#again i am not judging and i am not even against the fandom's main ship but it's SO funny

[mexashepot]

Tfw the local fandom of a musical is crazy about one ship, but the international fans are fans of a completely different ship

[innocentimouto]

Honestly if Jet joined the Gaang, the shipping wars would be between Jetara and Zutara.

I think Jet would shut down some of Aang's "antics" regarding his behavior and his relationship with Katara. He'd probably would have Aang keep a distance from Katara in order to feel focus ( such as when he had to choose to let Katara go or not in the Guru episode). He'd probably be in favor of Aang letting go if it meant the Fire Nation's war would be over.

I'm not sure Kataang would even be able to develop as it could with Jet being right there.

I'm not even sure Kataang would happen if Jet and Katara developed further romantically. Although I don't ship it - I prefer my crackship of Jet and Haru lol- I'd probably be in favor of them over K/A and even Z/K.

Also, if Jet joined earlier, it might've made Zuko's redemption more shallow as Jet would've already fulfilled that role.

Outside of Aang kissing Katara in the play episode, nothing about his behavior seemed wrong to me. He always supported Katara. When she stole the waterbending scroll, Sokka was lecturing her over it while Aang laughed at how she contextualized it. For the fandom claiming he's incapable of seeing her anything other than perfect, he didn't have a problem with her stealing.

That episode is a prime example of how kind Aang is to Katara. And it even shows how the narrative makes Katara apologize so many times for

stealing a waterbending scroll that's actually useful for her and Aang.

It helped her get better, which is possibly the only reason she even lasted against Pakku, meaning Aang probably would have had to stay at the North for longer if Katara hadn't got a chance to learn.

She was able to help Aang in fights after that.

reclaiming a part of her culture that was stolen from her

Zuko being at the island because Iroh wanted a game tile, yet Iroh blames her

Sokka has many lines of blaming her, her being obsessed with waterbending, endangering all of them, and yet when on Kiyoshi Island, when Katara told Aang they needed to leave soon because it wasn't safe and then was proven right, Aang admits he was wrong, Katara doesn't blame him, and they leave. End of story. Sokka isn't even in the equation here.

The writing is very different, but ironically the only one who actually judges Katara is Sokka. Aang has always been supportive, except when she was planning on killing someone in a clearly upset state.

The whole thing about Aang having to let go of Katara to activate the Avatar state doesn't make sense to me because this was never true for any of the previous avatars. And he activates it again later anyway.

I lean more toward Jetara than Kataang, but it's not impossible for Kataang to happen with Jet in the group.

Sorry when it comes to shipping culture and the like, I'm the worst because I'm that one person who will read a major shipping fic just to see good writing of my favorite character, and good friendships, and skip every romantic scene. I have a few ships I like yeah, but romance as a genre doesn't work for me, despite me trying to enjoy it. So if there would be a love triangle if Jet was there, or jealousy or drama, any of that doesn't appeal to me. The drama and messiness of romantic tropes can make for really entertaining stories but I am not the intended audience.

I don't think Jet having a redemption arc would make Zuko's shallow because Zuko was on the side of the oppressing nation and was desiring his "rightful place on the throne" for a long time. Jet was entirely different. Besides even if say Zuko actually had a redemption arc, it's not like they're all written the same way.

Not all of them have to end with befriending the main cast, or with complete forgiveness. I enjoy when characters rightfully dislike someone for some injustice, but have to work together for a common goal and still don't become friends. Just because someone has apologized, or has helped, doesn't mean the character deserves forgiveness. It's also a more interesting dynamic than all is forgiven, to me at least. Especially because then it truly emphasizes the person wants to change not for someone's forgiveness or good graces, but because they recognize they did wrong and want to change.

Besides Zuko joined right after a failed invasion. That is EXTREMELY suspicious. The kids just got separated from their people and fathers, and now the prince of the Fire Nation shows up. Zuko joined at the worst possible time. My first question, if I didn't attack immediately, would have been why didn't Zuko help during the invasion?

[most-canon-non-canon-ship-poll]

literally hoping they break up in the last season

Why Mileven is shit - a submission-based essay, part 2/3

Mileven - a currently canon het ship from the Stranger Things fandom between Michael (Mike) Wheeler and Jane (Eleven) Ives/Hopper/Byers/IDK

they NEED to breakup (AGAIN) in the final season let's start w their character arcs rn. el was born in a lab and was raised VERY strict to be a weapon and shit. she escapes and now her whole arc is finding herself and being who she is separate to what people tell her she is. mike comes from a lowkey conservative family with parents who are married only to fit into the normal, not because they love each other. his arc, similar to his sisters' struggle in earlier seasons, is to not fall into conformity just because you feel like you should. both of these stories line up with the main moral of the show: be who you are even if it isn't "normal" ot whatever now how does mileven go against this? mike, and a bunch of ppl around el, in the earlier seasons keeps telling el what she should do/be. even in the later seasons we see mike refering to el as a "superhero" (which she doesn't like). neither of them feel free to be themselves around the other (shown by el lying to mike and mike being WAY out of character around el, etc). mike literally can't tell el he loves her while not under pressure. mileven sometimes parallels mike's parents' and sta.cy (a failed conformity relationship) and other bad relationships ANYWAYS it also reallyyyy pains will byers (who's been canonically in love with mike for like years, and mike's best friend) to see this. also, milevens keep harassing will/mike shippers on anon even months after the last season. like they have a hate discord server just for it. anyways i love mike and el but ohhh my god there is still SO much i haven't mentioned about how bad they are together (and how bad shippers often are, sometimes being violently homophobic and calling bylers delusional and shit)

OOOH IT FUCKING SUCKS THEY ARE SOOOOOO BAD FOR EACH OTHER JESUS THEY DON'T COMMUNICATE LIKE EVER THEY ARE BOTH CLEARLY IN IT BECAUSE OF THE EXPECTATION OF A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE THEY CAN'T CONFIDE IN EACH OTHER THEY DON'T SHARE ANY INTERESTS THEY'RE HAVING CONFLICT MORE OFTEN THAN NOT THANK *GOD* I AM UTTERLY CONVINCED THEY ARE HEADING FOR A CANONICAL PERMANENT BREAKUP. NOT TO MENTION THEY ARE BOTH GAY AS HELL TO ME. YOU SEEN THAT "THIS SHIP IS SO CANON AND IT'S A LESBIAN AND A GAY MAN" TWEET? YEAH. FUCK THIS STUPID FUCKING SHIP NOT TO MENTION THE SHIPPERS ARE FREQUENTLY OPENLY HOMOPHOBIC. UGHHHHHHH KILLING BITING (this is my fave btw)

they have no chemistry or buildup unlike the other st couples. they kissed season 1 right after she asked if he would be her brother. hes very obviously compensating for something. i think i gagged when they made out in season 3. speaking of. thats all they do. make out. they dont really have meaningful conversations. this also comes from the fact that when mike met her she was fresh out the lab that abused her for like 11 years. she was not socially ready to understand the bounds of a platonic relationship let alone a romantic one. anyway mileven break up s5 will happen i believe it. if nothing else. cross ur fingers gamers

the sheer homophobia and general toxicity that the fans of this ship create is absolutely insane when their perfect (read: mischaracterized) straight (read: homosexually-coded) couple is judged for having toxic or incompatible elements is insane. the only good romantic aspect between these two characters is in a cringefail "wow this really doesn't work at all" i-want-to-put-this-dynamic-under-a-microscope-and-study-it-because-it's-an-absolute-trainwreck" kind of way. el has been abused and cut off from society her whole life and at 12 years old she immediately gets together with this guy at whose earth shattered after his best friend went missing who then has surviors guilt after she almost does which is misconstrued as romantic rather than unhealthy obsession and trauma. and so on and so forth.. there's just so much wrong they lie to each other So Fucking Much despite truthfulness being very important to them and they ignore their friends to make out (which is filmed in a way that is meant to feel uncomfortable btw lmao) and el doesn't understand mike's trauma from bullying and he doesn't understand how she doesn't want to be built up into being a superhero etc etc. and it's just so increasingly bad I want to rub my temples just thinking about them. they're just so bad for each other and their relationship has done nothing but make them worse in general but for some reason their ship is viewed as fluffy or cute or whatever the hell. anyway mike is so heavily coded to be fucking gay and in love with his best friend (and el can be interpreted to be lesbian coded) and I just need to get them out of there amen

I'm gonna make a list bc the reasons are many: 1) their first casual interaction they get together but in the same conversation she asks him if she can be like a sister to him 2) all their "cute moments" are them making out in the 3rd season with still absolutely no chemistry 3) their only actual cute scene is them dancing at the snowball yet in the same scene they portray the same way two couples that are not romantic 4) mike becomes a terrible person when he's with eleven 5) eleven literally GOT OUT OF A LAB SHE WAS RAISED IN and this is the first guy she dated 6) she can't even say he's a good kisser 7) mike can't tell her that he loves her (bc he doesn't) and the only time he does he makes this whole ugly ass speech up about how she's his "superhero" even though she doesn't want to be seen only for her superpowers 8) in said speech, while listing the things that he loves about her, he only names her superpowers + he lies multiple times 9) EVEN AFTER SAID SPEECH she is still mad at him and won't talk to him (probably bc she saw right through his bs) 10) she spent a whole 6 months lying to him about all of her life 11) mike is clearly gay and is meant to be with his childhood best friend will 12) mike idolizes her and doesn't see her as an actual person 13) eleven needs to be her own person (ffs she just got out of a lab) 14) the ship sucks and even the authors and actors say so

they have NO chemistry. they kissed after one week of knowing each other when they were 12 and eleven didn't even know what a romantic relationship was at the time, given the fact that right before mike kisses her she says "will you be like my brother?". they spent the entirety of season 2 apart with mike calling el on his walkie and el watching romantic movies on the tv for a year (then will is in trouble and mike says 'fuck it' and goes full protective boyfriend mode but this isn't about byler so i digress) and start dating soon after they meet again even though they haven't had a SINGLE conversation and are barely friends. season 3 comes along and the writers do their utmost best to show us how incompatible they are. their makeout scenes are uncomfortable, they break up at the beginning of the season and neither one of them seems particularly bothered that their first relationship is over. in fact, the happiest we see el in the entire series is during the time they're broken up, when she gets close to max (who she actually has chemistry with, by the way) and finally experiences freedom, being a teenage girl and etc since mike had been "keeping her all to himself" for like, a year. aside from that, he doesn't go after her at all after she dumps his ass (literally) but when he and will have a fight, he bikes across town in the rain just to apologize, that boy is GAY. finally, the theme of season 4 is lies and once again, mike and el spend the season apart (once again, mike spends the season with WILL) and right before they part ways, they have a big fight about mike being unable to so much as WRITE "love, mike" on his letters to el, let alone say it, and he bullshits his way through it and refuses to say the actual reason until vol. 2, when he apparently "confesses" that he's afraid he'll lose her if he says it (okay, amigo, you're gonna lose your girlfriend who was literally begging you to say 'i love you' not even a week ago, aham, totally valid excuse). conclusion: they don't know each other and they don't act like themselves when they're together. mike hides his nerdy nature, el feels like she has to be the amazing superhero he's always viewed her as or else he'll lose interest and it just feels like they're both grasping at straws because this relationship has been dragged on for too long that they don't know how to break up permanently. they are afraid of losing each other, but not romantically, as mike was el's first semblance of family after escaping the lab and mike feels like it's his duty to protect and care for el. also, mike is gay. in other words, FREE THEM.

[dont-ask-janus]

Alright, alright

I made a deal with Logan that if he opened an ask blog, that I too would open one.

A deal that I… totally expected I’d have to honor.

Anyways,

I can be your snake in shining armor for any advice you so desperately need to hear.

To keep this blog organized, unlike Remus's dumpster fire of a room, there will be the following tags in place:

#ooc-post - Out of character posts from Mod TJ

#deceitful-answers - Questions about specific things that you are looking for answers to

#snake-sympathy - Asks looking for comfort or the like, I try to be truthful when needed

#generic-janus - General asks/posts about myself, the other sides, etc, though I'm not sure why you'd ever want to talk about them

#reptile-rps - Finished story roleplays with the other sides (this tag will be added after the fact)

Any triggers will be tagged when appropriate

A couple more unimportant things

I'll be using this divider to indicate when my gloves are off:

(@/strangergraphics)

And this divider to indicate that they are on (You definitely won't be seeing a lot of this one):

(@/saradika)

If there’s no header, assume gloves are on.

I believe this is everything I need to say, but I'm sure Virgil won't lecture me about Tumblr etiquette again next time I see him.

Well, farewell to all, until we meet again - ✨🐍

~~~

Hey, Mod TJ here. My friend Blue runs the @logan-inquiries account, and I decided to make one too because it seems really fun (so you'll probably see us interact a lot)

Few things to mention:

My time zone is CST, but I do stay up late a lot, so I don't really have a schedule for this. Just gimme a couple days, I’ll answer as soon as I can. (but even if its the middle of the night, you can send in an ask anytime)

I use It/He pronouns

I am not an expert in the Sanders Sides lore, but I have been in the fandom for a While (way back in Vine days). So if I get something wrong, oopsies, this is just for fun

I am cool with any ships (including polycules), except for remrom

Warning, there will be uncensored potty language in these posts that will not be marked (thomas quote wahoo)

To explain the whole divider/gloves thing if you're unsure: When Janus has his gloves on, he could be truthful or lying. When they're off, she is definitely telling the truth

Any Janus headcanons I have that might affect this blog I'll put here (this'll be updated when needed): Janus uses He/She pronouns

As for triggers/boundaries:

I will delete asks if I feel they go against these boundaries, or just generally make me uncomfortable. I will not judge the person sending them, I'll simply delete them and move on (unless it becomes a repeated behavior)

I am ok with asks about general advice about suicide/self-harm/eating disorders, but please no in-the-moment stuff. Please do not send an ask if you are in immediate danger of anything, specifically self-inflicted. I am not 911 or a helpline

Like I said, I am cool with ships/flirting, but I do not want any explicit sexual content/smut on this blog. However I am not against a good dirty joke

There shouldn't be any explicit blood/gore, but there may be some Remus-style intrusive thought depictions, and those will be tagged accordingly

Otherwise, that's it, go wild, asks are open!

(Main blog is @slash-tj)

[ghostwriterofthemachine]

So fun fact I really wasn't expecting anyone to read this and now a good handful of people have, and I've gotten some good natured pushback in the comments about my point 2 (Something Is Incorrect About Newgate), so I figure I'd pop back here and explain myself. also Uhhh anything past this point is major post-ts spoilers so keep that in mind.

First thing's first, I really need to stress how much one of Melville's main themes is the God-Father-Captian thing. God is Father to the World. The Ship is the World. The Ship is a Family. Captain is Father and God. This comes up constantly in the book. And Melville questions, constantly, whether or not this is a good thing. What does this do to us? What does it mean? And Moby Dick is filled with examples of it being something we should be suspicious of. So I do think it's relevant that Whitebeard's ship is called "The Moby Dick" and also his crew sees him as Father and addresses him as such. I think that is a strong enough connection to be unpacked, and that is signals something to us as readers.

Also important to note: One Piece is a story about freedom and self-determination. Keep that in mind, we will come back to it.

On a One Piece level, it's interesting that Whitebeard kinda. Vanishes from the story post-marineford, even in memory? He (and his crew) do not even get mentioned very often, unlike Ace who gets implied and mentioned pretty often, until Wano. This was a fandom meme. "Where the fuck are the Whitebeard pirates?"

So what happens in the story between Marineford and Wano? We meet Doflamingo, Big Mom and Vinsmoke Judge, who all also blur the lines between Captain and Head of Family in a way that’s, let's be honest, pretty similar to Newgate in theory. This is not to say that Whitebeard is a horrific villain, but the line is easy to draw — Crew is Family and You are my Children and I am the Head and I Know Best. And those other three characters are obviously sinister. The narrative makes it very obvious that the way they run their crews (and/or families) is wrong, on a fundamental level.

Then Newgate is brought back into the story as explicitly connected with Big Mom via the Rocks pirates — again, the growing unease that Something Is Off.

And now we get to Ace. Because, the thing is, Oda loves his Overcome Your Father's Deeds themes, particularly post-ts. Sanji is not a Vinsmoke. Yamato sides against Kaido and wins. Even someone like Charlotte Pudding is able to find her own voice and some crumb of redemption once she is able to push against Linlin's influence and be her own person. This is an established theme of One Piece: all you have to do is know yourself and be brave enough to embody your own will and make your own choices, and who you come from doesn’t have to matter.

But Ace very much dies for his father’s legacy — so, why? On a thematic level, how does that track?

Because, as a part of Whitebeard's crew, your main identity is Whitebeard’s son. Newgate is such a force of personality that he overtakes everyone around him. He is God, he is Captain, he is Father, and that’s what matters. What he says goes. We see this literally in the text with Ace — when he joins Whitebeard's crew, he burns his own Jolly Roger, the symbol of the identity he started building for himself.

Ace is never able to grow into something more than a person motivated by being Someone’s Son. And, because he never truly becomes his own man, he is killed at Marineford to knock out Roger’s legacy.

So it’s not really about Whitebeard being a bad guy, because I don't think he is. I think he cared about his crew and about Ace and helped maintain a precarious balance of power in the world for years. It’s about the way he runs his ship being something that the narrative seems to think doesn’t work. He is a Traditional Father Figure in a story which hates hierarchical power structures. And Moby Dick signposts that beautifully.

Why does Ahab doom his crew? Because Captain/God/Father is too powerful to stand against. Why is Whitebeard's crew doomed? For the same reasons; because of the way he runs his ship, Newgate overtakes everyone else's identities so completely that they cannot live without him. And so he dies to make way for a new generation of crews who do things differently, who break that hierarchy, and who dedicate themselves to each other in ways that resist the metaphor of a patriarchal family head.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

okay so hear me out. actually reading Moby Dick made me realize how fucking hard Oda went calling Whitebead's ship that.

[gimme-mor]

BETWEEN THE LINES: NIGHT COURT ELAIN & SPRING COURT FEYRE

*DISCLAIMER*

This is a really long post and based on my interpretation of the text.

This is strictly an analysis of Elain as a character because, in my opinion, there isn’t a lot of talk about Elain outside of ships and conversations about her character arc typically revolve around to whom she is paired, especially if that person is Azriel. She is her own character and gets the short end of the stick in the fandom because everyone is more concerned about who she’s shipped with rather than her as a character.

Also, anyone who is rude/condescending will automatically be blocked.

In ACOSF, SJM went out of her way on two occasions to highlight Elain not looking good in black. While it may be minor or insignificant to some, I think those instances were meant to show something about Elain specifically and what she may be going through in the Night Court. Elain has been a passive character for the most part, contributing to things in her own way earlier in the series. But after she was taken by the Cauldron, her safety has become everyone’s main concern and the other characters have slowly excluded her from courtly matters. In ACOWAR, this was understandable because she was traumatized and not fully present. However, as of ACOSF, Elain was still excluded from courtly matters with the other characters heavily relying upon Nesta, who made her reservations known, because they were on a time constraint and couldn’t afford to wait for Elain to reacquaint herself with her powers.

The fact that the other characters use the kidnapping situation to excuse their current actions toward Elain is eerily similar to the way Tamlin and Lucien used the Under the Mountain events to excuse Tamlin’s actions toward Feyre in ACOMAF. And the characters use Elain and Feyre’s safety to justify why neither of them should be involved. In my opinion, Elain in the Night Court resembles Feyre in the Spring Court because not only do they experience similar things, but both of them are (or were in Feyre’s case) in places that stunt their growth. Even though Night Court Elain isn’t exposed to all of the things that Spring Court Feyre was exposed to, the similarities in their experiences (and how those similarities might potentially impact Elain similarly to the way they impacted Feyre) shouldn’t be overlooked.

Being monitored

Feyre

I was too watched－too monitored and judged. Why should the bride of the High Lord learn to fight if peace had returned? That had been Ianthe’s reasoning when I’d made the mistake of mentioning it at dinner. Tamlin, to his credit, had seen both sides: I’d learn to protect myself...but the rumors would spread. (ACOMAF)

“Tamlin－Tamlin, I can’t...I can’t live my life with guards around me day and night. I can’t live with that...suffocation. Just let me help you－let me work with you.” (. . .) “I’m drowning,” I managed to say. “I am drowning. And the more you do this, the more guards...You might as well be shoving my head under the water.” (ACOMAF)

Elain

Nesta said, “The Trove. And what happened the last time I scried.” Feyre said, “We won’t allow any harm to come to Elain. Rhys warded her this morning, and we have eyes on her at all times.” “Eyes can be blinded,” Nesta said. “Not the ones under my command,” Azriel said with soft menace. Nesta met his stare, knowing he was the only one aside from Feyre who could truly understand her hesitation. He’d gone with Feyre into the heart of Hybern’s camp to save Elain－he knew the risk. “We won’t make the same mistake twice.” She believed him. “All right.” (ACOSF)

Trying to fit in

Feyre

I hated the bright dresses that had become my daily uniform, but didn’t have the heart to tell Tamlin－not when he’d bought so many, not when he looked so happy to see me wear them. Not when his words weren’t far from the truth. The day I put on my pants and tunics, the day I strapped weapons to myself like fine jewelry, it would send a message far and clear across the lands. So I wore the gowns, and let Alis arrange my hair－if only so it would buy these people a measure of peace and comfort. (ACOMAF)

I sometimes debated asking her to pray for me as well. To pray that I’d one day learn to love the dresses, and the parties, and my role as a blushing, pretty bride. (ACOMAF)

Elain

And he knew the cruelty of the Hewn City troubled her. But she hadn’t hesitated to come. When Feyre had offered to let her remain home, Elain had squared her shoulders and declared that she was a part of this court－and would do whatever she needed. (ACOSF)

So Elain had let her golden-brown hair down tonight, and pinned it back with twin combs of pearl. He’d never once in the two years he’d known her found Elain to be plain, but wearing black, no matter how much she claimed to be part of this court...It sucked the life from her. (ACOSF)

Pretending everything’s all right

Feyre

“Fine,” I breathed. I made myself look him in the eye, made myself smile. (ACOMAF)

Elain

“And you?” I made myself say. “Are you－all right?” Elain looked over a shoulder at me as we entered the foyer, then turned left－to the dining room. In the sitting room across the way, all conversation halted at the smell of food. “Why wouldn’t I be all right?” she asked, a smile lighting up her face. I’d seen those smiles before. On my own damn face. (ACOFAS)

Clothes not looking right on them

Feyre

I really, truly hated my wedding gown. It was a monstrosity of tulle and chiffon and gossamer, so unlike the loose gowns I usually wore: the bodice fitted, the neckline curved to plump my breasts, and the skirts...The skirts were a sparkling tent, practically floating in the balmy spring air (. . .) I might have dealt with it all if it weren’t for the puffy capped sleeves, so big I could almost see them glinting from the periphery of my vision. My hair had been curled, half up, half down, entwined with pearls and jewels and the Cauldron knew what, and it had taken all my self-control to keep from cringing at the mirror before descending the sweeping stairs into the main hall. (ACOMAF)

I again surveyed the room, my wedding gown hissing on the warm marble floors. I peered down at myself. You look ridiculous. (ACOMAF)

Elain

Elain in black was ridiculous. Yes, she was beautiful, but the color of her long-sleeved, modest gown leeched the brightness from her face. It wore her, rather than the other way around. (ACOSF)

Looking good in clothes that suit them and that fact being pointed out

Feyre

My high-waisted peach pants were loose and billowing, gathered at the ankles with velvet cuffs of bright gold. The long sleeves of the matching top were made of gossamer, also gathered at the wrists, and the top itself hung just to my navel, revealing a sliver of skin as I walked. Comfortable, easy to move in－to run. Feminine. Exotic. (ACOMAF)

But those claws now dug in－and my entire body, my heart, my lungs, my blood yielded to his grip, utterly at his command as he said, The fashion of the Night Court suits you. (ACOMAF)

Elain

Gone was the ill-suited black dress from the ball, replaced by a gown of amethyst velvet, her hair half-up and curling down to her waist. She glowed with good health. (ACOSF)

People not wanting them to be involved in things

Feyre

“I want to go.” “No.” I crossed my arms, tucking my tattooed hand under my right bicep, and spread my feet slightly further apart on the dirt floor of the stables. “It’s been three months. Nothing’s happened, and the village isn’t even five miles－” “No.” (ACOMAF)

“I could use my powers against Hybern.” “That’s out of the question,” Tamlin said, “especially as there will be no war against Hybern.” “Rhys says war is inevitable, and we’ll be hit hard.” Lucien said drily, “And Rhys knows everything?” “No－but...He was concerned. He thinks I can make a difference in any upcoming conflict.” Tamlin flexed his fingers－keeping those claws contained. “You have no training in battle or weaponry. And even if I started training you today, it’d be years before you could hold your own on an immortal battlefield.” He took a tight breath. “So despite what he thinks you might be able to do, Feyre, I’m not going to have you anywhere near a battlefield. Especially if it means revealing whatever powers you have to our enemies. You’d be fighting Hybern at your front, and have foes with friendly faces at your back.” “I don’t care－” “I care,” Tamlin snarled. Lucien whooshed out a breath. “I care if you die, if you’re hurt, if you will be in danger every moment for the rest of our lives. So there will be no training, and we’re going to keep this between us.” (ACOMAF)

Elain

“Nesta’s spine straightened. No one spoke, but their attention lingered on her like a film on her skin. ‘You will not go looking for it.’” (ACOSF)

“Then go off on adventures,” Nesta said. “Go drink and fuck strangers. But stay away from the Cauldron.” (. . .) “Keep out of this,” she hissed at her youngest sister. “I have no doubt you put these thoughts in her head, probably encouraging her to throw herself into harm’s way－” (ACOSF)

Amren said, “We do not have the time to wait for Nesta to decide. I say we approach Elain tomorrow. Better to have both of them working on it.” Azriel stiffened, an outright sign of temper from him as he said quietly, “There is an innate darkness to the Dread Trove that Elain should not be exposed to.” “But Nesta should?” Cassian growled. Everyone stared at him. He swallowed, offering an apologetic glance to Az, who shrugged it off. Amren drained her wine and said to Cassian, “Nesta has a week. One more week to find the Trove with her own methods. Then we seek out other routes.” She threw a nod toward Azriel. “Including Elain, who is more than capable of defending herself against the darkness of the Trove, if she chooses to. Don’t underestimate her.” (ACOSF)

“I think Eris is our ally, and will expect to dance with a lady of this court at the ball no matter what. I won’t let Feyre within five feet of him, Mor might kill him, and Amren is more likely to scare him off than win him over, so you and Elain are the only options.” “Elain doesn’t go near him,” Feyre said. (ACOSF)

Their safety being brought up when they want to be involved

Feyre

“Please. The recovery efforts are so slow. I could hunt for the villagers, get them food－” “It’s not safe,” Tamlin said, again nudging his stallion into a walk. The horse’s coat shone like a dark mirror, even in the shade of the stables. “Especially not for you.” He’d said that every time we had this argument; every time I begged him to let me go to the nearby village of High Fae to help rebuild what Amarantha had burned years ago (. . .) “People want to come back, they want a place to live－” “Those same people see you as a blessing－a marker of stability. If something happened to you…” (. . .)Tamlin said softly, “I can’t do what I need to if I’m worrying about whether you’re safe.” (ACOMAF)

“I’m sorry about earlier,” he murmured. “It’s fine,” I breathed. “I understand.” Not a lie, but not quite the truth. His fingers grazed lower, circling my belly button. “You are－you’re everything to me,” he said thickly. “I need...I need you to be all right. To know they can’t get to you－can’t hurt you anymore.” (ACOMAF)

“Tamlin got what I didn’t,” Lucien said softly, his breathing ragged. “We all heard your neck break. But you got to come back. And I doubt that he will ever forget that sound, either. And he will do everything in his power to protect you from that danger again, even if it means keeping secrets, even if it means sticking to rules you don’t like. In this, he will not bend. So don’t ask him to－not yet.” (ACOMAF)

“Did he let you take me today,” I said hoarsely, “so that I’d stop asking to help rebuild?” “No. I decided to take you myself. For that exact reason. They don’t want or need your help. Your presence is a distraction and a reminder of what they went through.” (. . .) “I know you wanted to help,” Lucien offered. “I’m sorry.” So was I. (ACOMAF)

Elain

“The last time we involved ourselves with the Cauldron, it abducted you,” Nesta countered, fighting her shaking. (ACOSF)

“Like calls to like,” Amren countered. “You were Made by the Cauldron. You may track other objects Made by it as well, as Briallyn can. And because you are Made by it, you are immune to the influence and power of the Trove. You might use them, yes, but they cannot be used upon you.” A glance to Elain. “Either of you.” Nesta swallowed. “I can’t.” But to let Elain involve herself, jeopardize her safety－ (ACOSF)

Nesta’s pulse pounded throughout her body. “Do you not remember the war? What we encountered? Do you not remember the Cauldron kidnapping you, bringing you into the heart of Hybern’s camp?” “I do,” Elain said coldly. (ACOSF)

If it was between her and Elain, there was no choice at all. She would always go first if it meant keeping Elain from harm. Even if she’d just hurt her sister more than she could stomach. (ACOSF)

Pushing back against what others want

Feyre

He hissed, “You have no idea how hard it is for him to even let you off the estate grounds. He’s under more pressure than you realize.” “I know exactly how much pressure he endures. And I didn’t realize I’d become a prisoner.” “You’re not－” He clenched his jaw. “That’s not how it is and you know it.” “He didn’t have any trouble letting me hunt and wander on my own when I was a mere human. When the borders were far less safe.” “He didn’t care for you the way he does now. And after what happened Under the Mountain��” The words clanged in my head, along my too-tense muscles. “He’s terrified. Terrified of seeing you in his enemies’ hands. And they know it, too－they know all they have to do to own him would be to get ahold of you.” “You think I don’t know that? But does he honestly expect me to spend the rest of my life in that manor, overseeing servants and wearing pretty clothes?” (ACOMAF)

Elain

Cassian shifted in his seat. “So we track down the Dread Trove－how?” Elain spoke from the doorway, having appeared so silently that they all twisted toward her, “Using me.” Nesta’s head went silent as Elain’s words finished sounding in the room. Feyre had twisted in her seat, face white with alarm. Nesta shot to her feet. “No.” Elain remained in the doorway, her face pale but her expression harder than Nesta had ever seen it. “You do not decide what I can and cannot do, Nesta.” (ACOSF)

“It nearly killed me. It trapped me like a bird in a cage.” Elain said, “Then I will find it. I might require some time to...reacquaint myself with my powers, but I could start today.” “Absolutely not,” Nesta spat, fingers curling at her sides. “Absolutely not.” “Why?” Elain demanded. “Shall I tend to my little garden forever?” When Nesta flinched, Elain said, “You can’t have it both ways. You cannot resent my decision to lead a small, quiet life while also refusing to let me do anything greater.” (ACOSF)

Being used as pawns against others

Feyre

“We need you to tell us everything,” Tamlin said. “The layout of the Night Court, who you saw, what weapons and powers they bore, what Rhys did, who he spoke to, any and every detail you can recall.” “I didn’t realize I was a spy.” Lucien shifted in his seat, but Tamlin said, “As much as I hate your bargain, you’ve been granted access into the Night Court. Outsiders rarely get to go in－and if they do, they rarely come out in one piece. And if they can function, their memories are usually...scrambled. Whatever Rhysand is hiding in there, he doesn’t want us knowing about it.” (ACOMAF)

Elain

Rhys angled his head at the not-quite question. “I trust in the fact that we currently have possession of the one thing he wants above all else. And as long as that remains, he’ll try to stay on our good side. But if that changes...His talent was wasted in the Spring Court. There was a reason he had that fox mask, you know.” His mouth tugged to the side. “If he got Elain away, back to Spring or wherever...do you believe, deep down, that he wouldn’t sell what he knows? Either for gain, or to ensure she stays safe?” “You let him hear everything tonight, though.” (. . .) I considered his question: Did I trust Lucien? “I don’t know, either,” I admitted, and sighed. “I don’t like that Elain is a pawn in this.” “I know. It’s never easy.” (ACOWAR)

Cassian glowered at Amren. “It’s not right to wield Elain as a threat to manipulate Nesta into scrying.” “There are harsher ways to convince Nesta, boy.” (ACOSF)

Although Elain and Feyre are surrounded by two different groups of people with varying levels of care for their wellbeing, they’re treated similarly which is hard to overlook. In Elain’s situation, Nesta, Azriel, and Feyre take on the “Tamlin role” (either undermining Elain’s attempts to contribute to things or preventing Elain from helping altogether) while everyone else takes on the “Lucien role” (validating the concerns of others while also enabling their behaviors, which doesn’t support Elain’s desire to be involved).

[jinpanman]

fandom ship tag game

@cutechim wants me to die apparently.

i like really tragic ships apparently. lmaaoooo

** WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE SHOW “THE MAGICIANS” you have been warned. also a lot of Feelings coming from yours truly.

tagging: @hueseok​ @triviafics​ @bonvoyagenoona​ @playmetheclassics​​ @breadoffoxy​ @yoonia​ and anyone else who wants to suffer picking only 9 ships out of 89247!!! (as always, clean copy at the bottom of this post for anyone who wants to do this!)

 

first ship

how am i supposed to remember my first ever ship?????? my age and inner furry is about to show....hahahaha

shut up. stop laughing at me. balto and jenna. wow. just- the way they support each other. care for each other without shame or embarrassment. yeah. ok. i will. shut my mouth right now before i incriminate myself even more than i already have.

 

first OTP

my god.....do i even need to explain myself????? these two are garrett and kayley from quest for camelot in case you don’t know who they are. my god. my god it’s been over 20 years and i still ship them so freaking hard. wow. whew. gotta pause to fan myself from all this Chemistry and mutual respect and admiration and love...whew....

 

your ship since the first minute

ur fuckin’ lying if you say you don’t ship them. literally usui is Best Man to Ever Exist Ever and aiyuzawa is the most selfless genius hard working understanding kind human bean ever. i will love usui to the end of my days.

runner up: rapunzel and eugene from tangled. who doesn’t love them?!??!?!?!????!?

 

ship(s) you wish had become endgame

literally fuck the show. for this. fuck you for giving us the most beautiful fucking short lived (but also not--if you know then you know) romance ever. fuck them. fuck fukcukfukcufkc FUCK!!!!! literally fuck them.

i cant fucking believe they made q die BEFORE HE EVER GOT TO REUNITE WITH ELIOT EVER AGAIN WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK!!!!!!!!1 THEY SPENT A WHOLE LIFETIME TOGETHER. A WHOLE LIFETIME THAT THEY NEVER GOT TO TALK ABOUT. Q SPENT BASICALLY A WHOLE SEASON TRYING TO SAVE ELIOT. ONLY TO FUCKING DIE. ELIOT HAD TO MOURN THE LOSS OF SOMETHING THAT COULD HAVE BEEN SO WONDERFUL SO GREAT SO FUCKING FANTASTIC. HE DESERVED TO HAVE IT. THEY DESERVED EACH OTHER. WHAT THE FUCK.

i can’t even. i’m like crying again. so i must stop now. as you can see. i am. very. passionate about them. oh yeah. them being quentin and eliot from the magicians.

 

ship you wish was canon

......you will always be my original baby girl

......you are my god given solace

(god what the fuck im crying again hahahaha)

we were robbed. we were fucking robbed. and i will never forgive criminal minds for this. never. morcia ftw. morcia forever. my forever otp.

 

ship that most of the fandom hates but you love

ahahahaha...... listen.... i dont think most of the fandom necessarily hates this ship but uuhhh.... i do know that you either love em or hate em and there is no in-between hahaha

literally fight me if you’re against zutara. hahahahaha. i will die on this hill.

runner up: yosano and shishio from daytime shooting star (lmfao ok go ahead and judge me for this idc hahahaha i also love yosano with mamura and i am glad it ended the way it did. zutara tho............zutara was done dirty.....i will never forgive......)

 

you don't even watch the show, but you ship it

ok this is kind of a cheat since i did watch the first season of the 100. also maybe the 2nd season??? i dont remember. i just remember i dropped it and my brother kept on watching it. but still. bellamy and clarke. i ship it. even tho i couldn’t stand clarke A Lot when i watched the show lol

 

ship you wish had a different storyline

i literally never cared for the main pairing in goblin 💀 i only stayed for grim reaper and sunny im not even kidding. tragic. forever tragic.... i just want them to be happy wtf ;;;;_____;;;; yes i made myself cry watching sad videos of them on youtube

runner up: moon lovers’ hae soo and wang so (sob sob sobsob eternally)

 

favorite ship that is endgame

i literally love them so much forever and ever and ever. they are so good for and to each other. if you haven’t seen this kdrama yet then i implore that you do!!!!!! It’s Okay to Not Be Okay

 

clean copy:

fandom ship tag game

first ship first OTP your ship since the first minute ship(s) you wish had become endgame ship you wish was canon ship that most of the fandom hates but you love you don't even watch the show, but you ship it ship you wish had a different storyline favorite ship that is endgame

[mushroom-soup-is-my-religion]

Finally caving and making a pinned post

Hi, I’m Ellian or Mushroom!

Pronouns in order of preference: Neos (any)/He/They/She

My main fandom is various mcrp (dsmp, life series, haven), although I will occasionally post something from others including but not limited to Illuminae Files, Percy Jackson, Sanders Sides and various musicals.

ACTIVE SEPTIMUS HEAP BLOGS I WANT TO FOLLOW YOU DM OR SEND AN ASK

My organization tags are as follows

Wow look bullshit <- all original posts

I don‘t go here <- Posts I thought were cool even though I don’t fully understand and am not in the fandom at all

Girl help i’m mixing special interests again <- Combinations of different fandoms

Fic <3 <- Fanfic recs. Not a big list, just a link to ones i like regardless of genre or fandom although they’ll usually be my current fandom

Music <- lyric tag for when certain lyrics are stuck in my head and i must write them down. look here for good fic titles

I’m autistic and bad at reading tone, so i would appreciate it if you used tone indicators.

Discourse stuff so you fucks will stop sending asks about it because i am a person who goes outside

On Apologist discourse: I will not judge you by the labels you give yourself in terms of character apologism, however I will absolutely judge you for what you do and say related to that apologism. No, being an apologist does not make you a real life abuser. Yes, things you say can be victim blaming and uncomfortable.

On Pro/Anti-Ship Discourse: I have been called an anti by proshippers and a pro by antishippers. I think pedophilic and incest ships are against my morals and gross, but I am pro Ao3 and recognize that having that stuff allowed with tags to blacklist is better than censorship and/or the days/weeks/months it could take to get untagged triggering content taken down and I’m not gonna block you for it. Note that this DOES NOT APPLY TO TRUTHING OR SHIPPING REAL PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT CONSENTED THAT SHIT IS WIERD AND BAD.

Exclusionism: Let people identify however the fuck they want. The LGBT community belongs to anyone who is alienated by cis allo het perisex norms. No this doesn’t include pedophiles. If you honest to god believe that “[xenogenders/aces/sublabels/neurogenders/he/him lesbians/ect.] are making us look like a joke!” You’re an idiot. Who are they making you look like a joke to, cishets?

[sotwk]

I'm an OC creating and supporting kind of fanfic writer, and as a longtime recovering former RPer, I swam with a ton of OCs in various fandoms over the years. So I'd like to think I'm a pretty good judge of character (pun unintended)!

I love your unnamed OFC; Haldir was the main attraction to the first fic of yours that I read, but she was the one who kept me in. I know she's a bit of a vague vision in your head, since you haven't even named her, but I see her and she's very real to me and one of these days I'm just going to fancast her in my head so I can envision and love her all the more. I think it's partly because I'm a sucker for female healers who are gentle and motherly and badass in subtle ways, but also because her chemistry with Haldir is so pure and genuine. They're steamy together, as you have demonstrated so well, but they're also tender and sweet and clearly friends who respect each other as equals. I'm always on board to read about relationships like that!

Now that I've raved about her, I'm going to bullet the rest of my points of enjoyment so I sound a bit less like a rabid fangirl:

I feel like I'm learning so much about the Marchwardens and how the Lothlorien defenses work just through your Haldir fics. Many writers who do romances like this don't bother with such details, but I can tell you have an OCD similar to mine about this sort of thing, because you actually drop specific location names like "the main borders above Cerin Amroth closer to the Northeast". I know the effort it takes to work out little details like that so I want you to know I noticed it!

Orcs using spider poison. Gah, genius! I haven't had the chance to write any action fics about spiders yet, but I am almost jealous I didn't get to consider this detail first.

Love the discussions of Mirkwood's struggles against Sauron/Dol Goldur! It might be self-centered of me, but I feel like it links your story to my SotWK universe somehow, so it almost feels collaborative. Hee.

Her mother is from Greenwood! Yay! Represent!

The way you listed all the things she provided for Haldir next to the cot--again, I love and admire this ability to be specific and allow the reader to envision items from that place.

The lady really knows how to do her job! I love the scene of her soothing Haldir though his moment of weakness (and I like that he was portrayed with vulnerability for a change!), and she pushes back without losing her kind nature.

Minor, but significant: I'm always impressed when a writer is able to refrain from mentioning how hot/attractive Character A thinks Character B is. It's probably the single most common trap fanfic writers fall into (me included, usually), but there was zero of that in this first meeting.

Thank you so much for writing this in response to my request--really! It is a true gift, especially since I know this isn't your preferred genre/ship to write in the first place, and you're essentially making an exception for me. <3 I hope writing the succeeding chapters will be easier for you. (If you decide to keep going--honestly, no pressure!!! I am already happy with this installment, and will only happily accept more if you're inclined to continue.)

I'm gonna hop on Pinterest for some fancast ideas for OFC now. Did I mention yet how much I love her?

A Healer’s Touch, An Herbalist’s Kindness P1

Concept: See above

Request for: @sotwk​ This one is a bit more from Haldir’s perspective than OFC and honestly I found it a little more difficult to write, so I hope this is to your liking! I decided to split this up into sections just because a) it was getting long and b) really different vibes were going on between the initial meetings and the later visits/excuses to see each other. So here’s the initial meeting! This one’s a little angsty, but it’s mostly up from here, promise!

We’re probably looking at another 3-5 parts depending on flow. So strap in for the ride lol. Yes, there’s also definitely a writing shift because I was testing new styles, but decided it has its time and place. Hope you don’t mind!

Tags: way pre-relationship Haldir x OFC (healer/herbalist and future wife); emotional hurt/comfort; emotional whump! Haldir poor guy, he’s really going through it it’s been a rough season for the wardens out there!; angst

TWs: injury and light blood descriptions; anxiety and panic attacks; some situational self-loathing

____________________________________________________________________

“Círan, you cannot be serious!” Haldir exclaims as he struggles against the other elf’s hold preventing him from marching back into surgery.

“You would leave my brother in the hands of an apprentice with this?” His voice is tight in outrage.

“Chief Marchwarden!” Círan snaps. “She may be recent to us here in The Golden Wood, but not to her skills. Chief Marchwarden,” their voice then softens, “Haldir, please. Rúmil is in good hands with her. She recognized the symptoms as soon as the rider came and has been preparing the whole hours since. Please, let us work.”

Haldir bites his tongue as he watches the unknown elleth briskly cut open the dressing he’d wrapped himself around the jagged wound on his brother’s chest and side and begin flushing it with an alternating mix of clean water and a pungent brew of dark herbs, only some of which he recognized. He can just see her tilt his brother’s head back and produce a vial before the doors swing shut, cutting off his field of vision. 

Haldir takes a shaky breath then reluctantly nods before forcing himself to step back and off to the side. He clenches his jaw and sits in the chair provided by Círan before the healer goes back to assisting with the work ahead.

Haldir, The Lady’s voice sounds clear in his head, startling him from his worry. Celeborn tells me the patrols have destroyed the orc holdout responsible and are bringing in the poisoned blades to the healers for inspection. Expect them within the hour. I have already let Nestál know, as well. How is Rúmil fairing?

Haldir closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before responding, willing away some of the adrenaline and underlying panic in his system.

No worse than before we set off, my Lady. The new healer apparently has seen something similar before and she’s taken the lead in his healing. He says, a touch sardonically.

Ah, slight amusement and warmth filters through their óswanë link. Yes, I imagine she has. She pauses before adding.

Haldir, rest. Let the healers take care of Rúmil. Orophin is on his way in from the Northwest outpost, as well. You take care of our people well, let them help you. Take this time to be with your brothers, we’ll hold steady until your return.

Haldir flounders for what to say and his hands clutch at his own over cloak now torn in three separate places and soaked through with his brother’s blood. He wants to argue but knows he can’t. There is nothing for him to argue against.

Of course, my Lady. Thank you.

Be at peace, Chief Marchwarden. Today has been a dark day, but all will be well. She soothes before withdrawing from his mind.

Haldir sighs and begins to compile a list of all the reports he’d need to complete and patrol routes they’d need to revise. He rubs his temples and settles in the chair for the long vigil he knew he’d have ahead of him.

🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀

“Marchwarden?” A soft voice breaks into his thoughts over which paths they could secret into the mountain sides above Moria. 

Haldir jolts back into awareness as the elleth caring for Rúmil steps into his line of sight, worry flooding his system. He goes to stand but she waves her hand at at him.

“Is he-?”

She smiles softly, her eyes tired. “As long as your brother makes it through the night - and there’s every indication that he will, just a precaution - then he’ll be fine. It will be a delayed healing process due to the venom, but we all are certain he’ll make a full recovery.”

The relief Haldir feels makes him weak in the knees and in hindsight, he’s incredibly glad that she let him stay seated. He now feels guilty in more ways than one, too. He clears his throat.

“Círan says you’ve encountered this before?”

“Ah, yes.” She looks grim. “Spider venom.”

Haldir blinks in shock, wondering if the new but not-new-to-them apprentice realized how ridiculous she sounded. “You must be mistaken. The Children of Ungoliant are not here in such a way; they’re regional to Mirkwood.”

“Yes, Marchwarden, I’m aware.” She bites out then releases a breath, running a hand through her tresses, messing the already loose braid down her back. “I did my herbalism and first aid training in Imladris, but my mother is from the Greenwood.” Haldir raises an eyebrow at the emphasis feeling as if he would smirk at her if he had the energy left in him.

“I’ve spent much of my life there assisting their healers with the reactions to venom. Its fortunate I’ve learned to always carry vials of antivenin on me or else we’d have to dispatch riders to Lord Thranduil for supply and it likely would be too late for your brother.”

Haldir feels a shiver run up his spine, wiping away his slight amusement.

“You must understand that just because you have no spiders means little. Orcs join forces with them and can coat their blades in the poison; it’s very common in the Greenwood and surrounding areas such as Dale. I’m just surprised. I’ve never heard of the practice extending past the forest’s borders. Nonetheless, Nestal is informing Lord Celeborn and Lady Galadriel while Círan and I monitor Rúmil. I’ve already made contact with Lord Thranduil to inform him and request additional antivenin be sourced and sent here to Lórien and to Imladris lest they head that way, as well. Orc sightings have been also steadily increasing along the road paths, as I’m sure we’re all aware.”

“Sauron.” Haldir curses. “It seems everyday his range increases and the grief he brings to all lands intermingles with the love already there to be found.”

A smile touches her lips briefly, “Yes, the bastard.” Haldir startles at her bluntness and stares at her.

“Ah, apologies. We have a tendency to be more informal in the healing halls.” The ellyth clears her throat and gestures towards the recovery wing. “I’ve set up a cot near Rúmil for you along with a stand and a couple other things you may need for the evening. Given the availability at the moment, I’ve also set up another space for hm. I believe Lady Galadriel said you had another brother?” She questioned and moved closer to the door, indicating him to follow her.

“Yes, our younger brother Orophin.” Haldir responds, gathering his things.

“Will he be needing medical treatment, as well? I can alert Círan and Nestál.”

“No,” Haldir replies as he stands and moves towards her. “He’s been at post in Nanduhirion.”

She nods at his answer, but looks as if she was parsing out a riddle in her mind’s eye.

“Near the Doors of Moria in the Northwest. Rúmil and I were attacked near the main borders above Cerin Amroth closer to the Northeast.” Haldir says, a touch impatiently, as they move into the next room.

She mutters something from behind him, but Haldir doesn’t hear her as clearly as his training should have him. Instead, he stares at his brother’s form lying prone in a healer’s bed, chest rewound in fresh bandages and a thick, acrid poultice the color of decaying moss and leaves laid over-top every inch. Rúmil was paler than perhaps his first several months out of their mother’s womb and despite his sleeping state for the last several hours, his eyes were sunken in his face and ringed in darkness. Almost as if Rúmil had already met the Death the healers had been trying to prevent.

“-warden. Haldir!” A voice gets louder in his ringing ears and a hand tightens on his arm. He looks down at the short ellyth standing concernedly at his side. He towers over her, he realizes. She’s on the shorter side for an elf. He wonders if she has any Mannish blood in her line.

“Haldir.” She says again. He’s unsure if he hears her as much as sees her lips form his name. She smiles a little as she catches his eye, but the crease between her eyebrows gives her worry away. “Can you understand what I’m saying?”

It takes him a moment but he nods.

“Your brother is doing very well given the situation and with no complications, should pull through just fine. He just needs rest and treatment every few hours. Nod again if you understand me.” He nods. Despite his initial annoyance with her presence, her voice is incredibly soothing to listen to. Something about her is soothing to him. Perhaps her healer’s training.

“Haldir, breathe. In. Out. Can you do that for me?” He forces a stuttering and shallow breath into his lungs.

“Good,” she soothes, “again.” He feels warm at the nape of his neck and repeats the action at her guidance. His sight clears at the edges, bringing him back into awareness with his body. He hadn’t realized how out of focus he was or how close he was to loosing consciousness.

He hadn’t realized a lot of things today. Some Marchwarden he was. Some brother he was, Haldir thought bitterly, tightness rising in his chest again. 

He feels a slight pressure and absentmindedly looks down at the hand on his arm pulling him towards his brother. The ellyth gently guides him to sit on the made cot next to Rúmil‘s and sets his things down on a stool nearby before pouring an already steeped, hot cup of tisane from a full-brewed pot.

She presses the mug of tisane into his hands and Haldir clutches it as if were a lifeline she had thrown out into his drowning hand in the fast-moving waters of the Celebrant instead.

“Drink, Marchwarden. It will help, I promise.” She says gently and he’s suddenly reminded of what she said earlier: I’ve set up a cot near Rúmil for you along with a stand and a couple other things you may need for the evening.

He looks around the space as he sips on the tea provided, scalding his tongue in the process. Tea; mugs; a heated water pitcher, basin, and rags; his bag; pillows and a cot with warm linens made for the cool nights; a reading candle and his brother’s condition report nearby if he wishes to update himself on Rúmil’s progress; and a small platter of fruits, cheeses, bread, and a jar of honey.

A couple of other things, Haldir thinks incredulously. This ellyth had gone far beyond any duties in providing for a family member of an injured patient, Chief Marchwarden or not. Especially one who had been treating her and her healing skills as callously as he had been thus far.

“Marchwarden?” She asks, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Chief Marchwarden of the Northern Boundary.” Haldir can’t help but snap back out of instinct. He immediately regrets his words and goes to apologize, but finds his ability with words too, have finally escaped him.

It’s been a gruesome day and a longer month and an even more grueling several years. He’s not sure he could say the words he wants to express even if he could think of them in the first place.

“Well, then, Chief Marchwarden of the Northern Boundary.” The ellyth states sharply, then pauses and eventually sighs.

Somehow, she still sounds kind when she begins again, “I’ll be back in a couple of hours to check on your brother’s progress and change his bandages. Círan will do hourly rounds until then. In the meantime, I suggest you get some rest. It will be a long night.”

She’s quiet for a moment before she shakes her head slightly and smiles tightly at him then speaks as she runs her eyes over Rúmil. “Please alert us if there’s any serious changes with your brother. Goodnight.”

The ellyth briskly walks out the back set of doors in the room, deeper into the healing halls.

Haldir sighs and sets his empty mug down, rubbing his hands harshly over his face before laying down and staring at the panels in the ceiling.

Just another tally against himself today, Haldir thinks. He can’t even gather himself to be civil with the elf tasked with more than adequately saving his brother’s life after he couldn’t do it himself.

He’s tired, he realizes. A deep, bone-aching tired that lends itself to tides pulling him out to sea.

In the morning, he’ll see what he can do to mend his transgressions from today, he thinks, brain slower to map out possible plans of action than normally.

His yawn cracks his jaw and his eyelids begin to droop of their own accord.

The tisane, he belatedly registers. Made of valerian root, lavender, and rose hips.

Haldir snorts and grins as he begins to drift to sleep. Clever minx.

[btsandvmin]

Ask: Reply - 2021.03.18

I don’t know what might be the best way to go about asks, but for now I’ll try to answer asks as they come and when I can/want to I’ll collect them together in a post instead of answering indivudually. I’ve seen other Vminie blogs with similar formats and have done a few collection posts like this before, and it really seems to be the easiest way to digest your questions.

Let’s go through what you’ve sent me today as I finally opened up this blog for asks again. :)

Topics:

Ask 1 - Vmin’s emotional connection vs ship moments Ask 2 - KTH1 and creative control Ask 3 - What makes a ship big? Ask 4 - Thoughts on Tae/kook’s relationship (+ edit on other post) Ask 5 - When did they first mention the dumpling fight? Ask 6 - A little about me and my big analysis Ask 7-9 - Thank yous and nice things

Thank you all for waiting. <3 Read more under the cut.

Ask 1 -  Vmin’s emotional connection vs ship moments

I agree with you. I might not look at other ships as focused as I do with Vmin, but I would guess no other ship comes close to how much Vmin have shown their emotional intimacy in many ways over the years. Not to mention how many times even BTS themselves point out Vmin’s bond as special. Not to mention to begin with we shouldn’t be insecure about their bond based on their interactions with others. We should judge Vmin based on how they interact with each other.

All members have skinship (though some more than others), but both Jimin and Tae are super comfortable with touching, sometimes even with strangers. Looking at moments you can ship all ships, and there are even those that believe their ship to be real for almost all ships in BTS at this point. Why? Well because if you focus on your ship and put emphasis on the moments between them as bigger or more important, you can find “proof��� for anything. Because that’s just how close and shipworthy all of the dynamics in BTS are. They all love each other, and shippers can find their own preferred love amongst them. 

I think we also need to remember all the things Vmin has CONFIRMED that other shippers try to prove with their own ships. How is tae/kook hugging or ji/kook cuddling supposed to make me feel insecure about Vmin when they have that too AND call each other soulmates in a song that made one of their procucers cry and other things like Namjoon getting goosebumps thinking about their bond? Taehyung cried reading his letter to Jimin and Jimin said no other member would likely truly understand why he cried. Taehyung has called Jimin the warmest person he knows and his one and only best friend. AND AGAIN, SOULMATE. The years of material we have show us again and again how important they are to each other and how they grow and work hard together to make their bond even stronger.

Vminies, please appriciate what we have because we are spoiled.

Ask 2 - KTH1 and creative control

Honestly this is a difficult one. The thing is that we know that likely to some degree Big Hit will always be involved with what the boys do and release. But I also think their freedom to express themselves is better than most idol companies, and BTS whole brand is to be as genuine as possible. As for what Tae would be asked to tone down is hard to say exactly, but we do know that Yoongi and Namjoon (and other members) have been pretty dark and honest in their lyrics. I know from a Vmin perspective it could be something either LGBT+ or even directly Vmin related, but there isn’t enough to go on for me to make a good guess. We literally just know that he was told to tone it down. It doesn’t even have to be about the subjects or lyrics, even though that does seem the most likely. But we do know that Taehyung wants to release something that reflect him and that he can be proud of, so I am sure no matter what we get they will be his honest feelings. I am very excited and a bit scared thinking about Tae’s mixtape if I am being honest.

That being said, I think there could be lines that they should be careful not to cross. I think it’s possible with Taehyung’s personality who “doesn’t beat around the bush” that he might want to express more than what might be appropriate. Not just from Big Hit’s perspective but for his own sake. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying Tae is an idiot who doesn’t know what’s good for him. I just think at times he might be rebellious against his own better judement because it is something so important to him. For me talking about the Christmas song is partly such a moment, but I still think he was careful and ambiguous enough about it, even though he allowed himself to complain. Still, I am sure if it is about sexuality or even a relationship he knows the risks of being too open about it and would likely understand the need to be careful, or tone things down, if that was the case. A mixtape/album is not something done rashly or in the moment, so no matter what we get I am sure it will have been checked and considered by Tae and by Big Hit.

So basically I suppose the delay could be about creative control but mostly I really think it’s about Taehyung wanting to do well and writing when he feels like it without pressure. Which I feel is a very healthy approach by him honestly. We know mixtapes takes time and we know how Hobi felt about his first one, so I really think we should just give him time and I am sure we will get something amazing.

Ask 3 - What makes a ship big?

Aaaaaaw~! Thank you so much for your love and compliments. I feel like am very lacking in many areas still, but regardless I am glad my posts are appriciated. If I can bring a smile to anyones’ face that is an acomplishment to be proud of. Thank you. <3

As for what makes a ship big or not is of course quite subjective. For me at this point I would say ALL BTS ships are big ships. Not comparing them to each other but just by the huge amount of fans they all have. (I hope you don’t have to learn the pain or liking a rare-pair from a small fandom T-T). Almost all the ships in BTS even have analysis and people who believe in them, and I think that is partly an effect of size as well. That being said I think the bigger a ship is the easier it is for it to grow more. Which is why it is no surprise a lot of BTS ships that were popular right at the start are still the biggest ones now. But with more material and more fans there comes communities focused on their own ship, and they all grow as they get more moments. Vmin too have had a few times when they blow up for a while and gather new curious shippers. Friends is clearly a great example of this. Even Sweet Night seem to be something of a turning point for some to start shipping Vmin. All ships will grown in size with each passing year as we are always given new material. Even if a ship doesn’t get a lot, it will likely get enough to keep fans engaged.

For me I would say the loudest and the most agressive are often the biggest  (more bad apples the bigger the basket you know) and I think we can see some size indications by what ships trend more often etc. Ships can also be big in different ways and in different forums... Like how ji/kookers have taken tumblr as their platform while tae/kookers seem to be on youtube comments a lot.

All in all I don’t think size matters much though. Especially not with BTS where all ships get a lot of material and has their own fans who create for, share and dicuss about their pair. Popularity to me is not really something I think too much about, and honestly I think the way only the most popular pairs seem to get attention in the form of “worry” etc. is very telling. If JK and Hobi share a bed and cuddle and celebrate JK’s BD together, or Hobi post them having a picknick outside their house at night no one bats an eye... But if it was JK with one of Vmin? Confirmed to be dating and all other shippers get worried. 

Going into detail why ships gets big is a different conversation though. :P I hope I understood your ask correctly. Basically I consider all BTS ships as more or less big (perhaps with the exception of 2seok).

Ask 4 - Thoughts on Tae/kook’s relationship

So I got two Tae/kook asks today, seemingly because Tae/kook has had a lot of moments recently. I deleted the first one, but this one I feel is safe enough to share. I’ve talked about tae/kook before... (HERE for example) and I stand by that now too. I don’t have to dismiss other ships to feel confident about Vmin’s love for each other.

Tae/kook has always had a very physical and playful dynamic. Even when Tae changed and toned down this side of him we got moments where he played with JK or they hugged or cuddled close. I do see a little change now after ITS but mostly in that Tae seems to initiate more, not that it looks different in nature. I think when Tae changed his dynamic with JK lost a lot of it’s “main focus” as Tae wasn’t as playful. Look at JK with Jin as a comparison and I think JK in general is drawn to hang with people who are happy and fun to tease. 

Anyways, about their bond I do think tae/kook are close but as grown men they don’t have the same relationship that they used to when they were younger. They simply grew up and their dynamics changed. They haven’t had a lot of more serious conversations, but I think now that distance have become a little shorter after ITS. I think Tae/kook has a great bond that is underrated by many in the fandom but overrated greatly by their shippers. They clearly love each other and have fun with each other and can be very comfortable physically. 

But are they as close as Vmin? Personally I really doubt it. And even if Tae/kook would be real why should that have any impact on Vmin? Surely you wouldn’t think they are together but cheating or something drastic like that. I am also not sure why you would be particularly worried about tae/kook based on physical interactions alone though... I mean, both Hope/kook, Tae/jin, Ji/kook and Vmin also have a loooot of very intimate looking moments if you ask me.

You don’t have to worry about Vmin. If Tae has gushed about Jimin being special to him from 2013 to 2020 I don’t see why 2021 would be any different.

I also got a reply to this post where I mentioned the tae/kook ask I deleted. I must first say that it was my mistake to write JK’s lips and not his lip mole. I have edited the post to make clear he talked about the mole and not the lips.

Either way, thank you anon for giving perspective and adding your thoughts to the moments. Not to mention moments like this happen for all members and I don’t think we can draw any strong conclusions from them saying another members is sexy or something similar. But yeah, people pick and choose what they will remember, and often focusing on the negative will leave a bigger impact than the positive.

Ask 5 - When did they first mention the dumpling fight?

Hi and don’t worry. I honestly think a lot of Vminies don’t know about this because the first time was such a small moment not many would pay attention and remember it. We knew about it since 2016 where Tae offhandedly mentioned him and Jimin fighting about dumplings once.

I don’t even have the actual source for the first time Tae mentioned it, but it was all the way back in July 2016 in an interview with @star1 magazine, so we know it happened before that.

Then Tae got asked about it on a post it during a BST era fansign as well. Also, did you know the reason they fought was 💜?

Yeah.... Let’s just say I am not surprised at all to hear their dumpling fight having more meaning than first let on. As with most things brought up in the lyrics of Friends it’s something we already knew about since before. I also talked about this in my post Vmin analysis - “Friends”. (Though at that point we hadn’t heard them speak much about it and didn’t know how big of a deal it seemed to be.) It makes me wonder if the other things they talk about in the lyrics might also have more meaning than we know. 

Personally I think the reason we even got them talking about the dumpling incident so much is thanks to JK in the carpool karaoke. When asked what Vmin would fight about he was the one who mentioned dumplings and likely brought more attention to it than if it would simply have remained as one of the many lyrical anecdotes in the song. I am glad we got to know more, because honestly the dumpling incident seems to have been a pivotal moment in Vmin’s relationship.

Ask 6 - A little about me and my big analysis

Hi and thank you so much for the lovely compliments. Trying to consider all kinds of possibilities I feel should be obvious if you truly want to analyse something, but sadly I think when it comes to observing real people and being invested emotionally that becomes really difficult. Me too have to hold myself back a lot, because in the end there is always going to be room for error. And if I am wrong, who will be hurt? Likely all of you who listen to me and take my words into consideration. So I rather be upfront about the risk of being wrong than to speak too confidently and accidentally ending up misleading someone. I am really so happy and proud over Vminies who can stand back and not become delusional despite everything we actually have (this includes myself, because it’s not always easy to not get caught up in theories).

As for who I am it’s of course ok to ask. I am from Sweden and is 30 years old. (English isn’t my native language so I hope you forgive my mistakes, I know I have a lot of them in my posts). I’ve been a BTS fan since 2016 and Vmin fan almost since the start. I have been a fan of other groups long before BTS too and was pretty deep into the Japanese idol culture before fell for K-pop. For some additional info I also work with marketing and project managing and have a degree in conflict resolution. Thanks for being curious about me. :)

About my big analysis I am working on it still, and of course I hope to post it as soon as I can. I am a bit hesistant in bringing attention to some things though, as I have seen some of my previous theories and speculations be regarded as fact. I don’t want Vminies to run with my interpretations in a way that make them confident in Vmin being real. So yeah, I do want to post it, but I am also a bit worried what reactions it might get. I try very hard to remind you all that my theories are only speculations and we won’t know anything for sure (unless it would be confirmed). It still isn’t finished yet though, but I’ll keep working hard.

Ask 7 -  Thank you for the fic rec

Thank you! I am glad you enjoyed it. I haven’t had too much time to catch up on reading and just added a lot from my bookmarks, but good thing it was so appriciated by you all. Vmin writers truly are amazing aren’t they? :) 

(And don’t worry about me getting bad asks. I think I would have quit a long time ago if I let them bother me too much.)

Ask 8 - Just a very sweet anon

Thank you! I’m ok. Not great, but ok. Life goes on, you know? But I feel like I finally have the energy to blog again, and honestly that feels pretty great. It feels like I’ve been gone forever, but I hope you will still enjoy my musings and thoughts as you send me questions and I write new posts. :3

Ask 9 - The whole world is different from yesterday~ Just with your joy~

Omg what a sweet thing to say, thank you so much, you are putting a big smile on my face right now. I am glad you enjoy and understand my thoughts so much. I know many of you have missed my thoughts and even asked me when I would open my asks again, and so much always happen with Vmin too... (There is literally enough material to write books about them.) Thank you for waiting and being so understanding. I am happy to be back too. <3

Thank you everyone for you asks and I hope you liked this new format. :) I’ll try to keep it up and if you have any thoughts and opinions feel free to share them.

[waynedunlaptheorgandonor]

can i say a sort of pointless rambly thing i was thinking about that i can't put under the cut bc i'm on mobile?

jk, i'm not actually asking. ramble below, not edited for clarity. the following is completely unclear and i will not fix it:

i've been thinking about how part of the reason i'm so chill about caryl is bc growing up as a queer woc 99% of my main ships were like, never gonna fucking happen bc they literally couldn't. it was like, "omg, they gazed at each other from across the room, let's analyze the homosexual subtext of this one scene for the next fifty years, that's not necessarily hyperbole." i've watched all my ships fuck other ppl/have other love interests, and i knew that my thing was never gonna be canon, so to see like, one thing being like, "one half of my ship fucked another person several years ago while pining for the other half of my ship," i'm like...#nice, bc that can and likely will be used as a plot point to get them together later on, whereas in other situations i've been in i just kinda had to deal with it. so my impulse when i see ppl losing their shit is to be like

and to be slightly annoyed, tbh, bc the ship is still on track to be canon, and it's like, literally two white heterosexuals, they're prime candidates for juicy angsty pining that actually gets a resolution.

but!

that being said, i recognize that that attitude isn't necessarily fair. for one thing, i'm not the only queer woc (or some variation thereof) in this fandom, and some ppl's impulse might be exasperation instead, bc like, "wtf, even my mayohet ship has dumb fucking drama," and that's valid as hell, and i get it.

and also, i get that, even if you didn't grow up shipping impossible ships (or mulder/scully, bc that's a brand of bullshit all its own), this has been a suuuuper drawn out process where sometimes it feels like they're legit sprinkling crumbs to keep you hooked, just to play you again, and when you are invested in something, like /rly/ invested, especially if it's a form of escapism or hyperfixation or whatever, that can be e x h a u s t i n g. and i get that. i truly do, and while i make a lot of snide comments about the fandom being bonkers, i do get where the bulk of you are coming from (unless you're one of those ppl who hate on actors and esp actresses for just doing their jobs, and attack them on social media, in which case i am very much judging you and you need to get your life together).

i also realize that in the scheme of things i'm still a newbie. i've been here, what, twoish/threeish years, whereas some of you have been here since the beginning, so i'm not as worn out as y'all. but i also think that gives me a bit of objectivity that some of y'all have (understandably) lost.

my positivity is not meant as a sleight against those of you who are feeling negative, but is more of a semi-objective viewpoint (i say semi, bc lbr, i'm invested af in this, so i definitely have bias), and to me the threads of the storyline they're crafting seem sort of obvious.

like, let's look at it, yeah? they have one season left of this show that has been on for over a decade. they need to cater to everyone to give them a satisfying ending, while still hanging on to carylers bc of the spin-off. darylrreah seems like a very calculated move, bc it gives them both something to make abcers happy, while also creating tension and suspense and pining for carylers (i think they might underestimate just how fed up some carylers are tbh, and are banking on us to hang on for one last ride, which, honestly? if they play it right will probably work.)

if they end up doing a dumb love triangle thing, which, without seeing the episode and gauging the subtext i can't confidently say if i think they will or won't, it will ultimately end in our favor. it has to, bc leah isn't going to third wheel them on the bike in the spin-off. we can say with good authority that whatever that relationship ends up being (again, idk if they'll drag it out or not) it will be temporary. which leaves caryl open to ride off into the sunset and then bone down in every state in the united states and in puerto rico for good measure.

it's a lot of cheap drama, but i really and truly do not think it's anything to worry about, and i still really and truly trust kang to not make it out of character. ik ppl still don't agree with me on that point, and i'm not gonna argue, but to me it really does make perfect sense.

and i also predict that they are gonna play it up hardcore in the promotional shit and talking dead, but when that happens, remember it's bc it gets attention. regardless of where the story is ultimately going, relationship drama gets attention, which gets viewers, which gets amc and twd producers nice and comfy with full pockets

idk. to sum up ig i just wanted to clarify that i don't mean any harm with my relentless positivity. my history in fandom has just made this seem like nothing in comparison, bc while ppl are freaking out, i'm like, "oh damn, they're actually gonna get together by the end of this, aren't they? i didn't know that could happen!" and that makes me excited instead of upset

and you definitely don't have to listen to me. maybe i'm actually wrong. maybe i'm completely full of bullshit and am just good at making things sound confident. i got a lot of As on papers in college over books i never read, i know how to bs. but i also know how to analyze, and i while i will be the first to tell you i am not the best at a great many things, i do know that i am good at critically analyzing text while taking into account the context it was written in, and imho all signs point to canon caryl. when, i'm not entirely sure, but i see it happening. if it doesn't then they severely fucked up their storytelling, and that'd just be bad writing on their part.

(if you want proof that i'm good at reading writers'/producers' intentions, consider that i watched like, 8 seasons of supernatural before giving up, and said to myself, "i think they're gonna make destiel canon, but not until the very last second bc they are rly into catering to their fans but also have to consider their dumb fanboy audience so they can't do anything crazy overtly gay," and guess who hit the nail on the fucking head on that one)

none of this is important, but it was rattling around my mind grapes and i wanted to write it down into something vaguely coherent, and where else better to do it than here. i can word vomit and then send it into the ether and pretend i never said a thing. i love this horrible website, nothing can compare

i have no real conclusion to this, it was mostly stream of consciousness, but i hope it sort of helps y'all understand where i'm coming from, and why i am as chill as i am about things. not about y'all. y'all cause me so much anxiety i get physically sick and have to legit block tags, but with the actual show content i'm zen as hell

uh

the end ig?

it feels weird even signing off on this, but w/e

-diz

[0aurelion-sol0]

SNK 135: THE SYNOPSIS AND RANT

So...

It's not the review, I just wanted to say some few words.

First of all, let's just acknowledge that this is a synopsis. It's not the chapter.

Second of all, don't use some spoilers without any context to make a theory. Especially when it's just the synopsis and there aren't any meaningful spoilers.

So let's cut it short, the synopsis is this: The battle engages on the back of the Founding Titan, but Eren is nowhere to be found and Armin and his troop quickly find themselves in trouble.

So people immediatly thought that meant Eren was still in Shiganshina using the Warhammer's ability.

There's just a few nitpicks I have about this theory... Just a few:

First, someone would have noticed. Judging where Eren's position is located before he transforms, someone in Shiganshina at some point would have noticed a big crystal or something titan like with something connected to it. It doesn't make sense. And Eren was not in a place where he could hide himself under something as the land was flat.

Second of all:

HAVE YOU...

SEEN THE SIZE...

OF THAT THING ?!!!

Eren could literally be located ANYWHERE on that thing. But no people need to think he is in control when...

Third of all, he isn't. The guy lost his head, keeps seeing traumatic flashbacks, teleports in paths, is a kid while having a semi-real dream of "That Sight" and apparently can watch through birds. Every character asks him, if he is really free ? And we are still begging for the guy to be in total control of all of this ? What for some kind of proto, mumbo jumbo Lelouch type of plan ? Please, every one in the fandom is bragging about this plan that he has when they are multiple elements that shows us, he is not in control of himself whatsoever ? And frankly, the manga which is an anti-war, anti-violence, anti-imperialism, anti-genocide will give a Lelouch ending (which is so predictable and only the typical shonen " I have your shonen protagonist n°3456 as a profile pic " would put out there) and A SECRET PLAN TO A GUY WHO IS DESTROYING THE WORLD, huh ?!?

That doesn't make any sense, Reiner, Annie and Bertolt didn't have one and fucked up on so many aspects when they tried to "sAvE tHe wOrLd". Why would he have such an advantage ? Because he is the main protagonist ? Give me a break.

Fourth of all, if something like this was to happen, the only thing that would make some little sense was either if Eren was being dragged by this huge titan but like why would he put so much effort in being in that state when it makes him so vulnerable, not only to others but to the colossal titans who burns everything. AND AGAIN someone would have noticed.

In the ocean ? What ? How will he come back up when he finished killing all babies ?

No that doesn't make sense. Forget it.

Eren got shot in the head, the only thing that makes sense is if all of his titan is made of hardening. And that his head is seperated which is clearly shown :

And the rest of his body is somewhere else on his Titan.

For example, he won't be in his nape (obviously, it's the weak spot.) but on his spine shown by the strings of flesh coming from it's spine.

It also reinforces the image that he is a puppet which is fitting since nothing he does makes any sense whatsoever especially like:

Lead two parties at war while none of them wanted to, siding with the guy you didn't want at first to save your lives but wants to eradicate those very same lives, attacking and hurting the friends who you want to have " long happy lives ", creating a civil war in your own country, a racist supremacist group that almost kills your friends, using yourself as bait when you are the Founder in a country that uses titans against you, not giving any information about your whereabouts, not giving any information via memories about EREN KRUGER THE GUY WHO WAS A SPY IN THE MARLEYAN MILITARY, also siding with a guy who wants to push the world against you and did so by suggesting to go to paradise to retrieve the Founder while I repeat... THEY DIDN'T WANT TO DO, doing an attack that will lead the world against you. Choosing to ignore every peaceful outcome even the people who are doing takes you with them to do it and than asking sympathy points for another way when he literally destroyed every option to do. Using the Rumbling which will kill also people that were living next to the walls, the titans in the walls will probably also stomp on villages that were located inside the walls as the titans were placed in a circular shape and ALSO...

Could... I don't know... KILL HISTORIA WHO IS LOCATED IN A ISOLATED FARM INSIDE THE WALLS, "PREGNANT" AND CANNOT RUN FAST IF COLOSSAL TITANS COMES AND WALK OVER HER.

*sigh*

Narratively this will also be stupid, like we did all of this just to find out he's not here ? A whole party died, Hange died for people to use the plane and he's not here ? And what we watch Humanity get killed ? We go back home, depressed ? Everyone is like " we love and understand Eren ? He goes back to Hisu, I am the dad, we feed the heteronormatives while the manga destroyed every cliche of that ? He gets a baby while he killed every babies " You are free." He wins, while he manipulated the whole thing ? Oh no he gets killed, secret plan, Eren is Lelouch, satisfying ending, his only fate is to die as a stupid symbol...

...God...

I don't even have the strenght to write. Why do people think like this ? Why do people feel the need to put the Alliance down with every chance they get and elevate Eren as this shonen protagonist freedom seeker demi god waifu meat beater ?

People are weird.

The guy has a change that happens off screen, he manipulates pretty much everything since the timeskip and he acts completely different from what we know of him and we're supposed to take it that way and consider it genius writing.

Really ?!

We need to move plot points, we need to move forward, we cannot keep dragging the story with endless unneeded double pages of violence and empty discussions for character who haven't expressed any feelings toward each other ever since the start outside of the anime who changed the story and added these pointless scenes to please those who masturbate to the three female characters of those ships. Like I don't know ( Eremika, Erehisu, Aruani...)

This is just the synopsis, wait for the review.

I really hope this chapter is good and not another 133 OR fucking 134.

[phoenixyfriend]

For Karin's backstory, do you usually go for anime one? I prefer datebook backstory, even though it's not detailed. Because manga showed one panel of Karin being experimented on with her arms showing bite marks. So I always believed that healing bites ability is result of Oro experiments. It makes more sense to me. Also, I am uncomfortable of anime backstory. And grass village confuses me. Didn't they still exist after the fourth war? I guess in fic, we could just say it no longer exists.

I love this question.

Okay, so the short version is that I usually do a mix of the two. I’m going to do a quick rundown on the differences between the two backstories for anyone who isn’t familiar. This means we’ll be touching on some very questionable subjects, because the anime went to some very concerning lengths. It’s going to be under a cut, because... yeah. Long.

The only solid canon, as in from the manga, that we have for pre-Orochimaru Karin is the Chuunin Exams flashback, wherein she is in a Kusa (Grass) headband, and is saved from a bear by Sasuke, which kicks off her crush on him.

The first backstory we received from Karin was in the databooks; this backstory came out prior to the Exams flashback in the manga. It stated that Karin was living in an unspecified village, sensed an army coming to destroy it, and tried to warn the rest of the town. Nobody believed her, so she ran to hide (I think in some nearby foothills/forest?), and everyone else was killed. Orochimaru then came by, tried to recruit her, and then let Sasuke convince her. Sasuke didn’t really have to do much beyond saying he was Oro’s student in order to get Karin to come along.

Now, given that Kusagakure still exists post-timeskip, at least in the Blood Prison movie, the village that was destroyed wasn’t Kusa. Either Karin was in a different village, or Karin’s backstory doesn’t include the village destruction element. I tend to go with ‘a different village,’ but I’ll get to that later.

The anime gives us a different backstory, one that takes Karin’s Kusa headband from the Exams as fact.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Karin’s backstory is not presented as a backstory, but rather an alternate timeline from her Eternal Tsukuyomi dream. I don’t know what the animators were thinking, deciding to use this hell as her dream of a ‘perfect world,’ but at this point the dream is treated as her default anime background so like??? Sure. Sure. We’ll use it, but we’ll also judge Studio Pierrot for it, because there’s “I don’t like this character” and then there’s “I’m going to have this character’s dream of a perfect world include over a decade of violating her health and bodily autonomy on a level of systemic abuse that is truly horrific, edging on fucking csa” because fuck you I guess? I’m still mad. I’d have been okay with the backstory as backstory because it fits her personality, but why the hell was it presented as her Eternal Tsukuyomi dream???

Listen LISTEN Eternal Tsukuyomi is supposed to be a perfect world for each individual You DREAM WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPIEST and they gave her a decade of physical and medical abuse, bordering on extended csa, only to die at sixteen because they'd 'used her up.’ like???

When I say SP had a grudge against Karin...

Anyway. Anime backstory:

Karin’s mother (unnamed) came to Kusagakure following the destruction of Uzushiogakure, and was granted refugee status in exchange for working at the hospital, having a similar ‘bite me and you’ll heal’ power as Karin does in canon. We don’t know who Karin’s father was; he may have been a Kusa citizen, or an Uzushio man who died prior to Karin’s mother’s arrival in Kusa.

Karin’s mother dies at some point during Karin’s childhood, having been used as a chakra healing battery to the point of dying of chakra exhaustion. At this point in the anime, Kusa orders that Karin must take over her mother’s duties as a healer, because such a technique is too useful to just leave alone. The bites start out on her forearms, eventually going all over her body, including areas that, despite the intent not being sexual in nature, do qualify as child sexual abuse.

She is bitten on the chest and thighs, by people she barely knows, with minimal consent on her part. She is a minor. This is csa and I hate that people forget this, or choose to exclude it to more easily vilify her.*

(Manga canon also has her with bites on her chest, at sixteen, most of which we can assume are not Sasuke since he seems to not know that biting her chest is provides better healing when she tells him to do it. Again: underage, coercion, chest bites, violation of bodily autonomy. It’s long-term csa in every canon. It may not be explicitly stated, but this is the most explicitly shown example canon has of this particular kind of trauma.)

Now, again, this is her Eternal Tsukuyomi (for some fucking reason), and not her technical backstory, and in that context she just... never gets out. She keeps getting used and abused, the bites eventually even covering her face, and then she dies before hitting twenty.

...so how do we reconcile this?

Elements we have:

Kusagakure headband during the Chuunin Exams (manga canon)

Saved by Sasuke, causing her crush; implies she was very poorly treated by the people around her prior to their meeting (manga canon)

No visible bite marks on her arms during the Chuunin Exams, but with the caveat that the marks are also not visible during Boruto, so it’s possible that Kishi, and in turn SP, just didn’t feel like drawing the scars. (manga canon)

Karin’s healing abilities were present at some point prior to Sasuke recruiting her to hunt down Itachi, but it’s unclear if it is a Kekkei Genkai or something nurtured by Otogakure. (manga canon)

Kabuto’s abilities during the Fourth War include Karin’s ‘rejuvenation’ and ‘life force,’ which implies that it may be a Kekkei Genkai but leaves it frustratingly ambiguous.

Experienced a village destruction, followed by Orochimaru taking her on, due to a Cassandra Truth incident, using Sasuke to convince her to join Oto (databook)

Her mother came to Kusa at some point post-Uzushio destruction; iirc Uzushio fell when Kushina was a teenager, so Karin’s mother either spent a decade or so wandering around prior to deciding Kusa was better than nothing (possibly when she got pregnant), or lived in Kusa for a period of time prior to becoming pregnant. (anime)

Karin was forced, via coercion, to use her healing abilities while in Kusagakure following her mother’s death (anime)

Kusa still exists post-timeskip (anime)

Here’s what I usually go with:

I do think Karin was a Kusa genin. The databook and anime both state that she joined Orochimaru after Sasuke, so she’d have no reason to wear the headband during the Exams other than actually being a genin of Kusagakure.

I err towards the biting being a Kekkei Genkai, which means that it fits with the anime’s suggestion of Kusagakure having used her as a chakra healing battery prior to her arrival in Oto. THIS IS OPTIONAL in other people’s readings, because it’s not manga canon and it’s obviously an incredibly hard subject to work with.

So, Kusa kid, dead mom, chakra healing battery, genin at the Chuunin Exams, then... Otogakure. In order to work in the databook’s element of the destroyed village, we either have to wipe Kusa off the map, or it’s another village.

I’ve generally gone with stating that Karin was on a long-term mission as a healer in a larger civilian village, or possibly the country’s capitol (though that’s less likely). Kusa was obviously willing to send her away temporarily, as with the Exams, so if the price was right, they’d probably send her out on out-of-village missions as well. Would she have a team? Maybe.

Given her poor treatment in this scenario, and the implied distrust/abuse of refugees in the anime, it’s possible that any teammates she had either didn’t trust her as a person, or didn’t think her skills were as good as she claimed. Possibly they assumed that they’d be able to fight off a smaller attacking force, and that Karin was exaggerating or mistaken when insisting that they evacuate. In any case, whoever was with her, if anyone was, also died in this attack.

The army was very likely sent by Orochimaru, and it’s plausible that Karin was actually the main target. I imagine that a spy would have gotten word to Oro about a redhead with extreme healing abilities, and Orochimaru going “Gotta catch ‘em all, Ooh! An Uzumaki!” and deciding that the healing abilities played well enough into the immortality plan to be worth sending an army (and then going in person, with Sasuke) for.

Given how canon played out, she was worth it.

------------------

* Okay the reason I harp on the CSA thing in particular: there was a significant period of time where two headcanons were prevalent: that Sasuke was sexually abused by Orochimaru in his time as Oro’s student, and that Karin was a wannabe rapist.

The Sasuke thing was based on a manga cover and one of the anime openings, but had no actual textual basis beyond Orochimaru being a queercoded villain, which is a whole different problem. The Karin thing was based on a fan’s mistranslation of a single panel, along with later arguments failing to take slang into account and often had by people who don’t actually speak Japanese.

Ultimately, I’m furious that a large portion of the fandom painted a canon CSA victim as a wannabe rapist while pushing that same backstory element onto a different character which they often put as her hypothetical victim, oftentimes just to get her out of the way for shipping purposes. This is a long-standing grudge.

[pebblysand]

[the thoughts on canon-compliance you did not ask for.]

last night between 2 and 3 in the morning (look, i couldn’t sleep, got up to write, then got caught up, okay? don’t judge me for my terrible sleeping patterns please) i had a super interesting discussion with a few people on the hinny discord channel about the definition of canon-compliant-ness. i think this is fascinating because to be honest, before getting into the hp fandom, i didn’t even think this was something one could disagree about. to me there was what was canon, and what wasn’t. a very black-and-white sort of system. i’m finding that it’s not.

through the discussions that i’ve had both on my fics and other people’s fics, it seems that i can narrow down - in the hp fandom - three elements of canon.

i. the events of the books/films

now, as a general disclaimer, you can obviously argue about whether the films are ‘canon.’ you can also argue whether cursed child is canon. there’s a lot of elements which differ between those and lots of opinions about how to look at them. personally, i tend to ignore cursed child. as to the books v. films, i pick and choose what suits my story more. generally, that’ll be the books. but for instance, i’m writing a harry&hermione friendship one shot right now, and there are a lot of movie-isms in that story because that is an aspect that was more explored in the films. however, for the purposes of this post, i’m mainly considering the source material to be the seven books. nothing more or less.

having said that, to me personally, that’s what ‘canon’ is: the events of the story and the characters that gravitate around those events, as described in the source material. things like: tom riddle killing lily and james, or harry, ron and hermione rescuing the philosopher’s stone. anything departing from that is, de facto, an ‘au.’ the whole world of what-if scenarios: what if Harry was sorted into slytherin, what if dudley was a wizard, all of those, to me, are aus.

generally, both as a reader and a writer, those are not scenarios i’m particularly drawn to. my default answer to those what-if scenarios is: ‘well, if harry is sorted into slytherin, there’s no story.’ or at the very least, there’s no story as i know it, and if there’s no story as i know it, then i’d rather read/write original fiction. it’s obviously a very personal preference and there are exceptions to this preference. i loved the changeling [1] for instance, and love the self-aware style of dirgewithoutmusic’s aus [2]. but as a general rule, that is not my preferred genre.

now, aside from the what-if scenarios, there’s also the question of filling in the gaps of the story itself. like, i find it interesting that we only make tsunamis [3] is labelled as ‘canon-compliant’ because i get the feeling that a lot of people would disagree that a fic in which hermione is harry’s first kiss is canon compliant. but, by exploiting the silence sometimes left by the author and turning it to your advantage, are you writing an au? is a negative space canon? is silence canon?

again, as a matter of personal opinion, i would not push my definition of canon-compliance as including blank spaces. to me, as long as it does not contradict the letter of the text, adding in events to the books to suit your story (i’ll address character in point ii) does not make your fic an au. to give another example that was brought up to me regarding my own work, i don’t believe that the events described in chapter nine of castles [4] are au because they exist in a blank space of the books. the fact that harry didn’t notice the 1:1s between ginny and amycus doesn’t mean they didn’t happen, it just means that they’re not in the positive space described by the books.

ii. the characters/characterisation

(as a quick vocab note, please note that below, i’m using the terms ‘ooc’ to mean that the characterisation of a character in a fic is not canon-compliant. they’re synonyms to me.)

now, while the above was pretty straight forward, i believe that this is where i perhaps differ from the masses in my interpretation of what “canon-compliance” means. more i discuss with people, the more i realise that i don’t really think there’s a real ‘canon’ characterisation. or at least not in the big things. like, yeah, it’s canon that harry likes treacle tart, because that’s a fact. but anything that is down to psychology or perspective of the character is, to me, generally up for grabs.

as a human, i believe that there’s things that people do, events that they go through, that condition them to act a certain way. while there is a core to every human being, i personally believe that in life, anyone would basically be capable of doing anything, given the right circumstances. i’ve recently - rightfully - been told my writing is all about the power of choice in our life, the reasons why we make those choices and the people those choices lead us to be. for example, do i think i might murder someone tomorrow? probably not. do i think i might be capable of murdering someone in wartime? perhaps? i don’t know, that’s not the world i live in and my life choices have not lead me to find out the answer to that. however, my point is: to me, good ‘characterisation’ is down to the circumstances and choices outlined in any work of fiction. hence, good characterisation is essentially, to me, equal to good writing.

i often say that good writing could make me believe anything and i mean it. i don’t tend to gravitate towards these fics because these ships are not my personal taste but i genuinely believe that good writing could make me believe in drarry or rarry if it tried. it’s funny because over the course of the discussion yesterday on discord, this was brought up ‘well, no one tags drarry as canon compliant,’ and i’m kind of like, i don’t know whether or not they do because i don’t read it but if they did and none of it contradicted the events as detailed in the books, perhaps it could be? like, that would take really good writing (imo), but good writing has - on occasion - made me believe in dramione a couple of times, so why not? in ‘til the sirens come calling [5], good writing made me 100% believe that harry and hermione would have an affair together. in we only make tsunamis [3], it makes me believe that they had this quiet little relationship building throughout hogwarts that we never knew about.

now, though, i suppose the question isn’t: do i believe it? the question is: is it canon? and, i think that’s where i differ from most people because to me, it is. to take ‘til the sirens come calling [5] as an example, i believe the fic is an au because hermione marries victor krum in the end. that’s going against the hard fact presented by the epilogue, and thus makes it an au. but i don’t believe the concept of a harmony affair is inherently au, because nothing is inherently au, character-wise. it’s about how you write it. how those people get to that place. that’s what makes canon-compliantness, in my opinion.

for example, for that fic, truth be told, we don’t know what those nineteen years include per canon, so they could very much include an h/hr affair. and whilst i don’t believe that the characters as they are in the books would have an affair together, i believe that the characters as they are presented in the fic, with the events and hardships that they go through, definitely would. good writing, to me, is - in part - recognising that characters are moving on a spectrum and that whilst their decisions/actions might not make sense in book-verse, they make sense in fic-verse. good writing is convincingly moving your characters from book-verse to fic-verse, and it not feeling ‘off.’

if it does feel off, that is bad writing to me, and that is also ooc-ness/non-canon compliant. it means that for whatever reason, the writer has not successfully transitioned and explained said transition through the events outlined in the story. with the right prose, you could make me believe draco decided to take on a career as a ballerina dancer after the war, and it would still be ‘canon-compliant’ to me. on the other hand, i have read fics (i won’t name them because that would be shit and also i don’t keep track of my ‘bad’ reads) where harry, ginny, hermione, or ron all act according to book canon and yet, their motivations felt off to me and completely ooc because the writing didn’t successfully lure me in. specifically, there was a lack of character evolution that i found uninteresting. i read mostly post-war stuff because i want to see my characters grow up [6].

as a last, additional note on characters, i also think that the characters in a story only exist within the prism of how we view them. this means that to me, locking my own understanding of a character's personality as 'canon' is particularly difficult because my understanding of a character is unique. i believe there are as many harry-s or ginny-s or hermione-s as there are readers. so i think saying someone's interpretation of a character isn't canon-compliant is odd because i don't actually believe there's any wrong or right answer. as i said, do i believe it likely that draco would become a professional ballerina? no. but if that works within your understanding of his character as described in the books, who am i to say that is or isn't canon compliant? i'll admit, the idea makes me sort of lol though.

iii. tone

lastly, i’ve come to find (in potter particularly) that canon-compliance might include tone. as in: hp is a story that is a) written in a certain style and b) written for children/young adults.

regarding style at a), this is honestly the main reason why it took me 15 years to write potter fic, despite the fact that i’ve been a fan for even longer than that. i genuinely thought you had to write like jkr. and i, well, don’t write like jkr. i love the books, but i don’t even particularly like her style. i like: camus, and sorj chalandon, and sally rooney, and dirgewithoutmusic and copper_dust [7]. i have zero ambition to write like jkr and don’t particularly want to read stuff that is written like her stuff either. it’s a style that imo works for her, but it doesn’t work for me as written by other people. i don’t particularly think you need to stick to her style to be canon-compliant.

which brings me onto my actual point: b) hp is a story written for children. young adults perhaps, for the later books. it sometimes explores dark themes but the writing style, the tone, etc. is lighthearted enough that it appeals to a younger audience. there’s snogging but there’s no sex, there’s violence but the torture is mostly off-screen, etc. issues like sexual assault, substance abuse, etc. aren’t explicitely brought up in the books, although they would one hundred percent fit in a book about a war that wasn’t necessarily aimed at children. the question is whether this setting and tone is part of what we call ‘canon-compliance.’

honestly, i don’t know. i didn’t think so until it was brought up to me that castles might be a dark!au and i was like: maybe? like, if you want it to be? i know what i like to read in fanfic: i love the exploration of serious themes that were not explored in the books, or explored differently due to the fact that they were written for children. one thing i will say and insist on is that i don’t think castles is all dark. i actually make a point of having lighthearted moments in each and every chapter, even just a notch, because i am attached to the fact that life as a concept is a mixture of good and bad, and you could laugh at the funeral of someone you loved, again in the right circumstances. but yeah, to me the post-war world is dark. so if tone is part of canon-compliance, then yeah in that way castles (as well as most of the stuff i read, to be honest), is a dark!au.

as a last side note, i’m not sure what that means for my other, lighter stuff though. like are the wolf’s just a puppy [8] or slipped [9] more canon-compliant than castles? i never thought about it in those terms but perhaps? it really opens up a world of questions in my mind and i don’t really have the answers to them.

conclusion:

so in sum, as a reader, what i mean as ‘canon compliant’ is basically a) the events as described in the source material and b) the characterisation of characters as they are at the start of the fic. if character evolution is sufficiently justified and well-written in the following thousands of words that the fic has, then said characterisation can still be canon-compliant, even if the characters act different than they would have in the source material itself. i’m a fan of good writing and good writing can make me buy into literally anything. it takes me places that i've never been before and convinces me that those places are the ones i should be in.

as a writer, i hope that regardless of 'compliance,' whatever i write at least makes ‘sense’ to people within the universe, even if they don’t consider it canon-compliant, per se. i feel like i can’t really be the judge of that. from the discussions we had last night, i feel like there are as many versions of what is and isn't canon-compliant as there are people.

.

.

---

[1] the changeling by annerb

[2] the boy with a scar series by dirgewithoutmusic

[3] we only make tsunamis by disOrdely

[4] castles by yours truly

[5] ‘til the sirens come calling by vexmybones

[6] as a side note and to take my own stuff as an another example, i totally agree that harry in castles isn’t harry in the books. i don’t think there’s much debate to be had in that assertion. i wrote him like this frankly because every other fic i’d read didn’t. they often had him sort of continue to be perfectly himself after the war, which i felt wasn’t speaking to me on a deeper level. imo, i think the war’s done a lot of scarring and the fic is about him growing into a new version of himself. so, to me, if i get a comment that says ‘i don’t think harry would act this way but i really love your writing’ it’s somewhat flattering but also confusing because i don’t really understand how one can enjoy the writing but not the characterisation. to me, they’re so intrinsically linked. what the comment tells me is: i think you did a very poor job at explaining character evolution and justifying character x’s [harry’s] choices but i still like your writing, somehow? i suppose that’s nice, but it doesn’t particularly compute in my brain. like, if the character feels off, it means the writing feels off and thus, why are you still reading? i appreciate all and every comment that i get but it doesn’t mean they always make sense in my own brain. if i’m honest, these comments often send me into an ocean of self-doubt about how shit my writing must be.

[7] copper_dust’s work and profile.

[8] the wolf’s just a puppy (and the door’s double locked), again by yours truly

[9] slipped (and said something sort of like your name), same.

[gingersnapwolves]

it’s two AM and I have insomnia, so while I’m on the topic of writing posts that generate too much meta, let me drop this hot take: I do not get fandom’s love of Nie Mingjue.

First disclaimer: as always, stan and let stan, ship and let ship, have a shrine to Nie Mingjue in your bedroom, I don’t judge. This is my personal opinion only.

Second disclaimer: no, I have not seen Fatal Journey. I’m of the opinion that one should not have to watch all the extraneous material a show produces in order to keep up with fandom. Fatal Journey looks depressing and I genuinely have no interest in watching it.

So, here we go. Nie Mingjue. Why do people like this guy?

His main positive qualities seem to be that he’s strong and powerful and has a badass sword. That, um. That’s pretty much it as far as I can see. 

He’s hot-tempered and impulsive. He nearly executes Xue Yang the minute he meets him. The whole confrontation with Meng Yao is a little tricky to interpret because of the unreliable narrator thing; we see one thing when it initially happens and then something slightly different when we’re seeing NMJ’s memories later. But either way, he exiles MY from The Unclean Realm after giving MY only the barest chance to explain himself (though, uh, you weren’t doing a great job there, MY, I’ll go to my grave still laughing at ‘Xue Yang did it’) with the implication that if MY hadn’t just saved his life, he would have executed him. Which, given that MY had obviously been his loyal assistant for years, is one hell of a turnaround.

We’re told that he’s a great general and strategist, but all we’re showed is that he tries to sneak into Nightless City and assassinate WRH, a plan that fails on absolutely every level and would have ended in him getting killed if MY hadn’t been there.

And then of course we get into the real hot potato, which is his treatment of the Wen civilians. Like. Dude was downright bloodthirsty about this. He absolutely wants a bunch of non-cultivators who almost definitely had nothing to do with WRH’s actions executed for the crime of existing while related to WRH. Not only does he speak in favor of their harsh treatment, he chastises LXC (gently) and JC (not so gently) for trying to speak against it. He implies that not wanting these people dead is weak and/or foolish. I can’t get over this! I’m not saying it wasn’t historically accurate or whatever, but I just find him extremely unlikable!

We’re obviously told that Nie Huaisang loved his brother very much but we almost never see them interacting. The biggest interactions they have are towards the very beginning, where NHS is scolded (reasonably) for goofing off and not going straight back to Qinghe, and then where NHS tries to ask about MY being exiled and NMJ shuts him down (less reasonably). (Again: have not seen Fatal Journey, do not believe it should be necessary.)

The only scene in the entire show where I found him even vaguely likable was in the flashback where he shuts down the people bullying Meng Yao. But even that is a demonstration of his impulsivity and short-sightedness, even as it was badass and awesome. Because that did nothing to actually help Meng Yao. If anything, it only made things worse because it made the other people in Qinghe resent him even more. Plus it most likely left Meng Yao with lingering questions over whether or not NMJ actually promoted him on merit, or whether he was just making a point to a bunch of assholes.

The reason I’m thinking about this is because I keep going back to that idea for a Mingli fic, and while I love the idea of the One Braincell Trio enacting Parent Trap level shenanigans, I’m less enamored of what the results of those shenanigans would be. Like, does NMJ really deserve someone like JYL, who is an actual goddess?

tl;dr I do not see NMJ’s appeal, can someone explain to me why so many people like this guy?

[aros001]

Going in blind: Watching season 1 for the first time. Random thoughts.

This show is kind of nice because I have no memories of the original She-Ra show, or even any of He-Man, honestly. I'm not sure if I ever watched the original, so I have no frame of reference for how the series is "supposed" to be. I can just take it and judge it as is.

Of the bat, all I know is that supposedly She-Ra and Catra get together as a romantic couple later, but I'm also a huge My Hero Academia fan and the fandom around me ships every character with every other character, so for all I know that might just be shipper wishful thinking I've been seeing and hearing. Given fandoms for Gravity Falls, Thor, and Supernatural ship even siblings together, I've learned not to trust anything except for what I see in the series for myself.

By the way, this isn't a review, just random thoughts and comments I'm having as I'm going through season 1 for the first time.

Episodes 1 and 2: Right off, I really like Catra's "No duh" response to Adora about the truth of the horde. She knows they've been lying to them and have been doing terrible things, she just doesn't care. If she and Adora play their cards right they could end up being the ones in charge and then they'd have all that power. Not necessarily to make things better but enough to where they could do whatever and live however they want. That's a good build for an antagonist. Not ignorant to the fact what they're doing is wrong, just simply so selfish that they don't care.

Episode 3: It really feels like there was no good reason why Glimmer didn't just outright introduce Adora to her mother and every reason she should have known it was a bad idea to try and hide her for a surprise. Being a former horde soldier she'd probably get treated with hostility if Glimmer brought her to the front gate but you'd almost guarantee Adora would get arrested or outright killed if she got caught while no one else knew she was there.

On the other side, we have Hordak being pretty intelligent in promoting Catra. He probably knows Shadow Weaver already doesn't like him, so it's not like he's losing anything making her upset with him, and it's clear she favors Adora way more than Catra, so that little bit of advancement towards Catra probably goes a long way in earning her loyalty to him and a person on the inside with Shadow Weaver.

Also, I'm not the only one who saw Madam Razz and immediately thought Adora had found her Yoda, right?

Episode 4: I don't know how it was in the original She-Ra and He-Man series but I kind of like She-Ra being this title from legend. Adora is not the first She-Ra, given what Razz was talking about with a Mara, so instead of being something new, impressing everyone with abilities they've never seen before, and creating the legend, Adora is placed in a position WAY over her head where she's having to live up to what came before her.

Episode 5: Calling it now, as long as her personality is genuine I think Scorpia is going to be one of my favorite characters in this show. She's...endearing, I think is the best word. She's like a mix of Kronk and a nicer Shego.

For a little bit I thought Mermista was voiced by the same actress who played Poison Ivy in the Harley Quinn animated series. She's not but they do have the same kind of Daria-ish inflections, thus by confusion. Given the prom episode, Sea Hawk feels kind of like her Kite Man.

Episode 6: Okay, now it's between Scorpia and Entrapta who are likely to be my favorites by the end of this. She's fun and quirky.

Episode 7: Quite the lore drop. Shadow Weaver was once a Mystacor sorceress known as Light Spinner. I like to imagine we'll get more on that later. Her haunting Adora reminded me of the Teen Titans' episode where Robin was similarly haunted by Slade. This didn't go as far as that but that's probably for the best, since TT had two and a half seasons to build that dynamic up with Robin and Slade while we're only now halfway through the first season.

Episode 8: Well dang. Again, I don't know for sure if Adora and Catra do end up together but boy do I buy why they're shipped together after that dance. Also, good on Bow for standing up for himself. It's clear that he'll always be Glimmer's friend and this won't change that but that doesn't mean he has to just accommodate her. I understand where her issues stem from but I am still glad he gave her a reality check. It helps him feel a little more like his own character.

Also, another nice little bit of lore and worldbuilding. Scorpia's a princess, the horde landed where her people lived, and they seemed to join them willingly.

Episode 9: Surprisingly don't have a lot to say about this other than I don't buy for a second that Entrapta is dead (EDIT: She's not). This was mostly action.

Episode 10: Not going to lie, this one kind of annoyed me a little, at least the first half. The conversation between Glimmer and her mother saved it a bit. It was a bit of a trifecta. You have the alliance breaking apart, saying that the loss of Entrapta only happened because they were all together...even though Entrapta only "died" because of her own machine obsession that caused her to deliberately walk back into the purging chamber. You have Entrapta who might be turning to the horde's side because she feels abandoned by the other princesses...even though they thought she was dead, and again it was her fault they got separated. And you have Glimmer refusing to tell her mother that Shadow Weaver's dark magic has caused her powers to go on the fritz and is causing her great pain. It just feels like none of this would be an issue if most of these people would stop being self-absorbed for three seconds and talk like any normal person would. It feels very CW drama, like something I'd see in a bad season of Arrow or The Flash. The only person whose issues I buy is Adora, who is basically a soldier who was never properly raised to deal with emotion or loss and is already struggling with the burden of being She-Ra, the legendary savior. I get why she's beating down on herself for not being able to do more even if nothing that happened was her fault.

Episode 11: JEEEEEEEEEZZZZ, that was such a good episode! Focused entirely on Adora and Catra and their past together. Like, just showing someone this episode alone could probably get them to want to watch the series. That was everything you needed to know about their dynamic and history together.

Also, that moment when Catra and her past self are looking at each other, while obviously Catra takes the opposite lesson, it reminded me of this fanart I'd once seen of Jason Todd, the Red Hood, looking at his past self as Robin. The past says to the future "You ruined everything". Catra could be happy but, ironically for someone who hates Shadow Weaver, she's probably going to be a lot like her, sacrificing everything for power and ambition.

Given the way she looked, I'm guessing Shadow Weaver is either addicted to the power of the Black Garnet or she suffered some kind of past injury and its power is the only thing keeping her going. Or both.

Episode 12: I'll be honest, Swiftwind being able to talk kind of gobsmacked and I needed a moment to recover. What a great voice they chose for that character.

So She-Ra is kind of like the legendary heroes from Rising of the Shield Hero, coming from a long line of people chosen to wield the sword. I tend to dislike chosen one types of stories because I think prophecy takes a lot of weight out of the character's actions, so this and Avatar are more what I like. The MC is special but not the only one who's ever been special and they can still easily fail. Their destiny was only to be able to use the weapon, not that they would succeed in any specific purpose.

And dang, Catra's turn against Shadow Weaver happened faster than I thought it would but I'm not complaining. That great "This is what you've really been preparing me for" speech and Hordak, again, being an intelligent villain. "Oh, this experiment could net me a MASSIVE gain and all it could potentially cost me is this rock I already gave away to someone who lately hasn't been producing any results and has been consistently disobeying me. Yeah, I'm going to let this play out."

Episode 13: That was kind of a brutal fight between Adora and Catra. Not the worst I've ever seen even in other shows for this age range (Samurai Jack, for example) but those punches are connecting and those claws are leaving marks.

Also, maybe I'm just misunderstanding the exact situation but shouldn't the good guys' side be called the Resistance instead of the Rebellion? Being a rebellion would imply they are rebelling against an established power or rule over them, but the actual conflict we are shown is the established power and rule that is the kingdoms of Eternia resisting an outside force that wishes to establish a new order over them.

Season 1 verdict: I'm into it. I'm definitely more invested in the villains' side of things but that's not a fault of the series, that stuff is just way more geared towards me than the current princess stuff. I actively am at attention whenever the horde main characters are on screen. For the good guys it's mostly Adora and the She-Ra stuff I'm invested it. That isn't to say I have any real dislikes for that side. Bow especially I'm liking much more than I thought I might. He has kind of this gravitational pull around him. You will be his friend regardless of how much you might want to resist. He's definitely the rock for everyone else to hold onto.

Minor side note, kind of like Korra in Legend of Korra, I love how even when her powers aren't active Adora is shown to still be pretty strong physically with how easily she was lifting people up at the prom.

And I was right, Scorpia is my favorite side character.

On to season 2!

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/nyll2e/going_in_blind_watching_season_1_for_the_first/