#i don't necessarily think they did in canon tbh. but if i only interacted with things that were strictly canon i would not be in fandom

[wowowwild]

For my krisnix enjoyers. Pls accept my ramblings below.

Good evening. It's me, Mx. Wild. First and foremost, I don't think anyone does, but I definitely do not think they are health, just to be exceedingly clear. Also these are my mostly canon compliant musings, I have other 'if this, then that' headcanons I'm not shoving in here bc nobody has the time for all of that at once. Now, moving on.

Look, Phoenix has bad taste. Kristoph is known to make horrible decisions. Match made in a hell equivalent. Kris wants to keep Phoenix close bc he's paranoid, Phoenix wants to keep Kris close bc he's a sketchy mf (imo).

I think Phoenix would know Kris wanted something out of the relationship. Some random guy he doesn't know stands up for him and tries to be besties with him all of a sudden? Kristoph could absolutely spin it that he knew the legendary Phoenix Wright would never and he feels bad bc it was his little brother who exposed the fake and is so appalled that someone would frame Phoenix and he wants to get to the bottom of it. That's even believable. I don't think that takes away from the clear indication that Kristoph wants something out of the relationship.

And Phoenix isn't stupid. Don't get me wrong, mans is dumb of ass, but he's incredibly intelligent. I think fairly early on if not immediately he would expect that the relationship (at this point budding friendship) is transactional to a certain degree. And honestly, he would get a lot out of it, too. Someone definitively believes he's innocent and is helping him through the worst years of his life. At some point Phoenix figures out the truth, but I don't see any universe where him knowing that is immediate. There would be too much going on. They have time.

From Kristoph's perspective, he needs to keep Phoenix close and figure out what he knows at all times. Kristoph isn't stupid either, just spiralling further and further out of control. Once Phoenix begins to suspect, it's a matter of time before Kristoph suspects that he suspects. Whole lot of suspecting going on. But until then they have time.

So while they have time, they 're both putting into this relationship they have. They're 'friends'. From the outside it wouldn't look like it, but they care, Phoenix might care a bit more genuinely on purpose, but Kris would also have to care somewhat after all that time. Even if it was on accident, if someone is a big enough part of your life, even if you hate them, you start to care.

I think the type of person Phoenix is, is someone that Kristoph has not seen a lot of. Phoenix and Klavier are pretty similar, I can see him drawing some parallels, but he's not really close to Klavier at this point. I think Phoenix's true personality would be pretty disarming for Kris, he wouldn't know what to do, how to act towards someone like Phoenix. With that loss of control and stability, I can find him accidentally very quickly coming to care to Phoenix, despite also hating him. As strange as it is to say, you can hate someone without disliking them, just like you can love someone without liking them.

So taking this time, we've come to a situation where they care for each other. Depending on how long they have, maybe they've come to love each other platonically, romantically, and/or otherwise. But at some point Phoenix begins to suspect. It would be complicated for him. He doesn't want to suspect his friend of being a forger or eventually a murderer. It's hard to say exactly when those two dots might connect or which came first, but at some point he realizes these things. So what happens then?

Phoenix has learned his poker face by now, but Kristoph knows him fairly well at this point too. Phoenix can probably keep the fact that he's suspicious under wraps for a while. Even though Kris knows him well enough to eventually see through, Phoenix knows Kristoph well enough to know how to hide it. Kristoph can never get out of Phoenix anything definitive. Nothing that could be used as an admission. At this point they both know what game they're playing and that the other is in just as deep.

At this point, it would hurt them both deeply if they had fallen into a committed relationship (qpr, romantic relationship, exclusive fwb, etc.). Phoenix has to have some PTSD about the Dahlia situation, and Kristoph doesn't strike me as the type to have thought much about that type of relationship before if at all. He's honestly way too paranoid imo. I think it would cut them both deeply either way, but having someone you've committed to sizing you up like that hits a little different in most cases. (I am aroace but i've been in relationships, I am working based off of my own experiences which are not universal.)

They're out of time now. Any day the other shoe could drop. Kristoph could take Phoenix out of the game once and for all. Phoenix could find the one piece of evidence he needs to pull the curtain crashing down on Kristoph. In the end, it's the latter, but until that day they're frozen, stuck pretending everything is ok, playing their roles the best way they know how, time is standing still around them.

And then a hard rubber sole meets the concrete. That is my broad interpretation of the relationship between smarmy bitch Kristoph and shady asshole Phoenix (affectionate in both cases). I could pick all my little headcanons about this, that, and the other thing to show you, but I'll do that later if y'all want. (pls ask me questions, I would love to explore answers to them)

[decepti-thots]

☕ MTOs & specifically what do you think they were going for with that?

MTOs are an interesting narrative thing to me in the sense that they really are so localised to only one part of the canon; they're very clearly Roberts' idea and only really matter, inasmuch as they do matter, in MTMTE. It's pretty clear to me that's the case for one specific reason: they'd actually fit SUPER well into the narrative arc of exRiD, especially early-to-mid RiD, but they basically never come up! You'd think 'neutrals and soldiers stuggling to cohabit socially and politically' would be prime fodder (lmao) for taking advantage of a narrative about mechs born of and into war coming back to a civilian life on a planet they really don't know. And yet.

What they're doing in that comic, in MTMTE, is a little headscratching to me at times. It feels, to be honest, somewhat like worldbuilding put in to make the texture of the backstory of the war feel grander than IDW had really managed up to that point in actual on-panel stuff, without a lot of thought when doing so in the moment as to the knock on implications going forward. MTMTE does this a few times, tries to use vague gestures at important sounding stuff to bring a greater sense of history and depth to the war in the face of the actual stuff we saw in phase one being. Mmmm. Basically just twenty dudes we already know shooting at each other across parking lots. LMAO.

(Sidenote: I know for a fact Roberts watched original flavour nuWho, and this is PEAK Russell T Davies doing worldbuilding when he was on Doctor Who, and I fully believe he was cribbing from that playbook. Every damn episode RTD would make them just sort of say stuff about the Time War that made it sound incredibly vast and textured and complex but which, crucially, never made any actual fucking sense. Good examples of stuff like this would be the Crucible, the Simanzi massacre, etc. This is, to be clear, a neutral observation, not praise or criticism per se.)

I say this because MTOs should probably be a bigger deal in terms of the impact on our cast, and their outlook on life and reasons for joining the quest, than they wind up being. An MTO is a character with no experience of living in peacetime at all, likely no experience of Cybertron, no sense of kinship or home necessarily to the planet they came "back" to. All of this provides a really clear motivation, given the implication most surviving non-neutral Cybertronians are now MTOs due to huge numbers of deaths, to join a quest like the Lost Light's! But it tends not to come up much, and I think it's because it wasn't really part of the plan. Later on, there's room to slot in some details here and there- Riptide talking about his experiences with being infodumped at by the 'training' comes to mind- but it takes a while for the comic to come back round to that.

The two big exceptions, of course, are Getaway and Brainstorm. The idea is definitely interacting with their characters more, though again, it... tends to come up later. Especially for Getaway, who I'm not convinced was originally conceived as an MTO, but had it slotted in a bit later as 'well that works' stuff tbh. (And it does, so that's fine!) Which leaves Brainstorm, who lies about being forged to throw off suspicion, who it's implied never got the time of day from Quark in a way I wouldn't be surprised we're supposed to assume is some kind of remaining bias, perhaps. Who didn't see a future for himself 'back on Cybertron' and so concocted a very weird plan to avoid having to. Who never got a choice about his 'side' in the war, and wound up with no real loyalty for anyone.

I think if there's any avenue I'd have liked to see more about MTOs via, it's Brainstorm. I wish there'd been more room to focus on that instead of (I'm so sorry shippers) his thing with Perceptor as the way to talk about his sense of inadequacy, tbh. What did it feel like, lying to Chromedome about remembering a pre-war life he never got a chance to experience? Being made to shoot people and be shot and escaping the fate of having that be the only thing he ever knew by the skin of his teeth? Not being able to imagine an end to the war, so all he wants to do is save one guy and run off with him as a pipe dream? That seems like the character where a lot of this stuff should naturally lie, to me. And I think it's a shame I've seen very little talk in fandom about it!

[bobbydagen24]

Personally I Really don't like Flapjacks death the more I think about it story wise.

Brooklyn nine nine meme aside 😂😂 part of me does feel it was a touch unnecessary and I have Read a Bunch of people's points Regarding the point of Flapjacks death

but IDK its not like Flapjack's death was actually necessary to Hunter breaking free of Belos since he already did that due to him being hurt

sure the self sacrifice is sweet and all but it does kinda just feel like angst for the sake of it for Hunter's character

when the episode seemingly did tie up his arc in a good way at first showing him moving on from Belos and be happy throughout the episode

only to have his old abuser show up and still try to control him and use him one last time

only for Hunter to actually stand up to him and break their tie for good which he didn't actually do when he left the coven before

so this would have been a great episode to end Hunter's Arc like so many claim it did

if they then didn't have Flap's death leaving a sour spot and seemingly setting up more story for Hunter only to not really do much with it

sure he was upset for a few scenes but I'm sorry I don't feel that alone justifies this writing decision especially when it just ruins what could have been a good ending to Hunter Breaking free from his abusive parent.

by just kinda not letting the story between them die there and instead having the relationship end on Belos Delivering a crushing cruel blow on his victim and then the show never really paying it off

since this is Hunter and Belos's last interaction so instead of their relationship ending on an empowering nice note for Hunter it ends on a cruel one.

this is why I was disappointed with the lack of a final interaction between them in the finale prior to Belos's death, to be clear I don't think Hunter should have killed him or even witnessed his death

but I do feel not having a final interaction between them Just makes Flapjacks death more cruel tbh

as that is the canonical ending to Hunter's Relationship with his abuser and its a sour one tbh.

So it does just end up feeling like Hunter angst just for the sake of it.

IDK I just don't really like Flapjacks death the more I've thought about it over time I've seen a ton of people talking about its narrative purpose and whatnot so I understand people's reasons for believing it was the Right story choice

and Hell I ain't necessarily saying it objectively wasn't

( I ain't a professional writer what do I know? 😅😅 )

But I do just wanna say after thinking about it a while I do Dislike it writing wise no beef with anyone who does like it tho.

[findafight]

Idk if you’re the person to send this to but like

The whole thing with Murray’s comments and Nancy and Jon getting together…. It is set up in such a way that it can be read as a situation where an ambitious teenage girl was pressured into what she was “supposed” to be. Nancy was told by a man that she respected and who took her seriously (and was the ONLY one to do so, so Murray gained an untold amount of trust from Nancy immediately, and the show just brushing off their relationship is such a loss but ok), that in order to be her real self she must dump Steve. Now Murray was just poking at two teenagers with a metaphorical stick to see what would they do. Understandable position, as a younger sister haver love doing that also (not with romantic feelings though but Murray was never meant to be ethical). I doubt that what the comment meant for him can be easily translated into what it meant for Nancy (let alone Jon, who thinks that he is better than most people and that he is definitely better than Steve, so I imagine he was nodding along). But he did influence her into becoming an investigative journalist. Like Murray with him taking Nancy seriously influenced her into two major life altering decisions (career and significant other). Like wow. And they never interacted again! Fucking hate st continuity.

Like Nancy dumping Steve because Murray told her to do so is a major thing. It’s BAD for jancy. Before s4 I thought that they were not mentioning it because jancy happened and was the endgame. But with them toying with stancy and likely knowing that they might toy with stancy all along??? Why did they not leave it open to interpretation. It’s such a juicy storyline, it shows the magnitude of the influence that you can have on a teenage girl, it’s beautiful, it’s painful, it’s the stuff of a real love-triangle (which is hard to make interesting but that would make it interesting!!!). Why did they write it then??? Whyyyyyy?????

oooooh that's so interesting anon!

I am much more of a murray fan when he is being a weird gay conspiracy uncle guy and isn't matchmaking, it must be said.

He and Nancy have the potential for a really interesting dynamic! It really is a shame we don't get to see more of it tbh. and you are so right in what his comment meaning to him and what it meant to Nancy and Jon separately would be so different! I don't know if Nancy would necessarily feel pressured by it, (though I wouldn't say she wasn't, either) but maybe it would vindicate something of how she was feeling about her relationship with Steve at the time and her feelings for Jonathan? Like a "oh this man I respect and who takes me seriously also thinks Jonathan is better for me, thinks I should go for it. Maybe I will..." kind of thing?

And lol yeah so true Jon just had his own conception of himself and Steve and their relationships with Nancy confirmed by Murray. he just kinda got...permission? I guess? to make a move on Nancy even though he was the one bringing up Steve both times he's mentioned on the road trip.

Totally see where you're coming from of Murray's influence not being mentioned because you figured Jancy was endgame, makes sense (if boring) to not question it if it doesn't need to be addressed as an issue because the pairing is canon for the rest. But now the teen love triangle has been brought back.... you're so right it is bad for Jancy. It brings up stuff about them that a lot of people (especially the Duffers!) don't want to deal with or acknowledge. Though I don't think they were planning the whole time to bring stancy back I think that sort of happened because the duffers unfortunately don't know what to do with Nacy if she doesn't have a boy to look at and Steve when he isn't pining over Nancy.

There's not enough time left to fully and satisfyingly delve into the issues between the original older teens, especially since some of those issues aren't treated as issues. It would be interesting to see, and also so so juicy, the complicated relationship they have with each other because of the UD etc, but I don't think a whole lot of interesting canon material will come from it (though that doesn't mean fan content can't!!) just based on how other romantic relationships and their dynamics with each other have been treated through the show. tbh I think maybe s5 will tease the love triangle but ultimately either end up with them all single (my preference) or with Jancy still together.

[poolnoodling]

Fanfic Writer Interview

Thank you @detta-pica for the tag!!! this is a perfect way to jump back into fandom after a bit of a break :) super duper flattered you'd think of me, thank you.

How many works do you have on AO3?

only the two! after my debut this august. i hope for there to be maaaannny more in 2025 :)

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes:

as i only have two posted works the order of kudos is:

nightcalls - JJK, satosugu, 8.4k words

unsurprising this is the higher of the two as this fic is porny and you guys are dogssss LOL i love it. i actually don't remember writing this fic because the conception-to-posting timeline was such a weird and short blur and i was down with a summer cold.

i'll often have an idea of a scene and branch off from that - with this one, i think i just liked the idea of a teeny forbidden meeting in the dark, specifically the climbing through the window. i don't remember when or how it turned abo but i surprised myself as i'm VERY particular with the trope! but i love how it turned out and you guys did too :') writing ST's POV was also particularly enjoyable for me.

2. my sea is blue (my sea is you) - JJK, satosugu, 10.9k words

my baby. my fondness for this fic has really grown since posting. and your comments are just - fuckkkk. still makes my day. i'm proud of myself for this once, but particularly i like the pacing, the chronology, and how i blended different tropes - it feels an easy story to me, and gentle, and warm, and deserved.

i sort of wrote this fic specifically for ao3 - i started with the idea of sharing a bed (classic) and thought fuck. ok. just write something and POST it. forget all the untouched WIPs (some of which i have had for YEARS) and just POST something finally. i just wanted to gauge what kind of response i'd get, if any, and more importantly how i'd feel about having my work out there in the open. it really was a springboard for me and it totally paid off <3

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

YES! every single one. i am so grateful when someone takes the time to tell me they liked my work because they literally don't need to, at ALL, but they DO, and i want to let them know i'm thankful for that. comments mean so much to me, and the interactions in the comment sections are my favourite of all - especially discussions!!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

unposted and incomplete but probably the 3 part stsg canon fic i'm cooking, which figures. i'll likely leave the ending angsty/ambiguous - not even a spoiler, it's just that i wouldn't even attempt an all-round happy ending for HI arc because really, the tragedy is too irredeemable for me to work that particular miracle lmao

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

probably MSIB - definitely leaves you with the warm fuzzies

Do you write crossovers?

i wouldn't necessarily write a crossover where i'm blending characters from multiple fictional universes - that's maybe a stretch too far for my brain to infer those dynamics/interactions. BUT i have definitely written characters from one fandom into the fictional universe of another - so aus yes but specifically established fandom x established fandom instead of regular non-canon themes. for eg i have about 10k of a STSG walking dead au in my drafts (based from a very sophisticated end-to-end storyboard i scrawled in the back of my notebook during a 3 hour finance meeting - cooking on the clock is fkn hilarious)

i also have scrappy pieces here and there where i've mashed whatever nerdy obsessions i've got going on into whatever ship i'm fawning over - dig hard enough in my drafts and you'll find a 50k BTS/skyrim/demon slayer draft from lockdown LMAO

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

no! not yet LOL. and tbh i'd reject that kind of shit PRONTO. it's never made sense to me why someone would leave hate on someone else's brainchild when they can just....... exit the tab

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

fuk yea brother. intercourse is boring for me and difficult to write so i'd probably say i focus heavy on foreplay/build up, especially first times!!! i've actually stalled at multiple WIPs because i got to the intercourse part and lost all braincells.

literary wise, i like to write smut more towards the """poetic""" end of the spectrum rather than the more literal, action-by-action portrayal (though there's definitely a space and time for this too) - but really this is just a conscious cheat because i find smut generally pretty hard to write.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i absolutely doubt it!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

no but would be completely open to this :)

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

ah. no. and i'd genuinely love to because there are some fkn amazing authors out there who i genuinely really admire, and whose ideas and techniques i think would blend so good with my own. HOWEVER i'd be the worst to collab with, and this is purely down to time and scheduling. i write fic on stolen time and as a result tend to take ages to produce something whole - if i ever found myself with a more open schedule i'd certainly be up for it, but don't see this happening sadly :(

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

such a hard question?! i don't actually HAVE that many ships but should probably say stsg because fuckkkk the tropes. the tropes you guys. there's just so much that's tasty about it. i won't get into it here but literally what is not to love?!? OTHER than this i'm a huge fan of televised media's most canon gay ships aka hannigram and stucky i'm a simple woman with simple pleasures what can i say

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

oh man. there could be quite a lot, but for fandoms other than stsg.

stsg-wise, there's the walking dead au i mentioned which could've reaaaally popped off but it would've been a behemoth of a thing that required time i don't have, PLUS i fell off TWD train as quickly as i got on it so the interest isn't necessarily there anymore. plot cooked though

What are your writing strengths?

i like this question. personally i think i excel with characterisation when i want to, and especially when it comes to dialogue. i genuinely find it so fun extrapolating from source material in terms of characters/personalities, really getting in their shoes, inferring their reactions, their speech, their psyches. i'm good at writing banter, and bickering, and teenhood, those sorts of back-and-forths, and i'd like to say there's realism in my interactions too, or at least i've been told this. i'd say writing angst is a strength of mine, though i haven't exactly released any yet, so this remains to be seen....

i also like my metaphors (maybe a bit too much), my silly flowery language, i like making writing PRETTY because i'm a shallow woman who struggles to exercise creativity when it comes to plot!

What are your writing weaknesses?

i've always said that i have difficulties with pacing. a lot of my WIPs are stalled because i struggle with scene length, the application of "filler" scenes, time passage, keeping it exciting... i usually get there in the end, but it's pacing i have to pay extra attention to, work on the hardest, and would probably appreciate feedback on the most if i ever showed my work to a beta reader.

then WORLDBUILDING. this is specific to aus. i could never truly enter the world of fantasy unless borrowing from an existing universe in an au type thing, which i have done before! but don't ask me to INVENT - i just don't have the brain for it! i'm not hugely plot orientated - and when i do have good ideas, they usually stay as that.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

i'm a typical useless brit and know no other languages so would probably leave this alone for fear of totally butchering something and offending. there is absolutely a place for this - i just wouldn't trust myself to execute it. there are so many ways to convey a character talking in a different language without running the risk of inserting a shitty google translation which i'd no doubt end up doing

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

hmmm. honestly i think exploring nanami x haibara would give me so much room to drag my readers into an absolute pit of delicious pining and angst so probably that! i'd like to do this actually. opens notes app

this is really making me think.... probably CSM i could see myself venturing into. lots of fun and fucked up dynamics to play around with there. aki-centric i think.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

i have 30k of a canon hannigram fic sitting in my drafts that is completely shapeless and TOTALLY unfinished but fuck did i cooooook. idk what it is about hannigram that turns me into a poet but i fkn ate and it will likely NEVER see the light of day but it's probably what i'm most proud of, or what i enjoy going back and reading the most :) maybe i'll shape it up one day, we'll see.

thanks again for the tag! this was fun. as you can see i can fuckin yap for england given half the chance

i'm tagging @ihavethegrimoire and anyone who sees this and fancies having a go!! <3 <3

[fonulyn]

So Death Island and how bad it is in expanding on the lives of our fav RE characters beyond just the games/movies in a believable organic way (like seriously Chris not even mentioning Piers to Jill before this???) - I'd love to hear your thoughts on what Jill and Piers' relationship could be. Like give me your thoughts on Piers desperately working or communicating with Jill on how to find Chris pre RE6. Maybe even what their first meeting was like. What do you think Jill felt at first about this puppy who I imagine to be so similar to STARS Chris before Wesker betraying them.

I don't at this point headcanon her to be overly involved with Nivannedy happening in comparison to Chris but I'm happy to be educated 👀👀

(also omg bonding and support following Piers' recovery from the C-virus and how she could relate from being Wesker's puppet and experiment)

honestly, DI was fun, I enjoyed it, but mostly just the Jill & Leon parts if I'm honest and okay some of the Redfield siblings interactions. the main villain was weak, Maria was completely wasted, and idek I wanted more. but SERIOUSLY. "THIS GUY CALLED PIERS"???? FUCK RIGHT OFF. there is no way that Jill didn't know who Piers was. even if they didn't have a personal relationship, she would've known OF him and I absolutely refuse to believe otherwise. insinuating otherwise is a damn insult to Piers, and the movie lost SO MANY points from me with that. it could've been a lovely callback and a nod to him but they ruined it. RUINED IT. assholes.

coughs. anyway.

we canonically know that at least Claire was in some kind of contact with Piers pre-re6 so to me it'd make perfect sense if Jill was as well. I know it's a bit vague where Jill was actually recovering, but i doubt she was somewhere completely cut off from the rest of the world, so she would've still been in contact with her friends. and when Chris disappears? there's no way she didn't know. remember how Chris moves heaven and earth to find Jill, multiple times? Jill would do the same for Chris. Jill would not necessarily be in the thick of action if she wasn't yet cleared for it but she wouldn't stay completely out of it.

and in that vein I actually kind of like the idea that when Chris goes missing, Piers is charged to find him, communicates with Jill, and Jill then directs him to Leon, who could potentially help. since, you know, you mentioned nivannedy 😇 she might not necessarily make it happen lmao but she could be the initial point of connection, potentially!

but like. we all know Chris is the type to act without thinking, and both Jill and Piers have had to be the person to rein him in and try to talk sense into him. so post-re6 it would be amazing if they could bond over that. they'd only need to exchange a single look and they'd both know what it means. they would have this camaraderie, all "what did he do this time?" and "yeah that's him" and "oh i knew it". not in a mean way lol, in an affectionate way, but still very frustrated :'D

and I genuinely think Piers would look up to Jill so much. he already respects Chris greatly, as we know, but I think he'd think Jill is even more badass tbh :'D he'd be all heart-eyed over her in the "oh my god she's so cool i want an autograph" kind of way, until they'd get to know each other better lol. but even then, some level of admiration would remain, 100%.

as for the other way around, I think that Piers would remind Jill of young Chris in more than one way. there's the determination, the drive, the temper too. I bet she'd first keep secretly giving him these bewildered looks at moments when he does something that REALLY reminds her of the past lol. she would get used to it, but i think it'd be a learning curve at first. and it doesn't help her mind has been fucked with tbh, these blasts from the past would be equal parts sorta nice nostalgia and actually disturbing because of everything she went through.

if they'd made Piers and Jill work together to find Chris that would've been such a dream team. they'd both do anything to find him.

and you're so right, damn, once Piers recovers from the c-virus infection they'd have even more in common. granted, he wasn't exactly being puppeteered by anyone like she was, but there'd still be enough common ground for understanding each other on a level not everyone can.

and since I'm obsessed and my brain is never far from Leon lol, that is one thing I wish was around more; Jill and LEON bonding over their experiences. Leon was infected with the plaga and although it only took over very briefly he knows the feeling, he knows the sensation, firsthand. and Jill spent so long being controlled, doing things she didn't want to do... they'd understand each other on a deeper level others couldn't.

damn this makes me regret i've written Jill so rarely. but honestly, i love her, but i'm also a bit intimidated that i wouldn't get her right so I've been a coward 😅

ANYWAY I rambled. I don't know if I actually answered anything you asked :'D

[millenari]

And for you!

🧵✍️🐾, please?

🧵 fav production!

My two biggest of favs are 1998 and the Vienna Revival. I've listened to the Vienna Revival cast recording so many times that there are moments that, when I listen to English productions, I'll get confused for a moment because I'm expecting them to speak in German. And 98 is of course a classic. 😙👌

✍️ changes to my own production!

alonzo shadow dance

boys participate in Macavity backup dance

more swing/kitten characters (also why are all the swings kittens? older female swings would be nice)

taking a page from the bway revival: longer pas de deux (but not necessarily their pas de deux, just a longer one), platoria in tugger's song, & the new macavity fight (tho I'd love if it were longer)

pekes goes to munk in act 1, no growltiger, i think I'd keep the 'hurry, make ready, remember what I told you!' line of munk's from later London Pekes

smaller theater. I think one of the big things with pac cats is the small, intimate stage that they use. obviously i wouldnt use a catwalk, but something smaller where 'audience interaction' isnt limited to only the audience members in the first few rows (and people all the way up on the balcony can barely tell all 20-30 of the characters apart).

speaking of pac cats, canon tuggoff [insert fire elmo meme here]

m/m and f/f pairs in the mating dance

jenny tap battle

restore bway-style tumble with the fighty personality. london-style pounce and tumble always seem to be the same exact character tbh

dare i say it (i shall) (i shant) (i shall) I might cut Naming Of Cats.

Idk how that would work bc I'd want to keep the 'man who's not heard of a jellicle cat' section. maybe I'd just cut the song down a bunch. I feel like that number sets audiences up to be confused bc it just throws a bunch of information that's technically not relevant at them before they even learn the plot of the show. idk, maybe go straight from 'man who's not heard' to the Introduction, but then I'm not sure where Victoria's solo would go. I'd have to think about it. The fact that Cats 2019 kept it still baffles me, as much as it's a fun song that sets the vibes it does little in terms of storytelling.

TSE: Cats call each other secret names that humans don't know. also TSE: "All the guards and all the porters / And the stationmaster's daughters / Would be searching high and low / Saying "Skimble, where is Skimble?"

🐾 how did I discover Cats!

i cant remember the exact timeline of which came first, but i remember around 2019 i started getting recommendations on youtube for cats videos (i listened to a lot of musical theater songs at the time) and i kind of eyeballed them, but never played them. Then I got (of all songs) Pekes put on one of my playlists, and I just remember minding my own business and drawing (or working or whatever), and I hear what sounds like, 'FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!'. I go 'what the hell', change tabs, and discover that I'm listening to british catpeople say 'bark'. I thought it was the ugliest song I'd ever heard (lol and now i love it) and put on something else, but other Cats songs creeped in after that one, and I eventually sat down and watched the whole thing on youtube.

And either briefly before or right after this, the trailers for Cats 2019 dropped; at the time I hadn't thought it was bad enough to earn all the mockery, but my awareness of Cats was small (I imagine actually this was after I'd heard Pekes but before I'd watched the rest of the show, come to think of it)

And for a few months I was mostly 'whatever, fun songs', about Cats, but then I just got randomly back into it and the hyperfixation stayed. I think it mightve been 2021 by then? But yeah, it was mostly the youtube algorithm that got me.

[editrevue]

and tamao or yukina or both ! - 🦋

Hi 🦋!! [ask] ohhhh yay! okay! since I'm still new to Bandori I'll put the Yukina one under a cut !!

Sexuality Headcanon: undoubtably an aromantic lesbian! it's canonical that tamao is very oblivious to people flirting with her, and that translates to "aro" in my mind <3

Gender Headcanon: nonbinary, she/they. just like in being aromantic I think there'd be some agender feelings to accompany it!

A ship I have with said character: I have several! Tamao x Rui (TamaRui) is my primary and my favorite because that was my canon, but I also have such soft spots for Tamao x Fumi (TamaFumi), Tamao x Kaoruko (TamaKao) and Tamao/Ichie/Fumi.

A BROTP I have with said character: In the instance where they're not shipped, I really love my best friendship with Fumi and Ichie. As goes with Kaoruko and Futaba, too! another one I can't wait to see more of is Tamao and Mahiru because of the illustration poll for the anniversary!

It's not necessarily a "brotp" but a funny thing is Tamao's indifference to Shiori and Shiori is out here being an absolute hater like "I'm so happy for you and your ugly fucking girlfriend I'm so serious" @ Fumi AKSHDKHASD

A NOTP I have with said character: like in the previous ask, Tamao/Futaba, but I still think it'd be funny to see! Tamao/Shiori is just. very uncomfortable. I also don't prefer Tamao/Yuyuko, but don't get me wrong I love Yukko very much! tbh I don't really see Tamao shipped with anyone else to really think about it too much, Tamao/Akira would just be plain silly.

A random headcanon: Tamao has planted flowers in specific patterns of specific colors in certain patches of the school garden to symbolize the 5 of them. Tamao's favorite role of Rui's besides Onikage was Hades, and when asked why, she never gives an answer. because Sun draws me this way, Tamao's hair soemtimes curls into soft "horns" when left unkept because oooohhhh metaphors and motifs ...

General Opinion over said character: oof. what does it say about me that tamao is my strongest kin from revue starlight . outside of me though tamao is such a fantastic character, every new thing that comes out about her adds to it, and I alluded to it in the arcana ask but I could go on for hours about their character development and the way their story makes me feel in the ways I relate to it! me and mod sun have our fingers crossed, we're really hoping that if junna or akira do not get belle/beast encores for their birthdays that either rui or tamao get something b&tb related for their new birthday cards please i'm beggign,, but! i'm glad rinmeikan is a part of the 2nd bandori collab because i was hoping to get more content of them as a whole! i hope frontier gets something big next though :sob:

I'm not super confident with these because I haven't sorted out all my feelings yet but um!! I hope it's still enjoyed nonetheless.

Sexuality Headcanon: purrsonally I say lesbian because I am! but sapphic definitely.

Gender Headcanon: nonbinary, secretly xenogender/catgender and only like Ako and Lisa know (Ako relates and could just tell from a mile away by guessing, Lisa knows because she just knows everything khsdajsldjasd) they/she or she/they.

A ship I have with said character: Yukina x Lisa! I don't know if I have any others I mega like yet, but I think even if I did YukiLisa would still be #1 <3

A BROTP I have with said character: everyone from Roselia! + Ran, Moca, Tomoe-- all of afterglow really but especially those three. I don't know enough of the in-game interactions yet to know for sure awawawaaa but I will know one day .

A NOTP I have with said character: I don't think I have any yet that give me an ick? Well besides maybe Yukina x Chiyu, Yukina x Ako and other young underclassmen obviously :sob: but um! hm! I don't think I enjoy seeing Yukina shipped with my other kins, especially the bigger ones like Kaoru and Himari if that's even anything. shrug!

A random headcanon: just to be cute I asked Sun to give me random yukina headcanons from her perspective and I really like some of the ones she wrote so I'll put them here! "you hum to yourself to help concentrate and when you're happy. A small hum from yuki means you're smiling, even if you’re not actually!" // "a kitty related one, I feel like you can, similar to how you can name a song based on a single note, accurately name any cat breed you see, or any cat colors or coat patterns" // "You’re secretly really good at video games, and no one knows why, since you dedicate so much time to music" which is a really silly one in retrospect, and another one she wrote i love the most is she said yukina and lisa would often bake together ! i agree with that one 🥺

General Opinion over said character: maybe there's a liiiiiitle bit of a bias going on because we both kin her hehe, but of course I love Yukina! We've talked about it before but I loved learning that she shares the same va as Claudine! It's so funny listening to bandori songs next to revstar songs because I have a hard time separating Aina's voice from Claudine still hdaksahsskdsd I relate very much to her passion for cats and her dedication to her friends and band. I can't wait to learn more!

[buffyandwillow]

Hi babe, hope your good 😊 Buffy+Drusilla for the ask game!

Send me a ship and I’ll answer three questions based on if I ship it or not.

What made you ship it?

I can't remember who planted the idea in my brain (maybe Lucie?), but I remember becoming fascinated by them a few years ago. To me, Dru is a really compelling character, and it's tragic that we hardly get to see her interact with Buffy - tbh that alone is reason for me to devote time to thinking about them. (Yes, I DO ship Buffy with every minor female character in the show.)

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Since they're the farthest thing from canon, allow me to ramble for a moment about the potential I see here.

My absolute favourite canon interaction between them is in Crush when Buffy accuses Spike, as a vampire, of being unable to love... and Dru interjects: "We can, you know. We can love quite well... if not wisely."

The show explores many different angles and themes with Buffy and her relationships with Angel+Spike, and I think that going that route with Dru would reveal even more nuances in a Slayer/vampire relationship. Buffy sees vampires in the black & white way the general narrative does (soul = good, soulless = evil thing) and yet it clearly isn't that simple. And I believe Drusilla. I believe that vampires can feel love - even if love, for vampires, is sometimes synonymous with sex and pain and death (not necessarily in that order). And, for some reason, I'm convinced that if Buffy spent more time with Dru... she would believe that too. What did the Judge say about Drusilla and Spike? "You two stink of humanity. You share affection and jealousy." Compare to when he touches Angelus, and finds no trace of humanity whatsoever. What I'm trying to get at here, I think, is that Dru has layers in a way that Angelus does not. And that makes me want to see her interact more with Buffy, whether or not she has a soul.

I also have to give another shoutout to Surprise, where they literally share a dream. Buffy dreams that Drusilla is alive and when Drusilla sees her later she says: "I only dreamed you'd come. :)" Hello?? That level of mind-touchiness is something Buffy only shares with 2 people, that I can recall, and the other is Willow. (Not counting Primeval, thinking more about moments like The Weight of the World.) I find it incredibly fascinating that this could have been swept into a pile with the rest of Buffy's prophetic Slayer dreams, but no!! It's specifically noted that Drusilla was aware of the dream. So - what? Either Drusilla created it in Buffy's head, or she herself was somehow able to have a vision of Buffy's vision. Either way, it's got me very interested in what their connection could be.

I could go on here but this is probably lengthy enough lol

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I mean, I think shipping it is probably unpopular in and of itself, lmao. So - no, I don't imagine so!

[hells-greatestdad]

// something I always go back and forth on is how present Lucifer was in Charlie's life

there was some leaked stuff that was in early scripts and plotting for HH and one of the images including Charlie expecting her dad to be different than he is. whiiiich.... obviously has some implications. (but that iteration of their relationship also may no longer be canon)

like obviously there was the estrangement but we don't actually know what that began - was it just the seven years or was it significantly longer. and there's hints and stuff that even in early life she didn't know him too well (I mean that's like.... explicitly a line in More Than Anything)

to what extent though. and why. was it just King duty stuff with a combo of depression or was it more to do with a conflict between Lucifer and Lilith that kinda kept them apart (don't take this as me badmouthing Lilith cuz never. but if the conflicts between Lucifer and Lilith and their respective views on the Sinner population did intensify once Charlie was in the picture (which Lucifer would panic more about especially if Heaven threatened Charlie in any way) then things could have snowballed quite a lot and it wouldn't necessarily be either of their faults.)

like Lucifer clearly loves Charlie dearly so I'd hardly think they had no interactions before present canon. (plus there's extra stuff like how he made Razzle and Dazzle as her body guards which is like.... apparently stuff that Viv or someone on the original team had said in a stream?)

but it also makes me wonder just to what extent the estrangement was and whether it may have actually been a longer time than only the seven year absence

like it hurts to think about tbh but also I want to knowww

[doctorbunny]

MILGRAM theory time: Haruka!

This isn't going to go super in depth (famous last words) but there's a few heavily debated parts of Haruka's MV I want to share my findings/thoughts on because I think this is my new special interest and during my quest to get best boy's song to 1 million views I have been looking over his first MV with a fine tooth comb so to speak.

Disclaimer: As the Jackalope said in the "This is the MILGRAM" trailer, we don't necessarily know everyone's crime from just the first video, its possible that a lot of things will be re-contextualized in the second MV, however I am not psychic or bilingual and thus will only be working with content released before August 20th 2021 and translated into English (which could cause some language/cultural details to be lost on me as translation is not a 1 to 1 process).

TW for discussions of ableism, child abuse, murder and animal death. Also this is really long so sorry to all the people that follow me for non-MILGRAM stuff

Firstly, I want to start on the topic of Haruka as a person. He is disabled. He does not have 'the mind of a child' (although he is 17, making him legally a minor in both North America and Japan). He is not just 'child-like'. And he is not mentally ill (well he might be, in the sense that many disabilities like Haruka's have strong comorbidities [where a person has two or more conditions but neither directly causes the other] with anxiety, depression and PTSD, but usually when I see people talk about him 'struggling with mental illness' they go on to refer to aspects of his disability). Sometimes on tumblr, people like myself, will see canonical traits written into a character and identify them as being traits associated with our disabilities/mental illness and headcanon them as such. Sometimes this even involves saying things like "It's basically canon!" Although we understand that these characters were probably not the result of a writer intending to write a disabled person. When I say that Haruka is being written as a person with a neurodevelopmental disability, I mean the writer intended to write a disabled character and wrote them in a way that they wanted the audience to pick up on. As an autistic person (which is one of many neurodevelopmental disorders and also something I probably didn't have to specify because who else would be writing an essay about a series they got into a few days ago at 11 o'clock at night) I really like how Haruka has been written so far. There's definitely some parts of him that have been exaggerated so abled normies can pick up on his disability (namely how his MV 's main motif is really child-like drawings) but the writers also included a lot of smaller details I appreciate like how it is noted he avoids eye contact when talking to other people and is depicted as nervously pulling at his sleeves in official artwork, or how he says he finds his prison uniform (which has tight straps) 'relaxing' and when he gets nervous/tense, he will dig his fingernails into the palm of his hands. (These last two potential being examples of 'self stimulation' [aka stimming] where a person seeks out specific sensory stimuli in order to help regulate their nervous system/emotions, in this case the tight uniform creates a comforting, secure feeling [you may have heard about some people preferring to sleep under weighted blankets for this reason] and digging nails into his palms sounds uncomfortable/painful but is done in an attempt to deal with a greater sensory discomfort caused by the situation/environment) I also appreciate the depth he is written with, he struggles to communicate verbally but in his MV and interactions with other inmates is shown to have insecurities, opinions and a consistent thought process (this is all basic character stuff but unfortunately not always present in disabled characters)

Also I want to add that (in terms of what we've been shown so far) Haruka did not kill anyone because of his disability/mental illness. Disabled people are not inherently more innocent than abled people. But there is no disability/mental illness where a symptom is that you kill people and real people have to live with the stigma when you speak carelessly and suggest things like "Haruka is the kind of mentally ill person who kills people as a cry for help" 🧂 (or at the very least real people have to read BS like that and cringe). TL;DR Haruka is less child-like and more onion-like (as in, he has layers) 🧅🧅🧅

Now is the actual theory stuff, oops:

Every prisoner in MILGRAM is supposed to have committed murder in some way, obviously considering Yuno just had an abortion (which i personally do not consider an act of murder) whilst Mu literally stabbed someone to death, this definition is stretched a bit. But it is not agreed upon yet who Haruka killed/how many people he killed or why he killed.

In his MV he is shown to have chased after his dog into a forest, seen something off-screen, then beaten something into a messy pulp with a rock. Some people think the dog is a red herring and that Haruka actually killed his mother/the girl from the fireworks show/his brother. I do not agree.

First: I believe Haruka when he says he doesn't have a brother. The MV literally starts by Haruka looking in the mirror and then switching between the him now

and a really similar looking younger child who just so happened to be a key feature of his memories (I don't have the vocabulary to explain it but its like cinematic parallels that establish this is the same person at different points of their life)

Its not impossible that this is Haruka's secret younger brother, but i think its unlikely. I saw someone saying they had to be different people because Haruka looks less happy than the child but like, most 17 year olds are less visibly happy than when they were 7 (or however old the child is meant to be). Life happens.

So when Haruka is shown pushing the child around and eventually strangling him, this isn't meant to be literal (homicide or suicide), but a representation of how conflicted Haruka feels about his younger self, who may have committed the murder (if you've ever been kept awake cringing at memories of something you said in the past and wishing you could go slap some sense into your former self, this is like that but 10 times more self loathing). The lyric "I am always repeating yesterday," implies he might think about this specific past event a lot.

Moving on, its pretty well accepted that Haruka's parents were abusive in some way and Haruka internalised a lot of it: he constantly apologises, he says in his interrogation questions that his one wish come true is that "[he] want[s] to be loved" and describes in his MV how when he couldn't find the words he was looking for ("you're unfair") one of his parents "would get angry at me and say “You’re hopeless.”". He seems to know its unfair but also still says he 'loves' his family, possibly mistakenly believing it is his fault, but also showing an awareness of his situation (and how his parents might behave).

Now, the MV is stylised in a way that makes certain details unclear, but there is one clear detail showing that Haruka's dog was killed

This is the first close up of Haruka and the dog. Haruka's mother is just out of frame supervising, but they look pretty happy. Notice how the puppy has a silvery chain for a collar. Somehow, this dog gets out of the house but only Haruka is shown chasing after it (whether his mother was searching elsewhere or didn't bother following her disabled son into the forest is unclear). Either way, young Haruka is now in the forest, unsupervised.

By the time he finds the dog, there is already blood, suggesting it was initally attacked by something else.

is this a sigh of relief from a boy whose finally found his beloved pet or a jealous weakling glad that nature took its course and he is finally free of that meddling mutt stealing all his mummy's attention? /j

I think this shock at the discovery that 'there is blood on his hands' could imply that rather than literally getting the blood from his dog, Haruka has seen his already injured dog and realises that if the dog got out because of him (he is previously shown to be aware his parents seem to blame him for everything) then he is the reason his dog is injured/dying and will be blamed for it. (this scene plays over the lyrics "It’s fine, though it’s really not It’s really fine, though I don’t really think so When I tried to understand it, You’ll make that disappointed face again" suggesting he is trying to avoid making his parents disappointed and letting the family pet escape into danger is something that could make them very disappointed)

now we get into rock murder (this is present-day Haruka implying that this is either: not how the scene really played out; the writers really wanting the audience to know that this was Haruka's doing and not someone else's; or this turns into a separate incident that happened much later [although note that the red sky and blue moon is the same as when young Haruka first appears at the start])

b the corpse is beyond mangled now, but its clearly the dog because the silver chain collar is still there, to the right of the body. (circled in red for your convenience :3)

My hypothesis is: Haruka didn't set out to kill his dog, but upon finding it injured (we don't know the severity aside from bleeding and also it not being able to run away from Haruka kneeling down above it w/ a big rock so it could range from treatable with a lot of vet help to already on death's door, TBH I don't think Haruka would know the difference) He knew he'd be blamed for this; made into a villain who let the poor puppy come to harm. He panicked and killed the dog out of some idea that it would make him the victim here (since he'd be found crying over a dog corpse, which might make a parent go comfort him rather than getting angry about what could've happened to the dog). This is over the lyrics: "I cried, I screamed I wanted to be a pitied and loved weakling I was in denial, I was in denial I just had to make sure I’ve become a victim, I’ve become a victim" (there's another theory that he was also jealous of the dog, which could work here too, since this is not some calculated plot; rather its a rash decision) This ties in with his Japanese song title (translated as Weakness) which is a play on a phrase sort of like "The strong eat, the weak do not" to become "The weak are eaten by society" or "The weak eat each other to survive" [once again I am reminding everyone this is based on second hand information from the youtube comments section (from users mitchki and Alphaistic) because I do not speak Japanese] This second meaning (The weak eat each other to survive) makes sense under the reading that Haruka killed his dog in order to 'survive' making his parents disappointed for the dog escaping.

Miscellaneous points:

We don't know where Haruka's necklace came from yet, it must be a gift since the most expensive thing he's ever bought was cotton candy. The younger child in the video isn't wearing it and neither is his mother or the girl in the purple dress.

Haruka's home seems quite big, at the start we can see a large flower garden outside the window and there's a forest in walking distance. This might suggest his family is quite wealthy

Haruka probably did go to school at some point as homeschooling is not a legally accepted as an alternative to public schools in Japan. (However it is estimated that up to 5000 families homeschool, this is uncommon) A lot (about 62%) of Japanese schools apparently have a 'special needs' classes and there are about 505 schools focused on educating intellectually disabled students (although I do not know which sort Haruka would've needed as whilst intellectual and development disabilities can be comorbid they aren't the same). Now, if children aged 7-14 don't go to school, their parents receive a fine, but its possible that if Haruka's parents are wealthy, they just paid it to avoid sending him to school. (This might imply they wanted to hide him or were generally ashamed of him in some way) However high school education (for students over 14) is not legally required and its likely that even if Haruka went to elementary/middle school, he hasn't been around people his own age in at least 3 years. As he seems quite lonely and glad that the other prisoners give him attention.

I don't think Haruka's parents are divorced and if they are, its not his father who left. Haruka mentions in the 30 questions that he thinks he disappointed his father. But still includes him as part of his family ("My father and mother and me"). A theory I've seen is that his father was disappointed by his son being disabled and left. but developmental disabilities (especially in non verbal and semi verbal children like Haruka) can be diagnosed before the age of 3, so I feel it is unlikely that Haruka would bring up his father if he left that early in Haruka's life

All MILGRAM prisoners have covered one of DECO*27's older vocaloid songs (DECO*27 is a well known producer who composes the music for MILGRAM) Haruka covered 'Two Breaths Walking' (https://youtu.be/puXLfVWrz2Q) which is about a boy's first relationship and how his mother's jealousy set him up for failure as the relationship becomes toxic (specifically it has some very funny out of context lines like "Whose breasts are you sucking on now?") so yeah, mommy issues: the song (Also: some people say in the song, the boy kills the girl at the end, but this isn't literal, TBW is the first of a trilogy of songs about the same relationship, it is followed by Android girl then Two Breaths Walking: Reloaded and the story resolves with the couple reuniting as adults and getting in the relationship again, although its not necessarily as abusive as before, its still implied to be codependant ending on the line 'We should live like oxygen tanks, sucking breathe from the words each of us exhale, until our last breathe')

In all seriousness, the scene where younger Haruka is walking through the city with his mother but it keeps repeating until older Haruka pulls the younger one away might indicate an attempt to focus the happier memories of his parents (since this is also over the lyrics "Why is it breaking? Tell me why? Please don’t change If I tried and couldn’t say it, You would get angry at me and say “You’re hopeless.”" which depict a worse scene) I think both his parents are still physically present but have become far more emotionally distant, not giving him as much attention, which exacerbates his loneliness from not having any friends his own age to talk to

And if one of his parents did leave? I think its likely his mother since she is shown disappearing out of his reach after the dog-incident (inferring she got angry/disappointed in Haruka anyway) This could also be where he got his necklace from: Its something his mother used to wear (although this is 100% a guess) and that's why its shown to be important to him

This one is just me, but i didn't realise until a rewatch that when Haruka is watching the younger him and the girl running together, the background has fireworks. Haruka mentions fireworks being a key memory to him so I wonder if this was one of the first/last times he got to make a friend...

On three separate occasions in the interrogation, Haruka mentions not liking animals. Despite this, he is depicted as sleeping with a rabbit plush and on his birthday art (I'd include that too but tumblr only allows 10 pictures per post, so here's a link) he is standing next to a giant blueberry and strawberry cake with two bunny themed biscuits at the side. Through my experiences of seeing Japanese fandom art on pixiv, sometimes rabbits are used to insinuate a character is cute and timid in fanart.

Meaningless details: Haruka sleeps with his necklace on; he sleeps on a bed and not a futon; at first I thought he woke up holding his plush's hand but his hand is merely next to the toy; and considering the state of the pillow and blanket, I wonder if he moves a lot in his sleep or if the is just because in this case he seems to be waking up from a nightmare about the dog incident...

Final note: I've spent so many hours writing this I don't remember if i was building up to any big finale or not but I hope you enjoyed reading this! Feel free to add on in the comments/reblogs.

[desidarling123]

Reviewing the Grishaverse Couples (Canon and Non-Canon/Alternate Universe) just because I can, here we go:

These are not based *strictly* on the books, but rather the Netflix show, which appears to have spawned ✨all the ships✨ as of late.

DISLAIMER: I don't hate any ships! And I won't tolerate any slander. Creativity is the core to all fandoms, and that's what shipping (canon or otherwise) is ultimately all about. Cool? Cool.

CANON COUPLES:

Darkling/Alina aka DARKLINA: What I came for TBH, though not necessarily what kept me watching through the end (damn you, episode 5! you got me so confused! ahhh but also corruption arc for Alina? hmmmm) Jessie and Ben have chemistry in spades, and Ben emotes well for an ancient asshat. These two have great fic potential.

Mal/Alina aka MALINA: Sweet! A little boring to me initially tbh, but much better on rewatch. They are each other's safe haven, and there's something really lovely about that. I like them together.

Kaz/Inej aka KANEJ: GOD TIER. THEY'VE RUINED EVERYTHING ELSE FOR ME. NOTHING EVEN COMES CLOSE. THE FUCKING PINING BITCH. HE LOVES HER. SO SO MUCH. 1000000000/10.

Full disclosure: I came for Darklina, but stayed for Kanej. And, at this rate, will happily suffer countless seasons where the most they do is maybe hold hands but also Netflix please let them heal their trauma together and kiss at least once for my poor shipper heart PLEASE

Nina/Matthias aka HELNIK: They're cute. Almost a little too on-the-nose with the tropes for me, personally, but the actors make it work.

Jesper/Stable Boy: Honestly? Good for Jesper. The only person on the show who actually managed to get laid onscreen. He deserves it.

Genya/David: Also very cute, though they don't necessarily occupy much brain space. I like that David is this awkward little dork but he's just. So good for Genya. It's very pure and she really needs that.

Darkling/Zoya: Zoya, baby, you deserve better. That said, I wish the show had explored their backstory a bit more. These two would clearly put the T in toxic (Aleksander largely being the one to blame here, of course).

Ivan/Feydor: As someone else put it, these two can be summarized simply by -- be gay and do crimes. They're real cute. If only they weren't Team Darkling.

NON-CANON/ALTERNATE UNIVERSE:

AKA time for some ✨multishipper controversy✨

Darkling/Inej aka DARKEJ: I am extremely biased since I've written for them, but honestly? I would like to convert you all. This pairing has POTENTIAL. The sinner and the saint, the immortal and the ordinary. Also they both have this elegant, shadowy grace to them. Bonus points? Kaz getting a whiff of this nonsense and meticulously planning how to cut up Aleksander into a million tiny little pieces lol.

Darkling/Kaz aka DARKAZ: Sexy. So so sexy. Not in a physical sense (for obvious reasons' on Kaz' end, unless you go AU with that aspect, too) but more a battle of brains. Would inevitably end with Kaz slitting the Darkling's throat, somehow as he should, lmao.

Kaz/Alina aka KAZALINA: I didn't understand this, initially. They barely interacted and Kaz seemed more the type to drag Alina by the kefta than woo her. However, I saw a bunch of people on TikTok attacking someone who made a fantastic AU video edit, (and by a bunch I mean at least two attack videos amassing 10K+ likes total) -- so now I ship it purely out of spite, LOL. It only works in an AU where Inej doesn't exist or Kanej is somehow still endgame, but you know what? The saint and the nonbeliever has some potential. I dig it.

Kaz/Jesper aka KESPER: There's some basis for it in the books. I do prefer them as friends (and come on! Wylan!) but again, I get it.

Jesper/Inej: I... want whatever y'all are smoking bc it must be AMAZING (I kid, I kid). While I can't fully claim to understand it, I love both characters, want nothing but the best for them, and am not entirely opposed to it given the right premise. And Jesper did say he'd kill a man for Inej pretty much without hesitation...

Kaz/Jesper/Inej: OT3 vibes. I haven't read anything with these three just yet but I think, done right, it could be absolutely perfect.

Inej/Alina: I feel like Inej's piety would actually get in the way of a true relationship but I think it's cute as a one-sided crush, Inej on Alina.

Mal/Inej: This one is probably the most random of the Inej ships, but I'm team "Give Inej All The Love" so I'll let this one slide. Also, Amita and Archie low-key have crazy chemistry off-set so again. I get it.

Mal/Kaz: ... does this even exist? Lol I think Mal would definitely drive Kaz up the goddamn wall

Mal/Darkling: Objectively hilarious to me on several counts LMAO (that fight scene at the end of episode 8 PLS). BUT there's a fine line between love and hate... maybe it's not Alina they were after but each other all along

Alina/Genya: Again, god-tier. Also, makes Genya's later betrayal of Alina extra tasty in my opinion. So yeah, add in a dash of heartbreak why not?!?

Alina/Zoya: Enemies to lovers excellence. Though Zoya clearly has some internalized self-hatred to work through (baby WHAT was that half-breed comment?), I don't hate it. Maybe some day...

[lucky-draws]

do you have any tips on coming up with fic ideas? i write maybe one or two short chapters then give up bc i dont know where to take the plot. how do you keep it going so long?

ooh hello!! good question,, it's difficult to say definitively "this is how to come up with ideas", since they sort of just happen naturally i guess, but hopefully i can try to say some things that might help you,, (this answer will probably get very long and waffly, and i apologise in advance LOL. actually, ill put it under a read more, i guess.)

I suppose I would say firstly, I think it helps when writing fics (or any kind of story) to have a plan or a clear idea in your head of what you want to write and how it will end up Before you actually start writing; you don't have to have it all planned out to the exact detail but at the very least having an end goal in mind, or a definite theme or idea that you want to get across, can help you to know where you're going as regards the plot. (I know this doesn't solve the problem of having an idea in the first place, but having an idea of what direction you want to go in, where you want it to end up, before you begin, makes you less likely to get stuck half way through and not know what else to write I guess.)

I started out by doing short fics, with no real plot to speak of, just snippets/short scenes; and then eventually after getting more confident with writing and also getting more into the series/characters I then started trying longer fics. Don't feel bad if all you can write is short stuff for now; quality not quantity and all that.

And I guess this is an obvious thing to say, but to keep a fic going for longer you need more stuff to happen!! lol. It could take place over a long time, over different places, there's probably going to be some kind of Event or incident it all revolves around; having some kind of fight or conflict will expand it because you can think about how and why the fight happens, what's the aftermath, the resolution. You could think about is there a certain atmosphere you want to create; something summery, something scary and gloomy, etc etc; and therefore what kind of things can happen within this setting? If you have some characters who maybe don't like each other at first, then can you think up a plot where some kind of extreme situation or a series of situations forces them to work together, get to know each other, etc, things like that? Are you going to build up to some big Thing or some Realisation happening at the end? It doesn't necessarily need to take place over a long time; it could be a 'one day in the life of [x character]' kind of thing, but perhaps it's a terrible horrible no good very bad day, and a lot of shit goes down.

Honestly, if you're really stuck for ideas, there's no shame in going for the really clichéd fanfic tropes like, idk, "there's only one bed" or "tattoo artist and florist au" or whatever, because it at least gives you a starting point; you can expand upon it in your own way, and you can think of ways to subvert the trope etc. Even things like the '5 times they almost [x] and one time they actually did' or whatever can be a good template, because you're forced to think up six different scenarios.

I don't know what media you're writing for, but are there any gaps in the canon that you could use fic to explore? Characters that never canonically interacted but plausibly could have done, and so on? That's part of the reason for some of my writing, exploring stuff that was only referenced in canon but was never actually shown.

Tbh, my ideas often start from just single sentences or lines of dialogue which come to me randomly during idle pondering of the blorbos; I might start out with just one or two scenes that I can imagine clearly, or a spicy conversation which I think will be good, and then it's like the plot and everything else kind of gets built around, or builds up to that moment.

I guess I'd say don't sweat it too much if you're struggling to keep fics going; like everything it takes time and practice, and sometimes you just can't force an idea to happen. I've had a fic in mind for ages that I've only just got around to planning out properly; it was just a concept and a handful of imagined paragraphs without any real details/logistics as to the plot, but eventually it took shape.

This has been said before by countless people but it's pretty much true I think, and that's the fact that in general, the best writing advice is to just read lots xD Whether it's books or fanfic, read a lot and read a variety, and subconsciously you'll start to get more of a feel for how stories take shape, what kinds of things you can do, what kind of style you can write in, and so on. I remember that I was struggling a little when I first started doing fics with my writing being too wordy, too long winded; but I started reading a collection of very short stories by an author with a very concise style, and that gave me a bit of a lightbulb moment; I started to get more of a feel for how to keep things more direct, but still retain enough substance.

Tbh, I will say also that I feel like for me, with metal gear solid, it's just fortunate that there's a lot of scope to write abt stuff in this series, like there's a lot of things I want to write about; I've never really written fic for any other fandom fgjjgkg it's just mgs that has like. driven me to start writing fanfic properly, I just have some extreme brainworms for these characters. Honestly I would love to write like, original fiction some day but I would have no idea what to write about or what kind of plot...so yeah, you're definitely not alone when it comes to scratching your head for ideas.

I don't know if any of this has been helpful at all; I can at least say, ending on a positive note, that the fact that you've managed to write anything at all, even a couple of short chapters, is no small feat!! Writing just a single paragraph counts for something. Keep on keeping on, etc!!! Even if you ended up giving up on a fic, someone will surely still get some enjoyment out of the one or two chapters you did write. People are generally hungry for content!!

I guess that's all I can think of to say for now; drop by again if you want to ask anything further, anything more specific, whatever. Good luck in all your fic writing endeavours!! o7 <3

[unknown-lifeform]

1, 4, 9, 24, for ff7?

Thank you for the ask! I do love to rant about things lmao. I'm putting everything under a read more because I'm opinionated and I'll let people skip the post if they don't want to see salt

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?*

Mm. I would say for the majority of popular ships I can get where people come from. Which doesn't mean I share the ship, there's definitely ships I don't like, but I also see which interactions made the ship popular.

I think the only ones I don't get are the popular Vincent ones. Vincent had interactions with Yuffie in DoC, sure, but I just can't read them as romantic. And... big controversial here, I don't get Valenwind. Which I'm sorry about, because I have friends who are very big into it, but I just don't understand how it became so popular. It's ok in fics, I've read some fics that had it and were good, just... how did so many people pick it?

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?*

Cloti and Clerith Cloti and Clerith oh my god I can't stand either one of them anymore. And I get why people ship them! I do! But the shippers are so toxic I can't look at these things anymore.

Like yes I guess they have some chemistry but also it's extremely lukewarm for both ships. It's like this by design. You have the option of going on a date with either Aerith or Tifa (or Yuffie or Barret, if you manage to get the secret combination of dialogues right), the game does give you hints of possible romance between Cloud and either of them to get you invested. But it's ambiguous hints, because the game lets you choose, and so they can't make either pairing too canon. And like at first I was neutral on both these ships, I wasn't into them but I could see the appeal.

But no, people have been arguing about which one is the One True Canon Ship of ff7 for 25 fucking years now, bringing "proof" that one ship is more canon than the other, they've carried on this ship war longer than I've been fucking alive, and when they get bored of bullying each other they go bitch at people who ship Cloud with other characters. And tbh neither side even cares about Tifa or Aerith as a character - it's all arguing about which one is the better prop for Cloud and shitting on the other, but then they go and make the girls the blandest versions of themselves imaginable.

I'm so sorry for the Cloti and Clerith shippers who aren't like that, it must suck finding good people to follow, but also seeing either ship makes me want to start biting.

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

I would say the Shinra Board - President Shinra, Hojo, Heidegger, those people. But also 90% of the fandom hates them because they are horrible people so it's not really controversial.

The saltier take I have is that Lucretia was a horrible person too. And half the fandom agrees with me, while the other half is up in harms about how she was a victim. Like, sure, at the end she was. But also this is a woman who willingly got into unethical human experimentation, fell in love with Hojo of all people because she admired his scientific dedication (to put alien DNA in babies), and let Hojo put alien DNA in her unborn fetus to see what happened. And then Hojo took the baby away from her and she was surprised by this! Like girl I'm sorry about the alien powered mental illness but you only have yourself to blame here. And DoC had the gall to try to convince us that she and Vincent had some tragic story going on when she what? Lied to him for months and then put a demon inside of him? God, how romantic.

24. Would you recommend XXX to a friend? Why or why not?

Yeah, I'd totally recommend FF7 to people. The lore is very extensive, the plot may not necessarily be the most original by today's standards but it still holds up damn well, the music is to die for, and there's also open criticizing of capitalism, military propaganda, and unethical scientific approaches. Personally I also love the various sequels and prequels that make up the Compilation (although DoC is on thin fucking ice), but if one is only interested in the original game that's also a fully completed story. Which is more than I can say about a whole lot of games that ask you to have played other 364 things to understand them.

Gameplay wise, I've only played the OG so... if you like old jrpg with infinite grinding, you'll love that one. The graphics haven't aged well, although the polygon people are charming in their own way. Unfortunately idk how CC, DoC, or the Remake are when it comes to the gameplay (cries in not having any hardware that can run Remake).

[snapedefender]

You obviously love Snape canonically in the book, but I've been wondering for a while, are there any things that you feel the author has failed in his characterization, or are there things you wish had been done differently? Because I like him how he is in the books, but some things don't sit well with me, or I prefer my personal headcanons. What are your thoughts?

one of the main things that where i think rowling failed with snape was with the presentation of his redemption arc. and i’m not necessarily sure that’s a failure of characterization or just plotting, but either way i think it’s a major contribution to why he’s viewed the way he is and why fandom has such a hard time with him. 

snape’s redemption arc isn’t actually even an arc that we see. i’ve talked about this before but in many ways, snape’s redemption is finished by the time we as readers even get confirmation that it existed. this is a problem for a couple of reasons, but the main one is that it’s difficult - especially for narratives built on a close third-person pov like hp - for readers to make that switch from villain to hero (or even anti-hero!) without some significant work and time put in. take zuko from atla - widely considered one of the best redemption arcs in children’s media - where we see every single step of his growth play out. and, of course, atla is not a limited pov like the series so that obviously changes how much we can view but the point still stands; by doing the sudden reveal, rowling rushes what should have been a spread-out process.

so when we get just like that background knowledge of snape’s sneaky redemption, it makes it feel less earned and it makes it more difficult for readers to parse especially since it comes in the midst of all these other heavy emotional scenes. i really love the prince’s tale bc i do think it tells us a lot about snape, but i think rowling did snape a disservice by basically making his redemption arc an exposition chapter... although, to be fair, considering how she laid out snape and harry’s relationship, i’m not sure how she could have fixed that.

i also think we really needed to see more of snape and lily in that chapter. i know most of it is them but considering that’s the ONLY knowledge we have of them as friends it makes it even more important to drive home there as much of their relationship as possible. and once again, this is kind of a plotting issue - rowling had snape give his memories in a way that’s more about pragmatism and explanation, so obviously snape was just going to choose memories that would tell harry what he needed to know and not like anything else that would just show his times with lily, right? but the problem becomes then that it makes it even more difficult for readers to get behind the idea that snape changed becase of lily because he have such a small glimpse of them together. if she wanted to make this a big, profound thing (which i think she does!) then those moments really had to have enough chemistry and charisma to really convince us that this was a lasting relationship for snape and for lily - and honestly i don’t think it manages that, esp since we have so few scenes of them together at hogwarts. look at the marauders - we have just as little information about them as friends in school but we see the relationship between sirius and remus and we can get a sense of their closeness because of the chemistry in that relationship. we really needed that for snape and lily’s interactions for it to carry that redemptive arc and it just... didn’t really happen. which is also why i think it’s easy for people to misinterpret their relationship in the way that they do.

i do fill in the blanks with snape a lot with my own headcanons and i do prefer those to anything rowling might try to put out (teetotaller!snape, for example, or queer!snape). but that’s less a dissatisfaction with what’s presented in the books and more just a way to fill in the gaps since we don’t know that much about his character.  i mean, obviously i wish he had been a little less mean to kids who didn’t really deserve it but in the narrative it’s really never clear how much of that is necessity for his cover and his own personal enjoyment - and i think that’s just part of the necessary risks and evils of close third-person, where it’s extremely difficult to parse motivations for anyone other than your pov character.

i guess one thing i never really got behind was snape’s way of speaking. i think he’s one of the funniest characters in the books (that snapback he makes to dumbledore after the big “you need to kill me” reveal always cracks me up) but a lot of his speech is almost antiquated in how flowery it is. i’ve reconciled that with myself as an adult reader by headcanoning that snape adopted that as a way out of the rough speech he might have had as a kid - tho tpt disproves that theory. as a kid i don’t think i really noticed as much but as an adult a lot of snape’s dialogue sounds... idk. weird. altho, tbf, a lot of hp is definitely clunkier when reading as an adult, esp as an adult who has spent a lot of time reading fiction for school and work. (that isn’t to say it’s bad writing! hp has some fucking stellar lines in it and great speeches and genuinely moving/funny bits that are really well-written.)

a lot of stuff fandom has found really ugly about snape (his pettiness, cruelty, emotionality esp when angry, and so on) are things that i actually find interesting and think make him a more realistic character. i don’t know that i find his characterization that suspect tbh - for me, what really frustrated me with snape in the books was the clumsy way he was often used plot-wise especially when it came to his reveal. i think rowling spent so long using him as a mystery plot-device (what is snape doing? is snape evil?) and shielding his motivations that when it came time to actually do the reveal it was just something that she couldn’t really execute with grace, which had the unfortunate side-effect of kind of undermining the way his narrative was received. 

[rahleeyah]

First of all I absolutely love all of your fics, you are so talented and your writing is inspiring. I'd like to know your perspective on this. When I read comments from people who don't ship EO and I respect them just to be clear, must of them say that their relationship is like brother and sister or that it's strictly platonic. And tough I can see certain elements of that on their interactions along the series at least for me is very clear that their love for each other is definitely more than that, it's straight up romantic. In my opinion we have seen those dinamics played out very clearly for Liv but not with Elliot.

For me the brother and sister thing the best example we have on that dinamic is on Fin and Liv. They have developed such a strong friendship but it's more than that, it's a true and unconditional loyalty. They don't open up so much to each other often but they know they are always there for the other, he is the only one who has never left and you can tell he is determined to be always by her side, to have her back. And it's true, Elliot once was that for her but the difference is that between El and Liv there was an undeniable attraction and chemistry, and Fin and Liv never had those feelings, it's straight up trust and he is the closest thing to a brother figure Liv has met. As far as the platonic love I think it was what she had with Rafael. They started working together and even with their differences they soon learned to respect each other, I think because they realized both of them would go to great meassures to get justice in their own way, Rafa had a more practical and cynic approach and Liv had that passionate drive and compassion but they were akin on that matter. Then they started to be closer, they developed a beautiful friendship, they admired each other, they were concerned for the other but there was some barrier on a way that they would not cross, specially Liv I think because she had experienced what It was like to have feelings for someone she could trust as much (Elliot) and she couldn't handle the eventual loss it would mean, so she rather remain friends. As for him, he did seem to have strong feelings for her and he basically said that to her when he was about to leave, maybe he never felt like he had a real chance with her or both of them kinda prefered to stick to a close friendship, afraid of ruining what they had. I do think they both had feelings for each other, not necessarily the kinda of attraction or magnetism she and Elliot had, but more out of absolute admiration and respect. If one or both would have dared at some point to try and make that relationship grow, I think it could have worked for them but it was not the case. The relationship where it was teased it could grow on to something more but eventually didn't happen was with Peter Stone. They did seemed to be attracted to each other, they had an intense dinamic, she let him be close to Noah which was huge for her and she comforted him when he lost his sister. Again when he left he admitted he had feelings for her, but that was it. And then there are the canon relationships she had with Cassidy and Tucker and they were both relevant for her in that time, she loved them but not in the way she loved El. As Brian said she would never bare her soul with him, neither with Ed even if it was as close as it gets, there's only someone who would be that person and that is Elliot.

The difference with Elliot is that between them there are all those elements combined and even more. They know each other, they complement what the other lacks, they share their passion, they are both caring, protective people who tend to put other's necessities before their own, they both had a troubled upbringing and they both have very strong morals, neither of them could bring themselves to do something that they think is not righteous, that's why they never closed that line. Their bond is stronger than the others, it's physical too but it runs much deeper than that, and that's why both chose the other when Gitano, and why even with a decade apart from each other that bond still remains, maybe not the same as before but they never could forget the other, never stopped feeling the way they felt at least not completely. That's why Elliot even if he left and broke her heart in the process is the only one who I could picture Liv having a real chance to find happiness, not because she needs someone, she can definitely stand by her own but because she deserves to be Loved, to be chosen and cared for, because in some years she will have to retire her job and Noah will grow up to have his own life, so Liv deserves to have her true love by her side when that happens.

I don't have a lot to add tbh I just want people to see your thoughts bc I love this breakdown of the different relationships