#but it's still kind of a. bittersweet? idk. a weird feeling. to know that they're all building their own families and i'm just. me.

[keendaanmaa]

[ㅁ]

[karliahs]

fic writer interview!!

tysm @plusultraetc for the tag!! <3

How many works do you have on AO3?

50 exactly!

What's your total AO3 word count?

234,906, almost half of which (110k) was written/posted this year. insane!!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

darken your door (12,832)

walk a mile (5642)

swan dive (4857)

rescue (3905)

something else to pretend (3,572)

there's a theme here and it's bnha fics i wrote in 2019/2020

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yes!! with several asterisks i'll get into in a minute. i try to respond to every comment i get because:

i genuinely really appreciate that anyone takes the time to tell me they liked a fic when they could just consume it and say nothing with 0 consequences, so i want to say thank you

some comments have a rly big impact on me - change the way i feel about stuff, contain phrases i remember for a really long time, make me cry, etc - and just like how if someone writes a fic that impacts me then i want to tell them, i want to tell people how much their comment mattered

i often only figure out why i did something or made certain choices in a fic until someone prompts me to talk about it. it's such a useful exercise for understanding my own work better

i genuinely adore rambling about my fics, it's arguably more fun than writing them in the first place

it's really nice getting to chat to commenters and get to know people!

however. there is a 3-4 year period where i didn't reply to any comments at all because i got overwhelmed and then felt like it was too late to try and catch up. this still haunts me a little bit because i got some really lovely impactful comments in that era but it just feels too weird to reply literally like 5 years late 😭

2nd asterisk is some fics i feel kind of embarrassed about and so don't reply to comments on, 3rd is that i'm bad at managing my comments inbox so i'm sure i miss people out by accident sometimes, and 4th is that if i don't have anything nice to say then i won't respond...i get almost no comments i think are intentionally meant to be rude, but sometimes i get ones that rankle for one reason or another and i won't reply if i'm just gonna be tetchy bc again, i don't think they're meant badly

so very much a yes in theory but not in practice 😂

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

bargaining chips i think. the funny thing about that series is that in some ways i think things would ultimately turn out better than in canon (there's a reason the 2nd fic has akechi promise to contact ren if he does survive, a thing that would have paid off in the 3rd fic i never finished). but as of bargaining chips it's very much...this is the POV of a person who thinks the only power they have left in the world is to hurt people

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

my usual ending is like bittersweet and/or hopeful, so for example i feel a lot of things about the cathertic (for me at least) endings for redux and something else to pretend and unwanted, but idk if they can exactly be called happy.

going to my pure silly fluff fics instead where we pretty much start happy and end happy: to work, to rest which ends with the gang being happy about stickers, or class pets which ends with class a getting three (3) cats

Do you write crossovers?

nope!

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

not really! probably the closest was someone commenting on pathologised with just "WHERE IS YUSUKE?" in all caps 🙄 "why isn't my fave dude in your fic" is not a genre of comment i enjoy, though it's usually phrased more politely than that at least

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

nope!

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i'm aware of, though it's apparently fairly rampant in bnha fandom with those "what if deku [x]" youtube videos. i think those are reserved for fics with actual plots though

Have you ever had a fic translated?

i think i've been asked for permission for people to do so before, but i don't think i've ever actually seen anything posted...someone did translate a little section of one fic into spanish in a bookmarker comment once, which was very fun because i remember little bits of spanish from school & years of sporadic duolingo

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no but i think it would be so fun 👀

What's your all-time favorite ship?

mannnn i just cannot care about romantic ships the way that seems to be so ubiquitous in fandom. even when i try and write romance it ends up as like ambigious tenderness or Friendship With Vibes. the few times i've even written kissing it's been just a build up to a kiss after which the fic immediately fades to black, which is really funny in retrospect like...buddy, is that because you stop caring about what's happening once the kissing starts?

i am fond of erasermic, jontim and shindeku, though i enjoy them as platonic dynamics pretty much the same amount

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

it mostly doesn't bother me to have tons of unfinished WIPs, i don't really put that expectation that everything i start will or should get finished/posted.

so the only one that genuinely bugs me is the third fic in seen and not heard, because i feel like i kind of promised it to people and then didn't deliver, and because it would have properly concluded a series i know a few people really connected with...and because the draft got to like 80% done but i could just never finish it off in a way i was happy with. maybe someday though

there's also a more recent bnha fic draft that i am really fond of in some ways, but i just could not take the discourse i think it would inspire. i might finish it just for me someday

What are your writing strengths?

cribbing all these from comments honestly but i think i'm pretty good at real-feeling emotional responses to situations. emotional realism, maybe? and writing introspection/people thinking and feeling things in general.

my characterisation gets complimented a fair bit, which is funny bc i think i actually take a lot of liberties with canon characters, but i guess i'm decent at couching those liberties in a way that makes it pass muster most of the time. like passing off a counterfeit watch as genuine

i'm somewhat good with grounding things in sensory detail, but that's one of those things i think i'll always be trying to get better at

What are your writing weaknesses?

i've never met a plot in my life and i don't want to. i also can't write longfic. in real-world terms i'm a short story writer and not a novelist - all those structural narrative things people do to make a long-form story work are just mystifying to me. part of that is just driven by what interests me though - i don't read a lot of plotty longfic either

i'm also still working on improving syntax and flow in my prose in general, but that's another one of those endless projects i think

oh also having more than two people in a prolonged dialogue scene is wildly difficult to me

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

i have no thoughts on this matter!

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

merlin! i wrote probably bad merlin fic on ff.net back when i was like 15/16. it's actually the reason i joined tumblr in the first place, bc my fave merlin fic writer had a tumblr and i got curious

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

i'd like to write more about my silly little video game OCs. i've dabbled in it a bit before but i've never really invested in it because i know no one would read it/care. but i'm getting better at writing for myself and it is really fun to have records of these OCs that i love, so i hope i can write some stuff about the protag i make for new dragon age that i'll inevitably get deeply attached to

it's also kind of wild to me that i've never written for homestuck or dangan ronpa given the impact those two things had on my psyche

What's your favorite fic you've written?

my answer to this changes depending on the day but right now...something else to pretend my beloved

wow that got long. not tagging anyone but if you'd like to do it, consider yourself tagged!

[goldensunset]

What's your opinion on Nomura saying he wants KH4 to be kind of like a reboot of the series? I'm personally a bit worried about what that means for the graphics and gameplay, but like, I'm probably always going to be mourning the loss of the old modeling style so I don't think I should be taken seriously on that front. Graphics change aside, it seems like most of the information we've gotten on KH4 boils down to "Yes it's in Tokyo" and "Guys it's not gonna be a crossover with TWEWY, Please Stop Asking". Really not sure what to make of it so far.

i really have no clue what he means by that... honestly i'm fine with the new style although i do see the concerns with kinda making it seem more generically anime prettyboy final fantasy-esque but like. we've only seen two characters so far and that was two and a half years ago and we already know they're planning on changing some things so who knows what the final product will look like. idk.

my one concern- and i say this as someone who personally likes simpler and more realistic designs, as well as like serious hardcore worldbuilding and dark stuff- is that kh will lose its weird, goofy, disney positivity charm. sora's design just needs slightly more color to it, nothing too drastic. the city of quadratum being hyperrealistic in a direct jarring contrast to everything else we've ever seen in the series is SO cool i just hope the final version has some unique charm to it. obviously i hope it's still kinda bleak bc i think that's the point of the story here but y'know? i hope they tell the story they're trying to tell while also making it feel magical in some way

see while i can't say i personally have any interest in the disney aspect of things (i understand that's what the series was supposed to be all along but me personally i'm in it for the original story side of things) i also never want kh to totally leave that dimension. i think they need to get better at implementing it into the story- akin to how it originally was in the first game, or in khdr, bc both of those were amazing. like prove to me that this disney crossover is the best way to tell your story bc i know you can do it. it shouldn't feel like two separate games, one of which can be entirely filtered out with almost no bearing on the plot

the other thing is like the collaboration with disney is a limitation- but it's a limitation that breeds creativity. if we let nomura do whatever he wanted he might run off the rails and make it too gritty. but having to keep the family-friendly positivity at the core honestly makes it way more interesting imo. and i think he knows that- i think he has a heartfelt story about connection and humanity and love and memories etc to tell and he's gonna tell it. i have faith in him (maybe not faith to write every single game's dialogue and scenario lol but like. in terms of general plot direction he knows what he's doing)

truthfully, as long as the series never stops being ultimately an uplifting tale of hope? i don't care what they do with it. i hope they keep adding dark and serious and weird stuff to it and i hope they keep coming back to the joyful refrain over and over again. that's the ideal story to me- one that takes you so, so low, but brings you back up at the end. that's what kh has been like all along and that's like the main draw imo

they've been leaning more into the possibility of sad endings without perfect resolutions lately (i mean i truthfully don't see how the khux crew is gonna reunite on this mortal plane without more ghost shenanigans.) but like. a bittersweet ending of fondly remembering someone lost to you is incredibly heartfelt and you can make peace with that. i like that more than the idea that you'll always get everything you want and things can always go back to how they were. i think that's what nomura was getting at with kh3, how the destiny trio can't get their innocent childhood back but that doesn't mean their bond is gone. it doesn't have to be a classic disney fairytale ending to be an uplifting one and honestly it hits my HEART. bittersweet ending supremacy. kh is about losing things and finding new things and being connected etc etc i'm repeating myself but i'm insane about this series and long story short as long as the love is there i'm not going to complain

if we're talking about kh4 specifically? really no idea what to make of it... the big question is as follows- is sora's predicament going to be resolved in this game or is that for another game. if it's for another game it's going to have to be a numerical kh5 and i kind of don't have confidence in the team to uh. um. finish more than one new numerical game at this point lol. plus just assuming there would be a gap period with other games in the middle there then sora would be away from home for a lonnnnng time. it could happen but it would require his best friends to reach him there too and get stuck and like oh man how is anyone getting home now. is the series ever gonna end

like maybe kh4 being a reboot would quite genuinely mean shifting the entire overall setting of the series to unreality for the time being. we've discussed the nature of the heart and human connection in this whimsical childhood fairytale world, now let's put these philosophical debates in the real adult world now! who knows. it honestly all depends on how much nomura thinks he has left in him. or if he does plan to retire whether he's gonna pass it off to someone else or just end it somewhere randomly. like truly we're getting kinda mixed messages here like simultaneously he's talking about retiring someday while also saying he's introducing a new phase to the series. ok but how long will that phase be bestie

[vacantgodling]

❤️❤️❤️

LEGGOOOOOO (fyi i am randomizing what wips i am gonna have a ramble about)

(1) cage universe

KSKSKS i've kinda taken a mini break from planning schism but that's just kinda bc my irl life exploded and i've been tryna get over a lot of the bs that's going on, but where i left off with planning everything was just the entire chapter 2 which tldr (spoilers ig) cass and han are in paris and cass wakes up early to get them some breakfast. he ends up getting accosted at the food stand (cuz its in a lone-ish alley) by some talon goons and is gonna end up being taken to chateau guillard however he doesn't know that. what he also doesn't know is that when he's shoved into the van that the person sitting across from him with a bag on his head is actually jack, he got captured on purpose bc he's insane. and i really need to write bittersweet btw. idc about jack most of the time but jack and vincent provide me with a certain kind of brainrot that him and reapsies cannot replicate for me. i just kinda want the two of them (jack and gabe) to like fist fight each other but not even in a sexy way just like try and kill each other or smthn lol. its really funny to me that i don't ship them bc for all intents and purposes they have a dynamic that i normally love, but tbh i think its just the fact that i havent' imprinted on either of them like a baby deer so idc.

lmao.

(2) purple haze

i'm actually in a weird place regarding purple haze. calvin and jake are the oldest ocs that i have and still "use" but idk if i feel the same burning need to write purple haze like i did when i was 20. but i think it's bc a lot of the pain that i was feeling i channeled into it when i was younger and now that i'm getting older and more removed from the sitautions that made me feel that way in the first place, i just don't feel the same burning itch to write it. this isn't to say that i'm getting rid of the story or cal and jake or anything like that; maybe i'll write it for myself one day? but for now i just like thinking of all the characters and their relationships whenever they do happen to cross my mind. i'm glad they're happier.

(3) supernatural dads

I CAN'T DECIDE WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH KASPIAN TBH it drives me nuts. like i don't want him and his third baby mama to get together (i don't think? like they just seem like friends to me, though i could explore it ig? they have good chemistry its just not what i thought was gonna happen and i still don't think it will tbh). and i keep waffling back and forth between if i want him to have any type of p h y s i c a l relationship with either hue or jihan (cuz make it messy why not) and etc. i keep thinking on it and gnawig on it. but i want him to be happy too!! i just dk what that looks like for him and it could be because he doesn't know what that looks like for himself.

[runthepockets]

hi!! just coming into your inbox because i saw you posted about the show ramy & i also loved it & have nobody to talk to about it. i know ramy youssef said he might make a season 4 but it's not official and i can't stop thinking about what a season 4 would be...fatherhood? but also he still owes a bajillion dollars due to that diamond piece he lost, right? idk. i welcome any and all thoughts <3

Hey dudette! Thanks for the follow, I'm in a pretty similar position so I feel you lol. The girl who introduced me to the show was a girl from a dating app and we don't really talk anymore so I don't have a lot of people to talk about it to either, thanks for hitting me up!

If the series ended where it left off, I'd be down with that, but I also can't deny I'm curious as to where the Hassan family + their friends end up after the third season. Putting my theories under read more cus it's a lot.

Here's what I'm thinking: it takes a really long time for Zainab to come around, but by the last 1-3 episodes she kind of accepts that Ramy is the father of her kid and she can't deny that, nor take that away from her daughter, and she can only come to this conclusion after a lot of time spent as a single mother (which comes with pros and cons) and a lot material proof that Ramy is a changed man; yeah he's still got his vices and flaws, but we all do, and he's not fucking his cousin or doing deals for the Israel mob anymore and he's finally found a nice balance between being a peaceful, average American millennial and being the firstborn son of an immigrant, which is definitely not an easy pattern to break.

Dena gets married, for sure, but the majority of her character still revolves around her studies and her career. There's scenes where her fiancé (I forget his name) gently drags her away from her studies to go on cute little dates or to remind her to eat dinner or to take her to diners for breakfast and catch up and pray and all, flirting with her over text and calling her on Facetime every now and then and linking up on weekends and vice versa, and it's established pretty well that he has a life of his own and is doing pretty well with his roommates and stuff. He and Dena get married a little after she passes the bar.

Farouk and Maysa have to sell the house, and it's super bittersweet. Ramy and Dena help them move all their stuff into this cute little 2 bedroom apartment, the second room doubling as a guest room and as a room for when one needs space from the other. It's weird not having the kids around and it's a little closer to the city than they like, but it's got a lot of perks too. Maysa can drive for Lyft and make friends easier cus everything is Right There, Farouk actually finds his rhythm as a con man, which complicates things a little but also, we all know he's a good and smart guy and would eventually know the law well enough to skirt around it, so it's a start. Their marriage improves a lot too cus they're finally humble enough to talk to each other about real shit.

Uncle Naseem doesn't accept being gay fully till like, the last three episodes. Post retirement of course. Ramy finds some old love letters while helping him clean and move the rest of Naseem's shit from Jeweler's Row and just smiles and nods to himself, dropping aforementioned shit off at his apartment with nothing but a little extra bundle of cash; both as a way of saying "sorry about the bullshit" and "don't explain; I know." and it's cool. As a cherry on top, he might have even made up with that guy at the gym, or he might have found a new guy.

Shadi should meet up with Steve at some point and get into the DJ scene proper; it's hard for him when Farouk and Maysa have to move into a smaller apartment without him, but he finds a decent and diverse group of rave bros during a set one night and it saves him from having to spend the rest of his time in the U.S. on the street. He falls for a cute black hippie chick during one of his sets, and they move in together. It's a little small and cramped but he has her and her cat has already fallen in love with him so how can he have any more reserves? This is just where god wants him to be,

I can't speak for any of the minor characters, or the cousin that Ramy stopped fucking, but yeah. This is my take. If you wanna talk more, feel free to DM!

[deathbypixelz]

Lilo and 3/3 by The Japanese House have just been doing something to me the past couple days, idk man.

Lore(?) below the cut

I don't have a specific time frame in mind, but my idea was that this is sometime after the night elves secede and most of them go back to Kalimdor, Cathala and Tarinne included. I have a vague headcanon that I actually just checked and it's canon that ritualistic bathing in moonwells is a thing, so yay me for being a genius who knows everything I guess. Anyway as I was gonna say, I figure bathing in a moonwell is something most night elves do every couple of years or at least, like, once a decade, just as a way to feel closer to Elune and what have you *waves hands vaguely* Even besides that, moonwell water has very strong healing properties so I mean it's just benefits all around.

For the entire period of time from Teldrassil to secession (~7 or 8 years), the night elves in Stormwind only have access to one moonwell, which is all the way out in Duskwood and is a multi-day trek. Stormwind doesn't let any of the priestesses/druids make any new ones (or any proper shrines at all) in/near the city, and most of the land surrounding Stormwind City itself is farmland or owned by nobles who ALSO don't want moonwells on their property, so they're stuck with that one. Considering moonwells are one of the main types of shrines to Elune to pray/leave offerings at, this isn't super great for morale. The trip is expensive, dangerous, and even those who can afford it can't find the time. So it's a big relief to a lot of people when they can finally do so after returning to Kalimdor.

Tarinne is one of those people. Cathala is... not. Not really.

Even before Teldrassil, she wasn't the most devout. All that time on Pandaria, away from anyone else who worshiped any of her gods, wore away at her. By the time the mists parted, she was in a weird place where her kind of religion more closely resembled pandaren religion than anything night elven. Much less emphasis on gods (excluding the August Celestials, who interact with their followers a lot differently than Elune does, for example), and more emphasis on one's ancestors. That would be fine on its own, but it was just another thing that made her feel alienated among her own people. And then after Teldrassil, she (among others) felt Elune had betrayed or abandoned her in her darkest moment, so she stopped worshiping her altogether after that. But even years later, Cathala still carried a lot of guilt and doubt regarding that decision, and actually goes through ✨a Character Arc✨ regarding that while hunting Sylvanas, but that's something I want to save for a fic so that's all you get right now.

The end result is that she's in an even weirder spot by the time secession happens, still trying to figure out where she stands on this whole faith thing. So it's bittersweet when she can finally do this moonwell thing with Tarinne again, for the first time in years. Or maybe for the first time, period, I haven't quite decided.

She'll get it figured out though, Tarinne will make sure of that <3

[beanghostprincess]

Yes yes yes!!!!! Luffy and Vivi get along and it's so funny because Nami's first reaction to Luffy saying this is "WHY DO YOU HAVE HER NUMBER???" and he's just like "??? girl idk we're classmates she's my friend" and Nami is going WILD because what do you mean they're friends??? She's been trying to get closer to Vivi (rich girl. Prettiest in the world to her. Also popular. Very rich. Again very rich. Nami has been working on their friendship for a long time.... Hasn't worked yet) for a long, long time. And it turns out Luffy of all people is the one to be her friend??? But, wow, okay, she's coming over. Okay. And suddenly Nami is chugging Vodka with Monster like a fucking alcoholic to see if she dies from a heart attack before Vivi comes over. While she's having this huge crisis, they keep playing the game- They're all pretty drunk btw. Except Luffy. He doesn't drink. And he's still more unhinged than the drunk people around him. Anyway. The point is that they're drunk and Usopp hasn't been drinking THAT much but Sanji definitely has, and Sanji is a very honest, straightforward, emotional drunk. So that's, um, a problem. Because they've been growing closer for a while and it's obvious that Usopp likes him but he doesn't even think Sanji likes boys. Sanji, on the other hand, is absolutely down bad for Usopp but internalized homophobia fucking sucks, so... He will never confess anything, not even to himself. But they're sitting next to each other and Sanji does not handle alcohol well. Usopp is a bit worried. From Sanji's POV, he's drinking because he really can't handle being so close to Usopp and playing a game like this one with him. Especially since he's looking gorgeous tonight and he really, really refuses to acknowledge his feelings. So he drinks. Great idea (no).

So Vivi comes over. Nami is drunk too but at least she handles alcohol perfectly well and she's just a bit louder and lighter than usual, but that's about it. She's calmer now. More relaxed. Even flirts with Vivi successfully (hurray!). They keep playing and of fucking course, innocent, sweet Vivi asks the most cliché question to Sanji because she doesn't know him enough to make a more specific thing. So she's like "Who's the prettiest person in this room for you?" (Zoro sighs and Nami's like "that's such a basic bitch question Vivi, darling"). But the question is already there in the air and Sanji is, uh, acting weird. He's hugging his knees close to his chest and resting his cheek there and staring at Usopp with the fondest of looks. One that suddenly turns bittersweet after hearing the question and he instantly smiles widely to Vivi, chugging more alcohol he definitely does not need, and saying "Nami, my precious angel, of course" (Zoro says something about her being the devil and Nami throws an empty cup at him but that's not the point). The thing is that it's obviously fake and it's weird and everyone can see it, and Usopp feels like shit, honestly. Nami knows something's going on there because she isn't stupid. But she doesn't say anything because she sees Usopp going through a bit of a rough time, so instead, she leans her head on his shoulder and he hugs her and they kind of already understand each other.

Zoro is so fucking done, though. Usopp is a good friend of his and he's not stupid. He knows something's up. And he knows Sanji is going to break his heart if he keeps being such a pussy about his feelings (his words, not mine). So when it's his turn to ask, he says "Curly, are you into men?" and Sanji instantly panics and there's so much tension around the room and he fucking hates this question. So he tries to change it by saying "I choose dare. I prefer dare" but Zoro isn't taking it "Okay. I dare you to answer the question" / "That's not how it works!" / "It is if I say so. Answer the question".

And it's obvious he's uncomfortable and also everyone knows they don't get along, so it isn't weird for Zoro to pull this shit, but Vivi isn't having it because she says "Hey, that's not fair! That question is too intimate! You could out somebody" and Zoro's like "everyone's fucking gay here, c'mon, who cares?"

Sanji ends up breaking the silence by saying "Not everyone likes men around here like you, pillow princess, shut the fuck up and use your mouth for something better like sucking our captain's cock in the middle of the fucking changing room, huh? You're not as quiet as you think." / "I'm not trying to be quiet." / "And I am not like you." / "Pfft. Actually, I should've known you were bullshit. You go all casanova goody two shoes through life but you're just a homophobic piece of-" / "I am not homophobic! What the fuck are you talking about?! I- I'm just saying I am not like you. I don't care if you like men, it's just- Fuck. You know what? I'm not dealing with this."

Then, Sanji runs upstairs and silence fills the room completely until Nami says "He's right though. Not everyone likes men here." and she winks at Vivi and lets her head fall on her lap and surprisingly it makes the blue-haired girl laugh??? So at least they are fine.

But Luffy is angry at Zoro, apparently, because he won't look at him and Zoro is confused af. Luffy just mutters a soft "That wasn't cool" and goes to the kitchen for more food but it's just an excuse to not be there.

Something something modern high school AU in which Sanji is a soccer player and Usopp is one of the cheerleaders with Nami. Sanji won't stop flirting with Nami, though, Usopp thinks he's extremely annoying and one of those popular guys™ (a lie btw he's a fucking loser). The only times they talk are when Sanji approaches the cheerleading team (ignoring the men) and when Usopp goes to talk to Luffy and Zoro because they're friends (they're also soccer players). But! But then they start seeing each other again. Usopp goes to school earlier always to paint because the sky is pretty and the soccer field is calm, and since they have meetings right before school and after, he just gets there earlier. Sanji starts coming earlier than anybody too to run and train and exercise for some reason Usopp doesn't understand because he has never done this before. He tries to ignore the blond but he must say it's pretty hard to do so when he's right there looking gorgeous and sweaty and with a slim artistic complexion Usopp loves. Long legs. Cool to draw. Anyway- Sanji surprisingly is the one to approach him one day because he has a rigorous diet for training now but since he's used to packing his usual food, he does it mindlessly again. He asks Usopp if he wants to eat it because "If you don't do it I will and I can't but I would rather kill myself than wasting food haha" and he says it jokingly but not really and Usopp thinks "fuck it, free food". So they start talking and talking and it turns out it's the best food he has ever tasted and Sanji has been the one to cook it. And he also is training because apparently he wants to impress his father so, damn, sad. One thing leads to another and this becomes a daily thing! They start getting along too! So much so that now he talks to the cheerleaders and Usopp. And he only brings food to Nami and him now. It's kind of nice.

-> Nami has her own side plot about her being in love with a girl from the band (Vivi). She just never tells Sanji she's a lesbian bc she brings her snacks and breakfast every day they have training together.

-> Luffy and Zoro are on the soccer team too and they're so fucking gay it's insane. Luffy is the captain bc somehow he's great at sports and Zoro is down bad.

Inspired by this post btw:

[faelapis]

uh... surprise! i ended up watching the amphibia finale, despite having seen nothing else of the show.

kind of a spur of the moment thing, kind of an experiment i'm doing. basically, like i said, i wanna see what the finale is like before i watch, just because i'm afraid of it stepping into certain plot resolution cliches that seem to plague most cartoons nowadays. that's not to disregard the "journey", but to me... when you see the same "destination" enough times, i kinda gotta know. sorry.

i like that anne turns down this ultimate power thing. i like that the omniscient kinda-god is just tired of their job. i like the idea that nobody should actually have ultimate power, so they are just given a shard for the simple act of going home. still though, it'd be more interesting if this also applies to the cat god. given the moral, you'd think maybe there'd be something more unnerving about them, like maybe they're not a perfect moral guardian. everyone's flawed.

the impression i get is the friendship between the 3 girls is key. that part is great and bittersweet. i like that they do the whole "growing apart but still finding a way to be in each other's lives" thing. idk how i feel about their grown up jobs so perfectly fitting their characters 10 years ago (from what i know of the characters & their arcs), that seems like a weird commentary in a moral about change... but then again, i dont know these characters that well. maybe it is a surprise!

and of course, i'm saying the thing i always say - i'm not surprised the whole king andrias vs core thing is the "the lackey standing up to the true dehumanized evil" route. that part is extremely tropey and par for the course and very not my thing... but again, not surprised. almost all cartoons end up doing this. it distinguishes between lesser, redeemable evils vs "true" dehumanized beings in a very cliche, uncomplicated and easy to digest kind of way. the true evil is killed, lesser evil is remorseful, and then that's that.

to put it into perspective for others who like redemption arcs - i'm not here for "you can get redeemed IF and ONLY IF you're the lackey of a greater evil." at that point, i become much more interested in whats actually going on in the mind of the "greater" evil. that would be an interesting character study, as opposed to just "tragic abused lackey stands up to evil boss." that's almost all we ever get.

overall i like the... vibe? i love all the spiritual stuff, all the emotional moments seem genuine (despite my lack of context), but as usual i dislike this particular way of writing "main vs side vilains." so thats one of those cliches i was wary of - some characters get to be complex, others are just unyielding, evil and inhuman. because of this very typical plot resolution, idk if i'll watch. perhaps. its a maybe.

also, small thing - but i like the ending scene a lot. the girls embracing, catching up with cute symbolic frogs in the foreground representing their growth, bond with the frog world, and the magical-ness of growing up... was a pretty sweet final shot.

finally, i need to stress all these thoughts are somewhat naive and based on casual consumption thru my dash + this finale. so its all kind of half-baked, these are just my impressions.

[reylohasmyheart]

Is it weird that reylo being the braver, definitely-not-done-in-mainstream-blockbusters-before option is the reason I'm hand-wringy about it? I haven't seen a lot of JJ Abrams' other work, but people on here have criticized him as a safe, conventional storyteller before, and one who has made poor decisions re: love triangles and bad endings. I'm concerned that they'll pull back and make it so they're ambiguously on good terms or have them resolve the trilogy having made their peace but apart.

No it’s not weird! I definitely hear your worries!!! And of course we can’t know or control what writers are going to do with a story so there’s always going to be an element of risk/doubt involved and we can’t say “they WILL do such-and-such” because we can’t know that. And that is both frustrating and comforting at the same time (okay honestly, mostly frustrating.)

Buuuut if I had to guess and make logical and likely predictions of how this trilogy will end based on what we do know, it strikes me as very likely and logical that JJ & co. will make reylo even more definitively canon than it already is. 

And that’s mainly for two reasons. The first is: Rian has already done most of the heavy lifting for him. Rian has taken risks I’m not sure JJ would have. To be fair, he beautifully expanding on what JJ started in TFA- JJ did start reylo and I shipped this for TWO YEARS before I even knew who Rian Johnson was- but he definitely took that dynamic and established it even more firmly as central and important. He killed ReySky, established a believable and mutual connection and tenderness between them, and set Kylo up for one final, glorious struggle and then REDEMPTION !!!! So JJ has been set up beautifully which leads me to the second point and part of what I was trying to say but not saying very well in my last post, which is…

Reylo is not really a risk. It is at this point the logical, narratively satisfying ending. It’s………almost conventional, safe, and predictable- all of those things  everyone says JJ is so good at. :D It feels crazy to say that because the star wars fandom can be so obnoxious at times and of course there are pockets of it that are aggressively against reylo and pro-rey skywalker but it’s still true. TLJ was praised for making bold choices and not giving the audience what so many thought they wanted and in response to backlash Lucasfilm has shown that they don’t take those criticisms of this trilogy seriously and so all that in mind reylo is the way-lo. ;D

Of course they could still end it ambiguously and it could definitely not be a clear-cut nor a fluffy, perfect, happy “romantic” ending (BUT I MEAN ALSO IT COULD, STAR WARS IS ABOUT HOPE AND HAPPY ENDINGS AND CHEESE HONESTLY) but Ben Solo’s redemption will almost 100% happen and his entire arc is wrapped up in Rey’s and I just? What else can they do? Leaving the door open for them instead of literally ending with a wedding makes sense and something restrained + a little bittersweet + hopeful seems like a sensibility they might shoot for with this trilogy and for the age we live in, but they’re going to have to at least leave that door open because like many people I feel very strongly that they can’t and won’t end the Skywalker line with Ben soooo….

IDK I’m kind of rambling at this point but to sum up: I think reylo is ultimately a safe choice that will be deemed brave by many and both the safety and the accolades of bravery attached to it are why I think that JJ will finish the story he started.