#but i just want it to stay compelling

[radiaking]

in the end idc too much whether the show makes g.houlcy a thing. all i really care about is that they keep the dynamic interesting and unique. i just don't want them to make it boring. i want it to be undefinable. i want it to be something compelling above all else. i want them to be important to one another. like sure in my dreams i want them to be together. but i'd much rather them have a dynamic that is just so interesting (which it is!!! rn!!) it sort of transcends all of that? romance and that something else can absolutely co-exist. but if i have to choose....i want the latter.

[sskk-manifesto]

Insane over how much emphasis is put on Kouyou protecting / shielding Kyouka from the light both symbolically and visually, with Kouyou literally shadowing Kyouka with her robes as soon as she gets near her.

[spookythesillyfella]

here's an assortment of tsp doodles ive made on magma together with my wonderful older brother @chamom1le-t3a ^_^

+ an extra doodle of me nd hv tony for funsies under cut

happy pride . fruit bat 💌💌🌈🌈

[fairyroses]

I’m sorry... it wasn’t me. Are you sure?

SMALLVILLE — 1.15 / 2.04 / 4.17  ↳ dark!Clexana ‘expressing certain desires’ to each other 👀

[amaraudermind]

Something something Bruce love Gotham because it's his home, jason loves Gotham because it's in his soul, Duke loves Gotham because it's his family, Steph loves Gotham on purpose

[boysborntodie]

Could Johnnyboy fans tell me about the ship’s appeal (apart from they’re besties and cute together) because I really want get into the ship but it just doesn’t click for me

[alphaketoglutaricacid]

Also i find her naive desperation (cant find the right words for it) to see her adventuring crew as sworn friends wholl go thru hell together even tho shes the newest addition soooo telling. Shes had trouble making friends her whole life she was really hoping! And even the ones who left are willing to go to hell for her n the crew so its not like its not true. Its just not like how it is in her mangas. I think theres a good chance she n namari become like closer after the end of the series.

[tswwwit]

Did Bill not come to terms with his feelings for Dipper until he was forced to in Confessing It, or was it earlier in the series (even if he would never admit it)? Sorry if this is sorta implied, I’m not amazing with subtext. Rereading atm and I was curious lol

Actually, Bill (sort of) came to terms with having fallen for Dipper well before Dipper got his feelings sorted.

It's in Faking It chapter 15:

[Bill] glances up at Dipper. “You…. are the single worst thing that has ever happened to me. And I don’t say that lightly, you got no idea how old I am."

[gayemeralds]

I read “Shadow fans I am not the blog for you” and have become the sad ant with a bindle looking back at you. Banger takes though ngl you have a lot of profound and really well thought out opinions when it comes to sonic and I don’t even find myself disagreeing with your take on Shadow staying dead despite loving him bc you’re honestly not even wrong there is so much thought behind what you say

THE THING IS i joke about not being good for shadow fans but i do LIKE shadow. in my heart i know if he was given the proper care and character arc that he deserved he would easily be one of my favourite characters. he's the type of character i would have absolutely latched on to.

the problem is i just think sega brought him back with no real direction. shadow was a fascinating and complex character in sa2, and i think his story honestly deserved to be self contained within that game. he was a fascinating foil to sonic- someone who lost everything facing someone who hasn't faced true loss at the time; and, deliciously, becoming the first loss sonic faces, when shadow dies at the end of sa2. he was a phenomenal character of grief and anger and revenge, and how people who love you can still turn on you; how revenge and despair can rot a person, but how you can always have hope. but i think his story really ended there on the ark when he died.

sonic heroes was fun, but ultimately, it did nothing for shadow. the amnesia route they took was arguably one of the worst options i could think of. the whole point of sa2 was UNCOVERING his past. the whole game told a story in reverse- we learn all we need to know about project shadow in that game. the fact that the whole "android" shadow arc doesn't even get resolved in that game is a little frustrating.

an exploration into shadow's identity if he survived the fall and retained his memories would have been FASCINATING. shadow assumed he would die at the end of sa2, absolve him of wanting to destroy the world, absolve him of his guilt over maria, and finally find peace. but he DOESN'T die. and now he's forced to live with the trauma he was given, and the anger he holds, and forge a new identity and place for himself. and, how is shadow going to keep maria's promise, to save humanity, when someone else is already doing his job? when shadow himself had already called sonic the ultimate lifefrom, when sonic has been and is doing what shadow would do to keep maria's promise? where does shadow fit in amongst these "heroes?" THAT'S an identity i would have loved to explore.

sonic battle and sonic 06 were honestly pretty good portrayals of him. i think you could arguably have a similar story in sonic battle without him, however, while still keeping the intrigue of gerald robotnik and What Exactly Was Going On With Project Shadow at the time, but i digress.

I think Shadow the Hedgehog 2005, for all of it's flaws, did try. It wanted to be compelling and morally challenging and it wanted Shadow to explore his identity and figure out what side he wanted to belong to. arguably, however, it solidified shadow's "brand" as being an edgy anti-hero who uses guns and curses and is "violent" when i don't really think that was the intention behind sa2. i also think it was sort of an unnecessary addition to the project shadow lore- the ark and all of its secrets are rather haunting enough. there's still so many implications over gerald robotnik perhaps knowing echidna lore, there's still so much mystique behind the original introduction of shadow's lore, that i don't think adding evil alien blood into the mix was necessary. this game could have honestly been an entire backstory for a whole new character.

and after those games, it becomes pretty clear that sega just doesn't know what to do with him. post-shadow the hedgehog has shadow let go of his past and become who he wants to be. but sega seems completely insistent on keeping shadow in his sa2 phase, keeps wanting shadow as a anti-hero rival when his arc contradicts it. they want him stagnant despite trying to have him move on from his travesty- and obviously, grief and trauma are not things that are linearly healed from, but the continuous storyline of shadow "letting go of his past" shows that they just don't have a direction for him. they don't know what to do with him.

and now, shadow, the same shadow who promised maria to save the world, to give humanity a chance, who watched his sister die in front of him, was written to have violently and thoughtlessly attack infinite and his squad (and is implied to have killed the rest of inifinite's squad)... and for what? his whole arc is moving away from his past and trying to do right by maria. WHY would he ever cause someone the same pain he felt when he's already learned from that mistake (sa2)? they just don't know what to do with him and keep putting him in increasingly antagonistic roles despite shadow being sonic's friend and ally.

i just think shadow should have stayed dead in sa2. it keeps the allure and mystery of the ark alive, no more bad characterizations, and it gives more weight to shadow fulfilling maria's promise. i also think that him being alive causes a problem because his arc sort of guides him into the position that sonic is in- as a hero and a saviour, but sonic's already filling that role. shadow sort of becomes... obsolete, because anything he can do, sonic can do, too. which is probably why they keep making him an antagonist/rival.

ideally, if they had to keep him alive, my hope would be to have shadow realise he has an entire life to live now. he can fufill maria's wishes of helping people perhaps on a smaller scale (a la the chaotix), and then also go on to travel the world and see the beauty maria was never able to see. it keeps him sort of in a back pocket if they ever want him to return and help sonic and his friends, and can guide him into hating humanity less by seeing how beautiful and kind the world really is.

whatever they're doing now just isn't working. the shadow we see now is nothing like the shadow from sa2, which is a damn shame. shadow became a fan favourite from that game alone for a REASON.

so like. i like shadow, i just wish he stayed dead to avoid all of this.

[beliscary]

im too slow to finish this for this solstice so have a snippet of wip ft. terence and bahamut talking

"Each time I return," the dragon wondered, pressing against Terence's pilgrim kiss, "I am astonished to find another that burns so. I should know better. There is always light."

There—the crack at last. Quicker and cleaner than he had expected. Kinder, also. Gently, Terence felt for the fracture inside himself. He pried it apart, breaking it in truth, and folded those ancient eyes within his heart, placing them beside Dion's strained, precious smiles.

No one will look here, he promised. No one has ever thought to.

“It will be a cruel work.” The proud creature did not flinch from the truth, though there was pain in it. He and Dion were well suited to each other, after all. “Do not say you did not know.”

“I've always known.” He ran a hand over the dragon's skin.

“I wonder if you will believe that, at the end."

[camzverse]

i could so easily make a fnaf animatic to tragic fact from rtc. But i am lazy

[dropespeon]

thinking about the theory/essay i wanted to write about the inevitability of change re: leveling up in isat compared to the stagnancy of sasasap (despite the presence of a leveling system) pre-isat release. it aged both very well and not at all

[valentinesparda]

rethinking how long effie and noah should be pining for/possible secret relationship to make it make sense even though I'm simultaneously like "yeah noah does die at the end because it is canon" and "actually no he doesn't because if he did then it kind of fucks him over and it's mean that he ends up just getting to die when he probably could have been rehabilitated / deserves a second chance at life like a rescue dog"

[dirt-str1der]

Btw shinada is by far one of my favorite yakuza character, i think he is one of the very few characters that got an actual decent closure

Yeah ...... it didnt un-ruin his life but like it was satisfying at least .... but his whole story arc was crazy (in a good way) like god ...

[pioryofdontshowthebigdragonfirst]

spoiler ramble for The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, about Ead and Sabran and why i gave up reading further after page 400

(the sentences in this book are the most beautiful i've ever seen. they feel like poetry)

(and still)

That there was all this set up for every bit of magic Ead did to protect Sabran only feeding into Sabran’s desperate fanatic belief that she truly IS a divinely blessed demi god, savior of the world

Ever more firmly believing herself destined to banish the nameless one back into the abyss based on a lie told by her ancestor, each miracle spurring her to take more and more risks, forcing Ead to secretly use more and more magic saving her-

Ead all the time risking being exposed as a sorceress and burned at the stake for the very magic that’s been keeping Sabran alive-

the fact that Sabran’s slow fascination with Ead came from how “truthful” Ead seemed to be with her, how frank and irreverent Ead was with her divine queen, this foreign convert from a heretic land telling Sabran her honest opinion even when it was upsetting instead of pandering to Sabran to gain favor

the irony of Ead hiding so much from her and lying with nearly every breath that she can’t help being honest in the few ways she has left-  

Ead treating Sabran like a normal woman because she IS NOT divine in Ead’s heretic eyes, Sabran completely unaware, revealing some of her own upsetting truths in return knowing Ead won’t be shocked by this side of her, the only person she doesn’t have to fear being ugly and weak and terrified around, not understanding WHY Ead isn’t overawed by or overly worrying over her-

her belief Ead would never lie to her- Her desire for immortality and fear of death- how fire could not touch her when she challenged a dragon but it wasn’t the Saint that saved her it was a sorceress in a clocktower-

how Ead’s efforts to save Sabran could have been what drove Sabran confidently towards doom

a queen convinced she truly is divine demanding the world bow to her for the sake of their own salvation, riding into a battle she can’t win, blinded by faith, goaded by duty and courage  

the choice of aiding in carnage or confessing all and watching Sabran fall apart

the trap of knowing Sabran is only a mortal woman but also the woman Ead has lost her heart to and she can’t watch her die, but telling the truth of her lies will utterly shatter the bond Sabran thinks they have built together   

her prioress giving up on protecting Sabran and recalling Ead home to take on a role of great honor and power, yet Ead asks to stay a little longer, she can’t leave Sabran like this, she can’t-

All this set up. This potential.

And where does it go?

where does it go…

A couple of pages after they get frisky, wham, separated by someone else.

Not even a chapter of dread spent worrying about them getting found out, sprinkled with hints of Ead getting sloppy in her lovesickness or Sabran more daringly indecent. No release for the delicious tangle of lies and conflicting faith they'd fallen into.

Just get them away from each other as fast as possible.

Just as it was really getting interesting.

....At least it was lovely, while it lasted.

[abelllia]

There's one blorbo that doesn't communicate their needs/emotions because they don't want to be seen as a burden to other people. There is another blorbo that doesn't communicate their needs/emotions because they literally can not and find it difficult to communicate them effectively. These two blorbos are dating.