#did no one made this when this format was popular it is literally them

[bibiana112]

ugley babeis

[muzansfangs]

I just wanna be silly since Aug 27th is my birthday, but I wonder how jjk characters would act on your birthday, I love shower thoughts🙃

You spend your birthday with them.

Starring: Suguru Geto x f!reader; Satoru Gojo x f!reader; Sukuna Ryomen x f!reader; Choso Kamo x f!reader; mention to Yuji, Nobara, Nanami, Maki;

Format: head canons;

Warnings: fluff, consume of alcohol, jealousy, Sukuna is possessive and there are some red flags warnings in his part, robbery, slightly suggestive, party, wedding, parenting in Suguru’s part;

Plot: it’s your birthday and you are spending it with your beloved boyfriend. What is going to happen? Has he planned something to make your special day particularly memorable? Let’s find out!

﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

Suguru Geto.

• What a gentleman. He woke you up that morning by leaving a trail of gentle, featherlike kisses down your shoulderblades. As you stirred in your sleep and peered up at him through your heavy eyelids, he smiled softly and kissed the tip of your nose affectionately “Happy birthday, love” he murmured, careful not to startle you as you gradually began to come back to your senses. The peace and quiet lasted only for a couple of seconds, before Nanako and Mimiko dashed into your bedroom and charged at you to squeeze the air out of your lungs with their tight embraces.

• Untangling the limbs of your ‘family’ you finally made it to the kitchen, where you already found an aboundant breakfast ready for you to enjoy. Suguru had made you the queen of his cult and, actually, the empress of his heart and house. Siding with him until the very end, you had helped him with the girls and he had made it his life goal to make you feel loved. He peppered your face with kisses as you ate your pancakes, before a war of cereals and whipped cream began, laughters and giggles filling the air of the house.

• Most of the day was spent shopping with the girls and strolling around the city. However, Suguru had already planned something special for you in the evening. When you made it back home, the girls obediently accepted to spend the evening with a babysitter and Suguru took your hand to lead you back to your shared bedroom. On the top of the bed there was a large black box, a silver ribbon exalting the elegance of the packet as he incited you to open it and wear what was inside.

• A Valentino dress was soon embracing your body as Suguru showered you in compliments and called a taxi for you two to have a nice dinner at the most exclusive restaurant in Tokyo. Fine wine, sweet nothings whispered to your ear as delicacies were served at your table one after the other.

• This man loved gifting you diamonds every now and then. How did you even stare at him in awe as he latched a beautiful necklace of rubies around your neck?

• You spent the night in a five stars hotel, sipping champagne and finally letting him worship your body like you deserved.

Satoru Gojo.

• He gave a terrible migraine to every mutual friend of yours. In particular, he drove Kento insane. It was your damn birthday, how could you expect your boisterous and popular boyfriend to keep it low? He threw a party for you at his penthouse, going as far as inviting the higher-ups as well. Multicolored lights and baloons were in every angle of his house, music so loud speaking with the hosts was nearly impossible. However, you had to admit he had taste in picking the right decorations to meet your expectations.

• Expensive bottles of champagne everywhere and a pile of presents were waiting for you in the middle of the living room. Next to it, a very tired Nanami, choleric at your boyfriend, blew into a silver trumpet with a conical blue paper hat on the top of his hair. His eyes were sincerely wishing you a happy birthday, but you knew he was silently warning you that your dear boyfriend Satoru was going to die by his hand pretty soon. After the party, most likely. You could not blame him.

• Once the party ended, Satoru literally jumped on you. The make-out session was pretty heated, as you two rolled over his king sized bed, kind of tipsy but in your right minds. You did not expect him to give you an extra present. Apparently, the necklace with a sapphire pendant was not enough. The moment he knelt before you with a velvet box in his hand, you gawked. Tears of joy rolled down your cheeks as he asked you to become his wife. How could you decline?

• The moron posted a picture of your hand and the sparkling jem adorning your ring finger a couple of minutes later and you spent the night answering to best wishes and Kento’s comment.

• “Widowed a day after the wedding. Sorry, ‘@ y/n’”.

• You wondered why Yuji had liked that comment, but then you assumed Sukuna had probably just taken over his body to be a pain in the ass.

• Overall, you cuddled a lot, making plans for the future. The first thought coming up to his mind was asking you to move over, because he would have been able to protect you non-stop, if you lived together. And this was the beginning of a fairytale.

Ryomen Sukuna.

• It was your what? A birthday? Mortals and their weird festivities. How could someone be happy to age? A step closer to death and you still seemed happier than ever. The first thing he did was attempting to be nice in his brutal way: he offered you sex. When you shut the door at his face he connected the dots. Maybe, he needed to understand what women liked to do on such special occasions.

• He saw a man buying flowers for his girlfriend and thought you might have appreciated the gesture. A faminine thing for you to enjoy could not a bad idea, right? A few minutes later he was banging at your door demanding you to let him in. He dropped dozens of roses onto your table, leaving you speechless but genuinely suprised.

• “Who told you to buy me flowers? That’s way too romantic coming from you” you teased him, planting a kiss onto his cheek.

• “I saw a fool buying it. I robbed the florist”.

• You facepalmed and offered him to stay with you for the day, because you had invited some friends over to eat lunch together. He did not mind, or this is what he said. He really tried to behave, but your friend was glued to your hip and, according to him, his eyes were transfixed on your ass. He almost sent that poor guy to hospital, but you were lucky he had leave for a last minute mishap.

• Once everyone was gone, you two bickered. However, it ended up in the only way he had wanted to begin the day with. Clothes gone, lips latched onto your neck and a night of passion no man could have ever been able to offer you.

• Unfortunately, you were in love with that savage.

Choso Kamo.

• Man on a mission. Ever since Yuji explained the importance of birthdays and some basics about ‘how to make a girl happy’, he had spent weeks trying to organize a perfect date night for you two. A date night, yes, because he thought throwing a small party at lunch with your mutual friends would have made you happy and it did. But he wanted some attentions too, in private.

• His birthday present for you was a polaroid. Obviously, he could not stop himself from blushing, the tip of his ears turning reddish, as he handed you the small box with a huge purple ribbon to adorn the lid. He told you he had heard you tell Nobara and Maki you wanted to buy a polaroid to decorate your bedroom with pictures of your friends and he admitted he wanted the first photograph you would have taken to be with him.

• He took you to the ferris-wheel in the evening and stared at you enamoured of your smile the whole time. He did not give a damn about the landscape, when he had his whole world in front of him. He was so lovesick, but it did not mind. Once you got off, he bought you anything you wanted. Candy-floss? Peppermint sticks? Pizza? Name something and he went to fetch it for you in a nick of time.

• A powerful boyfriend meant tons of plushies won at the different stalls. When he spotted a huge lilac teddy bear holding a heart in his paws, Choso went straight for it and beated the records indicated on the giant sign at the entrace of the small shop just to see your eyes widen and twinkle in adoration. He might have grinned mockingly at a kid on your way out, triumphantly carrying the plushie for you.

• When you began to get tired, he took you home. Resting your head on the top of his shoudler during the bus ride, you dozed off and he did not have the heart to wake you up, when you looked so sweet and lovely. He might have glared at any person staring at you, whilst you were asleep, but it was his protective instinct kicking in. He behaved.

• Back into your flat, he snuggled into a cocoon of blankets with you into your bed and you smiled, upon hearing him uttering sweet nothings in your ear “I love you, I love you, I love you” he murmured continuously. Naturally, he let you be the little spoon. He would have done anything for his ‘princess’. He wondered if his brother would have been proud of him, because Choso was surely giving it his best shot!

• Sleepy make-out sessions were definitely the best part of the day, before you finally succumbed to sleep.

AUTHOR NOTE.

Hello there! This was supposed to be published sooner, but happy belated birthday honey! I hope you enjoyed this small scrap🥹❤️

Love you,

Luce

[subbyfoxelf]

today is an extremely bad day for the magic the gathering community.

if you don't play mtg, here's what you need to know: the most popular format by far is actually a fan-created format originally known as elder dragon highlander (edh), and later becoming enshrined as an official format under the name commander. despite its official recognition by wizards of the coast, the commander format was governed by an independent panel known as the rules committee. if my use of the term "was" sounds foreboding... it should.

on september 23rd, this independent rules committee announced the addition of four cards to the format's banned & restricted list. regardless of how you feel about these changes, they were aimed to do the one thing the rules committee cares about: keep the format fun & fair for all players. again, i must stress that this is their only motivation. that's something i'd like everyone to keep in mind before we move on to where we are today.

the rules committee was expecting the backlash to their decisions to be vitriolic. the cards they banned were popular among... a certain segment of players. and more importantly, they were cashcows for joyless collectors and the secondary market. the kinds of people who unironically refer to these little pieces of cardboard as "investments." and yeah, i'm being a little unfair here. i will acknowledge that. but i think it's pretty warranted considering what happened next.

what happened next were death threats. lots & lots of death threats. lots & lots of death threats, a disproportionate number of which were directed at the rules committee's only female member. yeah, shocking. ironically it turned out that she literally voted against the most unpopular changes to the banned & restricted list, not that she needs to have to make this entire thing reprehensible. but it's just... frustrating. all of it is very frustrating.

of course she isn't the only one who received these threats. the rest of the rules committee also received similar harassment, as did plenty of people who weren't even involved with this decision. it's just a very ugly moment for the community.

if you have ever considered sending someone actual, literal death threats over PIECES OF CARDBOARD, please reevaluate your entire life immediately.

and look, there are some extremely reasonable criticisms of the decision and how it was announced. i'm not denying that. and i will fully admit that i had a fairly positive view of the bans compared to the people who were angry. but regardless of how you feel about them, one thing is undeniable: they were made by people whose entire motivation is making the format more fun & fair. that was literally their only motivation. they were not beholden to shareholders or executives or any of the other machinery that makes Line Go Up. they just wanted the game to be as fun as possible.

today, wizards of the coast announced that the commander rules committee is officially handing over management of the format to wizards of the coast. a company who, ever since its aquisition by hasbro, has been nakedly motivated by profit above all else. a company who, even when it was more independent, would have ultimately had that motivation simply by virtue of being, you know, a company.

so tl;dr (too late), good job mtg community. you showed your entire ass to the world by harrassing people off of the internet over fucking pieces of cardboard, and now hasbro fully owns the game's most popular format. i hope you're fucking happy.

[pluckyredhead]

hi! i'm new to comics and i got in through reading your fics and wayne family adventures. i've since started reading more of the mainstream verse and i realized that most comic fans consider wfa to be totally fanon. you're one of the few i saw that disagrees. would you mind elaborating a lil on why? i'm too new to really form an opinion either way but i'd like to know your's!

(also yes i really did stalk your blog back years worth of posts i'm sorry! 😭😭)

Aw I love this! Welcome!

So I think it's really important to be clear on definitions here:

Canon means it's part of an official text. It's literally in a comic (or book or movie or other property) published or licensed by DC.

Fanon means it's made up by fans. That doesn't mean bad or good, it just means that it comes from fandom and is not part of the official text.

Wayne Family Adventures is an official licensed comic by DC, so by definition, it cannot be fanon. That doesn't mean everyone has to like it, but it's not a fan comic. It's an official DC product. It's not fanon.

Now, WFA isn't part of the main DCU canon. It takes place in a separate universe. The Jason in Batman #138 and the Jason in WFA are not the same and they are having very different experiences. (And I'm sure the Jason in WFA would be grateful if he knew.)

But that's no different than a comic that takes place in an alternate universe, like Dark Knights of Steel or DCeased, or a movie like Blue Beetle or a show like My Adventures with Superman. They all take place in their own universes, but all of those universes are canon. None of them are fanon.

What I think most people mean when they say WFA is fanon is that WFA draws on tropes and characterizations that are popular in fandom. Which...yes, absolutely. This is on purpose, and honestly, it pisses me off when people complain about it. (Not you, anon! Your question was lovely, you just triggered my unskippable cut scene of dialogue. Sorry lol.)

Wayne Family Adventures is probably the single best idea DC has had in the 20 years I've been reading comics. (The second best was the kids and YA graphic novel lines.)

I just checked, and WFA has 1.3 MILLION subscribers. That's more than every floppy comic starring Batman sells in a month, combined. It's more than literally any superhero comic has sold in decades - in this century! The combined strips have over A HUNDRED MILLION VIEWS. That is bonkerstown. That is a readership like DC hasn't seen since the 1970s. That is unparalleled success, and it's introducing characters like Kate Kane and Duke Thomas to a whole new audience.

Now, WFA was clearly designed to appeal to Batfans who were active on social media and fanfic sites like AO3 and Wattpad, and Webtoon readers. The readership of Webtoon is mostly young and female. Fandom as a whole is mostly female. The writer of WFA is female.

And maybe I'm not being fair here, but when I see people dismiss WFA as "just fanon," I always catch a whiff of "It's not a real Batman comic. It's a girl comic for girls."

I have spent the past 20 years begging DC (and Marvel, DC is not alone in this) to see women as a viable audience - as their largest potential growth audience! I have watched in dumbfounded frustration as they ignored the juggernaut success of Raina Telgemeier and Ngozi Ukazu and Alice Oseman running rings around the NY Times bestseller list and counted a 50k shipment here and there as a resounding triumph. I have literally seen them throw out survey responses from women because "those women had an agenda." (This is a true story. 2011 was rough, y'all.)

And all of a sudden, they gave us a comic actually catering to women and young people and fandom, and they put it on the most popular, current, modern platform for comics availably - and it's brilliant. It's smart and funny and stunningly drawn and every episode makes clever, inventive use of the scrolling format. They FINALLY gave us a girl comic for girls, and it's a masterpiece.

And yes, it riffs on fanon concepts. It also has its roots firmly in mainstream DCU canon. It references deep cuts. CRC Payne and StarBite know their shit. Jason Todd being a bookworm may be a fanon staple, but he does plenty of reading - including Jane Austen - in the 100% canon mainstream DCU comics.

It's not going to be for everything, because nothing is. It's completely fine if you don't like WFA. No one has to read it or enjoy it. If you're into Batman for the darkness and the crime and the ongoing plotlines and the angst, WFA won't be for you, and that's totally fine!

But to finally, finally be valued as a reader by DC, to have them do something smart and innovative and so, so well executed, and have the exact people they made it for dismiss it out of hand because Bruce has a "World's Okayest Dad" mug or whatever? Yeah, that chafes.

[epitomereally]

Celestial Navigation by @sabrecmc

18 year old Omega!Tony finds himself Bonded to Captain Steve Rogers. He isn't happy about it until he is.

An absolutely gorgeous story of learning to love yourself, even when you feel like you don't fit in & that you grew up wrong. I'm so happy to have gotten to bind this mammoth work for Sabre & as a gift exchange for @mourningmountainsbindery (who bound me this beautiful copy of Astolat's Let the River Run—JUST LOOK AT THAT COVER!).

Also to anyone who has @ed me lately (looking at u, em @powerful-owl & tacky @tackytigerfic particularly) & I've been derelict in responding, here is WHY.

This has been the longest binding project I've undertaken, both in page count and in time. My original message to Sabre was on March 16th—can't decide if I want to use the laughing or crying emoji here—and the colophon says I made the book in April 2023 (which was when I started typesetting, maybe). I had been randomly perusing dying videos on Youtube in bed on a Saturday morning, as one does, and came across a video showing how to spiral tie-dye. I IMMEDIATELY had a design premonition of the full design for this fic as a two-volume set, planted into my brain wholesale by the binding gods. I learned many new techniques throughout the process (edge painting, edge trimming/sanding, tie-dying/dyepainting, embroidery, typesetting meta from tumblr which copy-pastes with the worst goddamn formatting in the world, kill me now). Overall, alternately extremely painful & wonderful, and I'm extremely proud of this set.

Design-wise, I went whole-hog with the scifi stars theme. Endpapers are recolored versions of the star charts from the Apollo 11 mission:

Title page & chapter titles are both rips in the galaxy:

Epigraphs both star-themed:

Some more glamor shots because I'm so proud 💕

8.6 lbs // 3.8 kgs worth of books (~3000 total pages) 🥰

Celestial Navigation is also INCREDIBLY popular, and Sabre has been incredibly generous answering asks on her tumblr + writing additional one-shots in the universe. There is also a veritable volume of fanart. I was so inspired by seeing @robins-egg-bindery copy of ********, with its appendix of fanart & meta, that I promptly copied them.

fanart redacted because lots of the artists are no longer active on tumblr but just know i am ECSTATIC about the amount of art in these books

Lastly, I love how @clovenhoofbindery includes their 'Illustrator mess' with their bind posts, as a behind-the-scenes look into the wild process of designing these books. I don't actually have an Illustrator mess for this book (the chapter titles & title page pretty much came in one take), but I do have a DYING MESS. It took me sososo many tries to figure out how to get the dye to look how I imagined in my head. I ended up 'dye painting' instead of tie-dying in the end, but my inbox is always open to chat hand-dying/tie-dying/dyepainting (or what I did differently between any of these attempts). Numbers are the dying attempt.

Last process shot: I hand-dyed variegated linen thread to match the colors of the bind, which ends up being incredibly difficult to see on the finished bind, but was super fun while I was sewing!

Materials:

Body font: Kepler

Title font: Compaq 1982

Chapter number font: aliens & cows

Endpapers: recolored versions of the star chart used by Michael Collins during the Apollo 11 mission (archived at The Smithsonian)

Bookcloth: dyed using Dharma Trading Procion Fiber-Reactive Dyes

Title page and chapter headers: designed in Photoshop using the Ultimate Space brush pack by jeffrettalyn on DeviantArt

Metallic embroidery thread: Cosmo Nishikiito thread

I would dye for this embroidery thread. It is LIGHT YEARS better than the classic metallic embroidery thread from DMC: much easier to work with & much more sparkly. Literally so eye-catching; it truly doesn't translate to photos.

Paint for edges: Daniel Smith watercolor tubes in Iridescent Sunstone and Prussian Blue

Note: these are GORGEOUS watercolors. The color is so saturated and strong and beautiful BUT I don't think I'd recommend watercolors for edge painting. They went on very differently depending on the grit of the sandpaper I used for the edges + they sometimes bled into the pages + they had to be set with fixative, which then stuck the pages together.

[arduennas]

i saw wicked!! 8/10 movie very good. i also have many thoughts head full. i fully acknowledge that these thoughts could only belong to the diseased mind of a person who has thought too much about wicked for the last 7+ years. anyway spoilers and general ambivalent thoughts ahead etc

good things first:

cynthia erivo slay!! she was like an average good elphaba imo which means she was incredible by normal standards

set design and choreography ATE. munchkinland? the emerald city? the clockography? ate ate ate

overall the movie was just visually beautiful. it was colorful and sparkly and looked soooo expensive. whenever a new location appeared for the first time i literally gasped. i loved it

elphaba’s party dress was GORGINA 😍😍😍

michelle yeoh and jeff goldblum my beloved evil parents… they can’t sing but idc they were so cunty

they sort of kept the hammerheads in one short day which is all i wanted from that song. wicked is not wicked without the egg puppet freaks

they didn’t add anything from the book thank fucking god

ari was funny and pretty good! will expand on her later. i think they did popular the best they could in a movie format given that the song relies so much on improv, physical comedy, audience response, etc.

neutral to bad things:

ok so ariana. very eyebrow-heavy performance. not bad vocally! it was foul to make her sing with cheno during osd though, the difference in quality was so clear lmao. i’m interested to see how she’ll deal with act 2 both vocally and acting-wise

i didn’t like how light ariana sang throughout the whole movie. idk if she was directed to do this though—i could see them telling her to do glinda less obnoxious or tone down the comedy which i understand for a movie. but come on girl it won’t kill you to do a full belt in the studio ONCE

ariana and cynthia’s voices do not blend well. you can tell cynthia was trying to tone herself down to match ari and ari was just not giving in return

the mixing was weirdly unbalanced in a lot of the duety portions and i couldn’t tell whether it was the fault of the sound design or the actors just not being able to sound good together lol

it fucking DRAGGED. there is a 90-minute edit of this movie that could easily have existed. none of us needed to hear something bad or a sentimental man. they took every small pause in the music and stretched it out to the point where it interrupted the flow of the song AND became patently obvious that they were trying to pad for time. the new part of one short day with idina and kristin was not good and also too long. the added chase scene before defying gravity started out fun but then went on way longer than it should have. the ozdust dance was SO LONG my god. i could write up a whole list of shit that went on pointlessly for way too long but we would be here all day

there are some elphabas who can carry i’m not that girl. cynthia is not one of them and this is my only complaint about her performance. she divafied a song that is not meant to be divafied

dancing though life was arranged and directed badly. for lack of a better term it’s meant to be a stoner song and it was way too punchy. also if you’re going to insist on casting a white fiyero at least make him good #notmyfiyero

the lighting was often not good??? i think because a lot of it was filmed outside and the sun washed out the set or created a glare. some odd color grading choices as well. really weird because otherwise visually the movie was stunning as i said before

this is a criticism of many modern movies, definitely not wicked-specific, but a lot of the the costumes looked cheap and it’s because of productions cutting corners when it comes to materials and tailoring. especially compared to the show costumes which are so intricate and structurally well-made because they’ve had to last for literally 20 years. we need to ban polyester from film sets i’m so serious

glinda and elphaba should have kissed each other on the mouth

[ravilson23]

Okay, okay. I am fine.

I am calm.

...

No i am not THE NEW HELLUVA BOSS EPISODE JUST DROPPED PEOPLE! And its fuckinG GREAT! Hell yea i am way to excited.

Mastermind is really good. Could it be better? Of fucking course, but i enjoyed it a lot, and by a lot i mean i became an overexcited toddler. I feel like i am way too emotional to logicaly think about all the stuff in this episode, but i think its the best one of this season, like no questions asked.

First of all despite many different stuff happening all of it is a part of a bigger story. I.M.P. as a found family, the systemic racism and classism, all the Sins, law enforcement in hell, the matter of demon mortality (though very briefly) Blitzos individual relationship with each member of the crew, Stolitz, Octavia and Stolas, Stella and Andre, political games played by royals, Blitzos character study and development, Stolas getting completely destroyed, Stella showing clearly how little she cares for Octavia, and some other little things. Its all shown in one, single story. I generally feel like Helluva Boss cant do AB plot format. All the episodes i find most flawed are constructed as such (Especially the fucking S02E02). And imagine how weaker this episode would have felt if the court drama wasnt the only focus. Hovewer the most exciting thing in all of this are consequences. I hope, i really do, oh please make it happen, that Stolas gets so so broken. It may sound cruel but just imagine. Right now he has lost everything for his unfortunate love interest. While at first he was in the position of power now he will be completely dependant on Blitz. No one else is going to be willing to help him. Not one royal and especially no one from lower class. He has no home, no money, no family and no reliable support system. Literally his only ally is Blitz. He is a social pariah. This is the time to face the music. To face all of the bulshit he did, how he treated Octavia, how he treated Blitz and imps in general. Its a literal role reverse. Now Blitz holds all of the power between them. Whats more he has gained a sudden respect and popularity. He finally believed in Stolas love and became fully aware of how deep his own feelings are. I can see the fucking drama. Their perspectives and feelings are once again out of sync. But this time thy have different roles to play. Blitzos have just experienced everything he ever wanted, it was probably the best day of his fucking life. And for Stolas its probably one of the worst if not THE worst.

So what i believe will happen, or rather what i want it to be. Stolas will resent Blitz at first. He will constantly wonder was saving him worth all the riddicule, isolation, dependency and most of all losing his daughter. At the same time Blitz will be way too sweet to Stolas, he will be actually loving and tender for once in his life but also unable to fully emphatize with Stolas, because he is so damn happy right now. For the first time in his live he will be seen as not a failure but a hero. This will be a source of conflict and i hope this will be a moment when both of them actually understand each other. Stolas is facing all the ostracism Blitz has been facing all his life as an imp. It have to be a paradigm shift for him. And Blitz, I think he will see how easy it is to lose the sight of whats important when he is so happy while his partner is clearly not. But to be fair, while i believe they will come back to their toxic relatonship and that Blitz will be an insensitive dick i still want to see Stolas karma more. Because Blitz has been changing, has been becoming aware of his flaws even if he wasnt succeful in becoming better. But Stolas was never succefully called out. Not in Seeing Stars, not in Apology Tour. Blitz may have told him that he treats imps bady, but the message didnt really sink. It made him wonder (as shown in "All 2 u"), but did anything change? I guess now we will have a chance to see. So yea. I really, really love to see Stolas as someone small and broken. Because i hope he it will make him develop as a character. And if thats the plan, if thats why he wasnt really called out before, than i am getting my hope and faith in the creating team back.

Now. The things i didnt like.

Most and foremost, tone shifts. The episode had some good jokes. But some of them has really destroyed the tension. The worst one is when Blitzo is thrown out and starts hitting the door. I am sorry but why put a joke in a scene that should be absolutely heartbhreaking. The helplessness should be overpowering, and yet. Second thing that kind of pissed me off was "because your life has actual worth". I think its a bit too on the nose. And another thing. This is a constant one but... why wasnt all this drama better established in previous episodes? While yes we knew imps were discriminated, and that them using grimouir is illegal it feels like ages since the topic has been seriously touched upon. Whats more the discrimination felt very inconsistent. I wish we have seen more flashed out examples of how imps are treated. Because in this ep its literally said that they are worthless, created to obey. And yet it never felt this serious before??? The mafia with imp boss completely wrecked the concept. Also it was never said just how serious punishment Blitz would be facing if the truth about grimoir came out. I didnt feel any tension. If i was expected to cry or be sad or stressed about this episode, i was absolutely not i was giddy with joy. Same problem with showing Andre or Versago(is it his name?) as characters, though its not a serious issue.

All in all i feel like the biggest problem this show is facing at this point is the lack of system. The series feels both episodic and plot driven. But at the same time what is the main plot at this point? After this episode one may think it was about Blitz changing imps hierarchical status. But was it really?? I feel like at first it was just job killing shenanigans highly focused on dynamics between characters. Then came The Harvest Festival and we became properly introduced to this idea of Blitzos bussines being a way to fight systemic opression. Then Truth Seekers, and we have exploring inside trauma. Then the show became a romance drama, letting go of most things while butchering Stolitz with the fucking Seeing Stars. I vehemetly hate this fucking episode. Half of the second season feels like trying to explain stuff left out of the first one while also fucking everything else. Starting with fucking Seeing Stars and mostly ending with Campers. All these episodes tried to explain some preintroduced topics and managed only to mostly kill all the excitment i had for them. I could list them but this post is already long. So what i am trying to say, does Helluva Boss has any end goal in mind? I think not and i belive it may be the main source of the show's issues.

[cugzarui]

before i watch the introduction of kevin levin i just wana get a review out of the way

so ive watched up to episode six so far and i think i know why ben 10 is as good and successful and long lasting as it is. i know what this show is really about, and its not aliens. its not about being able to transform. its not about fighting bad guys or solving mysteries or world building.

its a compilation

ben 10, from what ive rewatched so far and what i remember, is a series made by pulling ideas and aesthetics from various mythos and cultural phenomenon, writing a story about each one in an episodic format. a real stranger walks into town kinda show (literally, as the tennysons are on a field trip going to a new place each episode). and as i rewatch this series i keep finding myself wishing we got to see more of the side characters. each. and. every. episode. the actual main cast isn't actually that compelling or interesting. well they are, but enough for multiple series over two decades? no. the tennysons are a vessel through which we get to see other stories.

even the main character isnt so much one character who turns into ten aliens, as ten characters who are also a little kid called ben tennyson. each one of them could probably star in their own series, but dont. instead they are all bunched up together into one series, making them a much more flexible writing tool.

id even argue ben 10 isnt actually a science fiction show. it just needed some common umbrella to put a bunch of disparate stories under, and in true ben 10 fashion, just borrowed an umbrella that happened to be popular and worth exploring at the time.

this format naturally lends itself well to merchandising as well, undoubtedly helping the show to stay on the air. but its far from the only show to be written like this and not all of them are successful. generator rex and the secret saturdays come to mind. so why did ben 10 succeed where these other shows failed?

we could chalk it up to just bad luck - nanobots and criptids just never got as popular as aliens and magic - and while that's definitely part of it i also think these shows were probably just a lot harder to merchandise. with ben 10 you can literally add a new alien every time you wana sell new merch. with the secret saturdays though while you can add more criptids theyre never really part of the main cast iirc, making them a harder sell. and with generator rex...look you can give that boy as many body parts as you want but in the end its the same doll. theres only so much you can do with that.

this becomes more apparent when you look at some other similar franchises that managed to stay successful and popular like adventure time and avatar. both of those are series that are largely episodic (avatar does have an overarching plot but its just vaguely guiding the characters along really), bringing the characters to a new adventure with its own rules and world building (and typically location) each time. these shows also have a way of making even the side characters significant and feel more like part of the main cast, at least for an episode, making them easier to merchandise.

i dont remember much from the secret saturdays but generator rex i know was a pretty serious and plot driven show. and while this doesn't mean its a bad show or that kids wouldn't like it, i do think its easier to sell merchandise and captivate an audience with something that isnt just serious, but fun as well. and besides? i think these shows just kinda lacked color...like literal color. if your goal is to make something that people wana buy and get excited for, then muted browns and greys probably arnt the way to go.

i might have to rewatch these shows as well (they are on my list which only grows and never shrinks) in order to give a better analysis but this based on my memory was the difference that made or broke a show.

and this kinda...i dont know how to feel about this. about ben 10 i mean. in the end its less of a coherent show and more of a...a...a mash up...an amalgamation...a compilation of other stories. like...do i actually like ben 10? or do i just like the writers taste in stories and aesthetic. could i replace ben 10 with a tumblr mutual who recommends me new stories? do i actually wana see more of the side characters? they're probably not much more developed than what we see on screen, and while they could probably have their own story - probably do somewhere - im not sure if ben 10 can make them interesting enough to carry more than one episode each.

there is another show like this - steven universe. it keeps telling you just enough that you know theres something there. you dont know what it is but you can sorta figure it out but you don't actually know. and you know you dont know. and you wana know and that keeps you engaged. but in steven universe that comes from actual world building. it originates from the show. in ben 10? it comes from somewhere else. and idk how to feel about that.

[lazuliquetzal]

Fic Stats Game

Ohoho thank you @tavina-writes for the tag!! Pretty sure this is gonna be the same 3 fics over and over but we'll see :)

rules: give us the links to your fic with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the fewest words.

1) Most Hits

It's AA Batteries (Daiya no Ace). I know this without even looking, it's AAB 100% and by... not a significant, but a decent lead. That thing breached containment. I'm glad that it did, because I had fun writing it, but it always surprises me because sports anime twin OC fic? Really?

But I'm glad it's my most popular fic, even if I don't consider it my best, because even if it's a canon rewrite, I finished a 100K+ fic and I am proud. I'm literally never over it, I could talk about it all day.

Like, I usually don't ship things very strongly, but Misawa is insane to me. Also, do you know how embarrassing it is to relate to Miyuki Kazuya? And not even in a 'generic repressed character' way, I'm talking in a Hey I Literally Was In His Shoes And Made The Same Exact Fucking Mistakes And Decisions way. Nobody gets Miyuki Kazuya like I do. I'm fucking Miyuki kin. I didn't ask for this. I didn't--

2) Second Most Kudos

This one is also AAB, so I'll go with first place: Reflection (The Magnus Archives). A classic. A nice and simple time travel fix-it comedy.

I remember the writing of this one because I had been utterly obsessed with TMA. It would not let me go. I drafted the early chapters on my phone while walking across my college campus. I almost got ran over by a bike when I was writing the "Martin witnesses Jon have a mild breakdown in the break room" scene.

3) Third Most Comments

Dawn of the Fourth (Linked Universe). The LU fandom is super giving with their comments! Probably the most comment-friendly fandom I've been in.

I think it also helped that DotF is one of those stories where every chapter is a punch to the throat lol. If you didn't comment after ch7, it's probably because you zoomed through haha.

4) Fourth Most Bookmarks

It's DotF again, so I'll go with third place: ain't no rest for the wicked (Naruto).

Ah, this one... I'm fond of it, in the way I'm fond of all my writing, but also I was in high school. There's a lot about it that I would do differently now. But I learned a lot from writing it, and actually Chie, Issei, and Riku are still my children and I love them all. I'm proud of the color test. :)

5) Fewest Words

If you ignore the Zelda comic and the CSS formatting test and the anonymous April Fool's fic that I will not be claiming ownership of publicly, my shortest fic is Blackout Blues (Daiya no Ace) at 1101 words. If you subscribe to the belief that a picture is worth a thousand words, then that bumps the word count up to 4101 words.

I should draw more art for my fanfic. I have the power. It's fun.

tagging (if you want!): @yellowocaballero @xxsolar-writesxx @ellie-tarts @zarvasace @dottie-wan-kenobi and anyone else who wants to!

[lacefuneral]

hi!!! i love for custom blog theme,, do you have a link to the code or creator 0:?

ya!

so my theme is actually a heavily modified version of redux edit #1 by lopezhummel (current url: holyaura). i always remind users that most tumblr themes are old and that you'll need to replace all instances of "http://" in the code with "https://" so tumblr will save the theme. i had to do it with this one

these are the modifications i made to the theme. i edited this theme over the course of at least a year or so and don't quite recall how i did all of these things. but to the best of my ability:

i moved the "left side img" to the right side of the screen. i also made this element "responsive" so the image will never get cropped when you resize your screen. this was a bitch and a half to figure out and i truthfully do not remember how i did it

i deleted the text in the drop-down navigation so it appears as a little line that is otherwise not noticeable. this type of theme, the "redux edit," used to be very popular because having a drop-down menu let you cram a bunch of links that lead to sub-pages on your blog. i've done away with my sub-pages, but i still like the format of the "redux style" tumblr theme, for its minimal UI and for its customization options.

i separated my mobile description from my web description for formatting reasons. basically, most elements in tumblr themes are connected to specific text fields and toggles. i simply went to the section that was connected to my blog description and deleted it. the web description has to be manually typed inside of the CSS/HTML editor when i want to change it. whereas my mobile description is whatever i type in the "description" box of the normal tumblr theme editors.

i added code someone else made ("NoPo" by drannex42 on GitHub) which allows you to hide posts with certain tags on them. i did this to hide my pinned post, as it looks bad on desktop.

i replaced the tiny pagination arrows at the bottom with images that literally say "next" and "back" because the arrows were far too small/illegible. i know they aren't centered in the container i'm not sure how to fix that lol

i added a cursor

i installed a working music box ("music player #3" by glenthemes), and then added music by uploading MP3 files to discord and then using the links of those files as the audio sources. iirc i also had to make this element responsive and i aligned it so it would sit on the left side of my screen. i made the "album art" for each one the same strawberry pixel art

the moth is just a PNG i added and then moved around so it was behind my sidebar using the options that came pre-packaged with the theme

if you want something like the strawberry shortcake decoration at the top (called "banner" in the theme) your best bet is to google "pixel divider"

theme didn't support favicon so i added that in so i could have a little heart

ALSO:

this theme is. really weird about backgrounds. any background that i have ever set for it, i've had to do weird shit in photoshop. like making the background HUGE, mirroring it, etc. - because it would crop the image weird, or there would be a gap where there was no image. idk man, it's haunted. i'm sure there's a way to fix this but i am NOT tech savvy enough. anyway, patterns are probably your best friend. and if you DO want something that isn't a pattern, it's going to take a lot of trial and error. but i love this theme so i deal with it 😭

the sidebar image and the floating image do not scale. if your image is 1000 pixels, it will display at 1000 pixels. you'll either have to edit the code so that the theme scales the image for you, or resize any images before you add them

my white whale of theme editing (aside from the Weird Background thing) is that i cannot get infinite scrolling to work. i have tried every code out there. all of them break my theme. it makes me sad because like. i have music there for a reason. the idea is that people would listen to it while they scroll. unfortunately, the way it's set up now, the music will stop every time someone clicks "next" or "back" 💀

anyway sorry for rambling but i hope you enjoy the the theme and customizing it in the way that you want to!

[moonlightazriel]

Writing tag game by @bonecarversbestie

Thank you for tagging me darlings @sunshinebingo @thelov3lybookworm

Describe your writing process from idea to posting/publishing?

I like to sit down on my computer and stare at the screen for a few seconds while i gather the courage to actully write, the hardest part is to get something done, because the ideas are always there, but put it into the paper? Yeah that's the worst.

So I really like to just let things flow in their own time, sometimes takes me weeks to write a line, but when i get the creativity booster randomly, i pretty much write the whole story without stopping until I'm done.

Then i send a message to @fieldofdaisiies asking if she wants to beta for me, which helps me a lot cuz i leave so many dumb mistakes behind and she always catches them for me, i rely on her feedback and change what we both agree should be changed and then I scan it one more time over translator to see if I haven't wrote any incorrect words and then i go to post.

I like to leave some of my banners for fics ready, as you guys know, my fics are posted in the exact same format every time, so i leave some of these posts ready to be filled, with tags and everything, fill it all out, think about a name, pray a few seconds that everyone won't hate it, then i post.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I really only plot and plan a story when i'm writing a longer st ory, like SOD or Worlds Apart, these kind of stories need planning and plotting and they usually take a long while to get those going, but overall I just write what gets the louder in my head and i just go with it to see where it gets me.

What do you listen to when you are writing?

Yeah, that's a hard one cuz i literally listen to anything, but i really like ambient music from video games to get everything smooth and calm for my frantic thoughts.

One of my favs is this one.

What’s your drink of choice (while writing)?

I really like to have some coffee while i write, but i usually ends up with a bottle of water. Stay hydrated guys, drink your water.

Promote yourself! What’s your favourite thing you’ve written?

I can't promote myself without mentioning Son of the Darkness , my first long fic and i adore it with all my heart, the plot, the idea, the building made me grow a lot as a writer and believe in myself more, one day i plan to rewrite it to see what it would look like when i'm older.

Share a fic of yours that you think is underrated/deserves more love.

When no one hears your calls it's one of my favorite things that i ever wrote and Eris deserves all the love after what he been through.

Do you have any advice for new writers?

Don't be afraid to try, writing is supposed to be fun, post what you would like to read, writing something you don't like just cuz it's popular and will get you more notes is not the way to go with this, you will end up unhappy, trust me. Don't be afraid to be creative an dmess up with the fan favorites, as long as you're being respectful, you should try everything. And most importantly, don't listen to that nagging voice that insists you're not good enough, you are and you're brilliant, kep writing, be amazed by what you write, this is such a fun and nice hobby, enjoy it.

What is a writing style/technique that others do really well that you'd like to get better at?

Somthing that really bothers me is smut, i feel like mine is very vague sometimes, but i just can't write it in details for some reason, i have read storiese where smut is so well written, and i know it can be beautiful, i just wish i could get mine to be a little bit better, but don't matter how much i try, it never seems good enough.

Is there a character you were surprised you enjoyed writing as much as you did?

Aemond Targeryen, he's such a nice character to write about, cuz he can range from a scared little boy to a mass murderer and theres so many possibilities with that, i wrote for him just for fun and i enjoyed so much, i always have an idea or two for him in my head.

Tagging: @fieldofdaisiies @lees-chaotic-brain

[mdhwrites]

I Wish I'd Found the Randy Cunningham Ninth Grade Ninja Fandom

I LOVED that show when it was first coming out. I thought it was just a ton of fun and that characters like Viceroy and Mcfist were genuinely amazing takes on their archtypes. Admittedly, Randy and Howard are entirely classic to me since I grew up with stuff like Danny Phantom and Kim Possible but...

None of you probably know what I'm talking about.

Okay, so a bit over a decade ago now, Disney had a show called Randy Cunningham: Ninth Grade Ninja. The premise was actually kind of Sailor Moon S1 in with half of its villain group. The Ninja exists to oppose the Sorcerer, trapped below the town. The Sorcerer feeds on misery and can corrupt people who are vulnerable through items and the like that they hold dear, turning them into monsters who are usually beat either by destroying the object or convincing the person to give up their grievance.

The other half of the main villains (it had a lot of side villains too of course) were the duo of McFist and Viceroy. They employed a lot of robots, mutants, etc. because, well, McFist was so rich as to practicallly own the town and be beloved by all (Think Lex Luthor but bad at hiding it and really shouty) and Viceroy was literally his on staff MAD SCIENTIST! He even graduated second in his year from a mad science university. Or first. Can't remember despite it being a plot point for an episode when a skeleton that the science teacher is... Married to I think? Comes back to life and tries to finish his graduation project that would have made him Valedictorian: A Doomsday Device. After all, if you blow the world, you are indeed the greatest evil scientist apparently.

The show was pretty classic in how it was structured and played thing and when I say classic, I mean it. It had a moral of the episode format, usually taught through ancient ninja rhyme through the book that gave Randy, the main character, his powers: The Ninjanomicon which is a great name. It would also be what helped grant him various ninja tools to beat bad guys, though his main weapon was the ever changing length scarf he had and a sick ass sword.

The show also had a good sense of humor about what it was though. Like the first episode's lesson from the book is that the greatest weapon is within the suit. When Randy gets his ass kicked, he believes it must be trying to tell him to believe in himself, draw in deep and OPE NOPE! It means there's a sword in the suit! Time to get to slicing and dicing!

The downfall of the show for me was the same thing that makes me actually surprised it didn't stick around longer than it did (besides Disney being honestly pretty stingy with seasons for the past decade for its shows): It being formulaic. Eventually, I did get tired of seeing Randy making similar mistakes or do things that felt like he should have outgrown. Sure, his best friend Howard rarely if ever changed and that could pull him down but it still eventually stopped feeling right. The episode that snapped it for me was when Julian (I can't believe I remember his name), the wanna be magician of the school went full supervillain and got real magical powers. It was a neat turn... Predicated on Howard and Randy being complete assholes to someone they'd at least once or twice called friend.

And that is what the real shame of the show for me was. There was a lot you could actually read into and say about the eb and flow of relationships and sometimes even the show had great fun with it. One episode in particular that I loved was when Howard accidentally gets the ninja powers and people like how he showboats while doing it so Randy questions being the ninja. The two guys are cut from the same cloth, best friends for a reason, but the show REALLY highlighted that eventually, a conflict between Howard and Randy was going to come to the head. Why?

Well... Because Randy is just a dumb teenager who wants to be popular. Howard is an asshole. It's not even the first episode that highlights it but every time it gets highlighted, it's a BIG problem for Randy. In this one, Howard is so cruel to a robot, takes his time to mock it so thoroughly that eventually the robot gets corrupted by the sorcerer and all its weaknesses are now strengths and it's damn near unstoppable. I forget how Randy beats it (besides just being better with the powers) but it always stuck out to me as a reminder that Randy WAS a hero, despite his flaws, and that the ninja before him had made the right call choosing him (not sure if we ever got an answer as to WHY Randy got it, though that was by no means necessary.)

It's just the sort of show that I had enjoyed enough that I wish I'd had more people to share in it while I was enjoying it. I could admittedly try going back now and seeing how it is but well... It's a decade old and had protags all about trying to be cool. Danny Phantom used regular, classic tropes for this while Randy actually tried to embrace the fact that stuff like influencers were starting to exist and become more popular so you can probably imagine its sense of humor by that. I wouldn't call it bad but the last time I tried rewatching the first episode, I remember not finding it nearly as charming as I had the first time, let alone as charming as my brain thought it was.

But on that note, I will say possibly one of the least controversial thing I ever have, just to let fellow fans squeal with me: Holy shit was Randy and Baton girl my absolute OTP of the show and I still get all sorts of happy anytime I'm reminded of the two.

And if you're going "Wait, was she a background charact-" NOPE! THEY LITERALLY CALLED HER BATON GIRL! If she ever got an actual name, I don't know it! And god are elements like that why I've never forgotten that show, for good and for ill. Edit: She was named Theresa in S2. Thank you to the commenter who reminded me!

[ryin-silverfish]

I was always a little confused that some students made fun of the rival sect just because they had "monster" students. I never quite understood if it was because these students had committed crimes or bad acts but were still accepted as students, or if it was because they were cultivated Yaoguais? one of the immortals was an immortal crane, so why did they make fun? or were they just making fun of the appearance? or is it like a case of discrimination against yaoguais?

Honestly, I think it is a mix of both. On one hand, the Jie Sect did have some unsavory members like Lv Yue the plague god and Ma Yuan the man-eater, and when Patriach Tongtian and Yuanshi Tianzun were facing off before the Immortal Killing Formation, that was what Yuanshi Tianzun focused on: that his Jie Sect disciples were acting unruly and strong-arming people and holding onto grudges as a result of his indiscriminate admission (Cha. 77).

On the other hand, when their opponents mocked them, the admission of cultivated beasts did seem to be brought up:

First was the shit-talk Guangcheng Zi allegedly made, where he said that "Whether horned or furred, wet-born or egg-born, [they] all mingled as one crowd"(不分披毛带角之人，湿生卵化之辈，皆可同群共处).

Second, during the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation arc, after the three yaoguai disciples of the Jie Sect was subdued and became mounts of Wenshu, Puxian and Cihang(FSYY's Daoist-ized version of Bodhisattva Manjusri, Samantabhadra and Guanyin), Lao Zi ordered Wenshu to take the azure lion right in front of Patriarch Tongtian and was like "With such creatures under your sect, how could you still act so high-and-mighty? What a joke!" (Cha. 83)

So personally, I did think the Chan Sect was at least a little prejudiced against yaoguais.

As for the White Crane Boy: he was never explicitly stated to be a cultivated crane in the novel, unlike members of the Jie Sect who were yaoguais, though he did transform into a white crane to snatch Shen Gongbao's head away(Cha. 37).

Everything else after this is context and theories, so take it with a grain of salt.

If you read Gui Zhizhong's translation of FSYY, the introduction stated that the Chan-Jie conflict was supposed to mirror the historical conflict between Quanzhen and Zhengyi Sects in the Ming dynasty, a theory that some scholars, like Liu Cunren, subscribed to.

However, I do not subscribe to that theory personally. Rather, my take is a blend of Li Yihui's hypothesis about the origin of the names "Chan" and "Jie"(《封神演义》考论), and Meulenbeld's book, "Demonic Warfare: Daoism, Territorial Networks, and the History of a Ming Novel".

Basically, the former said that Chan came from 阐扬正教("Promote the True/Righteous Religion"), and Jie, 海外有截, a line from the Book of Poems(诗经) that was taken literally as "there was a Jie Sect overseas".

The latter pointed out the similarity between FSYY's overall narrative of "deification through death" and the Daoist ritual of sublimation + the integration of local deities into organized Daoism; specifically, "sublimation" is meant to cleanse and transform orphaned and vengeful spirits, and oftentimes, the Thunder Ritualist school would subdue local spirits of folk worship——yaoguais, ghosts, etc. and make them into subordinates.

So what does all this mean? Well, through this lens, the Chan Sect is less a mirror of any particular sects, and more an idea of "orthodox/proper Daoism", while the Jie represents "unorthodox/heretical Daoism": the incredibly diverse Chinese folk religions where the strange, the demonic and the marginal were often venerated alongside popular mainstream gods.

As such, the Chan Sect's distaste for the Jie Sect's indiscriminate admission of disciples might be a reflection of how organized Daoist sects + state religion saw folk beliefs. Yet, at the same time, the solution wasn't to wipe them out(you can't), but to subdue, transform, and integrate local gods into their temple networks and pantheons.

Thus, almost everyone who died in the War of Investiture got deified regardless of sect allegiance or species(at least in the version I'm reading, the list of names in Cha.99 differ depending on editions), and Patriarch Tongtian, despite his multiple defeat, wasn't punished by his and Yuanshi Tianzun's mutual master, Hongjun.

[rigginsstreet]

The Duffers trying to peddle the whole found family, outcasts band together arc is so fucking funny to me because:

Nancy was never an outcast, they just gave her that shitty 'preppy popular girl gets moral angst so becomes a badass gun wielding apocalyptic grunge princess overnight' arc and then literally never showed her at school again so even if she did become an outcast, you actually never see it. In fact, we see multiple times beyond that that she's still very much considered the polite, proper, middle-upper class small town girl by any of her peers who aren't The Gang.

Barb. Chubby shy girl always in the preppy princess' shadow as the holy voice of reason, invited along as nothing but the moral support so Nancy can get laid. Dead. Dead and forgotten by literally everyone except her parents and used as a character device for Nancy (and by extension her romance with Steve.)

Steve is only technically an outcast by association. Sure, he has that fight with Tommy, but Tommy and the dude always kissing ass in Tommy's shadow are the only ones we ever see actually like. Treating Steve any differently, arcade manager dude aside (who just does not give a shit about anyone else anyway.) If the Duffers had actually properly shown Steve at school like Nancy we would've seen that while he might not have been as popular, he definitely wouldn't be sat alone in the corner. I mean come on he was in Scoops Ahoy and still getting flirted with. If you actually peeled him away from The Gang for like five minutes he'd be top of the food chain again.

The actual outcasts themselves pick and choose who is and isn't allowed in The Gang and will immediately turn on each other the moment one of them doesn't meet the standard, as we clearly saw with Lucas, who literally just got into sport and made a few friends on the team. They turn on each other constantly, weaponize their knowledge of each other as and when it suits them, and clearly have a classification of what is and isn't the 'right' kind of outcast. (coughBillyHargrovecough.) Which is exactly the behavior they resent the 'normies' for.

Apropos Billy. The Duffers literally said "its about outcasts and found family and coming together against monsters both human and not" and then also said "except for the traumatised queer-coded abuse victim. We very very clearly want you to know he is the most evil of evil out there and his sole purpose is to get beaten up and die." They decided Steve Harrington couldn't die so they made his evil gay clone. The literal only way they could think of to make Billy "bad" was to have him shout at Lucas and beat up Steve. They said "his ass is too big for him to live but we're gonna ride it for the entire PR train."

Speaking of queer-coded outcasts and dying. I know you hate Eddie Munsen, but he was basically the Queer Canary 2.0. The Duffers really said "anyone who would not be on a Home and Garden magazine cover must be shot on sight." Joe and Joseph started getting a lil too homerotic and the Duffers started loading up the gun.

And controversial but Robin. I love love love Robin but its really like the Duffers said "we have to keep one queer alive to avoid the homophobia allegations" and then after months at the drawing board they just shrugged and said "why don't we just copy-paste Steve but change the formatting to lesbian?"

And like. Its been shown that the moment all these so-called outcasts are separated, suddenly, they're not really that outcast anymore! They're all growing up, getting hobbies, making new friends, realizing that they don't have quite as much in common as they thought they did. Will and Dustin are the only two who kind of stay on the hem of that original format.

I'm not even going to talk about whatever the fuck that was with Eleven running away to some fever dream Murder Goths™ secret club. Not even the Duffers want to talk about it. It genuinely makes me think of the Twilight baseball scene. Its like you know the vision they had in mind when they thought it up but then its like they asked AI to create it.

Stranger Things is just the Duffers' Wattpad Mary Sue Y/N fanfiction.

Don’t you DARE disrespect the twilight baseball scene like this

No one in this life could ever convince me Eddie is queer like god himself could stand before me and I will tell him he is wrong

Billy being Steve’s evil gay clone is so real tho I’ll give you that

Um it’s 2024 are we all ready to admit the party is just the nerd boy version of the plastics? Are we ready to have that conversation? I’m ready to have that conversation

[ohandcounting]

The Book That Will Try And Eat Your Hands.

The year is 2X1X, and 30ish years before that, a new type of book had been made: The Living Book™

The Living Book™ is not actually alive, it is just a format that lets books do things that books could not normally do. Like have voice acting, videos, or even sections where you have to play a game. (This isn't going to be about Homestuck.)

A new Living Book™ released, and a lot of people are talking about it. It's wearing inspiration from another well known Living Book™ on its sleeve: "psi kid 2" A Living Book™ you've never read, but one you know enough about to know you would enjoy reading if you did. So you decide to buy the one everyone's currently talking about:

"HoleBound"

A story about a kid who falls into a hole, and is stuck underground. It's primarily about the great characters met during the story, and its unique interactions with them. Then you get through the prologue, start reading the first chapter and...

The book starts trying to eat your hands! Someone in the book looks you dead in the eyes and says "YOU MORON!" It obviously can't eat your hands. It's not even strong enough to hurt you, let alone damage you. But dang! This might be really funny and definitely makes reading the book way harder! It's common place to just watch someone else go through a book like this, and plenty of people do. Tons of them just to see people's reactions to what happens in the book.

Maybe you read it yourself, maybe you don't. But you know this for a fact: You loved it, it's one of the best things ever written. When you get to the end, a character addresses you directly. They tell you: "I know how to get an even better ending, one where you could even get the book to stop trying to eat your hands." So you do it, follow their instructions down to the letter.

It! Is! Amazing! You're crying tears of joy, even getting to go back through the book again without it trying to eat your hands! It is fantastic, all of the characters are grateful you finally got the book to stop trying to eat peoples hands.

Then, a compartment in the back of the book pops open.

Out of it falls supplies to seal the book closed. It's the only way to make sure they'll stay happy, reading the book again risks the book trying to eat people's hands again. You will never be able to enjoy this book again, or any of the magnificent characters you got to meet within it, but it's the only way to truly end things.

Tears fill your eyes as you do, but...Finally, it's over.

You aren't really satisfied though, it was such a good Living Book™! Surely there's plenty of things other people have written about it! so you look it up and

People are eating the book. They. Are.

EATING!

THE

BOOK!

LITERALLY

This isn't just a clickbait thing either. The chapters of the book are wildly different from what you read, as the characters within are reacting to people EATING THE BOOK. This is the ONLY way to get specific information on the backgrounds of the characters you love so much, it even gives unique information on how the world works. This ends up being so popular, that there are multiple entire fanworks that are Just About Eating The Book. In fact, there's so many now that there's even an Eating The Book Multiverse for just some of the fanworks about eating the book.

You ask a friend about it, and they're like "Oh yeah, it's absolutely my favorite part of the whole thing. I 100% recommend eating the book, but if you can't this guy has a great video on it. He even sealed his book, so you get to watch him rip it open too." You might even look at them like they're insane, but at the end of the day: It is just a book.

It IS just a book.

No one in there is actually happy the book is sealed, they're just written to act that way. They are not real.

You are now sitting in a room alone. Looking at a sealed book. Remembering all of the good times you had with it, all the characters that made you laugh. All the tears you shed fighting with it, the time spent sealing it closed. You would wipe away your memories of it to experience it for the first time again in an instant.

Asking yourself just one question

Am I really going to eat the book?

. . .

This is effectively what it felt like to play Undertale when it released.

[bodylanda]

🏳️‍🌈♣️✨ chodark for tha ask game ^_^

God this ended up long and kinda rambly OOPSIES… SORRY

Also idk how to read more ok mobile without possibly breaking the post so 🫡 im sorry, but thank u again for sending this ask!!

Link to the list of questions: [click here]

🏳️‍🌈 what’s some queer headcannons you have? (Can add a specific character in ask)

I think i have some pretty simples ones all things considered? And they’re all pretty fluid/all exist at the same time but for these

Chosen: made with they/them in mind -> experiemented with she/they/he -> had a crisis abt it -> she/her at the end

Dark: started we they/he -> she/they at the end

This isn’t really a queer headcanon (maybe?) but i do think theyre soulmates in a “whatever souls are made of, yours and mine are the same (insult)”, which is probably the closest thing i have to a queer headcanon LDNWOODOW.

I typically use they/them when discussing them in general tho!

♣️ angst headcannons? (Can add a specific character in ask)

I got a bunch here but not sure if it counts as angst? Makes me 🥹 so i’ll count it as such

Headcanon 1: Chosen knew about victim

-The moment chosen was born she immediately started being a hater. She threw the first punch (fireball?)! Why’d she do that? The moment second was born, they seemed more curious and inquisitive, but none of that curiosity happened to chosen.

-i know the popular theory is that its bcs chosen’s a virus (considering she was beaten by an antivirus in ava 2 + in a way so is tdl and tsc) but idk, they were made by alan (maybe tsc is a virus but thats a theory for another time), but i also like to think its more that chosen knew about victim in some like, unfathomable way?

-like the avatar in ATLA hahaha. Is this angst? I’m not sure. But this is why i think she immediately started going sicko mode

Headcanon 2: Chosen is the tragedy of a stick born without love

-honestly just took this one from kirby

-Chosen’s creation was definitely intentional, while Second’s wasn’t. Why are they so different? Its not like second got that much love either initially, but they did manage to get some free time.

-Second was less a literal second coming of chosen and more of a “history could repeat itself again”

-this is. Getting into second & chosen territory Moving back to chosen/dark APDJOWKFOWKDP

Headcanon 3: Dark has nightmares about killing chosen

-well she was made for it wasn’t she? Sometimes the directive just takes over for a bit

-a lil like wall-e

-Will isolate herself during these moments

-Shrugs it off after the fact but kind of always has this lurking lingering fear that one day her programming will take over and try to kill chosen (even though their friendship handshake thing and also their literal friendship in ava 3 kind of nerfed it a lil to the point that it can’t actually make her do that.

-in the end she discovered a new fear; She actually choose to fight Chosen and it wasn’t some divinely mandated/program forced thing.

✨ fluffy headcannons is you have? (Can add a specific character in ask)

SIKE I DONT ACTUALLY WANT DARK DIED

More AU than headcanon: Dark survived!

-Sees error of her ways

-Still awful

-Actually doesn’t she just doesn’t want to get her ass handed to her again by a fucking kid that was pretty embarassing

-Morality gained through wanting to avoid getting an ass whooping. Like “Hmm i think today i will make a virus- no i wont. That fucking orange kid’ll beat me up somehow”

Headcanon: They both have their own way of communicating

-Both can technically speak in the same way Second can speak, but chooses a different method almost always.

-the way they communicate is so completely all over the place. Its a mix of formal (actual proper typing/Some kind of sign language (stick version of it? Body gesture language?) used correctly) and informal (impact text font memes like fucking philosoraptor format)

-Kind of a contrast to tsc and color gang’s communication method that is also all over the place, but older memes and refs bcs they’re an older generation

-Dark: Back in my day the best cat on earth was longcat and now everycat can just be i can haz cheeseburgers…. Tch this used to be a respectable career

Yellow: (what the FUCK is she saying…….)

-Chosen being gaptek is something thats actually so near and dear to my heart and also a lil bit of jadul chosen. She gets sent some really gen z memes on stick whatsapp by second or color gang and just squints and shows it to dark like “what is she saying” and dark just gags