#does this scene make sense out of context? I have no idea. I wrote it. I have context.

[msshinylemon]

I found this in my drafts and I have no idea when I wrote it. I thought I might as well share it since I don't know if I'll actually post that fic.

(For a bit of context: Chuuya is visiting the ADA because of a job)

Chuuya followed his line of sight, noticing his confusion. “Dazai likes to bite,” he explained as if that was a completely normal and not at all weird thing to say. Or maybe dealing with Dazai made weird things seem normal. “I’m just glad he stopped trying to bite me instead.” Okay, Atsushi didn't want to know about that. He just nodded and hurried to typing on his computer. Chuuya snorted, amused. But apparently, the world hated Atsushi because Kenji, pure and innocent Kenji spoke up. “Dazai-san used to bite you, Mr. Fancy Hat?” Atsushi felt he was going to cry right then and there. His fear only spiked when Chuuya smirked, clearly as much a menace as Dazai, even if he was more subtle about it. No wonder everyone was so afraid of their partnership if this is what people had to deal with. How did the mafia even survive these two? “Yep, want a story?” Kenji smiled and nodded eagerly.

[nowoyas]

Trying to make sense of the Nanowrimo statement to the best of my abilities and fuck, man. It's hard.

It's hard because it seems to me that, first and foremost, the organization itself has forgotten the fucking point.

Nanowrimo was never about the words themselves. It was never about having fifty thousand marketable words to sell to publishing companies and then to the masses. It was a challenge, and it was hard, and it is hard, and it's supposed to be. The point is that it's hard. It's hard to sit down and carve out time and create a world and create characters and turn these things into a coherent plot with themes and emotional impact and an ending that's satisfying. It's hard to go back and make changes and edit those into something likable, something that feels worth reading. It's hard to find a beautifully-written scene in your document and have to make the decision that it's beautiful but it doesn't work in the broader context. It's fucking hard.

Writing and editing are skills. You build them and you hone them. Writing the way the challenge initially encouraged--don't listen to that voice in your head that's nitpicking every word on the page, put off the criticism for a later date, for now just let go and get your thoughts out--is even a different skill from writing in general. Some people don't particularly care about refining that skill to some end goal or another, and simply want to play. Some people sit down and try to improve and improve and improve because that is meaningful to them. Some are in a weird in-between where they don't really know what they want, and some have always liked the idea of writing and wanted a place to start. The challenge was a good place for this--sit down, put your butt in a chair, open a blank document, and by the end of the month, try to put fifty thousand words in that document.

How does it make you feel to try? Your wrists ache and you don't feel like any of the words were any good, but didn't you learn something about the process? Re-reading it, don't you think it sounds better if you swap these two sentences, if you replace this word, if you take out this comma? Maybe you didn't hit 50k words. Maybe you only wrote 10k. But isn't it cool, that you wrote ten thousand words? Doesn't it feel nice that you did something? We can try again. We can keep getting better, or just throwing ourselves into it for fun or whatever, and we can do it again and again.

I guess I don't completely know where I'm going with this post. If you've followed me or many tumblr users for any amount of time, you've probably already heard a thousand times about how generative AI hurts the environment so many of us have been so desperately trying to save, about how generative AI is again and again used to exploit big authors, little authors, up-and-coming authors, first time authors, people posting on Ao3 as a hobby, people self-publishing e-books on Amazon, traditionally published authors, and everyone in between. You've probably seen the statements from developers of these "tools", things like how being required to obtain permission for everything in the database used to train the language model would destroy the tool entirely. You've seen posts about new AI tools scraping Ao3 so they can make money off someone else's hobby and putting the legality of the site itself at risk. For an organization that used to dedicate itself to making writing more accessible for people and for creating a community of writers, Nanowrimo has spent the past several years systematically cracking that community to bits, and now, it's made an official statement claiming that the exploitation of writers in its community is okay, because otherwise, someone might find it too hard to complete a challenge that's meant to be hard to begin with.

I couldn't thank Nanowrimo enough for what it did for me when I started out. I don't know how to find community in the same way. But you can bet that I've deleted my account, and I'll be finding my own path forward without it. Thanks for the fucking memories, I guess.

[inbarfink]

Okay, so I already wrote a bunch of stuff about how that scene, although it is really sweet, is also kind of a Bad Sign for Simon - how he refuses to learn the Obvious Lesson from the Winterworld adventure (that being the Ice King again is probably a really really bad idea). But I want to talk about it also a little more about what it means for Fionna’s character as well. 

Because while sitting around and wallowing in self-loathing is probably bad for Fionna, especially after being told that she shouldn't be allowed to exist, and Simon is right to try and get her out of her funk. It's also still worthwhile for Fionna to have some introspection about the Consequences of Her Actions. Because she and Cake really did not consider them at all at first. They have a sense of morality and an instinct towards heroism, but they also tend to kinda forget the fantastical worlds they visit don’t exist entirely for their fantasy and have kind of a Protagonist-Centered-Morality fallacy. 

Most obviously you can see it in the market in Ooo. How Cake, in her excitement, damaged and hurt and even killed

A bunch of innocent marketgoers without even noticing. And then Fionna immediately jumped to Cake’s defense against these ‘weirdos’, who were actually just normal kinda-righteously-angry Oooian citizens.

It’s actually very similar to the whole Winterworld situation. Fionna’s assumption that she’s automatically the hero and protagonist of the story and black-and-white view of the situation and her tendency to kick ass first and ask questions later meant that she just recklessly injured a lot of innocent people.

(It might’ve been worse actually cause at least in Winterworld she was at least manipulated by an evil Wizard)

Fionna and Cake clearly have a great potential for heroism, but they do need to be a bit more considerate of the situation and people around them. And it does make sense considering that from their perspective - they’ve been living a very ordinary life up until now (and Cake was literally an animal. A very clever animal, but still not bound by the same standards of morality as the talking animals in Ooo). Action and adventure and fantasy stuff has been purely the realm of daydream and video games for them - and Fionna literally speaks about it in these terms.

(also, Fionna's Main Character Syndrome was undoubtedly validated when God literally told her that she was created to be the main character of her universe)

So yeah, it takes them some time to really process how to be heroes - they need to grapple with questions that Finn and Jake already kinda dealt with seventeen years ago. And actually a lot of those; how to resolve a situation without necessarily using violence, when does a 'villain' actually deserve sympathy and kindness, the importance of the larger context of any given conflict... their confrontations with Ice King all played a big part in that. It was never just him, but he was still a very major part.

And for Fionna and Cake right now, learning these lessons require some amount of personal introspection. So while it was a sweet attempt at comforting, I dunno if Simon’s little ‘the only problem with that universe is that this Alternative Me was terrible because he didn’t even acknowledge or remember Betty as the love of our life and the light of my entire universe’ thing is actually Good. 

I’m not quite sure Simon is the best person to teach Fionna and Cake heroism 101, because he is so focused on the Crown Quest as the thing that brings back Meaning to his life, and because his fatherly instincts just kinda go “Sad Young Person???? MUST GIVE COMFORT!” and also on account of the kidnapping.

I’m sure Fionna is going to become the heroine she dreams about eventually, it’s just going to be a bumpy ride. The best we can hope for is that they accept Simon’s comfort, that she doesn't start believing that she is nothing but an Error for the entire universe like the Scarab claims, but don’t necessarily listen to all of Simon's his words either.

[project-sekai-facts]

is it me or does prsk not really cater towards hardcore yuribait or yaoibait as much even when given the opportunity especially compared to other gacha games, like even the wedding events neither of them was focused on a popular pairing or even just in general with the stories (except for minoharu and vbs i guess?)

Yuribait and yaoibait are strong words that aren't exactly right to describe project sekai. They're just alternative ways of saying queerbait, which implies a marketing strategy of attracting a queer audience by falsely promising representation. While they didn't advertise queer representation, spn and sherlock were accused of this due to the way they wrote their leads (i guess spn did become genuine rep. Ish). Proseka isn't that, neither are similar franchises, like bandori or love live for example. Even if they rarely say things outright, which admittedly is in part because of corporate greed and appeasing fans, I wouldn't say it's queerbaiting, especially for this game and the two I've outlined (well LL has a complicated history but this isn't the time or place). The whole idea of falsely promising queer rep or marketing off it doesn't really happen here, especially in project sekai it feels very genuine and clear even if not labelled. I put this down to the writers saying on record that they want the characters, and their relationships and issues, to feel realistic and relatable.

To actually answer the question now my little media ramble is over, yeah it does feel less compared to other games, especially bandori which gives content to multiple pairings for the same characters. Like don't get me wrong prsk has quite a lot of ship tease when you really get down to it and track through all the stories, but it definitely feels limited to only a handful of pairings. While prsk does give moments for multiple pairings for the same character sometimes it's just... less ig. Again i think it's just to do with the intentionally realistic way of portraying the relationships, so imo it makes sense that they only pick a hanful to give much more obvious or outright romantic subtext to (aka mmj/vbs), even if they still give little moments here and there for other pairings for those characters, as well as giving less-fleshed out or explicitly romantic shiptease for other pairings that don't include those characters (does this make sense? it's hard to talk about shiptease in the game without explicitly talking about shipping. oh well...).

(Also as an aside: mmj is also a bit of a genre thing, and a lot of a Love Live thing. I'm not reaching by saying that either, it showed up on the results to a survey about media the staff at colopale like. mmj does take a few cues from LL here and there, (rooftop practice, genki orange leader, the white feather, airis character design and voice actress) so this is probably one of them)

Even though the wedding events don't usually focus on a ship (aside from the Honami/Kanade one (for context it's honami's most popular ship at least on pixiv, although it's still on the rarer side of things, and it's not that popular in terms of Kanade pairings)), they have always featured popular ships on the card lineups, aside from the most recent one. the first one had cards for the two most popular Akito pairings, and the second one had An/Kohane and Shizuku/Airi. The second one is particularly notable since the event didn't go lightly on the ship tease at all in some parts, though it makes sense since both pairings have romantic text and/or subtext in the story. Even the first wedding event had a tiny bit in one of the card stories, and this year's one managed to squeeze in a scene where Minori imagines Haruka getting married (presumably to her).

We also had the buddy funny spend time event back in 2021, which was explicitly a double date event featuring an/kohane and minori/haruka (again two pairs with romantic text), and we've had other events that follow a sort of similar concept of two popular pairings doing something together, without the double date thing attached, but you can tell what they were thinking lol. I don't really wanna elaborate on that bc I don't wanna start a whole thing but if you look through the event list you can probably work it out.

But then again, this is the Hatsune Miku friendship game. Friendship and community are two of the core themes of the game, which again explains why it might feel like there's less romantic teasing and such compared to other games. Because there is. The events and other stories prioritise writing the platonic relationships over giving ship tease. There's definitely events that you can come out of with little to no moments for the ships you like. This isn't saying that other idol games don't focus on the friendship by the way, I'm just saying prsk has much stronger and consistent themes. From an objective perspective it has the best writing of the major idol games on the market (maybe, idk what's going on in bandori nowadays I've heard MyGO and Avemuji are really good).

Yeah it's the hatsune miku friendship game which prioritises realistic characters and relationships that's about the best way I can put it.

(aside #2: back to the idea of queer content, while they don't write the game, sega is pro-lgbt and is a sponsor of tokyo pride, and offer protections for queer staff. Other sega franchises like Yakuza and Sonic have queer characters! And mizuki is about 5 events away from coming out as trans unless they fumble super badly. So it's a nonzero chance that prsk can and will include textual queer rep in future (i mean they already have lol). It genuinely is down to the realism other fan appeal. Again this isn't to hate on other franchises I'm a huge fan of LL and a casual bandori enjoyer, prsk is just Like This)

[fayevalcntine]

Anyway I've been kind of following the press releases for The Count of Monte Cristo (2024) (French) movie and some potential spoilers that I kind of want to air out:

The film seems to be marketed as "much darker" in terms of focusing on the revenge aspect, which I don't mind, but some other stuff give me pause as to how they're gonna handle The Count as a character because the way the actors talk about him, he almost sounds weirdly irredeemable, or rather just completely incapable of still loving and caring about people? Which is the exact opposite of how he behaves in the book..... he wants to be cold and completely detached but fails each time because he a) forms close connections with people like Haydée and Maximilien, even comes to deeply respect Albert despite trying to talk himself into not caring about the boy and b) is meant to question his own revenge plot because it inadvertently causes the death of an innocent child

Apparently Haydée is 'torn between her loyalty for the Count and the love of her life' with said love of her life being.....guess who? Albert de Morcerf. There's no mention of a court scene so far where she accuses Fernand of being a traitorous officer and murdering her father, instead Edmond apparently gets her to seduce Albert but then Haydée falls in love with him for real? I once wrote a post complaining about this type of idea I've seen others mention as a "potential fix" for the plot but taking aside my issue with Albert/Haydée as a pairing in any sense, in this context it's almost doubly bizarre and I feel like the writers took so many different elements from the book, namely Albert's blind trust and admiration towards the Count and the forbidden love story between Maximilien and Valentine, and decided to go for a much more digestible change for the story, I guess? The actress who plays Haydée also mentions that she wants to "break free from the Count's psychological grip", which..... you can say a lot of stuff about Edmond/Haydée as an overall dynamic, particularly in him inserting her in his plan for revenge, but the big thing noted in the book is that Haydée makes the decision herself to testify against Fernand, and even thinks that the Count will disapprove of her for this. He also does genuinely care for her and wanted her to inherit everything he owns should he die.... the whole point of him taking her in is that he wanted her to have the life she was entitled to before Fernand's actions stripped it away from her.

The film also seems to have merged several different characters related to Villefort into one, namely Benedetto/Andrea and Bertuccio, since Andrea (in the film) is also under the Count's wing and seems to accompany him as a possible servant in some scenes. This isn't a bad idea in theory, though I'm pretty sure that he ends up dying when he goes after Villefort at the court house, so I presume he's also supposed to represent Edouard's death? My main question is when this scene even happens in the film because apparently, there's a final sword fight (likely the one between Fernand and Edmond), so the death that makes Edmond question his entire plot isn't even at the end of his plan?

This brings me to my next point which is why are Fernand and Edmond even doing a sword duel in the first place.... apparently the film has Fernand come from a rich family already, and he's known and been friends with Edmond prior to his imprisonment, so w/e, classic trope of CoMC adaptations at this point. But the duel and Haydée's 'seduction' plot just makes me think that for all the apparent attempts at centering her as a character more, these writers took out a significant scene related to her character that means a lot FOR her, namely the court scene, and instead centered Edmond's feelings of betrayal towards Fernand. I know that this is likely to also focus a lot on Edmond's lost life with Mercedes, but Fernand isn't even such a significant focus of Edmond's ire in the book as much as the other two men are.

The movie doesn't seem to end with Mercedes and Edmond getting back together, which I at least appreciate if this Edmond is "much darker" than even in the book, but if he isn't with her or isn't dead by the end, what exactly is the point of him going off alone? I presume this is the ending if Haydée/Albert are supposed to represent Maximilien/Valentine and the Count "gives them support" for being together, but Edmond was pretty much contemplating suicide until Haydée stopped him in the book. The point is that his focus on avenging the past was his only assumed reason for living, but there's a chance for him to simply live on with those who genuinely care about him as he is now. Without him trying to make amends through Maximilien and Valentine and Haydée indicating she will only live if he lives, I can't really see the film making a good argument for why Edmond wouldn't contemplate suicide instead of living on.

Apparently Villefort has a Bonapartist sister (I presume this character is meant to replace his father in the film) whom I also think Edmond saves from a shipwreck that has been shown in the trailers. I've zero clue how this movie is going to fit a new character in this while doing all of this to the other more significant characters, but that seems to be a general trend with this scriptwriter duo.

Only minor positive thing so far is that Eugenie IS included for once, and they didn't omit her being a lesbian.

[phantom-of-the-501st]

"I don't enjoy solitude" Pt 2

I'm gonna call this a part two because it follows on from the post I made yesterday. Although I guess it is less of a follow up and more of a case of reworking what I said in the original post into something a little bit more fleshed out, because I feel like I glossed over a lot of stuff I wanted to say initially (and didn't because it was almost midnight when I wrote it @saturn-sends-hugs don't yell at me for not sleeping I know 😭)

I'll probably just recap everything I said in the other post in this one anyway so it doesn't matter whether or not this is the only one you see I guess

Like I said yesterday, this line is interesting because while it initially puts forward the idea that Echo doesn't like being alone, the actual context had nothing to do with Echo being put in a situation where he would be by himself. In fact, Omega is asking him if he wanted to join her in something. And yes, Echo does hate being by himself, but the line is more about Echo being left alone with his own thoughts. It isn't just being by himself physically, its being stuck in his head without any escape. That's what terrifies him.

And it makes sense. Echo went through some atrocious things and a lot of his memories are either bad or have likely been tainted by other circumstances in a way that means that he doesn't want to think about them. Outside of that one scene of Echo in the cockpit following Tech's death, we never see Echo not doing something or not being with someone. There is always something that is keeping him from his thoughts and that's the whole point. The last thing that Echo wants to do is confront what is in his head. Being alone with nothing but his own mind is exactly what he went through on Skako Minor and the last thing he ever wants to do is revisit that.

But the thing is, it isn't healthy (at least, not in the long run) because for as long as Echo keeps running from his thoughts, he's going to wear himself down. This man never stops. He just keeps going and going and going and half the time if he isn't doing anything "practical", it's against his own will. And so much of that is linked to survivor's guilt. As many other people brought up, Echo likely blames himself for the clones who died as a result of the Techno Union getting a hold of the battle strategies. We know that it's not his fault but to Echo the fact that he survived that entire ordeal, while it was his own plans that were used and manipulated to kill his brothers, must eat away at him.

Echo has never really taken the time to mentally process a lot of what he went through. By the end of the show, he is in a much better place than he was initially: he's physically healthier and he's actually cracking jokes again. A lot of that is thanks to the Bad Batch. They were integral in his healing journey. However, that doesn't mean he's okay. This is a man who can't be left alone with his thoughts because it will cause him to spiral. Not constantly being around people or constantly doing something leads him into a dark place and that isn't a great position for him to be in. This man doesn't really know peace because every part of his life, even his mind, runs at 300 miles an hour. And Hunter knows this. He wasn't wrong when he asked Echo when it will ever be enough. He's watching his brother run himself ragged trying to rescue the clones and to fight against the Empire, when realistically, it's not a battle they can win. Every time Echo leaves Pabu, the Batch are faced with the idea that it may be the last time they ever see him. Because if we're being completely honest here, unless Echo ever gets to the point where he is okay enough to sit down and actually relax for once in his life, there will be a point when it will be the last time they ever see him. Whether or not it's in two days or two years or two decades, this man will lose his life to the cause, even if it's as a result of him working himself down to the bone.

Echo will never value his own life over the life of his brothers. He won't retire because to him it will never be fair that he can live a life of peace when there are others out there who can't have that, and that means he will only stop the fight when there is no-one left worth fighting for. But there will never be a point where there is no-one left to fight for. Echo will continue to find a reason to stay in the fight, to keep working, to never keep still because that's just who he is. And we love him for that. We love his loyalty and his dedication and his endless ambition. But it's also to his detriment. I don't know if we will ever see Echo at a point where he is truly okay. He will keep going until he can't anymore and if that is at the cost of his own life, then that's what he'll take.

[fortemelody]

I'm bored so imma send an ask but what are your Amy Rose headcanons?

HI HELLO IM SORRY THIS IS SO LATE!! i didn’t know how to answer it and then i got busy and then i forgot but i’m here now!

and tbh i still don’t entirely know how to answer it becus im not someone who makes headcannons very often. i usually just see some on my feed and be like “oh yeah that’s so them” and then immediately forget about it LMAO but i do have a couple even tho they are a bit basic and so i’ll try to describe those few in as great detail as possible

knuckles and amy are sibling 100%. they have that dynamic for sure! they train together and they tease each other. amy’s in the small demographic of few people he trusts too. many have also pointed out that they look similar and some people hc her as part echidna which im not really opposed to either

amy and shadow are definitely besties. whenever sonic is too stubborn to do “girly” things such as try on makeup for example, shadow would do that with her instead. he doesn’t care about his public image unlike sonic. music is something that brings them together too, seeing as we already know that they’re both swifties and went to hot honey! and she was the one who brought him back to his senses in the ending of SA2 (which btw im praying that the third movie has that scene aughdkftk). shadow has a clear soft spot for her that can only be brought out by amy. i feel like the next follow up question would be if i ship them and the answer is…not really?! i think it would be a situation where maybe amy is a bit touchy at times without realizing it and shadow blushes, or shadow does stuff to make sonic jealous (to clarify them hanging out in general is purely becus shadow wants to -not just an act so he can get back at sonic- but i think it would be funny if he would take the opportunity to brag about it when sonic gets on his nerves). i do not think either of them would actually date tho even with these one off situations and they are way better as platonic besties fr ong ‼️

this one is a bit random but i’ve always thought of amy being like… a starbucks addicted girly (in the world of mobius- not irl where they could possibly be funding a genocide 😭). and it’s kinda an ironic thing in my mind. yes, she’s the least ordinary girl you could get: wields a giant hammer, incredibly strong, is hyperfixated on and can use tarot cards as weapons, and has an indescribable intuition. however, calling back to the events of SA1, she really is just a normal hedgehog at the end of the day trying to lead a normal life. she had to learn all of these attributes, she wasn’t really born with an ability like the rest of team sonic. she also lived in an apartment for part of sonic x (i think?? haven’t watched the full series and i don’t remember everything) and actually liked it. so i think she would really enjoy simple more earth like customs. i think she honestly might be embarrassed of this fact too, seeing as she’s come all this way in her life just to resort to her old ways of living.

(…okay i’m gonna be honest that last one was a bit of a stretch and it originated from me and my friend calling her a basic white girl at one point as a joke LMAO but then i thought more about it and it kinda made sense once i put it into context)

the last one is a concept i kinda stole from a comic i saw a long time ago (i have no idea of the username- but if someone does lemme know). it was the idea that sonic started liking amy once she had started to move on, how the “chasing” kinda switched roles, and after she dialed down her “fangirling”. how sonic now wants her to be obsessed after she’s made so much progress in being her own person. i kinda wrote a fanfic based off of this and expanded upon my interpretation of it through amy’s POV. although i never posted it, i think the words i chose still capture it well so i’m just gonna copy and paste that:

��When Amy started to slowly change her childish and obnoxious mannerisms towards Sonic, he immediately felt more comfortable around her, and even started subtly reciprocating his feelings to her. Amy was obviously maturing no doubt about it, but she felt as if she had lost a part of herself in doing so. That side of her that would boldly protect and proclaim her love to him. That side to her that wouldn’t stop until she got her way. That side of her that was, as Jewel stated “…constantly following him”. She felt as if she had given up so much of her personality just to feel less incomplete, to have that soulmate she always dreamed about. On top of that, Sonic loved to come and go as he pleases. She knows that he was always going to be the adventuring type, but she wish more often that he would make an effort to chat or to invite her to tag along. Chaos knows when she tries to plan anything with him, she’s too paranoid for her own good, wondering if he’ll instantly interpret it as a date and chicken out.”

-different scene-

“Amy was surely blushing before, but nothing could’ve prepared her for that statement. She felt her heart beating, no, throbbing out of control. She looked like a full on tomato now. It’s always been her dream to dance with Sonic, but in the past he always ran away, so she gave up after several attempts. But this was the “new” her. He liked the “new” her, apparently enough to dance with him.”

(ik a lot of this doesn’t make sense without more context but uhhh this is getting too long already so if you wanna know details just DM me ig 💀)

and if it wasn’t obvious already- i take a lot of what is said in the twitter takeovers, tailstube, and idw comics to heart becus i think they have the most genuine and interesting versions of these characters and tell us about small details that we wouldn’t otherwise know. i not only make this info my hcs but also like to expand upon them and use them in my evidence- so that’s what most of the things i said above are referencing.

sooo yeah i think that’s all i got. sorry i guess a lot of these were more about dynamics of character interactions rather than amy herself… i hope that’s okay! tysm anon this was a lotta fun to answer and i hope to get more of these types of questions!!

[bowlsnbones]

the moment Ed fell in love with Stede- S1E5 analysis

( for context: i wrote this draft back in january but didn’t had the courage to post it at that time :P today i finally decided to give it a shot because i still think it’s an interesting idea soooo yeah, hope it makes some sense hehe enjoy! :D )

sooo i was looking through some gifs that i have saved on my phone (as one does) and there’s a little detail that really caught my attention in the “you wear fine things well” scene from season 1. i believe that we can literally see the moment where Ed realizes he’s in love with Stede in that scene!! :DD so let’s take a look at it!!

i ask you guys to pay really close attention to the way lighting is being used in this particular moment because it’s absolutely genius and it’s able to convey so much about what the characters are feeling and thinking but not saying out laud! so here we go:

(gif by @/livelovecaliforniadreams)

DID YOU GUYS SEE IT???

THE SMALL, WARM FLASH OF LIGHT BRIEFLY SHINING ON ED’S FOREHEAD AND THEN DISAPPEARING?? 😭😭😭 THAT LITTLE LIGHT RIGHT THERE REPRESENTS HIS FEELINGS FOR STEDE FINALLY GETTING ENLIGHTENED-

please allow me to explain-

i remember reading a post here on tumblr a year ago (sorry, i can’t remember who’s post it was 😭😭) where the op explained that in film, when a half of a characters face is covered by a shadow while the other half is completely light it can indicate that something the character is feeling or thinking in that moment is being hidden or kept a secret. and we can perfectly apply this thought to this scene between Stede and Ed!

notice how half of Ed’s and Stede’s faces are covered by shadows while the other half is being veiled by moonlight? applying what we just learned to this scene we can easily identify that they’re both hiding something from each other, that being their romantic feelings! but then, something really interesting happens: Ed’s hidden feelings (the part of his face covered by the shadows) get briefly enlightened (they literally “come to light”) like a little light bulb, making him aware of them!

the fact that the light only appears when he’s about to lift his head up to look at Stede after glancing at the red silk folded in his pocket, as if something was suddenly awakened inside of him by the way Stede handled the silk (his heart)-

we can even see how his expression changes as soon as the light hits his face! while glancing at the silk he has this confused look that quickly melts into tenderness! there is so much love in the way Ed looks at Stede in this scene, it’s so strong and intense and beautiful and there is so much passion burning in his eyes that we can see he even has to take a second just to let everything sink in-

OOOHHH and don’t even get me started on Stede being completely enlightened by that same light ON THE SAME SIDE OF HIS FACE (THE SHADOW SIDE/HIS HIDDEN FEELINGS), EXCEPT ITS ACTUALLY HITTING THE BACK OF HIS HEAD INSTEAD OF DIRECTLY HITTING HIS FACE BECAUSE AT THAT POINT HE HAS NOT FULLY ACKNOWLEDGED HIS FEELINGS FOR ED YET- *explodes*

[lucky-clover-gazette]

captive prince book 1 highlights & annotations

chapter 7

indented text is from the book. some quotes have commentary, some do not. some comments are serious, and some are definitely not. most of them will only make sense to people who have read the series. and, like, there are spoilers. so please read the books first if you're interested!

also: part of the reason i'm doing such a close reading is to study cs pacat's style, especially in terms of how she does romance and erotica. there are "craft notes" that might seem weird, like i'm being redundant or restating something rather than analyzing, but those are more things that i want to remember/take away from the writing!

i'm going to tag these longer posts with "sam reads capri" in case anyone wants to read them all at once.

this is a google doc i wrote with overall content warnings for the captive prince series. it's not perfect, but i do think it's important to include.

Seeing no reason whatsoever to cooperate with that order, Damen stood up.

very much a “damen is not a slave” moment. this is the opposite of what they’ve been trained to do.

‘You are really courting danger tonight,’ Laurent said. ‘Am I? I thought I was appealing to your better nature. Order whatever punishment you like, from the coward’s distance of a chain-length. You and Govart are two of a kind.’

yessss, question his integrity! i love that they both get really pissed off when they’re implied to be bad people, but only by each other. it’s like they’ve mutually identified each other as their own personal moral arbiters, and couldn’t stop caring even if they tried.

Laurent transferred his gaze back to Damen and said, pleasantly, ‘Does that bother you? I recall you being free with your own hands, not so very long ago.’ ‘That was—’ Damen flushed. He wanted to deny that he’d done anything of the kind, but he remembered rather unequivocally that he had.

called out for enjoying the bath scene a little too much

‘I promise you, Govart did a great deal more than simply enjoy the view.’

vine boom so you WERE enjoying the view

‘To a slave,’ Laurent said. ‘The Prince’s Guard doesn’t interfere with the Regency. Govart can stick his cock into anything of my uncle’s he likes.’ Damen made a sound of disgust. ‘With your blessing?’ ‘Why not?’ said Laurent. His voice was honeyed. ‘He certainly had my blessing to fuck you, but it turned out he’d rather take a blow to the head. Disappointing, but I can’t fault his taste. Then again, maybe if you’d spread in the ring, Govart wouldn’t have been so hot to get inside your friend.’

context of what laurent is implying here (not what’s actually true): this is not laurent’s command or responsibility, but the regent’s. and it’s somehow damen’s fault that this happened to erasmus, because he didn’t let govart take him instead, which is what laurent had intended to happen. massive laurent ethical L on both counts. do better.

Damen said, ‘This isn’t a scheme of your uncle’s. I don’t take orders from men like Govart. You’re wrong.’ ‘Wrong,’ said Laurent. ‘How lucky I am to have servants to point out my shortcomings. What makes you think I will tolerate any of this, even if I believed what you are saying to be true?’ ‘Because you can end this conversation any time you like.’

damen won this interaction! called out laurent for clearly giving a shit, because he’s still talking!

also, craft note: great back-and-forth throughout this entire exchange

With so much at stake, Damen was sick of certain kinds of exchanges; the kind Laurent favoured, and enjoyed, and was good at. Wordplay for its own sake; words that built traps. None of it meant anything.

i have several hundred annotations that suggest otherwise

‘When someone doesn’t like you very much, it isn’t a good idea to let them know that you care about something,’ said Laurent.

context: nicaise :( and horse :( and a lot of things :(

break the cycle of abuse laurent i know you can do it

‘Would it hurt worse than a lashing for me to cut down someone you care for?’ said Laurent.

context: laurent knows, from experience, that the answer is yes

‘I don’t think I need to bring in more men,’ said Laurent. ‘I think all I have to do is tell you to kneel, and you’ll do it. Without me lifting a finger to help anyone.’ ‘You’re right,’ said Damen. ‘I can end this any time I like?’ said Laurent. ‘I haven’t even begun.’

damen won the confrontation morally, and they both know it. laurent won in practice by being intentionally immoral, and instead reminding damen that he has been given power over him that he can abuse. this is exactly what the regent has done to laurent, over and over again. sad.

Laurent said, ‘There is no bargain between us. A prince does not make deals with slaves and insects. Your promises are worth less to me than dirt. Do you understand me?’ ‘Perfectly,’ said Damen.

translation: “you win.” “i know.”

Damen rethought that particular approach. He turned over the information he’d just been given. Re-examined it. Turned it over again. ‘What changed your mind?’ Damen said, carefully.

context: maybe i’m too optimistic, but i think it’s genuinely an ethical decision on laurent’s part. there’s a strategic purpose in here, too, but that’s more of a convenience. laurent knew he was wrong, and might have even connected himself to his uncle and disliked the similarity. he doesn’t act smug when he’s doing something he doesn’t want to do, but he knows he should do this. that’s why he’s pissed at damen, but not playful about it at all. so i do think this was ultimately a “laurent was called on his bullshit, and has too much integrity not to act based on that callout” thing.

‘I’m not sure that I believe anything that you’ve just told me,’ Damen said. ‘Do you have a choice?’ ‘No.’

silver lining for laurent: re-asserts his own power and moral high ground by helping damen, instead of threatening him in a way they both know is fucked up

He has experienced things many adults have not, and his mind is no longer that of a child.

laurent would know :(

‘Is there anyone at this court who isn’t my enemy?’ ‘Not if I can help it,’ Laurent said.

okay this is just him being mean. it’s his enrichment 

‘So he’s tame,’ said Estienne, and reached out tentatively, as though to pat a wild animal. It was a question of which part of the animal he was patting. Damen knocked his hand away. Estienne gave a yelp and snatched his hand back, nursing it against his chest. ‘Not that tame,’ said Laurent. He didn’t reprimand Damen. He didn’t seem particularly displeased with barbaric behaviour, as long as it was directed outward. Like a man who enjoys owning an animal who will rake others with its claws but eat peacefully from his own hand, he was giving his pet a great deal of license.

they’re insane

As a result, courtiers kept one eye on Damen, giving him a wide berth. Laurent used that to his advantage, using the propensity of courtiers to fall back in reaction to Damen’s presence as a means of extricating himself smoothly from conversation. The third time this happened Damen said, ‘Shall I make a face at the ones you don’t like, or is it enough to just look like a barbarian?’ ‘Shut up,’ said Laurent, calmly.

emotional collapse animal to keep people from annoying laurent. love the banter here. damen knows that’s exactly what’s happening, and laurent is annoyed that he knows, because it makes him seem like an antisocial loser, which he is

Torveld was a handsome man in his forties

ew. leave laurent alone. he’s like half your age and he has specific trauma that makes this particularly uncomfortable

He reconciled himself to an evening of listening to Laurent lying a great deal, about everything. Laurent was a nest of scorpions in the body of one person. To hear that Akielos was weakened was as painful as Laurent must have meant it to be.

context: not entirely sold on the idea that laurent is having this conversation about akielos specifically to upset damen, but i get why damen feels that way

‘I wish we had more time together,’ said Torveld, showing no inclination to rise.

GET A JOB. STAY AWAY FROM HER

‘Nephew. You were not invited to these discussions.’ ‘And yet, here I am. It’s very irritating, isn’t it?’ said Laurent. ‘You’ve never applied yourself seriously to anything in your life.’ ‘Haven’t I? Well, then it’s nothing serious, uncle. You have no cause to worry.’

laurent applies himself seriously to most, if not all, of the things he chooses to do. regent just dislikes that laurent has a choice and uses it.

[in-kyblogs]

hi you read the books, right? there's a theory going around that the nola reaunion scene might never happened, they say it's something from the books. i can't see that happening in the show though.

Hello, yeah I am unsure about that too. So, for context, there is a reunion scene in Nola in the book Interview With The Vampire that is later contested. It’s a really bleak scene, not at all the one we got in the show. In the books another reunion scene happens at the end of The Vampire Lestat and it’s a really beautiful moment, it doesn’t happen in nola though but later, right before Lestat’s first (and only) concert. Given that the books are always written in first pov we have Louis’s version and Lestat’s version and no idea of the actual truth so, we can only speculate. I haven’t read the later books so I don’t know if that gets disproven later, but the thing is that Louis couldn’t find Lestat and so he wrote the first book to make him mad basically and lure him out (remember? It’s what Armand says to him in 1973 that line is a nod to the books!), so it makes sense that the reunion did not actually happen. On the other hand Lestat was in a pretty bad shape in Nola during the time when that scene allegedly happened so it is totally possible that he simply does not remember it or was really out of it when it happened. He does remember Armand visiting him during that time though, that is funny to read, pettiness levels unmatched there. Anyway, the contested nola meeting ™️ plays into the pov theme and it stays uncorfirmed.

For the show I think they might go a similar route. There are some inconsistencies in the hurricane reunion scene in nola: Louis’s clothes, the way Lestat has no way of knowing that Louis and Armand were in San Francisco in 1973 because Armand refused to tell him their whereabouts. Also something about the paper Louis signs at the hotel(?) I remember someone commenting about it but I don’t remember what they were saying. Also the whole mystical feel of that scene as a whole, I don’t know I always feel a bit like in a dream while watching it. I think the point of the scene, in the show, is about Louis and the conclusion of his journey: accepting himself through accepting his vampirism, remembering Claudia as a whole and accepting the good and the bad of their relationship, recognising his role and Lestat’s role as her parents and so accepting responsibility for the ways he failed her and forgiving himself for that and give new space to the love he has for her, a more real kind of love now because it doesn’t shy away from the bad. So it could be more a scene about the narrative theme and the character journey than about what actually happens. On the other hand, it is a fucking beautiful scene. So the thing is that in the books Anne simply changed her mind about Lestat between the first and the second book, so the bleak scene at the end of iwtv did not fit anymore with the story. In the show this is not the case, so the inconsistencies pointed out about the clothes and Lestat’s question about San Fran could only be because they had to rush the last episode ecc ecc. but I don’t know, remember the season 1 inconsistency about the tractor seller? That was something after all. I really don’t know what to think.

Actually, I could see the show do another reunion scene focused on Louis and Lestat and what they mean to each other at the end of the tvl season(s) and leave the matter unclear like it is in the books, they love to play with povs and the theme of the faultiness of the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of ourselves after all.

[paradoxcase]

Gideon the Ninth audiobook, through to the end of Chapter 31

Cytherea is described as having "biscuit-colored curls" which I kind passed over the first time I was reading. She's described elsewhere as having light brown hair; American biscuits aren't any kind of brown, if they're made right, but Muir isn't American, either. In Britain, it's my understanding that "biscuit" refers to any hard flat cookie with a stamped design, but those come in all sorts of colors. Does "biscuit" mean a secret third thing in New Zealand?

Gideon says "it's stupid for a cavalier to watch their necromancer die" which I think sort of foreshadows Gideon rejecting Harrow's instruction to survive her

Gideon asks Cytherea why she came to Canaan House in the first place, and I feel like Cytherea's answer is about when she came the first time, nearly 10,000 years ago? She talks about how the Seventh wanted her to die beautifully and she though the Emperor had her best interests more at heart than they did

She says: "If they could figure out how to stop you when you're mostly cancer and just a little bit woman, they would" about the Seventh, but that's exactly what John did to her, isn't it?

And then: "I'll probably live forever, worse luck, whatever happened to One Flesh, One End?"

Palamedes pronounces "golem" exactly like "Gollum" and that amuses me

Harrow thought the secret to Lyctorhood was a secret power source in Canaan House they were supposed to discover - I guess to the extent that the consumed cavalier's soul is a power source, she wasn't exactly wrong

Camilla: "The last thing the Warden needs is an introduction to Lady Septimus" - pretty funny in retrospect

Palamedes after Harrow removes the plug Cytherea put on the Seventh lab's keyhole: "Did you hide the last key, too?" He was right about that

Colum is described as having a "perpetually scratchy voice" which I missed the first time, but it does match up with his voice here

Mayonnaise Uncle thinks Gideon's red hair might have come from the Third, which is I guess some extra information about the distribution of phenotypes in the Empire, but the only other redheaded House character we know of is G1deon (I almost wrote "Pyrrha") (who, ironically, is not biologically related to Gideon Nav unless he was like John's cousin or something). Mercy had "pink" hair, but I don't know if that means like, strawberry blond, or like, literally dyed pink. I guess it's been 10,000 years, so things might be a bit different now

Colum: "The next time we meet, I think it's likely one of us will die." Well, it wasn't the next time they met, since they both showed up to hear Cytherea tell a very fake story about why Protesilaus was already dead just after this, but I think it's the next time they are both in the same room together than Colum dies, so, yeah

Teacher says something about a "poor child" and Gideon doesn't know who he's referring to and I don't either even on the second readthrough. I guess it's possible that he's just talking nonsense, because he's a weird construct, but he's been saying things that consistently make sense in the current context throughout the whole book, so I don't really buy that

The scene where Corona is practicing with a sword and challenging Gideon to a duel feels kind of like she's anticipating being left behind by Ianthe and is trying to lean into the idea of becoming a cavalier after this, since she can't pretend to be a necromancer without Ianthe. We know from the Fourth teens that Ianthe has been sneaking into all the locked doors and reading the theorems at this point

When Naberius comes to collect her, he says "I won't tell her". I guess he means Ianthe?

Is that really how "beatified" is pronounced? I don't think I've ever heard it spoken before. Wiktionary seems to agree that it is

If I had listened to the audiobook first, I definitely would have misheard Gideon talking about "narking" on Harrow as "knocking" and been confused

Palamedes: "All I ask is that you put some pen and flimsy in my cell so I can start my memoirs." Yeah, that's not what you wrote when you were actually confined to the River bubble for months, haha

Narration: Suddenly [Cytherea] seemed impossibly old.

Cytherea claims that John was against soul siphoning. So, the thalergy siphoning that was a fundamental part of Mercy's challenge, and which the Second House uses regularly on enemies, is totally fine and cool, but Mayonnaise Uncle send Colum's soul away temporarily to generate power is wrong. You know, Mayonnaise Uncle is actually a lot more sympathetic on the second readthrough

Mayonnaise Uncle also really had Cytherea's number in this scene and no one listened to him, he was the only one saying that Cytherea was suspicious and everyone else was disgusted by this, including Judith. No wonder he was so sour in Harrow's River bubble

Harrow wants to use Protesilaus' head for necromancy and everyone else is unhappy about this. But this isn't strange for the Nine Houses - the Canaan House skeletons were made from the dead just like the Ninth skeletons were, and just like the Sixth skeletons were in Dr. Sex, not to mention Ianthe's use of Babs' body. Like, if we are going to start complaining about the desecration of dead bodies now, I think that starts to call into question the entire way that the Nine Houses uses necromancy and has been using it for the past 10,000 years. I'm not sure any of the other necromancers really have that high ground

Palamedes says Cytherea only has days left to live, she definitely giggles at that

In the pool scene, Harrow says that the calculations for the deaths of the 200 children were very precise, and that the babies contributed the most thanergy. Now I'm wondering if Gideon failing to die might have messed up those careful calculations in some way? Obviously Harrow was still born a powerful necromancer, and it still worked overall, but now I'm curious

Harrow about John's blood ward: "I knew it had to open for me" because she was the descendant of Anastasia. She never questioned that there might have been some other reason it opened

[morelikeravenbore]

🦋 Thanks to the cuties who have tagged me in this, I've loved reading everyone's answers!

How many works do you have on AO3? Uhh *checks* — nine. One long fic and a bunch of oneshots.

What's your total AO3 word count? 88k~ but about 76k~ belong to Villain (so far).

What fandoms do you write for? Hogwarts Legacy is the only fandom I write for, and Sebastian is really the only character I care to write about (HAHA sorry everyone else.)

Top five fics by kudos? I don't really pay attention to stats so:

1. How to Make a Villain

And then whatever the next top four are 🙃

Do you respond to comments? I TRY VERY HARD TO but sometimes it takes me a while (spoons/adhd-brain/burn-out etc). Like any writer, comments give me LIFE, but something I wasn't expecting to struggle with is the feeling that I don't really deserve them. Who knew writing fic would be a lesson in accepting kindness lol

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Welp the only fics I've finished so far are my oneshots, and they all end with orgasms or romance so... 

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Here Comes The Sun: a cute little Sebaura proposal oneshot hehe 💍🌞

Do you get hate on fics? Not openly, lol. I do love it when people get mad about what my characters do though so pls don't hold back from yelling at them if the urge ever strikes you. 🍿🍿🍿

Do you write smut? I dabble every now and then, but to be honest it's not my favourite thing to write. Before writing for HL, I'd never written a sex scene in my life and I wanted to give it a go to challenge myself. Lately though, I haven't really had any smutty motivation. I'm definitely a romantic at heart and I LOVE writing about the playful side of romance: young love, cute banter, silliness, teasing, etc. Also bickering. Nom nom nom gimme all da arguments.

Craziest crossover? You and me bb :lip_bite:

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Nope! Does this really happen? Like, someone copies and pastes a whole-ass fic and calls it their own? 🧿🧿🧿

Have you ever had a fic translated? I've had requests to translate Villain into Russian, Polish and French, but I'd like to complete the story first.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Does contributing crack fic ideas counts? Because 👀 yeah all the time lol 

All time favorite ship? Uhhh Sebastian and Aurélie HAHA. Otherwise, it's Allie and Noah foreverrrrr. (The movie version though, I've never actually read the book.)

💙 Honourable mentions go to Anne and Gilbert, and Emma and Mr Knightly. Dishonourable mention to Harry and Ginny, eurgh. 

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I only have enough spoons to write one long fic at a time, and I fully intend to finish Villain even if it kills me.

What are your writing strengths? Personally, I think my writers voice sounds distinctly me, which I'm very proud of.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? OOH this is a great question since Aurélie is fluent in French and I don't speak a bloody word. Generally speaking, I prefer to write it like: 'I can't speak a word of French,' she said in French. 

Sometimes I'll use French if the meaning is clear to someone who doesn't speak the language, or if I can give strong enough context clues, ie:

'How nice,' Aurélie said eventually, her accent thick with French indignation. 'I can see you're both very passionnés about Quidditch.'

Sebastian froze, sensing danger.

'Uh — Passionate?'

'Oui. I did not realise you had to undress yourself to discuss tactique.' 

Or if the POV character can accurately guess the meaning, like this:

'You don't have giant spiders in France then, I take it?'

'Non pas du tout!'

He didn't need to know French to translate that as a vehement no. 

But I try to avoid using the actual written language as much as possible because nothing kills immersion faster than trying to read dialogue you can't understand.

Also I frequently annoy my French friends for translations because uhh if I used Google Translate they'd probably guillotine me hehe.

First fandom you wrote in? This one.

Favorite fic you've written? How to Make a Villain is absolutely my greatest writing achievement ever hahaha. But aside from that, I'm really proud of Noctilucent because my goal was to write something suggestive without making it smutty and I was quite pleased with the outcome.

🦋 np tags for my writer babes and anyone else who wants to join in: @galaxiasgreen @lyworth @sloanesallow @sunsetplums @gingerlegacy07

[jaxlol5]

copy pasting my review of the helluva boss music video here just because

for further context when i wrote the review on discord i had no idea that this was a COVER of an already existing song made by PARANOiD DJ back in 2021. just so i don't look stupid imma be tweaking a bit of my review that's just saying 'why would viv write THIS' because at most she just slightly changed it a bit, or that's what i'm assuming anyway.

i'm also gonna add a bit more to my review here such as the lyric changes and the overall emotional weight of the song. i'm not really gonna review it animation or song-wise, because the animation is fucking specTACULAR, and the song aspect doesn't matter much to me. i think the original 2021 version is pretty good at least.

this song [i'm guessing at least] comes after S2 E6 'OOPS', which was a half-sequel to S2 E1 'The Circus', meaning that Stolas finally has the Asmodean crystal that he plans to give to Blitzo, either to cut ties from him completely or to see if he'll keep talking to Stolas after he has a new way to get to earth that doesn't involve his grimoire.

(side note idk why viv keeps tryna push 'Stolitz' so much when Blitzo has actively said he doesn't like Stolas romantically and only sees him for the book. but she's gone on to change that multiple times so we went from Blitzo being forced to sleep with Stolas and hating it, to him actually having some kind of feelings, back to hating him, and now back to feelings, over and over. i know Blitzos whole character is that he can't accept affection properly but it's different when this 'affection' is just consensual r4pe via power imbalance and then has to be turned around so that neither Stolas or Blitzo are the bad guys when they clearly are.)

because of the song being made in around 2021, before season 2's downfall, the lyrics had to be changed to fit. which is completely fine to do, mind you, but the issue is what what lyrics in specific were changed. in the original 2021 version, Stolas mentions Octavia and how she must feel about everything happening in her life, but in the new version, it's cut out entirely. Why?? i know the main focus is supposed to be his relationship, but this entire situation is affecting his family as well, and especially Octavia. it makes no sense to completely neglect his own DAUGHTER for someone that he repeatedly fetishizes and treats as lower- but also someone that he idolizes and sees as his true love. i could go on and on about how the changes of their dynamic piss me off but that's a bit of a tangent.

speaking of which why is there 2 songs for stolas doing the same fucking thing. in S2E1 he's singing about blitzo while thinking about leaving him. now in THIS video he's.. singing about blitzo while thinking about leaving him, the only difference is that in the former song he didn't have the crystal, and now he does.

the song in general feels so forced especially with how the Stolitz arc has been progressing, which is barely. they last talked in S2E4 'WESTERN ENERGY' and the very little character it added was all shoved into a 3 second scene of Stolas scrolling thru text of them talking about the events after 'OZZIES'. and then we exclusively see Blitzos side of the aftermath, but not Stolas. he seems perfectly fine compared to Blitzo, or maybe he's not; why not fucking show that! and no the video doesn't count because it's talking about the events that take place after 'OOPS' not 'OZZIES'. pretty sure that former episode canonically takes place months before the latter.

i saw an amazing thread that breaks this video down if you compare it to pearl's song 'It's Over, Isn't It'. it just doesn't work the same way because of the insane power dynamic and the fact that Stolas wanted to keep Blitzo for so long, manipulating him for that want as well. at least he's finally going to let go NOW [i assume], but it feels long overdue, especially with how much these 2 have been forced to deal with.

[vidavalor]

Hi! I'm the anon who asked about the logistics of together-the-whole-time twist back again. Firstly, thanks so much for your response! Secondly, sorry, should have worded that better! It's not the sleeping together part that would be the twist for me - I actually was confident we'd get the romance canonised, either with a kiss andor with an outright declaration and some hand-holding-forehead-kisses-type tenderness, though not necessarily until the 3rd season, I'm definitely on board with 1941 part 3 and now that they've kissed I have a pretty good feeling about some shape or form of implied, innuendoed or faded-to-black sex scene, or even something like Newt and Anathema, if it fits, in the next season - it's more about the fact that a first kiss an insanely long time ago and a secret, coded, largely unspoken romance since then that's been happening mostly past the audience's nose would put a pretty dramatic spin on everything else we've seen so far. A change our entire perspective and everything we thought we knew spin. Because that would mean that the story we thought they're telling is not in fact the story they're telling after all, that we've gotten the first 2 seasons in a completely wrong context, and that's where the feeling that this might be too much of a rug pull comes in. You don't need to respond again if you don't want to, after all you've already laid out your thoughts excellently as always, just thought I'd give you a follow up. Anyways, hope I'm wrong and you're right!

Hi. I appreciate your follow up. Please help yourself to cookies... Apologies for the delayed response. I save Asks as drafts in my folder to reply to if I'm going to and I somehow overlooked this one for awhile so I apologize. Let me add a few things here about why I really, really, really disagree with the idea that an ancient times vavoom would be "a rug pull" as you put it and "not the story they're telling." (I'm also not sure how you're okay with one happening in 1941 but not millennia ago when, really, both would mean that you'd have been "fooled" by the story? What's the difference, really?) This is actually exactly the story they're telling and there are plenty of suggestions of that.

I recently wrote a meta that I'll link at the bottom listing all of the things that Good Omens has shown you and then provided context for you later and I didn't get through a third of them... that I've even noticed so far. I'm sure there are more. What this does is recontextualize what you've been watching. It deepens it. You call that a "rug pull" with a tone that hints you might think it deceptive in a negative way. I see it as literally brilliant sleight-of-hand storytelling that's innocent in its intent. It's trickery in a magic show sense. Part of my argument to you is that a show where one of half of the couple we're talking about is a magician has a theme of narrative sleight-of-hand lol. It is very much intentionally not giving you all the information you need to have a complete picture of any one scene from only that one scene by design. It's been doing this all along and it is a way of building layers into the story and your understanding it. There is no reason not to think that this would not be the case for scenes related to the central relationship of the show that is between its main characters because every single one of them to date has already been about them.

I don't think the audience would find this complicated so I don't see it as too much of a deception. I think people would kinda go nuts for it, actually lol. You're already watching a show that keeps telling you things later that have you recontextualizing what you've already seen so don't sell yourself or the audience short. All it does is then allow the audience to see what a bunch of us expect is already there anyway. It'd make rewatching the show even more fun. If you ever want to already get a taste of that, theorize for a bit that I'm right and that this has been going on for ages and then go rewatch the show a bit and see what you spot in places. You'll be surprised by how much it all just sorta slides into place. That's because they've built it that way. You're reading a novel that's written out of chronological order and you're only two-thirds of the way through it... are you not expecting a few surprises and some deepening of your understanding of what's going on before the end of it? This show is no different.

I guess I'm saying that ain't no way that the show that keeps making scenes that change your understanding of scenes you've already watched and, as a result, your understanding of Crowley & Aziraphale's relationship, isn't planning the mother of all those scenes that will completely recontextualize the whole damn thing. They are absolutely going to have kissed before 2.06 but the way they recontextualize the whole series at once is if they make the first one near the start of the timeline.

S3 audience during The Ancient Times Vavoom lol:

[an-android-in-a-tutu]

what youtube video did you watch that defined porn that way? that's such an interesting nuanced way of looking at it and i wanna know more. anyone seeing this ask out of context is gonna be so confused lmao

also i love what you said about works that are all sex scenes but are also character explorations, and how it's hard to define something like that as either porn or not porn. i love reading fanfic like that and even if it makes me horny i never really think of it as porn, because even if the story is entirely sex scenes, its still sex scenes that are in service of a plot, if that makes sense?

Hey thanks the video is this book review that was linked in a post that I watched out of curiosity. Mostly because the person sharing the review seemed like they were being uh, weird. And kinda sexist. So I went in with a pretty skeptical eye, but the review turned out to be measured and thoughtful and it turned out it was just the poster that was being weird.

It isn't really about pornography, the reviewer is defining porn in order to interrogate the concept of "trauma porn" and the subject matter of the book being reviewed is, about what you would imagine for something that's getting branded with that label. I've never read it myself and I don't think I would, but the review was interesting and talked in part about the book's popularity and how it might have to do with the popularity of whump and hurt/comfort fanfiction. While also addressing some of the very real issues with the book's message and presentation. But obviously since I haven't read the book myself I can't like 100% attest to the accuracy of this video, just that it was interesting and touched on some topics I'm interested in.

And yeah I agree with you about sex scene character studies. It was mostly on my mind because my friends write a lot of those, so when I was pitching my definition of porn my brain immediately jumped to. Well what about this oneshot your friend wrote, that was just a scene of a guy masturbating but its main focus is his fantasies as a character study, what about that huh? And the answer for me is huh, I don't know! I would feel totally comfortable categorizing that as "not porn" because even though it's short form and focused on sex the primary purpose is a character study, but at the same time, I feel like by doing that you risk like creating a definition of porn that's simply like, a catch all for art and media that you view as like, vapid and meaningless.

That may be a flaw in the definition presented in the video, it kind of accepts the like, pejorative nature of calling something "porn" into the definition. Should we create a definition of porn where explicit sex stops being porn if it has themes? Or accept that something being porn doesn't preclude it from also being art? But then how do we draw a line between what is and isn't porn? How important is it to actually do that?

Looking at the current state of the internet, and this website in particular, there's a lot invested in coming up with enforceable definitions of "explicit" material specifically for the purpose of banning porn without limiting artistic expression, but what makes viewing sex for sex's sake worse than other forms of nudity? We tend to accept the idea that there is a difference between porn and sexually explicit material or nudity presented for other purposes, and I do think there is to an extent, but it does seem like the line being drawn is essentially "these things have enough other value to make up for including sex, and these things don't" and I don't like that.

I guess my only conclusion is, it's hard to come up with a solid definition of porn when porn is still broadly viewed as, if not morally wrong, then inherently base and valueless.

[spicybylerpolls]

I really like your response about the hypothetically possible will as a top. I gravitate towards bottom will, but only because when i started discussing byler having sex it was always as canon-compliant as possible, a.k.a it was about their first experiences together, as this is most likely to be seen in the show compared to their developing relationship together.

i think practical things would inform their dynamic. they may not even discuss things verbally. even if there wasn't the 'i didnt say it - you didn't have to' line to show the audience how well they understand each other without words (most of the time lol), i still wouldn't have ruled out a mainly non-verbal sex scene between them. maybe because i love silent/expressive/physical acting that doesnt need words. it's so much more intimate to me, the silence of it all. soft music, intense looks, body communication, nothing else needed. and in that case, i think that will, perhaps just because mike has dated el, even if it wasnt sexual, would assume that mike was simply the more experienced one and let him take the lead.

i would be delighted to see a hesitant mike letting will take the lead in s5, and i think we will see this somewhat, but i also think that rather than will being dominant and mike submitting, it will look more like will coming up to mike's level of dominance and meeting him there as an equal, finally confident enough to express how he feels and what he wants, and to ask mike for it (whether verbally or not).

their lovemaking and sex should be a moment of celebration between two equals. i think this is what will move all the last cynical audience members emotionally, because it would represent so much for who will and mike are even outside of a sexual context. it would also lend a neatness to the idea of equality in terms of same-sex sexual activity. two men/two women having sex is more equal than a man and woman, because there aren't those unavoidable differences. its two versions of the same body. what could be more equal than that?

i remember a writer from the 1910s wrote beautifully on this topic of how gay sex is purer and more beautiful than het sex because of this, and also because it serves no purpose other than for two people to connect and make beauty, whereas sex between a man and a woman can often be a means to an end (to put it crudely lol).

do this make sense?

yes/no :)

Please note that the purpose of this blog is not to be creepy or to make anyone uncomfortable. That's why I created the #spicy byler tag (I will tag all polls with this). If you don't want to see this blog or anything related to it on your feed, please block that tag. Not everyone is comfortable with this sorta stuff, and that's okay.