#gonna start listing characters that I've seen this happen to

[mccromy]

Sure sure, ooc-ness is natural and normal in fandom, as it is ignoring canon elements that you disagree with or plainly dislike.

But you are aware that that wildly inaccurate interpretation and despiction of your favorite character, with little to no basis on the canon material, that ends in creating a version of said character that only lives inside your head, means you don't actually like that character at all? Surely you realize that?

[billythesimp]

Hellooo! I've seen your work and i was really amazed by your work. It's just pure mwah 🤌🏻❤️

I thought you were close on request before, so when i see it finally open i was in joy like fr. (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠) I have few but im gonna slow with you since im sure you also busy.

So mine is Wise (you can add any other characters) x reader (prefer fem but gn is also okay). “when he saw someone else start to flirt with you (and he is jealous).”

If not, feel free to skip this request. I completely understand. Have a nice day and make sure take care of yourself (⁠/⁠^⁠-⁠^)/❤️

How do I write a Jealous Character... Oki here I go then.

[Proceeds to then stare at the screen for another 10 minutes trying to write a jealous character]

I think he came out more overprotective then anything ;-;

Who's This Dear?

⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎…

Sorry for disappearing for a bit, decided to take a break and figure out a schedule that wouldn't give me writers block oh so quickly! Also another note, I promise I'm not just a Wise account, people just love this goof! Me included!

Wise x fem!reader

𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑖𝑡…⋙

tw: OOC / Use of [Name] instead of Y/N

✦ Usually customers were not a big problem at Random Play, with the experience he had gained from being a store manager leading to him adapting to the more tougher requests and issues it came with. He keeps a calm face and offers solutions to many people's problems. And a lot of the time, they are satisfied with his care that regulars swear that Belle and Wise are some of the efficient and caring managers there are. They never get mad or yell, the handle almost every interaction with care and patience. Because of that, Wise prides himself in having gained that reputation on Sixth Street. 

✦ What he also has pride in is what a wonderful girlfriend he has working alongside them. Almost everyone they work with or know on the street know of Wise’s Girlfriend. While she may only work part time during the week, she’s made an effort in getting to know Wise’s connections and making friendly conversation with their fellow vendors on the street. Every time Wise sees her chatting up with their regulars or laughing with someone like General Chops or Master Tin, he can’t help but have his heart swell in joy that they really are such a great person and that everyone approves of them already. Really, Wise believes he scored with this one, the amount of times Belle has joked about them getting married may happen sooner rather than later. 

▿

That being said, it’s during one of the shop’s working hours that it happened. He decided to take inventory of what stock they had around the store, [Name] incharge of manning the counter as Bangboo 18 needed a well-deserved recharge. But as he was shelving some recordings, he heard the angelic laughter of his love that left him wondering just what they could have been laughing at. Peeking out the slot of the staff door, he watched as some random man leaned on the counter. He held a smug look on his face as she only waved him off, a pleasant yet confused smile on their face leaving a growing pit to form in his stomach. 

‘Who the hell is he?’

Wise straightened up his jacket before walking outside to see what they had been talking about. “Oh come now, don’t be so modest. After all, a pretty face like yours surely is what keeps this business going. Why not take a break, how about we get some lunch together after your break- eh?”

“Oh hey babe, how’s the counter treating ya?” Wise saddled up to the counter with his hand hovering over the small of their back, watching as they relaxed at his touch. “Oh- Wise! It’s been good, um. Do you know if we have this movie in stock by chance? I couldn’t find it on the system…” She tucked a hair behind her ear, smiling before letting him slide in and take a look on their small tablet holding all their movies listed in rented/overdue/in-house. The man before stepped back as he did this, slowly getting nervous. 

“Ah- yeah, I looked around and couldn’t find it. Hehe…”

“Hmm, oh [Name], you’re due for your break. I can watch things from here.” She perks up at this, smiling before asking him about sharing lunch together again. “I’m down for sandwiches- OH we could get to 141 and grab some snacks. I’ll go now actually!” With that, she entered the staff only only to return after with her purse and kissing him goodbye, waving to the stranger and wishing him luck with his movie search. 

“Hmm, sorry sir, Looks like what you’re looking for isn’t here. Could I recommend anything else for you? Perhaps something that isn’t already someone else’s property?” Wise sneers at the stranger, a kind-hearted look plastered onto his face despite the dark tone in his voice that only left the man to shiver at his work.

“Um, looks like it's not here… I’ll be going then.”

“Oh, please do.” With a wave, Wise’s closed eye smile turned into a deathly glare as he left and walked the opposite way from where [Name] had gone. Once he figured that he wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon, he let out a sigh of relief and slumped down. The one time he leaves his girlfriend alone and someone already tries to make a move on them. 

“Well that was a sight, huh?”

Belle entered from the backdoor, playfully teasing her brother as he reeled back in shock out of her sudden timing, all the while Eous runs up to his second parent and leaves comforting pats on his legs. “What happened with [Name]? I thought she was watching the front for me?” Wise sighs before muttering out a small explanation, embarrassed as he never lost his cool like this before. Other than the time Belle got lost in a Hollow, he's never overreacted to this extent. He’s only glad that it was Belle and not [Name] who entered, he wouldn’t know how she’d react if she realized he was jealous and became protective of them.

“Way to show who’s the boss around here. Man, I kinda wish I could have seen it.” 

“Master, I have full access to the store camera’s and save every recording for the next 30 days until removal. I can pull it up on the H.D.D System for you.” Before Wise could refuse, Belle is already running into the Staff room to save the recording before it was too late. 

“Wise! I’m back! And I got your favorites!”

The bell rang as [Name]’s cheering caught his attention while they held up two small bags filled with various candies and snacks. He could only smile, approaching them and pulling them into a tight hug. “Thanks love, I really appreciate it. Now how about we watch a movie in my room for a while, huh?”

He is only grateful that he has such a loving and thoughtful girlfriend by his side.

[ghostcatssecretblog]

Attack On Titan: Modern AU

(Or as I call it the highschool sweet heart au.)

Some of you may have seen my post based on my Attack on Titan Modern AU! But I've only ever posted photos. (I have more on my tiktok. Feel free to check it out)

So I'm gonna share my notes from this AU and my personal take on the characters in a modern universe.

Some starter notes:

I tried to bring elements from the original story over, but obviously, it's not just a complete modern retelling, and to be honest, I mostly focused on Eren bc like...that's my boy. I have some thoughts on the others and they're listed below but I don't touch on everyone bc I just don't have enough thoughts about them.

The modern AU does not take place in our world. It's still theirs, so the setting and map is the same just...modern. You can honestly take this as a reincarnation AU.

So let's go!

Eren:

• Eren's mom died in a car accident when he was nine. He was there to see it but luckily was mostly unharmed. His mom however died due to the impact.

• His father is a doctor, and because of this, he is rarely ever home, so his brother Zeke has to take care of him. Zeke is overly protective and tries to prevent Eren from doing things he considers to be reckless.

• Zeke and Eren have a weird relationship because while Zeke is the one who raised him and took care of him, Eren resents the fact that Zeke mothers him so much, especially as he gets older and tries to have more freedom to do what he wants with his life.

• As kids Armin, Mikasa, and Eren stuck together. Eren defended them from bullies, but the trio always managed to find themself in trouble. Mostly due to Eren always getting into something or starting fights of his own.

• He was already a bit of a trouble maker, but when his mom passed, he seemed to spiral. Zeke, only being 20 when he started taking care of Eren, means having to juggle college, a job, and raising a child. Needless to say, Eren went unsupervised a LOT in middle school.

• During freshman year of high school, Eren started attending Scout High, where he met a lot of his friends. He struggled at first but eventually formed a rag-tag group that only grew. One of those is Arte, who, like Reiner and Berthold, is a year above him. Their friendship was rocky at first, but they eventually came to an understanding.

• During freshman year, he joined the soccer team. By junior year he became captain.

• During sophomore year, the changes slowly began. Zeke became more overbearing, pushing Eren to be sneaky, and his father was around less and less.

• Then the incident happened. It was during a house party At Historia's right after homecoming. Everything was fine at first until Reiner made a foul comment about Eren's mom being dead. A fight broke out between them, resulting in Reiner having to go to the hospital. Because Arte, and a few others vouched for Eren and said that Reiner instigated the fight Eren got left off easy but was made to go to therapy and was put on probation.

• During junior year of high school, Eren becomes more reckless and starts to isolate from his friends more. He hangs out with the wrong sort of kids (Floch and Samuel), gets into fights more often, skips class, and overall stops caring as much. He picks up skateboarding as a hobby.

•

Extra notes:

• While he plays soccer he also does skateboarding as a hobby.

• He's into metal bands such as 5FDP and SOAD.

• His grandparents (dad side) are very conservative. They also don't approve of Grisha divorcing Dina and Marrying Carla (partially bc she was younger than him). They tend to favor Zeke and consider Eren to be nothing more than a trouble maker.

Arte

• In contrast to Eren's more middle class suburban life, Arte grew up your stereotypical white trash sort of home with a neglectful mother and an alcoholic father

• They grew mostly isolated, living too far from the city to make friends and considered too much of an odd kid to make any at school.

• That is until middle school. When they met Winnie.

• Winnie comes from upper class. She's rich but considered the back sheep of the family and because of this her and Arte become close friends. Closer than friends even

• But in 8th grade they split. Winnie wanted to stay in public school to be with Arte but Arte pushed her away, ensuring Winnie would go to boarding school. Art thought she was better off there.

• Arte then attends the same highschool as Eren their freshman year.

• Arte is friends with Annie (both are lower class and have bad parents) and Hitch - designated sunshine and rich girl of the group.

• Absolutely loves automotive and English classes. They help fix Eren's car on the regular.

• Their relationship when they first meet is weird and mostly bickering. Very friend/enemies through Eren's freshman and Sophmore year.

• Around his junior year he's getting in a lot more fights. Arte helps patch his face up in the boy's bathroom. There's a heart to heart and they become actual friends soon after.

• Arte Annie and Hitch start hanging around Eren's friend group more - leads to Armin and Annie dating.

• For the rest of Junior year Arte and Eren end up sneaking out (arte sneaking into his room, going to the skatepark, wandering the neighborhood, late night McDonald's runs)

• Eventually they end up dating but it's a bit of a slow burn bc neither wants to admit they like the other.

• Arte keeps Eren as far away from their home life as possible bc they don't want him seeing how awful it is but also bc they're fairly certain if he were to their dad hitting them Eren would end up in prison for murder

• Eren does find out via seeing the scars and bruises on Arte and loses his shit

• The one time he did catch Arte's dad putting his hands on them Arte had to drag him back into the car to avoid a fight.

Extra notes:

• AAH have matching friendship bracelets

• Likes music like Radiohead, Nirvana, Deftones...

• They go to football games (hitch is a cheer leader) and Eren's soccer games together. As well as Parties, homecoming, prom (Arte asks Eren for their senior year and vise versa for his), haunted houses, carnival, etc.

• Arte stays over at Eren's a lot bc bad home life.

• They also get Eren into smoking weed. Zeke does not approve.

• Arte graduates first but takes a gap year to wait on Eren so they can apply to colleges together (with zekes help)

• During this time Arte temporarily moves in with Zeke and Eren.

• Unfortunately neither knows what they want to do with their life atm

• I really feel like Eren would be the kinda person to go to a lot of protest though. He probably organizes half of them.

• Arte -> Enginering Major

• Eren -> Social Justice Major

• Zeke and Yelena are married. They end up moving to Liberio, Marley and try to take Eren with them.

• Eventually end up getting dog together named Titan. He's a chow and Tibetan mastiff mix

Armin:

• He still lives with his grandpa

• His parents are alive they just travel a lot for work so he doesn't see them very much

• It's part of the reason he wants to see the ocean and travel.

• Ends up a marine biologist

• Armin x Annie !

• Takes a lot of IB classes in High-school.

• Likes softer music. I'm thinking Cavetown vibes.

Mikasa:

• Her parents are alive! Yay!

• Her, Armin and Eren all lived in the same neighborhood. Armin and Eren were friends first and she joined them when her family moved into the neighborhood.

• She almost had a little brother but he didn't make it. Thus, she projects big sister energy onto Eren and Armin.

• Listens to Lana del Rey and Mitski. Unless she's working out, that is.

• Ends up a physical trainer after highschool.

• Jean x Mikasa bc that boy adores her and would actually give her the domestic life she craves.

Friend groups:

1. Eren Armin Mikasa

2. Jean, Sasha, Connie and Marco are all friends.

3. Annie Hitch and Arte

4. Reiner and Bertholdt

5. Historia <3 Ymir

Porco, Piek, Marcel aren't really ever relevant but I imagine they go to a rival school in Libero. Porco is on the boy's soccer team and he and Eren have beef bc of it.

Reiner:

• Reiner's issues in this AU stem from growing up in a conservative household. His mother is reglious and his dad went out for milk...

• He's also a closeted homo. His feelings for Historia are merely him hetero-compensating. Hence, his issues towards Eren, who is very openly Bisexual. (Also idk but there's homoerotic tension there. Have you seen them fight??)

• But by college he figures his shit out. He's a changed man! I like to think he ends up dating Ploam's OC Logan.

• Anyway, just imagine your stereotypical closested football joke but then he grows up, gets him a bf and a shelter dog and LIVES HAPPILY

Annie:

• Kinda already summarized her in the previous notes but

• She's still adopted in this au. Her dad still sucks. Her and Arte have bonds bc of it

• AruAnnie! They get cats when they get older. Colossus the maincoon and sphinx (idk what to name it)

• I like Yama's take on her music taste. She definitely listens to Evanescence and Avil Lavigne.

• Professional MMA fighter after Highschool

I don't really have thoughts on Bertholdt, and I'm sorry I just don't have any thoughts on him :p

Sasha and Connie are still best friends! I think It would be really cute if Niccolo was from the same school as Porco and Piek and Sasha met him during a bake sale and liked his baking so much he went into Culinary after HS and ofc eventually got his own restaurant. Sasha is a food blogger and is constantly posting his dishes on the gram which just brings in most business for him. (Listen I need these two TO BE HAPPY)

Marco doesn't die! For once, omg. He and Jean become good friends. He, just as with the show, that starts Jean's character arc. Instead of dying, he ends up having to move away but it forces Jean to realize he needs to open up and make friends with other people too.

That's all I have so far! But feel free to ask questions about the AU!

[genericpuff]

Turns out it's been a while since I've talked about Rachel's medical fetish art so it came as a shock to people when I mentioned it in the last post (I've got quite a few asks about it lmao) So I'm gonna enlighten y'all real quick on what I'm referring to, and yes, it's probably exactly what you're thinking of when you hear the word 'medical fetish'.

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSION OF MEDICAL FETISH ART AND DEPICTIONS OF NEEDLES!!!!

So the name "used_bandaid" is one Rachel started using back in the early to mid 2000's. She went by a LOT of different pennames back then, including but probably not limited to:

Pepper_maid

madame_issue

Usedbandaid/used_bandaid

Rach Alex

Rachel Royale

Raquel

Medical Tophat/Medical_Tophat

Frill_house

Gingerbreadcoffin (? this one's kinda weird because the link itself with this username just goes back to her used bandaid MySpace account , so idk if she ever actually used it or if it was even affiliated with her lol)

Now you're probably about to ask, "Puff, how do you know these are all her?" and that's because Rachel still had all of these accounts interlinked through her projects, primarily The Doctor Pepper Show. She seemed to change up usernames often just for the hell of it.

Anyways. I'm not gonna show much of it here because I do think it's better to leave certain things in the past, but there's a LOT of her old work that implies the stuff that's questionable/problematic in LO has always been a part of her identity as an artist (DDLG, hot pink self-insert MC, etc.)

One such example is "madame issue":

This is such a 3-in-1 smoking gun for everything we see in LO. The reference to bandaids (see: used bandaid, which was part of her URL slug for her old flickr where this drawing comes from), the hot pink color palette, and of course, the fact that this character is almost DEFINITELY a self-insert of Rachel, thanks to that shared name.

She's also stated in old commission/print posts that Madame Issue was the one print she wouldn't sell.

She doesn't explicitly say why but I think it's pretty safe to assume it's because Madame Issue is her.

We also have Eva, "the queen of medical fetish". And the tags are... pretty self-explanatory.

That said, that's as much as I'm gonna go into with her old art, because a lot of it does get quite personal with her and I don't really think it accomplishes much more to continue digging up old skeletons, at least not unless they can be seen as parallel to LO (which some of them are and I'll likely be sharing more of those ones in a later post).

That said, there ARE still pages that are accessible without the use of the Wayback Machine that advertise her as a medical fetish artist without the need for extensive digging. If you search up The Doctor Pepper Show on Google, you'll actually find a reddit thread asking what happened to Rachel's old work, and there are comments with loads of resources to access her pre-LO content. You'll also find the listing for The Doctor Pepper Show on The Webcomic List, which literally describes it as a medical fetish comic: "This is a comic set in a world where evil doctors rule, girls wear frilly underpants and people use their manners. *May I please blow your f**king head off?* This comic features Gothic dandys, EGL (Gothic lolitas) and medical fetish fashion. (Neo victorian setting)"

I'll let y'all do your own digging from here, there's a LOT to unpack honestly and while I can't keep you from doing your own research, practice due diligence with what you choose to share. Again, I don't think it's a crime in and of itself for Rachel to want to distance herself from her past as a medical fetish artist, so I think it's only really relevant to show the things that are clearly still influencing LO (like her love for the movie Lolita or the very clear sexualization of youthfulness). While we can try to leave the past where it is, she does still write LO with a lot of the most problematic features of her former identity, and it makes it all the more bizarre that if she is trying to distance herself from it all, then why would she stick with one of the pennames that's the most easily tied back to medical fetishism?

TL ; DR: Rachel started off online with medical fetish and gothic lolita art (at least as far back as we can trace it) and elements of that past are still present in LO today. Use that info responsibly lol

[s10127470]

My X-Men Hot Takes

As I'm sure many of you who have been following me have seen, I'm a pretty big fan of The X-Men.

However, I do have some reservations with them.

And with their ongoing resurgence in mainstream popularity, I've decided to share my hot takes/unpopular opinions I have on the team.

Admittedly, I have some takes that are pretty commonly agreed by a majority of X-Men fans.

But still, I have a lot that would probably piss a lot of them off.

So without further ado, let's get started.

-Mutants have become less interesting/The X-Men have WAY too many characters.

This is basically a two-in-one, but I decided to do them together since they essentially connect with each other.

Mutants have just become a lot less interesting due to the writers keeping them largely huddled together in recent years.

What made mutants so cool was that they were widespread and that not all of them were connected to the X-Men.

Which just made the world feel a lot bigger and fleshed-out.

But over the last few decades, Marvel has developed this mindset that EVERY mutant needs to be connected to the X-Men.

Hell, it was the reason for arguably the worse thing to happen to the team.

This unfortunately has led to the issue of the X-Men just having.....way too many characters.

Like, remember when there were spin-off teams?

X-Factor? The New Mutants? X-Force? Excalibur?

Even though those teams are still around, they have the issue of being too connected to the X-Men now.

And this need to have all mutants to be connected to The X-Men, has lead to another major issue with mutants....

-Retconning mutant heritages.

Over the last decade, Marvel has infamously went out of their way to retcon the mutant heritage of several mutant characters who weren't all that connected to the X-Men.

The most infamous examples being in the case of The Maximoff Twins and Franklin Richards, the latter of which was the most notable example of a mutant that's not connected to the X-Men.

Once again, this makes the world feel somewhat smaller and makes the mutants a lot less interesting.

-For the Love of GOD! Stop with the romance/relationship drama!

Romance/relationship drama is one of the hardest parts of writing.

Largely because it's rarely ever done particularly well and often become incredibly annoying and usually makes the people involved look pretty bad.

Usually since it relies on stuff like cheating, infidelity, unfaithfulness, etc.

Which anyone with more than two brain cells would know isn't a good thing...

It's even worse when they try to make these actions actually come off as good and acceptable.

Which like....

But anyway, since the X-Men are essentially glorified soap operas, you better believe they have romance drama!

It's one of the best/worst examples of this I've seen in media.

They have it all!

Cheating. Unfaithfulness. Infidelity.

And since we're talking about the X-Men, we can't forget about their staple....

Love. Triangles.

Seriously, nobody in the X-Men are all that faithful to each other....

Except for Gambit weirdly enough.

But anyway, please just keep these guys in actual fucking stable relationships.

I cannot take ANOTHER FUCKING love triangle....

-The treatment of Magneto.

I like Magneto, but even I have to admit I cannot stand how he's been treated in recent years.

Over the last few decades, there's been a lot of favoritism towards him.

And I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, it's borderline dick-riding.

Like, if we're had to make a list of the most dick-roded characters in the fiction.

Magneto would be at least in the top 5 alongside Bakugo, Severus Snape and even The Joker.

A lot of this comes from people believing that his mindset and actions were actually justified.

Leading to the infamous phrase that was founded by incel Quinten Quire....

*sigh*

"Magneto was right."

As you could tell, I'm hate this phrase.

For two reasons.

It's been ran into the goddamn ground. Like, I've frequently check out the X-Men subreddit, and I swear, I still seen people saying that Magento was right. Even on Twitter, I see this! Which, after seeing it and hearing it so much and so often, you can't help but just go....

2. It's led to this habit of writers constantly painting Magneto as this savior who's always in the right and that his mindset and methods are truly the way to go for the sake of mutantkind. This also led to the effect of trying to make him seem like he was always secretly a good guy. Even retconning events from the earliest X-Men stories such as him stealing missiles from the base and saying that he was actually doing this so that the X-Men actually had an enemy to fight. Like, prior to all this, Magento was depicted as being a villain. Even when the legendary Chris Claremont took over and gave him more depth and made him a sympathetic villain, he was still depicted as being kind of a terrible person who has done legitimately terrible things. What really made Magneto such as great villain was that he was a tragic one as well. Not just because of his backstory, but because of the fact that he became the very thing he hated: a bigot who wants to subjugate an entire group of people, no matter what. But in a way, I know this is gonna sound insane, Magneto is even worse than the Nazis! They were trying to subjugate a group of people, he's trying to subjugate an entire species! They needed an army and forces to do all that, he doesn't. Magneto is literally a one-man army. Now don't get me wrong, they're both REALLY bad. But remember, Magneto is literally threatening like, half the life on the planet. And although him finally becoming a good guy was the way to go, I'm still not a fan of it. Largely because he never really gets a redemption arc. We never see him actually show any regrets towards his past actions, or realize that he was wrong. Because they did, then he wouldn't be right. And GOD FORBID Magneto could be wrong about anything. I'm sorry man, but you're never gonna be him....

-The mutant metaphor has become a bit of a problem.

Now this gonna be a real controversial one.

The mutant metaphor, while obviously well intentioned, is not exactly good....

99% of X-Men fans reading this:

When you really think about it, it doesn't really make much sense.

For starters, there's the obvious aspect about how most super-powered beings in the Marvel Universe tend to get a pass, but there's just no exceptions with the mutants.

Despite the fact that to the eyes of the average civilian, most of them could qualified as a mutant.

There's also the fact that having the mutants being a stand-in for minorities is kinda awkward given that most of the core members (not all of them mind you) are primarily white....and American.

I do think them being a stand-in for social outcasts does work, but even that's kind of an issue given that many of the core X-Men are incredibly and conveniently attractive.

Like, don't you dare even try to deny it!

I've seen you people simp for these guys!

So have I!

But the reason I say the mutant metaphor is problem is because there seems to be this mindset that this is all the X-Men are good for.

Just being an allegory, and nothing else.

And in all honesty, that's just incredibly restrictive from a writing standpoint.

Heck, if any of you've read my X-Men fanfic series, "X-Men: The Mutation", you'd probably noticed that the mutant metaphor, while there, isn't as present as most other adaptations, or even fanfics of the X-Men.

And that was because I wanted to focus on other aspects of the team and didn't want them to just be a walking allegory.

-The Fox X-Men films are not that good.

While the reception of these films seem to be mixed nowadays, I've never really cared for these films.

Since I'm among the group of people who actually look at adaptations as, well, adaptations, as such, the X-Men films are quite pitiful.

The films never captured the appeal of The X-Men.

That being The X-Men themselves!

Like, The X-Men are literally an afterthought in their own film franchise.

Largely thanks to Fox constantly focusing on one member solely and hardly anyone else.

First it was with Wolverine, and then it was with Mystique.

There's also the fact that they hardly pulled from source material, largely because they were embarrassed by it.

Like, they were not being subtle about that at all.

Do I need to even play that line again?

The only films in that franchise I would consider good would be the Deadpool films.

Because....

They were actually good

They wore the comics on their shelves rather than being embarrassed by it

They were the most disconnected from the X-Men films

Speaking of which, this franchise is infamous for its absolute clustefuck of a continuity.

You know things are not that good when they can't even keep a consistent timeline.

-The characterization of Cyclops.

Just like with Magneto, I really like Cyclops, but I'm not a fan of how he's been written for nearly 20 years.

Yeah, I'm not exactly big on Revolutionary Cyclops.

Apart from the fact that he emerged during the X-Men's roughest era, there's also the fact it's had quite the effect on any discourses surrounding the character.

Fans seem to believe that Cyclops can only be portrayed as a revolutionary in all forms of media.

Literally nothing else.

Hell, it's so bad that people are already begging for '97 Cyclops to become a revolutionary!

Look, I get that Cyclops wasn't too many people's favorite, specifically during the early years.

And the Claremont era didn't exactly do him too many favors since he would be slowly phased out along with the rest of the original X-Men.

But I feel like he really came into his own during the 90s.

Plus, '97 and Evolution Cyclops showed that Cyclops doesn't have to be a revolutionary in order to be a. engaging and interesting character.

There's also a few more issues that's arose from his characterization.

The last near 20 years have really highlighted Cyclops' skills, to show why he's the leader of The X-Men.

I get that you want to show that he is a competent fighter and leader.

However, it's gotten to the point where fans seem to believe that Cyclops can beat anyone in general, no matter how crazy powerful they are, with his ridiculous amount of plans and back-up plans.

Starting to sound familiar?

There's also that fact that fans and even the majority of X-Men writers seem to believe that Cyclops always has to suffer just to be interesting.

Essentially, he suffers the same exact problem as another major Marvel character.

And just like what people have said about him, Cyclops constantly suffering has gotten incredibly repetitive and stale.

You can only do it so much before it starts to become boring and tiring.

And lastly, him being the leader of all mutantkind and the one to unite them all....

I don't like this.

He should be ONE of the leaders, but not THE leader.

Is there literally no one else that could co-lead?

Also, with him being the leader and unifier of mutantkind.....

I wouldn't say it's white saviorism or a Messiah thing, but it does feel somewhat adjacent to that.

I kinda feel like all this was done as a form of compensation for how much of a punk the character has been portrayed as in just about every major X-Men adaptation of the last near quarter century.

Bar a few exceptions....

-COLOSSUS IS NOT A PEDOPHILE!

So over the last few months, some fans have discovered about the infamous age gap between Colossus and Shadowcat during their early years with the X-Men.

Colossus was like 19 at the time, while Kitty was 13 to 14.

Which, for anyone that isn't asking to be on a list, isn't good.

However, people have taken to claim that Colossus is actually a pedophile.

But here's the thing people seem to forget.

He was written by John Bryne.....

For anyone who doesn't know, Bryne is infamous among comics for his habit of pairing underage girls with grown men.

He did this with Mr. Fantastic and The Invisible Woman, revealing the latter met the former when she was 12 years old and he was in college.

He had Superman kiss a 14-year old on the lips.

And perhaps most infamously of all, having Peter Parker lock lips with Mattie Franklin, a 15-year old.

While he himself was not only in his mid-20 around this time, but also still a MARRIED MAN.

(Fun Fact: This was one of the earliest attempts of Marvel trying to get rid of Mary Jane for.....obvious reasons)

(Also, I hate this panel with every fiber of my being. And I typically I don't like to wish death upon people, but I'm making an exception. Bryne needs to get drug out into the street and shot, because I'm starting to think he may possibly be the EDP445 of comic writers. Like, you can not write this shit and not expect people to notice a pattern and raise a few eyebrows)

But besides that, it seems that since the 2000s, they've quietly retconned all this (for obvious reasons) to have Colossus and Shadowcat be much closer in age.

The Summers Family Tree has become a problem.

Just about everyone knows that the Summers family tree is an absolute mess.

Like, there's only so many alternate reality children, alternate future children, and clones that you have before it seems to become old and tiresome.

There's also Mister Sinister's famous obsession with them.

Like dude, I understand that they're powerful.

But like, are just not any other powerful mutants you could be obsessed with.

What about Storm?

Iceman?

Hell, what about Magneto and his kids?

The treatment of Xavier.

This is basically the opposite of how Magneto's been treated.

Whereas Magneto's been depicted as a secret hero, Xavier's been depicted as a secret villain.

I get that Xavier is not perfect, but the dude has been so villainized over the last 20+ years and revealed to have done a lot bad things, he might as well be called Satan.

And frankly, it's become tired.

Like, how many times have they done the "Xavier has done something terrible" shtick now?

The most recent was in The Fall of X.

At this rate, why is he even still here?

Since he's apparently never done anything good for anyone, he should just leave already!

There's also the fact that apparently his dream was always bad and never what mutantkind needed.

And to that I must say.....

While he may have not approached it in the best way, his goal was far more noble and frankly, what mutants really needed.

Showing that humans and mutants can peacefully co-exist with each other.

Maybe not all of them, but still, being able to show that it is possible.

And in general, this would be a future where everyone wins.

Whereas Magneto's, wouldn't.

This would be the most obvious in the case of the humans.

But even for the mutants, there would be a bit of an asterisk for them.

Magneto has proven he's not as accepting towards all mutants as he lets on.

Like remember Toad?

He fucking hated him and treated him like shit!

The X-Men and their relationship with the much greater Marvel Universe needs to change.

To wrap this all up, we'll be talking about a big one.

Ever since the 2010s, the X-Men comics have become infamous how they characterize other major heroes of the Marvel Universe.

That being.....not in a flattering light.

Most of these guys are portrayed incredibly poorly, not acting like themselves at all.

The only exception to this is Spider-Man.

But then again, he gets written with more respect in every other title than his own.

This is obviously done in order to make the X-Men look good.

Plus it's pretty apparent there's a great bias towards them.

But however, I think this has the opposite effect.

All it does it make the X-Men look like egotistical, self-serving assholes who would gladly screw people over (no matter how disastrous) if it meant they got to survive/thrive.

"Yeah! I love seeing my favorite heroes being portrayed as selfish cowards!"

There's also this....

These panels are from the X-Men relaunch, and they've been quite infamous for....obvious reasons.

And apart from that, it just makes the X-Men also look like self-victimizing douches.

Basically saying that they're the only ones suffering, and that nobody else in the entire damn world knows what it means to struggle.

And as you can tell, they'll usually say it to people of color.

You remember that panel from Ultimate Spider-Man when Spidey cursed out the X-Men and called them out on their bullshit?

Yeah, can we get that for these versions?

They really deserve it.

Also, I recently saw a comment that said that X-Men comics are the only place where white writers can fulfill their fantasies of yelling at people of color and then cry about how THEY'RE oppressed.

And after seeing these panels, I wholeheartedly agree.

Well that's all I have for now.

These were some grievances I've been having with the X-Men for a while now, and I wanted to finally get them out.

I really hope that anyone who reads is able to respond to this in a civil manner and possibly not call me a racial slur.

But I guess we'll have to wait and find out.

I have a few more of these, but these were the ones I could only do for now.

And I'm planning do something similar to this for undoubtedly the biggest Marvel character of them all.

But until then, I'll see you guys around.

[666writingcafe]

666WritingCafe's Fall 2024 Menu (NSFW)

I was looking through the stuff I had saved in my drafts, found two prompt lists by the users listed below, and decided to try something new(ish).

So, you know how a lot of retail stores usually have most (if not all) of their fall/Halloween items by the end of August? It may not be out on the floor yet, but it's certainly sitting in the back, waiting to get stocked. Anyway, similar concept here: consider this the start of Smutober/Kinktober on my side of Tumblr.com.

The "Premade" prompts have characters linked to them already. Singles have one character, and entrees have two or three. Prompts considered "Create-Your-Own-Meals" do not have characters attached to them (as of yet).

"Orders" can be made via requests. You can add "sides" (IE: specific kinks) to your "order".

Hopefully I can also resume the Obey Me rewrites soon and have this in conjunction to that, but we'll see what happens with work and life in general.

Without further ado, the "menu" is listed below the cut.

Prompts from @writinginstardust and @dumplingsjinson

Premade Singles (Part One)

“Come over here and make me.” Barbatos Order #1 (8/27/24)

“Wait a minute. Are you jealous?” Thirteen

“I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice.” Satan

“I think I’m in love with you and I’m terrified.” Lucifer

“You heard me. Take. It. Off.” Solomon

“You fainted…straight into my arms. You know, if you wanted my attention you didn’t have to go to such extremes.” Belphie

"You were put on this earth to give me a headache." Mammon

“There is no way this much stupid can fit inside one person.” Asmo

“Uh, am I interrupting?” Diavolo

“Don’t be shy now; sit on my face.” Simeon

“If I ask you to kiss me in front of all these people, will you do it?” Levi

“I've never wanted to fuck someone as badly as i want to fuck you right now.” Beel

“I'm going to fuck you until you forget that asshole's name.” Mephistopheles

~~~

Premade Singles (Part Two)

“If you keep looking at me like that we won’t make it to a bed.” Satan

“Did I stutter?” Thirteen

“Stop being a fucking prick.” Barbatos

“I’m not wearing any underwear. Thought you’d like to know.” Mammon

“You sent me pictures of you naked while I was in a work meeting!” Solomon

“I want to taste you.” Simeon

“If we weren’t in public right now, I’d have my head between your legs.” Diavolo

“Don’t cover your face; I want to see you.” Belphie

“Bend over the desk, love.” Mephistopheles

“I’ve never seen anyone look so cute and ridiculous at the same time.” Levi

“Do you think of me when you touch yourself?” Beel

“Touch yourself for me.” Asmo

“Do you want to see what I'm wearing underneath all this?" Lucifer

~~~

Premade Singles (Part Three)

“Do you know how beautiful you are? It’s truly distracting.” Lucifer

“Could he make you feel as good as I do?” Simeon

“Are you trying to turn me on, or are you really just that oblivious?” Barbatos

“I haven’t even touched you and you’re already this wet.” Satan

“Were you just masturbating?” “U-uh..no, I was just..” “Want some help?” Solomon

“I’m not sharing you with anybody. You’re mine, and mine only, and I’m going to make you remember that.” Diavolo

“That’s sweet and all but do they touch you the way I touch you? Fuck you the way I fuck you? Mm, yeah, didn’t think so.” Belphie

“Gonna fuck you until the only word you remember is my name.” Asmo

“Wanna see how you look when you come undone under me.” Thirteen

“I want you in all the ways you’ll let me have you.” Mephistopheles

“Oh, I can think of many ways to shut you up right now.” Beel

“Where do you want me to touch you?” “I don’t know and I don’t care — I just want your hands on me. Please.” Mammon

“So… You touch yourself to the thought of me? I’d like to see that in action.” Levi

~~~

Premade Entrees (Part One)

“Now, why don’t we teach you a lesson?” Thirteen and Beel

“I wanna taste you on my lips again.” Satan and Solomon

“Rough or gentle?” Mammon and Simeon

“You’re really messing with my head here.” Levi and Lucifer

“Fuck, just touch me already! Just— just do something!” “Not so fast. We’ve still got the whole night/day ahead of us.” Barbatos and Asmo

“Clothes on or clothes off?” Diavolo, Mephistopheles, and Belphie

~~~

Premade Entrees (Part Two)

“How about we put that pretty mouth of yours into good use, hm?” Mephistopheles and Belphie

“Aren’t you desperate?” Lucifer and Thirteen

“Patience, love. We’re getting there.” Solomon and Levi

“Look at your reflection. Look at how gorgeous you are. So fucking gorgeous when we're fucking you like this." "So pretty for us, and only for us.” Beel and Satan Order #3 (9/4/2024)

"You want to come?” “Y-yes, I— please—” “Hm, but do you really deserve to?” Diavolo and Asmo

“You like that, don’t you?” Mammon, Simeon, and Barbatos

~~~

Premade Entrees (Part Three)

“Let’s make your thoughts a reality, yeah?” Mephistopheles and Solomon

“Imagine how amazing you’d sound when we're fucking you senseless.” Thirteen and Diavolo

“We’ll fuck you so good, I promise.” Belphie and Asmo

“You’ve got us all hot and bothered.” Levi and Mammon

“Always so needy for us, aren’t you? Can’t help yourself, can you?” Beel and Lucifer Order #7 (10/7/2024)

“Behave.” Simeon, Barbatos, and Satan

~~~

Create-Your-Own-Meal

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Stop fucking teasing me/us and get to it already.” Order #2 (8/28/2024)

“Oh, the things I’d do to you if we were alone right now…”

“Th-There are people outside this door—” “Well, this isn’t about them, is it?” 

“Look at you, squirming under me, all flushed and pretty looking. Can’t even take a little teasing, can you?” Order #8 (10/7/2024)

“Yeah, but they don’t fuck you the way you deserved to be fucked, do they?” Order #9 (10/21/2024)

“Might I remind you that these walls aren’t sound proof.” 

“Need me to remind you on what happened last night?” 

“Oh, sensitive there, aren’t we?” 

“But you think about me when they’re fucking you, don’t you?” “I… That’s not true.” 

“Lift your hips up for me.”

“Fuck, you’re so hot when you’re bossy.”

“Look at you, coming undone before I’ve even started touching you.” 

“Stop glaring at me like you don’t enjoy me teasing you.”

“I want to be the one fucking you this time.” 

“Sweetheart, you’re so responsive to my touch.”

“And I think you’d look fucking hot when you’re on top of me.” 

“Just sit on my fucking face already.” 

“S-Stop leaving marks on my neck. I have a presentation first thing in the morning.” “Then I get to leave marks anywhere below the neck?”

“You only get to watch.” “B-but—” “No buts, sweetheart.” 

“I’d fuck you right here, right now, if I could.” 

“Turn around.” 

“Eyes on me at all times, sweetheart.”

“I wanna eat you out so fucking bad.” “Then why don’t you?” Order #10 (10/23/2024)

“Spread your legs for me.” … “Spread them wider.” 

“I’ll be honest: I get off to the thought of you.” (Personal) Order #11 11/5/2024)

“I want you in the most sinful ways possible.” Order #5 (9/18/2024) + Order #6 (9/27/2024)

“Aww, how eager can you get?” 

“I want you to touch me like I’m the only thing you could ever want.” 

“You like messing with my head, don’t you?” “Only because it clearly turns you on.” Order #4 (9/13/2024)

“Shit, I’m so fucking hooked on you it’s not even funny.”

“You’d sound so good begging for it.”

“Don’t make too many noises or we’ll get caught.” “That’s part of the thrill.”

“I don’t care, I just need these clothes off so I can fully feel you against me.” 

~~~

Taglist: @lost-in-time-wanderer, @fuzztacular, @dianedancer18, @sweetbrier2908, @flare-love, @completelyshatteredbrokenmschf, @thunderlightning351, @l3v1chan, @anxious-chick, @5mary5, @expressionless-fr, @tenkobitch, @budbuddnbuddy

[funkylilworm]

Why I think that killing off Adam was the biggest mistake Viv could make

TW: ranting and spoilers

This entire blog is just gonna be me going on a rant about my opinion on why I think Adam shouldn't of been killed off and why he shouldn't be killed off so early and shit , not only did I not see it as unnecessary for the plot, but there's so much Vivienne could of done for his character other than just throwing the whole character away in just one season , I'll be listing things for what they could of done for Adam's character

1. Plotholes

I'm just gonna say it right here and right now, Adam was killed off waaay too early and not only would we be left with many many plot holes like, where is both of his sons (Caine and Abel), the potential they could of used for his character, and ect.

2. Character potential

^^this fucking scene^^ , because the thought of when Adam first pulling up and being like "Hello, Adam here!!" Is just so fucking funny to me (just less plagiarized, and more unique)

and maybe his arrival leads to his words "Hell is forever" ,his own song gets used against him sense not only did he have the audacity to go to the hotel to get back into heaven but he has said it himself, how redemption isn't possible

But references aside ,Adam can have some potential for his character, like maybe he not only comes to the hotel not only for the intention of going back to Heaven because he hates being down in hell but also for the intention of plotting some revenge for what the hotel residents all did to him

,but the longer he stays there the less and less he tries to plot his revenge , the more and more he realized how flawed heaven and heaven's people are most of the time, and ect.

And ect. and he's so indenial of it at first and doesn't want to believe it but no matter how much he tries there's no denying it , deep down he knows it's true but he doesn't want to believe it

3. Character potential (again)

Like maybe Adam has become fallen in the first place because not only did him sinning in Heaven eventually catch up to him, but maybe also because after finding out the exterminations were unnecessary after Sir Pentious entered the heavens gates, it was finally time for Adam to take his fall

They can also actually start touching on Adam's trauma and how it affects him, his trauma being : being forced into a relationship the moment he was created (Lilith and Eve) , having to be the father and/or decendant of all of the human race , having been kicked out of the garden after Lucifer has second handedly invented evil into the world , and said evil causing his son to kill his other son(which is his and God's fault also)

Like maybe sense Vivziepop is putting a slight different spin to things to Hazbin hotel, she doesn't really having to follow the entire list (sense it's her show) , she can still do something with some of it and still find a way to bring it up and with that it could be the reason behind how he behaves , his personality as a whole, and why he wears that narcissistic mask (while it doesn't necessarily excuse his actions)

4. Character design

If Adam was to somehow end up coming back as a fallen angel, as a sinner. Viv can find a way to go crazy with his fallen design, like any other cartoonist in this world, I know that those cartoonist has seen fanart and fan creations of their shows, movies, and characters

I've seen my fair share of seeing really really good fallen designs for Adam and I'm fucking here for it , they're all so good

,it just needs to happen

5. Character development & redemption arc

Like mentioned in Character potential 2 , Adam can have some potential for his character, like maybe he not only comes to the hotel not only for the intention of going back to Heaven because he hates being down in hell but also for the intention of plotting some revenge for what the hotel residents all did to him

but the longer he stays there the less and less he tries to plot his revenge , the more and more he realized how flawed heaven and heaven's people are most of the time, and ect.

And ect. and he's so indenial of it at first and doesn't want to believe it but no matter how much he tries there's no denying it , deep down he knows it's true but he doesn't want to believe it . Like maybe Adam just still acts the same but without him realizing it or acknowledging it he's just becoming a better person and maybe even comedically he just thinks that the misfits gave him a disease /illness when that's not the case

Maybe in the next seasons he could even become a better father to his sons, Caine and Abel but similar to Lucifer, let them do their own thing sense those two are basically adults now and hey, Adam could be more like a cool dad

I feel like Adam has more cool dad energy

6. The relationships he'll end up making

Just imagine the relationships Adam slowly but gradually builds during his redemption arc, like maybe him and Charlie ending having like an fun uncle and niece kind of relationship or something, maybe slowly but gradually he becomes like another friend of Angel Dust's, and ect.

As he processes through his redemption arc he can end up making friends and building relationships down in hell , possibly in the near future Charlie, Vaggie, Angeldust, Alastor, Cherri bomb, Husk, Nifty, Razzle, and Lucifer doesn't fight against him but with him if another threat were to come

7. There could be another antagonists that's worse or maybe even a bigger threat than Adam

Maybe another antagonists could be made that's more of a mystery and even a bigger threat than Adam , that's just like Adam (or not) but amp up the bad traits he has, maybe this time Adam could be the one helping the others fight and rebel against this guy in his own way

8. Another musical number

Another musical number with them singing badly about heaven in song in the near future but this time with Charlie ,Vaggie, Angeldust, Alastor, Cherri bomb, Husk, Nifty, Razzle, Lucifer, and most of all Adam but the reprise has a metal spin to it and this time Adam joins in and does it with his guitar

9. Another reason she shouldn't of killed off Adam is because she'd be killing off fat /plus size representation

Another reason I feel like Viv shouldn't of killed off Adam is because she'd be killing of fat character representation and I wouldn't want a chubby character like Adam to be killed off

,of course we have Mimzy now but she doesn't count sense she's just one character and only just one character and as much as I love Mimzy I feel like the show needs more than just one or two fat characters

And for the people that think "He isn't chubby" , try again and look at him again , how he sits , lays down (like how he was laying after her got shanked in his arm by Charlie), and ect.

10. I just want some vulnerable moments with Adam

Whether that be Adam bawling his eyes out, having a panic attack, having a mental/emotional breakdown, or ect. I just want to see a vulnerable side of Adam, Adam angst if you will

Okay I'm done ranting, bye <3 <3

[raconteur-wanpi]

ONE PIECE 1124

I'm probably gonna start writing these thoughts / reactions with each new chapter at this point. At least as long as I have something to say!

Sentomaru is alive waaaahhhh!!! Mr. Golden Boy! I'm so glad! He skyrocketed his way up my favorite character list in this arc, but then again I'm weak towards any characters based on folklore / fairy tales and mythical heroes to begin with. It's nice to see him escape Egghead, but it's devastating to see him mourning like this. He lost so much, he really is a tragic character. Seeing him cry is genuinely a bullet through my heart. He lost his adoptive father, he lost the island he has spent much of his life on, he failed to protect the civilians who he risked his life to save, he's now a fugitive running from the government, and the man he considered an uncle and mentor figure was the one to pull the trigger. Poor guy, his experience with the Buster Call and loss of mentors almost makes him feel like a parallel to Robin. I hope he gets to heal, there are some revealed surprise good news he might want to hear eventually.

And speaking of tragedy within this little family unit, here it is. Borsalino's regret. This really reminded me of Garp and Ace, but unlike Garp being just passive and complacent in Ace's death, here Borsalino was the man who actually did it. You can see the sorrow and devastation but also the complacency. He was always going to do it, no matter how he feels about it. What in interesting character, I want to dissect his brain. His lack of a sense of actual justice and code was something introduced as a joke, but here we see what that actually looks like. A man passive enough to follow any order, even if it's something he isn't going to be able to bear.

And of course, the aftermath of such a conflict. This is the first time we've ever seen him sad and / or furious. He's sobbing and screaming to Sakazuki, someone who he's always tried to appease in the past. I wonder where will this lead him as a character. I adooore seeing the Marines betrayed, broken and fed up by their own system one by one. Maybe they will eventually realize they're on the wrong side of history. Or maybe Borsalino over here will stay complacent and passive as he always has been, who knows. Either way, I love the way Oda has approached all this interpersonal tragedy within all the grander politics of it.

Yep, there is it! The big twist! ...That most people myself included completely expected. Punk Records is still intact! The Gorosei need Vegapunks mind, so they explicitly tried to protect that part of Egghead. And that means, of course, all the Vegapunks' consciousness is still up there in the Cloud. There's a chance any of them could talk through Lilith, Stella included. Hell, she could probably build new android bodies for them if she gets the resources. Or at least, that's what I'm assuming she means by "everyone's alive", since she doesn't elaborate further.

Aaaand Robin getting excited to meet Saul again. 🥹 God I hope it goes well, I'll be devastated if it doesn't. PLEASE let this reunion happen properly.

And to close things off, somebody is waiting for them on Elbaf. People have pointed out the silhouette looks similar to the mysterious kasa-hat-wearing man we see chatting it up with Crocus in one of the cover stories. The most common guess I've seen is that it's Scopper Gaban, the man from Roger's crew, and potentially that he is the "man marked by flames". Others have suggested things like Shiki or even a 90-year-old Yorki who survived. I don't know if I personally have any predictions, but Gaban feels like a good guess. It could potentially also just be a character we haven't met yet. Really looking forward to the future!

[skullduggeryandfilibuster]

Casual Writing Advice: How to take a Writing Idea and turn it into a Written Idea.

I've seen a lot of advice on how to write an outline, and how to write your first draft. But how do you even come up with the concept for your story? To some that's the easy part, for me, it's kinda tricky. But I wrote down some advice to help out. If this works for you, great. If it doesn't, also great, I hope you found it interesting!

1. Start With One Thing

C.S. Lewis said the idea for his most well known series came from a very specific image that popped into his head: a fawn standing next to a lamppost in a snowy forest. And from there he wrote the Chronicles of Narnia. Indeed, many writers have spoken of the use of a single image being used as a starting place for their story, and I'm here to say it doesn't even have to be an image! Start with a character, a bit of worldbuilding, an object, a monster, a conflict, a scene, a dynamic, a setting, or yes, an image. Anything, so long as you're drawn to it. Just one thing; just one cool thing.

2. Ask Questions

Then ask questions, specifically one: "What would be a cool/interesting thing to add?" And keep asking that question.

Go hog wild.

Based on your starting place, write down every cool idea you have; every idea that interests you. Don't bother making it cohesive, that'll come later.

But write down LITERALLY EVERYTHING--the name of the thing and a brief blurb of what that thing is. Stuff like characters, arcs, villains, events, lore, big dragons, cities, love interests, fight scenes, spicy scenes, dialogue, literally anything and everything.

3. Ask More Questions

This time instead of asking what, you're gonna be asking why.

You've got your neat list of cool ideas, now it's time to connect them. It's time to ask yourself, "Why are these things related?"

Why are the protagonist and antagonist at odds? Why would the characters go to this location? What is the relationship between these two characters? Why does this artifact exist? Why would this event happen; why would this character be there?

This sounds like the boring "got to have justifications for the cool stuff," portion of the process, but it's not. It's the "making these cool things even cooler," portion of the process.

You know what's cooler than two cool characters in a vacuum? Two cool characters that have a direct connection to each other. Even cooler, having those characters have a some kind of conflict.

And because of that conflict they'll probably have to go to a certain location... why not that cool setting you had on your list? That's probably where they'll have that conversation, and fight that monster, and find that object.

Woah! Did you see what you just did?

You just wrote a list of characters with specific relationships and conflicts, going to locations to do things.

That's a story! You've written the first notes of a story!

And now that you got words on a page, you can refine that. You can refine it into an outline, and build off it. You can't improve a blank page. The sculptor can't chisel away at empty air.

So that's my advice's, and it's just mine. If you have your own for this kind of thing, let me know, I'd love to hear about it.

[jq37]

Descendants: The Rise of Red is kind of a bizarre movie to talk about critically because, imo, it almost doesn't make sense to talk about it in the usual terms of good vs bad or enjoyable vs not enjoyable when the way more obvious tension is finished vs unfinished.

Because, more than any other movie I've ever seen, it does *not* read as a full movie. And I don't mean in a "this movie has a cliffhanger" kind of way. The Empire Strikes Back and Across the Spiderverse fit that description. They end on big dramatic cliffhangers that point to a resolution in the third installment.

But Rise of Red just sets all this stuff up and then...ends without concluding anything. It doesn't feel like the first movie in a trilogy (or duology). It feels like the first act of a two-act musical. It very specifically reminds me of the end of the first act of Into the Woods where all the main characters sing the song Ever After about how they all fixed their problems with magic and nothing bad will ever happen to them again and then the narrator ominously says "To be continued" before the curtain drops. But in Into the Woods you know there's a second act and this movie wasn't sold as the first act of a bigger story. Like sure, it has the, "You didn't think this was the end" tag at the end like all the other movies, but those movies were complete, self-contained stories even though they had sequels. This was NOT a full story. It's half of one story.

Like, if we're supposed to take this as a full story, there are so many bizarre choices:

Why did they make sure to mention that Cinderella and Charming fell in love at the ball at the top if it wasn't meant to set up Back to the Future style, "Oh no, I accidentally got my mom banned from the ball so she's not gonna fall in love with Dad and I won't be born" shenanigans?

Why did Maddox very pointedly have that bit about "you could lose your mom completely" if that was never going to come into play? Red never did anything to endanger Bridget or endanger her own birth so it doesn't make sense as a warning in that way.

Why was there all this focus on this Carrie on prom night moment for Bridget if we LITERALLY NEVER SAW CASTLECOMING? Why dance around this moment and talk about it all cloak and dagger with no specificity if they weren't building up to some big reveal that it wasn't as straightforward as it seemed? And like, they leaned in HARD with making Bridget the nicest, sweetest, cotton candy princess as a teen so I need WAY more than, "She got pranked by known bullies she's been enduring with a smile very handily up to this point" to buy that she went from that to "murderous dictator". And even if she did become murderous, I find it insanely hard to believe that she'd include her best and only friend on the list of people she wants to suffer unless there was a betrayal. I find it INSANE that there wasn't a falling out scene at any point in this movie with how thickly they were laying on the admiration and camaraderie.

(Note: And adult Cinderella def has guilty vibes re: the Queen at orientation. Which I know I'm not imagining because it's literally spelled out in the Jr Novelization!)

Before the time travel element of the movie started, I thought they were going for something like they go to the past and realize that Bridget was bullied not by the VKs but by the spoiled royals, and Ella ends up joining in the bullying once she gets with Charming, betraying Bridget and justifying her whole "Love Ain't It" philosophy. Or Ella ditching her at the last minute to be with Charming meaning she has to deal with the monster prank alone and it was the being alone rather than the prank itself that hurt her (though that is NOT a good enough reason to go all off with their heads on your subjects). The fact that, as far as we know right now, it literally was just a relatively mild and reversible prank that caused all of this is just, such flat storytelling, you know?

But! All of this makes way more sense if this is meant to be the first act of a single contained story. And I don't wanna be all "Pepe Silvia, secret good 4th episode of Sherlock" about this but I did see this picture:

Which seems to indicate that this was written as a Part One. Which, if so, idk why they wouldn't advertise it that way but whatever. The point is, if that's the case then it means that we're potentially in bad pacing territory rather than straight up bad storytelling territory. Because this isn't a bad place to be halfway through your story:

The heroes, warned that time travel is dangerous, have gone back in time to change the heart of a brutal tyrant before she can stage a coup. They seemingly succeed in their mission and when they come home, everything is great! But then, the side effects of time travel start to catch up with them. Chloe realizes that, in breaking the vase, she prevented her mother from going to the ball and falling in love with her dad (who was conspicuously absent from the final scene btw) which means she's starting to be forgotten and erased from the timeline. And Red realizes that though this new version of her mom is as sweet and kind as the teen she once met, she's a complete stranger to her (fulfilling the Hatter's warning that she could lose her mom completely). So they have to go back in time once more to make sure the Ella and Charming fall in love again, perhaps at the cost of whatever bad thing that happened to Bridget happening again and bringing back the original version of her future self. But, now with more context of how her mom became that way, Red can now talk to her mother and persuade her to give people another chance.

Boom, that gives us time to go back and hit everything we haven't yet hit. We can pay off the time travel tropes that were set up but not explored. We can go to Castlecoming which feels so obviously set up to be the centerpiece of this story (like, come on, Back to the Future literally does the school dance thing. This is Time Travel Storytelling 101). We can actually get info about what the prank was and why it affected Bridget so completely.

(Note: This is a side thing but it really strikes me as so crazy that Bridget would so SUCH a big 180 here. Like, I know the Queen of Hearts is a silly, goofy, campy villain, but she straight up murders people and there's no way to get around that if we're taking her out of the surreal story she comes from and putting her in a (comparatively) grounded story. If I wasn't doing a betrayal plot, I would make the twist that the spell that turned Bridget into a "monster" didn't just have a physical effect, it had a mental effect and it magically twisted her personality to be the way it is now. So they broke the physical half of the curse, but neglected the other half and it's been festering the whole time, turning her as evil as she was sweet. Because like, a simple physical transformation isn't that big of a deal to have such heavy security--Bridget made cupcakes with a transformative effect and that was totally fine. I'm not saying that that's what's gonna be the case. I just think it would be an explanation that makes sense for why she changed so crazy much that makes more sense than a simple prank or even a betrayal. Her mom wasn't even evil! How did she go from zero to murder without even an evil mom to push her onto the path? But I'm super digressing right now.)

(Note #2: OK, one last thing. The trap on the book presumably would have hit the VK's and trapped them in Merlin's office regardless of what Chloe and Red did, right? That's like, net zero influence on the timeline. I genuinely can't tell if that's a straight up plot hole or set up to be like, "Oh no. Actually when she said that she was turned into a monster in front of everyone it was meant in a less literal way." Like she was just made to look bad and that was the real thing that pushed her over the edge. Like idk. It really feels like the only thing they really did that would change the timeline was get Ella banned from the dance and presumably out of the way where she couldn't hurt Bridget. OK NOW I'm done.)

Anyway, my point is that this is not how I would have structured my movie and I think this was a super weird way to go into the second era of Descendants movies, but they can still tell a complete story if that's their plan. I'm genuinely really curious to see if this pans out to be a fairly competently told story that just happens to be split over two movies or a complete fumbling of the narrative bag because it could really be either at this point and it's fascinating to me.

[petrichor-idyllic]

Ok, I have a request based on your new prompt list. The names got me thinking, and I was wondering if you could do just the Gladers x Fem!Reader who joins them and is a total badass, and has a title, like in the books, and she’s “the warrior.” And she’s named Joan after Joan of Arc. Could be a fic or just headcanons, whichever is easiest for you. Thanks!

Ooo this is a really fun idea. I'm gonna do some headcanons simply because that is easier for me to do.

Also, not my normal headcanons with separate sections for each boy - this is about your life in the Glade and relationships with the Gladers.

Also, fem!reader, so no romance with Newt as specified on my masterlist, but y'all are buddies.

And I've decided to use another one of my ideas, so you're even more of a pain in WICKED's ass :).

THE WARRIOR

MASTERLIST | MULTI-CHARACTER MASTERLIST

SUMMARY: See above. Book based fic.

WICKED stole your name and called you Joan - and there's a good reason for that. You were a test Subject and WICKED prodigy that broke into the Maze to help your friends - and WICKED couldn't really do anything about it.

(If you're actually called Joan, congrats, this is for you, I guess.)

WARNINGS: Inappropriate language, actually follows the naming canon so no (Y/N), awkward Glader flirting. I fully don't how I'm gonna write this so prepare for me to butcher this prompt. This is a bit of a different layout so I decided to have some fun with it.

LOADING SUBJECT INFORMATION

SUBJECT NUMBER: A3 "The Warrior"

BIRTH NAME: (Y/N) (L/N).

SUBJECT GIVEN NAME: Joan.

NOTES: Subject A3 shows signs of rebellion and aggression. This is not surprising considering the means she went through to enter the Maze Trails. Though, her efforts may have been beneficial. Due to being the only female Group A Subject for the majority of the Maze Trails, she is volatile and untrusting. However, A3 does display close relationships with several other Subjects.

LOADING GLADER EXPERIENCE

You had an eventful first week in the Glade.

As eventful as a first week can be, really.

Initially, you freaked the fuck out.

You woke up in a dark box with nothing but your name and the smell of burning oil.

And then the Box opened up and you weren't the only one freaking out.

Surrounded by a couple dozen boys - no one knew what to do.

Unbeknownst to you, not only were you the only girl the Gladers had ever seen - but you'd also shown up between Greenie days.

They weren't due another Greenie for another week and a half.

Confusion spread through the Glade like wildfire.

The first person you met was Newt.

He seemed to be one of the few boys that weren't going absolutely savage at your presence.

He offered you a hand, which you refused to take at first.

Until the Box jolted again, and started to move with you still inside it.

"Oi, come on! Jump!"

"What's happening?!"

"I don't shuckin' know! Jump!"

With the help of several other pairs of hands, you decide to jump, and Newt yanks you up.

And you see the the Glade for the first time.

And the opening in the Walls.

You don't even have to think about.

When Newt tries to talk to you, you clock him square in the face and book it towards the exit.

AKA. The Maze.

Which results in a kind of stampede as you rush to escape.

Which, is where you meet Minho.

It's late in the day and Minho has finished his route early so he's coming back to chill out for a bit.

Except that doesn't happen because you come whizzing past him.

"Minho! Stop her!"

"What?"

"Stop the shuckin' girl!"

Admittedly, you are faster than he expected.

But not faster than him.

You manage to get around a corner before he tackles you, rugby style.

He manages to restrain you, and Alby and Newt come to help and wrestle you back to the Glade.

You're put in the Slammer.

Bummer.

The Gladers use the time you're locked up to figure out what to do.

Alby puts a very strong no touching rule in place and threatened to Banish anyone that dare break it.

After that, he goes out of his way to try and calm you down and explain what's happening here.

Eventually you oblige.

And Alby shows you the place.

He introduces you to people of note - Winston, Zart, Gally, Frypan and the other Keepers.

And he reintroduces you to Newt and Minho.

You learn things about yourself over the next following weeks.

You're feisty and forward.

You have a short fuse.

You're somewhat skilled at hand to hand combat and could probably put up a good fight against most of the Gladers.

You're sarcastic and quick witted.

Though, you remain level headed and fast thinking.

You try out all the jobs.

You settle on being a Builder for a while.

Which Gally is thrilled about.

You, surprisingly, actually get along with Gally quite well.

Sure, he's a bit of a dick and has far too many opinions.

But, he's a good boss.

He's strict and hard-working; pushing his men to the bets of their ability, and in your opinion, what they need.

This lands you in Gally's circle, which includes Frypan.

Gally isn't well liked.

Which is fine with you.

It means the boys leave you alone.

And, you get the opportunity to build your own little hut.

You like working as a Builder.

This also leads to the first of the boys developing a crush on you - Gally.

Frypan is quick to second that.

The third is Minho.

It's not like the pair of you are particularly close, but after Newt suggests you be a Runner - that changes.

You're fast and resilient; both of which Minho is looking for in his men.

You decide to try out, which makes Minho your boss.

Gally isn't very pleased, but you work where you're needed.

It's not that difficult, the worst part being not getting lost.

But Minho isn't going to leave you alone until you're ready.

Spending time with you, he learns you have a similar sense of humour.

And you've forgiven him for flooring you.

So, he starts crushing on you too.

As in my other headcanons, Alby really doesn't care about you.

Well, he does.

But just as another Glader.

Though he does appreciate the hard work you do, and the fact you keep the majority of his most problematic men distracted.

Newt is probably the person you're closest to.

Mainly because you never catch him staring at your ass or tits.

He's respectful.

And not attracted to you.

Because he's gay.

You're a fully fledged Runner by the time Thomas shows up.

You don't really think much of him at first.

Because absolutely no one did.

But he admired you.

He thought you were cool and skilled, very much the same way he looked up to Minho.

You were devastated when Thomas, Minho and Alby got stuck out in the Maze.

Gally tried his best to comfort you, but he didn't get very far.

"If anyone can survive the Maze; it's Minho."

"No one survives a night, Gally - we both know that."

Frypan's attempts weren't much better.

Newt was too busy figuring out how the heck he was going to run the Glade without Alby.

Yet, somehow, they both survived.

You don't think you've ever hugged someone as hard as you hugged Minho when you saw him.

Everyone's jealous of Minho for that.

Oh yeah, Teresa.

She showed up the day after Thomas.

You were thrilled to have another girl.

And then she wasn't conscious.

Bummer.

You kinda forgot about her after that.

Until she woke up, and everything went wrong in the Glade.

The sky disappearing, the Doors not closing, Grievers taking someone every night.

Including Alby.

And Gally disappeared.

A devastating blow.

You became one of the faces of the escape.

Cracking the code wasn't easy, but you all managed.

Thomas and Minho's theory about jumping into the void had you skeptical but you didn't have anything better to do than throw rocks off the Cliff for hours.

Thomas then gets stung.

And once awake, tells you how you were never meant to be in this Maze. You broke in, presumably to help your friends.

No wonder Newt and Minho wanted you to become a Runner.

Anyway, you escape.

Gally pops up again.

Kills Chuck.

RIP.

Thomas flips his lid.

And you escape.

Definitely not my best work but I really didn't know how to do this.

I'm stressed and I tried my best lmao.

Hope you're cool with that. Kinda.

:))

[adallinda]

A small talk about the creepypasta Sally williams and the fandom itself.

( TW: OPINION?!?!?! )

As we all know the creepypasta fandom was never perfect, it had its ups and downs. Thus I wanna talk about a character that we all love. Sally.

Sally was created in 2012 and she is a young girl at the age of 12. She firstly was 8 but her creator changed her age to 12 to reasons that I don't want to discuss since they're messed up. Her backstory is truly heartbreaking. She is represented to be a lively, happy and caring young child. She has a teddy bear that's she loves and loves sweets and the color pink.

Now that you know a little information about her, what I wanna talk about is the fandoms problem. The fandom has always been broken, there has always been questionable and wrong stuff in it about litterly anything, even about the characters themselves. And Sally is a victim to that.

From the first time I came into the fandom I saw weird stuff about Sally, questionable art, weird headcannons, wrong ships and the list goes on. She is a child, a minor, she's 12.

"She's a fictional character! " she's still a minor, her being fictional doesn't excuse your weird posts about her nor your weird ships.

Also the ships, she shouldn't be shippen with anyone.

"Sally x Ben" "Sally x toby" "Sally x Jeff" all of those are problematic and any ships with Sally is problematic. Be better and do better and actually make this fandom be an enjoyable place because it can also influence new comers. If a new person joins the fandom and they see wrong stuff they're gonna think it's normal when it's not.

Some people need to realise that "Sally x Ben" is extremely problematic since there is an age difference and also any ship with her is. Also some people need to stop condoning and supporting people that do these stuff, it's sick and wrong.

This isn't a thing that happens to only Sally, it has happened to more characters sadly, it is one of the reasons people leave the Fandom.

The fandom has became a toxic place and there are a lot of new people coming in, mostly children, that want to be in a friendly fandom but all they get is a hit in the face with the cruelty of it. It is not the first time it has been toxic and won't be the last but can we at least try to make it a place we can enjoy? New fans are mostly children, like I said, if they see this kind of behavior and these kind of posts they're going to think it's normal and that'll be a bad influence on them. I know every fandom has its ups and downs and not everyone can be pleased but the fandom used to be so lively and so open minded.

I've seen people judging one another for "wrong headcannons" like... That's what a headcannons is, what YOU think the character does. According to the fandom:

Toby can't be happy ( or any happy emotion )

The creeps can't have a stable relationship

The creeps are abusive

You're not allowed to ship characters that aren't canonical partners

If you don't add Toby's stutter and tics ( in a fic or somewhere else ) apparently you're äbléist

^ BUT if you do somehow you're cringe

If you don't laugh at the fanon jokes you aren't a real fan

You aren't allowed to remind ppl that Sally is a killer too

I'm sorry but what. All of these things are ruining the fandom and that's why many people leave. We wonder why the place is so bad but no one is speaking up nor doing anything about it and the people that do get torn to shreds ( not actually ) by the "fans".

Like I wanted to start this small rant with Sally cuz sadly she is one of the most séggsualized characters in the fandom.

I also want to bring awareness to the MASSIVE BULLYING IN THIS PLACE. Like I said a thousand times already, literal children join the fandom and instead of being greeted warmly they get bullied. They are new, they aren't going to know everything from 2016 to now because frankly I wouldn't know either in a new fandom. Instead of bullying them why not help them? Tell them fun facts about their fav char or help them not spread misinformation.

[antimony-medusa]

So Why Do I Keep Talking About Don't Like: Don't Read and Block And Move On?

So there are ships in my fandom that don't do it for me. There are characters who I do not like, there are tropes that make me grimace, there are relationship dynamics that I can't see any way that they could be delivered and still bring me any joy (in fact they actively make my day unpleasant). When I fill out my Do Not Want for exchanges, I have a BUNCH of stuff on that list. There's stuff in every fandom that I'm part of that makes me go "Oh boy that's a no from me". And my reaction to that is to ignore it. Block terms if necessary, unfollow people, just— leave it along. Don't like: don't read.

But why? Because that's not necessarily the fandom norm. This fandom definitely has a tendancy to actively go after stuff that it doesn't like. Especially on twitter, but I've seen it here too, especially when it comes to ships people don't like, or character takes they think are problematic, or creators they hate. Sending messages to warn people about other blogs, searching up the thing you don't like to hate on the people who post it, screenshotting the thing you hate or just talking about how bad it is so you can all be angry together. And man I just think that's a really bad idea.

The reason I think going after the thing you think is bad is a bad idea falls under two major headings. The first is what it does to you. Some of the things I don't like are just because they rub me the wrong way, or I think it's rude. But a good portion of the stuff I don't like is because it taps directly into some pretty serious stuff. If this is bringing up actual major trauma in my life, things I'm afraid of or bad things that happened, I do understand the desire to focus on it and the eraticate it. It's the same thing that makes you keep biting down on a painful tooth or poking at a painful eye. The thing hurts, so I give my attention to it. But oh boy, giving extra space in my head to the thing that is painful to me is not something that I should be doing lightly, and especially not in my recreational space. I see people being like "I hate this/this is bad because it's related to my trauma", but I can't overstate how bad of an idea it is to go "okay, this is terrible and related to my trauma, therefore I am going to search it up and focus on it and talk about it and share it with everyone I know. I'm going to make this traumatic thing a feature of my life".

You're just giving extra space in your head to the thing that hurts you. Don't give it that. Block the tags, ignore it, go full "I won't see it and I won't respond to it".

And even when it's just that I think something is rude, there's posting a careful post about the rudeness that you think some people might not have thought of and washing your hands of it (which is fine but like the amount of times I've started typing it and then gone "wait, everyone who follows me knows this, I don't have to post this, leave it along"), and then there's making it a feature of your blog to talk about how rude something is— why are you giving a slice of your precious life to the rudeness. Why are you giving them the spotlight? Why are you choosing to celebrate the worst things possible, and not the good things?

And then the other thing where I'm like— you're gonna see stuff you don't like, it is the internet, when you do so I'm begging you to just leave it be and walk away— is what it does to other people.

So I spent ten years on twitter. And in that time I have seen my fair share of hate mobs. Some of them are attacking legitimately horrible people. Some of them are completely misinformed and/or operating off of pure hatred. Some of them are attacking people over the most trivial things. But the thing is that with amost all of them, once they really started rolling, the impact they had was disproportionate to what anyone who was talking in good faith wanted. Someone would start a careful conversation about racism, and then people would go "oh, something I hate", and twelve hours later it's just several thousand people screaming over the original people who just wanted something to be fixed, and instead the person who fucked up is scared off the internet and being doxxed. Sometimes the original problem got fixed, but over half the times the person just closed down because they were being screamed at and learned nothing, and that's pulling from the situations where there was an actual problem to be fixed, and not misinformation or hatred or like, liking the wrong ship motivating things. And like, getting mobbed can really fuck someone up. People have had to check themselves into hospital and worse over this.

There's participating in someone saying "hey, this is fucked up", and that's something we should all do when it comes to matters of bigotry, but it's real important to be able to tell when a conversation is no longer being productive and is just about calling for someone's blood. Saying "hey, this trope plays into sexist stereotypes and you should be aware of it" is a great conversation to have. Attacking and mocking people who wrote the wrong trope does not actually increase the store of justice in the world.

And that's for things that you have a rational, principled reason for thinking is bad. A bunch of the time you just don't like a thing! And that's fine! You're allowed to not like things! But starting the ball of hatred rolling because you don't like things— oh in that case you do not have the moral high ground. You're just a bully.

Like at a certain point you have to start looking at matters of harm reduction, and going "I hate this ship, is calling everyone who likes it filthy degenerates actually going to make the world better, or is it going to make them feel bad and then double down, and nothing good happens". Or is it going to get even worse? Is it going to lead to a mob that causes in real world harm— people's housing or jobs impacted, or mental health, or worse! Sometimes it gets worse!

Sometimes a ship or trope you don't like can feel like a personal attack, but like, in the vast majority of cases, you're having an emotional reaction to something you don't like, you're not actually being harassed. You can feel like it's a good idea and even justified to strike back at this thing that is so bad, but like, in actuality it's just some words on a page someone wrote. Stabbing back at it is biting down on the injured tooth again, it's making things worse. Your best bet is to not give it power. Block terms, block users, ask the mods to not match you with certain people or ships, unfollow people— walk away. Don't spend time on it. Ignore it and focus on something good.

Engaging with things you hate is bad for you, and it's bad for the people around you, and way too much of the time it's disproportionately bad for the people who like the thing you hate. So I'm all in on Block And Move On, and Don't Like: Don't Read.

[galarix]

Day 15. Favorite adaptation

Finally! Writer's block, begone!

If asked before 2024, I would have definitely said that my favorite adaptation was the 1924 film by Fritz Lang. Don't get me wrong, I still love it, and I'm sure I'll watch it again. But you see... Gosh, I remember it so well. It was May 7th, 2024, I was browsing nibelungen-rezeption.de instead of going to bed and saw a line in the list of Nibelungen novels that said: 

Lili Vogel: „Der König von Burgund“. Bd. 1. „Der König von Burgund und die Geisel“. Roman

And I thought, omg, a whole series called "Der König von Burgund" and a vol. 1 that has "hostage" in the title??? I know what it's gonna be about! I need to check it out! So yeah, surprising to absolutely no one, I will talk about the König von Burgund series by Lili Vogel.

A couple of details in case this post will be seen by someone who's never heard of these books. First, you can buy Kindle or paper copies on Amazon. Second, it was initially planned as a four-part series, but only three books have been published so far. Nevertheless, they work as a trilogy in terms of plot and composition so you won't be left wondering about what happens next. (Just go and read them already! ;))

Honestly, I don't even know where to start. I understand that, technically, it would be fine to simply say that KvB is my favorite adaptation, period, and proceed to the next question. But I can't do that! I feel a burning need to elaborate and explain, even though the explanation might get quite incoherent ^^"

First things first... THE AUTHOR IS A FAN OF HAGEN AND GUNTHER AND THIS IS WHY I LOVE THESE BOOKS SO MUCH. Yes, I had to write that in all caps!

Ahem... So anyway. As the title suggests, this is a prequel to the Nibelungenlied focusing on Hagen, Gunther, and their relationship. This is exactly the story I once wanted to write—and exactly the one I've always wanted to read! I've been really intrigued by the events that were only briefly mentioned in the Waltharius—Gunther ascending the throne and Hagen coming back to Worms—and often wondered about how Hagen and Gunther became who they are in the NL (and who they are for each other, too). Well, Lili Vogel offers her version of their "origin story", and it's a really captivating one!

Speaking about versions, it should come as no surprise that KvB deviates from the Nibelungenlied in numerous ways, some of them very significant. At the same time, it was clearly the author’s intent to be very respectful towards the NL and stick to it in many, many aspects, but like… with a twist that adds a lot of dramatic tension. Isn’t this something we’re all looking for in a good adaptation—a careful but inventive exploration of the poem's interpretative potential? There is no doubt that Lili Vogel is thoroughly familiar with the NL, with other Middle Ages renditions of the Nibelungen material, with the key works derived from/based upon it, as well as with more obscure ones, and with the range of readers’ typical interpretations of the NL that took place over time. So the more allusions/references you can recognize, the more enjoyable your reading experience will be!

There are so many things that I love about these books... let me name just a couple. For example, it's fascinating to look at character development. Both Gunther and Hagen here have their iconic traits that we recognize from the NL or from other adaptations ("Gunther did what he did best: he hesitated"), but they still have a long way to go before they grow into the characters we meet in the NL. Another thing that I enjoy immensely is Gunther’s POV (yes please!!!), these are my favorite chapters, and I love Vogel's characterization of Gunther. And a special mention goes out to a beautiful and vibrant recreation of High Middle Ages mentality and material culture! It's so refreshing to see a story based on the Nibelungenlied set in the time when the poem was actually created!! We need more of those <3

Okay, I can talk about Lili Vogel's books for HOURS and literally to the point of losing my voice (yes, it has happened). They make me INSANELY happy, and there are days when I can't believe that someone wrote something like that about my favorite NL characters. If we ever get to see Book 4 come out, I'd be so happy I might die. XD

[sparxaf]

Tried S9 or whatever

I didn't want to play. I just wanted to see what the MC options were because it's fun to build an MC. So I built this one with kind of stupid space bun hair because all the hair is stupid and looks wrong, like the volume of the hair is too small for the size of the head and the head looks too small for the width of the shoulders. And oh my god why did the locs look so bad? Fusebox has done locs successfully before, so I know they know how! What even is this? Every season it gets worse and worse with them paywalling all the protective hair options, and then having the audacity to give so little fucks about making them look decent (I will admit, I liked the mermaid braids last season though). As a woman of color it's just infuriating. But yeah, after building an MC that I liked, it was 92 gems. 92. If you buy the 140 gem package in the US for $9.99, that means it would cost $6.56 before the game even started. What? Just to be pied off by characters I never liked to start with? I shut the game down without buying a single thing or even making it past the creation process. I can spend less on an overpriced tea latte from Starbucks that will give me much more joy.

I know I say I'm done every season and then I get sucked in because my fandom friends beg me to play, but I really do think I might be done with this one. I'm just beyond uninterested. Their bait and switch "All-Stars" BS already set my teeth on edge, and I hate the "stars" they've brought back. I've seen the possible list of returning characters and there isn't a single one I care enough about to entice me to play. I love Marshall but if he comes back as a host, I don't care. It won't be canon to me. And if he comes back as a returning islander, I don't care because it won't be canon to me. There is such a fundamental disconnect in Fusebox's understanding of what people want. I'm just fucking tired. The seasons are coming so fast and furious that the fandom can't even get on its feet and enjoy what happened. I keep having to go back to the fandom wiki to even remember what happened in the previous seasons because they're just blurring together in my mind. There's no time to discuss it or theorize or come up with fun fanon. To make mood boards and character boards dedicated to what kind of house they'd live in. There's no time to craft a long fic for the season that just ended unless you start it at the beginning of the season before events even happen. It's just sucked out all the joy. Which maybe, might be the point? Throw them at us so fast, we play hard, and don't have time to think about it or criticize it or come up with ways to make it better. Consume it like a rice cake. Flavorless and forgettable. And I say this as someone who actually rather enjoyed last season, until it got stupid repetitive, with what felt like zero branching.

I dunno. I'm just not having fun. For those who are having a good time, or at least enjoying the chaos and train wreckage, I'm so glad. I look forward to hearing about it because I know I will 😆 For me, I'm gonna be focusing more on finishing TSIME and then working on some original fiction. And maybe some Romance Club fanfic, if the mood strikes me. Because the world building, branching, storytelling, and sexy love interests (even when I hate them) are delicious and immersive. NGL it's expensive, but RC is more generous with their gem rushes and tea parties and whatnot so I don't feel ripped off.

I mean look at this man. If I have to spend my hard earned money on something other than tea lattes from Starbucks, I'm spending it on him.

[ryuichirou]

Replies

A couple of replies today! Kuroshitsuji and Twst.

Anonymous asked:

are you ever gonna make some Kuroshitsuji 2 art featuring my favorite blonde psycho?

We love Alois and I did draw him a couple of times! We posted some of the stuff here, but everything that wasn’t posted on tumblr can be found in this kuroshitsuji log on pixiv.

I’m not planning on drawing him in the nearest future, but since he is very special to us, it might randomly happen at some point…

If you have any troubles with pixiv, let me know and I’ll post Alois art from there here.

Anonymous asked:

The thought just crossed my mind... Do you ship Sebastian with any other characters aside from Ciel? Do you have any thoughts about those ships, if you do? Do you see Grell as a top or a bottom, too?! (I can't pick a side w/ them personally)

We talked about our Kuroshitsuji ships some time ago, here is the post if you’re interested! But in short, we kind of ship him with William because their interactions in the Circus Arc were hilarious and William was 100% playing hard to get. I don’t think I’ve even drawn them at all, but I should do it at least once… I should draw all of our Kuroshitsuji ships at least once, to be fair :(

Ironically, we don’t have any ships or even thoughts about Grell, sorry for disappointing! Maybe it’s due to the fact that while we were hating on Kuroshitsuji all those years (dark times lol), Grell was pretty much the only character I would draw anyway because of the cool design… But not really, to be honest; it’s actually more likely due to the fact that none of the Grell ships really clicked with us :( As for the position, it’s easy to see Grell as a bottom, but it doesn’t really help in this case.

Anonymous asked:

I've noticed I think y'all ship idia the same way I ship silver LOL just 24/7 running a list of characters through my head like "would it be hot if they dicked down Silver? It would be a little hot, wouldn't it? Lets just add them to the list anyway 😌" [he and said character has spoken a total of 2 times]

YES This is the treatment Silver deserves, his father would be so proud lol a little jealous, but still!

It is fun though... I always say it, but twst cast is very interesting, so a lot of characters who seem to be just a random pick could have such nice chemistry that it’s easy to start shipping them after just one interaction or a voice line. I love it so much lol

Anonymous asked:

i can not stop thinking about how Ortho has 24/7 access to any and all porn ever uploaded to the internet. and with a little modification he can bring even some of the most fantastical ones into reality.

He is just way too powerful, isn’t he? And the worst thing is, no one can even stop him anymore, now that Idia can’t access his system anymore…

If you think about it, Ortho is the perviest and the most knowledgeable person in NRC, even if he isn’t actively aware of all the kinks in the world. To think that only 5 minutes of buffering time separates him from being completely unaware and him having seen the entire collection of sex machine porn videos… And knowing Ortho, he’ll definitely want to try some of the things irl lol

Anonymous asked:

Hello! I'd like to know your thoughts on one of the side characters: Fellow Honest.

Sorry if you've already talked about him and I missed it.....

I'm just curious, because you seem to like Rollo and Che'nya, side characters that have made a few appearances in your art.

Do you have any interest in Fellow? Any headcannons? Or are you waiting until next Halloween, when Playful Land is available in English, to talk about/possibly draw him?

Hi, Anon! Sorry for the late reply.

I haven’t talked about it, and unfortunately I still can’t really talk about him. We are very intrigued by both Fellow and Gidel, but we haven’t seen their event yet. So I can’t make proper judgments and come up with any headcanons :(

We don’t really care about the EN release because we watch fan translations on youtube, but we just don’t have time to watch anything these days unfortunately. But when we do watch it, you’ll definitely notice, because there is no way I won’t draw Fellow at least a couple of times. His design and his sleazy faces are just too much fun lol