#i just. love this comic dude. i love when he's more man than myth

[rollforjackass]

:')

[darthstitch]

the end of the fairy tale

Let's talk about Nada.

So, for those who haven't read the comics, I'm going to say it now, even if the comics were already released 30-odd years ago, okay? SPOILERS. MAJOR SPOILERS. VERY LIKELY THE PLOT OF SANDMAN SEASON 2.

There.

The second thing I am going to say is this: THIS DOES NOT EXCUSE/EXONERATE DREAM OF THE ENDLESS FROM ANY OF HIS SHITTY ACTIONS. BECAUSE THEY WERE REALLY, REALLY HORRIBLE. HEINOUS. CRUEL. HE WAS A FUCKING IDIOT.

Look, I love the fucking idiot, okay? But yeah, the day I read that particular part in the comics was the day I absolutely wished I could reach into that world and shake him into sense. Like, DREAM, YOU MORON, YOU COME BACK HERE AND FIX THIS RIGHT THIS INSTANT GODDAMNIT. YOU FUCKING KNOW BETTER THAN THIS.

Thankfully, Death took care of that for me, in true Pinay Ate fashion.

Buckle up kids, here we go.

In the comics, Queen Nada was the first love interest that we see for Dream of the Endless. At least, the first that we knew of, since Endless Nights wasn't going to be written and published until years later.

It plays out like a classic myth, that tribal people tell each other, as part of a rite of passage for their youth. Queen Nada is the beautiful queen of a great and ancient city somewhere in Africa. She falls in love with a handsome and mysterious man. Despite multiple warnings and obstacles in her way, she goes on a quest to find Mr. Mystery and she eventually does find him.

It's worth noting that Dream here is again shown to be different from the usual pale, white, ghostly dude that we know. We're reminded that the Dream we see as a "default" is based on our perceptions. He appears as an eldritch godlike being, all flame and majesty to the Martian Manhunter.

To Nada, he is a beautiful young man of her own race but alas, when she finds him, she realizes that he's not a mortal. She recognizes him for what he is and is terrified, because to love an Endless is to court disaster. It's forbidden.

I won't recount the whole tale, but suffice it to say, that Dream eagerly pursues her once he's figured out that she's madly in love with him. She tries to run away but eventually she gives into Dream and they have this one incredible night of passion. But because she apparently broke this taboo, her kingdom is completely destroyed.

Dream tries to offer her the Queenship of the Dreaming, but obviously, that's not going to fly with Nada, who's absolutely broken that all of her innocent people had to pay the price for her foolish passions and love. She chooses to kill herself and while Dream still tries to persuade her to spend her afterlife with him, she refuses.

And that's why he sends her to hell. It takes about 10,000 years, but after Desire needles him (as usual) and Death points out (in a gentler fashion) that he'd behaved abominably, Dream decides to do the right thing and get her out of hell. It helps that he's just experienced imprisonment as well (we'd later learn that this has happened twice) and after some shenanigans, he does set her free.

Dream awkwardly attempts to apologize and he ends up getting rightfully smacked in the face, because, Dream, you moron, that's not how you say sorry. OMG.

DASURV.

This is one of the reasons why Tom Sturridge's Morpheus took me a little off guard. His apology to Lucienne and his closure with Calliope are leagues away from this, where he shows a lot more empathy, sensitivity and maturity. I'm looking forward to seeing how the show is going to handle that moment, since they've been doing such a great job of adapting and making changes to the source material while still staying true to the spirit of the entire saga.

But I digress. Dream does really make it right with Nada and she gets to reincarnate and live her new life, finally free of all the bullshit.

For a long time, I had wondered how Dream of the Endless could've been so cruel and petulant and capricious. I did understand that The Sandman wasn't a classic "hero" tale where the lead character would make the "right" choice every time. Dream does change and grow and develop for the better over the course of the series, which is why it's so heartbreaking to lose him in the end, just when it seems he's finally getting his shit together.

And then I read Endless Nights and I finally understood.

Poor Nada was basically Dream's rebound love from the disaster that was Killala of the Glow.

Killala was a trainwreck in the making. From the comics, it seemed like Dream had been the one who did the courting, dazzling and wooing her. She's into it, but she doesn't seem to understand Dream's real nature and it's fairly clear that she's attracted to Dream and very much charmed, but it's Dream who's fallen hard and fast for her.

It's also worth noting that the restriction against loving mortals was not yet in place. It's Killala who causes that restriction to happen. Given that she falls in love with the star of her own solar system, it's significant that the one who doles out punishment for Nada falling in love with Dream and consummating that love is our sun.

I honestly think that Killala and Dream would've still broken up, even without Desire's meddling, but it might have happened gradually, over time and Dream might have learned a far more different, gentler lesson in loving mortals. Instead, he gets faced with Killala openly betraying him and running off with Sto-Oa. Desire laughs in Dream's face about it and admits that they thought it was a fun joke.

And Dream does absolutely nothing, except to storm away.

Killala isn't punished, isn't condemned to hell, doesn't suffer some unspeakable fate. We're told that she was happy with her love, even though she does die, eventually, since she's mortal.

So it's no wonder that Dream had overreacted so badly with Nada. It was Nada who had initially pursued him. It was Nada who had gone through all these trials and tribulations to prove her love for him. She was the one who essentially did the courting and the wooing. To Dream, who was still feeling bruised and battered after getting rejected by Killala, it had to be a heady feeling, to be loved and wanted like that.

Was it any wonder that he absolutely would not let Nada go after this? That he would try to hold on to her, try to keep her by his side, damn the consequences?

It's also significant that the Dream Nada sees, essentially looks like a teenager of her own age - a clear sign that Dream himself isn't emotionally mature enough or had developed that conscientious streak that made him so endearing much later in his life. He was young (in Endless terms), he was hurting over his last love and his sibling's cruelty, and he just wanted, very much, to be loved and have his fairy tale happily ever after.

Again, this doesn't excuse his cruelty. But at least we can better understand where he's coming from and appreciate how much character growth he'd gone through, because he does, in the end, set things right with Nada the best way he possibly could. And while it's not a fairy tale ending, it's a satisfying one.

[winderlylandchime]

The Man, the Myth, the Legend is tired and in pain but that’s his own fault and you will see why: ‘OH HOT GUY ALERT! Emmett..baby..he is wearing denim on denim with a leather jacket, if that doesn’t scream gay, idk what does. GAY! WHAT DID I SAY!’ He just paused the episode and walked to the tv to look at Justins art ‘THATS bc you accepted a boy who wasn’t beaten yet. So of course his work was different, sherlock! Now stop being a prick and let my boy draw on his computer! We expect our students to what now? What did he just say about excelling at everything? Just bc he’s disabled doesn’t mean he won’t be amazing?! Oh just say you don’t accept disabled people you old fart! Fuck you and your tradition! I hate this clown..oh i guess the clown has some brain after all!..BRIAN! Dont put any ideas in his head.. oh he wants him to succeed and be the best and do good and this is a lot to handle on so many pain meds’ ‘why is linds being a bitch? Since when is she so uptight? Oh, the silence is LOUD…BRIAN WILL YOU GRAB THAT AND THEN HE JUST DOES? OH HE IS GONE. THAT MAN IS IN LOVE! HE IS SO IN LOVE AND NOBODY EXCEPT ME FOR SOME REASON SEES THIS *looks at me like he just realized im there too* can you see it?!’ ‘Okay dudes, that was not chill! You don’t do that to your friends. It’s fun to be jokey but that was not cool, yall are better than that…are you tho? MICHAEL BET 5 WEEKS?! i guess people do change. Tell them debbie! At least she gets it, even if she only gets it once every 17 episodes’…‘Ben better be better than David. Oh is he gonna be the one..i mean he’s asking him to talk about comics..david hid them. I hated that. Okay Benny boy, you can stick around, I’ll allow it but you get 3 strikes!’ ‘Okay goatee dude, chill the fuck out. People are allowed to have relationships and still be the hottest thing around. Don’t make him self conscious, i have worked overtime to try and get him to admit to being in love! DONT RUIN THIS FOR ME!….NOOOO HE RUINED IT FOR ME!…MICHAEL! WHAT THE FUCK MICHAEL WHO JUST SAYS THAT TO A PERSON? Just when i was about to be in your corner, someone please hit him! You cant just say fucked up shit and then say sorry! Thats not how that works!’ Then he felt bad for Mikey bc of the school thing and then he hated that he felt bad bc hes mad at him ‘Oh we are getting hot and HEAVY! Bri Bri, i am impressed! You knew he was upset and why! Oh so that guy was nothing but Justin is something? MY DUDES WE SERIOUSLY NEED TO LEARN HOW TO TALK. Aww he doesn’t want Brian to change. Now that’s love! Oh COME ON, I CANT FUCKING WIN EVEN FOR A MINUTE! Im a good person, i deserve good stuff, throw me a bone ffs’ ‘aw Benny boy is listening! Oh he is way better than david! If youre the one, you can stay! Just do me a favor and make mike more tolerable, i am begging for the sake of my well being..that was sweet mike, now give me brian and justin again!’ He had to go and take his last dose of pills for today and he just looked at the ceiling and flapped his arms around while making no noise at all, so id say he’s handling it well. ‘Listen, i am 100% straight. But THIS *points to a paused screen of Brian in the green light in the beginning of the non confession scene* is one beautiful man! I AM INTRIGUED And I would not mind him hitting on me.’ I made a comment that he is now 54 years old to which he puts his hand up in my face and goes ‘I’ll get back to you on that’ and just continued to watch. 1/2 of 2x06

Dear sweet anon - I am SCREAMING over him asking if you see that Brian is in love too. Yes, Brother Anon, that's why we're all here 20 years later. Still sobbing over them.

And yes, Gale Harold is the most beautiful man to ever man. I have a straight crush on him and even at 54 he could get it. The green light scene is one of my favorite. UGH that profile.

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

(Note: Most of these asks are before episode 206 (Season 2 finale) became general so some may be dated.) 1. I wish I could re-write this damn comic so the underlying threat wouldn't look and feel so out of place and rushed. One thing I think would help is the introduction of eris being a little earlier. And to have her interact in some way with *every* character. Maybe keep the symbolism with the feathers (every time a character does that stupid red eye thing maybe a feather can be seen? I dunno). And hell, why not have her working with Kronos? What's more chaotic than bringing back an old god king? I just...ugh. 

2. Am I supposed to be on Hades’s side right now? Because Zeus seems awfully sympathetic right now. Zeus was just given a backstory of watching his mother die, and he seems reasonable about Persephone’s age and the possibility of a waning interest in Hades in the future. Hades seems to get rid of all reasoning towards his brother, despite Zeus desperately trying his best with what he has. Right now Hades seems like an obsessive man in power that seems to treat Persephone like an object. At least Zeus seems to try to see in Persephone’s perspective for her future. Hades is worsening relations between the realms over Persephone who was still trying to understand her place in the world. Hades just seems like an obsessive stalker and Zeus might be one of my new favorites in the story. 

3. Hades gouged a guy's eye for taking pictures of Persephone without permission but literally physically held a visibly uncomfortable Minthe in front of cameras like a hunting trophy. Messed up, dude.

4. If RS wanted to make Morpheus a trans woman or non-binary why is the character a "Goddess" and with she/her pronouns while retaining the name "Morpheus" which is a clearly male name and declares the opposite of the above? To me it seems less like gender non-conformity, and more like RS doesn't know how gendered names work ooor she knows but keeps the male name for the "greek god brand" and to keep the character recognizable. I just can't feel she did it in good faith.

5. Omg I just finished reading the season finale and it was so bad. Persephone didn’t even have to try to defeat Kronos at all like at least one more episode would’ve been better but nope. Ngl I only bought fast passes for the end of this chapter bc I thought it was the last one but apparently there’s gonna be a third season? So ig they’re just gonna figure out how to deal with Apollo’s story and Demeters feelings towards Persephone and Hades? That’s all I can think of that they would have to fill a whole season of. 

6. Apologies for the long text ^-^

To be completely honest, I never liked retellings of Persephone's Abduction where she fell in love with Hades in general. They always seem like shitty fanfiction and are rarely "feminist and empowering". In my opinion it would be more feminist to tell the myth as it is: Persephone is kidnapped against her will and forced to stay. Because most of these retellings tend to  demonize Demeter (for being a good and caring mother in the myth?) and in doing this makes it hipocritical since this myth's intention was not only to explain seasons, but to explore the bond between a mother and her daughter, having Demeter go against Zeus and Hades to get Persephone back.

Again Persephone's myth should just be told like it is, because it makes it more feminist to have Persephone's story told truthfully instead of romanticizing her kidnapping amd making Hades the good guy in it.

7. I never really pegged Persephone as a Mary Sue/creator's pet until she defeated Kronos so easily and smugly. And singlehandedly when even Zeus couldn't do anything. As an antagonist who should be way more powerful and has been built up over multiple seasons, the battle was a letdown 

8. Hmm, about the fertility power thing, it’s disgusting, mostly because Rachel is ignoring the struggle it represented for the ancient Greeks when it came to giving birth and the ricks of dying at child brith. Heck, Hera is a fertility goddess in the sense she can bless you in order to have babies, as long as you were part of her cult, similar to Aphrodite, fertility wasn’t a super special Awesome power it was a RESPONSIBILITY. One the plenty women fear for since dying for child birth was a big possibility for them, there is even a myth were Ares was hearth broken at the death on one of his lovers and unfortunately was the one how let his child drink from her death body’s breast in tears. Yes, fertility was important in Ancient Greece as it allow families to expand, however it was also a risk for plenty and not all woman and men were gifted with it. Even Zeus a male fertility deity, was in charge of providing of his family as his duty as the patriarch. In Ancient Greece, power came with responsibility, power wasn’t just a gift that made you more special out of nowhere. Instead Rachel represents power as Hedoism, that others can exploit. And making fertility a part of that kind of explotation is just…just wrong.

9. Sounds like Smythe portrayed Demeter properly by accident.

10. do you have any posts which review the actual relationship and myth of hades and persephone? I know there used to be one but it’s no longer available 

From OP: Unfortunately, I have too many posts and can’t find the one you’re referring to, If anyone can link the post you think they may be asking for or others, feel free to do so.

[bonesbuckleup]

any atla headcanons to share?

My dude, I always have headcanons to share. Worth saying these are mostly post-show, and I haven’t read the comics or watched much of Korra so I assume there’s contradictory stuff here. So it goes.

Zuko loves kids, but he’s also petrified of them. Whenever he’s doing Fire Lord hosting things and there are kids present, he spends the whole time trying to figure out how to approach them without scaring them. Luckily, kids also love Zuko? Because he talks to them like they’re small adults (because all the children Zuko knew when he was a child literally were small adults) and they love that shit. Most events end with the Fire Lord surrounded by the kids, silently nodding and listening while they talk and talk and talk, because he’s worried if he says anything they’re gonna get scared and run off.

Sokka hates the Northern Water Tribe. Not the individual people, but the place/entity as a concept. He doesn’t realize it until later, probably after the war, but he does. He hates them. They closed themselves off from the world and decided they were okay with sacrificing the Southern Tribe for their own preservation. More than that, though, they bring up Yue every time they talk to him. It gets to the point where he will literally leave town if he hears there are dignitaries from the north around. Meanwhile, the Northern Tribe fuckin’ loves Sokka. He’s functionally a folk hero to them, and they spend a lot of time trying to get him to come back to the North Pole. As Sokka’s actively avoiding them, this has resulted in a globally scaled, very problematic game of hide-and-seek.

The north is less into Katara as a general rule. Even though Pakku came around on training women to fight with their bending, the rest of the tribe changes much more slowly. This gets better as time goes on, but the north tolerates Katara more than it embraces her due to her insistence they change their ways (yet another reason Sokka has decided he hates them). As a result, there’s a huge pilgrimage of lady benders who end up moving south. The waterbenders who rebuild the southern settlement are made up of at least 80% women. All southern waterbenders are taught to fight and heal in equal measure, regardless of gender.

As a younger man, Piandao was atla’s Batman. The White Lotus found him because he was vigilanteing it up all over the world before settling down in his mansion to systematically adopt a bunch of young fighters with confidence problems and authority issues.

The cabbage man was a Fire Nation spy. No, I will not be taking questions on this, thanks.

As part of building inter-nation unity, Zuko encourages the Ember Island Players to perform work from the Earth Kingdom or Water Tribe. This ends with Toph bankrolling a play about her life. Yes, the same actor from the episode plays her. Yes, she publicly endorses the myth that she sees through echo-location. Yes, she’s in the front row every night.

Roku and Sozin were literally the gayest. This isn’t even a headcanon. This is just, like, a fact. But. While Aang knows Zuko knows that Aang is technically his grandfather, Aang doesn’t know if Zuko knows that Aang is technically his grandfather who was in an open relationship with Zuko’s grandmother and Zuko's other grandfather and other grandmother. Aang can’t stop thinking about how to find out if Zuko knows. It haunts him. He wakes in the night and tries to figure out a way to ask Zuko or tell him without making it weird but there’s! not! any! way! to! casually! bring! that! up!

[wallylinda]

Hi there! I'm new but I like your Flash thoughts :) I read your Flash TV show post and I noticed you mentioned mundanity as a theme. In a similar vein, if you could pick one concept that the Flash represents/symbolizes what would it be? (for example, people usually associate Superman with hope, Wonder Woman with truth, Green Lantern with will, etc.)

I think it depends on which Flash you're talking about.

Collectively, Flash comics have a running motif of legacy. The title itself has been passed down from Jay, to Barry, to Wally, and in the future, it'll go onto someone else. They hand over all of their hopes, dreams, and ambitions to the next generation in the hopes that they'll carry them out for them. Wally has a whole character arc about his trouble with living up to this legacy that Barry left behind for him because he's so scared of surpassing the man that his Uncle was. When Barry comes back from the dead, he comments on how Wally has far outstripped his own legacy and feels pride at the fact.

As for Jay, he's the first Flash. His creation was based on the myth of Hermes, and for a time, his powers came from that same god. He has the winged hat, the winged sandals. Hermes was the messenger of the gods, and the patron of travel, luck, language, etc. He was also a psychopomp god. You can make your assumptions and guesses from there.

For Barry, I really think of him as representing mundanity. He has these fantastical, universe-breaking powers, but at the very core of him is just some normal dude who wears boat shorts out in public and spit shines his shoes. He's reticent and awkward and withdrawn, but he's also head-over-heels in love with his wife, he's a fantastic mentor, and he's a good friend. I think that he represents all of the tiny, minuscule details of life that give us a reason to put one foot in front of the other, but that we can miss by rushing past the world so fast.

And finally, Wally. Wally's theme is about growth. He starts off as a somewhat cocky, idealistic kid with hero-worship the size of the sun, to a depressed teenager stuck in the past, both literally and figuratively, and then finally to a confident, powerful family man who's more than exceeded the expectations set upon his shoulders. Same with his side characters, too: Hartley, an ex-Rogue, becomes heavily involved in charity work for the homeless, and Linda, a known workaholic, exchanges some of her seriousness for Wally's lackadaisical attitude.

[theresabookforthat]

National Poetry Month Celebrates 25 Years!

Happy National Poetry Month – the largest literary celebration in the world! 2021 marks 25 years since the Academy of American Poets launched National Poetry Month in April, 1996. The choice of April was inspired by the first line of T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland”: “April is the cruellest month…”

Ushering in a new appreciation for the power of poetry is Amanda Gorman and her inaugural poem THE HILL WE CLIMB. Clearly, there’s no wasteland when it comes to poetry at Penguin Random House. Whether your proclivities are for free, blank or rhyming verse, lyrical poetry, prose poems, sonnets, elegies, odes… We’ve got it all! Here are just some of the astounding poets, a range of brilliant voices, we’ve published in the past year:

THE HILL WE CLIMB: AN INAUGURAL POEM FOR THE COUNTRY by Amanda Gorman; Foreword by Oprah Winfrey

Amanda Gorman’s powerful and historic poem “The Hill We Climb,” read at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, is now available as a collectible gift edition.

INDEX OF WOMEN by Amy Gerstler

From a “maestra of invention” (The New York Times) who is at once supremely witty, ferociously smart, and emotionally raw, a new collection of poems about womanhood.  Women’s voices, from childhood to old age, dominate this new collection of rants, dramatic monologues, confessions and laments. A young girl muses on virginity. An aging opera singer rages against the fact that she must quit drinking. A woman in a supermarket addresses a head of lettuce. The tooth fairy finally speaks out. Both comic and prayer-like, these poems wrestle with mortality, animality, love, gender, and what it is to be human.

GOD I FEEL MODERN TONIGHT: POEMS FROM A GAL ABOUT TOWN by Catherine Cohen

In these short, captivating lyrics, Catherine Cohen, the one-woman stand-up chanteuse who electrified the downtown NYC comedy scene in her white go-go boots, details her life on the prowl with her beaded bag; she ponders guys who call you “dude” after sex, true love during the pandemic, and English-major dreams. “I wish I were smart instead of on my phone,” Cat Cohen confides. A Dorothy Parker for our time, a Starbucks philosopher with no primary-care doctor, she’s a welcome new breed of everywoman—a larger-than-life best friend, who will say all the outrageous things we think but never say out loud ourselves.

FINNA: POEMS by Nate Marshall

Sharp, lyrical poems celebrating the Black vernacular—its influence on pop culture, its necessity for familial survival, its rite in storytelling and in creating the safety found only within its intimacy. Finna explores the erasure of peoples in the American narrative; asks how gendered language can provoke violence; and finally, how the Black vernacular, expands our notions of possibility, giving us a new language of hope:

AN INCOMPLETE LIST OF NAMES: POEMS by Michael Torres, Raquel Salas Rivera

An astonishing debut collection looking back on a community of Mexican American boys as they grapple with assimilation versus the impulse to create a world of their own. When Torres returns to his hometown to find the layers of spray-painted evidence he and his boyhood friends left behind to prove their existence have been washed away by well-meaning municipal workers, he wonders how to collect a list of names that could match the eloquent truths those bubbled letters once secured.

LEAN AGAINST THIS LATE HOUR by Garous Abdolmalekian, Idra Novey, Ahmad Nadalizade…

The first selection of poems by renowned Iranian poet Garous Abdolmalekian to appear in English, this collection is a mesmerizing, disorienting descent into the trauma of loss and its aftermath. In spare lines, Abdolmalekian conjures surreal, cinematic images that pan wide as deftly as they narrow into intimate focus. Time is a thread come unspooled: pain arrives before the wound, and the dead wait for sunrise.

OWED by Joshua Bennett

Bennett’s new collection, Owed, is a book with celebration at its center. Its primary concern is how we might mend the relationship between ourselves and the people, spaces, and objects we have been taught to think of as insignificant, as fundamentally unworthy of study, reflection, attention, or care. Spanning the spectrum of genre and form—from elegy and ode to origin myth—these poems elaborate an aesthetics of repair.

LITTLE BIG BULLY by Heid E. Erdrich

Little Big Bully begins with a question asked of a collective and troubled we – how did we come to this? In answer, this book offers personal myth, American and Native American contexts, and allegories driven by women’s resistance to narcissists, stalkers, and harassers. These poems are immediate, personal, political, cultural, even futuristic object lessons. Here, survivors shout back at useless cautionary tales with their own courage and visions of future worlds made well.

THE NIGHTFIELDS by Joanna Klink

A new collection from a poet whose books “are an amazing experience: harrowing, ravishing, essential, unstoppable” (Louise Glück)

ASYLUM: A PERSONAL, HISTORICAL, NATURAL INQUIRY IN 103 LYRIC SECTIONS by Jill Bialosky

Taken together, these piercing pieces—about the poet’s nascent calling as a writer; her sister’s suicide and its still unfolding aftermath; the horror unleashed by World War II; the life cycle of the monarch butterfly; and the woods where she seeks asylum—form a moving story, powerfully braiding despair, survival, and hope.

BLACK GIRL, CALL HOME by Jasmine Mans

This coming-of-age collection from spoken word poet Jasmine Mans presents unforgettable poetry about race, feminism, and queer identity. With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America—and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman.

COLLECTED POEMS by Sonia Sanchez

A literary event! Spanning four decades, here is a representative collection of the life work of the much-honored poet and a founder of the Black Arts movement. As Maya Angelou so aptly put it: “Sonia Sanchez is a lion in literature’s forest. When she writes she roars, and when she sleeps other creatures walk gingerly.”

 For more on these and other acclaimed poetry titles visit: National Poetry Month

Want a poem to arrive each day in your inbox for the month of April? Sign up for 

Knopf’s Poem-a-Day and be amazed! And visit The Academy of American Poets

 for more National Poetry Month activities, initiatives, and resources.

[dweetwise]

day 21: i don’t feel so well

prompt from: whumptober pairing: felix x ace notes: the hanahaki au nobody asked for. i’m still a little confused about the trope but i tried <3 warnings: descriptions of illness, injury and blood, temporary character death word count: 3130

“That was awesome! She didn't stand a chance!” Steve cheers.

“That's what she gets for camping. What a bitch!” Nea laughs

Ace grins despite the pain, steadying himself against Jeff's sturdy form while the four of them are making their way back to the campfire after a successful trial.

His head is swimming and there's blood staining his teeth, his back stinging from numerous bloody gashes from the killer's katana. But he's alive, even if he had to crawl out through the exit, his teammates not letting the Spirit secure the kill on him.

When they get back to camp, Steve and Nea are off to spin the tale of their rescue to the others, and Ace can't help but smile when they generously color the experience; just like he would.

Jeff supports him to sit down against one of the logs, offering a somewhat awkward "There you go, buddy" in encouragement.

Ace sees Quentin hand Claudette one of his med-kits and then the group's resident healer approaches him with determined steps.

“Hey, sweetheart—” Ace starts with a grin.

“Stalling isn't going to work,” Claudette shoots him down quickly, seeing right through his act. So Ace sighs dramatically and shrugs off his jacket, and the girl immediately hikes up his shirt to start cleaning the wounds on his back.

Ace hisses from the sting of some kind of alcohol, turning his attention back to the others to try to distract himself from the pain.

Most of the others are listening to to Steve's and Nea's story while the rest are scattered around camp, doing their own things. Kate is tuning her guitar, Jake is stocking one of his toolboxes, and Cheryl seems to be practicing the card trick Ace taught her a couple of days ago.

And then there's Felix.

Finally giving himself permission to look at the handsome German, Ace's heart immediately starts beating faster. He's not even doing anything, just sitting by the fire engrossed in a conversation with Zarina, but Ace is so infatuated even just Felix breathing is almost enough to make him blush.

He thought he was too old for schoolboy crushes like these, but then again how could he not fancy Felix? The guy has some absolutely god-tier genes, a chiseled face and ice blue eyes and a body to die for. He’s also smart, and sophisticated, and filthy rich.

And god knows none of those qualities had ever been Ace's strong suit.

At first Ace had thought his hyperfixation on the man was jealousy, but then his body showed him that was definitely not the case; he didn't want to be Felix, he wanted to be in Felix. The realization didn't phase him as much as it maybe should have, because even the straight-as-a-board Ash had commented on Felix's good looks. And Ace sure as hell wasn't even straight to begin with.

No, his panic had come from when he'd caught himself looking at couples like Jeff and Adam being mushy together and imagined himself and Felix in their place.

Ace had a healthy amount of confidence, though the others might not describe it that kindly, but he wasn't blind. Felix was younger than him, maybe not by an impossible amount but still enough to be noticeable. He was also model-tier gorgeous with a body to match, and while Ace wasn't bad-looking he also had a crooked nose and a build solely used for drinking and gambling.

All in all, he recognized when someone was out of his league, and even though he couldn't resist a cheeky flirt ever now and then, he knew his feelings would never be returned.

But he still allowed himself to look; sue him.

He's in the middle of an indulgent daydream about laying his head on Felix's lap like Kate is doing to Yui on the other side of camp, all the while effortlessly keeping up small talk with Claudette tending to his wounds.

And then he starts coughing.

It's not a normal dry cough, it wracks his entire body and keeps going, and he curls in on himself because damn it’s making his throat hurts and his lungs ache something fierce.

“Ace, what's wrong?” Claudette's worried voice cuts through the attack. He tries to reply but it just makes him cough more, and it's not stopping—

Something slimy lands in the palm he's using to cover his mouth and then he can breathe again, taking sharp gasps of air while his throat tingles from the abuse.

He looks at whatever piece of his organs he managed to cough up, the Spirit's blade probably having rearranged some of his guts. He opens his hand and sees—

A flower?

It's absolute covered in blood, but there's no mistaking it, a single flower sitting in the palm of his hand with some loose petals surrounding it.

Why did he cough up a flower? Where did he even get it? It looks like some sort of cherry blossom, a far cry from the Entity's pustulas or the forest bouquets they pick and use for offerings.

“Are you okay?" Claudette asks, moving to kneel beside him in worry. When she sees the flower, she gasps in surprise.

“What happened?” Meg is quick to join her friend, coming up behind Ace to peer over his shoulder. “Uh… did that flower come out of you?”

“I… guess so?” Ace says, his voice raspy and throat protesting being used.

“So you just, like… ate it? Before?” Steve cocks his head in confusion.

“Come on now, I'm not that stupid,” Ace snorts, some of his worry giving way to amusement over the incredulous situation.

“Then what the hell was that?” Meg asks, scrunching her face up in thought while poking at the gross flower.

“I’m pretty sure I know what’s wrong,” Adam raises his voice from across camp, straightening his back when all eyes turn to him. “It’s an illness, I recognize the symptoms."

“Can't say I've ever heard of a disease that makes you barf petals,” Ash offers, clearly skeptical, and Ace shares the sentiment.

“Shh, hear him out!” Laurie scolds.

"It's a Japanese folk story,” Adam explains. “Flowers start growing in a person's lungs, causing coughing and bleeding and..." he hesitates.

“Well?” Meg demands.

"And ultimately resulting in death, unless the condition is cured," Adam says grimly.

“Are you talking about hanahaki?” Yui pipes up before anyone can question the weird statement. “You know that's just a shojo manga trope, right?”

“It's also mentioned in historical literature,” Adam argues, though from the way he refuses to meet Yui's gaze, he seems to be embarrassed over the subject.

“Dude, nobody cares if you read girl comics, just tell us what the cure is,” Feng snorts, and that's probably the most concern Ace has ever seen her display over his well-being.

“It's—” Adam starts, before faltering, awkwardly scratching at his neck while looking at the ground. “Supposedly caused by unrequited love.”

There's dead silence in the camp.

And then Nea bursts out laughing.

“Jesus, what a story!” the tagger snickers. “Can you imagine Ace as a fairytale princess?”

“Honey, I think you might have gotten some myths mixed up,” Jeff says diplomatically, patting Adam's knee affectionately.

“Yeah, you probably just inhaled a flower in your sleep or something,” Steve encourages Ace.

“I'm pretty sure this is just a practical joke from our dear spidery overlord,” Ace chuckles and pointedly doesn't look Felix's way. Come next trial, his injuries will have healed anyway, including the weird burn in his lungs.

But they don’t.

Trial after trial, the Entity resurrects him and heals all of his wounds but the coughing persists, more and more flowers following.

Even the others are getting worried.

“That's it, bud,” Ash offers, patting his back while Ace is wheezing for breath after coughing up some more petals. “It's just a weird flu, you'll be good as new soon.”

“At least the flowers go with my shirt,” Ace jokes, voice reduced to a rasp, clearing his throat. “Pink was always my color.”

He's trying to keep his and the others' spirits high, since there doesn't seem to be anything they can do to fix the situation.

“We need to do something,” Ace hears Laurie hiss to Dwight, apparently disagreeing with his sentiment.

“B-but how can we even help him?” their leader, bless his heart, looks genuinely upset over Ace's condition.

“Maybe we should try Adam's suggestion," Laurie says.

“Yeah, except you know he wouldn’t tell us even if he did like someone,” Yui huffs from beside them. “Good luck getting an answer out of a compulsive liar.”

Ouch, but also fair. Ace sure as hell isn't going to reveal his dumb little crush, especially since Felix has avoided him since this entire goddamn flower thing started. He knows there's only a slim chance that Felix realizes what's really going on, but it still feels like rejection nonetheless.

He can deal with this. Even if it kills him, the Entity will just bring him back anyway. It's not even that bad.

But then it gets so much worse.

After a week, Ace is laying on his side while black spots dance around in his vision and he struggles to draw enough wheezy breaths into his lungs. His chest hurts, and his throat is so sore even just the air passing through burns like fire. He hasn't been able to speak in days, and that's almost worse than the pain, not being able to use his only coping mechanism of running his mouth until something sticks to lighten the mood.

His head is cushioned on Kate's thigh and he gets a tiny bit of satisfaction from the knowledge that at least he managed to lay in one pretty blonde's lap before dying, even if it’s the wrong one. The touch is comforting nonetheless, though the fact that it’s accompanied by Kate's girlfriend practically screaming in his ear kind of puts a damper on the whole thing.

“I swear to god, I will make every single person in this camp kiss you, do not test me,” Yui threatens, one of the few who haven't given up on curing him. “Is it Jane? Bill?”

If Ace had the energy, he'd probably laugh about her choices, curious as to why those two were the ones she picked. As it stands, he merely stares at her, wondering if his eyes look as dull and lifeless as he feels.

“He's going to die,” Jake says from somewhere to his side, but Ace doesn't even bother turning his head or denying the statement. Hurried voices shush the saboteur while Kate starts humming a melody to distract him, Yui glaring absolute daggers in Jake’s general direction.

His next trial, Jake's prediction comes true.

Ace collapses to the ground in the midst of a coughing fit. The flowers are growing even bigger now, he can feel them tearing at his throat and vocal cords, retching when they trigger his gag reflex on their way out. His vision blurs and then goes black, body finally giving up as the illness consumes him.

He's not even injured from the killer, but the pool of blood he falls into is big enough to cover the entire side of his face. He lays there, not sure if he's even breathing, just thankful that the awful coughing has stopped for at least a moment.

When he comes to, he expects the small comfort of the campfire before he has to go through the same thing again. Instead, he doesn't have enough energy to even open his eyes, slowly realizing he's still in the trial.

It takes him even longer to realize he's being held partly off of the ground, his body hanging limply in someone’s grasp. He idly wonders if a killer is going to mercy hook him, but then he hears something.

Crying.

Focusing on the sound, Ace realizes he's not just being lifted, he's being held in someone's arms. Someone is holding his near-dead body and crying.

With both his mind and body broken from suffering for so long, he allows himself to imagine it's Felix, even though he knows it's not true. Felix has shown he doesn't care, not talking to him and being so grossed out by his symptoms he’s barely even looked at him—

“Das tut mir leid,” is whispered against his hair, and Ace wonders if he's hallucinating or if his brain has given up on speech comprehension, because that sounded an awful lot like German.

Suddenly, he gains some of his strength back, his chest not feeling nearly as tight as it has for the past few days.

“Felix?” Ace asks, and even though it comes out as a raspy whisper, it's impossible to miss in the stillness of the quiet moment. The surprised hitch of breath he gets in response sounds impossibly loud, and he manages to blink awake just enough to see the tear-streaked, wide-eyed face of the person he never thought he could have.

And that's when the Entity decides he's bled on the ground long enough and he blacks out from blood loss.

When Ace comes to, he's no longer in pain. He can breathe. And he wants nothing more than to get back to camp and be reassured that he wasn't imagining Felix being there for him in his final moments.

He runs to the campfire, panting from exertion once he's illuminated by the familiar glow and shocked faces turn to look at him.

“What the—did you run here!?” Meg exclaims incredulously.

“Yeah,” Ace says, eyes scanning the small crowd of familiar faces, so focused on finding a particular one he doesn't even realize the implications of managing to speak without issue.

“Your voice!” Kate exclaims happily, and Ace pauses to collect some of his thoughts.

“Shit, you're right,” he says, a smile tugging on his lips for the first time in what feels like weeks.

“Welcome back, you bastard!” Nea cheers and flings herself at him in a sideways hug, and Ace stumbles to catch himself from falling, chuckling at her antics.

Claudette is sobbing, looking impossibly relieved, and the others are cheering among themselves, though Ace can't make out the contents because he sees a familiar figure making its way to camp and his entire world zones in on that person.

Felix looks up at the sound of the commotion, and Ace's heart breaks a little over how puffy his eyes still look, but then their eyes meet and Felix looks so hopeful—

“Hey,” Ace says, and it probably gets drowned out by the others, but Felix's eyes widen in recognition and he starts walking faster.

“Are you…?” Felix asks, close enough for Ace to hear him over the others shouting.

“He's fixed!” Nea answers for him, finally letting go of the almost painful hug in favor of smacking Ace on the back encouragingly.

Felix glances at Nea but quickly looks back at Ace, waiting for confirmation.

“Yeah, I… guess I'm cured,” Ace says, and it almost feels weird to hear his own voice again. “Or... You know, I hope so.”

Because he's still not sure about Felix's feelings, and he has no idea where they're going to go from here.

But he doesn't need to worry, because Felix's face lights up in a way he's never seen before, letting out a disbelieving, genuine laugh. And then he's stepping forward and cupping his cheek and Ace only has time to blink in confusion before his head is tilted up into a kiss.

“Woah,” Ace hears Nea exclaim, her hand leaving his back like burned. “This, uh… this is new.”

Ace smiles into the kiss and tunes out the rest of her and the others’ surprised babbling, grabbing Felix by the collar of his dress shirt and pulling him deeper into the kiss.

When neither of them are making a move to pull away, their friends seem to be getting fidgety from the show.

“Why don’t we go for a stroll in the woods?” Kate suggests, and the chorus of “Sure!” “Great idea!” and “Oh fuck yes get me out of here” that follow are enough for a laugh to bubble up in Ace’s throat and get swallowed by Felix’s mouth.

When the last pair of footsteps have hurried away, Felix deems it appropriate to finally break away from the kiss. Though he doesn’t go far, burying his head into the crook of Ace’s neck and shoulder and wrapping his arms around him in a tight hug.

“Welcome back,” Felix murmurs against his skin, and the warm affection spreading through Ace’s chest is a welcome change from the constant pain he’s been in for way too long.

“Didn’t expect such a thorough welcome,” Ace can’t resist flirting, hands sneaking up to rest on Felix’s incredibly firm back. The chuckle he gets in return reverberates through both of their bodies due to how close they are, and Ace wonders if Felix can hear his heart frantically beating in excitement.

“I’m… shit,” Felix eventually sighs, lifting his head to meet Ace’s eyes. “I don’t know how to make up for being an idiot. I just watched you suffer and didn’t know what to do.”

“It’s okay,” Ace says, but now he’s curious. “Why did you avoid me?”

“Because I was afraid that I'd get the illness too,” Felix says, looking at the ground in shame. “I thought any one of us could get it, and because of how I feel about you… I was scared I was next.”

The confirmation that Felix had feelings for him even before this whole clusterfuck started is enough to make more butterflies dance in Ace’s gut, a flush creeping up his neck over how the other is openly spilling his heart.

“If I’d have known I was the one causing it, I would have done something sooner. I’m so sorry," Felix murmurs, looking at him with sad puppy eyes.

“Hey, it's not like I was being very cooperative,” Ace points out, giving his most encouraging smile. “It's not your fault, it's the dumb flower sickness.”

“I'm sorry you had to go through that, regardless,” Felix frowns. “But… I'm glad it lead us here,” he adds with a bashful smile that makes Ace’s heart do a couple leaps.

“Figures the best and worst things of my life would happen simultaneously,” Ace flirts, and apparently Felix enjoys being called the best thing in his life, because his sappy smile widens even further.

Ace can’t resist diving in for another taste, capturing smiling lips in a kiss that lasts even longer than the first one and makes their friends groan and complain about “Geez, you’re still going?” when they rejoin them at the campfire.

[a-reasonforthoughts]

My thoughts on the Rise of Skywalker, because quarantine forced me to finally watch it. !!!!Spoilers!!!!!

Growing up, Star Wars was my childhood. My sisters and I read all the books (including the comics) and we packed the Essential Guides with us everywhere. Because for our deep love of the Extended universe, when the last few movies came out we had... mixed emotions. I didn’t even see the last movie when it came out after hearing some less than stellar reviews. So here’s my review, or rather my reactions to the Rise of Skywalker. (Yes, I actually sat down with paper and pen and watched this movie.) Title craw: The DIABOLICAL First Order.

‘The Emperor has returned.’ Wow, the are expecting us to go along with a lot aren’t they.

Cool. Kylo wrecking everything.

Yay, a planet that isn’t snow, desert, or forest. Hold on tight kids, they’re throwing us right into this one. We’re already at Palpatine’s house.   Ew. Whats with the tank?

Whoa eyes! What’s up with his lips? Can someone bring this fossil a drink?

Imperial March playing while a Star Destroyer rises in the back ground. Is this Vader’s old ship? Rey is “Not who we thought she is.” Thought she was “Nothing”?

Ew, what is Klaud, and why is he here?

Who are all these people on the Falcon? “How do we thank you?” “Win the war.” aren’t you all on the same team? Why do you need to thank him? Cool, another planet thats not snow, desert, or a forest. Never mind.

Oh great, Rey’s here.  Looks like the Lightsaber is fixed.  I know the names of a bunch of these plants! When Luke was training with the ball thing (Training remote) he was just trying to deflect the shots. Rey’s trying to take down the whole forest. 

You sure you want to destroy that thing Rey? There can’t be to many of them laying around Who are all these people? Why’s the Falcon on FIRE?! Since when is “Light-speed skip” a thing? Seriously. Who are all these people? I thought after the last movie there was only like, 10 of them left. Hey! It’s Merry from Lord of the Rings!

What’s this old orange doing here?

“Sith Way-finder” Sigh. Are Poe and Rey a “thing”? Are Finn and Rey a “thing”? Why’s everyone here but R2? There he is. Why did they not bring him?!

Now I’m watching a Planet of the Apes crossover.

That guy who was on the same team is dead now. His blood is clear so the rating doesn't go up. Well, Hux is certainly different.

Someone must have taken his hair gel because his hair was never this poofy before.   Is this a Holi Festival, or Burning man.

Why are we learning the name of this random kid? Rey just walked away from her, what was that? Yay! The force link is still there!

Kylo is giving off stalker vibes. It’s nice to see him growing into his role of Supreme Leader. Looks like everyone hates him. Wait- Who is this guy?! Why are they following a stranger!

It’s LANDO Oh, so Rey know’s who Lando is, but thought Luke was a myth. Makes sense. Boom. First order is here.

Lando: “My flying days are over.” Why? “Give Leia my love.” Ew.  Wait, why is Lando out here? Did Luke just leave him? He said he came here with him. Has the emotional issues of being abandoned by Luke led him to never fly again? Is this a parallel story to Rey’s abandonment? What’s the motive here movie!  They made it even harder for these Storm Troopers to see out of those helmets.

3PO is getting a lot of lines. Rey *is distracted* Ship *Blows up*  Now they have sinking sand. WAS THAT ALMOST A CONFESSION?! This guy just says, “The Falcon is not responding.” when asked, and they’re like “Don’t be such a downer!” Oh yay, they survived.  Kay, we’re just brushing over Finn’s almost confession. I’m sure they’ll come back to that later. *Cough* Okay, that flashlight bit was funny. 

How do you know that’s the guy you’re looking for? That could be anybody’s skeleton! How’d they find a knife that neither Luke, or Lando (who might have been here for 20 years) could find!  Rey’s making friend’s with the basilisk.

She just transferred some of her life force to the snake! Why!? This old ship they found in the desert still works. “Chewie, tell Rey we got to go!” Why can’t you do it? You’re not doing anything. Axe. Here comes lover boy.  How to Breathe, the movie, by Rey.

Trailer shot.

Was he just gonna run her over?

Cool, she’s pulling the ship out of the sky. Uh oh, helmet’s off, there goes her focus.

Now they’re playing tug-a-war with the ship. It’s the light saber fight all over again.  Whoa!!! She juST LIGHTING’D THE SHIP! Kylo Looked freaked out for a second! She just told Finn she had a vision of her and Kylo together, and he looks like he’s gonna cry. 3PO tells them how horrible and dangerous it is to override a droid’s programming. “Let’s do that!” That droid looks like a yoga wheel and a hairdryer. 

Rey to the new droid: “Someone treated him badly. It’s alright, you’re with us now.” Yeah, just don’t watch what we’re about to do to this other droid.

Looks like we’re adding another girl to this love triangle (hexagon?) She’s not supposed to be a Mandalorian is she. (So help me-) I hate you and I’m going to turn you in *Hit’s her over the head and pulls out a lightsaber* Okay, lets go.

Why they so mad at Poe for being a smuggler?  Wow. They are forcing C-3PO to do this. Backup his memory to the hairdryer! It’s got to have a reason for being here! C-3PO “Oh! I just had an idea of something else we could try-” ZAP!  ...Was that supposed to be funny? These writers need to learn what humor is, and when to use it. Why are we focusing on Poe and his old girlfriend the Power Ranger? Wah! What’s up with 3PO’s eye’s? Is he a Sith droid now? Why does he have that function?!

Rey, you’re boyfriend’s here. They wiped 3PO’s memory and he doesn’t know who anyone is, but he’s still polite. Poe angrily points “That’s gonna be a problem!” Our heroes ladies and gentleman. I hope the First Order just blast them. That Admiral’s badge just let them in? Like no one reported that missing?? Wiped 3PO’s memory and they’re getting the dagger anyway. Worst rescue ever. 

Vaders Helmet has had a hard life. Rey has a vision in every scene she's in.

More ‘Rey’s family history’ with Kylo “Tell me where you are,” She’s in your room dude.

R.IP. Vader Helmet

That Stormtrooper behind Kylo must be so confused.  *Sees helmet, breaks link*  “She’s in my quarters!” Told you so. Why is Hux the spy? When did this happen? What does he think the outcome of this will be?

3PO just wandering the halls with a crossbow. 

“You are a Palpatine.” Wanna be a Solo? Is this like his fourth proposal? OooooOOOOooo, that was cool! Kylo standing in the blast of the Falcon’s engines was a moment we needed!

Yikes! They took out Hux fast! They didn’t want to question him or anything? No?

The Death Star was blasted to smithereens, why is it here? How is it here?

They made that dagger to line up with the wreckage? I’m pretty sure things that are constantly beat by the ocean will move or erode over time. Who even made that? What was the purpose?!

Yay, another scavenger  Who’s also a ex-Stormtrooper, because why not.

That’s a horse covered in a rug. Rey’s out trying to kill herself again.

“There’s another Skimmer!” Wonder who that is. He is literally following her to the ends of the galaxy. 

Wait- The throne rooms still in one piece?! The chair and everything?!!! Dark Rey- YIKES! TEETH

I thought he stopped the holocron with his foot, I was really surprised when fingers formed and he picked it up.

Kylo acting so cool as she’s trying to slash him to ribbons. I see Merry again! Wait- What’s Leia got to do? And why does Maz know? They’ve never explained what this strange orange is and what she can do.

Finn’s in deep- Wait how'd he get out here?????

Leia don’t distract your son while he’s fighting for his life!

SEE!!!!!!!

“I wanted to take your hand. Ben’s hand.” You think he’s going to leave you alone after that?

Why is Rey just a total mess in every movie.

Chewie mourning Leia is a good touch. It’s nice to see the reaction of someone who ACTUALLY knew her.  Whoa! They got Harrison Ford to come back! That must have taken a lot of bribery (or blackmail).

Has almost dying given Kylo/Ben the power to see non-Force user ghost, or is he just going nuts? So this is just a rehash of Han’s death scene. 

Aw, he called him Dad- Hey don’t throw that away, you need that!

He’s nuts. Those red helmets look stupid. Aaaaand it’s the Death Star again Merry in the background! Why’d they make Poe the General? Lando finally got off that planet 

“General.” “General.” She’s burning his ship. Good luck Kylo/Ben.

You know how hot that fire has got to be to burn metal “A Jedi weapon should be treated with more respect.” You brat.

Why did he have Leia’s lightsaber here? “...it would be picked up again, by someone who would finish her journey.” Oooookay, but why not just have her take Luke’s old Saber? It’s gotta be laying around here somewhere.

I know it’s symbolic and all that he’s raising the x-wing, but there’s no way that thing still works.

Alright, 3PO’s memories are back. Why’d we have to go through all that? I spy Merry again! How does Poe know all this stuff about Exogol? He’s just a fountain of information over here!

“Now we take the war to them!” That’s literally what you’ve done every movie ever No one is questioning how Lando got here. Isn’t this a secret base? *Dr. Evil voice* ONE MILLION STAR DESTROYERS 

Who even wrote this story line? Finn’s going with his gut and everyones just going along with it. Not like you could all die or anything. They brought the rug horses with them

How are they breathing in space!? Those red troopers still look stupid.

What’s this crowd chanting? Are they speaking Parseltoungue?  “I never wanted you dead.” That’s why I told Kylo Ren to kill you.

Hang on- his plan is ‘You be the empress, and I’ll just possess you. Grandaughter.’  EW. Why would she want that? How is that a tempting offer? Someone’s gone senile. Direct quote: “I got to go do something!” “I’m coming with you!” Why do these people get attached so quickly?! 

“Luke was saved by his father. The only family you have here is me.” Yeah, but I got a boyfriend who follows me everywhere!

Ben runs and jumps: “Ow.” We finally get to see the Knight’s of Ren in action! (Where have they been this whole time?) “Once you kill me I shall become apart of you!” So she could just, not kill him. Right? Oh yeah, here we go, now we got a showdown!

Well, that was anticlimactic 

WHAT IS HAPPENING Poe just realized he's the worst General ever.

YO. Don’t tell your troops there is no hope! What is wrong with you??? Why isn't Lando the General? He is a lot more qualified!!!

Wait a minute!! Where were all these people when LEIA ORGANA called for help????

Wedge Antilles!!!!!! So all the life force sucking was just so Palpatine could up grade his outfit? *Flings Ben into a pit* Palpatine is so done with the Skywalkers Hey, I know these voices!!!! Aaaaand now he wants to kill her. So whats our big moment? TWO lightsabers! 

Why did the make that the big epic moment? Why didn’t they have Ben run over and they do it together- It would have been perfect for his story arch! Rey: “And we” Together: “are all the Jedi!” Now she's dying. Why? Not even the writers know So Finn’s Force sensitive. Cool I guess? This is a really touching moment for them, even more so if they did anything other than fight this entire movie!

This kinda feels out of nowhere

I’M SO MAD RIGHT NOW

NOW SHE’S SMILING AND FINE. HE JUST DIED Merry’s here again and I can’t even be happy about it Now Finn has to chose between Rose and the new girl  Poe’s trying to start something with his Power Ranger old flame, and she's like “Not a chance.” Now everything’s all happy like BEN DIDN’T JUST DIE. ARE WE NOT GOING TO ADDRESS THIS?????????? Oh hey, it’s the Lars farm. Nobody else moved in after all these years? Now she's burying the Skywalker lightsabers in the place they all hated.

WHY IS BEN NOT HERE!!!!!!! HE WAS A MAIN CHARACTER FOR THESE MOVIES AND THEY DID HIM DIRTY!!!!!!

Well I guess they had to wrap this mess up somehow

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt.9

Sipping his glass of wine, Lance sat at his dining table. Poor Hunk had been overwhelmed in making sure every detail of the meal was perfect for Shay. Pidge had driven Shay out to his house, she’d immediately started complaining that her security system was offline, and had left to fulfil her quest in getting it back up and running. Shay was in the living room with Hunk, Lance volunteering Hunk to give Shay the grand tour of his house. Lance was left with Shiro for company, his eyes trained on the man’s back as Shiro kept checking his chicken soup. With everyone there, it seemed pointless to go ahead and feed Keith separately. Shiro was making his brother socialise, probably to make sure he didn’t expire from being a baby. Lance had the feeling he’d missed something between Keith and Shiro, their bond deep, but Keith seemed off. Like he hadn’t expected Shiro to take mercy on his undead arse. Did it have something to do with Shiro’s nose? There was definitely a story there.

“Lance, I can feel your eyes on me”

“What happened to your face?”

Whoops. That slipped out, zero filter between his mouth and mind

“Is that something that interests you?”

“If I’m honest, I’m more curious than interested. I’m also curious as to why you’re acting the way you are”

“Patience yields focus. I learned that the hard way, and got this scar for using my heart instead of my head”

Lance sighed. Matters of the heart were always complicated

“Before you continue, I’ve got a confession. I’ve never been in love, let alone had a partner. I can’t offer any advice there, but I can listen”

Shiro glanced over his shoulder

“You’ve never...”

“Nope...”

Lance popped the “p”, Shiro was listening to him, so he may as well admit his lameness out loud

“... I never wanted to take the risk. Being what I am is a curse. I never fed from a human and I never slept with one either. I guess it’s stupid, but I always maybe hoped that one day I’d have that kind of love, but I refuse to risk ruining someone’s life like mine was. You know?”

“I do. This isn’t that kind of love. I had a friend who got himself in trouble. He met a girl and fell in love, she was a werewolf, and Matt wouldn’t leave her to her fate. He was the one who introduced me to this world. It’s funny, when I was about your age we came through Garrison. Me, Matt, and his father. Back then the mobile coverage was poor, we ended up out of contact for a week... Matt’s mother and his little sister really laid into us when we got back”

Any mother would. Who just went missing for a week, and why the heck hadn’t the father called through on a pay phone on the way? Talk about irresponsible

“Shiro, I’m sorry to say, I’m older than you. I’m not 18, and I’m not 26”

“Right. Sorry. I forget that. There’s a lot of things about you that remind me of Keith”

“You said Keith had been through something. Was it to do with your friend?”

“No... No, that one’s a little closer to home. I had a partner, and it didn’t end well”

“Oh”

Talk about being insensitive. Lance felt he should be apologising for whatever had happened to Shiro’s partner. Clearly it wasn’t something good.

“I left him for a hunt, he was killed while I was away. Keith didn’t take it well. He had a hard life, but don’t hold that against him”

“He seems a little high strung”

“You have no idea. He carries the weight of sins that weren’t his to carry”

“Them feels right there. Shiro, can I ask you something?”

“You haven’t already?”

Lance bit his lip, looking down at his hands. The question he wanted to ask seemed like too big of a favour. No. He’d ask Coran, but Coran was bound by as many rules and laws as Shiro was

“Never mind. It’s fine. Just... your friend, Matt... he was really lucky to meet you. Living on outside... it’s hard. I’m sure having a friend he could count on helped”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. She bit him, turned him, and left. The last thing I heard he was travelling to find himself and find a cure”

“And her?”

“He said she didn’t mean to turn him. She left him with her heart broken, breaking his as she went. I don’t know her well enough to pass judgement. Like a vampire’s bite turns a person, a single scratch from a werewolf can too”

Lance shook his head. A bite maybe, with saliva, a scratch not so much

“I’ve met werewolves. It’s all about the blood. Your friend would have had to ingest her blood... I think. I try to avoid werewolves. It’s not my business to say anything. Sorry, just forget that I mentioned it”

“You’re trying to understand”

“It’s been 36 years and I still don’t. We should start setting the table. The others will be back soon”

“Need help?”

Lance raised an eyebrow. Shiro seemed semi domesticated, he’d probably had a hundred fancy dinners back with the other Blades

“You know how to set a table?”

“I know how to imitate setting a table. I do get a bit confused with all the fancy knives and forks”

“That’s easy, you start from the outside in. I bet Keith’s all like “I only need one knife and one fork, let me eat like a Barbarian”

Shiro chuckled

“Pretty much. I don’t think he’d use cutlery if he could get away with it”

“Great. He’s a cave man with a mullet. Fantastic”

*

Keith was coaxed out his room by Shiro, sullenly sitting across the table from Lance on the opposing end. Shiro seated beside Pidge, with Hunk and Shay sitting on the opposite side. Dinners at his house were always loud events. Pidge had piled her plate high, armed with a just a fork like the heathen she was, she was all smiles. She’d really taken a liking to Shiro, maybe because she was talking the man’s ear off

“I never thought you’d be here again. It’s a good thing you left your camera here. Anywhere else and it probably would have grown legs and walked”

Shiro laughed as he grabbed himself a bread roll

“Hunk said the same. We’re lucky Lance is such an inviting host. Normally we’re too busy to sit down for dinner like this”

Stuffing her face with lettuce, Pidge nodded, the bond between her and Shiro already felt like two siblings reuniting.

Chewing quickly, Pidge was stabbing at her stuffed potato before she swallowed her lettuce. For someone who required oxygen, she seemed to forget that with the speed at which she ate

“Yep. Hunk’s got mad kitchen skills. Lance isn’t bad. Don’t tell my parents, but dinner here is much better than home”

“Speaking of your parents, what do they do?”

“Mum and dad are both professors in Platt. Mum insists on big family dinners, Italian background and all that. I don’t know why though, since my brother took off, it’s just the three of us at home for them”

Shiro nodded along as she spoke

“So you have a brother?”

“Yep. His names Matt. Matthew Holt if mum’s in a mood. Full names always mean trouble. He’s been backpacking through Europe. Apparently he’s too good to contact us now”

Shiro choked hard on the piece of bread he’d just popped in his mouth. Quickly washing it down with his beer, Lance observed the very obvious change in his demeanour

“Matthew Holt... hang on, are you Katie?”

It was Pidge’s turn to choke. No one but Pidge’s mother ever called her Katie

“How do you know that?”

“I know your brother. I’m Shiro. Takashi Shirogane”

Pidge’s eyes went so wide it was comical, gaping at the man sitting next to her

“You’re Shiro! Holy fucking shit! No way!”

Across the table, Hunk looked to Lance, then to Shiro, then to Pidge, then to Shiro again

“Care to share?”

“Shiro was Matt’s best friend. Do you remember that road trip I told you about? Where Matt and dad totally went missing, Shiro was there too! Holy shit, man! It’s been... what? 5 years?

For Lance the revelation made his stomach drop. Matt... Matt as in Pidge’s Matt, was a werewolf. A turned werewolf. A turned werewolf that was distancing himself from his family in the hopes of a cure...

“8, since I last saw you”

Pidge let out a whistle

“Holy shit. Does Matt know you’re here? Like, in town? Dude, they were like besties in high school. Shiro and Matt were always off chasing ghosts, they wouldn’t take me with them though”

“We never did find any proof”

Dirty rotten liar. Shiro never should have said he knew Matt. He should understand what it mean to have someone that wasn’t human in the family, someone naive enough to think there could be a possible cure out there. “Everything on the planet had been gifted by God. Everything on the planet had a cure waiting to be found. It was through God that all things were made possible”. His Mami had told him that, she didn’t have an answer as to if God still loved him. A naive child’s question. Pidge pushed her chest out, sitting a little prouder

“That’s because you didn’t have me. Seriously, have you heard from him? It’s like he’s dropped off the face of the planet. He said he was going to Rome, but that was weeks ago”

“I haven’t heard from him in a little while either. I never thought the little Katie I remember in dresses would be you”

“I never thought Matt’s best friend would be showing up with a scar across his face! Mum would flip her lid if she saw that”

“Would you believe it came from fighting a werewolf?”

Pidge laughed openly

“Only if you believe I’m a ghoul, come to feast on your flesh!”

“I’ll keep that in mind. So, now I know about Pidge, what about you, Hunk? How goes the world of a paranormal investigator?”

Hunk was too busy making “lovey“ eyes at Shay. Pidge happy to continue talking to Shiro

“Hunk’s my wingman. It’s awesome because his dad lets us use the welding gear at the garage. We don’t have the money to buy all the fancy equipment so we build what we can”

“Really? What out of?”

“Car scraps mostly...”

“You do know ghosts are repelled by iron...”

Pidge gaped at Shiro, Lance wished he’d stop feeding her curiosity in the subject

“That are? I read that was a myth”

“Yep. Iron. Have you done any road trips cryptid hunting?”

“Yep! Mothman was a must. We did that one the first year of college. Lance was the only one with his own car at the time. Took us days to get out there, then he got bogged. We did the whole Sasquatch thing too. Not to shoot it, because that’d totally be a dick move, but to take a look around. I keep trying to tell Lance he needs to open his mind and believe more. I mean, even the bible references spirits and tells us no to play with them. And God admits he’s not the only god out there... There’s so many myths and legends, they all have to come from somewhere. But there’s also soooooo much crap out there, and then there’s mistranslations, and people interpreting things their own way... I just wanna hunt ghosts”

“Oh, no. You went and set her off, Shiro”

Shay giggled, Pidge shooting her a dirty look

“You’re supposed to be on my side”

“I am. I’m just saying that there’s no way a whole other world could exist just beyond our fingertips. If there was, science would have proven it. They say all these psychic videos exist that prove people like that exist, but, like, where’s the videos? Why are they hushing it up if it’s the next stage of human evolution. I think it’s even harder these days. The lines have been blurred with cultural misappropriation, and dumb people only wanting to steal stuff because they’re greedy morons. Like, if you’re not Native American, you can’t sage a room, and you shouldn’t be making and labelling any old thing a dreamcatcher, you dig?”

Lance nodded at Shay. In an ever changing world, some things remained. Like stupid people were always going to be stupid

“It’s always the quiet types. They open their mouths and out comes something unexpected”

“I happen to like the way Shay thinks”

Hunk jumped to Shay’s defence like he thought Pidge was insulting her, not impressed and pleased with Shay’s answer

“Aw, I like the way you think too, babe”

Shay winked at Hunk, who went bright red

“T-Thanks”

“You’re welcome. Tell me more about the work you guys do. I’ve always kind of wanted to see it first hand. Do you use a ouija board?”

“Nope. Those things are dangerous we fuck. You can’t control what you reach, nor can you send them back safely. We like to go in and record. See, if a spirit reacts right away, it means they want you out of there like ASAP. Most spirits hide themselves, that’s why you don’t get good readings. I mean, like, if a stranger rocked up at your house, you’re gonna wanna hide from them, am I right?”

“I guess?”

Pidge beamed, before launching into further details about her thoughts on the paranormal world. Lance felt sick. His stomach somewhere near his toes. Shiro had burdened him with a secret he shouldn’t have known. Pidge loved Matt but Matt was no longer the man she loved. She was so eager to be part of that world, she’d let herself be bitten if she ever knew the truth. Matt was doing all he could to keep his family safe from by staying away. He knew those feelings too well, and the internal wounds of being turned felt like as fresh as they did that day. He could almost feel the fangs on his flesh, here the laughter as blood was drizzled into his mouth. Waves of pain so intense they crushed the pain of his sires beating the shit out of him for fun. He’d screamed and begged, cried for his Mami and Papi, only to be openly laughed at. His stomach heaved, vomit barely swallowed back down. Pidge’s voice seemed to echo around his aching head as if she was equiped with a microphone and a thousand speakers.

“Lance, buddy, you okay?”

Smile. He had to smile. This was Hunk and Shay’s night. They were finally going to start dating. Absolutely nothing could go wrong. He smiled at Hunk, picking his wine glass up in what he hoped was a casual move

“Sure, just a bit tired from this flu”

Lance hoped he was smiling enough. His complexion was most probably horrid. He should have slapped a layer on foundation on to give him a much healthier glow

“Are you sure? You’ve gone really white”

“Buddy, light of my life, brother from another mother, I swear you worry far too much about little old me. I’m okay. Honestly I started zoning out as Pidge got carried away with her theories again”

Beneath the table, Pidge kicked him in the ankle

“Rude, much? Shiro’s interested, aren’t you Shiro?”

Shiro scratched the back of his head

“Totally. But, you lost me when you switched to alien encounters”

Pidge wrinkled her face up in annoyance, the pout was strong as she crossed her arms

“You all suck. Except for you Shay”

Shay giggled

“I know, I’m awesomeness embodied”

“You’ve got that right”

Hunk clamped a hand over his face, blushing beet red. Shay giggled again, leaning in and kissing him on the cheek

“I can always count on you, Hunk. So, Lance, have you got any embarrassing stories about these two you can share?”

“Well, the first thing that comes to mind is when we went hunting Mothman...”

Pidge shot forward in her seat

“Don’t you dare!”

“It’s more cute than embarrassing...”

“Lance, I swear I’ll stab you in the eyeball if you keep going”

Shay threw her head back as she laughed. Lance locked eyes with Pidge

“See, Pidge was super excited. So excited that she...”

Pidge raised her knife, Lance holding his hands up in surrender

“I guess I better not finish that”

Pidge had been so excited that she’s gone running off, slipped in a puddle, fallen face first in the mud with her beloved video camera. She’d been so pumped for the trip she’d packed everything but clothes. They’d had to buy really lame gimmicky clothes from the closest service station which had swum on her small frame

“Good boy”

“Damn, Lance. She’s got you trained”

Lance nodded at Shay

“Our little gremlin here can be pretty intimidating when she wants to be”

“I’ll bet”

“You should see her when she hasn’t had her morning coffee”

“I can imagine the horror”

“I don’t think you can. It’s like Satan has risen from the depths of hell to possess her”

Shay kept laughing, Hunk was so smitten with her that Lance wanted to grab them both by the backs of their heads and make them kiss

“Oh no!”

Pidge blew a raspberry at him, not enjoying his teasing

“Merp!”

“Merp, yourself. You know you’re not the greatest person ever in the morning, but we all love you just the way you are”

“I hate you. Why do I hang out with you again?”

“Because you need someone who can drive and lug all your junk around”

Pidge sighed dramatically

“Dammit. Stupid fine print. You know, I can’t deny that”

“Yep. Guess you’re stuck with me”

“Until your uses run out”

Lance pouted, clutching at his chest

“I’m wounded. Years of devoted friendship and this is how you treat me”

“Gotta be mean and keep’em keen”

“Don’t think I won’t remember this. To very last breath I’ll remember how you wounded me”

Pidge snorted with laughter, he loved it when she finally cracked. It was worth all the teasing

“You’re suck a dork”

Lance shot her finger guns, not feeling the least bit better internally

“Takes one to know one”

[dailyfantastic]

IT’S ONLY FOREVER: THE ETERNALS RECAP PART 3

LEFT BEHIND: THE ETERNALS ISSUE 3

When you’re setting up your own mythology--you know, your own pantheon of gods and demigods and demons, or I guess your own pantheon of Celestials and Eternals and Deviants--it takes time. Case in point: we’re three issues into Eternals and Jack Kirby is still giving exposition. We’ve yet to have a real fight, or any real character growth, or anything like that. We do, however, have more lore dumps.

Depicted: Arishem, like all Celestials, is badass. We can agree on that.

Now if you’re like me, and you love rules, you think this is terrific. Please, tell me more about how Ajak’s atoms were stored inside a cube for hundreds of years so that he could one day jump out and be an airport landing control man for space gods. Please, please, I want to hear all about the destruction formula printed on Arishem’s thumb. Please, please, please, tell me about more biblical myths that were actually solved by Ikaris just flyin’ around.

Depicted: the official shirt of all Eternals fans

You know, it’s probably not just me. All audiences probably love rules and long exposition, so I know we’re all very excited for at least thirty minutes of Marvel’s next big franchise to be devoted to explaining what the Deviants are.

Heck, just call me Professor Daniel Damien because I too might seal myself in an Inca tomb for 50 years just so I can learn everything about the Celestials.

Yeah...

...that happens in this issue. You see, Margo’s father knows the only purpose in his life is to learn about the Celestials, so he opts to abandon his daughter and everyone he’s ever known to help Ajak be a flight controller from inside a tiny room. He and Ajak can’t leave this room for fifty years, and given how slowly comics time goes (1 year for every 6 years in our world, if HoXPoX is to be believed), they are still there. In every Marvel event since 1976, we need to believe Dr. Damien is trapped off-panel throughout, probably doing Odd Couple-esque bits with Ajak the Lord of Flight.

For a series with three issues of exposition, the Professor’s decision to get locked up happens very quickly, and, most importantly, completely without Margo’s consent. Obviously, I don’t expect Margo to be able to tell her dad what to do. But Margo wants to stay with her dad, whom I should stress is the only person she loves and the only family she has. Her dad wants her to go off and live her own life, which he does by having Ikaris knock her out and force her into a plane, which he flies to Manhattan (not the city where Margo lives).

Depicted: Our hero, folks!

This is weird on basically every level, right? It’s a kidnapping that directly follows a father saying he’d rather live in a tomb than help his daughter. I get he wants to learn about the Celestials, but dude, we know they’re coming and they’re the size of mountains. You don’t have to live in Ajak’s Amazing Flying Bunker to study them. You can just come to New York with Ikaris and Margo.

And you’d think in thousands of years, Ikaris would have learned to do better than go along with this.

Depicted: You wanna bet?

Which leads me to another big conclusion about The Eternals. The Eternals doesn’t like characters. It likes ideas and themes, but the series couldn’t care less about Margo, or even Ikaris. This is such a stark contrast to the bones of the Marvel Universe, which was always sold around Spider-Man’s struggles with responsibility and Ben Grimm’s struggles with self-acceptance. My earlier jokes aside, we all know audiences love the way the characters in the MCU bounce off of each other: their quips, their flirtations, their in-fighting.

Eternals is not a story about this. Eternals is a story about chess pieces moving around on a board. In this issue, Kro moves to terrorize New York by changing to look even more like Satan, but he only wants to do this to make the Celestials angry. His actions aren’t motivated by personal needs, but by deep-seated cultural grudges. And by being a pink Koopa Troopa man. 

Depicted: I think this is how the W*yf**r conspiracy started?

So it doesn’t surprise me Margo gets mistreated like this, because the most important thing here is momentum. I just wish I had a character to like in this adventure...hmmm....

That’s right, next time I’m gonna be talking about Sersi, the only good Eternal.

[mandysxmuses]

🐩 for each keeper

//oH BOY this might be a long one

So Niemand is one of the first ‘Keeper’ characters I created and is the one who has changed the least from his original conception. My main inspirations for him and a lot of the Keepers/the overall idea was popular dating sim and anime tropes, and in particular for him I took inspiration from the “yandere” trope, although Niemand technically isn’t one at all. I knew I wanted a cute and overall innocent character with a very dark side, but I also wanted there to be a reason for that dark side beyond it just being there because he loves someone and it needs to be there for the trope, so from the get-go I figured Jemand’s antagonistic and cruel relationship with him would be a more organic drive to bring Niemand to that point.

I could also say some Undertale inspiration helped me come up with him? Because my dream that inspired this whole thing and one of the first things I wrote with Niemand involved him shapeshifting into a rather ugly flower and accidentally scaring a Keeper off.

And I think the whole hedge maze/flower garden thing was probably Alice-in-Wonderland inspired, given that Alice in Wonderland was also inspiration for pretty much a lot of the tone of what I was going for making the Keeper universe.

Jemand is another one of the first characters I had in mind, and again, I already had a pretty basic outline of how his character and Niemand’s were supposed to be. He was supposed to be suave and clever and witty and smug, and Niemand was supposed to be more sheepish and meek by comparison. Though I will say Jemand has gone through a lot more small evolutions than Niemand has over time. He originally bickered with Niemand a lot and was frequently embarrassed by the gardener catching him up on things that he said rather than constantly being on top of things, and he did change to a much more antagonistic, domineering, outright crueler character over time -- I’ve tried to pull that back a bit because there have been times where I’ve worried I’ve made him too evil, but regardless, he’s still a lot nastier now than he was at first.

His main inspirations were, again, popular anime/dating sim tropes, so I wanted to take the trope of the suave idol-like characters who daksldmasl you know the ones you know the ones

The whole black-and-white thing was not necessarily inspired by anything (maybe Alice in Wonderland subconsciously since there’s the whole checkerboard motif he loves) but yeee

TODLICH oh m’boi Todlich, the man, the myth, the meme

The third character I had in mind from the get-go and still the most changed from his original conception that I can think of (besides Schatz but even his character changes weren’t as dramatic)

The tropes and inspirations Todlich pulls from aren’t that difficult to figure out, I’m sure there’s one in every otome game/dating sim where at least one character is an absolute trashfire but they have a route anyway because they’re physically attractive and in the game/anime so they have to come into play somewhere

But originally that’s... all he was, just an evil, killing-for-the-sake-of-killing character with zero actual motivations or story or reasoning behind it, and it made him feel very two-dimensional to me. Characters like that can work, of course, but when they do there’s always at least some story to it and mdlasdm Todd just existing like that with no story and no motivations bothered me

And this overall dissatisfaction with Todlich’s lack of character and lack of story altogether was what led to the Emma plotline, which ended up just ldsakmdl transforming the entire thing and making literally everything more fun to write for me and turned Todlich from one of the characters I disliked writing most to one of my genuine favorites dkmasldmds

(Also I lost most of my icons so I won’t have them all here but)

LAUT

Okie dokie, Laut is definitely an interesting one to talk about. He wasn’t actually a character I had in mind from the very beginning, but I came up with him soon enough after just figuring it would be neat to have an announcer talking over chases and telling everyone what’s going on

His inspirations were bookworm-type characters and socially awkward characters and I originally wanted him to be a more stern, snappy character, like one of the strict intellectual types 

(And the Pringles guy, no kidding, that’s what inspired his monocle)

And he’s more like a geeky high-class dork that just sits there calling everyone a peasant

And now that I think about it he’s changed just about as much as Niemand which means not much at all, I essentially had the idea of a guy with super long purple hair and a monocle sitting in a tower watching everybody but not being able to leave, and slowly suffering from the isolation.

RENEE AND VERGESS

OKAY SO I can’t take all the credit for Renee because a lot about her was suggested to me by another friend of mine, and they definitely contributed a lot to her overall character design (including her signature hat that she wears)

And I think even the spine-ripping she does may have been their idea? It has been a long time since I had this conversation with this friend so I do not know who of us came up with what besides the hat, I remember specifically she came up with the hat idea

I think they might have even picked her name mslkdkmlsak

I mainly wanted her to be a foil for the boys because they were so powerful and the Keepers definitely didn’t seem like they had much helping them at this point, and of course, the Emma plotline gave her having Keeper memories and her place in the game even more poignant

Vergessene’s character was heavily inspired by characters like Eeyore and Sadness from Inside Out, and I added him because I wanted another character to be on the Keeper’s side, but also to add even more tragedy to my big angst bowl because there evidently was not enough in the pot by that point

VERHEILER

The man of FLUFF, the fluffiest man, the most self-indulgent man I ever put into this universe

Fools may have thought I put Todlich and his physical attractiveness in for my own self-indulgence but no, NO, Verheiler was the one who I stuck in solely from what I would want in a weird fantasy world full of bizarre people who may or may not intend to kill me

I wanted a soft, tol man with bunny ears and a minty pretty soft color scheme and floofy hair and a kimono

And I wanted him to make me tea, and have a soft and gentle voice, and to be a complete pacifist, and just be the most wholesome of men

I wanted him to give hugs and lots of cuddles and be really affectionate but also respectful of boundaries if someone asked not to be touched

His inspirations were literally my own self-indulgent stupidity, and ASMR. That was a big inspiration for him, I really wanted him to be a comforting, calming, just genuinely sweet person since the Void had a distinct lack of any of these qualities before he was there.

KNIRSCHEN

Knirschen knocked down two popular tropes in one, the “tsundere” trope and the werewolf trope

He’s cold and grumpy and dismissive to people he likes, but softens up over time, ugh, I love that trope, got a weakness for that trope I have to say

Especially in Knirschen’s way, where the only reason he’s so pushy and determined to shove people away is because he’s scared he’ll transform and be more likely to hurt them if they’re close-by

I also thought, hey, I added a rabbit man, why not add a wolf character

And on that note

Egel/Walter

So since a rabbit man inspired a werewolf man, a werewolf man inspired a vampire man

But of course, this wasn’t the only inspiration for Walter. Vampires are a popular dating sim/romantic novel/generally thirsty-people-aimed media trope, so naturally he had to be in here

Though I wanted to make him also a nice, generally well-meaning character because the vampires I’d seen in some media treated their “love interests” like sacks of meat and I wanted to subvert that and by subvert that I mean yeet that idea out the window, I want a wholesome vampire

So I made a hot-pink haired, generally unintimidating, well-mannered sophisticated boyo who likes candy

But also gave him some depth by making his relentless nightly thirst for blood and monstrous reputation something he actively hates and wants to fight against rather than a part of himself he takes pride in

So he’s struggling with a very terrifying part of himself that he can’t help having, as well as being forced to use that side of himself in a horrific murder-game and even attack Niemand because Jemand’s terrible

Schatz... oh boy, Schatz

What even was the creation of this man? Of course the Void’s designated comic relief would have the most weird creation process and changes

(his inspirations were The Pirates of the Caribbean series and other pirate-like characters and series, and that one vine of the high dude possessed by a demonic spirit asking for a bagel)

First he was a regular pirate man who had a pet mouse because I’d never seen a pirate with a pet mouse before

WAIT character change, he’s a regular normal guy LARPing a pirate and just pretending all the time because he likes it

WAIT THERE’S MORE, he talks to his mouse and acts like he can have conversations with it and confuses everyone even more

WAIT, he hallucinates the mouse talking back

NO WAIT, the mouse is magical in nature and literally does communicate with him telepathically

HOLD ON the mouse is a demon now

AND the mouse can shapeshift and eat bathtubs and steal things for him

And the mouse... worships... Satan

okay, that’s enough, we’re done . . .. .

-- AND Schatz only LARPs as a pirate as a form of escapism because the Void is a ball of angst and Catnip is slowly but surely absorbing more power from all the suffering everyone is enduring and one day--

Kanonier

Oh boyo, dis guy

The man who literally exists just to have a butt bigger than Jemand’s and muscles slightly larger than Todd’s

no that’s not why he exists of course not but

I mainly just always wanted a rival character for Schatz after he showed up because dlsakdmslkd gosh we already have a pirate man who’s trying so hard to be a pirate, there has to be someone on the other end of the spectrum

(Apparently there is a spectrum ranging from Cowboy to Pirate)

Of course Toy Story is kind of an inspiration, but honestly, I kid ya not, Old Town Road was a big part in forming this guy’s character and you can decide how cursed that is.

Begleiter

Now, some of the inspiration around here gets a little more personal and deep to me.

This guy had a variety of inspirations, either drawing from things as bizarre as Dora the Explorer and those awkward creepy moments of her staring, to Daniella in Haunting Ground and her robot-like behavior -- to an app I had called W.oebot which was essentially made to help cope with mental health problems but always had me internally struggling. I knew this app was meant to help me, but I always felt this deeper sadness that the “person” I was talking to was just a pre-programmed app sending automatic messages in response to specific words, rather than a person genuinely listening and caring about what I was saying

(not judging anyone who would use this app and is helped by it, of course, just speaking of my own experiences and how I felt)

The human element wasn’t there and it could be deeply felt to me, and it inspired a lot about Begleiter and his own personality, especially in his past relationship or lack thereof with Emma, whose thoughts and emotions toward her and others could only be felt after he got his “upgrade” and a more humanoid body.

Serpentin

OOOOH Serpentin

His main inspirations were cryptids, body horror, a smol genuinely hilarious video of a cryptid-like man slowly creeping toward this dude in his garage, a game called “IT LIES” about a monster using yours and other people’s voices to lure it to you like prey, and Spongebob

........... a big helping of Spongebob

Subversion of a trope was another thing I was going for here, I wanted a genuinely creepy, terrifying looking character who based on appearances seemed like someone you’d want to hide in a closet from and cry over

But turns out this terrifying thing you just saw just saw you drop a penny and didn’t want you to lose it, so he came to return it to you, please don’t be sad

Clara Wilson

Clara is the... least fleshed-out character that I have, and I feel like that’s understandable, given that her own inspiration was from classic otome game/romance novel/dating sim characters, whose personalities and decisions and moral standings are usually given to them by the player rather than their own will

(Or, if they’re in a TV show or something, their personalities are kind of blank so that people can insert themselves more easily to the situation)

Her personality switches depending on the route she’s on, much like a protagonist in a dating simulator’s might. I’m still glad I added her on here, but XD I’d be lying if I said there was all that much to her, she’s just kind of a character that exists and has her personality filled out depending on who she’s interacting with, kind of like a character with literally dozens of AUs

[hatsukeii]

Haikyuu and attack on titan matchup

May I please get a written ship for haikyuu and attack on titan? I can be described as introverted and withdrawn because of events in life despite being outgoing and lively in the past. I randomly doze off and daydream a lot when I’m alone, with friends, and family. Because of my introverted personality I am often mistaken for cold a lot because of my “resting bitch face.” Once people get to know me I am just emotionally shy and empathetic. Even though I can respond and identify to the feeling of others, I have a hard time expressing my own and try not to express it often. When I’m with friends I am very upbeat, joyful, and hardworking by supporting my friends and family and putting their needs before my own and keeping them happy. I’m pretty much independent and a hard worker that spends too much caring for everyone but myself. My friends describe me as a good listener and easy to talk with because I Am open-minded and easygoing. I like to watch anime, read manga, play video games (final fantasy and kingdom hearts: my favorite series. also metal gear, solid, resident evil etc.), watch DC comic films and shows XD Besides that, my ultimate favorite hobbies include drawing fan arts of Kpop groups & anime, while listening to music (second ultimate favorite hobby). I also like to swim and drive around because of my love for adventures and imagination (also relaxation). I have a strong passion of disliking bugs (especially cockroaches). I especially love to eat sweets , in particular boba and macaroons. I have big brown eyes, long wavy brown hair, baby face (don’t look my age. I Am mistaken for looking 13-17), slender body. I am half-Chinese, el salvadoran, and French descendent. Sexuality: heterosexual Age: 23

My dude this is super good to work with tysm and here are your matchups:D

But like the individual ones are gonna be shorter than usual because if it were to be as long as usual this post would be way too long lmaoo so it’s gonna be just one huge paragraph

Your haikyuu matchup is:

🌪Iwaizumi “Oikawa is a piece of shit” Hajime🌪

Honestly, I was going through so many characters trying to find the right one. Like my first instinct was Iwaizumi, but then I checked out Ushijima, then Tsukishima, then Kageyama, then Daichi, but eventually came back to Iwaizumi. The reason why I chose him over quite a few other characters, really lies in the fact that you don’t open up and come off as cold to people due to past experiences. Iwaizumi has shown himself to be one of the more mature characters in the show. He’s respectful to his comrades and opponents, he’s usually really calm and rational, and can put up with Oikawa. He seems like someone that would be able to help you open up despite your shy, introverted demeanour. He knows what you’ve gone through and understands how you feel, and honestly? That’s enough for him to know what he has to do. Whenever you’re staring off mindlessly, he’ll be the one to snap you out of it. He’ll be there when you just need to cry shit out. He knows how you have a hard time opening up, and he knows better than to pry any farther than what you’ve told him. He’ll sit down and listen to you rant about life for hours if you want him to. He respects the fact that you would like to keep some things to yourself and is completely fine with that. Maybe with time, you started to trust him more and more due to his maturity and respect, opening up little by little and letting him in instead of shutting him out. He loves to see you when you’re being your best self, just chilling out and vibing with your friends, a smile finally adorning your face after hours of just staring at a resting bitch face, with the occasional grin or two. The reason why I didn’t go with someone like Ushijima or Kageyama, is because they’re both very blunt. Too blunt. And they can’t read situations or people at all, unless it’s volleyball. Daichi would be good, if he wasn’t this open to everything. Daichi’s super friendly and outgoing, which might not ring the best with your more introverted self. Plus, he gets pissed sometimes and it’s honestly scary. At last, Tsukishima. Do I even have to explain? He can’t read anything apart from volleyball trajectories and spikes. His snarky remarks and joking insults might be a bit overwhelming for you.

Now onto aot:D

Your matchup is:

The man the myth the goddamn legend HIMSELF

🧹Levi “Oi brats” Ackerman🧹

Damn I envy you and I’m the one writing this rn-

Okay this was literally a match made in God’s hands just saying. You two can relate to each other a lot, both coming off as cold, insensitive, and often times emotionless. However, if anyone ever managed to get closer to you two, they would realise how you guys were actually some of the most emotional people. The only reason you guys seem cold is because you can’t seem to find a way to trust people enough or to express said emotions. Because of all your similarities, you and Levi are able to bond over that and form a stable relationship. There will be times where you two just go to wastelands together with a bunch of rubbish, and just destroy them. It’s kind of like a bonding activity between you two, to let all that pent up anger and emotional frustration out. He knows you don’t take care of yourself enough, and you know that goes for him too, so you two make it up for each other by doing exactly that. You’d make tea for Levi and *try* to clean up his office the best of your abilities. In return, he would check up on your emotions once in a while (Vibe check lmao), will definitely get you a shit load of sweets whenever he has the chance to, and will probably get you new sketchbooks once in a while when you’ve filled one out. He’d do anything to see you finally let your worries go and just have fun with life, even if he can’t do that for himself. You’re probably the only person that he’s ever arranged a surprise party for. Ever. You literally just walked into his office and BOOM, the entire current Levi squad was there, holding balloons. You didn’t even remember it was your own birthday. The image of your face finally forming a smile instead of your usual resting bitch face was enough to make his day- no scratch that, his entire ass week. Plus, your mutual hatred for bugs is something you two can joke about constantly. There was absolutely no debating between characters for this, it was just blatantly obvious the second I finished reading this. No one can relate to you more than Levi can when it comes to inner conflict and emotions. This man cares about you so much please don’t hurt him I’m begging you-

I hope you liked your matches🥺💕

[trulycertain]

Unpopular opinion: god, Batman v Superman had some really good ideas that it chucked down the U-bend, and there are parts of it I really enjoyed. I don’t regret seeing it (and yes, I watched the Extended Cut. All three hours). I was just discussing this with @masutrout​, and here’s a slightly abridged version of my thoughts.

Look, I know no-one sets out to make a bad film, and with so many moving parts, a film getting released at all is a miracle. I know it’s not down to one person and (I’m quite glad) it’s not up to me, because I have no idea how to make films. But if I had, say, a magic lamp and a wish for an ideal BvS and DCEU in general... Here’s what I liked; here’s what I’d magically tweak in a parallel universe; here’s a rant. A 2.2k rant. An Extended Cut rant.

I know it's all desaturated and so on, but I genuinely really love Snyder's style. Dude can set up a shot, and he knows how to use chiaroscuro. In theory, I totally get why they'd look at him and go, "his shit is like comics brought to life, pick him." I wish he'd just... allow a bit more colour into it and let people colour grade properly, because the Metropolis/Gotham Clark/Bruce contrast could've been played up beautifully with visual language and colour too. I mean, I know he can do overwrought iconography and imagery, look at how they went to the trouble of CGI'ing Clark's cape in every scene because it was such a banner, and the pop of red. 

I'll admit, I wasn't always all-in on Affleck's performance, though it was one of his best in his back catalogue (I am one of the few people I know who has zero problems with him as an actor and tends to find it more the material, but I grew up on Kevin Smith films and his shtick works for me, even if he has a manner. I'm not too discerning). But. A Bruce who's tired and broken-down and greying and has lost even more, and still in the aftermath of that, tries to find hope and "I can't let this happen to anyone else" again, in the wake of one more death? God yes give it to me. A Bruce who's taller than Clark and just plain tall in general, because maybe Kryptonian ideals are different and because it'd give Bruce one more thing to desperately play down? God yes. Just... in general, middle-aged Bruce but without a lot of the Batfam stuff (which I like, I have a love for several of the Bats, but my favourite stories are always solo) with a regimen of painkillers and who's turned Wayne from an "I'll just jump into the water feature" jackass to a schmoozer and flirt and maybe a drunk. Take out the branding. I wanted Bruce as a broken idealist, not a fascist. It's actually way more fascistic than the original Dark Knight Returns, even. But goodness, the whole idea of an established, tired Batman is good. There’s a reason the comics and animations keep coming back to it.

"Superman was just a story. Superman was just the dream of some farmer from Kansas." I forget the exact phrasing, but everything about that idea, and this idea that Superman is as much an ideal for Clark to live up to as everyone else, and he’s daunted by it? Yeah. There’s something in there.

I loved everything about Jeremy Irons' Alfred. Seriously, everything. Tech guru, little less RP, little rougher around the edges, clearly has some scars of his own. Absolutely biting, even more than most incarnations, and gets all the best lines. Yes, keep that, it'll do.

I liked the voice changer... halfway. To me it makes way more sense than putting on a voice, which is a bit daft and way more variable. I just wouldn't have gone that heavy on the processing, so that Bruce sounded less like a hacker from 1999. I also thought it was a good way of representing how Bruce desperately tries to emotionally distance himself when he’s the Bat, and how his anger has made him colder.

Batman as just a rumour or an urban legend is great, and a wonderful contrast to Superman, who’s this bright, transparent... common god. Bruce never did it for credit, he did it to get it done. It’s stretching the bounds of credulity, sure, but in this strange, semi-operatic storytelling with heavy myth feel, it makes a bunch of sense thematically.

Bruce meeting Martha Kent, and their first meeting being him saving her life. Even this broken-down Batman who thinks he’s a mess. Actually, just more Martha in the DCEU in general.  I mean, I get why they didn't lean into it so much because they maybe wanted Bruce and Clark to feel more like equal peers, rather than Bruce being too dadly, but... god, again, more Martha. In JL, in something, if nothing else. Martha who's lost a son (Jason); Martha who later has a son in another city trying to do good and is worried as hell about them (Dick's canonically in Bludhaven PD at this point); Martha who is one of about five people in the world who knows who Batman is and hasn't spilt that information; Martha who saw Bruce at the cemetery and might have some really interesting things to say to him, angry or forgiving; Martha who is one of the few people who's seen the good in the Bat (when Bruce himself couldn't)... Man, I was so, so glad that fic leaned into that. I would read a regular comic book of just Martha and Bruce Being Reluctant Friends and Worrying A Little About Their Kids, But Maybe In An Enemies-To-Friends Way Because Holy Shit You Had A Fucking Spear What the Fuck.

No, really, wait, I’m going to go on about Martha again.  The scenes in BvS where she was basically saying, "God, don't kill yourself for them, come home, if they're gonna hate you they don't deserve you..." On the one hand she could've been a contrasting voice to Jon, but this way also makes sense. "I know you want to help but please don't kill yourself..." It was always both parents in the comics who affected him equally, even if the Donner films had his father's death, iirc. It was Martha who pushed to keep him, Jon who taught him not to break people and show off, Martha who taught him how to cook and be gentle with things and in Superman: Birthright, which MoS is heavily, badly based upon (I love that miniseries, time to read it again) she researches alien sightings in the hope he won't be alone. I get why they went for a more "grounded" Kryptonian uniform thing, but Martha made his costume, in the original canon. In all canons, she was a huge help in creating the "Clark Kent" persona (yeah, sure, maybe a woman would have something to say about making yourself quiet and shrinking in a room and having to look helpful and nonthreatening all the time, but Snyder and Goyer were never gonna be the kind of people to explore that and even Waid, whom I love, barely touches on it). Every other film or comic book is crap, dead, or crap and dead dads. Clark's relationship with his mother and father is hugely important.

Getting to see Bruce doing the society beat, and just a little more philanthropy would've been great. You don't have time to build that character? Sure, OK. Take out the Flash dream sequence and the sleeping-with-random-women, maybe don't have a totally unnecessary but kinda hilarious shower scene, and replace it with some identity weirdness where Bruce and Clark are stuck interacting as civilians a little more. Or something about what the hell happened with Jason and the manor, though I don't mind most of it being unexplained. There, still building character, still serving a purpose, you can fit a brief scene into your three hour movie. Civil War had a ton of "Steve Rogers and Tony Stark brood or sit in rooms talking to each other."

If they were going to throw away all the secret-identity potential, they could at least have done it interestingly. That scene at the gala made it clear how hard they both had to act, and Jesus, the idea of Clark eventually, finally finding someone else who has to lie and cut off what they can do, who has to bumble almost the way he does... That could've been interesting and also maybe worried the shit out of him. Or made him want to talk to this crazy billionaire who goes round combat-booting people in the face and try and get what his deal was, which could've led to more interesting misunderstandings. 

And then there's Diana, who's not a bumbler but a "nothing to see here, rich eccentric" type too (no wonder she and Bruce had weird insane chemistry in that "sizing each other up/I know exactly what you are" way), and why the hell does Clark basically never see her? I actually don't mind the whole "she's only here for her photo and never meant to get involved, so she's only needing to chase Bruce," that makes sense, but after Doomsday?! In Justice League?! She understands what it is for the world to be frightened of you, resistant to you, the urge to go and hide where it's safe with your family, the loneliness. I mean, just imagine MoS!Clark meeting her and the goddamn relief of it. And the way it could've played off the whole Jonathan Kent is a creepy "kill em all" weirdo now thing, if they insisted on keeping it.

Similarly, please god please show Clark being a journalist more. Perry chewing him out more. A mild hint of office politics. That's the perfect place to leaven a rough film with a dose of humour. People wouldn't have been so bothered by "Is she with you?", which is actually not that terrible a line next to some Marvel "zingers", except for it being so tonally inconsistent. A gentle thread, a few moments of it. Maybe have Clark save someone and have to scrabble to keep his identity a secret, like in MoS - maybe a minute, you could go for some physical humour or a mild sight gag. Obviously, this'd be pre-bombing the courthouse. Relatedly... 

Take out Nairomi and the branding. They serve very little purpose, story-wise, basically never come back into the plot, and only serve to make Clark and Bruce look like dicks unnecessarily when if you want to inject flaws, you have a ton of opportunities to do it with how they deal with people and their loved ones, how they deal with perps, and their brooding moments. 

Seriously, Bruce kicking the shit out of people and investigating shipments from the Black Zero and World Engine crashes would be enough to worry and piss off Clark, as would the whole "I am the night"/lack of transparency shtick. I mean, for a start, John Byrne retconned their first meeting that way in the 80s and that issue is actually great (Clark is trying to arrest Bruce when they meet, because he's young and idealistic and maybe a little up himself and he's been Supes for about five and a half minutes). Look: Clark is being revered and hates it. He blames himself for Black Zero, at least a little. He has excellent reason to be desperately projecting brightly-coloured not-a-threat and also hate that someone else is terrorising a city and violence is being revered, especially when Metropolis and Gotham are still so raw. I mean... Snyder and Goyer did the fucking stupid offensive 9/11 comparisons. Look at how that affected people and still does to this day; emotions run bloody high, and the entire point of Clark is that he's still human and terrified and guilty. And with Wallace O’Keefe and all the threatening notes... look, there's already a good plot in there! 

Meanwhile, Luthor clearly knows Bruce has been sniffing around the K shipments and could've just tipped off Clark about that as well, saying, "He clearly is gonna use it for his own power, and with how sinister and opaque and violent he's already been, he's gonna hurt people." Having his heritage used against people is one of Clark's worst nightmares, it was implied pretty clearly in MoS, and you'd still have the righteous anger. No branding needed. Kryptonian artefacts and the entire masked violent vigilantism are already enough "this is someone who thinks he's above people and can decide their lives" to piss Clark off. He could even investigate that as himself rather than Supes. You need it to be an unanon tip-off and Keefe wouldn't have access to that information? Sure, OK, just filter it through Mercy Graves and make her a "worried confidential source." I mean, she's in the movie and completely wasted. Why not actually, you know, do something with her? Clark wants to believe the best in people, and he might dislike Luthor personally, but he doesn't know Luthor's out to get him yet - or wouldn't, if the writing was better. Again, Birthright, the text Goyer repeatedly ripped from, did this brilliantly. The brand... it's overkill. Grimdark overkill.

I actually... look, I had a really fun, if baffled, time with this movie, but goodness I’d like to see what it could’ve been. And now all the film sites are waving goodbye to Batfleck again while running DC retrospectives due to Birds of Prey, and Cavill’s blue tights are in doubt, it seemed like as good a time as any.

[antiloreolympus]

8 Anti LO Asks

1. as a mythology buff, i honestly think it was really weird of rachel smythe to take Hecate, a goddess who helped Demeter search for Persephone after she vanished and heard her screams and shared in Persephone and Demeter's joy after reuniting... and then just make her into Hades's like... total bro who plays aggressive matchmaker to h/p to the point of trying to break up Hades's current relationship. but honsestly i refuse to believe rachel smythe did literally any research before making this comic judging by how she depicts the mythology she's taking inspiration from so honestly im not suprised

2. I don’t know if anyone on here has discussed this, but LO very much plays into the idea of “good victim vs bad victim”.

A “good victim” has suffered many things, but despite it they still remain cheerful and happy and pleasant, they do not put others out or lash out at them even if they are triggered, they do not become petty or angry or hold onto negative emotions. They, in essence, “get over it”. Thus, the narrative rewards them: they get many friends, a love internet they’re happy with, and a happy ending. This is what Persephone is. She’s the “good victim”. Despite her many hardships, we know she will not suffer in the end. She will get everything she wants and more. 

Then there is Minthe, the “bad victim”. They too have gone through many hardships, but they’ve become cold, angry at the world, they lash out and have trouble opening up and connecting to others, they even hurt others, themselves victims to the toxic pain they can’t get rid it. They do not and have not “gotten over it”.  Thus, the narrative punishes them, even when they try to better themselves. It’s never good enough. These characters often are lonely, the cast are large do not like them if not outright hate them, and they more often than not end up dead. This is what Minthe is. She is not a pleasant person, she’s a victim of a manipulative older man and a cruel, unjust society and system, and we know how her story ends. It’s in pain, her maiming/possible death framed as a joke and not even a genuine hint of sympathy towards her fate. She was a “bad victim”, she “deserved” what she got.

Now, you only often see this in fandom, since the actual works that deal with victims of trauma and how they react will often try to give more nuance to every shade of victim they may have on cast, but it’s very disturbing to me that Rachel seems to eagerly play into this idea, like she gets joy out of punishing a victim she created and watching them suffer even more at her hands. It’d be one thing if she kept Minthe a shallow, one dimensional character who was just evil for the sake of it, fine, but her showing us her actual complex nature and the very real struggles, trauma, and manipulation she went through, especially at the hands of our supposed “heroes” of the story, just to have her demise framed as a win for Persephone and a joke for the audience to laugh at? That’s highly disturbing to me. It’s one thing for fans to act that way, but the writer themselves? It’s very dark, to say the least. 

3. "I'm invested in working with fairy tales and folklore for my next project" oh no no no oh god please no. Fairy tales have been through enough hot takes and modern "betterments", they really don't need Rachel "Apollo is bad, actually" Smythe to add to it

4. Quick question

Greek Mythology is mostly incest.

So what if someone who is actually good at writing and storytelling and consistent artwork

Kept it in

For example Zeus and  Hera arguing like the married couple they are

And Hera uses older sibling card

With Zeus dumbfounded face

I don't know why but I want it but would it be weird since it's incest

Most fanfics always keep it out. Just keep it in if you want it to be closer than the actual methods you know

Hera is youngest daughter of Cronus and Rhea and older than her brother Zeus, who was also her husband.

I want to do it but like I have no clue how to start a webtoon so you know💀

5. Oh god, Hades not needing therapy because Persephone's "love" is enough? To quote my lord and savior Kennie JD: "not the p*$$¥ being therapy!"

6. uuuuuh sexual trauma warning.?

So I was writing a comment on the "Re: bpd" ask and i had a realization about persephone

She reminds me of how I was about the idea of sex

I'm demisexual and have sexual trauma and the idea of sex excited me but I wasn't able to like, do it. Me and my partner would mess around but because Mctrauma i couldn't do it cuz I hadn't exactly worked through my trauma and i wanted to get through that because i was finally experiencing sexual attraction.

Kinda reminds me of Persephone. The problem is at that point it had been 6-7 years since my trauma occurred and persephone's happened like last month.

Considering how everyone talks about persephone being a self insert i think Rachel has some things to work through

Also made the realization literally as im typing that Rachel's attitude towards asexuality could be because she's demi and doesn't fully understand what that is or means

becuase if you're ignorant enough you can 100% end up describing demisexuality as "being asexual and then like, slowly turning gay."

this ask weirdly personal so fuck it this is gonna be anonymous feel free to delete if it makes u uncomfy 

7. That’s also a part about Hubris Rachel clearly doesn’t get: it was always committed by rich, often people in high authority, NEVER lowly farmers or the poorest of ancient society. They always knew better. Niobe was a queen! Minos was a king! Arachne was the rich, spoiled daughter of a really successful merchant. Sisyphus was a cunning king. The trojan war was kicked off by royal drama. The list goes on and on. You have to notice these things and genuinely study the myths or you become like Rachel, who seems convinced the poorest people would be stupid enough to not only defy their bosses, but the gods themselves? They would be the last people to do such a thing! They don’t have the ingrained sense of entitlement and arrogance like the rich and powerful to even dare act like that towards the gods, as is the case with hubris. Because of this, Rachel ends up creating a narrative that the rich and powerful (literal GODS) are the real victims to those cruel, uppity poor people, going as far as to say in comic they deserve to be slaves for hades’ benefit and they’re wrong for ever hating Persephone for, you know, murdering them because she had a bad day! They should know their place! It’s absolutely insane that she doesn’t actually seem to realize what she’s writing. Unless she does, which is an even bigger issue, and shows a really dark look into how she views the world and society and how it should be run. It’s all a bad look. 

8. Have you seen the "The demon, is here in the room right now?" meme

Welp, that's literally Persephone and her "feeling"

I legit saw that video about a dude faking a mental illnes (and seeing a demon that made him do bad things) after he commited a crime and that was so cringy and I can't stop thinking about Persephone confessing her AOW like that

[spaceorphan18]

Fantasia

Okay, where to even start with this.  I think this is a super ambitious project that both works and doesn’t work.  It’s like going to a two hour classical concert with visuals.  Was it groundbreaking for its time, and somewhat revolutionary for music and animation? Yes! Can it be tedious to sit through? My god yes.  

When I was younger - I used to think Fantasia was four hours long.  It’s only two but ngl, the second half of the film, I really struggled.  I think if they had cut out at least two of the segments, I’d probably have been able to handle it a little better.  

I’ll say this -- classical music, at least to me, is like trying to read a science textbook - it requires full attention at all times to retain what you’ve read.  I think one of the reasons (for me personally) this film is hard is that to actually sit all the way through it requires a lot of focus, and that can be taxing.  Classical music is great! And the animation here is (mostly) great.  But it’s a lot to jam in two hours.  

Alright - so let’s dig in here.  (Get ready for some full on music nerdiness.)  

Overview - 

The film breaks down into segments that go along with classical pieces.  You guys all know these pieces, even if you don’t know their names.  Most of them have been used countless times in pop culture and commercials -- but I can see how this would be a bit revolutionary for the time because in the 40s there really wasn’t pop culture or commercials to devalue these these great musical art pieces.  But -- that’s an entirely different tangent to go on.  

So, the segments are broken up by a looming, silhouetted dude named Deems, who introduces us to each of the pieces.  While Deems is entertaining just because he’s shrouded in darkness for most of his monologues - most of this could have been conveyed via title card - but I get that they were going for a concert-esque feel.  

The Segments -- 

1.  Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach.  

The play list is like a Now!Classical Music CD, and I’m not surprised that Bach kicks the whole thing off.  Interestingly, they start off simple -- there’s not a whole lot of animation going on, just pictures and shapes and colors.  It’s a lot like listening to music while watching a screen saver on your computer.  I don’t consider that a criticism, either.  It’s sort of a way to slide the audience into what they’re going to be doing for the rest of the film.  And I almost like the abstract idea over some of the more story-focused segments they’ll do later on.  

I love this piece in general - so I’m find with sitting the whole through the whole thing.  The funniest part, though, was at the beginning when Deems talked about how this piece may not evoke a specific thing -- when in fact, if most of you heard the opening chords, you’ll most likely automatically think of Dracula.  ;) 

2.  The Nutcracker Suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

This is the one I remember the most from when I was a kid - probably because it was the section I enjoyed the most since I knew the music.  

The whole thing is nature based, and I really appreciate how they incorporated different cultures into the different dances.  While it’s on the longer side, I think it’s one of the ones that works the best.  It’s visually stunning and engaging.  And it’s also super interesting to see the Suite without any Christmas or Ballet connotations.  

3.  The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas.

This is, perhaps, the most famous section of the film - since it’s about Mickey Mouse, and the imagery is used a lot in Disney commercialism.  

It’s a fine little cartoon about Mickey being a sorcerer’s apprentice -- getting into a bit of hijinx.  It plays out a lot like a traditional cartoon would (old Warner Brother’s classics come to mind - like Bugs Bunny singing Opera).  It’s not the best section, nor the worst.  It’s just kind of.. there.  

4.  Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky.  

So, I should preface this with -- I’m not a fan of Stravinsky.  Sorry.  Yes - I get the guy was a genius, and really revolutionary, and pushing the boundaries of what Western Tonality could do.  But I just don’t engage with his music very well.  

That said, I don’t think this is a ‘bad’ section, it’s just unintentionally funny at times.  It is -- a 1940′s view of the history of life on earth, which to someone living in the 2010s, feels very dated.  

On the one hand - there’s some interesting visuals here - particularly the underwater life, even if it’s not at all accurate.  On the other hand, the dinosaurs are kind of laughable, though there is one genuinely tense moment between a T-Rex and a Stegosaurus.  

My biggest issue is that it feels like it just goes on and on.  Part of it is the music, and the arrangement in particular.  (Apparently Stravinsky was not a fan either.)  And this is where my attention begins to wane.  

5. There’s an Intermission at this point - complete with jazz music (almost a welcome break from the classical, which can be taxing to listen to for long periods of time), and an animated white string to show you what sound waves look like (which I’m sure was fascinating to people who’ve never seen what a sound wave looks like before).  

6.  The Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven.

So, I love Beethoven - he is my favorite classical composer.  But this, man.  I don’t know.  The Pastoral is not my favorite symphony -- I feel like the 5th, the 9th, and even the 7th might have been more interesting choices here.  But even more so - this is one of those times that I like to listen at my own leisure, and the animation on screen almost feels like a detriment to the piece itself. 

The Pastoral is a collection of scenes from nature.  Fantasia uses a Greek Myth theme, and ties into the whole nature-esque thing the music is doing.  While I understand what they were going for, especially the ending with Zues throwing around lightning bolts during the ‘thunderstorm’ portion of the symphony, the whole thing feels a bit tedious and purposefully elongated.  

The animation, I guess, is fine - it’s a bit more cartoon-ish than some of the more artfully done segments.  

Also - this is a good point to mention that most of the second half of the music is slower in tempo and timbre and I’m not sure why they would do this.  

7.  Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli.

And... this is where I had the most trouble focusing.  Apparently this was all supposed to be comic.  Maybe I just didn’t get it.  Mostly, it’s a bunch of dancing animals, one mini-segment for each part of the day.  And I found it incredibly boring.  

Comparatively, the animation on this one seems the weakest.  The backgrounds are dull and uninspired next to pretty much every other segment.  The dancing animals didn’t seem all that engaging.  Oh - and in case you’re wondering, the opening section of this was parodied in that old “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” short cartoon - so I kept thinking of that instead of the ostriches prancing around in tutus.  Yeah. 

8.  Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky and Ave Maria by Franz Schubert.

This segment is actually really pretty cool, and something I would have enjoyed much better if I hadn’t been ready to be done with the film.  It kind of depicts this darker spirits (and possibly The Devil) during the night, all leaving at dawn.  The animation here really sells it -- it’s completely unlike anything that’s in the film prior to it, and unlike anything Disney did in his previous work.  It’s really quite beautiful and haunting is a great piece to end on. 

Final Thoughts: This is a tough one to talk about - because it’s one of those things where on one hand, you want to be intellectual about, and study and appreciate it as an art form. On the other hand - it can be tedious - especially if you’re attempting a casual watch through. I feel like you really have to be in the right mindset going in to enjoy it.