#and then I feel bad cause all my ships and main characters I'm obsessed over are men

[girlscience]

I hate getting into something that has a canon(ish) sapphic couple, but I only end up caring about one of the two women 😭😭😭

[clubpenguinthrowaway-blog]

Garykernal or known as Runin, Module0, Mothnwizard, Blaketwo, or any other possible account is a stalker. There is more under the cut. More parts will be posted, We have to break up all of this into segments. Keep in mind, Gary is 25 through this all. The person who is a victim allowed for at least their age to be stated, that being 19. There is a minor in this situation, but for now this post is about the oldest of the victims.

Green's Story

This user has stalked and harassed a club penguin blog for some time now. Unfortunately, this blog had to be created to warn other users about this person. Green is a victim of Gary's behavior. They did not know Gary very well. Written by them, they said this to me:

"I vaguely knew them, like you pass by this person on Tumblr and like a few posts and I saw them in a discord (they got invited by someone) but after all this they got banned from said discord. They obsessed over me to an unhealthy degree, I kinda just rarely replied to the dms they sent. They only knew me for a week before confessing they were in love with me. I wasn't interested, I was kind in turning them down because I didn't want to date anyone. I was clear in this, though things persisted. Gary would flirt with me, yet I wouldn't fully process it nor did I really want to engage with it. It was clear to everyone around that it was uncomfortable. I was scared to say anything in fear of causing issues. Well, guess that went out the window considering how this went down. They would draw ship art of themself and I. My sona isn't a sona, it's my real physical self. They had an entire whiteboard fox where they drew us kissing and whatnot. Sorry White, I rather not send that to you. They would ask me to send them images and tag it as us when I didn't know them well and sure that isn't a horrible thing to do, though they crossed my boundaries a lot. They had brought up my abusers in a conversation at random while I was already stressed out. I asked them to stop at the time, they did not respect that. I ignored them even more at one point, my friends knew how overwhelmed and scared I was to come out about anything. They were my rock in this time. Yet, I was still functional with what I knew at the time. I thought it was a baseline creepy stalker they couldn't have gotten any worse than this and I'm just pissed they harassed my friend Coral because I blocked Gary and decided I had to cut them off. They were bad for my mental health, they were bad for me. In the screenshots I sent you, it all came down because they decided to look up my old username (which I did not tell them at all so they had to go digging for that) and then dmmd me about it and it felt off. Thank god I cut them off then. From what I learned recently, not only did Gary have a shrine of me, but Gary had drawn porn of them and I. When I learned this, I threw up not only because it was of me when I, in fact, do not like to be sexualized nor would it even be a normal and sane thing to just draw nsfw of a real physical person. That's just gross. I'm not a fucking oc nor am I a character from a media. I'm a real person. Flesh and blood. Yellow and I were mortified, Yellow being my current partner who has known me for years before we started to even date. Yellow had to comfort me when I left my college classroom to go throw up. All of my friends were in my dms trying to comfort me, tell me it was ok, but I feel violated. I don't care if it's stupid that I feel that way, I'm not famous. I'm not someone that should be sexualized. I'm a victim of CSA and SA, this gave me paranoia and a flare up in pstd. I know this is heavy. I hope you're able to speak for the other victims too. Coral I feel bad for, they were harassed by Gary and now a friend of Gary's to let Gary contact me after I blocked them. I'll pass you onto Coral now, after that I think you should talk to the minor who Gary sent nsfw dms to as well. Red I feel most bad for. I know that I'm the main victim of Gary, but dear lord did Red go through shit."

Green stated that they felt bad for how they typed everything out a bit messy. They wanted to get their feelings out so I reassured them it was fine. This is Green's final messages with Gary. After the final message Gary sent, they blocked them.

I asked Green for any final comments on this. "I know that I only have these screenshots to back up my end of things, though Coral has some and Red has a ton. Though if I had to state any last thing to Gary and their system, especially from my system- Yellow and I together in this, fuck off. Delete that gross porn you made of me you vile freak. You're one of three people now I can never forgive in my lifetime. I hope no one has to deal with the shit I did. To your system, if anyone has a shred of sense in it, destroy that shrine to me. Scrub away every single little bit of ship art or nsfw art that Gary made of me. God forbid this, if anyone else drew art of us together I hope they block you. Stay away from me, stay away from my system, and stay away from my friends and my family. I can't forgive you for the trauma you put on me. Maybe someday you'll be a better person, but people who send nsfw messages to minors deserve to burn. I hope Red is able to recover from this like everyone hopes I do."

Thank you Green for letting me post this. I wish the best for you and your recovery.

Coral's story -> Red's story/closing statements

[spicysix]

20 Questions for Writers

I was tagged by @missberrycake thank you lovely ♡

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

38!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

115,027!!! that's so many words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

currently, only Stranger Things. before, i've written for a bunch of RPF - McFly, The Maine, One Direction. don't think i had ever written for a show/movie before

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

crush crush crush - steddie X reader

fuck-marry-kill - steve X reader

it feels like i'm going home - eddie X reader

now i'm ready to start - eddie X reader

love sneaked in with the smell of you - eddie X reader

i find it very funny that my top 5 (actually, my top 9!!!) it's all reader inserts. didn't think they'd be popular at Ao3 hah

5. Do you respond to comments?

i do!!! currently i have a lot of comments to answer to, because i've been a little away from fandom and specifically from writing since last year, and haven't found it in myself to answer them. but i will!!!!! someday

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

me and you (we can't lose) [eddie X reader] definetely. canon compliant. that's all needed to understand lmao but some of the drabbles for my Forever Halloween Challenge are also very angsty and gory

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

basically all my other fics have happy endings, so that's a hard thing to answer lol i think it's relative

8. Do you get hate on fics?

never did, thankfully!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i've only ever wrote one smut scene for going home and nothing else in english. in portuguese, i've had a series of three short smut fics that i never finished lol. it's not my thing and it's hard for me to do it because of the language barrier in english, i feel insecure about it. i just prefer writing pure fluff in general

10. Do you write crossovers?

never did, no, cause it's usually not something i like to read as well

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

also not that i know of but that would be so nice if done with permission!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

also no. i think i'd have a bit of a hard time, but wouldn't be opposed to it

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

i'll say that nothing has ever got me as much as Steddie before. i've always been a reader insert girlie, besides the first fics that i've ever read (Jemi - joe jonas X demi lovato) fics, i'm pretty sure Steddie was the only characters ship that i've read and got completely obsessed over

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

your sweater (up over your head) [stonathan]. this fic is very special to me and a personal challenge in many ways, and i'd love to finish it someday but i'm not sure i'll get back to writing ST, so it's a hard chance

16. What are your writing strengths?

i'd say dialogue! it flows very naturally to me

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

description. haaaate describing things, scenarios, clothes, faces, animals, whatever. i think i'm really mediocre if not entirely bad at it

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

if it's through someone's specific POV, i'm in favor of writing as the character understands it - so if they understand the language, keep it translated and just describe that it was in another language; but if they don't understand, then don't translate either. then you can either put it on a note or make the character who said it translate it. but also, if it's too big of a text, i think it can be annoying. so, mostly short phrases it's good

19. First fandom you wrote for?

McFly rpf reader insert

20. Favourite fic you've written?

ahhh that is such a hard question, i love all my fics so dearly. but i'm gonna go with going home because it's my first and only finished long chaptered fic, and all the research i did for it and everything else involved in writing it that made it a bit more special

Tagging (no pressure): @marvel-ous-m @hbyrde36 @stellarspecter @starryeyedjanai and anyone else who sees it and wants to join in!

[dootznbootz]

A favorite type of ship dynamic? And one you don't like? (the type that would put you off reading or watching the story for example)

Thank you so much, Dear Anon. This was super fun and I got really introspective with it. It'll be long and all over the place lol

Disclaimer: If any of my notps or least favorite ship dynamics are ones you enjoy or even have irl, please know that this is not to shame anyone in any way. I'm just talking about my stupid opinions. Just because I'm explaining why something isn't my cup of tea doesn't mean you have to spit out said tea or feel bad about enjoying it.

I'll be upfront and mention how I'm asexual so that REALLY affects how I view shipping and romance as a whole. As for my notps and ships I don't vibe with I believe are deeply affected by that.

Honestly? For me to like a ship, all they gotta do is be a bit silly/chaotic and absolutely fucking devoted to each other. I would go as far as to say a possible mutual obsession lol.

For my FAVORITES though, Usually it's the CIRCUMSTANCES they go through that really makes me "click" with them though. I like a good balance of silly and dark. As I can vibe with MANY relationship dynamics but if they went through some very neat and compelling shit??? Or just how many of their decisions are deeply rooted in how much they care for one another??? ughhhh I love that. I think it's cause I'm often bursting with love and affection for people in general so I just love exploring that in media as well.

And I won't lie, I like nonhuman aspects as neurodivergent feels 🥹 Also cool as fuck

I also tend to gravitate to ships that give at least semi-aspec vibes.

I like being gay about smart women. I go feral at the sight of Penelope, Lucy, and Zelda.

All three have the "guy being from less prosperous place/standing, Woman being of "high class" with the guy ending up being "worthy" in some way anyway. (Link is the Chosen Hero, Natsu is technically a prince/demon, Odysseus' name is literally part of the title) so there's probably something there.

I'll go into specifics on similarities and things I love about my main ships (OdyPen, NaLu, ZeLink) at the end :D as I get silly.

Now for the bitterness of Notps bit before getting silly with comparing my faves:

One huge one I genuinely have a hard time understanding is "These two are hot! It would be even hotter if they fucked! I ship them!". If a ship needs to have sex or physical attraction, to exist or that's the ONLY appeal about it then that's an immediate no for me. To me, JUST ME, sex is a horrible foundation to start a relationship on as I don't understand it. I often times forget sex exists so I do not understand the whole "wouldn't it be hot?" part of shipping. I'm a "Wouldn't it be cute/funny/wild?" person lol. Ships only become "hot" AFTER I see the relationship between them. Sex can (and often is) be a part of a ship (I mean, OdyPen has a canonical child) but if it's the first "building block" or the "foundation", I'm out. To me, that's like building an upsidedown pyramid.⯆It's going to fall over and there will be bricks and destruction. (One of my big ships is in an anime with a shitton of fanservice. I fucking hate it but that's just... the world they're in. Not necessarily because of what THEY do. And the dynamic is just that fucking good that I can just grimace through it.)

That goes hand in hand with "Ohhhh so much tension!" and then perceiving that as romantic? Like if you're mad, you're mad. If you hate them, you hate them. For complex reasons? Yeah, but I really don't like seeing a character be genuinely mean to another with only SMALL moments of "nice" in between. I've seen enough of that irl and I'm so tired. Shipping is supposed to be FUN, not stressful. There's bickering and natural fights but there are some ships where they're literally PURPOSEFULLY hurting one another and I can't stand it personally. Most of my visceral notps are because there is a "I'm hurting you, I'm enjoying it/don't care". There can be tension/bullying (not teasing) for like, one or two episodes for me to care for a ship but if it goes longer than that and/or never resolved, that's not a ship, that's a dynamic.

Exploring toxicity as a character dynamic and how it affects characters??? SURE! I even do that! :D But to see that in a romantic light? No. Not for me. No thank you. Please separate them. They will kill each other and one will end up scarred for life in order to still be in character.

also the "I must completely change this character for the ship to work". For an AU? Sure! For the canon stuff? No. I don't like to cut up an already neat puzzle piece in order to "smooth them down" so that it can fit with a completely different puzzle. If the puzzle pieces never have a fit? That's okay! :D

I think a lot of it is because I'm a weirdo who is like "Let's make this world as fantastical as possible and make the RELATIONSHIPS grounded in reality as possible. I get silly with it sometimes but there will always be some grounded reason that I can pull from 'canon' to justify it. lol".

Sometimes it's the fandom that will ruin it COMPLETELY for me. I could tolerate it before, but now it's blocked because it makes me so mad. Especially when they make shit up about one character to justify "hating" them. They don't have to be your favorites, but at least tag it right! I've also noticed a pattern of just hating female characters because of it. If you hate Lucy Heartfilia or say some bullshit about how she's whiny or weak, Natsu and I would like to have a word with you. I swear on fuck if you're all bent up outta shape because Zelda, a 17 year old in most games, is a bit of a mess at some points, I'll start my own yiga clan of assassins just to take you out. I've thankfully only seen ONE bullshit for Penelope but holy fuck. shut up.

Okay, got the bitterness outta me so now let's have some fun.

*opens briefcase and presents the "special bonded pairs of Mad"*

Time to ramble about my sillies.

I mentioned before about how most of their decisions are very much centered around each other or even what they do for one another.

Zelink: Lil hard to explain as I enjoy all incarnations (Though OoT and Botw/TotK are probably my faves) but in all games, regardless, they are intertwined. They protect one another and fight for one another. I love the dynamic of commoner and royalty as that's very juicy. "I don't care what people say, I love you."

Nalu: Intelligent heiress runs away from home to escape an arranged marriage and where her father only sees her as an object. She meets lil shit dragon man demon and her life is absolutely changed and she changes so many of the lives around her. Lucy is the main character, she just is. It's not Natsu. Fight me. Lucy literally gets BURNED when she was saving him. Not letting go despite that it was hurting her. She rewrote his grimoire to save him. Many people see/saw him as a monster but he never will be one to her. Natsu uproots a fucking TREE and sends it down the river outside her house so she could see it's "once a year blossoms" as she was too sick to go. He is her biggest cheerleader. Even when he doesn't understand why she's so excited about something, he does it happily because he cares. She is what helps him become friends with others. (poor guy was too "weird") Her "dying" is what unlocked E.N.D. She's what brings him back constantly. They are best friends, (also yeah, demon dragon man still being loved despite how strange he is? yes please)

Odypen: Holy shit. He looks over the most beautiful woman in the world to marry her, racing her father for her. She leaves her more "prosperous" home in order to live with him on his "rock". The entire Odyssey and Iliad is him fighting to get back to HER. He will never give up. Goddesses are nothing compared to her. He respects and adores her so much, to the point where he is placing himself, his wants and needs, beneath her own. And she will never give up on him. She stalls and never wants to be with any other even if he is dead. No other man is like him. She will protect their son, putting herself in harm's way so he has a home to come back to because he makes Ithaca her home. :'D (Water Wife being seen with heart eyes despite how strange she is and "better" opportunities? Man so fucking traumatized and "ruined" is still "her Joy" regardless? YES! YES PLEASE!)

I just fucking realized that fucking trees are important to them all xD Rainbow sakura for Nalu, Deku Tree for Zelink, and Treebed for Odypen.

All are silly in their own way. All will ALWAYS choose their "person". Odypen is definitely the most morally gray and the oldest lol (Though I do think Natsu would be like "you killed 108 people for her? Rad." It's just that FairyTail is "no deaths allowed") Penelope would be impressed by Lucy's tricks into getting things but then Lucy would be like "what?" as soon as she hears about the other shit Penelope's done. Link is horrified by Odysseus' warcrimes, and Odysseus gives him shit for "killing more than he has" and Link tries to defend himself by saying that they were monsters, not people. Penelope would catch frogs for Zelda. Zelda and Lucy would share books while Penelope would be like Wtf is a book?. Penelope and Natsu would be like "You got sharp teeth too?!" Odypen and Zelink would probably have a lot to talk about with "gods have affected our lives". Odysseus would be impressed by Natsu's property damage. Natsu would be so excited about the dragons in LoZ and think Zelda having been one is cool af (not knowing that it's a touchy subject)

Ugh, I'm getting so so silly. I love them all. They are so special.

Funny thing too? Gruvia (from Fairy Tail) and Menelaus and Helen (From the Epic Cycle) are both ships that are often intertwined with "my main" and both have the "quiet man and chatty woman" dynamic and I find that funny.

[vierandancer]

28!

TALK ABOUT MEME || ACCEPTING

28 - Your First Muse

I'm going to focus on my first muse I ever wrote on Tumblr specifically -- Edea Lee. And oh, Edea. You got done so dirty by your canon. Well okay, it's not that bad but in my perspective she was very disrespected by both the creators and the in-game characters.

Lemme just copy-paste something from my oldest archive blog --

Edea Lee is a playable protagonist from the “Bravely” series — Bravely Default and Bravely Second. Depending on the version you play, she is either 15 or 18 at the story’s start. In the case of this blog, Edea is portrayed as the North American game’s age of 18+. The daughter of the Grand Marshal of the Duchy of Eternia, Edea is a courageous young warrior with a strong sense of justice who isn’t afraid to fight for what she truly believes in. Originally ordered to arrest the Wind Vestal Agnes Oblige, she defected from her country’s army once she learned that her father’s orders were causing more harm than good to the people of Luxendarc. Over time, she came to understand that the concepts of good and evil are not so polarized that they can be seen as “black” or “white”, and overcame great difficulties— both externally and within herself. 

So the tl;dr is that Edea ends up betraying her homeland, and most importantly her father, by realizing Agnes isn't an evil witch and wanting to help the main party fix the world. She tries to make her comrades, former friends, and even family members see the truth -- and ends up having to kill all of them. They then go into a timeloop thing and do it 3 times.

She has a father who doesn't communicate and neglects her. A sickly mother who's been in hospital since she was born. A father-figure mentor who is clearly in love with her mother, enough to turn on Edea who was like a daughter for him (because by Edea changing sides she is now the enemy). She has an older foster brother figure who is clearly obsessed with her and her parents thought his romantic feelings for her were cute.

And then her actual love interest spends 80% of the game hitting on other girls (INCLUDING HER FRIEND AGNES) while insisting he's in love with her, but is actually in love with an idea of her he made up in his head. Then at the end of the game, he leaves.

Then in the sequel when all of the above is kind of resolved/smoothed over, Edea is still so torn up about love interest. And then he comes back, says he's not leaving her again, AND LEAVES AGAIN. And EVERY OTHER ROMANTIC SHIP IN THE GAME IS PRETTY MUCH OK (or dead together) EXCEPT FOR HER.

There was an implication in one of the time loops in I believe the second or first game that hinted at Edea becoming a villain. I was REALLY HOPING that was the case, because at least it'd make narrative sense rather than her being miserable good girl who takes on everyone's burdens. But then they made Bravely Default II and as far as I know, there's no connection.

OH, AND DID I MENTION WHERE SHES ORIGINALLY 15 AND PUT IN A SKIMPY BATHING SUIT AND AN OLDER DATE-RAPEY RED MAGE MAN DRUGS HER? ONE OF HER FATHER'S GENERALS? AND HE'S NOT DEAD IN THE SECOND GAME FOR DOING THAT?

I just... AGH. Justice for Edea Lee.

[carmelasopranono1defenseattorney]

oh my god i had no idea you were the one responsible for the what episode sopranos automated updates, thank you for doing that!! ohh i'm curious which shows you deliberately left out! i kind of threw everything i could think of at the wall so there's definitely room for some stuff to be culled also i have suchh a soft spot for nurse jackie, another one i've never revisited and it does apparently drop off really hard, i was pretty young when i watched it so i think i just ended up enjoying all of it because i wasn't as discerning as i am now (you also mention weeds and honestly i didn't list a single showtime show because they're all guilty of this sudden drop off towards the end, we could throw like shameless, dexter and more critically acclaimed shows that have been passed over. weeds is also fun cause in some ways it feels like a more light-hearted proto-breaking bad) the idea of multiple episodes a week is fun but i feel somewhat like a lot of people dropped off from the start of sopranos sunday and even now people will dip out for weeks at a time, i know at the start of sopranos sunday i was excited and wanted to do more but now i sometimes struggle to even watch the single episode a week so i think it might be a good idea to just stick with one show? if we did end up doing a classic sitcom or anything that's long with 20 minute episodes (not bojack horseman or schitt's creek because they still have 13 episode seasons) it could be fun to do two episodes a week because 20 minutes is so short and if we did something that's like 200+ episodes i would want it to not last like 10 years lol also good call on removing buffy i wasn't even sure whether i wanted to include it or not in the first place lol, i know almost nothing about dollhouse but it could be interesting! god this is already long i got carried away, under the cut i wanted to go through your criteria and say how i think certain shows would stack up

CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED

I think literally everything we've listed is critically acclaimed except for Black Sails (Black Sails does seem interesting though so I don't think this is disqualifying, I honestly feel like a huge part of black sails getting forgotten in critical discussions is literally just it airing on Starz which is a cursed network for some reason)

TUMBLR APPEAL I think Mad Men could have pretty big tumblr appeal if people watched it but it's already kind of flopped at the first hurdle with this poll. Bojack Horseman has a lot of similarities to Succession and The Sopranos that I think people would enjoy. I don't know why but I feel like Lost could be huge on tumblr, it has this huge sprawling interconnected cast and I feel like Game of Thrones was pretty big on tumblr (if you've heard that it dropped off in later seasons this honestly isn't true, if anything I think it kind of flops a bit in the middle and then picks back up, a lot of people were angry about the ending because I think they were like, expecting a big twist?? or something? which doesn't happen but i honestly think the ending is actually pretty satisfying. something that's worth noting though, for both this and the leftovers, although i don't think it took off in the way the Joss whedon callout did, is that the lead showrunner damon lindelof is an asshole who allowed a toxic and racist work environment to flourish and did nothing about it.) I think The Americans could be a hit because I feel like people were pretty into the Tom and Shiv failmarriage in Succession and that's what The Americans is all about. I think Six Feet Under could be a hit, I feel like people are loving Lauren Ambrose in Yellowjackets, one of the main characters is gay, and Lauren Ambrose's character feels like she absolutely would've been obsessed with tumblr if she'd been born like ten years later Halt and Catch Fire, I feel like the Donna x Cameron ship (two computer programmers who get fed up with their shitty marriages/relationships) could be huge on tumblr but it's. not canon. lol For shows that should probably be disqualified because they're already huge on tumblr and don't really need to be "discovered," I'd probably remove twin peaks, fleabag, breaking bad, succession, black sails, both my anime suggestions, and obviously hannibal. I also feel like schitt's creek is pretty big on tumblr already but i could be wrong DRAMA "BASED" I think we did pretty well with this one already, I'd throw weeds and orange is the new black in the "they kind of feel like comedies but they're serialized/there's drama to dig into it." (nurse jackie competed in comedy but is very much a "the bear" situation where like. this is not a comedy it just has 30 minute episodes) I literally haven't watched it since like 2004 but Desperate Housewives could be an interesting choice for that category as well lol. i also think what you're getting at with drama based also lends itself to the multi season long story arcs. I somewhat think doing a small show in between big shows could be interesting but if we're against that then scratch fleabag off the list BYGONE ERA Part of me is tempted to suggest like classic sitcoms which obviously fail almost all of your criteria but I think this most captures this bygone era, oh we have a show airing every week for like 8 months. my biggest issue here is some of these are like over 200 episodes long, where I think doubling up and watching two episodes a week might be better but that would still leave most of them being like twice as long as the sopranos lol. and of course if we want to dig into multi season long dramatic story arcs this is going to flop, but there are definitely still themes to dig into (I'm also like, I keep wanting to watch some of these older shows but it's such a commitment and watching just a few a week could be easier. but it makes sense that it's not really what people are looking for from sopranos sunday and it's not like we're lacking genuine prestige tv options to choose from) this kind of ended up just being rambly sorry aojdfdf just spouting thoughts

Just for fun nonbinding poll:

Just because we're a little over halfway and I keep thinking about 'West Wing might be fun' and 'Breaking Bad might be a good choice'

Also i know there's other golden age of TV shows that I left off deliberately due to quality decline in the last season(s) or because they're anthologies, you can guess what they are

[boilingheart]

i know its not quite the same scenario as navy seal, but ive highkey avoided ever talking about or publicly enjoying poly pirates content for the same kind of reason, but instead bc it involves shipping jay and chip.

like. yes, i know many people (including the jerboys) interpret them as having a more sibling-esque bond. I fully acknowledge it and I can even agree w it!* but i hate how it has been made that any other interpretation is not only wrong but also bad.

idk man like. i just hate how it feels like enjoying any dynamic of poly-pirates outside of fnc is wrong-- bc at that point, what is the point?

*i personally tend to see the two as very close, but the specifics of whether that closeness is platonic/familial or romantic depends on interpretation (whether of the individual, author, etc). they're two people who've found connection and safety in each other and also enjoy ribbing the other for jokes- what specific type of connection that is can vary for me, yknow? the type isnt the Core of their dynamic to me

(sorry the asterisk part got so long i just want to properly explain myself and dump a bit fjkdsjf)

Oh yeah, I'm 1000% with you on this. I mentioned navyseal cause that's my personal guilty pleasure that I am highkey obsessed with but had to keep it on the downlow after twitter decided it was just as bad as inc*st apparently (as someone who is very very deeply uncomfortable and revolted by that type of stuff in genuine, that shit pissed me off!!!), but this absolutely applies to Chip and Jay and polypirates as a whole. Hell, when I first started the show and didn't really have much fandom influence in my first 30 something episodes I was actually way more of a poly enjoyer

Anyways, as a whole I do sincerely think Chip and Jay work better as a platonic bond, I like this interpretation of their relationship better than romantic, but that doesn't necessarily make the ship bad or wrong you know? Literally ditto to everything you said in your asterisk I couldn't word it better myself.

Like bruh it really felt like these characters are stuck being bitchless fr LOL that whole twitter debacle made it feel like the only CORRECT ships were fnc and pistolwhip (as if fnc doesn't Also have some of the same dynamics listed in navyseal and chip/jay!! (although im certainly keeping my mouth shut further on that since people have started gunning to convince people fnc is a Bad Boring Ship, Actually, and it's better platonic (unrelated to the wlw vs mlm take that just happened there, big disclaimer (I spend too much time on twitter can u tell... there's so many shipwars there for no reason...))) anyways yeah there was just too many people trying to police these ships and instead of just being NORMAL and saying "oh X isn't my cup of tea I enjoy a familial/platonic bond between them instead" they start bending over backwards to prove that ACTUALLY it's PROBLEMATIC, SEE? And sourcing the boys' opinions on it doesn't Wholly matter to ships (unless it's in regards to boundaries, in which it Absolutely Matters) cause Bizly regularly dunks on fnc and that hasn't changed anything

This got very long winded sorry LOL I've been holding onto this irritation for a while now, it's one of the reasons why I'm trying to move away from twitter and come back to tumblr tbh. It is simply fandom culture to ship, and while I love fnc to absolute death as my main ship here, it's nice to explore some variety yk? navyseal has CRAZY potential cause of their parallels and their journey of self discovery and how much they deeply care for each other, polypirates is just a lot of fun altogether cause of all their personalities and that shared strong bond, then you have swordfish, fish² and chips, caspian/chip, marshall john/gillion, like, multishipping is FUN dude. Unless it's GENUINELY problematic or Actual Proshipping like twitter Claimed, I don't see the big idea. There is such thing as "Don't like, don't read". There is such thing as muting/blocking words and curating your own experience. You don't have to put down others because their enjoyment of something clashes with your personal interpretation of it. It's fandom bro!!!

[phoenixtakaramono]

So I'm here to say that I really love your Bingyuan fic! The research you do for it and share with us is just amazing! I also have a q regarding LBG. From SV we know that he felt admiration for his Shizun so do you think that if SJ wasn't cruel to him LBG's admiration would've grown into love and attraction like it did in LBH's case for SY? Which then also raises a question: would LBH/LBG fall in love with any Shizun who was kind to him? Or was he just drawn to SJ's type of personality. WDYT?

Hi there, Anon! I’m glad you’re liking the Untold Tale! Thanks for reading! I think it lowkey helps when the story I’m writing (in general) is from a culture I’m familiar with and that I know some of its language nuances (just general Mainland dialect; I’m unfamiliar with Shanghainese, the Beijing dialect, etc etc). So fortunately for me, as someone who is Chinese but was born in the Western side of the world speaking Mandarin to family and friends, emulating the Chinese aesthetic and atmosphere in TUT comes a little bit easier to me than someone who did not grow up with this culture. I bet if I had been raised in China, I would be able to write something even more multilayered and deep but, alas, the youthful rebellious me of the past hadn’t taken my pinyin and Chinese character writing lessons seriously so I can only communicate verbally and understand audibly 😫. It’s very special for us writers in fandoms to be able to write a story of a culture that we actually know and can identify with. But high key it’s been immensely fun injecting some references of things I’ve come to notice from watching period C-dramas and the C-novels I’ve read, and I’ve come to learn interesting things about Chinese history and mythology even I didn’t know! So the story really writes itself.

Shen Jiu (OG!Shen Qingqiu)

To answer your question 🤔, to be honest this is why the SVSSS fandom is great—because there’s so many interpretations of the original source material. That’s why we have our headcanons and fanfictions to explore these many different possibilities. So for me personally, I can see it happening both ways: *1) LBG does develop a crush/falls in love with SJ, or 2) no matter how SJ treats him LBG regards him respectfully or coldly. I think Possibility 1 is more likely, since SY transmigrated into SQQ and we saw what happened with “Bunhe.”

Now, mind, for Possibility 1 to be more likely to happen, the SJ in PIDW will have to undergo a massive personality change/ a change of heart/ develop a good conscience and will need to clean up his image aka clear up the massive misunderstandings from PIDW canon (like him being mistaken as a pervert for Ning Yingying, visiting whorehouses, killing LQG, etc). It’ll be difficult though considering who Airplane has changed SJ into for his stallion harem novel (reading through SVSSS, my impression of PIDW besides it being the harem stallion novel is that it sounds similar to a “dog blood plot,” where audiences tune in to see how the villains are brought to justice). I literally have a line from TUT in a future chapter where SY says this about SJ since I will resurrect SJ and bring him into the story for closure:

People like Shen Qingqiu naturally had a set of deeply-rooted values. If one wanted to change them, it’d be easier to just have them reincarnate. (—TUT, ch???)

At his core, he’s a flawed man (which makes sense with the underlying cycle of abuse theory, considering his upbringing and backstory). He’s jealous and petty and prickly. His image is that of a proud and cold immortal. In Chinese terms, he’s the type of character archtype who I can see being àojiāo (definitely not canon characterization; this is just a stray thought that amuses me) in a romantic relationship.

LBH will have to recognize that^, or be in a position where he finds SJ’s caustic side endearing instead. He will also have to be extremely patient with him (although, since the joke in SVSSS is that LBH is an incurable M, it shouldn’t be that hard).

A fun thing about OG!SQQ is that he’s the cannon fodder scumbag villain of PIDW. He’s the reason LBG blackened from a white lotus. And, as you know, villains aka antagonists aka bad boys resonate strongly with people for a reason. That’s why we see a lot of Enemies to Lovers tropes, etc. It squicks me to use this phrase but “the allure of dating a ‘bad boy’ is strong.” SJ is that type of bad boy we could identify as a “fixer-upper project” (ugh, that phrase)—even with the red flags and warning signs—especially for those said to have a troubled past with rejecting neglectful parental figures/ family members/ friends and have have not outgrown their wish to convert that sort of person into a loving, accepting person. When we want something we can’t or shouldn’t have, our desire for it grows exponentially. In fanfiction this is a concept writers and readers can explore safely in a world of the imaginary.

From a Meta Perspective

Although, if we look at it meta-ly, the cold and proud and/or knowledgeable Shizun (teacher/ master) character who comes to know love and “is redeemed” by whomever is the love interest (typically a cute and quirky girl who may or may not have started off as naive to the innerworkings of the Cultivation World and therefore needs an established and mature mentor to guide them) is a very well-known archetype for a reason in Chinese fan culture.

Seeing a terrible person change their ways and try to become a better person because of the influence of the one they love is also a popular depiction for a reason.

It’s almost like gap moe. The crueler and aloof one starts out as (arrogance is a staple), the more impactful the shift is when we see such characters soften their edges.

The draw of the sacred master/disciple relationship is that it’s taboo, so I think it’s fair to say that such a relationship in fiction is a popular trope precisely because of this aspect. From a writer’s perspective, the main appeal is to show that there is someone out there who can cause this respectful figure to lose control (undergo emotional change) and go to great lengths to protect his/her precious person. That precious person also has to fall into the “not like other girls” trope (so they can show the ML a different world he would not have seen the beauty of before). On the other side, we look forward to the point of the story where the love interest has their “Oh” moment and realizes their admiration has somehow shifted into love and attraction over the course of events.

Other Romantic Possibilities

It’s very likely. I personally like the fanon headcanon where anyone with Heavenly Demon blood running through their veins feels a compulsion to “obsessively fixate on one person” (TLJ —> SXY, LBH —> SQQ). Personally I don’t recall if this was canon or fanon, but someone had written something about LBH imprinting on one person in his lifetime on the account of his demon nature. And I like that theory (I think it’s likely more fanon than anything but it’s an intriguing idea full of possibilities!).

For him to fixate romantically on one person, I personally don’t think the prerequisite is just by being kind to LBH (but it probably adds to the person’s appeal). There’s probably other factors that go into this to capture the male protagonist’s eye, such as him finding someone attractive (or passes his own personal standards) and/or having good chemistry with that person. So I could see him being into other Shizuns and whomever else. Personally I also think there is appeal in the unobtainable. It’s one thing to have someone’s affection (see LBG and his harem of 600 wives who definitely aren’t shy about giving him affection), but it’s another to know you’ve earned the affections of someone you really like and respect (especially if it’s someone thought to be unobtainable).

As long as the writer can provide a plausible justification for me to suspend disbelief and they set up events to justify it, I can swallow just about any ship possibility. It doesn’t necessarily have to be SJ’s type of personality. (For example, I read a very good fanfiction before where the writer paired Luo Binghe with Ming Fan. Ming Fan, people!!! And they actually pulled it off! What a madlad! Mind, it’s Shen Yuan who had transmigrated into MF in that premise, but the writer set up events that showed how these two characters came to bond and develop a deep friendship which inevitably had LBH developing a crush on his shixiong. I use this as an example because this is the type of unexpected (crack)ship, but because the writer did their work trying to make it seem plausible, we can only admire their hard work and effort at pulling it off.)

As the saying goes, there are plenty of fishes in the sea! As the protagonist, LBH/LBG can have many OTP possibilities with just about anyone as long as the writer can make it plausible. It’s all about the character development and the story/ central themes they wish to tell with the ship!

(Note, these really aren’t hot takes, lol. I’m just having fun answering to this casually from the perspective of a writer. Thank you for your Ask, anon!)

[vidalinav]

tbh I feel so done with this series - and I only stayed because the Nesta book was coming in the first place. Like, I find it so interesting how people love to point out SJM her her thousands of problematic issues (as they should) but continue supporting her. It's ironic if you acknowledge the toxicity she promotes but spend money to get the book anyway. This is probably why I'm done with the series. Like do I still love Nesta very much? Yes! But I feel all the attention isn't going to make sjm change, instead give her the benefit of thinking people still obsess over her books

I don’t know how to respond to this. TBH. So I’ll try my best. But it is your right to leave the fandom, everyone grows out of content, or gets tired of certain things, or favors one character over another, gets disappointed. It’s chaos to get obsessed over a book series or a television show or whatever. I happen to really love chaos, so I’m really okay with this. I will complain about it loudly, but at the core I LOVE chaos.  

I generally like how SJM writes, and for the most part it’s not too bad, on a regular basis. It’s just with this book for some reason, things were just wayyy lower quality in specific areas. Which again I really hold against her editor and her friends who did not tell her that so many things were inaccurate to what she herself wrote or was just plain stupid. I don’t find her writing any more problematic than any other person’s writing. Personally I feel that every piece of media consumed is problematic at its core. All human beings are problematic and therefore anything that features them should probably portray a level of wth is going on? Of course, this doesn’t mean you should love it or want it or promote ideals that are wild or immoral, but just that it’s impossible to get around and very subjective to the nature of things. I really don’t think SJM is THAT bad, but she did make a book that could have been WAY better and I will stand by that claim. She’s a writer that needs growth as much as her characters, maybe needs different point of views to really show her where she can flourish. But again, the process of promoting, the instagram lives, the covers, the actual book makes it seem to me that it’s an institutional problem rather than one SJM herself is actively trying to do. So I feel for her if that’s the case. 

I also can’t say what will happen in the next book. So it could be actually really great, which would be sort of disappointing because Nesta’s arc deserved sooo much better. It could also be really shitty and at that point than you can be like (if you haven’t already) well this fucking sucks I can’t stay any longer, which maybe will happen. (Shrugs) I don’t know. I personally just don’t like waiting for anything. I’m very very impatient. So I hate that I don’t know what’s going to happen in respect to who the next POVs are. Because tbh if we knew that, it would be fairly easy to connect dots on how this is going down. It would be a relief but I’m also sure she might lose some fans with whatever she chooses. 

But I’m going to be completely honest and say I am here for Nesta. I want to see Nesta from every POV. I hope to god she still causes problems and is the character that is a main focus even if she’s not always in the light, even if she’s completely sweet and I don’t recognize her and she’s fully IC, I’ll take it! Because well I read the whole ACOTAR series, reading for Nesta in Feyre’s POV, and I thought it was fine. I wrote fanfiction for three years based on small snippets. SO, look I’ll die with this fandom who’s yelling blasphemy about Elriel or Elucien or Mor and Emerie, or Gwynriel, or Anti-Rhysands, Anti-ICs, Anti-Amrens, I’ll even chant yell louder, but instinctively I’m like take your fucking ships, your opinions, because as long as Nesta is featured in that book, I’m good to go. 

I’ll stay for my girl and that is the truth. 

[redxblueihateloveyou]

Hey!! 👋🏽😄 I know you said in your last rant about SK8 and Reki and Renga that you were one of those people that always looks up and learns from others, but after your last Langa edit, I just wanted to remind you how immensely talented you are. I might have not seen your first attempts at editing, but I know how it looks like when you're barely starting something, and I'm sure everyone is proud of the progress you've made and many people looks up to you as the level of skill they want to achieve. You're doing amazing! 💖💖💖

Hi, my love!!!!!! ASDFSDFGHG that’s soooo sweet, thank you so much for saying this, it really means the world to me <3 Oh, haha I’ve deleted most of my old videos so it wouldn’t hurt anyone’s eyes lmao T_T I’m still a bit nervous each time I’m uploading my vids to the day to be honest, even with so many subs rn, but at first I really didn’t have any supporters at all and my god I sucked at this, but I guess the love for my fav ships was stronger apparently haha. So I always get silly happy at each nice comment and feedback, so thank you seriously. 

I really love love love vidding, Idk why but when smth comes out the way I wanted it’s a super addictive feeling for some reason, but many times I just looked at the final result and just threw it in the trash and started over and my god how many times SonyVegas crushed and didn’t autosave the project. I’m like Suga now, I’m pressing the save button each 2 minutes, cause don’t want to lose anything xD Being someone’s inspiration is truly an honor to me, I’ve got some messages that hit me too hard. Still feels weird bc I’m like “but do you know that I can’t even use photoshop tho, how do u like me now then?” lol.

I’m always drawn to talented characters, bc they amaze me, esp the humble ones. Like those who hate Haru or Lanaga just buffle me honestly. I understand that they’re pretty and talented and everything, but they’re also the sweetest and loveliest human beings, so like...??? And I adore those who don’t whine and get what they want. I just can’t help it. I’m a strong believer in the fact that "you can do anything if you put your mind to it”. So far it worked in real life so suck it lol.

People are also saying like Langa doesn’t deserve to win this and Haru doesn’t deserve to be in Olympics, like Langa didn’t snowboard since he was 2 and Haru wasn’t swimming every day since he was born. I’m like.. and you need to check in the mirror if your face is a shade of green. BTW I’ve also been in a professional sports for quite a long time since I was a little kid, ballroom dancing and adored it back then, and I did not get jealous at ppl who were talented than me, I was watching the tapes actually with a popcorn. And oh god those large competition events when you sit there for days and give it all, but then you’re like 296 out of 1000. Why was I proud instead of being sad? Idk xD It was fun.

So thanks for liking the vid, cause I even regretted uploading it a bit yesterday. Sadly everyone already knows that we lost this fandom to the middle schoolers being extra, so they do not care for anything each episode except for this ship, so that’s what I got for posting a just Langa vid:

And etc. and that just made me sad, cause I do not like such fandoms, like it’s not even related to the video, that I’ve been making... with love.  Also thanks for the "sama” title, I’m flattered, but editor only wants to vid matchablossom for now, so like there’s no need for any warnings. I’ve been in such horrendoes fandoms, that I’m immune to this. I also in fact didn’t know some keep ruining Langa’s page and saying that he steals Reki’s screen time... cause he’s aparently the only main character...? ...lmao? I didn’t even know Langa can be hated tbh. I wasn’t really ready for all the drama that followed me making a vid about him.

I’ve already deleted some comments, cause I’m like what this even has to do with the vid about Langa? No, I am not obliged to make a vid about Reki, too. What if I post a matchablossom vid, everyone will only start commenting “do renga”, cause fuck your efforts? I’m like... I hate such fanbases, seriously. I do not even know where this is going, but their fans are already pissing me off. I’m still trying hard for this to not affect my point of view about the ship, cause it’d be kinda unfair to them, but its getting harder each week istg.

And I maybe can’t take requests, but I love when some try to get me addicted on their ship with passion and great arguments. It happened to me with some nice ppl. But def not with agression and stupidity haha.

Cause apparently its one of the fandoms where you can’t NOT care for the main ship, even if you accept it for the only possible Langa ship (cause he doesn’t give a shit for anyone else, so like what’s the point), but it doesn’t do anything for you. I’m like... thanks for threatening. This will make me on board ASAP. Like it’s not the epitomy of love to me... I’m sorry? LMAO 

Some anon even sent me a “you’re dense” (literally thats it) ask after that Reki ask. I was tempted to write smth like “oh I’m sorry, this is the most epic love story of my life and his character is the most complex in the world and he’s the best friend and the most inspiring human being that ever hit my screen. can I become undense now? xD”. But you know I do not know if they’d realise the sarcasm and my pride sadly never allowed me to sell my life values for a bunch of 12 years olds to love me lol

My sister always laughs and jokingly says “but you’d probably get much more subs if you made a vid about this or that, but at what price that would be lmao”. Cause yeah, I never could make myself vid smth I do not like, cause I love vidding and do not want it to be associated with things I do not like, plus it’ll most likely turn out ugly, if I do not care. My mom says that she can feel love I put in my shipping vids that’s why she loves them. I really don’t think she’s wrong. But that also kinda makes me an idiot technically, cause I’m not into many of the popular ships, and some popular animes I just find really basic. 

Also I’m like 100% sure it ain’t happening, but even if they miraculously suck each other’s dicks while sitting on a skate board, I can still have the rights not to care at the end. Like did I sign some form where I’m obliged to love each and everyone canon gay ship even if it’s not what I like? Like gay is not the type of love in relationships. You can only care about his ass like Lan Zhan for example or you can only care about your ass. Like that’s different types of relationships, and whatever you like you like. So get all the way of people’s backs, please.

Also do ppl know that you do not need to be blind to the bad sides of the characters in your ships? Or you just gonna be like “I suddenly can’t see” for forever.

So really thanks for such wonderful message and liking the video and for the boosts when I need them and not being an ass to me if I’m not being obsessed with smth, when you like it. (like I think we have different ship in bnha, right? but we’re still doing great tho, thanks for being an angel <3)

I still didn’t expect this becoming a Voltron 2.0. situation tho. We in our twenties see everything differently, I guess. I do get extra about “their love is everywhere”, but I do not get extra by anonymously attacking ppl, threatening creators and yelling “queeerbating psychotic blind assholes if these two aint fucking by the end of the season I’m shaving my head and jumping out of the window and shoot the director. you do not ship it HARD? YOU DUMB FUCK. THAT’S THE BEST LOVE STORY IN THE WORLD”. Like damn, take your blinders off and see the world, kid. Firstly, it’s definitely not, secondly, ppl see love differently in general and at each age too.

Ah, also you must kill Adam, cause he’s a pedo apparently. Like he ain’t even a threat to your ship, unless you’re blind, but they’re still at it, like they do not know that this kind of age difference is literally nothing for an anime? And that there are canon ships with a huger age difference left and right, too. It’s like its their first time approaching an anime or smth. Like in anime world character can literally kill 1000 ppl with his bare hands and bathe in their blood and we can still stan them, depends on their story, ok? Also Langa couldn’t care less for his advances, so like separate Adam from your ship pls. Like, fuck off, if someone is interested in his character. Yeah, he’s a weirdo for reasons, but anime kind of weird do not apply to real life. Stop acting like you’re some purist, when later you’re gonna ship smth else and it suddenly will not apply. Also rules do not apply to animes, everyone knows they do not apply. These are not western cartoons, my god. And 24 years old flirting with 16 year old is defiinitely not the weirdest shit anyone has ever seen in the anime. Chinese BL has characters who were 14 and 30 when they met and happily married. Also FICTION is not life. Literally no one cares. If you’re scared for your saint eyes, do not watch animes, you’re gonna have a heart-attack from what you can see there. Also we’ve seen gayer bromances in animes, who are just bromances, so pls do not shoot anyone if it’s not canon.

So basically I was kinda pissed yersterday, cause fuck them for ruining the tag, but after chatting with my hommies and your ask, I’m okay again, I just have to avoid this fandom and stick to a tight community xD. I just got used to my nice fandoms and forgot for a bit about the precautions you need to take if you’re in one of those. You know. Who make a circus out of lgbt, instead of supporting it, and make other ppl hate being in fandoms.

P.S. sorry for this partially unrelated rant, your messages really always make my heart bloom, so thanks for supporting me, and I know you’re proud of my progress, too <3 and this makes me happy. LY

[aros001]

Going in blind: Watching season 1 for the first time. Random thoughts.

This show is kind of nice because I have no memories of the original She-Ra show, or even any of He-Man, honestly. I'm not sure if I ever watched the original, so I have no frame of reference for how the series is "supposed" to be. I can just take it and judge it as is.

Of the bat, all I know is that supposedly She-Ra and Catra get together as a romantic couple later, but I'm also a huge My Hero Academia fan and the fandom around me ships every character with every other character, so for all I know that might just be shipper wishful thinking I've been seeing and hearing. Given fandoms for Gravity Falls, Thor, and Supernatural ship even siblings together, I've learned not to trust anything except for what I see in the series for myself.

By the way, this isn't a review, just random thoughts and comments I'm having as I'm going through season 1 for the first time.

Episodes 1 and 2: Right off, I really like Catra's "No duh" response to Adora about the truth of the horde. She knows they've been lying to them and have been doing terrible things, she just doesn't care. If she and Adora play their cards right they could end up being the ones in charge and then they'd have all that power. Not necessarily to make things better but enough to where they could do whatever and live however they want. That's a good build for an antagonist. Not ignorant to the fact what they're doing is wrong, just simply so selfish that they don't care.

Episode 3: It really feels like there was no good reason why Glimmer didn't just outright introduce Adora to her mother and every reason she should have known it was a bad idea to try and hide her for a surprise. Being a former horde soldier she'd probably get treated with hostility if Glimmer brought her to the front gate but you'd almost guarantee Adora would get arrested or outright killed if she got caught while no one else knew she was there.

On the other side, we have Hordak being pretty intelligent in promoting Catra. He probably knows Shadow Weaver already doesn't like him, so it's not like he's losing anything making her upset with him, and it's clear she favors Adora way more than Catra, so that little bit of advancement towards Catra probably goes a long way in earning her loyalty to him and a person on the inside with Shadow Weaver.

Also, I'm not the only one who saw Madam Razz and immediately thought Adora had found her Yoda, right?

Episode 4: I don't know how it was in the original She-Ra and He-Man series but I kind of like She-Ra being this title from legend. Adora is not the first She-Ra, given what Razz was talking about with a Mara, so instead of being something new, impressing everyone with abilities they've never seen before, and creating the legend, Adora is placed in a position WAY over her head where she's having to live up to what came before her.

Episode 5: Calling it now, as long as her personality is genuine I think Scorpia is going to be one of my favorite characters in this show. She's...endearing, I think is the best word. She's like a mix of Kronk and a nicer Shego.

For a little bit I thought Mermista was voiced by the same actress who played Poison Ivy in the Harley Quinn animated series. She's not but they do have the same kind of Daria-ish inflections, thus by confusion. Given the prom episode, Sea Hawk feels kind of like her Kite Man.

Episode 6: Okay, now it's between Scorpia and Entrapta who are likely to be my favorites by the end of this. She's fun and quirky.

Episode 7: Quite the lore drop. Shadow Weaver was once a Mystacor sorceress known as Light Spinner. I like to imagine we'll get more on that later. Her haunting Adora reminded me of the Teen Titans' episode where Robin was similarly haunted by Slade. This didn't go as far as that but that's probably for the best, since TT had two and a half seasons to build that dynamic up with Robin and Slade while we're only now halfway through the first season.

Episode 8: Well dang. Again, I don't know for sure if Adora and Catra do end up together but boy do I buy why they're shipped together after that dance. Also, good on Bow for standing up for himself. It's clear that he'll always be Glimmer's friend and this won't change that but that doesn't mean he has to just accommodate her. I understand where her issues stem from but I am still glad he gave her a reality check. It helps him feel a little more like his own character.

Also, another nice little bit of lore and worldbuilding. Scorpia's a princess, the horde landed where her people lived, and they seemed to join them willingly.

Episode 9: Surprisingly don't have a lot to say about this other than I don't buy for a second that Entrapta is dead (EDIT: She's not). This was mostly action.

Episode 10: Not going to lie, this one kind of annoyed me a little, at least the first half. The conversation between Glimmer and her mother saved it a bit. It was a bit of a trifecta. You have the alliance breaking apart, saying that the loss of Entrapta only happened because they were all together...even though Entrapta only "died" because of her own machine obsession that caused her to deliberately walk back into the purging chamber. You have Entrapta who might be turning to the horde's side because she feels abandoned by the other princesses...even though they thought she was dead, and again it was her fault they got separated. And you have Glimmer refusing to tell her mother that Shadow Weaver's dark magic has caused her powers to go on the fritz and is causing her great pain. It just feels like none of this would be an issue if most of these people would stop being self-absorbed for three seconds and talk like any normal person would. It feels very CW drama, like something I'd see in a bad season of Arrow or The Flash. The only person whose issues I buy is Adora, who is basically a soldier who was never properly raised to deal with emotion or loss and is already struggling with the burden of being She-Ra, the legendary savior. I get why she's beating down on herself for not being able to do more even if nothing that happened was her fault.

Episode 11: JEEEEEEEEEZZZZ, that was such a good episode! Focused entirely on Adora and Catra and their past together. Like, just showing someone this episode alone could probably get them to want to watch the series. That was everything you needed to know about their dynamic and history together.

Also, that moment when Catra and her past self are looking at each other, while obviously Catra takes the opposite lesson, it reminded me of this fanart I'd once seen of Jason Todd, the Red Hood, looking at his past self as Robin. The past says to the future "You ruined everything". Catra could be happy but, ironically for someone who hates Shadow Weaver, she's probably going to be a lot like her, sacrificing everything for power and ambition.

Given the way she looked, I'm guessing Shadow Weaver is either addicted to the power of the Black Garnet or she suffered some kind of past injury and its power is the only thing keeping her going. Or both.

Episode 12: I'll be honest, Swiftwind being able to talk kind of gobsmacked and I needed a moment to recover. What a great voice they chose for that character.

So She-Ra is kind of like the legendary heroes from Rising of the Shield Hero, coming from a long line of people chosen to wield the sword. I tend to dislike chosen one types of stories because I think prophecy takes a lot of weight out of the character's actions, so this and Avatar are more what I like. The MC is special but not the only one who's ever been special and they can still easily fail. Their destiny was only to be able to use the weapon, not that they would succeed in any specific purpose.

And dang, Catra's turn against Shadow Weaver happened faster than I thought it would but I'm not complaining. That great "This is what you've really been preparing me for" speech and Hordak, again, being an intelligent villain. "Oh, this experiment could net me a MASSIVE gain and all it could potentially cost me is this rock I already gave away to someone who lately hasn't been producing any results and has been consistently disobeying me. Yeah, I'm going to let this play out."

Episode 13: That was kind of a brutal fight between Adora and Catra. Not the worst I've ever seen even in other shows for this age range (Samurai Jack, for example) but those punches are connecting and those claws are leaving marks.

Also, maybe I'm just misunderstanding the exact situation but shouldn't the good guys' side be called the Resistance instead of the Rebellion? Being a rebellion would imply they are rebelling against an established power or rule over them, but the actual conflict we are shown is the established power and rule that is the kingdoms of Eternia resisting an outside force that wishes to establish a new order over them.

Season 1 verdict: I'm into it. I'm definitely more invested in the villains' side of things but that's not a fault of the series, that stuff is just way more geared towards me than the current princess stuff. I actively am at attention whenever the horde main characters are on screen. For the good guys it's mostly Adora and the She-Ra stuff I'm invested it. That isn't to say I have any real dislikes for that side. Bow especially I'm liking much more than I thought I might. He has kind of this gravitational pull around him. You will be his friend regardless of how much you might want to resist. He's definitely the rock for everyone else to hold onto.

Minor side note, kind of like Korra in Legend of Korra, I love how even when her powers aren't active Adora is shown to still be pretty strong physically with how easily she was lifting people up at the prom.

And I was right, Scorpia is my favorite side character.

On to season 2!

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/nyll2e/going_in_blind_watching_season_1_for_the_first/

[frumfrumfroo]

Hello! I'm a (former?) star wars fan who was utterly devastated by TRoS and had to take an indefinite break from the fandom as a result. During lockdown I discovered kdramas and they're my new obsession! I saw that you recommended Coffee Prince and My Love from the Star in a post. I've already seen and loved those (and my own current favourites include Are You Human and Hwayugi) so I was wondering if you could recommend a few more? Thank you!!

Coitenly! /curly

Her Private Life- my new favourite. The curator of an art museum leads a secret double life as a hardcore kpop fangirl; both her identities get off on entirely the wrong foot with famous artist Ryan Gold who has been suffering from an art block caused by the same mysterious painting she’s determined to buy for her idol oppa. If you want a funny, fluffy, character-driven romance where you can really love the leads and will never want to strangle them: this is your show. It is the most purely enjoyable romcom drama ever imo, there’s none of the frustration over ridiculous behaviour or contrived stakes that you typically have to deal with and it has a satisfying, perfect ending. The villains all aren’t so bad after all, everyone gets an arc, the gentle little mystery has a happy resolution, and it’s just about some people facing their issues and helping each other grow. It was very healing to watch in this media climate.

The plot is nothing to write home about and includes a unneeded kdrama cliché towards the end (well-handled and not dragged out, so I forgive it), but the real ‘story’ is the character development and the plot is just a frame to hang that on. Overrall, it’s incredibly refreshing because of the high quality characters and the emotional maturity of the relationship. The leads have insane chemistry, the sexual tension is legit palpable, and the intimacy once they get together is genuinely next level; they are so natural and so endearing it feels like they’re not acting. Ryan Gold is also the best boyfriend in kdrama history and is played by the world’s most beautiful living man, Kim Jae Wook, whom you’ll recognise as our Waffle-kun Sun Ki from Coffee Prince. So it’s got that going for it as well.

Other romcoms: Sungkynkwan Scandal (historical disguise romance! girl needs to dress up as a guy to take the national exam so she can support her family, shenanigans ensue), My Princess (normal girl discovers she’s a lost princess, the guy her ascension will disinherit is in charge of grooming her for the role- it’s cute), Prime Minister & I (contract marriage), What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim (I think this show is pretty overrated but it’s definitely a fun, low-stakes romance with lots of fluff and lots of kissing and we probably all need a bit of that right now).

Change of pace:

Tell Me What You Saw- this is for my clannibals. Crime drama about a green country cop getting tied up in the apparent resurfacing of a famous serial killer who is officially supposed to be dead. She was driven to become a police officer to solve the hit-and-run death of her mother, but she hasn’t made it out of her home town. Then a body is dumped in her neighbourhood and her photographic memory of the scene draws the attention of the big city team leader. Said team leader takes her to meet the reclusive, ex-detective criminal profiler who originally worked the serial killer case.

A bond develops where she acts as his eyes and ears in the field and he trains her to observe like a detective, but our recluse is a very damaged dude and he’s not exactly being forthcoming about his real agenda.

This show has plot and logic issues, sometimes to its profound detriment, but the characters are extremely strong and everything else about it is fucking A+. Atmosphere, acting, action, pacing, intrigue, etc. are all fantastic. The ending was also unexpectedly wonderful and I was so grateful for that. Oh Hyun Jae (the profiler) is a secretive, broken, lonely, manipulative genius who is always fifteen steps ahead of everyone else and I find that very, very sexy of him. He is an anti-hero for most of the series and contrasts with our more idealistic protagonist both in that and in other more subtle ways. Their relationship is super interesting and I ship them really hard.

My Country- I’ll just tell you that the main characters are a mess and the plot leaves a lot to be desired, but watch it for Bang-won. He is a sad angry murder prince and he’s amazing. The whole show is peak eye candy throughout, every episode looks like an epic film with insane production value, so if you want quality action spectacle with a dangerous hot woobie way more interesting than the leads who seems to have wandered in from an infinitely better story to replace the ST- you’re set. Great news, he’s a real historical figure and became king, so they can’t kill him off.

[evesbeve]

Even though I'm not exactly the biggest advocate of the Ben/Jill Ship, I was wondering why it seems to be disliked already? 🤔 Maybe I'd have liked it more if we'd gotten to know more about Jill.

Okay, I can't speak for the entire fandom, but I can share my personal thoughts on it.

For starters, there's nothing wrong with Ben having a crush!! It was very cute. But I don't think the show put that in with the intention of giving him a partner.

I'm gonna get this one out of the way first: lots of people were angry about the way Ben took control of Klaus' body. Now, I have a lot of thoughts about this, and I won't get into details here because it's an entirely different topic, but that whole plotline left a bad impression on the Jill/Ben one. (Personally, I understand both Ben and Klaus, but yeah.)

Anyway, then there's Jill herself. As you mentioned, we didn't see much of her, but I liked that they at least gave her some backstory! Like, there was this whole thing about her turning down a scholarship, so there was some thought put into her character. Of course she wasn't the main focus of the story so she didn't get much development, but yeah. I really liked Jill!

But the show wasn't trying to force her and Ben together. It was treated as a crush Ben had. The relationship was never going to work, considering Ben is dead with no body of his own (unless Klaus is right next to him) and Jill's obsession with Klaus. (And we even learn that she'd been intimate with him before.)

The point was, in my understanding, to show us that, just like the other siblings, Ben can do and feel human things, even after death.

The thing that bugged me here is that they used a love interest to do that? Like... At this point EVERY sibling has a love interest, so it would have been nice to see one of them not involved with romance, maybe even get some aro/ace rep.

Before S2 came out, there were a lot of hints about how Ben was gonna get his own storyline, and seeing that it was a love interest made me kinda... eh. Cause they could have used his family or something as a motivator (which they did!! but it was later on in the season. At first it seemed like the love interest was going to be the only thing in his storyline, and many people who haven't finished s2 yet are a bit disappointed, I think, and have misinterpreted that.)

Finally, and this is something that doesn't apply to me but needs to be addressed, I think the fact that it was a het relationship (and both people involved were poc) really affected the fandom's views on it. I made a post about this issue specifically, so I won't get into details here, but you know how fandoms are with het relationships. (Especially when they've been headcanoning Ben as lgbt which is not a very valid point since bi/pan/ace/aro people exist but I'm just putting it out there.)

That's not to say that supporting lgbt rep is bad, btw!! (I mean, we certainly don't have enough of that, lmao.) It's just a reason the ship didn't get as much attention, and I'm saying this as an lgbt person. If Jill had been a man, the fandom would have deliberately went out of its way to justify all the things I mentioned above, to make it work. (Fandoms tend to fetishize mlm relationships and turn a blind eye to all its flaws.) Acknowledging that doesn't invalidate us lgbt people.

Also, the fact that she's a woman. S2 has been out for more than 24 hours now, and while I've seen hundreds of posts screaming about other ships, Vanya and Sissy (a wlw whip, no men involved) is getting the less attention, and it's making me really sad. So before you argue that gender isn't a factor and it's simply a sexuality thing... take a look at how little attention Vanya and Sissy are getting.

And then there's also the fact that Jill and Ben are people of color, but I won't get into many details, since I'm white, and I don't want to talk over poc. But it's definitely a factor. Racism, internalised or not, is real and it's definitely affecting fandoms. (Again: look at how little attention Allison got in S1 compared to the other siblings. And also how everyone is sleeping on Raymond in S2.)

Anyway, the last three points got really heavy for a second, but I couldn't not bring them up. I obviously can't cover everything, but... I tried.

It's also important to remember that S2 came out yesterday! So people still haven't had the time to form their own headcanons and to share them with others.

On a more positive note? The scene where Jill and Ben are playing in the dirt together was ADORABLE and it gave me lots of serotonin <3

tl;dr: it's a very complicated question and there are many factors that the fandom dislikes the relationship. however, tua was never setting them up to end up together, and only wanted to show us ben getting a crush and overall having a life. if they wanted them to get together, they would have done it differently.

[ecofinisher]

Next Step - RollanxGerda oneshot

I don't know what to do, so I decided to write this as a one-shot :3 As most of you on Instagram see, I have the ultimate obsession with Rollan and Gerda, it nearly kills me at some point :D Nah literally, that one last time I had to spend time watching AMV's I literally had heart issues just from seeing their romance scenes. Even writing this AN here is making me crazy. Okay, here we go.

Additional note: Both characters are 20+

Fic inspired by this image (Actually the colored version, but I can't find the link to it -_- ) and my obsessed brain.

In a restaurant in the inner part of King Harald's kingdom, several couples and some small families sat in there to have dinner served. Major parts of the guests had already received their main menu, including our main characters Gerda and Rollan. Gerda was dressed in her usual clothing which consisted of a light beige skirt, a blouse with emerald-green buttons, and a dark brown sleeveless vest. Rollan came dressed up differently than he usually would, by wearing a fully white shirt and black pants. Both love interests had as their main dish beef stroganoff, mostly it was recognized on Gerda's dish since Rollan seemed to have a higher appetite due to his plate being nearly finished fast.

„It's been almost five months since we've gone out for dinner together," Gerda mentioned. „I've been really enjoying the evening here with you,"

„I'm glad you're liking it so far," Rollan responded, then looked along with his girlfriend at the end of the restaurant, where a woman stood singing and a few other adults were playing on instruments, ensuring a good atmosphere. „I like how the atmosphere here is so calm and sweet. Mostly with their music,"

„That's so far the only restaurant I've seen so far with music accompanying us guests. That's probably another thing why this is a little expensive than the others we know," Commented Gerda. „I almost feel bad to be here," Admitted the blonde, then Rollan placed his hand on Gerda's hand and shook his head. „You don't have to. I made sure we could afford it,"

„Okay, that sounds relieving," Gerda confirmed using her fork to roll up a bit of pasta and take it into her mouth. „How was your week?"

„It was fine," Responded Rollan. „I had to accompany classes on Wednesday and Thursday over the half of the day as they were seeing the palace from the inside and outside. Two of those classes had some class clowns, which wanted to cause a mess and I had to stay on watch for them as well when the teacher wasn't aware of it. On Tuesday I've spent half of the morning taking care of the royal horses so that in the evening we could go out with them for a check-up and be able to continue our task with them the next days. There wasn't anything dangerous or bad, where I and others would have the need to interfere…..and I saw you yesterday on the morning during the ride out, remember?"

„Oh yes, if Freya didn't have mentioned it, I would have missed you," Gerda commented making Rollan chuckle.

„I would have at least greeted you or something. You know that,"

„I do and I enjoy your little visits," The girl admitted taking another bite of her plate slowly finishing her dish. „Talking about visits, my dad's birthday will be in a few weeks and I've been thinking along with Kai to make him a surprise party at Alfida's ship. Kai had some funny ideas for games all could play along to pass the time. Do you think you can come with us to the party?"

„At what time is it?" Questioned Rollan. „I've got a few days, I've been longer at work because of special occasions,"

„7 pm " Replied Gerda. „But if you're not able to come it's alright. My parents haven't seen you quite often and it would be good you three would be able to get to know each other better,"

„I think so far our relationship is fine I believe. Your parents don't treat me bad as Kai used to do once in a while after…...you know…...this with the wishing stone," Rollan whispered making Gerda nod.

„I know, but I'm referring to them knowing you in person more. They only know you through my eyes, not through their own I mean,"

„Okay, I will take a look at my plan and if there's a possibility to exchange a shift I'll do it, so we can go together to your parents,"

„Thank you, I know I could count on you," Gerda said making Rollan smile, then the waiter appeared to take their plates.

„Have you enjoyed your meal so far?" Questioned the waiter earning a nod from the couple.

„It was delicious," Gerda commented.

„The spice of the sauce was excellente. I enjoyed every bite of it,"

„May I offer you two a dessert. On Today's card, we've got Morozhenoe and we've got a variety of toppings for it, which you can choose. Nuts, chocolate, and berries," The waiter explained. „Does any of this please you?"

„The one with the berries sound appealing to me," Commented Gerda making Rollan nod.

„If possible I'd like the one with nuts," Rollan added earning a nod from the waiter and he picked up the used plates and cutlery to move away. Gerda and Rollan glanced together at the band singing, then Gerda sighed at how harmonic the singer was in sync with one cello player, which stood behind her playing the instrument.

„Their voices do really match well with the other," Commented the Spaniard, then moved his hands above the table to reach to Gerda and grabbed it to earn her attention. „Are you looking forward to pass by the stable and take a ride around the kingdom?" Rollan offered making Gerda shrug her shoulders.

„Are you sure you don't need Valiente tomorrow fully rested?" Questioned Gerda.

„Tomorrow I'll be at the castle the entire day again. I may pass in the afternoon again to feed him or to let him walk," Rollan mentioned. „I think Eriksson will be there as well, because of the cleaning duty he has tomorrow and could as well take care of him and the others. I don't know it yet,"

„Okay I'd love to go with you out if it's possible," Gerda responded making Rollan smile. „Where have you planned to walk us?"

„I haven't planned anything. I thought we could decide it during the ride or just let Valiente go on his own,"

„We'll see about that," Gerda replied, then Rollan lied Gerda's hand back down on the table and looked around the restaurant to observe the surroundings, then he pulled his collar a little nervous.

„Dónde está?" Rollan mumbled, then Gerda glimpsed at the man's comment.

„What are you asking?"

„I….uh was wondering where my…...medal of honor went, but it's actually here," Rollan made up making Gerda snicker.

„Why did you even stick your medal on your shirt for our date?" Questioned Gerda. „You don't need to do that, just because of me,"

„It's a habit of me," Rollan confessed. „I like to have them with me,"

„That's fine, I just had the impression you seemed nervous about something,"

„It will get solved, don't worry," Rollan stated earning a nod from the girlfriend. „Hopefully," He said quieter, then Gerda who still heard the rest of Rollan's phrase gazed back at her boyfriend to see him stare at the door, then Gerda moved her chair a little further and grabbed Rollan's hand, then gazed at his face a little worried.

„Rollan, are you hiding something, you don't want to tell me?" Questioned Gerda making Rollan shrug his shoulders.

„Uh just give me five more minutes," Rollan commented with an embarrassed grin, then heard the door getting opened up from the entrance, where a young boy showed up, making Rollan sigh in relief and Gerda smiled at seeing the young boy.

„Who is that boy?" Asked Gerda looking at Rollan, which shrugged his shoulders, then the boy approached their table and took from the inside of his jacket a small book and opened it up to take out a pen with a silver ring attached on the hold.

„Hello…..You're G….Gerda, right?" Questioned the boy making the woman nod.

„Yes," Responded Gerda exchanging looks with her boyfriend, which smiled at the woman warmly. „Who are you?"

„I'm Lars," Responded the boy. „I'm a big fan of you and your brother Kai…...Rollan promised me he would find a way to make me meet you," Explained the kid.

„Oh and that now?" Questioned Gerda looking at Rollan, which rolled his eyes at the kid and back at the blonde and Gerda kept her eyes on the boy, which showed her the book with the pen.

„I just want your autograph, that's all I need," Lars said looking at Rollan, which nodded, then Gerda looked at Rollan, which noticed Gerda's eyes and faked a smile at the girlfriend.

„Uh was it a bad idea to bring him here?" Asked Rollan making Gerda shake her head and grab the pencil to sign her name on it.

„It was fine. I was just surprised," Gerda commented, then placed the pencil back on the book. „There you go, little boy,"

„Thank you very much, Gerda," The boy thanked, then gave Gerda a hug making her and Rollan smile, then the boy dropped the book on the ground in front of Rollan's feet, then the boy took his arms off Gerda and grabbed the book.

„I'm glad I was able to help you out, Lars," Rollan said with a wink, then the boy waved at Rollan and ran away to the exit and Gerda spotted the pen of the boy on the ground, then shrieked along with Rollan.

„Hey Lars, you forgot your pen!" Gerda warned picking the pen up, then saw the boy had left the restaurant, afterward, Gerda sat back on the chair with the pen in her hand. „He may come back to get it,"

„Maybe," Rollan responded a little relieved, then moved his hand at the pen. „Or I will bring it back to him. I know, where he is from," Rollan commented watching Gerda show him the pen, then Rollan reached his hand at the pen and Gerda squinted her eyes and took the pen down to see the ring on the pen.

„Hey for what is this ring on here?" Gerda asked watching Rollan grab the pen.

„You know those are new variants," Rollan commented holding the pen under the table, then tried to remove the ring from it. „You know…..they have a unique way of use," Rollan commented. „Want to know how it works?" Questioned Rollan making Gerda nod.

„Why not?" Responded Gerda, then Rollan got up and stood in front of the blonde and with his left hand closed into a fist and he bends down on his right knee and positions his left leg behind, then placed his hands together and used his right hand to take out the ring from his other fist and held the ring up at the blonde woman.

„Gerda I…..I've been thinking this entire year for the moment I would ask you this question. I didn't know how I should do it or where I should do it and this option occurred to me a few days ago and I thought that's the moment Rollan. You're just chickening it out the entire time out of fear. Just do it, it will go fine. Lars there, he's actually Hansel's son from the theatre. I offered him a bit of money, so he would play as a fanboy and ask you for an autograph, but in reality, we made this up, so I would obtain the ring in a way you wouldn't notice…..or you weren't supposed to notice it," Rollan explained making Gerda smile enchanted at Rollan's explanation, then Rollan smiled a little and noticed Gerda chuckle a little.

„What's your question?"

„Gerda…..after we got together and we began to see each other, I felt like my life finally began to have a meaning for me. You made me feel like the happiest man in this kingdom. I'm certain that our love will hold on for eternity and that we complete each other. I…..you mean the world to me, Gerda. I may not be able to make a lot of money with the job I have to provide us a better life than we have now, but I'm able to do anything to make you happy…...Will you take me as your l...life partner?" Proposed the raven-haired man looking up at Gerda, which had gotten emotional at Rollan's question, and held her hands in front of her face to clean her face. Rollan smiled at Gerda's reaction, then he moved his free hand to Gerda's face to clean tears coming down from her eyes and waited for her to be ready to answer his question. Gerda passed her hand under her eyes again, then she leaped onto Rollan's arms to hug her boyfriend tight, leaning her head beside his neck making him beam and place his arms around her.

„Yes Rollan, yes I do," Gerda responded, then she got off Rollan's arms and held out her hand, so the man would take her hand and place the engagement ring on her ring finger, which consisted of a light-blue stone on the middle of the silver-colored ring. Rollan held Gerda's hand to look at her engagement ring, then rolled his eyes up at her seeing the woman biting her lip, still excited about what had happened, then he opened up his arms at the woman and she got into Rollan's arms again, therefore the duo earned the applause of the guests inside the restaurant which made Rollan feel embarrassed. Gerda felt as well abashed at the people's reaction towards their step and she gazed back at Rollan, which smiled charmed at the woman after that she wrapped her arms up around his neck, locking up her lips with his sealing together their agreement on taking a further step in their relationship.

The End.

[alligotleftismyjim]

TV SERIES ASKS shadowhunters /and/ star trek (both please 😁) cause I'm nothing if not predictable & a total stan of ur blog

Kay, so this took a whole lot longer than expected cause college decided to dump shit on me all at once so some of the Shadowhunters feelings are out of date but I don’t have enough time to go back and rewrite all that but I’m just gonna have a brief scream about ep10 cause good goddamn that was intense. And I’m gonna apologize for the massive post ahead but I’m on mobile and don’t know how to do a read more so if you don’t want to read my thoughts on Shadowhunters and Star Trek, feel free to scroll by. Secondly, @sybil-branson-jr I’m so sorry it took me so long to answer this and I’m totally not worthy to have such an awesome follower like you and your blog is awesome and sunny and makes me happy 💛💛💛💛

send me a tv series and I’ll tell you:

Shadowhuntersmy all-time ultimate fave character: MAGNUS BANE. He’s my all time fave for so many reasons but mainly cause he’s such a complex character and we’re FINALLY getting to see more aspects of his personality and it’s really really nice to see my sexual orientation represented in a way that doesn’t make it seem like all bisexuals are up for threesomes and that we can’t be in a monogamous relationship

a character I didn’t used to like but now do: I absolutely used to hate Maryse. But after ep8 and the seeing her begin to realize her past actions were pretty shitty, she’s starting to grow on me. I’m a fan of multi-dimensional characters and seeing her struggle with being a good (emotions cloud judgement) shadowhunter while having to go through the thing with Robert and trying to be a good mother while still following orders and wanting her son to be happy but still having trouble accepting downworlders is really interesting to me. You can tell she really does want Alec to be happy and that she really does care for Jace but she is still a shadowhunter and that creates a really interesting internal struggle that I really wanna see more of.

a character I used to like but now don’t: This doesn’t really apply? Cause I love them all. Valentine is a massive asshole but he makes a really good villain. And Iris was just introduced this season and again, she’s supposed to be a villain so you were never really supposed to like her.

a character I’m indifferent about: I’m pretty indifferent about Lydia but it’s mainly because she hasn’t been in that many episodes and we don’t have much of a backstory for her. We know she was in love and he was killed so now she’s dedicated to her work. But that’s about it. She’s a badass shadowhunter and I’m dying to see more of her.

a character who deserved better: ALL OF THEM. They all deserve to be happy and not have to worry about the literal world ending. Magnus deserves recognition for the sheer amount of stuff he does to save everyone and he deserves to not be treated like shit because he’s a warlock. Alec deserves to be happy with his boyfriend and not feel so guilty over feeling like he failed as a shadowhunter because he couldn’t keep Jace from Valentine, he let a demon into the Institute and he killed Jocelyn. Isabelle deserves better cause the smartest shadowhunter in the Institute doesn’t deserve to be relegated to an almost background character whose current storyline revolves around drug addiction. Jace deserves better cause poor guy was psychologically and physically abused by Valentine, then rescued, then forced to go on the run because the Clave thought he was working with Valentine. Luke deserves better because he had just gotten Jocelyn back and then Valentine’s demon killed her. And he’s been such a good father figure to Clary and Simon but we’ve barely seen him this season and so far he’s lost the love of his life, reunited with his sister only for her to be taken from him by the man who betrayed him and turned him into a werewolf, and was lied to and tricked by one of the only people that’s still alive that he cares about. I could go on and on.

a ship I’ve never been able to get into: Alec and literally any female character ever. He’s gay. As in into guys. He’s not bisexual. He’s not straight or pansexual or anything else. He’s gay and his boyfriend is the High Warlock of Brooklyn. And I’m not super into Alec x Jace but that’s mainly because I can’t see them as anything other than brothers and parabatai.

a ship I’ve never been able to get over: MALEC. And it’s not just because they’re the only canon couple on the show. I just love their dynamic and the fact that they’re both figuring out their relationship together. Matt and Harry’s chemistry makes the relationship feel so real and natural and I applaud them for caring so much about Magnus and Alec and how dedicated they are to getting the relationship right.

a cute, low-key ship: I’m so here for Clary x Isabelle. We got a few Clizzy scenes last season and early on this season. And before the whole yin-fen mess, they were getting closer and their relationship could easily read as the beginnings of a romantic relationship.

an unpopular ship but I still enjoyed it: I’m not really sure what ships would be unpopular? Cause I’ve seen people ship just about everyone with each other? And typically the really unpopular ships are unpopular for reasons I agree.

a ship that was totally wrong and never should have happened: I understand why it happened but I am definitely not a fan of Magnus x Camille. I fully respect that Camille helped Magnus out of a bad place in his life but abusive and manipulative relationships are never ever okay. Thankfully, everyone seems to agree that Camille was a terrible person and I haven’t seen anyone ship them romantically. I’ve only ever seen Camille as an ex in fics or as someone who causes tension between Magnus and Alec.

my favourite storyline/moment: the wedding kiss scene will go down as one of my absolute favorite moments but I’m a big sucker for any malec scene. I absolutely lost it when Alec met Madzie and I really wanna see Alec with more small children now.

a storyline that never should have been written: I’m not a big fan of the yin-fen storyline just because I don’t seen much of a point to it right now. I’m trying to keep an open mind because so far, the show has been amazing. I really hope there’s a point to this whole storyline so I won’t say I don’t think it should’ve been written yet, but I’m just not a fan.

my first thoughts on the show: the whole reason I started watching was because I saw people on my dash royally loosing their shit over some couple (malec) on some fantasy show (shadowhunters). I’m a sucker for an awesome canon couple and once I started watching the show, I marathoned all of season 1 in like three nights over the summer. I’m a sucker for a well done fantasy show (early seasons of Supernatural) and, slightly questionable special effects aside, I felt shadowhunters was really well done. For being based off a book series with a questionable author and for seemingly flying under the radar until the show, I was completely taken with the characters and the storylines.

my thoughts now: I’m in love. I’m completely obsessed. As you can tell, my blog has completely shifted from a Star Trek blog to a Shadowhunters blog. Part of that is from the lack of Star Trek on my dash and not having new content every week like a tv show, but I’ve also fallen in love with the characters and storylines and I firmly believe that this cast is the most amazing cast ever. They care so much about the show and their characters and they all seem like they’re awesome friends.

Star Trek (I’m gonna do the reboot movies cause that’s what got me into Star Trek and I have more opinions about the movies than any of the tv series)

send me a tv series and I’ll tell you:my all-time ultimate fave character: LEONARD H MCCOY 4LIFE. I love my grumpy southern doctor who acts like he doesn’t care but actually cares so deeply about his friends and everyone on the ship cause man can I relate to that

a character I didn’t used to like but now do: not applicable because they are all my children and I love them all

a character I used to like but now don’t: again with the not applicable

a character I’m indifferent about: Carol Marcus. Which is mainly Abrams’ fault since he apparently has a phobia of giving out characters’ backstory. I’d love to see more of her because I think she’s incredibly brilliant and she’d be a great addition to the rest of the crew.

a character who deserved better: ALL OF THEM! Kirk deserves to not feel like he’ll never live up to his dad’s legacy. Spock deserves to not feel like he doesn’t fit in anywhere because of his half Vulcan-half human heritage. McCoy deserves to be treated like a goddamn part of the triumvirate because he fuCKING IS. I AM SO SALTY ABOUT HIM BARELY BEING A PART OF THE BIG THREE IN THE FIRST MOVIE AND BEING PRACTICALLY WRITTEN OUT OF MOTHERFUCKING SECOND MOVIE. PRAISE THE LORD FOR STAR TREK BEYOND AND THE INCREDIBLE LEONARD MCCOY BEING TREATED LIKE THE VERY IMPORTANT MAIN CHARACTER THAT HE IS. I have lots of feelings about how his character has been treated and I could rant forever about it

a ship I’ve never been able to get into: I was never really able to get super into any ships that had Chekov in them just because Anton looked so young in the first two movies. But then Beyond happened and apparently Chekov was hitting the gym on the five year mission cause our friendly Russian navigator got ripped.

a ship I’ve never been able to get over: MCKIRK. I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP!!! The grumpy southern doctor loves the literal ray of sunshine captain. And the literal ray of sunshine captain loves the grumpy southern doctor. And they’re already such good friends and obviously care about each other (“I couldn’t just leave you there lookin’ all pathetic”). They just seem to fit together. McCoy is able to ground Kirk when he’s in danger of getting too wrapped up in his own head and Kirk is able to bring out McCoy’s more adventurous side and they just make each other better. I could continue to wax poetic but this post is already gonna be massive

a cute, low-key ship: Spuhura is my jam. Like cute little finger kisses in the hallway or turbo lift or under the table in the mess hall. And Uhura being able to talk to Spock in Vulcan and give him that little piece of home is just adorable

an unpopular ship but I still enjoyed it: again, I don’t really know any unpopular ships? I can only think of Khan x Bones but I don’t see much of it and I really don’t like it.

a ship that was totally wrong and never should have happened: Khan x anyone. I just can’t get behind that. Especially Khan x Bones. Just nope.

my favourite storyline/moment: I really enjoyed all of Beyond simply because it felt like it finally got back to the root of what Star Trek means: to explore new cultures with an open mind and offer up the best of humanity. So that’s probably my favorite storyline. My favorite moment was probably when it was revealed, in a completely un-dramatic way, that Sulu was gay. It was such a small moment but the reveal was done is such a quiet and nonchalant way that, it seemed to me, the writes sought to normalize the fact that Sulu has a husband and an adorable daughter. Which is awesome. Whenever a straight character is revealed to have a spouse or children, there’s never this big dramatic reveal so why should it be any different for a same-sex couple? I dunno. I just thought it was a really sweet moment and a nice nod to George Takei and the original series. Plus we had Simon Pegg basically say ‘fuck it’ and made everyone some orientation other than straight.

a storyline that never should have been written: I don’t get why they had to kill off Amanda in the first movie? Like? Spock’s planet was already destroyed and it’s not like he and Kirk bonded over both losing a parent? It just seemed pretty pointless to me plus all the scenes we got with Spock and Amanda were so sweet. I would’ve loved to have seen more of them

my first thoughts on the show: I think I remember being immediately engrossed in the movie. Since it opens in space, I was instantly pulled into this amazing futuristic world. And then I got to see cocky young Kirk and bby Spock then cocky older Kirk and sassy older Spock. AND THEN I got to meet my favorite salty southern doctor and I was never the same

my thoughts now: *aggressively hums theme music* I love Star Trek so much. To me, it showcases the best of what humanity has to offer and it shows us how to embrace other cultures and beliefs. Especially with the current political situation (I’m in the US), it’s seems more important now to be tolerant and accepting of people from other cultures and ethnic groups. I saw a post going around a little bit ago that was talking about how the person thought they should honor Anton. They pointed out Chekov was always supposed to show how the US and Russia would be able to overcome the tension between the countries. So the OP said they thought it’d be a nice nod to the original point of the character of Chekov to have a new navigator on the Enterprise and have them be a Muslim woman and I whole heartedly agree. I don’t want to see Chekov be killed off. Just have him be transferred to another ship and let the Enterprise have a new badass Muslim lady as the navigator. Or any other minority that is underrepresented

[twilight-deviant]

I'm curious. What are the reasons Wyatt might not be good for Lucy?

You’re trying to get me in trouble, anon. lol. I’ve just been mumbling under my breath about it. I guess I shouldn’t be afraid to speak though, even if it is against the (for some reason) most popular ship. Um, I can’t tell from your tone if you ship it, or if you hate it, or if you’re neutral, so if I offend your ship, I apologize. I’m just calling it like I see it.

Can I make this a general post about Wyatt? Since the tag you’re referencing was mainly about my outlook on Wyatt. But I’ll tie Wyatt/Lucy back into it.

Under a cut because it’s really long and also so anyone not wanting to hear a more critical reflection of Wyatt’s character can abstain.

I should probably preface everything which follows by saying I don’t hate Wyatt. True, of the four main characters, he is my least favorite and the least interesting, but that’s neither here nor there. I think he’s an all right character (nothing groundbreaking) and that he is decently three-dimensional. But the reasons I find him to be a departure from the standard, cookie cutter hero character are, apparently, quite different than what everyone else cites.

So… despite what the fandom almost unanimously believes, Wyatt is not a precious cinnamon roll. He is not a good person. I’m not saying he doesn’t want to be one. And he definitely thinks he is. But he is also kind of a jerk. Which is fine. I like my characters with some depth. I just get a little frustrated by people ignoring his faults or sweeping them under the rug. And I definitely don’t get why everyone thinks him having a relationship with Lucy would be the most healthy and well functioning thing. (Look, I ship Flynn/Lucy, but I’m also calling a rose a rose. It is what it is.)

I leave my own preconceived hangups at the door. Ever since I first watched the trailer, I was already rolling my eyes at the inevitability of the show trying to force them together, like every. single. other. show. on. television. It’s boring, if I’m being honest, predictable. But then I watched the Pilot and was intrigued when they called themselves brother and sister. Actually, I was downright giddy. I couldn’t stop going on about it. I thought hey… maybe they’re actually going for a different dynamic, something unique. Then they did it again in the second episode, a third time in Stranded, and I became really excited at the idea that they would develop a sibling relationship instead. How cute is it for Wyatt to be younger than her and yet end up acting like a big brother? Plus, it’s a lot easier to overlook Wyatt’s faults when the relationship between them isn’t romantic. So, digression aside, I’ll answer your question now.

I’ll start off small and build up, kay?

Wyatt is not over his wife. He’s not. He’s still obsessed with her. He regularly prints out pictures of her and stares at them, tapes them to his wall with the newspaper articles. He sits at a bar looking at her picture and drinking. And his obsession isn’t going away any time soon. He isn’t going to wake up one day in the near future and move on. It’s already been four years, and he is still feeling it. And he’s not done yet. Lucy’s journal claims that Wyatt is still obsessed with Jessica. We don’t yet know exactly when Lucy writes the journal, but Flynn does say that it’s, “A few years from now.” So a few years from now, Wyatt is still obsessed with Jessica and her death. We can’t honestly expect him to be all in with Lucy until he’s over Jessica. That’s not fair.

Inappropriate/Inconsiderate. He’s a guy. Fair enough, right? Excuse it if you want, but what he does in the Pilot is still a jerk move. Wyatt and Lucy are locked in a cell together. They’re standing, they’re pacing around, he’s staring at her breasts. It makes Lucy visibly uncomfortable. She scoffs and turns away from him. Oh, but it was all tactical, right? He had to stare at her chest before his eureka moment hit. Sure. Whatever. Okay, but then (and there’s no excuse for this) he watches as she takes off her shirt and bra! That’s downright sleazy. And the fandom romanticizes this instance? How would you feel if this guy you JUST MET was leering at you and, oh yeah, you’re locked in a room with him? There’s a certain expectation of consideration where you don’t make people feel uneasy. Let’s just say “gentleman” isn’t a word I’m throwing around with Wyatt Logan, aight?

Unstable. There was that part in the beginning of The Alamo where Wyatt is being reassigned. And I have to admit, I was surprised. He handled it with integrity, maturity, and respect towards his superiors. Fiction is so full of loose canons, I’d never seen that before. I was impressed. But boy, he got me good. Because just wait until the adults are away. He immediately descends into an erratic mindset. He begins experiencing flashbacks that are one step away from full-blown hallucinations. He is tortured by survivor’s guilt to the point that it affects his decision making skills. He already had enough of that going on because of his wife. In the Pilot, he’s so distracted by saving Kate the first time that he lets Flynn get away. And then a second time. And then a third time. I have to wonder how Wyatt has the psychiatric green light to be approved for combat, much less such a vital mission whose outcome literally affects the fate of the entire world. The episode posed the question if Wyatt is the right man for the job, and somehow the answer was… yes? Come on. This would never happen in real life. Wyatt’s instability is a liability. Let’s be honest with ourselves, he’s about as unstable as Flynn.

Oh, speaking of…

He’s as bad as Flynn. Not “as” bad, but committing a lot of the same transgressions. You know the body count between them is about the same, right? Granted, several of the people Wyatt has killed are Flynn’s men, self-defense shots with a low impact on the timeline. But others?

That’s sort of… what Flynn does. All the time. And why he does it. 

And the justification here, why we shouldn’t care, is because the guy was a Nazi? Look, he wasn’t a member of the top brass. He was just a soldier guarding some random spot in the woods. He’s not making a lot of decisions about the war. Was most likely drafted. He was just a guy doing as he was told, and he got shot in the back. And any descendants he might have had disappeared. They certainly weren’t Nazis. He was just some grunt. I seem to recall Wyatt’s outlook on the life of a soldier as, “I don’t get trained in why. Just who, what, where, and when.” It’s a bit… heartless. It shows a lack of empathy. That’s all I’m saying. (No, I’m not a Nazi sympathizer. But I do consider the individual within the cause.)

Wyatt actually killed at least six people in that episode. But there’s really no telling how many more were casualties of the rocket he and Rufus set off. Most likely (and at least) there were the four who were next to it when it exploded. Which would bring Wyatt’s contributive body count in that one episode up to ten. But given the massive fire the rocket ignites, there were probably more. (And we can’t even calculate how many of their descendants were wiped.) Honestly, if I did a legitimate tally, he has undoubtedly killed MORE people than Flynn.

He also killed Lieutenant Louis Coulon’s son, which can’t have not had an impact somewhere. And he was a good guy who wanted to feed them. Poor fella.

Wyatt has killed other people in the past. Like Rittenhouse’s men, but those were in self-defense so we have to let it go. Even though an unscheduled death going back 236 years definitely affected a lot in the timeline. That’s dozens of people who weren’t born, though it could easily be a hundred or more.

Wyatt has NO concerns with preserving the timeline, which is Lucy’s primary mission. And it’s very disrespectful how he OFTEN changes events on a whim, ignoring Lucy’s advice (and sometimes her pleas) to be more careful, leave less of a footprint. In response, Wyatt tells Lucy that history is her job and expects her to be his damage control as he runs about doing as he wishes in his mission and changes almost as many things incidentally as Flynn does intentionally. Lucy is so passionate about history and maintaining it and… Wyatt doesn’t really care a lot of the time.

Wyatt is manipulative. To be fair, this is mostly something seen with Flynn. He does it three times in the Watergate Tape episode. He toys with Flynn a bit, makes him think that he’s really willing to listen him. Flynn expresses that he wishes Wyatt would believe him, and Wyatt decides to run with it, use it. I’d let this go because, hey, Flynn was threatening to kill him and that’s just survival. I actually like the idea that Wyatt was consciously trying to trigger Lima syndrome. It’s devious, and I like it. But there’s one instance that sits unwell with me. There’s the really great scene (Goran is such an amazing actor) where Flynn finally fills in the blanks and says what happened regarding his family’s deaths. It’s extremely raw and emotional, obviously a sore spot, to put it lightly. And after Flynn has basically overshared his soul, Wyatt says, “Look. If any of this were true, you have a time machine. Why don’t you just go back and save your family?” It actually took me a few viewings to realize how, well, insidious the suggestion really is. Wyatt KNOWS you can’t go back to a time you already exist. And yet he’s hoping Flynn doesn’t? So he took the heartbreaking story that was shared with him and he then tried to twist and exploit Flynn’s desperation and love for his family until he could convince the man to go back to the night it happened and, in the process, destroy himself. Wyatt tried to weaponize Flynn’s mourning. It’s just very… unsettling. It’s very cold.

And then a lesser instance with Lucy, though his motivations are conjecture. But I gotta be honest that, once again, it just doesn’t sit well with me for some reason. The scene in The Capture of Benedict Arnold where they find out Rittenhouse is one man and the team is trying to decide how they’ll proceed. Lucy isn’t on board, and Wyatt sort of says everything he can to bring her around, up to and including the illogical proposal that it might even bring Amy back. He wants something, and Lucy’s standing in the way of a united front. Keep in mind, Wyatt’s already on board. Flynn bought his cooperation from the beginning. So every point he makes here is for the sole purpose of convincing Lucy. He mentions all the people who will suffer if they don’t do it, and yeah, it’s a great cause but it’s not his cause. It’s not his motive for why he’s doing it. He wants Jessica’s killer. The plight of hundreds is his tactic for convincing Lucy. And the way he finishes it by saying, “What you really believe in is helping people,” it sort of feels like emotional blackmail. He presents the argument in such a way that Lucy can’t ignore that her disagreement and inaction will cause the deaths of all those people. He’s pressuring her to agree with them. Like I said, his motives there are debatable, but I don’t like it.

Temper. Wyatt is a great guy. So long as everything is going his way and everyone is doing what he says. Source? Just… any scene with him and Judith Campbell, honestly. He immediately flips a switch with her, and it’s somewhat frightening to know how quickly he can turn on a person. He has a temper lying in wait, and it can be unlocked with very minor provocation. It’s an overall bad episode for Wyatt with an unfortunate peek at the darker side he definitely has. He tries ordering Lucy and Rufus around the entire episode, snaps at them when they disobey or lose focus. Lucy even tells him he doesn’t give the orders, not that he gives it much mind. He tells her to take it up with Agent Christopher, which she obviously can’t do in the past. Wyatt knows and takes advantage of the fact that when they are isolated the past, he becomes the default power of authority. He doesn’t use it often, but it is a trump card. Lucy and Rufus cannot stop him physically. He’s a well trained soldier, and they’re nerds. Wyatt is aware.

And, ya know, just adding, he goes on to use Judith as bait, something he knows could be dangerous given his nonanswer when she asks if he would do the same with a woman he loved. Lucy told him Judith is important, and he still used her, risked her.

His temper ties in with this next point.

Everything! In! This! Scene!

Good lord. Red flags popping up like daisies. Can we extract the facts from this scene? Maybe if we’re not watching two people act, the story will shine through and hit a little better, a little clearer.

Wyatt and Jessica go out to a bar.

Jessica runs into an old boyfriend of hers.

Wyatt becomes immensely jealous. Even though he and Jessica are married. (Now, I don’t know the girl. Yet. But unless he has proven and established reasons to worry about her being disloyal, this is very insulting.) Wyatt is an over the top jealous, possessive person. 

Let’s add distrustful.

Wyatt’s jealousy leads to him drinking too much.

I’d like to mention the obvious here in that after drinking “too much,” he then drives them home. So… drunk driving added to the list of offenses.

They leave the bar, and, once they are alone, the fight begins.

The shouting becomes so unbearable that Jessica would rather get out of the car than stay in it with him.

Instead of letting it go, at least until they get home, he actually, legitimately stops the car.

He lets her out on the side of a highway. It wasn’t a city block or a rural street. Only highways have mile markers. Have you seen a highway? It’s typically a long stretch of road that might not have anything on it for miles. That’s why they have mile markers. He let her out there.

Because of this, Jessica is (predictably?) killed.

This isn’t a tragic backstory. Flynn has a tragic backstory. He was just a man doing his job and they killed his family. What Wyatt has is the consequence of his actions. The one redeeming aspect of the whole ordeal is that he does at least blame himself for it. I mean, he should. So at least he does.

I dread the day when (not if) they inevitably show us the flashback of that night and end up retconning so much of how the scene is represented. Because Wyatt is a fan favorite now, so they’re going to make every decision he made that night look like a natural course of events that could happen to anyone. You know they’ll do it.

Jealous. Related note to the above point, people think it’s cute every time Wyatt “gets jealous” when other men pay Lucy attention or flirt with her. Noooooooo. Once again, red flag. We’ve heard what happens when he gets jealous. WHY is this cute?

Did I ramble? Definitely. Is anyone going to read all of that? Definitely not. Sorry I couldn’t keep it brief, Anon. I’m a very contemplative individual who thinks too much about fiction. It’s dangerous to ask me a question. lol. No matter how simple it may sound when asked.

I think what we’re supposed to do with Wyatt’s character (which so few do– no one?) is acknowledge that he is a protagonist who is not 100% good. He is the mirror image of Flynn, an antagonist who is not 100% bad. They have so much in common, I truly believe we’re supposed to draw parallels between them. 

So for lots of reasons, I don’t think Wyatt is good for Lucy. Really, unless he changes himself drastically, I don’t think he’s good for anyone. His wife is literally dead because of his jealousy and his temper. And Wyatt just… can’t really handle it when people disagree with him, not when he’s too invested in his own idea. Lucy is too strong willed for something to actually last for very long between them. I hope it never starts. But I rarely get what I want in these matters so…

Once again, I don’t hate Wyatt. He’s still an okay guy. I didn’t list his positive attributes because it wasn’t relative to the question. And there are enough posts about that. But yeah, one day, the glass just sort of shattered and I noticed all of his bad traits that had been building up under our noses the entire time. They add up. He’s just a flawed, unstable hothead. But at least he’s three-dimensional.