#I will never be free this story is too compelling XD

[mostlikelytofangirl]

Hi.....Do you mind if I ask you some random thing? I used to love shounen and shoujo manga equally....But ever since I found BL manga 3 years ago, my interest in shoujosei (especially het romance) decrese a lot, and what I search for is just the dynamic between mc (male) and male lead...I don't want to read mc (female) and male lead or mc (male) and female lead...And what I want to read mostly are just mlm or wlw stories....

What do you think is happening to me? Is it really weird?

Hi there, anon!

I don't mind at all ^^. And let me tell you, this is exactly what happened to me back when I was a wee 15-16 yo or so, many moons ago XD. But then I found out about BL, I started to come to terms with my own queerness, and I never looked back lol.

It's not weird in the slightest, my good fellah, bc for starters, our tastes are not fixed and are constantly changing and evolving, so something we used to like may not be our cup of tea in the future and viceversa. It happens with everything: clothes, music, food, etc.

In the case media, one reason I found is that hetero romances are many, many times just a forced thing that shows/books/whatever add just bc they have to or something. I mean, he was a boy and she was a girl and that's it; no chemistry, no development, no proper bonding... and then they complain that ppl ship the protagonists with their same sex buddies when those two have a much more deep and compelling relationship than the by-the-numbers "romance" with the other lead.

I personally have more of an aesthetic preference for men, so there's also the matter that well, two hot fictional guys getting at it is something I just find more attractive xD. I can totally see that playing for ppl who are more into girls too. Especially given how still in this day and age 90% of most media is straight, so if we get the hetero every freaking time even without asking for it, it's only natural that we would go out of our way to find mlm and wlw. We literally HAVE to bc mainstream is just starting to catch up with the program.

I definitely don't want to assume anything about your situation, anon, but I think it's still worth remarking once more that it is not weird at all, and I fear you may have thought so at some point bc of the current unhinged wave of puritanism and gatekeeping that infuse with the fear of god anyone who is not enjoying something "The Right Way", or doesn't have the proper credentials to like this or that. You don't owe anyone a saying in what you innocently do in your free time or the type of fictional not-real media you consume, much less some rando on the internet, anon.

Go be free and enjoy whatever you feel it's right for you, or just what tickles your fancy; media is for fun and recreation, and I'd say that you should go and have all the fun with this new interests you are developing.

You're cool buddy :D

[kusagrasskusa]

Heyyy could i get some d'vorah x female reader hcs??? I love bug wife sm but theres no fanfiction abt her

Ahhh my gosh yes!!!! If I’m gonna be honest D’Vorah is my least favorite character of all Mortal Kombat characters, but that doesn’t mean I dislike her. Actually she’s pretty fucking epic and a cool character to write about. Tbh I’m really REALLY happy with this request since I’m also the type who simps over characters who aren’t popular enough to get a lot of fanfics about them if any XD

So thank you so very much!!!!! I hope this is to your liking! I kinda suck at hc since I alway add story so if I don’t do enough of hcs, lemme know so I can make a part two!!

And also, I’m gonna be posting a really sad request later today… I had to step back from that because it broke my heart 😭 So if ya’ll like Raiden.. stay tuned ;)

This was made by Fezat1 on Deviantart :)

D’Vorah (bug wife) X Female! Reader - Headcannons

So let’s say lovely, beautiful Y/N is um A fugitive

But on her way to escaping her prison, she got hungry and ate some berries out of desperation. Of course she wasn’t as desperate as she was whenever she was trying to escape from a giant fucking web in the middle of Outworld.

But whenever the Queen D’Vorah discovered the girl, my my.. She was so cute! Pulling on the web, crying, begging for dear life 🥰🥰❤️ Why, it made the queen almost not wanna kill her! But instead to savor each drop of blood she tastes because it’s not very often you see someone as cute as this one

Oh but in the end… She couldn’t even do that. Something compelled her to free you, but in return.. You must “stay” for a “little bit” which this sexy bug mama deserved, right?

I feel like D’Vorah wouldn’t be very good at showing expression. Bugs don’t mate for life save for cockroaches and termites, and so her need to stay with you feels more like a need the way food is a need, rather than as love. But of course that’s just the way her bug mind interprets it because whenever a bug bite you and you had a bad reaction, her way expression love was by killing it

I think it’s safe to say you’d never had lice or ticks or anything again. Weird

A lot of people around the world don’t eat bugs or scorpions or anything (me neither cause f that) but you gotta get used to it sometimes. Maybe even road kill or something like that. Idk but whenever you were so disgusted you figured you’d put your culinary skills to the test… Bug wife decided you’re gonna have your own role in the colony. To cook.

D’Vorah would 1000%% use her back things for cuddles. Imagine you guys argue and are avoiding each other, but during bed time, she just like… Slips one of those things around you. Don’t say shit or else she’s taking it away and sleeping with the larva instead.

Tbh, without making this NSFW, I feel like D’Vorah would be SO PROUD to show off her body. She already does all the way anyways and don’t expect her to cover up. Girl knows she got them curves and muscles to show

She would love to play with your curves too! Like trace them with her finger, even if not in a NSFW way, just because she appreciates a feminine body. She’d look at your eyelashes, curves, chest, legs and everything that makes you a woman with so much appreciation.

If your not a curvey or thicc queen, guess what? Your a sticc queen in her eyes, love. Too bad so sad! She’d still be as touchy regardless because you know what? Those features are what makes her yours, and you hers ❤️

She’d be very protective over you…….. unless

If she finds out you’re hanging upside down, slowly being swallowed up by a giant unearthly worm, imagine her being like, “Aww, hehe, this one is not food even if she looks so delicious”

Let Erron Black eye you for literally 2 seconds. You might not even notice but your warrior wife is gonna be by your side, glaring at the gunslinger. Let that self-serving leech talk to you, and I promise it’ll be his last conversation ever (aside from a “I’m sorry”)

She would be so touchy. I mean, the bugs all crawl on each other and stuff so if you don’t like touchy, you’ll have to deal with him.

You use her back things as a carrier sometimes

Kisses with her are Cute.

Imagine you one day just lean down and are like “Mwa!” She just looks up at you with an unchanged face in absolute confusion

And so you’ll tease her with it pretty often. Like just random, jump scare kisses to the cheek or forehead or lips

D’Vorah tries to jump scare kiss you back but her lips don’t know what the fuck they are ding the first like 3839749837 times

or not until you grab her wrist and counter attack kiss her back before her mind can even register what happens

She loves her kisses 🥰

Sleepy time, imagine both her arms around you, one leg on top of you, her head on you, and her other leg on your side. She is the embodiment of a ‘cuddle bug’

“Babe, I’m gonna teach you to say ‘I love you’” “This one does not feel love. But this one feels like it would be too evil to feast upon your flesh and blood” “…you’re getting better at it!!!!!”

I love you is the toughest thing to her. Like her body will physically not form the words. Her brain will not form the words. But guess what? Whenever you say it without getting a response back, she feels so happy you have no idea

Being new to the whole mating for life thing (though she would just call it “long term attraction”) means it’ll be hard for her to understand some relationship normalities. Whenever she threatens to consume you or spit acid at you, you just grab her hand softly and watch as her face changed. How it calms down instantly and her body untended. How her face looks so innocent like a lost puppy.

“Now you shut up,” you say, smiling stupidly knowing you just made her thunderstorm of anger turn into a hurricane

She is cold blooded so lemme tell you.. You being hot under the Outworld sun is PERFECT. Your body is just 100 degrees but imagine that being like how clothes feel after they get out of the dryer to her. She LOVES IT

If you wear soft or puffy clothes, maybe yarn, you become so so soft to her! She might nibble on the wool sometimes but she knows you love how cute she can look

She’ll play with your hair pretty often for a past time

She’ll let you ride on her sometimes- just don’t move too much

[luckycheesefoodie321]

Watched Eternals!! Spoiler + Long Post

I feel like a generally average MCU fare in terms of plot and action pieces. First time they’ve really decided to include a Cliffhanger in the main part of the film, at least in terms of intro movies (except First Avenger but that was right before The Avengers so it made sense)… introduced a new big bad in The Celestials… I hear it wasn’t the big Celestials movie people were hoping for but it wasn’t as trash fire as some had led me to believe…

All that said, I enjoyed the cast. The Eternals themselves had a fun dynamic. But with so many new characters to introduce the audience, whilst also balancing the “we’ve known each other for centuries” group dynamic, the individual characterisation fell kind of flat and one-dimensional.

I love Gemma Cham but her character was so often just staring around conflicted and not actually doing anything except occasionally turning a rock into a butterfly (I exaggerate obvi). Her chemistry with her two love interests just didn’t feel as compelling as it could have been (which is why I get the obsession with Druig x Makari)… I was v interested in Gilgamesh and Thena and the fact he spent centuries doing what Black Widow became for the Hulk

Give me your hand vs The sun’s getting real low XD

Sprite was an interesting case but with so many characters, the more compelling elements of her story were lost in the bigness of the story. Like we see one scene of her trying to woo a guy, and then it’s revealed she’s got Tinkerbell syndrome and is in love with Ikaris and then she has a big spat with Sersi in the final battle before getting conked by Druig. And then all is forgiven and she becomes human?! Again an unfortunate product of a bunch of characters getting introduced in one story.

I loved Gilgamesh. If they find other Eternals and it’s a situation where they just look like the same but are “variants” then we can bring back best boi Don Lee aka Ma Dong-seok!!

Would love to see more of Druig and Makari and I guess we shall see them romping about the stars with Harry Styles aka Josh Brolin’s baby bro????

Faustus/Phostos however his name is spelt, I liked him. Him having a family was a lovely and having a male partner with an (adopted I’m assuming) son! Him mostly getting the better of Ikaris was nice.

Makari was a delight! More of her! Her and Druig were fun too. Good to see deaf representation and everyone just knowing sign language, demonstrating it is never something that impedes her.

I think they restrained Angelina Jolie’s natural star power well in making her Thena. And her ability to appear delicate but uncompromisingly fierce was great.

Who else? Ah yes the non-event comedic relief but also makes a compelling case for the moral grey area between the resolute and loyal to the directive, Ikaris, and the loves and appreciates the value of life, Sersi: Kingo.

He gives his reasons just fine for not being able to pick a side but then doesn’t join for the final fight in any capacity but then is shown to be taking charge of Human!Sprite and then is swept along anyway by Arishem. I’d like to see more of him but felt unfulfilled.

SPEAKING OF LACK OF FULFILMENT. DID IKARIS REALLY JUST LAUNCH HIMSELF INTO THE SUN?!? Apologises but doesn’t deal with any of the repercussions of his actions… I know “Icarus who flew too close to the sun blah blah” but his character was so much more interesting than that?! Like he actively chose to separate from the empathetic and nurturing Sersi who adored humanity bc he was loyal to the mission he had be indoctrinated into and when his whole purpose for being was threatened he killed Ajak, someone very dear to him, but still stuck by his beliefs despite it putting himself against someone he loves. And the Deviants were experiencing the same journey in that Arishem abandoned them as failures and the Eternals were complicit in their destruction despite just following orders and then evolving and having free will like living creatures are meant to have.

Could he have then become this morally ambiguous character trying to figure out which side he was on and embrace the natural human instinct of finding new purpose in his life? Kinda like that one dude in Dr Strange who realises The Ancient One used Dark Magic??? Yes! But instead he flew into the sun. Your symbolism didn’t land as well as you thought it did Marvel! Idk maybe he’ll come back but that was such a nonsensical resolution to his character arc. Not to mention, as soon as he appeared to Sprite and Sersi’s aide in London, I pegged him as the bad guy. Getting too predictable now.

Overall again this movie was ok. A good set-up movie for the many things coming up. But the pacing in the beginning was terrible, it was one character intro after another, really awkwardly placed flashback sequences, a butt ton of exposition, and then a very rude and unruly cliffhanger ending with two very cliffhanger end credits scenes. Eternals really didn’t try to be complete on its own.

There were beats I genuinely enjoyed. Like, funnily enough, the most interesting character to me was Kingo’s valet, Karun? A human among gods. He gets told to go home because the world is ending but for that same reason he chooses to stay because what is the point in returning with this knowledge of his impending doom. May as well watch their journey unfold.

Him thinking Kingo was a vampire, trying to stab him, then becoming Kingo’s closest confidante and companion in many ways?

Despite Kingo’s own beliefs about what the Eternals should do, he becomes the voice of humanity. “Hey, please save us? I would really appreciate it, but I’m probably biased”. Him leading the prayer for Gilgamesh’s funeral. Determinedly continuing to be a loyal cameraman and accepting the aggression of the Eternals at him trying to do his job in stride and even calling them out for being so angry.

And then him just being generally affable and pleasant and naturally funny. There were some moments that clearly were gunning for a laugh but his role was genuinely fun.

Like the story was so big beyond its boundaries that it was nice to see such a simple but well-rounded character.

That said I do look forward to where they take this cast and hope we have more time to get to know them beyond what they struggled to convey in this one.

[phantasmiafxndom]

I particularly don't like the abo aspect of designed roles, secondary gender or shit, sounds a lot of talk to say that you're a subby bottom or a stone faced top, but I do like aspect of heats, or ruts. Suppressants are also another boring writing tool. I have never in my whole life read a genuine and compelling abo story, but even if you do add it to your stories I'll keep on reading, after all I can't stop myself at that point...

Oh, anon. >:3c 

See, I hate the “normal” A/b/o stuff too. But a friend tempted me into writing it a while back on one of my other fandoms/blogs, and let me tell you, I fixed it. I put some actual thought into the Au, and did my usual brand of “I can make this work”. I assure you, if you like my usual writing, my A/b/o stuff should at least be tolerable to you. 

If you (or anyone else) want me to explain how I do things, feel free to ask about it! If not, I link my recently completed Senjuushi A/b/o fic and say that I can do soooo much better than the norm~

I’m not usually a fan of it either, but the way I’ve twisted everything up, I actually enjoy writing it kiiinda now! XD

[nighttimepixels]

TALK TO US ABOUT MASS EFFECT I HAVE BEEN AN INSANE MASS EFFECT/SHAKARIAN TRASH PERSON SINCE 20-FUCKING-11 AND LEMME TELL YOU THOSE FEELINGS HAVENOT TARNISHED A SINGLE FRACTION IN THOSE TEN YEARS OH MY GOOOOOOODDDSSSS!!!!!!!

I DEMAND A PLAY-BY-PLAY UP TO THE MINUTE OF YOUR REACTIONS TO EVERYTHING!!!!

you are so valid and I totally see why everyone I've ever mentioned it to loves the hell out of it

aksdjlsdfj I meannnn if you want to hear my rambling about it then hell yeah

Okay, gonna put this below the cut to save everyone else XD also- since I'm not leaving this Mass Effect obsession anytime soon, if you're not interested in seeing occasional posts about it, please feel free to block the tag "night plays ME"~

(mild spoilers ahead??)

((also for real I mean it when I say this is rambling as hell lol, apologies and no stress if absolute no one reads all this))

OKAY SO Mass Effect 1-

Stars help me, I was honestly hooked right from the start?? Like even in Legendary Edition (the combined trilogy just re-released in one "can play it on one system + minor improvements", for anyone who doesn't know) where it's smoothed out, of course it's obvious that ME1 is a decade old... but the foundation for these relationships are all there and gods I love them already.

Like - Kaiden right off the top is a delightful good fightin lad, what the hell. I've heard that he's viewed as 'bland' by a good portion of the fan community but I dunno, he's a delight and even more complex by the time 2 rolls around and you encounter him on Horizon, it was honestly Ashley I was way more meh about - mostly because before you can learn about her family history/etc, she comes off as hella xenophobic and I was immediately offended for my growing space family that she didn't like/trust all the aliens around, pfff.

(she gets redeemed a bit through further actions/evolving thoughts, but I thought in retrospect it was a bummer that they didn't flip the order there, give her a chance to be liked before the complicating factor of being so rude about aliens >:c that then she could grow from... ah well. Apparently she has a good arc but uh, let's just say I chose Kaiden at the "key junction" in the latter part of the game so I won't be seeing anymore of Ashley uh... anytime soon, haha.)

Garrus??? Is??????? The ABSOLUTE best???????????

I liked him from the start, I'm always a bit of a sucker for a rogue-detective "the system won't bring this bastard to justice, so I've got to" type and all their moral shadiness XD But he just gets better, honestly, and where I'm at in ME2 (right before the Reaper IFF mission, as of typing this, with everyone's loyalty!) I am only digging myself deeper into this hole-

-*wheezing* okay anyways -

Wrex is AMAZING I love fightin' middle-aged krogan bastard, gods. Liara is great too, I'm a sucker for a wlw relationship (playing fem!Shepard, so) - buuuut I'll admit she's a bit more one-note in ME1. Last week while I was still on ME1 I remember hearing (while trying to dodge spoilers) that her arc is really good, though. I think they leaned a little hard on the 'innocent but sexy' sterteotype on her (so despite the yikes aspect of a few of the things I've learned in ME2, lol, I actually really like the complexity that's been added to her character.)

Saved Liara first, so by the time I got to Noveria and had the standoff with Benezia there was the chance to have emotions over Liara having to face her TwT and of course, I made the questionable but quality decision to free Queen Rachni heheh. no ragrets

More than a blow-by-blow of my choices though I totally wanna take the chance to say that even in the mild jankiness of ME1 (goddammit, the Mako.... please..... please just go up this impossible cliff I just want to resource hunt-) the way that the lore, both obvious/key to main plot and the lesser/filler/background/world-building kinds... I just love it. It incorporates it well, you can go ham in the codex learning more, or just dive into the basics - it's clearly a complex galaxy (and they do an even better job in 2 of fleshing it out further), and it never really felt overwhelming. It was pretty natural figuring it all out-!

Plus the interesting implications of resource hunting amongst the sapient races, and the little side missions you better bet I did every one of- there's so much rich depth in the story if you do 'em!! (And that lead with that Keeper side mission...? Looking back, damn, clever foreshadowing-!!!)

And oh my gods, Ilios??? hell yeah. I loved that mission so much, especially having Garrus & Kaiden with me when talking to the hologram/computer, and more than anything, that last sprint in the Mako trying to get to the jump before it closed-???

yeet the boi-

Also mannn I love a good setpiece, and having to go up the side of the elevator, space-side?? such a cool setup!!

Plus it felt good having been Paragon enough (as simple as the good v bad vibe system is, I don't hate it, lol) to avoid one of the Saren fights, ngl. And the er, "second fight" with Sovereign-Saren.... hell yeah

... I'll admit I had to double check my choice re whether to save the Council. I did in the end, but I swear, sometimes the way they phrase things I'm like ".... okay but Garrus is right, defeating Sovereign is more important than these few leaders??????" woops. Listen, priorities, is all I'm saying..... (￣ヮ￣|||)ゞ

'Course later they emphasize (in ME2) that there were 10,000 people on that same ship and I was like well I wouldn't have second guessed if I'd known that, I mean c'mon-

Also I did indeed romance Liara in this one, so I got that scene ;Dc But,,,, I also knew by the end that I was totally gonna romance Garrus in 2 since he's an option then finally,,,,, lemme tell you the guilt as I waffled over whether to romance Liara bc of it. hahaha.

Aaaaand Mass Effect 2-

So I'm only up to right before the Reaper IFF Mission, so I don't know the ending, etc etc lol. That said, I've just finished every side mission I've found with the exception of the Shadowbroker Quest and the Arrival Quest (I've heard the latter basically leads into ME3, and the former is best either right before the Omega 4 jump or in postgame).

So from the start - fuck yeah fuck yeah what a high adrenaline start Shepard noooooo but also yes save Joker aH-

The motion comic too hot damn nice job

I loved this setup, seriously - especially forcing Shep into this situation, having to work with/for Cerberus, and the compelling reasoning given behind "why" they do what they do (I especially found it a good point that the Salarians have the Task Force, the Asaris the Commandos, the Turians the- etc... like, true, when you put it like that, having a similar group advancing human interests/solving human interstellar problems is pretty reasonable...). That said, I love too that it really isn't shied away from how Cerberus is nonetheless fucked up - or its at least done fucked up stuff.

Listen, I still think some messed up stuff is gonna be revealed in 2's endgame......... after that Horizon mission and the Collector's ship???? TIM I SEE YOU YOU SHADY MF-

aaanyways lol...

I'm so so glad on a gameplay level they nixed the Mako style exploration. A few Hammerhead missions are fine and a lot more focused than the slippery ass navigation in that glorified ATV, pfff. The probes are a neat way of getting after similar resources - and more importantly, having good levels and some good hubs (the Zakera Wards, Omega, Ilium, etc) is way way more fun than having a more 'sprawling' space that is.... a lot of empty nonsense, lol.

Then there's the fact that we get Joker right off the bat and you can interact with him so much - and him and EDI??? Get out gods I love them. Kasumi is so right when she says they sound like a bickering old married couple lol. I have a terrible feeling that some shit is gonna happen with EDI..... but I don't think she's evil as-is, at least.

Side-eying the hell out of those "access forbidden" parts of her that she doesn't even know.... and the fact that her AI core has a locked door access................... something's gonna happen gdi LEAVE OUR ADOPTED AI ALONE.

(Also Joker pls stop fracturing your thumb on the mute button)

Also please save me there are so many hot aliens in this game,,,,, the xeno/monsterfuckers really comin' through strong in the sequels............... doin' the lord's work........................................

In general, I love how many levels ME stepped up in two with complexity and interwoven narratives!! Like, to the point it'd be almost a drag to replay ME1, even though it was fun going through it (if occasionally a bit tedious with the cookie cutter rando planet science/mine facilities, lol). Like, just from how fun and interesting ME2 is, mostly! more of all the pre-introduced races, plus new ones, plus more filling in of intragalactic politics, and more interesting implications of all these space-faring races mixing....

Also gods WREX and his planet holy shit,,,,, fuckin' hell yeah my man get their shit together and also adopt Grunt yes good-

And Mordin??? My singing semi-evil scientist best friend forced to confront his choices more than he thought he ever would have???? With some of the best ongoing general report chatter of all the companions??

(when I tell you I choked on my coffee when I talked to him after confirming romance choice w/ Garrus and that 'pamphlet' and 'anaphalactic shot if ingesting-' kajsldkfjsldfjk)

Like, fuck, the fact that they actually dive into the mixed morality and horrors of the genophage, and you can confront Mordin on it, for good reason, yet he still stands his ground, until finally some bits of his loyalty mission seem to... affect him, and I'm guessing might set up things for 3 with him? Unsure, but either way, damn, the fact that they start to dig into it...

And Taliiiii my beloved forbidden alien wife TwT her loyalty mission was SO GOOD. I love how varied they all are?? Getting to defend her and discover what she'd unwittingly been a part of-!!

Zaeed is a bastard but tbh I love that he is and that he's unapologetic in him - and Kasumi omg, best thief. A heist?? Gods, yes- I love our couch lounge chats XD

Samara is..... illegally.......... she's an illegally powerful and beautiful and eloquent MILF...........................

(.... listen I'm sapphic as hell and I'm kicking my own ass for picking her up last aksjdlfksjdfl - but her loyalty mission, damn. And seeing how there's this interesting cultural subset, and the struggle with the Asari in that they unquestioningly accept/respect justicars, but also know that the impact outside their culture is a diplomacy nightmare waiting to happen-)

,.,,,,,T,,, Thane,,,,,

I am weak for morally implicated murder dads okay?? And that voice??? His mannerisms?????? How you first see him, and that prayer after assassinating her...???????? And his history/his people's history with the hanar, gods I love how messy it is, it feels so much more real!

Also Jack is a mess and I love her (and want to get her some therapy, omg), and her and Miranda nearly duking it out after you've done both their loyalty missions??? so good and makes a lot of sense-! Honestly I would love more interactions between teammates on the ship, but there's already so much the devs had to balance I can't blame 'em for minimizing, heh. But suffice to say I also love Miranda and Jacob, even if I'm softest for my alien crew XD Hell yeah Jacob, we'll get loud and spill drinks on the citadel indeed TwT

.... I could write a whole essay on how much I love Garrus oTL Perhaps because he and Tali are the throughlines from 1 on your 2 crew, I have some of the strongest feelings about them... but genuinely, he was one of my favorite companions in the first game, and how you find him as Archangel in two? Getting to help him fight his way out after he's gone nearly 48 hours straight fighting off three gangs alone, jfc. His vengeance quest and what can happen there.... That line? fuck me, that line -

It's so much easier to see the world in black and white. Grey? I don't know what to do with gray...

How DARE you come for my heart like this, devs holy shit

(also, some other choice faves so far from the series from him include We can disobey suicidal orders?? and This wasn't in my training manual... [in 1, if you have him with you @ th Thorian fight] and his whole.... pop the heat sink - in his romance ;Dc)

asdasdfksadjfkl like I said I can write an essay on him PFFF suffice to say I'm very looking forward to his romance scene and where things go in 3

But yeah gods I'm just gonna keep rambling if I'm not careful lol. Gods I don't even know what to talk about it's all so good and while I can understand people roasting the obviousness of Paragon V Renegade (v neutral) choices/alignments, I think they do a pretty damn good job in 2 of pushing it further - to the point that there were some times that I accidentally got renegade points and I wasn't that mad, haha. There's so much fun in the interactions that I just have a good time anyways~

I have so many thoughts about TIM (The Illusive Man) and Cerberus.... theories evolving galore............... and like, what the hell!! Omega 4 going to the center of the galaxy is such a cool twist, goddamn - though my heart still breaks at losing Kaiden (his line if you haven't romanced him?? about feeling like he lost a limb when he lost you??? holy shit.... but I also can't blame him for not trusting Cerberus to the point of it affecting his ability to trust Shepard... like fuck Shep go after himmmm) I'm really excited to see where that goes since he comes back in 3, and what the fuck happens with Cerberus bc while I love the fact that obviously there are a lot of people in it for the right reasons, doing good work, there are those that are doing the opposite, and I have a very bad feeling about where TIM will end up landing....

All that said though I need to do the Reaper IFF mission (where I'm lightly spoiled as to getting That Boy, but not how/what happens to make it so - just that it's apparently wise to have all your side missions done before getting him...) and the actual Omega 4 jump. So we'll see what happens and what I think about it from there heheh!

.... major kudos and genuine props if you made it here to the end, I am so sorry for not editing on condensing all this, and appreciate you so much ;w;

[levi-supreme]

Hey! how are you doing? I hope everything is fine and that you had the chance to relax! You’re so kind, thank you 🥺 you made my day with your sincere words and I’m so glad to know you’re happy to talk with me too <3

Thank you so much for your recommendations! I’ve heard a lot about Genshin Impact and the games from the Final Fantasy franchise, the graphics are wonderful and the storylines look very compelling 🤭

Omg, I grew up playing Sims City and Animal Crossing and I spent a lot of hours on them ahaha. I’m sure your city is wonderful, citizens are always unfulfilled and I never knew where to put industries without lowering the happiness level of the city 😅

Coffee Talk seems like an amazing game! I’ve always loved games where you're a barista in a coffee shop and where you can interact with customers, they’re very relaxing and a nice way to spend time :)

The snk games 💀 about a year ago I was constantly checking prices waiting for them to go down but they never went down and I lost hope in the end. They’re not even recent games so I don't know how much we'll have to wait🙃

If you like puzzle and strategy games I recommend those from the Tomb Rider franchise and if you have a switch you should really try The legend of Zelda Breath of the wild. The storyline is long and addictive and there are plenty of side missions so you can continue playing even after you finish the main quest 😊

Thanks again, can’t wait to try these games!! Have a nice day full of happiness my love 💖 ~[🧸]

Good morning my dear 🧸!!! It always warms my heart to see a message from you!! 💗

I'm still doing okay I guess!! Still feeling a little stressed up over work and school stuff and not being able to write but it's okay!! I'm slowly dealing with it! Don't worry hehe. Of course I'm glad to talk to you!!!! It makes me so happy to know that you love talking to me too 💕

I'm a huge RPG fan so a lot of my favourite games are all RPG!! I love grinding for side quests more than actually clearing the main game content xD and yes, the graphics of these games are so beautiful, especially genshin impact hehe. Sometimes I just idle in the game to listen to the OST and look at the scenery 😄 the amount of money I've spent on genshin impact though... 💀

OMG YES EXACTLY. My citizens are never satisfied, I have bad traffic issues, my city's income rises and falls faster than the cryptocurrency market, my citizens don't want to take the public transport I built for them.... you know how I feel!!!! At least I have mods to make my different districts pretty.... 😪

Oh yes Coffee Talk is a really great game even though there's no replay value haha since it's a linear story telling game!!! But it's so relaxing and a good way to earn trophies too 🤭 the developers are even coming out with a second game too and I'm so excited for it!!!

Sigh the snk games..... I wanted to get them and the dlc pack last year during steam's year end sales but I didn't...... and I regretted it boooooo!! I could have had the chance of seeing Levi in the leather jacket and the vampire costume 🥲 steam if you can hear me please have another flash sales!!!!

Oh I've heard about Zelda!!! And yes the scenery in Zelda is really breathtaking too!!! Another game with absolutely stunning visuals is Ghost of Tsushima and after waiting for sooooo long, it's finally free for PS Plus members 😭 I can't wait to play it!! But currently I'm playing a game called Judgement on the ps4, it's a spin off game from the Yakuza franchise and also developed by Sega hehe. But yay thanks for the recommendations too dear 🧸!!! I'll definitely check the Tomb Raider games out!!

I hope you have an amazing day filled with happiness and good vibes too my dear 🧸 ❤

[todaydreambelieversfic]

Author Spotlight: LadyDivine Day 3

Author: @lady-divine-writes ​

How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

It depends on the fic. I think that people who write a great deal have fics that are their masterpieces and some that are cute little throwaways they write for fun and don't stress too much about. A masterpiece I'll edit ad nauseam. I might still edit it after it's posted. But a one-shot - maybe four or five times. Then I sleep on it and edit it one last time before it goes up.

If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

I am revising Take Me Over. I'm not changing the storyline, I'm just clarifying certain aspects. I feel like there are areas where I was rushing, so excited to get the story out to be read, that things are muddy. Some of those things have to do with consent, and since consent is super important to me, they need to be fixed. Also, there are areas where characters fall into their negative stereotypes more than I like. It was for the purpose of being crack-ish way back when. Now it's just cringe-worthy XD

What do you look for in a beta?

It is required that my beta be married to me. I accept nothing less XD (P. S. My beta is my husband, if you haven't guessed. For everything pretty much.)

If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

I would love to write a sequel to Hounds of God. I really think there was so much more that those characters had to tell us,, so many more worlds to explore with them.

Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?

Both. It depends on the story I want to tell. Some stories are inserts into canon, so they are a bit more strict. Others are a free-for-all XD

Talk about a review that made your day.

It's less a single review and more of a type. The reviews that make my day are the ones where someone tells me they connected with my story. "This reminded me of... ", "I had a similar experience... ", "I needed this today... " The reviews where people are compelled to tell me about the best day of their life or the worst because of something I wrote are the reviews I cherish. I don't need constant compliments. I don't need to hear that I'm brilliant, or the best, or anything like that. Knowing that I held your hand while you went through it today? That's what I want my writing to accomplish.

Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

I get rude reviews all of the time. God, do I get rude reviews! There are people out there who really don't like me, and they're not shy about letting me know... on anon XD A lot of the rude reviews I get are concrit where the people writing them just know so much better than me, right? One of my faves was someone who claimed that the suit size I wrote for Blaine was incorrect. I happen to be a seamstress (my mom was a seamstress, and her mom... ) I had looked up Darren's sizing online and then went from there. I explained this to my reviewer who then said, "Well, it just doesn't look right." When I asked them how they were basing that, they admitted they knew nothing about sizing suits, but since they were a school teacher, they were qualified to make an educated guess and I should listen to them. Like... what? XD They never did admit they were wrong. When I get a review like that, I usually explain where I'm coming from, not for their benefit necessarily, but for the next person who might read through the reviews. But it's good to remember that deleting reviews is always an option. You don't need to keep anything that you don't want or that makes you feel bad. There's no shame in getting rid of a mean comment, or just one that irks you. The delete button is there for a reason.

What advice do you have to people just starting to write?

Write. Just write. Shamelessly put words on paper. And write for you. To be honest, I actually hate when people say to me 'write for you' because they usually mean 'don't expect reviews because readers aren't required to leave you one'. That's not what I mean at all. The most fulfilling part about writing for fandom in particular is interacting with your audience. Readers should write reviews. There is a degree to which I feel that when you open a fic to read it, you should be prepared to write something positive. Even on fics I don't particularly enjoy, I'll write something along the lines of, "Thank you so much for taking the time to write this." Because encouragement breeds writing, and the next thing they write might turn out to be my all-time favorite fic in the universe. What I mean about 'write for you' is don't let your readers dictate your story. If people are vocal about not liking your story for x or y reason, don't let that throw you off course. Write the story you want to read and nothing less. Also, as a courtesy, if anything inspired your writing - another fic or a piece of art - please express that in the author's notes. Even if it was an idea behind a fic or a single line of dialogue. Not only is it the right thing to do, people may then go search out that fic and read it, which is spreading the love that should be creators supporting creators. Fandom will support you. Please support fandom.

Which fic do you most like to discuss with other people? Why?

Take Me Over. Because there really is so much of me in it. I always tell people that the trailer Kurt lives in is my trailer. Those kids are my kids. That horrible car he drove to the meet and greet? That was my car. It's the thinly veiled story of my life between the cracks, which is why it means so much to me.

What's one aspect of writing fic that gets you really excited?

I like engaging with people. I think writing is all about communicating. We don't live in a bubble. When people review my work or write a comment on Tumblr, it means that something about it compelled them to express an idea or an opinion. And that's an empowering thing. The work I do in real life, even though it involves people, can be extremely isolating. Writing is my door out of that isolation.

*** Check out Lady-divine-writes’s Fic

Push and Pull -  Dom Blaine has a special surprise planned for his baby boy Kurt on his birthday.

Fantasies Make for Tidy Relationships -  Blaine has his life set up just the way he wants...well, no, not really. After a painful breakup with a manipulative, abusive boyfriend, Blaine can't quite get back in the groove of things - anything. He spends more time teaching than following his dream of striking out and having a career in music, and as far as relationships go, no. Too messy. Too complicated. Too much of a chance of getting hurt. Even though the handsome, witty, charismatic owner of the coffee shop he goes to every morning, Kurt Hummel, really seems to have a thing for him. And Blaine can see him having a thing for Kurt, too...but no. Still too messy. Still too complicated. No matter how flirty things get between them. But Blaine needs something. All his old methods of stress relief are just that - old. So he hops online in search of something new, a toy that will take his old routine of self-pleasure from boring to soaring. And if he happens to start fantasizing about his beautiful barista, what could it hurt?

Not in Service - After years of pining over the most popular boy in McKinley - Kurt Hummel, nerd boy Blaine Anderson manages to get Kurt's cell phone number ... the day before Kurt loses his phone and decides to buy a new one. Blaine decides to use this as an opportunity to confess every feeling he's ever had for Kurt, how much he admires him, how much he's wanted to ask him out, for once and for all in the safest way possible ...... because there's no chance anyone is ever going to see those messages ... right?

[seyaryminamoto]

I think the episode Th Beach was supposed to portray Zuko in a sympathetic manner, but in my opinion it makes Zuko look worse. This is the ONLY episode in which Zuko spends a substantial amount of time interacting with the fire nation citizens, and he can barely control his jealously and temper around them. He even wreaked Chan’s house. Those are his future subjects. He should have learned to treat them better if he’s ever going to be fire lord.

Playing the devil’s advocate just slightly, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m pretty sure Zuko’s complete incompatibility with the Fire Nation during the first half of Book 3 intended to convey a message that says Zuko doesn’t know how to fit in with his old life anymore. Hence, he couldn’t have a particularly positive thing going for him in the Fire Nation besides Mai, because then he’d have enough roots to keep him locked down in his role as Ozai’s heir and he wouldn’t feel as easily compelled to turn his back on his royal life and do the right thing.

Nonetheless, it is a problem from a thematic standpoint, I agree 100% with that. I have more than enough problems with Zuko’s character arc, but that his connection with his nation is practically severed or non-existent feels really wrong to me, especially when the show makes a point to feature Team Avatar bonding with ordinary Fire Nation citizens, and even finding some, like Piandao, who aren’t supporters of Ozai’s rule.

In my personal opinion, Zuko could have undergone a storyline akin to that of Alejandro in Mask of Zorro, who was absolutely out of place amid nobles, but he had to play a role so he could find the information he needed and put an end to their self-serving plans. There’s a very heartwrenching scene in that movie when the group of nobles are basically touring a gold mine where enslaved locals are forced to serve their lords, and one of these slaves, an old friend of Alejandro’s, attemps to attack them only to get killed immediately by the asshole captain protecting the nobles. Alejandro then steps forward and cradles the dying man, who recognizes him and realizes what Alejandro is doing, disguised as a nobleman... and then the man dies in his arms, smiling because he believes Alejandro will set things right. But he still dies, and Alejandro is obviously both livid and depressed about it because he couldn’t save his friend.

Obviously... there’s no way Zuko would be put in a similar situation, at least not a situation that’s 100% the same as this, it’d be way too dark for Avatar even if Avatar did feature dark situations when it suited the plot. But if Zuko’s journey had been mapped thoroughly from day one... gee, how about Jet doesn’t die, but instead gets captured and handed over to the Fire Nation, and Zuko finds him in a cell at the Prison Tower when he’s on his way to meet Iroh? His old frenemy, in horrible shape... Zuko finds he doesn’t care about the past, because he knows this is wrong and Jet’s been through more than enough by Fire Nation hands, so he releases the guy and they escape! And then Jet potentially acknowledges that not all Fire Nation people are garbage thanks to Zuko... while Zuko realizes, through Jet’s words, that if there’s good in the Fire Nation he has to find a way to help it grow, and that there’s so much he can start doing to fix the mess of a country he’s supposed to rule someday.

With that as a starting point, Zuko could begin to travel through his nation, to learn more about his people, to visit cities and villages and find out if they’re living well or not (then maybe confront his father about their living conditions, showing a Zuko who’s no longer scared of standing up to Ozai, not even if it means risking the approval he chased after so desperately for years). Imagine him showing up at Jang Hui village, finding this horrid situation the villagers are living in! He’d not only cross paths with Team Avatar, which could be interesting at this stage, but he’d also potentially offer the people an alternate living location because he wants them to be free to live in better conditions than this... only for Team Avatar’s approach to teach him that maybe the answer isn’t running away or leaving when your house is on fire, but to put out the fire by any means you have available. Then, Zuko could start having many similar epiphanies throughout his journeys in his own country and understand that his work with the Fire Nation has to be FOR the Fire Nation itself, and not the glorified concept his father believes in: he’d have to work for the people who are unaware of how oppressed they are, the people who barely can get by in these times of war, those who have lost family, those who have lost friends, all be it for a war that makes no sense. Had Zuko’s character arc focused on THIS rather than exclusively on his own internal struggle... you probably wouldn’t see that many Zuko-critical posts on my blog. It would convey a strong message about what it really means to be a leader, and Zuko’s character would benefit greatly from that.

... But yep. Instead we got him losing his temper at small triggers, acting out and being very much socially inept. I understand what they were going for, I repeat it, and I don’t think it’s fundamentally WRONG... but I do think it’s too simple considering the scope of the story they were telling, and the character development they were trying to build for Zuko. There’s way too much to address with a character like Zuko... and that all his growth was meant to be internal (with even a few things that either were never addressed or were addressed poorly or that he supposedly grew out of but then regressed into all over again) may not have done him any favors.

... And well, I’ll say, I actually don’t think most of The Beach intended to portray Zuko as sympathetic? Maybe only the point where he gives Mai gifts that she rejects, and when he goes to the old family villa, but in general he feels like such an ass in that episode that I’m pretty sure they were making him an ass intentionally xD Yet I can’t agree more, it’s really wrong that the only time we see Zuko interacting normally with common Fire Nation people, as equals, he acts the way he does. I’tll never not confuse me that Team Avatar gets to see and learn more of the Fire Nation, and interact positively with their people, than Zuko did...

[liliplayschoices]

So, I finished playing Open Heart, Second Year

I have a lot of thoughts about small details that I liked or disliked, but my overall impression of the book is... mediocre.

It was far from the worst book ever, but it wasn’t good, either. I was bored during most of it, waiting for the story to pick up, and it never really did. I’m not angry or anything, but I’m certainly not super excited for book 3.

The writing was honestly not that great. There were waaaay too many subplots that didn’t go anywhere at all. They multiplied the subplots and ended up with a weird mess of ten thousand things happening at once, and never getting a proper development or resolution because there wasn’t enough space for it. I mean, take the Panacea storyline for instance. They were kind of the big bads of book 1, but the resolution of them being sent to court was like... mentioned briefly at one point and that was it. And it was the same with all the subplots. Esmee and MC only had a short conversation about what Esmee did, the conflict between the surgeon and Esmee was handled super quickly and then they were cool (despite him harassing her and her breaking his hand? like, those aren’t small grievances), Bryce’s conflict with his parents was handled in an off-screen phone-call, MC barely seemed to experience consequences from almost dying and watching her friends die...

Also the end of the book was extremely rushed. Suddenly, weeks and weeks passed by?? the hospital closed and opened back up again immediately?? the last three/four chapters were SUCH a mess that it barely left an impression on me to be honest.

It was honestly a mess, and I don’t accept the excuse of the rewrites at all because I don’t believe the story changed that much. I mean, we all know what the rewrite was about: not killing Rafael, and giving characters other than Ethan some screentime. So the core of the story probably didn’t change as much. So yeah they have zero excuses for this mess. Plus, having to rewrite because you were being racist isn’t an excuse to do a poor job lmao

Some random thoughts about the book:

- I don’t understand why the fandom hated June so much? Like yeah she did one questionable thing by reading up on her colleagues but... I remember when everybody was playing, thinking she must be a horrible person to deserve such hate, and... she’s really not?

- okay so I don’t know how hospitals work in the US. But it bothered me that they could close the hospital and then open it again after a few days?? Like, wouldn’t they have like... sold most of their equipment? I don’t know, it’s a detail but it was weird xD

- As much as I don’t care about Leland, the story with him and his wife is awful... The part where he talked about having to check himself to prevent from touching her out of habit... God that was sad. I’m in a long-term relationship, and that moment made me realize that I don’t even think of all the times I just casually kiss or hug my boyfriend, and the thought of not being able to do it made me genuinely tear up a little. So yeah anyway I hope this might take more space in book 3 because it’s actually a really sad, but compelling story! Hopefully, if PB get their act together, they’ll focus on fewer plotlines to give them enough time to develop, and I hope that’s one of them.

- To be completely honest, before reading the book, I thought people were exaggerating a little when they were talking about the overbearing presence of Ethan in the story. And... yeah I get it now. I don’t hate his character at all, but... it was too much. Waaaay too much. I never romanced him but I enjoyed his and MC’s relationship in book 1, the way it was a mentorship but also they appreciated each other but also annoyed each other. It was a really fun dynamic, and it was completely gone in this book. Instead, there were romantic undertones everywhere that made me a little uncomfortable seeing as I’d never romanced him in the past. I genuinely hope PB does better for the third book because I don’t like the fact that this book made me go from “oh good I like them together!” to actually rolling my eyes when Ethan came on screen.

- I really loved Esmee! I didn’t spend a lot of diamonds on her but I still really liked her, so I hope we’ll get much more of her in the future!!

- I headed into this book knowing I would chose Bryce over Rafael (I romanced both of them in book 1) because I knew Rafael spent most of the book off-screen with a girlfriend. But honestly, it still hurt to barely ever see him, and to have the book completely ignore the fact that he was ever an LI. I’m not going to go in depth into this because you all know about the situation around the treatment of his character. But reading it was truly a bad experience for me.

This is only part of my thoughts on the book, and it got long and convoluted so sorry about that xD Feel free to come talk about it with me because I have a lot of thoughts hahaha

[hamliet]

feel free to ignore me, but you mention the ying/yang thing in naruhina and didn't naruto and sasuke have much more symbolism? what do you think of sasunarusasu ship? i'm happy you liked the manga, and ship and let ship, but i find it fascinating bc i was friend of a hardcore narusaku shipper who didn't like bl ships and she said sasunaru made more sense to her than naruhina or sasusaku. in my case i find sakura and naruto relationships with sasuke compelling but i think it's bcs he's my fave xD

Yeah, they did have more; just looking at the time it was published and its genre itwas obviously never going to be canon. But times are changing slowly and that’s good.

It’s a common thing that the most popular ships tend to be between the characters with the most emotional energy between them, the ones whose dynamic contains exploration of many of the stories’ themes and tension.

However, my complaint is that I felt their dynamic was more told to us than shown. I didn’t understand why they liked each other as friends and was told they did, but I just didn’t think it was as strongly conveyed to us as it could have been. Don’t get me wrong; this is a problem in most Naruto ships, including Sasusaku.

Naruhina was the most show don’t tell ship, at least on Hinata’s side (well of the main ones). Her actions and feelings made a lot of sense when you consider her background and goals. Narusaku is nice but the lack of yinyang motif which was important in Naruto meant it never had a chance, and the scene where Sakura tries to tell him she likes him was portrayed as something wrong, and I appreciated that. I find stories about how girls need to leave their childish fantasies behind for the responsible nice guy all too often patronizing—it works in a context of a certain stories about leaving childish dreams behind, but Naruto elevated childish dreams as a worthwhile goal. In the end the main three all accomplished their dreams—Sakura marries Sasuke, Naruto is hokage, and Sasuke found purpose again. Of course those come with their own challenges that aren’t what they dreamed it, but it was fitting for the theme. Imo anyways.

Sakunarusasu aeems like a good ship except like I said, Naruhina made the most sense of any ships in some ways (and it still wasn’t written well in most ways; I just understood the foundation as more than “because the mangaka says so). Still the lack of exploration and build up disappointed fans because... build your ships so that your readers will want them. Build the emotional energy. Build the drama.

[iwrestlenow]

It All Starts And Ends With You, Chapter One (Stories from THE EMERALD)

TITLE: It All Starts And Ends With You, Chapter 1 

FANDOM: Sanders Sides (Necromancer AU)

SUMMARY: The nature of a drake, human versus dragon, isn't just tragic backstory. The supernatural halfbreeds are a living duality, two creatures in one skin. Every drake is, essentially, a twin soul.

Unlike most twin souls with a Necromatic match, however, a drake can choose.

For Janus, giving Patton his human soul was easy...but a secret from his past means that his choice has consequences...consequences he was never supposed to face, because Patton would never be free.

So much for a sure thing.

SHIPS: Moceit (Patton/Janus), Dragon Witch/Original Male Character and background Dukexiety (Remus/Virgil)

WARNINGS: Future smut--warnings for all pertinent chapters will be posted.

...so apparently there's going to be a few side stories in this series? This takes place shortly after MANY MORE TO DIE, but it's not the big sequel. It's very much a side quest type thing because Janus Has Backstory and I Have Moceit Feels(TM). XD

Also, later on there WILL be smut in this story, but the chapters will be labeled--and I'm planning to make them skippable if I can. Otherwise I'll summarize plotty things in the end notes. So you filthy minded animals can have your debauchery, and those less inclined can still have all of my feels. :P

Per usual, unbeta'd self indulgent drivel, all mistakes are mine. ONWARD TO SHIPPYTOWN!

Also located at AO3 over here.

1019, A.A.

“Jay! A word?”

Eleven year old Janus Ormor looked up from the book he was reading on the floor of their living chamber. Father was captain of the guard, and as such they had better quarters in the palace than some other soldiers—shutters on the windows, softer beds, and the rug in their living chamber was far more comfortable than his bed, especially with a fire going.

Janus always had trouble staying warm—which never seemed right, since he was half dragon, but if Father wasn't worried then neither was Janus.

Marking his place carefully, Janus set his book aside and got to his feet so he could dash across the room to crawl into his father's lap. Yeah, it was kind of juvenile—he was eleven, Shadow's sake—but Father ran hot, and Janus was not above stealing a little of that warmth from him.

Knowing that, Timothy Ormor smiled and loosened the top couple buttons on his collar, allowing Janus to press his forehead to the curve of his neck as he crowded close with a satisfied sigh.

“What's going on, Father?”

“Nothing, really, just...well, your birthday is in a couple days.”

“Uh huh! I'm really excited! I love surprise parties.”

“How did...”

Janus looked up at his father with a smile, earning one in return. Father finally laughed, shaking his head.

“Sometimes I forget how good your ears are, wriggle worm.” Father sighed, tugging Janus closer. “No matter—yes, we're throwing you a surprise party. Think you can pretend?”

“I'm real good at pretending!” Janus assured him before cuddling up to Father's chest again.

“Well, that's good...but, uh...we need to talk 'bout something else.”

“What's that, Father?”

“Well...you know the story I told you about how you were born?”

Janus nodded, tucking his head against Father's neck again. “You and Mother loved each other very much, so you--”

“Not that part, imp!”

Giggling, Janus continued.

“--after Mother found out she was with child, you guys let me be born in the way of the dragons: she changed form, carried me for a year, and I was hatched a few weeks after the egg came. I didn't get my human form until I was a month old.”

“Well...that's the thing, kiddo...Shadow's Balls, there's no easy way to say this...”

“Say what, Father?”

“I...damn it, but I promised her you'd know your people. Thing is, Jan...your mother didn't have you with me.”

Janus felt his stomach get cold inside.

“What do you mean? You...you're my father.”

Timothy ran a hand through his son's hair, staring into his bright and confused little face. He wasn't overly fair, but his jet black hair washed out his complexion some, his dark eyes glittering in the firelight.

He was so easily mistaken for human with that beautiful face—until he heard things no child his age should. Until he stuck his hand in a fire and came away unburnt. Until he grew slow and lethargic in the cold...until those dark eyes bled yellow as daffodils, pupils lengthening into reptilian slits.

“I'm your dad, wriggle worm,” Timothy confessed, “but the truth is...I'm not actually your father.”

********** 1033, A.A.

“Sneak attack!”

Janus dropped his book as Patton rushed straight at him, flinging himself into Janus's lap and wrapping his arms around his neck to squeeze tight.

“I could see you coming, sweetie.” Janus pointed out with a sigh that didn't match the fierce swell of affection in his chest, hot and restless, compelling him to hold Patton in return with arms wrapped carefully around his waist.

Patton's giggle, right in his ear, sent a pleasant shiver up his spine. “But you didn't know I was gonna hug you!”

“Your arms were open for one.”

“So?”

“You also do this at least three times a day.”

“Only because you said four was too many!”

Patton drew back to pout at him this time, and that hot swell of affection stretched in his chest to the point of pain. Since Mori's death and Roman's installment as regent until the coronation, Logan and Patton had been given free reign of the castle, along with a few other Necromata prisoners the pair had vetted. Until their freedom was voted on by the citizens, they couldn't be released, but they could at least be made comfortable, and given room to reclaim some shred of normalcy.

Which meant Patton could, and did, visit Janus far too often, greedily devouring every hug, cuddle, hand hold, or simple hair ruffle he could gain access to. Janus could hardly deny him...and Janus wanted it all just as much.

Gods, Janus wanted, too much and too soon and too...inhuman.

Staring into Patton's face, Janus's vision was tinged with rays of gold. A gilt to every dark curl on Patton's head, flecks of gold in those deep blue eyes turning them into true lapis...shimmering gold lips pooched into a mock scowl, gold dusting the faint array of freckles he was acquiring after a few weeks of sunlight...

Pressure. Warm, steady, gentle...

Janus blinked, realizing Patton had his forehead pressed against Janus's. He was talking, words Janus couldn't hear but felt, soft and soothing and endless to fill his ears and press back the shimmering film over his vision.

The gilt edges faded away. His eyes were blue, deep and still and endless. He was Patton again, not...not some worthless hoard.

Just Patton, soft and sweet and bloodthirsty, infinitely more precious.

“...got you, Janny, my beautiful Janus. I got you, you're doing so good, you're so good for me...”

...okay, that couldn't be allowed to go on. Not when it made warmth pool far lower in Janus's body, made him want something entirely different—and wow, he was not ready for those kinds of personal revelations today.

Clearing his throat, Janus reached up to gently touch Patton's cheek.

“I'm all right, Pattycake. Promise.”

Patton watched him dubiously, a far more serious version of that pout forming on his face again...Gods and Souls, he wanted to run a fingertip over that lush lower lip. Or maybe bite it.

“You were growling.” Patton replied suspiciously. “And you were feeling cold. You're never cold, you're always warm as toast.”

“It's nothing, truly. I was just...distracted.” Janus tried again. “Work related, got me a little upset is all.”

Patton narrowed his eyes—then leaned back in to hug Janus again. Janus hugged him back without thinking...and felt his breath catch when he swore, swore to all the dragon gods, that he felt the tiniest press of lips against his neck before Patton burrowed in, pressing his face there.

“No one's 'llowed to upset my pretty dragon.” Patton mumbled against his throat. “Gonna eat their liver.”

Janus knew enough to know that was a very genuine threat, petulant as it sounded—and the promise of bloodshed should not make his heart throb with the softest pulse of tenderness and adoration. And yet...

“No more cannibalism, remember, darling?”

“It was one time, and it was an accident!”

Janus had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing as Patton drew back to whine at him in protest.

“Yes, darling. Of course—entirely accidental. Naturally.”

“Humph. Not talking to you anymore.”

“Understood.”

“...the Lord Father is here to see you.”

Janus felt his blood turn to ice at that.

“Janny? You okay?”

With a sigh, Janus gently patted Patton's knee.

“No, but this was inevitable. Up, Paddock darling. I've business to attend to.”

********** He seemed bigger than Janus remembered.

Walking into his office, he was unsuprised to see Josiah Crofter standing within its walls, back turned as he stared out the window, arms folded across his chest. He wasn't, technically, allowed to be here and leave free, but Josiah had made it clear to the prince regent he knew how to access the castle at will—and had been given leave to do so whenever he wished to see his family.

When Janus was thirteen, he'd been a hungry giant, and now...now he was exactly the same despite the fact that Janus was now a grown man. Tall, too, thanks to that seven foot frame in his ancestry. Somehow, even still, Josiah himself was the bigger, the prouder, the more intimidating.

Clearing his throat, Janus announced his presence. Josiah didn't even turn around.

“You got good men servin' you, Deceit.”

“Do not call me that.” Janus replied flatly, sauntering over to his desk. “The walls have ears. Granted, most of them are mine, but loose lips and all. Unlike the rest of you, I take protection of my True Name very seriously.”

“Unlike the rest of us, son, it can't be used to hurt you. Not anymore.”

“Yes, you saw to that, didn't you?” Janus bit off tersely, sinking into his chair.

Josiah fell silent, taking a moment before he finally turned to face him. He was a stoic wall for several seconds before his expression just...melted, cold gray eyes going smoke-soft as he watched him.

“You look so much like your momma it hurts.” Josiah murmured, one corner of his mouth twitching upwards. “It's a good hurt, mind, but...I know you don't believe me, but seein' you's a balm on old wounds, little ember.”

That caught Janus by surprise—and he hated that. He was the one with the surprises, the tricks, the knowledge...but this man had things he never would.

Father knew who Janus was, but Josiah Crofter...he knew where Janus came from. He knew the why, the history and the parts and how they worked together, because they were a part of him as well. They were, quite literally, part of his soul.

“Which part?”

The question left Janus without his permission, torn from the small, secret part of him that had been inexorably drawn to his birth father's doorstep from the moment his human half had truly awakened for the first time.

He wasn't sure what he even meant, but somehow Josiah knew all the same.

“Both. All.” he replied, deep voice heavy with affection that settled over Janus, warm as fire and soft as the heaviest flannel blanket. “You got her scales and her hair—and in human form, her eyes were always that same shade of yellow you got on the one side.”

The knowledge hit him hard, formed a fist and plunged straight into his chest. It was comfort, it was agony...and it was a much needed reminder.

Josiah Crofter knew him as even his own father couldn't—and far too late, Janus learned to fear him for that reason. Far too late.

Janus's True Name was proof of that.

“Is there a reason you're here to see me, Lord Father?” he replied instead of addressing the observation. “Or did you come her to merely wax sentiment?”

A flare of hurt, then anger passed through his expression, clinging to his bones with its painful familiarity. Timothy Ormor was a man slow to anger, patient and steady—unlike Janus, whose swift mind was only outpaced by his heart, burning with the fire of the dragons.

Lashing out with anger instead of grieving or showing fear. This man was where he got it from.

Like Josiah did now, composing himself and folding his hands behind his back, he would default to a steady and inscrutable mask, cover the truth with strength and decorum.

“I came here to check on you.” he replied evenly. “Your situation with the Morrel boy ain't exactly a common one. Does he know?”

“About my condition? No.” Janus replied flatly. “And he never will.”

“That ain't an option, and you damn well know it.”

“It is if we aren't together.”

Josiah's brow furrowed, expression clouding with confusion. “You a Jadeheart?”

Janus rolled his eyes. “That term is archaic as all Seven Hells—no, I am not aromantic. Nor am I asexual, which is hardly your business—oh, I'm sorry, Soultouched.”

“You love that boy. You're bonded to him.”

“Your point?”

“...so you did give him your human soul.”

Janus fell silent, stubbornly holding the other man's gaze until he grit his teeth with a growl.

“Ah, Hells...”

Janus didn't like the way Josiah's breath left him in a rush, the way he cursed as if he'd just lost something precious. He didn't like the way he hung his head, shoulders slumping in something like defeat.

Janus didn't like the way he felt suddenly like he'd done something to deliberately hurt him.

“He was a Black Dog with a pure heart.” Janus hissed. “The purest heart...anyone who didn't know would assume he had a soul already, how could I give him anything else? How could I kill that human heart with a monster's soul?”

As he said it, he felt the reality of it sink into him for the first time, saying it out loud like that.

Because unlike most twin souls, a drake could choose.

And when Janus gained an inkling of what might be happening, when he felt that moment come—to give of himself, to release something of himself into Patton's care, of course—of course he chose to give Patton, to trust Patton, with everything in him that was human.

“You know what's gonna happen if you hold yourself away from him, son.” Josiah warned.

Janus narrowed his eyes at him, but could no longer bear up under Josiah's scrutiny, his eyes flicking down to his desk.

“Tell me this, Father: if you knew that you were going to become every foul thing the Animator stood for, if you knew that you were going to turn into your own father, would you have married my mother? Would you have exposed her to that monster?”

There was no answer from Josiah. Janus didn't expect one.

The closer he grew to Patton, the worse it got—and now that the sweet little killer was no longer safely tucked away in the dungeons or sequestered in a single wing of the palace, Janus was slipping.

Consumed by the hunger for possession. Tormented by visions of riches. Haunted by the knowledge that, if given half a chance, he would consume Patton whole just to sate his growing thirst for more.

Without his human soul, Janus was losing his grip on himself—and if he couldn't do something soon, the dragon—Deceit--would be all that was left of him.

[spockandawe]

Writing meta asks: 3, 7, 10, 17, and 20? (I'm so sorry for sending so many, this was an interesting ask set!)

Hahaha, no worries at all! Since I just covered 3, let’s see about these others :D

7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

Oh man, this one always stumps me. The easy answer is that my writing is characterized by being in second person, unless I am dragged kicking and screaming to another pov XD But more in the spirit of the original question, I have... heard that a thing about my writing that stands out to people is good dialog exchanges. It’s kind of wild to me, because I feel like I spend a lot of time struggling to exit characters’ heads and advance the story, lmao. I would be curious to hear from anyone with opinions on this, what’s distinctive about my writing from an outside pov, because from the inside, I cannot tell at all XD

10. How would you describe your writing process?

I think usually when I start, I’ve got some scene that stands out very clearly in my head, either as a visual, or as an audible conversation (sometimes it’s more than one scene, and you get something like the tianlang-jun verse, or the diet bingge, and scope spirals out of my control). But most of the writing is an attempt to get to that scene that hit me really hard, and to make it hit the reader strongly too. But the actual writing process... mostly I write short fics, so I start at a plausible onboarding point, and go until it stops. If it’s longer, I start at the beginning and go until my attention span fails me, then organize my notes into something semi-coherent, and start writing at whatever point catches my eye, until I edit the whole together :V

(somewhere I’ve got a draft saved for an ask meme about specific fics, and things like inspiration/process/favorite moment/etc. I need to dig that out at some point, because I have a tough time talking in generalities, but I love talking in specifics XD I’ll try to find that, but honestly, my inbox is always open to people asking about my stories)

17. Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations?

Ooh, wow. Hm. This is a really interesting question. Man, I want to give this a really thoughtful, well-thought-out answer, but I am absolutely terrible at gauging how other people perceive anything ever XD I occasionally get comments that seem to think I’m dunking on a less-than-sympathetic character who I actually love deeply, but those are pretty rare. My writing and motivations.... I don’t know! I think there aren’t that many unplumbed depths there. I’m not a terribly symbolic writer, I can maybe noodle for longer than people expect about characters’ inner worlds and what they were thinking/feeling in my fics, but I don’t think that’s much of a surprise to anyone who’s followed me for long, haha

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Oh boy, I did not read ahead XDDD Uhmmm, let me see. I guess a major part of most of my longer wips right now is... Shen Jiu. I’ve rambled about him before, but I just want to scream about him all the time, because he’s absolutely terrible to Luo Binghe. He does awful, unnecessary, cruel things to him. I want to get Luo Binghe out of his hands asap, in any given setting (except the diet bingge verse, lmao), and then I want to devote lots and lots of energy to exploring his emotional world and damage and giving him something better. Because this man is miserable! Some of it is self-inflicted, some of it isn’t, and even if he’s not in a downward emotional spiral, he’s like.... an emotional ouroboros, hovering at a pretty miserable place. He’s not going to break free on his own, and he’s not going to let anybody break him free if he can help it, and it sucks, it’s terrible, it’s miserable for both him and the people around him! And. AND. I don’t want to just tell people all about how tragic his life is (though I will absolutely do that too), I want to show them the trapped feeling, the suffocating unhappiness, all of it. I feel like it’s a lot more compelling to read through that kind of situation than to just be told about it, and I really, really do want to (over the course of multiple fics and verses) communicate the... tragedy of his existence, while also finding ways to reach down into that pit and lift him up. It’s important to me.

adfasgd that’s a mildly incoherent note to end on. Here’s a different favorite thing! In the diet bingge verse, even after shen jiu becomes binghe’s second husband, they both insist (and believe) that they hate each other, and that the other one is the worst. however, in a drugged-up haze, sha yuan (third husband) is going to insist, within hearing of both of them, that shen qingqiu is the love of binghe’s life. This will mortify and horrify both of them, they will both be appalled, and mutually decide never to speak of this again. However, he’s also.......... not exactly wrong. Nobody is ever going to admit this out loud, but in a crisis, Binghe’s first instinct is to seek out Shizun before anyone else. This has the bonus effect that Shen Qingqiu will immediately start hunting for ANY OTHER HUSBAND to take a panicking Binghe off his hands, which is Binghe’s excuse if anyone ever calls him out on it, but... he never really stopped thinking that Shizun was the most clever, most capable person alive, and his first instinct in a real crisis is to look to Shen Qingqiu as a dependable waypoint to orient himself on. ‘Love’ isn’t exactly the right word, but I’m not sure there’s a better word, and sha yuan is just muttering to himself like ‘i fucking told you so’

[ori-flails]

Rewatching Guardian - Episode 07 Part 3/3

Episode List || Part 1 | Part 2 || Episode 08

SPOILERS for upto episode 40, SPOILERS for the novel.

Lin Jing has a point. If they’re being spied by members of the Yashou tribes it’s better to have Zhu Hong involved. And he’s speaking in codes because they’re listening in. And Zhao Yunlan got it. I didn’t notice before and just thought it was weird they seem to not realize they were being spied on. Wow. I clearly wasn’t giving the SID enough credit. :/

(Also, the house seems pretty big from the outside but once they go in, it’s tiny. Odd.)

On this note, Zhu Jiu’s voice is nice enough. The cursed wig ugh and the chuuni act...

I just can’t get over it. Zhu Jiu could’ve been pretty cool and I was sitting here trying to enjoy his character and waiting for him to grow on me as a character when in reality he irritated the living daylights out of me.

And I was trying so hard to give him a chance to become a compelling character that I didn’t even admit to myself that Zhu Jiu was plain annoying to me until Ye Zun appeared, so for half the series.

Lin Jing being serious is <3 Zhao Yunlan and Xiao Guo’s faces lmao xD

He’s right too. The first murder can’t be held against Lai Su because he didn’t know something like this was going to happen. If we really really baby him, then we can say that the man didn’t see the correlation between the murders and his work for the first couple of incidents. But even then, after that point, there isn’t really any excuse.

If it was me, I’d have been driven crazy with the knowledge that there was something I could do that would possibly stop the murders, if not for a guilty conscience, it’d be also for the fear of the authorities connecting the dots and me becoming a suspect of a damn murder case. That’s scary!

And yeah, even if he had stopped there would’ve been no guarantee of this mysterious man online would’ve stopped whatever that prompted these murders (Lai Su never knew of his abilities), but still. I’d have gone crazy with the possibilities. No amount of money and fame can compensate for the loss of peace of mind like that.

Zhao Yunlan quickly turned the situation into a good-cop-bad-cop situation lol. Using the knowledge that Lai Su pissed of Lin Jing of all people to that extent to hammer in the guilt factor and pressurise Lai Su into revealing if there was anything else to this.

Yeah, the virtual world is so vast and easy to get sucked into that actual reality becomes secondary. And in this, Lai Su, as a result, was completely desensitized to people being murdered, and he was sitting there rationalising what was happening and making excuses for himself to try and appease his conscience because his greed overruled it.

Sad.

“His ability must be to self-hypnotise with his writing”, “He and the monster he write about are the same person”

This is why the trashy CGI monster from this episode is more upsetting to me than the plastic looking Youchu. The show could’ve gotten away with it by not showing this monster at all in this instance.

Because of Zhao Yunlan’s wording, the picture I get is that Lai Su himself would commit these crimes after he ‘falls asleep’ or something and have no recollection of it becaused he hypnotised himself. This would’ve been pretty cool. But in this case, it won’t work because then the thug going mad because of the monster so horrendous won’t be explained. So perhaps instead of a clear cut explanation, it would be better to leave some aspects a little unexplained.

Like, we get to see Zhu Jiu’s cryptid message and his parting words,  then the claw coming out of the computer screen or just a close-up of Lai Su’s terrified face, and then a blood curdling scream from Lai Su’s hidden room from Da Qing and Chu Shuzhi’s POV. When they go into the room to check what’s happened, Lai Su would already be dead.

No awful cheap looking CGI monster, a sense of mystery, and still it would make sense due to Zhao Yunlan’s hypothesis in this scene. I know very little about cinema and screenplay but still, wouldn’t this have been somewhat better? And unlike the Zhang Danni impersonator case, leaving the monster to the audience’s imagination wouldn’t take away from the experience.

The key information is that Lai Su didn’t know that he had this power. If he did, the protagonists of his stories wouldn’t have been the murderer (or the victim) and Lai Su could’ve brought many good things to his life (unless it’s like his power wouldn’t have activated without Zhu Jiu’s interference). No one would willingly screw themselves over like this of their own free will.

“I would’ve never though you would say these words to me today” + the following comment about Zhao Yunlan’s growing understanding of Dixingren: o u c h

In these lines, the “you” Shen Wei is referring to is not Zhao Yunlan who is the future or past of Kunlun, but instead to Zhao Yunlan, son of Zhao Xinci, who, until recently, hadn’t shown any indication of being all that better than Zhao Xinci. Because it would not be surprising to Shen Wei if Kunlun was understanding of Dixingren; that would be expected.

Shen Wei likely knew of Zhao Yunlan before they met, and he is aware of what the SID had been upto since he took over. Whatever mental picture he had of Zhao Yunlan was probably so different from Kunlun until they met. Yet, Zhao Yunlan is not that mental picture of his, and neither is he Kunlun anymore/yet.

I feel like my brain (and heart) would become scrambled agg if I was in Shen Wei’s position, trying to align the three different ideas of Zhao Yunlan; the professional judgement of Zhao Yunlan as the new chief of the SID, the actual Zhao Yunlan he interacts with who is fun, clever and charming like a fox, and Kunlun.

In my opinion, Shen Wei’s doing good by keeping Kunlun and Zhao Yunlan as separated as he can in his mind, while trying to have a better understanding of Zhao Yunlan by having his professional image and the observations of him on a personal level merge.

Btw, when Shen Wei was saying these things, he looked like he was going to cry. And then there were unshed tears in his eyes when he smiled (the second and third to last screenshots). Q~Q

I wonder what he was thinking in that moment. Was he missing Kunlun at the very Kunlun-like thing Zhaon Yunlan just said with his very Kunlun looking face? Was it relief/gratefulness of somebody finallly seeing the same peril that he has been seeing? Was it the pressure of his responsibilities to his doomed people?

Ugh Zhu Yilong how do you do this... I will cry. The faces he makes are so freaking sad.

THAT’S ANGUISH ON HIS FACE AND I CANNOT.

Something entirely unrelated to the episode: I love how the way Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan talk are so different from the natural way Zhu Yilong and Bai Yu talk, but I never even thought that the actors were changing their speech so much but so subtly until I watched this long interview and my brain was confused out of its wits because Zhu Yilong speaking sounds so different to Shen Wei, while Bai Yu’s voice itself sounds completely different to me. They just sound so natural in their roles. As someone that loves watching good acting but cannot understand how acting even works, I am actually floored.

[gojira007]

Movie Meme

Took me a bit of time, but I was tagged by @bunnikkila to list my nine favorite movies, and since I can’t help but be ridiculously verbose about that very topic, you can see them all under the cut 8D

As for who I tag?  Well, as always with the caveat that you are free to ignore if you don’t wanna, I’ll go with: @elistodragonwings @kaikaku @donnys-boy @robotnik-mun @sally-mun @fini-mun @werewolf-t33th  @cviperfan and @wildwoodmage​

and don’t worry, if you DO go for it, you don’t have to get as Extra as I did about it XD

9.) 

Look, the meme is about Favorite Movies, not necessarily the BEST Movies, OK?  And for the most part this list consists of films where that division is less meaningful in terms of how I evaluate the other movies on here.  But in this specific case, “Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie”, which is ultimately not all that different from the “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ TV show it spun off from and thus not particularly impressive as a work of Cinema Qua Cinema, makes the cut primarily because it’s a movie I know so well and have enjoyed so often that I can practically recite the whole thing to you by rote; I quote it all the time in my day-to-day life, I think about it often when I need a little smile, and it’s also become my favorite tool for introducing newcomers to MST3K as a whole since it was designed with a slightly broader audience in mind than the more willfully-eclectic series.  And given how much I love MST3K As A Whole, that’s an especially strong factor in its favor.

8.) 

Looky looky, @bunnikkila, we (unsurprisingly) have a pick in common!  I’m sure this is the one and only time THAT’S going to happen on this list. 8D

Y’know, nearly thirty years (and one fairly useless remake >_>) later, I think the thing that impresses me about “The Lion King” is just how much it is still able to grab me emotionally.  Some of that is unquestionably tied up with how strongly I associate this movie with my family, all of whom it became very special to as a Shared Experience.  But I also don’t know of a lot of people who haven’t had that same emotional experience with it, and that to me suggests there’s more going on here than just Nostalgia.  The mixture of Shakesperean plotting with Disney’s signature strength of Character, for one thing, granting the movie’s story an Epic Scope that never forgets the emotional inner lives of its cast.  The music for another, not only its instantly-iconic song-book but also its memorable score, armed with both Big Bombast and Gentle Sentiment.  And the unforgettably gorgeous animation, rendering every last element of its world with believable naturalism and strongly-defined personality.  All of it, together, makes for what I still personally consider the Crowning Achievement of the Disney Renaissance.

7.)

I think, if I had to name the thing I find most lacking in far too many modern Action Movies, it’s Clarity.  They all tend to lard their plots up with a bunch of unnecessary contrivances and complications in hopes of making themselves appear more clever than they actually are, and all it usually does is just dilute the impact of the whole thing.  “Mad Max: Fury Road”, by contrast, is all about Clarity.  I could sum up literally its entire plot in a paragraph if I wanted, because it is basically One Big Chase Scene from start to finish, never really deviating from that structure for more than a few minutes at a time.  And that, combined with its exceptionally well-crafted Action Sequences, means that the full weight of its visceral power hits you full force every time.  But don’t be fooled; that simplicity is not to be mistaken for shallowness.  Indeed, precisely by getting out of its own way, knowing exactly what it wants to do and why, “Fury Road” also delivers a story that is, in spite of what you might guess, genuinely subtle and smart.  Every character is immediately unforgettable and compelling because their role in the story is so well-considered and their personalities all so stark.  The world it crafts feels at once fascinatingly surreal and yet All Too Real at the same time because even its most Fantastic elements are ultimately just grotesque reflections of things the audience knows only too well.  And most of all, it tells a story with real, meaningful Themes that are deeply woven into each of its individual elements, such that the whole thing is deeply satisfying emotionally, but also piercingly Relevant in all the best, most affecting ways.

6.) 

Oh look, another pick I have in common with @bunnikkila!  This must be the last one, right?

But yeah, this is just a legitimately great movie, at every level, in every way.  Stylistically, it is one of the most radically inventive things to have ever been made in the world of Western Animated Movies, gleefully mixing together a vast array of Aesthetics and Techniques that are at once viscerally distinct and yet coherently connected, all rendered with a fantastic eye toward the world of Comic Book Visual Language that keeps finding new and extremely fun ways to play with that instantly-recognizable iconography.  For that alone, I would call it one of the greatest triumphs of 21st century animation.  But then, on top of that, the story it tells is one that is simultaneously Arch and self-aware, delivering some of the most fantastically hilarious punch-lines imaginable more than a few of which are at the expense of the very franchise it is working within...but also entirely earnest, sincere, and emotionally affecting.  It is, at once, a movie that manages to be about The Idea Of Spider-Man in its totality while also being about just one kid coming to grips with who he is, what he can do, and what his life can be.  I don’t know that I can remember the last time a movie so immediately and unmistakably marked itself as an Enduring Masterpiece, but “Into the Spider-Verse” absolutely pulled it off.

5.)

Ordinarily, I would cheat and give this slot to the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy in its totality.  But somehow, the fact that this is about “FAVORITE” movies instead of just what we think the BEST one is compels me to narrow it down to just one.  And if I had to pick just one, it would be the first of the three, “Fellowship of the Ring”.  It’s not necessarily anything that the other two movies get wrong, either.  All three of the LotR movies possess many of its keenest strengths, after all.  For a starter, there’s the keen understanding of how best to adapt the source material without being enslaved to it; capturing many of its most iconic moments while cleverly tweaking elements to make them more cinematic, knowing what scenes to focus on for the sake of more clearly focusing the emotional through-lines of the story, and knowing what scenes, no matter how good on the page, ultimately don’t fit to the shape the adaptation has taken.  There’s also its pitch-perfect casting, each and every actor doing a fantastic job of embodying the characters so well that even as your personal vision of them from the books may differ radically from what is on-screen, they nonetheless end up feeling Right for the part and a strong, compelling presence.  And there’s the deft visual hand of director Peter Jackson, who knows exactly how to craft a Middle Earth that feels at once lived-in and real but also Fantastic and magical.  “Fellowship”, for me at least, thus wins out mostly because it has the good luck of being adapted from the strongest of the three books, the point at which the narrative is at its most unified and thus has the strongest overall momentum.  But also because so few movies have so swept me away with the sense of stepping into a world I have always dreamed of in my mind’s eye, and that’s the sort of thing that can only happen at the beginning of a journey.

4.) 

Now here’s a movie that is literally sown in to my very being.  It’s the last movie my mother saw in theaters before becoming a Mom.  I grew up watching the “Real Ghostbusters” cartoon all the time and playing with the attendant toys; I had a “Ghostbusters” Birthday Party when I was, like, four years old.  It has been my annual Halloween Tradition to get myself a big Cheese Pizza and watch this movie for about as long as I’ve had disposable income to myself.  There is, quite literally, no point in my life where I don’t remember “Ghostbusters” being a fixture in it.  And as a nice bonus?  It is, legitimately, a Genuinely Great Movie.  I realize that isn’t quite as universally agreed upon these days as it was even a few years ago (thanks, Literally The Worst Kind Of Virulently Misogynist Assholes lD; ), but I still feel pretty confident in saying this one really is That Good.  I still find basically every one of its jokes hilarious; even now I could quote just about any one of them and get a laugh.  I still find its central premise, What If Exorcism Was A Blue-Collar Business, a brilliant, almost subversively clever one that takes The Supernatural out of the realm of The Unknowable and into a world where even you, an ordinary person off the street, can in fact fight back against it.  I still think it’s one of the all-time great examples of how to balance Tone in this sort of High Concept Genre Bender, by allowing The Story to be played relatively straight while allowing the comedy to flow naturally from the characters’ reactions to that story, allowing its Ghostly aspects to land as Genuinely Scary (or at least Worth Taking Seriously) without getting too Stern and Serious about it.  And I still listen to that unforgettable Title Song all the time!  So yeah, even if I could be more objective about it, “Ghostbusters” would almost certainly make this cut.      

3.) 

And so we come to the third and last pick I have in common with @bunnikkila, not coincidentally a movie that played a key role in solidifying our friendship, as bonding over our shared love of it was a big part of how we got to know each other on deviantART waaaay back in the day <3

By 2008, I really didn’t think it was possible for a movie or comic or TV show to really become “part” of me anymore, the way things like Sonic the Hedgehog or Marvel Super Heroes or Some Other Movie Character Who Might Be At The Top Of This List had.  And then “WALL-E” came along and proved that to be completely, utterly wrong.  I didn’t just love this movie, I was inspired by it, to a degree of strength and consistency that I’m still not entirely sure has yet been matched.  And to be sure, some of that is undoubtedly because the movie had already basically won the war before I’d even bought my ticket; Adorable Robots In Love is something like My Platonic Storytelling Ideal, after all.  But even setting that aside, “WALL-E” is a movie where even now I can’t help but be keenly aware, and gently awed, at the beauty of its craft; indeed, watching this movie in a theater did a lot to make me better understand why movies work on us the way they do, because I left that theater chewing so much on every last one of its elements.  Its gorgeous animation, the way it conveys Character through Actions more so than language, the dream-like quality of its musical score (even as i type this i get teary thinking about certain motifs), the clear and meaningful way it builds its theme and story together so harmoniously, and the particular perspective it takes on our relationships with each other, with our environments, and with our own technology...all of it speaks to me deeply and profoundly, and it’s no coincidence that I have seen this movie more times in theaters than any other on this list (twelve times, for the record, and I still remember each and every time XD).

2.) 

This one needs no personal qualifications, to my mind.  Yes, I have some degree of nostalgic attachment to it for having seen it relatively young with my brothers and being deeply moved by it then, but it’s not at all like the kind of Nostalgia I have for “The Lion King”.  “Princess Mononoke” is just flat-out, full-stop a complete Masterpiece, not just my personal pick for one of the single-best animated films ever made, but one of the best films period.  It’s almost difficult for me to put into words how great this movie is, certainly in a way that hasn’t been repeated to death by thousands of other smarter people, because no one of its elements quite answers the question of why it is so great, to my mind.  Yes, the animation is absolutely gorgeous with a design sensibility that brings Ancient Mythology to life so vividly that its influence can still be felt today (The Forest Spirit alone has been homaged all over the place).  And yes, the music is hauntingly beautiful, at once capturing the gentle rhythm of nature but also the elegiac tone of Life Moving On.  And yes, the story is an incredible mixture of the Broad Mythic Strokes of an Ancient Legend grounded in all too human Emotions and Ideas about the balance of nature, the full meaning and cost of Warfare, and perhaps most important of all, about how we determine Right and Wrong when everyone involved in a conflict is fighting simply for the right to survive.  But all of those things add up together to something even greater than a simple sum, because each one isn’t just good in its own right but because each element so perfectly reinforces the other.  And even having said all that?  I really could just carry on singing this movie’s praises.  Just...an absolute masterpiece, top to bottom.

1.) 

I don’t imagine any of you are terribly surprised at this, right?  I almost feel like it’d be redundant to explain my love for this movie, given how self-obvious I imagine it is to basically everyone who knows me Literally At All.  But heck, I’ve rambled on this long, why not go all the way?  Because the thing of it is, “Gojira” (to be clear, the original Japanese movie from 1954 rather than its American edit, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” from 1956) doesn’t just top the list by being a Great Movie.  Though to be clear, it really is.  Flawless?  No; there’s a reliance on puppetry that even for the time can be a bit chintzier than the movie can really afford, in particular.  But brilliant, even so, a heart-wrenching example of Science Fiction Storytelling As Allegory, one that, in a rarity not just for its own genre but indeed for many movies in general, very meaningfully lingers on its deepest, darkest implications.  Many a film critic has pointed it out, and it remains true: the stark black-and-white photography heightens the sense of Implacable Horror at the core of the story, and the way the central Melodrama, a tragic love triangle that carries with it many aspects of Class Conflict and Personal Desire VS. The Collective Good, ties back into the main story is truly beautiful in its elegance and emotional impact.  Still, for me personally, it tops the list, now and always, because it is a movie that affirmed something for me, that the character I had fallen in love with as a child convincing his family to watch a monster movie with him on television to prove his seven-year-old bravery, really was as genuinely as powerful and meaningful a figure as I had always imagined him to be. 

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider Fourze Episodes 01-16

Space is here!

... and I couldn't be any less stoked about it.

Yes, despite taking a little longer this time, I'm still doing this madness. I had a few problems these past weeks and I couldn't post on Saturdays like I wanted to do for this "watch all of Kamen Rider" series for like two or three weeks in a row, but I'm still trying my best and I won't give up!

This post is in charge of telling my thoughts on the beginning of the third Kamen Rider series that I watch, and if you could grasp my mood from the first sentence in this text you may know that... I didn't like it. I know what I'm saying may sound like a heresy to some since in all places I looked trying to define what would be my starting point in this franchise EVERYONE recommended Fourze as a good first series to watch and EVERYONE seemed to consider this one of the best Kamen Rider series ever. Well, I don't know if I had my expectations high because of all of that, of if this is just an overestimated series, what I know is that I didn't like it and I don't have many positives to say about it.

Which is odd because I like space, and I like space-themed things so a season about space seemed like a sure deal to me, but I couldn't get invested in anything here. To not say that I disliked everything about Fourze, I like a few insert songs, I could see myself jamming to some of those, and I also like that the villains are based after constellations, that's another cool touch, but that's pretty much it. I don't like the characters, I don't like the setting, I don't like the transformation belt, I don't like the suit designs, I don't like the toys that look like food, I wasn't really interested in the plot, nothing caught my eyes under a positive lighting. Of course, this is just coming from the first third and my opinion may change, but for now, I really dislike everything about Fourze.

And it's not like Fourze is a terrible show either, despite my lack of interest I could see that there were things there that could appeal to a lot of people, the problem is that those things don't appeal to me.

The thing that pushes Fourze away from me the most is the school setting. It may seem odd, after all both Aikatsu and Precure that are my favorite shows are set on schools, but I'm not a fan of the school aspect, I never was, and seeing a season happening on a school seems like a downgrade for me after two very strong seasons that managed to gather a quite diverse cast despite not happening centered around a space where they could gather lots of different people to serve both as allies or MOTW victims. And like it's not even the typical Japanese school setting that at least has the "foreigner" factor to bring some spice, this is a school that looks more like an American school and there's nothing more boring than a story that happens on an American school, with the sport jocks, the mean popular cheerleader, the geeks, the trouble makers, and all that boring stuff. Though I guess to them this would be the "foreigner" element so... In any case, if the school element wasn't present, or if at least it wasn't so focused around that, I could see myself enjoying Fourze more. I would still have my problems with it, though I wouldn't be as uninterested.

The other aspect I don't like is the characters. First, there are way too many of them for me to care about, there are seven "main characters" and I just ask myself why. Like, most of them aren't even characters they are an adjective and their whole character is based around said adjective and they don't evolve at all (I mean they don't have time to since there are seven of them), they have one moment of catharsis that is the point that leads them to join the club and after that, they're just that adjective that defined them once again. I don't feel compelled to like or sympathize with any of them INCLUDING THE PROTAGONIST. Gentarou is just shallow, Kengo is Gotou 2.0 but with a sick body, Yuki is the generic girl companion filling the female quota that has a thing for space to make her fit the story, Miu is the spoiled mean girl, Shun is the jock that is the star of the football team, Tomoko is the goth girl, and I have no idea what JK is supposed to be. And like I could excuse Miu, Shun, Tomo, and JK, being onesided if they were just victims of the MOTW because more or less each one of them had an interesting conflict centering around them for their "introduction" mini-arcs. But at the moment you make them recurring characters you gotta do something with them, you gotta show they're not just a stereotype in the story, but after 16 episodes that's all they are and I don't have hopes that they will have any major changes during the rest of the show.

I usually would take some time to talk about the main trio of this season, but I feel like I have even fewer things to say about them than I have to say about the attached cast. Gentarou is supposed to be the upbeat cheerful lead that you want to root for, but he's the type of person who I hate the most that go around making the rest of the world bow to his will and make things without taking other person's boundaries into consideration and, in the end, he's reassured that what he's doing is right. I just can't like him, I'm sorry. Kengo is just boring, they try to make him interesting by giving him a sickness and a tragic past but it doesn't work for me. And Yuki is basically the same, don't get me wrong in terms of female companions she's an improvement from Hina and Akiko, but like, she lacks so much she's so generic I don't have any feeling for her.

I wish I had something to say about the villains but we didn't get a lot of them in these episodes. They're based on the zodiac and they're all of the school staff it seems so I think that's cool. We've only seen two generals so far and I liked one but disliked the other so there's no concrete thing I can say about their designs. The zodiarts are cool, some designs are hit or miss but I like the concept of being constellations and that they can evolve/grade change into a general. I think the most exciting thing from the villains so far was seeing that the teacher was the Scorpio constellation because that was truly shocking I never guessed that bland teacher could be a villain, very sad she "lasted" for like only two episodes, but she hasn't been utterly defeated so I guess she can still come back.

Before I go on with Fourze's design, I'll comment on something I didn't find a place for it. I don't know if it's just me, but this was a very slow show. Because of the "two episodes, one story" formula it took freaking TWELVE EPISODES to introduce all characters of the club and it felt so dragged, like if things weren't moving at a proper pace. Another thing that was quite difficult to me was accepting that those actors were high school kids, which is weird because I made the research and, by the calcs, everyone in the cast was around 18 years old by the time of release so it shouldn't feel as weird to have them playing high school kids, but I don't know there's something in there that doesn't register as right with me. Also, I was shocked by the small number of notes I had, for a post like this I usually have three pages worth of comments that I write on a notebook while I watch the show, but I could barely write a full page on these 16 episodes and that's just sad.

And the last thing I have to complain about is Fourze's design. I'm sorry, but this design is ugly a hell, it took me so much to realize the helmet was supposed to be a rocket is not even funny. If their goal was to make something alien well congratulations to them because that looks awkward and uncomfortable as hell. And the power-ups? I know this probably sounded like a great idea on paper but the execution is way too wonky for me to like. And also he has the most awkward add-ons ever like, who though a brush would be a good power up? Not even the electric and the fire forms were able to make the design improve.

I could complain some more and talk about the new rider that comes out of nowhere once again, but I'm tired and I don't wanna sound more annoying as I probably already do so I'll wrap things up here. Feel free to tell me how wrong I am in the comments, but please be kind. XD I'll see you guys another time, hopefully being more positive next time.

[imma-lil-teapot]

Each TMNT Incarnation and Where They Stand With Me :)

(Nervous chuckle) ... Yeah no, I suck at titles. Moving on! 

Y’all can go ahead and skip this part if you’re not interested in senseless rambling and just wanna get to the TMNT fun~ ;) 

Soooooo, I’ve recently updated my Tumblr page to a blog dedicated to all my fandoms (musing, headcanons, writing, gifs, pics, the works, basically anything and everything in relation to them) since I wasn’t really ever doing anything with it other than using it to share pics mostly. But ever since I stumbled back into the TMNT fandom, I’ve been searching Tumblr for fan content and OMGOSH, did I hit the jackpot! Headcanons, fanfics, Turtle x reader stories, so much juicy stuff! Am hooked! Dunno why I never tried searching for similar stuff in the past for my other fandoms! I guess I just... didn’t realize there was so much content here. :O But anyway, I always wanted a place to share ideas and thoughts regarding my fandoms outside of sites like Deviantart and Fanfiction.net, and heck, it’s been here under my nose all this time... Y’all gonna have to forgive me; I’m an old fart. ;P (Insert image of Slowpoke for reference) So without further ado... 

LET’S GET THIS PIZZA PARTY STARTED! 

Imma start this blog off really simple and, as the title states, just give you all a small-ish idea of where each TMNT universe stands (or ranks?) with me, personally... Note the ‘personally’ part so please don’t feel offended if I don’t share the same opinion as you on a particular verse. ^^; I have my own tastes and will respect the next person’s when it comes to them. ;) Also, please beware the typos (which there most definitely will be)...

IN RELEASE DATE ORDER: (Hopefully they’re right)

MIRAGE COMICS~

Imma just say it: I haven’t read any of them yet. :/ There probably are sites out there that would allow you to view them online for free, but in truth, I’ve been a little slack about trying to find any... That may however change someday as I always tell myself I should really seek out the source material so it’s only a matter of time. What I do know, however, is that they’re of course a lot darker than most incarnations (which I don’t have a problem with personally) and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious as to exactly how much darker. X’D The closest I’ve come to ‘knowing’ these Turts comes from watching the Turtles Forever movie and they weren’t in it for a long time so it’s very difficult to say what they actually mean to me, so we’ll just put these guys down in the ‘not sure’ column for now. ;)

1987 CARTOON~

HAHA~ I think any fan of the franchise as a whole knows this little gem! The series that really hit it off and spawned over a 190 eps! Quite an impressive feat for a Saturday morning cartoon! It made its way to TVs the year before I was born, but it would take another few before it would reach our tubes (we’re always a few years behind the rest of the world :/ ) so I was around four when I was first introduced to it and needless to say, I loved it back then! Michelangelo was initially my fav due to him being my older brothers’ fav and the one they mainly spoke of, but it didn’t take long before my favering gravitated towards Leonardo (even at such a young age) and has been that way ever since. ;) But where exactly does the series stand with me as an adult nowadays with so many other verses we’ve been exposed to? I do hold a lot of nostalgia (as many older do) for it, and I mean, come on, that theme song is ageless, and I even started watching a lot of vids involving the original VAs and the shenanigans they get up to and seriously, it’s so heartwarming and fun to see them! But I have to be honest...

It’s not my fav verse, honestly. I will always adore them, of course, because of the nostalgia and the goofiness... But it’s the latter that’s mostly the reason for it being placed a bit lower on the favoritism ladder. While its a fun watch if you want something lighthearted, I still prefer the idea of the darker undertones that comes with being associated with ninjas. It’s just a preference. Plus, the Turtles designs are big one for me, and I’m sorry to say, but I keep seeing these fellas as more frog-like than turtle, despite the shells. X’D So yeah, no big reasoning for it, and even if someone were to ask me if I like these guys, I’ll still say yes, just that they’re not my ultimate fav is all. ;)

Also, we won’t talk about the Japanese Anime Ninja Turtles: Superman Legend or something to that extent... We’ll just let that one be gently swept under the carpet. ;) Only ever saw the trailer for it and that’s all I’ll ever need to see in my lifetime.

1990 MOVIES TRILOGY~

Now funny enough, I really don’t remember ever seeing these movies as a kid, though it’s possible I did and just maybe blocked the memory, but I highly doubt it... So yeah, I saw these movies as an adult already. The first is praised by most fans, and honestly, I can see why: it’s pretty good! :D The acting is very decent and the humour’s brilliant! The two sequels... not so much but still okay. ;) Where they sit with me... Not too far on the ladder again I’m afraid. :/ While I do really enjoy and appreciate the acting and that humour (”I made a funny.” X’D) it mostly comes down to the Turtles designs again... I really can’t see past them being actors in costumes rather than characters. :’( Granted, good actors. ;) And heck, Jim Henson did a phenomenal job! They’re just not really the movies for me is all, even if I do go back and watch ‘em every now and then. X’D I do however melt every time at the scene in the first movie where Raph wakes up in the bath and Leo’s there and apologizing and all... Makes me all gooey inside! X’D The feels are real! Speaking of Leo, though, he sounds even younger than Mikey. Small nitpick, that, but... why? X’D

But yeah, let’s just say, they’re good movies, just, not my favs.

Also, Coming Out Of Their Shells tour... Yeah, I’m gonna just... pretend that doesn’t exist for a minute. 

THE NEXT MUTATION~

Nope.

Saw one ep as a kid and am not interested in seeing anymore.

Although, VA Matt Hill voices Raph. That’s one good thing.

2003/2k3~

Well it wasn’t already apparent by my avatar... Ladies and gents, I present to you... My fav TMNT verse to date! Oh my goodness, where do I even begin with this delicious series?! :D Firstly, animation: so appealing, comic book-y style! Their designs: without sounding pervy, veeeeeeeery appealing (hehehehehe), no seriously, they sometimes have a bitta bulk to them but it honestly works, and dem muscles, and the cool eyes! The VAs: spot on! Perfect! Wouldn’t have ‘em any other way! Make me melt, Mr. Michael Sinterniklaas~ (cough) Their personalities: Omgosh, just yes! So perfect! They’re easily differentiated and yet still work together so well. Leo’s mature and level-headed (well, most of the time ;P ) yet still gets tested a lot and even has a fun side that’s shown on occasion. Raph’s grouchy and violent but is shown on more than one occasion that’s he’s total softie and really does care. Don’s just a sweetheart and freakishly smart and even has slips ups from time to time. Mikey... omgosh, best Mikey ever! So much fun! So hilarious! And just a bundle of energy, but not at all an idiot like he’s sometimes portrayed in other verses. He’s witty, mischievous and just so adorable! Heck, even Master Splinter, April, Casey, the lot of them are just awesome in this series! And wow, they really do lean more towards the source material (or so I’m told) when it comes to the plots! It’s darker than the other previous verses yet still remaining kid-friendly (although I question it at times XD) and omgosh, it’s just everything I want in a TMNT universe! Granted, it’s not perfect perfect, but it nailed it for me. ;) It really showed so lovely character developments, alsortsa different genres, the humour will leave you in stitches, the Turts are all just so lovable, I can’t get enough of them! This series was really my high point and I’ve yet to find one that tops it~

Btw, this even includes Fast Forward and Back to the Sewer (BTTS). The former being my least fav of the series simply due to the setting and again, it’s just preference. I even liked BTTS, even though I’m not overly fond of a cyberspace setting, but I found myself really liking the art style and the general plot. :D 

2007/2k7~

As with the last, if you’ve picked up on the page’s header/banner, you’d have probably guessed that the 2007 movie is also a good candidate for one my favs... And you’d be correct. ;) I’m actually very fond of this movie, and it’s largely due to the Turtles designs. I love how they were done! They just look so cool! <3 Subtle differences tell the viewer who’s who even if they didn’t have a mask or weapons. The VAs were also pretty good~ Now, the story isn’t the greatest, I’ll admit. Personally I thought it was okay, but know many fans think otherwise. But I did like the confrontation between Leo and Raph! It got real there, peeps! :O Now here’s also where it falls a little on its face for me: I didn’t really like how they handled Leo’s personality (if you haven’t already picked up on it, yes, I’m a Leo fangirl and I’m picky when it comes to how they handle his personality) but it’s a nitpick again, yet, I still feel compelled to state my opinion: the whole “I’m better than you.” comment really took me back and made me think they pushed it. I honestly like to believe he’d never actually say something like that... at least, 2003!Leo wouldn’t. X’D But that’s just my problem: I’m comparing a different verse’s Leo to this one and whether I like it or not, he said it. :/ Oh well, it still made for some fun action scenes and I’ll still always like the movie.

Bit of a goof on my side: I honestly thought that this movie was made to tie in with the 2003!verse due to the timeline in which it was produced, but turns out, it’s actually closer to the 1990′s timeline although still considered it’s own verse.

2012/2k12~

Oooh boy, lemme prepare for the backlash real quick... I’m uhhhh... not a fan of these boys. :/ I don’t mind them, but I’m honestly never gonna watch the series again. It’s hard to top your fav when you’ve kinda already hit your high point, ya know. Now before you light your torches and sharpen your pitchforks, hear me out: I will never bash the series, or make fun of anyone who likes it! Or anything to that extent! It’s just wasn’t for me, plain and simple, and it’s got nothing to do with it being ‘new’ or I’m just an old fart stuck in my ways. Heck, If you’re still reading, you would’ve found out that even nostalgia couldn’t beat the series that grasped me in my teens! So no, it has nothing to do with age. But if you do need a reason: I wasn’t overly fond of how they handle the characters. For one, they look and act a bit too young, Mikey is just... wow, something else. Donnie’s... sheesh, pretty snappy and antagonising. Raph’s well... okay, he’s meant to be angry half the time, and they did give him some more layers with Spike and Mona Lisa and whatnot, but he still kinda never learns his lesson if I can say that? He’ll learn that he shouldn’t cause issues with others, yet next episode he’s back at it again. :/ Leo’s... wow, just not like other Leos. X’D Best way I can describe him is... young? Very childlike. And even when he was progressing to becoming this better leader, I honestly couldn’t even see the change. My mind was just stuck on this “He’s a babeh.” notion. Also, I’m not even gonna start on this April and Casey. Just. No. Most of the characters were annoying and I just kept seeing recycled plot after plot. What I did like was the romance that blossomed between Raph and Mona (albeit far too rushed) and even Donnie liking April was adorable (but seriously Donnie, you can do so much better), and there were some really heartfelt moments, like Splinter telling Leo to leo his brothers with his heart and not his head, and the scenes when they were Tots will always make me squeal... But yeah... without leaving any spoilers.... about Splinter... just... thanks, Nickelodeon. Y’all know what I mean. Not once... But twice.... Really? So yeah, look, I realized some of those reasons might even be petty, but again, it’s just not the series for me, but anyone who’s a fan... You keep being a fan! ;) I’m glad you can enjoy something I can’t. ;)

2014/2k14/2016/2k16 AKA BAYVERSE~

HAHA~ Every fan’s favorite... If only. X’D Jokes aside, despite many fans claiming the Bay movies ruined the franchise, these two films gathered a small following... And I’m apart of it. :) Funny enough, I honestly didn’t know what to think of them when the movie first came out. I think I was just taken aback by the sheer amount of detail and all that went into their designs. I didn’t not like them, but again, their designs were a lot to take in. :O Even now after seeing the movies quite a few times over, I find myself constantly discovering something I didn’t notice on them before, be it a strap or a scar etc. And it honestly took some getting use to their sizes, I mean, sheesh! :O Not to mention the different background story, and Megan Fox’s wooden, expressionless acting, but despite all that... I found myself actually growing attached to these hulks of Turtles. They still have a lot of that heart in them and plus they’re just so much fun, I mean, can we say ‘Elevator scene’? X’D Now again, not perfect by anys mean, but still fun and pretty decent incarnations to add to the franchise. Again, Leo’s been given this ‘Better than you’ a bit which irked me to be frank. Not always but it’s there sometimes, but otherwise alright. Raph’s a decent Raph. Even had some tender moments. Donnie’s adorable! X’D This slightly potty mouthed geek that you just gotta love. And Mikey... although given that bitta ‘idiot’ feel, is also just as lovable and you want to hug him every time he’s onscreen! 

In short, I like ‘em. :) They’re actually closer to the top of the ladder than some others.

RISE OF THE TMNT/ROTTMNT/2018/2K18~

Yeeeeeeeeuuuuuuh... no. Sorry. Not for me. :/ Again, gonna remind y’all, nothing to do with age. Nothing to do with change. I will say that the fluid animation is nice, and the fact that they chose 2D animation. :) Buuuuuut, wow, they were certainly a lot to take in. Almost as much as Bay’s Turtles. After watching a few eps, I will conclude that they really just aren’t what I’m looking for. I found that the constant joking, while sometimes funny, got a little bit much, plus such short eps. Raph being leader was a switch and one that took awhile to get use to and honestly, I’m just not for it, I don’t even know where to begin with Donnie, Mikey’s okay, Leo... (deep breath) I don’t know what they were thinking... Let’s not even go to Master Splinter. But anyways, I get that change was what they were going for and that it was more so based on the 1987 toon with the silliness so that’s fine. I’m glad it’s got so many fans. :) And honestly, I wanna end off just by saying...

That no matter what your thoughts on what I’ve said, I hope you can respect my opinions and choices cause at the end of the day, they’re just my own, and I will always respect yours! :D If you adore the verses I’m not too crazy about, that’s great! :D I want you all to love the heck out of them! And honestly, this is what’s so great about this franchise: there are so many verses to choose from! So many options and tastes to suit any and all! You don’t have to follow the masses! You go enjoy whichever incarnation(s) you want to! ;) 

And there we have it, my first fandom bloggy thingy~ Hope there’ll be many more where that came from! :D

This is Drag0n-Mistr3ss signing off~