#everybody read this story

[tshortik]

Starscream aka my beloved backstabbing millions of years old cockroach

[backpackingspace]

I am once again thinking about how odysseus who witnessed the horrors that the captured women went through (one of his main duties in the iliad was taking the women back home and making sure they were as comfortable as possible and safe because he was the only one trusted not to violate them further due to his devotion to penelope. And in the odyssey part of the reason circe sent him to the underworld was so that he'd have to listen to all these women's stories (before he could talk to the prophet) ). Who was one of the few that saw women as people and respected their space and opinions. And was then put in those exact same situations. I don't have the motivation right now to do a full literary analysis of this (I'll site the sources too) but oh man one day I'm going to write a full essay on this.

[markantonys]

SAS ROGUE HEROES | 1x03

[yellowocaballero]

Reading 'Solo Leveling' (a webtoon/webnovel about a guy who uses a game-like interface to level up and fight monsters and become ridiculously OP and the coolest and hottest guy in the whole wide world) really proves something to me that I've thought about.

The goal of a story is to achieve what it wants to achieve. Different genres have different certain marks the story should achieve. If it doesn't hit those marks, it's not a good example of the genre. In a lot of was it's not even a good story - it doesn't entertain the audience in the way that they want to be entertained. A romance novel isn't a bad story because it doesn't feature great action scenes, but neither is it a bad story because it doesn't delve deep into the sociopolitical implications of neocolonialism. Does it make the reader feel happy? Is it cathartic? Is there a happy ending? Then it's a good romance story - even if you think stories shouldn't need happy endings.

The 'satisfaction' of stories like Solo Leveling is the fact that is very entertaining to watch a guy be super powerful and mow down bad guys and have everybody around him go "WHOAH that's a cool guy". Maybe it's cool because you're projecting, or maybe you like great action scenes, or because you like 'underdog gets powerful' stories. It's a power fantasy. That is the goal of Solo Leveling, and so long as I'm going "WHOAH COOL", then it's a good story. And Solo Leveling is the example of the power fantasy video game dungeon OP protag. It does those elements, it executes them competently, it's a good story.

This is the third of these types of stories I've read more than 5 chapters of. The first was Omniscent Reader's Viewpoint. And baby. This is no ORV.

ORV a big reaction to Solo Levelling in a lot of ways, since Solo Levelling was very genre defining and influential, and it's hard to write these OP stories without having a relationship to Solo Leveling. It's like the most popular webtoon out there. The OP hero, the gaming interface and rules, the gods fucking you up, power fantasy - they're all checked off by ORV. It doesn't subvert them much. You watch kdj pull one over on a shmuck and you're like HEY YA BABY and you watch him utterly decimate some schmuck and you're like WHOAH COOL. You like ORV, basically, for the same reasons you like Solo Leveling. They're the same genre and in a lot of ways the same story.

But ORV has driven me nuts and after a while Solo Leveling has gotten boring. Because ORV has a fantastic supporting cast that puts the MC's OPness in relative perspective. Because there's cool action scenes with different teams, of different dynamics, giving freshness to each chapter. Because you get to see kdj slowly implement some nuts gambit of the course of the entire arc and when we finally hit the end point where it all comes together it's FUCK YEAH. I'm leaving out the actual depth here. But ORV and Solo Leveling do the same thing, except ORV has a great deal of other story elements that build into the main 'point' and escalate the satisfaction, joy, and intensity of those points. You don't read these OP hero novels for the supporting cast. You read it to watch a dude be cool. But ORV's supporting cast - and, like, the fact that they're actual characters, even the women - gives us a lot of other smaller 'hey yeah!' moments, gives it buildup, makes the OP moments meaningful, and gives a grand climax and huge satisfaction when kdj does what the SL guy did by himself. And the supporting cast is only one example of this. A story is a good story if it accomplishes its point, but a story like SL will never really deliver its promises nearly as well as ORV could. Not because ORV is deep and has """themes""" or fucked up shit like that. The 'WHOAH COOL's are just better. Because ORV knows why stories are good and what makes a good story.

Anyway I'm fucking begging you I have tears in my eyes this is why your fic needs more than the hot ship of the day I promise it won't detract from the ship it will make the ship BETTER but you have to get WHY you like these homosexuals so much and it's NOT just because they're CUTE sometimes there's OTHER REASONS THAT ARE IMPORTANT LIKE THE WOMAN YOU'VE BOOTED AND -

[cepetriwrites]

Meme for latest HOTD fic I’m reading:

Viserys looking up down from heaven hell watching his two oldest children who he forced to get married have toe curling hate sex next to his still warm corpse

Called Rhaenyra your only child in front of Aegon, now he’s giving your only child the good ole Toe Curling Cervix Crushing Hate Sex 3000 special by your emaciated corpse.

The rest of the siblings hearing some… oddly specific noises coming out of their fathers bedchamber where Aegon and Rhaenyra inside “mourning” their father

The Queen and the Prince Consort by @franzkafkagf on AO3

[natjennie]

media about people who aren't there. shows where the most important part of the story has passed. the idea that we persist after we're gone, we impact people we've never met in ways we can't fathom, so much so that we become the main character in a story we aren't around to hear. media that creates characters with intrigue, with connections, with relationships, with goals, with dreams, with life. and then they disappear. they are phantoms, projections, idols without agency in a tale about them. you know what I mean?

[cool-thymus]

A thank-u illustration for @malifiquemakes and her awesome fic "Like Oil for Leather" 💛

This fic is very hot and sexy, but it's also incredibly tender! (Chapter 10 my beloved <3) And in addition to delicious obkk there's Obito and Runt, his precious little pup 🥹 they stole my heart, so here they are!

[coquelicoq]

for the record high teen boogie (1982) is not natori's favorite movie, but it is the only movie matoba ever successfully dragged him to see in high school. therefore matoba assumes it's his favorite movie.

BONUS: live teen reaction

[taldigi]

What would you say was the first sign that Miraculous was gonna became a bad show?

3D in the current style that it is. And no. I'm not talking about the anime. I'm talking about how it started to sacrifice style and substance for recognizability and cheap graphics. There are very strict guidelines on the style of the show and exaggerated expressions and genuinely good animation have been trashed or cut in order to not have to pay the most money. How do I know? I've seen it. I have seen things that I can never share but I know about. Shit that sits in a locked folder on a USB drive.

I've been very fortunate to speak to people behind the scenes and get some insight on development. I've poured over reports and surveys. I've read interviews. I've seen statistics.

There is a lot of company input that goes into miraculous. And you know how it is when CEOs and directors boards get involved with creative projects. You would be surprised at the amount of influence companies like Gloob have over the development of the show.

Miraculous wants to be a serious show. But it also wants to be a kiddie show- and miraculous wants to be a kids show because kids programming sells toys and toys are what have kept miraculous afloat for as long as it has.

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

when I want to write something self indulgent to give me all the angsty and cuddly hurt/comfort feels but I can't because I end up feeling guilty because I'm seeking after feels that I feel in an inappropriate place because my mom told me one time when I was 15 that I shouldn't search that out or it's probably sexual sin but it confuses me because ALL the feels happen that way for me even if it's entirely platonic and nonsexual and so I don't know if it's okay to want to write to that because apparently all pleasure of any sort, even over platonic stories, is sexual or comes with a possibly probably sexual feeling and I also am having a hard time figuring out what's genuine conviction from God and what's just my anxiety/OCD/perfectionism/fear of failure

[cocktopic]

i think my fatal flaw is that i truly believe that no matter who reads it literally everybody can benefit from reading orv. like even tho it’s such a simple message the thought that no matter what I am Loved and Important and i Will survive no matter what was smth that hit me so hard especially in the context orv does it (trying to be spoiler free) making me feel Seen and helped in a way that no other media has. idk. i love kim dokja so much guys

[starlightswordfight]

GOD writing friendship is making me so happy this is wonderful. friendship is the point of it all (rainbows fly everywhere like that dolphin picture)

[e-louise-bates]

I will admit that it never occurred to me that I would need to check the history book that claimed to be scholarly to see if it used references and footnotes, because how could a book be a scholarly work on history without such things, BUT NOW I KNOW BETTER.

[simeonsaints]

hello mizu5 nation

[tj-crochets]

Hey y'all! I am considering trying listening to podfics, but I have no idea where to start. Like, I read a lot of fanfic, but idk how one goes about listening to them? Is it like an app, or a download it kind of thing, or what? Do you have any advice or specific recommendations? In the past I have really, really struggled with books on tape because I cannot focus on just listening, but I like listening to like sort of documentary-ish videos while sewing and that's just a person talking, so probably I would be able to focus on audiobooks or podfics now?

[marmolao]

can i keep procrastinating on my serious drawings? i can