#and it's why I like breaking down this show and characters

[petermorwood]

As someone who's also done some writing, this is all Extremely Sound Advice. :->

Here are a couple of point enhancements, and a rant about how a famous production torpedoed itself - IMO, anyway - by getting fixated on one of them

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(2) Head-hopping / POV change - think screen format and a change of camera angle. A "dinkus" (one or more asterisks, bullets or other symbol) between paragraphs is enough to indicate this, and you're good to go.

I do something similar in my own posts, including this one, though properly speaking the asterisks would be centred. I've done that with the next set, though since I've done the centring by inserting spaces, they may be well off-centre in other themes:

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(3) and (4) Treat info- and expo-dumps like pungent seasoning. Your recipe (story) needs them, but Not All In A Lump.

A good way to do this (the equivalent to "stir in gradually") is to combine them with other action - eating a meal, a walk-and-talk, watching some non-essential business like someone grooming a horse, washing a car, mowing a lawn etc., etc.

Intersperse the necessary dialogue of the info-expo with descriptions of and comments on the other business. If that business can be made relevant to the info-expo (comparisons, side-comments etc.) so much the better, but the point is to break up what can too easily be what TVTropes calls A Wall Of Text.

Thriller-writer Philip Kerr's later books are notorious for this: there are numerous instances where a character starts to talk ("Open Quotes") at the top of one page and - without interruption and sometimes even without paragraphs - doesn't finish ("Close Quotes") until halfway down the next.

Worse, the character is often reciting a chunk of background information from Kerr's research files which should have stayed there, or at the very least been pared down to its bare essentials as something a human being might say during a conversation with another human being.

Which Does Not Happen. :-P

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(8) about epithets, tackles something well-enough known that it has a TV Trope, "Burly Detective Syndrome". This has a cousin, "Said-Bookism", and no matter what you might have heard or indeed seen posted along with lists of sometimes-ridiculous alternatives on Tumblr, "said" is not dead.

It's alive, it's well and it's doing its job, which is to be the unobtrusive hook from which dialogue is hung. As I've said more than once, if a hook attracts more attention than the thing it's holding up, something's gone wrong.

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(10) If there's a scene that's likely to be fun to write, and another that's likely to be a slog, then if it works for your writing habits try to swap to and fro between the writing of them, with fun as a reward for slog.

If chop-and-change writing like this throws you off, then write the slog first and the fun after since once again, that's the reward, something to look forward to. Doing it the other way means you're looking at the slog to come, and that's not my idea of a reward.

Also, it can happen (personal experience) that after the refreshment of the fun, you'll come back to the first-draft slog bit and revise it into something better.

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I'd suggest (6) and (7) about subverting expectations - whether characters' or readers', and the one will become the other as reading happens - are something that need approached with care, and should always have a solid reason beyond (box tick) Not What They Expect.

Showing an unsubverted episode or incident - for instance the character's going-out preparations, or their commuting-home routine - is necessary, often more than once *, to establish Normality, so the character and reader are aware that This Time Is Different.

(* I've seen this done by cut-and-paste repeating the same description from one chapter into the next. It was imaginative and effective there, but could easily have tripped up on its own cleverness by seeming UNimaginative. YMMV.)

Why is the character including a concealed weapon in their party dress-up? Why is the character concerned they might be tailed during that commute? A comparison between ordinary and extraordinary is needed to show this doesn't happen every single time.

It's also a good way of racking up page-turning tension before invoking (5) that cliff-hanger chapter ending... :->

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And now the rant... :-p

Subverting expectations as a (box tick) action because it was So Effective That One Time is what transformed the final seasons of a once-popular fantasy adaptation into such a disappointment.

"Game of Thrones" is an excellent example of subverted expectations, such as the Red Wedding where - despite the way heroes are expected to escape at the last minute - a crapsack world like Westeros means bad things play all the way through to their bad conclusion.

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It's also an excellent example of how bad writing and a (box tick) attitude can lead to subversions that should have been left alone.

One instance is the way Jaime Lannister's redemption was abandoned "to subvert expectations" (box tick) complete with redemption-dismissive dialogue that was a slap in the face to several seasons of character development.

The lack of any hint or implication that such a thing was even possible suggests - to this viewer anyway - that it was no more than a (box tick) without additional thought as to whether it was logical in-story, as long as it generated yet another "Oh No, we didn't see that coming!" reaction from the audience.

(Of course nobody saw it coming, since neither plot requirement nor character development had any reason for it to happen.)

Sometimes a story should play out logically as a story because It's A Story, Not A Documentary. Terry Pratchett knew this and called it Narrativium, the element which drives stories. TV Tropes calls it The Theory of Narrative Causality.

Whatever the name, and however storytellers may tinker and tweak with it, they ignore its basic rules at their peril.

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Another example is Cersei's death.

When a writer as amiable as C.S. Lewis said:

"Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end..."

...just dropping a building on her without involving any of the many other High-Profile Characters she'd hurt throughout the series was ridiculous, especially with one of those High-Profile Characters already in the vicinity.

It may well have subverted expectations, but it was a lousy resolution.

It was also bad storytelling which abandoned at least one long-anticipated set-up (all too common in later GoT), and still vexes me since in a storyline filled with subversions for the sake of shock value, NOT subverting audience expectations but instead rewarding them with what they want (what they really, really want) becomes a subversion in itself.

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It's not hard to imagine more original and entertaining ways of bringing Cersei's pigeons home to roost, the most obvious being a fatal encounter with Arya-reFaced-as-Jaime.

This IMO would have been a much more satisfying use of her well-established Faceless Man sneakmurder skills than that no-setup leap from nowhere onto the Ice King, another Bad Guy built up to deserve a more spectacular termination than his you're-done-now-kthxbye demise.

Certainly after eight seasons of scheming, murder, cruelty - and infuriating smugness, oh yes, that too - having Cersei "soundly killed" should have involved something, anything, more conclusive, up-front and personal than a load of bricks landing on her head.

Subvert, yes. But not just for the sake of doing it.

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And as @writeblrfantasy concluded, no matter what way you're doing it, have fun in the doing of it...

my 10 holy grail pieces of writing advice for beginners

from an indie author who's published 4 books and written 20+, as well as 400k in fanfiction (who is also a professional beta reader who encounters the same issues in my clients' books over and over)

show don't tell is every bit as important as they say it is, no matter how sick you are of hearing about it. "the floor shifted beneath her feet" hits harder than "she felt sick with shock."

no head hopping. if you want to change pov mid scene, put a scene break. you can change it multiple times in the same scene! just put a break so your readers know you've changed pov.

if you have to infodump, do it through dialogue instead of exposition. your reader will feel like they're learning alongside the character, and it will flow naturally into your story.

never open your book with an exposition dump. instead, your opening scene should drop into the heart of the action with little to no context. raise questions to the reader and sprinkle in the answers bit by bit. let your reader discover the context slowly instead of holding their hand from the start. trust your reader; donn't overexplain the details. this is how you create a perfect hook.

every chapter should end on a cliffhanger. doesn't have to be major, can be as simple as ending a chapter mid conversation and picking it up immediately on the next one. tease your reader and make them need to turn the page.

every scene should subvert the character's expectations, as big as a plot twist or as small as a conversation having a surprising outcome. scenes that meet the character's expectations, such as a boring supply run, should be summarized.

arrive late and leave early to every scene. if you're character's at a party, open with them mid conversation instead of describing how they got dressed, left their house, arrived at the party, (because those things don't subvert their expectations). and when you're done with the reason for the scene is there, i.e. an important conversation, end it. once you've shown what you needed to show, get out, instead of describing your character commuting home (because it doesn't subvert expectations!)

epithets are the devil. "the blond man smiled--" you've lost me. use their name. use it often. don't be afraid of it. the reader won't get tired of it. it will serve you far better than epithets, especially if you have two people of the same pronouns interacting.

your character should always be working towards a goal, internal or external (i.e learning to love themself/killing the villain.) try to establish that goal as soon as possible in the reader's mind. the goal can change, the goal can evolve. as long as the reader knows the character isn't floating aimlessly through the world around them with no agency and no desire. that gets boring fast.

plan scenes that you know you'll have fun writing, instead of scenes that might seem cool in your head but you know you'll loathe every second of. besides the fact that your top priority in writing should be writing for only yourself and having fun, if you're just dragging through a scene you really hate, the scene will suffer for it, and readers can tell. the scenes i get the most praise on are always the scenes i had the most fun writing. an ideal outline shouldn't have parts that make you groan to look at. you'll thank yourself later.

happy writing :)

[mulderscully]

Momentarily breaking my hiatus to further discuss the issue with the new collector edition of RWRB and why Casey's response (or lack therof) is disappointing.

Here is a link to the post I made detailing what is going on. Please read if if you are unaware.

Now, a direct quote from RWRB,

"And I'm not white like she is, can't even pass for it. People are always gonna come down harder on me."

Casey wrote these lines in the book so if they ever made a film/tv show they did not cast a white passing person to play Alex. This statement is in the annotated version of RWRB that you can look up online.

I want to discuss what being white passing means. I am a white passing latina. I have direct family members who are not white passing. My DNA just worked in a way where you see my Spanish ancestry more than my African or Native, but I have all three. Because of this, I benefit from white privilege.

However, it is important to keep in mind that passing as white now sometimes does not mean what it did historically. White passing means you can pass as white so that racist white people will not deny you certain opportunities based on your ethnicity or race. It was and sometimes still is something POC choose to do. For example, Oscar Isaac uses a passing stage name. Choose to pass. It is a denial of part of who you are to further your endeavors in a world built of oppression. Now it also means someone may look at you simply assume you are white, but that is NOT all that it means.

And even I, with my pale skin, sometimes say "I know I'm white passing." and immediately have (usually white) people say something like "No, you're not. I immediately knew you were latina when I saw you."

Now, I take people recognizing me as latine as a positive. It makes me happy because I am proud of my identity. But there is the other aspect of me not being as passing as I think I am, even though my skin tone is really light. A racist "real" white person would still descrimate against me because my blood is not "pure."

I'm mentioning this because I have seen multiple people say that the art inside this edition is fine, because Taylor Zakhar Perez is white passing.

Taylor is not white passing.

He has talked multiple times his difficultly in getting roles, the moment in the movie where he discusses prejudice against latinos is from personal experience between him and Matthew. I want you to understand that it is not only about Taylor being brown or not brown enough to play Alex, it's about his name, it's about his facial feature — his warm skin tone, but also the shape of his beautiful nose amongst other things — that make it clear that he is a man of color. Looking at Taylor, it is clear that he is a latino man with middle eastern and mediterranean ancestry as well.

But this isn't even about Taylor because we are talking about the book.

In the political world a character like Alex would never ever be mistaken for white. Alex probably never is unaware that he isn't fully white. That is what "can't even pass for it." means. It means since his mother became president, everyone knows her kid is Mexican, is brown, is not what is considered "white." by US American standards.

Remember, latino is not a race. Colorism is rampant. And since Alex is half white he is probably lighter than other latinos, esp afrolatinos, as we see on the original pink cover of RWRB. He's clearly darker than Henry there, though!

In the two arts Casey approved and endorsed not only is his skin tone various shades lighter than TZP's in the one that used his likeness, but he is given european features in the other as well. They chose to sell a book — for $80 — where Alex is drawn as white/white passing when the entire reason they wrote that line was to avoid something like this happening.

For over a week now fans (mainly latinos) have been imploring Casey to say something about this, because it's very unlike them to do this — but they haven't. This is upsetting because Casey is not latine. Not white latine either. Not latine AT ALL. If you are writing a character that is part of a community you are not a part of you have to show up for that community to the best of your ability.

At a time like this, Casey's behavior is really disappointing and the only person to blame is Casey for that. Not Taylor's casting. Casey for approving this edition and promoting it on their Instagram.

I think it was probably a fuck up, and now they're frozen and unsure how to handle it. I like Casey, I LOVE their books and think they seem like a good person. But this has opened some discussions that I think are being mishandled in various ways.

I'm logging off again for a bit, but I wanted to share my feelings on this a week out. Take care everyone 🩷

[badwolfrose34]

My analysis of River Song (not River friendly)

This essay has been brewing in my mind for awhile. If you don’t want to see anti River content, please keep scrolling. I understand that since Doctor Who is a work of fiction, fans have the right to differing interpretations and to invoking literary license. However, I do want fans who are like me and icked out by River to feel validated. What follows is a pretty unreserved criticism of the character and her relationship with the Doctor.

First, I’m going to break down River from a psychological perspective. Note that I am not a licensed psychologist, but I did graduate with a degree in general psychology. I’m also going to explain some of the many instances that she proves herself to be an incredibly toxic person.

River Song was raised to be a psychopath. That’s an indisputable fact mentioned clearly in the show. Psychopathy is known in the psychology world as Anti Social Personality Disorder (ASPD). ASPD can be managed, but it has no cure. Could it be argued that River sees an off screen therapist? Sure. However, ask yourself if you can see River Song going to therapy?

Not only that, but River has no ordinary case of ASPD. She wasn’t just raised in an abusive or unsafe household, she was cut off from society during her critical formational years. Most cases of ASPD involve people who grew up in challenging households, but they did have interaction with society at large. I don’t know of any case studies surrounding people with ASPD who were cut off from society in their formational years, but doing some research on “feral children” will allow you to read examples of what happens to children raised away from society.

The case I know the most about is that of Oxana Malaya. You can google her for more. She was quite literally raised by dogs. And she required intense inpatient treatment to unlearn her dog like mannerisms. Even then, she always had a level of intellectual impairment.

Because River was specifically raised to have ASPD, she learned language abilities and was socialized on how to BEHAVE like a person capable of love and empathy and friendship, but she never was capable of these things. She was raised to put on an act to be able to get to the doctor and kill him. She was never capable of anything more.

Even if River saw an off screen therapist, she was never institutionalized, as would’ve been required for her to truly function as a healthy person in any possible way. She couldn’t have just shrugged off her programming. Why did she save the Doctor and give up her regenerations? It couldn’t have been guilt or remorse, but she could’ve developed co morbid Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), which is a common disorder to co occur with ASPD. The narcissism would’ve created within her a need for supply. Supply meaning, a boost to the narcissists ego. Narcissists are not capable of genuine empathy and love, but they are capable of seeking supply in the form of impacting other people’s emotions. And what better source of supply for one’s ego than the last known member of one of the most powerful races known to the universe?

When River decided to undo her murder and save the Doctor, it starts off with a completely nonconsensual kiss. This is a pretty fitting start to a relationship that progresses into a forced marriage.

River then continues to force unwanted innuendos on the Doctor. Probably implying they were intimate just to make the Doctor feel obligated to be intimate with her eventually. This is despite Matt Smith confirming in an interview that his Doctor is asexual. He could be demi or grey sexual, I’ll admit that possibility, but River insists on forcing her hyper sexuality on him at any and all stages in his timeline knowing they wouldn’t be welcome. I should note that hyper sexuality can be a symptom of ASPD. It’s not cute or fun. If River was simply a sexually liberated character, she would not be forcing her innuendos on someone who does not want them. Especially not in the earlier parts of his timeline.

River flounces around feeling and acting entitled to the Doctor’s attention if and when she wants it. When she wants it, he’s expected to come running. Then she disappears when she wants to. Creating a masterfully manipulative cycle of hot and cold emotional abuse. When he loses Amy and Rory, she refuses to travel with him. Leaving him emotionally vulnerable and at her beck and call when and if she feels like using him.

Audio dramas are too numerous to declare as universal canon. I think most fans pick and choose which parts of the extended universe count as canon to them. But in the Dalek Universe series, River appears for one episode where she physically abuses the Doctor. She hits him so hard that he is crying out in pain. And then she gaslights him by telling him it was just a little tap. Now, it’s perfectly valid not to count this moment as canon. But it’s extremely consistent with River’s character and I am personally going to use it against her. Especially since I did see another post somewhere bring up the fact that she did the same thing to the fifth Doctor in another audio.

Finally, the worst part of River’s abuse is the forced marriage. The first time the Doctor meets her, she convinces him that he eventually marries her. But he clearly can’t stand her. He doesn’t want anything to do with her. But now he feels as though he’s obligated to marry her. At first he hopes it’s something that can be changed. Saying that time can be rewritten when Amy asks if he marries River. Right up until the forced wedding he tells River he doesn’t want to marry her. But because she convinced him he does marry her in the library, and because nothing else is convincing River to save the universe, he gives in and gives her what she wants. Assuming it’s the only way to keep the universe from falling apart.

Now, I do understand that anyone who loved the Doctor would not want to bring back a timeline where he died. But River was already willing to start considering it just because he agreed to marry her. Because she got what she wanted and because she got the satisfaction of seeing her manipulations succeed. The Doctor couldn’t even get close enough to her to tell her his plan at first, but she was willing to let him come close to her just because he married her. River valued marriage to the Doctor more than the Doctor’s life.

I know it’s commonly believed among River fans that he only kept his distance because he saw her die. But Remember he couldn’t stand her long before that. He never liked her until he thought he was supposed to. No doubt seeing her die cemented his desire to keep a distance from her. But the point is he did keep a distance from her. He never got close to her and he never wanted to. But River always refused to respect this. She saved him so he could belong to her. So he could be her property.

No doubt the Doctor did develop a level of care and responsibility for her. Because he was a person capable of empathy and remorse. And any target of this kind of emotional abuse will develop some sort of attachment. But he was never in love with her. River herself knew this, but she had to convince herself he never loved anyone. But he did. We know for a fact he was in love with Rose. We know he loved friends like Donna platonically. But he didn’t love River. Nor should he have.

[glitchinginthegarden]

Woke up with thoughts so here we go:

Johnny’s behavior early in the game makes 100% sense and I support it because it fits his character writing and situation.

I've been seeing a lot of newer cyberpunk players getting onto the "Johnny is an absolute piece of shit" / "why would anyone do anything for this douchebag" soapbox and they're entitled to that opinion BUT...

Coming from the perspective of having completed the game multiple times and done plenty of digging into the ttrpg stuff, it fits. We also have to keep in mind the unreliable narrator factor but that's another thing all together.

In the beginning (after the nightmare night), Johnny is playing the face of cool dude who's suddenly on V's side while actively attempting to manipulate them. This tracks for his character, yes, but also for Night City.

If their positions were swapped, I know for a fact my V would be doing the same exact thing to her unwilling host. Which, when you break it down, is simply an attempt to regain control over a situation where she has none.

I don't blame Johnny in the slightest for that at that point in the plot. It's in human nature to fight tooth and nail for survival. Why would that not extend to someone who's been trapped in soul prison for fifty years too?

He's just "escaped" Mikoshi only to wake up imprisoned (again) in the mind of a complete stranger. Can you blame him for trying to find an angle he can work there?

Because I don't.

Everything tells us yes, Johnny is an asshole who historically has generally only looked out for himself. But not that he's been actively or maliciously intent on causing harm to the people around him. He doesn't behave the way he does for the hell of it, he does it (in my opinion) because in the past, his flavor of manipulation has worked and usually gotten him what he wants.

Which brings me to another thing: I've also seen some comments about how he doesn't tell V certain things depending on how you talk to him. That he withholds more if V is nice than when they're more mean to him. And that also tracks for his character.

Now, I will say that I haven't played a lot of "be mean to Johnny" runs, but if he does drop more info for that, I'm not surprised. Case and point: the oil fields.

Johnny is a person who won't take shit seriously unless he gets a kick in the ass for his behavior. V has to call him on his bullshit to get that sweet approval boost for Don't Fear The Reaper. So, it ultimately it makes sense for him to cough up more information along the line if V isn't being nice about getting it or calls him on being a dodgy fuck. Johnny doesn't fuck with weak people unless he can use them, that's not a secret.

He's playing his cards close to his chest for the most part and it makes sense. He has sparingly few hands to play after 50 years in soul prison. Why would he show his spread to someone who, depending on where you are in the plot, ultimately wants to end him again and scrape him off their brain? He's trying to survive.

He's a disabled man with a grand total of eighty something years of untreated ptsd and people wonder why he's not forthcoming with what he knows? Of course he's not. It's unreasonable to expect that, and especially from a character like his.

The point I'm trying to get to here, I suppose, is that I support Johnny’s wrongs because they're in line with his character and that's part of what makes him so well written. Yes, he's an asshole. Yes, he manipulates and lies and cheats to serve his needs. But, c'mon, look at the whole picture. Look at the setting and the other players on the board, and tell me it doesn't make perfect sense.

[fwol-jintu]

Shen yuan as a ghost except its a sword grave and he's like the only sword intact there

So imagine this

Binghe goes on an adventure blah blah blah and he stumbles upon a huge ass graveyard except its literally all just swords that have been planted there in honor of the warriors who fell in a battle, each sword having a carving of some sort somewhere to signify who owned them

As binghe walked around and approached one of them however, he finds this sword is.. nameless, ownerless, or so it seems. No carvings, no designation, and yet its the only one intact.

Its not chipped, no scratch or break or weakness point that signified that it had been broken once, nothing. Well except for maybe a little bit of rust and dirt, but still.

He wonders if he should pull it out of the ground to inspect it more. He tries, ignoring the ever persistent screams of his own sword. It seems more agitated than usual.

Ah.. huh? For some reason, he can't pull it out. Slightly frustrated, he takes out xin mo to cut it down- and then hesitated. He's not that bad, no. He ultimately decides against cutting the sword. So be it, remain ownerless.

He inspected the other swords, did try to take them out a few times, but none slipped out. He gave up at trying and just looked around. For some reason, he came back around to the intact sword.

He looked around, and then spotted a particular sword grave. It had a flower, or rather a.. wilted flower. Seems like someone came to visit, and judging by the flower type its probably been 6 days.

He stares at the grave, at the sword. His vision allowed him to read the carved name despite the characters being small. ...Yuguo? Foolish fruit? What kind of name- he doesn't question it. Maybe thats why the owner died. They were "foolish."

He leaves the graveyard. He swears he was leaving, but for some reason he came back... with a new flower. The new flower will die anyway, what was he doing? This is stupid.

...still, he replaces the wilted with a fresh one. He doesn't know how long that one will last. Its a foolish payment, who was he even paying respects to? For all he knew, it could've been-

.... the dark clouds of his mind pester. He shouldn't be like this, he's in a graveyard goddamnit. What if the sword spirits feed on his negativity and manifest? Hah! Who will have the last laugh then, he wonders....

Uh, what the- "aww what a sweet man. Showing respect to the unreturning, are you?" A spirit in the form of a graceful woman conjured almost by wind appears before him, a wide smile and the look of amusement.

????

More start to manifest, little by little, and they all look at him, quipping comments and observations.

"Ho? And here i thought only your descendant is alive. Now who's this handsome lad visiting us unreturnees?" A spirit in the form of an old man said.

"Ooo! Is he not perhaps the new lord that your clumsy lower sheep speaks of?~" this time, the spirit that spoke was in the form of a devilish child, grinning an uncanny smile.

"Does anyone know this uhh.. dog?" "Stop referring to people as animals you one-tap imbecile!" "Hey! Why do you say that to me but not Sahuang?!" "Thats because ---------!!"

Two spirits argue out of nowhere. He did not appreciate being called a dog.

before he can tell them off and show them the title of emperor of the 3 realms, they suddenly vanish.

Like a faint memory, It was all quiet again.

Quiet?

He focused, suddenly. Quiet? Too quiet. Xin mo's voice wasn't bothering him. Before, xin mo was absolutely screaming at him to get out, now suddenly its all quiet.

He becomes slightly dazed though instead of becoming sharper and more wary of his surroudings. The lack of distraction made him suddenly realize he may or may not lacked sleep. He didn't really need sleep, but the emotional exhaustion from all these days was getting to him.

....

Thud.

"Seriously? He fell asleep?"

"Perhaps we were too fightening for the poor lamb, nyehehehe~"

"Ah, youngsters these days..."

..........

He wakes up when he feels a leaf fall onto him. Hm? A leaf? He cracked open his eyes and was immediately assaulted by light. He jolts awake. What...

....

Oh. He.. he fell asleep in a graveyard.

What the fu-

Anyways its getting too long so imma just say that he interacts with the spirits and shen yuan for a while, and then gets a child (courtesy of the Yuguo woman and everyone apparently deciding they were the child's great uncles and aunts) whom he decides to take in (cuz his new family of spirits practically begged him to take care of their only relative)

Oh also prior to his baby inquirement the spirits and him have eventually buddied up (it took weeks but they were friendly enough, even the devilish spirit Sahuang who also happened to be a softie at heart apparently)

and he talked abt his problems w them and all such, mostly shen yuan cuz he was the one usually awake since his intact sword meant his spirit could stay visible for longer

("why does the story seem familiar...?" it took an emberrassing amount of time for shen yuan to realize that was binghe. By the time he did realize, it was maybe sorta too late?)

oh also he opted to sleep at the graveyard sometimes. Most times. Because. No nightmares. Good sleep. No voices in his head telling him to kill someone immediately as he wakes up. Just peace.

(And if the wives notice his absence? Pfft, no. If they question his new kid? "I took her in. Shes adopted." and if he stays at the graveyard for a little while longer each day because they care more about him than anyone ever have? No questions asked.)

And he also got permission to move their swords. Yippai. (He proceeded to clean every one of them and put them in a big special room and if anyone asks why the big meeting room only has swords seated on the chairs and why binghe spends so much time in it, no one answers)

(He kept their brokenness though despite his own protests. They all said its now apart of them and they "cannot return" so its merely fond memories now.)

Did i mention all the swords (or sword spirits) are actually transmigrators and shen yuan isnt alone in this :3

_______________

Some noble: but my lord, can't we just use that room? (Points to the room they passed by that clearly has just enough space for the rest of the other demons)

Said room is the spirit room

Binghe gets angry at the mere suggestion

"Incident" happened

No one talks abt it ever again

____________

Nyy brushing the kid's hair while watching binghe kneel on the ground infront of shen yuan bc he used his powers to choke sahuang out of frustration and sahuang was Not Happy abt it so she snitched to shen yuan (shen yuan vanished after 2.1 seconds of binghe kneeling bc how dare he scold THE protaganist. Yuguo had to take over and make both Sahuang and Binghe apologize to each other lol)

[lovesickrobins]

Bat Family as One Piece characters

I’m writing this as I listen to the Flim Red soundtrack (Ado I fucking love you). Some of the bat boys may have more than one character just because I feel like some of them fit other characters as well. Also this might contain spoilers of the show so fair warning.

Bruce: Rayleigh/Whitebeard

Okay so the reason why I feel like Bruce can be Rayleigh and Whitebeard is because these guys are technically some of the strongest pirates. Like Rayleigh was Roger’s right hand man and one of the strongest swordsmen during Roger’s time. Rayleigh is still feared by the Navy even in his old age. He also decided to train Luffy to become the Luffy we know now. Bruce can be Whitebeard because his whole thing was adopting people that had nowhere to go and creating his own family (sound familiar?) Whitebeard was also one of the original Four Emperors before his death (basically one of the strongest pirates in the One Piece world that even their form of government couldn’t control them). While Bruce is the only one that, even the justice league, can’t take down.

Dick: Sabo

Dick would fit as Sabo because they both have a dorky personalities but are considered the best of the best. Sabo is the second in command in the Revolutionary Army and currently the holder of the flare flare fruit. Dick is his own hero, but is considered the best Robin. They both can hold their own even against stronger opponents (the first time Dick meets Damian, Dick was able to restrain a train assassin. Sabo in a room with the Gorosei, powerful haki users, and didn’t even flinch) They also care about their brothers, even if they didn’t have the greatest start with them.

Jason: Luffy

HEAR ME OUT! The reason why I feel Jason could be Luffy is because of their personality. Luffy, maybe a literal sun god, but he’s always the first to question why against the status quo. Jason is the same way, when he was Robin he would question Bruce on why they had to do things a certain way. They also could be considered a little obsessive (remember when Jason came back and saw Tim as Robin and he started to keep tabs on him and tried to have him come to his side?) well in Luffy’s case he’s obsessed with becoming the King of the Pirates (I said they could be obsessive but obviously their levels are completely different)

Tim: Robin

No pun intended but I do genuinely feel like Tim could be her. Miss Nico Robin (I love her so much) she’s the historian of the group and also the “smartest” one out of the group (I say “smart” because the other crew members are smart…well some of them). Remember that Tim was able to figure out Batman’s and Nightwing’s identity at nine years old… NINE! Robin has been able to read Poneglyphs (an ancient language that no one should be able to read in the One Piece world) since she was roughly about the same age as Tim. When the two year break happens in Once Piece, the one thing Robin wanted to do more than anything was to get stronger to protect her friends. After Tim finds out the Bruce=Batman and Dick=Nightwing he wanted to become stronger and be better not because he was after the title of Robin but because they inspired him to be better.

Damian: Zoro

So the reason why I feel Damian would be Zoro is because they both have that cold and intimidating aura. Before joining the Straw hats Zoro was a pirate hunter and basically didn’t care about other people (that’s a complete lie, Zoro did care, he just had a hard time showing it) Same with Damian,was trained to be an assassin and really didn’t understand basic human emotions. Then enter the people that showed them how to be “human” in a sense. Zoro has Luffy and the Straw Hats while Damian has Bruce and the rest of the Bat Family. Zoro has some demons of his own, so does Damian but with the help of the people around them, they slowly become more in touch with human emotions.

Let me know what you guys think, I would love to hear your take on this. I’m sure I miss some other characters that they could be. Anyways love you guys and I hope you enjoyed this!

[ohtobefreaky]

Head in my fucking hands I’m blaming my best friend for this

I DONT EVEN PLAY WHY AM I HERE (trauma)

Caleb was made specifically for me and me only, sorry girls he’s MINE

tw: get incested (it’s built into his character yall can’t even blame me for this one)

I think he would thrive with a puppy little sister he can spoil and buy a million treats and toys and the softest dog beds for

I just wanna be his puppy sister 😔😔😔 want a big brother to give me tummy rubs and spoil me (and call me a good girl while I drool and slobber all over his cock)

I wanna be his kitty too :( I should be allowed to pounce on him and dig my nails into him while we cuddle cause he smells like another person and he’s supposed to love ME

I need him to teach his baby sister how to masturbate </3

his hands so big and gentle on yours as he guides them over your tits, pinching them so hard you can feel his skin flooding around yours

Guiding you down your own body, your hands twitching under his from how warm and hot you feel, his breath on your neck as he leans over you to show you your pussy, spreading it with his free hand as the one guiding you brings your fingers down to run over your little clit snd tease your hole :3

your dear big brother, your biggest comfort, now showing you exactly which spots to touch to make yourself moan

Big brother Caleb with a smile on his face when you climb into his bed late at night, pouting because you just can’t do it like he can :( can he show you just one more time?

(One more time leads to twice, leads to three times, leads to him just doing it for you)

Him making fun of you for being so needy but so useless you can’t even get yourself off <3 it’s okay, big brother will do everything for you, just lay back

I want him to show his little sister how to kiss for “whenever you get a boyfriend” which obviously turns into showing you how to give a blowjob and how to fuck and then he’s just saying he’s ur boyfriend now so you should do that with him all the time and oh

I wanna be his bio sister, the only one left, ur only connection to anything before and you get so jealous and sad when he starts treating MC as his sister

Does he hate you now? Does he even want you anymore?

I want his nickname for you to be mouse and the first time you hear him call the mc pipsqueak, you ‘know’ you’ve been replaced

Big brother doesn’t need you anymore, he has her, so you start pulling away

He’ll be happier with her </3

God I want him to reassure you so gently, cradling your face in his hands and kissing your cheeks and nose and forehead and everywhere he can

He loves you, differently than he loves the MC

You’ll always be his baby sister, the most precious thing in his life.. maybe he should prove that to you <3

his slightly cold hands trailing down your stomach and slipping under your panties and ohhh

The way he plays with you so softly, like you’ll break if he’s too hard with you

Him smiling and kissing you, his lips soft against yours and when he pulls away you can hear his soft laughing at how dazed you look

You’ll never doubt him again (although you might pretend just so he’ll remind you :3)

My bestie was describing him for me and omg the whole flipping personality,,

I do not hear that and immediately imagine being all soft and silly with ur big brother and suddenly he’s all mean and rude and keeps asking you to do weird stuff with him

Him pinning you down and looking at you so harshly when just a few minutes ago he was smiling and playing with your plushies with you

His lips rough and demanding against yours as he forces himself into your mouth, chasing your tongue when it tries to retreat from his <3

Goddddd I need this man so bad and I don’t even know him help

[kiwii-11]

spoilers for the balance storyline

i imagine that when elliot, sunshine, aaron and smartass gets their memories erased, the part where smartass tells aaron that they’re an (illegally) informed unempowered and that their ex is empowered still stays.

now HERE IS HOW I THINK AARON WOULD REACT IF OTHER REDACTED CHARACTERS/LISTENERS WERE SMARTASS’ EX (and who i think would potentially be their ex if it were another redacted character/listener):

ps: i got wayyyy too into this, gn reader, talking about boundaries, pre-geordi cutie, use of powers without permission, i wish the best for cutie, this is not to degrade them in any way, it’s just my characterisation of them in their early videos, this is me rarepairing for like a couple thousand words

milo

how they got together:

probably met when milo was working security at an event they went to, like a concert or something.

smartass lost their phone and went to the closest security guard about it. david took it very seriously and had an organised search throughout the venue. milo was the one who found it and promptly returned it to smartass and they were so thankful.

he escorted them to their car and flirted with them the whole time after their friends left the two alone (smartass’ friends just knew milo was their type), and smartass shot their shot and asked milo for his number.

the two set up a date the next week and started going steady afterwards.

talking about empowerment:

milo told them about two weeks after they established their relationship. they decided to keep it on the down low since milo didn’t want them involved with the department. smartass agreed not to tell anyone and didn’t really see why they would need to anyway.

smartass didn’t really believe him at first until they came over to his apartment to see milo just shifting out of his form. freaked out and it took a while for them to calm down. david and asher met smartass the next day when they were leaving milo’s apartment and bumped into them. milo explained the situation and the two decided to stay out of it.

how long they last:

nine months.

why they broke up:

their schedules never aligned properly. if milo was free, smartass wasn’t. if smartass had the day off, milo would be pulling a late night. with smartass starting a new job that was further away from milo, they just thought it best to break up. it was a mutual decision and they didn’t blame each other for the ending.

smartass had become friends with asher, so they’re still loose in contact. milo doesn’t mind, it’s not like he hates them anyway. there were no hard feelings involved.

aaron’s reaction:

“a—a shifter? a wolf shifter? holy shit… he’s… not still in love with you, right? ‘cause like, i don’t want some big ass dog running after me all day. i can’t believe you went from a shifter to an unempowered guy like me…”

he’s so confused. he asked what he looked like and when they showed him some photos from social media, his jaw literally dropped. he pointed at the screen in despair and kept saying ‘you dated this glorious man?’. they deadpan and say that think aaron’s handsome, and aaron says that he needed to take a walk. finds him to be a threat still. 8/10, scared, thinks milo’s a dreamboat.

dear

how they got together:

after university, while smartass was in between jobs, they worked part-time at the cafe that was nearby d.a.m.n. (obv they didn’t know that). dear was a regular and was very straightforward with their flirtations towards smartass.

one day, dear had a special request that smartass be the one to serve them, and when they came to do so, dear ordered as usually but, when smartass asked for a name for the order (second nature atp), dear said ‘your phone number’. smartass was utterly flustered by the small gesture and gave in. they did playfully ridicule dear, but that didn’t change much.

dear texted them later that day discussing some plans to go out. smartass agreed.

talking about empowerment:

dear told them straight up during their first date. they assumed that because they work so close to the academy, that they knew. lots of students worked or frequented there. but smartass didn’t know that. smartass thought they were fucking with them at first, making all the academy and their profession up, until dear realised they really didn’t believe them, and tried to backtrack. that made smartass realise that it was the truth.

also, dear proved it by using their water powers on their drink. the unempowered barista was shocked and had to sit through an hour of dear explaining it to them. they never went to the department because they never had time when dear told them about the classes and everything.

how long they last:

six months.

why they broke up:

because they never had time for the covert classes, smartass couldn’t really spend time with dear and their friends and family. dear never blamed them for it, they knew that smartass was trying to find the job they enjoyed, but it just made things a bit harder.

dear wanted smartass at the elemental and energetic games, but because of them not being legally informed, they couldn’t go. it sparked an argument about priorities and whether wither of them were fit for a relationship at the time, and they ended things. there were some ill feelings, but the two got over it quickly to pursue their own life goals.

aaron’s reaction:

“a water elemental… those people who can drown me? no, i’m not saying they would, but like… you said that they’re strong as hell and a professional. they could if they wanted to. it’s okay, i can swim, that helps.”

he’s concerned because an elemental of any kind if scary to him. being able to manipulate something that’s nearly always around? yeah, he’d leave immediately. but he understands that they’re civil about it. isn’t too worried, especially since he knows the academy isn’t active around where they live. he did have a dream about being on a stranded island, to which elliot had to intervene and turn it into a cute holiday with smartass. 5/10, thankful that dear isn’t crazy.

james

how they got together:

smartass applied for a job at the same company that james worked at, the fact that it was an empowered workplace bring unknown to them. the company chose them as their qualifications fit their bill, and they were placed under james’ orders.

he grew interested in them as they never spoke about their powers and seemed to never acknowledge anyone else’s. they were a great worker and had some bite. smartass also liked james since he never backed down from his ideas when it came to meetings and everything. when he confronted them about their isolation, they were a bit hostile, however they admitted to feeling left out but not wanting to push it.

james then told them about how the others feels a bit confused about them not introducing their abilities when smartass first showed up, but not knowing how to ask. smartass was more confused. james offered to take them out after work to explain everything when he realised they were uninformed.

talking about empowerment:

told smartass he was a telepath during their first ‘date’. they were talking about everything at work and he showed them his powers himself. they were so astounded that smartass nearly choked on their drink. james attempted to make it easier to understand. it did not.

smartass explained to head management that they were an illegally informed unempowered, but they made no moves to correct that. the department didn’t need to be more involved with their business than they already were. smartass told james and he said that as long as they aren’t in the position to get in trouble, then it should be fine.

how long they last:

four months.

why they broke up:

work began to get serious for smartass. so much so that james asked them to quit due to being unempowered. they said that it would be fine as long as they weren’t in trouble, but james didn’t want it to have to go that far. he pushed for them to quit, especially after hearing about project meridian. he was scared, but didn’t tell them that.

after arguments about it, james went to his bosses about releasing you from the company due to insubordination. he assured them that he could handle their work and the company agreed. smartass broke up with james since there was an obvious divide, and staying together only meant more stress. the two of them would get over it after a couple of months focusing on work and on their personal lives.

aaron’s reaction:

“you worked with assholes before you worked with me? what? he sounds like an asshole, he got you fired. do you just have a think for office romance? he’s me, just with telepathy and a much stranger job.”

he isn’t too fussed about james. can see why they broke up and also both sides of the story, but just can’t imagine choosing work over smartass. really does believe that james is a different version of him because it sounds too familiar. he doesn’t hear much about him, so he’s not worried. gives him a 0/10 in terms of worrying about him, thanks james for setting up smartass’s type for him.

cutie

how they got together:

cutie was letting their telepathy loose when they heard smartass singing a song they like in their head while listening to it in their headphones in at the grocery store. they approached smartass and complimented the song, claiming to have heard it through the headphones.

the two strike up a conversation and end up getting lunch together that same day to get to know each other. cutie overhears their thoughts about how smartass likes their personality and thinks they’re pretty. so they ask them out for another date.

smartass agrees, thinking that this was the most they’ve ever had in common with someone else. after exchanging numbers, smartass texts them the next day organising plans. cutie happily agrees to them.

talking about empowerment:

cutie didn’t tell smartass until they accidentally replied to one of the questions they were thinking out loud. smartass was confused since they did ‘t say it out loud and asked how they knew. cutie admitted that they were a telepath and have been using their powers on them without smartass’ permission.

they had a sit down about it to explain the world of magic and how cutie’s been using their powers on them for a while now. it wasn’t well-received, as one would assume. smartass was so upset that they didn’t want to attend any classes about it.

how long they last:

three months.

why they broke up:

because of the dishonesty in their relationship, smartass broke up with cutie. they were distraught that the reason they thought the two of them were such a good couple was because cutie used their telepathy to make it that way. smartass would make this decision only a week after finding out about magic.

they explained their feelings to cutie and how it was a total violation. cutie just wanted a chance with smartass and thought it would be easier to get to know each other that way. smartass disagreed. they blocked cutie on everything. smartass is over it now, but is still not comfortable sharing anything with cutie, even on social media.

aaron’s reaction:

“i can’t imagine how difficult that conversation must’ve been. i’m sorry that… that was your introduction to magic. is there anything i can help with to make it easier? i can make the whole process smoother, i promise.”

feels so bad for smartass. telepathy is one of the powers that is considered scarier (like stealth or illusory). he knows that smartass speaks their mind, so he can’t imagine what they hold back from saying. understands the importance of personal space and never wants smartass to feel as if he’s imposing on that. 2/10, doesn’t think the way they went about their powers is justified, but isn’t worried about them.

porter

how they got together:

back before porter left dahlia, he met smartass at a fancy bar where they were eating at with their old coworkers. smartass was getting a drink from a worker when porter saddled up beside them and struck up a conversation. he was flirtatious and forward, which caught smartass’ attention.

they had to reject his offer to spend the rest of their time at the bar with him, as they were already with a party. so porter gave them his number and said to hit him up whenever they’d like to chat. he left them alone afterwards and went back to drinking with some other vampires.

smartass texted him a few days later on their day off, asking if he wanted to go out for lunch, to which he changed to dinner. they didn’t mind at all. their little dates would become frequent.

talking about empowerment:

porter doesn’t care about hiding his true self. he told smartass about being a vampire about three days after their first date. of course, smartass wanted proof, so he showed them everything he could. he explained that that’s why he was always out at night and could never stay over.

smartass didn’t mind the whole vampire thing. he ended up making their life amusing, always out doing something or taking them somewhere. he paid no mind to the department, so he didn’t see a reason to force them to get certification. he did tell them about it, though.

how long they last:

five months.

why they broke up:

porter was leaving town and smartass was settled in their new job. he knew better than to ask someone to leave their whole life behind for him, so he suggested that they stop seeing each other. smartass was confused about the sudden change and asked if they did something to upset him.

he claims that it was a nice change in pace, and that they’ve already established that their relationship wasn’t normal. he wants them to go back to their life and not have to dwell on his. he wasn’t ready to settle down, he realised. when he told smartass this, they understood that it was acceptable to let a good thing die. they broke up, and it took a month or two for both of them to enjoy themselves.

aaron’s reaction:

“no way you dated a vampire. you’re not joking? jesus… he sounds so fuckin’ wild too. i feel so boring compared to that guy. you said he was out of town the last time you two talked? okay, that’s fine then.”

everything they’ve told him about porter sounds straight out of some intense romance book. smartass never thought anything about it, other than they had fun while it lasted. aaron is most likely shitting his pants. he’s heard a fair bit about the vampire clans, and all he knows is that the solaire family is infamous. he secretly prays to whatever is up there that he’s protected from that crazy british vampire. 10/10 scared of him, not because he thinks that he will steal smartass away from him, but because vampires are a force to a be reckoned with.

[ilikekidsshows]

Another thing with the rabid Marinette stans is the virtue signaling. It's incredibly annoying cause it's touted as a "kids show" and people want kids shows to genuinely showcase issues that might happen day to day, even in fantasy situations. And a lot of kids shows are great at it, but ML is not one of them and the MariStans only ever care about those things when it makes Marinette upsette while also ignoring her behavior and their own. Like it's been brought up about how shit their behavior is towards anyone who isn't rapidly downing copium while they also go on about how Marinette doesn't have to forgive her bullies or whatever. Marinette's done so much worse than whatever petty thing Chloe or Sabrina or the rest of those middle school bullies have done, and people always instantly forgive her. Same who people just love to claim Chloe caused the most akumatizations or whatever when Marinette's def caused more and has done worse things that didn't end in akumatizations (re: S5 finale and anything related to it + abusing her hero persona because she's been using it to deal with her petty civilian worries since the beginning cause she can't bring herself to face them head on as Marinette so she has to do it as Ladybug. Volpina anyone? Breaking into Adrien's room because she can't bring herself to talk to him face to face?).

That's not even getting into how they cry about the racism and ableism and whatnot Marinette supposedly faces while writing their Alya bashing fics and ignoring the blatant characitures of multiple Asian characters and complete disregard for disabled characters and the show's unwillingness to have any good, well thought out depictions of any regularly/historically oppressed group of people.

---

Yeah, like, I just saw a post where Marinette stans were claiming that just because the people calling out Marinette’s abuse apologia don’t do it as much for all the other characters keeping Adrien in the dark it's misogyny, when the group of people supposedly not being criticized includes another POC girl and two women. This just in: Marinette is the only female and POC character in Miraculous! No, what it actually means is that Marinette is the only character that registers as a fictional person to her stans, which explains why they hate basically every other character in the show. I mean, either that or they’re just parroting Astruc whining about misogyny whenever someone says they don’t like the main character he, a white man, wrote. How progressive of them.

Like, this has been discussed before, but Marinette stans have such strong opinions about bullying, but only when Marinette is the perceived victim. When Marinette bullies the new girls for liking the same boy, it’s crickets. And when they themselves see a take they don’t agree with, the worst of them don’t waste a second breaking out the cyberbullying tactics. Everyone in this fandom knows “salters” are free game for the worst Marinette stans, and, in fact, I’ve seen some Marinette stans go into pretty neutral blogs’ inboxes with messages like: “you sound like a salter” that sound downright threatening when you’re aware of how the Marinette stans that crawl in people’s inboxes act like.

I think the one thing Marinette has on any of the villains is that, uh, actually, I was gonna say she hasn’t gotten anyone expelled from school, but she did, her targets just had actually done something expulsion-worthy (ignore Marinette doing something expulsion-worthy herself to accomplish this). Also, like, people keep pointing out she hasn’t purposefully done a lot of the stuff she does, although, as I keep saying, when Marinette makes a pattern of humiliating, ignoring and insulting people without meaning to, it makes it actually worse than if she was just being a jerk on purpose, because her victims are constantly made to forgive her for “mistakes” that are just the way she treats other people by now.

Basically, there’s very little any villain in the show has done that Marinette also hasn’t, she just has more or less (more often less) convincing mitigating circumstances for when she does it and the stans cling to and make up these mitigating factors desperately.

But, sure, it’s not the show that’s sexist, racist and ableist with how it depicts its characters, the problem is obviously the fans who have a problem with the writing. It's not like Marinette stans themselves constantly cry bad writing in defense of Marinette and then ignore it when said bad writing includes blatant ignorance of the very topics they hold up as weapons against critics.

[marzipanilla]

OSP just dropped a new Detail Diatribe about Batman : 3

It's so funny that half the shit we're bitching about this show not addressing was at least, in passing, somewhat addressed in this last episode. I almost want to say too little too late ?? like the placement of stuff this season is so frustrating to me. and funny in a kinda haha way. Truly my biggest take away from S3 rn is that it is doing wonderfully for it's side characters and giving up anecdotes about the world, and it is failing hard at delivering on any characters I spent the last two seasons caring about. This season just feels like a weird piecemeal stuff is happening !! season.

Oliver finally acknowledges his mother existed ! that he remembers stuff ! Though catch me here sitting going, oh she loved your dad so much did she? Do you have anything to say about your father loving her at all?? no? do you remember how fucking horrified your brother was when he was first introduced to you?? do you even have a concept of why he was so freaked out about your 'wonderful' father having made a new family ?? do you not remember the two months (GENERATIONS in thraxan time) the fucking planet was ruined by his fight with his people ?? the fact there was no back up for you to get taken care of if he was gone ?? that he had no final words for you or your mother?? but she. the female figure in your life. loved him so much, and clearly every woman in Invincible just exists to tell men how special and awesome they are, so why should Oliver have any concept that's different...

Chronically ill Oliver bc his biology is garbo would be neat. Ties back into my 'I wish hybrid Mark came with problems rather than viltrumite photocopy'. Give these kids more issues lol

God. I am still so annoyed about Rex/Rae. 100% new to the show. did not need to happen. And Debbie having to spend every single fucking moment with Paul propping up his fragile fucking ego. like god damn does she never get a break from propping up emotionally fucked up men. what does she get out of this relationship.

And hey ! there are court cases put to go against heroes ! Except somehow there's zero precedence for them and they are just canonically considered above the law. Horrifying. Also I absolutely refuse to believe this is the first time in the history of anything two superpowered beings fucked up a civilian location. How are there no previous court cases about shit like this. Why is everyone acting like this is a new thing. I've brought it up before, but Invincible has a massive case of Protagonist Centered Reality, in that nothing seems to have happened ever until Mark came along.

Thraxa as a concept explaining disparate lifespans IS great ! I give it that ! It is important to conceptualize ! Suicidally depressed man a few months out from ruining the longest relationship he had ever been in did not need to stick his dick in it though. again, I wonder if they show will EVER dive into Nolan's thoughts on the fact he made another kid. Though them aggressively trying to retcon him in being a functional parent would probably make me gag. oh he flew you around the palace humming to you did he ??? it took Mark until he was 8 years old for this bitch to show up for his after school shit. Try and tell me he wasn't singing human/Earth lullabys bc if you try and tell me Viltrumites have them I will laugh at you. Nolan's family on Thraxa always gave me weird 'I am going to recreate what I had on Earth why isn't it the same as it was on Earth' vibes to me re: whatever the fuck Nolan was thinking.

The fact this dude could have just left Thraxa and it would have saved so many lives will never not a be a point I make. It truly was his absence from Earth and his presence on Thraxa that screwed everyone. Admittedly, he didn't reach the headspace of wanting to atone until the gd jail break, but truly Mr I Avoid My Problems could have just waved his arms up and down on an asteroid at least and let the Thraxans live out their fucking lives while he continued to run away.

When people ignore genuine character flaws that could be worked into/around in favor of just stock 'abusive bc mean!' is just bleh. Somehow reminds me of all the 'character A is in abusive relationship until B saves them' fics that were super popular for so long in so many fandoms. Or the typical make the woman a bitch so the guy can be in the gay ship I want shit. Characters can fuck up in ways that are true to character !! I get a degree of projection will always exist when an individual consumes media, so it's just like.. okay.. you have a blanket over this concept bc that's what you see when you look over there. Can you please acknowledge that's a you thing and not a 'correct' thing??

I saw x Reader shit show up in a video game fandom before the game even released. wild. like. What are you even writing at that point??? Original fiction is totally fine !! You can write your own stuff !! Why are you even calling it fanfic at that point. I can get that way about OC fic sometimes too. Like, most of the time when I'm in a fandom it's bc I want to see those characters. And I get that having inserts or your own chars is a thing! it's just not what the brain space I go into most fandoms with, so it just makes filtering through stuff even more difficult. The only time I go in expecting it is for videogame fandoms for stuff that has a character creator, bc part of that fandom process IS making a person in that world ! I am prepped for it. I get it. But outside of that I'm juts like... I want to talk about these characters here? now? maybe? And I've goddamn written shit with OCs outside of the stuff I typically go for ! to me it's just such a back burner thing. Whatever happened to making free forum rp sites and just fucking going buck wild with friends and strangers. y'all need interactive enrichment with your custom dolls. Please let me break the store bought ones. where are all the people breaking the store bought ones.

Mark agreeing to go hang out on a beach w Debbie instead of refusing and the beach is Beach City (am now officially thinking too much about this crossover lol)

The way I got caught up on our back and forth I almost forgot this, lol! AND OH MY GOODNESS, IMAGINE? I forget exactly what which point Debbie makes the beach offer, but I’d love when exactly in SU/SUF-timeline they’d go? There’s something so fucking funny to me about them going during the SUF-timeline and always narrowly missing the strange, Steven-shaped mental breakdowns in the back. I know those don’t occur in a single day, but it’s tickling me. How could they miss anything? I don’t know I just think it’s funny.

Though, post-SUF is interesting if Gems can see the similar “world on your shoulders”, Mark has going on! Steven can shunt the narrative in the Gems’ minds, which I think is neat, if I’m not misusing the phrase since the guy’s on the road far away. Or maybe it’s just before Steven goes and they stumble into each other. I’d kinda love Pearl and Debbie interacting, honestly, if they could talk about loving someone who hurt you, hide things from you, even when you thought you knew them so deeply, and they left you to raise a child. Pearl being in a well adjusted space, and Debbie still grieving.

Honestly, the gems could help train Mark, they’re got experience and similar-ish powers in strength, sturdiness, and they can jump/run fast enough for flying to be vaguely similar enough to lecture about, I think. Or Lapis Lazulis, haha! Peridot with her trash can lid! Garnet, I’d love to see if she told Mark anything about his future in vague, well meaning advice. Or even giving relationship advice considering Amber. Or, importantly, how to convince an entire reign to end their colonizing ways, lol. Is Mark perhaps willing to start a war, take advantage of being related to any leaders, or fake his own death to varying results?

In general, there’s something so fucking funny to me about Nolan, in the sake of comparison, being Pink Diamond coded. Like OH, did an important or well respected of the colonizing empire come to earth and learn the beauty of its people and nature, including faking/lying/omitting things about his identity and background to being in, only to feel conflicted when his responsibility still remained, and he tried to free himself from them? Yikes! We’ve been through that before! Like gimme Pink Diamond and Nolan outfit swap rn. This is tickling me so much oh my goodness.

[jalebi-weds-bluetooth]

Hi S!

Eager to know Jalebi's honest opinion. Is Arnav a classist? His actions and accusations of "gold digging" against Khushi seems to say so. Later on during the 'dadi track' he seems to oppose her evident classism. But is that because now Khushi is his wife?

Hey!

This is an interesting question because there is a yes and a no.

A yes because had Khushi belonged from a higher class, Arnav's treatment of her would have been different. So if a person is treated better because of their class, that's classism.

However, Arnav has absolutely no qualms with people from lower class. When he learns that Akash loves Payal, Arnav's main concern isn't that Payal comes from no money and lower social status, his concern is whether or not Akash is ready for a lifelong commitment and isn't being childish just because he's infatuated. That is Arnav being a really sensible brother.

Arnav actually has no difficulty gelling with Khushi's family. Any problem Arnav faces in Lakshminagar is a direct result of Khushi annoying him. He's, in fact, quite sensitive to Gupta's monetary stretch. He doesn't order Italian food for himself simply because the Guptas don't know fine dining. He actually orders it for everyone - even though he's annoyed the hell out of Khushi because ordering food for just himself at a guest's house is rude.

And let's not forget, Arnav gets annoyed every time Manorama makes a comment on class on either Payal or Khushi.

Dadi track had a lot of missed potential in my opinion. It would have been great for Khushi to point out that Dadi mirrors a lot of Arnav's earlier opinions of her.

To be honest, more than Khushi being his wife it's about the time when Arnav's misgivings about Khushi started fading (around post Janmashtami). I think that's when he figured out Khush is a bit stupid and absurd, but not the gold digger he assumed her to be.

Hence, he's a bit disturbed when he learns that Manorama accused Khushi of robbery (because Anjali is right about Khushi being unjustly treated at Shantivan).

[I've always interpreted Arnav asking Khushi tum theek ho that day for more than just the getting her earring stuck on his jacket - which is also a weird thing to ask if someone is ok after an accessory got stuck, lol]

And then during Dadi era he loves Khushi, so of course he's taking a stand for the woman he loves.

He loves Khushi. He loves her family.

But there is a slight, inherent, classism in Arnav because reality IS that Khushi would have had a lot of things easier for her if she just belonged from a better class (not even his equivalent but just if she spoke English, or came across as upper middle class).

And it is classism that it takes SO much for him to start viewing her nicely. To throw away his prejudice. Her class plays a key role here.

Anjali has to keep justifying Khushi's intentions. Khushi has to prove her kindness and selflessness MULTIPLE times to his family. Arnav has no hesitation to shove money in Khushi's face.

It is classism that he resorts to insulting her class when he wants a shield for his growing attraction.

And Arnav would have thought twice before hurting her because she holds some power. Now power dynamics is a whole different monster in this conversation because not just class but even gender, their careers, Khushi's family and patriarchy play a key role behind the grossly imbalanced power dynamic between Arnav and Khushi.

In short, there is classism because Arnav feels entitled to do his way when he's being ruthless. But also Arnav is completely accepting of people from different classes and he does not think he's amazing because of it.

So a yes, and a no.

Love,

S

P.S: Anjali exhibits privilege in and a very very slight classist nature as well. A person of lower class cannot tell Anjali no. She keeps compelling Khushi multiple times because of this class difference (not just because Khushi is kind).

Anjali is kind and cultured enough to say the right thing but she is not beyond manipulating situations to her benefit. Anjali cares far more for her brother, so she's completely fine subjecting Khushi to continuous interactions with her acrimonious brother, misusing her financial strength against Khushi, having Khushi constantly come over to her home even after her job is over so Khushi has to juggle looking after her parents and tuitions and being Anjali & La's buddy time while her transportation costs are totally not being covered.

Anjali is blind as hell to the fact that Khushi's time is of value as well.

[tenderpreyy]

​I’m thinking again about Astarions sexuality and how I've seen some people (to be fair, just a few) talk about it. Mainly, people pointing out his flamboyant behavior, and that us as players are learning more about his past male lovers than female ones and basically all these things for some people pointing to him being gay or at least not interested in women in the same way he is in men. And him only being a romance option regardless of gender, because, well, all companions are and he is therefore just "playersexual", only showing interest in female player characters because he has to, because of the game mechanics.

I think what really rubs me the wrong way about this topic is that it echoes the kind of things bi/pan people (speaking as a bisexual woman myself) find themselves dealing with irl. Whether through some form of internalized biphobia or from the outside through other people's comments. Of course this is about a fictional character so it’s not like he has any feelings that could be hurt. But when i see people tallying up how often he mentions men vs. how often he mentions women it really reminds me of a way of thinking I sometimes fall into in regards to my own sexuality. This is definitely just an internalized response and not something I actually believe when I truly think about it for a second, but I know these patterns of thought very well. Of observing my own behavior. How often do I find which gender attractive? Am I attracted "enough" to women? Do I talk about men's attractiveness too often? Is it the other way around? Am I only saying this woman is attractive to prove something to myself? I literally have a girlfriend and my attitude towards mine or other's sexual orientation is generally a huge big "whatever, I don't care". And I still have a passing thought like that from time to time.

So seeing people talk about a fictional character in this way really sends home how many people (whether consciously or unconsciously) see attraction as some sort of equation, you can solve, where in the end you get a result of either gay or straight.

[moeblob]

Amazing, take some of the side character demons from Evil Bound.

Vincie is a menace to Chuck and Chuck alone so in Hell, Chuck hexes his hand behind his back so that he isn't grabbed as much (and it's harder to pet him). Chuck is like the most irresponsible older sibling ever to demons though so Kelvin recruits him (as an older sibling vibe) to go help him get his ACTUAL older sibling from Earth. Chuck agrees. And then drags Vincie from Hell with them because no one else wants to babysit him and he refuses to unbind the hex just to re-hex when he returns to Hell.

In Hell, Kelvin actually doesn't appear much different than his human form! Like Kronos, the lines under his eyes are red in Hell but black on earth. Chuck however? In Hell he has wolf-ish ears and has a fur lining his neck (note the neck scars in human form). In addition to that he has four eyes in Hell (note the scars under his eyes in human form). Vincie just has horns in Hell. And! In Hell the hex doesn't have a silly looking "tied up" look, it's invisible unless Vincie strains it with movement and then its red text. But it shifts on earth to be visible.

Vincie's biggest agony for the entirety on earth is "dude it's colder here than in Hell I want a jacket to slip my arms into BUT I CANT BECAUSE IM BOUND".

[active-mind-15]

Thanks for the tag!!

5 things you might find in a story of mine...

Slice of Life. It's my favorite genre to write, and so help me God, I will find any excuse to weave it into a story, whether the characters are going grocery shopping, they're sick at home, or they're planning a birthday party.

Comedic/witty dialogue and narration. I like giving characters quippy comebacks and I like to let their personality show through the narration, even though I typically write in third person.

Stories that go deeper than they seem. Like I said, I like writing a lot of Slice of Life. But the story is never just about narrating people going about their day. The characters are always learning something about themselves, other people, or both. The events of the story are just a vessel for it to happen.

Character analysis. I just like breaking characters down and exploring who they are and why they are the way they are. This can come in many forms through my story, but I love a good character study.

Things inspired by my real-life experiences. There are times where I may have a character go through something I have gone through, or say a line of dialogue I heard from someone else out in public. Not in a projection (said negatively) OOC kind of way, but in a way that still fits with their personality.

Anyway, that's it from me! I'm gonna tag @padmsanakin, @obstinaterixatrix, @electricopolis-net, @wsknbfanaccnt

✏️ writer’s tag game ✏️

thank you for the tag @chunkymonkey 🩶

5 things you might find in a story of mine....

LOTS of internal monologues

a man somewhere, undoubtedly pining

gratuitous angst

absolutely fucking massive sentences split with em dashes and semicolons

bouncing on it in a way that is fundamental to the plot

tagging @vspin, @pheedraws, @shalfea, @lilac-lich, @lylakoi, & anyone else who sees this 🫵

[keen-eye]

Hello, Dean 🫵

[themarysuep]

Nooo the last thing the MCU wanted to do was make Bruno her primary love interest. I’m not sure if you’ve seen it, but there’s a deleted scene where Bruno admits his feelings and Kamala shoots him down.

This was admittedly a really cruel scene, and I see why Marvel decided to delete it. But it really showed that the MCU writers had no respect for Bruno. It’s the fandom that tries to make everything about him. If you compare it to when he admits his feelings in the comics, this was a definite no from Kamala, instead of her beating around the bush. There’s also Nakia clearly shipping Kamala / Kamran and getting angry when Bruno tries to embarrass Kamala in front of Kamran. There’s even a hilarious scene where “bad, bad, bad, bad boy (come on)i wouldn't change you if i could” plays when Kamala looks at Kamran walking off. Clearly, trying to say fuck those comics lol. Bruno’s screentime in the MCU struck me more as being respectful to GWW’s writing as the source material, since she gives him all the attention when she writes. He was written as an accessory to Kamala in the MCU tbh. The show and all the promo was about Kamran.

If it were me, I would trust Nakia more than Bruno. She’s mature, opinionated, strong and understands Kamala’s religious values. She would be the person I would trust to help me because she’s just a strong force, you know? She would make me feel safe. Kamala admits in the MCU that she was scared to tell Nakia because she knows Nakia hates superhero types or whatever. But Nakia reinforces that she could never hate Kamala (and Kamran). She would do anything to help them. Nakia cares about who is behind the powers, who is behind the mask. A privileged person, or people who are targeted. It was a very ambitious exploration of telling a story about Muslims and real minorities. Qarin was a good arc. Would be cool to get a recurring character like that. I mean Josh was a pretty shit person from the first issue of Ms Marvel.

Yeah, Iman won’t entertain the current ships when she takes over unless it’s mandated. Sophie did appear in Spiderman right? They could actually do a little Miles/Kamala/Sophie thing to wrap everything up. Sophie and Kamala having lunch in NY like they’re seen doing before. They’re having a really good day and laughing. Sophie saying she was actually thinking about Kamala and how amazing she is, and she just really wants to share something with her. And it’s very clear that she wants to tell her she has feelings for her. Then Miles comes in frantically saying he wants to speak to Kamala. I’m guessing at this point, he’s dying on the inside because he’s kept it in so long. Kamala sees how stressed he looks so she asks Sophie to give them a minute and she walks away to speak to Miles. Sophie obviously gets annoyed and tells Miles to talk to Kamala later, about to cause a scene. Kamala, in character, tells Sophie not to be mean. Sophie eavesdrops while Miles admits his feelings, which kind of breaks Sophie’s heart because she was also trying to find the courage. She walks away and leaves, not wanting to hear anymore. Kamala will likely give Miles her same old speech about being too busy for relationships, or that she genuinely hasn’t thought about him in that way or that she’s been through so much lately and she can’t handle a relationship. Miles smiles and says it okay, but the last time he tried to tell her, she cut him off, so he really wanted to get it off his chest. And jokingly tells her, it’s just in case she dies again. We cut to Sophie not taking Kamala’s calls. Sophie is in her apartment, alone, and we see her holding something that belongs to Kamala (I think it’s canon Kamala stays at her apartment sometimes because she doesn’t have her dorm anymore?) and just shaking her head realizing that she’s changed her mind. She cuts Kamala’s call and texts her that she had to run off because she forgot she had a class. Kamala none the wiser, because who would think two people would admit their feelings on the same day lol, sends her a heart in acknowledgement….not realizing that it was actually a knife to Sophie’s actual heart.

I don’t think Iman vibes with Bruno tbh so I think the romance is kind of over while she writes. She will write him as a loyal friend, and it might be that Marvel tells her who to make the lead (Bruno) when she writes to entice more readers. I like Kareem the best for now. No one really competes with Kamran for me anymore though. I have MCU brainrot. Yeah, I’m not saying these writers are terrible but they’re not perfect either. I see a lot of the fandom believe that early comics were “perfect representation” and the MCU is messing things up. That’s far from the truth. I rambled A LOT, sorry.

So, Medusa might be the best heroic mentor Kamala's had? Like, she's kinda the only one that didn't disappoint her or tried to force anything on her, or was too stubborn to listen to her. Medusa's entire approach to inhumans outside of their city is to treat them like her subjects but doesn't expect them to treat her like their queen.

She opens Attilan's borders, allowing non-inhumans to live and work there if they want. She offers Kamala assistance when she needs it but never tries to push her towards her "side", and if anything during IvX listens to her and her friends.

When her powers started to literally melt her body it wasn't the X-Men who showed up to help, (actually it was kind of their fault that it happened in the first place) it was Medusa. And even though the chances of saving her aren't certain, she has such faith in Kamala's strength that she doesn't doubt that she'll pull through.

And I don't know, that's just kind of neat?