#a bunch of characters aren't really well written

[dw-flagler]

tried to read completely unoriginal but honestly it was a bit of a slog. Not, like, really bad, but it just wasn't really entertaining for me. they say it gets good later on but it's just really hard to keep reading it.

[icewindandboringhorror]

finally finished all of one character's entire quests/optional dialogue/questions/etc.... 100,000 words... .... aughhh

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread

Like A Love Story

historical YA following three teens in 1989 New York amidst the AIDS crisis

a closeted Iranian boy who’s just moved to the city, a young punk activist rebelling against his conservative parents, and his best friend, an aspiring fashion designer

complicated friendships & romance, and revolution

[a-secret-bolton-vampire]

I absolutely adore Worm and Ward and there are very few things I'd actually complain about either of them. Some of the best fiction I've ever read. But there is a recurring thing within both stories that kinda just feels really shitty?

On occasion, we will get a character (mostly women) who is insinuated to be queer in some capacity only to then firmly deny it in a way that just comes across as slightly mean-spirited and queerbaity, despite having a ton of well written canonically queer characters?

Assault implies Battery is into women and she gets really upset by that. Cassie and Chastity... I mean, even with Cassie's long-winded explanation about how they are totally just besties that ends up reading even more like they are gay and just not out to anyone else. Or when Swansong argues with Damsel about fantasies of having servants and mentions having "cute girls too", only for her to shut down when Damsel asks if she's more "worldly" by saying "we're talking about Rain." Or when Imp taunts Vista/Canary/Sophia/so many others with lesbian innuendo. Or when Regent body-snatches Sophia and has her "confess" her love to Emma to ruin her life. Or, to a lesser extent, when Taylor kisses Rachel and Lisa to cure them of Bonesaw's agnosia plague and Lisa says "no tongue". And this isn't even getting into the writing of character's internal thoughts or even the narrative structure that is so incredibly queer despite that (somehow) not being the intention.

In all these cases, it really feels like there is nothing that could be changed by simply... making them all queer? Battery is into women too, cool, that's fine, doesn't change the fact she loves Assault. Cassie and Chastity are practically girlfriends at this point there is absolutely nothing lost by making them such. Ashley wanting girls in her power fantasy without deflecting away from it again, changes literally nothing in the narrative. Or if Imp really is flirting with every girl she comes across. Or if Sophia and Emma maybe did have a crush, mutual or one-sided.

Of course we do get some really important canonically queer characters. Parian, Foil, Tattletale, Regent, Legend, Kenzie, Sveta, Tristan, March, Amy, Goddess... which makes it more baffling that Wildbow keeps writing in sapphic innuendo as a punchline.

There are legitimately very very few things I'd criticize Parahumans for writing wise but this is one of the few I would. If it was once or twice it'd be weird but it wouldn't feel so targeted as it does when you see how often it happens. Even in Ward where queerness is so much more at the forefront of the story this keeps happening.

Regardless, even with Wildbow shoving in "haha they aren't actually gay" in the story... it doesn't exactly make the story less queer. He keeps accidentally writing Taylor and Victoria and Swansong and so many others as being extremely queer to the point that any deflections otherwise only make it even more obvious they are queer. Seriously, Breakthrough and the Undersiders are a bunch of fruit loops in a rotating polyamorous relationship.

This isn't a hate post, just something I've thought of a lot lately. And it's this that fuels my desire to write Wormfic where the protags are just the queerest little people ever. They are some of the gayest girls to ever gay for girls.

[donelywell]

Have you seen the Sonic 3 Trailer? Opinions?

DUDE I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE MOVIEEEEEEE!!!!

I'm gonna dress up to the eights (because I can never reach nines) and drag my friends to the movie theater with them kicking and screaming-

Cut because Movie Spoilers from the Trailer

SHADOW LOOKS SO COOOOLLL!!! AND TAILS WITH THE OVERSIZED HELMET AND KNUCKLES WITH THE FLAMES OF DISASTER- YEAHHHHHH!!!!

I heard some people get mad that it's not gonna be exactly like SA2- and I'm okay with that! They're doing their own thing and I find it interesting! Tbh I view the movies as an au rather than canon twisted a little to fit on the big screen- and as a person who owns an au, I like to mess around and throw the canon stories around to create a different story, something fresher for people who are already familiar with the canon stuff.

I'm a little upset that Amy or Rouge doesn't appear to be making an appearance in the movie- but I actually have some hopes that Amy gets her own show like Knuckles did! Like Amy going from zone to zone using her Tarot cards to try finding her destiny and stuff like that- it'd give the fans what they want, more Sonic zones being shown and Amy/ other characters showing up! (as for Rouge, I think she might be a human spy member of GUN, I dunno, her being a mobian working for GUN doesn't really make that much sense in this universe. Though still, I probably won't be too mad about her not being there)

There are already a lot of characters main and side in this story, and I think Sonic 2 showed us that introducing 2 new characters makes it a little hard to dive deeper into both of their character. So while it would be awesome for Amy, Rouge, and Shadow to show up in this movie, it would not give them enough time to flesh out as full characters in the movie.

I'm not gonna say that the people who are mad about it are invalid about their anger- please don't take it as that. I just generally try looking at the good in some things.

Overall- I'm excited! Dude Shadow was so cool in the trailer- and I got a lot of hope that it's gonna be good because Jim Carrey said he wasn't gonna be in it unless 'the script was written by an angel in golden ink'- and he's in it TWICE!

Like Shadow did the ritual of beating the shit out of Tails- we gotta keep the tradition alive! Keanu actually fits Shadow so well as a voice actor it's crazy- 'Well aren't you a colorful bunch' hahaha!!

Dude if Keanu Reeves and Jim Carrey are canon in the universe- is Ben Schwartz?

[littledata]

what are these "best fics youve ever read that barely have any hits" you mentioned? can you give us a top 5 or sonething?

Oh God, you've really shamed me here because I read a LOT of random fics from fandoms I'm not even part of and the stories I was referring to largely come from there.

However, in the interest of practising what I preach, I sat down today and read a bunch of Warrior Nun fics I'd never read before so I could rec you some. To be totally clear, these aren't necessarily going to have "hardly any hits" but are fics that I think could use more love in general.

In no particular order:

I was seeing black and white (and now I'm living in color) by gayestcatra - 1281 words, a beautifully soft fic set in Switzerland with gorgeous description. By the same author I also enjoyed (your life was) my life's best part, an angsty Mary/Shannon exploring Mary's (heartbreaking) grief after Shannon's death.

Cat’s Cradle security checkpoint logs by @jtl07 - 518 words, have I raved enough on tumblr yet about how much I love their writing? No? Oh okay I'll do it again then. JT is one of my favourite writers in the fandom and I love this series of fics they did giving creative looks into the characters - this particular one is the contents of their bags but the whole series is worth checking out (and everything else they write too, obviously).

Lauds by @sisterdivinium - 3152 words, Mother Superion/Jillian Salvius. WE LOVE A RAREPAIR. Gorgeously written fic where you feel the weight of every single action. The author has a TON of fics if you liked this one too.

you're my best friend (in a world we must defend) by @daisychainsandbowties - 3980 words, avatrice and Pokemon. Beatrice's characterisation in this drives me insane. I MUST know more. If you know nothing about pokemon here's your primer: they're funny little guys you catch and make fight, exactly like the Catholic church did to Ava. There, now you've got no excuse not to read it.

Dead People Don't Shiver by waterintheshadows - 2068 words, avatrice soulmate AU set in a morgue FUCK YEAH. This is the kind of shit I live for. Great concept, great execution.

Where The River Bends by @itchyouchyz - 100,750 words, avatrice 1960s midwife AU. Full disclosure - it's 100k - I haven't finished it yet. But I LOVE what I've read so far, tender and lovely. Check the tags for trigger warnings on this one!

keep me in your mirror (but don't take your eyes off the road) by minutetuna - 26,343 words, avatrice season 2 road trip au. It made me feel this precise emotion: hnnnnnnghhhhh. There is a particular style of writing which is just bouncy and pacy and still draws you into every single emotion and this author has it in spades. LOVE.

This was so much fun! If anyone else wants to hit me up with some recs I'd love to hear them - even if (especially if) they're your fics. It's a long weekend, might as well spend it reading fanfiction.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

A little while ago, I saw a take about why season 2 of OFMD was "bad" that I just haven't been able to stop thinking about, because it hinged entirely around hating the ending because "they killed off the only well-developed character."

This has haunted me, because I have been completely unable to understand how you can watch the show and come away with that criticism. I've talked before about how everything about Izzy reads more coherently when you understand that he's just really not an important character in the grand scheme of things (he's important to Ed's overall story, but in terms of the narrative itself he's not a major player). He's there to be a voice for toxic masculinity, pull Ed back into this lifestyle that's killing him, and then start getting better as proof that Stede's way of doing masculinity is best. And because he is the very definition of a side character, I struggle to think how you even get the idea that he's somehow better developed than our leads or even other side characters, because even Lucius has more of a backstory than Izzy does and once Izzy ceases to become that mouthpiece for toxic masculinity, his personality kinda becomes just bland, swear-y abrasiveness (which is honestly fine, I think, he doesn't really need to be more than that because he is, again, relatively unimportant).

Izzy is played with conviction and depth. This is because Con O'Neill is a good actor who presumably puts a lot of thought into his performance - this is true for most actors on the show. Very talented bunch. But while Izzy is interesting, he's often interesting in terms of what he can tell us about mostly Ed but other characters as well (the crew save him as proof that Stede has influenced them and then help him mostly as a team-bonding exercise, for example). And Izzy has very few traits that aren't shared by other characters. Pete had a very similar arc about unlearning toxic masculinity in s1. All we know about Izzy is that he's a good swordsman, he's honestly a very shit sailor, he was power-hungry but then chilled out a bit, and he likes to say "fuck" and "twat" a lot. He fulfills his narrative purpose but I'm not sure I would call him a very well-developed character, much less the only well-developed character in the entire show.

I have tried so hard to give this interpretation the benefit of the doubt, but I genuinely think the only way you could think this is if your sole exposure to the show is through the way we know a not-insignificant portion of canyon folks watched it, which is through fan compilations of only the scenes with Izzy in them.

And I'm not really sure where that leaves us. There's a small but not insignificant portion of this fandom who engage with the show purely through the lens of one side character - and not even just a side character, but one who very frequently and unsubtly gets the events that actually happen very wrong to suit himself, especially where Ed is concerned. And now we have a situation where "gentlebeardies" (read: fans of the show as written) will sometimes be unable to talk about the actual text of the show because there's an insistence that this be treated as a valid interpretation and not just a reading-against-the-text exercise, and I'm not sure where that leaves us.

[stu-dyingstudent]

kid/academy/pre-genin Sakura Haruno fic recs

To be honest, there aren't many kid or academy Sakura fics out there, at least that I can find, and most of which are actually time travel AUs. Now, the tricky thing with it is that most of those tend to start where Sakura is quite young, but by the end of the story she is a genin. So, it gives me the difficult decision of whether of not I should include those on this list (I haven't decided).

Anyway, the other difficult aspect of fanfiction about a young Sakura is the writing itself. There has to be a good balance of childishness and eloquence to ensure that the writing is not just truthful to the character, but that it also flows with the story. These are some of the ones I like!

Started: 2024.07.25

Last Updated: 2024.09.28

note: feel free to check out my master list which has a bunch of Sakura Haruno fic recs (all organized)!

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Satori (Between the Lines) - Jaylene || ffn || gen || T || academy AU || complete

While attending the Academy, Sakura's field experience assignment with the Konohagakure Intelligence Division ends up being more valuable than she'd ever guess.

Sakura lands herself working in Torture & Intelligence??? From the very beginning Sakura has been pegged as a "paper ninja" where she is constantly praised for her intelligence, so Satori (Between the Lines) is academy Sakura putting these skills to use. Super good read and includes characters we don't normally get to see in fics!

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Time Flies Like An Arrow - Katlou303 || ao3 || gen || K || time travel AU || complete

Sakura traveled back in time with the intent of changing everything, but something went wrong, and now she's four years old having nightmares about impossible monsters and losing friends she has yet to meet.

Time Flies Like An Arrow is probably the most interesting take on a time travel AU I have ever read. Sakura ends up going back in time to when she is 4 years old and not even in the academy. The only thing is, she has no clue that this is the second time she's living this life and her mind is still one of a child.

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Two Minds (are better than one) - Lesemaus16 || ao3 || gen || Tobirama as inner AU || complete

Tobirama doesn't generally object to being reborn. He does object to being stuck in the mind of a little girl, though.Sakura grows up with a grumpy voice in her head, telling her to train more.Tobirama's influence on Sakura might very well change the story. Or maybe not, who knows.

note: I think this might actually take place during the genin days, but I have to check since I can't remember.

Tobirama is such a great character (so refreshing) and his interactions with Sakura in this are gold! I hope one day Kishimoto will release some side stories about him and other characters from his time as we really don't know that much about them tbh.

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New Day Dawning - IncompleteSentanc (Erava) || ao3 || narusaku || T || canon divergence || complete

One day, while visiting the grave of Nohara Rin, Obito stumbles across a young girl terrifyingly like her. He decides to ensure she doesn’t meet the same fate.As for Sakura? Sakura had no idea what she was awakening the day she went to visit her parents graves - but she never looked back. One way or another.(Feat. Sakura raised by Obito and the Akatsuki, and her eventual return to Konoha and all those she left behind)

Sakura is brainwashed and manipulated, but loved by notorious killers nonetheless. Incredibly well written and I won't lie when I say that the ending took me a bit by surprise. Also, I should warn you that this does take place over a long time and thus Sakura does not remain a child for the whole thing, but I just really wanted to put New Day Dawning on this list (just read it).

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In Another World - eleventheeggo || ao3 || gen || T || orphan Sakura AU || ongoing

What if Sakura was an orphan instead of Naruto and Sasuke? A story about a socially stunted girl who has a thirst for knowledge and is surrounded by softies who love her all the same.

Orphan!Sakura is not something I knew I needed in my life! She is so precious and it's great to watch all of these characters come together for her sake. In Another World also discusses ROOT a bit, which you know I love, so I can't wait for the story to get there.

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Your Move, Instigator (draw your weapon and hold your tongue) - Laysan_albatross || ao3|| third war extended AU || complete

“We are still under wartime policy,” the recruiter had told her parents. He had an envelope in his hand. He sounded sorry. “She has two parents who are successful ninjas. We would be remiss to overlook her potential based upon that alone.” The Third Shinobi War never ended. Konoha needs more soldiers, grabbing anyone who can fight, especially those who can't say no.

I feel like one of Your Move Instigator's biggest strengths is that it truly gets across the innocence (or loss) of these characters. They themselves don't fully understand what they are doing or why. They are just children following the orders given to them by adults, even if that means taking the life of another. In the beginning, Sakura even recalls times of her spelling and grammar being corrected in her reports along with other childish things. Konoha has shown themselves of not being above dispatching young children to fight, but this story just brings that devastation to new light.

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cut the head off the snake - itsthechocopuff || ao3 || T || time travel AU || complete

when eighteen-year-old, post-war Sakura is thrown back into her tiny, pre-Academy body, she makes a decision. she'd had a childhood once already, and this time, she's more interested in Not Dying when the inevitable shit hits the proverbial fan. so she will work harder, care less, kill more, and smile when she's done. and hey, if she ends up reviving an extinct nature transformation to attract the most corrupt, power-hungry man from her timeline, all the better for her, right?

Probably one of the best time travel AUs out there!! Also, we get to see ROOT!Sakura in here, which I love in addition to Sai (my baby). I know I said it's incomplete, but it's only missing one chapter so you still get plenty of story. Anyway, definitely check out cut the head off the snake!!

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Not so imaginary - FangirlJo || ao3 || gen || T || ghost Tobirama AU || incomplete

Haruno Sakura was 5 when she realises her imaginary friend was not so imaginary at all and resembles the Second Hokage by a lot. Like a lot a lot. In which Senju Tobirama is Sakura's Ghost Sensei. Things change, chaos ensues and Tobirama is once more reminded with the reason he doesn't have kids.

Damn, I just really love Tobirama as a character. This guy rocks and deserves more story time (justice for Tobirama!!).

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Ground Zero - TheIzzatron || ao3 || gen || T || third war extended AU || incomplete

Desperate times call for desperate measures. If this means forcing weapons into the hands of children, then so be it.

A young Sakura is taken advantage of in her parents’ absence at war and is enrolled into the academy's "accelerated" program. The complete unfairness of the situation is skillfully conveyed throughout the story. Sakura is left to wonder why she too isn't learning about flowers and history like Ino? Why Ino isn't learning the fastest way to kill her enemies? The characters and their emotions are so well done that you truly feel just how cheated they are. They aren't heartless, they are children. Highly recommend.

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Inherited Will of Fire - jokergirl2001 || ffn || T || gen || sakura can see ghosts AU || incomplete

She always knew she was a natural at genjutsu but what she didn't know was that being a natural meant she had some immense talent when it comes to spiritual energy. Well at least that's what the cheerful raven haired boy who apparently drowned himself on purpose said.

I only just started reading this now, but Inherited Will of Fire is super cute! Academy Sakura finds she is able to see ghosts after stumbling upon Shisui shortly after the Uchiha massacre.

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One Change in the Story - Aingeal98 || ffn || T || gen || time travel AU || incomplete

It wasn't supposed to be like this. She was only supposed to go back five minutes in time. Instead, Sakura wakes up in a dark room surrounded by people wearing black cloaks with red clouds on them. The worst part? She doesn't have a clue who she is.

Praying for One Change in the Story to be completed!! Sakura lands herself back in time with the mind and body of her four year old self. With Pein being the first one to find her, Sakura's new life purpose is to be the Akatsuki's weapon. Similar to New Day Dawning, Sakura doesn't stay a child for the entirety of this fic, but I still think it is a notable mention. Sakura slowly loses herself to her new roll and in a sense becomes the embodiment of a ROOT agent. It was interesting to see Itachi's internal battle with the situation and Konan's guilt. However, even with Sakura bound to Ame, there are children back in Konoha who have an itch that a pink-haired girl named Sakura is someone important.

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Old Man by the Bar - Varmint || ao3 || T || gen || academy AU || complete

All it took was one school teacher's decision for the reality of Konoha to be altered in a way that no one could have imagined. Follow Kiba Inuzuka, Sakura Haruno, and Chouji Akimichi as they grow as individuals, friends, and ninja. All with the help of that grumpy old man with all of the cool war stories.

The way this fic is genuinely so good and I almost never see people talking about it is criminal! The interactions between the kids are truly great and there is so much character growth among them. Kiba, Sakura, and Choji really just started off as a group of misfits thrown together for an assignment, but even though it was a complete disaster they grew to appreciate the relationship formed.

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Y'all, please send me some good kid/academy Sakura fics!!!! Or write one...

[genderqueerdykes]

Book anon brought up is literally called Trans/Rad/Fem and it claims to be essays on "transfeminism" but the entire basis is how r@dical feminism helped build feminsim, including transfeminism - thus transfeminism couldn't exist without radf3minism, and tries to argue the two types of feminism are actually very similar and should support each other. Just a snippet of the summary: "This series of essays aims to reconstruct and reintroduce the r@dical feminist framework that its misbegotten inheritors seem determined to forget and in doing so boldly makes the claim that transfeminism, far from being antagonistic to r@dical feminism, is in fact its direct descendant. It shows how a comprehensive social theory of transsexual oppression flows almost naturally from r@dical feminist precepts and dares to declare that a materialist, r@dical transfeminism is the way forward to seize the foundations of patriarchy at the root." The author has a bunch of free writing on her site, and it's interesting because she seriously uses the term transemasculation and argues that trans men do face specific oppression for being trans men, but then she's got this incredibly bizarre essay on how trans men aren't allowed to relate to Stone Butch Blues even though she personally knows a lot who do. Her stuff also really only pays lipservice to but is notably absent of anyone outside the binary, which is interesting because she also considers herself 'third sexed'. And she parrots these ideas about "degendering" and "regendering" throughout all her essays that just don't seem to /quite/ line up with the broader social definitions of these terms. I don't know, it's like someone who infiltrates 'the enemy' to try and take them down from the inside and doesn't realize they're slowly being converted. Also, she's actually on tumblr (head's up). Here's her own explanation of her book: https://taliabhattwrites.tumblr.com/post/769862585675825152/im-sorry-if-youve-answered-this-or-if-it-should And for some comparison here's genderkoolaid's reaction to the book summary (with full summary included): https://genderkoolaid.tumblr.com/post/771666069645623296/question-have-you-heard-about-the-book

"but then she's got this incredibly bizarre essay on how trans men aren't allowed to relate to Stone Butch Blues,"

does. does she know that Leslie Feinberg was literally a polygender lesbian who identified partially as a trans man. does she know that Leslie lived as a trans man for many years before accepting being multigender. does she know. anything about what she's talking about. like yes, Jess in the book was written to challenge the idea of what a woman "should be". and rightfully so. that part of Leslie's identity needed to be discussed. Leslie's other genders do not overwrite the fact that ze was a transsexual woman. i want that to be clear!

but it doesn't change the fact that transmasculine people are still gonna relate to this experience whether or not they identify as women. also what about transmasculine women...? that right there is enough to tell me this person has no idea what the fuck they're talking about. Stone Butch Blues was quite literally written by someone who was partially a trans man. like you cannot erase the fact that Leslie literally called hirself "polygendered". that was the term ze used for hirself. Leslie was a trans man as well as a transsexual woman. get fucked, talia. you don't know what the fuck you're talking about. even if the character of Jess wasn't a trans man, it doesn't erase the fact that Leslie was. Jess is just a character based off of Leslie.

wow that's actual bullshit. thank you so much for letting me know about this, i had no clue. i don't read books unless i'm looking into a specific topic so i'll be sure to steer clear of that. this shit is sad. rad feminism has never and will never help anyone. rad feminism is about hating women. it's about seeing women as weaker and inferior to men. it's about thinking that women can never hurt anyone else because they can't hold power in society ever. rad feminism is about painting women as pathetic dainty little creatures who could never hurt a fly, that women are so stupid that they can't think for themselves and are always being taken advantage of no matter what, and it's also about how women can only look and act certain ways or else they're not women.

trans rad feminism hurts trans women. if you're a transradfem:

radfems fucking hate you and want you to die. snap out of it. this will not make them like you. this will not make them see you as a woman. they are happy you are spreading their propaganda, but they want you dead and see you as predatory men invading women's spaces. wake. the fuck. up. all you're doing is participating in trans/misogyny and the faster you realize it, the better off you'll be.

[darklinaforever]

My god. What did you smoke to think that was well written ?! At what fucking moment ?! And lol ! If people really think that this kiss will have an effect on the Daemyra couple, people are completly dreaming. That Rhaenyra will have a serious relationship with Mysaria ? Even less ! It is very likely that this stupid kiss will not even be discussed in the future. Also... at one point in the video, the girl tries to say in relation to those who would have reacted badly to the kiss : "But don't straight people also kiss when they are sad ?" THE FUCKING CONNECTION ?!

And the rest is WORST !

Except that fucking yes ! There could have been official sapphic content in HOTD without these shitty relationships that are Rhaenicent and Rhaesaria ! Why ?! BECAUSE THERE ARE CANONICAL LGBTQ+ COUPLES IN THE HISTORY OF DANCE ! INCLUDING SAPPHIC ! But obviously you're not complaining about the non-adaptation of canonical queer relationships which are therefore not doomed to go nowhere or break up like Rhaenicent and Rhaesaria ! Why are you happy with representation that won't go anywhere and the erasure of canonical queer relationships ?! Are you stupid or what ?!

And yes, Rhaenicent is what we call queerbaiting ! Pure and simple ! How can you even dare to say otherwise with such aplomb ?! The writers and actors are constantly contradicting each other about the Rhaenicent relationship ! Open your fucking eyes !

Pigeons, that's what everyone who supports these two shitty ships are ! And no, I'm not sorry to say it, and I will never sorry. Wake up people, damn it !

And you know what could have been good to confirm Rhaenyra's possible bisexuality, even if I don't think she's bi in the source material ? LAENA VELARYON ! HER FUCKING BEST FRIEND ! AND NOT WITH THE TWO WOMEN WHO RUINED THE BEGINNING (ALICENT / yes yes, in HOTD, Alicent is still Rhaenyra's abuser, because Daemon, outside of the OCC strangulation scene, never really abused her) AND THE END OF HER LIFE (MYSARIA) ! BUNCH OF IDIOTS !

Also, instead of fundamentally choosing to make Rhaenyra a bi person when she probably isn't in the book objectively speaking, well just adapt the true queer characters of the dance ? No ?

No one complains that the real queer characters and relationships aren't adapted ?

You prefer that we transform a potentially straight character into bi to make her be in relationships that will go nowhere because she will never leave her man ? Well you really are pitiful.

I'm so tired of the attempts to defend Rhaenicent and Rhaesaria, two shitty relationships that were poorly written in HOTD but when you take Fire and Blood become downright insulting.

Also, another thing I find ironic. The fact of always trying to say in defense of these two ships that we don't care about the source material that is Fire and Blood. Listen to me, you idiot, without Fire and Blood there is no HOTD. So you shut up about the neglect of the source material because you just come across as even more stupid than you probably are. But strangely, to talk about the so-called infidelities of Daemon, present precisely in Fire and Blood and not HOTD of these same fans, well there are people ! While these infidelities did not take place in HOTD and may never take place. And beyond that, at no time have these so-called infidelities been proven. At no time. And if you have a functioning brain in terms of reflection and analysis, it is necessarily probable that these infidelities of Daemon with Mysaria and Nettles are purely false. But of course, the fact is that most of these people are condemning Daemon for something he hasn't done yet and may never do, in the only material that matters to these people, namely HOTD. But strangely, Rhaenyra's infidelitie, no one cares about that. On the contrary, it's apparently great because it's sapphic "representation". Rhaesaria is representation ? An improvised scene that comes out of nowhere and has no impact on the storyline ? Let me laugh. And apparently, Rhaenyra would be justified, because Daemon strangled her at the end of season 1. You know, that other scene that came out of nowhere and made no sense. But obviously, critical thinking is dead in this type of person.

Put Fire and Blood aside if you want to justify these two shitty ships, but the reality is that they don't need Fire and Blood to be bad. They are simply poorly written in the context of HOTD alone.

These two ships make me so fucking sick.

[lorata]

This is so random, but what are some of your victors’ handwriting like? And how does their use of language differ from one another (regarding accents, vocabulary, cursing etc.)?

you know what, i've never considered their handwriting before

honestly they're probably pretty terrible! they're an uneducated bunch, most of them checked out around age 10-11, and everyone left school at 13. some finished their education post-victory (like odin or adessa) but most ....... did not*. a lot of them have undiagnosed learning disabilities as well (emory, brutus, claudius, likely others) and others have adhd (misha, devon at LEAST)

(*technically they have a super lopsided education because if you're a mentor you have to take stats, but you don't need like ....... the other mandatory high school classes, so they have these random analytics courses but have never written an essay longer than a hamburger)

odin and callista canonically have good penmanship. hera probably does also. adessa you'd THINK because she's so educated but no, she writes like a doctor's prescription pad, and only beetee can understand anything. emory has large, careful, childlike handwriting because she was illiterate and learned to write post-arena

the language question is REALLY hard to answer in an ask, lol. like, if you read a scene with a bunch of dialogue you'll see how the various characters speak, or even POVs will have their narrative voice, but trying to break it down outside of actual fiction is like ........... idk man

nero, brutus, emory and devon all have rural accents; the centre trains it out of them but they come back to it once they win, though devon is such a sponge that he keeps district standard more until he visits home and then suddenly oh there it is. lyme grew up with one but trained out of it herself, HARD. misha was a townie, ditto petra, enobaria and adessa. odin, hera, and calli all have the upper class accent. claudius would have if his mom hadn't kicked him out at seven - which hilariously means he sounds more like that in the no-Residential 14yo victor AU

vocabulary is more about persona. people expect adessa and odin to use larger words and so they do; brutus and nero, meanwhile, aren't, and so they don't, and this is mostly fine. but every so often brutus will drop a $5 word or adessa a real ugly swear just to remind you that what you're seeing isn't everything

(they can all perform district and panem standard as part of their official persona and mimic capitol dialect, though the latter is mostly for fun/mockery/sarcasm/making a point)

[pruneunfair]

Hae Soo is a boring character+ what I do like so far about the story.

Before I start, I want to make it clear that while I do think Hae Soo is a dull FL, she is not the worst FL ever written.

This manhwa is frankly overhyped. I gave it the benefit of the doubt before since it only had around 20-30 chapters so of course it wouldn't be full of complexities right off the bat, but given how the story is going.. I predict this will just be a wattpad-esque tale.

I really don't like saying but first of all: Hae soo has all of those Y/N traits. Okay maybe that's a little exaggerating but it's still there in a way. Hae Soo is described by a lot of other characters as "aging" "ugly" and even calling her aunty/grandma depending on the translation. These are other people thinking this, not just Hae Soo and it's supposed to make her "relatable" for not being seen as totally hot by everyone.. but if you saw her body type and even her face which is just perfectly smooth with tiny lips and eyelashes that just look like eye bags, this gets contradictory.

And I'm not just saying the body type alone is bad. A lot of fans often retaliate with "your just jealous of her" (which why would anyone be unironically jealous of a drawing?) But that her body type is possible and actually yes, it is, is incredibly rare to get that body type without any modifications but it is possible. However this isn't because TOAWF wants to represent someone. Its the sexualize her.

I really dont know how to explain how the art is made to show off how sexy Hae Soo is without sounding creepy so I'll just drop a bunch of panels I found of her doing ordinary day-to-day things while her body becomes the most defining feature.

Personally, I think it's because the arms are too small for that torso. I'm sure there's more but I don't wanna be too nitpicky.

I do also want to specify that plenty of other female characters in the comic like Ari are also sexulized but most of the time with those characters, it's only when they are in inherent sexual situations. (Like all of the panels of Ari after she was either in the middle of or already finished sleeping with Micheol) wheras Hae Soo can be doing absolutely nothing at all and her clothes are drawn right as hell while all her body parts are sticking out like a sore thumb.

Another thing that makes Hae Soo dull is that she relies on how much the readers pity her. Left and right she's either being insulted or she's getting cheated on or she's getting bullied in flashbacks. Almost everything about her that is interesting is something that hurt her, not to say she doesn't have any personality at all, I can definitely see a little something in her but she still heavily relies on something bad happening to her to garner care from the audience, if it's not that it's her super sexy romance with Tae Ha.

speaking of Tae Ha, he isn't very interesting so far either. I think his reasons for being obsessed with Hae Soo are still largely unknown, hes mostly just the same "Mafia boyfriend." Archetype, he made a straight up doll to look like Hae Soo which..yeah that's creepy. He is only really liked because well, he's hot and NOT Micheol so he's already "better".

What I do like about TOAWF though is that they aren't skipping scenes just to get to the mid romance. We are actually getting chapters explaing Hae Soo and Micheols relationship before and how it used to be a sweet one until debt and miscarriage. We get to see Micheol with his new life with Ari that has hints of how much she is being manipulated. The comments might say "I don't wanna see trash. I wanna see my sexy Tae Ha with his Hae Soo." But differing perspectives and highlighting other characters is what's saving this story a little. You can't just skip all the important pieces for the "good stuff." And expect a good story.

That said I do understand the commenter's impatience because so far Micheol is leagues more interesting then the ML Tae Ha and like me, we just wanna know why this dude randomly liked Hae Soo to the point of making dolls of her. There just needs to be a middle ground between the two perspectives.

Final thoughts: I don't think Micheol should receive karma. I know, a really weird idea but here me out.

I understand the allure of these types of stories where the babe gets revenge on the loser ex but if we wanted to be both a unique and interesting story than Micheol being allowed to live on being a shitty person would work. It would be awful to think about, yes, but this is unfortunately the real world and in the real world, it is REALLY rare that a cheater will actually face karma. Micheol should be allowed his life with Ari, where she could either realize she's in an abusive relationship down the line and find the courage to nope out of there or she could stay and it would be a tragic ending and the painful truth that life isn't always fair. This could work well as long as the plot doesnt make it out as "Haha Ari! You deserve this! Haha!"

[feminismisstillahatemovement]

To circle back to soemthing from early : The writing of male characters by female writers have repeatedly made me stop reading , especially when I recongized what I like to call the 3 archetypes : The friend , the jerk and the lover , sometimes these mix together but rarely.

The lover : mostly found in YA novels but sometimes adult and potentially pre-teen aimed romances of stories , a guy who seems prefect in description and rarely if ever does anything to hurt or offend the protagonist who is usually a stand in for the writer. the few negative things you can say about him out of the story are treated either as quirks or endearing qualities by the end. Sooner or later the emotional sensitive side is revealed and boom even if they were "The jerk " they're now considered redeemed or potentially redeemed by love. Big example (and the most obvious ) Edward Cullen and Christian Grey are those.

The friend: usually nerdy , kind of fades into the background at a certian point after the protagonist is with the lover, is clearly romantic interest of the protagonist if it's a YA situation , but these feelings are unrequited, they're soundly rebuffed of admitted or it's ultimately a "you have to look into how they're written " to tell. If written at all back in, it's usually to help the protagonist get to the lover & usually ends up with a lover that's either very much like the protagonist , potentially the protagonist's best friend or family member, or someone completely unlike the protagonist. Big example :Jacob from Twilight

The jerk : the bad boy who may be at first seen as an antagonist/working with the antagonist, usually does soemthing notably evil in their first big solo scene. But then that slowly gets walked back especially if they're the lover by the end. Even if they don't end up as the lover they've been given enough pathos that some fans will even say they want the leading protagonist with them or will write oc self inserts trying to help them get better. Possibly may die at the end to help make sure the protagonist lives or ensure the big plan succeeded. Big example : Snape from Harry Potter.

Mind you these aren't solidified hardened absolutes. I'd definitely say, however ,if you look at like 5 or 6 female written stories especially multi book series where it's female character going on an adventure almost all the male leads who are the woman's age who aren't relevaties commonly fall into those 3.

Yes.

Of course, there are a bunch of cliched and awfully-one-dimensional female characters in most male-written fiction too, but for me the biggest difference is there have always been women, in every age, wondering aloud about how a particular male author writes women so well, whereas I really don't think I've ever read any male character in any work by any woman that feels believable and an accurate representation of the internal thoughts, behaviours and motivations of a man that I've been able to connect to. I don't think women are really capable or all that interested in truly understanding the Y chromosome experience, and so their male characters tend to read only like either slow-witted and defective women, cartoonish mustache-twirling villains or alabaster objects of wealth and success. Because of this, the women authors I like I tend to read for what they tell me about their individual female experience, not for what they tell me of the wider world outside of it.

[hollow-lime-green]

Fanfic Writer Interview

This looks fun!

How many works do you have on AO3?

55!

Which is not what is listed lol. This is maybe a good time to mention that I actually have a side PWP AO3 although I haven't used it in a while, and haven't written any PWP for JJK. So only go check it out if you like FE3H rarepairs or Hades, I guess.

And if you do the math between my two accounts, you still won't get up to 55 because a few of those are actually posted anon. I did some kinkmeme fills for the FE3H fandom and while I'm not ashamed of the content lol, I did those as more of a writing reset thing and they're not as edited/polished as I would like? So I just don't want them under my real accounts.

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes:

So first, just, full disclaimer - kudos is not a good stats metric to judge your fics. Kudos amount is not sensitive to quality, it is sensitive to fandom size, fic type (pwp vs plot-driven, oneshot vs multichapter, au vs canon), rating, and length. Please god do not ever judge based on flat kudos.

A better metric (which by the way you should still not care about metric when you do Enjoyable Hobbies) is hit:kudos ratio, which I find is almost always around 10:1. If I want to see how well a oneshot does, that's a good metric. Repeat readers can't give repeat kudos, so that metric is useless for multichapters.

Anyway this is why it's good to comment on the fics that you like - the nice words people say to you are infinitely more valuable and better than numbers. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

A Real Breakthrough - Arcane Jayvik, PWP, 4.3k Set in S1 Act 1 (so no spoilers for S2)

Yeah so this is my most kudosed fic and it is not even close. I love this fic, I snapped with this fic, however it is also the only thing I have ever written for Arcane so it's like this one massive outlier on my AO3.

2. it's not gay unless the domains touch - JJK Stsg 40k

It's a little surprising to me that this one has so many more kudos than 2sorcs, but that has more to do with a.) if you like 2sorcs you'll go back and read domains, whereas you may read domains and not go on to 2sorcs and b.) fandom life cycle and when domains was coming out vs 2sorcs coming out after JJK ended

3. Bend the Knee - Hades Thesterius PWP 3.6k

Ahahahaha i forgot about this fic, I did snap with it though. I will play Hades 2 when it actually full releases and then I'll probably be insufferable. Hades fandom was very very fun and friendly, especially the Thesterius subsection. It may have been the nicest and most accepting fandom I've been in.

4. two sorcerers chillin' in a hot tub (five feet apart cause they're not gay) - JJK Stsg 115k

she's up there! she's on the board!

5. The Torment of Stillness - Hades Charmes PWP 4.4k

good for her, I didn't realize this fic had done so well

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i really try to respond to all my comments, or if someone writes a bunch I'll respond to them as a group. I struggle to write comments myself, even when I absolutely love a fic, so to me it's no small thing when people take the time to comment, and responding is a way I can say 'thank you' and 'hi yes i am a real person and your effort has made me tangibly happy'. plus like, we're all doing this for community, and community only happens when we actually talk to each other. interaction is the life blood of fandom, and it's how you make friends :)

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

weelllll I don't really write sad endings tbh. and maybe that's giving away the game a little bit with FIYM but I promise it's gonna be a tough road to the happy ending there. so if i had to pick one, it would be a Satoru POV piece but it almost doesn't count to me because those aren't exactly 'endings'. for that, I'd probably say the uncertainty principle (JJK STSG 1.4k) is the angstiest. it's also not really a plot story, so not really an ending, but I think 'angstiest character study' still counts.

by my definitions though, I am going to nominate Swan Song (FE3H Balthuri, 9.4k) This one is more full bore angst, although I think the ending is... optimistic? I really like this fic, although it is for a tiny tiny niche ship.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

uuuuuuuhhhhhhhh. how do you even measure happy? also i don't have a lot of longfics with 'endings' because i'm a piece of shit with abandoned wips (i am so sorry FE3H)

I'm going to say Limitless (Hades Patrochilles, 1.1k)? It's not a lot of plot to be ending but I think it's probably the most feel good? Second nomination to Condemned (Hades Thesterius, 7.5k) which has a little more plot.

Do you write crossovers?

not exactly. I write AUs, but I don't generally cross characters over, which I feel like is more of what 'crossover' entails. No hate, just not something I feel particularly compelled to do.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

nope. literally never. it is extremely rare on AO3 (in my experience) unless you are dealing a Really Big Ship and you run into people with extreme T/B or characterization preferences. I have seen friends get hate, esp in Big Ships in the FE3H community, so I know it is a real thing that exists, but I have fully dodged it.

the closest thing I've ever gotten is someone being like "ew, you wrote Ares/Dionysus?? that's incest!"

but all you can do with that is laugh, because... my brother in christ, do you know Greek canon?

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yep. lots. I don't know what 'what kind' means, but I write all kinds. with and without plots, with and without inhuman genitalia, with and without consent.

i currently only have mlm and mlmonster posted, but i have written (and not been happy enough to post) wlw and het. hopefully that eventually changes, because I do feel bad that I don't have more equal opportunity smut out there. women are great we love women. i just don't feel like I write wl well enough yet.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think so!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

i have had someone ask, i don't know if they ever posted, it is still an extremely high compliment and it makes me smile that someone even wanted to do it.

i have had a fic recorded, which is definitely my peak (The Prince of Roses, FE3H Ashedue Sleeping Beauty AU 1k/6min). that was so cool. podficcers are very cool, they are doing god's work, and I would totally do it if I didn't hate my voice.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no, and I think I would be a nightmare to work with, because I am very particular about everything.

however, i love love love collabing with artists and I have done that several times. and I would love to do more!

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

FE3H Balthuri. It's so niche but it's so good. Balthus has a lot of depth to him if you look past the surface. And Yuri's backstory is an incoherent, impossible spaghetti bowl caused by the creative team not being able to say no to any single idea. love them.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

The Lion of Kupala - Balthuri Canon Divergent AU 30k Political Intrigue

i think my plot ideas for this fic were very interesting, but the amount of effort I put into the atmosphere building and stuff was burning me out compared to the size of the community. and I would expect the fandom for this ship is basically dead these days so if I did go back to it, it would be a pretty solitary labor of love. I am unlikely to finish my Ashedue fics either, but I am significantly more likely to finish those because there's more potential that people might cheer me on and help me get to the finish line for that ship.

What are your writing strengths?

comedy, apparently! i didn't really write comedy until JJK, so that was kind of a surprise.

i would probably say characterization too. different reads on characters are (or, can be) equally valid because you're working with limited text. I think the key is staying consistent.

i'm very good at dialogue matching if there is a good enough sample size to draw from, which I don't think there is for lots of manga. i don't think my dialogue matching is good for JJK, especially with the translation from JP making some of the ENG sound unnatural in the actual manga. but I think for my other fandoms, I did pretty good

What are your writing weaknesses?

action for sure. and people are very nice to me about my action scenes, but they are for sure the hardest pieces for me to write and they take a long time for me to conceptualize and wrangle into coherent words.

these days, atmosphere has been a weakness too, I think. i used to really focus on that in my writing, but it has been more fun to be a little more dialogue and plot driven vs super rich moments. that's part of why I burned out on some of my FE3H fics. it takes a lot of mental energy for me in the writing process to constantly check in on scene setting/atmosphere.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

clarity is the most important thing - your reader should understand what you are saying and be drawn into the context of the world. sometimes writing dialogue in other languages adds, sometimes it subtracts. does the character understand that language? if so, they should hear it in the reader's language so that is understood. if they don't, then it should be given outside of the reader's language. and in that case, you should always have your specific translation in the end notes (if you want the reader (not the character) to know what was said), or you lose some clarity/intent.

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

Chainsaw Man.

when i started FIYM, the other Big Project I was looking at was a multipart 'X Lives and Here's Exactly How it Could Work in Canon". but i didn't find the ship very compelling and it takes a lot for me to write gen because I find the community is better/more active for ship fics. so we went with FIYM even though my idea was less fleshed out (narrator: that would soon change).

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

string theory (JJK, stsg, E, 17.4k)

which is funny because it's the only piece of FIYM that was totally unscreened by betas, it took the least time to write (proportionally), and I wrote it when I was probably at my lowest with anxiety, sleep deprivation, and stress.

actually right before I started therapy lol.

'tortured artists' or something like that

Ty for the tag @marichild <3 Tagging: @detta-pica @fireflywitch @ anyone else who wants to do it :))

[pretty-idol-hell]

Here's some info about the upcoming AiPri Switch game (to be released on December 5th, 2024) as written in the Amazon listing:

The control scheme has been 'rearranged' so that children can easily play the amusement game Himitsu no AiPri's "Live Game" from home. Four people can play at once, so you can enjoy it with your family or friends. The songs included are the following nine: P.O.P.P.Y, Secret Dream, Stand Get Up, Muteki DUO Energy, Hikari no Kotoba, We're the World, Never Give Up Lover, GIRA GIRA STAR, Zenryoku Joshikakumei! You can also enjoy the songs and the live visuals without playing the game (PV Mode).

And then there's a bunch of minigames/party games based on specific episodes.

I could be wrong, but from the wording, it sounds like those are the only nine songs in the game. It's not a lot, but they aren't gonna stuff it with arcade-only songs for once? That's a surprise.

It's also interesting that AiPri of all series is getting a console game, considering it translates the least well. By which I mean, card sliding is impossible, so the rhythm game is going to be completely different. (From the screenshots and the wording, it looks super simple.)

Anyway, I would recommend preordering this game if you really like AiPri and would enjoy spending time with the characters. I do not think it is going to be a good representation of/replacement for the arcade game and it definitely doesn't look like you'll be able to make your own character. But, like I said, if you really like the AiPri characters, go for it!

(I personally don't think it's worth paying full price for because I imagine this game is going to be dumped into the discount bin in a month.)

[thebl4ckstar]

Okay, so I've been seeing a lot of TikToks on my feed that are like, "Oh, what Marauders fanfic should I get started with if I want to get into the Marauders and dive into the fandom more if I were new?" you know?

And a lot of people are, like, commenting a bunch of fanfics, and I'm reading through these comments and I'm like, "okay, I kind of feel a little embarrassed with my answer" because what I was going to say was All the Young Dudes by MsKingBean89, and I know MsKingBean89's writing is, I guess, "wrong" towards the character of Remus as he's not an actual arrogant, unkind, nonchalant student, I'd say, and I guess it gives off wrong characterization for Remus Lupin himself, but it is an amazing fanfiction, and it feels so weird because it's fanfiction, but it's been one of the best works I've ever read in my whole entire life, and I feel like if you want to get into the Marauders fandom, you would just have to start with All the Young Dudes.

I feel like it's just necessary, and even though Remus is characterized, I guess, wrongly, him and Sirius's relationship is portrayed so well in the fanfic, and the character dynamics between the Marauders and the girls, I mean, sometimes it's kind of crazy because you have Sirius being the worst person towards Peter, and you have Remus not really giving an F about what his friends say, and Remus telling off Sirius after Sirius just asked how Remus's hip was or something, and I guess those are kind of unhinged moments in the fanfic where it's like, "okay, this might be wrong characterization about the characters, but it's still good writing," and I feel like the story All the Young Dudes is is the type of story that will get you into the Marauders fandom, because as you read each chapter, it's like, oh my gosh, I want to read more, because it's so good, because it literally follows Remus from childhood to death.

Like, you get first year Remus, you get third year Wolfstar, you see James and Lily in the back, and Marlene's character in it, and yes, yes, some of the girls aren't that deeply written as compared to the boys, but I just think if you're getting into the fandom, All the Young Dudes is the right fanfiction to start with. I mean, you also get *really* good 70's music taste. Like *really* good music (which shocked me).

And speaking of the 70's, the way the characters acted in the fanfic was retaliating back on how teens acted in the 70's, and you have all this pop culture mentioned throughout the story, and how it affects characters, and just AHH. Maybe it's not a big deal though. (Or maybe it is. Who knows.)

And another thing is that I feel as if the majority of the fandom has read this before, so so many references in this fandom originate from this specific story, and a lot get a wider knowledge of the Marauders and their life just from ATYD.

Anyway, sorry for the yap, but I really wanted to talk about this :,) Even though ATYD can be a bit icky at some times, it'll have the biggest home in my heart. Literally.

(And i didn't type this all out, just half of it. The rest was voice recorded. Lol.)