#I don't have any siblings so I'm not entirely sure how well this could reflect actual siblings. But a lot of people I know have siblings and

[the-cursed-thing]

Alright while putting tags in something I rebloged I thought of a real fun sibling dynamic thing between pre-tadpole Durge and Orin that I found funny enough that I'm making it a separate post too

(Keep in mind I am imagining my Durge in this, but hopefully overall it's general enough that it can apply to other Durge's)

I like to imagine Durge and Orin having some sort of sibling bickering and annoying each other dynamic but more demented and violent even if Durge may be a lot older than her depending on the Durge. Like the two attempting to attack (maybe kill) the other as a greeting, like throwing knives at the other when they walk into the room. Then laughing at the other if they don't dodge on time or dodge clumsily

Orin purposefully leaves her art/"corpse dollies" in the way and in places she knows will irritate or inconvenience Durge. Durge retaliating by just starting to eat them right in front of Orin. Orin yelling at Durge to stop and maybe even trying to stab them or something to get them to just drop the corpse.(maybe Orin tries to grab the corpse and pull it away from Durge but Durge won't let go so it's like they're playing tug-of-war with it or something)

Maybe they leave random organs hidden in the other one's pillow or bed in ways meant to be uncomfortable just to irritate the other. Orin hiding some of Durge's vivisection tools and making them have to bribe her for the location or spend a while looking for them.

But then occasionally they give each other tips or pointers about various things. Maybe one of them will randomly discover a new weapon that the other one definitely gave them but it's never brought up

Maybe Durge sometimes will give Orin a corpse or person for her to play with while just not directly addressing what they're doing. Maybe both of them will go on hunts in the city together, where one sets up an ambush while the other lures an unsuspecting victim towards the other that they can kill together.

Maybe they sometimes had peaceful moments where Durge may have attempted to do Orin's hair, or would help her brush and wash it. Maybe Orin would sometimes follow Durge around because she admired/admires them and wants to be more like then, but whenever Durge questions what she's doing she'd just say something about making sure Durge doesn't fuck something up or that she's just happening to go the same direction.

I just really like the idea that the two of them were at least sort of close

[taesanluv3r]

chronicles of an overly in-love woonhak.

kim woonhak x reader

entirely in woonhak's pov (he's just yapping to himself the whole time), this is so dumb n stupid but i think it's silly cute idk 😓 cuss words!! lowercase intended, pls excuse any spelling mistakes / grammatical errors <3 enjoy :3

wc: 1,401

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖

"relax woonhak, it's not that hard"

all i needed to do was make a move. seriously, how hard could it be? i mean it was easy to help riwoo make a move on the girl he liked, so why would it be hard for me to make a move on someone myself?

but of course, the difference was that riwoo was hitting on someone random from his dance class while i, little pathetic old kim woonhak, just had to have a crush on the ever-so untouchable, and insanely stunning…

yn fucking ln.

i mean she's like- way way way out of my league, right? the other day i confided in taesan, i always talk to him when i feel lost...well only when i'm lost in the thoughts of her. that's only cause she's rather close to him, they're like siblings who aren't related at all- i think it's pretty sweet. otherwise, i wouldn't ever confide in that menace.

but he knows her very well, and he knows me very well, it's the perfect combination. anyways, i told him about my feelings for her, how she absolutely drove me insane. i mean who wouldn't go insane? she's just so effortlessly...her, in a good way, of course. god nothing bad about her would ever come out of my mouth...she's just perfect.

okay maybe I'm lying, she can be a little stubborn and bitchy sometimes...but that's just another thing I can go on and on and on talking about. i'm always talking about her.

taesan laughed at me, he told me i was oblivious and delusional if i couldn't see that she felt the exact same way. i mean can you believe that? she feels the same?! about me?! about kim woonhak?!

i don't believe it for a second...okay, i lied again. the statement did fuel my stomach up with butterflies and make my head spin and cheeks flush and all that…jazz.

and then he said one thing, the one thing that's making me think about everything all over again.

"if you love her so much, make a move!"

and so now here i am, sitting in bed at one o' clock in the morning. only eight hours until i have to go to school. which means that i only have eight hours to construct the most perfect plan to finally make my move. i mean how hard could it be? it's just like chess! not that i'm good at chess, i actually kinda suck at it…

"ugh cut it out woonhak, you're wasting your time!"

she probably doesn't even like me back. maybe she's just as nice as she is to me with everyone else. and surely that drawing she made me was just a friendly gift! and of course the poems she sent me were probably drafts for someone else…though she did send one with my name in it once…

wait.

wait a fucking minute.

SHE PROBABLY DOES LIKE ME BACK?!

OKAY, okay calm down woonhak. no need to get your hopes up too unecessarily high…

this does give me confidence though, just keep thinking positively and make your move at school FIRST THING IN THE MORNING!

"i got this!"

maybe i lied a little to my reflection in the mirror whilst getting ready for school this morning. cause she was right there when i arrived, alone and ready for me to go tell her I love her, but fear got the best of me…as per usual.

so now i'm here, in fucking science class having to listen to professor lee rant about whatever problem he had with lamarck's theory as opposed to darwin's. interesting one though, i know yn has a real interest in the theory of evolution and just about everything else biology related- maybe not plant biology, she didn't look too happy when we were told we're gonna study plant science next week.

just as i started thinking about her all over again, a piece of paper struck my head from behind. it landed in between my back and my chair, not very comfortable. i turned to reach for it, checking out whoever threw it at me as i did so.

yn ln shoots her unique smile at me, her lips tilting crookedly. she never smiled with her teeth because she doesn't quite like how it looks. i strongly disagree, i think it's adorable when her uneven fangs show, it's just another peculiar thing i get to love about her.

i stare too long, too long that she has to raise her eyebrows to remind me of the paper i was supposed to retrieve from behind me and read. my cheeks were probably redder than the ripest of strawberries- ironically, her favourite fruit.

the page was off-white, a cute rilakkuma print bordering the lined-sheet…classic yn ln and her cutesy stationary. i couldn't help but smile as i opened it to find her neat, yet absurdly tiny handwriting.

i admired it for a second, not quite reading the actual note just yet, but once i did…

the ink was pink, one of the gel-pens she usually used to write her overly pretty notes for literature. and the words she scribbled on the page were simple. well, as simple as such a complex and interesting girl like her could ever get.

"hi woonhak, i like you. like a lot. see you under the bleachers at lunch. :) <3 ★"

not even a question. if it weren't for the doodles of hearts, smiley faces, and stars all over the note i would've deemed it a threat.

another lie. i should stop lying. she could tell me to throw myself off a cliff or threaten me with a knife and i'd still be flustered and in love.

the lunch bell came a lot sooner than i calculated. perhaps my brain had been overstimulated by the test i had just finished, or maybe time is just that unpredictable when you're anxious.

i desperately needed to piss- another lie that i told myself to postpone the possible embarrassment i might encounter with my crush under the bleachers today. fuck. why am i so nervous?

i decided it's best to just YOLO and speed over to her usual spot under the bleachers. what's the worst that could happen? you know...besides her revealing it was all a prank and then totally making fun of me!!!!!!! ha ha...ha...

i'm cooked.

she was already there, a slight worry on her face as if she had been waiting and wondering where i had been. i was about to mutter an apology for being late, saying i needed to go to the bathroom and such but she didn't let me talk.

"i know you like me, woonhak"

at this point i was shitting sweat.

"um-"

i was interrupted.

"you took too long to say anything and frankly, i got impatient. cause i like you too- like- a lot. lol"

lol, she ended every serious sentence with that abbreviation to lighten the mood- cute.

all i could do was chuckle in relief.

"can we kiss now?"

she asks, her words coming out a little stale and hasty, but sweet. in a way that made my heart break and melt into bits and pieces. who am i kidding though, she does anything and i'll melt into bits and pieces.

"yeah-"

her lips halted my chatter. she tastes like an odd mixture of banana milk and…honey garlic fried chicken- but it tasted kind of good...?

remind me to ask her where she got her lunch from cause...damn.

the kiss lasted longer than i would've earlier expected, her hands were in my hair and mine held her waist. i had to bend down a little, she's not that short but she's definitely not tall. not as tall as me, that is.

alas we seperated. she giggled softly and i can see a faint pink tint brushed against her cheeks as she caught her breath. then she looked up at me, with the most precious set of eyes. it didn't last long as her complexion changed completely in a matter of seconds before these words left her mouth:

"ask me out, loser"

and that's just the push i needed.

"yn ln, be my girlfriend and take me to whatever place you got the fried chicken your lips tasted like!"

she giggled again- i swear a braincell of mine disappears every time she so much as smiled- stepping forward to hug me, which i happily accepted by the way…she smells good. she smells like a...fresh...teddy bear? yeah.

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖

"i can't believe you actually like me back" i blurted out, watching as she stuck a chicken wing into her mouth. the sauce got on her face and i helped her wipe it off like the gentleman that i am.

"and i can't believe you confided in taesan, of all people!" her words were muffled as she chewed.

"whatever babe, now why don't you eat first and talk later"

she almost chokes as she stares at me with this bewildered look on her face. how could a person be so adorable? like? this???? this cutie??? SHES my girlfriend???!!!???

she speaks with half a drumstick in her mouth and her eyes were opened wide.

"DID YOU JUST CALL ME BABE?!"

lol.

the end.

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖

LMAOOO idek wht i was going for in this one 😭 i pulled this straight out of my drafts tbh </3 reblogs n feedbacks r vv appreciated!! love u tysm for reading. love, kona.

[finelinens1994]

honestly i think a big difference between this situation and any other controversy they’ve been in is that their actual friends who have stuck by them through bullshit are also rightfully upset with them. i’m hopeful that because of that they are able to figure out what they actually need to do better, since it has been (imo understandably) more difficult to do that when most of the criticisms you receive are from are people who already didn’t like you and have no desire to see you improve.

one of the things that this has personally prompted reflection on for me is that even though it’s unfair and sometimes seems kind of fucked up that there are things they should be allowed to do that they will always get pushback for because they are public figures that a lot of people dislike, doesn’t mean it’s responsible or cool of them to continue to do things they should have learned by now won’t go well for them.

like as an example i find dream’s essay andying and his chronic need to explain himself endearing in low stakes scenarios, and it seems pretty obvious it’s how he conducts himself in real life but i genuinely don’t understand how he hasn’t realized that it’s entirely ineffective as a way to communicate with people who don’t already like him.

i completely agree with you! it's kinda like how as a teenager if your mom said you should major in something in college you'd think "yeah ok whatever don't tell me what to do" but if your sibling or best friend said the same thing you'd actually hear them out and consider it LOL at least that's what it reminds me of. that's also part of why men who are feminists will say that men need to talk to their boys and keep them in check; no matter how many women tell a man he's behaving inappropriately, he often won't actually receive the criticism until it's another man saying it to him.

when criticism is coming from someone who you (consciously or not) view as below you or someone who you believe thinks they're above you, you're way less likely to listen than when it's one of your peers or someone you respect. seeing some of their closest friends, especially the men, finally show them some pushback is super impactful and i believe could signal the beginning of some personal change for them.

it's sooooo much easier to just brush off critique from strangers or acquaintances as people being haters, being jealous, or some other kind of conspiracy. but when the critique comes from your close friends, that shit hurts. you can either decide your friend was secretly a hater all along, or you can try to use that critique for growth. personal growth isn't linear and it's difficult so i'm sure it'll take time, but i have hope that they'll really start introspecting now.

[crazycatgirl420]

First Lines

I'm not sure if this is the first line of the whole fic or the first line of the part I'm currently working on so...since I don't actually know the rules I'll just do whichever feels right for it Kay? Cool.

1) Ellie sat on a stool on the stage, a simple black dress shimmering under the light. She was supposed to sing some sad love song tonight but all she could think about was the death of Robin the Second. Looking at the crowd of Gotham Citizens she wondered if they even knew yet.

This one is still a draft but it's teenage singer Danielle in an dp×DC universe. The song that inspired the first chapter was actually a cover of the Beatles song Blackbird.

2) Sam wasn't related to her by blood, but Grandma Ida had always loved her for who she was. Sam would never truly worry about money, though she had spent most of her savings on her car and the apartment, because Grandma wouldn't let Sam go hungry or cold. A thousand dollars would be sent to Sam's bank account evey month, and had been since she was a baby.

The next chapter of Gotham's Black Rose is a bit of a struggle for me right now, it takes place after they've moved to Gotham, about them settling in and finding their footing in a new city, and Sam does some reflection on her relationship with her adopted Grandma.

3) "Father, Grandfather, Uncles," Danny greeted as he walked into the dinning room and sat down. The adults all looked at him, but Danny just smiled.

"Who let a kid in here?" - "Uncles?" - "Father?" - "Who are you?"

They all spoke at once but Danny waited for them to quiet down before he spoke up.

"Daniel Bertinelli, or Constantine if you check magical lineage, or Wayne if you ask for my mother's biological father's last name."

"I've got a kid?" The blond Constantine dropped his cigarette.

"...Helena Bertinelli is my daughter?" Bruce Wayne stared at the table as if the wood would make any of this easier.

The next part of The Fine Print where 'everyone' finds out they've had children they didn't know about.

4) Gotham was not a good city to be homeless in, Danny learned. It was cold at night, and rained at least once a week, and he never knew here he was going to sleep.

My Project R fic is not doing too well, I'm not sure why or what to do with it.

5) When Paulina imagined her Graduation from High School, she never would've pictured this for herself. She was Eighteen, turning Nineteen this summer. She thought she'd be dating Dash or Star, that she'd be taking photos and going out to dinner with either of them or maybe the cheer team would meet up.

Of course she never would've predicted Phantom. Couldn't have imagined Fenton. And you can't predict an unexpected baby. That's what makes them unexpected.

But here she was. Kneeling on the grass of the football field, blue Graduation gown the only thing protecting her JJ House designer dress from stains, and her heels starting to sink into the dirt.

"Grad-u-lates Pauli," Ellie said, carefully, with a toothy smile and her happy bright blue eyes. Her little arms went up, hands grabbing at the air. "Uppies?"

It's a Paulina/Danny raise baby Danielle in Gotham fic idk if it's going to go anywhere but I find it cute to think about.

6) Soul dreams were a safe place, at least they were usually. A neutral place where souls met to bring each other into their lives. How the soul dream took shape depended on who was asleep first, and was still asleep when the other joined them.

I hit a self doubt wall with my first soulmate fic, I wanted to analyze Jazz's sense of responsibility towards Danny and her tendency to treating him as a child even while acknowledging he's a teenager. I also wanted to analyze Dick's relationships with his own siblings once I picked him as Jazz's soulmate for this fic. I'm not sure if I should go back to my notes and try again or if I should give up on it entirely for a different soulmate fic.

7) I'm not sure if cleaning the Fenton house was a good idea anymore. Jasmine Fenton sat on the couch in front of me, her hands clasped together and a strange look on her face.

My self instert fic has hit a wall so hard I decided I am going to change it completely. I tried I struggled and I had no idea what I was doing. Here's the last I had for it as it is now though.

Okay! So there's my 7 current WIPs sorta. I haven't had the heart to actually remove anything from my list of projects even though I'm done trying to write for some of them. I did my best though! And I'm proud of what I learn every time I try something new.

I think I'm supposed to tag other people to play too so I guess I'll tag @faeriekit @im-totally-not-an-alien-2 @evandarya @spooky-fm @p0ssym1lker

Okay I'm not brave enough to tag more people in a silly game, maybe next time. I'd like to thank @weirdfishy for tagging me, sorry it took me so long to make play too! This was fun once I stopped over thinking it.

[cryptophasia-nabros]

A little on the significance of the constellations Canada is viewing. I'm probably reading too much into it but let's go.

Polaris: the North star

The bird - POSSIBLY Cygnus: the swan, but also known as to the Northern cross.

Pretty obvious - Canada is known as the Great White North and the True North

HOWEVER, Cygnus is a summer/fall constellation, while all the others are winter. It could possibly be Columba, the dove, which can be (faintly) seen in the winter. No real mythology as it's a pretty recently named constellation (like 1500s recent) but we do have "Columbia" and/or "British Columbia".

The Twins/Gemini/Castor and Pollux: Okay, so here's where things get REALLY interesting.

So, in brief, the twins implication is obvious. But let's go deeper.

Versions of the conception of Castor and Pollux vary. In some, they are identical twins. But in Others, they are still twins but have different fathers (yes, this is entirely possible).

The awesome thing about this is it would allow for the implication of France as Canada's father (or "father" if you prefer) and England as America's.

Less awesome for me is that heteropaternal superfecundation only results in half-siblings, while I prefer Matt and Alfred as identical twins in my own head canon. Others said that "both Castor and Pollux, being identical twins, were inseparable in their looks and actions".

So, as you will.

They are sometimes said to have been born from an egg (along with their twin sisters Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra). They also are sometimes associated with snakes. Castor is a white star, while Pollux, is brighter and "golden orange".

In some Native American stories, Canada and America are described as a silver and a gold snake, respectively.

Depending on the story, Pollux is immortal and Castor mortal. Regardless, when Castor dies, Pollux is inconsolable and refuses to be separated from him, resulting in their being placed in the sky as a constellation.

They were also associated with horsemanship - cowboys, mustangs, Mounties, etc.

They were described as "blond haired, large eyed, fair complexioned, and well-built with trim bodies". Sound like any Hetalia characters we may know?

(Though I prefer our boys with darker skin reflecting Indigenous heritage.)

As stars, Castor is part of a system of six stars circling a common center. Commonwealth?

Pollux meanwhile, is a solitary star, like our own sun.

Hetalia wavers back and forth as Canada and America's exact relationship. The only thing straightforward has been that they have the same face and don't know who's older.

There is this strip, take that as you will.

Finally, the Bear. I'm not sure if this is Ursa Major or Ursa Minor. Regardless, there are myths from all over the world (including indigenous people from North America) describing the constellation as a bear(s).

Obviously, Kumajiro.

Now, the constellation appears to be a bear with a tail. The Oneida tell a story of How the Bear Lost His Tail, in which the bear is tricked into dipping its tail into freezing water until it breaks off. It appears that Canada is telling that legend, which explains why it looks like Kuma is tearing up.

[itsliaaahsoneshots]

Erased Memories

(find the complete version on my whattpad @yoongsproperty)- Tell me if you want me to publish the whole oneshot on here or if you have any oneshot/short scene request.

𝕿he young, little Y/n slightly opened her eyes only to abruptly close them again due to the sudden light coming from a plain, white ceiling. Her lids felt heavy and her head was pounding as if she had been listening to high-volume music for an entire day.

She put her tiny hand on her forehead to prevent the light to blind her once again as her lively eyes caught a glimpse of something hanging on her forearm.

That is when she noticed that something similar to a needle connected to a small transparent bag was inserted right into her left wrist, piercing into her soft skin. A blueish liquid was flowing from the tube connected to her forearm at a regular speed. Her brows furrowed in confusion.

What was that place and why was she there?

Her gaze wandered around the room and examined every single inch of it. Nor that it would take that long anyway, given the rather simple design of the room.

As she took in her surroundings, she found herself to be laying down on a simple bed, similar to a hospital one, in an almost empty room devoid of personal touches, filled with cold metal surfaces and bright lights. No windows.

She woke up feeling disoriented and confused by the sudden change in surroundings that was indeed jarring for a seven years old kid. She felt like a fish out of the water. She was struggling to remember how she ended up in such a minimal, sterile, and clinical environment.

The only thing she was sure about, was that she was completely separated from her family. She had tried to cling onto her mother's fabric t-shirt but to no use, as she was violently jerked away by soldiers wearing a sleek, brown uniform and sturdy brown helmets.

That memory contributed to her feelings of vulnerability and uncertainty. Her initial confusion got replaced by her heartache and longing for her family. Thoughts of their faces would haunt her, becoming overwhelming. She felt a deep sense of loss and desperation, as she yearned to be reunited with her parents and younger siblings.

She stood up, removing the needle from her wrist, causing the small hole to bleed. She realized she was barefoot only when the cold white floor tiles met her warm skin.

She took some rapid steps, running to the closest door, in the hope to find a way out of that place.

But before she could have reached the metal door, she realized that there was no knob. As she examined the door, she got startled by the sudden lateral opening of the latter that was right in front of her.

An elegant and sophisticated woman joined her in the room, missing her by mere inches.

She had fair skin and well-groomed, blonde, styled hair, enhancing her professional appearance. Her facial features were elegant and refined. She had a defined jawline and high cheekbones, giving her a distinct and strong presence. Her eyes were sharp and piercing, reflecting her intelligence and determination. She was wearing a formal white lab coat.

The mysterious woman stopped in her tracks as soon as she met Y/n's eyes. She glanced at her bleeding wrist. The little one took a few steps backward, taking some distance from the unknown woman.

"Oh, I see that you are awake," she said "Nice to meet you, my name is Dr. Ava Paige, and I work here at W.C.K.D. You can call me Dr. Ava if you'd like. I'm here to help you and all the other special children like you."

"What is WCKD?" Y/n asked while tilting her head slightly to the side, still with a defensive demeanor.

"That's a great question! WCKD stands for World Catastrophe Killzone Department," the little kid questioned the relatively frightening meaning of each word that composed the acronym. "...but don't let the name scare you. Our goal at WCKD is to find a way to protect everyone from a dangerous virus called the Flare. We're looking for a cure so that no one else gets sick." Ava smiled kindly at her, hoping to reassure her. She knew that the little one was scared, but the woman knew how to do her job better than anyone else.

"Why am I here?" she glared at Dr.Paige. "You're here because you're very special. You have something called immunity, which means you're naturally protected from the Flare. We want to understand why some people are immune, so we can learn how to help others, and you want to help others, right?". Y/n's eyes softened as she seemed to be thinking about the answer for a while.

"Can I see my family?" she innocently asked. "I know it can be tough to be away from your family, but right now, we need your help to find a way to make the world a better and safer place. We'll do everything we can to make sure you feel comfortable and loved while you're here. You might see your family again at the end of our project." She concluded.

The little kid felt every bit of her hope fading away. Still, she was determined to reunite with her family, therefore, she would have had to end that project as soon as she could.

"From now on, you will be staying here, helping us with something really important that could save the life of many people. We will be your new family". Dr. Paige adopted a gentle and reassuring tone, focusing on the child's importance and the shared goal of finding a cure for the Flare.

She aimed to establish trust and provide a sense of safety and care, emphasizing Y/n's role in the greater mission. The child was quite smart for her age, and she already knew that the only way to get out of there was to collaborate with them, giving W.C.K.D. what they needed. Or more simply, to just pretend to be helping them.

"Come with me, I'll take you to meet another special kid like you" She offered her hand for the child to take.

[...]

Tags:

[darthkvznblogs]

I just saw “Watching and Dreaming”, what do you think?! It’s awesome, right? And how does it affect your plans for the Kryptonverse’s Owl House content?

What? No, I hated it...

...okay, no, can't even pretend hahahaha. I loved it!!! Maybe a nitpick here and there, but I think that was about as perfect an ending as I could've hoped for, especially given the circumstances of S3. I think The Owl House is just...my favorite animated show of all time, and since I don't watch much live action stuff, it might as well be my #1 overall. Maybe it's the recency bias, but between the super relatable protagonist, the cool magic system, the amazing humor, the found family aspect, the horrible villain, and so on, I just couldn't ask for a show better tailored for my enjoyment. Even if I later decide it isn't #1 for some reason, I can't imagine it falling off the big podium in my mind with the AtlAs and FMABs of the animation world.

As for the Kryptonverse, let's talk under a read more for obvious spoilery reasons:

I'm still in the process of accounting on the damages (same as the Isles! :P), but surprisingly, I don't think I have to change much about what's already written. I bet on a happy ending and I thankfully got that - I just have to tweak a bit of She Stole my Heart's epilogue to better reflect the actual events.

As for changes, I do have a couple, and they're related to the nitpicks I mentioned above. Maybe a bit of a hot take, but I don't really jive with the choice to have the glyph magic stop working - I get the "closing a chapter" angle, and of course it's directly because the Titan is now truly gone, but it feels a bit superfluous to me, when all it really accomplishes is keeping Luz from using glyph magic for a few years. I'm also still not super clear on what magic she can do, since she's still just human, but she does have Stringbean now - is it really just big magic blasts like in For the Future? Or can she cast regular witch magic fuelled by Stringbean's power by using the staff to make the spell circles? If so, why couldn't Eda and Lilith do that, y'know? I feel like this is absolutely something they could've made clearer if they'd have a full-length S3, but alas.

I'm also not super keen on the idea of the Collector setting off for the stars - again, I do understand the need to give everyone some space, and that the Collector has some growing up to do, but I'm not sure how he's meant to accomplish that on his own, or worse, surrounded by his siblings. It's obvious that he doesn't go away for too long, considering the portal he made, so to me that also feels like I can change it without much fuss.

Also, and this is entirely selfish, but I want to leave the door open for Luz to take on that Titan-powered form again. Not just because I can do some gnarly stuff with it down the line, but it's just too cool to lose for good.

So, here's what we're gonna do: I'm going to take these "ingredients" and come up with a way to keep the Titan's glyph magic as is (with the promise that King will bring his own to the table), I'm gonna keep the Collector around because they need parental figures and there's no shortage of those in the Boiling Isles, and I'll figure out a justification for why and how Luz could potentially power-up again that hopefully doesn't feel like an asspull, lol.

I'm also just, generally going to set some strict rules on how the various types of magic in the BI work and interact with each other, so we can avoid any confusion (and also because I'm a nerd about that sort of thing. And just, y'know, in general)

I do want to apologize in advance a bit if it seems like I'm disregarding canon a bit much, especially since I generally try to stick somewhat close to it, but you have to remember that, while this is an ending for canon Luz, Kverse Luz's journey is really just beginning; lest you think that her relatively short adventure with the Gravity Falls crew was indicative of her role in the Kryptonverse, I intend to have her be a mainstay of the magical side of the series, and I very much want her to be as badass as possible. So, I hope you'll forgive a bit AU-ness :P

[professorcocoa]

okay, i'm curious (genuine) with the examples of gallade being male-only you mentioned.

so if an amab (ama-hatching?) kirlia who was trans but didn't have any idea yet touched a dawn stone, would it not work on them? that could be a stressful realisation, they expected to evolve but instead got some processing to do. (side note: i'm using they/them because i don't know if they'd immediately switch to using she or stay with he while processing)

how about if an amab kirlia touches the dawn stone and at that time their gender identity is male, but in the future their identity will shift to female over time? (ooc note: i hope i'm wording this right. my sibling was always non-binary and just didn't know as a child, but i know some people (myself /sort of/ included?) identified as their agab as a child and then their identity changed (i just threw out the gender) as they grew up, but they would still say 'yes i was x gender as a child')

and what about genderfluid kirlia? it would definitely be interesting if one could tell what gender they were that day depending on if they woke up as gallade or gardevoir but unless that one eevee from adventures is real i don't know how feasible that one is. it's more than just a form change... (ic note: adventures is a manga about pokemon in my universe. there was an eevee who could switch between eevee/vaporeon/jolteon/flareon at will until they evolved into espeon and stuck there)

thanks for reading/answering; i am legitimately curious about these cases but if you haven't come across any or don't have any guesses i understand

well, thanks for the question!!

I studied pokepsychology as my major, one of the things that we learn is that in the pokemon world, the mind is stronger than the body. That's actually how evolution itself works. The pokemon levels up, gains more knowledge about the world/gets closer to their trainer and boom, their body reflects that.

When it comes to gender related evolutions, it can get complicated sometimes, but to keep it simple, if an amab kirlia doen't know she's trans yet, she still won't be capable of evolving into a gallade. Her mind would reject the dawn stone energy because she might not know about that, but her brain does know.

In the case of genderfluidity and an identity out of the binary spectrum, things get wonky. A genderfluid kirlia would be able to evolve into a gallade whenever they felt like a man, but they wouldn't be able to reverse the evolution and instead, they would turn into a variety of gallade that still goes unnamed, but I like to call "Gallevoir". Their bodies have small differences, but nothing too big (a small "dress" can be seen on them, their horns are less pointy. In some cases, I've seen gallevoirs lacking the classic "elbow swords"). This also happens for nb kirlias.

how about if an amab kirlia touches the dawn stone and at that time their gender identity is male, but in the future their identity will shift to female over time?

well, this one I don't know how to answer. It might be like the gender fluid effect, with the pokemon turning into a gallevoir, or maybe since it's a "stronger" thing, with the brain shifting it's gender identity entirely, the gallade may fully turn into a gardevoir. I can't answer it for sure tho. I gotta research more about this.

[mikeperrucci]

A Little Help Reaching the Finish Line

When I started making Chuck's Devils, I thought I could complete each episode in a month, and be done with the entire comic after four years. Well, it ended up taking an extra two. What happened?

There are simple reasons, such as writer's block. Condensing a long story into tiny word balloons that still makes sense wasn't always easy. Also, some episodes required more background scenery, extra characters, and complex poses that were tricky to figure out.

Then there are the mental blocks. I've always had trouble focusing on one task for an extended period of time. My website reflects this with many different things I've done over the years: smilies, domino toppling, graphic design, games, animation, comics, and more.

If I stuck with one of those and got really good at it, I'd probably have a thriving career right now. But I don't, which haunts me while I'm toiling away at my real day job. I can't afford the testing to find out if I'm technically experiencing depression, but it damn sure feels like it.

With no treatment, these funks can put me in a bad state for a while. The worst was the time I started packing up my stuff so my family could clean out my apartment quickly after I was gone. But after three days, and with too much junk left to box up, and got exhausted and gave up.

Strangely, I think the struggles the Devils were going through also had an effect on me. I knew things would eventually work out for Candace, Lily, and Yu-Ri, but I shared in their suffering a little bit.

With all of that working against me, it seemed like I'd never finish my comic. I felt like a marathon runner: sweaty, tired, and in pain after ten miles... then realizing I had another sixteen left to go.

But I came up with an idea. What if I made a one page comic instead of 432? A comic with simple artwork that I could finish in a day, not weeks. And the characters would be adorable and fun, without any drama...

And so, the Mini-Devils were born. The non-canon spin-off allowed me to put the characters in silly situations that I couldn't do with their tall twin sisters, like finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow or playing football in their own unique fashion.

Another unexpected benefit was expanding on Candace's relationship with Tyler. The main comic was structured around Yu-Ri and Lily's evolving love story, and the other couple didn't get as much attention. Even though they're not the originals, I like to think they'd both behave in a similar way.

I didn't plan on adding Rose because her personality was the exact opposite of what the Mini-Devils were all about. But reworking her as a harmless prankster who gets her comeuppance at the end added a mild antagonist that fits into the mini-verse pretty well.

Drawing these chibi cuties cuddling and kissing each other helped raise my spirits, and actually completing something, even if it was just a short story, motivated me to work on the larger tale. I don't think I would have finished Chuck's Devils without the Mini-Devils lightening my mood.

If you're overwhelmed by a large project, a fun diversion may alleviate some pressure for you, too. Also, breaking it up into smaller segments could be beneficial as well. Taking my comic one episode, one page, or even one panel at a time helped me.

Going back to my marathon analogy, as long as you keep putting one foot in front of the other, you'll reach the finish line. It may take a lot longer than the professionals, but you can do it.

And while I'm on the subject of the Mini-Devils, it occurred to me that I haven't explained how they met. We know how the tall trio became best friends, but not their small siblings. To correct this, I came up with an origin story that will begin soon. I hope you'll enjoy it. :)

[bambiraptorx]

🎱🕯️📚🎨

🎱 post your AO3 total stats 

Total Word Count: 161,237

🕯️on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that?

Hm, maybe a 6 or a 7? It's definitely usually easier for me than writing the rough draft lol.

🎨link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it

Probably this one, of my more recent (ish) stuff. Honestly it was mostly experimental and the lighting wasn't quite what I wanted, but I drew an entire violin for this piece lol. I was pretty proud of that.

📚 post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

This might get a little spicy but I'm gonna be real here. I know that a lot of people like the comic design for Big Mama's Assistant (and I've seen some well-done fanart to be sure), but I really don't care for the way that people are defending it.

(read more cause this got ranty and is generally negative lol)

One of the most annoying responses that I've seen to her design (and a common defense) is people saying something along the lines of: "Oh but it makes perfect sense that she'd wear makeup, because Big Mama does!"

First of all, not all girls whose mothers wear makeup are going to wear makeup too. Second of all, that's technically based on an assumption with no grounding in canon, which is that Big Mama is a mother figure to her assistant at all. Their interactions in the show itself are all strictly professional, and while the idea of Big Mama being an adoptive parent to her assistant is definitely an interesting one to explore, it is not canon. (And no, I don't count any tweets Ron Corcillo might have made about this topic as canon lol.)

Honestly, a lot of the defenses for her wearing makeup that I've seen are less about why she might wear it (especially given that she literally wears a mask over it so it's not like people can actually see it) and seem to more carry a tone of "but girls wearing makeup is normal so I don't see what the issue is!"

And that is... exactly the problem. As of the comic Big Mama's assistant has essentially been confirmed as the only female sibling, and her design heavily reflects that. So heavily. It's like getting hit in the face with "She Is A Girl With Makeup On So You Can Tell She's A Girl!!!!"

Now, don't get me wrong, there's plenty of interesting reasons for why she might be wearing makeup. The thing is, I haven't seen any of the people who actually like her design give any of those reasons. If you want the reason for her wearing makeup to be "it's a form of self-expression that she does for herself, even knowing it won't be seen", for example, say that. If you want it to be "she exists in an environment where business professional is expected of her and that includes makeup (which implies that she's seen without the mask on at least some of the time)", then say that. If I can come up with these and half a dozen more explanations, then could the people who actually like the design come up with more than "Well Big Mama wears it so her assistant does too."

Really, it feels like what I've seen could be boiled down to "She's a girl and girls wear makeup so it's fine". And the fact that there's people who don't see an issue with it and even defend it, without thinking any deeper? It seriously rubs me the wrong way.

And like, look, I'm not trying to police what designs people can and cannot like. I just wish the defenses for it were more thought out, you know? If people can put the time into making fanart surely they can put the time into coming up with a good explanation for why the design is Like That even when her face is meant to be covered by a mask.

Rant over lol, it's gone on too long as it is.

ask game

[thisisevenharderthannamingablog]

Liveblogging notes for Ep 10.

Belated episode 9 reflection - Kim grew up in a world without innocence. He's what, ~4 years younger than Kinn? So was that much younger when whatever happened to their mother, and when Khun's kidnapping took place. He has a kind of caution that results from putting an observant child on the periphery of fucked up situations.

On to the episode.

Porsche has dropped the polite mode when he talks to Vegas? And now he's run off with him? Leaving Kinn hoping he hasn't just made the biggest mistake of his entire life??

Back to Chay. So was there a makeout session here, or a nap or...? Entertaining contrast from their older siblings' sex marathon.

Oh no, Kim.exe has crashed. You really are a Theerapanyakul; total fail at intimacy. Give yourself some time. More food, hm - but it doesn't get eaten.

Wow, broad daylight kidnapping Chay. There certainly is more plot happening all the sudden.

Kinn back to the power suits, no more cuddly. Big is suspicious. I kinda like how he always has his hands in his pockets? I don't know why.

Oh no Pete you just broke my entire heart with that speech. So brave. (I was so glad when he legit did find something useful.) Back on my chess metaphor, this is when his "piece" gets promoted from pawn to... knight, maybe? It goes unremarked in the dialog, but he has literally switched sides here. Would he have gone back in there on Kinn's orders? Absolutely. He wants to do it for Porsche.

Your writers know absolutely nothing about computer security. And how the hell did Tawan get out of the place? Oh right, mole.

Well this is getting very democratically unpleasant.

Tawan is legit pathetic. Still kinda gross. I can never get over how (relatively) short Vegas is. Porsche is SO confused. Vegas finally clues us in regarding his long game. It's evil! I love it! Porsche, wasn't untying yourself day one training?

This is probably the biggest family gathering Kim has attended in years. He's got Chay and Porsche is probably like who the fuck is that?! never mind, gotta fight people.

NOOOOOOOO I knew it was coming but damn. :( RIP perpetually annoyed supporting character, you deserved better. I hope Kim writes you a beautiful song.

Oh Kinn you will not let him live nobody's buying that.

Wow Vegas says a lot of shit. Even Porsche is like WTF that is messed up?? Spoilers did not prepare me for this whole Tawan/Vegas side story. Just put this guy out of his misery, yikes. Not right now, given that you're directly in one another's line of fire though.

That did indeed end poorly -- very much so for Big and Tawan, a little less for Chay, and kinda for Vegas who is now in a lot of trouble.

Kinn smoking this is new? Any chemical coping mechanism in a storm I suppose; this was not a good night for him.

I'm not sure if I'm going to watch the Pete/Vegas stuff or not. I hesitated to watch the show at all on account of this plot. Not here to harsh on anyone who likes that part of the story, just not my personal jam. Gotta say that is some intense eye contact there though. (What is with this show and freshman actors in major roles absolutely knocking it out of the park?)

Gun (? I've seen his name romanized like three different ways now) is pissed. Hard power vs. soft - we would never see Korn do something like that... himself.

Family meeting. Kinn's already down to the bottom of the glass (once I notice stuff like this I can't stop, sorry). "Your guy who betrayed us" nice verbal positioning there Gun. Khun not letting him get away with it, good job. Not quite ready to throw Vegas under the bus, eh.

Interesting micro-nod from Kinn there. He is so annoyingly hard to read in this setting. That was after Gun's line about punishment - an acknowledgement that yeah, he does want that, so what?

He lost Big, Could have lost Porsche. Chay's gotten dragged into it, which has dragged Kim into it. No matter how generally inured you are to violence, having your ex-lover shoot himself in the head three feet away is a little rough. And as much as he and Vegas hate each other, I doubt Kinn's thrilled that things have gotten to this point.

Gutsy move there, Gun! Korn would never kill him though (not with an audience anyway, or unless a last resort). That would completely upset Korn's whole meticulously arranged system. Gun (probably) knows that, and by forcing the question he removes the possibility that he'll get shot right now from the table.

Korn also (again, probably) won't let Kinn do it, and right now he is the bigger threat; Gun's eyes are mostly on Kinn in this scene, not his own brother. At Korn's "someone must be responsible for this," Gun looks at Kinn, who has another of those almost invisible nods. (There's his intro scene energy again. Mom must have been an interesting person. The main family and Kinn personally are surrounded by water, which is feminine? I don't know much about Thai symbology. Was she the last good chess opponent Korn had?)

Korn isn't going to let Kinn kill Gun for the above reason that he wants Gun right where he is, also because it would hand off way too much authority to Kinn, and finally (I suspect) because he wants to kill Gun. You can't go around letting people do things they find satisfying, what fun is that. (If Gun will hand over Vegas, though? Kinn can kill him, no great loss--or vice versa? Vegas is controllable. Kinn has been erratic lately. Just musing here, back to the episode.)

Victory doesn't come from taking advantage of the weak? Dude that is literally your entire livelihood. Making Gun accept that label of weak in public is far better than shooting him as far as Korn is concerned. Gun watching Kinn finish his drink, both of them aware that he would have pulled the trigger.

Still smoking. Stress-induced reversion to an old habit? They're arguing, but they're talking; I'll take it. Just gonna kiss the stupid out of each other, huh. Outside in broad daylight though, y'all getting reckless. Also getting better at fighting and making up like regular people. Kinn is not relying on vibes and sex, but explicitly checking in to agree the argument is over (a thing lots of people with much more relationship experience never learn, tbh).

So Chay wants Porsche to quit - not surprising - and it seems like Porsche is not inclined to? And Kinn kinda forgot about Pete...? On the other hand, at least there's besotted looks and cuddling.

[just-like-playing-tag]

Yo it's Apollo!Ray AU hours again

I just think Ray would be more fitting as ruthless psycho than Norman? I mean, Ray was willing to sacrifice 35 children out of 37- children that were his family, children he loved. I'm not saying such decision didn't destroy him internally; but if he, after having thought about it for a long time and considered there was no other chance, eventually agreed to sacrifice most of his own family, think about what he might be able to do to the creatures he despises.

Now, I'm not saying I'm 100% sure this is how Ray would act if he was sent to Lambda, and I know I'm on thin ice with remaining in character; but I find it fun to think of what could have been of him and eventually bringing to light some hidden dark aspects of his!

Hear me out: Ray is a complex, predominantly gray character. Through the canon story, he was greatly effected by Emma's good influence for the better. Nota bene!! I don't mean that Ray isn't his own character, and that his personality and development was solely shaped by Emma; what I mean is that he was influenced by Emma's attitude as much as she was of his own, because our personality is also built on the people we're surrounded by, especially the ones we share a deep bond with.

Now, let's say that, at Grace Filed, Ray's heart was still in a predominantly gray zone: a bit ruthless at heart - he really was willing to abandon to death 92% of his family - but still able to be influenced by Emma's good resolutions for the best (even though it's important to keep in mind that he didn't believe an escape involving more than three people was possible until it took place in front of his eyes. I think it's a very relevant detail, as it shows how GF!Ray's cynism and realism often lead to him solely being able to see the most negative results, and not allowing him to believe in the impossible as Emma and Norman did).

Now, things changed as canon Ray escaped. He had seen the impossible become reality right in front of his eyes, and in that moment he vowed he would have never made the same mistake: he would have never given up again; not on his family, nor on his life.

He swore to protect his family, and that he would have never allowed any of his siblings to meet death again: and that's because, for the very first time in his entire existence, he started to believe that no-escape-scenarios can actually be overcame without sacrifices, if only you have enough faith into making it possible. He learned that fighting back will never stop being an option, and he's now willing to do anything, even the impossible, to grant his family an happy life- this time, for all of them.

It's beautiful, isn't it? Well, bad news!!! Lambda!Ray never got the chance to go through this character development. In fact for him after his shipment everything got worse and more desperate!

I find it unlikely that Ray would have left a note with a revisited escape plan like Norman did before leaving... We know for sure in two months he didn't come up with what Norman had thought in a couple of hours, and even though in the circumstances of him being shipped he would have been him to make the recognition, he didn't know about the support of the younger siblings, which was a key element of the escape plan. Overall, even putting aside the fact that Norman is generally considered being a span more witty than Ray, I personally like to think that Ray, for how he is - pessimistic, depressed and everything - after seeing the cliff would have been far too miserable to come up with something as fast as Norman did.*

*Actually, it's hard to tell for sure, because I think Ray would never give up on saving Emma and Norman- but things were happening so fast, so what if he didn't have enough time? What if he just couldn't come up with a plan to overcome the cliff? I fully believe Ray would have done anything to save Emma and Norman, but what if there wasn't anything to be done? It's hard to say.

Ray is shipped to Lambda. This is probably what he's thinking, differently from Norman:

1. Their plan to escape somehow feels as it's already failed, since they already lost one person: without him, the plan of setting the house on fire to distract Isabella has no chance to work, making their already few chances of escaping go down to basically none.

2. Differently from Norman, who never stopped believing in Emma, Lambda!Ray doesn't know if his siblings were actually able to escape; taking into account how pessimistic Ray is, he has probably long presumed them dead. In such situation, it's very likely he considered the work of the six years of his life to at least make Emma and Norman survive gone to waste. I think it's actually very likely for him to get even more depressed and hopeless at Lambda, believing that now all his family is dead, and probably blaming himself for that. The fact that out of all his family he was the only one who survived - him, the one who out of them was the most ready and willing to die - must feel to him like the most cruel joke from destiny.

[For reference: until the very moment they finally met, also Norman didn't know the escape was successful.

Of course, Norman believed in Emma and in her plan, but what about cynical, realistic, I'm-depressed-since-I-was-one Ray?]

At Lambda, Ray is hopelessly stalling, obsessing on this kind of thoughts. His hatred for demons and, for extension, the world he lives in, is growing stronger and stronger. He's slowly sinking in the abyss of his own desperation. Now that all for him is lost, the only thought that keeps him from giving up on his life is one: the thirst of vengeance. A single, dark, rooted thought that somehow manages to be the one thing that keeps him going on. (Once taken on the Apollo facade, there probably was also a component of wanting to stop once and for all the suffering of thousands of children... But in all honesty, I believe with Ray the revenge component would be much stronger than it was with Norman.)

Let's take a moment to reflect on Ray's vindictive side, shall we? Of course, the main reason for Ray to set himself on fire was because according to him it was the safest way to make the others escape (honestly I think a big part of it was also because of him being suicidal kind of depressed, but that's not relevant to the point). But I believe another primary reason for his actions was his seek for revenge: you can clearly see it in his words full of hate and loathing. And I mean, I think that's pretty canon? Ray's beautiful theme in this moment of the anime is literally called “Ray's retaliation”.

That night Ray sought revenge for having ruined his six years plan to save his true friends (since Norman was ultimately shipped without him being able to do anything to save him), together with revenging all of his siblings he saw being led to death. Somehow, it was a moment for him to set all his anger free as his last testament leaving that cruel world.

But as for the Ray of the AU, he never got to experience that freeing moment! Instead, the anger inside of him kept growing stronger and stronger. And now that he believed the whole escape plan had failed and not a single child had survived, it's fair to assume his thirst for revenge would keep growing with it. And also, once again: this time there's no Emma to have a good influence on him.

Now imagine: after escaping Lamba, Ray meets Emma and Norman again!! He's overjoyed: for the longest time, he had thought he would have never got to see them again. He's ecstatic, overwhelmed with joy. In that moment, he swears to himself he'll never lose them again. Skip to the moment of the confrontation between the three of them, except this time it's Ray to expose his plan to exterminate the demons; when Emma randomly speaks her mind and says that, well, she actually doesn't find it very nice to eradicate an entire species, and that in fact she and Norman were already planning a fun trip to a deadly metaphysical place nobody ever came back from to reforge the promise. Needless to say, in the span of minutes Ray is back sinking deep into the abyss. He won't lose them again. He can't lose them again. And click boom, he goes “You know what Emma? Why don't you visit our Paradise Hideout a bit longer instead 😊🔪🔪🔪”

What I'm trying to say is: when the story starts, Ray has gone through all of the most dreadful and disturbing horrors; he's unstable, and depending on his fate when leaving Grace Field he could have easily swing from one extreme to the other. I think Emma greatly helped him overcome his hatred; but what would have been of him, hadn't she been there to support him? What if he only met people who shared his hatred for demons? What if Ray had the choice to kill them all?

[mcmusing]

The Fantastic Four Feels are strong in this one 😵😁

Seriously, ANYone who tries to put that ridiculous 'white privilege' label on the Fantastic Four better be prepared to deal with *this* cat lady 👊

Through all of this reflection and research, I feel more connected to the Four than ever. It started off with me as a casual fan of their 90s animated series to now, viewing them as the uplifting diamond in the rough of superhero movies.

I've spent a lot of time discussing the trials and triumphs of the Storm siblings. Out of the whole team, the backstory of those two is referenced the most in adaptations with a clear affect on Sue and Johnny's personalities. Conversely, little is known about Reed and Ben's family histories other than Ben' frequently mentioning his beloved Aunt Petunia. On closer investigation, friggin' WHOA, *how* did any one of them grow up to be Fantastic??!

(Aww, Johnny has them all enclosed in a fire blanket. The glow makes them match Sue's skin tone- now, shut up, haters)

The original screenplay of the 2005 film confirmed my thoughts on Reed with freakish accuracy. And my heart overflows for him in the most fantastic ways. I knew he was struggling with leadership, suffered low self-esteem, felt inferior to Victor, and lost the concept of self-care almost entirely in pursuit of a cure. They also went into detail about how his powers work, as in the film, he focused more on the other three. Sue sees what he's doing to himself and her concern for him outweighs any lingering hostility.

A deep plunge into their backstories gives so much insight into Reed and Ben's characterizations in the film duology. Since they had the fortune of having Fantastic Fan Michael Chiklis on set, I'm sure he collaborated with Ioan Gruffudd to strengthen their chemistry and give them acting motivation.To go beyond whatever the scripts had to offer.

As previously established, Ben is a Brooklyn native. He's also Jewish (with a name like Benjamin Jacob Grimm, this isn't exactly a startling revelation) and grew up in a family made up of father Daniel, mother Elsie, and older brother Daniel "Danny" Jr. Due to his alcoholism, Daniel never held down a job for long. It fell on Danny to provide most of the financial support.

A brief tangent: Something I've wanted to know for a long time is HOW??!!! How do the biggest degenerate a-holes produce such amazing kids?!!!!! Yes, Franklin Storm and Daniel Grimm Sr., keep boozing until you find the answer to your ptoblems at the bottom of one of those bottles. Don't fight to give your children the best life possible. Just force your eldests to surrender their childhood and take care of everything. I see this in RL a lot and it is crazy baffling.

Unfortunately, Danny could only make ends meet by leading a street gang. When Ben was eight, his brother got killed in a war with rival gangs. Their parents died not long after. Shockingly, there's a bright side. Ben's well-to-do Uncle Jake and Jake's wife Petunia plucked him out of the 'hood and into their home. Ben developed an especially close relationship with his aunt and learned things like recipes from her. He channeled his justified anger into sports and eventually won a college scholarship.

Reed- dear, dear Dr. Richards. Born to Nathaniel and Evelyn Richards in California, Reed was a child prodigy who excelled in science and math. A genius himself, Nathaniel took great pride in Reed and encouraged his intellectual pursuits. When Reed was seven, Evelyn died. Movie/original screenplay canon solidified Reed and Ben as childhood friends instead of college friends. Nathaniel held things down for a couple of years, but he likely moved them to New York under the rationalization that the east coast offered the best universities.

Can you picture a mind-blowingly smart kid fresh from the west coast attending school in NY? As we well know, Reed is NO social butterfly. In fact, he's hinted as possibly being on the aspergers spectrum. Being relatively new to the school himself, Ben most likely took it upon himself to serve as the wee egghead's best friend and bodyguard. In addition, I see Nathaniel using the close friendship to leave Reed in the care of the Grimms while he traveled for his scientific research. Since Jake and Petunia did well financially and the fact that Reed was such a brainy, introverted little boy, the Grimms would not have minded his frequent presence.

Because of the very few mentions of his father throughout adaptations, I suspected that Reed had more of a mutual colleagues relationship with him instead of an affectionate one and the comics pretty much back this up. Nathaniel wanted an academic focused, self-reliant child to free himself up to continue his work around the globe. Be it potential aspergers or simply being accustomed to the way he was raised, Reed seems to harbor no resentment towards Nathaniel. If he does, he likely keeps it buried since depression would be counterproductive to his innumerable life goals.

This explains SO much in the films! For practically his entire life, Ben was not merely his sole friend but the only person Reed loved on a deep emotional level. Any love for his father was probably just instinctive at most. Before Ben, Reed might have never tapped into his own humanity or been able to feel something towards anyone. It's fortunate they met during childhood in the movies because by college, Reed would have been a robot essentially.

While the comics mention him having one college sweetheart before Sue, I don't think the movies support that. I firmly believe Reed lived a celibate life until he reunited with young adult Sue. Of course Reed had trouble reading people and expressing his emotions. Falling in love is all too likely not something he included among his endeavors. Sue made him feel things he never knew before and would only ever know with her. He knew sincere platonic love through Ben, but making sense of romantic/sexual feelings is totally different territory. It's not until after they're married in the comics does Sue suspect him to be on the spectrum. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is for people with aspergers in even the most loving families to grasp human emotion? How hard it is for 'normal' people to remain patient with them? NO easy task on either side.

When Reed and the Suzie-Q broke up before the events of the first film, there's no way Reed ceased communication with Johnny with deliberatel malice. He saw Johnny's potential and probably figured he wouldn't care about his absence. When they reunite for the space mission, Johnny doesn't want Reed around Sue, but Reed comes off as if two years had not passed since they last saw each other. He still has love and patience for Johnny. He's practically aglow when the Storns come to live in the Baxter Building. I'll go as far as to say that Reed loves Ben, Sue, and Johnny exclusively. Victor probably could have made the cut also if he didn't opt for the arch nemesis path instead.

All of this history gives me even greater respect for how multi-dimensional Ben is. He was born a youngest child, but is a natural-born big brother towards both Reed and Sue. It astounds me how revolutionary Stan Lee proved to be with their dynamic. Sue was never made into a prize in a love triangle with Reed and Ben. Furthermore, the two guys don't get fixated on their vast differences. If anything, they celebrate them. For every scholastic achievement award Reed earned, Ben was there. For every sporting event Ben participated in, Reed never missed one.

Knowing all of this, is there any question about their actions throughout the movies? Not only did Reed refuse to get to safety until Ben made it back inside the ship, he didn't *want* to survive if Ben didn't. Reed's desperation to find a cure was not solely out of guilt, but out of his love for the best, most constant family member he's ever had. Ben spent decades looking out for Reed and wound up changed into a rock monster for it. If Reed had to die to produce that cure, so be it. That's why Reed overanalyzes every little step before daring to take big ones. All he's ever had going for him- in his eyes- is his innovative genius. It's what made him worthwhile to his parents. He thinks that is the part of him Sue fell in love with. He hates himself for every mistake because if his work fails that makes him feel like less than nothing.

Reed has very interesting similiarities as well as contrasting differences with Johnny. Both are tne younger, protected half of their sibling duos. While Johnny feels a bit overly nagged by Sue at times, Reed has no qualms about being Ben's precious. Reed excuses a lot of Johnny's antics because he himself can get a little overly excited about scientific discoveries. Johnny deals with his troubling past through hedonism and attention-seeking. Reed supresses his by taking on the heavy burden of saving a world with which he hardly wants to interact. Each put themselves in harm's way to save the person they love most. They also both enjoy their cosmic powers.

Ben and the Suzie-Q are alike with the childhood traumas of losing the people meant to look after them through sudden death and alcoholism. Each of them reacted to it by taking on responsibility and becoming the caretaker for a younger sibling. While Ben easily accepted Reed coming into his own as a leader, Sue can't help her maternal instinct towards the less mature Johnny. The two are able to sense the other's pain and see through whatever brave facades they try to put up. Also importantly, they hated their powers and wanted nothing to do with heroics at first.

Believe it or not, there's an even greater depth at play here. Once they're back on Earth, Reed is completely puzzled about how his calculations of the cosmic storm could have been so far off. The films never shed light on this. While a lot of fandom was furious about Galactus not appearing in his comic body, I found him and the storm arriving in the form of ominous clouds way more omninous. With no real explanations given, it feels like there was a higher power involved in the Four receiving the powers they did. When confronted by a hero test on the bridge, they passed it with flying colors. Meanwhile, Victor was more like one of the fallen Biblical figures. Given tremendous power, only to use it in the least fantastic ways.

In the New Testament, when Jesus' biological family is looking for Him, He indicates His disciples as His family. A very brief declaration that tells us that loving and caring for people isn't limited to our gene pool- literally, thank God.

For a long time now, I've entertained a theory that the amazing kids born to the worst parents actually have real kinsmen scattered around the globe in the form of strangers. Unfortunately, not all of them will meet each other. That's why respect for life is so important. You never know how a single individual will affect another or several others, for better or worse.

It's pretty easy to write Stan Lee off as making the Fantastic Four's origins too contrived and/or repetitive of each other. Like really, they all lost their mothers young and had emotionally negligent fathers? What are the odds of that happening? In the same small community, probably one in a million. For a kid growing up in Brooklyn, another in California, and two siblings over in Long Island, very much possible.

Keep in mind a few other things here. One being the wide age gap between Ben/Reed and the Storm siblings. Meaning their tragedies were eerily similar, but not simultaneous. Another is how the Four came into each other's lives twice with both events unplanned. Young adult Ben and Reed happened to rent a room from the Storms' aunt. Sue fell for Reed straightaway but knew nothing could happen between them. Obviously, this was no fleeting schoolgirl crush because when they met again years later, the attraction became mutual. In the movies, they're reunited for a third time, which stuck. Yeah, that's not contrivance. It's serendipity.

This whole story is beautiful is a major understatement. Don't you see? These four random people from very different backgrounds but uncannily similar sorrows, defied all odds in not only meeting but joining together as the First Family of Superheroes. Four jagged pieces that fit to form a new gorgeous picture.

It's almost something of a parable. All of us feel alone in the world at some point or another, regardless of being surrounded by millions of other people. Certain bad events- death, sickness, divorce, poverty- cause us to proclaim there is no upside and life is not worth living trying to find one. That is a mindset none of us must ever give into. There's no guarantee that we're all meant for the Fantastic or even the halfway decent. That unknown is the reason to go on. Do not look towards tomorrow dreading the worst but desiring to do your best. So easy for the cat with a crown on her head to say, you may think. It might astonish you to know, but not every royal is born into the bloodline.

My life is valuable.

Your life is valuable.

All lives are valuable!

Deal with it 💛😎

[fillingthescrapbook]

Rewriting The CW's Kung Fu, Part 9: Reflections and Moving Forward

And we have reached the end of our Kung Fu journey. If you haven't seen where we began, here's a handy guide to the previous posts:

Part 1: The Characters

Part 2: The Pilot

Part 3: The Mythology

Part 4: The Story Map

Part 5: Act I

Part 6: Act II

Part 7: Act III

Part 8: The Finale

Before I start with the lessons I learned and my other reflections, I want to thank @flailingbloo for all of her help and support in this endeavor. Without her to talk to and commiserate with, I would probably have gotten stuck in Act II forever and everything I've written would've been riddled with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. So my eternal gratitude to flailingbloo. And now, we begin:

Lessons.

Going into this writing exercise, I already knew it was going to be hard. Writing stories is time-consuming, it's nerve-wracking, and it takes a lot of research...and patience. Writing, especially for television, is also not a solitary task. I mean, sure, the writing itself needs to be done alone--but everything that comes before, during, and after the writing needs input from so many people.

Although I have a lot (and I mean A LOT) of complaints about how The CW's Kung Fu was handled and written, I do have a lot of respect for the work that the writers put into their scripts. And I do appreciate all that they have done to have a show like this produced.

Doing this rewrite, I learned that it's really important to make the main character likeable. Like, every episode I broke down, I had to ask myself: is Nicky likeable here? Is she someone who viewers would want to root for? Like, for me she is, but only people who read what I wrote can say for sure. My perspective is now a bit skewered because I have bias.

Second, story maps are very helpful. There were times, especially during Part 6 (where I wrote breakdowns for Episodes 6 to 9) where I kept getting road-blocked by where I want the story to go. So I went back to the story map over and over again, to remind myself--where does the story itself need to go? How do I help the characters get to the point where they're ready for what needs to happen? (This is also where flailingbloo helped the most for me. Like, she really reminded me why I was doing this rewrite in the first place. Because I care about Nicky and the show. I wouldn't have funneled so much of my time and effort into this if I didn't.)

Another thing I learned, or rather re-learned, is the art of letting go. I created the character of Stanley to recur throughout the series as a reminder of who Nicky was and who she is becoming. And then I finished writing the first act without even mentioning him. By the second act, I was ready to use him finally--but, after multiple false starts, I realized Stanley was one of the reasons why I was having a hard time pushing Nicky's story forward. Because I kept trying to go back to the past. So I decided in the writing of the second act to shelve Stanley completely, only to find him popping up in the second to last episode in a, at least I hope, more organic way.

The last thing I learned in this exercise was that, whenever a new character needs to come in, I have to look at my existing characters first to see if any one of them can fulfill the role I needed for the story. Like, creating new villains for Nicky was fun, sure--but, at the same time, I realized that there were already existing villains that could recur. Like the Triad, who played villains in two more episodes after the pilot; and Henry's martial arts class at the community center became the source of two existing storylines from the actual show.

Reflections.

Do I think what my rewrite is better than the show? To me, yes. But, again, I am very biased. That said, I am proud of how I utilized the characters that the show created and didn't really give much importance to. Dennis, when he was introduced, felt like a rich character that could provide a very different point-of-view from the Shen siblings--but he was mostly relegated to being eye-candy. And I thought I gave him more meat by making him more involved in Althea's sexual harassment storyline, while also involving him in Nicky's stories.

That said, I also realize that I wasn't able to play up Nicky and Evan's past relationship as I was writing the episodic breakdowns. I was able to give them a lot of opportunities to explore their chemistry together, as I did with Nicky and Henry, but I kind of dropped the ball as a writer on guiding those planted moments into something more significant. Granted, I only wrote breakdowns and not actual scripts. Maybe I could've explored the romance angle more with a little sprinkle of direction and dialogue.

As I went deeper into the rewrite, I do see how easy it is to fall in love with characters as you write them. It's very easy to trap yourself into wanting villains to be more well-rounded. I keep having to remind myself that I don't have to redeem everyone. Just Nicky. Which became harder and harder as I went further and further into the story.

Another thing that became difficult as I went on? Keeping the mythology from just bursting open. That's how Henry, as I wrote him, evolved into becoming the son of a guardian--just so there's a reason for him to be so invested in Nicky's quest, while also having someone who can explain things to our main character. I'm actually really proud of that evolution.

All that said, I also have to recognize that I rewrote the show with the benefit of hindsight and the lack of budget constraints. In the real show, there's a group of writers who each have their own ideas of what the show should be. (This is where a head writer--not a show runner--would come in handy, so they could reel in the story to what needs to be told.) With more writers comes more chances for inconsistencies to happen. (And this is where a script supervisor, or a writing assistant, could come in handy.) And then there's production notes and budget. Not to mention, you know, the whole pandemic that's still happening. I didn't have to think about those things while doing this rewrite.

So, again, I want to give the writers kudos to actually producing scripts. I hope they haven't lost their minds--or their will to write--just because there are people like me who nitpick at everything. That's what people who love things do. We nitpick because we care.

Moving forward.

I do plan to stick with the real show for Season 2. I hope it's planned better. I hope they get researchers (plural!) and a writing assistant to help in the writing room. I hope the writers would sit down with the cast to discuss and develop the characters more. And I really hope they hire a better fight choreographer and fight director for the second season. (Like, rehire the people who choreographed and filmed the flashback scene in... Episode 11? The one with Nicky's maternal grandmother and Pei-Ling's own mother?)

I hope that the Nicky-Henry relationship gets explored realistically, and if a potential new love interest is ordered, they get introduced in a way that isn't antagonistic. Make them more well-rounded characters too, please. Make us want to root for their success. And while I think Nicky doesn't have an iota of chemistry with Evan, I do like Evan himself as a character. So I hope they get him more involved in future storylines--as an outsider looking in, sure, but also as an honorary member of the Shen family.

With regards to the Shen family, I do hope that we get to explore their relationships and dreams more before the show drops the reveal about Mei-Xue's daughter. I want Althea to have a cohesive storyline that doesn't pause for no reason. I want Ryan to explore being Asian AND gay as a first-generation Asian-American. And give the Shen siblings some recurring friends. They don't have to be semi-regulars (unless there's a story that can be explored) but let's not keep the Shens in a bubble. It was weird in the first season. Especially for Althea whose friends only showed up for her bachelorette party and never again. Not even when she was panicking about wedding preparations, which, considering how rich Dennis's parents were? They wouldn't let Althea be in charge of anything. They would hire a Chinese wedding coordinator. And an expensive and hard-to-book one at that. They donated an entire hospital wing, for crying out loud.

I want Jin to have an actual character, and not just be the supportive dad who loves his kids very much (admittedly my own rewrite also made this same mistake). And I want Mei-Li to be consistent as a character. Like, no more surprise twists about being the descendant of a legendary warrior without proper foreshadowing and plot-planting please.

Dennis shouldn't just be eye-candy. The same applies to Kerwin. Sure, I get that shirtless men are a must in a CW series, but please give their characters some meat too. Dennis's nerd-side was never showcased in the show, and Kerwin had that poor little rich boy background that didn't get explored either. Because the show was too busy keeping him and Zhi-Lan tearing each others' clothes off--when they're not tearing other people down.

Also, don't drop the ball on the tease that Bian-Ge is now everywhere. If I understood correctly, Bian-Ge is Kung Fu's version of Qi. If yes, then I hope they treat it respectfully as a force of nature--and not just the source of magic. The flowers from Bian-Ge itself can be magical, sure, I have no problem with a fictional flower being a McGuffin.

Finally, I hope the show also explores other Asian communities and cultures. Like, Kung Fu is great--but imagine if Nicky had to face someone who is versed in Silat Melayu? Or someone who uses Arnis? Someone who practices Kalaripayattu or Lathi Khela? Or Kuntao? Imagine Nicky having to use Wing Chun against someone who uses Karate or Krav-Maga? Asia is a big continent and there are so many different types of martial arts found from the Middle East to Southeast Asia. Kung-Fu is an umbrella term, so it'll be great to see the different styles found under it.

... This went long again. Sorry about that. Funny thing is, when I started this whole rewriting plan? I thought it would take three posts, tops. And look at us now. Nine posts deep, and it seems I still haven't run out of things to say. So I'm cutting myself off before I completely wear out my welcome.

But if you've read all my Kung Fu posts, please do reach out. Let's discuss the show and what it can do to produce a better second season.

[oddcoupler222]

can you write the dissertation on sansa? i watch game of thrones and i used to find her annoying. she's stopped being so annoying to me but i don't see what you see in her but i'm interested in knowing why you love her so much

my time has come

Sansa starts out as a young, pampered 13 year old girl, who was born to a wealthy, powerful, respected family. She was raised to believe in very specific (feminine) parameters of who she should be, what she should want, and what she should do. And she was good (if not great) at everything she was taught to be and do.

So, like a high-class girl raised the way she was raised, she got the attention of a prince and wanted to be a princess; she was a romantic who believed in knights and songs and - of course, that’s what she wanted. And no, she didn’t think critically about political or social matters at that time - not because she couldn’t but because she was never taught that she should.

And yes, in season one when she was a child, she made mistakes because she was spoiled and could be bratty. And yes, her mistakes did contribute to some of the events that followed, like her father’s fate (but honestly, his death was essentially sealed no matter what because of what a psychopath Joffrey was). And my god, did she pay for it.

She was forced - literally held up - to watch her father get beheaded in front of her while she screams and cries and eventually passes out from the trauma of it.

Then she’s held hostage in King’s Landing, a place so very, very far from home, with the family who is literally killing her own. Physically abused by adult men, emotionally and mentally abused (including forced to look at her father and septa’s beheaded heads). Is forced to constantly put-down and renounce her family as traitors when all she wants is to see them again.

She finds out that her ancestral family home is taken from her family, that her little brothers are dead (yes we know they aren’t but she doesn’t). She’s forced to marry a man over twice her age. She hears about how her brother and mother - the last hope she had to come and rescue her - are brutally murdered.

And not only has to hear about it, but is literally forced to live with the people responsible for killing her entire family. The people who rub her face in the fact that not only is her family dead but that they killed them, who make her watch plays and sing songs glorifying the death of everyone she loved.

All of this while she is only a teenager.

You know what she does? She survives.

She wields her courtesy like armor; she holds her tongue when she wants to lash out and puts up a facade that she isn’t breaking inside.

She starts learning to use her words as her weapons. When Joffrey taunts her, she gives subtle reserved rejoinders that insult him just enough to toe the line (Joffrey: I’ll tell you what. I’m going to give you a present. After I raise my armies and kill your traitor brother, I’ll give you his head as well. Sansa: Or maybe he’ll give me yours.)

She adapts and evolves in a world where she feels incredibly alone. Not only alone but feels guilty and stupid.

Then she leaves King’s Landing - after being framed for murder - and is taken into the custody of a creepy man who was in love with her mother and is now in love with her (ugh) and yet, he is all she has at the time to rely on. And from there?

She learns even more; she starts to understand truly how to move the pieces of the game that she’s been thrown into.

But before she even has a say in her own life, she gets brought to Winterfell and is forced to be there with the family who betrayed hers and helped lead them to their deaths before stealing their home. She’s forced to marry the craziest, most monstrous character on the entire show (a man who rapes her, who locks her in a room, who plays mind games with her).

And, she never backs down from him – making comments to plant seeds of doubt about his status as a bastard, “I am Sansa Stark of Winterfell. This is my home. And you can’t frighten me.”

Still, she survives. She jumps off of a literal fucking castle to escape him, goes through feet of snow, through frozen waters and escapes him.

And when she’s finally reunited with her remaining family and Jon presents her with the opportunity to run away from this mess - because he is sick of fighting - it’s Sansa who now has grown this spine of steel. It’s Sansa who stands up for herself, to all of the men in the room who are older who are more familiar with wars and fighting, and asserts that she needs to take the Stark home back from the monster who lives there.

Who wins that war against Ramsay Bolton? Yes Jon - at Sansa’s insistence and while also not consulting her - fought in the war, but he would have been dead if Sansa hadn’t gotten the soldiers from the Vale to help them.

Let’s take the moment to reflect on that, too – Sansa wanted nothing more in the beginning of the show to leave the North. That the North was boring, wanted a new life, wanted to go south, and now? Now all she wants is her home. The home she left behind became all she longed for (it’s also why I’m so absolutely bullshit about Jon bending the knee and giving the North to Dany without even consulting Sansa).

In the end, it’s Sansa - the Northern girl who wanted nothing more than to leave the North when she was a child - who wins back the Stark home. It’s Sansa who underwent that development, that growth, to appreciate where she was from and the life she used to have.

And it’s also Sansa who has the knowledge and the understanding of politics, now, to actually rule the North when the Starks take back Winterfell, let’s be real. Sansa knows how to play the game, now. She knows how to manipulate and how to be diplomatic and how to reign in her emotions.

She plays Littlefinger - one of the smartest players in the game - like a fiddle, using the knowledge she took partly from him, while also cutting him off at the knees with the wit and cutting remarks that she’s learned over the years (“No need to seize the last word, Lord Baelish. I’ll assume it was something clever.”)

When he tries to manipulate her in the last season? She saw through it and orchestrated a plan to double-cross him. Her last words to him - “I’m a slow learner, it’s true. But I learn. Thank you for all your many lessons, Lord Baelish. I will never forget them.” before she gives the nod for Arya to fucking kill him in a court Sansa called?!

A Fucking Queen.

(though I will always contest that she is a slow learner; she was learning and surviving on the tips of her toes at every turn since the end of the first season)

Sansa went through hell and clawed her way back. She did start off as a spoiled child, and she more than paid any kind of “price.”

Sansa lost everything, was held captive, and survived by learning. Using her mind, her words, her politics. She isn’t like Arya and Jon and Bran who had the ability to physically leave the bad situation she was stuck in and find her own path. She isn’t like them in that she doesn’t have the ability to physically fight back.

She is flawed, she’s made mistakes, she’s human. But she has grown. She’s learned from her - and other people’s - mistakes, to become a smart, willful, strategic, diplomatic leader. She takes the best parts of her parents (their courage, their intelligence, their loyalty) and can look back and understand the mistakes they made to try to make sure she and her siblings don’t repeat them.

Sansa Stark is a beautiful, strong, well-developed character, and she deserves the world.

[queen0fm0nsterz]

Dom n Hater

HOHO NOW YOU'RE TALKIN MY LANGUAGE GOOD SIR [rubs hands] I'VE BEEN WAITING TO GUSH ABOUT THEM SINCE 2016

I'm gonna do two versions, one for Canon and one for an alternative universe where they do end up together, because I have a LOT of things to say.

CANON

I consider this ship's feelings:

Mutual | Mixed | Strange | Akward | Platonic | Sibling-like | One-sided | They don't really like each other

I'd consider the relationship:

Healthy | Akward | Abusive | Doesn't work properly | They'd never get together

Children:

No | Yes | They'd think about it

General Opinion: You know, thinking about it, it's probably best for the both of them that they didn't end up together in canon.

I think that Dominator shouldn't date anyone in general, at least not before she learns how to make friends first... if she can't handle a friendship how the hell is she gonna handle a relationship?

Hater on the other hand immediatly threw himself into this new "obsession" with his crush for her, just like he did for his obsession with Wander, putting himself, and by extention the other main 3, in mortal danger. He was so blinded by his love for her that he couldn't see all the red flags (and belive me there were a LOT of them), and the fact that he tends to act like a teeneager prevented him from listening to Peepers' GOOD advice of giving up on this love that very clearly wasn't meant to be. Truth be told, Hater isn't mentally mature enough for an actual serious relationship, at least in my opinion.

I see a lot of people making the argument that a romantic subplot would have ruined Dominator's character or at least make it weaker, but I don't think that would have been the case. If handled well, it could have been interesting, and I'm pretty sure Hater would have still ended up with his heart broken at the end of it.

Because Dom doesn't do romance.

She COMES, she SEES, and she DOMINATES.

But you have to admit, Hater's Ballad and I'm the Bad Guy kinda stuck with both of them in different ways. Dom couldn't stop humming the ballad (HONESTLY ME TOO??), meaning she did hear the song and liked it to some extent, and Hater had a bit of time to reflect about his choices and to make some personal growth after ITBG.

Now, in an eventual season 3, I'd like to think they might become rivals (in a way less serious way) and maybe even friends. Frenemies? Frenemies. Because they aren't really that different from one another and, as Hater said:

"Think of the pair we could be if you dared to just open up your evil heart!"

It would be in a platonic way but still, I'd absolutely love to see them being rivals/buddies. It'd be an explosive friendship that's for sure.

So to be short the entire Dom N Hater arc snatched my wig, @ Disney where my season 3 Dom/Hater friendship at? I feel robbed.

That's it.

AU

I consider this ship's feelings:

Mutual | Mixed | Strange | Akward | Platonic | Sibling-like | One-sided | They don't really like each other

I'd consider the relationship:

Healthy | Akward | Abusive | Doesn't work properly | They'd never get together

Children:

No | Yes | They'd think about it

General Opinion: NOW THIS IS WHERE MY FUN BEGINS-

So, what if Dom actually agreed to go on a date with Hater. What if she actually kind of maybe liked him. What if they were actually a couple.

But, I prented I hear you ask so I feel like any of you care about literally anything I'm saying, what would Dominator like about Hater that would make her actually want to hang around him?

Probably the fact that out of all of the villains out there Hater is literally the only one that not only managed to keep up with her in a fight, giving her a fine, violent challenge, but almost defeated her, too.

(I mean, come on. My man Hater would have TOTALLY defeated her at the end of The Battle Royal, hadn't it been for the crush he gets on her after he smashed her helmet away. Come on. Come on.)

Dom looks like someone that would respect strenght. Plus, since he had the ability to defeat her, it would also be strategic to be in good terms with him.

And so, a new relationship is now born! Congrats.

It would be a tumultuos relationship.

The line between love and hate is very thin, my friends.

They might be together now but they sure as hell won't give up on their respective goals, so of course a lot of arguments about the conquest/distruction of the galaxy are ensured. ("DOMINATOR THAT PLANET WAS MINE WHY DID YOU DESTROY IT" "WELL I DON'T SEE YOUR FLAG ON IT NOW DO I")

Actually, they'd argue a lot, about everything. They're both very fiercy and stubborn people, so their fights would probably escalate from screams to one another to a full blown physical fight, with Peepers caught in the middle trying to calm them down.

However, I think they'd have a some sweet, tender moments too. When things calm down and they're just chilling together, not doing much, just staying in each other's presence. Y'know, like that.

Or, well, they'd team up to harrass the other villains and show them who's boss.

They'd both be pretty new to this whole love thing, to be honest. Dom doesn't understand it and Hater is really bad with it, but... they'd have fun together. Just being bastards. Together.

Ok now I need to stop or I'll go on fOREVER GOODBYE THIS WAS MY DOM N HATER ESSAY