#i forgot what it's like to be deeply in a fandom and get new canon

[destinationtoast]

okay but how am I supposed to sleep when new Ted Lasso has just come out

[starrylayle]

Marauders Fandom > "There is no canon !!" and other rhetorics

Guess who's back in their marauders phase after 2-3 years of being dormant lmao?? ((spoiler its me lol)). Anyways, a lot has changed since 2021 in this fandom so I just wanted to talk about the direction i think it's going.

I remember in 2020-21 the fandom started to boom in popularity on tiktok --> esp with the rise wolfstar + atyd. I remember people were so suprised with remus' characterization as 'rougher around the edges' instead of the 'soft boi' thing, and how that influenced the new wolfstar dynamic. [Just want to add that the atyd characterisation is much more complex than this and its one of my fave fics --> I'm more talking about the fandom at large's reaction to this)

And since fandom is incapable of having two nuanced and characters who are not stark opposites,, their roles were basically reversed and now Remus is the toxic dom alpha male and sirius is the cute girlyboy twink --- which um,,, the oc-ification is so real its embarrassing but whatever (omg don't even get me started on jegulus 💀)). I just assumed these would stay as headcanons. But now we have people saying, that 'we barely know anything abt the marauders in canon' or 'isn't the whole point of fandom to make shit up?' which i have sO many issues with so let me just try and compile my thoughts into dot points for the sake of coherency.

'we barely know anything abt the marauders in canon' ---> First of all, Remus, Sirius and Severus are fully fleshed out characters in the og series -- why do you think people would care enough to create an entire fandom based on their backstories if they were 2d flat characters in canon?? Like bffr. I saw a post on here (forgot who it was by, let me know if u know!) that said, 'I didn't cry over sirius' death in OotP just for ppl to say that we know nothing abt him in canon'. Like, its just mind-boggling to me lol.

'isn't the whole point of fandom to make shit up?' --> Ok y'all. For a fandom to work, there have to be some guidelines, some kind of source material, some point of reference so people can build upon it and make content. I think we can all agree on that. One reason why HP is such a popular place for fandom is the world-building and potential plots/storylines. I see some people argue that jk rowling was a shit writer anyways so might as well contradict everything she says. Now, I don't disagree with that point in particular, Jo is a pretty mediocre writer and a terrible person. HOWEVERrr, I'd argue that it is a lot more fascinating when people expand or work on the concepts in HP. JK Rowling has a lot of great ideas but executes them terribly -- I love when fic writes do this, which prolly explain why I love atyd as it is still very much canon compliant but executes themes on class, disability and queerness that jkr could barely do in subtext. This doesn''t mean I only think canon compliant fics are valid. That's not the case! I think as long as the charcterization is consistent to the character and the particular circumstances/world they're in, its fine! In fact, I love seeing how the same character would function if in a different place! I also love seeing explorations of the magic and magic systems in aus or fix it fics (or even canon compliant ones) that still fit in with the canonnical system that we know.

I guess what I'm trying to say I wish the marauders fandom explored the world and charcterizations more deeply instead of creating shallow oc-fied version of the characters that fit into whatever's trending -- like just write your own book or smth lol -- booktok will eat it up i promise.

Also, kinda related kinda not but um,,, why are we romanticising fascists -- like babe no evan rosier is not your babygirl he canonnoically tortured multiple ppl and became a death eater soo... not saying that I wouldn't want an exploration of his character or even a relationship with barty -- (who's not some cool dairk-haired edgelord but a actually a cowardly fascist murderer with blond hair -- yes the blond hair is important) -- I'd just want them to be portrayed as the not morally good people they are. Like,, if u want to oc-ify a character like pick someone whos not a death eater or has little info on them like dirk cresswell or frank longbottom,,, or ya know,, one of the MANY female characters in the fandom ((This fandom also has a problem with women and sapphic ships in general but that's a whole other issue lol).

I know this 'babygirlification' of death eaters doesn't mean to do this, but it also ends up watering down the themes of oppression, bigotry, etc and leaves us with not nearly as complex characters. Also one of the issues I had with the og HP world is that JK will introduce concepts like wizard racism and slavery and then just like,, not really do anything about it or just have half-arsed redemption arcs whilst not ever actually exploring the root of the issue. And now i feel like the fandom is following in those footsteps unfortunately.

Anyways, i've been rambling for too long so I'll just leave it here. Sorry if this came off as mean spirited in anyway,, I just have a lot of thoughts™ and my family is sick of hearing them lol. These opinions are not set in stone however so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject! At the end of the day this is fandom and we're supposed to have fun -- so yeah !! thanks for reading if you made it this far!

[nocturnal-phantoms-fandoms]

Fic Writer Questions

Tagged by @squintclover - thank you so much!! Loved your response!!

🍓 How did you get into writing fanfiction?

By loving the story so much I wanted to be in it, lol. My first few attempts at writing ff were with self-insert OCs, but that was in my native language and mostly unpublished. Im trying to recycle some of those ideas, but Im not sure how will it go.

As for fics written in english and without OCs - like everyone else, by reading other fics.

🍇How many fandoms have you written in?

If we count the first few attempts - I took a look at my docs and counted 7 fandoms. Some parts of those were published somewhere on the web but I genuinely forgot about their existence.

If we count fics published recently on tumblr/ao3 - only HP.

🍈 How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

Technically? A decade. But idk if that counts if it wasnt published and probably never will be and had self insert OCs.

I started writing my first fics in english after I got into that one fandom which was during the pandemic, so that would be around 3-4 years - but posting since… December 2023.

🍎 Do you read or write more fanfiction?

Definitely read.

🍌 What is one way you've improved as a writer?

Im not making the characters as OOC as before? I hope

🍑 Do you have any bad habits as a writer?

Trying to fit too many things into one project that do not fit bc they are too self indulgent or just bad writing bc require sacrificing either plot or characterization. Being too ambitious, having too much plot that needs too much effort to make it make sense, and will not pay off bc nobody will read it (bc idk if i will ever finish it. and if i do it will not be written in english).

🍍 What's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Just one? There are so many weird things Ive been researching or googling.

Did they have 3-in-1 shampoos in 1979. Language of flowers. What the ancient roman beds looked like. Names and their meanings. Ancient roman’s attitude towards (homo)sexuality. Phosphorus and phosphorescence (this was literally to check if this one sentence in canon is factually correct). Did ancient romans have pets. Different gems’ looks, usage and meanings. Ancient Roman dog names. Different astronomical events / discoveries in years 1975-1980 and in year 1957. Layout of certain types of houses.

🍉What's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

Any comment is a nice comment <3 tho I like to be let known the person felt something while reading bc its still so abstract and bizzare for me that it happens 😅

🍐What's the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

As you can see from the research question I have an ancient roman au wip. I was genuinely surprised there were only a few ancient roman aus in the marauders fandom.

This one published wip is about a surprise pregnancy that isnt immediately regarded as great news and celebrated (which i think isnt a common way of approaching the topic.) I also wanted to write sth about abortion and miscarriage but i dont know if I will get around to actually writing those.

And Im trying to recycle my old OC-focused long fic which also is deeply unpopular (i understand why but also i feel like im fighting in the trenches)

🥭What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

Thats about something. Has a deeper meaning and everyone in the comments talk about how deeply they were moved by it. Or how clever the plot was. Or how the deeply and insightfully the characters are analysed. Or how beautiful the language is. Or. Like. Is written and finished and publishable.

🍏What is the easiest type?

All I know is funny dialogue, self indulgent fluff and this one type of hurt/comfort that is also super self indulgent. Also putting all the effort into fitting in as many references / easter eggs as you can that i know nobody will notice.

🍑Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

On my laptop, usually sitting at my desk, or on the balcony if the weather permits, whenever I feel like ignoring the things im supposed to be doing instead, I guess.

So far I’ve been using google docs but I’ll be probably moving on from them in the nearest future. For organizing ideas/wips and short fics I use Notion - its good for organizing but not that good as a writing program.

🍋What is something you've been too nervous/ intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

Smut, lol. Also more taboo topics like abortion and miscarriage mentioned above.

🍇What made you choose your username?

I translated my first ever username to English. ok, no, my first ever username was Leila Moonlight and i still think its pretty but now i also think its cringe. Tho I was - what? - 11? 12? So maybe I can be forgiven that it looks like a HP character. Nocturnal Phantom - the username actually use now - is still a bit cringe, I picked it bc I was a night owl (lol) and tried to lean into this nighttime-spooky aesthetic, but also its tumblr so im embracing it. I recently picked a nickname Nyx for my mutuals' convenience - and that is the greek goddess of the night. I commit to the bit.

No pressure tagging: @polaroidcats, @hiddenmoonbeam, @soloorganaas

[bbygirl-aemond]

i want to write an hotd fanfic so bad… i’m watching the early GOT show too as well to try and wrap my head around the lore but i fear that my fic will still be very amateur and show that i don’t really have that big of a grasp on the lore and worldbuilding and language around me.. can you give any advice onto how to tackle this? any specific ways i should research or how to remember every little thing to make the story as accurate and correct as possible?

hi and welcome! don't worry, i have been through this exact process within this fandom haha. i was the queen of sparknoting my way through my lit classes in college when i didn't have other time, so i think i've kind of perfected the art of making it seem like you've deeply read something, even if you haven't.

let me give my usual disclaimer that i don't recommend reading fanfic to get a sense of characters or worldbuilding in a new fandom. that's because to a fresh eye, it's impossible to tell what is the author's invention/headcanon (which may be incorrect/ooc) and what is actual canon. fanfic writing should be about indulging yourself and your creativity, not about trying to cater to the most popular opinions even if you don't agree with them. so i really do recommend sticking to canon as much as possible, and being very deliberate about where and when you use fanon as a reference.

i create a tumblr blog for every fandom that i'm planning to write in to serve as a repository for my research and notes. this blog is unusual in that i forgot to make it private and then had too much fun engaging with y'all to go back. but my first posts were all specifically for stormbreak purposes. if you're nervous about putting things out there, you can password-lock your blog, so you're the only one with access. being able to sort with tags for characters, houses, etc. will be super helpful. another good idea is to take notes in google drive, since you can also search for things there and use the outline feature to navigate. the goal is to have one or two places where you compile all of your work that are easily navigable.

a really good starting place for research is this particular asoiaf wiki. i do not recommend any of the others, especially the ones based on individual shows, because those often do not include details that are in the books. i genuinely cannot tell you how many hours i've spent on this wiki. start your research here- look for dates, places, events, houses, relationships, appearances, etc.

meta analysis is also a really good idea to gain knowledge. tumblr or reddit are the places to go for this. it's really important to seek out posts that are both sympathetic and unsympathetic towards characters or houses. the goal is to get a sense of the different opinions within fandom, and decide which ones make sense to you. on tumblr, you can search a term, select for text posts, and scroll until you find big walls of text. (as an aside: if you're doing this, blocking tags related to fanfiction, imagines, xreader, etc. will help streamline your search and filter out headcanons in favor of meta)

lastly, and be careful with this one since it is fanon but not canon: memes! twitter and tiktok are great for these. they're great for getting a sense of vibes, but not for actual canon facts about a character. remember, fanon can sometimes be very distant from or even contradictory with canon, so take these with a grain of salt. i do still find them useful for forming opinions about personalities, mannerisms, and attitudes of different characters.

if you want more info about how i actually planned out stormbreak, i've answered an ask about it here!

[davekat-sucks]

I feel like the authors of Homestuck:Beyond Canon recontextualizing their mix up between what a psychic and psionic is by saying Vrissy skipped out on school is both a deeply unserious correction of a lore error and a bad omen. What they mixed up wad a detail of lore that mostly concerned the description of a troll’s superpowers, psionics being fully telekinetic while Psychics have telepathy and mind control. The issue is if this mixup will be consistent in future updates. It would be devastating if the writers straight up forgot or misinterpreted a piece of existing events in Homestuck, or writes a character to act this way because of a specific context, while ignoring the character’s actions that counter their fanon interpretation and add dimension to their personality.

I was hoping we’d be past the ild writer’s team mixup where they straight up undivorced Jake and Jane in the Candy timeline. Luckily, as stated before, this was just a small mixup between which word to describe Vrissy’s mind powers, it can’t get any worse than that! Right?

Psiionics to others within the fandom, both new and old, is someone who releases energy (mostly like electrical kind). We see that in Sollux and the Psiionic himself. And even if we don't count Hiveswap (Friendsim) trolls, it has been consistent that goldbloods would have the chance to be gifted this ability and nobody else the hemospectrum could do this (beside the Condesce because huge B-EAC)-( )). Why even say "lol Vrissy was a delinquent and skipped school so that's why she's retarded" in a place OUTSIDE of the Beyond Canon website like Patreon? Even if that Patreon post will eventually get unlocked, nobody is gonna figure out that Vrissy skipped school or had taken history lessons about Alternia. And that new sudden fact will be called into question if it's canon or can count because it's not on Beyond Canon website or story itself. Some people think supplementary materials like Hiveswap or Hussie's commentaries, don't count as canon or taken with a very tiny grain of salt. There is also the fact barely much about the world building in Earth C is explained besides speculation, ectobiology, and that the kids are gods and rulers of it. How would we know what is taught in schools? Is the reason the school teaching them about how bad Alternia's caste system is to avoid another repeat? What methods have there been to potentially stop others from re-enforcing racism? Has a fuchsia blood tried to bring it back? Was there a time a LOWBLOOD said they should return to slavery? Has Vrissy even met another goldblood with psiionic powers? It raises more questions than answers. As the Mage of Hope, I can say that it won't get any better. It will only get worse.

[frozen-fountain]

13 for the writers ask!

In midst of putting this list together I almost forgot about this ask! But here I am, better late than never.

I'm not sure what I'd classify as a “must read”, and coming late with a taste for the niche to a huge and old fandom like FFVII surely means I've missed a lot of classics. So while they may not be crowd-pleasers here's a handful of thoughtful and intriguing shorter works I've really enjoyed and that are sitting, for shame, at less than fifty kudos.

Precarity by aejrogota – maybe a self-indulgent choice since I'm deeply proud to say this was inspired by one of mine, but it's also a beautifully written and insightful study of Aerith and what she represents that packs so much substance into less than a thousand words.

What's Left Behind in the Ashes by mythic_bitch_o – this is my favourite Barret-centric fic that I've found, contrasting his last years in Corel with his time on the read with Avalanche in illuminating and heartbreaking ways. It's so good and gets his character so thoroughly, I had to incorporate a few of its headcanons into my own.

White Lies by nightmarechild – a longer one here, but so very worth your time. I came for the emphasis on canon's cyberpunk elements and I was not disappointed; the descriptive writing and scene-setting here is immaculate, rendering a dirty neon phantasmagoria and infusing it with some chilling original worldbuilding elements that really immerse you in what daily life in the slums must feel like. But I'll return to this one for the intricate characterisation of Tseng and Rufus and the fraught dynamic between them – you just have to read it for yourself.

The Anatomy of Sin by MobiusStripper – a series of short pieces concerning the Jenova Project and the characters swept up in it. Through impressively sharp and considered writing, and by having one work shed new light on another, these glimpses add up to a continually evolving and expanding picture of an unfolding disaster that feels almost fated. But of course it's not. Just complicated people doing what they think they have to in order to make it through.

Mon Semblable, Mon Frere and Singin' Whiskey and Rye by Sour_Idealist – two fics centered on Sephiroth. The first is equally focused on Aerith and explores all the places the two characters complement and contrast one another, and it's worth reading just for the stunning, surrealistic swirl of the prose. The second gives us a glimpse into how his disappearance affected those who served under him, and features some of the best usage of the dreaded second person POV I've seen.

Murmurs by idk some author – Barret and Aerith have a talk I've always wanted to see them have in the aftermath of the battle with Dyne. I think it's these kinds of missing scenes that shed light on the implicit parallels between unlikely characters and invite us to imagine all the quieter moments we weren't privy to that make for my favourite fics overall.

Rotten Honey by sanctum_c – a Jenova Project-era what if that had me on the edge of my seat the whole time with the slow escalation of its unsettling atmosphere and powerful rendering of Lucrecia's unravelling psychology, and comes to a head in a brilliantly cathartic ending.

Like Paper For Wings by mellish – a short Yuffie study that examines the profound impact the loss of both her mother and her culture made on her. She's a not a character I see taken seriously as often as the others and it makes me sad, because there's so much to be done with her, so the least I can do is celebrate the authors who do take her on – and with as much elegance as is displayed here.

Scratching the Itch by mako_lies – Yuffie again, along with Elena. Another interaction I've always wanted to see in canon is the two of them attempting some sort of conversation in the aftermath of their treatment at the hands of Don Corneo, and this painful exchange says a lot with a little as they talk past one another in a quietly heartbreaking way.

I also want to mention Clarion by justira; it's a FFX fic that chronicles Braska's pilgrimage, and it's so beautifully done I feel like I never need to read another one on the matter because it'll almost inevitably fall short. It also contains probably my favourite line I've read in any fanfic, ever. I cried over “We are put on this world to dream our hardest” the day before the first JWST photos came back, and as such, I'll see those words across the deep field for the rest of my life.

I am also once again shouting out the author AsTheDeadSleep for their series in the Terraria fandom. I know nothing about the game beyond what I've read in their work, but as piece after piece of this gorgeously written and characterised slow burn tragedy come together, it becomes ever more firmly my favourite ongoing fanwork right now. If you like dark fantasy, asshole monster women, and men being weird about one another in complicated ways, I think you'd have a really good terrible time with this one.

[mirrorofprinces]

ao3 wrapped ask: 3, 5, 6, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 28, 29, 30!

answered 17, 28, 29 <3

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)? i thinkkkk i can't stop and look the other way. i knew for sure i wanted to play with infidelity kink (and my original idea was actually for the infidelity to be real lol) but i chickened out and just made it a roleplay, and even clearly tagged it as such, but i'm proud of how i pulled it off in a way that a bunch of people commented saying they forgot or didn't realize it was roleplay hehe. maybe i'll write actual infidelity one day! who knows

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected? god, that's gotta be give it to ya like you never had it. i truly didn't expect the response it's gotten because there was already a super popular pornstar AU fic, so i knew my second cake would just be a humble offering in comparison, but i think a lot of people really liked the way i wrote them here where i had fun exploring their personalities outside of mafia canon.

6. Favorite title you used? oh, i hate all my titles, i literally don't think of a title until 30 seconds before posting, and then i end up using whatever song i was listening to while writing...

12. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year? jesus christ. you don't wanna know. it's in the double digits for sure lmao ><

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year? i don't know that it's been one character consistently in my posted fics, but i can admit that the "character" in my rpf WIPs that's been giving me hell is apo. he is so hard to write!

19. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year? i guess i can technically say mileapo since i haven't finished or posted any mileapo fics yet. but another kp ship i want to try is (unpopular opinion alert) vegasporsche. hear me out!! they might suck together in the series, but they have a different dynamic in the novel, and their relationship is more genuine (not FULLY genuine but like, more than in the show lol, like they become friends and vegas develops actual feelings for porsche and everything). but i just don't know if i'll ever actually write them because i would need the perfect idea or AU and it hasn't come to me yet.

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most? probably down like my head on your chest, because i THINK it's my fav la fortissimo fic. i'm just really happy with the scenes i chose to hornify, plus the hallway-semi-public-masturbation bit was a huge turning point for porsche where he was given full control of the situation for once and he still chose to submit. you don't really get this because it's in porsche pov, but from that point on in the series, you notice kinn ends up "playing with porsche's emotions" a lot more (ie. having him drive his twinks home, fucking a lot more escorts, shutting down conversations about their feelings) and that's actually kinn poorly coping with porsche's unwavering trust by trying to prove to himself that he doesn't feel anything for porsche, which we all know is a BIG FAT LIE. but anyways. no one reads into the story this deeply, i know you're all just here for the smut <3

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year? my biggest surprise is that i can write again LMAO. before kp brainrot, i went like a full 2 calendar years without writing anything because i was so uninspired, plus constantly comparing myself to the thousands of better writers in the huge fandom i was in at the time. kp also has incredible writers but it's a much smaller fandom and i feel a lot less self-conscious posting here. i remember in my old fandom, i literally couldn't even tweet about an idea i had that i wanted to write without getting a dozen replies from people saying "there's already a fic like that", which is like, ok, i know none of my ideas were especially original, but getting that response constantly made me feel like my writing just wasn't welcome. oh well. with kp being a new and small fandom, nothing feels "overdone" yet, so i'm having a lot of fun in this playground!

[mysticdragon3md3]

Lrb~lrt 💛🖤💖

Despite how much i love the simplicity of Goldenheart both being uwu "Bal immediately forgives Ambrosius for everything " and "Ambrosius is so deeply sorry about everything"---especially after just coming from a different fandom/ship that had gotten far too complicated---I'll admit that the one speedbump for me shipping Goldenheart was the whole betrayal/distrust issue. I've never before shipped an OTP that demonstrably couldn't have 100% trust in each other, who hadn't let each other down, where i couldn't picture absolutes in statements like "he's always been good to him". (Oh, wait. Just realized i used to ship USUK. But i almost completely forgot what that was like.) So considering the imperfect trust within Goldenheart, it hasn't been a ship where i could always immediately feel comfort in. (So i might just return to fixating in dimiclaude, and maybe Goldenheart might just be a brief obsession for me, like RenAo.)

But trying to tackle the idea of reconciliation has helped. I've already read a fic or 2 about Goldenheart reconciling before Nimona returned, and it has really helped me stay in the ship, to envision Goldenheart talking out their problems and concluding that they still wanted to be together. Of course imagining Goldenheart as simplified into "immediately forgiving" and "absolutely repentant" has greatly helped turn Goldenheart more easily into a comfort ship for me. But it was also helpful to read a fic where, before Goldenheart went back to lovey-dovey, Ambrosius really had to negotiate with Bal for their relationship to continue, and for Bal to assert his grievances and what he wants from the relationship, going forward.

But there's still always this lingering doubt in my brain, about how they would reconcile enough for their interactions during the movie's epilogue to make sense. I've heard of the concepts of how to reforge a broken relationship, through psychotherapists' lectures: "The one who broke the trust has to be the one to actively bring up the issue and their repentance; it's reforging a new relationship more than trying to salvage the old one; it's airing out unspoken dissatisfactions from the previous state of the relationship that the new version of the relationship will change; the betrayed person particularly gets to voice their unspoken dissatisfactions with the previous relationship state; forgiveness is usually only given to people who demonstrate active change to avoid the same mistakes; etc." But I wasn't comfortable with turning Ambrosius into Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd. I had JUST COME FROM that ship/fandom. I left to dabble in Goldenheart, because I wanted something different. Dimitri is the poster boy for "constantly, persistently, continuously overwhelmed with guilt", to the point where it's one of his biggest defining traits, and he hallucinates ghostly manifestations of his guilt. Even as king, he canonically talks about how he doesn't feel worthy, and he's constantly aware of all his bloody past mistakes, (sometimes literally) haunting him. I don't want Ambrosius to stop being the positive, energetically enthusiastic, playful, golden retriever. Though Dimitri does prove that a character can both be overwhelmed with guilt and a sweetheart, the thing I liked about Ambrosius was that he was playful, a showboat, an entertainer. Ambrosius's positivity was loud and literally tackle-glomping Bal in the movie, whereas Dimitri's positivity was subdued and gentle. Ambrosius invaded Bal's space with playfulness, whereas Dimitri is too afraid of breaking everything with his magical super strength. (Not that I dislike Dimitri now, but what's the point of adding a new OTP, if they don't have something new for me? Even if I keep chasing the same archetypes and frequently having the similar favorite relationship dynamics?) I need Goldenheart to be different from Dimiclaude, and that means that I can't envision Ambrosius just becoming this walking weight of guilt and repentance. If he's pained with regret ALL the time, when is he going to be happy enough to be playful with Bal? When is he going to feel light enough to joke and make Bal laugh? When is he going to have the capacity to running-glomp Bal, as Ambrosius does in the movie? So I think in order for Goldenheart to work in my head, they have to have one or a few serious talks, then go back to being playful and lovey-dovey, but whenever the same issue returns, Ambrosius needs to then get serious and finally stand up for Bal.

Personally, the idea that convinced me that Bal would forgive Ambrosius is that despite Ambrosius's mistakes, he was still worth forgiving because the moment-to-moment experience with him was always too good. Ambrosius just injects SO MUCH JOY into every moment that he can (with Bal). He's even sneaking in jokes and loving glances, while helping Bal with his armor, when they were supposed to be getting ready for their knighting. And yes, maybe that dense positive characterization was just necessary writing, compressing as much sympathy for Ambrosius, and thus Goldenheart, into act 1 (which are typically short), so that the emotional tension during act 2 could be effective and immediate. But it worked…for me, anyway. And I do have personal tastes preferring characters that can make every mundane moment joyful. Give me my positively enthusiastic derederes, the himbos, and the ingenues! Maybe some people prefer love languages of "dependability at crucial times", and ask for nothing more than that. But I really dislike relationship dynamics where the partner is good to them ONLY "when it counts", and they're allowed to be bratty, walk all over them, and be belligerent, the rest of the time---which is the majority of the time. That's why I've been just so done with the "abrasive tsundere" archetype for so many years. (I'm glad the current most popular waifu archetype seems to be becoming the deredere. Good job, everyone. Please ramp up celebrating positivity, optimism, and altruism. The world needs it.) I personally find positive, playful characters like movie-Ambrosius to be so joyful for the majority of the time, that I'm willing to forgive mistakes, even when he makes big ones at crucial times. And that's the type of headcanon that makes Bal forgiving Ambrosius believable, and Goldenheart still work for me. (All I ask is that Ambrosius be allowed to grow into a character that won't repeat those same mistakes.)

Quite frankly, if there is ever a sequel to the Netflix Nimona movie, I'm afraid that Goldenheart will no longer work, if Ambrosius isn't allowed to completely fix his past mistakes with Ballister. I heard that in the comic, Ambrosius was meant as a representation of White Privilege, so he becomes the antagonist, (I assume) constantly making mistakes, (I assume) frequently wronging Ballister, and Goldenheart spend the entire time being "bitter ex boyfriends" or something. And yeah, if Ambrosius constantly, repeatedly fails to prove himself a good, supportive partner, then why root for them to get back together? If there are ever Nimona movie sequels, and Ambrosius keeps making the same mistake of deserting Bal and breaking his trust, for the meta reasons of the writers needing Ambrosius to represent the flaws in whatever is being represented by the allegories, then we're going to start asking, "Why would Bal stay with Ambrosius?" (I've already seen people asking that from reacting to just the first movie, and it really helped to see someone post a rebuttal like "adults in mature relationships can work things out and fix their problems".) And I think not having a Goldenheart to root for, would be losing something valuable. I think it was smart for the movie to make Goldenheart into a ship to root for, because it gave really nice tension to all their interactions during the movie's act 2 conflicts, rather than just angst for the characters to be bitter over. (Though, their argument at the Antlered Serpent and their duel at the Institute were kind of cute, since it felt so "real", I still wouldn't want that for the whole movie, especially the ending.) I really loved the Nimona movie because Goldenheart were unequivocally back together and lovey-dovey. And I'm afraid if Ambrosius is reduced to a narrative manifestation of a societal flaw, and not allowed to reconcile with Bal because of that meta reason, then Goldenheart will fail for me, and I'll lose a big part of why I loved the Nimona movie so much. I think a sequel movie would work a lot better if Ambrosius was allowed to grow as a character, versus just being a stand-in symbolizing some societal flaw…but if a hypothetical sequel movie managed to do both, while maintaining deep sympathy for Ambrosius, then I could still stay invested in Goldenheart. (For example, it really helped that Ballister made a lot of the same mistakes as Ambrosius during the movie, making Ambrosius's mistakes more understandable, relatable, and forgivable.)

I don't want a Nimona movie where we can't root for Goldenheart. Goldenheart sold me on their first scene together being cute, and I spent the whole movie wishing for them to return to that. Most of the tension during the movie works, effectively pulls my heartstrings, because I root for them to return to being lovey-dovey, playful, and supportive towards each other. Ambrosius in his first scene with Bal shows so much empathy, gentleness, support, and emotional intelligence, that I instantly liked him. I instantly understood why our protagonist Ballister would like him, and why it hurt so much for them to be parted. I'd hate for Ambrosius to loose all that characterization, just to serve the story's allegories. Even if one of the strongest and best things about Nimona are its allegories, I want to root for Goldenheart. There are just so few mainstream Hollywood fictional gay couples represented like this, to root for (versus worrying about becoming "bury your gays" or drama-filled exes---no shame to other people to like "drama-filled exes", but it's not for me), that it's only recently become slightly more prevalent. I refer you to the meme about 2023 serving up kissing scenes from Heartstopper, Our Flag Means Death, Red White & Royal Blue, Good Omens, etc., all in this year. Still, this is too recent a trend, and just because it's becoming a trend, doesn't mean it's not still rare. I don't want to lose Goldenheart, to some meta allegory in the plot. I'd much rather a sequel movie shift more symbols of societal flaws onto a new character, and again do some very heavy lifting to maintain sympathy for Ambrosius. Like when a comic-familiar Nimona fan noted that a lot of comic-Ambrosius's character flaws were shifted in the movie onto Todd Sureblade. I think the movie also did well to show how the societal system hurt Ambrosius, even while he was fighting for it. That was relevant to real world problems addressed by the movie's allegory, as well as maintained sympathy for Ambrosius, by showing him genuinely sad for entire scenes, because of this system he was fighting for, without realizing he could just break out of the system (until the "What are we doing?" scene near the movie's end)---Tragic, riveting. Even if it's comic-accurate, I'd hate for movie Goldenheart to become just friends who can't quite rely on each other enough to trust at the level of lovers, or very ambiguously portrayed back together romantically. Maybe it worked for the comic to have Goldenheart end as just friends or as VERY ambiguously dating again, because (I'm assuming) comic-Ambrosius wronged Ballister several times throughout the comic. But I don't want to see Ambrosius keep wronging Bal. I want to see Ambrosius learn from his mistakes and vow to not repeat them. I want him to stand up for Bal next time, even at the cost to himself.

In fact, if you want drama, there it is. Ambrosius has a lot to lose. In fact, he's probably already lost a lot by the end of the movie. The myth of Gloreth's "justice" has been dispelled, and now the kingdom reveres Ballister and Nimona as heroes (instead?). Ambrosius is probably losing ad endorsement contracts left and right, while Bal and Nimona don't know how to handle all the contracts and fame coming their way. Personally, I want Ambrosius to warn them to have fun but to not trust those companies too much, because companies will turn on you like Rainbow Capitalism after Pride Month ends. But I think Ambrosius could actually be kind of happy to be losing the pressure of Gloreth's legacy. That means he's free to not worry about continuing the family bloodline. He could marry Ballister if he wanted. And if his family or the royalty try to guilt him for ending Gloreth's bloodline, he could point to all the doubt now on the "righteousness" of Gloreth's legend. I want to headcanon an Ambrosius who would be happy just to have Bal in his life, even if he lost a lot of that other privilege. Instead of an Ambrosius who symbolized some societal flaw, he could be used as an example of HOW things should be and what society needs to do to fix its flaws. When it comes to a lot of modern day, nuanced issues, we need more examples of how to do things right, so the only option seems to be giving up and allowing systems to continue as they currently are. But that's just my headcanons.

[starilicious]

so i was watching some echo video clips and i have to say that i'm so incredibly frustrated with how he's been animated in tbb and season 7 of tcw.

obviously, the hashtag #unwhitewashtbb focuses on how tbb have been subjected to whitewashing and racism (and ableism when it comes to echo), but i just wanted to add on something specific. the point i'm about to delve into may have been brought up already in other similar posts, but i'm still going to talk about it in an effort to bring more attention to it.

as a poc, it pisses me off that echo is not just pale, but LITERALLY as white as a sheet of paper. the explanation is that bc he wasn't exposed to sunlight and didn't have proper nutrition, his skin color faded away. well let me tell you that this "explanation" is absolute bullshit.

i'll give you an example of why. this past year bc of the pandemic and everything going virtual, i have rarely gone outside. as in i maybe would go outside for like 5 mins once a week to throw out the trash and then come back inside, even during the summer. and just to be clear, i have brown skin. despite my lack of sunlight, i did NOT lose the melanin in my skin completely. i don't look white. yes, i did lose a tiny bit of color because that's just natural, but it's obvious that i'm still as brown as the day i was born. nothing will ever EVER change that.

this is why echo being so white literally doesn't make sense. you can't just lose your melanin to the point where all the color from your skin has been drained. and since the clones are all based on temuera morrison, someone of maori descent who clearly has brown skin, it is just so infuriating to have echo (and the rest of tbb) portrayed so inaccurately.

what i've said is just about skin color. don't even get me started on the other inaccuracy problems with the animation and plot.

this post only scratches the surface of how deeply rooted racism and other such discriminatory "isms" are rooted in star wars and its fandom. please be aware of that and support the fans of color who call out these major issues!

edit: i forgot to mention something about the malnutrition part of the "explanation". because the separatists/the techno union wanted to get republic info from echo, they needed him alive. not conscious, just alive. and to do that, they put him stasis. news flash! to keep someone alive (even if they're in a vegetative state), you literally HAVE to give them nutrition, otherwise they will die. this means echo wasn't malnourished. so, as you can see, both parts of the canonical explanation just do not make any sense in the slightest, biologically or otherwise.

[lochnessies]

ok here’s a dissection of a post an anon sent me the link to and bc i have the worst time management possible and i completely forgot i had it lol so sorry anon here you go ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

I am constantly thinking about how Edelgard just doesn’t seem designed to appeal to cishet men.

i hate to be the one to break this news to you op but just because a character doesn’t show skin like charlotte fire emblem doesn’t mean she isn’t designed to pander to men. she’s very much designed to pander to the (majority straight male) player base with her ‘uwu i only trust you professor omg did u see that rat? pls don’t look at my painting of you uwu’.

then there’s the whole edelgard c support in japanese where byleth makes reference to having come to her room for ‘yobi’ which is

there’s also the scene where byleth can make an unsolicited comment about edelgard’s breast size. which is… uhh… gross.

edelgard also has cipher cards that go from slightly fanserviceie to full on suggestive

and also her breast armor that my sister relentlessly mocked lol

and here’s a chart from the 3h subreddit about gender/sexually in regards to edelgard and edeleth. it’s extremely straight male. op might have just overlooked this since they probably don’t go on reddit and stay on tumblr (which unlike reddit is mostly female and has a high lgbt demographic).

Like the joke is that Bleagles is the Gay House, but everything about her feels deliberately non-hetero.

i don’t like where this is going…

She’s dressed in sharp outfits covering her upper body, with proportions that don’t seem exaggerated.

so women who cover up must be lgbt because straight women are naturally more revealing? oh y i k e s

Her poise and the way she effortlessly flourishes her axe exhibits an air of coolness. While titties out =/= character of no substance, Edelgard being dressed more modestly suggests that she wasn’t designed with male-centred fanservice in mind.

“titties don’t equal no substance but here’s my post on how she has more substance because she doesn’t show titties” ok

And she still looks absolutely stunning in her more modest attire (like seriously, I haven’t felt the need to return to cosplay in years but I want to do her academy look so bad). 

yes she does. amazing design 10/10. i have a feeling this is the only part i’m going to agree with

Edelgard is intense. She does not mince her words and she is constantly evaluating you. Though she tries, she has a difficult time understanding her peers initially. Early on, she talks about how she would sacrifice herself and others in the name of some greater good. She is terrible at communicating with her peers. She has to be seen as infallible. Her heart has been hardened for years and she assumes she has to stay that way. She also assumes everyone mourns the same way she does - which is why she (kind of insensitively) insists you move on when Jeralt dies. Because to her, grief has to be channeled towards action, or else you’ll get lost in it. This attitude is demonstrated time and time again as she presses on. It can make her come off as cold and unfeeling - but look closer, and she’s anything but.

don’t really have anything to say at this part. it is pretty on the nose though i would slightly disagree with that last sentence a bit. i wouldn’t say she’s as i feeling as hubert is but all of her talks of the war boil down to how she feels and never her victims.

Her story is ultimately about her realizing that to achieve her goals, she needs to let people in and allow herself to want things like cakes and tea parties and lazy days in peace. 

????? what ????? her goals include imperialism, ethnic and religious targeting. her story is about having a set of beliefs and mowing down anybody who stands in her way. that has nothing to do with tea, friends, and lazy days. also am i supposed to be sad that she has to get up everyday and work? i do that and i didn’t start a war and only throw a pity party for myself

The game leaves the player guessing as to how involved the Flame Emperor was in each Part I event, makes you feel hurt by her betrayal, and leaves you with a choice: do you follow the orders of the woman who tried to make you a god without your consent, or a young girl with questionable morals about to throw the world into upheaval?

this isn’t an ideal situation but i think i’m going to stick with the woman who tried to make me a god since i’m not selfish and i know it’s not only my desires and life at stake here. plus the green hair slaps ngl

Choosing her of your own volition (not for completionist reasons) requires the basic ability to sympathize with a woman’s pain. It also requires the player to read beyond her unwavering will and dubious methods to get a sense of how deep that pain goes and how the theme of humanity relates to her differently in each route.

i’m not going to touch this since @nilsh13 made a post on it that i’ll link here. i agree with everything he said so to repeat it would be redundant.

The player must be able to see a young woman’s desperate resolve to change the world so it stops exploiting people and ruining lives. They must be able to accept the fact that women can make the same morally wrong and ambivalent decisions that complicated male characters get to make all the time and still be the one to root for.

literally the same reason i love rhea lol her goddess experiments are dubious at best but her reasons are the same you mentioned. i would say that i like this quality in edelgard too if her ending, while bloody, actually ended in a good outcome for fodlan.

This is not unique to LGBT+ people, but this population is likely to understand why Edelgard feels so strongly about why she has to change the system. 

i understand wanting to change a system, i really do. like edelgard, i’m an opinionated bisexual woman (who’s also physically disabled) so yeah i get it. and change can be good but it can also be terrible. even if the church was the boogeyman edelgard treats it as she still replaces it with her own shit regime. so it’s the same circus just with a new conductor.

I don’t think “Edelgard gets undue criticism because she’s a woman” captures the full picture. An important aspect of her treatment by certain parts of the fandom is that she’s a radical woman.

or maybe she does some pretty fucked up shit and it goes unacknowledged in her own route. and yeah she’s radical but in all the worst ways.

Her hatred of the Church and the Crest system resonates way harder with people who have been hurt by institutions that are deeply engrained in our society. 

and what about people who have been hurt by systems where their ‘merit’ didn’t measure up and they were left behind? what about people from nations that experienced imperialism?

Siding with her means siding against the Church - which, while different from real world religious institutions, still invokes language about “sin” and “punishment.

yeah the ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ are used in relation to attempted murders which i think everybody can agree is a bad thing that needs to be condemned.

Choosing Edelgard will likely hit different if homophobic and transphobic Christians used that rhetoric against you.

it has literally nothing to do with ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ in regards to being gay or trans. that’s you projecting. especially since the church has 2 canon gay characters and two coded ones.

like i can understand why having a church condemn you can be uncomfortable but i’m begging you to please look at the context of what’s happening.

I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that the reason F/F Edeleth is the more popular iteration of that ship because most people who would choose to S-support Edelgard are LGBT+ themselves. This is not a revelation. To anyone in the community, it’s fairly obvious. 

i was talking to nilish and he said

so yeah… while there is definitely sapphic femleth shippers out there, there’s still a whole lot of weird fetishizing going on from straight men about edelgard.

Crimson Flower was my first route. I went into the game knowing absolutely nothing. I played it during the last week of 2020 and hoo boy was it cathartic. 

i can tell. this wasn’t supposed to be a dig but it came out that way and i’m not taking it out.

I felt like I was living out a gay revolution power fantasy, where I could truly change systems of oppression while fighting alongside a group of troubled students I’d shaped the lives of.

so a gay revolution power fantasy (cringe) goes hand in hand with imperialism and installing a dictatorship? also the war had nothing to do with sexuality.

Through your unwavering support, Edelgard learns that she needs to be human, that she must listen to her friends, and that she’s allowed to enjoy the world she’s creating.

edelgard gets to learn how to be human all while hunting those who don’t. and she doesn’t listen fo her friends. she doesn’t even trust them. she’s willing to talk to byleth but keep the people who’s been by her side for five years in the dark about everything. and yeah she gets to enjoy her new words since she’s on top. hate to be a commoner under her rule after she burned down my village in her war.

I love this character so much.

clearly. and i honestly don’t care if somebody likes her. i do as well even if my sometimes scathing words can make it seem otherwise.

It has been six months since I first played and I am still analyzing her,

me too. please help me escape i’m losing my mind

because there’s so much depth. Yet so many people fail to see that depth and dismiss her as evil,

i mean, she does some fucked up shit that goes beyond any of the less than desirable actions of the other main characters and does an extremely poor job in trying to make herself seem innocent. i personally don’t think she’s pure evil but i completely understand where the people who say she is are coming from.

because they never had the will to understand complicated women in the first place. 

that’s big talk from somebody who implies that a gay pope is comparable to homophobic and transphobic irl religions and that leads an oppressive regime all because she uses the vague terms of sin and punishments that you have to gay power fantasy your way out of

[magireco]

out of curiosity what do you think of the characterization of homura in rebellion? i hugely dislike it but get the impression you enjoy it which i think is interesting cuz we seem to have very similar thoughts on homura pre-rebellion (CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG)

THIS IS INTERESTING BECAUSE IT DEPENDS ON WHAT FLAVOR OF REBELLION HOMURA YOU MEAN. i really really like the way she was done in the first half of the movie but as for the twist at the end...? mmm...

...okay, so... i've been thinking about saying this at some point but i keep avoiding it in fear of causing discourse and such bc... this is a really unpopular opinion apparently, but I really do not think devil homura was done properly. read under the cut if you wanna know why i feel this way!

the first issue i'm going to address is that there wasn't NEARLY enough buildup for it. i'm going to explain this from the perspective of a first-time viewer: what would you have thought would happen after the very last scene of rebellion leading up to them breaking homura out of her soul gem? when homulilly got purified and the flowers on her head turned to sakura flowers (y'know, the flowers that symbolize life and rebirth, homura being reborn from her witch)? did you think homura was suddenly gonna undermine madoka's godliness? because, uh, first-view me did not think that at all. and neither did almost anyone i know who watched it for the first time. not only is that poor setup but it's just so sudden and it feels so out of character compared to what we'd seen in the entire series as a whole, especially considering that the entire last part of the movie leading up until that was about purifying her... and saving her... there wasn't enough buildup. most people are like "but the flower scene happened!" but that's still way too vague...? it's hard to tell what conclusion homura comes to at the end, because we don't get to see any of her internal monologue... there is no other buildup after the flower scene... it just skips to homura realizing she's a witch. wouldn't that bring the viewer to think the flower scene was something that made homura realize she was a witch rather than her suddenly starting to form her plan? it always felt like to me the conclusion homura came to at the end of the flower scene was that she was validating madoka's bravery and telling her that if it ever came to that, she'd have the ability to make that hard decision. which is... so... weird? because i always interpreted that as homura coming to terms with what happened? i could just be interpreting it wrong though, but isn't that supposed to be our proof scene? our buildup scene? why would they make it so hard to understand? we need to know such important buildup points just as blatantly as the natural buildup to homura becoming a witch was. that's just from a moviemaking & writing perspective though.

secondly, i'm gonna discuss homura's motive. i actually ended up understanding were she was coming from after a while of being like "what the hell that makes zero sense!!!!". madoka is a 14-year-old girl who, in order to save the fate of every magical girl, literally had to sacrifice herself and erase herself from the world, and in the end, madoka just ended up saving homura again, and that must've made homura feel like her promise with madoka was never fulfilled. it's unfair what happened when you think about it and the law of cycles should not have been run by madoka herself because she, as any other 14 year old, deserves to be happy on earth. although it was said in magireco that madoka felt happy with what she was doing (and she felt like it truly gave her a purpose), she did admit to feeling lonely and homura probably made that assumption big time. but the way the writers went about it just made her seem so sinister... so out-of-character-ly sinister. what with the evil smirking and the deepened, almost... uh, sensual-seeming voice, and homura completely ignoring madoka's fear. it feels like they twisted her character extremely suddenly and it throws the viewer on a loop. they could've gone with that ending without making such drastic and sudden changes to homura's character, and if they were planning on doing that, why did they not give us more buildup? buildup that wasn't extremely cryptic that you have to scan and search every detail to get a clue? something i love about rebellion is that every time you watch you find something new, but how come some of the only clues illuding to devil homura's existence are in the op? it's odd. why didn't they go with something like making the incubators run the law of cycles? they were the ones at fault for causing it to be created. but honestly, the incubators cannot be trusted with anything, which is why it'd make sense for a magical girl to run the law of cycles, but if homura and madoka had the combined power to do so, what if they just remade the law of cycles so it was less unfair to madoka...? i don't know. either of those possibilites would make more sense than what happened.

something else that kind of irks me about it is that they demonized(literally, lol) homura's love for madoka. homura is very much a canon lesbian, and it's incredibly discomforting to me that they made her seem, outwardly to the viewer, so selfish...? please don't get me wrong, i'm not ACTUALLY calling homura selfish -- i know the entire akumura facade is a mask she put on, but like, it's so much more blatantly sinister than she is in the series when she's putting on the coolmura facade. it's going to really confuse the viewer and see every single one of her actions from the entire series in a completely different light, INCLUDING stuff that happened in rebellion itself. like the genuine sadness homura felt, the way we saw into her soul and felt her pain, that genuinely made a lot of people i've seen think that it was ingenuine upon first inspection... they made homura turn "evil" out of her love for madoka, as if it's a bad thing to fall in love, and as if love for another girl was what corrupted her soul gem... i understand that gen urobuchi probably wanted to explore that kind of path where love leads to obsession or whatever, but homura was selfless to a fault, constantly trying to force herself away from the others in order to not get attached, and deeply afraid of seeming creepy and predatory and scaring(she said this herself), which is exactly what she ends up doing at the end, and i feel so awful that they did that to her... how is the viewer supposed to know what her true motives are at that point? it gets all scrambled up after they did that huge plot twist. i'm going to address another thing super quick before people jump in my ask box over this, i understand also that it would make sense for homura to be obsessed with madoka, but in the series, it was never shown in this light, and like i said, if they were going to do this, why'd they even have the purification scene at the end at all? the buildup is all wrong . it also just made me upset that this ending caused SO many people to start literally believing homura is evil because of her actions at the end, and it made people become even more vehement on their beliefs that homura is obsessive and ps*cho...

i was really confused when i watched it for the first time (and also sobbing hysterically, literally, my funniest rebellion story as someone who has genuinely watched the movie 40-ish times, i remember vividly the first time i watched it i started sobbing on my hands and knees on a yoga mat in my mom's room). also like, just to prove my point a teensy bit more, the ending was so ambiguous and out of nowhere that one of the first google results to "madoka magica rebellion" is "madoka magica rebellion ending explained" because it shocked people so much that that was the first thing they needed to google. also, the fact they left us on such a vague cliffhanger and then abandoned the movie series for a total of 8 whole years only to make a sudden comeback in god's holy year of 2021 was almost cruel. LIKE GUYS I JUST FINISHED UP MY DEVIL HOMURA HEADCANONS IT TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH!!!

...anyways, um, i really have to address the sexualization. madoka magica, previously, was a series that avoided fanservice in the show, at least, but why did they make akumura's design look like that...? it shows an unsettling amount of skin and like, every three seconds in the end they're focusing intensely on her lips and her eyes and... it's almost like the writers forgot she was 14, but they never seemed to forget that in the series? what happened????? in the transformation scene, we get closeup views of homura's thighs and back and stuff and it's all open everywhere... they made her tights into thigh-highs... in the whole series, even when she went to school, she always wore tights, and she was wearing tights in her magical girl outfit too... they absolutely deliberately did that to sexualize her further so they could make official art with her thighs out. speaking of official art that unsettles me, why does so much of the official art make the whole outfit just glued to her body and you can see all the shading on her features... it's just. ugh. anyways.

i went off a LITTLE too much on this and i know this is probably gonna get me some weird glances in the fandom and i am open to hearing other people's opinions but i don't think i'll ever stop disliking the effect this plot twist had on the fandom's interpretation of homura and although i'm like UNDENIABLY incredibly hyper excited for the next movie, i'm kind of...nervous for what this is going to bring? i don't want this next movie to cause the same amount of discourse the ending of rebellion did and i legit just want to see homura happy. another one of my main issues with the ending is just that homura is SO unhappy when she literally deserves to be happy SOOOOOOO BAD and just take a break from all the loops ... i'm Praying to madokami out there that that's what happens.

i know this is all really funny coming from someone who draws devil homura on a regular basis and literally writes her, but like... i'm a lesbian i'm allowed to<3

ANYWAYS thanks for listening this was a fun ask!!!

[pencilofawesomeness]

Fics I Absolutely Adore and Would Recommend to Anyone

I’ve been meaning to do this for a long, long time, because I love reading fanworks and they deserve a lot of love and I love sharing things that I love. 

Obviously this isn’t everything, and if it’s not on this list that doesn’t mean I don’t love it, it just means I forgot at this moment. I will be adding to the list and I remember things or come across it again. (Trying to sort through my bookmarks and subscriptions is like trying to catch a fish bare-handed.) I’m also gonna shy away from the one-shots, even though I adore fun one-shots, just for the sake of organization. The list would be super long otherwise, and those are best sorted by fandom. Here... Here are just some brilliant works I want to rant about. 

Disclaimer: I say “recommend” because I would recommend these works, any time any place, but do keep in mind the story’s rating and tags and stuff. Not everything is kid-friendly.

There is absolutely no hierarchy to the list below. They are added as I add.

Fairy Dance of Death

by Catsy ( @fairydanceofdeath​ )

Fandom: Sword Art Online Word Count: 660,282 Status: ongoing

「AU reboot of the entire SAO storyline, beginning from the premise that Kayaba Akihiko was obsessed with magic and Norse Mythology rather than swords and pure melee. As a result, he created the Death Game of Alfheim Online rather than the floating castle of Aincrad—a world in which player-killing is not a crime, and the nine player races are in competition with each other to reach the top of the World Tree. Multi-POV epic following the stories of multiple canon characters throughout the game.」

If Catsy wrote the SAO light novels and anime, SAO would be among the legendary series. Fairy Dance of Death has this amazingly simple premise of making Alfheim Online, the video game from the original series’ less-than-stellar second part, the game that the main cast becomes trapped in. However, it’s so much more. They took the characters and made them characters, and everyone gets ample spotlight—even background characters that normally wouldn’t receive a second thought. It’s masterful work, and to boot, there is a lovely frame of in-game mystery and player conflict. The organization is phenomenal and I aspire to world-build the way they did. Not to mention that stakes are so much higher and this series has ripped my heart to shreds more than once. 

It has also brought me great joy, and even when I was in the dumps and didn’t want to read anything, a FDOD update made me pick up my phone and read when I otherwise wouldn’t have. It has a really special place in my heart. It updates once in a blue moon, but that’s okay. 

Even if you have never seen a single piece of Sword Art Online, Fairy Dance of Death is still a great read. In fact, it’s the Better Version of SAO, if we’re all being honest, so I would especially recommend it if you hadn’t seen the original. Or if you have. The characters are given so much love and detail, to the point where Fairy Dance of Death’s characterizations are More Canon to me than Kawahara Reki’s work. It is just a beautiful piece of fiction, and it makes you question the depravity of man on levels that SAO shied away from. 

Poisoned Dreams

by StrangeDiamond

Fandom: Genshin Impact Word Count: 82,852 Status: Complete, with a complete sequel and more to come

「 Every night now, Diluc dreams of death. Usually Kaeya's. In between these nightmares his life is falling apart. It doesn't take Kaeya long to realize that this is something much more insidious than simple bad dreams. His brother's life and sanity are on the line and there is nothing Kaeya won't do to save him. Bonus chapter added.」

In a growing fandom from a new game, StrangeDiamond swooped in and characterized these bad boys so well I think it’s canon. It really breathes life into the video game lore, and it’s an A+ depiction of awkward sibling re-bonding post-Terrible-Happenings. Poisoned Dreams can be read alone with a basic understanding of Genshin storybuilding, but StrangeDiamond has an entire group of fics and oneshots set in the same headcanon, and they integrate them really well and subtly together. Not to mention that the narrative style is really clever with making you question what is real and what is dream (a big point in this story) and the inner voices of the point-of-view characters are very compelling. 

One Word to Change the World

by AgentMalkere 

Fandom: Fairy Tail Collective Word Count: 43,988 (30 parts) Status: probably never coming back

「 In just one universe, Ultear called out to her mother instead of turning away and the fate of Fairy Tail and the world was irrevocably altered. These are glimpses of a world where a single word made all the difference.

In other words, welcome to the Butterfly Effect - Fairy Tail style. 」

It’s a really cute canon-divergent, and while the series makes no attempt to re-write Fairy Tail, it addresses the major events and just snippets in between. It does a good job at giving the vast cast ample spotlight, but it’s also an easy read. It’s special to me because it was the series that made me really pay attention to Bickslow in particular, and I respect that.

Vigilantis Pretium Libertatis

by aradian_nights 

Fandom: Attack on Titan Word Count: 399,226 Status: Complete

「 Five years ago, an accident freed Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, and Armin Arlelt from an experiment that forced the most extraordinary powers onto them. After five years of separation, of being raised apart to be heroes by a set of three very different adults, they meet again. As they uncover the truth behind their captivity they realize being free and being heroes are sadly nothing but an illusion. 」

This wrecked me.

I still remember when I read it. It was the beginning of 2018, and I had the flu and a lot of time on my hands, so I binge-read this. It was simultaneously the best and the worst thing I have ever done, because I resonated with it so deeply there were times I was just staring up at the ceiling wondering what was real. I empathized with the characters to a level I rarely achieve, and I empathize easily. I laughed. I cried. It was amazing.

I refer to this story in conversation to this day. It handled themes published authors have only dreamed of achieving. Heck, if Dani (the author) took out the names of the AoT cast and replaced it with new ones, it could be its own stand alone novel. It is worldbuilding from the ground up, and any fandom knowledge you take in with you is used against you like a knife leveraged against your throat. Yet, no one is out of character. It’s phenomenal. I would say more, but this is something I daren’t spoil for anybody, because you must be as wrecked as I was. Vigilantis Pretium Libertatis is a level of writing I achieve to gain as a writer myself. It is a masterpiece in every sense of the word.

Life in Glass Houses

by blueskyscribe ( @blueskyscribe​ )

Fandom: Transformers (Transformers Prime, Transformers: Shattered Glass) Word Count: 119,900 Status: Ongoing (maybe, I hope)

「 No one would have thought Bumblebee and Knock Out were capable of getting along, but when they're stuck in a strange new world and their only hope of survival is cooperation . . . Yeah, they're probably doomed. 」

I could be biased because Knock Out and Bumblebee are two of my favorite characters, but it really is brilliant. Two enemies, stuck together—but not in an overly cliché way. It’s the right amount of cliché, with heaps moral conflict and inner conflict and sometimes just beating each other with a broom when no one is looking. It’s also a fascinating look into what makes a character the way they are in relation to the morals they possess, and how stalwart those morals can be. I can’t help but think of this story whenever I see or write a “role reverse” or mirror-verse AU. It does an excellent job at making all of the characters engaging and their own character, despite being in a mirror-verse.

Yesterday Upon the Stair

by PitViperOfDoom ( @pitviperofdoom​ )

Fandom: My Hero Academia Word Count: 424,070 Status: Complete

「 Midoriya Izuku has always been written off as weird. As if it's not bad enough to be the quirkless weakling, he has to be the weird quirkless weakling on top of it.

But truthfully, the "weird" part is the only part that's accurate. He's determined not to be a weakling, and in spite of what it says on paper, he's not actually quirkless. Even before meeting All-Might and taking on the power of One For All, Izuku isn't quirkless.

Not that anyone would believe it if he told them. 」

As a person who normally doesn’t read these kind of minor canon divergences, especially at the time of reading, I frickin’ love this fic. In fact, I think YUTS gave me a deep appreciation for canon divergence fics. It’s MHA in all of its glory but it’s so much more, and even the parts that rehash canon give new light to the characters and their points of view. 

I had read Viper’s work before and saw Yesterday Upon the Stair filling my inbox, and then I finally watched My Hero Academia. It was one of the first MHA fics I read and it still has a very special place in my heart. I recommend this series to people who don’t even watch MHA; in fact, there are some who might prefer the darker tones and themes of heroism vs apathy to the main series. Not to mention the writing style is phenomenal, and I aspire to be that good. It made me laugh. It made me cry. Yes, tears streaming down my face crying. It is the best ghost story I have ever read.

the Vantage Point Universe

by Aggie2011 ( @aggie2011whoop​ )

Fandom: The Avengers (MCU) Collective Word Count: 1,032,651 (35 parts) Status: Ongoing (just slowed down)

「 Six months after the Loki incident, Clint isn't adjusting well. When an enemy from his days in the Army comes back to haunt him, he'll be forced to face a part of his past - and to move past Loki, if he has a hope of finding his place with the Avengers. (First of a universe created to center around Clint Barton) 」

// description taken from first installment

Have you enjoyed the MCU, especially the first-era Avengers phase, but like me, were disappointed in the fact that Hawkeye was barely there? The VP universe is for you. 

I honestly have a hard time remembering what was canon and what was VP. And if it’s not canon, it should be. The VP universe gave so much life to Clint and to Natasha and to all of SHIELD and even the rest of the Avengers. It’s just...so good. It’s completely immersive. It focuses a lot on Hawkeye and Black Widow from before the Avengers team-up, as well as after, and it all flows together so beautifully. Not to mention that I can be reading a mission that happened pre-series, so I know that they are going to live with all of their limbs, and I still sit there on the edge of my seat the whole time.

The OCs, minor as they are, that are created for this are also wonderfully done. I can’t believe Dan and Phil don’t exist in canon. Every character, canon or no, is engaging and dynamic, it is a pleasure to follow each point of view. The emotional turmoil is also handled very well, and the VP universe carries the MCU trend of humanizing its heroes and takes it so much further. 

Ghosts of the Future

by Evan Stanley ( @evanstanleyportfolio​ )

Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog Word Count: comic (18 issues) Status: ongoing

「 About 200 years in the future, Silver the Hedgehog is an average kid living in San Francisco... except for his strange and terrible dreams of a dying Blue Hedgehog, a Black Hedgehog, and mysterious gems called "Chaos Emeralds". What will he do, when these "figments of his imagination" appear before him in his real life? 」

// description taken from first installment

Okay so this is the only one that isn’t an Ao3 story, but rather a comic on DeviantArt. However, it is still one of my favorite stories. Even though it takes the commonalities of Sonic canon and turns them on its head, GotF really treats the characters well. There are enough familiar world elements to create intrigue, but it is set in a completely different take of the future, so there is ample opportunity for world building and being able to engage with a completely new thing. I wish SEGA put as much love in the series (namely the games, because the comics are *chef’s kiss*) and all of its possibilities as creators like Evan Stanley do.

The friendship and family relationships in GotF are so diverse and all so fantastic to witness. It’s a keynote example of the new hero and the old veterans, and both parties are active and trying their best.

Do not be alarmed by the starting art style. Sure, it’s rough around the edges at first, but then it gets better, and then it gets gorgeous, and then you’re left there so stunned that it looks like just life canon art. And then you could be like me, blinking slowly as my small brain finally connected that this Evan Stanley is in fact the Evan Stanley. GotF is an amazing fanwork, but she also draws and writes for the Official Canon comics (the IDW ones now) and that work is also phenomenal and should be supported. 

Whirlwind

by Lynse ( @ladylynse​ )

Fandom: Danny Phantom, American Dragon: Jake Long, Miraculous Ladybug, Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja Word Count: 75,556 Status: Complete

「 Jake should be used to ominous predictions by now. Randy should know better than to blindly follow McFist. Adrien should think twice before sneaking away. And Danny really should've expected something like this when he got that phone call from Jake. (Secret Quartet fic) 」

I have to start by saying that I adore all of Lynse’s fics, and I chose this one simply because it is one of my favorites. But it’s all fantastic, one hundred percent. I also love Mirrored, the sort-of prequel to this fic, but Whirlwind just has the chaotic pure bean energy that each of the shows bring and it foils against each other so perfectly. This is the epitome of the Secret Quartet crossover, truly.

All fandoms and all characters get ample love, and the way the reader gets to see just how badly the characters’ assumptions are going is positively wonderful. It’s so easy to fall into the “I know what’s happening and so do the characters” trap, but Lynse leaps over it gracefully and lands in greatness. The fic had me smiling like a maniac one minute, and feeling sorry for my babies the next. Wonderful. Simply fantastic!

[pedroalonso]

it’s so funny to me how the fandom is so divided about palermo’s development there is no middle ground in any of the arguments i’ve seen so far

Martín has always been a divisive character from the start and I honestly love that for him. lmao. But yeah, In truth, I can’t scroll through the LCDP tag without seeing someone ranting about Palermo, either negatively or positively regarding his arc this season.

And after thinking about it for a while, I realize that a large chunk of people’s arguments (my own included) are deeply rooted in personal interpretation and biases. We all have our own takes on a character. We project either our likes or dislikes on them, depending on our own life experiences and beliefs. It’s not wrong to do so, it’s literally a normal thing humans do. To personalize a story in a way that resonates with them.

But at the end of the day, characters are not sentient beings. They are narrative tools to tell a story and move the plot forward. While we can get a gauge of the “basics” of a character from the stuff we are presented with in canon, we can never really be certain about “who they are” because they aren’t real. Their development is dependent on what kind of story is being told, and writers will always adjust their characters to fit the current narrative.

In terms of Volume 1, the writers have always hinted that they wanted to make the final season “an explosive one”, meaning they wanted to make it more action heavy. And looking back on it now, they succeeded in doing what they set out to do. The new season was like an action movie. Lots of gunfire. Explosions. It’s easy to brush it off as LCDP mimicking another Hollywood blockbuster to increase viewership, but I think it made sense. It showed us how dire their situation is in the bank. How much deep shit they were in that the military was willing to bomb the building and inadvertently kill hostages just to catch them. And the first volume ended with the MAIN CHARACTER getting killed off. Like the stakes were so high not even the goddamn narrator survived. The show is literally telling us how fucked things are for the band.

So with that said, the characters adjusted to this “action” movie vibe the writers wanted to go with. And I think they all acted accordingly. There was less conflict within the group because they worked together to beat a common enemy, setting aside their personal issues to get the job done and survive. And while it’s true that some character arcs (Palermo’s especially) had to be set aside, it was because they HAD to in order to move the plot forward. How much sense would it make if Martín kept raving on about the gold when the Bank was literally exploding around him? He’s a chaotic asshole, yeah. But give him more credit than that, he’s not an idiot. The gold can wait. He needs to survive NOW.

And again, narrative wise, who he is in Part 5 directly connects to his last scene in Part 4. He made a promise to do better and they followed it through in literally the first episode of Volume 1, where he’s shown to be more remorseful for his actions. If he just went back to being an angry asshole, it wouldn’t have made sense because otherwise, what was his last scene in Part 4 supposed to be for?? Just for funsies?? No, of course not. They were already foreshadowing where his arc was heading in Part 5.

And I know LCDP sucks at maintaining continuity. There are a lot of plotholes that haven’t been addressed because they probably forgot about it or deemed it unnecessary. (Like me, for example, wondering if Martín knows it was Helsinki who blew up the tunnel that resulted in Andrés death??? Like I want that angst PLEASE).

But, hear me out. What LCDP fails in continuity, they make up for emotional terrorism. Not only are they more than capable of killing off likable characters (NAAAAIROBI), they are also very good at making unlikeable characters… not always loveable. But understandable, in a way. More empathetic. For example: Berlin was 100% a disgusting dipshit in the Mint, yes, but in the end when he sacrifices himself to save the gang and you find out he and the Professor were brothers this whole time? That was a twist. Maybe you didn’t end up liking Berlin, but you felt pain for Sergio for losing someone so obviously dear to him. They made you feel sorry for seeing this asshole go.

Which brings me to my final point. Characters are used to convey a theme. What do they represent in the story? Berlin’s thematic arc in the first two seasons, for example, was him going from a villain to an anti-hero. From the moment we find out about his terminal illness, we knew he was going to die either way. You can see him grappling with his mortality — about the inevitability of his death. And it seemed like he was planning to live out his last remaining years being an asshole surrounded by a shitload of money, until he ultimately dies from his illness.

But then, he sacrifices himself. Not only does he escape the “humiliating” decline that was to befall him when he escapes, he also gave meaning to his death. He, the heartless evil bastard, made himself the hero in the end. How rude!

So, when it comes to Martín, we have to think: What is his purpose in this story? What is the theme he’s trying to convey? Is it the tragedy of an unrequited love? Or is it learning to let it go?

Because looking back in episode two of Part 3, Sergio recruits Martín in a dirty flat in Palermo, littered with empty liquor bottles and Martín himself looking like a mess. When he broaches the topic of the heist, Martín can barely mention Andrés without his voice cracking. And when he and Sergio do discuss Andrés, he screams and gets angry and cries. He was obviously still mourning Andrés, who at this point, died FIVE YEARS AGO. That is not… a normal grieving period. May it be due to the lack of a support system after Andrés’s death (since I doubt Sergio visited), or the lack of real closure between him and Andrés, or something else, the point is… Martín Berrote was not okay. He was still clinging to Andrés in some way. Still unable to move on.

So when Sergio proposes to do the Bank of Spain heist and Martín accepts, his thematic arc began. He is introduced as Andrés’s long suffering best friend who was in love with him for years until he was eventually discarded. A lot of his moments in the show discuss and convey this dynamic. From him telling Sergio he loved the plan as much as he loved Andrés, to Nairobi confronting him about Berlin, to Martín himself telling Helsinki how Andrés leaving him made him the “asshole” he is today.

His theme is not just about his love for Andrés, but his grief and suffering because of it. Where the show will eventually take it is still debate-able, and we’ll have to wait for Volume 2 for that. But viewing Martín’s whole arc in this way, through the scenes they chose to put about him, and the way they connect it to the main plot — his development this season did not come out of the blue. It made logical and narrative sense. It all connects! This was the kind of story they wanted for him from the start.

[lesbianlotties]

the only touchstone of truth - Marla/Fran

Chapters: 7/7 Fandom: I Care A Lot (2020) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Fran/Marla Grayson Characters: Marla Grayson, Fran (I Care A Lot) Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Origin Story, Canon Backstory, First Meetings, First Kiss, First Dates, Getting Together, Morally Ambiguous Character, Illegal Activities, Eventual Smut, Flirting, Partners in Crime, crime wives Words: 21010

The American dream. The small business that Marla Grayson built from nothing. And now it's all crumbling down back to... nothing. Marla is left to pick up the pieces of the broken dream, but this time she's determined to start a fire with what she has left. The problem, or rather, the solution, comes in the shape of Fran, a gorgeous woman that, unlikely as it seems, has just as many tricks under her sleeve as Marla. This is how they meet, this is how they fall into each other's dangerous games, and most importantly, this is how they fall in love.

Love, the only honest thing about each other, and the most important part of their story.

Final Chapter:

It was natural, mostly, the way the couple gravitated to spending most of their time in Fran’s home. It was simply much better than Marla’s, and the blonde woman had very clear priorities in her life. One, herself. She wanted to win, she wanted the best of life, she wanted to get everything she desired. And that was a very attractive apartment. And number two… well… it was Fran. So, Marla, never one to half-assing her actions, promptly embraced this new perspective of her life. She stepped into the relationship with all the blazing passion she put into every new project. If in the process Fran managed to reveal an unexpectedly loving side of the ruthless businesswoman, well, that made it all just even better.

Along with their relationship, their newest business adventure was about to begin. This involved a lot of planning, a lot of risks, and also a lot of bright mornings getting ready together in Fran’s house with their best suits. This, of course, very often included some variation of the same incident in which they get distracted with each other and constantly arrive late at important places. 

For example, Marla sitting on the bed, leaning back on her hands, waiting for Fran to come out of the bathroom. When the brunette finally strolled out, she smiled at the sight in front of her and said, “You look great.” Her newest suit really fit Marla perfectly.

“I know,” the blonde tilted her head and extended a hand to beckon her girlfriend closer. “And you’re fucking stunning,” she added. In a second, Fran was standing between her legs, leaning down to kiss her, and stifle a laugh when she felt Marla’s hands eagerly move to their favorite destination to cup her ass.

“We could stay home today, you know?” Fran whispered against the other woman’s lips. It seemed they took turns making such a suggestion, and only rarely did they manage to resist the temptation.

Marla let out a small groan. “No. Today’s important,” she bit Fran’s bottom lip, but then genuinely tried to pull away.

“Come on, Marla,” Fran whispered seductively while moving to kiss and nip at Marla’s neck. She was proud to elicit a pleased sigh from the woman in her arms, and even more overjoyed when she pushed Marla onto the bed and she complied. However, she was happily surprised when, not a second later, Marla had switched their positions and pinned Fran to the bed on her back. The following kiss was positively breathtaking, and it got even better, or perhaps even worse. 

Marla placed a hand firmly on her girlfriend’s chest to keep her laying still on the bed, and then she pulled away to say, “Have you ever heard about marital tax deduction?”

The thoroughly unexpected question on top of their previous activities had Fran gasping for a breath. “You don’t… pay taxes,” was the only thing she thought of.

“I’m just saying,” Marla replied, giving Fran one of her signature shark-like grins, and taking advantage of the brunette’s shock by stealing one last kiss, and then pulling away completely, standing up, and starting to walk away.

“Marla?” Fran called after her. She couldn’t move the bed. She was blushing and her brain was threatening to short circuit. Was that a proposal? It wasn’t like Marla to joke about something instead of outright stating what she wanted. And yet, she wouldn’t bring it up if she hadn’t thought seriously about it on her own before. “Marla!” Fran repeated, jumping out of bed and chasing after the woman of her dreams.

“There are some great financial advantages to a civil union, that’s all I’m saying!” Marla called out already halfway down the stairs.

Both of them were laughing then. Of course, there would be financial gain. Would Marla really do something if there wasn’t some sort of profit for her? Only time would tell how serious she was about the subject, and how far each of them would go for each other.

--

“Well, I’m impressed,” Dr. Karen Amos stated as she leaned back on the chair of her office. 

In front of her, on the other side of her desk, Marla and Fran waited for her answer, wearing matching sly grins, stylish clothes, and perfectly balanced energy radiating between the two of them that she could tell had a lot of potential. She almost had it in herself to feel a spark of jealousy, or envy, But that was quickly overshadowed by her blatant interest in the business offer in front of her. After all, Marla had chosen her for a reason. Marla knew her well enough to know she’d look past their history and say yes to this. 

“Are you in?” Marla asked.

As if anybody could say to her, the doctor thought.

“I’m in,” Karen nodded confidently. “I believe I could even give you a name or two right away.”

While she looked over her files, Fran received a call and excused herself out of the office. With three folders in her hands, Karen returned to her seat and took the opportunity to talk a bit more privately to her ex.

“I have to say,” she started, “I was really surprised by your visit.”

“I hope this is alright,” Marla replied.

It annoyed Karen just the slightest bit, the way Marla was still mostly using her business voice. She shook her head and regarded the other woman silently for another moment. “Of course it is,” she scoffed playfully. They hadn’t been bad for each other, not exactly. Marla had simply made it extremely clear she didn’t want a relationship. That didn’t seem to be the case anymore. “You two look right for each other,” she added, a little more softly, and she meant it. Marla tilted her head and listened attentively.

“Yeah?” the blonde said.

That was better, Karen thought. Marla’s shoulders relaxed. They could be friends after all. “Perfect match,” the doctor grinned.

Marla returned the smile, and she was earnest as she said, “Thank you.” She hadn’t made many friends in her life, for obvious reasons, so this was something she’d come to appreciate deeply.

Just then, Fran walked back into the office, holding her phone. “Sam Rice called,” she told Marla, “He said he would love to meet you.”

“Oh, I know him,” Karen chuckled, “You’ll have him eating off the palm of your hand, Marl.”

Marla and Fran had barely made it out into the parking lot when Fran playfully pushed Marla’s shoulder with hers. “So, Marl, huh?”

“I never liked it when she called me that,” Marla rolled her eyes.

“Cute,” Fran smirked, and delighted in the warning look her girlfriend sent her way. 

--

One more day of work, one more day of the two of them struggling to let themselves walk out the door of the house.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Marla asked, running her hands through Fran’s hair in the way she knew her girlfriend adored.

“I thought you hated the surveillance part of the job,” Fran sighed.

“I do, I get restless,” Marla admitted, and dipped her head to start leaving feather-light kisses on the exposed neck of the woman in her arms. “But you make one hell of a sexy spy.”

That comment made the brunette laugh brightly, and wrap her arms tighter around Marla. She let the embrace last a few more seconds of perfect warmth, and then she begrudgingly pulled away. “I gotta go,” Fran said, and kissed Marla’s cheek. “And you have to find us an office.” She slowly walked away, picked up her keys, her helmet, and then paused at the open front door with carefully planned nonchalance. “Hey, I almost forgot,” Fran reached into the back pocket of her pants and then threw a set of keys that Marla easily caught.

“What’s this?” Marla asked with a small frown.

“Your keys to our house, of course,” Fran replied. She was leaning against the doorway, smiling confidently, as if this were an everyday occurrence. “No offense, baby, but your old place doesn’t do you justice.”

Then, just like that, Fran was out of the door, starting her bike, and driving away to stalk their first victim in the business of legal guardians. Marla, on the other hand, was standing in their hallway, lips parted and heart-racing pleasantly. She took a deep breath and, holding her set of kets tightly in her hand, she walked up the stairs to their living room. She had many calls to make. She had to find them an office and staff, and then arrange the official move from her previous apartment into their home.

--

It wasn’t the first time that Marla and Fran walked up the steps that lead to court, and it would be far from the last time. But this would likely be an unforgettable occasion. It was their first hearing with Dr. Karen Amos and a gullible judge to get the legal guardianship of a lonely, rich, old woman.

“Are you nervous?” Fran playfully asked her girlfriend.

“Not so much,” Marla easily replied. “But if we lose again you might have to hold me back or there’ll be casualties.”

The two of them shared a laugh. Marla’s worries were completely unnecessary. Karen’s lies about her patient were spot on, the judge did everything but burst into tears for the fabricated story, and a few signatures later, Marla was legally responsible for the wealth of a woman she’d never met. She had a perfectly calculated plan of what all her next moves would be. Her plan, obviously, included pressing Fran against the wall of a secluded spot of the hallways of court and kissing her like both their lives depended on it.

“Is this going to become a tradition?” Fran gasped with a breathy laugh as she grasped Marla’s short blonde hair.

“God, I hope so,” the other woman chuckled, diving back in for another kiss.

--

Champagne glasses clinked together as Marla and Fran celebrated the success of their first job. An innocent woman locked in a care home, a house sold, everything under Marla’s name, and earning additional money for every overpriced hour they spent stealing from her. It couldn’t be more perfect. Not when Fran is sitting on the chair across from her in the dimly lit restaurant.

“I could get used to this,” Fran smiled. To Marla’s ears, it sounded like something from a dream

“What? Being able to afford this?” she replied. Admittedly, she was a little distracted. The restaurant was colder than expected, so now she was wearing Fran’s jacket over her sleeveless dress, which left the brunette’s arms exposed to Marla’s appreciative blue eyes.

“Winning,” Fran said, “while knowing I’ll be taking you home with me at the end of the night.”

Her words made Marla shake her head fondly. It had been months already. They were living together, and their relationship showed no signs of soothing its fire. In the blink of an eye, Marla could picture an entire life with Fran by her side. It would never stop being exciting, no matter how comfortable and safe they could get with each other. 

“What’s on your mind?” Fran asked softly, sipping her champagne.

“You.”

“I’m flattered.”

“Seriously,” Marla chuckled along with her wife. She took a moment to organize her thoughts and then further explained. “Do you have any idea how unexpected you were to me?” she wondered out loud, and without waiting for an answer she went on. “Not a part of any of my plans. Not even in my wildest dreams. Now I can’t even picture my life without you.”

Fran’s smile never wavered. She took a deep breath and let the precious word settle deep within her heart. “I’m not going anywhere,” she promised and raised her glass again as she added, “Ride or die.”

The smile from Marla then was worth absolutely every risk they would ever take for each other in their lives.

--

“Welcome home, Mrs. Grayson,” Fran playfully said, holding open the door to their offices.

“Oh, come here,” Marla chuckled, grabbing the neck of her girlfriend’s t-shirt and pulling her in for a kiss as they stumbled into the hallway of the place.

It was still empty, and they’d have a lot of work to do, but it was every bit as good as they had imagined it.

“This place is huge,” Fran laughed while they walked around the entire place, stepping into every room and making big plans for the future. “Are you sure this is all necessary?”

“Who cares? We can afford it!” Marla chuckled. Their business of guardianship was taking off, and soon enough she would have these offices filled with employees and clients and victims and power. Then they arrived at the main office, her very own office with the wide windows, big desk, lots of space, and it was all her. “God! It’s gorgeous!” she exclaimed.

“It’s ambitious,” Fran whistled, equally as fascinated with the space.

“Oh, I’ll fill it up, don't worry.” Marla leaned against her desk and sighed contentedly. This was a great step in the right direction, and she was feeling more confident than ever about the path she was following in life.

“With you? I never worry,” Fran swiftly replied.

In a minute, Marla was sitting on her desk, Fran standing between her legs, and they were kissing with all the abandon of being in an office they owned with windows closed and doors closed behind them. The feeling was indescribable, and when Fran expertly started kissing Marla’s neck, the blonde couldn’t help herself anymore, couldn’t hold back a minute longer. She moved her lips close to Fran’s ear and whispered, “Marry me.”

“What?” Fran pulled back instantly, she was shocked and happy in equal measure.

Marla bit her bottom lip and looked deeply into the most perfect pair of brown eyes. A small part of her still believed this was a stupid thing to do, but the greater part of her didn’t even mind being a little stupid for Fran, as long they could do this together for the rest of their lives. “Someday,” Marla said, placing her hand on Fran’s cheek, “When we’re really fucking rich, I’ll marry you, properly. I’ll get you a gorgeous diamond, we’ll travel the world for our honeymoon, everything will be perfect.”

“And right now?” Fran asked breathlessly, although she was nodding already and her voice was trembling.

“Let’s just sign those papers,” Marla smiled, hopelessly in love. “I want to share this with you, completely. The business, the success, the good, and the bad. Partners through and through. Yes?”

“Yes. Yes, absolutely,” Fran replied, without an ounce of hesitation in her body. She pressed their lips together again in a searing kiss. They laughed together, a tear or two might have escaped, and it was only just the beginning.

--

In their offices, a handful of staff was hard at work managing dozens of clients, properties, sales, court visits. In several care homes across the city, men and women of old age cursed the devil of blonde hair and tailored suits that robbed them of their freedom and their money in a mostly legal manner. In Dr. Karen Amos’s office, her patients walked in willingly and innocently, and more often than not their files were shared with a ruthless businesswoman that could put their lives upside down to her will. In their home, their things waited for their return, the kitchen where they shared their meals, the comfortable living room where they made all their big plans, the bedroom that was witness to the most passionate and the most tender displays of the love the couple felt for each other. Finally, in their car, Marla and Fran drove from one place to the other in complete and confident bliss. Business was good, life was better, and legally, they were married. They felt invincible.

“Who’s the next one?” Fran casually asked from her place behind the wheel.

“Hm. Mrs. Feldstrom. She won’t give us too much trouble, I think,” Marla replied. 

“Sounds good,” the brunette nodded. There was a pause then, and Fran couldn’t help the smile that appeared on her lips. She didn’t even need to turn her head to know that Marla had her eyes fixed on her. But she didn’t mind taking her eyes off the road to look at the blonde that stole her heart all those months ago. The expression on Marla’s face was beautiful. “What?” Fran asked her, sounding a little amused.

“You know,” Marla replied, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

[ijustdontlikepeople]

for the salty asks: based on a quick look at your tags, think i'm also a fan of most things you are, so pls answer these with any fandom in mind 😌

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change? (i'll suggest teen wolf bc there's a lot to choose from lmao but really any show is fine)

23. Unpopular character you love?

+ any other one you wanna answer 💫😚

I just saw this! Sorry if it’s been a few days!

5. I don’t think fandom itself has ever ruined a ship for me. Writers definitely have but I can’t think of a fandom that’s done it on its own.

11. I like Lizzie Saltzman and Caroline Forbes from tvd! They were pretty unpopular at the beginning of their respective shows but I think they’ve gained some traction! People disliked them because they were both kind of bitchy from a place of insecurity. Caroline put on fake niceness, and Lizzie was outwardly hostile. I felt for Caroline from the get go. And watching lizzie struggle with her mental health, i kind of understood her. Her issues didn’t excuse her actions but it explained them. Plus, they were always funny and interesting.

On Teen Wolf, I love Cora. I don’t think people dislike her but I think she’s underrated.

I thought Octavia was always interesting and she had some really spikes and valleys in her popularity in The 100. She did terrible things when leading the bunker, but I read a very interesting opinion piece on the level of accountability placed on her vs Abby and Kane. I don’t think she did the right thing, but I still enjoyed watching her character. I always liked Gabriel in the 100 too. He was so interesting. I think people disliked him bc all of season 6 was so jarringly different from the rest of the 100. And bc he he created the whatever chip things. But he was smart, cute, and deeply sad so you know I’m interested.

16. Things I would change about Teen Wolf? Wow there’s so much to choose from! First, I’d pretty much leave canon up to season 4. Kira never goes to the skinwalkers and remains main cast. Sterek is canon (down the road, like Stiles Junior year of college maybe? Make up for all the queerbaiting) Emotionally, I want Erica and Boyd back, but plot wise their deaths made sense so instead I’ll settle for them actually remembered and Isaac not fucking off to France. Actual Hale Pack! True Alpha Scott is great but my heart lives with Derek Hale and he’s lost so much he should get to have his pack with his found family. Oh! Cora’s here too! Jackson as Peter’s son! Maybe we make a few new additions to the pack Liam still gets bit, dragging Mason in too.

Plot line maybe involving the recognition of Deaton as untrustworthy! Also Spark!Stiles supremacy!!! They dropped in that he had magic and then forgot about it! So let’s say, coming off the nogistune possession Stiles starts getting powers; the possession awakened his dormant magic. Stiles starts learning magic from Deaton but he does research on his own. He figures out Deaton isn’t telling him everything. Something to this tune. Maybe a big evil too. Vampires? Lydia dates vampire?

Let me add in here a few small critiques of 2 other shows too.

The 100: season 6 and 7 do not happen. Bellarke ends up together raising Madi. Earth is hospitable. Memori and Marper have kids. Dealing with harsh climates since the nuclear explosion and internal issues. (Might sound boring but I think I would have liked it better lol)

TVD: Damon doesn’t do anything to Caroline in season 1, because I rewatched season 1 recently and it ruins his entire character for me. Give Bonnie some happiness that lasts. Many other things.

23. So I’ve kind of answered this with 11. But I’ll add, some people really dislike Clarke Griffin and I love her. She has done many terrible things but as a character she is so good to watch. (I’m ignoring season 7 bc it doesn’t exist in my head). I loved Jackson on The Originals too. (I feel like I don’t have a great idea of people the fandom dislikes or are unpopular).

Thank u so much for asking!! I hope these answers are fun! ♥️😄

[jaskiersvalley]

Do you realise how well you write? I literally spend my time screeching and making very inhuman noises while reading them. Just wanted to make sure you understand that you are an amazing writer.

I am honestly left speechless by the kind encouragement of this fandom. There is so much love people have to give, I can only hope to return it with little moments of happiness my writing might bring to people. Thank you for being so precious, I truly don’t have the words to express how much your comments mean to me!

A little head canon (which maye have turned out longer than anticipated) to say thank you:

Modern AU time! Jaskier runs a lifestyle channel on a video platform. He’s massively popular, especially because he likes to sing impromptu songs about random things that catch his attention. Despite his extroversion, he is very very discreet about his private life.

Well, as much as he can be. His viewers pick up on a few changes immediately. Namely the massive dog bed that appears under the window of the room he records in. It’s brushed off to start with but the dog bed doesn’t move. And then one day, while Jaskier is singing about the blue of the sky he saw the other day, the door creaks open and a massive ball of fur bundles in.

A growled “Roach” from off camera calls the dog back but, well, the cat dog’s out of the bag. From then on, so many people request Roach to feature in the videos, she becomes a celebrity in her own right. People keep trying to guess what breed she is, some going even as far as suggesting timber wolf cross. Jaskier never reveals the truth but only because he forgot beyond “big dog”.

Questions keep pouring in about Roach and how Jaskier ended up with a dog that quite possibly weighs more than him. Whether walking her is difficult, if she ever wants to get up on the bed. The most asked question that Jaskier always gives a different answer to is “who growled for Roack to leave Jaskier on her first appearance?” The list Jaskier gives has become quite popular, from plumber to dog walker to maid, he once even said it was the resident ghost. People seize on that immediately, loving the idea that whoever lives with Jaskier is mysterious.

Soon, people ask more about ‘Jaskier’s Ghost’ as the mystery man has come to be called. Things get even more headed when Jaskier is doing a “Moment With Roach” segment. Because while Roach may be on her back and tongue out, a pair of thick, muscly legs covered in black - is that leather?! - pants appears. The owner of said, fine legs isn’t wearing socks. So a lot of the fans start asking more questions.

It only gets worse as Jaskier keeps moving around the house in his videos. He shows off an impressive sword collection on the wall but, eagle eyes viewers see the reflection of Jaskier with his camera and what looks like some striking white hair against a black shirted, well muscled chest.

Slowly, a picture is built up. It’s obvious that whoever Jaskier’s Ghost is, he’s tall, very muscular and was a package deal with Roach. And definitely lives with Jaskier. Because once, in the kitchen, someone spotted the washing up in the sink and that was definitely two sets of everything in there. Sometimes, people noticed the creepiest of things.

It keeps building from then on. Jaskier is doing another segment, this time sitting on the floor and the dining room is behind him. And, just about visible is a figure sitting at the table. He’s visible from shoulder down as he makes a fuss of Roach, trying to teach her to high five.

On the next show, Roach high fives Jaskier and he is delighted. So much so, he yells, “Hey Geralt! She did it!” And now the ghost has a name. People go mad over it, it’s an unusual name, but nobody can find any social media for a Geralt who is well muscled, with long white hair and a penchant for wearing tight, black clothes.

There is a sizeable following now, deeply invested in figuring out who this mysterious Geralt is. Which is when Jaskier announces he’s doing a super special stream on a seemingly random day. It’s not Valentine’s Day, no celebration, not even an obscure milestone he’s hit with his videos.

The special stream starts off with Roach, looking all too pleased as she is given a new toy to tear apart. It lasts three minutes and 18 seconds. So it was a good toy her record is 20 seconds flat for gutting something. But once she’s happy and the mess tidied away, Jaskier asks her something strange.

“Where’s your daddy?”

Immediately, Roach is up, looking alert and viewers are treated to a view of Jaskier’s feet as he walks into the living room where there’s the sound of Roach getting excited over something. Another pair of feet appear in the shot, someone sitting on the couch. The camera slowly pans up.

“Hey Geralt, say hello to everyone!” Jaskier calls and finally, at long last, the camera rises to show Geralt’s face. He doesn’t look best impressed, Roach is doing her best to sit in his lap but he raises a hand and waves. Jaskier reaches in front of the camera and waggles his fingers back in a return wave. That’s when viewers realise something. The golden bands on their ring fingers.

Comments explode at that and Jaskier laughs. He sets the camera to the side and leans down. People can see Geralt’s hand on his waist and there’s the sound of a kiss, along with the murmur of a “happy fifth wedding anniversary”. Their hands like and Jaskier pulls Geralt up, their backs to the camera, heads just out of the shot.

From the side, there’s an odd noise, the image shifts and there’s drool and teeth, almost like a rather large dog has taken the camera in her mouth. The panicked “Roach no!” is the last thing viewers hear and they see the happy couple turning before the feed goes dead.