#am pretty ambivalent on

[fishareglorious]

opened my art account on twt to post art and scrolled a little bit through my dash and saw someone I haven't seen in a long while. Then I realized that I had them blocked in the account i use normally. whoops.

[sayheykid]

i genuinely don't think a story's worldbuilding and lore has ever drawn me in the way that check please did. it's been years and i still think about it every day. the characters and plot were always superb but i think what has stuck with me the most is the depth of the settings and how everything feels so lived in and tangible. everyone wants to make a fake world and town and university but no one else has EVER done it that well

[selfindulgentfandomstuff]

Heavy sigh.

You and I both know that I will be filing this information away for future reference when I inevitably make selfship content with Maxime.

[countess-of-edessa]

me my 16 year old dog

🤝

my mother thinking we're too thin and thus constantly bringing us little treats because she's afraid we'll starve to death

[gaydryad]

I need that post that's like "I'm not aro but I believe in their beliefs". for reasons

[ilovedthestars]

[wiggles] Azula for the ask game!

Oooooh...

(Send me a character ask)

First impression

Via fandom osmosis: There's a snarky evil fire nation girl. Also, Zuko has a sister. Also, there's somebody named Azula, who always lies. These were barely connected in my mind.

Also, when I started watching the show I kept thinking about this comic, which I'd seen but half-forgotten. It definitely gave me an impression of Zuko and Azula's relationship that was a bit more mixed/positive than what appears in the show.

Impression now

Love to hate her, but also, yikes, poor girl. She shows us another side of how royally messed up the Fire Nation royal family is, and she's a good foil to Zuko. I...don't really like her on a character level that much, though? She didn't leave that strong of an impression on me.

Favorite moment

My favorite moments with Azula are mostly moments of her defeat, lol. I loved seeing Mai and Ty Lee turn against her in...I think it was The Boiling Rock. Realizing that she didn't have total control over those around her! Although maybe I like this more because of Mai and Ty Lee's friendship and bravery than because of Azula, to be honest.

Idea for a story

Drawing a blank on this one. She just doesn't interest me like that!

Unpopular opinion

Idk what's popular or unpopular, but I didn't really like her ending? To me it felt like her final breakdown leaned a little too hard into some uncomfortable stereotypes about mental illness. And also, even though Ozai's mistreatment is very much an acknowledged part of that, I think I expected a kids show like Avatar to give her a bit more compassion at the end for what she went through. (I'm thinking of the ending of She-Ra and how it treated even long-term villains.) Maybe I'm forgetting something, but I think the last we see of her is at her lowest low, and that makes me kinda sad.

Favorite relationship

Azula & Zuko are fascinating as foils. They were both victimized, but she fought for favor by pushing him down. He seems to want to trust her, at least for a while, but knows he can't. She's fully prepared to use him. Even in the flashbacks we see when they're both very young, they don't get along. I wonder if post-canon they ever have the chance to build a positive relationship.

Favorite headcanon

Don't know if it counts as a headcanon, I am fond of the alternate universe in that comic I linked above. It shows a very different kind of secretive and manipulative Azula, one I'd be interested in seeing more of.

[once-was-muses]

anonymous | Feed Kirby's Muse Addiction?

i assign you mikey myers enjoyer

[ With all due respect, Nonnie. That Is Not My Mans. He is oh so bland and milquetoast imo. I am handing this Shape back to you for I sense you will love him where I frankly don't care enough ]

[corcracrow]

Elucien PotO????? Plz tell us everything

Hi nonnie! Well, it started ages ago. I had the idea sitting in my drafts for about a month, then I saw a post mentioning a wish for the same idea. So I of course volunteered to write it, with Elain as Christine and Lucien as Raoul. (and Vassa as Meg)

Unfortunately it’s been sitting in my drafts for a while because I started thinking too in depth about the Phantom and the details and it was suddenly rather stressy and depressy.

But especially with winter coming I’ve been checking on it and thinking about it and stirring it in its cauldron, Macbeth’s witches style. I think I’m going to actually finish making that moodboard and let it out into the interwebs. Hopefully by the end of November :) we’ll see.

Here’s a snippet for you, if you’d like it!

“You’re saying you and that gorgeous vicomte were sweethearts? Why in the Mother’s name did you let him get away?”

“He moved, Vassa. Before we lost our fortune. After that, I couldn’t exactly hop in a gilded carriage to visit, could I? Besides, he probably doesn’t even remember me.”

Vassa snorted. “Who could possibly forget you, Elain?”

“It was a long time ago.” Still, Elain’s gaze couldn’t help following as the Vicomte began a hasty retreat, citing some urgent business. He was followed by a chorus of sighs.

[obstinatecondolement]

Honestly getting a little fed up with people universally panning every single pregnancy plotline as "pro-life propaganda"

Fandom start being normal about people wanting to be pregnant sometimes challenge.

[t4tstarvingdog]

congratulations for playing a major role in the non-stop years-long buddie propaganda from my tumblr dash. i have finally caved and started watching this show. i am ambivalent towards everyone except buck, to whom i have latched onto with maternal affection i did not know i possessed. hissing like a cat when anyone looks at him type scenario

buck is my guy. my silly rabbit sunshine guy. my two-blankets cozy kind of guy. my hop-skip-and-a-jump for joy guy.

[imwritesometimes]

an idea popped in my head for a tiny little snippet of a dono.linc thing last night and I'm still trying to figure out if I wanna elaborate on it or let it just idk fade away. lately fic feels like a campfire and it's like I either have to fan the flames or watch it die out and ngl it's hard to find kindling lately...

[graysongraysoff]

me: lol @ this person who has never gotten over anything that has ever happened to them

also me: *extremely grumpy rn over something that happened several months ago*

[quiveringdeer]

I'm both happy and jealous of Chris Evans' new Instagram story.

[harpers-tartarus]

@oifaaa I think they're talking about Bart and Jaime being built and then Bart getting with El Dorado offscreen

i, for one, love yj tv, but most of my issues with it come from the way certain characters are written and not made to face the consequences of their actions (cough cough m'gann cough cough). but also taking a friendship they built up so strongly in one season, knowing they'd have one of the characters be queer, and then throwing that character together with someone he had never met before romantically and not even having the balls to say that they were romantically inclined.

theres a lot of issues with the show, and i have a few very specific pieces of beef that permeate the entire show for me, but theres also countless other things i love about the little disconnected dc universe they created!

Okay so bad opinions incoming but I don't mind that m'gann didn't face too many consequences for what she did in season two (mostly bc season 2 m'gann was the most fun I had watching her) like obviously the main consequences of her actions in season two was meant to be her almost permanently damaging a good friend of hers bc she kept using her powers without thought and she almost ruined a undercover mission as well like that's the point of consequences to learn a lesson to not do the bad thing any more and m'gann learnt that lesson so I was happy enough... would have preferred if her and kon didn't get back together but thats also just me not really caring much about their relationship to begin with

I am a wee bit confused about the friendship in season 1 your talking about tho? I presume you mean Kaldur but I'm not sure who the other person is? - either way once again I liked that I like how realistic it felt, also a lot of what happens in yj we don't actually get to see we the audience are usually trusted to put the pieces together ourselves about what happens in the inbetween the bits they show and I know alot of people don't really enjoy that type of story telling but I love it its why the time skips never really bother me

[shorthaltsjester]

i could talk a lot about the reasons that i think vox machina as pcs is actually a perfect insertion into the c3 narrative right now but the one that’s really sticking out to me is the diversity in the opinions on the gods that the party has and the lack of influence their individual opinions have on their commitment to save the world. because with bh they’re all pretty ambivalent or anti-god with fcg and now braius being outliers, but both of those cases are still very unique and particular ones: fcg had his cleric powers prior to his religiosity and so it was largely just about the personal meaning he found in the changebringer but he still ended up having divine exchanges with her and braius is in the fjord stone school of being a willing child of god divorce. and with those of bh who dislike the gods it’s for completely valid reasons with completely invalid application of their personal woes to a universal scale. but in vox machina we see the way that experience with people that the gods matter to beyond just the magical exchange and experience with the weight that denying the rise of a new betrayer left on the shoulders of the gods they aided. i have to say that beyond the fact that i am just fond of vox machina as a party, it is also incredibly refreshing to see people who have diverse opinions about the gods but also actually engaged with opinions (a word which here refers to taking seriously, and not using confirmation bias) beyond those of their insular party.

a while ago ashton with his insistently short sight said he’d like to see the gods pray to mortals — something they’ve always been doing and is in fact a definitive part of their established metaphysical status in exandria — and vox machina is taking on the role in the c3 narrative of proving (once again) that has been the case, but they differ from bh because where bh (as a group) tends to deny the pleas from the gods unless it already serves or proves what they’ve assumed to be true about the world and the gods, vm (as a gorup) took seriously that the gods might have something new to introduce to them. i mean that’s obvious in scanlan and vex, both of whom became champions of gods they hadn’t really even considered in a serious vein prior to speaking to them. and scanlan very much takes on the label of ioun’s champion as a job to be fulfilled in the specific battle, but with vex being pelor’s champion has more significant weight tied to whitestone becoming her home and the fact that she belongs to a community that does, very much, take seriously the symbolic and literal power of the dawn, and she admits she hadn’t really realized the people-ness of the gods themselves until she met the everlight and the dawnfather.

but from the very same community, with a more historical basis in it, we get percy, who is very much uninterested in gods, until of course he might find value in an exchange with them. or, in one of my favourite moments from percy, until he is given hope that his family still exists somewhere beyond his memory of them, even if bound in the divine books of a god that calls him out on his selfish habits. vox machina also has keyleth who is pretty anti-god, not to the degree of ‘let’s kill them’ that we’ve seen in bh, but even when facing them directly, she wasn’t subtle about how little she cares for them, especially when offset by the people that matter much more to her. vm has pike who is the spearhead of the everlight’s return to power, they have grog who fucks with the stormlord’s teachings even if he doesn’t deal with the god part all that much. there’s a multiplicity of god-to-mortal relationships in vox machina that is diverse in a way that bh certainly isn’t, and i think that allows a really interesting deepening of what’s at stake. because, of course, their focus is getting vax out of the orb, but there’s a weight they all carry regarding what happens to the world if it loses the gods, especially if the way they go is through the machinations of a ancient elven jackass.

and i mean it’s a jokey moment but i think an exchange that’s really illustrative of why it’s so nice to get vm who are certain about their stances about the gods and who don’t have to discuss the philosophical implications of their actual lived and material reality is the one between vex and keyleth where they’re discussing stopping predathos and vex jokes that ‘hey maybe predathos gets out and just eats the matron, surely that’d be fine’ and keyleth laughs with her but then they both kind of step out of that and are still committed to fighting predathos. because as keyleth emphasizes in her speech, exandria belongs to a collective, one made up of people who both hate and love the gods and though vex and keyleth both hate one god in particular, they have the awareness to treat that as their own issue, not one worth risking exandria to solve. anyway. this isn’t super well put and maybe i’ll elaborate some other time but i’ve seen a lot of people being bitter about vox machina showing up (which is their right!) but saying they’re only there in ways that detract from the narrative (i obviously disagree) so i just wanted to put into words why i think that’s wrong (though to be clear i don’t doubt that the fact that vm is cr’s personal blorbos plays a significant hand in the fact that vm showed up, they just also are succeeding (to me) at having a narrative purpose as well)

[flawseer]

Mail Call #3

Answering comments from @void-the-bear @railway-lands @keabirb @ilikebookssomuch @chezgorman @cartoons-everywhere @dragonra305

Please don't hurt me. I have glasses.

Thank you, to all of you. It makes me genuinely happy to know that I'm able to put something into this world that other people can enjoy. I think this is a great setting that is fun to add to.

Doing a Wings of Fire-themed run of this Smaugust challenge has been very interesting and it's good that the result appears to be well-received. It's not always been easy, I'm actually getting quite exhausted having to post content on a strict schedule like this. But it is worth doing if it makes people happy.

Relating to my comment on this post. I probably will do it eventually, along with some other ideas I had that didn't fit in. But it won't happen while Smaugust is still going, as I am already skirting the limits of what I am physically capable of right now.

Ahh... hm... This is the question that has toppled mountains and started wars. You're going to get hit squads sent after me.

Well, there is the big one, of course. Qibli/Winter. They have such wonderful chemistry whenever they are in a scene together (with one pretty upsetting exception). And Qibli is always teasing him about being his destiny and the two of them getting married, so I think there is some attraction there.

Then uh... I used to feel completely ambivalent about this one, but Starflight/Fatespeaker has really grown on me over time. There's a lot of interesting potential there that doesn't really make it into the story. I need to make a long-winded post about Fatespeaker one day.

Blaze/Glacier is another one that could be cute. I think putting a repressed Icewing together with a highly eccentric and rambunctious Sandwing is going to be a winning combination most of the time. Or well, I guess I should say "could have been cute", since Glacier had to die for the plot, in a very wretched and infuriating way too.

There are a couple more that I think have their moments or could be interesting in one way or another. Some of them even contradicting or overlapping each other. Listing all of them would probably be a bit excessive.

Oh yeah, and I think Sunny is ace.

Ah, a question that'll make me put someone else's favorite character at the bottom of a preference list... After the shipping question I'm starting to fear for my life now.

Let me preface this by clarifying that I generally like all of the DoD. There are some characters in this setting that I loathe and wish they would exit the story, and the arc 1 protagonists are nowhere near that. So being ranked low here translates to me saying "Yeah, they're okay, room for improvement", not "wow, they're the WORST!"

Okay whatever, let's get down to it.

#1 - Sunny

That one's easy, I mean, just look at the pinned post on this blog.

Sunny is so wonderful and charming and perfect in every conceivable way, she is one of my six all-time favorite characters. She is the flower that blooms in the bitter desert. A lot of people may perceive her as this demure and innocent character who is always happy and friendly, and oblivious to the suffering around her. Nah, Sunny knows exactly what is going on. She is keenly aware of all the bloodshed, suffering, and toxicity that unfolds in the world around her. When she remains optimistic and forgiving in the face of darkness, that is not her being meek or passive, it's her steadfastly refusing to let that darkness into herself. She is actively embodying the change she wants to see in the world, even when it hurts her or gets her taken advantage of, because that is what she believes in and the future she will create.

That's pretty inspiring. I wish I had that kind of inner strength.

Also, she is not weak. While she's not a powerhouse scrapper like Tsunami or an invincible stack of bricks like Clay, Sunny strikes quickly and without hesitation when her friends are in danger, and can be deviously clever. This is often overlooked, but she is--to my knowledge--the only character to land an attack on Morrowseer that comes close to actually hurting him.

Well... you got me rambling about Sunny. Let's go through the others more briskly.

#2 - Starflight

I like Starflight a lot. Unfortunately the story really doesn't. He is like, the unluckiest character by far. I don't know what he did to deserve the never-ending cavalcade of misfortune that gets shoveled in his direction throughout all three arcs. Like, it never ends. A couple of friends and I came together and we jokingly called our group the "Starflight Protection Foundation", because someone needs to stage an intervention. Like, wrap him in a cozy sweater and buy him hot chocolate or something. Heaven help this poor man.

He's another one of my favorites.

#3 - Glory

Glory is really cool; I vibe with the "unchosen hero spurned by destiny" theme. She goes through her life and is constantly told "No, you don't have a special destiny. You're the fifth wheel. You are worthless and unimportant". Though she struggles with the constant abuse and devaluation, she eventually finds a way to turn it into strength and declare that the only value that matters is the one she gives to herself.

I really wish the story had NOT made her turn out to be a secret princess. "I was born without destiny, so I'm making my own" is a so much more satisfying character trajectory than "Oh, don't worry. You were born special after all, you just didn't know about it".

So yeah, I kind of tend to put that "secret princess" plot twist on the shelf when I think about Glory, and prefer to think that she managed to sway Grandeur with her skill and determination, rather than a random blood link.

#4 - Clay

Clay is very lovable. He is like the emotional bedrock of the group and acts as a stabilizing force that pairs well with all of the other arc 1 protagonists. He pretty much resolves all of his baggage in the first book and becomes content and steady. That is very good for him, but unfortunately this also kind of turns him into just some dude for the following four books.

Which is fine, it is good for the other characters to have someone behind them who loves them and helps them up when they stumble. It just makes it difficult for Clay to shine on his own.

#5 - Tsunami

Okay, so, Tsunami. I actually like her a lot in arc 1. She's bringing an interesting kind of energy to the group that is like, half-supportive and half-detrimental. Very chaotic. She also has to contend with some heavy stuff; everything to do with her father and the complications in her family life. It's very interesting. Lots of places to go with that.

Arc 2 Tsunami though, really grinds my gears. She regresses into this kind of juvenile, immature personality that is just pointlessly abrasive and confrontational. She acts really condescendingly towards Peril-- despite the latter having saved Clay's life AND it being really important to Clay that her staying at JMA works out well. Her borderline sabotaging this effort by making Peril feel unwelcome seems very dismissive towards Clay's feelings. It also doesn't help that she is the most outspoken about her loathing of Nightwing mindreading and prophecies, which drives Moonwatcher further into her emotional shell and makes things more complicated.

Okay, I have to reiterate: I don't dislike Tsunami. I just think her character arc is incomplete. It feels like she is stuck in arrested development while at JMA. She's mostly running around yelling at people, when she really should be thinking about what to do about Queen Coral, and how to get custody of her siblings. Her sister Anemone is carrying emotional scars from how the Queen has kept her leashed like a dog for her entire life, a process that is now happening to Auklet, even to this day. And then there's the 30 something children who have never known parental love for a day in their life and their mother can't remember the names of.

Someone's gotta step in and save these kids. Or like, at least start vaguely thinking about it.

Turtle???

Hmm....

...

Moose!