#and of course they were in danger. the whole plotline was going on so there was no laying about and being happy together

[aleclightofmylifewoodbane]

Do you know what the absolute worst thing about Jem Will and Tessa is? They really only had a few months of all three of them being together in the grand scheme of things. They all lived long lives, Jem and Tessa especially, but they only really had all three of them as themselves together for a few scant months, and those months were fraught with danger and miscommunication. They were never able to love each other fully and openly as three full people together and that is the worst thing that has ever been taken from us I think.

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: Kabru & Mithrun's Life-Changing Road Trip

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safhkjkhf no but also fake!Kabru is entirely flat because Mithrun doesn't have depth perception...

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Between this and the information that the team has a 1:2 ratio of guards to criminals, with the guards often appointed by their families as a melodramatic show of loyalty to the realm - which is...possibly literally true, considering the prestige of badassery; but, considering the criminals and the danger, also very possibly a polite euphemism for what amounts to a public sacrifice... I kind of ferally want to know about the dynamics of the Canaries. Are they loyal to each other, or to the cause? Are they all just under the threat of execution? Kabru expected the captain of the squad to be an aristocratic guard, them being more trustworthy than a semi-pardoned criminal ofc, but instead he's...whatever exactly Mithrun's legal status is; I've avoided some details of his backstory.

...I might have to go back and try to actually mentally distinguish these people from each other.

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Laios Heaven is actually Kabru Hell, and vice versa. It's a very efficient system!

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*giggles* Kabru is having a weird, upside-down day.

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"Don't wish often" is such a threatening thing to say, honestly. Don't want. Don't try. Don't be alive, or this place will try to kill you and eat you, for it, too, wishes to live, and that is how the continuation of life works.

It's so so interesting how elves clearly have ANSWERS, answers that our party have been searching for, which would've made their whole adventure easier, and the elves just aren't telling people. To maintain their own power over other races? Probably. Because knowing about demons who'll offer you unlimited power would be a dangerous temptation to many? In fairness, probably that, too. But it sure as hell serves them first.

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Oh yeah, this definitely reads as aristocratic youths joining the Canaries isn't per se voluntary on their families' parts. It's the elvish Suicide Squad.

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The timeline isn't making sense. When Mithrun banished the giant mushroom, it was clearly implied that it went to where and when Team Touden were when we'd last seen them, just after their first incident with the changeling mushrooms and then the dwarvish cable car. However, now the pop-up side panels are saying that Kabru and Mithrun's week in the dungeon together is happening at the same time as Team Touden goes through their shapeshifter adventure, barometz, Golden Country, griffins... Which makes sense if one assumes the Canaries & co went into the dungeon right after Kabru first spoke to them, which does seem right in terms of those characters' plotline and personal timetables. But there was no indication, when it cut over to them, that we'd suddenly gone backwards a week in the comic's timeline; indeed, the giant walking changeling mushroom incident suggested it was a single continuity...

Is this just a continuity error? Did I miss some clarifying signifier?

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Kabru: [tells Mithrun his own backstory back at him]

Mithrun: You left out the soap operatic relationships rooted in royal intrigue, which in turn was rooted in millennia of other royal intrigue.

Kabru: Yes, but I need it to be understandable to a man who's mostly just going to ask me how the goat-demon tast– I mean, uh... Your story structure was bad, so I simplified it.

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Oh shit, that's the thing Marcille is studying! She doesn't know it summons demons!

...My instinct is, "if only someone told her instead of completely outlawing the knowledge, forcing her to stumble blindly into the consequences on her own!" But, uh... I'm not sure this would actually stop her. She's very determined, and also has her share of wizard hubris. This is, of course, a driving question of the story.

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It wasn't easier to kill them? It wasn't easier to simply stop drawing magic from the infinite-power dimension?

...ok obviously not the latter, because, y'know. Fossil fuels. But seriously it wasn't easier to just kill them?

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It's sooo intersting how everyone else views Laios's love of monsters as a dangerous moral failing, when it's really just...ecologist enthusiasm. The man thinks this class of being is Neat. He is harming literally 0 people about this. He isn't even forcing anyone to eat them, just inviting them really enthusiastically and/or pointing out that this is necessary in order to achieve their shared goal of saving Falin.

Yes, obviously this could be subverted into something terrible by an encouraging demon. Just like, obviously, a desire to protect and preserve people can be! Or a desire to live happily with your loved ones! Laios isn't worse than any other Lord of a Dungeon; y'all just hate monsters!

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Kabru that is SO gay, jfc. I object on principle to the phrase "no heterosexual explanation", but--

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M! V! P! M! V! P!

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Friendship? Teamwork? Mutual respect and shared understanding of goals? Mithrun is a very useful ally because he really does Only want to stop the demon; he doesn't care about the geopolitics of it. Though his perspective is still very elvish and he definitely will kill our beloved protagonists without hesitation if they seem like they're going to be a problem.

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I would read an entire novel about the formation of the halffoot union, honest to god. I bet it was very exciting. I bet someone tried to kill Chilchuck at least once.

[sorcerersandskillusers]

This probably isn't the final arc of BSD

A lot of people seem to think that the Decay of Angels are the final antagonists of bsd and that the series is gonna end after their defeated.

But I highly doubt that, there is way too much that has been left unexplored, and so many important plot lines to resolve.

I think this arc if more of a precursor arc to establish the effects of The Book and introduce more key players into the story, as well and round off many characters arcs.

I have a few reasons for thinking this:

1: This arc is about the page not the book.

2: Agatha Christy, Despite being hyped up through out the whole series we haven't seen her properly yet

3: The currently unresolved plot lines

1. The number one thing that makes me sure this isn't the final arc is the fact that this conflict isn't over The Book. The Page which is the centre of the DOA's plan's is just a tiny fragment of the real prize and the end goal of this arc is just for the Agency to undo everything the DOA did with the page.

This mad dash for the book hasn't even started yet, but I think I know what will start it-

Ranpo announced the existence of the page to the entire world, and the DOA are currently proving just how powerful it is. Once the current vampire crisis is over, there's no way loads of dangerous and powerful skill users aren't going to come storming into Yokohama to try and get it. Setting the stage to move into the final arc.

2. Through out bsd we hear about how Europe is the centre of gifted power in the world. Ability users like Fyodor, Gogol, Bram, Verlain... all come from Europe and they also produced the only Skill weapons we've seen so far in the series. Despite this we've only seen brief glimpses of The Order Clock Tower, who seem to be the main gifted organisation in Europe.

She appears in the same sequence as Fyodor and Fitzgerald, and if you go in reverse order you get the order of the antagonists:

Fitzgerald, Fyodor and maybe Agatha?

All this makes me sure that she will lead Europe in its attempt to seize the Book and will probably be the final antagonist of the series or at least one of them.

3. We still have tons of unresolved plotlines in bsd, so heres a list of the ones I think will be important.

Tanizaki's character arc and history .

What are abilities really?

Who wrote Sigma?

We need to meet the Transcendents ?

What the fuck is Steinbeck up to?

Adam and Shirase, they were clearly both sent to london for a reason and it was teased in Stormbringer that Shirase was going to make a return.

What is the Storm that Verlaine is waiting for?

The transfer of a detective to the Mafia.

Who were the seven traitors?

And of course Dazai's full history.

I'm sure I missed loads, and maybe some of these will get resolved in this arc.

Anyway I defiantly think there is at least one more arc to come, and I have some theories about Fyodor's involvement in it that Ill post later.

[quirkwizard]

Assuming that Mustard didn’t get caught how do you think he and his Quirk might have evolved? Like what do you think he would be like as a character if he stuck around more? Maybe he could have some form of telekinesis over his gas so he can either avoid his allies or hit his enemies with dense clusters while letting him function without his mask.

While I do have some ideas for how "Sleep Gas" could change, even I'm willing to admit they aren't that varied or noteworthy. So while I can still try to writing about that if you want, I'm focusing more on the story since that is way more interesting to talk about.

The issue with Mustard as a character is that there isn't a lot to springboard off of. I've already talked about the issues with using his powers. However, I just don't think there's an interesting hook with him from what we've seen. Like, what story would you tell with him? What commentary would you make about the world, like the other League members? I suppose you could go the route of how the world can't handle "bad" Quirks and the feelings that come from that. However, that's rather redundant since that's the case with the whole League. Now, if I were rewriting things from the ground up, I think I'd have him take on the role of the Stain fanboy. Look, I like that as Spinner's gimmick, but it doesn't really end up going anywhere or relating as much to his story, especially in the final arc. A lot of it is either focused on the comradery with the League or the mutant plotline. With this, it gives Mustard something and allows Spinner's plotline some more focus before the final arc, focusing more on "kid in way over his head in with a bad crowd" with Mustard.

With the traits given, you could focus on his apparent vendetta against the Hero Course kids and how they have it easy. You could extrapolate this into being a failed hero student because of his Quirk, someone who can't see himself as a success unless they are a hero because of how much heroes dominate the world, or someone who himself is inferior to more powerful classmates. Because of this, he acts out and becomes a villain, admonishing any and all heroes and talking about how he's. Kind of like those people who make it by doing something only to then act like it's all a sham. This could then evolve into him having some interesting interactions later on with the MLA, considering how they view the usage of Quirks and could be used as a counterpoint to their plans, as people freely using their Quirks could be dangerous in his case. And during the final battle, he could go up against Ojiro, Sato, and Sero, thinking about how much he had to evolve as opposed to the "spoiled heroes". The irony being they've had to train more than anyone else because of how weak their powers are.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

So my man what do you think of how bnha act 3 has treated the villains so far?

I think it's going exactly the way the story hinted it would. No surprises there.

In terms of narrative, people should give Horikoshi his flowers. MHA might not be as flashy as other mangas, but Horikoshi keeps it consistent and to the point. I'm glad that he doesn't sacrifice the writing of a plotline in order to create flashier or more action based fights. I'm also glad he's been with the villains' ideologies and their reasons to do what they do.

It's funny, the hero side might be the one who's more surprised with the current outcome of the final showdown. You have moments like Ochako risking it all for Toga, which is a dream come true for villain fans yet might be hard to process for other people. I'm personally satisfied with how the author treated the Enji and Dabi plotline, because in the end it was not Shoto who alone could do a miracle. A bit of a "family issues must be solved by the whole family" opinion, but I'm glad to see Rei, Natsuo and Fuyumi getting involved. They all had the spotlight in a heartwarming moment to stop and help Touya. They all took responsibility for their role in what happened to their family.

So far, so good.

To be honest, my perception is that Horikoshi has great respect for some of his villain characters. He has so far dedicated a lot of the story to Tomura alone, to his connection with Izuku. At least when it comes to the League, sacrifices are not simply plot twists, you know? They held meaning, they're respectful to the character.

I can't say the same for other antagonists and villains, tho. It's understandable, those secondary characters won't receive as much screen time and that's okay. It's just a bit sad to think that some of them have a lot of potential, but the story keeps them backstage. I certainly miss seeing some of the members of the Meta Liberation Army, for example. I loved the implications of corruption of power in the hero society. I miss Lady Nagant too, I can't wait to see her reaction to knowing that AFO is finally dead. Right now I wonder what the hell Horikoshi had planned for Hawks, lol. Every time I think his plotline is getting kickstarted, it runs for a second before stopping again. If he's there it's because there are unfinished businesses with him, maybe we will finally get a resolution on his connection with Toga and his past with Twice, but that's for later.

I have faith in Horikoshi, I guess. He has shown us that he does what the story demands and doesn't change the course of it for the public as much as other mangakas do. That is what movies are for.

I'm sure we'll see Spinner and Compress again, but most of all I'm curious worried about Kurogiri. I insist that the resolution between Kurogiri and Aizawa and Yamada will wreck me. In my wildest dreams I see Kurogiri begin for Tomura's life aka to save him, to give him a chance. I saw Aizawa's face when he heard Kurogiri talk about Tomura. He knew it was not only an order, but also a part of Oboro still alive. Oboro would do anything to help someone in danger, he'd pick any stray cat, give his life for anyone. I'm on the edge of my seat with that trio. Teachers on opposite sides of the war, once friends. Don't even get me going about Yamada and Kurogiri. Whenever I think of Mic and his role in that situation, it's pure torture.

If you ask me, I'm getting what I wanted. Act 3 has been great. It got a little boring for me when the whole focus was fighting AFO (I don't know why, maybe AFO is just not my favorite character to focus on). The rest? Amazing. Beautiful panels and drawing style, emotional instances that reveal the heart of the villains, their determination and dreams were respected, they got treated for once as real humans and not just villains... I'm behaving like a total kid with what is happening with Deku and Tomura in the 415 chapter.

Now, post-battle is another matter. We will cross that bridge when we get there, but they must be all alive and well or I'm ending what the League started and taking this whole world down with me (I'm not exaggerating at all haha why you ask?)

[walker-extended-universe]

4x07 Review

The writer's threw us a bone and gave us a somewhat lighter episode this week, probably to make up for the angst coming at us in "Witt's End". That's not to say "Hold Me Now" is without its share of strife- the Walker family continues to deliver on the dramatics (and I wouldn't have them any other way).

Today, I'm going to shake things up a bit and focus more on specific characters rather than specific plots. That's just the way it's lining up in my head with how condensed the plotlines were this episode.

Let's start off with the shortest character line this episode: Abby and Bonham's Great Retirement Debate.

This one starts with Bonham complimenting Liam's PT. During this conversation, Bonham finds out that Ben and Abby are officially going into business together with their wedding planning at the ranch, something that catches Bonham by surprise. Abby can do as she pleases, but this is his ranch too and, as her husband, he should know more about what she's up to.

Later, after his and Stella's quick self defense lesson, he confronts Abby on her making that choice without him. After all, this is not his idea of what their retirement looks like. Abby rebuffs him and makes an odd comment about supporting her son's dreams and they get into a staring contest, leaving Stella in a very awkward situation.

I'm not gonna lie, this is one of my least favorite stories they've given us this season. I understand they need to give these characters something to do but this whole thing feels trite compared to what's going on in the rest of the show and it doesn't seem to fit their relationship much, especially with all the development they had. At least the other characters are having interesting reactions to it.

Moving on, let's look at what Stella was up to this episode.

We see that Stella finally recieved footage of the break-in at her dorm but there's not much to go on and campus police don't seem interested in doing anything (related too hard to that one). She's also getting more desperate texts from Witt about the necklace. When August once again points out that they should probably loop Cordell in, she again rejects it. At this point, they're in too deep and telling him would only land them in more trouble.

August makes another good point in telling her they need to play a little offense. Until they get the necklace, she's in danger. If she won't get protection from their dad, she needs to learn how to take better care of herself. This prompts her to go back home. While she was looking for Cordell, she finds Bonham and he's more than happy to give her some self-defense lessons. Let's hope that's enough.

Next, let's talk August.

This one starts off in the morning, with Cordell and August talking in the kitchen. August offers to do a make-up family dinner when Geri gets back from her trip and Cordell accepts, acknowledging that he may have been wrong about why he and Stella went AWOL. However, August is still stuck with a 5pm curfew.

This is also the day of his bootcamp graduation, which is the entire crew finishing an obstacle course. Everyone who finishes the course in under 8 minutes will be a step ahead at the military training. Durin ghte early practice run we see August is at the head of the pack and one student is struggling more than the others. Trey reminds them that it's never too late to help otu a struggling trooper as they all need to be able to rely on each other before they break to run it again.

We pick up here when it's time for the actual run. August runs the course very well, so well that he's on track to break a record. But, just as he's about to finish, we see him look behind to see the student who was struggling from earlier. After a moment of hesitation, he runs back to give the student advice and encourage him through the rest of the course. Both of them still finish on time and Trey looks on with pride.

Side note: Trey has officially made it up to August for lying to him about still being a guidance counselor way back at the end of season 2.

While everyone is celebrating, we see a brief flash of disappointment on August's face when he processes that Cordell wasn't there to witness it. He puts a smile back on when Trey comes over to congratulate him and ask if he's ready for bootcamp. For the first time, we see August hesitate a bit about his military career as he says he's not sure and that he has a lot of options. Whether this indecision is related to Cordell's absence is unclear but it's nice to see him considering other options for his life.

Up next (for better or for worse) is Cassie and her work/life dilemna.

We start with Cassie arriving at work- and Luna arriving right behind her. We also get her calling him by his first name, David. As they head to the conference room to get back to the case, we get a conversation about their potential relationship- or rather why Cassie doesn't really want to explore one publicly. Not only is she up for lieutenant, but after everything with Kevin she doesn't want to rush into another workplace relationship. Luna respects that but we still get some playful banter.

Side note: I'm glad to hear there are candidates from outside the office; I feel like that makes this all more suspenseful than if it was just Trey and Cassie.

Cordell immediately gets them all focused on the job, starting with running down the suspect lists to make sure they have up-to-date information. While this doesn't seem to lead them much of anywhere at first, Cordell points them at a potential lead which- unfortunately- doesn't lead much of anywhere. Cassie and Luna are both disappointed, but understanding. It wasn't that likely that a grainy security camera that caught a partial on a guy's face would grant them a concrete lead right away. However, they both notice that Cordell is taking this whole case very hard and won't listen to anyone who tells him to take it easy.

This only adds to how overwhelmed Cassie feels by the case. The Jackal is not going to be an easy killer to catch and now she's seen it wreack havoc on both rangers and civilians. She asks Luna for advice on how he keeps it all from getting to him and he has an idea: karaoke.

While Cassie is apprehensive of this idea at first, she's more than happy to try it out. And we the audience are treated to both of them singing in between them getting closer to each other. While it does seem like their relationship is moving a bit fast, I can't blame Cassie one bit for wanting to jump on that.

Side note: I refuse to believe anyone would cheat on Luna.

The next day, Cassie and Luna are more than willing to leave the office after James dismisses them from a good day's work. However, Cordell's reluctance to move on gives them pause. They listen to Cordell's questionable theory on the zookeeper and, when Cassie realizes he's not going going to let it go, she offers to go with him and Luna is right behind her.

The zoo search is short but intense and, surprisingly, they do find something. Whether this is related to the Jackal or not is still up in the air but it's enough to call in the cavalry and check it out. While this is all going on, James takes the time to let Cassie know he approves of her and Luna, even though it's none of his business. This gives Cassie the confidence she needs to hold Luna's hand at the crime scene, which is a very sweet moment.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: Let's talk about Cordell.

As we all predicted would happen the moment he picked up that notebook, Cordell is completely throwing himself into this case. It's clear he's taking his responsibility as leader seriously in James' stead and he's not going to let his old partner down again. He's not going to stop until this lunatic is off the streets, regardless of the consequences.

At least, that's the intensity he gives off at work while he struggles to make connections between their potential leads and what little they know about the Jackal. I noticed he relied heavily on James' personal notes during this episode, which I think speaks a lot to the trust between them. Even though Cordell knew this case made James a bit crazy, he's still trusting his old partner's judgement here.

While he's leading the game at work, he's letting things slide at home, missing out on family dinner in favor of eating cereal and reading James' notebook again. When Abby tries to confront him on this, he assures her that everything is fine. He just has work to do. She accepts that answer, but I doubt that will last very long.

After the disenheartening failure of their first lead, Cordell seems more determined than ever to find some kind of connection between the Jackal and their suspect list, diving down to a former zookeeper that doesn't really have any of the hallmarks they're looking for. He's so determined to find that connection that he's willing to risk missing August's bootcamp graduation to check out the old zoo, which just happens to be near the Jackal's first kill. Despite the stretch of the lead and the fact that this could wait a day, he insists on going right away and lets Cassie and Luna tag along.

Side note: I have to wonder if he really thought he could search a whole zoo and make it back in time for August.

As they search the zoo, Cordell finds footprints in the mud and soon finds a strange figure to hunt down. He gets close, but doesn't get their man, getting a concussion and a good look at his shoes instead. While it's more than they had before, he's not satisfied. He wants to catch the Jackal above all else, even at risk to his own life.

Later, he comes home with his work duffle to find Liam sitting at his dining table. And he's got a lot to say, starting with berating Cordell for missing August's event. This leads into him pointing out how he's been ignoring Stella's needs after the break in. He then goes as far as to compare this current case to the Rodeo Kings mission- Cordell leaving his kids behind for work and leaving Liam to pick up the pieces.

Cordell brushes him off, insisting that he- and his kids- are fine and Liam can back very far off. Liam leaves the house in a huff, leaving Cordell to go back to his Jackal Investigation Porch, where he drops the duffle bag. He puts on gloves and we see that the bag is full of evidence, including some rope. We then get a very odd sequence where Cordell wraps the wrist around his own wrist and gets flashes of images of similar rope going over a victim's wrists. Which leaves us with the very big question of: What the fuck?

And that wraps up this week's episode. As usual, I'm left with far more questions than answers. Why does this retirement plot with Abby and Bonham need to be dragged out so long? Why did they tease us with Liam being an addict and just drop it? Will August ever convince Stella to own up to everything? Why is Luna so perfect and does that mean he's the Jackal?

Hopefully we'll start getting more answers next week. See y'all then!

[myloveforhergoeson]

i really think one of the craziest parts of btrtv was their school situation like. yeah we never see them in school after the second season but in theory they were getting an education and i simply think the writers handled it in the only way they could. let me explain.

typically young people in the entertainment industry are schooled either through the company they work for or through their parents. obviously, since btrtv was aimed at a younger audience they couldn't just not have the boys go to school - what kind of example would that set for the viewers? moving to hollywood equals never having to learn again?

while i was thinking about this topic earlier i was trying to come up with some different ways the show could have gone about this but managed only a few examples:

jennifer could homeschool them. but when? she's barely at the apartment as is and would have to juggle two different curriculums, one for the boys and one for katie. we already know thanks to bt school of rocque she also isn't caught up on modern schooling practices. plus i feel like, though she is their mother in many ways, she'd have difficulty controlling those 5 for 4 straight hours. i feel like they'd always be able to convince her to run off on a tangent instead of actually teaching them anything. next!

the boys could have been enrolled in regular high school. in theory, this would work for maybe a few months. until their first tour at the very least but after that i believe it would likely be dangerous for them to leave the sanctity of the palm woods or rocque records and venture out into the real world. while this could open up plotlines like people only wanting to be friends with them for their fame, crazy fans finding out where they learn, the boys being in trouble for being a genuine safety risk to other students when the paps follow them to school... seemed like more trouble than it's worth! also pretty similar to the plot of jonas which was airing at the same time on disney channel. next!

school at rocque records... had potential i believe. if gustavo had put the proper amount of funding to a quality space and quality teachers, i think the boys would have (aside from generally hating school) been alright there. while not ideal, it could have served it's purpose for the whole four hours they'd have to spend in school. it's very similar to how most industry kids learn now. in addition, they could have worked hard to graduate early, as many industry kids do, but i also believe this would have been a hard plot point to achieve. overall, i'd rank this option pretty high for the guys - it could have had everything they needed, except for the socialization they so desperately craved. next!

online school? in the early 2000's? yeah right. next!

this brings us to what i see as the final option, being of course, school at the palm woods. while not ideal, it does serve all of the boys needs to the best of the writers abilities. i do, however, feel the need to speak on the quality of education they are being granted. no shade to miss collins, i know that poor woman is doing her best and juggling probably six or seven grades worth of curriculum in her classroom, but as someone who was in a split grade class (4/5 when i was in 4th grade, 5/6 when i was in 5th grade!) i can assure you she was not giving her full attention to any of the grade levels she was trying to teach. i'm so sorry they set you up for failure queen.

while this probably worked out in the end for the guys (logan can snatch all A's and look amazing on college/med school applications and his friends could just coast by on the grades they need to pass) i think the episode in which they come back from tour and earn their final grades speaks the most to the education they're afforded. no way they (logan really) did weeks worth of work in one afternoon and earned straight c's lol. hope the band lasts forever and ever and ever after btrtv ends because if not... yikes.

but at the same time... i think this was the best option for schooling both from a writers perspective and the band's needs! socialization, check! normal school events like dancing, check! adequate enough education (how much do they really learn in four hours anyway?), check! it always fits into their working schedules. and it's union-approved! while not ideal, at the very least it's something.

in all, good luck boys! hope miss collins offers some office hours if you ever have questions... maybe there's a reason we never got to see them graduate <3

[maychild]

ep 7 the sign

i didn't get tharn apologizing to phaya (and i really thought they would parallel that but so far it's only been phaya saying sorry so many times now!! it's like dudeee, once is enough, cuz yeah, u shouldn't go around assaulting people but from tharn??? zip nada zilch...it's making me so mad. and i love tharn, i do, he's a precious bean, but i need him to admit when he's wrong too. i dont think that's asking for too much).

i loved the sex scene, i did, and the whole convo leading up it gave me a lot of butterflies but...

i keep saying i'm not disappointed, but sitting with it, i still don't know what to call it *but* disappointment.

and dont get me wrong: i'm obsessed with phayatharn, and that sex scene was so beautiful and emotional, but the whole pacing felt off. i just honestly thought they moved wayyy too fast. they did confess to each other, but did anything truly get resolved??? phaya is all for the relationship and has been from day 1, but tharn still has his issues and they're not going to go away after one night together--one veeeery steamy and hot night together, sure, but phaya is still going to be in danger, and phaya's still going to die so *hands* i just needed them to talk more and clear more things up, have something concrete that made tharn change his mind and attend that dinner with phaya and his family and have that emotional conversation with phaya...because as it stands right now, it feels like tharn's change in attitude came out of nowhere. was he just tired of pushing phaya away?? and didn't want to anymore? not that i need everything laid out explicitly for me but tharn's character remains very much a mystery.

because tharn said "don't force me" and it honestly felt like phaya DID force him. (everything was consensual of course, except for the part where the sex showed up to hastily move along the phayatharn relationship, and not even organically.)

i loved the ep, i did, it was exciting, and of course, the best parts for me were the phayatharn bits, but the writing let me down. and i dont have high hopes for future episodes fixing their pacing issues or copaganda. i fear those parts are here to stay (esp. considering we have only five eps left + the special episode and we haven't really ramped up the full plotline with dr. slow motion--he's still hidden deep in the shadows, not fully revealed but on the outer edges, so to speak, spying, and being manipulative, and shady, so that we never forget he's around but he's very much still "just" a side character).

anyway, the tl;dr of it all is that the phayatharn chemistry remains stellar and why we're all rooting for them, but the writing isn't up to par.

[wutheringmights]

Do you have any random ctb lore that you couldn’t fit into the story for any of the characters/plotlines?

I've been kicking around the idea of doing a short one-shot about Icarius and Nephus's backstory in the style of STP, just to explore their fucked-up dynamic. Neither of them are really main characters, so I can't really derail the whole story to go into more detail than I have already provided.

Here's a few scattered ideas involving them:

Icarius is probably 2-3 years older than Nephus, which meant that Icarius was Nephus's caretaker and much more the one in charge of Nephus than he should have been

Nephus's friends and family refer to him as Vas (I think this is in the story somewhere, actually)

Nephus is the youngest son in a huge family, which basically meant that he had a lot of money growing up but no responsibility to go along with it-- because all of his siblings were so much older than him, he really clung to Icarius as a peer

Nephus's fascination with Hyrule began when he read a book of myths about the various Heroes of Hyrule

Everything Icarius learned was so that Nephus would have a partner/assistant for all of his activities, which includes education (like learning Hylian) and sports (Icarius ended up being much better at boxing and wrestling than Nephus)

That being said, Icarius has always had a smart mouth that has gotten him in trouble. Nephus always had to bail him out

They both have always been a little possessive of the other. Icarius was jealous of Nephus's friends and flings while Nephus was suspicious that anyone who was nice to Icarius would try to take him away

Icarius was very isolated from the rest of the thralls; like Nephus, any other thrall of his station would have been much older than him and those who were his age saw him as narc

Icarius did have a family though: mom, dad, grandparents, and siblings

Nephus's mentor in school was his father's political enemy. That relationship ended up saving him. When a house is sentenced, it's traditional to leave a member alive so that it doesn't die out completely. This mentor advocated for Nephus to be spared both because he was perceived as harmless and because he could be controlled.

Icarius was almost executed with his family-- he was yanked out of the execution line at the last minute because he was deemed Nephus's property

After he was spared, Nephus and Icarius made a bloodpact to exact revenge and rehaul Faovaria in their image-- this of course meant Nephus got his shit together and grew the fuck up

(dialogue that should have happened:

warriors: fuck faovaira! foavaria sucks!

nephus & icarius: we know that and we want to destroy it too)

Nephus's power nowadays comes from that mentor who spared him

Because Faovaria is a military state, Nephus and Icarius joined the military in order to gain more social power

Nephus's campaign in Hyrule is literally just a stepping stone for gathering enough power in Faovaria-- conquer the unconquerable Hyrule and bring back a weapon that no one has seen yet

Oh, remember when Ganondorf said that Nephus had sent a woman to ask if he could look at the library? That was Icarius in drag

Nephus and Icarius saw a lot of places in Hyrule on their travels, including Castle Town, the Zora's Domain, and the town surrounding the Knight's Citadel. They were smart enough to not ping Lincoln's attention, but they definitely attended a sermon at the same temple Warriors went to that one time

Icarius did not tell Nephus who Link was until they were hundreds of miles away from Kakariko, and only because he knew it would piss Nephus off

(Nephus, trying to flirt: aren't you glad you didn't run away with that Hylian loser?

Icarius, who has been a little pissed off all day: oh, you mean the Hero of Hyrule?

Nephus: the

Nephus: the WHAT?????)

Nephus's worsening treatment towards Icarius was a gradual change; like boiling water, Icarius didn't really realize that things were getting dangerous for him until it was too late

The day Icarius realized that Nephus wasn't different from any other Faovarian, that Nephus's feelings for him weren't anything as dynamic or complicated as his own-- that Nephus didn't see him as anything other than an object to possess... it genuinely destroyed his whole world

Philo was literally this orphan Faovarian kid they found on the streets; Icarius was the one who insisted they take him home. It took a while for Nephus to warm up to him.

Icarius could tell his relationship with Nephus was falling apart, and taking in Philo was a way for him to fix things. Like getting pregnant to fix a broken marriage.

That was a terrible analogy. Basically, if Nephus wouldn't value him then Icarius wanted someone who will

As you can probably guess, their dynamic greatly resembled the Brothers' at first. Icarius cared and doted on Philo, and Philo relied on him for love while seeking Nephus's approval. Meanwhile, Nephus was just annoyed that there's this brat ruining his life. Things changed when he realized Philo was a dark magic prodigy. Icarius didn't want Philo to get involved in the fighting while Philo wanted to be useful, and add that Nephus's treatment towards Icarius was always worsening...

Philo witnessed Icarius getting his tongue chopped out. Philo did not take it well, and he tries to rationalize it as being something Icarius deserved

The thing is that nothing special triggered it. Icarius was being his usual smartass self when Nephus just snapped

Philo clings to Nephus as much as he does because if he doesn't make Nephus happy, then Nephus might do the same to him

Meanwhile, Philo has picked up on how Nephus and others treat Icarius; so while Philo had previously regarded Icarius like a brother, he often treats Icarius like he is below him now

And poor Icarius is more isolated than ever: he can't talk, he's all alone, he can't trust Nephus, and Philo won't listen to him

Nephus waffles between knowing he's irrevocably fucked up and believing he was 100% right-- either way, he bulldozes through Icarius's feelings to continue acting like everything is normal and it's still them against the rest of Faovaria, and they only need each other

He does not know he is exactly the thing he hates

It's all a big mess

[tsarinatorment]

i've been keeping up with eclipse and I love it but I do wonder: if you were chained to a desk and told to write a nico & will book- presumably like rick was- what would that be like? their ending in tower of nero always felt different from the others to me; like everyone else is moving on with their lives and finding their place, but nico and will are still at camp half-blood, and they're both year rounders.

Hi, anon! I'm glad you're loving Eclipse :D I had a lot of fun writing it and the reception it's got so far has been amazing - almost overwhelmingly so, at times, given the amount of people so far who have told me they prefer it to TSATS...

As for what would I write if I was told to write a Solangelo book... I'm actually not going to go into any real detail here because I'm actually working on a new longfic right now which is exactly that - taking the epilogue of TON as it is and drawing that out into a Solangelo-focused quest rather than the detour I took with Eclipse, so hopefully you'll see that appearing in a few months' time :D

I will give a few little hints, though:

More Will-centric plotlines and story. I love Nico, but one of my main issues with the overall TSATS concept long before it was published was that Nico's story arc seemed to be over (he's found his place, he's in therapy etc.) so I wasn't sure what exactly Rick thought he could do with him that didn't ruin what he'd already achieved... Will, on the other hand, has a lot of untapped potential to unlock still, so I want to highlight him a bit more here

Supportive, healthy, Solangelo. I don't believe that you need to put a rift or relationship drama in a story just for the sake of it. We see so much of this healthy support in TOA that I'd love to keep going with that, expanding upon it. That's not to say that they're each other's yes-men, of course, but small disagreements that they resolve with respect for each other's points of view? Always good

Apollo and Hades ares still present and involved. I've actually described working on this plot so far as feeling like I'm having to bat Apollo away with a cardboard tube, because he still doesn't want them to go on a dangerous quest, but also this time I'm not letting him lock them up and go in their place, otherwise that would defeat the whole object of doing a different fic on a similar premise

Plot twists. I'm not saying what they are, but I will say that this quest is probably not going to go the way people think it is - not even Nico and Will!

Regarding your comment about how it feels like all the others are getting on with their lives while Will and Nico are still at camp - Jason's death broke Piper, and Leo's found a family that works better for him than camp did. The likes of Percy and Annabeth are off to university.

But Nico and Will are younger than them. It's difficult to remember at times, especially with Nico because he's been floating in and around the main story since TTC, but as of the end of TOA they're both fifteen, to Percy's nearly eighteen. There's two and a half to three years between them and the original PJO (human) cast, there's about two years between them and the HOO cast - it makes sense that they still have years left at camp. Percy's story as the camp's Big Three Kid has come to an end, and good for him - Nico is now the one stepping up into that role. In many ways, Nico's story, or at least this new, better, chapter of his life, is just beginning. Let him have fun at camp, let him be the child he's suppressed and get up to mischief! Let Will take time to be less responsible, less in charge of not just a full cabin of siblings but also the entire camp's health, and be a child himself. It's true that neither of them will be fully free of their responsibilities, or their trauma, but they've still got so much time to adapt in CHB's understanding environment.

Really, they shouldn't be forced into another Big Thing at all, but we're also looking at the Olympic Revolution looming threateningly in the background, the natural progression that the overarching story Rick's been telling is heading towards, and of course we have this quest teased in TON - which, again, I think should be far more geared towards focusing on Will and his trauma rather than rehashing what we already know and have seen resolved, as much as trauma can ever be resolved, with Nico.

[the-knights-who-say-book]

Murderbot! 👾

a wip that has never seen the light of day! i started writing this fic called 5 Times Humans Interrupted Me When I Was Trying To Watch Sanctuary Moon months ago and only got through 2 times murderbot was interrupted. here's the whole thing, since i'm not sure i'll ever get around to finishing it and i think it was actually pretty fun!

The colony solicitor whirled around, revealing that she was holding a gun. She wasn’t holding it correctly, because Sanctuary Moon was notoriously bad about accuracy when it came to weapons props, but her bodyguard gasped and jumped back.

“Why?” they wailed. “Why are you doing this? You can have the codes! I’ll give them to you!”

“For the insurance money, of course,” she said coldly, leveling the gun at them. “I never cared about the codes, I just needed you distracted while my associates took control of security. Now we control CoriVen, and I don’t need you. I’m sorry, Eden… but not that sorry.” She pulled the trigger, and the camera focused in on her and the one tear slipping dramatically down her face. She wiped it and turned back to the desk, gathering up the insurance forms, the forged papers that would prove she had discovered Moon 822B, and the data stick with her father’s AI consciousness in it.

Suddenly, an arm locked around her, dragging her back as she screamed. Eden pulled her to the floor and they wrestled. Somehow she had the breath to shout, “How? I shot you!”

Eden emerged victorious, aiming her own gun at her. “Oh, Tetha… I knew the codes were a red herring. While you were otherwise engaged, I was ferreting out your plans and neutralizing your weapons.” They pulled the trigger and Tetha flinched, but nothing happened. “You know what your biggest mistake was?”

Tetha glared up at them. Her hair, still in the complex knot of braids from when she impersonated the Harbrean pilot, was somehow still perfect. “What?” she spat.

“Assuming that I’m not fluent in the hair braiding code used by Harbrean militia. You should have remembered that my half-brother’s husband’s clone—”

“SecUnit! Where are you? We’re under attack!” That was Ratthi. I was fully aware of the approaching raiders, and had already started convincing their navigation system that it was dangerously close to a black hole and needed to override its human’s directions and turn back for their own safety. I could multitask while the solicitor and bodyguard fought over the fate of CoriVen. But I put it on pause and messaged Ratthi that I was on my way. It was already pretty obvious that both characters were just putting on a show for whoever had bugged the office last episode, so I wasn’t that annoyed to be interrupted.

_ _ _

“Sixty seconds until we lose oxygen! Hold on!”

Kiri and Drora clutched each other as they were thrown back against the ship’s wall. The camera was shaking violently.

“Kiri… I have to tell you something before it’s too late.”

“Don’t say that,” she pleaded. “We’re going to survive this. I’m going to get you home. I promised.”

“You did promise,” Drora said, smiling sadly yet beautifully. “But you didn’t promise me.”

“What?”

“I’m not your sister, Kiri. Your sister is safe back on CoriVen. She never left.” The bot impersonating Drora pulled open its chest, revealing breathing equipment stashed inside. “So don’t you dare give up. I’m bringing you back to her.”

Kiri stared at the bot. “But… who are you? What are you?”

“I am Dr. Voiden’s invention. They called me Ora-Two.”

“SecUnit, are you busy?”

“No,” I told Mensah. On second thought, I didn’t want to rewatch this plotline anyway.

“Good, I want to talk to you about the retrieved client protocol.”

“For who?”

Her face settled stubbornly. “For you.”

I initiated a shutdown.

[gatheryourships]

So, because @gunslingerorchid asked, here's a post about my self-insert Tav, Rosenna.

-

I’ll be honest I don’t have a whole lot about her fleshed out. And even trying to write this up for you, so much got changed and rewritten a number of times, and even this response is a complete start over from the very long and honestly confused lore bit I wrote.

Basically what I wrote for the fake BG3 intro post I reblogged on here is pretty much all I got, lmao. But I’ll try to give some more info, as much as I got nailed down right now. Maybe some more that’s not so concrete yet either.

Um, so. Rosenna is an only child, born and raised by a farmer and his wife (last name undetermined) in a little hamlet (also name undetermined) located along the Chionthar river a little ways down from Baldur’s Gate.

Right around that little nook maybe, where the red dot is. I still haven’t decided which side of the river it’s on. But around that area. So that’s it’s between the Fields of the Dead and the Woods of Sharp Teeth.

Rose (for short) lived a nice, little life with her parents. Helped her mom with house chores and what not as commoner daughters do. Also helped her dad a little with the farm - probably a bit less common for daughter to do, but eh. She likes helping and only doing house chores drove her crazy. And it’s something different so she was fine with it, despite getting a little dirty sometimes because of it. Also it was spending time with dad, so… That’s nice. xD

From a young age, Rose had been immersed with stories about heroes. Not necessarily intentionally mind you. Just parents telling their kid stories, censored versions of course. And from there, as she grew up, just got into reading stories about heroes herself.

And between having a good, kind, caring heart and just being a feisty, determined woman who only wants to do right she naturally felt an inclination towards such a life.

However… her mother had another plans for her. Not out of ill-will, just normal life plans that a commoner daughter would typically live. Help her mother until she (Rose) found someone to marry, which her parents were starting to push that onto her, except Rose didn’t have much interest in that. (Yet, anyways. Hero thing first, romance later possibly, ya know.)

What Rose did have an interest in was going to the docks and rubbing shoulders with people who came from Baldur’s Gate and even elsewhere afar, wanting to hear real stories of adventures and journeys from real people that they’ve had, especially recently.

Now it’s here where I’m unsure whether to spin it off as how she picked up some sense of handling a sword. One way is that because going to the docks and rubbing shoulders with strangers is obviously a terrible, dangerous thing to do and her father (and mother) become worried for her and so her father (who’s also maybe part of the citizen militia for the little hamlet - no standing army) decides to teach her (in secret/aka behind mom’s back) so she stops trying to go to the docks (and possibly end up kidnapped or worse one day). Fun, nice, gets interaction with her dad. But like, I just realized it’s the same as the other self-insert for another character I like/liked. So, since I’m already doing that plotline with another character, I’ll probably go with the second option then lmao.

The other one was an idea I had before but was unsure about it (then not now) where she does meet someone from the docks. Not a romantic interest, but thankfully a friendly and honorably decent person. He obviously realized that she’s young (20s, since I didn’t mention that before) and a bit starry-eyed, but she means well and was looking for more in her life, more than this little hamlet could give her. He befriended her and indulged her in giving her stories of his travels and interesting little adventures and happenings he found himself in every time he came into town (only ever stopping by, as did anyone else whoever found themselves at the docks there). Eventually, he himself buys her a sword and trains her how to use it.

From there to BG3 events however… One day it’s too much. Rose’s reckless immaturity has become too much for her mother. So Rose and her mother got in an argument. Her mother had not been oblivious to Rose and her love of heroes, but had hoped that Rose would grow out of it as she got older (she didn’t, it only grew stronger). And enough was enough. It was time to be a grown woman, look for a partner, and settle down and become not just a wife but mother herself. To say Rose was unhappy about this would be a completely understatement. After a yelling match with her mother, Rose quickly packed some things (including her stashed away secret sword) and left home. She got on the first ship to Baldur’s Gate and that was that.

For a year, Rose tried her best there. She got jobs. But they weren’t great. Didn’t pay great. By the end of it, things were… pretty bleak, mentally speaking for Rose. (In my playlist, as confused as it is with this summarization of character, I literally have The Parting Glass (Walking Dead version) followed by the instrumental version of I Want to Live from BG3. I think that says plenty.)

The next morning as she’s going about town is when the mindflayers come and she gets unfortunately (or technically speaking, quite fortunately) snatched up. (Only way to become a hero is go on a crazy adventure right? 😉)

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Dragon Reborn! Chapter 14: The Bite of the Thorns

I forgot to do a rambling, pointless, painfully unfunny spoiler warning last time and I won't do it again! I assure you dear reader that this paragraph will express its concept in far too many words and far too few jokes. I won't simply say "Don't keep reading if you haven't read the whole Wheel of Time series" because that might be useful or informative! And if that (or the spoilers) is a problem for you, don't keep reading!

I believe this is the first appearance of the mirrored women chapter icon. It's one of the ones I like the most graphically, and obviously it comes to prominenence when the Black Ajah is about or at least being discussed.

Darkfriends in the White Tower. Faugh! I’ve spent my life denying that.

And look where it got you! Sounding the alarm as Amyrlin might not have ended well for Siuan personally, but forcing the Tower to acknowledge the danger earlier might have led to them being on a better footing against the Black Ajah now that it's ready to come out of hiding and start fucking things up. Observing the law of the Three Oaths without caring about their spirit leads to ruin.

“I should be able to trust Leane and Sheriam, at least. But do I dare? Verin?” Her shoulders shook with a quick, silent laugh. “I already trust Verin with more than my life, but how far can I take it? Moiraine?” She was silent for a moment. “I have always believed I could trust Moiraine.”

Of the four women named, two are Black (even if Verin isn't a threat as one) and neither is the one who Siuan is doubting at this point. And of course Siuan, despite what she says, isn't trusting the girls in this room either because she won't admit that she knows Rand is the Dragon Reborn and that she's trying to support him.

If you want my opinion, Moiraine is not to be trusted.

It's a miracle Nynaeve ever changes her opinion on this.

Liandrin tried to stuff you headfirst into a weir, and it may well be she left because she learned you were returning, and could unmask her, so I have to believe you aren’t—Black Ajah.

Between this and Siuan's earlier statements about denying the Black Ajah, I think that Jordan hadn't quite solidified the full backstory he'd go with in New Spring. Siuan seems genuinely uncomfortable discussing the subject at all.

“So you can keep your temper, when you want to. I had to know that.” Egwene wondered how much of it had been a test; there was a tightness around the Amyrlin’s eyes that suggested her patience might well be exhausted.

Since Siuan can't lie but I trust Egwene's instincts, I think that it was a very impromptu test that Siuan came up with as soon as she opened her mouth to yell.

Liandrin and her twelve went, but did all of them go? Or did they leave some of their number behind, like a stub in shallow water that you don’t see till it puts a hole in your boat?

Siuan is almost naive to say "some" were left behind. The thirteen who left are barely a rounding error in the full ranks.

“They are all full Aes Sedai. Egwene hasn’t even been raised to Accepted yet, and you know I cannot channel enough to light a candle unless I am angry, not of my own free will. What chance would we have?”

Almost no chance at all, since of the 13 you guys only each capture one. Sometimes I think that this particular plotline got away from Jordan, like the Shaido but at least with a firm number of assailants.

“As one of the Accepted, you choose your own studies, within limits, and the times for them. And the rules are a little easier for Accepted. A little easier. They must be found, child.”

I think this makes it pretty clear that if Siuan hadn't needed Egwene for the hunt, she and Elayne probably would have stayed novices.

I would make her one of you if I could, but at the moment Morgase gives me enough problems as it is. When I have her combed and curried and prodded back on the proper path, perhaps Elayne will join you. Perhaps then.

I guess Siuan can't think the answer is outright no (or she wouldn't be able to say perhaps), but I still get the feeling from how she says it that the idea of making Elayne a hunter outright is the furthest thing from her mind.

Nynaeve opened her mouth, and Egwene felt a flash of anger; it was such a relief after fear.

I think the Seanchan debacle is a big part of the changing dynamics between Egwene and Nynaeve and why Egwene is so vicious about it: if she's going to feel negative emotions (and after being da'mane you bet your ass she's feeling negative emotions), anger at least lets her feel more in control.

If you have even a suspicion, report it to me.

I can't help but feel that neither Egwene nor Nynaeve actually heard this sentence.

She opened the black box on her table, hesitated and looked at the other two women as if still unsure she wanted to do this, then took out a number of stiff, folded papers. Sorting through them carefully, she hesitated again, then chose out two. The remainder she shoved back into the box, and handed those two to Egwene and Nynaeve. “Keep these well hidden. They are for an emergency only.”

Again, I feel like the girls don't listen to this particular instruction at all.

A Darkfriend won’t heed that any more than a Whitecloak would. They would both likely kill you just for having it. If that paper is a shield . . . well, paper shields are flimsy, and this one may have a target painted on it.

Not mentioned is the sheer disaster letting such an enemy have the paper would be. Moreso the Darkfriends than the Whitecloaks, but I imagine even the latter could do some real damage with such a seal.

Next time: A new type of Shadowspawn shows up!

[officialvoiceofgenerationx]

A teenage girl, frustrated and hurt by the cold indifference of her family wishes for escape. She enters into a fantasy world where no one and nothing can be trusted. The innocent are never safe, the beautiful turn out to be malicious and her friends are plotting against her. She is lied to, misdirected and constantly blocked by random obstacles. She is always in danger of being sexually exploited by a powerful older man, who tells her that it's all her fault. In the end, victorious at last, she returns to reality, which is so much fucking worse than anything she's been through so far. The final consolation is that she can always disassociate to escape.

What a perfect movie for children growing up in the '80s.

Well, not quite perfect. Sarah Williams, the main character, is 16, which is 4 or 5 years too old for the girl-coming-of-age plotline, and the whole thing is a bit too cutesy. Nevertheless, it is pretty accurate for a fantasy movie.

Some people get their panties in a bunch about the age difference between Sarah and the Goblin King, as if they were romantically involved. That's bullshit. The Goblin King is not Sarah's boyfriend. He's a predator. He doesn't want to marry her and live happily ever after - he wants to rape her.

I was pretty happy to watch Labyrinth with my kid a few years ago, when they were 8 or 9. They enjoyed the funny parts and were scared by the scary bits. They were satisfied by the ending. I, of course, was able to see shit that I hadn't seen before. It's dark, yes, but the best stories for children have always been dark. Go read Little Red Ridinghood - that's some dark shit. The Big Bad Wolf is Satan and you can bets your ass the threat of rape looms large in that story.

You want to talk about a late '80s fantasy movie that is problematic? Sit through The Princess Bride.

Twenty years after Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro did Pan's Labyrinth, which is a much better version of the same story. Pan's Labyrinth stands alone, of course, but I think it benefits from familiarity with Labyrinth.

Addendum: I got some replies and Tumblr won't let me respond as Official Voice Of Generation X for some reason, so I'm doing it this way.

How the fuck you gonna tell me I'm reading too much into a metaphor? It's a fucking metaphor - reading shit into it is why it exists.

"16 is THE age for coming-of-age plot"? Really? Here's a couple other girl-coming-of-age stories for you - Little Red Riding Hood, Pan's Labyrinth. In both of those the girl is 10 or 11. The triggering event is the onset of menses, not getting a driver's license. All the other late '80s movies that portrayed teenagers - Heathers, The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink &c - showed them being sexually active, using drugs and dealing with serious issues like physical and emotional abuse, violence and mental illness. Labyrinth showed a 16yo girl playing with dolls. I was born a year after Molly Ringwald and a year before Jennifer Connelly. The Breakfast Club is a much more realistic portrayal of teens in the '80s than Labyrinth.

I'm pretty open about my trauma here, honey. I'm fuckin' Gen X - we're all fucked up.

Labyrinth and Pan's Labyrinth are both about girls who have infant brothers - representing their own maternal capabilities. In both, the girls have to face off against monsters to save their brothers. There are a lot of differences, but those two movies have a lot more incommon with each other than either does with Alice - which is also great.

The Goblin King wants Sarah to be his queen. He wants to have a marital relationship with her. He's an adult, she's a child. The actors were 39 and 16. In case any of this was unclear, the filmmakers made sure that the Goblin King's bulging crotch was prominently displayed in several scenes. Watch the ballroom scene - that's overtly sexual. Maybe you think a 39yo man coercing a 16yo girl into a marriage is fine, but I call that rape. And he clearly tells her it's her fault. The predatory older man is the standard villian in girl-coming-of-age stories because girls need to know what to look out for.

[flightfoot]

I think the most frustrating thing about the whole Lila vs Marinette plot line is that there is actually a well written on-going narrative here, especially when it comes to Adrien, but since Marinette is the main character the show insists on conforming the morality to Marinette side when the conflict itself relies on other people NOT having the same informations about Lila having threatened her as Marinette does.

It seems very unfairly written over all. In Revelation Adrien is now taking full responsibility for his advice to Marinette in Cameleon and what happened to Marinette over time because of it, but he is only able to do so because he himself had a seperate plotline with Lila on his own where he first saw Lila as the lonely girl she is but then learned step by step how dangerous Lila truly is and that her loneliness (and therefore attention-seeking behavior) does not excuse her actions.

Adrien had to learn mostly seperated from Marinette WHY Marinette was right, changed his entire behavior towards Lila over time and changed his approaches even and now in revelation is on Marinettes side and takes all responsibility for his past actions.

I'm sorry but its just so frustrating to watch that Marinette herself is neither asked to ever truly change her ineffective approach towards Lila of clapping back at her and trying to out her which ALWAYS made things worse and neither is Marinette asked to reveal what truly happened between her and Lila. The bathroom scene in Cameleon is so important, basically the catalyst moment, but the narrative just says Marinette does not have to tell that to anyone the others just need to trust her anyway or else they arent good friends and not trustworthy.

Again, Adrien literally had his own ongoing plot with Lila where he learned seperated from Marinette how dangerous Lila is. That seperated plot line for him is the only reason why Adrien is now on Marinettes side in Revelation unlike the others.

I dont wanna sound like a dick but I dont like how the show just says Marinette doesnt have to tell anyone of the threats etc, its the other characters job to get on marinettes side on their own. Adrien took responsibility in Revelation for a missguided advice he had to learn from through ALOT of messed up shit from Lila, but... I dont see any accountability from Marinette for never having stopped continuing to throw water into the burning oil pan or even attempting to tell people the roots of her saying that Lila is burning oil in the pan to deliberately hurt her!

Then there is the thing that Adriens plot line with Lila included him realizing that she is lonely too (which honestly makes alot of sense looking at Lila's life) and her behavior is extremely dangerous attention seeking. Adrien's journey with Lila actually asked him to really look through her lies and see the sympatahtic core in her and from THAT onwards he learned that her reason isnt enough. Thats what makes Adriens development regarding Lila so interesting, impactful and satisfying. I just dont like how Marinettes story with Lila barely askes her to do any of that and still Marinette gets the main character morality privilege.

I dont like the writing of that. It comes across as the show going "Our main character is RIGHT, and thats it! And its everyone elses job to get on her side no matter what the situation looks like from the outside. Those who were not immendiately on MC's side need to learn their lesson and stand accountable and apologize to her! Wait, what do you MEAN "has MC ever tried changing her approach to something effective that isnt obviously back-fireing each and every time even in Revelation?" and what do you MEAN "has she opened up to anyone about the real shit?" No, of course not, she is the main character she doesnt have to! She's RIGHT!"

I mean, yeah, I GET that this is caused by her background of being a bullying victim and that Marinette standing up so strongly and vocaly against Lila is her fighting back. But man, its been 5 seasons, she's still going with the same ineffective approach of calling Lila out and looking at Marinette closing down against the rest of her friends (including Alya) at the end of Revelation when she says "I'm letting Lila have her way so proof to you who lila really is" we are somehow even doing negative development at this point!

Has all of this been the set up for the new status quo from s6 onwards? Is the new beginning going to have the underlying story for Marinette to open up and talk about the roots of her traumas? Because right now I'm simply still missing alot of development from Marinette towards the Lila situation that is worthy of a main character biased morality all of time. As it stil stands now the show is telling me evryone else has to do most of the work to get on Marinettes side even though the path to get there includes not getting any of the crucial information from Marinette they would need (Gosh, is Marinette not being able to open up and withholding crucial informations yet AGAIN the main theme of a conflict?) but if they dont get to her side anyway then everyone else is the problem and not trustworthy enough anymore.

Lord give me strenght, we are in for a wild ride for s6 onwards, arent we?

So I agree with some things here and disagree with others.

The narrative of the show never tries to say that Marinette's friends are bad friends or untrustworthy because they fall for Lila's lies. The saltdom says that, the show does not. In fact, in Revelation, Marinette specifically tells Alya that she trusts Alya, she doesn't trust Lila. I don't think that the show is setting up a "protagonist-based morality" situation here, because it hasn't tried to convey that the others - even Adrien - are immoral for not immediately joining in with Marinette's attacks on Lila. Even Marinette herself admires that Adrien likes to see the good in people, he's not shamed for that - it's just that in Lila's case, it doesn't work.

Also the whole thing with Adrien's advice in Chameleon... yeah it didn't pan out, but him giving the advice to not constantly attack Lila isn't the reason Marinette's had a crappy time with Lila. She wasn't exactly making any headway with her "attack Lila over every detail that doesn't fit" strategy. Adrien's strategy of "hang back and let things play out" doesn't work to defeat Lila, nor is it sustainable since Lila's an active threat and isn't just gonna defeat herself, but it's also not actively counterproductive like Marinette's approach was, and would've been a good approach if Lila was the kind of person he originally assumed she was and wasn't, you know, actively malicious.

But yeah Adrien's story with Lila has been a lot more interesting than Marinette's, since he's had to revise his opinion and approach to Lila multiple times over his many run-ins with her, while Marinette's been running with the same "Lila's evil and must be relentlessly attacked" M.O. since Volpina. She's right about Lila being awful, but it doesn't present much room for character growth.

I do hope that we'll get a "liar reveal" for Lila soon, this storyline's getting dragged out a lot and while there have been some interesting aspects (especially with Adrien, since he's prone to assuming the best of people even when they have been crappy, and seeing that sometimes that's not going to work), we've kind of reached the end of that storyline for Adrien, and Marinette doesn't seem to have much character development in the Lila storyline, so it's just not that interesting.

[jackiewepps]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤

Oh my! This is a hard one! I have so many works. How can I pick five?I guess I can list a few, and since I can't bring myself to rank them, let's do it in cronological order, the oldest first.

Free Parenting 2015 (AO3 2016)

The story just means a lot to me. I came up with it together with a friend, and it triggered a whole series. It is obvious that this story is eight years old at this point. My understanding of the English language and the Japanese culture has developed a lot since I wrote it, but I'm still proud of what I made, even if reading the mistakes now makes me cringe, it's only because I care. That I came up with that AU and all the conflicts that would come from this setting is still beyond me.

Hotel Room Fantasies 2017

This is still my most successful one-shot ever. Of course, it is BL, so that makes sense. Still, I once again managed to pull off exactly what I wanted. My intentions with the story was that the reader should not be able to tell whether what the boys do is actually happening or if it's just something going on in Serinuma's head, and I think I accomplished that really well. I really want to say I did it to perfection, but I also don't want to praise myself too much, but oh well. The numbers speak for themselves when it comes to this story.

Ace of Chatrooms 2017

My first chat-fic and my most successful one (of two). I remember that I only wrote this story because I wanted to try and write a chat-fic, and before I knew it, I had written half the story and it wasn't about to end anytime soon. I have no understanding of English chat-language and therefore did not use it. As a result, it probably feels less realistic, but everyone can follow it easily. It also has a lot of my humor in it and it is one of the fics I will sit down to read when I feel down and need something to laugh at. I've already read it more times than I can count, and the sequal too. When the Daiya anime continues, I'll probably write the third part of this series, but I definitely need the material to base the chaos off of before I can unfold it again.

Danger Zone 2021 (Title might change)

This story is probably the most complicated one I've ever written, and not because I find the plot too complicated. It's mainly the storylines. We follow quite a few characters throughout the story and their stories are all connected, not just because they know each other, but each minor plotline has an impact on the overall story. I'm proud of how it turned out. I still call it my masterpiece. I mean, it took me two years writing it and only half a year publishing it. That part is bittersweet, but I'm proud of my work and I enjoy going back to read it.

I Will Go With You 2021-2022

So much research went into this story. I did the same when I wrote Figure Swimming, but I still did more research here. I wanted to make the snowboarding seem realistic, and I wanted all facts about Canada to be as accurate as possible. There were a few problems, as it is not known exactly where in Canada Langa is from, except they don't speak French there. But I looked into how long it would take to travel to Canada, how to get in, what kind of food is traditionally Canadian, the school system, and of course everything worth knowing about snowboarding. On top of that, I feel like I managed to flesh out my original characters really well. I still have art of Louis and Lian that I don't think made it unto any website. I also think I managed to make Langa's grandparents into more than just some stick figures, and the same with Erica. I managed to include all the scenes I had in my head and make an interesting story. The only thing I'm sad about is that even in my story Reki can't win a race. Good thing I'm playing with the idea of making a sequel to this story too.

Honorable Mentions:

Imagination (2016) because I like that I managed to come up with it and execute the idea that well.

Figure Swimming (2017) because other people tell me I got the characters' personalities really well (and it was the first work I did a lot of research for).

Dumb Luck (2022) because it marks my "dark age" of realism. I also personally think it makes sense in spite of me not using the names of the main characters of the story.

Knights and Princesses (2022) because the scene on the bridge came out just as I had intended it to.

I know I was not supposed to list this many, but with a total of 88 works on AO3, there is quite a lot to choose from. I also would have liked to mention a few more, but I guess I'll really have to stop myself at this point.