#and it's entirely independent of my and me work!

[poisonf0rest]

genuine question because youre one of my favorite writers, you seem to really have a thorough grasp of the characters: what do you see in rafayel that makes him appealing? i try to get past his entitled brattiness because i really want to enjoy all of the guys, but i cant see anything else. please help me understand 🥲

Oh boy, baby, darling, sweetheart, you opened a can of worms. Come do a little bit of character analysis with me~

About Rafayel:

Rafayel is a brat, yes. But that means he wears his heart on his sleeve, outright when he needs your attention or sulking when something is bothering him or faking a dramatic accident to get your attention. There's no silent guessing or fake "I'm fine's," just his overdramatic, raw emotion that's easy to read. He's has anxious attachment stemming from hundreds of years of betrayal and loss.

Rafayel is a romantic, a yearner. And yes, while I also agree his attitude was annoying at first I am very unfortunately into people who get on my nerves, especially when they are flirty and funny as well. I folded during his hospital scene.

Entitled? He is a god. He has been trying and failing to save his entire civilization for over 800 years and still simply can't because he refuses to hurt the one he loves. While all the boys have been through pain there's something about Rafayel's story that really gets me. I think it’s because if I— as mc— knew the sacrifice he was making, I would give myself up. So to have someone selfish enough to place me first is heartbreaking, devoted, and cruel. 

Also there are plenty of scenes where Rafayel is serious, especially if you read between the lines. The brattiness and sass is a playful cover to someone who's been through pain and understands it. Someone who chooses to still see joy and happiness in his life while fully understanding how cruel the world is.

Simply, I'm a sucker for doomed character archetypes. There is no version of Rafayel's and mc's story where they both end happy. Millions of people will die or if mc kills herself Rafayel will live forever as a husk of his former self. Using a sassy, filirty, bratty attitude to cover up such a genuinely depressing story is so juicy to me.

About Me:

I'm a Zayne irl. Work is honestly the most important thing to me outside my family, I'm devoted to my hobbies and leadership positions, and I have a close circle of friends I would do anything for. I'm also fucking hilarious subjective.

I'm the eldest sibling, the guard dog, the de-facto leader for almost everything. I'm the person who had to grow up fast, to parent my immigrant parents at times, who never made space for love, and who is by default independant and comfortable with it.

I prefer to listen-- I love my yapper friends. Don't get me wrong I can talk for hours about anything, but day to day I tend to get exhausted talking after a while so I surround myself with people who can do the easy talking for me.

My irl partner is a mix between Rafayel and Sylus I'd say. He's the one who pulls me out of my work spirals by nagging me until I give in, someone I'm comfortable yapping about my current hyperfixations too, someone who my inner child can come out to. But I also enjoy being a caregiver, that's always been my role and I relish in it, I like being relied upon as much as I appreciate having someone in my life that lets me take a step back. The only part that's Sylus is how his love language is bullying me and his vibe/looks lmao, but usually I am more into raf-stereotypical pretty boys.

So, overall, the appeal of Rafayel to those that choose him:

Rafayel is for the eldest daughters who needs their inner child to be free, who needs a little bit of ridiculousness and impulsiveness in their lives.

Rafayel is for those who never got praised for their effort or strength, for those who success was the only option, who had to be perfect, reliable and serious all the time. He makes it so clear how much simply being with you means to him, constantly complimenting, flirting, and reassuring you just how much he needs you. Showing you how obsessed with you he is.

Rafayel is for those who didn't think love had a place in their lives due to shit family or life circumstances. He proves time and time again that you're the only one he loves. Even though he's lived forever, you were worth the wait and that he would wait again for you, no matter how long it takes. He proves you can be loved, and that it comes easy.

Rafayel is for those who always placed others first. He's more than willing to show you again and again you will always be first in his mind. He needs you more than he does water. Sure, you can take care of him, but he wants to be with you and take care of you, too.

Rafayel is for those who need someone else to drag them out of work/school/spiralling even when they don't want to admit it, bringing in laughter, color, and a little bit of dramatics.

Rafayel is for creators who dedicate themselves to their craft, who are scared of losing this "spark," who want to get better but constantly feel that what they create isn't enough or must be more. 

Rafayel is for hopeless romantics, those that go out of their way to surprise their friends during their birthdays, those who plan platonic dates for those they care about, those who put out so much love into the world and suddenly break when they get that love back.

Rafayel is for those used to having little siblings or those to take care of in our lives. Only while Rafayel relishes in the attention, he's also ready to give it back five-fold.

Rafayel is a switch for switch (brat for brat) lmao. He's for those who like to start on top, teasing and pushing his buttons to get all those cute reactions out of him, just until he breaks. Then he can take control and finish us up. We love vocal men.

Maybe projecting, but Rafayel is the perfect bi-girl's boyfriend. He's a classic pretty boy, unafraid to be in touch with his feminine side, a little dramatic, a little artsy. But he's also super romantic, sensitive, loving, and intense. And gosh, who could say no to those big puppy eyes?

I could probably continue to talk about Rafayel for hours, but ya, hopefully this helps answer why I and others love this man. Just continue on with the main story and read between the lines with his dialogue and I'm sure you'll pick up on it too~

[artbyblastweave]

If you had to bet on which female superhero breaking the Wonder Woman monopoly on Female Superhero Recognized by Non-Cape-Nerds in the near future, who would you bet on?

This is a hard topic for me to address because of my Feldspar-and-quartz levels of recognition of B-list superheroes that I think of as A-list because I've been seeing them in things for years.

That said, I think that a lot of what they've been doing with Captain Marvel over the last ten to fifteen years was, in large part, motivated by how the meteoric rise in popularity of the MCU was highlighting how Marvel didn't already have a widely recognized female character who could hit at that weight; some good Carol Danvers stuff came out of that, but we also got Civil War II, and the "girls can join the air force too!" propaganda threaded deftly through the whole affair, so it's not entirely clear the extent to which any of that worked. Relatedly, Black Widow's inclusion in the initial MCU Avengers lineup was, while not a bad decision, also pretty visibly a result of them going, Christ, we need at least one woman and we don't think they'll take The Wasp seriously- who's left? So Widow was pretty big for a minute... followed by dead, and in the absolutely ridiculous position of her solo movie being released after the one in which she died. And Scarlet Witch, she was pretty big for a minute!.... followed by dead. There's an issue here.

A long time ago, like when I was a teenager, I had this pithy observation that it felt like Marvel had a greater range of diverse, idiosyncratic female superheroes who got to exist independently of the branding of a male counterpart, but on the other hand DC got to have Wonder Woman. There are ways in which this was obviously extremely truthy even at the time- most of the female characters I was thinking of- Wasp, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Invisible Woman, Storm, and so on- existed basically exclusively on ensemble team books, and it was an analysis that left out characters like the Birds of Prey, Starfire, and Raven. Again, I was a teenager. But it does inform what's come to be my real conclusion on this, which is that I'd prefer that both companies just start cranking out a whole bunch of solid, sustainable B-list female superheroes who have a clear niche and reason to exist that isn't "trying to recreate the lightning in the bottle that is Wonder Woman." Like, ten new characters who stick at the reasonably successful levels of quality and fan buy-in achieved by Kamala Khan and Kate Bishop? Way, way better outcome than the other thing that can happen.

Because, like, the decisive answer to your question, the one that occurred to me halfway through writing this? Harley Quinn. They tried to do this with Harley Quinn- maybe less "Wonder Woman 2" and more "DC's answer to Deadpool," but on balance I don't think jacking up her prominence in the way that they've done has been good for her, in the same way I don't think jacking up Deadpool's prominence has been good for him.

[supercantaloupe]

deeply fucking embarrassing presentation.

[kirby-the-gorb]

[hangingslothcentral]

unironically love it when people say things like 'this OBVIOUSLY was meant to be about [insert hyperspecific thing which is dependent on that person's specific experience]'

my darling, no, it is not obvious

you are looking in a mirror

the truth you see reflected in the art is a part of yourself

this work was not made for you

your reading of it was, though

if you feel seen, it is because you are seeing yourself

thank you for showing me this part of you

[novella-november]

Is this fanfic friendly? I feel like an outlier.

I guess this is my sign it's time to throw together a FAQ post to link to lol.

Yes, every event for this blog is fanfic friendly :D

Though as I mentioned on my Ominous October post, for events that include multiple short stories, I encourage everyone to flex their creativity and take one of their planned short story fanfics, and at least *attempt* to turn one of them into something entirely original; rebuilding a character and story from the ground up to stand on its own two legs is no easy feat, and that is what makes it so fun!

It really gets your creative gears turning, to make an "au of an existing material" to be something entirely original, and you can be pleasantly surprised about the things you come up with!

As a few people say, its not just a matter of "filing the serial numbers off" -- you have to add in just as much *or more* as what you take out when you are turning a fanfiction into something that is original and completely divorced from its original source material / inspiration, and that is a hard, but very rewarding challenge!

Obviously, this is not a requirement (there's no hard requirements for any of the challenges, other than no cheating, including no using AI),

but if you would like an extra challenge for the short story events and you're planning on doing entirely fan-fiction, I highly recommend trying it out at least once, and seeing where it leads you--

you may find yourself pleasantly surprised by what you find down that rabbit hole!

[lucky-clover-gazette]

vent

did not expect kissing and realizing i’m lowkey dating a guy to send me down an existential spiral of reminding me that i have only one life to live and then i am going to die without living any other different lives

[steinbit]

i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i WILL get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i Will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i Will get a job i don't wanna die in i w i l l get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i w i l l get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wanna die in i WILL get a job i don't wanna die in i will get a job i don't wan-

[lesbianlenas]

so many young women recently desiring to be stay at home mothers….the ironic part of it is that all of those women that do become stay at home moms will one day understand why the women before them fought so hard for them to not have to fulfill that role at the point at which they realize that their personhood has been entirely sacrificed in the name of motherhood & there is no going back on that. all women who are stay at home moms are forced to put themselves aside to take care of their children and husband & are forced to make that their entire identity & that is exhausting and dehumanizing. that is how betty friedan started second wave feminism w the feminine mystique. bc women finally realized that all women hated being housewives & there wasn’t smth wrong w each of them individually as they had all believed. but those that do not learn history etc etc……

[icewindandboringhorror]

Recent game related things .. hrmm...

[punkrockisafulltimejob]

Bleh

[archerstreet]

it would feel so nice to work towards a career that has meaningful impact and makes millions of people happy

[lord-squiggletits]

Do you ever read a post online where someone complains about how "IDW never talks about this [idea/character/plot/theme]" and you just think to yourself... this person hasn't read anything besides MTMTE have they?

Really sad when you see people complaining "the story never talked about this!" and act angry about it as if it's some oppressive flaw that the writer (JRO) was evil for never talking about but it's like. Bud if you just read exRID/OP or maybe Windblade/TAAO you would have read plenty about that.

The two worst ones I can think of off the top of my head are "Optimus is always treated like a saint, I hate how he gets away with everything just because he's a Prime" (wrong, read literally anything Barber writes) and "the Decepticons never get a sympathetic perspective, they're always just villains and the narrative is totally just treating them as if being revolutionaries makes them evil" (wrong, read several side stories that Barber wrote). Like literally the moral of the story is just "read something besides MTMTE."

And I'm not complaining about people who are just curious or don't know. I'm talking specifically about people who complain, or say MTMTE is bad, or generally act as if JRO's writing/MTMTE/LL represents the entirety of IDW1 and basically act like, if JRO didn't write it it doesn't exist and clearly since he didn't write it that means no one else did. Like please I'm begging you to read the other less popular but still good series in IDW1 and you'll find multiple stories/ideas that they tell that MTMTE/LL doesn't.

[mosspapi]

My mother really likes the rug I'm making for my apartment and said she's genuinely considering commissioning some from me. And like. I seriously deeply appreciate the thought and the fact that she likes it so much that she not only wants one of her own but will pay me for it too, but I don't think she realizes that actually doesn't do anything. "My" bank account is still owned by, managed, and accessed by her and my father. She can put money in or take money out whenever she wants. She sees all of the transactions that go thru it. If she pays me for it she's just moving her own money from one of her accounts to another one of her accounts but this time I know it exists. It's not MY money even if she pays "me".

[moving-to-dreamwinged]

my dad came in and saw me on the couch (for the first time all day and i had literally just sat down for less than a minute when he came in) w heating pad and immediately goes "you have two options" (different chores to do) (as if i was like 10 years old and getting punished for something that i didnt even know i did wrong). what about secret third option where you treat me like an adult or i don't come home for winter next year. Lol

[fortycds]

i have got to make more queer art