#for how hyped up she was/is by the characters and the writers they sure don’t market her the same way

[red-balloon12]

Ay yo, notice how Zoe/Vesperia isn’t on here….just wanted to point that out.

Okay, so apparently, this is the new official poster for S6. Take a look.

Honestly, i did laughed when i saw it first, but I'll at least admit this looks better than the S5 finale poster. At best this looks like a promotion for new toys, at worst the artists making this is forced to work overtime with below minimum wage payment.

My biggest disappointment, which totally everyone kinda see coming, is how Ladybug is the only one with a new suit. Nothing for Rena. Nothing for Carapace. And Chat Noir at best only got a new hair style that's literally a mix between Adrien and Chat Noir. This isn't even bare minimum effort, this is laziness.

Like, what is wrong with TA and his entire team? If you refuse to be bothered with your writing skill, at least please us with visuals. Give us new costumes for the main heroes. Give us something to look forward to. But nooo, they can't be bothered with any of that.

This is basically a head start for a ride of disappointment S6 gonna be, and im so ready for the salt flood we're gonna get.

[little-diable]

Something Special - Dean Winchester (smut)

After watching SPN with @writethelifeyouwant this weekend, I needed to write a fic about Dean's "sex has always felt really good" monologue. Please like and reblog if you enjoyed reading this, your comments keep us writers motivated! Enjoy my loves. xxx

Summary: The reader tells Dean that she doesn't get the hype around sex, Dean is set on showing her that it's something truly special

Warnings: 18+, smut, piv, oral (f), friends to lovers, just pure smut basically

Pairing: Dean Winchester x fem!reader (about 2k words)

header and plot idea by @deathofpeaceofmind

No longer was (y/n) used to the calm beat of her heart, not urged on by the adrenaline thumping through her veins because she was chased by someone, or rather something. No longer was (y/n) used to sitting back with a smile tugging on her lips, allowed to take a few deep breaths without following either Dean or Sam to wherever they were called to. But tonight – for the first time in weeks – (y/n) found herself sitting next to Dean, head placed on his shoulder, hand holding onto a cold bottle of beer. The sounds of the movie the two were watching filled her room, but neither Dean or (y/n) found themselves concentrating on the plot, sharing jokes, thoughts, and questions as the minutes kept blurring by.

“You know,” (y/n) took another sip of her beer, eyes focused on the scene flickering on. The two main characters were about to tumble onto the mattress of their now shared bed, momentarily leaving (y/n) wondering how it must feel to be touched like this by Dean. “I never got the whole excitement about sex. I mean, yes, I guess it can feel good, but it’s nothing special.”

“What?” Dean’s raspy chuckles bubbled out of him, hand reaching for the remote to pause the movie. “Nothing special? It’s the most special thing out there, sweetheart.”

(Y/n) couldn’t stop her eyes from rolling, drowning another sip before she placed the bottle down, fully turning towards Dean. His forest green eyes studied her as if he was trying to figure out if she was possessed, no longer able to guide herself. “Then please, enlighten me. What’s so special about it?”

“Fuck, the guys you’ve been with before must have sucked in bed, huh?” No longer were Dean’s eyes filled with the almost childish glee (y/n) found herself admiring whenever he didn’t notice her staring, no, by now they were filled with something rather serious, something that forced the hairs on her arms to rise. (Y/n) shuffled around, breaking eye contact for a second before she let go of a deep sigh.

“I don’t know, I mean, I never got close to an orgasm with them.” Dean’s warm hand found her chin, forcing (y/n) to look at him. For a few moments neither one of them dared to speak up, trying to communicate without sharing any words, listening to the silent whispers of their hearts like blind wanderers forced to rely on the whispers of the breeze, guiding them along uneasy paths. 

“Will you let me? You deserve to experience how good it can actually feel.” It was just a whisper, a sound so quiet (y/n) wasn’t sure if she heard him correctly, and yet her curiosity got the best of her. Slowly she nodded her head, gasping in surprise as Dean’s plush lips found hers, kissing her without another warning. She was pulled into his lap, finding comfort close to his racing heart, to his strong thighs, and the hands that wandered up her spine to explore unfamiliar territory. 

Dean tugged her shirt over her head, dilated pupils flickering down to her chest, to the skin he kissed moments later. Every now and then their eyes met, just for a few seconds, and yet the seconds felt more sincere than any moments (y/n) had once shared with the men she had dated. But there had always been something special about Dean Winchester, the man that owned her heart without even knowing so.

“You see, sex has always felt really, really good. But, sometimes, it just makes you feel bad, you know?” Dean’s lips found their way back up to her throat while his hands worked on her bra, letting the fabric fall to the ground, taken from her before she could even try to cover herself up. “You’re drunk. You shack up. Then, it’s the whole morning thing. You know, “hey, that was fun.” And then, “adios,” you know? Always the “adios.” But, you know, when you get down to it, what’s the big deal, right?” The green colour of his eyes seemed to grow even greener as he sucked on her hardening nipples, set on leaving marks that would remind (y/n) of this very moment for days to come. 

“Dean,” she mewled his name, begging him to move down further. Another gasp ripped through her as Dean ground her core against his bulge, letting her feel how hard he was, just for her. Her clit was pulsing, secretly wondering if she’d be able to cum just like that, just from searching his closeness with most of their clothes still on. “More, please.”

“I mean, sure, there’s the touching and the feeling all of each other. My hands everywhere, tracing every inch of her body. The two of us moving together, pressing and pulling… Grinding. Then you hit that sweet spot, and everything just builds and builds and builds. I want you to feel that, all of it.” He chuckled at the desperate gaze swimming in her pupils, letting go of a soft “So impatient”. 

Dean clicked his tongue, flipping them around so that he could tower over her, hands tugging his own shirt over his head. Fuck, this wasn’t the first time (y/n) got to admire a shirtless Dean, and yet she had never dared to admire him for long, just a few seconds where he found himself distracted by something. But now Dean wasn’t distracted, no, he was awfully focused on (y/n), on the woman that would choke on his name in a few minutes. “I think I want you to cum on my tongue first, and then on my cock.”

“Oh fuck, do something, please.” His chuckles reverberated through the bedroom as he helped her out of her jeans, panties following shortly after. She was completely bare, naked for his eyes only, a sight so beautiful Dean found himself frozen. Both their hearts were racing, calling out to one another, very well knowing that this wasn’t just a quick hookup, not something they’d ever be able to forget. 

(Y/n)’s eyes followed Dean’s every move, watching him kiss his way down to her heat, eyes flickering up to meet hers as he brushed his tongue along her folds, moaning at her taste. She could already tell that this wouldn’t end like it had with the guys she had been with before, Dean would be able to make her cum in no time, pushing her over the edge before her mind could catch up with her body. 

Dean’s skilled fingers took care of her pulsing bundle of nerves, smirking against her skin as he dipped his tongue into her tightness. Her moans kept clawing through her, hands grasping her sheets in a desperate try to ground herself, unable to keep on breathing. Her body grew tense as she felt her orgasm creeping closer, forcing her to breathe faster, scared that she’d pass out from the tension now clinging to her. 

This very sensation had something so unfamiliar to it, (y/n) couldn’t help but wonder if she’d ever get to experience this again, already addicted to the feeling of Dean’s tongue taking care of her every need. Her moans urged him on to add more pressure to his movements, tongue fucking her faster, in sync with the movements of his fingers. 

“Oh god, Dean, I’m so close, please don’t stop.” Her sobs left his heart roaring in pride, tugging on his muscles as he watched her come undone. (Y/n)’s eyes fluttered close, teeth buried in her lower lip as she let the sensation wash through her, allowing her vocal cords to produce the sweetest sounds Dean has ever heard before. He found himself marvelling at her, wishing that he’d be able to grasp his phone, to take a picture of the pleasure drunken expression tugging on her features. 

Dean had always known that he was in love with her, and yet he had never dared to act on his feelings, preferring to secretly harbour a crush that was stronger than any emotion he was used to by now, instead of ending up with a broken heart and a broken friendship. But in this very moment, Dean found himself growing more confident, finally understanding that she was tied to him in the same way he was tied to her. 

“Dean,” a deep sigh left her as he pulled away, smirking down on (y/n) before he kissed her. “Fuck me, please.” 

“Such a good girl, I knew you’d love this, you deserve to be touched by someone who actually wants you to enjoy this.” Dean rose from the bed to tug his trousers down his legs, allowing (y/n) to take in the sight of his clothed cock, of the way his cock was pressed against the fabric of his dark boxers. Fuck, she had dreamt about this very moment for way too many times, wondering how he’d fuck her, how he’d push her closer and closer to the edge with his cock buried deep inside of her. 

Dean rolled a condom down his cock before he aligned himself with her heat, fingers interlaced with hers before he slowly sank into her. Both needed a few moments to adjust, exhaling the tension tugging on their muscles, urged on by the emotions that made this very night more special than all others they got to live through before. 

(Y/n)’s trembling hand tugged Dean down to her, sharing a passionate kiss as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He moved slowly at first, building up a rhythm that shot sparks down their spines, leaving them drowning in the heat thumping through their veins. 

“Shit, you feel so good.” Dean’s praises left her heart skipping beats, racing in her chest as if she was on another hunt, guided by the adrenaline rushing through her system. But this very moment wasn’t filled with the same kind of adrenaline she was all too used to, no, it had a new touch to it, allowing her to silence her racing thoughts. 

Her walls fluttered around his cock as his hand found its way back to her sensitive clit, pushing her closer and closer to the edge, very well knowing that they’d both cum any moment now. Heavy breaths left them, mixed with moans and groans that echoed through her bedroom, a sound that would forever cling to them, reminiscent like the emotions filling their bodies. 

“There we go, can feel you clenching my cock. Let go for me, sweetheart.” Dean’s raspy words pushed her over the edge, hands finding his shoulders to claw her fingernails into his skin. He fucked her through her high, staring down on her with a proud smirk before he followed her, releasing himself into the condom. 

Dean slowly pulled out of her, tossing away the condom before he searched her closeness again. For a few minutes neither of them dared to speak up, trying to catch their breaths with closed eyes and wandering fingers that stroked one another’s warm skin. With a kiss pressed to her forehead, Dean pulled (y/n) into his chest, tightening his grip on her. 

“You’re right, this is truly the most special thing ever.” 

[justfandomwritings]

An essay on why I won’t be watching next season.

1. Obviously actors have to promote their shows and hype them up. But the interactions between Nicola and Luke during the press tour were, in retrospect, clearly also acting performances, and it is rare to see acting within the press tour to the degree that those two put on while grossly exaggerating things like how sexy this season would be or how much Polin we would get. I don’t blame them. It’s clearly what they were told to do. And it’s fine to hype a show, but I think a lot of people felt genuinely lied to with the WAY this season was hyped.

2. The casting has been color conscious and inclusive in a way I greatly admire. But they have not been inclusive in other ways. And that’s not to say they should have to be. One show shouldn’t bear the responsibility of being inclusive to everyone and making up for an industries worth of exclusion. But we have exactly one size inclusive character in this whole show, and I’m not even demanding more, but to butcher the season of the only size inclusive person in this show this badly and in these ways sends me a clear message of what the writers thought they could get away with with a curvy actress and how they saw her.

3. The wait times for this season and next season are just too long. The hype dies down too much between seasons such that we care less and less each time we get a new one, especially when you only give eight episodes, regardless of their length. You know who also gave us a season in 2022 and then an eight episode season this year? house of the dragon. And they have to CGI a fuck ton of dragons. Yall were sitting on this season being done filming for over a year and for what? What did you do in post? A bee? And then to have the audacity to do it in two parts? Fuck off.

4. Add to that. The costumes and new sets looked so much cheaper this season than previous seasons. Where did the budget go.

5. The plot is too crowded. Maybe you thought a curvy girl couldn’t carry a season. Maybe it was bad writing. Obviously you needed Cressida and Eloise to have decent amounts of screen time but you also did half of Francesca’s story and set one up for Violet and Benedict that collectively took the majority of the screen time and left us with very little Pen and Colin. Which was a disservice you never gave Anthony or Daphne’s seasons and was why they were good. We got enough crumbs of the others to tell us what was happening but not enough to make them feel like main characters or to make it feel like an ensemble show. There were leads in season 1 and 2. This season it was an ensemble with too many moving parts. But everyone’s said that. It’s not surprising.

6. My biggest problem is the tone. The blame. Admittedly I’m a woman who relates strongly to Penelope so I’m not impartial here. But for a character who spends her entire life being abused by every single person in this show, who is pushed to her absolute breaking point before finally giving her mother and the tonne a taste of their own medicine. For that character to receive no grace, no understanding, no respect, for the vast majority of the season hurt. To not only have zero understanding of her situation but to frame the entire plot of the show around the fact that SHE alone should be sorry. To have minimal to no groveling from Colin over what he said last season, to have no acknowledgment of how he treated her as a safety net, to humanize Cressida who made her life hell with minimal acknowledgment of that fact, to have Eloise get ONE comment from Cressida of all people about her friendship with Penelope but no real reflection from Eloise or acknowledgment on her part or apologies for what a truly SHIT friend she was for DECADES. That hurt. Because the message is that sure, they can push you to your fucking limit, you can break after years of being bullied for your weight and your looks and your status. Your own mother and sisters hands can be filthy with insults and abuse. Your friends can treat you like utter garbage for years. They can befriend your bullies. Your soon to be husband can, very recently, insult you to his friends behind your back. But you owe them the apology for breaking after years of abuse. It’s not that the tonne couldn’t be angry or that they all should’ve fallen at Pen’s feet. It’s that those arguments never happen at all because once again, just like when she was being used and abused by everyone, everything was put on Penelope. And the cycle continues.

7. Colin should’ve groveled more. I know I said that in the previous point but it really ruined things for me so I want to emphasize it. I wanted that man on his knees the whole season, and I should’ve known I wasn’t gonna get that when y’all dropped the list of songs and there wasn’t any of the A List Yearners on the list. But I’m still mad.

8. Actually that’s a good point. Did anyone else think the songs didn’t go as hard this year? Except Pitbull were we excited about any of them?

9. You did the Pride and Prejudice ballroom trick with the dancing alone thing and you didn’t nail it. If you’re gonna do that trick it has to fucking HIT. (And it has to be enemies to lovers.) And you did it half assed. You should be ashamed.

10. There was a two second window there when Cressida asked the maid for help where I thought they were gonna swap lives and the maid would go with her aunt and Cressida would become a maid and I was like “holy fuck is Cressida gonna become Bennys love interest?” and that would’ve been better than what y’all did I think. And it would’ve justified her excessive screen time.

11. I love gender swapping Michaela and making Francesca bi. We love it. But why was Francesca immediately interested. Once again the writers don’t understand pining. Michaela is PINING for Francesca and can do nothing but love her from afar. Francesca loved John completely and whole heartedly. Michaela was a beautiful love story for her but was also a second chance. She loved John completely. She would never have an emotional affair on him. How did you immediately ruin such a beautiful second chance romance?

12. Where was Pen’s friendship with Anthony or Lady Danbury? Why wasn’t Colin proud of Pen the way he was in the book? To make her even more alone? To emphasize that she was alone and at fault and helpless? Fuck off.

I just don’t have it in me to watch this show deteriorate further.

[ilikekidsshows]

My friend called me impatient for not wanting to wait until miraculous reach the point for Marinette get over her flaws, and I've seen some part of the fandom echoing this sentiment. "People are just impatient". but what they didn't understand is that I'm not impatient, I get a massive burn out for seeing Marinette doing the same thing over and over without feeling slightly guilty or remorse and she also never change, her character is so stagnant that is so boring and annoying. She doesn't even feel what she does is wrong, that's the problem!

Im a fans on DNAngel, manga that need almost 20 years to finally reach its conclusion because the mangaka keep having hiatuses. I'm also long term fans of Detective Conan, manga that still nowhere near the climax and I'm still waiting for it. When I'm a fan of a media, I'd waiting for it no matter how many years it need to reach the end as long as there's thing that worth waiting. Sure Detective Conan case seems to be recycle of the old case, it's always the same case but at least there's progress, the protagonist learn something, actively seeking the way to get out from his problem. Marinette do nothing about it, every single time it's always her whining and crying for whatever but do nothing to change. Protagonist who do nothing but expecting everything to be handed to her in silver plate doesn't worth watching for me.

If I must wait for 100++ episode for an arc to conclude, then at least give me something to root for, something to hype for, even a nice character development would be fine. Not whatever miraculous give me over the years.

Honestly I'm not even going to be surprises if miraculous end with Marinette waking up from her sleep, that all those seasons are just her dream, because it does feels like one.

---

The problem with Miraculous’ pacing is that, even if I believed that the writers were still going to have Marinette learn from her mistakes, which I don’t, stretching out a paper-thin arc through a series with several seasons is going to give this show very little substance. For all the writers bragged about how good they are at spicing up their formula in the London Special, they really aren’t. Marinette is still doing the same things in the last episode of season five that she did at the start of season one. Even after she started dating Adrien, she still kept going behind his back, whining about things that inconvenienced her and acting in a way that was charming nine years ago but has since then grown grating.

For all Astruc claims he’s only used 95% percent of his ideas and he could keep Miraculous going for 12 seasons, I just don’t see the show as being interesting for that long. We keep seeing the same Akumas with less and less interesting motivations, the side characters have been turned into an Adrinette-shipping hive mind and Marinette is still deceitful and self-centered despite being the fully graduated greatest Ladybug ever. Like, maybe things will change now that we’re getting a yet another retool and Marinette and Adrien are actually a couple; Marinette could finally talk to him like a normal person at the end of season five and no one is standing in their way so we could focus on something else with the romance stuff being more of a support plot. Or, season 6 will bring in Adrien’s grandparents to be Adrien’s new controlling guardians and Marinette will go back to sneaking around and scheming to get to spend time with Adrien. The season 6 preview already has her spying on him with binoculars. The more things change the more they stay the same, it seems.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: when you know you’re working with a multiple season timeline for your show, it’s good to include smaller arcs and themes to tackle during a season to give people something to chew on while they wait for bigger developments. Otherwise your audience should only watch the premieres and finales to get anything meaningful. Miraculous’ format is how you get people making lists of actually plot relevant episodes so that they can skip what they perceive to be “filler”. Like, I’m also familiar with Detective Conan and that series, as I recall, is a master of feeding the audience. The cast has gotten so big specifically because the mangaka brought in new characters that he then committed to exploring and developing. Miraculous has five seasons and very few of the characters have been developed. We have Marinette doing the same stuff but more, worse and for less moral reasons. Arguably Cat Noir “learned” to stop flirting with Ladybug but he also stopped being her partner and is just a boring yes-man. His character is just as streamlined as the rest of the cast “You have no interests of your own, support Marinette, nothing else matters”.

Miraculous is like a badly written adult animated comedy. The status quo is maintained by the protagonist causing their own problems by acting like a moron, and being so allergic to self reflection that they won’t change their ways even when told point-blank that they’re the reason for their own misery. Marinette won’t change, because the paper thin plot and setup would collapse the instant she decided to act like an actually responsible hero. She never searched for Hawk Moth for this reason, she never tried to change any of the things causing her grief for this reason. She has more in-universe reason to tell Cat Noir about Hawk Moth than she has to not tell him, but she won’t, because the status quo demands Adrien not know, so she won’t tell Cat Noir either, despite not knowing they’re the same person.

I watched Naruto and Naruto Shippuuden, including some of the anime-only padding. I only skipped the arcs determined to be the most mind-numbing anime-only inclusions that contradicted the rest of the show, like Naruto’s shadow clones going on strike. I watched over 450 episodes, and I could do that, I could stick through that many episodes, because the series was divided into smaller arcs that made me feel like the characters were progressing and accomplishing things even when they didn’t win every arc. The original Naruto series is about as long as Miraculous is so far, and by the point we moved on to Shippuden we’d gotten:

Prologue: Introduction to the cast and their main goals, Naruto finding the first person to truly believe in him

Land of Waves: Naruto and Sasuke form their bond and Naruto finds his "way of the ninja"

Chunin Exams: We get introduced to a bunch of new supportive characters, Sasuke’s damnation arc beginning, and we get introduced to the second Jinchuuriki

Konoha Crush: the heroes fight off an invasion from a neighbour village, we get a proper introduction to the big bad Orochimaru and the death of the Hokage

Search for Tsunade: We get introduced to the Sannin ninjas and their pasts and motivations, we get a new Hokage

Sasuke Recovery Mission: Fleshing out some of the supportive characters, establishing Gaara’s proper redemption after Naruto defeated him in Konoha Crush, completing Sasuke’s damnation arc

I considered making a list like this for Miraculous, but then I realized that most of the developments in Miraculous are either taken back less than a season later, have such a miniscule effect on the grand scheme of things that they feel like nothing, or mostly things done in seasons 4 and 5. Like, the hero team gets put together and torn apart before it can accomplish anything and Chloé's arc just went back and forth until she was temporarily removed (Astruc's already revealed she'll be back again, undoubtedly in the exact same role as before). Alya learning Marinette's identity, Adrinette dating and Gabriel dying are the developments that haven't been walked back, and that's not a very impressive list.

[nagichi-boop]

WOWOWOW!! I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS!!

Spoilers ahead, naturally (tldr they are giving my boy Shadow the justice he deserves)

Okay, where the hell do I even start-

They seem to finally be doing Shadow right!! I got worried cuz on some of the interviews they were calling Shadow a “dark hero” and I thought maybe they were still gonna make him super antagonistic, but my worries seem to be put to rest with these episodes (and we still have one left!).

I know the first episode still showers him as being gentle, but that was towards Maria, so that was a given. But there’s sooo much in this episode that shows Shadow is not just edgy.

While this is Maria speaking about Shadow, this shows that the writers are bringing Shadow back to being more than just an antagonistic rival to Sonic. He isn’t heartless, he just struggles to be vulnerable and show his emotions. (He’s so autistic and I love him for it /pos)

But to me, the more interesting part is Team Dark’s return because of course it is, WE ARE SO BACK!! And they appear right after Maria says “Then you’ll find even more people you can trust.”

Counter to how we have seen Shadow portrayed in recent media (I’m looking at you Boom and IDW), Shadow isn’t aggressive or secretive. They’re chatting like old time friends, and even if they are there for different reasons, they work together to fight. He doesn’t snap at Rouge or Omega and is actually rather chill about them being there. They have a casual friendly banter and explain to each other why they’re there without being vague or annoyed.

We then see Shadow save Rouge, which…yay! Shadow looks out for his friends rather than thinking only of himself, or saving her to then complain about having to do so.

We get to see them acting more like a team, even though again they aren’t here for the same reasons. Shadow gives them a command (politely) and they all follow his leadership and fight together. They work together - none of this Shadow being hyper-independent and rash. He is coordinating with his partners, and they’re listening to him. Obviously it’s too soon to declare them a team again, but this is definitely a step forward…by going back? I don’t know but I’m thrilled to see them working together and being friendly!

Rouge isn’t manipulative, either. Obviously this is a way to set up having Shadow in Generations, but it also shows off something nice about Rouge. She is on friendly enough terms with Shadow that she’s able to tease him a little. I’m sure she knows that Shadow isn’t keen on the idea of attending Sonic’s birthday party, but it’s also not a totally unreasonable request. She could ask so much of Shadow and she chose this of all things. This is the kind of thing an extroverted friend would tell their introverted friend to do because that is exactly what’s happening.

Shadow’s reaction is also very telling. He grumbles a bit, but he doesn’t lash out at Rouge or heavily protest. Sure, he maybe isn’t thrilled about the idea, but he doesn’t become unpleasant to Rouge because of it. Again, it’s the sort of response an introverted friend would give being asked to go to a party or something with their more extroverted friend. And he respects and cares about Rouge enough to comply.

Anyways, that’s kind of a summary of my thoughts about this. More than anything, I’m so freaking excited!! I was already hyped from the last episode but this one made me so much more excited and enthusiastic for the game. And I’m so glad that they’re writing these characters with love and not just giving them more generic characterisations. I can’t wait to see the third episode!

(P.S. I assume opinions are split, but I personally like Rouge’s voice in this. It fits her teasing, playful attitude in this episode.)

[separatist-apologist]

Is it bad if I say I might not read the next books. Even if it is Elucien, and they might be my only exception. Like yesterday I was reading an Azris fic and, I just realized how much better those two characters would be together and knowing SJM would never do it I became so over canon.

And then I started thinking about all SJM’s mishaps and I was like damnn I don’t know if I even care to read the next books.  I don’t want to spoil the memory of fanon ACOTAR by reading it.

I know she is trying as a writer but I am just getting exhausted with her plot points and it’s also another reason why I choose not to read CC and no one will ever make me do it.

When I was reading the pregnancy plot I remember rolling my eyes and being like SJM don’t do it and she did it.

I am done with SJM I think. Like I said, except the elucien book is really good, and I hear about it every where like the way MAF was, I won’t bother and that might be a stretch. And people might flake me for this but honestly I don’t care it’s a personal preference thing. If you still like the books that’s fine.

Oof

I agree with you anon. I want to see the conclusion of this series but I think for me, I would not have liked these books if I'd read them after something different. I think a lot of it is like, an introduction to these sort of stories and how fun and easy it is to read. I didn't really enjoy TOG and I don't really understand why everyone hypes it up as her best story- it's not even readable until book 3, regardless of WHEN she started writing it. And CC is overly bloated and just filled with all her worst qualities as a writer. I was moderately enjoying the mystery of book 1 CC until what, 600 pages in, the whole thing is solved with "Bryce knew all along and already saved the boy" like okay. Thanks for wasting my time.

As far as ACOTAR, I loved the first three books and I was really excited for ACOSF because I enjoyed Nesta a lot. She's so different from other heroines and then we got...all...that. It felt like everyone was punishing Nesta for not being Feyre- including SJM. The baby plot also genuinely bothers me so much because Rhys harps on and on about telling Feyre the truth and things being her choice until its time to REALLY put that into practice, and suddenly he's all the things he claims to hate. Like when he says that sometimes you can love someone too much, as a criticism of Tamlin? HELLO?

I know she needed to take Feyre out of the plot to push Nesta forward but just being pregnant should have been enough. The book could have focused more time on Feyre and Nesta and Elain hashing their shit out than all the back and forth with Cassian and Eris and how Eris was hurting Cassian's feelings for being...Eris. I don't know this for sure, but I'd bet Eris could more talking/page time than Elain did in NESTAS book, where her whole arc across the main trilogy is protecting Elain.

I think SJM is an entertaining writer- I'm not going to sit here and pretend she's the worst thing to happen to literature when those ladies who wrote the Zodiac Academy are right there, but she's inconsistent and leaves the rest of us to kind of piece it all together. Like, you can find a million theories we treat as canon on why Rhys/Feyre did this why Nesta said that, who was doing the domestic chores in the Archeron house or what Azriels deal with Mor is. And that's just the interpersonal character drama. I've read fics that flesh out her magic system and world so well and it'll remind me that like, oh shit she didn't tell us ANY of this.

I'm still going to read it- sunken cost fallacy. I've spent so much time here, and I love it even if I'm just whatever about the author. I don't think I could be convinced to pick up a new series of hers based on name recognition alone, though.

[princess-of-songs]

Challengers ramblings

As a silent observer on challengerstwt, I see a lot of things that intrigue me to want to join in on the conversation but ultimately I don’t because I don’t want to walk in uninvited and I don’t like the potential of conflict. That’s what makes talking on here a lot easier. Reddit is 50/50.

I did want to talk about discussing the characters.

It’s no secret that Tashi is my favorite of three characters. TBH, she’s become one of my favorite characters of all time. I deeply relate to her emotional repression, how she displays her love, her need for control, and her reluctance to acknowledge her grief because if she heals and moves on- who is she? That said, I deeply acknowledge that Tashi is a fucked up person who needs therapy. She is a loser. She is a control freak. She is a cheater. She can be quite prickly and impulsive with her emotions. She’s very prideful to a fault even when she’s wrong.

I can only speak for myself when it comes to being protective and defensive of Tashi. As a biracial black woman, I always get excited to see black and biracial black women onscreen especially when they’re the leads of a show or a film. 2023 and 2024 were pretty magical back to back years to me, because it brought me two all time favorite characters in Young Queen Charlotte from Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story and Tashi Duncan from Challengers. Similarly to Tashi, I deeply related to Charlotte in a lot of aspects. My two fictional sisters as I like to joke.

For a while, I was obsessed with Charlotte and George. Then something shifted. I started to see some pick Charlotte apart as a character regarding her flaws - which is perfectly okay. She isn’t perfect by any means. But then they would get upset if someone decided to critically analyze George’s behavior (with fully keeping in mind George’s struggle with mental illness). I don’t think any character in QC is perfect and I think it’s cool to analyze what drives their flawed character traits. I also noticed Charlotte and Agatha weren’t as hyped as George, Reynolds, and Brimsley. I was disappointed but not surprised. I have more to say but I’ll save that for another time.

Now you’d think with my sadness over the treatment of Charlotte and Agatha within the QC/Bridgerton fandom, that I’d learn my lesson and I’d toughen up. That I wouldn’t let it get to me.

Unfortunately before Challengers premiered, I naively thought Tashi was going to break that pattern.

Yes, you can laugh at me.

Tashi isn’t an easy character to like or love. I knew that going in. I’d read the original script and I knew Tashi was going to rile some feathers.

I didn’t anticipate the initial reaction. I didn’t expect to see TikTok’s about how the movie would be better without her. I didn’t think I’d get crushed to see stories killing her off. I didn’t think I’d get so sad reading such cruel and bitter things written about Zendaya from her acting to the most mundane things. I didn’t think I’d get really bitter over Tashi being edited out of scenes.

The last one took a while to get over. Mainly because Tashi’s scenes from the original script got cut the most and that broke my heart when I first watched the film. I loved the character of Tashi from the moment I read the script for the first time and I loved Z’s performance. She really brought her to life and understood her so completely. I still wish to do this day, those scenes could’ve made it in a longer version of the film. Oh well. Back to the main topic.

That lit a fire in me.

Before Challengers, I was quite shy when it came to kudos or comments on Ao3. But as a writer myself, it’s encouraging to see that and it makes me want to write more. I try my best to make sure to leave kudos or comments on Tashi centric fics or fics that really try to explore Tashi in a neutral/positive way because I want to see more of them. I’m trying to write some myself so I can help my fellow Tashi fans create that space to talk about her.

On the subreddit, I wanted to start conversations that explored and analyzed Tashi. A lot of my answers whenever there’s a question asked about Tashi, I try my best to think from her perspective. I do think that can sometimes get lost when we are dissecting the character’s actions in Challengers.

I became active on here again because I wanted to join the challengers community. From experience, fandom on tumblr (for the most part lol) can be a great experience.

I think my defensiveness and protectiveness stems a lot from the desire to see more characters like Tashi, Charlotte, and Agatha. I want to see more and more different personalities in black and biracial black female characters. I don’t want us to ever be placed into boxes. I want the possibilities to be limitless. My biggest fear is when there is pushback, people will be reluctant to play these type of characters or write them. That’s the last thing I want.

Finally, I hope as a fandom that we can get to a place where we can dissect Patrick and Art without ripping each other to shreds about it. On twitter specifically and occasionally on Reddit, I’ve seen people get into petty arguments or long ugly fights when someone in the fandom wants to critique one of the guys in a nuanced/neutral/negative way. I’ve seen people block each other, call each other names, and send mean anonymous messages. I love Patrick and Art DOWN. I don’t think they’re perfect, they’re both deeply flawed. Similarly to Tashi, I don’t think it’s bad to discuss these traits and actions those two display and how different people interpret them. I’ve had a lot of thoughts about Patrick and Art but I often stay silent because as I’ve said before, I don’t like conflict lol. Generally, I hope we can get to a place in our fandom where we don’t tear each other apart at all over our different opinions and interpretations of Challengers.

[super-hero-confessions]

Unpopular opinion but I think Rogue is overrated.

It feels like since the 90s she’s been made so ooc there’s nothing actually interesting about her on her own. Her powers for one thing, I’m a real nerd for how powers work etc so I do a lot of research on them, obviously different writers do different things and that’s a big part of why I’m no longer a hardcore marvel comic fan, they make stuff up to fit their narrative and it’s flopped on a lot of interesting, unique characters. Rogue’s power is absorbing powers and memories briefly by skin to skin contact. So her being invulnerable, being able to fly and having super strength isn’t her. I get her having Carol’s powers and memories for a little longer for the trauma arc but that’s long since over, she shouldn’t have any of that anymore but it makes her a big, bad powerful woman that a lot of writers use as self-inserts to come off as Rogue is badass but it’s cringe. Use the source material, do your research. Rogue is written in a way, by writers who are Rogue fans interestingly enough as a mean girl. She’s constantly the centre of attention, having very judging opinions on characters who’ve done way less damage in their pasts than she has and is incredibly flawless even when it’s showing her flaws. Flaws are human, writers should remember that fact. Every other character has them yet Rogue is never wrong and when it’s pointed out you get jumped on. She’s a bit of a bully which has really shown recently with how she treated the Outliers who she’s supposed to be mentoring but has spent more time shouting at and beating up than teaching and helping with their trauma. And of course her husband who is always to blame for everything ever, no matter what.

My other pet peeve is how in more recent comics since the 2010 era it feels like a lot of characters are being absorbed into Rogue’s cheerleading squad. Maybe this is just me but whatever, 🤷🏾‍♀️ a few characters who already have well balanced backstories feel altered by writers to make them fit into Rogue’s circle. Nightcrawler for example. A lot of history, well thought out content for his past that bled into his life as an X-Man. His battle with his looks being the son of a demon and a catholic priest are non existent now he’s just Rogue’s sister. He has an adoptive family who loved him, his demon father who is the reason he will never reach heaven, his other siblings from both Raven and Azazel feel hastily removed now he’s suddenly Raven and Irene’s bio son and only Rogue’s brother even though they’ve never really had that sort of bond until recent years. Fyi, Raven’s shapeshifting powers does not work that way, she cannot have a child as a man because she does not possess that type of metamorphosis. It kind of makes Nightcrawler a nonentity when he was one of the best characters who had one of the steadiest backstories. As a long term fan who was deeply invested in the comics it’s really turned me off Rogue’s character, I just don’t understand they hype or why everything seems to revolve around her in almost every issue of the X-Men.

Another big character who fell into writers Rogue syndrome is Wolverine. He was Kate’s father-figure and that seems to have fallen off for Rogue even when they never had that kind of relationship. He has children of his own and two prominent X-Kids who he’s fatherly to and yet Rogue gets all of his attention. Sure they’re friends but recent comics, particularly Uncanny just reads wrong. Then there’s Gambit but the non-Romy fans have that base covered. I feel sorry for Gambit fans who don’t ship Romy, it’s hard to see the character you love so much be reduced to a shadow of another character with no light at the end of the tunnel. Everything about Gambit now is Rogue, you can’t even look up his tag without her flooding it. I can only imagine the burnout and frustration, then you have the Romy/Rogue cult telling you your opinions are wrong and invalid. It’s a lot. It’s why I don’t buy marvel comics anymore. Writers are busy self-inserting themselves or being overly prejudice (looking at you, Simone) on things, that other storylines and characters get squashed. Superhero comics feel like trashy rom-coms without the comedy, long time fans aren’t impressed. For me Rogue was never overly interesting but had potential, these days it’s hard to read anything with her in it, which seems to be everything. It’s bland unless she’s being bossy, mean and taking over all the time. It’s not a good look.

Obviously this is a writers flaw, not the made up character but that’s who we channel our frustrations through unfortunately and I can never get past the years of unnecessary drama and poor writing to enjoy anything involving her especially with the writers who currently have their claws into things. You should have respect for the character you’re writing or not be hired, fanfic is there for a reason and that’s what 616 canon has become. Lacklustre melodrama. You get a few snippets of good art or pages in a comic and it’s raved over because there’s nothing for so long, it’s tiresome. Devoted fans are given crumbs and the complaints are washed out by fans who aren’t seriously invested so we keep getting trash, not that I’m bashing them, I’m glad some people can enjoy it if that’s what they like but it’s a downer when long term fans aren’t getting a look in at all in fear of upsetting certain fans who have completely taken over and somehow the writers pander to that. Lots of storylines coming out, nothing meaningful or genuine in sight.

[nereidprinc3ss]

I JUST GOT AROUND TO READING DYBMN 10 AND OH MY GOD.. sam you’ve done it again!!

1. your writing. is as usual spectacular. like you just have a way of describing thinks that has me no joke squealing and giggling every five seconds!!! things that would probably get no reaction out of me if written mundanely are turned into ART when you’re the one typing them out istg. this shit belongs in the louvre i promise you,, your talent is insane

2. reader is actually SO me coded (haha, we all laugh at the irony while also acknowledging that reader-insert characters still have defined personalities and arent monoliths of the readers) like i too would have been pissed at spence for not sweet talking me in the middle of the store and also would have tried to climb him five seconds after saying that i couldn’t be allowed to.

3. i adore the dynamic you’ve crafted for spencer and the reader!! its literally so soft and i love the communication thats going on and how theyre both trying to take things slower but managing that with their deep-seated insecurities (reader’s anyway, we all know spencer has them too but i dont know if you plan on focusing on that at all going forward? other than the mention of him “messing up” but thats a sexual insecurity rather than an emotional one yk) maybe its inherent to the soft dom/whiny sub setup but theyre just. so perfect for each other ughh

4. i would LOVEE exploring the switch!spence thing more omg. like i know you’ve mentioned multiple times that sub!spence isn’t your thing and thats totally okay but maybe one where he’s just like desperate and overstimulated and it results in him being more subby idk. i just love desperate men so thats me but i think that could be cool! totally get it if you dont follow that string though considering that reader isn’t really the dom type and all lol,, and your comfort as the writer takes priority!!

5. i feel like there’s a lot of room for angst going forward with reader’s clinginess and this trip…as a religious hurt no comfort enjoyer im excited to see how it may turn out asdfghjkl

ok sorry for rambling but basically youre a literary genius and im hyped for the series going forward!! i genuinely dont care how much time passes between updates as long as my eyes and brain are blessed by your writing <3 thank you for reading and also for existing!

Omg I loved reading ur thoughts this made me so happy!!!

Yes it’s so funny we’re all like reader is just like me fr I’m so glad we can see ourselves in her but also I just love her so much like she’s my fav reader ever ever ever she’s so special to me and I’m obviously biased but I love her personality like she’s can be so shy but she’s not afraid to stand up for herself or be a bitch sometimes and she’s DEFINITELY not afraid to ask for what she wants (usually)

I love their dynamic too and yes for better or worse they are so soft dom/whiny sub😭😭 I think it’d be interesting to expand on Spencer’s insecurities a bit more but I’m not sure to what capacity I’ll do that, I did slightly like with the whole phone call/he thought he liked her more than she liked him thing but obviously it wouldn’t just stop there idk

Yes idk how much I will explore switch Spencer… I feel like for me the main appeal would be clarifying for people that reader is not just passive in her role as a sub like don’t worry about her she’s exactly where she wants to be and seeing her become more dom even just for a part and then go back to being sub because she just enjoys it and she can like both!! I can totally see her embracing a more dominant side from time to time once she gets more confident in general, I already snuck a little bit of that into part 3!!

I’ll be honest I wasn’t PLANNING much angst for this trip but if you’d like to share what potential you had in mind I’m all ears….. I do love to sprinkle in a little angst… but also yes something I’m very aware of is that she is too attached to spencer in a way that’s probably not healthy so we may or may not see the repercussions of that cause on the one hand as I write it I’m like hmmm that’s not…. But also I don’t always feel like making my characters and their relationships completely perfect and healthy all the time like so whattt if they’re a little obsessed with each other it’s fineeee it’s fun!!!

[seekforwarmth]

Annual Writing Self-Evaluation

thanks to @allwaswell16 for tagging me! i enjoyed reading your answers a lot! 1. List of works published this year:

ready for a war

Devoted

fuck around, find out

seven, seven

the embers are new

bet on it

Harmony

Cold Spring

two languages, one love

could start a cult

must be love

don’t let the fire die

2. Work you are most proud of (and why): i’m proud of all of them for different reasons, this is very hard to choose. i’m going to say Harmony bc it was the first time i made a collab with an artist.

3. Work you are least proud of (and why): not necessarily a work but i’m not proud that i couldn’t meet my writing goals set for this year (writing a fic longer than 20k words, finishing a wip i’ve had for three years).

4. A favorite excerpt of your writing: from fuck around, find out

“Everything looks lovely but please, call me Louis. What was your inspiration for the menu, Chef Styles?” Louis asks, beaming. Harry lets out a laugh, refocusing his gaze to the dining area. “I’ll call you Louis if you call me Harry, can we agree on that?” Once he gets a nod of confirmation, he continues. “When Oli mentioned you wanted to retribute to the people working for the movie, and that you wanted it to feel personal, it immediately made me think of the time I arrived in New York. I was a youngster, with no family in the city and only a promise of a job that I wasn’t sure I was talented enough to fulfill,” Harry tells, remembering the nerve-wracking feeling of accepting the sous chef position when he was so young and with not much expertise. “Uh, an old lady by the name of Vittoria welcomed me to her house. She was like a second mother to me, sharing with me not only her home but her culture as well. She came to the States with her parents when she was just a toddler but grew up surrounded by the Italian community. We used to have gatherings every weekend with all her family—and I mean all the family, children, grandchildren, neighbors…I learned a lot from her, from all of them. And I used that as an inspiration for today. You’ll see three courses of my version of some of the food I had the pleasure to share with Vittoria and her family. Just wait until you try the tiramisù…it’s to die for,” he ends with a sigh. When he looks back at Louis, he notices something on his face. Fondness, maybe?

5. Share or describe a favorite review you received: i love getting comments, and there are so many that i keep in my heart that it’s hard to choose. i love especially the ones under my rare pair fics bc it’s when ppl usually tell me that they don’t read rare pairs but they gave it a chance bc of me. it means more than words can express when someone trusts you like that.

6. A time when writing was really, really hard: when i was ill around july and i kept changing and changing my blff prompt. i was very close to drop out bc i thought i wouldn’t make it. fortunately i did and i finished my second fic on time.

7. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: writing Pedro Pascal surprised me a lot lol like i’ve obviously read Louis/Pedro fics before but i had never entertained the idea of writing one myself and it was a nice surprise. also, writing Louis/OMC wasn’t on my plans either but i welcomed it.

8. How did you grow as a writer this year: i personally don’t see any growth.

9. How do you hope to grow next year: i just hope to finish the ideas that i have. i don’t expect for them to be masterpieces, i just need them to be finished.

10. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc): definitely my friends, the ones that read pairings or tropes they don’t like only bc it’s me writing them, the ones that hype my fics even if they don’t know if the story is good yet, the ones that offer their help and their advice to help me improve.

thank you to Anitra @allwaswell16 for being so supportive all this year, for betaing my works and offering your advice, and for encouraging me to keep going.

thank you to Emma @alltheselights who always reads my fics and leaves gorgeous comments under them, your support means a lot to me.

there’s three fics that wouldn’t exist without Mar @sunbellylou so thank you so much, my love, for being an inspiration to write the filthiest things.

thank you to Kenny @luviebaybie for being the most supportive even when life gets busier and busier. thanks for taking the time to beta for me, i appreciate it a lot!

thank you to Andy @outropeace for inspiring me to write abt Louis and the bodyguard, and for teaching me how to write a smau.

thank you to @linhuine, @smittenwithlouis, @nooradeservedbetter, @lemelous, @punkpillowprincess, @voulezloux, @disgruntledkittenface, @tokyolou, for your constant support and your friendship.

11. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: fortunately nothing bc i write romantic stories, no sad stories 🤭

12. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: joining fic fests is not only an opportunity for you to shine, it’s a chance to build community so pls support works from the other authors in the fest, that’s what a fest is about.

also, hide your stats from ao3. there’s a lot of freedom in not knowing if your fic has hits and kudos or if it doesn’t.

13. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: YES! i’m only working on two projects and i’m so excited abt them. the first one it’s a collab between me and @lemelous so expect a lot of gorgeous art, and the second one is a Louis/SebStan wip i couldn’t finish this year.

14. Tag three writers whose answers you’d like to read. ;)@voulezloux, @nooradeservedbetter, @disgruntledkittenface if you haven’t done this already.

*All answers should be about works published in 2023

[snowlessknitter]

The Masked Singer: S13 E5 (Group B: “Ghostbusters Night”)

The Masked Singer goes into Ghostbusters mode tonight. One celebrity will be eliminated. As always, I post before seeing any unmaskings, so these guesses aren’t spoilers. I am watching on a delay because I had a brief nap while this was recording on the TiVo.

Pearl 🦪: We see a “Bar” sign flashing behind her. Says she came from a “tiny little tide pool”, so I’m assuming she’s from a very small town. Says she left home before she even started high school. We see a “Wanted” poster with her picture on it. We see pictures of some deer in the background of another shot, and she’s looking at a dry erase board with a football play chart on it. We also see a neon crescent moon sign. Some of the online commenters are suggesting Gretchen Wilson, but I think some of these clues could still suggest Lita Ford. (Primarily the leaving home before high school and the “Wanted” sign; The Runaways started up when she was a teenager, and the “Wanted” sign could be looking for a fugitive or “Runaway” from the law.) But I think Lita grew up in Southern California. I don’t know where Gretchen Wilson grew up. The bonus clue: “Best Seller”. Says she knows how to put pen to paper. Either as a writer or as a songwriter. I’m sticking with Lita Ford for now.

Griffin 🦁 🦅: We see a “Maskbill”, which would be a spoof on Playbill, a Broadway publication. And we see Lamp 💡(who was revealed to be Melissa Joan Hart in a past season). He says he was called a geek, nerd, and loser. We see him recording a video on a camcorder. So, who has Melissa Joan Hart worked with in the past? Could be the guy who played Harvey on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but he’s kept kind of a low profile since the show ended. Could be Adrian Grenier, who co-starred with her in Drive Me Crazy. The bonus clue: actress McKenna Grace has played his daughter onscreen, and he says one of his kids likes her. So, who’s played her dad onscreen? Chris Evans (Gifted), Rob Lowe (The Bad Seed), Timothy Hutton and Henry Thomas (The Haunting of Hill House, as older and younger versions of the same character), Patrick Wilson (Annabelle Comes Home), and I’m sure a bunch of others. Chris Evans can be ruled out because although he’s married, he doesn’t have any children that we know of. The most likely candidate of these actors would be Patrick Wilson, who has worked on Broadway and has children. I don’t know if he’s done any projects together with Melissa Joan Hart, though.

Space Ranger 👽 🤠: Says one of his odd jobs was schlepping (moving) furniture around New York in the middle of a hot summer. We see a crown. Says he found his calling with a beastly band of boys who ended up “hooking up our careers into hyperdrive”. Makes me think he worked with The Beastie Boys (not as a member) and is known for hip-hop music. So, we can rule out him being an athlete. He opens up a fridge to show himself standing on top of the world. If he’s known for hip-hop/rap music, having him sing instead of rap is a great way to disguise his voice. So, who has worked with the Beastie Boys? Well, I saw some commenters suggesting Flavor Flav from Public Enemy (which would line up with the clock clues, as the wearing of a giant clock is his trademark, and apparently he’s a Swiftie). Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys have both been on the Def Jam Records roster. The bonus clue: a globe, says he’s “toured the world”. If this is indeed Flavor Flav, Robin calling him “electrifying” would make sense, because Flavor Flav is the best hype man in the history of hip-hop, it’s his job to hype up the audience and electrify them. I think Jenny and Rita are on to him.

Boogie Woogie 🪩 🕺: Looking at a star through a telescope. Says his work has saved lives. We see him with some tap shoes. Has he perhaps done Dancing with the Stars? The internet consensus seems to be Andy Grammer, but both him and Gavin DeGraw have done Dancing with the Stars. I think I’d originally guessed Andy Grammer to be Rhino 🦏 all the way back in season 3 (if I remember correctly)! (He turned out to be Barry Zito.) The bonus clue: “Doctorate of Medical Science”. Has his music been featured on a show like Grey’s Anatomy? Jason Mraz has also done Dancing with the Stars. I don’t think this has narrowed the choices down. So, I’ll go with all three: either Gavin DeGraw, Andy Grammer, or Jason Mraz. But what about the former lead singer of The Fray, Isaac Slade? I think The Fray’s song “How to Save a Life” became famous in part due to Grey’s Anatomy.

[queenimmadolla]

really sucks evie got ran off for her age gap fic where the reader was an adult but now we're seeing a lot of people in the Fandom make excuses for joes character in hoard where he's 30 sleeping with a 17 year old

I havent been present, so im not sure whats going on but i would like to give my opinions on that film. i do intend on watching, i have a friend who has spoken with Luna and i’m sure its not meant to glamorize their completely inappropriate relationship. if anything it highlights this and shows just how fucked up they and their relationship are. Shows that its not something to yearn for and depicts why trauma bonding can also be detrimental.

What Michael is doing, regardless of his trauma and hers, is not right and this is made obvious.

I don’t plan on writing for Michael and I have him filtered out in my tags just because i dont want to come across works that romanticize him because I’m sure thats not what Luna wants and intended for, but i am excited to see Joseph’s range of acting and saura’s big debut, as it’s promising to be a strong one.

Now onto the evie thing. I haven’t been shy about this, but I (along with numerous others) am 99.9% sure the people whom harassed her over that were other writers. I cant prove it, because they’re anon hence that .1%. But the fact that when posts about hate goes around, all writers want to focus on is the anon kind (when sometimes its not anonymous, its just behind the scenes stuff that doesn’t quite play out in public) is kind of a red flag, as sometimes i have been quite apparent that it’s not just anon in posts and yet that is still what the spotlight is on. Most of the time, the people behind those anons are other writers—sometimes writers whom we interact with, interacted with, or writers who just hate from afar. So it wouldn’t surprise me at all to know there are hypocrites around, although Evie wrote for characters above the legal age limit (so not even the legal age), with an age gap. She did not write underage age gaps or just-of-age age gaps.

I did see the excitement people had about writing for Michael for a second a while back, though it didn’t last long because people did their due diligence and hopped off the hype train to wait for the movie to drop—again, romanticizing this is the last thing Luna wants. The sex scenes, the flirting, its not inherently depicted as romantic. Its just filmed in a real perspective. That first clip made me heavily uncomfortable and that was the point. I understand people are fans of Joe, strictly, so the sex scenes are what they want to see, but I’ll be watching Michael on screen—not Joe—so I’m already aware those sex scenes are going to make me incredibly uncomfortable. So, I’m hoping people will take what Luna’s trying to convey from this and not just a flash of some ass and a couple thrusts.

[lol-jackles]

Hello! I don’t suppose you watch Bridgerton, but something a little strange has happened there this season that I wanted your opinion on. Luke Newton (Colin Bridgerton) and Nicola Coughlan (Penelope Featherington) were leading this season, as each of the Bridgerton siblings has their own season. So this season was Colin’s, a friends-to-lovers trope.

Now, the way Luke and Nicola carried out press tours was *chef’s kiss*, handholding, talking about how they’d be jealous of each other’s future co-stars cuz they were each other’s leading people first, etc. Even the jealousy trope played out in the actual season was used as a quick, fun bait for fans during such interviews where if Penelope’s other suitor (Lord Debling) was talked about, Luke would act bothered. In short, they were perfectly in sync with each other and were all set for a beautiful season.

Understandably, the formula worked and people couldn’t be more excited for this supposed lightning in a bottle chemistry. But once the show opened, there seemed nothing there! It couldn’t really translate to the screen. The much muchhh hyped sex scenes (it was a running joke that the director ywlled ‘cut!’ but luke and nicola still kept going cause they hadn’t heard them, seemingly so lost in each other, and also another time that they broke furniture filming a scene) seem awkward at best. Rather than coming across as two people who have long known each other and so find security through extending their companionship into a romantic relationship, what we got came across as two teenagers engaging in an awkward, horny one night stand.

Netflix’s comments section is filled with people bashing them for different reasons. Perhaps they didn’t give their leads enough screen time in their own season, maybe they cut down on their steamy scenes, etc etc. but still, the scenes they did get together, like i said, didn’t do anything for the audience in the first place. On the contrary Kate and Anthony, the season 2 leads, have outstanding chemistry and during the moments they popped up this season, totally stole away the room.

This has got me thinking, why couldn’t the press tour magic translate on screen? And are there any notable instances where the red carpet/ on-screen disparity has come out so notably?

The romantic leads of the previous seasons went through chemistry auditions, so they were casted precisely because they have chemistry with each other. Nicola and Luke were cast primarily for their characters, and I doubt they went through chemistry auditions because producers didn't know if there will be more seasons as the odds are against any new shows. #NetflixCancelsEverything exist for a reason.

If fans found the sexual chemistry between Penelope and Colins lacking, then it's probably for the same reason why Friends Rachel and Joey hook up in season 6 had zero chemistry. While I'm sure Matt LeBlanc was game, Jennifer Aniston had worked with and known Matt for 6 years and saw him in the friend-brother zone. It was awkward for her. By the time Bridgerton season 3 rolled around, Nicola had worked and known Luke for 5-odd years and she saw him in the friend-brother-zone. It's awkward for her and Luke picked up on it and acts accordingly. I'm not blaming Jennifer or Nicola, I blame the writer/showrunner for seemingly forgetting two things: 1) just because a woman has friendly chemistry with men does not automatically mean romantic interest. It's a bane for many women in real life that their niceness gets misinterpreted by men to mean sexual opportunities, and 2) women friend-zone men for non-negotiable reason, because women are innately more selective because they have to be because the risks are so much higher for them than men.

Full disclaimer: with all three seasons I watch the first two or three episodes and then skip to the eighth episode. My nieces watched S1 first two episodes over one of the holidays at my house and while somewhat intrigued, I quickly figure out they were going to go through all the romantic tropes, so it was a nope for me, but I had to find out who Lady Whistledown was and skipped to the final episode. A habit I kept for the following 2 seasons and Queen Charlotte.

ETA: I liked how Penelope wanted to find a husband in order to get away from her own family, only for her marriage to actually draw her closer to her blood family by healing some of the rifts, and then saving her mother and paying for her sister's dream ball.

[zalrb]

What is your opinion on Kai in terms of a villain character?

Because the fandom seems very spilt on this. Some people say he's the best big villain since Klaus. Some people say that - whilst Chris Wood acts the role well - Kai as a character isn't written as well as other past big villains (excluding Silas and also the Travellers obviously).

Personally, I think Kai had so much potential (much like Silas), if he was just given to another set of writers. But he just falls short of being as good as Klaus or Katherine for me. And I'm not exactly sure why, but there's just something in the writing for Kai just doesn't hit as hard. Maybe it's just a me thing, but I want to know your opinion on Kai, since this whole fandom is very spilt on his character.

So, firstly, I don't think any TVD villain is great and I especially think that for Katherine and Klaus, particularly because of how they're hyped

rest of the post here:

so getting that out of the way, I wouldn't put Kai up against villains from other shows but he's my favourite TVD villain even though I thought the writing went left

and I'm sure I have more about it in the Bonnie Bennett masterlist you just have to read the Bonkai posts.

[peace-coast-island]

Diary of a Junebug

Go with the flow like the autumn koi and swim away without a care in the world

I should strive to be more like the autumn koi in the Moonlit Choral Brook. They follow the rhythm of the river like it’s a dance, always moving forward. I wonder how the world looks from their point of view through the crystal clear water.

We’re in Sunburst Villa for a fishing tourney involving autumn koi obviously. They’re kinda like the village’s mascot, so it’s no exaggeration to say that they’re everywhere. I don’t mind, I think koi are pretty, especially the autumn koi with its warm and vibrant colors.

Along with the journey, there’s MellowCon, an anime convention where Alexi and Emma are attending. Of course, I got a couple signed prints from them, one of them having been commissioned from Cheyenne, who regretfully couldn’t make it. Luckily, the next convention Alexi’s going to is about half an hour away from where Cheyenne lives and they have plans to meet up with some old college friends during that weekend.

We’re also hanging out with Jamie and the Linnea Squad for some sightseeing. Jamie wanted to treat the Linnea Squad to a vacation when she found out an old friend and her traveling party was in the area, so she introduced them to us.

The fishing tourney has been fun in a chill, low-key kind of way. I always prefer events more of that pace than something big and extravagant. Sure, those can be fun, but they also can be draining. For me, fishing is about taking it easy, so it makes sense for it to be a low stakes kind of thing. It would be nice to catch lots of huge fish and get a nice trophy, but that’s not a priority for me. I’m just here for the cool sea creatures.

MellowCon was also fun, although it’s not really my scene, so I didn’t really spend a lot of time there. To be honest, I really only hung around Alexi and Emma because I’m not familiar with the other shows and games over there. Really, I only know a very small handful of characters they play, specifically from Pillars of Stone and Flame. Still, it was fun looking around and seeing all the art and cosplay.

At least I was able to get into the conversations revolving around Pillars. Along with Emma and Alexi, it seems like a lot of the English VAs really kicked off their careers with Pillars - and most of them happen to be fans of the game too. The new update’s coming next week with a new exploration area and story chapter, both which I’m hyped for.

Along with the excitement for the new update, we also talked a bit about that dev, the one who was memed in an interview for coming off as a snob — and rightfully so, to be honest. Apparently, she made a spectacle of herself in a podcast by being sort of passive aggressive towards the fanbase. From my understanding based on translations, she doesn’t like the criticism towards the writing, except she kinda blows it out of proportion.

I mean, I kinda get it, but at the same time those criticisms are usually valid. I got interested in Pillars for the story and exploration, and while I am invested, I find the writing to be uneven at times. In other words, when it’s good, it can be really good, but when it’s bad, it falls flat. At least, in my opinion, the story has improved a lot since the beginning, though pacing seems to be its weak spot.

The podcast also goes a bit into Constellation Matrix, which is another game produced by the same company as Pillars, and that was what prompted the dev’s rant as she worked on both. I don’t know too much about Constellation Matrix’s lore, but there’s a lot of comparisons made between the character Fury and Pillar’s October - who happens to be played by Emma - in terms of their character arcs being similar.

From the gist of it, Fury was a fan favorite, at least until the writers butchered her character arc so badly that she died an anticlimactic death. In other words, she was a well written character with a lot of potential to take the story in another direction. Fans speculated that the writers didn’t want to commit or something, so they decided to kill her off and then act like she never existed. Of course, fans protested and the phrase “offed like Fury” became a thing. Even the company and the devs poke fun at it occasionally.

I mean, imagine screwing up so badly that you sort of became a cultural phenomenon, like, damn. I can see the parallels between Fury and October, which are likely intentional, though I think I have faith in Pillars to not pull an “offed like Fury” with October. I mean, October’s second character story chapter’s coming out in the new update, so she’s not disappearing from the spotlight anytime soon. Really, the only thing I’m worried about at this point is the pacing, especially later on when the story begins to focus on other characters.

And on an unsurprising note, that dev isn’t a fan of “offed by Fury” and went off on a tangent on why it was necessary for Fury to die and people were too dense understand what it meant for the narrative or something. I didn’t understand most of it, but she seemed really defensive over that for some reason, which is what people are memeing over because it really is ridiculous.

Aside from hyping about Pillars, the biggest highlight of MellowCon for me was seeing Alexi and Emma with their fans. Both of them never imagined that they’d make it as voice actors, not with the way their families discouraged them from pursuing it. And now here they are, living the life they never imagined would be possible if they hadn’t taken the plunge. It really is amazing to see.

Alexi had a pleasant surprise when her brother showed up with his friends to support her. She mentioned that out of her family, she has a difficult relationship with her oldest brother and their father after the accident. The way she describes it, they see her as damaged goods, a traumatized amputee who should be ashamed to be alive. Sounds harsh, but that’s just the sad reality of how some people are.

While things are far from ideal between Alexi and her brother, at least they’re talking. It’s sad that they used to be close, only for him to pull away when she needed his support the most. She said the worst thing was that he was being dishonest, always making up excuses to justify treating her like she’s less of a person. And when her voice acting career took off, she felt that his “support” was purely superficial, as in he only cared when it benefitted him.

As for her father, not only he looks down on her, he also thinks that voice acting is not a real job. His response to her getting more recognition as a voice actor was basically along the lines of, “Do these people have anything better to do? Aren’t they tired of her yet?” How rude.

Alexi said she wasn’t super close to him as they didn’t really have a lot in common to begin with, but they got along pretty well back then. She described him as old fashioned, the kind of person who thinks that people should just develop a thick skin and get over it. Basically, although he’d never say it outright, he’s ashamed of having a disabled and mentally ill daughter.

By now, Alexi’s accepted that they’ll never see eye to eye. She admits that she can be difficult, though I don’t think that’s an excuse for him to cast her aside like that. Sounds like the kind of person where there’s just no winning with them. When you’re at your lowest, they make fun of you for being weak. And then when you stand up for yourself, they complain that you’re unreasonable and stuck up. Sometimes you just have to say “Fuck it, I’m not bending over backwards just to get your approval.” Alexi’s been through a lot of shit and she doesn’t have time to deal with people like that. Good for her!

Then we met up with Jamie and her friends, the Linnea Squad and Caerwyn’s adventuring party. Linnea and her comrades are still traveling with Jamie from time to time, mainly because they need a mentor figure to look up to. They’re still at large, so going off on their own isn’t the best option.

Linnea’s still trying to reason with Jet and Gabe, but it seems like her pleas go in one ear and out the other. There’s no point in forcing them to talk if they refuse to, so she has no choice but to let it go. She and the others are still hoping for a reconciliation, but knowing how stubborn and hardheaded their friend is, they’re gonna need a lot of patience before things settle down. As long as he’s not causing trouble, and potentially putting the rest of the squad at risk, Jamie advises that it’s best to leave him alone for now. Sounds like a tricky situation, though I think the squad’s handling it well.

As for Caerwyn, she’s an elf mage who’s adventuring with her apprentice mage Salka, and Kalle, a warrior from the Glacial Mountains. They were planning to travel further up north, but they encountered problems at the Hallowed Pass. There was another member, a healer mage they picked up during their travels who later parted ways not too long ago, right before the group headed towards the Hallowed Past.

The ordeal the party experienced over there caused a considerable setback, but since they’re not on a strict schedule, it’s not that big of a deal. Basically, there were a bunch of curses and monsters acting haywire to the point that the roads became inaccessible. Caerwyn said it was just their luck that their healer mage just left because he happened to have an innate immunity to some of those curses, which would’ve made cleaning up a lot more easier. Still, it wasn’t anything that Caerwyn couldn’t handle.

While Caerwyn and Salka took care of the curses and flying monsters, Kalle handled the beasts and whatever physical obstacles came their way. The whole cleanup took nearly four days and they succeeded in reopening those routes, a feat that Caerwyn said would be considered impossible for most mages and warriors. I don’t think she’s exaggerating, otherwise, I think Jamie would’ve called her out.

Those four days really tested their stamina, especially for Kalle, so they have to take it easy for a while before going back on the road. Since they have to cross the mountains and blizzard season is approaching, which can get deadly in these parts, the group figured that it’s not worth risking their necks out there. Along with overexertion, Kalle also sustained some injuries while fighting, so he had been on strict bed rest orders.

Caerwyn and Salka are almost fully recovered while he still has to take it slow. And of course, he’s gone a bit stir crazy from being in bed all the time, but at the same time too tired to really do anything. That can be a drag sometimes. At least he was well enough to join us on the tourney for a bit and catch some autumn koi.

Since there’s no way of knowing when’s the next time they’ll cross paths again, Jamie and Caerwyn have a lot of catching up to do. Jamie says Caerwyn doesn’t have the best sense of time because she has a long life, so Salka often has to keep her in line or else she’d be taking them on detour after detour. After all, she may have all the time in the world, but for us humans, we don’t really have that luxury.

Salka has explored the village in and out, so she’s become our tour guide. The three of them tend to do their own things when they’re staying somewhere for a while. Caerwyn likes to look for shops that sell magic stuff, according to her, shadier a place looks, the more likely you are to find some treasure. Jamie wasn’t exaggerating when she said that Caerwyn’s a walking tome on magic. While she’s off doing that, Salka’s exploring the shops and replenishing on supplies, and Kalle’s running around helping the locals out.

There’s a cafe that’s not too far from the tourney, so it’s become our hangout spot. Not only the pastries are good, they also have these cute autumn koi rice cakes for the occasion. It’s kinda become our thing to end the night with rice cakes, green tea, and a couple card games.

The nightlife is pretty active here, so Caerwyn and Salka have been using these game nights to seek out a new member to join their party. As their journey goes on, they realize that they need a healer, preferably a licensed medic. The guy who left, Emlyn, wasn’t a medic, but he was a mage who Caerwyn considers a genius. Not only he’s immune to most curses, which is considered unusual, he can easily heal ailments that are difficult for even the most experienced mages. And the worst part, according to Caerwyn, instead of putting his gifts to good use, he spent most of his life living with regrets. Based on her tone, I wonder if she’s speaking from experience.

Before going off their separate ways, Emlyn left a notebook on various spells and medicinal herbs for common ailments, which has been a godsend for them. While that alone has been helping them get by, Caerwyn’s open to recruiting a medic just to be safe. According to her and Jamie, those kinds of mages are considered to be very niche, which is why it’s hard for them to find one. Basically, mages aren’t very common, and licensed ones, especially in the medical field, are very few and far between. Emlyn happened to be a unique case, so their replacement has some big shoes to fill.

Well, like Caerwyn says, there’s no rush. It’s not healthy to live life burdened by worries and regrets. Sure, there are things that are outside your control, but don’t let that stop you from living. Although Caerwyn’s made a name for herself as a powerful mage, she says she can’t help but feel like she hasn’t done enough, which is why she’s on this adventure now, to take it slow and really get to know her companions before she inevitably outlives them like most of her friends.

After getting burned out with the incident at the pass, she said seeing the autumn koi swimming in the river reminded her why she and Salka set out on this journey in the first place. Instead of a definite endpoint, they’re just going with the flow like the koi, and they’re content with that. Even if you decide to stop moving, the currents will take you along anyway whether you like it or not, so you might as well let it carry you away. You’ll end up somewhere, and you have the choice of exploring your surroundings or just burying your head in the sand. Like I said before, sounds like Caerwyn’s speaking from experience.

It won’t be long before we all go our separate ways again. Jamie hopes it won’t be too long before she and Caerwyn cross paths again. There may be no guarantees, but considering how much Jamie travels, Caerwyn bets that they’ll meet up again in the future, and hopefully introduce her to their medic. From how Jamie, Salka, and Kalle talk about her, Caerwyn is an interesting figure, one who I really hope to meet again in the future if fate allows.

Read on AO3

[evenmyhivemindisempty]

for the ask game: 001 favorite character (sandman), character you felt the writers screwed up (any media), 002 gabby/pierce, calliope/corinthian [eyes emoji]

Oooh for favorite Sandman character, definitely the Corinthian! He’s just - he’s everything! He’s queer, he’s a fuck up, he’s weird, he’s *trying*, he’s constantly looking to partner up with other people to help him overthrow his boss, he’s manipulative but not necessarily *good* at it. I love that he loves life, and loves humanity in his own way. He’s a nightmare, so his love is nightmarish and monstrous, but he’s so capable of having fun and there is something tragic about him being punished for being true to his nature. I’m not sure he’s really capable of being any way other than what he is, and I adore that for him.

I especially love him contrasted against the collectors - they’re all so full of resentment and spite, they’ve all invented narratives where they’re justified in killing their victims, and the Corinthian doesn’t need that at all! He doesn’t hate his victims! He’s a monster, he doesn’t need to justify what he’s doing. His speech to them was kind of hilarious in that it sort of missed the mark about why *they* kill - most of them aren’t really killing to kill at all! And when they speculate on the reasons for his name, and he kinda demurs?? Because it’s just his name! It’s not some badass moniker he came up with for himself like the rest of them. It is literally just his name.

Character I felt the writers screwed up… urgh, not to drag myself back into the OFMD fandom (yikes), but as someone who binged season 1 and was hella excited where season 2 would take the story… I gotta say Ed Teach. I won’t get too far down this rabbit hole, but needless to say, if you choose to write your co-protagonist and romantic lead as an abusive monster, that’s fine, but please actually follow-through, don’t just hand-wave it all away when it starts to headbutt against the “sunshine friendship&romance” plot you wanna tell

Gabby/Pierce

when or if I started shipping it: Not until I saw that deleted scene a few months ago!! God, I’m still feral over it. That he calls her by a nickname - that there was clearly a friendship between them, if not more – and it makes so much sense with how hyped up he’s acting right after her death, like he’s keeping himself going on willpower and Ritalin, and the way he looks so solemn when he’s telling Caliban people don’t change?? GAH. It’s a ship I didn’t think about for YEARS but has grabbed me right by the throat.

my thoughts: That I love it. That I want it. That there’s an entire movie about Gabby and Pierce’s relationship we only catch glimpses of the tail-end of, and I’ll never stop screaming about that.

What makes me happy about them: That they were friends!! She’s a nurse and he was the Reaver commander, but he *knew* her well enough to know that she loved comic books (like him!) They’re very different people – she doesn’t strike me as someone that would be drawn in to his posturing, and he’s hinted at being kinda nerdy and quiet at points in the movie where he’s not fronting, and I love the implication that she saw a side of him he doesn’t normally show to people.

What makes me sad about them: y’know it’s a tough call, but probably the part where she gets killed either by him or his Reavers on his command 😭 although it does add a deliciously tragic edge to it too

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: that there’s not more of it!

Things I look for in fanfic: assuming there was more fanfic of the two of them, I’d probably look for fanfics that explored Pierce being… maybe not *softer*, but more vulnerable with Gabby, but without making him OOC (I like my boy with his off-putting, nasty streak!) Them being drawn in to the aspects of each other that they don’t feel as comfortable showing is *chef’s kiss*

My kinks: ooh definitely femdom, CNC (i can see them switching roles for that one), pegging, and MFM threesomes with a “forced bi” roleplay element, light bondage

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Probably Logan!

My happily ever after for them: Gabby was just faking being dead and digs Pierce out of the ground 😭😭 Always in love with endings where Pierce gets to be her extra good guard dog

Calliope/Corinthian

when or if I started shipping it: A while back (maybe a year ago now?) a friend of mine in a server drew a gorgeous piece of Calliope/Corinthian art (the one I attached to the tumblr post linking to my story, with their permission), and I was hooked after that!

my thoughts: Corinthian deserves a better master than Dream tbh, and I love him with an actual goddess who understands some part of his whole personhood situation. Someone who respects him as an individual, but also understands that if he doesn’t have someone holding his own leash pretty tightly (and giving him plenty of enrichment and affection), he’s gonna go off and do *sooo* many murders because that’s just who he is. And I love Calliope getting to indulge in some messy sex after her ordeal, with someone that just adores her for *her* and not that she’s a muse

What makes me happy about them: that their needs have the capability to balance out pretty well!! That I can see Calliope as someone who can survive and thrive with the Corinthian, and I think the Corinthian would be better off under her, too.

What makes me sad about them: when i remember they probably have met before, in happier times when Orpheus was still alive, and we’ll likely never see it 😭 did Calliope like Dream’s favorite nightmare?? Did she pamper him like a treasured pet? Was he jealous of her for her closeness to Dream? Did he adore having someone around that treated him with a softer touch?

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: again, that there’s just not really fanfic for them! 😭

Things I look for in fanfic: (assuming there was more to choose from!) really anything exploring the power dynamics between a nightmare with daddy issues and a goddess that’s spent the last 70 years imprisoned. I don’t think they could ever be regular boyfriend/girlfriend, free of power imbalance, but that’s what I adore about it

My kinks: femdom, Calliope as a masochistic dom, CNC with Calliope as the “victim” (specifically love her reclaiming herself and her sexuality & reconciling some of her trauma through some CNC), gentle domme, primal play, orgasm control/denial

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: honestly, I just love giving Call the Corinthian. I’m not sure I really ship her with anyone else - although Calliope/Destruction tickles something in my brain too. And for Corinthian, definitely Rose

My happily ever after for them: she gets to keep the Corinthian and he’s her pampered and very enriched monster 😌😌