#feel good fiction

[novelconcepts]

I Saw the TV Glow is such a uniquely, devastatingly queer story. Two queer kids trapped in suburbia. Both of them sensing something isn’t quite right with their lives. Both of them knowing that wrongness could kill them. One of them getting out, trying on new names, new places, new ways of being. Trying to claw her way to fully understanding herself, trying to grasp the true reality of her existence. Succeeding. Going back to help the other, to try so desperately to rescue an old friend, to show the path forward. Being called crazy. Because, to someone who hasn’t gotten out, even trying seems crazy. Feels crazy. Looks, on the surface, like dying.

And to have that other queer kid be so terrified of the internal revolution that is accepting himself that he inadvertently stays buried. Stays in a situation that will suffocate him. Choke the life out of him. Choke the joy out of him. Have him so terrified of possibly being crazy that he, instead, lives with a repression so extreme, it quite literally is killing him. And still, still, he apologizes for it. Apologizes over and over and over, to people who don’t see him. Who never have. Who never will. Because it’s better than being crazy. Because it’s safer than digging his way out. Killing the image everyone sees to rise again as something free and true and authentic. My god. My god, this movie. It shattered me.

[gothamite-rambler]

Jason Todd babysitting baby Damian.

Jason looked around as Damian sat next to him. The little baby stared at the man with a blank stare.

Jason (rubbing Damian's chubby cheeks with his hand): Tiny baby. Precious. Soft. You are a cute baby.

Baby Damian smiled then giggled.

Jason: I can't believe you share his DNA, or her DNA or her father's DNA.

Jason booped Damian's nose making the baby giggle and cover his face.

Jason: All right, got that out my system. Let's go play in the dirt.

Jason picked up Damian and took him outside.

Jason: Battled my brother, taking care of my dad's secret son, getting paid. It's gonna be a good year.

Damian (happy): Ah!

Jason: Thank you.

[ilynpilled]

it frankly pisses me off that what is essentially “rapists and abusers should be depicted as monstrous caricatures because humanizing them is inappropriate” is considered a very moral and enlightened position to have on art by so many people. a rapist can feel pain, have moments of vulnerability, be amiable and charming, express remorse and compassion at times, be a victim themselves, and so on in real life. they are even capable of doing good things. they can have different sides to them and have individuals in their lives that they are kind to or have a decent relationship with. they will be a human being, and that fact encompasses a lot. conflating that with the claim that they are entitled to and deserve forgiveness or absolution is an issue. nurturing a mindset that believes they need to be one note and uncomplicated to be a correct and tasteful depiction of a rapist inadvertently falls in line with the logic of “how could they have possibly raped you? they are so normal and kind to me. they did all these good things here and there.��� ok that doesn’t change that they are a rapist.

[obsob]

happy and proud!!

✷(print shop)✷

[macbethz]

“Is doctor who a good or bad person” theyre the kind of person to fly in a little blue box and go weeeeee

[starbuck]

the thing is, i love The Narrative, but i also absolutely adore a truly character-focused tragedy where everyone’s downfall is caused not by larger narrative forces, but by hundreds of tiny decisions made by characters who, despite their best efforts, just suck.

[specialagentartemis]

I have a different post in the works about Maddie not having children in the "Masters of All Time" timeline - it makes the emotional dilemma about whether Maddie should help Danny repair and reset the timeline straightforward and clean, but the thing is, the premise that "Masters of All Time" gives us is a FASCINATING and potentially really anguishing emotional dilemma if the writers were allowed to acknowledge it.

Maddie isn't happy in the MoAT timeline. When Danny shows up in her timeline, frantically trying to explain to her that he's her son with Jack Fenton from a different timeline, she accepts and embraces this explanation pretty quickly. It feels like she wants to believe it - she wants to believe that if things had gone differently, she would have married Jack, had children, had a ghost-hunting career she could be open and proud about. Everything Danny offers to her is something she wants more than what she has - a husband who has been lying to her, who dislikes ghost stuff and disapproves of her ghost research, so she has to do it in secret and hide it from him.

Something that goes totally unaddressed: Danny, her son from a different timeline, is a ghost. He's dead.

Never once does anyone stop to wonder what it means that her teenage son is a ghost.

And I know it's because Hartman & co. refuse to let anyone acknowledge that ghosts are dead people... but imagine they did.

Maddie Masters is... happy enough, she guesses. She married her college friend, and he is her friend, and she's not opposed to this. He doesn't support her work, but, well. She deals. She has her basement ghost research lab, even if she has to keep it secret from Vlad. She lost touch with Jack decades ago, and still regrets that, but that happens, sometimes, and his grievances aren't unfounded. She doesn't have children.

And then a ghost boy claiming to be her son shows up, and tells her that in a different timeline, the timeline that should have happened, she married Jack Fenton, she has two children, she is is out and proud about her ghost research and ghost-hunting and Jack enthusiastically collaborates with her on it. He tells her she's happy.

He doesn't tell her how he died.

And Maddie has a heartbreaking choice to make. Does she help him make this reality happen, restore time to how it's "supposed" to go?She wants to believe him, to believe in this alternate history where things went differently and she got the life she wanted! She has a wacky house full of Ghost Contraptions, a husband who loves her and supports her and collaborates with her, and two children she loves.

... and one of those children is going to die when he's 14. That comes with this choice.

Can she live with that? Consciously make this timeline happen, knowing she's going to have this child and then see him die.

It puts me in mind of one of the major emotional through-lines of "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang, the story of a linguist who makes contact with aliens and learns their language that allows her to see all of time at once, where it will go, what the outcomes of events will be. She sees her daughter dying. She knows from the moment she has this child that she will die in a rock-climbing accident in college. She sees it all at once, her whole life, and makes that choice to have a baby anyway.

I think MoAT!Maddie should have to consciously make a similar choice, and have similar feelings about it. Unlike the protagonist of "Story of Your Life," she doesn't know how it will all go. She only knows it as Danny tells her, and she herself won't really experience this, going forward. But she, another version of her, will. And Danny doesn't explain the halfa thing or the portal accident or anything, leaving Maddie to have to make her own hypotheses about what her alternate-life's future holds, about the grief that's going to come with the love, and make that choice to make it happen anyway.

[ophelia-derriere]

As a person with chronic illness I appreciate this so much. There are in fact good and bad days. And yeah, the highs and lows can be incredibly brutal. Having the right support network like Babs does in RCH’s fic makes all the difference.

Babs - Oracle vs Batgirl

Okay so most of this blog is just fun headcanons and exciting fanfic news. But because I do write a lot of fanfics that involve Babs, I feels like it's important for me to address my writing choice with her.

I have Babs as Oracle primarily, with her suiting up as Batgirl in certain situations. I also have her walking most of the time, with her occasionally needing to use a wheelchair. This is not because I want to be able to "have her be disabled only when it's convenient for the narrative". It's because I want to bring more visibility to this very real form of disability.

In my early twenties I was in a relationship with a woman who had a very serious medical condition. Some days were good ones, where the medicine helped enough and she was able to paint for hours, go hiking, go climbing, able to be the active and daring and brilliant person that she always was. Other days she needed help even to sit up. The reaction people would have when we'd be out getting groceries and they had seen her out running the last week and now she's in one of those scooter carts half passed out... I'll never not get mad about how genuinely disgusting people were about it.

So yes, I have Barbara only having a visible disability sometimes. Because that's just how disabilities work sometimes.

[houseswife]

appreciation for the sheer melancholic fondness in wilson’s gaze at house during what he knows is the last normal interaction they’ll ever have; during the final comparatively trivial rant in which they don’t both have to pretend the world isn’t collapsing beneath their feet

[comfort-character-central]

Here's another selfship f/o ask game! Feel free to use for your own self ships (and feel free ask me any if desired, just let me know which f/o and question)! Have a great day everyone 🫶🏻

💥 1: What is something fun you and your f/o have done together? It can be an activity, a silly moment, a good memory, etc!

🫂 2: What is something your f/o does that makes you feel loved and supported?

❤️‍🔥 3: What's your f/o's favorite trait about you?

😌 4. What do you and your f/o do together to relax or unwind?

✨ 5. What hobby or activity do you and your f/o do the most together or tend to enjoy doing the most together?

🍰 6. What sort of fun or sweet nicknames do you and your f/o have for each other?

🔥 7: In what ways does your f/o make you feel excited, giggly, happy, or positive?

❤️‍🩹 8. What is a deep or special memory between you and your f/o that means a lot to you/them?

🧠 9. What is something you love listening to your f/o talk extensively about, and what do they love hearing you elaborate on?

🥹 10. What is your f/o's favorite thing about you?

💫 11. What is your favorite compliment that you've ever received from your f/o?

💌 12. What is your f/o's love language(s)? (Gift giving, words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, acts of service.)

🌿 13. What's something that reminds you of your f/o? It can be a meme, a song, an aesthetic, anything that gives off their energy/vibe/reminds you of them!

☀️ 14. In what ways do you and your f/o make each other's lives more positive?

💬 15. Why are you so thankful for your f/o, and why are they so thankful for you?

[xanderscollection]

"Growing up is realising a (random ship) you loved is actually weird and bad"

Yeah? Is it? Great, I love it even more. The worse it is the Better.

[gothamite-rambler]

That was actually a good deed, Jason.

Jason Todd walked over to Bruce Wayne scrolling through photos on his phone. He tapped the man on the shoulder.

Jason: You want baby pictures of Damian?

Bruce spat out his coffee in shock. Jason chuckled.

Jason: You have to pay me.

Bruce (frantic): You better not be lying to me because if you have baby pictures of him I will pay you whatever price you ask.

Jason: Um okay I have about 10 I can give you now so $10,000 for each one.

Bruce: Stay there, gotta get my phone and I'll transfer the funds to your bank account.

Bruce ran out of the room leaving Jason Todd with Alfred watching the entire interaction, impressed.

Alfred: Jason, how did you get baby pictures?

Jason: Remember, I knew about his existence before Bruce ever did. I visited the kid for the first 9 years before Bruce found out about him. Talia paid me to take photos of him for memories.

Alfred: That's very wholesome of you.

Jason (confused): I said Talia paid me.

Alfred: Money or not, you did a good deed. Now Master Bruce can have a few photos and trust me, he's been begging Talia for baby pictures for years. Be proud of yourself.

Jason smiled.

Jason: I appreciate you saying that.

Alfred: I mean every word of it. You're welcome.

[fanvoidkeith]

sometimes being aroacespec is confusing. what do you mean, most people can tell the difference between platonic and romantic and sexual attraction? what do you mean people don't "choose" crushes? what do you mean that people can imagine themselves in a physical situation with someone else?? isn't dating just Friendship Plus??? hell, isn't marriage just Friendship Plus?????????

what do they mean??????????? what are feelings???? why am i so confused????????

*edit: changed "aroace" to "aroacespec", since several aromantic people felt that this was not an Aromantic Feeling. i see you, i hear you, and so i changed it to be more accurate to me personally, since i am Confused About Feelings Always

[zipadeea]

Patiently waiting for Kit Connor's forthcoming lesbian witch project

[abessive-art]

The Penumbra Podcast

[beanghostprincess]

i'm aware that due to luffy's more cheerful personality and looks, a lot of people might find it weird to picture him in sexual situations. especially since most of us see him as aroace (as if aroace people couldn't have sex or be in love but, y'know, that's for another time) and it's completely understandable to not feel comfortable around sexual stuff if you don't like it with this specific character. however, being uncomfortable around that type of content and infantilizing luffy's character to the point that you consider it problematic or wrong to put him in romantic/sexual situations is too much and you should let people enjoy characters however the fuck they want. if you don't like something just scroll and ignore it, but don't try to make everyone follow your own moral compass and likes because we're all different and luffy is just a fictional character.

people often forget he's the captain of a pirate crew. he's mature and has critical thinking and if seeing a cheerful/cute character instantly makes you assume he deserves to be "protected" from sex/romance, you are: infantilizing his personality (that may or may not be neurodivergent coded, but that's another story), villainizing sex and romance instead of just seeing those as something you don't personally enjoy but should let other people consume, and using being aroace as a shield from the real world and a stereotype instead of actually being inclusive and truly seeing him as aroaspec. friendly reminder that aroaspec people can have sex and be in romantic relationships because it's a spectrum. that's the whole thing about it. it's understandable to not be comfortable around sexual situations with a character you don't perceive as sexually active, but that doesn't mean it's wrong to write him that way. let people do whatever they want with their idea of luffy and have fun!