#and feel free to add anything too!

[ideologyofone]

Alright time for me to start my nonsense

(Possible) reasons why Jinx has cut her hair in s2

She doesn’t want to be a symbol for Zaun and all the art people have made of her feature her braids prominently so she chops them off

She doesn’t know how to braid her hair, Silco did it for her

Someone ELSE cuts it off her Flynn Rider style, why idk

Someone grabs her by her hair and she cuts it to escape

She cuts it off to let Jinx go and put her in the past (like letting go of Powder) after Ekko tells her moving forward means leaving things behind

And the worst most HEINOUS possibility I will fight the arcane writers for, SOMETHING happens to the mini Jinx and she cuts it off so her hair looks more like hers (I really hate this theory)

[blusandbirds]

eli moskowitz - "am i making you feel sick?"

[cosmic-sail0r]

In honor of the Sonic 3 trailer finally releasing tomorrow, here is a bingo board I made all the way back in January

Have fun :3

[57sfinest]

calling harry a “can opener” was SUCH a good play for so many reasons i think about it every day.

in the context of his work, it makes him a tool. as many people have pointed out, including martin luiga, part of the hdb tragedy is that he simply cannot leave the force, and his superiors know that and are using it to their advantage. no matter what happens, even if harry hated every nanosecond of every bit of the work and wanted to leave, he can’t and won’t leave. they can leverage anything they want against him and then reel him back in with a facade of kindness when they “allow” him to keep his job, as long as he does what they want him to. the 41st knows he has this inexplicable talent with people and they use him for it. he’s a cop: that talent can be used in so many awful ways, to push so many different agendas. and they won’t even be his own. a can opener has no particular desire to open a can, aside from maybe the satisfaction of fulfilling a purpose. a can opener has no agency, it’s just a tool for someone else to use to get what they want. and he’s learned to be okay with being used as long as it means he gets to stay. his complacency with this system makes him guilty even if he’s also being harmed by it.

but in the context of his personal life you kind of... flip it. the people around him are going to be opened up whether they want to be or not, and it’s terrible for his relationships. it’s shown that the questions, the prying- the can-opening- it’s become inextricable from who he is as a person. it’s like he doesn’t know how else to communicate, except it’s hardly communication when you’re just ripping people open. he’s invasive as all hell, although whether he means to be is debatable. he’s the kind of person that wants to take things apart to see what makes them tick. he dissects people, but really that’s too delicate of a word for what he does; if he doesn’t get what he wants right up front, he’ll abandon all subtlety and go for brute force. if he can’t get your screws loose he’ll just smash you on the ground and pick through your pieces until he’s satisfied, and if what he did to you isn’t fixable? oh well, there are other cans to open. 

and he’ll use it for personal gain: we already know he is (was?) manipulative. once he knows how you operate, he knows how to make you keep him. he can yell or he can cry; he can threaten you or he can threaten himself; he can be completely suffocating or he can withdraw completely; he can be an incorrigible liar or brutally honest; he can present himself as a threat or a joke or a talent. he’s a chimera- that’s why he’s got this inexplicable magnetism, even when people know they shouldn’t like or trust him. fidelity of character means nothing to him. he’ll be whatever he needs to be as long as it gets him what he wants. the can-opening is just his way in.

[jaydencoolguy]

George's Relationship with his Father

I have some thoughts about the relationship George McFly has with his dad, Arthur McFly. I'll put it under a cut because it's gonna get long. And I mean long.

Okay, while watching a playthrough of the BTTF game I noticed that George says this:

"Hey, sometimes you gotta go out on a limb for the ones you love, right? I wish MY dad had understood that."

I'm like, "Woah, what? What's his relationship with his father like???" So I head over to the wiki and find THIS:

"Here we see that Arthur is about as wimpy and spineless as George since he gives his son many pathetic reasons not to attend such as college being hard and his grades that he received in school. He even tells George that he will never succeed in life with his current grades and such which could be the primary reason why George becomes a pushover in the original 1985."

Furthermore, he's described to be "a dead ringer for 1955 George in looks, voice, and personality."

Obviously George doesn't (or didn't, since he's implied to be dead) have a very good relationship with his father. But what's really interesting about this is the fact that they're practically the same personality-wise. (They're both pathetic, pushovers, doormats, etc.) Do you think that George sort of resents himself for acting the way he does (or did, in the case of the new timeline)? Because he hurt others the way his dad hurt him, since his actions reflect his father's? God, that's sad to think about.

You would think, in the case of the original 1985, that he would actively try to stray away from being like his father, but obviously, he failed. This is true to real life generational trauma, in which you swear you will never end up like your parents, but you do anyway because the way they treat you and act sticks with you. Yeah, you get the point right?

George's dreams got shot down by his father, and in the original 1985, he didn't have the courage to stand up for himself. Arthur never stood up for him either; and George ends up just like him, albeit more passive... at least he lets Marty do whatever he wants for the most part. Speaking of which, I think Marty serves as an interesting parallel to George's relationship with Arthur, since Marty actually gains a lot of courage and confidence due to the fact that his father is a pushover. George loses more of his sense of self worth because of his dad, since he never believed in or helped him. As a result, he never tries to achieve his dreams and remains unmotivated.

Now let's switch gears to the new 1985. Because of Marty's help, George gains the courage to stand up to his bullies and thus, becomes a more confident person. He gets motivated to do better. I'd like to think that because of this, George also stands up to his dad as well, becoming more successful in the process. I think that he sort of wanted to stick it to his dad, to prove that he can be successful and that he could do anything he set his mind to. This probably pushes George to work harder, which ultimately pays off as seen in the ending of Back to the Future 1. He had achieved his dream as a writer and had a better life overall. However, it seems that George's success hadn't changed his father one bit, as seen in the clip I included above. Even though George ended up happier and wealthier, it didn't mend his relationship with his dad. I don't think Arthur is necessarily a bad person, but he could've definitely been a better father.

This is an almost tragic part of George's character, even in the fixed timeline. It demonstrates how you could be similar, yet so different from your parents. How the way they treat you impacts the way you act, depending on your circumstances and the way you view yourself. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this worthless ramble!!!

[hephaestuscrew]

Thoughts on the patterns of who speaks the episode title phrases in Wolf 359

This analysis is based on the data I gathered in this spreadsheet and summarised with graphs in this post. Basically I've been looking at which character first says the episode title phrase (i.e. the exact words which form the name of that particular episode) in every episode of Wolf 359. Go and look at the spreadsheet if you want more context.

I think we can view the episode title phrases as often expressing the key problem or question of that episode. (I might talk about this in relation to individual examples another time.) Through this lens, the consideration of who speaks the title phrase is about which character gets to frame the key issue of the episode for the listener. This doesn't necessarily mean we are meant to share that character's view of the issue, but it's why I think there is some potentially significant analysis to be done on this topic. (See below the cut...)

The proportion of title phrases said by Eiffel reduces with each season. 69.2% of the Season 1 title phrases are (first) spoken by Eiffel, compared to 46.6% in Season 2, 22.2% in Season 3, and 20% in Season 4.

This is perhaps unsurprising. Eiffel is very much the main perspective character and the primary narrative voice at the start of the series. And, as someone with unusual speech patterns, he is excellent at coining a good memorable title phrase. However, while I'd argue that he never stops being the main protagonist, over the course of the series, the narrative focus broadens away from a singular emphasis on Eiffel's perspective. This perspective shift is reflected in episode titles being spoken by a greater range of characters.

I think the decreasing proportion of Eiffel title phrases also reflects the podcast's shift towards a generally more dramatic rather than comedic tone. While Eiffel is capable of being serious at times, I'd argue that his mode of speech is particularly well suited to generating amusing unusual turns of phrase that work well within a more comedic context (e.g. Succulent Rat-Killing Tar, What's Up Doc?, Bach to the Future). As the stakes become higher and the tone becomes less humorous, characters other than Eiffel, who are more often inclined to take things very seriously, are more likely to speak the title phrases.

There's also just the fact that as we get more characters involved in the action on the Hephaestus, the opportunity to speak the title phrase is spread between more characters.

Although Eiffel is by far and away the most common speaker of title phrases in Season 1, in the first three episodes of the whole show, we get all the characters of that season represented in the title phrases. Minkowski speaks the title phrase in the second episode and Hera does in the third episode - but probably quoting a phrase from Hilbert. This gives us a good early indication that, while Eiffel may be the focal point particularly in this season, this is going to be an ensemble show and all of these characters are going to be significant.

Hilbert's only title phrase is in Ep12 Deep Breaths, in the first stage of his mutiny, arguably the only point in the show where he appears to clearly have the upper hand while acting alone.

After the SI-5 are introduced at the beginning of Season 3, we get five Kepler or Jacobi title phrases in a row, which solidifies the SI-5's presence in the show. It also highlights the fact that the SI-5 have taken over the Hephaestus and are now (at least ostensibly) the ones determining the aims of the Hephaestus mission.

In addition, these patterns might be seen to reflect the shift in the show towards a more conflict-focused tone (related but not identical to the movement away from comedy). While Wolf 359 has always been a show full of conflict, the balance of this conflict shifts with the arrival of the SI-5. For the first team, our protagonists are facing a unified team of antagonists. The potential for violence feels higher, as do the stakes. This might explain why, while we only had one antagonist-spoken title phrase across Seasons 1 and 2 (Hilbert in Ep12 - Lovelace doesn't get a title phrase while she's serving as an antagonist), 44.4% of our Season 3 title phrases are first spoken by antagonists.

The only title phrase spoken by Maxwell is spoken by her in a recording that we hear after her death. This isn't even the only posthumous title phrase spoken from the past in Season 4 - we've got one from Commander Zhang of the Tiamat as well. It's an interesting kind of legacy, an interesting way to emphasize the questions characters leave behind after death, recalling similar themes to those explored in Ep46 Boléro.

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

Guys I am on the edge I am losing it. I haven’t written fanfiction since freshmen year of high school, since then I’ve said all my writing will be publishable. And yet I am mere seconds away from losing myself to a Sully family adopting Spider fic what is wrong with me. The chokehold this series has on me. Anyways here are some headcanons that have been giving me holes in my brain:

-All the Sully's constantly argue over who Spider likes best, especially Kiri and Lo'ak. "That's my best friend" "NO, that's my best friend." "I knew him first." "Well, that's not fair you were born first. I've known him my whole life." Then dark horses Tuk and Neteyam come in like "You'd be surprised to learn spider actually likes me best." For a while after Tuk was born the competition was HEAVILY in her favor and everyone was mad about it. Neteyam doesn’t participate unless he wants to annoy someone, but no one thinks he’s in the running as much as he actually is. Spider has no idea this competition exists and whoever tells him is instantly disqualified so he never will. 

-This shit absolutely applies to Jake and Neytiri too if/when they officially adopt him. Which parent Spider likes best competition. Who can get him to call them mom/dad first wins. It’s absolutely RUTHLESS and everyone knows about it except Spider. I’m fairly certain Jake and Neytiri’s love language is borderline unhealthy competition. Bets are made, sabotage is attempted, Tonowari definitely tries to help his bestie Jake and whatever plan they come up with is dumb as hell, I don’t know what it is but it’s stupid. Ultimately, Neytiri wins. Jake is not sad about it actually. 

-Tuk is every parents worst nightmare. Her siblings are so much older than her, she has been desensitized to everything. When Lo’ak and Kiri were Tuk’s age they were fighting over a toy, but Tuk is pretty sure she’s ready for an Ikran. She is the ringleader of all her friendgroups and she can manipulate anyone into anything. She was the youngest to do everything in her family just to keep up with her siblings, and that means she knows so much more than all her friends her age. She taught them all the swear words they know, and she definitely told every child in the clan how babies are made as soon as Lo’ak told her and they were ALL way too young to know. 

-The entire clan is worried Jake and Neytiri will have another accident child. Only they were surprised by Tuk, no one else was. 

-Neteyam confides in Spider in a way he can’t with his siblings. Not only are they the oldest, but I think he isn’t afraid to not be perfect in front of Spider (This is why Neteyam is Spider’s favorite jkjk). I think they have a lot of chill talks up on the mountains, or they go flying and Neteyam’s just like “What if I fail at the hunt tomorrow?” or some shit and Spiders like “Well, it would be about time, and then you would just try again.”

-Spider is Mo’at’s least problematic grandchild, and the one that annoys her the least consistently. Kiri is still her fav tho. There is no Mo’at’s fav competition because everyone knows Kiri would win, but sometimes Lo’ak says he’s her fav because their names are similar and then everyone calls him stupid.

-Speaking of Mo’at, I’m pretty sure her and Jake get drunk together at least once a month. I don’t know what they talk about but GOD I want to. Only Norm has ever been invited and that was like one time and it’s because he and Mo’at are secret besties.

-Spider gives the best advice ever, because of being the only human child on Pandora he has empathy for everyone. He’s the best person to go to if you did something wrong because he’s for sure done something worse. Unfortunately he is incapable of taking any advice himself, and he is def suicidal a lil. You cannot convince me that kid doesn’t wake up every day wanting to die a little bit. 

-For a solid half a year certified dumbasses Lo’ak and Jake were pretty sure Rotxo was some sort of spirit from Eywa because they never met his parents and never saw him go home and he was always somehow around. They shared this theory with no one but each other, which is good because it’s dumb.

-I think once adopted, Spider is a mama’s boy. He craves physical attention and he has been raised essentially Na’vi in a way that Jake hasn’t. I think he would connect with Neytiri’s parenting style more, I think they’d do a lot of weird shit together that the other kids would rather die than help with, like cooking or mending shit. I think Spider would be literally delighted to help with boring household chores with his mother and that’s so mamas boy of him. He’s a “mother, do you need help with dinner, can I do the dishes so you can sit down?” kid while all the rest of them are gagging and calling him a suck up in the background.

-It comes to a head when he tries to help make lunch instead of going surfing with Lo’ak, Kiri, and Ao’nung, and they have to have an intervention. It’s very serious, everyone was there, Tsireya, Ao’nung, Rotxo obviously came because I’m convinced he doesn’t actually have a home. They treat Spider like a five year old going to his first day of preschool.

-Spider and Neytiri also both have experienced such immense loss, and it shaped them both so much at such a young age. I think the way they would talk about it would be similar, and it would be a connection discovered that wouldn’t be vocally acknowledged often but they would both have that. It’s a mutual understanding that the others can’t get as much that helps them get past any animosity and fear. It takes them longer to get to casual conversation actually.

-If Spider ever got an Avatar Mo’at would make them put off the full transfer until he was older 50% because of his safety and 90% because he’s forced to spend time with her every night when he goes back to his human body no matter where they are. She is vocally grumbling always about how her family never visits. He does not pretend to hate it.

-It started out because Spider wasn’t taking care of his human body well enough, for sure. He’s Jake coded. Mo’at was on Feed New Grandson For Daughter duty. But now it evolved and he’s popping out of the link after a long day of Spearfishing with the Boys (I believe this is Tonowari and Jake’s fav father/son + Rotxo bonding activity) and Mo’at is there with Norm and Spider’s dinner like “you will not believe what this idiot warrior did” and Norms like “Do tell” and Spider has his second dinner with the HOTTEST TEA in the Omaticaya camp that Norm and Mo’at can spill. And one time he’s like “Lo’ak fell off a tree today because he’s too used to the water now” and then when Lo’ak finds out about that he pushes Spider out of a tree (from a safe height).

-(He has to recount this tea the next morning to Jake, this is what he and Mo’at did when drinking, he pretends he wants to be up on current affairs in his former tribe but Jake Sully is a gossip whore and he isn’t hiding it well). 

-No one else is interested in this but Lo’ak. He cares so much. It’s Spider spilling the hottest tea with so much disinterest (he only cares because it’s Mo’at and Norm) and Lo’ak and Jake like gasping and then pretending they didn’t. 

-Obviously Kiri and Spider’s bond is insane and unbreakable but I think one time he stepped on a bug and she didn’t speak to him for the entire day. He probably has nightmares about that day. But also Lo’ak did the same thing once and she didn’t talk to him for a week so. 

-I like to think the rest of the Omaticaya do love Spider cause he’s just that weird little guy that’s always like crouched on the rocks and in the trees and shit. I think he and the Sully’s do have other friends and do spend time with others, but Spider, Kiri, Lo’ak, and then later Tuk, all spend literally every waking moment together because they all can’t escape that little feeling that they don’t quite fit in. 

-Tuk doesn’t feel this way she just wants to be there. Neteyam totally feels this way he just feels like he has to be responsible.

-Neteyam also spent every waking moment with them until he had Adult Business to attend to, like learning to be in charge. Now he just spends all his free time with them. His friends are probably like “Why do you want to spend all your time with your little siblings?” and he has Vietnam flashbacks to the 17 things that Lo’ak and Spider did that almost got them killed that week alone (but also he loves being with them all).

-When the Sully’s leave Mo’at is really sad but Norm visits her annoyingly for weird advice that he doesn’t actually need every day and she pretends to hate it but doesn’t because they are secret buddies. 

-Idk if this even happens to Na’vi but Neteyam’s human dna finds a way and he goes prematurely grey for sure. Kids so stressed it’s a miracle he doesn’t go into cardiac arrest. 

-Tonowari and Ronal literally don’t know where Rotxo comes from half the time. He’s just always there. One time when Ao’nung was a baby Tonowari turned around for like 15 seconds to stoke the fire and then there were two babies, Ao’nung and Rotxo, on the mat. 

-Lo’ak doesn’t think things through. Spider has no self preservation skills. There is a difference. So when Lo’ak suggests a dumb thing Spider will probably do it first cause he has recognized and acknowledged the risks, he just doesn’t care, whereas Lo’ak hasn’t realized yet. So he’ll test it out for Lo’ak first. The amount of dumb shit Lo’ak did went way up when Spider was captured because his human test dummy wasn’t there. 

-Once with the Metkayina, Spider and Lo’ak have found a kindred dumbass in Ao’nung (+ Rotxo). He’s never thought a single decision through in his entire life (neither has Rotxo, he’s just here to vibe). They are menaces.

-Unfortunately for everyone, Jake and Tonowari created them from their own very loins, and they too, are dumbasses. If the RDA ever leave them alone the amount of bad decisions the five of them (and Rotxo) will get up to will be astronomical. There’s at least one incident that gets Jake and Tonowari exiled from their respective marui for the night and they have an Adult Men sleepover on the beach that is like the most fun either of them ever had, but they pretend it was no fun at all when they come back. 

-After that Tonowari replaces Mo’at as Jake’s monthly drinking/gossip buddy. Tonowari has never met most of the Omaticayans, but he could ruin lives with some of the info he has. 

-This one might be out of left field, but I think every single Sully child has had a crush to varying degrees on Spider at some point. I think Spider has never even remotely fathomed that anyone on planet Pandora has ever or will ever like him, and if anyone ever did he might just die of shock. He thinks he’s dying a virgin, probably at a young age.

-Ronal and Neytiri go on pretending to hate each other long after they became friends just for fun. No one figured it out until Neytiri was the first choice babysitter for Ronal and Tonowari’s new baby for like the tenth time.

-If Spider ever beats anyone at anything he believes they let him win and literally nothing can change his mind. He’s convinced baby Tuk let him win in a foot race one time, and that Lo’ak fell out of a tree on purpose to let him win a climbing race. The most criminal one is his claim that Ao’nung got a hole in his net intentionally so all his fish escaped and Spider had more. The joke is that no one other than Neteyam or Tsireya would ever let him win. 

-The amount of times a Sully child accidentally dislocated Spider’s arm trying to pull him somewhere is way higher than anyone wants to admit, but Spider can now relocate his arm on his own like a pro. His pain tolerance is way higher than anyone’s should be. Kid just braces that shit against a tree and pops it back in and everyone is horrified every time. The first time it happened in front of the Metkayina kids Ao’nung threw up and then Lo’ak laughed until he cried. Spider shouldn’t use that arm for at least the rest of the day but he used it to shove Lo’ak for Ao’nung.

-Spider loves babies, will stop, drop everything to watch any baby, because he knows how much Na’vi treasure children and he never feels more important then when he gets to watch a little kid because he was trusted to keep the kid safe.

-Lo’ak and Spider are equally matched at sparring because Spider knows where Lo’ak is ticklish.  

-One time Kiri and Lo’ak had a sleepover with Spider at the lab. Norm pretended to hate it but then let them sleep in the room with Grace’s tank and also made them cookies. It was the best night of Spider’s life. Tuk was too little to go and threw the most massive fit ever about it so Neteyam stayed back to keep her company and he was Very Mature and Not At All Jealous about it. 

-They brought him back a cookie, and then everyone was tired all day because literally no one slept except for Tuk. They all took a nap halfway through the day all in a little puppy pile and that was the real sleepover. 

-Post sleepover, the amount of printed out images of human Jake Sully from video logs with like dumb things drawn on him that have made their way around camp is insane. Norm made the kids draw mustaches on him for sure. Jake can’t take a single solitary step without there being a picture of him with a dick for a nose on a tent pole. He was probably stressed about something and this was Lo’ak’s brilliant Cheer Up Dad plan. It was the worst plan ever, but for some unknown reason it worked, and Jake keeps cackling at them like a crazy person when he sees them. Retaliatory Norm pics are in the works, Jake got all the kids in on it this time. Tuk is really good at drawing pa’li shit on Norm’s head.

-Neteyam knows everything about everyone so when he gets in on teasing and jokes his are fucking crazy accurate and targeted, you’ll never recover. Tuk has picked this up from him and she has that little kid talent to destroy you. 

-Every single time someone goes somewhere Spider says some shit like “I hope I see you again!” and everyone knows it’s not a joke and no one finds it funny but he can’t stop doing it.

-The pact that was born between Ao’nung and Lo’ak to impress their respective love interests is the Fight Club of all pacts, either would kill the other to keep it quiet and not feel even a little bad about it. Lo’ak teaches Ao’nung to climb trees to impress Neteyam and Ao’nung teaches Lo’ak to surf to impress Tsireya. Ao’nung eats shit so hard that Lo’ak almost literally dies laughing but then Ao’nung doesn’t warn him about rip currents so he can rescue Lo’ak in front of Neteyam like he’s in Baywatch, coming out of the water all dramatically and with a lil hair flip and then presenting him with his half murdered little brother like a gift.

-The Sully children have been divvying up who gets what of Jake’s stuff when he dies since Tuk was like four. Obviously, they will be devastated, but it’ll be a little less sad when Kiri gets Jake’s coolest knife and not Lo’ak, or Tuk gets his best arm band before Neteyam can call dibs even tho it won’t fit her. It was a lot funnier before the RDA came back. 

-No one has ever dared to do this to Neytiri’s stuff. 

[syrips]

hi im not involved/affiliated at all with the FREE memento mori curse of strahd fan zine by our lovely community and organized by curseofsergei but anyways please enjoy this list of all of the beautiful artists/writers/contributors individual self-published posts because they all deserve individual love and attention cuz o my lordy lord oh my AAAAAAAh

obvious spoiler/cw warnings on the zine, please read/dl the zine first if you can, this is just a directory list to appreciate and update whenever the contributors upload their own work

Page 01. Page 08. Page 10. Page 16. Page 19. Page 22. Page 23. Page 24. Page 27. Page 32. Page 41. Page 42. Page 45. Page 47. Page 54. Page 61. Page 62. Page 67. Page 69. Page 71. Page 72. Page 79. Formatting

[stingrayextraordinaire]

Barbie as Rapunzel (2002) and Cinderella (2015): A Study in Comparisons

Thank you for enabling my rant, @valiantarcher! :D This is the elaboration on my earlier post:

Barbie as Rapunzel (2002) and Cinderella (2015) are so insanely similar I am shocked that I’ve never read a hot take on Tumblr comparing them

Both feature a beautiful female heroine with blonde hair, blue eyes, and the same kind, gentle, adventurous, determined, humble personality.

The heroine is trapped living in an isolated manor where she is forced to work as an indentured servant to a smooth-talking, calculating, triangular-faced villainess with whom the heroine has an odd sort of twisted mother-daughter relationship.

The villainess is jealous of the relationship between the heroine's mother and father, believing that the heroine's father should have loved her. The villainess then decides to take revenge by making everyone (including the innocent and uninvolved heroine) miserable.

The villainess forces the heroine to do menial tasks and punishes her for doing anything in her free time, often listing an impossible amount of chores that the heroine is required to do before she can do anything she wants to do. The heroine puts up with all the cruelty with kindness and tolerance.

The villainess has an evil pet who terrorizes the heroine's animal companions.

The heroine runs away from the manor for the first time and meets a handsome prince with whom she shares a witty rapport after courageously saving someone's life.

The prince character has been taught by his father (a widowed king) that he should believe one thing and rule a certain way: the traditional way that the king has always ruled.

However, the prince begins to question this way of thinking after talking to the heroine alone in the woods. The heroine offers an outsider's perspective on the way the kingdom is being run, and the prince is confused by this new perspective.

The prince has to actively stop one of his subjects from revealing his royal identity to the heroine, and the subject narrowly stammers their way into not calling the prince "Your Highness."

The heroine and the prince are attracted to one another, but they do not learn each other's names (and she does not learn that he is the prince) before they part ways.

The prince starts discussing his newfound ideas with his father the king, who mostly dismisses the heroine's influence on the prince but demonstrates a loving and respectful relationship with his son, who is next in line for the throne. The king remains pretty dogmatic that things should be done the traditional way, despite the prince's questioning of that way.

Despite having a chance to run away from her captor, the heroine returns to the manor out of a sense of duty and nobility.

The prince is desperate to track down the mysterious maiden (whose name he still does not know), so he sends out every force in his kingdom to find her. The results are mostly unsuccessful. Also, everyone in the prince's house knows that he is in love with the mysterious girl and teases him about it frequently.

The heroine receives an invitation to a ball held in the prince's honor (despite the fact that she is not royalty), but she still has no idea that he is the prince. She also tries to keep her identity a secret so that neither of them will get in trouble for it.

The love and sacrifice of the heroine's real parents (who are absent) lends magic to the heroine's hopeless situation and provides her with a magical solution to help her escape from her predicament.

The heroine has a magical helper (in connection to her absent parents) that allows her to transform her clothes into fancy party clothes that she could never have had otherwise. Both feature an iconic magical dress transformation.

At the ball, the prince and the king are welcoming guests and surveying the ball, and the king asks the prince why he is not dancing. The prince replies that he is waiting for someone special, and the king nods knowingly.

The villainess tries to use the heroine's special identifying trait to trick the prince into thinking that he has found the heroine when it is actually the villainess.

The villainess destroys something of great personal value to the heroine to try to get her to reveal some information and allow herself to be manipulated by the villainess.

The villainess traps the heroine in her room, believing that the heroine will have no way to escape. However, the heroine does escape because of the purity of her heart and the help of her animal companions.

The heroine comes face-to-face with the villainess and stands up to her boldly (in a nonviolent confrontation) despite being completely outmatched. The heroine wins out in the end because of her cleverness and genuine good character.

Before she begins her new life of freedom, the heroine openly declares to the villainess that she forgives her despite all the horrible things that the villainess has done.

The villainess's story ends with her being trapped in a prison of her own making that is ironically similar to the situation she tried to trap the heroine into.

The heroine escapes her terrible circumstances to become a member of the royal family, and the prince transforms his thinking in a more progressive, tolerant perspective thanks to the heroine's influence on him (which his father the king eventually blesses).

The fairytale ends with an idyllic wedding between the heroine and the prince in which they become the new rulers of their kingdom, as their parents (literally or figuratively) look on in approval.

[mrrosedoodler]

News Update

Let's start with what's going on in Palestine today. On June 25th, 2024, Israeli forces have targeted five displacement camps, have attacked a home in Khan Younis and a tent in al-Mawasi that was sheltering people. Said attack has killed and injured at least six people at the time of this report.

Famine continues to be a struggle for Palestinians, as they are left with little to nothing to feed themselves and their families. Families have been resorting to eating grass, animal feed, and anything they can get their hands on to try and keep themselves alive.

Two schools have been bombed and set ablaze, killing 14 people thus far.

The current death toll for Palestinians stands at 37,658 deaths, with an additional 86,237 injured.

(1) (2) (3)

Sudan has been having a humanitarian crisis for years, with the situation only becoming worse.

Since April 15th, 2023, the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a violent civil war. Many Sudan residents have had to flee their homes to escape the conflict. On top of all of this, Sudan has been experiencing severe weather events - mainly floods and droughts. Crops and livestock have dwindled, bringing about an extreme shortage of food and water.

As of June 10, 2024, 12+ million people have been forced to leave behind their homes and evacuate.

Almost 15,000 people have been killed as of April 19, 2024.

(1) (2) (3)

Here are some charities you can donate to in order to help Palestine and Sudan;

PALESTINE -

Palestine Children's Relief Fund

UNRWA

Doctors Without Borders

SUDAN -

CARE

Doctors Without Borders

Sudan Relief Fund

If you can't help monetarily, spread the word and look into this document for ways to help Palestine. I'm going to start looking into ways to help Sudan outside of charities - if anyone has anything they can contribute, please reach out!

[kozachenko]

I remember hearing some stuff about how if ZUN wanted to take the story of Touhou Project to a new stage, there would have to be some kind of major change to the status quo and would be focused on how each character adapts to that change. This got me thinking about what would happen if the story of Touhou "went to another level" and I personally think that's going to happen when Marisa inevitably becomes a Youkai. It's already been established that Reimus whole duality is balancing her duties as a shrine maiden with her wants as a person, and this leads into basically the reason as to why I wrote this post.

Buckle up, because this is going to be a long one

So, I've been thinking about ReiMari a lot, and like, IDK if there are any fanfics/fanworks exploring this idea, but the ship could work incredibly well for a romantic tragedy story. I mainly say this because of the possibility that Reimu would have to kill Marisa if Marisa becomes a Youkai, and there are a few possibilities for this:

Option 1: Reimu doesn't think about it/doesn't fully know

Reimu isn't fully in the know about the behind the scenes stuff of Gensokyo's balance. Yukari probably tells her half of what she needs to know, but leaves Reimu with more questions than answers. She most likely doesn't think about this much, and even forgets about with Marisa. This means that when the time actually comes when Marisa turns into a Youkai, Reimu is reluctant to exterminate Marisa until Yukari finally tells her the "truth" that she needs to kill her in order to maintain Gensokyo's balance.

Option 2: Reimu and Marisa both know this fact and have both been putting it out of their minds for a while

This option is a variant of the previous one, but I feel like it could also lead to some interesting story beats. They've both been putting it out of their minds and have instead been trying to enjoy the time they have left together to the fullest. Yukari and the other sages probably don't know that Marisa also knows her days are numbered, but she knows that day isn't there yet. I like to think that in this version, they both have a sliver of hope that maybe they could change things, that maybe they could re-write the laws of Gensokyo entirely and create a world where they can both still be with each other, but deep down they know the cruel reality of it.

Option 3: Reimu does know but she doesn't tell anyone

Reimu does know the full extent of Gensokyo's order and knows that she will need to kill Marisa eventually. Only she, Yukari, Kasen, and Okina (maybe even some of other sages we haven't met yet) understand this. However, none of Gensokyo's higher ups know that this fact pains Reimu to the point where it becomes a close guarded secret of hers. This also adds to my headcanon that before she met Marisa, Reimu probably closed herself off from a lot of people, and even afterwards, she still has a feeling of loneliness from the rest of Gensokyo when she's not with Marisa. I imagine the scene in this hypothetical fic where Marisa has turned into a Youkai and she finally sees Reimu again, but their reunion isn't a happy one. Reimu, with tears in her eyes looks up at Marisa and she silently realizes why Reimu has come to see her. A feeling of betrayal followed by anger rises in her, and she asks as to why Reimu never told her about any of this sooner, only to be answered by Reimu wordlessly attacking her. Marisa gets away for the time being of course, but she then realizes that nothing is going to be the same for her. Reimu on the other hand, has to grapple with having to kill the one who helped bring her out of her loneliness, the one who has always been by her side even in her worst moments, and the one who she loves more than anything.

As you could probably tell by the time I've spent writing about it, but option 3 is my favourite. While each of these are slightly different variants on the same premise, I think having the cruel irony that Reimu knew this was inevitable all along would make for such interesting conflict. This story also makes ReiMari this beautiful type of doomed love, which could pit all of Gensokyo against Reimu, leaving her as isolated and alone as she used to be without Marisa. This fic idea could also be an interesting way to explore the characters of the sages individually.

And if by the end of this fic, Reimu does indeed kill Marisa, we should expect to see Reimu come into conflict with the sages, asking questions they don't want her to ask. And like ok, I know we're veering back into headcanon territory, but I think it would be interesting to imagine that the sages probably view the Hakurei lineage as a mere tool for Gensokyos balance (aside from probably Kasen), Reimu being no exception. This also could also question the ethics regarding how the Hakurei Shrine maiden of each generation is treated by the higher ups in Gensokyo, especially with the fact that Reimu is still an orphaned teenager who doesn't have a proper support system outside of Marisa and Kasen. Speaking of, I imagine that she's the only one of the sages who is actually trying to help Reimu with this whole situation, and would probably end up being one of the few people Reimu could trust in this situation. However, after she kills Marisa, she would probably be just as distrusting to her as with all the other sages.

I think could also make a very interesting manhunt type of story, with Reimu and Marisa being on thier own and a bunch of Gensokyo residents coming after Reimu to avenge Marisa. Which could also make for some really interesting conflict. I'm also very curious as to how Yukari would respond to this situation, and if a part of her, deep down is subtly reminded of the time when she lost someone oh so dear to her, if only she could remember them...

And then there's the big question of, "how would this fic end?" and to be honest. I don't know, but a cool idea could be Reimu potentially rewriting or recreating Gensokyo and becoming a god herself. It's a very farfetched idea, but it could be neat. Actually no that's basically what Madoka did uhhhh yeah no kinda stumped. Maybe Reimu could escape to the real world or something??? Yeah I'll have to think on that one.

In the end, while some people are kinda frustrated with the status quo reliant nature of Touhous narrative, I personally don't mind as Touhou is primarily ZUNs playground for ideas and the like. It also gives fanworks more freedom in regards to how it wants to fit itself into the canon. So yeah that's the end of my very very long Touhou fanfic/fanwork idea. If I feel like actually writing this as a fanfic, I probably would if I had the time lol.

[stellewriites]

a little self-celebration after being hard on myself for having a creative block recently,, i finally hit this year’s 100k on ao3 🎉

hoping to get to 150k by the end of it

[smallblueandloud]

i've been SUPER blocked, fic-wise, this month. but i'd really like to write a bit and get another story out in time for june! so i'm gonna think out loud for a little while

here are the fics i've got ongoing, and why i'm stuck on them:

éponine de bergerac: the next scene is a complex one, with éponine meeting cosette's dad. i don't really trust my ability to write jean valjean, nor do i really know what purpose this scene has to fulfill, other than jean approving of éponine. this isn't really based on a scene in cyrano itself or roxanne (1987), so i kinda don't have a road map. maybe i just write a little bit of the dinner and then move on? but then i have to solve my overall plot problems. oh shit the balcony scene can happen over text can't it. okay. i'm gonna investigate that later.

universal translator malfunction: unfortunately the dark side of writing casefic is that you need a case underneath it all. i don't know what's causing the malfunction in the first place. i've written every scene that got me to start this fic in the first place so now i have no idea how to resolve it

natlaura soulmates installment: i realized a few days ago that clint has to get kidnapped and now i'm procrastinating writing this casefic, too. it needs to happen, we need JUSTIFICATION for clint and nat hiding laura away, that's the whole emotional tension of the fic. unfortunately i don't feel like writing a kidnapping, especially trying to figure out how to convey natasha's competence from a civilian (laura's) perspective :/ maybe i'll figure out how to include melinda may somehow, that might make it more fun to work on

quarrel (13 meets mickey/martha rewrite): tbh i've been vaguely thinking that i should rewatch s11 before i go back to writing 13. which... i don't think is necessary, to be honest, given how superficially 13 is characterized in s11. i think most of the problem here is just procrastination and a bit of boredom.

and then some other vague ideas i could try to flesh out...

now that s14 is over i want to write something for doctor who. i'm really debating what. i kinda want ruby to hang out at the temple-noble house but the existence of tenthree makes that feel sour to me -- i don't like that there's a doctor chilling on earth who's presumeably ignoring every former companion who's within driving distance. but maybe tenthree is just conveniently off-world or something. maybe the family is hiding tenthree's existence from ruby? or maybe ruby meets tenthree and realizes he's fundamentally the doctor but Still Not Really Her Friend.

oh. relatedly. the memory TARDIS reminded me about all of my TARDIS feels. i would love to write a fic related to the TARDIS, esp the TARDIS kitchen (kitchens are my favorite space in basically any universe). hmm. maybe this could tie into my ruby sendoff.

oh as always also the ever-classic: the fam meets jack harkness but instead of realizing he's a friend, they hear the way he talks about the doctor and assume he's the master.

okay i'm gonna try to talk about non-doctor who ideas now.

leverage ot3 getting-together fic that my good friend basically outlined into my dms and now i really want to write because it's so good. i'm not sure i have faith in my ability to keep ahold of the relevant emotional threads but hey it's probably worth a shot.

i literally have no idea what but i want to write something for the fast and furious series. definitely something featuring mia and/or letty. maybe about hispanidad. and also queerness.

luke and leia force dyad? five times they shared something? quantum entanglement from beru's perspective? han figuring out about the force bond at some point, possibly before the twins themselves?

...a scene set in the fullmetal alchemist version of the xmen. mostly i just want to talk about jean grey, flame alchemist, and her longsuffering assistant lieutenant summers.

that fic i keep talking about where yelena and natasha meet clint and yelena cannot fathom how deeply natasha trusts this guy. unfortunately this one would be super noncompliant with the black widow movie but, like, not in obvious ways, so i'd have to MAKE that obvious, and it would get clumsy pretty quickly

...so i'm clearly not DOOMED, okay, i have a BILLION ideas. i just have to sit down and write them!

maybe tomorrow i'll go the library after my nice fancy brunch that i've already planned out. that would be a lovely saturday treat

[snowimatsu]

Tabimatsu Update

So I was just told by a friend that Tabimatsu might still be playable after June 3rd. I checked the in-game news and that seems to be true

Date Schedule:

*June 3rd - Tabimatsu will be removed from the App Store. **This is the last day to install Tabimatsu if you want to play the game before it ends.

People with the game already installed in their device will STILL be able to play the game after June 3rd. However, you will no longer be able to get the game in the App Store after June 3rd. So if you want to play Tabimatsu, June 3rd is the last day to get the game on your device, basically.

I'm not sure if QooApp will still have the app available after June, but who knows.

** September 4th - Tabimatsu will officially end its services. This is the ACTUAL last day of the game. You can no longer play the game after Sept 4th.

So, this means Tabimatsu will no longer be playable after September 4th, not June 3rd. Make sure you install the game before June 3rd, and you will be good to play for a few more months. Although how well the game will run after June 3rd seems to be iffy.

Overall, this is good news!! We have a couple more months until the game is officially gone. So please don't uninstall before June 3rd p much.

[tinukis]

i think about trans sanji a lot... mtf or ftm he's transgender (or genderfluid ♥️)

but i think about ftm sanji and his struggles with his identity. his self hatred, self esteem, and toxic masculinity... i think about ftm sanji a lot...

i have stuff from my notes app. one was meant to be written as a fic but i gave up so it's incomplete. this takes place after wci and before wano. warnings are below the cut and in the tags, please read with caution.

trigger warning - gender dysphoria, child abuse (may be graphic.), misgendering, self-harm

Sanji wishes he was never a man. Let alone be born with the genital of a woman's.

He loves women. He admires them. Their beauty, their bodies, their smile, their femininity, everything. He wishes he could be just like them, that was his assigned sex, after all. Yet as a child, every time he stared at himself in the mirror, he would be staring at someone else. He did see a girl, but it wasn't him.

It's his turn on night watch. As everyone exchanges their goodnights and enter the cabin, Sanji climbs into the crow's nest and leaned against the window where the moonlight shined. His hand over his heart and crumpling his shirt into his fist. They just left Whole Cake Island but now that half his crew learned about the Vinsmokes, he was only filled with dread and anxiety.

They knew too much and there was nothing he can do about it but fill his lungs with tobacco. He knew they wouldn't pry further and he was relieved that they still see him the same but... It was being confronted by his Captain he dreaded the most. He didn't care about anyone's past nor does he try to look into them, but after everything Sanji did to Luffy and what Luffy did for him, he doesn't know what the hell to expect anymore.

Sanji knows Luffy would notice something's wrong and he couldn't avoid him forever. What was he supposed to tell him anyway?

Oh everything's fine, Luffy. Just you know, I've been reminded what sex I was born as and how I grew up hating myself because I'm actually a man. And I hated being a man because of how all the men in my life raised and treated me. I feel like I have betrayed all the women in my life. But other than that, I'm fine, Captain.

He puffs out a trail of smoke with a long exhale, clutching his head and pulling his hair that covered his right eye. He only wishes for silence but the calm waves below. Not his shitty thoughts about his identity or what lessons he'd been taught on Kamabakka Kingdom. With little to nonexistent self-worth, it was fucking hard to accept who he is. He needed no one elses approval but his own.

—

"Mother... is it wrong to feel like a boy?" Sanji fiddled with his thumbs, sitting on the edge of his mother's bed. His back was turned towards her, but he could hear her smile.

"What makes you feel that, Sanji?"

"... I don't know. My heart feels bad and heavy when I am a girl," Sanji hugged himself tight, gritting his teeth to hold back his tears. His brothers told him a man doesn't cry, otherwise he'd never be considered or respected as one.

"Sanji, look at me," his mother's voice was soft and full with kindness.

Sanji slowly turned his head, sniffling his red nose with his tearful eyes. His mother gently cupped over his cheek and wiped away the teardrops overflowing from the corner of his eye.

"Follow what your heart feels, Sanji. Despite what your father says, you continue seeing me, right? Continue with what your heart desires."

...

If only it were that easy.

—

"I was born wrong," said Sanji.

"Clearly," responded father. Unsure what he had meant by that, Sanji was overjoyed to be treated as a boy going forward.

A man was not who he wanted to be, yet those feelings of euphoria when dressed alike to his brothers and referred to as a "son" or "he" were undeniable.

It was a bit of surprise that even his brothers were forced to comply. But that doesn't stop their bullying and abuse whenever left alone with them.

–

"We're only wrestling! It's what boys do!" Yonji exclaimed with his arm strangled around Sanji's neck. Sanji tugged and tugged, attempting to escape his grasp only for Yonji to flex tighter.

"You're a boy, right, Sanji? Then act like one! Reiju is more of a man than you are!" Niji laughed, swinging a harsh kick into Sanji's shin.

Sanji was gasping between breaths, his skin turning from a shade of red to blue. For once, Yonji obliged but that moment of refreshing release was cut short by Ichiji's foot to Sanji's mouth.

"If you're a man, then stand up!" Ichiji yelled, kicking Sanji again by his stomach, not giving him a single chance for a breath of air. Coughed up blood splattered over the red carpet and Ichiji's white pants.

"Eww! She spat out blood!" Yonji exaggerated his gagging with his tongue lolled out his mouth and pointing into it.

Sanji shakily forced himself up, bloodied and bruised. His brothers smirked at him, intrigued that he was even capable of standing up after a beating.

"I'm... I'm not a she!!!" Sanji shouted and panted heavily. He knelt over, clutching onto his growling stomach that was building up his throat.

"Oh yeah? If you're not a girl, then," without warning, Niji swung his leg across Sanji's head, forcing a crack into the castle's walls. "Try not to pass out!"

His brothers waited for their useless brother to even breathe one shallow breath. Sanji couldn't move a single muscle, yet he was still conscious. When he heard heavy footsteps, his eyes widened and his heart beat grew steady. Sanji cried out for his father, but his throat felt clogged and not a word was heard.

"H-hel...p... me..." Sanji sputtered with quivering lips. His brothers laughed aloud, every time their mouths opened their words would never be positive.

The heavy footsteps got closer and Sanji turned his head towards that direction, staring at his father's unchanged expression. The burning sensation from his stomach rose. It ached terribly and he couldn't do anything but cry.

"F-fath— MGH—!" Sanji vomited on the carpet, his brothers expressed their disgust and laughed. When Sanji's eyes met with Judge, he was stared down at with revulsion. He bit back the bottom of his lip, trying to prevent tears or vomiting again, he couldn't tell what was happening anymore. It was like the room started to spin, the laughter dissipating in the background before everything turned to black.

–

The only people in Sanji's life that even treated him with kindness were women. His bedridden mother, his bystander sister, and the maids. But his mother was long gone for months. All he became accustomed to was the gray brick walls, steel bars caging him in, and a heavy iron helmet upon his head. The only people that ever kept him company were the Germa soldiers. But of course, they never bothered with conversations and only responded to Sanji's needs. He was even lucky that his requests for books were allowed.

Being kept alive, rotting in this dungeon was a fate worse than Hell. His hair grew longer and it felt so damn itchy. But with the stupid mask over his head, he couldn't satisfy the itch. Sanji had to resort to scratching his arms until they burnt and glowed red. Sometimes he'd scratch hard enough that it'd draw blood. He'd only stop once his arms started to bleed.

Sometimes Sanji refused baths. He wasn't comfortable with either a man or even a woman scrubbing him clean. He didn't want to do it all himself. He didn't want to look at the bare body he couldn't stand to look at. He wanted his mother. He wanted Reiju.

Since Sanji refused to have a bath because of the growing pit in his stomach grew each time he had to strip down, reminded of the body that shouldn't be his. The Germa soldiers resorted to soaking him with a hose and drop off his preferred choice of clothing.

That was all these past months of hell Sanji lived through alone in the dark and dank dungeon. The isolated loneliness was more agonizing than being beaten like a worn out punching bag by his brothers. Despite the amount of bruises and broken bones they may have caused, he missed them.

But maybe he thought too soon. Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji found him, surprised that he was still alive. They purposely spoke aloud how killing Sanji would likely make their father happy. His heart began to race like it was about to burst right out of his chest. Once they got the gate unlocked, they approached Sanji slowly, making him backed against the cold brick wall.

It was the same cycle as previously. Maybe even worse now as they were beneath the palace so no one would hear Sanji scream and cry for help.

–

Liquid rolls down Sanji's forearm and his cigarette burnt out. His nails dug into his skin deep enough to draw blood. Shit. No matter the pain he's given himself, it will never get rid of the filthy hands that bruised his body.

Sanji tosses his cigarette into the ashtray and lights another.

Why couldn't the good people in his life just leave him to rot?

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

au where the day of unity isn't until decades later and luz never comes to the boiling isles. willow somehow still gets transferred to the plant track and gets really good at her craft. amity never learns that bullying is bad, actually and they never reconciled in school.

and years later, blight industries is the most affluent company on the isles. odalia continues to be allergic to letting amity, who is her only child at this point to not run away from home the moment they turned 18 and cut all contact, associate with witches of "lower social standing."

so eventually when odalia tells amity that she's going to find her a nice respectable spouse amity just rolls her eyes and goes with it. maybe its some other heir to a big company. maybe it's a captain from the emperor's coven. maybe it's even the golden guard, if hunter managed to survive that long.

and then eventually she finds out that her mother has been trying to get her a date with PLANT COVEN HEAD WILLOW PARK

you've seen the countless amity x hunter miserable arranged marriage aus get ready for the amillow friends to enemies to arranged marriage to friends again to lovers 50k slowburn