#I'll do more characters soon because I've made the complete list!

[calciumyum]

I just want you to know, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE your beautiful vision

I showed it to my sister and she had an idea

Hear us out, Scar is the White Witch. Grian is the tiny little dwarf guy

Do you see it? The vision

[Traffic Narnia AU]

After a ton of consideration.... Yes I think I'll make Scar the White Witch and Grian as Ginarrbrik!!

Also, to others that have given me ideas, thank you so much!! I'd like to make a point that this au is based solely on the 2005 movie adaptation because it's so dear to me :]

And I might change things up! Just slightly! This is just a silly crossover au that started because I thought of Martyn as Edmund when rewatching the movie and I'm glad so many of you are so invested as well :D

[falena-kingscholar]

Welcome to Sunset Savanna!

The king is a very busy man with lots to attend to, so I'll be taking care of all the administrative stuff so you all can have your fun!

My name is V, you can call me the royal advisor if you really wanted, and I'm here to keep everything running smoothly, keep this blog a safe place, and make sure everyone is having fun. In order to do that, of course, there have to be rules, so let me make this short and sweet as I can for you!

Bigots, terfs, racists, p*dos, you're all on the DNI list. I will block you if you come on my blog with the intention to harm someone else, or openly admit these values.

Being an advisor means I've got plenty on my plate beyond this blog. There is a real person running all this, with my own life to live. Please be patient and understanding.

Have fun!! If I or someone else is making you uncomfortable, feel free to let me know so I can set things right.

Limit your NSFW. I don't mind if you're thirsty to a certain extent, and I'm fine with cursing. Keep in mind that the RP community on Tumblr is diverse both in gender + sexuality, but also in age and I would like to keep this page friendly to everyone.

OCs, MCs and other Canon characters are welcome to interact. Just as a bit of a heads up, I'm not super comfortable shipping Falena with anyone besides his wife - but if you read below you'll see why that's a little rocky too.

This is a HEADCANON version of Falena. Below is a short description of how I interpret him and a few of his relationships. This is to ensure I enjoy the character I'm playing. This does not mean I'm not open to feedback or constructive criticism, just be respectful please.

Get To Know The King

He's fairly jovial and upbeat most of the time

He's really bad about just listening to problems - he likes to solve them

He and his wife are in a bit of weird spot - it's because he's still a closeted gay and it's impacted their marriage. He loves her still, just more platonically than romantically. They agreed to have a kid in hopes of repairing the rift they were both feeling, and it kind of worked, but he still really needs to be honest about his feelings Soon

Cheka is the one person he loves more than ANYONE and often comes across as a bit of an overbearing dad he's totally not just adding on to loving Cheka with all the love he wishes his brother would accept

The age gap between him and Leona? GUESS WHAT, I, THE PERSON BEHIND THE SCREEN HAVE THAT SAME AGE GAP WITH MY SISTERS (twins) (however we are still close and besties so I know. the Opposite of what I did is what I need to do for Falena sldkjfhlskdjf /hj)

That being said, Falena has a strained relationship with Leona that he has only recently come to notice now that Leona isn't around as often. He really wants to make amends, but feels like a complete stranger to his own brother and it shows in his interactions - he still kind of treats Leona like he's 6-13 because that's the Leona he remembers - the one who was still excited to see him when he came home from RSA. It wasn't until Falena was 19 that he noticed a bit of a rift. They started getting closer, then when Falena was 21 he was coronated and got married to his betrothed as his father fell ill.

Thank you for reading all of that! All that's left is to give credit where it's due.

The beautiful portrait done of his Royal Highness used as the face of this page, (with permission), was done by none other than @/lemonwerewolf here.

Dividers were made by @/saradika-graphics, here.

If the way I write seems familiar to you, you might recognize me from @twistedwonderlandshenanigans , my HC's and general writing blog for twst. (I follow from @/symphonicmetal101 though)

Thank you again, the King and I hope you enjoy your stay here,

In Sunset Savanna

[disconnected-from-reality]

Fanfic rec: Bones B&B

Hi~! After so many years, I'm back with a new set of fanfic recommendations! This time it's for a different show, one near and dear to my heart, which is pretty much a give away from the title of this post. I've been a fan of Bones for more than a decade now, I've known the show way before I've known Sherlock. But it has only occurred to me this 2024 that Bones might actually have some fanfictions out there. Lo and behold, there are quite a number around, and the next thing I know, I've read enough for a post like this!

For now, I'm listing some of the fanfics that really spoke and hit my heart. Maybe in my next post I'll try to categorize them in some way.

As usual, all works are complete unless stated otherwise. Happy reading!

Quicksand by MoreBonesPlz [Words: <46,783 | T: Suitable for teens] What if after the infamous B&B conversation in the truck during The Doctor in the Photo where Booth told Brennan she'd missed her chance, Brennan didn't acquiesce? What if once opened, she no longer found it possible to close the Pandora's box with respect to her feelings for Booth?

The Whole in the Sum of the Parts by fourth_rose [Words: 21,933 | Mature | Also available in Ao3] Children change things – sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, and sometimes from the very beginning. Season 1 AU.

The Passenger Seat by cortexx [Words: 3,345 | Teen And Up Audiences | Also available in FFN] Four times someone adjusted Brennan's seat in Booth's car over the years, and the one time she did it to Booth.

Servare Vitas by newscaper [Words: <101,948 | T: Suitable for teens] To Save Lives. A Bones Novel. Brennan helps Booth try to lay old ghosts to rest as he becomes a sniper for the FBI, a decision with life and death consequences that could change everything. 

The Science Teacher in the Public School by FictionWriter91 [Words: <47,114 | T: Suitable for teens] Story is AU with a mix of canon. What if Temperance and Russ were taken with their parents instead of being left behind? What if Brennan is now a well loved science teacher at a public school like her father used to be? Brennan loves her work and her students, especially Parker Booth, who is very talented and adores her. Things couldn't be better. Then she meets Parker's father.

Right from the Start by Christi Whitson [Words: <265,871 | M: Mature] Season 1 re-write, tweaking the details and one of the tertiary characters. Because I think that under the right set of circumstances, BB would have fallen for each other right from the start. Peter is a threat to Brennan, and Tessa doesn't exist. More drama than angst. 

An Aggregation of Maladjusted Companions by jazzyproz [Words: <251,013 | M: Mature] Suffering from a declining solve rate following their returns to DC, Booth and Brennan are forced to attend a team-building convention. Neither of them think they need the workshops or exercises, but it's apparent to everyone around them that if they don't do something, the whole team will soon be falling apart. Can they fix their broken partnership?

Stupid Alpha Male - Ardialene [Words: <9,292  | Suitable for more mature childen] No matter how many times Booth denies it, Brennan knows that her partner is a true alpha male. And she has evidence to prove it.

Let the Games Begin by TRUSSELL33 [Words: <159,075 | M: Mature] What would Booth do if Brennan suddenly came on to him? Written as a challenge on another site but am thinking of turning it into a short story. Let me know if anyone is interested.

Wise Mind by naelany [Words: 13,416 | Teen And Up Audiences | Ao3 Account Required] Temperance had made the - perfectly logical - decision to rebuff Booth’s advances not once, but twice. After all, she was a mundane and he was an online, high order Sentinel and would one day find his Guide. To her mind, there was no point in starting something with the man, no matter how attracted they were to each other, because in the end he would leave her.

Confessions from a Bottle by MoreBonesPlz [Words: <27,052 | T: Suitable for teens] Booth believes he is happy in his relationship with Hannah until an intoxicated Brennan reveals her true feelings for him and makes him question what happiness really means.

Problem Solving, the Booth and Brennan Way by Hannah Taylor1 [Words: <384,802 | T: Suitable for teens] Brennan has a problem she's not sharing.Booth wants to help fix things,as always,only to find the conversation skewing in a direction he'd never expected. Set several months post-The Boy With the Answer.

How My Heart Behaves by mia101 [Words: <57,376 | M: Mature] Brennan thinks she understands what sex is all about...until Booth gives her a glimpse that makes her think otherwise. But who's teaching whom? And what will they learn...?

The Heart Won't Lie by razztaztic [Words: 16,531 | T: Suitable for teens | Also Available in Ao3 | Ao3 Account Required] Alternate ending for 6x09 "The Doctor in the Photo." What if Booth hadn't been there to save Brennan and she was hit by the car?

The Heart of the Matter by fourth_rose [Words: 7,546 | Mature] "What do you mean, you know you can't have me? It's not like you've ever asked!"

The Intern by cortexx [Words: 1,766 | Teen And Up Audiences | Also available in FFN] Brennan is trying to choose a new intern, and is slowly weeding out the ones who are unacceptable candidates. A case of mistaken identity narrows down the competition when one candidate makes an inappropriate comment to Parker about Bones.

Maternal Instinct by tempecameron [Words: <20,878 | T: Suitable for teens] Dr. Temperance Brennan can handle remains that are thousands of years old, but can she keep up with one small child? BB fluff, Parker cuteness, relationship drama, weird author's notes.

Snowed In by Imagination-Parade [Words: <23,752 | T: Suitable for teens] Booth and Parker get snowed in at Brennan's apartment after Parker insists that they spend Christmas with her. Set after 3.09 "Santa in the Slush"

Let me know what you think of this list. I'd love to have some feedback! I'll be back with a new list soon, hopefully!

Looking for other fanfic recommendations? I might have something you're interested in, or if you have requests feel free to ask!

[fanaticsnail]

Hello Snail! I adore your Writing so much and inhope you Take time to refill your cup 🥺 and i am very Happy that you have opened comissions, you deserve that your writing is amazing, don't get me wrong. 🙏🏻

I am a little confused about your requests tho. Because sometimes someone just asks you with vague Idea or a scenario and you write a full fic about it...does that count as a requests too? Or when someone asks for another character for a series Like "dreaming of you" for example. Can we No longer do that? Would that be disrespectful now?

And what about the requests you have accumulated at this point, like the "Kissing booth" series for exammple? Will that nonlonger be continued? 🥺

I Just wanna know how to interact with you from now on in regards to these Things

Hi Anon! Thank you for your beautiful ask, and I appreciate you so much for wanting further clarification on my commissions. I found as I was writing my response, that I waffled and went on for far too long in phrasing all of it.

To make a long story short, absolutely go on as we always have together here:

When my requests are open, send me requests of scenarios you'd love to see come to light.

When I'm completing a broad series, absolutely send in your preferences on which way you'd love to see me leading it.

That's how it's always been, and as it always should be here. I have a very deep love for this community, and I adore the interaction we all have together. Nothing has changed in that regard.

For commissions: it's specifically for that person, not for here unless they would like it displayed on my blog. Attached via email, docs, or discord: my words curated for the person purchasing it - and only them.

Again, nothing has changed. Content will be produced as it has been, and will continue to do so for free, as it always was. I don't see myself stopping any time soon with my words, and I hope you stay along for the ride.

There is more I feel I have to say, and it's listed below the cut just in case. Again, I love you all here, and nothing has changed.

Firstly: allow me to specify, and thank you so much for your ask, my absolute darling. My answer is lengthy, but please bear with me.

Requests are currently closed: I have a few in my arsenal that I am still plowing through at the pace that I can when the words come to me. The Kissing Booth is closed, and there are a few in my inbox that I am going to complete when the scene arrives in my mind. I also have chaptered series that I'll be running alongside these, and I can't wait to release them.

If there's a series that you would like to see for a character that I've not yet written for (pollen, dreaming of you, dance series, Hey Doc scenario) always, always submit an idea. I love hearing your thoughts and letting the words take me on a ride with them. I write for me, and those interactions mean the absolute world to me.

I had my requests open for a while to allow my creativity to fly, and promptly close them after receiving a fair few prompts. Again, the kissing booth is closed, and I have so many beautiful characters I can't wait to write kisses for (Tashigi, Nami, Robin my beloveds). There was an issue with my asks glitching for a while, but I have managed to save all those I received in a doc to not lose them this time around.

I feel like I should clarify a little bit regarding commissions, and I really should've added it to the sheet when I made it. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to talk more about this, I really appreciate it.

With limited slots available at a time, commissions will be happening. What that means is I will do my best to meet the criteria of a specific scenario: original character x Canon, or canon x reader or otherwise - exclusively for the person that requests it within the parameters specified.

It's more personalised and more controlled by the person requesting, rather than giving me an idea and watching me sprint beyond the horizon. It's also more intimate: gifted directly to the person asking for a slot, as opposed to sharing to those within this beautiful community that I love so much here. It will be unpublished here or AO3, unless the person commissioning would like to see it showcased on my blog.

Again, I will also be writing for the community here with the content that I always have been. There are so many unfinished works that I would love to wrap up with a big bow before the year has finished.

I'll add again: I will still be making content for free here with my own thoughts and completing prior requests, and I have no intention of stopping any time soon.

To sum up:

If you like my writing, and would like to see specifically curated material personally for you and your own use, I have a few slots available to deliver that material for those who request it. If you've read my material and want to see what it would look like with a specific character, an original character, or 'x reader' in your Gmail, docs, or Discord, this is an opportunity to see it come to fruition.

The words I produce for my commissions are for the person purchasing it, and if they'd like me to share it here, I would absolutely do so.

Again: I will still be writing my usual content here alongside commissions.

To use a specific example of my own preference:

I love Heat (Kid Pirate) as a character, and would love to see more Heat content put out there.

If I've found a person who writes for Heat, and I love the way they write him in all the fics they've described him in, and I would love to see them write for a specific reader exclusively for me (afab, amab, original character with their name intact, or otherwise specified). If they had an option to do this, I would absolutely want it from them because I love their content so much.

Similarly to an artist producing visual media, and using the above as the same example:

"But Snail... Why are you opening commissions now when you've always written for free?"

I would interact similarly to this:

"This artist is amazing, and the way they draw Heat is awesome and exactly how I picture him. I'd love to see him in a pose of my own choosing as opposed to how they normally draw him: breathing fire, with a man, with a woman, with a mink-kind, with a fishfolk, without Wire, in a Heart Pirate Boiler Suit - I just think he's neat, and I would love an art piece specifically for me that nobody else has access to but me and the person who created it."

Anon, I'm not having a go at you and I love you for wanting to clarify this with me. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to give an explanation. I appreciate you all the more for it.

I am opening commissions for the same reason I want to commission other artists and writers: I would like to purchase their creativity and enjoy it myself.

If I was to use the earlier example in this response regarding Heat, I would love to see more 'Heat x Tobiuo' content. Tobiuo is my original character, and Heat is her person. Them together is my favourite, and I would love to see another artist's visual media, or written content with their take on them. I am happy to read Heat x reader, or other Heat x OC writing - but I would really like to see my own original character - that's what commissions are for.

Tldr: commissions are curated specifically for the person requesting them, a little creation for them and them alone unless otherwise specified to publish on Tumblr of AO3.

I will not be halting my original content, or abandoning any of my requests I accumulated before closing them. I plan to complete them as they were asked in a timely manner that suits me, alongside commissioned work given specifically to the person requesting it.

I'm still writing for free in a non-exclusive way: hearing asks, listening to words, and going wherever the wind takes me. Commissions are exclusively for the person requesting them, and a way for me to make money so I can pay for commissions of my own from other creators.

I will still be writing my usual content here, and please absolutely don't stop interacting as we always have been.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to ramble on about this, I really appreciate the time you've given me to express further clarity. If you've read this far, thank you for your time.

Regular content will be still running here, and I love all of our interactions we have in this space we've created together. Again, thank you anon. 🖤🐌

[haleigh-sloth]

Hi, I hope you're doing well.

Do you have any new series that you're hoping to start after mha ends?

HI! I am doing good thank you for the well wishes.

And YES!

I'm really looking forward to catching up on some I've started and taken a break from. I'm actually currently reading several series right now, just all but one of them (not including BNHA) is on hold.

I need to catch up on Blue Exorcist and Black Butler. I think those will be 2 of my priorities. I would really like to catch up and then watch the new anime seasons that have come out for them that are continuing the original story from the manga. Just so happens that lucky me, they both got new seasons continuing their stories like right at the same time.

I also need to catch up on D.Gray-Man, but honestly I need to re-read it (again) before I play catch up. Given the slow pace it releases at, this isn't a priority atm but I will do it eventually. I've been following the manga since I was 15 years old so I WILL be doing it justice by making sure I fully understand everything going on when I read the chapters.

I'm a volume-only reader of Durarara and still have one volume that is currently out in english to read before I'm as caught up as I possibly can be, but also this comes out at a slower pace so it's not a high priority right now.

I did start Daemons of the Shadow Realm (Arakawa's new series) and made it to chapter 8 some time last year, but then life got in the way and I couldn't focus on it. I've been collecting the volumes so I can read the physical copies as they release as much as I can before reading it online. This one is a priority as I've been super excited about it ever since I heard it was going to exist. So this will come sooner rather than later.

I also started Choujin X WAAAAYYYY back when it first released but for the same reasons as always life was just too busy and BNHA took up too much brain space. I've heard it's really good, and would like to start it over and continue reading it as it releases, so I'm looking forward to that. Not a priority so it might be a while, but I will be reading this one also.

I have had a tab open to Delicious Dungeon open for months. Since it's actually completed, I'd really like to knock that one out soon. So priority-wise, this may come before all of the others on this list.

I'm also currently reading, and fully caught up on Oshi no Ko, which is now probably my favorite ongoing series out of all of the ones I'm invested in right now. The only series that isn't on hold. Despite BNHA taking up so much brain space, this manga managed to keep its spot in my brain. I super love it, and it's in its final arc. So I'm really excited to see that one through to the end.

Non-manga things, I'm in love with Hazbin Hotel. Even though it'll be a bit before we get the next content release, this one still lives rent free in my brain so.

But yeah, I've actually been anticipating BNHA ending for some time now because of all these other things I want to read but just...couldn't. Lol. Now I'll be able to. And it'll help me cope with the ending of BNHA better I think, and help me shift into the mindset of "these people aren't real I can do with them what I want". Because for most series I actually have a way easier time with that, but for BNHA I was just way to invested in canon making me happy. The only other series I have the same intensity for right now is Hazbin, with one particular character also (guess who). So we'll see how that goes, though I trust the creator of that series significantly more....lol. But I'd like to be able to detach and have fun from now on rather than...dwell. Idk.

But yeah anyway I'm super excited for all the things listed above!

[being-of-rain]

Okay, time to write my thoughts on Empire of Death. Like the rest of the season, I've only watched it once so far. I think soon I'll binge all of Fourteen and Fifteen soon. And as with many of the episodes, I'll be interested to see what I think of the finale on a rewatch. Anyway, this post gets a little long-winded, and I hope readers will forgive me for feeling my way around my opinions on the episode as I go.

I've already said that I wasn't a big fan of the episode. But part of me thinks that Empire of Death is a very subjective one. People I've seen defending it have said that critics aren't engaging enough with the themes, and are being too nitpicky. That sounds familiar, because I know I've held opinions along those lines on other controversial Dr Who episodes. So in that case, what you think of the episode is going to depend on how you connect to the themes, and to the emotions. How much do you think the themes and emotions earn priority over other aspects of the story and how its judged?

Then again, I suppose I might be contradicting that when I say that there's some themes I liked in the episode, but (like in The Giggle,) I really didn't like how the episode executed them. The idea of Ruby's mum being an ordinary woman is something I like in theory and am not surprised by; celebrating the ordinary in the midst of the extraordinary is a signature move of New Who and has been the twist conclusion for quite a few story arcs already. But while it's done as explicitly here as it ever has been, the plot doesn't really manage to support it.

I'm sure I don't have to list a lot of the questions and nitpicks fans (including me) have here, but even the catch-all explanations of 'a god was interested in the mystery' and 'magic is in Dr Who now' don't feel like they really work for me. For the first because it feels out of character and contrived that Sutekh cares about this mystery at all, and if he does then why only this one? And for the second, well its unclear how or even if the magic unleashed in the 60th specials affect this finale at all, since Sutekh seems to have completely different origins to the other two gods (and if it does have bearing on this episode then that isn't made clear at all). You could say this is me getting hung up on nitpicks and details, and I really do hate letting those things get in the way of a story... but it's hard not to when those details are such a large part of the story. I don't quite agree with the harsh criticism of RTD taking advantage of the viewers or whatever (which I think has been said about every showrunner), but this arc/s and final two episodes are so geared towards speculation and building up questions in spectacular ways that brushing over them with not much of an answer feels... well, like a plot hole.

As a result, statements like 'this ordinary woman is so important because of what we thought of her' and 'time is memory and memory is time', while really lovely sentiments, and themes I'd love to see explored, only really make sense if disconnected from the rest of the story. To come back to my first paragraph, they're themes that you have to give so much priority to over the rest of the story that they basically become premises that need to be accepted in order to carry the plot, rather than the other way around.

Does any of this make sense? I think all this was to say: for me this story definitely doesn't earn the 'themes are good enough to ignore the details' approach, even though I love the themes. Never mind, that summary made even less sense.

Another criticism I had of The Giggle, and pretty much all of RTD's finales, is that RTD really wants to go for big emotional moments and let the emotions carry the plot... but the emotions just don't always hit for me, especially when it doesn't feel like the story's earned it. That feels like more of a problem in Empire of Death than ever before.

Maybe the scene with the biggest emotional impact on me (not a massive impact, but bigger than the rest of the episode) was the scene with the lady giving the Doctor the spoon, possibly because it felt so strangely divorced from the rest of the episode, like a scene from a different episode dropped in the middle.

Ruby's departure was... well for one, unexpected. I know she's in the next season, right? Is it a series 4 Martha come-back-as-a-guest-star situation, or a series 9 Clara the-departure-was-a-fakeout situation? Anyway, the departure was... about as satisfying as I've found Ruby's character arc. I really had hoped that her only important defining character trait wasn't 'orphan who wants to meet her bio mum,' but its hard not to think of her that way after this episode. I never really found anything to hook me on the character. Shame.

I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but I can't help but compare Ruby's arc to Izzy Sinclair's arc from the DWM comics. On an obvious level, Ruby's arc concludes with her successfully tracking down her bio mum while Izzy's arc concludes with her happily returning to her adoptive parents, no longer considering her 'secret origins' as a missing part of herself. And while I definitely prefer the sentiment of Izzy's story, I don't want to say Ruby uncovering her origins and gaining a new parent automatically makes for a bad ending to an adoptee's story. But I think just as important is that with Izzy, we really dive into why she feels the way she does. We learn in great detail how her feelings about being adopted connect to many other things in her life, not least her self image. In comparison, Ruby feels downright shallow. She's incredibly curious who her mother is, considering it part of her legend... and that's about it. It doesn't really affect her in any way most episodes. Maybe I'm being unfair here and I'd be less harsh after my rewatch, we'll see.

Unfortunately the resolution to the Sutekh plot also didn't satisfy me. Dragging Sutekh back through the time vortex to 'bring death to death' just... doesn't work for me. Not even on a storybook level, or fairytale level, or purely emotion-based level. It felt... idk... childish?, in a way I really didn't vibe with. But honestly I would've been happy it happened if, when the Doctor started listing planets he was bringing back, he mentioned Gallifrey and revealed the Time Lords were alive again and then we could all just move on. Sigh.

I think that's most of the major points. What else do I have to say?

The oppressive empty atmosphere of Sutekh's dead universe was cool. There was a scene with just Sutekh and his minion where everything beside them was intensely silent, which really hammered the point home. It's still funny/silly to me that the so-called god of music wanted this exact same thing.

Mel is still lovely, and call me a nerd but her recognising Six's outfit and later cuddling with Seven's was maybe the best part of the episode for me. Apart from that she sure spent a lot of time standing around with no dialogue. I finally got an answer to the question I'd been asking since November last year- if there'd been a reason Mel in particular was brought back to the show- and the answer is Not Really. I did laugh when a friend pointed out that there's plot-important computer hacking in this episode and during that Mel was told to go keep watch in the corridor.

Meanwhile Kate felt like she was parodying herself by trying to recruit Susan at the end of the episode. Teens work for UNIT because Kate can't be around someone for five minutes without trying to headhunt them. I saw Kate and the random soldier hold hands at the end but read it as (or maybe very much hoped it was) platonic and relieved to be alive.

I don't think I truly knew how much the Vlinx annoyed me until it was killed by Sutekh, and for one short moment I was filled with joy at the belief it wouldn't be coming back. Sorry the Vlinx.

The TARDIS has a laser that can be activated with a whistle? Huh? Did I miss something or is that just a fact? The only thing I could think to connect it with was the 'heart-of-the-Tardis-laser-beam' from Flux, which would make it much stupider.

I'm pretty sure Mrs Flood will be a new character, but heck if I know. She doesn't seem like Susan anymore. Oh yeah! So I guess Susan wasn't in this apart from one second of archival footage. Unless next season uses this as foreshadowing, it feels like a waste.

And that's all I can remember after one viewing! I believe the next episode is a christmas special by Steven Moffat? I've decided I'm excited for it. I think Moffat christmas eps have more hits than misses, as opposed to RTD finales.

[theheightofdishonor]

I have a couple more shows on my watchlist and once that's done i think i'll be taking a (probably brief) break from asian dramas to focus on some of the other dozen watchlists i have (anime maybe? i might skip jojo and try daiya no ace again- we'll see though)

I'm hitting the 300 dramas mark soon (that's 300 completed mind you, not counting movies, and not counting things i've dropped) so i'll probably write something later in the year too reflecting on both the shows that've come out this year and the ones i've watched

For now i thought i'd jot down a couple notes about the currently airing shows i'm keeping up with since i haven't had time to do that in a while. I'll be doing this in the order I watch them in.

Middleman's Love- ngl I'm solely watching this for King and Uea. I know some of you like this show but the main couple just don't work for me and the side couple are only mildly more interesting. I'll keep watching it to the end but it's a skim watch.

Twins- A great example of how silly is fine when it's enjoyable. I fucking adore this show right now. This has volleyball in it and I'm a haikyuu!! fan before i'm a person so of course i was going to watch this show no matter how dumb it is but it's great. I'm having a blast. I like the family dynamics, I like Sprite, I like how they're committing to the 'slow' part of 'slow burn', I like all the stupid hijinks, I like that I can watch this show and be like "oh he's a Setter, like Kageyama!", I just like it. Poor First though, doing all this work of unlearning his hatred for Zee for no damn good reason.

My Dear Gangster Oppa- This one used to be first on my list but after the dumb breakup last week, it's dropped down. I hate the noble idiocy trope as @lurkingshan calls it. It's stupid, it's annoying and I don't think this week's episode made up for it. Shame really, I was quite enjoying this show at first. The chemistry's good and cliches are fine when they're enjoyable. If it wasn't ending next week, I would drop it.

Last Twilight- Saving the best for last because a) it's a heavier show with more to think about than any of the above and b) youtube's interface annoys me.Tbh I only started watching this in the hopes that it might rewrite my current reflex of wincing everytime I see Jimmy's face in a gifset but it's such an excellent show. Aof's directing and storytelling is excellent as usual and he really does deserve credit for how handles his actors. Watching JimmySea in this and then vv is like whiplash.

ps. Pit Babe- i'm not invested in keeping up with this show and my desire to do so depends on factors such as the amount of free time I have and how reluctant I am to use youtube to watch Last Twilight. It seems to have inklings of an interesting plot + obviously it's fandom history cuz of the a/b/o but the way they only half lean into the omegaverse aspects of it without explaining anything makes me wonder what people who aren't familiar with the concept of omegaverse think about this show and how they understand it. Like it has to be confusing without context, right? Mostly, i'm just watching for Nut Supanut and Nut Supanut only though it remains to be seen whether my affection for him will eventually be worn down by how annoying his character is. I swear, if it were played by anyone else or if I cared about the main characters to any extent, I'd find Way insufferable. But so far, i'm supporting all his wrongs. Especially when he looks so damn pretty doing it.

[cpcwiki]

⚠ WIKI AD INCOMING ⚠

Hi, everyone! @mechanical-clown here on a new blog! That's right, it's the Real Official CPC Wiki Social Media Account here!! B) Unfortunately I do not have good news to deliver

It's been a hot minute since my last ad and I do want you all to know I'm still sorry for doing this. Unfortunately, again, how bad I feel making another ad is outweighed by how much the wiki needs more help. I've been feeling especially desperate lately because of the fact that CPC is ending soon, and there are many tasks that will be made harder if it's put on daily pass. So, in my cry for effort to get help, here's an explanation of what I believe is our biggest issue and a rundown of things that currently need to be done! Again I am sorry. This could take a while

If you were fortunate enough to not have seen this post last time, the Cursed Princess (Club) Wiki needs help if it wants to be complete any time soon. Kind of a lot of it. As we all know, cpcblr's very active and prolific in content and the wiki's typically... not. To seriously get into this, the only three active editors in the past month or two have been me, @the-neighbors-kid (aka cursed-princess-club), and Ama (not sure if she wants to be tagged but we all know her!). Shoutout to you two because you are actually the best thank you I love you /pl <3

Anyways, there are already a lot of things we need to do to fix up the wiki. Thankfully, accessing any episode for any information you'd like is easy! And it will continue to be that easy after CPC ends, because Webtoon doesn't feel the need to limit how many episodes a person can view, right? Right? ...Yeah, so, uh, daily pass exists.

As of the time I'm writing this, there are ~10 episodes left in CPC (forgot the exact number lol). Assuming there are no hiatuses, that's only 10 more weeks, or 2 and a half months - and that's pretty soon! While there is a chance that CPC might not have daily pass after it ends, it's a small one. And, to me, that sounds like a huge problem!! If CPC is put on daily pass, accessing episodes will become much more difficult. Looking for a certain character's appearances, adding images, even just finding a single reference - it'll take a day to unlock the needed episode, and that episode will be gone in 2 weeks. The best solution to this problem would probably be to just use physical copies of CPC to find things, but those aren't available to everyone.

And adding images with daily pass episodes? As a reminder, screenshotting while viewing an episode on daily pass is taken as a sign of piracy. Screenshotting, the way we get images for the wiki. I've tried poring through Webtoon's terms of use to find some answer about whether publicly posting such screenshotted images would be illegal, but there's no mention of daily pass, and the text is so dense it's hard for me to tell. (I want to say I'll take a second look at it sometime, but that's probably just going to go into my list of permanently-unfinished priorities. I doubt the physical copies would be a good alternative to screenshots, either.) Regardless, I don't want to take any chances with the law, or see however Webtoon would punish us on the chance they find our frightening screenshots. Thus, another top priority of mine is to add more images and complete more galleries before CPC ends.

Oh, yeah, and that's barely even scratching the surface! Here's more stuff we need to do, presented in an appealing (classic Mocha iykyk) bulleted list:

A major thing is filling in episode pages. Episodes 40-around 110 are basically blank - no synopsis, character list, summary, or extra information. This is the task that would likely be least burdened by the addition of daily pass, but in my opinion, it's still of the absolute highest priority.

Galleries, which display images of characters, locations, or episodes. While not generally that important, I do think it'd be a good idea to fill out mostly empty ones now - you know, since taking screenshots of CPC may become illegal in the future! Most characters have a good amount of images on their pages, thankfully (the pastel sisters have so many they were the first to get separate gallery pages); some, including Jack and Leland, have very few. Episode pages and locations often have way less, though those aren’t as important

Relationship sections for a number of characters. These involve write about characters’ relationships, though in a way that mainly describes their interactions throughout the episodes without expressing any specific opinions. Some major sections that need to be written/updated include Jamie and Leopold; Jolie and Nell; Leland and really everyone on his page but especially Jack; Jack and Lilyth; Suzanna and Lance/Lorena; the Plaid Princes with each other; and more! Many more!

History sections for a number of characters. In a similar vein to relationship sections, these just detail a character’s appearances in the story, as well as their past or other mentions of them. Examples of (mostly - Isolde's isn't fully updated yet) completed history sections include Whitney’s, Isolde’s, and Monika’s! Examples of incomplete sections include virtually everyone else’s.

You might be wondering why I, a wiki admin (in case I haven't said it enough) am not doing any of these things! That’s because I'm neglectful and pretty bad at my job. I will not sugarcoat that part anymore. As much as I love the wiki (it's where I met my best friend after all, and while I'm writing this they just went offline so he can get fucked /j) I don't have motivation to work on it very often. Really, I don't have motivation to work on much nowadays! Ama's been doing the virtually thankless job of keeping the wiki up for the past couple months, and I've been mostly absent. The wiki is only remotely as active as cpcblr because of her. I feel terrible about it, but I'd rather be writing this 9-paragraph cry for help than editing, so, uh... yeah this is a public apology to Ama. I am so sorry. I know this isn't very professional but I'm incapable of being professional about the wiki tbh

TL;DR: As CPC is ending soon, the impending threat of daily pass could take away the ability to look at episodes whenever you want, which would make wiki editing much harder. We seriously need editors to join us in finishing the wiki. Please at least consider helping us!! Any way you can is appreciated - even if you can only make very few edits, I'll be immensely grateful for your support :)

If you have any questions about anything wiki-related, contact me!! My Discord's at musicitself, and you can also always DM me on here! And here's an invite to our wiki Discord server, too!! Of course, you don't have to become a wiki editor to join, but (as was the point of this entire post) I would really really REALLY love if you did. Thank you so much for reading this long, and have a great day!

[hobiebrownismygod]

I think you have talked about this before, if so, i’m sorry for ask, but what about a more in deep analysis on Pavitr’s personality and why he’s not some emasculated uwu boy, especially for the ones who wants to write about him

I actually haven't talked about this before, so thanks for the idea! Hopefully what I wrote answers your ask properly, and if not pls let me know! <3

I made two posts to answer your question, the first being this post and another being an analysis on Pavitr's personality which I'll post as soon as I finish it. Let me know if you'd like to be added to the tag list or if you would like a specific place for me to post it! I'll link it here once I've written it <3

Stop Writing Pavitr As An Emasculated uwu Boy

He's not.

So why do people write Pavitr Prabhakar this way in the first place? The main reason is:

Internalized Toxic Masculinity

We as a society have become so used to seeing men being aggressive and brooding, ESPECIALLY male superheroes. We see a lot of superheroes like Batman who're extremely broody, don't talk a lot, and are overall the strong silent type. We have superheroes like Captain America who never cry, rarely get angry, and rarely show vulnerability. In general, celebrated male characters in the media tend to be dominant and aggressive, because those are the traits that society has decided make men men.

Note: I'm not saying that these characters never show emotion and I'm not saying every celebrated male character is like this, I'm just explaining the connections between what I've noticed and the research I've done on the symptoms of toxic masculinity

Gender norms have corrupted our understanding of what it is to be masculine. Women are expected to be polite, calm, accommodating, and take good care of the way they look. Men are expected to be bold, aggressive and strong. Women are supposed to spend a lot of time on their hair and clothes, while men don't care about those things. Men are supposed to spend their days watching sports and wrestling, but women aren't interested in those things.

Because of these celebrated norms, when people see a character that cares about the way they look, is optimistic, calm, caring, sweet, they immediately think that that character is feminine. Why? Because we've been told that women are all those qualities and men are not. We've been told that women are kind and sweet while men are bold and strong.

So how does this connect to Pavitr's characterization in the media?

Note: This does not apply to headcanons. If you want to headcanon him as trans, as a femboy, or some other OOC thing, feel free to do so. This is specifically for people trying to write him accurately.

Pavitr was introduced as an excited, carefree young boy who's optimistic, kind, funny, etc. He talks about his hair, he openly talks about his relationship with his girlfriend, Gayatri, he swings around by dancing and doing poses, and has a love for street dogs.

He is not portrayed as bold, aggressive, dominant, competitive or stoic. He is not effortlessly attractive and he cares about the way he looks, and he cares about how he presents himself. He is not self-sufficient and he talks about living with his aunt, having friends, having a girlfriend, and the Spider Society.

These are all traits which traditionally masculine men portray, but Pavitr does not.

But does this make him feminine?

NO.

Having feminine qualities does not make you completely feminine. Having masculine qualities does not make you completely masculine. Just because you have one or two feminine qualities, it doesn't mean your entire personality and actions are all going to be feminine.

Pavitr portrays some feminine qualities. However, he also proves that he is strong, quick-thinking, tough, and sarcastic. Are these are traditionally feminine traits? No. But, people are ignoring all these qualities and switching them to turn him into an emasculated femboy, which just isn't accurate.

Note: The same thing happens vice versa where a female character will show a couple of masculine traits and people will say she's trans, or just call her a bitch because she's "aggressive" which is extremely sexist and a product of years worth of internalized misogyny.

Just because he likes the way he looks, doesn't mean he's gay.

Just because he dances when he swings, doesn't mean he's a femboy.

Just because he has a colorful suit doesn't mean he's an uwu boy.

Stop feeding into gender norms and write characters properly. Write him like the 13/14 year old Indian boy he is, and integrate the qualities he has in the movie to make him accurate! If you don't know how to write him, ask an Indian writer how to make him accurate to his character! Ask an Indian fan how they believe Pavitr would act and I promise you, it'll be twice as accurate as whatever random headcanons people are placing onto him right now.

Why is this harmful?

Lets talk about SOUTH ASIAN REPRESENTATION.

For the longest time, South Asians have been portrayed on screen as nerdy techies, comedians, cabbies or corner-store owners. These inauthentic portrayals of South Asians, especially Indians are harmful to the South Asian narrative and help further negative stereotypes about our race and our culture.

South Asian culture has been portrayed by Hollywood as dirty, overly traditional, and movies representing South Asian culture ten to be Oscar-baiting movies made by white men that border on poverty porn.

There are few and I mean FEW well-made and well-researched South Asian characters in the media. I'd say two of the only well-written Indian characters in western media right now are Kingo from Eternals and Ali from Squid Game and even they have kinks they need to work out.

PAVITR IS IMPORTANT TO US!!

We finally got a South Asian character who speaks Hindi, lives in India, eats and drinks South Asian cuisine, has a South Asian girlfriend and a suit that screams cultural representation! His character was written by Indian writers and contained elements of India that aren't poking fun at our culture and our traditions!

He is REPRESENTATION.

So represent him properly.

Write him properly

For the brown kids that never got to see a superhero that looked like them when they were growing up.

As always, sources under the cut <3

[dessarious]

Misconceptions, Miscommunication, and Misinformation Pt105

So I tried to put my tag list on this and it keeps giving me an error about too many characters in the text block (did it even before I pasted the draft in) so I'll try to figure out where the problem is before I post anything else.

Beginning   Previous  

"Mari, look at me, sweetheart." Her Papa's voice made her blink. When had he come in? She looked over to find him kneeling next to her, worry written on his face.

"I'm sorry, I was thinking, what were you saying?" Everyone around her was exchanging looks. That couldn't be good.

"Mari, you were completely nonresponsive for close to fifteen minutes. Why don't we go upstairs and talk?" That explained the looks, at least.

"It's okay, I'm fine." She couldn't really place the look on his face.

"Maybe so, but it's been a long time since we've spent any one on one time together. I thought we could talk, or even just play UMS."

"Feel like being taken down by a little girl, do you?" That got a shocked snort, before he laughed. Really laughed. It felt like it had been a long time since he'd done that.

"Only by you, sweetheart. But, I might surprise you. I've been practicing." He whispered the last part with a conspiratorial wink, and she giggled.

"You're going down, old man." He laughed again, and she realized how much she'd missed it.

"That's my girl. Let's go make sure you live up to that confidence." He picked her up, and she caught the worried frowns from everyone else before he carried her upstairs.

"I didn't mean to upset you Papa. I really was just lost in my thoughts." The smile he gave her was understanding, though a bit strained.

"I know, sweetheart. I just wish you would share more of those thoughts with us. You've always taken after me with the way you internalize everything. I want you to know that you can talk to us about anything. We understand why you had to keep certain things secret, and may still need to sometimes, but we'll listen to everything you're willing to say."

"I don't want to worry you. I've already put you both through so much." All the things that happened since she took down Hawkmoth were bad enough, but she'd been causing them problems far longer. Her Papa set her on the couch before kneeling down in front of her again.

"Mari, we're your parents. Worrying is part of our job. Being there when you need us is part of our job. Your job isn't to make us feel better or tiptoe around our feelings. Hawkmoth is gone. There's no chance of me overeating and locking you in a tower of thorns." She couldn't help but giggle at his dry tone. "We want you to be happy, and we want to help you. Not to mention, what hurts the most is feeling like you're pulling away from us." His voice cracked and tears were threatening to fall from his eyes.

"Oh, Papa. I'm so sorry." She tried to pull him into a hug, but he grabbed her hands instead.

"I'm not trying to make you feel guilty, and I know that children grow up and leave the nest. Of course, we weren't prepared for it to be this soon, but that's beside the point. We just want to support you, but we can't do that if you don't let us back in."

"I just... I didn't want to make things worse for you. All of this happened so fast and I know you haven't had a chance to process it all yet. I didn't want to make things harder for you." Her Papa just rolled his eyes.

"I'll say it again. We are the parents. Honestly, the less information we have, the more we worry. Not to mention, we know you too well to believe that everything is fine just because you're smiling. I know we haven't been as present as we should have been in the past, but we wanted to give you space. If I had any idea what you were actually going through, I would have done something."

Mari felt herself wince. She knew that both her parents would have helped, but it wasn't a chance she was willing to take after the Weredad incident. She honestly was afraid to even think about what her mother would have been like to fight.

"I thought I could handle it on my own. I didn't mean to seem so distant." He was rubbing his thumbs along her knuckles. "Do you think I should forgive everyone?"

"Define everyone." His words had a hard edge, and it took her a moment to realize he was probably thinking about Gabriel.

"Did Chloe tell you about our run in with Nino?" Her Papa nodded. She figured she had more than enough time to tell them when she was trapped in her head. "Is it fair of me to blame them for being weak-willed enough to let others make their decisions for them? Isn't that the same as blaming Hawkmoth's victims for what they did?"

"It's not the same, Mari, you know that. Hawkmoth's victims were completely taken over. Once he was in, they were no longer themselves, and they didn't remember anything after. Your classmates let themselves be led. They let someone else make decisions for them despite everything you've done for them. You don't owe anyone forgiveness. At the same time, it's not healthy for you to hold a grudge. If you want to cut them out of your life entirely, I wouldn't blame you, and we'll support whatever decision you make. Be more cautions in the future, but don't let what happened fester inside you and turn you into a different person."

That made sense. It wasn't about forgiving, or even forgetting. It was about learning from the past, but not letting it determine your future. She should be able to do that. Right? She finally managed to lean in and hug him.

"Thank you Papa. I promise I'll be more open."

"We love you sweetie, and we'll be here for you, no matter what happens." They stayed that way for a few minutes before he pulled back. "Now, are you ready to take on your old man?"

————————————-

"I warned you." Mari's voice was smug as she looked at her father's confused expression.

"I know you haven't had time to practice. How are you beating me this easily?"

"Ladybug reflexes." The dry look he sent her said that was bullshit, but she just shrugged.

"In that case, I need to teach Chloe how to play and see if she can beat you." Mari giggled.

"You just want to teach her so you can win again." He rolled his eyes but she could see the smile trying to form. "You should offer, though. Chloe's parents never really taught her anything. I think she'd like having you or Maman teach her something, even something small. But maybe you could suggest teaching her how to cook or bake. I think she'd be happy you trust her enough to offer." Her father started muttering, but the only words she caught were mayor and catacombs. Probably for the best.

"You think she'd enjoy cooking?" He sounded a bit skeptical, and she could understand why.

"I think she'd enjoy learning to be more self sufficient. But once she has the basics down, I think she'd actually like cooking itself. It's a part of life that's fairly easy to control. What?" She wasn't certain what to make of her Papa's frown.

"We need to find a way to get you both into therapy, and keep Chloe away from her parents as much as possible." Well, she could agree to the second.

"Papa, you know that therapy isn't a good idea. What's the point if we constantly have to lie or tell half-truths? But I think Selina plans on running interference with Chloe's parents. She really doesn't like them."

"Well, I'm glad someone's on her side that actually has the power behind them to do something." He muttered for another minute. "But there has to be something we can do about therapy. You both need it, and I'm not just going to ignore that. There has to be a way. Have you talked to the Kwami about some sort of magic that would make it so the person couldn't talk about what you told them?" It was her turn to frown at him.

"I don't like the idea of taking away someone's freewill, even if it's just a little bit. It's not something I want to get comfortable doing." Tikki popped up in front of her.

"What about a memory spell? If they go to talk to someone about anything you and Chloe have told them, they'll lose all memory of talking to either of you." That was better... sort of.

"That might work, but how do we find someone that can deal with both sides of things? I mean, it's not like anyone specializes in secret identities."

"Technically, the Justice League does have someone for that, but I doubt they'd agree to take you on as a patient, given the current climate there. I know someone who could do it though, if you'd be okay talking with a former rogue." Mari jumped. When had Selina and the others made it upstairs?

"You mean Quinn?" Damian sounded skeptical, at best.

"I do. Even you have to admit that she and Ivy have gotten better. The only time they did anything big in the past two years was that factory that was completely destroying the habitat for some endangered plants, and Ivy did try to go through proper channels first. She only escalated when it was obvious people were being paid off to look the other way." Damian grumbled at her, but otherwise didn't disagree.

"Quinn? As in Harleen Quinzel?" She'd studied other heroes and their villains extensively in the beginning, trying to find someone she could ask for help. Fu had nixed the idea as soon as she told him, but she'd gotten a lot of information. Damian nodded at her. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. She's made a lot of progress and I don't want to be responsible for making her regress."

"Well, you see, that's the thing. If she and Ivy were to come here, we could keep an eye on them. Not to mention it would take them out of that toxic environment. So really, you'd actually be helping them heal as well." Mari wasn't certain what to make of the look Damian gave Selina when she finished. It did make sense though.

"Are they even allowed to leave the US? Or be in France for that matter?" Damian didn't sound like he was protesting, just confused more than anything else.

"Neither one of them has any active warrants out, and surprisingly enough, they've never been charged with anything in France either." That got looks from just about everyone.

"Can they be trusted?" Mari looked to Damian for the answer.

"You can always do a failsafe so they can't talk to other people about you, or wipe their memory if they try. But I know they are in possession of information that could be disastrous if it were to get out and have kept their word to keep it to themselves."

"I suppose we could try."

"Great! They'll be flying over with Barbara." Damian raised an eyebrow at Selina.

"My father agreed to this?"

"Not yet, but he will."

"Is this one of those 'better to ask forgiveness than permission' things?"

"No, this is more of a 'get him to think it was his idea' thing. Don't worry, I've got this." Mari was certain Selina's confidence was well founded, despite Damian's dubious look. She just wasn't certain how to feel about therapy now that it wasn't an impossibility. When she looked at Chloe though, her partner just looked relieved. She'd quit her other therapy when she found out Mari was Ladybug, for fear she might say the wrong thing. Given everything that happened since, especially with her parents, Mari was glad she'd get that outlet again.

Beginning   Previous  

[rudikawhy]

I've finished Book Lovers by Emily Henry.

☆☆☆☆½

Short version: I loved it, I would recommend.

▪︎▪︎▪︎SPOILERS▪︎▪︎▪︎

I did like it very much from the beginning on, but as soon as Nora walked through Sunshine Falls, I loved it.

For the most part, Libby was my favourite character. I can't really say why, but something about her really spoke to me. When she started to keep obvious secrets from Nora, it frustrated me (probably not as much as Nora but quite). Luckily, that 'problem' solved itself after some time, and I'm glad it got solved that way, because I would have hated it if Libby and Brandon got divorced. I didn't learn too much about Brandon, but I liked him a lot, even if it was just for the fact that he loved Libby and she loved him, and that he was so close with Nora. And of course I loved Libby for loving her sister so much. That they were so close, cared for each other, for each other lives, each other dreams (problem was that they weren't always communicated).

Unlike Nora, I liked Charlie from the beginning. Of course, I knew that he'd reappear in the story later on, but even without that information I could sympathize with him. I just felt that the way Nora met him wasn't his true personality, that there was more to the story (which was true).

Sometimes it was a little too predictable what would happen, especially in the first week. I (almost) always knew when she would run into Charlie (I didn't mind). But most of the times, it was connected with a plot twist. I thought that Charlie would be another customer in the book shop, I didn't expect him to work there (to name an example that I remember off the top of my mind).

And although I did appreciate it very much, it was noticeable, how he always did and said the right thing. And to say it in Jemma Simmons' words: "Stop. Just stop trying to do all the right things. It's too much." I'm really complaining, of course, I was happy that this relationship could happen without a major fight on the pages. And I did love Charlie for always saying and doing the right things, for respecting Nora and her boundaries. This I realized completely, when he told Nora, that he would bring her home if that's what she wants. But if she wants to stay and wake up screaming, that's okay, too. And if she wants to stay and changes her mind in the middle of the night, that's okay, too, then he would bring her home at 4 am.

I can't talk about every single moment that made me love Charlie, so I'll stop.

About Nora. I didn't like her too much until about half way through (maybe a little bit earlier). I think it was when she decided that she is NOT Nadine Winters and started to act in a way to proof it, that I started to like her (I didn't hate her before). Also, I loved the relationship between her and Bea and Tala.

I need to say it. The moment it was clear that Libby and her family would move there, I sort of knew that Libby would take over the book shop. Or at least I assumed. She had to much fun saving the shop and she was really passionate about it, it would be absurd if it wasn't at least discussed.

Also the moment, Nora said she was on her way to Freeman Books on December 12 at 12:12 pm, I knew, I just knew that Charlie would be there (I didn't expect him to be Libby's present).

There is so much more I could talk about, but these are the things I definitely wanted to say. Characters are the most important part of a book (or movie or show or anything) to me, so that was the most important thing I wanted to talk about.

I really did love this book and I'll probably read more of Emily Henry's books in the future. Not immediately, because there are other books waiting on my tbr list, but I definitely like her writing style and enjoyed reading.

Thank you, @backgroundagent3, for talking about Emily Henry and making me curious. (At some point I probably will watch Bridgerton because of you)

[magical-girl-topic]

Possible most hated magical girl anime

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is a magical girl anime which many people have had a problem with the past couple of years. I'm not really on either side of the argument about this anime, but I would like to talk about it on here. <3 Both sides have great points, and I would really like to share it with you guys. Thanks for the support recently :3 I'll get on w/ it now.

Ever since its come out, I've heard a lot of mixed opinions on PASWG, and I can see why. I watched this anime in early 2020, due to getting A TON of cosplays of these two angel sisters on my tiktok fyp. x3

To get it out of the way, personally I do really like this anime, I think its very funny, the character design is awesome! And overall, its just fun to watch. I understand why so many people have a problem with it though

The first problem I've noticed, was racism.

One of the biggest controversies paswg has had with the magical girl, and overall just anime community, has been their many racist character designs. While this was made in the early 2010's (2012 to be exact), and it is based off of popular adult animation at the time, like South Park, and Family Guy, which also has had some very offensive characters in it, it doesn't really change the fact that the designs we're racist, and very offensive to a lot of viewers.

In PASWG, they used a lot of racist stereotypes against POC for their designs, a lot of people have only recently spoke out about this, and the anime, and fandom, has gotten a lot of backlash.

(When I say recently, I don't mean too recent, I'm kinda late on this subject, but I do still see a lot of people talking about it to this day. When I mainly started seeing people speaking out about this, it was late 2020- early 2021)

While that is obviously a problem for the anime, it's not completely bad, I mean don't get me wrong, the anime isn't the greatest, but personally, I don't think it deserves too much hate.

I think the artwork is incredible, the animation style and just the way everything moves is insanely gorgeous, the colors chosen for every single scene is pure eye candy.

There's loads of references in every episode, it has me so focused on every little thing to find every little easter egg possible its insane. xD Their pet, chuck, himself is an entire reference to Gir from invader zim. I've found a list of every reference in each episode, which I'll link here if you wanna look.

You should check that out its pretty cool <333

I'm not going to go full in depth of every problem and every plus there is to this anime because loads of people have done that, and I'm just writing this for fun and because it's what I enjoy. There's loads of other blogs and articles on paswg, which if this was of any interest to you, I advise looking into it <333

PASWG is a super cool, but pretty strange anime, and if you've got the time and wanna check it out yourself, theres only 14 episodes, so you totally should and let me know your opinion on paswg! <3 (And I'd love to hear urs if you've already watched it!! :-))

Thank you for reading this blog, it means a lot. :33 I love u guys sm, thx 4 the support, be ready 4 some more blogs and I'll cya soon! xoxo bye bye!

[mesaprotector]

Under the cut: most overrrated and underrated anime of each year since 2017 for me (subjective!), with explanations. You can send me hate but be nice about it.

I'm only including stuff I've watched at least a cour (12 episodes) of. And also, some stuff like Dororo, even if I didn't personally enjoy it, I can see why people would, so it isn't on this list.

Starting with overrated.

2017: Dragon Maid

I guess the appeal of this is gay undertones with adult characters in an era when that was still pretty uncommon. And I do like some parts of it, including the ending. But I just cannot look past the weirdness of the Kanna/Riko ship and especially whatever is going on with Lucoa/Shouta, and the show overuses many of its worse gags. Even as someone who has developed a decent tolerance for "weird anime fanservice" this went too far for me.

2018: Violet Evergarden

This is a more mild case. It's a very pretty anime I don't dislike, but the story is kind of all over the place and the lasting acclaim it's gotten surprises me. There's just one episode that's top-tier (you know which one); besides that, the show doesn't know what direction it wants to take or what message it wants to have, and Violet herself is nowhere near entertaining enough to make it work.

2019: Shield Hero

This take is so lukewarm it's like someone forgot they put it in the microwave. But yeah—it starts off decent for exactly four episodes then does nothing whatsoever of interest for the rest of its runtime. I feel vaguely sad every time I hear about it getting a new season.

2020: Jujutsu Kaisen

It's a shounen, so I don't really expect more than well-animated fights out of it, and it has occasional good writing. The characters are not as interesting as I wish they were, something made clearer by my friend making me watch part of Naruto soon after the first season aired.

2021: Komi-san

This is not how social anxiety works. It does not just render you a mute who is somehow the most popular girl in your class regardless. I mean, sure, if you're watching this just to laugh it's kind of funny, but nobody should pretend this has any social message.

2022: Bocchi the Rock

Oh boy. I liked this, actually—it's a slightly above average CGDCT (Cute Girls Doing Cute Things) show with one-dimensional characters, a predictable plot to the extent that there is one, and only a single saving grace—highly imaginative animation for approximately 2 minutes out of every episode. I finished it, re-emerged into the world of online anime discussion, and found that people were calling this an all-time classic. I think no other show's acclaim has confused me as much as what happened with Bocchi; at one point Anilist had it at #4 all time, which is absurd even after considering the recency bias. There are similar shows that do far more interesting things with their casts— A Place Further than the Universe, The Demon Girl Next Door, K-On. I guess since I don't relate to Bocchi I just don't get it. I'll admit, at least, that she's written much more realistically than Komi is.

2023: Heavenly Delusion

This show started out extremely well, but but just like Dragon Maid above, it's a rare case where the fanservice is so jarring it seriously bothered me. The show has one episode in a completely different animation style for no real reason, just because they pulled in a guest director. The ending is miserable to watch and unlike plenty of tragic shows there doesn't seem to be a point to it, or any level of narrative coherence. I would refuse money to watch a second season of this.

2024: Apothecary Diaries

This is another mild case, similar to Violet Evergarden—it's quite good, I just don't think it's as smart as people believe it is—and Maomao's character feels a bit too pander-y even with how good Aoi Yuuki's voice acting is.

———

Now underrated.

2017: Shoukoku no Altair

I guess this entire post is "overrated: shows with great animation" vs. "underrated: shows with poor animation". But I feel a shounen with an interesting world (based on historic Turkey), actually smart writing of military tactics, and great character moments shouldn't suddenly go ignored just because it ran out of animation budget near the end.

2018: Akanesasu Shoujo

I post endlessly about this show. It's a very dumb and yet very wise show with the most emotionally beautiful final episode in the history of the medium. Cowboys. Baked fish cakes. Amazon Prime. Arranged marriage. Watch it please I'm begging you.

2019: Granbelm

As far as I can tell the only reason people dislike this 2D (!) mecha show is the cutesy designs for the mechas. It's a show that handwaves a lot of its plot elements, so it wouldn't appeal to someone who wants logical analysis of their stories, but it's emotionally smart without being cliché, and the sound design is fantastic. I scarcely notice sound design—only this and Chihayafuru do it so well to make a real difference for me.

2020: Id:Invaded

This show is reasonably well-liked and not that obscure, but it's still better than its reputation. If I had any doubts before that I Kenjirou Tsuda was actually a fantastic voice actor instead of just having a great voice, they were gone after watching this.

2021: Pretty Boy Detective Club

Slow-paced dialogue-driven shows almost always feel underappreciated by the anime community, with Monogatari the lone exception. This is by the same author as Monogatari, visually beautiful, and every bit as well-written—and yet MAL has it at a 7.08. My best guess as to why is that the primarily straight male Monogatari fandom was annoyed by the mild fanservice of the boys in this show (it's in the name, isn't it?), and nobody else bothered to watch it. It's much less ambitious than Monogatari is and much easier to get into.

2022: Requiem of the Rose King

If "an anime reimagining of Shakespeare's Richard III with dysphoria as a major theme" is a premise that appeals to you, and you can tolerate some animation budget struggles, watch this; if it doesn't, don't.

2023: Revenger

Maybe people rated this poorly because they saw "Gen Urobuchi" in the title and expected it to be as good as Psycho-Pass and Madoka (it isn't). It's still a really good series about assassins and crime syndicates in a medium-sized Japanese town, with uh—broken-down churches? Hot guys? Trade negotiations? The animation isn't even at fault here so I have no idea why it didn't take off more.

2024: Sakuna of Rice and Ruin

There are a lot of shows this year I feel were underappreciated, but this is one of the easiest to recommend—it's simple and pretty, with good character development and a really good setting, and plenty of rice farming. It is a touch kid-oriented, maybe, which shows in the lack of complexity of its character conflicts, but I don't fault that.

[cherrytree-irl]

ooc post: considering a reboot

so. a while back i realized that this blog would probably be more interesting if it took place a few years earlier, when sylvan was still... well... a wanderer. going where he wants and doing what he wants and trying to find his place in the world. also he was immensely, terribly lonely. that's probably why he would start the rotomblr blog! but hey, what's the deal with that guy he just met?! he's super weird, but also kinda cute?! sorry, that's corny.

this change would render the blog anistar-amarena non canon and obsolete, but that blog has 2 followers so who cares. the blog rover-on-rotomblr would probably stay mostly the same, any lore changes probably would only be known by me. which is good, because people like rover.

a lot of "probably"s and "likely"s and "maybe"s because like. idfk.

below the cut are some possible pros and cons of me rebooting this blog. probably would not be deleting any posts but considering them no longer canon. if i do this, it probably will not be soon unless my poor impulse control acts up. it'll probably be in september, for reasons.

pros and cons list:

pros:

sylvan will no longer be in a state where "most of the interesting things have already happened to him." there will be drama! romance! bloodshed?! maybe not that last one. maybe a little?

he'll match his url better. he's not exactly doing any wandering right now.

sylvan and i will be around the same age. that's mostly just a pro for me as the writer. but maybe it would make syl seem more... authentic? i do sometimes worry that he doesn't act his age. but also i don't think i act my age?? anyway.

i won't have to stick to the schedules i made up for my characters in my head that no one but me is forcing me to stick to.

it's a great time for me to do retcons and rewrites and rethink all sortsa lore. technically i can do retcons whenever i want but i kinda don't like just. randomly changing shit.

possible unique designs for sylvan's pokemon? cuz like i've kinda wanted to do that but it would make all the art i've done for the blog outdated. but if everything i've done so far is non-canon anyway, then...

possibly more opportunities for audience participation

possibly more angst which people seem to consider enjoyable generally.

neutral:

linnet and her brother would be retconned out of existence. i have no strong feelings on this, but maybe you do? i doubt it!

cons:

less N probably. at least for a while. and there's already not very much N. well- less of N himself directly talking. sylvan would talk about N plenty.

i'd kinda feel sucky about throwing away all the stuff i've written so far without finishing this sylvan's story :(

despite some aspects making writing easier, writing the rebooted blog in general will probably be harder. i'll have to think of interesting things to make happen!

idele would be retconned out of existence :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

it would be setting the timeline further back, from just after X/Y to just after Black/White which could probably be mildly annoying sometimes.

man, i just realized that by the time september rolls around, i'll hopefully have a damn job! so it might be harder for me to keep up with the silly rp blogs and it might, like, slow down the action of this reboot. but that's a hypothetical.

[highhhfiveee]

omg hi!

EVERYONE!!! 'tis i, faire, back with some news (and general words lol)!

what's up with me? quick little life update: working full time (we been knew) but got a new job i start soon! to be completely honest, this and the exhaustion i feel from it have been keeping me from writing ]: i am so tired after a day of work, i can't come home to use my brain again. i also have terrible time management skills due to my anxiety and depression BUT! i have started medication! i was already a little nervous to just because i didn't want it to make me feel weird, but i told myself that i have to try things before i write them off, especially if i want to improve my health [,: i took my first lexapro last night and it made me hallucinate lowkey so lets gooooooo!!!! lmao

what's up with safety net? safety net p5 is COMING YALL OMG. i know i've said that a million times, but in (once again) complete honesty, i was STUCK with this part. part 6 is honestly where everything kind of happens, so trying to make this part the set-up for that was driving me insane bc i didn't know how i was gonna do it. when i tell yall that i have so many drafts of different things that i wrote, plus the original outline that would've ended at maybe 10k words if i'd written it just like that. maybe one day i'll expose my different plans, but after weeks and weeks and weeks of ruminating over rewrites and other avenues to take, i finally made a final (very concise) outline that gives us the best of everything and i'm so exciteddddddd (literally brainstormed everything as a method of dissociation at work LMAO). it's a mix of what i intended originally with a new twist that adds a little bit more depth to the characters.....we're about to get into it y'all. everything isn't rainbows and glitter in this story after all

what's up with other fandoms? been watching invincible lately, and was wondering if anyone would be interested in some mark grayson stuff? his whole going off to college and not being able to be normal kind of made me start thinking....(really it was...something else that made me start thinking but i don't want to spoil anything for anyone watching s2 currently lmao WHY IS IT OVER ALREADY?????? just been thinking ab stepping away from jhutch a little (i still haven't watched detention, i'm so sorry) and doing different stuff to get myself back into being consistent on here! i'm also gonna start doing more bulletpoint headcanon stuff cause i can always just list things and blab lol.

sorry if there's any typos in this but that's about all from me at the moment. things are in the works [: see you all soon, hope you're all doing okie

[sergeant-spoons]

Hello! Apologies if you have answered this somewhere, but I am new and I absolutely love your writing. Do you still write Band of Brothers oneshots or imagines? Or is it mostly your series? I am VERY excited to catch up on your series’, so I hope this doesn’t come across as rude. I was just curious. Also, would you ever write imagines of fics for Maters of the Air? Thank you for writing these wonderful stories!

Hi! Thank you so much for the ask and the love, I really appreciate it. Not rude at all! I haven't been writing much for the fandom lately, just some things here and there, but I hope to really get back into it during the summer once my schedule opens up a little. I have a relatively long masterlist of my one shots here and a list of my longer, chapter-based fics here (only one of which has been completed, In Defense of Chicanery, but I took down because I'm attempting to rework it into an original book. If that doesn't work out I'll put the fic back up in its entirety). I also post everything I've written (plus the occasional 18+ content) over on ao3 here.

I think I'll probably write more one shots before getting back into the longer fics to get my writing back into shape, but who knows? I'm also working on a fully original novel (separate from IDOC's new draft) that has seemingly ballooned into a trilogy over the last year or so. It's about WW2 paratroopers and the Airborne and the like, but it's my own original story with my own original characters, and I'm pretty happy with it so far.

I haven't seen Masters of the Air, and for some personal reasons, I'm not sure I will watch it—I won't be watching it any time soon, at least. I'm sure it's a fine show, but it's been made in a very different political climate than Band of Brothers was (though of course there are problematic aspects the making of BoB as well) and I'm not entirely comfortable with engaging with a show made in the present day that idolizes the American military, even in a historical sense. I struggle with that discomfort and my love for Band of Brothers sometimes, too. So I haven't watched MotA for the same reason I haven't watched Generation Kill and probably won't ever watch GK. I haven't really touched on my thoughts on this before - at least, I haven't posted about it.

Essentially, I won't be writing any Masters of the Air fics - but there are many, many amazing writers on here who are and who will continue to for a long time yet! One writer I can recommend right off the bat even though I haven't read her MotA fics (I have read almost all her other fics, though) is Killy, basilone/captainkilly on ao3 and @basilone here on Tumblr. Incredible writer. Go check her out!

I'm not sure who else of my mutuals has been writing MotA works but if anyone wants to add onto this post and promote their fics/another mutuals', go for it!