#again these two have actual backing in canon I just obsess over them an unreasonable amount

[brotpqueen]

Me yelling ‘Besties! Siblings! Found family these bitches up!’ At any pair of characters I think would make good friends even if they have like 10 minutes of total shared screen time (hello Ssiblingzz)

"youve already written that trope" yesss. i like it a lots. i will be writing it again. 1000 stories of the same trope over and over again for ten million years

[apocalypse-shuffle]

MICHAEL MYERS | THE SHAPE (Carpenter/Akkad Continuity)

—

Dating (or just coexisting with) Myers (Michael Myers x Fem!Reader)

relationship Headcanons

NSFW-ish, 18+, minors dni, black!fem!reader, brief mentions of sex, canon typical violence

mainly going off the continuity of the first two films because I don’t want to talk about magic.

Pic Source: John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) & Halloween H20

The man is using up all your resources. Does he let you feed him, not yourself, but he does eat your food (and then demand seconds so you have to make a big pot).

What’s yours is his (but what’s his is not yours) whether you like it or not.

Michael doesn’t speak, nor does he communicate through any surefire nonverbal means, so being with him is like constantly playing the most deadliest game of charades.

You’d been prepared for non verbal, what you hadn’t been prepared for was a heavy dose of malicious stonewalling. Michael almost wants you to fuck up and give him a reason, wants to see how far he can push you before you inevitably screw up and piss him off.

Every once in a while (after he’s significantly warmed up to you) you’ll get a grunt that you have to listen really hard for as he tries to get your attention. Any other time he’ll just be there, won’t announce his presence or anything, all of a sudden someone’s just breathing down your neck or something’s shifting in your peripheral vision and making your instincts go haywire.

Half the time Michael won’t even ask you to do something he’ll just carry you off to what he wants and set you down in front of it.

Michael communicates with his eyes the most though, it’s imperative that you learn how to interpret the different purposeful shifts of his eyes, the furrowing of his eyebrows behind the mask, and the stilted movements of his body.

Now, since you’re black you’ve gotta be extra careful. You being the person the real estate people were able to con into moving into the Myers house was definitely not why all eyes were on you.

Sure some people shake their heads at you for disturbing a house with that history, though none of them bother to actually tell you about it, but most people were just wary of you “on principle”.

You were black, this was a prominent residential street filled predominantly with white families who: “don’t want any trouble”. If you’re with Michael you’ve got to be careful because people are watching you hard already and will jump at anything just to justify their unreasonable wariness about you and get your ass out of town.

Soon as Michael starts killing again certain people immediately start pointing fingers at you. They claim it’s the house (maybe you were possessed or something) but you’re all more than aware that even if you’d moved into a different house with a less violent history you’d still somehow be suspect number one.

They were unfamiliar with you, and didn’t like the look of you, and you didn’t smile enough, and gave off a bad vibe (ie: was minding your business), and “These killings didn’t start back up until after she got here.” Nevermind the fact that you’d been living in Haddonfield for months before Michael showed back up.

There is no ignoring the extra problems Michael brings at your door. If anyone spots him coming into the house, and you don’t end up dead by his hand, you’re both going down by the cops.

The second he shows up and won’t leave, you accept the inevitable, you’ll be labeled an accomplice no matter how the actual situation plays out.

Personally I’m writing you taking the path of least resistance. You’ve accepted your faith, now it’s time to have fun.

I firmly believe that the only way you can stay alive with Michael is if you’re actively keeping him interested. The second he gets bored of you it’s over so you need to become a new obsession of his.

Keeping him interested can happen in a lot of different ways but sexually satisfying him is a pretty good bet. (This will only work if he’s feeling lenient enough to allow a relationship to form between you two though.)

Initially reacting a little abnormally to his appearance will allow a level of intrigue to form in Michael that will ultimately end up giving you a shot at continued life.

You’re not scared, or at least reacting how people usually do when they’re scared? Why? Everyone’s scared of him. *Interest piques*.

When in the mood he’ll want to figure you out, to test your limits after your first meeting, so use that to your advantage.

Sex with Michael is very one sided until/unless you push for otherwise, but will always be intense (it’s not always rough, but no matter what you’ll be trembling at the end). At the beginning Michael will also be incredibly clumsy, he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing so if you’re gonna initiate then you better use your voice and instruct his ass on what to do if you want to have a good time.

Mild Detour: You wear waistbeads? Cool, I do too. Michael doesn’t give a shit. They’re pretty and instantly catch his attention once he’s actually able to see them, but that just marks the beginning of the end for you.

If you have waistbeads let me tell you something, he’s using those bitches like they’re a pair of handlebars. You’ll either need to have a backlog of beads, a girl on call, or the strongest waistbeads known to man, okay? He will be manhandling your ass wherever he needs you to be. It’s snap central with Michael; you’re being snatched one second and in the next the sound of little glass or wooden beads hitting the floor is reaching your ears.

Just in general if Michael wants anything sexual he’ll quicker physically maneuver you where he wants you to be until you get the hint than utilize any true acceptable form of communication. He could communicate properly mind you, he just finds it more fulfilling not to.

Non sexual ways to keep him interested enough in not killing you for encroaching on his space are if you meet his necessities and he’s in a mindset to care. There are times where in some movies Michael just has no problem living in a sewer when he could otherwise just kill someone and utilize their house and resources or secretly live in someone's house. He has options is what I’m saying and he seemingly doesn’t take advantage of them by choice so it’s hit or miss depending on iteration and mood whether Michael will deem basic care a priority enough to keep you alive as long as you provide him with it.

A delicate balance must be found between the two of you if you value your life. You’ve got to be assertive enough with him for him to be interested enough in you not to immediately kill you, but you cannot insult him or order him around. Ordering him around just reminds him of Loomis and you don’t want to remind him of when he was in the psychiatric facility.

The mask is off limits. Touch it without permission or attempt to take it off of him and it’s an immediate death sentence.

On the plus side though as a single black female he’s a great burglary deterrent and - once he likes you enough to regularly stalk you during his off time (ie: not October; that whole month is just one big trigger for him alongside any sight or mention of Loomis, Laurie, or Jamie) - Michael is also excellent assault and harassment deterrent as well!

The first night he sees you being harassed or assaulted, Michael splits the person’s skull open in front of you and you almost pass out from the strain of keeping in the highest, most terrified scream of your life. It’s horrifying and you're splattered with blood by the end. Michael is completely unphased in comparison, letting the body thump to the ground before casually walking off.

The obsession does pose an issue with your dating exploits however. A lapse in judgment you only allowed once after Michael’s bitch ass left the severed hand of the person you’d gone out on a date with in your bed (and that person subsequently turned up ‘missing’ afterwards of course).

You didn’t leave him out anything but some fucking oats for the rest of the month in revenge, but the fucker hadn’t even blinked at the bland splatter of food you’d laid out for him. Next time you’d go for something spicy (if you were feeling bold that is).

“You Time” is also impossible with Michael breathing down your neck for the majority of each month. Especially if you don’t want to engage sexually or “romantically” with him this is going to get wholly on your nerves. You want to read, play a game, masturbate, take a peaceful nap, or even take a bath without knowing he's waiting right outside of the door? Ha. Too bad, because you’ve got a six foot something obsessive asshole of a man insistent on breathing in the air that you breath out, and vise fucking versa at this point.

Michael and you are locked in for life if you’re still alive after that first encounter, and whether that means until one of you gets taken down or until Mikey Boy gets pissed enough at you to murder you himself is anybody’s guess.

NOTES: Hope you enjoyed!!

This one was fun, I enjoyed writing this🧡.

btw: if you’d like to leave a comment I’d very much appreciate it! this is a sideblog tho so I won’t respond.

[neva-borne]

Aang was infatuated with Katara, not in love with her

Look, he may have believed it was love. He was 12, after all, and how many 12-year-olds are actually astute in terms of their own emotions? Not many, for sure.

Katara may very well have been the first girl he’d ever really seen. In the show, in canon, all we see are male airbenders at Aang’s temple. I can’t say definitively that he never saw other girls, especially since he apparently traveled around the Earth Kingdom and even Fire Nation as a kid (since he was friends with Bumi and Kuzon). But the chances of Katara being the first girl he ever really got to interact with are quite high, based off the canon content we were given.

(This got way longer than expected so more under the cut)

So, back to the point. Let’s start with some definitions.

Merriam-Webster defines infatuation as:

a feeling of foolish or obsessively strong love for, admiration for, or interest in someone or something : strong and unreasoning attachment

It defines love as:

(1): strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties

(2): attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers

(3): affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests 

Going off that, we can examine the evidence from the show. First, Aang’s reaction to seeing Katara for the first time:

He’s just woken up from a 100-year Avatar State-induced coma, basically. Katara is the first person he sees. Katara is a pretty girl. On top of that, she’s nice. She rescued him. It’s natural for him to feel some connection to her.

Then, a few episodes later, we get this scene:

This is the most obvious mention of his crush thus far, combined with the blushing that Aang does whenever Katara touches him to improve his waterbending form.

This image itself is probably enough reason to argue that Aang was infatuated with her and not in love with her. This is effectively showing that Aang does not see Katara AS SHE IS, but as something perfect and untouchable, in a way. Sure, we all have our biases towards the people we like, but true love, the kind that lasts, goes beyond that - it recognizes flaws and accepts them instead of ignoring them.

This continues throughout the show, and this scene is ultimately repeated when the camera slow-pans up Katara to show off her Fire Nation outfit in Season 3 (just without the sparkles).

But Neva, there’s no sparkles, so surely that means he DOES see her as she is, and not as some perfect girl with no flaws?

To that I say, Aang has matured somewhat by this point. He’s realized he has to defeat the Fire Lord or have the world end. He’s finally facing reality. 

However, the way he treats Katara still shows how little he understands the true Katara. 

“It's okay, because I forgive you. [Pauses.] That give you any ideas?”

I know that The Southern Raiders episode is used all the time by Zutarians to show how much the Zuko/Katara dynamic works. In this post, I’m not going to compare Aang to Zuko. I’m just going to describe how Aang treats Katara.

Aang clearly is struggling to understand Katara’s anger at the man who killed her mother. He’s been through enormous loss himself, losing the airbenders and almost losing Appa, one of his last ties to his culture and his animal guide. And both of those situations triggered intense emotional responses from him. He went into the Avatar State upon discovering Monk Gyatso’s body and the destruction of his childhood home, and he flew off in a rage in the dessert and verbally attacked Toph for letting the sandbenders capture Appa (despite Toph having done literally everything within her power to save both Appa and prevent the library from sinking and burying her friends forever). And when Aang found the sandbenders responsible, he once again went into the Avatar State and destroyed two of their sand boats. 

Yet, after all that, he acts all high and mighty and says Katara should forgive the man who murdered her mother in cold blood. 

Based on this massive misunderstanding of Katara’s motivations, it is clear that Aang does not love her - certainly not in the way that would last romantically. His feelings are foolish and obsessive, based on the ideal image of her that exists in his mind. They are much more in line with the definition of infatuation than the definition of love.

Does he admire her? Maybe. But he admires a version of her that doesn’t actually exist. He admires the perfect, flawless Katara.

His strong and unreasoning attraction to Katara does not stem from a deep personal connection. The only common tie they have is that they both want to save the world. Katara always stands her ground to help people while Aang often runs away even when he should stay (see The Storm, The Awakening, etc). 

His obsession with Katara also led him to risk the entire survival of the world because he chose her over mastering the Avatar State (which was the only possible way he was going to defeat Ozai). He was not sacrificing himself in this instance, he was not being selfless, he was being selfish, choosing to hold onto his obsession instead of let it go and grow as a person and an Avatar.

This, ultimately, completely ruined his character arc of growing up and maturing and learning to let go of things. Thanks Bryke.

Anyway, all that to say that Aang did not actually love Katara, he just thought he did.

[princesssarcastia]

Thoughts on Star Trek AOS? (And do you think Kirk was on Tarsus?)

i have SO MANY THOUGHTS about star trek aos, so buckle up.  brace yourself.

star trek aos is a terrible disaster and i love it SO MUCH.  for me, star trek 2009 is still in that class of unreasonably pleasing movies like the mummy or stardust or jumanji: welcome to the jungle.  what they are isn’t exactly top notch but you love them for being exactly what they are.

star trek aos is a star-studded fucking phenomenal cast of some of the best actors working today, which makes up for the very inconsistent writing and unfortunate low-level current of sexism.

literally where would i be today if chris pine could not make faces Like That. i honestly couldn’t tell you.

overall, I have quite a few bones to pick with JJ Abrams for setting up a star trek universe that is less Wacky Space Utopia adventures with liberal political commentary ranging from unsubtle to im-hitting-you-over-the-head-with-my-opinions-like-they’re-a-brick—

to this kind of overtly militarized action-hero adventure porn where one white man saves the universe from Scary People Who Don’t Look Like Us And Are Crazy.  I also don’t appreciate what they did to Jim Kirk, turning him into this womanizing self-centered bastard who has to be in charge.  I REALLY don’t appreciate the casual misogyny, what with the last of rank stripes for women and the gratuitous sex-ed up scenes and the way that Amanda Grayson gets fridged for man-pain and and and— you get the picture.

Or at least, that’s what they tried to do to jim kirk.  and god fucking bless chris pine for being able to make facial expressions, because i firmly believe if pretty much almost anyone else had played Jim Kirk as written by JJ Abrams, that’s exactly what he would have been.

But because of chris pine’s acting, instead, most of the AOS fandom and I realized/decided that this “womanizing” version of jim kirk actually really really hates himself so much, most likely for trauma reasons. 

we took that shit and ran with it and never really stopped.

zachary quinto is also like god tier casting.  unfortunately the writers for the first two movies mostly gave him Anger as a primary motivator, which like, is not exactly how I would interpret Spock at all, but quinto played this Angry Spock so so well.

ZOE SALDANA PLAYS THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE, NYOTA UHURA, PERFECTLY AND THAT’S ALL I’LL HEAR ON THE MATTER.

john cho should be cast in everything ever he’s amazing and I love seeing him.  this man has the range. hikaru sulu is the backbone of this fucking ship.  this man wins the big damn hero award every single movie. 

i still miss living in the same world as anton yelchin. i really, really do.

I also have found family feelings all over these movies, where these baby versions of iconic characters from the sixties are brought together too early to witness too much fucking trauma.  harry potter references aren’t exactly in vogue right now, but there’s this one piece from a—well, actually, its a harry potter reference in an mcu fic i read years ago, now that i think about it, but anyway:

it was something like, there are some things you can’t go through with a person—like that mountain troll in harry potter—without becoming friends for life.  there are some crucibles that will bind you together forever.  and awful as it is, I think Nero and the Vulcan genocide were the AOS crew’s mountain troll.  there’s no going back or separating, after that.

also I feel like there’s a ton of competence porn in this trilogy that i deeply, deeply enjoy.

star trek: 2009 and into darkness are both grimdark male power fantasy bullshit that only accidentally hits all the right buttons for me.  I love them dearly but i know EXACTLY what they are, thank you.

star trek: beyond is a delightful movie with no real plot where our favorite crew are finally Adults With A Modicum Of Common Sense And Stability, instead of Disaster Children Angsting All Over The Place, and they get to save the universe with the power of excellent rock music and friendship. how cool is that?!?  i wanna give simon pegg a high five for making this movie.

on a more meta note, what I find kind of satisfying about these movies is that—for all his many faults that i’m always happy to expound upon—JJ Abrams actually went for it.  He Did That.  He just made his own brand new timeline, killed jim kirk’s dad, then gave him an abusive uncle/step-dad, then literally destroyed one of the founding planets of the Federation, then he, in an iconic fashion, switched Jim and Spock’s places in the infamous “wrath of khan�� death scene, so instead Spock gets to watch Jim die. 

and you know what? I can forgive a lot of bullshit for that kind of poetic angsty fanfic plot detail. 

every time uhura says, “an alternate reality,” in star trek 2009 just gives me chills.  every time she says it, you feel the weight of sixty years of history and legacy sitting on these people’s shoulders, the weight of arguably one of the most popular TV shows of all time.

imagine, living in a new world you’re aware isn’t the one that was supposed to be.  imagine that!

oh! and on the question of tarsus:

what I think is probably true irl: JJ Abrams has never thought that far ahead in his life.  correct me if i’m wrong, but hadn’t he.....not even watched star trek.........when he made these movies............like lol i’d bet you this man didn’t even really know Tarsus was a thing.  And even if he did, I don’t think he thought it was part of the new canon he was creating.  AOS is much more self-contained than the serialized universe the original star trek was, so I don’t think that AOS was intended to encompass all those things, like tarsus, that we as a fandom like to obsess over.

what I personally enjoy: i love me some AOS fic that explores the ridiculous amounts of trauma that comes from living through a genocide.  I think that, given we all decided AOS Jim Kirk hates himself, and engages in a shit ton of self-sabotaging and destructive behavior to cope, it’s a reasonable jump to think that at least some of that comes from some survivor’s guilt bullshit from Tarsus.  And honestly, hit me up if you want recs for this, because boy do I have them.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: no one does angst quite like AOS!Jim Kirk.

what I believe wholeheartedly: this is like Schrödinger's Plot Point, okay, it both exists and doesn’t exist simultaneously.  it’s easy to read tarsus into some of jim’s behavior, and it’s easy to read none of it in, and both of those choices are valid.  go with your gut, go with what makes you happy, go with what you think makes sense.  This is where fandom lives, in these little details that fall through the cracks.

anyway WOW did I talk a lot.  those are at least some of my star trek thoughts.  i do have others, but i’ve expounded on them before on this blog, and y’all don’t need me to repeat myself

ask me my thoughts on ______

[forgenotes-archived]

okay nevermind i’m doing the parent meta now !

OKAY ! S O ! i’m focusing this in three sections :  1- the matching pair of patio dinner scenes, 2- the “patronize bunny rabbits” scene, and 3- the two convos they have when they confront her about jd’s suicide bait and after barbara finds veronica faux-hanging in her room. i’m also putting it under a read-more bc like. it’s going to be A Fucking Doozy.

in this essay, i will - 

PART ONE -  PATIO SCENES . 

this one is more set-up to portray how shallow their arguments are in the second section? but it’s still important for me to get across how. absolutely DISGUSTING it is that they treat heather’s funeral with the same tone and cadence as the remington party. it logically makes sense that veronica would be more blase about it, seeing as she Actually Did It, but like. one of the stages of grief is denial. 

the beats of both conversations go: come sit down! how was the first day since break/heather’s death go? meet any cute boys? why do i read these books or smoke these cigars/because you’re an idiot/ oh, you too. gotta motor to party/funeral. completely identical tone and delivery, all the way down to mirroring the word choices in each scene. and it’s entirely intentional!! this is a tonal and thematic choice to further hammer home the fact that adults do not care about what happens in the lives of the youth, which is arguably the real villain of the film- complete and utter apathy. i could go on about that shit for ages but i will do that later lmao-

but like. as parents. first of all, you shouldn’t care so little about your child that somebody could predict exactly what you’re going to say before you say it, that you work off a script, even WITHOUT a massive traumatic event happening to them. they clearly acknowledge heather’s death, they just move past it completely dismissively. it’s disgusting and it clearly sets up that they don’t actually see her as a person, in all reality- her death is just a marker of the time, not the loss of someone important to their child. they don’t know the intricacies of their toxic friendship, so all they know is their daughter’s best friend killed herself. that is NOT the correct reaction to that situation. 

this further exemplifies the idea, for me at least, that their main objective is to keep up appearances rather than build a strong, stable, healthy human being in their care. as long as everything looks alright, sounds alright, it is alright for all intents and purposes. there is no WAY that conversation does not REEK of neglect. 

PART TWO -  PATRONIZING BUNNY RABBITS .

this is mostly barbara, but henry shows his blatant idiocy for a brief moment, too. the biggest part of this scene is barbara’s “little miss voice-of-a-generation, you ARE being treated like human beings” spiel, specifically because she’s not right at all when she says it. or half-right. it’s complicated.

she’s right when she says it’s not just a game of “doubles tennis” and that adults can be horrible to each other too- that’s like. objectively fact. but that’s a non sequitur argument and not at all relevant to the topic at hand, in all reality; because in saying that, barbara has likened people being assholes at work or talking behind each other’s back with EXPLOITING CHILDREN’S SUICIDES FOR FAME. barbara changes the argument in order to make veronica look irrational- what she wants is for people to be fucking NICE to each other, which isn’t an un-noble goal to have. 

veronica wants people to give everyone decent respect, and she’s learned that isn’t possible in the way things are at the moment. she’s frustrated, she’s angry, she’s dealing with guilt and fear? she’s dealing with a fuckton! and she’s mad that flemming is exploiting the death of a student (never mind her personal feelings involved with chandler, she still knows this is wrong) for television crews and ribbons. she sees that flemming ALSO doesn’t care about her students other than for appearances. she’s seeing similarities between all the adults in her life, and she’s finally ready to snap. 

barbara saying “when teenagers are mad about not being treated like human beings, that’s usually because they are being treated like one” (or whatever the exact quote is) basically solidifies the fact that there will be no change in the way people are going to act in these situations. they are not listening to veronica’s point of view here, and they are changing the scope of the argument to make her look unreasonable to dismiss her again, and they explicitly say, a la bethesda, “we aren’t planning on doing anything about it”. 

it’s an important discussion because barbara isn’t. entirely incorrect! she’s just brute-forced the argument into a different direction so that veronica can’t be correct anymore, either. 

also- note that she offers veronica pate at the end of it; she’s trying to return to the status quo, to proper appearances. sneaky bitch. 

PART THREE -  YOU’RE SUICIDAL .

this is. where they come out of their shells a little bit more, as parents, but i’m not entirely positive it’s for the right reasons. 

they are actually concerned, now that death is on their doorstep; however, it very clearly seems like showing this kind of care and emotion is foreign or new in their relationship. instead of sitting her down and asking her how she’s feeling, if she’s dealing with all of this okay, if there’s anything they can do to help- they start rambling off the instructions jd, a literal teenager, more than half their ages, gave them. they have NO idea how to deal with this situation, which is. partially understandable? there is no prenatal parenting class that teaches you how to navigate if your kid grows up to be suicidal, but. there’s obvious things that you can do that they just flat out did not.

they didn’t even notice she’d left the room! they were so wrapped up in their own chaotic “keep away from sharp things, toxins, high ledges, etc.” that she just. left the room. and they didn’t notice she was gone until she was already in her room! 

rather than saying this is evidence towards the fact that they don’t care about their daughter (which i don’t actually believe, for this part at least), it feels more like proof that they have never cared about her in this particular fashion- which is, to say, genuinely. having an emotional and caring connection is new, and they don’t know how to do it; which points towards them never having done it before in ronnie’s 18 years of life. which is severely damaging to a child turned young adult. 

later on, when barbara finds her hanging from the fake noose, i’d like to just. take a look at what she says-

“i should’ve let you get that job at the mall, i was just worried about you coming home late-” 

what. in the ENTIRE fuck. was that?

her ONLY THOUGHT when confronted with the DEAD BODY of her ONLY CHILD is that the ONLY THING ronnie could have been upset about, or the only thing she could’ve changed in her treatment towards her daughter, was getting a summer job. i know this line is supposed to be a joke (heathers is a black comedy, after all), but jesus fucking christ, barbara. get a grip. veronica has all but told them what’s been bothering her, up to and including the death of her best friend and the subsequent treatment of it (albeit not in a particularly forward or constructive manner, but can you blame her? seeing who raised her?), but barbara is the sort of person that would give a eulogy that said “i never could have imagined she would have done this. she seemed so happy! if only she’d asked for help... if only she’d reached out to us... we would have SAVED her...” while ignoring all the warning signs. 

CONCLUSION -  IE , I RAMBLE FOR A BIT .

in canon specifically, there’s no way that there’s a healthy relationship between veronica and her parents. they care more about LOOKING happy than BEING happy and that’s a huge problem in a lot of parent-child relationships, especially at the time this movie was made. not only that, but like. they don’t believe there’s anything WRONG with the way they are, and that’s most likely the most damaging thing about the dynamic. barbara and henry sawyer are neglectful, dismissive, unempathetic, mostly uncaring, and obsessed with their outward appearance; but they don’t think that’s a bad thing, and that has massively fucked up veronica’s mental health in a VARIETY of ways. i’ll talk about the effects on her at a later date, bc this shit is already over 1k words and my brain has now turned into super mario sunshine goo. 

[han100894]

Spoilers for The Girl Genius Novel 4 –Mostly about Zeetha and Higgs

Okay I’m just going to start and say that so far I, in my obsession, mostly skimmed the book to find the parts with Higgs and Zeetha. So full disclosure there, I haven’t actually finished it yet. I got impatient with waiting for my physical copy and bought the ebook. I’ll read it properly with my physical copy arrives.

So I just have to say I’m really annoyed that the doubled down on the “Zeetha was being irresponsible and overconfident” bit—they even straight up admit that what happened was because of the plant and she was drugged, but still act like it was all her irresponsibility. That’s not how this works. When someone is drugged out of her mind—and to make it clear, yes so was everyone else, but they were aware they were drugged, Zeetha was clueless and so couldn’t fight it nearly as well—you can’t call them irresponsible and overconfident.

Not to mention, she didn’t even really do anything overconfident? She just briefly talks to Tarvek—that’s it. Also Higgs is the first one hit—he gets shoved back before Zeetha gets stabbed. He then also, while fighting very seriously—gets stabbed just like her? What exactly does he think would have gone differently had Zeetha not briefly talked to Tarvek?

And I get and understand that since this was his first wakeup call that he liked her (though I don’t think he actually realized truly realized until he’s on the clank—the way he words it makes it sound like he’s just figuring it out himself that he likes her, and wants her, and wants her to like him to) and so he’s not thinking straight and being overprotective—but I really wish the narrative would maybe point that out? Instead of acting like it’s a fact.

Like even if it’s just Mamma pointing out the he also got stabbed, after the fact, exactly like Zeetha did? Or Agatha tell Zeetha after her apology that no—you were unknowingly drugged—that’s not overconfidence, that’s not how that works?

Plus, honestly I feel that despite the fact he was trying to resolve her guilt when she first woke up, that Higgs focus on her “overconfidence” likely only worsened her guilt. She seems to take his opinion as fact as well…

Actually I think that a good chunk her trying to show off to Higgs is that she’s desperately trying to prove herself good enough after what happened. Both because she likes him and quite possible think all he sees in her is an idiot at this point, but also for her own sake… granted that second part is going into headcanon territory here.

(I have an headcanon/ fanon that Zeetha has a problem with “not being good enough” that comes from being a twin is Skifander, where her achievements were never good enough for a lot of people who saw her as a twin and nothing else, no matter how good they were or even if they were equivalent to those her age around her that got praised—so if that headcanon is true then well… Higgs words may have been a bit of a blow… Also in my fanon it’s her grandmother who is the worst of it too… so double blow?)

I should probably get over it, but it annoys me. I swear there was never anything major that indicated Zeetha had a problem with overconfidence until this subplot, so it still feels like it’s forced, and as the double down it feels even more so? Zeetha already gets to play worf whenever she’s fighting, it would be nice if she could at least not get called overconfident to. Especially in a world of Sparks—who are beyond overconfident and reckless—get to get away with it constantly?

(Yes, with the Horsie Beastie she gets a sprained ankle, but that’s the risk of fighting short ranged—and she was the only one of the group to work with someone else (Yeti) with a plan instead of just stumbling over everyone else. With Passholdt she’s very aware this is serious and they could die, and as she fought Lu in Agatha despite her boastings she was careful, both to test what Lu could do but also to not hurt Agatha to much (A wrong punch can kill someone after all).

Though I do like that it’s implied Zeetha did get Mamma’s blessing to join the fighting. And that other than her injury throbbing (as to be expected) she’s not shown once to actually be struggling with it. It’s not slowing her down, weakening her, or limiting her movements at all. She shows no sign of having trouble breathing, even after fighting or running, despite the fact her lungs had to have been punctured.

Though her injury… or rather her treatment… While it’s not confirmed here it is heavily implied she got the draught which, I mean yeah in canon it’s canon but still. I’m still not thrilled with the idea. Zeetha had been worfed so often that it just feels cheap—and kinda sad—that going forward she’ll likely win not through her own power (or even choice, she didn’t get to make the decision to take the draught after all) but through a mcguffin.

I would have also liked to see her power up come from either herself (Whether her keeping up as a badass normal, or some kind of war spark (I still hold onto the theory she had like, half the spark gene, and she had a psudo breakthrough when killing Bang’s fleet that maybe she’ll one day be able to control) or from something related to Skifander (since it is her character’s plot, and a huge part of her life.) Instead she once again kind feels like she getting overshadowed, whether by her connection it Agatha or her connection with Higgs. I like Ziggs, and it’s potential, a lot but I don’t want Zeetha downgraded to being basically Higgs girlfriends, which a lot of what has happened so far has felt like…

Well I’m just not thrilled.

I am hoping that her odd reaction (Two and half years in she’s neither mutated, or shown any enhanced ability in toughness or strength) to it is eventually going to mean that no—she didn’t react to the Jägerdraught in any normal way and isn’t becoming a Jäger. That her Skifandrian heritage (Which likely has something similar to the Dyne considering the connection of the Queens, and needing that power to become one…) basically neutralized it beyond taking the dyne water in its energy to heal her… or something. So she can get a proper power up through something else.

(I mean, I like the idea that Higgs won’t lose her to old age, but also kinda wish that a different method would be used to stop that… God Queen anyone XD. Though if all it did was make her un-ageing and that her power up comes from something else, I’m okay with that to.)

(…I still love the idea of God Queen Zeetha though… I mean, she almost more than Agatha has connections to that plot line thanks to Skifander.)

Also it’s confirmed she did die, briefly, which like… um, if she was that bad off maybe Higgs should have walked a little faster through the Castle, or let Agatha actually set her up on life support or something. They had set on Von Pinn rather quickly after all I mean… but whatever. They wanted her to die, for some reason. Probably to try and drive the overconfident point home… or something. (Or maybe to go God Queen you have to die, take the dyne water (or equivalent, it’s the energy that matters I think) and then get electrocuted… while the electrocution takes several years after the others that has all happened to Zeetha like it did Agatha…just saying…)

Also I’d like to say that Higgs stealing her swords was still a shitty thing to do. An understandably shitty thing to do, but a shitty thing to do regardless. While he may not know that, they are very important to her (they are the only thing she keeps in good condition before she meets Agatha, even her arm bands are grimy) and most importantly she’s an adult. Maybe take them away, still shitty but sure, but actually hiding them is infantilizing at best. Again him acting unreasonable because of sudden case of feeling, but I wish something had been made of it.

Also I want to make it clear, I’m not upset with Higgs actions. It’s great fodder for misunderstandings, a bit of angst, and grounds for them to have a good long talk that will end with their relationship growing stronger as well as character development. I’m just a bit annoyed with how the narrative as a whole is viewing them as well as… honestly… I no longer have much faith of the Fogilos when it comes to character three dimensionsness and development. So I’m… leery…

But enough of that, another thing to wonder

Who the heck is Omeetza that Zeetha briefly thinks is Higgs? IS this going to be a Time travel thing? Are the group going to end up in the past and become legends in Skifander? That would be hilarious. Makes me wonder what the “drive and burning singlemindedness” is about if it is/ will be him. 10 digibucks it has something to do with helping Zeetha. (Hopefully without overshadowing her though, please let the Skifander plot revolve around mostly her side of things, she’s been overshadowed so much.)

The other two options is that Higgs is just vaguely resembles a legendary figure, or that he’s been to Skifander in the past. The first one is boring, and also unlikely because why bring it up without fully explaining the legend then, and the last one I hope not, though, he does have an odd reaction when looking at the swords… so maybe he’s seen them before?

To be fair I understand him keeping that secret much more than him not telling Zeetha about the draught, he couldn’t answer that one as easily without letting his secrets go—plus knowing Zeetha he has no idea just how bad not knowing where Skifander is hurt even three years later. Though you would think that would have come up now that he’s confessed. And also I have a harder time think Zeetha would just let the fact he knew that go as easily. She might understand but I can’t help but feel it should hurt.

Alright back to a little salt though, I swear if it comes out that Zeetha wasn’t at least aware Higgs was a high ranking Jäger, if not a general or spymaster (though even those would be nice) then I’m gunna riot. The novels are even more clear how suspicions she is of him, and if Gil and Tarvek can figure it out—so can she. The Spark doesn’t help with noticing things like this (In fact I’d say generally it makes it harder) and Zeetha has just as much royal training as both of them. It would make no sense if she didn’t figure it out but let the secret lie until he told her. The only reason would be to make Gil and Tarvek more special in the main characterness, I swear…

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Hi, what are your thoughts on Strickler/Barbara? How would Claire get the Decimar Blade to break it's hold on Gunmar's army? Also, due to a string of days where my mum and dad get mad at me, I feel emotionally worn out and stressed. It's nothing too serious, and I love my family but I'm tired of always keeping my head down and letting them walk all over me, I'm 20, and this shit needs to stop. I'm not asking that you play psychiatrist, but do you have any advice or encouragement for me?

Stricklake:

I ship it, partially because I was first introduced to the show via some pro-Stricklake content and so it became a key aspect of my understanding of how the show worked before I’d even seen a single episode, and partially because I find the character dynamics really interesting.

(That first point, learning the ship before the show, also influenced me regarding Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The first episode I saw in it’s entirety was Something Blue, where Buffy and Spike are magically compelled to get engaged for most of the episode. Seeing that with no knowledge that the characters actually hated each other at the time, and then discovering later episodes where Spike was in love/obsessed with Buffy, meant I accepted them eventually getting together as a given.

That episode also left me under the impression that Buffy was a comedy series in a horror-style setting, so … that was a learning curve.

Interestingly, the same concept of ship-before-show had the opposite effect in my watching of Voltron: Legendary Defender.

I had seen so much Lance/Keith shipping content before I got around to watching the show that I began under the impression they were an established couple. Therefore, it was really confusing when the first episodes had Lance viewing Keith as his rival and Keith barely noticing Lance’s existence.

I never was able to see their supposed chemistry in canon sources, only in fic and fan art. Of course, I also quit watching after Season Six - I was starting to lose interest in the show by then and decided to stop while I was still having fun.)

In Season One of Trollhunters, there’s a lot of dramatic irony in Strickler and Barbara’s interactions, because the audience knows he’s a Changeling and can catch the double-speak, which makes their scenes interesting to watch. (Except for some people, whose past experience being manipulated meant those scenes were triggering instead and drove them away from the show. Shipping is very subjective that way.)

Barbara is obviously drawn to Walter. Literally moments after she meets him, she asks Jim whether he knows if his teacher is single. Walter, I don’t think, ever intended specifically to flirt with Barbara - the charm and charisma is just a Changeling thing, “yes, human, you should like me, you should trust me,” - and initially him dating her was taking an opportunity to put the Trollhunter in a vulnerable position. Developing actual feelings for Barbara caught him off-guard.

Barbara had a lot more agency and took more initiative in their relationship in the first season, both in starting their relationship (“Coffee? Dinner? Appendix removal?”) and in ending it. (“Don’t talk to me. You’re the one thing I’m looking forward to forgetting.”)

Yeah, while we’re on this subject: from my perspective, they broke up at the end of Season One, and whatever’s going on as of Season Three is a new relationship.

When they meet again in the third season, Barbara’s mostly reactionary, and Walter stumbles a lot because the writers seemed to be treating him like he was already finished his redemption arc by the time they met again in Parental Guidance, rather than still midway through it.

I’ve written before, I believe, that their Season Three dynamic would be much improved by the following two things:

1) If Walter actually apologized at some point; and

2) If Barbara had contacted him after getting her memories back in Parental Guidance, rather than him showing up at her house uninvited after the events of Bad Coffee. This would give him the chance to confess and apologize for his past misdeeds while confirming the truth of her recovered memories.

He could then either back her up when she contacts Nana and the Nuñezes, or convince her to approach the Trollhunter team first, which would give the kids a safe human adult to go to about troll stuff. Forcing the reveals had potential to go a lot worse than it did.

Having Barbara and Walter’s next contact be on her terms would have also balanced out their power dynamic a little. It’s always been skewed in his favour because he has more information than she does. Having him demonstrate basic respect for her boundaries, by not approaching her after the last thing she said to him was basically that she never wanted to see him again, would be more palatable as well as making her more proactive in their Season Three interactions.

So in my opinion, canon portrayal of this ship started strong but ended clumsily, which is where fanfiction comes in.

Trollhunter Claire and the Decimaar Blade:

I had assumed, or rather guessed, that the Eclipse Armour would let the Trollhunter steal and use the Decimaar Blade, which seems to be magically tied to Gunmar similarly to how Daylight is tied to the Trollhunter. (See: Gunmar conjuring his sword; Daylight vanishing when Draal tried to wield it.)

The spinoff novels Welcome to the Darklands and Age of the Amulet state that the Decimaar Blade used to belong to Orlagk the Oppressor, who was the Gumm-Gumm Warlord before Gunmar killed him and took his position. Therefore, we can conclude the sword is tied to the position of Gumm-Gumm ruler, and that rulership of the Gumm-Gumms is passed down by right of conquest.

I figured Gunmar would be killed by his own sword and the Trollhunter would get full control of the Decimaar Blade automatically. (I guess the Trollhunter could’ve still gotten the sword even with Gunmar killed by Eclipse if the writers had gone for this option.)

I don’t know how controlling the Decimaar Blade would work, but I assume it’s at least semi-intuitive.

It might be a burst where the Trollhunter frees every mind-controlled troll all at once, or Claire might have to go through all the Gumm-Gumms freeing their minds one-by-one and … dealing with any that weren’t actually mind-controlled.

Regarding family stuff:

That sounds like it sucks a lot and I’m sorry you’re going through it.

I don’t know how reasonable or unreasonable your parents and other family members are, so I don’t know how well it would go over if you were to say, “The way you’re treating me is exhausting and stressful and I need you to stop [doing specific thing that’s distressing me] and try [less hurtful/more constructive thing] instead.”

I also don’t know your job prospects or state of health or financial situation (because those are all facets of personal information you should not be sharing with a stranger on the internet), and so I do not feel able to offer the reassurance “You won’t have to live with them forever,” because for all I know moving out is not a feasible option for you.

However, if that does sound like something you can say to your parents and moving out is in your hypothetical eventual future, those are probably the best reassurances I can offer that are actually relevant, as opposed to abstract comfort like “so long as there is Internet, you can look at pictures of baby penguins whenever you have a connection.”

[seikyoko]

About the Gon bashing

So there’s a lot of people being anti-Gon and being mad at him for what happened in the CA arc and all. So I thought, as someone who got annoyed at Gon at first, then stopped doing it, I’d get at the reasons why people might misunderstand his character. (It’s messy as hell and I suck at conveying ideas and I ramble a lot, sorry).

So actually, the first time I read HxH was when I was 12yo and it was mostly me half-heartedly binge-reading HxH without getting really getting involved in the characters and all (I was a really stupid 12yo), then dropped it because I considered Alluka too ass-pulley to my taste (Now I think that Alluka/Nanika are best girls and they rock) and had no real opinion on what happened .

I only decided to reread/rewatch it again this year, mainly because I wanted to rewatch the CA arc, and just binge-watched stuff necessary to rewatch the CA arc (I also skipped the ZF arc because I didn’t think there was anything interesting to rewatch and vaguely remembered it).

I’m kind of baffled how some people want Killua to ‘not forgive Gon’ and all. Being a Killua fan/stan doesn’t even justify it because Killua is absolutely my favorite character and I think it’s a huge disservice to his character to woobifie him/victimize him/invalidate why he loves Gon so much. He’s one of the mentally strongest characters of the show and his character development is beautiful and while he have a lot of issues, reducing all his relationship with Gon to ‘ow poor Killua not knowing any better’ is kind of an insult to him.

Erm, so aside from the 2011 anime removing most of how much Kite mattered to Gon, I’m gonna adress some of the reasons that aren’t talked about as much

A lot of people who are mad at Gon are pro-Pitou people, or people thinking that Gon doesn’t care about Killua as much as Killua does about Gon , and the belief that Kirugon is one-sided .

And I was sad as hell for Killua after watching the CAA, and thought Killugon was one-sided too, and a lot of stuff about Gon bothered me but somehow, the interpretation “Gon is jerk/evil/don’t care about Killua as much as Killua does about him” didn’t sit well with me either, and I didn’t know how the hell I should interpret his character so it frustrated me to no end, so I desperately tried to understand his character and rewatched HxH and read meta/characters analysises until it made sense again (which took weeks) .

One really intriguing thing was that before rewatching the CA arc, I didn’t consider the ZF arc proof that Gon care about Killua in particular, but despite not rewatching it, I felt the Zoldyck Family arc mattered after I finished the CA arc again.  

So I wondered about it and.. The main thing that changed before and after rewatching the CA arc is considering Gon as a generic shounen protag, actually.

It’s such a weird argument to bring up, but, if you consider Gon a generic shounen protag like, say, Naruto or Luffy, then the whole ZF arc would be less about him caring about Killua, and more ‘I saw people being a bad family to that kid, but it is not right !!’ which is a fairly generic shounen protag thing to do, it wouldn’t even matter if Gon cared about Killua in particular or not, he’d do that to any random kid without having to, and even promptly forget about that kid month laters.

And the thing is.. Gon isn’t really like that, he ain’t the messiah-like perfect idealistic shounen protag who help random people to unreasonable lengths because it’s the right/just thing to do, he’s actually someone who tends to obsess over his goals (becoming a hunter/meeting Ging), wasn’t concerned about being a good person who helps anybody no matter what(he only did so with his friends) and  actually didn’t give a fuck about strangers dying in the hunter exam, there’s actually a lot of analysises (and characters in HxH universe noticing it)  about Gons morality and him not really caring that much about right or wrong.

Like, obviously he does have some morals (everybody does unless you’re Pouf/Mineta Minoru), but the ‘right thing’ isn’t what pushed him into trying that hard to rescue Killua, it was more him considering Killua as someone really important to him and that’s what pushed me to want to understand his character. (and that was one of the first things that sold me into Killugon).

There’s actually a lot of instances where it’s shown that he really cares about Killua in particular, but that I overlooked because I considered him a generic shounen protag/thought he actually gave compliments easily.

Another example is the Dodgeball match, I won’t talk about the whole ‘wrecking-killua’s-hands’ thing because there’s 36 ways to interpret that scene and there’s too much of stuff that played into that, mainly Gon having faith in Killua’s abilities/Killua insisting he could take it and being worried about getting discarded/ Gon getting obsessive about his victory against Razor/it actually was an impulsive decision and Gon doesn’t know why he insisted/Gon finally asking somebody for help (aka Killua), so it’s too much of a mess for me to state an objective opinion (there probably isn’t one)

Ahem, so Razor actually attacked/attempted to kill a lot of people in the dodgeball match, first he killed someone from his team, Bobobo, which Gon asked about, then dropped the issue when given a reasonable explanation.

But during the match itself, Razor actually attempted to decapitate Goreinu and would have succeeded if not for Goreinu’s ability to switch with his nen beasts, he then attacked Tzesguera, and despite Tzesguera protecting himself with Ko he still ended up badly injured, then attacked Gon aiming for the head (and despite Gon using Ko in a small area he still got blasted into a wall), then Goreinu attacked Razor in payback and Razor badly injuried him in return, then Razor threw his ball in Killua’s direction which then switched to the right then went for Bisky and Hisoka who dodged by a hair then got targeted again by one of Razor’s devil and broke two fingers to protect his head.

What actually pisses off Gon ? The possibility Razor could have killed Killua, despite Razor having attempted to kill every player on Gon’s side and Killua not getting any injury.

Heck, a lot of them are on somewhat friendly term with Gon, we see from Tzesguera’s thoughts that they spent a lot of time training in sports (He says that while he have overall better combat ability, Killua and Gon have better agility and reflexes while we see an image with Gon going after a volley ball) Goreinu is a nice and friendly and helpful person and I actually got attached to him, and Bisky was his sensei during the whole GI arc.

My favorite interpretation for the ‘wrecking-Killua’s-hands’ and Gon insisting they stay on the offensive is that : they actually tried staying for the defensive/dodging in the first part of the match, and that led to what ? Killua almost getting killed. So the staying on the defensive/trying to dodge strategy was rejected because of that, because Killua getting his hands destroyed at least meant Killua’s life wasn’t in any danger. It’s dubious whether Gon thought something like that that fast but he actually canonically did so in the beginning of the Palace Invasion when Dragon Dive rained on them and he decided to attack Youpi because of the possibility of Knuckle and Meleoron staying invisible after  death, so him thinking quickly is actually pretty in-character.

There’s a lot of scenes establishing that Gon cares about Killua, but I mainly wanted to point out those that could be brushed off by the idea of ‘Gon acting like a generic shounen protag’

The second really alarming thing is that at the end of his fight against Pitou, Killua calls out Gon’s name again, Gon looks back at Killua, and we actually see Gon’s power creating a huge white explosion with Killua being in the radius, and that scene actually still confuse me because it’s really OOC for Gon to not give a fuck about whether Killua die of that or not ? SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME.

Also, one of the reasons people got especially pissed at Gon is the line “since it’s none of your business” getting translated into “since it means nothing to you”, which would be a dick thing to say if only because it would be a callback to what Illumi said to Killua in ep 20 about Killua being unable to care about people/developing genuine relationship (and just 10x worse in general). Thank god it isn’t what Gon really said.

And my third and final point about how one might think Killugon is one-sided and that Gon doesn’t care as much as Killua does is actually a pretty legit worry for anime-only watchers. (WHY Madhouse, just why)

It’s the Killua & Gon’s separation scene.

Hear me out, after reading the manga I actually got less alarmed by that. (I have no idea how Madhouse could fuck this up this badly).

Starting by what got said 

In the manga it’s Gon who expresses he wishes Killua would come to which Killua reply ‘maybe next time’. In the anime it’s Killua who expresses he want to go with Gon, but say that he have to watch over Alluka

Also one thing that extremely bothered me is when they turn away : in the anime Killua look sad, and Gon is sad for like 2s then immediately get a determined and hopeful expression and march his way confidently.

Also the whole ep 148 is alarming in general because Gon march happily to the world tree with an adventure ost playing, then we see him having flashbacks of his whole journey and…  We pratically don’t see Killua in those flashbacks, while Gon had a lot of flashback about a lot of people and of his whole journey, Killua is either just not there or ignored in the background. 

In the manga Gon’s expression is equally heartbroken when he turns around, and he ain’t overly adventurous/satisfied/happy, he just march to the damned tree, give a normal smile to the dude in there, show his hunter license and get to climbing the tree before having his reunion with Ging.

So I get why anime-only watchers might think Killugon is one-sided

@ichaquisitor (is it okay to randomly tag people ? How do you even human) so I continued binge-reading your meta, and holy shit you weren’t kidding, the amount of people asking if Killua resent Gon and if their friendship is still intact is alarming, so as someone who was not okay with Gon’s attitude then changed to “ow poor kid” I decided I’d write about the reasons about why people might think that way.

[purebloodprincess]

Ship game

Thanks @eternalyumelove for tagging me! ♥

Embrace your inner shipper!  Answer questions about your favorite ships or fandoms. Reblog to participate and let your ship flag fly!

1. What are your top 10 manga/anime ships of all time?

Hey, I’m going to go with less than 10. Cause I could techically find 10 ships that I like but I want to list only the ones that I currently really love (aka the OTPs). And that is actually a lot less than 10.

Hak/Yona (Akatsuki no Yona) I’ve been obsessing over them for a while now. Like, so much that it’s actually a bit embarrassing lol. But I don’t care. XD Kusanagi is a genius and bless her.

Victor/Yuuri (Yuri!!! on Ice) My newest one, I watched the anime literally a week ago. This ship is so.damn.good. It very quickly became part of my top favourites. Considering that we are talking about a 12 episodes only anime, it’s very surprising lol. This is also my only same-sex OTP which actually tells you a lot. I do like BL but usually the relationships are not portrayed healthily. Well, Victuuri is the exception.

Ren/Kyoko (Skip Beat!) I mean, we are not really getting new content for them but I still love it a lot. I will probably be 90 years old and on my deathbed by the time they get together though.

Kaname/Yuuki (Vampire Knight) My oldest ship, it was my number one throughout my teens. I still love them a lot although admittedly not as much as I did before. That’s partly the fault of the writing of the manga.

2. What gif or screenshot most sums up your ship? Well, I added gifs to all of them so there you go lol.

3. Describe your favorite ship in seven words or less.  Hakyona: innocent, respectful, teasing, best friends Victuuri: harmonious, pure, respectful, eros and agape Kyoren: destined, slowburn, hate to love, pining Yume: dark, passionate, complicated, eternal

4. What’s your go-to episode or scene when you need ship feels? Hakyona: The entire manga??? Well, jokes aside, I guess it’s a bit hard to choose because I love all of their scenes. Chapter 110 where Yona gives Hak the pendant and fully realizes she is in love, chapter 137 aka The Kiss™ and chapter 152 aka The Confession™ are definitely high up on the list. Victuuri: The kiss in episode 7. And then of course the entire fucking episode 10 is a blessing. And also, the pair skating at the very end of episode 12 legit made me cry. It was beautiful. Kyoren: The Heel Siblings Arc. Period. It’s shippers dream come true, quite literally. I think that was actually the best arc of the entire manga. Yume: Chapter 49!!!! Probably my all time favourite chapter in the entire manga, I love it so much. I also completely adore Chapter 52 and the Chapter following Yuuki’s awakening. Where she pushes him to bed and sucks him dry. (sadly not like that though ;))

5. What song or songs remind you of your favorite fandom, character or ship? Hakyona: Theory of a Deadman - Angel Victuuri: Once Upon a December (Russian ver.) It’s all your fault @aphrodytevalentine lol Kyoren: Imagine Dragons - Demons Yume: Tom McRae- My Vampire Heart

6. What ship are you embarrassed to admit you like? Out of the ones I listed, none.

7. Do you prefer to indulge in (consume or create) fanart or fanfic of your favorite ship? Well I do spend an unreasonable amount of time on Tumblr, so I like everything pretty much. I love looking at pretty fanarts and edits. I also love reading fanfics, my favourites are always canon compliant and have lots of fluff and smut lol.

8. Smut or fluff?  THE TWO COMBINED.

9. What task are you most likely to procrastinate so you can indulge in your ship or fandom? Well, I’m the world’s biggest procrastinator so I legit procrastinate everything lol.

10. How many hours of the day do you spend reading fanfic or looking at fanart or other media? Does Tumblr count? Cause then.... a lot?? Lol. Jokes aside, it depends how busy I am. I guess it’s about 1-3 hours on avarege. 

11. How many memorabilia’s do you own of your favorite fandom or ship (clothes, plushies, etc.)? Well I really like to collect anime and manga related stuff. I have fuck ton of manga volumes/artbooks/magazines/Drama CDs etc back at home. I also own quite a few official and non-official merchandise like plushies, keychains, stickers etc. I will put together a proper list once and show you guys.

12. If you could own one authentic item from your favorite fandom world, what would it be? Is this question about merchandise I want or items that characters own that I also would like to have? Well, I’m going with the first possibility. 

My favourite fandom is the akayona fandom, but currently I don’t desperately want anything that I don’t already have lol. So I’m going with Yuri on Ice, and in that case, I currently really want the Victor and Yuuri nendoroids. They are so cute, just look at them:

There are different versions with different costumes and accessories. By accessories I mean Yuuri’s glasses and phone, Makkachin, a bowl of katsudon, silver medal etc lol. They also come with different facial expressions and I’m totally dead ahaha. Don’t judge I love cute shit okay? XD

13. What is the strangest thing you’ve done to honor your favorite fandom, ship or character? I don’t really consider the things I do strange? I mean surely, I’m not the only one fangirling a bit too much lol. Well, actually, when I was 16 I coded an entire website dedicated to VK and I was running it for years. I added new content daily. It was in Hungarian, so basically for the fans in my country. I don’t consider it too strange though cause it was actually really popular. XD

14. What fandom have you found to be too toxic to deal with? VK fandom. This is not even a question, the literal worst I have ever seen.

15. Do you have or would you consider getting a tattoo depicting your favorite ship or fandom?  No. I don’t like tattoos, so this is totally out of the question. And even if I did, I still wouldn’t get a tattoo of my..... ships lol. That’s going a bit too far in my opinion, especially since a tattoo is a very permanent thing.

16. If the creators of your favorite fandom asked you to write the ship canon-confirmation episode, what will you write/how will it happen? All of my ships are pretty much already canon.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Okay so pretty much everyone that I wanted to tag has already been tagged, but whatever, I’m tagging again lol.

@aphrodytevalentine, @yumikuran11, @kaname-v-kuran, @yumiko27, @roxy1294, @the-princess-button, @katsukiine, @lichthime, @kimi-ni-todoke

[knightofbalance-13]

Test Failed.

http://saltwukong.tumblr.com/post/176933090316/jaune-a-canon-sue-more-likely-than-you-think

Let’s go through the list.

The central sue defeats the villain over the heads of the main characters or occupies more of their attention than they really warrant.

Plot threads and character arcs all lead back to the central sue even if they shouldn’t.

The central sue is praised for qualities that are a) not unique to them or b) not really displayed by them.

The central sue may have a smaller, lesser character become involved mainly for the purpose of antagonizing and then being triumphed over by the central sue (scary sue).

The central sue may act in a manner befitting someone much more flawed than they supposedly are, yet they are never punished or called out for it.

Hold on, let just compare this to the article found detailing the qualifications of a Mary Sue:

1) A character who is based, at least partly, on the author. 2) A character whom has no significant flaws (except possibly ones the other characters find cute). 3) A character to whom everyone within the story reacts as if they were beautiful and wonderful except characters who are clearly evil and/or motivated by jealousy. 4) A character with whom, during the course of the story, every available character of the opposite (and occasionally the same) sex will fall in love given any contact whatsoever. 5) A character who undergoes no significant growth, change, or development throughout the story.

Gee, your qualifications seem a lot more....specific than that of many people’s. is it because if we follow the logic of this line, Jaune only fulfills one, maybe two points?

Let’s go ahead and make these qualifications a bit more general:

The mary sue defeats the villain over the heads of the main protagonist

Plot threads and character arcs all revolve around the mary sue

The  mary sue is praised for qualities that are unrealistic

The  mary sue will have a character act out of character just to dislike them while being defended by the majority of the cast

The mary sue will either have no flaws, superficial flaws or flaws that no one seems to notice

I also took out that central sue bullshit because we all know you mean “Mary Sue” and “Central Sue” isn’t even a recognized term, it’s just a pseudo category made so you can fix the rules against Jaune.

Now let’s see how Jaune stacks up to the qualifications of a Mary Sue everyone agrees on.

While Jaune does not defeat Cinder, he does fight her and occupy her attention for far longer than he should over the head of Ruby Rose, who Cinder has personal beef with. When Ruby’s silver eyes activate, she is knocked out before they can fully annihilate Cinder both to keep Ruby from swiping a win out from under Jaune and to keep her from claiming more attention than him.

Jaune also draws attention from Tyrian in Volume 4 despite Tyrian being there for the explicit purpose of capturing Ruby and Jaune having displayed no special qualities Tyrian might find worthy of a second look.

I’m sorry but considering Jaune loses the fight, Cinder wasn’t being serious and the fight concludes with a loss towards Jaune, he does not fulfill any categories here. (same with Tyrian).

In fact, by your logic, Nora actually fulfills your qualification against Hazel because the same things happened with her and Hazel: She occupies his time almost as much as Ozpin and she does more against Hazel than Ozpin.

So unless you start calling Nora a Mary Sue, I’m afraid you’ve failed.

Jaune gets to angst over Pyrrha for the majority of Volumes 4 and 5 while Ruby’s own suffering is largely ignored, and when it is finally addressed, it is so Jaune can use it to say that her unwritten “silent” angsting inspires him.

i’m afraid that this doesn’t qualify Jaune for any categories either because the focus is still on Ruby.

In fact, going by your definition, Ruby is more of a Mary Sue because Yang’s issues with her mom, Oscar’s fear issues and even jaune’s angst all circle back to her whereas Jaune barely gets focus on one scene.

Once again, gonna need to label Ruby a Mary Sue before you can label him.

Jaune is largely praised as a strategist, but has displayed little to no ability to direct other people; this facet of him is displayed 3 times–once in a series of blows against the Deathstalker already in progress, once in a team match that simply showed how he can’t direct his team since they didn’t get it and he was largely ripping off Ruby, and once in a manner that causes even Ren to mock him for its obviousness, “hit it harder”. He displays no real combat intuition, while fellows like Pyrrha Nikos and Weiss Schnee display subtle cunning and resource management that he does not.

I’m afraid that is not a unique trait as you have shown and those characters do get praised for their abilities as well (even more son than Jaune) so that doesn’t work.

Conversely, that means Ruby and Pyrrha are more like Mary Sues than Jaune. Damn the list of characters who embody this these traits more than Jaune is getting pretty long. Almost like you ignore your own rules just to get at Jaune.

Scary Sue? Cardin Winchester says hello.

A. NDoesn’t work with the general guidelines.

B. That also applies to Pyrrha. Not to mention Nevermore and Torchwick for Ruby.

The grand prize among Jaune criticisms, he repeatedly fucks up or does something dickish and fails to be reprimanded for it. Cheating his way into Beacon, being a dick to Pyrrha, harassing Weiss, and starting the fight with Cinder’s faction being good examples. These very real flaws and mistakes are never treated as though they’re that serious or warrant correction.

A. Jaune criticizes HIMSELF and his team shuns him when he’s being a jerk, Weiss hates him for it and Yang criticized hum and Wiess being stabbed. So not only does this not fit the last category you had, it doesn’t even fit YOUR category.

B. Pyrrha’s obsession with Jaune never gets called out either.

Now before we leave, I’d like to keep Salt-Wukong here for a moment.

You’re a fan of SSSN, which means by extension, Neptune.

Let’s go through both our lists then.

1A. No

1B. No

2A. yep, Jaune and Weiss

2B. Yep, prom arc.

3A. Yep. Sun is also handsome but Neptune gets the glory.

3B. Yep. Unreasonably attractive.

4A. Yep. Jaune and team INDGO

4B. Yep, INDGO.

5A. Yep. his fear of water.

5B. Fear of Water and Can’t Dance so yep.

So we have a character that is actually closer to what you complain about Jaune being than Jaune himself and yet you actively SUPPORT them and demand they get more screentime, which is something that defines a Mary Sue.

So question:

Why is Neptune getting away with it and yet you need rigged rules and rigged results to bitch about Jaune?

You know, other than a blatant bias and an agenda of ‘let me abuse people.‘

[forgottenroyal]

Just cause I need to rant about this, and can’t think of any other way to do it: under the cut is an anti-jonerys rant type thing. If you ship it, you have been warned. As such, do not send me hate, because I put it under a read more, and did not force you to open it.

That being said, let’s get started.

I’m going to try and put this in bullet points to help organize my jumbled thoughts, and maybe make it easier for people to read. Cause I have a lot to say. Sorry about that in advance.

1. It’s badly written/lack of chemistry

As a writer myself, I absolutely hate Jonerys. For me, there is nothing good about the ship. It is 100% forced, with bad writing/chemistry that requires the writers to add lines such as: “I’ve noticed you staring at her.”

I mean, it just seems pretty obvious that if you need that line to be added for people to see that there’s a ship forming, then the ship doesn’t work. I just don’t see it from both sides. Yeah, I can strain to see Dany having affections towards Jon, but he obviously doesn’t reciprocate it. Honestly, I don’t think Jon would ever reciprocate feelings for her if it wasn’t a forced ship.

Also, the fact that the creatures/writers HAVE to say that there’s this chemistry there is complete bullshit. If there was actually chemistry there, you wouldn’t have to say it. People would see the chemistry and go, “oh, yeah. I see it”. THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS WITH EVERY NON-CANON FANDOM SHIP IN EVERY FANDOM.

It’s very obviously forced, just saying.

2. Incest (duh)

If it’s not okay for the Lannisters to do it, then it’s not okay for Jon and Dany. Sorry, but I’m tired of listening to people advocate for incest in the GOT fandom, just because Jon and Dany are pretty and would make a pretty couple. He does not need to have sex with his aunt. Not to mention, that he’ll probably find out about his true heritage at some point, and be really grossed out. Not to mention doubt himself, and question who he is.

3. Jon deserves better

As stated above, he’ll most likely question himself when he finds out who his parents are, and Jon doesn’t need the added guilt of sleeping/having feelings for his aunt on top of that. Plus, he’d also probably be dealing with the fact that he’s the true heir to the iron throne, and he probably doesn’t want it. AKA, more conflict between Jon and Dany that doesn’t need to have sexual tension. Cause that’s gross. Also, he doesn’t need to be thinking about romance right now. He’s worried about the army of the dead, and can’t afford to be romancing it up.

4. The “it’s already happening” argument

If your go to argument when talking about a ship is that it’s practically already happening, then it’s a bad ship. Just because it’s “canon”, doesn’t mean it’s good. I have get to see a good argument for why Jonerys is a good ship. The two arguments I keep seeing are, “but they look so good together”, or “It’s practically already happening”.

How about you stop with that, and actually evaluate your ship before you get mad at other people for doing it? Just because you can’t see how problematic it is, doesn’t mean it’s not problematic.

5. Dany constantly threatening Jon/not letting him leave

I’m under the impression that NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO DEAL WITH NORTHERNS. I mean, Dany is being ridiculous. She won’t listen to Jon, and acts as though bending the knee is the only show of loyalty. HE’S NOT HAPPY THERE. He just wants to get the dragon glass, and go home. You really think he wanted to leave Sansa by herself up at Winterfell, right after they just got it back?

She’s kind of forcing herself on him, and it’s disturbing. If they were romantically involved, it would probably be an abusive relationship, just saying. And I like Dany, I do, but she’s being unreasonable, and selfish. And Jon has no other choice but to sit there and let it happen. Otherwise she won’t let him continue mining the dragon glass. Do you really think that’s a good basis for a ship? Cause let me tell you, it’s not. It creates an unfair power dynamic that should not be in relationships.

That, and I’m worried that if/when they find out about Jon’s true heritage, that she’ll try to kill him. She’ll think that he wants the throne for himself, and try to burn him, because she’s so obsessed with the throne.

Cause you know, that’s a good relationship right there (sarcasm).

6. They are too different

Jon and Dany are two completely different people. Not only do they obviously have vastly different goals, but are also morally different as well. Jon grew up with Ned as his father saying, “The one who casts the sentence, should wield the sword.” Jon grew up with a man teaching him that if he can’t look at a man and kill, then maybe he shouldn’t be killed.

While we’ve seen Dany separate herself from the killing time and time again. She uses her dragons to kill people, therefore she is separated from the act itself. She doesn’t feel the guilt of killing people the way Jon does.

She also rules through fear, while Jon rules through respect. Jon wouldn’t threaten people for not wanting him to lead them. He wouldn’t force them to listen to him. He would make sure that they had their say, think it over, and then return with what he thinks is best.

Reminder that Dany brought dragons back, but she refused to believe Jon about the army of the dead. And she’s shown time and time again how, despite being new to Westeros, barely listens to what her advisers have to say.

They are two very different people, both politically and morally. They see things so vastly different that a relationship would hardly work between the two of them. If Jon saw how she killed those people, I highly doubt he’d be staying with her much longer. He believes in people, not power.

I guess all I’m saying is that Jonerys is not a good and healthy ship, and I think after what both Dany and Jon have been through, that they both deserve a good and healthy relationship. I’m all for them being military allies, and having a platonic relationship. Cause I love these characters, but Dany is not good for Jon.

Finally, if you are a Jonerys shipper, and for some reason chose to read this through, please do not send/write hate of any kind. I will block you, because I’m tired of it. That being said, I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on this (anti-Jonerys or not). Just please, keep it civil.

[dpillustrations]

Top Five - Fictional Heroines

Today’s Tumblr post comes from direct inspiration from the YouTube channel of Phoenician Rises! This channel is created by my lovely cousin, Alexis Johnson, and it is an inspirational channel for all creatives! I would highly recommend anyone, not just creatives, to check out her blog as you’ll find encouragement to get through the daily grind! 

In her video #TopFive - Fictional Heroines she lays out who are her top favorite ladies in all of fiction and why. She excludes the superhero genre just to make the choosing a little easier, but she’ll get to her favorites in those too in another video, so check back for that one!

As part of the challenge, I’m going to list my top 5 favorite ladies too, and I did a sketch/art piece for each. These aren’t ranked even though I’m listing them in an order, but my number one is most definitely my number one. 

5. Sansa Stark

“My skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel...”

My Lady of Winterfell! I loved her character before it was cool, pretty much almost since the beginning. Undoubtedly she had the spoiled nature of a child who had grown up in safe, prosperous environment of Winterfell, and who spent an unhealthy amounts of time in her make believe wonderland at first. I didn’t think this counted against her by any means, and since then she has proven what she is truly made of. She is seen as weak in the eyes of many because she is a proper lady who does what she is told, but where others see weakness I see strength. I think this has been proven over and over again as Sansa Stark has been tasked to endure terrible things, and no only survive, but thrive in her survival. Identity is such a strong theme in George R.R. Martin’s books, and I see Sansa Stark’s endurance to maintain her identity, even when she literally has to become someone else, is truly exemplary. I love how despite her penchants for songs of knights and ladies, she doesn’t falter when confronted with the truth. She looks into the eyes of the ugliness and darkness, to not only face it, but often times look beyond it. This is what she tries to do when she becomes Tyrion Lannister’s bride, and she does this with The Hound as well. One of my favorite moments is when she sings for him, this large, terrible man who could rape and kill her so easily and he is the one who succumbs before the innocence of this delicate little bird. Only, she isn’t delicate at all, but has the fierce strength of the North in her. Sansa Stark is an exceptional character in the ASOIAF series, and I think after all is said and done, she might very well win the game of thrones! Queen in the North!

4. Joan Watson

“She rebuilds lives from the ground up. A way to measure her success is by how many careers she has rebuilt and the amount of lives she has saved.”

If you haven’t been watching CBS Elementary, you should be, because it’s amazing. You know what else is amazing? Joan Watson. Sansa is Queen in the North, Joan Watson is Queen of New York! I’m a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, and I think Lucy Lui’s incarnation of the famous sleuth’s loyal friend and biographer is the best ever. In this show she is his sober companion turned apprentice turned consulting detective turned vigilante, but she is ever and always his most loyal friend. I love Joan Watson’s level-headedness, perceptiveness, honesty, compassion, selflessness, and strength. She doesn’t take crap from anyone, and yet maintains a servant’s heart. She loves healing people, saving people - perhaps to a fault - but she never gives up on those she believes in. Another shining aspect to her character? She is modest, truly modest, and doesn’t seek out glory, recognition, or praise, and I think that captures the essence of the character from the canon. Joan Watson only seeks to get the job done, to get the job done right, and be a help to as many people as she can. In the books, Watson is a soldier, and that’s how I see Joan Watson too. She’s a warrior, ready to lay down her life to protect and serve those who are less fortunate or are in need of justice. She is truly exceptional, and Lucy Lui plays her with such marvelous subtlety and elegance. 

3. Molly Gibson

“I wish I could love people as you do, Molly!' “Don't you?” “No. A good number of people love me, I believe, or at least they think they do; but I never seem to care much for any one. I do believe I love you, little Molly, whom I have only known for ten days, better than any one.”

This may be an obscure character for some, but Molly Gibson from Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters is one of my favorite female heroines. She is a humble woman of gentility, discretion, and grace, and everything in her is what I would want to encourage in myself. She is kind and has a servant’s heart, caring for others above herself. One should not mistake this for weakness, however, as Molly is quite resilient. She becomes a strong ballast for everyone involved in the story, and many look to her for strength, encouragement, and sanctuary. Wives and Daughters is a sweet, though sometimes melancholy tale of the struggles of two families and their intertwining stories, and Molly is at the center of the trials and dysfunction - a calm, steady presence. It is in this where her her true strength shines, and little Molly does endure to the end, and is rewarded for her patience and forbearance. She’s actually pretty much perfect, and many might not like that about the character, but I don’t think that makes her unrelatable or a “Molly Sue.” She’s unassuming and down to earth, who struggles and feels like anyone else. She is just very noble and pure of heart. Probably the only fault would be in that she doesn’t speak up for herself often and let’s people take advantage of her goodness, but I think there is much we could learn and praise about this heroine.

2. Katniss Everdeen

“What am I going to do? I take a deep breath. My arms raise slightly - as if recalling the black-and-white wings Cinna gave me - then come to rest at my sides. I’m going to be the Mockingjay.”

While I love Molly Gibson for her perfections, I love Katniss Everdeen for her imperfections. There are incredible strengths in Katniss, to be sure, but what I find fascinating is how much she struggles with herself and with the world. Katniss is fierce, loyal, and inspirational, but she also seeks to control that which she cannot, and is unreasonably stubborn. At the very beginning Katniss only wants one thing, to keep those she loves safe. Noble, yes, and her determination is admirable, but this single goal becomes an obsession to her, a a resilient idea that makes up the core of her being. She seeks this with everything she has within her, even when it is impossible, to the point where it breaks her utterly. The movies presented Katniss’ story in a more positive and noble light, but Katniss’ story is actually a sad one. While the Mockingjay becomes a symbol of revolution and power that ultimately overthrows the totalitarian government - for Katniss, the Mockingjay is actually a place of brokenness. On the one side, Katniss dies in order for others to live, which is worthy, but on the other, Katniss fails herself and those she loves. That is why I call The Hunger Games series 1984 as it should have been, not only for the obvious reasons, but because of Katniss’ transformation into the Mockingjay. In 1984, Winston is the character who struggles against the totalitarian government, and he fights with everything in him, maintaining that he will not break, that he will not bend, that he will not allow Big Brother to win where it counts the most - his spirit. Yet, as we know, he fails, and so too does Katniss. One of my favorite moments in the books is when she is in a depressed, catatonic state after her sister’s death - this one thing - this one thing she tried to keep from happening from the very beginning - but now has failed to do. It is here in this moment when her spirit is broken that she begins to sing. She sings as if the song is being torn from her, she sings in the moment where Katniss dies and the Mockingjay is truly born. 

There are slivers of hope to be sure in her story, but what stood out to me were Katniss’ frailties, painfully and unequivocally human. I think there is much to be learnt from her character even in that. 

1. Jane Eyre

“Still indomitable was the reply: “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad—as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation… . They have a worth—so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane—quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. “Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: THERE I PLANT MY FOOT."

Jane Eyre is my ultimate heroine, the Queen of all Heroines, IMHO. What is truly admirable about Jane is her indomitable spirit, that she never unravels even in the most adverse circumstances. She endures much abuse throughout her childhood, and endures losing (for a time) the only true happiness she has found because of the frailties of the man she loves. Yet despite how many try to will her, bend her, control her, or how circumstances assail against her, Jane always remains Jane. Her spirit is unbreakable. She stands by her God, her principles, and her dignity, and remains untouchable. I don’t believe there really has  been an adaptation of her story that truly depicts her properly. (I think the closest is Charlotte Gainsbourg in the 1996 version.) They usually show her character to be more subdued than she actually she is. She is a quiet, reserved figure, but she is also quite harsh, opinionated, and proud. She loved Rochester deeply and passionately, but she also didn’t take any of his crap, and often spoke her mind about his behavior towards her. She was truly a woman outside her times, and I loved the little aspects of this shining through, like her drawings, the unusual pieces that come from her imagination, or how she makes up her mind based on her own initiative and not caring about what others might perceive of her, i.e. her refusal of accepting St. John River’s proposal and in so doing, being a missionary’s wife - which would have been perceived as the more noble thing. Jane Eye’s internal strength is what I love most about her, and while I would say that I wish we could see more characters like her, there really could only ever be one Jane Eyre.

[spidersanctuary]

A disordered venting about RP problems:

My experience RPing with Tumblr RPing is not very extensive - goes back about five years, I think. Before that, I RPd a bit, much earlier, but for the most part the only RPing I've done is on Tumblr (and Skype, but as an extension of Tumblr RPing).

I don't like bouncing around. I tend to stick with a place that looks legit, get attached to the characters (mine and others') and stick it out, even sometimes unreasonably so. I've been in... basically three group RPs. Two of them were larger (let's say, defined as "more than around ten active players at any given time", and the third was smaller and purely reactionary, a-la "we don't like the way things are here so we'll make our own". Though not without problems (and I can't say I didn't have my part in them), it was the most drama-free as a whole. It also looks like the fourth, soon to come, might follow along the same pattern.

Despite my sample size of one, I'm confident in saying small groups have a different dynamic. Especially if they're founded by people who already know each other. Bigger groups are trickier, in many ways, and I was struck by the realisation that the different problems I encountered in both my bigger groups were representative of two ends of a spectrum.  Similar things going wrong in opposite ways, so to speak.

One of them was defined by lack of forethought and planning. Indeed the whole RP just kind of happened organically, something more serious growing out of something very silly and casual. While it had its fun sides - and it was wildly fun, at times, for as long as the fun lasted - it's also obvious in retrospect how that could be a huge problem. Different players. No standardised rules or guidelines until way, waaay later in the game (after much drama had already happened). Lots of different people with different RPing backgrounds and personalities and playstyles, none of them fully on the same page. While many of the problems had to do with one or two difficult personalities in the group, that's not really the isuse. There is always a risk of... unpleasant people, no RP group is safe from them and no RP guidelines will truly protect you from someone who WANTS to start shit or manipulate things to their benefit and is cunning enough to do that. But even aside from that... the lack of regulation about who could grab what characters and how many (some players ending up with 20+ blogs), or any kind of spoken agreement about activity guidelines and replying etiquette. Lack of agreement about how "canon" certain plots were, in the RPing continuity. Lack of agreement about the continuity, period. A clash between people who wanted to develop a certain pre-planned (and rather exclusive) storyline and those who were more in it for spontaneity. It was a recipe for disaster. It didn't need to get as bad as it did, but starting off like that, it was bound to get unpleasant eventually anyway.

Now, the other group... oh, the other group. After the colourful experience of the first group, the things it offered seemed like a reassuring breath of fresh air. Planning! An almost DnD-esque level of detail to the established universe, rulebook, bestiary and lore! Basically an entire little sandbox lovingly crafted for you to play in. Transparent activity guidelines and rules! An actual mod team working to be approachable while still holding authority! New plots for everyone to participate in to be released basically by the clock, so nobody would feel left out! So lovely! Unfortunately, things are rarely as sunny as they appear. A certain type of literate, application RPs is infamous for their snobbishness and elitism, and despite the initially welcoming tone, that was exactly what this unravelled to be. On the flip side, many of the appeals of the group amounted to little more than elaborate publicity acts. Always, always must the group remain attractive and desirable to newcomers (perhaps unsurprisingly given the apparently abysmal player retention rates, both short and long-term). The tone turned out very different from what was advertised, the sandbox-like universe revealing itself to be more of a literal sandbox, with complex topics turned into gimmicks, and supernatural characters (prosecuted and feared for their in-humanity) easily and casually sharing information about their powers with near-strangers like kids on a playground comparing their toys. The "plots" thrown one's way are not only usually poorly (if at all) developed but intrusive, so that they are impossible to avoid completely even if one is not interested in them. Worse yet, the RP insists on doling out serious consequences and high-stakes crises like death, destruction, invasions of murderous monsters or malignant town-wide spells, but is curiously reluctant to allow any room for serious RPing or sense of consequences.

In fact, it's impossible to talk about consequences when even a sense of any basic continuity is thrown out the window, precluded by the occasional hiatus and re-launch and the various measures taken to make sure that new players enter onto a relatively blank slate. Yes, even if long-time residents of the area and the populace in general SHOULD remember and be affected by that politically motivated massacre half a year back, or that time monstrous vegetables SLAUGHTERED half a school of elementary schoolchildren. Thus, even though the RP is long-running (turning two years old soon), it is impossible for the setting to develop any sense of history, and instead it seems to turn more and more comically nonsensical the more tragedies befall the town and are promptly forgotten a few weeks later. Rather than a serious and in-depth setting, one begins to feel instead as if all the characters are living in a Lotus Eater-like state of vague oblivion, briefly reacting to various events but never quite letting them reach collective memory.

Now, all this might be bearable (and even fun! There's an appeal in a certain kind of wacky no-strings-attached horror-comedy-gore, no denying that), IF a couple things weren't true. a) If the RP (and specifically the mod team) didn't make such a huge deal about what a serious and respectable and serious RP it is. No OCs allowed. "We allow shipping but we don't put an emphasis on it! Please don't think this is one of those silly ship-obsessed RPs". No more than two characters allowed. Replies MUST happen every x days, and even though replies of various kinds are accepted (all prose, just different formats and individual reply lengths), only CERTAIN kinds count towards the activity requirement (???!), and a long-term failure to keep it up will end up in you getting the boot. Even if you ARE active and involved with other people and interact a lot. (Don't even get me started on that. I and about three or four other people, most of whom LEFT shortly after, ended up having our plots disrupted SIGNIFICANTLY because the mods booted - or in this case harangued into throwing in the towel and leaving in a huff - a player who was active with all of us, but wasn't active enough in "the RIGHT way" i.e. the right format. This was part of a bigger package of them caring more about keeping up certain pretenses and ticking off certain boxes to be more outwardly desirable to new applicants than the fun of the users who were already there.) b) The nit-picking. Oh god the nitpicking and micromanagement. Some of the shit I've personally seen, some of it I've heard about. It's one thing to crit a player for not being IC with a mod pre-made character. It's another thing to do that after they've been in play for A YEAR, and if you do that then, you're being blatantly disrespectful of all the development the player's put into them. And it's yet another thing to do that to someone's OC (before the 'no OCs' rule was instated). I've had mods dictate to me that my character shouldn't be reacting to x event like this or that, by listing a bunch of factors that, while possibly convincing, were only ONE possible way to interpret the big picture. For real. Psychology is complicated but for some reason all that goes out the window the moment the mod team decides they know how your character should be played (and I'm not talking about blatant realism or accuracy issues like "that's not how PTSD works" but actual decisions/ways of thinking, things that there should, in theory, be no "wrong" option with because once again, people are complicated).

Which brings me to: C) The omnipresent feeling of entitlement by the mod team aka the Powers That Be, as if they believe that theirs is such a supremely privileged, special and elite group, that they merely DEIGN to let you be a part of it. All of it manifesting in a complete lack of basic courtesy when approaching players. Or rather, any player who's been there longer than a month and who they're not actively trying to be Welcoming(TM) to. I should have seen it pretty early when I had a beef with another player who, to wit, disliked that an RP scene we had depicted her character as a "bad guy" (who was previously ESTABLISHED in canon as a psychopathic murderer!!! and the RP scene basically showed him doing more of the same!!!). She ended up badmouthing me to other players she was interacting with closely, and then they as a group complained about me to the mods, in which she twisted a certain conversation we'd had over Skype into something that reflected very badly on me, along the lines of me forcing her to RP a scene she would be triggered by. Now. This was resolved when I provided the mods with copied Skype messages (direct Skype quotes, a format that, in theory, can't be doctored) that showed she was fabricating that conversation - that she had outright told me she WOULD be okay with doing that scene. She eventually got booted for that (and other stuff). And all would have been well if it weren't for the way I had been initially addressed by the mods, and the condescending, denigrating, making you feel like shit TONE of it. Going from zero, utter peace, to "you have an attitude problem and you need to stop now or we'll kick you out". They also tacked on about half a dozen minor "offenses" I had done, like rambling too much about how the reasons I liked a school subject someone else disliked in the ooc chat, or trying TOO hard to get involved in plots, or other bullshit things that the people involved hadn't even complained to them about. I later realised that this, too, was a Pattern. Whenever they went to you with any sort of grievance, whether from their own side or from another player, they would tack on about half a dozen other "transgressions" you had made, sometimes making them up entirely out of thin air. (Other examples include: Me trying to "enforce a headcanon" by having my character react x way. I then pointed out that the "headcanon" I was allegedly """"enforcing"""" was the information stated on THEIR blog about how characters are large are reacting to a previous major town-wide event. (To wit: the information stated that the Event, a violent and deadly clash between two groups of people, exacerbated tensions between them and led to more mistrust between them. My character, who belongs to ONE group, was being mistrustful of the OTHER group. And somehow, this was not okay. Yes. That's it. That is literally how asinine it got. But then again, it's not surprising - as I explain later, it wasn't baout the offenses making sense. It was about getting to make me feel shitty for something) Or: I was being "inconsiderate" by having my character "out" the supernatural status of another character whose player was no longer in the group, and who they were not in contact with. Said player and I HAD in fact discussed this at the time, and they'd WANTED to have it happen, but the mods didn't know one way OR the other. They simply ASSUMED so they could try to pin it on me!) A long line of instances of them taking "offenses" that they didn't know for sure were offenses, that the player DIRECTLY affected HAD NOT come to them about, to paint a bigger picture of you being some kind of Problem Child who was daring to be naughty in THEIR classroom.

Now, I don't know if this was deliberate, but I can see why they did it. It makes you, as the player, feel like crap, puts you on the defensive, makes you question yourself. "Holy crap, were people really bothered by that time I went on a jokingly-serious rant about how awesome botany is when someone said they hated that topic in biology class?" (Hint: No they weren't. They thought NOTHING of it. But the mods saw it and filed it away for when they needed to make you feel like crap.) It puts the mods in a position of power and strengthened their authority. It forces you into a no-win scenario where you either deny the nonsensical accusations, and thus weaken your position and look less credible because it looks like you can't accept responsibility when you're wrong, OR accept the accusations and thereby agree with them that you're the naughty child and bad at following the rules. So it's a shitty, shitty manipulation technique. All of it coming from a place of entitlement and elitism.

I wish I could say I come from all this wiser, but it does feel like entitlement and elitism are the common denominator here. Part of the problem of the first RP was certain people needing to feel like they were superior and hating it when other people got in the way of that. Part of the problem of the second was stuck-up, self-important mods. Ultimately, it comes down to people who enjoy, just a little too much, to feel power and authority over people. To say that "it's THIS way, because I say it is" and have that listened to without question. Who enforce the rules not because it benefits the community, but because it makes them look good. Who view discussion, in and of itself, as disobedience, as an attack on their authority, an attack on them. I can't say I know for sure how to recognise the warning signs of a group like that BEFORE applying. But maybe big RP groups just aren't worth it, period.

[stinkrascal]

Ok so I was thinking about your sims again 👉🏾👈🏾 and um ok so ik you said tarek's love language is romantic acts of service, but what about the others? Also like what would be their ideal first date? And how would they react to other people flirting with their partner? Like ik vlad would commit a murder, but what about brie 👀 ?

i actually listed all their love languages here!! but ideal dates?? jealousy??? OMG!! im gonna ramble so hard!! so i’ll put all this under a cut :’)))

vlad - a) vlad’s ideal date would be like... an idyllic picnic in a field, listening to soft music, chillin in the sun n eatin fruit n drinkin wine :-) all that sappy shit!! b) u know vlad. he will unalive u if u disrespect his wife. the truest simp. but anyways yes he is a very jealous person, sometimes it’s a little excessive and brie has to yell at him, to which he eventually realizes that he’s being unreasonable and he’ll step back. he really doesn’t try to be that way, sometimes he honestly just can’t help it. since he was alone for centuries, he’s extremely over protective of his family and can find pretty much any reason to dislike any man who so much as glances in breanna’s direction. his jealousy never stems from fear that breanna will cheat on him, but more so from his belief that pretty much every man on the planet is trying to bed his wife LMAO lowkey breanna loves the attention :’))

breanna - a) honestly, she’s very easy to please. just get takeout n get in bed n smoke a bowl n watch movies with her n she will be happy! ;w; b) brie is surprisingly not that jealous, like if someone finds vlad attractive shes like... well of course? look at him? Lmaoooo. unless someone poses a significant threat to their relationship, she doesnt see a reason to get worked up. like she knows how hard vlad simps u know, this man canonically KILLED her ex-boyfriend to be with her so like? she doesnt feel any reason to get upset if someone finds vlad attractive, bc she knows at the end of the day her husband is crazy obsessed w her and her alone so like <3

lucien - a) winery art galleries!! u know like where you go to art exhibits that have wine tastings!!!! sometimes they have those cute delicious tiny little cheeses that r just so good n fancy!!! going to that, then maybe takin a stroll around the park in the evening, then ending the night w a home-cooked meal. b) hes a touch possessive, but its all in good faith :’) if someone flirts with his WIFE he only feels it necessary that he puts them in their place and lets them know that she is, in fact, MARRIED!! like vlad, a true simp

gen - a) skatepark at night, long past closing time. its oddly serene, despite the faint threat of being caught. gen personally finds the parks lingering smell of cigarettes and weed very comforting. b) they r passive-aggressively jealous. they say theyre not a jealous type, but if the girl theyre talkin to is talkin to someone else, theyre like... ok. 😒😒😒

carlile - a) chiefin big rips then going to eat at a buffet....... he will eat so many frog legs like so fucking many!! then goin to see a movie in one of those big movie theaters and seein like a marvel movie or whatever. just somethin trite and theatrical with many, many explosions. b) not aggressively jealous, but his insecurities can sometimes get the best of him in arguments and sometimes he projects his fears that tarek will leave him for someone else, which isnt good u know but like :(( what can u do

nikolai - a) waking up with the sun and traveling to the largest museum he can find, followed by brunch at some hole-in-the-wall café tucked away in the city. the long drive home is spent listening to low-quality psychedelic indie rock, and when he and abigail arrive home, they nap for at least three hours. b) nikolai’s not really a jealous type, and abigail’s pretty clingy, so he doesn’t really have a reason to be jealous. although, when he's severely provoked, he’s prone to that tone of voice where it sounds as though you can’t choose between screaming, or crying.

klaus - a) perusing the local record shop, buying as many used vinyl he can possibly fit in his book sack, and listening to the new purchases in the dim-lit light of his bedroom while talking and napping in between. if he’s really into you, he’ll sing your favorite song—he might even play it on the guitar, too, if he can remember the chords. b) again, not much of a jealous type. most of his relationships have been nothing more than flings anyways, so he doesn’t often have the attachment to someone that would make him jealous, seeing as his relationships are often not exclusive.

anastasia - a) a long, early-morning walk through the aquarium, taking an extra long break to observe the sea turtles swimming about their tanks. she’ll gladly share all of her expansive sea turtle facts with you, if you promise to buy her a stuffed animal from the gift shop. afterwards, strolling downtown to shop in all the antique stores, then ending the date with lunch at her favorite restaurant. pls just let her talk your ear off and she’ll be satisfied. b) annie’s actually REALLY possessive, especially over her friends. she’s the type of person who will get offended if anyone else tries to say vaughn and caspian are their best friends, because, no? those are HER best friends? she’s never had a boyfriend before, but she can imagine she’d be just as possessive, if not more possessive, over someone she loved romantically. she takes from vlad :’)

ilya - a) he is literally like 1 yr old. he doesnt go on dates silly. when hes old enough to go on dates his dream date will be committing arson together <3 so romantic b) im sure he’ll be jealous af when hes older unless i forget u know we’ll see whenever he ages up yeah!!!!!!

bonnie - a) moving all the furniture in the living room, turning the radio up extra loud, and dancing to old-timey music!! then cooking a nice, healthy meal at home and watching reality tv while doing face masks. maybe ending the night w a nice bath fit for two <3 b) especially with her pregnancy, she’s been VERY jealous lately!! small things can trigger her jealousy, and sometimes she finds it difficult to be her usual, rational self when those feelings arise. luckily, it’s very easy to talk her out of this state, so she gets over these fits of jealous relatively quickly ;-;

 tarek - a) driving out into the forest, setting up tents in the middle of nowhere, and snuggling tight beside the crackling fire while watching the night settle. then waking early the next morning to go for a small hike towards the natural lakes scattered about. if carlile is too tired to walk, tarek simply carries him. :’)) b) level-headed as he is, jealousy doesn’t come to him often. it would take a lot to provoke him, and his relationship with carlile is so secure that he doesn’t really feel there’s a need to be jealous

abigail - a) midday trips to the mall with nikolai’s credit card in hand as he shamelessly lets her pick out anything she wants from any store she can possibly enter. she’s always sure to pick out a few outfits she’s certain he’ll love :’)). then going to get smoothies, yes nikolai’s paying for the smoothies too <3 b) abigail is extremely jealous, though she’s desperately trying to ease this habit. especially with nikolai moved to britechester, living with a female roommate, her jealousy often gets the best of her, and believe me when i say it isn’t pretty. she’s prone to dramatic outbursts, and she’ll even feel the urge to enact revenge (aka, cheat on you) if she feels you’ve truly cheated on her. she has to see and speak to nikolai often to have peace of mind, but even then, she often has her moments of insecurity. :((

caspian - a) watching some indie art film at a drive-in movie theater, binging on over-buttered popcorn and gas station hot dogs. if the weather allows for it, then he’ll lay a blanket out on the bed of his truck and lie back with his date, gazing at the stars, rambling about nothing. b) he’s a jealous type, but he doesn’t like admitting it. the truth is, though, it kills him to see someone he cares about with someone else. its just that he doesnt know how to express those feelings, so he often just shoves them away as if they dont exist at all. ;n;

vaughn - a) listen to him perform at one of his concerts, then let him fuck you in one of the bathroom stalls. a true romantic, i know. b) most of vaughn’s relationships are no-strings-attached anyways, so its rare for him to get jealous over a relationship thats already open to begin with. even when he did have partners in the past, he was never the type to be overly protective of his significant other

cooper - a) ok idc about cooper HAHA so like idk nobody is taking this man on a date anyways who cares. idk smoke a bowl with him in his car then go eat at a fancy restaurant that sounds like a very cooper bauer date to have yeah ok we’ll go with that b) he gets jealous but like in a baby way u know. if he thinks you’re into someone that isn’t him he’ll just bawl his eyes out and be like WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME ANYMORE!!!!!!!!! IS IT BECAUSE IM ONLY 5′6″!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes cooper it is because youre only 5′6″ im sorry short king

wolfgang - a) going around his neighborhood late at night and poking holes in all the tires parked in the streets. yes, that’s super illegal. no, he doesn’t care. yes, this is considered a date for wolfgang. keep up. afterwards, maybe he’ll sneak you up to his bedroom so you guys can watch rick and morty... cuddle. b) i feel like im gonna spoil something if i answer this fully. so. lets just say. Yes he is very jealous :)