#also i know i said my most unpopular opinion was about comparing it to the current era

[harrowscore]

why are you, as an adult in 2024, still hung up on reylo. why are you still mocking the shippers. why do you believe yourself to be superior only because you dislike a stupid ship from a fucking space fairytale. girl (gnc) get a grip

[vvixes]

Alright, I know a lot of people don't want to hear this, but try to hear me out on my little rant.

Erwin Smith wasn't a good leader. Erwin said himself that the only reason he joined the scouts was to prove his father's theory. He didn't do it to better humanity. He did it because he was upset at the government, which is reasonable, but I digress.

Erwin played with human lives to achieve his own selfish goal, I don't think that's something a good leader should do. He also doesn't show much remorse for his actions. He only shows remorse when he is about to die and realizes that all he did would be pointless because he wouldn't see what was in the basement. I think a good leader should work towards a goal that would benefit many instead of one individual. A good leader should also be sympathetic, which Erwin is not.

And while yes, I agree that Erwin's final speech was extremely well written, it still doesn't show he was a good leader, just a good motivational speaker. Remember, Erwin only led the suicide charge because he saw no other option. It was either die and say goodbye to any hope humanity had and let the warriors win, or die leading his soldiers to their death with the hope that Levi would be able to take out the beast titan. Also, are we just gonna ignore the fact that he admitted to being a conman? He said this to Levi. "To convince these youths to charge toward their deaths, it would take an expert conman and a whole spew of blatant lies." He himself calls himself a conman and a liar. I don't think a good leader should be a conman. I can see lying if it's for a good cause, but not conning people.

Erwin was a manipulator as well. It's not shown very much, but if you pay attention, it's definitely there. My best example is when he met Levi. Erwin offered Levi and his friends a deal. Join the scouts so you don't have to serve prison time. It sounds open and honest until you compare it to the speech he gave to the new soldiers when they were deciding what regiment to join. Erwin told them straight up that joining the scouts was dangerous by telling them about the likelihood that most of them would die within a year. He didn't do the same for Levi. He made it sound like this great deal, and there is a reason for the difference.

Erwin wanted to weed out the soldiers who would be cowardly and not willing to put their lives on the line. He didn't want soldiers who would waste his time. With Levi, he simply wanted him for his potential as a soldier. I truly don't think he cared about Isabel and Farlan. He just wanted Levi and played down just how dangerous the scouts were just to have him. And even after Levi joined the scouts, Erwin knew he couldn't leave. What was he going to go back to? He had nothing. No home, no life, no friends. At least with the scouts, he had purpose, and he didn't have to go back to the underground and return to his life of crime.

This all goes into my reasoning for why I hate how the fandom portrays Erwin and Levi's relationship. But honestly, that topic needs it's own post because this is already too long.

Thank you to whoever reads this whole thing and thank you to @onlyymirknows for showing interest in my unpopular opinion. You're great!<3

[somewhereinneptune]

Astrology Observations II

Note : these are based on experiences and personal observations. Observations mentioned may not accurately apply to everyone 🩷

🫀Someone's life path number could be the number which is strongly tied to that person's signature sign in their chart, either being the number of the house that originally rules their signature sign or a characteristic that is tied with that signature sign.

Examples: My signature sign is Aquarius and I'm a life path number 9 , life Path 9 is associated with being the humanitarian and serving the collective

My mother is a life path 3 and her signature sign is Gemini , which is originally ruled by the 3rd house. My brother is a life path 6 and his signature sign is Virgo, which is Virgo’s house. I also read about life path 4 being strategists and I've known someone who's signature sign is Capricorn which corresponds with such energy

🫀Unpopular opinion but if I had to switch the signs elements, I'd put Scorpio as a fire sign and Aquarius as a water sign. With Scorpio it's probably because it was originally ruled by Mars, Scorpio always gives me such a fire energy compared to Pisces and Cancer. Not exactly Scorpio sun but dominating Scorpio energy in the chart, i think it's also the intensity they ooze and the level of confidence and also self- assertion, they have such a commanding presence which gives me fire energy too

As for Aquarius, despite having the characteristics of being quite distant at times or having difficulty with opening up, it's usually for how intense they are, it's a form of protection. I've made the mistake in the past of seeing aquas as detached until they actually unfolded which shocked me, the amount of depth and intensity of emotions they hold is a 360 and I've observed the same in my chart. It might be due to them being a fixed sign,but definitely that depth doesn't give the air sign vibe. Another reason is how they tend to be more introverted or reserved compared to Gemini and Libra, it gives me that water energy too

🫀Chiron in first is such a difficult placement in my opinion. It either puts you in a constant self - conscious state or you project your trauma on every situation and blur reality from there

🫀Uranus and Neptune in third 🤝 mental illness. That's it, that's the post

🫀Pets and the 6th house man….Aries / Taurus on the cusp is a cuddly adorable pet but one that will literally not do what you say no matter what, also energetic asf and has attitude esp when you say no to them- oh and very reckless, will do things that will have you question your life choices and have a heart attack on the spot because they were curious about something like jump off a high desk and not care or run into something that would harm them, literally no brain cells just impulse

🫀The degree of the planet could indicate the age that planet unlocks for you , and weird thought but hear me out : that degree could stretch up until it's time for the next planet to unlock

Example : I have Jupiter at 24 and I'm turning 25 this May . Yes I've been in my Jupiter theme and actually it seems it's only going to properly expand even more. Now the only planet left for me is Saturn at 29, and I have the theory i’d be living the Jupiter theme until I turn 29 or untill I officially start my Saturn return

I  also have most planets at 5 too like Uranus , and Venus and Neptune at 1 : i was literally the calm kid that has a crush each time she gets (and sometimes is front about it without shame 😭😭 literally one time in second grade my crush's tummy was in pain and the teacher asked who knows their house to help them go home and i stood and said MEEEE in front of everyone and kept asking to be the one to take them home til i got yelled at 💀) i also had 4687357766 anime crushes as a kid and for Uranus , was the type to get mad and throw things on the ground when told no (I threw my tea mug once cause i didn't wanna go to school and slapped my kindergarten teacher cause she didn't let me go home with mom when i saw her visiting the principal 😭😭😭)

🫀Saturn in Aries 🤝 almost dying of cringe and shame at the thought of acting child - like and doing goofy stuff/ having fun

🫀 this is popular but Leo placements and secretly checking your own posts and stories and giggling at them lmao

[akane171]

­­­Things about Ron Speirs that live rent free in my head

-“SPEIRS, GET YOURSELF OVER HERE!”

I don’t know what I like most about this scene. The fact Dick just furiously passed Sink and ignored his commander, because his boys were getting screwed? Speirs running to him and then without a single word sprinting to do the job? Or Nixon with his binoculars liveblogging the whole  battle? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-The change in his voice and intonation between “I’m taking over” and “First Sergeant Lipton!”.

-The church scene, when Lipton says Easy men didn’t care about the gossips… It was HILARIOUS. Like, Lip? Sweetheart? Ron scared the shit out of Christenson and some poor innocent kids in the same damned ep. I could hear Pat’s sobbing in the background during that scene, mixed with the nuns’ chorus.

-A man needs a hobby and his was trolling people. Aside of the whole “did he or did he not shot the prisoners”, he enjoyed the gossips, appearing suddenly out of nowhere, while giving creepy speeches and traumatizing people. And he did it fabulously. Legend.

-His little, millisecond pause, when we watch his back while Lipton says “Well, maybe they keep talking about it because they never heard Tercius deny it”.

-And two things about this scene. Lipton knows Speirs was trolling people and it was amusing him. And Ron’s answer “Well, maybe that’s because Tercius knew there was some value to the men thinking he was the meanest, toughest sonofabitch in the whole Roman legion” - he knows Lip knows he was trolling people and (not directly) admits it. He never did that to anyone else, what also means he really respected Lipton (gross sobbing).

-Anyway, this whole church scene is a pure love and I adore every second of it.

-He was a history nerd ;_; I’m kind of sad, we didn’t see him and Buck taking about some ancient battles in Gaul.

-He kept tabs on Easy xD how much he’s learnt from creeping in the shadows and eavesdropping – no one knows xD

-The fact real Speirs was shot in the ass on some of his solo patrols proves he was just meant to be Easy’s CO. Fucking destiny.

-His favourite sergeant was Grant (ok, ok, put the pitchforks DOWN, I said sergeant NOT lieutenant, geez).

-The fact no one called him “Sparky” in the show is a crime against humanity. But at least we got one “Ron” from Winters. Still…

-I think I read somewhere here, that he wore his helmet so low, because it was too big and… yes? Absolutely? Whoever noticed it – I bow to you.

And it reminds me all the promo pics where we have most of the characters standing together and he stands on the side, a little farer and looking awkwardly like “mom said I have to socialize more, so here I am, ugh…”.

-Also, he looks tiny compared to the other guys on many shots/pics, what is hilarious on many levels.

-I realized it after the second watch, that he not only stole cigarettes from Buck, but he offered them to the German POWs. Not his cigarettes, but the shit he stole. I don���t know why, but it’s just so super HIM xD

-I wonder when exactly Easy Company did realize that their new CO is not exactly the meanest, toughest sonofabitch in the army, but a big ass weirdo, with poor social skills, suspicious hobbies and sticky hands.

-Ep 8 look >>>>>>>>>>>>> everything else.

-The moment when Webster throws himself to the ground and Ron just stands in the background, watching the missile like it was meh (he had a personal ranking of “Things that almost killed me” and that missile was not even on the Top 10).

-“No. You don’t have any experience.” How the fuck Jones didn’t drop dead right after is beyond me. Also, A+++ acting.

-The fact is that Lipton was his social-skills-only-working-brain-cell and it’s beautiful.

-The moment Perconte asked him to give him back his lighter, I guess it was the moment Speirs knew his reputation crumbled to dust xD

-Unpopular opinion, but I don’t think Malarkey scared him on a purpose. I think it was accidentally, what for me, makes it even funnier. But the fact Don started as someone who was scared of Speirs like no one else and ended scarring him – it just warms my heart.

-And that pure annoyance on Ron’s face when Malarkey’s approaches him a second after he scared him, will never stop making me laugh. It the look could kill the bottle in Don’s hands would explode.

-On some point Lipton was sitting with his head in his hands and moaning that he was not paid enough to keep his crazy CO with suicidal tendencies alive and Luz was there-thereing him.

-All the things he's done to keep Grant alive.

-Basically, Speirs gives me a stray cat vibes and the fact he kind of, adopted Lipton and whole Easy proves it.

-And finally, the way he went from “we are all dead, just accept it” to “ok, I guess I’m going to stay in the army to keep the idiots alive (sighs)” is one of the best character developments and is so… sooo … you know? ;_;

Anyway, the thing I like the most about his character is how unexpected he is. I didn’t expect to like him so much. I didn’t expect him to change so much in such splendid way. But here I am.

We meet him in the show as  “a cold blooded soldier” stereotype and we learn in the end he was just deeply compassionate man (and a weirdo), who applied being a sociopath to be a better man of war. It just makes him very human - thanks to the fact his character was based on a real man, I guess. And that applies to all BOB’s characters.

And BIG kudos to Matthew Settle for doing such a great job and creating an iconic character. I read and watched some interviews, where he admitted he had a big problems with grasping the role, but damn, in the end he absolutely NAILED IT.

EDIT: Part II (x)

[mirrormazeworld]

Twst Analysis and Findings Why Crowley isn't Malleus's Dad, Unpopular Chapter 5 Diasomnia Twst Theory

While 99.9% of people seem to be convinced that Crowley is Levan, I'm that 0.01% who is still not convinced yet because there are some things that I found really odd if Crowley is Malleus's dad. So odd that this post itself has become a long post.

If you search for something and want to read where Crowley isn't Levan/Malleus's dad, then this theory and analysis is for you because here I'll explain some points for your considerations before jumping to conclusions, though I'm not sure if anyone will care about what I write and hear this small opinion at this point.

1. Heavily implied "another dragon from another country"

In Diasomnia chapter 4, it's said from Lilia's dialogue that "Draconia clan are the descendants of the dragons". All this time we might think that "Draconia are the only dragon in Twisted Wonderland" but in chapter 5 it's revealed that Draconia aren't the only dragon in Twisted Wonderland because there are other dragon clans from faraway country.

Malleus's dad, Levan's title is 竜眼公 in Japanese and it can be translated literally as "Dragon Eye Lord" or "Longan Lord". (More about his title, you can see it in my previous post)

If we see it the way like how longan fruit is named, (龍眼) either 龍眼 or 竜眼 still have the same meaning, but the only difference is 龍眼 is from Cantonese while 竜眼 is from Japanese.

But the main points in common are : They are both "Dragon Eye" and "Eastern Countries"

Which means there's a high possibility that Levan is a dragon from the longan clan/eastern dragon clan.

What's more interesting is that Lilia seems to be very fond of this "Long/Eastern Dragon" that he wants to spend the rest of his life there in their homeland. Out of all the countries he can and had ever visited, why did he choose "Red Dragon Country" in particular?

In first Halloween event Diasomnia also went with the theme of Long and it's revealed that it was Malleus's idea himself with Lilia providing more information about the Eastern Dragon Country culture and the Longs. And then there's that one dialogue said by Lilia himself in the Halloween Event :

"In fact, one such Long became a family's guardian spirit"

It is somehow similar to Levan who has been like a guardian to Meleanor and his draconia family, as her husband, her Left General alongside Lilia (Right General), and her most trusted person (Meleanor's Eyes and Limbs)

If it's not a subtle information but also kind of important that it's heavily implied many times just like Malleus who froze the time in Endless Halloween then I don't know what it is.....

2. Discarded Character Concept (?)

In twst exhibition there's an initial concept art of Crowley where he seems to have a similar theme and is somehow grouped with Diasomnia. It's because he had the same color as that of Diasomnia, even you can see the thorns on his leg and arm which as we know, is the symbol of Diasomnia/related to Draconia family (Sleeping Beauty Squad)

However, if we compare Crowley's old design and his original, usual one, in the design of the Crowley that we know now, twst seems to actually change every Diasomnia/Sleeping Beauty concept out of him and replace it all, from "thorns" to "mirrors" and "golden keys", and leave only the "corvid" part of him.

The question is, Why did Yana and twst team go into such trouble to change him all the way?

In Diasomnia Chapter 4 it's revealed that "Briar Kingdom has two castles : Black Scale Castle (Briar Valley's Main/Capital Castle) and Wild Rose Castle (Meleanor's Castle)

Diasomnia chapter is heavily tied with Wild Rose Castle rather than Black Scale Castle and places the main casts of Diasomnia chapter in Wild Rose Castle rather than Black Scale Castle and wrote Meleanor as Princess rather than a Queen. I know Diasomnia chapter was written with Sleeping Beauty as its story frame, and Meleanor is supposed to take the role of Maleficent in that story, but the question is why they created two castles and used Wild Rose Castle as the main background of the story rather than just create and use one castle, and give the title "Princess" to Meleanor and not a "Queen" since Maleficia, Malleus's grandma is the Queen? In the original and older version of sleeping beauty by Brothers Grimm, "Maleficent" is depicted as a Queen who is jealous of Talia (Sleeping Beauty) and not a Princess. It's as if they want to separate what is "exclusively Diasomnia chapter" from Briar Valley/Briar Kingdom itself.

This is honestly only my personal opinion, but based on these facts, the only logical, possible explanation I can think of is because they want to give this Diablo/Diaval's role to this Lord Longan so that Crowley can play a more bigger role rather than just a diplomat/messenger, and thus, discarded the old Crowley concept and made it invalid.

Thinking the old design as the valid source of information means that you want to tell people that "Epel with skirt and Idia as the little brother are canon" but are they now? Do twst used that concept in the end? Does Epel wear skirt in game and Idia is Ortho's little brother? Of course not, and you already saw it yourself that Yana already discarded that idea completely.

3. A seemingly Disastrous Chronology if Levan is Crowley

With the given information from in game, I want you to think with logic here :

Lilia is 700 years old. NRC gave him a letter of acceptance 500 years ago, but then he ripped it, and then Levan taped it back and stored it in royal archives. Silver said they are in Lilia's dream from 400 years ago and as we know this is when the war between faes and Silver Owl occurred, and at that time it's said that Levan was missing.

Now what I find odd is : if Levan is Crowley, then who sent the NRC acceptance letter to Lilia? We all know the Headmaster is in charge of student admission just like how he permitted Yuu and Grim to become NRC students, sending letters to people acknowledged by dark mirror, persuading Kalim's family, letting Ortho enroll even though he is an android and so on. And if Crowley is Levan, he wouldn't be able to do his job as Headmaster in Land of Dawning because he would need to be present in Briar Valley by Lilia's side to tape back the letter Lilia had torn to shreds.

Keep in mind that there are no official exact years and number from twst itself how long Crowley had been headmaster of NRC yet but from Diasomnia chapter it's clear that NRC already existed back then far before the war between humans and fae.

This one is just my personal opinion, but I'm more convinced that Crowley was the one who cast complex, ancient spell on Grim and therefore, know something about the extremely rare overblot incident that seems to always happen in NRC (and so we heard his voice summoning Yuu and said "we are all running out of time" in the prologue") and so he is tied more heavily to book 8 (Ramshackle/NRC) after Diasomnia if it does exist in the future than book Diasomnia.

Both The Watcher from Island of Woe (Idia's family) and the primeval spell that casted on Grim which seems to be similar to Shroud family's curse were from when the nature of overblot was not known yet and was considered as natural disaster, dated back to the "Age of Gods" which is approximately 1000 years ago.

But then you might think "Oh maybe Crowley had lived that long and pretended to be Levan to play his role." This is impossible because Lilia, Meleanor and Levan are childhood friends and well, Lilia said it himself that they were still children, besides Lilia is 700 years old and not 1000 years old.

Therefore I don't think Crowley is Malleus's Dad, Levan. But if someone said "Crowley was Maleficia's (Malleus's grandma) subordinate, then I can believe them because that way it will be possible for him to exist since the Age of Gods.

And perhaps this is also the reason why Yana and twst teams purposely wrote Diasomnia story with two castles and used Wild Rose Castle as the main background scene in the story rather than just created and used one castle, because they do wanted to separate it and created a place exclusively to tell Diasomnia story so it wont disturb the other plot of the other story and create a plot hole as a whole.

And so that's all the many reasons why I don't think Crowley is Malleus's Dad. Unless someone can answer the questions that had been swirling around my head because of how absurd Crowley is Malleus's Dad theory is which I had been marked with red color in this post and explained it logically or the official told it themselves then I won't be convinced.

[miyuskye]

HERE I GO with this super interesting event from the All Ships Ship Week event hosted by @ficwip

The ship dossier! And what ship I could've dossiered if not my current hyperfixation, aka Jon/Elias??? Sooo, the thing with loving a podcast is that you don't get a lot of official art, since the physical descriptions are also very scarce by author's choice. BUT! they recently made a TTRPG game based on the podcast, which these semi-canon designs. My personal image of the characters in influenced by the huge amount of fanarts circulating around, but, probably an unpopular opinion, I like these designs too. With reference to the image, the top one (not in the ship sense) is Jon, aka the Archivist, aka the pet project/obsession and the bottom one (again, not in the ship sense) is Elias/spoiler, aka the mentor/obsessed.

It would have been great, if I did actually understand the assignment and not gone off the trail with a full AO3 statistical analysis. Under the cut because probably not a lot of people are interested in my ramblings. The dossier is intended for both people familiar with the series, but also for people who know nothing about it. Warning for sparse spoilers about the whole TMA series (not TMP since I still have to listen to it!) (as I said, Elias is a big spoiler himself lol)

Let's begin this trip with a biiig disclaimer. Sadly for us avid AO3 users, the AO3 fandom does not represent the fandom in whole, so these stats are based only on the number of works in the AO3 context. Looking around at non-fanfic related site, i.e. reddit, I know there are some JE shipper there too, though I can't really be sure in what percentage with respect to the non-shipping community (or the people only shipping the canon couple). Links to the guru of fandom stats! toastystats (tumblr), AO3. There's also a github repository but I personally found it a bit cranky to use and it doesn't use an AO3 updated DB, though for big data statistics is fine due to the central limit theorem but for smaller fandom/tags it might be a bit inaccurate. Also the code is in python 2, which is now a bit difficult to use. I personally made my stats by doing targeted searches using the AO3 search function! Super easy to use, albeit a bit repetitive. Stats were made on Oct, 19-22, 2024. Again, I think the results won't change much through the years, especially regarding the main TMA tag data, but who knows if JonElias will surge in popularity (hehe it's a distant hope, I'm pretty much sure that the population distribution is already well-established).

TMA (The Magnus Archive) is a horror podcast, following the events of Jonathan Sims, aka Jon, aka the first part of my ship, who works at the Magnus Institute. This Institute is a facility researching in supernatural events and records supernatural encounters in the form of statements given by volunteering people. Jon is the Head Archivist, meaning he manages the statements and records some "odd ones", as per request of the Head of the Institute and his direct superior, Elias. Sooo yes, he's also his boss. :) lovely for them.

My lovely idiots are the 3rd most popular ship! Such a big achievement for me, who I usually ship obscure ships. As of today, we have 1434 JE works out of the whole 29751 works in the TMA tag. Way to go, JE community, let's keep this up!

The Jon/Martin ship is actually canon in the podcast, so that big percentage, compared to other fandoms, is largely explained by that (instead of simple popularity like Oikawa/Iwaizumi in the Haikyuu fandom). My other favorite ship is Jon/Tim, and I proudly contributed to that 2.78% (ofc also to the 4.8% of JE but it seemed quite superfluous to write).

Fun fact: speaking of spoilers, Elias' character tag in AO3 is a MASSIVE spoiler. It was what ruined the plot twist for me, because I looked for fanfics around ep 40ish (out of 200) and got that spoiled :( I understand why AO3 did that, because before the reveal the tags referring to Jonah and Elias were separated and I guess they wanted to unite them (since I also read some Jonah/Jon works before the reveal - all of them ended up having Elias being somewhat connected to Jonah OF COURSE, but I believe that before The Reveal there was also the belief that Elias was one of his descendants. I became part of the fandom after that, though, so it's just speculation based on older posts I came across).

This is probably my most favourite slide. JonElias has the highest Mature-to-Gen ratio (based on the AO3 rating system) with respect to the other ships. Jon/Martin, being 40% of the works also leads most of the general fandom stats, so it's more correct to actually cite the ship that makes the stat. I also believe that a lot of the more Gen-oriented fics feature Jon/Martin due to them being canon, that is also one of the possible factors influencing their and the whole tag ratios. Due to this, I believe that the Elias/Peter ratio might actually influenced by that, since they're a non-conflicting couple with the main one and are thus frequently included in their fanfics. The other fave of mine also has a higher Mature-to-Gen ratio than the general one, but not as high as JE.

Jon is the main character, so it's obvious that he is the most cited in all the works. Elias is the villain, so it's not so strange. Also, this refers to the characters tags, and this means that Elias might be included as a character even in other ships-based works. I believe the same happens with Tim, since ships with him have a lower presence in the fandom, but he is the third most included character. It's probably because he gets included into most of the Gen/JMart works.

These are the most used AO3 tags for the JonElias main ship tag. Do I really need to explain? They just do the talking in my place lol

A few words on the Alternate universe tag: AUs are somewhat canon in the show, due to plot-related reasons, and I believe this gives us space to imagine, stories where Jon is as deranged as Elias without denaturing canon. I personally believe Jon has the capacity of being feral as, if not even more than, Elias. Canon showed us a glimpse of what we could have but ended up not getting, again, due to plot-related reasons. Some fanfics are based on those glimpses. Also the Do not Archive will be an interesting topic to talk about later!

These are the most used tags for the individual characters. Some of them are also matching but not in their JE tagged works. For example, the tag Fluff might be present in 12% of Elias' works but more than half of those works are Jon/Martin-based works, so he's included in the work but, in a way, not actively participating in the fluff. Also, Jon is canonically asexual, hence the related tag! A few words on that, this doesn't and rightly won't stop people from producing M and E-rated works with him and characters (not necessarily Elias), contrary to what some people might think. And I assure you, as an asexual person, that no one of the JE fanfics I read (even the ones without the Asexual character tag) erased Jon's asexuality. If anything, the ones where Jon's asexuality was present and acknowledged were also my favorites!

Small digression on the Do not archive tag. I noticed that both JE and Elias' tag had a percentage of works being under that tag. Which is used when an author does not want the series staff to read their works. It's mostly used on M+E works (77% of DNA tagged works are M or E rated on AO3), as one would expect. At first I guessed it was related to the pronounced M-to-T ratio of the JE tag (which is even more pronounced on the DNA tag), buuut it turns out the main cause was just a quirk of the data/bias of the data case. As I said, there are only 1434 (as of end-October 2024) works in the JE tag and this means that this number can be biased by a single external source, which causes the shift in the data. This means that this is not a trend!

By excluding the cause from the analysis, the Do not archive tag percentages for JE are still higher than the other ships, but not by such a large margin (around 7% which makes sense).

Nothing to say here, the series reaching its peak in terms of fandom response and also due to COVID making people consume more media content, the JE rise followed the general raise of fanfics in the TMA tag. Which isn't surprising but not to be taken for granted either! Another sad but probably not a trend fact is that Jon/Elias production was slightly more flourishing during the earlier years of the series (especially 2018-2019), than it is now. This might probably related to a ship actually being made canon or probably fandom disappointment in the TMA finale (which I can understand). I read in a lot of earlier JE fanfics very excited comments about "omg I can't wait to see him and Jon in s4/5" and I was like *sad violin noises*, because they didn't get the amount of (canon-expected) interactions the JE fandom thought they would get. Again, this is just speculation and to be taken with a grain of salt.

Unexpectedly, M+E JE works have more words that Gen-rated ones (expected on the JE tag due to their M-to-T ratio, but kinda unexpected compared to the whole TMA tag).

JE fanfics are slightly more kudo-ed and bookmarked than the general fandom trend.

A conclusive remark, is that I made this just to see what behaviours could be extrapolated from such a tiny tag in an otherwise medium fandom (as for 2020, median number of fanworks in labelled big fandom was 45k. Havign roughly half of that number means that TMA is, on AO3, a medium fandom to me).

Anyhow, I wish you happy JonElias day which for me is once again every day since twp months ago :)

[gunnrblze]

Mischaracterizations are prevalent in fandoms. I'm curious, which ones of the CoD:Ghosts franchise bug you the most, and make you want to pull out your hair once you see them in fics/other materials?

This question created several additional thoughts, so I’m putting all my yapping below the cut lmfao.

Tbh it doesn’t bother me a whole lot except when it’s a large part of said character, or one of their only canon descriptions/facts/etc. I think it’s great for ppl to create what they want, esp when a lot of the ghosts have little/no info so we quite literally have to make shit up and fill in the likely blanks, but if you’re straying so far from who a character is…😟

Like, Keegan is described and shown throughout the game as being a very quiet man…so it does make me side eye when people portray him as this talkative guy, or someone with a really big personality lol cause that’s just not the vibe. That’s why I rb’d that thing, because I was thinking about how he’s the most popular ghost by far, and I think a lot of those fans aren’t necessarily into the rest of the ghosts game (and they don’t have to be, just an observation). I think that’s why so much of the content made about him outside of the actual ghosts fandom seems out of left field, bc people just kinda take a hot character and do whatever with him (which again, is fine, free will in fandom is good and necessary). I also think that’s why so many people get him confused as being part of other CoD games, because they aren’t aware of where his character even comes from in the first place.

Now this may be a bit of an unpopular opinion bc I know a lot of ppl hate some of the smut aspect that’s written about these characters, because they include themes that are/seem ooc, but I’m gonna be honest…that part doesn’t bother me so much because at the end of the day, people just want to put their fantasies and ideas onto hot masked man…and I get it lmao. Not to say im necessarily gonna read it, esp stuff with hard kink type shit, but it’s more so bothersome when people mischaracterize them because they don’t pay attention to the actual canon character in other fics/materials.

That’s why I kinda separate smut fic from everything else a bit, because a lot of smut I’ve noticed, especially with Keegan specifically, is written ooc, because making it canon/character correct isn’t the point, the sexy time shit is. Now I still prefer reading smut that seems largely in character lol, but I do have to defend the larger idea here that it’s not a crime to write an ooc smut fic because half the time…the smut is the main focus, not the canon/implied personality of the character.

I completely understand the shock of seeing certain smut in the first place (talking about the more fucked up shit here…), especially when it’s then placed on a character you know and love, but it honestly doesn’t bother me that much-and maybe it’s because I’ve been on the internet for too long💀- but that’s kinda the point of fandom I think…doing whatever pleases you, having an outlet. That’s the type of smut I think is very obviously written with the idea in mind, and not necessarily ‘would the character do/behave like this?’. Because yea, these ghost boys would most likely not do all these fucked up things, but I think people still deserve the freedom to write it, and they’re going to anyways lmfao (IF you’re tagging disturbing content correctly, you owe people that much!)

I’ve been having those thoughts for a while now so I had to yap them out of my head lol, but to answer the actual question, aside from Keegan, I hateeee seeing the Walker fam mischaracterized. I think because (it seems) they have more info available on them compared to the other ghosts, so when I see people just giving their personalities a 180 I’m like…Hesh would NOT act like that😩. Especially with Elias because he’s my husband obviously…so people missing larger parts of his character or stuff that’s implied about him makes my eye twitch a little lol.

Also, I don’t typically see a whole lot of ooc stuff for the ghosts in the first place tbh (minus Keegan, bc he has reached the CoD masses of course). Because we’re a smaller fandom, and I think people tend to stay in character more in smaller fandoms (at least from what I’ve seen) because there’s so little content available on characters, and it’s like we’re all clinging to what we DO know about them lmfao.

Thanks for attending my ted talk 💋

[crusherthedoctor]

💜🤍🖤💖

💜: Which character is way hotter than everyone else seems to think?

mfw I'm Guptill89. He was too based for his time.

Anyway, to be a little more... let's say tactful, I think Elise has a pleasant design that was simply let down by '06's in-game cutscene models. Shahra has a pretty design too, but I've never seen anyone mock hers compared to Elise. If we're counting NPCs as well, I like Hualin's design too.

In general, I think a lot of the game character designs manage to be very aesthetically pleasing... with some exceptions like Silver. Whether they're going for awesome or cute, they're usually nice. :> This is why I get really annoyed when people go "nah, these designs suck, let's make Sonic a real hedgehog and give Rouge a realistic bat face", as if they learned nothing from the original Sonic movie design.

🤍: Which character is not as morally bad as everyone else seems to think?

Already answered this, but I've got another one: Mario.

It's not as common nowadays, but for a long time, Mario got demonized up the ass and was constantly painted as the true villain. This would usually come in the form of being an abusive brother to Luigi (despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary), or oppressing poor innocent Bowser (ignore all the things he's done pls).

🖤: Which character is not as morally good as everyone else seems to think?

You guessed it, it's Eggman.

"He's not so bad deep down" No he isn't.

"He wants to avenge Gerald" No he doesn't.

"He likes Sonic" Respects him as an opponent, hates the shit out of him as a person and would still gladly kill him without regret. Game Eggman is not Boom/X Eggman.

"He doesn't want the world to be destroyed" Because he can't conquer it if it's not there, and as shown with the Bad Futures in CD, he doesn't care what potential dire state the environments and their inhabitants are in as long as they serve him, with the only exception being his own personal quarters (ie: Metropolis in Forces). Not exactly signs of an altruistic person with good intentions at heart.

"He hasn't done anything seriously terrible like the other villains" Sure, if you ignore the time he fired a missile in a populated city. Or the time he enslaved an innocent alien race. Or the time he showed absolutely no moral grievances over Infinite's sadistic antics and only punished him for being a fuck up. Or the time he broke the planet into pieces... twice. I'm sure his repeated attempts to kill children as young as Cream can also be handwaved away.

Eggman is every bit as messed up as Black Doom, Erazor Djinn, etc. Him acting goofy and some (key word: some) of his actions being presented in a semi-comedic light should not invalidate that, especially when Surge - the so-called Forces game changer according to Evan Stanley - lost to a Motobug and tripped over some bolts.

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

"All of them" might as well be my catchphrase with how many times I've said it.

I'm serious though, it really does seem that I'm destined to be at odds with the rest of the fandom on virtually everything now. I absolutely hate it. It is not fun in the slightest. You wanna know why I was so happy to join in on all the Vivian gushing when the TTYD remake came out, aside from already loving Vivian as a character anyway? Because I was starting to forget what it was like to actually be on the same wavelength as the majority of a fandom on anything. That's how monumentally unlucky I am with my Sonic preferences.

The characters who are super popular tend to be the ones I'm either indifferent to or straight up dislike, while the ones I vibe towards tend to be largely ignored (Ariem) or criticised for *checks notes* not being reptilian enough (Trip). The most recent games (and comic) that prove We Are So Back are the ones I can't stand, while the ones that actually had my investment are either ignored or placed alongside Colours and Forces as the new Worst Sonic Game of All Time for the heinous crime of having some flaws, by people who unironically white knight '06. There's also the neverending fandom push for Sonamy and all the attention it receives, whereas I remain unconvinced by its alleged chemistry more than ever. And of course, you can compare how I see Eggman VS how the rest of the fandom sees him.

I used to think my fandom status was a tragedy. But now I realise... it's a comedy. *puts on Sonudis facepaint*

[thecoolerliauditore]

Interesting perspectives.

I'm a big baby who mostly just dislikes LL for being the "meanest" season, with everyone backstabbing each other, no compelling dynamics as well as some of my least favourite dynamics in the whole series (truly it was the season that belonged to my beloatheds), and too many big groups (not fond of groups larger than 3, more than that makes interactions get lost and alliances weak in an uncompelling way. a duo/trio can realistically trust each other and have a personal dynamic, a quartet+ are just early episode roommates (this is a problem that is a result of the length of the seasons, I think if they were closer to 12+ episodes larger teams would work better, but I also think if a season stuck around that long everyone would be sick of it)).

And also yeah if you ask me to remember much of anything that happened in the last 2/3s besides an unrelenting wave of betrayals and abandonments I'd be hard pressed to think of anything. I can't even remember most people's last deaths. The map was also the most Eh map in the series, never knew where anything was, was all just ambiguous forest. Session 2 was good, though, entirely because of Lizzie. And, I also watch things as casual entertainment first and foremost, so most of my first watch enjoyment is "did this pov make me laugh/cheer on their antics". LL very rarely made me do either.

I waver back and forth between it and 3L being my least favourite, though, cause 3L was genuinely just kinda boring unless you cared about either desert duo or renchanting. And I kinda liked both but I didn't love either. People weren't as funny and didn't know each other well so they were awkward, they still didn't know what they were doing, and the map outside the desert was wasted (a particular quality of each season that people don't talk about nearly as much I think, setting quality). I can only enjoy it casually as background noise, I rarely get pulled in.

I know this one is an unpopular opinion because the last two seasons can't go a single episode without some controversy by monday, but to me the life series generally is one that gets better every season. Though I think SL was its peak even if it didn't have any particularly compelling teams, the gimmick was the best and everyone was at their funniest and enjoying themselves the most, the gimmick lent itself to being bent to the needs of the game such as lightening the blow of the wider gap of final deaths by having Jimmy return as a ghost, or giving the reds tasks to do damage. It was good at creating both personal moments and server-wide moments.

Double life is my favourite though, because no objective qualities can beat out favourite characters and first entry bias. Also the small amount of deaths and inherently having someone to share it with made every single one memorable, and it had one of the best maps with the ancient city and canyon. And every single team memorable and well-utilized base, as well as being the season that finally forced everyone to get to know each other which the later seasons benefited from greatly.

Yeah, in my head 3L and LL are slightly like test runs and DL is where the series really got on a roll. Grian said they didn't even know what they were getting into with 3L and I think you can tell that by the over-correction into DEATH game territory LL did before DL reeled it back in and they found more of a balance for the rest of the series.

(Actually "5th is the best, 3rd is my fav" is the exact same opinion I have about pokemon, funny enough. Maybe its something)

But I also think that comparing seasons is a bit like comparing apples to oranges since every single one is so different besides the base 'death game' concept. Like I like 24L and WL equal amounts but also they don't have a single thing in common so I find it hard to even put them side by side. And, of course, RL is just... its own thing entirely.

This is why I rotate stuff like the funny evil bdubs interpretation chart/cycle so much because essentially all the reasons you listed for disliking 3L and LL are reasons they're my favourites e.g. the awkwardness, the distrust you could feel in larger groups, the overall meanness, so on.

They felt absolutely like. the most DEATH GAME out of the series, DL still felt like a death game to me albeit with a slower pace and much more focused on conversation and drama than action. LimL marked a very distinct shift in tone for me although that was also the first one I watched as episodes were coming out so that might've been a factor. SL and WL so far feel more like Mario Party than Death Game with maybe the exception of the very last episode of SL feeling much more like something that should've been in an earlier season due to the lack of tasks.

I think we're all biased towards our own fav seasons but tbf I think the "controversy" with each new episode of WL is more. me being grouchy than any real significant drop in retention? You can correct me on this I am absolutely not watching the numbers but I've definitely seen people like the direction the series is taking which is honestly cool w/ me cus I feel like Grian knows that in competitive situations with time it either goes the funny minigame RNG route or the sweaty min-maxxer route and I and most people I feel like would much rather watch the series go more in the direction of funny RNG than Last Life 2 where everyone employs the smajor strategy of not making enemies, making a base in the corner of the map, only teaming with 1-2 people, etc. Plus it's going to be kind of hard to fish back the distrustful atmosphere of 3L/LL when it's six seasons in and pretty much the entire cast are friends.

Anyway yeah the apples and oranges thing is very correct, it's more or less a different vibe completely and why death game stories that are intended as death game stories usually don't rerun the same cast lol <-- although the "they are stuck in a horrifying death game loop forever to the point where they dont care anymore and find it kind of fun" angle is something I find really cool to think abt with this series.

One of the reasons I like LL over 3L actually (other than the very strong first season I watched bias) is the fact that 3L was a rare situation where I felt like there was a very clear A plot/B plot that emerged with main and side characters. Bdubs' POV in his last episode was literally just brewing potions in his house whilst a million death messages flooded the chat lol.

I still think 3L might be the strongest narratively and its "b plots" although not as flashy as desert duo vs dogwarts have some really cool stuff that have left me fucked up forever mentally (flower husbands I'll never forgive you) but yeah. Compared to LL and the seasons that come after it does feel like the one where all POVs are equal but some POVs are more equal than others. Especially when LL was a massive fucking mess in terms of its alliances where every single team had some sort of massive dramatic moment.

Thinking about it now I think I like the life series for the same reason I like those. "100 player battle royale" videos where I more or less look at it from an angle of an unethical psychologist. Holy shit okay um I was about to make a joke about how I would be Zimbardo instead of Freud if Zimbardo was dead and I didn't think this would be the way I found out Zimbardo died last month holy shit post cancelled I feel bad now

[fishgir12]

Character ask game for Mateo and Logan???

Mateo and Logan!! Woo!!

Logan first cause she’s the best ever actually

GOD THIS CHARACTER IS SOOO. So many feelings with her she’s the best ever she solos all of them but sometimes I just have to sit back and sigh. Especially that part where she asked Astrid why are you like that COMPLETELY out of line I think she deserved all that came after that. So so many thoughts but I mean i think the amount I talk abt her says enough I personally think im one of her number one fans if not number one but that’s just me!! Also relate to her alot she’s not 100% me but I relate to so many aspects of her she’s prob #2 on that list

Romantic pairings

BeastlyPerfection!! Astrid and Logan!! God they’re so peak, from starting off as being rivals and then slowly bonding over shared interests OH MY GOD ITS PEAAAK. Not much to say but they take up a lot of my head. Def my fav canon pairing #yuri4life

Copiedbeat…my pride my joy. I mean not to be bias but it’s my fav non cannon ship. I made them on my own when I thought it would be funny if Logan liked the clone of her best friend and then I got a concussion almost the same day LMAO. I thought it was a sign from the universe and they’ve just evolved from there on out. They’re my peak and I think about them every day

Non canon

LOGAN AND IZZIE OOOH MY GOD!! They’re!! The best friends ever!! When logan stayed behind to be doom domed with her to make sure she was ok and to make sure she was safe oh 😢😢 I think about them so so much

Cooper and Logan… I mean come on they’re really fun friends. Lesbian and gay friendships always last long

Mateo and Logan I think they would bully and tease each other constantly and they def aren’t best friends but they are for sure getting there!! Or at least friends for now

Unpopular opinion- some people only care about Logan’s character when it comes to ships and it’s really easy to see when that’s that case

Wish- PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LOGANS HOME LIFE. I relate to her in the sense where my parents love me and we have our moments but they work so much I don’t see them much and idk I think seeing that with Logan would heal me personally!! Plus I have so many thoughts on her moms I need to know if I’m right or not in how I think they are

Mateo.

Ok buckle up um I have. Thoughts on this kid. Least fav of the dream chasers unfortunately sorry guys. DOESNT MEAN. I DONT LIKE HIM. I like him a ton!! I like him enough where I dressed up as him for Halloween. There’s just a lot I don’t like about him that just weighs him down compared to the others. But other than that he’s chill!

Romantic ships

COOPER AND MATEO GOOOD. Idk something abt childhood friends to bffs to not talking to teammates to friends again to something more it just hits different. Not a ton things I can think abt rn but there’s a lot of thoughts trust me bros.

Zoey and Mateo!! Really cute!! I said what I needed to say on my Zoey one but to restate I think they’re sweet

Non romantic pairings

IZZIE AND MATEO!! The siblings ever!! Their dynamic is so real I can see so much of me and my own little brother in the things they do idk they’re just so real?

Mateo and lunia I know they haven’t met I’m just saying that invisible string tying them together is yelling doomed dudes

Unpopular opinion idk I think Mateo deserves to be criticized sometimes he’s not the most perfect character In the world

Wish- MORE DREAMKEEPER STUFF WITH THEM PLEASEEE. He’s the only living person we’ve seen who’s able to use lunias hourglass and I need to see him tap into it more. LOCK IN.

[allyougottado]

HI Doodle! How have you been? I've been kinda meh bc of college but thats beside the point. About your reblog of sending you a character (or in this case, coach haha) I wanna see your list on either Maybel or Joshua or Lumen Brooks(I'm indecisive about those 3, they've been filling my mind lately aaaaaaa), even tho they dont have much lore, I love read others HC, so I'm eager to read yours^^(sorry if they wont fill all the list thingy:()

i’ll try to do all 3 cuz i rly like these coaches as well 😎 (i'm skipping fave line and song i associate them with because... ppl dont speak in just dance and i'm not creative enough to associate coaches with any song other than their own map LOL)

maybel‼️‼️

fave thing about them: her design is so cute!!!! i love yellow and her dress looks inspired by poodle skirts with the little line (phone cord?) spiraling down the skirt lol it’s so adorable. i especially love the alt. design cuz purple sleeveless jacket is CUTESY (also she looks like she’s matching with joshua with the sleeveless jacket hehe 🤭 very CUTE💯💯💯)

least fave thing about them: nothing to hate abt her 😍

brOTP: love you like a love song (this headcanon was subconciously created by looking at ur art btw LOL)

OTP: JOSHUA‼️‼️‼️

nOTP: i’m ngl i have never seen any other ship with maybel in it LOL

random headcanon: she’s a softie but the one thing she’s loud abt is her #LOVE!!!! i probz got this from the straightforward and aggressively-lovey vibe from call me maybe (and the dance too), but also a description from the JD twitter lol (they describe her as the sweet one hehe)

unpopular opinion: idk i’ve never seen too much opinions that i disagree with abt her

fave picture of them: it’s scrapped but this is kick ass maybel from puppet master lmao

joshua😎

fave thing about them: the fake personality i made for him in my head 😼 and also his yellow glove probably

least fave thing about them: i'm gonna be really honest this part will probably be empty for almost everyone i’m not a person who hates easily 😭

brOTP: i always thought that #thatpower extreme and sorry looked similar to him (i think everyone else did too LOL) so YEAH they’re totally bros to me. i also group epsilon with those 3 but if i explain it will totally derail :P

OTP: maybel 💛🩷

nOTP: haven't seen anything too hateable yet lol

random headcanon: kuudere lolz. basically the exact same thing i said for maybel but instead of sweet and soft (🥺) he's like cold and serious on the outside but super hype and chill when he's dancing or talking to ppl he likes

also he’s probz the most normal compared to #thatpower extreme and sorry lol

unpopular opinion: once again, i haven't seen too much opinions i can disagree with lol

fave picture of them: this screenshot i took from youtube lmao

lumen brooks!!!!!🎸

fave thing about them: ur gonna be so shocked when you hear this but i love his yellow raincoat i want it for myself. also he has TEAL HAIR! TEN MILLION CHARACTER DESIGN POINTS TO YOU UBISOFT (blue hair=looks like miku=good)

also i like rock so his map is so cool. i like how they went with a quirky weird rock map instead of a depressing dark one like the two they added in 2023 like yeahhhhh lets switch it up a little (no hate tho i fucking love evanescence BTW)

least fave thing about them: WOAH it’s a bit too soon to hate lolz

brOTP: probz p1 and p3, zephyr reef and crimson riff. i know they’re most likely not even real but i’d like to think he treats them as if they were his bros. also it would be rlly funny if he just has crazy flow powers and can make stuff he draws real harold and the purple crayon style

OTP: nothing rn

nOTP: also nothing rn… that game needs to come out so i have more brainpower to think of cool stuff to say 😾

random headcanon: when u think punk he doesn’t really look like one compared to crimson riff but he probz acts like one lol. would probably hate ppl like night swan and nithe long. and probably kids in america too (she’s falling for the propaganda… 😔 lol) also he’s loud. idk why i think that it just fits to me lol. also everyone probably thinks he’s #CRAYZAY 🤪 but don’t worry bro. i understand you 🤝

unpopular opinion: idk at first i thought he would be chill with scotty but i somehow changed my mind like scotty’s too much of a sweetie pie and lumen is too feisty (to me hehe) i still like fanworks with both of them in it tho they’re funny. like clashing personality stuff is still very entertaining to me

fave picture of them: idk he’s only existed for a couple of months so there’s not much pics of him… probz the little cartoony promo art from twitter cuz i like how huge they drew his rainboots here LOL

(also hiii mey i’m meh as well LOL when i typed the first half of this post i was out at the mall and i feel like i embarrassed myself so hard there 😭 embarrassment still lingers and it sucks cuz i love the mall but whatever… I’M SENDING MY ENERGY TO YOU SO COLLEGE CAN GET A LITTLE LESS SUCKY 🫶💓)

[katniss-evermeme]

Some disjointed thoughts about the SOTR cover/synopsis reveal from this morning under the cut:

The longer I look at it, the more I don't actually hate the cover? From the response I had seen on Panem Propaganda's post this seems to be an unpopular opinion, but I think the cover actually works. The "nightlock purple" (as one commenter called it) is a good choice since it foreshadows the poisons in the arena and Maysilee's use thereof, and it could possibly hint to how Snow got rid of Haymitch's family after the Games (poison is, after all, the perfect weapon for a snake). The way the snake and mockingjay are joined together + the spikes in the middle make me think of the crowns they give the victors, but it also reminds me of a lyre, which could be a nod to the theme of music in the previous books if intentional.

I do think the snake returning from the TBoSaS cover is significant, especially since the mockingjay is drawn in a similar style. This could just be to keep consistency in the prequel covers, but personally my current theory is that it's an allusion to Lucy Gray. The snake and mockingjay are connected, yet they almost look like they're fighting with one another. Which, of course, brings Snow and Lucy Gray to mind once more. I'm not saying that Lucy Gray did or didn't survive in the prequel, but if she did I think she's likely to make an appearance here (whether Haymitch recognizes her for who she really is or not). Even if she doesn't make a physical appearance, and she truly is dead, I think we'll continue to see her memory haunting Snow at the very least, especially since this is the first time a tribute from Twelve has won since Lucy Gray. It could even be an additional reason why Snow chooses to use Haymitch as an example for the other victors.

Despite being a Haysilee shipper back in the day, I'm really interested in finally getting to see what Haymitch's girlfriend was like. That one has been eating at me since... 2014, maybe? It's going to be nice seeing him have someone around that makes him happy before we have to get a full box of tissues and bawl our eyes out, I just know that one is going to hurt a lot.

That being said, I'm curious to see which of the female tributes mentioned in the synopsis will end up being Maysilee. I showed the synopsis to one of my siblings, who assumed the opposite one that I did, which in turn made me realize that it could really go either way. On one hand (though less likely, in my opinion), there's "the young friend who is nearly a sister to him", who it would make sense for him to ally with (especially since Katniss doesn't mention Haymitch having any other allies during Catching Fire). That said, it sounds like this girl may be in the 13-14 age range; I'm guessing she'll be a bloodbath victim, which is why Haymitch doesn't have the chance to ally with her. But if this does end up being Maysilee, it would be a really sweet twist on their dynamic compared to how many people jumped right in to shipping them without considering a platonic explanation (guilty as charged here, not even going to try to deny it). On the other hand, there's "the most stuck up girl in town". If she ends up being Maysilee, I think it's going to be really fun. Maybe that's not how I've always characterized her, sure, but it could always be a case of Haymitch getting a bad first impression of her too. In either case, I'm picturing a reenactment of What Is This Feeling from Wicked, and it's glorious. Which is certainly a fitting comparison, because the two of them later becoming allies means that we'll get to see them get closer, which will be really sweet as well since they got off on such a wrong foot. Either way, I'm excited to see their dynamic be explored, regardless of which tribute she is. It'll be nice to have more than just a few pages to go off of for Maysilee's characterization now too.

There's not much to say about the other male tribute, but I can already tell he'll be at least a little fun to read about. I definitely think his description of a "compulsive oddsmaker" sounds like someone for Haymitch to bounce sarcastic comments off of, so that's something to look forward to for sure.

[scikeyuri]

SCIKE

ship it

1. what made you ship it?

tbh ive always liked toxic ships i just never embraced it due to all of the fandoms i was a part of before td had no media literacy or nuance so if you ever shipped anything that didnt fit peoples impossible standards of cutsey uwu smol beans who have zero problems youd be compared to people who shipped literal illegal and disgusting shit which i very much do not appreciate due to some prior experiences with those type of people that im not gonna get into just know it traumatized me so yeah maybe dont compare me to those type of people that i hate with a burning passion lol

ik that wasnt much of a why i do but the answer is simple besides me saying the obvious stuff that goes for basically all ships and i really just wanted to finally rant about that lol 💀

2. what are your favorite things about the ship?

this could be argued that this has nothing to do with the ship buttttt the fellow shippers ive met multiple people who are pretty cool and nice and who became my mooties all because we loved our little toxic boys 🫶

and the fact the ship has really brought out the worst in mike and really leaves no room for woobification like let that man go ham!!!

most of the things i could list are less about the ship canonically and more about what people have done with it and man people are so creative and aaaaa its so nice but tbf thats also the case for most queer ships cause yknow the show doesnt care about us stop pretending it does lol

3. is there an unpopular opinion you have with this ship?

shipping it is the unpopular opinion lol just cause i said this fandom has more media literacy and nuance doesnt mean EVERYONE has it lol theres still people who are pulling the shit i explained in the first answer lol (proof being that one ask i got that one time)

other than that dont really have any

anyways scike takeover 2024 RISE WHERES YOUR ANGER WHERES YOUR RAGE RAHHHHH

[sweet-lemonad-rose-sapphire]

Link Character Analysis Pt. 1

Child Link

Just as a little note here, by “Child Link” I am talking about the child version of Link from BOTW

What was he like?

Unfortunately, we don’t know much about Child Link in game besides what we learn from the Mipha memory and Mipha’s Diary (BOTW DLC):

- He’s described as “curious and full of energy with a ready smile”

- Has “exceptional swordsmanship” only at “about 4 years of age”! AND he was literally going against adult knights and even beat them! Why that was allowed, I’ll get to that later…

- He’s very impressed by magic!

Where did he live?

Ok. This one’s an unpopular opinion for some people but here’s what I found.

- According to Creating a Champion (pg. 376) , Link had likely started his childhood in Hateno Village.

- HOWEVER, also according to Mipha’s Diary, the KING sent a group of knights to the Zora Domain. The same group of knights that Child Link was with. MEANING that even though Link may have at least been born in Hateno Village, he must’ve ended up in Castle Town, where he spent the rest of his childhood, gaining traction as a gifted swordsman.

Link’s Family

I may be cheating a little on this one, but by also looking at past Zelda games, I can kind of piece together what his family is like.

- In Memory #11 (Shelter From the Storm), Zelda makes the first mention, probably in Zelda game history, of Link’s father who was a knight.

- Although I’m sure Zelda was talking about Link when she gives the comment “Your commitment to the training necessary to fulfill your goal is really quite admirable,” I think she was also still comparing Link to his Father’s journey of becoming a knight. According to Creating a Champion, Link is NOT of nobility. And unlike all the “likelys” and “maybes” that this book says about most of Link’s past, this information is for certain. Therefore, Link’s father would have had to work HARD to rise the ranks to be personally asked by the King to go to the Zora Domain with the other Hyrulian knights with him.

- Strangely enough, just a few paragraphs before this, Link is said to be born into a line of knights. These could also probably have been Hateno knights too

- This is the point where I’m slightly cheating. In the Japanese version of Creating a Champion, there’s a whole TWO PAGES of concept art that us English speakers are missing out on. 😔 On one of those pages, we can see an image of a (what looks like) 12 year old Link with an older man and a little girl. The man may look older than a father but, after what Zelda said, this can likely be Link’s Father!

- And the little girl would likely be Link’s little sister! Unfortunately, there’s no evidence in the game that Link had a little sister, but after looking at the Wind Waker game for reference, I have a feeling this girl is supposed to be BOTW’s version of Aryll. She even looks like she loves Cucco’s while Aryll in Wind Waker loves seagulls! I could go on about what this means for Link and his backstory, but then that would be touching “spoiler territory” for my duology, and I don’t want to do that just yet!

Link’s Childhood Friends

Most of Link’s friends that are mentioned in game are actually Zora! Although I’m sure he had some Hylian friends as well.

- Bazz: Was the leader of the Big Bad Bazz Brigade (BBBB). Link trained him sword fighting (or at least the “art of the blade”).

- Rivan: him and Link used to swim together when they were kids. Also a part of the BBBB

- Gaddison: her and Link used to play together as kids. She was also part of the BBBB, known as the heroine.

- Mipha: she used to heal Link whenever he would get hurt in training.

I’m not adding Kodah to the list because (I assume!) she didn’t “befriend” him until he was older

unfortunately I can't find a clip of Bazz talking about the BBBB, but believe me that it's in the game!

[gemsofgreece]

Η ΦΟΝΙΣΣΑ (The Murderess): A film review

My cinecritic side greets you again! This time I watched The Murderess, (only!) half a year after its release. I had to watch this one because it is based on my favourite Greek book, written by Alexandros Papadiamantis, which is also one of the most acclaimed Greek stories.

I knew that the movie would be underwhelming compared to the book because there was not any chance a movie could match it. Therefore it was unsurprising that I had this watered down response to it. It is a good movie, it has several merits. If you have read the book however, you tend to focus on the drawbacks and those are very prominent.

My biggest issue was the understandable choice to make adjustments to the story, in order to fill it some more, because the original is a short story. Reasonable, yet the adjustments made were in my opinion poorly thought out for several reasons.

PROS:

The cinematography is amazing. I also liked the camera work. Congratulations to Eva Nathena, very neat job. Very haunting atmosphere, great scenery chosen. We need more creative direction in Greek movies, so this was refreshing. However, I have some criticism about it too, below.

The elements of the folk culture and the architecture were beautiful and very interesting. The movie in general is stylized (in an appropiate way) and I have no problem with this at all. Nathena's first profession is actually costume designer, so her attention to detail makes total sense.

The score is imposing and appropriately used.

Karabeti has the leading role. Obviously, the acting is great. I will say that I had imagined Frankogiannou different in my mind, even less refined or, idk less agile?, but that doesn't mean her approach is not valid.

Okay this is silly but it was a long time since I read the book and that moment when Frankogiannou says to her daughter "Σα σ' ακούω, θυγατέρα", a reference to her favourite catchphrase, it brought back the memory I had forgotten and I nearly cheered!

I did not like the liberties taken in the screenplay but I LOVED Maria Protopappa as Frankogiannou's mother. This character does not exist in the book but I don't care, she was amazing. Honestly she doesn't do all that much but her presence, so DORIC so STERN so SCARY. A perfect portayal of an abusive, misogynistic mother. I don't know, she was chilling, unpopular opinion but somehow I liked her more than Karabeti. Of course I acknowledge Karabeti's part was a lot harder.

Protopappa as Frankogiannou's mother, facing the camera.

CONS:

I already praised the cinematography, right? Yes, it was good but I would appreciate it more if the story actually took place in Mani! The story however takes place in Skiathos, not Mani! Whereas the choice to film such a dark story in an ominous place like Mani seems fitting, the true challenge would be to bring it to life in a happy looking place like Skiathos, where it is supposed to have happened after all. In short, the scenery fits the story but it was also a cheap trick to avoid making the direction more challenging. If foreign followers read this, Nathena in short said "I have a very dark movie to direct so I'll shoot it in this place

so I will avoid filming it in its original place which looks like this:"

I mean, the scenery looked awesome but you get what I mean? Moreover, my point is that she removed a lot of the realism from the movie - the scenery looks so gloomy, the people are so pensive, it kind of creates a type of dystopia where the Murderess's tale is just another part of it and not a shocking outlier.

[this paragraph contains spoilers]Which brings me to the second point. For anyone who doesn't know, the Murderess was written in 1903 by Alexandros Papadiamantis, a man, and it is one of the very first feminist literary works quite possibly on an international level. The way the inequality against women is portrayed in the book is so... novel and unique and genius and groundbreaking for its time and even for today, that I loathed to see it getting a coating of the standard contemporary mass feminist perspective. Because on its own, it was in my opinion far more successful and piercing. There are a lot of changes made in the film. Essentially, all men are depicted as straight out monsters and the only man who was probably not a monster, the priest, is blind. Get it? As in, blind to the evilness. That level of symbolism, come on, guys. Too much. Furthermore, the movie makes the whole community of the town in some way or another complicit to what is happening. That was horrible in my opinion. Instead of showing how inequality and hardship created an outlier whose mind got in a really bad place, like Papadiamantis did, the movie just creates a whole society of horror, where most everyone is a criminal. What is this, the Lord of the Flies? Men are viewed as problematic in Papadiamantis' book as well but in a more realistic way, some being absent, some being indifferent husbands, some being lazy, some rejoicing in their gender privilege and living expecting everything from women. But in the movie ALL of them are !Spoiler! kin rapists and kin killers??????The fuck?????? Live your myth in Greece, I suppose. [SPOILER] The incident of female infant killing by poor people who had no money to raise and provide a dowry for their daughters was indeed a phenomenon in Greece and elsewhere before the abolition of this custom (as pointed out in the movie credits), maybe it still is in some countries, but I want to believe that it wasn't happening in the way that it happens in this movie. In the movie this town's people are one step away from hiring her as a professional baby killer. Like, that wasn't how it was happening or how often it was happening. They turned a documented crime of the past into a custom?! A person who was suspected to do that did not casually live amongst the rest with their family as if everything was alright. Which is why it is stupid in the film that even though most everybody has asked her help (apparently in this movie they were giving birth everyday to 58259 girls and 0.1 boys), then everyone turns against her and wants her arrested. In short, she was portrayed almost as a scapegoat and I did not like this. It's like abdicating her a lot from her guilt. She is a tragic character indeed but she is not a scapegoat. And in the book the townfolk had no idea what she was doing until it became obvious.

At least a little touch of the extremely heavy, drool-enducing Skiathian dialect Papadiamantis was known for using was greatly missed. Then again there was nothing from Skiathos in this movie whatsoever. Even the folk attire was not Skiathian. It looked like a mix of Peloponnesian and Roumeliote, totally irrelevant. It wasn't even Maniot, I think.

Too. Many. Symbolic. Scenes. It made sense to add them but I mostly enjoyed only the ones with Protopappa.

The acting of the supporting cast was subpar in my opinion. Not bad necessarily but too theatrical for my taste.

So, with all this in mind but also taking into account that someone may watch it without having read the book first, I give it a 7+/10. If you compare it to the book, it must fall to a 6+/10. My recommendation? Watch the movie if you want but read the book ASAP.

[riddlesmoon]

being part of a few hermione fanfic groups on fb has been quite enlightening bc i get to see the kind of ships and dynamics that primarily cishet older women hp fans like. especially since i get to contrast it with, say, tomarry and drarry fans (mostly on twt, but some on tumblr too) and most interesting of all, cn fans. which, granted, are also mostly tomarry and drarry because, well, i also ship them so thats the kinda content im seeking out yk.

so whats interesting about it? well, to start with, i am putting this under the cut because holy shit my ass can YAPPPPP and no one actually gives a fuck but i wanna get it out even if no one reads it! Also an ever important DISCLAIMER that this is my personal opinion and is highly subject to bias and only seeing a certain sphere of people and i dont know what im talking about so please dont @ me im stupid.

as i said, theyre older (many married or with kids! they even sometimes talk to their husbands about said fics, which is... sweet), and... probably mostly het. so i would say (though i have no stats) the rough popularity of hermiones partners (in those groups specifically) are draco >>> sirius > snape, tom > rarer pairs like lucius theo dolohov viktor cedric >>> harry > ron and femslash (i will come back to this). maybe i could compare with ao3 stats later to see how well i pegged it but for now im mostly just going off popularity of certain posts and how often i see "please share fic recs of X ship")

i feel like millenial/younger hp fans would balk at the idea of sirius, snape, lucius, and dolohov, but i do think this can be chalked up to them being older and thus more interested in "adult" characters. and rarely do they talk about fics set in canon timelines, more often i see recs with time travel (which effectively solves many of the age gap problems), or otherwise set in the future, where age gap becomes less remarkable as theyre adults. marriage law or pregnancy are also common tropes...

i did wonder for a while if this was a yume/selfship phenomenon and that perhaps older western women just didnt know or use that term? after all, hermione is the most prominent female character in hp, and obviously can be very relatable since, like the reader, she is from the muggle world discovering the magical world, and a bookworm, which has a 70% chance of being true if you are a girl reading a book i think. so i was like, ah, shes can be kind of a good way to self insert into the hp universe or at least a good way find a vast amount of ship fic since shes so popular.

however i dont think this is the case—im not 100% sure of course, i asked one (1) time but it appears most of them are genuinely invested in hermione as a character and arent using her as a self insert board. not that either is bad or worse, im not passing judgement!!! though i do think it makes sense, since, from my view, the self insert phenomenon is often seen in younger fans who are less secure in their self image and want their fav to reassure them without fear of rejection soooo yk (and what does that say abt me who has a yume harem? well youre not my therapist so we dont have to talk about it)

aaaaanyway. this fucking long ass post is mostly just because i remember getting culture shock'd twice while looking thru cn comments. for example, i was surprised to see romione viewed so positively, because holy shit do those hermione fic fans fucking hate romione. and harmony next, but it isnt as bad as romione. any post asking for fic recs inevitably ends in "no romione", but cn fans think theyre kinda cute.

i have some theories. for one, they think ron is extremely unromantic. this is exacerbated by the yule ball incident, but in all honesty at no point in the books does ron really do anything romantic for hermione and in fact treats her pretty badly. the kiss at the end was, in my personal opinion, a bit random, but i dont think its an unpopular view that what ron does doesnt make up for the past years especially since the very cause he is advocating for (the house-elves) is one he has disparaged before.

of course you can argue the same for all of the other candidates, that they dont do anything romantic for her either, but i think there is a difference, because for all those candidates they dont have a "chance" in canon to pursue her (save viktor) because theyre not viewing each other as potential partners, but ron is in that position and goes about it pretty badly. for everyone else, writers can make up whatever they want! for ron, well, you have to work with (or against) what canon gave you.

next, i think a lot of them really like when hermiones prowess is appreciated. a lot of fic recs have her being quite badass or kind of holding things together (to be fair, she does this for the trio a lot) and her partner usually acknowledges her power while being on an equal or better level. so i guess that turns a lot of them off romione since he spends a lot of time in canon brushing her off while using her brains etc... being praised hits different when its a dunderhead who needs ur help vs someone just as brilliant ykyk. its not looking good.

side note on harmony: i think this suffers from a similar phenomenon in that canon gives us their friendship tgt and people have already seen that together, sparks dont fly. ofc people can make up whatever they want but when one char canonically says "i see her as a sister" you kind of have to overwrite that in your head and not everyone is willing to do that.

Sorry wtf was i talking about. uh. cn. right. so why doesnt cn have this problem? well for one i think they may be younger than this western group, which makes sense since the series is originally english so it hit foreign audiences a bit later. that and i wonder how many cn fans actually read the books vs the movies (which dilutes the aforementioned problems a lot)? the movies are def more accessible for non english fans i think. but yea i think those women, being older, are more no-nonsense and less fairytale daydream-y about their potential partner. thinking more realistically about who theyd settle down with versus younger fans who are like its fine if theyre hes silly and stupid theyre young. btw this also applies to jily which i see cn (and jp. all this applies to jp for similar non english reasons) post about more frequently; whereas in english sphere i FEEL LIKE (i must again emphasise this is all subject to bias) of the marauders i mostly only see wolfstar discussion. dgmw theres plenty of wolfstar in cn spheres!! i just also see jily where i dont in en)

And of course you can throw everything i said out the window because its not like i have a particularly extensive or wide range of sample data. very little actually. i just. noticed stuff. and was surprised. and want to TALK. Arugh