌" (that's how i remember it anyways)

toy excavator is the source of his strongest positive feelings for the main character of semantic error chu sangwoo. these are the books that i loved too but not on the spermaceti level, you know. the vibe is that scene where sangwoo realizes he's in love with jaeyoung and is like,, damn. this feels exactly like that time they gifted me a toy excavator🤔😒 (he's autistic)

skyfish is the least cool type of dragon in the aurelian cycle. the hufflepuff dragon, if you will. but it's still a dragon so these were some good books i still enjoyed😌

defekta are sentient furniture in nino cipri's sci fi novella defekt. now, in this book the concept of defekta very much serves the purpose of questioning what things we see as defective and the ethics of of how we treat them. for the purposes of this tier list however defekta are the books which range from good to great but which at the same time have some big issue that made me want to throw them at a wall. that's why the radiant emperor is ranked twice lol it has to be on my top 5 bc i'm obsessed but also ragsghhjdsgjhjbbdsd

kerinne is a made up drink the characters of mca hogarth's cozy sci fi series the dreamhealers like to drink. in 2023 i found out that i am not immune to cozy sff but one genre-specific thing i will forever remain indifferent towards is foods & beverages - i don't care about them too much irl so when they're fictional i care even less. these are the books that were just whatever🤷‍♀️

holism is art's annoying coworker we're introduced to in system collapse. a totally overrated guy, just like these books🙄

green varnish is a resin-like substance a certain type of creature in the winnowing flame excretes after consuming everything it finds in its path so that entire towns together with their residents get entombed under it forever. it's also transparent so the areas attacked by these creatures basically turn into see-through graveyards brrrr. these were The Worst books i read in 2023😬

[its-all-papaya]

🫧 (sheets and towels lol)

I was wondering how you usually go about outlining? I’ve always been so terrible at it so if you had any advice or even just explaining the process a bit that would be lovely.

YAY ALL MY LOADS OF LAUNDRY ARE AT LEAST STARTED TYYYY

assign me a chore!!

i'm actually probably a bad person to ask about this because i'm usually kind of awful at "outlining" fics in any definite way. however.... i do kind of have a process, it's just not usually a formal outline.

my USUAL process is to kind of just dump every thought i have related to a fic in a bullet point list that gets added to and subtracted from as the fic develops. if i have pm's with a mutual that inspired a fic, i'll copy paste those into the list to start. if i have ideas for scenes, i'll add those to the list. if there are irl quotes or events that are relevant, those also go in the list. from there, i'll kind of rearrange things in the order that makes sense (either chronologically or by "type" of thing - i.e. for the hollow hereafter, i had a section of quotes with sub-bullets that were just transcripts from each segment of media, then i had a section of "vibes" that were like "lando just wants it all to end, can't imagine ever feeling right again after how dramatically everything inside of him has shifted", etc). once they're in an order that makes my brain feel good, i put them below a page break and start typing actual sentences at the top of the fic in a blank page. then as i'm typing a fic, if i have thoughts about things i want to do down the line NOT in the scene i'm currently typing, i'll add those to the list too as not to disrupt the actual "proper" text i'm building. once i use a thought off the list, it gets deleted so i can see what's left in the bank more clearly. basically everything that is ACTUAL COPY I INTEND ON PUBLISHING gets written from the top of the doc down, then every stray thought i want to preserve gets added onto the bottom of the doc until i use it. there are usually like sections and sub-bullets on that list to keep things semi-organized.

when i DO outline more formally, such as dad lando, it's honestly kind of stream of consciousness. i started with rough, one-line summaries of what i thought each chapter might be (i.e. one was "first meeting", two was "start texting" etc etc until we get to "epilogue"). then i filled in in sub-bullets what i wanted to include in each chapter. some, such as "oscar meets emma" are like SUPER SUPER vague rn. like three sentences. some, such as "lando goes golfing with max" had really clear inspo in my head and are like two pages of rambling. because i felt strongly about how i wanted it to go, i just started typing in half-coherent sentences (honestly how i answer asks here sometimes? this is a good example of the flow i'm talking about). however, half of that extremely rushed, just-trying-to-get-it-down-on-paper musing about this golf outing is probably word-for-word going to end up in the fic because i just let my brain work. and that's how it works a lot of the time for me. i start typing thinking it's just going to be the gist of plot points, and it ends up prose i really, really like because i'm letting my brain work freely.

my MAIN advice for outlining based on my own learning curve:

write down LITERALLY every thought you have related to a fic. whether it's half a sentence, a guiding vibe, a real event that inspires you in ways related to the fic... literally anything. you obviously don't have to use it all, but sometimes those stray thoughts help re-center me when i get kind of lost in the sauce of a fic. when i'm stuck, i just scroll the list and see if anything sticks out to me to use or draw from to get me out of the block.

don't FORCE yourself to outline every moment or plot point. like i said, some of my dad lando chapters are really thoroughly outlined, some are suuuper vague. i didn't force myself to try and plan out any of chapter three bc i wasn't feeling particularly strongly about how i wanted it to go, and it just worked itself out in time as i typed instead. i've outlined what i've figured out, and i'm going with the flow with the rest. the outline mainly motivates me and reminds me what i'm building towards, ultimately, instead of dictating every little thing i want to include. i'm never afraid to say "and then ????? but they end up kissing" and revisit once the vibes have built around a moment.

may seem obvious, but outlines are not final. i've pushed sooooo much shit i meant to include in chapters one and two of dad lando to chapter four bc it didn't hit right when i thought it would. my outline for thh was like six times as long as the actual fic bc i cut out so much stuff i thought i wanted to use. outlines are literally just to keep track of thoughts, imo, and like i said, to guide you. doesn't have to be fully formed to be useful.

hope that was helpful!!! a lot of this is very very similar to how i used to process my research papers in college, so i've had upwards of like eight years now to refine my process and find what works for my brain specifically. so i guess last tip is just try different things and use what works and throw out what doesn't in terms of methodology. everybody's different!

love u good luck writing feel free to ask more about any of this if you'd like 🫶

[lumiidragon]

Do you have any tips for designing HTTYD OCs (dragons specifically)? I know it sounds like a vague question, but really any advice will work! Tysm!

Welp, when I'm designing, your dragon species of choice is obvious, haha~

Ok, so I can use an example!

My favorite gal, Roughwave (a lot of the other Fury Family cast I have are offspring, so I'm using a pre-determined base for those usually. Roughwave was one of the first ones I designed, so she was from scratch.). So for this example, I chose a night light!

When I design my dragons, I like to have a rough idea of what I wanna go for, even if it's not what I actually end up going for in the end.

I knew my theme for Roughwave was a "Skull Head" theme. Since she was going to be a night light, I wanted to keep a "canon" look to her. Pretty much, this translates to "I wanna design her in a way where she looks like she could actually be from the series and not an 'out there' OC". So I didn't want unrealistic features that night lights wouldn't have (horns, fur, other odd traits), but I still wanted her to stand out from being a Dart, Ruffrunner, and Pouncer copy.

Since the canon night lights are basically re-colors of night furies (no hate to them, of course!), I had the idea of giving Roughwave and her siblings, not only different styled markings, but different traits that light/night fury hybrids could have! With her, I chose to keep the same number of ear nubs, but remove the top set. I also had her have light fury-shaped dorsal fin and wings and add the night fury tail fins for both the tip and the base of the tail. Pretty much, I took light and night fury trails and pieced them together how I liked to give her more variety of her canon counterparts, but still have her stand out.

With the 'Skull Theme' I mentioned earlier, I decided to utilize this in her facial markings. I thought that making the entire dragon have skeleton-like markings would come off as a bit 'unnatural'-looking, so I simplified the design while still giving her the aesthetic. To do this, I chose to have black spots around her eyes and eight spots lining her lips to represent "skull teeth". Roughwave was also to be a 4th generation descendent of Toothless and the Light Fury (Luna), so I wanted to keep in mind that 3 generations of light fury genetics were added to her bloodline (Luna, Opal, and Shoal.) So I had her come off as more light fury-like with her traits and I wanted her markings to show that too. I opted for her to be mostly white to show that the black coloration was being bred out. I gave her a black throat trait to break up the white of her head with the white of her body to separate the two parts more and give her head the final piece it needed for that 'skull look'. I took the black down her dorsal fin to make her design a bit more streamline and to draw the eye down the entire dragon. Lastly, I added her shoulder spots and wing tip markings to give her a bit more individuality without going overboard.

With her, Flower, and Scamper, I wanted to keep their designs fairly simple, but still fun and something that would hopefully stand out from other OCs (not every oc has to be overly complicated and simple is better sometimes!).

So in the end, I really hope explaining Roughwave's designing process helped in some way??? But basically:

Think of what kind of dragon you're wanting to make.

Do you want your OC to look like it actually came from the media or do you want more artistic creativity (no answer is wrong, but there are no purple or rainbow night furies, so if you're wanting a more authentic-look, try keeping in mind what would be realistic for that species! Otherwise, go crazy~)

Think of a 'theme' for your oc before you start. Do you want a certain color theme? An aesthetic theme? Another type of theme? What are you going for with your dragon?

Play with the design. Feel free to use a free-use base for the species you're drawing for or make your own dragon base and try making a few variations of your OC if you think that might help. With every time you design the oc, take the traits you really like for it and use those in the next design variant until you eventually have something you like. I'll do this sometimes if I can't settle on a final.

Lastly, have fun with the process. OC designing is one of the most fun parts of having dragon OCs. I love designing OCs, which is why I have so many, haha~

[literaticat]

hi jenn! i'm spiraling a bit, because my book includes a myth from my culture that has already been written about in a popular novel in the same age range. it's a completely different book though--setting wise, plot, themes etc. it isn't even a full "retelling" of the myth. i've so far in querying had a decent request rate but now scared the fact that it's the same myth will make an agent not want it? scared too bc it's a non-white myth that i'll be even more tokenized?

You say your book is very different from this other book aside from the fact that the same myth has something to do with it, and I don't really see the problem. If people are familiar with the original myth, or they read that other book and loved it, maybe they will WANT to explore the idea of that myth in a different way. If people don't know the myth or haven't read that book, maybe your book is their introduction to the story, and they will love it, and look, you just introduced new people to a cool mythos!

I'm not saying that it's impossible that an agent would turn it down because of this other book -- I guess it's possible if they are like "eh I didn't really like that other book, meh" or "eh, that book already exists, I don't wanna compete with that" and lump the two of you together. But then that's their short-sightedness, and they are not the right agent for you anyway.

After all, there are several authors all doing "Literary Versions of Greek Myths" as we speak, and that's not only NOT a problem, in fact, the success of Circe and Song of Achilles has made room for all these other books. There are nine bajillion re-imaginings / re-tellings / based-on-lightly / alluded-to-if-you-know-what-you-are-looking-for versions of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast and Pride and Prejudice, etc. Off the top of my head I can think of a dozen examples of each that have been published over the years, and there's no sign that books with those themes will ever STOP being published -- because actually, even though the long-ago source material or the general characters or plot or WHATEVER are familiar to readers, readers LIKE them. Plus, these books are totally different from one another, and that's never been a problem - so this shouldn't be, either!

[charcuteriecrab]

For the fruit emoji ask game (preferably I'd ask all of them but here are two):

🍑 &🍍?

Hehehehe thanks for asking @alicethepiper!!

🍑 If you could make a connection between your favorite character and another work you care about (whether a crossover/fusion or a wonderfully “pretentious” literary reference) what would it be? How would it work?

ooooo. hmmm that's an interesting one. I always think its interesting to bring the "zombie-ness" of resident evil to other media. I've dabbled in the idea of connecting the COD universe to Resident Evil but I haven't put too much thought into it. I tend to stay away from crossovers haha (but other people doing them is cool as hell if they can pull it off).

🍍 What kind of AUs do you like? Are there any AUs you hate or just generally have beef with?

I usually don't have a problem with any AU unless it is specifically to like, fetishize something?? i don't have any examples off the top of my head but there have been occasions where i get uncomfortable (but that's when i just ignore it and move on with my day). I don't really hate per se but if there's something I don't like, i usually don't say anything.

Some AUs for RE that I adore include anything that puts Chris in RE2, those are always fun, and I mean I have my own RE 5 au and "no zombies" au that are really fun to write. Honestly, most of the time, AUs are super cool and I like them <3

ask game