#do i tag this as meta or fic...i guess both

[thegeminisage]

the tholian web episode rewrite

this post is an episode rewrite of the tholian web, an episode about jim kirk being declared prematurely dead and the enterprise, particularly spock and bones, falling to pieces until his miraculous return as a weird space ghost. i thought this ep was very very very VERY good, it's one of my all-time favs, but the end was really jumbled and didn't quite give me the payoff i wanted, so a summary of the original (which you can skip if you've seen it) plus my suggested fixes are below.

the original

the enterprise, searching for the a missing starship called the defiant, finds it in a weird area of space that is "breaking up." when jim, spock, bones, and chekov beam aboard (in space suits) they find the ship dark and full of the corpses of its crew, who all killed each other in fits of insanity, and the ship threatening to disintegrate with them on it

unfortunately, they can't all be beamed back at the same time, and jim of course insists on being last, so when the ship does disintegrate ("interphases" into another dimension), it takes him with it - with only 4 hours of air left in his space suit

because scifi, spock works out that they can get jim back if they hold perfectly still until the dimensions interphase again. but this is an episode where every possible thing goes wrong - the area of space is slowly driving the crew insane and hostile, and titular tholians show up to fire on the enterprise for being in their space past the time they said they needed initially for their rescue of kirk

spock fires back, hoping to preserve what little chance they have of saving jim, but the battle not only damages the enterprise, it also (somehow) damages the area of space they were supposed to rescue jim from, which means they have no choice to declare him dead, AND the tholians come back to start weaving some kind of forcefield (the titular web) to prevent the enterprise from leaving

btw: bones HATES this. he thinks staying to fight was stupid because they'd already lost jim and now they're going to make his death meaningless because the rest of the crew will die too. he thinks spock not emoting is heartless, and asking him to find a cure for something that isn't a disease is unreasonable. he accuses spock of being a selfish short-sighted gloryhound, etc

after kirk's funeral (baller scene; it is interrupted by yet another person erupting in screaming), bones INSISTS on watching kirk's "last orders," a tape he made prior to his death meant to be played only in the event of his passing. once bones gets spock alone, he demands to know why spock stayed and fought instead of getting jim's crew to safety like he would have wanted. spock sort of gives a nonanswer and they start fighting again, but they get interrupted by kirk's tape, which basically urges them to get along - for bones to respect spock's ability to captain and for spock to trust bones's human intuition. after the tape finishes, there's a long silence, and bones apologizes

meanwhile, uhura has seen a ghostly image of captain kirk appear in her mirror. she runs out of the room yelling for spock, but finds bones instead, who chalks it up to the space sickness having gotten her. but more and more people report seeing kirk, until finally bones and spock start arguing about it - bones even spins spock around in his captain's chair to face him when he feels spock isn't taking his concerns seriously, and then has to apologize - spock replies, "i'm sure the captain would have said, 'forget it, bones.'"

at this point kirk finally appears on the bridge. spock tries to touch him but can't, though you can see kirk mouth "spock, hurry!" 

things finally start going right: bones develops a cure for the insanity and the engines are repaired. they manage to get away from the tholian web and bring jim along with them. 

at the end of the episode jim asks if they watched his last orders. at a single exchanged glance bones and spock decide to lie about it, and promise him they behaved perfectly well in his absence 

but in MY version...

the problems

again, this ep is one of my all-time favs, but it's full and jumbled near the end. the setup was excellent, and the payoff was REALLY good, but it could have been even better.

the biggest issue was the stakes. tos loooves fake time limits and other arbitrary problems to up the stakes, but this is going way overboard. jim has 4 hours of air left in his suit AND the engines are busted from the fight AND the space is making the ship act weird AND the tholians are closing their web AND interphase only happens at random intervals AND the crew might not even be able to drive the damn ship because they're going nuts...there's so many stakes you kind of forget what you're supposed to be worried about

secondary issue was the spock and bones plot. i think they were fighting just for the sake of fighting, without any real reasons, and so their reconciliation felt a little hollow

not NEARLY enough kirk in this episode, particular cool space ghost kirk. ik it was a limitation of the sfx, but still. also, no spirk reunion. kirk deserved to see them both when he got back!!

the changes

the plot

firstly, i think interphase was explained a bit poorly, which feeds into some of the ??? near the end of the episode. i think what they wanted to convey was that some wall between dimensions was weak in this particular area, causing both the madness and the phasing in and out of reality, and these two dimensions crossed at random. i think it would have been better if there had been a predictable cycle (say, the two hour mark, an even number into kirk's 4-hour time limit), and i was never quite sure why they needed to hold perfectly still anyway

next we've got to work with the stakes. definitely keep: jim needing the 4 hours of air in his suit. the tholian web, since it is after all titular (sorry for using the word titular again) - though if it weren't, i'd be tempted to chop it too. the crew going bananas, since it is both wonderfully terrifying and can act as a "can we even drive this ship" question. however the damaged engines, and also the initial tholian wait time can def go. the "this space is making the ship itself act weird" too - perhaps the reason jim was beamed back last has something to do with the suits only being able to go one at a time, or him dropping his communicator and them not being able to lock on, idk.

so to recap: keep the scene where they beam aboard and jim has to be beamed out last, but the ship vanishes before the beaming is done. i like when jim sacrifices himself in an understated calm sort of way but i'd add just a LITTLE more rising dread here on his/the music's part because the scene is already very spooky and since i knew what was gonna happen going in i was nail-biting the entire time, and would looove to transfer some of that energy to our hypothetical new and improved episode

upon disappearance of the defiant, some scifi technobabble happens and spock figures out they'll have another chance to get jim back. unfortunately, bones doesn't buy that one bit. he and the rest of the crew (to legitimize his position and keep his accusations from seeming baseless) all think there's no possible way jim could have survived, that it's dangerous to stay where they are, and that spock should get them the hell out of dodge immediately

but spock's the captain and he says logic dictates jim might still be alive so long as there's air in the suit, so they stay. IMPORTANT: there needs to be a little bit of an argument here, involving spock saying something like "starfleet would totally agree with me and in fact if i don't fuck it up i'd be given a commendation" or something to that effect. he's not saying it because he WANTS a commendation, he's actually struggling to validate his decision to bones while also hiding the fact that he's extremely upset, but it's important. we'll get back to it later

the tholians show up. i think it would be better if the battle happened immediately to cut any confusing wait time, and this is what damages the enterprise. spock is successful in scaring the tholians off temporarily, but his ship is fucked and now they CAN'T leave, and to make it worse the tholians come back and start weaving their web. this leads us to...

spock & bones

NOW spock and bones have something concrete to fight about, instead of just bickering for the sake of bickering. bones thinks spock should have ran, but spock wanted to stay

i think a good twist for this argument in the episode that we have is that bones was under the impression spock wanted to stay for self-serving reasons (not normally an assumption he'd make about spock, but he's grieving too), and all along the reason spock wanted to stay was an emotional one. unfortunately in canon his accusations of gloryhounding came out of fucking nowhere, so we need a scene to seed in that subplot

logically speaking, the first thing that has to happen after jim's death is his funeral, which i'm saving for something else, so this scene would need to be BEFORE all that, perhaps during a pre-funeral moment of chaos where the crew are dropping like flies and the screaming arrivals are flying into sickbay. bones wouldn't be the only one bitter about spock's decision to stay behind, and someone, a fellow sickbay worker or some yeoman, makes a comment about they can't believe spock did this to them just so he can be captain, and bones is like girl WHAT and they're like yeah i totally caught him looking at transfer orders the other day

of course, spock doesn't really want to transfer off the enterprise. it's obviously a misunderstanding. i'm not totally sure why he has the paperwork...the best i can come up with is some starfleet official wanted there to be a token vulcan captain for some wack reason or another, because in tos whenever they have problems they can't logistically justify they always blame it on some backward starfleet official, so i don't see why i can't do the same

anyway, this is why we needed that argument earlier - when bones thinks back on it, spock's remark about the commendation all but confirms this new theory of his, when really had spock been on his game and not grieving he probably wouldn't have attempted to validate himself to bones at all

so this is the real conflict between them - bones think spock has gambled the lives of everyone on this ship because he thought he could outsmart the tholians, exploited jim's DEATH for his own selfish gain, and has hardened his heart against the palpable grief and loss that everyone else is displaying. none of that is true, of course, but spock would prefer to let people believe he doesn't have emotions and he has no idea anyone knows about the very irritating starfleet officials trying to poach him for another ship, so HE thinks bones is being extra irrational because of his grief (which is only a little true), right when they all need to be at their best. they will yell at each other about this for the rest of the episode.

anyway, bones is good and mad. you see the steam coming out of his ears all through kirk's funeral, which, again, is interrupted by someone starting to scream as the madness takes them. at the end of the funeral everyone is dismissed and starts to file out of the room and bones immediately jumps on spock about 1. going to see the tape and 2. his bad and selfish decisions

HOWEVER, i'd like to combine this scene with the scene of uhura spotting kirk's ghost. while people are still hurriedly leaving (mom and dad are fighting again, awkwaaard), uhura cries out that she's seen captain kirk and everyone turns to see...nothing there. bones shakes his head sadly and declares her the latest casualty of the crazy and he and spock personally take her to sickbay, barely restraining themselves from continuing their argument...

but the camera stays on the room after they leave, which slowly darkens and changes slightly in color, and the camera pans to...

a ghostly captain kirk, watching all of this with the quiet horror of a doomed man

space ghost kirk

my biggest problem with this ep was that i wanted it to be 2.01 my time of dying from s*pernatural, and it wasn't because the 60s have limits on their sfx abilities. in this fantasy world, though, i can do WHATEVERRR i want

CAPTAIN'S LOG, SUPPLEMENTAL: here kirk outlines what really happened to him, which is that he escaped the defiant during the attempted beaming but found himself floating in the enterprise in an alternate dimension - it's dark, like the defiant, and maybe green or something to visually denote the difference between kirk's dimension and ours. he can see and hear what's happening but no one, except uhura just now, can see him. he can't touch or affect anything. he is powerless. all he can do is try and figure out some sort of solution while he watches his ship falling apart - this time from kirk's pov, with lots of FUNNN spooky ambience - and, of course, spock and bones being extremely angry with one another, like fighting in sickbay after they've seen to uhura (when it's clear to jim and us that they're angry BECAUSE they're grieving)

then we get to kirk's last orders. spock tries to put bones off about this because seeing jim's face right now would kill him on the spot but bones wants to get him alone in order to violate the hippocratic oath by shaking him like a dog with a squirrel. finally spock reluctantly agrees is metaphorically dragged away to the woodshed 

more arguing but this time with kirk as a third unseen participant. bones makes an accusation and he chimes in with "spock tell him it's not true!" spock implies something about bones's abilities being compromised when he's so emotional and kirk goes "mister spock you're out of line!" spock fields the accusations of wanting a captaincy by explaining the truth about the wack starfleet officials, but bones doesn't believe him at ALL. "if you didn't want a captaincy, why did you stay and fight!?" he's sure he's got spock cornered; now he'll have to admit the truth. 

perfect time for the tape to come on. this is the same as it is in the episode, and when it stops and kirk's smiling face remains frozen onscreen, spock explains haltingly that he stayed because he wasn't sure jim was dead and couldn't bear the thought of leaving him behind. there: an emotion. he prepares for the inevitable vivisection.

instead bones apologizes, like he does in canon. i liked the line "it does hurt, doesn't it?" unlike spock, bones shows his emotions outwardly. as in canon, they get called away by plot stuff. bones leaves first. spock stays behind, looking at the screen, and reaches out almost as if to touch it. there's a moment where you think he'll break - then he puts it all away, turns on his heel and goes, and the camera pans back to kirk, speechless.

kirk notices that as time goes on and they get closer to that next interphase, he becomes visible more and more often. perhaps when he talks into the radio in his suit it could come over the intercoms or something. people start hearing him and then dismissing it. someone sights him in the engine room. spock and bones think the whole ship is going nuts, but kirk can't seem to get through to the two people who need to see him most. 

so they have to do it on their own: reconcile. develop an antidote. a toast to their departed captain with scotty, where bones finally addresses spock as captain. then, with interphase growing closer, and the tholian web coming to a close, spock and bones are on the bridge when kirk appears in front of EVERYONE

(i liked bones spinning spock's chair around and then swooning into his arms and of course the "forget it bones" is CRUCIAL, so maybe the toast/drinking the antidote takes place on the bridge, and this happens just before bones drinks his share)

anyway, this time spock reaches for him, like he does in canon, instead of aborting the motion like he did in kirk's quarters when he nearly touched the computer. but kirk vanishes again, and spock's hand closes on nothing

the ending

now that they KNOW kirk is back, everyone has to rush to beat the clock in order to both escape the tholian web and bring their captain with them

everything goes well just like it does in the episode, with the small change of: as soon as spock has directed the ship out of the web, he gives the bridge to sulu and books it to the transporter room. he arrives just in time to see jim materialize on the plate alongside bones, and he probably stands at parade rest while bones welcomes jim home like he does in the episode proper, but there's enough eye contact happening between the three of them we know spock is just as relieved as the rest of them

NOW the scene at the end, where kirk talks about how empty that universe was and how he likes a crowded one much better. i have two versions of an ending in mind and can't decide which is more fun so i'm doing them both

#1: someone, spock or bones or one of the other bridge crew members, asks jim if it was totally awful being able to see the ship in such distress and not being able to help and he dodges the question by saying he couldn't see much anyway or some stupid bullshit. then HE asks spock and bones about his last orders and they also lie. and you get the idea from their various face journeys they all know each other is lying but they're going to pretend in order to remain professional and buttoned up - and then someone says something that gets them started again. bones exasperated, spock deadpan - but it has a totally different tone from the vicious fights from earlier and it cuts the tension easily. it's an all's well that ends well moment, because you can see jim is enjoying the nice version of their bickering again.

#2: kirk asks about the last orders, spock and bones lie, and kirk calls them out on it by reminding them he could see and hear everything. this is followed with the sort of gentle and loving admonishment that kirk is capable of when he's touched which basically amounts to: thank you for continuing to be excellent and professional to my ship while privately falling apart, but if i die again, please be better to EACH OTHER so i can go to my death knowing the two of you at least have one another. spock and bones, mildly abashed, agree - and then again, someone says something to start the friendly bickering and cut the tension before the credits roll

DONE. this CONCLUDES my episode edit of the tholian web, which again is really very very good already. we love a good character death fakeout and we also love SPONES. look for more overthought episode edits someday in the future

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

So we know that Wei Wuxian's treatment after his death was horrible. Even if nothing could impact him directly, there was still neverending slander, hatred, misinformation, theft...

But, for a while after he died, the sects did try to impact him directly – namely, frequently trying to resummon his soul. And today I'll explore the possible reasons for this, their likelihoods, and why I'm so, so thankful that Wei Wuxian's soul managed to resist the summons. Because, spoiler alert (or, you know. maybe not)... none of them are good.

(Long meta ahead)

In my opinion, there are four likely motivations for this: confinement, coercion, torment, and potentially destruction.

Out of all of these, confinement is probably the most likely motivation, at least for most sects (Jins and Jiangs excluded, though it was likely what the Jin sect said their motivations were – but I'll get to them later). This one is the most simple – we know spirit-trapping pouches exist, and we know the sects also placed 120 stone beasts on the Burial Mounds to prevent Wei Wuxian's soul from escaping. Therefore, this seems to be the most likely motivation – and fortunately for Wei Wuxian, probably also the best case scenario, though it still certainly isn't a good one.

For the second, coercion – this is where the Jin sect come in (more specifically Jin Guangshan with the help of Jin Guangyao). Due to their wealth and resources, they're likely the sect who played the largest role in the soul-summoning rituals. We know what they're willing to do to try to gain power – keeping Wen Ning under the pretence he was burned to death and trying to control him with the nails, and working with and helping Xue Yang torture people to help him refine his demonic cultivation, in order to have the Yin hufu fixed. Along with working with many other cultivators, alongside Xue Yang – Jin Guangshan really, really wanted that seal.

And so, Jin GuangShan sought after all those who imitated Wei WuXian in cultivating the ghostly path and gathered them under his rule. He spent a great amount of money and resources and these people, ordering them to study and analyze the structure of the Tiger Seal in secrecy so that they could replicate and restore it. - Villainous Friends extra, EXR

(Note that working with these cultivators very likely happened after Wei Wuxian's soul had failed to be summoned, since this happens some time after Wei Wuxian's death, whereas the soul-summoning ceromonies presumably started happening very close to it.)

In the previous paragraph, he's also quoted as having 'lusted after' the Yin hufu, which we already knew but it's nice to have a direct quote as evidence.

Now, would Wei WuXian willingly work with the Jin sect in doing this? No. We know that, and, given Wei Wuxian's actions in his first life (refusing to hand over the Tally, not being afraid to stand up to the sects, etc), I’m pretty sure Jin Guangshan knows that, too:

He beat around the bush a couple of times, using all his skills, yet Wei WuXian didn’t give in no matter what, and it made him run into a bunch of obstacles. - Villainous Friends extra, EXR

So this could actually make things go two ways. One, I'm wrong and that wasn't actually part of the Jin sect's motivations, since they know they wouldn't be able to control him (and in that case, had they managed to summon him, I could imagine them putting him in a spirit-trapping pouch and doing something similar to what Jin Guangyao did to Nie Mingjue's head. Which, also, not good). Two, it was a part of their motivations, and they hoped to find a way around that. After all, there are other guidao users out there now, and Wei Wuxian would now be a gui*. Also, cultivators can obviously harm ghosts – see the very existence of Night Hunts, and I'd include Xue Yang's talisman-caused destruction of A-Qing as well (while he isn't a traditional cultivator, talismans can be used by everyone).

Now, would either of these methods actually work? I'm inclined to think not really (and I expand on the former method in a note below). Would that stop Jin Guangshan/Jin Guangyao/the cultivators they employ from trying? Especially considering Jin Guangshan's lust for power?

I'm inclined to think no, too.

For the third, look no further than Jiang Cheng's reputation of capturing and torturing demonic cultivators after Wei Wuxian's death, due to thinking they could be him. And this does happen – Jin Ling knows and talks about it, and there's not real motivation for him to negatively lie about someone he loves. Also, when they come across each other at Dafan Mountain, we're told this in Jiang Cheng's inner voice:

A moment ago, Jiang Cheng was certain that this person was Wei WuXian, and all of the blood in his body started to boil. Yet, now, Zidian was clearly telling him that he wasn’t. Zidian definitely wouldn’t deceive him or make a mistake, so he quickly calmed himself and thought, this doesn’t mean anything. I should first find an excuse to take him back and use every possible method to get information out of him. It’s impossible for him to not confess anything or give himself away. I’ve done things like this in the past anyways. - MDZS Chapter 10, EXR translation

This mainly shows that he's tortured people before, rather than that he's tortured people because he thinks they're Wei Wuxian, but this reason is confirmed by Jin Ling in Chapter 24. Of course, the reason is also mentioned in this chapter, and there are other moments in the chapter that illustrate my point better**, but they come from second-hand sources which I know are easier to deny. Do take note of Jiang Cheng's expression both times he comes across 'Mo Xuanyu' (after he suspects he's Wei Wuxian) in Book One***, though:

After a moment, the corners of Jiang Cheng’s lips pulled into a twisted smile. His left hand started to unconsciously stroke the ring [Zidian] again. He spoke softly, “… Well, well. So you’re back?” - Chapter 10, EXR Although his face had always been clouded, marked with arrogance and satire, it seemed as if every corner of it had come alive. It was difficult to determine whether it was vengeful wrath, fathomless hatred, or raving ecstasy. - Chapter 23, EXR

This does seem to line up with what people say his attitude to Wei Wuxian is – there doesn't seem to be any happiness at seeing him again at all. The only time a word that could suggest that ('ecstasy') is used, it's accompanied by 'raving', and considering the context and the other possibilities of his expression, it's... probably not due to happiness at being reunited.

So, considering 1) this, 2) his contribution to the Siege specifically intended to kill Wei Wuxian, and 3) that at the time of frequent soul-summoning Jiang Yanli's death would be even closer for him, I feel pretty confident in saying that yes, this is likely a motivation for the Jiang sect in trying to re-summon Wei Wuxian's soul after his death. And, as mentioned earlier, cultivators can harm ghosts (and we know Zidian is able to remove souls posessing a body from that body, and that Jiang Cheng used Zidian on 'Mo Xuanyu' in Chapter 10. If it wasn't able to restrain/harm ghosts, or other methods weren't able to, why would he risk Wei Wuxian's soul escaping?).

And finally, option four: destruction. We're heading into much more speculative territory here, so don't consider this on par with the first three. But consider this:

We know there are some spells, like Xue Yang's talisman used on A-Qing and the body-offering ritual, that can ruin the returning soul’s reincarnation cycle by destroying it. Therefore, soul destruction is possible.

The 'main'/supposed reason for summoning Wei Wuxian's soul back is to stop the "cultivation world, or even all of mortal land" from being "faced with the most insane damnation and revenge, sinking into nothing but chaos and despair" when Wei Wuxian inevitably returns. While, as mentioned above, I severely doubt this is the motivation for certain sects – and to me is likely a rumour which the Jins (again, especially Jin Guangsha) fanned the flames of to justify summoning Wei Wuxian back for their own purposes**** – there are other sects which would take it more seriously.

Although likely disrespectful, people already thought it served Wei Wuxian right to die without his body intact by the time of the second siege – something believed to negatively affect your reincarnation in your next life*****. This is only the logical next step, and I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people would believe that, again, it would serve Wei Wuxian right, or would at least lead to less harm of the world in the long run.

For these reasons, I could definitely see this as an option for some sects, especially the sects who consider themselves more 'righteous' (cough cough the Nies under Nie Mingjue cough cough). After all, evil is evil and good is good, and the evil deserve what's coming to them. And what better way to prevent that than from preventing his soul from returning at all? So for the Nie sect – and likely some of the smaller sects involved in the Siege, since among them, additudes probably vary – yes, I do think it could be a motivation.

I’m not as sure about the Lans being willing to go this far, and that’s largely for two reasons. One, Lan Wangji’s presence and his relationship to Lan Xichen, who does (not always, but he does) let this affect how he treats Wei Wuxian. An example of this is that, when Wei Wuxian's return is made public, Lan Xichen does let him hide and shelter at the Cloud Recesses instead of trying to pursue him, likely majorly due to Lan Wangji. I'd argue that the aftermath of the Nightless City also acts as an example of this, although it definitely isn't perfect. But though he, Lan Qiren and the 33 elders do come to find Lan Wangji and do not let him continue to shelter Wei Wuxian (after they see Lan Wangji's feelings), Lan Xichen doesn't use this opportunity to kill/capture Wei Wuxian, despite Lan Wangji being in a worse condition due to having fought 33 elders, Wei Wuxian being catatonic, and Lan Qiren likely supporting this outcome (especially considering he was the one who led the Lan sect in the Siege – chapter 68, Wei Wuxian's POV). And he did let Lan Wangji take Wei Wuxian back to the Burial Mounds after:

After he went out of his way to send you back to Burial Mound and returned in such low spirits to receive his punishment, how long he kneeled before the Wall of Rules! - Chapter 99, EXR

Again, this was right after the Nightless City massacre – there isn't any goodwill towards Wei Wuxian at this point in time.

Of course, the Lan sect did participate in the siege after Lan Xichen knew of Lan Wangji's feelings towards Wei Wuxian, which Lan Xichen was no doubt a part of (although Lan Qiren lead the Lan sect in the siege, Lan XIchen had to have at least known/given his support, if not participated.) And it should be considered that Lan Xichen letting Wei Wuxian shelter at the Cloud Recesses was after Wei Wuxian had been back for a while, and had not caused the downfall of the Cultivation World, like many suspected he would after his death. And of course, as stated previously, his handling of the aftermath of Nightless City wasn't perfect either (though please note that his main motive here was to protect Lan Wangji from being potentially executed, rather than anything about Wei Wuxian himself). So caring about Lan Wangji doesn't mean he won't harm Wei Wuxian. But I do think he could find bringing Wei Wuxian's soul back to completely destroy it a bit excessive. There is, though, the chance that the elders of the Lan Sect would react to this differently, and of course they would have a sway on both Lan Xichen and the Lan sect as well.

The second reason is smaller, but there seems to be more focus in the Lan sect than in others when it comes to letting ghosts rest peacefully/helping them move on. And that could definitely lead to more resistance to the idea of summoning a soul back to destroy it as well, which could especially impact the elders. So I'd assume that the Lan sect would be the most likely sect to summon Wei Wuxian's soul back just for confinement, or just for some way of making sure any resentment is disippated, his spirit moves on, and he can't cause more harm to the world (eg via Inquiry)******. Not that he would or does as a ghost or as a reborn person, but that's unfortunately not relevant to this.

But yes, as a motivation for the Nie Mingjue-led Nie sect? Absolutely.

So, these are the main motives I suspect to be behind the attempted summoning of Wei Wuxian's soul after his death (and if I've missed any, please let me know – I'd love to have a discussion). And, of course, none of them lead to anywhere good. Because of course it wasn’t enough to besiege Wei Wuxian, murder the 50 non-combatants he was responsible for (and throwing them into the blood pit as a mark of disrespect because why not?), and lead to his death via him getting torn apart. It wasn’t enough to steal all his inventions, and use them commonly while still slandering him with no reprieve – or to steal his notes and give them to people like Xue Yang to study (Villainous Friends, again) and to use for their own, extremely extremely harmful, purposes. Of course, the cultivation world has to try to harm Wei Wuxian after death as well ((:

We don't know whether Wei Wuxian rejecting the summoning ceremonies was conscious or unconscious, but if it was the former, these are very likely reasons he refused to return in this way. If it was unconscious – for example, maybe during the frequent soul-summons his soul was in a weakened state due to him dying from a backlash of resentful energy and getting torn apart, and it healed over time but not before the soul-summoning rituals stopped – well, I can only be thankful.

Finally, let me leave you on the thought that – although it may well have happened since we don't spend much time in the immediate aftermath of the Sunshot campaign – there isn't even any textual mention of this happening to Wen Ruohan. Who, while not being a guidao user, was still very dangerous, still an extremely powerful cultivator, and still had a lot of reason to feel resentment. So.

:')

Thank you for reading!

--

*Considering what we see of how Wei Wuxian's guidao functions – redirecting the ghosts'/corpses' resentment into doing something they'd want to do, eg attacking people, and directing it towards a target – I'm not sure using it to force a spirit to do something 1) extremely specific, and 2) explicitly against their will would actually work. Iirc the closest thing we get to this in text is Wei Wuxian using the corpses of Wens to attack other Wens in the Sunshot Campaign, but he's still just directing their resentment to a target of his choice, and fierce corpses do tend to be on the less concious side of things (hence why Wei Wuxian had to awaken Wen Ning's consciousness). Considering how Wen Ning attacks Wei Wuxian and the Burial Mound Wens before his consciousness had fully awoken, I... really don't think those fierce corpses were able to differentiate (or didn't care).

Meanwhile, ghosts seem to be a bit more in control of themselves – see A-Qing, and Wei Wuxian's own descriptions of his ghost self.

That, alongside ghost!Wei Wuxian being able to resist his soul-summoning and the fact that pretty much all of the new guidao users are a lot weaker than he was, does make me think that this this wouldn't work. I do wonder about Xue Yang, since his methods are pretty different as well, but he's more of a modao user than a guidao user (he controls living corpses rather than dead people) and I don't think you can insert physical nails into ghosts?? Though if he was specifically instructed to figure out some way to control ghost!Wei Wuxian (who's probably kept in a spirit-trapping pouch in this scenario), he might be able to do something at least. Though also he was also struggling to piece Xiao Xingchen's ghost soul back together, so he may struggle with those areas?

Well, whatever the potential outcome, I'm so so happy once again that Wei Wuxian's soul managed to resist the soul-summonings...

**Mainly this:

Everyone in the cultivation world knew that the young leader of the Jiang Clan watched out for Wei WuXian in an almost crazed manner. He would rather catch the wrong person than let go of any possibility, and took anyone who seemed like they held the soul of Wei WuXian away to the YunmengJiang Sect, inflicting severe torture on his victim. If he wanted to take someone back, the opposition would surely lose half of their life. - Chapter 10, EXR

But I have heard people say 'you can't prove that it's just more rumours' before, and I wanted my evidence to be as watertight as possible.

(And, off-topic... isn't it really sad how Jiang Cheng, in the present day, is described as young? Because, for a clan leader, he is. And another thing he is, is close in age to Wei Wuxian – who was killed 13 whole years prior :') )

***And do note that the only other time they run into each other before Wei Wuxian's identity is revealed to the world apart from this is their brief interaction at Jinlintai, where he can't just act however he wants. The next time they run into each other after it, Jiang Cheng is literally taking part in another siege against him, and still extremely hostile ("surrounded by hostile energy, face insidious, staring straight at him" – from EXR chapter 60). Then he loses his spiritual powers and can't do anything. By the time he regains his powers, Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji and the Wen remnants' corpses have saved everyone during the Second Siege, and though public opinion hasn't properly shifted quite yet, it will soon after Sisi and Bicao tell the story of Jin Guangyao, and voila, a new scapegoat (do note that he doesn't completely bar Wei Wuxian from entering Lotus Pier after the Second Siege, though). Plus, throughout it all, Lan Wangji is still constantly present, which makes it hard for Jiang Cheng to really do anything. And then he's finally faced with the Golden Core reveal, which does alter his motivations towards Wei Wuxian (obviously the resentment is still there – read chapter 102 – but it's also mixed with other complex emotions, and he seems to start being able to move away from that a little in Chapter 103). I still definitely wouldn't describe Jiang Cheng's attitude towards him as positive, but it isn't at the point it was at the start of the novel (eg Chapter 10).

But even if his attitude does change, or would for whatever other reason apart from the reveal, that still doesn't change an initial motivation so isn't relevant to this meta. We know his intentions at the start.

****It's also possible they may have originated it, but I think WWX's reputation was bad enough for it to form naturally. Though you can trace a major part of that back to them, too.

*****That belief isn't outright stated in MDZS, but the fact people are specifically talking about the status of WWX's body in the aftermath of his death suggests that this belief does have some grounding in the MDZS universe, at least? And we know MXTX has included it in TGCF (though that doesn't mean it's definitely in MDZS), so she has used it in her works. If this isn't the case in the MDZS universe I am sorry (although that could also mean there's less importance placed on not disturbing the reincarnation cycle in the world of MDZS...? Which would work towards my original argument) – I don't want to spread misinformation that something is definitely true, I just think there's evidence to suggest it is true, which isn't the same thing.

******Again, I think this would depend on who ends up having more influence over who in the Lan sect. After all, normal resentful spirits only do what they do because of their resentment in death, whereas Wei Wuxian is 'dangerous' because of who everyone thinks he was in life – so him being reborn naturally could also 'cause a lot of harm to the world' during the time period this version of him would live in, unlike the resentful ghosts they appease. This could definitely lead to many advocating for confinement, I think.

[starlightguh]

The Sharpest Tongue

Word count: 2,822

Summary: What if the stone Sylus won hadn't been the right one to send him and MC home to Linkon? As MC struggles to learn the local language, she finds herself the subject of the other warriors in the clan. Too bad it seems like Sylus has the sharper tongue amongst them all.

Tags: Cunnilingus, Grasslands AU, Jealous!Sylus

A/N: This is a bit shorter than I had planned, but I wanted to write something for the grasslands AU and saw someone mention we needed more jealousy grassland stories, so here you go! 100% transparency, I could not find anything on Talanian language, so I used Mongolian words, I'm not familiar with the language so if there are mistakes, I apologize!! I hope you enjoy nonetheless. Find this fic on Ao3 as well!

The Khan had given Sylus the bright red stone for his victory in the battle against the best warriors in the clan. My worries weren’t for nothing as there wasn’t any trace of meta flux emanating from it. No matter how hard either of us tried, we couldn’t resonate with it.

So we were stuck in the grasslands.

For someone who should have been happy due to our victory, both me and Sylus held somber faces around the celebratory fires and festivities. I could feel his red eyes staring at my downcast face as he reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear.

“We’ll just keep searching kitten…As long as we’re together we can keep looking for a way to return home.”

I inhaled deeply and nodded silently as I turned to look at him, his expression was really soft and full of apology. I wanted to go home badly. But…Sylus had a point, wallowing won’t do anything. We’ll just make a plan to find a way back to Linkon.

I steeled myself by fixing my slouched posture and closing my eyes to take deep breaths. After a few moments I opened my eyes and smiled at Sylus, “Well I guess now is the time to embrace the nomad lifestyle…Until we find our way back home that is.”

Sylus stands, my eyes lingering on his distracting buff physique as he holds out his hand.

“Let’s not weep and try to make the most of our time together, hm? Shavanika.”

His baritone voice stirs an excitement in my belly as I take his hand and he begins to twirl me to the rhythm of the festive music the villagers are playing by the campfire. I feel the beads in my hair slap my cheeks as I spin around the orange hues of the warm flames near me. For a brief while as me and Sylus danced around the flames, my anxieties had drifted away. I was grateful to have him by my side and ease my worries.

My bare feet feel unsteady as I haphazardly try to follow the rhythm of an unfamiliar tune, but the warm and strong arms of the silver-haired warrior in front of me hold me steady. I smile and laugh at Sylus’ serious expression as we dance and lose ourselves to a night full of joy.

—————————

After the festival, we packed up and moved to travel alongside the rest of the villagers. Me and Sylus agreed we would adapt to our surroundings of the people around us as we tried to find any clues about a way home.

I was not the fastest learner, but I did get a few things down, the women taught me duties I was expected to help with, from herding livestock, sewing, cooking, and laundry, I was slowly earning my place amongst the others. However, I was struggling with learning the language. I could pick up a few words here and there, but I couldn’t really understand or communicate as properly as I would like.

Then there was Sylus, he was a polyglot so picking up the language wasn’t difficult for him. He must have been fluent only after a solid two weeks of study. I was envious, but also grateful since I relied on his help a lot to learn and understand.

The warriors happily accepted Sylus, he easily fit in and would help them with hunts for resources as well as military strategies and ideas. The Khan favored him a lot and Tara told me whispers of them wanting to promote Sylus to a general title.

While we hadn’t been traveling with our clan for more than a month, we easily slipped into our roles quickly. And now it seems we quickly have found ourselves involved in more politics than we would like.

It was like any other day, I was riding my cream-colored stallion through the grassy fields trying to get the flock of sheep on the right path. I called out the different sounds and commands I was taught while keeping a stead-fast pace on horseback.

My hunter's instincts kicked in as I noticed one sheep was away from the herd, and upon further investigation, it was being hunted by a hungry coyote.

“Shit,” I hissed to myself and acted quickly as I grabbed a rope from my satchel. As the coyote pounced, I lassoed it and used my strength to pull him away from the sheep.

I was heaving and sweaty as I just lifted the clueless sheep back to the herd. As I was getting back on my horse, I heard some whistles call out to me. I glanced around and noticed a group of four warriors walking up and cooing at me.

I didn’t really recognize them, I only knew they were of the same clan since their chest guards had the same color ropes that Sylus wore. The men spoke to me in Talanian, but I could only pick out words like ‘strong’ and ‘brave.’

“I uh…am not familiar with the language yet, chlaarai .”

They seemed to just smile as one made a comment to the group in Talanian, they laughed and just waved goodbye toward me as they rode off.

I didn’t think much of this encounter until the next day.

We had set up camps deep in the Northern Grasslands, orange was taking over the skies as the dawn broke. I was hanging clothes I had just washed in the river on a clothesline outside one of the elder's yurts.

Behind me I heard the sharp tongue of Talanian, I glanced and noted those same big warriors from the other day were talking. I had paid them no mind as I did my duties.

Suddenly I heard the sharp thuds of angry footsteps behind me and a strong pair of arms wrapped themselves around my waist. I glanced up and saw a very pissed-off Sylus glaring off in the direction of the four other men.

He yelled at them in Talanian and growled when the other men responded in what I could only assume was a taunt. Sylus let go of my waist and marched up to one of the men and grabbed him by his leathers. People started to gather to watch the rowdy commotion.

I turned and saw Tarna and sighed in relief since she could explain what was going on, “Hey, Tarna….What exactly is happening?” I asked her urgently as it sounded like the men were raising their voices.

“Well…It seems the Khan’s second son Gansu said something about your er….” She paused and looked shy when translating what was said, “birthing hips, and how he wanted you as a wife to bear his children.”

I stood frozen as it all clicked into place. I looked over at Sylus who was still arguing with them, a scowl marred on his face.

“Sylus came in and said they shouldn’t speak about you that way that you were his beloved. Gansu told him that it didn’t matter to him unless you two were wedded or you were pregnant.”

“Seriously?!? If he’s the son of a Khan he can marry whoever he wants. Why would he want me?”

Tarna shook her head at me, “That’s why Sylus is arguing, he says that you are with him and will never have anyone else’s children.”

The arrogant Gansu held a smirk as he practically hissed at Sylus, a dark expression glazed over Sylus’ face. I’ve only ever caught glimpses of Sylus angry, but never this murderous.

“What did he say?” I asked Tarna, my voice full of worry. I could feel the icy chill of Sylus’ anger even from a distance.

“Gansu just said ‘well whoever takes it keeps it’ as a threat… I think you should go over and stop Sylus, if he gets in a fight with the Khan’s son they could severely punish him,” Tarna warned me.

I nodded and without a second thought, I ran up behind Sylus and gently placed my hand on his lower back. His tense body seemed to ease up a bit at my touch as I tried my hardest to speak in Talanian.

“ Amarkhan bai….S-Shavanika …” Fight not, beloved . These were the only words I could best make out with my limited knowledge.

Silently he grabbed my hand and glared down Gansu as he turned to walk away with me. I felt his grip on my hand tighten as Gansu and his men still taunted behind us. We began walking off towards our yurt and it wasn’t until we were a safe distance away I had to whimper to Sylus.

“Your grip is too tight it hurts,” I cried.

He seemed to snap out of his trance and he softened his grip and rubbed his large thumb soothingly across my hand, “Sorry sweetie… I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

“I don’t exactly know what was said, but Tarna translated some of what you guys were saying. I didn’t realize the Khan’s son and his friends saw me herding sheep yesterday.”

“The Talanian language is very harsh, most of the words are very direct. The disgusting words from the Khan’s second son really got under my skin is all… Why didn’t you tell me you ran into him yesterday?”

“I didn’t think it was important… Also, I hardly saw you yesterday,” I sigh, “You came back to our tent pretty late… Are you sure you weren’t up practicing Talanian with the other village girls?” I hiss a bit. While the Khan’s son may be chasing my skirts, I can’t ignore the fact that all the girls of the village have been trying their hardest to catch Sylus’ eye.

Sylus stopped in his tracks and growled he turned to me and looked down with a sharp gaze, “How many times do I need to express to you I’m not interested in the other village girls?”

I match his glare and put my hands on my hips, “And how many times do I have to tell you I can handle myself, the Khan’s son doesn’t scare me. I’ll just refuse him.”

Sylus tsked his lips and leaned down to lift me up on his shoulder.

“Hey! Put me down!”

“No. It seems like I need to practice Talanian with the only village girl who matters to me,” he says sharply. He gives my butt a playful smack as I’m hoisted over his shoulder, my face in the direction of his backside.

I smack his butt back and he just chuckles, “You’re not getting out of this one Shavanika, so simmer down kitten.”

When he strutted into our tiny little yurt and set me down, his red eyes shined with a mixture of excitement and mischief. His hand remained on my waist as he spoke in a low and seductive tone.

My back arched at the feeling of his hands trailing down my waist and gathering my skirts up in his large rough palms. He set his other palm in the dip on my hip as he stared at me with almost an appraising look in his eye. “Let’s start with the lesson…What did that man call these?”

His left dominant hand was under my skirt caressing my thigh, I let out a shaky breath as I closed my eyes and tried to remember the foreign words spoken earlier.

“T-Toro? Kha-?” I sputtered out as his palm found its way to one of my bare-asscheeks. He squeezed it and tsked his lips as he brought his face closer to mine and he spoke lowly.

“Torkah Khongo,” the purr in his voice did nothing but further my arousal. I was being engulfed by the dominant energy Sylus was putting out. It didn’t take very much for me to become putty in his strong hands.

His other hand reached under my skirt as well and without further notice, the lengthy skirt that usually met my ankles were now scrunched up at my waist. Underwear wasn’t a common thing within the tribe, so I had been forced to forgo that luxury and be commando under my lengthy traditional clothing. I think for a situation such as a lustful Sylus, it was beneficial to be as naked as possible.

“Do you know what the translation is?” He quirked a brow.

“B-Birthing Hips?”

“Mhmm,” there was a slight growl to his response, “he said that you had the birthing hips to bear him many sons.” Sylus gripped my hips in a tightening grip. “Too bad for him these hips are miniikh.”

Sylus dropped to his knees in a squat as his mouth bit a part of my inner thigh, his hands rubbing the bare skin before him. “Do you know the translation?”

His mouth placed hot and wet kisses in my inner thigh, teasing me by being so close to where I actually wanted his mouth. I gasped out an answer as he was torturing me with kisses, “M-Mine?”

“Good girl, seems like you do know more than I thought,” he whispers breathlessly, “Let me reward you.”

He then licked my dripping slit, I let out a whimper in surprise.

“Tell me, who do these hips belong to?” He asked as he pulled away from licking my heat.

“Y-You.”

He smacked my thigh at my answer, “Ah-Ah-Ah, in Talanian sweetie.”

“ Ta,” I moaned out as he suckled on my sensitive pearl.

With a pop of his lips, he pulled away and smirked, “Hmm that’s a good answer, but I have a better one. Repeat after me: Nökhör .”

The pronunciation of the word feels strange as I try my best to repeat it, “noct-core?”

Sylus just shakes his head and repeats it slower for me, when I finally pronounce it right he rewards me by entering one of his fingers into my dripping center.

“Keep saying it sweetie, practice makes perfect,” he chuckles and his mouth finds my center again as he slowly devours me.

With his finger slowly pumping me and his greedy tongue flickering on my sensitive folds, my voice is nothing but a loud and needy whine of this new word he’s taught me and I haven’t a clue what it means. All I know is Sylus likes it as he happily groans into my dripping cunt.

“Louder. I want the whole tribe to hear you scream it, so everyone knows we belong to each other and no one else,” his lower face is dripping in my essence and his red eyes have a bit of a manic and desperate look as I look down on him.

“Sylus….” I lose my mind as he now has three fingers in me and the mouth of a sinner as he loudly slurps at my folds with his sharp tongue.

Ecstasy and euphoria wash over me as I come on his face with that new and unfamiliar word on my tongue. My knees shake and nearly give out, but Sylus stands and lifts me up so my legs are wrapped around his middle.

I lean my head forward as I pant into his ear, “What’s the translation of that word.”

He laughs as he rubs my back while I come down from my high, “Why, it’s my future title…It means ‘husband.’”

“Sylus! How bold of you to assume!”

He frowned at this and glared at me, “I'm not assuming anything, but unless you want to be the wife of the Khan’s son, then you must be mine…I can’t protect you from the leaders otherwise.”

I blush, “I-It’s just so embarrassing….I never thought about marriage.”

He smirks a bit, “Well I'm glad I can change your mind, at least while we’re here. Linkon has a very different culture from the grasslands, and we can talk about a proper marriage when we return home. Deal?”

“Fine but you’re not knocking me up while I'm here,” I huff at him as he lays me down on our pelts and strips off the rest of his clothes.

“I make no promises, but I’ll do my best. You’re just too tempting, Shavanika.”

“Only for you my Nökhör.”

That night Sylus made me scream so loud that the Khan’s son did nothing but glare daggers as Sylus confidently walked through the village the next day I, on the other hand, was forced to stay in bed due to my wobbly knees. When I finally returned to my duties after a day's rest, the other girls just giggled as they saw me.

Tarna translated a message for me that the elders are happy for whatever blessings me and Sylus marriage may bring, but to keep it to ourselves at night. I was horrified and embarrassed, while Sylus walked around as the proud warrior both in the grasslands and in the bedroom.

The strongest warrior and the sharpest tongue will always come out on top I suppose.

~fin~

Translation guide:

Shavanika - Beloved

Chlaarai - Sorry

Amarkhan bai - Fight not

Torkah Khongo - Birthing Hips

Miniikh - Mine

Ta - You

Nökhör - Husband

[al-the-remix]

New ask game! Please recommend at least three of your favorite BuckTommy fic authors, artists, meta writers, gif makers, or edit makers. Maybe sing their praises a bit if you'd like. And if you want to, send this to a few other people and spread the good vibes 🥰

@thatmexisaurusrex thanks for the ask!

BuckTommy Fan Work Recs

Fic Authors:

(obviously this isn't a comprehensive list, but a collection of fics I've read recently and really enjoyed)

all the vices i can't give up by @starryeyedjanai - this one is so fun and hot, I love sexting/identity porn fics so obviously I clicked right away. I also really enjoy this author's Buck pov; just funny, horny, zero impulse control Evan Buckly and his dick pics against the world.

one way trip to the sun by @newtkelly - this fic felt like a special treat crafted specifically for me. Zombies are my all time favourite movie monster and I'm a big George Romero junkie so finding a bucktommy/dawn of the dead mashup was like striking gold. I also just really loved this version of Tommy and also the narrative structure of the fic. Some really cool stuff done here.

You’ve Got Me Up in a Frenzy by @emphasisonthehomo - Trans!Tommy. Trans!Tommy with bottom surgery, how I love you so. This is so sweet and hot and nuanced and also fun. 10/10.

bright as the morning, soft as the rain. series by @milominderbindered - these were some of the first buck/tommy fics I read and I really loved this version of an alternate first meeting. Buck and Tommy's dynamic here is so cute and fun and flirty, I enjoyed reading Buck's slower realization here that, yes, this man in flirting with him, and oh boy is he into it. Also, there's just something about this version of tommy that really gets me, it's like I can see through the screen how much of an absolute catch he is.

1-800-DAYBREAK by @epiphainie - (ngl I love all your fics) but this one especially. I just really enjoyed seeing a younger Tommy and Buck here where their dynamic is flipped--Tommy being the one unsure of himself and Buck reassuring him that what he wants is okay-- it was also very hot and sweet. I'm a big sucker for phone sex operator fics, so this just reeled me right in instantly.

Goon by @alchemistc - I did not foresee my venture outside of hrpf to end up with me reading hrpf... This has everything I love about the genre and it's best tropes: hotel escapades, and locker room intimacy, and the hero worship to sexuality realization pipeline (...and Sidney Crosby haunting the narrative). Looking forward to seeing how it ends!

Paint Me in Neon and Make Me Glow by @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels - Fun, sexy, caring, D/s kink-discovery. I love how out of his mind horny Buck is for Tommy in this, and for being watched, and specifically getting watched WITH Tommy. I loved every section of this fic and how the author kept upping the stakes as they built towards the climax (ha) of the fic, which I wont spoil but you should definitely got find out for yourself.

take guesses on exits, one has to be right series by @queermccoy - The trucker!Tommy / lot lizard!Buck AU I didn't know I needed but am now eagerly awaiting the next instalment of. This was surprisingly cute and as well as scorchingly hot.

bottom tommy pleasures series by winterbucky (WinterLadyy) (if anyone knows their tumblr @ i'll tag them) - Just what it says on the tin! Bottom!Tommy I love you 😌

Artists:

@kinardsboy - Their art is always so fun and cute! I love all the buck/tommy memes they make.

@blue-arts-stuff - Their art is both sweet and also manages to hit me in the feels every time.

@lazybakerart - All of their art is beautiful, but I especially love what they've done for the @kinley-cafe!

(And of course Kinley Cafe itself for doing an amazing job spreading positivity and engagement within the fandom.)

Gif Makers/Editors:

@lengthofropes - their gifs are all so gorgeous, I don't understand how they manage half the stuff they do, but I love staring at it an inch away from my face like brightly coloured visual candy.

@sunglassesmish - my Tommy Kinard / LFJ gif dealer and has provided me with enough images of the man to construct a 3D model in my mind to rotate while painting.

@xofemeraldstars - I always look forward to their daily kinley posts! My obsession is being enabled and i'm okay with that.

[just-some-random-blogger]

Editorial

Joel Miller x Reader

Summary: "Can I read your diary?" "No." "Please." "I said no." "Pretty please?" "Ellie." "P l e a s e?" "No."

Word Count: 3k+

Warnings: Fem!reader, writer!reader, slice of life, mom and dad problems, some meta references, me being corny, fluff, typos, etc.

A/N: This can be read like a p2, or within the same universe at least, of this fic but also as a stand alone whatever you want babe Tagging: @pinksirensong @aralezinspace @sloanexx

"Ohemgee look!" Ellie calls, running through rubble and debris, making her way off to the rack of magazines with both ripped and dilapidating issues, and ones still very much intact and still in plastic wrapping.

She grins and begins to rummage the rack, "what was the magazine you used to write for again?"

I follow after her, tilting my head at the selection, "I've written for them all actually."

Ellie turns to me, cocking her head out, "whaaaaaaat? Seriously?!"

I shrug, "I was a freelancer."

"That's so fucking cool man!"

I roll my eyes, "yeah, cool, up until you had to pay rent," I turn over my shoulder as Joel walks over to us, then goes down the other aisle, continuing to survey the shelves.

I point, "there's some bleach over there."

Joel looks at it then back to me, "do you want it?"

I shrug.

Joel rolls his eyes and grabs it.

Ellie rips through the pages of one magazine and turns to me, "do you know who Tom Holland is?"

I walk over to her, looking through the available magazines, "actor. He was Spiderman at one point."

"What does that even mean?" Ellie shakes her head.

"It means he played Spiderman in films for a period of time."

"Oh," Ellie turns back to the page, "you in this issue?"

"Honey, I have no idea what date it is today," I reply as I examine other magazine covers. I recognize one of them and take it. Ellie immediately loses interest in the magazine she had, dropping it to the floor, coming close to me, pressing her cheek onto my shoulder as I flip through the pages of the magazine.

The telltale smell of the ink and paper makes me smile. I bring the object close to me and smell it. I chuckle, moving it to Ellie, "smell?"

She gives it a sniff then looks at me.

"Smells nice, right?" I smile.

Ellie gives me a weird look, "... I guess?"

Joel, from afar, comments, "signs of a druggie. Watch closely, Ellie."

I snort. Ellie looks over her shoulder and chuckles, turning back to me. She leans in as I flip the pages, breathing in deeply. I bring the magazine close to her again. She pulls back, sighs, and looks back at me, "I don't get it."

I laugh under my breath, "maybe I am a druggie," I give her a look. She mimics my wacky expression. I then survey the crumbling supermarket and sigh, "or maybe... it's really just not the same."

Ellie watches me as I go through the magazine.

She perks when I make a sound. I scan the pages and begin to laugh as I point to the corner, "and behold."

"HOLY SHIT!" Ellie gapes. She takes the magazine from me and begins to eagerly read the work upon seeing my name on the side. Ellie's jaws are parted as she goes through the text.

I laugh, brushing her hair back amorously.

"JOEL, SHE'S FAMOUS!" she shouts as I begin to walk off to the said man.

Joel grunts, "congratulations."

I chuckle as reach Joel and his push cart full of whatever he deemed important enough to take. He mumbles to me once I'm close enough, "sold your soul to the devil for shit."

I grab the box of thumbtacks on the shelf and place it in the cart, "I was told it was actually just a minor demon."

"WHO'S PEDRO PASCAL?" Ellie calls.

"Actor," I turn over my shoulder and call back. I then turn back to Joel, "was he the one in that Marvel film?"

"I don't give a fuck," Joel shakes his head as we continue going down the aisle.

"OHEMGEE YOU SAID IN YOUR ARTICLE YOU HAD A CRUSH ON HIM?" Ellie laughs.

"I honestly don't remember babe!" I reply to her.

"IS THIS HIM?!" she shouts and begins to run over.

Ellie pants as makes her way to us with a bunch of magazines in her arms. She rips one of them open once she is next to me, throwing the rest in the cart. Joel eyes Ellie after doing this.

She then points to a stylishly suited man with mustache and a debonair smile. The image of him instantly jogs my memory. I gasp and pull the magazine closer to me, "no wait, I remember. I did have such a big crush on him. He was so sweet and he made me laugh the whole interview."

"OHEMGEE!" Ellie giggles, "that's so cheesy of you!"

Joel grunts as he pushes his cart over a rocky part.

I grin at the sight of magazine Pedro Pascal. Ellie then begins to look between the magazine and Joel. She tilts her head then suddenly points, "oh my gosh, Joel looks like him."

"What?"

"That's why you like him," Ellie grins, "he looks like your actor crush!"

I give her a look, "Joel looks nothing like him, Ellie."

"What do you mean?! The mustache, the eyes, everything! That's Joel."

"Maybe if you showed me a pic of Joel in his heyday, I'd pretend to believe you. But that would honestly be such an insult to Pedrito."

"Pedrito," Joel scoffs under his breath, "Ellie take those magazines out of the cart. We are not taking them."

I steal a look at Joel as hold back a laugh. I shake my head, "rip the page of my article out. I'm feeling sentimental."

Later that day, on our stopover, I was curled up, sitting at the roof our car, looking between my notebook and the ripped page of my magazine laughing to myself. It was an amazing feat to find this in the middle of everything.

"Can I read your diary?"

I look down to my side, smile dampening slightly, "no."

"Please."

"I said no."

"Pretty please?"

"Ellie."

"P l e a s e?"

"No," I raise my brows at her. I motion to Joel who was going through some of the abandoned cars, "go help Joel."

"He told me to wait in the car because I'm a nuisance."

I scoff out a chuckle, "you're not a nuisance, baby."

"I know," she reaches out to me, "but if you feel bad, let me read your diary."

I roll my eyes, "why do you want to read my diary so bad?"

"Why do you write to much?"

"If I didn't, one of us would be dead," I said.

She gasps, "I get killing Joel, but me? You could never, you love me!"

I don't get to reply as Joel comes back and orders me to get off the roof.

Later that night, Ellie wakes up to the sound of arguing. We were camped in the middle of the woods and promised no one else would be camping. She shoots up from her sleeping bag and sees two people arguing from afar. She panics, turning to see the two sleeping bags by her side were empty, then she realizes that they were the ones fighting.

She pretends to go to sleep.

The sound of bickering intensifies.

Ellie gathers from the hushed growls there had been an accident.

In the morning, Ellie would find out whatever happened last night got the adults to non-speaking terms. She does not have the guts to ask, even through the silence of the long drive.

"Go left," I coldly dictate.

Joel turns left.

Ellie nibbles on her lower lip as she leans forward between the two front seats. She looks over to me. She looks over to Joel.

"So..." she says.

No one responds to her.

She notices how I lift my leg up when we pass a hump. Ellie points to my foot, "what happened to your ankle?"

"Accident," I turn to her with a soft smile.

Ellie looks worried, "is it broken?"

"Sprained," I retort.

"Twisted," Joel cuts.

I turn to Joel, "I've had worse sprains from running before."

"Oh, I'm sure you did!" He turns to me, "then you went back to your apartment-"

I turn away from him.

"-and put fucking ice and hot compress on it."

I sigh as I look out the window.

"I mean I'm sure you can do that now-- oh wait," Joel turns back front, "you cant!"

Ellie leans back into her seat, thinking of something to say to change the subject. She leans onto the window, eyes widening, "ohemgee, look, it's a family of-"

"I wouldn't have gotten in an accident had you not snuck off at-"

"I didn't sneak off!"

"Oh yeah," I turn back to him, "you made it a point not to wake me."

"You're a heavy sleep-"

"I'm really not, Joel!" I bark, "you wanted to do some heroic shit by doing a run all by your-"

"YEAH AND I REGRET DOING IT ALRIGHT!"

"WELL YOU SHOULD BECAUSE YOU'RE SO FULL OF SHIT WHEN YOU SAY THAT YOU-"

"I'M FULL OF SHIT!?!"

"YES YOU, YOU DIPSHIT! IS THERE ANY OTHER HILLBILLY FUCKER HERE THAT GRINDS MY GEARS SO FUCKING MUCH I WANT TO FUCKING -"

"YEAH WELL YOU'RE A FUCKING PRETENCIOUS RAT WHO HAS NO IDEA HOW TO SURVIVE BECAUSE ALL YOU USED TO EVER DO WAS GET ON YOUR LITTLE COMPUTER-"

"THAT MAKES YOU FEEL SO FUCKING HAPPY RIGHT? THE FACT YOU WORKED IN MANUAL LABOR AND-"

"NO IT DOESN'T MAKE ME FUCKING HAPPY-"

"SHUT UP!" Ellie rips through the verbal abuse, "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! Shut up!"

Joel and I look turn away from each other, heaving in anger.

The tensions worsened once he had to go on foot.

"Ellie," I say, turning to the girl, "you have a choice. Do you want to go with me, or do you want to go with Joel?"

"We're sl-" Ellie panics, "we're splitting up?!"

Joel says something under his breath that I wholeheartedly ignore.

I release a breath and motion vaguely, "we're getting two different things," I point to the left, "one is in the tunnels, which stinks worse than shit," I point to Joel on the right, "and one is up in building, but you have to climb, like, a hundred levels."

"49," Joel grunts.

I shrug, not bothering to look at him, "your pick, El."

Ellie looks between me and Joel. She begins to overthink what was happening. Before I could tell her it wasn't a big deal, she blurts out, "can you walk by yourself?"

I purse my lips, feeling somehow defeated by the fact her question meant she was choosing Joel. I nod once, "I told you, I've had worse."

Joel scoffs.

"My ankle is fine," I speak sternly.

Ellie nods, "okay. I want to wait in the car."

Joel and I turn to each other when she says this. I quickly turn back to her and furrow my brows, "you sure?"

She nods, "I'm kind of tired actually... we woke up... pretty early."

I nod slowly and ask, not looking at who I was talking to though, "you good with that?"

Ellie turns to Joel. She looks back where his sights were, watching me stretch my neck. Joel nods once, "don't go outside the car."

Ellie turns to Joel and nods back, "I wont."

Ellie burns time by going through some of the pages from magazines she had ripped out for herself. Once she was bored of that, she began to count the windows on all the buildings she could see. Once she was bored of that, she began looking for something else to read.

And then it struck her. The diary. It was here, fresh for the pickings.

Ellie wastes no more time. She opens a random page.

Day ~98 with Joel & Ellie

I didn't write for two days because we nearly died, Suzie.

Who's Suzie?

I'm glad we didn't. I'm glad you're still here. If you were a real person, you would have wanted to die after what we went through, considering the state of you, pages falling off and all. Ellie would have roasted you for your appearance.

Ok... Suzie's the diary?

I would have loved to have been her teacher in literature. She's got an amazing mind. She uses fuck as a punctuation though.

Fuck yeah!

Joel would have been her substitute math teacher who actually taught PE. He'd be really good at math though actually, he'll teach you how to compute rates and interest. He's good at that. He's practical. He's safe. I love him Suzie. I love them both.

Cute, she thinks. Ellie skims the page and tries to part the others that were stuck together. She gives up on that and decides to read something else.

Joel gave me a hicky-

Nope.

Joel nearly broke my back af-

NOPE.

I FUCKING HATE JOEL SO MUCH

Better.

I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY HE ACTS LIKE THIS

Ellie squints at the furious handwriting, unable to read parts of the passage.

I DON KNOW WHAT PLANET HE THINKS KEEPING THE FACT HES INJURED FROM ME IS A GOOD THING LIKE I WOULDNT NOTICE LIKE SUDDENLY I WOULDNT CARE

Ellie tilts her head at the next words she reads.

I HATE THAT HES SO SCARED OF EVERYTHING HE MAKES ME WANT TO EXPLODE

She ponders on what the text she read meant cause- well... Joel's not afraid of anything. She reads something else.

I look at your face and I feel like the noise doesn't have a sound. I feel your calloused hand touch me like I'm the most precious thing, even when they hurt me so bad. Don't push me away. I love you so much. We can do things together. We should do things together. I can stay up late sometimes. I can stay up late with you. Why don't you trust me? You're strong and capable. I love you. I am not. I am nothing to you. I am nothing. I am weak and timid. But with you I am everything. Why won't you believe me? Why won't you trust me? I love you. Joel. Ellie. I cant take care of you. I can take care of her. I love you. please believe me.

Later that night. We've set up camp by the woods.

"You want this?" I ask Ellie as I give her the other half of my food. She reaches out for it, but pulls her hand back when Joel barks, "don't take that."

I shoot him a look, "I'm not hungry any-"

"Like hell you are!" Joel snaps, "you didn't eat anything in the afternoon."

"I wasn't hungry then either."

"So what?" he chews exaggeratedly, "you're going through something? Or you're doing this to get back at me?'

I scoff and shake my head. I walk off.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" Joel screams as he watches me walk off.

"I'm going to take a PISS by the fucking LAKE!"

Ellie watches Joel as he watches me.

Ellie looks at the fire in the middle of them. Joel mutters under his breath. She licks her lips, "you know... it's... okay."

Joel turns to Ellie, giving her an incredibly annoyed look, "what?!"

"... you don't have to always be the strong one," Ellie mumbles as she looks off to the distance, "she's really strong too."

"You mean bullheaded," Joel grunts as he finishes the last of his food.

Ellie turns back to Joel, finding that he was looking at the same direction she had been. She brushes crumbs off her, "you worry about her. She worries about you-"

Joel turns to Ellie.

"I'm worried about my eardrums..." she trails off, looking to the dark sky, "but strangely enough, I'd rather go deaf with all your screaming than never be able to see you fight again."

Ellie pauses. She scrunches her face up and looks down at Joel. She raises a finger, "I was trying to be sentimental but I feel like that just makes no sense."

His nostrils flare, "you should leave the sentimentalities to-"

AHHHHHHH!

Joel shoots up from his spot and looks out to the source of the scream. Ellie shoots up as well, tense as she looks between Joel and the dark unknown, "should we-"

"Wait here," Joel says, grabbing a gun as he quickly makes his way deep into the woods.

Ellie watches as she uneasily fidgets on her spot.

Joel listens intently to the sounds around him. He slows then continues after hearing what he did, gun up and ready.

"Joel?" I call out as I walk. I repeat his name as I continue through the forest. I grunt when I step on a rock with my bad ankle. I lean against tree as I wince in pain. I try to stretch my injured ankle. It's a bad idea. I hiss.

I hear my name get called out. Before I can even look, there is a hand on my arm.

I turn and see Joel looking at me with a concerned expression. I whimper as he takes my cheek in his palm and shift to face him. He quickly asks, "are you okay? What happened? Is someone here? Did you fall? I-"

I silence him by placing my hand on his cheek, "Joel."

Joel's brows tense.

I sigh and shake my head, "I was... I was spooked by a racoon that brushed against me while I was peeing."

He lets out a breath. His shoulders relax and he lowers his gun. He then puts his weapon away and wipes his face. I chew my lower lip and grip on his bicep.

Joel turns to me as I give him a look. I gulp, "I also... stepped on a rock, and... my ankle hurts... like... really ba-"

I am cut off when Joel bends down and picks me up in his arms. I squeak and grip tightly on him. He grunts when he begins to walk off. I begin to feel agitated as he strains, "Joel-"

"Shut up," he blurts, "I can fling you into the sun if I want."

I lick my lips as I adjust my arms around his shoulders, "but what about your back?"

"What about my back?" he mumbles, "you haven't been eating and it shows. I would run a lap with you in my arms."

"..."

"You have to stop skipping meals."

"... I'm not hun-"

"I didn't ask if you were."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Joel."

"What?"

"I don't like it when we fight."

Joel scoffs out a chuckle.

"I'm sorry."

He sighs as he continues walking back to our camp. I caress his cheek. He looks down at me, blinking slowly, "I'm sorry too."

Joel looks back up and I begin to fiddle with his collar. A smile plays on my lips, "you know when you say 'too', it's like you're just agree-"

"I'm sorry," he blurts.

I hold back my chuckle, "well now it really feels like you're just agreeing with me."

"Do you want me to drop you?" he rolls his eyes as he gives me a quick look.

"I don't mind," I smile, brushing his hair back, "I like it like this. When I'm injured," I stroke his jaw, "you always do what I ask you to."

Joel clenches his jaw as he eyes me darkly.

I chuckle softly, rubbing the line between his brows, "hey."

"What?" he quips, no longer looking at me.

"I love you."

He purses his lips. His chest releases a deep breath of air. Joel spots Ellie from afar, and she very evidently spots us as she calls out. She runs over to us, "holy fuck, what the fuck happened?!"

I turn to Ellie and smile, "I'm being dramatic," I call back.

I reach out to her and caress her cheek, explaining my incident with the racoon.

At this point, we all had our sleeping bags set up and were getting ready to go tot be.

I give Joel a kiss on the cheek before he pulls away after helping me in my spot.

Ellie catches this then places a hand on her chest, "oh thank fuck you guys made up."

I turn to Ellie as she brings her sleeping bag close to mine. She says, "it was because of me right?"

I watch as Ellie looks out to Joel, who does nothing but set up his own bag close to mine.

Ellie begins to ramble, "I took a page from your book and got really sentimental with Joel."

I snicker, "did you, now?"

"Yeah," she raises a hand, "I talked about... going deaf and not being able to... hear you fight or something-- honestly, it was really cringy."

I give her a look, "are you indirectly calling me cringy."

"Absolutely," Ellie speaks without missing a beat as she nods her head.

I scoff, "you're so mean."

"No," she shakes her head and beings pointing, "he's the mean one, I'm the funny one, you're the sentimental one."

I laugh and shake my head at her words, "okay, sweetheart. Whatever you say."

The three of us are now cozied up in our bags.

"Good night mom and dad," Ellie says.

"Night, my love," I mutter, brushing her cheek, "I love you."

"Love you, mommy," she says softly then a little louder, "Love you, Joel!"

I grin and turn to Joel, "I love you, Joel."

Joel rolls on his side, facing away from us.

I curl up in my blanket and release a breath.

"I love you... I love you."

[wandixx]

Ghost of fries and hero of cookies final part

All work words count: 14 643 Words in this part: 244 Summary of whole work: Duke wasn't expecting to wake up from his quick rooftop nap to some meta kid with fries. He also wasn't expecting kid to stay Or Danny asked Dani to stay safe while she was in Gotham. Where would she be safer than under the wing of local hero? And he looked like he needed bad day combo anyway This part summary: What happened to Dani (author needs a certificate for being little shit) Beta read by @audhumla-sailor though English is second language for both of us, so proceed with this in mind. I also know all of the charaters through fics alone, so probably ooc. Stay catious if it's something you don't like

First part, Previous part

Dani packed her stuff as soon as she got back from patrol. While doing it, she called Tuck and Sam to coordinate travel plan with them and to make sure she heard where and when correctly. Danny’s birthday were coming, an alien’s autograph would be a good present. Unfortunately she wouldn’t have time to get any of his merch on her way so the sky map she printed in Gotham’s Public Library would have to make it. Because of Sam’s demand she stocked herself in protein bars, other high calorie snacks and tons of drinks. Guy at the register looked disturbed but correctly guessed it wasn’t his business. Thanks for physics meets magic mess that made her backpack lighter. It worked like thermos in a way, though she didn’t even try to understand it.

This flight was going to be challenge not only to her speed but also, mostly, her stamina.

Ancients let her survive.

*

Turns out, phones couldn’t survive falling from over a hundred feet at around 60 miles per hour. Well she had all important numbers (Jazz, Val, Tuck, Sam non- and yes-emergency Danny) on paper phased inside her hip. From Sam’s money she could buy one in Los Angeles and explain the change of number then. She would have to come up with an excuse though.

She wasn’t going to admit she got distracted and bumped into a bunch of pigeons, got startled and dropped her phone like a silly child.

********

I know I could and should post it with previous part but I wanted to build the tension.

Batfam: We will finally meet our almost niece! Dani: Oh, look, plot convienient reason to leave city fast! Dani was setting up most intense and insane work-out playlist known to mankind to get her through her journey when she bumped with these pigeons face first

Starting notes are longer than this part.

Shit, I really should put it with previous part but the tension and potential for drama aaaa I couldn't resist

and @audhumla-sailor is an enabler

Tag list: @pickleking8 @mynameisnotlaura

[matan4il]

911 ep 707 first watch reactions

Oh man, I'm actually not sure I have that much to say about this ep.

The entire plot with Mara and her brother Tyson was very sweet, very nice, and way too convenient. One day, shows are going to stop using the phrase, "There must be something you can do!" like it's some secret magic phrase, that makes this sentiment into a reality, AND turns the person addressed into someone willing to risk everything, in order to do that one thing they can do, which is usually something they're very much not supposed to... That said, Denny was sweet, Mara was lovely, her with Tyson was very endearing, and Henren continued to rule.

The storyline with Maddie was nicely handled, both her trauma, and the way Chim helped her use it to figure out the case and help save everyone from the stalker. My little Madney heart absolutely loved it. And Maddie's distress over a baby involved felt very real and understandable, when she's a mom herself now.

But then in a sense, it was clear this has no long term repercussions, other than bringing Brad into contact with Bobby. With his burn scars, and what we know about the fire that Bobby caused in the past, we can guess where this is headed. I trust that 911 will delve into this coming clash with the same humaneness with which it tackles most storylines.

But I'll be honest, I don't really like where Eddie's headed. I know Shannon scarred him deeply, but he was able to let go of her, and allow her to walk away from him twice while she was alive. It's weird if it's now being implied that the reason why he was never able to move on to another serious r/s is that he was stuck on her. The way she died was traumatic and painful, and it made sense that, even accepting that they as a couple were over, he had a hard time dealing with her death, but Eddie seemingly moved on in s4 at the latest. It feels a bit like they don't really know what to do with him, and how to move him on, so they keep going in circles with his character. Kinda like they were with Buck in s6. None of what we saw in that season helped Buck get to some major breakthroughs that we've seen in this one, so this current storyline with Eddie might end in the same way.

I'm not saying it doesn't have the potential to move him forward, and I'm sure it will be presented as if it has whether it actually does or doesn't (kinda like how 618 presented Buck and Natalia as a move forward, even though it very obviously was not), but right now, I'm not enjoying it. I also... even with this idea of having Eddie run into a Shannon look-a-like, I feel they could have gone in a lot of different ways, and the one where he goes on a date with her while having a serious gf he's essentially cheating on, it just doesn't feel great, or true to Eddie's values. Which can be the point, right? That sometimes we're so shaken up, we do stuff that's uncharacteristic. If that's where they'll take it, then it's working, 'coz right now, everything about this feels a little off. Let's hope they do something actually constructive with this, and give Eddie real progress (rather than just give Tim an opportunity to re-use an actress he already said he really likes).

Small mandatory Buddifer moment was really lovely, even if far from what my shipper heart would want. Then again, I honestly feel it's so funny that Buck is dating Tommy, while being married to Eddie, his actual baby daddy. If there aren't a lot of fics shipping all three men already, then IDK fandom.

Thank you for reading! If you’re looking for more, you can find my s7 reactions tag here, and more of my Buddie meta and content in my pinned post. xoxox

[somethinginworl]

He would not fucking say that - Kirby franchise edition (Results)

Well! Seems like a lot of people had a lot to say about mischaracterized Kirby characters, as a matter of fact, there were a whooping 57 entries! Well, let’s get going with them, shall we? Just,,, beware that this is a LOOONG post.

Haltmann

The dude 100% did fucked up shit and needs to be held accountable but people seem to so easily forget the degree he was influenced/corrupted by Star Dream. I don't understand why people hate Haltmann and love Star Dream who is arguably the actual reason HWC started colonizing and draining planets. Also the fact that Haltmann isn't conventionally attractive to the majority of the fandom makes him less sympathetic ig?? But the dude is a grieving father who made mistakes that sent him down a spiral into being corrupted and then deleted by a heartless machine. I can't help but pity him

Prince Fluff

Go on ao3. Look in his tag on tumblr. He exists only to be Kirby or Shadow Kirby's love interest most of the time, with no personality of his own.

He barely gets recognized anymore, and if he does, it's usually as a ship Prince Fluff was a big part of my childhood, with Epic Yarn being my first game. To me, he was Kirby's fellow main character, and they had a cool sibling/best friend relationship. But now, a lot of what I see of him is just . . . Kirfluff. Which is cool and all, but man's a prince! He can do more than be a boyfriend! Heck, he runs an entire kingdom by himself! One thing that I want to see more of is Fluff as a stressed but caring ruler, not just a sidekick/boyfriend to the pink puff. Give yarn boy his deserved appreciation!.

Dark Meta Knight

Hello! I am here to spread the good word of a character with no personality. It's the mirror thing. Of course.  Dark Meta Knight has No Personality. Zero. Nada. Zilch. He's Meta Knight but Dark. What does that mean? Your guess. He fights Meta Knight. And wins lmao skill issue blueboy. And fights Kirby. And loses a few times, which isn't surprising. He was dumb enough to split Kirby in four, though. Four times the Kirby is four times the amount your ass is grass. You're practically a forest at that point because you're so grass. So he's violent and has no personality outside of being violent. Woo! Triple Deluxe has him attack Dedede in Dededetour inside the Mirror. This has led people to think he fucked over Sectonia. This makes my heart bleed as much as Taranza probably did when he was punted off of Royal Road via Fuck You Lightning Ball. My man just has no sense of timing,,,, They just wanted to include a Meta Knight battle because Knight Battles are a Kirby standard at this point,,, You think a man that stupid can figure out how to take advantage of a woman's insecurity? I don't even know if he knows women exist. How many female Amazing Mirror characters are there??? Boxy??? Moley mentions having a wife once and Dameta doesn't know what he means. But other than being driven to immense violence and being scapegoated for the stuff his boss probably did, Dameta has other hobbies! Like whatever his motivation in Star Allies is. Something dastardly, I'm sure. People really like to pretend he's not part of the Star Ally club when my man is doodling with toddlers and posing with his less cool less edgy self. Would a villain have a silly little we heart kirby statue? No, didn't think so. Also I cannot imagine him as a dad to Shadkirby either. Do they even interact? I've seen both "Amazing dad" and "Outright abusive" as interpretations and I can't go with either. But I think that's because I don't enjoy Metadad that much. They're like awkward coworkers. He thinks they're student and mentor. They're not even that. Dameta barely knows Shadow exists.

Dark Meta Knight is very popularly characterized as like an abusive parent, usually physically abusive. Mainly to Shadow Kirby, of course. He's an asshole, yeah, but not THAT bad, christ. I've seen multiple fics where Shadow Kirby is some poor little hey what t the fuck hes fighting himself. um. Back to being a hater.

Shadow Kirby

Some folks still think he's shy/cowardly like from the Amazing Mirror Days. Not really true anymore. From what fans have seen from the ending of the game, he does protect the Mirror World. As for the spin off games that include him, he's pretty tough and even creates mischief sometimes.

Shadow Kirby is constantly treated as an "evil" Kirby. Especially bad after Fighters and fighters two. Not to mention "Parallel Kirby". There's also a strangely common trend of making them more sapient than pink Kirby, who tends to be infantilised to hell and back. Shadow Kirby also is often treated as a complete coward who can't do anything right, when they aren't called evil.

He's shown as completely different in several different occasions, not only in personality but in design I like shadow kirby he's purple and then he's not

Dark Taranza

Dark Taranza, gonna be honest what little characterization people give him are actually okay compared to the rest. But I'm still a hater and hang on im watching jerma clips. okay. He's like Sectonia if Sectonia was Taranza if that makes sense.

Shadow Dedede

Shadow Dedede barely gets shit but I'm going to be a little hater anyways. I don't like most characterizations. I see people make him like a dictator like bro he's literally just some guy.

Sectonia

have you seen how often people say that  sectonia and taranza were boyfriend and girlfriend in canon?????? they were never!!! shes the gosh dang final boss but shes only ever used to give taranza angst. she is her own person with a personality!!!! yes their backstories are interconnected but gosh!!!!

This not too prominent but I can't stand it when people portray her as an uwu shy girl pre-corruption. While she gave in her worst aspects, she was probably always a kind of vain, girlboss! I mean she knows how to fight with rapiers c'mon!!!

idk it just feels like lots of people just see her as Taranza's tragic dead wife and like nothing else you know? like she is more than that and I feel like what little content we have of her proves that (like the soul boss descriptions (especially the original japanese text of the 2nd phase!!) and the eternal dream song) - or maybe im reading too much into those because im hyperfixating on my blorbo whoops

Kine

I'm not sure how true this opinion is considering how little people talk about Kine, I feel this is partially the anime's fault, or maybe its because of how he just looks, but Kine is cool and is not some stupid loser fish. Before the days of Crystal Shards, Him, Kirby, Rick & Coo were the dream team at the time, always hanging out going, with various activities long before the days of Meta Knight or even Dedede. Kine is an awesome aquatic rep for the Kirby series not to mention drinking and being a pirate and Kine even has a Wife! Kine has got it! I guess this is a partial compliant of Ship of Theseus which can be applied with Rick & Coo too, but I feel Kine gets the most hate if any because of people who are unfamiliar just see a dopey fish and are unaware of his origins and his past with Kirby. I'm not upset with the current representation of the Kirby cast (I love the RTDL team being the main crew) but I do hope the animal buddies get some more love, Especially Kine.

Dedede

reduced to his significantly less in-depth and compelling characterization from the anime

Anime Dedede.

Magolor

one time i read a series of fanfictions where he called every female character in the story a bitch and was portrayed as the good guy in the story

Is it possible to both be flanderized and woobified at the same time? There is a lot of "removing his responsibility for his actions" but can we get better jokes than "hehe Microtransgolor hehe scammer egg”

Always an uwu soft boy. Like no that is a criminal not a catboy.

Bro would never be intimidated by Magolor

Marx

People either portray him as a edgy sociopath or constantly bored and annoyed. Portraying him as an adult or a teen kinda annoys me as well. I'm very picky about portrayals of Marx so don't get upset if you portray him as one of these I've listed.

Sometimes I see people only joking about the "hungry so he came along" thing with Marx and it's pretty overdone

They took one look at him and said “to the insane asylum bitch”. I don’t think he’s some crazy murder hobo rather a dude with questionable morals and puts his own mischief and fun before others it seems. Though Marx is indeed one of the least “character” characters when I mean he doesn’t have much depth in comparison to other characters. But you could do anything else than have him follow the Jevil path of him being crazy. Make him evil? Sure. Make him a cringefail idiot? Sure. Make him a crybaby bitch? Go ahead. But making him the definition of what a 14 year old white girl in New Jersey that probably is addicted to Instagram and thinks Webtoon comics are the highest level of art and storytelling’s definition of insane doesn’t cut it cuz. Slapping the spaz label without a thought of what’s being done on a character who fits the mark makes the Schizoid peeved who coulda known. As this is all coming from the one person who has likely ruined Marx’s character the most for Kirblur by making him a somewhat empathetic manchild who clings to both pipe dreams of normality and being a monster btw. (Also this doesn’t mean jokes, you can joke about him being a psycho like Jerma it’s when it’s taken 100% seriously is when it’s bad).    Also to add on, Woobification of Marx or any Kirby character period CAN be annoying if taken too far. I take full responsibility in the fact my variant is also woobifed to an extent but that train full of ticking bombs doesn’t bother me as much. Make him sadcry and be gay he deserves both those things. Send him to sad hell with the rest of them.

To the anon above... What?

Making him stupid or reducing him to just Silly Clown. Or just having him act in purely impulsive or spontaneous ways (which sometimes happens when juxtaposed with a more "collected" character like Magolor).

Daroach

this is something i’ve noticed specifically in chatfics, but when daroach is in the ensemble some of them tend to designate him as the Goofy Meme Dumbass for… idk, fandom quota? i really don’t know why it happens because he has a bunch of canon dialogue (and alternate continuity stuff like the novels) that show him to be cool and clever. i’m not saying he can’t have a sense of humor or anything (he’s definitely the type to have a bunch of quips), but it sucks when he’s mischaracterized because the fandom doesn’t give him that much attention as is. if you NEED a silly haha guy, marx is right there!”

Morpho Knight

"Morpho Knight is a creature of mercy. It's a benevolent entity putting tired souls to rest." NO?! I'm going to copy-paste some stuff I put in a post of my own. A while back, SYZekrom on Reddit translated Morpho Knight's entry, and it contains some... interesting information. Allow me to provide some excerpts. "He’s a red knight with butterfly wings, continuing from a pair of white wings like an angel’s, and a pair of azure wings with a bit of an evil feel." This is the first of two instances where Morpho Knight is outright stated to be evil. There's also stuff in the art book that supports my theory that Galacta and Morpho are permanently fused and the former is not dead, but I don't want to get carried away. These are its gacha figure descriptions in Forgotten Land: "The fluttering fiend that casts judgment upon final battles is drawn toward the isolated isles of Forgo Dreams. There, it feasts on the most powerful soul it finds and takes the fearsome form of a scarlet-clad knight… Let the most challenging battle of this new world begin!" –English "One of the dreaming birds, which are said to pass judgement upon decisive battles, drifts towards a forgotten, isolated isle as if summoned. There, it sips upon the strongest Soul and descends as a red knight. Finally, welcome the dusk… of the deadliest battle in this New World!"  –Japanese While at first glance there doesn't seem to be any information of note, the "fluttering fiend" bit in the English version is outright stating Morpho Knight is evil, and the phrase "he deadliest battle in this New World" doesn't sound particularly heroic. But I digress... Morpho is NOT a good person! This is clearly leading up to a villain vs hero confrontation! Which, may I add, implies that reaping Galacta Knight wasn't necessarily a good thing for it to do?!

Elfilis

elfilis is NOT entirely malicious. they would gladly accept hugs and kisses. being in a fucking capsule ALONE and AWARE for likely CENTURIES will DO SOMETHING TO YOU YOU KNOW?? god fucking DAMN dude... and after the ending of the true arena in the game, WILLINGLY GAVE THEMSELF UP TO ELFILIN. also they're not fucking DEAD you PSYCHOPAYHS elfilis is STILL VERY MUCH ALIVE!!!!!!! RUUAAAGGGH!!!!!!!!!!

Susie

Being Evil or being a Sad uwu girl who has had bad things happen to her seems to be the only way most people can portray this character.

Susie isn't a friend. She's selfish and wanted to take over the company. Her "redemption" is pointing Kirby at the world-ending machine, gives him armor, and then stands around. She doesn't even know his name. The closest she does for good is tell Kirby to do something he would've done on his own.

My girl really became the subject of hate thanks to a mistranslation. I mean yeah she likes robots and shit but the fact that people think she is a terrible person and that she's still colonizing planets makes me upset. i blame the translation team for everything.

When people say she has fully redeemed herself and is reduced to cishet, pretty girl??? Like no, star allies mistranslation my ass you fell for her corporate propaganda. The female characters in this franchise, while lovable, is not nearly as popular as a lot of the male ones. HAL literally gave us a morally grey girlboss who we can still sympathise with. She actually feels like a very real character in this fictional world.

You Know How People Are About Her

she's not even my blorbo!!!!!! everyone thinks she's a huge evil bitch who has done terrible genuinely unspeakable things. i read a fic that went on and on abt the horrible things she "did" to meta knight when he was mechanized (things so bad i cant even say) and i was pulling my hair out she did not fucking do any of that!!!! yes the universe can have pretty dark moments but good lord people only use her to woobify meta knight and give fuel to ship him with others and it pisses me off lol. or people go too far the other way and woobify HER to ship with him and aughhhh no one has a shred of media literacy. she's not purely good or purely evil she's such a complex character who did bad things because she was in a bad situation and the best example of a morally grey character who's on no one's side but herself and that will always be more interesting that 100% good or 100% evil. once again she's not even my blorbo but i've never seen a character butchered this badly by a fandom

Because of mistranslation (from what I've heard) Susie's whole mechanizing planets has been the number one thing when it came to susie hate and the only reason as to why people hate this girl so much. Honestly Susie's character has been fucked up immensely and no one has such a divided spread of opinions like she does. Some people brush away her backstory and make her a soulless being with no love whatsoever.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Susie Haltmann. I cannot with the fandom interpretations anymore. It's ridiculous how bad they've gotten. Susie is a two dimensional character. I absolutely despise seeing people portray her as some sort of greedy capitalist bastard and "the one with the braincell". In canon, she's consistently been portrayed as a sweet person (with a knack for violence, but EVERYONE in this series is like that). Everything bad she did in Planet Robobot was FOR WORK and the will of HER FATHER, and even if she did want to do the things she did, she's clearly not doing them any more. The "mechanizing planets and peoples" line in Star Allies is a mistranslation. And the "punishing savages" doesn't have to mean anything bad. It could mean she's punishing evildoers with her money and resources. In fact, I've seen some translations put it like that And Meta Knight... is just the straw that broke the camel's back. Oh lord. Why does everyone insist that he hates her? There's the little scene in Star Allies... but god, that isn't canon, it's clearly a joke. If anything, Susie might have been trying to talk to him and he was just trying to avoid her in a misinterpretation of the situation. It's supposed to be funny. Why are you imposing this onto people like this automatically makes Susie a devil incarnate and anything involving those two characters in problematic? Just shut up.

Meta Knight

Everyone thinks he’s just the ‘edgy character’ or ‘the uncaring mentor figure’ while in actuality he really does care for Kirby (and Bandana Dee) more than anyone gives him credit for!

Everyone either makes him all broody and lonesome, like shadow the hedgehog or batman; or they make him a goofy dad, like Dedede or Hugh Neutron. In reality, he's a weird uncle with unknown motivations, simultaneously selfish and practical. Also, he doesn't hide the fact that he likes sweets, he eats them away from everyone so no one steals them (Dedede and Squeak Squad).

He's not Kirby's fucking dad! He's an irresponsible uncle that hands out swords! And he is definitely in love with dedede, he is the only other dramatic bitch willing to build a skyscraper to beat up kirby (I am using intense anger for comedic effect) 

HES A FUCKING TWINK ASS FRUITY ASS MOTHERFUCKING CRINGEFAIL MAN. HE NEEDS TO HAVE HIS PERSONALITY INTERPRETED AS BOTH THE MANGA AND THE GAMES. YES HE IS MYSTERIOUS BUT HE ALSO WOULD TRIP AND FALL OVER HIMSELF. I NEED STAR ALLIES KICKING SWORD PISSED. I NEED MANGA ROSES BITCHASS META. I NEED THAT PARTICULAR VERSION OF MY BOY meat knight RIGHT NOW. meta knight is cringefail. half of the fandom agrees the other half does not. im explode.

He wants to look cool so bad but he is actually a huge fucking goofy goober. Any representation of Meta Knight being a badass is propaganda made by Meta Knight himself to convince you he’s cool. I mean have you seen his RTDL Deluxe pause screen description? King Dedede’s and Bandana Dee’s are in first person, but his is in third person? He’s literally talking about himself in the third person like hello????? Meta Knight is such a fucking lame goofy little man who thinks he’s the most badass motherfucker on the planet.

To fair this has been less common lately but back during 2014-2016 MK was usually portrayed in fanart/fanfic as either this wise veteran or cold edgelord. He is just an unhindged!!! Silly!!! Guy!!! He can be cool and cringefail!!! But he is also compassionate in his own aloof, awkward way!!! 

i am not a big fan of the metadede ship. i think people are shipping for the sake of having a ship and nothing else. As someone with a severely underrepresented orientation (aromantic and asexual), when I see a character I like, I will project onto said character. This is the case with my interpretation of Meta Knight. I saw a cool character that I liked who a) doesn’t have any canon love interests and b) didn’t really need a whole ton of friends/significant others to be happy with life. Meta Knight always seemed to be perfectly content with the friends he has on Popstar and his crew and everyone in the anime, so I looked to him for hope that I could live the same way. I was open to the metadede ship at first, but as time passed, I felt less and less comfortable with it. It seemed to me that people were so hungry for gay ships that they just pulled this one out of thin air courtesy of Kirby Fighters 2, which is to my knowledge the only piece of media that somewhat supports this. Why can’t people just be happy with MK and Dedede being friends or frenemies? I’m probably starting drama with this bc I know how popular metadede is on Tumblr so I apologize for upsetting you if that is the case.  But I also feel that I shouldn’t apologize just because I have a different opinion.

I dislike how "pathetic" the fandom has made him out to be. I don't like it when he's portrayed as overpowered but... "pathetic, whiny manlet" could not be further from the truth. How did we get to that?

Kirby

Often people make Kirby more dependent on others than he actually is. He's an extremely independent person that literally cannot be stopped by anyone who tries to get in his way

ik its been covered to death but matpat made that video about how kirby is evil and completely ignored the themes of friendship and kindness that are present throughout the entire series

dude hes not a baby. he drinks in the manga adukt kirbies are a fine interp god. and hes not a godkiller or some shit he just fights for his friends hes not some terrifying monster kirby is literally just some friendly guy. strong yeah but just some guy. he fights strong entities incidentally lol

The anime portrays them as a literal infant, and due to its overprevalence (despite not being in the same stream of canon as the games), this is often their characterization in the fandom.  Canonically, they indeed are a child (at most, they'd probably be a teen in the modern games), but they are old enough to talk, and they demonstrate a high amount of emotional and even technical intelligence.

Admittedly, this is one that usually only happens to people outside the fandom, but it bugs me when people portray Kirby as a sort of immoral monster who only does good things on accident. When it’s quite the opposite! He may not be incredibly bright, but he does his best to help people. Oddly enough, there’s not many cases of “he would not say that” in the fandom for me because of how loose Kirby’s story is. It is lore heavy but the actual characters aren’t super concrete save for a few and I think that’s perfectly fine

People forget that their air bullet!! is an attack!! its literally one of their only ways of dealing damage in DL1!!! I’m looking at you Smash Bros!!! Why isn’t it their nair?????????

making them a toddler who cant speak for themself

I swear everyone outside of the fandom sees Kirby as either a braincell infant or  a merciless force of mass destruction

Taranza

WHAT DIDN'T THEY DO!?!?!? Taranza, as we see him in Triple Deluxe, is such a fun villain. He's dramatic, arrogant, a total suck-up to Sectonia, and it's so. Fucking. Good. He's a devious bastard, he monologues!!! His animations in the Clash games are so fucking campy and dramatic it's chefs kiss!!!! Fanon Taranza is as plain as white bread. Sometimes as pale as it, looking at some of the gijinkas. No shade though! As little shade as there is melanin in him lmAO- He is flanderised to hell and back. There are so. Many. Fucking. Taranzas who happen to be nothing but sad and weepy about his evil dead wife. Where's the bite!!! The pizzazz!!! Even in canon, when he is a bit of a wet sack later on, he still hunts for an altar he can bring her back on. My boy's a wannabe necromancer!!! Write that shit in your lost lenore Sectonia fic you fucking cowards Queen's Phantom ain't just for show. The above is also evidence for woobification! The fucker is obviously sad his crush is dead! But can we pleeease focus on anything else. This is definitely not targeted at Hal Labs. Imagine being woobied so hard your creators backtrack your personality I would just die. "Ehehe he's the responsible mage!!" No the fuck he isn't he can't be trusted with anything he tries take control it WILL blow up in his face. He knows magic he's good at magic but is he responsible??? Fuck no my man's strongest attack is "Blow myself the fuck up via a giant burst of magic" and it shreds. Even worse is the "Taranza got mind-controlled by Sectonia" theory in tandem with this. That wasn't confirmed right. Right. God I hope not that would be embarrassing. He can't even have a moment to realise his devotion has gone too far and she doesn't love him or even care for him, and he has to finally make that decision to free himself from her like ain't that cool!!! And then making him all sad over her afterwards it's just a Little Fucked if you're tryna put it all together eh. Eh. And he's not suuuper objectified (That usually goes to Seccy rest in piss girlie) but the way he's treated in some ships is. Eugh. Fucking Magoranza amirite he's basically there to look responsible and cute (I've already explained my issue with this) and to fix the tortured soul who is Magolor (I do not like Magolor. Nor Magoranza.) Tbh Sectaranza does the same he's there to be tragic because his girlie's dead. When you give him less personality than the dead cardboard cutout you know you fucked up. Anyways these ramblings are here to remind you what Hal Labs stole from us: Taranza but not a TOTAL saddo. Theatre kid Taranza. Arrogant prick. He's even British.

For the anon above me, I just wanted to say that this entry is probably my favorite and lives rent free in my mind.

I'm definitely guilty of it and it's all we have to go off of but PLEASE he needs more than to be Sad. Give him hobbies and interests that aren't just gardening, at least. Make stuff up about him, please!

So, SO many people make him an absolute crybaby over Sectonia. Even though, yes, he has grief problems, it's not his whole freaking personality. Pretty sure they're forgetting the fact that he LITERALLY HELPED KILL HER.

Taranza is not just a little pathetic guy!! He’s a bitch— a little schemer if you will !!! He’s smug—he’s formal—he’s a little fucker!!! Taranza needs a new partner and that partner is me

Oddly enough I do think people make him out to be a bit too much of a goody two shoes. Like he has done some mean things in the past and it wasn’t all Sectonia’s fault, he literally *stole* the Dimensional Mirror after all. Don’t get me wrong I think he’s a good person in the end, but cmon. He has committed crimes

Taranza in some corners of the fandom has kinda been turned into this forever crying baby who can never recover from losing Joronia and like, I never see people who do that write about the recovery and being able to move on to the final stage of grief.

HE IS NOT A SIMP, MY GOD

Everyone needs to stop reducing him to pathetic simp. He is allowed to grieve but he's probably one of the more mature characters within the series???

People disregard everything else about his character to make his tragic relationship with sectonia his only character trait. Not sure if this quite counts as woobifying since he does canonically still mourn her (and obviously seeing a close friend/crush go down the path of self destruction and ultimately die from it WOULD NOT be something you'd get over quickly). But I'm so tired of taranza in fanart and the like being an uwu softboy with Crying as his main character trait. Like he's canonically more than that! He goes full cocky villain mode when you confront him near the end of triple deluxe and he can pack a punch in star allies with his magic! If you're going to write about him prove that you don't just know about the guy from twitter artwork!

And here’s a graph!

Anyways, thanks everyone for your submissions! What I’ve learned here is important: We’re all fucking delusional.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Found a funny post. A ZK shipper complained that ZKs are being attacked while there are some much more terrible ships in the fandom – zucest, or Zhao/Zuko, or Ozai/Hakoda, or Zhao/Azula, or Ozai/Kya, or Jee/Zuko, or Ozai/Azula… there were probably more.

I guess you see the pattern. These are small ships (apart of zucest, probably, it seems the most popular in the list). They are nor, like, everywhere. I’ve only ever seen Ozai/Kya mentioned in a ZK fic, lol. And only ever seen Zhao/Azula fanart among the works of a ZK artist.

They do not pretend to be more than they are or to be something entirely different. For example, Hakoda/Ozai content would be either a crack scenario just for fun’s sake or an honest “these two characters are canonically incompatible, there’s absolutely no way they’ll have a sappy happy ending or a healthy relationship at all, so prepare for some serious drama” or “don’t look for a reason here, I just like them because they’re hot” (which is sexualization I guess but at least both characters are adults and not, you know, 14-years-olds). No “fixing the canon” crap here.

They are honest about their problematics too. Ozai/Azula? “This is incest ship, so if it’s not your kink, just don’t read”. Zhao/Zuko? “Here’s some really creepy shit. Yes, it’s extremely unhealthy, that’s the whole point. You were warned. Check the tags again.”. And so on. Not like the fics where Katara falls in love with Zuko after he raped her, you know…

They don’t shit on other characters. I can’t remember Mai being demonized in zucest fics as much (if she ever was) as she is in ZK fics. I’ve actually seen a devoted zucest shipper (hello-nichya-here) who defends Mai and Maiko!

They are just chill, create and enjoy content. Sometimes it’s amazing. One Jee/Zuko fic I’ve read was much more sensual and erotic than all the ZK smut I’ve ever read, combined (and the character dynamics was way more convincing, too).

Their shippers do not make up crazy conspiracies about how they were “robbed”. They do not write a kilometer long metas about how their ship is the actual canon, inserting Watson and Doyle’s names in every paragraph and lying about almost every event from the show. They do not comment “my ship is better!” under fics or arts featuring one character from their ship paired with someone else. They do not force their ship down everyone’s throat. As far as I know they don’t send death threats to people who don’t like their ship. Really, such terrible ships, why people attack the ZKs instead…

They try to use these as exemples of "worse" fandoms because they all have an element people could have issues with - a canonically abusive character like Ozai, a large age gap between an adult and a minor, incest, a controversial/disliked character, etc.

But like you said, these fandoms all mind their business, and anyone who does the same doens't have an issue with them, if they might have an issue with the ships. Meanwhile, Zutarians are hated not because the ship is controversial, but because the SHIPPERS are pushy. It's just going "Don't pay attention to my bad behavior, hate on these guys for having controversial ships!"

Seems it's time for this again: Hello, Nichya here! Unfortunatelly it was not at all uncommon to find Mai-bashing in zucest fics back in the day (honestly, most of the zucest fics back in the day were fucking terrible with both Zuko and Azula being wildly out of character) and it still hasn't disappeared completely. Thankfully that bullshit seems to be on it's way out, and I don't think the fandom ever reached the point of sending hate to Mai/Maiko fans like zutarians did, even if they hated the character for the same stupid reason - aka for "getting in the way."

[lamialamia]

a, g, i, and o for hbo war ask game <3

a. make a moodboard/edit/headcanon for who you think is underrated for any of the shows.

Bill Leyden is so underrated! I love that little man who just don't know how to quit. My HC for him: Leyden loves melodrama, after he gets a tv, he would be an avid watcher of soap opera.

g. masters of the air and generation kill both seem to have more discourse surrounding them than the other two. which did you enjoy more, and why?

oh this is a hard question. Because I enjoy the writing of GK a lot, it's so fantastically written but i'm not very fannish about it (i do ship BradRay and read their fics, but overall probably not that fannish). On the other hand, MOTA frustrates me with a lot of its writing decisions (enough for me to write meta analyses for it), but I definitely I'm more fannish about that show.

In conclusion: MOTA wins 'being entertaining'. GK wins 'satisfying writing'. Which make them both enjoyable lmao

i. tag some of your closest mutuals and choose a show portrayal from any of the miniseries' that reminds you of them.

ashdsahkj

@blood-mocha-latte Ray, with a little Roe in the mix. fun-loving but also intense and dedicated ;)

@ewipandora is it weird I think you are quite Talbert? idk but i see it

@gorgeousundertow i know you think you are similar to Nix, but I actually give you the joy of reminding me Burgie haha, with some serious Lipton vibe uwu

@screwby straightforward and very awesome. Doc Bryant. No doubt about it.

@ep6bastogne Malarkey! but maybe more introverted haha

@the-cinnamontography-is-amazing my partner in crime and other stuff. keep fighting the good fight! and for that, I see ack-ack in you, especially with his speech about 'war worth fighting for' xD

@staud harry welsh. he's fun, you're fun. such a darling, the both of you :D

o. say something nice about a ship that you don't understand.

this is hard, mostly because ship I don't understand i would just don't remember. but i guess i don't really understand Speirs/Nixon? however, goddamn those two are hot together, like their genetics might make some crazy out-of-this-world beautiful kids.

Ask me anything from this cool thing

[delicateartisantrash]

Hello!

I've recently found your TF fics, and they are *mwah*

Absolutely gorgeous, love what you've done with the characterisation and the plot, especially when you say when a character *cough Megs cough* just... comes in. I'm just giggling, kicking my feet, twirling my hair.

I also have a question. Or two, if you don't mind my asking.

In the tags for Leaking Spark and Why the Caged Bird Sings, it's stated as a 'Soundwave/Reader'. Does this refer to Butterfly, or Lightshow?

I'm just a little confused on that part, as Butterfly is definitely on for Knockout, and as seen in the latest chapters of Why the Caged Bird Sings, Soundwave really misses Lightshow (breaks my heart every time we see Sounders in a wreck). BUT, in the tags for Leaking Spark, there's 'Eventual Soundwave x Reader'.

So, I'd like to know, what's your plan on that? Or is that a 'lil spoilery? Would you mind giving us a 'lil peak into your plans?

Thanks for reading my questions, hope you have a great day <3

yes hello i LOVE answering questions (even if it's sometimes "teehee spoilers but i can tell u dis instead ;D" is my only non-spoilery answer I can give) about my absolute obsessions. Eeeeeeee!

Easy one to answer, first:

In the tags for Leaking Spark and Why the Caged Bird Sings, it's stated as a 'Soundwave/Reader'. Does this refer to Butterfly, or Lightshow?

In LS and WTCBS, it refers to Butterfly.

If that ever changes, I'll update tags and/or update some kind of notice at the chapter in question so it's not unexpected.

I honestly haven't decided yet if we'll have Lightshow as a total other POV like Soundwave for example has been, or if Meta Readers will get to be a Reader POV for both Butterfly and Lightshow. Do you by chance have a preference? XD

I currently lean towards keeping the "Reader POV" restricted to one character per story series (Gladiators of Kaon is technicaly a prequel to Leaking Spark, but Leaking Spark isn't neccessarily the *only* possible timeline outcome for GOK's origins ;D no i'm not planning a multiverse with my own fics what who me never i'm not THAT insane ha ha ha, I mean....)

Other question time!

SO.

I hesitate to confirm *exactly* what the final relationships will look like any time someone asks, because... I don't actually know. There are *so* many moving parts and little details and honestly even a slight interaction can have lasting ripple effects that change the story farther down the line in ways I never could have predicted or expected until I get to that point.

Case in point: Leaking Spark actually exists (and GOK, too, but for slightly different reasons than LS) purely because Knockout was *supposed* to get to be the MC's bestie ride-or-die friend in Star of the Show.... and instead he ended up scaring the ever loving SHIT out of poor Clara and yeah That's Not Happening (at least not anytime soon lmfao).

But I wanted to write a friendly(ier) version of Knockout, so we got Leaking Spark with him being our teaser pony introduction who eventually leads us to Soundwave. (and that mech is a slow burn romance with cryo-frozen molassas)

So... Rather, I know what *qualities* certain relationships will absolutely have, as it keeps me grounded and centered in writing, but that doesn't necessarily mean that character won't *also* end up with someone else before then, or in addition to (poly romance is something I have given up trying not to let creep into my TF fics They Are Very Determined I Guess??? I HAVE NEVER HAD THIS ISSUE BEFORE I AM GENUINELY CONFUSED BUT I LIKE IT APPARENTLY SO????).

So, I'll tell you what I *do* know is for certain;

[mild spoilers below. Topic: relationship outcomes]

-Soundwave is going to end up in a lasting, meaningful, permanent (insofar as they decide it is :P) romantic relationship with Butterfly. He gets his squishy soft Sparked lover. He also gets a not-so-squishy but just-as-soft-Sparked Lightshow... either as a friend or as a romantic partner as well, I genuinely don't know how those two will reconnect but it's gonna be CUTE. AS. FUCK. -Knockout is going to marry/Conjux/get hitched with his gay bae Breakdown and I can pretend TFP never had budget cuts for voice actors and politics that inspired Breakdown's gruesome death and end in TFP it Never Happened Here Okay? (sobbing weeping crying i'm okay I swear). He'll remain friends with Butterfly, and his romantic fling with her is honestly going to be *so fucking good for him* as a learning experience. In short, we're his Practice Girlfriend so he finally fucking treats his husband right. Dammit KO u HAVE HIM RIGHT THERE REEEEE--

-Megatron is gonna end up with Lightshow. So hard. He never stopped agonizingly crushing on her that mech is in LOVE. Obssessive possibly unhealthy love. You know. In that way Megatron does with Literally Everything In His Life, taking things to The Extreme. Lightshow's gonna be good for him is all I'm gonna say there heehee

-Lightshow IS THE ONE I HONESTLY HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT SHE'LL DO REALLY SHE MIGHT BE SOME KINDA LOVE GODDESS OR SOMETHING IDK BUT I CAN EASILY IMAGINE HER IN A POLY RELATIONSHIP WITH LITERALLY ANYONE SHE LIKES AAAAAAH HELP????

Lightshow's unofficial job in the Decepticon Army: sex therapy

-Lightshow and Butterfly are going to get along very well and that's all I'll say about those two ;)

[avidbeader]

So, I've been doing the Great Sheith Reblog for a while now, gradually reblogging almost everything I shared before that was tagged as Sheith. Lots of art, gifsets, fics and recs, old merch posts, and meta to go around with the occasional dash of salt because lord, dumbness about shipping brings out the salt sometimes. But most of the time it's a lovely nostalgia hit and a reminder of why I still love this ship with all my fandom heart. It's bittersweet sometimes, seeing the usernames that left with Tumblr's worst decision ever, the fellow fans who have moved on to other things, and yes, the hopes and dreams we had before Season 8.

Long blathering under the cut: musings about the persistence of anti-shippers and what queerbaiting actually means.

But occasionally what both amuses and frustrates me is how things line up because it's 2024 and we still have klantis/antis over on the former Twitter spreading the same lies about Shiro and Keith - about their ages, about how they met, about what their relationship is. Right now over there, arguing is happening again because someone put up a clout-chasing poll about which mlm ship was the most influential and included KL but not Sheith (KL beat Johnlock and then lost to Hualian, so I'm happy twice over). Side note - I think if we take "influence" as a completely neutral term, then yeah, KL has been a huge negative influence on fandoms as it was one of the places that allowed puriteen attitudes and anti behavior to grow unchecked for so long. That helped turn some ship fandoms into cults, in which you had to believe with utter certainty that your ship would be canon or you weren't a "true" fan of the ship. That put more emphasis on opposing a rival ship through wank and harassment instead of focusing on the joy and fun of creating for the ship you supposedly love.

And that poll prodded someone to create a Google Form for soliciting answers as to what the biggest examples of queerbaiting are in media. And of course people are saying KL and Adam/Shiro, among other things that are not at all queerbait. These are examples of people guessing wrong and getting mad about it. Queerbait requires that the producers/writers/etc. say outright that a ship is going to happen and then it doesn't, without any influences from the powers above them making changes. Not received fan "wisdom". Not marketing doing things without consulting the producers.

And I just reblogged someone's ask in which they said they felt queerbaited by Sheith solely because of the "brother" line in "The Black Paladins". The answer is excellent and worth a ready if you haven't seen it on my blog already.

Breaking it down:

KL is not queerbait. KL was never planned as a potential ship and LM/JDS said so multiple times. They said it never occurred to them as a possibility and by the time KL's popularity took off they were too far along in the writing to try and go back and make changes, because animators need time to draw. LM flat-out said she was surprised that it became a thing. If the producers are telling you over and over in no uncertain terms that a ship had never been on the table and couldn't be added to the table now, that's not a case of queerbait. And they spoke of Lance's love interests as female every single time. JDS/LM never said anything that would lead fans into thinking KL was a possibility without the deliberate and willful misinterpreting of their words.

Adam/Shiro is not queerbait. Adam is a minor character in a series with a large cast. He has two functions: to be evidence of Shiro's status as a queer man and to be a "face" for all the pilots that died in the first wave of Sendak's invasion. Some people try to claim that LM and JDS queerbaited with their answers at SDCC 2018, but they're wrong. The only thing LM said was that we would see more of Adam in S7. And we did. She did not promise we'd see more of him with Shiro. That was people inserting what they wanted to hear, just like them trying to elevate Adam's status to a fiancé when again, LM clearly stated that they were serious and considering getting engaged. Not engaged. Not married. Just a couple that was serious about each other but broke up.

I don't consider Sheith to be true queerbait. It might fall under the cryptoqueer situation explained at the end of the post linked above, but JDS and LM were mostly very careful to talk of Sheith in terms of deep friendship and devotion to one another, after the initial wave of support for fan content during S1, prior to the klanti movement taking off. The only thing that skirts the line for me is a quote, I think from JDS, saying that if Shiro had a new love interest it would be someone he has known a long time. Or maybe that was about the romances in general being developed over seasons and not Shiro-specific - I would need to research. (Yet more proof that the endcard "wedding" was not planned since we didn't see the unnamed groom until S7 and they never interacted.) And that was said before studio execs started meddling and caused the trainwreck of S8.

I do think we were supposed to have an open ending for Sheith. Klantis like to point out a storyboard artist claiming that "no one wins" this ship war as evidence that KL was supposed to happen and got changed, but that statement applies if Sheith is left open-ended and Allurance happens, even without the endcards.

When I have a chance, I'll try and dig up the links for the various quotes I mention above. Thank you for reading if you made it this far!

[writing-for-life]

Sandman Master Post and Intro

Hi, I’m so glad you’re here! This started out as a small blog but has developed a horrifying (^jk) life of its own over the past two years, so it was about time I organised the links and tags to all my Sandman stuff for you to make it easier to find your way around.

I love getting asks, about analysis, about my fics, prompts or generally just to chat, so see this as an encouragement to slide into my inbox…

[For quick reference:]

[The Ultimate Sandman Character Tag Library]

[The Women of the Sandman Tag Library]

[Sandman Comics: Original Artists Library]

[Sandman Reread (Comics)]

[Sandman Rewatch (Netflix)]

[Sandman S2 News, Casting and Speculation]

[Sandman Reference: How to Collect the Comics, Companion Books, Annotations/Reference Literature etc]

[Sandman Movie Concept Art by Jill Thompson & John Watkiss]

[In Light of Recent Allegations]

Ordered by topics (recommended):

Sandman Meta-Analysis: My literary/conceptual/psychological analyses. I have also written some musical and art metas. You will find further links via all three.

The Sandman Book Club Community: Just follow the link if you’d like to join.

Sandman Fics & Poems: My own work, mostly m/f and f/f canon pairings and OCs, both long fics and shorter works.

I’m also Dream’s Therapist. I think we all agree he needs one.

Sandman Art (general tag that contains all art posts, from fan-art to gif-sets. Separate tag for official Sandman artists. Plus the very few pieces of my own art I’ve ever posted on here).

Sandman March Mania was an event we specifically ran for the comics art lovers, so check it out.

Sparkle Content Curation (a not-quite-serious collection of Dream/Morpheus thirst-trap fan-art and unhinged posts). Please also peruse the tags #contraceptive sparkles, #glitter herpes and #murphy and his cool hat (yes, I am sort of responsible for the #muhulhu tag on here) if this hell-site has left you in a state of being desperate for laughs

A Little Intro…

…and why this blog will keep on existing

Once there was a girl with so many words, so many images, so many songs in her head that had no place to go. So she decided some of them will just go here…

Well, that sounds a bit contrived, but it’s not entirely untrue. Apart from the “girl”-part, because I’m at the younger end of Gen X. Or the “no place to go”-part, because some of my work actually *did* go places. Just not the stuff I decided to put on here…

Which is mostly Sandman stuff right now, let’s be honest (I fell in love with it when I was 16, and it still has a tight grip on me three decades later). And the fact that my blog a wild mix between my metas, my fanfic and a bit of my doodling already shows the pull in different directions I have experienced for most of my life:

I guess I’m just a multi-hyphenate who can’t make up her mind what she wants to do with her life, so she tries to do it all and ends up burned out half of the time.

Somewhere along the way, I managed to publish a few novels under a pen name, and only a select few people know about it. And I intend to keep it that way.

I used to draw much more (mostly pencil and ink), but between working and having a family, something had to give, and if I have to choose, writing always comes first. But I doodle and experiment a lot in Procreate, and it usually helps me when I procrastinate on my writing. I drop the odd drawing in here (like my profile pic), but I don’t see myself as a fine artist, and I’m in perpetual awe of the talent I see on here.

This is just an account for unapologetically being me, with all my hyperfixations—and undoubtedly some pointless shitposts just for fun…

In light of recent happenings, I explained my personal stance and, by extension, why this blog will keep on existing.

[hainethehero]

Me again!

“When did the rules of fandom and fanfic become so absolutely strict & rigid to the point where people aren't allowed to like what they like??!!!” – bit off topic, but oh boy, have you not noticed the rise of “purity culture” in fandom in the past 10(?) years? People have been getting a LOT of hate for ships they ship or tropes they like. It’s definitely not restricted to buddie fandom or 911 fandom.

“Why do you care if people really like Eddie or not? Are you the Eddie police?” – This made me laugh. And the answer to the first question is pretty easy – if people really like Eddie, they’re more likely to post content about him that I can reblog and enjoy, such as fics or gifsets or meta etc. If everybody disliked Eddie, I’d have nothing fun to read/look at/engage with! So in that sense, I do care to an extent.

“I'm guessing if they have him in their pfp, they like him. And I'm guessing if they have him in their pfp, it's also respectfully none of your concern.” – Well, you’re right it’s not my concern per se, except that if I go scrolling a diaz/eddie-named blog, hoping for good Eddie content to reblog, and I run into a heap of BT posts or LJFR posts or Tommy posts, it’s a bit of a jumpscare/disappointment (which has happened several times). And yes, I filter tags, but people don’t always tag appropriately!

“your absolutely strange questions about what I envision for Eddie/who he'd end up with (I think u should be concerned with what you envision for him & not some stranger on the internet” – Why is it so strange to want to know what somebody else thinks and perhaps gain a fresh perspective? I already know what I would like for Eddie. I was curious about what you thought.

“He'd still be Buck's best friend if BT ended up as endgame

He'd be in a polyamorous relationship with them and get all the d*ck he wants (my personal preference)

Or the writers will give him another gf” - Anyway, so you like the option of eddie in a throuple with buck and tommy? Ok cool! My curiosity is satisfied!

What gets me about the whole "purity culture" in fandom that you're talking about, is that YOU'RE DOING IT. 🤣 you're doing it right now!

What's adding to this disease of purity culture in fandom is what most of the toxic buddie stans are doing RIGHT NOW. Yall are hating on Tommy with absolutely bad faith arguments and using every opportunity you can to deny the fact that you just don't like him because he's in the say of your preferred ship.

"I got a jumpscare seeing Tommy when I was looking thru the eddie tag" lmao okay that was funny. But like, the insane hatred for him is so weird. Y'all know whether buddie becomes canon or not, you can still make them endgame through fanfic right????

And yes, if more people were concerned with how they felt about their characters, instead of how other feel, we would avoid all this fandom war. You asking if people who had Eddie as their pfp really liked him or not IS entitled. You don't know why they have him as their pfp, so why question it? You're not entitled to know.

And in the referred ask, you wanting to know how someone who liked BT and Buddie would envision Eddie fitting in to the relationship- was totally your confusion at not being able to fathom that people could like both and still want buddie or BT to be endgame. Which is a trait I've observed in MOST buddie stans and some BT fans (which I DID address in my OP).

[kandisheek]

FIC REC WEEK 41 – FRIENDSHIP

STEVE & SAM

Big Enough Bucket by Kathar

Pairing: Steve & Sam Rating: G Words: 1,659 Tags: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Sam's Wings, Social Media

Summary: "Sam, no," says Captain America-- because if there's one voice instantly recognizable these days no matter how distracting the background noise is, it's Steve Rogers. People hear it in their sleep. Or... going to sleep. It continues: "This is crazy. And unnecessary." Sam Wilson takes the ice bucket challenge.

Reasons why I love it: Wow, the Ice Bucket Challenge, that really takes me back. I really love the Avengers spin that Kathar put on it – adrenaline junkies, the lot of them – and I especially enjoyed the meta commentary about what's happening on social media while the video airs. This fic is fantastic, and I really hope you give it a shot for yourself!

Barefoot Over Broken Glass by Ultrageekatlarge

Pairing: Steve & Sam Rating: T Words: 3,377 Tags: PTSD, Panic Attacks, Serious Talks

Summary: It’s been three weeks since the helicarriers, and Sam’s not doing too great.

Reasons why I love it: This fic feels like nails on a chalkboard in the best possible way. It's tense and uncomfortable and everything that I love in a fic that portrays mental health struggles. Poor Sam is going through a lot, and Steve is struggling so much with how to help him that it hurts my heart. And the ending gave me hope as much as it made my heart sink. This fic is fantastic, and you should definitely read it!

Audio Commentary Track With Steve Rogers by copperbadge

Pairing: Steve & Sam Rating: T Words: 3,003 Tags: Academic Conferences, Film Studies, Rhetoric

Summary: Steve didn't know you could go to college to study movies.

Reasons why I love it: As someone who went to film school, this fic feels like it was written specifically for me. The thought of Steve being a movie buff who's interested in making his own someday makes me want to do a happy dance. Anyway, I love this fic, and you should definitely read it, if you haven't yet!

Next-morning-itis by Feather (lalaietha)

Pairing: Steve & Sam Rating: T Words: 4,425 Tags: Mental Health Professional, Recovery, Worried Sam

Summary: Sam doesn't care if the rumours are true and Genius Stark does have a computer program or even an AI to screen his calls, eventually that's going to get tired of Sam calling, even if it has to develop sapience first to do it. Although Sam's phone might beat him to it: he feels like Siri's getting annoyed at him already. Doesn't matter. He can do this all day.

Reasons why I love it: Sam truly is the best friend anyone could have. His worry for Steve is really touching – and understandable, because Jesus Christ, Steve. I also really love the conversations Sam has with Pepper and Laura respectively, they're both such queens. Definitely check this one out, it's amazing!

Vaccinate Your Fucking Kids by bisexualamy

Pairing: Steve & Sam Rating: T Words: 2,355 Tags: Liberal Steve, Politics, Anti-vaxx

Summary: “Sam, these kids are trusting their parents to protect them,” Steve said, “and these parents are listening to this ‘Jenny McCarthy,’ and people like her, who are telling them that the best way to protect their kids is to stop them from getting one of the best things modern medicine has ever invented. I can’t just sit here drinking coffee and pretend I didn’t read about this.” Sam, knowing what was about to happen and realizing he was going to get dragged into it too, sighed and stood up a little straighter. “So,” he said. “I guess the question I should be asking is: what are we going to do about it?” (Or, the one where Aggressively Activist Steve Rogers finds out about anti-vaxxers and can't keep his mouth shut on the issue once he does.)

Reasons why I love it: Steve's outrage was basically my reaction the first time I heard of anti-vaxx as a concept, so this fic felt very cathartic for me. Not to get too political here, but this is something that I feel strongly about, so I'm very happy to see it represented in fic form. I hope you check this one out, because it deserves all the love it can get!

[bthump]

I love your meta so much! Was curious if you had any hcs about what Griffith and Guts’ romantic relationship would be like? Like love languages, ways they’d enjoy spending time together/things they enjoy talking about, whether the Band of the Hawk would be in the know, if you could see them going on dates….anything, really!

Thank you!

Hm it's hard for me to answer questions like this lol because I'm not very creative and most of my headcanons are pretty flexible depending on the context. It's actually really hard for me to think of like, things they'd casually talk about eg lol, it's one of the main reasons I don't write much fic.

That said I like to imagine that they'd be an open secret among the Hawks, plausible deniability but lots of rumours and their closer friends know. They'd think they're subtler than they are, but they're not obvious enough for people who don't know them well to guess anything.

I don't think they'd really go on planned dates in canon, but I think they'd like to spend time together whenever they can. They'd probably enjoy sparring as a couples activity lol. I've imagined scenes where like, Griffith reads to Guts while they're in bed in Griffith's room, or the two of them just wandering around Midland together like in this official art:

Or when Griffith's a king, seeking Guts out just to relax in his company and unwind and just like, chill together in a low-stress way. Also I think Guts would be into helping Griffith brush/wash his hair, Guts seems to have a thing for Griffith's hair.

I'm not super into love languages as a thing irl, but it's an easy way to conceptualize characters/ships so for Guts and Griffith I think both have quality time and words of affirmation as their main priorities. They both desperately want to be loved and accepted for who they are rather than what they can be/do, so every reminder that they just genuinely like each other as people is important to them imo.

I have a list of griffguts related headcanons here if you want to check it out for more thoughts on their romantic relationship! And I have a tag here that probably has some more thoughts on them as individuals and together. Oh and my griffguts tag has both analysis and headcanon stuff.

Thanks for the ask!