#The them problem is the dull-in-context thing

[jacksintention]

This artist is so good and paints such poignant pieces with such intense yet subtle expressions and gestures that they are able to make Jack and Oswald look semi interesting to me

[yuri-is-online]

I was thinking about Kailm and Kailm Yutu. How is their relationship after Yutu makes the jump into the past, did Yutu ever run into him before going into the past?

I know you mentioned Kalim wanting to help Yutu out when it comes to his feelings towards Yuu (not knowing that this is the only time he’s ever seen Yuu healthy and without memory loss) which is really of sweet❤️ also Jamil side eyeing the Yutu since they don’t know a lot about him

(he’s probably considered using his unique magic on him) I can also see Yutu being a mellowed out version of Kalim.

As we talked about here Kalim died long before Yutu ever got a chance to meet him, but he was spared the fate of becoming a blot phantom like most of the other boys. The Kalim his Yutu sees is a skeleton trapped in the robe of the Sorcerer of the Sands next to Jamil's, it's traumatic but by the time he gets there Yutu has seen a lot of death and destruction. Not that it dulls the pain any.

And one small note before we continue, Jamil states in Book 6 that his unique magic does not work like Jade's does, he cannot get people to tell him the truth by hypnotizing them, he just makes the suggestible to his orders. When he thought he hypnotized Azul in Book 4, he would not have been able to make him tell everything he knew about everyone on campus, but he would have been able to order him to open up his books so Jamil could take a look around. Jamil is decent enough at reading people's body's language to know that Yutu is interested in getting close to Kalim, and that's enough to make him suspicious and someone to watch out for.

notes: they/them used for Yuu, for context on the fyuuture kid au can be found here and here. You can find even more stuff for it on my masterlist under the series section.

Kalim! Yutu was the picture of an easy baby. He was almost always smiles and giggles from the day he was born, seldom fussy and went down for naps easy, Yuu got a lot of comments about how lucky they were for having such a sweet baby. He keeps that easy going temperament as he gets older and the compliments keep coming, but Yutu isn't exactly fond of them. If people really think he's such a sweet boy they can compliment him without insulting his parent.

A lot of Kalim's pushiness, from my perspective, comes from the environment in which he was raised. In the absence of servants and siblings, Yutu turns into a much quieter person. He's less like a party and more like a cafe in the afternoon, still busy and filled with noise but with a noticeably relaxing effect on his environment. His peers like him and their parents like him more, and though Yutu makes a point to be nice to everyone he is very picky about who he labels his friends.

To Kalim! Yutu, your amnesia and the strange pain you feel when trying to remember is a serious medical issue, and he doesn't have a lot of patience for people who dismiss other's problems just because they don't understand them. He appreciates the little things you can tell him about his dad, how he was genuinely loving and kind person, but he doesn't want to know about those things if it causes your condition to worsen when you try to remember. As he gets older he tries to actively shut down conversation about his dad because he doesn't want to deal with the consequences. He remembers those little anecdotes from when he was younger and holds on to them tightly, kind and loving it's generic but the soft look in your eyes suggests the quality was anything but. Yutu can live with that.

He's very passionate about food and drink. He's not exactly a great cook but he's very knowledgeable about coffee, teas, and wines. He is especially fond of coffee and likes roasting his own beans when he gets older. If Yuu like coffee then he constantly is trying to make you new drinks and if you don't then he'll try to find something he can make that you will enjoy. Even if that's just slicing up some fruits and adding them to a lemonade, though he might feel a bit sad at how little work that is compared to something else.

Less of a party person than Kalim, though that's not really saying much since it seems like he'd have a celebration every other day of the week if he could. Yutu likes to sing and dance, especially if he can do that with his friends, but he doesn't like a lot of the people he goes to school with in his world. When he arrives in Twisted Wonderland that changes somewhat. There might not be much to celebrate in the future but the people are worth their weight in gold. When he manages to track down all of his friends who came back to the past with him, he's definitely going to throw a party in Ramshackle. After he begs for permission of course.

Being transported to Twisted Wonderland scares Kalim! Yutu. Learning that his father was the heir to a powerful merchant family (not that they have much of that power or wealth anymore on account of the world ending) and that he is a mage of all things is a lot of responsibility he is not sure that he's prepared for. He is especially not prepared for the amount of in fighting that the al Asim family is doing, though he does have a bit of help from Grandpa Crewel and his aunt.

One of the o.c.s I came up with for this au was a younger sister for Kalim. The youngest of all his siblings to be specific, the name I gave her was Sehrish and her existence is not exclusive to Kalim! Yutu. She goes back in time with all of the other Yutus too, but she is especially close to Kalim! Yutu. They have the same struggle of wanting to honor Kalim's legacy, but being skeptical about the hatred a lot of the older family members have for Jamil. Sehrish was too young to really remember either Kalim or Jamil, but everyone she's talked to who actually bothered to get to know her older brother said that he never hated Jamil. Crewel especially was very blunt about how he saw the Asim family's treatment of Jamil and what it meant for him professionally, and Idia is very clear that no matter what might have happened while they were at NRC it had nothing to do with this current mess.

It's something that Yutu keeps in mind when he travels back in time, but fuck if he doesn't find Jamil scary. He swears if he stays too long in the same room with him he's going to end up confessing to everything. That he's from the future, that Kalim is his dad, that time he broke something really important and expensive of yours and buried it in the back yard instead of just owning up to it, and that Jamil is going to be executed by the al Asim's sometime in the future. Not that he does say any of that but it's on a constant loop in his head every time Jamil is around. Which tends to be when Kalim is also around which makes things so much worse.

Kalim really likes Yutu. Every time I sit down to write for him and take a look at his voice lines I am reminded of what a genuinely nice and loving person he is, and how much he really cares about Yuu. He's warm, and knowing a part of that warmth is what created you makes Yutu feel so overwhelmingly loved even though Kalim doesn't know who he is. Yutu's calmer kindness is something Kalim really admires and looks up to, he's trying to be more aware of how imposing he can be on people and he thinks Yutu is a great example of the balance he wants to reach.

"oh?" Yutu does not seem happy with the compliment, even if Kalim can tell he is pleased by it. "I appreciate you saying so, but I'm not sure if you'll pick up on what you want from watching me... perhaps this is something you could talk to Yuu about? I find that they often give very good advice."

"They do don't they?" But if Yutu really believes that then why is he so sad about it?

Kalim wants to make people happy. That's the entire reason he throws so many parties and why he is so willing to spend money on his friends. So when he sees that something about being around Yuu is making Yutu sad, he wants to know what he can do to help. Jamil picks up on this and tries to point out that it might be a very private thing and none of their business, which would be true under normal circumstances but Yutu's very much aren't. At first Kalim just tries to focus on getting to know Yutu and his hobbies while sharing his own. He invites him to Scarabia's parties and gets real excited when he sees how much Yutu knows about tea. That's really important in the Scalding Sands! He insists on teaching him all about what he knows and for him to talk to Jamil if he has any other questions. This is what finally gets Jamil to relax around Yutu because he sees how the kid goes out of his way to not make work for him, pretty much exactly like Yuu does, which is a good point in Jamil's book.

I like the idea of Kalim learning who Yutu is on accident, he has a lot of voice lines about offering to tie a head scarf for Yuu so I could see him maybe offering the same for Yutu. And given that Kalim can be a bit pushy maybe he doesn't listen to Yutu's protests and takes off the hood, giving him and Jamil a very good look at his face.

"Oh wow you kind of look like me, huh?!" Kalim laughs and sets about wrapping the scarf around Yutu's head, while Jamil stares at him in such stressed shock that Yutu knows he's not getting out of this by lying. "We could be related!"

"That's- I'm really sorry!!!" Yutu instantly bows in apology to Jamil messing up Kalim's work.

"H-hey no need to do that!" The tone of Jamil's voice brings Kalim down to earth as he looks a bit closer at Yutu, and then towards Yuu for a long, good look and then back to Yutu again.

Yutu has to explain himself to everyone a few times before they fully understand what's going on. He has the benefit of being able to use Oasis Maker, which proves that he is very much a member of the al-Asim family, and his extensive knowledge of Yuu's world proves his story is true (as if Kalim's excited tackle hug at hearing Yutu just say "you are my dad and Yuu is my parent" didn't) but the idea of a future like he is describing is really difficult for Kalim to comprehend, let alone Jamil and Yuu. Jamil is especially shocked that Yutu doesn't hate him and sees him as someone who deserves to be protected. I could see him actually saying that he sees it as his responsibility as the heir of the al-Asim family and while Jamil doesn't trust the purity of Kalim's intentions, he does trust Yuu's. And after a brief bit of consideration, he decides he'll extend that trust to Yutu too. Still thinks he's surrounded by idiots though.

Of course Kalim wants to throw a party upon learning that he and Yuu get together and have a kid. It's literally one of the most important things he could ever celebrate, but instead of doing it on short notice it's something he decides to plan with a very specific purpose. If what Yutu is saying is true about the future then he's going to need help. Jamil is very smart, but Kalim somehow doubts that he'll have all of the resources he needs to prevent the end of the apocalypse if he's asked to do it on his own. The planning is a joint effort between Kalim, Yutu, and Jamil to pick who best to let in on the secret out of all their NRC classmates. Kalim promises to hold off on other party planning so Jamil can focus on this, he'd rather have all of the time in the world to spoil his spouse and son instead of the few short years he has at NRC.

Speaking of Yuu, Kalim is very worried about how you feel about all of this. Are you afraid of what Yutu told you? Does it make you question staying in Twisted Wonderland, or your relationship with him? He still really wants to be with you, there's a lot of stuff he still doesn't know about you yet that he desperately wants to, and so much about himself that he wants to offer up. I think upon learning about Yutu's existence he would ask to talk to you alone and tell you very honestly about how he feels about you. He wishes to be yours for time and all eternity, and he is willing to wait and put in the work to be worthy of you and your trust. Yes he says this even if you aren't together yet and yes he means it, especially the waiting bit.

Kalim is already such a supportive, if overindulgent, person and that carries in to how he is as a father. Sure he's not the smartest person in the world, but he knows how to get people on his side. I feel like he sees it as his role to worry about the future and not Yutu's, but he also accepts that because Yutu didn't grow up with him that he might not be willing to let Kalim take up his burdens. That won't stop him from trying to get him to relax, from what Yutu told him he never really got to experience the Scalding Sands and that just won't do. While a trip home isn't on the table right now, he can still teach Yutu everything he knows, hopefully he'll find pride and comfort in knowing about where his father is from and it will replenish his motivation to fight. First order of business on that list? Introducing him to the magic carpet and taking him for a ride!

[peony-flowerking7]

Chonk

Taking a bit chonk of her cheek. That can be taken out of context, but ya know what I meant.

I was struggling for dear Lord, I was having trouble with Duzhe skin because their vitiligo and whenever I did try to color their skin and render it, it look absolutely horrible! It wasn't even matching their skin perfectly it just look..I can't explain it well. It look so plastic? That the best I can describe as. So here my solution to this problem, recolor their skin tone and then I put their vitiligo last, then I did some rendering although it doesn't look like there much there is rendering. The same went to Wukong except I had to render and recolor his face paintings. Anyways I hate rendering red since it always look dull and ashy so I was like

MORE SATURATION MOre MORE! So anyways. I'm working on two things, first a base for noodles and death and the second is my version of Sun Wukong. Btw Duzhe might go through some changes too I have like lots of ideas. And I like experimenting with clothes and hair style.

Uh about this picture, I feel like Wukong would definitely bite his love ones and then lick them like some heathen. I use a cats for reference I wanna do some cat memes honestly. With these two and some journey to the west cat memes. Lol

I had to both copy it and reference it.

Cat chonk

[oh-shtars]

“This Wish” Rewrite ✨

(RFTS!Au Version)

Hello!! It’s Flicker here again!

I’ve decided to give a shot at rewriting Asha’s “I Want” song and see what I could come up with.

The original song was…okay. It’s not a bad thing to listen to. I personally think the chorus and the instrumental there is really pretty. It just felt weirdly lacking? I’m sure there are many people out there who share the same criticism with me, so I’m not going to go all out on that.

Anyways, back to the thing at hand.

For context:

RFTS!Asha is a servant girl at the castle who’s a dreamer and someone with a huge imagination for what there could be. The thing is, that spark has been buried down after the tragic loss of her father’s life. Now she’s terrified of having her hopes up, in fear of facing that same agony of losing another dream.

While she never lost that daydreaming habit of hers, Asha often finds herself cowering away rather than committing. And this often causes her to go back on some of her promises. She’s frustrated that this stupid flaw of hers is holding her back from reaching out to those she loves.

This is evident when Asha has secretly been noticing that Rosas’ citizens aren’t actually as happy as they claim to be. They’re dull, missing that zest and stuck in a cycle of dissatisfaction. She knows there must be something they’re missing but…what? As the king’s assistant, she’s the only one close to him with a chance to negotiate on what could be done to address this problem.

But it’s the king! He’s snapped at her times before. What if…? But what about the people she loves?

As Asha sings this song, she fights an internal battle within while expressing her frustrations and how she wants to break free from the chains she’s made for herself.

…………….

Isn’t this the place where dreams come true?

Then why does it all feel so way out of place?

If I could show them the life they have embraced,

Open their eyes to their own lies,

Would they question it all like I did?

But when I start, my head says “Sit Down,”

So how could I when I could barely be worth something?

For too long I have withdrawn, and avoided every song,

Now time has gone and now I don’t know where I belong,

So do I look up to the stars above me? Or keep caution at every warning sign?

Should I let the dreams within me rise and soar free?

Or should I pay no heed and stay in line?

Still, I hold this wish,

That they’ll have something more for them than this,

Still, I hold this wish,

That I’ll do something more for them than….this,

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah-ah

More than this, (oh-ah-ah-ah)

For many years, I’ve kept my head down low,

Still did what I was told when someone told me ‘No,’

Yet, there’s a part of me who’s just yearning to glow,

A part that’s just longing to know,

It just won’t let me go!

With all these reservations and hesitations, I’m not sure where to even begin,

The risks and failures are daunting but I can’t just lose this fire from deep within,

If I could just be pointed in any given direction on where to go and what to do,

My legs are shaking but my head’s held high,

The way you always taught me to….

So I look up to the stars to guide me,

And pray that they’d send some kind of sign,

I’m sure there will be challenges that find me,

But I want to take them on one at a time,

So I make this wish,

That they’ll have something more for them than this,

So I make this wish,

That I’ll do something more for them than….this,

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah-ah

More than this, (oh-ah-ah-ah)

So I make this wish…

That I’ll be something more….for us than…this…..

…….

The last line is meant to end at a sad note as Asha cowers away again, thinking that her wish to the skies has went unheard as per usual. No dramatic or hype instrumental at the end. Maybe a soft and melancholic melody instead?

Phew, my girl’s self esteem really is just: 📉📉📉

Btw, I want to make it clear that I AM NO SONGWRITER. So if the words are all clunky and weird at times, bear with me. 🥲

I don’t claim that this is “perfect” and “proof I could do better than Disney.” It’s just so I could better fit the song into my own version of the story. I might make a few changes along the way but we’ll see. :))

Thanks for Reading 💖

@annymation @gracebethartacc @signed-sapphire @uva124 @emillyverse @chillwildwave @tumblingdownthefoxden @ficsinhistory @your-ne1ghbor @rascalentertainments

[legobiwan]

1-the character everyone gets wrong for Gravity Falls and 16-you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc) for Star Wars ??

The character everyone gets wrong (Gravity Falls)

I want to preface this answer by saying that I think there are a plethora of fantastic Gravity Falls fics, comics, and metas out there that address and explore Stanley's possible mental health issues in light of everything we've learned about his backstory, which is pretty damn bleak. And yes, I do enjoy reading this angst.

The fandom tends to focus on this particular side of Stanley and with good reason - it is absolutely fertile ground for analysis and there is no doubt he is a tortured individual.

But there is a tendency to "blorbo-ize" Stan and his sympathetic history. While he was absolutely forced into some horrendous situations and had to make decisions based solely on survival probability, this is also a man who has a rap sheet a mile long, has outstanding warrants throughout the majority of the country, and is heavily, heavily implied to have been dealing in cartel business.

You don't get that far in these circles without having a backbone of steel and the capacity to do some seriously shady - and bloody - shit. Sure, Stan eventually bailed from the more hardcore aspects of his existence. And this isn't to say he's fundamentally a bad person or even liked everything he was doing - but he is a dangerous man, whether that danger comes at the end of a gun barrel or a marked ace of spades.

And I think this aspect of his character gets underplayed in a lot of fandom. (Interestingly enough, Ford is the one who is generally allocated this role, due to his dimensional hobo life on the run. And Ford is a badass, but Stan is equal to his brother in this, albeit in a different context). Stan maybe wants to forget that part of his life (understandable), but he didn't get as far as he did being a criminal (you don't get to rack up that kind of sheet and stay mostly clear of the law without some considerable feats) without developing certain skills and he'd be dead five times over if he weren't some kind of threat. Yes, by the time we meet him in the show, those instincts may have been dulled, likely intentionally, but this is the same man who admits to having 10 firearms in his household, even if his reasoning is (seemingly) ludicrous.

Runners-up: Mabel and the Flanderization of her zaniness. (Let's not forget she put the majority of the puzzle pieces together in Not What He Seems). Ford's seemingly god-like combat skills (the man gets his ass handed to him on multiple occasions in the show and is in constant need of rescue after he comes back from the Portal. Don't get me wrong - I love a badass Ford - but he wasn't exactly batting 1.000 after returning to Gravity Falls).

16. You can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc) (Star Wars)

I fully expect to get pilloried by certain factions of the fandom for this opinion, and to be honest, it's been a long-standing thorn in my side.

The Jedi were not 100% without fault and yes, some of decisions they made fed into their ultimate demise.

Was it deserved? No. Were they evil? No.

Were they a stagnant organization led by a creature who had lived long enough to distance himself from the day-to-day concerns of the majority of mortal beings under his care? Yes. Did they have an effective strategy to combat their massive, massive PR problem - a problem which ended up with them characterized as a baby-snatching cult of superbeings that could easily usurp the will of a (corrupt) Republic government? Nooooo, not at all.

They refused to play politics. Until they had to play politics. And they lost on all sides.

There was so much emphasis on tradition and purity of said tradition in the organization - even if the highest members of the Council didn't necessarily 100% agree with this - the mythology of it was present enough in the Jedi Temple, that constant, subtle pressure to do things in a certain way, to avoid wholly the Dark Side (even if the individual teachings of the Masters went against this). The Jedi wanted to change, but at the same time, couldn't budge the 1,000 ton boulder of their past until it was too late to avoid Palpatine's machinations.

The ultimate tragedy is that the Jedi meant well, but couldn't collectively nudge their organization towards change.

And they did make some baffling decisions - Anakin being allowed to train at all being peak among them. (And then letting Obi-wan - a grieving 25-year old being held hostage by a deathbed promise - to train Anakin, as per the "will of the Force..." This was not well-thought out by anyone involed.)

Dooku had legitimate criticisms of the Order, even if he ultimately expressed his grievances by betraying everyone and everything he loved and aligning himself with an ultimate evil that not even he could overcome. Qui-gon, for all of his many fault, had some great ideas for the Order and should have been on the Council - if for not other reason, than to upset the status quo (and yes, I know he turned it down, and that's another story altogether).

It feels, that in a certain way, the Jedi were crushed by their own mythology, and by the time that leviathan breached the surface, it was far too late for change.

Discussions of the Jedi have a tendency to polarize quickly, and I'd love for there to be more space for exploration of where they did fail without consigning the whole organization to the out-of-touch and evil-by-incompetence box.

(And caveat lector: post this fully admitting I haven't meditated on Star Wars lore in quite some time, so excuse some of the broader strokes of this analysis).

Ask me a spicy fandom question

[nicolesainz]

Got me in love again (MM19)

Mason Mount x reader

Warnings: fluff, minors dni, 18+, smut context, mentions of past abusive relationships

Summary: Falling in love again is difficult. Especially after getting out of an abusive relationship. Faith and trust aren’t easy traits to give and allow someone. How far will someone go to claim them for you?

“I wish I knew what to do” Mason lowered his head disappointingly, a step away from giving up.

But he would actually never give up. He wasn’t willing to. Not in his plans.

“It takes time to heal, buddy. You can probably imagine the shock and horror she felt and was put through those years.” Declan tried to comfort his best friend, by stating the truth

She needed time to heal. Mason surely wasn’t the problem. She was the one who suggested Mason to stay away from her, but he didn’t even think of doing so.

“I feel so desperate trying to figure out what to do, what to say and how to act without triggering her.” A whimper left Mason’s mouth along with a few tears from his eyes.

Declan hated seeing him like this. And her being in the same state as well. She adored Mason. She was thankful that he didn’t give up on her. But trust, wasn’t an easy thing to be handed after all she went through.

“You’re the reason she smiles, Mase. Everyday she calls me, telling me how happy she is to be with you. And I can tell by her voice tone and how genuine she sounds”

Those words motivated the footballer a bit to keep on trying. His girl was more than worth trying.

“I’m going back home. If anything happens, I will alert you” Mason said, picking up his stuff and have a brotherly hug to Declan.

On the way home, he was trying to figure out a way to help her. Actually let her overcome her fears. Allow her to feel free again. That’s all he truly desired.

When he unlocked the front door, Y/N was sitting on the couch peacefully, humming along to some of her favorite songs that were playing in her phone.

Once she realized Mason’s presence, she immediately shut it off and ran towards him. Her arms immediately wrapped around his waist, pulling him into the tightest hug ever.

Mason’s heart warmed with this act, making him very special. Although his goal was to make her feel special, which he will achieve no matter what.

“I missed you Masey” she whispered, still refusing to let him leave her grasp.

Mason was away for a game so had to stay without his girl for a few days. To say that he hasn’t missed her like crazy too, would be an understatement.

“Oh love, I missed you like crazy” he plants a soft kiss on her forehead and keeps on hugging her. It’s their safe place, in each others arms.

“Are you doing alright? How was things without me being around?” He asks his girlfriend a few moments later whilst taking a shower.

Whenever he came back home after a practice or a game she missed, she would always sit and listen to him, even while he was showering.

“Oh yes. Sophia was around and we had a girls night, which was really fun. And then mostly work. Life’s very dull and not enjoyable when you’re not here Mase. The house felt empty”

He wanted to cry at those words. It was all he needed to hear. All he wished for to get his plan in action.

Once he was settled, they both rested on the bed, still their bodies being tangled up. Moments like these with Mason, made her feel comfortable again in her skin.

That superstar footballer, Chelsea’s golden boy, a man who can have anything he wishes for, was right next to her, making her feel more alive than anyone in the world. And she needed to reassure his happiness.

She raised her head from his chest and gave him a soft look. Mason’s eyes were glowing at the sight of her.

“What’s bothering you, dear?” He quietly asked, worried as to why she’d broken the peace

She didn’t respond, but instead leaned forward and kissed him tenderly, like never before.

Every time they would kiss, Mason gained an extra life. This was his source of willpower.

Without realizing it, her body was now on top of his, her thighs leaning in between his waist and hair all over the place.

Mason felt that she was getting out of her comfort zone, so he momentarily put her back next to him.

“Why did you lower me?” She asked, not being offended, just curious.

“I-well, I don’t know. I don’t want us to do anything without you being ready. I don’t want to push you. And I felt like you were doing this purposely.”

She knew all too well that Mason cared for her. Not only ten times more than her past relationship. Even more than her own family. She wanted and was ready to trust him at the maximum.

“I want to be with you. I need you more than anything in this life, Mason. You are not him. And you will never be. I have nothing to be scared of. You’re my savior”

Mason had never felt his heart fluttering like this before. It was an amazing sensation.

“I want you to feel safe with me. I will never hurt you. Because then I would be hurting myself.”

“Make me feel safe again. Claim me as yours. You are all I could wish for.” were her last words before their mouths started being occupied again.

His hands were roaming all over her bare thighs, playing with the lace of her blue panties. He wanted to rip off the material that was a barrier between their full potentiality.

“May I?” He wanted consent before moving on, he wanted his girl to feel safe.

“I’m yours Mason. Act and don’t ask. I am ready” she muffled between the kisses, giving him the confirmation he needed.

In seconds, the piece of clothing was thrown away somewhere in the room, whilst his head and mouth were tracing a path of kisses on her thigh, before being face to face with her already wet core.

“Oh my sweetness” he whispered before devouring her. His tongue swiped across her clit, making her exclaim a loud moan. This was better than any of the songs he’s ever listened in his life.

Her fingers are tangled in his now messy hair, pulling him closer to her. He couldn’t stop sucking and kissing her pussy. It was pure euphoria for both of them.

“My god Mase-“ groaning she said, as her mouth couldn’t bare being alone and without the feelings of his.

Before removing his mouth and kissing her on the lips again, he entered two fingers in her clit, drawing circles all over, for starters in slow motions.

“Faster” she demanded while their tongues were dancing with each other

Mason’s fingers uped the pace and we’re moving even faster. The room was filled with her moans of his name, which if he could record to listen to all day, he would have done so.

“I’m close Mase. I wanna-“ before she could finish her sentence, she left her speechless with a hard push.

“I know baby. I need you to cum. On my fingers” this request sounded more than pleasing to her, and was ready to obey.

Mason could feel the precum leaking in his fingers. He was more than happy with what was about to arrive.

“Let go darling” he finished off as she released her juices all over him. My god was that a sight for sore eyes, he thought. He made his girl feel good.

Her pussy was aching for more. Her trust in Mason made her want more from him. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her. And he would never allow himself to do so.

She was left breathless, trying to grasp the words in her mind. She never thought she’d be able to let them slip her mouth ever again.

“Make love to me, Mason” she almost begged the charming footballer, without knowing that he was willing to please her until she reaches the moon from happiness.

“You don’t have to ask twice” he grabs her thigh from underneath, as he goes in for a hungry kiss. This will be a night to never forget.

Her hands slip at the hem of his boxers, lightly feeling the bulge growing as seconds pass. She felt her brain tingling, just at the thought of how she was about to have sex with a man she truly loved and actually cared for her.

In no time, he’s left bare to her eyesight, making her with a jaw dropped to the floor. The room was extremely silent that one could easily hear the beating in her heart. And my good was it fast and loud.

To say that this wasn’t a moment she hadn’t been waiting for, would be a lie. It took time to trust someone again. Especially at this level.

Being in a relationship again can be tricky. You don’t know how to act, what to say, how to stand. She felt like everything she did irritated Mason.

Things were exactly the opposite. Mason loved every single thing she did. He adored spending time looking at her, doing even the simplest things. He was more than thankful that he finally gained her trust.

“Can I tell you a little secret l?” She whispered in his ear, after laying in each others arms once again.

“Go ahead sweetheart” Mason gave her a soft smile and a kiss on the forehead

“You got me in love again”

[celtrist]

Hot Take, I don't think some people take some things into consideration for redesigns.

Don't get me wrong, some people just do them for fun and there's a lot of REALLY cool ones out there, some I kind of prefer to the official designs to some degree. And I don't think it's a matter of people NOT doing research on the characters as that's absolutely false. But people just kind of neglect/forget/or don't realize some facts about the characters for one reason or another. A lot of designs don't even work great when you put it in the context that the characters would be animated. This doesn't mean redesigns people have done are lazy or anything, you can see a lot of care put into a lot of them.

I plan on doing a sort of "Batman Animated series next season" sort of redesign at some point, and by no means should MY takes and ideas be meant as superior to others. I also wouldn't say some of the critiques given about the official designs are unwarranted, but I think they DO get dogpiled on more than deserved (I mean, a lot of people do LIKE the designs, so they can't be that awful). Below are some things I think people forget or don't understand (again, this is not anything that should be taken as the bible, just my own thoughts about stuff and elements of characters people don't seem to take into consideration a lot):

Lucifer and Satan aren't the same person, so it makes sense Charlie isn't a goat. According to Viv, no part of her design was based on it, and it would be strange for her to look like the love child between Lucifer and Satin if she were. Though totally understand why people do it, goat Charlie IS adorable and also, where the heck does the hooves come from???

Many of the characters don't live in their time period, especially Vox and Angel Dust. I'll be a bit fair on this one, with characters being from different times, it would be visually more interesting to see those styles clash. But some characters, like Vox especially, wouldn't work with that as they WANT to live in the modern day. Vox's WHOLE THING is about staying with the times, so of course he's not looking like he's from the 50s. I've seen some redesigns revert the man to his box head, and that totally misses the point of his character and how he's opposing Alastor's want to stay with the past. I do think it wouldn't hurt to have some illusions about their time periods, though (whether through their clothes or the rooms they occupy).

Alastor is a cannibal, so it wouldn't make sense for his teeth to be so dull. Maybe they could've sharpened his canines with blunt teeth for the rest, but I think he isn't meant to be an approachable figure or anything, and the sharp teeth read as "dangerous". Also, if the canines are only sharp with the rest blunt, the toothy smile feels a little less iconic. To be fair though, a lot of characters have the sharp-tooth smile and the same smarmy face. I just think it makes more sense for his character with what he eats and the in-universe intimidation he's going for him to have full-on shark teeth. Just anything but only the blunt teeth smile, even if it works better with his smile mantra and is arguably creepier (and give his grin a more distinct feature from literally everyone else in the show.

I think the idea people have for Alastor’s colors being black and white or sepia-focused is both a good idea and a silly idea. On one hand, having his colors be like that out of a photograph would be neat and help aid in the idea of Alastor's ideals with the past always being superior to the future. He would literally look like he's stuck in the past. HOWEVER, there is a slight problem with these ideas. The issue with the black and white scheme is that he'd look like an old cartoon character rather than a man from a photograph. This would be a bit odd of a choice considering he's not associated with TV in general. Sepia is a bit better of a direction, but also a bit odd when you consider Alastor is not the only demon to hold the past on a pedestal. So why would he have the sepia scheme while others like Rosie do not? Again, bit of a double-edged sword. There's also the fact that Alastor is focused on AUDIO mediums, never visuals. So to have his scheme focus in visual mediums like being out of a photograph or old TV would be a bit odd. It would be more accurate to argue that he should look more like the invisible man with maybe only a radio head or something if you wanna make the argument about his colors not reading 1920s.

Making Alastor a full deer anthro, while cool and makes sense in theory, loses a bit of thought when there's a BUNCH of other anthro characters. Don't get me wrong, I think people often come up with some cool designs and, to be honest, look more deer like than Alastor's canon design (like seriously, those ears are not deer ears at all). However, it loses something when anthro sinners are quite common in Hell (Husker, Crymini, literally any crowd shot you see probably has an anthro character in there). So, while this might read as a bit of a personal take, Alastor being a straight up mix (dare I say a Kemnomimi) between a human and deer feels like it reads a bit better into how he died. That being, he was a man mistaken as a deer. So him being very humanoid but having the attributes that may have made the hunter think he was a deer with his silhouette and surroundings, come off as a bit stronger and better related to his death. Again, I don't think I'd call this out if it weren't for the fact we see so many anthro demons and really no kemnomimi-esc demons. Because of that, Alastor being a mix of human and animal comes off as more unique and stronger than if you made him a flat-out demon.

Alastor doesn't show his hooves because he's a gentleman! While I think they could get away with giving Charlie some open-toed shoes, Alastor is a man who wants to be fully dressed, so to have him lack shoes to show off his hooves doesn't really make sense for him. He's actually fully dressed up, no part of him showing skin aside from his head! His hands could be a bit of an argument on that, but they have been described as gloves while official merch would seem to contradict this. My fun theory is that they're gloves, but they look exactly the same as his actual hands. To follow up on the clothing thing, Alastor would never willingly show something like a tail if he has one. I am of the "he does have one" group, but I think it would make sense for him to try to hide any features that would put him as a prey animal. The following are a bit more in designs speculation territory, so take with a grain of salt:

This is a bit of a side thing and could totally be wrong, but I've seen mention that all residents in the pride ring wear/have some color of red on them. I'm not sure how true it is (I mean, when you look at all the characters seen there is some form of red on them even if it's just by eyes). This would honestly be a neat "cartoony logic you just don't question" in theory if it wasn't for the fact only the pride ring residents have this going on. If it is true, they need to have that color thing happen with other rings (so hellhounds have yellow on them, lust have purple, so on and so forth). It would be neat as then we could see where different demons come from just by their color scheme, however, that's not the case. The idea of everyone in the pride ring HAVING a bizarre dress code requiring them to wear red is more distracting and less "just accept the cartoon logic" when they're the only ring that does it. Also, I still agree that characters do not need to be drenched in color if it is a requirement in their design. Again, this is all to say this idea is true, which I cannot verify other than all the demons we see in the pride ring do seem to have some form of red on them.

Red sclera and white-ish irises might help to indicate some demons as hellborn. So this could kinda be seen as a weak argument, but I just thought it was strange how the only other times we've seen this eye trait is with hellborns: Hellhounds, Lucifer, and Charlie. And I think it would make more sense for that to be the case rather than Carmilla and her daughters happen to have fallen into Hell together. I mean it's not IMPOSSIBLE, but meh. Also, would add a bit more interest to Velvette if it was revealed she was hellborn. Thought it was a bit odd for other characters like Vox and Valentino to have confirmed death years but Velvette never got one officially (as far as I'm aware). It also would just be a nice design element that actually sort of means something (that being if you have those eyes, you're more than likely a hellborn). Especially when you take into account characters like Crymini where, if it weren't for that eye-color scheme, you would think she was a normal Hellhound.

This one is 100% headcanon territory, but I'm sharing it again because that's the power I wield. To keep it short, Alastor has high respect for women and tends to prefer their company, so maybe out of that respect/his mother possibly having it, he got himself a bob cut as that was popular with women in the 20s. The hair gets a lot of flack for understandable reasons, but I thought it'd be a bit more fun to give him a reason for having it and I also just don't think it's as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Here's the post getting a bit more into it, but pretty much the same is said just detailed.

Finally, as I've said earlier, these characters need to be animated. And most redesigns don't take that into consideration. To be fair, a lot of people also acknowledge they don't for the designs, which totally valid. It's already tricky to design characters, so to make sure they'd be animatable would be even MORE of a pain.

Again, this is just some small tidbits and by no means is this an attack on anyone or anything, just some of my thoughts and things I think people don't think about when making changes. By no means is canon perfect, I don't even think canon takes some of these considerations in to be quite honest with you and I don't think the designs are made as thoughtfully as the redesigns, but I don't really care for the "my designs are better" mantra.

All in all, just some of my thoughts on things. Lemme know if there's anything you disagree with or have your own ideas people seem to forget/not notice!

[finisnihil]

Friendly reminder things can coexist. You can have multiple reasons for doing something. Art can have multiple themes and contexts. Rarely are things only defined by one thing as that makes for a dull experience and a dull story.

For example, I saw somebody saying the new HSR animation with Black Swan and Acheron can’t have sapphic undertones because the animation is about manipulation but here’s the thing it can totally be both. Black Swan and Acheron have talked about each other in such a way that imply a tension there that can be read either way and while the animation is focused on the manipulation aspect and how Black Swan fucked around and found out it does not negate the sapphic subtext found in the approach. The hand kissing, the way they hold each other, the way she calls Acheron enchanting and beautiful, those were not necessary. Acheron would not be swayed by such language and Black Swan knows this, there was little reason for her to do that and the act of doing so only caused Acheron to let up her guard more every time she did those actions. Acheron picked up on her ulterior motives to a degree and went on the defensive. If it really was only manipulation Black Swan wouldn’t have risked her becoming closed off from her like that.

We also need to consider the artist in question, Mihoyo, who is notorious for their queer representation especially sapphic representation prevalent in the Honkai franchise. I went on Instagram and saw people bashing the queer side of the fandom for “projecting their gay headcanons” on the animation and “ignoring/disrespecting the art of it and it’s themes claiming ship where there’s manipulation” to which most of these comments in question are jokes and the queer fans do understand the underlying themes. It does not mean they don’t appreciate the art in full it means you only have a few characters in a comment to share your thoughts and not everybody wants to take the time to make multiple comments analyzing it and that’s okay. We all interact with stories differently. Multiple things can be true, as Oscar Wilde said in The Importance of Being Ernest, “the truth is rarely pure and never simple” and that’s the fact of the matter still.

In some instances it is a problem when people neglect to analyze the full scope of the art and it’s story and themes and that’s the topic of media literacy and it’s waning influence in fandom spaces which is a different topic and conversation but in this one just like these things can coexist so can a surface level expression and a deeper level understanding. I can understand the entire animation in full I literally made an analysis post not long ago but I can also make silly jokes about the sapphic undertones because that’s also part of the piece and disregarding them because you don’t like the queer aspects of HSR’s story or any story is what’s actually disrespectful to the art. You can’t criticize a community when you do the very thing you accuse them of, ignoring one of the many points for your own simplified understanding of the art.

[mysteroads]

So, fast background: It still bugs me a bit that Decay isn't Tomura Shigaraki's natural quirk.😔 There were some great parallels between him and Eri that I really liked. However, I adapted!🎉 And now I'm going to share! 'Cause that's what you do on this hellsite!😈 Mwhaha! Enjoy this short excerpt from my fic Indomitable Will. (Context: Tomura's decided to put AFO down for good and is deep-diving KingdomHearts style, and interacting with stolen quirk vestiges.)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*>

This quirk looked so broken. Hunched shoulders, too skinny with a jutting collarbone and visible ribs, badly cut hair all clumpy and unkempt, knobby fingers covering its face like a weeping angel. Its edges were in a constant state of fraying. 

Or Decaying.

“You caused me a lot of problems, you know,” he told it quietly. The quirk huddled in on itself even more, trembling from head to toe. “My family, my dog, my favorite controller… all of them dust. But it’s not like you had a choice either. You didn’t pick me. You weren’t even whole. But… looking back, I think you at least tried your best to keep me safe.”

The trembling didn’t stop, but the covered face turned toward him.

“Half of the problem was me. I was always fighting you, subconsciously rejecting you. I mean, kinda obvious why, but it didn’t really help me. You know what, though?” And now Tomura smiled again, the memory of Deika City still a shining moment for him. “We were pretty badass once we got in sync.”

The quirk stood up straight, lowering its fingers enough to peer at him with dull eyes the same color as his. 

Tomura held out his free hand. “This time, let’s choose each other. I want you. No one fits me better than you. We’re two pieces broken by the same hand, two things reshaped to become weapons and not allowed to become more. No one understands us better than we do. Please, be my partner again?”

Decay skipped shaking his hand and instead threw itself at him, wrapping twiggy arms around his neck and pressing its face against his chest. Tomura bit his lip so he didn’t make any more pathetic noises and hugged his quirk as tightly as he could. “I missed you,” he admitted. “Thank you.” 

A breath, then Decay slipped back inside him, settling under his skin like a contented cat. And it didn’t itch at all.

Tomura felt whole for the first time in months. 

[utilitycaster]

(Long ask warning)

Hello! I'm jumping on the appreciation train to say thank you so much for all of your meta and analysis! I just found your blog today, and you've already given me so much clarity and context for things I've been noticing in the CR fandom lately.

I quite literally spent my summer living under a rock (in the woods leading spelunking for scouts!) and so was completely out of the loop from early June through September. And while I am not yet caught up (I'm about to start ep. 65), I have been going through the tags and ao3, because I primarily engage with fandom through fic and I don't care about spoilers. And I can't help but notice that everything being written for c3 lately is just... monochromatic. The Hells have such interesting characters and premises. One would think they're ripe for creative and interesting fic. And yet even what little gen fic that I have seen since returning to civilization has largely been boiled down to reiterative mush with vaguely shippy overtones. I can totally see this being indicative of the cresting and waning of the Imodna and Callowmore shipping you've been discussing.

I've gotta ask though, is it really just shipping that is causing this problem? Or is there something else in the source material that you think could be affecting fic in particular?

This is the first time I've been in a fandom with ongoing source material in over a decade. I'm used to watching people beat dead horses in their own little corner, safe in the knowledge that I can block them and it isn't going to affect my experience in the slightest. I guess I'm just having a hard time believing/remembering that shipping can be this incidious.

So a couple of things: first, I was not heavily involved in fandom until Critical Role; I have a decent amount of background knowledge from being on Tumblr and because I do tend to look into/research this kind of thing because it's very interesting to me, but you will probably have better snapshot of what fandom looked like 10 years ago than I do. Second, fanfic has always been a tiny aspect of what I've engaged with and I do find the bulk of it to be dull and samey (which is why it is a tiny aspect), so again, you probably are a better judge of the quality of fanfic elsewhere.

With that said, as part of a much larger discussion of which I only have as mentioned pieces of the puzzle, I do think there's been a shift over the past decade or so of like...people expecting the source material to reflect fanfic-y desires, and resenting it when it does not; people not seeing the point in enjoying non-canon ships; and a broader theme of self-infantilization. This has to a small extent spilled over into published fiction, though thankfully there's plenty that isn't that. It's not just shipping (though that absolutely can be insidious to the point that people have been harassed and doxxed over it); I think it's a general taste for pablum that has been growing within fandom spaces.

I'll link a few posts I've made and a source that, while I cannot vouch for it per se I did read and found enlightening at the end but I think a really indicative example as of late was the fandom response to the show Good Omens (spoilers for Good Omens S2 in the next link if you are by any chance avoiding those). Obviously do not do anything obnoxious to the person who wrote this question, but there are a worrying number of people in fandom spaces who believe this unironically and uncritically: fiction exists to "save us from hurtful reality." And I do understand that the tumultuous politics and world events of the past decade are probably a factor; but I mean, have you looked at literature from the first half of the 20th century (or like. the second half, for that matter)? It is, in my opinion, only going to help put our modern world and issues in better context and honestly make you feel better in the long run if you read, say, The Great Gatsby or The Things They Carried instead of burying your head in lower case song lyrics ... (hurt/comfort, fix-it, happy ending, 6k) and like, to be clear, I have written a small portion of lower case song lyric-titled fics myself but most of them aren't terribly happy, and even so, god I'd be horrified if that was all people were reading.

We've seen it across fandom at large with the polls; I have not watched season 2 of Our Flag Means Death in part because I've realized with horror that this mentality has swept, plague-like, through that fandom; people are acting like having a canon queer ship on a small premium cable show in 2022 is world-changing and unprecedented while also kind of ignoring everything that isn't the central ship (including valid criticisms of how this takes a real-world plantation owner and turns him into a goofy fop, how there's precious few female characters and none in the main cast, and how the actually far more groundbreaking nb character is pushed aside in favor of the core M/M ship). Spoilers for Good Omens again (sorry in advance, Good Omens 2 was a realization point for me how deeply and widely this rot has set in in some places and I have a bunch of sources of people being like "guys stories require conflict and tension to be good" in response to the overwrought moaning that the story wasn't unambiguously happy) but this is another author responding to the "the desired endpoint of all fiction is obviously to have your ship living in a small house together in bliss and anything else is torment" mentality.

In addition to shipping another factor is, I think, people overidentifying with characters and as such being reluctant to actually put them through any sort of hardship, however minor. I recently reblogged a post about the origin of the concept "Mary Sue" and it led me to read a bit about its history, because it was in fact created by women. It was a woman in the Star Trek fandom who was sick of spending money to buy fanzines (pre-common home internet, let alone pre-Ao3) only to find the vast majority of the stories to be this "here is my self-insert who is perfect and beautiful and pure and every other character thinks she is the greatest even if that's entire OOC". It was a frustration with the abandonment of the characterizations in the original work. And that's true today - I have read a popular Imogen and Laudna fluff fic to see what the deal was and it stripped out so much of their premises and characterizations it was unrecognizeable as them but for the hair colors and occasional cringeworthy attempts to replicate Southern US dialect - but what was notable is that those people were at least being honest and writing OCs (though to be fair a lot of them were also young white teen girls and the only woman in TOS was black and that was probably also a factor). Now, you get people who cannot tolerate any analysis of characters that is less than flattering because instead of having an OC, they are identifying so strongly with, for example, Imogen or Ashton, that they cannot separate out the real character or understand this is not an attack on them (or, to be blunt, as someone who sees some of my own worse traits in both those characters, a necessary critique). It's not shipping, but it is that same "fiction should only ever be a soft blanket or a flattering mirror, never a dark mirror and certainly never a door" mentality.

I do place a little blame on fanfiction itself; I think having something that is roughly made to order and tells you exactly what it is up front means people start to think that is the only way, and that's why we have people claiming Chipotle is the height of cuisine while making gagging noises at the authentic Mexican restaurant except for fiction. I think fanfiction can be great; it's fun to write and I have read some great pieces. But a lot of it is mush and formulaic and as that Mary Sue history points out, always has been.

So anyway, to Bells Hells: I think past campaigns also had a lot of dull fanfiction; I think the Nein lent themselves more to poorly written angst than poorly written fluff but yeah a lot of that was really samey and bland in its own way. Fanfiction has always been formulaic to a degree but I think we're starting to see the generation of people who really have read more of that than like, books, and sure there are shitty books, but man there's a LOT of shitty fanfiction, and increasingly, I find that shitty published books are bad because they're too much like fanfiction. [If I get the chance today I have a post I want to write about the ignorance of fantasy tropes in the current fandom which I think is also driving some of this and which I alluded to in my post about shipping; like, I feel the almost automatic but oddly thought-free resistance to gods and fate and the 'right' way to respond to a tragic backstory comes from this ignorance; this also is a case in the D20 fandom when they've dipped into sci fi.] Shipping definitely is a factor, and I think again C3 has an influx of fans primarily here to ship in that "my ship must become canon and must 'win' for some arbitrary definition thereof" which is probably why so much of the fanfic sucks, but again, this is a larger self-infantilizing and entitled mentality that goes beyond mere ships.

Further reading (mostly my own posts but not exclusively)

The fandom echo chamber (also Good Omens spoilers in a broad sense), not by me

Some discussion on queerphobia being inserted only as a tool to assist with specific shipping narratives (I think this ties in again to like. people need obstacles to justify why the characters aren't already in their cottage by the sea but once the characters are together they discard these obstacles even if they are systemic and would still exist, which makes for really bad fanfic bc it's clearly poorly plotted and thought out)

Me on why this campaign isn't good for shipping but a lot of the fandom showed up primarily to ship (might be the post that prompted this ask tbf)

Fandom monocropping (not my post)

My treatise on Imogen and Laudna specifically which honestly, even now that they are canon, still largely holds up re: the fandom and a related one about similarly fluff-centric Change is Evil and the highest order of fiction is Two Blorbos In A House With Zero Problems mentality (not by me but I've been part of that discussion)

[aziraphales-library]

Hi, dear mods! I come with a rec and an associated ask. The rec is a sweet little crackish-premised "Aziraphale is a literal star and Crowley is a black hole" AU with references to canon and a cool play around astronomical phenomena. It's called "Like a spiral sea unending" by hapax (hapaxnym). It's a gem, but the problem is, basically all the tags for it are quite useless, because it's such an uncommon idea. Do you happen to know more of these (possibly crackish) impossible-to-find-cause-you-d-never-thought-you-needed-one fics? Preferably funny, not explicit, and with clever references to canon if AU? (I have no idea if canon-compliant fics can be like this).

Have a nice day!

Hello! Tags we have that you might be interested in for more fun and unusual fics are #crack and #outsider pov. Here are some more for you...

Context by Fyre (G)

Sometimes, when you overhear someone in the street, you lack context. An angel, a demon, and three accidental eavesdroppers.

A Culinary Misadventure by PurpleRose (T)

Based on the the prompt: Aziraphale tries to sneak into hell because he wants to see if he can eat S'mores with marshmallows roasted in hellfire. Naturally he gets caught, Crowley finds out, and if you thought he was pissed about the Bastille...

Dear Raphael by asideofourown (T)

The thing was, even after Crowley Fell, Heaven forgot to delete his login to their system. The only half interesting thing he had ever found in Heaven’s archives was their newspaper, even though it was a dreadfully dull rag. But even then, Crowley was never inspired to truly interfere with the Celestial Observer’s contents until the late 1600s, when advice columns were invented on Earth. As always, brilliant inspiration struck him like… like whatever inspiration strikes like. So Crowley resolved to meddle, just as a side project. Maybe if he got enough angels heated at each other, he could report it as a victory to Hell. Anyway, Dagon had always liked gossip, and the Celestial Observer’s new advice column was a ready source of that. It was pure genius. [Crowley, demon of Hell, becomes Heaven's foremost advice columnist]

The Wheel of Fortune by Quefish (T)

Crowley decides to enjoy a bit of mischief by being a game show contestant. Aziraphale is dragged along, much to his dismay.

You've Got Kudos by curtaincall (M)

Aziraphale and Crowley both write fanfiction. As it happens, they both write Good Omens fanfiction. Of course, neither of them would ever admit this to the other. (A love story told primarily in AO3 comments)

The Fortune Teller by AppleSeeds (T)

Through the course of his academic research, Aziraphale discovers that a curse was placed on Edwardian seer Anthony Crowley, trapping him inside a fairground fortune telling automaton for over a century. Aziraphale is determined to find a way to set Crowley free, and becomes increasingly enamoured with him, both from reading his words and through the unconventional conversation they manage to share.

And the one you mentioned...

Like a spiral sea unending by hapax (G)

They used to shine, once. But that was a long time ago. As a black hole, Crowley is condemned to a lonely existence. But then they encounter one bright particular star...

- Mod D

[dorkynerd23]

Why Green Eggs & Ham (GEAH) Is The Best Dr. Seuss Adaptation.🍳💚 (Analysis)

Hello Everyone!! Hope you're all doing good and well and everything's going well for you all. ♥️ Wanted to come here and discuss about a show, an incredible show that even after it's release and end, it's still a well-made and amazing show that still great all these years later, and the show I'm talking about and referring to is Netflix's Green Eggs & Ham, I'm gonna discuss about how it's the best Dr. seuss adaptation to date.

Now, before we discuss and talk about Green, Eggs & Ham, we need to talk about and mention the past Dr. Seuss adaptations and dive deep into them real quick. Now when it comes to adaptations to Dr. Seuss's work, most of the time it's either hit or miss, mediocre or just flat out terrible and awful. One thing I've gotta mention is that Dr. Seuss beforehand wasn't very open to adaptations to his work, with the reason being that he was worried and afraid that his characters would be used in context for things he didn't 100% and necessary didn't agree with. But that eventually changed when he came to the cartoon adaptations that we all know today and overtime would loosen up his views and allow more adaptations of his work. And the first adaptation of his work was an animated short called "Horton Hatches The Egg" (based on Seuss's book of the same name and this book came way before Horton Hears A Who, btw) which was released back in 1942 and going forward, Dr. Seuss would later begin working very closely with the adaptations to make sure they stay true to the book, to the source material and in 1966, Seuss would authorized eminent cartoon artist, Chuck Jones himself (who was a close friend of Seuss as they also served in World War II together) to make a cartoon adaptation short based on "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" which would become the Christmas classic we all know and love to this day, Chuck would also go on to eventually direct + produce adaptations of both "Horton Hears A Who" (1970) and "The Cat In The Hat." (1971)

Dr. Seuss sadly passed away and died at the age of 87 from cancer on September 24th 1991 and from that point until her own death in 2018, his widow, Audrey Seuss would have full licensing of her husband's work and eventually gave in to the temptations of hollywood adaptations of Seuss's work which would be the movie adaptations. Let's start with "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" which was released back in 2000, so to basically recap this film although I loved it as a kid and still kinda do, I see it as a guilty pleasure (now as an adult) and rewatched the movie not that long ago and I don't believe it's aged very well honestly.

There are some good things to this film such as Jim Carey as The Grinch himself, which is perfect casting and the makeup effects on him are incredible, you truly by him as The Grinch, there are some funny moments, I'll still watch it here and there around the holiday's and the set design is pretty good. But when you take off the nostalgiatic googles you can see the problems with the film, now..as I said, this film does have a good set design, but it's hidden underneath all of this murky colorless filter to the point it looks so dull to look at honestly, like there's not much life. Along with that, the movie is just incredibly meanspirited, almost everyone in Whoville is terrible (besides Cindy) and unlikeable, soulless and just care about materialism which I get is the point of the film, but it just goes against the message of the book, The Grinch shouldn't have to explain and spell out the message for the who's, HE'S the one who's supposed to learn the lesson not the other way around, but the movie just gets it totally backwards.

Now, although this film hasn't aged the best and there are so many issues with the film, there are some good elements to it, it's definitely not the worst Dr. Seuss adaptation and I'll still watch it sometimes around Christmas, but it just hasn't aged the best, but again..It's not the worst Dr. Seuss adaptation, no that goes to the next one we're about to discuss.

Alright, so in 2003 another live action Dr. Seuss adaptation was released, that being "The Cat In The Hat" starring Mike Myers. And I'll keep this short and simple as I wanna get this one out of the way, I also rewatched this film not long ago too and it still sucks years later, there is really nothing good about this film honestly. From the set design, to the acting, (especially from Myers himself) the makeup, especially the makeup and CGI. The jokes are also abysmal and this film doesn't capture anything from the source material and almost feels like a slap in the face and say what you want about The Grinch, at least SOME effort and decent stuff was added in that film, even not done the best exactly. But with this film, it's just awful and bad..you know a movie is terrible when Audrey herself said that her husband would've despised the film and prohibited any further live-action adaptations of Seuss's work because of how bad the film was. This film itself is honestly why Dr. Seuss was so hesitant and nervous to allow adaptations of his work and I still believe there is the worst Dr. Seuss adaptation to date, luckily the next few adaptations of Seuss's work (mainly when it came to the film adaptations) would be done in computer animation instead of live action.

So, after the disaster and failure of The Cat In The Hat, we ended up getting some more film adaptations of Seuss's work which would all be animated and those being "Horton Hears A Who", (2008) The Lorax" (2012) and "The Grinch" (2018) and we've got another adaptation in the works based on Cat In The Hat that'll be released in 2026 by Warner Bros. But for now, let's quickly discuss the other film adaptations and I won't dive super deep into them, I'll just quickly go over as I don't exactly have a whole lot to say about them, honestly. Alright, so "Horton Hears A Who" was the next adaptation and was released back in 2008 and it's the debatably the best Dr. Seuss movie but that's not really saying a lot, and I'll definitely say that it's definitely decent but there's not much to it, there is some charm to it but overall it's just a fine film. It's not bad or god awful, but not all that great either, the film kinda feels all over the place with its story and humor especially but mostly as a whole as it seems to be struggling to turn a short story into a full length film which that's a criticism you can say for the other Seuss movies as well. Sure the animation is nice and often pretty to look at and there are some jokes that land, but this film is just alright and is watchable. I'll definitely say that this film AT LEAST does understand the message of the book and the animation has I said is great and pretty and actually does lend itself well to the Dr. Seuss world, but overall this film is okay, it's definitely better than Cat In The Hat and it's not insulting garbage but there are better films to watch, but I'd say give this a watch if you're curious and haven't seen it.

Let's move on and discuss both The Lorax and The Grinch which were both made by Illumination, instead of giving these two their own sections I'm gonna to just to discuss them in their own paragraph here, so hopefully that's fine, lol! Alright, so when it comes to The Lorax...overtime, it seems to be kinda decisive especially over the years with some either hating, loving it, or just not caring about it. I'm more in the hating and not caring for it category, now in terms of adaptations, this isn't the worst one over what we've discussed so far, but it's still a bad and not very good film. First off, this film clearly has cooperate studio meddling written all over it, and I'm not just talking about the product placement in the film's marketing, (which btw, is counterproductive and goes against the film's message!) but I'm also referring to the big hollywood actors casting and pop songs, and just trying just so hard to hip and not understanding the source material in the slightest, this film kinda feels like it was made so make money and just never to be talked about again, and also feels dated as well too. That's not the only issues with the film, there's also other problems as well from the casting like I've mentioned, and I know star casting has become a huge problem and talkative subject over the years but the casting for this film feels off, I mean you've got Zac Efron playing a 12yr and Taylor Swift, and no offense to these two, but they were very miscasted and you can tell they only got these two to appeal and become they're famous, and not only that, there's also how they wrote The Onceler and just 100% redoing his character and just making him into this emo guitar player, Ect. This film is another Dr. Seuss movie that doesn't understand the message of the book, the book didn't try to oversimplify the environmental message by simply, "Yeahhh, man and humanity sucks, ahhh!!" It just was never that simple, it's NEVER that simple even in real life, and the book did a great job starting a conversation rather than simply pointing a finger at someone. I'll definitely say that the animation is gorgeous and it's colorful and seems to capture some spirit of the world of Dr. Seuss but it just feels wasted on such a weak story, weak characters, a genetic cooperate villain that's there for the film's message and nothing more rather than a fleshed out character, and overall a forgettable experience. Again, although this film is a mixture of bad and mediocre, it's still not as bad as Cat In The Hat.

And now we finally have The Grinch from 2018, which was greenlit by Audrey before her passing. And I'll say that I do remember watching this film in theaters with my mom and thought it was decent for what it was, but after rewatching the film for this analysis, I'll say that while the film has some flaws, it's definitely decent for what it is, the film does leave out some of the best parts of the original book and ended up changing the message of the story in general, it's not like the message they were trying to teach was bad or anything, the intension is there and this film still is fun and very colorful and I can see some heart and decent soul put into it , it's definitely a decent and alright film, and I can understand why some loved and enjoy it and think it's a fine film and think it's a lovely sendoff to the Dr. Seuss movie adaptations. (For now, at least)

ALRIGHT!! Now we finally move on to the adaptation that this whole post is all about, let's finally discuss the latest Dr. Seuss adaptation that's been released out to date, that being Netflix's 'Green, Eggs & Ham' that was released back on November 8th 2019. Now, I'll honestly say that I remember going into this show I didn't exactly have many expectations as knowing how past adaptations have been in when came to Dr. Seuss and his work, I didn't know what to expect and thought this show was be really bad or mediocre at the least, but I remember hearing positive things about the show and seeing images and clips of the show got me rather interested and curious, so I remember going onto Netflix and checking out the show and after watching all 13 episodes of the first season I was pleasantly surprised by how damn good and well made this show is/was, like everything about this show is incredible from it's talented voice cast, from it's animation, (the show looks great especially since tv shows that are based on movies don't have the same budget as the films) from the characters, the story and just everything. You can clearly see all the hard work, love and dedication that went into this show and could tell that the ones working on the show truly cared about Dr. Seuss and his work and wanted to make a show not just for kids but something for almost everyone can enjoy. Everything thing in this world when it comes to the show just looks, breaths and 100% feels like Dr. Seuss, I also love and appreciate the references to other Dr. Seuss books and while the other Seuss tv shows and even the films themselves (except for Cat In The Hat) they were also able to capture nail the look of Dr. Seuss but something about Geah feels different, it truly nails the spirit and world of Dr. Seuss and it's just a beautiful looking show on every level, the animators really poured their love and soul into animating this show.

And it only gets better from here, there's also other amazing things about the show especially when it comes to the writing, characters and the story itself. And with this show, instead of 100% focusing solely on the story of the book, this show instead decided to change the story up and intertwine the original story into this new one. So, in this show, Guy-Am-I (played by Michael Douglas) is an inventor and who's very down on his luck mostly due to his inventions and dreams always blowing up right in his face, after one of his inventions fails his chance to going to Meepville, Guy decides to quit inventing and throw away the towel. Eventually, Guy runs into Sam-I-Am (played by Adam Devine) who's this chipper, loveable ball of sunshine who stole a creature known as The Chickeraffe ("Mr. Jenkins") that intends to return it to its natural habitat and have it reunite with its mother. But after getting their suitcases mixed up and when a mysterious agent duo known as "BAD GUYS" show up and attempt to take the Chickeraffe, this results in both Guy and Sam teaming up together in order to get to Meepville to save Mr. Jenkins and get him home. Now, while this story especially with its main characters, we've seen this type of storyline a million times before as it takes two characters with different personalities and putting them together as they learn to get along and know more about one another, being another typical buddy road trip formula. But it actually works very damn well with this show, throughout the first season, we see that Sam is able to have a huge impact on Guy and his life, in the beginning, Guy starts off as a closed off, grumpy frustrated individual who's very down on his luck and doesn't like anyone. Meanwhile Sam on the other hand, is very upbeat, loves life and is sweet and kind to almost everyone he meets and likes everybody. Again, while we've seen this type of thing many times before, this show does this type especially many other tropes that are shown in this show pretty well, and throughout the first season we actually see the characters grow, we see Guy starting to be more open and confident and even becomes more happier and even starts doing more with his life and trying new things such as inventing, friendship, family, love, ect.

And I think what also makes this formula work is the believable friendship and dynamic between Guy and Sam, it's incredibly well written and you truly do believe in their friendship and their dynamic and interactions is great!! The two clearly have an impact on another one another but Guy especially and while the first season was mainly focus on Guy and his journey, the next season gives a lot of focus on Sam when it comes to him wanting to find and reunite with his mom, but we'll get slightly more on that a little later! But Sam is also another great and well developed character and he's an example of an annoying character done right which can be a very tricky task, he's a character who's annoying but not annoying to the audience. Sam has such a likeable and loveable presence and charm, with some of that coming from Adam's wonderful performance, but I was never at all annoyed with Sam one bit and loved the depth they gave in S1 EP10 and showed his connections with Green, Eggs & Ham which felt powerful and heartwarming. And the Green, Eggs and Ham aren't there just to just be mentioned here and there, and to teach the message when it comes to Guy trying them, but also represents and shows just how important and strong Guy and Sam's friendship truly is. ❤️

There's also other memorable and great characters in this show, we've got characters from the book such as the fox, the mouse, and then you have the goat, in this show they're all changed and are good in their own right. First you have the fox, named Michael, who's this an eccentric guy who's basically obsessed with green eggs and has a huge crush on a green chicken named Sandra, and it's just incredibly hilarious as hell and pathetic in a way but just funny, then you have the mouse who's basically a parody based on "Jean Valjean" from Les Misérables and the running gag with him is that whenever he talks, basically nobody especially Guy and Sam can't understand him and only hear squeaks, he also has this huge song that dives into his backstory and it's supposed to be sad but you can't help but kinda laugh at it. And then you have the goat himself, who's basically this unhinged, nonsense badass bounty hunter sent by Mr. Snerz and will pretty much stop at nothing until he gets and captures the chickenraffe. He speaks with a strong spanish accent and he's kinda like an antagonist but he's extremely memorable and fun, he also this pretty fun and great fight scene with Mr. Jenkins in S1 EP9 up on a snowy mountain and not only does the animation sand out during this scene but it's indefinitely entertainment, it's interesting that a Dr. Seuss adaptation of all things would have things along with other great things in this show.

Let's also talk about the other characters they added in this show, that being "The Bad Guys" and "Michellee and E.B." and the main villain of S1, "Mr. Snerz." These characters weren't in the original book and are entirely new characters but similar to the other characters, they're good in their own right. We've got the agents themselves, McWinkle (played by Jeffrey Wright) and Gluntz, (played by Jillian Bell) we've got Mcwinkle who's the serious guy who's on his last mission and wants to get the job done as soon as possible, while his partner, Gluntz is basically the optimistic rookie and basically the opposite from Mcwinkle. And again, while this show does use tropes that been done to death that get tiring, that's kinda the point and this show does new things and does these tropes well that it doesn't exactly bother me all that much, honestly. Mcwinkle is a good and interesting character, although he might seem cold-hearted and serious he does care about his job and despite his gruff persona, he does care for animals and others and just wants to keep everyone safe and both he and Gluntz aren't bad people, they're just doing their jobs and are just flawed almost like all the characters. Meanwhile with Gluntz, she's just the absolute and I love the hell out of her, although she can act serious and tough, but she just so fun-loving and chaotic and she's the best girl. Really do love Gluntz though, she's plucky, sweet, and just hilarious and some of her moments of the show are my favorite!

Now we have Mr. Snerz, (played by Eddie Izzard) who's the main villain of the first season and he's basically this famous rich businessman who wants to have the chickenraffe and mount it to his wall, and he doesn't want him dead and want his head on the wall, no he just literally wants him tied to the wall so he can keep the chickenraffe there for the rest of its life so it can never escape, and Snerz did that with all the other creatures he owns. Now, I didn't have many opinions about Mr. Snerz in the beginning and thought it was fine but also thought it was gonna be this typical one dimensional bad guy who wants to steal creatures for money and all that jazz, the same type of villain we've seen before. But, he's not exactly like that, he can be just as funny as the other characters at times and has a interesting solid motive for doing what he's doing and it's shown through his backstory.

And then you finally have Michellee and her one and only daughter, E.B. Now, I'm gonna dive deep into these two the best way that I can especially with Michellee as I feel she's been hated for wayyy too long (especially by some certain shippers and fans in the Geah fanbase) and deserves so much better and I'll show that she's not as bad as some try to claim she is. Now, Michellee is very overprotective and cautious who wants her daughter to be safe and okay, while E.B. is a rebellious kid/teen who wants to explore and have fun and do things that kids around her age do, and again, while we've seen this done before, just like the show itself and both Sam and Guy themselves, Michellee and E.B. are great and developed characters and their relationship is very well done, they're also on their way to Meepville only for Michellee to enter a literal bean contest and they end up meeting with our main duo multiple times throughout the first season and we get a nice bond between the four main characters. Both Sam and E.B. form a sibling type dynamic/friendship meanwhile both Guy and Michellee form a relationship of their own, now..I'll definitely say that one of the flaws with this show was the ongoing misunderstanding when it came to Michellee and Guy which became frustrating and repetitive, and it doesn't help that most of Michellee's moments kinda resolve around this and I really do think it could've been handled better.

But the way I've seen some of these fans especially when it comes to GuyXSam shippers, say that Michellee is a awful person and terrible person is just frustrating as hell and ridiculous. It reminds me when it came to The Owl House, some tried to claim that Camilla was a terrible mom, which is downright not true and it shows people don't get it. While yes, Michellee was overprotective and her being too clingy only caused her to push her daughter away and feel alone, but the point of the show and the story itself is to NOT judge something or someone before giving it a try, without giving it a chance and these characters DO ACTUALLY GROW AND DEVELOP!! Over the course of the show we do see Michellee slowly learning to get out of her shell and try new things, and allowing her daughter to have fun, we learn that Michellee used to be a painter years ago but when her husband unfortunately died (when E.B was very small) she gave up her dream and moved on and this is possibly why she started to become more protective of her daughter, as she didn't wanna lose her either. Michellee clearly loves and cares about her daughter with all her heart, she's not perfect and she's very flawed (just like all the other characters in the show) and we do see her starting to be more open and by the end of the season, and even through some moments of Season 2, we see she's developed and has grown. Michellee isn't a bad parent, not in the slightest, she's a caring and loving parent that only wants to keep her daughter safe but she doesn't realize that doing so only pushed her daughter away and made her feel alone, and I really do by the mother/daughter relationship between her and E.B. and find it believable, like all the other characters, they are very flawed and the point of the show is for them to change, grow and give new things a try! (^-^)

Meanwhile with Guy and Michellee, although the two didn't get along and hit it off at the start due to Michellee being unimpressed with Guy's inventions due to them letting exploding, as the show went on and the more times the two met up one another one they start seeing that they actually have some things in common. Both are quiet, keep themselves, along with being reserved, and despite the annoying and cliche misunderstandings and writing choices when it came to how their dynamic was done in during some points from the first season, the relationship between both Guy and Michellee is honestly rather sweet. It's nothing too deep or groundbreaking, but they definitely are cute, adorable and just wholesome together and you do genuinely believe that the two do love and care about one another, both Michellee and Guy go through the same character arc's only with slight different circumstances, with both characters starting off not trusting the world or anyone around them and wanting to be left alone but both eventually learn the importance of not being afraid to try new things! 🙂🩷

Now, I'll quickly mention the second season real quick and while this season definitely isn't as good and amazing as the first one was, it's still a decent nice watch and there are some elements of the second season that I did enjoy. Firstly the animation is still incredible and well done and there is still clearly effort and love poured into the show even if this season wasn't as good as Season 1. And I did love some of the new characters they added such as Looka and Pam (Sam's Mother) and thought they were interesting and fun enough characters and I did love what they did with Pam. Although, she does follow into a trope we've seen before, what they did with her was still well down and you can clearly tell that she does love and care about Sam and similar to all the other characters, she's flawed just as them and isn't perfect, but she's not a bad parent or a bad person either, and while with Looka, although I don't have a whole lot to say about him exactly, I still really liked him and found his relationship and romance with E.B. very cute and adorable and I really do love their dynamic with one another and ship them, but as for the other characters I do think they could've been handled a little bit better but they're still fine enough characters on their own and I do think the route they went with the story also could've been handled better and could've been a little darker especially as the story they went with for S2, was based and took inspiration from another Dr. Seuss book called, "The Butter Battle Book" which was an anti war book that was written during the Cold war and I think they really could've done something different and make it more darker, but what they went with was fine and okay for what it was, but I think it could've been handled better and now certain characters act and are underutilize was also an issue with the second season, but for what S2 was its definitely a decent effort and they could've done something so much worse, the soul and heart of this soul is still there even if it lacks in some places, it's still a good season and I like it for what it is despite its flaws and issues, I still enjoy it. 💙

Overall, Green Eggs & Ham is an incredible and wonderful show that's very underrated and should be discussed and talked about more, this is a show that truly understood the message of the book and the source material itself. This show took inspiration from a short book and expanded upon the message and fits perfectly to not just the Green, Eggs & Ham but also to the characters as well too as we see them try new things and develop over the course of the show and I think the lesson of the book can apply to all of us as well too honestly. Live life to the absolute fullest as it's filled with many opportunities and about discovering new things but in order to that, you'll have to get out there and do what you love and just give new things a try and don't giving up and keep trying, even when life is tough, difficult or feels rather pointless, keep pushing forward and trying things! You can tell everyone who worked on Geah, truly care about Dr. Seuss and this book and wanted to do the show justice and they 100% succeeded. Even after the show's conclusion, this show is still amazing, delightful and just absolutely wonderful, it's filled with so much love, passion, it's well crafted and it's just a masterpiece honestly and it's most definitely the best Dr. Seuss adaptation!

If none of you haven't seen this show before or even heard of it, I'd highly recommend this show as it's a great and fun watch and it's 100% worth your time. This show is for everyone and even if you aren't that familiar with Dr. Seuss, you'll still very much love and enjoy this show. Please everyone, give this show a try and check it out, it's worth it. 🫶🩷

[the-rat-eatery]

It’s very hard to describe what it is to be queer to me. I see men and women not much older than me and I want to be them. They make me uncomfortable, they make the world uncomfortable— I love them with everything in me. I see girls with unshaved pits and unibrows and stubble peaking through thick makeup, boys with shiny cheekbones and tooth gaps and scars like crescent moons on their chests— I want to be boyish in the way girls are boyish and feminine in the way boys are feminine. I want big, messy hair like that guy’s beard. I want a shaved head full of bald spots in the shapes of lightning strikes and stars. I want a tattoo of violets on my ribs. I love cargo pants, carabiners.

I love loving women. It’s one of the most comfortable things in my life. I love being queer. I love the optionality. I like being a girl in the way that girls like, not in the way that man ogle at— I want to make the men uncomfortable with my exaggerated hair and pants and voice. I want people to look at me and shy away. I want women that look at other women to look at me and yell— she’s one of us!— from the other side of the street.

And it’s not just liking the way girls move or the way they talk or the way their thoughts come together— it’s being queer, it’s being gay, it’s being an awful deviant. It’s shaved eyebrows and hair that looks awful out of context. It’s noses that are too big and lips that are too big and fingers that are too long. It’s the way that man’s shirt falls over his ribs. It’s the way that girl’s skirt gets muddy and tangled with her heavy boots. It’s overexposed photos. It’s women with bleeding knuckles, scraped knees. It’s raspy voices. It is stretched ears hanging loose. It’s girls that are boys and boys that are girls— girls that are girls uncomfortably and boys that are boys with disquiet.

And it is also me. Me— in my appeasing floral dress and calm hair. I don’t shave for weeks out of some sort of childish rebellion but then am not confident enough to lift my arms to reach a high shelf for fear that someone will see— eventually, I let my leg hair grow out and banish the pit hair, I figure: what’s the point if I don’t like it? I exercise. I build up my biceps. When I lift my arms to do my hair up, the muscles bulge and ripple— this feels good. But my mother scolds me for lifting too much, tells me that this is a man’s job— what am I to do with that? My nail polish is chipped and I wear boots everywhere and I stare at pretty girls when they aren’t looking. I write poetry for my best friend, poetry I will make sure she never reads. I am… adjacent to queerness. No boys ask me out despite the fact that I still want them too, I suspect they hear my baying laugh and see the long hair on my ankles and are made uncomfortable (but is that not what I wanted?— I ask myself— did I not want to displace those who have always been steady, make steady those who trip often?). But no girls ask me out either, and I am afraid of them. There are gay girls in my sphere, but they don’t pick up on the signals I am desperately trying to send out— me on my little rock stuck in open space, casting out radio signals like fishing line in the hopes that, someday, it will catch. But my boots do nothing but squeak on the tile and my hair does nothing but fall limp in the heat. I am too uncomfortable and yet too commonplace. I am stuck on the path between person and better person— the front wheel of my bicycle has gotten lodged in the mud and I keep pulling and pulling and, eventually, it will fly out and all the momentum of my pulling will launch me over the finish line.

I want to wear a suit that looks good on me. I want a carabiner, a whole collection of heavy boots and jackets. I want to be a gender-bending, fluid masterpiece. Someone that is neither man nor woman but king and queen and warlock all. I am stifled here, muted. My colors dimmed and dulled— sullied under the too bright rays of scrutiny that I consist under. The problem is— I like my floral dresses, my thick hair that gets stiff in the sea breeze. But I also like the way I look in blazers and my one pair of expensive, woolen pants. I like the way it feels to stomp my boots at a concert. I feel masculine and I am powerful in that masculinity. I also feel powerful when the sun hits my hips as I lounge next to the Atlantic— the way strangers stare at my flushed face, my full thighs and strong arms, feels powerful. Like I have and hold power in my cupped hands and like I have drunk from them. I don’t fall into the lines of butch and femme, I only stand on them, admiring the people on either side.

There is strength in knowing who you are, there is stability, there is community. There is that look that passes between people when they spot another in the crowd— a nod of respect, of compassion, of recognition. Hello there— person that is not like those around you— it says— do not fret, you are like me. I want that.

[constantlyfeelsick]

So i was reading @basil-does-arttt 's fanfic "Frustrations and Gentle Affections." and I realised something. For context, Nico has convinced the Spardas to sit down in their Devil Trigger forms and let her pick off loose scales for her experiments and creations. While she is doing this, she wonders to herself whether if demons groom themselves. This led me to the idea, what if demons moult?

(Bunch of stuff about moulting below. I'm no expert, and my sources are all online searches)

I will concentrate on bird and crustacean moulting for this. Moulting for birds is the replenishment and replacement of feathers. A bird's plummage will noticeably change over the course of the year. As their plummage dulls, they will then start to moult. They typically go through either partial moults (replacement of a portion of theif feathers) and/or complete moults (replacement of all feathers, birds typically don more vibrant features after complete moults).

Now moving onto crustaceans, specifically lobsters. Rather than an internal skeleton, lobsters have external skeletons called an exoskeleton. As a lobster grows, their exoskeleton will become too tight, and they will shed their exoskeleton and be left with a soft shell. Immediately after moulting, a lobster will pump their body full of fluids and enlarge their soft shell. A lobster grows ~20% per moult. After enlarging their bodies, a lobster will absorb water to rehydrate and will eat their previous shells to regain nutrition and protein. Due to an enzyme called telomerase, lobsters continue to grow through their lives, and the occurrence of senescence is slow. (It was actually due to this that the myth of lobsters' immortality came to place).

@basil-does-arttt 's interpretation is closer to that of a bird's moult. Individual feathers/scales fall off and are replaced. But I think lobsters' moult align more with demons. I'm pretty sure that as demons age, the more powerful they become. Lobsters also continue to grow as they age. Apart from natural old age eventually killing lobsters, another reason not all lobsters continue growing is that moulting is consumes a lot of energy, the larger the body, the more energy necessary to moult(like how triggering dt takes up a lot of energy for the spardas). Perhaps demons have a similar problem? They can't continue growing for eternity due to energy consumption, and that would explain why we haven't seen any behemoth sized demons. Lobsters' longevity is also seen in demons' long lifespans. Once again, this could be due to demons continually creating a certain enzyme to sustain them like how lobsters do. Also, I feel like eating their shedded moult is something demons would do, just feels right.

Another thing I wanted to bring up is this "cult" that is growing a leviathan lobster god. Sure, it is a joke thing to incentivise people into recycling and caring more for the earth, but they do have a point with the large lobster. The largest lobster found weighed 20.15 kgs (44.4lbs) , the average lobster weights ~0.6 kgs (1.3lbs). That means the largest lobster was ~3591.6% bigger than the average lobster. Now imagine that with demons, if the twins SDT is the average size of a demon, a levithan sized demon would be so fucking huge.

[hanzajesthanza]

So I watch videos about games to vet them before buying them cause I don't want to spend time and money on something I dislike or disagree with and came to the conclusion that I would like the Witcher 3. However when I tried playing it initially I was stuck on who Geralt was and not who other people said he was so I set the game aside and read all the books expect season of storms (I knew it came out after the game) because I figured it would help me play the game. I love reading so this wasn't a problem and I love the books and am now making my way through the game.

What I have to say is that I do not understand how someone could get the maximum amount of Witcher experience from the game alone. Geralt learns and changes in the books and you need to know him and his companions to make that games make sense.

What are your thoughts on this cause I have a friend who loves the games but hasn't read the books and yes I have told her to read them for her own benefit.

what i've found is that it really depends on the individual, what they define "the witcher experience." for some people, that's only going to be the games, for others, it will be the books first, then games, and for others still it will be just the books, and so on. i've been all three of the above, and there's even more, for instance, people who want to consume every single media that gets produced with the "witcher" name, because... witcher!

the games trilogy stands by itself as its own cycle of storytelling, apart from the books, so i can understand how some fans feel that the books aren't needed to have a "full" experience. i think even xletalis expressed this in one of his videos (i used to watch them way back when), where he said that he felt "satisfied" or "complete" after playing the games, so he didn't feel any need to read the books.

it's also up to the individual on whether or not the books will help or hinder their game experience. some context is helpful, but if you focus too much on the books while playing the games, it begins to detract from the games experience (at least, it did for me).

i really couldn't go back to witcher 3 the same way i did after i read the books, because the thing i enjoyed the most in witcher 3, and which also took up a lot of the time—riding around the map on roach—had become depressing and dull. whereas when i first played the game, it was like freedom for geralt to ride with swords on his back, doing witcher things, when i came back to it after reading, all i could think about was how alone geralt was, riding alone, with no one to talk to, no one to fill the silence. i kept thinking about the hanza's shallow graves... i missed dandelion with his banter and his lute... and i felt the weight of the swords, the desperation and frustration of losing ciri...

and this made me realize that between different medias, there are different priorities for the audience.

in the books, it's the dialogue, the characters, in short: the writing, which is the focus. and this writing is not always "fun" to engage with. yes, it's enjoyable to read, but is often about really heavy topics or feelings, bringing to light some unsavory truths, bringing you to strong emotions. and it's a dialogue with the author, whose tendencies and ideas about the canon i'm trying to figure out as i go. and the witcher largely focuses on the suffering of its characters, and though they retain their hope, their lives are not exactly power fantasies or figures i'd like to live vicariously through.

for instance, geralt as a witcher in witcher 3 feels powerful and cool, but in the books, though he has badass moments, in the storytelling it's exactly the opposite. his "witcher's work" is quite literally just his day job, one he doesn't really enjoy but has to do because otherwise he'll starve, and which often brings him to dark places and fills him with regrets and doubts.

witchering in the books is not presented as something fun and game-like, and this difference in approach makes it difficult to transition back into playing a game for enjoyment. the books, though they depict violence, are really anti-violence and usually (usually, although it's very satisfying sometimes) depict killing as a brutal necessity and not something to aspire to. ciri's story as she struggles with revenge is really best encompassing this, but it's also present in geralt's storyline.

another example is that of regis, as when i first played blood and wine i thought he and dettlaff storming dun tynne was totally badass, but after i read the books, it felt... bad. i saw him as having an incredibly complex relationship with violence and bloodshed, and self-defining as a coward... (blood and wine, though it acknowledged his sobriety, had him break it again and didn't really take the time to explore the effects of this). it didn't feel like it aligned with his character motivations and conflicts from the books.

that was how it was for me playing from a books perspective. but from a games perspective, it's different.

though there are many ways people interact with video games, and i'm not knocking witcher 3's storytelling or saying that you can't engage with video games as stories, i'm only speaking from how i personally engage with video games: i like to maximize the "fun" out of them, the interactive play element.

unlike in a book, i'm often not looking for long and drawn-out philosophical discussions, but witty exchanges or great one-liners. i want cool fights and interesting questlines that lead me somewhere as a player. storytelling is more cause-and-effect than contemplative narrative. and witcher 3 does everything about a video game really well, it's very fun to play.

when i first played witcher 3, riding on horseback with a silver sword as bright as a lightning bolt is all i ever wanted. then after i read the books, i came from this area where the witcher-ing reality was purposefully questioned. it wasn't just like "yooo, endrega nest! blow this shit up!" it was like, "i wonder what the ecological effect of destroying this nest is... oh god... did those rotfiends back there have families..." because... well, the books just make you think like that.

so, i wouldn't say that you necessarily need the books or the games to enjoy either, because for me, they're quite separate: separate attitudes, separate approaches. the books will help you understand what's going on in the games, but can also distract from what the games do well. the games are good because they're good at being games, the books are good because they're good at being books. so it's fine to want to just have one-or-the-other; just don't expect them to translate over.

however, from a cohesive "storytelling perspective," i.e., continuity's sake, i do think it makes sense to read the books to understand character relationships, as you mentioned.

for instance, i did not really understand geralt and dandelion's friendship until i read the short stories and got a better look at why they are friends (though it's also my fault for only playing the third game, they're much better in the first two i know).

i also didn't get geralt and yennefer as a couple until i read the books twice (it's more of a longer story there. but basically, i couldn't read rivia and be like 'nah they shouldn't be together'... like she died on top of his dead body. they're kind of together forever whether anyone likes it or not lol). this was also due to a lot of yennefer slander i read from more game-based fans who didn't read any of the books, but swore that she was cruel and abusive to geralt, and i made the mistake of trusting their word for it since "they know more than i do!"

at the same time, it might be more confusing for an audience, because some characters in the game get reduced to their un-developed character state from the books, so they can then arc within the game.for instance, yennefer in witcher 3 is less like the lady of the lake yennefer, and more like the sword of destiny yennefer.

additionally, some characters are just straight up changed in personality, for instance, triss who has become more brave and assertive in the games, a "pseudo-yennefer." though you can chalk this up to character development occurring in the space of time since the books ended, i think it is confusing to try and pawn it off as the same character with continuity, since we don't see any of that development happening it feels like an abrupt change.

even with characters that cdpr got really "right," i prefer to see them as entirely separate characters and canons (this is about regis. lol) because it's disturbing to see some of the changes and try to take that as a "canon continuation".

this was all kind of a ramble, so i hope i answered your question!

tl;dr my answer would be that it really depends on the player/reader and what they want to get out of the experience; if they feel satisfied with having the knowledge they have or if they want more depth and explanations, if they care to deal with the complexity of marrying two canons with each other, or don't want to get too deep into the multimedia universe.

in my own space, i like to think about the books as a complete cycle, and then engage with games/other mediums with an "i'll entertain it, if it's entertaining" attitude—so i really can't judge if someone wants to only look into the games, that's just the mirror-reverse of what i do.

however, i think it's worth it to look into the other medias, even if it doesn't end up being something you're primarily interested in. like, just read the first book, or play a little of the third game (i choose these because they're the easiest to get into). try to talk to fans who like those medias most, see what they like about it.

i think this can not only help you think about what you enjoy about your own "witcher experience," but also start to understand why other fans like this other media so much, which can then help you have, or understand, more conversations.

[forevertrueblue]

Notes taken during Eras Tour Paris N1 livestream

I like the new Lover outfit(s). I've been waiting for Taylor to embrace orange more so that was nice to see! Sad about The Archer getting cut but I guess I get it?

Nice to see the silver brought back from the Fearless tour. Not much else to say about that era.

Red third now, okay. Nice shirt lol and also like the new bodysuit! I don't care for most of the inclusions in this era tbh since it's mostly the singles and the majority of Red's singles are mid IMO. And All Too Well 10 Minute Version staying is surely going to end up pissing me off in the long run when we find out what else is cut.

I like the new Speak Now dress but Long Live being cut is AWFUL, like there were only two songs in this era to begin with, cut something from Red instead ffs. (I swear I do like Red but the album is better than the way it's represented on this tour.)

Reputation is the same which I'm cool with since I liked the way that era was to begin with!

I've been predicting Folkmore combined which I'm not happy about but I think this is it. Pretty yellow dress. Glad Cardgian is safe but she's singing it on the roof and I do prefer Invisible String or The One. :( Glad all three triangle songs are safe because it's weird to do some but not the others especially if she's talking about that storyline in the Betty speech. Some of them were chopped down but that's okay, I guess.

Okay yeah Champagne Problems so a combo. I knew that one was gonna be safe from the rehearsal footage. Few more Folklore songs...okay finally more Evermore! Marjorie and Willow! It would have been weird for her to cut either of those (for different reasons). But TLGAD and Tolerate It are pretty big losses. I don't LOVE Tolerate It but the performance was different from anything else on the tour.

1989, nothing cut. (Something really should have been cut from both this and Red, but it probably would have been Wildest Dreams which is one I really love so glad it's safe!) I don't like the new outfit because of the colors looking strange together in this context.

TTPD looks like the dancers are prisoners for the first part of the set which eh, don't really love how basic the outfits are. Taylor's dress with the poetry is nice though (can't wait for someone with eagle eyes to decipher it!). Happy that So High School was included, if only for a bit, to get that Anthology rep in there. Pleasantly surprised by WAOLOM because people had me convinved she'd destroy her voice if she did it (hoping they're wrong lol). Some of these song choices are dull af (both Fortnight and Down Bad for a stadium show, really?) But LOVE the intro and performance of ICDIWABH! I kind of think this should have been the new finale set but I get why it's being kept the same.

Nice new dress for surprise songs. Paris was a predictable choice and I figured the other would be from TTPD, but was expecting an anthology track.

I love the Midnights set (surprising since the album isn't my fave) but if she doesn't cut something from it I'm gonna be annoyed. And that something better not be Vigilante Shit. Aaaaand the whole thing remains intact.

TLDR: The best eras (literally my top 4 albums were the ones that lost songs and my top 2 were combined) were chopped down and the more basic (dare I say mid) ones remain completely intact making the tour a bit more of a generic pop show on the whole. I understand cuts needed to happen but the wrong ones were made IMO.