#anyway the truth is they've been in love for their entire adult lives

[fishofthewoods]

I see a lot of people clowning on the people of Pelican Town for not repairing the community center themselves or clowning on Lewis for embezzling and. like. Those criticisms aren't entirely unfair. But I think instead of coming at it from a perspective of "why can't the townspeople do this" we should be asking "why and how can the farmer do this?"

Like. Think about it. The farmer arrives in Stardew Valley on the first day of spring. By the first day they're obviously different. By day five the spirits of the forest who haven't been seen by the townsfolk in years or generations are speaking to them. By the second week they've developed a rapport with the wizard that lives outside town.

In the spring they go foraging and find more than even Linus, who's spent so many years learning the ways of the valley. Maybe he knows, when he sees them walking back home. Maybe he looks at them and understands that they're different, chosen somehow.

In the summer they fish in the lakes and the ocean for hours on end, catching fish that even Willy's only ever heard of, fish that he thought were the stuff of legend. They pull up giants from the deep and mutated monstrosities from the sewers.

In the fall, their crops grow incredibly immense; pumpkins twice as tall as a person, big enough that someone could live inside. The farmer cuts it down with an axe without even batting an eye. Does Lewis wonder, when he checks the collection bin that night and finds it full to the brim with pumpkin flesh? What does he think? Does he even leave the money? Does he have the funds to pay the farmer millions of dollars for the massive amounts of wine they sell? Or is it someone--something--else entirely?

In the winter, the farmer delves into the mines. No one in Pelican Town has been down there in decades. No one in living memory has been to the bottom. The farmer gets there within the season. They return to the surface with stories of dwarven ruins and shadow people, stories they only tell to Vincent and Jas, whose retellings will be dismissed by the adults as flights of fancy. People walking by the entrance to the mines sometimes hear the farmer in there, speaking in a language no one can understand. Something speaks back.

The farmer speaks to the the wizard. They speak to the spirit of a bear inside a centuries-old stone. They speak to the shadow people and the dwarves, ancient enemies, and they try to mend the rift. They speak to the Junimos, ancient spirits of the forest and the river and the mountain. They taste the nectar of the stardrops and speak to the valley itself. They change Pelican Town, and they change the valley. Things are waking up.

And what does Evelyn think? She's the oldest person in the valley; she was here when the farmer's grandfather was young. (How old *is* she, anyway? She never seems to age. She doesn't remember the year she was born.) Does she see the farmer and think of their grandfather? Does she try to remember if he was like this too, strange and wild and given the gifts of the forest?

And does their grandfather haunt the valley? He haunts the farm, still there even after his death; his body died somewhere else, but his spirit could never stay away for long. Does Abigail, using her ouija board on a stormy night, almost drop the planchette when she realizes it's moving on its own? Does Shane, walking to work long before anyone else leaves their house, catch glimpses of a wispy figure floating through the town? Does the farmer know their grandfather came back to the place they both love so much?

Mr. Qi takes interest in the farmer. He's different, too; in a different way, maybe, but the principles are the same. They're both exceptional, and no matter what Qi says about it being hard work and dedication, they both know the truth: the world bends around the both of them, changing to fit their needs. Most people aren't visited by fairies or witches. Most people don't have meteorites crash in their yard. Most people couldn't chop down trees all day without a break or speak to bears and mice and frogs.

The farmer is different. The rules of the world don't work for them the way they work for everyone else. The farmer goes fishing and finds the stuff of fairy tales. The farmer goes mining and fights shadow beasts and flying snakes. The farmer looks at paths the townspeople walk every day and finds buried in the dirt relics of lost civilizations.

The farmer is a violent, irrepressible miracle, chosen by the valley and destined to return to it someday. Even if they'd never received the letter, they would've come home.

They always come home eventually.

[merrycrisis-if]

So I just want to say that I'm definitely not a suspicious person sending you a suspicious link - suspicious people wouldn't say that outright, right? I just tried to send an ask, hit the character limit, then tried to send a message, and uh, hit the character limit again. Haha. Anyway, here's what Qiu has done to me: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hcQ_-WQ635cSrgWtEWX1gz7Xv9GbzopT_A5MpvRZA64/edit?usp=sharing

THIS MESSAGE IS THE BOMB!!! I love that you created a google doc just to gush about / psychoanalyse Qiu because of Tumblr asks's character limit, that's so hilarious and amazing!!

OK, now to reply to the message :D

[Re: Qiu] ...They're NOT EVEN AN ADULT YET. It's easy to say "just give up on the only structure you've known all your life because it's toxic" but reality is not always kind; even ignoring any kind of emotional support (which we unfortunately don't really get to see one way or another. Maybe Qiu would have been better off just running off and taking a leap of faith and relying on MC but it's not wrong to feel that the unknown is far more terrifying than the known and there was no way for them to know that choosing MC would have been better. The love of her parents - in whatever form, whether or not it's actually love, is what Qiu has known for most of their life - is a constant as long as they meet expectations.

Exactly, this!! Like, we first meet Qiu when they're still very much finding themselves / figuring out what they want in life. It's definitely a 'coming-of-age' story for them — as much as it is for MC. So their relationship with MC takes place at a point where, like you mentioned, they are still a teen(!) and their parents' expectations and (conditional) love is all that they know. It's never easy to distinguish between what one's own desires, dreams etc. are, and what's simply fed to us by society, by the people we trust/care about (in Qiu's case, it's their parents).

So I think one of the greatest joys of writing Qiu (and their relationship with MC) is acknowledging the imperfection, the growth, and their initial failure to 'do right' by each other back in high school (and the potential to re-visit that and make different choices the second time around).

There are probably bits of “it would be entirely way too selfish of me to ask MC to give up on their opportunity and stay”, among other things, but I’d like to think that feelings of “I don’t deserve to ask this of MC” are also there... Asking or hoping for Qiu to ask them to stay - I get it, I really do, but there’s also a part of me that feels like god DAMN if that isn’t fair, putting the choice on Qiu... Just as Qiu could have stood up for MC, could have shouted their love for MC from the rooftops, could have asked MC to stay; MC could have CHOSEN to stay, could have CHOSEN to prioritize their relationship with Qiu. Could have written emails, snail mail, video calls, flew back for visits, could have given long distance a shot. Maybe it was just the wrong time, wrong place. Maybe back then, neither of them could have made those choices, said those things.

And you bring this up beautifully here, where I think I was really interested in portraying MC's hurt (from MC's perspective) regarding the way Qiu never fought for them, even when they were so ready to throw it all away for Qiu — but then also slowly unpeel the layers of Qiu's perspective as well, i.e. that MC expected grand gestures from Qiu, but truth is, reality was tugging them in opposite directions, and perhaps Qiu did fail to jump off a cliff the way MC wanted them to, but they both failed to try to figure out a more mundane, less grandiose way of keeping in touch, staying in each other's lives etc.

MC back then had been seeing things in a very 'black and white', 'you do or you die' kind of way (as most 'first love' stories go), but I think now that they've had years to mature / grow, there's space for both MC and Qiu to appreciate the nuances of what had happened between them, how things fell apart etc. and acknowledge that in some ways, they were each incapable of doing the things they needed from each other, but nobody was truly at fault.

Again, thanks for the lovely message <3

[the-sprog]

Listen I love DCxDP crossovers as much as the next person, but every time I see people write John Constantine offer as a solution summoning something I cringe internally a little bit. John is all up for self-sacrificing and doing things you shouldn't but he does not fuck with other creatures he knows shit-all about.

On the other end, do you know who does fuck with creatures they know shit all about?? And keep summoning things and making deals with things they shouldn't be summoning or making deals with? And also doing this most of the times with the express intentions of dealing with the dead?

The Winchester Brothers.

Where are my season 15 fix-it fics where Dean does not give up, he does not say "oh well Castiel died after confessing his love for me I guess that's it" or where Sam does not say "well my brother died during a run of the mill vampire Hunt -not even because of the vampires but because of a rusty nail. Let me just abandon him forever after everything we've gone through and finally actually listen to him and get myself a family with my blurry wife and random son"

And instead they do again summon something that is completely separate from everything else they've dealt with before and they actually managed to contact Danny who somehow is the king of the Ghost Zone or whatever fucking shit you want. Maybe you can make the empty nocturne! That would be really fucking cool :O so Danny somehow gets convinced to bring back Castiel or Dean or both.

Ok now I'm actually thinking about it.

You can even make it adult Danny by simply following the Supernatural timeline. Danny gets his powers in 2004, when he's 14, the Winchesters start looking for their dad in 2005, and they're... 20 something. Castiel joins the brigade in 2009 (I thought he showed up in season 5 lmao it's been a while since I've watched it), Chuck starts writing the books- fuck I don't know. 2012? Was it season 7? **Looks it up** fuck nope he starts writing when they start, that's my mistake. I meant when does he show up. And that's together with Castiel. Wow. Give me Danny who is an in universe Supernatural fan. He's the prime target audience! Starts reading after he gets his powers because we'll they're ghost hunters but the ghosts are actually evil. So it's fine. And they're fictional anyway so no big deal.

But then Chuck stops writing (end of season 5) and Danny is extremely disappointed.

He doesn't learn the truth until 2018 (season 13) when Jack wakes up The Shadow and consequently shakes the Infinite Realms. Nocturne has to be somehow connected. Maybe they're not The Shadow themself, but a subordinate? Like Frostbite is the leader while the yetis are his citizens. And The Empty is the realm they live in.

Now Danny is slightly terrified because it means all the things that go bump in the night are real. Which is a scary as fuck thought. And also wonders why they've never had hunters in Amity, or why he and the other ghosts are different from the ones in the books.

But he can't really do anything. To help.

Hunters definitely have checked out the town. There's no way they'd fly under the radar. But either there are already hunters INSIDE Amity And they've staked their claim on the town, no outside hunters allowed. Or there's something wrong w the entire place that makes it so that people don't really realize anything is wrong with it. I til they're inside it. But when outside nothing :/ all normal.

I feel like it wouldn't be Dean who summons him though. As much as I love him, they are aware that pretty much only God could pull out Cas and Jack wasn't going to do it any time soon.

But Dean dying like that? No Sam is not going to let his story end like that. But they've pretty much exhausted all options. What's he gonna do? Make another deal w a demon that's going to ultimately make more of a mess? Who's gonna make a deal w a Winchester anyway?

I don't know how Sam would find a way to contact Danny. The Fentons were the first to make contact with the Zone, so the bunker's unlikely to have any resources. Bobby's gone, so that's a bust. He'd have to find something new. Something no other hunter has interacted with, ever.

Again.

Because let's be real. The Winchesters already did that plenty.

Maybe he stumbles upon Amity by accident and sees it as an opportunity, idk.

Sam's kinda more willing to give monsters the benefit of the doubt. They know angels are not all bad, they had werewolf friends, and so on and so forth.

So sure he might start off listening to the Fentons at first, but if he were to interact with Danny (as Phantom ofc) one on one he'd probably see that they're wrong.

Danny would freak out of course. On one hand, fuck man. He's a fan. That's so cool.

On the other, he knows nothing will stop the Winchesters. He's deader than dead if Sam was there to hunt him.

But alas, he'd do anything to help him get his brother (and Cas, as a treat) back. Who's gonna stop him? God? Jack? Idk man I feel like he'd let them have this one lmao. Or still Danny could definitely argue that he's the king of all afterlives, so what he does to his subjects is none of his business (since God (or at least Chuck couldn't) can't interfere w The Empty, only the afterlives he controls. So heaven and hell. Not even purgatory iirc)

[fantasyloverisabel]

Dragons Rising spoilers below

I've seen mixed opinions on Arin, specifically the selfishness. And some people are saying stuff like "He wants his parents back that isn't selfish!" And thats true, wanting your parents is never something thats selfish. What IS selfish is that you'll make everything about yourself, and completely disregard the fact that other people are missing their families too. It's not just Arin that lost his family/loved ones it's multiple people.

Even Nya can be used in this example (and Zane) they've both lost a loved one. And even when Nya "finds" Jay, she prioritizes the mission because she knows it's important to the world. Now you could argue saying "Nya is a grown adult and Arin is a kid" Arin is about 16-17 and when the Ninja first started about they were about that age and all I can really say is to just look at Kai's development from the beginning.

For Sora lying to Arin, I think in the moment she shouldn't have told him, but once they reached the monastery she should've. But her character doesn't like to disappoint others so she was fearful of that, but even when he confronted her she told the truth and didn't lie. But linking that with what Ras has been telling Arin, it's one of the reasons why it's annoying (no offense) when the "Arin isn't selfish" people are ignoring this. Arin is only with Ras because he can lead him to his parents, and despite the fact that Ras has endangered their lives on multiple occasions(even trying to split them up) and was sided with someone who was using dragons for fuel.

Then you move onto the training bit, where Ras inadvertently trained Arin on how to properly do Spinjitzu,(theory) and I've seen people talking about how when Arin does it fully it has red streaks because he's forcing it and it'll likely hurt him somehow in the future. But back onto the training, Lloyd had said multiple times he doesn't think he'll be a good master and Arin kept pushing that onto him(and excluding the fact he doesn't even see the Ninja as people more so idols and still saw them as such till this season).

Then moving on when Master Wu said he caused the merge (which he could've said that he did because he couldn't prevent it, me and a friend actually talked about that) Cole was in shock and Arin's immediate thought was "wow they can't even believe Master Wu would do something like that" No Arin, Cole was in shock because he didn't expect that. And you told Lloyd this information when he's fighting the enemy, and when he said he'll deal with it later that didn't mean "I won't believe this information you've given me" it's a "I'll digest this information AFTER we defeat the enemy" and even Zane says it's a lot of information to process. This entire time Arin was just being selfish and unempathic.

The only thing I can praise him on was the whole detective thing he has going on, which was good, but overall was selfish the rest of the time. What makes it a bit frustrating is that Arin being a character thats written selfishly isn't a bad thing, he can have major character development and seeing a main character like this is really cool to see. But trying to erase that crucial part of his character is silly.

Anyways I hope I didn't make anyone angry with this post, and if I did that wasn't my intention to. There's also probably A LOT of spelling errors I didn't see so I apologize for that. And Im open to discussion! If you haven't already make sure you drink some water to stay hydrated and have a lovely day!

[fountainpenguin]

While I'm sad you're not going to continue 28 Cities, could you answer some questions about it for closure sake?

DID RHYME GET AWAY FROM ZEPHYR?????? Because you kinda left off with them being set up to work at a hotel thanks to Rhyme's grand parents. Part of me is wondering that the reason why Rhyme and Reason moved through so many cities is because Zephyr is chasing them… I assume this might end with Rhyme fighting him in a climactic battle or something.

What made them want to become villains? You kinda set it up in earlier chapters with Reason pickpocketing the rude lady on the train and…. Rhyme's entire childhood of being raised by a supervillain and forced to train. What was the thing that made them become villains?

I believe you mentioned a misadventure with stealing a blimp. Do you mind elaborating on that?

What made them choose the names Rhyme and Reason instead of Super Strong Woman With Freeze Breath and Normal Guy?

Hi, thanks for the interest in my story! Although I'm not writing "28 Cities" at this time, I haven't truly abandoned it.

In truth, I went into that story without a plan because "28 Cities" was a "drabble a day" project I was trying to do, posting one chapter per day. I burned out pretty quickly because I genuinely struggle to write short things and I always wanted the one-shots to be longer, and I was getting overwhelmed and disappointed with it. I don't consider that story a great reflection of my writing abilities. I decided to put it on hold until I was ready to look at it again.

I do like the WordGirl universe and I explored it more in my one-shot "AlgoRhythm," but part of the problem was that the strict schedule I was holding myself to with "28 Cities" didn't give me enough space to worldbuild the way I wanted to. I have a lot of ideas about the world, like charm schools and genetics, and I wanted to write a bigger 'fic to explore those ideas instead.

I'm working towards that goal now with my multi-chapter Kid Math 'fic "Factor It In," which I started back in 2018. I made good progress with it back then and even drew a cute cover image I still love, but I never posted it because it felt choppy and inauthentic to my style, and I hated that.

Earlier this year, I did tidy the first few chapters of it and they're officially part of my weekly 2023 'fic schedule now ("Factor It In" Chap 1 goes up on FFN/AO3 on June 16th!) so that makes me happy :) I've got two chapters fully written (but at the end of Chapter 1 I have a note asking readers for advice on chapter length so it might end up being three chapters already done). Hopefully people enjoy that, I'm glad I had the chance to revisit it.

In short, "28 Cities" is not a dead project in my mind. It's just not part of my plans this year because it would take a ton of mental effort to plan and write for, and it won't fit in my 2023 plans.

I didn't really plan anything for "28 Cities" so you're probably not going to like my answers, but hopefully they provide some closure anyway.

---

In response to your questions:

Did Rhyme get away from Zephyr? - Probably, but I never planned it one way or another. Rhyme and Reason ran off a week or two before graduation and I doubt he's still chasing them when they're in their... 30s? He'd be in his 60s.

/It's been a long time since I saw the episode so forgive me if they had a canon age that I forgot. I'm not sure what I headcanon Rhyme and Reason as, but maybe 30s since they've lived in 28 places and it cracks me up to imagine world-weary Reason painstakingly decorating every single apartment until Rhyme blows it for them.

I don't want to commit to that for sure, though my heart will always belong to "Rhyme and Reason are legitimately adults who are platonic best friends and no one even bothers telling them they're "too young and will change their minds about being platonic when they're older" because yes they really are adults and they're happy." As far as I'm concerned, they're zucchinis and I love that for them <3 Gosh I wish that were me.

To me, Rhyme and Reason were always bouncing around because Reason wanted to put down roots and Rhyme didn't, but I never thought about her dad pursuing them. Zephyr's kind of a bitter and broken man who already lost his wife and is on awful terms with his in-laws after taking the villain route. He probably WOULD want to attack Reason for "stealing his daughter" and I can imagine Reason getting beaten up badly while Rhyme stands in shock, but I'm not sure how I'd actually play it if I went that route.

To me, Zephyr was more of the inciting incident that pushed Amy and Tyler out of their hometown, but I didn't really intend for him to be the climax. Since it was a one-shot series I didn't really see a need for a climax, but if I were to revisit it years later, I might try building towards one. Who knows.

What made them become villains? - I didn't plan that either. It's already established in WordGirl canon that "superheroes usually work for free." I built this into the backstory of Rhyme's dad (i.e. a hero who became a villain to feed his daughter after the death of his wife). In addition to Reason pickpocketing that lady who was rude to Rhyme, like you mentioned, I already painted Rhyme with a violent nature (i.e. destroying prom after her dad banned her from going) so they were probably just struggling to survive. I'm not really sure yet.

Rhyme dealt with a lot of turmoil growing up, being born to a superhero who turned to a life of crime, and she looked down on villainy for a long time. In "28 Cities," I wrote about how she ran from home and hid at her grandparents' place, and they helped her and Reason get that hotel job. I like to think these early years were focused on her and Reason building their friendship, but the crime didn't come until later. I'm not sure what sparked it, but it was absolutely after they were already "ride or die" for life.

My guess is they were probably hungry and couldn't pay rent and probably had medical bills or something [i.e. Reason getting beaten up by Zephyr so Rhyme swallows her pride and does everything she can for him even though she hates it at first] and Rhyme's grandparents were already out of their lives for a long time, so things just got tough.

Don't take this as my official canon because I still want the option to change it later if I want to, but that's a possibility for your question.

Stealing a blimp - I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you're referring to. I did a CTRL-F in the full version of the story and I didn't see anything about a blimp. I checked my OG doc and my blog, but didn't see anything in either of those places. It doesn't sound familiar.

What made them choose the names Rhyme and Reason? - I never decided, though I do headcanon that Rhyme was rhyming even when she was young, so her name was inspired by that. The phrase "rhyme and reason" is pretty common, so once Rhyme got her name, Tyler was probably like "Yeah, Reason suits me." He's the kind who couldn't care less at first, but ends up proud of his name. I'm sure he's the one who designed their logo, too.

Thank you for reaching out, and I'm sorry if this reply is less than satisfactory. "Rhyme and Reason" is my favorite episode and I love them dearly, and I'd rather focus on other projects that are more important to me right now, and maybe do "28 Cities" justice at a later time, and not butcher it in a rush <3 It's not dead to me, it just won't fit into my plans for 2023.

[charlesdesvoeux]

terror rewatch time!!! i'll be using this post to comment on ep. 8 "terror camp clear" block the tag terrorwatch2 if you'd like :-)

fitzier drinking out of the same canteen. closest they've come to kissing (so far)

id forgotten jfj calls francis "brother" first, as he starts to recount his family story. also how crozier counters him saying he's a fake by saying that biographers could tally up his acts of valor.... but it's not about that, it's not about the Official History, it's not about the things the great men write in the memoirs- it's about the truth, and the memoirs written by men like john ross are about performance and conforming to certain expectations, not about Truth. They're about spinning a narrative. James has been spinning a narrative about himself his entire adult life, and as he lies agonizing in the edge of life, in the edge of "civilization", he's tired of lies.

"james fitzjames. like a bad pun" I love you forever.

obviously they're suffering. like. a lot. but if they hadn't reached that distance from "civilization" perhaps jfj would never have confronted himself with the truth of his shame and vanity. we need all these trappings of "respectable" society to be washed away before we can reach a fundamental truth about ourselves. you know. "we have reached the end of vanity" "then you are free"

"irving and farr's bodies were put through something I can't even find English words for" so of course- the evil savages must be blamed. but no, lieutenant hodgson- this was a crime done by English hands.

hickey SPINNING A WHOLE YARN which he used to commit an act of unspeakable cruelty towards the inuit family...... man you should've been an actor. also the clear anger on his face when jopson interrupts him and the way he TRIES TO SPIN THE CAPTAIN'S SUMMONING as something he was already gonna do anyway..... you're so fucking terrible.

"they're going to build a proper perimeter with or without us" poor ned being caught between a rock and a hard place. "they ARE us edward" no they're not..... they've never been.... you've never acted like they were.... and sergeant tozer needs to keep his men safe....

bridglar :-(((( clinging desperately to the idea that each will be fine....

the scene with the netsilik party is so heartbreaking. nive nielsen is outstanding.

des voeux you are such an insane despicable little shithead. also easily my favorite terror tertiary character. transparent fucking liar.

sol's smile bc its just such a blatant lie and then "damn it all". yes sol you just did.

hodgson being like "well maybe I fucked it up. maybe I just helped to kill a bunch of innocent people" i mean yes hodge you did. also "all we have are our instincts and training" is imo a line that tells us a lot about ned. and then he relays the story about like his relative and the supposed attack by the "savage" comanche as a way to reassure himself.

and poor ned. they're already armed, they're not gonna fucking relinquish their weapons. all he can do is kinda sign off on it to preserve some sense of order- a SENSE of order, but no, not actual order- that was long gone.

when collins is high walking through the camp he reaches out to hug another guy.... I feel like he's so desperate for a chance to connect with another human being, to feel fully human again :-(

goodsir and silna.... goodsir desperately clinging the idea that this isn't who they are, this isn't what they are.....

billy is already looking half fucking dead here. "you'll have the entire rest of your long lives...." but I mean. do we think at this point billy was already aware that he wasn't long for this world? like. his symptoms were only really REALLY bad later but he was clearly already sick. and they hadn't planned on taking goodsir afaik. or were they already sure they'd kidnap him?

godddd hodge and little during irving's autopsy. and I must once again advance my idea that there's a parallel between "worst kind of sorry" and "worst kind of second"

"put one of the mates in charge of the armory" and jfj instantly going "des voeux" like. there was some trust there!!!! and oh boy it was entirely unearned. I mean. maybe not entirely but at that point charles was NOT IT.

HICKEY JUST LYING THERE WITH HIS HAND ALMOST REACHING INTO HIS PRICK AND HIS ARM CUSHIONING HIS HEAD LIKE HES SOME KIND OF PLAYBOY COVER GIRL. BEATIFIC SMILE AND FUCKY EYES. SORRY HE JUST SERVES TOO MUCH CUNT.

"He would have burned through you like fuel, lied to you and used you to your last muscle" and well. turns out crozier was right.

the expression on sol's face when they realize actually hickey killed irving. very interesting. but it's kind of a sunken cost fallacy right??? he's already invested too much on this damn mutiny to back off now. and besides- if he stays there, he'll be executed. so yeah this guy you trusted just killed two other guys in cold blood but you can't back out now so.

E.C'S SHITTY LITTLE IRISH ACCENT OH MY GOD. HE SAID I NEED TO SERVE CUNT IN MY EXECUTION AND HE DID.

"edward, that's your name, isn't it? edward" aaaaaaa this is so cool and so important. ranks don't matter anything now. not a goddamn thing. also tommy saving his love ❤️

the look of terror on sol's face as he watches collins' soul be consumed by tuunbaq. DAVID WALMSLEY THE ACTOR THAT YOU ARE

[terpernoctem]

hi pals

do you know what time it is?

it's time for our ✨monthly personal post ✨ show of hands, who's excited?

i said WHO'S EXCITED

okay never mind, so it rained for about the entire month of january, not even kidding. it rained and it rained and it kept raining for days on end.

see, i left Ireland for a specific reason (burn out excluded): breaking news, i know, but it rained a lot over there. i come back home and it's the most it's ever rained since 2015, people.

do you comprehend?

i think maybe the universe is trying to tell me something

anyways

so it rained a lot and i felt like i was about to rot all the way but i didn't and in fact i (1), got into yoga again, (2) wrote almost 10k, (3) took my very first driving lessons (i'm comically terrible at it but eh), (4) applied to things!

isn't that something??

idk

i don't feel any less lost or you know, useful in any way but it's a start, innit

i've definitely had a couple of bad nights, and what's funny when you live with your parents as an adult is that you still cannot talk to them about serious stuff without feeling like a teenage waste of space? or at least that's how i feel—and i recognize entirely it doesn't come from my parents, god no, they've been great and really supportive, but ughhhh.

what is it about this whole situation that makes me age backwards (and not in a good way)??

in other, completely related news, my birthday is a couple of weeks away, which is always kind of the time i typically freak out about it (last year i booked a last minute trip to edinburgh for that very reason). then i calm down and start to get excited about it.

question is: with the big 30 looming over, will i get excited at all about it this year?

mmh.

it's a daunting thought. let's not—let's put it aside, shall we?

truly, a part of me still can't believe how lucky i am to be able to stay with my parents here on the island—it's genuinely something i didn't think i'd be able to do for a long time— and it's objectively great, i mean, it's summer (well, you know, as summer as it can get), i've got time to myself, i've got my loved ones close.

yet another part of me longs for a more, idk, exciting? life. i might be repeating myself but i feel like i haven't seen everything i'd like to see yet. been toying loosely with the idea of going the self-entrepreneur path, but ugh—

truth is, i can't bear to be tied down yet.

on this week's list: sort out the library situation (mom's library is—oh don't get me started, but i'm gonna fix this), get serious about studying for driver's test, finish drafting my main wip, find a life purpose.

[bishy437]

ok fine i’ll write a dissertation on why sangcheng is a great ship and deserves to win just as much as chengyao.

sadly i’m not eloquent nor am i a wordsmith like all these other chengyao-ologists but here goes something

*ahem*

these two idiots are completely different people and yet Still manage to have so much in common it makes me want to chew my own face

CR era they are just two teenage sect heirs. one striving for greatness. the other completely disinterested in the cultivation world.

neither of them will ever live up to their parents'/guardian's expectations. ever.

they have no shared hobbies/interests and zero reason to even acknowledge one another other than political ones but thanks to wwx they are now in the same friend group

they get into shenanigans they get drunk and read porn together they do stupid teenager shit. ((nhs potentially being jc’s gateway into porn is hilarious btw))

anyways they had a grand ol’ time until wwx punched some guy and got kicked out so we don’t know what happened with them after that

lots of directions you can go with it but it Will end with them estranged

fast forward to wwx + nmj kicking the bucket.

They have now both experienced utter betrayal by someone they loved dearly and trusted. they lost their entire families. they've been pushed into roles of leadership way too early and they dont know what the hell they're doing but they have to do it.

are they on friendly terms post res? does jc wonder what happened to the friend he made in gusu to make him this way? how did the kid who managed to sneak contraband into the jianghu equivalent of Juvie become so useless/clueless????

whatever. Jc has bigger things to worry about. Like dragging wwx back to LP.

and he fails. miserably.

but guess what. JC still got his ‘brother’ back. he got to talk to him again. it wasnt like old times, but wwx is There. they’re not bros anymore and may never be again but at least wwx’s *alive*

he got his closure, he got his sorry.

but Dage’s still fucking dead. even after GY temple hes dead and mindless and never coming back.

Can you not see the Potential in that? can you look me in the eyes and tell me that nhs wouldn’t secretly harbor resentment towards jc?

like 'you got what i wanted. you got what i needed. i did all these horrible things and maybe it wasn't even worth it'

these men spent their entire adult lives working towards revenge/their brother (almost brother ykwim) and have nothing to show for it other than terrible reputations that precede them.

and what the hell do they do post GY temple without their anger to fuel them?

theyre not divorced, theyre the only two people standing in an empty room together fighting the urge to scream bloody murder as the walls close in on them.

they're tired they're confused they're devastated

jc: im tired of being angry and nhs: i dont want to be alone anymore CAN YOU NOT SEE???? THE POTENTIAL

these men understand each other like no one else and at the same time they Don't. they will never get each other's methods or mindsets.

who even are you anymore? who even am I? can you fix me? can you make the pain go away? get away from me. share a drink with me.

also. GY temple ends without Jc finding out the truth about what nhs did. Huaisang could easily take that secret to his grave if he so wanted. but if jc finds out via wwx then guess what. DIVORCE.

Now theyre divorced.

maybe jc will try to kill nhs for what he did and maybe nhs will let him.

so no, sangcheng is not a 'pair the spares' nor is it a simple 'uwu pure tender childhood fwends romance' it is So much more it is FUCKED

they're Doomed they're Saved they're headless chickens they hate each other they love each other do you Get it

there's so much more i could try to speak on but im not an adept writer and i cant articulate things well! but I will go down with this ship figuratively and literally.

and yeah maybe sangcheng nation doesnt portray enough angsty content in our fanworks for nonbelievers to respect us but who cares that doesnt mean im not constantly thinking about jc taking psychological damage battling his own mind on whether he wants to kill huaisang or fuck his brains out 24/7

enyways thanks for coming to my ted talk vote sangcheng bc they are just as spicy and deserving to win as chengyao! ^v^

Tournament of Jiang Cheng's Lovers

Semifinal, Bracket 2

Link to bracket

[variousqueerthings]

Daniel & Johnny if they were canonically queer...

oaky real talk what I like about Daniel and Johnny is how tragic the whole thing is, because I love a tragedy 

two boys coming-of-age in the 80s - arguably one of shittiest times to be queer, one of whom “passes” as straight while he performs the toxic masculinity he’s inherited from three male role models (his dad, Sid, Kreese), but always with the awareness that it wasn’t natural - he forced himself into that mold because he himself was a sensitive, hurt boy

the other who arguably doesn’t pass - or has that classic “I don’t know why I dislike him, but I dislike him” queer subtext to him that leads to him getting bullied, because he’s too small, he’s too pretty, dammit it’s too easy to punish him for not being masculine enough

and then it switches on its head and Daniel wins and Johnny hands him the trophy and tells him he’s alright and Kreese punishes Johnny - almost kills him - for failing to Be A Man

and there’s a version of this story where after Miyagi saves Johnny, he and Daniel could’ve become friends, could’ve figured out how to deal with dead fathers, absent fathers, emotionally and physically abusive fathers, (man there’s a Message here about fathers and legacy huh), and... who knows...

but instead they go their separate ways and whatever brief moment of togetherness they experienced as teens with a lot in common that remains unspoken is seemingly washed away by years of never getting to face whatever “waves hands” all of that meant, a connection that was so strong that it lasted across 34 years - 

Daniel’s story continues in the movies obviously, so we see how he goes through it with cobra kai himself, but he emerges out the other side with an on-the-surface decent life that hides all of that repression and insecurity (still coming back to being a man - a good man, but a man who’s also performing through the act of money, and wife, and kids, and house), because Miyagi’s legacy hangs so heavily on him, and so does his past as being poor and smaller and bullied and less-than... 

And Johnny just crashes and doesn’t stop crashing. You get a feeling that there were attempts that probably largely ended once his mum died (which I only just realised was very shortly before Robby was born) and by the time he and Daniel meet again he’s absolutely resigned to the role he’s been cast in this time - from star athlete with a whole future ahead of him to a middle-aged man who can’t hold down a job and doesn’t know how to use a computer 

Both of them constantly, constantly struggling with what is expected of them, either by pushing themself to present the perfect front or by entirely giving up

And neither of them ever acted on the feelings they’ve had about men, starting with the complicated relationship they’d had with one another and then continuing to repress and repress and repress...

Until there it is, the only versions of themselves they’re allowed to be as ostensibly “straight men” - successful business owner with two kids on one side, failed father and alcoholic on the other

and all that time - 34 years - they’ve been circling each other! There were so many opportunities too see each other for years and neither of them took one, even though they’ve clearly been thinking about one another all this time!

and then they meet due to fate’s facepalm making sure that Daniel’s daughter was in the car that rear-ended Johnny’s, that the car was sent to Daniel’s workshop, that Johnny’s son ended up as Daniel’s student... and everything that happens in the show

I don’t even usually like soulmates as a concept, but these two really are fate’s stupidest dumbest most idiotic soulmates, who could’ve been so good for years and years, and now, finally, when they’ve spiralled back into each other, they’re so affected by so many years of not even close to dealing with anything, they don’t even know where to begin, it’s like open wounds of emotions and because they’re the eye of the storm of each other’s lives, they take it out on each other, not realising that they’re the only two people who can help each other make sense of any of it...

As always, there’s three versions of the story - there’s Daniel’s, there’s Johnny’s, and there’s the truth...

[polikszena]

Hey, what's your take on Lucy Smith/Branson?

She's always been on the periphery of my stories ... since, George is the main character of most of them and his fractured, dark, and - at times - toxic relationship with Mary is the main focus, I've never really dealt with Lucy.

Mostly, because, George and Lucy don't interact nor know each other very well ... as Sybil points out to her and Tom in 1941, Lucy might have met George three or four times in their entire life. (in the story continuity George was in Egypt during the events of the first movie and then the Ethiopian Frontier and then Wallachia during the events of "A New Era", thus he was not at Tom and Lucy's Wedding and did not meet her till long after the events of the second movie.)

So, since I've only recently entered into deep dive territory with the character now that there's a love triangle between Sybil/Tom/Lucy, I was wondering what your takes are for the character.

What's your gut instinct about her?

My characterization is that she's socially awkward - in the story Matthew notes that they've lived together for six months at Downton Abbey during "The Blitz" and it is only recently that she has started opening up to have conversations with him. I also get the sense that she was bullied - sometimes rather cruelly - by other children in America and then even worse when they returned to England by the Royal staff once she became her Mummy's Ladies Maid.

The other Royal Servants resent her education and her posh attitudes, they also don't like that she was never a house maid and went right to the top of the pecking order at Brampton - accusing her of being too good for menial work. I've always got the sense that the type of bullying she received, especially as an adult, was so horrible that it traumatized her ... and effects her romance with Tom at times, and makes her nervous about Edith's overtures of friendship.

It also doesn't seem like Lucy had any friends till Tom and Edith, and that she's extremely attached and close to Lady Bagshaw, because of her bullying - making her a little bit immature and a HUGE mama's girl.

Anyway, I'm working on something in development - a Pulp Detective Story with vigilante/consulting detective George and intrepid reporter Edith in the Mid-1930's that's tied to Lucy's backstory as a teenager ... and I was just kinda picking people's brains about what they think about the character. And I feel you're one of the only fans who puts more thought into the stuff other than me.

Either way, just wondering, if you've got the time and inclination to share your thoughts and opinions.

Hello again!

Sorry that it took me so long answering this, but I wanted to rewatch the first film before ddoing so, just to see if anything new comes to my mind about Lucy.

To be honest, I don't have many thoughts about her besides that I like her, she's very nice, and I'm glad the she and Tom found each other. Although I didn't remember that they already kissed in the first film, I thorught they just danced.

What you say about being bullied by the royal servants makes a lot of sense as they only saw that this young women became a lady's maid without climbing the ladder (and because they aren't very nice people, but then again, working for the king and the queen must be stressful). And making her illegitimate daughter her lady's maid makes a lot of sense from Maud's perspective as well, because this way they can have a close relationship without having to explain anything. I also agree with her social awkwardness, because I think that due to her status, she was protected from other people, keeping in mind that if anyone found out the truth, it could ruin both her and her mother. And thanks to that I don't think she had a lot of friends either, if any.

As for her relationship with Tom, I wouldn't call it a love triangle as Sybil is no longer alive, and Tom initiated the whole thing without any doubts (those might have come later, but I don't think it will have a serious impact on their relationship). I'm glad that they found each other, because both Lucy and Tom are between upstairs and downstairs, right on the staircase, and they hadn't really met anyone like them. And that outsider-ness (not sure if this is even a word) is reflected on during the ball scene, when they are dancing outside.

I'm curious what will happen to them in the new film and I hope they will be happy together. They deserve it.

[julystorms]

It seems to me that SNK went from being a character-based story (at least in the early volumes) to plot-based, judging by the development of each arc and the complaints I see from fans of secondary characters as to how little screen time they've been getting lately. What would you have done to change this (and I apologize for potentially asking an open-ended question)?

I think you’re right. Worth noting, too, is that most people in fandom who stick around for a long period of time do it for the characters; SnK is a little different, since the series is still ongoing (and therefore you’ll find a split where part of the fandom is here more for the plot while the rest  sticks around primarily for the characters), but the majority would probably vote for characters over plot. After all, good characters can carry a shitty plot. (The reverse is rarely true; readers need to feel involved and invested in the plot through the characters, so a nice plot doesn’t fly if the characters are legitimately terrible.)

Anyway, like I said, I think SnK started off more character-centric with a basic do-it-yourself kind of a plot:

humanity is on the brink of ruin/extinction (the population we see is all that’s left of the human race)

keeping humanity trapped are magical anatomy textbook escapees

main character is going to fight for honor for freedom FOR GLORY

lmao too bad he sucks?

and also too bad that this is actually Really Dangerous and a lot of people die

good thing our main character can, uh, shift into a titan. For some reason.

There were hints as to Something Bigger going on (Eren’s father promising to show him what was in the basement right before all hell broke loose; the fact that Eren can turn into a titan in the first place), but the series, particularly the anime in some regards, really tried to play up the character-centricism of the story. There’s a plot, definitely, but this is first and foremost Eren’s story, Mikasa’s story, Armin’s story, Jean’s story (et cetera and so on). To showcase this they focus pretty hard on, say, Marco’s death because even though Mina and Franz and others died at the same time, Marco wasn’t seen dying or dead until several days later; he’s a different kind of tragedy. Like, Marco is important for several reasons. These kids are already traumatized from being flung face-first into fighting titans. And then they have to clean up the mess, too? Scrape their comrades off the cobblestones? All right. Marco is one of these classmates. Nobody saw him die. They were probably hoping they might find him injured or something--idealism at its finest maybe. But his bloated corpse is right there; one of their Top 10 died. Why was he alone? What happened? How much did he suffer? And like, was it all for nothing--all this training? Is this going to be everyone’s fate?

I think it’s unfair to give Marco the credit for inspiring everyone to join the Survey Corps (yawn; people are sheep but come on), but he deserves partial credit. The other kids who died, and the adults, too, deserve credit also.

And I mean, look: it doesn’t matter what you think of Marco as a character, the aftermath of his death was a turning point for a lot of characters, especially Jean.

People died, but we saw the immediate impact, if nothing else. Ian and Mitabi dying so that Eren could do his job? We see how this affected Rico, but the story was still largely from Eren’s perspective, so in a manner of speaking how it affected Rico probably had an impact on Eren almost as much as these near-strangers dying for the greater goal did. 

The story started drifting, becoming more plot-centric, after this, with the Female Titan Arc, but we still saw humanity in the writing, in the domesticity of Levi’s special ops squad just being regular people, Petra being a li’l gossip and Eld being a piece of shit and Auruo trying in his own way to make a point about the life Eren has chosen for himself. We see that, too, in Eren’s struggle to understand his shifting, in his desire to be useful while feeling useless, while being treated like an object instead of a person. The series at this point was leaning more plotcentric slowly but surely, while at the same time forcing the reader to ask a lot of human questions about Eren’s situation: is him being a shifter actually even worth anything? Will it ever be? Or are these characters just hoping really hard and making some (perhaps!) fatal choices about using Eren for these purposes?

We see the characters come to terms with Eren. Levi’s special ops squad recognizes Eren as a human being, as a well-meaning child soldier, as a hard, dedicated worker who truly wants to do some good in this world. And they show it in making a show to demonstrate that they understand the troubles he is facing even just a little.

And when they die, we see the impact. Eren feels guilty. Levi tells him to move on because that’s just how life is. Accept the loss as a loss, personal or not, and keep going. 

Eren hasn’t forgotten them; they’ve popped up a few times, chapters and chapters later. Their sacrifices weren’t for nothing, though IMO they died too quickly and without leaving a big enough impact on the audience. Still, at least Eren hasn’t forgotten them.

But after this the plot shifts into Plot Mode and a lot of people die, the impact of which isn’t seen until it feels forced in to account for so many fans bitching about how Isayama probably forgot to include it. The truth of the matter is that I feel 100% that the series shifted to tell a plot instead of a story, and other (fairly) recent events support that, like...Plot Vehicle Flocke who... I mean, I can get behind this kid as a character...or could, if he read as ANYTHING but a body to spew things to move the plot. I feel the same way about most of the new kids; they’re just there to fill space and I can’t imagine we’ll ever have time to get to know them and wrap up the actual plot of the series.

Of course, this is something that tends to happen in long serial works--the author drops tidbits about stuff, changes their mind about those tidbits, abandons plot threads (sometimes intentionally and other times not, oops), adds new plot threads, decides X or Y won’t work as well as originally anticipated and that Z, while a cool concept, has to go because it doesn’t fit with the story anymore/because there isn’t room for it/because now the audience is asking about A, B, C, D, E, and F, and those need to be addressed instead of, you know, why M wanted to be a soldier or how N feels about what’s just happened in the story.

And at this point I think that Isayama has this story to tell and his options are to tell the plot of the story at the expense of his characters’ depth, or...to dig into the characters at the expense of his plot, and he is NOT going to pick his characters over his plot. Tying up the plot comes first; it’s gotten so convoluted by now that if he doesn’t, the series automatically flops. 

And let’s face it--people are invested. Because of the characters that he initially set up. Because Isayama is REALLY good at writing compelling characters if he doesn’t try to force a dull plot on them! Truly, he is. This is the Real Reason why people like his side characters; he paints fascinating possibilities and then (usually) kills them off before we know them, leaving the readers either happy that we got any hints of interesting-ness at all or bitter that that depth was never explored. (I fall into the latter category but I’m honestly a bit torn; if he was going to force a dull plot on Gelgar I wouldn’t really want any part of it, anyway...)

As far as what I would have done, it’s honestly pretty hard to say. I am a character person; I’d have taken a mediocre (or at least less complex) plot over the one we got any day if it meant the characters would have gotten more attention. So I probably would go back, simplify the plot a helluva lot (if not change it entirely: no more memory wipe bullshit, no ackermagic), alter the timeline itself (500 or 1000 years behind the walls instead of 100), and split my attention between the characters and the plot to the best of my ability. I’d no doubt lean toward characters but if the plot isn’t too complex, it won’t feel as if it’s being neglected for the sake of the characters because your readers aren’t busy trying to make sense of a plot that they can’t possibly solve without more information. A lot. More. Information. Instead, your readers are taking this journey with the characters!

(I’d also do hella worldbuilding because SnK’s is terrible and it makes suspension of disbelief very difficult. Like bitch you can’t breed specialized horses in less than 100 years are you high? And let’s be real here: you get speed OR stamina OR mediocrity: NO EXCEPTIONS.)

I was talking with @goodguyjean yesterday about how Eren/Mikasa/Armin don’t really live up to their hype as the main trio because I’m just not very invested in any of them, but Eren and Armin barely even pique a fraction of my curiosity by this point. Considering they are the main characters...that’s bad. I should love at least one of them. As it is, I get frustrated when the story bothers to focus on them. Which I think says something about the plot more than the characters: forcing a twisted complex (but so far very) mediocre plot onto characters that could have flourished if they weren’t bogged down by trauma that hasn’t even been addressed by the series itself--not enough, anyway.

I liked that Eren has had moments of, say, compassion for the titans after learning the truth about them, but...I hate that it wasn’t dealt with more thoroughly, or at least discussed with a more relevant character. Levi showed compassion in turn which was really nice ngl, but I really thought Eren and Connie should have had some screentime together instead. Or better yet: additionally. 

Which brings me to another related issue: character relationships have gotten pretty stale and boring and they were once strong but aren’t being really addressed as falling apart or being “less than” they were before, so... They’re starting to remind me of the Fire Emblem: Awakening relationships we were meant to believe in because we were told to believe in them, but we were never shown those relationships in action and that made it difficult to buy into (I’m specifically talking about the Shepherds and their relationships to one another; the game tells us they’re close but what’s shown is...not that). I hope this is given some attention soon, even if it’s like “lmao yeah none of us feel close anymore” because just ignoring it doesn’t feel right.

(But really this series just tries very hard to do too many things at once and...it’s not working as well as it would if the author focused more heavily on characters or plot instead of balancing between both and inserting THEME in there as well.)