#i am a nice person and i hate to bring it on the tl but this pissed me offfff

[ja3yun]

you really has some kind of ‘kink’ 💀 of writing heeseung and jake wherein jake is always cheated on and betrayed by the reader by fucking heeseung but never the other way around💀 like do you really like that kind of dynamic between them? like do you get off and cum from it? 😏

every fic that includes them has the same relationships 💀💀💀💀 TSTAB (alt scene), TDH (alt ending), and now that upcoming fic IVY 💀💀💀 do you really like that kind of stuff? cheating? infidelity? or do you really just like writing jake as a loser being cheated on by fucking your favorite heeseung lol and you imagine yourself doing it 🥴

LMAOO listen, have you noticed how they are always ALT endings or scenes?? it means they are never part of the main story so actually, jake always gets the girl. i ask everyone if they want the alt ending and both times people have overwhelmingly said yes, knowing what the plot is so???

i think everyone knows that jaeyun is my most favourite person in the whole world and if you read even a spec of the fics i write, including tstab and tdh which im presuming you didnt, you would see that i always favour jaeyun and write him lovingly. i even get asks saying i should make him meaner so?

i dont condone cheating, i never have and i never will but this is fiction and plots happen so gtfo over it, i literally put warnings of EVERYTHING. if it bothers people that much i can can change ivy around and have jaeyun as the royal guard but guess what baby? here is a spoiler, he would die at the and you wont like that either so go fuck yourself

[silverwhittlingknife]

How do you feel about Jack Drake?? What are your thoughts on him and Tim’s relationship?

Anon, I hope you were interested in a novel, because look, I am fascinated by Jack Drake.  He’s key to a whole lot of what I find compelling about Tim as a character, and if I were in charge of DC, I’d bring him back to life.  This would make Tim unhappy but would IMO make for good plotlines.

Jack and Tim’s relationship is Complicated (TM)...

Jack and Tim hug in Nightwing 20 / Jack impulsively yanks a TV out of the wall in Robin 45 / Tim grieves in Identity Crisis

“I could tell the truth.  But I don’t.” - Robin 66

...and it involves a whole lot of Tim lying, and feeling guilty about lying, and thinking about telling the truth, and choosing again and again to keep lying.

And I think that’s great.

Below the cut:

Shorter version - key points about Jack

Really long version - my gentler take (vigilantism is choir and Jack loves sports) vs. my harsher take (Jack has some major flaws)

Final thoughts

Shorter version - key points about Jack:

He’s a bad parent.  He’s self-centered, he consistently prioritizes his own comfort and interests over his son’s, and when upset, he does things like order Tim off to boarding school.

But he’s never a bad parent in an actionable way.  He’s not like David Cain or Arthur Brown, who are abusive monsters.  Jack’s not a monster!  He just...kinda sucks.

He genuinely loves Tim. If Jack’s aware that Tim’s disappeared or is in trouble, he’s always worried and upset.  He periodically resolves to be a better dad, and IMO he’s always sincere.

And Tim loves him, a lot.  Tim’s protective of him and worries about him when he’s kidnapped or in danger, and when they’re reunited, Tim’s really relieved and usually hugs him (and Jack hugs back!). 

...But they have very little in common, and that’s a problem. Jack doesn’t value the things that Tim values, or respect the people that Tim admires, or care about the things that Tim’s interested in.  Tim lies to him a lot, but that’s partly because he correctly guesses Jack wouldn’t respond well if he knew the truth of what Tim’s up to.

The Batfamily is a surrogate family that Tim’s drawn to because of the ways his real family doesn’t meet his emotional needs…but also he feels guilty about that and disloyal. (And to the extent that his dad recognizes what’s going on, he's jealous and resentful!)

Very long version:

(LISTEN I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS)

Okay!  So first: Jack’s a character who IMO is pretty up for interpretation.  You can interpret him very charitably, and make excuses for the bad behavior, and fill in the blanks sympathetically when situations are ambiguous; or you can interpret him uncharitably, and emphasize the bad behavior. I don’t think either approach is invalid - it depends on what kind of story you’re interested in!  I have enjoyed Bad Dad stories and also stories that redeem Jack.

My personal take on canon is that Jack and Tim’s relationship is in a gray area.  Jack's definitely neglectful, and he does prioritize other things over Tim, but he’s never so bad that Tim can easily reject him, and he's never so bad that Bruce could justify taking Tim away.  He's just...not great.  Tim loves him, and feels loyal to him, but it’s a very mixed-up complicated love.

I have a gentler take and a harsher one which I switch between as the spirit moves me. xD

My Gentler Take (tl;dr: vigilantism is choir and Jack loves sports)

Here’s the core conflict: Jack and Tim are very different people with different values.  Tim idolizes Bruce and Dick and vigilantism, and secretly gets involved, knowing his dad will hate it. He gets increasingly wrapped up in his secret world and lies to his dad...because if his dad finds out, he’ll make Tim quit.

This is a great setup for an ongoing comic.  It’s practical, because it provides endless potential for plotlines, and it’s nicely thematic, because it maps closely onto relatable real-life situations with extracurricular activities:

Tim the drama nerd whose dad thinks he’s playing football and not in the school play; 

Tim the closeted-queer kid secretly getting involved in his school’s politically-active Gay-Straight Alliance; 

Tim the choir kid whose dad only values making money and wants him to go into the family business (and Tim keeps promising himself he'll give up choir soon, definitely soon, but maybe he'll stay in just a liiiittle longer, because they need him, you see, the last tenor left town, so...); 

Tim the computer geek with the sports-obsessed dad (this one’s just canon);

etc. etc.  

The extracurricular metaphor works pretty well for Tim’s relationship to vigilantism.  Tim's involved in his "extracurricular" because he genuinely thinks it's important and fulfilling, and he values it and wants to be good at it. He idolizes Bruce and Dick because they're good at it. He's been collecting information about it since he was a little kid, and hiding it from his parents because he knows they wouldn't approve. And mayyyybe there's also an element of low-key rebellion against his dad, and maybe that's secretly part of the appeal. And yet also as Tim gets more and more invested, he starts to daydream: maybe I could tell my dad and he'd be proud of me and supportive. But he doesn't, because actually he knows his dad would be upset and angry and make him quit.

And - again, just like with lonely kids and extracurricular hobbies - one of the things that happens is that Tim starts getting his unfilled emotional needs met ... by people he knows through this secret hobby. And people like Bruce and Dick start turning into a surrogate family. Which Tim feels guilty about. And also as Tim gets more and more wrapped up in their world, he has to lie to his dad even more, which means the distance between Tim and his dad gets bigger and bigger and more and more unfixable.

I love this dilemma. It's simple, it's recognizable, it provides endless sources for conflict, and there's no obvious solution! Tim can't tell Jack: he'll make Tim quit! And Tim doesn't want to quit, because he loves choir / art / theater / whatever.  Yeah, it’s difficult, and there are challenges, and sometimes he has doubts...but at the end of the day, he cares about it a lot.  And everything he values is there, and all the people he admires and cares about are there, and all he wants in the world is to feel like he's one of them and belongs there. So he has to lie, even though he doesn't want to lie, and he feels guilty about it...

...but also he ends up lying more and more.

(Sidenote: I think it's important that Tim chooses to keep lying - Tim's narration often glosses this as "I have to lie to my dad," and that's certainly how it feels to Tim, but this... isn't quite true. He has to lie to his dad, because if he doesn't, his dad will get mad at him and try to stop him, not because he literally has no choice about it.)

Other Reasons Why I Like The "Secret Extracurricular" Interpretation

(tl;dr it complicates not just Tim's relationship with his dad, but also all his other relationships)

Tim's problems have some obvious parallels to Steph and Cass, who both become vigilantes while rejecting their evil supervillain dads. But Jack isn't evil. And that means the Tim-and-Jack relationship is ambiguous and complicated in ways that I like. Steph and Cass can just leave their Bad Dads in prison, and say good riddance, and feel very righteous and triumphant about it! Tim’s more complicated. Tim gets into vigilantism ostensibly out of duty and altruism, but secretly, he's also involved for straight-up selfish self-fulfillment reasons. He's lonely, and bored, and his life feels pointless, but he thinks that Bruce and Dick are cool and amazing and he wants to be a part of the things that they do.  When his dad gets jealous of Tim’s relationship to Bruce, and feels like Tim’s looking for a surrogate family, he’s... not wrong.

And the ways in which Jack is not Actionably Bad complicate things from Bruce's POV.  If Jack was a straight-up villain, it’d be an easy call to keep in touch when Jack finds out and makes Tim quit...but he’s not a villain, not really.  So what do you do?  Do you try to surreptitiously stay in touch with Tim even though you’re ignoring his dad’s express wishes and thus forcing Tim to sneak around?  Do you respect his dad’s wishes and stay away from Tim even though you have a years-long relationship at this point?  

Again: a bit similar to the extracurricular analogy.  Say you’re the choir director and you’ve built this whole relationship with a kid in the choir, and you’re an important mentor to him and you care about him etc. etc. etc.... and then right before a big performance, his dad finds out he’s been secretly involved, and yanks him out.  How would you react?  Well, maybe kind of in some of the ways Bruce reacts.  You replace him. You’re annoyed with him. You miss him. You want him to come back. You’re also worried about him.  You’re upset with his dad.  But also... what should you do, exactly?

Bruce and Alfred and Dick care about Tim as if he were part of their family, but he’s not part of their family, and there’s a lot of interesting tension there.

My Harsher Take

Jack never hits his son.  But his temper is a big deal.

In his worst moments, he takes out his anger on Tim’s stuff - wrecking his room, or ripping his TV out of the wall and confiscating it.  When he’s worried about Tim, he usually expresses that fear by yelling at him / punishing him / sending him away - threatening to send him to boarding school in Metropolis in Robin III, or threatening to send him to military school abroad in Robin 92, or actually forcing him to go to an all-boys' boarding school post-NML.  

This is bad behavior!  It is Not Good!  

And you can easily connect the dots to a bunch of Tim’s terrible coping mechanisms, like the constant lying and or the fact that Tim’s go-to methods for dealing with interpersonal conflict are 1) repress it and pretend it never happened (most of his fights with Bruce), 2) withdraw from the relationship until he can pretend the conflict doesn’t exist (when his friends get mad at him in YJ, he quits the team for a while), or 3) literally run away from home.

Also, Jack is a Manly Man with firm opinions about how men behave vs. how women behave, and he thinks boys shouldn’t be scared and thinks Tim should date hot girls and pushes Tim to work out and wants him to play football and expresses period-typical sexism, etc. etc. etc. ... and though obviously this wasn’t what the writers had in mind at the time, all of that is certainly interesting to read backwards in the light of Tim as a queer character.

More Disorganized Thoughts on Jack Drake

Tim’s our hero, so we’re naturally more sympathetic to him, but it’s also true that relationships are a two-way street, and Tim doesn’t value any of the things his dad values, either.  Jack at various points is shown to care about grades, business, money, boarding schools, archeology, football, a kind of macho bragging-about-dating-hot-women ethos, and a very public and performative kind of caring. Tim tends to respond with discomfort or disinterest or even disgust.  When Jack gets on TV to try to rally the government to save his son from No Man’s Land, Tim isn’t touched—he’s mortified.  When Jack makes some bad investments and loses money, Jack’s deeply upset and his self-image is majorly impacted, and far from being sympathetic, Tim’s annoyed and kind of contemptuous of the idea that this is a problem.  Jack thinks fishing in the early morning and going to tennis matches is a fun father-son activity; Tim finds it exhausting and tedious.  And so on.

This means that Tim often longs to be closer to his dad in theory, but this longing is more tied to fantasy than to reality. He rarely seems to enjoy spending time with His-Dad-The-Actual-Person.  So for example, when Tim’s deadly ill with the Clench, he has an extremely poignant fever dream about telling his dad the truth and getting hugged…even as he insists in real-life to Alfred and Dick that he does not want them to tell his dad what’s going on.

The same is true of Jack, who IMO genuinely wants to be closer to his son and is continually declaring that he’s going to turn over a new leaf and get closer to his son…and just as continually backs out of activities or loses his temper when faced with spending time with his actual son.

Tim and his dad sadly get along best—by far—in Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder situations.  When Jack gets kidnapped or is in danger, Tim worries for him (and Tim grieves him deeply when he dies).  When Tim disappears or runs away, Jack’s genuinely worried about him.  So e.g. they have a really moving emotional reunion and hug when the earthquake hits Gotham, and Tim panics about his dad’s safety and comes running home (and meanwhile Jack’s been panicked about Tim’s safety!).  It’s the day-to-day, regular life stuff where they don’t connect.

Jack's written quite differently by different writers. Mostly, Tim's parents are at their least likable in his early appearances and early miniseries (this is where you get, for example, Jack and Janet being nasty at each other while a pained employee looks on, and Tim disappointed to once again get news of where his parents are via postcard - "I guess that sums them up! Never know where they’re going to be–or when–or even how long!” - and Tim alone on school break, and Bruce and Alfred thinking there's something weird going on with Tim's parents, etc. etc.). Jack's more sympathetic but still often unlikable in most of Tim's Robin solo, and he's almost invisible (but positively treated if he does show up) in Tim's team books.

For obvious reasons, Jack's remembered way more sympathetically after his death. Tim's completely devastated by Jack's murder, which he arrives moments too late to prevent, and he basically never gets over it. We see him grieving Jack again and again in Robin, and also in Teen Titans, and also in Resurrection, and again in the Halloween Special, and again in Batman: Blackest Night, and all the way up to the end of Red Robin. Tim also grieves for an extended time over Janet - he hallucinates a happy reunion with her when he's feverish in Contagion, and hallucinates her in the final issue of Robin, and the reveal-your-buried-emotions song in Robin 102 brings up his grief for her too (meanwhile, other characters dance or laugh or otherwise get giddy).  Tim’s grief over his parents’ deaths is intense and long-lasting.

I'm not going to clip comic panels because this is long enough, but if you're curious, here's a nice and fairly lengthy compilation of comic panels with Tim and Jack.

If you're interested in a Jack-centric story with a softer-but-still-recognizably-canon take on Jack, I really like the way Jack’s narration is written in the one-shots Heart Humble (set shortly before Jack dies) and Never a Hero (Ra's resurrects him during Brucequest, and Jack's archeology skills turn out to be unexpectedly useful).

[ewanmitchellcrumbs]

TL;DR: I am massively over sharing, but not going anywhere. This will be long, but I am enjoying the freedom that openness is affording me. TW: baby loss.

You might remember a couple of weeks ago I mentioned I thought I had norovirus or food poisoning, it turns out it was the onset of a miscarriage. I didn’t know I was pregnant, but once the vomiting, etc. had passed I felt a heaviness in my lower abdomen, coupled with heavy bleeding. I wasn’t due on yet and something just didn’t feel right. Max drove me to A&E and in the four hours it took for me to be seen, I’d passed most of it on the waiting room floor.

I don’t want kids and, owing to fertility issues, I can’t carry to full term anyway. I didn’t feel like I had a right to grieve, to be sad over something I didn’t want, so I didn’t tell anyone. The only person that knew was Max.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve shut myself off from everyone and been unbearable to be around. I tell Max to leave me alone when he tries to talk to me. We tried to go on a lunch date together last weekend and ended up going home early because we both felt miserable. He bought me flowers - he always does when I am sad - and they usually always cheer me up. I hated these flowers. They felt like they served as a reminder of my lack of control, a reward for something I hadn’t earned. When they died and I could finally throw them away I felt relieved.

I’ve poured myself into fandom, hoping for a distraction. You may have noticed my last two Aemond fics were angsty ones (Anhedonia and Careless Words) - I think that was my way of attempting to release whatever it was that I’d bottled up.

Then the drama started - I defended a friend and for 48 hours I was publicly torn apart on another user’s page. Old issues were dragged into it and once more resurfaced. It’s hit me a lot harder than it usually would because I just don’t have the capacity to deal with it.

But it did give me the shove I finally needed to open up and talk about what has happened to me. I’ve talked through my feelings with Max, we went on a cinema date together and it was nice, so nice. We told each other we’d missed each other.

It’s like a weight has been lifted, and has given me some much needed clarity on the situation here in fandom. I am not prepared to walk away from fandom, I adore writing too much. However, I can admit that both parties involved in what has transpired over the last few days, weeks, months, have acted appallingly. I hold my hands up to the part I have played and I apologise. I will be better, do better.

With that in mind, I will be Marie Kondo-ing my space and removing anyone that does not bring me joy. I suggest you all do the same. Don’t follow people out of obligation, don’t be nice publicly then slander them in private. If you don’t like me, don’t follow me. I want nothing in my little corner of the web that I don’t enjoy. I don’t want to put out anything that has the potential to sour people’s fandom experience or make it a toxic experience for them.

I can’t be best buddies with everyone, but I refuse to be anyone’s enemy either. I will choose to be kind, because over the last couple of weeks I have not been kind to myself or others. And it has fucking sucked. No more.

I don’t want anyone’s sympathy, so please spare me. I just wanted to be fully transparent. It’s nice not to bottle this up anymore.

[theyhavetakenovermylife]

What are your favorite things about the turtles that you like about them individually starting with Leonardo and then Donatello and then Michelangelo and then Raphael

My favorite things about the individual turtles (or things I associate with them)

Warnings: Somewhat emotional, talks of bullying by adults.

All Turtles:

I feel like this is very important to mention first, as it speaks a lot about my love for the turtles in general. All of these reasons are very much personal, and have very little to do with the turtles personalities, and more memories I have with them and other people in my life.

I have been a TMNT fan ever since kindergarten. I was 2 years old when 2003 turtles first came on television, so when I started in kindergarten at 3, they were already pretty established not just for me, but all of the other kids in kindergarten, especially the boys. And that leads us to another important point - I was a tomboy when I was young, and to a certain degree I still am to this day. I hated pink, and would scream and yell if I was put into a dress. But I did enjoy “boy clothes”, and I did ask my mom to only buy me “boy clothes”, so she did. I also played with action figures or played “rough” with the Barbie dolls, and my closest friends were all boys, or girls that somewhat understood my way of playing.

Now, being a tomboy is nowhere special or anything abnormal, but in the kindergarten I was in, the adults not only saw it as abnormal and concerning. I was never bullied by the kids in my kindergarten, but I was by the adults. They sang songs that made me cry, and they tried to force me to play with toys a certain way. At times I even tried to run away from my kindergarten, going so far as to jump the fence and run home. It got so bad that my dad, who at the time worked at the city council, had to step in and threaten them with legal action, just to make them stop singing the song that continuously made me cry.

But throughout all of this, every high and low in kindergarten, I clung onto TMNT. It was how I could play with both boys and girls, and became my first hyper fication. It even led to a description of me that the other kids would use when describing me to the new kinds; “This is (...). She wears boy clothes, hates Barbie dolls and loves Ninja Turtles”.

TL;DR, TMNT became my comfort obsession during bullying from adults in kindergarten, and it has stuck ever since, coming back during my depressive episode in 2023.

Leonardo:

Leo has always been my favorite ninja turtle. My favorite color was and is still blue, and I like to think he had something to do with it. He was the turtle I would dress up as at Fastelavn, and I really looked up to his views on honor and responsibilities. Back then I was the oldest child in the family, and I took my role as big sister very seriously, often seeking to protect my little brother.

I will even go so far as to say that Leonardo was my first fictional crush. I still remember watching 2003 in the living room, and getting somewhat irritated that he wasn’t real. Even more irritated when people had to bring up that none of the turtles were real. Way to kill the vibe for a 3 - 5 year old, lol.

In kindergarten, I would hide the Leonardo figure, or just walk around with it in my pocket. I clung to it, and got really sad when someone wanted to take it, since they were playing with the other turtles. Not long ago my brother dug through our old toys, and found the Leo figure my parents got me when I was young. It is now sitting in a bowl next to a Barbie doll I won at drag bingo, lol.

To this day Leo is still my favorite. I resonate with him and his struggles quite a lot. Each version of him always struck something with me, providing me with some sense of comfort. Maybe it is because he wants to protect, and that made me feel protected? Or he seems very driven by rules and morality, in a way that I do too. If I don’t, I get really anxious, so it’s nice to see someone else do it.

Donatello:

My love for Donatello is relatively new. I’ve always loved him, but for the little version of me, he was often forgotten. He was the last figure I would react for, and was the last turtle who’s name I remembered, often referred to as “the purple one”. Generally, in the kindergarten I went to, it was the fewest who showed interest in Donatello, always fighting over the other turtles.

However, as an adult, I’ve come to admire Donatello much more. It took quite some time before I came to realize the importance of him, and I would like to say that Rise played a big part of that. Up until then, I remembered Donnie as being shown as the “least coolest” (which I know now is very much not true”.

With Rise Donnie being coded with autism, my brother suddenly had a turtle to mirror with. While I had Leonardo in my childhood, my brother now had Donatello in his teenage years, and to be honest, that means a lot to me. To me, Donnie has now become a character that symbolizes late but powerful blooming. My brother is first now finding himself, and he turned 20 a month ago, so when he tells me that Rise Donnie makes him feel represented, and showed him that someone like him could be loved, it really touched me.

MM Donnie is currently the turtle in the keychain I’ve attached to my backpack, and is the turtle that has made my brother interested in TMNT. I sat with my almost 2 year old niece, and she noticed the Donnie on my backpack. She started to play with it, and it very quickly became a great bonding experience. So to me, Donnie is closely tied with personal growth and bonding.

Michelangelo:

I’ve come to realize that I have much more in common with Michelangelo than I first thought I had. First of all, he is the orange turtle, and I’m a natural redhead, so we match. Second of all is ADHD. It wasn’t until I was 21 that I learned I have ADHD, and just before I learned how to tackle it, I was hit with the death of my grandma, and had to quit work due to stress which turned into a pretty bad depression.

Those that have read my Bayverse Children Series, know that I’ve called Mikey’s daughter Sunny and his son Luis, both names that I connect with ideas of the sun. Sunny because it sounds like the sun, and Luis because it makes me think of king Louis the XIV, aka, the sun king. That is because I see Mikey as a very happy guy. Obviously, he is not happy all the time, and when we do experience him being sad or mad, we know that something is very wrong. But he generally has a very upbeat personality that reminds me of the sun, or maybe even just sunlight.

If Leo is the comfort and a personality I can see myself in, and Donnie is personal growth and bonding, then I see Mikey as the light at the end of the tunnel. An friendly and sympathetic person that wants the best for you, and will help you on the road to recovery. That’s at least how I see him and his brothers, as imaginary friends that have wished me the best.

Doesn’t hurt that he is a cat person. Every moment or scene with Mikey talking to or helping a cat, very much reminded me of me and my own cat. Me and my cat was just as close as Mikey and all of his cats are. RIP Mini💔

Raphael:

Leo is my comfort and the turtle I mirror in, Donnie is growth and bonding, Mikey is a helping hand through the darkness, then Raph is personal drive and passion.

In kindergarten, Raphael was my second favorite turtle, but I do remember that he was many of my friends' favorit. During my internship at a different kindergarten, I learned that he was all of the kids' favorit. And honestly, I see why. To me, he is the stereotypical young kid that doesn’t know how to express his emotions in a healthy way, leaving them with a lot of strong emotions that only keeps building and building, until it reaches a boiling point. And I’m pretty sure that a lot of people can see themselves in that.

Like many people we meet in our life, Raph has a really hard exterior, but is truly a really emotional guy on the inside. I think many kids see themselves in his emotional outbursts, and understand the frustration and build up he can feel. But that doesn’t make him less of a good person.

At my internship, I learned that one of the kids from last year that is now in school (I never met him), was actually named Raphael. I’ve told this before, but he was a big TMNT fan and would carry plastic sais to kindergarten. I later learned from the adult working there, that he also had the personality of Raphael, and was in some ways just as “hot tempered”. He had a hard time communicating with the other kids, as his emotions would often get in the way, causing him to lash out due to his frustration. And yup, he did throw one of his fake sais ast one of the kids once. But like the turtle, it didn’t make him any less good. From what I’ve been told, he was very passionate about whatever he did, and was very good at involving other kids in whatever he was playing or doing. He has obviously had a big impact on said kindergarten, as even a year after he left, they are still talking about him. And honestly, I get it. If his anything like the turtle Raphael, he is obviously lovable, even if he could be a bit of a hard nail sometimes.

[wherefore-whinnies]

tl;dr if you say things like "there's no heterosexual/platonic explanation for this" or "historians will say they were roommates" or think a character not wanting romance/friendship is a thing to be fixed or think that actions are inherently romantic without considering the intent behind them or insist that ace attorney is ~the gay lawyer game~ or a whole variety of other aphobic behaviour that's been normalized in fandom please either unfollow me or commit to learning about aspec people and amatonormativity and changing your behaviour.

I've had people tell me stuff like "I'm sure most people in your fandoms are nice, decent people! if you just tell them about the things they do that are harmful I'm sure they will listen and try to change!" and "if you just sit there and feel bad about it nothing will ever change! not with that attitude!" about amatonormativity in fandom and like okay would you like to take on that responsibility then? would you like to try to educate people on how the basic way they engage with fandom is blatantly erasing a whole group of queer people? would you like to be the person telling a bunch of people who think the way they engage with fandom is so progressive and good that actually it's really not? would you like to bring up the word aphobia in regards to the things they post and bring to mind completely relevant parallels with things like homophobia and transphobia that they think they're above?

aro people get dogpiled and subjected to hate and mistreatment online just for saying they'd like to see more platonic friendships in media. ace people get dogpiled and subjected to hate and mistreatment online just for saying they don't like how unnecessary sex scenes have become a thing to be shoved so commonly into media. people will start screaming "homophobia!" and "purity culture!" and making up all these strawmen to argue against so that they can feel superior to and condescend to and make fun of aspecs. any mention of kink at pride invariably devolves into rampant and blatant acephobia from a website that insists acephobia is a thing of its past and they're so much better now. and it's not just random internet strangers. it gets put on my dash by people who are supposed to be my friends. so again. would you like to be the one to so nicely and politely explain to people and ask that aspecs pretty please be recognized as a portion of the queer community that matters and is worthy of respect?

at this point people know that aspec people exist and they continue to do this anyway. they'll claim to care about aspec people and insist that this is true until it comes to them actually having to change their behaviour. people don't want to accept that things they are doing are wrong and harmful. that's just how people are. allo (and even some aro, somehow) queers think they are engaging with fandom in such a progressive and morally pure way and do you really want to be the one to tell them that they're not?

I have had friends who have known perfectly well that I hate romance, have seen this on numerous, numerous occassions, and have still expected me to be thrilled about a particular romance because it was gay. (somehow people do not seem to realize that they are literally saying gay romance is not real romance when they do this. and yet I'm the homophobe.) it's really not a simple matter of just "explaining to people". not to mention that having to try to educate people on all this is fucking exhausting. aside from the actual figuring out what to say and how to say it and writing it all down you have to worry about the person not understanding anyway, or just brushing it all aside with cries of "homophobia!".

so you know, maybe consider taking some of that on instead of piling it all on my shoulders when I'm the one who will be most harmed by the outcome!

and please don't take this to mean that I want all of fandom to be all about friendships either. I may be alloplatonic but I am shaking hands with all my aplatonic comrades who are even more neglected in this sense than aros are. and in general, I would like to do what I can to speak out for you knowing that I am somewhat shielded from the outcome by virtue of being alloplatonic.

I've lost the thread of what I was ranting about at this point but no one's read this far anyway so 😇 anyway, if you do any of the stuff I wrote in the tl;dr and haven't unfollowed me yet and read this far instead (thank you!), please please please consider educating yourself on amatonormativity and how those kinds of comments are actually erasing an entire class of relationships had especially by, but not exclusively by, aspec people. please don't just dismiss this with the kneejerk reaction of "homophobia!!!". aspec people are queer people too and don't deserve to be erased for the purpose of propping other queer communities up. there are respectful ways to engage with fandom and shipping without doing this.

anyway i got a bunch of new followers and wanted to make sure to scare the aphobic ones away sooner rather than later :)

[mymanyfandomramblings]

Hi, Ripnami shipper well above fourteen here. It's not my favourite pairing in the whole series, but I genuinely enjoy it very much, and my favourite unpopular opinion to cause riot is ripnami>>>>glorybringer. I am, however, very happy to explain why I think this:

All the WoF ships tend to be a bit...dramatic. Peril falls instantly and hard for Clay because he's the only one who has ever been kind to her (and it's sweet). Glory, against her will, finds herself falling for the criminally handsome and witty assassin who can't bring himself to murder (*eyeroll* but it's so funny despite my feelings about it). Starflight would have a half-normal love life, if not for the love triangle. Speaking of love triangles, Moon's love triangle is even worse in terms of drama (and I love Moonbli, but I'm willing to admit that the love triangle's pretty ridiculous). Turtle and Kinkajou have to deal with a love spell, and so on and so forth. These ships are very fun to read about, but they're not remotely realistic. Ripnami however...

Their relationship is built mostly on a foundation of the fact that they mutually enjoy each other's presence, find one another attractive and like each other's personalities. While there is some drama (ooh, forbidden romance! Secrecy! Lies! Messy family history! Court intrigue!), this mostly serves a narrative purpose. I honestly think that Tsunami's feelings for Riptide were one of the main factors that helped her see that her mother wasn't the all-loving queen and great mother that Tsunami would have liked to believe she was. Secondly, the fact that even Riptide, who's reasonably kind and obviously likes Tsunami, is keeping things from her, also serves the narrative purpose of further demonstrating that the dragonets of destiny are in danger wherever they go, and really can't trust anyone (even people with their best interests at heart).

Also, I've never understood why everyone says that Riptide's such a boring guy. He's had a horribly traumatic childhood, between his father running out on him to commit multiple crimes, his mother being murdered, and the fact that Coral hates him. Despite all this, he still manages to be a nice guy--a nice guy with a great talent for lying and secrecy. He's intriguing and sweet in my opinion.

Third, I love Tsunami and Riptide together, because I feel like Riptide brings out the best in her. He enjoys her more reckless, aggressive side, but at the same time, around him, Tsunami is a lot less defensive, a lot less argumentative, whilst still retaining the impulsive, fiery part of her personalities. And their interaction sare just so cute IMO. I internally swoon every time I read his 'by the moons, you make me nervous' line. I just enjoy it very much.

TL;DR: I like them because a) a *somewhat* normal ship is nice for once, b) it serves a cool narrative purpose, c) I like both characters and d) they're very cute together

I want to know if there's genuinely a single soul out there that isn't a die-hard canon defender that actually ships Ripnami. Like, OTP, best pairing of all time, would literally explode if it ever shows up in canon type of person. I need to know. I have never seen anybody above the age of like. 14 ship Ripnami. What is there to like. I don't understand.

[hey-hamlet]

BNHA AU Ideas : Your blessings are your curses.

Also on AO3

TL;DR:

Dead All Might acts as a guardian angel to this heroic quirkless kid he runs into. Izuku gets put into a dangerous situation and turns out – DNA wasn’t needed to pass OFA. Just intent. Izuku gains the ability to see All Might along with the ability to use his quirk.

Sadly, AFO notices.

Now Izuku is on the run with a ghost for a guardian after AFO’s goons kill his mother.

Your blessings are your curses:

TL;DR: Dead all might, acts as a guardian angel to this quirkless kid he runs into. Izuku gets put into a dangerous situation and turns out – DNA wasn’t needed to pass OFA. Just intent. Izuku gains the ability to see All Might along with the ability to use his quirk.

Sadly, AFO notices.

Now Izuku is on the run with a ghost for a guardian after AFO’s goons kill his mother.

So – In the fight between All for One and All Might six years before canon, All Might loses.

Not horribly. All for One is still left almost dead and retreats into hiding, but All Might falls unconscious never to open his eyes again, later dying of sepsis in the hospital. His eyes may never physically reopen, but he does awaken – translucent and noncorporeal.

For a while he doesn’t know if it’s a latent quirk, or maybe something All for One did as a final blow, but no – it’s One for All. One for All has a mind of its own and refuses to disappear until Yagi has found a successor. Not that Yagi knows that.

His old haunts are too painful to hang around, the whole nation is grieving for him and seeing that pain on his old friend's faces burns something fierce. So he does what he’s always done. He helps.

Midoriya Izuku is nine when his favourite hero dies. He sees how the nation is grieving and his desire to be a hero only burns brighter. The bullying he suffers worsens, hate crimes against the quirkless and those with ‘villainous’ quirks uptick. Japan isn’t a pillar of safety and security anymore – crime rates have risen to match or overtake worldwide averages.

Still, he feels almost, safer? He gets luckier – the book his classmate stole shows up in his bag by the next period, bullies trip more often, and sometimes as he runs from villain attacks or classmates with their quirks popping against the nape of his neck, he feels a broad hand push him forwards, giving him an extra burst of speed.

He decides it must be the All Might charm he bought the day before the news of All Might’s death broke. A small solid plastic charm meant for a phone with a bright yellow bell attached, along with a tag reading “I AM HERE”. He fills the bell with scraps of paper so no one can hear it ring as he holds it tight in his hand when he gets nervous.

Midoriya Izuku is nine when he is almost killed.

With All Might gone, organized crime spikes. Quirk trafficking rings spring up – very rare, but no less real. It’s one of these such rings that kidnaps Izuku on his way home from school. He awakens, sore and blurry-eyed in a warehouse with a half dozen other crying children. One by one they are forced to show off their quirks, to gauge their value.

Izuku has no quirk to show. He has no value to these people. They growl at him to stop playing around, to stop pretending to be a hero (his All Might charm is almost cutting into his hand from how hard he holds it. He needs his luck more than ever please all might save me one more time - ). He can't bring himself to shut his eyes as a flaming hand reaches towards his face.

For a moment it feels like he's being held. He feels safe.

A shockwave levels the warehouse, leaving he and the other children untouched, the villains buried in the rubble. Green sparks sink into his skin, dancing over the rapidly purpling bruises decorating his arm. He runs.

He comes back to himself in a park, sobbing and shaking, arms wrapped around his shaking form and an oddly familiar voice murmuring apologies and praise as a broad hand runs gently through his hair.

It seems One for All never needed DNA, only intent, to pass itself along. With the passing of the quirk, Yagi should have dissipated, but he refused, clinging to the child he’d accidentally burdened with his legacy, the same quirkless child he’d been playing guardian angel for all this time.

When Izuku sees All Might he freezes. It’s not All Might as he knew him, rather – this is the All Might that died. He’s translucent, faded around the edges, with a tattered and bloodstained costume, thick padded bandaging over his stomach hiding stiches staining to close infected wounds, doing little to stop the blood oozing through. Still – All Might’s eyes are bright blue and kind and his smile is as it always was. Izuku throws himself onto his hero and sobs.

All Might – Yagi, as he insisted Izuku call him – led him to the nearest police station, as he tried to explain what had occurred. It wasn’t easy considering Yagi didn’t seem to be sure himself, but Izuku was pretty sure the quirk he’d been accidentally gifted was sentient.

Izuku held his arms up to the sky, stretching his fingers to the pinpricks of light in the night sky. Sparks of glittering gold, green, white, blue and red jumped across his skin, like the static shocks he’d get when he wore his wool socks in bed, but less painful. They almost felt playful.

“What are they called?” Yagi looked at him, confusion clear on his face. One of his spikes of hair drooped, and if Izuku could ignore the dust and blood that ran through it it would almost be funny.

“They? My boy, do you mean the sparks? If so, they don’t have a name.”

Izuku frowned, letting his hand drop. He could feel the sparks gently brushing his injuries, almost soothingly. “No, I mean your quirk. They should have a name, they’re so nice to me.”

Yagi coughed, dark blood spilling from his mouth, never to hit the ground. “One for All. It’s called One for All.”

Izuku’s frown deepened.

“All Might, mama says it’s rude to call someone an it.”

Inko is reunited with her only mildly injured son, now excitedly gushing about a quirk he’d somehow manifested. She privately thanks whatever spirit finally decided to smile upon her son, even if it took so long.

Their happiness doesn’t last long. Days later Izuku receives a summons to the head office. He freezes when he sees the police officer, Yagi’s comforting hand on his shoulder the only thing that keeps him from running.

It was a villain attack, the officer says with kindness so forced Izuku wants to cry. Yagi looks angry. If you’ll just come with us so we can get you to the safehouse with your mother –

Yagi almost growls with rage. “She’s lying.” He whispers, habit enforced despite the fact Izuku is the only person alive that can hear him. “Follow her out of the school then run” Izuku does exactly that, quirk sparking up his legs and pushing him forwards, down the familiar path to home. He takes the stairs six at a time, quirk chipping the edges of the concrete as he hurls himself forward.

Their apartment is in shambles, bookshelves tipped, small objects laying scattered on the floor, a pale arm laying limply from a half-open bathroom door.

Yagi pushes him out of the apartment and confirms the identity himself. He urges a sobbing Izuku to say his goodbyes to his mother’s corpse as they quickly gather all the money in the house, a few spare clothes and whatever food and water Yagi could knock down from the pantry shelves for him. Izuku crams it into his backpack as he sobs, Yagi guarding the entrance as he boils with rage and guilt.

He didn’t think All for One would find Izuku. He didn’t think he would even be looking. He was wrong and now his boy was paying the price.

So starts his time on the run.

He meets Shinsou first, saving him from some rubble in a villain attack. He meets him again later, battered and bruised – not from a villain, but from his foster parents. Shinsou joins him, no matter how Izuku explains hes in danger. Shinsou wants to be a hero, and if the only way he gets to be a hero is stubbornly keeping Izuku out of trouble? That’s not a bad trade-off, considering izuku was the first person to save him.

A little while later the two run into Shouto feverish and badly burnt and try to nurse him back to health as best they can. A few days in Touya and Toga run into their little camp guns blazing, expecting them to have kidnapped Shouto only to see Izuku patiently trying to feed him rice porridge with a veritable pile of ‘liberated’ fever reducers on the floor beside them.

They apologise but Shinsou and a still feverish Shouto refuse to talk to Touya or Toga for like three days bc they made Izuku cry.

They refuse to leave no matter how Izuku explains he has a centuries old villain after him. These kids are ride or die. So Hitoshi, Shouto and Izuku are like 9 and trying to learn what they can from libraries and newspapers, never settling down for too long. Toga (12) and Touya/Dabi (14) try and keep them all alive by working or stealing what they need to live. It doesn’t take long for them to evolve into a mini vigilante group.

Aizawa becomes familiar with the messy group of short vigilantes that seem to bounce from prefecture to prefecture every second day, to the point that the force is pretty sure one of them has a teleportation quirk because they don’t seem to have any kind of home base. He’s completely uninterested in trying to arrest them in the beginning – they aren’t hurting anyone and are not half bad at what they do.

That changes when he meets them.

Battered and bleeding out in a rainy alley with a villain looming over him with a knife, Aizawa is pretty sure this is the night he dies. The knife swings back, glinting in the streetlights as he tries in vain to scramble backwards with heavy limbs. It never connects. The villain jerks back as a brilliant blue plume of flame cuts him off, burning the tips of his hair. Not expecting backup the villain bolts. Aizawa feels small hands helping him into a sitting position – his stomach starts to sink. When the short masked figure with curly hair speaks he feels his heart turn to ice. The figure couldn’t be older than 11, probably closer to 10.

He wakes up in the hospital and he makes it his mission to save these kids.

Ghost All Might is having a rough time. His boy is in danger and the best he can do is rattle windows and trip sprinting villains. He can’t help them enough.

He has a plan though.

He warns Izuku that he’ll be gone for a while and to keep safe without him and he goes out scouting. Being invisible and impermeable is normally a curse but when trying to find a paranoid 200-year-old super villain? It’s pretty damn useful. It takes months but eventually he’s not only tracked down All for One’s main hideout he’s also memorised his schedule. It’s nothing impressive considering the man is still mostly bedbound after what All Might did to him, but he won't be a pushover. It’s a start, though.

Izuku cries tears of joy when he sees All Might again and cries even more when he shares what he found. It’s do or die time. He offers every one of his friends the chance to split now because there is a good chance they’ll die, but none of them wants to leave him. With that, he starts planning.

They’ll need Eraserhead, no bones about it. Without him, there would be no way to strike the final blow. They spend a few weeks refining their stealth then they seek Aizawa out.

They knew he’d have a price for helping them, but they never expected it would be so high, but simultaneously so kind. In exchange for his help and a vow of silence he wants each child to let him help them, to find them a safe place to live, a school to go to – a future. Izuku has spent his whole life being told he doesn’t have a future, from when he was diagnosed quirkless to the almost 2 years spent on the run from Japan’s most dangerous villain. He’s still not sure he’ll have one, even with All for One dead, but he knows he wants his friends to grow up happy and safe.

He accepts.

With Aizawa’s help, with Dabi and Toga clearing the way and Shinsou standing in the wings as the last resort, Izuku kills All for One as he sleeps. Nothing flashy, nothing fancy, just quiet footsteps, a sharp knife and shaking hands.

Aizawa is horrified this child just killed someone in front of him, but Izuku is sobbing and All for One is notorious in underground circles so he keeps his quirk up until the blood stops flowing from his neck. He takes the children and flees.

[mego42]

Hi, since you seem more positive/excited about the triangle possibility than a fair amount of people, can you talk more about why? I fall into "the not thrilled about the possibility, but have a little hope it could result in some good moments" group and would love some more reasons to not dread it. Thanks! And love your writing and love reading your tags :)

hey anon!! i am v sorry you are not thrilled and am always happy to shriek nonsense about why i’m excited (though idk how much it will help bc the tl;dr is more or less i’m hype for a triangle bc i am an incredibly messy bench who lives for drama and if you are not a similarly messy bench, ymmv)

don’t get me wrong, i super understand the trepidation, pop culture is LITTERED with absolute shite examples of love triangles but here is an incomplete list of reasons i personally think beth and rio are the perfect kind of disaster to set up a spectacular love triangle:

the existence of a triangle implies there are FEELINGS at the various points

the use of the descriptor "romantic" applied to said triangle implies ROMANTIC feelings

i am a simple woman and my pulse has already picked up

one of my absolute most favorite things about the toxic stew that is beth and rio is how completely balls to the wall obsessed they are with having and holding each other’s attention and focus

like straight up possessive nightmare people

now imagine wedging an actual rival for one or the other’s attention between the two of them

(something we have not reeeeeally seen before, 206 withstanding and i’ll come back to that, bc lbr beth doesn’t give a fck about dean and rio’s known that for sure ever since he walked LITERALLY RIGHT PAST THE GUY to rail his wife in a public bathroom at her invitation)

(the 204 proximity point has nothing to do with this list it’s just a source of endless delight and that was enough for me to justify adding it)

where was i

mmmmm feelings, possessive nightmares, OH RIGHT

they are also nightmares in the sense that it appears to be physically impossible for them to use their words with each other unless it’s like, ripped out of them which means they’re sitting on ALL THE BAGGAGE between them and it’s just stewing and boiling and

wait, let me back up

look, i want brio sex as bad as the next person

but even more than brio sex? i want them to fight

i mean like, Fight fight

i want the kind of knockdown drag-out brawl that brings Stuff to the surface and leaves them with a bunch of nasty, ragged, pieces dragged out into the light bc lbr they’ve both done some incredibly awful things to each other

(kind of like what 213 was looking like before it all went to shit tbh)

(i’m just saying, beth saying you put it all on me with that kind of jagged, disbelieving betrayal behind it? my catnip)

(it’s up there with rio at the picnic table in 306 telling her that ship sailed when she put three slugs in him)

i live for them being raw and honest and emotional okay

IF ONLY THEY COULD BOTH DO IT AT THE SAME TIME

bc here’s the thing, for the magnitude of horrifying shit between the two of them? i (personally) think that they like it because they are so! twisted! when it comes to each other and i love that for me, specifically

like no seriously a huge part of what i love about the ship is that whole i see your monster and it looks like mine thing they’ve got going on when they let themselves and i am full on foaming at the mouth feral at the thought of them leaning into that

i’m sorry i’ve lost the thread again

wait no that was the thread

okay so basically they’re both ticking time bombs of smothered angst and rage who are absolutely incapable of being normal about each other but are also keeping all of that locked tf down and the only time we ever really see it come out is when one o them is too emotionally overwhelmed to keep their iron grip

you know what brings emotions to the surface?

TRIANGLES!!!!!!!!!!!!

CAN YOU IMAGINE THE SEETHING MESS OF EMOTION THAT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BRING TO THE SURFACE??????

AND HOW UTTERLY UNEQUIPPED EITHER ONE OF THEM WOULD BE TO DEAL WITH ANY OF IT????????

AND HOW SIDEWAYS IT COULD EXPLODE???????????

like don’t get me wrong there is absolutely no way it’s gonna be pretty but i didn’t get on this busted ass carnival ride expecting nice things, i am in this to feEl stuFf and nothing makes me feel stuff more than seeing the two of them feel stuff and this is  perfect set up for that

you know how they say the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference?

you know what’s not indifference? big messy emotions

but okay okay okay i am icarus and the sun looms large, lets say they don’t fight, that doesn’t mean they’re not gonna feEl stuFf on their own

do you remember beth’s face in the van when rio hugged dylan??? do you?????

and what did she do after that? went out and robbed him blind and held his shit hostage until he caved in what is one of my top 10 of all of their scenes

and god, idk if we’ve really seen rio really get jealous of attention lavished on beth yet but when i think about it i want it so bad my teeth hurt

and i know i’m not alone here bc i have i think 3 jealous!rio prompts in my inbox rn

(i’m not saying i’m working on it but i’m also not not saying it)

god i just

can you imagine how much fun it could be to watch rio seethe over having to watch someone else be into beth

WHAT WOULD HE DO?????????

ESP IF HE COULDNT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT DIRECTLY BC ITS SOMEONE HE CAN’T INTERFERE WITH

oh christ and if beth responded to it??????????

oh gOD thE mESS

idk even if it doesn’t lead to a confrontation (but i feel like??? it would have to????) just the idea of the kinds of feelings they’d have to grapple with and confront within themselves is D E L I C I O U S

also, to jump back to an earlier point: brio sex

i know some people are feeling like the sexy chemistry between beth and rio is lacking this season

you know what’s great for chemistry? fuel

you know what provides great fuel? messy emotional situations that tug at intimate connections and make people feel out of control

you know what’s a messy emotional situation that tugs at intimate connections and make people feel out of control? 

you probably guessed it

A TRIANGLE

(and we know that neither of them does well with feeling out of control period at all even without the intimate emotional stuff mixed in so like oh boy)

listen i am just saying given where they’re currently at with each other i cannot think of any situation more ripe for an explosive hook up than one or both of them feeling driven to reassert their claim/mark on the other 

would it be nice? no, probably not

would i care? not even a little bit

(don’t you judge like any of y’all are any better than me)

look. to quote marie kondo horrifically out of context: i love mess and the mess potential in a romantic love triangle with beth and rio as two of the three points is stratospherically high.

[obeymefictionwriting]

Wedding Bells? Part 2!

You guys have been asking me for another chapter of my Wedding Bells? fanfic plus many of you wanted more Diavolo and Undateables... so I delivered! Please enjoy!

Barbatos smiled patiently as Luke messed up the ingredients again.

“Ah, shoot!” the little angel exclaimed in an annoyed voice watching the very special nine-layer Devildom Rainbow Cake not changing its color like it was supposed to.

“You should have added more Vivantium Rosarius extract to the fourth layer”, Barbatos suggested, patting Luke on the head.

“Hmph! Again I failed! MC, will I ever be able to master that cake? I wanna surprise Michael so much but for now, all I can is fail again and again!”

MC gave Luke a warm smile.

“No worries, let’s do it one more time. Um, Baratos, if I may ask… Would you mind bringing us some tea? It will help Luke concentrate, I guess.”

“A brilliant idea”, Barbatos replied. “I shall be right back”.

With these words, he left the kitchen of the Purgatory Hall, leaving Luke and MC alone.

It took Barbatos mere minutes to get to the Demon Lord’s castle to get his special tea that would help Luke calm down and concentrate. Barbatos was about to enter the kitchen when he heard:

“Really? YOU LIKE HIM??”

The hand that Barbatos was about to put on the doorknob, froze. It’s not nice of a butler to stand behind closed doors and listen to something that was not intended for his ears… But there was MC talking about someone whom they fancy… Might it be?...

“I mean, he is always so reserved and helpful. He has this calm aura around him, you know?”

Barbatos remembered a signet ring that he once took from the bottom of the Devildom Black Sea. Decorated with violently beautiful ruby gem, it was kept in his desk, waiting patiently for the right moment and the right person to be presented to. Maybe it was finally time the ring would saw the daylight and be put on a finger of a very special person...

“Hmmm he does seem nice”, Luke agreed. “But I’m still suspicious about him”.

“Barbatos, dear”, Barbatos heard a cheerful voice behind his back, “What’s go…”

 With a move so sudden it was impossible to notice, Barbatos sealed Simeon’s mouth shut with a spell.

“I’m so sorry”, he whispered and bowed, “but we must not give ourselves away”.

Simeon nodded; his brown eyes beaming with interest. He made a gentle motion with his right hand and was able to talk again.

“What’s going on here?” He mouthed these words with his lips but Barbatos understood him.

“MC is talking about somebody they… fancy. I was curious who it might be.” He admitted.

“Oh!” Simeon almost exclaimed but at the last moment, managed to shut up.

“Interesting, indeed”, a soft quiet voice said behind Simeon and Barbatos. When they turned around, there was Solomon standing with his usual coy smile.

“I also happened to hear something interesting” he explained. “Oh, but they are talking again!”

“What I also love about him is that he is a great storyteller”, MC continued, sounding happy. For sure, it was a great pleasure for them to think about this person. “I could listen to him forever and I cannot imagine what a vivid imagination he has!”

Simeon blushed heavily but his dark skin veiled the blush. He had so many stories that he’d love to tell MC! To be honest, since the moment MC arrived in the Devildom, Simeon had always been feeling immensely inspired. MC was his muse and he’d dedicate all his work to them. But most of all, he’d love to tell MC goodnight stories before putting them to sleep and then lying down next to them… 

“A storyteller, huh? I know one”, Solomon sounded disappointed. “But who can resist an angel, especially one like you, Simeon?”

Barbatos did not say a word, but he felt slight worry and unease. To be honest, he was hoping MC was talking about him - but he was just a butler. No chance against an angel.

“But what about his power? Doesn’t it scare you?” Luke asked.

“Power? Yes, he is amazing - and intimidating too! He works so much on all these spells and he constantly seems to practice. I admire him for that. I mean, one has to be really determined and hard-working to achieve such a great level of knowledge and skill?”

Simeon pushed Solomon and grinned: “Determined? I see. That’s what you’ve been practicing with MC after classes”.

Solomon said nothing but felt content. To be honest, he always felt left out: with all these brothers and angels surrounding MC, he hardly had a chance to get noticed. He had Asmo, sure - but MC was different. MC was the one to be conquered and Solomon knew that every effort would be rewarded. And he was ready for it.

“So did you tell him?” Luke asked suddenly.

Everybody got tensed up. Barbatos was violently fighting the urge to peak in the future. Simeon was already planning a perfect date with MC. Solomon was just smiling and all sorts of fantasies were racing through his head…

“What are you guys doing here?” An overwhelmingly loud voice of Diavolo pounded like a bell behind them. “Are you having secrets? What are they about?”

The kitchen door swung open.

“Lord Diavolo? And… everyone?” MC looked confused.

“I was going to the library to get some books on divination”, Solomon said.

“I was about to go to the study to think about new TLS chapters”, Simeon added with a charming smile.

“I brought you tea”, Barbatos handed the bag to MC and blushed heavily.

“MC, Luke, what were you even talking about? These guys were glued to the door when I found them!” Diavolo looked disappointed because he hated missing out and not being included.

“We were talking about our professor on spells and hexes”, MC looked confused. “I enjoy his manner of teaching and Luke is a bit aware of him. We were just discussing his classes. Why?”

Diavolo looked equally confused.

“Maybe because you are such a good storyteller?”

“Or maybe because you are so gorgeous they’d want you to speak so passionately about them”, he thought to himself with a bit of sadness.

As a Devildom Prince, he always knew what was going on around him. He noticed how excited Barbatos got every time they visited the brothers. He noticed how Simeon’s eyes lit up when MC was passing by. And he sensed how Solomon was becoming more and more determined and eager as if purchasing a dream he was hoping to reach someday.

“But are we gonna make this cake or not?” Luke suddenly asked and everyone got busy.

“Lord Diavolo, would you mind staying with us and helping us out? We can taste the cake together after it’s done”, MC suggested.

The Devildom Lord beamed with excitement: “Just tell me what to do and I am ready for it!”

“And in addition to being reserved, powerful and good at stories, I love your enthusiasm too”, MC thought with a smile, passing baking powder to Diavolo. 

[mickstart]

You gonna hate me for this(please don’t block my ip address😭😭) but am I the only one who thinks Mick is better suited not only creating his legacy but carrying on his dads name at merc alongside George instead of going to Ferrari? Like I don’t know how to explain it but Mick and merc look like a better fit to me than Mick and Ferrari. And like I know his father wrote history in red and he could do the same but idk man at this point in time it seems like with the mordere politics of Ferrari and just how everything is set up and going, it feels like Carlos and Sainz are the more suitable combo to bring the championship/s back to Italy. And this is not me undermining Mick, god no, but rather things always seem to go awry when a driver has their main ambition of joining the scuderia(throughout history in general). Like I’m thinking Gio, to a lesser extent seb, fernando, Hill(?), Prost etc. Also this is just me not wanting Mick to be described in the light of his father. Anywho enjoy your day

sfdsfd hey I'm not gonna block you or hate you for an opinion don't worry! This is speculation and personal opinion about a career, it's not life or death.

I see where you're coming from, and I've also had this thought myself several times. Mick's not quite god the, uh, Crazy Wild Stupid Feral 'spark' that Ferrari drivers tend to have. At least not yet, I think there's plenty of time for that to develop! And I think his brand of nice pr would fit in better at merc than the political minefield of ferrari. But I do disagree here are my highly articulate points that are just my opinion!

I rambled a lot so feel free to not read but tl;d - I agree with you in theory, but in practice there's an emotional element there that I can't shake and I don't think Mick or Ferrari can either.

Because I Don't Want It. I want to see The Heir at ferrari. The connection between mick and ferrari is like... literally the only person who has a similarly personal connection to a team on the grid r/now is Charles. I don't think for Mick there is an option that isn't Ferrari. He already turned merc down once, even when they absolutely had the better team and the resources to get him there.

Why would merc take him or even plan to take him? The driver market is very competitive. They have plenty of drivers with more established records they could put in that car. I love mick to death but I don't think he's particularly wowed anyone in F1 just yet - he can't with that haas. I think it's really getting ahead of ourselves to be talking about merc when he doesn't even have midfield experience yet. If expecting him to go to ferrari is nepotism then expecting him to go to merc is just entitlement. It makes more sense to stick with Ferrari, who know what he can do very well from his junior career.

His last name actually damns him in the driver market. No team is going to want to put the resources into building their team around him when they know as soon as he shows the slightest capability of winning a championship ferrari WILL swoop in and he will probably, for personal reasons, say yes.

Mercedes treated his father like shit. They let the press focus their attacks on Michael being "washed" so they wouldn't talk about the car under-performing. They led michael AND fans on and then announced Lewis before he could announce his retirement or plans, making it look like he had been forced out. I wouldn't want to carry on his legacy with them if I were him, because there is no legacy. Just a recurring pattern of mercedes treating him like shit, first in his junior career and then again in his twilight years.

Also I know Mick is his own man. I love him as his own man and I respect him as his own man. But like. His last name is Schumacher. We can't escape it, he can't escape it, and the teams can't escape it. Not even ten years ago, Michael was on the grid. It's impossible to ignore, and I think there needs to be a nuanced way to both acknowledge Mick is his own person and accept that he's inherited a legacy and he and Ferrari have chosen to navigate that legacy together.

IDK I think you have to see that video where Seb has just joined Ferrari and they're talking to a crowd of tifosi and one of the tifosi says something like "Michael gave us hope. I look at you and I see him again, and I hope you can bring that feeling back to us" to understand how emotional that legacy is.It's not Mick being overshadowed by his father, it's Mick inheriting a legacy that holds meaning beyond him to people. He'll build onto it, he'll write his own chapter for sure. But the book still exists, and it doesn't diminish the strength of his writing to admit that.

Ferrari has always been a sucker for history. They're the only F1 team that has been around this long without a single rebrand, without ever once losing that chronological history of cause and effect. There's always an element of personal in their driver decisions - See: throwing sebastian out unexpectedly instead of just retaining him until they had a junior they wanted to promote. If Mick gets a capable car, if he shows he can hack it, Ferrari WILL sacrifice carlos on the altar. I've seen them do it to better drivers and I'll probably then see them do it to mick himself one day.

this is The Great Ferrari Masterplan. It's not wholesome, it's not what might be best for Mick, it's not even what I want for mick some days. But it's more likely than Mercedes imo.

ALSO lewis has literally just started to hit his peak. His goat status is nowhere near under threat. He could easily do 3-5 more years by which point Mick is either in a totally different situation or, well, gone.

[justasmallbloginabigklainefandom]

Heartstopper thoughts!!!

Okay I finished, like, 5 minutes ago, but I have so many thoughts, so I’ll put it under cut but TL;DR: it was a fucking good show.

The Good

Look, the entire show can be fit here, even though there will be an ‘The Not-So-Good’ section later, but that’s literally only two points so. But yeah, this show worked really well for a fan of Heartstopper, but it also works really well for new fans. It’s a sweet and simple show, and honestly, that’s what I like about it. I love deep (queer) media as much as the next person, but this is just a nice watch and it’s super enjoyable. This is one of the best shows I’ve seen.

The cinematography is off the charts, especially the lightning design. The sets and costumes are amazing and they really bring the whole story to live. Like, I legit gasped when I saw that Nick and Charlie had notebooks with the Truham logo on it. It’s such a small detail, but it makes it so real.

We’ve already talked about how spot on the casting it, but one that was an unexpected star in my eye was the guy who played Harry. Yes, Harry. I think everyone’s already gushed enough about the main six and Tori and Nellie, but Ben and Harry’s actors were also stellar. I remember thinking how much I hated Harry, and that’s when I realised his actor did a stellar job of playing this cocky douchebag.

Speaking of Ben, I was at times confused as to why Ben was added to more plot points. Overall, I am not the biggest fan of creating extra drama for the sake of drama, so when he was there at the cinema, I went “...why?”, but they really did amp up the threat of Ben which made his final showdown on the field more cathartic. 

And speaking of casting: Olivia fucking Colman. The Heartstopper Discord already called it, but it was nice to have it confirmed. 

I loved how I could so clearly recognise scenes from the actual comic. I expect that talented artists are already making comparison gifsets, like they did with the trailers. But really, word-for-word sometimes. I was actually able to talk along with most of the dialogue for some scenes, which felt really great. It happens too often that an adaption is basically a whole new thing, and then it’s a ‘loose adaption’ or ‘inspired by’ and that stuff, but no, this is how you do it.

As an extension, I am so fucking happy that some things made it into the show, especially Julio Spring showing concern for Charlie. I get that the big story beats were there. That was expected. That makes me appreciate the little things like this a bit more.

That being said, some additions were really great. It led to character interaction that was missing in the story. I specifically liked the scenes between Nick and Tao. And also, the Hearstopper comic is mostly a Charlie story. Sometimes it shifts to other characters, but it’s a Charlie story through and through, which works as a webcomic, but for the show I am glad they also showed more things. Like, the whole struggle of Tara and Darcy and coming out? Readers know of it, because Tara tells Charlie in Paris, but now it was actually shown. Same with Elle integrating into Higgs. And I specifically liked that the Taoelle story was now done from Elle’s POV. In the comic, it’s obviously Tao, since Tao is around Charlie, the narrator, but the show allowed people to see the other side. It amuses me that people who haven’t read the comic don’t even know Tao likes her back. I do assume that the whole Paris thing won’t be part of a later season, though, because some of the big plot points have already happened.

Basically, Tao, Elle, Darcy and Tara had more to do. It makes sense that we don’t see it in the comic, so it’s cool to see it here. We even see Tao’s mum! And Elle has more chances to talk about her own experiences at Truham.

Of course, concessions had to be made. I did miss some things. Isaac is a nice replacement for Aled, but he didn’t really do anything. And I also missed the support of Otis, Christian and Sai. That being said, I don’t think they damage the overal story and it leads to a more effective change in the later episodes, where Charlie is regressing and Nick is struggling. 

I was also surprised that the show already started hinting and Charlie’s anorexia, since in the comics, that started in Paris. I appreciate it.

The Not-So-Good

Tao, honey... we need to talk. I feel very conflicted about Tao’s role in the show and how they changed it from the comics. When Tao didn’t have his big moment at the bowling alley, explaining to Charlie why he’s acting like he is, I already had an “...oh?” moment. Now, the loneliness approach isn’t bad and it’s relatable. Everyone’s pairing off and Tao’s all alone. But it did annoy me. I never saw comic!Tao as jealous. Again, all his rudeness stems from having great intentions, but not knowing how to act on them. I really was surprised when Tao found out through Elle and I was also really annoyed by his reaction. I understand that he later apologises because he understands that he gave reasons for Charlie to be nervous, but the moment he sent that petty message or when he started yelling at Charlie? Nope. And I supposed I am biased here, because I really love Tao in the comics, because I see a lot of myself in him. Tao is the straight guy by being the Token Straight, and by being the straight guy in terms of tropes and what not. He’s the rational one. He’s the understanding one. He calculates what is going on around him, so when he does get upset (like in Paris), he can understand it. But no, this Tao just straight up lashes out to Charlie. And this rationality in the comics is also a character flaw, I know. Hence the whole thing about Tao trying his best, but because he’s so hell-bent on his own logic, he sometimes doesn’t consider other people’s feelings, but I’d much rather pick this character flaw over whatever the fuck show!Tao has going on. Like, I really, really disliked how Tao acted in the last two episodes. In the comic, he’s also incredibly upset and he creates some distance, but he never ‘punishes’ Charlie for not coming out! This Tao on the other hand ghosts him and what not and it really pissed me off. So is it a bad thing? Not necessarily. It makes sense in the context of the show and how they dropped hints from the very first episode. It’s more that I know how it could’ve been.

Weird thing to note, I know, but the ever changing background music annoyed me. Sure, it has bangers like girls from girl in red, but this was a lot of stuff.

And... unfortunately...

The Bad

Yeah, there’s one big bad. I didn’t warn you, I know. Luckily, it’s only one thing, so no bullet points here, but I have a lot to say about The Bad. Now, do I think The Bad ruins the overall enjoyment? No. As I said, I think this is one of the best shows ever. So, what’s the Big Bad?

Imogen.

When Imogen and Isaac got announced as new characters, I was interested. Isaac’s existence was explained, but why did they add Imogen? I was immediately worried Imogen was going to be the Straight Girl. I wrote during my watch: “I assume it’s the higher-ups who wants this additional drama, because every mainstream m/m teen media has to have this straight girl who is nothing more than a dramatic plot device and who incites guilt when it comes to queer identity and coming out.” But yeah, that’s how I feel about this trope. Vișinata from the CO Discord put it properly here: “It’s cruel and unkind to the gay protag(s) AND to the straight girl who’s reduced to a flat character who isn’t allowed to be a supportive person without their romantic feelings making them a selfish jerk”.

This trope just needs to die. It was the worst part of Love, Simon and Love, Victor. Glee made Tina’s entire character at one point as ‘a pathetic girl who crushes on gay men’. Mercedes also went through it in Glee. I heard from my friend Verena that it’s also common in the Skamverse. Can’t we have one M/M show or something that doesn’t sacrifice a girl’s feelings?

Then it became clear that she’s a dear friend of Nick and they always hang out at the school gates. Okay, and I did like this idea. We don’t know a whole lot about Nick pre-Charlie until later in the comic, so I really liked the idea of Nick having a supportive friend who he could maybe confine in, especially since I knew the Rugby Lads weren’t going to be in here. I hoped Imogen would be a sort of third party, an objective look for Nick. I was really excited about this idea, actually. And then they posted the character bio’s and... this is what happened. When I saw that Imogen’s *cough* fun fact *cough* was that she has a secret crush, I knew I could drop all my hopes for Imogen down the drain. And yeah, the moment it became clear within the show that Imogen had a crush, I was so annoyed.

Also, because her character was just shit. The whole claiming of Nick part? And then Nick said yes to the date. Jesus, if I hadn’t been on campus during that scene, I might’ve yelled. At least it didn’t get dragged out extremely long. I am so glad for that. Nick realised himself that he needed to end it, and he did. God, I genuinely think the entire show would’ve gone down the rating if they had done that. Not only that, but Imogen accepts it and moves on. No bullshit, guilt-tripping “you broke my heart” crap, like they did in Love, Simon. And in her last on-screen moment, she seems to understand and she’s glad for Nick and Charlie.

But this raises my other question: why bother adding Imogen in the first place? AGAIN, AGAIN, I AM SO GLAD THEY DIDN’T MAKE A BIG THING OUT OF IT, but then why make a thing out of it in the first place? Also, since Imogen had literally nothing else to do in this entire show apart from this shitty storyline. She’s supposed to be one of Nick’s best friends, but you can barely see that. So yeah, that’s The Bad.

I don’t hate Imogen. I just wish she had more to do.

The Good Two Electric Boogaloo

Since this show is so good, I obviously don’t want to end this post on a sad note!

Cameos! I see you Solitaire and I Was Born For This on Charlie’s bookcase. Funny that Charlie has a book about his sister, but then again, in the comics, Tara reads a book about Aled. I also loved Alice’s cameo, and also it was clear that she painted some background art.

And even though I desperately want a second season now, I like that it didn’t end on a cliffhanger. This season covered way more than I expected, so I am also very glad if this is the end and if Heartstopper becomes nothing more than a limited series, or whatever it’s called. I’m content.

It’s also interesting that they managed to squeeze so much of the comic into these four hours and it never felt rushed!

I probably have a lot more to add but HOLY FUCK please watch this show!!!

My favourite scenes are definitely the snow scene, the first big Tara/Darcy kiss, the hug with Charlie and Tori, the last scene on the beach, and Nick’s coming out.

Can I talk a bit about the first Tara/Darcy kiss? Apart from the fact that it was beautifully shot, it was also beautifully framed. I almost cried (I did cry at the beach scene, but that was in the privacy of my dorm. I watched the Tara/Darcy kiss on campus). The way Nick saw them and it all made sense to him. I think every queer person has this One Big Moment where they see other queer people in the wild and it’s just euphoric. Not only could you feel Tara and Darcy’s joy, but also Nick’s. And it brought me back to my own feelings of queer joy and the fact that this show now exists. This wouldn’t have been possible ten years ago. Not to be the bitch to talk about glee again, but every time Nick and Charlie kissed, I had a moment of “man, this literally wasn’t allowed when glee was airing” moment. Klaine and Brittana were only allowed to kiss, like, once or twice a season and only in The Special Episode that grouped all queer rep of the year together in a neat bow. Yes, things got better in season 6 when it comes to casual intimacy, but man, if you would’ve told little Klainer 12 Yuè anno 2012/2013, I would’ve flipped.

BASICALLY THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS EVER.

[dabidagoose]

What's your fave video game sountrack(s)? =^o

Ok that is a very loaded question so this is gonna be a long ass response, I hope you're prepared for what you've done.

(ok there's a tl;dr at the end if you want it sorry for this lmao)

FIRST POINT my immediate thought was the Ikenfell soundtrack (actually my immediate thought is I can't fuckin' choose they're all amazing but. then ikenfell). On the personal side, I was pretty much obsessed with the game for like three months straight, and i fuckin' love aivi and surasshu's music. I am also a simp for chiptune so jot that down. Moving past what may very well just be personal preference there are some incredibly interesting musical choices and impeccable choices story-wise that hit just. SO fuckin hard. Like emotionally. I won't elaborate on to the context and why the song works so well but the final battle theme is absolutely SPECTACULAR. (I could elaborate though so. ask if you will and i'll write another spiel on why it breaks my heart and soul). But also to reference a less-plot relevant piece I'm gonna bring up Alchemy is for Everyone. The squish bass sounds at the beginning are SUCH a fun environmental sound, it is really just NOT a sound I hear often which makes the track really stand out. And it fits SO perfectly for all the slimes and just. It's so WET. I love it. Makes me wanna wriggle. Which ok is probably also personal preference on reflection because my friend hates a wet song that I love but. Ok it's GOOD. Anyways continuing to the melody the fuckin PITCH bends. This is digital music at it's peak. We get the fun sounds. We get the fuckin pitch bends. Which are so fun because having slightly out of tune notes is such a fun feeling. It's a little off kilter, it's a little different. It's just SO funky and sounds so awesome to bend those pitches just a little bit, take full advantage of the medium and play around with it. Now I'm gonna talk a bit about why I love aivi & surasshu's music so much which. Ok so I believe(?) they coined the term "digital fusion" where you're mixing all these fun fresh digital sounds with real instruments/more traditional sounds and it can work SO fuckin well (for extra musical literature on this subject I'd like to suggest Yoann Turpin and specifically Chip Ship). Which we already get a taste of that where the pitch bends are playing on piano but it really kicks in when the violin takes over the melody and it's SUCH a graceful instrument in comparison to all this funky/awkward stuff we've had. The dichotomy is fuckin awesome. The violin is like a graceful victorian socialite ballroom dancing in after these pitch bends just pinned their arms to their sides and wiggled their hips around. We then get a third spacey instrument (I. have no idea what it is.) and it is. SUCH a switch. We have moved from awkward and stilted to almost too perfect and graceful (I forgot to write before but the high piano at the violin adds so much) to a moment of awe and discovery. We are now exploring the universe, the world of science and alchemy, and it is fantastic. The song almost seems to have it's own little narrative, and this is just a backing track for exploring one of the buildings!!!! This is within the first couple hours of gameplay, it is incredibly non-plot-relevant but SUCH a piece of art. I am absolutely in a slime ball watching amazing science happen so precisely and it is. so fuckin cool. And I could probably go off about every single other song, but in the interest of keeping away spoilers and finishing this post before 2 am, I will not. (Addendums because I can: this is less wet than the one my friend hates, and also this song is MOIST. I would also like to mention It's Showtime and Between the Lines as other song favorites but if I went into them I would never sleep.)

Okokokok. So. So SECOND point (I'm. so sorry.) I looked at my video game music soundtrack (I have two main soundtracks one for just every music but I didn't want to overwhelm it with VG music so I made one just for that that has ENTIRE soundtracks from almost every game I've played which. oops.) and I found two other contenders based mostly on I Really Liked The Games. The Oneshot soundtrack and the Night in the Woods soundtrack. Ok I'm gonna talk about Night in the Woods first cause HOLY shit. holy shit. The fucking astral songs. Those are fucking masterpieces. Such a simple ensemble but it creates such an INTENSE atmosphere. I really love instrumental music can you tell. I specifically want you listening to Astral Train for this one (played it for my senior recital and even though I had to play the violin part on clarinet I maintain it was one of the best choices I've ever made), but we the way the layers blend together is a fucking masterpiece. Since this song had to be designed so that any layer could play alone and each one could join in any order, each part of the quartet has to be interesting, but they still all must blend together and so they each get melody moments but the harmony/bass lines have to be interesting as well and. They ARE. This is such a hard task and it's accomplished SO. INCREDIBLY. WELL. (Side note: also makes for a good ensemble piece for, say, your and your friends' senior recitals, so everyone gets fun parts, a chance in the limelight, and a chance to rest, haha totally irrelevant note right there definitely no connection to my real life). With Astral Train we really get this cool ghostly train feel and through all the Astral pieces we REALLY feel the absolute intensity of Mae's dreams and the music creates such an immaculate vibe. It is unmatched. The rest of the soundtrack contains plenty of bops in a variety of genres too, where the bass songs have to be both playable and fun (Die Anywhere Else my beloved), and we get nostalgic and mischievous music fit for this ragtag team. This is the feeling I've had hanging out with my teenage friends at 10 PM in a parking lot. It is absolutely perfect for this video game. The music is SUCH a bop and really emotionally connects to me cause the game is such a bop of a plot. It is truly fantastic. (Addendum: Ok listening to Gregg rn and. Holy shit bop. I love him. I love this)

Ok now onto Oneshot, which, admittedly, does not have as strong a holding on the podium as these other two do, but curse me for having been emotionally destroyed by the video game because now I am emotionally attached to the music too. But, again, ATMOSPHERE. I am once again gonna be speaking in the interest of spoilers here, so I hope anyone who's finished the game will forgive what I'm not saying, but the entire landscape of this desolate planet is just SO much. The world is so simple and empty, and yet awe is often mixed with this feeling of despair. This is incredibly fitting for Niko, for the hopeful little pal they are, and creates an incredible effect. (I included specific song reccs for the last but I don't quite for this - so I'll just say now that I'm listening to On Little Cat Feet). The visuals are fairly simple, the map small, and just looking at the game the world feels incredibly small. But the music makes it all seem so vast. We really get put into Niko's shoes (or their little cat feet I suppose), and get to see this world for the vast, terrifying, but incredible place it is. The music makes you feel like that child seeing a new world for the first time, (this isn't spoilers past the first chapter but I'm warning you anyways) even though you are meant to be a god, you are still made to feel small and the world still large. The music does so much of this work, and it's incredible. Throughout the soundtrack the underlying angst, the despair, remains present, and the game has so much more impact for the music. No game is incomplete without it's music, and Nightmargin does a fantastic job creating this music for Oneshot. I haven't analyzed the actual music instruments/structure so much, but it's those instrumental sounds again tearing at my heart strings again. I would also like to recommend this game beyond the soundtrack, since it is an incredible story, with some puzzling gameplay, and it has made me feel how no other game has. It is a masterpiece of a game, and I implore everyone to play it through. Get hints if you need to, or play alone, just make it to the Ending. You'll know when you're there. (Addendum: I think I'm very repetitive here but I refuse to edit it so you have to live with this. Anyways gonna say it again: Play Oneshot!!)

Now I have chosen three game soundtracks that had a story that incredibly connected with me, and music to bolster that story and those emotions in incredibly meaningful ways. But there are so many others with great music, but that didn't necessarily connect on such an emotional level. Portal and Portal 2 have fantastic soundtracks, Celeste has beautiful music, Underhero has some funky and spectacular beats, Undertale and Deltarune are famously incredible (although I also did emotionally connect with them... but they're already talked about enough. Lancer beloved.), Clam Man is just. Fun., Oxenfree is also incredibly atmospheric and spectacular, Sewer Rave just has nice beats, and Minecraft is nostalgic as all hell. There are so many games to choose from, that from the moment I saw your question I knew I would be writing a far too long Tumblr post to answer you, because it feels an injustice to just answer one without reasoning, or without bringing to light all of the other amazing sounds I've discovered.

To finally answer your question, I think Ikenfell deserves the top spot in my heart. My instinct was right, there's fresh sounds, great musical structure (see: Between the Lines that I didn't elaborate on), incredibly emotional sounds, and fantastic storytelling within the soundtrack. But I love all of these other soundtracks, so I must bring them up. For they also have spots in my heart.

TL;DR - Ikenfell wins but I also love Oneshot and Night in the Woods and many others so I don't know what to say chief (lies i have too much to say)

[veryvincible]

Hey! 👋🏼 I was looking at Tonys panel with Carol and his AA panels. It got me thinking how can a person like Tony .. who is an atheist, a believer of science and a confident engineer rely on AA which has a religious foundation (the 12 steps) and place so power on God. I know secular AA have different takes on it and encourage a personal definition of God as any higher power the person may choose. But doesn’t that defeat Tonys belief? Because I don’t think he believes in a higher power regardless if it’s a deity or not.

This is a wonderful question. There’s a lot of nuance to the answer, in my opinion, because I think there are some things called into question here that Tony (very realistically) treats with a lot of complexity.

Firstly, Tony’s atheism is kind of... I don’t want to say it’s up in the air, because at this point, I think it’s kind of made its place in canon and fanon both. But, most likely as a result of the times in which he was created, he has been shown in canon (at least in the early stages of his life) to follow some sort of organized religion. This is from Iron Man Vol. 1 #164, and it’s... not strong evidence for him being a spiritual man, as most people who call themselves “not that religious” tend to be religious by way of traditions, but. You know. It is what it is.

Of course, we could dismiss this as yet another thing that early canon imposed on a character who wouldn’t be like that at this point in time, but I think it brings up interesting beats in the way Tony’s character has progressed over the years.

Considering him as someone who may have been raised as traditionally religious makes sense in the context of defining events, as well, given that we watch him pray the Lord’s prayer in #14 of Iron Man Vol. 4, one of his Civil War tie-ins.

Given the proximity to the alcohol (and the point he’s at in the timeline, here), one could also easily assume that even if he had no religious background, the very presence of the Lord’s prayer in AA meetings could have formed a connection in his head between this “worship” and sobriety-- at the very least, enough of one that the prayer strengthens the effectiveness of his willpower. It seems the little push he needs to pour a drink down the drain is borderline Pavlovian.

There’s actually a lot of religious imagery in Tony comics in general. He’s a man with a suit facing conundrums of cosmic proportions. It’s difficult for him to keep rationale exclusively within the range of earthly probabilities.

Point is, his atheism doesn’t come from his disbelief in a higher power. It’s quite the contrary, actually. His atheism comes from a belief that there’s no single entity that could claim the title of God, that any being willing to try has, just by being, already forfeited the title.

Which is a fair assessment to make, given that he’s fought many people claiming to be Gods, and they’ve all bled. He’s also watched people worship Gods that turned out to not... really be Gods, whether they were otherworldly beings, his buddy Thor, or, uh, himself. The idea of him, at least. In space.

Because of course that happened.

But Tony actually does have a higher power to give himself up to in these meetings. In Civil War II #1, he very explicitly states it:

“I respect the future. I believe in the future. I worship at its feet.”

“The Future” to him is something he can affect, certainly, but he’s aware of just how massive it is, just how massive all of time is compared to the few decades he’ll spend on earth. This is his higher power, his cosmic deity of choice.

It can’t bleed. It can’t falter. It’s inevitable.

And this mindset is... pretty in line with everything else he’s done. He’s referred to himself as a “necessary monster.” He’s implied many times over that he thinks he’s rotten and potentially dangerous, but he’s also intelligent and capable and he wants to do the right thing, even if he doesn’t always know what that is. 

If you’ve ever been in a religious environment, you’ll probably recognize his mindset going into any problem: there’s always a solution, always information he’s missing, always a “right choice” he’s looking for with a domino effect that’ll be as favorable as possible for future generations. He trusts in the future the way people trust in God, with an awareness that he’ll never have all the pieces to make sense of everything, but he can have enough information to act. And he must act, or else his worth, his right to be alive, even, is at stake.

So, needless to say, he’s not praying to a mainstream God. But religious imagery isn’t and has never been off-putting to him, and though he certainly could seek out unreligious (is that a word?) alternatives to AA, I find it hard to believe that he would, given just how influential his higher power of choice is as it guides him through life. He puts everything at stake for it, going so far as to make choices that will destroy not only himself, but also his relationships with his loved ones if it means he’s doing what he perceives to be the right thing.

Secondly, even if he were a man who had no belief in any form of higher power, not even a stand-in for it, AA still might not be something he’d discard in favor of an alternative.

Religion serves as a guide. Most often, it has “do”s and “do not”s, certain beliefs it supports, and a kind of... basic explanation of what human life is and how it should be treated. One of the more common threads among most religions that I’m aware of (I am not an expert in religious studies; please don’t @ me) is the idea that human life is generally sacred, and as such, people should treat each other with respect. Yes, some texts can contradict this, but the general rule is “be nice to each other!” when you really look at the basics of what people are trying to teach. At its core, religion is linked to what we as humans already tend to for the sake of survival: compassion.

As such, though we might not always identify with religion as a concept, it’s not difficult to identify with some religious morals and teachings. Some people take to certain teachings better than others-- it’s super case-by-case-- but if you’re stuck in a religious environment listening to some preaching or anything, there’s probably going to be something you can relate to, and some way you can morph and adopt the message. This isn’t, like, all-encompassing, by the way. Of course there are some things that atheists and religious folk will never be able to relate to within each other, but.

You get what I mean.

I’m an atheist myself. I spent a chunk of my schooling at a religious institution. At best, there were messages that affected me deeply (as they were hard-hitting even when I stripped them of the God-worshipping aspects). At worst, I had to grit my teeth through some assignments, though I felt mostly indifferent (if slightly resentful at times, more out of frustration with the closed-mindedness of the administration than with the concept of religion itself). My experience isn’t universal, of course-- some people in my shoes were more frustrated and angry than I was, and I can see why. But my point is, being an atheist in and of itself (even one as strict as Tony) doesn’t render religious imagery useless.

For example, if you happen to pass by a pastor preaching about struggles with guilt, you might not identify with the sentiment of “Give your worries to God and know He’ll take care of you.” However, you could identify with the sentiment of, “Those little things, those side effects of decisions you’ve made? They’re here. Those decisions have been made. You’re allowed to swallow past the reality of what it is that’s passed and move on. You’re allowed to let go of it, so long as you’re better today than you were yesterday.”

It’s especially easy to do this if you’re listening to or being exposed to content from a religion you’re already familiar with; in Tony’s case, if we assume he was a Christian at one point or was raised with Christian ideals (not unbelievable in the slightest, given his circumstances and upbringing), then he wouldn’t have to do a lot of heavy lifting in order to get to “core messages” of certain Christian teachings that he could still identify with. Couple that with the higher power mentioned before, and... it’s not hard to see what might be appealing to him about AA, and it’s not hard to see why it was so effective at sticking in his mind all the way through his darkest periods in life.

Now comes the less healthy part.

There’s also an aspect of self-flagellation to it that I feel Tony might identify with on a deeper level. We’ve seen him hate himself openly, and we know how he regards himself. Even if he managed to find himself in a courthouse-like environment where the religious undertones were more about judgment than recovery, I don’t know that that would necessarily... push him away? He’s already told himself there’s something rotting and evil at his core many times over. He’s already committed himself to a lifestyle of atonement and progress, punishing himself when he fails to accomplish things no human reasonably could and barely praising himself when he doesn’t fail. Do I think these kinds of meetings would be totally sustainable for him, given that he clearly needs to feel pride or relief on some level for conquering his demons? No, not really, but. I don’t think he’d abandon them straight away.

Besides, every healing environment he’s been shown in has been more on the welcoming, open side, even if we only get to see a bare bones interpretation of AA (with deeper exploration happening more with Tony’s response to it, or his and Carol’s responses to each other) in canon. He’s in a good place with it, and it’s very nice to see.

Tl;dr: Again, great question. At the end of the day, I think the combination of self-loathing, his desire for progress, and his conceptualization of “the future” as his higher power makes AA a good fit for him despite his lack of a belief in "God” as an entity.

[halfpint55]

A Defence of Kataang with regards to how they are portrayed in TLoK (it’s long but there’s headcanons at the end)

Note: This is not about shipping wars. This is a safe zone. This is not about Zutara vs Kataang. This is me defending Kataang and the characters themselves...from the writers. 

I initially wrote this as a response to a post that got me heated. My reblog just made it too long so here it is as its own post. 

Now this post ripped apart Kataang as a couple but more than that said some stuff about Aang himself that hurt my heart. I didn’t really want to pick on this post but its condemning of Kataang was based almost entirely in what we know of them as parents in TLoK and honestly it’s that lil nugget of canon that I take issue with. It has bothered me from the get go because it doesn’t make sense from a writing and story perspective, and it’s been pissing me off since I watched it.

TL;DR nice and early bc this post is gonna be a long one:

This particular condemnation of Kataang rests almost entirely on the SHITTY way they were portrayed as parents by the writers of LoK, and in all honesty, on this particular topic, canon should be ignored.

Overall Kataang parenting is of my biggest gripes with LoK because in terms of writing it’s totally incongruous - it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t align, and it makes zero sense for what we know of those characters, and I don’t know if I can ever forgive the showrunners for allowing it to be written it into canon.

I will also preface this by saying I like LoK - love it. I had a scroll through the comments and reblogs on this post, and a lot of the hate towards this portrayal of Kataang ended up being blamed on the “terrible writing of LoK” which is not where I stand at all. That being said I am so angry at the writers for this one.

The other portion of the concurring comments that were very hateful towards Kataang came from Zutara shippers and honestly for me, although I do ship Kataang, this not a just a Kataang issue. I’m of the belief that Zutara would’ve just as easily been written to have similar issues due to very similar dynamics - Zutara also would have been two powerful benders from very different cultures, and with Zuko/Aang (whoever you ship w her) having a massively important global leadership role that is embedded in who they are, and therefore impossible to ignore as a factor in their relationship.

Now let me be clear, my desire to reject canon on this front is by no means me wanting to believe the best of my faves, and not wanting to hear a word against Aang. It’s not even necessarily a defence of Kataang bc I ship it that hard (I mean I do but I can set that aside for the sake of argument if that’s what you need from me here). 

The first, and main issue people have with Aang/Kataang in Korra, is the first point of the original post:

So why in hell would [Katara] be okay with Aang ignoring TWO of their children’s complete existence once he found out they had an airbending son?

And I agree with the post on this front; Katara would not have allowed her children to each be treated differently by their father. I had the same initial thought when watching LoK, and it’s the reason I hate and want to ignore the canon of LoK so badly. 

As much as it hurts to think of, we have to accept that Aang wouldn’t have been able to stop his preferential treatment for Tenzin from bleeding through into his parenting just out of a desperate desire to save his culture (which is absolutely understandable - doesn’t make it okay, but it’s understandable; Aang suffered an incredible loss, a massive cultural trauma which he alone carries the burden of). So of course he wasn’t able to hide how excited he was, and forgot to be mindful of his attitude and behaviour towards Kya and Bumi. So this aspect of canon Kataang? Yeah, I’m with it. So far so good. EXCEPT the most unrealistic element of canon is now that Katara would let him. I simply do not believe for a second that Katara would’ve allowed Aang to be the kind of parent LoK painted him to be.

However, I do not think it would’ve been a point of contention between the two of them! Katara would pull him aside, Katara would gently (but firmly) point out what Aang mightn’t be able to see for himself - he’s focusing too hard on Tenzin.

And Aang would listen.

All throughout A;tLA the two of them often help the other sort through their stuff. Aang has a great track record of being receptive to Katara’s advice and help (calming him down when discovering Monk Gyatso’s body, The Desert when he Appa is stolen, Serpent’s Pass when he’s bottling his feelings about Appa being missing). He’s also just so receptive to others’ ideas - he just goes with it and trusts in his friends (think of his trust in Katara’s plan to rescue Haru, his trust in staying behind with Sokka in the library to get the eclipse info). Aang’s humility is one of the most incredible things about him and it’s at the core of who he is. He would absolutely be able to hear Katara telling him he’s focusing too hard on one child - he would be open, and he’d listen.

So to me now canon just does not make sense at all. it does not align with their established character traits. And yes, people change as they get older and grow into adulthood but honestly, the elements of their respective personalities that we’re talking about here are pretty core elements of who these two people are.

Katara has always been fiercely protective of those she loves, strongwilled, stubborn, and ready to (vocally or physically) fight for what she believes is right and that wouldn’t disappear as she gets older. She wouldn’t let Aang’s preferrential treatment slide.

Aang has always been, and chose to be despite his loss, an optimistic, kind, believe in the best of humanity kind of person. He’s open to all points of view, he’s a good listener, he always tries his absolute best to find solutions that are good for everyone. And again his humility, his willingness to love, is who he is.  He believes all humans (including fkn OZAI) and all life are sacred, he believes in the absolute right to life. The kid is a vegetarian for crying out loud.

Now the parts of the take in the post that hurt my heart to read about what OP thinks of Aang:

“Aang never made an attempt to establish anything resembling a real familial unit with Katara, basically just stayed around until she popped out an Airbender [...] she was treated like some trophy wife to give birth to airbenders and that’s it!”

I wasn’t going to address this in this post until I read the comments in the notes, because people seem to agree. They share the sentiment that Katara was reduced to “just a love interest” by the two ending up together.

However I do very much take issue w the notion that Aang “basically just stayed around until she popped out an Airbender” (and honestly that entire paragraph - we don’t actually know that Aang didn’t make an effort to establish a family unit). As much as the LoK writers fucked up in their portrayal of Kataang as parents, this is a much harsher judgement of Aang’s character as a husband and father than anything implied by Aang and Katara’s children. I just don’t buy that Aang would view Katara (or anyone he married, even if you don’t ship Kataang) as a trophy wife, whose only role is to have airbender children. He never has viewed her that way - he has always looked at her like she’s the sun, and the most important person to him after she pulled him out of the iceburg. He loves her the most of anyone on the planet. It does not align with his character, his values or beliefs that he’d think of her (or any partner) that way. He is so besotted with Katara for who she is it HURT me to read that part of your take. Aang simply would never. Look at how he looks at her! 

What’s more is the unwavering respect and deference he shows Katara as his waterbending master - he recognises and loves her as the whole, complete, three dimensional, TALENTED POWERFUL INCREDIBLE WOMAN that she is. She is NEVER “just” a love interest for Aang. (But ALSO, do we respect Suki any less for being Sokka’s obvious love interest??? No. suki is written to be so badass that Sokka is HER love interest and I think Katara has equally badass energy but I digress).

Moving on!

OP made an excellent point that there would’ve been culturally different values between the two but I don’t think it would’ve been family that was the clashing point. Yes the airbenders value spirituality and enlightenment. But they lived together in massive communities! They supported and raised one another. Their community and culture was strong, and they were bonded in their spirituality! They value love, as well as enlightenment, peace, and the lives of all.

Now, again the points they made about the cultural divides within the Kataang family unit are valid, but also again I dislike how they chose to portray this in LoK. It would definitely be a struggle they faced as a couple. However I think they really missed an opportunity here with where they took it. Because they do at one point in the comics have Katara bring up the fact that their family will be a blend of two cultures, and she brings it up because Aang is trying so hard to bring balance back to the world by means of seperation.

They’ve known from the get go of being a couple that they’re going to have to navigate being a culturally blended family unit.

So I find it so shitty that they wrote it so that Kya got to learn the waterbending culture, Tenzin got Air and bumi got…nothing? It’s dangerously close to the way Disney does the “the girls are carbon copies of mum, and the boys are carbon copies of dad” thing (think Lady and the Tramp). It’s lazy. Especially when we had that “separation is an illusion” episode, AND things like Zuko learning different nation’s styles and applying them to his firebending, and Sokka learning an element of strategy or fighting from every nation. 

So give us Kya using Airbending moves with her waterbending (maybe she invents the water scooter)! Give us Tenzin doing more grounded moves that Aunty Toph (or Lin, while they were together) taught him from earthbending.

There are much more creative ways to illustrate the bumps and troubles Kataang might have run into in trying to navigate incorporating equal parts of their cultures in their children and family unit. Even just smaller scale issues like food and meals - how do they figure out how to do mealstimes with Aang’s vegetarianism with Katara’s culturally significant Water Tribe meat dishes? And then even taking into account how picky little kids can be!

Give me a scene where they literally just ate moon pies for a week because toddler Kya would scream if you put anything else down in front of her.

Maybe Bumi demanded sea prunes over and over but Katara and Bumi are the only ones who like them, and Bumi bonds with his mother this way - they go on little one-on-one outings to water tribe restaurants in Republic City, searching for the most authentic sea prunes!

Kya maybe likes the water tribe fashions the most because it helps her connect with her namesake BUT Kya also has a playful sense of humour - not unlike Monk Gyatso - Aang sees how much she loved moon pies and teaches her to throw them with waterbending.

We know Tenzin was a calm, quiet, and possibly shy child. Maybe he loved to hole himself away learning crafts. Give me Tenzin learning to tattoo, Tenzin learning to carve (and carving his first glider - it crashes of course), but also Tenzin learning to carve water tribe adornments and necklaces. Katara tries at first but when she gets busy Sokka comes in and teaches Tenzin to break all the carving rules Katara has laid down (”it doesn’t need to be perfect my little pupil - let the creativity flow!”)

Tenzin may not be able to waterbend but that doesn’t mean he can’t learn other means of healing. As the littlest he spent a lot of time watching Katara work - she teaches him to tie splints, dress wounds, and yes deliver babies.

If you made it here I love you so much for reading. I love sharing my thoughts so HIGH FIVE YOU MADE IT, ur now my friend - the friendship is non-refundable sorry 😌😌

[el-oh-her]

Barbie Movies That Are More Relevant Than You Think

1. Barbie’s Princess and the Pauper 

> The Big Thing: Shows a realistic representation of 1st world problems and 3rd world Problems coexisting. Annalise is a princess in an arranged marraige and Erika is an indentured servent, both looking to esacpe, but are determined to overcome these issues. They acknowledge that they have differerent problems but are both struggling in their own right. It’s important to know that they don’t wish they were someone else, they just wish they could escape their personal struggles. 

> Women supporting women! 

> Female Leads that are friends and aren’t catty towards each other 

> Annalise and Erika talk about things other than boys, althrough an arranged marraige is a plot point and all boy talk is really about that particular plot point. 

> “Duty is doing the things your heart may well regret” is the most badass line in exsitance, okay? 

> The Princess loved science. 

2. Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princessess 

> The Big Thing: This story is about extremism and the dangers of a binary system. In this case, it’s Law vs Chaos, and unregulated freedom of expression vs overregulated conformity. The 12 are unruly and chaotic and uncaring about their royal status which causes strain on the kingdom and they are super unprepared for royal life. The antagonist comes in, strips the color and the fun and is all rules and control and is trying to teach them how to be “proper ladies” which is also done in an extreme. Neither of these are right, and in the end the girls use their unique interests to save their father, and they acknowledge they should behave better and be prepared for royal life. They essentially find their middle way. 

> Realistic siblings. No one calls the other “sister” 

> Lacy, the frail sister, is never treated poorly by her sisters despite the fact she causes a few issues in the plot. Super supportive sisters. 

> LI isn’t a prince. He’s a shoemaker. 

> There’s an assassination attempt in this one! It technically succeeds. Really good show on adult topics in a children’s movie. 

> Power and Corruption are thematic here with the villain. 

3. Barbie’s Mariposa

> The Big Thing: This one is about destorying an entire society for personal gain and power. If you’re American, you’d understand why THIS is super relevant. The queen is bring poisoned and is the life source for all the lights, and those lights are what protect faeries from the monsters in the dark. The Big Bad Guy plans to take the throne with these monsters as her minions, promising them they can eat faeries. She will destory this land to gain the throne, and she doesn’t care who dies along the way. 

> Has a Cinderella vibe to it. Good rendition 

> Two First World Entittled rich faries are humbled through the journey, and learn to be king and selfless despite starting with selfish intentions. GROWTH. 

> Skeezite is a funny word. 

> ACCENTS. I think they’re all Spanish, but can’t confirm. The only Barbie movie that didn’t do British Accents, I’m pretty sure. Vocal Diversity is 10/10 

4. Barbie Fairytopia Series 

> The Big Thing: DISABILITY IN A FANTASY WORLD DONE WELL. Like holy shit the plot is the Big Bad is commiting bio-terrorism by poisoning the air that affects all faeries except for Elina because she was born without wings. DISABILITY BECOMING THE ONLY THING THAT CAN SAVE YOU. YES. She does  get wings at the end, but I always saw it as a prostetic because if she lost her necklace she lost her wings. And in a later movie she has to trade them away to save someone. 

> Bibble is valid 

> This series does the “girl who doesn’t fit in” trope well because Elina is constantly seen as the girl who doesn’t fit in. In the first movie she’s the girl without wings, in the second she’s the faerie, not a mermaid (Nori gets mean towards her because the mermaid prince wanted a fairy to save him or someting like that), and in the last one, I’m pretty sure she’s sort of regarded as the charity case. I can’t remember exactly, so don’t quote me. Either way, Elina is the most relateable Barbie character for people who struggle fitting in wherever they go because Elina never fits in at first (but it’s a barbie movie, so you know, acceptance and stuff) 

> This marks the third movie on this list with an assassination attempt for power. Power #Corrupts 

> Good overcoming narrative. Elina survives all her trials towards being accepted in society. 

5. Barbie as the Island Princess

> The Big Thing: This one is tricky because Barbie is a white character, and that is a valid critique for this one. However, the topic is handled well despite this fault due to the movie’s context. This one is about a status quo society and their treatment towards a different “Cultural” upbringing. Ro grew up on an island alone outside of society and talks to animals. She has an entire different set of values and beliefs. Her curiosity sets her off into a populated civilzation and a big part of the movie is the Prince Character making genuine efforts to help her adapt and make her comfortable for what she is used to, and the rest of the society relegating her to a barbarian. She struggles trying to fit in to a society that wants her to adapt to their society, but refuses to make any adaptions to hers. Her not being from there is eventually what saves the day, which is a healthy message that differnet people learn the world differnetly, and these cultures can meet and interact and help each other without forcing one to obliterate itself. Ro doesn’t stay in that society. She goes off sailing with the prince character, a happy medium from her island roots and desire to be around other people. 

> ANOTHER assassination attempt. 

> Big Bad has a daughter she’s trying to marry to the Prince, but the daughter doesn’t love him and is happy that he finds love. she and Ro are friends. 10/10 Women supporting women. 

> Ro’s cultural roots are celebrated a lot. It’s nice! 

> Prince never puts Ro in a corner to change, from what I remember. He guides her through what she’s willing to do, and helps accomidate her with that makes her uncomfortable (sleeps in the greenhouse,for example). 10/10 m8

6. Barbie and the Diamond Castle

> The Big Thing: The catalyst of this movie is Liana and Alexa’s lively hood being destoryed by a storm, and now homeless and jobless, they end up questing with a magic mirror to save Melody and the other trapped Muses. Alexa is hesitant and even gives up to stay in a Lotus Casino type place because there’s food and shelter there. There’s a heavy value on having enough to eat, and having a place to live. Displacement and poverty, I guess is the right word for this. 

> Okay so I heard around that Alexa and Liana are queer coded based on their dress colors in the final scene matching the Lesbian and Bisexual Flag and I stan that because honestly, Barbie need some gay. 

> The Will Sing For Food scene hits differently than any other scene in Barbie Movies. It’s just such a real thing. 

7. Barbie and the Three Musketeers 

> The Big Thing: Sexsim. This one is very on the nose of “women can’t do this.” and then Barbie adn Co proves them wrong!! 

> I am pretty sure there are SEVERAL assasination attempts in this one. 

> “Release the Fireworks!!” is carved into my mind. 

> The Master Trainer is an old lady maid. Cool trope subversion. 

Honestly, people who cry about adult themes in their kids movies need to watch these movies. Did you notice how many ASSASSINATIONS happen in these movies? SO MUCH ASSASSINATION. 

These movies are deeper and more complex than given credit for. I can admit that Barbie’s early movies didn’t do great with racial representation, but we can also praise them for accomplishing their aim of empowering young girls as much as they did. 

I can’t say much for mordern Barbie since that’s not my era. Perhaps someone else can comment about that better than I can. 

TL;DR: Barbie movies deal with adult themes in a child friendly setting and they are well done and you should go watch them and see how much deeper and complex these movies can be. 

A Barbie Movie I DO NOT STAN: Princess and the Pop Star. That movie is “Two whiny girls hate their privlaged life and wish they were someone else’s privlaged life and I guess help the poor” It’s not good. You can enjoy the bops it produced, but that movie is INSANELY Problomatic. 

[hraishin]

I see you you reblogged the character defensive post...

what ARE your thoughts on movie Charles????

(no judgment, I am v v v curious)

I am very very angry right now cause I had written a wholeass essay to reply to this and my phone glitched because of WhatsApp's backup (Mark Zuckerberg I am coming for you, bitch).

BUT ANYWAY AS I WAS SAYING BEFORE I LOST EVERYTHING, I absolutely adore movie Charles Xavier. I think he's one of the characters with the best character development in the movies cause god knows Erik became the angst factor of "make him angry so he can fight the X-Men teehee" till the very end. But I am a canon-negationist for Dark Phoenix Charles, I'll deny ever knowing him and whoever tries to say he was done right in that movie owns me $5 /j. (but seriously, I personally don't like Dark Phoenix. The visuals are great and god bless Hans Zimmer with that original score, but the story in itself was messy as fuck, mostly due to the many rewrites probably).

But anyway, I do love movie Charles a lot because although I don't agree with the overly pacifist and kinda "we should be nice to humans so they're nice to us" approach he has I do see him having good points and I also admire his hope a lot. People might say "oh he's idealistic" and yeah he kinda is but as someone who's optimistic even in the worst times because I feel like I need to be the hopeful one when no one is, and who in general hopes for good things from people and the rest of the world, I do see myself a lot in him. Most of my liking from him comes from seeing myself in him (and also because of James McAvoy, who I adore) but as a character he's always caught my attention more.

Days of Future Past is the movie that really makes him that much of a better character for me because it's his snapping point, it's him without his normal hope and it's the broken version of that lovely slutty man we meet in First Class and who just had a Bad Time™ in Cuba all those years ago and just kept losing and losing, over and over again. In my opinion they handled Charles' trauma and mental health really well there with the little time they had and the added bonus of him not being kind to Erik in the end felt right after Erik broke his trust again by shooting Raven and by trying to kill the politicians and basically take Raven's place to create the future Logan tried to stop (and that's a whole other thing I could rant about, but I'm here to talk about my main man Charles).

Apocalypse was not the best of movies but of all the characters I still see him having the best character development there with the situation he was put in (not hard to happen when Erik was used as the "villain" once again!) in which he starts trying to keep the fight away from the school because god knows this man just wants some peace for once, only to realize the fighting never stops because there'll always be someone to hurt him or the ones he love. The scene of him in dark lighting as he watches the new X-Men being trained is still great and it pains me a lot because I just see it as him giving in to something he never wanted to happen (even worse because in my head Charles ties this endless fight to Erik and the way he handles things which was never Charles' way, but there's no other way) (and yes I'm bringing my hcs to the table, shhhh).

Dark Phoenix I hate so I will not elaborate on this movie, I will deny the existence of anything other than the train scene and the Paris Proposal. I could agree that certain plot points can be interesting but here's the thing: Movie Charles and Comic Charles are not the same people. Movie Charles is a slutty little guy whom I adore and Comic Charles is this man who won't leave me alone as much as I try to push him away (I can't drown my demons they know how to swim). In Dark Phoenix he's awfully close to taking Comic-Charles-like actions which makes no sense with the character the movies created, and even then Movie Charles differs from BDSM suit comic man. But, well, I don't like that movie or Charles' (and Raven's, and Erik's, and everyone's) characterizations on it, sorry if you do, that's just where I stand on it. And as you know, my opinions on this CB movie is truly important for the world rn /s.

But anyway, I think Charles is a great character, I love writing him cause boy oh boy, he has a lot of angst in that pretty head of his, but I also see myself a lot in him. So there you go.

I'll end Comic Charles myself tho because I cannot stand that man, thank you very much. I do like his catsuit tho, so I'll objectify him.

TL;DR: I just think Movie Charles is very neat and I'd bury Comic Charles alive.