#I feel like an edgy teen writing this post

[m3ssyhair]

Ugh... There's clothes in my wardrobe that haven't been worn ONCE because my mom always bickers about it. I'm tired of going out with the same pair of shorts and plain shirt because the super cool rad beautiful gorgeous perfect outfit I wanted to wear wasn't to her tastes.

What's funnier is that almost all of my wardrobe is composed of clothes SHE CHOSE. If she doesn't even like what she chose, how will I ever satisfy her?

AAAARGH!!!!!

[firestorm09890]

on a scale from one to NaN, how real are you feeling today?

[satorugojjo]

I don’t think there’s a single book BookTok has promoted in the last couple years that’s turned out to be an actually good “you cannot miss this read” which now makes me and so many others I know avoid it as a whole.

A lot of BookTok books seem to be specific for very young or very new readers who haven’t cut their teeth on fanfic or haven’t been reading from a young age. The writing style is either a really profound Instagram metaphorical caption kinda overwrought and over flowery language, or it’s trying so hard to be edgy and sardonic and ends up being completely tell and almost zero show. This Is How You Lose The Time War is a PERFECT example of this - where the flowery and poetic language actually takes AWAY from a scene and distracts you from it rather than adding anything to it in the moment, and for those who do like poetic fiction this will be up their alley but if you don’t and you pick it up because of badly marketed hype when you normally wouldn’t, it’s gonna turn you off reading in general!

There’s nothing wrong with starter fiction to help get readers engaged and then find their way into actually good books, but my gripe is that it’s never ever marketed as that and as if it it’s just generically good fiction. Nothing Colleen Hoover has ever written is objectively good - the writing style is mediocre and she romanticises taboo topics which will seem spicy to the average population who doesn’t READ. And yet she takes up every bookshelf which I promise you will end up turning many readers who ARENT on booktok away from reading altogether.

YA is another genre that has declined a lot in recent years because it’s full of marketers trying to fit all the buzzword tropes into their books and getting young readers to buy it because it’s “enemies to lovers pirate cyberpunk found family” or whatever - and it feels more like focus group fiction rather than actual writing. I LOVE YA but nothing that’s been released post 2020 has had any depth, plot, character development or any style to it.

A great example is Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros - i tried reading 2 chapters as a sample and it was shocking to see how illogical, overdramatic, overedgy and exceptionally “this happened then this then this then that” it was. There was absolutely zero nuance and it felt so “I’m telling you all this but I’m not gonna prove any of it”. And yet it’s rated either 5 stars or 1 star. I’m sure it’s a great starter middle grade/teen book but it is definitely not deserving to be on the same pedestal as other YA books like Hunger Games or Six of Crows. I used to think that perhaps I’ve just outgrown YA but considering I can pick up YA from 2018 that I haven’t read before with no problems, it’s so specific to BOOKTOK YA.

It’s getting to the point that if I see a book that’s being overpromoted on tiktok, I’m more likely to believe the bad reviews because there hasn’t been a SINGLE book where I’ve disagreed with them, and then go find a different book in the same genre that hasn’t been on booktok - it’s getting hilarious actually that the books that are actually incredible get zero screen time and traction on booktok because they aren’t just cheap easy airport reads. Once again - nothing wrong with an easy airport CH book or YA book, but we aren’t going around parading a Lee Child book as peak literature no matter how enjoyable they are.

I don’t even have a conclusion to this entire rant - I’m sick of books like Babel getting steamrolled because it was “too sad or too hard” in favour of the latest SJM book, and getting even more sick of the decline of media literacy due to books getting easier and more spoonfeedy. When they aren’t? They mistake flowery metaphors for complexity and depth.

[ezlo-x]

Erm,,,ig i’ll ask

I feel like hiding here and pretend that im typing in the tags would help but. Is it normal to feel like a rut in writing? I never like to ask or talk abt this things cause I do have a sort of pride and worry ppl will doubt my skills. Idk smth like that. Lately I’ve been feeling this writer’s rut with my au’s story. Where things feel very spotty, yknow when you rub your eyes hard you start to see spots? Well that’s how I see my au story, where it’s clear on what I want in certain parts but it’s a haze in other areas.

I feel like im overthinking and over complicating things in my story. Rn where its at in the comic is fine. I guess the issue I have is that it feels like there’s so mich going on. Like do I want to go on this path? Will it be easier if I try another way? I feel like I haven’t explored certain things that I want to explore. I feel like I haven’t pushed much the horror elements of my story enough. But I worry it will be too edgy. I feel like im adding too much symbolism and details where there shouldn’t be. But I also love adding symbolism even in the smallest details. Idk this chapter really cracked my little head, aside from feeling frustrated that the linework doesn’t look good cause im still figuring out the pen pressure to my liking. I love the story I wrote for that chapter and im still pretty proud of it, I guess it just feels like im taking too long to work on when I just want to finish it and share with you all.

Anyways I guess this is entering in vent territory but I would like some advice to figure this out. I guess that’s the issue of being an overly critical person that you become your biggest critic. But I love criticizing things!! I love being critical!! I love engaging in discussions on how things could work better!! But also im a very scared and paranoid person nfkajfksnkfb i mean no harm. Ik this story will not be a 10/10 story I at least want it to be cohesive. I at least want people to enjoy it. Ik this story for me mostly but I feel lost!! Idk what to do!! But I also feel so selfish in asking its weird like i dont want to this to be all abt me. I just want to figure out smth that I feel a little lost on.

Strangely enough I love doing art critiques in class. I love hearing what ppl have to say eventho 90% of the time its just ppl standing there awkwardly cause ppl are afraid to say anything. But I enjoy it! But it’s also a double edged sword, cause art class you are free to critique cause ur learning but here?? This is my personal stuff for my own enjoyment, how would I handle that? Ig advice on how to improve would work than straight up criticizing my work. But also ik that I might get an anon or two with this post and I always get scared getting an ask when it’s related to criticism. Im sorry but I get scared!! Im spooked!! Idk if its cause in the past it was very much a russian roulette of an anon being nice or anon being fucking mean. Like dating back to when I was teen. Did you guys know that some of my artwork that I did when I was 16 ended up in kiwifarms?? My scariest tumblr moment…..

Anyways I realized I went off the rails on what I was originally asking for..

[meow-xine]

Enough for me. (Roy Kent x Fem!Reader)

pairing: (Coach) Roy Kent x Fem. reader

word count: 824 words.

warnings: roy being sad/doubting himself, roy x reader fluff, reader comforting roy, slight sexual themes suggested (near the end), roy hating on trent crimm

a/n: hi!! this is my first ever fic so... pls be gentle. this fic is based on season 3 episode 2 of ted lasso. thanks for clicking on my post out of the millions, i appreciate you :)

summary: roy comes home, frustrated and in need of some comfort after a confrontation with trent crimm about the column he wrote on roy's premier league debut.

It was a normal day- mundane if anything. You had not too long ago returned home from work, now lazily being slumped over the couch scrolling on social media. Your shared home with the newest coach of AFC Richmond was quiet, but not uncomfortable. Roy, you expected, would be home soon, probably coming through the door stringing curses together. Something of course happened at work, the only question was who exactly he would be pissed at this time.

Just as the scenario of an angry Roy played in your head, he walked through the door. You chirped up, happy to see him after a long day, when you noticed the down look of his face. It was less angry and more...disappointed? "Hey, Roy" You spoke, gently due to the unawareness of what was happening. As you stood up and walked toward him, his eyes planted on the ground, you noticed closer the expression splayed on his face. His brows were furrowed, and he seemed to be in a deep solemn thought. It was only when you lightly touched his harm that he seemed to snap out of his thoughts.

You offered him a comforting smile, "You alright? Talk to me." After you spoke, you moved behind him, beginning to take of his coat. "I don't know." He finally spoke, his tone being gentle. Silence filled the air for a brief moment until he spoke again, "Can I ask you something?" He was now meeting your gaze. "You know you can."

"Do you think I'm good? Like, good enough?" What? A puzzled look fell over your face, and he spoke again before you got the chance to. "I don't know- fuck. It's hard to explain." His gaze diverted once again, now focusing on his fingernails he softly picked at. "Roy, I'm not sure what's going on, but you can talk to me. What happened today?"

"Today was fucking fine. It was normal until that prick Crimm had to interfere." he paused, alternating his eyes from you and the floor, "It's bad enough he prances around the fucking place like he owns it, but today he just had to come talk to me and shit." He picked at his fingernails, a little rougher this time, and you could tell he was wallowing in a mixture of hate for both Crimm and what had gone down today.

You knew he wasn't very fond of Crimm, but not exactly why. You had always figured it was because he was a-in his words-pretentious dick. But this was deeper than that, you just had a feeling. You shot Roy a concerned look. He slowly reached for his wallet and drew out a slip of paper, placing it in your hand and urging you to read it.

What welcomed you was a small excerpt claiming "Newcomer Roy Kent is an overhyped, so-called prodigy whose unbridled rage and mediocre talent rendered his Premiere League debut a profound disappointment.” As soon as you read it, you shot Roy a sad glance. You were angry for him, not believing someone had the will to write such negativity.

"Crimm wrote that." He paused to take the small slip out of your hand. "I was 17, and I had just started playing. Seven fucking teen." He gritted his teeth, grimacing. You rubbed his arm, waiting for him to start again. "I have been living my life since then feeling like I was shit. Then today Crimm revealed he did it just to be 'edgy' and make a name for himself."

Not knowing exactly what to say, you continued to rub his arm. "Roy I'm so sorry. I can't imagine the dejection you’ve been feeling all these years.” He gave you a weird look, a mixture of solemn and happy.

“You know what I really can’t believe? I kind of want to forgive his ass.” You were shocked at what you could assume was Ted’s influence. “Really?” He nodded. “As much as I don’t want to fucking admit it, yeah. He was trying to do his job I guess. I just wish he would have picked on..some other prick, I don’t know.” He was now stifling chuckles, just as shocked from the situation.

“You know what Roy?” you spoke, not breaking eye contact. “Hm?” He tilted his head. “I’m proud of you for coming to that conclusion. You could have blown up, yeah? Been angry, upset. But you handled it all well.” Your graze moving up from his arm, now on his cheek. A good minute passed as you enjoyed holding his rough face.

He leaned down to kiss you. It was gentle and sweet, spreading a honeyed heat through your being. He continued placing small kisses on your face, your neck. Slowly turning into esurient nibbles.

“I fucking love you.” He spoke through kisses.

“I love you too.” You felt him smile against your skin. “And Roy?”

“Mhm?”

“You will always be enough for me. Always.”

[onebizarrekai]

Fic Author Interview

I've been tagged by @unmaskedcardinal! been a while since I talked about any of this stuff, particularly as a very inconsistent fic poster haha

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

the visible number linked to my account is currently 60, no idea if this is counting the bizarre saga from my archive account or not. technically I've posted more, but they aren't part of that number.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

567,314.

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

ibvs season 1 & season 2 are (thankfully) the top two on my account, considering they're… well. ibvs.

number 3 is formal humiliation, a utmv fic back in 2019 where I wrote 3 oneshots all with different pairs surrounding the same idea. it's uh, it's something.

4 is behave, a saiouma despair disease fic I wrote sort of ironically in 2020. I did not realize this weird oneshot would be the thing that jumpstarted my kage obsession.

5, for some reason, is glow, a ds fic I wrote in 2019. I do not know why this is the ds fic with the most kudos. I am just really glad that it's not one of the ones I wrote in 2018.

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

lately I have been trying to respond to more comments, if they're on a recent enough story and I can think of a way to answer.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

most of the fics I've written right now have been Random Spot In Time fics with no articulate ending, but game over is pretty edgy. I think. I've written a similarly edgy ending but it's in an anonymous fic. it occurs to me that edgy doesn't necessarily mean angst, but it can.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

somehow everyone lived happily ever after in the bizarre saga, no f'ing idea how they managed that

7. Do you write crossovers?

I have. I have as comedies. I tend to take a bunch of guys and put them in a new setting that they definitely shouldn't be in. poopenster high is an example of this, but none of that has ever touched the internet and I haven't touched it in like 2 years.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

oh my god like. maybe once? maybe? I don't even think it counted as hate. I think like several years ago some rando complained that season 2 of ibvs was trying too hard to be funny. I barely remember what it actually said, I just remember it being annoying.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

when I was in my v3 phase I wrote some, I think "feelings with smut" describes most of it decently. the nature of the kcu meant it was like, almost all trippy.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I dunno. I hope not. I think I've had people repost stuff without permission.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

probably?? when I was a teen I had people say they wanted to translate my utmv fics, I don't know which ones actually followed through anymore.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

(sigh) yes.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

oh god, I think I honestly just phase around stuff. I don't think I've ever permanently latched onto a pair, it's just that I've had fandoms and I have pairs that I've ended up liking in them and they just sort of stay that way even if stop paying attention to the fandom. I like most ships that happens to fit into my favorite criteria (that being protagonist/morally ambiguous deuteragonist or antagonist). if you asked me what my favorite series is, it would be an easier question. it's zelda. but I don't really have any permanent favorite ships in zelda.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

this is a scary question because I have a number of major wips that I want to get back into once I get back into writing and I refuse to accept that they may not get finished. I don't know. moose hill? for a little while I wanted to see if I could come up with a whole side story, but it is extremely unlikely that will happen. maybe a better example is a continuation of shuichi and kage's blackout adventure, which is pretty low on the priority list for if my brain every gets infected by danganronpa again.

15. What are your writing strengths?

the jokes are very important. I put my heart and soul into them. I hope that people can see my vision when I tell them.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

actually doing the writing getting from point A to point B. I come up with this whole outline and realize there's 2000 words of empty space that needs to happen. and it's like dull shit, too. just plain old events. like look at them, it's the lunching hours again. because lunch is a thing that happens every day. is it redundant to have lunch too many times? it can't possibly! it's the only time they can talk to each other! do I need to pan the camera again because this 3 sentence exchange has dragged on for too long? help

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

makes sense to me. or like, depends on the context. if the POV is a character who can speak the language, the reader should probably get to know what they're saying (think like, subtitled sections of a movie), unless it's really easy to decipher. but if the POV can't understand it, the reader shouldn't necessarily know. it gets more complicated if it takes place in a setting where they should logically be speaking a language that is not english for example. like, if they're in a country where they are not speaking english but the fic is in english. it wouldn't really make sense to insert interjections in their home language because they're not speaking english in the first place. I guess it all depends on what you're trying to convey.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

sonic. does it count. I started writing once I was old enough to type. but I think the first story I ever put online was zelda.

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

on occasion I entertain the idea of writing for corpse party, but that's probably not going to happen.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I'm going to not include that one anonymous fic and my pile of unfinished longfic wips that I've been proud of in past years is way too big so… maybe game over?? it's complicated. I have a ton of comedy pieces that I love but they're just… not completed!!

[ feel free to fill this out yourself if you're a fic writer! ]

[mrsbluehands]

Night time for the mansion!

Headcanon (x reader)

Creepypasta

Little idea that I wanted to write for a while now. First writing post! Hope it's not too short.

Tw: none

Pronouns: GN

-

X-Virus (give him love please)

Quite forgetful. Even if his nighttime routine is as simple as brushing his teeth, he might forget (please remind him for his own good).

Moves in his sleep like a three year old that is learning how to sleep in a real bed for the first time.

I think he sleepwalks whenever he's stressed. Since the rest of the mansion found out, they force Cody to lock his room from the inside during the night. (You wouldn't want to find him half naked in the wood again...)

Putting your arms around him might help a bit, but you could end up being crushed under him in the morning. If that's a sacrifice you are willing to make.

Can totally also end up on the floor or crushing you under him in the morning

But on the good side, Cody's a real cuddly guy. He needs to feel you close to him all the time.

Usually is the one who is completely engulfing you in his arms at night. He adores to know that you are safe with him, but won't say no if you prefer to have his head on your chest and hands in his hair...

Jeff the killer

Blasts music until 2 am like the edgy teen he still is.

Falls asleep whenever. Doesn't matter if the sun is stil beaming outside or if he just woke up from a afternoon power nap. He will sleep no matter what.

Will also eat anything before going to bed. Usually gets hungry at night, but this man can eat a 5 course meal at 3 am. Hearing some noises at night? You'll find him munching on the meatloaf leftover you made. (He likes you cooking what can he says!)

Not really into sleeping and cuddling stuff. Not a light sleeper, but sometimes he wakes up abruptly and he really wouldn't want to scare you off.

Likes to keep a hand on you anyways. Like wrapping his arm around your shoulder or waist. A hand on your stomach or waist.

He's nice to sleep with though! Extra warm (sleeps only in his underwear) his skin is a real radiator.

He really is a nice guy (mostly with you though). If he wakes up before you in the morning, he most probably will, he'll look at you and smile even wider wondering what he did to deserve to have someone as wonderful as you in his life.

BEN drowned

He doesn't need sleep but he likes it. Especially if he can cuddle with you.

He goes to bed whenever he pleases. No nighttime routine or whatever. He just plops on the bed and he's out.

Speaking of going to sleep whenever, he's the type to take naps in the middle of the day.

I like to think that he sleeps like a cat. All curled up on himself and taking so little space that you could probably spend the whole night in the same bed without touching him once.

Always cold even if he's warm to the touch. Please hold him. Only your warmth makes him feel alive again.

In the darkness of the room, he emits a faint green light while his eyes are a vibrant red. Nearly screamed when you slept with him for the first time.

You might wake up without him on your side, but no worries! Since he doesn't feel the need to sleep, he probably just woke up before you and decided to make you a small breakfast ❤️ (terrible at cooking but he tries that's what's important)

Eyeless Jack

Definitely let's you sleep with his hoodie. Wants to make sure you won't be cold even in summer (you never know).

Nocturnal demon. He sleeps with you because he likes the feeling of having you inside his arms to keep you safe.

He's very much probably never going to let you be the big spoon, mostly because there's very little chance that you're bigger than him, but especially because he loves to feel like the big demon that can protect you at all costs.

His skin is hard and weirdly cold to the touch. Hope you don't get cold at night because he's not much of a warm being unlike Jeff.

Since you are so different from him, he like to feel your skin under his touch and to look into your eyes. They feel so lovely when he compares them to his empty sockets.

Not a much of a talker, but don't worry, you will never fall asleep without your goodnight kiss on the forehead.

Does not move. Like not at all. Heck you need to shake him awake in the morning to be sure he's not just dead (well he kind of already is but you get my point...)

Jane

Pretty sleeper. I'm so jealous. She looks like a movie character.

No drooling, no talking, no mumbling... even her hair stays in place. Like how?

She sleeps with a tons of plushies and pillows, you can't change my mind. She especially likes teddy bears, she probably has like 15 of them.

But if you're here with her she will let her plushies go and hug you instead.

If you sleep together, you two will probably not sleep until morning. She loves to talk. Bonus point if you're a good listener!

You like to hold her at night? Go ahead! She gives so much affection to people for sometime she forgets to take care of herself :( (she really is the mom friend)

Expect her to be wide awake when you wake up, she's a real early bird and likes to do chores in the morning. Just like BEN (but it'll taste better) you'll have wonderful breakfast to start the day.

-

Hope you enjoyed!

[snugglesquiggle]

Any tips on writing Juzi would be nice to see

(planning a fun scene in SKN)

good timing — i was actually just about to hit submit on a reblog where this was asked in the tags, but this works better as a standalone post.

took so long to respond because i underslept yesterday because i kinda feel that, while there's many areas of writing i'm good at giving advice on, characters are one area where it's all intuition for me right now. but here's a few thoughts

the number one insight that made relationships in general click for me is the understanding that it's all about emotional needs. the core of any relationship isn't whether they like each other, or whether they have chemistry, or whether they do anything else that couples conventionally do. it's answering the question "what do they get out of this relationship?"

could be validation, respect, a sense of security, even just having fun, but i find it clarifies things to be able to frame it as "this character needs something, and that character provides it"

there's a fair amount of room to flesh out J's character to whatever works for you story. in terms of what's established, it's not groundbreaking, but you can understand a lot of what she needs through the lens of middle management. she simultaneously wants to have someone above her and someone beneath her, smugly obedient or smugly superior, but always smug.

this isn't all of her character — her humansona drawing is very suggestive of a repressed drive for expression and individuality — but i think it's the easiest part to relate to Uzi.

because Uzi is a lot easier to get a read on. the text all but announces what motivates her: she wants respects. the edgy teen assertions, acting out in class — she badly wants recognition. (i think deep down, it's partly cope and she needs affection more, which N provides, but this isn't a post about nuzi). she also has a drive to for expressing individuality, but she's far less repressed about it (though of course, being loudly unconventional gets in the way of the whole recognition and respect thing).

and again, this isn't all of her character — her quest for answers about her mother suggests a drive for meaning, purpose even — but this post isn't exhaustive

the thing is, you can see the resonance, but these pieces don't fit together. i think it's easy enough to see the ideal form of the relationship. it's mutual respect, it's Uzi knowing J is proud of her accomplishments and who she is, and J knowing Uzi thinks she's doing a good job or that Uzi will listen to her orders.

but the thing that makes J/Uzi so interesting and spicy is how much it doesn't work. even along their most compatible axis, you can see a much more likely outcome is a rivalry, each wanting spite and outdo (or undo) the other. J would want to slot Uzi in as her underling, which Uzi reject conforming to. and given the things that J takes pride in — efficient, orderly adherence to rules — can you imagine Uzi complimenting that?

a very concise way to put it is an old joke of mine. J/Uzi is a mutual superposition of "i hate her, she's fucking insufferable, but i can fix her" and "she thinks she's so much better than me, but i can make her worse"

[empress-of-snark]

more detailed Beetlejuice Beetlejuice thoughts!

I was going to wait to make this post until I've had the chance to see the movie again, but right now the plan is to go with my best friend when she visits at the end of the month (I was the one who introduced her to the first Beetlejuice movie back in high school), so I decided to go ahead and write a longer post now!

(spoilers under the cut)

CHARACTERS

Absolutely no complaints here! I think Lydia's transition from edgy goth teen to somewhat lost adult struggling with single motherhood is realistic. We get one line referencing that her mom is still alive (distinguishing the movie from the musical a little bit), but it doesn't seem like they're close, and obviously her relationship with Delia has been a struggle through the years. It makes sense that she'd have difficulty connecting with her own daughter, especially with the circumstances surrounding Astrid's father.

While at times Astrid feels like Wednesday Addams in a different font, I liked her a lot! Jenna Ortega fits into the Burtonverse very well, and she and Winona Ryder have great mother-daughter chemistry, both onscreen and off. I do wish that she'd gotten the chance to interact more with Beetlejuice, because as far as I remember, they only exchange one or two lines of dialogue. This feels like a missed opportunity, as I could see him making a lot of jokes about being her future stepdad lol.

As mentioned in my initial review, Catherine O'Hara was a crowd favorite at my theater and earned a lot of the biggest laughs. I really loved Delia in this movie, especially since she and Lydia have clearly grown a lot fonder of each other in the years since the first. I'm also obviously very glad that Jeffrey Jones wasn't invited back to the party, and I think the way they used claymation to show his death was a clever workaround to avoid hiring him again lol.

I adored Willem Dafoe as Wolf Jackson. Was he necessary to the plot? No. Do I give a shit? Also no. He was hilarious and completely ineffectual and I love him.

Rory is a good minor antagonist, and he's fun to root against. I've seen people seemingly frustrated at his relationship with Lydia, and how easily he manipulates her, but I don't find it out of character on her part. In the first movie especially, she's shown to be very lonely and mentally unwell, contemplating suicide on more than one occasion. She latches onto the love that the Maitlands give her as their surrogate daughter, but imagine how hard it must've been for her when they were finally able to move on, and she was stuck with a father who didn't understand her and a stepmother who barely tolerated her? When she meets Rory, Richard has recently died and Astrid resents her. To me, it makes sense that she'd latch on to anyone showing her affection. She doesn't really love Rory, but she thinks that he loves her, and that's enough. It isn't until Beetlejuice helps her see Rory's true colors that she's able to recognize how unhealthy the relationship is.

Speaking of Beetlejuice, I'm so so glad that they followed the trend of the first movie and kept his screen time to a minimum! He's only onscreen for 17 minutes (about three minutes longer than the original), but the way that he eats up every scene he's in makes it feel like more. Michael Keaton was clearly having so much fun revisiting the role! I think that the less we know about Beetlejuice and his backstory the better, so I actually wasn't thrilled when I heard that there was a flashback to his death in this one, but the way they shot the scene with the Italian dub was hilarious, so I'm giving it a pass.

THE STORY

Allegedly, the original runtime of the movie was around 2h15m, which means that a whole thirty minutes ended up getting cut, and I really wish they'd kept it in. Not just because I want more content (though I do), but because the plot does feel a bit cluttered and rushed at times. Between Astrid's fleeting romance with Jeremy, Beetlejuice being hunted down by Delores, and Lydia fending off Rory's proposal/wedding plans, there's not a lot of room to breathe, and the Delores plot definitely suffers a bit. She's made out to be such a huge threat, but gets so little fleshing out that Monica Belluci almost feels wasted. I'll be very interested to see if the DVD has deleted scenes or better yet, a director's cut!

But I've been having fun trying to figure out Beetlejuice's actual motivations, because the differences between the first movie's wedding and this one are very telling. Rather than speed things along like he did the first time, this Beetlejuice takes his time to give Lydia a proper, romantic ceremony. "MacArthur Park" is not a short song, and I'm pretty sure they didn't cut any of it.

It's an interesting song choice, to say the least. The lyrics are about a couple breaking up, and the man vowing to the woman that even though things have ended, he'll always love her. This, coupled with the fact that Beetlejuice gets defeated on a flimsy loophole when you'd expect him to have an ironclad contract, and when Lydia finally banishes him, he doesn't resist at all (again, think about how much he had to fight to shut up the Maitlands when they tried to stop the wedding in the first movie), makes me wonder if he ever actually intended to go through with the marriage. As @simplyshelbs16xoxo theorized in an earlier post, I think this was all just an excuse to see Lydia again and show her how much he loves her (in his own twisted way). Maybe he'd even sort of accepted that Delores was going to find him and kill him (again) any minute, because after all, why would his getting remarried even stop her from doing so?

Who knows? The fun thing about Beetlejuice as a character is that he never fully shows his hand, and there's no way of knowing exactly where his motivations lie.

The Beetlebaby was… something lol. I still haven’t quite decided how I feel about it, but I liked the design, and the fact that it was a clear reference to Chucky. I also like trying to figure out how much of the movie was Lydia’s dream. Just the last scene? Or maybe the whole thing? Does Astrid even exist, or is Lydia really a spinster in the attic, as Winona Ryder says?

THE VISUALS

Tim Burton thrives with practical effects. I'm a fan of most of his work, and my least favorites tend to be the ones that rely too much on CGI (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, Miss Peregrine, etc). Not to say that any of those are bad movies, but I'm glad he's returned to his roots with this one.

One of the things the original Beetlejuice movie is known for is its campy visuals. Part of that is due to the fact that their budget was so small, since Burton was still establishing himself as a director, but it works with the cheesy horror/comedy vibe. And words cannot express how delighted and relieved I was when the sandworms in the sequel were still made with claymation!

Obviously the movie wasn't completely devoid of CGI, but most of it was subtle, and only enhanced the practical effects. The makeup was great as well--I especially liked Willem Dafoe's partially-exposed brain. The original movie actually won an Oscar for Hair/Makeup Design, and I think this one has a good chance for a nomination at least!

FINAL THOUGHTS

The original Beetlejuice has been one of my favorite movies since I first watched it at around thirteen/fourteen. It's a Halloween staple, and I was extremely nervous about the prospect of a sequel after so many years (let's all breathe a collective sigh of relief that that old rumor about a reboot starring Johnny Depp wasn't true because it truly had me scared). While the trailers gave me hope, I still went into the theater with enormous reservations and was fully ready to be disappointed.

And in the end, I definitely wasn't! While the sequel's not perfect and could never come close to surpassing the original, I enjoyed it immensely. It was a lot of fun, and I'm really looking forward to my second viewing! I think it's safe to say that this is Burton's comeback!

[m-for-musings]

I dumped the tags of my late WIP Wednesday post with musings about writing but I decided to make a separate post to talk about how DIFFERENT I feel writing about certain things now that I'm on my 30s.

I don't know if it's a common experience, but I feel like I am capable of delving into relationship dynamics without making it sound like teenager bickering now, and I couldn't before. Does anyone else feels it? Is it something that comes with the age, or it's simply a normal improvement in writing skills after studying and it could be acquired sooner if I was not lazy?

(speaking of studying narrative, I am lacking in this matter, if anyone has good referrals about romance writing I'm all ears)

Like... I rarely write about older couples. In my teens I was writing about 20-somethings under the narrow, distorted teenager lenses, aplying the teens imaturity issues in grown-up relationships (not that I didn't met adults with the emotional maturity of a teenager, but that's not what I am talking about).

In my early 20s, I got rid of the "love" theme entirely. I wrote YA angst fantasy, horror tales, lots of edgy stuff or plain smut, skipping the relationship part entirely. Character development? Healing? Nah, just angst with trauma dump and some p*rn now and then.

Now on my early 30s, I'm writing a slow burn romance for the first time (and it's a Baldur's Gate 3 fanfiction!) and exploring, also for the first time, the dynamics of two well-estabilished and mature characters (both the equivalent of 40 yo, if I'd make a human-esque equivalent), their approach to each other and most importantly, the process of healing from trauma that was caused to them and they caused each other in the past.

I'm not sure I got to properly depict this process, probably I'll be reading it in the future and I'll rewrite it all, but FOR THE FIRST TIME I see an improvement in my writing, not in the language per se — I know my english sucks and there's a lot of things I write that makes perfect sense in portuguese and spanish but in english it just sounds weird, sorry for that — but in my overall approach to delicate themes is much more empathetic now.

It's wild because I always had that view of "30 yo is too old to do (insert enjoyable thing here)" and now that I'm finally at this age I see that it's the exact opposite — I'm enjoying the things I love much more now. I was so, so dumb back then...

Damn this post took an unexpected turn to a totally unrelated topic. Thanks ADHD brain, I'll end it here.

[thats-the-teen-spirit]

Bring Me The Horizon - POST HUMAN: NeX GEn album review

Well I didn't expect to write a full BMTH album review today but here we go. The band officially blueballed their audience to the point that as soon as they passed the longest streak without releasing an album, they surprise-dropped it completely unexpectedly. Just a heads-up, I'm not familiar to the lore of the album, what the Nex Gen is or whatever but still, here's my review:

[ost] dreamseeker

This is the shortest and most basic noise intro they've done I think for a while, it's just sounds of steps and the fade in to the first track

2. YOUtopia

Way before the album was announced, back during the Survivor Horror album cycle Oli said something along the way that the Post Human series wants to explore each of their favorite and most played genres, one of which was "emo" as he said. Emo in a sense that MCR or Underoath was emo, not the old-school way. YOUtopia has definitely the MCR feeling to it, not as much as LosT has though but that is not the point. This song has a bouncy riff, catchy chorus (similar style to Werewolf, the song the guys did with Lil Uzi Vert on his latest album) and the most 'amo' feel outside of the singles for me. Great song, definitely will be played during concerts.

3. Kool-Aid

The last single before they dropped the album, possibly the most balanced song out of the singles. Very catchy chorus, even the first few seconds feel like the "you're gonna die in the pit" fright that I usually feel at concerts. The breakdown is crazy, it has a very death metal guitar solo, what more do you want?

4. Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd

When I first read the title I thought this would be the most emo song on the album. I was not wrong. The style of 80% of the song is pure pop punk. There's the old school blink-182-like riff, the chorus sounds like it's from a 00's teen movie. Sometimes in the song there are cheeky blastbeat parts which I adored with Super Mario coin sounds that were hilarious. Oh and there's the Poliphia-bridge that made me smile. This is gonna be a top song on the album for sure for me. It's just so unapologetically fun, it's crazy.

5. liMOusIne (feat. AURORA)

The most out of place song for me, it doesn't even feel like BMTH. It sounds like they hopped on the Deftones-core hype train with the 8 or 9 string low tuned guitar riff that is more Sleep Token than BMTH. Still it's a banger, the bridge by AURORA is really catchy as well. The outro of the song is probably my favorite of theirs outside of One Day the Only Butterflies... on the previous album.

6. DArkSide

DArkSide was the fifth single, and in my opinion the most basic bitch one. It just sounds like they wanted to rip off Linkin Park's Somewhere I Belong again, this of course doesn't mean that the song is bad. In fact it grew on me a lot since it got released. The lyrics are very edgy which is expected from a BMTH song but this song was also a bit too cheesy for me, it definitely goes for the safe radio play option that the band still needs to be as popular as they are.

7. ​​a bulleT w- my namE On (feat. Underoath)

If you read this review carefully you might have noticed that I namedropped Underoath earlier. Well, they are featured on the album. This one literally feels like an old-school Underoath song but with Oli's vocals and the modern hyperpop spin that they do through the whole album. At some point Spencer's vocals felt like they were originally be Jordan's which kinda broke my heart a bit, since the Oli+Jordan duo were my favorite songwriters in the scene. If you're a fan of Underoath you should definitely give this one a spin.

8. [ost] (spi)ritual

Intro=Dark Signs by Sleep Token, Lyrics=Fully Satanic, title=clever wordplay. It's a 2 minute long interlude that has some guitars in it so most fans will not be disappointed in it, the biblical references are there for the edge of it but are barely audible, if you're one of those fans who recently got offended by their latest marketing ploy (the Jesus one), then I'd suggest skip this one. Also it's BMTH, they have always been against religion in general so... don't be surprised.

9. n/A

This song broke me. The first two lines are: "Hi, My name is Oli and I'm an addict. I'm here cause I'm not quite all there". The guitar work is very simple in the beginning, reminiscent of Where is My Mind by the Pixies, but you can sense that something big is coming. This is the most personal song on the album, I haven't heard Oli open up this much about suicidal thoughts and addiction since Sempiternal. It also has a grotesque feel to it as he discribes how he would kill himself in various ways (jumping down a building, making love to a chainsaw, etc). This one is also pretty emo, but not just because of the lyrics, by the sound as well. Definitely will be landing on my playlist.

10. LoSt

Undoubtedly my favorite song on the album, i've been constantly listening to it since it came out last year. If there is a thing called "I'm not Okay"-core this is it. The breakdown is the funnest one through the whole discography of the band, the chorus is a clone of the aformentioned MCR song and the pacing feels like a pop punk banger with an easycore breakdown. Still 10/10 for me.

11. sTraNgeRs

It's kinda crazy to think about how much time passed between each single and the album itself. This song will always remind me to coming home from my ex-girlfriend whom I've completely alienated from at that point and humming to myself: We're just a room full of strangers. I know that the original meaning of the song is quite the oposite, it has a sense of unity and togetherness but still, my personal story overwrote this one for me and I cannot help it. This was the second single and in my opinion didn't age as well as the others but still a very good song.

12. Rip (duskCOre RemIx)

Some segments of the lyrics of this song can be found throughout the teasers BMTH put out in the past few years. This one is a purely hyperpop/heavy pop banger that is very common towards the end of the record. The pacing is again very pop punk and emo, but it has those glitchy effects and even a dance beat at some point. It's a fun one but the poppiest out of the whole record I think. Oh and there's a woah-woah post-chorus which is again, very pop punk. Also despite the sound is very happy and hyper the lyrics are very self-loathing and depict the disappointment Oli had with himself after relapsing during COVID. Just a not so fun fact.

13. AmEN! (feat, Lil Uzi Vert and Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw)

The heaviest song on the album that was premiered live in my home country last year. I'm really disappointed I missed that and am still salty about it. Anyway this song is the same as Darkside for me, it's not a bad one, in fact, the old school BMTH fans will like this one the most, but for me it's not as exciting. I'd rather listen to the random bullshit they come up with than Oli trying to replicate Suicide Season style vocals which tore his throat up back then. But back to the song, it also grew a lot on me, the choir breakdown will always be fun and the lyrics have very much the Hospital of Souls kind of feel and edginess.

14. [ost] puss-e

Speaking of randomness, this one is about the female genitalia. it's an interlude (as every song beginning with [ost]). I think it's the biggest brain fart they had since the Music to Listen to... EP dropped. The callout before the breakbeat is literally: What would you do for pussy?. It's a random noisy shitshow that people will be mad about just like they were during the amo era but this is still unfathomably BMTH at their finest.

15. DiE4u

It's crazy to think about but this song came out almost 3 years ago, back when Survivor Horror had its album cycle and people were still mostly locked up in quarantine. The lyrics are about addiction again, not surprisingly and were inspired by Oli's relapse that I mentioned earlier. During COVID he made some very bad choices that lead him to get on ketamine for the first time since I think 2013 or so. This song is basically him singing to the drugs, it's a little fucked isn't it? It definitely didn't hold up as well as LoSt or AmEN because back in 2021 Oli was still trying to spread the idea he had about making a new genre called heavy pop. Well, some of his ideas are on the album so I guess he was successful.

16. Dig it

The closing track of this massive album and again we're back to the topic of self-hatred. Oli is again very disappointed in himself to a melody that is similar to Something in the Way by Nirvana. Maybe that was an inspiration, since that song also screams self-loathing. Then there's the modern pop drumbeat, but still the instrumentals are very lowkey, it's clear that the intention is to focus on the lyrics. The closure of the track gets heavy as usual and we hear Count Your Blessings era vocals again. There is even a little snippet at the very end after a little silence, that the AI playing the album failed which means the album is over.

Overall it's a great album, I think Oli and the band ended up with a terrific record, however I still miss Jordan's work on some of the songs. Maybe some ideas were scrapped, maybe even reworked at certain points but I'll always miss his handprint from now on I think. All of the fanbase will be happy with this record I guarantee it.

[lemonhemlock]

Yeah the absolute inability for a lot of the people in this fandom to not do an insane amount of projecting is crazy and makes discussions borderline impossible. There are a lot of people whose only analysis of ASOIAF is Westeros is a Patriarchal Shithole therefore any action by any female character, no matter how evil/deranged/sociopathic, is fair and cannot be criticized because Patriarchy! Patriarchy Bad! No other analysis needed! The amount of times someone will try to critique Rhaenyra for her adultery or pushing out multiple bastards she intends to put on the iron throne it's always met with 'Okayy but Westeros is a Patriarchal Hellscape so who cares! Rhaenyra is Bad Ass for taking Back her SeXuAl AgEnCy.' Once again, these people have a great disdain for the world GRRM has built, and I don't blame them at all, but I just don't get the need to be hyper fixated on a series where you fundamentally hate the setting. Makes no damn sense to me.

I also think a significant portion of this fandom doesn't want to make a good faith attempt to engage with GRRM's work because a lot of it is considered deeply problematic in 2023, but was shit he could get away with writing in 1996. Basically, I don't think he's necessarily doing a lot of 'critique' so much as being transgressive and using the medieval fantasy setting as parameters for his edgelordiness lol. I mean, in western first world countries, it's not as if Feudal Monarchies that are Highly Oppressive to Women, are....a pressing issue? Even in 1996 lol. What exactly is he critiquing? lol. Like, some of it is the basic 'critique' sure, but a lot of it is him being a edgy nerd that likes to write about nipples and nubile teens, but the fandom isn't ready for that conversation lol.

Hi there, you raise some interesting points, so thanks for stopping by. I agree with the first part of this post and less so with the second part. Under the cut for ease of scrolling.

I think there is definitely a part of GRRM that is a boomer edgelord just writing for shits and giggles and anyone who has read any sex scene written by him can certainly attest to that. But as to the lack of good faith engagement with his work by many of his own fans, I'm not really certain they demonstrate enough interest in researching the topics to even try? A lot of the times I feel like I'm talking to brick walls, like there is a definite lack of intellectual curiosity and a dogmatic obstinacy in promoting their conceptualization of social justice as universal in any time frame, but more in the sense of positioning themselves as thought leaders and Havers of Right Opinions.™ IMO it's more a preoccupation with virtue-signaling than it is a tacit apprehension of the problematic quality of the work.

To return to the bastard conundrum, a lot of them can't seem to understand that "just pass a law lol" isn't a magical solution and that it would actually require the overhaul of the entire political system, including economic and cultural advancements that are simply absent. How are people supposed to earn a comfortable living if agriculture is the main occupation? Of course that landowners are not going to give that up, they can't simply just "get a job at the business factory" to support themselves and make up for what they might lose. In this context, the acquisition of more land becomes vital or, at the very least, avoiding its fragmentation. That's why the first born gets everything. Yes, it's also patriarchal because it's the first born son, but it's also dishonest to not admit that it's just easier this way. It's less of a headache if the gaggle of relatives are left as hangers-on dependent on the good will of the head of their family. It's less of a headache because people will go to war less often if there are clear rules for inheritance in place.

In no way is this a perfect system or a fair one, but how are you even supposed to spread more democratic ideas if the population is illiterate? If books have to be copied by hand? How are you supposed to learn a trade to earn a living if you can't access information? Then you are dependent on guilds, but the level of urbanization in Westeros is very low. Guilds also gatekeep membership and information and I'm no medieval historian but I imagine that you can get into trouble for practicing the trade of a guild without authorisation etc like these are simply not topics on their mind when they think that Viserys can just change inheritance laws for everyone within a blink of an eye. Just it is not, but it's a logical explanation as to why people might act in a certain way or be less receptive to certain ideas.

Moving on to the topic of GRRM's actual critique and contribution to the disk horse. In previous posts I expressed being perplexed by some fans' conceptualization of this setting. Of course that it's difficult to issue 100% factual assessments when the series is lacking two whole books. However, there have been many essays written already on the topic of his deconstruction of tropes only to reconstruct them later on and how the series is not supposed to read in this dudebro, grimdark, cynical key where the evil and powerful always triumph over the true and good, so I'm not going to get into that. But I think that applies to the political setting as well. I'm pretty certain he is not planing to dismantle the concept of feudal monarchy at the end of ADOS, like, we're still getting a ruler, but it's going to be a Good One, as opposed to all of the other unworthy ones that came before. We're not time-skipping 1000 years of human development to bring Westeros into the enlightened era of late stage capitalism where you can be a CEO girlboss, nor is there going to be a socialist revolution. If anything, he's being pretty apprehensive regarding the last one by giving Dany a violent revolution plotline that doesn't work out pretty optimistically.

So, yeah, in that regard, I feel like applying a lot of modern left-wing doctrine on this series might lead some to believe certain aspects are hidden criticisms when they absolutely are not and start demonising stuff that was never intended to be "bad" in the first place. I already mentioned death of the author in my previous post and, certainly, you can analyse any work of fiction through any methodology you want, but, at the same time, I feel like there are certain elements old man GRRM included in his story that are just typical of medieval fantasies and are just accouterments expected in this setting that people are taking way too seriously. Like the Iron Throne being the source of all evil and trouble in Westeros. No, it's just a mighty, imposing throne, because that's a leitmotif in medieval fantasy. Or the Conquest being a Bad Thing,™ because they view it through the lens of American colonialism. Certainly, he presents the Targaryens as problematic as a whole and the Conquest being a bloody endeavour, but I'm not convinced that Aegon I's idea of uniting the realms will end up being critiqued in and of itself.

Similarly, GRRM as an author falls into the trap of a lot of cliches about the medieval period - the prevalence of child brides in his work being such an egregious stereotype. This is indeed unfortunate, but he's also 75 and probably did his history reading a couple of decades ago; meanwhile, the field has thankfully progressed since then, as has the quality of the research. But I seriously doubt the man scours Google Scholar to stay up to date with the historiography of the period.

As to what he actually DOES critique. I think that there are two kinds of avenues for discussion here, the first being how ASOIAF is in direct conversation with the high fantasy genre - so it's actually attempting to criticize other books - which is where the trope deconstruction and the complex characterisation play in, as opposed to reliance on formulaic plots. Here I will leave it to people who are more versed in this genre than I am in order to draw the proper comparisons.

The second represents the in-world critiques the story engages in. The nature of kinghood is one of them, the age-old question of what does it mean to be a "good ruler", the nature of power and how to wield it are the central themes of the series. We have a varied cast of nominees for the role of monarch; each style and cause is weighed against each other and, as they become inoperable or obsolete, will be disregarded and eliminated.

Here I think there is a very interesting conversation to be had about Robb Stark and his role in the story, because IMO it brings together a lot of GRRM's actual criticisms (both in-world and genre-adjacent) and it's a deeply misunderstood plotline. In most other fantasy stories, characters like Ned and Robb are the ones who prevail in the end; or, if the noble father figure is unjustly slain on the battlefield or cowardly killed in some way, then certainly the valiant son will succeed in avenging him and achieving justice. I personally think it's fascinating why GRRM chose to sacrifice both of these characters specifically. You can say Ned would be a more natural choice, as it is also in line with the fictional trope of mentors dying, but why, in his plot construction, did he decide against making Robb the hero? Why did he focus on Jon instead? OFC, the secret R/L plotline, whatever, but then why did he specifically create Robb only to kill him later on?*

Anyway, the point of this digression is that I think the actual criticisms of these characters' ruling styles fly over the head of the audience. Which is why you end up with dudebros convinced that Stannis was going to prevail or people who don't understand what's wrong with Renly. If they're a player of the game, rarely is a character killed off randomly or fridged; their demise can be traced back to their own decisions & actions.**

Additionally, there are some obvious critiques on the topic of war and how the relentless ambition of nobles to acquire even more power only ends up hurting the lower classes, but that ties in very closely with the central theme anyway, in that, at some point, the candidates have to ponder the question of whether to pursue their political advancement or yield for the greater good. There is also critique of the patriarchy that's not perfect, sure, but there are a wide variety of female characters given actual personalities and depicted in their attempts to navigate societal restrictions. I think there is also critique on the rapid, overnight overhaul of socio-political systems without a plan in place, reuniting and confronting many thorny topics of human rights vs political advancement towards democracy in a way that's actually achievable and long-lasting via Dany's Essos storyline. And, of course, who can forget of the critiques of knighthood and how he specifically took the character of Jaime Lannister, changed his original moustache-twirling villain arc and decided it was better to have an actual debate on how honour and identity intertwine.

To conclude, I would also say that he probably never intended for this series to become his magnum opus and the work for which he became world-wide famous; otherwise, he maybe would have done some things very differently. So it's very possible that he never intended to write this great critique of medieval-inspired fantasy in the first place; he probably just thought it would be cool to write something in this setting a la Tolkien. Not everything an author writes has to be this huge social commentary relevant to the pressing problems of today, but I think there are enough elements in ASOIAF that are unique enough and offer enough of a different perspective to at least pose some questions or start a conversation.

*that's a post for another day because this already got too long

**ofc this doesn't apply to the commonfolk or children or other innocents

[ali-borsch]

OC POST

GUESS WHAT IM GONNA TALK ABOUT THESE TWO IDIOTS

im not gonna infodump too much yet if u want u can read if not u can skip that's ok

SO PERSONALITIES

august is a 20 y.o. cat dude. he's a very nice, kind-hearted & gentle person, always caring about everyone around him. he always prioritizes others' needs over his own. august is very protective of his loved ones, especially his lil sis maria, who he's been looking after since childhood

even tho he's a nice guy he can still be tough when needed. he's capable of standing up for himself & his loved ones

august believes that his needs aren't as important as everyone else's. he sacrifices his own time, energy & mental health to meet others' expectations. he's essentially a therapist friend. august doesn't like talking about his problems with others, only doing it rarely with maria or gloria (his other sister)

maria is a 14 y.o. robot girl resembling a dog. she's basically a polar opposite of august. she's a mean & edgy teen who thinks she's cooler than everyone else. she know she's a robot who can't get hurt (or even die) so that makes her think she's automatically better than other people

maria carries around a crowbar for intimidation & "looking badass". even tho she wishes she could fight someone with it, august told her to only use it as a last resort if something happens

maria still has a softer side, even tho she doesn't want to admit it. she likes spending time with her friends & cares deeply about them. she's extremely loyal to her loved ones (especially august) & would do almost anything for them

now the dynamic between these two

august & maria had a pretty rough childhood (which im not explaining here) & had to look after each other all the time, so their bond is very very strong

they do have this type of siblings dynamic where they sometimes bully, insult or piss off each other for fun, but they still deeply love each other & are able to stand up for each other

they have one shared interest in astronomy & they like talking about it with each other. & because of that they wear matching star necklaces

august is super protective towards maria. even tho he knows she can't get hurt (at least she can't feel pain), he's become so emotionally attached to her over the years that he can't bear a thought of something happening to her. maria is his number one priority & he always makes sure to check up on her

maria is very loyal to august as she listens to him the most. she always does anything he tells her to (or at least tries). tho she struggles with meeting august's expectation of being a bit nicer to people. nevertheless, august is maria's everything

also btw these two speak russian as their first language. just thought i'd mention

i think that's everything for now THIS TOOK ME LIKE AN HOUR TO WRITE IM REALLY BAD AT EXPRESSING MY THOUGHTS THROUGH WRITING i hope nothing was confusing here

[baobhanlore-art]

So Vivzie just tweeted this and I have thoughts that won't fit well into tweets so here I am

For starters, the criticism of fanfiction isn't targeted towards the queer aspects. In fact I've found that some of the most extreme critics of fanfiction culture are also queer people. From the fujoshi fandom that causes an extreme rise in MlM shipping but largely for fem gazey smut, the unrecognised untagged unhealthy relationship tropes, to the misogyny often within these works, stories like these come with many issues.

The criticism of writing feeling like fanfiction, especially towards Helluva Boss, is that the elements of the stories people heavily critique feel unnecessary, tropey, and derailing from consistency.

In The Circus, I do not fault the idea of a queer character having a childhood crush on a same sex friend. The problem is more to do with how it stunts the desperation Blitz has to keep his business alive, since he's no longer just sleeping with some rich guy but an old friend, and the sudden unexpectedness of their situation. It's also a common trope where the live interests actually knew each other as kids so it feels overdone and generic.

In Exes and Oohs, the mafia setting feels completely bizarre considering the intense bigotry and classism within the world. Not only that but the daddy issues, fridged mum, forced marriage and overall unrealistic depiction of the mafia is very common in fanfiction written by teens who do no research and just want the aesthetics.

Secondly, there are plenty of straight works that have a similar label attached to them. ACOTAR and TOH both have writers who originally wrote fanfiction and they didn't develop out of the negative habits within fanfiction writing. Therefore their original work feels like fanfiction. Riverdales "I'm weird, I'm a weirdo" speech was heavily critiqued for sounding like a fanfiction line.

Thirdly, a big reason for being compared to fanfiction is the unfinished feeling of the scripts. I've already pointed out in a previous post that some of the dialogue in Western Energy felt like it needed to be cut down by an editor. And most people agree that the situations and logic aren't often very well thought through, such as how the aging machine could have just been reversed or how DORKS should have been killed off. The scripts feel like loose first drafts that could use additional edits. Fanfiction usually doesn't have an editor or even a beta reader, I've seen more "no beta we die like *insert character*" tags in many of the fandoms I read for than "beta" tags.

If people critiqued the owl house for feeling fanficcy because it had a diverse cast in a highschool setting with a quirky MC, I'd agree it's a bad descriptor because it's directly the queer and neurodivergent stories that are being attacked. Or if Murder Drones was labelled as fanficcy because it has an edgy teen female MC I'd say it's unfair because a lot of girls genuinely act like that and deserve to be represented and have our stories told. But most of the criticism about Helluva Boss to do with its LGBT rep is less to do with its inclusion and more to do with people feeling it's falling into yaoi tropes. Not the fact it includes queer stories.

This is something We Are Not Alive said recently that such with me, but just because it's an indie project doesn't mean we have to settle for subpar writing. There are loads of indie productions you can support! Murder Drones, Lackadaisy, the animated Anne Frank movie, and these are just some of the more popular ones!

And I wish people would stop weaponising every single argument to try and defend issues in Helluva Boss. The fandom says "of course it has issues" then cries when we point that out.

[penwrythe]

I have thoughts around the discussion of mature writing for adult media.

My project World of Relics is for adults, so it's good to see how this discussion goes since I really don't want to struggle writing WOR as an adult webcomic (Rise of Relics) and anthology (The Mundane Realm) series. I think the reason why Hazbin and TADC feels immature that they have the nostalgia of edgy kids and teens media with occasional mature themes being the inspiration, but not really fully embracing those themes from an adult's point of view. It would explain in part why they feel immature for something that suppose to be for adults.

Note: this is an underdeveloped thought, still processing it so critique is welcomed and good thank you.

This is not to say you cannot take inspiration from kids/teens media, this is more to say how does it effect how you perceive/write/create adult media. Is adult media "shocking fact that the characters are stuck somewhere unusual", "randoms s*e*x joke the 5th time in an episode", and "it's mature because shocking thing you don't see in kids media"?

Or is adult media about recognizing both the mundane and extremes of adulthood, with no escapism from certain extremes, understanding the moments of joy, pain, sorrow, etc has more to them than brief moments but instead history and context behind all of that in an adult's life.

Taking a moment to review what I been viewing and reading so that I can understand how to write World of Relics:

--Animated Series--

JJBA - Stone Ocean*

Arcane*

Primal*

Carol and the End of the World*

Blue Eye Samurai*

Blood of Zeus*

Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon*

ONE

--Books (both YA and Adult/New Adult)--

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter*

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin*

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Legendborn Series by Tracy Deonn (YA, but still handles mature themes well)

Oathblood by Mercedes Lackey*

The asterisk is for media I'm not just reading for enjoyment but learning how to handle the form of storytelling it presents. Without making this post too long, I feel gravitated to these media not for ~what shocking situation the character is in~ but the familiarity of their experiences to mine or to other people's life experiences they faced. Some more extreme than others (especially Blue Eye Samurai, Blood of Zeus, The Rage of Dragons, and The Fifth Season), the extremes of trauma, strife, hardship, discrimination, and destruction in these stories have an weight to them beyond the shock of violence or death, or the existential crisis. Like, there's no cry laughing, but there is quiet moments of grief and pain, the yearning of better days, desires of vengeance and justice. There's a substance to them that feels more thought out than what I feel from TADC Hazbin.

Note 2: I'm sorry if I'm being harsh, I love TADC. Yes, there's only two episodes out right now, but like I want more than what it presents.

Note 3: Yeah, I'm comparing apples to grand pianos, but I believe there's no harm in asking for more. I believe adult indie animation can do better, for now we have stepping stones that will help build the foundation for the next generation of adult animation. ~looking at Lackadaisy here since I'm a reader of their comic, that will most certainly be the next step if you know how it goes.

In addition to this, I will admit with my project WOR, I have concerns it might not be taken seriously as adult media, not because shocking edginess (there's a sprinkling of that here and there), but ...my characters are mostly talking object people set in a fantasy world. I have decided on certain things about them: despite them having human souls, sexuality is nearly vestigial in their species so all attraction is romantically driven -they are an asexually reproducing species, and almost all cursing/swearing will sound mostly mundane to us humans -no one says M*therf*cker but will using Blazing Hell, Broken Blades, Rusted Hell, Dirty Rags, etc (similar swears to how The Fifth Season does swearing in relation to earth and fire, WOR handles swearing to the material makeup of Objectkind - as well how biases of Hardy objects have of Fragile objects), and other things.

But, I knew, after awhile of reading and watching, what kind of story I wanted and how it appears to other people. If you like, person reading this very long post, I welcome you to read the following:

// Mild Spoilers for Rise of Relics and a little for the Mundane Realm

Note 4: The characters in Rise of Relics were gods turned to their relics after their realm was destroyed by the Inversion Event. So, if you are familiar with my story, its all baleful polymorph, almost everyone gets turned. If you are uncomfortable with that trope (due to certain past depictions in media), I suggest not reading anything World of Relics please. ~also, I'm Black soooooo, its alright! Everyone's dead lol. I equalized it!

Note 5: Also in the old draft of Chp 3 sample (its updated rn, just look at the Worldofrelics tag), Nicodemus is a crystal ball, Nikey is a trident. The flashback was before the Inversion Event. Just want to put this there in case confusion.

Do these examples of my WOR project:

Feel mature?

Feel as though, despite maybe a shocking thing or too, there's more to what's presented?

What of the characters? How do you feel about them in the situation? What about the implications of the situation they are in?

Does the voice (narration of Altostratus or how the characters in RFR Chp 3 speak and behave) feel like they are adult characters, or characters in general regardless of age, exist in a mature adult setting?

How do you empathize with them in their situation? Do you expect them to just react constantly to the events in the story in one type of way? Or do you expect as they develop over time, they adapt, struggle, and grow beyond just where they started?

If you imagine these characters in real life, would they be like what the story presents them as (in both examples, characters are above the age of 18 - from 32 to thousands of years old (read late 60s -early 100s in human years in relation to this question)?

Does it feel like at any point this could appeal to children (not because talking objects, but other reasons)? How do I improve upon that to appeal to Adults (by not adding swearing or se*xual stuff, but mature themes without making light of whatever topic I'm trying to handle)?

Giant Robot Monster Hot or Dear god, this old girl Flammin went through so much I hope they are happy with their trident wife? (they won't be, lol, oh they won't be)

Do you interpret Nikey as an angsty teen/20s or someone in their early 30s just trying to make sense of the world that died around her? (Okay, not obvious in chp 3, but give me your thoughts anyway)

Sexy Tumblr Old Man or This old man was a criminal and may have hurt people deeply and wrestling with that fact, knowing that one day he will face someone who was hurt by his actions? (still writing out Gwenny's lore, just hinting at this point tho)

Okay, I ran my fingers on this too long lmao. But yeag, tell me what you think. May the discourse begin.

[irresponsibleink]

Onision's Book is an Abomination Against God

1/28/25

I have a burning desire to hold opinions on things that are none of my business. I also love unintentional comedy, I love stories that are so unaware of how bad they are, that they’re quite good. This blog post started as an experiment. The plan was to read the lowest-rated book in my library and then read the highest-rated book to see how they compare. The lowest-rated book in my library happens to be Stones to Abbigale by Onision, with an average of 1.87 stars on Goodreads, which is concerning. Goodreads tends to be very forgiving with reviews, if you can find anything below 3.50, you’re in for a wild ride. After reading this novel and compiling my notes, I realized that this novel is so grotesque, so insulting, that it deserves its own post entirely. 

Onision is a disgraced YouTuber who has been accused of s*xual ass*ult. Among the countless videos about him on YouTube, there are plenty that discuss his lackluster books. Curiosity ebbing in my heart, I bought a used copy on eBay and waited eagerly for the novel to arrive. I was worried I’d be biased while reading the book, being aware of how other people feel about it and Onision’s past, but oh boy, I didn’t think about Onision once while reading it. The book completely immersed me. Not because it was good, but because it was so terrible I couldn’t focus on anything else. 

This novel is 180 pages and normally I could knock that out in an evening, but I had to pause often to regain my composure and wait for the growing migraine to dull before diving back in. On BookTube it’s easy to find reviews of readers claiming to have found the worst book, but they’re all wrong. Stones to Abbigale is the worst novel. Ever. It contains immature, inauthentic, pretentious writing, filled to the brim with spelling errors, characters that make no sense, and senseless tragedies that are used to make the novel feel edgy and deep. 

This post contains spoilers, (trust me, please don’t read this book) and trigger warnings for s*xual ass*ult, school sh*otings, m*scarriages, ab*se, self-h*rm, s*icide, and death, though I talk about none of these things in detail.  

Stones to Abbigale follows James, a high school student who falls in love with his classmate, Abbi. There is no standard plot to the story; it’s less of a novel and more of a random series of events that happen to these two teens. 

The other characters include Ms. Robertson, Jason, Davis, James’s Mom, Seth, and Barack Obama. There are more characters but they don’t matter. 

Actually, none of the characters matter. In most novels, the author takes time for the reader to develop a connection to the characters, that way the reader will care about the story and continue to read it. In this novel, I was divorced from James and Abbi. There are scenes in this book where you should be worried about their safety and I felt nothing. There were even points where I was rooting for them to die, and these characters aren’t written to be unlikeable, they just are. Onision meant for the reader to sympathize with these characters. 

We’re chronically told how smart, funny, and kind-hearted James is, but we’re never shown that. James’s inner dialogue reads like an alien’s memoir and his two personality traits are being ‘observant’ and being obsessed with Abbi. As James parades through the story, everyone is chronically kissing his ass, including the president of the United States. 

Abbi doesn’t have a personality beyond having a cartoonishly tragic past and having the hots for James.

Ms. Robertson is the guidance counselor at the school and she does not behave like a human being. She’s framed as being a crazy religious Karen who has a personal beef with Abbi because Abbi was s*xually ass*ulted and when she didn’t want to keep the baby, Ms. Robertson lost her shit. Okay, that’s believable, there are tons of pro-life asshats out in the world, but Ms. Robertson loathes Abbi to the point it seems like she knows something about her that we don’t. This could've been an interesting subplot, but it was not handled well at all and came off as unbelievable. Ms. Robertson’s crimes against humanity include screaming at children in public, changing James’s class schedule so he can spend more time with Abbi, and framing innocent children for crimes they didn’t commit. 

Davis is James’s ‘best friend.’ I use that term loosely because as soon as James starts dating Abbi he seemingly forgets about Davis. But Davis does not forget about him. Davis is in love with James. This is unconfirmed, but Davis goes on and on about how much he loves his buddy! Platonically, of course! At one point, Davis becomes withdrawn when James starts dating Abbi and even asks James if he ever thinks about anyone else in a romantic way. This would be an interesting subplot but it is never explored and it is never confirmed that Davis has romantic feelings for James, though it is quite obvious. Davis seems to love James a little too much… Davis’s crimes against humanity include talking like a mentally ill eight-year-old and having no interests outside of James. 

James’s Mom is a cardboard cut-out who does whatever is convenient for James, which I’ll talk more about later. 

Seth is Abbi’s boyfriend, who she eventually leaves to be with James. Seth is ab*sive and cartoonishly evil. 

Jason switches back and forth from being a meathead bully who s*xually ass*ults classmates, to a brain-dead himbo. 

Barack Obama makes a brief appearance to congratulate James on being a good person. He is never referred to as Barack Obama, just ‘the President,’ but since this book was published in 2015, this officially means that Obama made an appearance in this story. He visits James’s school shortly after a sh*oting took place there and took the individual time to speak with every class. When visiting James’s class, he knows exactly who James is, because James is the main character. 

“James Patrick, the boy who nearly saved the day.” - Barack Obama

By the way, James did nothing during the sh*oting except roller skate through the school searching for Abbi. That was all he did. 

The authenticity and realism of this novel were a big reason why I couldn’t empathize with these characters. This book is written how Onision believes teenagers think, but the entire novel feels unrealistic and inauthentic. Nobody talks in a normal way, nobody thinks normally. This book felt like it was written by an alien who doesn’t understand human nuances or emotions. At one point there is a school sh*oting and the only observation that James has about the incident is that his classmates are staticistly higher to experience depression or s*icide. 

“[The survivors are] all now subjected to a heightened risk for depression and, statistically, even s*icide.” - James

The most egregious example of the characters behaving unrealistically is when James’s Mom invites Abbi to move in with them after her father is arrested and allows her teenage son and his girlfriend to sleep in the same bed and share the same room. Later on, James’s Mom gets remarried and moves in with her husband, leaving James and Abbi alone in the house to finish out the school year on their own with no adult supervision. 

The entire novel is filled with sentences that are empty and devoid of meaning, sentences that are meant to be deep and hard-hitting. This book is like a novelization of all the r/im14andthisisdeep posts. 

“Make up is just make up, skin is just skin, it is what it is.” - James

I can’t forgive this book for its sloppy, ham-fisted use of very serious issues. This book includes s*xual ass*ult, s*icide, self-h*rm, ab*se, a school sh*oting, and a m*scarriage, and absolutely none of those things added to the story. The school sh*oting is conducted by Seth shortly after Abbi breaks up with him, and it is an event that is used as a dramatic garnish right in the middle of the story and none of the main characters die or get hurt, so it doesn’t matter. The other terrible events are just a randomized list of occurrences that Abbi experienced in the past, horrible things that she often laments about so James can fix her. Words can’t describe how angry I was when it was revealed that Abbi was SA’d. 

This book has nothing to say about any of these serious issues. It is ill-prepared for it, and it doesn’t even try. To lazily shoot out incidents that have nothing to do with the story so that the writer can feel deep and smart is something that I cannot take. How dare this writer use such a terrible thing as a random occurrence to make us feel bad for these unlikable childish characters. I’m not against any of these topics being written about, but when you, as a writer, introduce them into your novel, you have a responsibility to the people who suffered through these things to write about it seriously and realistically and not treat it as a joke. Onision should’ve just written “fuck SA survivors,” on his online forum and left it at that. Instead, we get this shit. 

This entire novel reeks of arrogance. This novel has so many spelling errors. If I’m to believe what Amazon tells me, Onision’s partner, Kai, edited this novel, and boy, did they do a bad job. The writing style is borderline unreadable. There were so many spelling errors and the language was stilted. Just one pass through a spell check system is all it would take. Onision has fans who offered to edit it for free, and he refused. Why? Because he’s arrogant. He believes the novel doesn’t need a second or third draft, he believes it’s fine the way it is and if we can’t see that, then we just can’t appreciate true art! 

James is a self-insert character for Onision. It is obvious through the way everyone treats James and his heavy plot armor, not to mention the fact that Onision’s real name is Gregory James Daniel. In the description of the book, Onision writes, “James is essentially a better version of myself. His home, his school & his life all resemble my own at his age. The people James analyzes and is surrounded by are not so unlike those I’ve known as well. I have experienced much of the loss James has however his happier moments are more often than not also mine. I want to share my story without it being purely non-fiction.”

I hope that droning, moronic sentence gives you a glimpse into what it was like to read this book. By the way, any spelling errors you see in the quotes are Onision’s and his alone. 

If this is a fictionalized retelling of actual events, then what parts of this are real, then? If this novel was a way for Onision to tell his story without the confines of reality, then what percentage of this actually happened? Did Onision meet Obama? Are they still bros? Did Onision’s mother give him an apartment when he was a junior in high school? Did Onision survive a school sh*oting? From what I can find, Gregory James Daniel or James Jackson, has never survived a school sh*oting. What about this novel was real? What parts of this novel actually happened? None. None of this happened. Onision romanticized his childhood and added some random bullshit drama and violence to juice it up. The end. 

On top of everything else, this book has the audacity to be pretentious. Some people can do pretention well, like Quentin Tarantino, or Christopher Nolan. Gregory James Daniel has not earned the right to be pretentious. If you’re going to be pretentious, at least give me a good story, but Onision can’t do that because he’s too arrogant to accept feedback or criticism. 

The only saving grace of this story is that it can be funny sometimes. Not funny in the way it was intended, but funny nonetheless. Around 2/3 into the story, James, Abbi, and Davis are driving and witness a man jump off an overpass. Davis rushes out of the car, which is still moving, by the way, and attempts to help the man, who is clearly dead, and gets hit by a car and fucking dies. This all happens within two pages, and I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. It was so unexpected, completely out of left field, and so fucking stupid. 

So after this, we get a chapter of James blaming himself, even though he didn’t do anything, Davis’s mom praising James for being a good friend, and James pushing the pain away by smashing his girlfriend. 

“[Abbi] was all I had left.” - James 

Yeah, fuck your mom and your sister, I guess. 

So, how does the story end? Someone blows up the school. That’s it. The school is blown up and the last line of the story is, “Well, I guess I won’t be running for [class] president.” 

Whoa… what a story. I bought this book on eBay for five dollars, but if I had paid full price, it would’ve been ten. Ten dollars. That was how much I made per hour at my last job. That means that one hour of labor is equal to this torture nexus. God fucking damn it…

If you’re curious about the details of this book, watch one of the countless YouTube videos made about it instead of reading it. I recommend the one by @strange-aeons, which was how I found out about this goddamn monstrosity in the first place. 

I gave this story 1 star on Goodreads and 0 stars on Storygraph because Storygraph is a superior app. When looking at other reviews on Goodreads and Storygraph, it seems all the positive reviews are either people trying to give Onision the benefit of the doubt or people who are being sarcastic. 

Overall, this book is similar to The Perks of Being a Wallflower if it was co-written by a fourteen-year-old and a mentally ill incel and published on Temu. 

Final grade: BAD

Rick Stepp (irresponsibleink@gmail.com)