#anyway this is the most thought I've put into the subject for any ship so enjoy the fruits

[martianbugsbunny]

Erik is totally 99.9% vanilla in bed; he's maybe a little rough, a little fumbling, but he's generally like your fifty-year-old parents on a Wednesday night. It's Charles who's a total freak between the sheets, you can't look at that guy chugging out of a test tube and basically using his own damn thesis as a pickup line and tell me he's not into some weird stuff

[anonyanonymouse]

🙈

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Pixar's ELIO, directed by COCO co-director Adrian Molina, would've opened today... Albeit a much different version of the movie.

The delay from this date to June 2025 meant that the fast food promo deals put in place a while ago couldn't be changed, thus - HOODWINKED TOO style - some of the toys are out now, as seen in the pic above...

Yep, I've heard by now what ELIO has supposedly been going through.

It's a unique Pixar production in that it was delayed by about a year and a half...

... AFTER a teaser trailer and poster for the film were released, following a big info drop on the movie at the fall 2022 D23 Expo...

Not even THE GOOD DINOSAUR, an infamously troubled Pixar production, went through that. That film was delayed before anyone outside of D23 attendees saw any footage from the scrapped version of the film, though renders of the older bigger Arlo and the bipedal version of Spot did leak.

All of this agita for ELIO...

... and I feel fine! Yeah, I'm not really worried about this movie.

It's easy to equate "troubled production" with "oncoming disaster", something that's absolutely gonna fail, an abomination from the get-go.

Yet, TOY STORY 2 and RATATOUILLE exist. Other Pixar films, and plenty of other animated movies, go through some form of hell before the ship is steered away from the cyclone. Sometimes within a year or so from release. The end results are always subjective anyways.

So, I have no idea how ELIO will turn out. If it's a movie *I* myself like, if it's a movie that resonates with the public, yadda yadda yadda.

ELIO, however, does not seem like a GOOD DINOSAUR situation to me. GOOD DINOSAUR not only lost its director (Bob Peterson), but the whole movie was thrown out and the replacement director (Peter Sohn) started over from scratch with a few core elements retained. ELIO seems like it's going to be half the movie we saw in the teaser this past summer, and a lot of new stuff. Sections being reworked, rather than the whole movie being thrown out and Molina & co. starting over. Voice work to be done, especially post-strikes, and they'll need time to animate all the new stuff. Pete Docter isn't the leader John Lasseter was, Lasseter likely would've canned Molina and had another director reimagine the concept/story to his liking.

I think it's cool, if this is all true, that Docter is giving Molina and the filmmakers more time to rework the film. Especially after the marketing campaign has kicked in. With that, it probably should stay in June 2025. I had thought for a bit that it could move up a bit and take MOANA 2's place, because that Thanksgiving release sounds like it's going to be a crunch production, what with Auli'i Cravalho and The Rock signing on *just recently* to reprise their roles nine months before release. I'd delay that to spring 2025, honestly. Disney can afford to miss the Thanksgiving slot this year, they'll be fine. INSIDE OUT 2 and CG LION KING prequel can be their sole animation releases this year, even if the latter won't be billed as such.

As for its box office prospects? Big budget sci-fi animated features, even in a not-COVID world, struggle. Especially space-setting sci-fi animation. TITAN A.E. and TREASURE PLANET, anyone? Only something very low-budget would cut it, but we're talking $200m Pixar movies, not that microbudget CLONE WARS movie. (STAR WARS isn't sci-fi to me, but you get my drift, right?)

Pixar, however, *did* score a box office hit with WALL-E all the way back in 2008. Despite the spacebound adventure and the future Earth setting, the marketing wisely focused on the cute robots in love. That got folks to see it back then, methinks. ELIO will need a similar hook, and it's a summer release as well, so it could be primed for a blockbuster run.

However, most non-sequel animated features play a different game now, in a post-COVID outbreak world: Open tiny, have ludicrous legs. That's fine if your feature cost $90m and you made around $250m at the worldwide box office, but like ELEMENTAL before it, ELIO's probably going to need to make around $500m worldwide to break even in the eyes of the money people - who seem to keep forgetting that animated movies have fantastic longevity beyond their theatrical release. ELEMENTAL had the fun premise and the love story working in its favor after its blah opening weekend (though it was pretty high for a post-outbreak animated opening), ELIO... I don't know what it has at the moment. Will the "kid becomes Earth's ambassador within a massive council of aliens" really get audiences to come flockin' in summer 2025? I do not know, but I hope it does good, for Molina's sake, and so we can be spared the five gazillion "is Pixar circling the drain???" articles...

All I know is, I'm looking forward to it. Space adventure and colorful aliens and stuff, by way of Pixar and their resources.

[rayadraws]

Tagged by @unfortunatelycake ! Thank you!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

46

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

474,023

3. What fandoms do you write for?

One Punch Man

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

- Metallic Koala, 724 kudos

- We're just helping them, 766 kudos

- Egg x Toaster oneshots, 962 kudos

- Who Is She?, 1813 kudos

- Demon Cyborg's livestream, 2545 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I'm really bad at doing it, but I love every single one I've received! I guess I don't reply much because it'd mostly be me yelling 'thank you!!' over and over (I do mean it though!)

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

I don't do true angst, but overall I guess it might be The Danger of Trust, in which Kuseno dies. I wouldn't call the ending angsty though.

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

I think practically all my fics have happy endings, most happy, hm... I think I will say the Old Boys series because it implies a long happy life together to get to the point of when the stories take place.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I don't -think- so, not on my fics specifically that I can remember anyway.

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

It happens. Pretty standard stuff lol.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I don't think I've written any yet...

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I've granted permission when asked, but I don't know if the translations were carried out.

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

Not exactly, but many of my fics come out of discussing an idea or concept with friends, using our shared ideas etc. When this is the case it'll say in the fic notes.

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

Saitama/Genos!

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Years ago I drew a vague monk/fire demon AU thing, which got a fair few likes. I wrote a chapter one for a story about but never could continue it - I don't -have- a rest of the story and it was so long ago that I wouldn't know where to start. I should probably post what I do have to the oneshot collection.

16. What are your writing strengths?

This is really hard for me to answer. I enjoy writing dialogue a lot and I think I'm decent at writing it in a way people actually speak, you know?

I also try very, very hard to finish what I've started. My unfinished WIPs are all things I've never posted, everything I've posted I've finished (or they are series without defined endings that can stand alone).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Rushing. This shows as poor grammar, typos, rushing through the story in general. I think "filler" content is tough. For the grammar, to some extent I'll also put the blame on english not being my first language.

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

Not something I typically do. It was a plot point in one oneshot that Saitama learned an english phrase to tell Genos, I think that's the only time I've done it. Although on that subject, it could be funny to write Kuseno and Genos talking in english over Saitama's head lol.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

OPM is my first and so far only.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Oh, that's tough, I'm very self-critical. I like some of my oneshots a lot, it can be fun to build a small story around a particular scene. Three Princesses or Drunken Friends for instance.

For separate works, I enjoy writing Old Boys a lot (and that one started in the Oneshot collection too, ha).

Tagging @guardiandae @reptile-ruler and @blairtrabbit

[kinghijinx22]

So I played Halo 5 for the first time after having played every prior game a while ago- My thoughts part 1

And boy does this story suck real bad. I spent a while writing this, getting out all my thoughts, why it annoyed me so much. Halo 5 does do a few cool things which I mention here, but it's a really annoying and actually offensive experience in how it handles it's subject matter, especially regarding Cortana. Anyway yeah, these are my full thoughts on playing through the Campaign of Halo 5.

Ok so, I guess before I really get into my Halo 5 thoughts and how I didn't like the story, I will talk about the few things that I did like about it. The return of my best friend who I love dearly the Arbiter, who had not been in the story since Halo 3 so I appreciated seeing him again and that he still has a strong bond with the Master Chief. So, Locke goes to him and his people for help against The Guardians and Cortana and tracking down Master Chief, which you have to help him first with fighting a new Covenant because even if you defeat a fascist regime there will always be more deranged people who thought it was a good idea. But when you talk to Arbiter, he's just like "why are you hunting the best of your tribe?" and then when you leave to go after Chief after deciding that your going to help him, Arbiter is just like "give him my greetings" and I'm just like HNNNNNGH. Listen, Halo is one of the most sexless franchises I've ever engaged with but if I shipped anybody, it would be Arbiter and Chief. WARRIOR HUSBANDS! Love between a human and a Sanghelli. But this leads to my first complaint, because Halo 5 has the AUDACITY to bring back the Arbiter, and then Chief comes back with Locke in the end and only gets to see the Arbiter FOR A FUCKING SECOND BEFORE THE GAME JUST ENDS FUCK! After how much of a bond they formed across Halo 3, and showing that Arbiter still thinks about Chief. Bro, why you gotta tease me like this? But anyway, so another thing about this game and still talking about the Sanghelios part of the game which is the Arbiter's homeworld, those levels are the best part of the game and Swords of Sanghelios is actually a great level that has a flow that is similar to the Bungie Halo games. Just some great combat encounters that makes good use of the various Covenant enemies, good variety including some vehicle combat where you get the Mantis which is a big robot, and all in a cool area where we finally get to see the Sanghelli homeworld.

Another cool thing was in the earlier level where you play as Chief leading his Spartan team, Blue Team, in stopping the Covenant from taking some technology left on a UNSC ship they took over. And in that level, is the only time in any Halo game up until this point that they have actually shown the Hunters, or the Mgalekgolo, as a bunch of worms outside of their armor, because if you didn't know the Hunters are a bunch of worms that form together and wear a suit of armor with a fuel rod canon and a shield. You see them form together and put the armor on and it's a cool scene and one of the best enemy introductions in the series. But this leads to another complaint, this time gameplay related. So the overall feel and flow of Halo 5 does not feel good compared the Bungie Halo games. The Bungie games, between the level design, the enemy variety, the weapons and vehicles, something about it just feels right and was perfected on the first try with Halo 1 and only expanded upon throughout the Bungie game. This, with Halo 5, feels like a a bunch of shit just being randomly dumped onto a big open map. The level design doesn't feel considered I guess, disconnected, and the flow feels funky. Also all of the weapons lack the punch they had in the older games for some reason. The only new thing that I like is this ground pound ability where you can kind of zip to the ground and punch down on whatever your landing on, yeah that's a cool move. And also Sword of Sanghelios actually being a good level.

One more gameplay complaint that also kind of interweaves with the story because the Warden is a lame character as well, but Halo 5's idea of a boss fight is to have you fight this big robot guy with a sword named Warden, except you fight him 5 times and he is every boss fight in the game and on the 4th and 5th fights, you fight 2 and 3 Wardens because he splits himself across multiple bodies. Now Halo has nerve had a good history with boss fight dating back to Halo 2 but they also didn't make you fight the same dumb boss 5 times. And about the Warden being a lame character, he's pretty much just some loser manchild who watches manosphere youtube videos to make himself delusional ideas about being better then everyone else, because he's a massive simp for Cortana who feels entitled to her affection and just wont leave her the fuck alone when she wants nothing to do with. She's just talking to Chief and I think actually trying to help him get to her and Warden guy is constantly made about it and the whole situation is pretty awkward but his patheticness is honestly hilarious.

[greatwyrmgold]

Alright, more Factorio. For the first time since I ran out of stone and iron, my factory is working fine, with no immediate supply issues.

The Problems (as I've taken to calling them) are also contained for now; my strategy of throwing more laser turrets at any areas that take damage from their attacks has paid off. But I'm seeing substantial numbers of big spitters, and would see similar numbers of big biters if there were more biter spawners around, so I shouldn't just sit around and wait around.

It's been a while since I've addressed the overall state of my base, because not much has changed since the first or second post I made on the subject. So let's have a quick composite screenshot* of my whole starter base, with commentary from present me on why it's just a starter base.

*I assembled this before catarialacertilia suggested a console command.

Most of my comments are focused around expandability. Resource demands for late-game science packs are going to keep going up, and I'm already having trouble getting enough iron down the belt. Upgrading everything in that lane to fast belts would help, but that won't be enough to squeeze a decent amount of production or utility science.

And of course, the number of science packs required per technology is going to increase, too. Chemical-science-tier technologies tend to need a couple hundred science packs to research; endgame techs can require thousands. At the moment, I'm producing roughly 60 science packs of each type per minute (60 spm); that's a decent amount, but it means unlocking new technologies will be pretty slow.

Anyways, the point is I need a new base. A prettier base! And that prettier base will need copper. I've got every other basic resource on trains (except uranium, if you can call that "basic"), but copper needs to be shipped to the new base somehow.

So let's take a look at the area around my starter base and consider locations!

I've circled copper ore patches for obvious reasons, and coal patches because I've got a bunch of steel furnaces I want to use (and also I'd rather not just use the same designs everywhere). There are some copper patches to the south of my base, but none that look more appealing than the ones to the east.

There are three places where I note copper ore and coal in some kind of proximity. From south to north:

The copper patch due west of my coal station is due west of a coal patch. However, I'm already using that coal, and would rather not deplete it faster than I have to.

The next pair of patches is reasonably close to my starter base and are completely unoccupied. However, between the small lake between them and the cliffs around them, finding a spot to put furnace stacks might be tricky.

Finally, we have a good-sized coal patch between two copper patches. The problem is that it's beyond the edge of my pollution cloud, well within biter territory.

I think I'll go with the middle option. Defending the coal mines and getting it to the copper is going to be a bit of a pain, but I think I can manage. With that in mind, my plan for the New Base looks something like:

A "main bus" is a pretty standard kind of Factorio base. Basically, it's a line of belts which resources flow down, with branches of assemblers and stuff branching off the side. I don't see any seas or other obvious obstacles to making the bus longer any time soon, and the start of the bus is pretty much in the middle of my current resource patches.

You'll notice that I don't have any arrows pointing from the oil station to the main bus. That's because I'm not quite sure what I want to do there. My current thought is shipping oil to a chemical processing area near but separate from the main bus, but I'm nowhere near needing to make a decision. I need to start the bus first.

And before I start the bus, I need to do two things:

Set up that copper station.

Make sure Problems don't bother me.

With regard to the latter, please consult this extremely scientific diagram:

(The circles are centered on areas I reckon are or will be serious sources of pollution. Their radius is determined by the technical method of "picking a round number that looks right.")

As I've mentioned before, the Annoying Problems will run around the lake to attack my iron outpost. However, to get to them, I would also need to run around the lake. If they or the Future Problems become an immediate problem, I'll set up some kind of fortified outpost in their path, with lasers and flamethrowers and walls.

But for now, I'll deal with the immediate problems so they don't interrupt my new mines. No pictures; I basically just run at nests and slap down a stack or two of gun turrets. It ain't elegant, but it works.

Speaking of things that aren't elegant: I realized that my iron unloading station was ultimately limited by the belts at the unloading station. Especially since, for all the balancing stuff I did later, I was only unloading onto half of the belt. So I ordered my construction bots to do a quick and dirty fix:

I'll want something better when I get to the real base, but this is fine for the starter base.

This is more of a reminder to myself than anything, but another thing that happened while I was out wiping out the Immediate Problems:

Okay, there's one interesting thing I wanted to mention about the biter-fighting: When approaching a base that was obviously gathering an attack group, I tried to wait for the attack group to depart before attacking. I photographed one group to explain why.

Obviously the base also has worms (five, I can't tell their sizes), but the attack group obviously adds a lot to the danger of this base.

(Also, from these statistics, I'm guessing I'm somewhere around 56% pollution?)

I also saw a spitter attacking a rock that got in its way. I didn't think to snap a picture of that, but I did screenshot a different spitter attack on my actual base.

Anyways, then I spent a while blueprinting out just about the entire new outpost. Coal mines, copper mines, steel furnaces, and the belts connecting everything.

That's:

Two stacks of steel furnaces

Two and a half stacks of electric mining drills

Four stacks of inserters

Fractional stacks of all power poles

A half-stack each of splitters and underground belts. (Note that half-stacks cannot be combined.)

26 stacks of belts

And that's not including the laser turrets I'll need for defense, or the big power poles to bring power here from the main base, or the train station. Or anything I might forget to include in the blueprint. Like the red belts I needed to add in at one point to keep throughput consistent.

(Maybe I should've set up a local train between the coal patch and the smelter stack. Maybe another for the copper. Oh well.)

Luckily, at this point I have 120 inventory slots, so I can carry the 40+ stacks of items needed to build the outposts in one trip. I just need to produce and stock up on enough ahead of time, I assumed.

Turns out that solar-powered personal roboports are super limited in how much construction they can do at once, especially once night falls. Which feels obvious now that I'm writing it out. Which means I wound up taking several trips back to the base while the roboports charged, just so I had something to do.

(Mostly ripping out the old science production and babysitting the labs as they consumed what science had been produced. And a little hand-crafted science.)

Sure, I could build some of this by hand, but A. that's tedious and B. I'd like to get the achievement for placing more buildings with robots than by hand. At the start of this project I was over 11,000 by hand and less than 2,800 by bot; placing the rest of those belts is going to change those numbers significantly, one way or the other.

While I was calmly watching my bots set up belts, I heard the alert noises of a bunch of stuff getting broken. Please enjoy one hasty screenshot of the attack and a more carefully-composed screenshot of what the area looked like once I'd killed the biters and bots fixed some of the damage.

I'd left behind all of my personal construction bots in the rush, and let them catch up while I made some replacement power bits and considered how the Problems had gotten so far into my base.

The problem was simple! I'd deconstructed some old gun turrets that I wrongly assumed were irrelevant. The solution was also simple! Set up some new laser turrets to cover the gaps.

Anyways. Back to construction. And thanks to advice from the aforementioned @catarialacertilia, I've got a big, clean screenshot of the whole copper-smelting place!

Plus or minus some laser turrets. And some missing splitters and misaligned belts and stuff. Whatever.

I throw on a standard train station at the bottom, complete with train, but absent the traditional "place for a train to go". That place hasn't been built yet, after all! Remember what I said at the start of this post? The copper outpost is meant to fuel my main bus, aka The Real Base.

But this is a good place to stop. See you next time, once I've finalized the plans I have...

[indigowallbreaker]

rarepair (trio?) prompt: caspashardt "unconsciously searching out each other’s hand while sleeping"

I've actually done this exact prompt for this exact trio, so I hope you don't mind that I did a Modern AU!

(Currently accepting rare ships! Click here for the info post!)

--

It was a quarter to midnight when Linhardt felt Caspar shift beside him. Linhardt lowered his tablet, watching as Caspar rolled over in bed to face him instead. They had both agreed to stay up waiting for Ashe to come home from work, but, when Caspar had fallen asleep, Linhardt hadn’t bothered to wake him. It meant more peaceful reading time anyway.

Caspar’s eyes were barely open when he croaked out, “Lin?”

“Here.” Linhardt brushed some blue hair from Caspar’s face. It had only been two hours at most since he had drifted off, but Caspar already had some serious bed head going on. Linhardt found it strangely endearing. He always did.

“Had a dream I was a girl,” Caspar said half into his pillow. 

Linhardt hummed, placing his tablet on the nightstand and making a mental note to plug it in to charge later. The covers moved slightly as Caspar lifted a hand to take Linhardt’s.

“It was nice,” Caspar went on. 

“I’m happy for you. 

“Lin, can I be a girl?”

Caspar yawned in a way that deterred Linhardt from asking any follow up questions. Instead he laced their fingers together. “Sure,” Linhardt said simply.

With a smile, Caspar’s eyes closed again, and she heaved a sigh. “Thanks.”

Once her breathing evened out, Linhardt-- without letting go of Caspar’s hand-- picked up his tablet again. The book was a history text their neighbor Mr. Hanneman had recommended. Though an interesting read, Linhardt’s gaze occasionally flickered to Caspar. Had that one dream really affected her so much? Or had Caspar been keeping prior thoughts from Linhardt and Ashe? And if so, what had he or Ashe done to signal to Caspar that they would not be accepting of said thoughts?

These thoughts plagued Linhardt until he finally turned off his tablet, picked up his phone, and began typing out his questions.

He was still typing when he heard Ashe enter the apartment. A few moments later, Ashe appeared in their bedroom doorway, still wearing his apron from work. “Welcome home,” Linhardt greeted with a smile.

Ashe smiled back, but it fell slightly when he saw Caspar, who was still curled on her side and clutching Linhardt’s hand. “Did something happen?” Ashe asked as he untied his apron. “You two didn’t have the kitten fight again, did you?”

“Nothing like that. She’s fine.”

Ashe froze in the act of pulling off his shirt. “She who?”

“She Caspar.” Linhardt put his phone on the nightstand on top of his tablet. Now was not the time to explain his musings to Ashe. Linhardt felt he had been awake long enough, thank you very much.

Apparently Ashe was also too tired to talk more on the subject. With a shrug, he finished changing into his pajamas and climbed into bed beside Caspar. Ashe pressed a kiss to Caspar’s brow. “Good night,” he murmured.

Linhardt leaned over to receive his good night kiss as well. Caspar didn’t move throughout the exchange, though she did mumble when Ashe gathered the blankets around them. 

Ashe buried his nose in the back of her neck, Caspar gave Linhardt’s hand a weak squeeze, and Linhardt turned out the light-- plunging the three of them into comfortable darkness. 

[burnwater13]

Another prompt: Grogu tells Din a scary story. Inspired by this IG post.

Thank you for the suggestion. I will think about that one and put it in queue. Grogu did tell the Tuskens a story that he and his dad found scary, but generally Seb is the one with the scary stories. Of course there was that time...

Grogu looked over his shoulder. He was sure that he saw a shadow of something. Something big. He looked up at his dad, but Din Djarin didn't seem to notice anything special or even sort of creepy. Grogu chirped at his dad.

"What's wrong buddy?" Din asked, pausing during their walk back to the ship to pay attention to Grogu.

Grogu chirped and coo'd at the Mandalorian and hoped he understood. He was still working on his Gal Basic and he hated to use it if he didn't have to.

"You thought you saw something creepy? Buddy, don't worry so much. I always have my sensors on and they don't show anything."

That's what worried Grogu the most. He chirped and coo'd at his dad again.

"A lot of things happened while you were at the Jedi Temple, buddy. I'm not sure I understand."

"Tell you." Grogu used a little bit of Gal Basic because this was important to him.

Then he began to tell Din the story of the Empty Library.

Grogu explained how it was a dark and stormy night.

("Grogu, I've been to Coruscant more than once. I've never noticed it having weather of any sort, let alone stormy." Din interrupted him.

"Me tell." Grogu complained at his dad in Gal Basic to underline just how much he didn't appreciate being interrupted.

"Sorry. Carry on." Din was laughing but Grogu ignored that.)

Grogu had woken up in the middle of the night because the sounds of the storm disturbed his sleep. All the rest of the younglings were sleeping deeply, even Ian, who normally only pretended to sleep until they went to lessons and then he really slept.

He decided to get a glass of water and use the privy because one so often went with the other. Maybe he'd be able to go back asleep then. But after he used the privy and had his glass of water, he was restless. The storm was still making too much noise and as he began to pace around the sleeping quarters he noticed flashes of lightning. Uff. He couldn't sleep with that going on.

So what should he do?

("Try going back to bed any way. Once you relax, you always fall right back to sleep." Din explained.

"Dad!" Grogu huffed. Mandalorians sure didn't find it easy to get immersed in story telling.)

Grogu decided that he should go to the Library and get a data tape to listen to. Listening to Master Windu describe lightsaber cleaning techniques was sure to make him fall asleep, just like Ian had when the Jedi Master had come to their lessons that one day and discussed that very subject.

The only thing that worried Grogu was that the Librarian often hovered around the tape vault at all hours. It was like she never slept. Grogu sometimes wondered if she was really a Mandalorian in disguise because she was so good at popping out of no where, seemingly completely refreshed. On the other hand, maybe she had been related to Fennec Shand. Fennec did that a lot too.

Anyway, prepared for the inevitability of meeting the Librarian, Grogu made his way to the Jedi Archives. When he got there, no one was around. It was silent like a tomb or like Ian when he was called on to answer a question by any of the Masters, unless you considered snoring softly as being an answer. Grogu was relieved and concerned. It was too good to be true.

He made his way as quickly as he could through the towers of data tapes, looking for the one he wanted. He stopped short. Was that a shadow on the wall? Hmmm. It was gone now. He started his search up again. He went even deeper into the archives, still not bumping into a single Jedi. But there it was again! The shadow!

But when he stopped, it was gone. Dank Farrik!

("Grogu, you can tell stories without cursing."

Grogu gave his dad a look. Maybe Din Djarin could tell a story like that, but not Grogu. But he reminded himself not to use that curse again. He could usually get away with a few more curses as long as he didn't favor one over the other.

"Okay.")

Grogu began to move faster. He was practically running now. He just wanted to get the data tape and get the heck out of there. He didn't want some shadow chasing him around all night. That wouldn't be fun.

Finally he reached the stack he'd been looking for and he reached out with the Force and collected the data tape when he saw right before his eyes the hulking shadow of an enormous creature! He closed his eyes and opened them again and it was still there! Oh no!

Was it some sort of Sith demon coming to get Jedi younglings who were out of bed after curfew? Master Kelleran had told them all about the spirits that sometimes wondered the temple deep into the the night.

Well Grogu wasn't going to wait around trying figure that out! Nope, he was going to run as fast as he could back to his room. But wherever he ran there it was! The shadow and it was getting bigger! Grogu dodged and hid and crawled to see if he could lose the shadow and for one blissful moment he thought he had!

But then he turned the corner to go back into his sleeping quarters and it was back! Grogu froze where he was and tried to catch his breath. If he had to fight the shadow he would! He was a Jedi youngling for heck's sake.

(Grogu looked up at Din to see if he was going to challenge his use of such strong language but the Mandalorian stayed silent, if laughter was really silence.)

And then it happened! A voice came from the dark room and Grogu knew that his doom was upon him.

"Hey, Grogu! Shut off that light on your sleeping cap! It's way too bright! Did you just go to the privy?" It was Ian, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Grogu had forgotten all about the special light Master Kelleran had made for him. Standard flashlights were way too big for him.

"Womp rats!" Grogu had grumbled to Ian who had laughed and turned over in his bed and gone back to sleep. Grogu had been scaring himself the whole time!

("Okay buddy, what lesson did you learn from your brush with the shadow?" His dad asked, obviously failing at not laughing while he spoke.

"Bring a friend." Grogu explained. He should have had Ian with him and then they'd be sure that the shadows were only from Grogu's sleep light. He'd been certain that he'd only turned it on once he found the data tape. Hmmm. Now he would never know.)

Hope you enjoyed this impromptu story. It was able to cut the line because Grogu just started telling it to me and I had to struggle to type fast enough. Cheers!

[subarus-gentle-butterfly]

5, 15 & 38 👀✨

I just answered 5 here !

15: what’s your OTP when it comes to your muse?

OTPs for Miu: Someone who would be willing to grow throughout their relationship with Miu, who's growing herself, would be a good match. Someone who could tease her for how shy she is but not in a cruel way, or someone who can express empathy, even if it's minute, would be a good match, along with someone who has had similar past expirences. Miu requires a lot of reassurance later on in a relationship. She's also very curious about everything, especially creatures/species that she is not familiar with or hasn't met yet. She always likes learning more about people she knows. However, she is very shy and a bit cautious when meeting new people because she's afraid of getting hurt like her past, even though she has a bit of a high pain tolerance. Obviously, Subaru is a good match for Miu, as that's her definite canon ship. In certain AUs, Shu, Reiji, or Ruki would be good matches for her. I think Ayato would also be a good one but only in certain specific AUs. Any OC that has any of the qualities or potentials above would also be good matches, and I'm always willing to start up anything new with other ocs!

OTPS for Momo: Yui is her canon ship, so obviously her hehe. Someone who gets shy and flustered a bit easily (like most canon Yuis or Miu) or someone who just likes to mess around are perfect for her. Characters that are a bit fruity or have the possibility to find her attractive either romantically or sexually would also be okay. Kou in certain AUs would be fine, and so would Laito potentially. Personally, I feel like Momo and @kindan-no-kanojo 's Scarlett would be a great and chaotic match hehe. Also, Momo is technically canonly Lesbian, but when not in the canon universe that I've put her in, she is bisexual with a preference for girls or feminine men. (Just a quick clarification for anyone who has a misunderstanding about Bisexuality, Bisexual doesn't mean just the "bi" [two] genders. That's very outdated and just wrong. Bisexuality has always included trans and nonbinary, agender, genderfluid, and basically every gender and gender-non-conforming there is. The difference between pansexuality and bisexuality is just that bisexuality may include preferences, although preferences aren't strictly a part of bisexuality. Many people get confused between the two, but as a bisexual myself, I try to educate/clear up the misunderstandings and stigma around it.)

OTPS for Saki: Most OCs that I've interacted with would be pretty easy matches for Saki. Saki is canonly very attractive and has a very sexy-type aura. She has the potential to be shipped with anyone, except for the NOTPs I put in this answered ask. Saki and one of my OCs that has not been introduced yet are actually exes. Shin and Saki have been my canon ship for the longest time, but I have a feeling that is subject to change, but it's just a feeling, and I've not out much thought into it. I feel like Rox's Rhiannon would be a great platonic match, but on a second thought from my previous answered ask, (the link in this paragraph) they could have the possibility of a romantic ship, at least in my mind. I have always had this alternate ship in my mind for a different AU for Saki, which would be Reiji. In my own canon, they are good friends anyways. Ruki could also be another possible ship in a different AU as well, and so would Yuma. That's all I've really thought of for her as of yet.

38: how easily does your muse get crushes?

Miu has a hard time distinguishing romantic feelings and platonic feelings. Outside of the Subaru x Miu canon, Miu has never felt love or any sort of romantic feeling that she can remember. Due to her background, there was never a possibility for her to learn or feel those things, apart from familial love for her brother, and earlier, her mother. She's also very cautious to trust and get to know people, so it would be difficult for her to get a crush unless she has spent enough time with them. She's demisexual/demiromantic, so she needs to have an emotional connection to someone before she can start to figure out and recognize her feelings as a crush.

Momo is usually the one who is crushed on, in my canon. In her early designs, she was very popular with the boys at school because she was pretty, nice, and shy. She's the complete opposite of shy now, hehe. If she sees a pretty girl/person, she'll have a slight crush, but not a super romantic one unless their relationship deepens. Before she lost her memory, she had a crush on a girl from church who looked a bit like Yui, who she thought was pretty and sweet. She has a thing for sweet and shy personalities in girls/feminine-aligned people and makes her want to follow them around and get to know them so she can make them hers. Regarding men and other gender/male-aligned/appearing people, she likes to play hard to get/mess with them. She's naturally very flirty, and likes to use that to her advantage. Most male romantic relationships with her start off with a bit of e2l tbh. Also if she really falls for someone she is a total simp.

Saki likes to play with people's feelings sometimes for fun (she's sadistic and mean like that I don't make the rules.... yes I do but yk). Like Momo, she is usually the one who gets crushed on, with her alluring vibe/aura that she naturally has as a high-ranking/pureblood vampire. She likes to have flings and doesn't really have a crush crush. More like she develops a certain feeling towards someone, and she wants to keep experiencing that feeling, so she pursues that person. She does have a thing for appearances and looks, but that's not the only thing she cares about. She likes people who treat her with respect and authority, and those who acknowledge her status as queen of her Clan.

[intoevernightfanfic]

💝, 📍,💋,🎉

😁

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

Goodness, I'm gonna have to talk about several right now lol. Honestly, I was shocked at the response to At Your Service. Just so many kudos and hits on the first couple of chapters (it's been such a long period since I last posted that I can't say about now, but that doesn't matter). IDK why I was so surprised, because porn with plot does well. It happened with Twenty First Times, which was my pet project but I didn't think it would be that popular either, and yet for a while, it was my most kudos-ed fic. Anyway, insert pikachu shocked face lol.

On the flip side, I was really surprised that Spirits and Specters flopped as hard as it did. I thought it was cute! But I suppose it sounded too bittersweet, and gen fics don't do as well. As far as ship fics, I was a little surprised High Tide didn't hit the same stats as my other PWP fics. At first, I wondered if maybe it was written worse than those, but then considering that the other PWP from Tomoe's POV didn't do as well as the ones from Nanami's POV, I think maybe we just all want the story to be told from the POV of the hot fox's love interest. 🤣

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

(Sorry! ;3; I couldn't find📍so I grabbed the closest one in appearance!)

I don't think it changes too much in style. Any adjustments are based on the genres I'm writing for, but I still have my quirks and I still have my preferred flows and syntactical structures. I have a few fics that I've tried to be more minimalistic about (which I struggle with, because I feel like I won't be understood if I don't beat a dead horse LOL). I think, again, it depends on the subject matter and genre, though. Like, for instance, Arranged Marriage is a much more complicated fic than Twenty First Times. Plus, I have multiple POVs in the former. It's going to be a lot longer.

For the future, though, I'd like to limit to one POV and that will affect it a bit. Mostly I need this change because the amount of editing I've been doing is unsustainable. I need shorter chapters to work with.

💋when you leave comments on a fic, do you want to hear back from the writer?

Not gonna lie -- I do! It goes back to fostering community and opening dialogue with other fans. But I also understand if someone doesn't have the spoons or doesn't know what to say, and it's totally fine not to reply. I don't feel ignored if someone doesn't respond to me and I'll keep commenting. The only time I might feel a bit weird is if everyone else gets a reply but me. Then I wonder if I'm overstepping some boundary I didn't know about. I would 100% rather know if I've made someone uncomfortable so I can adjust my behavior.

🎉how often do you celebrate completing & posting a work? how often do you give yourself the credit/validation that you seek from others when you post? (if you don't, you should!)

Honestly? Not enough these days LOL. I don't think it's a secret that I've been very frustrated lately. And it's really no one's fault but my own! I have a tendency to chop things up because I fret over how it comes across, or if it's actually "bad" (even when I enjoyed writing it), and I've been putting unnecessary pressure on myself. I will say I have a huge sense of accomplishment and relief when I finish the first draft of a chapter fic I worked on, especially if it went on for a while. I typically enjoy reading the first draft way more than what ends up being posted (probably because I've read it to death by that point LOL).

Thanks for the ask, @liz8080 😁💕

[jarateblog]

My Rambly Complaints on Orbital's Optical Delusion

Not that anybody who reads this is really going to care, but felt like getting my thoughts put out somewhere, since I don't really have a spot on my website to put this stuff currently (and I'm still trying to stay off Twitter for the most part and its word cap would only get in the way anyways)

I've been a massive fan of Orbital's for a couple years now, and would call Snivilisation one of my favorite albums that hits me on multiple emotional levels when sitting down to listen to it in its entirety. In Sides, The Middle of Nowhere, the Brown Album, and The Altogether are more of some of what I would consider masterpieces from them, although none of their albums are bad in my opinion. This album, however, is probably the one I've been the most frustrated with due to a variety of reasons.

The lead up to this album was an absolute shitshow, to start, because the brothers clearly weren't in contact with their social media manager enough (or their social media manager was just super incompetent at their job), self-leaking songs before their official announcements, and just announcing the album about 3 months before its release. Each version of the album available is different too, the digital and vinyl releases being the most basic, while there are 3, count 'em, 3, different versions of CDs you can get: one basic, one with a separate bonus CD, and one with included bonus tracks (all three are completely different and barely vary in price). This isn't to mention how NONE of these were explained until about ONE WEEK before the album's release, fucking up many peoples' pre-order plans (and prevented me from even pre-ordering the album in the first place as a result, especially as a US citizen who gets fucked with ~20 pound shipping costs). There was a super expensive (and limited) blu-ray edition that is the only "complete" package, with all bonus tracks (minus one), with surround mixes as a bonus, but, obviously, not everybody has the money (or set up) to settle for that package. Then, there was the whole stupid N(o) F(ucking) T(hanks) shit they pulled about a week before its release too, a clear last minute ploy to squeeze a couple extra bucks out of some idiots who believe in that shit.

Funny, then, for how obviously political/environmental this album is that they wanted to sell it through such incomprehensible means. I know that sometimes labels can get in the way of music releases, but the absurdity of all this cannot be just the result of some publisher's stupidity. So, I feel everybody, especially including the band, needs to take blame for this shit. This is stuff that is actually getting in the way for normal people to just listen to music, and I wouldn't be surprised if this album ends up under-performing as a result.

About the actual quality of the album, that's very subjective, and it shouldn't surprise anybody that I am pretty sour and my opinions are biased, even if I went in with as much of an open mind as I could. There are good tracks here, but most feel extremely under-developed for Orbital's standards (and learning that none of the tracks were actually worked in collaboration between the brothers strengthens this belief).

The always common political messages for Orbital albums here are also extremely on the nose, making it annoying when I have to read every other comment on posts regarding the album complaining from dense right-wing dickheads about how they want all their music to be 'non-political.' I obviously wholly support Orbital in continuing to push their messages, but the way they do it here is far from subtle or tongue in cheek (like in almost any of their previous albums). If I'm leaning on the same side of the political spectrum that they seem to be on, and I am finding their messages to be forced or cringey, then I think there is something wrong with the presentation of the message.

Notably, the album's themes revolving around the pandemic are almost 3 years behind the time it would have made the most impact. The pandemic still affects us today, yes, but they relay their message as if the damn thing just started a month ago. It would be more impactful and relevant if the focus was more on the people who still refuse to believe the virus exists, and how that affects the rest of us, but the messages don't go any further than "the virus sucks," or "the government doesn't care about us."

I find the only standout song on here to be "Are You Alive?," which is still a bit weak in the lyrical department, and feels like it has nothing to add for the last 4 minutes when the vocals get done in the first 3. The radio edit of it was horribly done though (although radio edits never do justice to Orbital's songs), cutting off the end of the track ungracefully and shortening the space between the main lyrics before there is time to let the music speak. It's unfortunate, because this song had potential to be one of their best in their whole catalogue.

I only recently got to listen to some of the bonus tracks (because somebody had to sneakily upload them on to Youtube), and it's a damn shame they weren't included on the main album (which is already under an hour in length, so come the fuck on with that). They are perhaps some of the best developed tracks out of this release, and it's completely insane that nobody told whoever was in charge to just put them all in the one package (hell, it would even further justify the album being a 2xLP, since the fact its only 51 minutes is just a waste of vinyl plastic at this point).

I'm just extremely frustrated with this release. While Monsters Exist in 2018 was one of my least favorite albums of theirs up until this point, I could still listen to it in basically any way I wanted to without issue, and it gave me plenty of time to develop my thoughts on what is still a great album of theirs. This album, on the other hand, actively prevents me from experiencing some of its best material, and the main experience does not hold much to me on its own. This is the first time I can say that I dislike an Orbital album, and it pains me to say it, after holding all 30 years of their output beforehand in high regard. I can't help but feel like this was made to just put some extra cash in their pockets, since Paul Hartnoll's solo work probably isn't making him that much money and who knows what the hell Phil does outside of the band.

[sparklyfix]

[A/N] I'm back 🎉🤭: random stuff about my new fic

Welp after about 7 years, it seems like I've gravitated towards writing again!

I decided that I wanted to take a try at romance for a change

So many thoughts and ideas has been bubbling in my head while plotting this fic, and i've been plotting since July. Sooo I figured it was about that time to start blogging about it

mmm hmm! it's gon be about Hwangkim 🤭

With them being my ultimate ship (and the ship that I miss the most) I wanted to take a try at my very first romance fic about them!

Don't be fooled, it's not just any premise tho lol I didnt think too hard about it tbh, it just came to me lol

A fantasy romance where a mysterious clumsy alien (minhyun) who crashed from outer space falls in love with an imperfect but ambitious journalist (jonghyeon). A choice between love and mission must be made, when jonghyeon makes an outrageous decision that would put minhyun's identity at risk.

Now don't laugh okay???? Minhyun will be humanized with some alien quirks. So it's not gon be super super weird.

The only thing I thought hard about was the actual plot. It's definitely subject to change. But I LIVE for plots w/ a non-human protagonist trying to interact with the fellow humans and their world ("National Fairy" flashbacks 😂), so this premise just randomly knocked at my door and i just ran with it!

When I started to get into the meat of the whole plotting process, I was elated to realize that this would be my first ever fic where I would have a full clear understanding of what the major plot points would be.

Because with every fic I've done in the past it always became incomplete because.... I would never plot anything past the 1st act and just kinda write on the nose after that..

Anyways I wanna do things right this time.

I'm also on the fence whether I should make it more rom-comey or more serious??? Or serious with a dash of rom-com ????? Obviously ima probably do a mixture of both and with the way the premise sounds.

I think it might start off kinda rom-comey and before slowly becoming serious and making its descent into the 3rd act

[gleefullypolin]

I ended up unhinged yesterday about the spoilers, even the contrast of LOWK vs Colin, and since I'm relatively new to this particular fandom, saw some of the nastiest things said about Polin by, ahem, a certain ship's fans. No idea what that's about and critical thinking skills are lost on them apparently.

Anyway what I really wanted to know was if you had seen the spoilers and what you thought of them? If not or you're not interested in them, please ignore me.

So a little thing about me is that I have heavy anxiety. So I can't sit back with things I love and not know about them. I HAVE to know so I can enjoy something. So I go out and find EVERYTHING to spoil myself so I CAN enjoy it when it comes out. So I went out yesterday and READ EVERYTHING I could. I read the accounts of everyone who saw the 1st episode so that I could then take from their views what I could.

Now don't get me wrong, other people watching episodes is always subjective. Because someone else watching something may be taken differently than me watching something. I may not be as offended or may be more offended by a line or scene than someone else. However, I was pretty ok with what I read of episode one.

I'll put this under a cut in case others don't care to read about spoilers or my take on what I read:

I was very pleased with the "Eloise" of it all as I was most stressed about her storyline this season and how I was going to feel about her and Cressida. I guess it gave me hope that she's not completely lost as she wasn't terrible about Pen and showed she still cared even with Colin and trying to shield him from what Pen wrote about him (Cheeky girl, she really doesn't learn does she? and perhaps she didn't truly love his apology or accept his new glow up as genuine either).

Also Colin is doing the appropriate amount of "I'm a man and can show you the world" but also "OMYGERD I need my bestie and can't survive please speak to me" behavior because he's still a baby without her.

And I got something I didn't realize I needed....two love tropes. My best friends to lovers with Polin and my enemies to lovers with Colin and Whistledown. It's delicious.

When it comes to the other ships, I'm new to this fandom too and quite taken aback honestly by the terrible things I'm seeing from a certain other ships fandom. It was surprising to me as I was not part of this fandom until this year and I didn't expect it at all. I thought it was going to be more of a family vibe and less of an "I'm jealous we lost the spotlight" vibe. But to each their own. Sucks to suck.

Honestly I've been more disappointed by the takes I've seen from inside the Polin fandom. But I think some of that might be more people who are not exactly Polin coded and more stans for one character over the other.

Either way you can be sure I will be on the case to flesh out as many spoilers as I can find and will be definitely here to discuss any you wish to talk about because I can't live happily without them before the season airs or I might actually go mad before May 16th.

[deewithani]

Thoughts on some of the more popular M/M in star wars? And your favorite?(example: dinluke, Finpoe, rexwalker, codywan?)

In general I like them all (tbh, less so with dinluke but I'll expand on that below).

Since I follow a lot of clone-centric blogs, I don't see as many M/M Star Wars pairings come across my dash as I do with other pairings. I do like finpoe, and I like the Finn/Poe/Rey triad (an OT3 for me), but I didn't really like the sequels, so I don't follow many blogs that post sequel content. I love seeing it when it makes its way across my dash, though.

For dinluke, I was never really all that hot on it, tbh. Maybe it was the limited contact (which honestly doesn't really matter much when we make our own fanon), but I've always been a bit partial to Luke/Lando, or Luke/Han (or if we're feeling really spicy, Luke/Han/Leia -with Luke & Leia being involved with Han but not with each other, of course). Another nail for dinluke was Luke sending Grogu back to Din with R2. We all know that R2 was perfectly capable, of course, but Luke not going back just rubbed me wrong. It could be the premise of a dinluke fic though. Luke doesn't go because he can't bear to see Din, and fears he'll run away to be with him too. Or something like that. Anyway, I can't really ship anyone with Din who wouldn't personally ensure that Grogu made it back to him safely.

Regarding Din, I kind of ship him with everybody that was ready to ready to die for our little green baby or willing to fight side by side with him. So that includes nearly everyone he comes in contact with. Bobadin and dincobb are both pretty popular, bit honestly I like all of them (I even ship him a little bit with Cara Dune). I think I could happily put him at the center of his own harem.

As a clone-centric blog you'd think I would see rexwalker fairly often, but it rarely comes across my dash. I don't have any issue with it, and I think there could be some fun scenarios there, but I don't really see much Anakin shipping coming through either. I wonder if that has to do with how central to the prequels his love for Padme is? In any case, not one I particularly search out, but if the right bit of art or fic comes across my dash I'm smashing the reblog button.

Codywan is probably my favorite, and it seems to be pretty popular with a lot of other people too. I think I like it because it's pretty obviously doomed, so to see art and fics where everything's OK is great (or conversely, when everything is ripping your heart out and you just want them to be happy, but Cody's over here still hunting Obi-Wan down even though it's been 10 years). Anyway, I love Obi-Wan much more than I actually post here. His story is packed full of loss, and he just continues on doing what he believes he has to do. He is steady and solid during the worst parts of his life, and he never waivers. It pays off in the end.

On Cody's part, he is a strong and capable leader who loves his men and is dedicated to serving the Republic. We have seen his kindness and compassion in canon, and we know that he has morals and convictions he won't compromise in the name of service. Unfortunately when it comes to the Clones, canon limits us in regard to Canon/Canon ships. Most clones don't interact with non-clones that aren't either their Jedi general, another Jedi general, a padawan, or a senator. There's also a power imbalance issue, and I think that limits a lot of people in shipping clones with most other canon characters as well.

What I would love to see more (personally) in codywan shipping is Cody being the one to comfort Obi-Wan, or sometimes more "neutral" balances (Cody being the big spoon, or standing over Obi-Wan).

Regarding clone power imbalances, I've seen a lot of different discussions on it by a lot of different people. It's a complicated subject in shipping (heck, any shipping that includes clones has a lot of things to consider that are conplicated). For my part, I chose to recognize canon in that the clones are quite limited in what they're permitted to do, places they're permitted to go, ect, but when they have that bit of freedom (not enough, tbh), they have the free will to make the choices they want, and that would include chosing a partner that puts them in a power imbalanced relationship.

For any other M/M ship in Star Wars (including rarepairs and other less popular ships), I'm live and let live. I may or may not like it, but I would scroll on by if I didn't like it.

__________________________

Send Me a 🔥+ a Topic, and I’ll Tell You My Honest Opinion About It

[eva-of-the-sea]

Since I've been in this fandom for about *checks calendar* 7 months??? damn time flies, I think I should start making some discussion posts. Long time ago, I made a post for my thoughts on ships in the Gorillaz fandom, so why not do that again but with Lupin? I think I'll have an easier time since the main characters are all consenting adults that aren't related to eachother, so I have no disgusting ships to contend with.

I'll put the small disclaimer that all of this is opinion only and should only be taken as such. I don't have anything against any of the ships mentioned (since nothing crosses the line) or any of the people that ship them, so this is down to personal preference only. All righty, let's begin.

Polygang:

Right out the starting gate, we may get a bit controversial lol. Personally, I don't ship them all together, whether it be the OT4 or OT5. This is due to the fact that I don't think all of them are compatible with each other or even able to be in a relationship with multiple people. It's a cute idea though, and I love to see people's different interpretations of it.

LoopZoop:

This one is cute and kind of works canonically, even if it's only ever acknowledged as a joke. The way I see it, they may never have a traditional relationship (in this case, being lovers/maybe getting married), but there is definitely an undeniable chemistry between them. There is a clear dependency on eachother to fulfill a role in eachother's lives (a common theme you'll notice with Lupin's relationships here). Lupin needs Zenigata to give him the thrill of the chase, and Zenigata needs Lupin to give him a purpose in life. I personally think Zenigata is fantastic at his job and needs Lupin to give him a challenge and keep him from being bored. Plus, their dynamic is just so much fun!

FujiLup:

I love this ship for all the wrong reasons. Fujiko and Lupin are straight up bad for eachother, and yet only the two of them can make a relationship like that work beautifully. I often describe their relationship as a game or a dance. Fujiko askes Lupin to steal something for her, Lupin steals the thing hoping to get *something* out of it, Fujiko betrays him and leaves him with nothing. The benefits seem one-sided, but we've seen time and time again that Lupin expects (and sometimes down-right encourages) Fujiko to stab him in the back. To deviate from that would be breaking the rules of the game or ruining the rhythm of the dance. I think there's a similarity to LoopZoop where both parties are playing a role for eachother. For Fujiko, Lupin is someone she knows she can always come back to, no matter how treacherous her betrayal. He gives her a place she can call home. For Lupin, it's the thrill of a challenge. She rarely let's him get anything from her, so when she does give him a peck on the cheek or lips, it's that much grander of an award. That's my speculation on the subject anyway. I also want to add that, for how great they work together, it can all fall apart from something as simple as a change of pace. We saw the fallout of this happening in part 5, after they had gotten married and tried to being domestic. It's details like that that make this ship so interesting to me, I just love it!

LupGoe:

An interesting dynamic if nothing else. These two have chemistry but I don't think it's necessarily romantic. I think I view them more as rivals on friendly terms, more or less. They clearly do care about one another and go to great lengths to protect one another, but there is something else there. Lupin probably doesn't have any particularly strong feelings about their youngest member, but Goemon does seem to want to pick fights with him the most. The inner workings of Goemon Ishikawa XIII's mind deserves a post all of it's own for how complex a character he is, but I'll try to give an abridged version. I think he struggles a LOT with being "the best", and working under Lupin has maybe bruised his ego a bit. It's something he can lock away for only so long before the feeling flares up again and boils over (part 5 once more shows this happening and it is masterfully done!). In other words, I think there's a passion there, but these two have a lot to work out before they could even consider romantic feelings.

JiGoe:

Ok here's where people are really going to hate me lol. I don't really ship them. Like, at all. I don't know what it is but they just don't really have all that much chemistry to me. The closest they get to being compatible is part 2, with how much they play off of eachother. Sadly, we don't really see this relationship in any other part of the franchise (or if we do, I haven't seen it). If anything, I think their relationship is more brotherly, Jigen being the older brother of the gang and Goemon being the younger brother. I think he does look up to Jigen a lot and likes having him around, and I think Jigen has a lot of respect for Goemon and appreciates what he brings to the team, but I don't think there's much past that. Sorry y'all.

FujiGoe:

I LOVE this ship! I think these two are super cute together. TWCFM is what originally sold me on the idea, one of the writers REALLY liked the idea of Goemon having a big ol crush on Fujiko and it was fucking adorable (even if she was like "mmkay😐" in the series lol). There actually isn't many canon moments to support the ship, at least not outright, but there's a lot to speculate on from what we know about the characters. We know that they are fairly good friends and, should it come down who he prefers to work with, he's going to pick Fujiko at least over Lupin lol. We also know that Goemon is not interested in having sex. Whether that's due to his training or personal preference is up to speculation. But automatically that is a huge difference for Fujiko with any other man she's been with. (This also deserves it's own post but abridged version once more) Fujiko is often placed into the role of sexy femme fatale, to the point where she just kind of expects to be treated like that. Hell, whether he means to or not, Lupin also pushes her into that category. So it has to be refreshing to have someone like Goemon, who she knows likes her, to treat her with respect and spend time with her without expecting (or wanting) anything in return. I think it's a relationship that could work out long term if we ever got a chance to explore it further.

ZeniGoe:

I'm mostly adding this for completion's sake. They don't really interact much to determine if they even have chemistry. I think they probably have a begrudging respect for one another, but that's about it...next!

FujiZeni:

(I'm guessing at these ship names, which should speak to their popularity lmao) Meh. The only time we really saw these two interact was in TWCFM and that whole thing was yikes. Zenigata barely qualifies as Zenigata in the series in my humble opinion (and idc about the manga 💅). And anytime these two do interact in the original series, it's mostly out of necessity so...next!

JigZeni:

Here we go! This one may only live in the realm of speculation, since again these two don't interact all that much (Zenigata is really laser-focused on Lupin huh?), but we can get something from what we know about the characters. I don't know if Zenigata would be all that into Jigen, but I reckon Zenigata fits Jigen's type to a T (if all those exes we've seen are to be believed). If things were different and Zenigata wasn't a cop hellbent on throwing them all in jail, he would probably try his luck. I've also read a fic or two where they get together out of mutual pining for Lupin, and b o y that's fun to unpack.

FujiJig:

It's really hard to place how exactly I feel about this ship tbh. On one hand, the dynamic they have is usually one of my favorite type of ships (anyone that knows me from Gorillaz knows that I'm a huge Russdoc shipper). On the other hand, I have never seen two characters more repelled by eachother lmao. Like even when they're being nice to eachother, I think the idea of being romantic disgusts them on a deep visceral level. And honestly? Good for them! I actually like that they can get along and not be into eachother. I think that's a trope that has been done to death and it's nice to just see them be (sort of) friends. I also believe that Jigen is 100% gay. I know that's something that is open to interpretation in the canon (whether he's gay or bi I mean, because he sure as fuck ain't straight), but I see a lot of myself in him and how he handles relationships, and I'm gay so yeah :) Basically, these two have sibling vibes more than anything, can't stand eachother but really do care about the other deep down. Tell ya what though, I do like the idea of them fighting over Lupin. I prefer it to be a friendly competition between them though, rather than anything with actual visceral.

JigLup:

Gee take a guess lmao. Honestly though, these two are my OTP. They have so much chemistry and compatibility, it's kind of shocking! Obviously, nothing has ever been outright stated, and I highly doubt anything ever will be stated, but there's a lot between them that is hard to read as just platonic. The cigarette lighting, the fierce loyalty and faith they have in eachother, the palatable JEALOUSY Jigen has anytime Lupin so much as looks at a woman. Like, how exactly are we supposed to take this? There's also the fact that Lupin admitted Jigen is "the most stable thing in his life" and holy shit if that isn't a significant role to assign to someone, especially for someone like Lupin. Honestly, I can talk all day about these two, but I wouldn't be saying anything that hasn't already been said a million times. It's a great ship and these idiots clearly are in love with eachother.

All righty there we have it! As you can see, I mostly wanted to focus on the main five. I like Yata, but he hasn't been around long enough for me to nail down his personality or his chemistry with the gang. Feel free to discuss with me if you'd like. I really love this franchise and y'all have been lovely so far.

[hrtiu]

I’m not really sure if I ship rexsoka yet - some people are saying it’s like really bad since he knew her when she was a kid but like he obviously wouldn’t have seen her in a romantic light until she was older so? Idk just people hating on problematic ships getting in my head and I’m not sure

Hey Anon! Thanks so much for asking, I'm glad you trusted me enough to feel like I could provide a helpful answer. I'll do my best!

First things first: you are never under any obligation to like a ship. If it seems like something you should like but for some reason you just don't, that's fine! Spend your energy on things in fandom that excite you without any reservations.

That being said, if you like Rexsoka and the only thing holding you back is the sense other people in the fandom have given you that you shouldn't, I'd encourage you not to worry too much about what other people think. If you'd like to understand the criticisms people make against Rexsoka and the reasons why I don't find them compelling, keep reading.

The most common argument people make that nobody should be allowed to ship Rexsoka is that it Ahsoka is underage, or that even if she's not underage in the fic/art you're consuming, she was underage when Rex first met her, and that means that any romantic relationship between them is still "icky." Below is my response to that criticism:

1. It's all about the execution. Every ship has the potential to be problematic. I've seen fic for very wholesome ships that the author managed to turn super dark and put in a lot of heavy elements. I've also seen ships that seem like you couldn't possibly make not-gross come out sweet as a cinnamon role in certain fics or fanart. Along that same vein, I've seen Rexsoka fics that made me feel very uncomfortable and seemed to not address age/rank/power imbalances between them at all, or to address them in ways that I wasn't comfortable with. I've also seen fics that approach the potentially problematic issues in their relationship thoughtfully and respectfully. That's why I tend to shy away from making blanket statements about any one ship. The way two creators approach the same ship can be vastly different, and one can make you uncomfortable while the other can wrap you up like a warm blanket.

Personally, none of my Rexsoka fics have any romance happening between Rex and Ahsoka until she's at least 17. In most of my fics they don't get together in any way until they are both well into their forties, but I have one where they get together right around the Siege of Mandalore, where she is either 17 or 18. I personally don't have a problem with them getting into a relationship when they are both adults, though I can understand that some people just have a negative gut reaction to that. And that's fine! Nobody has to like Rexsoka! But I also think it's reasonable to enjoy a romantic relationship dynamic between them as adults and I don't think it's fair for other people to say you're not allowed to.

2. Clone dynamics in Star Wars do not have perfect one-to-one equivalents in real life. You can see my thoughts on this subject in more detail here, but the basic idea is that any comparison of clone relationships to real-life relationships is bound to be imperfect. For example, some people don't like the idea of Rex and Ahsoka getting together later in life because Rex knew Ahsoka when she was only 14 and... I guess that makes them practically siblings? Or that means that he'll only ever see her as a child? Honestly, even in a real-life situation I don't really get this reasoning. If a boy met a girl when he was 18 and she was 12, I don't think that should stop them from falling in love and getting married if they reconnect when she's 32 and he's 38. But anyway, that comparison doesn't even fully work, because Ahsoka isn't just a little girl to Rex. She's his Commander! In real life, what 14 year old girls are going around leading battalions of adult soldiers? By that same token, what 20 year old men have only lived 10 years? And what 20 year old men are serving as soldiers while also being property of the government?

There are a lot of potentially problematic elements in a relationship between Rex and Ahsoka related to their power imbalance, their age difference, their difference in life experiences (they are both extremely sheltered and inexperienced throughout TCW--Rex even more than Ahsoka I'd argue), and more. And none of these elements has a direct, one-to-one equivalent in real life. All of these potentially problematic elements deserve careful examination from creators making fanworks, but I don't think any of them disqualify Rexsoka from ever being an "acceptable" ship.

So those are my thoughts! Ultimately it's up to you if you want to ship Rexsoka or not, but I say if you're into it you should go for it! The Rexsoka community has been really kind and welcoming to me and I think you'd enjoy it.