#and iirc only one in house writer

[illuminatedmoth]

in my bathroom talking to my wall like im giving a tedtalk about how bethesda's game design has changed over the years and how its trajectory isnt looking great

starfield still blows btw

[oacest]

Hi I would like to delve deeper into the oasis lore and was wondering if you have any book recs ?

I read that the supersonic book (containing all the interviews from the doc) is quiet extensive, and obvi from the sources themselves, but maybe you have other Recs that you found interesting?

we were delighted to get this ask, bc yes yes YES we DO have loads of opinions on the oasis books! Be aware that most of these cover sort of the same time period (my spirit mourns for an in-depth book dealing with the mid-to-late aughts). Presumably every publishing house in the UK circa 1996 was offering book deals to randos if they heard the name "Oasis", but these are the best ones (there are, if you can believe it, many more):

The Supersonic interviews are a definite rec -- they're exhaustive, cover way more than the doc suggests, and feature a lot more voices too. The editing job is astounding. Definitely be aware while reading that the interviews were conducted in 2015; with Oasis especially, facts and feelings change depending on time, mood, the wind, whether one is hungover, etc

Brothers from childhood to Oasis by Paul Gallagher. If one never reads any other book on Oasis, they should read this. In fact, no one is permitted to have an opinion on Noel or Liam without having read it. Paul has his blindspots, as one would expect with any sibling, but he also ofc knows his brothers and what makes them tick in a way no one else on the planet does, so!

Oasis: what's the story? by Ian Robertson. This one is somewhat controversial; the author was a bodyguard/security coordinator for Oasis and people understandably have opinions on that. Imo he's a good enough writer that he has a very clear authorial voice and perspective, which makes any worry about being fed lies moot so long as one has a brain. I appreciate he also takes some artistic risks in this book. Also, regardless of his flaws as a man or employee lol, he has a keen, at times painfully empathetic read on Liam specifically. iirc he was the only person who wrote about Oasis in those early years who had a front row seat to Liam's voice/throat problems, which lends a somewhat Cassandraic air to the whole book.......

Getting high: the adventures of Oasis by Paolo Hewitt. Oh, Paolo. What can we say. You have to read this one because it covers so much ground, just be aware it's badly written and the author is quite biased towards Noel. (I say this as a Noelist myself)

Was There Then: A Photographic Journey by Jill Furmanovsky. This is a photography book (and a fucking beautiful one) but it also has a TON of text background. Critically, it offers a perspective on the band/brothers missing from all the rest in this list -- that is, the view and impressions of two women who worked closely with the band (Jill herself and Daniela Soave, a music journalist)

Oasis, definitely by Tim Abbot. This one had a lot of personality and abbot was a creation guy so he knew the band pretty well.

Take Me There: Oasis' Story by Paul Mathur. Mathur was a Melody Maker journalist who followed them around in the early years. He had a pretty fair take on them.

The Truth: my life as Oasis's drummer by Tony McCarroll. So, obviously Tony hates Noel, like. A lot. You have to approach this book like you're giving a hostile witness a cross examination lol but THAT SAID, he does cover stuff missing from other books like pre-deal Oasis.

[spite-and-waffles]

I always wonder whether Batfam fans really get just how fucking rich the Waynes are. Like of course we shy away from thinking about the fact that we're talking Musk and Bezos money, and focus on how Bruce funds the freaking Watchtower and has what is functionally a high-tech military base and lab and the world's most expensive vehicles. But this is the one time you don't have to factor in the implications of wealth-hoarding, so there's nothing preventing y'all from understanding exactly how much money we're talking about here.

For instance, there doesn't seem to be any concept of how palatial Wayne Manor is, simply going by the outer facades of it that appear in the comics and movies. Or how decadent the lifestyles that accompany that kind of ancestral home. Alfred couldn't run that place on his own even if he had super powers, which is why even the movies occasionally show a rotating probably-temporary staff in the background. The house probably has like 3 hundred-foot pools. Their garden is a protected heritage park.

The Waynes are 10x richer than Crazy Rich Asians. They buy and wear the jewelry worth hundreds of millions that belonged to royalty. They own private islands. The art in the house alone is worth more than the GDP of a small country. They went to school with like every US President since Teddy Roosevelt and still think the Rockefellers are new money. They're personal friends with Beyonce and can get her to perform at private parties. They can rent out an entire three-star Michelin restaurant and fly out to one for every date. They have top-line penthouse apartments in every major city in the world. They can buy a luxury sportscar instead of hiring a vehicle anywhere they visit and then just toss the keys to the nearest person on their way out (Arab royalty is known for this appearently. There's been some very lucky parking valets in the UAE iirc).

Bruce is as rich as Ra's Al Ghul, regularly make social calls to heads of state and his family has a history of being king-makers. Every one of Bruce's children, from Dick to Jason to Cass, is poised to inherit one of the largest and most powerful empires in the world. That means every time Bruce adopts an orphan off god-knows-where, the entire global elite is thrown into consternation and horror. Even Tim is barely acceptable to these people because he doesn't have the pedigree. I don't follow the reboot comics so Idk if Duke is adopted, but it would be so fucking funny if he was because they'd react a lot like the British establishment did to Meghan Markle (except the family and WE would have Duke's back completely). As for Damian, the fact that he's not white would get him snubbed if everyone who's anyone didn't 100% know who Ra's Al Ghul is. And they're fucking terrified because, for maximum hilarity, they probably figure that Bruce doesn't.

I just find it incredibly fucking funny when I'm reading fics that the writers can only imagine Bruce and the kids's civilian privileges extend only to "big house", "a lot of cars" and "Gotham famous". Lol. Lmao even.

...

Edit: Explanation for people justifiably skeptical that Bruce could be rich as Ra's (scroll down)

[canonicallyobserving911]

Buck & Eddie: Chris' Parents!

In a post I completed a few days ago (linked here), I explained how Buck wears specific colors when he's looking for answers and in it, I mentioned how he was wearing the color shirt he usually wears whenever he's looking for them. When TM (showrunner) first released the still of Buck and Chris from 7x1, Buck's pants weren't shown because it didn't include the lower half of his body. However, the stills for 7x1 that were released yesterday do include the bottom half of his body and he's wearing navy-blue pants.

After completing a post about The Buckley-Diaz Family yesterday, I vaguely remembered Shannon was wearing the same colors in 2x7 that Buck will be wearing in 7x1 and I got curious. Reminder, Eddie had to call her and when he did, he asked her to come over so they could talk about Chris' admission into Durand. I didn't watch the episode again but I did fast forward through it to get to that specific scene and I was right. She's wearing a rust/dark orange colored blouse and it's a similar color to the shirt Buck's wearing in all the stills from 7x1 while he's in Chris' room. Also, both of them were wearing navy-blue pants.

When she arrived at Eddie's house, she was looking for answers after having been gone for almost 2 years and it appears Buck's going to be looking for answers too about something while he's there in 7x1. Reminder, he's going to be helping Chris with his homework, possibly math but remember his "special skills" disappeared after 6x13 so...

Additionally, Eddie didn't enter Chris' room with her, he kept standing in the doorway similarly to the way he will be doing in 7x1. Since it's just a still, no one but the showrunner, producers, writers, actors and actresses know if Eddie actually enters while Buck's there. Since the lighting is different, it appears Buck will already be gone when Eddie's standing in the doorway looking at Chris (the still on the right has Eddie standing in the doorway).

Please note, Eddie HAS entered Chris' room with Buck and he did it in 5x17 but IIRC, he never entered Chris' bedroom with Shannon and she's Chris' mother.

And just for kicks and giggles, reminder, guess who Buck and Eddie were talking about in 5x17? EDDIE'S PARENTS! 🤪😜🙃

Please NOTICE HOW BUCK'S SITTING ON THE BED WITH CHRIS in 7x1 (not the first time) BUT SHANNON WAS NOT in 2x7!

Reminder, she asked Eddie if Chris ever asked about her while she sat on his bed but Eddie said, "Not in a while. He has a lot to keep him busy...". She also asked him if she could see Chris when they went into the living room while she was sitting on Eddie's GRAY couch (not the blue one that he has now, related post linked here) but Eddie said, he didn't want to confuse him because Chris hadn't seen her in almost two years.

Reminder, Buck hasn't left Chris and he told him he wasn't going anywhere in 4x8. Also, another point to make about the conversation they had in 4x8 is Chris was talking about people who went away including... guess who? Shannon!

Reminder, Buck sat on Chris' bed with him in 4x14 after Eddie got shot. Chris consoled him after Buck broke down and he told him it was going to be ok.

The point of this post is to illustrate how Buck and Shannon have been further paralleled with their clothing and they illustrate how both of them were/are looking for answers from Eddie regarding their place in Chris' life. I said in the post I completed about the color gray (linked above) that Eddie's the one who will have to tell Buck what his role is in Chris' life. He's the only one who can.

I said in another post I did about Dad!Buck that Chris was looking for Buck in 6x11 during Buck's coma dream not Eddie (linked here) but Buck didn't understand it. He asked him, "Can you help me find my dad?"

Additionally, the fact that Eddie's standing in Chris' doorway both times is significant. It's been speculated that Eddie's holding the letter that Shannon wrote to Chris since it's on blue paper and if he is then 👀.

Don't forget about Eddie's WILL! Eddie named Buck to be Chris' legal guardian in it but IYKYK. Eddie's action was a LOVE CONFESSION BECAUSE HE WAS GIVING BUCK HIS HEART.

Please understand, 9-1-1 is NOT being subtle in season 7 with the parallels between Buck and Shannon. Eddie and Buck have been coparenting Chris for years and I've completed several posts about it (one is linked here).

Finally, another reminder... Shannon left El Paso when Chris was 5 years old and when she returned, she was only there for a few months, therefore she was probably actively in Chris' life for about 5 years and some months before she died but Season 7 marks the fact that Buck has now been a huge part of Chris' life for more than 6 years 👀.

[stackslip]

CAN YOU ELABORATE ON TLT BEING A HOMESTUCK FANFIC‽‽‽‽‽

i'm exaggerating a bit, but taz muir was a well known homestuck writer who wrote under the username urbanAnchorite. her fic the serendipity gospels is one of my fave fics ever, but was never finished and it's only by book 2 of tlt that i figured that the clear allusions to it in book 1 weren't just cute little nods but that she'd expanded on some of the ideas/concepts and worldbuilding of the serendipity gospels. to name a few:

the ninth house cult is heavily based on the juggalo church muir wrote/expanded upon in TSG, from face paint to the rituals and a lot of the accompanying prose

act 2 of TSG takes place mainly in a spaceship that serves as "cathedral" of the juggalo cult, and is described to be covered in bones that have been painted in many colors--which is close to the description of the mithraeum

act 2 also features the two main characters being much younger people mentored/manipulated into horrible acts by an old man who is thousands of years old and bickering with his other thousand year old friends/enemies, who seem to share knowledge and understanding that neither the two protagonists do but also deeply resent one another. hard to not read a parallel to john and the lyctors here!

to elaborate on this bc i just realized it: it is heavily implied in TSG that the dancestors (older people thousands of years old) went through a universe reset and built the empire in the image of their own trauma and anger, which would v much parallel what happens to john on earth and how he "reset" humanity

less of a homestuck thing and more of a taz muir thing: said old man is v much grooming the main female character and making her life miserable during the entirety of act 2

a lot of the story takes place in the background of the trolls' empire being a horrific imperialist force that the main characters were originally very excited to join and become a part of, with one of these characters in particular daydreaming about becoming ground troop for invasion while also holding a terrible secret that would have precluded him of doing so anyway. p neat parallel to gideon's own thing here

act 1 and act 2 of TSG are from two different pov characters, with a drastic shift in prose style and understanding of the situation/world when the pov shifts. which v much echoes how tlt has worked so far. part 3 was barely started before it went on hiatus, but it followed the same pattern.

speaking of, the prose of act 2 of TSG definitely feels very close to harrow the ninth's prose. you can just open the fic and check the first chapter of act 2 and how it's written, and you'll see what i mean. there are differences--the prose of TSG act 2 is more inflected with southern usamerican evangelical speak, i think? i'm not american so i can't quite 200% tell

there is an external armed resistance to the empire's violent imperialism and resistance that was supposed to be the focus in act 3 of TSG, which never happened. nona the ninth did, though, and it follows that structure.

there are also eldritch horrors that threaten the entire universe--homestuck's own horrorterrors--that are in the background of TSG and implied to be an important part of the future plot that we never saw. tlt has the ressurrection beasts

taz muir's worldbuilding around the blood castes in og homestuck that she elaborates on in TSG also somewhat parallels the way the houses function in tlt

iirc there's also worldbuilding around space travel in tlt (such as the obelisks? i think that's the name? and the use of necromancy to power them) that parallels taz muir's own take on how space travel works in the troll empire, using psionics and draining them dry in a similar way

i think the necro-cav relationship 'ideal' is based around how taz also interpreted moirallegiance in not just TSG but all her homestuck fics, down to how its legal implementation and the idealization of it vs its role in troll/houses imperialism and the reality of blurred lines in "expected" relationships. i'd love to hear taz's discourse on troll romance

i also think the necro-cav relationship parallels the other legal pairing explored in TSG--legislacerator and subjugglator.

there are probably more parallels i am missing--i need to reread TSG soon, as i haven't in a while. there are elements i'd say are more like, how taz herself elaborated on the bones of the worldbuilding of homestuck and then made it her own thing, which is rad as hell. other elements are more fun nods, such as gideon's aviator glasses being shamelessly stolen from dave homestuck, and a lot of gtn's prose feeling very homestuckey. it's def not like, just a little rewrite and boom, you get the locked tomb! imo it's more elements of plot and worldbuilding that were interesting enough to develop into something of its own and that taz made into something new, along with other elements of other stories (such as lolita and umineko) being woven into it. part of why i enjoy tlt so much is its "collage" aspect, taking elements taz thought interesting in other stories, or using these elements to purposefully evoke specific feelings/moods to construct or obsfucate certain ideas.

[glisten-inthedark]

It kills me that the GA doesn’t fully understand or appreciate the significance of Mike being in the shed with Joyce and Jonathan in s2.

They could have easily had just Joyce, Jonathan, and Hopper in there because Joyce and Jonathan are his family and Hopper is there to ensure their safety and help restrain Will.

But Mike is there.

Despite the fact that Dustin and Lucas are also Will’s friends, Mike is there.

Will was unconscious. He didn’t ask for Mike to be there. Mike was there. Mike wanted to be in there. The writers chose him to be there, with Dustin or Lucas.

They could’ve had a scene where each member of the party recounts their first or most precious memory of Will. It would’ve been beautiful! But other than Will’s family, they only wanted Mike there.

Only Mike.

Once again separating Mike as Will’s most important relationship outside of his family. Once again having Mike show that Will is special to him—their their bond is significant and goes beyond just best friends. Because in s1 Mike insists that Dustin and Lucas are his best friends, which would implied that they’re also Will’s best friends. So why aren’t they in the shed too?

Why just Mike.

Oh, to add more about Mike being in the shed:And to reference this ask you got a while back because I just rewatched the shed scene and thought of this ask: https://www.tumblr.com/glisten-inthedark/766608866928623616/joyce-informs-will-of-his-birthday-and-how-heJoyce says Will drew a rainbow ship when he was little. Which adds to that other anon pointing out that every memory they mention to Will has become significant later (Will coming out and also the rainbow room and how that + the other rainbows peppered throughout the show is likely used to reinforce the queer symbolism & narrative within the show)Well, Mike also brings up a campaign that involved sewers and insects, and iirc there’s a sewer-looking tunnel w/ a ladder like from a manhole in the bts video for s5. He also says that Will cast “fog cloud” and “saved us. You saved the entire party.” And I would love if that’s somehow foreshadowing something Will does involving a smoke bomb/screen in s5And Jonathan playing Should I Stay Or Should I Go foreshadowed the significance of music “reaching a part of the brain words can’t” in season 4Also once again even after they figure out Will is using Morse code, the writers don’t have Mike stay with the others in the house helping to translate/transcribe. He stays in the shed and we see him once again being shown as one of the integral, essential people there to help reach Will. And again, Will didn’t choose for him to be there! This isn’t an example of Will being in love with Mike. This is an example of Mike’s love for Will. (And honestly this whole thing probably helped facilitate Will falling in love with Mike because Mike did so much for him in s2 out of his love and care for Will, how could Will not fall for him??)

Hello! Oh, I think you may have read my mil*ven post? And yes, that's one thing I legit don't get too!

Like, did absolutely no one stop and ask themselves why did the writers choose to have only Mike there when it wasn't a choice Will made?

Because I'm not joking, I was already pretty suspicious of Will and Mike at that point but that scene pretty much solidified for me that there was something there. I'd be always like: OK but why is he the only one there?

So yeah, I'm constantly wondering how no one seems to notice it that he didn't have to be there, so why is he?

[oddlittlestories]

Okay so I can’t find it but I saw a post about wishing at least one other character would acknowledge there’s a reason House doesn’t want to go to his dad’s funeral. And I wanted to say that I agree with this. And I think it’s the point. And that House as a show was also subverting expectations, so I wanted to talk a little about this.

So first off, I think it does really interesting things when you take a non-diegetic / non-in-universe approach to the show.

One, this was Supernatural era. You know, the show that sometimes categorized the dad (who would leave his child sons alone for weeks at a time, was sometimes implied to hit them, and openly shamed them especially Dean) as the only true hero. And also iirc a lot of shows and movies at that time centered around the theme of forgiving your abusive parent.

Two, in the previous season, we get an episode that canonically parallels the severe traumas of rape and physical child abuse.

Three, House never apologizes or forgives his dad. Yeah, he’s a misanthrope, so there’s a narrative excuse there, but he’s also allowed to do it. And he’s right about his dad not being his bio dad.

Four, for the above reasons, it is reasonable to view the narrative as being on House’s side. He goes because of extreme social pressures (which exist in the real world!) and, possibly, because his mom wants him there. But the narrative essentially says that his dad was a bad person and House shouldn’t have had to go. (With the possibly caveat of ‘[even shitty] funerals are sometimes a place to reconnect with living people you actually care about.’)

Part Two: Diegetic / In-Universe

House’s mom. This is really interesting, right? House’s mom is brought up over and over again. And the narrative thread is—she was abused, too. Should House connect with her? And if so, why and under what circumstances?

And what’s really interesting is, House doesn’t want to under the given circumstances. Because it means submitting to social mores he doesn’t agree with, including the circumspect of implying, “My dad was a good guy.”

But his mom doesn’t seem to see it quite the same way. “He’s not going to care [that we started late], Greg. He’s dead.” Essentially saying, this really isn’t about him. He’s dead.

So it’s this moral ambiguity again. Can and should House align with his also-abused mother? What would it cost him to do so? (And implied: childhood abuse can have lingering impacts forever, especially when people dismiss it because - the war is not over.)

To me, this episode is one of the examples where many characters take on roles as foils to expose a narrative theme. In this case: social pressure around “respecting your parents.” And I think it’s brilliantly done. I think when you have the overwhelming suffocating feeling of WHY ISN’T ANYONE LISTENING TO HIM

I think that’s EXACTLY the point

These motives are, to a degree, being placed on the characters. It’s extremely well-written, so it feels authentic, but to me it’s just as likely Chase would say “he shouldn’t have to go” and Cuddy with her mom would be more sympathetic. But the writers chose to unearth all the reasons each of them would put social pressures on House. And this happens to people in real life.

And of course, Wilson. It’s not inauthentic for Wilson. He’s doing two things at once. One, he’s playing out his own issues around social obligation. Two, he’s grabbing onto “I am socially obligated to be around House” like a lifeline.

Which leads us to the second theme of the episode, which is inherently true to the characters and deeply humanizing.

Complicated grief.

House’s grief is complicated because of social pressure. And he’s not sad his dad is dead—he’s sad that it changes nothing. Like he says to the kid with the facial deformity: “you can change your face, but you can’t change who your face made you.” House can change his circumstances. But he can’t change who they made him.

And Wilson’s grief is complicated because his girlfriend died suddenly, violently, unreasonably. And his best friend was deeply involved—in trying to save her and in her ultimate loss. He’s terrified of losing people and he almost lost them both. And because it’s Wilson, he represses, justifies, and misunderstands his own motives which makes everything harder. And it’s also deeply real. People compartmentalize. They misunderstand their own feelings.

So yeah! This episode is a twofer. One is meant to make you scream internally about the social pressures around funerals and abusive parents. The other is about complicated grief and mourning, and reconnecting despite and sometimes because of death.

The complexity gives me brain worms. I love this episode.

[greenaswildfire]

How being "Team Dorne" has shaped my opinions on hotd (and later my convictions as Team Green)

Alright, first of all, I'd like to state that Dorne is one of my favorite regions in ASOIAF. Book Dorne I mean, mostly because of fan theories because if we rely only on Martin we will never see what Dorne is planning.

Being Team Dorne also means I'm not fond of dragons and Targaryens/valyrians in general, so why all of a sudden I was convinced by the Greens, who also have dragons/Targaryens?

Well, here are the reasons based mainly on hotd and book spoilers/theories I've read:

3-They're losing dogs: everybody knows at this point that the Greens will always be sabotaged by writers, even in their already few victories. I guess that when one is ff writer or reader, one sees right through other people's creative choices and detects reasons/impacts/intentions more easily. That's what I feel with hotd, after years writing as a hobby such "automatic analysis" it's habit atp, I feel Team Green as the cornered rats of a japanese old saying: the cornered rat will bite the cat. The more they're sabotaged by the writers, the more I'll like them. Dorne also has always been seen as weak, a dying land taken by rhoynar immigrants, but yeah, they were the only ones to repel Targaryens and their dragons. They were also seen as losing dogs when actually they're incredibly badass.

2-Dorne is a much, much, and I say, MUCH better version of the Dance of the dragons, without dragons! How is that possible?!

-Arianne Martell is ASOIAF's version of Rhaenyra, but ofc, a way better version of her. She's cunning, resourceful, her "my father doesn't love meeeeeh, my birthright is threateneeeed" convictions are hard to change, she wants to prove herself, she has quite a lot of connections, she resorts to seduction and manipulation if needed to convice people to join her crazy plans, but at the same time, she worries about them if things go wrong, which means she's aware of her actions/choices and how it impacts others, and when Doran finally tells her the truth, she stops acting like a spoiled brat and finally starts acting like what one expects of an heir. She's flawed, she's human, she wanted her father's approval like Aegon wanted his parents affection.

-Arys Oakheart was Myrcella's kingsguard and Arianne didn't hesitate to use him and bring him to her side (or try to), it reminds me of Cole and how he was also used and later discarded by hotd!Rhaenyra. Arianne at least had a masterplan in mind and it took half a year, Rhaenyra just wanted someone to play and forced herself on Cole. In the end, both knights spend their remaining days trying to make up for the vows that women lead them break: Arys protects the real Myrcella who is missing now, and Cole fiercely keeps fighting for his found family in the Dance. It is said that both die deaths without honor, but what do we mean with "without honor"? Imo, from the moment you have a clear purpose in mind, a reason to fight, a reason to die for, it is not an honorless death/fight anymore. If "death with honor" to you means only "death by dragonfire" than yeah, their deaths were bland and honorless. But both knew what they were getting into, and accepted death anyway for the sake of their causes/reasons.

-Oberyn is quite a comparison to Daemon: there's a moment when Oberyn beds the paramour of an Yronwood guy. And to make things worse, he kills the man in a duel "by accident" :D Oberyn ends up exiled in the free cities and when he returns, it's to avenge Elia and her children. Uncles, always chaotic uncles, and iirc Arianne also found uncle Oberyn attractive :D

-Quentyn is a parallel for Aegon: as result of Oberyn's deeds, House Martell was kindly forced to send Quentyn to be fostered by the Yronwoods (You have to send your elder son to be fostered by an andal house. which happens to be the biggest rival of your house.. maan, huge seed for dance here). In other words he's a hostage, but Quentyn even considers Anders Yronwoods like a father, he's grown there after all. Like Aegon, he doesn't want to be the Prince of Dorne like Arianne thinks he wants. He wants a lot of things, but to rule is not one of these things. And when he's sent to find Daenerys, she isn't in Meereen anymore, but just like Aegon who wanted to prove himself, he tries to tame a dragon so he wouldn't return empty-handed. It is said that Quentyn didn't survive, but if we consider how Aegon II was hard to kill, certainly Quentyn is also alive. Burnt, but alive. I don't remember which dragon he tried to tame before, but it would be nice if he came back with Viserion, his cream colors and clingy behavior would be a nice parallel to Sunfyre and Aegon.

-Other interesting aspect is how Arianne claims that Anders Yronwood is Criston Cole reborn and he'll help Quentyn usurp her birthright just because. But guess what, the name of one of her chapters is essentially the same as Criston's (Queenmaker/Kingmaker), and she is the one who tries to crown Myrcella. We know almost nothing about Anders, so it's hard to judge his character based solelly on Arianne's or 'Quentyn's opinion. Regardless, it shows how Arianne is aware of History, and how she thinks things happen again and again.

-It's also interesting to compare Daemon-Viserys, and Oberyn-Doran. Daemon and Oberyn are both seen as the dangerous elements of the House, while Viserys and Doran the weaklings. Doran, however, is waaay smarter and resourceful than Viserys, Viserys was too dumb for his own good, he didn't know how to play the game. Doran does know, and that's why he's also dangerous: if you're strong, feign weakness. Sometimes I even think that Doran rhymes more with Otto because of that.

-Arianne's trip to honor the marriage pact and meet fAegon rhymes a bit with Rhaenyra's travel to find a husband. In hotd Rhaenyra ignores all the suitors and gets stuck with Laenor. I imagine the same will happen with Arianne and after getting all the infos she needs from fAegon and the golden company, she turns fAegon down.

And most importantly:

1-Feminine empowerment...: do we have feminine empowerment outside Dorne? We do, all female characters play the game of thrones the best they can. But in terms of western concept of empowerment and freedom, Dorne is considered one of the main elements of femininere presentation in ASOIAF. It's also no secret that Targaryens/Valyrians have g3nocid3d rhoynars and their customs in the past. Watching how Rhaenyra struggles for the implementation of the rhoynar custom of primogeniture that her ancestors had helped destroy for centuries in Essos screams "Karma" and I love it. You're the good deeds and the bad deeds of your ancestors, you can't choose. You'll inherit their rights, but also their duties and misdeeds.

These parallels have contributed a lot to the way I consume hotd, because really, I can't, it's hard to take hotd!Rhaenyra's attempts of feminine empowerment seriously no matter how much Condal and Hess force me to believe that Rhaenyra is a compeling character with a total valid reason that justifies her santity and her "call to adventure" as valyrian savior of Westeros.

And it's a shame, because I see how much effort is put on this show.. not much in terms of writing ofc, but as for the rest? Nothing less than stelar.

Anyway, as usual, Team Green is doing great with the few glories they are allowed to have and I'm sure the actors will keep doing a great job. Condal, Hess, directors: let the actors work, they can capture nuances that could save the writing just like our brilliant Diana Riggs (RIP) had done with Lady Olenna in GOT's last seasons. Just saying.

[greghatecrimes]

I don't think you can say house md was not homophobic even with the so called "rep" it's definitely a product of its time but you don't gotta lie and say it was more progressive than it was, you can just like the show while acknowledging it's problems. Yes, there was a bisexual character, who had countless biphobic jokes made at their expense. There was a whole episode where house and wilson talk about how weird it is for one of the nurses to date a trans woman who they call a tranny. There's a whole episode about them discovering a teen girl is intersex and house misgendering her by calling her a man the whole episode and telling her that her anger is due to the cancer she has when she becomes upset about being told she is "not really a girl" I love the show too, but every person that says the show is homophobic and transphobic is right, it's a product of its time, it still more bigoted than "progressive", and liking it even like that is not a crime or makes you a bad person. Let's not lie about what it is just because we like the show, plenty of queer people do but that doesn't make it less bigoted.

Respectfully: I don't think I'm lying at all when I say it was progressive for its time.

You're right, though, anon! It ABSOLUTELY could be bigoted, too, especially in the early seasons (specifically I'm thinking of the moments you mentioned, the one with the nurse House and Wilson discuss, and the entire episode "Skin Deep", etc.) and I can acknowledge that. I agree, it doesn't make someone a bad person to enjoy something like this show that is indeed a product of its time. But even just beyond the "rep" of having Thirteen as a canon bisexual character, the show did so much that was progressive for its time IRT: lgbt+ presence in media.

Just one example of many I could give is "The Softer Side". The entire episode "Skin Deep" is something I like to skip over, but it's not a "forgive and forget" type of thing. I don't approve of the episode and I want to hold the writers who came up with that entire thing and everyone who let it slide accountable. But three seasons later, we got "The Softer Side", written by Liz Friedman. The Softer Side's patient is a child who was born intersex, but was given gender assignment surgery at birth, and whose parents don't want him to know he's intersex. The episode handles his case with such care that I don't think a show today could really even come close to achieving. The issue was never that this kid was intersex. He's not being treated for a condition that was caused by him being intersex. Him being intersex has nothing to do with the diagnosis he gets at the end of the episode! The only reason him being intersex came up during his case is because his parents didn't want him to know, and thus told the doctors at PPTH to lie to him about testosterone he was being given (it's implied his parents had been giving it to him for at least a year/a short while iirc). And the team at PPTH (specifically Thirteen) thought that he had the right to know, that it would be good for him to know and understand this part of himself! They're supportive! The episode doesn't wave away the fact that he was given gender assignment surgery! It pushes for an acceptance of both masculine and feminine and giving people the freedom to decide for themselves, even when they are children (and not saying a child the patient's age is too young to know what he/she wants, etc.)

The way House MD and Liz Friedman handled this absofuckingloutely blows other shows portrayal of intersex people at the time out of the water. Does it make up for Skin Deep, or the t-slur comment? No. But it set a precedent for how other TV shows should handle such subject matter going forward. This is why I don't think the show as a whole is homophobic, despite having homophobic/transphobic/bigoted moments.

It's also worth noting that Liz Friedman, who wrote The Softer Side, is a lesbian herself, was a writer on Xena: Warrior Princess (an earlier example of queercoding), and was one of two LGBT writers who were in charge of writing all of Thirteen's plotlines.

[juniperhillpatient]

thank you SO much @missjessefantastico for the tag <3 ALSO EVERYONE READ THIS SERIES ABOUT VAMP WILLOW, THE UNDERRATED HYENA KIDS, & MORE!!! It's so good btvs fans who love underexplored ideas & characters pspspsps

20 Questions For Fic Writers

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 19

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 3,027,073

3. What fandoms do you write for? It's been Avatar the Last Airbender for the past few years. I have an old & probably not-good Rick & Morty fic up. Before that, I had some IT fics. I've got an orphaned fic for scream & one for house of 1000 corpses.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

the benefits of getting a flat tire this is Zuko running away from home & running right into the gaang - also uncovering some family mysteries & reconciling with Azula. modern au. it's Zukka & aw I'm nostalgic for those early days of mine in the fandom

if this were a movie this is basically an ATLA Hollywood Au. Zukka & Azutara. Past Jetko. I was happy with some of the dramatic moments in this fic.

not another high school au lord help me lmao. I'm SO sorry if you are reading this & you happen to love this fic but it's not the thing I'm most proud of. this is basically just me dipping my toes into writing ATLA modern AUs & in that sense I guess it's nostalgic? this is the fic I wrote as a newbie to the fandom just trying it out & I still do lovingly appreciate everyone who was kind & welcoming in those early days!

six feet under ATLA TVD AU MY BELOVED OMG. this is a vampire diaries au. there are no 1:1 translations but azula is damon, katara is a mix of jeremy & elena & so is sokka, zuko is stefan & YEAH. also aang is bonnie & iirc I probably even gave toph something fun to do. ozai is Katherine which is forever hilarious to me. yeah, this was a fun fic.

5. in search of glorious happenings of happenstance this fic is about nothing & everything at the same time. atla/modern world fusion with the four nations existing but also it's modern. all the atla teens/kids are going to college at ember island university & the fic takes place across a year. it's slice of life, comedy, drama, & chaos. lots of ships but I think azutara & jet/zuko/jin are probably, at the end of the day, the romances that are at the heart of this story although platonic relationships are also pretty important in this fic, IMO as much as romances. it's probably my magnum opus or something.

Do you respond to comments? yes <3 I am sometimes slow & I am not perfect but I TREASURE comments & do attempt to let people know as much. I write for myself, I post for the connections I make along the way.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? the devil you know for sure. this is my atla/scream modern au. I talk about it constantly because I'm so insanely proud of it but if you don't know it's exactly what it sounds like. it's horror & tragedy that I feel really proud of & I do think those elements are at the heart of my writing passion despite me usually being a bit nervous about using them. so. I'm proud of this fic. & it has a very bittersweet ending but the tragedy is...there's a lot of tragedy. no more spoilers because I want people to read this!

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? most of my fics have decently happy endings despite me claiming to prefer tragedy lol. I seem to recall the things we leave behind (mailee youtuber au with jetko & auztara. & they were roommates!) having a tooth rottingly fluffy ending lol

8. Do you get hate on fics? not really. it's happened before but it's not a big thing.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? sometimes I write the smutty scenes from my fics then save it only for myself. no you can't see. it's probably terrible. there's some shitty zucest smut of mine out there somewhere but I'm not sure it's any good & couldn't tell you where to find it lol

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I think the AUs I write are called "fusion" because it's more "inserting characters into another world & the characters of that world aren't a thing." but my fic the balance of things was actually a crossover with characters from both wizards of waverly place & atla interacting. also I wrote THIS one-shot that's a crossover between the game the coffin of andy & leyley & the show wizards of waverly place. I didn't post it on ao3 but I'm just saying.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?  I don't think so?

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? I have vague memories of doing this with this girl I was online friends with back in my fanfic.net days, years ago. I think it was Destiel.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? to write? I don't have one right now. I think maybe I got kinda burnt out on everything having to be about one ship or whatever rather than just telling the story & maybe that's a small part of why I'm taking a temporary break from fic writing & focusing on an original story so I'm not staying within fandom approved in parameters & I can just do whatever feels right ya know? I like Cisne's answer about any willow ship tho. me with my faves tbh hehe

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? can't think of one but I can think of fanfic ideas I'd like to return to & fully realize after I get back in the mood

16. What are your writing strengths? I like to think I'm okay at characterization although moving away from fanfic & working on something original has me questioning myself constantly!

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I'm very lazy & often neglect research. sometimes if I don't know how to explain something I just change the whole scene so i don't have to bother.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? could be neat in the right context!

19. First fandom you wrote for? probably family guy lmao

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? maybe 'in search of glorious happenings of happenstance.' I think 'the devil you know' is objectively the strongest. but happenstance is just such a specific version of the characters that's fun to me? it's one of those two that's my favorite, depending on my mood

this is very long so these tags have even less pressure than usual:

@reythespacebae @theowritesfiction @imaslowlearner-butilearn @chasingfictions @hello-nichya-here @matchamarshmallow @akiizayoi4869 @dont-leafmealone @peony-pearl @lunaintheskyforever

also, anyone who wants to do this just say I tagged you!

[randomnameless]

I think the writers didn't write set in stone rules for Crest so they could have a more varried experience for the cast and all but some of them just... makes me ask question. Like why is there so many in Empire people who have several crest, not only all of Mercedes and Jeritza's half siblings, but also Edelgard and Lysithea yet in other country they don't and it's not all people of the Empire because Caspar doesn't have one and Hanneman's sister doesn't have one...and then you learn that they experimented on Lysithea first when she is 2 years younger then Edelgard who was 14 when she was experimented upon by the Agarthans... just... what the heck is this game ?

Jugdral too apparently didn't have rules for Holy Blood inheritence!

But... the games aren't all gung-ho about blaming Holy Blood for everything wrong in this verse...

Granted, iirc, do we know if the Emile and Mercie's step siblings had crests? I thought their step father wanted to shag Mama Martitz to get crested more kids - bar Emile who was already a crested Bartels !

Also, Hanneman's sister had one, that's why she died when her hubby tried to re-roll many times to get a crested heir?

That's partly why I'm curious about Adrestia, because we know there are crested nobles/people who are either fit to be pawned off as wedding prizes, or they just... exist, and no one gaf about them.

There's a heavy dose of sexism in how the Empire deals with this issue, but tbh, I wouldn't say it's specifically a "crested" issue, but more one where... Adrestian's society sucks, because some people try to become "more powerful" by any means necessary, let it be alliances where they offer their daughters, getting "high valued" babies or just, getting rid of people because they can (house martitz, house nuvelle, etc etc).

Monica was adopted by Baron Ochs, but she wasn't offered to a potential husband who started to work on his legacy to get a trillion crested heirs.

Bergliez was retconned in Nopes to have a Cichol Crest, even if all of Caspar's supports in FE16 treated him as a "non important" member of the House not because he was crestless, but because he was a second son...

But in general, yep, at least in backstory, Adrestia has a lot of unnamed randoms with crests (which is represented in Nopes, some generics have crests!) and yet they're randoms and not the ones calling the shots, almost as if having a crest, or not having one, isn't as important as being born male to the right family.

(and I will die on this HC-hill, Adrestia must have a least 3 different branches of the Hresvelg House, meaning at least a dozen of legitimate randos with a Crest of Seiros, Supreme Leader must have had some cousins too, and we're not even talking about bastard children!)

[thrilling-oneway]

Idk why but it feels like they’re dropping the ball with everything tsukasa related recently. Do they just not know what to do with him anymore?

Nah, I think the previous Tsukasa event was really good, I think this time they just. Needed an event here and he was the only viable option. They're doing two events for every troupe and Nene is obviously gonna be the opera house and they're clearly planning something with Rui too so yeah. Tsukasa. Honestly I think this event could have been really good for him if the writing was better.

Like. They say in i think it was chapter 1 that he needs to learn to act physically in character. Like sure he can run around and do stunts and swordfight but can he do all of that as someone else? It's a pretty interesting thing to look at. Only they rely heavily on plot convenience to show his development. Like they bring up core strength (this is consistent with past stories) and flexibility (this is not consistent at all) as things he needs to work on, then drop these in favour of parkour and how fast he can run?? I understand that the parkour was smth he needed to do for a show, but couldn't do so he was disatisfied with his performance. That's totally in-character and makes even more sense when you read his card story and realise he already lost out on the lead role (shaking colopale WHY DID YOU LEAVE THAT IN THE CARD STORY). But the running is literally Not Relevant at all and only exists as a conflict for plot convenience with the plot device thief charatcer.

The issue is that the thief thing is too... Plot device-y. Yeah yeah wxs typical funny shenanigans but ultimately Tsukasa doesn't really learn much because while he learns the stunt in the end it just... Is completely disconnected from his acting. He improves the running and the parkour but does it as himself, and while the people mistake it for being part of the show and he has to improv, this is after he did all that. So he didn't learn how to do physical theatre in-character... And if the writers decided that it was in-character for the role, Tsukasa has gone back to acting characters similar to himself so again not really learning anything new. There's a really good scene with Daigo in chapter 5 or 6 where he talks about how he figuratively hit a wall and that was kinda the highlight of the event for me (aside from emunene crumbs in Nene's card story lol, and this one shoutout to how much Tsukasa trusts his friends in ch7).

Also they completely forget the thief as soon he's caught lol. Turns out he was a kleptomaniac ex-troupe member but they literally don't bring it up until partway through chapter in in a scene that quite literally begins with "So did you find out who the thief was?". Or something along those lines I'm paraphrasing. It wasn't good asfhsgsdjsjks

I think they do know what they're doing with Tsukasa and what I have read of Star of the Story makes it pretty clear. Tsukasa's current thing is improving in different aspects, like playing smaller roles like in SotS (which he still needs to work on iirc), but it felt like they didn't really know what to do with this event specifically, well they did they just executed it badly and used plot convenience so it could even happen. Oh well maybe this will play into a future Rui event somehow considering he was the one who said he thought Tsukasa needed to work on his core strength for stunts like. Ages ago. Not that Tsukasa worked on his core in this event but WHATEVER I NEED TO STOP COMPLAINING.

Tsukasa6 will probably be in the next wxs arc so they'll probably be back to more relevant stuff for then. Especially since that arc will probably be the "Rui and Tsukasa realise they are going to graduate high school soon and Tsukasa has mentioned multiple times in supplementary materials that he wants to go abroad at some point and they kinda need to work out what they're gonna do and how this will affect wxs" arc (or as I've been calling it: wxs disbandment arc 2 <peggle 2 gif attachment>). So that's fun. But yeah I think they know what they're doing they just needed to pad for time here so Daigo's troupe got two events.

[eerna]

Saw someone asked abt Queen Charlotte series and I had to ask; I'm beginning to think that the Bridgerton series is included under the category that I keep seeing in reels; the hyped books that read like a wattpad fic. I've only watched the series, but didn't continue after season 2

You see, my friend gave me the entire series to sell as preloved in my shop (she's moving house) and I was intrigued since I never read them and my sister and friend said they're better than the show. Okay. So I chose Anthony's book first, and the first couple pages were kind of screaming that this family was just different. They're better, because their parents were in love and not an arranged marriage. It just...instantly gave me the ick. Writer was trying so hard to say that they're different and better

Dropped that, picked up Benedict's because my sister said it's Cinderella-ish and she loved his story the most. It started with Sophie knowing that she's an illegitimate child of an earl and she arrived at his house all bundled up, at the age of three. The first page is basically the description of how she's an illegitimate child.

No. The word used was 'bastard'. The author insisted on using the word 'bastard', probably to show how bad of a situation she's in. And therefore I instantly predict that is going to be her entire personality and shall be one of the main obstacles. The first page also mentioned that she didn't remember much but she remembered a little from before arriving at the Earl's mansion. She's supposed to be three.

I'm going to try to push thru. But I'm also wondering if romance is simply not my genre because I usually read books with the romance as subgenre, because this was not it. This feels like someone wrote it to 'subvert the trope', to simply say the Bridgertons are magical and definitely carrying the main characters energy

Do you read romance as the main genre and is it like this usually or this is just an exception and an overhyped story? This feels kinda cheap, if this is how the rest of the series goes for every Bridgerton then how did the author pump out more than 8 books (there's novella iirc) for this series?? Am I too damn critical and snobbish-

Hi! I don't read a lot of romance, but I am open to one day finding a mainly romance book I enjoy, since it sounds like a lot of fun. I don't like Bridgerton either, QC TV show is an exception to the rule because it doesn't share the issues that prevent me from liking the main series (and it makes me hopeful I might find the book equivalent to it one day, no the QC book isn't it). So yeah my advice is to not continue with the books, as they are clearly not your thing. You are not too snobbish, you just don't enjoy Bridgerton, and that's ok

[kitkatopinions]

When discussing the idea that RWBY has the difference between the heroes and villains be their choices, my problem isn't that the characters aren't real and therefore don't technically 'choose' anything. I think that when analyzing media, there has to be some discussion of characters having traits, doing things, making choices, etcetera. Yes, everything a character does, says, or chooses is something they're puppeteered to do by writers, but within the context of the narrative, in the story the writers are trying to tell, the characters will do things and say things and choose things. When talking about Ruby, we can say she chose to be involved in the fight with Salem, and the fact that she's fake doesn't change that.

So if someone says "the RWBY villains made choices that led them to where they wound up" my problem isn't going to be that they didn't choose anything, because they did. In the story, in the narrative the writers are trying to employ, they choose things, Ruby chooses things, her team chooses things, etcetera. My real problem with the idea that RWBY is presenting us with a choice based villainhood whereas the good guys choose good things is that I think it's very badly done if that was even the intended goal, which I'm not sure it was.

In media that wants to make a point of choices being what leads people where they are, there are two things that I think are very important. 1. That the world they establish is either free from systemic bigotry and classism, or that the villains aren't that impacted by the bigotry or classism, or that the system is acknowledged as a driving force that the narrative and the characters within the show are actively against and want to make better. And 2. That the heroes parallel the circumstances of the villains very closely but are shown to make the right choices whereas the villains do not. And I think RWBY fails at both of these steps.

Let's talk about the first one. RWBY is a show where not only is systemic discrimination against the Faunus a thing, but classism and capitalism are both things as well. And both the tendency of the writers to just write what they know (Weiss saying that her asking Neptune out is unorthodox, May talking about her family,) and the writers own bigotry (very few women in leader positions of power, Jaune and Neptune's behavior, the 'joke' about Jaune wearing a dress) make it clear that other forms of bigotry exist in Remnant. On top of this, there are child slaves (Cinder, Adam in extended content,) there's kids living on the streets (Emerald, Nora,) corruption in the Hunter Academies (Dee and Dudley, Qrow's 'shady' colleagues he talks about in V3 and tries to contact in V5, Leo,) and racist and/or sadistic badge carrying law enforcement officers (police in Vale, Cardin training to be a hunter, Coco training to be a hunter.) Weiss's house is the size of the entirety of Menagerie and yet we see houseless people in V7 (iirc) and people living in slums.

The system they invented in the show is inherently unfair, and often heavily impacted the characters we see that are evil, whether that's Cinder being raised as an abused child slave, Adam being raised as an abused child slave and facing discrimination and the systematic oppression of his people, Emerald being a homeless teenager, Ironwood with the weight of a government on his shoulders, Mercury and Neo not having anyone help them while they were abused by their parents, or even the mere implication that Roman grew jaded as time wore on but hadn't started that way. Along with the Brother Gods' hands in the stories of Salem and the Curious Cat, many of the RWBY villains have been severely impacted by conditions outside of their control, the system and hurt caused by others. And RWBY as a whole and the RWBY writers seem not only completely unwilling to delve into criticism of the system and acknowledging the way it contributed to the way villains got to where they are, but at times they even seem to approve of it (Corrupt hunters being treated as bad apples in an otherwise good system, Ironwood being treated as a bad apple in an otherwise good system, Jacques being treated as a bad apple in an otherwise good system, etcetera.) It makes the 'they're defined by their choices' argument feel like a lazy excuse to not examine and even to uphold the corrupt and bad system. It's impossible to say that evil characters are only evil because they chose it when circumstances so frequently pushed them on that slippery slope in the first place, and putting all the blame strictly on how they didn't perfectly handle the horrible situations they were in rather than bothering to ask why those situations happened and how they can be prevented in the future can often boarder on victim blaming. "Adam let his anger consume him" is technically true, but "he shouldn't have been so angry and upset over getting branded in the face after he spent time as a child slave working in a dust mine in horrible conditions as a member of an in-universe oppressed minority group" is very victim blamey!

Now onto the second point. It's much easier to believe a story is specifically about choices if we have a comparison in a very similar situation who chose differently. For instance, Jaune and Salem both lost loved ones that were close to them that were romantic partners. But Pyrrha was not the only person Jaune had as Oz was for Salem, and Jaune hadn't been abused and locked up by his parental figure before that, and after losing said loved one, Jaune wasn't cursed with immortality in punishment for doing something perfectly logical and then watched all of everyone in the world die after trying to rebel against the gods that cursed him. As someone who hates Salem and does think that she's responsible for her actions, it still isn't convincing to put her against Jaune and say 'they both suffered in the same way and yet Jaune made good choices and Salem did not' because... No, they didn't both suffer in the same way. Holding Weiss up to Mercury doesn't work either because they may have both been abused, but all we've seen Weiss get was a slap from a cold father figure whereas Mercury's father was implied to be the reason behind Mercury losing his legs, his dad used to beat him, raised him to be an assassin, and he'd stolen Mercury's semblance, and also Weiss had Winter and Beacon and a support system and all Mercury had was Cinder and Salem and Evernight Castle - Also they seem to be in completely wealth classes. Same with comparing Blake to Adam, same with comparing Neo's loss of Roman to Qrow's loss of Summer, or comparing Cinder's upbringing to Nora's or something. The only really convincing ones are comparing Ruby to the hints about Roman (vaguely implied loss, vaguely implied that he used to be bright eyed and bushy tailed, vaguely implied that the world beat him down in time, which is similar enough to what we've seen with Ruby,) comparing Nora to Emerald (both grew up seemingly on the streets and found their solace with one person,) and comparing Weiss to Watts (both lived in Atlas while they had plenty, both struggled with jealousy and feeling passed over.) People being defined by their choices only really works if we can see them offset against people who shared their circumstance who did make the right choices, and in RWBY, most of the time the villains have gone through far more than the heroes with very little exception to that rule.

Another thing is that the idea of people's villainy stemming from their choices is that imo it only works if we see them get options that are a viable way out, that they ignore. That's also really lacking in RWBY as a general rule. We don't see Mercury and Emerald get a moment before the Fall of Beacon where they had a clear good way out and they didn't take it. We don't see anyone offer Neo a chance to do the right thing and she doesn't take it. We don't see Cinder offered a hand that she rejects. We don't see Ironwood presented with a better plan in V7 that he refuses to try. We don't see Adam ever extended the same sort of grace and chance that Ilia was given and spit at it (TO BE CLEAR I am not saying Blake needed to give him a chance,) etcetera. The story is largely uninterested in giving any villain opportunities for change outside of Hazel, Emerald, and Ilia. Which leads me to believe that the show actually isn't interested in a narrative where the villains are the way that they are out of personal choice, because they only offer them a real choice if they already know they're going to take it.

So yeah, I do not like the offered idea that the RWBY villains are villains out of personal choice, because I don't think the writers did that.

[jyndor]

Do you read Rogue One fanfics? If yes what are your favourite? I don't know if I want read any because I love movie and movie ending but if some writers do it justice too or change middle parts I curious about it 😄

of course! In addition to this list here, I have some more fic recs! I have so many faves from many different angles - everybody lives delusional canon divergence fic, aus, canon sad rip to my heart everybody dies fic, etc. these are aus so yay

resistance is built on hope by chronicolicity, world war ii UNREAL resistance au, this is a fucking 200k+ fic that deals with the French resistance mainly but of course contains topics related to fascism, racism, etc. it's rogue one rewritten in this era, but it's a little better tbhhh imooo lol because we spend more time with the characters and saw is not slandered and cassian!!! oh my god cassian. all the characters are fabulously written but this version of kay actually may be my favorite in any fic. I mean don't hold me to that BUT

by stardust and moonlight by @imsfire2 is a magical fantasy fic where cassian is cursed to live by day as a wolf except when the moon is out, and he stumbles upon witch jyn's house. it's a beautiful love story and a beautiful story in general.

only women should be funny by @shu-of-the-wind​ with jewish!jyn and cassian as a lenny bruce type in this marvelous mrs maisel au which oh my god lol there are two rebelcaptain comedian aus on ao3 and this is the superior one (the other is written by me lol). this deals with racism, sexism, antisemitism iirc, etc.

never had a shotgun (shot in the dark) by ev0lution is a race car driver au idk it’s just really great, works so nicely

the tiger shark and the sun by b_else is a really great fusion of avatar the last airbender and rogue one. they’ve tweaked the world a lot to be more representative of the characters in rogue one, but it’s really well done. deals with the usual suspects: racism, fascism, imperialism, sexism, etc.

pikes peak, july 4 1901 by whatsinausername is a great underrated historical au dealing with a real life event in us history. period typical racism and sexism, but it’s a relatively light, uplifting fic.

the sun in splendor by @shu-of-the-wind​ is incomplete but its a fusion of asoiaf and rogue one/star wars and i love it so dearly. features light of my life shara bey.

shadow preachers by @andorerso​ yeah this is a treat and a half, cass and jyn are monster hunters and IT HURTS

let the cat out of the bag by @andorerso​ lol honestly any of these writers i would say you should read all of their fic but my girl sissi has like so many fun little au fics, but this one is great and hit me from the moment i first read it. it’s just fun! jyn’s fwb cassian charms the shit out of her cat, who hates everyone. it’s based on a reddit story iirc. love it. rated M, has the sex.

I will do more soon but yeah these are aus that I like

lmao sorry you deactivated before I answered rip

[gillianthecat]

Workplaces in QL Shows

Step by Step got me thinking about the types of companies that get used as the settings for Office Romance in QL, and then by extension, what kinds of work characters do. I've only included ones where the job or the workplace is somehow part of the story or is a setting (so jobs the characters had as background info don't count). I didn't include censored BL because I feel that setting plays a different (more prominent than usual in BL) role in those types of stories. I didn't count university students doing school projects, but did include teenagers actually working. This is only the list of shows I've seen or know enough about to make as guess, so a lot are missing. Please add on, or make corrections! Titles with an asterisk * are included in multiple categories (leads had different jobs, or one job fits both categories). Titles in (parenthesis) I've only watched a part of, but enough to determine what work they did, titles in [brackets] I haven't seen so I'm going off what I've read.

(updated 1/7/24 with shows some new shows and some old ones I've seen since first posting. still not a comprensive list.)

Marketing/Advertising Office

🇹🇭 GAP

🇹🇭 Step By Step

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🇰🇷 All the Liquors *

🇹🇭 [Check Out]

🇹🇭 [Paint with Love] *

Graphic Design Office

🇹🇭 Bed Friend (or is it also marketing?)

🇹🇭 Middleman's Love

🇯🇵 Senpai, This Can't Be Love!

Architecture

🇹🇭 Big Dragon

🇹🇭 Love in the Air *

Game Design

🇹🇭 A Boss and a Babe

🇰🇷 Our Dating Sim

Other/Business Empire/Generic Office setting (or I never figured out what they did)

🇯🇵 Old Fashion Cupcake (i never figured it out)

🇹🇼 We Best Love 2 (some tech thing?)

🇹🇭 To Sir With Love * (business empire)

🇹🇭 Cutie Pie (business empire)

🇯🇵 Cherry Magic (stationary company, iirc)

🇹🇭 Cherry Magic

🇹🇭 Love in the Air * (some sort of business empire?)

🇹🇼 [Be Loved In House: I Do] *

🇰🇷 [Love Mate]

🇰🇷 Naked Dining *

🇯🇵 Doublemints *

🇯🇵 (Ossan's Love) (real estate)

🇭🇰 [Ossan's Love]

Law Office

🇹🇼 Plus and Minus *

🇹🇭 Laws of Attraction *

Restaurant/Coffee Shop/Bar

🇰🇷 Ocean Likes Me *

🇰🇷 Choco Milk Shake

🇰🇷 The Tasty Florida

🇰🇷 (Unintentional Love Story) *

🇰🇷 To My Star * (1 & 2)

🇰🇷 All the Liquors *

🇰🇷 Happy Merry Ending *

🇹🇼 [Be Loved In House: I Do] *

🇹🇼 Plus and Minus *

🇹🇼 [My Tooth Your Love] *

🇹🇼 [DNA Says Love You]

🇹🇭 [Coffee Melody] *

🇹🇭 [Moonlight Chicken]

🇹🇭 [What Zabb Man!]

🇻🇳 [You Are Ma Boy]

🇻🇳 [My Lascivious Boss]

🇹🇭 Laws of Attraction *

🇹🇭 (Bake Me Please)

🇹🇭 [609 Bedtime Story] *

🇹🇼 [VIP Only] *

Other Shop/Service

🇯🇵 Minato Shouji Coin Laundry (laundromat)

🇹🇼 Plus and Minus * (dry cleaner)

🇹🇭 Love in the Air * (mechanic)

🇰🇷 [Oh! Boarding House]

🇹🇭 [My Ride] * (moterbike taxi)

🇰🇷 Naked Dining* (grocery store)

🇹🇭 Pit Babe (race car team)

Artist/Artist's Shop

🇰🇷 (Unintentional Love Story) * (ceramics)

🇹🇼 [Be Loved In House: I Do] * (jewelry/metalworking)

🇯🇵 Utsukushii Kare Eternal* (photographer)

TV/Film/Idol Industry

🇹🇭 War of Y

🇹🇭 [House of Stars]

🇹🇭 [Show Me Love]

🇰🇷 (The Director Who Buys Me Dinner)

🇹🇭 (Vice Versa)

🇹🇭 (Love Stage)

🇯🇵 (Love Stage)

🇰🇷 To My Star * (1 & 2)

🇹🇭 Lovely Writer *

🇰🇷 Individual Circumstances *

🇹🇭 [Paint with Love] *

🇯🇵 I Became the Main Role of a BL

🇯🇵 Utsukushii Kare Eternal *

Music/Idol Industry

🇰🇷 Happy Merry Ending *

🇰🇷 Ocean Likes Me *

🇰🇷 [Wish You]

🇹🇭 [Coffee Melody] *

🇻🇳 [You Are Ma Boy]

🇯🇵 Kabe-Koji-Nekoyashiki-kun Desires to be Recognized *

🇹🇭 [609 Bedtime Story] *

Journalism

🇯🇵 Candy Color Paradox

🇯🇵 My Personal Weatherman *

Publishing Industry/Writers

🇰🇷 Happy Ending Romance

🇰🇷 Individual Circumstances *

🇯🇵 The Novelist/The Pornographer series

🇹🇭 Lovely Writer *

🇰🇷 [First Love, Again]

🇹🇼 [VIP Only] *

Manga/Manwha Artists/Illustrators

🇯🇵 Kabe-Koji-Nekoyashiki-kun Desires to be Recognized *

🇰🇷 Oh! My Assistant

🇯🇵 Jack o' Frost

🇯🇵 My Personal Weatherman *

Medical

🇹🇭 (Dear Doctor I'm Coming for Soul)

🇹🇼 [My Tooth Your Love] *

🇹🇭 [Manner of Death]

🇹🇭 [Physical Therapy]

🇹🇭 (My Ride)*

🇻🇳 [Mr. Cinderella]

🇻🇳 [Want to See You]

🇹🇭 [Triage]

🇹🇭 [Sky In Your Heart] *

Mafia/Criminal Underworld

🇹🇭 KinnPorsche

🇹🇭 [Love Syndrome]

🇹🇭 [Unforgotten Night]

🇹🇭 [Chains of Heart] *

🇹🇭 [3 Will Be Free]

🇹🇭 [Golden Blood]

🇹🇼 [HIStory 3: Trapped]

🇹🇭 Never Let Me Go (debated whether to include these children, but ultimately decided they work. still unclear on whether it's mafia or a legit business)

🇹🇭 To Sir With Love *

🇯🇵 Doublemints *

🇰🇷 Long Time No See

🇹🇭 (My Dear Gangster Oppa)

Sex Work

🇹🇭 [Playboyy]

🇯🇵 The Shortest Distance is Round

Debt Collection

🇹🇭 [Even Sun]

🇰🇷 [You Make Me Dance]

Park Rangers/Teachers (the "Other" category, but that's what's in it so far)

🇹🇭 [1000 Stars]

🇹🇭 [Sky In Your Heart] *

🇻🇳 [TienTai Bromance]

🇹🇭 [Chains of Heart] * (this is based on the MDL synopsis, so I don't know if it's accurate, but I was so tickled to have two shows in the park/forest ranger category I had to include it)