#he has so completely separated the idea of choice from his actions he just

[independent-variables]

anyway while i'm on the topic, fucked up davijaan fact of the day:

out of the wolffe and fox and cody and davi friend group, davijaan is the one who would kill a person in cold blood and feel no guilt

[mias-back-from-the-dead]

so this was a line in a fanfic I recently read but it has me fuckign crawling up the walls and watching D&W in a new light

it's part of a larger oh/oh moment paragraph rant wade goes on but the line is:

"I would have happily gone on assuming that this Wolverine is canonically a fuck machine who only sleeps with women ever and that I could hit on him to my dick’s content and never have to worry about the possibility of real rejection"

and that last line COMPLETELY reframed half of wade's actions for me in the movie.

Cuz on the surface level there's the hee-hoo deadpool hits on every single hero joke of it all, which is probably all the writers were thinking about when those lines and directions went onto the script. They needed the throughline of wade being seriously still hung up on vanessa for plot reasons but didn't want to give up all the ridiculous flirt jokes.

From a hollywood writer's perspective, the solution is an easy 'Okay, he flirts with dudes ONLY, no prob, there's a Logan shaped comedic 'straight man' for him to do that at for 90+minutes'

But like. There's Implications to that as a Choice, when you characterize a dude that's so rejection avoidant and purpose-seeking that an avengers' dismissal kills all motivation for putting the suit on at all.

Pointing affections at literally any direction other than people who MIGHT take him seriously. Flirt on his favourite heroes, antiheroes, maybe even a TVA employee or two instead. It isn't that he's not ACTUALLY into Colossus's giant metal ass or Logan's oiled up tits, I'm sure they rev the engines like anything else, but I'm super willing to explore the idea that he's way more comfortable in throwing himself in directions where the rejections aren't 'real' to him. If the writers never thought about that implication, I'm going with concept that Wade doesn't even realize he's doing it at all unless he's in a fanfic universe with a decent oh/oh moment.

It makes me wonder what style of bluescreen he'd go through the second Logan yes-and's in a way that might be interpreted as flirting back. It makes me think of the countless number of dudes he's hit on in the comics despite most of his longer-term relationships being with women. Don't get me wrong, I KNOW the Doylist perspective is likely that most writers go down the straight relationships, gay jokes avenue but it's SO much more interesting to play it watsonian here. it's just a really good fanfic direction to lean down, this fucker is made up of exactly 50/50 emotional anguish about rejection and shitpost dick humour and I just wanna read more works where they feed into each other instead of being tackled separately

HHHHHHh I dUNNO IF I KEEP WRITING IM JUST GONNA GO IN CIRCLES JUST GO READ THE FIC ^

[barrenclan]

sorry if this is spoilers bc we might learn more later. I'm super confused with Rainhaze's thought process. When he was saying its pointless. like. I get not wanting to go back bc he killed his mom. but what did that have to do with Asphodelpaw? Couldnt he just walk away? Did he see her and decide he wanted to be part of Defiance? And this was the tipping point to prove it? I'm super confused. Was it because if she left she'd tell someone? I assume we'll get a better explanation later?

Absolutely! I've actually been waiting for a chance to really dig into this. Like Rainhaze himself, his issue is written with a lot of confusion and uncertainty, and it's not very straight-forwardly, so I understand why his motivations are easy to miss. So here it is!

Firstly; Rainhaze as he existed in BarrenClan and Rainhaze as he is now are two very, very different beasts. Obviously he's still the same person, but he's gone through a mountain of trauma, violence, and was forced to confront the fact that if pressed, he would kill a family member - even his own mother. Sure, in the moment he was threatened into doing it, but it opens the possibility that he'd even do that. Maybe he would've done anything to protect his family then, but it's been a long time.

Then, over many months, he's subjected to propaganda, murder, and terrible treatment. His mental state from where he was when he killed Dustfeather is massively changed. He's depressed, listless, and much more willing to kill. Not only that, but Defiance propaganda has worked on him.

(Issue 24)

With so much constant killing in his life, and being constantly vulnerable, he begins to see death as a good thing. Something that ends suffering, something that doesn't really matter in the end.

(Issue 28)

So now we're at Issue 31. Rainhaze is in a "doldrum", like Ranger says (a period of inactivity or lethargy). He's so torn between his new life and new beliefs, and his old regrets and old connections to BarrenClan, that he's basically attempting to end his own life through inactivity. Ranger doesn't want this. Here's his plan:

Ranger knows that BarrenClan lives opposite the forest, across the prairie. He specifically orders Rainhaze to "kill something", planting that idea in his mind. He's hoping that Rainhaze will find one of his Clan members, and make the decision to kill one of them. This would push Rainhaze over into whatever full breakdown Ranger wants, and solidify his ties to Defiance. And that is what happens. So why did Rainhaze make that decision?

We already have the basis of an incredibly traumatized Rainhaze. He views himself as he is now, and who he used to be, as different people. And he belives that's completely beyond redemption.

Yes, all those months ago he promised he was suffering in Defiance for his family and Clan, but it's really hard to hold onto those noble morals when you're being put through hell every day. Rainhaze hasn't even seen his family in months. They don't seem real to him anymore.

Then he is finally confronted by Asphodelpaw, the symbol of everything he's put himself through torture to protect, and all he wants to do is go back to Defiance. And here we go, getting to these lines;

Rainhaze is a coward.

He's separated from Deepdark and Ranger, by at least several days. He could absolutely come home with Asphodelpaw and warn all of BarrenClan - they could evacuate in time, be far away by the time Defiance arrives on their territory. But then he'd have to face his family, face his sister whose mother he violently murdered. Have to stand there and have them look at him and know him and see the scars on his body.

When he says, "this is vile, pointless, irredeemable, monstrous", he understands that killing Asphodelpaw is a disgustingly cruel action. He knows that. He understands that he's choosing Defiance over her, and over them. But that's the choice he feels he needs to make to protect himself. He's not thinking about his family any more.

So he does something so completely vicious and irredeemable that he is forced to choose Defiance. Because there's no way that any BarrenClan cat would forgive him for this. There's no way he would forgive himself for this.

And thus, Rainhaze figures himself out, and burns every other bridge entirely. He makes his choice.

[abattre]

I used to like sns but now it's the ship I hate the most, every day is a post how Sasuke is an angry twink whose only cure is naruto dick or calling him a misogynist gay who hates and despises all women

I had sort of the same experience with SNS actually. I used to be really into the ship, but the more time I spent looking at the story, the less it appealed to me. I think my initial enjoyment of SNS came mostly out of convenience, in the sense that Naruto used to be my favourite character and the ship leans into a lot of beneficiary elements for him. When you have a character you've become particularly attached to it's sort of intrinsic that you'd want to indulge them, and SNS was a bit of a 'have your cake and eat it too' thing I suppose.

Anyway, I think for a lot of people who aren't interested in any socio-political analysis of the story and can't recognise that Naruto aligning himself so strongly with Konoha completely recontextualises his dynamic with Sasuke after the massacre reveal; and moreover for the fans that just don't care about the context behind Sasuke's actions and the reality of his position in Shinobi society as the last member of an oppressed clan; it's easy to accept and perpetuate the idea that Naruto saved Sasuke from the nebulous darkness of his anti-establishment philosophy because that's what the narrative espouses at the end of the day. I can't really speak on how the anti-Konoha part of the fandom that do ship SNS perceives their relationship because I have no experience really engaging with that content. I do know that it's sort of an accepted condition that their relationship isn't healthy, and I get that that's an attractive factor to people in shipping too, so to each their own I guess.

I wouldn't really say I'm staunchly anti-SNS because, objectively, I can see why it appeals to people. Personally, I just find it a bit off-putting in my perception of the narrative and its conclusion. I honestly dislike how Naruto and Sasuke's relationship is written in the latter half of Shippuden. Purporting the idea that they always perfectly understood each other is kind of counterintuitive to introduce at the end of a story about both of them making choices that separated them because they didn't understand each other. It generally makes no sense to me, and also I think it undermines a lot of the development their relationship had in the original series. I guess what it comes to for me is I can't enjoy a romantic interpretation of Sasuke and Naruto's relationship any more because having the story end with Naruto getting everything he wants while Sasuke loses his autonomy and his pursuit of justice against Konoha to actualise that ending for Naruto makes me uncomfortable. I find it unrealistic to Sasuke's characterisation, and I dislike the narrative that forgiving Konoha is an act of moral absolution that Sasuke has to take part in to better himself.

I also find the sentiment that Naruto saved Sasuke from himself discomforting on principle. There's an aspect of considering the harm Sasuke was doing to himself when making the choices he did, but frankly I think that could have been addressed and resolved without Sasuke needing to become an agent of the institution that obliterated his life, it feels like that component was more a benefit to Naruto's happy-ending than anything else. The fandom predominantly has a very strange idea of Sasuke's character, so I guess it's just not really that interesting to most people to question whether Sasuke's concluding compliance with Konoha's ideology actually made sense for his arc. And for the people that do, well again I don't really seek out SNS content any more so I'm a bit unclear on how their relationship works in an anti-Konoha reading of the story. In general, I have no interest in policing what anyone ships, I just can't really see SNS as a gratifying construal of Naruto and Sasuke's relationship.

If you want to read a better analysis, you should check out this post though. It's a lot more in depth than anything I've written here and sums up pretty much my entire stance on SNS in a more articulate way lol.

[tophat-69]

it's the good, defining itself

Following the events of the series finale, Viktor saves Jayce by sending him back in time and across realities to the night everything changed, and unwittingly revives himself as well. Viktor is determined to undo his past mistakes even if that means leaving Jayce behind. That idea is complicated by their souls now being intertwined. And fate isn’t done with them yet.

Read it on AO3

Length: 92.4k words (complete)

Rating: Explicit

Relationships: Jayce Talis/Viktor, background Silco/Vander

Tags: Post-Canon Fix-It, Soulmates, Dream Sharing, Time Travel/Alternate Universe, Zaun Revolution, Angst with a Happy Ending, Mental Health Issues

Warnings: Sexually Explicit Content, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon Disability, Discussion of Mortality, Canon Suicidal Ideation

Author's Note: I wrote this by putting out a chapter a day for 22 days as I went from the holiday break, to the flu, to pneumonia. I'm still not entirely sure how that happened and I'm pretty sure it was a fever dream. That could, however, still be the pneumonia talking.

Read if you want Viktor being adopted into the Zaun crew by force, ending up mentoring Powder and Ekko, while also fighting for Zaun's independence and figuring out that maybe yes Jayce is in love with him despite the whole destroying-the-world thing.

Excerpt Below Cut

It’s a strange thing to consider, how a body can be shredded to its base components and reduced back to the stardust from whence they all came. How a soul can be disassembled, thoughts and dreams and ambition boiled down to a single spark. 

How time and space are human constructs, imposed by simple mortals to make sense of the endless dream they’re all merely players within.

It’s stranger still that Jayce Talis recognizes the feeling of his atomization well enough to identify it the moment it begins. He was expecting it when he took Viktor’s hand, but not the peace that came with it this time. Standing in the belly of the Hex Gates, it had been terrifying to find himself unraveling. Now he finds it almost romantic how their edges fray and clear the arbitrary boundaries between them.

Jayce would have been content with scattering into oblivion. He’d accepted that his end was near, and to reach it with a man he long ago discovered was the other half of his soul… that was better than he could have dreamed. 

Jayce knows that they’re both thinking it, can feel Viktor alighting on the same bleak humor as Jayce does, attuned and enmeshed as they bleed into each other. This is another precipice that they are perched at the edge of, this time together. It is the beautiful and ironic bookend to two doomed lives that they each separately contemplated ending, just to be pulled back by the other.

There are no divides between them. He can feel Viktor’s resignation to his failure, his relief at finding a peaceful end to a life of pain, his dreamer’s idealism that twisted with the power that consumed him, his guilt at the losses that he caused, his fear of oblivion, and above it all the boundless affection that thrums between them, matched and merging with Jayce’s own devotion. But as warm as it feels suffusing them both as their souls ebb with their consciousness, it’s the last of those emotions that is so dangerous. 

Jayce, who couldn’t let his partner go regardless of the cost and the promises broken, recognizes that a moment too late. 

He can feel when a sharp frisson of intent sizzles suddenly through the blurred boundary between them.

Viktor has always been focused and directed, fierce and driven, so unhesitating that even his most rational choices seem impulsive. But there is intention in everything that Viktor does. He is a man of science that alights on epiphanies in brilliant flashes of genius, and a man of action who’s always raced against time.

For not the first time, Jayce finds himself fatefully a step behind.

Viktor, don’t…

Viktor’s intangible hand thrusts through the misty dissolving cage of Jayce’s ribs, grasping the spark of Jayce’s soul the way he once seemed to cup the whole world in his palm. For Jayce. Always for Jayce.

Viktor’s eyes burn golden, now a mere impression in the yawning expanse of space, twin stars. A single pulse of determination fuses Jayce back into consciousness even as his body fades away. 

Viktor’s voice is an ethereal whisper in Jayce’s thoughts as light blazes through the darkness of space like a supernova. 

Live, Jayce. 

Read the Rest on AO3

[romchat]

The On1y One visual analysis (Ep. 5): Seeking an opening

Something I really enjoy about The On1y One's visual storytelling is how it uses framing to represent the tentative way Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang embed themselves into each other's lives. Through their interactions, we see Tian learning to let people in while Wang gives himself permission to trust those around him, and that fraught journey towards connection is beautifully captured by the show's cinematography choices.

From the first episode, we see the show using architectural framing to represent Tian’s aloofness, whether it’s the walls of his old neighborhood that tuck him away from his classmates or the closet that hides his always packed suitcase. So I find it really interesting how the architectural framing of his homeroom’s classroom window serves a completely different purpose: to showcase Tian’s ability to fight against his instincts for pushing people away and gradually open up to Wang.

As noted by @heretherebedork, that open window changes the (physical and emotional) wall between them. Ever since he acknowledged their relationship in Episode 3 through this window, it's here that Tian continues to signal the changing boundaries of their relationship.

Each episode he slowly transforms from a silent observer removed from the world around him to someone extending the care Wang so desperately craves, and the window, as a frame within a frame, directs our attention to the significance of these moments. Tian not only offers Wang physical relief but also emotional relief--he sees Wang despite the latter having experienced a lifetime of being ignored, and this all happens through the window.

Moreover, the camera language The On1y One uses to frame Wang's response reveals how heady that recognition feels.

One of my favorite examples of this is when Wang confronts Tian about helping capture the thugs who had attacked him. Tian denies having been involved but Wang refuses to believe him, playfully pushing him against the wall as he lists all the evidence to the contrary.

What makes this sequence of shots so compelling is how the framing changes as the two characters become more aware of the significance of Tian's actions.

The sequence is just a series of single shots (meaning each shot only features one person), but we can feel the tension between Wang and Tian because of the shift in balance and shot size. The shots start off-balanced and dirty, the characters' faces off to the edge of the frame and obscured by the other, but soon the framing closes in on their eyes gazing directly at each other. The extreme close-up is strangely honest and intimate, evoking a sense of wonder and nerves.

Being confined to such a tight frame proves to be too much for Tian, however, and the camera responds accordingly by shifting to a medium shot, as if to give him a breather. But from Wang's small smile, you can tell he feels pleasure at the idea of someone caring enough to protect him, and the camera language for the rest of the scene uses several techniques to visualize the emotional connection he allows himself to indulge in.

(See the lovely rack focus during Tian's "I was just thinking you must have been very scared" speech". Rather than editing together separate shots of Tian and Wang, the camera keeps both characters in frame and smoothly changes the focus between the two, visually linking them together. Their vulnerable conversation has fostered an irreversible shift in their relationship.)

So it's notable that when Tian tells Wang he is thinking of leaving Wang home to stay in the school dormitories, we get this absolutely devastating shot from outside their window, the closed frame now creating a stark line separating the two:

Tian: Why do you want to stay at the school? Wang: ...I wasn't familiar with you. Tian: How about now? Do you still want to stay at school? Wang: No, now that I'm more familiar with you, right? And you? Do you still want to stay at school? Tian: I think I will in the future.

Wang interprets Tian's decision as a rejection of him, and the shot is cold and isolating to reflect that. Their last few interactions were one step forward and two steps back.

What smart visual storytelling.

[simblorbo-bracket]

Round 4 - Simblr's Saddest, Wettest Meow Meow - Mainline

Saxen (@herecirmsims) VS. Thrum (@ssspringroll)

(polls are presented left -> right unless stated otherwise)

Who's sadder? Who's wetter? Read on for more information, and vote with your heart!

What is a ‘Meow Meow’?

(taken from tumblr user @/torturelabyrinth) “The thing about a true poor little meow meow is they have to be 1) downtrodden 2) morally questionable at best 3) deeply and pathetically miserable”

Saxen

Things Sax does extremely well: fainting and bleeding (separately), fainting and bleeding (combination), rotting in bed, crying or being completely stoic (no in between), causing more problems while trying to fix his previous problems, omitting certain truths (aka lying).

Now, I don't know if he really counts as an SWMM because he's not a classic villain... but in his pursuit of Doing The Right Thing he has made some awful choices. Good intentions, poor outcomes.

I present the evidence beneath the cut:

Some of his crimes:

In an attempt to save his sister, he left his post and facilitated the escape of a world-devouring entity which he was supposed to help contain.

After his sister died he made another attempt to save her, via necromancy, and instead doomed her to an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Until recently, none of her reincarnations were healthy enough to survive infancy.

He befriended the parents of this latest incarnation without filling them in on the backstory, or his motives. After they were killed by his enemy, he took the baby and kept her hidden for 11 years (did she have grandparents, uncles, aunts? Yes, probably. He claims they couldn't have cared for her like he did and technicallyyyy he's right, since her survival required magic, but...)

He broke the arm of one of his 'adopted' adult kids (he has an enchanted cottage which has been a refuge for a lot of people) when said adult tried to prevent him from killing someone else. Yes, technically he did only push Thom and didn't intend for Thom to hit the wall so hard, but...

Long story short but his home world didn't end, it was just knocked out of its timeline for a while. Unfortunately, due to his actions on the day the Grim escaped (attacking portal guards and forcing his way through the rift, just as an unrelated-to-him group stormed the castle), he was a) assumed dead and b) immediately arrested on his return for treason and attempted regicide.

He's a constant menace and cause of stress to his man, the kindest and sweetest soul to ever live. He doesn't mean to be, it's just that his attempts to keep Fen safe often seem to involve risking himself in increasingly creative and fatal ways.

Why should you vote for Sax? Well, I think his endless complex trauma and the fact that almost all his misfortunes happened because he was trying to fix things/help people makes him pretty damn tragic and definitely very damp. He could do with a win. Plus... look at him. 🥲

Thrum

What makes Thrum a sad, wet little meow meow? His own fucked up, twisted little romance life.

Try to keep up.

Thrum, you see, is incredibly loyal. So loyal, and so, so jealous.

Another thing about Thrum, is that he's polyamorous. He really prefers having more than one partner. His partner, Wither, is not into the whole poly thing. But, for Thrum's sake, he agrees.

Enter Ke'a.

Thrum is the one that notices Ke'a at a bar one night, and instantly has a crush. Has to get him in this newly-opened relationship.

Ke'a is also not too keen on the polyamory, but agrees to give it a try.

He hits it off with Wither almost right away, which is a relief because you'd think that the two dudes in this polycule who aren't into the idea of a polycule might fight over the guy they mutually like.

This is not the case.

Thrum, boiling with white hot incandescent rage and jealousy at the mere thought of either of his partners talking to someone else leads him to violence.

Drinking, to cope with the rage

His outbursts are almost constant, he can't exist in the same room as his partners without further driving a wedge between himself and them. And that's not the end of it, all of Thrum's hot-and-cold back-and-forth feelings about this polycule he built have driven Wither and Ke'a even closer to each other.

They go on dates behind his back, bonding, forming a closer relationship with each other than either of them had ever built with Thrum.

Thrum was always doomed to fail. To push himself out of his own relationship. But can you blame him for craving love? All of the love? Forever??

Thrum, Wither, and Ke'a are all original creations. While Thrum and Ke'a were literally made for each other, Ke'a entered the situation organically, and that's when it all started crashing and burning to the ground.

The throuple that flew too close to the sun 💔

[pavel-chekov-appreciator]

I want better for Sybok.

I want a world where he got a fighting chance to do anything but become a cult leader. I’ve seen aus where he becomes a counselor and I can’t stop thinking about it.

No gods, no Sha-Ka-Ree, no cult. Just a kid who knows his history. Who researches Surak, and the world before him, and finds himself dissatisfied with present day Vulcan’s interpretations of his teachings. Unable to see the logic in following one ancient man’s words with no additional input or thought. Is this truly the best way for them to live? His mother didn't think so. He doesn't think so either.

He’s young, and he has big ideas and a lot of charisma, and a lot of inner pain from losing his mother and being suddenly told the way she was raising him was wrong. He quickly earns a reputation as a troublemaker. Indulging in blatant displays of emotionalism, just to prove his point, that he smiled and nothing bad happened, he cried and he felt better after.

He’s dissatisfied and ostracized and convinced there’s a better way to be living.

He fucks off at 18-not quite banished, but so strongly encouraged to leave that he might as well have been-and goes to a college on Earth, because the federation is a post-scarcity society so he has his basic needs met and he just wants to figure himself out, and where better to do that than a college campus, as far away from Vulcan society as possible. On his step-mother's home planet, where he knows at least a little of the culture, the language, what to expect.

He sees the school counselor a lot, and gets a lot out of their sessions. Takes some psychology courses and ends up getting really passionate about it.

Teaches himself to embrace his emotions while acknowledging that it’s very easy to be ruled by them. Utilizes aspects of traditional Vulcan control combined with the human practice of mindfulness to understand his emotions and control his strong impulse to act on them, without completely rejecting them. Knows he is choosing not to control his emotions, but he can and should control the actions he takes in response to them to avoid hurting himself or others. Knows that understanding why he feels a certain way can help him understand himself better.

Lives his best life and studies psychology to help other people find the same joy and peace he has, in whatever form that takes for them.

Then he finds out his baby bro basically told the VSA to fuck off and that dad more or less disowned him for joining Starfleet. Feels so damn proud of him for standing up the their parents like that.

Reunites with his brother after years of separation.

It’s rocky at first, but after both being disowned they’re all the family the other has left now, and they both do really care about each other.

Spock doesn’t understand Sybok’s choices, but he doesn’t need to understand them to respect them; Sybok is clearly still exercising some degree of control over himself, he even still meditates, he’s just controlling himself less, and differently, and his mind is more at peace than it’s ever been before. Sybok doesn’t really understand Spock’s continued dedication to logic either, but he respects it too, because clearly it still means something to Spock in a big way.

They make peace with each other, and their differences, and with the fact that their parents and society have rejected them. That Sybok did everything “wrong” and Spock did everything “right” and yet they both ended up in the same place; on Earth, with mom ignoring their calls, because she loved them both but she loves her husband more.

And ultimately he enrolls in Starfleet medical to become a ships counselor, because he still takes great joy in doing things he knows dad would hate, and because he wants to specialize in trauma and grief counseling and Starships need a lot of that, and because getting a new perspective on life from being around humans helped him a lot and he’s rejected a lot of philosophy that he found unhelpful but IDIC is something he still believes in; he wants to be around as many different ideas and perspectives as he can to improve himself and his practice, and Starfleet is a great way to do that.

Getting to follow his only remaining family into space is just a bonus.

[absolutebl]

Industry question for you, please: Why is it that it seems that Thai BL in particular has some really systemic issues with writing endings? Screwed-up pacing/editing, out-of-character/illogical actions, not being very satisfying... it seems like a show avoiding that fate is more of an exception than the rule, unfortunately. Do a lot of them just... not write the ending ahead of time? 😅 That would make having these sort of wacked-up endings at least make some sense, but... really, it makes *no* sense to me that that would be the actual standard writing strategy-- I mean, for example, one of the best living novel authors I know of *always* has very satisfying endings, literally without fail (I have read everything he's written and been perfectly content with the ending of every one), and the reason for that is he purposefully always writes the endings of his books *first*, then works everything back up to that point. Similarly, some of the best TV shows I've seen (from any country-- and this does actually include some Thai ones, to be fair) were written either all in one go or at the *very* least with their endings obviously already very firmly in mind, regardless of if they were completely original or were adaptations of some other source material. So... why does this often seem to be such a difficulty for the writers of Thai BL? 😅 (Sorry if I sound a little salty here, but endings either make or break all fiction for me {novels, manga/manhwa, TV, movies, games, whatever}, and I've been getting burned what seems to be more and more often lately with shows being great for the vast majority of their runtime but then inexplicably totally botching the landing, seemingly out of nowhere-- so I'm a bit frustrated with that when it seems to be a really simply-solved problem {that, indeed, has already been solved by many others before}: JUST WRITE THE DAMN ENDING *FIRST* and then work up to it? 🙃😅)

Endings huh? You a romance reader by nature? (Wait, no, you said... HE. So... Sparks? Green?) Anygay, where was I?

But yeah, I get it. I've always fancied the dessert course the most, myself.

To answer your question, not sure. I'm assuming its a narrative expectation based in culture. Like Japan and their lanes, China and 6 act structure, or Korea's adoration of love triangles. And producing culture comes to film and storytelling with its own set narrative conceits, archetypes, and tropes and aren't proscriptive but are leaned on a lot. Much as they come to film with a certain style as well.

Think about the "look" of Korean BL compared to the "look" of Taiwanese BL, for example. They have an entirely different flavor to them. Korean stuff is usually all bright and airy, lots of distance shots, super clean and uncluttered, filtered and filmy and atmospheric. Taiwanese stuff is much closer, more grainy, more bold with it's color choices and contrasts, kind-up n your face and gritty, a bit messy sometimes.

It's jarring to go from one to the other.

After watching nothing but Asian dramas for so long, I always find it jarring to go back to American shit. It feels over-acted and unsubtle and kind of brash. Over all "loud" and in my face. Jarring.

So when first encountering 4 or 6 act structure most westerners feel a little unmoored, it doesn't feel comfortable until you sink into it and leave 3 & 5 behind.

I'm mean I'm so used to K-dramas with that arbitrary year or more separation in the final episode I;m now shocked when it's not there.

I guess what I'm saying is maybe it's just a thing with Thailand, not to put that much truck in endings. The way (especially) romances do in the western world. There's a very fixed idea of what an HEA should look like in the west. Thailand may not share that idea.

I've not read the source books of any of these BLs, so I don't know if this is just their narrative style or not.

I mean there are some Thai BLs with good (if not great) endings, and plenty of Korean BLs with terrible middles, and far too many Taiwanese BLs with bad beginnings.

Ya just kinda get used to it, I guess.

15 Thai BLs with Good Endings

A Tale of Thousand Stars

Bad Buddy

Lovely Writer

2gether

Be My Favorite

Dark Blue Kiss (possibly my favorite on this list)

Destiny Seeker

Make a Wish

Naughty Babe

SOTUS

[princess-of-the-corner]

hey im having some trouble with something fic-wise and i wanted to ask if you had ideas. if todo hadn't had his chimera-perfect quirk, do you think enji would have been trying for another kid? also, do you think toyua's breakdown would have been delayed or just Different?

Hm!

I think it kinda depends on the exact nature of how you're writing it? Because like.

I think there's a few factors in it.

/Why/ specifically is it the Fire/Ice child he wants? Because remember: Enji was perfectly fine training Toya despite having only Fire and no Ice until they found out that Toya wasn't fireproof and therefore using his Quirk would be putting him in danger.

So even in Canon, while the Fire/Ice child was an ideal scenario, he settled for 'less'. So what, exactly, changed? Why couldn't he just turn his focus to Fuyumi or Natsuo(those two are free to do whatever they want)? Why make another child and hope for the combo like originally intended instead of just writing off Toya specifically?

Another factor in this is Rei. How much of a choice does she have? Obviously I write Enji as a decent person so if Rei had said 'no, we're not having any more children' then he'd listen. Some people clearly write differently and think he didn't give her a choice already.

Like I clearly write Enji one way and while Canon narratively backs a lot of this up, I do take my own liberties and I can see why people interpret things completely in the opposite direction even if I think they should refrain from stating it as fact and being shocked when people don't agree.

Anyway! There's a lot of ways to interpret these characters depending on the story you want to tell.

For example how I write them in CC:

Enji wanting a Fire/Ice child is him projecting his own trauma and guilt. Though he was fine with Toya initially, he now feels guilty to 'cursing' him with a Quirk that causes him pain and having to crush his dreams. Therefore a Fire/Ice child would be projection for both of them to succeed where they both fail.

He doesn't go to Fuyumi or Natsuo 1.) because he wants the Fire/Ice to make up for everything. If he doesn't succeed in what he started, Toya suffered for nothing and 2.) as insane as he is, he's not going to fully force them. Fuyumi and Natsuo don't want to be Heroes. If they did he'd train them, just like he later trains Shoto. But they don't so he doesn't. (Shoto may have had less choice/would have been more pressured to be a Hero, though Enji tells himself he would've listened if Shoto wanted something else. But he wanted to be a Hero anyway. In a way, Enji is just doing exactly what he wants. (I don't mean this in a victim-blaming way I mean this in a 'Enji is justifying things' way))

As for Rei. I haven't gotten to this in Road to Hell, but after everything with being pregnant with Shoto? She doesn't want to be pregnant again. It scares her. It scares her even years later no way in hell would she want to do it again immediately. Now, given her own traumas re: her parents and her inability to say 'no', she might not express this and she may crumble if Enji tries to talk her into it not realizing how scared she is. But she doesn't want to.

As for Toya's breakdown:

Again this can be up to the writer on how they interpret his actions/behavior/choices.

But I think that regardless of if Shoto came out 'perfect' or not, the base setup for Toya's breakdown was already coming. Without intervention on that particular front, I don't think things could've stopped. And that's a separate thing from how Shoto turned out.

I think at best what might happen is Toya having some camaraderie with Shoto in a 'Shoto got rejected too and Enji moved on to the next kid' kind of way. I don't know if it'd totally change course, but Toya would have someone to feel the way he feels in some way that Fuyumi and Natsuo don't understand./Maybe/ this could change things in that Toya has someone who 'gets' him and also someone to look after more, but I think he'd still have problems.

[nebulacollege]

Do they watch movies? What’s their favorite genre?

Good question, Anon. Technically, they should, but for some reason I don’t see them doing it very often due to their busy real life and their weird preference for books. That being said, I can imagine them going either to a cinema or watching them at home in a room dedicated to watching movies from time to time. Those rich people...

Niall feels like someone who’d enjoy “epic” or large scale films that are vaguely historical or not historical at all (he’d still watch documentaries though). Everything like Gladiator, Blade Runner, Ocean’s Eleven, etc. But honestly? I think he’s down for checking out literally any film he might be offered to see, no matter the genre or how obscure or arthouse they can get. Ultimately, he divides movies into the ones he enjoyed and the ones he didn’t, and separating them by their genre and not watching some of them due to that seems dumb to him. He has his own preferences, of course, like I mentioned above, but as I scrolled through my list of watched films, I realised that he’d take a look at the majority of them and like most of them for different reasons. He really likes to be entertained most of all by them. But he still likes giant, often Hollywood-type productions that have huge concepts, huge sets, insanely high production value, and a very long runtime. Although he’d probably be bored by superhero media even if it meets that criteria.

Ned likes action movies. A Hard Day is the easiest example to name, John Wick, Legend, Oldboy, you get the idea. He likes shooting/fighting in films because he’s actually very attentive and can follow every single character and their action with an impressive level of, well, attention. He notices what the main character does, what extras do, how they’re killed, who hit whom and when and how and things like that. He also always things about how he’d act in those situations and how he’d get away in them or avoid them entirely and what to take notice of, so that’s where his main entertainment lies. A complete 180 degree turn from his book genre choice! He also likes romance sometimes, but rarely. For some reason he’s mostly annoyed by it, but he craves stories that involve it, he’s just not sure what exactly he wants.

Edmund’s favourite, is, of course, horror films and thrillers. They’re often intertwined, so he can’t really tell whether it’s the former or the latter. It’s just either nicely done or not. He likes being scared by them, but after a certain point some of them stopped being scary, especially if he rewatched them too often, and he appreciates them for their atmosphere and concepts. Thankfully, due to him not watching horror movies very often, he can still be scared by something new and feel extremely uncomfortable and even have troubles sleeping sometimes. He likes atmosphere and creepy things more than slashers with serial killers or gorey movies. But if those have a mystery of “who did it”, he’d enjoy them much more, but overall, serial killers make him extremely uncomfortable  and he’s bored by them at the same time. Edmund also likes adventure movies, often mixed with fantasy, actually. It seems slightly childish to him for now, so he usually wouldn’t admit it, but he loves being immersed in a fairy tale. He gets lost in his imagination after watching them even more often than after horror films.

Liam likes sci-fi! And monster films in general, things like Host would also be very entertaining for him. But everything space-related or events where things from out there ended up on our planet is his jam, even if it’s not really the main focus of the movie, like in Significant Other. He loves when an unusual element is introduced in the story and characters get to explore it or have to survive it, like in Alien. Actually, films like The Platform would also be right up his alley, but the Saw franchise, for example, would interest him only with its first film.

[joannerowling]

prev anon here

I'd like to clarify the thing abt the second paragraph. im not pointing at disturbing themes in his writing to look for evidence for his vile predatory behaviour, bur rather comparing the reaction i observed in myself to the themes that make me feel uncomfortable in his work, and the reactions I've been observing in hp fandom after Rowling went public on main. I don't think that books' contents are necessarily reflective of true authors thoughts and morals and ideas. some works are ment to make readers uncomfortable. overflow of rape and abuse motives in fiction by male authors is a completely separate topic here.

i wanted to point out that now, in the light of his actions being uncovered, i dont feel charitable towards his attempts at exploring these topics in his works. in the context of irl news it feels disgusting, but it's true, writing has nothing to do with actual irl evidence. but it's a rather different feeling than ,for example, sthe once that i have from reading lolita which i will definitely read again somewhere in future.

ive just noticed that, curiously, now that i feel repulsion to g*iman's works, i don't feel at loss having decided to not read them or otherwise engage with his fandoms anymore. but people here claim that hp makes them feel unsafe and borderline suicidal, so even if the content itself isn't exactly harmful, that hypothetically some themes in the context of Rowling taking a more proactive stand on genderID question would make them feel the same i feel about g*iman now. if so, why not just drop it? if it upsets you so bad, why still eat a cactus? this is definitely not a good, thought provoking discomfort, why abuse yourself like that then?

im probably asking rhetorical questions here, because it's obvious they don't feel threatened or unsafe at all, but rather defeated and that prompts the rage. fandom people are often immature so inability to separate self from everything else is also evident. idk, it's just funny to me. i for once found myself in their shoes, and it turned out not that big of a deal.

Oh i definitely agree with you, something like this is bound to make anyone looking back at his themes and writing choices and see them in a newly sinister light, he's brought it on himself. And yet it's exactly as you say, people are more willing to be charitable with Gaiman than with Rowling, even with his comparatively much worse actions.

I've never understood those people who feel agony at the thought of "consuming", or "not consuming" fiction over fiction. Ok, i guess if you're 13 or even 15 and very sheltered it's understandable, but after that?? But well, we're on tumblr, these things come with the territory i suppose.

[centrally-unplanned]

I felt strong kinship to Mekkah for his latest video criticizing Fire Emblem's support system; he did a good job verbalizing my thoughts. To outline the Ash-version of this take, Fire Emblem in the Game Boy era (when modern supports were born), had simple plots, from a sheer "quantity of text" standpoint. A lot of that was convention; a lot of it was limitations of technology. The supports were simple to match, and so they worked fine as a way to bolster the characters and connect narrative choices (who you like) to gameplay (on-field bonus for affection). The downside here is that those supports are about the two characters; they aren't connected to the plot of the game nor the actions on the field. This is fine when, as in FE7, the number of supports a unit has is capped at 2-3 people and unlocking them is hard. The downside is not observed.

Fast forward to Three Houses and the same system is breaking under the weight of modern, 40+ hour, long-form plot concepts and modern player demands of flexibility and customization. Every character can unlock every rank with every other character (mostly), unlock happens trivially, but this 20x quantity of text is still divorced from the actual plot. They are, by design, required to be repetitive fluff in some way. In Three Houses this was taken to the extreme as supports were over twice as long on average as the ones in Awakening/Fates, with even *less* ability to connect to the plot given the branching, timeskip nature of it. It was extremely common in that game to complete a level and have unlocked 5-6 new supports (aka reading text with no gameplay) that would on net take 20+ minutes to complete, none of which has connected consequences with anything else. Engage at least cut the support length back down, but its a band-aid solution.

Support ballooning also reduced its gameplay incentive - in Awakening at least, where pair-up is absurdly broken, you did have some support specialization. But in Fates/Three Houses/Engage (to a lesser extent) support bonus are largely aura-based, provide flat bonuses, and are more-or-less equal between characters. Given how many you develop it quickly becomes the case that each unit in your squad has a B~ rank with every other unit; meaning you can just send them wherever on the map, and they will probably get a similar-ish bonus no matter what. So you stop paying attention to them.

Now some of this is certainly inherent to how games have evolved, but I don't want to give the games a full pass here; there are a lot of changes they could make to mitigate this problem (branching supports, more story-progression-locks, integration of sidequests, etc) and they just aren't doing that. I definitely don't want the games to ditch their "dating sim" elements, the building of bonds alongside teams is a core differentiator of Fire Emblem. But overall I think fixes are a stopgap to just ditching the idea of support convos altogether, which the games should pursue. With the much-larger stories integrating the characters into that story directly is much easier, and Fire Emblem has a lot more non-combat gameplay mechanics these days it could use as a base for a new relationship system (As opposed to those simply being ways to grind relationship points for the - otherwise completely separate - support system). But I would take change in either direction for sure - its all about execution anyway.

[betajams]

Ok so im thinking way too much about the layout of these fucking menus (that will probably never exist. rip i guess.) so im just gonna list things out under the cut (its messy whoops) so please bear with me lol 😔���

* RECORD puts the game into a 2.5D first person state where you can (obviously) record anything (which saves to a separate folder). Most cutscenes can’t be recorded, but some will let you. Some you have no choice but to record.

* TALK is also obvious lmao (TALKing can initiate certain cutscenes, and if(ex: when Tim and Jay team up) you want to talk to party members(or if they have something to say) you have to select TALK before doing so).

* INSPECT is, again, obvious, but doing it too much will negatively affect the (i dont have a better name for it rn lmao) Operator meter. Doing it too little and watch out. you’ll miss something and they’ll get you.

* INVENTORY. Do i even need to say anything lol The menu style will change according to who you’re playing as and what they’re currently using(ex: jay’s camera bag in #69) to store items. This also means the on-hand inventory quantity will change. Storage inventory(most of the time the cars) is for storing excess items.

* Health is health lol the other meter is the Operator meter. That fills up/ depletes and changes colors depending on exposure to The Events™️. The more filled the bar is, the more exposed the player is, the more black the meter is, is how affected the character is( ex: so in the final scene of #72, jay’s meter would be completely filled in, with only a hint or green while tim’s meter would be completely filled and about half red, maybe a little more red of anything. Now that im thinking abt it that entry would probably knock jay out of playable character for a little while too) the more affected the character, the less control the player has

* T key to swap to Tim, J key to swap to Jay, status bars and icons grow/shrink and move over to make room(im shit at explaining things but you can see what i mean in the two screens i made lol)

* When jay is on his own, his stats/icons are pretty much where they are in the first screen i made, theres just a tim shaped hole in the menu until he teams up with tim for real(jessica im sorry i know you technically team up with jay first but,, , its not for very long,,,)

* There would be tta minigames/segments (plus whatever the fuck brian/hoody is doing. we stay silly) during which those stats/icon are set up the same as jay’s(alone), stats would def be different from normal play but idk what they’d be lol havent thought about that too much yet tbh (maybe even a little alex minigame. As a treat :3)

* during the divorce separation, tim and jay’s icons/stats are still on screen, but swapping between the two is locked. you will be who you need to be when you need to be them.

* After jay dies, all his icons black out, but they linger around. Hes not exactly haunting the narrative per se, but hes always been like, something adjacent to that to me

* Any glitches and tearing that happen in game can be separate from glitching that happens in the menu and vice versa

* Font i used for talking is the yt captions font. Id probably use it for smaller text/some bg text/item desc., but the action menu is all drawn(idk what this style is but its oddly fitting in a weird kind of way)

anyway thats all i have for now customers keep coming in and i keep loosing my train of thought/getting distracted by other ideas lol

[viktorclawthorne]

Why I think the Garp, Koby, and Helmeppo side plot in opla is great - a silly little essay

This includes One Piece Live Action spoilers as well as a bit of Marineford

B4 we start: this is all just my opinion and thoughts I had while watching the live action.

I might've gotten some stuff wrong, or you may disagree with me. Also, English isn't my first language

I'm not expecting anyone to actually see this, I just need to write it down

Firstly, I find the choice of including Koby and Garp more early on very interesting, they did a great job showcasing the corruption within the Marines and also how toxic and even abusive Garp is (Helmeppo literally says so).

Koby is the first character we see be friends with Luffy, making us like and empathize with him. They go separate ways and after that, they parallel each other in many ways; Koby has a very strong sense of justice, just like Luffy, He wants to protect people, which Luffy is shown to do a lot. Other than Koby however, Luffy prioritizes his freedom, while Koby joins the Marines because he believes he can protect people that way.

They tell each other to “Be a good Pirate” and “Be a good Marine”, With their similarities Koby serves as a great tool to show throughout the season how corrupt the marines are, especially compared to the freedom of pirates like Luffy.

We meet Mihawk in the context of him getting a call from Garp, immediately showing the connection between Marines and Pirates. When this gets explained to Koby - and therefore also the viewer - he first realizes how corrupt the system of the Marines is. Helmeppo explains: “Warlords exist, so the marines don't have to do the dirty work”.

In Shells Town we’re led to believe that Helmeppo is “stupid and bad” and Koby is “smart and good” but later on we learn that Helmeppo was aware of how the marines work from the start and therefore wasn't enthusiastic about joining, his rank, or his duties like Koby was. When Koby finally learns the truth, he considers quitting, showing how far from his ideal of protecting citizens the navy is.

Garp literally says himself that as a marine, you operate in a cruel and unfair system and have to compromise your morals and ideals (which is why all marines are inherently immoral). He also states he could have been fleet admiral (aka highest-ranking marine) but turned it down bc he would “have to do it their way” and it would “take away his freedom” which shows his similarities to Luffy and Dragon. It is also bullshit bc he HAS to mostly do it their way, all Marines serve the world government / celestial dragons and not the people, which therefore means you cannot be free within the Marines.

In the Liveaction we see Garp let Luffy go, which is his idea of “doing things his way”, he seems to think by declining to be fleet admiral he keeps at least some degree of his autonomy; however, I personally think he is being ignorant, wanting to ignore how functioning in a corrupt system can never be moral, and you inherently lose your freedom.

Garp still believes the marines are necessary “to protect order” so he can't completely disagree with the system, clearly setting him apart from pirates like Luffy or Roger and the revolutionary army (who of course exist in contrast to the marines, showing and, well, rebelling against their cruelty).

Zeff points out the similarities between Luffy and Roger to Garp, who then mentions how Roger died, implying he’s just trying to protect Luffy. Garp seems to have a twisted view on protection; since he believes it is wrong as well as dangerous to be a pirate he physically abused Luffy from a young age, trying to stomp out his dream and make him follow in Garp's footsteps (same goes for Ace and somewhat Sabo of course).

This is also shown by how he acts in Marineford where he first tries to stop Luffy but then lets him through, isn't able to kill Ace, and has to be held back in order to not attack Akainu. Deep down, he seems to really care for those whom he considers Family, which clashes with his belief that Pirates are inherently immoral / bad.

I do believe his pursuit of Luffy throughout OPLA wasn't just him testing Luffy, as he states at the end. Garp gets really mad when he finds out Luffy has become a pirate, and still really wants to make him into a marine. The scene with Zeff would've also not been necessary, I think Garp really intends to protect Luffy (like Ace).

When he sees Luffy’s determination, however, he accepts that he can’t change him, showing that Luffy's strong will is more important to Garp than protecting him. This is also supported by the events in Marineford when Garp lets Luffy pass after seeing his resolve.

The moment Koby decides to stay in the Marines, he accepts that he’ll have to compromise his dream and agree to give up his original morals to some degree.

However, he’s still very similar to Luffy, and at this point also mirrors the “good” sides of Garp. He questions if they should really go after Luffy and stands up for his own beliefs when he gets the order to arrest the strawhats.

This way Koby (as well as Helmeppo, who does the same) showcases the corruption and unfairness of the marines because not like him the other marines present follow the irrational orders of their superior blindly.

Garp states at the end of OPLA that following orders doesn't make you a good marine, following your code does. He congratulates Koby and Helmeppo for standing up for what they believe is right, even when their orders said the contrary.

Concluding it’s safe to say that Garp, Koby, and even Helmeppo all show similarities to Luffy, they have strong beliefs, disagree with the way the marines are run and even go against their orders because of this. Showing these three as the side plot in OPLA drives the point Home how corrupt, immoral, and unfair the Marines are, and with the context of the world government and Celestial dragons, this gets even more weight.

[sam-t-a]

Welp, it's definitely been a ride.

As much as I love the season as a whole and what Bill Hader's made of it, I have to say the finale was a bit underwhelming. Not the ending itself or the fates of the characters necessarily (that made a lot of sense), but the way it happened seemed either rushed or deliberate, rather than the flow of cause/effect and action/consequence that has made the show so gripping in the first place. ESPECIALLY the shootout scene (I'll probably write a long, separate post about why I disliked it).

There were some beautifully staged shots (Hank's death rattle in particular was painfully lovely) and some clever ideas (Gene finally sacrificing his narrative to reclaim agency in real life, and Barry losing his actual life, but getting the narrative he always wanted).

But overall, I think the two key problems in the episode and the final season in general were pacing and focus.

So for example, Hank admitting his part in Cristobal's death doesn't hit particularly hard because he's only been denying it for like an episode and a half, and that denial wasn't itself a major piece of the puzzle. It might've been if the opponent forcing him to acknowledge it was say Cristobal's kids (ala Jim Moss), but the character forcing the confession and making it That Big a Deal being Fuches didn't hit right.

It also might have worked with Fuches if he really had become this beacon of truth unwilling to accept any kind of denial, but his arc literally ends with him proclaiming "I am a man with no heart" and then taking his little kid's little kid back to him, so that's not it.

Compare that with Barry, somehow, astoundingly, FINALLY deciding to take responsibility for his crimes, something we've been grappling with for 4 seasons, and it barely gets a lick of screen time. And Barry IS our main character. Yes, he is sometimes absent from the episode and looming over it only in impact, but there were also entire episodes dedicated to exploring his psyche and his fears and regrets.

Something I deeply respected about the show was Bill Hader's approach to character deaths. He mentioned in an interview that when someone dies, that's a big thing and it continues with us till the end. It can't be brushed aside or forgotten. And he made good on that with the man Sally killed, with Cristobal and with Janet Moss.

But not with Chris.

Chris was a really major point in previous seasons and was just so completely absent in the final one.

I think the narrative choices here came down to a super simple fact: Bill Hader likes Fuches and Hank, and roots for Sally, and doesn't like Barry or want to risk that others might. And while I have an unbelievable amount of admiration for this guy and the masterpiece he made of this show, I do wish we'd taken more of the slow time in earlier episodes to flesh the ending out a bit more so it makes more sense.