#half the time I draw her its not even what I would consider ‘fanart’ she just happens to be there

[tiddlebink]

Stress Reliever

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. You know the header image placed at the beginning of every episode (portrait of P on the left, black and white sketch of HxP in the middle, portrait if H on the right)? The full image of the sketchier version of the black and white drawing (the version used in older episodes) is actually smut (you can see it on 4chan)… You’d think RS would at least make a minimal effort to hide her agenda to sexualise everything but nOoOoO

From OP, not Anon: Ngl, that shocked me when I first found that out

2. the same-face syndrome in this series is something else, I swear. legitimately couldn't tell Apollo and Eros apart for the longest time. all male and female characters are drawn with the exact same faces. it gets really annoying honestly

3. I don't know if this bothers anyone else (maybe it's just me) but it seems like the characters' facial expressions can be really... off at times? Like, characters will be drawn smiling in situations where it'd make no sense for them to be smiling? And be drawn with vacant expressions in inappropriate times?

Like how (spoiler) Daphne is drawn with a smile when Apollo turns her into a tree (?) when she should have looked terrified???

As an artist who specializes in facial expressions, the ones in LO legitimately throw me off at times.

4. Something that kind of weirds me out about LO is that both Hades and Persephone are kind of awful people (like literally. Slavery, murder, greed, etc.) but it's not portrayed as a bad thing?? at all, really??? Other than a "That's terrible!" here and there, the full weight of what these two characters do doesn't get addressed and is even excused?

And we as the readers are still supposed to believe these two are the good guys? Hades is the king of the underworld, he can do horrible stuff and get away with it. And we already know Persephone won't have to face the consequences of her actions -_-

Imo, this whole story would make more sense if these two were villains/descending into villainy, but that's obviously not what RS is planning.

5. This isn’t a critique I just wanna know if something went over my head, but when Zeus tells Hades to go be king and take Kronos with him Demeter shows up and Zeus and Demeter walk away. Was that suppose to be about Hera getting torn in half or just something we don’t know yet

From OP, not Anon: Maybe something we don’t know about since Demeter and Zeus don’t have a good relationship.

6. After reading the latest chapter where Hades drones on and on to a crying Persephone about how he'll take care of her and get her everything she needs and she'll have a footman waited on her, a apartment with a great view, etc etc.

It really puts into perspective how spoiled she actually is. Like, that chapter was almost hard to read. 

7. Why does RA draw so much porn? It’s so uncomfortable how most of her fans are underage yet she doesn’t even bother to hide the fact that she makes NSFW content 

From OP, Not Anon: Tbf, RS did have her nsfw behind a paywall. I don’t expect creators to hide that they make nsfw, especially since they don’t have much control over their audience. Nsfw is how a lot of webtoon creators make money after all. RS already stopped using patreon though so I haven’t seen her post nsfw or anything that couldn’t be considered artistic nudity in a while.

8. Anybody else notice how Persephone is always portrayed almost as a poor, lower class god who's worked in the fields instead of lived in luxury? "Oh, poor her!"? BUT we have, if my memory serves me, NO actual lower class characters at all?

I don't know if I'm making much sense, but basically the only reason Persephone seems like such an underdog is because RS hasn't introduced a character who has it worse than her. Despite that there are people living in literal slavery while she's living it up?

From OP, not Anon: Nymphs, satyrs, and other mythical beings are lower class in LO. The gods would be considered middle/upper class so yeah.

9. wasnt the original hymn about the power of women and a mother defending her daughter from a cruel marriage by standing up to men and bringing the world to its knees until they finally took her seriously? like thats feminist to me, not claiming persephone loved her kidnapper and demeter is a big bitch for trying to stop it. im not saying making hxp not full of sexual assault is bad, i'd much rather read that, but demonizing demeter for the sake of a man and a heterosexual romance aint it, chief.

10. I love how lo fanart always depicts hades as some young male model as if rachel isnt very open that she designed him off mads and his depiction of hannibal? like maybe they know if they drew him like a 55+ year old man like rachel intended they might realize hes a creep for wanting to bang a baby faced 19 year old.

[ryuichirou]

I saw one very stupid post on my dash about how snk is OBVIOUSLY nazi propaganda and trying to convert all of us into imperialists and white supremacists. tbh it’s not the first time I’ve seen that kind of stuff and probably won't be the last, but for some reason this time it gave me a lot of anxiety (I got wordy, I'mma need to send another ask, sorry)

(part 2) It's been more than half and hour and I still feel this awful sensation in my chest. It's just overall pretty fucked how to have something you hold dear being misinterpreted in the worst way possible, and I was just wondering what are your thoughts on this situation or how you deal with people claiming all sorts of awful shit.

(part 3) I imagine that as an artist some people probably direct their issues with snk towards you, 'cause I don't even post that much fanart and I've gotten anons "trying to educate me" on why this series is so wrong, after posting drawings. Of course, you don't have to reply, maybe the topic makes you anxious too and I don't want to bother you, so sorry for the depressing topic (｡•́︿•̀｡)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Tiiish, I want to hug you, I’m really sorry that this happened to you. I hope you’re feeling a little bit better now.

Like we already mentioned a while ago, when we were talking about that darn article, after we read through it and did a little fact checking (and I mean it when I say a little, because there weren’t many facts to check), we stopped caring about it. It’s not research at all, just a manipulatively written speculation on Yam’s motives and worldview, but sadly, people easily believe these accusations because they hate SnK and want to find a valid reason to hate it and shit on its fanbase. Because “I hate it because it’s nazi propaganda” sounds much cooler than “I hate it because it’s popular”, doesn’t it?

It’s easier to ignore the article itself though, and it’s much harder not to think about tumblr posts or those Twitter threads that get very popular (although there are a lot of bots on twitter, trust me…), and it’s especially difficult to ignore it when it’s specifically directed at you. But the only thing that these people deserve is a good ol’ block and (if they’re getting too offensive and abusive) a report for harassment. The thing is, their opinion doesn’t matter: it won’t change SnK’s story, it won’t affect its success and popularity, it doesn’t affect anything other than our mood (temporarily lol). Because they aren’t critics who actually give a flying fuck about the subject matter, they’re just random assholes with a hateboner for SnK, who sit in their echochamber and discuss the same shit over and over again. And if they’re “fans” of the SnK, it’s just them “consuming it critically” 🙄 such a convenient phrase and so easy to abuse.

If we think about these accusations again… they’re so damn nonsensical, it’s almost amazing. I’m not going to reread it or to make a proper counterpoint article out of this ask, so this is just based on how we remember these accusations.

Like, what part of SnK approves and pushes the idea of imperialism in any way? When the entire idea of the story is that war is bad? When people like Onyankopon, whose homeland was invaded by Marley, exist? And it’s never portrayed as a good thing? Having only one country dominating the world’s situation is literally the main reason why everyone’s suffering??

And come to think of it, Isayama is one of the few manga artists to kind of sort of openly critique Japan: he literally drew Kiyomi losing her cool and drooling while thinking about all the profit and wealth she would get from the deal with Paradis. Why do people never talk about that? What is it, if not a critique of greedy and two-faced nature of people from Azumabito clan, who are heavily implied to represent Japan? I don’t read a lot of manga in general, but do you know how many mangakas I’ve seen who directly talked shit about Japan while being Japanese? Two. Excluding Isayama.

Isayama is clearly invested in the Western culture and he understands the World’s History. He understands that political relationships are complex and that there are no “bad” or “good” countries. I don’t want to make assumptions about how much perspective of the world’s relationships the average person from Japan has, but I still feel like Yams has a pretty good understanding of it. He did his research for the subject matter, and while it’s obviously not perfect, it’s clearly there.

These people also claim that SnK is anti-Korean and anti-Semitic, but if Hetalia had taught me anything, it is that if the story has or used to have any anti-Korean undertones, the Korean readers wouldn’t want to have anything to do with it. They would be the first people to ditch the manga, they would be the first people to critique SnK, and rightfully so. They burnt Uniqlo clothes, their overall domestic policy is pretty anti-Japanese, so there’re literally zero reasons for them not to destroy SnK if they see it as anti-Korean. But the size of the Korean SnK fandom suggests otherwise, doesn’t it.

And the “big noses = Jewish caricature” argument, seriously? How anti-Semitic can you get? Who the fuck looks at people and goes “oh, those have big noses, bet they’re caricature of Jews”?? Sorry I’m getting heated lol The argument about “Asian artists portray Westerners with prominent noses because that’s what we look like to them” has been done a lot of times, I’m not going to go over than again.

And god forbid Isayama to use Germany and Europe to draw a story where his characters are (approximately) Germans and Europeans! Let’s go fetch our pitchforks to punish Isayama for using their aesthetic to make his story look more believable and authentic, right? “Oh, those areas where they hold Eldians resemble places from real life”, like no shit???? Ofc they would??? That’s what references for making the story more grounded are used for??? If I were to write a story about a fictional place based on a real one that I don’t live in, I’d use some visual references to help me to make it more believable??? Why do I even need to explain that?

In my previous post I talked about the armbands and ghetto and stuff, but I’ll reiterate: even if there are thematic similarities, it doesn’t mean that the story mirrors our history. And it doesn’t mean that there is an analogy, since Eldian’s situation is quiiiite different than what Jewish people had to go through. It’s just thematic similarities. And it still doesn’t plant any specific idea in the reader’s head, other than “having people shoved into ghettos with 0 civil rights is a horrible thing”, and I can’t comprehend what’s anti-Semitic or imperialistic about it. Also I’m sorry, but nazis are not the only people who genocided a bunch of people, breaking news. Nor did they invent armbands. Same goes for Japan in WWII.

And now for my favourite argument: Erwin is nazi because his name is Erwin and he was born on the same day than some nazi guy died… I won’t even talk about why this idea is hilariously stupid, I just want to appreciate the level of nitpicking that’s going on here.

So… yeah. People who have nothing else to do but to complain about the show they hate don’t matter. And people who consider themselves a part of the SnK fandom and still say this bs (yep, there are people who do that) are huge hypocrites. The heck are they doing in this fandom then?? Of course, any story is up to interpretation, but this is so backwards?

Sorry for rambling so much… anyways. We’re happy enough not to encounter any hate related to this topic, but we think it’s because we ship Ereri and people already hate us for that, so the majority of shit we get is related to that, I guess we’re a lost cause for them. We’ll see if anything happens after this post though.

But once again, I’m very sorry that you had to go through this. Please remember that this isn’t personal at all, and people who harass strangers on the internet just want to flex their high moral ground while acting like complete assholes. You don’t have to explain anything to them, you don’t have to talk to them, you don’t have to listen to them or give them any attention. I hope you’ll never stumble upon anything like this; but if you ever do, please block them, don’t even bother reading their attempts at “educate” you. Isn’t worth it.

Please have a good day, Tish. And everyone who’s reading this reply.

[1magine-engine]

1404 (Prologue)

Fandom: Haikyuu!! Pairing: Kuroo Tetsuro x Youtuber Reader Words: 1500+ Posted: 26/11/20

Song(s) Featured: Moon on the Water by The Dying Breed (from Beck MCS)

“It’s actually really exciting.”

Tetsuro nods, knowing Kenma means it, whatever he’s talking about. Probably something about Bouncing Ball corp. and the new game they have in development. Really, Kenma hasn’t stopped talking about it since the project started almost half a year ago and while Tetsuro is interested enough to usually listen to him rave and gush, today’s just not that kind of day.

“-and the new voice actor I have in mind is really good. We save a lot of time and money cause they speak in both languages.”

Yup, they’re probably phenomenal if Kenma is so easy to compliment them. Tetsuro racks his brain trying to remember who he’s talking about.

“I’m actually thinking about having her as a guest on stream soon.”

Uh huh.

“Oh and I’m also going to shave my head and give my hair to that middle school girl who won’t stop messaging.”

Good for them.

“Okay, how many of those have you had today?”

Tetsuro looks down at the cup of coffee he’s forgotten he’s holding. “Uh…” his brows furrow and it’s enough for Kenma to pry the cup out of his hand and set it on the far end of the table.

“And you’re always telling me to get proper sleep.” Kenma gives him a look, sipping on his own drink. He exits Discord, Tetsuro’s sagging back, drooping shoulders and lifeless eyes, more concerning than his followers’ Rule 34 fanart. “Seriously are you okay man? Have you been sleeping? At all?”

Tetsuro shakes his head, the mere mention of sleep enough to slump him over the table completely. As far as he knows, a waiter hadn’t wiped it after the last couple of people who sat down, or before he and Kenma took their place. He finds he doesn’t care. “Stupid neighbors, always either fighting or fucking all night. It’s been going on for a month now.”

“Oh that’s rough.” Kenma winces, handing him back his coffee, knowing lunch break doesn’t last forever and Tetsuro has to return to his office as a zombie. “Tried filing a noise complaint?”

He was about to, one week into the couple’s constant spats, but hearing them scream at the top of their lungs at each other about money troubles and barely keeping themselves afloat stayed his hand. Tetsuro knows how difficult it is to get an apartment in his building, a prime position near the business district at a reasonable price. He also knows his neighbors to an extent, at least what they do for a living as a preschool teacher and a struggling musician. As much as he needs his sleep, he’s not so heartless as to put them out on the streets. “It’s fine,” he promises as he downs the rest of his coffee. “I’ve been living next door to these guys for almost two years now and they’ve always seemed happy before this. They’ll work through it and I then I can get some sleep.”

“If you say so,” Kenma says but he still stares down and shakes his head at the next waitress who tries to approach them with a pot of coffee.

It’s a month and two weeks in that Tetsuro reconsiders that noise complaint or at least considers gathering his neighbors from the same floor and staging an intervention. Mrs. Mamizuka across the hall has expressed her concerns to Kuroo in the elevator one morning, telling him they’ll surely notice how loud and disturbing they’ve become when they realize she hasn’t been giving them as many of her baked goods as she normally does. And Tanaka who’s taking up residence at the end of their hall has advised him to just go out at night, go to the convenience store next to the building and wait till they tire each other out or go partying with friends.

Oh, to be a college student again.

He’s not even in his mid-twenties and he wishes for the energy he used to have, the kind that could drive him through all his classes on just 3 hours of sleep. Maybe then, he could finish his damned paperwork. Maybe then he wouldn’t fall asleep on the bus and miss his stop.

“Been up working late nights Kuroo-san?” the night guard, Sato asks him when he drags his feet into the lobby after midnight.

Kuroo nods, also wishing he had half the middle aged man’s energy, because even at the latest hours of the night, Sato-san greets every tenant and guest with a smile. Kuroo could only force himself to return it. “Something like that.”

“Well you look pretty tuckered out. You should probably put off whatever you’re working on for the night Kuroo-san.” He wags an index finger like a weather man telling a fact about nature on the news. “Sleep is important you know.”

Doesn’t he know it.

When he crosses the threshold of his apartment, he doesn’t bother turning on the lights. He heads straight for his bedroom and musters up the energy to take off his jacket, tie, socks and shoes. The night is silent, save for a light chorus of crickets outside his window. He’s gotten home later than he would have any other time, a crescent moon sitting just past its peak outside his window. And he hopes, oh does he hope, that it means his neighbors have already fought all they can fight for the night. Or maybe the husband hasn’t come home yet and that’s why it hasn’t started. 

He regrets even thinking of it when he settles into bed and hears the distant sound of a door being unlocked and slammed open.

Tetsuro sighs, already rolling over to each for his messenger bag, his earphones sitting somewhere at the bottom. He stops his rummaging when no bedlam disturbs the night. Footsteps prick his ears but they don’t stomp and aren’t followed by booming voices trying to talk over each other. He rolls back over, leaning towards the wall and hearing nothing. Odd. More shuffling and trudging draw his eye up to the crag ceiling, to the apartment above his.

The kind elderly couple who used to live up there had mentioned wanting to move to the country for months. “The air is fresher there, better for old people like us,” the wife chuckled at him once when he’d helped carry her groceries across the lobby to the elevator. Not a week later, Tetsuro was helping the husband and their son move furniture out, just in time to miss the beginning of a hard spot in their neighbor’s relationship. But whoever has taken their place isn’t so fortunate but then again, maybe it’s him that’s out of luck. In the darkness of his apartment he stares up at the ceiling, brows furrowed.

He prays, prays to whatever kami watches over the luck and serenity of apartment buildings that it isn’t another couple that should’ve broken up yesterday. Hell, he’ll even take a new family with a rowdy kid. At least kids are usually out by 10 with their parents careful not to wake them, not banging on the walls or banging each other. No movie he’s watched or game he’s been in has ever left him in such suspense. After some more shuffling and gentle creak of chair legs against a wood floor, there’s silence. 

Tetsuro sits up, holding his breath.

“Full moon sways, 

gently in the night of one fine day.”

A car drives by, the doppler effect of it rushing down the street drowning out the first few notes of an acoustic guitar. Deft fingers play with practiced ease but do so with languid movement, catching on the strings more than plucking them. The voice, high and crooning, is the same, beautiful but almost lazy. Tired, he realizes, is a better word; she sounds as tired as he remembers he feels, once all the irritation at his neighbors and frustration with missing his stop ebbs away. Laying back down, he listens.

"On my way,  looking for a moment with my dear. 

Full moon waves, slowly on the surface of the lake. 

You are there, smiling in my arms 

for all those years."

Even as the song switches to strumming with the slightest bit of force, Tetsuro finds himself sinking deeper into his pillow, eyes growing heavy.

"What a fool, I don’t know ‘bout tomorrow, 

or what it’s like to be, Ah,"

He’s never heard the song in his life, neither does he remember enough of his English classes from high school to understand everything, but he doesn’t need to.

"I was sure, I couldn’t let myself go, 

even though I feel, the end."

Her voice and her guitar are muffled by the layers of wood and concrete between them. His window is open to let the cool night air and silver light of the moon in and he can tell hers is as well but she drowns out the chirping of crickets, the cars that drive by and even Tetsuro’s own thoughts as little by little, then all at once, he falls asleep.

"Full moon sways, gently in the night one fine day 

You were there, smiling in my arms,

 for all these years."

When he opens his eyes, it’s slow. Sleep inertia from a deep sleep is always worse but he finds his eyes widening as it goes away in minutes and he feel more rested than he has in years.

He blinks, staring up at the ceiling.

“Huh.”

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Charles Schulz vs Andrew Dobson: What a Blockhead!

There are certain things about Dobson’s behavior and particularly his approach at being a nerd and presenting himself as someone who enjoys the art of storytelling that I have issues with. Issues I want to tackle on in more detail within later entries quite a bit.

One such tendency is, that he mocks directly or indirectly the work and accomplishments of others.

See, if Dobson doesn’t like you as a content creator because he does not like something you work on, he will try to show it. He will make stupid assumptions of you (like how he accused Kojima of being a sexist creep because of Quiet and how he deals with “male gaze” in MGS compared to Death Stranding), half heartedly mock you (look at anything he makes about Ethan Van Sciver) or he will call a piece of work boring and dull based on a minor element instead of overarching problems (calling Batman the character a white supremacist based on the dumb work of only one author).

By doing that he also tries indirectly to insinuate that he is better in some manner, though most of the time it really just shows his own ego and that his pet peeves are rather petty compared to the overall quality of the work he criticizes as well as its flaws.

One such sight of ego boosting while mocking the work of his better is in my opinion to be found in this comic he uploaded sometimes around 2016/17 randomly online.

This comic in my opinion is both laughable and insulting. Why? I will explain soon.

First however I want to clarify that I get that this comic is supposed to be a joke mostly. The old “What others expect, what I expect” thing, where the punchline is supposed to be the discrepancy between the two fractions and what they expect, mostly by making one of the expectations come off as worse than the other. However, I find the punchline to be Charlie Brown (and as such what Dobson seems to see as something he does not want to be favorable compared too) quite insulting. Why, as I said, will be elaborated on sooner.

First, let me just get on the part I find laughable: The fact that Dobson in his own head seems to believe he can be even remotely compared to people like Paul Dinni, Bruce Timm, Greg Weismann, Justin Roiland, Miyazaki, Shigeru Miyamoto and all the other character creators and animators whose creations we see in the first panel.

 Dobson, don’t make me laugh. Putting aside the fact that those people are animators more than cartoonists, what makes you even believe in your wildest dreams you are on the same level as them? The fact you too are an animator, seeing how you graduated from an art school with a degree in that field? I have seen your contributions to the field and honestly, I would expect a bit more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0tdWNCrIxo

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps6PfiUCxHQ

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PyonOqClf8

 I give you credit, you can animate. Which is more than I can say for myself when it comes to the arts. But when you look what other freelance animators can do online, some of them younger than you and NOT with a degree in animation…

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=FmkAcGz1BJk&feature=emb_title

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97IfPfjSaDg

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEUoxQ4qSfs

 Viviepop’s demo reels alone are just gorgeous to look at and more fluid than what I have seen of you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFlha-KOKCc

 And it is not just the technical quality, Dobson. It is also just the overall “originality” of your work. Cause this is the thing with those animators hinted on in the first pic and even many, many freelancers/fanartists as well as webcomic creators online: They have a spark of originality in presentation and storytelling that you lack. I will one day go more into detail for that, but here is the most brutal thing I can say at the moment: I know shitty porn fanfictions, that have more plot development and character growth than all of Alex ze Pirate.

Your characters and stories tend to be derivative and you barely take any risks in telling a story. Neither in your fanbased work (like the Miraculous comics) nor your original content (mostly because you take comfort in four panel strips anyway)  and when you have an idea for something on which the basis idea actually sounds good, you screw it up by a lackluster execution. One example I want to give for that, would be this fanart of yours in regard to Steven Universe.  

(I apologize for not getting one in better quality) This pic was something Dobson created around 2015 for Steven Universe. The picture is supposed to show Lapis, trapped under the ocean following the events of the season 1 finale of the show. A very emotional situation if you are aware of why Lapis sacrificed herself and was “banned” to the ocean floor. Short explanation: Fused with Jasper and then took primarily control of the fused being they became (Malachite) by using her water powers to bond it with heavy water chains on the ocean floor, so that Jasper would not hurt Steven anymore.

 How much of that was even an emotional strain on her and her psyche was in one episode of season 2 even a theme, as seen here.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK3l8mGNhMg

 I am not even a fan of the show and I get the emotional weight and impact of Lapis actions.

So… why is that not conveyed in the artwork? If you are so talented Dobson, why is none of the strain and despair on the character? The idea of a pic showing Lapis under water, longingly looking up, even in despair is a good basis for a fanart. But the execution lacks any emotional detail. You want to know how I would execute the thing if I had the artistic talent? Make the picture a huge horizontal pic, where we slowly decent from water surface down the ocean. The light getting dimmer. Blue turning into dark. The silhouette of a hand and an arm similar to Malachite’s in the background, trying to travel up, the fingertips barely touching the surface. Heavy chains around the flesh. Symbolic of the fusion trying to break free and cause havoc. And down on the dark bottom, beaten and exhausted Lapis with tears in her eyes and chains all over her body like she is Jacob Marley, desperately trying to keep Malachite at bay for the sake of the only being on earth who ever showed just a little bit of kindness towards her.

 Why can’t we have something like this here, Dobson? If you were even remotely as original as the creators you want to be compared with, I think you could come up with something like that and perhaps even draw it.

But you know, his delusions of being as good as them is one thing. It is even funny.

Pissing over the Peanuts is another. Dobson, what are you trying to hint at?

That people comparing you to Charles Schulz and his creation is in your eyes automatically a sort of insult? That it is something that should at best only be a mockable punchline in a comparison?

Just to clarify a few things: I am NOT much of a fan of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts as a property. As a child, I was just not very entertained by them. Yes, I saw animated movies, episodes and specials of them here and there and my grandparents gave me volumes of them to read, but as a whole I never thought them quite as entertaining than other comics or cartoons I watched. Some parts of Peanuts animation felt to me often times like just dead air (especially parts of Snooby dancing with Woodstuck, as they had no function to move the plots forward) and I really could not stand how some characters treat Charles on a regular basis. I mean, we all agree that Lucy is one of the worst female characters in fiction and that even while we hate Family Guy, this clip likely gave some of us some sort of satisfaction, right?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZkJAx8FycI

 But before the Peanuts fan out there go and want my head on a silver platter, let me make one thing clear: I may not like the Peanuts franchise… but I respect it and the man behind it.

 Charles Schulz drew the comic strip from October 1950 till late 1999 (the final strip being finished months before it would be published on February 13 of 2000, one day after he died of colon cancer) , creating a total amount of 17,897 Peanuts’ strips. His work marks a major impact in the nature of newspaper comic strips and inspired many people out there, including Bill Watterson, to create comics or be in the field of animation. His achievements include among other things, that he created what many people consider the first animated Christmas special ever. The names of his creations became nicknames for the Apollo 10 command module and its’ lunar modul. Four of the five Peanuts movies in existence (animated made for tv specials not withstanding now) were written by him. And the fifth was only not by him, because that one came out in 2015, a decade and a half after he died.

And speaking of things Schulz wrote for the Peanuts, let me mention two things. Two things that though I am not a fan of the Peanuts, I have mad respect for existing in the realm of animation. Two animated specials that stuck with me ever since I was eight.

 “What have we learnt, Charlie Brown?” from 1983 and “Why, Charlie Brown, Why?” from 1990.

 In the first special, which functions as a semi sequel to the fourth Peanuts’ movie “Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown”, the characters actually travel across France and after ending up on Omaha Beach and Ypres the special turns into a tribute to the soldiers who fought in World War 1 and 2, elaborating on the sacrifices made during the war by showing actual footage of fights, recordings of Eisenhower and reciting the poem “In Flanders Fields” among other things. Do you know how impactful it is to learn about the world wars as a small kid, by being reminded of the actual sacrifices others made in order for your own grandparents to survive?

 And speaking of grandparents, I lost my grandmother as a child by cancer. So when I saw the second special I mentioned, you can bet it stuck with me. After all, of all the things in the world, the Peanuts addressing the seriousness of cancer by having a story where a friend of Linus is diagnosed with leukemia and we follow the emotional impact it has on Linus and the girl? Again, I may not like the franchise, but I am not ashamed to admit I think the special treats the subject with a lot of respect and dignity while telling a good story. You bet your ass I get a bit teary eyed when the little girl survives her leukemia treatment and finally gets on that swing again. Those two specials alone are more mature than ¾ of the shit Dobson likes to gosh about, including his oh so precious gay space rocks. And just for those things existing I have respect for Schulz, his creation and the impact it had on so many people. As such, Dobson “belittling” the Peanuts, at least for me, is a freaking insult. The only way Dobson could have been even more insulting is if he called Schulz something derogative.  Dobson should be glad if his life’s work in total could even amount to 10% of what Schulz has done and achieved.

 Cause Dobson, you are NOT a Charles Schulz. Schulz served during the second world war on the front, fighting actual Nazis instead of calling idiots on the internet fascists for not liking Star Wars. He had integrity and work ethics that drove him to draw and write over 17.000 strips, while you can not even finish one FREAKING story. He knew how to tackle a mature subject, while you make shitty shipping jokes involving Ladybug and Cat Noir and claim Steven Universe knows how to be about psychological trauma, when it just romanticizes abuse. He may have drawn simplistically, but at least he could tell a joke instead of constantly berating others for not sharing his opinion. He did all of that and more without having graduated from college.

 And what have you done, Andrew Dobson?

If Dobson reads this, there is one thing in my opinion he should take away from more than anything else: That if people compare him to Charles Schulz’s work, that it means a) he should not be ashamed of it and b) they overestimate him.

[sibyl-of-space]

Final Fantasy IX ~ Melodies and Memories

"Jesters of the Moon"

There are a lot of very good video games in the world, but it takes some luck and circumstance outside of a game's control for one to reach me at just the right time(s) and place(s) in my life that it has a tangible impact on who I am -- who I want to be. One that carves out a space for itself in my soul that will never be removed or replaced.

I've just finished playing Final Fantasy IX for the first time, and there's no doubt in my mind that such is the case here.

(Continued below readmore.)

I drew this art last year, when I was mourning my attachment to an old favorite game that I just don't feel the same way about anymore: Majora's Mask. I wanted to draw something that captured my feelings about it, because sometimes art is the best way to talk about something when the words don't want to come.

Why is "Jesters of the Moon," the name of a random song in the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack, plastered in the middle of this Majora's Mask fanart? Especially considering I hadn't even played Final Fantasy IX yet when I drew this?

The reason is exactly that "luck and circumstance" that allowed me to fall so uniquely in love with the game.

"Mt. Gulug"

In 2008, someone on YouTube uploaded a Majora's Mask parody-slash-let's-play series called "Majora's Mask: The Things Which Were Taken Out." The series has since become unlisted and won't be linked here out of respect for the creator who probably doesn't want things they said and made in 2008 being spread all over the internet, but because of Unregistered Hypercam 2 reasons, the series inserted other background music over the video and didn't record the actual game audio.

I didn't recognize any of the music, but I watched these parody videos on repeat because in addition to being funny (...at the time, in my mind, at least), I really really loved the music. It got to the point where I would sometimes be playing Majora's Mask and get disappointed when I approached Goht and the Mt. Gulug theme wasn't playing in the background.

I had forgotten about these videos for a really long time in the interim, but I remembered them at some point when I was thinking about Majora's Mask and I found them again. The creator had cited the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack for virtually all of the background music used in the videos, and I realized that despite knowing literally nothing about the game, I had become really fond of - and weirdly nostalgic for - the songs from it that I now recognized.

So I looked up "Jesters of the Moon" and played it on repeat while I drew out my feelings in colored marker. A few months later, I realized that my backwards compatible PS3 can also play PS1 games, and eBay had FFIX for PS1 at a good price. I had nothing to lose by ordering it and seeing what the source of all that fantastic music was like.

"Vamo Alla Flamenco"

I started my playthrough knowing nothing about what to expect from the game. I'd never played a Final Fantasy game before and my overall JRPG experience has been mostly limited to Tales of, Persona, and more recently, mainline Shin Megami Tensei. The only things I knew about Final Fantasy were a) the Tidus laughing scene, and b) Sephiroth. IX seemed like it had vibes I would enjoy, but beyond that I knew nothing about what the experience would be. So I approached it with a "let's have fun and see how it goes" attitude, naming my party members the first silly thing that came to mind, ending up with "Swaggy," "OwO," "Bitchin," "Gunz," and "SWOOORD" to start with.

(For the record I do not regret those names whatsoever.)

I was immediately struck by how differently the game uses music in comparison to all of my previous JRPG experiences. This was not a game where the composer was given a list of theme songs that were slapped on top of a mostly completed game-- this was a game constructed with the soundtrack in mind as a part of the writing process.

The opening act plays almost like an opera (side note, yes I know one of the other FF's has a literal opera, I haven't played that one): you traverse the same locations from different perspectives as different characters, introducing the cast with lighthearted humor and dramatic irony out the wazoo. While you traverse the city as OwO, OwO's theme is playing in the background, coloring your perspective of the city and the narrative. When you switch to Gunz patrolling around the castle, Gunz's theme accompanies your movement and informs his character and mission. I am so accustomed to "location themes" being the norm in virtually all video games that experiencing character and/or narrative themes as BGM instead while I bumble around town changed my entire perspective on what music in games can do and be.

The operatic feeling is definitely intentional, because the game uses a play-within-a-game narrative device to hit you over the head with its themes in a way that is somehow poignant and artful while also being extremely blatant. That is a hard balance to strike, but it manages. The whole game is like that: it is completely straightforward and tells you exactly what it's about at heart, but it does it beautifully.

At any rate, I was enamored with this intro and had a very fun time, but I wasn't obsessed or anything and ended up putting it down. I spent several months on the first half of disk 1 with weeks passing between play sessions. I liked the game plenty, but life stuff happened and I decided to get obsessed with Dai Gyakuten Saiban and Ghost Trick for a while. No regrettis.

It was already clear, though, that FFIX was going to be special to me. My compositions for my team's game in the Global Game Jam in 2021 were directly inspired by FFIX's opera-like intro. I wrote two character themes for our game that would serve as background music when you play as the two protagonists, coloring your journey differently even when moving in the same spaces. I was intentionally trying to mimic the way music is used in FFIX as an exercise. The themes I wrote are definitely some of my strongest work so far.

(You can check out the game here if you want, I promise it is significantly shorter than Final Fantasy IX.)

"Melodies of Life"

Music caused me to pick up FFIX the first time, and music caused me to return to it. After months of not touching or really thinking about it, just earlier this week I was inspired to play it again, because - again - I listened to the right song at the right time.

I was again mourning the loss of something, in this case a friendship, for reasons I'm not going to share here. I had already heard the song "Melodies of Life" because it came up when I was looking up FFIX songs to reblog on Tumblr a few months ago, and I decided to listen to it again. Even without knowing the game context, the song itself really spoke to me in that moment: "a voice from the past, joining yours and mine, adding up the layers of harmony" - it kind of made me feel at peace with the fact that I had a lot of positive memories of that friendship and I could keep those at heart while also moving on in the present. ...I'm also a sucker for music metaphors, so there is that.

I was really moved by this song, cheesy as it is, and I was also definitely in the mood for a distraction. Picking up FFIX again felt like the best move.

It was, and my life is forever changed.

The game never stopped being beautiful and funny and touching, and the soundtrack never ceased to amaze. I recognized concepts I've seen in other games but never had I seen them used so artfully. I adored the fantasy world and non-human cast, I found myself enticed by random encounter for the first time because it made me feel like I had to struggle to survive a difficult journey. Music, gameplay, visuals, and story felt like one cohesive work of art for the entire duration.

Life circumstances got me to play the game again, but the game itself was so captivating and wonderful that I binged the entire rest of it - disks 2-4 - in less than a week. Everything else that the game had to say, it told me itself, in its own context, and I was ready to listen.

"You're Not Alone!"

This is going to make me sound like an emotionally-stunted twenty-something, but it has been years since a work of media has got me to have a really good cry. I used to cry playing games all the time as a kid but recently I'll find myself getting emotional, sure, often tearing up, but getting completely red-faced and snot-nosed because I physically cannot contain the emotions being evoked by a work? Years. I can't honestly tell you the last time it happened with certainty.

I feel like an emotional band-aid has been ripped off. I was f*cking sobbing during the entire duration of the "You're Not Alone!" sequence. It didn't matter that what was happening was obviously coming from a mile away, because the delivery was so raw and emotional and human!!! A whole game's worth of Swaggy punching first and asking questions later to save his friends, being Protag McProtag endangering himself for others in any and all circumstances, for the payoff of all of his friends forcing him to stop being such a primadonna and let them help him for once. It's true, too! He relies on them just as much as they rely on him! And the game doesn't just tell you this, no, it lets you try to solo all these fights and waits until you realize how boned you are until they come bail you out.

When Bitchin showed up with her "looks like you need a hand" I wanted to straight up yell at my tv. YES I DO!!! YES I DO NEED YOU BITCHIN!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!! I half knew that SWOOORD was going to heal me before I got truly KO-ed but I had been unmercifully wiped in "unwinnable" battles before in this game, so I legit thought I might have to re-do that whole part of the game again, and I was so relieved and thankful when she showed up and healed me.

This moment exemplifies everything that I adore about this game. It doesn't just tell you its story. It shows it to you, it sings it to you, and it and lets you play it out and feel it for yourself.

"Game Over"

This song is all too familiar to me. Gizamaluke's Grotto was very unforgiving for a first-time Final Fantasy player, especially one who didn't happen to pick up Big on the way for a fourth party member early on.

I hadn't heard the piano part in a few months, though, because when I picked the game back up I started just mashing to reload before it got to that point any time we wiped. I didn't hear it again until the game was truly over, this time for good.

I let it play for a while. Not too long, because I have a CRT TV and didn't want "The End" to get burned in. But a while. Enough to meditate on what I'd just experienced, and how I was feeling about it.

There's so much more to say about the game, far more than I could put in a blog post. But I don't think I need to describe these thoughts in words. I can do what the game did, and use music, use art, use stories, use metaphors, and use symbols to communicate what I mean; and hope that someone else is able and willing to listen.

And although a written record of my thoughts likely won't be preserved for all that long, maybe the feelings and the memories will be, so long as they have been shared.

[muthaz-rapapa]

Sekai Seifuku Sakusen Wishlist

Hello people~

Say, does anyone still remember that figure line by Megahouse *retches* ?

Well, it was a short-lived series focused on, as the name (“World Uniform Operation”) suggests, showcasing female characters in their school uniforms.

To my knowledge, all of them were released as 1/10 scaled (eww). And the Precure seasons that had the privilege of getting figures...

Were Futari Wa, Fresh and Heartcatch.

Sailor Moon got theirs as well (the Inner Senshi + Naru) but they were very meh, imo. You were better off getting a more dynamic-looking prize figure at a significantly lesser cost.

Anyways, back to Precure. Not surprised about these three given their seasons’ popularity up to that point. But a shame because as of 2016, there hasn’t been announcement of any new figures. Which basically means, this line didn’t do well. Didn’t do well = the project is more or less cancelled.

On one hand, I’m sorta glad cuz the prices on these figures were ludicrous, especially when made at that scale and with Megahouse’s poor quality track record (I don’t even want to go into all that limited exclusivity bullshit). I bought Tsubomi and Itsuki and they seemed pretty alright. Still too much for a scale with such a simple design, though.

Then on the other, I can’t help but whine to myself a little cuz this is such a great concept. We rarely get merchandise of the Cures in their civilian forms and if they have there Cure alter-egos to go with them, it would be an awesome display on a collector’s shelf.

*SIGH* ...oh well.

That said...if there was a continuation for this series, then here’s my wishlist of the seasons + uniforms I want the most to least:

1) MahoPre - Nobody should be surprised that this is my first pick. MahoPre will always have a very deep, very special place in my heart and as far as uniforms go, the Magic Academy one is indeed my top favorite in all of Precure.

Because duh, it’s for magic school, not regular school, so the design had to match with that idea in mind. And it turned out so charming, didn’t it? I love the magenta/pink color scheme, the plaid bow, the mini sewn-on cape.

Definitely would want the witch hats and wands with them as well. Maybe even the brooms if someone’s feeling generous, enough? hehe :)

Dude, I should just open up my own figure company and make these myself.

2) Go!Pri - I wasn’t a fan of overalls growing up but my opinion of them has shifted to a more positive one recently thanks to seeing the latest fashion trends and Precure’s influence on me.

Really, the character designers draw the girls so cute in overall dresses that I can’t help but think it as well!

Anyways, it seems I have a penchant for academy uniforms or something. There’s a combination of cuteness and sophistication there that I find difficult to resist. Also, the purple undershirt is very fitting since they attend Royal Academy. Wish my school uniform was that nice-looking but alas, I didn’t go to an academy in the Precure world. :P

Anyways, I wouldn’t get all the girls from Go!Pri. Just Kirara and Towa who are my forever favorites. <3

I’ve also seen someone’s fanart of them as a pair (and Haruka + Minami as another pair) based on the Sekai Seifuku Sakusen concept so you can imagine the huge disappointment I felt when I knew Megahouse would never get to this season. *sobbing* 

3) KiraPre - As I said in another post, I’m not collecting KiraPre merchandise but the KiraPati uniform is to die for.

I know this breaks the trend of the line needing to be in “school uniforms” but KiraPre’s school uniforms aren’t anything to write home about. These, however, are much more adorable and therefore, more marketable. ;)

4) StarPre - SERAFUKU BISHOUJO SENSHI

For sure, since they both have space themes, it was only appropriate for StarPre to pay homage to Sailor Moon with having the Star girls wear serafuku.

I like the simplicity of it as well. Hehe~ ^^

And whether I would want everyone or not...it really depends on what kind of poses they’re in and if they can complement each other well.

Also, I suppose since Yuni never went to school, she’d just have a figure in her normal Blue Cat outfit which is fine, too.

5) SuitePre - Mm, yes, this one I’ve been waiting the longest for, despite the seasons listed before it on this list.

I wouldn’t say Suite’s uniform is the most unique but I do love the contrast of the overall cyan color with the magenta contours and bow. It’s a shade I don’t think I’ll ever see on another school uniform and even so, it’ll probably be hard to pull off nicely.

Suite managed to do it and I’m sure we can find tons of references to give the girls the perfect pose. So yea, I’d definitely consider the whole set as well if everyone can get a great sculpt and paint job.

As for Ako, she doesn’t have a school uniform so we can just put her in the same group as Aguri and Emiru and call it the Pipsqueak Elementary Squad.

6) HealPre - I love this uniform immensely for how neat and snug it looks. Not to mention, the dark green just makes it look very comfortable to wear overall. I know, maybe it’s just me being weird but it gives off a very calming effect.

And as Precure allows for more variations in clothing and accessories among the main cast, it would make for more interesting figures as well. Then you wouldn’t feel like you’re getting the same figure with only different heads and poses.

...and socks.

Would definitely love to have Nodoka. 

7) Hugtto - Pretty much the same reasoning as HealPre’s above.

In all honesty, there’s nothing that special about this uniform so the fact that the Hugtto girls could wear something of their own choice over it really brings out their characters more that way.

8) SmilePre - Also like Heal and Hugtto above but to a lesser extent, I guess.

Still, Smile is quite favored among Precure seasons so I’d think they sell well regardless.

This uniform isn’t half bad either. I’m not sure why because there’s not that huge of a resemblance but looking at their shoulders kinda reminds me of a military officer’s uniform, especially from the back. Just a little bit.

My pick would definitely be Reika in this pose specifically.

9) Splash Star - Let’s say for the record that I like all the Precure school uniforms (or just uniforms in general). So Splash Star should actually rank higher (around where Suite is) given its more unique design.

Hardly anyone else employs brown or plaid so this combination along with the sailor collar over the blazer (?)... I just think it makes Saki and Mai look very endearing. Hmm, yes, I approve! :D

However, this is a season I’m not familiar with so my demand for it is less than the others. But I do think they deserve to get their figures first. What with being the second Precure installment and all. shouldn’t that count for something?

10) Yes! 5 - Oh, I do love the Yes!5 girls.

But...they suffer from lack of variation the most out of all the other teams. Seriously, even in one set of of their casual clothes, they all own the same shirt albeit in their different, respective theme colors.

It’s...weird. But less so on a school uniform, I guess.

Anyways, pose and sculpt would be the trick here. Even though Yes! 5 does have its fair share of fans, with how old and poorly received both their seasons are, you’d be hardpressed to find a lot of collectors willing to shell out for figures of them. So there would have to be more effort in making them look exceptional to draw a crowd.

11) DokiPre - It’s hard to find everyone wearing their uniforms in the same shot and frankly, I think I can count all the times I’ve seen Alice wearing her own uniform (it’s this) on one hand??

I mean, does Alice even go to school with all the private tutelage she probably receives or is it just a formality? ...I dunno.

Whatever. I think this uniform looks nice and the girls look nice but it’s not as eye-catching than if they were to wear their casual clothes.

12) HaCha - Feel bad for putting this last because it certainly isn’t the worst of ‘em (none of them are) and I do quite like it (because there’s red and I like red).

It’s just...hmm, I dunno. I guess it’s because the top’s buttons sorta makes me think of a chef suit. It doesn’t bother me or anything but... it’s just the first thing I think of when I see it. ( ^ ^ ;)

*sigh* With how HaCha’s being treated in S.H. Figuarts department and its polarizing reception in the fandom in general, I doubt this would be a priority on many people’s wishlists. Still, it would be wonderful to see HaCha get even some love, y’know?

~~~~~

Yea.

My dreams aren’t that big but they’re long alright. :3

[derpyslurpy-da-derp-master]

First things first, I’d like to thank not only God but also Jesus. Secondly, I feel like I’m about to faint. Thirdly, hELL TO THE FUCK YEAH!!!

I’ll go in order of the team itself, that means we’re starting with Ruby!

First thing I noticed is the fact that Ruby has gloves now. Not just any gloves, fingerless gloves. Call me a dork but I find that incredibly badass, and having them makes sense because, you know, Atlas is freezing. Secondly the baby has shorts now, thank GOD. Anti upskirt technology can only take you so far and now this is an actual practical combat skirt. Also belts. Lots of belts happen. Ruby’s wearing some sort of undershirt under her corset now! That’s awesome, she won’t get cold from that open section of her clothes anymore! Her boots look a lot more practical to, no more stupidly long laces that’d make taking them on and off really hard, especially in the snow. Also she’s wearing tights again like in V1 which is a nice callback to that! I do NOT however like how the shading is very heavy around her right eye because I have the feeling that implies something really awful since nobody else had shading that strong or concentrated. Ruby please keep both your eyes this volume I beg of you-

What I also don’t like is apparently her hair looks like that not because of wind but her hair does change this Volume which is going to kill me because due to either my Asperger’s or ADD (I’m not sure which is the culprit) significant changes in appearance give me headaches and/or anxiety, I felt it to some degree with the software shift but Ruby was the one that didn’t trigger this because she looked pretty much the same and her hair has been the one constant in design and now she’s Cloud Strife and it’s very upsetting to my subconscious

Ahem, anyways, onto Weiss!

Okay there are a lot of more important elements then this but I’m weak so first things first; SHE’S REPLACED ALL THE SAPPHIRE IN HER OUTFIT WITH RUBIES

THAT ISNT SUBTLE RT AND I LOVE YOU SO MUCH FOR IT The second biggest change is her hair which is now in a braid. This is gonna take some getting used to and is going to make drawing Weiss so much harder oh my god I CANT DRAW BRAIDS RT WHY DID YOU MAKE MY FAVORITE CHARACTER EVEN HARDER TO DRAW?? Okay moving on, I find it interesting that she’s not wearing tights or leg coverings of any kind, then again she’s an Atlas native so she can handle that. Also I love her boots, you can’t see a lot of them ‘cause rose petals and Ruby but they look suuuper cool! I love Weiss’s puffy sleeves and ESPECIALLY love how her emblem is on her shoulder now instead of a target on her back, nice symbolism hinting at the direction she’s gonna go this volume. I’m not sure how I feel about the gloves, it’s probably the fact they’re black that’s making me feel a tad uncomfortable, those things give me war flashbacks of Iris Heart... Weiss has belts for days. Belts for weeks. Belts for millennia.  Where’s her Scarf? D:

Okay onto Blake

Okay i’ll start with the elephant in the room, I’m actually not particularly fond of her haircut, I mean for starters it doesn’t make sense for her to get a haircut considering where they’re going is colder and she would need the extra warmth. I don’t quite know why I don’t like it, probably a combination of my natural dislike of significant change and the fact that it seems Blake has lost those adorable curls on the sides of her hair, you know the ones. 

Most likely it’ll grow on me when we see it in maya, I mean they wouldn’t have made this design choice if it actually looked bad in show and some of the fanart has made me like the idea more and more, I trust the CRWBY on this one. Blake doesn’t know how belts work but that’s fine sweetie Weiss has enough correct belts for all of us Okay her shirt is actually gonna be a big problem for Cosplayers, not because it’s complicated but because the design is meant to have a broken zipper, if the bottom part of your zipper unclasps then that’s it, you’re stuck in that shirt for the rest of your life because you can’t unzip it, you can pull the zipped up bits apart to try and get out but that’ll just leave you with wherever the zipper pull is completely and utterly stuck forever and at that point you just need to cut yourself out of the shirt. Bottom line, Blake honey please fix your zipper just looking at it gives me anxiety. Okay that’s just Yang’s V5-6 collar. Moving on. Her bLEGS have evolved to the point that her shoes are also her pants and that’s concerning.

And last but not least, onto Yang!

The first thing that set off alarm bells in my brain was SHE HAS THE OTHER HALF OF EMBER CELICA NOW?? HOLY SHIT???  The second thing that made the alarm bells get louder was HOLY SHIT HER BANDANA AND ORANGE GLOVE IS BACK BABY BEEHAW BITCHES The third thing that made my alarm bells explode was HOLY SHIT BOMBER JACKET WHAT She’s got her emblem as her belt buckle and honestly that’s genius since we’re leaning a lot more into the beehaw side of things and cowboy’s had big ol’ belt buckles Yang please don’t tell me you still have the semi boob window in the middle of Atlas honey you’re going to catch a cold Look at this new shirt and pants my dad got me- PSYCHE ITS A JUMPSUIT YOU WERE FOOLED HUH HUH HUH HA her pants radiate so much final fantasy energy its unreal. she can zip her pants into bootyshorts at any time. she spent too much time around tai. Tons of pouches and pockets for cosplayers which is awesome!

All in all, I have pretty mixed feelings about this, the only design that I love is Yang’s, it’s a really nice mix of her old look, her newer look, and a completely new style! Weiss’s actual outfit is really cool but it still feels super weird for her to have a braid, I love Ruby’s outfit but her significant hair change causes me significant discomfort, aaaand Blake’s outfit doesn’t really tickle my fancy that much. I’ll get used to all of it eventually but as of now it’s just... Yeah this is gonna be a difficult adjustment but it’s gonna happen.

[tomfooleryprime]

I love Sarek. But he’s really not that great.

Sarek and Amanda are my favorite couple, not just in Star Trek, but ever. I’ve written more than half a million words of fanfiction about them. I’ve watched episodes featuring them so many times I secretly worry Netflix will put me on blast.

But I am not a Sarek apologist.

I’m pretty sure what draws most people to this couple is the age-old romantic notion that opposites may attract but the power of love can overcome anything. Cue cheesy instrumental music and a torrid kiss in the rain at a train station. I imagine a lot of women see themselves in Amanda, a seemingly regular woman with a regular life. Then they see a successful guy like Sarek, a dude who’s physically fit, well-educated, powerful, and absurdly intelligent, and it’s only natural that a recipe for hotness is born.

Because I’ve devoted literally years to dreaming up various ways this couple might have shacked up and vomiting the results all over AO3, I’ve also been forced to examine the personalities of both characters in great detail, and the only consistent conclusion I come to is fanon (myself included) gets it wrong most of the time.

Their marriage can’t have always been smooth sailing. If you’re not willing to believe me, then believe Amanda. 

Oh sure, there are tons of one-shots where they have little spats, but they almost always end with both of them making heart eyes at each other and jumping into bed. I get that Star Trek originated in the 1960s, but that doesn’t mean Sarek and Amanda had one of those “golly gee” wholesome relationships that could put Ward and June Cleaver to shame. 

Whichever version of Sarek you personally subscribe to, be it Mark Lenard, Ben Cross, or James Frain, it’s entirely possible to find the actors attractive but still think the character of Sarek could use some improvement. It’s also possible to love a character and admire their good qualities while being disappointed in their shortcomings. Maybe it makes me a shitty fangirl. Maybe it makes me realistic.

Literally decades of fanfiction and fan art have polished over Sarek’s unprettier bits, often portraying him as a hopeless romantic, a tender lover, a devoted father, and a man fiercely dedicated to his wife. I’m not going to argue each of those is patently false—hell, as a fanfiction writer, I’ve bought into some of those tropes myself—but I think some are truer than others. Let’s examine the canon.  

When we first meet him in “Journey to Babel,” he’s callous and aloof. He’s Vulcan, I get it, more on that later. But seriously, the guy has a habit of summoning his wife and acts like he doesn’t even know his own damn son. No one should be standing up to enthusiastically applaud and hand the man a husband or father-of-the-year trophy. Even Amanda seems pretty resigned to the arrangement.

I already know what the pushback to this assertion will be. He’s Vulcan! You can’t judge a Vulcan by human standards! Well, his wife is human and one of his sons is half-human, so I would argue that it should at least be an option, but I wrote a whole other essay on Star Trek’s moral relativism problem. 

Long story short, Star Trek glosses over a lot of moral and ethical dilemmas by using the argument, “Who are we to judge a culture we’re not part of?” I can’t answer that, but I will say someone once gave me a great piece of advice that I think applies to this idea of moral relativism: no person’s belief is inherently worthy of respect, but every person is. Maybe to understand Sarek as a person, we should look first at Sarek as a Vulcan.

Obviously Sarek subscribes to Vulcan philosophy, and while Vulcan philosophy seems pure as hell with its pacifism and its belief in embracing Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations (IDIC), I’m going to assert the Vulcan adherence to that philosophy seems to be a little lunch counter in nature. Yes, they take two scoops of resting bitch face and they’ll pass on the extra helping of tolerance. Sarek hails from a culture that is ostensibly exclusionary, sexist, and xenophobic in its practices.

When we encounter Vulcans in Enterprise, they’re people who mock humans for being too volatile, go to war with their Andorian neighbors, and aggressively purge the Syrranites for wanting to get back to the true meaning of Surak. But you might say, but that was before the Federation! They got better when they put T’Pau in charge.

Really? When we meet them next in the chronological timeline in Discovery, they’re telling Sarek they’ll only admit one of his weird social science pet projects (or as Sarek calls them, his kids) to the Vulcan Expeditionary Group.

In the Discovery episode “Light and Shadows,” Amanda reveals that Spock had a learning disability as a young child, which clearly embarrassed Sarek. Sadder still? Amanda explains there didn’t seem to be any educators on Vulcan willing to help a half-Vulcan child with a human learning disability. 

In the alternate timeline, when Spock applies to the Vulcan Science Academy, the admissions folks give him a pat on the back for achieving so much, despite his great disadvantage of having a human mom. Replace the word “human” with any religious, racial, or ethnic group, and see how you still feel about that sentence. 

Yes, Vulcans have racists and nationalists just like the rest of us and it doesn’t seem like they’re a rare breed either. Sarek is clearly attempting to be a better Vulcan, so kudos to him. However, not being an overt racist is not synonymous with sainthood. 

It’s pretty obvious throughout canon that while Sarek loves his wife, he’s uncomfortable with humanity, and he’s doubly perplexed with the humanity she imparted in their son. She even directly accuses him of never truly respecting humanity, to which he replies:

Which, let’s be honest, sounds like the rough equivalent of the “I can’t be racist because I have a black friend” defense. So many things in canon point to Sarek being utterly baffled by humans, not cutely intrigued by them as so often seen in fanon. The only time Spock and Sarek seem chummy with each other is when they’re mocking Amanda’s human emotionalism in “Journey to Babel.” Whether or not he meant to (and he definitely meant to), Sarek raised a son who saw his human half as a thing to be overcome.

Discovery has also hammered a lot of nails into the affectionate father coffin. Up until the final episode in season 1, he never called Michael his daughter and instead referred to her as his ward. It’s nice that he finally got over that technical distinction, but it doesn’t exactly conjure up the image of him tucking her into bed and giving her a kiss on the forehead.

He seems to accept her humanity because, well, she is human, but his own son’s humanity isn’t ok? Not like it matters, because his plan was to mold Michael into a Vulcan-like human anyway, which is pretty weird when you think about it. At one point, Michael tells Sarek she knows he must have considered the effect a Vulcan education and lifestyle might have on a human child, but she wants to know what he wanted Spock to learn from the experience of having a human sibling. His reply?

Which is... nice? He doesn’t say the only reason he took Michael in was for her to be his son’s empathy tutor, but he does essentially admit he was worried Spock was becoming too much of a momma’s boy. So the theory that Sarek was just scooping up orphans all over the galaxy like some kind of Vulcan Angelina Jolie doesn’t seem accurate. It gives the distinct impression that even Sarek thought of his hodge-podge brood as an experiment, at least to a degree.

Now, some may argue that Sarek never told Spock that he had to follow Surak’s teachings, which is true-ish. But that’s like telling a kid, “You don’t have to believe in Jesus” and then sending them to a Christian school in the heart of the Bible belt. What decision did he imagine his son would choose when he decided to raise him on Vulcan and stand by when other kids beat him up for not being Vulcan enough?

Seriously, Spock was almost guaranteed to turn out one of two ways: either he would just try harder to out-Vulcan everyone, which he did, or he would give logic the middle finger, which, well, is the option Sybok chose to run with. 

Despite fanfiction and fanart imagining him as this really hands-on parent who changes diapers and decorates baked goods (yes, I wrote a story like this and I’m calling myself out), he admits he’s the kind of dad who works late in the evenings, not the kind that reads stories at bedtime. 

It’s also no secret that as a parent, Sarek holds grudges. In “Journey to Babel,” Amanda confesses that Sarek and Spock haven’t spoken as father and son for eighteen years. In “Brother,” Michael asks Sarek when the last time he spoke to Spock was and he concedes it’s been years. In “Light and Shadows,” he’s clearly [Vulcan] pissed that Amanda is harboring a fugitive, who also just so happens to be his own son.

Is Sarek just that logical that he believes in justice even at a high personal price, or is he embarrassed that his own estranged son has been accused of murder and appears to be in the clutches of a mental breakdown? As far as I can tell, it might just be a little bit of both. 

Then there’s the idea that Sarek is a caring and devoted husband. Is there actually any evidence for this in canon, other than he was married to Amanda and had a family with her? Lots of people are married and have kids and don’t have a relationship that would rival that annoying couple on This is Us. 

Their relationship doesn’t seem like an equal partnership based on compromise, but rather one where Sarek does what he damn well pleases and Amanda follows along as a dutiful wife. 

Amanda gave up a lot of things to be with him: her home, her culture, and potentially even her own son’s well-being. The woman went to extremes for love not even witnessed on the Bachelor, and why?

In some contexts, that sounds like the powerful kind of love and devotion that epic-poems would be based on. In other contexts, it sounds almost like a pathological self-martyrdom. Did Sarek ever fully appreciate her sacrifices? It’s hard to say, but if he did, I doubt he ever voiced his appreciation. 

In his later years, when Sarek is losing his mind due to an age-related degenerative disease and he mind melds with Captain Picard, he tearfully muses (as Picard), “Amanda. I wanted to give you so much more. I wanted to show you such tenderness. But that is not our way. Spock? Amanda? Did you know?”

He's strongly implying he never told Amanda he loved her out loud. I’m sure he did love her, but it hardly bodes well for the idea that he’s a flowers and handmade cards kind of guy. And as for the notion that behind closed doors, he and Amanda had a super intimate relationship that would make even characters in Harlequin romance novels swoon, please, point me to an episode that makes you think that. I will watch it every day for the rest of my life. 

In summary, between his first chronological appearance in Discovery to his death in The Next Generation, Sarek had a lot of improving to do as a person and we see evidence that he most certainly did. He came to accept Michael as his daughter. He started speaking to Spock again after wrecking his childhood and turning him over to Section 31. Even though it clearly exasperated the hell out of him, he occasionally gave into his wife’s emotional needs. 

But that’s still a pretty far cry away from galaxy’s best father, husband, or lover. I think that’s what draws me to this couple so much. Sarek and Amanda didn’t live happily ever after: they did the best they could and made it work, just like the rest of us non-fictional losers. 

What little we have of canon depicts them as a couple who likely got married before they really knew each other, probably should have spent their first few years of marriage in counseling, eventually figured one another out enough to raise three kids who could all probably benefit from some therapy, and loved each other no matter what, even if it wasn’t out loud.

[celestia-le]

Because it´s a secret // Miraculous Ladybug drabble

INSPIRED ON @zyullaart FANART!!!!! please see its beautiful artworks!!

Read at AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19426969 

It has been a long week for Marinette. Since she doesn't know how to handle her time, doing the shirts and costumes for Kitty Section, getting to design more clothes since Gabriel Agreste was doing a contest, being Ladybug and her school life was eating her alive. She wasn't really used to be so busy, her face didn't help her either, if Alya weren't waking her up the whole class she surely would have been asleep the whole day. Was it going to be like this when she got to be a real designer? This isn't healthy.

And then, Madamme Bustier started to talk about a proyect. Yeah!! That's what she needed!! Of course!! Why not, let's give Marinette more things to worry about. What she wasn't aware, was doing the proyect with... Adrien.

Adrien, the love of her life, would do the proyect with her, half asleep, that day.

"Disaster!!" was Marinette in her mind, she looked like she was about to fall on the floor, too much things.

Alya was half smiling at her side, she was about to choke laughing at her luck. Marinette sweared to god, she's supposed to be good luck! Please leave the bad luck to Chat, just for today. Since they had a free hour next, they would do the proyect on that hour, there was no way Marinette could escape some time to sleep. What's next? That day was going to rain while she didn't have an umbrella with her? And then she would be sick at home while that day Lila, Chloé or maybe Kagami got to school to make Adrien fall in love with them and then not having their happy three kids?

Stop.

She was going way too ahead, that's why Marinette was going to fall asleep. First the proyect.

"Hey, Marinette, are you alright?*

The blonde with emerald eyes was moving his hand in front of her, class ended and everyone leaved while she was spacing out.

Oh. My. God. Since when was Adrien there?! If it wasn't for her tired body, she maybe would jump and get nervous in 0.0001 seconds, but instead she just blinked.

"Ah! Sorry! I was spacing out a little..." she said while getting her stuff. "Let's go, I have to deliever kitty section shirts later"

She started to walk to the library while Adrien followed her, the blonde was kinda confused since she didn't actually answer his question, was she alright? He wanted to tell her about doing later the proyect so she could rest a little, but he couldn't since his schedule was kinda tight to make a place to do the proyect later, he was already used to things like that, and didn't want to make Marinette do the whole proyect. As soon as they got to the mentioned place they started to do their work, divided the parts and sometimes asking about the text being confusing.

Adrien glanced at the girl really often, and then noticed how she stopped writing and started to randomly draw, she wasn't there anymore.

"Marinette."

She didn't answer.

"¿Marinette?"

She suddenly jumped on her own place, returning to earth, her eyes looking confused and then worried when noticed her drabbles.

"I'm sorry, Adrien! What were you saying?"

He softly smiled at her, she sure was pushing too much herself before everyone, just showing up more how wonderful and awesome she is.

"Wanna take a break? I will continue a little more, you should rest a little, it's not a really difficult proyect anyway."

"But..."

"Don't worry! I can really handle it by myself, after all I..-"

He hesitated, being about to say something too Chat Noir alike, decided to change his words.

"Study a lot, yes."

Confused by his short pause, but really grateful and guilty, Marinette smirked.

"I'm sorry Adrien... and thank you. It will be just some minutes, I promise."

She leaned on the table, trying to get a little comfy, it was kinda embarassing but she really needed that sleep.

Everything went perfect.

But then Marinette started to mumble at her dreams. Adrien considered waking her up, thinking it was a nightmare, but her words immediately stopped him at his place.

"Watch out... Chat, you can't be caught by the akumatized again..."

He froze up: was she dreaming about being Ladybug?

"No... we can't say to each other our identities..."

That wasn't a dream, he actually remembered those exact words in his head, it was too much coincidence for her to say the same as Ladybug.

"Why? because it's a secret..."

Tikki was freaking out, she wanted to yell at Marinette so she would wake up, but it was impossible without Adrien to see her.

"No one can know who we really are... Not even us."

With Adrien paralyzed and Plagg was bursting in laugh at his pencil case.

"Keep calling her 'just a friend' now."

Getting to reality again, the blonde tilted his head at the bluenette, moving slighty her hair just to be sure.

There were earrings.

Since they didn't have Ladybug powers them were black, just as his ring is gray.

The emerald eyes boy started to think, and everything became so much clear.

Ladybug IS Marinette.

But wait.

He started to blush up, just as the heroine's colors.

Did he...

Kiss Marinette twice???

But as his thoughts became clear, they became blur.

Ladybug told him there was a boy, and Marinette said she loved him. (Which implies him rejecting her) What kind of sense was that? He didn't truly understand.

But what he knew, is that bluenette has been protecting BOTH of his indentities the whole time. As a partner of Chat Noir, and she even was about to give her miraculous just to save his (fake) civilian form. His mind was about to overload of information and things who didn't kinda click, but he heard a ring from Marinette's phone, and his body became immovable. The girl with blue eyes got up really fast and looked at her phone and then Adrien, her face didn't look like it was good news.

"OMGOMG I'M SORRY ADRIEN I GOT A- I MEAN I'M LATE, I MEAN A LATE KITTY- I GOT A-"

She shut herself.

"I gotta go."

He somehow nodded at her as she leaved.

Plagg got out of his pencil, he really was enjoying the situation.

"Whoa kid, you sure are lucky that baker girl is the 'love of your life', don't you?"

Adrien wasn't even looking at him, he was at a post-shock.

"Kid?!"

////////////////

and it ends here!! I did it as a drabble but if you like it I think I could continue! Please leave your feedback!

[gottagobuycheese]

“Put it back, Sami-chan. We still have to finish the box at home.” From behind her, Tsuyu heard a surprised squeak, followed by a thunderous crash as what sounded like the entire cereal aisle collapsed in a heap by their shopping cart. Sighing, she turned around. “Kero. Sami-chan . . .”

“I was putting it back like you said!” cried her brother from beneath a dozen boxes of Mighty Morsels. With a grunt, two boxes slid off the top, and out popped a head of dark green hair and sullen eyes. “It’s not my fault it was structurally unsound.”

Poorly suppressed giggling emanated from the shopping cart as their sister leaned over the edge to delight in Samidare’s misfortune. “You’re just clumsy,” Satsuki laughed. “Next time don’t try to sneak so many boxes at once.” Still giggling, she climbed out of the cart and began to unbury him one box at a time.

Samidare grumbled something under his breath as Tsuyu joined the rescue effort. “What was that?” she asked, reaching up to return a box to the top shelf. 

“I said it was on sale . . .”

“Just because it’s on sale doesn’t mean we have to buy it. We still have over half the box left to finish at home.”

“Yeah, Sami, just because it’s on sale—”

“Okay, okay, I get it! Just help me up, then.”

Several boxes of cereal later, the trio wound their way through the stationary aisle in search of the ever-elusive college-ruled notebooks. For whatever reason, Satsuki’s new teacher was very particular about the how far apart the lines on their paper could be, and Tsuyu had given her last spare notebook to Midoriya when he ran out of space in his latest hero journal. It was about time they re-stocked on school supplies.

Something tugged at her sleeve. Tsuyu looked up from a pack of pastel-colored sticky notes to meet her brother’s bored gaze. “Can I go look at the video games, Tsu? I already have all my things.”

Tsuyu put the sticky notes down to take in her surroundings. Several feet away, Satsuki was gushing over a pack of glow-in-the-dark highlighters, and at the end of the aisle was a couple and their kid judging various pens. Beyond them was the video game aisle, easily discernible with its bright colors and promotional displays. A cartoonish All Might grinned back at her, holding a PS Vita in his cardboard hands.

Nearby and safe. Satisfied, she asked, “Do you have your phone?”

Samidare nodded.

“Okay. If you’re done before we get there, let us know where you’re going.”

Samidare’s eyes lit up in delight. “Thanks, Sis!” Without another word, he took off, and Tsuyu continued browsing the sticky notes.

“Sis, look!” Satsuki held up a little green notebook and beamed. “There’s frogs on it!”

___

Armed with four new notebooks, two packs of pencils and pens, and a set of high-quality erasers, they headed to the video game aisle, but when they got there, Samidare was nowhere to be seen.

Ages ago, that might’ve been enough to send her into a panic, but years of experience with her siblings’ misadventures taught her it was probably only worth a vague irritation. “Satsuki-chan,” Tsuyu commented, surveying the aisle, “why carry a phone if you don’t call or text anyone with it?”

Her sister shrugged, looking as unsurprised as Tsuyu felt. “Maybe he went back to the cereal aisle?”

It was certainly a possibility, considering their brother’s weakness for all things sweet, but just then, a soft voice piped up from the aisle to their right. “Shh, it’s okay. Don’t cry, okay? I’m sure your dad’s looking all over for you. Do you want help looking for him?”

Tsuyu shared a puzzled look with her sister, who seemed to share her incredulity. Even as a child, Samidare tended to avoid all kinds of emotionally charged situations, be it a sad movie or his baby sister’s wailing. Usually Tsuyu ended up being the one comforting their sister or putting on another movie.

Maybe he was finally growing up? She felt . . . odd. Proud, certainly, but also something murkier.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts before taking her sister’s hand and making their way to the adjacent aisle. There they found Samidare crouched beside a teary little girl in a red frock and black cat-themed shoes. The sight of her younger brother voluntarily comforting a small child—and a stranger at that—would be enough to shock her into silence on a normal day, but what stopped her cold now was the child’s curiously white hair and the tiniest bit of horn poking out from beneath it.

But that didn’t make any sense, because they were miles away from U.A., and Eri-chan never went anywhere without a chaperone.

Pre-orders are now live for the @bnhadailyliveszine​, and just in time for summer break! I had the immense pleasure of writing a fic centered around Tsuyu and her sibs (and some special guest stars!), so here’s a snippet of that! And be sure to check out the other previews; the talent is incredible and you don’t want to miss out!

Disclaimer: title card not included in the final product. I’m just a loser that likes to draw my own fanart  

[thekitsune]

Marinette’s So Lovable! (Crossover Edition) #1

Well, it has begun! Here is the first oneshot of my Marinette crossover oneshot pairing series! And Raven is first! So, here is Ravenette! (And yes, I wouldn’t mind seeing fanart if you want to make any based on this)

Marinette knew her life was going to be weird when she found out that she was chosen to be a superhero. She just never knew how weird it would become. While her normal life revolved around normal teenage things, whenever a person was akumatized, she had to transform and go defeat them to save Paris. And in the meantime, she was following every lead about Hawkmoth's true identity that she could find. It turns out that this was the right thing to do.

Almost two years after receiving Tikki and becoming the superhero Ladybug, her and her superfriends, Chat Noir, Rena Rouge, Carapace, Queen Bee, finally found Hawkmoth and defeated him in the toughest battle of her life. The teenagers were shocked as his transformation ended and left behind Gabriel Agreste, Adrien's father. They were further suprised when Chat dropped his own transformation to reveal his identity as Adrien. After a heart breaking confrontation between the two, the superheroes were caught offguard as Gabriel decided to go for one last attempt to defeat them. Using a secret device that he had built, Gabriel was able to make one of his final moths attach itself to Ladybug.

Tikki informed Marinette what was about to happen so Marinette told her friends to take care of the rest and tell her parents that she said good-bye while informing them of who she was. Before they could stop her, she jumped out of the building and headed towards the Eiffel Tower. Climbing to the top, she propelled herself as high as she could right as the moth finally unleashed all of its power in a huge explosion.

Everyone in Paris believed that Ladybug, no Marinette, died that day saving them all. Her parents mourned the loss of their daughter while her friends, both normal and super, all mourned for months.

What they didn't know...was that she didn't die that day. She was sent to a different dimension thanks to Tikki shielding Marinette with the full use of her power. ___ Raven had been sitting outside on top of the tower that night. The others were being far too loud for her liking. She was unable to concentrate on her meditating. As much as she treasured her friendship with the other Titans, they had too much trouble keeping quiet for her taste.

She was lost in her meditation as her body floated above the rooftop. As she sat there reciting her signature chant, her keen senses picked up on a portal opening high in the sky. Immediately alarmed, she looked into the sky and saw a figure shooting out of a portal and heading to the ground at top speed. Raising her eyebrow, she looked closer and was barely able to make out the figure as a girl around her age in a ladybug themed suit.

Raising herself to her feet, she quickly flew into the sky as quickly as possible. Heading in the direction that the girl's unconscious body was falling, Raven realized she wouldn't be able to make it in time if she only flew so she shot out her hand and quickly recited her chant to cover the girl in her signature black energy. Using this brief chance, she flew faster and was barely able to reach the girl before her spell wore off. The girl fell into her arms in a bridal fashion.

Looking down at the girl since she was much closer now, Raven felt her cheeks flare red at the sight of the mysterious girl's cute face. As she brought her hand up to touch the girl's cheek, she was surprised as the costume began to disappear which left behind the girl in normal civilian clothes. Before she could look closer, a small red creature appeared over the girl and looked at Raven who looked back in shock.

"Please...help...Mari...nette," the creature requested of her as it collapsed onto the newly named Marinette's stomach. Raven looked at her one more time before sighing and turning around to head back to the tower. She would take the girl to her room and watch over her there. If something was up with this girl, then she could handle it, and the others would be none the wiser...

Is what Raven had wanted, but when the girl woke up the next morning, Raven quickly found herself enamored with the girl's kind, shy personality. Apparently, she was the lead superhero back in her own dimension where her and other superheroes fought against a villain with the power to turn normal civilians into his superpowered henchmen. After defeating him, she sacrificed herself to save the city from blowing up with her. That was...incredibly selfless of the girl.

It didn't make sense as to why she appeared here though. Maybe it had something to do with the conflicting magic forces, the magic that was part of Marinette's powers, and the magic of the villain's? When Marinette realized that she was trapped in this new dimension and was unable to return to her family and friends, she had broken down crying in Raven's room which had made the half demon girl quite uncomfortable. She was not good with comforting people.

Since the other Titans were unaware of the girl's presence in the Tower though, she was the only one who could help the girl. Raven had walked over to her and sat down by her side, she had hesitantly brought her hand up to the girl's shoulder to rub it in a comforting gesture, but she was caught offguard as Marinette practically collapsed into her lap and clung onto her like she was the only thing keeping her alive. She looked down at the French girl in surprise before awkwardly wrapping her arms around Marinette and hugging her close.

After the first few nights, Raven had helped the girl calm down about everything that happened and gotten to know her better. When the first week ended, she finally brought Marinette out of her bedroom and introduced the girl to the rest of the Titans. Their reactions were quite predictable. Beast Boy was shocked at her presence in the tower, but he quickly tried to show off to her, Cyborg and Robin were both confused as to how Raven kept her a secret for so long and her sudden presence, but still accepted her into the tower, and Starfire proclaimed herself as Marinette's new best friend which the girl was fine with.

Since there wasn't a free room, Raven allowed Marinette to bunk with her (besides Marinette was used to her the most so it had made sense even though Raven did ask Marinette to respect some of her more...unique items). And after Tikki rested completely, Marinette decided to show off her skill as Ladybug to the rest of the team and joined them as a new Titan.

Over the next few months, Marinette bonded with all the Titans and, while she did miss her old life, she began to grow accustomed to her new life with her new family. She considered Starfire, the sister that she never had, Beast Boy, the younger brother she never had (Since he liked acting childish most of the time), Cyborg was the protective older brother, and Robin was the male best friend who looked out for everyone. Raven on the otherhand...

Marinette's cheek turned red at the thought of Raven. She didn't know what it was about Raven, but she couldn't help her attraction to the magic user. While the girl was quiet, she was also very caring and compassionate. She was a little emo-ish at times, but Marinette knew it had something to do with her heritage as well as the fact that she wasn't good with demonstrating her emotions. And the fact that they shared a room and had long talks pretty much every night didn't help Marinette not gain feelings for her.

Raven felt the same as Marinette. Her new team member was so kind and caring, she gave Starfire a run for her money. She was always willing to help everyone out even though she still didn't know them that well. And whenever Raven accidentally let her temper flare around Marinette, the girl was very understanding and never held it against her. Plus, she made her the comfiest set of pajamas that Raven has ever had...And that smile of her's...

Feeling a large blush on her face, Raven buried her face deeper in her book. Marinette was sitting on a chair on the other side of the room. She had been designing a hoodie for Starfire only for Raven to invade her thoughts, not literally. The designing had quickly changed to her drawing a picture of Raven.

Blushing brightly as she realized what she was doing, Marinette peeked over her shoulder at Raven and began to think. Waiting too long and being too shy kept her from being able to confess to Adrien. If she didn't act quickly, she might lose Raven to someone as well. And while Marinette knew she wasn't in love with the magic girl, she did know that she had a huge crush on her.

Looking back at Raven, she nodded her head as she quickly made up her mind. Standing up, she turned around and began walking over to Raven. Raven, who had been reading her book, picked up on Marinette's uncertainty and raging emotions. This caused her to look up at her new friend with concern. Seeing Raven looking at her caused Marinette to pause and look at Raven with a flushed face.

'Maybe...this is a bad idea?...No! This is what happened back when you were trying to confess to Adrien, not this time,' Marinette thought to herself as she lightly slapped her cheeks and kept walking to Raven.

Seeing as Marinette wasn't saying anything, Raven was about to question her only for Marinette to suddenly jump on Raven's lap and kiss her with a red face. Raven's eyes shot open wide as her arms shot up in shock. Looking down at Marinette's face, she saw that the girl's cheeks were burning nearly as red as Star's hair and her eyes were closed. Feeling her emotions again, Raven picked up on...feelings of love or adoration? and fear?

Realization began to overcome the quietest Titan as she looked at Marinette's face one more time. Gently closing her eyes, she wrapped her arms around Marinette and returned the kiss which made Marinette hug her tighter.

After another minute of kissing, the two separated and the girls faced away from each other shyly. "...Sorry...I didn't mean to suddenly kiss you..." Marinette shyly told Raven whose face turned redder.

"...It...It's cool," Raven told her which made Marinette giggle slightly by how thrown off Raven sounded.

Glancing back at Raven, Marinette gave her a small smile and nodded her head. "Raven...I...I really like you. I know we've only known each other for a few months now, but I've grown a crush on you within that time...Would you...go out with me?" Marinette asked Raven who looked at her in shock before looking away for a second.

"...I...I've never been in a relationship before...Please don't be offended if I do something wrong..." Raven told Marinette as she brought her hands up to Marinette's waist and pulled her closer. Marinette smiled lightly as she wrapped her arms around Raven's neck and leaned closer to her. Raven smiled back at Marinette before leaning forward and kissing her.

In the background, Tikki sat on a shelf and smiled at the sight of Marinette finally finding love with someone that she didn't have trouble admitting it to. Hopefully, the future of these two girls will be very bright. She wants to be a godmother after all!

[kittypeas]

The Force Awakens and fairytales, part one: Snow Queen and Snoke

Thank you @ewa-a-nie-chce-spac​ for your encouragement and @shadowlass​ for inspiration :) I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a year, but recently few things happened that motivated me to do it:

Finally I had a chance to watch “Beauty and the Beast”. Well, I saw the animated version before but watching the new one only made me realize why I disagree so strongly with the conclusions of this fairytale. I was never a fan of this theory which highlights the parallels between Kylo and the Beast. Of course, there is some similarity in the outer layer and symbolism but the core of the story is totally different: while Beast is a proud and vain man and so his task in the story is to learn how to love another human being, Kylo is full of self-hatred and doubt and his main goal in this trilogy is learn how to love himself.

What is more, there are many fairytales that reflect more accurately the main motives visible in the Force Awakens. The two that, in my opinion, are the most fitting here are “Snow Queen” and “Prince Lindworm”. But let me say this: since I’ve become a part of this fandom I admired all those talented people who were creating amazing stores, drawing beautiful fanarts and those who put their extensive knowledge (from fabulously varied fields!) into use, writing metas. I also wanted to contribute and share those bits and pieces that I’ve collected during my studies. I decided to divide this post into two parts: the first one will be about the Snow Queen and I will discuss the similarities between the fairytale and TFA on the level of the plot and its symbolism. This one will be more like a summary. In the second part I will write about Prince Lindwom and more psychological stuff, like trauma, dissociation and archetypal defenses of personal spirit. However, I will focus on Kylo’s relation with Snoke in both parts, because I feel that there are still some things that need to be said.

I get a feeling that we forget about the fact that everything that exists and works for us somehow, is functional at least in some ways and as such it reinforces achievement of personal goals. This applies also to the dynamics of Kylo/Snoke relationship. In this respect TFA is very shallow, as it only shows the Resistance as good and morally right. But have you ever heard about people who were thinking that they are fighting on the “wrong side” of the war? Fortunately, fanfiction authors make up for this omission and write very interesting, nuanced stories. However, Snoke is usually described as this evil creature which does evil things only because he… likes evil things, I guess? He is corrupt, greedy and seeks power for the sake of power itself, which is psychologically improbable. He uses Kylo Ren as a tool and doesn’t hesitate to torture him on a whim, in which I don’t believe either because this is not how you get to rule the people. You do it by winning their hearts, and, even though there is this part inside Kylo Ren that wants to be humiliated as a punishment for “not being good enough”, I believe that this is just a reenactment of his relationship with his caregivers, and Snoke is just a parental figure whom Kylo willingly chose to perform this role.

But back to the issue at hand. Recently @forcechokehold​ asked a very interesting question that I think I have an answer for. Let me cite it first:

Do you ever think about how different Kylo Ren’s dynamic with his abuser/surrogate parental figure would have been if they were a female? Do you ever think about how that would have reflective on his relationship to Rey?

They were considering making Snoke a woman/female whatever-he-is and that bit of trivia reminded me of Eros’ relationship with his mother, Aphrodite in ‘Eros and Psyche’. The line “You have compassion for her” would have sounded even more possesive coming from a mother figure.

Actually the “Snow Queen” describes exactly the same scenario. “Snow Queen” tells a story in which Kay (similar to Kylo, isn’t it?) is abducted/seduced by cold and unfeeling Queen of the Icy North after a shred of ice wounds his heart. He forgets his family and lives with the Queen in her snowy castle. But brave Gertha, who used to be his friend, sets off for a journey to find him and even marches through endless winter with bare feet, determined to save Kay who, by that time, became Snow Queen’s servant, squire and, presumably, lover.

Sounds familiar?

Well it should! But first listen to read the story:

Everything started with the big mirror, created by the trolls. The mirror had this one peculiar characteristic that it showed the distorted image of both the world and the people living in it: everyone in it’s reflection seemed repulsive and ugly on the inside. Trolls lifted the mirror up above the ground, they were rising it higher and higher, to reflect the whole world in it, and they laughed so loudly and cruelly that the mirror slipped out of their hands and crashed into thousands of pieces that were swept by the wind. Some of them were used by people to make windows, and from now on they could not see friends through the glass. The smaller fragment were used to make eyeglasses, and everyone wore them saw only bad things. “In the evening, when the little Kay was half naked, he climbed to a chair by the window and peered through the crack in its frame. Several snowflakes fell, and one, the largest of them, lay on the edge of the pot.

The snowflake grew bigger and bigger until it was as big as a young lady, dressed in the most beautiful silk, made of millions of small petals, like the stars. She was so pretty and delicate, but she was made of ice, shining and glittering ice; Her eyes were staring motionless like two stars, but there was no peace in them. She nodded toward the window and summoned Kay with a wave of her hand. The boy was frightened and jumped from his chair...”

This last element is interesting. In some retellings the scene of the first real encounter between the Queen and the boy is changed to portray the abduction of a defenseless child. Just like people sometimes picture Kylo’s relationship with Snoke. Yes, the evil creature targeted this boy from the beginning of his life. Yet, in the fairytale, there was something in Kay that made him wait by the window frame and which allowed him to see the Queen. Similarly, it was something in Kylo that made it possible for him to hear Snoke, and something that made him obedient to his voice.

It is exactly at this moment in the Snow Queen fairytale - not earlier! – that Kay gets wounded by the pieces of mirror:

“It was one of the pieces from the magical mirror, and poor Kay was stabbed in the heart. It was no longer painful, but the splinter was still there, and his heart became hard and cold like ice.

Since then Kay's plays has become different. He made fun of Gertha and pulled out all of her flowers from the pots. The only thing that seemed to interest him was watching snowflakes, "look how funny it is!" He said, "much more interesting than real flowers. Those are as accurate as possible, they would have no flaws if only they did not melt!"

Kay, just like Kylo, believes that he only deserves respect, if he deserves admiration. His judgments are cruel to others and to himself, but the boy no longer tells apart his own thoughts from the Snow Queen's whispers. Finally, one snowy morning, when everyone plays in the city square, Kay sees there a beautiful sleigh. Without thinking he attaches his small sledge to it and is taken away:

“The big sleighs stopped, and the person who was driving them them rose from her place. She was a woman; Her coat and cape were made of snow, she was tall and slim and her face was shining bright. She was the Snow Queen.

"We were traveling fast," she said; "But it is frigidly cold. Come, come under my bear skin. " And she sat the boy in the sleigh next to her, wrapped him in fur, and he felt as if he were falling into a snowdrift.

"Are you still cold? She asked and kissed him on the forehead. Ah! The kiss was colder than ice, penetrated to the bottom of his heart, which was almost frozen like a stone. He thought he was going to die, but after a while it felt quite pleasant and he did not mind the cold around. (...) The Snow Queen kissed Kay again, and then he forgot Gertha, his grandmother, and all those he had left at home.

"There will be no more kisses," she said, "otherwise you would die." Kay looked at her. She was very beautiful; she was much wiser and had more wonderful face than he could have ever imagined. And she did not seem to be made from ice as he saw her before, when he was sitting by the window, and she was calling him to her; in his eyes she was perfect, he was not afraid of her and he told her that he could add and subtract in his head and do fractions and that he could tell how many square miles and inhabitants there were in different countries, She always smiled at him, and he then thought that he surely did not know enough, and he looked up into the wide expanse of heaven, into which they rose higher and higher as she flew with him on a dark cloud, while the storm surged around them, the wind ringing in their ears like well-known old songs.

They flew over woods and lakes, over oceans and islands, the cold wind whistled down below them, the wolves howled, the black crows flew screaming over the sparkling snow, but up above, the moon shone bright and clear—and Kay looked at it all the long, long winter nights; in the day he slept at the Snow Queen's feet”

The Snow Queen seems beautiful, clever and wise (“Supreme leader is wise!”), truly refined, and the most important of her assets is her cool intellect with which Kay wants to compete. While Gertha will ask the stream, the flowers, and the sun about Kay, he, during sleepless nights will stare at the empty face of the moon. And just like Rey is “the ray of sunshine” the junior novelization describes Kylo as follows:

“Ben had the wavy dark hair that Han remembered, now shoulder length. His mother's cheeks, Han's chin. Yet everything about him was narrow and stark, as if he had starved himself of nourishment. And his eyes were not the brown eyes Han remembered. They were dim and dark and terribly sad.”

Yet we must not forget that TFA is not only a story about Kylo but also about first of all about Rey who undergoes a certain transformation, just the way Gertha did:

Meanwhile in the fairytale the girls puts on her red shoes and sets off in search of a friend. On her way she visit the garden where the plants tell her fairy tales, she meets the crows that lead her to the palace of the young royal couple; Everyone is deeply touched by Gertha's story and everyone is helping her fulfill her mission the best as they can. The  most important part of her journey is the moment in which is attacked by thieves and becomes the property of a small robber girl, her alter-ego: "You will sleep with me today, with all my animals," said the little thief. They ate and drank and went to the corner where supplies and carpets lay. Beside, there were almost a hundred of pigeons sitting on the perches, all seemingly aslep, but they moved when a little bandit came. "All of them belong to me," she said, and grabbed the legs of one of the pigeons closest to her, and shook him, and he waved his wings. "Kiss him!" She exclaimed and shoved him in Gertha's face. "If they were not tethered they would fly away immediately! And this is my old reindeer, "she said and grabbed the horns of the reindeer, which had a copper ring on its the neck, to which the post was attached. "We must tie him, otherwise he would run away! Every night, I tickle his neck with my sharp knife, he is so scared of it! ", And the girl put a long knife through the crack in the wall and slid it over the reindeer’s neck. Poor animal began to kick, and the girl laughed and pulled Gertha back to bed. “Why do you go to bed with a knife? "Gertha said, looking at the knife with fear. "I always sleep with a knife," said the bandit. "You never know what can happen. Now tell me once more about the little Kay. Why do you travel accross the world alone? " The robber girl is uncouth and ruthless but courageous, with a heart that is capable of kindness. She is not entirely sure whether to help Gertha and many times threatens to kill her, but finally gives her a reindeer and supplies and lets her go to continue her search for Kay. Up to this point, Gertha was crying, waiting or wandering in her search almost aimlessly, just like Rey was hindered in her journey by hesitation and attachment to her past. Only after Gertha confronts the little thief, she can discover the strength to move through the snow to the Queen's castle. On the way she meets a Saami shaman (and Rey meets Maz). In fairytales the wizards are masters of craftsmanship and military arts (see: Yoda) and enchantresses are the ones who show you how to live: ... [the shaman said:] "I can not give her more power than she already has. Can not you see how great she is? You do not see how men and animals are obliged to serve her; How she travels the whole world with bare feet? This power does not come from the magic, it comes from her heart!..."

The girl has bare feet! In TFA, Kylo is a prince, wealthy and powerful, while Rey is only a desert rat from a desolate planet. (“somehow you convinced the droid to show it to you. You. A scavenger.) Yet she is the one who defeats him in the end! Similarly, Gertha does not look like a princess but it is she who succeeds to change Kay’s heart.

In the meantime Kay was thinking only about the task entrusted to him by the Snow Queen: from geometric pieces of ice he was creating new patterns, trying to make the word "eternity" - what could be more perfect than eternity? The queen told him that if he could handle the task and touch this ideal form, then "he would become master of himself", she would give him the whole world as a gift together with and a pair of skates. ..."It is true that Kay is staying at the Queen's palace and everything is to his liking in there. He thinks it is the best place in the world and the reason for this is the glass pieces - one in his eye and one in the heart "...

In this fairytale the traditional roles are reversed - Kay is a passive hostage, and Gertha is his savior. Similarly, in TFA, Rey is the true hero of the story but her destiny is intertwined with Kylo’s fate. Both “Snow Queen” and TFA describe an unhealthy relationship with parental figure.

The Snow Queen is a personification of Kay’s narcissism, just as Kylo’s attachment to Snoke is built on his narcissistic need for perfection and appraisal.  

An authentic relationship with another person can bring salvation. At the same time it is the source of hope and the cause of fear. Snow Queen and Snoke perform the role of guardians and persecutors who defend Kay and Kylo from dangerous and fear-inducing, vulnerable feelings in so-called “attacks on linking” (Bion), in other words, a perceived need to sever any attachment . It is visible when Snow Queen orders Kay to forget about his past, friends and family and also when Snoke “tells” Kylo to kill his father… But really no such thing happens, Snoke only warns Kylo that the meeting with Han Solo is unevitable and Kylo makes decision to kill him because, apparently, he thinks that this is the thing that Snoke wants.

Finally, the fairytale tells a story of true love and hope:

“Then it was that little Gertha walked into the Palace, through the great gates, in a biting wind. She said her evening prayer, and the wind dropped as if lulled to sleep, and she walked on into the big empty hall. She saw Kay, and knew him at once; she flung her arms round his neck, held him fast, and cried, "Kay, little Kay, have I found you at last?"

But he sat still, rigid and cold.

Then little Gertha shed hot tears; they fell upon his breast and penetrated to his heart. Here they thawed the lump of ice, and melted the little bit of the mirror which was in it.

Then Kay burst into tears; he cried so much that the grain of glass was washed out of his eye. He knew her, and shouted with joy, "Gertha, dear little Gertha! where have you been for such a long time? And where have I been?" He looked round and said, "How cold it is here; how empty and vast!" He kept tight hold of Gertha, who laughed and cried for joy. Their happiness was so heavenly that even the bits of ice danced for joy around them; and when they settled down, there they lay, just in the very position the Snow Queen had told Kay he must find out, if he was to become his own master and have the whole world and a new pair of skates.

Gertha kissed his cheeks and they grew rose, she kissed his eyes and they shone like hers, she kissed his hands and his feet, and he became well and strong. The Snow Queen might come home whenever she liked, his order of release was written there in shining letters of ice.

They took hold of each other's hands and wandered out of the big place.”

Will the new trilogy end the same way? How do you think? :)

[jcmorrigan]

Hey, just curious. What do you think about fan service in anime? Like when a character is clearly purposely designed to be a sex symbol.

Oh, you mean the reason I quit Kill la Kill.

I am INCREDIBLY annoyed by fanservice and often can find things ruined by it in various ways. Mostly because it’s always directed at women, and it often times comes with an element of non-consent from the perspective of these women. 

NOTE: IF YOU DON’T WANT TO READ CRITIQUE OF SEXISM/DISCOURSE, STOP READING NOW

ANOTHER NOTE: IF YOU DON’T WANT TO READ CRITIQUE OF SEXISM THAT DOESN’T END IN ME ABSOLUTELY SHUTTING OUT THINGS THAT ARE SEXIST THAT I HAPPEN TO LIKE, STOP READING NOW

Sometimes, I’m able to shove the fanservice aside and focus on what’s happening in the story and characterization besides it. Two of my big guilty pleasures are actually Skullgirls and Bayonetta, which are two of the games known for having the WORST fanservice. And they absolutely do. (I know you asked about anime, not games, but these are important examples.) The camera ogles Bayonetta from every angle in an aggravating way that takes up too much screen time, and every time there’s a new panty shot in Skullgirls, I cringe. But both times, I was able to put the fanservice aside (which is kind of a miracle, all considering) to focus on, in Bayonetta’s case, the story about a sassy woman fighting creatures originally considered to be the greater good in order to protect a surrogate daughter that causes her to break down her lone-wolf walls, and in the case of Skullgirls, the stories of various women with big personalities who journey to have the ultimate wish granted but discover what matters to them even more, some of them heroic, some of them downright villainous. That doesn’t mean I don’t WISH we could have these amazing stories and characters in a different package that had less gratuitous nudity and panty shots. These are all strong women with colorful personalities who are willing to fight for what they believe in, and it would be nice if they were presented to us in ways that focused more on THAT and less on how nice they look naked or near-naked. It’s demeaning. And I’m sure we can all picture how they look naked or scantily clad on our own time perfectly fine if we really want to.

Other times, it’s a little harder to stomach, especially if it comes with an environment that plays upon the fanservice in an unpleasant way. I also love Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, but that one has some serious problems with not only oversexualizing its female characters but also normalizing the male characters being total horndogs around them. This kind of thing actually made me GLAD Kamina died in the early arc because he made some comments to Yoko about her body that just made me cringe, cringe, cringe. Once again, Yoko is a well-developed character who goes beyond just fanservice when you look at her personality, but it really disappoints me when half the team of heroes jeers about her body. 

Sometimes it’s done just enough that it’s a scene or two and I can just keep moving on. I just finished reading Marvel’s Daken: Dark Wolverine comics, and a lot of its female characters, notably Tyger, are often drawn in poses meant to draw attention you-know-where. But the next few panels will be more legitimate scenes of conversation or battle that draw them in less aggravatingly objectifying ways, so again, roll eyes, keep reading, enjoy Tyger’s compassion and awesomeness while wishing there was a lot less focus on her body.

And then sometimes I just CAN’T. Like in Kill la Kill. I got through two episodes and I COULD NOT DO IT ANYMORE. While Ryuko was a well-developed character with more to her than just fanservice, or at least I got the sense she was going to be, I just could NOT sit through that much nudity drawn on a high schooler. There was pretty much NOTHING of her body left to the imagination. The men that surround her and claim to be her allies/mentors all make suggestive, even rape-esque comments about or actions toward her body, and all of them are WAY TOO OLD FOR THAT. And then of course I saw through gifsets and the like that Satsuki would later get a similar treatment, or at least clothing that revealed way too much and a camera that relished it. That particular anime seemed to be far more about the fanservice than it was about its actual story (again, I could only stomach two episodes, so maybe it got better later, but I’m not going to try and find out), and, again, it was largely on teenagers in school uniforms in an environment where being predatory is normalized. 

So, to conclude, fanservice designed around revealing women in canon work annoys me to no end. You can draw as much fanart of these characters naked as you want; just keep it in the NSFW tag where I don’t have to look at it. I can’t judge as much on fanservice revolving around men, as I rarely ever SEE it, but being on the asexual spectrum as I am, I get the feeling I’d also be bothered by anything that highlighted male genitalia too much, though at least that doesn’t smack of the historical precedent of misogyny. Basically, when I see fanservice, I try to just roll my eyes and move on, focusing on what’s NOT fanservice and appreciating it. But if it gets to be too much, I just might quit watching a show over it. 

Super TL;DR version: I prefer my characters to keep their clothes on.

[gehayi]

What is the best fandom you’ve ever been involved in? What are the best things about your current fandom? Any NoTPs? Are their any popular ships in your fandom which you dislike? If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of? What inspires you to write? Do you write oneshots, multi-chapter fics or huuuuuge epics? Do you leave reviews when you read fanfiction? Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world!

So many questions, @idealai!

What is the best fandom you’ve ever been involved in?

I think that the most welcoming one and the one with the fewest gatekeepers was Highlander: The Series–this would have been around 1998-2003. That’s the one where I learned the most about research; the series wasn’t big on historical accuracy, but the fans that I ran with were…and they were vocal about it. It’s also the fandom where I learned about writing crack taken seriously, roleplaying with characters, and so on. 

What are the best things about your current fandom?

For A Song of Ice and Fire? The meta, hands down. I learn a lot about world-building from people’s detailed constructions (and deconstructions) of backstory for the books and for the show (and I’ve written about them in an essay in Fan Phenomena: Game of Thrones).

For Harry Potter? The inclusive headcanons about established characters, original characters, and wizarding schools around the world, most of which beat both Rowling’s canon and the ghostwritten Pottermore essays all hollow. There are so many great ideas in the Potter fandom about how to make fantasy richer and better, and I love drinking them in.

Rewritten fairy tales? T. Kingfisher, a.k.a Ursula Vernon.  You NEED to read the Kingfisher books, OMG.

Elsewhere University for the style.

Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes and A Torch in the Night? THE WRITING. The story will break your heart a thousand times, but for God’s sake, read it.

Any NoTPs? 

Oh, yes. I don’t like Remus/Tonks because I didn’t like its setup. It would have been fine if they had been unashamedly in love, but I disliked Tonks pining for Remus to the point where she lost her powers and Remus deciding shortly after his marriage that he was going to desert his wife. I always thought that those two would have gotten divorced within a matter of months if they hadn’t died in the war; there didn’t seem to be enough there to glue their relationship together. (And my impression that Rowling created the ship to negate Remus/Sirius–forgetting that bisexuality exists–does not help.) 

Bottom line…it’s a NOTP because it’s so poorly crafted that I can’t believe it. It feels shoehorned in.

I tend to regard incest ships as NOTPs–like Pevensie-cest in the Chronicles of Narnia fandom, Jon Snow/Sansa Stark in ASOIAF and GoT (actually cousins, but raised as half-brother and half-sister), or Circlecest in the Emelan fandom (Circlecest involves a circle of four mage prodigies, all of whom have been foster siblings since they were ten or eleven and all of whom consider themselves to be one brother and three sisters). 

I freely admit that the Pevensies and the Circle kids are emotionally closer to each other than anyone else (though I don’t feel that Jon and Sansa are in that position); I just don’t think that this means that the Pevensies or the Circle kids have to fuck. Instead, I want Tris Chandler to come to terms with her asexuality (a popular headcanon)  while smacking down everyone else’s fatphobia (canon) while her sister Daja Kisubo finds herself a nice, understanding girlfriend (yes, she’s explicitly and canonically lesbian).

Are their any popular ships in your fandom which you dislike?

Harry/Draco. I’ve always seen Draco as a bully who got in over his head, and that hasn’t changed. I also don’t like Jaime Lannister/Brienne the Blue. No matter how much Jaime appears to change, he still threw a seven-year-old out a window, permanently disabling him, because the kid saw Jaime having sex with his sister. I feel that both Harry and Brienne deserve better.

If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of?

Honestly, I don’t know. I’d be too busy being flabbergasted that anyone wanted to do so.

What inspires you to write? 

As a rule, the juxtaposition of an impossibly difficult situation and how Character X would try to change it, improve it, escape it, etc.–I’m a big fan of plot arising out of a character’s personality and actions–or a piece of canon that is in dire need of fixing or explaining. I also love AUs and crossovers, and taking a cracktastic situation and finding a way to make it make sense.

Do you write oneshots, multi-chapter fics or huuuuuge epics? 

I write both one-shots and multi-chapter fics. I’ve never managed anything of epic length, which I’d define as being 100K words or more

Do you leave reviews when you read fanfiction? 

Sometimes. It depends on how much energy I have that day, as writing reviews (or answering them) generally takes me hours. If I don’t have the energy to review or if I’m in pain that day, I just leave kudos.  And I always feel bad about not providing a long and detailed, because I love to hear from readers myself…even if I do get embarrassed and have a hard time answering reviews.

Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world!

Uh...can I take a rain check on that? Thanks to political and economic stress, I’m feeling exhausted at the moment, and ranting and gushing both cost a lot in energy. Sorry.