#i am by no means saying my own writing is flawless btw

[musicalmoritz]

TBHK Mischaracterization

Imo the leading cause behind mischaracterization in the TBHK fandom is that most fans either don’t understand the characters or they dislike them, so they subconsciously rewrite the story to fit their narrative. I don’t have as much of a problem with this when fans are upfront about it, if I don’t like it I just ignore it; but many fans don’t even realize they’re doing it

This type of rewriting is further allowed by the fact that the fanon TBHK characters don’t look like stereotypical fanon tropes. Fanon Kou isn’t an abusive womanizer, he’s a helpless puppy who can do no wrong. They can get away with that because technically that characterization is drawn from canon, Kou is a very kind person and a gentleman. But they run with those two traits until he loses all of the agency and nuance that he has in canon

Similarly, fanon Mitsuba isn’t an uwu soft boy who needs Kou’s help to tie his shoe. He’s a grumpy edgelord that goes out of his way to be rude to people. This is pulled from him having no filter in canon, but that’s where they end his characterization. They take away all of the softness that makes his character so unique. If someone said Mitsuba is the type to cry when his boyfriend ignores him, many fans would probably call that ooc, despite the fact that it’s canon. Because they don’t want to admit that Mitsuba is emotional, or that Kou is mean to a lot of people

To give the fandom the benefit of the doubt, I do think this comes from a fear of going in the opposite direction with fanon. They don’t want to turn Mitsukou into fanon Baku//Deku, so their solution is to swap the roles and make Mitsuba the fanon Bakugou and Kou the fanon Deku. Those should not be our only two options. We should be able to talk about these characters without reducing them to tropes

This goes for all the characters, they’re mischaracterized to be more digestible. Fans don’t have to put any work into analyzing Akane’s character if they reduce him to a creep. They don’t have to think too deeply about the Minamoto’s home life if they make Teru out to be an abuser. They don’t have to wrap their heads around a female character having an unlikable personality if they limit her to one half of a wlw ship. And so on, and so forth

I will also say that since romance is such a major part of TBHK, you’re going to have to put extra work into maintaining accurate characterization for fanon ships. That’s not to say you can’t enjoy fanon ships, I’m like the biggest multishipper ever, but when you’re writing them keep in mind that you’re removing love stories that are integral to a character’s arc and development. They can still be kept in character but try to imagine what they would be like if they didn’t have that development, or if the development happened differently

For instance, if Kou never fell in love with Mitsuba, he never would have learned how to be selfish. He wouldn’t know what it feels like to be relied on, and a lot of his significant character flaws would be erased. So how does that play out if he falls for Hanako or Nene instead? Does he have a similar arc or do things go a little differently? What problems would arise within those relationships that we don’t see with Mitsukou?? If you’re writing them pre-Mitsuba arc then you won’t run into as many problems, but after that Kou falling for someone else would change things up a bit. Just like Hanako and Nene falling for other people would majorly change the direction of the story. It can be done, but do it carefully

A lot of the time with fanon pairings I see fans just sort of try to copy and paste the dynamic of the canon ships. With Aoinene, I’ve seen people write Nene to be the only one who understands Aoi. That removes all of Aoi and Nene’s canon conflict and turns them into wlw AoiAoi. Let ships have their own dynamics and conflict!!

That’s not to say canon ships don’t require any effort for characterization ofc, I did start this off talking about how Mitsuba and Kou are mischaracterized by Mitsukou shippers. They just have an easier start because Kou and Mitsuba being in love with each other already maintains a prominent element of canon. It changes nothing about the direction of the story the way a fanon pairing would. Keep in mind tho, just because that one element remains close to canon doesn’t mean everything else is gonna go right. I see fans butcher the canon ships all the time lol

I obviously give more leeway to AUs but like, guys. Can we please sit down and read the manga😭

[isa-ghost]

Btw I am affectionately squeezing everyone who's given me Pomme, Missa, Pac, and other characterization tips for AMFMN to death for their help. I hope they know they've contributed to making the fic the best it can be and if Tumblr doesn't fuck me over, I'll definitely at some point in the future find the URLs on the posts I made and make a sappy af post thanking everyone who helped me do research to write things accurately.

I'm determined to make sure every single character that appears in the fic is done right no matter how brief their appearance is, even if it's not a flawless reflection. I'm very confident in Most of my characterizations so far (I've been told I've got Phil and Fit's mannerisms down PERFECTLY and that means SO MUCH to me ;-;), but I've been super conscious abt doing everyone justice throughout the entire planning & writing process. I'm determined for there not to be a single He Would Not Fucking Say That moment in the fic about ANYONE.

And despite being a little antsy about the characters I'm writing who I haven't seen tons of in streams, I'm having so much fun turning the compensation I'm doing to make up for lacking the knowledge into a group effort. To me THAT is peak QSMP.

The fact that I've had community members talk to me in Spanish abt characters, then consulting a completely different person to translate those things for me, then passing on those translations to other people who need a good reference for characterization. Getting to let people infodump about their faves in general but esp in their language. Asking someone to work with me throughout the process of writing the fic to translate the Spanish correctly rather than lazily relying on shitty translations from Google. Hell, my translator for Spanish dialogue taught me a Spanish culture thing and I deadass changed a conversation in Chapter 3 to include it!! The fic, a FANMADE THING, is LITERALLY doing what Actual QSMP's entire goal is: bringing groups together and sharing bits of their cultures!! That's fucking awesome!!

AMFMN has been a community effort FROM THE BEGINNING, honestly. Someone asked me for certain qPhil headcanons, then those sparked me to make other qPhil headcanons, then someone else asked me to elaborate on one I made, then I saw an entire group of people voicing a desire for more Phil-centric fics, then THAT all spiraled from there.

I never was like "Hm. Me want write Phil fic." I got inspired from the fandom and the people I interacted with. I'M NOT A FIC WRITER. I HAVE NEVER WRITTEN A FANFIC BEFORE NOW. I only ever wrote short OC things. And here I am writing a 20 FUCKING CHAPTER longfic for a fandom!! And I'm consulting people for Spanish translations for Missa, and I 100% intend on consulting a native French speaker I know and a native Portuguese speaker I know if Etoiles or Bagi have dialogue in their languages too (I plan to fit it in where I can, I've been focused more on Missa speaking Spanish bc he/Phil use the translations more together while Etoiles & Bagi tend to just speak English if they're not on their own or with other FR/PT speakers so I haven't been as focused on them lmao)!! And I'm so fucking hyped that I get to make that happen because of something I created, the same way Quackity gets to watch collaboration and sharing through something he's created.

TLDR I fucking love this community and I'm so thankful for the people who have been involved no matter how briefly.

[moonmeg]

Reading through your au pair stuff and you sound very harsh towards the girl, acusing her of gaslighting you and making your life so miserable that you need to get out immediately. Four years ago she was still losing her baby teeth. She’s a kid. Think about it from her perspective. First, she’s fourteen-which is miserable no matter what the situation. Fourteen year olds are just like that. Second, she probably feels like you’re being forced on her- you said it’s your job to befriend and look after the kids? She probably feels like that’s all entirely fake and doesn’t want friendship if it’s an obligation on your part. Your friendship feels like a lie to her, most likely. Third, are you essentially a stranger in their house? Like, did you know her before or does the family make their kids live with random ass people they host? That’s a HUGE source of stress for kids, especially young teens. I don’t doubt that she can be bitchy but also, this cannot be an easy situation for her to deal with. And she’s dealing with it using an undeveloped brain that still struggles to make the right decisions socially.

It absolutely is a stressful situation for her too, no doubt. She told me so more than once herself and I feel bad for her in this aspect. In many situations I would've reacted the same as she does right now. I know she is a kid (she's 11 btw not 14) and I know having a stranger in your house whose friendship seems forced on you is not nice.

It's not her fault her parents keep dragging strangers in.

It however doesn't excuse her being rude and mean to the people around her. She treats her other family like this too. Everyone around her keeps saying that her being rude and aggressive... it's her character. She's always been like that and only sometimes is not.

I am harsh, oh I definitely am harsh on her (on tumblr). Because this has been going on for months without change. I've been patient with her because I am fully aware she is a kid and she is in a tough age and I can understand many of the situations she got mad at me and for many of those I do listen to her and do apologize. I still treat her with kindness and respect, despite how tired and mad I am at her for other things, because I don't just want to give her up.

I draw the line at trying to convince me I am in the wrong for doing my job (which also includes telling the parents about her behavior etc.) by just making stuff up out of nowhere and at blaming me for all fights she has with her parents. I have been enduring it because I thought she is young, she is just a kid, she'll grow. But I have reached my limit. My posts here regarding my situation with her are filled with a lot of emotion and bias since I write and post them shortly after the situation happened and so they sound and are harsh. Is it right of me? Perhaps not.

I don't want to claim myself to be a good au pair - I'm far off from that by own fault of mine.

I don't want to claim I have been flawless these 5 months. I am fully aware the things that are required of me can become annoying and are sometimes even things I wouldn't do on other people. I am fully aware this girl is probably just so tired of having au pairs around and just wants to be alone.

Nothing you said in the ask is wrong and I am totally with you there. I'm not searching for trouble or a fight. Not in the host family, not with anyone else.

You can think of all this and of me as you want. At this point I am just too tired caring about what other people think or have to say. Be it family, friends or strangers on the internet.

[trekkingthroughthestargate]

Hi! Film professional here, who has degrees in film and theater, who worked in television for years, and who writes screenplays, and I will have to respectfully disagree with what you are saying. @musula I’m trying to mostly avoid spoilers here for your sake, and the only spoiler here is one that most people are aware of (I think).

First of all, to say that the Star Trek movies are bad movies is a rather insane statement, at the very least considering their longevity (bad movies don’t have that), and to say that they are only good movies if you are insane about Star Trek is a bit puzzling to me - particularly when I consider my own intro into Star Trek was me going from genuinely thinking it was stupid and never wanting to watch anything about it, to watching one of the movies and realizing that it’s actually genuinely very very good. But I digress - that’s just a personal anecdote and at best is proof that they can appeal to me specifically.

I’m also going to refrain from talking about the acting, because frankly the acting in Star Trek movies is generally top notch, as these are all seasoned, professional, performers who have a deep understanding of the characters they are playing and turn in amazing performance after amazing performance.

TMP: The Motion Picture is a study in how not to make a Star Trek movie, as well as how not to make a movie for a more modern audience. Trekkies expect more of an adventure - that is the Star Trek mission statement after all - and expect their philosophy to be more strongly intertwined with fun and exploration. Modern audiences, especially since attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, expect fast pace, short scenes, and speedy action.

However, the story of TMP is not by any means bad. It’s almost quintessential Star Trek in that we are quite literally encountering what is to become a new life form, it’s just too small to really fill in the runtime of the movie. The other problem is that the life form comes to us and it does so very. very. very slowly. We are not the explorers in this scenario, but rather the ones the explorers are coming to. The character arcs that we do get in this movie are good, but not enough to really carry the story, which is again good, but very small. Rather than a sense of camaraderie, adventure, exploration, we merely get a sense that we are stationary while events take place around us. This certainly would have worked well as the pilot for a TV show, but by the time you find yourself wanting more (and it takes a while to really elicit that desire for more), the movie is over.

From a film/production standpoint, it’s also not bad. It’s a study in magnificence, in how to portray magnitude and the vastness of space. And the vfx look just as good today as they did when the movie first came out. I could absolutely see it being used in film school to teach the importance of music and visual depth. It’s good for analysis, but not always good for entertainment.

It’s a fair movie, and a fair Star Trek movie.

TWOK: I am truly puzzled but your estimation that this is a bad movie, because not only is this a great Star Trek movie, but it’s a great movie even if you took it out of the Star Trek franchise. This is the only Star Trek movie that, in my opinion, is a “great movie”, while the others are just “great Star Trek movies”. (This btw is not a slight - a great Star Trek movie is often better than many other “great [franchise] movies”). The thematic depth, tightly intertwined with the events of the story, culminating in one of the great tragedies in film history make this movie a study in how to write a perfect screenplay. When nearly every line of dialogue, every moment, every sequence of events, can tie into the thematic depth of the film, you have a masterpiece. The structure of this screenplay is very nearly flawless.

From a film/production standpoint, it’s also breathtaking. Just about every single vfx shot in this movie holds up to this day, often surpassing the CGI that we get in modern movies. It’s also the very first movie in history to feature a fully CGI rendered sequence, and that also largely holds up. It is another movie that I could see (and have seen) taught in film school as an example of how to pace battle sequences, how to use music to emphasize or de-emphasize important dramatic moments, and how to emphasize the magnitude of a situation without (as TMP did) losing your film within that vastness.

It’s not just a good movie, and it’s not just a great Star Trek movie. It’s a great movie.

SFS: The Search for Spock is sometimes considered a lesser movie simply because it sits between The Wrath of Khan - the greatest Star Trek movie ever made - and The Voyage Home - the most popular Star Trek movie ever made. And it is the weakest movie in the “Genesis trilogy”, but it is also by no means a bad movie. In fact I would argue that SFS is exactly what a sequel needs to be. Most sequels fail, not just because they are bad movies, but because they try to be bigger and better than the preceding movie, oftentimes disrespecting and violating the resolution that came before. SFS does not do that. Instead, it honors what came before and while it does change that resolution through the resurrection of Spock, it is done so without diminishing that sacrifice.

The story itself is smaller than The Wrath of Khan, the themes are not explored as deeply as they could have been, and the plot and thematic elements go hand in hand more than they are tightly intertwined. However, while there are shortcomings, this is a “great Star Trek movie”, because if the story is not as strong as it was in the previous movie, it more than makes up for it through the exploration of character. Nimoy himself is missing through a majority of the movie, but Spock’s essence is such an enormous part of what is going on that his loss is felt as an important part of that structure. The story would not have worked if we did not feel that loss as keenly as we do, because it makes the decisions the characters make something we the audience consider 100% essential. Additionally, unlike the previous movies, it gives every single character a chance to shine.

From a film/production standpoint, it’s stunning. With the exception of one scene, this was filmed entirely on soundstages, and yet it doesn’t feel small or cheap because of how effectively everything was filmed. The use of light and shadow throughout is also something that can be (and has) been used to teach how to use these tools to create mood, emphasize style, and elicit an emotional response.

This is a good movie, and a great Star Trek movie.

TVH: The Voyage Home is the most popular Star Trek movie, and for good reason. It’s a classic fish out of water story that uses clever dialogue, genuinely funny comedy, and deep emotional beats that more than overcome any shortcomings it might have. This movie has much less thematic depth than the previous two, and the plot really just exists to allow the audience to have a good time with these well developed and interesting characters, but those are not shortcomings in any way, rather an active choice to end the “genesis trilogy” on a breath of fresh air after the heaviness of the previous two. The question of why a probe would be evaporating the oceans when they know that’s where whales live, for example, is not important. It exists to be an inciting incident - to motivate our characters’ actions and to allow us to get to the comedy of the fish out of water story. It continues the character arcs set up in TWOK and continued in SFS, and brings them to a satisfactory close (for now - the true conclusion will come later).

From a film/production standpoint, it’s also a phenomenal movie. Pause the movie at any particular moment and you are guaranteed to have something visually interesting to look at. There is no single shot that is not beautifully planned, excellently shot, and stunningly executed. While it’s not unique in its greatness, it’s truly just a well produced, well shot film.

This is a good movie, and a great Star Trek movie.

TFF: The Final Frontier is… not a good movie. There are moments in it that I love as a fan of Star Trek, but they are hardly worth everything else that we have to suffer through in this movie. The main plot is poorly thought out, ludicrous to the extreme, and is a disservice to the characters that deserve so much better. It tries to explore political intrigue, and fails completely. It tries to explore philosophical concepts, and fails completely. It tries to utilize comedy, and fails completely.

From a film/production standpoint, it’s even worse. Even little things like, for example, when the triumvirate are climbing up the turboshaft and Spock appears in his rocket boots from… above them? If he was able to so quickly get his boots, go up several floors of the ship without detection, all to descend down to them… what was the point of them climbing up? It’s just one example of extremely bad directing, editing, and filmmaking. While there are a few nice shots - the Enterprise framed against he moon come to mind - the majority of the special effects are terrible, don’t make sense in the context of what they are (why does a planet look like a goddamn star?), and an utter embarrassment.

This is a terrible movie, and a bad Star Trek movie.

TUC: The Undiscovered Movie is the swan song for the original cast, and while it is deeply flawed in some ways it’s a fitting end to an iconic crew. The plot finally gives the conclusions to the story arcs set up in TWOK, continued in SFS, and expanded in TVH. It’s also an extremely good political thriller, explores deeply important topics, and delivers a satisfying - if predictable - mystery for our characters to solve. If not for a few flaws would be genuinely a great film, not just a great Star Trek film. However, there are some elements that prevent that - namely the predictability of the mystery, partly due to needing to create a whole new character instead of being able to bring back Saavik, and the handling of some of the characters. It makes sense for Kirk, for instance, to over the years begin harboring a deep hatred, distrust, and prejudice against the Klingons because of what he personally has lost at their hands, but the rest of the crew’s prejudice makes much less sense. A stronger outing would have allowed Kirk’s prejudice to be something his crew are concerned about and comment on, rather than something they agree with. Additionally, unlike in TVH, the humor often comes at the expense of the characters, rather than the humor coming from a deep understanding of the characters. But while the comedic moments do not always work, the emotional beats work every single time. In spite of its flaws, it’s great screenplay, and a fitting swan song to an iconic group of characters.

From a film/production standpoint, this is again a very good movie. The vfx are great - even if I personally dislike the Klingon’s pesto bismol pink blood, it was done to avoid an R rating - the cinematography is beautiful, the pacing (particularly of the battle scenes) is amazing, and the music is superb.

This is a good movie, and a great Star Trek movie.

hello jellyiferous . i'm almost finished with TOS, so i'm gonna watch the movies soon. i hear a lot of mixed opinions on them and since i consider you more of an expert than IMDB (and a star trek movie enjoyer) i wanna know if there's anything i should know before i watch them (anything about any of them) (feel free to rant or ramble) (or pass this along if you don't wanna do this) (thanks)

hello hello!!!

thats so exciting i love the movies!!!

dont listen to anyone elses opinions they just dont get it ok. the movies are so fun. they're fun and campy and so so gay

are they Good Movies™️? hell no. but i dont care about that and neither should you

the motion picture has terrible pacing. nothing happens for like a quarter of this movie. but its so cute and a real comfort watch. the outfits serve cunt, the side characters are cool, the plot twist isnt very twisty but you will go "ohhhh ok. sure. yeah that makes more sense". they could never make me hate you, tmp

the wrath of khan will probably make you cry. its generally considered better than the first movie i think but its very sad in a few places so. prepare accordingly for that one

the search for spock is fun but obviously contains very little spock until they find him. thats kinda my only criticism of this movie lmao. not enough spock!! where is he!! find him faster cmon!! very sweet ending tho. the rest of the crew really get to shine in this one. we get some iconic sulu and uhura moments especially

the voyage home is probably most peoples favourite. it is commonly referred to as "the one with the whales" as a sort of. fandom inside joke? i think? it is very fun. lots of old married couple spirk moments.

the final frontier is so good for mcspirk moments. there is very much a found family vs blood family vibe to this movie. the real family was the friends we made along the way etc etc. i love this one

the undiscovered country i have only seen once and i was a bit distracted while watching it, i will admit. but i still enjoyed it. its a bit of a tone shift from the other movies from what i recall. its like. star trek if it were a murder mystery.

so yeah basically. the star trek movies are bad movies but if you're insane enough about star trek they become good movies. you just have to let yourself be insane about it. look for the spirk moments, enjoy the outfit changes, complain about the set design because its 'not the same', you'll have a great time

[carebohe]

organizing my brain re: literary references in ted lasso episode 2: 

there were 3-  (actually 4 but the first shakespeare one is kind of a toss away joke- the ‘perchance to dream’ bit)

1. the prince of tides reference is pretty clear cut- the novel is about troubled childhoods (understatement), coaching and complex family relationships as well as therapy, and some romance etc. 

it makes total sense that sharon, a sports psychologist, would have that as a favorite book.

2. ‘heavy is the head that wears the visor’

it’s a pretty clear cut jokey reference to henry iv part 2

and i encourage you to go read the whole soliloquy because it's good stuff, but here’s the essential part:

“Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose

To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,

And in the calmest and most stillest night,

With all appliances and means to boot,

Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

this is such an incredibly incisive quote for sharon to use, because it’s not only about anxieties messing up sleep which we know ted struggles with--

it’s also the fact that henry iv was a usurper with no god given right to the throne. he is portrayed as an indecisive ruler in the play with his doubt and uncertainty resulting partially from his own belief that he did not deserve the ‘crown’, even though in the previous play he’s in (richard ii) he is portrayed as ambitious and capable.

(i.e. sharon has this man’s NUMBER. she KNOWS.) (this is also what we call good fucking writing)

3. THE GODDAMN FOUNTAINHEAD? TED.

christ boy i want the explanation we were denied before i make any conclusions but imma give you one (1) yikes right off the bat.

so i am a person who has read that whole book- because rory gilmore did, obviously. i also chose rand as my author one year in high school (she had the longest books and i was a pretentious prick) so i have read just about everything she ever wrote and i’ve gotta say- that woman is absolutely mad. and she can absolutely write. and she needed a better editor, but i imagine if some bloke had come along and tried to edit her goddamn 75 page monologues i’m pretty sure she would have set him on fire.  

(howard roark blows up a building because someone fucks with his architectural plans in the fountainhead, but the longest monologues are in atlas shrugged which no one should ever feel like they need to read)

anyway, i do see how this happened, and i can *kind of* see a reason or two why ted says this. so he started high school in the late 80′s when ‘greed was good’ and books like the fountainhead that have extreme examples of individualism were very popular- so he probably first read it as a school related thing. 

and honestly, when you read that book as a teen it is quite appealing- this character who gives absolutely no fucks and follows his own ideas to the very letter at the expense of absolutely everything else. roark is unaffected by setbacks, by shitty people he works with, the woman he loves (WHOLE OTHER CONVO BTW) going off and marrying several dweebs because she's not quite at his level yet. he has absolute courage of his convictions.

it’s also just a fucking remarkable novel- like as long as you know that the philosophy in it is absolutely bonkers. all the characters are incredibly flawed- including the ‘flawless hero’- there’s just something about it.

maybe the ted lasso connection is that the fundamental quality the characters share is real no-holds-barred-belief.

for roark it’s belief in ego and the self, for ted- he believes in belief itself, the power of the human mind to be curious and entirely leave aside judgement

and deep down both of them really do believe that they are the best at what they do and that anyone else’s interference makes the whole endeavor tainted- for ted though, he may get over that. IN THERAPY. WE HOPE.

anyways there’s a bit in there that reminds me of ted during the darts scene- it’s in the fountainhead just before the ‘they killed the guy who invented fire’ speech that every dumb rand loving asshole you’ve ever known quotes. 

“Roark stood before them as each man stands in the innocence of his own mind. But Roark stood like that before a hostile crowd--and they knew suddenly that no hatred was possible to him. For the flash of an instant, they grasped the manner of his consciousness. Each asked himself: do I need anyone’s approval?--does it matter?--am I tied? And for that instant, each man was free--free enough to feel benevolence for every other man in the room.“

tldr; ted was a weird kid, and so was i, but he needs to read more books

[supercool-here]

NO ONE NEEDS ANOTHER REVIEW OF HOT GIMMICK: GIRL MEETS BOY (or whatever) BUT I NEED TO WRITE MY OWN REVIEW OF THE WHOLE THING

So I hear it's and adaptation of a manga, Idk about the manga, I just know about the effing movie: some hate it, some don't understand what the heck happened, some hate themselves for watching it, and let me tell you, I am all of the previous ones, except I also really love it (not just for how effing beautifully and uniquely the cinematography is) but because it's so effing close to reality, the thing is so close to the truth that it's even cringy and tortuous. It was a ride. With lots of stages. And I'd say you need to be pretty mature to get it (as a whole)

Do I think everything about the movie is right? No. Do I love it? Yes. Why?

We are given this teenage girl, Hatsumi, who is very unconfident, naive, and has absolutely no self esteem. Now, we get three boys: the neighbor with cringy hair, Tachibana, (who obviously likes her but won't be direct and instead goes on annoying her and manipulating her to be his servant (?), he's jealous, he keeps telling her she's his (I know, wtf) and dumb, stupid, idiot (I know, WTF) and manipulates her to kiss him (I know, ew). Then we have this other neighbor with orange hair, who's name I forgot, a famous boy who used to live in the same complex as her and was her childhood friend (until he became famous and left, apparently) he goes back and starts hitting on her, NOW, from the beginning it was pretty obvious (at least to me) that he was the kind of boy who sees naive girls like her and seduces her very easily with some compliments and shit like that, which happens of course. Then we have the big brother, the cutest in my opinion, who's name I also forgot, NOW there was something about the brother being cute and protective that made me consider the possibility of him being another love interest, BUT WTF I DIDN'T MEAN IT and IT HAPPENED wtf. And we also have a very absent mom and a little sister (Akane) who had early sexual intercourse with a boy who wasn't that into her (she ducking deserved better, btw, I mean that should've gotten fixed)

Is any of those boys "perfect"? NO, absolutely no. If you're trying to find out her ideal man following the formula of looking for the most flawless guy (or the first guy to be introduced hehe) you're gonna fail, FIRST because each of them is greatly flawed or has huge cons (Tachibana is a toxic bitch who insults and molests Hatsumi in the beginning, dude with orange hair was literally taking advantage of her, manipulating her for her naiveness and lack of self confidence and self esteem, out something in her drink and after his plan got interrupted by her brother, he video calls her and lures her into showing herself naked, which he of course records cause he wanted revenge for something that she wasn't even involved in, and her big brother turns out to be adopted but that's doesn't change shit y'all they still grew up as siblings like never in a million years should anything happen between the two of them), so yeaj they're all flawed and super inconvenient. BUT THEN that's what it is about, and here is why I loved the movie, in spite of how painful, cringy, frustrating and scary it was:

Hatsumi got an ACTUAL character arc, not just like boohoo she got hurt now she won't trust anybody and she'll be a though girl, NA-AH, after orange-hair dude did what he did, she gets hurt but she also heals (not thanks to the mom btw, but thanks to Tachibana and maybe her brother), and she started to stand up for herself, she would tell Tachibana to shut up and stop calling her idiot (or whatever baka actually means), she started to value her body, and she was in the process of forgiving orange-hair dude while still staying away from him cause gurl he didn't actually care about you. She understood there were people who wouldn't value her and she would need to be the one defending her value. With Tachibana and their relationship, not only does she grow (cause she got more confidence and self esteem after the hope and trust she finds in him) he changes too, he was always kind of a good dude but pretty toxic, but then he's just impulsive (not saying that's good though), let's say he changes in terms of how he treated her. And with her brother, they get to sort out the mess that was going on there, they didn't keep anything to themselves, they both found peace in being siblings and that's healthy (although I do not agree with him kissing her nor with her literally laying on his bed, but in the end he didn't loose control, he did what was right (almost always).

It was a very complex movie, but it was quite simple as well, and I'm happy with the end, although some of the things Tachibana and Hatsumi say are quite cringy, it's a good end. Both Tachibana and Hatsumi know they're not perfect, but Tachibana knows Hatsumi has potential and Hatsumi knows Tachibana is good, they trust each other and are willing to stay together no matter how imperfect things are, WHICH IS AWESOME cause we are told things should be perfect right away, and that's not how things work, you gotta grow together, have faith I each other, accept each other's flaws and bring them closer to their best version, not everyone can commit to that, not everyone can commit to a lifetime of growing and learning and healing and embracing, and these teens did. Also the way they both are enormously conscious they want to belong to each other and own each other at the same time is just beautiful cause that's what love is, belonging to someone and guarding that same someone at the same time, not as a possession, but as a treasure. Wtf is hecking beautiful, and people hate it because there's ugly, complicated things about it, but reality is shaped with ugly and complicated things too, that's why this movie is great.

There's many quotes I loved, maybe I'll rewatch it someday and I'll make a follow up to this review and I'll add screen caps of my favorite quotes/shots. It's just so effing beautiful, this film makes want to meet the creators and give em a thousand kisses followed by a thousand slaps on their faces

I just never understood how the worst character of all (orange-hair dude) turned out to have actually been interested in Hatsumi and not just taking revenge, like wuuuut?

And I do believe Akane deserved much better.

The thing about the movie is that there's characters with flaws much bigger than we can take, and there's people getting hurt and making mistakes but that didn't write the end of their stories: Hatsumi grew up (which we all knew she needed to) Tachibana was an arrogant dude but he treasured Hatsumi (I never really liked Tachibana that much to be honest, but at some point I was ok with him), and her brother did the right thing. And I'm still confused about orange-hair dude but at least Hatsumi didn't run to his arms ever again

Was the movie confusing? It can be confusing if you don't follow what's goin on while processing things in your head. That's a great reason to not watch this if you're a teenager.

And of course I hated the lack of adults in the film, they all needed parents to talk to, protection, a home to go to.

Don't come at me with "but the manga yada yada", Idk about the manga, perhaps there where way worse things and the movie sugar coated things, I don't need that bullshit, if the manga has crazier crap that's mot my business.

[superfluouskeys]

I've been considering writing fanfic but am worried that I'm not talented and that people might be mean. Any tips on getting over either of those things? Do you just have to like, go for it? I love your work btw! 🖤

dooooo iiiiiiit joinnnnn usssssss

There’s a great quote from the movie Carol that goes something like – “Isn’t talent something other people let you know you have? All you can do is keep working. Use what feels right, throw away the rest.”

My biggest piece of advice, and my personal guiding principle, is to write something that YOU want to read. I like reading my own fics, because I write about the characters and scenarios I find most interesting, I issue personal challenges to myself that I find fun and rewarding, and I write in a way that I generally like. I think writing to please yourself specifically takes at least some of the pressure off. I won’t lie and say that others’ approval doesn’t matter to me, but I find that if you like your idea and think it would make a good story, there is SOMEONE else out there who has been waiting to see it, or didn’t know they wanted it until you wrote it!

This may just be my own personal experience, and specifically on AO3, but I find that people are generally much nicer about fanfic than they used to be. Avid fic readers tend to appreciate your effort, and fellow writers tend to be happy to hype you up. You’re not likely to get blatantly rude comments on your first fanfic, for example, no matter the objective quality.

I’d say the greatest danger to look out for is people being sort of underhandedly discouraging—people who might seem to mean well, but the things they say just rub you the wrong way for reasons you’ll have a hard time working out. Maybe they feel that their personal taste in fic or writing is somehow objectively correct, or maybe they feel a bit entitled or attached to certain fandom interpretations of the source material or characters. This is, I think, a worst-case scenario. Another worst-case is just receiving very little or no feedback, though this can be mitigated by forming personal connections with fellow fandom people.

If you’re nervous about sharing your work, I’d say it definitely helps to find trusted friends to share it with first, or a discord-type thing of like-minded people. There are lots of fandom/ship discords, for example, and I’m sure also writing discords, though that isn’t my scene personally. Engaging with the fandom(s) you want to write for can also help you gauge your potential audience, and what kind of reception new writers tend to get. Some fandoms are very welcoming, while others can be a little more tight-knit, for lack of a better word, and might take more time to break into. Bigger fandoms can be saturated with content, while smaller ones might not even check for new content right away. I wouldn’t get too bogged down in this, it’s just good information to know going in so you might have a better idea of how you will be received as a newcomer.

If you are nervous about things like typos or structural issues, you can ask someone to proofread your work for you, but honestly—be careful not to let a fear of mistakes or a tendency towards perfectionism take away your fun. This isn’t published fiction or an academic paper—it doesn’t have to be technically flawless. I’d bet almost every single one of my all-time favourite fics had a typo or an odd sentence somewhere—it’s really not that important. If you want to write fanfic, chances are that means you have a story you want to tell. That’s what’s important. Write to appeal to yourself first and foremost, and as I said earlier, if you like reading your story, chances are good that someone else will, too!

I hope this has been mildly helpful, and please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you on your journey!

[tired-elf-witch]

Ahhh 🥰🥰🥰 And I will say it again, it's a pleasure for me. Lol thanks, I love your url too!

And don't threaten me with a good time! 👁👄👁 Speaking about you having some ideas for make this whole situation even more twisted, with a possessive Lucius.

Oh well, that's normal but it's even a nice and satisfying thing when all is builded! There's some movies that I love about this concept of apparently flawless families, who actually hide the darkest secrets. It's interesting to read and write. And you're doing it perfectly!

By the way I can easily imagine Lucius as a secretly cruel man in the sheets, enjoying the others' pain, humiliation and ruin. I mean, dude, he is a control and power freak after all, so why not? There is this interesting conflict of Lucius who on the one hand enjoys hurting his own son and on the other hand tries to make him succubus and consenting.

I take this opportunity for a question: you said Draco is bisexual in your story, even he prefers men and his parents knew it. I read here that you think that Lucius is actually "glad" to know it in part but acted like a good father all the time.

I wonder, what if other than that Draco were have been someone who is actually turned on by violence, a masochist? And told it to his father, since he trusted him? Do you think Lucius would have thought badly of him because he sees him as his "pure son" or would have reacted differently?

took me a bit to get to respond, but here i am :P the bustle of the new year is already taking its toll on me 😵i caught the flu and i am still healing from it, ha! hope my answer makes sense, and hope youre faring well :)

lucius is ABSOLUTELY a sadist in this fic btw!! 100%. having been raised to see himself as above others he, by default, had ended up taking up quite a few sadistic tendencies, many that translated into his sex life as well.

and your questions, under the keep reading !

going to go on a bit of a tangent here bc i have this whole thing i have thought about the last few days since you sent your ask and read it. the actual idea of it in 'A Traitor Knows Best' is a bit different from what you have imagined, and ill get into that in a bit, after i write out what i have in mind for your scenario.

and... man that is incredible and has so many possibilities, wow! i think, had draco shared such a secret to his father (and, very very awkwardly mind you, since he wasnt sure how much he should share and how proper it would be to talk about it, since pure blooded views on sexuality are more repressed, ya know?) his father would have mixed reactions.

he would, most definitely, revel in knowing this bit of information- his mind would go wild at knowing such a little, but important, fact about his son. not only would his attraction flare up even more(i mean, this idea of "it was meant to be" would take its roots into his mind, and also just the fact that they complete each other, with lucius being a sadist and draco a masochist), but his self control would start wearing even more thin, and could be a direct influence on it snapping as well.

but, of course, there would be some deep seated conflict inside of him as well. youve got the pure-blooded elitism and repression being disgusted that draco would share such a vital part of his sex life- as it is, this kind of information is to be shared with your lover, not your parents. the way that lucius was open about being a sadist with his wife(and who enjoyed it very much). and theres also the fatherly part of him that, in a way, is sad to find out about it. his son is growing up and maturing just before his very eyes!

however, the very same reminder of him maturing also just fuels his desire more. hes growing up, maturing, and even figuring himself out and, as such, is perfect "for the taking", if you get what i mean ;)

i would love to also go into what i have envisioned for the fic- but there are some things that i will keep to myself and not go into to keep for later into it. but, i will share some information that might fuel your interest, but are a bit spoiler-y imo:

draco was a virgin, and very inexperienced other than some crushes and some "relationships" that went as far as hand holding only. hes formal when it comes to relationships, after all, and wants to take it the "gentleman route", as his mother made sure to raise him into a gentleman lmao.

and, draco would have turned out a sadist himself, had his father not started abusing him. but, as it is, with the current point we are in the fic draco isnt sure about his own desires anymore, so we will see how his... "self exploration" that has been heavily tainted by his father goes!

have a good one <3

[2ndblogg]

Hey! Just read your hot take on novel!wangxian and I absolutely agree. I'm gonna have to say here that I believe it boils down to the fetishization of homosexual men in a lot of the fandom culture that surrounds mlm shipping, as you said it's a space for a lot of women to experiment with their desires and whatnot, but I think therein lies the breaking points between reading novel!wangxian as a good, healthy relationship vs. reading it as a very flawed and toxic one. As an LGBT person, reading the way the author dealt with their relationship made me extremely uncomfortable, it just really feels like something that is written by someone who is more invested in using her queer characters for satisfying her and her reader's own pleasure than a well-built, strong relationship between two characters. Not to take away from the novel in some other aspects, I believe that novel!wwx is a much better, much more nuanced character than what he is in cql, but when it comes to wangxian, I think the intentions are very different for each of them. To each their own, I guess, but I do find it very troubling that some people in the fandom have a really hard time admitting that novel wangxian is not even remotely healthy.

Absolutely.

And can I just say how glad it makes me to see that not everyone is praising this book for it’s lgbt representation...

But I guess that’s also why I just occasionally feel the need to scream my frustrations into the void or try to make sense of the novel.

And why I try to be understanding and accepting of people’s opinion of the novel and not take it ‘personally’ (in the sense of sitting there thinking “holy shit this is how they view ME, this is what they think of ME” etc).

I was in fandoms back when they were really a place dominated by straight (homophobic) women and realism or lgbt representation wasn’t on anyone’s mind (and the occasional dude butting in to say that’s not how sex works or bottoming is experienced was ignored or told to get out). I experienced this change to fandoms being more of a lgbt space, of people becoming aware that media can shape your views of groups of people, of people becoming aware of their fetishizing of fictional gays vs. their prejudice against real life lgbt people etc.

And tbh MXTX just writes like one of those, she writes wangxian like everyone wrote their gay relationships around 2005 and earlier; clear power imbalance, clear roles and attributes that are divided into ��manly’ and ‘feminine’, certain physical attributes (like the female self insert character aka the bottom being pretty and slight and weaker and shorter), men/the penetrating partner can’t really be raped so anything the woman/bottom tries isn’t really ‘bad’, the male love interest is forceful and self centered but ONLY because he’s so in love and since he’s emotionally stunted he has to express that through sex, men/tops NEED sex and it’s rude/mean to deny them that, the girl/bottom isn’t THAT horny or in charge of their own sexuality but wants to please their partner and what they really get out of it is the emotional aspect, decisions need to be made for them because the dude/top just knows better, the girl/bottom is childish and flirty and the guy/top suffers through it until he finally snaps and shows the girl/bottom who'sboss etc etc. (honestly homophobia and misogyny is so tightly knit in this kind of fiction, if it wasn’t so frustrating it would be very interesting).

Tbh I disagree with novel!wwx being more nuanced (despite a lot of ppl whose opinions I really respect also feeling this way), because I simply cannot seperate him from the wangxian relationship. All I see are tropes and stereotypes applied to make him ‘work’ in the context of the wangxian relationship instead of an actual personality...

To me, in CQL WWX is clearly the main character and you love his interactions with LWJ and want more of them and value them, wheras in the novel most of the time WWX plays second fiddle even when a scene should technically be about him and LWJ’s presence is incredibly suffocating, because he’s always being controlling or at the very least influencing WWX.

I also don’t feel like WWX has much of a character arc/growth. We’re essentially told he had one but the only thing that really actually changes is him hating himself a bit more and letting LWJ smash..., and I guess: he’s less independent than ever, he’s more isolated that ever...

I’ve called novel!wangxian a relationship between an abuser and his victim, because you can find evidence of that in the text. Not because I think the author wanted to portray an unhealthy gay relationship. Like you said, she was fetishizing and wrote for a similar crowd. But to me that ‘realization’ helped...I still don’t see how people can call it a masterpiece but I can at least understand hyping something you like up...

And like, badly written gay relationship or not; gay/straight,man/women, I see how people can find it hot. Exploring your sexuality through fictional characters isn’t necessarily a strictly straight girl phenomena. I probably have read fic that was exactly like this, I can’t judge anyone for it. But no one prints out the last PWP they read and goes, “this is ideal lgbt representation and nothing will ever be this good, the fact that it includes rape makes it so realistic” like????

(Is that part or an effect of the woke and purety culture? you can’t say ‘i like this book but it has flaws’ or ‘i’ve enjoyed this but it’s not up the feminism or lgbt acceptance that i preach/live’ so you have to pretend it’s flawless?)

And like, I do think novel!wangxian is a nightmare when it comes to lgbt representation and I do believe this is largely due to a cishet woman writing about gay men and fetishizing them (the fact that a lot of peoples arguments why novel!wangxian ‘is better’ boils down to ‘there’s kissing and sex’ is also pretty telling). And I am frightend and worried by some peoples response to it.

But is it really fair to see it as just that? It’s a problem sure, but that same thing happens in straight media (which I am admittedly not well versed in). Stephanie Meyer didn’t set out to write Edward Cullen to be a creep and non of the teenage girls that went crazy over him viewed it as such...Reylo fans (aside from some of them proclaiming Finn to be the real villain and saying it’s racist and misogynistic to not find Kylo Ren hot) found a way to view him threatening her as romantic and sexy, Loki fans that didn’t ship him with Thor usually fell into the camp of “he would be a perfect boyfriend” or “what if this OFC was his slave and he raped her everyday <3″... like ignoring/glorifying/romanticizing behaviours or exploring what kinks you might have through the safety of fictional characters and fictional settings isn’t JUST happening when it comes to ‘the gays’...

And not just specifically in fandom spaces either, a lot of ‘romantic’ movies include inappropriate touching, the boy/guy knowing better than the girl what she wants etc. And I absolutely do believe that that’s something that normalized these things for a lot of young girls and guys (I don’t want to get into this too much, I’ve really seen a change in the past few years, but before that it was pretty common for young boys to believe they need to keep pursuing and pressuring a girl that has said no, girls truly thought boys could die of blue balls, girls thought it was their duty as good girlfriends to let their boyfriends fuck them even when they weren’t in the mood, that they couldn’t talk about what they want in bed or what they don’t find enjoyable because ‘sex is for boys and girls get a relationship in exchange’ etc.).

And in much the same way movies have only relatively recently begun being called out for that, it’s also still pretty recently that they’re being called out for having their one queer coded character be a pedophile and a murder or whatever...Like, society as a whole becoming aware of these issues.

But do authors that publish their work with a specific target audience in mind have a responsibility to think about the effect it might have on them? (And I can already hear loud screams of ‘no way, it’s not your fault if your audience isn’t smart enough to understand that this bad thing is bad’, but I actually do believe in a way they do. That doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t write whatever you want, just maybe take a look at HOW you bring your point across. (We do KNOW people are influenced by what propaganda they’re consistantly fed. I mean, you wouldn’t write a pro-drugs childrens book...) )

What if the author isn’t aware of their bias and prejudices? Or their target audience isn’t their actual audience?

And do we, society and media, judge female and male authors differently when it comes to romance and sex in fiction? (The answer is yes btw) But also, where do we draw the line at calling something ‘badly written’ and calling it toxic? Can it be both? As I’ve said before, a lot of people claim that only the physical intimacy scenes of novel!wangxian are bad, because they’re badly written and OOC, some say the book as amazingly written and only the wangxian relationship is bad because the author doesn’t know how to write gay men. In my ‘hot take’ I essentially said that’s not necessarily bad writing so much as it’s simply an (okay, unintentional) toxic relationship. And would this relationship still come across as toxic (or badly written, whichever you want) if we didn’t know the author to be a cishet woman? Or if a gay man had written it? (my personal, eloquent answer for this is: yes, but differently.)

Which was really all just a rambly way to get to my point of: it’s not just fetishizing of gay men, it’s also the homophobia and self-inserting in a safe situation.

You can literally replace WWX in the novel with a female character and it wouldn’t change a thing. The author takes such an effort into building up this power imbalance in every aspect of their life that if WWX were a heroine nothing would change in this (sexist/ancient society) setting.

(And clearly this is something that appeals to people if you look at the amount of female!WWX fics...)

Not even the sex scenes. There are maybe two allusions in all of them combined that WWX might also have a dick but like, you can’t be sure and it sure as hell doesn’t need stimulation.

(and again, that could be written as a kink...but it’s just not.)

CQL is a gay love story. MDZS at it’s core is none of that.

But I also very much agree with your ‘to each their own’, like here I am criticizing and trying to find explanations and whatever, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter why someone might like (or write) a book like this, I vastly prefer CQL!wangxian but people have their own reasons for not doing so.

The ‘problem’ really only lies in, as you said, people not being able to accept that it’s not a healthy relationship. Or claiming it to be perfect lgbt rep.

And because my brain can’t shut up today:

I also can’t stop thinking that the way some people ‘glorify’ the book as due to their age and ‘inexperience’.

When I was a pretty young kid and got into fanfiction, there was nothing but completely OOC!whump to be found in the first two fandoms I was in. And I loved it. It was YEARS later that I thought I might like to read something with the characters being...in character. What I’m trying to say, in different stages and phases of your life you might enjoy different things, for different reasons...and obviously, in that moment, you won’t think about ‘what appeals to me here/should this appeal to me/etc’.

I don’t mean inexperience as ‘sexual inexperience’ here, though of course that could be part of it, but also like, inexperience with this genre (is this the first book like this you read, or did you just read 50 in a row that all had the same unhealthy vibes?), with lgbt people and issues (do you know any lgbt people or is your only image of them either the cute boy you can’t have and don’t want to see with another girl or grown men in full kink gear in front of children during CSD? and also: do you think ‘i like this’ and that’s the end of it or do you notice how many people idolize this objectively unhealthy relationship and won’t allow critique on it...)  

I...just wanted to say thanks really.

I just can’t stop rambling apparently and I know I mostly just repeated what you said or what I already said but in longer... I just really do feel very strongly about novel!wangxian and the perception of them and have actually at times felt very personally...worried/affected, by people’s acceptance and love of them and I just... have to try and make sense of it...

[k347]

A little note for all the wonderful people who are taking a moment out of their precious time to visit this little online space I created...

(I felt the need to write this because of some 'not so great' anon asks I've been getting ever since I started here and also because I've witnessed several of both, the good and bad fandom meltdowns in these couple of years)

From My Heart To Yours-

If it isn't clear to you by the kind of things I post or if you are new to this page, let me clarify it in one single sentence. This Is A Stucky+Evanstan Blog. There will always be mostly (if not all) evanstan and stucky content posted here. If you are uncomfortable with the ship, feel free to filter the 'evanstan' / 'rpf'/ stucky tags. I completely understand why it can be bothersome, icky for people, why some of you might disapprove of it. I acknowledge, respect and understand your views, feelings and opinions, I truly do. All I am asking out of you is to not be disrespectful, dissmissive about those of mine. Please understand that you don't have to see the things/content you don't want to on your dash. The block and unfollow buttons, options for filtering tags are there for a reason. Feel free to use them if you are uncomfortable with a blog or person (including me). It'll be taking the high road and bowing out gracefully if you make a habit of using these available options instead of passing around judgements and unnecessarily cruel critisism about people whom you've never even met/ know nothing about.

Personally I adore both of these Fandom Ships. I have for a long time. But it doesn't mean I don't support you if you love/are a part of some other fandom. I don't mean to disrespect or hinder any of the other ships even if they are regarding these same characters. I try and make sure to not intrude on anyone's creative space and expect that the same attitude & decency will be returned.

This blog is my way of letting out, expressing all that love, adoration I feel. I strive to be more creative with my thoughts, my way of expression as a person with each passing day. And being a part of this fandom helps me immensely with that. I've met some amazing people online because of this. Made good friends. It is a very dear thing to me. I have talked to folks who've experienced online hate from unreasonable, anonymous sources, I've also experienced a fair share of it myself. As someone who is a psychology-enthusiast-&-student-for-life, I can assure you the (good/casual/neutral/bad/hateful) things you say to or about people leave their impacts. Not just on them, but on you too. It might seem insignificant or small, irrelevant even; but it does change the way your thoughts work in daily life. Be careful and stop before you train your mind to naturally focus more on the bad things about other people rather than the good ones. So again, I kindly request you to not be mean or hurtful to anyone you meet online (or even in real life, actually.) Offering disrespect and negativity never made anything better in the history of ever.

Lastly I would like to give my two cents about another issue (that I feel can get really toxic if we are not careful) with the fandom culture. I have made no secret of the fact that I am a fan of Sebastian Stan and Chris Evans. Yes, I have and will always post a lot of appreciation posts about them (solo and together), their works and projects, some old tbt moments. You will even find imagines, headcanons, theories, fanfics about them along with the ones about the fictional characters they have played/continue to play.

But that doesn't mean I am going to act delusionally and ignore/ unacknowledge the fact that both of them are their own person. Two actual, real human beings. I don't mean to project any of this content that I am creating on them and their lives. Making anybody uncomfortable is not my intention behind doing this, not at all. I prefer to look at it this way- "This is a world that I've created in my own mind. For fun and entertainment. Sort of like an AU. Parallel Timeline. But please understand that the stories, theories, things I'll post and write on here are pure conjecture, a lot of speculations. Hypothesis and supposition. I don't want to lose the grasp on reality and be drawned in it too much or completely, up to the point at which violation of real people's boundaries starts to become a usual routine and doesn't feel wrong."

I do not agree with the mentality of blaming, hating on people/past partners in their lives for no other apparent reason than the fact that 'they know my favs'. I completely agree that there are actions and things which people need to be held accountable for at times. Yes, you can talk about it with me but please try and remain respectful (if not that, at least be decent enough) toward all the parties involved.

Even though we as fans have invested a lot of our time, creative efforts and emotions in these two men; It does not mean they owe us, or need to explain every part of their personal/professional lives.

Please remember and don't let it be hard for you to accept the fact that these two people are not the exact fanfic versions of themselves that you read about on tumblr, they are not some experminted and perfected, flawless personalities that you've created in your own minds. It is possible for humans to mess up at times. It is only natural. Don't judge people based only on their worst mistakes, or more precisely the negative stuff you read 'online' (which 9/10 times is pure speculation and made up. fake. not facts.) Chris and Seb do not need to cater to every whim and need of the fans, they do not need to make decisions based on what people feel about them online. They can and should do whatever they want to with their lives without having to experience judgement and public scrutiny about every little step taken. Please stop putting celebrities on a pedestal and measuring them up to some impossible, unrealistic standards. If you feel too much devastation, hurt over some action of your 'fav', my advice would be to take a step back. Relax. Distance yourself from the Fandom for a bit. Do not let the 'stanning' consume you, your behaviour, rational thought process and most importantly don't let it ruin your kindness.

I love the analogy that there lives a good and a bad wolf inside every human being. Your reactions, response to things, all of it depends on which wolf you decide to feed and empower at the given moment. Choose kindness. Choose gentler responses. Choose Love over Hatred. Always.

I think the lovely @musette22 (who btw, is one of the most compassionate, talented and creative people I've met here, because of our shared love for these boys 💙) voiced this thing better than I ever could.

My apologies, if the note got too long and too deep for your liking.

I promise I am not always this boring and 'let-me-lecture-you' kind of a person 😂

On this Blog you'll also find-

A lot of silly Ramblings, Scribbles and Rants

Lot of terrible jokes and puns (you know the kind where they are so bad that they're good😅)

Fluff and smut

Q and A with the anons.

AUs

Speculations, ideas and a lot of gushing

Reblogs from all these great, talented, amazing people in the fandom

A lot of 'Marvel' things

Incorrectly placed correct quotes

Sometimes extreme use of emoticons and gifs

😂♥️😄🔥😜👻💌💦💪😇🤷

Running commentary, discussions about newly released information, keeping tracks, meltdowns, breakdowns, again rambling! , ocassional full doses of sarcasm

Sometimes going 'too much in detail' 😉

My attempts at writing stuff

A lot of content for Evanstan and Stucky

Drawing parallels, a lot of 'connecting the dots' between Chris and Seb content. Weaving the pieces of informations together.

Headcanons and stories inspired from that.

Low key, actually at times very very high key roasting of Endgame.

Lots and lots of love + appreciation showered on the movies in Captain America Triology.

Getting nostalgic and adoring the good old memories, Celebrating the present moments and Wishing for many more happy ones in the future.

All of you are very welcome here!

My ask box is always open for anyone and everyone who is interested. Send asks, questions, prompts, requests, suggetions, your ideas, theories anytime you want.

I am always up for conversations and discussions.

Lots of Love,

@k347

💙

[navek15]

So in-between writing fanfiction, working on my novel, work, the upcoming online semester, keeping the house clean, and getting my ass repeating handed to me in Dark Souls: Remastered and Dark Souls III, my increasing disdain for how terrible, unimaginative, and terribly imaginative some ‘fans’ of particular properties can be. And it’s not just from one particular instance, it’s from several occurrences over the years.

Yesterday, I was watching Maj0r Lee’s video reaction to terrible reviews of Final Fantasy 7: Remake. Side note, I’ve respected ML for not being afraid to speak his mind, no matter how much it goes against the nerd fan hivemind. And one thing that quickly got on his and my nerves about the reviews was how repetitive they were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR-1NTCwLr8

“Tetsuya Nomura pulled a Kingdom Hearts and ruined the great story of the original FF7.”

“Nomura and friends turned FF7 into Kingdom Hearts-tier garbage.”

“I was going to give FF7: Remake a ten out of ten until that terribly ending turned it into a zero.”

Tetsuya Nomura this, Kingdom Hearts that, something something the original story was basically the bible. The same points repeated over and over again. It’s like listening to all the same complaints about the Last Jedi. I’d probably take those complaints seriously if it didn’t feel like the same arguments were being copy-pasted over and over because that generates more clicks on YouTube.

If I sound a bit salty, it might be because my favorite video game franchise (BTW, I would never say KH is flawless) is being used as a go-to example of bad writing. This must be how the Call of Duty fans feel all the time.

But there was one particular ‘review’ that pissed me off to no end;

“The more and more I think about it, I feel like Nomura and co. have little to no respect for the fans that have given their work this love, and perhaps even harbour some contempt for them wanting to to see their childhood imagination and memories of the story realised as they deserve to be.

There is a certain arrogance to twisting this world and story to their own whim, as if to say that “this is our world, our characters, what you fans think means nothing to us, we can do what we want with them and you can get fucked if you disagree”.”

You know what this reminds me of? Those laughable Anti-Horikoshi blogs that use the trans flag as their background to supposedly ‘protect’ the female characters of My Hero Academia from their ‘disgusting’ creator. Those lunatics that posted themselves burning their copies of Tokyo Ghoul because the main character banged his female love interest and called Ishida a homophobe. Or the the worst episode of South Park where Trey Parker and Matt Stone showed their disapproval of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by having Indy getting horrifically sodomized by George Lucas and Steven Spielburg.

This might be hard for some idiots to understand, so let me spell it out for you; YOU DO NOT OWN A STORY OR CHARACTERS JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A “FAN”!

In the end, writers have their own ideas for how storylines, character progression, and character relationships will turn out. If all creators ever did was pander to the fickle desires of the most rabid ‘fans’, all media would be nothing but self-referential bullshit. Hell, we already example how bad this would be. It’s called ‘How the Last Jedi should’ve ended!’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCB8DUGpYQQ

While this video was clearly made to take the piss out of TLJ, it ironically demonstrates my fucking point! This is also why I am 100% certain that we’re never getting a Dark Souls/Bloodborne movie or tv show. Because any interpretation or story that dares to go against the most poorly thought out fan theories will get ripped apart by absolute lunatics with nothing better to do with their time.

And another thing, can we stop treating stories like they’re fucking scripture?! There’s a reason that the ‘Stations of the Canon’ trope is derided by many authors. I can probably name all the Naruto fanfics that aren’t just the same as the original story just with slightly altered dialogue and everyone wearing slightly-different clothing. And I was guilty of this too, until I realized how much more fun it was to go completely off the rails.

Not the mention that this kind of thinking leads to people holding stories to such a ridiculous degree that any sequel or retelling that fails to live up to those unreasonable expectations will get treated like a personal attack and a dumpster fire not even worthy to roast expired marshmallows over.

I’m not saying you should never criticize a story, game or comic for its actual flaws, but don’t try to make it into a sob story like ‘How dare the creator or owners of this story like go about it what they think is the best! These guys are worse than HITLER!’ Hate to break to ya, but no ones goes into a story or long-running franchise to purposely piss off the fans. They’re doing it because they got a story to tell...or to make money. Or both.

And try to come up with your own critiques instead of just copy and pasting the same arguments over and over again.

“Fairy Tail is terrible because all the girls have big tits and skimpy outfits.”

“I’ve heard all that before. Do you have any other complaints?”

“No, but that’s what everyone else is whining about.”

“Well then, piss off and come back when you actually form your own goddamn opinion.”

And I’m not saying that if your problem if a story is the same as someone else’s, then it's invalid. But at least try to say it in a way that doesn’t come across as just copying what the guy before ya said.

One last ramble before I go back to writing and getting attacked by video game monsters; can we stop with all the hyperbole? There are only so many times I can hear the phrase, “This is the worst thing ever” before it loses all meaning. Yes, I’m sure the newest Call of Duty game is worse than Santa Claus Saves the World. That the newest Star Wars movie is worse than A Serbian Film. Or that Black Clover is worse than Eiken.

And that argument is especially soured when the phrase ‘raped my childhood’ eventually rears its ugly head. It was outdated and terribly tasteless when Doug Walker reviewed Batman and Robin, and it’s gotten more disgusting and childish as a phrase over time.

Anyway, that’s my delusional rambling done for the day. Hope you all are safe and comfortable. Have a nice day!

[dreamlikeafangirl]

My favorite line(s) from each Hamilton song – Part Two

Part One

Wait For It

The whole thing tbh, I mean … freaking masterpiece. But especially this line:

I am the one thing in life I can control, I am inimitable, I am an original 

Stay Alive

Chick-a-plao! Stay alive ‘til this horror show is past, we’re gonna fly a lot of flags half-mast raISE A GLASS

Ngl, I this was kind of a stretch haha Stay Alive is not my favorite song

Ten Duel Commandments

This is common place, especially between recruits, most disPUTES DIE AND NO ONE SHOOTS

Again, I just love when just one person sings and then suddenly it’s THE WHOLE ENSEMBLE

Meet Me Inside

meethiminside meethiminside meethiminside meethim meethiminside

Yeah, I love the ensemble. Christopher Jackson (who is also in this song) has the best voice in the whole musical imo, but like, without this ensemble everything really would be only half as great.

That Would Be Enough

Look around, look around, how lucky we are to be alive right now

Reusing this line in such a different context? Amazing. Heartbreaking. And I LOVE Philipa Soo’s delivery.

Guns And Ships

Umm … so I love Daveed Diggs … which means I just wanted to put all the lyrics here and comment ‘flawless’, but like, that’s not how this works haha. I HAVE to choose something specific. That’s the rules I set for myself. So:

Everyone give it up for America’s favorite fighting FrenchMAAAAAAN (Lafayette!)

I love how Burr is everyone’s hype man in this musical lmaooo

I go to France for more funds, and come back with more gUNS   and ships and so the balance shifts

I mean. What can I say? Flawless.

History Has Its Eyes On You

And even now I lie awake, knowing history has its eyes on me (whoo-whoo-whoooo-oooo, ohh, ohh)

Have I already mentioned how much I love Christopher Jackson and the ensemble? This is BOTH of them.

Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)

‘Til we meet againLET’S GOOOOOO

I … I just love Daveed Diggs, guys! Also the way he just SPRINTS off stage after this lmaooo

We gotta go, gotta get the job done, gotta start a new nation gotta meet my son

LOVE Hamilton’s priorities here

We had a spy on the inside, that’s right, HERCULES MULLIGAN!!!!!!!

Followed by the rest of his amaaaaazing solo. This is the part that makes me want to dance along most. Ugh, Hercules Mulligan is such an underrated character!

The world turned upside down, down, down

GOOSEBUMPS

What Comes Next?

IiiinSAaane

Do you know what’s also insane? The delivery of that line

You’re on your own – awEsOme, wOW

He sounds like literal a four year old here lmao

Dear Theodosia

We’ll give the world to you and you’ll blow us all away, someday, someday

Haha NOt funny @LMM

Phillip, you outshine the morning sun, my son

Honestly, as a non-native English speaker, the fact that ‘sun’ and ‘son’ basically sound the same has always confused the hell out of me, but here it’s used in such a beautiful way! :,)

Laurens Interlude / Tomorrow There’ll Be More Of Us

Which one is the ‘real’ title btw? Can anyone tell me?

Tomorrow there’ll be MOre OF US!

But make it sad.

Non-Stop

Hamilton at the constitutional convention! (clap clap clap clap clap) – I wAs ChoOsen fOr tHe cOnstITUtionAl ConVentiOn!

Just ‘cause it’s funny :)

Dooowhatyoudooo

More ensemble appreciation.

I’ll keep all my plans close to my chest (waitforitwaitforitwait)

Even more ensemble appreciation. (Plus some for Leslie Odom Jr., he KILLED it OMG) Also, for my next pick it’s basically the same comment:

(ooooh) HOw do you write like tomorrow won’t arrive? HOw do you write like you need it to survive?

 Aaaand with that, we’re done with the first act! Part 3 (aka act 2.1) can be found here :)

[putschki1969]

Wakana Winter Special Live Matataki Osaka Live Report

So, I thought I would use the opportunity to write a quick report on my Shinkansen ride back to Tokyo.

Venue: This was my first time attending a concert at a live house so this was a pretty new experience for me. Everything is so small and intimate. Thank God they had seats prepared. For a long time I was worried this would be an all-standing live (which I absolutely would have hated). Umeda Quattro was a pain in the ass to find though. It’s hidden quite well on the 10th floor of a pretty inconspicuous building. And if you have ever been to Umeda, you know it’s a pretty spacious station. The elevator is out of service in the morning so we had to take the stairs to line up for the goods. I am so happy that her Osaka lives were completely sold out, Wakana deserves all of her concerts to be sold out! I really hope the Tokyo venue won’t be too empty, it would make me really sad, especially since it’s her birthday. Btw, I really love how it pays off to be a fan club member these days! I remember back in the Kalafina days being a fan club member never made a difference when it came to your seats. But I have always gotten a good seat with my Botanical Land application. So as always I suggest you get yourself a membership if you are planning to attend any Wakana lives in the future.

Acoustics: The acoustics naturally weren’t the best but I thought they were decent enough. During the Day performance I had a seat in the very first row right in front of Wakana. The sound was well balanced in that area. During the Evening performance I was in the third row all the way on the right side so the sound wasn’t too great there (it wasn’t balanced at all and since the speaker was right next to me, everything was a little too loud for my taste but it was bearable). I thought Wakana’s microphone had just the right volume to suit the instruments. She wasn’t overshadowed by the drums or anything.

Stage production and musicians: There wasn’t any special production, just the musicians behind Wakana. As far as I am concerned they all did a good job, especially the girl on percussion, she was really into it. I didn’t think they could make all her songs work with just piano, percussion and guitar but they managed to make everything sound great. Enjoyed all the arrangements!! Wakana was wearing a gorgeous flowy red dress that was giving off major Christmas vibes. She just wore her own pair of boots, the one we have seen her wear all the time recently. For the encore she put on her Aki no Sakura outfit. Couldn’t help but look at her pretty ankles, I have never seen them this up-close *feels like a perv saying this* There were obviously no cameras so there is zero chance of this being released in case anyone was wondering. I always get so many questions regarding releases :P

Vocals: Personally I thought Wakana was flawless during the very slow ballads but I didn’t enjoy her singing all that much during the high-tempo Kalafina songs (I never really did). Then there are songs like Kinmokusei and Yakusoku no Yoake where I know she is purposefully using a higher pitch but at times she is treading a fine line between sounding lovely and screechy. But overall, she delivered a strong performance despite doing so many songs in one day. I was expecting her voice to get a little weak during the Evening performance but for the most part, she did well. You can tell she has really worked on her stamina.

MCs: Wakana was much more nervous during the day performance. She kept screwing up and saying the wrong thing in the wrong order XD It was utterly adorable. She was constantly holding her water bottle/towel. It happened at night as well but she was much more confident there. During the first MC of the Day performance Wakana noticed me in the first row and pointed out that someone was wearing one of her outfits. Imagine my happiness!! I was over the moon! To have her say this in front of all these people. Waaaaaahhh!!! Senpai noticed me XD At the end of the Evening performance during the final greeting Wakana started crying because she was overwhelmed with feelings. They were happy tears because she was reflecting on all the things that had happened that year. It was a good and productive year for her after all, she can be proud. She tried squeezing her nose to stop crying but it didn’t work. Precious baby *sobs*

Day vs. Evening: In total three songs were different at the Evening performance. She sang Hard Rain instead of Boku no Kokoro no Tokei, snow falling instead of Yasashii Uta and she added a double encore to sing Ato Hitotsu. I am expecting the Tokyo lives to follow a similar - if not the same - pattern. Overall the evening audience was a bit more engaged. Louder clapping, proper singing along and a standing ovation at the end.

Thoughts on various songs: Not gonna go into detail regarding every single song. Eve was most definitely one of the highlights! I originally said that lyrics would seem overbearing with this sort of song but the way they arranged it made it work. Such a gorgeous song!! And Wakana’s vocals are simply outstanding. I remember her saying in an Instagram post that she was struggling while rehearsing this song since the notes were so high. At the time I read that post I was a little confused because she doesn’t actually sing that high in the short studio version. Now it makes sense because this full version with Japanese lyrics has super high parts and oh my God, Wakana sounds amazing. She is using a fuller voice which suits the song much better. Cannot wait to hear this two more times!! *so excited* I really hope this song is re-released soon!! I need to have this on CD!!! Orange was really good but nothing to write home about. I always enjoy Boku no Kokoro no Tokei and this time was no exception, I was a little bummed to have it replaced with Hard Rain during the night performance but hey, at least this way we got more songs. And she did a good job with that too. I actually liked this performance more than the one from the Voice tour. Her singing was nicer and she improvised a bit towards the end. I already mentioned Kinmokusei earlier, I absolutely love this song and generally enjoyed the performance but occasionally Wakana is getting to a range that doesn’t sound pleasant to my ears anymore. I know she is going for a pentatonic sound and maybe I am just not used to that but some notes were just too high for my liking. But it didn’t take away from the performance, it’s one of my favourite songs from her album so I am super happy she decided to sing it. As expected, I liked Yuuyake much more once I saw it performed live but it’s still not among my favourites.

Ahhhh!! The Christmas section! I was hoping she would sing a few Christmas pieces and YAY, she actually did!!! A staff member brought out a small chair and a lyrics stand for Wakana (since all the songs were in English she struggled quite a bit so I am guessing she had some notes to help her with the pronunciation). That Silent Night performance was utterly gorgeous! It started with the pianist using a fancy organ setting. Wakana started slowly by using a very warm and ethereal singing style - almost operatic I would say. I literally broke into tears, it was so unbelievably beautiful!! Wakana needs to release a Christmas cover album RIGHT NOW!!! After the first epic verse the other band members joined in and the song became a bit lighter and joyful, towards the end it was almost a pop-like arrangement, not sure how to explain it. Quite fascinating as a whole, I genuinely enjoyed the different styles used in the song. I didn’t know the second Christmas song at all and Wakana’s Engrish made it very hard to decipher the lyrics. But thankfully I understood the word “eskimos” so I just looked for a Christmas song that had “eskimos” in the lyrics XD Turns out there is only one, The Christmas Song. Not sure why Wakana decided to sing this. Maybe it’s very popular in Japan? No idea! Anyways, it was okay. She sounded lovely. Don’t really care for the song though, there are MUCH better Christmas songs out there that would have suited her better but I am sure she had her reasons. All I Want for Christmas is You on the other hand was PERFECT for Wakana. Such a pleasant surprise. You could tell that she had sung that song many times before, she felt much more comfortable with the English lyrics. And she slayed!! It’s no easy feat to cover a Mariah Carey song but she did it quite brilliantly. This is not a song I usually enjoy but Wakana made me like it!!

Now we get to Kalafina’s section which was surprisingly my least favourite. I will be honest, I didn’t like her Kalafina song choice here at all. The fact that she decided to stick with the original fast arrangements didn’t help either. I wonder why she didn’t go with a slow acoustic arrangement...that would have helped her a lot....Wakana has always had a hard time with these songs, you could tell she was straining her voice even back then during Kalafina days when she had Keiko and Hikaru singing alongside her. All by herself the songs got so much harder. Wakana admitted that these songs were super hard for her but she wanted to perform them for the fans. Seeing everyone’s happy face was worth the struggle according to her. As always the cheers were super loud for the Kalafina songs. Eden was okay, I know the song means a lot to Wakana and she really did her best but meh, she was out of breath a lot. Into the world was definitely my favourite in this section. I actually thought she was gonna sing Natsu no Ringo because the intro sounded just like it but no, it was just a fancy intro that transitioned nicely to the more familiar sound of into the world. She sounded solid during all parts and it’s just such a perfect fit for the journey she is now taking. It was quite moving to have her sing it. Her final “into the world” was amazing!!! Didn’t like ring your bell at all!! Probably my least favourite performance of the live. I never liked her singing style in this song and except for the final “ring your bell and raise your song” I found her singing quite screechy (mostly during the chorus). And for some reason she didn’t sing the bridge which is hands down my favourite part of the song (where she typically uses a more fitting and lovely singing style). Such a shame. (;_;)

Wakana is so much better with her own mid/high-tempo songs. Tsubasa and Kimi Dake no Stage were lots of fun!! Everyone was clapping along! Nothing out of the usual, pretty similar to her Voice performances I would say. But the best was without a doubt Koi wa Itsumo!!! Still cannot believe how much I love this song, it’s so freaking good!! Just wish she would have sung the “baby, baby” parts but since some parts are overlapping with her other lines she obviously couldn’t do it XD At the end she was asking us to sing along to the “haha koi wa haha itsumo haha sekai wo kaeru no” part and eventually we were singing all by ourselves. It was really nice. I am happy the audience participated. Usually it’s hard to get Japanese audiences to engage in something unexpected like that. During the Evening performance everyone had already figured it out so they were much more involved. She ended the main part of her live with Yakusoku no Yoake. Once again we got the gorgeous organ setting and Wakana sang a slightly slowed down version of the intro. It was so much better than the studio version or the performances from the Voice tour. Reminded me a lot of the first verse of Silent Night. The rest of the song was good but a little too high pitched at times.

As for the encore, OMG, Wakana’s solo versions of both Yasashii Uta [Day] as well as snow falling [Night] were PERFECT!! Utterly flawless!!! I am so grateful she sang these two songs, I was really hoping and praying for snow falling!!! Don’t even know what else to say about it. I personally didn’t mind the absence of Keiko and Hikaru, Wakana managed well on her own. Aki no Sakura was slowed down a tiny bit for the live I think...liked it much more like this. Generally it was a very good performance that made me appreciate the song a lot more. Ahhhh, so happy we got Ato Hitotsu as double encore during the Evening performance. It wasn’t as moving as her Voice performance but still super lovely.

Okay, that’s it for me. I had a blast. Not regretting going for all four Wakana lives. Cannot wait for tomorrow.

[hellzyeahwebwielingessays]

The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 7: MJ blindly trusts Beck (even though she wouldn’t!)

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

This post will be the first of maaaaaaany where I’ll be unpacking the problems prevalent in the status quo presented to us in at the end of AMJ #1.

My intent is to thoroughly explore these problems in this and consequent posts before moving onto issue #2. By doing this I (and others so inclined) can try to bear them in mind as prevailing problems with every issue until such as a time as they are addressed.

In future posts like this (at least until we get to AMJ #2) I will try to dispense with the preamble and get right down to business.

But for now I should start by clearly defining what exactly the premise presented in AMJ #1 even is.

The premise as I see it is as follows:

Mary Jane, out of sympathy for him and interest in the project, is making a movie with Mysterio. A Mysterio who has disguised himself as a respected film director and hired former felons and current super villains as part of his crew. He and MJ maintain Beck’s secret from everyone (which includes Peter but we’ll get there in another post).

In this instalment I will be addressing why MJ’s trust of Beck and failure to verify his claims is nonsensical.

As touched on in our coverage of AMJ #1, Mary Jane believes Beck’s sob story and ultimately agrees to work with him in spite of his crimes and the presence of active villains. Williams writes her genuinely sympathetic and interested in the film project, buying what Beck is saying and lacking any suspicion beyond that.

The most we get is MJ (arguably) noticing Beck’s abuse of one his staff and presumably bearing it in mind for future dealings with him.

Now, MJ is great at reading people and is very aware she possesses that skill. Between her upbringing moving around the country, her profession in acting and modelling (which puts many people, in particular young women, in potentially vulnerable positions) and her experience dating and living with a superhero, it’s an essential skill and one she’s honed. You could call it her personal brand of spider-sense.

If MJ’s Spidey sense were registering honesty from someone then it’d be crucial in her decision to ultimately believe them and judge their threat level.

These pages though get muddy because Beck is mixing the truth and deception. Technically everything he is saying is  true so MJ would likely be picking that up. But he didn’t actually need   MJ to be in the movie so he was lying about that and more poignantly he is omitting the fact this movie plays into Kindred’s wider schemes.

Is MJ’s failure to register deception from Beck a mistake? Is Williams dropping the ball here?

Actually no.

Mary Jane is a good read of people, but she is absolutely not flawless in this regard. There have been times she’s misread Peter and indeed been fooled by other people. Five key examples come to mind and we’re going to be starting with the most debatable ones.

Firstly there was Jason Jerome a fellow actor who offered friendship and support when MJ began working on the soap opera Secret Hospital. Jason was a harassing creep intent upon seducing Mary Jane, regarding her marital status as challenge that’d make his ‘conquest’ all the sweeter. I go into much more detail about Jason’s encounters with MJ in this post.

I will concede that it can definitely be argued that MJ was out of character or emotionally vulnerable during the course of this subplot so it doesn’t necessarily prove anything. Nevertheless, in MJ’s canonical history she was fooled by a fellow (and more experienced) actor than herself.

Secondly there was Aunt May’s death in ASM #400. Aunt May was impersonated by a dying actress who’d been genetically altered to look like and register as her. For around a year everyone (including MJ) believed their beloved May to be dead once more proving how MJ’s ability to read people isn’t flawless. Again though there is a lot of stuff that can be contested with this example, the most significant being that as originally written the intent was that this was the actual Aunt May, not an imposter.

However even accepting the retcon one could argue that due to her pregnancy, May’s miraculous recovery from a coma and the general stress of the Clone Saga up until that point Mary Jane’s ‘Spidey sense’ was not going to be working properly. However, canonically this is once again an example of a fellow (and likely more experienced) actress deceiving MJ.

My other examples don’t have nearly as much leeway.

Perhaps the most significant is Jonathan Caesar, the Parkers’ landlord who was obsessed with ‘owning’ Mary Jane. You can imagine what that  would’ve entailed. He abducted MJ and held her prisoner for a little while. The thing is initially MJ found the guy charming and the idea he was a threat never crossed her mind.

Unlike the above two examples there weren’t any obvious extenuating circumstances that I can recall to excuse MJ’s faux pas. She was just genuinely fooled by him.

Then we have her friend Lorraine whom you might recall from part 4 of this essay series. As mentioned there, Lorraine was an old friend of MJ’s who’d developed a cocaine problem. MJ sought to help her and Lorraine seemed willing to be helped. But when MJ left her alone for a little while Lorraine almost immediately snuck out to find her next hit.

Models are not actresses strictly speaking. But to my limited knowledge their profession must involve some degree of adopting a false persona. Even if we were to say otherwise, Lorraine was clearly capable of duping Mary Jane.

Finally, for an extended period of time the Chameleon fooled MJ and most everyone else when he impersonated J. Jonah Jameson in Web #52.

Like Beck, Chameleon made a whole career out of fooling people and Beck could be argued to be even better at it than Chammy.

So the idea that someone could fool MJ is definitely possible in a lot of stories.

But we shouldn’t take MJ’s trust as a sign that she is in the right. It’s so often tempting to side with the protagonist’s POV precisely because they are the protagonist. If MJ trusts Mysterio she must feel he isn’t dangerous and isn’t that bad really right?

But the possibility that she can be wrong is on the table based upon her history and (whilst I personally doubt Williams intended it this way) that is what is happening here big time.

Now I am not suggesting that MJ should second-guess every read of people she makes nor that the above examples should be sore spots in her mind. But collectively they would enshrine to Mary Jane herself that she shouldn’t just presume her immediate reads of people are accurate, and that would go even more so for professional actors.

In this issue MJ hasn’t got any extenuating circumstances to compromise her judgement. She isn’t in the midst of an emotionally turbulent time in her life. She isn’t being blinded my friendship, loneliness or familial love. She also hasn’t had much time to observe or get to know Beck up close and personal, this exchange being the longest amount of time they’ve ever spoken to one another.

But as I spent far too much time pointing out in parts 3-5, MJ is very aware of Mysterio’s skills, his typical tactics and the horrible things he has done. She knows he is a career criminal and a dangerous/nasty one at that. And she knows that he is an incredibly accomplished and experienced manipulator/deceiver/actor, almost definitely more experienced than her self. And this is to say nothing of the times he’s personally hurt her or the people she cares about.

Realistically upon learning of Beck’s involvement she should somehow start to work against  him and most definitely not trust him!

Even exempting the personal pain he’s been complicit in visiting upon Mary Jane and/or her loved ones, she knows enough about him to be suspicious.

In knowing his skillset and M.O. Mary Jane should either not trust him at all or at the very least not simply not take everything he says at face value. She would  be savvy enough to recognize whatever her ‘radar’ is reading. At best the odds are 50/50 that her radar is off. And those odds exist precisely because making you believe things that aren’t real is the entire conceit of Beck’s alter ego.

But wait, there’s more!

Beck basically admitted to:

Stealing a man’s identity

Wasting over a year of his life working on a project that doesn’t actually exist (in a location notorious for unaccounted for landmines btw)

Using that to con people into giving him their money

Using that money to make a movie which means he’s gambling with their money without their consent and potentially gambling with the public image of the film studio, the crew and the man he’s impersonating if the film gets a bad reception or financially flops

He’s doing all this off the back of what an extremely risky movie to make in the first place. Imagine if an empathetic and unapologetic movie about the life of George Zimmerman came out?

Said movie is a vanity project explicitly about himself

He’s using current super villains on the crew. If you are a current super villain then by definition you are not out on parole, you aren’t reformed and you are still wanted by the law.

And Mary Jane…goes along with this. Lampshading the fact that it’s insane for her to do that doesn’t excuse the extreme mischaracterization of doing that in the first place.

At the very least she should run a check online or with her various contacts in the super hero community to see if he’s actually  dying. Remember from MJ’s POV Beck has full on faked his own death at least twice.  She has no hard evidence for this whatsoever beyond the word of a man who is notoriously duplicitous.

Now to play Devil’s advocate we could argue that MJ believes Beck is out of jail legally. He might’ve served his time, been let out early for good behaviour or precisely because he is dying.  Or perhaps he had legal help that weaselled him out of being locked up.

However this angle of interpretation just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

For starters given his very long history of very serious crimes (even excluding the ones MJ is unaware of) it’d be common sense to presume that Beck would be serving time barring extenuating circumstances. Common sense would then lead anybody to try and confirm if any extenuating circumstances exist. This could prove impossible because how accessible records on costumed criminals are to the public is unclear. But anyone with a phone or internet access could at least try.

MJ has far more than mere common sense and she’s got far more than a phone and internet access. And yet there isn’t even a hint that she makes even a lazy attempt at confirming Beck’s story.

Now let’s pretend MJ forgot every single encounter with Mysterio she knows about before Nick Spencer’s run. No faking Aunt May’s death. No helping Doc Ock in ‘Ends of the Earth’. Nothing from ‘Guardian Devil’. None of the stuff we covered in parts 3-5.

Mary Jane would still realistically be fully aware Beck committed a HUGE crime mere months ago that involved the Avengers (plus other heroes) that was also the inciting incident that reconciled her with the love of her life.

This alone  should be enough for her to not so quickly or blindly trust Beck! Even if she was unaware of the legal fallout of that event it was still an event that endangered lots of innocent people and heroes. Chiefly it endangered the love of her life! MJ trusts the guy whose actions nearly killed the man she loves most in the world!

Speaking of Peter by the way, he’s a super hero who’s regularly tangled with this guy.*

She has also worked for, is an acquaintance of or personal friends with:

Tony Stark/Iron Man

Riri Williams/Ironheart

The main roster of the Fantastic Four

Several big name members of the Avengers (including Captain America and Jessica Drew)

The Avengers faithful butler Jarvis

Members of a support group comprised of the loved ones of super heroes (see ASM v5 #8-10)

Carlie Cooper, a forensics scientist who has worked for the police

She has also encountered shape shifters, impersonators, clones and body swaps in the last 10 years of her life, so a certain degree of safety precautions would be requisite for her.

Collectively this means MJ would not simply presume Beck is walking free legally and more importantly could and would  check up on that. It wouldn’t be hard. She wouldn’t even have to tell Peter if for some reason she was worried about him knowing; we’ll dive a lot more into this in a much later instalment.

Her research would then naturally turn up the fact that Beck clearly escaped from prison. Even if the details of Beck’s trial or consequent legal proceedings (like being paroled or cutting a deal) weren’t public knowledge Mary Jane’s contacts would be able to inform her of what would’ve happened. Thus she’d know  Beck was legally declared insane and sent to Ravencroft but not legally released. 

Similarly even if the details of Mysterio’s ‘death’ in Ravencroft weren’t publically known MJ would have the means of learning that and thus confirm that Beck had faked his death once again; (see ASM v5 #24-25). This would then open up the possibility to MJ that the body the authorities have belongs to someone else. 

From MJ’s point of view, at best that’s macabre and unethical. At worst it could mean Beck caused someone’s death. MJ is clearly aware that Mysterio might be capable of such a thing because she is almost immediately concerned Beck has done something bad to the real Cage McKnight!

Now I’m not saying MJ is going along with Beck even knowing he probably killed his psychiatrist. But what I am saying is that it’s utterly out of character for MJ (or pretty much any character) to not check this stuff!

Maybe  Williams will address all this, but reading AMJ #1 it seems far more likely she’s not bothered to consider the implications of the direction she has taken. Or worse, she has but is ignoring them because she wants to tell the story she wants no matter what.

The point is moot though because MJ wouldn’t give Beck the benefit of the doubt in the first place.

There is more to be said regarding MJ’s trust issues in the story, but I think I’ll save that for next time.

*And typically won through a highly unique danger sense that MJ lacks, a sense that mitigates Beck’s abilities.

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

[coeurvrai]

Guess what? I’m back on my bullshit and that means getting through more chapters of this book, no matter how much I don’t like it. I took a break because stuff came up and then I just needed to chill for a few days cause like, otherwise I’m never gonna get through it.

But I’m here now and being here means starting this off again with another Nadya chapter. I am absolutely delighted to find out what this brilliant plan of theirs is gonna be to infiltrate the palace and then assassinate the king. We start off, ofc, with another excerpt from the Codex of the Divine.

There are no ancient records of the goddess of light, Zvonimira. There are whispers, rumors, threads of truth or fiction that say that she is the youngest in the pantheon, but who truly knows how the gods come to be? Like Alena, Zvonimira has never bestowed her powers upon a chosen cleric.

Well, usually they are just ARE or they are born from other gods. Also, I don’t know why we have a goddess of light. Like that’s Fine, nothing inherently wrong or stupid about that, but considering we have a limited pantheon (of 20, if you can’t remember), the fact that “light” doesn’t somehow inherently come under either Alena or Krsnik or even Horz’s domain is just like, okay lmao

Nadya and co. are now making their way to Tranavia, now that Parijahan is in a state to make the trip. Malachiasz mentions that blood magic is a part of daily life and taking it out would be VERY, very bad.

“It builds over time, magic does. Especially blood magic. It’s so accessible. You don’t have to have a true affinity for it to use it in small spells; you just need to know how to channel your own blood through the written conduits. After enough years pass, it becomes routine—fishermen cast spells to keep lines from breaking, bakers cast to keep their bread rising, the like—removing it would fundamentally destroy what has built the country up.”

So, the impression I’m getting is that blood magic is capable of just basically anything and everything. “Magic builds up over time.” There, fixed. Also what does that even mean? How does magic build up? Do you mean your reserves of magic build up over time, so it’s easier to tap into? Do you mean in like the environment, in a sense, that everything is just imbued with blood magic? Also I assume purchasing books or pages must be cheap or very accessible cause otherwise how does anything work? 

But what if you can’t access an Arcanist (a person who writes the spells), then what do you do? The mention previously of Malachiasz writing his own spells, and that people normally get pre-written/pre-loaded, but like why? If different occupations need different spells to help along with their job, that’s a lot to rely on a presumably specific sect of people to write them out for you. Also how was blood magic even discovered in the first place? Because the pages are the inherently magical thing, right? The blood just activates it for you to use.

“Sew that into the sleeve of your coat. Cutting the palm of your hand and fingers hurts more than cutting the back. The razor is treated so the cuts won’t scar.”

Treated with what, magic? Also I don’t know enough about biology or self harm to say whether cutting the back of your hand hurts less, or why would you care about scarring? Does a build up of scar tissue mean that it will be harder to cut yourself/draw blood, especially if you keep doing it to the same place?

So along the road to Tranavia, there are shrines placed all over the place and Nadya wants to attend to every single one.

After the third one they passed, Malachiasz stopped to wait for Nadya while the others walked on ahead.

She could feel his gaze on her as she worked. This shrine was dedicated to Vaclav so Nadya was taking extra time to ensure it was spotless when she left it. Vaclav was a darker god, chaotic and strong-willed, and Nadya was careful to stay on his good side.

Vaclav is the god of forests and truth, btw. But like what? We never got that impression from what little we’ve been told so far about him. He blessed some triplets with a Russian, Greek, and Roman name respectively, and Nadya has used his power two whole fucking times. Also what makes him “darker”? Aren’t they all shining beacons of holiness and divinity? The fact that he’s chaotic?

Like she’s used his powers before and there was no mention of Nadya having to do anything special or specific to use them, she used them as brazenly as she uses the rest, whenever she remembers that she is a fucking Cleric with access to divine magic.

Nadya and Malachiasz get into a bit of a tizzy about her stopping to clean them all.

Like he was trying so hard to comprehend her strange, pagan ways but simply couldn’t.

PAGAN?! You might argue that Nadya is referring to herself as Malachiasz would refer to them BUT PAGAN!? ISN’T YOUR RELIGION THE MAIN ONE? ISN’T YOUR RELIGION THE ONLY ONE? HOW IS YOUR RELIGION PAGAN WHEN IT’S THE MAIN FUCKING ONE OF THE WHOLE BLOODY WORLD. SHOULDN’T THE TERM PAGAN BE AS INSULTING AS “HERETIC” OR “ABOMINATION” BECAUSE IT IMPLIES INFERIORITY. TRANAVIA DOESN’T HAVE A FUCKING RELIGION, THEY ARE ATHEIST BY ALL THE WORLDBUILDING WE’VE RECEIVED SO FAR, WHY PAGAN?! 

“Having power granted to you, and acknowledging that beings of power exist, isn’t the same as acknowledging that those beings are benevolent or even sentient.”

Sentient? Is Malachiasz impyling that the gods aren’t sentient??? How the fuck does that work then, Malachiasz? Also how is that even relevant? Being benevolent or sentient doesn’t inherently tie into holiness (or power), so I don’t know what the fuck you’re on about. Holiness is to do with things "dedicated to a religious purpose or a god; revered in a religion; perfect or flawless.” 

Like of course one doesn’t beget the other, because those aren’t synonymous at all. Anyways, Malachiasz says that Nadya doesn’t have free-will cause she follows what the gods say.

“I absolutely have a choice.”

“Do you?”

“You’re still alive.”

He immediately fell silent.

I chuckled, I admit it. In another book, this would be much funnier but also darker and effective. But as we’ve all learned over this, this doesn’t matter because it’s an empty threat.

“They talk to me, you know,” she said as she used her sleeve to scrub a patch of lichen off the statue. “They all have their own quirks and desires. Some of them talk to me regularly: Marzenya—my patron—Veceslav, Zvonimira. Others only give me magic when I ask. Some regularly deny my requests. They’re not mere concepts.”

I have seen nobody regularly deny your requests, Nadya. All of the gods so far have bended to your requests and prayers of magic, including Zlatek - who apparently doesn’t like you whatsoever - and Alena - who you’ve only prayed to once before and apparently doesn’t give her powers to Clerics. Also Zvonimira hasn’t said jackshit, nor been mentioned since like the first or second chapter. And the other two I GUESS you could claim talk to you regularly, though only by the needs and whims of the plot.

[bellaxcreatura-blog]

SPOTLIGHT SATURDAY!

Thank the Goddesses!

I’m about 3 months old into the fanfic part of this fandom. Of course I noticed that there was fan art for it but my naive, small-world brain hadn’t considered the the vast and ever-expanding content of my favorite anime/manga/shows/movies/books/andwhateverthefuckelse. So here are my shout outs, darlings. Btw, my words are bad today. I’m hungover and am very, very tired. Plus, it’s pretty busy at work today. Expect nothing witty, or wordy, just sloppy praise.

First goes out to my girl, JacklynnFrost. Her adaptation of what happened pre-Holy War for Nanatsu no Taizai was phenomenal. It was the first chapter fic I read, and lost sleep over, and I’ve been truly impressed with her writing since. She’s also written and incredibly passionate fic, Interpretations that I love. It is so emotional. And she does have trigger warnings at the beginning, so keep an eye out for that. Check out her work. I don’t have the fancy URL’s for any of these, you’re just going to have to look them up. Haha

Lickitysplit has the seemingly easiest time writing I’ve ever seen. Everything is so natural and smooth and genuinely interesting tales. I haven’t read all of her fics at this time, but I’ve got so many subscribed on AO3, I really won’t be able to catch up ever. I also look forward to the Kachacko Zine I’m going to buy when I’m not broke *eye waggle*. Btw, @maybeishouldwait, I’m waiting on that Escalin. You think I forgot. Ha!!

LeMaskadra has such a unique mind for writing that I am addicted to. I think she can make the reader engulfed in the fic regardless of it’s nontraditional structure. Always a fun ride. 

I’ve had very little exposure to Galfridus and Androgynous Ink on AO3 but what I have seen has been inviting and super good. I’m excited to dive in. Maybe I should get out of my own head and focus on the catch up on these wonderful HC’s everyone seems to have attached to? I’ll probably do that.

My fics/AU’s aren’t going anywhere.

Nerroart, fuck dude, honestly the best more real-world art that I’ve ever seen and I am super willing to commission (when I have money, that is). The detail and shading on her art is phenomenal. I will always keep a special spot in my heart for her because she drew me Ban with a man-bun and yoga shorts. 

Deimos, his animations are flawless and I can’t wait to see where his own manga goes. I’m very excited.

Princessfroslass colorings are truly stunning. I honest to God didn’t know what colorings were until I got into the fandom and realized what color actually did for the panels... I was super impressed with what people came up with and even how they changed it. But this girl’s coloring interpretations were stunning, I mean, I will always remember them. 

Twitter shout outs: kirikat, a_gay_disaster, rdtztz, dragonkirisquad, KtgWrites, sabrinasarts, Krbkruinedmylif, KB_Shark

^^ Those are probably my faves right now ^^ But that’s not to say that other’s aren’t incredible.

Listen, there are a ton of you that I just haven’t been exposed to. I am a creature of habit and am really bad at staying in my lane for too damn long. I also feel overwhelmed to work on all of my own fics to try to get my stuff out there so I can... well Idk, know my brain isn’t shit? I really don’t know. It’s just fun. I’ll be taking some time here soon, probably in August to really catch up on everything. Discover all the amazing artists and writers that exist, and that I don’t know about. Thanks for being patient with my dumbass <3 <3 <3

@creators-anonymous