#I love them all and they're all super morally grey

[sciderman]

Now that we are remembering mercenary Spiderman in the alternate timeline, I do have some questions.

1) Even Wade knew that their relationship would be SOOOO TOXIC AND DOOMED TO FAIL, my horny ass need to ask this. Would the sex would be worse with the morally dark Peter?, cause I think he would be a super selfish lover (I don't do this question in the askblog, cause I might add more emotional turmoil into poor Wade.)

2) is that Peter gonna be ok in his lonely timeline?, or is something that we better not to worry about.

3) this is not a question, but I think it is fun to add. I do remember when after Peter died in Civil War, Wade shows two intersecting factors about him. (Although I might be wrong in some

A) Although Peter is always angry and bitter, Wade is scarier, when he is actually angry.

B) While Peter is a creator and protector (cause he's is a genius scientist super hero), it seems Wade is a man that gets things done, he is actually really good at fixing stuff (not for the greater good and more for his own and loved ones gains). Yeah he kinda messed up the time stream, but no one's seems brothered about it., both of them bring the best of each other even though it is not perfect is cute and healthy.

C) Wade has healed a lot, he recognized unhealthy behaviours from himself and others ( one reason he denied edgy hot Peter), and choose the healthiest option

D) Wade is so hot

I really loved what you gift us with these two boys

hooh man, hooh man. okay. 1) good question! there is many a fic for that. i didn't write anything, but xenospider on AO3 put the time in. 9319 shades of grey - tl;dr - you're right. alt!peter is selfish in bed. selfish in life. selfish in just about everything. the opposite of the peter we know and love. that's not to say the sex is worse - this peter is more experienced - but all of the freak that lives in nasty, dirty, twisted peter also lives within our timid wallflower too. one just has to unlock it. similarly, nasty, dirty, twisted peter also has the same generous, romantic heart that beats under that heartless facade. one just has to unlock it. so after a warming-up period, you'll find that they're both equally good lovers. they're both peter parker, after all.

2) this timeline doesn't exist no mo! rest assured - in this universe, it's not the whole - two universes existing concurrently, no sir. this peter is our peter. they aren't two separate peters who can meet in the multiverse, no sir. the only way wade can visit that peter again is if he alters history again. this peter is fortunately not lonely. he's head-over-heels! in love with his boyfriend who has thighs like a tree, and he has a job at the bugle, and has never made a kill, (as far as we know).

3) to your point B – deadpool's kind of the embodiment of second chances, to me. he's just – that's his real mutant ability. always, somehow, managing to get a second chance. even if he thinks he doesn't deserve it - he always makes it happen. that's his origin - and he just keeps finding a way, over and over. to your point C - really, i don't know if any option is ever healthy for one wade wilson but - his decision to decline edgy hot peter was less about what's good for him and more about what's good for the world. the world is uglier without a hero like spider-man to make it brighter. he could stay with this peter and make a lot of freaky sex and win over his heart all over again - he did it once, he can do it twice - but - he didn't pick the selfish option. he didn't indulge - because he knows the world is better with heroes in it. he knows it isn't right.

for once, this was a decision wade didn't make for him. he made it for the world. he did it so the world would be a better place. he's a selfless hero. kisses him.

and to point d, you're so right. kissing him again.

thank you!!

[ominous-feychild]

You know, I wasn't expecting my first (and hopefully last lmao) most-stereotypically-gay character ever to be a nonbinary (any/all pronoun-ed), morally dark-grey faerie chaos god.

But you know what?

I fucking love them for it.

(The Existence of Magic is an absolute sassy QUEEN and omfg, I wouldn't trade them for the world. They're pretty evil at times, but like,,, omfg. Their charisma. They're like an old-fashioned disney villain. Guys. I want to turn this SUPER SPOILERY late-series outline into a fully-fleshed out scene and share it with everyone. Please help stop me--)

Also @the-letterbox-archives has decided Magic's pronoun is "babygirl" so uh,,, have fun with that knowledge.

Taglist and Existence of Magic snippet beyond!

Biornys: "I'm sure you know of my relationship with Zenebe--" Magic: slowly furrowing one eyebrow and raising the other as high as possible-- Biornys: voice growing uneven: "--and that I--" Magic: drops their eyes to their hand, checking out their long, sharp fingernails Magic: dismissively: "I cannot buy your boyfriend, no matter how--" (gets interrupted; skipping) Magic: gives another combo laugh-scoff-eyeroll as they throw a hand out, beginning to meander back and forth lazily "--as I was saying, I cannot buy your boyfriend from Mulul no matter how many favors you request from me. I cannot take him without either his or Mulul's consent--" Magic: flicking their hand out, turns to face Biornys again "--and he's rejected, as you know, while Mulul is quite attached to that one. He is their trainer. I've asked." Biornys: surprised, eyebrows furrowing as he looks up to meet their eyes Magic: flashes a sharp-toothed, roguish grin

Everything taglist: @honeybewrites @the-golden-comet @illarian-rambling @ashirisu @urnumber1star

@48lexr @aalinaaaaaa @thecomfywriter @paeliae-occasionally

[hyog-blog]

The Story of Pearl Girl (ongoing)

So far the show is delivering hard in all aspects. We get a very dark and tormenting beginning of the story, outlining Duanwu, Zhao Lusi's character, as someone resilient, hellbent on surviving, and also very hopeful about life, despite all the hardships she's experiencing as the pearl diver. But despite being able to leave the godawful place, she finds herself in a world filled with more agony, insecurities, and people doing even worse stuff to each other.

No Savior Is Needed

I really like how her arc is unfolding so far - she's a tough cookie (or, rather, pearlie) and knows what she wants in life, and what's really not her cup of tea. When a knight in white armor appears (quite literally Zhang Jinran is mostly wearing light-colored clothes) she feels an ocean of gratitude towards him but denies his numerous attempts to save her like a damsel in distress that she quite obviously wasn't. She wanted to know more about her origin, and revenge also suddenly appeared on the table. This, and her unwavering desire to be free and fend for herself is what pushes her towards Yan Zijing (played by Liu YuNing).

Matchy-Matchy, but Not Quite

We first see Yan Zijing as a wealthy trader with a super dark attitude towards life (which, later, we get to know why, and he has REASONS to be beyond angsty, stabby, and vengeful like a person who has survived hell on earth, or worse). There's a spark that draws the ML and FL together, but there's no fluff or attempts to save the girl - he's on his vengeful path, but there's just something about Duanwu that reminds YZJ of himself - the way she not only survives but also takes matters into her own hands and wants to learn as much as she can about everything (mostly it's trade and jewelry because that's what she wants to do herself in the future). So, he starts low-key mentoring her, allowing her to make her own decisions (and/or mistakes).

Cuteness Unfolds, but the Drama is Drama-ing

So they stick together with a slow-burn romance blooming veeeery slowly between the two of them, but this is really not the focus of the first, let's say 10 episodes, because the plot is unraveling up to this point. Then we start getting glimpses of them finally acknowledging each other, but once again, it feels more like Duanwu's character development arc than a romance-centric story, and that's what I'm loving about this show.

We get to know more about her origin, and that changes things for her (and him, probably, as well). We also get to see how due to her dark and painful childhood, she grew up to be an incredibly empathetic woman (who is both gentle and strong-willed). She will never pass by a person in distress, and she will fight for the things she feels like fighting. She's quite close to the morally grey character of YZJ because she would literally kill someone if she had to (or believed it was the right thing to do, or for revenge). So it really feels like they're soulmates and have lots of tacit understanding.

2ML Still Doesn't Get It

Zhang Jinran still doesn't get it, even when she straightforwardly tells him they're not meant to be for various reasons. Like people belonging to two different worlds. He still dreams about saving her, not realizing she doesn't need any of that. He follows Duanwu and YZJ pretending to investigate things, but it really feels like he just can't let it go. Which ends up being not a super bad thing, but he could get mildly irritating in the future (for now it's passable and you can feel that he's love-stricken, just a bit delusional and ego-centric in his devotion).

It's like you can dream all you want, but there's the reality they're living in, and it's dark, and violent, and Duanwu is really not the type to end up as some official's wife, raising his babies (and even that wouldn't be possible, she could only become his lover of sorts).

I'm Loving It Up to This Point (ep.15)

We've almost passed the equator, and things are still pretty much interesting - the plot is getting more heated with the romance, but also with stories of traumatic pasts and some future heartbreak looming ahead, judging from the trailer. For now, it's a 10/10 and I'm watching it as the series is being released (first time for me, usually I don't do this to myself XD). But here we are.

Needless to say, Liu Yuning looks posh in his attire and his acting is top-notch. The heartbreaking scenes and the cute ones - he's just very natural and depicts his character with a wide range of emotions. There's always so much DEPTH in everything he does.

For a character who hasn't known or wanted love, his interactions with Zhao Lusi's Duanwu are very heartfelt, and you can see him slowly warming up and looking like an actual human being when he's with her. He's not needlessly vicious, though, there's a reason behind everything he does, and she gets onto that pretty fast. And goes from a pawn to something of a partner, but that still hasn't fully unfolded.

Definitely recommend!

[el-moscorrofio-y-el-mercachifle]

I just finished watching Betty and finding your blog is godsend I love love all your Armando character analysis and all the armetty content, not only that but all the insight you have about the rest of the cast. One of the things I noticed while I was watching was that, Marcela and Armando absolutely don't like each other at ALL, even in recent episodes you can see how Marcela just barely tolerates Armando snsjdjfjjdj.

I find this so funny because certain parts of the fandom consider Betty a homewrecker?? There was never a home to wreck?? I mean all characters are morally grey but if we see Marcela in despair in later episodes I don't think it was out of heartbreak like Armando for Betty. I was wondering what you think about what Marcela felt for Armando and their relationship in general.

Once again I love scrolling through your blog and I also think Armando and Betty were the most logical endgame, they made each other worse they made each other better literally soulmates.

[sorry for the long question, I have these two in the brain]

Awww thank you!!! I'm glad you are enjoying my blog🥰

Oh, no, not the homewreaking thing! Even Armando says it once: "no one can steal me if I don't let myself be stolen". The novela made it so clear that it was a choice that ARMANDO made, and somehow my girlie Betty gets all the blame, as if we all didn't see ARMANDO pursuing her and begging her not to leave him all the time. Sure, Betty should have said NO, it IS morally wrong what she did, but Armando himself says that he wanted to leave Marcela for himself, not for Betty. We all know that, if Armando and Marcela had married, regardless of whether Betty or any other woman had appeared in their lives, they would have ended up divorcing. Some people simply have a super skewed perception and think that just because Armando and Marcela had an active sex life at the beginning of the show and that sometimes you got to see them happy, their relationship was fine. It wasn't, it never was. Armando was always cheating and Marcela was always spying and tracking his moves. There was no love, commitment, sincerity, or selflessness. It was all conditional. There was simply no home to wreak, like you say!

I definitely agree that Marcela and Armando don't like each other at all. They aren't compatible in any sense. They had fights for even the most mudane things, like what to do on a friday night or one of Armando's nightmares.

Marcela was not in love with Armando. She never was, or at the very least, not in any moment that we see her onscreen. Perhaps she was in the past, but from all we've seen, Marcela is mostly in love with the idea of Armando and is constantly angry and frustrated because he isn't what she pictures. She is mostly just obsessed with this idea she has of him. She wants to marry Armando but not really marry him like he is. We've seen she doesn't like his temper, his ego, his treatment of her, his interests, the people he gets along with, etc. I can't think of a single thing they like to do together or have in common except their high sex drive. She doesn't like anything about Armando's personality.

Armando and Marcela unfortunately share a very deep and old relationship, and I'm not talking about their romantic one. They're tied like a family. Margarita and Roberto are, in Marcela's eyes, practically her parents. Marcela herself says that all of the Mendoza and Valencia children were raised like siblings. This creates a very unfortunate dynamic in which no one really understands their place. Marcela and Armando are both like step siblings and also a couple, which, honestly, doesn't seem psychologically right. I can't really say, but I'm willing to bet this has to be bad for a person's development and view on relationships.

On top of that, Margarita says that it was Julio and Susana's dream to see Marcela and Armando marry. Both Margarita and Roberto make it very clear that they also want that relationship. Marcela and Armando are constantly encouraged to ignore all the obvious clues that the relationship is disastrous (like how Margarita tells Marcela she needs to be patient and wait for Armando to calm down and stop cheating, or how Roberto says they would never forgive Armando if he were to cancel the wedding). They are practically being encouraged by their parents (Roberto and Margarita, biological parents for Armando and practically adoptive parents for Marcela) to continue their relationship. In Marcela's case, she is unconsciously trying to fulfill her bio parents' last dream and also her new parents' hopes.

((This is speculation, but I'm also willing to bet that Marcela and Armando probably hesrd a lot of insinuations of them eventually becoming a couple since very young. I can't confirm that, but I wouldn't be surprised of this at all.))

So Marcela basically develops an obsession with having Armando. She doesn't love him, because she doesn't like anything that he is. She just has this idea that has probably been ingrained in her head throughout her life that they belong together, and if she clings to that relationship, it will eventually become as beautiful and amazing as her parents (all 4 of them) thought it would.

Additionally, having Armando is a prize. It's, in her eyes, her deserved prize after such a long time "fighting" for him. For having tolerated his lies and cheating, for getting all of his lovers away. Armando is not a partner for her, he's her reward. She sees herself as a martyr who desrves to earn him.

When the relationship breaks she is in dispair because she genuinely wanted a future with him, but not out of love but rather out of ego and obsession. Out of a desire to say "after all of this I finally won", which is why she is willing to take him back all the time even when it's obvious he can't stand her, there is no trust, and there is no love. They just cling to each other because of all the wrong reasons: ego, conformity, their parents, the business, expectations, etc. But not love. We never saw love.

It's an overall sad situation for both of them, which is why I genuinely pity both of them in this aspect even if they were both, objectively speaking, big POS to each other!

Thank you for this lovely ask! Sorry for the long reponse too😂🥰

[fabled-lady-twilla]

I'm trying to think of the right tags to differentiate my hurt/comfort fic with dark themes but a happy ending vs. a hurt/NO comfort fic that has dark themes and an unhappy ending?

I want to tag appropriately so readers can avoid what they don't want to see but I'm kinda having I'm trouble thinking of the right way to convey the distinction between the two. There's a lot of crossover between these two types of fics and many people are okay with the former but want to avoid the latter. So I don't want them to avoid my fic thinking it's a massive angst fest without any payoff or juicy emotional comfort scenes.

Often times, the latter has dark, disturbing, non-con scenes as a feature of the romance rather than something awful/traumatic that the characters go through. Which is fine, because that's the kind of story some people want to write, and I respect their creative liberty to do so.

I feel like this is especially important because with a lot of ShigaDeku media and fanfiction, there's a lot of non-con that many people do not wish to read, but there is also many, many fics featuring full consent, soft and caring shiggy, and even full-blown Shiggy redemption stories.

But my fic features a toxic, tumultuous, 'mortal enemies to ill-fated lovers' type of start, but absolutely no non-con happens between the main ship. That's not to say it's 100% super healthy either, as there's some dark, disturbing, and mature themes (hello they're living in a literal dystopia where majority of villains are in power and are fighting to keep it that way), lots of emotional hurt/angst, kidnapping, captivity, and a sort of 'forced to interact with each other because we're soulmates' type of deal.

But it gradually grows into something healthy, loving, and ultimately helps both characters grow and mature as they navigate their new dynamic. Some huge themes in this story are character growth, relationship development, change and redemption, and exploring grey morality (what it even means to be a hero/villain and how the lines between the two often blur), and the real issues of hero society and all it's flaws.

The hurt/comfort is going to be REAL and Izu and Shiggy are going to earn their happy ending the hard way, lol.

Does anyone have any good tag ideas or something that might help me with this issue? Regardless, thank you for reading! 💚💚💚

[sizzlingstarlightsky]

Hi again! 

Now that we’ve kicked things off, I’d love to know more about what makes your heart flutter when it comes to Eris and Azriel! 😍 How do you like them to be portrayed? Are you a fan of softer Azriel or more morally grey Eris? Do you prefer them confident, vulnerable, or somewhere in between?

And what kind of relationship dynamic really does it for you—slow burn, enemies to lovers, established relationship, rivals? I’m so curious to hear about your favorite headcanons and moments you can't get enough of!

Also, are there any Azris fics you adore or keep coming back to? Whether it’s the angst, fluff, or perfectly written tension, I’d love to hear all about what makes them your OTP goals.

Can’t wait to dive into what you love most about these two!

-🎅

Dear Santa ✨️🎅🌲

There's these two males, right?

🖤One dark and mysterious. Takes out his rage and morally greyness (phone wanted to autocorrect to gayness 🤭) on those he tortures. Don't even get me started on how he unleashes that with this second male.... that's a whole different point I'll ramble about later.

Think Dexter for how he morally balances the primal urge to kill. He developed a code. Sometimes he breaks and that code gets blurred, but he finds a way to course correct.

He comes across intimidating and scary but he's just a baby. He craves love and true acceptance above all else. To feel seen.

He's confident in his looks. I don't think he's super super insecure about his scars, I think it's more so an internal battle, so he avoids any and all opportunities to communicate about himself. I also don't see him with a fear of fire. Maybe at some point, but baby healed in that aspect, having to be in battle and by fireplaces. It's kinda like he wields black flames anyway, so... 😶‍🌫️

He's in love with this other male but has never been able to admit that to himself. Yes, there's shit that happened with Mor 👀, but maybe he's envious. Envy for what he sees of Eris' masked life and is conflicted. He may be a spymaster, but he missed all the obvious signs. It hits deep insecurities within him.

❤️‍🔥SPEAKING OF THIS OTHER MALE 🫠

I want to get tangled in his hair.

He is flames incarnate. Very quick to ignite anyone that harms those he loves. Determined to not be remembered like his father. Gets too into the political game, but is fucking good at it. It is his game.

But he deeply cares for the people, the land, and the life of Autumn. He's just a little boy playing in piles of leaves that had to grow up way too fast.

He knows he's beautiful and uses that in his games. I saw someone post a bit ago (I can't remember who and I can't find it im sorry😭) that as a kid, Eris wanted Az to like him. He looked up to him as younger kids do. But then- 👀, and maybe a couple fumbles here and there. Now they fight as longing foreplay.

It's suspicious, it's odd, it's stalkery. Eris mentions Az whenever he can. Az sulks around the shadows of Autumn trying to find valid reasons not to like Eris. Eris knows he's there.

He likes playing with his food.

They're the ultimate slow burn enemies to lovers. Then they try to keep it a secret, but someone always finds out those kinds of things. Probably Lucien tbh. Major little brother energy with that little shit.

I'm not anti anyone but some IC criticism is good for the soul.

Santa, I'm afraid I've lost the plot,

Hopefully you get the vibes 😅🌲🍪🥛

sss

[ghostwise]

rinny dark urge run??? aya?/?? an introduction....blease... 👀👐also would love any of your thoughts on the dark urge run so far too <3 <3 <3

OH MAN Isa I'm going to take this as a sign that I need to liven up the place and post way more about my Durge playthrough. It's been a ton of fun.

Aya is my elven bard, a morally grey Dark Urge with a strong hedonist streak. She's a scholar and a poet and a compulsive liar who loves drama, but I feel she'll wind up resisting the urge because she cannot abide being told what to do. She laid it out pretty clearly when she first was reacquainted with Sceleritas Fel; if, when, and how she kills is up to her. If she chooses to indulge she deserves to at the very least remember it!

Yeah her memory loss is quite upsetting to her.

I think it's explicitly canon that Durge has some degree of TBI; the fainting, the lapses in memory and cognition, the headaches all point to it. I initially thought it was post-concussive syndrome, but Omeluum is able to reveal that Durge has lesions in their brain--akin to something burrowing through the brain matter. This girl has been functionally lobotomized, or nearly so, anyways. (I'm super curious as to whether we'll get clarification on when this damage happened.)

Aya starts act 1 in shambles. She's a mess, hardly able to fight. Shadowheart quickly latches onto her; she sees her deep wounds and uses her healing magic to coax Aya back to health, day by day. She relates to her memory loss, and she's also the first one who sees Aya's surgical scars. I think she's taking a bit of a liking to her; or at least, she enjoys trying to fix her up lol.

Aya holds a mutual respect for Lae'zel. Funny enough, they're both kind of out of their depth for different reasons (Lae'zel being unfamiliar with Faerûn and Aya being unfamiliar with everything), so they tend to defer to each other's judgments, even when these are not entirely accurate.

Karlach strikes me as showing a deep understanding of what Aya's experiencing. She notices her symptoms right away--such injuries are not uncommon in the Blood War--and she flat out asks, "Have you all noticed she's having seizures?" I think she regards her with deep compassion, which, oughhh. Will she be worthy of it? Who knows!!

She's romancing Astarion but it's shaping up to be a fiends with benefits type of situation so far. They share a sense of humor and are often in cahoots, but just as often they are on each other's nerves. Maybe it'll sort out into some genuine fondness. But the idea of two morally grey people just teaming up and continuing to be morally grey just in different ways is so compelling sdfghdfg

Her nickname pre-memory loss was Sabandija. She likes to sing to people as she kills them. 👍🏽 Her voice claim is Natasha Shneider.

[separatist-apologist]

I love the way you write Eris. I think he’s just a super interesting character in general. But I was wondering what you think happened between him and Mor? If you had any theories or have seen any that you liked? I haven’t read all of your fics yet so if you talk about it in one of them sorry to ask you again!

I have answered this once in the past, but who knows what I tagged it as. Feyre was in Mor's head, and so I do think things went down EXACTLY as Mor saw them. I doubt she was lying in her mind to deceive Feyre. Additionally, Mor feels real fear and is genuinely upset when Rhys goes behind her back to work with Eris.

The fandom, imo, should grapple with why they're willing to automatically believe something sinister happened/ Mor is a liar just because Eris said there was more to the story than Cassian knew. That doesn't make Mor a liar- it just means Eris was keeping secrets and she's not a mind reader. Regardless of whatever Eris's motivations were (and I suspect that he left her there to keep his father from forcing him to marry her, which is hardly noble just fyi), she's not wrong for hating him/being afraid of him.

Eris has also cultivated a reputation as being as brutal as his father. A lot of the anti-Mor/pro Eris sentiment relies on her KNOWING this is a mask but how is she supposed to? It took Cassian 800 pages to decide that perhaps Eris was not as awful as he let on, and Eris certainly did nothing to help Cassian think so.

Two things can be true: Eris harmed Mor that day, along with whatever went on during their engagement (even if they were both unwilling) AND Eris's reasons for doing so were to spare them both. That doesn't absolve Eris of the harm he caused, nor is Mor obligated to forgive him. This fandom understands the concept that women don't owe men forgiveness, their time, their attention UNTIL it comes to Mor. And then she owes all these men something, and is vilified for not holding their hand like she's their mommy.

And finally- this fandom does not love morally grey characters the way they say they do because you can like/stan Eris and acknowledge he's done harm. But too often the harm gets erased in order to stan him/absolve him/place him in a morally superior position to the IC.

Literally free Mor from this fandom. What has she ever done wrong besides not like any of these men?

[gwandas]

I just realized that Rhysand's stupid ass really fucked everyone over for fifty years by putting a ward on a city that NO ONE knows exists. Like are you telling me Cassian and Azriel wouldn't round up the Illyrians in half a day once they find out Amarantha has Rhysand locked up??

And even despite the ward on Velaris, they should have left. Why? BECAUSE NO ONE OUTSIDE OF VELARIS KNOWS ABOUT VELARIS!!!! Leaving or staying does NOT matter. Has Rhysand ever done anything smart as a ruler? 2/3 of his court hate him (for good reasons), but they're branded as "bad" so readers can just ignore it.

The "progress is slow" excuse... is he even trying, especially in the Hewn City? And I don't know why Cassian teaching (or forcing) girls to train is for their own good. So they can die along with the men during war? Not to mention that when abused women fight back, it's more likely that the man abusing them will hit them even harder, not cower back in fear because she hit him back once. This whole "if women could fight, men can't abuse them!" is pure bs. I wonder if Azriel's hypocritical ass is teaching his mother to fight, so she can die in battle for Rhysand, or did he just take her somewhere safe, where she can live in peace? Hm.

This is a huge part of why I hate that Nesta, Emerie and Gwyn's "healing" is directly tied to them knowing how to fight. Would it help if they're attacked in the future? Probably. But it's annoying as hell that everything is training training training.

This woman thinks nothing through. Literally nothing. ACOTAR is a pretty package, but you have to read it with your brain in a jar in order to ignore all the plot holes and ridiculous nonsensical shit.

okay I know this ask is like DAYS old so sorry 😅 but I needed to google a few things first

I think the main issue was the CoN. Yes no one outside of Night knew about Velaris but that’s the one question mark because it’s not clear if they knew. He says this early in ACOMAF:

which implies the CoN never knew about Velaris

sidenote I love the implication that anyone would want to invade Night… for Velaris. I think y’all can keep the high school pottery projects and children’s paint classes to yourselves

But in Chapter 54 he says this

So… did they know or not? Super unclear, but I could see it being more to protect the Inner Circle too—like trapping them in Velaris and wiping them from the CoN’s minds (who DID know who they were, and Amarantha was searching for Rhys’ loved ones) would both protect the city and stop them from going after him. If Amarantha did get her hands on them, she’d find out about Velaris I think.

Is it a good plan? No not really, but the point was always that Rhys would sacrifice everything for Velaris—not all of Night, certainly not all of Prythian. And then that’s justified because CoN and Illyrians are all bad blah blah blah you know—that’s how you get people saying he’s morally grey but also really good at the same time 😭

And yayyy now we’re headed for the High King plot. Definitely the best guy for the job ❤️

[darkpoisonouslove]

You know all these books about enemies to lovers to enemies back to lovers in the end where the main character fell for the "villian" who is actually just missunderstood or the morally grey character? So Griffin and Valtor make me want to write a book where the main character is the morally grey character. And her love interest is actually the villian. They would both kill for eachother and both think they could always count on eachother. He would have his soft moments with her because he does love her but the love he has for her never stops him to be cruel to the world and she knows that. And she thought that the end justifies the means. But it doesn't and she left. And he hates her for that. He would offer her one last chance to come back to him. He was ready to forget what happened if she would finally see what he sees, what he thinks is right. But she doesn't. And every kill he does after that he did sure she knows that it's on her. And she would ask herself how she could ever fell for him while a part of her still loves him as a part of him still loves her. But obviously there woudl be no happy end bc there are roo many books out there where the "villian" becomes good in the end but that will not happen. He will not get a redemption arc.

Bc these vibes I always fot from Valtor and Grififn when I was a kid. Like we had almost none backstory but what we got was enough to want this and even more happen and we never got it! And there are like NO books out there like this and I hate that!

Yeah, redeeming the villain love interest is tired and boring and usually ruins them as a character. Especially when the author tries to justify some of their earlier villainous actions.

"BuT tHaT's ThE oNlY hEaLtHy OpTiOn!" Who cares! I'm not here for healthy relationships, which I do like but the enemies to lovers and/or lovers to enemies tropes are not the place for it. All the writing advice for enemies to lovers is just "don't make them actually hate each other and do truly terrible things to each other because you can't believably make them lovers then". No, you don't GET IT! I WANT the toxicity and the sense of "Oh, yeah, we're both out of our minds here" after everything we did to each other. One of the most appealing parts of enemies to lovers/lovers to enemies to me is love's ability to persist through all the horrible things they do to each other. The key is to just make it mutual, not have one of them (the guy; it's always the guy) be completely fucking unhinged while the other is just forced to take it.

Anyway, I personally champion the version of the story where the villain stays a villain and their love interest joins them even if they aren't necessarily a villain per se but if you want to go the full tragedy route where they're separated on opposite sides because of morals, that's super delicious too! What little we got of their story definitely sounds like that's exactly what's going on with them and we DESERVE more of that! Whether it's with the two of them or with different characters.

[wishing-stones]

I just wanted to say thankyou.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading R&R (Baggs absolutely needs to be a canon member of Nightmare's Gang!), and I really appreciate it that you put the smut chapters in a separate fic.

There have been so many UT fics I've seen recommended, but I go to them and find they're Explicit and tagged for smut, so I have to nope out and don't get to experience the rest of the story.

The fact that you've taken the time to make a separate sidefic for the smut chapters means that I can read R&R with no worries about if/when the Explicit content will show up. I really, really appreciate that.

Thank you, so much.

Honestly? He just Fits. Nightmare needs no-nonsense backup sometimes, but don't let Baggs fool you-- he's morally grey and also capable of some spectacular feats of Dumbassery with the rest of them... He's usually just the one behind the camera with the first aid kit.

Also, it was important to me to separate the explicit content so that my (fellow) aroace readers can avoid it if it repulses them, and it only gets a fade to black in the main story. Also, it's not super plot revalant to go into detail, even if it is fun to write. All of my fics, I think, will follow this style of: main fic, smut side content, extras that didn't make the cut or that got minimized due to pacing or the MC wasn't there for. It makes sense.

Thank you for the lovely commentary <3

[bharv]

Dragon age dwarves!! They're the absolute best! I'll be playing a dwarf commoner again soon, and I'm excited to hit up Orzammar and the Deep Roads. Dwarf lore was by far the most grabbing to me in the DA games.

What did you like about the Deep Roads? I always thought it was a neat dive into the claustrophobic horror of being trapped with no good options. It really emphasized to me how much of dwarven society had been lost to the darkspawn (and how dire the situation truly was to prompt some of the horrifying decisions Branka made), which was super interesting

(p.s. i hope covid passes quickly for you 🍀🤞)

Literally the same! I loved the creeping horror of it, as well as the realisation of how absolutely screwed the dwarves are if they don’t abandon their traditions. They’ll run out of food, trade, and die out if they don’t change, but they are so wedded to them that it will take really risky reform to save them.

Branka wasn’t right as such, but it really takes morally grey people like her, Bhelen, and Bianca to save their people.

I love that you can hate all of them for many reasons but they’re all fuelled by a desire to make big social change too, some of which might be essential.

(My Aeducan killed Bhelen and I wish we got a bit more of the devastation alluded to in the epilogue cards in the following games)

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Hey CJ, you mentioned that you disagree with a lot of your old TWDG opinions, any that stand out you wanna share? Also i agree with what you said about wanting to play the series for the first time again with no prior knowledge - i would love to meet louis character for the first time again.

Yeah, some opinions have changed with time and moving on from being a hardcore, active fan in the fandom. I'm pretty sure I've talked about some of them more recently, like how I used to not like Jane but now I've become something of a "Jane apologist," if you will.

I was also super vocal about hating the Clementine comics when the 12-page comic dropped, and I'm pretty sure I was shitty about Tillie Walden... which I look back on now and feel embarrassed. In fact, I specifically remember calling attention to the fact that Skybound turned off comments on the first book trailer and on their instagram, twitter, etc. and being like, "look at these COWARDS! they know we hate the comic and that Tillie's a bad artist, they're trying to shut us up!" ........but then I heard they turned them off because Tillie was getting threats, and it caused me to dig around and see the vile shit fans were saying.... It gave me pause to think things through and I feel very differently about it all now.

I've also changed my mind on Minerva. Like Jane, there was a loooong period of time where I didn't like her, but now? I think she's great. A real tragedy.

In fact, real talk, I think my perspective on most of the female characters in TWDG has shifted dramatically. I've done a lot of thinking on this just in general; I'm much harder on female characters than male characters. I can pretend like noooooo I was always soooo fair... but no, not always. I'm sure it's from some deep-rooted, internalized misogyny I have that I'm working on, but I also think the games sometimes neglect those characters, too. Which makes it easier to brush them off as just "poorly-written" and "bad characters" if I don't like them when that's not always the case.

Or let's be real, we all know how this goes; the games give us a flawed male character and fans are like "he's my blorbo, here's a 50k essay about why he deserved better and a list of my headcanons and the twenty AUs I've written for them-" but then a female character's just as flawed and fans are like "lol she's poorly written, here's an essay on why-"

Don't look at me like that. I know I'm guilty of this. I know y'all remember Mitch. Back in the day, Mitch was my boy and I used to write about him all the time but like... god forbid I put that much effort into writing about Violet or Minerva, right?

Or even look at Kate, for example. Past CJ would've talked about how much she doesn't like Kate and she hates the forced romance with Javi, she's just there as a way to make David and Javi fight, etc. But you ask me about Kate now and I'm like, "Girl, ANF did you so dirty, you didn't deserve this."

Or how about Bonnie in S2? We all love to hate on Bonnie, but like... she's such an interesting character?? She's a recovering drug addict so desperate for a place, and you can see Carver's manipulation at play in the way she talks about him to Clementine. It takes seeing him physically beat Kenny within an inch of his life before she's like "Yeah no, fuck this, we're leaving tonight." And we give her shit about Luke's death and being mean to Clementine but frankly? Yeah, she's mean to Clementine and that's fine.

What, it's okay for Kenny to lash out and call her a stupid kid when Sarita dies because he's your poor meow meow and it makes his character soooo morally gray and complex? But Bonnie lashes out about Luke's death and suddenly she's just a massive piece of shit? No complexities or anything? There's no grey morality? No underlying motive or emotions behind the choice to abandon the group with Mike and Arvo?? She's just a bitch??

And do I even need to talk about Sarah? Hmm? We all know how Sarah was received and how fans still talk about her. Again, Sarah has a complete meltdown over losing her father and people get hurt, and fans wish death upon her... but Kenny has a meltdown and brutally beats up Arvo or threatens to smack Clementine or a number of things.... "that's fine, he's just really upset, he lost his family, y'know? everyone keeps trying to GASLIGHT me that he's bad but if you really think about it, Arvo totally deserved to be abused and it's actually Clementine's fault Kenny hit her because she tried to stop him-"

I just... the lengths we go to justify and defend this violent, toxic character but then act like Jane is the worst, I can't-

It's so funny to me whenever I see someone in the fandom complain about wanting more morally grey, flawed female characters because like... y'all couldn't even handle Jane. Or Lilly. Or Sarah. Or Bonnie. Rebecca. Eleanor. Christa. Minerva and Violet, in a lot of cases. So like... what do you actually want?

Note that I'm guilty of this, too, and I've asked myself that question... haven't fully worked out the answer yet.

That's the major thing that comes to mind about opinions I had that I've changed my mind about. I think a big factor in that is letting twdg go and getting invested in other fandoms, doing a lot more reading, getting back into writing, etc. Obviously I've really gotten into the Dragon Age fandom and that's what triggered this "journey of self-reflection~" when it comes to how I perceive female characters. Like, you want flawed, morally-grey ladies? That's your series... assuming you can actually handle it.

But I also recently finished a playthrough of Fallout New Vegas and remembered my love for Veronica Santangelo, like... I don't care that the game doesn't technically have romance, that's my girlfriend, I love her. Then the other night I finished my first playthrough of Life is Strange True Colors [I know, where the fuck have I been, right?] and I spent 40% of the time looking at flowers, 10% being sad about Gabe, and the other 50% trying to figure out who I liked more, Steph or Ryan.

I've also been reading a lot of wlw novels which is just..... THAT'S a whole mess I won't get into because this is already long enough and you didn't ask. Just know that's also another factor in this reflection.

And to answer the other part of your ask: I miss Louis. I would love to play TFS again for the first time again, that was a fun time.

[reel-fear]

You guys just can’t pick a side can you?

This is one of the most idiotic asks I've been sent and someone once told me if a character is designed to appeal to children that character themselves must be a child. However I will still try to respond to explain why this is not the same situation in a calm manner.

The fnaf novels tied into the games in a way where in my opinion you don't need them to understand the lore, The mimic is a pretty simple concept a robot that copies voices the only thing you miss out on with the books is the backstory which I don't think is super vital but could also be explored in a future game so I don't mind the books being canon. Batim back when DCTL had first come out only revealed a major character's identity in that book. That is bad and I don't agree with it. But I am also against retconning the books entirely since it means said character now has No identity. I am literally not the kind of person this is meant to address...

HOWEVER

The bendy books are beloved, they have great stories, characters and add fun things to Bendy's lore that doesn't exist without them. I personally believe they're not only great by video game novel standards but great by general horror novel standards as well.

Most important though, is that Bendy is a "character-focused" series, but despite this the games lack any kind of interesting characterization, most of the cast don't have established relationships and the ones that do are often relationships that are minor and unimportant. The cast ranges from basically cardboard cut outs who had interesting ideas that were not executed well to basically having nothing interesting about them. See how Henry the main protagonist of the first game BATIM does not have much of a personality nor reacts to much through out the game, thus making it hard to really feel for what he is going through not to mention how he doesn't seem to have been friends with anyone he's encountered.

The books added substance to characters who needed it. They gave Joey a compelling backstory, motivation and a peak into how his mind worked via Illusion Of Living which filled in holes and gaps in Joey's story that the games left wide open despite the fact he's a main villain and very important. His character is vital to BATDR & BATIM, as it is his actions that literally caused all of this besides Henry who could arguably also be said to have started this when he left. The games don't tell us much about either of them. Not to mention unlike Scott who I believe never fully stated whether or not the books were canon, the bendy devs DID say the books were canon until recently which is confusing and frustrating for theorists who kept up with them to be able to know the lore and now feel cheated.

But now without the books Bendy has even more holes in its story, we now don't know who Boris is, why Thomas was suddenly being ominous and evil in BATDR [In The Lost Ones he was shown to be morally grey however since those aren't canon anymore, it seems Thomas just suddenly turned evil bc he felt like it], not to mention Joey now lacks a backstory and everything a lot of fans loved about the way he was written in the books has been thrown away. A lot of relationships, interesting traits and cool ideas about Bendy's narrative and its characters are now suddenly gone leaving us with once again the cardboard cutouts that the games claim are well-written characters. Kress is just a way better writer than the Bendy devs so to see her work tossed aside when she had been told it was canon to this franchise she liked feels offensive and hurtful.

This was only made worse by the fact this news only truly came out in response to multiple instances of whitewashing characters who were previously thought to be people of color in the graphic novel for Dreams Come To Life which itself also was just very poorly drawn, was basically just a worse version of the book it was adapting and had coloring mistakes that made it to the final print.

Meanwhile Fnaf is not a character-focused narrative, at least not to the degree Bendy is. For a while we didn't know who the protagonist of the games was and it also didn't matter. Fnaf's story was fairly simple and more focused on the events that caused the animatronics to attack you as opposed to say how the nightguard was feeling about all this. Thusly Fnaf's books which all told their own stories [most of which were received with pretty mixed reviews might I add] were also kinda wild and strange in the lore they added? Like robot children that also grew up and thought they were human and a lot of stories that didn't feel particularly related to FNAF? More like generic horror stories that sometimes had animatronics instead of any other generic monster.

It was completely natural for people to assume the fnaf books weren't canon, for a while it just didn't seem likely. They also weren't supplying key story information since the games themselves explained their stories well enough for everyone to at least have an idea of what was happening. Fnaf just isn't a character-focused narrative [or at least until Security Breach it really wasn't] the most important thing about its characters was their roles. William Afton as a person isn't super important for you to understand you just need to know that 1. He's the killer 2. He's the father of the main protagonist and 3. He died and is now coming to get you. Run. All of his children are the same, in fact a lot of them don't have names bc their names aren't super important their roles are. The crying child, the dead kids, you don't need to know their whole backstories for the story to work, it's a simple eerie and well written horror story about children dying and becoming vengeful ghosts.

Fnaf then released Security Breach which already made a lot of people frustrated and upset. Not only had it been delayed a lot but the story was confusing and not well written, the game was buggy and nearly unplayable in spots. Etc, etc, the fandom was already rather upset.

Then the dlc came out and while it was WAY better and honestly it's one of my favorite mascot horror games EVER, a lot of people had already long before it came out, placed their bets on whether or not the mimic would show up and therefore make the books canon. A lot of people at that point felt frustrated with how vague and hard to deconstruct the lore already Was so when it turned out the books [or at least the ones with Mimic in them] were canon it was frustrating and I understand why. The books are kinda bloated and have a lot of hit or miss stories so now everyone is wondering which stories are canon and which aren't which is frustrating when you just want to enjoy a story in a game you bought without having to watch an hour long theory video or read the wiki.

Honestly the biggest thing is this ask is very passive aggressive to me for a belief I don't even hold. I'm not super upset the fnaf books are canon, I'm very disinterested in fnaf due to scott cawthon's... Actions but personally I'm of the opinion that as long as a future game explains the mimic's backstory and what it is, then it's fine the books are canon.

Besides fnaf recently made a game literally out of one of the books people liked and it received great reviews [I loved it]. The books are not the problem people had it was the confusing lore. You're literally making up people to get mad at, most of the people who were upset at the fnaf books being canon didn't mind the bendy books not being canon and the opposite was true for others as well. Not to mention you're completely disregarding [in both cases] Why people are mad. It was far more complicated than just books not being canon it was what was In those books.

To imply I'm being hypocritical when you're comparing two game devs who I both dislike and don't support in their actions is very insulting. You just assumed I held this position cause I guess you thought I was stupid? Or you thought that because I don't like the bendy team I must be hypocritical and like fnaf? Either way you literally just assumed something about my beliefs then came to my inbox to mock me for it. I hope you realize how immature and stupid you look right now.

And for the record that goes for all the fnaf fans who mocked or disregarded people being upset about the bendy books not being canon anymore too. If they had simply listened to Why people were upset they would realize it was way more than just people being mad at a retcon.

Anyways of course you're a h*lluva boss fan, that makes perfect sense with how rude you are and the fact you use "antis" unironically. The way you fought so hard to pretend like the poppy playtime devs are the worst people in the world before I had to correct you on all of your info having no evidence, meanwhile you support someone who has been well known for being an abuser, hurting their workers and even transphobic says everything. So long as someone made something you like they can do no wrong right? Well heres some stuff abt Vivzieshit you might wanna look at.

I'm gonna go enjoy thanksgiving with my family now. I hope you learned something about sending weird passive aggressive stuff to strangers about shit they don't think or have ever said. Lmao

[littlefirefly42]

I'm a little upsetti spaghetti I'm ngl

Spoilers for ATSV under the cut

It is so wild to me that people are getting legitimately mad at Gwen for lying Miles when she literally had no choice. She was homeless, and as far as she knew if she went back to her dimension she would get arrested and charged with murder. The only way to prevent that from happening was for her to listen to Miguel and do whatever he said. So yeah, she lied to Miles, but she had no choice.

In fact, it was pretty damn cool of her to visit Miles in the first place, because she didn't have to do that. She was putting herself at risk for that. Same with when she defends him in front of Miguel, catches him during the chase scene and then lets him go, yells at Miguel in defense of him, and gathers all the spider people to find him. Y'all want to talk about how badly she treats Miles when she literally risks everything for him multiple times during the movie.

Also, super random detail you may have missed, SHE'S SIXTEEN. Of course she's going to make stupid mistakes! Of course she's going to accidentally hurt people! She's a teenager who's scared and alone and the one person who was supposed to love her unconditionally and always be there for her turned on her. And you just expect her to just be perfect???

AND ANOTHER THING- It is the same people who are slandering the fuck out of Gwen that are defending Miguel even though he beat the shit out of Miles for wanting to save his dad and continuously shifted the blame for his actions and failures onto other people and let his trauma turn him into an emotionless asshole. Miguel is a grown ass adult. You guys are going to be pissed at a homeless teen doing what she has to do but not a grown ass adult refusing to healthily process his trauma and choosing to use it against others for no reason? That's fucked up.

You know what else is fucked up? Y'all wouldn't care if Hobie was in Gwen's position. You'd be falling over yourselves defending him. The thing about morally grey characters is that everyone fucking loves them until they're a women. Then suddenly they're a bitch and they're evil and they're backstabbing and it's so fucking annoying to me if you're a misogynist just say that.

And if I get a single reply about her opening Mile's action figure I'm gonna lose it.

[space-spring]

1, 4 and 6 for the fandom ask game, for Triangle Strategy

Thank you so much for the ask!!! <3

1. My favorite thing about the fandom

I've probably said this before, but I honestly really like that tri strat's a pretty small fandom! I love some more popular things like fire emblem, but I rarely participate in those fandoms because it's more intimidating to post stuff that I know significantly more people will be looking at. Even my stuff on triangle-strategy-notes, which isn't super creative (like fanfic or fanart) is stuff I probably wouldn't do for fe. There's already Japanese -> English translation discourse going on over there and I know I'd probably get zinged for a lot of the mistakes I make on the artbook stuff hahahaha.

4. My favorite fanart from the fandom

I'm going to do several here bc there is SO MUCH cool fan art for triangle strategy esp. considering how small it is.

@kelbunny's Cordelia paladin concept has lived in my head rent free ever since she posted it because I am thinking 24/7 about how cool it would have been if Cordelia had ended up with a more significant role after retaking Whiteholm (not that a healer can't have a significant role but. we all know JRPG protags have to have at least one sword or will the devs REALLY let them be a JRPG protag). It's such a fun concept, and I also really love the way it parallels Avlora's dark knight thing she's got going on. It's just!!!! very cool!!!!!

@cullensart's Avwell drawings. I just think they're neat :)

This is on Twitter so I am going to very cautiously repost it a little bit with a screenshot of the entire tweet, but I really love this art by DelaneyJanuzzi of the Time to Say Goodbye battle ending. The scene in general is SO GOOD and I just think it's a really cool drawing of it :) She also has a ton of other cool tri strat + fire emblem art that I really enjoy

6. My favorite character

To the surprise of probably no one I love Avlora a whole lot :) :) :) I'm a sucker for morally grey characters in general and Avlora in particular is really interesting to me for a few different reasons. One big difference between her and a character like Edelgard von Fire Emblem is that Avlora is just super unapologetically not feminine in the typical sense. She super easily could have been written as a man with essentially zero changes to the script outside of pronouns, and there's no "whoa isn't it nuts that we're taking orders from a woman?" moments or really any acknowledgement whatsoever that it's uncustomary for the setting. And the same thing goes for a lot of Tri Strat's female characters which I think is really cool! I don't have anything against girlbosses getting to be a little girly on occasion (and I think for Edelgard in particular it works well considering her whole arc with trust + vulnerability), but there's definitely something really cool about Avlora getting to step outside the stereotypes a bit and just get to be a general without so many references to her gender.