#Trying not to feel salty

[fairy-bard]

i’ve been loving watching critical role recently if for no other reason than because i get to watch a decent portion of viewers actively falling for cult tactics lmao

a forbes article describes cult tactics as when cult leaders “censor dissenting viewpoints, promote a distorted narrative and use relentless repetition and peer pressure”

ludinus needing to monologue at everyone he meets. cherry picking what information to let people know (ie the orb). showing popular world leaders (gods?) at their absolute worst as a means to win over the vulnerable. creating dissent between cult prospects and the people who they’re close to outside the cult. doesn’t take no for an answer. repeating his points over and over, in whatever context he thinks will be most persuasive. targeting people who’ve lost everything. convincing people that they’re special

matt is a genius.

[phoenixcatch7]

Honestly I'd really like to see a mxtx3 story where wwx and xl work with Sqq to reveal sqq's true backstory and the system to lbh.

I mean, think about it!! One of the biggest problems with scum villain is how even though they get together, unlike the other couples bingqiu is still left with all these huge secrets that massively affect them both. Lbh is left believing he married his mercurial abuser, that his suffering passed some sort of indefinable test that proved him worthy of basic rights. That Sqq threw him in the abyss of his own volition. That Sqq was really sacrificing his life and not faking his death with intent to survive.

Sqq is left knowing all these things but unable to act on them, unable to tell his husband about his own past, unable to explain his actions, never able to fully let his guard down because he's supposed to be shen qingqiu. He can't even tell his own husband his original name!! If he could have, he would have, even if only in the extras!

But can you imagine???

A meeting of bingqiu, wangxian, Hualian, for whatever reason, and as the three (actual) protagonists chat and gossip and get to know each other, as they talk, Sqq is at ease enough to slip up and finds out he can talk about the system to anyone from outside pidw! Not just sqh!! Maybe not completely, but he can mention some, and the other two, concerned for their new friend, are clever enough to tease the rest out. They're horrified. Sqq is resigned but freshly hopeful.

And so begins Mission: Save Sqq's Marriage!

(Sqq would very much like to contend the title but he is out voted.)

I'd just love to see the three of them (with unquestioning aid from their husbands) get up to hijinks and face existential horrors on a quest to help bingqiu get the closure they need. And moshang too, I guess XD.

It'd also be very, very funny to have them all in the middle of the latest traumatic and/or mortifying scene look around at the other two like 'hey, aren't you supposed to be freaking out now? This is normally the part people start screaming' and the other two are like 'I mean I guess?? We've got things to do though' like kings of unflappable repression right there.

(and lbh and lwj having vinegar-offs while hc is sighing dreamily watching his husband make semi decent friends for once)

Like there's a bunch of crossovers but none really scratch that itch, you know? The main characters of all 3 mxtx?? There's so much potential for Truly Unhinged Shenanigans!! Wangxian visiting pidws wife plot filled world and disappearing into the wilderness for a full week, coming back with every single piece of clothing they brought ruined. Hualian go visit mdzs and and no one believes xl is a diety and hc chomping at the bit to kill them for the injustice. Bingqiu going to tgcf and lbh getting mistaken for a calamity, or Sqq falling into the one wife plot kidnapping or something intended for a diety.

But seriously imagine Sqq complaining about something and wwx and xl immediately going 'that's not right! You deserve better!!' and Sqq is like 'no it's fine I'm used to it' and the other two slam their fists on the table like 'no!!! If [husband] was forced to keep that kind of secret I'd hate it!! You two deserve to be properly happy!! Let us help! We can fix this!' and start working with zeal and vigor while Sqq trails along embarrassed half heartedly muttering 'it's not that bad >:/'.

And when it works (presumably some clever loophole they stumbled on) and bingqiu are tearfully kissing they share a low five without looking. Or that one meme where the person getting kissed holds their hand back and their wingman enthusiastically high fives it but there's two wingmen XD!

I don't knowww but it'd be such a good premise! Ripe for character interactions!! Fluff! Crack! Angst! Daytrips and pouring their hearts out to people who'd really understand! Xl wwx and Sqq bestie team up! Meeting moshang! Wwx info dumping about his monster index categorisation to an enthralled Sqq! Xl and Sqq bemoaning etiquette while wwx laughs at them! Xl and wwx having intense discussions about morality and righteousness! All three of them laughing at how oblivious they were about their husbands, each trying to one the other two for Dumb Moments They Should Have Realised (Sqq wins by horrifying the other two)!

Forget cross country kidnappings and being locked in a room! Where is my protagonist trio getting into trouble on a self imposed mission to help their friend! Let their magnetism for insanity shine!!

[wildmrmix]

Hc Ponyboy gives people dirty looks if they’re making noise in class (ex: tapping their pencil really loudly). Like this man will turn to stare at you for a few seconds, then roll his eyes and turn away

He will do it repeatedly throughout the period and god forbid y’all share the next class too

[khaire-traveler]

The fact that "broke college student" is a stereotype in the US is indicative that there's a problem.

[jdorian]

some of you might be unhappy to hear this but an interview mentioning that Eddie would want to hang out with his bestie of 7 years and the guy he hung out with at least 3 times a week and who he introduced to his son within weeks of knowing him, when said son no longer lives with (or speaks to) him, especially during a time he isn't dating 2 women simultaneously, being alone bar his coworkers and friends who are clearly very busy with other things...

all of that has nothing to do with one ship or another and maybe for once we could just acknowledge that he is his own character, more than ever before probably and just not act like there is something weird about that or as if it Must Have romantic intentions one way or another

the man is lonely you all, ofc he's gonna lean on the people he's still got left, it's the least surprising thing ever

[raionmimi]

Super Mega Ultrawatch!Symmetra is Vishkar's failed kaiju experiment. She's become more aggressive towards people, but doesn't particularly seem interested in fighting either. They have to provoke her into turning into her kaiju form to fight the heroes

She really likes Lifeweaver's biolight plants though, it's one of the few things that snaps her out of her rampages. In this au, he takes her with him when he leaves the company

[antiquepearlss]

I’m too tired to post an essay but my girl was just a victim of bad writing and a lack of critical thinking from the audience okay I love her.

[drev-the-procrastinator]

Like. ok

ok 15 12s from the juries and zero (0!!!!!) 12s from the public taking the win from 2 12s from the juries and 18 12s from the public. ok. ok. sure

[uncanny-tranny]

The nice thing about reaching adulthood as a trans person is that there are plenty of instances where, before as a kid, your transness mattered, but now it doesn't necessarily

When I was in high school, I was required to take a P.E. class to graduate, and I was always yelled at for being late and bringing my backpack to class with me because I couldn't change in locker rooms like the other guys. I changed in a faculty restroom and brought my bag with me, my tardiness be damned. It gave me an unhealthy view of fitness because I despised how othered I felt, and I couldn't articulate why I didn't feel safe necessarily. I felt like transness would always be what others saw before they saw me, and I hated that feeling. I don't like being seen as The Trans Person, I just like being seen as me, where being trans is part of me but not the whole.

However, as an adult, I can join a gym and they don't fucking care. I get to retrain how to have a healthy relationship with fitness on my own terms because now, I have the freedom to be left the fuck alone about my transness. I love weightlifting, I love feeling physically fit, and high school was not the place for me as a trans person.

If any young trans person is feeling how I felt about their transness being front-and-center, just, please hold out hope. I know shit's scary, especially for you young people, and I do not blame you for how you feel. Just know that there can be good out there.

[likeasecondself]

you know the fic where ronan shaves adam's face for him that i started working on? well,,, it's taken the strangest turn and i cannot open the document without feeling like there's lava in my veins. its fucked up but i've not had a pynch fic derail this off track before, i was going for romantic comedy, blissful fluff and i've ended with this intense scene where at one point ronan's mad at the world for continuing whilst adam falls apart. its not even strictly horny, its just so many feelings and im a little scared so im going to work on my dreams-gone-wrong fic because i am actually kinda petrified of this fic, like ronan is of adam's vulnerability

[machiavelli]

also. I would like to make a post about the weirdest procedures or products that people are desperately trying to get in order to remain young. so scary. salmon sperm on your face. are we fucking fr. when was the last time you got your moles checked for cancer instead. but I mean- we have people using diabete medicines without a second thought to get skinny, so I wouldn’t say that health is the main concern here.

and I have to tell you people. I don’t give a fuck about sunscreen if I’m not at the beach. bye.

[marimbles]

i miss carpisuns sometimes </3

[anneapocalypse]

At the end of the day you can use "Varric is an unreliable narrator" to overwrite literally any part of DA2 that you don't like. Like you can say, "Oh of COURSE Varric isn't actually against mage freedom! He just said that he objected to Hawke freeing the mages because Cassandra was interrogating him." And sure, I can't prove to you that he isn't lying about that. I can't prove to you that Varric isn't lying about anything. I can't prove to you that the entirety of Inquisition isn't also Varric making things up because he did also write a book about that and we hear Cassandra reading it in the end credits. At the end of the day if you want to you can basically wipe out Varric's entire character as presented to us and say, "Actually he was lying! He's really this."

But at a certain point you do also have to acknowledge that the frame narrative is a storytelling device that's meant to enhance the story, not like... erase it. Or at least I prefer to acknowledge that, because going too far the other way basically guts the story of all meaning. If Varric is a character we are meant to engage with on any level--and I think it's clear from his prominence in the franchise that he is!--then at least some of what we see him say and do needs to be able to meaningfully interpreted, even if we second-guess him, even if we can pick out half-truths here and there, even if we cross-check our interpretations against how he behaves in other parts of canon.

Like at least some of what we're given about Varric has to be meaningful to his character, or why even bother, I guess is what I'm saying.

[anthurak]

So I REALLY wish Yugioh Card Lore was a more popular part of the fandom.

Like I just got back into reading up on the Time Thief archetype which has a lot of fun stuff going on with these two pretty boys going back in time to save a girl who creates time travel on the orders of that girl's future self who is also a time-traveler herself.

Not to mention they have ties to the S-Force series via Redoer's almost certainly extremely homoerotic rivalry with 'Inter-Dimensional Cop in a cowboy-cosplay' Orrafist,

...which in turn connects them to the adventures of S:P 'Turns out having a cute hacker catgirlfriend is WAY better than being a cop' Little Knight and her aforementioned GF I:P Masquerena,

Which ALSO potentially connects them to Masq's buddies, the Vtuber-hacker-catburgler-magical-girlfriends Ki-sikil and Lil-la.

Soooo... I go looking up 'Yugioh Time Thief' in the search, looking for maybe just a bit of fanart or headcanons and find...

Nothing but people gushing about Yami 'Thief King' Bakura.

Joy.

Man I am REALLY hoping the Chronicles anime generates at least SOME interest in these stories.

Seriously! There's so much cool stuff here!

[mochi-kitty]

Being an impulse fan is like walking the edge of a knife sometimes

Rant about cartoon impulse that morphs into complaints about the young justice show itself.

Please scroll I just needed to complain a little

cuz on one hand that’s my boy. My complicated driven and violent creature who sometimes doesn’t understand that danger is realTM… and to see him animated is a dream but the only place he’s really animated is in a half anime half cartoon low effort art style series that sorta got him right in the season they introduced him in but then when the show got rebooted they turned his cringe dial allllll the way up and it’s kind of painful to rewatch because they didn’t hold onto a single bit of his story in the reboot after season 2 and if you thought they hated writing him in the newer comics well they also hate to do it in animation (as said previously they just never know what to do with the flashes hence why Wally barely appeared in Justice league unlimited). Season 2 impulse was okay, I was happy with what I got. Season 3 kid flash was unbearable. Season 4 kid flash was better but not as good as season 2 and they brushed over his involvement like nothing.

It just sucks so much because an impulse series is never going to happen. The TV Industry is too far into other genres like Harley Quinn and kiteman to even attempt spending money on adapting the impulse comics even if it would find a small audience, the fandom is just too divided between the multiple interpretations that were created for Bart Allen over the years. From aging him down when he shouldn’t have been to making him more adult and then never using him or killing him off to make him young again.

And it SUCKS so much because was keeping his comic personality in the young Justice show too much to ask for? Could the writers really not find any use for him past season 2? Could they not be bothered to read up on his lore? Not even from the wiki?

I keep thinking of what it would be like if the show directors had just a little more wiggle room to work with. Like if they didn’t HAVE to keep a central plot involving 30 different characters to wrap up a 24 episode season with a big battle at the end only to remember in hindsight that they A. forgot some characters still had holes in their plots and B. no one got character development that was substantial enough to matter. We had up to nearly a decade between season 2 and season 3 and it was a miracle in itself that it even got this chance in the first place. Even I admit I was too excited to care at the time but now it’s kind of painful to find all the faults in it when it’s been left again on the back burner of a greedy studio. From the time skips to introducing SO MANY new characters all in one season,,, the show practically dug itself in a hole and I will die on this hill. I understand the time constraints, the money issues, the audience reacting to a new season years after the last one when we’ve turned the internet into a harsher judgement zone. They wanted to include every character DC ever created, if only to please that one DC fan who even knew about Halo or dolphins existence and then add in real world issues on top of that to make it relatable.

IMO they bit off more then they could chew. Despite what redditers will tell you, the time skips were a cheap way to avoid certain parts of the characters development and they hindered more then they helped. Not only did we not get to grow with our original team of hero’s, we had to accept that we wouldn’t get to see 7 years of their growth (not even in flashbacks). And it just kept happening in a lesser volume with each season. Add on top of that we had the 20 new people they’d introduce who’d get the same no development treatment. Season 4, of course, tried to course correct and made little arcs for the original characters to get developed. Almost 9 years within the story later and with one of the original dead for no reason.

I just keep wondering if they hadn’t done any of that, what it would be like. Even the big rolling up hill plot of 24 episodes that crests 14 minutes into the last 20 minute episode with the remaining 6 minutes being the down time. If we had it more like the original Justice league cartoon with part 1-2 episodes focusing on one major plot or issue with all or most team members showing up. Or if we had kept it like season 1 with the monster of the week style of episodes (see supernatural season 1 to know monster of the week better) would we have gotten better character development? Would it have paced out the big bad reveal at the end more efficiently? Would it have forced the writers to actually read up on the characters they were adapting past their surface level personality? We’ll never know.

I can’t even hate the young justice plot that much either because it’s not terrible, it just the way they play dolls with the characters that hurts because I want to love it. My fav has been animated and I can see them move past their still comic pages and hear them actually talk on screen, that alone should be enough but it’s not.

Not when I can’t rewatch any of it without the high chance of getting second hand embarrassment if I don’t pay attention to when I have to skip ahead. An issue that wouldn’t even be a thing if the writers had JUST ORGANIZED THEMSELVES A LITTLE BETTER AND READ THE DAMN CHARACTERS COMICS A LITTLE.

I can’t even talk about the outfits or art style or the battle animations or the relationships or the specific character based plot holes or the change of priority the reboot brought or idk maybe Wally’s death??

[aimfor-theheart]

always someone who barely thinks anyways going “yeah sometimes i just really need to turn my brain off” like girl we know….