#anyway one of the reasons i've been struggling with dragons is because the plot is not super action heavy--it's rlly more an emotional dram

[reneesbooks]

9 lines 9 people

ok confession these games scare me bc tagging people still intimidates me but i'm being brave today here's some lines i wrote a while back from the dragons of kiltide. just fabin having a little teenage angst. also this is 9 (11 but shh the context!!) paragraphs bc i still don't know how to shut the fuck up. thank you @space-writes for the tag <3

the raedoran cycle

[Fabin] tilts his head, pressing his forehead to the window frame. “What are dreams like?” he asks quietly.

Emilia sits across from him, watching how his eyes stare through the window but see nothing. She thought he'd left that behind in the weeks and months after their parents were killed, thought the long silences were finally over. She tucks her arms against her sides. “They're...like memories. Only more vivid.”

His fingers close around the hilt of his sword. “What do you dream about?”

She rolls her shoulders. “Places I've never been. Things I've never seen.”

One of his hands presses against the glass. “Do you ever dream of...of humans?”

She studies him with a worried frown. “Is there something you want to talk about?”

He recoils, his expression twisting with anger before it closes off. “No. I'm fine. I don't have dreams.” He turns away from her. “Never mind.”

Emilia sighs. “I talked Muiris down. He doesn't want to kill you anymore.”

“Good for him.”

“You should apologize for breaking his foot.”

Fabin turns to face her again, his eyes wide. “I actually broke it?”

tagging @oh-no-another-idea @zmwrites @akindofmagictoo @writinglyra @k--havok @lyssa-ink @aether-wasteland-s @ink-flavored @avrablake to share 9 (or more or less or however many you feel like!) lines of writing <3

[thirdtidemouse]

pretend i havent been inactive for 100 years. i've been watching renegade nell and its giving me a new sketchbook au idea/accompanying doodles. essentially: fae highwaywoman johanna is on the run, kaisa is Out To Get Her with dark magic

you have to cut me some slack with how silly i sound. its the hyperfixation. im ill

i'm casting these freaks like actors. Johanna is Nell:

it is 1705, and barkeep Johanna has found herself a highwaywoman on the run for a murder she didn't do, accompanied by her daughters and aided by a little spirit named Alfur. she has found fae-like abilities, and despite her good intentions, she is now feared across half the country as an invincible murderess.

Kaisa is Sofia:

hunting her down is Kaisa, a lady whose family owns Johanna's pub, whose father Johanna is falsely accused of killing, and who is obsessed with catching her. she uses dark magic to fuck with Johanna's life remotely, summoning things to attack her etc - she may be untouchable when it comes to human enemies, but not magic. Kaisa herself is lonely, surprisingly empathetic, and is desperate to prove her worth and have control over her life.

other character notes:

give Johanna a gun

she is a painter and illustrator still. she is struggling to find time for her hobbies

she would rather not be robbing people but has no problem if she needs to. the rich ones have more money than they know what to do with anyway, and if she has to take a horse from some poor guy, she leaves him with stolen valuables in exchange. she's a little robinhood about it.

i think it would be so fun to keep the mythical creatures around. watch out for Devilwoman Johanna who is strong enough to kill a troll!! (she would never)

yes Lauren (belonging to @blaithnne) is included. Nell is accompanied by her two little sisters, brave & helpful older sister Roxy, and funny & inquisitive little sister George. Lauren & Hilda take their place, and maybe Frida and David tag along hehe.

Lauren & Hilda keep getting taken hostage in attempts to get Jo to turn herself in, but they always get out of it. until they do, Hilda probably talks their ears off about dragons and Lauren makes terrifying threats.

no one else REALLY specifically fits character slots like Amadin, Thomas, and Charles (there aren't a lot of men in hilda lol) so i'm going to wing it and the other characters can fill their roles when needed maybe

Thomas is Sofia's brother who killed both their father and Nell's father, and is generally reckless, careless, and easily badly influenced. i'm actually thinking of putting 18yo Dylan (oc of mine who is Kaisa's younger sister) in his place. she is a lot sweeter in regular hilda universe but i think the plot & i could fuck with her character enough that she gains these insecure, irresponsibly cruel tendencies. sorry Dylan

both Johanna and Kaisa were witnesses when her father died. Kaisa knows she's innocent, but goes along with the accusation to save Dylan from being arrested and keep the family (and their place in society) from falling apart. I'm thinking of making Dylan a boy in this, to keep the dynamic of the land going to him when papa dies > he would be a terrible landlord > Kaisa gets to take the reigns and keep everything in working order because she actually cares and enjoys having things to watch over and work on

in general Kaisa is very lonely, has to work twice as hard for the power and respect men are given automatically, and yearns for the kind of freedom and support that Johanna has despite being an outlaw from a poor family.

i think David and Frida could fill Amadin's role as friends they pick up along the way. David's loyalty and voice of reason, and Frida's fierce protectiveness and determination to prove herself both remind me of his character.

i'm inclined to draw a blank for Poynton, the main villain, a Jacobite amongst the royal guard, the siblings' traitorous mentor in black magic, and the indirect reason their dad died in the first place. Tildy is Kaisa's mentor, but not an evil one. the closest Hilda has to real villains is Erik, and the head witches maybe, but none of them really hit the nail on the head for this guy. an au oc may be in order!!!

the Bellkeeper can be Charles maybe lol. he is an established highwayman leading a double life as both a wanted criminal and a aristocrat. he is suave, a little campy, and a firm believer that with confidence, you can sweet-talk anyone into believing you are anyone. he annoys Johanna into letting him tag along and help with disguises and plans just because he finds it fun.

Lady Eularia Moggerhanger runs the newspapers, and i'm splitting that between two characters for a couple reasons. Erik is the owner of the presses (not putting him in the royal guard because it wouldn't make sense for him to be a Jacobite rebel) who generally enjoys fearmongering and controlling the public.

Victoria is the head editor with a taste for dramatics but seeks the truth above all else, and happens to be the Bellkeeper's 'friend in high places' who begrudgingly bails him out of trouble.

Gerda replaces Polly, a good-hearted writer and believer of justice who falls head over heels for Jo when she gets highway-robbed by her and mistakes her for a man. is later appointed assistant editor of the newspaper.

this happens i guess

this isn't meant to stick to the plot of renegade nell, there's a lot going on and it would be easier (and more interesting) to figure out an original plot with this different cast of characters. i just thought it would be fun to put sketchbook into an 18th century highwayman period fantasy drama with dark magic and pixies. and enemies to lovers. okay thanks

i might add onto this at some point if anyone has any questions or additions LET ME KNOW!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU

[slayemal-na-nerate]

//Okay, so obviously, it's been more than a few weeks, but I've had a lot more complications come up that I don't feel like listing entirely right now, and my mental health continues to be a struggle. That being said, I've put out the majority of the most pressing fires, and I do think writing helps improve my mental health when I get into a groove with it, so I'm going to end my hiatus on a couple blogs in the next week or two, primarily Bruce Wayne and Garrett Hawke. Raven and my CW Flash oc, Leia Morales, might become active again as well if people show any interest in them. I'm not really feeling much muse for Aya right now, and Lavellan will have to at least wait until I finish Veilguard (even though I expect to be ignoring a good portion of canon based on spoilers I've been exposed to). My Star Wars and Riordanverse muses will remain on hiatus until I can muster up the enthusiasm to re-engage with the source materials. Whenever that eventually happens, I'll likely be focusing on Damus Tall, one of my Zabrak twins on this blog, because he's the least depressingly affected by his trauma, which is a nice break from how heavy things can get with my other muses.

In the week or two leading up to the hiatus ending for at least two of my blogs, I'll be working on replies I owe (although, I might need to pause a couple threads that don't come naturally to me and take more effort to write right now), trying to finish Veilguard, and working on the last of my especially pressing irl issues. I don't expect to get all that done, but the only official roadblock to the hiatus ending will be finishing replies. Most, if not all, of those are for mutuals on discord, so if it seems like I'm taking a while but posting little to nothing on any of my blogs, that's why. The week or two I've given myself is a generous estimate to allow me to not rush through everything and overwhelm myself. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to plot things in advance or send asks, though only the former will receive a response before the hiatus is officially over. Replies to asks and thread responses I don't already owe will start post-hiatus, again focusing on Bruce and Hawke only, unless Leia and Raven have any interest shown towards them. Fun fact: Bruce is actually meant to share a canon with Raven, which would make her 24 (same age as the mun) currently; I'll likely add a verse to explain what's gone on with her for the past decade, but I'd probably still default to her teenage self to answer any asks. Whenever I get around to reading the Nightwing comics with the old team back together, that might change, but the truth is, she's just not fun to write consistently during a time where the team isn't together, and I don't think it'd be fun for others to engage with that version of her all the time. It's the same reason I tend to default to act 2 or a relatively happy portion of act 3 for Hawke when answering asks, except at least his self-destructive behaviors can make for more interesting interactions than Raven's complete isolation from the world after their respective breaking points.

Anyway, TLDR: Batman and default purple mage Hawke from DA2 will be coming back in a week or two. Veilguard will be largely ignored and/or altered when added to verses for my Dragon Age muses, but I'm not bringing Lavellan back until I finish it. I always have a lot of muse for Raven and Leia, so they could come back too, but only if it seems like people might actually engage with them. All other muses are on the back burner. Hiatus on the aforementioned blogs will officially end after I finish any replies I owe (mostly or entirely on Discord). I expect that to happen in the next week or two. I'll reply to PMs for plotting, but asks and new starters won't be responded to until I finish what I already owe (still welcome to send them my way before then if you're okay waiting til then, though). Post-hiatus, anything left unanswered without a request to pause is just something I'm not aware it was my turn for. I'll work on a thread tracker eventually, but until then, just message me. Expect replies to be slow, at least to start, but I'll try to get back to each thread within a week. See you guys soon if you write for DC or Dragon Age!

[buginateacup]

9, 14, 18, 37 for the ask meme!

ooh Dal I hope you're ready for this...

Which fic has been the hardest to write?

Tea with Topsy. Hands down. I have others I struggled with for longer, but Topsy had a schedule and I would spend hours just trying to think through the hows and whys and who's doing whats of that fic so I could keep it straight in my head (unlike Megamind and Roxanne, wahey!) while trying to post regularly and not fuck myself by having something happen and accidentally cut a chunk of story because of it.

What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Cut everything that doesn't advance the plot.

Seriously WHY would you say that? Maybe this is because I'm primarily a fanfic writer but what the fuck? Half the time the plot is the LEAST interesting thing about a story! Because here's the secret. Unless your characters are on a QUEST, they don't know there is a plot. They are just trying to live their lives and thinking about what comes in two days, two weeks, two months. When the plot arrives it is a Disruption! And if you don't let your characters react or crash and burn or give them enough time to actually show WHY they are people who make bad or selfish or pointless decisions, you wind up with a very boring story or characters acting OOC just to move the plot along and I swear this is where half the "If I was X character I would simply not make X decision" comments. You need to give your story time to BREATHE.

Your characters do not know they are in a story. They are not going to think like a reader and as a writer you need to give them follow through so they are not little puppets getting pushed around a stage. It's like punching someone, you don't aim for their nose, you aim two inches past it.

Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?

I use dot points. Usually when I realise I've written myself into a corner and have to figure out how to get out again. I have also been known to rough draft plot points a la gossip style story telling (hi Rings!) but that happens less than you'd think. I am not good at planning, but I like making sure I set something up before I knock it down so my brain and I mostly agree to disagree.

Talk about your current wips.

I...all of them? Ohhkay oh fuck alright I can do this. There are six open on my laptop right now. I'm gonna start with them.

Lindworm: You know the story of the lindworm? Woman wants a baby, fucks up the instructions, has a perfect child and also a dragon. And oops they're all grown up now and dragon wants a bride? (Or possibly a snack. He's kind of into eating people). But the bride wears numerous dresses and convinces the lindworm he can eat her if he takes off a skin for each dress she removes and by the time they're down to the last she washes him with milk and lye and wraps him in her arms and breaks the curse and he becomes a man again?

Yeah we're doing that with Megamind. Also there may be an AU I'm leaving a trapdoor for myself with where Roxanne fucks Dragon!mind after a few sheds. Haven't decided yet. Should I?

Consolation prize: I don't remember why I called it tha- oh wait yes I do. This is a gift fic I've been poking away at with a prompt for really inhuman Megamind being the one to rescue Roxanne and show why he's the big boss in town and he's ashamed he's not human enough but she embraces him anyway and they're incredibly tender with one another.

And...look. You know me. I don't really do easy comfort. There's something about trauma that makes me go "You cannot pivot straight into comforting someone while you're in the middle of a perfectly reasonable panic attack of your own. You gotta let your characters breathe and cry for a bit before they can have emotionally healthy conversations. But I'm trying! And everyone's probably going to be in shock anyway so we'll let that carry the emotional baggage. Also it is very tender in a let me wash the blood off your face kind of way. I should actually have it finished soon which is exciting.

Tea with Topsy (part 2): Not actually part 2 I just got sick of scrolling every time I opened it so I put all the published stuff into another document. It's technically on hiatus still but I'm finding it a lot more pleasant to work on when I'm not trying to keep to a schedule. There's lots of smut coming, some Megamind being threatening, and some Roxanne being sneaky (if we're lucky they might even say "I love you" this year) and Minion being best henchfish to ever hench. Plus plot! And emotional breakdowns! And more strawberry icecream!

Oil and Water: Okay that one's just smut. I'm aiming for 1000 words per chapter for the next couple of chapters and its really just Megamind and Roxanne exhibition hours and an idea I've had FOREVER about them getting busted. But they're having fun and that's what's important. (poor Warden better hope he never finds out what happened in his office).

Party Dress: Okay so! Did you know whatever Megamind fic goes up next on AO3 is going to be my 50th? Because that was a shock! And what is being human for except to ascribe random numbers pointless meaning, so I had to make it something special. I toyed with the idea of getting Paperwork Polycule or Blue Ruin started but they still need more work than I have the brain for so instead I decided it was time I actually finished the very first piece of Megamind fanfic I started!

It's a cute oneshot fairly early on where Megamind and Minion run into Roxanne who is avoiding the crowds at the Mayor's annual Christmas Party and they offer her a ride home. It was the first place I came up with a lot of fun/silly ideas that I'm sure people will be able to draw comparisons to other fics I've written when I post it.

Kittens: Roxanne discovers a box of abandoned kittens on her way to work and takes them home. Megamind appears, very annoyed she missed their appointment ("What appointment?" "The one where I kidnap you of course!" "Oh that. Pass" "Pass? What you can't just pass! This is a kidnapping!" "Sh! I'm busy.") And she shanghais him into watching them while she goes to get pet supplies.

There is purring.

As for the rest!

*deep breath* this part comes with musical accompaniment to set the mood

Blue Ruin - The 1920's Megamind is a mobster, Roxanne is a club singer AU.

A Cunning Disguise - Spy AU, Megamind and Roxanne are undercover as newlyweds trying to put a stop to...something (look its about the TENSION alright? What's important is how many times they have to kiss to throw someone off their trail)

Barley - aka 5 times Roxanne and Megamind wound up playing schoolyard games as he tried to kidnap her (chasey, hide and seek, dodgeball, nerf wars, the floor is lava etc)

Birthday Cakes - An Umbrella Academy fic where they find The Women's Weekly book of birthday cakes and insist they each finally deserve a proper one

Bluestocking - Working title, Regency AU where Roxanne is trying to keep her family estate and winds up married to Megamind for half historical scandal half revange reasons. They fall in love.

Catherine Wheel - Angst. Something goes wrong, Megamind gets injured, Roxanne yells her feelings, possibly everyone dies?

Chains - Megamind and Roxanne escape the Doom Syndicate and wind up in a safehouse that's really more of an abandoned garage for the night. Oh and they're handcuffed together.

Chicken - Megamind and Wayne team up to invite Roxanne to a threesome

Chunk! - Wayne punches Megamind and bends his ventral piercings. Roxanne has to but them out with a boltcutter. Edging for everyone!

Noone calls you Honey - TECHNICALLY complete but I have an idea for a later scene that involves Wayne fighting a speedster supervillain and Roxanne rescuing other damsels so its staying in the WIPs until I decide what to do with it.

Con Crunch - Roxanne sneaks into a Villain con, Megamind catches her and passes her off as his protege.

Dear Diary - The WIP title for Wait a Minute! Where Roxanne and Megamind are trapped in a time bubble for 30 days. Actual future chapters are drafted because I finally got the angsty one finished!

Dinner and Goodnight kisses - Actually cut from Topsy due to emotional damages. Roxanne asks Megamind to be her fake date for dinner, which he accepts. But she accidentally mistakes someone else for him instead. Cue betrayal, misery, and an apology dinner of takeaway thai food on her couch. And kisses.

Falling - Roxanne and Megamind have a ”one time thing” out of curisoity/boredom/horny. But it keeps happening. And so do feelings

Family dinner - Roxanne asks Megamind to be her date to her monthly family dinner with the horrible side of the family in the hopes she'll be banished.

Free on saturday? - 5 times Roxanne made Megamind be her fake date (and one time it wasn't fake at all) This one I borrowed some of my own family traditions and I will probably be a blubbery mess when I actually write the rest of it but its still tender right now since my Opa passed away.

Fly me to the moon - Once upon a time Nickel and I agreed to an exchange where she asked for Megamind and Roxanne meeting as adults. I had two ideas, one was Back of Beyond (which I'm delighted you enjoyed) and the other is this, Roxanne is a junior reporter kidnapped by a couple of of aliens and is being kept in their spaceship on the other side of the moon while they try to figure out how to ransom her for the fuel they need to get back to the rest of the galaxy. Also Wayne is a space cop. Mostly made of teeth. And Minion's robot body turns into a motorcycle.

Formal Wear - The continuation and the prequel of A Formal Affair, where Megamind and Roxanne start their little getaways and also Wayne finally gets the courage up to ask to be the wall they fuck against.

Gloves are off - There is a trend for hero and villain themed onlyfans. Roxanne gets asked to do a story on some of them and finds one account that does a really good Megamind impression. Like REALLY good.

Hadestown - A 13/Dhawan!Master Dr Who Hadestown AU where the Doctor is Persephone and the Master is Hades

Into Temptation - The next installment of the Crowded House collective. Its the night before a very big event and Roxanne asks Megamind to visit...(soft angst, smut and feels)

Intruder Window (my working titles are so I can save the doc, not because I know what I'm doing) - The Tapetum Lucidum series. I hope you're ready to get laid

Mentality Machine Misfire - Prequel to Rings. What did happen when Megamind and Roxanne wound up as Brain-bots?

Mer couture - The sequel to Haute Water. (I blame @kizzyanel) I'm waiting on the next Met Gala for more inspiration because at the moment its just Megamind and Minion pleasing Roxanne in the bath.

Mistress Roxanne - Megamind runs into Roxanne in a dungeon and finds out he has a hitherto undiscovered sub streak a mile wide. Sexy shenanigans ensue.

Nails - A Nails AU based on the short story from Round the Twist. There are mermaids.

Never drink alone - Wayne Megamind and Minion all get absolutely trashed on a particular cocktail at a Scott Family party (so much for that evil plan) a none to sober herself Roxanne has to wrangle them back to Wayne's room and keep them there till they all sober up. No one has a filter. Also truth or dare.

Noticeable - Pride and Prejudice AU - Mary asks Kitty for help to make her beautiful enough Mr Collins will ask her to marry him. Mostly about sisterly bonding.

Nowhere to run - Roxanne stumbles on Megamind right after he accidentally kills someone in self defense. She takes him home and cleans him up and keeps his secrets.

Operation Seduction - Wayne and Roxanne are fuckbuddies who team up to seduce Megamind.

Paperwork Polycule - Roxanne marries all her aliens to make sure they don't get deported. of course this means they have to live together for a year and oh dear what feelings are these? (Wayne and Minion have the most helpless crushes on each other).

Penelope - A Penelope/Colin Bridgerton story about Penelope writing a vicious takedown of herself as Whistledown and the fallout as the Bridgerton family comes to her defence.

Prime numbers - It's not even a real kiss! Just a kiss on the cheek because they were both laughing at the brainbot tangled in mistletoe. So why is Megamind running in a panic and who is Roxanne going to have to kill for making him feel like he's not even allowed such a small gesture of affection?

Roxanne is dead - (thrilling title I know) Except she's not, she's hiding in the Lair from everyone while the rest of the world THINKS she's dead. Megamind included. A lot of angst and slow feels

Same time next week - Megabyte and Dot don't intentionally make a habit of running into one another at Al's diner. But it keeps happening (will end in alley sex)

Selkie - Roxanne's greatest secret is her pelt. When her house is robbed and Megamind returns it to her, any number of strange things about her suddenly start to make sense. (Also there are whiskery seal kisses)

Six of Crows Bar and Restaurant - A slice of life AUabout the Six of crows but as restaurant workers

Speed Chess - A Queens Gambit oneshot about playing speedchess in the park

Table for Two - Sarcasm serves Megamind and Roxanne well when instead of the evil plan that was supposed to be happening, Minion has arranged...dinner?

Tattoo Roses - The flowershop/Tattoo parlour AU that I will have more than just slice of life scenes if I ever figure out how

The inherent evil of turtlenecks - Bernard is back and he is out for revange! Unfortunately Megamind has found his greatest weakness, advice on how to be a better supervillain. Homoeroticism and evil plans abound.

The Morning after - Roxanne and Megamind run into each other out of town and wind up spending the night together. What's going to come of this neither of them know.

Please Break Me Gently - Megamind collapses four steps into Roxanne's apartment after the Black Mamba fight. An adult retelling of what happens next with all the bruises left in.

The Vast of what comes after - A Vast of Night continuation of how and where Faye and Everett and Maddy come back.

Tofu - Megamind steals Roxanne's lunch one day and discovers tofu is an aphrodisiac to his species. Roxanne offers to help out

Toy Room - Megamind has a sex room built during his villainous days. Roxanne finds it. Fun times ensue.

Tryst in me - Sequel to "She's all out to get you" Wayne Megamind and roxanne have got a pretty good handle on how to run her city. But Roxanne really can't stop thinking about Megamind's hands. She decides to do something about it. (the something is Megamind)

Up n at em - Also technically finished but I have a sequel chapter about how they fell in love and how it was Roxanne and Minion first.

Voyager - Yes the one you used to write Embers to Ashes. the line "These are supposed to be gills!" still lives rent free in my head so its becoming a post movie angstfest at some point.

Waltz - Megamind finds Roxanne sneaking around at a party. The price for his silence? A dance.

Who bit my familiar? - A WWDITS story about Guillermo waking up a vampire.

You must be this tall to fire the giant laser - Megamind accidentally shrinks Roxanne down to 5 years old. Chaos ensues.

*falls over gasping* And there you have it! That music was in my head the ENTIRE time I was writing this out. (sometimes I really do have to wonder if I don't have some kind of ADHD)

Also thank you for making me tidy up my WIP folder, it actually shrank because I stuffed all the random bits and pieces and all those "An Idea" minifics the server pulls out of me into one document so yay! (I did not do those, that would have been another 20 odd)

[emilykaldwen]

11, 12 and 26 for the bts fic asks (the maiden and the drowning boy)?

Behind the Scenes Fic Asks

Thank you so much for sending this!!! Okay *cracks knuckles* let's see what thinky thoughts I need to make coherent.

11. Was there a scene that you hadn't originally planned to include? Why did you decide to fit it in?

Ooooh nice! So this is the first fic I've like truly outlined because there's so many plots and subplots and moving parts that I need to be aware of. Like putting a bunch of feral toddlers on leashes! The thing I make sure I do though, is to leave breathing room for scenes exactly like this where they come up because you find the story needs it in that moment. I think I have to go with... (me checking what I've written so far) So there's a scene in chapter 14 (the ball!) that I ended up writing between Abby and her grandfather, Rodrick Reyne that I'm incredibly pleased about because the man isn't dumb. He's totally acknowledging that Alicent is picking Abby to be queen, but he will absolutely fight against the betrothal if it isn't what Abby wants. And it just made my heart incredibly full because there is one fucking adult in her life that isn't trying to use Abby to their own ends/mold in their own image/try control Aegon through her. He cares about her and there is absolutely an AU somewhere where Abby goes to foster at Castamere after Lyonel's death.

12. Was there a scene you wished you could have included? Why didn't it fit in?

So I had wanted to do a scene with Aegon and Viserys where Aegon is asking permission to go into the royal treasury to get some jewels for Abby to make a necklace. This was meant to be right after the gallery scene in Chapter Nine. I scrapped it for a few reasons, I think mainly due to length? And Tonally in this chapter I wanted to keep it between Abby and Aegon in terms of them feeling like their relationship is changing before knocking them apart for the next chapters. If I can find a place to include it in the back half of the chapters, I absolutely will though because I really do need a scene with Aegon and Viserys. (Initially I thought of posting it as it's own outtake/one shot side story but it really is something I need to include)

26. Wild Card! A fun fact about this fic!

Well fuck LOL man, what's a fun fact... So I had come up with the concept of this story... fuck. It was the week that The Princess and the Queen aired, or the following week (I had created Abby back in August pretty quickly, although she was her canonical age at that point) and started writing mid-october or the week before nano started. It all began with what I intended ot be a one shot, with 15k words of young!Alicent and I wrote about... 32k of backstory route. There was going to be... 10? chapters of Alicent/Abby/Aegon rotating POV through Driftmark, and then time jump 3 years later to what is our opening chapter in Maiden. However I was really struggling with young!Abby POVs because she was such a happy kid? and she doesn't have the language or understanding or self realization to understand the 'Oh I need to be happy all the time because my dad was sad mom was dying and everyone around me is mentally unwell so I need to be happy because it makes other people happy'. And then I ended up scrapping that essentially and starting over and then at that point I got a very quick surgery approval and immediately started in on my fasting diet which took away any ability to string words together. Some of it is actually getting recycled for some stuff: there's a scene in particular where Daemon showed up for Aegon's 13th nameday, and Daemon was the one who introduced Aegon to Mysaria (because I had been trying to figure out how this little menace ended up becoming a regular fixture in flea bottom). Anyway, there was a really good dragon face off scene that will be repurposed for a later chapter in arc one!

[loneliii-aura]

Extremely curious about "Slightly heinous porn" vs "Absolutely heinous porn" if you're willing to share!

LMAO oh boy, putting this under a cut for those who don't want to know about my weird writing. (I'm choosing not to warn here, so read at your own risk other followers) I may grow incoherent with mimosa.

"slightly heinous porn" are two pieces set in the "Hissera" verse I have in Dragon Age; the gist of the plot is that a sareebas (magic user from the "qunari" culture that basically treats their magic users as living weapons, to the point of keeping them on leashes and sometimes sewing their mouths shut - half the point of the verse is to make the qunari make sense to me, which they really don't in canon) manages to escape her handler and runs off to elope with an elven circle mage (the southern human culture, generally, keeps their magic users kept in "circles", aka oppressive institutions mages are kept in from when magic is first discovered in childhood to death - it's wildly awful) she's been visiting in her dreams for the past decade, and the Valor spirit that's also with both of them! Lesbian poly triad ftw

Anyway, one piece is a specific type of kink, and the other is from before Hissera left her (first?) Master, who's been using sex and various manipulative strategies to keep Hissera compliant, rather than purely punishment or refusing to acknowledge her.

"It hurts," I whined, barely more than a whisper, scared that my mouth would be sewn if I opened it too widely. I was always scared, then. 

"The hurt is the discomfort of change, weapon," She said. "Do your bones not hurt as you grow?" She had put a hand to my stomach, then, so gentle and warm. "This too hurts, but you will overcome it. You must be marked as a weapon for all to see, but you will be beautiful." She drew her hand up, then, to cradle my face under the mask. I shook, but I did not struggle against her from then.

As a weapon, I was decorated to reflect my master. Rope covered my body, another sign that I was held back and under control - that she had such control over me she could turn me into anything she wished. I had seen Sareebas with sewn lips, whose hands were bound constantly, and I was none of those things, for I trusted in the Qun, in my Arvaarad, and did not give into the whispers of demons."

and the other part decade/s after the one above, written from the elves perspective:

She expected to see discomfort or that blank look Hissera got when her memories were too overwhelming. Hissera rarely liked her genitals touched in the waking world, though she enjoyed kissing. Natalie wished things could be different, wished she could show Hissera physical pleasures, but what they had in the Fade was just as good. Hissera had even used her hands on Natalie before, though the times where either of them could get clean enough for that were few and far between, on the run.

What she hadn't expected was a strange, longing look that made Natalie's heart clutch.

Hissera said nothing, but pressed a kiss to the top of Natalie's head, and reached out to tug Natalie so she was cradled in Hissera's lap, legs draped over Hissera's knee. This time, as she pressed her mouth to Hissera's nipple, Hissera's large hand found hers, and she was guided to hold the same breast.

"Absolutely heinous porn" is noncon monsterfucking, but I've been struggling with it for months because I'm trying to write it from the aggressor's POV, which is basically a snake-person master wondering how far his slave will go - he's been shaped as the perfect slave in almost every other manner, but will he be up to this challenge? No matter the outcome, it should be amusing to the master, etc etc. No pieces from that one though, for the reasons mention3d above

[spicycreativity]

Fanfic Appreciation Week Day 7: A Place Where I Can Breathe

Yes, folks, I'm appreciating my own darn fanfic for the final day of Fanfic Appreciation Week because I worked really hard on it and it was a labor of love for/with one of my QPPs, my roommate, the man who got me into Sanders Sides: @\cadeorade-powercade (That's him in the aesthetic board)

Allow me to present the director's commentary for A Place Where I Can Breathe:

Content Warnings: All content warnings mentioned in the fic apply.

Chapter 1: I actually wrote this fairly late in the game. It's meant to serve as a prologue and orient the viewer in the universe, s opposed to staring on Chapter 2, which just throws the viewer in without context. I think it was a good choice, as it also allowed me to introduce the concept of the Sides having power focuses early on.

The Premise: Cade is a Virgil stan and he was getting frustrated looking for Virgil fic. He was finding a lot of stuff written without nuance by young authors, a sort of "by teenagers for teenagers" type deal. We are not teenagers, so we both have a hard time relating to that kind of teen angst fic, as we're not the target audience. So he asked me to write him a Virgil fic and we worked together to identify what plot he wanted, what the Mindscape looked like, and what quirks the Sides have. So a lot of this fic is quite gratuitous and self-indulgent

The Title: Lizzie McAlpine has a song called "Apple Pie" which includes the lyric "I've been running around trying to find a place where I can breathe." Apple Pie SCREAMS Moceit to me, and I had taken notice of the lyric and wanted to use it as the title for a Moceit fic. I didn't really have an idea beyond that, and when Cade asked me to write this fic, I realized it was actually perfect and summed up Virgil's inner struggle quite nicely. So cheers to "A Place Where I Can Breathe," the Moceit Fic That Wasn't

-Cade asked me specifically to include Virgil having a spider and I wrote nearly the whole fic without doing so, then had to go back and sprinkle some references in. I think I managed 2 total.

Chapter 2:

"Uh, how about I hold off on that until I actually see my room?" Virgil stared expectantly at Roman, who bounced on his toes. "Lead on, Macduff."

"That's not the line and you know it," Roman complained, but he turned to lead Virgil to his room. "It's ' lay on, Macduff,' and--"

-This fic was originally supposed to reach a climax with a confrontation between Remus and Roman, and "lay on, Macduff" would come back as a brick joke. Unfortunately, the original ending was a result of me getting tired and lazy, so I had to go back and fix it, and we lost the Roman-Remus confrontation.

It was hard for Virgil to not shudder at the sudden heat and weight on him. With his senses already open and taking in more information than his brain seemed to want to process, touch was an added stressor, more unwanted sensory input.

-Virgil being touch-averse is a direct shoutout to Cade, who is also touch-averse.

Roman had already transformed the living room: metallic streamers of purple and black stretched across the corners of the ceiling, and shiny balloons spelling out A-N-X-E-I-T-Y hovered above the TV.

-Upon first writing, Virgil had already given the upstairs crew his name, so the banner spelled out "VIRIGL" which is way funnier than "ANXEITY." But then his name reveal became a plot point so I had to go back and change it.

-Let! Virgil! Be! Mean!

-Virgil's line about hearing refrigerator noise when Roman talks is another shout-out to Cade, who has leveled that accusation at me

A small, cruel part of him protested at the idea that he would need special treatment and desperately wanted to throw it back in Patton's face. He wasn't a sweetheart, he wasn't a baby. He didn't need to crawl into a blanket fort with Dad just because he was a little stressed.

-Remus calls Janus "Janus Geminus" because I was tired and couldn't come up with a pun. "Geminus" is one of the Roman god Janus' epithets; another is "Pater" meaning "Father." That led to a conversation about Remus deliberately confusing Patton by calling Janus "Daddy," but I couldn't think of a clean way to fit the explanation into the narrative, so I stuck with "Geminus."

Chapter 3:

"There's nothing normal about that! " Roman stared in horror at the coffee massacre Virgil had orchestrated. What had once been a respectable (if not very tasty) cup of black coffee was now part of a 1:1 coffee to milk suspension, the liquid a tasteful shade of tan suitable for business casual trousers or a show-ready chihuahua.

-Cade is a certified Nightmare Man and came up with Virgil's horrifying coffee order after I asked him about it. Keep an eye out for Janus' equally horrifying coffee order later in the fic.

1) Shouts out the fact that Janus is canonically a Dostoevsky fan

Chapter 4:

Janus smiled at him. "Where reason fails, the Devil helps." He fussed with his gloves and straightened his capelet. "It's showtime."

-I fucking love Crime and Punishment. Look at me. Look at me. I fucking love Crime and Punishment. Janus' quoting Raskolnikov serves multiple purposes:

2) Lampshades the fact that Roman just conveniently happened to be alone in the living room, because I didn't want to waste time getting him there. That makes me, the author, the Devil

3) Foreshadows the impending disaster. When Raskolnikov says this line it is because he had planned to commit axe murder. The axe he was planning to steal had been moved, but he finds another, different axe to use. Raskolnikov messes up the murder and ends up killing an innocent witness in addition to his intended target. Janus messes up his manipulation attempt and ends up murdering Roman's self esteem

-I was going to include a reference to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Remus' line "debauchery and vomit" was originally going to be "blood, love, and rhetoric") but I didn't because... Uh... Hm. Why didn't I do that. Maybe I just forgot about it???

-Roman is too stubborn to manipulate for long and that is a fact.

"I was pretty much done anyway," Remus said. "There's only so much debauchery and vomit you can fit into one story."

-Cade specifically ask me that nobody cry in this fic, but after I had Janus eviscerate Roman I knew he couldn't not cry a little. I kept it to a minimum because there's already a billion fucking fics about [literally any Side] crying on the shoulder of [literally any other Side] and it's really just not interesting to either of us.

-It didn't come up because it doesn't matter, but Thomas dreamed he was participating in the exact Dionysian orgy that took place in The Secret History because it's my fic and I said so.

Chapter 5:

He just sat back and watched and tugged at his hair while Janus spooned mound after mound of crisp white sugar into his mug and Virgil poured his customary eight fluid ounces of milk into his own mug.

-Cade strikes again. Virgil's coffee order is equal amounts milk to coffee; Janus' is equal parts sugar to coffee. He had asked me to include a scene where Roman catches Janus massacring his coffee and is appropriately horrified, but I uhh... Didn't write it. I still might include it as an omake someday.

-I imagine that Roman feels really strongly about dragons vs wyverns, and Remus just pretends to give a shit because he thinks it's funny to wind Roman up. Fortunately for me but unfortunately for my sense of realism in writing, I can't relate because I adore my sister and we get along perfectly almost 100% of the time.

"You shut us down every chance you get!" Remus said, baring his teeth. "How would you like it if your pens never wrote, hm? What would you do with all those thoughts in your head?"

-I do wish I had developed the concept of power focuses a bit more, established rules and such. Basically, Patton is always on the prowl for wrongthink and actively represses it, which in turn breaks or sabotages the Dark Sides' power focus.

Chapter 6: This chapter really should have been Janus and Roman but I was really tired and didn't want to bother with it. Plus, you know, Moceit. This chapter was meant to demonstrate how the characters would get along without Virgil nannying them. There's friction, but everyone is making a conscious, deliberate effort to get along because they love Virgil, and love is a series of choices you make.

I chose "Leo" as the answer for the answer to the crossword clue instead of "Virgo," because my other QPP is a Leo. She'll never read this fic, but I did it anyway because I love her. (Trivia: My sign is Virgo, so it was really a choice between shouting her out and shouting me out, and the last chapter is self-indulgent enough, thank you).

Chapter 7: I was gonna write a fic where all the Sides watched Cats the Musical because I was going through a phase. Then Cade requested this so I combined the two ideas. By this point I was fucking exhausted, and that's the only thing that saved you and the rest of the world from me writing the Sides riffing on the movie scene-by-scene. I could come up with snarky commentary for almost every, if not every single song from the movie.

Most notably, I cut a Patton-Remus interaction where Remus declares his love for Grizabella and Patton gets all staryy-eyed about Remus connecting with the idea of rising above rejection and being loved and accepted only for Remus to shoot him down and explain that he just likes that she got to die in a tire fire.

Other cut scenes include Janus quietly pretending not to go feral over Mister Mistoffelees, Patton full-on fucking sobbing over Grizabella and the kittens, and Logan experiencing a deep, soulful kinship with Munkustrap during Of The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollices (and henceforth introducing the phrase "like herding cats" into his regular vocabulary

[aros001]

Going in blind: Watching season 5 for the first time. Random thoughts.

Episode 1: Well...that dinner got dark. From what other fans have told me apparently Glimmer gets a lot of hate for her decisions during the series and I just find that odd. I was more annoyed with her in the early seasons where her actions were more harmless simply because she had no patience and wouldn't listen because of her immaturity. Season 4 and here though? Even her most reckless and risky actions have at least been fueled by the genuine desire to keep people safe during a very hard situation. Even here, yeah, she tells Prime something it's very bad for him to know but he was going to have Adora and everyone else literally murdered before her eyes if she didn't. I can't really be mad at Glimmer for making a bad choice when it flows logically and fueled by the desire to keep the people she cares about from being slaughtered.

I don't think we've ever seen Catra this completely at the mercy of another person before, save maybe for Shadow Weaver when she was a child. She has nothing to offer that Prime doesn't already possess. Nothing he wants that he can't get for himself. Her relationship with everyone these past few seasons have been either "I'm your commander and you have to do what I say" or "You are my commander and here's the reason you have to keep me around". This time she has nothing to protect herself behind and the only reason she's still around is because Prime might think of a use for her later.

I love having Scorpia on the heroes' side.

Episode 2: That ending though.

I think what helps elevate Entrapta for me and keeps her for being annoying or irritating is that the show really sells that she just genuinely has trouble understanding why she should/shouldn't be doing certain things. It's not stupidity or even pure self-absorption, she just struggles with people and social ques while machines and science is a lot more straightforward. Heck, she was probably able to bond so well with Hordak because work together in the lab was them meeting on a common middle ground she could understand and relax in. The way she's trying to overcome the issue to help save Glimmer reminds me a little of Mob from Mob Psycho 100, feeling a little frustrated in not understanding something that she knows she should be.

Episode 3: Anybody else get a Disney's Hercules vibes at the end there?

Catra: "Besides, O Oneness, you can't beat her! She has no weaknesses! She's gonna kick your...!"

Prime, smiling: "I think she does, little sister." [Strokes Catra's hair] "I truly think...she does."

This episode really sold how completely isolated Catra is. With the sole exception of Glimmer, she's in space, no idea where exactly she is, onboard a ship filled with nothing but Prime and hundreds of cultist clones. Throughout the entire series we've seen Catra push everyone away and now that she's in a situation where she is almost well and truly on her own with no power, freedom, or authority, she seeks out the one other person around to find any sense of comfort in. Despite everything, Catra doesn't like being alone.

Little child Catra lashing out because she didn't want Adora to have any friends other than her kind of reminds me of Glimmer and Bow during the Princess Prom episode. I imagine it's the same mentality. Growing up in isolation, even if in different forms, and finding only that one person they feel thay can really lean on, there is that fear that they'll find someone else they like more and start caring about them less, or even outright stop. The difference is Bow set Glimmer straight, assuring her he'll always be her friend no matter what but he's not going to be just solely dedicated to her. Her fear was understandable but she was not respecting him as a friend either. Adora never really had that with Catra, one because she was much younger and less mature than Bow, and Catra was probably all she had too, to an extent. As we saw season 1, she was always trying to look after her, even when Catra needed to take responsibility for herself. Bow is not Glimmer's keeper, while Adora too often was that for Catra, so Bow and Glimmer have a better foundation of mutual respect while Adora and Catra's dynamic has been really screwed up for a long time.

Kind of tying into that, despite all that's happened between them, the minute Adora hears Catra's in distress she starts panicking and tearing up. The last time they saw each other they were very much enemies and Adora was done reaching her hand out to her. I suppose you could make the argument she's really been hoping all this time that Catra would finally do the right thing for once, just probably didn't expect it to be like this.

Prime better not mind wipe Catra like he did Hordak.

Episode 4: See, calling the heroes the rebellion now makes sense since they are rebelling against the established power, which is Prime.

Love that trick with the reflections, where you can sort of see/sort of can't see She-Ra. A nice little tease for what I imagine will be a big reveal later.

I really like that explanation for what Bow's going through. Last season's finale was the last he'd seen Glimmer and was desperately trying to save her, and he's been consistently worried for her since then. Now that she's safe he's starting to let himself process his other emotions towards her, and I totally get it. It's hard to be mad at someone when you're also terrified over what might be happening to them, even if your anger is justified. While I get why Glimmer last season did what she thought she had to, it was still a big risk that Bow warned her about and she didn't listen, putting them all in danger. This situation and Glimmer's words is a very mature way of handle this topic. He's not wrong for being mad and it's not a contradiction to what we've been seeing from him this season. Humans and emotions are complicated.

Episode 5: SHE HAS PAAAAAAAAANTS!!! (I will miss the cape though)

That almost makes up for them cutting Catra hair. Seriously, that mane was beautiful!

But boy, speaking of Hercules, that return of She-Ra definitely felt like Hercules emerging from the pool of souls to save Meg.

With the one clone being disconnected from the hive mind and having a breakdown over it, that does make me wonder if Hordak has been connected to it. Wasn't he deemed a defect because Prime couldn't connect to his mind? I suppose it's possible that flaw was corrected. Clearly Prime can take over minds other than just his clones, like with Catra. But if he could do that I'm wondering why he just didn't when Hordak was first created and he instead cast him out to Etheria.

Was Catra purring at the end? I swear there was a sound that sounded like purring.

Episode 6: Assimilation is easily one of my biggest fears in fiction, be it zombies, Borgs and Cybermen, Get Out, the freaking Sapphire Dragon from Xiaolin Showdown that scared the hell out of me as a kid! Just the concept of having your free will and autonomy completely ripped away from you, potentially with you still being aware but unable to do anything about it, is horrifying! At least with Prime's chips the process is reversible.

Anyway, in lighter plots, I kind of love Wrong Hordak. He's really funny. I feel bad that he's being deliberately misled, but he really shouldn't be following Prime anyway, so...

I do like that Adora is being a little more tough on Catra. She needs kindness, yes, but she also needs honesty and discipline, the kind that has actual love and care behind it, unlike what she got from Shadow Weaver. Adora is genuinely trying to help so Catra needs to stop acting like a brat and LET HER HELP.

Episode 7: Catra was definitely purring.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume people probably ship Scorpia and Perfuma. Not that I have any problem with that. It's like the Midoriya/Todoroki ship; I don't ship it myself but I totally get why others do. It's a relationship based in mutual respect and one of the characters having a significantly positive effect on the life of the other. As long as the shipper themselves is not horrifically toxic, I don't care.

Also, I don't think I've ever been so intimidated by Mermista before than I was with that one shot of her in silhouette, just before the reveal she was chipped.

Episode 8: Okay, I definitely love Wrong Hordak. Just that realization of his. "Horde Prime...lied to us..." There's just something about it that's so full of character. Obviously he's a brainwashed clone but he was truly devoted to Prime and just to find out that he would keep something so big from them, from the hive mind that's supposed to be so open to him and each other, it destroys everything he ever believed in. It's hilarious to watch him prepare to lead his brothers in a revolt against Prime.

I assume magic is Prime's "weakness" in that he himself cannot control it. Obviously he can control magical beings like Spinnerella and have them use magic but magic itself is too free and too powerful for him to contain and fully fight back against. He's all about order and stillness and magic is basically chaos.

Episode 9: I like to believe the mushroom kingdom they saved is a Mario reference.

Something I like in hero stories is "the power of a name" or "the power of a symbol". Something as simple as Superman's S-shield can have so much weight and meaning behind it just because of the person it's tied to. She-Ra isn't just a powerful warrior to the people of Etheria, she's a hero of legend. We saw it touched on even back in season 1 how much Adora returning She-Ra to the world meant to everyone. She-Ra to them is a symbol of hope. If they have her on their side, then they believe they might be able to win and with that ordinary people can find the strength to fight too. It's something I think the Green Lantern put best with how the Blue Rings of hope supercharge the Green Rings of will but lose a lot of their functions when the greens are not around. Hope is useless if you don't have the will to also act, but in turn hope can give people the will to act. The more hope they have that they can win, the more they will fight to win.

That was the nerdiest comparison I've ever made.

Episode 10: I appreciate a good bad dad joke and that's why I can't approve of "punderstand". It's too much of stretch to flow well. "Ruined" was good though.

I'm less surprised that Scorpia's been chipped and more that she's even alive. She was at the bottom of the ocean when the roof broke and she's a scorpion woman. I don't think water is a very friendly element for her. She's even commented on how good the desert was to her.

I wonder her She-Ra mode is not working for her simply because Adora is exhausted; mentally and physically. I don't think she's ever used the form this continuously before, and she's been doing it without the First Ones' sword that she has experience with. Her new sword and its transformations may be made out of her own energy for all we know. And then there's just the emotional toil of having Catra back in her life while it feels like more and more of the world is being turned against her.

Episode 11: Oh, I'm definitely shipping Hordak and Entrapta.

I think Re:Zero has spoiled me on dark magic. While Micah with his dark magic is a threat, in this show and many others dark magic basically just equates to "spooky, evil, bad stuff" magic that isn't that different from most other kinds of magic other than being either harder to control or more geared towards causing harm. In Re:Zero, dark magic was DARK. It felt unnatural, like a perversion of how their world's magic is supposed to be and that it didn't belong in this reality. Micah's dark magic is basically "I'm attacking you with shadows, oOoOoOo so scary!"

Not really surprised Catra left. She just got Adora back and now she's potentially about to let herself die. Perfuma said it best, letting people in and letting herself be vulnerable is hard. Caring about Adora and watching her die would be a huge blow, so Catra would rather curl back up into her shell and block out Adora again than have to risk taking that hit.

Episode 12: I keep saying it but now having them right next to each other, yeah, Mara's She-Ra outfit is better than Adora's. I don't know, there's just something grander about it. Anyway, on topic, I'm a big fan of superheroes and legacy and all that and I really like Mara's words to Adora. All she did and sacrificed was so that others, especially the next She-Ra, wouldn't have to do the same. It doesn't matter how noble and heroic it is, tragedy is tragedy and anyone who knows that kind of pain doesn't want anyone else to have to go through it.

I'm not surprised by the love confession between Glimmer and Bow. I felt it could go either way with them either hooking up or just staying really good friends, but that in itself is a sign of how good and natural their friendship is. I can easily buy how it would evolve into something more between them. The situation they're in probably helps. When Glimmer was taken they both thought they might never see each other again and that fear and worry probably caused them to reevaluate how they feel about the other. They've been clinging to each other since getting back, as every day could be their last. Something like that is naturally going to push two people together.

Episode 13: So...are there any plans for a season 6? Or a comic continuation like Avatar and Korra got? Because this was a good finale...buuuuuuuuut I feel there are definitely some things that needed a bit more exploration.

This is typically why I like stories with epilogue endings, especially those set some number of years in the future. Little glimpses of what everyone's doing now, allowing the audience to fill in for themselves what happened in-between. There's nothing wrong with this episode but it does just kind of...stop. They beat Prime. Everybody's cheering and happy. Adora suggests they bring magic back to the universe. And...that's it. We don't see anything more. No aftermath, no post-war, nothing. We end on the moment of victory, and while it's not a bad moment it leaves the ending feeling a little incomplete.

It kind of feels like the writers either really had to rush to the ending to make the 13 episode deadline or simply didn't want to address whatever happens with Catra and Hordak now. With the bigger threat of Horde Prime it makes sense why everyone puts aside past issues and works together. But now that the crisis is over, naturally everyone would have to address everything the Horde had done to Etheria for years with Hordak and Catra leading it. Don't get me wrong, I believe that Catra loves Adora, I believe Adora loves her, and I believe Catra wants to be a better person. It's not like I'm saying she needs to be locked up or executed. But she did cause a lot of damage and put Adora especially through hell, and just because Shadow Weaver is the one who screwed her up so bad doesn't mean she doesn't have any responsibility for her own actions. So it just would have been nice to get even a little bit of lip service to show that Catra would be trying to right her wrongs from this point forward, instead of just "Prime's gone, everyone's happy, bye!" At least with Entrapta she seemed to genuinely not understand why what she was doing at the time was wrong and Scorpia, like Adora and Huntara, defected from the Horde to do the right thing despite it being even more part of her upbringing than anyone else. I can't even imagine what happens with Hordak now.

Don't get me wrong, this is far from the worst I've ever seen a redemption handled. I haven't read/watched any of Boruto outside of the movie and Gaiden tie-in but I've read all of Naruto and there is no reason that Orochimaru should just be walking around and casually talking with people after all he's done. Kaiba in the Yu-Gi-Oh manga built an entire theme park to try an murder Yugi and his friends and they bring it up like twice after that arc. Kylo Ren turning back to the light was one of the potential paths for his character, so that made sense in TROS, but they essentially did "He died heroically and therefore totally redeemed himself for every terrible thing he's ever done."; basically a cop-out. Catra's alive and can at least potentially still own up to her actions and work to redeem herself. And I love Steven Universe, but kind of like with Catra nearly killing everyone (including herself) via the unstable portal, fans have naturally pointed out that the Diamonds enslaved and committed genocide on multiple planets and really faced no consequences for that other than "Stop it". Catra's not at the gold standard of redemption stories, which for me is probably Zuko and Endeavor, but she's far from the bottom. I think the best way to describe it is that Catra had as good, if not better, reasons for being so bad and screwed up as Zuko did, just as good step-up for turning good as Zuko did, but she didn't have nearly as much payoff afterwards to make it feel like a full journey like Zuko did.

But enough about all that. Love the basically goddess She-Ra Adora became. Given the emphasis on healing powers with She-Ra we've had, I'm guessing that's essentially how she destroyed Prime. She purified Hordak and Prime was basically an infection within him. I like when heroes snatch victory from the jaws of defeat but I also when there's an implication towards the villain that "Wow. I never stood a chance." She-Ra's power just dwarfs his. Full potential realized by Adora and he was just gone.

Also I don't know how I forgot that Prime could jump into the bodies of his clones but his possession of Hordak got me. I genuinely couldn't think of how he'd survive after Hordak shoved him off the edge (set free by the power of love!).

And even if the ending feels a little incomplete, the episode itself still did well with my emotional investment. I was gripped by during Catra's confession and the tension within the heart.

Season 5 and overall series verdict: I'm very glad I saw this series. Even though its ending falls a little short for me, this was still really good. Seasons 3 was probably my favorite overall but this story had a very good flow to it. It steadily built up bigger each season, with Catra and Hordak being really compelling villains driving the whole thing. Not that Prime was bad. He was a genuine threat and his cult of clones is a good creepy concept. He's just not as good as the other two. I'm sure part of what elevates him up is because I'm thinking of the JL director's cut but Hordak really is just better Steppenwolf. Everything that worked about that character, Hordak is that to an 11.

Given how I've talked about her more than any of the others, Catra is probably my favorite character. Just the damage that girl has been through. I always understood why she was doing what she did, even though there was rarely a moment I'd agree with exactly what she was doing. Again, it's one of the reasons it feels like the series just kind of ended. There's a lot to be seen with Catra's character now, a lot that can be done, and it just feels like a shame to really not show any of it. This isn't a fault of SRPOP itself because so many series, especially animated and anime, are guilty of but it always bugs me when a series ends on two characters hooking. Relationships are interesting, I'd argue more so than the build-up to them, but no writer ever wants to actually explore them after the hook-up. I never cared about Korra and Mako being a couple but I still found their relationship as a couple more interesting and character building than any of the will they/won't they build-up to it. And I actually like the idea of Adora and Catra as a couple. It's a big reason why I'm so happy the Harley Quinn animated series got renewed for a third season, as it otherwise would have just ended on a hook-up between two characters who, like Adora and Catra, love each other but have had a complicated dynamic for a while. I believe Adora and Catra love each other, but they've got a lot of stuff to work out and I want to see that! Catra's got abandonment issues and that in turn caused her to be unhealthily possessive over Adora. Just seeing the two of them try to work through that alone would be fascinating.

Like I suspected early on, Scorpia's my favorite supporting character. Entrapta's a decent 2nd. Took a small dip when it seemed like she was joining the Horde over feeling abandoned by the princesses when they thought she was dead but that picked back up once it was made more clear "Oh, okay, you're not being petty or stupid. You genuinely don't understand." It made her a more interesting character, and I love her and Hordak's relationship.

Least favorite characters...probably Sea Hawk and those three former Horde friends of Adora and Catra. I never hated them but I never cared about what was happening when they were on screen. They fill out the world a bit, they drive the plot, they're not wastes of space, they even get some laughs. There are just so many other characters in the series way more interesting than them.

Biggest surprise for me was definitely Glimmer and Bow. I never thought I'd dislike them but the best friends characters in series like this can kind of go one way or another with how relevant or deep they are. Glimmer especially I was surprised how much I was invested. She really grew a lot as a person throughout the series and I thought the dilemma over the Heart of Etheria was a good one.

Honestly there's a lot more I could talk about but I have only so many words and my thoughts are a jumble right now so I'm going to leave it at that. I will say I really appreciate how supportive you all on this Reddit have been. It's something I hate about some other fandoms I'm in where they basically are so toxic that they make no one else actually want to watch/read the thing they're fans of because they can't help but associate it with them.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o2p6wq/going_in_blind_watching_season_5_for_the_first/

[the-knights-who-say-book]

So I read a lot (and also watch a lot of like Netflix and stuff because I need to constantly have new worlds to lose myself in) but I've recently really been struggling. I am a lesbian, and I just can't really relate to most het romances now, so I've been struggling to find quality gay stuff, but I am kinda picky sometimes but also all over the place and I read really fast and also can only read ebooks and I'm poor. So it's really tough, basically. Idk if you have advice/recs/etc?

i can definitely rec some stuff!

my favorite wlw books (which i’m mostly sure are all available as ebooks):

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova (magic, family, and bisexuality)

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour (sad contemporary about grief and secrets)

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst  (princesses falling in love)

also really good:

Once by Julia Heslin (magic quest but in the real world)

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour (hollywood and crushes)

Calls by Julia Heslin (ghost girl falls in love with a living girl)

The Second Mango by Shira Glassman (dragon roadtrip)

also have you watched the youtube show Couple-ish?? i love it so much. the protags, if i’m remembering right, are a bi girl, a lesbian, and another person (nonbinary) who’s also bi. basically the premise is that Dee needs a new roommate but then their new roommate Rachel needs to pretend to be their girlfriend to Fool The Government but she really likes Dee’s sister Amy who for Plot Reasons has to pretend to date Dee’s eventual boyfriend (who, of course, really likes Dee). are you following? it’s gr8 and no one is straight

anyway for more recs! here are a couple of rec lists:

wlw in fantasy books

LGBT Fantasy and Scifi Books without Rape or Dubious Consent

LGBT fairytale retellings

lgbt superhero comics

lgbtqa main characters that weren’t killed for shock value