#Saving this to reread later

[aroaceleovaldez]

I was reading a post about CoTG and I realized: Rick has seemingly started to write every character pairing with the exact same dynamic, and he's not good at writing that dynamic and it doesn't make sense for 90% of the characters he writes it for.

It's that very specific dynamic of one half of the pair who is almost aggressive to the other party - "teasing" them constantly/insulting them, affectionately punching/judo flipping/maiming/etc, seemingly almost always exasperated with the other - and said other party usually just accepts this treatment or blanketly views it fondly, and may generally be framed as more incompetent than their partner and a little bit of a doormat (particularly relating to being insulted/teased/etc by their partner).

We start seeing this dynamic in HoO with Percy and Annabeth, as a sort of semi-inconsistent twist on their rivals-to-friends-to-lovers dynamic from the first series. Then the dynamic pattern develops further with Leo and Calypso. Then Magnus and Alex. Then Nico and Will, particularly in TSATS. And now in CoTG, it's Percy and Annabeth again but even more in this direction.

I know people have talked about Nico and Will's relationship over the series rapidly being shoehorned into Percabeth Two™, and it's extremely apparent in TSATS that Rick's doing it on purpose (including directly quoting Percabeth scenes but minorly tweaking them to be Solangelo). But recognizing it as an overarching trend in Rick's later books honestly reminds me a lot of how Rick started trying to apply the "Percy Formula" so-to-speak to nearly every protagonist in HoO (and then try to replicate similar character archetypes with Magnus and Apollo's narrations - moreso Magnus in being jaded and sarcastic, very much trying to be first series Percy. He only sounds unique because Rick failed at making him Percy 2. Apollo is more akin to later-series Percy characterization of being goofy and incompetent. Apollo [and Zeus] even got retconned to give Apollo a more similar backstory to Percy's). Rick seems to have decided that he thinks the audience wants this specific dynamic but 10 times over, except he's not good at writing it the first time because it's a bastardization of the time he did a different thing okay.

And Rick also seems aware of that too! Because he retconned Calypso and Leo at the end of TOA, probably because he realized how absolutely awful it was reading when they were written with that dynamic of Calypso just functionally hating Leo and constantly being aggressive towards him! The only time Rick's actually made the dynamic even semi-successful was with Magnus and Alex, because it actually fits within their characters, their dynamics with each other, and their environment. Alex beheading Magnus on the regular works out fine because there are no repercussions to that in Valhalla, Magnus will be fine, so it does genuinely come off as humorous. And Alex has been effectively established to be abrasive at times but have her genuine feelings shine through regularly, and that meshes well with Magnus' jaded-and-aloof-but-quietly-very-empathetic character. And Magnus has been established to, yes, not be great at combat, particularly compared to Alex. They are the only time that flavor of dynamic in that form was effective and cohesive.

Percabeth is no longer rivals-to-friends-to-lovers badasses on equal levels with shaky pasts who finally found some form of permanence with one another. Now it's super smart doting and affectionately aggressive girlfriend and her silly goofy 50%-of-the-time incompetent boyfriend who she judo flips/pushes off cliffs/etc - but affectionately~! Solangelo is trying to riff off of the early series "Poseidon & Athena are enemies" dynamic that Percabeth had but with Apollo & Hades being "opposites" but learning to accept each other, except it ends up with Will just coming off as a huge asshole and Nico being retconned to a complete doormat about it - when prior to that those characterizations would be completely contrary to their established characters (even just from TOA!). Calypso in HoO gets retconned from her PJO characterization to being snooty and aggressive, and Leo's false persona gets merged into his just normal personality except he just also becomes a doormat but more goofy than Nico with occasional haha-dark/depression-humor! Which Nico also got. Which was also a bastardized Percy trait that got redistributed.

It's exhausting. Rick write more than one relationship dynamic you can do it I promise

[mamawasatesttube]

perry with some words of wisdom in superman: lex 2000 ("just because this country is about to go to hell in a handbasket doesn't mean this newspaper does, too!") (and we are all the newspaper, really.)

[shebsart]

howl's moving castle book but it gets faster every time sophie gets jealous over the black knob and the black suit

bonus brutal sophie:

oh my god and sophie doesn't even know she's affiliated with the Witch . miss angorian's just a random woman to her 😭

[tacagen]

just.

just noticed this

[asteria7fics]

So here I am, minding my business on the clock app when this comes across my FYP.

People like me cannot have this information. The temptation is simply too great.

[lunarharp]

into the deep end - 30k T orufrey fic, focusing on memory trauma, disability, and romance.

the sweet oblivion of the victim, the poisoned freedom of the other.

for one moment - it had felt like two parts returned - the needed reunion of two disparate halves. no more secrets, no more pain.

the moment you get to give back what you never wanted to take. that moment, under the night-blooming flowers, when they had both let out the same single broken sigh of relief.

but they were never whole to begin with, were they?

qifrey swore he wouldn't say 'sorry' to this man any more if he could help it - sorry is cheap now. he didn't want to be in a position ever again where you only have 'sorry' left. so he just looks down into the threads of his blanket, strains his eye until it hurts, feeling his insides - his throat, heart and head - burn with pain. he expects more, but olly says nothing.

olly says nothing.

[spliqi]

i’m actually distraught over the difference between how dazai talks to akutagawa vs how he talks about him

[0ann3]

"So do you have a crush on anyone?"

"Uhh..."

"About that...

Actually checked out the FloRid zine before going to sleep last night and AAAAAHHHHH!!!! All of it was amazing!! (I was giggling or crying with those contents-) I still haven't finished some of its pages, but now I can't get these two out of my head again kJAHKAJSHALKSjh

I think for few weeks, I will be re-reading at least one florid fic before going to sleep LMAO- (As I was doing around two months ago)

[silverskye13]

Hello. Im that anon that dreamed to be a knight as a child. not everything's gone to plan in my training arc, but I have started regularly exercising. even when I think Im going too far, I sit down on the floor and share a bottle of water with my younger self who proudly lifted their own bodyweight with little struggle, and my shoulders relax and my muscles stop throbbing, and I go at it again. I think about Helsknight when Im doing it, too. I'll show him the wuss goddamnit

What a beautiful thing you've created. maybe you never thought this would happen, that your words and your little guys would inspire people to work through their fears and to their inspirations. that one day there'll be some dude in armor who'll be thinking of you when they brandish their sword to show an excited kid who dreams to be a knight one day.

knights are fucking cool. you're fucking cool. I don't know if you hear this often, but thank you, for all your work has taught me, for all your kind words, for all your funny little quips, for all the serotonin, thank you.

I could write this ask forever with more praise, but I'd hate to take attention from all the other hundreds of asks you've got to see yet.

So, thank you.

Hey, this is beautiful. Thank you for sharing. Genuinely. This was very kind, and I'm so so proud of you for pursuing your passion, and for sharing moments with your inner child dreaming of knighthood.

Thank you for showing me a glimpse of your world, and I am cheering you on so hard. You are amazing, and you're going to be a knight in shining armor, and there is a future where people are grinning at you, and taking inspiration from your changing, and there is a present where I am smiling in wonder at your commitment and perseverance.

Keep finding joy, knight

[henrysglock]

I just finished reading the first two chapters of your big analysis. I'm gonna read the rest later when I've got the time, and I'm absolutely gonna re-read it all too. And I just wanted to say thank you so much for doing this. I'm learning so much and its making me want to re-watch the show right now so badly.

You have an appreciation of the entire story and it's language that is surprisingly uncommon in this fandom (across all social media platforms) despite literally being a fan-dom. I've read some of your posts on some of the nasty things other's have said about you and how it's affected your view of the fandom. And I really appreciate that you're still doing all of this research and putting it out there for the rest of us to read, learn, and enjoy for free.

Thank you <3

I’m so soft??? holy shit 🥺 this means so much to me, I’m so glad you’re enjoying the piece!! the fandom may lowkey suck but I’m here because i really do love the source material. fandom can never take that away from me!

[disbarredgoose0]

The Kiss.

[metanarrates]

1863rd hsy has created a world so close to both the story that kept kdj alive AND so close to the world he wants to someday create. it's a beautiful story. and yet... of course it's not worth it to him without yoo joonghyuk. how could it ever be? half the reason he wants to create his own ending is because he wants yoo joonghyuk to be saved, too

[telesodalite]

Another rambling thought, sort of stemming from the last thing, but what if Misfire gets so upset about Krok believing he's contacting his old squad, and pretending or implying that they're still alive, because he's harboring some sort of repressed grief over Thundersaur?

Thundersaur's dying request being to free Flyhigh before he ends up in jail for a dozen counts of "accidental" murder implies a certain kind of closeness or something felt towards Misfire. Yet, we don't really see anything returned from Misfire's side? Outside of the "-You're just jealous because you've never had someone look out for you." comment he makes in response to Spinister's disbelief towards him being the type to end up on someone's "dying wish list".

So, there's that. What can be gleaned from just that? Not much ig, at least nothing concrete. But taking into account Misfire's relationship with Grimlock, and Grimlock's later view of Connie, perhaps something can be assumed about his relationship with Thundersaur.

Whether I'm reading into it too much or not, there is a theme of a sometimes rough but well intended trickle down kindness when it comes to the Scavengers and their story.

A favor or act of kindness is shown to one, and they return it back or onto another, sometimes unintentionally. There's emphasized acts of selflessness with them, even though we know them to be quite selfish, which, really only emphasizes those moments more. If they were written as less of a joking break between the drama of the Lost Light cast, perhaps this theme would've played a deeper more defined role. But anyways, my subjective character favoritism aside.

The point here is Misfire cared for Grimlock, and in turn, Grimlock chooses to care for Connie because it's "his turn" to look after someone. One act of empathy leads to another. There's a time to decide when it's your turn.

So it's possible it goes further back because of that. Thundersaur cared for Misfire, then it was Misfire's "turn" and he cared for Grimlock, and Grimlock cared for Connie.

So why doesn't Misfire say or mention anything about Thundersaur? Grimlock cares a lot for Misfire, wouldn't Misfire have cared a lot for Thundersaur?

Well, in a way, there's a possible answer for that. Misfire is shown to be uncomfortable when faced with admitting he cares for people, or needs people. He's uncomfortable with vulnerability. He gets defensive and snappy when pressed about it, or he deflects it away from himself, which is somewhat of a stark change to his more casual dramatics and honest friendliness. So he doesn't like talking about how he feels, how he really feels.

But he also admits to Grimlock he understands missing the people you cared about. He admits this in connection to Grimlock recalling the last time he was with his "Dino-Buddies", just before Grimlock was taken to Garrus 9. Misfire "gets it", even though it's hard, he gets it.

With all that possibly pointless evidence, we can guess that yeah, Misfire did care for Thundersaur. It's just that he, like the rest of the Scavengers, has his own repressed and poorly managed issues relating to his past and his own negative emotions.

Also, the death thing. He's real casual about dead stuff. He exsanguinates and cannibalizes corpses as a job/hobby, and enjoys it. There's an implied acceptance that he's okay with the fact that the Scavs will eat each other as soon as someone happens to keel over, which includes him also being dead and eaten. He's cool with that, ig. Or at least, he's cool with eating the others if the situation presents itself.

So he's got a weird relationship with life and death. When you're alive, you're a friend. When you're dead? Well, it's not really you anymore, is it? It's not someone you care about anymore, it's just a corpse, not a person, it's just resources in an empty vessel, not a friend. Nothing worth getting emotional or upset about. Perfect for being comfortably detached.

Because this is getting way too long tho, here's the point I'm trying to get to.

Why does Misfire lose his shit a little when Krok starts panicking and trying to call for his squad? Here's my theory, I guess.

Thundersaur is dead. He died, and he's gone, and Misfire knows this. He wasn't there. He didn't get to say goodbye. He didn't get to return the favor or repay the debt. He didn't get to show Thundersaur that he cared for others too, that he passed that on.

But while he accepts it, he doesn't want to think about it. Doesn't want to dwell on it, doesn't want to acknowledge that he misses Thundersaur. He's dead, he's gone. So it doesn't matter. Misfire can't need him anymore, and he doesn't want to admit he needs anyone anymore, because someone he relied on is dead, and he wasn't there for them to rely on in turn.

So he doesn't think about it. But Krok does. Krok thinks about it, and talks about it, and still admits to needing his dead. Even if he won't acknowledge the fact that they're dead, and gone, and never coming back, no matter how much he wants or needs them anymore.

And it feels unfair, and Krok keeps unintentionally poking at that repressed grief Misfire won't touch. A reminder with every click of that dismembered finger, that you can't always just will away the grief of loss, of death. There's going to be reminders everywhere. Even close to you. And so, faced with reminder after reminder, the repression breaks, and Misfire snaps because-

They're all dead.

Krok's squad is dead. Thundersaur is dead. Why can't they accept that and just move on to never talking about it, never mentioning it, never thinking about it again?

Because, in their own ways, neither of them have ever truly moved on.

[zuzu-draws]

my brain is idea-ing and i'm afraid yall won't be able to handle it. (if i do it right)

[clumsy-words-again]

I cried so so hard reading your tags you rlly made all my childhood poet dreams come true bc rlky to me they’re not fully real or not fully breathing until someone shares them and you gave that to me thank you so so much I love you <3333 (literally writing through my tears rn bc HOW CAN I EVER THANK YOU AKSJSJDJ)

every time you're in my notifs i get so excited and you truly are one of the sweetest people ever thank you so much for existing I love you and one day if you publish a poetry book or a book on foraging or a book of Adventures of Lovergirl lore (love that tag) i'm gonna go crazy and get a hundred copies to hand out to people on the streets and some elders often tell me that the world is a cruel place and everyone has to struggle and In Real Life everyone will try to push me down and that I'm immature and too weak and too soft. and all that sometimes really messes with my head and then I remember you and I think. hell no. i'm gonna be kind to everyone despite everything and it's gonna be okay. people like you are the reason I could never believe the Everyone is Selfish and Evil stuff.

I hope you have the bestest life ever <333

[sergeantsporks]

Remembered that I really love reading books. Does anyone have book recommendations