#as a guy who considers himself a writer despite not doing a Lot of writing lately LMAO

[crepusculum-rattus]

i LOVE talking about dnd🩵🩵🩵🩵

[katerinaaqu]

Why did Helen choose to torment the Greek Warriors inside the Trojan Horse? (An Odyssey Analysis)

Okay so here is a conundrum that seems to be quite interesting in homeric poems. One of them seems to be Helen's behavior before the sacking of Troy. Menelaus informs us and Telemachus on the events of the night before taking Troy and speaks on the moment where Helen knocks on the Trojan Horse and calls upon the Greek warriors inside imitating the voices of their wives.

Three times you circled the hollow ambush and out of the best of the Danaans you called the names and all the Argives heard the voices of their spouses. Nevertheless I and the son of Tydeus and the godly Odysseus heard you as you called out and while we two were eager to rush out and act to our sudden urge, Odysseus though held us back and restrained us despite our eagerness. Then all the other sons of Achaeans endured apart from Anticlus wanted to respond to your call but Odysseus placed his hand upon his mouth non-stop and strongly and thus saving all the Achaeans until Athena Pallas led you away

(Translation by me)

So basically here we see a very cruel act right? Helen knows the Argives were away from home and their wives way too long, over a decade so why would she play such a cruel game to them and call upon them by using the voices of their wives? It seems unnecessarily cruel at some point especially since she did express the need to go back to her husband already a year prior during the events of Iliad.

So here are a couple of explanations for it.

So for many I would epxect this would be something one might consider inconsistency at writing which leads many people to turn to the "different writer" trope. Quite honestly I can see why and as a hypothesis is really valid or maybe if one takes the hypothesis that Odyssey was witten way after the Iliad that the author himself changed his mind on some stuff or reconsidered his sources etc.

However let's hypothesize for one second that this is a logical continuation of the story and character development (yeah I am not convinced on the different writer theory, fight me! XD) and let's just think for a second the context of the scene based on what we know from the Iliad and the Epic Cycle in general.

We know that Helen lived in Troy a decade (yes for the "20 years theory" I have answered an ask here). She knew these people for a long time. We also know from the Iliad as she stood next to Priam, giving him information about the Greek leaders and kings and we know that she was not judged by him or any other of the Trojans. If anything she was blaming herself quite a lot for it. Even in the funeral of Hector she expresses her love for him (not romantic love guys) and her respect for him. She had no real hate for the Trojans even if she already had a change of heart or Aphrodite's spell on her had weakened. For the reasons why she stayed I also answered another ask right here but apart from that reason we know she wanted to go home so why did she do that to the Greeks? Well in the same scene Menelaus seems to be excusing his wife and he presents this very interesting explanation as to why she did it:

And then you came there: called by some god, no doubt, who wished to extend the glory of the Trojans

(Translation by me)

Menelaus seems to be excusing his wife once more and presents the hypothesis that Helen was inspired by some god or goddess (δαίμων) to go and disturb the Greeks inside the horse. Helen doesn't deny it but doesn;t confirm it either. In fact Telemachus speaks soon after and Helen orders the slaves to prepare stuff. The conversation on this subject seems to end there. So the one explanation could be that indeed Menelaus is correct and that Helen was once more either coersed or blackmailed by a god, potentially Aphrodite again, even if not mentioned, and went to the Greeks and tried to lure them out for the sakes of that god that wished better for Troy. It stands as an explanation as well.

However let's make things more spicy and let's assume that Helen was not influenced by divine intervention by the gods and instead it was her own free will to do what she did. If yes then why? So here's a hypothesis. Before in her narration Helen talks about how she met Odysseus and recognized him in his disguise. She also mentions how Odysseus informs her on the plan to take Troy:

And then he entrusted me everything he had in mind for the Achaeans

(translation by me)

How much he told her is not clear. Did he already have in mind to make the horse so he tells her that? Maybe he warns her on the one day that the Achaeans shall enter the city without speaking on precice details? Either way Helen would know Odysseus was up for some ploy and she knew she had to act fast. Menelaus also mentions how Deiphobos was with her at that time (how Menelaus knew? Well probably Helen told him). So immediately if Helen had a reason to do what she did, we have two reasons;

She wanted to persuade Deiphobos on her loyalty to Troy. Arguably when Odysseus escaped, as Helen said, he killed many Trojans on his way out. Most likely her loyalty must have been questioned at that tensed time thus being accompanied by her new husband all the time. By doing this, ellegedly tormenting the Greeks, was showing to Deiphobos her loyalty to Troy (manipulating him into believing that she was on their side) plus showing him like "See? Nothing here. No danger whatsoever". She probably knew already Odysseus would be inside and he wouldn't fall for her trick and she trusted him and her husband to hold the rest of the Achaeans inside the horse so they wouldn't cry out. So not only did she show to Deiphobos that she was on Trojan side but also manipulated him into believing indeed there was no danger.

Two, this part is the best, in my opinion, she was signaling to the GREEKS inside the horse. She called them all by name by immitating their wives. More or less tells to them that she KNOWS and that she knows EXACTLY who they are and who their families are, and that she could have betrayed them at any moment if she wanted to but she chose not to because she was on their side. Like that she would have more hopes not to be killed by vengeful Greeks during the siege of Troy or her daughter by Paris, Helen, and ensure her and her daughter's safety. Also signaling her change of heart in person to them.

Conclusions:

Like I said before I do not believe Odyssey was written by a different author altogether and Odyssey itself gives us some very good explanations on Helen's behavior. I am actually willing to side with my second hypothesis. Perhaps Menelaus was talking literally when mentioning a god but I tend to believe he was more like metaphorical. In an essence "what's gotten into you?" manner. However I tend to believe that regardless of whether there was or wasn't a godly intervention in Helen's behavior, Helen is extremely intelligent and she knows that after the fuss Odysseus caused (literally a Greek spy in Troy, possibly two if we count Diomedes too) that got in, stole the Palladium of Athena and killed people on their way out might as well throw suspicion on her and she needed to make sure she would continue have the love of Priam, which was literally her shield of protection at that moment. Two she knew that her husband was coming for her and that he was potentially furious and if it wasn't him, some other of the Greeks would be or they would get battle-drunk with their success. She wasn't going to rely only on Odysseus's silver tongue that he persuaded the Greeks on her change of heart but she wanted to make sure that they knew on her talents and power and the way that she could literally give them away at any moment and that she chooses not to because she is Greek like them and because she had a change of heart!

I hope you find this analysis interesting! Let me know in the comments below! I'd love to hear your thoughts! ^_^

[ahundredtimesover]

WOOWEEE i’m still processing the new chapter 🥹 i just wanna stress that there’s multiple realities, guys. jk wanting to respect oc by upholding her wishes to grow, but also feeling abandoned by her choices despite him baring his emotions and desire to have her close by. then you have oc feeling the burden of her family ties/debt with the jeon family and wanting to find out who she is away from her current role, but she’s emotionally attached to jk and it’s blurring with her own goals. not only that, we see jk’s codependency on oc and how that could make her feel more chained down. ultimately she’s always needed by someone, but when has she put her needs first?

as mentioned, this is all so deeply rooted. they need to spend time away from each other to grow. jk is probably going to retreat/relapse to his past behaviors or maybe he’ll also be working on himself so that he can be a better partner for oc … my guts say former because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i’m an angst enthusiast.

ALSO i see lots of ppl saying UGH JUST STAY AND DATE, and while yes … this is a fic, this is a slice of life too. yall realize it is super inappropriate to have a secret relationship with your boss? granted all of my bosses have been old balding dudes and not jk, still … it’s the principle 😭 oc and jk having this “separation” period is good (i’m sleeping on the highway) and needed for their character development. i’m sure theyre gunna meet again and the tension is gunna be so high and they will do the boom boom pow💥🤯😏 without feeling that guilt/weird power dynamic!! 🫶🏼

mimi, you’re so awesome and i love this fic so much. YOUR BRAIN IS SO BEAUTIFUL, MUAH!!!!!!! 💋 you did not disappoint with the make out scene … cuz man if they can get like that on their first kiss … WE ARE NOT READY (i am🤲🏼)!! pls take care of yourself as always and hope you have a lovely day

Hi, anon. I took a break from doing my readings bc this just... this just made me smile and it appeased me (as did a lot of other readers' asks and comments) 🥹🥹 especially considering the other asks claiming how the characters are so dumb and stupid, or that they can just date while OC's in the company or date after she resigns. I would like to copy-paste your first paragraph to everything now hahaha (bc oh god the immense joy of a writer when someone accurately says what I was trying to show is insane and that's what I'm feeling!) 😭😭

Like, you couldn't have said it any better. All those things you mentioned can co-exist, and part of the characters' respective stories is learning that those realities can indeed co-exist. Which is why they're as burdened by their choices as they are (and we'll see more of this in ch12). I'd like for you to park that second paragraph bc... I wrote this entire series with the plan for season 2 so whatever happens at the end of this season, know that more will happen and you kind of raised some points already. 👀👀

And with the boss/asst. thing - YES. The power dynamic goes beyond their roles bc their pasts are intertwined as well. Mr. Ri pointed it out to JK - did he want OC to feel indebted to him, too? There are just so many complications. It's always been about needing to feel free for OC. What that freedom means is something she has yet to explore. Even the question of happiness is something she's figuring out.

BUT THANK YOU, like, really. 🥹🥹 It's always tricky and draining to write super long stories like this bc I need to make sure that the characters and storylines are consistent, and knowing that what I intended comes across (most of the time) is truly worth all the stress of writing this one hahaha I hope you're well and I hope to hear from you and your wonderful mind again! 💕💕💕

[poisonedfate]

since you rewatched it i’m so curious: what is something about the reveal in canon that you want to give the writers/actors their dues? like the lines being sad, what’s happening or how lines are said. idk if i’m wording this right

such a good question, thank you! i touched on this a little in the previous ask, but there's honestly so much that i did genuinely appreciate in the episode. i had only previously seen clips and bits, but watching it all together was a whole different experience. there's a lot of negativity that i could bring up, however, to me at least, most of it concerns larger canonical tones and less so the moments of the actual episode.

firstly, the acting was, of course, incredible. both bradley and colin are phenomenal and that's nothing new, but such an emotional episode? can't give them enough praise. all the lines were delivered with such force and their expressions - from arthur's entire facial journey during the initial reveal to merlin's detailed reactions to every single thing arthur said from there on out…don't even get me started. i could go on, but the work they put in is (thankfully) often recognised.

i want to talk more about the writing and the actual pacing of the reveal. i've seen certain moments be highlighted as good and certain points get raised as "missing" or "lacking" and whilst i, too, wish some things would've been different, the overall feeling of it wasn't as…lacklustre as i thought it would be.

first, i want to address the idea itself - yes, i would've liked to see more of merlin and arthur post reveal, however, a tragedy is a tragedy. as much i would've loved to see them reference more moments or discuss other instances of merlin using magic it wasn't necessarily possible within the storyline - arthur dying and all. i think they did as much as they could without oversaturating it with memories or placing all of merlin's powers on display. although reminiscing, especially in the last episode, could be considered worthwhile they had an arc to finish. as i've mentioned, i did really like the different moments representing merlin's powers without retelling things that had already happened (apart from the callback to ep1, which i think was a nice touch and the correct memory to bring up) - instead of telling arthur about all the bad guys he's fought and dealt with, arthur could see him do it through dragoon and later through himself. beyond that, instead of a longer monologue justifying his actions, merlin shows his power by creating a harmless dragon out of the flames of a fire - a recall, but not a retelling of similar things he's done throughout the show, things that symbolise the pureness of magic. arthur has limited time and he's also being hit with 10 things at once - he's not stupid, he can make those connections, maybe not all of them due to his state of being, but a good amount, i'm sure.

i also appreciate the entire journey arthur went through. i like that they didn't shy away from the hurt he felt from merlin's reveal. it's clear by this point in the story that arthur doesn't necessarily condemn all magic users, but he is deeply hurt by broken trust, betrayals and lies. i appreciate how, despite it all, he fought merlin's words, up until merlin was forced to show him. it highlighted the severity of his trust in merlin, how solid he was in it. he's hurt and he says "i want him gone" and yet the suggestion he gives gaius is to send him back to camelot. he's aware gaius knows and perhaps he wonders who else does, but i'm certain he knows it can't be a lot of people. and yet. there are conversations later on, arthur saying "i should've (killed you)" (which is a whole different beast to address; a line that can be taken in many different ways), there's the line "i don't know what i would've done" when talking about merlin revealing his secret earlier, but at that moment with giaus, "gone" doesn't mean banished or exiled or whatnot, it means out of sight. so many implications - i will refrain from unpacking it here as it is not exactly relevant.

another thing i really valued was the dynamic change - the way it was discussed and learnt anew. it is the clearest idea you get of merlin's view of devotion and his place in the world. he's talked about it before, but not in the face of arthur knowing. more importantly, however, it is arthur wrapping his head around the detailing of their relationship, the two sides of merlin that have become one - one that's not all that strayed from what he already knew and yet still filled with surprises.

i could talk about these scenes for days on end and it still wouldn't be enough. they packed in so much in such little time. i also want to talk briefly about gwen and gwaine. i am certain gwaine figured it out at the crystal cave, and i think it was a beautiful scene all around. merlin could've made up a lie and he didn't. gwaine could've asked for me and he didn't. it was understanding and it was trust in such a simple yet effective way. and then gwen - she was always one step ahead in my mind. her reactions, as well as her questions, were a joy to watch. it put me at ease and something about it simply felt calm and right. both of these reveals were given in roundabout ways, each with their own impact and meaning, and i really did appreciate it.

[hxhhasmysoul]

For ships: ItaFushi, Higuruma/Kusakabe, Sukuna/Kashimo

ItaFushi

it's complicated

What made you lose interest in shipping it actively?

I think there is a lot material in canon to get this ship going, especially from Megumi's side. The problem is I don't like canon Megumi much, I actively dislike fanon Megumi. And this ship tag is overwhelmingly fanon melancholic emo boy Megumi POV with Yuuji as his manic pixie dream himbo. And it actually drives me up the fucking wall. Or even worse, some of them write Yuuji as a selfish asshole jock?! Stumbling on a few of those really made me disinterested in even trying to look for the good stuff in that tag.

What would make you reconcile with this ship?

If at least like 30% of the writers actually put any effort into Yuuji's characterisation and at the same time wrote Megumi like he is in canon. He is very unpleasant in canon but that could make for an interesting dynamic. Also less Gojou as Megumi's loving caretaker would be great because that is not canon at all, I kinda can stomach Touji trying not to be a deadbeat dad in an AU but the Gojou thing is a slap in Megumi's face, and especially Tsumiki's if she's a part of the story. Oh, and what @yuujispinkhair actually mentioned today in a reply to an ask. This ship is much more tolerable when it's top!Megumi. Top!Yuuji is usually basically where the manic pixie dream himbo shit goes.

Do you have anything positive to say about it?

It's not all bad, there are a few really good fics there, it's just that sifting through the aggravating stuff takes a lot of time and I usually just feel like it. The art can be cute too.

Higuruma/Kusakabe

hmm? not really

Why don’t you ship it?

I don't really respect Kusakabe, he's kinda spineless. He did everything to do nothing during Shibuya. And then blamed Yuuji for Sukuna's crimes... And Higuruma is a very principled guy, one who was broken and disillusioned by the world but meeting Yuuji made him find himself again.

What would have made you like it?

Idk, actual growth on Kusakabe's part? Higuruma showing any interest in Kusakabe? Them having some interesting interaction?

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

Some people draw nice art of it.

Sukuna/Kashimo

seriously no, as crack it could work

What could make you ship it?

I find the Sukuna groupies funny.

What could you like about the ship?

And all of them could work as one-sided crushes, though when it comes to Yorozu, I'd actually be more interested in her getting over her crush and falling for Uro or Angel, or even some other guy. Like they all very strongly project their issues onto Sukuna, it's a very selfish kind of love they offer, one that really doesn't care for his opinion and he's very valid in having no interest in that.

In an AU setting where there's no fighting, Sukuna could sleep with his groupies instead of the fights. Or have like fan meetings? Or something else where they could try to catch his interest. And maybe succeed for a brief moment.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I'm honestly surprised this ship isn't more popular here considering how popular Kashimo is. Or their ship with Hakari. I guess their fight with Sukuna wasn't interesting enough, and Sukuna dismissing them didn't get the fan imagination going. Maybe it's more popular on other social media.

[mikki-does-simp]

Words aren't worth shit. (Kuroiro Shihai x GN!reader)

surprise you guys, i came back from my grave for the kajillionth time! frankly, i'm slightly sick of interacting with almost of the MHA fandom, but my love for 1B seems to never ever waver, so i'll try my very best to stick to more longform fanfiction and post more-often so that the people who deserve it have actual content.

A/N: i wrote this in literally two adjacent blocks starting at 1AM and ending around 5 AM with a sleep from 4-4:30, so forgive any flow inconsistences or grammar/spelling mistakes because i say fuck the beta

edit: actually never mind next time i will appreciate a beta run more i left so many spaces that were just- *unfilled*

socially awkward kuroiro AND tactical manipulator kuroiro CAN co-exist, it just has to be written in a very specific way, though. despite that, with you, he feels like a cat covered in wet spaghetti, but like, in a good way.

Who the hell came up with the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words"? Or hell, who altered it to have it to relate an action? Kuroiro didn't really seem to convince himself of it, no matter how hard he tried. It wasn't like he was indifferent to works of art- after all, he considered himself a sort of artistic guy... but when it came to a flash, a picture in his mind, a memory- usually it only took up about thirteen words in his mind. He considered himself a writer. Dare he say a poet. He kept piles upon piles of journals of his writing, and where people could not suffice, pen and paper were his greatest confidants. As much as he liked pencils, pens were just- ironically more artistic; even if he had to scribble at the paper if he misspelled a word or accidentally placed the lettering way too close.

He clenched a few papers between his hands, skimming over the writing as he stood in wait for what might be a pinnacle moment of his life. There were too many mistakes in his mind- so many scribbles it seemed like a quarter of each page was just a section or a word, blacked out in ink. He sighed, inwardly admitting that staying up until two am in the morning writing this was a terrible idea it's not like the author is doing the EXACT same thing down to the hour, but he could just not wait. Thoughts seemed to be always running through his head at light speed, from dawn to dusk and in between his dreams like a sickness of his. This is when he started to pace around with the pages in his hand, having to really mentally prepare himself for what he set up on what seemed to be the first impromptu thought of his entire life so far.

Kuroiro had somehow deluded himself so hard that he decided that he was going to profess his feelings for you within the next moment. Or at the very least, his fond admiration for your pieces, large or small that create the entire puzzle. He had slipped a piece of plain notebook paper under your door, even; that's how casual he tried to seem about it, as it could mean a lot of different things under different connotations if you ask someone to meet you. It wasn't a fancy sort of greeting or letter like he would have spent countless hours imagining he would, but it would make due. His pen and paper were becoming restless in it's own right, sick of hearing the same thought in a different variant over and over and over again. He had decided to meet you about fifteen minutes before the dormitory curfew, as to both make it less inconvenient for you and to make sure he had an escape route if anything went wrong. Yet again, his mind seems to be in a race with everything around it, dreaming up every possibility. Every triumph, every pitfall. The churns in his stomach grew more intense as he began to doubt himself,

It didn't take too long for you to meet him, with the casually dressed notebook paper folded in one of your hands. You pocketed it, then closed the gap of distance between you and Kuroiro, standing in front of him with a curious look to the papers in his hand- and how he looked like how he was going to vomit up a hairball. It raised some eyebrows, sure; but you seemed to understand his nature- his mannerisms, his idiosyncrasies: you seemed to accept them as they were, with no complaints otherwise about who he was. Human. A breath of fresh air for a guy like him, really. He didn't even greet you properly for a moment, already seeming to clam up, enamored by your beauty. It took a couple seconds for him to actually remember why he brought the two of you here- but when he did, he slowly looked to the writing in front of him, starting to read it out. Unfortunately for you, it was incredibly difficult to decipher what he was actually saying- he used so many elusive synonyms that the average person wouldn't be familiar with in terms of linguistics, and he would often go back to read a part if he messed it up, or pause for a moment to try and figure out what he was trying to say himself. The more and more he talked, the more Kuroiro realized this the sole brainless idea he had in a very long time- at least in his book, so out of some sort of shame, he started getting quieter as he read. His posture crumpled up more than it was before, and he was mumbling so badly, that it was even hard for him to hear the words that were spewing out of his mouth as he tried to read back He dropped the small stack of papers, much to your confusion; then, much to his incredible embarrassment, he felt his legs start to buckle despite himself as he kneeled to the floor, covering his face with his hands and starting to mumble a little louder about how incredibly awkward this situation was and that you should just forget it ever happened. He couldn't anymore, everything seemed to catch up to him in his incredulity...

You kneeled down to the floor with him, starting to pick up the papers for him. His hand reflexively moved to instantly snatch the papers from you- to hide away and confide yet again in the caverns of pen and paper- but he stops himself, opting to ball his hand into a fist to do so as he starts on an attempt to quell his mild panicked breathing. He felt so... soppy. Dare he say even- pathetic in a way. It took a moment, but he eventually found the strength to look you in the eye, and they lock, the watercolor to his monochrome. You pick up the rest of the pages, and even if it is incredibly messy and out of order, you remember how he reached to grab them from you, and although it confused you on why he would do that, you respected him too much to pry; in a state where he was cracking on all sides of a sphere, where he looked so oddly vulnerable. If you weren't too preoccupied with being concerned about the way he was acting, it would have felt good, about how he seemed to trust you being within this state

"Hey..." you interjected, slowly starting to offer both your held papers; and your free outstretched hand over to Kuroiro, "Take the time you need. You'll find a way to say what you need to say... and I'll flag you down with signals so it won't- get lost within the waters."

You had sort of an idea what was happening- but you could ask for more context later, as Kuroiro seemed a little too nervewracked to answer your questions. He took the both of you off guard, as he shuffled a little closer, his own arms beginning to outstretch as he simply took your simple outstretched gesture to wrap his arms around you in a shakey but gentle embrace. In that very moment, he couldn't believe it but... no words could describe what he felt. He almost lost himself in trying to figure it out, but at the same time, you quelled the tide all the same as you held each-other there.

[cherrytree-irl]

ooc post: considering a reboot

so. a while back i realized that this blog would probably be more interesting if it took place a few years earlier, when sylvan was still... well... a wanderer. going where he wants and doing what he wants and trying to find his place in the world. also he was immensely, terribly lonely. that's probably why he would start the rotomblr blog! but hey, what's the deal with that guy he just met?! he's super weird, but also kinda cute?! sorry, that's corny.

this change would render the blog anistar-amarena non canon and obsolete, but that blog has 2 followers so who cares. the blog rover-on-rotomblr would probably stay mostly the same, any lore changes probably would only be known by me. which is good, because people like rover.

a lot of "probably"s and "likely"s and "maybe"s because like. idfk.

below the cut are some possible pros and cons of me rebooting this blog. probably would not be deleting any posts but considering them no longer canon. if i do this, it probably will not be soon unless my poor impulse control acts up. it'll probably be in september, for reasons.

pros and cons list:

pros:

sylvan will no longer be in a state where "most of the interesting things have already happened to him." there will be drama! romance! bloodshed?! maybe not that last one. maybe a little?

he'll match his url better. he's not exactly doing any wandering right now.

sylvan and i will be around the same age. that's mostly just a pro for me as the writer. but maybe it would make syl seem more... authentic? i do sometimes worry that he doesn't act his age. but also i don't think i act my age?? anyway.

i won't have to stick to the schedules i made up for my characters in my head that no one but me is forcing me to stick to.

it's a great time for me to do retcons and rewrites and rethink all sortsa lore. technically i can do retcons whenever i want but i kinda don't like just. randomly changing shit.

possible unique designs for sylvan's pokemon? cuz like i've kinda wanted to do that but it would make all the art i've done for the blog outdated. but if everything i've done so far is non-canon anyway, then...

possibly more opportunities for audience participation

possibly more angst which people seem to consider enjoyable generally.

neutral:

linnet and her brother would be retconned out of existence. i have no strong feelings on this, but maybe you do? i doubt it!

cons:

less N probably. at least for a while. and there's already not very much N. well- less of N himself directly talking. sylvan would talk about N plenty.

i'd kinda feel sucky about throwing away all the stuff i've written so far without finishing this sylvan's story :(

despite some aspects making writing easier, writing the rebooted blog in general will probably be harder. i'll have to think of interesting things to make happen!

idele would be retconned out of existence :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

it would be setting the timeline further back, from just after X/Y to just after Black/White which could probably be mildly annoying sometimes.

man, i just realized that by the time september rolls around, i'll hopefully have a damn job! so it might be harder for me to keep up with the silly rp blogs and it might, like, slow down the action of this reboot. but that's a hypothetical.

[dimensionbled]

Regarding Bill/Ford + Shipping in general ;;

So, I gotta explain some stuff because of anons I’ve been receiving.

I do see Bill//Ford as absolute canon.

A couple of weeks ago when the Book of Bill released, I saw it as one sided on Bill’s end. However, new stuff from the website has shown it was definitely not as one sided as I thought.

Based off of canon, it’s absolutely toxic, abusive, and obsessive on both sides. Romantic? Depends on who you ask. Either way, they’re infatuated with each other. Mabel considers Bill to be Ford’s ex, Ford is a recovering “Cipherholic” (in his own words.), and Bill had been shown to be overly emotional over the losing Stanford.

Either way it’s still very, very problematic in nature.

With that being said, I understand not all Stanford or Bill writers will portray the pairing OR see it as canon despite all evidence.

I’m not going to force any Stanford writers into writing Bill/Ford because of my personal interpretation of the pairing and canon. Not everyone sees it this way and that’s okay. I’m not here to make someone writer something they’re uncomfortable with.

However,

I will be writing and interpreting Ford as Bill’s love interest by default.

If you write Stanford and are uncomfortable with potential flirting or implications of toxic (and likely extremely abusive) “love”, please let me know in advance so that way I can tone it down.

My Bill’s interpretation of love and romance, whether or not it’s non sexual/sexual, is very much skewed by his traumatic experiences and history. He is not exactly the best lover or character to bring your character fluffy love outside of his mid or post therapy verse where he’s working on himself to be better and confront his trauma head on. Bill’s got canon PTSD and suffers greatly due to it. He was never written as a good guy or antagonist, he is still a disgusting villain.

In verses where Bill does express genuine love, he is healing and is in therapy still for eternity.

Lastly, no I will not tone down the sex and sexual references.

Bill’s a grown ass man/demon/Euclydian. He’s an adult. He’s made sexual comments in the book, get over it he has sex.

How? He grows limbs and takes on different forms to have intercourse. Bill’s Pansexual, he will have sex with any gender and any species. He’s still a freaky demon with lots of kinks if he’s comfortable with his partner. I cannot see him being Poly though, I’m sorry I will not write him in my portrayal that way due to his trust issues.

Can Bill get other beings pregnant?

In my portrayal I’ve made jokes that he’s gotten women pregnant but seriously I will not write him having children unless it’s a verse where he adopts or your mun name is Lu and we’ve been writing for 7 years together. I don’t actually believe he could or at the very least he “wraps” it up. (I’m cringing but this is an ask I’ve gotten…)

[kitkatt0430]

i know that you write more about the flash/ legends than arrow but what do you think about diggle and lyla? or even the suicide squad eps with them and deadshot, cupid, etc?

Overall, I really like Dig and Lyla.

Dig is an absolute favorite of mine and he has put up with sooo much of Oliver's bullshit over the seasons, but he still sees Ollie as his found family and I was glad that he got to see Oliver one last time on the final season of the Flash. I do think he got robbed by having the Green Lantern option taken away when what was going to be his spin off show got taken away. There are times when the writing for him is inconsistent, but one of the most consistent parts of the arrow verse was the inconsistent writing so... *shrug* it is what it is.

I'm less fond of Lyla than of John, but I still enjoy her character. And I do see ARGUS as being an overall better and more ethical organization under her leadership. I get why Barry and Team Flash trust ARGUS under her leadership, it's not just because Oliver vouches for her but because she does clean up a lot of Waller's worst practices like forcibly conscripting missing persons like Oliver or the suicide squads. (I know the Ghost Initiative gets reactivated later, but I haven't seen those episodes, so I don't know how Lyla handles the team there. And the Arrow wiki doesn't clarify if they're still sticking bombs in people's necks.) I do think she got screwed over somewhat in the Red Skies Crisis, but I'm of mixed opinions on how that x-over event was handled.

As for the suicide squad episodes... it's complicated. On principal, I really hate the idea of suicide squads - criminals or not, supervillains or not, it is wildly unethical and immoral to be sticking bombs in people's necks to coerce them into doing dangerous jobs and I have no doubt this practice in canon is what inspired Lewis Snart to put a bomb in Lisa's neck to coerce Leonard into working with him. It's very much something that the 'good guys' should not be party to. It's the sort of thing they should be fighting against.

Lyla continuing to work with ARGUS despite it utilizing suicide squads - her loyalty to Waller despite these and other ethical nightmares Waller treats as totally normal things for ARGUS to participate in - is probably a big part of why I'm less fond of her than Dig. She does reform things later on, but her complicity is very uncomfortable before her promotion. For Dig (and Oliver) working with ARGUS isn't really something there's much choice in. As a vigilante himself, Dig knows ARGUS could easily justify arresting him and so his work with ARGUS isn't entirely voluntary though he is also doing it out of love and respect for Lyla as well. It's a messy situation and while I don't necessarily agree with Dig's choices I do think he tries to make the best of a bad situation.

That said, I do enjoy the episodes themselves. They provide a wealth of character development for Dig and Deadshot - the almost friendship that is reluctantly forged between John and the man who thinks he killed John's brother (and John thinks killed his brother) is fantastically done. Even Floyd's death is fairly well handled by the show writers considering the circumstances under which the real world decision to remove him from the Arrow-verse came from. (Deadshot being a character tapped for the movies made him suddenly off limits for the tv verse so he got written out permanently.)

I think the Suicide Squad episodes originally worked specifically because of Diggle and Lawton. So I can't really speak to what happened with the reactivated 'Ghost Initiative' in S7 since I still haven't watched that season. I don't know if they still had the explosive implants or not - I'd hope not, that Lyla would be better than that. Especially since this is the organization Cisco leaves Team Flash to work for; after removing the explosive from Lisa, I can't imagine Cisco being okay with knowingly working for an organization that creates Suicide Squads when it's convenient for them. But I can't say I'd be surprised - disappointed, but not surprised - to learn Lyla did treat the reactivated Ghost Initiative as a Suicide Squad similar to how Waller did. And if that is the case? I just kind of have to assume Cisco had no idea.

I can't say I have strong opinions about Cupid or the other Suicide Squad members on the show. Floyd's the one that really stands out to me. Cupid was a character I mostly found annoying; her obsession with romantic love just does not click as an interesting motive to me. Likely in part because I'm aromantic, which makes Carrie feel to me like a caricature of the perils of amatonormativity. And I couldn't really name any of the other Suicide Squad members off the top of my head - I had to look them up on the Arrow wiki - so that goes to show how little impact they really had on me when I last watched those episodes.

[qwuilty]

OK SO I LOVE UR TAKES ON P1 SO MUCH SO I GOTTA ASK… what kinda romantic partner do u think he’d be like :) ? like how he shows his love, what he loves his partner doing for him, is he over protective or not, the jealous type.. I wanna hear any of ur thoughts about how a relationship with him would go really :D

OOOOO time to Divulge into mushy headcanons cause if its not already apparent i. Do ship with p1 personally and have a lot of very gay warm feelings about him :3

So as i said in another post, i think getting into those initial phases of dating is pretty hard for him. The sudden expectations of being someone's partner and trying to be a GOOD one while also supressing anything "weird" about him tends to lead to more trouble than it's worth but the fear of them leaving him is pretty strong too. I feel like he would be one of those guys who worries at the start of a relationship if it was a fluke, if he got lucky for someone to like him, so he almost overextends himself trying to be Worthy Of Love for others.

It's probably best to get to know him a lot first before asking him out, that way he feels more comfortable around you and those expectations are less stressful, just asking him out of the blue isnt really going to work. You just gotta give him a little patience and emphasize you like him for him, not what he can do FOR you. Again i think he just has a very strong "i need to take this on and do good for others at the risk of my own health" type mentality, kinda martyr-y?

If you get him to a point where he's comfortable with you he mellows out a lot, establishing you as kind of a safe space to be around. Parallel play is a big thing for him, he doesnt want to bother others or be bothered when he's focused on something, but just being in the same room as someone and having their physical presence there is more than enough.

I still think a little of that "how the fuck did you want to date me" permiates, especially cause to be frank, i think of him as one of those people who are neurodivergent but in a way that makes him come off rude or disturbing on first impression, so he REALLY does not want to lose you and all. He's very eager to share things like shows or music he enjoys with his partner, downright shoving what he likes towards them because talking about that kinda thing with them makes him happy! And of course he'll also listen to their interests, he's not completely rude. He may have some questions and interrupt to ask them though.

He's pretty protective of his partner, not exactly posessive unless he's not doing well mentally, but he worries a lot. Expect him to offer to walk you home or keep an eye out. Maybe gets a little jealous and insecure, he doesnt want to be cause it's bad to get jealous (as far as his. Emotionally fucked parents have taught him), but he might get a little huffy or grumpy about it.

He actually keeps it pretty light on the pet names, mainly stuff like Dear, Honey, Darling, the classics. Calling him pet names will get him all flustered though and i headcanon he gets red faced pretty easily so despite his semi resting bitch face its very easy to tell when hes flustered :3c He'll probably just kind of turn away, refuse to look at them and mumble to stop. He doesnt want you to stop.

His slight flare for melodrama and writers nature does make him a pretty good writer, poetry is a little much and he tends to crumple them up out of embarassment or discouragement, but he may end up idly writing about his partner in his diary and wax a little poetics, the man has a lot of feelings. Maybe even a letter if youre out of town or if hes trying the Secret Admirer approach.

I also feel like he's the kind of guy you mention something to offhandedly and forget you even did but he remembers it and brings it back up, like if you said you like a certain kind of flower or a color he brings you something like that as a little present. It's not a super stretch to say his financial state probably isnt great considering he was getting evicted ingame, but he tries even still. There's like one post about how men love to the point of creation and i feel that very much with P1 dude, he loves to the point of making things just to make things for them or to make their life a little easier.

He's just generally a little quiet and on the more lowkey with his partner, maybe a little aloof to others who dont know him but he feels a great deal of comfort with them and has a lot of emotions internally he just. Does not want to express sometimes because he doesnt want to get made fun of for them. It doesnt mean he doesnt love them, good god he does, it just takes a little time to get him to bloom!!

[clay-cuttlefish]

Forging ahead with 52. #19 to #38. It's so much.

#19

The Evil Skeets plot is great. According to the omnibus it was a very late change away from a generic broken-time story, and I can kinda see that with how some of the earlier evil Skeets behavior doesn't seem super purposeful, but it all works for me.

#20

Mostly spaceguy plot that I don't care much about. The fight's cool at least.

I have no idea what fan speculation was like at the time but the idea of Supernova Jason Todd conspiracy theories is extremely funny so I support the intentional red herrings here.

#21

I keep changing my mind on which storylines I like more as I go. How could I not love Natasha?

#22

Dr. Magnus is back! I wish him being bipolar was handled more sensitively, the whole "oh the medicine keeps me from going ~crazy~" thing is :/, but I'm willing to read it charitably as his own perspective because I like him. He's a psychotic DC character who's heroic and not spooky or magical, just a guy who really doesn't want to have another depersonalization episode and has some internalized sanism about it, it could be so much worse.

#23

I like that Vic's more jaded to the horrors he can't stop than Renee is. He's had a lot of time to get used to the idea he can't save everyone - back in his own book he would've thrown himself in harm's way just like she wants to, but he's gotten better at not starting fights he can't win.

Hate to give Geoff Johns credit for anything but "What the hell are you doing?" "Seeing if it's contagious." is really good.

#24

"We were both guilty of ignoring Ted" Pretty sure Booster nearly died because he dropped everything to help but okay.

Osiris is just a kid...

Introducing a First Nations hero just to kill him off and give his stuff to a white dude sucks.

#25

Alan's out of the spaceguy zone and doing his own thing.

Almost halfway and the threads are still only starting to link up.

#26

I cannot get enough of Vic and Renee being friends with the Black Marvels. It's very sweet!

Tot my friend Tot :)

This is just a nice moment for them.

#27

I'm very into how Evil Skeets is drawn. He manages to be expressive despite having no moving features, it's a good trick.

Ohhh no it's now. I thought I had another issue, but no, this is the turning point.

#28

THE QUESTIONS!!! Love how they're heckling Kate together.

Kate is so cool.

Oh right, the spaceguys are still here.

#29

The way the mad science island handles mental illness generally sucks, but it's almost hitting at something interesting with Will being forced off his medication for the sake of "creativity".

#30

Get out of here Bruce.

I am going to cry!

#31

I don't even dislike the spaceguys really, but cmon, more of Ralph or Nat would've been better.

Ralph's still a detective even at his lowest! Strong foreshadowing.

#32

Uh oh, Ralph.

#33

Ohhh Charlie.

Him hallucinating Myra? Only able to admit he loved her at the very end?? It takes me out!

Almost all of his dialogue is straight from the O'Neil run. Rucka describes rereading the entire run just to write this issue because he had to get this right, and it shows.

There's a reason I consider O'Neil and Rucka the essential Question writers, and all the other takes to be interesting sidenotes.

#34

The kids aren't doing so well.

aaaaaaaa

#35

Hands you a picture of Nat. Hands you a picture of Nat. Hands you a picture of Nat.

Lex is the best villain in 52 and it isn't even close to a competition.

#36

AAAAAAA

Fuck dude! Nothing coherent to say here! Look at them!

#37

Wild emotional roller coaster for me as I go from Renee agony to cheering about Booster. My first read of this was a Time.

It's such a fun mystery. I can confirm it works if you know nothing about comics and are just along for the ride, and it comes together so well on the reread.

Mayor Ollie!

#38

AAAAAAA

"I'm afraid of who I'll become without you..." How am I meant to be normal about this!

I had to read this in two pieces because it made me need to get up and pace. It has done this every time I have read it. I am physically incapable of being normal about this.

Head in my hands. Comics are good and worth reading actually.

[brw]

I did question the wonder man casting decision initially bc literally the only think I know about Eric is that he’s racist in the comics (I’m pro making historically white characters POC in almost all instances unless it’s like, a shitty racist or tokenization trying to hide some other racist element).

And that alone like. Kind of proves the point that I (like many people) don’t really know enough about the characters to pass judgement. Unfortunately a lot of comic book characters are and/or have been racist, good guys or bad guys, including nonwhite ones. It’s possible they could fumble the ball but I don’t think there’s any real reason to assume the worst at this stage

Eric is an interesting case. When he's introduced in Avengers #52, the main person he fights is Black Panther, and he goes out of his way to compliment his fighting style during their battle. So it's not something that was really conceptualised early on, at all really. His villainy was never portrayed as a bigoted one, but rather a more vengeful one, a lesson in consequences for the Avengers who at this point have forgotten all about Simon. That's his main drive, his main focus, what motivates him. When he later goes on to meet with Vision in his next appearances, he's also not robot racist or anything in that way, as he is later depicted as being in contemporary comics.

In Avengers #160 though, Eric reacts violently when he hears Vision (who at this point he considers Simon more than actual Simon) has married Wanda, because he is bigoted against mutants. This is why he stops considering Vision to be Simon–he is so hateful against mutants, he doesn't think any brother of his would ever be into one. This also goes in to Simon's comment about Eric "beating the stuffing" out of him as a child, which sets up the kind of Good Brother/Bad Brother stuff they explore later on.

It's not until Englehart writes him in the early issues of West Coast Avengers and it's crossover with The Vision and the Scarlet Witch where Eric is depicted as properly racist, being bigoted to Man-Ape and considering Nekra to be white because of her albinism. I think this was done because we've learned more about Eric and Simon's past, and Eric has become a much more malevolent figure now that we've seen how he manipulated Simon and how he was abusive, and I think it's to more clearly show that Eric is, as I have said, the Bad Brother, and Simon is the Good Brother; to set the moral standard between these two characters, and to obviously give villainous traits to the villain. I think it's also done in a way to show how different the two brothers are–Eric, despite having actually grown up around the societal change, has not changed or developed as a person. Simon, despite coming out in a massively changed world, has done his best to move on with the times and to better himself. And as this aspect of Simon has faded, of being a man out of time as much as Steve Rogers is, and he instead has been made to be from a much more modern era, this aspect of Eric hasn't really been brought up too much. His hatred against mutants certainly is, and I definitely think it's heavily subtextual to how abusive he is to Nekra, but it's not really been an explicit part of his character outside of this series, but it is something I think writers think about and keep in mind.

Personally, I can see why it would be a pause for concern–but Eric isn't a character who you need to worry about having a consistent characterisation for, imo. Like when he was first introduced, there was something scarily calm about Eric, when he was with Vision. He seemed very assured of himself and what he was doing, and there was a real righteous aspect of his character, where if he hadn't been taking things out on the Avengers, he would have just been an older brother who misses and loves his younger brother. More modern comics have made him borderline psychotic, incredibly unstable, kind of just doing whatever because he's evil and he has a scythe hand. By nature of being a very D list villain, his character is mostly whatever writers really want from him at the time; sometimes he's just a sad, old man, who has rejected building any kind of personal life in exchange for dedicating himself to vengeance, and other times he's a malevolent evil spirit who literally sucks the souls out of people to continue living. I think there's a lot of ways to adapt Eric without worrying too much about the Englehart characteristion, because it's one take of many. Do I think it makes sense Eric would be that way? Yes, but it's also not an aspect of his character that is important enough that you have someone else when you remove it, if that makes sense.

The most important things for the show to get right imo is that Eric feels a real strong sense of protection towards Simon, and has an incredibly idealised version of who he thinks Simon is or at least should be, and that Eric is incredibly abusive towards Simon physically and emotionally. These are what I feel are the most core aspects of Eric Williams. He will protect Simon's memory at all costs, but he will also continue to terrorise and hurt the man Simon is when he doesn't act like the idea he's built up for Simon. That's who Eric is, and those are the most important parts of him. Everything else is situational, and up to the whims of specific writers. Englehart was one of many, but he's no different from say, King making him a raving lunatic type, while Thomas employed a more analytical characterisation.

[reservoirreputation]

House, Season Two

In pro wrestling, there is a little phrase called 'go away heat'. It's when a bad guy is so infuriating, you don't even want them on your TV. They've ceased to be entertaining, and you don't even get satisfaction from booing them, you just want them gone.

Season two's finale has a villain just like that, and I consider it both a me problem, and a flaw in the writing. One, a lot's happened in the US since 2005, and I don't have as much time nor patience for insane people with guns. I also think having the writers embody the worst/most annoying qualities of House in this one character, that the viewer will despise from the get go, is both genius, and incredibly frustrating. It's hard to get your philosophical points across when I'm audibly begging for the characters to smack this idiot.

Realizing that House is actually at war with himself, and that this is how he sees his actions, all the bullshit aside, would be devastating if I weren't constantly begging for this fucker to get knocked out.

Anyway

Season two:

The parallel of House and Wilson's relationships going down the toilet, then leaning on each other for support, only to again go their separate ways. The joke of 'Wilson's actually more unhinged than House' really showing itself several times throughout this season. Wilson going so far as to sleep with a patient, mirrored with House and Cuddy's flirting with multiple lawsuits.

I didn't remember seeing Foreman's dad from my original viewing of the show, but with this, and getting Chase's dad last season, I wonder when we'll see Cameron subjected to similar family drama. Also;

Chase's Dad is the worst? Yeah, he's the worst. Think about it; doesn't tell his only son he's dying, only tells his wife, does nothing in the way of telling her 'don't break the news of my death while Robert's on the clock' and she sure as shit didn't think of that herself, either, despite being married to someone in the medical profession. Chase, baby, I'm so sorry your Dad was shit, and led to such a horrific snowballing affect.

The multi-episode arc of Cameron and Foreman bickering, Cameron 100% being right to call out a theft when she's sees one, and Foreman's stubborn bullshit, only to lead to that moment of 'we're colleagues, not friends', and you see her heart break in real time. But then! She's the one to volunteer to go back to the cop's place, knowing she might get as sick as Foreman, because it's an unrequited friendship, babbbbbbyyyyyy. But when he does apologize, and uses her first name?? My own heart broke?? And she doesn't accept his apology so that he has something to look forward to when he gets out of this, but then caves before the operation because she's so damn scared?? So far, one of the better character dynamic arcs in the show.

Aside from his family being awful, it felt like a very light season for Chase- and the NICU episode happened. Nothing like a person who's all but abandoned their faith turning to it once more to send a prayer for a dead baby. That was more than enough, good god. How has this show worked in two baby autopsies already?!

A part of me wants Kyle Hill to review the orphan source episode, see how accurate radiation poisoning is depicted in it. Also, the morbid way I pop for the episodes where the heavy hitters appear: 'oh my god, it's rabies with the steel chair!' 'It was me, House! It was me, the bubonic plague, all along!!'

Speaking of, shoutout to that one episode, with the lesbian couple, where one's been planning to leave the other for a long time, and now must accept a part of her partner's liver or die, and Cameron's all about advocating for the truth, no matter what, despising when people lie, (funny, sounds like something House would do) and then the GF who donated part of her liver reveals that she knew her partner was planning on leaving her for a while, and is all like, "Now she can never leave me" and we just see the look of horror on Cameron's face. Man, Cameron's been exposed to some of the worst behavior humanity has to offer, and she still has enough innocence at the beginning of each episode for us to watch die away as the human race finds new and interesting ways to disappoint her. It's great.

Season Two!! In the books!!

I love this show.

[plummyplums]

ok i need to write some Crabby headcanons and thoughts before i explode. feel free to ignore this, the hyperfixation is just making my brain go Fast

First off, Tetsuya has undiagnosed ADHD. He's got strong RSD and pushes people away to avoid the pain of rejection, real or perceived. He doesn't hate friendship, he's afraid, though he'll never admit it to himself. He often skips over words when he talks (or replaces them with crab) and often genuinely doesn't notice, or care when it's pointed out. Add that he often voices his thoughts with no prompting, and folks tend to find him confusing. This doesn't bother him, of course; he thinks it's funny and it can be useful for his tricks. Time blindness is also big with him; he has, on multiple occasions, spent a whole day making sand castles/houses for his crabs and not noticed how much time has passed. He also fits the stereotype of never sitting still; he's always doing his crabby pincers, bouncing a leg, or straight up just wandering about.

Despite the stated Wigglyness, he sleeps like the dead. No noise, no moving, nothing. It freaks people out.

I know all of the proportions in Beyblade are kinda wacky, but I can't help but notice how skinny he is. I bet Tobio could pick him up. Beanpole af, and I'm a touch worried. I have minor ADHD and forget to eat sometimes even though I'm medicated, so I suppose I'm projecting that onto him. Add in how pale he is, and my brain says vitamin deficiency. Get this boy a constant source of food.

He calls himself a "wandering blader", so he probably doesn't have a set "home". I'm convinced he just finds beaches and sleeps there. He probably gets ill every time it rains - that cloak can't keep a guy fully warm and insulated.

I think the flashback of his backstory is probably misremembered/exaggerated (this guy is absolutely an unreliable narrator). 99% chance it's just my angst writer brain talking, but I have my own idea based on the canon explanation:

Echizen was "the strongest blader in the village", and Tetsuya was a strange boy who seems to have been obsessed with crabs from birth. Hell, his surname can even mean "blue crab", maybe it was a family thing. The point is, I get the vibe that he was considered weird and kinda ostracized by his peers. Perhaps Echizen was only pretending to be his friend? Perhaps he was working with Taraba, acting scared and getting Tetsuya into trouble for a laugh...

ON A LIGHTER NOTE I only just watched his episodes with the Japanese voices, so I was today years old when I heard his Absolutely Amazing English in episode 33. "Crab Mussolini" will live in my head forever. It's probably the only time I prefer Fujiwara's voicework for him over McCord's.

Based on McCord's acting for him, he's just. Always doing impressions and playing around with his voice. He knows how loud he is, but it's not always on purpose and he doesn't really care.

Even though we, the audience, always see through his tricks, a lot of characters in the anime seem to fall for it! Mans has a 20 charisma stat.

According to the Survival Battle (episodes 20 and 21), he knows how to make/set net traps AND juggle? He's a jack of all trades, and picks up all sorts of unusual knowledge/skills via his travels or hyperfixations.

In his flashback he's shown to have had a seemingly warm and loving home, I wonder where his parents are? Do they know where he is, what he's up to?

He seems to genuinely be able to commune with crabs??? They follow him around and listen to his commands, apparently. Now all of DSS have abilities: deadly accuracy, future-sight, and...crab telepathy. Certainly a lineup.

Oh also, gender apathetic probably aroace cuz I say so. DSS is a queerplatonic/quasi-romantic polycule.

[twilightguardian]

Didn't take long for Lilith's new review of Fixing RWBY's latest episode. She still lies, but guys

She's getting better.

I know, no one is more shocked than we that Lilith is somewhat starting to understand the concept of criticism and critique. Slow but steady, she is making progress. Everyone, let's cheer her on. Maybe someday she can achieve decent human being status. I was actually getting bored and thinking of stopping after this one with nothing to really respond to other than 'she's outright lying about what happens' but she's actually engaging again. You know, saving up whatever little scraps of points she makes and make a big master post of whatever she had to talk about.

It's honestly refreshed me a little, because there's stuff to actually bite into with this that can be talked about and discussed. Of course, we all know that Lilith doesn't want a conversation. She takes the first opportunity possible to block someone for disagreeing with her to the point where I wonder why she bothers engaging with anything at all.

Imagine thinking that RWBY: Fairy Tales' framing device was unique.

Actually, I'd say that last week's episode and Fairy Tales isn't really anything alike because apart from Taiyang fixing the story he reads to Ruby up like he's talking about himself and Summer, there's little connection. As far as I'm aware, there's no deeper thematic reasons why the characters are chosen the way they are, nor are the stories being read to them meant to be connected. It's implied Ozpin modifies a story that already exists in order to cater to his needs to warn about Salem.

Either way, I don't understand how this is a criticism. Why is it a bad thing that he used a rather common visual aide when regarding fairy tales? Even if he did just 'steal' it from the side story episodes, why is it a bad thing? Taking inspiration does not make you a bad writer. Lilith herself writes Glints Saga with inspiration from proper magical girl anime in mind. Should anyone be considered legitimate to call her a hack writer because she's taken inspiration from these stories to the point that her writing feels generic?

I wouldn't think so, and I'd defend Lilith if anyone tried that. But Lilith doesn't

An Asian character who has aspects of different Asian real world cultures given to her fictional culture is cultural appropriation. You know what, guys? She's right. We should just tell all the book publishers and script writers out there to just stop trying to write other cultures. Anyone, even people who belong to that culture, needs to just stop. They can only write vague modern Euro-American cultures and appropriate them into fictional settings otherwise it's bad.

I shouldn't have to explain much further why this is stupid. Also, you gotta love how she claims that Vernal is Raymond's "daughteru" despite saying once that she hates anime tropes, yet will not hesitate to use words that come from anime culture at the drop of a hat as long as it shits on a person she hates. Plus ignoring or erasing the women who designed Vernal all by themselves who are more attached to Vernal than Raymond is. Like Mupa.

A lot of Fixing's Vernal was created by Mupa. She's much more Mupa's daughteru than she is Raymond's. But, you know, it's par for the course with Lilith to ignore anything a woman does as long as she can complain about a man. She claims she doesn't hate men, but man, when you ignore a woman's contribution to a project just so you can focus your hatred on a man, that's something special right there.

But the SH barely get any note from Lilith at all. They're treated like they're slaves under Raymond when they practically take over the project from him. So much work and personal touches go into everything the artists do that Raymond has not a whole lot of say in other than final approvals, and even then, I believe it's more a group approval.

Beside that, she said that last week's episode Vernal got more focus than the titular heroines. Since when? Vernal got two scenes, one of which she was a gravestone in the background. I suppose it makes sense that things that are in the background are focused on with Lilith. I mean, she likes canon Team RWBY and they're in the background a lot so she's trained to look here lol

What does what other critics say have anything to do with what Raymond and the SH say? Why bring up Volumes 7&8 at all when this season of Fixing is about Volume 6?

Besides, Lilith is the one that dismisses anything that Team RWBY does that's remotely bad and scream misogyny. That's her whole schtick as a one-trick pony.

But I do commend her in that she does bring up something that she thinks is a problem with the "critics" community, even if it has no place here. After all, we had entire episodes dedicated to the girls of Team RWBY being the central focus of the story and Lilith dismisses that and ignores it and claims that because Roman had three minutes of screentime in a 20 minute story that he was the main character. So her criticism here isn't valid, and only highlights that she's desperately grasping at straws due to her incessant need to 'criticize the critics' as though she's giving us a taste of our own medicine.

But for her to do that she actually has to understand what criticism is in the first place. By her behaviour and the people she interacts with, it's not that illogical to say that she genuinely believes that criticism is being mean for the sake of being mean. So she's being some sort of hero to the RWBY community by being mean back to the meanies. Like she's on a playground for toddlers beating on some schoolyard bullies. She paints everyone she disagrees with as a hivemind, which is why she brings up unrelated criticisms by unrelated people for unrelated slights.

The easiest way to debunk a claim that someone has is to point out the flaws of their logic with actual examples of the show. Most people don't do this whenever I see people talk in opposition to it. Or they just point out the characters having existed in the same space at the same time as something happening as evidence that they are important. But Lilith doesn't do this. She just says 'nuh-uh' and moves on. Because that's what criticism is, a back and forth with (hopefully) points being brought up using examples from the show to prove the point one is trying to make.

What makes Lilith's criticisms invalid is that she has to purposefully lie in order to actually criticize anything about Fixing RWBY. If she actually stopped being such a cringy child and laid out her points properly they can be addressed. But the only thing she ever does is scream and capslock and cry buzzwords thinking that baseless accusations are the same as criticism.

JNR still got an episode in canon that did the exact same thing that this episode of Fixing does. A lot of people criticized that episode for focusing on Jaune when it should have focused on Oscar. People criticized the show for being mysterious about the redheaded woman as though it was one big mystery and the show treated her like she was a ghost, disappearing out of sight after looking away for only a moment. The writers wanted you to leave it up to your interpretation and Raymond thought that was stupid when it is so clearly Pyrrha's mother.

Personally I joke if RT is gonna jerk people around like that and say 'I'll leave it up to your interpretation' that the redheaded woman is a Buffalo Bill-style superfan who got plastic surgery to look like the object of her obsession lol

Because if you're gonna be cute with something that unnecessary I might as well have fun with the challenge. I'm sure RT approves because they're like that.

It's only been 8 episodes, girl needs to chill. But she's been saying that she doesn't think we'll be going to Brunswick Farms since last volume because she desperately wants it to be true.

Honestly, I have heard a couple of other people say this point, so I think it's a fair 'fear' to have. But I'm not sure where people get the idea that just because we saw the flashback of Remus on Brunswick Farms that means Brunswick has already been done. Did Lilith and the like forget that when RWBY got there that the people were already long dead and gone? Fixing just establishes how long ago that was. We're heading to Brunswick in the next few episodes and considering V6 is going to have 20-22 episodes like the other volumes of Fixing, we're probably going to spend a fair few of them at Brunswick. I don't know, I thought that was obvious.

Also another reference to Roman being the main character because Lilith desperately wants that to actually be the case. Roman is secretly her favourite character, she is just too stubborn to admit it so she has to give off this mask that she actually hates him. Like she brings it up so much.

I think this is a fair thing to raise up. It could be answered with a simple: People are still scared, and just because they're out of danger doesn't change that. They could have died, and half their train got derailed. Based on the drawings, some of the passengers look to be in shock, one is clearly injured, one is an old woman. Plus it's kind of Cardin's job. He's paid to look after the passengers until after they get off the train. The rest of the passengers are getting off the train fine, so it's assumed they're helping who needs to be helped.

Focus goes to Cardin, who is employed by the train, for like two seconds. But Lilith never misses an opportunity to focus on men existing in any capacity for any amount of time. Especially if it's her beloved Roman or Cardinposting. Jaune asks about the Atlas base, which Cardin answers, but Lilith forgot that or something. Who cares it's two men talking. Ignore the women, complain about men. That's what Lilith does.

Lilith says Cardin shouldn't care about his teammate.

I gotta ask why Lilith even cares. She ignores anything the heroines do in Fixing. Even if it were true that Fixing outright ignores the heroines. But typical Lilith fashion, it's not.

Cardin says he requested a scouting party to look for the missing train, then he's going to search for Russell. Nora asks about Team RWBY and Jaune tells Nora, not Cardin, to not worry because he trusts Team RWBY's strength as huntresses. The same can't be said for Lilith, I guess. Does she think the girls need to be rescued? It's not like canon JNR sent a search party either. They got zero focus until RWBY+OQM got to Argus and canon JNR were nonplussed about them. So canon JNR knew RWBY would be okay, whether they cared much or not. It's fine for Fixing to not only do the same but for JNR to actually acknowledge it. It's a non-issue.

Also, I thought Roman was the self-insert, not Cardin. Make up your mind, Lilyboo.

"Roman's faithful servant". Look at how Lilith treats female characters. She ignores anything the main female cast do and she belittles Neo by saying something as derogatory as that. She calls Vernal 'Raymond's daughteru' and ignores the female contribution to Fixing. For someone who claims to be all about female characters and women, she sure does not treat women very well at all.

I also find it very fascinating how much we get into Lilith's insight into what she really thinks about RWBY by reacting to Fixing. She thought Cinder's interactions with Lil' Miss was boring in canon because she calls it 'prattling'. Methinks she's upset that Neo doesn't fight Cinder in this scene because she doesn't want to admit it's the only thing she liked about it. It's okay to only like RWBY for the fight scenes. The writing doesn't help make it interesting otherwise.

She didn't complain about anything else about the scene, so I assume she liked it.

She's complaining about the fact that Jaune, Nora and Ren aren't following Saphron into the grocery store to grab a single box of nuggets.

No one said they couldn't go into the store, but there's no reason to. She told them about a coffee shop, hinting that because of the incident at Beacon that prices are going up. What would they do at the grocery store, follow her around as she rushes to get nuggies and then take up space in line? They aren't customers, so they'd be loitering.

You mean now she's not the only focus like she's the only one who died. Remember, in Fixing a lot of people died during the Fall of Beacon. It was a real event. And the memorial got changed from a rather tasteless statue of one girl meant to manipulatively tug at the viewer's heartstrings into a memorial honouring everyone who died equally. Like in real life. Because this mural was based on one that exists in real life in Australia. JayJay and I actually talked about it earlier. It's based on the Australian war memorial in Canberra. So Lilith effectively is shitting on the concept of memorializing people who died who aren't just a main character, acting as if one person is important isn't stupid. If Pyrrha was the only one that died, fine. But it's never established in canon, from my recollection that Pyrrha is the only one who died. But Fixing is not canon and it changes to reflect previous changes that were set up.

She's "just" a name on a wall. How disrespectful to actual memorials around the world who honour more than one person this way.

Bad form, Peter.

She admits it. She admits it's not actually a trainwreck! Pack it up people she outed herself! Fun's over the troll exposed herself with a better twist ending than Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles!

I kid, of course, but I already discussed this.

It's all about Jaune. Iiiinteresting. There's no issue with Nora or Ren being in pain of their teammate having died. No, Pyrrha's death is all about Jaune, and Nora and Ren's only part in the story should be about how they should cater to Jaune and his feelings and Lilith is surprisingly okay with that. No, Lilith doesn't care about Nora, either, I suppose. If she doesn't think that Nora's guilt over how their fight didn't end before Pyrrha's death didn't get resolved means she gets focus, too. Lilith doesn't want that, though. How dare Nora or Ren grieve over Pyrrha, she only existed for Jaune.

Also, like, she thinks that one episode should encompass Jaune's entire grieving process related to Pyrrha and suddenly he should be okay with everything. After episode 8. Remember, there's at least 12 episodes left, and Helen made it clear we're going to be seeing her again. Lilith is really itching but she keeps getting blueballed because it doesn't resolve quickly enough. Maybe that's why she dislikes Fixing.

Lilith thinks that scenes have to start something, and then end it or else it's bad. It's a very childish way of looking at story writing, but I'm sure she'll have a very successful career writing shows for Treehouse TV or something. Toddlers will probably enjoy her work.

Plugging your ears and closing your eyes means that nothing happens.

Also, Lilith, be a dear and tell us when Cardin has abused anyone in the last 4 volumes of Fixing. Otherwise, he's not an abuser. Because he, like many of the other characters in Fixing, have gone through character arcs to become better people. I know, I know, it's the worst when characters actually have depth to them, but that's the price you pay for good writing.

You know, for as much as Lilith thinks that she's mimicking RWDE and other 'critics' of RWBY, she doesn't comprehend how to actually do it. I get there's probably people in the fandom who have said bad takes, or don't know how to argue their points well, but Lilith really feels the need to mimic those people and act like she's mocking those that actually make good, well thought out arguments from a place of knowledge.

She doesn't say how anything that happened in this episode invalidates plotlines and character growth that can happen. She's just preemptively blowing her proverbial load as usual, and all that's coming out is hot air. Lilith is bloated with hot air bigger than Violet Beauregarde when she was at full blueberry. Sadly, there's no method outside of fiction to juice her.

Now, before I go I actually wanted to say one final thing for those who are interested in my talking about critique and writing. Critique, criticism and especially 'fixing' things is not new, nor is it unique to the RWBY fandom. It's something that is common in writing circles, and becoming more common in other areas as well.

To show how very much not unique to RWBY this is, here's a bunch of videos I liked for various reasons pertaining to critique and to fixing stories. Highly recommend Unresolved Textual Tension, they're a favourite. And of course Krimsonrogue.

[laulink]

I wanna talk about the Wednesday Addams series on Netflix for a minute (or ten) because I think it's a very interesting series to study from a writing and character development point of view.

Do I think the series is good ? Yes. The mystery is rather well-handled, with enough hints you could figure out a lot of things, but also enough coincidences and false leads that you could doubt for a while and be both surprised and like "I knew it !" at the reveal, the characters and relationships are well-handled (I'll come back to that) and it was, over all, a very entertaining watch.

Do I think it's a good Addams series ? No, definitely not. Everything "Addams" in the series is very superficial (goth, "you have no heart" is a compliment, they like torture, etc) but it completely overlooks the core of what makes the Addams family so much fun and how it works : the fact that they are a reversal of every facet of “traditional” American families made for satire. Normal families try to appear perfect, with happy children playing with their dolls and cars ? Gomez and Morticia don't try to appear as anything, they are genuine, and their children, to their great delight, spend their days beheading their dolls with their guillotines, electrocuting each other and blowing things up with dynamite. American couples joke about actually hating each other ? Gomez and Morticia love each other to fucking death, even a single day apart would destroy them, and they don't try to hide it.

You'd expect that in a series focusing on Wednesday, the family's daughter, you'd find those elements again in her relationship with her parents and brother : chubby kids bullied at school is a classic trope to make them victims that their siblings want to defend, so technically speaking, the situation with Pugsley at the beginning of the series should lead to him either enjoying the bullying, taking his revenge himself, or Wednesday not being affected and him having to ask for her help, as to keep the subversion part of makes the Addams what they are ; in the same way, teenage girls always have difficulties with their relationship with their mother, so, technically speaking again, Wednesday's relationship with Morticia should either not be conflictual, or be a different kind of conflictual, a little like what we saw in the animated movie (I already felt like the conflict was forced, but it's not entirely surprising for Wednesday's character to want to try and push the limits to see how far she can go only to stop because she simply doesn't enjoy it, so it gets a pass). The fact that Wednesday plays the role of the protective big sister and is in conflict with her mother because she wants to be better than her and thinks Morticia is trying to force her into a mold where Wednesday can never show her superiority... It felt awfully strange, considering the kinds of characters we deal with.

Even in the lore and diversity of creatures represented, the Addams family movies gave us a lot more than Nevermore, and this “school for outcasts” felt a lot more like a normie community than any Addams family reunion from the movies, but that’s a little beside the point.

So yes, while I appreciate the series for its execution, some of the characters, the relationships and plot, it's not a good Addams series, specifically.

But back to the characters and relationships, shall we ? Because, like everyone else, I disliked the love triangle, but not because it was badly written, and I think it's important to say it. For better and worse, the writers managed to write something extremely cringey while also extremely understandable and fitting. With the characters and plot they had (or that they made, you could argue, but it’s a matter of perspective), the love-triangle was well-handled, despite how much all of us cringed at every scene with the boys, or rather because of how all of us cringed. Let me explain :

Tyler is the archetype of the actually nice guy who learns to care for the outcast girl, accept her quirks, goes out of his way to make her happy, show that he's interested in her, etc, and he worked well in that role for most of the series, it felt natural. He was an actually nice boy who could relate to Wednesday on some level because of his family situation, who was impressed and intrigued by her, found her quirks fun despite the weirdness... The moments the illusion crack is when he keeps acting like this even after Wednesday put him in danger or treated him like shit, even though that pushed Enid away and we already knew she would be willing to endure more than most for Wednesday. It's strange because we'd seen him go "you disappointed me" earlier in the series when he tells Wednesday he thought they had something (despite their interactions not having been all that romantic, from an objective point of view, up until then), a pretty typical way in teenage series to show that character A has feelings and character B has to step up or they'll lose them. That was a clear use of genre codes (with the twist of Thing forcing Wednesday's hand, pun intended) but it seems weird that, even though he was ready to distance himself if Wednesday didn’t return his affections well enough, Tyler becomes such a lovesick doormat after a single dance... Until you learn he's the Hyde and has been acting that way to stay close to Wednesday and thwart her plans to stop him and Thornhill. He used his character type to his advantage to fool Wednesday (and the audience) and it worked well. The bits of development he’d had until then also participated in getting us acclimated to this image of him, followed the codes that male love interests usually follow, so aside from his miraculously shallow injuries after his encounter with the Hyde, there was practically nothing to make us doubt him. Excellent use of character types and development beats.

Wednesday's acceptance of Tyler’s love is also understandable from the perspective of the character she is written as in this series : a teenage girl who wants to be special in every way (and is in some) but is still a teenage girl who is kind of lost in her life, at a crossroads where she can either evolve or stay the same, the second option being obviously a lot more reassuring. Tyler accepted her as she was and never challenged her, he didn't try to push her out of her comfort zone, was always supportive, always understanding : perfect boyfriend material for a girl who was both trying to change and stay the same, who was learning that relationships could be good but didn't want to put herself out there because it's hard and scary to make yourself vulnerable like that. She never initiated anything, but accepting Tyler's love was easy, interesting even, for it let Wednesday try something new without going out of her comfort zone all that much. She was passive in the development of their relationship, much more passive than I’ve ever seen a character be, too afraid of what emotions and relationships might entail to move in one direction or another, never trying to seduce Tyler, but also never telling him she didn’t want a boyfriend and they should only be friends/acquaintances. That’s rare, like I said, and fits this version of Wednesday like a glove. So while I wasn’t a fan of the ship, I never considered their scenes together as bad writing, because it did make sense from their characters’ perspectives : they were developing, and that development was stilted and messy, like teenagers are supposed to be.

Xavier is a lot of fun to me because he thinks himself a hero, but is nothing but pathetic. I could make a very long analysis on his character (maybe I will, at some point), but this post is gonna be long enough, so, to summarise : he sees himself as a hero from a book or series and therefore expects the codes of that character type to apply to him, mainly so the girl he likes will be impressed by his abilities (art, making it come to life, archery) and will fall for him, which is why he assumes Wednesday wants to ask him to the Rave’n. But his drawing is squashed without a second thought, his archery skills are beginner level (actual archer here, I see that from the ten years old at my club who’ve been there for three months) and not only did he and Wednesday not have a single romantic interaction to make him think she’s interested in him, she even said she’s not interested in the dance itself earlier that very day. He thinks highly of himself, but his abilities and charm don’t live up to what he thinks they are, so whenever he’s confronted to reality (Wednesday beats him, calls him an elitist snob, only asked him out to give herself an alibi, goes to the dance with Tyler), he lashes out like it’s everyone’s fault but his. He’s pathetic, and if he were real I’d hate him, but he’s very well written in that his flaws are understandable and consistent. For God’s sake, even in the finale he doesn’t get his heroic moment ! His intervention isn’t even a side-kick’s ultimately useless but welcome attempt at helping, much less a hero’s decisive strike, it’s just a burden on Wednesday who has to get hurt to protect him. But what really makes me like the way he’s written isn’t just his flaws and karma : it’s the way he’s framed. 

Throughout the very beginning of the season until the reveal, Tyler is framed as the nice guy (to help hide his identity as the Hyde) and in the same but opposite way, through most of the season (but this time from episode 2 or 3 to episode 8), Xavier is framed as a pathetic loser prone to bouts of anger when things don’t go his way. We never had much of an actual love triangle, to be honest : in the first two eps or so, both boys looked like potential, equivalent love interests, but from episode 3 or 4 we know Xavier is a bit of an asshole (then a lot of an asshole), so Tyler becomes the obvious choice, and then Tyler is revealed to be the Hyde, so neither are prospects anymore (even if no one’s told Xavier, apparently). But anyway, the show makes it clear that it doesn’t support the way Xavier thinks of himself and doesn’t give his belief that he has a chance with Wednesday any weight ; Xavier is the only one to think so. He’s an asshole and the show doesn’t try to hide it, or act like that makes him cool, it shows just how pathetic he is, and I love it.

So yeah, the love triangle is cringey, but well-written, and the show has made it clear Tyler’s not an option anymore, Xavier is a subpar one (even though he doesn’t realise that) and Wednesday only went with those idiots’ antics because she was afraid of evolving and making the wrong choice in doing so. Now that Wednesday’s more confident in her choice, more open with her emotions (thanks Enid) and since Xavier’s probably not going to change anytime soon, it seems we won’t hear of that triangle anymore XD

There’s still a lot more that I could (and want to) say about this show, its writing, its characters, their relationships, and maybe I will, but yeah, very basically, I think it’s a bad Addams show, but a good show on its own, where even the cringey parts are well-written (and maybe are cringey because it’s well-written, though I’m sure a number of us would have cringed either way) and the way it plays with characters’ traits and archetypes is smart and interesting.