#bc it feels like the writers are not going in that direction. but they SHOULD

[lilbreadbun]

In order of your points: disagree, agree, no comment, agree (but conflicted)

The clues people have been pointing out in regards to jinx being alive might seem circumstantial. But I’m inclined to think that nothing the writers and animators on arcane do is on accident, so.

I don’t have much to say about jayvik other than I don’t really mind either interpretation. Their bond works either way and I don’t blame people for reading romantic tension in their interactions even if it’s never explicitly said. I personally don’t ship it but thats mainly bc I was a Jayce hater in s1 and I think viktor can do better lol.

My critique of Caitlyn and Vi has nothing to do with the ship, actually. I like caitvi and I think they do make a good couple. I just think that there should have been more repercussions for them like. Gassing the Lanes? I feel like that whole arc was something that would have had huge implications in s1. But it just never comes up again. Like at least they touch on Caitlyn falling into ambessas hands. But the Grey stuff was before that, and Vi was directly involved in it. But neither of them really seem to reckon with it at all.

The ending was good for what it was I think. I made a rambling post at like 4am about how I think season 2 overall didn’t live up to what season 1 had set up. But I think as a conclusion to the season it was fine. I think there could have been a bit more, maybe showing how each character is involved in the changes that are taking place in Piltover and Zaun. I especially wanted a bit more from Ekko, to see him reunite with the Firelights, maybe sit under his tree a bit? And show him taking on a role in Zaun’s leadership maybe.

As a big arcane fan, it sucks to see this show get so much criticism, even if I think there are places where it’s deserved. But some of it I think comes from people who had their own idea of how the season should go and were never going to be satisfied with any other way. The biggest critique I feel like I saw in the immediate aftermath was about Jinx’s ending, which, duh.

I think people who were really angry about Jinx dying (or “dying”, as it were) were coming from a place of being emotionally invested in Jinx getting a happy ending - but I don’t know if that was ever in the cards for her. I’ve seen people say that her death was pointless or for shock value but I don’t really see it that way. It feels like a natural culmination of her arc - she spent her whole life watching others protect her: Vi, Silco, Vander and even Isha. So it makes sense that her final act would be protecting someone else. It’s even a pretty direct parallel to Isha’s death. And it works for Vi’s story as well - Vi, who cannot let go of anyone, is quite literally forced to let go. Idk I think this debate is the most interesting part to me bc I can sympathize with people who are mad as hell. I just don’t think from a writing perspective it’s as flimsy as people are making it out to be.

Ok sorry I started rambling but I have So Many Thoughts about this show omg and I have not slept

ARCANE SPOILERS. ALL OF THEM. THE WHOLE THING.

I don't know how this app works really but I love/loved arcane and people have qualms with it so I'd love to have some discussions in the comments. gimme that healthy discourse!!

starting points that im so correct about:

jinx is dead

jayvik is a brotherhood not gay

caitvi scene should be 3 hours and i would watch every second

the ending was good. unironically.

I actually play league and have spent infinitely too much time reading things so I may have a different pov from you! I have hidden info <3

[nugulover69]

Taiya still acting super cagey abt himself and his past I see

I don't buy that he meant this 100% genuinely. like yeah I'm sure he appreciates having a new fancy gun but I believe he's just letting the team think his childhood dream was to be a fireman. bc if it actually was an unrealized childhood dream why wouldn't he just tell Boondario that. maybe so Boondario wouldn't feel guilty abt Taiya sacrificing his time and effort to make Boondario's dream a reality? who knows

Perhaps I'm being a bit judgemental of leadernim red. maybe Taiya is just a boy who was denied fulfilling his dreams for one tragic reason or another. dreams like riding a lion. would love to hear that backstory one day

Also can you stop riding his dick for a single second Ishiro god

[keferon]

I should be asleep but this is consuming me.

So have this poorly thought out fic drabble idea of mine:

Prowl is in pain, hurt and agony, physically and emotionally. He shouldn't have let Jazz convince him, he should have listened to that tingly uncertain feeling on his spark about this

But dammit was Jazz so...so convincing. It pained him to realise how much he wanted to trust the organic.

What didn't help was that bastard in front of him giving him mock grief. Prowl knew he did not care at all about how he feels, he knew there was some sort of sick enjoyment to all of this.

"Sorry, he couldn't come visit again. He actually had to help out with the newest mech, in fact, this prototype had one of your own parts in it!" Prowl wanted to sob, twisted asshole.

Suddenly, something seemed to have caught the organic's attention. Prowl didn't hear it at first, but once the man in front of him turned around in confusion, he heard it, there was some sort of commotion on the other side of the door.

Suddenly, before any of them could question what was going on, the doors burst out open with an explosion, causing many tools to clatter to the ground as the ground shook.

"GET AWAY FROM MY PARTNER!" Prowl, in a weak yet desperate attempt, turned his head to look at the direction of the voice. He recognised it-

"Jazz?" He spoke weakly. That seemed to have crushed the organic's soul, his face crumbling from his previous rage, before, in a blink of an eye, it turned back to fury. Fury so strong it could kill whoever dared look.

"Jazz?!" The twisted man standing in front of Prowl's face looked offended if not straight out annoyed at the other's presence. "What are you-?" He couldn't even finish his sentence before the other dropped whatever it was he had been holding and jumped on top of him. The two fought for a while, Jazz punching the guy a few times on the face before grabbing him by the neck of his shirt and throwing him to the other side of the room.

Jazz huffed, making sure to keep his eyes on his target for a second to see if that was enough to have knocked him out. It was. And once he was sure the guy wouldn't come back at him, he turned to look at Prowl, who so far, has only made move to watch the whole thing go down.

It took a while for the mech to properly process how Jazz looked, how he looked at him. Guilt, pain, sadness, exasperation even. It almost seemed like he was...crying?

"Prowl!" His partner? Ex-partner? (He wasn't sure anymore), ran to grasp his face, and he let him, to weak to fight back like he wanted to. Then he felt it, small droplets of water fall down his faceplates, 'Oh, so he was crying'. "I'm so sorry, i shouldn't have brought you here- we, we need to get you out-" as he moved, Prowl took notice of how dishevelled the other looked, the sudden smell of iron making him realise that he seemed to be covered in blood, if it was his own or not, Prowl wasn't sure, perhaps it was both. Taking a closer look, he started to notice all the small bruises and scratches on Jazz's face, in fact he took notice of a limp on his left leg too.

The other just seemed to be mumbling to himself as he tried to free Prowl, who so far has not spoken all that much, he felt too weak and tired, and he really had nothing to say other than a simple reply to what Jazz said before but he didn’t process it till now

"You really shouldn't have..."

---

Ok that's all i have rn, bc I'm not much of a writer and idk how to write these characters so they might be a bit OOC sorry ^^;;

But feel free to like add and/or fix anything to this.

Just wanna add the note that maybe, the reason Jazz found out is bc he recognised Prowl's plating on the new mech thing they built ;)

OH MY GOD I CANT EVEN

RAAAAHHHHHHHHHH THIS IS. OH FUCK. THI s. SO GOOD AND PAINFUL IM ASCENDING TO SOME NEW UNDISCOVERED DIMENSIONS

ALSO. oh my fucking god you have galaxy brain for this. imagine the horror Jazz feels when he sees this random new robot his boss wants to test. And it’s plating is so freaking familiar. He runs his hands along the panels. And he recognises them, even repainted. Because he spent so much time sitting on them, repairing them, crawling on them with his magnets. Sleeping on them even. He sees the “scar” from the time he helped Prowl to fix his armor and welded some cracks in it.

And now the fucking plates are here but Prowl isn’t.

[theemporium]

i’m so happy you’re in a mauraders mood bc so am i and your content is fulfilling all of my needs ty ty!!!

with that, thoughts on james getting hurt at quidditch and reader comes in to check on him? drugged up jamie confesses love to reader?? something?! idk this is is why you’re the writer and not me lol

thank you for requesting!🖤

.

It was a nasty fall.

You knew quidditch could be quite a rough sport and you knew every player got hurt at some point. Thankfully, most of the injuries that came out of the games could be easily healed and the players would be back in class the next day, resting up before their next game. It was very rare for anything worse than some bedrest and easy days to be prescribed to an injured quidditch player. 

But that didn’t settle the pit of worry in your stomach when you watched James fall. Between the speed and angle he fell at, and the fact the game had to halt for thirty minutes before they could move him off the pitch, it didn’t help that none of you were allowed to see him until a whole two hours after his accident. 

However, the second you received permission from McGonagall, you had quickly joined the others in rushing down to the infirmary wing to see how James was doing. What you weren’t expecting was to find a very loopy James in place of the boy you knew. 

“HEY, IT’S MY FRIENDS!” 

A slightly irritated Madam Pomfrey tried hushing the boy but it was useless as he tried to sit up in his bed by himself—an act that was difficult with the sling confining his right arm—as you all surrounded the bed he was situated in. 

“How you feeling, mate? You took quite the tumble out there,” Sirius asked, watching with some amusement as the bespectacled boy grinned lazily at the group. 

“I feel fine—great, even!” James insisted, letting out a giggle. “I feel fucking fantastic, Pads! You should try some of this stuff!”

Sirius snorted. “Maybe next time.” 

“You too, Moony,” James continued as his eyes searched over the group. “And you, Evans. And don’t think you can hide from me, Mary! And—oh.”

His loud and eccentric movements came to a halt as his eyes fell on you, his lips parting. The only sign you had that he was still alive was the slow blinks as he stared at you, his cheeks flushed and your concern peaked at the idea of him suddenly gaining a fever.

“James?” you called out, your brows furrowed together when he didn’t answer. “Are you feeling okay? Do we need to get Madam Pomfrey again?” 

“Moony,” James finally whispered, still staring at you like he was lost in a daze. 

“Yeah, bud?” Remus was soon by his side, frowning a little in concern as the boy reached out to grip his arm. 

“I can see an angel,” James whispered and Sirius had to cover his mouth to muffle his laughs. “Can you see her?” 

“Uh, what?” Remus muttered in confusion.

“An angel!” he insisted as he pointed in your direction. “Look at her! She is gorgeous, Moony! One of the prettiest fucking girls I’ve ever seen!” 

Your cheeks burned as you pressed your lips together to try and contain your grin. 

“That’s not an angel, Prongs,” Remus told him, now quite amused as he gently patted his friend on the back. “She’s your friend.” 

James whirled his head around. “I’m friends with an angel?” 

“I—” Remus sighed, shaking his head. “Yeah, buddy, you are.” 

“Woah,” James murmured as he turned to look back at you. “You make my chest feel funny.” 

You frowned a little. “Funny? Maybe we should—” 

“Like my heart is going boom-da-boom really fast,” James continued, nodding his head. “I like that it does that for you.” 

“Oh,” was all you could say. 

“Who would have thought it would take a bunch of painkillers for Prongs to finally admit how he feels?” Sirius commented from the other side of his bed, grinning widely as his friend stared lovingly at you. 

“Shut up, Sirius,” you murmured, slightly shy.

“He’s in love with you, sweetheart,” Sirius told you in a know-it-all voice.

“No, he doesn’t, he just—”

“Yes, I am,” James interrupted, nodding his head in confirmation. “Like, love love. The good kinda love. The one where I get to kiss you and stuff.”

You tried to tamper down the butterflies in your stomach. “Kiss me and stuff?” 

“All the stuff,” James murmured, yawning slightly as the painkillers started to really kick in. 

“How about you tell me this when you’re not high and we will see where we go,” you muttered, smiling softly as you watched him try to fight the strong urge to sleep. 

“Promise you’ll be here when I wake up?” James murmured, reaching his hand out to you. 

You took his hand and intertwined your fingers. “Promise. Goodnight, James.” 

“Goodnight, Angel.”

.

[mrghostrat]

What's some of your favourite scenes in your fics?

there is a special place in heaven for anons like u with questions like these 😍💛

mon horrible cheri: when aziraphale has a full french conversation in front of crowley without knowing crowley is fluent !!!!!!

≪That’s not a no,≫ Justine pointed out. ≪Go on, I won’t tell your headmaster. What’s he like in—≫ ≪We haven’t,≫ Aziraphale interrupted her, beet red. Then, out of nowhere, he glanced back at Crowley and offered him a small, polite smile, completely out of sorts with the conversation being had in front of him. That’s when Crowley realised, as suddenly as the envy evaporated from him: he doesn’t know. His eyes widened with glee behind his shades. He doesn’t know I speak French.

apparently i have a thing for realisations bc i also love in postcards from paris when crowley shows up at aziraphale's door and aziraphale realises who he is 🥺:

Crowley could only watch as Aziraphale’s face journeyed through a dozen flickering expressions. His frown deepened, his eyes narrowed, his chin even tilted ever so slightly up. But then shoulders squared and his lips parted, pinched at the corners until his eyes blew wide, and before he knew it, a similar gust of air was wrenched out of him. Suddenly his eyes were frantic, darting millimetres in every direction, until his shoulders slumped so far back he fell back against the door with an unflattering rattle of the latch. Crowley knew the feeling. He was still engulfed in it. Aziraphale drew another breath and his lips were shaking. His knuckles were white, blending into the pale paper they creased. “Would you care for a cup of tea?” he asked carefully, slowly reaching for the door handle.

it's so sooo hard to pick a favourite moment from flawless bc i genuinely love and am so proud of so many scenes in that one 😤 i think chapter 3 is my favourite, with all the grave dirt and the denial culminating in the "I love you," he realised. then that fuckin phone call at the end of chapter 4 where crowley gets drunk and says it back and i RAAAAARRRR

Down the line, a bottle clinked against a tabletop, sloshing the liquid inside. Crowley gasped for breath. “I love you, angel.” Aziraphale opened his mouth to speak and tasted his stream of tears before he felt them. He wiped his face once, but it only smeared the saline across his skin to make way for another wave. He sat back in his chair and stared at his cold mug through bleary eyes. “I love you too,” he whispered back, devastated by how much he meant it.

and EDITOR'S NOTE!!! another one with loads of faves, like the opening scene of chapter 1, crowley's reaction to aziraphale's Beetle, and especially the gay conversation!!!!! 🫡

“I’m sorry, you just—” He coughed. “You just know all this off the top of your head?” Aziraphale stared at him for longer than he’d care to admit. “I should hope so,” he said slowly. Still, Crowley said nothing. Aziraphale tried again, “I’m… gay?” The words felt so strange to say. Aziraphale hadn’t come out to anyone since… Oh, Lord— ever. He’d never had to come out before. Even his mother, when he ran up to her at eleven years old and said he wanted to ask a date to the school dance, asked him what the boy’s name was. His father disliked him long before either of them knew why, and he’d never once been approached by a woman at a bar with the wrong idea. No one had ever gotten the wrong idea about Aziraphale before. Everyone read him like a book. Except the writer, apparently. “...You’re gay?” Crowley asked, genuinely flabbergasted. “Yes,” Aziraphale breathed back, genuinely flabbergasted.

[brainrot-jikan]

im not the biggest alhaitham/kaveh shipper (because im a rare pair ho) but it seems to me that in alhaitham/kaveh getting-together fics tend to be... unequal.

the beautiful thing about alhaitham and kaveh is that they're both equally right and equally wrong and equally dicks about it. but the writers for alhaitham/kaveh much more frequently seem to give alhaitham the burden change (the burden of the character flaw) instead of kaveh.

in any good character arc, the main character has a fatal flaw or misconception, and by the end of that arc they have addressed that flaw in some definitive way. scrooge was a scrooge and learned that being that way was detrimental; merlin from finding nemo was overprotective to a fault and had to learn that he couldn't (and shouldn't) control everything and to let go; the wolf from little red riding hood learns that you should stop while you're ahead.

stories centering around romance tend to lean heavily on character arcs, which makes sense. and since romance generally requires two individuals to be vulnerable and open and emotional with each other, it makes double sense that alhaitham/kaveh authors zoom straight into alhaitham's lack of emotional vulnerability.

this bothers me.

in society, individuals are expected to experience and present emotions in a specific way. if someone dies, you cry. if someone smiles at you, you smile back. if you're at a party, you're supposed to be having fun. if you don't do these things, you're seen as impolite at best and a inhuman freak at worst. when these behaviors are frequent it's often viewed as emotional immaturity, or a lack of ability to feel at all. the inability or lack of willingness to conform to societies emotional expectations of you is seen as a flaw and a reason for exclusion.

alhaitham is canonically disliked and avoided for being the way he is. he prefers it this way, but that doesn't mean the people perpetuating this avoidance are in the right. they are the societal pressure to conform that alhaitham blows off. alhaitham could be the way he is for a lot of reasons: avoidant attachment style, trauma, following someone else's example (eg. his grandmother), or just his base personality. it doesn't MATTER. he is the way he is. kaveh having to accept that should be part of the story.

putting the burden of the fatal flaw on alhaitham, making the way alhaitham treats kaveh and the people around him the problem, feels invalidating. it implies heavily that alhaitham's way of interfacing with the world, alhaitham's very SELF, is incorrect. my suggestion is to flip a larger portion of that burden onto kaveh. kaveh 👏 character 👏 arcs 👏

some examples/recommendations:

- make kaveh project his insecurities onto other people but especially onto alhaitham; he's overly reliant on other people for his own self worth, and he perceives alhaitham's lack of positive feedback as a direct reflection of how alhaitham feels about him. but learns along the way that alhaitham doesn't hate him, kaveh's actual struggle is with hating himself and being unable to his own self as worthy of love. maybe throw in how you are responsible for your own recovery, other people can help but you can't rely on them to carry you through self actualization.

- or, kaveh tries to make alhaitham behave more like a "normal" person, to be more pleasant and emotive and forthcoming, and then realizes he's in the wrong for trying to make alhaitham into something he's not, possibly for all the wrong reasons (not because he likes alhaitham better like that, but bc society says that's healthier and a better/more conforming way to be)

- or you could go ahead make alhaitham's issues the main problem but they're too complicated to overcome in a short period of time, so kaveh has to accept alhaitham is doing his best in his own way and not push for unrealistic and unhealthy changes. he could alter his own behavior to give alhaitham space and time and a safe place to land.

that got sappy so it's past time for me to dip out. go forth and ship things; but maybe consider letting alhaitham be a rude stone-faced bastard if he wants to be.

[hedwig221b]

Fic authors self rec!

When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤

I got tagged by @cozyrosykay, thank you, love!

This is gonna be interesting…

Predators

He was born for this. Nature itself whispered into his ear where he should put his hands, how to twirl his tongue just right and when to bite. Stiles knew well enough that his saliva was currently working its magic on this unfortunate man, making him hungry, lustful, and insatiable. Soon, all his thoughts would be consumed by Stiles.

And, just this once, Stiles would allow Derek to consume him.

I still consider this my best work (yet! bc I'm writing something currently and y'all… it's a contender). But it's so fucking good, I'm sorry, but it is! Each time I finished writing another piece, I closed the doc and told myself that this is the best thing ever. I love how gentle Derek is with Stiles, I love how persistent he is with his love, almost arrogant with his confidence. He's like oh well, Stiles is confused but it'll pass. I'll be here anyway. Forever. !!!!!! I love Stiles as a creature, and I love him embracing the darkness and being unapologetic about it. I love this fic so much.

Eros Mania Amor

“I am just reminding you that Stiles is married. To me. All you can do is imagine, and I get to do all of those things you’re dreaming of to him. Yes, I know. I know everything you and others think,” Hale opened his eyes and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. His smile was despicable in its selfishness. “I know what you dream of when you look at his lips—”

“Stop it.” Jordan shook his head.

“— because I am the same as you,” the wolf ignored him. “I imagined everything you did, it’s just happened that my dream became the life that I get to live. He is here,” he tapped his own temple, “and here,” he tapped his chest. “And you would have to kill me to get us separated.”

This fucking fic… I was high on reading Dracula, and I love classics, and I definitely put all my love for it here. I love the language in this, the intrigue, the misleading. I also love when sterek's love is so overwhelming and unbreakable. I also kinda ate with the imagery in last sentences... I ate in general with this fic lmao

Torn Apart and Set Anew

“Someone’s here,” Stiles whispered, feeling weirdly numb.

The metal latch clicked. With ice filling his lungs and his fingers shaking terribly, Stiles swiveled his head in the direction of a window and froze for a beat of a second.

There was a face behind the glass.

Forgettable and plain, but at the same time familiar face.

This deserves more attention, and it's probably my fault for putting a weird summary resulting in it not getting a lot. Anyway, I love the suspence. I love Stiles' stubborness and I love the plot twist. About that: I like how I make it obvious who's the villain and (I hope) the reader thinks they already got the plot twist... But then the real plot twist comes and it's like... FUCK. Also Derek in this is soo…. ugh... and the ending!!! Asffgghjjkhgrjsskr

Treasure

“I know you don’t trust me,” Derek grunted. When Stiles inhaled to retort, Derek caught his chin and pressed a finger against his lips, making the boy freeze in place, eyes impossibly wide. “Don’t argue. I expected it. Wolves don’t trust easily, too. I just wanted you to know that… I’m sorry. I was selfish and didn’t see what was in front of me. You don’t need to worry. I’ll take care of everything.”

It was a thought that grew in his mind, spread to his heart and took root there, reincorporating into a deep desire and a vital need. Derek will take care of him and his little pup, he’ll bring the hearts of his enemies and put them at the boy’s feet. He’ll court and he’ll conquer.

I have my issues with this fic but ELI!!!! KIRA!!! DEREK!!! iykyk lol but yeah I often go back to this fic just to reread Eli parts, I loved writing baby Eli, he's gonna come back in Jane Eyre au for sure. I also never cried this hard during writing a fic, not before and not since. That scene... One of the best scenes I've written, the grief is so raw and scolding... shit I might reread this...

your fangs against my skin (the sound of your bones)

This was it, then, huh? It was that easy for Derek to invite someone to his den. Someone other than Stiles.

He healed the wolf. Stiles killed his tormentor, mended his blood and bones, and let him sleep beside him. But none of it was enough.

He wasn’t a spark, after all, but a witch — evil and alone, locked up in his tower.

Witches didn’t get happy endings.

One of my recent gems, I would even call it mild in terms of darkness and angst. It's a comfort fic for me. I love how relaxed Derek is around Stiles, how both of them crave each other's comfort and give it so easily. I also loved Stiles' witchiness, he's so weird and fun lmao, also LYDIA

.

Tagging gently in case y'all already did this: @dear-massacre @renmackree @endwersed @nerdherderette @thotpuppy @invisible-storyteller @eevylynn

[melymbrosia]

seeing an article abt how someone used AI to finish writing their novel - full offense, if you couldn't be fucked to finish writing it yourself then its probably worthless as art bcs you seemingly feel so little abt it. Maybe I'm a control freak but the pleasure of art, ESPECIALLY writing is the total control you have over the end product. It kinda goes hand in hand w that annoying rampant attitude where writers are like "well i wanted it to go in this direction and it has a mind of its own!" Which isnt like bad at all but its that attitude of writing being some kind of weird magic instead of the highly controlled, focused, art form it is. I think that attitude and AI go hand in hand. It feels similarly to using a ghostwriter almost. Ethically whatever, victimless or something, but key - why should i read something you couldn't even force yourself to write.

[kishibe-kisser]

Hiii thank you for being a writer. Could you do a mahito x reader fluff/angst type of thing where he has a weird fondness for the reader but will never admit it outloud (bc after all he is here to destroy humans, he hates them) but then one day reader is in trouble/gets hurt by someone or something & mahito’s protectiveness over reader comes out. Maybe he is like a little bit of tsundere LOL

Ah thank you so much!!!!!! and I totally can! This man is the bane of my existence but also I can't bring myself to hate him???

The only fear you'll feel is me

Tags: sunshine reader! Mahito likes your fear, tsundere Mahito but also Yandere? mentions of violence, stalker-ish Mahito, mentions of death

Word count: 1428

There was something about you, it was different from the other humans. The fact that you were pretty was what initially drew him to you, the perfect little toy to manipulate like the other humans under his thumb. Just as he was about to sink his claws into you, he caught a whiff of your scent.

It was a sweet smell, one that could only be explained by a sunny demeanor. The hatred that made humans smell disgusting was nearly nowhere to be found on you and it fascinated him deeply. The infatuation only grew as he watched you from afar, stalking you in the streets to see just what you got up to and just why you smelled so sweet.

He watched you help an elderly woman cross the street, smiling widely as you did so and even staying to make small talk with her. It was entirely fascinating, your expression not turning sour once as someone stopped you for directions, or as you had to wait in line at a restaurant it didn't seem to bother you one bit. There was not one ounce of hatred in your blood and Mahito just wanted to taste it.

When he appeared in front of you, he fully believed you were going to scream. His maniacal eyes searching yours for fear, but finding nothing other intrigue. Truth be told it wasn't the response he wanted, he thought your fear would be sweeter than that of the other humans and you not being scared of the mere sight of him upset him.

"You aren't scared?" He asked, blocking you from being able to leave his presence in any way. While this man was practically holding you hostage, you didn't feel any fear. If any thing it was fascination. His mismatched eyes, long silver hair and stitches over his skin, sure you could see how others could find him jarring. Not for you though, no you could only describe him as intriguing. "Should I be?" You asked, hand reaching out to graze over the stitching.

Mahito's hand shot up, gripping your wrist and holding it away from his face. He leaned down, smiling and rested his face a few inches in front of your own. "You don't even understand what I could do to you just by touching you." His other hand nuzzled your chin and his words made you wonder just what this creature was capable of.

"Luckily for you I have other things to do, I don't have time to play now." He remarked, letting you go and looking away. He was lying straight through his teeth. He had to get away from you for a moment, the sweet way you looked into his eyes making his chest hurt and head ache. Mahito needed to get away from you and how much he liked you for his own safety.

He might have left you confused but he didn't leave your thoughts at all. He was mysterious, most definitely insane and since the interaction, you had the feeling that he never really left you at all. You could feel his mismatched eyes on you always, every where you went.

He'd come in close proximity, taunting you and then speak to like you were the instigator. He tormented you, acted like you were bothering him when he was the one who was latched to you like a ghost... like a curse.

Yet you didn't hate him, having him there felt like your new normal. Despite the fact that he spewed venom your way each time your eyes met him, you didn't hate him and definitely didn't hate you. You were convinced he was toying with you for his own sadistic enjoyment and because of that you couldn't hate him. It was your nature, being a firm believer of allowing people to do what they needed to get themselves through the day and if Mahito needed to torment you to get through his day, that was okay.

That of course wasn't why he did it. He was indeed a living, breathing curse but god he wanted. He just didn't know how to deal with himself or the emotions that came with it all. You were a cup of hot chocolate on a rainy day and he was the storm. So he treated you the only way he knew how, like shit.

Mahito watched you walk down the street, rain soaking through your pretty hair and it made him angry. Why couldn't you just look at the weather before hand? Then you wouldn't be this soaked through and through. It was simple enough. The worst part was that it didn't bother you. You just continued to hold the bouquet of flowers you just bought and admired them as you wandered home. Turning down the wrong alley, he watched and his body tensed on instinct. You were out of his sight and something was wrong. He just knew.

If there was going to be any danger in your life, it was going to be him.

The moment you rounded the corner you realised it was a mistake. Three menacing figures looming over you nearly instantly, the bouquet of flowers dropping to the ground. "What do we have here?" One of them said, grabbing your arm as you turned to leave. A wave of fear travelled through your body, chills coating your skin from the touch. "I'm sorry, just let me leave." You said, looking up at the man only to be met with emotionless eyes. "I didn't mean to turn the corner." You added on, feeling another one of the men press against your back.

"Why not, we're very nice." The man behind you leaned down to say in your ear and you felt your body cringe. "Now that's not a very nice response." The 3rd man's spewed, raising his hand to strike your cheek. You were truly frozen, not knowing what else to do in this situation other than brace yourself. But the hit never came and the hands holding you let go roughly.

"I don't like it when people mess with my playthings." Mahito's voice made your head snap up and you felt relieved. Nearly crumbling to the ground, you watched as the men surrounded him and laughed at his appearance. However he was unphased, glancing back at you with a menacing smile before simply placing his hands on one of the men.

You watched the man begin to deform, Mahito's laughter drowned out the man's screams as he transformed into a disgusting looking creature before dropping to the ground. His friends let out disgusted cries, making attempts to run away only for Mahito to stretch his arm and effortlessly pull them back. All while transforming them in the process.

Not one sound left your mouth as you watched these men die and the man who had become your shadow transform his body with no effort. The fact that he had just murdered three men didn't phase him at all and well, what you just saw was shocking but you still didn't feel fear. At least not towards Mahito, or what he was. No you felt it more towards the situation. What would have happened if your shadow wasn't there?

Your clothes were drenched through and through and your flowers were crushed, the sight of you pitiful as you wept. Mahito could see it on you now, the fear and he didn't like it. He didn't like it because you weren't scared of him. These men had stolen your fear and that wasn't okay. He didn't like seeing you afraid of something else.

"Pet, are you alright?" Mahito asked you, taking in your tear streaked face and crouching down to your level. His tone was soft and hushed, a layer of worry also in the mix. You nodded your head, reaching to wipe your eyes only for him to beat you to it. His touch was welcomed to you and you pressed your face into hands.

"Did they scare you?" He added on, pulling you onto your face and wrapping his arms around you. "Thank you Mahito." You mumbled, not knowing what else to say. You were traumatised, confused and more than likely falling for a monster. Your tears continued to fall as you watched Mahito pick up your trampled bouquet, picking the destroyed flowers out of it and handing it to you. His grey and blue eyes locking with yours as he pulled a wicked smile.

"Don't worry pet, I'll make sure the only fear you'll ever fear comes from me."

A/N: I really hope you enjoy this! I tried my best to fit Mahito's personality in there. Let me know what you think!

Send me a request!

[booksandpaperss]

How Stranger Things (poorly) handles racism as a topic compared other heavy topics it successfully tackles

before we get started, I would to direct you all to some other accounts who have already discussed this that you should check out either before or after reading this post: @wewebaggit @googoogagaeyes @elekinetic and anyone else please feel free to tag yourself or another account that’s discussed this and I’ll happily boost it

Content Warning for in show examples of racism and discussions of racism, as well as mentions of homophobia and the AIDES epidemic

.

. While we're discussing historical accuracy in stranger things and homophobia + ignorance being present even in well meaning characters, I want to point out that if the writers of the show weren't so squeamish about addressing racism in any in depth way, than this type of historical accuracy would be for racism too.

what I mean by this: in this sense, the show is not consistent. It's clear that the writers have done their research on 80s homophobia and how openly prevalent it was, if the AIDES allegory in season 2 and the way homophobia was very clearly present in seasons 1 and 2 (it still is in seasons 3 and 4 but the first 2 seasons showed it in the scope of the entire town), but racism was just as overtly prevalent, and yet the writers have neglected to address it in the same thoughtful and coded way. if the show was just as consistent about racism as it is about homophobia, than the white characters would be at the very least shown as ignorant just like the straight characters are.

and I'm not going to say that it's completely ignored, because that's not true:

-in season 2; mike makes an ignorant comment that implies Lucas should have been Winston because he's black, and Lucas calls him on it. There's also the very racist undertones (that are practically overtones) of Billy's treatment of Lucas. -There is almost nothing in season 3 except for a jokey joke when Nancy says the whole party is her family and the receptionist, who is a black woman, gives Lucas a skeptical look.

-Season 4 is a little better, with the implications (key word: implications, I'll come back to that in a moment) of Lucas's season 4 arc being that he was trying to fit in because he didn't want to be racially targeted and bullied for being a nerd at the same time anymore, that he felt like even more of an outsider compared to the rest of his otherwise all white friend group who, as far as he knows, are all cishet and giving him shit for wanting to lessen how much he's perceived as an outsider because he's automatically seen as even more of a "freak", and his friends just weren't getting it because they were white and ignorant. So the writers aren't blind to race and racism.

However. None of the examples that I've just listed are addressed later in any in depth way; not like the homophobia is. The only one that's even remotely delved into instead of simply being glossed over is Lucas's s4 arc, and even that is still very flitted around and left up to interpretation of the audience.

The writers seem to have a very "hit and run" sort of policy with addressing racism. They clearly know they should, and they at least seem to know that having a black character in an 80s setting with a cast of mostly white characters inherently creates a lot of racial subtext-

-for example, the very loud subtext of Jason (a white boy much older than Lucas) seeing Max (a white girl) in a trance alone with Lucas (a black boy) and immediately assuming the worst + Jason's white friends tackling an 11 year old black girl to the ground: subtext that I'm still not sure if the writers and directors were even aware of bc they never addressed it and their track record isn't great-

-but they hardly do anything about it.

I'm not surprised, considering this show is headed by two white men, but what really gets me is that they all truly could have tried harder. Like I said earlier, it's clear they've done research and put thought into addressing homophobia (it still could've been handled better but that's an entirely different conversation), and it's evident from Max's s4 arc that they also did research on Depression, PTSD, and the impacts on someone of their abusive family member dying. So the lack of care and thought put into addressing racism in the same way is clearly more than ignorance (which would still be bad, when you're writing a show this big in 2023 with topics like this you're actually, shocker, responsible for making sure they're addressed properly, ignorance is a choice at that point), its just fucking lazy. they don't care. And this not caring is inherently harmful on a show this big and frankly, I'm tired of so many viewers and people in this fandom straight up ignoring this fact, just like the show runners.

And I haven't even covered the complete lack of effort put into Patrick's backstory, or the fact that Erica is very much the sassy, mature for her age black girl stereotype (she deserves so much better). Oh, And we can’t forget the copaganda.

I'm glad that season 4 started to explore the dynamic between Lucas and Erica and expand on both their characters, and from the looks of things that will continue in season 5, so the writers have a chance to do their research, actually put effort more effort into the sinclair sibling’s characters, and improve, and I'm hoping they will but as of right now I don't trust them to, and won't unless they prove me wrong.

TDLR; the main issue is that Stranger Things is clearly a show that addresses topics like depression, abuse, homophobia, and racism, but the racism part is neglected compared to the others, just like how Lucas and Erica's characters are handled poorly compared to the white characters,. it's lazy, horribly insensitive, and racist in and of itself. There's a clear bias, and even if it improves in season 5 we still should be talking about it, and more white people (yes white queer people included, we are not exempt from this discussion, if anything we should care just as much about it as when we’re talking about homophobia) in this fandom need to start listening when black and brown people do talk about it instead of just waltzing through and ignoring it for your own peace of mind.

also I should clarify that I myself am white, I made sure I did research before making this post in order to talk about this accurately and consciously, but if I made any mistakes or said something insensitive or used an incorrect term or anything else, feel free to correct me and I will readily fix it

as a final note: please check my rebligs of this for links to more posts that talk abt this issue

[chronic-escapixt]

Favorite non cannon Bonnie ships ranked:

this is just my opinion so don't come for me, but I based this ranking on character interactions, certain plot elements, and overall potential

bonnie x me - because I will treat her right, she's a baddie (not even atrocious styling could deny that face card!!), and we're already married in my head so..

jk.. but actually:

klonnie - this one grew on me when I heard joseph himself shipped them. it just makes sense that he'd be drawn to bonnie considering she's not just any other person to him. her bloodline has direct ties to his family and she's gone head-to-head against him multiple times. klaus is calculated asf from the moment we meet him so he'd probably go into their relationship trying to play with her head and keep her close as a potential tool for his own agenda (in a keep ur enemies close kinda-way), but he ends up falling for her along the way. bonnie's level-headed and mature nature would balance out klaus's more irrational chaos - maybe in a similar way klaus works with cami in the originals (my fav cannon klaus ship).

2. stefonnie - this one isn't talked about enough. remember in s1 when elena set up that dinner between her, stefan, and bonnie. elena was so set on bonnie liking stefan when they first got together. the early seasons really seemed invested in laying the foundation of stefan x bonnie with how protective he is of her. it seemed like their relationship should have only grown from there & there's no reason why it was just abandoned. plus, there's so many parallels between their plotlines: in s5 they both spend the summer indisposed (stefan drowning the whole time and bonnie being dead) and no one noticing. they couldve meaningfully bonded over that shared trauma. the otherside literally exists because bonnie's ancestor was cheated on by stefan's (original face, doppleganger?) whatever silas is - with her handmaid Amara.. so many stefonnie parrallels go ignored by the writers!

3. bonkai - one of my favorites. i wish we got more of a romantic or seggual payoff from these two bc the built up was certainly there for a darker romance kinda vibe. similar to the other villainxprotagonist couples in this show but no epic romantic payoff for bonnie i guess.. the actors' chemistry with each other in these scenes carries the ship for me & in the hands of writers that gaf about these characters it couldve been epic.

4. bamon - i know this one comes from the book & it's a fan favorite, but this actually feels more out of left field than stefonnie for me. that's not to say i don't like it. the second half of the show was for bamon and the writer's knew it. that's why they had to keep reinforcing that they're 'just friends' or else their chemistry would have turned tvd into the bamon show..

5. bonnie x katherine - i love the idea of a bi bonnie (clearly). lots of fans pair her with nora but i hate everything about the heretic storyline and the characters so i prefer katherine. they didn't interact much, but hear me out, katherine has always found herself paired with a bennett witch (emily in the 1800s, bonnie's cousin) and i think they'd be cute. i love katherine the most when she's not obsessing over the salvatore brothers or jealous of elena so i think pairing her with bonnie would offer a refreshing perspective of her character.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I’m personally a bit mixed on the senti-kid stuff.

I like it in concept because I’m a big fan of angst and existential horror, especially involving the “am I really a human/person? Am I a monster?” character arcs. Then you add in the horror of “they can have their free will taken away incredibly easily” (and be killed at someone’s whim) and that adds a whole other layer. I know that’s part of why a lot of people don’t like it, but I like the angst stuff a lot.

Having said that, I am still on the fence about it, because as much as I like the aforementioned reasons, I really hate how it was handled narratively. They do address the “can be killed easily” part a little, with Sentibug and Felix, but I think they don’t expand much on it, and don’t really stay consistant with it (like how they treat other sentis- LB controlling Sentibubbler, for example).

But the most glaring part of it for me is: having Adrien be a senti feels more like yet another reason for them to take him out of a significant action role in the story. They already did this with Chat Blanc: “oh he can’t know his dad is Hawkmoth bc he’ll destroy the world!” Then again with Ephemeral, though this time with the obvious use of the amok (Gabriel twisting the ring as he akumatized him). S5 shows him using it more and more, and has the finale with him still in control of the main villain, making it incredibly risky for Adrien to even have the Miraculous. Astruc and other fans can talk all they want about how feather kids are just magical IVF babies, and while I agree that they are human still, it blatantly ignores that having them be controlled by someone that dangerous makes them a huge risk, even if they get their amok (which is why I think there should have been some way to at least break them free of the control aspect, even if not their lives being tied to an object). (It’s also incredibly scary for the senti kid themselves.) Someone whose free will can be taken away so easily can’t be trusted with one of the most powerful objects in the world. It’s harsh, but powers like these, despite how they’re treated sometimes, can’t just be given out like candy to anyone, they need to be given selectively and carefully. Something like this can’t just be put in the hands of someone who isn’t even in full control of themselves. That’s so much responsibility to have. The narrative gave us two huge reasons that the narrative gave us for why Adrien can’t be a part of defeating his father and isn’t fit for the miraculous: 1) he’ll destroy the world, 2) he can be magically controlled and they can’t do anything about it. Why are they trying so hard to come up with reasons for why one of their main characters shouldn’t be in the role they gave him? The senti story would fit far better if Adrien wasn’t Chat Noir- I’ve read a lot of fics where things do work out, but they usually always take it in a direction that the show wouldn’t (in terms of story style and episode outline), so I don’t really think it can be successful in a canon style (though fic writers always surprise me, so I’m happy to be proven wrong).

That’s not even bringing up how Adrien’s arc was all about him obeying his father because he wants approval, not bc of magic, which… I guess can be explained away by Gabriel acting on the assumption that they made him perfect, therefore he doesn’t need to be controlled (like why Tomoe let Kagami keep her amok), but they don’t really address that on the Agreste side- how far is Gabriel willing to go? Why is he using it more now? Did Emilie use his amok? What for and why? Did the couple have a discussion beforehand? There’s just too much left open for the giant hole they created.

Sorry if this came off as ranty, but I wanted to share my thoughts as someone who does like the senti plotline, but still has frustrations with the show’s writing quality and inability to pull it off.

In another show, the sentikid stuff would have been amazing, so I don't fault anyone for liking the concept! It's a fantastic setup for a dark and twisted take on the genres that Miraculous is playing with. I could easily see that more serious show being considered a sort of sister show to Madoka Magica in terms of what it's trying to do.

The problem is that Miraculous isn't Madoka Magica. It's not trying to be a dark fantasy for teens and adults. It's trying to be a rom-com for little kids and the sentikid plotline has no place in a rom-com for little kids. It's way too serious for many of the reasons that you brought up.

For me, the biggest one is probably this point:

Someone whose free will can be taken away so easily can’t be trusted with one of the most powerful objects in the world.

Because sentimonsters do not have true free will, Adrien is a massive liability who should never be trusted with a miraculous. The risk is simply too great. He should also never be with Marinette or anyone else whose job is high stakes as he's a massive liability to them. A perfect sleeper agent who could be commanded to fool everyone until it's too late.

Great stuff if you like psychological horror, terrible stuff if you're here to see the power of love and friendship triumph over all!

There's also the issue of when the sentitwist was introduced. Madoka Magica goes from classic magical girl team show to psychological horror within the first few episodes, which is perfectly reasonable. Shows often take a few episodes to establish their tone. Miraculous doesn't introduce the sentikid stuff until season four, well over 24 hours into the show's runtime, way too late for a massive tone shift!

Add in the issues with how the sentitwist is used to downplay Gabriel's abuse and Adrien's reactions to it and, yeah, this was not a good move. I have no idea how the writing team got the higher ups to approve this twist. I'm still stunned that Disney okayed it.

I do think that Miraculous could have kept its lighthearted nature and done the sentitwist, but it would have required the sentikids to have a way to truly break free. After all, Pinocchio is a children's story and it has similar elements, but we didn't get Pinocchio. Instead we got Ephemeral, the episode where our hero stared his love in the eyes and doomed the world because he is totally incapable of being her hero when someone else has even one of his rings. That isn't a love story. It's a tragedy.

[heteromerous-rhyming]

just speculation, and after this i swear i'm going to write what i did appreciate in the show, but.

to me it kinda feels like riordan cast these three kids and went, these three children, they are my trio. and he should have! they're amazing - they're cast Very Well.

but then it feels like riordan assumed that because they already embodies the characters to him, that he didn't need to do characterbuilding in the actual fucking script. i get the feeling that the writers and showrunners are constantly both overestimating and underestimating walker leah and aryan. the scene with thalia? very much felt exposition dump. leah did what she could with she was a hero (and she kills her emotional moments, the parts that show annabeth's softness), but the themes came before the characters here and that for me feels a little unexcusable. annabeth is smart, we all know that, so riordan constantly forgets to show us that annabeth is smart. percy explains to annabeth how the lotus is in the air not the food. like HOW IS IT PERCY THAT FIGURES IT OUT BEFORE ANNABETH?

i think maybe grover/aryan got the best treatment out of them because of his scene with ares and the scene with the animals on the street, but even then the "betrayal" at the beginning felt slightly off. because percy never fully finished reacting to it (or if he did i don't remember which itself is not great)

which gets to another part of the writing / directing that's really getting to me. which is the relationships between characters, and how that's undermined by how short the scenes at the beginning of the show are. because more than half of the dialogue in the first two episodes ends up as (slightly unnatural or at least not in character exposition) and because the scenes (that is, however long a section before they cut to black and setting changes) are all wildly short (at least to me) there's no time for the characters to breathe. there are hardly any beats or pauses or just moments of breathing in a character's emotion or reaction.

going back to thalia's explanation, the scene ends after the exposition. going back further to luke showing percy around? all exposition. the subtle character moments are only in the scenes without dialogue and for a brief second at luke's introduction. there's no long scenes (from what i experienced) in the downtime, in the relatively quieter moments. only long scene i can think of was the fight with the minotaur.

even later, the scenes that are emotional and long? sally and poseidon. they don't allow grover's self-recrimination to breathe. they don't allow the panic after almost getting pulled into the Pit to breathe. the scene cuts, the emotion is squashed, and the next scene is more action, more traveling, more gods.

i think that this is partly why clarisse made such a big impression on me, because by design she can't be a part of the exposition. she's actively antagonistic towards percy, half of her scenes are some sort of action, and so the little characterization that we get of her (this time little is justified bc she's a side character) works really really effectively. you clock her character, her motivations immediately.

the scenes are getting longer. i think that this specific critique is one that will get fixed as the writers get used to the visual medium. but the rest? i really really hope that the writers realize that the characters just. need more space. i hope they trust their actors to play out these emotional scenes and i hope they give them more emotional scenes, more banter, more silly moments.

[hoeratius]

okay, asking this question is maybe the dumbest i've ever felt bc it feels like there should be a straightforward, obvious answer here, but every time i've tried to look it up, i've found nothing but pages upon pages of what feels like people talking in circles and only serving to make me more confused in the end. since you're the most knowledgable person i follow when it comes to the Classics, i figured this might be a good place to ask and maybe get an actual answer? (that being said, it's fine if you don't want to/don't have the time to answer this! obviously!!)

where can i read about the older greek myths? as in pre-trojan war. mostly, i'm interested in theseus but also just pre-trojan war stories in general. i know not everything got the iliad/odyssey treatment and there's probably not any surviving text to point at in a lot of cases, but there must've been something. every time i try to look up where to read about the history of theseus, i'm being directed to a bunch of modern retellings, but google has gotten so bad as a search engine, i literally cannot find anything about the origins of this thing everybody's retelling

from what i understand, theseus was sort of everywhere sticking his nose in everything at all times, so i'm not asking for a comprehensive timeline of his whackass life and everything he ever appeared in or anything, but if you could point me in the direction of anything about him--actual plays or academic texts, anything like that--that's more credible than, like, a self-published, self-described "bold new reimagining" with a stock image of a dude in party city roman cosplay as the cover, it would be MUCH appreciated ��

(again, sorry about how... basic this question is i guess lol? i'm very new to classics in general and still pretty ignorant about everything, so it's EXTREMELY likely that this is a very dumb question with a very obvious answer, but thank you regardless!)

Hello! What an exciting ask (and apologies for my excited and maybe incoherent answer)!

Since you seem to be most interested in Theseus, I’ll use him as an example but much of this can be applied to other Greek heroes/myths/stories more generally.

As you noted, few get the Iliad/Odyssey treatment. In fact, even Achilles and Odysseus don’t, considering the Iliad spans only 7 weeks or so, and the Odyssey misses out on Odysseus’s actions before and during the Trojan War, and after he came home – and he did a lot after he came home. So where to go to find all the other stories that happened?

Some things to keep in mind:

Writers assumed their audience was familiar with the hero’s greatest deeds already

The big boys – Achilles, Odysseus, Theseus, Perseus, Heracles, Oedipus – had their stories shared in many formats. Think of the Parthenon metopes, which show Theseus’s key deeds in sculpture, or vases, hymns, public performances, bedtime stories, etc. People would encounter these often enough that the outlines of these heroes’ stories were known to them from a young age.

One of the Metopes of the Parthenon, showing (probably) Athena and Theseus.

As a result, ancient texts never show the entire story; they select the moment they want to tell and focus in on that. Hence the Iliad focuses on Achilles’s wrath, the Odyssey emphasises his homecoming, and the Argonautica tells the story of the Golden Fleece. Similarly, tragedies will choose a meaningful moment: not all of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra’s struggles, but his return home in the Agamemnon, or the events that lead directly to Pentheus’s dismemberment in the Bakchai.

So finding one text that will give you a useful overview will be hard!

These heroes are often also connected to so many other famous characters, that sometimes they show up as a side character in their stories, so it depends on which stories capture your interest most.

Pre-Homeric texts are few and far between

But this is not to say there aren’t pre-Trojan-War myths!

There are loads! Anything with Heracles or Theseus is pre-Iliadic, and others, like the house of Pelops, link more to the Trojan War but are also separate from it. Plus, there is Hesiod’s Theogony (roughly contemporary with Homer), which tells of the births of the gods and goes all the way back to the start of the universe.

The Ovid situation

Many Greek texts are lost, and we’ve only got allusions to this or that part of the myth in the existing fragments, etc. etc. So how do we still know so much about so many of these stories?

Enter my fave: Ovid.

Far later than Homer (1st century versus 8th century BC), but with access to all the Greek texts and them some, he wrote a lot of fairly comprehensive stories. These include the Heroides, letters written from the perspective of female characters trying to connect to their male lovers, with letter 10 coming from Ariadne to Theseus, and Metamorphoses 8 with parts of Theseus’s story.

If you’re looking for a high-level overview of what was what in ancient myth, starting with the Metamorphoses will give you all the big boys and many of the smaller ones.

Theseus specifically:

I must admit that Theseus is not my strong suit, but sources I’m familiar with that I would recommend:

Hippolytus, by Euripides and Phaedra by Seneca: these both tell of Theseus’s second wife Phaedra falling for his son Hippolytus and causing his death

Catullus 64: A lament from Ariadne after Theseus has abandoned her on Naxos

Metamorphoses 8, 12, by Ovid: Snippets of Theseus’s life, incl the Minotaur

Ones I’m not as familiar with but might be up your street:

Life of Theseus, Plutarch: a historian/scholar’s biography. He had them in pairs, where he compared the two; Theseus is linked to Romulus

The Argonautica, Apollonius Rhodus: Follows Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece; Theseus is one of his heroes

Oedipus at Colonnus, Sophocles: apparently Theseus is a major side character here but I don’t remember!

There is also The King must Die by Mary Renault, a modern retelling from the ‘80s that blew me away. The only book set in ancient Greece I’ve ever read that doesn’t shy away from how alien their culture and values are to us today and doesn’t try to sugarcoat things.

And if you’re looking for more heroes: Wikipedia is your friend!

The Classics-related pages are pretty reliable, and they often mention the main sources per character.  

I hope this gets you started but please do hit me up with more questions, I always love diving into these things!

[snackleggg]

I feel like a big part of Allura's character being done dirty and feeling inconsistent comes from the writers just not really being able to write female characters very well.

What do I mean?

Well, Voltron's cast has always been primarily male (which makes sense since the og show was from the 80s) but vld gives us quite a few "strong female characters". The problem comes when you notice most of those characters are minor like Krolia or Acxa or Veronica. This means the characters can be depicted as strong and badass with any more indepth characters moments being conveniently off screen (like Krolia & Keith's time on the space whale, Veronica's time worrying over Lance's disappearance & trying to protect earth, Acxa's redemption)

But there are still female characters within the main cast and the contrast between how they are written really gives an insight to the struggle the vld writers had. The contrast between how Pidge and Allura are written is alarming.

Pidge, even after her reveal, is still written in an androgynous masc-leaning way. The characters don't even refer to her with any pronouns for seasons after her "reveal", its only in the last few seasons that the writers seemingly remember Pidge is supposed to use she/her pronouns. This is probably a byproduct of the fact that the archetype Pidge fills (the smart guy) is commonly a masc one.

Meanwhile, Allura's characterisation is butchered because as the designated "main female character" the writers just threw every single character trope at her, probably trying to make her feel "deep" and multifaceted but just made her feel inconsistent, busy, and butchered instead.

She's "the leader" initially when the paladins are first starting out but Shiro fills that role quickly so she is put in a more "support" role. She seems to be some type of "chosen one" considering her ability to connect w/ the balmera, negate haggars magic, and her natural talent w/ alchemy (the explanation seems to be that it's because of her lineage, as Alfor was the best alchemist of his time, but we never seem/know enough about Alfor or his own abilities to get a tangible grasp of what Allura's capabilities are. It's just whatever is convenient to the plot like bringing Lance back to life). She falls into the "damsel in distress" trope at the end of season 1. She's made the center of a very disingenuous and forced feeling love triangle. They try to give her a racism arc??? But fail spectacularly bc they never have like a proper heartfelt conversation about her bias, where it comes from, her recognising the damaging affects it has (the conversation she has with Keith abt it at the end of season 2 feels very "You're one of the good ones" coded which is very icky) and then the writers seemingly forget it ever happened (also it lasts like 3 episodes and consists mainly of her just glaring vaguely in Keith's direction instead of any actual confrontation/conflict between them)

Her character is all over the place. One second she is being put in "traditional" female character tropes (which she as a princess trained in combat, diplomacy, and running an entire society of people, should not be put in/have trouble with) like the damsel in distress and the love triangle. The next, she is depicted as unstoppable and a fix-all maggufin like with her alchemy & connection to quintessence. Then they also try to have her work through personal issues/flaws (which I think is what her racism arc was supposed to be???) But they never go into detail & explore said personal issues (which btw were never really alluded to before hand, kind of came out of nowhere)

TLDR: Allura's character was butchered because the writers thought mashing together a bunch of random character tropes without any deeper thought/development = interesting characterisation when really it just made her inconsistent and confusing.

[justanothermarauderr]

OKAY LOOK AT

when I first started WATCHING the Harry Potter movies ( my attention span flew out the window when I tried to read when I was younger) I was watching like any OTHER person

yk pre-wattpad, pre-ao3, pre marauders, jegulus, wolfstar , Slytherin skittles ect

yk the simple days

BUT NOWWWWWW

FAMMMMM

i have read every fanfic i could find and one of my favorite tags other then sassy ( character name) and it was

#dumbledorebashing

OR #manipulativedumbldore

I LOVE IT

bcs then yall writers start writing how smarter Harry is or how much of a better friend Ron is or making Hermione less studious

and when everything else that are basically cannon at this point to me are added all together and add in all the dumbledore bashing

✨immaculate writing✨

with that being said i went from

“ oh dumbledore is so smart” “ what a cool headmaster” freaking #dumbldore4evah 😗✌️

to like

“ fck you albus” “ you manipulative bastard” “Mr. Light Wizard who happened to fall in love with A DARK LORD HIMSELF and couldn’t even finish the job” like instead of killing grindlwald like he should have he literally just entrapped him in a fckn tower like goddamn rupunzel

it pisses me off more when it’s a harry/ tom fanfics bcs he had the audacity to be telling harry how “ tom is the dark lord” “ he’s a monster that doesn’t feel love”

mf you was lucky that tom riddle didn’t feel love or else your ass would have been swimming with fckn inferi rn for all the shit that you did to harry

anyways

yall get it, I’ve developed a … dislike towards albus however many names this faka have dumbledore

SO

after getting back and now stuck in this seemingly dark hole of Harry Potter fanfics i came to realization …

HARRY POTTER HAS THE AUDACITY TO NAME HIS MIDDLE CHILD ALBUS SEVERUS !!!

are you fckn kidding me…

AND HIS OTHER KIDS HAVE REGULAR UNDERSTANDABLE NAME

his oldest : james sirius

james for his father and sirius for his godfather see understandable

his youngest: lily luna

okay ofc his mother and luna bcs he always saw luna as such a cherished friend

and now his… middle… child: albus severus

… so let’s dissect this shall we

albus for Yk his headmaster, porfessor, mentor …

also the man who left him in a abusive and unloving household with an aunt who hated his mother ( her own sister) and magic and ofc him, the man who NOT ONLY didn’t tell him where or what the fck the other horcrux are BUT ALSO not telling harry that he was a horcrux himself and the in order for Voldemort to die HARRY HAS TO DIE TOO

oh and instead of being DIRECT about the mission he decided he wanted to be a story teller and freakn write poetry AND DECIDED TO LET 3 SEVENTEEN YEAR OLD go on a camping trip from hell while they were wanted criminals to bring down the once dead dark lord WHICH HE FCKN CREATED BY THE WAY

( honestly people it is not that hard to show a child some love and attention)

like he literally scared little tom riddle

tom: i can make things move and hurt others who have been bullying me, can you do it too?

albus: …

tom: …

albus: * sets a wardrobe on fire *

tom: 😧

albus: I’ll see you at Hogwarts, my boy 🤠* exits room*

* at hogwarts*

albus: …he’s a monster 🤡

now for the second name for this unfortunate child : Severus

okay, so… hogwarts professor/ headmaster, potions master , double spy…

the man who literally degraded you at your first day of a new school, bullied you over the littlest thing, the man who was unhealthily petty over his dead school rival which later on became extended to harry bcs … he’s James’ kid

the man who literally bullied you and your friend relentlessly and for no reason at all and the only reason he even helped harry the entire time was bcs he loved lily

like yall gotta keep in my mind, he went to the dark lord AND dumbledore to beg for LILY to live

he said fck James potter and the baby

snape didn’t give a fck about harry the he only gave a fck was if harry was in danger by freaking Voldemort

LILY was the reason why Snape didn’t deliver harry to Voldemort instead bcs think about

he HATED james potter, i mean james, sirius, remus and pettigrew, but mostly james ( and i will admit james was a toerag too) if james and harry lived Snape would have said to hell with yall i’m killing them

do you can see that i was angered and annoyed when I started to remember what harry named his children

like are you sirius…

albus Severus ?!?!?!

you could have named him after Neville or even Ron yk your best friend or hell even minnie ( magonnagall )

but not harry you just HAD to have a good ass heart and named your child after the man who manipulated you , raise you to only kill you, and a man who tormented your childhood