#and the only character i'm interested enough in to romance. literally doesn't care to talk to you at all for the first like.

[babsaros]

this is a secret none of you fuckers are allowed to repeat but. stardew valley is boring as shit

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

You seem like an incredibly well read person, plus someone with a lot of insight into intimacy because of your work. So, in light of your romance book reviews, which are an absolute highlight on your patreon, do you have any insight into what is needed/suggested for a good romance novel?

g o d this is so fucking hard and also really fun to chew on. I want to preface this by saying this is ENTIRELY subjective and based completely on what I *PERSONALLY* find that I enjoy in a romance. this isn't, like, an objective guide on how to write a romance that doesn't suck. that doesn't exist because people like different things, and I'm speaking from one perspective.

also I should say that my preferred flavor of romance novel is solidly contemporary. I haven't read many historicals, certainly not enough to opine well on them, I don't do those mafia dark romances or whatever the fuck, and I've barely dabbled at all in any kind of fantasy romance, whether they're full high fantasy or witchy urban fantasy stories. (although I'm about to do one of the latter next month, you can vote for a book on my patreon rn!)

having gotten all of those caveats out of the way, here's some shit I like and dislike:

there are exceptions to this but broadly, I prefer a POV for everyone involved in the relationship. to me a romance where we're only seeing events from the POV of one member of the relationship automatically makes it seem like one person matters more in a dynamic where everyone should be of equal importance. also, god, if the plot's really going to hinge on not knowing what's going on in one partner's head suggests that miscommunication is going to be a pretty critical part of the plot, and I hate that shit. TALK TO EACH OTHER. I'LL KILL YOU.

on that note, there needs to be an actual compelling reason why the characters can't be together, okay? the #1 driving tension of every romance is "why the fuck can't they be together yet" and you BETTER have a good answer. whether it's interpersonal or external forces, if there's a very easy solution to what's keeping them apart then your characters look dumb and I'm bored. one of the most frustrating romances I've ever read involved two characters who were mutually attracted to each from the JUMP, who refused to act on it because they were coworkers (neither of them in any position of authority of the other, nothing unprofessional or inappropriate about it) and they were "only" living in the same state for A YEAR. A FULL YEAR !!! shut up. get a grip and kiss each other.

now, having said that: whatever your bullshit reason is for these two characters to be interacting with each other, you need to COMMIT to that shit so hard that I, the reader, will feel silly for even questioning the logic. the worst offender I've ever seen on this front is D'Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding, which pulls its protagonists together via a reality TV competition and then just... promptly loses any interest in really dealing with the actual realities of being filmed 24/7? it's insanely distracting how little the book engages with its central hook, and was a huge point deduction for me. whereas you have, like, The Bride Test, a book with a premise that skirts dangerously close to a little bit of human trafficking but embraces the whole premise so wholeheartedly that you completely forget about the potentially horrific elements in there. who cares that Esme was bribed here with the promise of a green card if she seduces a man she's never met? there's whimsy happening! we've moved on! it's literally fine and she's in no danger except the danger of a BROKEN HEART.

this one is going to seem SO obvious but like. I need them to be actually like each other. I'm not saying they can't be mutually bitchy while they grow to like each other or anything, they don't have to always be NICE to each other, but there are so many M/F romances where the dude is just flat out fucking MEAN and condescending to the girl until he decides he wants to fuck her. and sometimes even after that! stop it! after a certain point I don't want her to fuck him I want her to run him over a car!!!! there's suuuuch a line between "guy I butt heads and exchange banter with but could fuck if we just got to know each other" and "man who hates me and is for real fucking bullying me."

"kisses only," "doors closed," whatever term they use for a romance novel without any sex scenes on page, I don't like it. listen: I know that they're not everybody's cup of tea, and I FULLY recognize that a lot of romance novel sex scenes are unfathomably cringe. and yet, I need them. partly because they're funny, but also because if this book wants me to be invested in the developing relationship between two adults who are supposed to be WILDLY sexually attracted to each other, then I want to see the damn sex. no matter how many bad similes or unfortunate adjectives it entails. and if you're not going to show me the sex, don't you dare have the characters gushing about how great it is. I'll be the judge of that, thank you very much. (I'm looking at you, Sorry, Bro.)

related: there's this thing that I call "Horny Wolf Syndrome," which is derived from this tweet:

initially I used it to refer to when previously sweet-tempered male romance protags inexplicably started talking like horny wovles during sex scenes - "LET ME SEE YOUR PRETTY CUNT ON MY COCK" and the like - but now I more generally use it to refer to scenarios in which characters of any gender completely dispense with their established personality while they fuck in order to fulfill a more broadly appealing, one-size-fits-all sexual fantasy. I hate that shit; if your characters act like completely unrecognizable people during sex, you didn't write very strong characters. one of my favorite things about writing sex scenes is that it's so SO interesting to see how their the characters' personal quirks translate into a setting that's very different from most other contexts, and it's deeply disappointing when authors take the easy route in favor of some pornhub dialogue.

one of the things that actually won my most recent read, Raiders of the Lost Heart, a HUGE amount of points with me was how frank the female lead was about initiating sex for the first time. it was completely in character for her and felt really different than any other book I've read, and honestly? it was a breath of fresh air.

[sophsiaaa]

I've been wanting to make this post for a while so now that I'm on mid-sem break, I will. Let's talk Shigaraki and sex.

NSFW warning??

So, let's get the big question out of the way. Is Shigaraki a virgin?

I think, yes. 100%

However, that is not to say that he is an innocent, oblivious, 'omg what is sex? uwu' baby villain. This guy literally lives in a bar, in a seedy part of the city, and hangs around with criminals. He knows about sex - I daresay he knows quite a bit about it. Besides which, we see in-canon that he has a phone and a PC and access to the internet, so he's hardly sheltered (though, he's definitely sheltered in regard to actual real-life socialisation, but that's another story).

Regardless, I stand by my assertion that he is a virgin.

Exhibit A: Shigaraki is shown very overtly to hate 'basically everything'. Correct me if I'm wrong, but everything encompasses sex/romance/intimacy. His character, especially at the beginning of the story, is prickly, quick-to-frustration, and sort of single-minded. He is driven to complete one narrow goal set by AFO that he believes he wants: to kill All Might. I believe prior to our introduction to Shigaraki, he was much the same, and thus did not seek out sex. Given his hostile and loner-guy nature at the start of the series, I doubt he would have had much in the way of propositions on his occasional solo trip to the mall.

Exhibit B: whilst I have seen it theorised that AFO introduced Shigaraki to sex via getting him a sex worker to 'satisfy his natural urges', personally, I think this theory is unlikely. This is because everything AFO does is to create discomfort and frustration in Shigaraki's life in order to stoke his rage (the guy literally has him wearing dead hands despite the fact that they make Shigaraki simultaneously feel calm and like throwing up). Thus, I doubt AFO would have encouraged Shigaraki to indulge in sexual relief - or any kind of relief - at all. I doubt he would have even explained the birds and the bees and likely pawned that job off onto the doctor or the internet if Shigaraki asked any questions.

So, we've established that Shigaraki's a virgin, and an ultimate hasn't-even-kissed-anyone virgin at that. But does he want to have sex? That big question number 2.

Honestly, I don't think he much cares for it.

It's odd to say given the multitude of what is essentially sex-addict-Shiagraki headcanons out there, but I truly think he doesn't really think about sex. Shigaraki's sex drive is probably quite low. Now, since I'm taking an evidence based approach here, lets go for the obvious evidence that points to him not having much interest in sex and that is the fact that if he was interested in it, Horikoshi would not shy away from showing it. My Hero Academia is not a manga that shies away from the odd bit of fan service or the pervy character. Mineta is - unfortunately - living proof of this. And he's not the only one. Horikoshi writes many of his characters displaying sexual attraction/interest/engagement/awareness at one point or another. So, logically, if Shigaraki was a character who was interested in sex, Horikoshi would show that. Since he doesn't, I can only conclude that sex isn't really a big deal to Shigaraki, or at the very least, not something he thinks about enough for it to show up on-screen.

Now, do I believe that Shigaraki has zero sexual interest? No. I think he's watched porn before, and probably even jerks it every now and then. But do I think he would actively seek out sex? Nah. Honestly, I don't even think he'd go along with sex unless it's with someone he's got a pre-established emotional connection to that's been building for a long time.

Like everything with Shigaraki, I think sex would be intense. By this I mean, he wouldn't be the type to have a casual one-night-stand or a friends-with-benefits fling. If he's in it, his heart's in it. Because he is so angry and destructive, Shiagraki often gets mischaracterised as heartless and deliberately cruel (this is a conversation for a separate post), but in reality, he cares a lot about certain things and puts his all into them. With sex, he would have to care about the who for the what to matter.

In conclusion - Shigaraki's well aware that BDSM doesn't stand for Bible Discussion/Study Meeting, but he's also a virgin loser who would not pin you up against the wall and have his way with you in a dark alley.

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

what are your thoughts on the ministrife situation? imo literally the worst fate for eridan to be damned to tbh

i think he will eventually (after <5 minutes) just shoot cronus and leave. (CW for mentions of abuse and cronus's romantic grossness and stuff under the cut).

Ignoring the extremely creepy and gross fact that Hussie doesn't seem to have a problem with the age gap (it's There, we've acknowledged that it's creepy and weird, i personally think it highlights how immature the dancestors are despite their physical age, and it actually serves to hint at how trash they are, but it's still really uncomfortable in the moment and never gets properly called out. In any case we've talked about it critically, we can move on and talk about characterization now), he and cronus are actually kind of polar opposites. Given that Cronus, along with many of the dancestors, are riffing on what the fandom interpretation of their Alternian counterparts are, it's kind of a fascinating look at all the things Eridan ISN'T.

The fandom (especially at the time) had flattened Eridan down to "overdramatic Nice Guy hipster who won't stop hitting on people," with varying degrees of sympathy. In other words, they took all of Eridan's outward presentation - the narration calling his genuine anxiety and distress "overblown emotional theatrics," the fact that his being rejected was a running gag - entirely at face value, while also missing what sort of archetype he was actually supposed to represent.

At no point does Eridan ever actually mention a hipster interest, like vintage clothes or indie media. It's all entirely in his design and Karkat calling him a hipster (it's not even in his character introduction), so presumably, it IS a part of his character (Karkat knows him really well), but it's probably a part he keeps to himself, like his love of wizards.

Moreover, he isn't really a Nice Guy. The closest he gets is thinking Nepeta owes him a chance for saving her life, but as far as we can tell, he only ever asked her once, got rejected, accepted that rejection, and has never taken out that rejection on her. When he complains about it, he frames it as a bitter "I guess what I did wasn't enough," not "she's an unreasonable witch withholding romance from me even though I'm so nice to her." All other romance attempts are crimes of... just being way too forward.

He bursts into Kanaya's DMs demanding she auspicetisize with Vriska because... that's what she likes to do, right? The same happens to Terezi in [S] Karkat: Wake Up. He comes on strong in Rose's DMs and after getting a little annoyance back, goes "wow, we kinda have something," and does not realize her blowing up his computer is a rejection because she didn't explicitly tell him no and he's a dumbass. And even though he's nasty at Sollux because emotionally, he's still bitter about Sollux "stealing" Feferi from him, at least CONSCIOUSLY he's recognized the rejection on both fronts and has repeatedly told Feferi that he has no more interest in getting back together with her, in spite of her recognizing that he's emotionally not over her. And speaking of Feferi, his confession to her is entirely genuine and respectful toward her feelings. At no point does he indicate that he feels like she owes him a date.

These aren't Nice Guy actions, they're "I have 0 social skills or self-awareness" actions. And also a little bit "due to my trauma and anxiety and desensitization to murder, I struggle to care about other people" actions. He's not even actually casteist or genocidal - I spent an entire essay arguing that.

But regardless, that's what the fandom ran with, in large part because they didn't bother reading between the lines. Ironically, like Eridan, they just believed what he told them. I don't even necessarily blame the fandom - at least part of this obfuscation was intentional, and a clever trick on the part of the writing. By highlighting Eridan at his worst, and having the narration be complicit in his self-delusion and mockery, the story is able to put the audience in the same mindset as his in-universe bullies - Eridan is dumb weirdo whose emotional problems are worthy of ridicule, not sympathy. Let's all point and laugh!

This sets up his meltdown to be more of a twist - even though his literal introduction is him killing something and talking about genocide, the very real danger he poses is forgotten both by the audience and the other characters because they've gotten so used to dismissing his feelings that they ignore his cries for help and the warning signals he gives off. And it makes his character more relevant and meaningful, because this happens in real life all the time - I'm sure we either all either knew, or were, the friendless weirdo at school who, upon reflection, definitely had either some bad shit going on at home or severe and untreated mental illness (or both).

The reason I'm bringing up this fandom misinterpretation is because, like a couple other dancestors, Cronus is very much a riff on the fanon version of his Alternian counterpart. Unlike Eridan, who's not actually casteist, but desperately trying to act the part, Cronus IS a casteist sea dweller who thinks he's better than lowbloods and land dwellers. Unlike Eridan, who seeks emotional connections with others, and accepts rejections, Cronus is only looking for some action, and keeps trying even well after he knows he's been rejected. Unlike Eridan, who's so consumed by anxiety and trauma that he's pretty much unable to function properly, Cronus DOES exaggerate his problems and explicitly leverage them for attention and sympathy. And unlike Eridan, who feels crushed under the weight of duty and responsibility, and tends to blame himself when things go wrong, Cronus refuses to take responsibility for anything, immediately blaming anybody BUT himself.

They're practically exact opposites, and this is, again, a clever trick on the part of the writing. It's an excellent usage of a foil: though superficially similar, the differences between these two really serves to highlight just how much Eridan is NOT the things that Cronus IS.

And it's especially interesting given that Eridan spent his entire life trying to emulate Dualscar, to the point of modeling his outfit after the guy. To him, it was not only his duty, but his inevitable fate, to wind up as Dualscar's successor. And when he finally meets the guy in person, his opinion is "even I think you're trash."

If that isn't a form of rejecting the values his society has told him repeatedly that he has to uphold, maybe in the service of perhaps setting up some sort of redemption arc or something, I don't know what is.

I've seen people point to this moment as kind of a hee haw funny one-off joke, look at how little Hussie cares about Eridan, but that's not what it is to me. You don't really need to say anything more about their relationship to each other. Eridan thinks Cronus (and by extension, everything Cronus stands for - and everything Eridan has tried to be) is garbage, but is lonely and friendless and desperate enough that he feels pushed into accepting it anyway. It's extremely consistent with his characterization and character arc.

So uh, yeah. Join me next time for more deep dives on how this funny innocuous thing in Homestuck actually Means Something.

[exo-raskreia]

Imma rant about Ichigo and Orihime cuz your blog has waken a outrageous fire in me!! And rightfully so! I agree with literally everything you said(btw Karin and hitsugaya are endgame for me too🤭🤭)

Ichihime makes literal sense and it genuinely sucks as a ship and i don't get why the shippers are satisfied with the results. I asked my friend who he wanted to be endgame and answered Ichigo and Orihime cuz they are a better fit. LITERALLY HOW?!! I didn't go psycho on him cuz if Ichigo and Rukia ain't your cup of tea then fine. But why are people answers automatically always Ichihime?? Is it cuz they are canon??? Where the hell was the build-up for it then?! It is nothing compare to ichigo/rukia or orihime with tatsuki/uryu. Idk if Kubo was trying to punk us by pairing them up or not. I feel like he didn't plan our their relationship properly! People say it was obvious from the beginning that ichigo likes her back but i sure as hell didn't see it! Maybe i'm just salty and refused to see the signs cuz Ichiruki is the best ship( and i had a crush on ichigo since forever soooo... 😖😖) ?? I've always been a rukia and ichigo fan rather cuz they actually had the chemistry and insane connection. I'm so mad that they weren't endgame. My girl Rukia was elite why didn't Ichigo went for her and vice versa?? Don't get me started on the poems, the speechs, the way ichigo always and always thinks of rukia. Like the ingredients for the cake was perfect, why the hell would you put gasoline in there💀💀

Some people say that cuz the show is shounen and not a romance, i shouldn't be upset about ichihime ending up together and not be mad of lack of their romance. I'm not expecting ichigo and orihime to have some epic EPIC love story or anything just make it more sense for ME at least. If Ichihime was some side-ship then i wouldn't care as much, but this is the MC of the show i want to see something greater than what we received! If they were to have a love story(ya know a real one) then they should've played it out like in Fruits basket

Ichigo and orihime actually remind me alot of kyo and tohru from fruits basket. And they're all very similar to think about it! Ichigo and Kyo: the grumpy orange haired protecters that have a heart of gold. Orihime and Tohru: the loveable sunshine character that are super traumatized but still manage to keep smiling. The only difference is that Kyo and Tohru actually have the emotional moments and had the chemistry and ya know they actually TALKED and were ACTUAL FRIENDS(as in kyo didn't treat tohru like a acquaintance) before dating. But since Orihime is so much like Ichigo's dead mom, their relationship would've been like Yuki and Tohru. I know the comparison might be dumb to do cuz they are very different anime and different genre but still!! Excuse me for caring so much about that my fav ain't canon. Yes this is a shounen anime but they could've at least squeezed in a bit of the love story of the mc to show they actually care about it. The MC of the show has a better and stronger bond with his bestie than his own wife. Like how is my girl Orihime not bothered by it?! Should've end up Tatsuku i swear. I mean they're literally Nana and Hachi!! 🍓🐶✨

I feel like orihime just exist to be his love interest and that's it! Girl had the potential to be a great character that ain't always there to be the love interest. Her becoming a housewife was insulting cuz what do you mean she ain't a robot destroying a city (i can't remember that scene from the earlier seasons but something in between those lines🤣) I do like Orihime enough but not that much cuz it's Ichigo this and Ichigo that. Like girl i get it. I wanted(and still do) him too but don't settle for being the second choice) HOMEGIRL YOU HAVE OTHER LUCKY DUCKS THAT WANNA BE WITH YOU!!

And another thing: I read somewhere that: just cuz Uryu had a crush Orihime that, that doesn't mean that Orihime should be together with him.... Okay then why can't that also imply to Ichigo and Orihime?? Like why just cuz "She'll fall for him in every lifetime" doesn't mean that he has to do the same too!! Rukia is already the queen of his heart mind you

BUT ANYWAYS!! It's a shounen after all so i shouldn't be expecting the mc to have a well-written love story and not to have high hopes of the MC love interest to be something more than that. But whatever at the end of the day they're CANON and have a kid together so all i can do is cry about it and live in fanfiction.

Ahem, I'm done with my rant thank you 😌 (And yes anti-IchiRuki fans I'll still be salty in my 40s cuz of the ending and I will never shut up about it just cuz they have canonically have kids)

No worries, anon! You've come to the right place! Let it all out~

Not surprised your male friend would choose Ori. Typical. For dudes like him, her appearance, superficial crush on Ichigo, & the word "canon" being slapped on are enough for them, despite there not being any actual chemistry between IH. It is also a common trope in other manga/anime, so they convince themselves that it was meant to happen, but it doesn't mean it makes sense for every story, especially not in Bleach's case; it doesn't make narrative sense if they actually looked into it.

(Canon ≠ good. Just look up what went wrong in 'How I Met Your Mother' or even 'Game Of Thrones' S8).

(While on the subject, since Rukia is a much better written character than Ori, if she had a body like Ori's, & Ori like Rukia's, even less dudes would care about IH 🫢, since they never even have good arguments in favor of it that aren't the 3 things I mentioned already up top).

Ichigo & Rukia had the most chemistry in the entire manga/anime, & it baffles me when people didn't/don't (wanna) see it. I went into Bleach almost blind when I first started watching it & IR really stood out. Their bond is right in your face, playing along the border between platonic & romantic, making you wonder what exactly it is, but knowing they aren't just mere friends. In the manga, I was constantly awed & amused by how borderline romantic it came off as, despite having already watched the anime (which did not do the manga justice in many ways; and then antis claim IR was mostly anime-based, PLEASE 🙄). Kubo really wasn't playing when it came to these 2. What a freakin' troll.

Haven't watched Fruits Basket, but I can see what you mean. Grumpy & Sunshine is a fun trope, however, as you said, IH just didn't have what it takes. If Kubo had wanted to, he could have properly developed IH at some points in the manga, such as the Fullbring arc, & it wouldn't have to be anything big, as Bleach is not a romance. He could have opened the arc with those 2 already going out, like them holding hands as they head to school or something, maybe showing some flashbacks of them talking things out, comforting each other since HM to show how they got together. Instead, in those 17 months since Ichigo lost his powers & contact with Rukia, you're telling me Kubo couldn't make IH bond? Instead, Ori's still pathetically pining after him while Ichigo is still thinking of, longing for, Rukia! How am I supposed to believe IH was meant to be endgame?!

Orihime had more chemistry with other people than the man she ended up with 💀. I personally ship her with 2 other men (Ishida & Ulquiorra). She was different with them. One selflessly cared for her, had her at the forefront of his mind in her own rescue arc (unlike Ichigo), while the other challenged her, found her fascinating & wanted to learn more... Not to mention they both protected her from Ichigo a couple times in the HM arc.

She really did have potential to be a great character but it all kept going down the drain, never achieved her dreams nor goals. She kept regressing as the story went on, especially when it came to Ichigo. She was never able to encourage him nor fully support him & was usually a complete damsel in his presence (he even seemed annoyed by her during the Ywach fight, which mind u, she was only there cuz there was no one else left & Ichigo had no choice?). She was more interesting whenever she wasn't around him. All her best moments were when she wasn't thinking about him. Saving Tatsuki? Bonding with Ishida in SS, standing in front of him to protect him in the Fullbring arc? Bonding with Ulquiorra (the only good thing she did the whole HM arc)? She could've done more in HM but didn't. In TYBW, she didn't do anything special, couldn't even encourage Ichigo & was treated like a ragdoll by Ywach. This is how Kubo wanted us to remember her. She was mostly reduced to fanservice by the end (and she's still not as popular as Matsumoto or Yoruichi in that department 💀). I sometimes think he didn't like her all that much with how he treated her character...

While watching the anime, I seriously had been hoping she'd get over Ichigo in the SS arc when she wistfully said Rukia was a very special person to him who changed his world (oh, boy, was I in for disappointment). Right off the bat, there was nothing interesting/exciting about her interactions with Ichigo (I was shipping her with Ishida by this point). He was just so blasé with her, I almost felt bad for her & it only kept getting worse. I then hoped she'd finally get over him after the traumatic experience at the dome in HM, but her ongoing silly crush made my eyes roll & lose hope in it. LIKE GIRL, HE'S HUNG UP ON ANOTHER GIRL, & U SHOULD'VE STOPPED PUTTING HIM ON A PEDESTAL BY NOW; HE'S NO PRINCE CHARMING & ESPECIALLY NOT FOR U WHEN HE BARELY GAVE U A SECOND THOUGHT IN UR OWN RESCUE ARC & ALMOST GOT U KILLED LIKE 3 TIMES & U HAD TO GET SAVED BY ULQUIORRA & ISHIDA, LIKE-

Orihime doesn't have anything in common with Masaki other than maybe their appearance (which imo, Masaki looks more like short-haired Matsumoto anyway?). Besides the cheerful part, their personalities are very different. Masaki was more like Rukia: brave, strong, selfless, teasing & annoying Isshin/Ichigo, etc... IR has actual dynamic parallels with IsshiMasa in the narrative... Kubo just copied IR moments, especially considering he wrote as he went... So, don't be fooled by those morons who go by appearance alone & even those weird lines in one of the novels (Oedipus complex anyone?) instead of the legitimate parallels between IR & IM shown in the manga, such as these:

What was going thru Kubo's head if he supposedly "intended" for IH to happen? Ichigo & Ori had more chemistry with other characters than with each other. Kubo went about this all wrong. Bleach not being a romance is no excuse for shoddily pairing up characters in the end. In a few scenes scattered throughout the manga, he could've implied them. Every time they interacted, their relationship should've progressed somehow. And he actually did this with IchiRuki. (In regards to Naruto, for example, Kishimoto at least admitted he didn't put enough effort into his ships by saying romance was not his forte & he's not good at writing female characters, but at least most of the ships made sense & esp NaruHina had actual good moments scattered throughout the manga...).

Sigh, I've said this before, but why can't more battle shounens be like Fairy Tail when it comes to developing the ships throughout the story? There'd be less drama. Even Gintama did a better job at developing the main ships, lol, that if they became canon, hardly anyone would've been surprised (they were somewhat implied if u squint, tho 🤪).

There are theories Kubo wanted to spite Shounen Jump for their treatment over the years so he ended things this way (and maybe to spite the fans too, since his manga sales had been on the decline for years). Ever heard of the "choosing unhappiness" theories? Basically, remember that Ywach said he'd come back at Ichigo's happiest moment? Well, he didn't come back at Ichigo's wedding with Ori, not even at the birth of his son. He came back when Ichigo reunited with RUKIA after 10 years.

So what could this be telling us? That Ichigo chose to be unhappy by not getting with the one person who made him the happiest. Rukia gave him that push by choosing unhappiness first (since she knew Ichigo couldn't make the first attempt to) & married Renji, who in turn, also gave Ichigo that push to go for Ori. IR chose unhappiness to defeat Ywach. Could this actually be what Urahara meant when he said he'd leave everything to "Kurosaki-san & Kuchiki-san" after his defeat in TYBW?! (we deserved the IR tag-team we never got in the final fight, screw Kubo)

One could also say his friends chose unhappiness to help too? Ishida becoming a doctor he'd never expressed interest in & seeming isolated from the friend group (maybe not agreeing with the farce they're all in), Chad becoming a boxer instead of using his fists to protect, Ori marrying a man who doesn't love her & she knows never will, Renji marrying a woman who doesn't love him & never will (and whom I think he doesn't love either? My view on that here)... Isshin is nowhere in sight, could it be he also doesn't wanna be a part of this farce in which his own son chose to marry a woman he doesn't love?

Still, everything about this ending is so wrong, makes no sense, a bunch of retcons too. Heck, remember the rebuilding of Sokyoku Hill in SS? Made Ichigo destroying it meaningless 🙄.

Anyway, I didn't mean for this post to be too long. There's so much to rant about lol. There's also so much to make fun of 👀. As I said in this post, IH was never popular & never will be. Kubo himself can't bring himself to give them content & his affiliates (like Shounen Jump, Studio Pierrot, etc.) can't be bothered either, as IH doesn't sell. Canon for almost 10 years & still no official couple/family arts nor merch 😂. If they end up getting thrown a bone in the future, the fact it took them that long would still be laughable.

In the end, it's best to ignore canon, its fans, & engage with what you like. It also doesn't hurt to sometimes make fun of Bleach's failures~ Kubo has made it so easy, can you blame us? 🤷‍♀️

Also, glad u like HitsuKarin as well 🤭. Would you believe it's my #1 Bleach OTP? I had brainrot for it a few years ago, like I literally scoured almost every bit of content that I could find, & while it's died down, I just know that if Kubo &/or his affiliates were to feed us HK content now, I'd eat it up like a starving dog-

Sorry for the late reply, anon! 😓 Been having brainrot for a different fandom, if u can guess

[lord-squiggletits]

IDW Megatron and Optimus weren't friends before the war. Here's why that makes their ship dynamic more interesting.

One comment I've heard among people comparing IDW1 MegOP to other continuities of MegOP is (paraphrased) that since they weren't friends before the war, there isn't as much material to ship them with/they don't have an established dynamic/they don't have ~*history*~ that makes them be the bitter exes we all know and love them to be.

In this meta post, I'm going to contend that the IDW1 MegOP lack of friendship before the war is actually a benefit to their dynamic in this continuity, not a negative. Although they didn't get a lot of time together before the war in terms of quantity, the quality of their interactions and the weight it gave their future rivalry is due to the tragic nature of their relationship: They saw a glimpse of each other at their best in their youth, but like a tragic myth of old, circumstances conspired to keep them apart, traumatize them, and turn them into people who couldn't trust or reconcile with each other.

The IDW MegOP's first meeting is like a fated encounter, almost as if it was destined to happen. The way that one single brush can change the entire course of history.

I like to call this a "love at first sight" moment because, although they're not in love, it has this sort of storybook magical quality to it where this one single moment has a lot of weight. This one moment where they saw each other at their best and could have a positive interaction.

When I say that they met each other "at their best" here, I'm referring to Megatron's pacifistic essays and poetry that represent his pure revolutionary spirit and care for Cybertron, and Orion's trait of showing kindness and encouraging individual freedom despite his position of authority. The way that their first encounter was so brief and unassuming makes us, the readers, yearn for more. Doesn't Megatron's silent glance behind him in that final panel make you wonder what he's thinking? They only had that one brief talk at the rodion police station but it went on to ricohet the rest of their lives. Orion started thinking about the corruption of the system due to Megatron's writing. Megatron looked back at Orion with curiosity/lingering feeling after he was escorted out of the station. Even Megatron being put on Messatine was indirectly due to Orion, since Orion delivered that speech on his behalf.

It's almost like literal chemistry, where two particles bumping into each other once can cause a chain reaction of other particles bumping and bumping and bumping until suddenly those two particles are back together.

It's a sort of magical real life scenario where you meet a stranger just once but something they did or said to you makes you remember it and think about it for a long time afterwards. except in this case the MegOPs are (un?)lucky enough to meet again. And they start a war.

I also really like that Megatron and Orion/Optimus spent most of their pre-war backstory apart from each other, because I feel like it makes them stronger characters individually instead of making all of their most important moments be about each other. This is more of a comment on fandom than canon, but many romantic stories fall into a pitfall of a relationship where the two people obsessed with each other: their romance is the most important relationship they have; the entire plot revolves around whether they're happy or upset with each other, it can even make their relationship seem unhealthy and like they have no meaningful relationships outside of their romance. In terms of MOP in other continuities, I feel that putting too much emphasis on their friendship kind of cheapens the worldbuilding and political conflict. True, it's nice when the personal and political intersect in the MegOP's lives, but sometimes I feel (especially in fanon) that the "they were friends but then they disagreed and now they're not friends" concept sometimes ends up being written as if this one simple friendship conflict was the basis of a whole war.

The benefit of IDW1 MegOP is that because they spend their pre-war time apart from each other, they develop separately as people and end up transforming into someone different from their "love at first sight" moment. I like that Orion had relationships with people like Shockwave, Roller, and Zeta, and Megatron had his student/teacher relationship with Terminus and the whole arena thing happening.

Both Megatron and Orion went through traumatizing events during this time period that changed their worldviews for the worse and made them more cynical. Megatron suffered an attempted brainwashing, losing his mentor, his first killing, then being stuck in the arena. Orion went through the loss of Shockwave to a fate worse than death, then the disappearance of his best friend Roller, then worked for Zeta and began to doubt in his ideals/goodness as a leader. In that time between the MegOP's first encounter and their ensuing encounters in a military conflict, they came back as very different people than the first glimpse they got of each other.

Since they only had that ONE first glimpse they had of each other, then met again only to be disappointed by each other's fall from grace (in each others' eyes), this sets up a lot of angst. They wonder if that first glimpse of each other was really true or if it was a lie. Should they trust in those "good" versions of each other they saw so long ago? Do those people even exist? Are they or were they ever worth believing in? Does that man I saw still exist or did I just WANT to see something good in him? That man ruined my life and I hate him for fighting against me, he's a hypocrite. I thought that man was a good person, but he's betrayed the hopes I had by becoming a violent criminal warlord/working for the evil government I thought he opposed.

It sort of has the vibes of a "love at first sight" story gone wrong where their first encounter was kind (I like to imagine Megatron was touched or at least curious about Orion, a cop, telling him to keep writing and be vocal) but then they descended into their worst selves. They only had that one small glimpse of each other at their best but now they're in a scenario where they can only be enemies.

The longing and disappointment is more obvious on Orion's part about Megatron, because Orion got this shining glimpse of Megatron at his best and most passionate, only to encounter Megatron again and all those good parts have been buried to leave only his worst. Megatron's POV about OP isn't really shown, but I feel like it could be interesting to write headcanons about it. How did Megatron feel about Orion making that speech on his behalf? Getting moved to Messatine because Orion made him so public, and all the bad things that happened there?

Yes, their first encounter was brief and they didn't really have a personal relationship before the war. But that brief encounter changed the trajectory of their entire lives. When you combine that with the fact that they saw each other as their "ideal selves", it creates that valid obsession between Megatron and Optimus. It is kind of unhealthy LMAO, because they do kind of become obsessed with each other based on an incomplete view of the other as a person. But then the war happens and they keep having personal and professional encounters that would give them opportunities to meet (such as in diplomacy meetings like Tyrest's peace negotiations and other political things that come with war). And those repeated meetings would only cause them to get to know each other better. Then you get into more mythical/legend-like story dynamics where Megatron and OP have to learn how the other thinks tactically, and their tactical knowledge becomes so intimate they start understanding how the other thinks and it's very dramatic lol. The typical our-enmity-is-so-deep-it-could-be-love enemies to lovers fare.

TLDR:

Circumstances outside of their control drove them apart, made them into different people, and kept them from becoming friends. It makes IDW MegOP feel legendary or mythical, like some sort of epic Greek tragedy of two people who were always 🤏 this close to being friends. There's longing there, and tragedy, imagining what might have been if they'd only been able to talk again, or if they had somehow been able to influence each other before they went down the bad path (violence and crime for Megatron, following Zeta and becoming Prime for Orion/Optimus). But despite that, their natural chemistry perseveres, and they talk to/about each other in a way that shows they still think of each other even when apart.

[thecoolerliauditore]

TOXIC JIZZIE????????? PLEASE SPEAK KING FOR I AM BOUND TO HEAR

aye sire if you ask I am obligated to indulge.

To start off I do think "toxic" is not really the word I'd use, but their relationship certainly isn't ideal either. To get meta for a second I think it's the impact of this being a ship dictated by the CCs (as in, we are married irl so our characters should be too) rather than by the fandom (where ships form from interactions and stuff we actually see in-game) so, in the insane world of "interpretation", weird things happen with Jizzie in-universe where it essentially feels like the characters are together ot of some default obligation rather than as a choice they both actively make.

I'm going to be using the word "performative" a lot during this which I think makes enough sense when you look at how most of Jizzie interactions are very literally purposefully performed through youtube videos and such.

I'm also someone who very much does not have the highest opinion overall of romance as a concept so a lot of what I read is going to be based off of that. I'm a biased human being or whatever.

Essentially, I believe a lot of Jizzie's interactions feel like they're out of some sort of obligation or to fit into predetermined roles, comedic or otherwise, instead of coming off as genuine.

Examples off the top of my head are Lizzie trying to "seduce" Joel in Last Life to secure an ally, their shotgun wedding in esmp1 and the sort of sitcom-esque humour structure they sometimes follow in streams and such (the one I remember most clearly is Lizzie hitting Joel during the Decked Out guests stream, which is treated as a haha wife hitting husband moment) (there was also the time when Joel indirectly implied he was calling his wife a "ball and chain" in the Life: The Game stream, although we're getting very dubiously canon here - I personally see it as applicable but. shrugs)

This isn't to say that there is no genuine connection there, they certainly do care about eachother and, for the most part, aren't actively making eachother worse -- some of their cutest moments, to me, are their panicked "I love you" exchange after they encased the Scottage in lava in Last Life and Joel being the only one who remembered Lizzie's party in Secret Life.

Lizzie and Joel also rarely talk about eachother in an admiring or personal way, Joel specifically usually only mentions his "wife" when disputing accusations of him being in love with any of the various men he's "obsessed" with.

This becomes weirder in series like esmp1, where the first time Lizzie mentions Joel at all is her declaration that she has decided to marry him (not because she is "in love" or anything like that, she simply states that she wants to marry him) so you just kind of have to fill in the gaps between videos with your imagination or accept that the characters are just. Insane. I think comparing the way esmp1 Joel talks about Lizzie vs talks about Jimmy would be an interesting experiment to conduct in regard to this.

To top it off in terms of dubious sourcing for in-character headcanons, I think the performative aspects of Jizzie are most apparent when you look at how Joel often jokes about how Lizzie will get mad at him for flirting with Jimmy and other men, whilst Lizzie has shown time and time again she really could not physically care less. It's always kind of confused me when people depict Lizzie as ready to beat the shit out of Joel when he acts affectionate with other men, when her reactions in the traffic series usually just boil down to this:

TO ME: What Jizzie is, to me, is a pair of platonic best friends who have gotten married because. You're a boy, I'm a girl, that's what we should do. Their marriage isn't hurting them but it also isn't what they think it is.

Joel specifically I've always headcanoned as gay and essentially using Lizzie as a beard but not hiding it very well.

The romance may be purely obligatory and performative, but that doesn't mean they don't love eachother.

[jeremiahthefroge]

Alright cool, ok awesome, really great, loving S1 E20 at about 4:59 when Garroth straight up says Zenix was like a son to him. Can Garroth catch a fucking break please dude this poor fucking guy??

I also am just Thrilled at the ideas I'm coming up with for how I'd novelize early MCD and how I'd characterize Garroth and Zenix. I feel like I'll have to be tweaking them around a bit, but from what I remembered about Garroth in later episodes, I've been wanting to keep an eye on Garroth's themes of being a paternal figure to others around him, and I'm absolutely thrilled to ALREADY see it be brought up. I wanna write a bunch of scenes that really illustrate the bond between Garroth and Zenix that we're sort of just TOLD is there through dialog (limitations of the medium, it's expected that you'll fill in the gaps yourself a bit), where we have Garroth coaching him through a difficult and troubled time, teaching the boy how to laugh and have some self confidence. I want Aphmau and Zenix to bond a bit too, and have Garroth on the sidelines thinking that maybe Aphmau will help Zenix FULLY heal and get back on his feet, that she can help Zenix take the next steps into being a good man after Garroth helped him initially, and then all of a sudden, this all goes down, and Garroth has that all ripped out from under him. I think it also could do a bit of legwork in showing us why Garroth becomes so attached to Aphmau, because she's the most consistently good, reliable thing in his life. The one thing that doesn't turn out to only be using him for his station, the one thing that doesn't turn around and literally SHOOT HIM IN THE BACK as repayment for his friendship and goodwill. The world has lied to and betrayed and confused Garroth about what is right time and time again, but not Aphmau.

I think Garroth might be a really tragic character guys goddamn somebody help this poor minecraft man.

Also him wanting to keep talking to Aph after he wakes up but it's hurting him, and she tells him to rest, and he's like "I wanna keep talking... but you're right as always. I'm just happy you're home" is just genuinely a cute detail and I like what it adds to Garroth. He's honestly pretty interestingly characterized-- he's not SUPPOSED to exactly be a truly perfect, always-right type. He's a fallible man trying his best to do the right things in his position as a guard, the best things for the people around him, and he's seen enough to know that sometimes you can't be truly honest and transparent with those around you. He was wrong about Zenix. He has no idea about most of the big plots happening around him. I also like that, even though I know he ends up as a love interest later on, it's sort of like... the usual trappings of a romance setup aren't present in early MCD. He's not immediately smitten, though he does obviously like her and care, he's got other priorities, and he doesn't immediately bond with her or even truly communicate with her on a truly personal level all that much, most of their interactions in the videos having to do with guard-to-lord business or the weird goings on in the area. It feels like he and Aphmau just have more pressing shit to be doing, because by the stakes of the plot, they totally DO have more pressing shit to worry about, and I feel like a lot of media with romance plots tends not to give us this pre-romance interaction. I think it lends a lot to the emotional impact of Garroth falling in love with her, honestly, that there's this stage where nothing romantic is really building. It more closely emulates the feeling of falling in love in real life, with a slower build.

I just think it's neat ok

[willowmosby]

Listen I told my self that I wasn't going to get invested enough in Person of Interest to talk about here but here I am anyway. It was chugging along being a good background show with Some really fun, if a little trope-y, cop characters and watching Harold Finch and John Reese act kinda gay and stop crime. I'm a big Amy Acker fan ( that's actually why I even started the show) so I wasn't upset about the shift in focus towards Root and Shaw a little bit as I entered season 3.

The problem I have actually run into is fucking season 3 episode 9: The Crossing. It just made me angry at a show's choices in a way I haven't felt in a while - please note I haven't watched past that episode as of writing this but I will eventually do so.

An the assumption that she really is dead( that looked pretty fucking fatal) I will miss Joss Carter a lot but that's not necessarily what made me angry. It seemed to me that the writers knew that the actor wanted out of the show from the start of the season as the whole season 3 arc was a seemingly slow moving suicide. It wasn't poorly written but it was obvious that this was a different type of Joss Carter than season 1 & 2.

No my problem wasn't necessarily her death. It's the "romantic" declarations of the episode. Now before you look back at the start of this and post and think I'm just mad because it wasn't my very unlikely to ever be a cannon ship that got confirmed, well you're only partially right.

Yes I'm a Rinch shipper( if follow my blog at all you've probably put together that I often root if the queer ships) but I genuinely would have been fine resigning myself to fanfiction while they get hopelessly paired up with some unsuspecting women. I understand that's how crime drama TV operates. And you know I actually like John and Zoe as a ship, if they were developed a bit more I think they could've been a lot of fun.

My problem is not that the whole you "saved me from commiting suicide" speech John gives Carter is equally, if not more, applicable to his relationship with Finch. Well, okay my problem is not only that. My problem is where was any of the romantic build up between Carter and John, like literally anything? They work great as narrative foils when Carter was still on the "the law is the only law" train. And they work great as friends as Carter steps more into the "some minor crime for the greater good is okay" camp. But not once did I think " oh these two are about to fall in love". Not even when Shaw asked about it earlier in season 3 did I think the show was going to actually pair them up like this. Now I hear you when you say that there are examples of characters with less chemistry have become couples. It's just, I'm not sure what the narrative gain is here. They had to know they were killing off Carter that same episode and this "revelation" doesn't add anything to the character. If anything it doesn't make sense with the revenge for Cal Becher (Beacher? Beecher?- You know who I'm talking about) angle that the writers have been using all season. And if it's about furthering John's character that's just dumb. I wouldn't consider it fridgeing as I'm pretty sure this is an actor who wants an out of contract situation(feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), but that doesn't excuse it as a narrative choice. John unequivocally cares about Carter and would be upset about her death regardless or romantic inclinations, as would Lionel and Finch. They already have an in on the revenge story line (which is where I assume they are going with this). Why bother with the romance especially when John already has the lost love story in his background. Like what Jessica isn't enough of a dead romance they needed to shoe in Joss as well.

Anyway I also wish this was like a mid season finale not episode like 9. Like bro why are you putting away one of your biggest villains so far and this is only a third of the way in the season.

And I wish that Lionel wasn't just suddenly back in the plot, like I know you have a bigger cast now and I m glad he's here but build the guy up a little bit better please.

I also think the Root in a cage thing is a little weird like I know all of these people are chugging the " the ends justify the means" juice but it still seems like there are other options Finch would choose. ( that being said Root and Finch's conversation about the machine somehow come off like " I had sex with your daughter, and I don't care if you know” which was hilarious to me)

Anyway sorry for the rant thanks for listening and I do hope the show gets back into a groove.

[aintashes]

let's talk about daryl and leah.

i think it's time that i address this on my blog, especially now that i've had plenty of opportunity to process their entire arc since watching it not too long ago. this got to be so long that i'm convinced it may be the daryl dixon megapost of the century, but it's very important ( mostly to me lmao ).

suffice to say, this will contain major spoilers for the show's later seasons. there's basically a tl;dr at the end but if you read this whole thing... i love you.

first thing's first, like it says in my rules, this blog operates under the idea that daryl's romantic relationship with leah never happened. i do believe that he did form a strong bond with her in order to line up with the reaper and commonwealth arcs, but it never went deeper than being close friends.

there are many reasons for this. i personally believe that it's a disgrace to daryl's character for the writers to simply shoehorn an entire romance arc into one episode that was filmed during the pandemic— aka, it was written to fill space while the world was waiting for safety and filming restrictions to lift. because of this, it all felt like an afterthought. it was rushed in every way no matter how many giant "3 months later..." timestamps they slapped onto the screen, and norman himself has said that he was disappointed and wishes that a romance plot with daryl would have been better executed.

beyond that, it simply ignores all of the character development that daryl has gone through. really, it ignores his entire personality. look me in the eyes when i say: this man has no game at all ( sorry, daryl ), and he's never been in a romantic relationship in his life. he's never been interested enough to pursue anyone. he's also slow to warm up to people, even in later seasons. so you mean to tell me that he all of a sudden fell into bed with this person who was nice to him one time after being a complete asshole to him every other time they met before then ?

they did daryl a giant disservice by showing him entering a romantic relationship with such little meaningful interaction. yes, they have a small montage of the two of them getting to know each other, but it basically only includes them: catching fish together, looking at an eclipse together, and then the implication that they're romantically intimate with one another.

it's so bland ! it's so boring ! it lacks any substance ! it's an awful thing to do to a character who has been shown time and time again to have a deep, incredible need for prolonged connection. i'm ( not ) sorry, but if you wanted to show daryl entering a romantic relationship, showing the two of them going fishing and making lovey eyes at each other one time is not cutting it for me. after everything that daryl has been through, it's pathetic storytelling.

moving on to the time period where they live together— yet another "10 months later..." timestamp that gives us nothing but what our own imaginations can provide —we see that their relationship isn't even good. that leah is literally just mean to him, as much as she cares about him ( likely in part due to her own trauma, but i digress ). and sure, you could say that with daryl's inexperience, he might enter a relationship that isn't good for him because he doesn't know any better—

but i'm sorry, are you saying that the daryl dixon that i know... the person that they had michonne verbally confirm is pretty much the best judge of character on the show... the person who deanna had working with aaron because she and aaron both knew that daryl could see through people... are you saying that that daryl dixon... would so easily become enamored with someone like her ?? this is not to say that he's incapable of trusting someone who seems okay but then turns out to be bad, but i genuinely don't know what it is he could see in her that would cloud his vision to what's underneath the surface ( especially as they begin having arguments within their relationship ).

anyways. when we come around to them living together, we see them eating dinner and daryl asks her to talk to him. that what he's set out to do that's clearly made her upset will only have him gone for a couple of days, and that he'll be back after. but she becomes angry with him and very quickly gives him an ultimatum: does he belong with his family ? does he belong out there, looking for rick, who she pointedly says must be dead ? or does he belong with her ?

and what a cruel thing to say to someone. there was no need to ask him to do something so obviously unfair; she set him up for failure in the hopes of guilting him into staying. all he did was tell her that he was going to be gone for a few days to do his thing; and then not only is she asking him to choose between her and his family, which should be a giant red flag in almost any relationship, but she tells him that rick must be dead— something she 100% knows will make daryl upset.

you could say that it's a trauma response from her, you could say that she has unresolved mental health issues and it's culminating in her behavior towards him, but it truly doesn't matter. daryl has always had his moments of anger and lashing out because of trauma, and it never excuses his actions or his words; it doesn't excuse hers, either. this is not to say that daryl doesn't deserve to be told like it is sometimes, either, but that's not what she was doing.

and another thing— you mean to tell me that you had daryl dixon not only fall in love with this person after knowing her for very little time, and then you have the audacity to imply that he doesn't even really tell her about his family ?? what is this weird double-life they had him living ?? like, it's clear that he doesn't even ask her if she would consider joining their communities. and maybe that's because he can't handle being back there yet, but to not even tell her at all when he's supposed to like, i dunno, be in love with her ??

it's not because he wants a "home away from his other life," because he's still extraordinarily intent on searching for rick and even chooses that over leah at first ( before he feels so guilty for "messing up" the ultimatum she gave him that he goes running back, only to find that she's gone and has, presumably, left dog behind ). so what is it ? why would daryl dixon of all people keep the people he loves most away from someone else whom he apparently loves ??

it makes no sense, and it only serves as a way to keep leah away from team family long enough to then reveal her as a villain. a loving relationship between daryl and another person during the time period where he's looking for rick could have served to bring him back to his people sooner because of the level of love and understanding he could have shared with someone. but no ! she must be a villain !

and then of course, we have to put daryl through the pain and suffering of being tortured again, but this time his ex lover is the one facilitating it ! and man is it a good thing that he never really told her about his family, because then he wouldn't have been able to lie to her face about it all in order to get out of that sticky situation.

and then, at the end of leah's arc, daryl obviously has to be the one to suffer the pain of killing her to save maggie. leah is much too far gone, as daryl learns in the final battle with the reapers, and he chooses his family over her one more time to end it all.

it's such a terrible story arc. an awful dynamic that they really did not have to put daryl, or us as viewers, through. even, and especially, as a way of showing us that daryl will always and forever choose his family over anyone else— even a lover. like... duh ?? we knew that already ! you didn't have to make her an actual bloodthirsty mercenary for us to believe that.

the thing is, leah could have been a brilliant character. she could have had so much development, and her outbursts and abusive behaviors could have made much more sense given more / better context. their entire relationship could have made more sense if we'd had the opportunity to engage with her as a character the way the show gave us the opportunity to do just that with come-and-go characters like morgan and jadis. but her relationship with daryl was shoehorned into the show and only served to provide angst fodder and a connecting line between "our" people, aka daryl and co., and the reapers ( who, by the way, were also incredibly, severely, criminally underutilized and short-lived when they could have been the scariest, most threatening group in the show's history ).

you should have just left daryl in the nonromantic, nonsexual bubble you had him in for years before then.

there's so much more that i could say, but i'll leave it at this:

on my blog, daryl had a close friendship with leah which involved them getting to know one another enough for it to hurt when she turned on him. literally basically everything is the same, except for them being romantic / intimate.

which is why it's such a tragedy and a disappointment that they went through with making it romantic / intimate in the first place, because the entire situation really could have been the same without that. daryl still would have cared enough about her to try and "save" her from her allegiance with the reapers without everything being sullied by the writers' decision to make it weird.

[zalrb]

Apologies, I meant that the “all the women love him and all the men want to be him” are more of a Moffat thing than Eleven vs Ten. If I recall correctly, the episode featuring Madame de Pompadour was written by Moffat, but I have no idea if the episode where Sarah Jane makes her return was.

I just feel like any episode that Moffat writes or has influence on features on women characters remarking on how hot they find the Doctor, which causes the female companion/current love interest (or love interest’s boyfriend, in Rory’s case) to fume and seethe on the sidelines. (Seriously, I have no recollection of Amy’s crush on the Doctor, but it was just so unnecessary.)

I love River, but before the reveal of how her purpose was to kill the Doctor, I didn’t think she had more presence than teasing and flirting with him and despite their chemistry I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at her, because that’s so Moffat. He has this way of creating objectively cool female characters but they are made less cool by having their lives revolve around the Doctor. Amy could have been interesting, but he fumbled her; River was amazing after the reveal and with the literally star-crossed timelines; Clara was reduced to a lapdog from what I remember. As annoying as Rose was, her love for the Doctor seemed just that, but it wasn’t her absolute purpose. Same goes for Martha and especially Donna.

Russell T. Davies, the writer before Moffat, definitely had his issues with rampant misogyny and racism, but somehow his characters had enough personality to overcome those defects of his writing, I thought. I was also, like, 14 when I watched all this so this is all probably a boatload of nonsense.

No, it's not nonsense, it's an interesting perspective.

I actually have the opposite feelings about Rose and River. I'm seven episodes into season 2 and I'm not really sure what Rose's personality is meant to be or who she's meant to be, even if her journey began a season before, I feel like I should know who she is by now and really the only thing I can tell you is that she's meant to "care" and that she seems to get jealous if another woman so much as talks to the Doctor. And it also feels as though the show is working overtime for me to believe this connection the two of them have but I actually don't believe this "love" or this "bond". I had my issues with Amy and I even had issues with Amy and the Doctor's connection but I believed it way more than Rose and the Doctor or at least Rose and Ten.

Now, Rose isn't narratively revolving the Doctor the way River or even Clara was in the sense that Clara, the Impossible Girl's, purpose is/was literally to save him and River literally says that she waits for the days she sees him and she's raised to murder him but even before the reveal that she was Melody, I knew who River was, she seemed to be the only person who could go toe to toe with the Doctor, and despite their love story and her grand affection for him, she never came across as enamoured to me. So while narratively speaking her movements all really have to do with the Doctor, I never actually got that impression in the show, and part of that is definitely because Alex gives a very self-possessed and adult performance where she doesn't come across as infatuated or petty or besotted, she comes across as her own person whereas with Rose, I don't think Billie is a bad actress, I actually quite liked watching her be Cassandra for that episode because it showed me that she could have some kind of range but I don't really see that with Rose, she just kind of seems like an eager puppy.

Whereas from what I saw of Clara, which wasn't much, she isn't in season 7 that much, rather than coming across as a lap dog, to me it just seemed like she had no qualms with the Doctor, like she isn't The Girl Who Waited, she isn't in a painful, epic romance with him, she's just happy to go on adventures and be his right hand so at least in that season there isn't really any tension between them.

My issue with Moffat from what I have seen from seasons 5 to 7 is more that he does these overarching season arcs that you would think have consequences and ramifications and would alter dynamics and relationships, which would be interesting, but then he reverses what he did at the end of the episode or the next episode so that everything can be exactly the same for the next adventure and it makes a lot of things feel pointless.

[web-novel-polls]

Aroace-spec Character Tournament

[Please vote for who you believe is the most aroace-spec character, not the most popular. It will never be acceptable to post "anti-propaganda" in this tournament or invalidate a suggested identity because "they're not aroace enough." You will be blocked unless it's clearly a genuine mistake / misphrasing.]

Propaganda underneath the cut

Yin Hanjiang from Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

Submission: Demisexual demiromantic

Resubmitting him too because, having read the book, he is also not allo. He very clearly draws a line between love and desire, which allo people usually don't do. He spends the entire book being fairly platonically loyal to Wenren E and then when someone explains what love is and he notices that it lines up with how he feels about Wenren E, he's mad about it. Plus the aroace feeling of falling in love with someone and having that shake your entire being to the core. Also, when asked, he doesn't know what love is, but none of the characters in this book do, so.

Mod Propaganda

Literally only cares about Wenren È

“And as for Yin Hanjiang, he actually seemed to deeply believe he was an ice-cold sword, blind and heartless, not caring if what was in front of him was a man, woman, or beast, so long as it wasn’t Wenren È.” - Ch.6

One of the only characters that’s clearly in love/obsessed with someone at the very beginning, but the story clearly talks about how he Only Likes Wenren È specifically, romantically and sexually (probably. Haven’t gotten that far).

Anyway, demisexual and demiromantic.

Wenren È from Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

Submission: Asexual demiromantic

Resubmitting him because I have now read the book. And oh boy. He is not allo. He spends the whole book being confused about love and romance, and why that, specifically, would be such a huge motivator for people. He has no interest in it besides how it affects someone else and causes them problems. He falls in love by the end but he still doesn't understand how love works for other people at all

Mod Propaganda

“Wenren È cultivated the Path of Slaughter, and when he saw a beautiful woman, his first thought would be what kind of difference there was to fight a woman versus a man.” - Ch.6

The beginning part of the story is just him trying to understand what romance is and why a novel is saying he was in love with Baili Qingmiao.

Interprets “love is always seeing the other person” as “I should force Baili Qingmiao to be able to physically see this boy at all times”

He eventually becomes stupidly in love with Yin Hanjiang, but it’s a Journey. He clearly does not experience/understand romantic and sexual attraction until then (and even then I'm not sure lol)

[redbuddi]

How will you handle the characterization of characters like Sam and Tucker? Danni?

What are some of the biggest changes to the overall story you are looking forward to exploring?

*cracks knuckles* alright here we go!

Sam and Tucker are extremely important to the series, more important than I think people tend to give them credit for, and that importance would be retained in Redux.

Tucker would be more or less the same as the OG Tuck, he's still a big tech geek, still loves meat, is still simultaneously the comic relief and the voice of reason depending on the situation, etc. I mostly plan on just making a few subtle tweaks to his character to flesh him out a bit more than the show was willing to.

Now is the time to mention that Redux will take place the same year the OG show came out, 2004. So the tech that Tucker salivates over will be tech that's dated by our standards, he still uses a PDA like a cell-phone, and carries around a lot of big chunky gadgets like portable CD players and such. While he is mostly a programming guy, he will build and invent things, and will help Danny do the same. He invented Danny's goggles and co-invented the Thermos with Danny.

Tucker is the most emotionally available of the trio, he doesn't always have solutions but he's willing to hear people out, and with his weak constitution he is the least fond of fighting, tho not purely pacifistic. He is the most outgoing of the group as well, but doesn't desire popularity, he's pretty satisfied with his lot in life. He's just a pretty amicable guy and likes to talk a lot. Like in the show, he's been friends with Danny for the longest, and knows him the best.

"Time to hack the mainframe..."

*swats away computer*

"Hello! This is the front desk, right? Sorry, I'm new and no one's told me the company password yet..."

I'd also take out his more wannabe-casanova traits, cause it's just kind of uncomfortable. I see him as more of a jughead-type, commenting on the drama and romance from the sidelines while never himself being too interested in it. He'll still joke about ladies loving him, but it'd be more tongue-in-cheek and self-aware.

Overall he tends to try to outsmart or talk his way out of situations, which can be a huge help, but also sometimes makes things worse. His smooth-talking has a 50/50 success rate.

He has a pretty good relationship with his parents, but can be kind of distant with his Dad, who is pretty overbearing and really wants Tucker to follow in his footsteps as the Mayor. It would be a running joke that Tucker is so disinterested in being the Mayor that he often times doesn't even justify his dad with a response. He will literally just leave if he can tell that that's where a conversation is going.

Sam is probably the character that would be overhauled the most. The OG Sam isn't terrible, but is very obviously an attempt at a counter-cultural character by people who know nothing about counter-culture.

The biggest change I'd make is that she no longer comes from old money. I get what the OG show was trying to do, but even as a little kid I couldn't really buy it or her whole rebellious thing. Not when she still greatly benefited from her family's money.

Instead, she comes from a well-off upper middle-class house, and she hates her parents. Not just because they don't understand her, but because her parents are actually horrible. Her Dad is a lawyer who is always looking for loopholes to get the rich out of trouble, and her Mom runs an MLM selling cheap clothes to desperate housewives (Think LuLaRoe). Her parents don't not love her, but they are deeply terrible people who, at the end of the day, only really care about themselves. Sam has sworn to do everything in her power to not be like them. The only reason she hasn't run away is because they're not home often enough for her to have to deal with them too much.

Danny: "Ow! Watch where you're poking!"

She tries to do as much on her own as she can, up to and including making basically everything she wears out of discount clothes and thrift shop purchases. While she does get an allowance, she doesn't spend any of it, she's saving her money so that she can leave home the moment she turns 18 and never look back. She is more interested in fashion than she often lets on, and dreams of running an eco-friendly fair trade boutique. After destroying capitalism, of course. She designed and made the alterations to Danny's jumpsuit, with the help of spectral thread that Danny had invented for her birthday.

In this series, Sam isn't just a holier-than-thou goth girl, she's a full-on anarchist punk-rock bitch, and she's proud of it. She will always speak her mind when she feels an injustice is taking place, and unlike in the OG series, Danny and Tucker will usually be there to back her up. That said, there's plenty that she gets up to on her own, she has had her brushes with the law, she's gotten into fights, she does not protest peacefully, and she usually doesn't involve Danny or Tucker because she doesn't want them to feel obligated to help her and then get hurt because of it.

She is strongly antisocial, and generally pretty closed off. She is the type of person who will listen to everyone's problems but won't speak about her own unless pushed. She is deeply loyal to and protective of her friends, sometimes to the point of being a little overbearing.

As for Danni, I certainly have thoughts, but I haven't settled completely on how she would fit in to the overall story. I do want her to be in the series, I just need to figure out what her deal would be.

EDIT! Completely forgot to answer the second part of the question!

The biggest change I'm looking forward to is giving Valerie more screen time, haha.

[a-x-ce]

Keep rereading that romance in OP post 'cause honestly it has me thinking about the current options for endgame partnerships.

I put Kaya and Usopp as the most obvious 'cause it literally is. I mean hell we just saw Kaya and a panel of Usopp's 3 veggie friends with them literally pointing out how lucky he is to have a woman like her waiting for him to come home and heal any of his wounds...like please. I miss the days when it was shown how often he thought about her too, making snow statues of her, drawing her, stuff like that.

It's also been heavily implied there WILL be more between Sanji and Pudding. I don't know to what degree Oda will go with them but at some point she has to return his memory of her kissing him, and his reaction to that 'cause hello, that's the first woman to fully and completely return his affection. I know Viola seemed close but I just don't think they got enough in Dressrosa to go further and not much else to imply they'll have more chances to see each other. Pudding has so much set-up to stay a part of Sanji's story past everything that happened in WCI, I firmly believe he'll be the one to save her once the Straw Hat's finally face the Blackbeard pirates.

Less certain but there's also Hiyori and Zoro. I'm not sold on it just yet 'cause Zoro did not care when they parted. I know a lot of people see him and Tashigi and like...eh. All Zoro sees when he's forced to interact with her is Kuina, and Zoro wasn't in love with Kuina, she's his rival and his ''goal''. In order for Tashigi and Zoro to work even remotely that would have to be addressed in full. Semi-likely he ends the series with no partnership though.

I think Chopper's only option is Milky LOL (reindeer mink from Zou) 'cause like...yeah, he can't and doesn't find any appeal in human women, and he's been thoroughly and completely rejected by actual reindeer. He's not even physically or mentally compatible with full animal reindeer anymore thanks to his DF. He could talk with them sure, but would he find a life of a common animal fulfilling if he were try and return to it for partnership? Highly doubtful. Otherwise, Chopper endgame has no love interest, 'cause he's baby (I know he's canonically 16 but shut up I can't accept it).

Two characters in the SHs that are obviously not getting any endgame relationships are Brook and Jinbe, one's literally dead and the other is already well into his adult life having had no prior showcases of being in or pursuing a partnership. It'd be kinda weird to shove one in for Jinbe at this stage in the series or going forward when we're in the final saga with few arcs left.

Luffy remains our aroace king and I hope he stays that way but IF Oda were to pull a Dragon Ball on us then he's done enough work for Hancock to make her the most obvious choice. She loves him, and he at least respects her, which isn't love but who knows. Luffy is not incapable of deep love as clearly shown in this series, it's just not been of the romantic kind and he feels no sexual attraction toward anyone. But honesty if Luffy ends the series with no clear partner I'll cry tears of joy he avoided the shounen curse of getting a bad haircut before being married off with kids for the inevitable sequel.

Nami is a lesbian hasn't been presented with a clear partnership either. So many people ship her with 1 or more men of the crew but aside from that she hasn't interacted enough with any characters that make it clear if she has an endgame partnership. However, there is still time I think...'cause we still don't have all of Nami's backstory. We still know nothing about Oykot and Bellemere finding Nojiko and Nami in those ruins, the fact she was smiling/laughing through the despair (very D. coded) and so that leaves it open for more story for her, where a potential love interest could still be introduced. Otherwise, she may also end the series not paired up.

I'd also throw Robin and Franky in the group of 'no ending partnerships' but for different reasons. Franky because he, like Jinbe, has gone most of his life not being presented as pursuing or caring about that. Franky already has a family, the Franky family, consisting of all his brothers and sisters. He's content with his ragtag-found family back in Water 7, he's always been happy with that dynamic since he was raised that same way by Tom with Kokoro (who were not a couple, just business partners/friends) and Iceburg. If Franky having a love interest was something Oda cared about he'd have sprinkled in any kind of element of interest in his backstory, or showcased him having any type of reaction in the current story from his introduction. But there's nothing, the only reaction of excitement Franky ever showcases is toward cool-ass tech and Vegapunk LOL

Robin because she's only just now fully coming into her own thanks directly to the Straw Hats. Robin's been isolated and burned by people her whole life, it took the events of Enies Lobby for her to FINALLY accept that her crew loves her unconditionally. For her to go from only accepting and loving them thanks to a lot of work to falling for some other person she's met or yet to meet would be interesting to say the least. She'd have to have a good relationship with that person already to some degree to open up to them. Which is why there are people who are open to the idea of her being with Law (they also have several similarities akin to Pudding and Sanji, plus all the time he was with them through multiple arcs has made the crew comfortable with him, including scenes with them specifically). But otherwise, I don't see her in a relationship either in the end of the series.

I guess in conclusion I can only really see 3, maybe 4 out of the 10 current SHs being in a relationship by the time OP ends. I can also see an ending where none of them are ever officially paired off but instead it's left open on where everyone went after completing their dreams/goals and parting ways as the Straw Hats. I'll be interested in seeing what Oda does with them compared to how he left Roger's crew.

[arcplaysgames]

God Margaret you are like so pretty?

So yeah on the final day of the game, I'm gonna shoot my shot, why not

.... oh. dang. /tugs collar

I mean, I expected nothing less from her, she was the one who started the Empress SLink really, not me. She had that fucking incredible line, something like "Entangle me in your string of fate," it was gorgeous.

I'm mostly sad Margaret isn't even more of an option because I find her really interesting and very, very charismatic. Being around her feels like being around someone who is much more important than you are but she still decides to grace you with her attention.

As an Empress, she's an interesting choice. The Empress is seated, is passive in her observation of her kingdom, but holds a wand aloft. And Margaret's was certainly instrumental in using power to illuminate the path for Reverie. She makes for a rather cold temperament, but her efficacy cannot be argued with.

Also she KISSED REVERIEEEEEEE. gosh. golly.

Character Accuracy to Their Arcana: Six out of Ten.

OH RISE. You know I have no idea if I would say I "liked" Rise but my got was she like.... the exact chaos the group needed. Teddie and Rise both brought a tremendous amount of energy to the team, both joining at the same time too.

I really admire how decisive Rise is. Which, of course, Lovers, obviously. She may struggle to figure out what exactly she wants, but once she does, she already has her shoes tied tight and is headed forward. And her journey being set up from the start with her Shadow, how there is no such thing as the True Self, and how that continues to be the core of her arc was really very fucking good.

Character Accuracy to Their Arcana: 10 out of 10, honestly.

Marie is great but does suffer a lot from being added into the game. There is a very inorganic element to her. However, given what we learn about her, that she's a creature of the other world meant to doom humanity, that she's almost a cuckoo bird in the human nest, it... sort of makes perfect sense, doesn't it? That she feels so Off.

That's making excuses for the game honestly but I'm gonna do it because while the way she fit into the game was always very pasted on, her voice acting was honestly great and smoothed over a LOT of issues I had with her. Like, I could sit here and point out the flaws but why? I like her enough.

Character Accuracy? Abstain, as I'm not very familiar with the Aeon.

I feel like i don't even need to say anything about Kanji. I'm willing to wager if you could make a pie chart of every dialogue box I screencapped, Kanji would have an outsized percentage.

I came into Persona 4 Golden with carefully calibrated expectations. I Fully expected to be deeply disappointed in Kanji's writing. But he started out amazing and he literally never ceased being amazing. This is the guy who punched his own shadow and affectionately told him to get up because any shadow of his could take a punch. This is the guy who makes "very elaborate" dolls for sad children. This is the guy who is willing and ready to beat up someone if that'll save them. He's the heart of the fucking team and he hits like a mack truck. I love Kanji.

IF ONLY HE WERE ROMANCEABLE. GODDAMMIT.

Character Accuracy to Their Arcana: Solid 7 out of 10. I still think Dojima would have been a better fit but Kanji's dedication to taking ownership and care of his community is very Emperor.

shut up kanji you aren't allowed to make me cry twice in one playthrough

Best Girl Yukiko.

God, she is so weird. She's so heartfelt. She's so funny. Her arc makes a tremendous amount of sense. She's selfish and mean, she's generous and kind. She got drunk off the atmosphere in Iwatodai. She never talks about Chie as much as Chie talks about her. My heart aches for her, and I hope she's made the right decision to stay. I hope she'll have the strength to leave later if she discovers it wasn't.

I hope she and Kanji become best friends.

Character Accuracy to Their Arcana: 0 out of 10, she and Yosuke shoulda swapped.

[canonicallysoulmates]

You know when the ending is so bad it ruins the whole book?

That's how I feel about Tale of the Body Thief.

Disclaimer: I will be talking about the last chapter of this book so trigger warning for talk about rape. I will give a second trigger warning before I talk about it so if you want you can read the rest of this post and stop there or if it's triggering you can skip this whole post, and I recommend also skipping the book.

The first half I liked just fine, I have a whole separate post about it but basically, I felt very 50/50 I didn't care for the plot but there were some things I found interesting. At the time I would have given it a solid 3.5 stars. Then I got to the second half

Turns out the interesting stuff is only in the first half.

I don't know what it is about how this is written but I just don't care about the plot like I want Lestat to have his body back and I'm glad he does get it back but I'm not sucked into the story, and at first, I thought this was due to me already knowing that he does get his body back but then I remembered that I went into QOTD knowing quite a bit about it and the story still managed to pull me in and I got invested. That did not happen here. I'm deducting points.

I hate that Louis didn't help Lestat. I get that it was in character but I hate it. Not gonna take points away from it because of this but I will, however, take points away because of how fucking annoying I found Louis in that scene. I am on Lestat's side when it comes to burning his house down because he was practically begging Louis, trying to make him understand how horrible this experience has been for him and how much he hates the body he's in, and Louis is not listening and acting as if Lestat doesn't know what he's talking about! It annoyed me on a personal level, and with that, this book has made me annoyed at both of my favorite characters. I'm taking points off.

I don't care much for David, and I borderline don't care for even the friendship aspect of his and Lestat's relationship. This book really wants to sell me this couple, and I'm not buying. I saw more chemistry between Lestat and Gretchen which was a sweet brief romance albeit a bit weird because of the whole tending to a sick guy in the hopes he'll be nice and take your V-card thing. I'm not holding this against the book in the sense of taking points away from it but it did affect my enjoyment of it.

Before I keep tearing into this book the sex scene between Lestat and Gretchen was unintentionally funny to me because "I let my hand slip to the little doorway" I can't take this seriously, "and I felt her open petal by petal" this is why I stick to ao3 for all my smutty needs.

By this point, the book is sitting at a 2.5, Lestat has annoyed me once again by not realizing that David was not David and this was literally me with every page I turned

Then I read the final chapter and this plunged from 2.5 to 1.5 that's how much I hate David's transformation scene.

Once again, trigger warnings for mentions of rape.

I hate this moment for several reasons, the first and most obvious one being that Lestat forces himself on David. David is struggling, he's fighting back, he's trying to run away, he's telling Lestat no and asking him not to do this but Lestat does it anyways, and it would have been bad enough if he had grabbed David, bit him and turned him but he prolongs it, he drinks some of his blood he lets him go then captures him again this happens like three times with each time David trying to stop him. This person who was the only one there for him during his time of crisis, this man who Lestat is supposed to love so much he not only violates his bodily autonomy but he prolongs the horrible experience playing with him as a cat does with a mouse.

And I understand that Lestat is capable of doing horrible things, I get it it's a part of his character but this is also a character that it has been established was traumatized by having his own bodily autonomy taken away and being forcefully turned into a vampire. I would argue that we see part of this trauma in the first half of this very book because one of the reasons Lestat wants to be human again is that he wishes he could go back to when he was safe in his childhood home with his dogs before he faced the wolves, caught Magnus's attention and was turned.

To make it worse you have him thinking "Yes, fight, fight me as I fought Magnus. So sweet that you are fighting me. I love it. I do." What the fuck. Again, this is a character who has been on the other side of this type of traumatic experience.

And to make it, even more, worse, this is the second rape scene in this book. Because earlier in the book when Lestat was a mortal he forced himself on a waitress. Both scenes were unnecessary, one was more than enough, why two? why?

And after he forced himself on the waitress he felt bad because he knew he had done something horrible and yet here he is doing the vampire equivalent to his best friend. And this whole thing comes out of nowhere because yes, Lestat has been wanting to turn David for a long time but up until this point no matter how painful it was for him he had been respectful of David not wanting to be turned.

I cannot wrap my head around him doing to someone he cares about the same shit Magnus did to him.

This book could have had such a lovely ending if it had stopped at Lestat lighting the candle, and if Rice wanted David as a vampire it could have been done in so many better ways sincerely when the show gets to adapting this book I hope it either completely changes or completely disregards this last chapter. The only things I really want to see from this book to the show is Lestat being haunted by Claudia, Mojo, who is the best part, and possibly Rue Royale being restored.

There were things I liked, so I can't say it's all bad, but ultimately, I can see why this book is so hated. I, too, hate it.