#i get why the second lead romance was shipped way more

[icomehereforthefics]

Something is seriously wrong with it if you need your MMC to act like a fucking child instead of his age just so the romance can make sense/feel less icky

[amerricanartwork]

RW Headcanon: How Arti Gives Back

In the RW community on this site, I’ve heard quite a few Artimand thoughts about how Gourmand would help Artificer heal from her trauma and grief. And while that’s all good, something that’s continuously puzzled me when shipping Artimand romantically is, “but how would Artificer help Gourmand?”

Let me tell you, one of my all-time favorite qualities in a ship is the characters helping each other improve themselves, especially in ways no other character pairing can. And while it’s easy to see Gourmand helping Artificer improve, given the vast amount of grief and lust for vengeance she has to overcome, and since Gourmand probably has a natural inclination to help others in need, what would she give to him in return? And to add to that, why would Gourmand fall in love with her and choose her as a mate, as opposed to just casually looking out for her and straight pitying her at worst, especially when she’d most-likely appear very un-qualified for romance initially?

Well, I’ve developed some thoughts and headcanons for that, and I’ll put them below the cut! Please let me know if anything could be improved, or if you can add to it! I’d love more reasons to think of these two sweethearts!

Option 1: Combat

Arti would help Gourmand improve his combat skills. The way I see it, Gourmand is a very strong warrior, but doesn’t often engage in combat simply because he doesn’t see a need for it outside of defense. Even then, due to his kind nature, he typically only fights back enough to deter predators, not kill them. However, with Arti being a carnivore, and having LOTS of experience with more complex combat situations than just defense (mostly from scav encounters), I like to think that Arti would give Gourm more combat tips and they may even end up bonding on occasional hunting trips together. And it would circle back to Arti because Gourm, with his cooking skills, would make the resulting meals from their hunts taste SO much better than what Arti is used to, allowing her to slow down and really enjoy food in a way she hasn’t been able to with her warrior lifestyle!

Option 2: Motherhood

This one’s pretty self-explanatory. Given Arti was a mother once, and Gourmand’s story ends with him getting 2 pups, I could easily see him wanting Arti to stay around to act as a mother for them. Not only would that give her the chance to embrace motherhood again, but it would take some pressure from Gourmand because he has a partner (and an experienced one at that) to help him with parenting! I mean, don’t get me wrong, Gourmand is undoubtedly great with pups, but even so it’s good to have some help! Even more so since (depending on what general age you headcanon the pups as) he’d likely have to leave his pups alone while getting food; it’d be nice to have someone with her own experience caring for pups who can look after them during those times and, to add onto the first option, even help teach them how to hunt and survive on their own!

And heck, I personally actually like to imagine that, a little later, after she gets comfortable enough and fully overcomes her grief, Artificer would actually have a second litter with Gourmand (naratively-speaking, this would signify the completion of her character arc)! Of course it’d be a big deal for Arti, but just imagine how much fun Gourm would have exploring the new experience of getting to raise biological pups this time! And I can just see him being so, so thankful that Arti somehow managed to give him even more family to love!

Option 3: Passion

So this one’s the most personal-headcanon-based, and built off my personal depiction of Gourmand as a character. In my headcanon, Gourmand starts out as a rather reluctant leader of his colony. I have this whole idea of what specific event led to him becoming the leader, but to summarize, it seemed like a very sudden chance event at the time, yet from it he was more-or-less unanimously chosen to lead by the other Outer Expanse slugcats due to him having shown great creativity, survival skills, and protectiveness. Gourmand himself, however, doesn’t really feel he’s fit to be a leader; he’s used to an easygoing life just peacefully surviving and doing his own thing, not managing and defending an entire colony! He’s so used to seeing the simple parts of the world that he often underestimates himself, so something as “grand” as leadership often appears too great for him.

That’s where Arti comes in. I like to imagine that Artificer is extremely passionate, but that for a long time after her pups’ deaths, that passion was manifested almost exclusively as immense rage, grief, and desire for revenge against their killers. But imagine if, once she gets comfortable with Gourmand’s colony, she begins to show that passion in positive emotions! Not only would she, after seeing what he’s capable of in hunts, help him see that he IS the perfect leader for his colony, but just IMAGINE: Arti hyping Gourm up as the biggest, strongest warrior in the Expanse, just before the two prepare to take down a king vulture; or Arti patching him up after a really tough battle and assuring him he’ll be even better next time; or Arti teasing Gourm and them chasing each other around as they spar together in the OE fields; or Arti getting all dramatic as she recites tales of her epic scavenger battles to his eager pups; or Arti showering Gourm with kisses after he makes a REALLY good meal with her favorite meats!  There are SO many possibilities for hypeman Arti, and I figure that, once Gourm sees her fiery spirit used in a positive way, especially to help him and his family, he can’t help but fall for her! And this idea is part of why I like the Spicybun ship name so much - while Gourmand helps Arti mellow out, Arti literally spices up his life! They just compliment each other so perfectly!!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

MAN do I love these two so much! This is about all I have right now on this subject, but again, I’d LOVE to hear any other ideas for how Artificer would help Gourmand, or additions to these ideas! I just adore the “opposites attract” ship trope (although I personally prefer to call it “inverses attract”), and I think Artimand is easily one of the best examples of that in Rain World! 

Thank you to anyone who made it to the end of this wall of text! And let me know if I should share any more Rain World headcanons, because I’ve definitely got more!

Oh, and if you've found this, @melissa-titanium, hope you like it again! Let me know if you ever want me to stop @-ing you with these Artimand headcanons, by the way!

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - We In A Slump, but help might be coming from a very strange source

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Sept 2024 Week 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

Jack & Joker (Thai Mon IQIYI) ep 3 of 12 - I don’t have a lot to say except that the plot is somewhat predictable but the show is still very engaging. War is fantastic. I’m enjoying it a hell of a lot.

Monster Next Door (Thai Thurs Gaga ) ep 10 of 12 - The second leads are getting better in this one. I understand where they are coming from, which makes their conflict so much more understandably painful, and honest to a friends2lovers trope. The main couple is kinda standard college relationship drama, but they are cuties.  

Kidnap (Fri YT) ep 4 of 12 - How is Ohm so damn gorgeous? Meanwhile, babies’ first argument. And it’s sponge bath time. Q has got to be wondering if Min is as meticulous with all kinds of care and attention to detail all......the......time. Somebody here in the hellhole said something about this being "the most BL to ever BL." And I think they’re right. At least right now. Although, watch out, we got us a new contender from the east.

I Saw You in My Dream (Weds Gaga) ep 11 of 12 - I do love the continuation of the perversion, in a good way, of the punishment trope from last week's episode. Oh, has the show finally remembered its title? NO SINGING. 

Addicted Heroin (Thai Tues WeTV) ep 7 of 10 - More kidnapping and an attack and now there’s a girl involved and somebody’s going to China and I don’t understand anything! And I don’t really care. Is this how the actual book originally went? Because it’s wild. Also TOO MANY of flashbacks. I guess they got a bit of a boyfriend era, and the claiming during the water fight was cute, but otherwise...... meh

Love Sick 2024 (Thai Sun iQIYI) ep 2 of 15 - One shouldn’t make comparisons, of course, but all I can think about is how amazing Captain was as Noh in the original series. Thus this show is mostly just making me want to rewatch the original. It’d be an interesting twist to have Aim be queer instead of a damaged cool girl slut. Was the helmet hand letting go a foreshadow of the iconic bookstore hands letting go? Also, I gotta say for the second episode of a series there are already too many flashbacks. Why are they using filler when they have so much content crammed into so few (comparable) episodes for a series? It’s annoying. Stop it.

Live in Love (Sun Gaga) ep 4 of 5 - This show has some interesting, if heavy handed, things to say about shipping and trolling, but also predatory/proprietary female behavior. It’s fascinating to see it tackled head on, if handled in a profoundly clumsy manner. I’m not sure how I feel about it. That said, most of this episode was actually an advertisement for a resort in Phuket. 

Bad Guy My Boss (Thai Sun Gaga) ep 2 of 10 - I'm getting What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? vibes from this show. Only this is WAY more bullying. It’s very old-fashioned 90’s billionaire romance novel only gay. It’s never a good sign when I’m watching two boys kiss and I really want one of them to just bite the other ones lip off instead.

Battle of the Writers (Sun YT) ep 9 of 12 - No ep this week. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Sugar Dog Life (Japan Sun grey) ep 8 of 10 - Gosh it’s so frikin adorable. Baby got sick. He has SUCH A CRUSH. And such a courageous little confession! Yay! Can’t wait for next week. 

Teenager Judge (Vietnam Sat YouTube) ep 1 - sure, yes this is, in fact, just Ba Vinh doing his thing with pretty boys again. And yet...... There is a REASON this leapt into the standings guns blazing. So it’s high school set but it's stepbrothers trope. (My, aren’t we popular this year?) I know, but I NEVER get tired of this trope. We got us Bach (BV's sullen tsundere) and Dat (babygirl meets bully). It’s GREAT how the brothers' dynamic is entirely different at school than when they're at home. My ear isn’t trained for Vietnamese, but I think Dat is using different pronouns depending on his location (his personality entirely shifts when he’s at school). I’m not sold on the Bach character, although I always trust BV to serve in the end (at least we know the kisses will be good), but Dat is utterly in love, a touch spicy, and reasonably complex. The surrounding cast is good too, my favorite pretty boy is there playing top dog (woof), and one of the besties is out gay (YAY!). The plot of the show is...... well...... absent. Nothing happened. But if we are aiming for Love Sick slice of life style BL, I'm game. Subs are appropriately terrible and confusing. But I like it A FUCK TON so far, so I’m gonna keep it in rotation. Nice to have Vietnam back in play. What a shocker.

2024 has been a year of upsets.

Love is Like a Poison AKA Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru (Japan Tues Netflix?) 3 of 10 eps - I weirdly enjoyed the farcical music and the utter absurdity of the court case. I also liked how it highlighted what a good team these two are. Frankly I don’t mind a bit of an antihero sleazy lawyer + conman, it's engaging. I’m getting wholesome out of Thailand. I don’t really need it from Japan at the moment. Also I don’t believe for one second our conman actually is serious about the relationship. Conmen gonna con. I'm reminded of the scorpion and the frog fable.

First Note Of Love (Taiwan Mon Gaga) ep 8 of 12 - I love Orca so much. I do not love the autotuned version of Orca, but I knew what I was in for with this particular show, it's in the title after all. I did laugh a whole lot when Laing used kha. Hon, I don't think that word means what you think it means......

The On1y One (Taiwan Thurs Gaga) eps 11-12fin - I never thought I’d say this, but the pacing was off in the penultimate episode. Taiwan, and its chronic misuse of flashbacks strikes again. That said we eventually got a "lock in" trope and Wang being the biggest little flirt shit in the cafe OMG!!! Of course, you shouldn’t use a girl to torment your bf, but it was so well done, I can’t really complain. Meanwhile, teacher kisses. And now I understand exactly why they’re present in this narrative. Clever. Bummer of a burden on that ending though. I cannot see how they’ll manage to stick this landing. [That was ep 11]

AND NOW EP 12 - doomey doomey doom

Not the water bottle trope! Argh the teenage lust of it all. Just stop it. Wang is so smart he knows exactly how bad he has to be to leave the class. And his bf certainly knows that too. And......

......

So that was not an ending and I’m not happy about it and no one is surprised. Even I’m not surprised. I’m just disappointed. Even tho I suspected this was where we were headed I'm disappointed. That’s it. That’s all I got. How do I review something that was such a crushing let down?

Conclusion:

Based on a Mou Mou novel + the Your Name Engraved Herein team, this is old-school coming of age BL and it was bloody fantastic. Tsundere seme to beat all tsundere (smartest + tallest + bestest at everything but people) meets socially-ept cutie smart-ass uke. They're living together by end of ep 1 and start kissing by end of ep 2. A stellar tense slow burn stepbrothers trope that ate my life and than just belly-flopped the finale. What I'm left with is epic levels of disappointment and well...... at least nobody died? My standard "fatally flawed" rating for any BL is 4/10 so I guess that’s what I’m giving it. 

Before you ask me for the stats: Taiwan does not have a history of second seasons. I went ahead and ran the numbers and the odds are certainly not in our favor. I put the chances at 2%.

Yes, I contemplated a revenge rating of 2/10 but even I'm not that mean.

It's airing but...

The Hidden Moon (Sat WeTV) ep 1 of 10 - This is a supernatural romance (my ghost boyfriend trope) by Violet Rain (I Feel You Linger). A man is hired to write an article about an old mansion in Chiang Mai being converted into a café. He sees the ghosts of people who died at the mansion, falls in love with one of them. Was substantially recast. I loved IFYLITA except the ending so I think I'll let this one run it's course you can tell me if it's work tracking down... if they managed to land it. I have my doubts.

In Case You Missed It

Falling For My Boss is vertical format (nash) short from Korean BL about a happy-go-unlucky man who keeps losing his flower shop business because of romantically misbehaving employees (apparently it's a thing). When his best employee brings in a new boy he's worried she's falling for him, but it turns out it's his own heart on the line. He a clueless softy and The Boy is a lost broken sweetheart, making this a gentle little snippet of a show. There's a baby linguistic negotiation, some hung slinging, awkward handholds, and everyone is very pretty. For me the absence of kisses and the vertical format were more annoying than the length, which felt fine but many viewers will find too short. I enjoyed the 30 minutes of cute. All of which makes this a solid 7/10 from me. It was originally only available on this one ap in very short form with ads so I wasn't gonna bother. Then some kind soul cut it together without ads and stuck it up for download. Say thank you.

Oddball recommendation next: This podcast episode touches on some stuff we see in Thai BL so I think it's worth listening to. Journalist Dominic Faulder on the Complex History Between Thailand & Myanmar

Happy of the End (Japan Gaga) - Completed its run. A boy is disowned for being gay, dumped by his boyfriend, and ends up in a dysfunctional co-dependant relationship with his would-be kidnapper. We were due for another messy JBL and it's exactly as expected. I do not like it at all and DNFed. Gossip round the hellhole is that was a solid decision.

Marriage Equality Law has officially been enacted in Thailand...

Yes the actual law. Goes into effect Jan 22, 2025

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

Coming Oct 2024:

10/3 Fourever You (Thai iQIYI?) 16 eps - New directs Earth (UWMA, 12%) + Pond (Century of Love, 180 Degrees), Bas (Gen Y, 2 Moons) + Maxky (Why You… Y Me?) and other familiar faces like Bever. Sampler pack university BL from Wabi Sabi that looks like it's trying to be a gay Boys Over Flowers (4 older med students hot boys) and I'm not mad about it. Trailer Not sure who's distributing this but my guess is iQIYI since they had the last few from this house.

10/7 Every You Every Me (Thai Gaga) 10 eps - Jade and Chin have lived over a thousand lifetimes. In each one they somehow manage to fall in love with each other. (This pair, TopMick was piloted in a My Universe ep, that was one of the only ones I liked.)

10/10 Eccentric Romance (Korea ????) 12 eps - Silkwood’s 2nd Thai/Korean colab, that has been in production since 2022 which is a LONG time in the BL world. I'm worried but I like the concept: friends of 10 years who’ve been hiding feelings for each other enter the same university. Plus MURDER.

10/10 Gangster and His Boyfriend (Korea ????) 8 eps? - Kim Dong Bin (famous trainee & idol reality competitor, yeah that happens) stars as a fallen idol who unexpectedly becomes entangled in a gangster family. Discovers that his friend’s father is responsible for the murder of his entire family years ago. I don't know much about this one, neither does anyone else and I'm not sure where I got that release date so……

10/21 Love in the Big City (Korea ????) 8 eps - Adaptation of Booker-nominated famous coming of age novel of the same title by Park Sang-Young. Cynical yet fun loving student writer Young pinballs from home, to class, to Tinder matches. He and Jaehee, his female besie and roommate, frequent nearby bars where they push away their worries about life, love, and money with soju. As time passes Jaehee settles down and leaves Young to face his problems on his own. Young finding comfort in the arms of the series of men, including one whose handsomeness is matched by his coldness and another who might be the great love of his life. Not really BL. Stars Kim Go-eun (The King: Eternal Monarch), Noh Sang-hyun, and Nam Yoon Su (The King’s Affection). This already released as a movie and isn't very well regarded, this date is supposedly an international release as a series. I'm wary of it being BL.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I got nothing, The On1y One drove me into a funk.

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in its infinite wisdom doesn't like too many at-ings.

[thetravelinginnovation]

Hot take that may make everyone hate me but I think about this all of the time. Disclaimer: everyone can have their own opinions!

If we’re talking about canon Levi, the Levi written by Isayama and supported by his official editors, he’s not going to have a love interest. In fact, it wouldn’t make sense to ship him with anyone, but Erwin, and probably not in a romantic context. 

Yes, Isayama says that Levi does not have romantic feelings for anyone/does not have a romantic love interest. However, he also emphasizes the bond between both men. He says that Levi prioritizes Erwin’s orders (source: 2017 Shingeki no Kyojin Character Directory, p. 157) and that “Levi doesn’t allow anyone to get at his heart except Erwin who is the only one he completely trusts.” (ATTACK ON TITAN: OUTSIDE OSAMU, 2013). This man has a respect and vulnerability only saved for Erwin. Erwin was an irreplaceable existence for Levi. So perhaps these men did not have a romance, but it wouldn’t be called a “friendship” either. Levi is said to have mentioned that he doesn’t bother explaining his relationship with Erwin to others because they wouldn’t get it. It’s difficult to explain and he really doesn’t care how people interpret it. So in my eyes, their bond expands beyond romance. It’s unbreakable and deep in ways that maybe are too complicated to just be labeled as a romance. Canonically there is love there for certain.

Knowing that Levi has chosen Erwin as his “liege” or ackerbonded person (Yes, the ackerbond is real: sources the Guidebook from Isayama himself source 1; source 2) makes me really question why he has so many other ships. Honestly, I feel this way for every Ackerman (thinking of Mikasa especially). Because again, if we are talking about canon Levi, whoever he is involved with romantically would always be second to Erwin. His duties and desire to protect Erwin will always take precedent. I’m all for other ships but it’s when people are like “this ship with this person and Levi is definitely objectively canon”…no it’s not.  It can’t be. It’s actually the reason I can’t ship him with other people. The other person in the ship deserves someone who can love them to their fullest. I’m not saying Levi is incapable of loving others due to his bond with Erwin. I think this post sums it up perfectly: Levi is a very compassionate person and has shown his care for so many in so many ways. It’s the fact that Erwin will always come first for him. An example of this is found during the “I’ll break your legs” conversation where Levi demands that Erwin stays behind despite being their leading commander (great analysis about this here) even with the risk of other soldiers dying being increased without the strategy of their commanding officer, Levi wants Erwin to stay. He knows this mission is dangerous, hence why he is trying to convince Erwin not to go. He again is putting Erwin before all others. He may not be expecting all of the soldiers to perish, especially because Levi himself intends to be there, but he is certainly increasing their risk of death and he knows this.

Think for example about Hange. He says Hange can lead during this dangerous battle in Shiganshina, and while Hange is a very capable soldier, he’s more willing to put them in the forefront despite their inexperience being a full commander yet or even leading a charge. If it means keeping Erwin safe and away from danger, so be it. Often times people look to the scene of them in the forest as a great Levihan moment. It’s a very touching scene in general, one of my favorites between them (the first being when Hange kicks that chair and Levi judges tf out of them xD). And at the same time, Levi prioritizes Erwin in this scene. Hange suggests staying and Levi says no for many reasons, and one of those reasons is unarguably because he wants to kill Zeke. He wants to fulfill this last duty. A duty that he associates with Erwin. A duty that he reiterates time and time again throughout the rest of the story. Another example is when he lets Erwin go. I saw post where they talked about this and it makes so much sense. Levi let Erwin die, knowing that Hange would have to step up and be commander, whether they wanted to or not. That did not matter in that moment to Levi, because for him, this personal choice he made was about “letting Erwin rest” (he says this) took priority over considering the implications this would have for Hange. And yes, letting Erwin rest was not the only reason that Levi chose Armin but it’s also been stated that it’s the main one (Isayama’s answers in the 2017 Attack on Titan Character Encyclopedia).

In the end, being commander causes Hange a lot of stress and they struggle with whether they are good enough. As I mentioned, the same goes for the forest scene, Levi is choosing the something he associates with Erwin (killing the beast titan) over Hange. Here’s a post where it’s talked more too. Hange deserves someone who puts them first! I’m not saying Levi does not care for Hange. He does. He shows his love and care for them throughout the story. The friendship between them is amazing but it is a very different relationship than the one that Levi has with Erwin. His care for others is very different than his care for Erwin. These are reasons I can only support and perceive Levi and Hange as a friendship (not to mention that whenever they are shipped with Levi it takes precedence over Hange’s character and even gender [always perceived as a woman in the ship despite their character being ambiguous in the original manga work] but those are topics for another time)

Don’t even get me started on the Eren and Levi ship. We won’t go there in detail because I refuse to entertain this idea, but again, canonically, most of their interactions are negative and you know…the biggest issue is the whole p3dophilia thing. Even if you’re talking a grown Eren, that’s grooming, my guy. 

So I don’t know, I think it’s interesting to see how the fandom interprets these things and everyone is entitled to do this the way they please. It’s just so straight forward in my brain because of how Isayama has set things out.

Of course not everything has to be canon and creativity can be much more fun they strictly sticking to the original work. Not everything needs to be canon in order to have fun with ships! These are fictional characters after all. I think the part that confuses me is when people claim how real, true, or canon something is when we’ve already been given all of the pieces.

[amethystoceandespiser]

Ok, here's a controversial opinion i have: i despise the mayority of Loona's ships in the hellaverse.

Let me explain, her lack of exposure through out most of the series led to her go from one of the supposed main characters of the show in season 1, to a completely underdevelopted, overshadowed advertized extra in the second. LITERALLY, she interacts more with other characters in the merchandise than on the show itself. Season 2 has her talk in 5 episodes, FROM A SEASON THAT HAS TWELVE, with no discernible growth in either character or bonding.

My main issue with Loona is, that she's been shown as a horrible person to hang out with, with no redeemable aspect to her character that would make someone be interested in knowing her better.

Her three most popular ships, are also my biggest NOTPs within the show: loona x vortex, Loona x beelzebub and Loona x Octavia.

Right from the start, i actually didn't see anything remotely romantic with vortex, a friendship could serve as a way to flesh out their characters and explore how hellhounds have a function in hell's society, but whatever interest i had evaporated in queen bee when the episode that should have focused on Loona and her interactions with other people of her species was overshadowed by blitzø. Sacrificing interesting worldbuilding for cheap drama that is unadressed by the narrative.

Loona x beelzebub: completely neutral at the begining, currently hating it with passion. The thing is that if this relationship were to happen (i hope not), it would be the stolitz trash dynamic all over again since, while its supposed to be scandalous a relationship between two demons from different social rankings, thanks to bee x vortex the nuance this narrative had, is lost and give us no reason to get invested on it other than two hot girls dating. Everyone base this ship more on phisical attraction rather than emotional bonding, that would lead to the same romantisized abusive dynamic stolitz has, since it ignores beelzebub's involvement with the dog pounds where Loona was adopted, which is more than fucked up. IT would make sense for Loona to hate her, hell, she didn't have a positive reception of bee while meeting her in canon to the point that she wanted to go home.

Now the biggie: loona x Octavia, a.k.a. owling at the moon: this ship has always been in the begining be a neutral point for me, i understood why people shipped them for the similarities in backgrounds and clothing style that could make them bond, back when i shipped stolitz i didn't like the idea of them as a couple since if their fathers were dating, they would become sisters, not to mention the 5 year age gap. After "seeing stars", i saw a potential friendship between them that would be Interesting to see grow through out the series, bit still didn't like the idea of romance for them and i didn't know why, bit now i have the answer... Loona is naturally an abusive person through and through, with how easily she attacked blitzø in the begining of the episode after he gave her valid criticism for the first time in all the series, taking in count that the previous one wanted to portray phisical abuse as something with Stella and Stolas ¿why should i take her abuse on blitzø as funny? ¿Or Stella's abuse as serious? That's without mentioning that she went to search for Octavia when she didn't have any kind of care or motivation to do so in the first place rather than plot reasons.

The way that she convinced Octavia to forgive her dad, when he was more occupied flirting with blitzø, un hindsight came off as manipulative rather than heartfelt, where a moment of bond, became ruined forever by the context this had before and after. ¿In what way can we be sure that Loona won't try to harm Octavia for the most minor of inconviniences? ¿In what way could Octavia be emotionally vulnerable and secure with someone like Loona that more often than not, doesn't give a shit for anyone else but herself?

For the record, i try to give my point of view from a storytelling perspective and the characteristics that where shown canonically displayed by these characters. If you disagree, good, more power to you. But my ultimate conclusion is that Loona is not emotionally intelligent enough to be in a healthy romantic relationship when she hasn't shown she could grasp healthy friendships in the first place. What she needs by the end of the series are friends, not romance.

[pruneunfair]

Ranking all the OI I read. Part 1: the lesser.

It'll be like my tier list except with added stories from the haven't read yet section and of course my opinions.

Since Tumblr only allows 30 images per post and a daily pass based on how many pictures can be posted at all. I'll be posting this list through multiple parts starting with the worst. Get ready because there's gonna be a lot of negativity right now.

Starting with the tier I like to call "Absolute dog shit." Terrible plots, gross content being glamourized and little to no potential at all.

honestly picking the worst of the worst was hard cause there's so many to choose from.. and I think the title of the absolute worst doesn't go to Remarried empress or Today the villainess has fun again..

Its this one: beware of the brothers

I really can't say I was surprised 😭. I mean.. look at the damn title. The FL gets adopted into the family because she looks like the ML's dead sister and it just.. escalates into step-bro love. "But it's not related by blood-" still incest and even if they didn't grow up together, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO FUCK SOMEONE WHO LOOKS LIKE YOUR DEAD SIBLING!?

The order of slave breeding

Yes this is an actual manhwa.. I genuinely wanna know why the author just looked at themselves in the mirror and said "Yes this is a good idea." As the title suggests.. it's about a slave merchant for a FL and her slaves falling in love with her and as if it couldn't be uncomfortable enough it is one of the few manhwa with a dark skinned ML. I don't care how many times they'll offer excues for the lead I don't fw slavery being used as a romance device in media.

I belong to house Castillo

Technically I didn't read all of it, I just read the spoilers for the rest of the chapters but to be fair, I just got finished cursing myself by reading stepbro fantasies and master/slave ships, I'm not trying to give my FBI agent a reason to search my hard drives. It's a basic and cliché found family where the FL Estelle is sold by her mother to her father and the ML is a 17 year old who basically grooms her..why? Because raising your love interest is the "only" way to make a story stand out amongst the other generic found family tales.

I tamed my ex husband's mad dog.

More cases of grooming except this time it's the FL as the perpetrator. ML looks like he's 8 but he's apparently 16.. so we got a groomer protagonist in the form of Reinhardt who also neglects her first child and favors her second child she had with her victim with the excuse of not wanting to care for her son being that he looks like her toxic ex. Lady what? That boy deserves his own villain arc holy shit.

No more turning a blind eye.

This one really dissapointed me 😔. The cover looked stunning, the artstyle while a little off was still eye catching and the title sounded promising. Nah this is a hunk of junk that had a gentrification plot for some reason.. and you were supposed to sympathize with the guy who wanted to render hundreds of people homeless to make room for art galleries or whatever it was they wanted?

The dragon kings bride

I already knew this one was probably gonna suck judging by the title. First off it treats dark skinned people like barbarians, the ML Hakan meets Lucina when she's a child, Lucina is threatened with death if she doesn't marry him and you can probably guess where it goes. Like I said I don't really have a right to be shocked but it still goes on the list for its weird obsession with Lucina being so tiny that having sex with Hakan could kill her along with a not so hidden pregnancy fetish.

I became the tyrants secretary.

Its just workplace sexual harassment, theres not much to it. Cannot stand the ML who is a basic garbage human and Rosalyn is a block of wood when it comes to personality. She wants to do all these things but she has no spine and no will to actually do them but at the same time shes so good at everything on a whim. I usually don't mind a clueless FL but Jesus christ! She makes Adrien Agreste look smarter!

The villains savior

Gotta say the artstyle is really pretty and the FLs design is so cute. Everything else though is pretty bad. The point is basically the lead Ezlay is trying to essentially "fix" the ML as the title suggest. A lot of people dislike this one because Ezlay is very emotional and cries too much but that's honestly the least of the issues here. Now to be fair, Aseph is a villain so it's expected that he's gonna suck but that doesn't mean Ezlay needs to have the personality of a rock either, it's not that she cries a lot that annoys me, she's literally just a male fantasy personified. All she is absolute patience and acceptance for what Aseph does to point of enabling that toxic behavior.

Now we enter manhwas that are horrificly awful, not much difference except these ones have a bigger grain of potential

Lucia

This one got a lot of hate tiktok so naturally I had to read it and yeah, it was pretty bad. The artstyle though just.. I'm sorry but Lucia's face is literally just 👁 👄 👁 and thats not even mentioning the ML Hugo. It's really crinegy and it tries to fill that void with poorly made smut. The plot is also really and I mean REALLY dead set on 1950s values for women and the relationship between Lucia's and Hugo is downright toxic. In fact I don't even think there's a plot.. it's just porn. The only reason it's not in dogshit tier is that it's so iconic for being awful that it deserves to be higher up.

When the villainess is in love.

Okay all I can give this one is that Libertia has a better character design than Lucia. She's a mary sue but at this point that's a lot of leads nowadays so it's not a total shock but this is definitely a case where the story would be so much better if it was the actual Libertia as the protagonist instead of a carbon copy of the ogfl taking over. The worst part though is the fashion and I normally do not care about how dresses look in OI as long as they at least look good and fit the setting.. and dear God a lot of those dresses are nightmares to look at. Thankfully I had heard the novel was better.

Today the villainess has fun again

not a fan of the protagonist. Reilynn is really insufferable to follow since she's basically just an entitled asshole who thinks that just because she got transmigrated as the wealthiest woman in the land that she must be in the right because she's not like Iris who is a basic pick me girl. Beyond the fact that watching her throw money at people to get past an obstacle without effort she's also heavily written as a pedo because out of her options which had 2 green flags her age, she chooses the slave she bought who acts and looks like a 10 year old boy with attachment issues.

Try begging

what is with Solche and their weird obsession with rapist male leads? It's somehow worse then cry or better yet beg. Basically the FL Sally/Grace is a spy and when the ML Leon finds out.. he basically tortures her and SA's her multiple times and somehow they fall in love. Do with that what you will, the only slack I will kind of give Try begging is that it at least warns you of what your getting into beforehand. I really hate that Solches writing actually has so much potential to be amazing yet they use their talents to make rape fetish content. I want to know why manhwa tiktok likes this so much, they're all about girl code until a rapist looks hot (Leon isn't even hot, hes mad ugly)

Abandoned empress

Ah yes, good ol abandoned empress, the manhwa communities favorite punching bag so it's only right it lands here. For all the writers out there if your making a character you'd want the readers to support as the love interest you typically would give them an interesting personality and to tone down anything you think is too much for a healthy relationship. Abandoned empress decides to do the opposite of that and even after scenes of Ruve abusing his wife Aristia by cheating on her, beating her, SA'ing her, killing her dad, and causing her to miscarry so you would naturally think "okay clearly Ruve is the antagonist." But instead they pulled some bullshit "but he's not doing it anymore because he was poisoned in the last timeline!"... what!? Were there any new writers by any chance because how did we go from a abusive monster to a misunderstood Lil guy? I would say more but I think everyone already agreed a long time ago Abandoned empress is ass.

Revenge on the real one

the protag is essentially those villainesses in regression stories that cause the heroines initial downfall. I was already aware of what would happen before I even read and let me tell you it was accurate. The protagonist Helga is AWFUL. The torture she puts Hillian through is overkill and at this point Hillian deserves her own regression story to stand up to Helga because my girl was not that bad for her sister to ruin her life because of a stupid tragic origin story. The worst part is the Helga fans I see on places like tiktok who just don't want to admit their FL is a bad person. "Oh but Helga past was so sad! It's not her fault she's like this." Don't mean she has to banish her sister from her own nation when Hillian was innocent.

Villain Dukes precious one.

I really dislike the reincarnated as a baby trope and I can only ever tolerate it when it's just for a few little chapters. They always feel like those weird ass Elsagate videos with embarrassing humor to come across as funny and this one is no different. Even after the FL grows up the plot is still bland and cringe inducing. I don't have a lot to say about this one other then it is weird as hell. Apparently it also got a little incest-y so no thanks!

Poisonous Lily

While the characters looked basic in terms of design the title sounded intriguing. Unfortunately the translation is horrible, they can't even get the whole Lily flower theme right on the tapas version by giving her tulips to carry on her wedding. The dialog is..interesting to say the least. I won't lose it too much though on this one though since I'm pretty sure this is a lower level book trying to make it out in a sea of over advertised manhwa

I thought my time was up.

You know those porn/no plot tags on ao3? That's basically ITMTWU in a nutshell. Within only 20 chapters, the male lead Asrahan is already obsessed with Lariette after chapters of her violating his personal space to force a relationship between them. The whole magic plot is pushed to the side, Asrahans curse isn't allowed to be an actual rotting flesh curse like it's described as cause he's still gotta be pretty, and the rest of the plot is basically just soft core porn and fanservice that does little to actually move whatever is left of the plot.

For my derelict favorite.

The. Hypocrisy. How is this book gonna make the entire message about deconstructing main character centered morality and then almost immediately backpeddaling with justifying Hestia for attacking a woman who doesn't know her for rejecting her favorite man and proceeding to just ruin her day whenever she can. Hestia would say "im not like other girls." Hestia would be an avid fan of those trust fund baby GMV. Hestia would put her hair in a messy bun, shit on whatever is popular and act like she's making a statement . Even calling her Hestia feels like straight up disrespectful to the real goddess of the hearth who funnily enough is known as one of the most chill Greek gods.

Marry my husband

now Marry my husband is not insanely problematic wheras it's just cliché, predictable and in general pretty bad. It is a fast food manhwa designed to fulfill the classic top boss takes good care of you fantasy so naturally a lot is put on hold to showcase the sweet relationship between the central characters and almost everyone needs to have a lover. It's so bad it's actually kinda funny because the villains are so cartoonishly evil for office workers. Sumin is out here speaking in 3rd person, dressing in clothes found in the little kid section of Walmart and makes comical comments about her desire to ruin Jiwons life, Minhwan is basically a borderline discord mod who casually killed jiwon in the first timeline and goes "Oh well." and there's this random ugly old man who's name I can't remember who's the only one interested in Sumin till the end because he basically wants em younger without the risk of going to federal prison.

Remarried empress

I don't think i need to explain much at this point, if you know my account then you already know how I feel about remarried empress. Season 1 was pretty good though.

Divorcing my tyrant husband

I think we all know at this point that's whenever a title has the word "divorce" 9/10 of the time there is never going to be divorce and it'll devolve into the FL changing her mind and staying with her trashy ex husband because he now decided that Robelia wasn't like other girls and left his mistress in the dust. The plot kinda started getting out of hand when Robelias love interests expanded to one of her obsessed slaves and a Duke to prove that Alexandros was the better option. The villian Aisha is a joke who gets her ass handed to her over and over because "damsel woman always bad." and the art starts to lose its touch. I usually don't mind when artstyle changes but dear God do some of these characters look a Lil fugly.

Cry or better yet beg.

The final story that is in the awful section, why? Because it has the most lost potential. As terrible as this CoHo equivalent is, it details the very realistic parts of being a mistress to a nobleman. In most other stories, the mistress is an evil wench who could easily back out but in cry or better yet beg, Layla is unable to escape Matthias's abuse because it could risk her uncles job. There's a lot to this manhwa and novel that could've made a tragic story about a girl trapped in an abusive relationship with little help, the art is gorgeous and the characters for the most part were well written. It's a real shame that it turned out to be a rape apologist work instead.

next up are the mediocre manhwas, finally there will a little more positivity.

The villainess is a marionette

its.so.boring! This one was hyped up all over the place on Instagram and tiktok and the art looked stunning so I gave it a shot. This is definitely one of those stories that only got popular because of its art in my opinion because the plot is so confusing. Events are happening left and right, the pacing goes from too fast to too slow, characters personalities and traits keep warping, and while this might just be the result of poor adaptation her brother comes across as incestuous a couple of times. while Cayena isn't the worst FL, she's a mary sue by all definitions. Sorry but it's a bunch of jumbled wires. The reason it earns a spot in "it's okay" is because I heard the novel like usual is better so it might not be the fault of the original author

I was the male leads ex

It wasn't bad just boring but a little less boring then the former I'll give it that. The artstyle looked prettier in the beginning so that was kind of sad to see it change in later chapters. What drew me to keep reading was the chance that the ogfl Julianna may not be evil but even a potential love interest. So I got excited and apparently there's the idea that Julianna is actually her brother in disguise which.. would just ruin it tbh, there goes any chance at a ogfl being a human being and not a plot device. Not a huge fan of Erica or really any of the love interests.

From maid to queen

This is the newest of the lineup I read and it was actually interesting for once to see a new story where the MC was the concubine. First off the maids feel less like women employed to do the chores of the palace and more like the cartel 😭, in early chapters whenever Urania is aiming to be the concubine, being lazy with her job or getting comfortable with a powerful man in general they're already out with sticks ready to ruin her day and they even try to kill her. Lot of people don't like that Urania isn't a girls girl but honestly I can't blame her for wanting more out of life then poverty, where she comes across as stupid is that she's still wanting that role even after it got her killed last time. I think that it could work though since it shows that urania is more human and not a perfect goddess of a woman however that does not make up for the shit world building (like what the hell was that mushroom that could turn into a perfect still corpse of you 💀)

The villainess maker.

Ill admit I'm a little harsh on this one on my tier list. The plot still isn't great but there are so much worse out there so it ended up moving up on the list due to default. The plot is mostly just bland and generic down to all the characters and the tropes. Ayla is a girlboss in the villainesses body, Charlotte is a super "revolutionary" kind girl turned wicked wench and the ML is another "touch her and I'll kill you" type. What i will give the Villainess maker is the distinct artstyle. It's not as stylized and while it does get lazy at the end it still is very recognizable.

Abellas dessert shop.

Its another extremely underrated manhwa that's another isekai about a wronged woman looking to move on from her shitty fiancé and start a dessert shop. Ngl the moments where Abella is forced to put on a kind face despite her cheating fiancé or her ex friend popping in is definitely relatable especially in the workforce. Still a little bland but wholesome.

I didn't mean to seduce the male lead.

Eleanor is the FL hired to convince the ML to accept women into his life with the hopes that he will fall in love with the ogfl Irene. Tbh this one can get very icky with how it tries to force the notion that you must fall in love but the guy just instantly falls in love with Eleanor so.. I guess that's a little better? Regardless though i will not fault this manhwa too much because unfortunately the author died before the story was over so it deserves a little slack since it never got the chance to be more. Rest in peace author.

Who made me a princess.

Ill be straight with this now: it's Mid. Objectively the story isn't too terrible and I do find Athy a good protagonist not to mention my love for Jennete but everything else is pretty "meh." Not a huge fan of Claude from his design to his personality, the ML is another case of a grown as immortal meeting his wife when she's still a child (theres a little credit ill admit for Athy being mentally a grown woman but that doesnt stop me from thinking its uncomfortable to acknowledge) It can be cute sometimes and I'll give it that but I don't think I'll ever reread it, just not for me.

Actually I was the real one

Good god this was such a bastardization of the original novel. With that said I'll admit i was still entertained reading it since you could say that the novel wouldn't be an instant cheat sheet to learn what was gonna happen. Still it could've at least tried to be a loyal adaptation. They give Keira 2 options to choose as a love interest when she had none in the source material, Zeke is pushed to the side and the maids honestly get on my nerves with their one note personalities. They also seem to forget that Cosette is literally being possessed by a demon he'll bent on destroying humanity (which she succeeded in the first time) because what was built up as an amazing antagonist is just a joke now. The only other redeeming factors are that in the Manhwa Cosette is still alive and the whole elemental plot stays constant. Despite my complaints on the adaptation it is still a interesting read but the novel will always beat it no matter what.

I know it sounds like I'm just being a negative Nancy with all of these and I'm sorry for being so negative but the next part will be more positive.

Next time on part 2 will be the decent stories.

[in1-nutshell]

So sorry about the requests getting deleted but I hope this reaches you well!!

Mtmte/LL

Whirl + (Gender neutral) Cybertronian reader

-

So this is based off the Christmas special of when whirl found a colony of scraplets that took the shape of a protoform.

Whirl and reader have been conjux endura for a long time now(don’t ask how no one knows), always there for one another cause god knows whirl needs it. And after the events of them finding the colony of scraplets they obviously decide to secretly raise it without anyone knowing!

They both raise the scraplets that they now both consider their very own sparkling. And it even takes the physical features not just from whirl but from the reader too, making the attachment to her even greater<33 and just all in all the miscellaneous first time parenting moments of whirl and his conjux leading up to all the way to the scene with getaway in the end.

-

Reading the special really makes whirl look like such a mom it’s adorable and I love him🥰

Take care of yourself and hope you have a great day!!

That Christmas comic has to be one of my favorites to read.

Hope you enjoy!

Bot Buddy being Conjunx with Whirl and taking care of scraplets

SFW, Platonic, Romance, Familial, Mention of injuries, Cybertronian reader

MTMTE

Buddy had stayed by Whirl’s side longer than most bots would have.

Many bots questioned many things about their relationship, but Whirl liked to keep them on edge and never told them the truth.

Buddy was probably one of the loyal and most stubborn bots anyone would have ever met.

Some of the things that Whirl had fallen for.

At Swerve’s… Whirl: “Move it Eyebrows! Buddy gotta sit! Whirl tries to push Rung out of the way but gets stopped by Buddy who has an unamused face. Buddy: “Whirl, we’ve talked about this.” Whirl: “But you need to sit, you said it yourself!” Buddy: “I said my pedes ached a bit—” Whirl suddenly picks Buddy up like a sack. Buddy laughing a bit: “Whirl! Put me down!” Whirl: “I’ll put you down, don’t get your bolts twisted.” Buddy huffs and smiles at Rung. Rung just smiles and waves. CLANK! Buddy: “Whirl!” Whirl: “What?” Buddy: “Why?!” Whirl: “How do you NOT expect me to touch that shiny metal—” Buddy covering their face with their servos: “That’s enough Whirl!” Whirl: “Bet you hate me!” Buddy in a  muffled voice: “Love you too.” Somewhere on the Lost Light… Magnus suddenly straightens his back struts even more. Rodimus putting away his data pad doodle: “Mags?” Magnus: “First, don’t call me that. Second, someone just broke a rule…”

The night the ship was to go into mauler space, Whirl had promised Buddy he was just going to get a quick drink with Nautica and Swerve before going into the B.E.D.

But when they woke up from their sleep, they were greeted with a frantic Swerve spouting about Whirl and scraplets.

They were running to the medbay before Swerve could finish any of his rambling.

They tackled Whirl onto the med slab and hit him upside down the helm when they heard what he did with the scraplets.

But they defiantly saw why their Conjunx did what he did.

They peaked at the container and saw a little sparkling with some of Whirl and their features.

Then Velocity mentioned about disposing them later that night.

Whirl and Buddy heading back to their habsuite. Whirl: “There goes another bot I care for gone.” Buddy: “Whirl you’re still on the pain killer’s.” Whirl: “Yeah… maybe it’s the meds�� but don’t you ever—nevermind.” Buddy: “What?” Whirl: “Its something dumb…” Buddy putting Whirl on the berth and carefully cupping his helm. Buddy softly: “What?” Whirl: “… Do you ever want to start a family? I know its nuts to think me as a father figure or something but—” Buddy: “Its okay to think that Whirl… I need to go outside for a minute. I’ll be right back.” Later… Buddy carefully opens and closes the door holding something. Whirl sitting up. Whirl: “Finally! Thought you’d ru—what is that?” Buddy sheepishly smiles and holds up the container of scraplets. Buddy: “Meet Junior.”

It took some time for the pair to finally properly train Junior, but by Primus it was worth it.

It surprises the pair to no end that NO ONE had figured out they were harboring the scraplets.

Buddy and Whirl made sure to keep an optic out for any loose ends that could lead to Junior.

Junior soon started showing signs of Whirl and Buddy’s physical features.

When part of the crew went down to necro world, Buddy insisted on staying behind

Something wasn’t right and they wanted to be there for Junior in case something happened.

Whirl reluctantly agreed.

Buddy was slightly terrified when Getaway started talking on the intercom about mutiny.

They marched straight to Getaway while he was transmitting the call with blasters in their servos.

On Necroworld the bots suddenly heard shots being fired and buddy with fury in their optics tackling Getaway

Whirl, while low key worried for Buddy, was cheering them on to take him

The crew could see the struggle and fight going in Buddy’s favor.

That was until an arrow suddenly appeared in Buddy’s mid-section.

Whirl screamed as they went down revealing Atomizer behind them.

Getaway quickly ordered Atomizer to take the back halls and throw them in their habsuite.

Rodimus was borderline smoking at one of his crewmates dying trying to get the rat.

Whirl being furious was an understatement.

He promised himself that he was going to make sure that Getaway suffered once he got his claws on him.

Back on the Lost Light…

Atomizer had carelessly tossed Buddy’s frame in the room and locked the door behind him.

Junior was startled at the sight of their parent not moving.

They became increasingly worried the longer they didn’t move and the small energon puddle forming.

They had plenty of metal to eat before having to resort to…

Junior carefully dragged Buddy to a side in the room that was clean.

She carefully ate away the arrow and slapped one of the temporary sticky patches on the wound.

Time skip to Getaway finally offline…

Junior was quite insistent in getting Whirl to the room as fast as possible.

Whirl’s pedes nearly gave out from underneath him when he saw the still frame.

Whirl stumbling over his pedes to reach Buddy. He shakingly reaches for them, nudging them a bit. They don’t move. Whirl shut his optic and let Ratchet drag him away from them while First Aid went to check on the frame. First Aid’s helm suddenly went up. First Aid: “Ratchet! Ratchet!” Ratchet quickly gets to First Aid’ side. Ratchet: “By Primus, Whirl! Your beautiful, stubborn Conjunx is still online! Barely but there’s a spark beat!” Whirl immediately got to his pedes with Junior and went outside: “OUT OF THE WAY! MEDICS INCOMING! MOVE IT OR I WILL SIC JUNIOR ON YOU!”

It took many weeks of recovery and physical therapy before Buddy was once again back on their pedes chasing after their Conjunx.

Well, now chasing their Conjunx and newly adopted sparkling.

Minimus had even officially sealed the adoption pads as a gift to the new parents.

Whirl was so happy he didn’t commit a felony for 2 weeks.

[deppiet]

About the yassification of GO2.

Warning: the following text is highly critical of the second season of Good Omens. If you enjoyed it, I am happy for you, and a non-negligible amount of jealous as well. Please scroll past before I inevitably rain on your fandom parade.

So, I did the thing. I binged the entire second season of what was, up to now, my favorite show ever, in one sitting. And I have a great deal of things to say, but hardly any of them is positive.

Let me start by saying that I don't mind the cliffhanger or the melancholy ending, like at all. In our era of Marvel apologists and the instant gratification culture, it is necessary for media to persevere and add nuance to romantic relationships. That said, what transpired during the six hours leading up to this sort of unearned climax hardly contains anything remotely close to nuance.

Who are these people? I don't mean the new characters, all of them written as cardboard-cut anthropomorphic personifications of stereotypes, yassified to the point of representation losing its purpose and getting in the way of, you know, actual writing. I mean the protagonists themselves, Aziraphale and Crowley, up to now my favorite characters in the entire world and -up to now- tangled in a love story so beautiful I had, for better or for worse, devoted a large part of my creative output on it, making art, songs, and metas on why what those two entities had was as close to perfect as anyone can hope to find for themselves.

These are not the characters I knew. The characters I knew spent hundreds of human lifetimes revolving around each other in a treacherous yet familiar dance- they both knew the love was there, it was comfortable like an armchair that has taken the shape of the body using it for years. They argued the way old couples do, and of course, like all fictional beings that are counterparts of one another, had differences to settle, but what stood in their way wasn't misunderstanding or miscommunication, in was their fear of Heaven and Hell, and their fundamentally different approaches on how to keep each other safe.

What is all this teen angst? This will-they-won't-they silliness that lacks any nuance, thematic coherence, or literally even trace amounts of understanding of the source material? Where is the dark humor, the quotability, the chaotic overarching plot, the self conscious camp? The season is so cynically written to cater specifically to a certain part of fandom, that I am losing respect for the original work- because if Neil Gaiman doesn't care for these fictional beings, and he evidently doesn't, why should I?

The thematic core of what made Good Omens what it was, had always been the "Love in unexpected places" trope Sir Terry Pratchett knew how to write so well. It had never been about the fantasy, because Sir Terry wrote satire wrapped up in a supernatural package, it had never been about the romance, because when the ship becomes the end instead of the means, the love rings hollow, like artificial light trying to pass as sunshine. The beating heart of GO lies in its philosophy, in the beautiful notion that the agents of two oppressive systems at war have more in common with one another than with their respective oppressors. That being a nobody, a mere cog in a larger machine, says more about said machine than it does about you, and that you can try to break free and build a life for yourself, where a happy ending looks like a dinner at the Ritz with the one you love most.

Shoehorning an underdeveloped "romance" between Beelzebub and Gabriel not only feels like bad fanfic (disclaimer: I like the ship and feel like it could have worked if developed in any capacity, and presented in a more humorous and character-appropriate way. I hate with passion how much they watered down Beelzebub in order to make them stereotypically romanceable, adding the Ineffable Bureaucracy to the ever-expanding list of characters I don't care about anymore.) but also, it muddles and grossly undermines the thematic raison d'être of Ineffable Husbands. If the ramifications for defecting and fucking off with the enemy were a slap on the wrist for the respective leaders of both sides, well surely the system can't be that oppressive after all. And if fear of the oppressive system wasn't, after all, what kept these beings apart, surely these two entities don't like each other as much as we thought. Or rather, one is reduced to a lovesick puppy and the other to a brainless husk of a character, a plot device, a means to go from place A to place B without spending much brainpower on the logistics.

And if these two new people got to kiss I care not, for they are not the same people I rooted for (props, though, to the actors, who gave, somehow, an almost Shakespearean gravitas to their love affair, underwritten and dumbed down as it was. They both love the characters, and it shows in the minuscule yet brilliant ways in which they added nuance where the script had none.)

What was that thing with the lesbians about? Though straight passing, I have always known myself to be attracted to women as well as men, and I am always highly suspicious when an "ally" writer (see: straight, no shade to straight people among which I live because they are, like, the majority) decides to make all characters queer, in the face of real-world statistics and despite NOT being queer themselves. When a person like Nate Stevenson does it they get a pass because writers self-insert and because, when done well, it can carry a message of equality. But when the ally writer does it, unless it is pitch-perfect, I am forced to examine the possibility of them being calculating about it and trying to score representation points, often because they need the rep as a fig leaf to cry homophobia behind when people start complaining about the atrocious plot.

Nina and Maggie were boring. They had no personalities, no cohesive backstories, nothing to make us understand what they are to one another and to the overarching plot ("plot" is used loosely here, for there was no plot: the series ended where it should have started, with six hours of -progressively more offensive to my intelligence- fanfic tropes in a trenchcoat serving as the, well, "plot"). I didn't care whether or not they'd end up together, because I have no idea who they are. The blandness of the dialogue had the actresses, both very talented as evidenced in the first season, grasping at straws with what little characterization they were left to work with, and the "ball" was so unbelievably bad a plot device no amount of suspension of disbelief was ever going to make it right.

The minisodes, though at parts clever and philosophical, felt out of place. This was another narrative choice I had to raise my eyebrows at, because it felt like a bunch of executives sat around a table and watched Neil Gaiman's powerpoint presentation of what made Season 1 financially successful. They were shoehorned in, largely irrelevant to the, eh, "plot", and most of them lasted far more than I personally deemed welcome, or necessary.

What else is there to say? The wink-winks and nudge-nudges to the Tumblr nation? The in-your-face Doctor Who reference? The narratively myopic choice to make Crowley a former archangel? The cheese dialogue, not one bit of which was quotable?

I am distraught. I am grieving an old friend, and a part of my fandom life I cannot, in good faith, return back to after this gross betrayal. I am happy for those who don't see it, because I wish I could love this season past its flaws. However, the writing isn't simply mediocre, it is irrevocably, immeasurably, undescribably bad, so bad I am shocked to my very core, so bad I find it offensive to Sir Terry's memory and everything his own creative output was lovingly filled with.

I am passing all five stages of grief and very much doubt I will return to this fandom. I loved the original story and the characters with all my heart- now the aforementioned heart is broken, not by the breakup or anything as pedestrian as cheap romantic tropes. But because my old friends, my family of fictional beings, are no longer the ones I loved and could relate to.

Deppie out.

[razzellyn]

Not what i planned to actually post but here it is

Scenario:

Human!Reader offered to give the bots a proper car wash! Or... Plane and ship, and truck wash or whatever.

Also, slight romance <3

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He was stunned for a few seconds, processing your offer like it's a mathematical question. After a bit of pondering, he agrees. Not without a slightly flustered face.

Blue Cop:

The entire wash he was avoiding looking at you, either by looking away or closing his eyes entirely. He made the mistake of sparing a glance and the sight of your clothes showing even just a bit of your skin...

*revs engine*

"Huh? What was that?"

"N-nothing!"

After you were done, he took a few seconds to appreciate how clean his frame actually became. And then he excused himself and ran off somewhere...

Mega Trucker:

Unlike Blue Cop, he immediately said yes. Man, he didn't even think about it. You're so used to seeing him act all tough and brave that it's hard to determine if he's embarrassed or not about your offer.

He still acted all "tough and brave" during washing hour, except he's much more jumpy than usual. Whenever you tried to scrub the top of his Truck mode he becomes frantic. Not just the top actually, literally everywhere. His windshield? Frantically observes nature. His tires? Frantically keeps himself together... or something like that.

"Can you stop moving around? I can't clean your hood like this!"

"Psh, of course you can! I'm just moving around, nothing else yeah-"

Oh he's definitely flustered. But he's also digging this. Would probably ask you to do it again if he was allowed. Was, because Blue Cop didn't want to bother you so often.

Mega Ambuler:

He didn't think much about it at first. After all, the kids had already done this before, it can't be any different when it comes to you.

Until the time comes for you to actually wash the ambulance when he realizes how this could affect him. Sure, he's reserved and cool-headed, but he's not dumb to not know why everyone else was looking forward to this. For some reason he can't bring himself to look away.

"Is this... truly necessary?"

"Obviously, have you seen yourself?"

Great, that's one of the many ways to escape that had failed. He doesn't mind it really, just not in front of everyone please. He would still like to keep his dignity.

Phoenix Fire:

He's a bit too ecstatic when you offered, beaming with a nonexistent smile as he nods his head. Though you could see a faint... 'blush'? In his.. Eye thingy. Basically (〃• •〃)

Surprisingly he's very still. Probably because he's eyeing you the whole time. Not because he's a perv! No!! He's just so curious on what you're doing. But one thing leads to another and now he's too flustered to look at you again because your wet clothes pressed a little too tight to your body.

"Uhm... Is that really the only clothes you could wear?"

"Well it's all i got."

"Oh, a-alright then!"

Basically a golden retriever if you think about it. When you were done, he thanked you for your work. It's barely 'work' and more 'responsibility' but you learned to just let it slide.

Shadow X:

He was petrified when you asked. He stared at you, wide-eyed and kept asking you if you're sure about it. Eventually he agreed (while being smug), so long as the others doesn't see this happening.

So, you two are off... somewhere, with you cleaning a VTOL and said VTOL kept talking its nonexistent mouth off. It annoyed you, obviously, but it's really just his way to not get distracted by you.

*Nonstop yapping*

"By God, do you ever just quiet down for a second?"

"Well sorry for wanting to have a conversation."

He was salty after that. Didn't stop him from yapping though. You never actually noticed, but whenever you were close to him from his point of view, he always looked up to the sky, avoiding looking at you entirely. Also, his rotors moved every now and then and you're not sure why.

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Could you tell this was rushed?

Could you also tell i had trouble writing Mega Trucker?

[darkietrashcan]

Analysis on Izuocha and Bakudeku

An epilogue about moving forward

This post contains spoilers for the end of the manga and volume 42

Izuocha.

I haven’t thought about them in a long while… it was the first ship I sailed for when I started MHA, then I deviated to Bakudeku. But please, I am not a biased woman on neither behalf. I will express my analysis and opinions on the matter as a shipper for both who CAN analyze facts with objectivity:

Bakudeku was NEVER gonna be canon and many of us knew it: first of all, because Horikoshi is a middle aged man writing a Shonen. Sorry for being so stereotypical, but it is a fair assumption to make.

Second of all, the blushing, man. Izuku blushed every time he was near to her: he was attracted. Maybe not a full developed crush but there was something stirring him up. Uraraka was a person Izuku admired.

She was the person that gave him the nickname Deku. SHE changed the meaning Bakugo had gave him initially: from useless, to a man who does his best. Uraraka did a wonderful thing right there and it stuck to Deku until the end of the series.

She also was his first friend alongside Iida and Todoroki. Healthy relationships.

Uraraka developed a crush. She was mesmerized and when she realized that plus the fact Izuku was so set to meet his goals, that she set her crush aside to follow her own path: she built her way towards becoming a woman with own goals to pursue. She no longer depended on that crush.

Toga came.

Firstly, she didn’t understand her. She hurt Toga’s feelings and something stirred her up since then.

(During these times, Deku leaves U.A and Uraraka gives her beautiful speech: she connects the people with Deku, and, begs for him to get recognized. A beautiful action.)

Let’s get back to Toga now that I got that fact out of the way.

Her view about life changed, so did Izuku’s with Tomura. They were the only ones who could talk about it, since they experienced similar situations. Uraraka is set to her goal of reaching Toga.

Here is where, for me, things change between them. I viewed Izuocha as a thing before Toga, before Uraraka decided to move on. Then, I viewed them more as very close friends. But it seems like feelings aren’t forgotten and this connection regarding saving other people: Tomura and Toga, united them spiritually.

In fact Uraraka never stopped thinking about Toga.

And this leads me to think that this epilogue meant more than just an ending to their individual stories. Because if you read my other analysis, you understand that I believe that Bakugo never stopped chasing Deku.

While Deku after losing OFA moves forward, becoming a teacher… Bakugo never let go of OFA: competing with Deku literally turned him into a better person. So he sought for that dream, built Izuku a suit, asked him to join his agency but Izuku refused. Because Izuku had moved on. And so had to do Katsuki. And for bkdks it hurts like hell because it is a new step into their relationship: growing as separate adults, who are FRIENDS now, fucking finally. They had a happy ending. But it hurt bkdk’s because Katsuki never let go and I am sure, had their relationship been romantically coded, with them blushing and acknowledging crushes like on Izuochas behalf, I would have taken it as a romantic rejection, too.

But it wasn’t bakudeku’s path because Katsuki’s story always was about learning to ackowledge his mistakes and atone. His story was never a queerbait because romance wasn’t a main focus to explore for his character. All that were just headcanons.. The reason why the apology felt like a freaking romantic confession for bkdks: While, in fact, it was the climax for his character development. Apologizing was finally accepting what he did and growing beyond that. And all the extra stuff just proves how regretful he is because of the bullying he did.

(One thing I have always been greatful for was that Izuku never replied to Katsuki’s apology because it was never needed. The apology was meant to be done, and done. Katsuki never expected a reply either because he understoos just what I said.)

Let’s sum this up: in this epilogue, Katsuki had to learn to move forward, get over Izuku.

And in my opinion it was now Uraraka’s turn to move past Toga: her guilt was paralyzing her. The path that initially made her into a separate woman from Izuku, with own goals to pursue, is now a weight to carry. Plus it is not that she didn’t do anything about it: from the epilogue it seems she has sort of an agency going on and the program to help children!? She is twenty five and accomplished so, so much!

Here is what bugs me from the epilogue: I believe theur romantic relationship was rushed because it was a short timeskip! Had this been long, had their introspection gone a bit longer, I would have believed it and sailed for them.

Izuocha went from a crush, to a strong, deep friendship, whose romantic undertondes diminished as time went by. The flames were never blown away: I do believe they loved each other deeply since the first day. But, since they had different goals, (Toga and Tomura) a romance couldn’t blossom.

But now, Izuku became a teacher separate from OFA and knows what he wants to do. And Uraraka also did her thing: the path cleared for both of them to explore their relationship.

Because, Toga became a weight for Ochako to carry, and it is not that her character becomes a push for a heterosexual relationship. Toga was not diminished to that! Toga was the representation of Ochako’s growth, because all she did, she did for Toga. For her story to not repeat a cycle. When she pushes Ochako, she’s freeing her. So that she can grow besides Toga: she already did a lot to pay homage to her. So yes, Toga pushes a heterosexual relationship but her character WAS NOT REDUCED TO A TOOL! She is pushing her to a new path, and this path is coincidentically a romantic path.

And deepening his relationship with Deku was Horikoshi’s idea of moving forward, for them, at least. Why is it bad that they decide to get together?

As Bakudeku’s we dreamt of a future where Bakugo and Deku get together building an agency together or just competing. Our moving forward was them to become a couple or a team or whatever. We dreamt of them getting together.

Now when it gets to Izuocha it is bad because they can’t grow as separate adults? When it is their choice to get together? This is their choice of keep growing as adults, explore a romantic relationship!? Isn’t this the same like bakudekus desire but for their ship?

(My ship too, bcs I always bkdk>izch)

So yes. I believe Izuocha was rushed, and a bit forced. But it is mainly due to HOW SHORT THE EPILOGUE WAS! Had it been longer with more introspection… man I would have bought it.

But I also as a mha fan have to accept that stories need to conclude and Hori can’t keep drawing and epilogue forever.

I am sure a lot of pieces are not put in this puzzle because this analysis stems from rough translations from the leaks.

But this is what I think about Izuocha and Bakudeku. And boy, if you don’t ship bkdk good for you, but as a HUUGE fan, I am hurt like hell.

(read my other analysis to understand)

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 4

Joan Watson

How were BBC Sherlock shippers so rancid about a WOMAN who wasnt even in the SAME SHOW?????

Martin Freeman of BBC Sherlock insulted Elementary and specifically Lucy Liu in the press. He straight up called Lucy Liu a "dog" in an interview APPARENTLY as a joke, because calling female actors ugly is hilarious. Benedict Cumberbatch was more measured about it, but he still said he was cynical about Elementary because it would lose the "male friendship" dynamic, which of course Johnlock shippers used against Joan Watson fans. Even the lead BBC Sherlock actors got in on the yaoi victimization of Joan Watson... 😔

she wasn't even in the same SHOW as the yaoi I've been convinced she deserves to win the entire poll. I was a Johnlocker but I did watch the first season of Elementary and it was fine????? It was totally okay????? Especially in hindsight given how hard Sherlock season four flopped. Also Lucy Liu is a queen and deserved zero vitriol for *checks notes* playing a character???? A fucking fictional character???????? Oh my god we were all SO mean to this show and we (or at least I) thought it was like The Good Fight™️, like we were defending BBC Sherlock against copyright infringement and straightwashing and Jonny Lee Miller's bizarre scarf, (it wasn't a good scarf I do stand by that) but then Elementary didn't make Holmes and Watson a couple either???? And also it didn't insult its audience constantly etc etc we've all seen the Hbomberguy Sherlock is Garbage video. This is really long sorry hashtag justice for Joan Watson.

Misa Amane

she gets treated in-canon the way fandoms treat female characters that Threaten an m/m ship. it's like, "oh why don't you go sit in the corner and be pretty, misa, while the Men have intelligent conversation and pretend they aren't ten seconds from fucking each other, doesn't that sound nice?" it's infuriating. and MAYBE it's better now but i remember her getting treated the same way in fanfiction too, like we all need to do just as badly by our female secondary characters as fucking tsugumi ohba, but with the added insult of making her be alternately oblivious of the relationship between light and L or actively trying to sabotage it—incompetently, of course, because god forbid misa be allowed dignity or moments of cleverness.

she's one of the first characters I think of when I consider old school fandom misogyny. The annoying bitch and clingy crazy gf allegations were AFTER HER ASS. She's also a lot more intelligent than people gave her credit for, but most seem inclined to take the Very Biased word of our unreliable, narcissistic narrator and his homoerotic arch nemesis and claim that just because she's bubbly and into romance that she's also a complete moron. Which is blatantly untrue. Everyone was afraid of Misa girlbossing too hard. Killing people and devoting yourself to the deranged twink of your dreams even though you know he'll never love you back??? Having a hardcore goth aesthetic and being so Hot even literal Death Gods are into you?? God forbid women do ANYTHING!

Not only is she the victim of yaoi culture, she is the victim of early 2000s misogyny by an author that wanted to introduce a girl character because he knew his male rivals were getting too homoerotic. She is a goth bimbo icon who portrays what I think is one of the few callouts for stan culture and what parasocial relationships can do to both the stan and the idol. The fact that she is a toxic fan of Kira and also hot, funny, sociable is tragic in its own way, which I think the author did try to touch on but was too misogynistic too really get through. Of course, she was reduced to villain status by the fandom and anime alike because she got in the way of the supposed romance in their psychological horror anime.

[blade-liger-4ever]

My take on RID 2015's Nightra....and the original "girl lead" instead of Strongarm if I wrote the female lead

(Note, I used/use Hero Forge because I cannot draw my way out of a wet paper bag.)

(I would also ideally give her a Hummer H2 alt-mode because she deserves better than Strongarm's body - on a similar note, I'd trim her down enough so that you can tell at first glance she's a woman, hence the Hero Forge design.)

So I'd keep most of her backstory, except her friendship with Strongarm already had cracks in it. When she was walked out of the Academy, Nightra kept thinking about how Strongarm told the truth to protect her perfect record, although as time passed she realized she'd asked Strongarm's help for similar reasons. After a few months of drifting, Nightra came into contact by accident with a bounty hunter/free agent who took her in. After that, Nightra was virtually off to the races: she learned combat fast, weaponry handling faster, and became adept at thinking her way out of any situation. Her mentor let he go out into the galaxy on her own, as he believed in learning on your own.

Nightra became well respected for getting things done and bagging criminals, and she couldn't have been happier. After acquiring her Light Bender from the latest haul of one bounty, she was tapped by what would later turn out to be a member of Team Prime to investigate something weird going on with the old Space Bridge in the Kaon Museum. Using her new device, Nightra infiltrated the building after some recon, then held back as she saw Bumblebee and her ex best friend Strongarm cuffed to a red mech talking by the coordinate settings. Realizing what was going on, she watched them before Bumblebee took off to distract the guards, listening with growing suspicion as Strongarm pushed for this "Sideswipe" to break the security codes and set it to Earth. When the frag hit the fan and the portal opened, she had to process for a good 3 seconds Strongarm's eager declaration that she had set the Bridge to Earth as requested, barely registering Sideswipe's rightfully retaking of his work.

Then it fell in place.

Strongarm didn't care who did what around her so long as she could have a spotless record and climb the ranks.

And then Nightra made the most impulsively reckless/stupid decision of her life.

Materializing from the shadows, Nightra shot the cuff off the two, then burst forward and slammed her fist into Strongarm's face. Watching her careen downwards with fury and satisfaction, she waved Sideswipe forward with a harshly humorous comment, "Best take that opening, bud-zo. Don't want Regs here getting her place in the Kaon Police jeopardized."

After that she shot at the guards and bolted through after Bumblebee and Sideswipe almost thoughtlessly. She allowed Sideswipe to run off, then had to deal with a livid Bumblebee as he demanded to know who she was and why she'd done that back at the museum. Nightra brushed off her assault of Strongarm as "fair considering her power madness", then explained herself as a free agent whose client had hired her to inspect the Space Bridge's weird readings. After a bit of back and forth, things go as usual for the premiere, but Sideswipe and Nightra are instead like competing siblings; their outright fights are rare, and happen only when one or both has had a long/bad day. She also bonds pretty easily with Windblade, and like Sideswipe, initially drives Drift mad until they all get used to the veteran bounty hunter.

If I could have gotten a season four for RID with the above change, I'd have brought in Sunstreaker. I'd have lots of characterization for him and his twin, as well as more ship tease for Sideswipe and Windblade. Additionally - although I don't know if this would stick - I'd see if I could get Nightra and Sunstreaker to do a romance two-step. If I could pull that off, there'd probably be some awkwardness that Sideswipe has to overcome because of how he views Nightra as a sister, but realizing that it's okay for her and Sunstreaker to not view each other that way (plus learning of "sister(s)-in-law" from Denny), Sideswipe gets past it and basically becomes ship captain for them (likewise, Nightra is the #1 shipper of Sideswipe and Windblade. Grimlock is oblivious to the romance angle for now, garnering Nightra to say, "You're adorable, Grim. Don't ever change.)

Oh yeah. I'd also let Strongarm actually go power mad back on Cybertron, possibly being controlled by Cyclonus and the gang or not. Regardless, she and Nightra have the catfight of the century, Nightra wins and makes it clear that "just because you can be powerful doesn't mean you should be. And just because you have the rank doesn't mean you should use others for your own gain."

We'll see if I get inspiration later for my take on Nightra - and I hope you like her.

See you all in the future!

[martinblackwoodhaterfan]

@flamingphoenix916 I had SO MUCH to say about jmart that I had to do it in a separate post. This way I can also include screenshots from the unofficial transcripts.

First of all, Jon and Martin aren't really compatible. They don't even know eachother outside of the Archive. Martin's stuck on his "precious image of Jon", as Elias stated, and Jon is way too busy Seeing everything to focus on improving their relationship.

Martin frequently cuts Jon off when he's talking about the Fears, because he's uncomfortable hearing it. He outright refuses to be of any help in regards to Jon's new feeding habits - understandable, logical even, but not even attempting to help doesn't make him a very good partner. Martin will actively isolate himself from everything that upsets him, and so I wouldn't say it's a good thing for him to be with a guy who's essentially the filter for all the world's fear and suffering. Jon's like the liver of the Fear-infested world.

He fails to empathize with Jon on several occasions. When Jon refuses to kill Simon Fairchild (or was it Oliver Banks?) he tries to give an explanation for it, but Martin once again cuts him off and expresses annoyance, because "well they're monsters! They deserve to die!"

This is because Martin thinks in black and white. He always looks for the simplest explanation, and gets upset when such a thing isn't available. His morals shift to accomodate that. "The Avatars hurt people for their Patrons, so they're Bad and deserve to die. When I revenge myself upon those monsters, it's Good and Correct."

He also has trouble accepting Jon as an avatar. He's disgusted, or at least inconvenienced by Jon's new needs and behaviours, and separates Jon into two categories: the Human Jon whom he fell in love with, and the Monster Jon who's compelled by the Powers to hurt people.

He laughs at Jon when he's vulnerable while they're at Salesa's. He slaps Jon in MAG 172 becase he didn't feel like waiting for the man to finish his second statement. Also, I'm not a fan of the "human-monster" divide between the two of them. Martin should've become a full-fledged avatar instead of just toeing the line.

Here are some things i said about them in my previous posts:

" There is no real build-up to them getting together. It's just... one moment they're in the Lonely, desperate to find one another, and a moment later they're saying "I love you" and kissing eachother. When did that happen? I get the whole "grasping at eachother for balance" thing, but was there really a need to make them a couple so soon?

The build-up felt more like it would lead to a friendship, not outright romance - which is why their relationship felt so surface-level in the following season. The writers put together two people that only knew eachother as coworkers, and tossed them into the apocalypse right after that. Jon and Martin do love eachother, but they don't know eachother besides their surface-level bickering. This relationship could've been salvaged in any other circumstances except the goddamn apocalypse, where both of them are constantly on edge. They can't really sit down and talk about their feelings, when the primary feeling they're experiencing is fear.

What I'm saying is jmart feels... kinda undercooked? It could've had a nice dynamic if it got actually developed. They're just two friendly delusional coworkers. "

" I mainly have a problem not with the ship itself as the canon presents it, but with the fanon characterization - veeery often they're watered down to "big fluffy protective boyfiend" and "dangerous but soft monster". It's bland, it's shallow, and worst of all it is completely out of character. And since jmart takes up a large part of canon (they had an entire season!) and is most people's favourite part of the podcast (back then they used to binge it just to get to season 5), there's a TON of content of them and nearly ALL of it is blatant mischaracterization. But there's nothing to be done about that. "

Honestly, if not for the widespread fanon version, maybe I could even be a fan of this ship! But the canon doesnt really give us much, and the fanon is absolutely attrocious.

[femmesourdough]

Y'know, it's fascinating to me to watch how now, by and large in fandoms, heteronormativity in society isn't an excuse for unlearning your biases enough to treat relationships that aren't m/f with respect and depth...but sexism and patriarchy in society is the one thing that suddenly we can't be expected to even try to. It's just too harrrrrd.

Ive seen SO many responses to the "Why do so many fandoms seem to actively dislike or just want to ignore the women in a piece all of a sudden" but the one I'm thinking of now is the insistence that not only are ALL women badly written (all of them. In every movie book or show. Never mind what actually happened in canon, don't go looking! This female romantic lead or protagonist is sooooo much worse written than other-male side character who appears for 5 minutes or was the 2d villain who I gave an entire backstory to!) But actually, I can't be expected to want to write about women even if I'm a woman myself because patriarchy had taught me to sympathize with men!!!!

And I'm like...okay but. Hasn't it also taught you everybody should be straight?? Yet that doesn't seem to be an issue. If people tried to say "well this m/f ship is better written than the m/m ship/more canon" even if it was TRUE, nowadays they'd get crucified. They'd actually get skinned alive. Also, being attracted to men doesn't seem to stop romance writers in a HUGE book industry from writing from the pov of women attracted to men. Idk, just. Literally every excuse given as to why this is such a trend, meant to refute "its misogyny" ends up being such complete bullshit if you think about it for more than two seconds, or it's something that sounds entirely like a This Commenter Specific Problem. Either way, none of this makes me think any less that the issue is misogyny, maybe internalized but still there and nobody wants to admit it.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Just wanted to say that i shared your post about Miraculous being a cross between magical girl (team) and rom-com genres and the failings of it.

It spawned a fun debate as we tried to think of other shows who tried the same thing but stayed in the mid-zone of both genres. All we ended up with was Teen Titans (as you mentioned) and Inuyasha which don't quite fit the bill as they aren't exactly magic girl shows in the traditional sense before we swerved off to try to find examples of other genres that don't mess well but should.

Anyways, just wanted to thank you for the analysis. It spawned a fun discussion.

Thank you for this lovely ask! It really made me smile. I love knowing that my stuff is getting people talking about storytelling! The main reason that I run this blog is not to dunk on Miraculous, but to talk about writing.

I'm a big fan of the saying that "failure is the greatest teacher," but I also like to point out that it doesn't need to be your failure! Talking about the things a piece of media did wrong and comparing it to media that did those things right is one of the best ways to learn about writing and far more helpful than just looking at good stories as there are thousands of ways to tell a good story.

To give my two cents to your debate (without knowing the fine details) the first two seasons of Digimon have some similar dynamics of romance between various leads, though it's also not a magical girl team show and the romance is certainly not focused on like it is in Teen Titans. One magical girl team show that did a great job of having a romance plot play a big role in a story is - strangely enough - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

While it's not really a rom-com (though it could have been and worked just as well), the second season ends with a two-part episode called A Canterlot Wedding and it's very cute. The couple that's established in that special goes on to have several episodes focused on them and their romance.

The reason this worked so well was that the romance was between ponies outside of the core team, so you didn't have to figure out how to make friendship the most important thing while also making romantic love the most important thing. By making both forces important in their own ways, the writers were able to let the couple be extremely close and passionate about each other while also allowing friendship to have a key role.

That's the issue that you have to keep in mind if you want to try to blend the genres: figure out a way to add in a romance without messing up the core team and creating a setup where romance is making friendship take a back seat. You also need to figure out how to deal with someone external to the team warring with the team for narrative importance.

My two cents? Just make some of the magical girls lesbians, bi, pan, or any other sexuality that allows for same-sex attraction. That should allow you to have romance in your team without the nasty complication of trying to make a person external to the team super important. After all, what is a good romance if not a friendship with bonus features? I wouldn't be surprised if there's a story out there that has already done this (not sure if Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus from Sailor Moon count since I don't think that their romance gets a major story line around it, but if it does, then just mirror that!)

And if there's not a magical girl team show that has done this? Then I'm certain that you can find fanfic that has. After all, people tend to ship the characters who get the most screen time together no matter who the canon love interests are supposed to be. That's why shonen anime is dominated by yaoi ships. Those shows rarely develop the hetero love interest the way that magical girl team shows do and so people ship the guys together. Meanwhile, magical girl team shows assume that the audience wants a good romance and so the hetero love interests tend to feel more fleshed out.

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

My Favourite Cdramas (so far)

Fangs of Fortune: this drama is so fun! Found family demon hunters solving demon murder mysteries with a ton of queer sexual tension and banter. Also, VERY pretty, like the costumes are all works of art and I don't know how they did it. The scenery, the CGI, it's all top notch.

Text posts, Wen Xiao, Zhu Yan

Love of the Divine Tree: it's like a long fix-it fic for TTEOTM, complete with a destined Demon Child, but instead he gets forcibly adopted by someone who loves him into sanity. I loved it.

Why you should watch, text posts

The Double: I came for the Very Extra Fan Boy (ML) but I stayed for the really interesting villains. Justice for Princess Wanning! Smart characters who stay smart the whole time my love!

Text posts

Love Between Fairy and Devil: it was as good as everyone said. I really liked the Dragon/Scammer romance, the mains were amazing, and it was a fun fantasy plot. I liked that the two weddings were predicted early but came true in the weirdest possible ways.

Blossom: Historical rebirth where a wronged woman goes back in time and tries to change the past. I liked that the male lead was almost always about five minutes from regicide or patricide (justifiably). The intelligent female lead stayed smart throughout

Text posts

The Blossoming Love - Loved this ride or die couple, she's like a very pushy cat and he's a Victorian Maiden who can kill people. The ending got a bit slow, but overall great!

Text post

Cdramas I liked:

Lost You Forever - I loved the first part where Xiao Yao is a doctor, I found the middle part frustrating and hard to watch because Tushan Jing was so miserable and trapped. I liked Snake Boy the whole way through, though I didn't ship him with Xiao Yao. Hated Cang Xuan. Felt like too much unnecessary angst in the middle. I did rewatch every scene where the final couple are together and happy because I love them so much and ship them so hard.

Till the End of the Moon - it was so insane. It did a very good job at what it was trying to do. Wow. What a crazy show. I will save my Poor Little Baby Demon Boy and wrap him in blankets.

Story of Kunning Palace - I enjoyed the palace intrigue, it was frequently very funny for the first half. The only male characters I really liked were Yan Lin and his dad and I don't ship the main couple, but I still had fun so it's all good. I didn't like the male lead at all but he was interesting.

Perfect Match: cute and fun. The storylines were a bit unbalanced though and I think they did the best job with 4th sister. I wish we had a bit more of the other couples as the show went on, because I always loved the little domestic moments. It was very much Cdrama Pride & Prejudice!

My Journey to You: it's enjoyable but it didn't blow me away, I think I like xianxia better than wuxia. The Serial Killer Vibes Poison Brother was my favourite.

The Rebel Princess/Monarch Industry - I really liked the first half, but the second half I thought the main couple was apart for too long and too many people wanted to kidnap and marry A'wu. If she's a representation of power than fine but as a human these men can find another, unmarried woman. The costumes were cool though and I loved the main couple.

Dropped:

The Legend of Shen Li - the female lead just came off as dumb to me and I didn't know what the point was (9/39) review