#I don’t feel like myself. in a completely unironic way

[cherrysnax]

wahwahwah

[certifiedsexed]

hi there! this isn’t about sex itself, but since periods are usually a part of sex ed and i’ve literally just been woken up because the cramps were bad enough, i thought i would ask — is it normal to be in a lot of pain when you’re on your period?

context: i still live with my abusive parents, who don’t let me take any kind of pain medication after a suicide attempt at thirteen, so i know that this problem might just be that i need to take a strong painkiller. also the pain doesn’t ever last more than three days? like the first three days (and sometimes the days leading up to it) of my period are always hell but then it’s fine, i have no pain afterwards.

but the problem is that the pain is… bad. like being woken up in the middle of the night because my sides hurt and my legs hurt isn’t uncommon, and there’s this weird thing where i’m scared to use the toilet during these first three days because it makes my butt and my sides hurt so much that i genuinely can’t move and have to bite myself to stop myself from screaming. sometimes i’ll be in so much pain, usually in my sides but also sometimes in my stomach or legs or my butt, that i can’t even move, so i just kind of… have to lie pressed into my bed and hold my breath.

my mother has always just told me that she had worse pain when she still used to get her period, and that i’d be completely fine if i just listened to her and used a hot water bottle (i have poor circulation, so hot/cold stuff just doesn’t really feel great for me usually), and i’ve always just kind of accepted that. i know it’s common for people who get periods to talk about how painful things like cramps are, but i genuinely usually feel so miserable for the first couple days of my period that if i don’t need to get out my bed, i literally won’t at all.

i’m just wondering… is everyone who gets periods in as much pain as i usually am, at least for the first couple days? or, since i know that people experience periods differently, are people in more/less pain than i am but it’s fine since this isn’t that bad and i should just take medication each month for it? idk, but ever since i started to get periods they’ve genuinely always made me feel so so bleak and in agony, and i’m someone i’d consider who has a maybe above ‘average’ pain tolerance (i have chronic back pain, migraines, and health issues that make it easy for me to sprain/fracture my ankles which i’ve unironically managed to do about eight times in the past two years — again, unfortunately all of this with mostly no painkillers unless i can get them from the school first aid box), so i just… don’t know anymore, but i thought it couldn’t hurt to ask.

anyways, unrelated but i really do love this blog — the reblogs are always good things to read as someone who’s still unpacking being raised by very puritanical parents, and the asks always offer good advice too, very empathetically in a way that sometimes catches me off guard (there was one post on here that was something about how the asker’s father would belittle them and i think your reply said something like ‘it’s not your fault and nothing’s wrong with that aspect of you’… which i know sounds obvious but that was something that i don’t think had ever been obvious to me ever since my father started doing the same when i was younger. it was really comforting to hear, is what i mean, and your replies often are. so thank you for that! and for the time + energy i can imagine it takes to run this, you post/rb so often!)

Hi! This is absolutely a sex ed question, you're right!

So, first, let me make one thing clear: no! You are not supposed to be in this level of pain on your period. Some pain is understandable but once it gets to the point it's bad/debilitating in Any fashion, something is going wrong.

But I also want to say, being in an abusive living situation can fuck up your periods. And so can being restricted from pain relief, which-just in case you're not aware-is another type of abuse.

But what you're talking about sounds like more than just a lack of basic pain relief. That's very disabling, even if it doesn't last long. It may be that intense reactions to periods run in your family [especially since your mother mentioned experiencing something similar] but that's still something you should be getting something like specialized pain meds for or even stopping your periods altogether.

What you're talking about, especially on top of an abusive living situation, is very unhealthy for you to have to deal with.

Not everyone is in that much pain. Some people are but that's a medical condition. It's a disability! What you're talking about is a disability. It can be caused by PMS or endometriosis or PMDD or it could even be connected to whatever causes your other chronic pain but it's still very much something your parents should be getting you checked out for.

Even if your mother had the exact same pain on her period, that doesn't mean you should have to suffer through it, especially not with her revoking your access to basic pain relief. That's all completely unacceptable and I'm sorry you're having to deal with this.

I'm not sure how helpful this is but I hope it's at least good to know the pain levels you're dealing with are unacceptable and Not "normal" period pain.

Also I'm so glad you're learning and enjoying the blog, especially the advice. I also grew up in an abusive household so to hear it's helping someone else in a similar situation means the world to me, fr. 💕 Sending love, Anon. <3

[ghost-bxrd]

Hello friend! You can call me Emmi!!:> i was wondering how the coa would react to Jason dying?? Like a continuation of the 'how would the coa react to jason?' post

Hi!

Sheesh oh-oh, dang. So in a previous post we went with “Cobb managed to save Jason in time”, for this one we’ll go with—- he didn’t.

thing is: Jason is unironically Cobb’s favorite child (he will claim to his ultimate dying breath that he hates every single Wayne family member, but they’re onto him. Also it’s a bit ironic for him to keep saying that when Dick and Jason walked in on him and Bruce making out on several occasions)

Cobb still follows Jason to Ethiopia eventually, but he ends up being too late to save him. He… does not handle being too late very well

Cobb literally just calls Bruce to inform him that Jason is dead and he is now going to turn the boy into a Talon (imagine it to be a sort of “I am apathetic to everything going on around me and don’t care that I’m holding my dead child in my arms right now because if I allow myself to feel anything I’m going to lose it completely”)

Bruce just sort of— blue screens. For a horrible moment he thinks Will is only joking. But when he realizes— he almost allows Cobb to take Jay to the Court laboratories. Almost. But thing is… Bruce could never do this to Jason. Never. So in the end he has to assert his status as Voice over Cobb.. because that’s the only way the Talon will stand down. And even then he refuses to show an ounce of emotion. Even when Bruce moves in so, so carefully to pluck Jason from his arms.

Bruce shuts himself in his study for days on end until someone cares to inform Dick and he almost breaks down the door because— that can’t be right. That can’t be right. Will would never allow Jason to die. Jason can’t be dead.

Cobb does not wait for permission to hunt Joker down. From one second to the next, the Talon is gone. And when he comes back it’s to throw Joker’s severed head at Bruce’s feet.

Dick rages at Bruce for not allowing Will to use the Electrum on Jason to bring him back. But Bruce cannot be budged. (He wants to, god does he want to. But he knows that Jason doesn’t.)

Bruce’s grief turns into a dark sort of determination rather quickly. Criminals and rogues are dealt with swiftly and brutally. He’s slipping into the more traditional style of the Court, and he’s doing it so well and so efficiently it scares even the rest of the Court members.

The Court of Owls knows their heart is gone when their Talon goes back to being apathetic and cold, when the Gray Son starts back on putting offenders in graves, and their Voice does not protest the creation of new talons as vehemently as he once did.

It’s a dark period for Gotham City. The GCPD find more brutally murdered people than they have during the last two years combined. And even some of the JL members go to investigate… but are quickly driven back out thanks to Bruce’s numerous contingencies. (You cannot tell me he doesn’t still keep files on everyone and how to most efficiently defeat them)

Drug dealers are being allowed to take a foothold in Gotham again just to provide Cobb and Dick the pleasure of tracking them down and destroying them

Civilian casualties become a less rare occurrence in these days

So… yeah. Just total pandemonium for a while. Some stupider members of the Court consider overthrowing Bruce… but those are quickly dealt with by a ferocious Talon. Whoops.

[eddiediazismyhusband]

The thing is while I want buddie canon until it’s actually happening on screen I’m not believing it will actually happen. I’ve felt that disappoint before and while I’ll enjoy the content surrounding it until we actually get season 8 I’m not getting my hopes up.

my thing is i’ll enjoy non-spec fandom content but as far as spec or bts stuff so far i’ve seen nothing to make me feel confident so i’m staying away from season 8 until we get some sort of actual evidence of the show moving in a positive direction and not further retconning and committing character death after 7b

ive made my feelings for tim known; some people wanna blow sunshine up his ass still but i’m not going to speak positively about that man until he actually shows us he’s taking time and care with these characters ive seen as comfort characters for 7 years. to me he has only proven that he cares about melodrama and media buzz and doesn’t actually have any intentions to tell a meaningful story, so i’m not going to lie to myself and say “oh this is definitely the way the story is going” bc we’ve been here before where we all thought “it would make no sense for them not to do buddie!” just for the rug to be ripped out from under us bc they know that we will keep foaming at the mouth for bait and that we’ll never actually quit falling for the bait they set us up w because a lot of the fandom chose to be gullible (and i don’t mean optimistic fans, but there are some people out there who are legit capital-G Gullible and will make completely unironic deep dives into things that is like- when have these writers made you think they would ever put that much effort into it?)

[squish36-writes-and-draws]

3 November: Unraveling

Hello everybody and welcome to Keefe wandering around in the forbidden cities, delivered to you each day dracula daily style! Yes the plot is inspired by the crane wives song that I then borrowed for the title. Anyway I'm not done writing this yet and school might make that an issue but I do have a buffer of about a week and a vague plan for where the story will go if keefe allows it so here's hoping for the best.

Word count: 674

General Taglist (lmk if you want to be added/removed!): @stellar-lune @faggot-friday @kamikothe1and0nly @nyxpixels @florida-preposterously @poppinspop @uni-seahorse-572 @solreefs @corruption-exe @rusted-phone-calls @when-wax-wings-melt @good-old-fashioned-lover-boy7 @dexter-dizzknees @abubble125 @hi-imgrapes @callum-hunt-is-bisexual @callas-pancake-tree @hi-my-name-is-awesome @katniss-elizabeth-chase @sillyguy-supreme @void-kill @thefoxysnake

Unraveling Project Specific Taglist (lmk if you want to be added/removed/upgraded): @cutebisexualmess @crippling-pages @daizythegreat @sophiefostersno1stan @iggydancebreak @theleopardstalker @you-will-meet-your-downfall @multi-fandom-lunatic

TW: threats of physical violence against Cassius, mild Keefe angst over his new abilities

On Ao3 or below the cut!

Next

I once loved a tailor who took eager care of me Sewed together my loose ends with stitches neat and clean But now my love is gone And I am left unraveling Unraveling

Keefe Sencen's Journal

First day in the Forbidden Cities. No, not even that much. First half a day in the Forbidden cities. Four hours and counting. I still have ink stained on the side of my hand from the letter I left Foster Sophie. I’ve spent most of the day writing and rewriting phrases in my head, wishing I could go back and change things. Change everything. Not embrace the change and all that, but I guess that’s too much to ask now. Exile, I’d go back to before I was summoned into existence like the little science project I am and kick Cassius in the nuts if I were given the chance. Although then I don’t know how I would have existed to do that, but that’s beside the point. I’d figure out a way. Well, to be completely fair, I’d tell Dex to go figure it out but I’d trust him implicitly, which is basically the same thing. It’s a shame I fucked over his entire family before I left. I know I should try to tell myself that it’s just a matter of time, that Rex was always going to be talentless, but now Dex gets to lie to everybody about what could be one of the biggest aspects of Lex’s life. Ah, elvin culture. Such a fair and just system with no flaws whatsoever. Whatever Gisela’s plans are with me, I doubt that particular bombshell was one of them, but it’s something I’ll never forgive her or myself for. I can’t let her promote me from a pawn to a rook, although that's probably already happened. Maybe I’m supposed to be a knight stuck in a 3x3 board, but I’ve found another dimension. I’ve found a way to escape this game. 

Stars, look at this nerd using a chess metaphor unironically. I don’t know if that or the fact that I feel the need to justify myself to a piece of paper is worse. I just know I played (read: lost) a game of chess in some park today, and it was a surprisingly entertaining ten minutes of my life. It’s not like I had anything better to do. Or have anything better to do tomorrow. Or ever. It’s equal parts liberating and daunting that this could be the rest of my existence for thousands of years, or at least as long as the human authorities don’t figure out that I’m here. 

New life goal acquired: be the cranky old man in the park, a menace to society on a microcosmic scale. Just ever so slightly a burden to everyone’s existence. It’s not like I can do a whole lot to contribute to society with my lack of any valid identification or access to a birth fund. You can add that to the list of things I should have asked Dex about before I left, but no, I didn’t think through anything. I’m incapable of making rational decisions. Whatever. It’s still for the best. I’ll figure it out. 

And now I’m here, rambling my thoughts into a diary, of all things. I guess I don’t know why I felt the need to bring a notebook with me from the Forbidden Cities, let alone document my experiences, but it feels…surprisingly unfeeling. Not in the numb way I know is ever approaching on my horizon—I can feel the humans walking down the street blocks away without even trying—but right now, I’m in that perfect sweet spot of just using enough brain power to keep me from going off on three tangents simultaneously but not so much that I actually have to try, because there isn’t a faster way to get me to stop doing something than to make it require effort. I am nothing if not obscenely stubborn when it comes to being minimally productive, even if these last few hundred words are a testament to the opposite phenomenon.

I’m going to give this three days, max before I completely give up on this endeavour. Until then, I shall see thee to-morrow.

[greetings-inferiors]

Here is my my journey to realising I’m demiromantic asexual, and it does go into some sexual stuff, so if you don’t want to read it… don’t read it.

I never “forced” myself to have a crush, but I did think “oh this is how everyone feels”

Like in year 6 for the school disco everyone was asking people out and my friends were saying how they had to get a date soon and I was already pretty friendly with the girls and also could see that the “dates” were pretty pointless/meaningless so I just asked out one of the girls I liked (in a platonic way) and when it came to the actual dance we, like everyone else, basically instantly did our own thing.

In high school, year 9 I think, I was really good friends with this one girl, who said she had a crush on me, and I had the thing where I wanted to be closer friends with her and thought “oh so this is what a crush is!” So “went out” with her, but basically nothing changed, so I didn’t really think about it much. But eventually it got pretty bad as she was thinking about it as a relationship and I was thinking about it as “just friends”. I think that was the first time I realised that SOMETHING about me was different, and I think a year later I learnt about asexuality & aromanticism and had that “ohhhhhhhh” moment.

Then after that, in year 11, I got REEEEALLY close to someone, to the point where we literally made out and I was like “it should be normal for friends to kiss that was great”. But after a good few weeks of being intensely close I actually did start to fall in love. They were a pretty sexual person and I started to imagine me… “pleasuring” them, and that was when I thought “maybe I’m not aroace?”, anyway we entered a relationship, it was lovely, but as our relationship became more sexual it became clear that we were different.

This is where it starts to get maybe a bit TMI so if you don’t want to read anything sexual leave now

I would only ever pleasure them, and I never really gave any thought to receiving anything back. But then one day they asked if they could and I was like “sure” and I just… didn’t feel anything? Like I’ve masturbated before it’s not like I’m completely numb or anything but when it was this person that I loved with all my heart and who I had literally just fingered touching me I just didn’t feel anything? Like of course I could feel them but like it wasn’t pleasure or anything it was literally the same sensation as if they had touched my arm or something. Afterwards I said that I’d just prefer to be the one giving and not receive, but if they wanted to give that’d be fine. Like I didn’t HATE it, it was quite fun, the person I love was trying to make me feel good y’know it felt nice, but purely emotionally. Physically it just didn’t feel like anything.

Over time they got “better”, I’d actually feel good instead of literally nothing, but still not enough to actually enjoy or want to do it, and I still only ever did it when they wanted to. A few times they have head and it was alright, but once again it was just kind of… meh. As I said they were a very sexual person, so they didn’t just want to receive but to give too. But the way they said that was that they “felt bad about not doing anything” to which I responded that I didn’t mind at all, I only wanted to make them feel good, so I thought it was fine and they would just appreciate being a “pillow princess” as they put it LOL.

But I do understand WHY they would feel bad, or why they weren’t fulfilled sexually. Because yes, I didn’t care for receiving anything sexual, but I LOVED giving. Genuinely, it was almost addictive. Making the love of your life feel so good was insane. Being able to watch their mind go blank from the pleasure was so much fun. Also it’s really interesting because they had different genitals from me and it was unironically fascinating just looking around and seeing what everything does. One time I was eating them out but stopped because I was curious about the hood of the clitoris, and they got really annoyed at me lol. 10/10, would recommend if you have a partner. I never tried penetration though, so I can’t comment on “actual” sex.

Anyway yeah, if I have a partner in future the ideal would be someone who doesn’t want or doesn’t care to give me any pleasure sexually.

Nowadays I believe I’m Demiromantic Asexual. I very clearly am capable of being romantically attracted to someone, but after being single for a year and even having a squish, I’m confident that I need an intense platonic bond before falling in love. In terms of sexuality, I was in a very sexual relationship with someone who I think is objectively attractive and still thought “eh” when it came to sex so I’m pretty sure I’m asexual, just sex positive/neutral (can’t remember the difference). Maybe one day I’ll go “awooga” and actually be sexually attracted to someone but who knows. For now the label works for me.

[nonsensefromtheabyss]

I wanted to ask you, do you have any writing tips? I love the way you write descriptions. Do you write them however it feels right or do you take inspiration?

Omg!!! Describing is my favourite <3 I can’t promise to be helpful because, for all I love writing, I’ve never really worked out a formal structure for how to do it; I just have at it and have fun! … Actually, that’s the only tip I can offer with full confidence; have fun, don’t be nervous to experiment with styles, prioritise enjoyment over perfection. I’ll say some other stuff as well because I’m incapable of shutting up, but that’s the takeaway I’d like anyone to have.

I'm very good at visualising things, so I like to just mentally sit in an environment or run through a scene as many times as it takes to get familiar with what I 'see', and then go from there. Sometimes I write a setting or scene multiple times. Then, I either choose the version I like the best or edit the good bits together into a final copy. If I do the latter, it does mean I have to be careful to avoid repeating things, cutting important things out, the scene feeling completely incoherent and disjointed, etc, but that’s just a matter of proofreading. Both methods take away the imagined pressure of having to get it ‘right’ first try, which is something I struggle with.

Unless I'm looking to be absolutely accurate for some reason, I tend not to worry too much about precisely what a place would actually be like—beyond broad strokes I'm more interested in conveying something thematic or atmospheric. Big fan of metaphors! And juxtapositions! And similes! And anything that lets me skirt around the difficult bits of language. One thing I really enjoy doing is using two unrelated concepts to describe a very specific idea; those either come to me in the moment and are perfect or I spend forever trying to decide what’s most apt, no in between, I’ve either got it or I ain’t. “Diz drove the way a man having a seizure paints—badly.” That’s one I distinctly remember being fond of.

Sometimes, if I’m stuck on how to convey a vibe in a section, I read a few passages from a book which has the tone I’m looking to embody. Some of my more ornate descriptions are inspired by Edgar Allen Poe, for example. The works of Frances Hardinge are a big reason for my love of weird metaphors. Hell, some of the more colloquial bits of prose are literally just how I speak when I’m doing a bit. I wanted the section to be mildly amusing and just… did it as a bit. Did it work, you maybe ask? Well, I amused myself, so it counts for something!

I think, technique-wise, I might advise writing dialogue separately (I tend to do it first) and then work on other things; otherwise I feel like I lose my flow. I do dialogue and tone markers, positioning and action, then description around it where it's needed and where it fits. But I don't know if that's a universally good method or if it's just what works for me; I know some people who can write it all out at once in one go—never got it down myself.

The best writing advice I’ve been given is to avoid deleting things! Maybe something didn't fit in the project you initially wrote it for; it might be absolutely perfect for something else later. Or it might not; keep it anyway, and you get to see how far you’ve come. I have whole documents like that. And notebooks full of concepts and half-sentences—unironically, those are the best for flicking through if I’m feeling uninspired. No commitment to any one concept! No pressure to be meaningful! Just vague musings about pigeons! Miscellaneous pigeons always turn out more useful than initially expected.

[cavetreasures]

I decided to watch The Suicide Squad yesterday because I suddenly remembered that it existed. I didn’t like the 2016 version, which is why it took me so long to get around to the second one. However, I thought I should give it a try because of James Gunn (I LOVE Guardians of the Galaxy).

I started it without any expectations, but as the story progressed, I found myself getting more and more into it. About halfway through, there’s a scene that I can’t stop thinking about, and I just have to talk about it.

At one point in the movie, Harley Quinn gets separated from the squad. They have a very important mission to execute, but they put it on hold to rescue her first.

So, we see her as a prisoner, being tortured for information. She keeps singing about how no one cares about her, how she’s all alone, and then she seizes an opportunity to free herself and escape. Of course, she’s a badass, so she kills everyone in her way with ease in a sequence of gorgeously choreographed scenes. She steps outside, catches a cab, and is ready to get away when she notices some of the guys from the squad running in the distance.

We switch to them, and while they’re getting ready to execute the rescue plan, she appears out of nowhere and is like, “What’s up? What are you guys doing here?”

Now, here’s the thing that left an impression on me—her reaction.

SHE IS SO TOUCHED! She’s emotional and grateful, eager to hug them. She’s so excited and enthusiastic that she’s ready to go back to being a prisoner just so they can continue rescuing her. And she’s completely unironic about it—I loved it.

They made Harley Quinn powerful and got her to rescue herself, but they still wrote her as a human being who cares and is vulnerable. Yes, she didn’t need to be rescued, but that didn’t matter! Their intentions mattered, because we all want to feel like we’re not alone, like someone has our back, like someone cares about us. It doesn’t make us weak. It doesn’t mean we’d be unable to do things on our own.

It was such a relief not to see her mock them and say something like, “Oh, you shouldn’t have bothered,” or “Did you think I couldn’t do it myself?” and get insulted because they underestimated her abilities. That’s not how a strong character behaves. That’s the reaction of a jerk (or someone who is highly insecure), but somehow I expected it to happen, and the fact that they subverted my expectations here left a deep impression on me.

There are so many “strong female characters” in media that just don’t work for me. They’re often just a collection of traits with no human essence. Some of these characters feel like they were written by people who don’t understand how human emotions work. They’re meant to be strong women, but they feel like weird, hollow creatures whose only real purpose is to show off. They represent something you can never be—and don’t really want to be—because they’re empty. They make you feel nothing.

I haven’t finished the movie yet because my partner had to leave, and we agreed to watch it together, but I can’t wait to finish it. No matter how it ends, I think it was worth watching just for that scene only.

[ginaluvr]

thoughts after my first gone reread in years

as someone now in my twenties i’ve decided to revisit the series that changed my brain chemistry as a nine year old and will be doing book-by-book thoughts. i think the first book is pretty surface level so these are more just opinions than deep observations. let’s begin :)

firstly obvious one but fourteen is… sooo young. like these are babies.

when i was a kid i didn’t like astrid, i think i had this weird aversion to her being religious and optimistic and trying to make logic from everything. but it was so easy for me to empathise with her this time around. that’s really just her way of making sense of a crazy situation

mary is such a tragic and wonderful character. she doesn’t know how to truly take care of herself so she takes care of everyone else. my heart always breaks for her

the dialogue is so cringey in the first book and it’s funny because you can absolutely tell this was written for middle schoolers. whereas the later books… definitely pivot away from that demographic

i love diana i just love love love her. she’s also tragic by circumstance, allying herself with bad people to survive because she never believes she can be good enough to deserve community with good people. she deserved so much better

it’s kind of funny in retrospect that caine & co couldn’t even pretend to be good guys for a full week

why was howard kind of in love with orc a bit

the nicknames in this series are so funny, wdym there are people unironically calling themselves panda, mallet, orc, bug, computer jack,

i don’t really get what the entity was that was trying to tempt them to leave the FAYZ. i assume it’s mean to be the darkness, but wouldn’t the darkness want them to stay?

it’s such a cool easter egg i’ve never noticed before that lana’s recurring childhood nightmare is the darkness. it’s been with her all her life, they were bound to cross paths

on that note, lana is also the best. i love complicated teenage girls. she’s so cool

still every time i reread i find myself wishing someone had just offed drake at the earliest possible opportunity

dekka’s powers are so awesome. i know she hardly materializes in this book but she later becomes my favorite so i just have to mention her

astrid and sam really are very sweet (at least in this book) i’m sorry that my dislike for astrid as a kid stopped me from seeing that before

it’s enjoyable to me that in the sad circumstances of diana feeling completely tied to caine she can still embarrass him just by being so much cooler than he is, good for her

thoughts on hunger will follow soon :)

[portal--stuck]

If I go full crossover I think it would be in the Alpha timeline (There are two timelines depending on if they play the Alpha or Beta version of the game Sburb/Sgrub) this is because I think it would be interesting to see the Portal characters interact with the Alpha kids for those that haven’t read Homestuck the Alpha kids are as follow (Images of the kids and Pesterlog quotes will be included so you can get a feel for them): Roxy Lalonde (My girl I love her so much also a majority of this will be gained from the introduction pages except for Lil Hal because I don’t think he has one the reason I am doing this is because I don’t trust myself to describe everyone in a legible way): I would set it sometime before or during her getting over her alcoholic tendencies, she loves wizards, retro gaming, doing fenestrology (which fenestration is the design and disposition of exterior openings of a building however fenestrology isn’t a word as far as I can tell), ectobiology, cats and mutant cats she creates (she preserves specimens from her experiments and a large majority are feline) like Vodka Mutini, she’s good at hacking she blew up Jane’s computer trying to stop her from getting them to play the game which obviously didn’t stop them but, as she says about her hacking skills “Your coding cred is totes ridic, basically making you the HOTTEST SHIT HAXXOR BITCH YOU EVER KNEW, as deadaly* to the grid ass* she is beatuiful*”, and she is the one that seems to have really held everyone together as when there was friendship drama going on people would go through her. TG: well shit jane TG: what am i even supposed to do TG: i cant hit on anybody and appaprently i can entertain nary a frisky THOUGHT about anyboby because apparentley evrybodies OFF LIMITS!!!!! TG: *buncha goddamn typos TG: shit suuucks

Dirk Strider (He’d likely have the most fun with this happening): He loves puppets, he attempts to remain aloof, otherwise he enjoys sequential arts, building robots, setting them to kill mode, and sparring or if he doesn’t feel like a physical fight he will do rap battles with them, he likes horses in general and also unironically likes the My Little Pony character Rainbow Dash, and he is into alpha timeline Dave’s version of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff (Not sure how he feels about normal/beta timeline Dave’s version). He also really dislikes himself he’s tried (and succeeded) in beheading himself multiple times but, there are always ways to bring him back he may also just enjoy beheadings as he’s beheaded others as well.

TT: I guess. TT: It just registers for me as a reaction which isn't completely unreasonable from her perspective. TT: She is inundated with media coverage of those whom we've claimed as our parental figures. TT: That they are not presently alive nor ever played that role for us as she understands it is just an extension of a much more elaborate and far reaching explanation, which is much harder for anyone to digest in its entirety. TT: Well, anyone who isn't Jake, I mean. TT: Still say you should cut her some slack.

Jake English (My other favourite Alpha kid): He enjoys ALL movies he doesn’t discriminate between good and bad, comics, skulls, fisticuff (basically hand to hand combat), firearms, desecrating (treat with violent disrespect) ruins and defiling tombs, and hunting. He does not like to contemplate frightening fauna due to it’s realness attribute as he lives alone on a giant island with giant creatures to match that may or may not try to kill him. He is self-centered (unintentionally mind you), pretty socially clueless, and he’s not very assertive. Also to kind of go with Portalstuck there’s Wheatley’s whole thing when talking about Chell having brain damage it is theorized Jake may have a bit of brain damage to quote the webcomic “These aren't the kind of things that usually occur to you though, especially after several blows to the head. You continue staring vacantly at the dancing fruit, while that kind of thing keeps not occurring to you.” And Caliborn’s description of him “uu: AND THE BRAIN DAMAGED JACKASS IN SHORTS.” This could be why when Aranea tried to heal him she didn’t get anything obviously physical and touched his head. (She healed Terezi’s blindness using her Sylph of Light powers which she used in healing Jake).

GT: Thats aces. Jane youre a sweetheart. GT: So as i was saying. GT: I cant help but feel like all this stuff going on with dirk like his responders mind games and his brobots mysterious and brutal hazings... GT: Are all like... GT: Man i know this is going to sound crazy. GT: Like theyre all part of a really long term and esoteric courtship process that is bizarre but somehow makes perfect sense in his mind.

Jane Crocker (I have no idea what her thoughts on the situation would be): She is the heir to the Betty Crocker company and is the only alpha timeline kid with a living parent/guardian, she enjoys baking, pranks, detective stories, and situation comedies. She also has many things from the Crocker Corporation such as the Cockercorp Tiaratop which may or may not be subcosciously sending messages to obey, cease reproduction, embrace culling, consume, die, submit, and many other things. She’s typically the most cheerful of them all but can be quick to anger, she's also skeptical, and curious.

GG: No! Cease your lascivious porcolating at once! GG: Roxy, I can see you're set on just wasting more of my time. GG: I understand if you don't wish to play this game, but please try not to interfere with those of us who do! (She doesn't have many long bits of text I can easily find or think of)

Lil Hal (Another favourite and not usually included in the Alpha kids but I love him, also I hope he’d like to have some friends that are also manmade ): A pair of sunglasses Dirk put an auto responder in when he was 13 while Hal is based off of Dirk’s 13 year old self he has undergone some changes he is still mostly Dirk though, he is more likely to entertain flirtations from Roxy than Dirk is (Dirk is canonically gay) and just play along with everyone in general. Originally he typed in the same colour as Dirk only changing it when he would chat with Dirk but, he preferred red so he kept it always rather than remaining orange. I don’t know what else to say other than Hal is great and is an Alpha kid to me

TT: You used to think this shit was hilarious. TT: But if you want the rad dimension of ironic horseplay I add to your life to come to an end, then all you have to do is honor the promise you made. TT: You've delayed long enough, don't you think? TT: The empty kernelsprite beckons, but for how much longer? TT: Do you really think you can keep the clown at bay with your bribes forever? TT: How many bottles of orange soda have you appeased him with already?

Anyways next up for my classpecting and everything will either be Chell or Spacecore as those two are the closest to being finished thus far

[adultswim2021]

Metalocalypse #42: "Dethmas" | December 7, 2009 - 12:40AM | S03E04

Hey, it’s the Metalocalypse Christmas episode. I don’t have any memory of this episode, and I actually think I may have stopped watching the show at this point? Not deliberately; sometimes I just let a show pile up to a point and realize “huh, I guess I don’t watch that show anymore”; sort of a “one day your mother puts you down and never picks you up ever again” kinda thing, because you kept relying on the same jokes over and over again. 

I try to strike a good balance between being positive and being critical but I also feel weird about withholding my true feelings. On one hand, this episode is “just okay”, and if I were to just be doing a simple passive Metalocalypse watch-through I’d probably shrug that this one was indeed “just okay”, and watch the next one with cautious optimism. The episode never really offended me with it’s lukewarm substandardness or rubbed me the wrong way in some uncharacteristic way. As I struggle to find something positive to say about this episode, I find myself realizing that I’m not just giving this student’s paper a C minus and moving on to the next. I’m now conducting an autopsy. 

This episode feels sitcommy. That’s okay, as long as it’s very funny. It has a few subplots that all sorta intersect at the end, but it doesn’t result in a huge explosive spectacle. The stories are: 1) Dr. Rockso is out of prison and looking to reconnect with Toki, who understandably wants to keep his distance from him. 2) Toki wants to celebrate Christmas, but the rest of the band isn’t playing along 3) Murderface has a Christmas special in the works. 4) Dethklok’s mothers all come to Mordhaus (and Murderface wants to fuck Skwisgaar’s mom). The episode culminates with the Murderface special being very bad; the main conflict being that it’s sponsored by the church, and the band finds this out as the show is underway, live on television. 

A fracas erupts when it’s revealed Dr. Rockso stole Toki’s presents for cocaine money. The presents were going to be used on camera as part of a live gift-swap segment. The rest of the band curses out Murderface for making them look like dorks. Dr. Rockso gets a handjob from Skwisgaar’s mom. Murderface’s grandmother is pinned under a big wooden cross. 

It doesn't help that nearly every plot in this feels like a rehash of a different, more effective episode. And, as far as spectacles go, the one that ends the episode is pretty tepid. Usually we expect massive amounts of death and gore and whatnot from this show. The parallel of Murderface trying to play it safe to secure big money from the church and this episode, PERHAPS UNIRONICALLY playing it safe by not going too far or too blasphemous makes me wonder if it was either an attempt at satire or a watering down of what was intended? Did the crew unironically decide to take the sanctity of Christmas into account and make an episode that isn’t too rough? Could it be Turner’s standards and practices at work, which hamstrung other Adult Swim shows in the past? If this is an attempt at satire about that very thing, then that’d be a little better. But that doesn’t magically make this episode funny. I can’t take back my lack of laughter. This one's a dud. 

EPHEMERA CORNER: 

Robot Chicken: The Complete Fourth Season DVD (December 15, 2009)

This was touched on earlier, but it's the only thing notable about this release in my opinion: season four of Robot Chicken included a somewhat subtle gag where each episode’s title was part of a larger whole message. Actually, it’s two messages, mimicking a letter and a response letter. The episodes were aired slightly out of order, but when presented in production order on DVD, they would present the message unscrambled, as if the episodes were named as a way to get a secret message out there. 

Help Me. I'm Trapped In a DVD Factory They Took My Thumbs Two Weeks Without Food Tell My Mom I Love Her But Not In That Way Love, Maurice P.S. Yes, In That Way

Dear Consumer We Are a Humble Factory Maurice Was Caught Unionizing Our Labor President Hu Forbids It Due to Constraints of Time and Budget The Ramblings of Maurice Cannot Be Erased, So Sorry Please Do Not Notify Our Contractors Especially the Animal Keith Crofford!

Apparently, Warner DVDs from this era are under scrutiny for being susceptible to disc rot, so please know that the “DVD Factory” in question was in Pennsylvania cutting corners that deprived me of being able to sell my very rare Space Ghost DVD for 150 dollars on eBay.

How much should I charge for that DVD with only one working disc? Some one might want it, right?

[heroofsaxophone]

Blerb

I think the largest annoying thing about how I’m feeling right now is that, regardless if the person I ranted to told on me, I’m being treated poorly for reasons I felt were certainly valid things to complain about. I’m utterly frustrated at the fact that I’m paired with someone I learned to fundamentally not like. It’s also scary how someone can build such a fantastic facade of being overly positive. People will crucify me if I speak negatively on someone, but I’ve had to listen to nothing but gossip and negative things about so many people unironically. For some reason when I do it, it’s a crime to which people have treated me completely different. I honestly thought being with other musicians would be a positive thing. So far it has persisted my lack of faith in people if I’m being honest. It’s not to say I haven’t met some fantastic people however. On the other hand, the people I’ve met thanks to my life partner are probably some of the best people I know. I look at people in charge and their character, and of course someone like me has an opinion. I’ve done my best to refrain myself from speaking my mind like I used to, and sure enough the moment I speak it I’m punished in some capacity. Blogging like this takes me back to those Days of ‘08 when I simply didn’t know any better. Now that I do, it’s like I circled back to square one. At least in that time it was petty high school drama. I feel like this is a lesson I have to learn, but heaven forbid if I ever speak negatively on someone regardless if its a valid complaint. Maybe I really do trust the wrong people and should be much more careful? But it’s hard to know considering I really believed I could trust someone. On the contrary, I do realize that I must maintain a positive attitude and look at things a certain way to succeed. The way my last two helpers have shown me things made me realize that there is no room for me to do what they do. I can’t continue to complain about things without changing it with results. I can admit that I could set boundaries and be a better influence myself rather than standing idly and letting something transpire on its own. Something as simple as having to listen to my colleague(s) bitch about someone they don’t like can be steered a new direction if I’m the one to do it. I really do get tired of hearing people speak poorly of others, which is ironic because all I typically see are the negatives in people once they reach that point. Hell, maybe I’m the one who’s responsible for that? I’ve wondered if there’s a vibe I set off in any setting that allows people to feel those thoughts. I really don’t know, and I certainly hope not. Especially at my age.  I want to be a musical influence, but I fear enough time had passed in the 2010′s that I may have just lost my musical charm.

[a1sart]

I posted 18,195 times in 2022

That's 16,215 more posts than 2021!

161 posts created (1%)

18,034 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@meeowerzz

@enderspawn

@legogeek33

@manjirian

@shrikeicee

I tagged 10,358 of my posts in 2022

Only 43% of my posts had no tags

#dream smp - 2,376 posts

#lego ninjago - 1,382 posts

#mcyt - 1,037 posts

#lol - 877 posts

#wilbur soot - 563 posts

#ranboo - 562 posts

#yes - 509 posts

#double life smp - 483 posts

#rottmnt - 425 posts

#tommyinnit - 419 posts

Longest Tag: 135 characters

#apologizing to my irl friends when i go bowling with them tomorrow and the only thing i'll be talking about is the lore i'll be missing

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

*wakes suddenly as if from a nightmare* Tightrope from the greatest showman would make an excellent double life cleo and scott animatic! *collapses back into my nest of blankets and pillows and goes the fuck back to sleep*

44 notes - Posted June 19, 2022

#4

I love that the last ones to actually find their soulmates are also the last 4 left alive. What a happy, poetic little accident.

77 notes - Posted July 22, 2022

#3

does anyone have any tmnt 2012 X rottmnt crossover fic recs that are majority lighthearted? Or is this one of those “guess I’ll have to write it myself” kinda situations?

87 notes - Posted November 26, 2022

#2

Princess Charm School takes place in a dystopian future where every state in the US has seceded and become a monarchy.

134 notes - Posted January 18, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

so the ninja are canonically celebrities right? which means they have fans

y’know what fans do?

write fanfiction that’s what

headcanons about how the ninja feel about that under the cut :) (cut because this is long not because there’s nsfw headcanons or anything I don’t write that stuff)

Kai fucking loves it. He discovered that people wrote fanfic and he immediately started reading the most popular fics. Eventually he ends up with a ninjago version of an ao3 account (his username is probably fiyaamaster or something) and he makes it public. He shares it on his Chirp. He has all his fanfic boundries listed in his bio. People make memes about him finding their fics. Eventually an offcial “Kai DNI” tag is made because he’s read so many fics. He even wrote a fic once. It becomes the most popular fic on the site. It’s terrible. People quote it in memes. People have started sending him fic recs.

Jay is less enthusastic about fanfic. He thinks it’s weird that people write about him as if he’s a fictional character instead of a person. He doesn’t stop anyone from writing about him or including him in their fics though. The team doesn’t feel complete if one of them is missing and that carries over to fics. So he lets people write about him. He does avoid fics as much as he can though. He doesn’t seek them out.

Cole is resigned about it. He’s accepted that it happens and he can’t stop it. He doesn’t mind. Occasionally he will read one if it seems interesting. He had Kai post his fic boundries on his Chirp because Kai has more followers than him.

Zane is confused by fanfiction. (or at least rpf fanfiction. He completely understands fanfiction for non-rpf fandoms). He understands writing about people in like, a historical context for history books or biographies. But writing completely fictional things about real people? He finds it kind of odd. He has read a couple of fics because kai reccomended them but he doesn’t seek them out.

Nya is sort of amused by them? She reads them ironically if they seem funny but occasionally catches herself reading them completely unironically because the story looks interesting. She sees them as just stories where the characters have the same names as her and her friends. Theres a sort of disconnect between herself and the version of her in fics. She’s serious about her boundries though because she knows other people don’t see it the same way she does. She posted them on her Chirp and had Kai boost it so more people saw. She doesn’t read nearly as many fics as Kai but she does have a solid third place in ninja fic reading at the monastery. (When Nya became the sea a lot people stopped including her in fics because it felt disrespectful. This upset Kai and Jay because it feels like people are covering up her existance. It fueled Jays idea that people were forgetting Nya.)

Lloyd is an absolute fanboy. He used to write fanfic about Starfarer when he was at Darkleys so he is completely unsurprised when he discovers that people write fics about him. He has his boundries on Kai’s Chirp and he reads them if Kai thinks they’re good. He has a ninjago ao3 account that he used to use for starfarer that he uses for ninja fic reading now. He once live streamed a reading for a really prolific meme fic and the chat almost died. He even did voices. Other than that he’s pretty chill about it.

Pixal is on the same page with Zane on the fics thing. She reads more than him though. She has an account (her username is probably something like P.I.X.A.Lao3). She leaves detailed critique in the comments. No one knows it’s her. They all (mostly) assume it’s some random fan account. The fandom has started memes about the mysterious critique account. Theres a “P.I.X.A.Lao3 Please DO interact, actually” tag for her account because she gives genuinely good advice. Theres a conpsiracy theory in the fandom that the account belongs to Pixal but no one likes to think too hard about it. She finds this amusing. Cyrus Borg thinks it’s hilarious.

Wu actually doesn’t care. People have been writing about him since before time had a name. He’s the son of GOD. People write about him all the time. He doesn’t see fic as any different. He’s just used to it. He’s the one holding second place fic reading because of this technicality. He’s read a lot of stuff about him over the years. Not as much as Kai though lol.

Misako doesn’t read fic about herself and never plans to. She doesn’t care all that much.

139 notes - Posted August 18, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[cupcakeinat0r]

Thnx 4 the tag, bae <333 @lazyjellyfish300

Do you make your bed?

Every morning! Gets my day started feeling productive right off the bat <3

Favorite number?

69 😏

jk, it’s 928 obvi!!!

What’s your job?

Angel fairy princess

If you could go back to school, would you?

Actually a full-time student right now!!!

Can you parallel park?

Princesses don’t need a license <3 (I never learned how to drive.)

Do you think aliens are real?

Duh! n they def clutch their purses real tight when they come around these parts.

Can you drive a manual car?

I can sit in the passenger seat rlly well <3

What’s your guilty pleasure?

Sweet treats. And I have the same interests of an 8 year old girl. Do not leave me around a plate of baked goods or the remote control (I will put bluey or SpongeBob on). I take cartoons so srsly, it’s embarrassing.

Tattoos?

Im terrified of the needles unfortunately, but if I weren’t such a wuss, I would totally get one that accentuates my scoliosis scar!! Maybe like a path of flowers framing it all the way down or som!! Ugh it would look so cute n sexy for…. Oh Nvm😋

Favorite color?

.

Favorite type of music?

Honestly, anything but country, and even then, they got a few bangers (the ones about how men suck lmao). The artists I mostly listen to right now tho are Laufey, Rosalia, Sza, Stephen Sanchez, Lana, and anything Salsa, rnb, Bachata, Jazz, classical, rap, etc!.

I’m also a theater kid so I like…. Enjoy that unironically, sorry 😭

Do you like puzzles?

Not by myself, they’re way more fun w my friends!!!

Phobias?

Death fs, but other than that, nothing rlly, I’ve mastered the art of thugging it out :3

Favorite childhood sport?

To put it simply, one time I was in a volleyball team and the ball came right towards me n I did absolutely nothing, resulting in the ball completely wrecking my glasses and my pride.

I was on my school’s “name that book” team tho n made major w’s in that so 🖕🏐

Do you talk to yourself?

Lmao no that’s weird (I talk to the wall almost every day n imagine myself getting interviewed for an upcoming film im starring in and recreate conversations I wish I had but didn’t think of responses at the time).

What movie(s) do you adore?

As mentioned before, I’m a literal child, so my fav movies include, well, literally any Disney animated film tbh. My favs are Ratatouille, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Coco! I also luvvv old school animation like Don Bluth’s Thumbelina or The Swan Princess, ughhh <333

Star Wars (original trilogy preferred).

Marvel. top three is Cap: Winter Soldier, Spiderverse, and Black Panther. FYI my fav spiderman is Toby, sorry to the Andrew/Tom clan <\3 Those movies r just untouchable for me!!

Harry Potter, fav is Prisoner of Azkaban tho.

I also love horror! Favs include Midsommar, The Fourth Kind, As Above So Below, Saw franchise, Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, Get out, and The Ritual.

Romance is my other fav, which includes Before Sunrise, Never Been Kissed, A Walk in The Clouds, Pretty Woman, and Clueless. Some other unpopular favs are To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Cat in The Hat, Moulin Rouge!, aaaaand Dead Poets Society. Fuck I wrote a lot but I’m pretty passionate abt film so I’ll shut up now!!! I have so many fav movies just ask me more abt it and I could recommend some like pls, I love talking abt film!!!!

Coffee or Tea?

Ima teabag gal, thru n thru! I’ve tried, but I just never really liked coffee, however !!! I like coffee flavored things like ice cream or tiramisu!!

First thing you wanted to be growing up?

Had like 2 sec phases of various things but it has always been and always will be an actress that does it all! Currently what I’m in school for and have a full scholarship in!!! Yippie!!!

No pressure tags:

@gltzpzy @sweetlemongrove @hwasoup @sassypossumm @yougavemeyourheartyouknow @angel-of-the-moons and anyone else <3

Thnx for reading to the end, pookie🥹

Thank you for the tag @sleketon666

Do you make your bed?

Yes, on the weekends especially, but If I don't make the bed my partner does. 

Favourite number?

17, Idk just a good number.

What's your job?

I won’t get specific, but I do stuff that involves art on the daily. 

If you could go back to school, would you?

Maybe, just to get my masters. But as of now definitely not doing that. 

Can you parallel park?

Yes! I’m not the best but I have done it before.

Do you think aliens are real?

Yes, I think there's just no way there isn’t other life out there.

Can you drive a manual car?

Nope

What's your guilty pleasure?

Writing smut and drawing cocks. But also pop music and cheesy romances.  

Tattoos?

None, but my partner does!

Favourite color?

Like a light blue

Favourite type of music?

I like many different types…Just anything but country.

Do you like puzzles?

Yeah sometimes. 

Any phobias?

I don’t know what the phobias are called, but I am scared of deep murky water and also the dark (don’t judge me…) 

Favourite childhood sport?

I used to like volleyball and basketball 

Do you talk to yourself?

Yes, all the time. 

What movie(s) do you adore?

Pride And Prejudice, Sixteen candles, 10 things I hate about you, and the original Halloween. Plus many many more. (Fun fact about me, I quote movies all the time so much it’s become a game between me and my mother) 

Coffee or tea?

Neither….I don't like bitter drinks

First thing you wanted to be growing up?

I wanted to be a vet and then for a long time I wanted to be a mortician. 

No pressure tags-

@cinnasalmon @dark-and-kawaii @dutifullylazybread @lazyjellyfish300 @lemonsrosesandlavender @drizztdohurtin

[artbyblastweave]

Don’t really know what the consensus is on a seventeen-year-old marvel crossover book, but I unironically think that House of M’s underlying premise- an alternate universe where events are contorted so that everyone gets what they subconsciously want, simultaneously, and sometimes in a monkey’s paw sort of way, was a really really good premise. I liked that comic a lot. 

Now the weakness of such a thing is that to write it completely competently would require an incredible amount of insight into basically every marvel character ever published, and while I often find myself jiving with Bendis’s takes on the Marvel Stable, I also assume that were I to go digging I’d find a lot of people with very cogent criticisms of how Bendis conceived of the desires of x or y character. I feel like that’s just perennially the breaks when you’re writing a bunch of characters with 50 years of publication under dozens of writers. 

And, on another note, House of M is also an example of this dynamic I’ve observed at Marvel comics a lot, where the on-the-ground execution of a dumb editor-mandated idea really really lands for me, and where context of the Broader Superhero Setting wrecks havok on my ability to cleanly delineate whether a comic is good or bad. I read House of M- and the mass-depowerment sequence at the end- without really being invested in the sheer number of other creative endeavors at Marvel that that shakeup derailed or undermined. The scene itself, the mass heartbreak and building panic, Copiel’s ability to capture Magento’s emotional Nadir in the dust of Genosha- that was, to my mind, incredibly well-executed and effective. Love that sequence. But I imagine that in 2005 (?) there were quite a few people who had reasonable umbrage with that sequence for existing at all.

[black-rose-writings]

Disclaimer: This is a coming together post attempting to give anti-Darkling people insight into how we, the darkling stans, view him, to hopefully reduce the strawmanning in this fandom. For this reason, I am tagging this with some of the things I’m criticising. This isn’t a hate post against anyone and anything. It’s a criticism of Leigh Bardugo and the choices she had made in writing the Grishaverse.

Every time I accidentally come across anti-Darkling (and related) posts, it feels like I’ve read totally different books than the other person.

It’s also different in the way the posts are written.

It feels like the anti-Darkling people have a fundamental misunderstanding of pro-Darkling people.

I’ll admit, I’m speaking for myself and for the people in my orbit and there may very well be Darkling stans who unironically think he did nothing wrong.

Because most of us don’t think that.

We know he’s done plenty of terrible things. The books are doing a pretty good job of bashing that one over our heads.

We’re not saying the Darkling isn’t a villain in the story - we’re saying he shouldn’t have been written as one in the first place.

Our criticisms are, fundamentally, on the meta level. What we’re criticising is the narrative, framing and writing choices and the messages the story is sending, intentional and unintentional.

The Darkling is simply the best character to use to illustrate this on.

LB wrote a deeply flawed and dark world, with a highly persecuted minority at its center, then decided to apply fairytale morality to it and make the only protector this group of people has had in centuries the villain of the story.

She wrote a universe meant for political drama, then used it as a setting for a romance story.

The Grishaverse is a clusterfuck of missed opportunities for in interesting story, social commentary or philosophical debates, and messages ranging from decent through baffling to outright dangerous.

When we write out lists of characters’ bad deeds, we’re doing it because they’re ignored by the story and the characters in question (Mal, Baghra, Zoya etc.) are being treated as flawless and 100% good by the narrative. I like the idea of most of the characters I criticise in theory, I just dislike the execution of them.

When we complain about how Alina shouldn’t have lost her powers, what we’re complaining about is the way the story treats consequences and stakes. Which is to say, by mostly ignoring them (I will probably go in depth about this more later).

When we complain about Baghra, what we’re really complaining about is the double standard between the characters LB likes and doesn’t like, where the latter has all fo their even remotely bad deeds called out, shamed and punished, while the same thing is completely ignored in the former.

Our problems are with bad writing, lack of research and tact on sensitive subjects, choice of tropes and framing that is pretty outdated, and the overall lack of thought behind the series.

If you want to enjoy the books as they are, if you like Mal or Malina, or think Baghra is a badass MILF, I don’t think any of us care. Do what makes you happy. It’s fine to take a story at face value and not thing about it too deeply.

But please, for the love of the Saints, don’t bash people who chose to look at that story from a different angle than you. Most of us are aware that the Darkling’s actions are morally reprehensible from our 21st century mortal perspective. We know Darklina in basically any variation is going to be toxic as fuck. We know being with a guy like him IRL would fucking suck.

And please, remember that while we’re probably not going to meet a seductive immortal, who wants to use our power to take over the world for the greater good, there’s plenty of Mals running around and they can be just as damaging and toxic to you as said handsome immortal.