#brevity idk her

[red1ight]

i am home early from work today yay so i can share my thoughts re:the dc comeback

well. it's very different for them but very much the same in terms of the kpop gg landscape rn... so that's boring to me. especially the english lyrics of 'i'm flawless i'm gorgeous my black dress' are so tired, a bit eye-roll. as is the heavy use of english lyrics itself. like i know they're trying to appeal to foreign fans (esp usamerican fans since they're looking to release an english album soon) but.. why? anyway i digress that's a different conversation.. as for the structure of the song itself, it's predictable, the rhythmic speaking over the electronic synths is also very overplayed, i don't care for that.

that all being said,, i don't think the song is overall Bad like i think it's kinda fun once i get past the standards and expectations i have of their music LOL. but im frustrated because if they really wanted to go this route musically, and conform to the current trends, they could still do so much to insert their own color, which i feel like normally is their strong suit. I can appreciate that they still opted for an acoustic drum beat and electric guitar in certain places, but aside from that.. they could have at least done more to spice it up. like for the chorus, they could have messed around with the progressions and leaned more into some interesting minor chords. i wish i knew music terminology to better articulate this idea LMAO anyway

I think yoohyeon in particular has some nice parts, the prechorus is enjoyable, but for a group with such overall strong vocals, there just wasn't much at all to this song. jiu and sua were particularly underutilized vocally which is a real shame.

as for choreo - i find it boring for the same reasons, it's just like everything else you can expect from an 'i'm bad' 'girl-crush' song (do ppl still use that term? can we retire it? have we already? idk). the tiktokification of kpop choreo is disappointing, especially from them since we know what they're capable of.

i think the concept is just a bit disappointing coming from them? it just doesn't seem to fit the image they've created or fanbase they've built.. i mean i know having a somewhat 'alt' (using that term really loosely here) image in the industry will not profitable forever but.. idk maybe it would? is it better to just do the same thing as every other group rn? isn't that why so many groups fell off around 2015-ish? because there was an oversaturation of the same concepts?? idk. also im getting kind of tired of the album 'concept' never having anything to do with the title track honestly it's become a real pet peeve for me like what does this have to do with villains or the cool spooky teasers they had in the very beginning of i think last (?) month? where's the intention where's the thought where's the care where's the artistry !! i've been thinking this for a while, but everything just feels rushed and barely thought-out.

all to say that it's nothing special, it could be fun to listen to if im in the right mood and ignore the english lyrics, but disappointing (sorry realizing im using that word a lot lol) only because i have such high standards for them. so it'll most likely end up being a skip for me. oh well. i'll check out the b sides of course though

[johnslittlespoon]

Re-reading Tough and Sweet - love it! Do you have it all plotted out or are you seeing where it takes you? :)

THANK YOUUU!! <33 well the so–called TAS master doc is currently floating somewhere around 50k words, so i'm by no means normal about plotting it out lmfaooo

i would say i have about 90% of it plotted — i know all the major plot points and almost every single little one, but as for the little ones, it's more so about figuring out where to put them as i write. i definitely know what i want to have happen in each chapter, and how i want to pace things, but half the time it feels like john and gale have a mind of their own and suddenly Whoops i'm no longer in charge of what's happening lol, and then i have to accommodate and work things around a bit. so i like seeing where it takes me in that sense, but the majority of the time i stick pretty firmly to my outline. :) <3

[tootyfrootycasbooty]

very very slowly greasing the wheels and getting back onto the skysolo fic.....im 11k in babes this was meant to be a SHORT little thing.....what fresh hell

[fernsnailz]

February 2024 Review Roundup

well i sure did watch some stuff and read one book this month

the things i finished this month reminded me that for every incredible piece of art i find myself enjoying, i end up watching some Hot Garbage immediately after to balance things out again. idk why i do this.

i have quite a bit to say about both the things i enjoyed and the things that brought me physical pain this month, so there is um. a lot under the cut. any previous desire for brevity i had in january has been completely thrown out the window as i use these roundups as an outlet to gush about things i like and complain about things i didn't. fair warning, if you open the readmore you will be scrolling for a while. enjoy i guess

House of Leaves

does any other book out there have the balls to write a completely fake interview with stephen king

House of Leaves is a novel you gotta throw around a little bit. It feels really weird that my copy is still in the pristine state I bought it in - It seems like it should have water damage and smell like mildew with its pages falling out and spine cracked into pieces. Getting the full story from this book requires flipping back and forth, turning it around, searching for answers. All things considered it’s not that difficult of a read, but its format still allows you to feel like you’re discovering every hidden piece for yourself, and I really liked that interactivity. I was engaged pretty much the whole way through.

I don’t really think I’ll be able to revisit this book anytime soon though. It’s difficult for me to format what else I’d like to say about it because to be honest, it caught me off guard and disturbed me on a fairly personal level. There’s a relief I feel when I remember that I don’t actually know what was going on with the house - maybe that was intentional on the book’s behalf, maybe I just didn’t look hard enough for answers. I don’t know. But the implication that something divine was down there was enough of an answer for me. The book's good. read it if you want a spooooooky time or if you never want to look at a hallway the same way again

Doctor Who (Series 1-4) (rewatch)

ok so this is a fuckload of doctor who to cover so i’m gonna give some thoughts on a few of the characters and my favorite + least favorite episodes

9th doctor: My favorite butch lesbian. Christopher Eccleston truly embodies the concept of The Doctor so, so well: otherworldly guy who knows too much, genuinely cares about life across the universe, and also has a bit of deep, unresolved rage. His moments of joy and careless fun stick with me the most, he absolutely radiates with life and brings so much to this character.

Rose: I first watched Doctor Who when I was in middle school, and I didn’t like Rose that much back then. And guys. I have bad news. I'm still not really much of a Rose fan

I definitely understood her more this watch through - that desire for adventure and some sort of control over her life, emotions so strong that she’s willing to throw near everything away. That’s just what being 19 is like sometimes. I think Rose is a very compelling character who just happens to frustrate me a bit. And that’s kinda the point, her co-dependent relationship with the Doctor is doomed to fail and it's meant to hurt. Ultimately, I think when I first watched the show I was too young to understand Rose, and now I’m just too old to relate to her.

Captain Jack: Jack is my favorite character. I fucking love this guy. Dude has the worst luck in the whole universe and still cannot be stopped. Legendary. Every episode with him is a goddamn delight because he has so much chemistry with every single cast member. No notes 10/10 i love my problematic bisexual king

10th doctor: About four episodes into David Tennant’s run I realized that he dresses like a Hazbin Hotel character and it made me very sad. Still, there’s a reason this guy inspired every middle schooler to buy a pair of converse in 2008. He has style, he has depth, he’s got the sauce. It’s genuinely terrifying to see his anger, I like that a lot of 10’s run is about his denial of godhood and power over life in the universe, something that the rest of the time lords desired. idk i like my sad pathetic little weasel but he's also a huge fucking asshole sometimes which sucks. especially when it's directed at Martha.

Martha: Martha I am so sorry for what this show put you through. Martha was my favorite companion when I first watched the show, and I still have a huge soft spot for her. Her ability to hold her own and navigate foreign worlds using her own intelligence absolutely rules, and her drive forward is unbreakable. But the show seems to put her down at every possible opportunity, most notably with how 10 treats her. Her struggles and wants are constantly ignored, and she's often treated as a rebound from Rose. And I like that she eventually chooses to end it by not traveling with 10 anymore, but it hurts because it feels like she was never given the same chance or care that Rose and Donna were. This era of Doctor Who really doesn’t treat its black companions well because Mickey goes through something similar - both Martha and Mickey are characters designed to be ignored or left behind, and it sucks.

Donna: Donna Noble is one of the greatest fictional characters to ever exist. Despite seemingly living a fairly average life and working a fairly average job, Donna reflects the idea that no one is truly "average" and every single person is brimming with personality, life, and love. I love that her relationship with 10 is purely platonic, personally their friendship feels like it has a lot more depth than either of the romance-oriented relationships 10 had with Rose and Martha. 10 and Donna bounce off of each other so well and it's delightful, Donna brings so much humor and life to every world she's taken to and it's incredible. I wish her and Captain Jack could have interacted more.

My favorite episode: The Runaway Bride is hard to not choose as my favorite. I have a blast every time I watch this episode and it’s such a good introduction for Donna. Also the Tardis car chase kills me, I love when it cuts to the kids in the back of another car clapping and cheering. I was also surprised by the episode Midnight - it’s dreadful to watch and I kinda loved it. So much spirals out of control when shit hits the fan, even though no one has any idea what they’re trying to fight against. Really interesting exploration as to how fear can drive people apart.

My least favorite episode: It’s Love & Monsters. I wish I liked this episode - stories that follow regular ass people living in this world are often some of the best episodes in the series (Weeping Angels and all that). And this episode definitely has some of that. It’s honestly really touching to see this group of nerds get together and enjoy life in the first part of the episode. I think the antagonist of “guy who absorbs people” ends up dragging down any charm this story had because he just. eats all of the interesting characters. But despite me disliking this episode, I honestly have a deep respect for it - it’s fucking crazy. It ends with the main guy telling us about his sex life with his girlfriend who is now stuck in a piece of concrete. Where else are you going to get a story like this. It fucking sucks and that’s hilarious

oh also the production design: GODDDDDD I FUCKING LOVE THE PRODUCTION DESIGN AND SETS ON THIS SHOW. I love how dirty and rundown a lot of the spaceship sets look with wires and lights scattered everywhere. And a number of alien designs also go CRAZY with the prosthetics - I keep thinking about the Hath from The Doctor’s Daughter and how every head prosthetic had liquid inside it that could bubble. Absolutely crazy. I also love the moments where you can clearly see they did not have that much time and just had to throw something together or pain a bald cap green. Jank is the nature of sci-fi production design and I dearly love and miss that Doctor Who jank.

Rebuild of Evangelion

Last year after finishing the original Evangelion series + End of Evangelion, I remember going through the Evangelion tumblr tag and being very confused by the number of slice of life/found family-esque fanworks of the cast. It left me puzzled and thinking “...did we even watch the same thing??”

APPARENTLY NOT

[spoiler warning here because these movies are very good and i give the best parts away. if you want to watch these movies then DO IT NOW!!!!!!!!]

I honestly never expected a world where these characters got a happy ending. I so, so badly wish I could see 3.0 and 3.0+1.0 in theaters - these movies are stunning. I know I say things “go crazy” a lot, but man. They go fucking CRAZY.

While I have a few issues with how the first two movies adapted the original show, I do think the changes they made better serve the story this rebuild is trying to tell. For example, my favorite episode in the original Eva series is episode 18, where Toji is chosen to pilot Unit 03. It’s absolutely terrifying because Shinji doesn’t know who 03’s pilot is, yet he’s forced to be inside Unit 01 as it tears 03 apart. His resolve not to kill anyone despite not even knowing who’s in danger is an aspect of that episode I love and speaks to Shinji's inherent humanity, and when he learns Toji was in there it hurts even more. The rebuild movies change Unit 03’s pilot to Auska, and Shinji knows she’s in there from the start. I think this choice works for the movies and is still an effective emotional beat, but personally I still prefer the version where Shinji had no idea who was in there. That lack of knowledge is infinitely more terrifying to me.

I really like what these movies did with some of the angel designs though. The sixth angel (the fuckin. blue diamond cube thing) works really well in 3D/CG animation. The way the thing warps and moves is otherly and terrifying - and it’s just a fucking cube. I’ve always really loved how the Eva series approaches angel designs and the divine - despite the alien-like designs, there’s often something extremely familiar about them. They’re often reminiscent of an animal, a machine, or a human. This is also how they approached the anti-universe in these movies, I loved how it takes the form of various locations from the series and turns them into a movie set. It’s deeply familiar, but ultimately just an illusion of familiarity like the angels and the divine.

Also I gotta say. I fucking love Mari. I think she’s hilarious. She first meets Shinji by accidentally parachuting into him and then immediately starts crawling on all fours to sniff him. This girl also introduces “Beast Mode” where the Eva pilots can go wild turn their mechs into a fucking. superpowered beast of some sort. And also she defeats a whole army by using the Eiffel Tower as a spear. She’s such an absurd character and I honestly kinda love it. The only thing I knew about these movies before watching them was this gif of her Backing That Shit Up and she truly lives up to the insane nature of this shot.

My favorite section of these movies is definitely the first part of 3.0+1.0 where the pilots are basically just living a domestic life in a small town - it’s truly beautiful. The growth that Rei’s copy goes through here is fantastic, I love stories about seemingly emotionless beings learning how to live. And right after she dies, we get the shot that absolutely broke me the first time I saw it:

This shit. The way you can just barely tell he’s been crying from the red around his eyes. They don't talk about it, they barely linger on it, but it's allowed just enough time to punch you in the gut. I don’t know why this shot got me as hard as it did but goddamn. jesus christ. i want to throw up

There’s some goofy shit in these movies. The infinite synch rate. Misato’s stupidass hat and sunglasses. Some goofy ass 3D animation that doesn’t age super well. The rainbow that shows up every time an angel dies. But these things really didn’t take me out of the core of these films, and there’s so much genuine emotion and beauty in this series that had me absolutely hooked - especially in the last two films. They go crazy. My favorite line is 100% “The only thing a son can do for his father is pat him on the shoulder… or kill him.” and man. ain’t that what Evangelion is all about. i love these movies

High School Musical 3

kinda slaps just a little bit

High School Musical 3 starts with a finale number. The last high school basketball game of Troy Bolton’s life - and it goes kinda hard. The classic pep band brass that’s essential to so many High School Musical numbers returns, and the constant theme of two feuding cheer teams in the background? Genius. This is truly art. I love listening to Now or Never without visuals because in the middle Troy just starts coughing and gagging seemingly out of nowhere

Unfortunately, starting the movie at such a high point means that the rest of the runtime doesn’t quite match up to it. The story lags and meanders quite a bit, but part of me kinda appreciates that - it’s their last semester of high school, which is always a time of confusion and turmoil. However, I do have a pitch for how they could have countered the constant falling action this movie seems to go through:

The Wildcats should have lost their last game at the beginning of the movie.

What if the game is instead the inciting incident that leads Troy and his besties through their tumultuous last semester? Troy is still torn between basketball and theater, but his identity would be even further challenged here - is winning and success all that matters for him, or is it the love of sport and performance that keeps him going? idk whatever this movie came out 16 years ago i can’t be out here writing AUs for it jgnfsgfnjdksg

Some miscellaneous thoughts about this movie that i don’t care about formatting into larger paragraphs:

Ryan and Sharpay’s number (I Want It All) slaps as usual. The part where Ryan shouts “MADISON SQUARE GARDEN!!!!!!!” makes me so happy every time i hear it

The production design and sets go absolutely fucking crazy. I still have no idea how they pulled off the spinning hallway in Scream.

One of the classic staples of HSM is Chad’s shirts. Most of them are fairly silly and like something you would expect to find in the walmart clearance section. However, there’s one shirt he has in this movie that confused the hell out of me. It’s this one:

What the FUCK does Greenster mean. Is it just a combination of Green and Monster?? Why??? What green monster are we talking about here????? Where the fuck did this shirt come from?????????

Avatar The Last Airbender (2024)

There’s really only one word I can think of to describe what this show is like: sauceless. No flavor. No depth. No character. No sauce. This show is honestly so fucking boring and seems to fundamentally misunderstand what the appeal of the original Avatar series is - not necessarily because things are changed or removed from the original, but because nothing of substance is added in return. 

Most of the characters are mere echoes of their original counterparts when compared to their source material. Sokka is reduced to a guy who wants to fight good, Katara’s stubborn and confrontational nature is very rarely utilized, and Aang’s mischievous antics and love of fun is sorely missing. One of the major reasons for the dull interpretations seems to be the directing - While I have faith that most of these actors are trying their best (especially since a number of them are kids/young adults), the direction seems to be incredibly lackluster and takes away nearly every cast member’s stage presence or personality. There’s a number of reaction shots of the main trio that just look like this: 😐😐😐 as if they were just told to “look concerned” at the events unfolding before them. And these issues are apparent in the majority of the performances - for example, General Zhao talks like he’s in a board meeting up until the last episode, and it’s an incredibly flat performance. He talks somewhat monotone in the original series as well, but this live-action take on the character often meanders with his dialogue and lacks that sharp, terrifying quality that I think this character needs. Uncle Iroh also feels incredibly stiff in this adaptation, and it’s a goddamn crime that they took away the cunty little outfit and chains he was originally wearing when he gets captured by earthbenders. wait who said that

Credit where credit is due, there’s a few cast members that seem to be giving their best. It’s clear that Aang’s actor enjoys the role and does pretty well despite the lackluster direction and dialogue he’s given. On top of that, I think Zuko’s actor is honestly the best part of the show. His take on Zuko leans much more into teenage tendencies and sarcasm, which, although it can be silly, is a welcome take of the character in my opinion and pretty fun to watch. There’s this one line he has at the beginning of episode 2 where, in an incredibly whiny tone of voice, he goes “He RAN! The ultimate warrior! He’s a Coward :((((“ and the read is so. fucking funny

The case of bad direction isn’t limited to the performances, however. It’s also stunningly apparent in how everything is shot. Despite being in a widescreen format, most shots are incredibly centered - you could crop the entire runtime into a 4:3 frame and you wouldn’t be cutting out much of anything. I’ve seen some speculation that this was an intentional choice to make things more adaptable or readable for TikTok/phone video, but honestly I think that’s a dumb take. I think the issue stems from a lack of creativity and thoughtless composition. Keeping everything staged in the center can make shots feel disjointed, lacking much depth, or completely empty. It’s a boring way to shoot and indicates that the show lacks any unique vision at all.

Overall, this show doesn't really seem to understand what makes Avatar interesting in the first place. It's more interested in spectacle and action than the characters' relationships, emotions, and mistakes. I try not to compare it too much to the original since it's allowed to take liberties with its adaptation, but very few of its changes add much to the end result or give it a unique voice. It's just sauceless and boring.

Some YouTube videos i liked in February:

💥 My House.WAD - Inside Doom's Most Terrifying Mod (some supplemental House of Leaves material for ya) 💥 Martha Jones Deserved Better (this video explains how Doctor Who did Martha dirty better than i ever could) 💥 bringing JUSTICE to the worst garfield game 💥 Selling Kids for Clout: The Downfall of Family Channels

And that’s my roundup for February! Thank you for reading, I promise there are no more reviews left to scroll through below this goodbye. Nope, nothing else I watched this month. Bye!

…ok is everyone gone. phew, i’m glad no one noticed i pulled an hbomberguy and hid the largest part of this post under a false ending. Anyway holy shit i need to talk about hazbin hotel

Hazbin Hotel

well i didn’t like it

Hazbin Hotel is a weird, fascinating mess of a show. Every episode left me wondering what creative decisions (or lack thereof) led to the sequence of images I just watched. There’s been a lot of discussion of this show recently and I’m not interested in covering every critique I have, but there’s a few things that I'd like to talk about somewhat in-depth.

Hell is real and it's just Red Chicago

The setting of Hell is kinda boring in this show.

Let me try to put this into perspective. Aside from the hotel, here’s a list of the locations we see in Hell:

A boardroom

A video store

Vox’s evil lair (it has cyber sharks which is kinda cool)

Various streets

Another boardroom

A BDSM club

Carmilla’s house (it’s gray and has. balconies?)

A porn studio

A bar

Another bar

A town square (full of cannibals)

None of these locations really take on any sort of otherworldly form besides some vague demonic imagery scattered throughout (and the cannibals. i guess. whatever). In short, Hazbin Hotel’s setting resembles Chicago more than it does Hell.

I can see a world where that’s intentional. Perhaps making Hell resemble a modern city could be used as a thematic tool or point of relatability? But Hazbin doesn’t really do anything like that - since the characters rarely ever interact with their environments, these locations end up seeming like they lack creativity, like they’re just cardboard sets where characters go to swear. They all start to blend together after a while - every street feels the same, every boardroom fades into the background, and every bar feels like a google image search result for the word “club.” This world feels stunningly empty despite the busy designs and colors. Even though the backgrounds are painted and designed fairly well, nothing of substance is ever really added to them through the story.

However, a few musical numbers take effort to break away from these settings. This felt like a weight off of my shoulders whenever it happened, it was nice to see some interesting setpieces and backgrounds that weren’t red. I liked the bombastic and over-the-top broadway lights in Loser and the glowing alternate world in Charlie and Lucifer’s song. But these moments are few and crowded by the dull locations in Hell - or worse, the Hotel itself.

Despite being the namesake of the show, the actual Hazbin Hotel is… lifeless. Which, yeah, it’s a hotel where dead people go in the afterlife, but it’s missing any sort of personality or history besides “it’s old and falling apart.” I expected the hotel to be full of secrets - like maybe some hidden passages or rooms, or mysterious cabinets full of rotted meats, or old valuables hidden under the rugs by the previous owners. Something for the cast to explore and discover, and as they get closer to each other they also start to understand the hotel more. Alastor seems very intent on keeping the physical hotel standing for some reason, but I never really understood why. There’s nothing there. And that nothingness is fully realized when at the end of the show, they just rebuild the entire hotel to be grand and beautiful - an emotional beat that didn’t hit me at all because I never felt like I knew the hotel in the first place. Despite rebuilding it from the ground up, it will feel just as empty.

3 SHOTS THAT DRIVE ME CRAZY

I was truly baffled at how some of these scenes are timed and put together. Multiple sequences left me feeling nauseous and dazed - the camera moves like it’s being swung on the end of a rope, and there’s so many misplaced or meaningless cuts scattered through these episodes.

There’s a sequence of three shots in the first episode that I want to dissect. I will fully admit that I'm breaching nitpicking territory here, but the shot composition issues in this show are pretty rampant and my analysis here is just a hyper-specific look at a single part of that larger problem. Hopefully you can also use it as a quick storyboarding lesson too idk

First, we see Adam teasing Charlie.

Then, it cuts straight to this shot:

A few things here. 

Shot 2 is just closer on the characters, which is not a great idea to cut to after the previous waist-up shot. On top of being a jarring jump cut, there is no purpose for this new shot. All the information we see here (Adam laughs, Charlie fake laughs) could have just been conveyed in the previous shot.

Despite the characters being in the same position as the last shot, the background changes. This straight up just feels like an error. I think the idea is supposed to be that the camera is at a different angle, but the position of the characters does not convey that. It looks like reality changes behind them.

And if that’s not enough, this is the shot we get immediately after those two:

In this shot, the residents of the hotel sit on the couch as Vaggie walks into the shot, framing them between her legs. But there’s something… off.

Vaggie either looks like she’s floating or she’s three stories tall. Quick storyboard lesson as to why:

The main problem with this shot is that the perspective of the background doesn’t match up with where Vaggie is placed. The couch is framed as if the camera were above it, but Vaggie is framed like the camera is floor-level below her. I’ve traced the shot and added a perspective grid to hopefully better illustrate this:

Do you see what I mean? If the camera WAS actually on the floor like Vaggie’s position in the shot suggests, the composition would look more like this:

Notice how much closer the floor grid is to the bottom of the frame and how you can see the underside of the couch.

And to be fair, this is probably what the original storyboard for this shot looked like! Personally I think something went wrong in the compositing stage - this might be a couch background from another shot that was reused here to save time, or whoever approved this shot just let the error slide since the shot is so short (i've been there. sometimes you let the jank slide). Most animated shows will have some poorly framed shots and continuity errors because mistakes are bound to happen, but two egregious ones right next to each other like this is. pretty bad. It's so noticeable from a directing perspective.

Here’s the thing: these three shots happen in the span of like 10 seconds. Most viewers probably wouldn’t notice these issues, and that's fine. But even though these errors are quick, they stack upon each other so fast that even if you can’t pinpoint exactly what’s wrong, something still feels wrong. There’s so many other moments where the show breaks extremely basic shot composition, continuity, and staging rules - for example, the second musical number of the show breaks the 180 rule like four times for no good reason. The whole show feels like a dizzy, nauseating mess because the shots rarely feel like they form anything cohesive.

MY ROOMMATE TOLD ME TO GO TO BED SO HERE ARE SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

Here’s a rundown on some other thoughts that I don’t care to format into larger sections:

The show seems to lack much to say about sin and redemption other than “redemption good.” like sure, but what are they being redeemed from? Is heaven truly the place they deserve to go after being redeemed, even though it’s shown to be unjust? Are there sins that are too great to be redeemed from, or others that shouldn't be considered sins at all? I asked myself a number of questions like this, but never got many answers from Hazbin.

This show has a bad relationship with kink and sex. Both are mostly used as a punchline or a form of control. I didn’t like it. Perhaps the reason Hazbin never really comments on the nature of sin is because it needs you to consider sex and kink sinful or otherly for these jokes to hit.

Some of the animation is crazy good. I will praise any animator that even attempts to make these character designs move. A number of extremely talented people worked on this show, a few of the musical sequences in particular have some incredible movement.

Alastor is a very boring character. It’s wild that most of the side characters in this show only exist to talk about how much they like or hate Alastor, he mostly just stands to the side of some shots or kills random nameless goons. I expected him to have a much larger role in the story, but he just gets his ass kicked in the final episode and then crawls back to the hotel.

Episode 4 is the most cohesive, and i think Angel is the best character in the show. Unfortunately, the fact that Hazbin takes so much effort to show Angel’s misery left me… concerned? None of the other characters get treated as poorly as Angel by the narrative. There’s a few smaller explorations of trauma, but nothing remotely compares to what Angel is put through on-screen. This isn’t to say that I think the whole cast needs to be extremely traumatized and constantly miserable, but rather that I find it concerning that the only character subjected to incredibly graphic abuse and torture (that we see or hear about) is the gay sex worker. Which sucks, because I think the concept of hypersexuality resulted from sexual abuse is an important topic worthy of discussing in adult media. I just think they tried to execute this theme without much critical thought beforehand.

I think the voice cast does a fantastic job for the most part. Keith David is way too good for Husk.

I really liked the one shot where Charlie opens her phone and we see that she has a contact for every individual egg minion.

I was very brave and got through this whole review without talking about my new least favorite character of all time, Vox. here’s what I think of him:

The overall vision and end result of Hazbin Hotel is just mediocre. While I don’t know what led to the messy state this show ended up in, my guess is that it was probably the result of inadequate direction, sloppy writing, and lacking creative support from the studios involved. Because of this, please understand that I have no desire or intention to put down any individual artists that worked on this show - I hope it's clear that most of my criticisms are directed at the larger vision these artists were given to execute and/or the lack of creative support they received while working on this show.

I also don’t really have much desire to participate in any further Hazbin discussion or discourse because it has wasted enough of my time already and I want to be free of this curse. please spare my inbox from hazbin hotel discourse. please. i'm begging.

You want to know what the most fucked up thing about this is though? Despite everything I said about Hazbin, Avatar the Last Airbender 2024 is still the worst show I watched this month. I would take Hazbin over Avatar 2024 literally any day.

well if you got this far. thanks for reading. also sorry you read all that. whelp alright back into my hole i go bye bye

[backjustforberena]

I was mucking about with HOTD S2 scenes:

I wanted to add something for Baela here because she feels important in 2x05 but the first time we see her, which is in this scene with Jace, she's inferior to his narrative. She's there not because she's Baela, necessarily, but because Jace needs a scene partner and the Twins need explaining.

And when this is the first time we've seen her after she's lost her grandmother: a pivotal person in her life, there was something missing in terms of introducing her mindset. So I've tried to address the balance whilst keeping the thrust of the scene and the brevity.

With this small addition, not only do we have Jace actually acknowledging and noticing the difference in Baela's temperament and the grief she's under, but it possibly achieves other things:

Explains why she's in her dress over any of her more masculine looks, associated with the council and/or dragon-riding. Baela hasn't been in a gown since Episode 01 and won't be when she goes to High Tide in her third scene of the episode.

It explains what she's doing in the library - and by making it an attempt to write to Rhaena, there is a reminder of the sisterly bond.

Introducing the fact that Baela may feel alone, possibly the responsibility Baela might feel in delivering the news to her beloved sister and the difficulty she's having processing Rhaenys's death - being unable to find the words.

And perhaps the implication that action, to her, is also far more desirable than sitting around: she wants to act and would prefer it - whether that's because she doesn't see words as particularly useful, fears they are losing, or she wants to retaliate for Rhaenys's death, idk.

Adds to the honesty between the characters - Jace knows she's lying, Baela feels free to vent a little bit, but also express her displeasure at the situation and her frustration - and feed into why Jace has enough intelligence to tell his mother, later, that Baela is bearing a burden.

It would also help in being a bit of a wake-up call to Jace. He says she's sent out to scout and night but she informs him that patrols are, at the moment, forbidden, which could be new information for Jace. She reminds Jace that he's not the only one who is feeling tied down or otherwise annoyed at how things are - he is not the only one in pain, either.

Gives the audience a bit more background into the Blacks's reaction to Rook's Rest - so a stop to Baela's patrols not only because Cole has headed straight back to King's Landing but also because Rhaenyra now fears the Greens' dragons more than she did, is feared for Baela and just generally feeling the loss of Meleys and Rhaenys.

Gives a tiny little attempt at some form of episode narrative for Baela - finding a way to be productive and reinforcing her role in the war. We have Baela wish for a task, getting a task (her scene with Rhaenyra) and then carrying that task out successfully (her scene with Corlys).

It's not perfect but it would have been something. So I thought I'd share.

[averseunhinged]

what are your top ten favorite klaroline fics?

hello, friend! so glad you asked. this is more than ten, and i have more in my bookmarks, plus there's stuff on ffn, but this has been 90m of my life, because i am incapable of brevity or culling. i'll probs do a part two? maybe? idk. i'll try.

fine china and dull silver by@yespumpkindoodlesthings

wrote a review here!

where it begins: by endoftheline7

i've been trying to write a review of this for fic rec friday for a month, but i just have so many incoherent screamy thoughts about it. it's one of my favorite reads on both klaus and caroline and plays with the idea that vampires are always a little bit the age they were when they died, no matter how old they get, and spins it into a sort of teen summer romance. klaus is mostly awkwardly thrilled to hang out with caroline, but still has a moment of oh, right. he's batshit and full of murder. caroline's less perfect qualities aren't glossed over. they're fully confronted and caroline doesn't just accept those things. she begins to learn how to turn them into strengths. also, i think about that conversation between rebekah and caroline at the beginning a lot. the whole thing about it not being their responsibility to correct the behavior of the awful men in their lives, but the alternative is to let those men burn themselves out, and that option sucks, too. very hmmmm. so much thoughts.

a statement for the masses (series, but it's one longer fic plus a short one shot) by but_seriously

i don't usually like human au in this fandom, because i think it's hard to make klaus human and in character without him being more awful than i can stand. like he ports pretty well to a shitty billionaire, but ew. corpo romance. not for me. rock stars, however? perfect. i love the rivalry. i love the family drama. i love the complicated relationship between rebekah and caroline.

leave the dust behind by whirly

tons to say about this, but it's mostly all about the ending for me. it's open, so if you like a strict hea resolution, it's probably not going to be a satisfying read for you. but i love this sort of slow ticking over of caroline's thought progression while she figures out what her relationship with klaus could or should be. there's a sort of balance between her own developing moral code and klaus's atrocities that needs to be struck. most of all, i love klaus's faith in her and his belief that they'll figure it out eventually.

someone that'll look like you by @cupcakemolotov

i probably don't need to talk this one up, but whatever. it's super popular for valid reasons. it has a number of my favorite things. amnesia! a more interesting augustine society! enzo! caroline being a stone cold badass! the dichotomy of klaus being both ancient and immovable and willing to bend for what caroline needs! all delicious things.

there's a devil on my shoulder where the angels used to be (and he's calling me the queen) by meet_the_girl_who_can

my favorite no humanity caroline fic. i have such a love/hate relationship with the humanity switch. it could have been so interesting, but tvdu mostly made it silly and samey and boring. this is more in line with what i can see caroline getting up to with her humanity off. like why would she just hang around mystic falls? other than the shitty budget of this shitty show, i can't think of a reason why she would. and i really enjoy how smart klaus knows he has to be with her. she's still caroline, but she can't be careful with him with her humanity off, and that has to be a scary prospect, because she was capable of hurting him badly when she did reluctantly care about him.

the fate makes for a lousy poet (longer fic plus a short one shot companion) by @stars-and-darkness

so. like so many of us, i love soulmates au, and this is probably my favorite in this fandom. but the part i go back to the most is the second fic. i love elena so much, because of that dichotomy of compassion paired with a near total inability to relate her own feelings and needs to those of other people, not in spite of it. she's a really interesting character and ella's treatment of that is so deft. elena absolutely cannot equate her own situation with caroline's, despite it being so obvious from the outside, because she's so mired in her own suffering and the indulgence of almost everyone she's ever known. she's simultaneously cruelly selfish and extraordinarily selfless and it's a wonderful read, as is the first caroline + mikaelsons fic. ella always writes concepts and does character work in a way that makes me go YES THAT EXACTLY THAT.

like the sun shines by @lalainajanes

this is like my #1 wish it wasn't unfinished fic, but i also absolutely do not care that it isn't finished, because it's just so much fun. canon barely goes here, which is so very favorite. i love a mostly everyone lives (contemptuously with each other) au. and i love caroline traveling the world. and i love caroline and bonnie in new orleans with secret, (probs) very important business. and i love a klaus who is still kind of the worst.

lost in the right direction (again, a series) by @kirythestitchwitch

there is nothing i love more than klaus and caroline traveling the world together and just doing stuff. all vibes, minimal plot. this series is A+++ murderfluff and it's enormously engaging, watching them figure out themselves and each other and whatever they have the potential to be together. totally one of my comfort reads

feel the madness closing in by yokan/@galvanizedfriend

this one is ugly and sad and awful and such a realistic take on caroline in new orleans during the events of the originals. i love so many things about it, but caroline's thoughts about whether he's been cursed or gone mad or if it was simply that klaus wasn't capable of loving someone without treating them like a possession are on point.

leave my rage to the sea and sun by sophisticatedfangirling

another ugly one. as much as i love that klaus never compels caroline, i can't help but think if he fucked up badly enough and felt like he'd lost everything else, too, he'd probably do it. this is so sad and slides pretty seamlessly into canon.

bride by brombones

this is one of those surprisingly layered, literary flavored fics. i'm planning on writing a dedicated review at some point (lololololol), but the very basic gist is caroline runs an experiment with klaus's blood and manages to completely fuck up her life to the point where she'll never be able to escape him, even if he never finds out the results. it is WILD with a fantastic use of silas that makes me want to shriek incoherently.

[roseamongroses]

something about the history of spider-byte's name (and intial lack therefore of a last name) is calling to me. like even now that margo has a last name, ppl still don't recognize her civilian identity bc of how little screentime she had and the brevity of the comic appearance.

hmmmm ok i've marinated. idk much about tech so take the terms with a grain of salt and just focus on the emotional story. think i have some headcanons:

margo lives in a society where it's common to use virtual reality to escape/ experience life but margo is actually one of the more extreme cases of this escapism

she's friendly with others, something doesn't seem to be wrong, but her peersknow she's always connected to the vr/always online. they don't notice how little they know about her home life or about her, despite her being familiar with everyone else.

-

and this disconnect only becomes worst once she takes on the mask of spider-byte. helping people in the way she's always desired to be helped is fufilling, but it doesn't take long for margo to become lost in her online persona.

-

the longer she spends as spider-byte, the more the two worlds blur. and once she gains the ability to physically manifest her avatar, her spider abilities begin to transfer into her irl body

-

at first margo was excited about this change. she could finally be the hero she wanted to be inside and outside of her vr- headset, but she quickly discovers that her bodily automony is being manipulated.

-

sometimes her skin glitches, changing into a rainbow of colors without her say-so (she'd have to fake sick to avoid questions from her peers/parents) . sometimes when she splits her avatar her body doesn't immediately return and if it does it never feels the same. as if data is missing.

-

but most obvious is that her understanding of humanity--of herself changes. not in a cruel way, but she feels an alienation from human connection that she'd never experienced before. she saves the day, not because of her childhood desire to do good, to be saved and save others, but because it is her avatar. it is her purpose as spider-byte, not the dream of margo kess.

-

it's when margo catches herself refering to herself spider-byte, even when she was outside of vr relaxing that she begins to investagate further.

-

she begins to question her relationship with the cyber crime police department and how easily they accepted her" "vigilatism"/ eventually she tracks down conversations between the department and an unknown scientist/ leading cyber security company. i'm thinking of this being her "doc oc" connection, but im open to other villian parallels tbh

-

the thing is this "doc oc" knows that margo has been tracking them . they think its funny. they're facinated with their experiement and are very willing to play along with the investagation as long as they get to observe their subject.

-

the fact that margo got "bit" was part coincidence. the program/ bug was sent out to find a suitable host. someone isolated, someone online for long hours to properly conduct the experiement, someone who had the need to escape and become something more.

-

it could've been anyone. they were meant to be corrupted entirely by the program, only leaving behind a husk irl as they accepted their new reality. but margo was different her need to do good was so great that it redirected the prgrams goals entirely. allowing for her persona of a hero to infliratrate her real life and vice versua in a way "doc oc" had never seen before

-

doc oc at first wanted to let margo live as a hero . but her changing the bug--resisting its intended purpose intrigued them more. it wasn't enough to collect data on the experiement spider-byte anymore. now doc oc needed to break her. to rebuild her and understand what makes her so special

-

and this back and forth does mean margo loses a lot. some days she doesn't even remember her last name. but she's motivated now to reclaim her life, her heroism, and make sure no one else is taken advantaged ;like this again

[cahhly]

stupid, stupid love

word count: 1.6k (brevity?? we don’t know her)

warnings: none? this is pure fluff, maybe a little angst if you like close your eyes and spin in a circle

a/n: im realizing im bad at ending fics. idk man brain just go brrrrrr and i keep TYPING. very sorry.

eddie should’ve known this is how things were bound to end up. really, he should’ve seen it coming. instead he chose to ignore all the big, red warning signs, like your stupid soft skin, skin that set his ablaze by a simple brushing of hands. like your stupid smile, a curving of plush lips that eddie would sacrifice his left hand for, just to watch it grace your stupid face. like your even stupider general presence, your simple existence that has weaseled it’s way into the hardest parts of him, the one’s that even he was afraid to look at sometimes. you’ve made a stupid home inside his stupid chest, and it warms him from the inside out, sometimes burning so hot eddie was convinced he’d spontaneously combust.

he was fucked. absolutely, and irrevocably, fucked as he shifts nervously on his stupid bed, watching you from the corner of his eye, sat diagonally opposite him and leaned in to paint swooping lines of black on his fingernails. his room bathed in a soft, warm light from a the evening sun peeking through his blinds, casting a halo of light over your head. you look like a an angel, he thinks to himself, his stupid throat constricting with sense of yearning.

eddie’s convinced he’s surely going to vomit all over his comforter, the smell of nail polish and your stupid perfume filling his senses, bat wings fluttering in his stomach. your hands are so delicate and precise, each stroke of polish perfectly placed and intricate, painting with the expertise of an artist, touch always so gentle and careful with him, only ever for him. he didn't want to interrupt the moment, but his pulse races as he watches your brows furrow with concentration, hands itching to reach up and smooth the creases between them.

a warmth creeps up eddie’s cheeks as you bring his fingers to your lips, red hot scalding from the tops of ears to the tips of his sock clad toes, your eyes finally meeting. an unexpected feeling begins to settle in his chest, and oh god, please god, don’t let him be having a stupid fucking heart attack. his breath stutters, this feeling wrapping around his lungs and heart, squeezing relentlessly. you’re looking at him so softly, like he’s something to be hung up in one of those art museums you talk about so often, it’s almost unbearable.

eddie can’t seem to focus on anything but you, your graceful hands holding his, your soft voice humming along to his metallica record, and the way your warm breath is fanning across his skin, goosebumps rocketing against his already much too hot flesh, and fuckfuckfuck he’s going to pass out. he wanted nothing more than to turn his attention away, and focus on something else, anything else at all, but with every puff of breath from your puckered lips, he’s drawn deeper and deeper into you, your warm aura calling to him.

finally leaning back and looking over his hands, touches of color highlighting his skin, the corners of your lips pull up into a satisfied smile. a smile that seemed to stretch from one end of the room to the other. a pang of disappointment ricocheting through eddie at the sudden loss in proximity, realizing the moment was over and you would be gathering up your things to leave soon. his brain scrambled for a reason for you to stay, just a few moments longer, he didn’t want to have to miss you yet.

standing from his bed and swinging your bag over your shoulder, you squeeze eddie’s shoulder gently, “i’ll call to let you know i made it home, alright eds?” you say sweetly, making your way to his bedroom door

“wait!” eddie called out, his voice coming out a bit louder than he intended, startling you both. his heart was pounding as you turned around, looking at him with a mix of surprise and intrigue in your eyes. 

“waiting” you respond, an amused smirk on your face. 

eddie swallowed, feeling his face flush even darker than before, surely his skin was melting off like some kind of shitty horror movie. he was desperate for an excuse, to say something that would make you stay, but all the words seem stuck in his throat as his mind goes blank.


“i, uh, i know you have to go soon, but uh - do you maybe have time for a joint?” eddie’s tongue feels like lead in his mouth, words rushing out and somehow slurring all at once, “i got a new record, too, we could yknow uh.. listen to it together? maybe just sit and talk?” he murmurs, mentally facepalming so hard he could almost physically feel it. sit and talk? SIT AND TALK? he couldn’t even bring himself to calmly ask you to hang out a little bit longer, what in the absolute fuck was he going to have a CONVERSATION about?

“you know i can’t say no to you” you chide playfully, those 8 little words piercing eddie straight through the sternum. he just knew that if he looked down he’d see blood pouring from his chest - a stain spreading from the center of his shirt, absolutely drenched in the ruby red of words unspoken, red of desire, red of craving, of pining, of aching. he wondered if maybe you could see it, too.

sitting thigh to thigh with you on his bed, eddie exhales with a satisfied sigh, the soft spinning of his new record and the mellow smell of weed fuzzing his brain just enough to almost distract him from the way your body heat was seeping into him from hip to calve, singeing his flesh through the thin layer of his jeans. the way you looked so pretty this way, eyes rimmed red and hazy from the effects of the joint, thick smoke dancing across your face in soft swirls, having the audacity to kiss your cheeks the same way eddie longed to do. the way he could wrap his arms you, and fall backwards into his sheets right now, and cradle you close. lull you to sleep with all these sweet nothings trapped behind his teeth - almost.

“eddie?” your soft voice calls, snapping him from his self indulgent thoughts, “hmm?” he rumbles, eyes finding yours quickly.

you pause before continuing, face scrunching up in something that resembles a grimace, and eddie can practically smell the smoke leaking from the cogs in your head. almost instinctively, he’s reaching over, resting soothing hand on your leg. “take your time, sweetheart.” he mutters reassuringly, trying to squash down the bubbling anxiety in his own stomach. eddie knew you two were friends, he would even go as far as to say best friends, but that tiny voice in the back of his mind can’t help but remind him that you are YOU. beautiful, wonderful, kind and caring, friendly with everyone - you. and he is him. freak, outcast, wretched and wrecked, him.

eddie’s throat was closing, maybe you’re realizing you could have a more than him, be more popular without him, avoid scalding gazes and venomous whispers if you got away from him, and you were trying to let him down easy, and oh god is it hot in here? he can’t breathe, he can’t breathe, he can’t-

“i think i’m in love with you.” your voice is almost inaudible, a barely there nervous quiver, and eddie freezes, ripped from his spiraling. his world shakes, rattles and rolls from his grasp. he can feel his eyes widening, can feel his heart skipping over beats, feel his most vital of organs creating a cacophony of wrong signals inside of him - but it’s not HIM, no, he’s observing this moment from across his bedroom, physical form frozen in place.

time passes, or maybe it doesn’t, eddie isn’t positive. your cheeks are flushed, eyes wide and wet - and suddenly you’re looking away from him, “I uh...I uhm,” your lips are trembling, your fists are white knuckling eddie’s sheets, and his brain is screaming at him to do ANYTHING. SAY ANYTHING. because he can hear the lump in your throat as you stare at your feet, “sorry. maybe i should go.“ you’re reaching for your bag, getting ready to stand up, and eddie can feel his chance slipping through his fingers like sand. panic sets deep within his bones, his mind blurs the edges of rationality because YOU are in love with HIM. sweet and kind and gentle and gracious you, in love with rough and tattered and foul mouthed him.

you’re in love with him.

you’re in love with him.

you’re in love with him.

he’s not really sure what happened next, but next thing he knows, his lips are against yours, soft and electric at the same time – like nothing he'd ever experienced. he’s carefully pulling you closer, head swimming, feeling you sigh and gladly complying with the situation at hand.

you taste like contentment, euphoria, bliss. like years of yearning, longing, loving from a distance. late night phone calls, comforting words and inside jokes. rolling paper, honey scented chapstick, and home.

finally parting for air, eddie seemed to come to his senses. you hovered only inches away and grinned at him, all teeth and dreams come true, cheeks flushed red. 

“so,” you laughed, “that was definitely worth the wait.” 

eddie couldn't help but smile back, heart still thundering in his chest. he could feel his face mirroring your rosy hue, but he didn't mind anymore. you were right, the wait had been more than worth it.

[shrinkthisviolet]

So I noticed your tags on a reblog a while ago about how you had a problem with The Flash - and I'd love to know more about what you thought of it overall (as I understand that the later seasons took something of a nosedive in quality.)

Oh boy 😅 I could go into depth about my problems with each of the seasons, but honestly, for the sake of brevity, I’m just gonna abbreviate the major problems I have for each season:

Season 1

—Iris should’ve been looped in sooner, especially given how many times she was put in danger by not knowing

—The waterfront kiss and the lightning psychosis bs is stupid—I’m glad the first thing was erased, and I try to ignore the second thing. There’s nothing romantic/funny about cheating or justifying it

—Eowells should’ve been killed off normally, not by being erased from existence (because?? How does the timeline still exist??)

Season 2

—Zoom’s motives were incoherent, and he’s only a good villain because of his menace factor

—Wally and Jesse should’ve both gotten powers from the accelerator, not just Jesse

—Jesse should’ve had Zoom-related trauma that impacted her ability (and desire) to be a speedster in s3

—Eliza Harmon should’ve been a WOC like in the comics, and she deserved a better storyline and she deserved to live, yes I’m still mad about this.

Season 3

—Savitar. In general. Wtf (existence makes no sense, him being a wannabe god instead of just Future Barry is boring, and also he was only interesting in the finale. By which point he should’ve been dead anyway. Also there’s no mf way he could’ve actually killed Iris bffr)

—Killer Frost. Incoherent—her siding with Savitar makes sense with the s4/s5 retcons, but those are from seasons when she regressed as a character imo. Also I never liked the split personality idea

—Iris being the only one at risk means there are no stakes because she’s the main female lead and would never really be killed off. All of Team Flash should’ve been at stake, with the possibility teased that they might disband permanently.

—Flashpoint was wasted potential and tbh should’ve happened after s1. Or at least it should’ve been more deeply explored here. But in any case, it feels cheap to have this after Barry already fully came to terms with his mom’s death in s2 (I know, it was grief over his dad, but still. It undercuts a fantastic episode)

—The time loop setup is nonsensical and impossible. Breaking it means that s3 never happened. No one should remember anything that happened this season.

—Caitlin and/or Frost never apologized to Iris for being an accessory in her attempted murder (and in s4, Frost threatens her life again!! Yay!! Friendly bonding!!)

Season 4

—Can someone tell me why tf Team Leader suddenly became a thing? I swear the closest the Team ever had to a Team Leader was Eowells, way back in s1. The idea of a Team Leader after that feels too hierarchal for them, idk why that was introduced

—Caitlin worked with a human trafficker of her own volition (and Frost too, this was presumably a decision made by both of them) and yet she is only held accountable in one line (“Where have you been the last 6 months again?”) and it’s quickly swept over by making Amunet into a ditz and ignoring the fact that she is a human trafficker

—Bodyswap plot was weird, DeVoe should’ve just taken their powers

—Marlize never had any clear motives after she gave up her ideals to side with her husband.

—The Thinker in general is just stupid tbh

—Caitlin and Iris barely got to be friends, and after this season, they may as well not have been. Caitlin was also unnecessarily snippy to Iris this season too (“we will, Caitlin” “no. I will” + “I’m your friend, Caitlin” “work friend”). This is a general problem with this show—female friendships are given lip service at best and no room to grow

—Barry and Iris deserved a proper wedding that wasn't interrupted

—Thawne did not hate every minute of pretending to be Harrison Wells, that is garbage writing and fundamentally misunderstands his character

—Barry should've killed Thawne in this crossover. He was so close!! WHY (and they still could've brought him back later if they really needed to)

Season 5

—Both Cicadas sucked, and the father-daughter Orlin-Grace/Barry-Nora parallels fall flat when you remember a) Dwyer literally hates Grace until she’s comatose and b) those parallels only get mentioned in one conversation

—I wasn't too fond of Cisco giving up his powers, it felt like a strange decision, especially since he gets them back briefly in Crisis and somewhat permanently in s7. I've talked about that more here (definitely read all the additions too!)

—Iris’s angle in the argument with Barry should’ve been “no one works with Thawne, they’re manipulated by him” not “it doesn’t bother me that our daughter worked with the man who half-orphaned you, threatened my life, hurt everyone on this Team, and killed my fiancé”

—Nora acts wayyy too young for being 25-28. She should’ve been 18-20. She very much gives off the vibes of a young adults who’s newly independent (and this further ties into the themes of legacy, which is a theme usually present in YA stories, with teenage/young-adult protagonists. Obviously the theme of legacy can be present in any story, but this presentation of it is usually prominent in YA stories)

—Nora having the NSF should’ve occurred at the end of s5, not during 5x20. Would’ve been more poignant if she had to choose between keeping it and becoming Thawne, or giving it up and dying a hero 😭 and her having the NSF in canon came across more as a temper tantrum than her being corrupted by a destructive force.

(Hey also why tf do people remember Nora after she’s erased—)

Season 6

—Loved Iris having a fleshed-out journalism arc, especially going forward, but her journalism career should’ve been reintroduced a while ago. Possibly even in s4 (beyond just a scant mention of her writing an article about DeVoe)

—Thawne should’ve been in Crisis. Especially over Lex mf Luthor

—The Mirroverse arc is…ugh. I don’t love the idea of Iris being replaced with an evil alter and no one noticing for an entire half-season. And an important Westallen conversation about Iris’s agency happening with Mirror Iris, not real Iris!

—Mirror Iris had sex with Barry under false pretenses. And gloated about it. But five minutes later, we’re supposed to feel sorry for her?? Yikes

And now we’re on to my least favorite seasons! Not a lot of points here, but that’s because out of all the bad stuff, I’m just picking the egregiously bad stuff:

Season 7

—Iris being saved by an emotionless Barry is weird and they both deserved better than that

—Chillame is the worst character this show has ever made. Or at least the top 5

—Eva is a dumb villain who wasn’t even compelling to watch. She was very one-note and…I don’t even remember her motive??

—The Forces arc is bizarre. I don’t like how they personified literal forces of nature, it’s dumb. And them calling Barry and Iris “Mom” and “Dad” is worse

—Frost’s arrest storyline was bs. I was honestly kinda excited, because I hoped she’d face some consequences for the stuff she did in s3 and s4, but…nope!! Kramer’s a bad guy who hates all metas!! And Frost (a white woman) gives a speech modeled after the BLM movement!! It’s gross.

—idk much about Godspeed in the comics, but he was definitely done dirty here. And that’s not even mentioning the stupid lightsaber fight…and the fact that Barry just…lets Thawne go?? And says “yeah, he’ll be back one day, but that’s Future Us’s problem.” Speaking of which…

Season 8

—Well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequence of Barry Allen’s actions. We get Armageddon, which is compelling for the first half and drops off in the second half. The logic is faulty (how is Barry the RF when Thawne killed him as a kid? Why does Iris love Thawne just because he’s the Flash?), some of the stuff in this arc is arophobic (“why don’t you love love?”) and tbh the Chester/Allegra romance is very forced, I’m not a fan. Cecile trying to one-up Iris regarding grieving Joe was also very gross

—Iris’s time sickness is so ridiculous. It started back in s7, but the show acts like it started in s8 because of the Negative Forces. It’s awful and it’s another excuse to rob Iris of agency. It should’ve just been a pregnancy…or scrapped entirely

—So regarding Caitlin's grief and Barry's response...honestly, so many problems would be solved if these characters consistently went to therapy, especially Caitlin. She always reacts to grief destructively. Barry, however, shouldn't have responded by destroying everything in her lab instead of...idk relocating her and having a talk somewhere else??

—No, Barry would not be a bad person for killing Thawne after he thought Iris was already dead. Personally, I think he should've killed the mf ages ago

Season 9

—Red Death was underwhelming, that’s all I have to say about it

—why tf is Chillame still here

—Khione deserved to make her own decisions and not be forced to die for Caitlin and/or Frost to live…but also, as a character, she’s very bland. I also skipped any episode where she and Chillame were even remotely romantic, mostly for my own sanity

—I was so excited for the finale arc and it did not deliver!! It flopped real hard!! Eddie is turned evil so fast it made my head spin, the return of prior villains was underwhelming (including their defeats...why tf did Allegra defeat Thawne?? Why did Cecile defeat Godspeed?? Why did Nora defeat Savitar with one stab wound not even piercing the armor??), and the resolution is just...hugging it out?? I guess??

And that's about it as far as major critiques go 😅 if anyone wants me to expand on any of these points, I'm happy to!

(Except the s7-s9 stuff, which I don't even plan on including in my Morgan AU because those seasons are honestly so bad that I'd rather forget about them entirely. I don't like s3 much, but at least it has potential that I'm interested in revamping/exploring)

[9w1ft]

9-

I was looking through old jewelry stuff and found a necklace Karlie wore for about 6 months, from about Sept 2019-April 2020. It was a gold disk that was engraved with “I can and I will” on it. As our resident jewelry expert, any theories on what that may have been about?

hello hello

thank you for your inquiry 😌

so this necklace is something that i assume was bought along with two other pieces from the same brand because they appeared around the same time and she wore them often interchangeably, and frequently together. the necklace is by Zoe Chicco.

in addition to this disc with the mantra “I Can and I Will” inscribed on it, the necklaces i associate it with are a strand of graduated gold disks and a ‘sunbeam medallion’ which she actually wore a ton on its own.

the mantra necklace was most frequently worn within the set of these three and at the time it felt very much like just, idk, a trendy layered look, and she wore them so often that honestly i did not keep track of the necklaces well. so i had to do a little bit of poking around.

so, for your perusal, here is an incomplete list of times she has worn at least one of the three pieces, based on an account that was documenting her looks at the time (link) and StarStyle (link):

~~

she starts out wearing either the graduates discs or the sunbeam necklace, from september 2019

9/5/2019 in china for the world cup

9/8/2019 to the US open

9/18/2019 papped outside in nyc

9/21/2019 papped in rome (scooter was around)

10/10/2019 on her instagram outside in nyc

10/21/2019 papped outside in nyc

10/30/2019 papped outside in nyc

then the mantra necklace appeared and there was a period where she started wearing the three as a layered look more often, sometimes two together, and sometimes just the mantra necklace:

11/1/2019 promoing adidas on her insta

11/15/2019 papped outside in nyc

11/26/2019 at the elk in nyc

12/8/2019 papped outside in nyc

12/21/2019 yachting in st. barthelemy

1/27/2020 when karlie was in LA

2/18/2020 amex valentine’s day dinner

4/23/2020 instagram live w katie couric

4/28/2020 the today show

4/30/2020 met gala bts video

5/1/2020 exercising on instagram

5/1/2020 on wes gordon’s instagram

5/5/2020 the tonight show

5/17/2020 instagram from her nyc place

5/19/2020 klossy video about how falling on the runway can help your career

from this point forward she started wearing the necklaces separately instead of all three at once (not the mantra medallion though as far as i could tell) from mid 2020 up through mid 2021. for the sake of brevity i won’t list everything up, but you can check StarStyle from the above link.

~~~

as for what the mantra means, you know, this is just a loosely formed thing but… i will offer a quick thought

in retrospect, she wore the necklace along with the other two during a very specific time period, right? a little after taylor’s masters were bought by scooter, all the way up until she headed for LA a few months into quarantine. so if you think about late 2019-early 2020 as being this time where everyone thought karlie further betrayed taylor and where karlie went to places or events where scooter was and such… and how following this period of time scooter’s infidelity was eventually exposed and he divorced and a lot of his business dealings soured, and we got songs like mad woman, vigilante shit, and karma —songs that i do believe show that karlie stuck around scooter and got dirt on him for taylor— then, within that context, i think that the mantra “i can and i will” is pretty… badass ���� like, if the amulette de cartier was for dark seasons of life that require courage, this mantra feels much more something suitable for… playing offense ����

[eliteseven]

Hello! I very recently got bg3 and am romancing Shadowheart, not finished the game yet but am v down bad for her so i hopped over to ao3 and your series with Serena and her got me feral ngl, you write their love so beautifully! They're so so lovely together, I look forward to any stories or hcs you have for them 😊 Also I'm glad we agree that Shadowheart would be lowkey highkey possessive like she'd be fuming if someone even looks at Serena admiringly like "Yes, yes she's beautiful now avert your eyes before I remove them"

Okay firstly !!!! 🥰 thank you so so much! I’m so glad you enjoyed it so far and am so happy you’re here!

I’m looking forward to adding these hc’s and ideas into the writing! I don’t know the meaning of brevity so here’s a read more:

And yes lol I am a possessive Shadowheart truther! Idk about DJ Shart (love her but she scares me)- but for Selunite!Shadowheart it makes sense! She’s had her trysts and flings under Shar’s nose, but love? Affection? Someone who is willing to die if it ensures that Shadowheart will be saved?

She wants that all to herself. It’s not about dominating Tav and getting the satisfaction of controlling her. It’s not just sex or having a body close; she’s found a life partner. Someone who willingly wakes up before her and tends to her parents, who takes off her own cloak and drapes it over Shadowheart’s shoulders at the first sign of a chill.

Tav is pretty, she’s chivalrous, and perhaps a bit oblivious when she’s being propositioned lmao (though her lovesick brain could not even comprehend straying from Shadowheart 😭) Shadowheart is outspoken and confident about what she wants- she has no problem letting the world know Tav is hers. I think it would give us some comedy if nothing else lmao

[uncanny-tranny]

What do you think gay men are attracted to in men that they can’t be attracted to in women?

It can’t be anything about femininity or masculinity obviously. That’s both sexist, and cultural so can’t be what drives men-only attraction.

It can’t be anything about stated identity because someone could lie just as easily as they could tell the truth in such a statement, and it makes no sense because homosexuality and heterosexuality exists in other species with no stated identities. It’s not like other animals without gender are all pan.

Saying idk it’s the vibes or some indescribable trait men have that women can’t but “I can’t explain” is a nonanswer.

Soooooooo what is it? Or do you think any sexuality but bi/pan is just cultural performance or an identity rather than an inborn orientation?

This is a copy-pasta (the link leads to a person who recieved this word-for-word, content warning for suicide baiting), and understandably, I really doubt that the sender is asking in good faith to spark discussion about the nuances of human sexuality, which is a shame because as a trans person, I have a ton of different and maybe even contradictory perspectives.

It's a shame because I really do think conversations about human sexuality are fascinating. There's so much that goes into a person's sexuality, and it isn't just based on this "animalistic" sexual drive. It is so much more. It's about how you visualize your life with a partner/partners. It's why a gay man can be gay without ever having any non-platonic experience with a man - because he can see himself partnered to a fellow man. It's why a gay man can look at a woman and find her beautiful in many ways. I digress for the sake of brevity, but again, it's a shame this isn't being asked in good faith. If anybody wants to talk about the complexities of human sexuality, feel free to. It's a fascinating topic, and there isn't a universal answer - we've been trying for thousands of years to find The One Answer about this, and we haven't found something that adequately explains every little minutiae of humanity.

[archersgoon]

my trevbart headcanons:

bartolina's parents both died when she was young (mining accident or some shit idk) so she & her sister went to stay with their aunt & her husband (here's the celestina double-up)

her uncle was involved in selling output from the mines & bartolina would often go along with him on business bc she didn't want to spend all her days stuck on that rock

1 day they're transporting goods bought by the lord of sayles & she gets to go along (doesn't normally get to go this far out)

trevanion is working as a guard for the lord at this point, so he ends up helping to unload while she's watching (she's uh. not allowed to help lol) & they get to conversing

i think she was probably a pretty serious person as well (basing this off the one line of dialogue we get from her i think it would be an interesting direction)

as they're leaving he says will i see you again. she says perhaps... ;-) (just a touch of brevity...)

a few months later the lord is traveling to the rock because he wants to negotiate (exploit their labour. you know how it goes) & trevanion goes along

since they're conducting serious business in her uncle's house, (great-aunt) celestina is hosting & bartolina is free to do as she pleases

trevanion is waiting with the carriage or something (i think probably the lord did not like him very much & as such gave him what he may have considered to be demeaning jobs) so bartolina goes to talk to him there

& the rest is history hehe

[junkshop-disco]

Just posted a new chapter so what better time for a fic meme. Tagged by @magicalrocketships but idk if I have any better screen grabs than theirs.

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

38, which makes the average word count completely ridiculous.

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

1,048,397. Average word count 27,589. Brevity, I don't know her.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Downton Abbey, Fate the Winx Saga, Good Omens currently.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Honeysuckle Arch

Learning to Speak the Language of Flowers

An Equal and Opposite Reaction

Instalments

The Could in People

Whenever I look at the stats, I'm taken aback at just how skewed my sense of which fics are the most popular is. Because I would not have guessed some of these at all.

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

I try to, but I am--at heart--a deeply anxious squirrel masquerading as a person and any sort of interaction with people I don't know well can sometimes be too much for me to handle. When my anxiety is bad, I imagine that every single comment will be about how shit my writing is and what an awful person I am, so I can't read them right away, let alone reply. I have to work up to them and do a couple at a time and I always intend to reply but sometimes, weeks/months/years pass without me feeling up to it and then it feels too awkward. Right now my anxiety is much better thanks to lots of medication and some pretty hefty life changes, so I'm more able to engage with them like a vaguely normal person, but sometimes if I have a bad week, opening the comment box to reply 'thanks! Glad you liked it' makes me feel like James Bond sitting nose to nose with an armed bomb. I do hold onto comments, though. I screen grab ones that really resonated and re-read them when I feel down. They mean a great deal to me, even if I can't always say so in a timely fashion.

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

It's definitely a Merlin fic, possibly Doubt Creeps In? That whole thing is pretty angsty and there's no real resolution. I wrote a few angsty endings in Merlin fic.

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

Idk that I've ever written truly happy ending. I've written cute endings, give-them-a-break endings, but I don't know if I'd describe any of them as happy. I don't tend to go in for them. Nothing winds me up more than an epilogue with a pasted on happy ending. I have been known to hurl a book across the room.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I haven't for a while but I used to when I wrote HP fic. My favourite ever was 'you should be flayed for writing this. I hope you die.' I still laugh when I think about it.

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

Yes. All kinds? I have written the odd fade to black in my time and also the most unremitting filth in all flavours of vanilla to kinky.

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

I've written a handful. Back on LJ I wrote a Merlin/Twilight crossover where Edward and Merlin team up to fight evil vampire unicorns who can only be killed by virgins singing at them until they explode.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yep. Tbh I just feel sad for the people who do it. It seems like a very hollow way to do fandom.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yep. And podficced! It's always nice.

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

I've done a few Big Bangs and other events where I collaborated with someone and it's always one of my favourite things to do. I've also co-written some... stuff on anon, which we're not going to talk about 👀

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

Can anyone pick just one? Like Hotel California, I check out but I never leave. I am still here for Mulder and Scully, Mal and Inara, Tara and Willow, Giles and Jenny, Bradley and Colin, Merlin and Gwaine, Nick and Harry and Niall, Isak and Even, Remus, Lily, Sirius and Tonks, Crowley and Aziraphale, Thomas and Richard, Ed and Stede, Farah and Saul. The ships I love never leave me and picking a favourite would make me sad.

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

If I'm posting it, it will get finished. I have a couple of things languishing on my hard drive that may never see the light of day, like a Thomas in LA fic post DA2, but I can't not finish things.

16. What are your writing strengths?

A commitment to the bit? An unwavering belief there's never a bad time for banter? An unfailing devotion to poking people's bruises?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

See above.

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

Would attempt only in a comedy situation where getting it wrong was the point.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Firefly. The first one I posted in was HP though, rip.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Saying I'm fond of all of them would be such a cop out, wouldn't it? In truth, my favourite is usually the one I'm currently writing, so let's say Sum of the In-between Things. It's morphed so far from what I intended it to be and I have literally no idea if I can stick the landing on it, but I've genuinely had a blast writing it, and that's the point, isn't it?

Tagging: @septemberrie @myalchod and @magnolia822!

[aviculor]

I'm watching the Dead Meat Podcast ep on Longlegs and they're bringing up a pretty important thing. The timeline.

There was never any evidence of his presence inside the homes, which is highly unlikely if he did what he did to the Harkers to literally anyone else. Was that supposed to be like the only time he ever forced his way into a house and physically attacked someone? Getting Ruth as an accomplice obviously made giving families the dolls easier, but we're supposed to believe no one else in his early days was like "get away from my daughter, you fucking creep"?

And there was no trace of Ruth? Witnesses? A nun carrying a big box to the doorstep right before the killings? Sitting on their sofa while the killings happen? If she was the one leaving the letters, there must have been fingerprints. How was she never linked to the Birthday Murders?

Lee's actions, particularly when Longlegs paid her cabin a visit to leave her the cipher key, imply she's not a very good cop. She might have been led by the nose through her academy training by her psychic powers which were because of the doll which was because of Longlegs.

What was the point of it all? Why leave the notes? Why help Lee's investigation? Was it all just to sow chaos because ooh spooky devil worship? Was Ruth rejecting the doll really worth it for Longlegs to spend the next 20+ years of his life orchestrating Lee killing her? To the point that he considered his life's work completed once he finished setting that up? I mean, I guess it is a more tangible motive than just "mwahaha devil demands sacrifice". But it's not exactly satisfying? idk, I know Oz Perkins wanted to make Longlegs seem like an offputting loser rather than glorifying a serial killer as "cool" or "interesting". But it's like there's this whole other story that got trimmed for brevity. Between the glam rock obsession and the song released on Youtube and his face looking like a series of botched plastic surgeries, it's *implied* Dale Kobbler was a wannabe rock star. Probably not a real one because then there would have been something the FBI could have dug up about him.

But I guess in the end, it didn't need to have ironclad internal logic because it was an incredible film from all technical standpoints. It ticked all the boxes for me. I fucking loved it.

[cain-e-brookman]

So for le WIP QnA:

Tell me more about the geography and culture of your story!

How many regions are there? What’s their climate like?

Any different languages? How many, what are they called, where are they spoken, and by which races? Does race matter when it comes to languages? (As in like. Do efts speak Eftish (bear with me here I’ll admit I don’t know too much of your lore) or do they speak a common language shared by every other race?)

Speaking of races, where do each of them come from? Are there specific areas where specific races hold dear? (Like does Race A cherish the Mountains of Mountainland idk I hope that made sense?)

AND FINALLY what’s with the Barren Lands why are they called that? (Bc they’re barren I guess I got that bit but. Why are they barren?)

I hope this made sense lols ✨✨✨

hello and thank you for the ask! this is a big one, so buckle up, kids!

so first, the combined lands of Tangera is essentially a semi-large continent. Uslaria, on the west coast, it modeled in terms of climate after my home state, Oregon. And so because it's mountainous, to the east is a rain shadow, going into the high deserts, becoming more arid and flat, until hitting the east and becoming more lush from that coast. (I'm sure my geography and knowledge of climate is only adjacent to accurate, but it is what it is.)

This is a very, very rough map of Tangera. Ignore the southeast, I'm working on that

Country names not final because I haven't done the "Fantasy Author Google Check" to make sure they're not already things. But there's 18 countries in Tangera not counting the island nation of Bhréchin.

Individual climate on each country would take a century, so read the green chart to get an idea lol

Languages are regional, yes! Not necessarily stuck to one race, though.For instance, Alilux is the kingdom of Light Mages, and the language of Alilux would be Lucian, but it wouldn't be just the Mages speaking Lucian, because there are other races (mostly humans, but definitely others,) living there too.

Most human kingdoms speak Tangeran Common, because a universal common tongue is a fantasy writer's best friend. Most Mage kingdoms learn common alongside their mother tongue for easy travel.

Though you bring up Efts, which are admittedly, a new race in this canon! They're amphibious people who mostly live in the Bkaan Forest and the Marshes. They mostly don't mingle with the outside world and live in close communities deep in wet forested areas. One of my new characters, soon to make their debut once I get my patreon up, is Inès who ran away from home after some dispute with their family and is now working as a mercenary of sorts. They struggle with Common, since it's so very removed from their mother tongue, because the language of the Eft's is on a completely different language tree!

So this one's a very big answer so I'm going to embrace brevity for the first time in my life and say, pretty much all races were either Mundanes Made By the Lifebringer, (humans,) Mundanes Changed Into Not Mundanes by Lifebringer Priests Fucking With Their Lifeforce, (Vampires, Angels, Spectres,) Those Who Were Chosen By Not the Lifebringer to Knock Her Off Her Throne, (Mages,) and Fuck If We Know (Efts, shoreas, sea nymphs which are neither true nymphs, nor exclusive to the sea, who named them anyway?) Geographically, anyone but Mages are just kinda spread out and any society near a specific geographical trait is going to find importance in that. Mages in particular find importance in their landscape where it's connected to their patron god, (Fire Mages in the desert where they best see their Goddess the sun, Water Mages near the sea, Sky Mages in the tall mountains where they're close to the Sky, etc.)

And the Barren Lands are called such because when Aeriessa, (the Lifebringer,) first took hold of the pieces of the world her father had brought together in the beginning with the light of his lantern, she banished the lingering spirits of the cardinal elements to the farthest corner of the world. The spirits, in their rage at being cast out, formed together into the spirits of four gods, (Japhine of the Great Fire, Oiena of the Encompassing Sea, Ynorr of the Unmovable Stone, and Ysydia Lord of the Skies and All Knowledge Under His Gaze.) From that land, the four gods fled into their respective domains, leaving the land bereft of any lingering life or spirit. When the Fae Empires fell, this is where the surviving Fae were banished to for eternal suffering after the pain they caused in their rule. (This is where the Death God gets his meanies out, as mentioned in an earlier ask.)

you made perfect sense, and I hope I did too! There's a Lot of Lore, and there's no quick way to get it all down lmao