#and that's fine if i had more belief in the writers honestly

[atopvisenyashill]

imo rhaenyra’s “madness” being that of a cult leader capable of convincing her followers to do ostensibly insane things cuz she’s just that charismatic & self-assured in the correctness of her beliefs is way cooler and less sexist than the typical ‘she went crazy’ targ nonsense, "ohhh ‘mad queen’ daenerys she’s so crazy it’s that classic targ madness just like her ‘mad’ ancestor ‘mad’ king aerys you never know with those ‘mad’ targaryens" that’s so boring lol, give me something believable

YES i honestly don’t understand and have been increasingly annoyed by these really disingenuous “oh so when rhaenyra slaughters innocents it’s totally fine bc she has the divine right 😒” criticism when it couldn’t be more clear that’s not what’s happening. i mentioned this with the white stag before, how people are taking the most bad faith reading of it imaginable and saying that’s objectively what the writers intended when….it’s very clear the writers are intending for a more nuanced exploration of the entire concept of the white stag, YOU (general you, not you anon) are purposefully taking it in a negative way because you like being pissed off. what an obnoxious way of engaging with the story!

and i feel the same here! the main criticism i see of rhaenyra is that a) she’s not allowed to get her hands bloody/she’s always in the right and b) they’re making it seem as if she has the divine right to commit violence due to the prophecy. there is absolutely no narrative basis for these readings though, it’s COMPLETELY people projecting.

the reason she doesn’t do anything earlier in the season is because she also isn’t doing anything in the BOOK during this section because of her grief. i think criticism of HOW they wrote that is valid - the fact that she doesn’t speak at all in the first episode was a heinous choice, i get what they were going for, but it fell so flat that as Professional Writers they should have realized they were missing the mark there - but this constant “rhaenyra doesn’t get her hands dirty” “rhaenyra is too perfect” is so fucjing obnoxious. they’re ✨building up to it✨ guys, it’s why they did the stuff with Aemond not meaning to kill Luke and then actively attempting to kill/harm Aegon, it’s why the Green Council goes from squabbling to actively suppressing Alicent’s voice, it’s why Rhaenyra's convos with Jacaerys have gotten increasingly more angry, on and on. Sorry you all wanted Rhaenyra to be a Born Evil Queen, but if they’re not doing that with Alicent, why would they do that with Rhaenyra? "Oh they only had Jacaerys call the dragonseeds mongrels because-" my comrade in christ they took Alicent making the decision to lock the smallfolk into the city and gave it to Aemond to make her look better and make Aemond look worse it's the exact same thing and they're doing it because they're trying to have a conversation about the cyclical rot of feudalism and the way these people are completely trapped by their own design in this cycle of violence!!!!

and YES very much, this gets into point b which is like....THIS is Mad Queen Rhaenyra, THIS is Rhaenyra the Cruel! It's Rhaenyra holding onto this prophecy that gives her the divine right to be violent, that represents her father choosing her over everyone else, that represents her own worthiness as a ruler, that every single fucked up thing she's suffered is worth it because the fabled hero will come from her line, because Jacaerys will follow her onto the throne and there will be unending peace, because Viserys chose HER he loved HER he only ever loved HER, and she HAS THE RIGHT but what does "have the right" even mean. "oh they always portray her as morally in the right" NO THEY DO NOT YOU ARE MAKING THAT UP. Rhaenyra thinks she's morally in the right and the show is constantly making her face the consequences of her own actions, and showing that (again, and I cannot overemphasize this enough, just like Alicent, just like Viserys, just like Aegon, and while they do it sloppily with them, just like Aemond and Daemon!) Rhaenyra will close her eyes to the glaring faults of the people around her and the violence she is helping to perpetuate because to her in the end, all of this suffering has to be worth it and she has this fancy little prophecy that is showing her it is worth it. That's so interesting! It's fascinating! "Well I think she-" Well that's just your opinion man! I'm having a fucking ball watching her step closer and closer to the edge and insisting that she's staying still, she's playing safe, it's everyone else that is taking the leap. That's fun, that's engaging, that's a good way of depicting that dichotomy of how greatness can so easily turn to madness.

[hanaybuns]

let me cook

guys i have a confession to make... and you have to hear me out...karatoto (karamatsu and totoko) is a fun pairing

NOW STAY WITH ME HERE FOR A SECOND

in the context of the show, i would only want them to stay friends, if not besties. i think the writers actually like pairing them up for certain scenes bc they can rely on kara to be slightly more normal (relative to the other matsus) when interacting with totoko. like, when you really think about it they interact a lot in the third season... i honestly think she interacted with kara the most in season 3 besides nyaa and possibly osomatsu.

(these are not the best screenshots but trust me they talk to each other in all of these scenes, except the one where kara is a horse)

but thats actually not why i like them as a pair... the real reason is because i like messiness and i like drama and i like fun and i think a secret relationship between karamatsu and totoko would have all of those things

(the even realer reason is because i'm wildly and shamelessly biased towards karamatsu. it's just that simple)

see, the reason it would be so fun is because no one would expect it. everyone in the show probably thinks that if totoko were to end up with anyone, it would be osomatsu. and that's not an unfounded belief, i think they definitely do have the deepest and most complex relationship out of the 6 as the two "leads".

them getting together would kind of represent this grand, but ultimately linear shift in the status quo. the main character gets the heroine. shocker. but it kind of is a shocker in a show like osomatsu san, and its characters aren't really ready for that kind of "ending" per se. especially not osomatsu, who thrives and desperately clings to the status quo like his life depends on it. and ofc totoko is in a similar boat, where she finds herself yearning for simpler, more fun times.

but maybe totoko just wants to have a little extra fun! maybe she just wants to take a quick detour! is that too much to ask?? can't a girl have a little fling on the side?? why does everything she does matter so much as the heroine??? it sucks!!

it's too hard to go out and find a rich hot guy to have fun with. thankfully, she has 6 men who are already head over heels for her! so she finds herself weighing the pros and cons of each sextuplet.

osomatsu is... complicated, so he's out

choromatsu is an automatic no

ichimatsu is okay... but he seems like a guy who needs more care than she's willing to give

jyushimatsu is complicated in a different, much weirder way

todomatsu... todomatsu is definitely a viable option, but she wants someone who will only have eyes for her and she doesn't like how totty always has 2 girls by his side

karamatsu... karamatsu was never really an option in her mind but like, he's pretty nice! and honestly recently he's been much more normal than he used to be (season 1). his painfullness has decreased substantially since then. he also doesn't look half bad! he and todomatsu definitely take care of their appearance the most out of the 6. they've talked a decent amount and they even had that one skit together... ignition.

(side note, weirdly enough i think the karamatsu taxi skit makes him the only matsu to ever call a woman a b*tch... which is surprising to say the least and honestly detracts from this whole thing a bunch but i just thought it was so crazy...yikes kara)

but best of all, karamatsu is (seemingly) simple. and thats what she wants right now, a simple and easy and fun time. no baggage, no grand status quo changes, no needless effort. just a little fun with a guy she already knows likes her.

so she approaches him one day and asks him to carry her bags for her while she goes shopping. normal enough right? so karamatsu ofc is like "oh yeah i think i'm free but my brothers might be busy" and totoko's like "oh that's fine, you don't have to bring them" and karamtsu just says "sounds good, see you tomorrow!"

he walks home and it doesn't really hit him until he gets there... totoko chan just invited him somewhere to do something with him... alone.

but she's done that before! she asked if he wanted to watch her at her driving school, which he did alone. heh... it seems totoko is not a karamatsu girl yet, but he thinks he can win her over after tomorrow.

ok so i have more ideas for this, but honestly i don't really think theres an audience for karatoto but lmk if you guys are interested to hear the rest.

[crisiscutie]

Sephiroth's mental breakdown was nailed perfectly. The raw emotions and him realizing Gast was no better than Hojo... Oh man... Rebirth is gonna be amazing

Game isn't even out and it's already one of my favorite scenes. The music. The buildup to it. THE JENOVA CLOSEUPS. The superb voice acting. (yes, I think Tyler Hoechlin does a fine job)

The only thing that seemed iffy was cutting out some of Sephiroth's monologue about the Cetra and traitor thing.

And you know what, I like Rebirth's slight retcon. In this version, it's much more about Sephiroth, providing a clearer understanding of why he succumbed to darkness. This man and boy (since young Sephiroth is his inner child that's always with him) finally discovered the ugly "truth" about the twisted experiments that made him and the other monsters. He always wondered about his purpose, and this was it. All those years of abuse and exploitation... were done at his expense because he's a monster. The few people that did love and support him? No, no such thing. They're no different from his tormentors. He felt so alone and lost.

The Nibelheim Incident is pretty much his trauma reaching a breaking point. I can see how difficult it was for some to discern for some this nuance in the OG (and even in CC) because they focused more on Sephiroth developing an ego complex from more obviously, outdated information. This retcon is more closer to the truth, the only erroneous thing being that Jenova was an ancient. It's an amazing fix and does a great job in humanizing Sephiroth. I absolutely loved how they used the Jung Shadow. I'm a psychology nerd. You basically watched the death scene of Sephiroth's old identity, especially notice how prominent his shadow is. It's meant to show his inner conflict and then his transformation.

He became exactly what he never wanted to be.

Anyways, another thing to note: what was a bit weird in the original game and the compilation is the strange shift in Sephiroth's beliefs and motivations. At first, he believed himself to be a Cetra and had a divine right to rule over the planet. Then, he transitions to wanting to destroy the planet at the beginning of FF7, seemingly abandoning any claims to Cetra heritage. We know why his motivations changed, but it feels odd not getting more expansion on it after they just suddenly threw that bit of information at us. I believe this retcon should help smooth out that awkward transition. It's a great feeling that one item from my wish/check list might be addressed.

And you know another thing I fucking loved Rebirth's portrayal of the Nibelheim Incident? They didn't back off from Sephiroth's villainy and sadism. I already made a post about it here, but holy fuck. He is out for blood. Everyone and everything in his path had to suffer, just like he did. They don't deserve to continue to live life so happy and normal.

Sephiroth really did not deserve any of the shit he was put through, but that will never not excuse the atrocities he committed in Nibelheim. I was honestly scared to see how the writers would humanize Sephiroth, but so far, they seem to do a great job of it. Hopefully, the full game can keep it up.

The demo still has some issues with Sephiroth and how the gameplay works, though.

[btheleaf]

What made you like Pema? :3 Just out of curiosity, I feel like she's a character many people tend to kind of ignore or dislike.

Short answer: Spite

(Very) Long answer:

Tenzin was my first love and obsession when I got back into LOK. I went to AO3 to read about him and his wife! and found the attitudes towards Pemzin... odd? The ship is way less popular than Linzin, which was strange to me at the time, considering Pema/Tenzin are literally married in canon. But hey, whatever, to each their own. Maybe people just like Linzin more. Lin is a sexy badass, so I get it. Maybe people don't wanna write about the air babies. Maybe the age gap or any other countless things were giving people the ick about pemzin. Fine. It's all good to me. I began to look for pemzin fics to enjoy and found 🥲 strange things.

Pema was usually written as some kind of man-stealing demon with a magic coochie that could make Tenzin bend to her will and stay with her despite the fact that he loved Lin more, but at the same time she was a dumb and useless broodmare? More often than not, the Pema/Tenzin fics seemed to be written by people who didn't actually care for the ship and had Linzin endgame in mind.

I thought, "Okay, I'll check out Linzin, surely with way more fics to pick from, I'll find something that focuses on Lin/Tenzin and not Bad and Evil Pema."

I was disappointed to say the least.

So much cheating and lying, so many secret babies. SO MUCH Pema v. Lin, which doesn't do anything for me. I could understand it if there were Actual Reasons, but it was like Pema was showing up to be an emotional homewrecker despite her being IN HER OWN HOUSE. I just... like what the fuck is going on there?

Why does Pema hate Lin SO MUCH? Did the stories ever touch upon that? No. She just hates Lin. Obviously. Lin dated her husband 20 years ago, so she hates her. Logical. Much logic. No explanation. Look no further. Your bad guy is here. Bye-bye interesting concepts. Pema is a bitch and a snake and a man-trap and she never loved Tenzin anyway. She just wanted to be a trophy wife who ushered in a new generation of airbenders. No explanation. Don't question it. She's one-dimensional in a 3D world.

Pema is everyone's favorite bad guy in Linzin fics all because of that one line from Book one that is honestly super fucking cringe about her "seeing her soul mate with someone else." Linzin shippers asked if anyone was going to demonize this mother of four and didn't wait for an answer.

Both Pemzin and Linzin shippers need to learn how to tag their fics for both "emotional cheating" and just straight up "cheating." Navigating this shit is terrible. I once read 50k of a very interesting concept, and then all of a sudden Pema came out of nowhere and just started acting like a jealous 13 year old for no reason and Tenzin QUICKLY left her and the kids to go be with Lin. Like?? I do not understand what the fuck is going on in some people's minds.

WHERE WERE THE FICS THAT PAINTED PEMA AS A WHOLE HUMAN PERSON WITH FLAWS AND WANTS AND DESIRES??? I think most of my comments started having "thank you for writing Pema like a person" somewhere in them.

When I first made this blog and Let It Be Known that I ship pemzin, I got a looooooot of weird anons asking me stuff about like, if I support cheating and shit? I realized that these attitudes towards Pema were not Old Beliefs. These were very real people in the year of 2024 still unable to conceptualize an interesting idea for a character that has SO MUCH room to play with.

We know jack shit about her. We know just enough that makes her entire character like candy to me. She's not around a lot in the show, but also somehow is always still right there? She goes through Some Very Real Shit in every season, and her absence from screen time is like free real estate to fic writers. I literally don't understand how so many people manage to summarize her entire being into the word "snake" and move on. The potential for expanding on her character is limitless because of how little we know. The more people try to stuff her into a box, the more I'll pull her out of it.

I didn't really care about Pema until it became clear that everyone else disliked her. The more people hate her, the more I love her and the more powerful I become.

I'm like this because of how the fandom treats her.

[pidges-lost-robot]

I love the Keith and Lance friendly antagonism/rivalry (yk that thing the show could've eventually gotten to but forgot to) as much as the next person but I will always be the biggest Pidge vs Lance rivalry/friendly antagonism

It's too funny cause neither of them value the same things as being the thing to compete in, but they're also both competitive

Like I think Keith has to be pushed to care about competition tbh (or at least the writers had to contrive situations and his personality to make it work) but Keith doesn't hugely care about the same things Lance does in the way that eventually it was clear, even when they did really contrive to make Keith care, that the whole thing was really one sided (which is interesting but in different way)

But with Pidge and Lance, they both value certain traits in a way that even though its not the same and theyre each competing over different things, the pair of them would believably die on their respective hills just to prove a point, in a way that Keith just wouldn't. Pidge and Lance will go above and beyond to compete and be petty in a way where they know they have a close friendship but also they're gonna win. That competition can rarely be mistaken for actual antagonism and when it is or if it actually is, then the two are direct and blunt enough too to get to the bottom of it

Meanwhile being playfully mean for them would be different, cause they're both highly insecure and while competitiveness is one thing, being mean to each other would kind of cause problems for them if they hit a button or nerve they weren't aware of

I think Keith and Lance are better with the sort of relationship where its less competitive but more that they can honestly express their more negative traits and beliefs in front of each other without fear that the other will try to correct or fix the others belief. They can be as playfully mean, negative or cynical as they want in front of each other cause they're both the sort that try really hard not to come across certain ways and try to hide (sometimes in vain) these parts of themselves. They can show their darker traits that others would be concerned about to each other and know that the other is capable of being honest enough to both be able to handle it but also to know when there should be some actual concern and lines drawn

Plus on top of this, competition for Keith has always been this thing put upon him so tbh I think that's also a reason for me why Keith and Lance should be more playfully mean than competitive cause for Lance competition has been historically safe and fine for him with certain people, while for Keith it's always been something that has had people treat him negatively and therefore means something different to him.

This got longer than expected but TLDR (shut up ik it's not that long): Pidge and Lance are the rivals, but Lance and Keith are the playfully mean ones. Maybe that just makes them rivals but in a different font but to me that different font is important

[chairteeth]

“Nemu Hiiragi: The Shadow”

The promised Magius Nemu essay arrives. I have given up on proper essay formatting and will simply leave my analyses in semi-rant form because my brain is too chaotic and goes on too many tangents. It cannot be tamed. Informal essay under the cut!

So. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has heard others refer to Nemu as a shadow, Touka 2.0, or some other frankly reductive term. Most of the time, unless her creations come up, she’s not discussed at all, and even then… barely. That’s not exactly surprising. Given Nemu’s normally calm demeanor, and the fact that she and Touka are joined at the hip, it’s only natural that Touka would be the one to get the most attention, the one who stands out. Where Touka is the boisterous sun, Nemu is the humble moon. Today, we turn our eyes to the moon.

There is so much to talk about when it comes to Magius Nemu and pretty much all of it is going to make you really sad. Much like Touka and all other magical girls, she led a double life the entire time, but in her case, when she “traded one terminal illness for another” she got the short end of the stick. Imagine being a writer and discovering that your magic allows you to give physical form to your stories, to breathe life into your creations—literally. Now picture finding out later down the line that each time you use it, it consumes so much magic that it shaves off pieces of your very life force. That’s one slap in the face. But, it gets worse.

Let me lay out everything we know about how Magius Nemu’s sacrifices affected her physically, and how each of the people around her responded to her worsening condition. First, we know it causes pain severe enough to temporarily affect her vision and speech, and severe enough to make her fall to the ground, though she doesn’t always faint from it. We know it inflicts exhaustion and that even something like releasing an uwasa for the first time can make her pass out on the spot, so presumably it’s a lengthy process that takes a toll on her at every stage (well not sure about conceptualization, but creation and release definitely do). A voiced example of one of these episodes is in Arc 1 Chapter 8, 4:02:36 - 4:03:43 if you're watching the video.

Now, as for the people around Nemu, starting from more distant to closest. Her family? Oblivious, responsible for her state of emotional deprivation and for several other issues. Alina? Ehh she seems to either not care or care very little, which is properly Alina-esque of her. Mifuyu? Oh let me talk about MIFUYU for a second. Disclaimer, despite her many sins committed against my favorite characters, I do love the sheep, she’s too much of a failure, I cannot hate her. But Mifuyu “I want to be a nurse” Azusa is insensitive beyond belief, and I was honestly surprised when they appointed her to be some sort of… ethics teacher for Touka? Bruh. You see, an MGS is supposed to put us in the shoes of whatever character it’s about. That’s what it does. However my brain is broken and perceives the world from a TouNemu perspective by default. Which means I had a completely different reading of Mifuyu’s MGS. I am going to illustrate my point with screenshots this time because I happen to have them on hand.

Mifuyu says this about Touka and Nemu getting worked up over Alina wanting to prioritize witches above rumors. But. Here’s the thing. The thing that Mifuyu seems to be missing completely. Rumors are created by Nemu, through a sacrifice of her own life force that worsens her pain and makes her suffer more with each subsequent use. Evidently, the girls reply that no, they don’t think they were getting too emotional.

YOU THINK? Have you given any thought to why that could possibly be the case, Mifuyu? But, okay, fine, we can look past this. Alright. Next scene, it’s Touka and Nemu being upset that Yachiyo just destroyed the Divorce Stairs (I call them that, but for clarification, it’s the Friendship-Ending Staircase). I’m going to bring something up that I don’t believe is exactly contradicted by canon, though not confirmed either, but I’d be willing to believe by the fact that Nemu knows of Iroha (by name and I assume appearance) that there’s a psychic link of some kind between the uwasa and their creator. That would make sense, considering they are made of her magic and have pieces of her life force. If this is true, then that massacre Iroha and Yachiyo go on during Arc 1 Chapter 7 is far, far worse.

But alright, back to the scene. Touka is standing up for Nemu here, and Mifuyu proceeds to go and dismiss their feelings because, as she says in her thoughts, “they’re just children”. Okay, Mifuyu, hear me out. They’re 11-12. They’re not toddlers. Just because they’re children doesn’t make their emotions invalid, unimportant, or not worth considering. Particularly in this case, where they have a good reason to be upset. Nemu even mentions the life force she’s using up and Mifuyu’s first and only thought is “Yacchan…” (this is a repeating pattern).

The next relevant scene is one where Mifuyu does something Alina has also done and Touka hasn't: ask Nemu to make a rumor for her.

Nemu reminds her that it comes at a cost, and that she’s using up her life for this. Nemu gives in, of course. I will talk about this imminently. First though, the final scene of Mifuyu’s MGS. Where Mifuyu repeats the previous pattern but worse. How exactly is it worse? I’ll let the screenshots speak for themselves here. Nemu and Mifuyu meet at the shrine where the uwasa is going to be released, Nemu does the deed, and faints, then Mifuyu reacts like this:

These screenshots are less than a second apart. It is the immediate follow-up. Absolutely zero concern for one of the people she’s supposed to be responsible for who just did her a pretty big favor (as if you needed someone’s blood to open a door, they stabbed themselves to get you the blood, and then you left them on the ground in pain). So yes Mifuyu is insensitive and she is not helping Nemu’s view of adults. Relatedly, before I move to talking about Touka, since I’d like to actually end this on a non-depressing note, I’m going to circle back a little to Nemu’s family.

I am infamous for not liking Nemu’s family. Her parents, mainly. Her brother, for as much of a snotty brat as he is to her, is presumably still very tiny and has had scarce interactions with his sister, therefore leading to the way Nemu describes their relationship (“strangers”). As a slight aside, Nemu does try very hard to have a relationship with her brother, not only in her MGS, but in her solo Christmas quotes where she’s lost on what to get as a gift for a kid that likes soccer and asks Homescreen-chan for advice. And you see, Nemu has this thing where once you get past a certain point with her, she becomes a people pleaser. Unlike when Ui’s parents have visited before (seen in TouNemu’s Christmas MGS), Nemu was shocked to hear that her mother and brother had come to see her. This leads me to believe the visits are an extremely rare occurrence and that there is no other contact besides them. Ui’s parents at least video call her, from what the quotes say.

And now we have reached the point where it’s unavoidable and I have to talk about Nemu’s emotional trauma. Her family does not seem to know about her writing, which was a good call because it shielded her from much of the gifted kid trauma. However, that doesn’t mean her parents’ actions (or lack thereof) were without consequence. A lot of these might be subconscious, so bear with me a second. At this point in the timeline, Nemu struggles to believe that others will meet her needs or care for her. She seeks affirmation, acceptance, approval, and fortunately seems to get it in the form of her website and Touka during this era.

Let me give you some examples of Nemu’s people-pleasing tendencies, as any kid would learn that catering to the needs and desires of others can sometimes lead to a sense of belonging or validation—she explicitly wants that, she is aware that she wants to feel loved. This is immensely obvious with her family’s visits, where her first reaction isn’t good but then she plays along and puts up a happier face (which drops literally as soon as her mother and brother are out of the room), even apologizing for the slightest inconvenience regardless of whether or not the reaction to that inconvenience was bad (the book that was hard to find, the general Presence™ of her family in the room, apologizes again for talking about her feelings, etc). So that she doesn’t have to burden them with her feelings. So that her mother can feel like she’s fulfilled her duty by walking into the room, giving Nemu a rundown of what the family has been up to, and leaving without really actually spending any real quality time with her or bothering to really ask about her. Touka gets (righteously) angry in Nemu’s stead once her mother and brother have left precisely because of this. Nemu proceeds to, like many children in her position, defend her parents completely and then chastise herself for “looking down on them”. Touka and Ui both understand at least the heart of the issues at play here, and express as much. My point here isn’t exactly “Nemu’s parents are equivalent to Sana’s” or anything, it’s more that they’re extremely oblivious and their actions (and lack thereof) have hurt Nemu deeply.

That habit Nemu’s parents have of never truly showing interest in their daughter’s life seems to remain after the hospital, and then they’re focused on her brother’s comfort. Not Nemu’s. Never Nemu’s. Then, later on, in the Wings of the Magius, every time someone asks her to make a rumor (read: sacrifice a piece of her life force and make herself feel physically worse presumably forever), she agrees. Mifuyu asks her to, yeah sure. Alina wants a rumor? Of course. I won’t count when everyone asked her for stuff to add to Fendt Hope solely because I’m not sure Fendt Hope works like normal rumors do. Something, something, difficulty setting and maintaining healthy boundaries, struggling to distinguish her own needs from the needs of others…

A child who learned that her voice and desires were not prioritized in such critical stages of her life naturally struggles to articulate her own needs and wants. Prime example, Fendt Hope’s creation. She listens to the others give their ideas for it, never suggesting anything herself after reminding them of her usefulness. Until. Touka asks. When she does, Nemu seems almost taken aback. She apologizes. Nothing comes to mind. That very same day, she gets home, tries again to have some sort of positive interaction or time with her brother, gets rejected. As soon as an alternative form of service (doing the dishes for her exhausted mother so that she may help her brother with homework) presents itself, she practically jumps at the opportunity. The scene after that one, with the way she views Touka, Alina, and Mifuyu, vs the way she views her mother and brother, only makes this more obvious. How is Nemu supposed to feel any sense of value at home? At least as a magical girl, she’s useful. At least as a Magius, she has people who know her. The feelings of low self-worth aren’t as obvious on Nemu as they are on many of the other girls who have them, though.

The next time there’s a Magius meeting, this time to decide on a name for their base, Touka is again the one who asks Nemu for her opinion. It’s important to note that Touka is never once hostile, aggressive, or even annoyed when she does this. She considers Nemu’s thoughts and feelings more than anyone. Heck, Nemu would have no way to doubt Touka’s care for her considering their history and the way she acts.

Now I get to talk about the relationship between Magius Nemu and Magius Touka. If I start gushing incoherently, I apologize in advance. I covered a bit of Magius Touka’s attitude towards Nemu in the essay dedicated to her, and slightly in this one, but now I want to draw attention to how incredibly sweet Touka can be when it comes to Nemu. Nemu desperately needs that reliability and that love Touka provides, the hope she brings. And Touka is the one person who openly shows her care, attention. Over and over again.

Touka considers Nemu an equal. During the main story, as I said in my Magius Touka essay, she shows concern for Nemu’s health and wellbeing when no one else does. This goes beyond her magic-given affliction! I only wish we had more bits and pieces from that era, but as for what we do have… Well, I have to point at Nemu’s swimsuit costume story for the easiest and shortest point of reference. I’d use screenshots, but if I did, I would just end up showing you every single piece of dialogue and expression.

In that costume story, Touka and Nemu are at Fendt Hope, talking about their future trip to the beach (which they made plans for together in Touka’s swimsuit costume story). Nemu has her insecurities, and she’s shy about putting on the swimsuit, but then Touka proceeds to be incredibly supportive by first making her feel comfortable—for some reason she also had her own swimsuit lying around and offered to wear it too because Nemu mentioned it’d be embarrassing if she was the only one wearing a swimsuit and Touka was wearing clothes—then as soon as Nemu expresses self-doubt, she doubles down via genuine compliments (these two compliment each other way more than you think, even in main story Touka praises Nemu for her ideas). This is also a rare occasion where we’re shown that Nemu’s parents, or her mom at least, who seems more present than her dad, mean no harm, since it was Nemu’s mother who helped pick out every element of her swimsuit. After that, Touka goes off to change back into her school uniform, and Nemu is “uncharacteristically giddy” (as she states) looking at herself in the mirror. Touka gets back, and Nemu is startled to have been caught in a vulnerable state, but, critically, Touka is happy to see her happy and doesn’t tease her, although Nemu (jokingly, blushing) laments that letting Touka read her heart is the greatest failure of her life. Nemu asks Touka to listen. And Touka complies. Nemu trusts Touka with her heart, with her honest feelings, and knows Touka will never hurt her. That’s why she’s able to be so sincere with her. This is shown in Nemu’s Tap 8 quote, where she also refers to Touka as trustworthy (Touka has a matching Tap 8 quote, and hers is about how reliable Nemu is for her). This relationship, no matter what it is, is deeply important to both participants.

Finally, to end this glorified rant… I know I used the sun and moon metaphor earlier, but. I would like to borrow the words of Nemu in one of my fics: “It’s silent at night. Touka stays up with her telescope, I stay up reading nearby. We are stardust brought to life. A quiet place, just for us. The gentlest fire in us, like binary stars.” (I’m sorry but the binary stars comparison is too good not to mention). Their connection was there before the Magius, and after everything they went through, their lives became irreversibly bound, intertwined beyond the understanding of quite literally anyone else. They practically always speak in plural, the time they spend together has been on the rise, and at the time of writing? To avoid spoiling Arc 2 Chapter 12, I won’t go into specifics, but the relationship has reached a beautiful point that I will froth at the mouth about eventually.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the Nemu essay, I went slightly more feral this time so apologies for that. I’ll see how soon the hospital era essay can be thrown into the wild. Nishi out!

[all-pacas]

Honestly, I thought the writers were psychotic with how forced the hameron arc was, makes sense the character were writing seemed weird too.

OK, here's my lukewarm defense of Hameron:

I buy that the arc would happen.

Cameron likes to fix people, but more than that, Cameron likes to be right. She has strong morals, she really does believe the world should work in a certain idealistic way — she's not stupid, she knows it doesn't, but she keeps hoping for better, she keeps pushing for better. And in a way, she's a lot like House, who also has to be right, who has to understand and pick at people and know. Neither do well with mysteries, neither do well with ambiguity, both are disappointed over and over again by the fact that people lie and are bad and are selfish. But House is cynical and avoidant and hides his intense empathy behind twenty layers of asshole, and Cameron wears hers on her sleeve.

From the start of the show, in fact, they're constantly having this philosophical debates. Foreman pushes back on House when he thinks House is messing up or missing something tangible; Cameron pushes on the morals. They discuss religion. They discuss abortion. She's absolutely unafraid to push House on his beliefs, and it's interesting (and another post, probably) that Cameron is nearly always presented in the narrative as wrong; her faith in others is never validated. But she keeps trying anyway. And that's an interesting dynamic. But it's also a doomed one: House isn't ever going to change too drastically, and so Cameron either has to become cynical like him — and therefore lose these appealing traits — or distance herself. I think this is also, ultimately, why she was written off the show (as much as I hate that she was).

House in S1 does treat her differently than he does Foreman and Chase. He's constantly pushing Foreman, because Foreman is brilliant but kind of needs to be pushed, is too stubborn and set in his ways otherwise. Chase kind of coasts by in the background: he actually pushes back against House quite a bit, if not to Foreman's extent; he doesn't have an issue saying I think this is wrong if he needs to. Cameron, in S1, is the one always defending House, always sticking up for him. She's the only one who insists he doesn't have a drug problem, for example; when House is off on a particularly long limb (such as in Damned if You Do), she's the only one saying "no, he has to be right, he isn't just making this up." House in turn is a bit gentler with her. He reassures her when she's worried no one takes her seriously. Foreman and Chase, at least, think that she's House's favorite: he certainly is less critical of her than he is the guys, and is quite gentle with her when she's upset on the whole.

So, okay, decent set up. The problem is that the crush arc comes out of fucking nowhere. "I need to know how you feel about me," Cameron says, out of nowhere, as though they've been exchanging looks and heated moments for months, as if they've been flirting. He invites her to monster trucks and they have a good time, genuinely, but Cameron at least beforehand is clear that she knows it's not a real date. I can see her thinking afterward that it was a date, that it was a sign of interest, but the thread isn't picked up on at all for a few episodes; I think they should have had them… maybe not flirting, but have House do his "stand inappropriately close" thing, send some Mixed Messages. Something to make Cameron come off as less completely delusional.

But fine. She asks how he feels, and, okay, she has a crush on him. He says nothing. The next episode, she and Chase have a little conversation about this (and in my S1 rewatch, for real, I do appreciate their friendship, they really do get along well, apparently Chase knows all about her crush to the point she asks him for advice), and that's pretty good too. She admits she likes House, but not in an unrealistic way. She shot her shot, it didn't work, she's uncomfortable around House now. Works for me.

Except then Cameron maybe makes a minor mistake and jumps to House wants to fire me because he can't handle his love for me! Which. Cameron. My gal. That's insane. She spends the entire episode stomping around furious that House dared suggest she made a mistake. It's made worse because just like two episodes ago, Chase made a bigger mistake and was legitimately worried about his job and didn't take it personally, like, you made a much smaller error and are freaking out and taking it as a personal insult. We know House calls people on their mistakes! He doesn't care! It isn't personal! But Cameron is like nope, it's personal, it's about his love for me, and again, there has been nothing from House here. Nothing at all. And so she quits explicitly to take control of the situation and her feelings (VERY on brand for Cameron, no notes), and then kicks off Kids with "I can't come back because it was so weird between us :(" like she isn't the one who made it weird. It's so wiiiiild

I think I lost my train of thought. Anyway. I think the set up and concept were okay, if always completely doomed, but the writing absolutely did them no favors. I can buy Cameron's crush on House, and I can fanfic my way into seeing House with a bit of an interest in Cameron. But in the space of two episodes we go from nothing to "everyone knows House has a thing for her, really!!!!" with absolutely nothing to show for it. They even try to make a big sad moment in the finale like "you're capable of love, just not love for me!" like the entire plot line didn't come off as entirely in Cameron's head dfsdf

Ironically and hilariously they have way more and better tension/chemistry after this arc. S3 has some genuinely strong Tense Moments. I think their dynamic is overall much more interesting and stronger in S4 and S5, when they're on more equal footing and Cameron has gotten more confident and less gloomy. Like, I still don't care for it, and I firmly believe it would crash and burn in two days (Cameron would haaaaate dating House once the excitement of fucking her boss wore off, we joke about how broken people are her type but he is not her type, they're two control freaks who would murder one another), but boy is this show also just awful at writing romance.

Also pour one out for Hugh Laurie who clearly was not into the ship and did not hide it. Like I'm agnostic towards Huddy but you cannot deny they had chemistry and enjoyed flirting and those actors acted their hearts out with all that banter. Hugh Laurie just looks faintly terrified in all his S1 scenes with Cameron and. Good for him lmaooo

[blueikeproductions]

The reason why gender is such a mess in IDW is mainly because of Simon Furman stubbornly refusing to let go of his old Marvel G1 belief that the Transformers should be a genderless masculine presenting race. Which, I'm sorry Furman, but you can't put that genie back in the bottle. The girls exist, and it doesn't do you any favors to throw a tantrum and do weird shit with Acree's origin every time Hasbro forces you to write her.

Oh I’m acutely aware, I was there at ground zero, but my problem in IDW was less Furman, though he didn’t help by introducing Arcee as the result of a forced gender reassignment procedure, it was the countless retcons and asterisks other writers felt compelled to fix and only made it WORSE. It would’ve simply been better to just let Arcee’s trans roots be ignored and instead focus on having her become a better character, something IDW did at least attempt but I don’t know if they succeeded.

Like to Furman’s credit, the comical Prime’s Rib at least still showed Arcee to be strong, smart, and capable (what the feminists in story CLAIM they wanted), with most of the humor being Prime trying to appease stereotypical feminists and only making them angrier because they could only see Arcee just being pink and having an interest in men (because she did show an interest in Hot Rod). As much as some don’t want to hear it, the story aged all too well because of the current hyper political environment we’re stuck in now, with even stuff like IDW and EarthSpark being somewhat the result of appeasing radical groups rather than being entertaining to all ages and groups. And IDW lost the license, and EarthSpark had failed on all fronts, only sticking around out of a weak desire on Hasbro’s part to have something on for the 40th anniversary. They’ve otherwise moved on to TFONE and Arcee in Skybound is having a much better time.

I do think Furman may have let it go though, he wrote the Terrans just fine in EarthSpark’s tie in video game, and the tangibly related to Transformers in concept, Astrobots, that he writes, features several main female robots who are strong, capable and smart. Their origins in their race not being dwelled on beyond some handwaved human involvement if I recall correctly.

I do understand his confusion, why do a race of robotic beings who don’t sexually reproduce need females in THAT context, but having them in general doesn’t seem to be an issue beyond that to him. The problem remains is he dwelled on it too long, explained it in a jokey way in Marvel UK that honestly was pry the best way to explain it back then in THAT universe, then tried to explain it in a cooler sci-fi way in IDW and got backlash from EVERYONE that it seemed to have humbled him enough. That said, some ideas are still clung to via Earth Wars, where he gleefully makes fun of both Dreamwave & IDW, and kinda rightfully so in SOME areas. Deathsaurus, with the threat of being sent to Dreamwave’s universe, is horrified at the idea (probably didn’t want to be drawn by Pat Lee among other things). The Prime’s Rib story having a spiritual successor where the Autobots find Melody has written romantic fan fiction about Drift & Prowl, and while they say as a species they don’t romantically pair off and poke holes at the Conjux terminology they don’t even have, they don’t really have too much of an issue with what Melody was doing. If anything they were more confused why she paired Drift with Prowl, and then playfully teased a clueless Prowl about it. Melody is also the main Autobot ally in the game and she and the Autobots get along just fine too.

[fipindustries]

todos los demonios estan aqui

you've probably heard me mention multiple times that one of my favourite novels of all times is"la battala del calentamiento", an argentinian novel about a man who suffers from gigantism going on a trip to the argentinian south and encountering a strange little village there with strange people living in it and becoming the step dad of a girl with magical powers.

well, the writer of that book is called Marcelo Figueras, and it just so happened that a couple years ago he published a new book called "todos los demonios estan aqui". so, obviously, i had to read it.

it was fine i guess.

the book reads like a suspense horror movie, i could see A24 adapting this one day, with strong influences from stephen king. a psychiatrist is hired to work at a strange mental hospital, tucked away in an old mansion in a distant island in the middle of the Delta (an important argentinian river). soon he comes to find out that place is a lot stranger and much more sinister than he thought at first.

the twist at the end is that actually the institution, as well as all its franchises, are actually franchises of hell. the "patients" in those hospitals are all damned souls trapped in their bodies on earth, unable to access heaven. the goal of these hospitals is to treat those people and give them a second chance to repent and redeem themselves. our main character accidentally lets a patient escape and it turns out that patient was john gacy, the clown serial killer.

highjinks ensue.

its a pretty decent mystery book, the clues are doled out slowly and the reveal is satisfactory. although i feel the premise was never properly explored. as soon as the big twist is revealed we jump into the third act and we never really a breather to explore in more detail the implications of this (there is a throwaway line that hitler and stalin are also patients of this hospital in other countries) the only two "infamous people from history" we get to see are john gacy and ottis toole.

as a story its pretty decent but there are a couple of aspects that hold it back to me. first, as i said, most of the book is spent unraveling the mystery and once the premise is finally revealed in full we barely have any time to really explore it or let it sink before we rush to a typical horror movie third act serial killer type fare.

second, the main character is very unlikeable. he is a middle aged man who is EXTREMELY divorced, the most divorced man in the conurbano. with all the typical flaws associated. hates his ex, has only eyes for his son, is constantly oogling other women, he is a bit of an alcoholic, has a bit of a temper, is kind of a lonely loser, etc.

third, this book has what is probably the most out of place, shoehorned, tacked on sex scene i ever came across in a story. is completly ridiculous and the only explination i can find is that the writer got a sudden and uncontainable attack of hornyness as he was writing the book and he just had to type that scene with one hand while the other was occupied.

finally the happy ending kind of strains belief. the guy fucks up, he fucks up massively. he lets a serial killer escape from the hospital because he thought he was "harmless", the guy went on to kill two people, torture his ex and molest his son. a lot of energy and personel from the hospital had to be used to recapture the guy. the fact that he was not fired for this and gets to have a happy relationship with his son by the end of it all is absolutely ridiculous. it would have taken me out of the novel if it wasnt for the fact that it ends there.

honestly this book is more interesting for its premise and the fuel it gave me to extrapolate interesting stories in this world than for the book itself. like damn, who else is in these hospitals? how do they get them from the moment they die into these places? how do they make sure nobody recognizes them? i want to see how they handle guys like hitler, or charles manson or margaret tatcher.

in the epilogue we see the guy taking on a new patient, Mister J, who turns out to be his abusive father who was a colaborator with the military dictatorship of the 70's. i don want to see just a page dedicated to that, we could have had a whole novel based on that alone!

so yeah, competently written but with a few stumbles here and there that end up making the whole experience a lot more frustrating than it needed to be

7/10

[ghostiewriter]

Season 4 is about to drop and people on twitter are still talking about Kiara and hating on her for “homie hopping” on the guys.

I swear Kie gets more hate for trying to have a relationship with Pope (who made her feel guilty when she first rejected him) BREAKING UP WITH HIM and THEN starting dating JJ, way more than the amount of hate that Sarah gets for literally cheating on her boyfriend with her ex.

But I’m the bad one if I say that a good chunk of the fandom is racist towards her (same reason why some write JJ fanfics with original characters that are blonde white girls and literally have the same best friend role has Kie and also hate her in the fics)

I think the most annoying part of this agenda that they push against kiara is that it’s fully put on her shoulders. like, if you watch the first goddamn episode of the show, it very clearly implies that all three of the boys had a crush on her😭it’s not like she just jumped from boy to boy to boy and forced them to be with her (also john b literally kissed her, not the other way around)

also there have been some very good jj x reader fics that I’ve read, but there’s an overwhelming amount that do have the reader/oc act and speak and fit the same way kiara does. obviously people can write whatever they want to write as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, but it’s annoying to see kiara portrayed as a villain in certain fics when her and the reader are the same person

I fear even four years on, we haven’t reached the end of unnecessary hate towards kiara. the writers of the show definitely don’t make it any easier (like the pope and kiara plot would’ve worked just fine without them sleeping together) but🙃people will always blame her instead of bringing any of the boys into it or even the writers

but honestly, it’s best to just ignore these people. a lot of them just lack common sense and common decency, and arguing will only exhaust you. no matter what you say to them, they will stick to their beliefs and opinions

[l0cked0uttt]

I'm Fine With You Being In A Cult But I Draw The Line At All This Transgender Shit

Badboyhalo x Trans!Male reader (FTM) (geared towards romantic but can be seen as platonic)

Angst to slight fluff at the end

Prompt: The readers parents find out about them being trans and kick them out, M/N seeks help and guidance from Bad and the egg.

CW/TW: Transphobia, misgendering, use of deadname, mentions of cult/cultist activity, cursing.

M/N is used (meaning male name)

D/N means dead name and is used briefly in the beginning

All tranphobic parts are very brief and I will provide a warning as to when they start and stop

This is when Bad is under the Eggs influence, I apologize if I get his personality wrong, I haven't had much experience with writing Bad as well as his persona in the Eggpire so if I get anything wrong feel free to correct me.

(M/N is apart of the Eggpire if it wasn't obvious already)

A/N: I thank a spin wheel for helping me with this one, honestly helped with the slight writers block lol

~The transphobia/misgendering starts here, proceed with caution~

M/N was sitting on the couch in his childhood home, he had decided to see his parents and fill them in on the most important thing in his life, the egg. It took them a little bit of time, but they understood that their "daughter" had "her" beliefs and they respected that, even if they were a little weird.

As for M/N, he was slowly cracking, before leaving, he had assured Bad that everything would be okay and now he was just waiting for the perfect moment to tell them. 'No better time than the present.' he thought and silently prayed to the Egg for guidance and confidence.

"Mom, Dad, I had something to tell you, something very important."

His mother smiles and clapped, turning her attention to M/N.

"Oh please tell me that you and that boy of your's is getting married, I've been waiting so long to see my little girl in a wedding gown, though I do hope you grow your hair out, I hate how you keep cutting it."

There it is again, "girl".

"Um, no, me and Bad are not getting married, it's something more important."

"What could be more important than you finally settling down?" His father questioned.

M/N shifted uncomfortably in his seat before speaking, "Mom, Dad, I'm trans, I've been meaning to tell you for a while now and seeing how well you reacted to me being with the Egg and Bad I finally wanted to tell you." M/N's tone was cheerful, he had a smile on his face. However that smile slowly began to drop as he noticed his parents' dumbfounded faces.

"Mom-"

He was cut off by his mother starting to scream at him.

"What do you mean your "trans" you can't be trans you were born a girl, I raised a little girl not a fucking tranny!"

M/N sat there his eyes widened, he didn't expect her to react this way.

"D/N, me and your mother are fine with you being in this cult stuff but we have to draw the line here."

His mother finished his sentence.

"and that line is all this transgender shit."

"That's not my name, my name is M/N!" M/N stood up, he wanted to seem intimidating but he couldn't stop shaking.

"Bullshit! The name that I gave you and the name that is on your birth certificate is D/N! Not whatever the hell M/N is."

~Transphobia/misgendering ends here~

Tears began to well up in his eyes as his body began shaking even more, and that's when the screaming matches started.

The three were yelling at each other, M/N wouldn't have been surprised if the neighbors heard.

"Get the fuck out of my house!"

His father yelled and the whole house went silent.

"What-"

"I said, get. the fuck. out. of my house!"

M/N covered his ears and looked down at the ground before running to the door and grabbing his stuff. As he walked out of his house the tears kept falling from his eyes, his arms were wrapped tightly around himself.

After about half an hour M/N had finally made it back home, back to the Egg, back to Bad.

"Bad..? I'm home.." M/N's voice was hoarse and he was tired from crying all the way home.

Bad poked his head around the corner, a big smile adored his face as he saw his lover. "Hey M/N!" Bad walked over giving his boyfriend a big hug, when he pulled away he held M/N's face and that's when he noticed the tear stains on his face.

"Oh my prime what happened? Is everything okay?"

M/N opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out as he broke down into tears again. Bad pulled his lover into a hug and M/N held on to Bad as if he was afraid he would leave.

"Muffin, what happened?"

"I-I told my mom and dad about the egg and me and they were fine with the egg but when I told them about me." M/N started breaking down into more sobs, burying his face in Bad's shoulder and he got the message.

"Hey look at me." Bad spoke in a soft tone, holding M/N's face in his hands.

M/N was still crying pretty hard but he looked at him.

"I support you, Ant supports you, Ponk, Punz, Hannah, Skeppy, we all support you. But you know the most important thing?"

M/N had calmed down enough to be able to properly speak,sniffling every once and while, while Bad whipped away any tears.

"What?" His voice was soft and cracking.

"The Egg supports you and the Egg will always be here to support you, and if your parents can't see that then they don't deserve you or the Eggs time."

The two rested their foreheads together, taking in the time to calm down and enjoy each other's company. Bad gave a quick forehead kiss before holding M/N's hand.

"Come on, let's go cuddle, you look like you could use some rest."

"Thank you Bad, for everything." M/N smiled, giving him a hug.

"You're welcome, it's the least I can do! Now come on, it's cuddle time!"

********

Whoo! I actually quiet enjoyed making this, despite the transphobic themes in the beginning but I loved making a fluffy badboyhalo story it was just too sweet!

Surprisingly this only took two days to write and I have another one planned to post later tonight so look out for that!

Word Count: 892 (I planned on this being longer but I cut out a lot of the fight between M/N and his parents because once I was done I was like "Okay maybe I projected a little too much" so that's why its shorter, hope it's still good tho!)

[shadowqueenjude]

I was tagged in this game a long time ago by @positivelyruined

Things you'd like to know about fellow writers:

Last book I read: last book I FINISHED was House of Flame and Shadow. Currently we're struggling through The Cruel Prince.

Greatest literary inspirations: Suzanne Collins, Rick Riordan, JK Rowling, and Jane Austen (please note this is ONLY for their writing, not their beliefs outside of their works)

Things in my fandom that I want to read but I don't want to write: honestly having trouble writing long fics these days, have been sticking to one-shots, but Nesta having a relationship with Ember and Bryce and Tamlin slowly recovering from his trauma post-ACOSF are top of the list. Why I want to read this? I think Nesta could benefit a lot from having a good mother in her life; her life was molded by her abusive mother, and she has so few people in her life who stand up for her. And Bryce humbling the shit out of everyone IC and being Ember's daughter? Bestie potential fr. Tamlin recovering from his trauma post-ACOSF? Because I think he has been done dirty by SJM and I would like to feel his struggles first-hand. I don't feel like I'm qualified enough to write about this though (not the skill of my writing, but it's a heavy topic). Also, I have too many WIPs.

Things in my current fandom that I want to write about but I don't think anyone will be interested but me: honestly i THOUGHT my Azriel-Beron mating bond idea would be unpopular, but it is getting a SURPRISING amount of traction recently so guess who's writing it for sjmvillainweek???

You can recognize my writing by: I'm a very emotional writer first and foremost; I like writing emotionally charged scenes and allowing you inside the character's head so you can really see how powerful their emotions are.

My most controversial takes:

Some time ago I would've said it's that Feysand-Nessian-Elriel are the absolute worst ships in the fandom, but I don't think that's a controversial take anymore; the people are realizing.

So maybe my most controversial takes are:

Azriel ain't all that, he is infantilized too much by the pro and anti side of this fandom and it's ridiculous that he gets so much love for literally doing nothing. He's like that mediocre guy who nobody expects shit from so the one time he actually DOES do stuff he is treated like a celebrity. He is whiny when most of his problems are self-made, which is highly irritating. He's a total creep and he's got a LONG way to go before he is in any way worthy of Gwyn.

Tamlin should no longer be a High Lord. I was honestly surprised this was such a controversial take, but I think I've surrounded myself with loads of pro-Tamlins. Obviously I want him to ensure the future of Spring before he abdicates, but being a High Lord is something that truly made him miserable, especially as of ACOSF. We might not have been having this conversation had he remained as he was in book 1, but the truth is he is no longer the same guy he once was and I simply don't see how SJM is going to bring him back. I'd rather he live in peace than be SJM's plaything.

Favorite tropes:

Black cat girlfriend-golden retriever/doberman boyfriend

Literally anything regency-related

Forced Proximity, rivals to lovers (enemies to lovers is a bit much for me I think)

Current writing mood: 5 because I can write loads of short snippets but actually putting together a story is rough for me rn

Fandom frustration:

Honestly, fandom hierarchies. Some people are obsessed with follower count and catering their content to appeal to a wider audience and while I think that's fine to an extent, we have people trying to lord themselves over others because they have a couple hundred more followers. Like...at the end of the day, we're all just fucking nerds, tf do you mean you think you're superior?

Also, butting into the opposing side of the fandom. Like, it's different if a post asks for friendly discourse, but when the post is clearly not meant for you, why tf are you trying to make your opinion known? Know when your opinion is wanted.

Also the current threat to fanfiction. Stop trying to buy and sell fanfic tf? We write this shit for free.

Everyone has probably already done this, but...

Tagging: @crazy-ache @sonics-atelier @simmanin anyone who wants to do it!

[frazzledsoul]

One more post-Emmys thought:

It seems that in the streaming age there tends to be one show that hangs onto the Emmy glory, at least in the comedy category, for a limited amount of time: in 2018-2019, it was Mrs. Maisel: then we had an off year with the pandemic and Schitt's Creek won everything: then from 2021-2022 Ted Lasso was dominant: now it's The Bear's turn. That will last for another year, I think. In earlier years the same shows and the same people would win over and over, because they were network shows and it was a collective shared cultural experience. Now it's all over the place, and I think attention spans are shorter, and the memory of these shows fades faster. Maisels's fans seemed to be happy with the ending and as someone who keeps track with ratings it did do well there but Amazon Prime did not promote that last season at all, choosing to focus on Citadel, one of their many male-oriented procedurals. Ted Lasso was well-watched but it seemed a lot of fans and people involved with the series were over it by the last season. Now you have The Bear, which I don't think is probably going to have a similar shelf life. Maybe that's not bad.

(It's so weird being a huge fan of a favorite, honestly. Usually I'm into one show that occasionally gets an award like This Is Us at the most).

The other thing I had to say is that (some) House of The Dragon fans have this mistaken belief that Succession was the only thing standing in the way of awards glory for their show. However...the guilds ignored them (SAG, WGA DGA, and PGA) and they did not pick up some acting noms for other award ceremonies but those are voted on by the press, who were adamant that House of The Dragon made up for Game of Thrones 's sins by not disappointing them. The industry doesn't seem to like the show. If Succession is the only thing keeping it from Emmy glory, why didn't they pick up any acting or directing or writing nominations? The Emmys threw those at The White Lotus and The Last of Us even though they didn't win most of them.

It's fine to be an immensely popular popcorn show and nothing else. House of The Dragon seems to win over the media and the fans by giving them what they want: a lurid soap opera about a beleaguered Targ princess who is treated as the pinnacle of royalty but still has to fight "evil" foes who would deny her the coronation she truly deserves. This is the morality play GoT fans and the media wanted and were cruelly denied: the crowning of their beloved Targaryen queen. That's the story they wanted and the one HOTD seeks to tell. It's rather shallow but it's what the fandom screamed for. So thus, no awards.

Now you may say uh Frazzled, the source material for House of The Dragon does not end in an epic triumph for Princess Rhae Rhae. True, but I don't think the writers have gotten that far along and GRRM is pretty much letting them do whatever they want, so we'll see how that shakes out. At the very least they're pretending that Rhaenyra planned to do something about the threat of ice zombies, although it's not clear what. You may also say that not everyone watched GoT to see Daenerys get what she wanted, which is very true, but the Targ fans were the loudest and they included much of the media, so that's who the franchise hopes to please. I myself am still watching HOTD and rooting for the "villains", so I guess a lot of GoT fans chose to overlook the fact that HOTD has a pretty narrow and superficial scope, myself included.

So it's a popcorn show. Nothing wrong with that, really, but I don't expect things to change while it's still on the air.

[abyssmalice]

// 4.2 story genshin spoilers

(alright everyone...................... time for my story Thonkies)

(so overall: it was a p good story, i feel like it wrapped up fontaine's overall story well enough.

emphasis on "well enough" bc i do feel like some parts of it were very, uh, how do i put it. "bullshitty" is a harsh word but there were def moments, especially when it was dropping exposition, that felt like the writers were kinda just pulling things out of their ass in order to explain things and therefore come up with a solution to conclude everything. in the vein of "X thing exists!! we're just telling you it exists Now, like 5 mins into the finale, without almost zero buildup to it" sort of vibe.

at least, i think i need to go over the prophecy and the heavenly principles stuff with a fine-toothed comb again later........ because the exposition on that felt very "just take us at our word for it" like when you think about it, How does the heavenly principles actually enact the prophecy? especially when the story outright throws a "the root of the prophecy's effects is the whale"?? the implication is that the prophecy and all it entails is "fated", and thus, it's not that the heavens literally orchestrated the whale and stuff (well unless they want to prove me wrong on that in the next couple of AQs) - but that they have the ability to manipulate or enforce "fate". the "law" of the world and all that bs essentially. and fontaine's fate was meant to be that prophecy, leaving the finer details up to whatever actually happens.

BUT THIS STILL TAKES A BIT OF THINKING TO FIGURE OUT AND ALSO KINDA FEELS WEIRDLY OUT OF NOWHERE AND ITS LIKE, AS A WRITER I THINK IT'S COOL BUT ALSO GOD DAMN DID IT FEEL LIKE IT CAME OUT OF JUST NOWHERE-

anyway, this isn't to say the AQ was bad. no, i honestly think it was really good, i genuinely liked it, even if i feel like the execution of some parts was. weird. essentially lmao

.

ANYWAY THATS MY ONLY REAL MAJOR GRIPE, LET ME GET INTO THE STUFF I ENJOYED THE HELL OUT OF:

aka fuwina........... ;A;

like ok girl, you win, ill roll for you. i am so fucking rolling for you once i have the primos-

the entire "acting" scene by scene.......... oh my god, it was so good, you really feel for her. i was utterly bawling my eyes out the entire time, personally. also idk about the other languages, but jp furina takes the fucking cake for me - all of her dialogue where she isn't putting up a front is voiced so softly, almost childishly—it really hammers in the point that furina really was, as focalors put it, "naive and inexperienced as my first day as a human" when first created - she was split into existence and purposefully left clueless on some knowledge (like focalors' plan for the prophecy) and lacking in any magical powers that could be considered godlike, hence human, and not-all-knowing or all-powerful as a god. a true human, a newborn young human.

in essence, a child thrust into the role of acting as something more than that, with dire consequences if that role was not played to perfection, with seemingly no end; any normal person would be crumbling under such weight, and furina more so as someone who, in the context of her own situation, didn't even know what the "plan" entailed besides what focalors' said - all she had was pure turned desperate belief that it would turn out okay because the other-her said so.

(i can already hear tonitoni awkwardly trying to share a juice box in the back of my brain.............. something something the solidarity of young girls thrust into positions of power without quite knowing what they were getting into years down the line but they knew there was something on the line and they would do what they can for those they loved and a god looked upon them and said, follow what i say, and everything will be well-)

anyway i havent played furina's story quest yet so thats all the fuwina thonks i have, but i sure hope it doesnt make me bawl again........

.

my other big thonks def have to do with the whale and the events around it (of course they do, what kinda blog is this again? tonitoni blog? yes and no)

i think the fight was pretty cool, tho i want to know why the actual hell we fought. that thing. inside the whale. besides the rule of cool factor. like is there a reason that was in there in the first place?? also why do some of its aoe attacks look like vishaps are trying to attack you.................... hey, what's going on here man......................

also the way skirk tosses not just choldee but also the whale into an abyssal-looking crack. like, ill get to childe in a second, but let me focus on how she actually just sucks the whale into a suspiciously quantum-looking ball before tossing it aside. (please tell me we're getting a quantum element. bc. maybe. that. that means. i-imaginary element.................. PLEASE I WANT TO GIVE MY TONIS AN EXCUSE TO SECRETLY HAVE EITHER QUANTUM OR IMAGINARY AS ONE OF THEIR ELEMENTS PLEAAAAAAASE-)

and skirk herself is still a pretty mysterious character, despite all the lore dumping she did. p much the only primary things strictly related to her character is that: 1) she has her own greater-scope master 2) is very much strength-focused (300 million swings........... yeah, i see where childe gets it now), 3) and bc of said views on the strong and the weak, she will only consider others her equal (and therefore, humor them at all) if they display truly exceptional strength (see: "without using powers from beyond this world")

(this also makes me think skirk would not even bother to blink at smol toni, but may in fact consider tol toni at least somewhat "an equal" due to that toni surviving millennia in the abyss due to a mixture of insanely stubborn determination + her actual elemental powers come purely from the leylines/irminsul and nothing else, so any honed skill is both technique and teyvat-related power. thooooo, considering the lore also says that the primordial one created the human realm and its leylines (which should implicate the irminsul too, considering it's also found in the abyss aka beyond the world itself??), well....... god fucking knows on that one really.

FUCK I WISH THE LORE ON LEYLINES AND IRMINSUL WASNT SO MESSED UP IN LOGIC!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS MESSING ME UP AS SOMEONE WHOSE MUSES' LORE RELIES ON THIS!!!!!!!)

anyway, i really want to know the logic behind her just. throwing childe. into the hole along with mr whale in a ball. im guessing, the implication is that it's just like, a random abyssal portal that will presumably spit out the whale into an abyssal garbage dump while childe will be sent somewhere he can be retrieved (and taken back to snezhnaya, thank god, tonitoni would never let him hear the end of it if her brother got thrown into ANOTHER unreachable destination after two AQs of being thrown into jail and then into a sealed sea).

still a weird jarring moment though, i agree with everyone on that........... really weird.

BUT HEY, AT LEAST WE HAVE WORD FOR WORD DIALOGUE SAYING CHILDE IS SUPER STRONG AND FOUGHT THAT STUPID WHALE FOR AGES ESSENTIALLY, i want no more complaints on how strong and cool he is (i am saying this bc toni will never say it but i know she'd want to say it but would hate saying it so im saying it for her)

.

there's some more stuff i wanna say, esp re: the third descender and the gnosis stuff, + some extra thonkies about "fate" esp in the context of my tonitonis. and with the fontaine AQ wrapped up here, i can probs start to safely figure out the full fontaine timeline for smol toni - but ill leave all that in a separate thonkie post)

[skewbforty]

Doctor Who 2023 series thoughts (spoilers)

I've been a fan of Doctor Who pretty much since I knew of its existence which was when the series rebooted in 2005. I was totally obsessed with the show for many years afterwards too, but things don't always last. In fact, they usually don't.

Matt Smith came onto the scene and the show exchanged lead writers, and while I thought his first series was absolutely amazing, I felt like the writing took a sharp decline since then. Series 6 and 7 were kinda the transition between what I call the golden era of Doctor Who and the... Era I don't like to think about. Capaldi and Whittaker's era.

Right from Capaldi's first episode, I was appalled by the writing, I thought it was boring at best, downright disgusting at worst. Whittaker's era had better writing, but not by a huge amount. But by this point I was so annoyed by Capaldi's era (no flac to Capaldi or Whittaker btw, their acting was fine as far as I'm concerned, just the writing, man) that I really didn't care. The show was dead to me.

But, I subscribed to Disney Plus and gave the new specials a chance anyway. Because I had a tiny amount of hope with the direction the show was going in behind the scenes, including the return of Russel. And well...

The show's fuckin' back baby.

Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect. I have gripes with all 3 episodes. But they're really minor gripes, and they far from outweigh the good.

The first episode was an extremely clever way to bring Donna back. And it shows some love for the enbies which I thought was brilliant. I understand some may have issues with the notion that enby was kinda half portrayed as male + female when it's somewhat more complex than that, but honestly, I love the gender-non-conforming rights. I didn't however, like the line bashing on men towards the end, calling male time lords inferior or something. Luckily this is the last time in this series that's all like "Men. Boo." so, I'll let that slide.

Episode 2 was one of the weirdest episodes of Doctor Who I've ever seen. Bit hard to follow, and I kinda wish they'd touched more on the "You're not from Galifrey" thing, at least in a later episode. But maybe that was the point, perhaps Russel was trying to re-establish a sense of mystery. I just think that could have been done in better ways. That said, my eyes were glued to the screen. I love the idea that beliefs, however daft, can become reality that far out in the universe. Yes, I'm talking about the salt.

The 3rd was probably my favorite. I haven't seen the episode the Toymaker was originally in but I think this was a good introduction to what's pretty much a crazy god. Of course he had to have a weakness, which in this case is that he can't cheat at a game. This did lead to a somewhat anticlimactic ending where he was like "oops I didn't catch the ball, guess I'll die", but this is by far the smallest gripe I have with the episodes, cause I've known far bigger stories to have much worse final fight climaxes cough cough Harry Potter book 7, and I understand that there's not much you can write in a scenario like that, so it's fine.

But like

The whole thing is absolutely choc full of spooky moments and amazing gags that made me howl with laughter, and clever moments, and realistic real-life struggles and emotional moments and so many throwbacks, some of which are to moments in the show I doubt most remember or have even seen (Like "Love the moles"). The ending is just so sweet and is a wonderful way to close off Donna's story (that is if it is over, I wouldn't be surprised if the two doctors clash again) and I'm just so glad that my favorite show has risen back to such heights after I practically buried it in the graveyard of my mind. The new doctor also looks like he's gonna be a great time to follow and I can't wait to see where the show goes next. It's far from perfect. But let's face it, the show wasn't perfect back in 2005 either, I was just too young to see its flaws.

[dragonfire2lm]

So, if anyone else is like me and wants to reread Harry Potter, but either can't find their old books (I got mine during the big craze when they were still releasing, well before the author started spouting terf bullshit. But neither myself nor my mum are physically well enough to go looking for them), or want to get into the series without supporting the author, I found a link to a pdf file of the books.

As much as I wish this was a H.P Lovecraft situation, where we can still enjoy the writing despite the author being a not-so-nice person, I don't really see this being the case with HP. My views on this are as follows, J.K Rowling still makes money off of the Harry Potter franchise and as we've seen, her views are kind of...yikes. So I personally will stick to reading fanfiction, and pirating the source material rather than give Rowling any more money (remember, I bought the books years ago, back at the height of the HP craze when new books were being written and the movies were in production).

Because honestly. the characters and world are interesting. I've started reading HP fanfiction as a way to de-stress and unwind because I remember enough of the original books and movies to not be fandom blind and enjoy all the hard work other fanfic writers put into their works...and its free, fun, and somewhat nostalgic getting back into a series I dropped out of by the time I was writing my own fanfiction for other things I enjoyed.

Also...kinda fun feeling like I'm sticking it to J.K Rowling by pirating her books. Sure she already got my money years ago, but my stance on HP hasn't changed when i started hearing about some of the stuff Rowling has said or posted on social media, and by that point I had already lost interest in the series anyway.

With all that said, if you want to get merch, buy the books, play Hogwarts Legacy, that's fine. This is all just my own belief and how I'm going to be enjoying the HP series, by pirating the heck out of the books and binge reading fanfiction, I know full well the want to just enjoy something without thinking too hard about it or anyone involved in said thing's creation.