#i know a lot of what happens in later arcs bc i've been keeping up with the op fandom online

[piratespencil]

This is so funny to me. Reducing them down to their simplest attributes. Turning them into symbols.

[quirkle2]

i'm sad so im gonna talk about dimple in the anime world domination arc and how he makes me a little ill

besides the divine tree arc, bc that's obviously where he rly shines, i think the wd arc is where we see the most Genuine Dimple. we see him just earnestly helping out any way he can during this whole thing, doing his absolute best to keep mob alive and anybody the kid cares about to boot. and Yeah, he has a motive to help the kid bc he's trying to earn his trust to manipulate him, but he Knows mob trusts him already (see mogami arc). he doesn't have to keep this up. i dont think dimple even has any of that on his mind at the time.

there's a couple lines in this arc from dimple that feel like they come straight from his soul and i never stop thinking about them. i'll talk about The Scene in a minute but

when they meet up with reigen and the others in the hideout, dimple does not have to say "let him rest, i'll fill you in," but he does. when mob is unconscious and vulnerable dimple does not have to protect him, but he does. when mob is fighting minegishi dimple does not have to stay—hell, when mogami shows up, somebody that dimple seems very afraid of, he does not have to stay, but he does. and when mob goes up that tower to confront serizawa and toichiro, dimple accompanies him, not rly bc reigen asks him to, but bc he seemed like he was planning on it from the start with that little "i know i know" that sounds so halfheartedly bothered

he doesn't have to do really Anything that he does in wd arc, and yet he's there and helping, and while you can argue that a lot of it might've been done just to keep mob alive and dimple in his favor, i think the majority of it was instinctual and real

mogami arc seemed like a turning point for dimple and mob's relationship, bc mob truly and completely put his life and wellbeing into dimple's hands and dimple's hands alone. dimple cracks some joke abt his uglier intentions and mob simply stares and says "i'm sure it'll be fine," and dimple visibly does not know how to react to this. like reigen says later: this is the first time somebody has put so much trust in him. dimple has No Idea what to do w this, and the sheer kindness of it makes him hesitate to take advantage of the kid

the fact that dimple is able to possess mob at all during wd arc goes against what we've been told before about espers and their mental barriers, which (and i believe this is touched on in the manga w more explanation but i haven't read it) shows just how much trust mob has in dimple. his mental barriers are already off 24/7 for the guy. dimple could probably possess him whenever the fuck he wanted

Something changed in dimple's mind between mogami arc and wd arc, and that's further proven by a line of his in s3. it's been a while since i've watched this part so correct me if i'm wrong but i think dimple says smth about forgetting that his original goal had been to become god. that he lost sight of that somewhere along the way, and just stopped thinking about it. even during divine tree arc, toward the end, he says smth about "has being around the unmotived shigeo caused me to lose sight of my goals and ambitions?" at some point dimple just completely dropped that goal and started being a genuine friend w no ulterior motives. started embracing that trust he's been given, and not letting it go to waste

yes, dimple half-lied to calm him down after the fire, but he tells reigen that he has reason to believe what he said was true. and when reigen comments that mob would hate him if he Knew he lied, dimple's reaction is Genuine Remorse. that face is not one of "damn my evil schemes r falling apart. aw drat" or "ohmy god i'm going to be exorcised" that is the face of a guy who feels real and honest regret and guilt over even the Thought of his friend hating him. that is a guy who shrinks into himself at the idea of mob not calling him a friend anymore

and so.when mob runs to his parents' room and That Scene happens, dimple's first and genuine response is to scream at mob to look away, shigeo! look away! protecting the kid, protecting his innocence, bc no kid should have to look at something so horrible, and dimple Cares about this kid. he doesn't know when he started caring, but he cares now, and in a dire situation like this, dimple's knee-jerk reaction is to comfort and protect this boy, not take advantage of him. do u understand how important this scene is to me.

this rly has nothing to do w the story itself but i am an English Dub Enjoyer and dimple's va is Outstanding, especially when he voices that look away, shigeo! look away! it sounds so panicked, so desperate—there's rly nothing in the rest of the show that sounds quite like it bc it's so horribly despairing and pleading. he just wants shigeo to look away, to not stare at his family's burning faces. it's a devastatingly raw command that burns just like the walls do. that line and its delivery is so haunting to me

[fusillisarah]

MISTBORN REVIEW!! **spoilers!**

Okay, I finished mistborn! I freaking loved the magic in this series. the way that Brandon left little easter eggs that revealed more and more exactly when I was asking a question is crazy. I said this about Stormlight before. He's a MASTER at holding your hand, walking you up to a question, and then when you are what 'okay wait a minute how does that work I've never thought of that' he's like BAM hint/answer. It's really impressive. After reading a good bit (12ish) of Sarah J Maas books I can see a serious difference in quality of author. Its unspoken but rewarding things like that that really make me respect Brandon.

Okay on to the actual book review. I liked The Final Empire (book 1) the most sort of by a long shot. Less "political" in that it was definitely an act now think later type of book. Obviously we deal with those consequences later lmfao but tbh I liked the (relative !) lightheartedness of this one. Honestly 8/10.

Elend & Vin - Okay now that I've read more Brandon I can soooo see the parallels haha. I really loved Elend's character and I'm sad that Vin had to like go through all this relationship turmoil. I understand that she needed character dev. bc she didn't know who she was but (exactly like Shallan/Adolin) there's like this weird doubt and then they have all this sexual tensh w/ someone? it almost makes me feel like a settle. EVEN THO ADOLIN AND ELEND ARE SO AMAZING. It's just weird and yeah yeah I'm a dumb romantic but I like it when people know that their person is their person.

random note: a lot of characters seemed to get trampled underfoot. Dockson and Devreau principally. There was sooo much there for both of them, and Devreau even got more screen time but I think that a lot more of them wouldn't have been a bad thing. I.e. Dox had like one second and screen time and then died okay. I didn't even feel that bad about it Clubs hit way harder bc I felt like I saw a lot of his and Breeze's relationship. Devreau was kinda a nut but I feel like there could have been something there with a crazy twist on him just being such a religious fanatic, like some hemalurgic point but nope.

Book three just went SO fast! Idk am I crazy for wishing that Brandon had written some more? it just seemed like I was blowing through really important stuff.

Sleeper agent into my favorite character category was TenSoon. He actually was an unreal character to make up and right and his arc was just flawless.

the ending honestly was satisfying even though I didn't WANT it to be satisfying if you know what I mean. I was DEVASTATED actually screamed in my empty apartment at the end but I completely understand why that had to happen I was just still so upset.

I've had some time to think about this one but if I come up with anything else I'll add to this post.

I'm aware that Wind and Truth will be out this winter - I never read Rhythm of War either since I sorta figured I would want to reread 1-3 and finish it all out once its published. Easier to keep it all in my head that way.

Thanks for checking in if you made it this far! Let me know your thoughts on the subject!

[just-a-carrot]

okookookkokoko WHERE DO I EVEN START. I LOVE THIS GAME SM SMH BUT I HAVE A HARD TIME EXPLAINING STUFF SO TAKE THIS SHORT PASSAGE. (Most of this will be an unorganized ramble btw)

(SPOILER WARNING FOR MOST ARCS)

I played T2A2G and OC before this so um. Guess which route I did lmao. SPEAKING OF ROUTES, GENZOU GENZOU GEZNOU GEZNOU GEZNOU OMG GENZOU. I RELATE TO THIS MAN IN WAYS I DID NOT KNOW I COULD RELATE TO A CHARACTER. LIKE WTH?? HE HAS SUCH A TRANSPARENT CLOSET LOL. And also speaking of Genzou I do have a few questions related to him

-Is Genzou fully blind? I don't think he is bc of his cane but I heard it's different in some countries so idk

-We learn Genzou is (supposedly) taking antidepressants in Arc 2. Is he clinically depressed? (According to the Visual Noval Database he is anyways but idk)

-HOW TF DOES HE DEAL WITH BEING CANNIBALIZED TWICE LIKE DAMN..I WOULD HAVE A BREAKDOWN NO MATTER WHO I'M WITH??

-Did Genzou's friends ever like assume that he was gay?? Or like did he tell anyone?? Or did he try his best to hide it lmao

-Did anyone think/know that Gen had a crush on Iggy??

-GENZOU WITHOUT HIS HAT <333

I love Genzou sm if you couldn't tell already /p

ARC 3 CONFUSED ME SM LOL. I thought that I had accidently switched routes (even though I hadn't even made my LI choice, I ofc didn't know this atm though) from Genzou to Orlam and I was fr so confused like waht. Also like I feel so bad for Orlam wth </3.

HUMAN JERRY.

OO ALSO SOME MORE THINGS

-During some parts (mostly during arcs 3/4) I HAD TO PLAY A RELAXING PLAYLISTS BECASE I FELT OVERWHELMED/ANXIOUS/IDEK?? AND AT SOME POINT I JS GAVE UP AND STATED PLAYING HYPERCORE LMAO

-I LOV ELOVE LOVE THE WAY THAT THE NEUTRAL ENDING COLLIDES(???) WITH OC LIEK WHATWHDWATDHFWHWFTHAFG. IDK BUT FOR ME IT MAKES ME FEEL LIEK IT'S THE MORE "CANON" ENDING EVEN THOUGH THERE IS (probably) NO CANON ENDING.

-I IMMEDIATELY WENT TO THE GALLERY LIEK OMG??

-Some of my favorite liens in the game were the homicidal gardener lines (both referring to Iggs and Gen), when Gen was arguing with Jerry, When Genzou was telling iggs during the Arc 5 Kiddie Cruise scene that it shoudn't be a choice like I WAS GONNA CHOOSE DONT JUMP JS TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS LOL

-I also relate a lot to Iggy in some forms

-GIDGET.

-I took a total of 260 screenshots of this game (as of now heheh)

UM YH THATS ALL SORRY IF IT'S HARD TO UNDERSTAND OR TOO ENERGETIC BUT I TRULY LOVE THIS GAME SM. Ima go replay OC again byes <3 :3 BEST REGARDS ILYSM /p

KDFJLADFA this message is so chaotic, i love it

first off, i'm really happy you like the game (and genzou) weep. thank you so much for all the kind words 😭💕 i'm also always super intrigued to see where/how ppl came into the game, so hearing you played T2A2G and OC first is very interesting to me lakdjfkdjfa

regarding your questions:

yes he is; i do think he sees a bit of light/shadow (which is different to an answer i gave some time ago, but i've been thinking about it since) but that's about it; it's a result of traumatic optic neuropathy

yes he is; he's been on meds and seeing a therapist for a while

i cannot answer this question LOL 🤣 i also don't know. i guess the only answer is that he has no choice

mmm... he never outright told anyone in the friend group. tbh he doesn't outright tell many people, mostly as he's just a bit of a private person in that regard and keeps to himself outside of attempting dating apps every now and then. i would not say he actively attempted to hide it though aside from around iggy. as for other people assuming i think it was something many of them did kinda realize but never said anything also

similar here, i think some of them kinda knew. i think gidget knew, even if they kinda ignored it, because it prompted their jealousy on a few occasions. i think orlam had a bit of a guess but it wasn't really confirmed until later

LDKAJFSLDKFA THAT'S NOT A QUESTION

LOL about the routes. indeed, if you don't realize that actually all the "routes" are mandatory parts of the story until the finale then it can be confusing if you thought you were going for a specific char early on or something 🤣 it's not like the games where you can pick your route and then the rest of the game is that route

hahaha yeah i wouldn't say there's a "canon" ending. for one, i feel like that would kinda defeat the point of having different possibilities to begin with. why make other choices if there's only ever one canon ending? i want people to be able to choose however they want the story to end. i mostly connected the neutral ending to OC as a sort of self-indulgent gift to myself, because i thought it would be very sweet if iggy would still have a chance to find companionship with one of his friends later on even if he chose to focus on himself first. like that it just keeps it open. i also just thought it'd be a fun easter egg to give ppl more incentive to at least try the neutral route as i figure most ppl would not choose that route as it's kinda short compared to the others and doesn't give as much closure to the other chars

260 SCREENSHOTS LDKJFASDLFA

sob thank you for this lovely message!! it was really fun answering your questions hahaha and i'm really glad you liked the game so much!! it means a lot!! 💕

[alitgblog]

volume V thoughts bc once again fusebox has got me intrigued

first of all omg wtf

I usually end up reading a few spoilers before I play bc I'm bored at work but don't wanna play the volume until I get back but I had such a busy day at work I didn't do that and wow ok I gotta avoid spoilers more often I was shook

so excess baggage was okay. like yeah makes sense we want the couples to be tense again before voting the couple superlatives thing, but also such a throwaway. (and also I talked about this in my post about last volume, but we have so many challenges in a row!! why)

since my MC did initially flirt with Oakley a lot more than Jin, I do think it's funny Oakley talks about how cool MC's secret is (like it's annoying fs but also something I've seen happen on love island to create small drama but then ultimately it's just talk so it's nice to have that happen here).

Also i was worried Oakley was gonna turn on us or flirt with us and abandon Emel, so I'm very glad he was just asking for advice. (I'm a big Oakley and Emel fan, what can I say?) I'd be okay if that led into a different storyline where you could pursue Oakley later, but with how fusebox has been making the seasons lately, once you pick you've made your choice and I do miss in for example s2 where even if you don't pick Lurik when they first become available you have a chance the next recoupling and it feels like it changes your route.

Jack is still mad at MC??

Couples game was fun. I wish fusebox formatted it so you discuss with your partner and then make a choice before everyone revealed their answers instead of people talking and explaining before the player picks their answer. Like we know the characters already, just let me pick and we can see who agrees.

Oakley's evening wear outfit 😍 best dressed boy fs

I of course could never bear to see Oakley and Emel go, but I surprisingly actually missed Sophie and Jack as soon as they left but like in a me missing Allegra and Miles/Jasper when they left. Like yeah they were irritating but they brought drama and I understand where Allegra/Sophie is coming from (and I support women's wrongs lol)

Jin going through his main character of S6 arc??? No but fr I can't imagine why the public would vote him out so he's either hiding something that's gonna come out when he gets back or he was voted most popular and is gonna come back soon. I hope it's not casa because (1) that already happened in s6 and (2) I want the chance to flirt around with new characters in casa lol. I've seen a few theories around and I have no idea which is true but if I could throw in another idea which is post casa, MC is finally with a bombshell, Claudia/Theo, or a casa boy and things seem good but Jin and Luna show up together as returning islanders and MC has to choose between Jin and her current LI.

It's so interesting for drama, like ik I'm here for it. But a lot of people like loyal routes so I hope yall are doing okay

I was like half hoping we could walk out with him even though of course fusebox isn't giving us that option but like I wish he said something like hey you just got here, enjoy your time at the Villa and I'll wait out there for you no matter what happens. just to explain why MC wouldn't leave. that being said, their goodbye was so sweet.

One thing that's different in the game than the show is the number of islanders present at once, which makes sense its hard to keep track of all of them (though they've done it before in s2), and it just is weird bc now the people in the Villa are MC (single), Claudia and Theo (who don't like each other), and Emel and Oakley (only one couple).

despite my complaint about the challenge thing this is great pacing/timing for a new islander. it's just a shame the screwed over Tyler coming in so soon after MC. I can't remember if I already wrote this in my last post but I almost wish he came in with MC and got a better chance.

[giftedeath]

ok been putting this off for some time now but it needs to be said. some divergences under the cut

big thing is bangel, i don't really believe that she ever gave him 'hope' in season 7, cookie dough analogy aside, that they'd ever be anything other than what they had been for the last 4 years which was basically just exes who talked about saving the world sometimes. i think that they're just really so much cuter and so much funnier as friends and exes and two people who know that they fundamentally do not belong together, and that's ok. angel was so important to her, changed her, their relationship effected her years down the line ( riley too ) but he's the boyfriend she was in love with when she was a child. and i think apart of buffy growing and learning, is that she's never really going to be able to love him the same way she once did because she's not that girl anymore. and that's ok !! idk what the comics do with them, idrc, i just do know that their breakup/and the staying broken up is really essential to the way i write buffy. also think my beloved cordelia was much better suited for angel than buffy ever was. david fury said something about angel needing a "big smile" and he was right.

ok now the thing i've kinda been dreading lol spikey ... lets talk about spuffy yeah!! so... given all that we know, these 20+ years later, i think im just going to get to the point which is i don't acknowledge the writers' decision to make him an attempted rapist, don't care for it, i pretend like that scene in seeing red never happened. and there's layers to why, but basically, i just think it was unnecessary. the writers' way of punishing not only the audience for making a "soulless" vampire the fan favorite/forcing wh*don to keep him around, but also punishing buffy herself for having sex with him and enjoying it !! there's a lot of implications in that scene, i could go on forever but it was very cheap of them to do it, and basically in my head, spike doesn't need this scene to prompt him into getting the soul back because season six had already been a really good set up for that ie. when warren kills katrina / frames buffy and spike attempts to help her by getting rid of the body etc. it's the "why can't you understand why this is killing me?" and "i dont know why don't you try explaining it" im paraphrasing but that right there is enough for me and most of the audience to understand exactly why he would have gone to get his soul for her. also the "i know im not a man but u make me feel like one." but also just spike's general im not a man im not a demon then what am i ? arc !!! like its right there. i dont need to see my favorite character almost get sa'd by my other favorite character for that point to get across. it was definitely a condescending moment from the writers' room, we see it time and time again. ( most recently we saw it with aegon ii in house of the dragon ) "how do we make a character so evil how do we make the audience hate him ? ah yes rapist !" and im just not going to play into that <3 ( but there is also the subtext and very meaningful metaphor of spike being buffy's shadow self in s5/s6, he is empty w/out the soul - she is empty after being brought back/coming back wrong. he regains his soul in s7, and she is able to heal & love herself etc. etc. )

that's how i feel about that but also !!! i am a lesbian and this relationship has always spoken to me in a very queer way this post explains it so well. i rly suggest everyone read bc thats like . my mind

[badedramay]

sorry to keep coming back here lmaojgkdflhf but i started rewatching (bits and pieces of) mann mayal this past week and like. what a phenomenon. was the plot horrible. yes. did it drive all of us crazy with the melodrama. absolutely. is the fact that it was the note ayesha khan decided to end her career on kind of hysterical. i certainly think so. but something about it was nonetheless so enrapturing. the direction and music production definitely contribute to that but i also think for whatever all of the mess was on top i really was transfixed by mannu's narrative arc. like it was powerful! obv it was easy to get caught up in all of the fine details and chastise mannu for her brashness or stupidity but the point was that she had always had decisions taken for her her entire life. to see a female character so stubborn and possessive about her right to make her own decisions regardless of whatever anyone else with "sense" had to say about them bc her agency was that important to her in a societal context of women's oppression.. it was incredibly liberating! and i hate to bring the fairy tale comparisons back but i think esp in contrast to the latter it was empowering bc post time skip salahuddin was in every aspect The Ideal Guy. he cared about mannu, he bantered with her, he protected her, he was eager to guide her, etc. but that was precisely the problem, bc everything was about his protectiveness over her rather than a respect for her ability to make her own decisions and chart her own life path. to see her refuse to succumb to his will to the very end, the very end! the fact that he had to accept that he could not make her decisions for her and that to be let back into her life again she would have to be absolutely convinced he would respect her agency and desires! just, wow. that final scene in the last episode truly takes my breath away. sameera fazal makes me want to bash my head into a wall with how ridiculous her plots are but i can't lie that i do love the undercurrent themes in a lot of them. it makes me wonder what she'd do with a story if creating melodrama to get views wasn't such a necessity

I've been saying this for YEARS that Mannu was a far stronger character than people gave her credit for. I do blame the direction for literally bahaoing all of Mannu's strengths in the oceans of tears that she was made to shed in every fucking episode. beneath it all, Mannu as a person was just so staunchly protective of her OWN agency that really she can give many characters a masterclass in how to own their destiny. yeah sure, a deeper conversation about whether an agency that is purely masochist an agency worth celebrating can be held here. but there's no denying that Mannu's agency EXISTS. we cannot say the same about so many of the female protagonists. #MannuProtectionSquad!!

I do think Samira Fazal would make a much better short drama writer. Her basic plots are always fun. she just tends to lose the plot when she has to write 30+ episodes of it. which is what happened with Mann Mayal. which is what happens to ANY of her dramas. do you know Shukk? uska bhi yehi haal hua tha. i really enjoyed that drama in its first half and then toh phir toh too much hi hogaya.

Mann Mayal aired at the perfect time which is why the show enjoyed the blockbuster popularity it did. I am thankful it didn't air at the time when armchair "critics" were running their mouths mindlessly criticizing every project on air just to churn out an hour worth of content twice a week. social media trolled and celebrated the drama. Hamza Ali Abbasi was THE darling of the awaam and Maya got to enjoy a peak with Mannu that I am afraid she won't get to enjoy again in any other character. despite all the rubbishness..the show just worked. it didn't bother with giving any social message or sensationalizing for the sake of having a shock value. it was a melodrama, plain and simple, and fully committed itself to the genre. however, years later, the show still contains some moments of sheer brilliance that have not been tainted by time. in fact, I think now is a very good time to go back and watch Mann Mayal with an open mind. with no trolling to distract us or the long wait of a week between episodes to exhaust, and the entirety of the plot easily available on wikipedia to read..Mann Mayal becomes a show that should be watched to appreciate the technical finesse with which it handled some of the show's pivotal moments as well as to finely study the characterization of its very grey protagonists, flaws and virtues all at once.

[specterthief]

I have seen people claim that P5R is too sympathetic towards Maruki, especially in that the PTs are supposely more empathetic towards him. Some of them, Sumi in particular want to thank him for his actions. It's like I get it bc the PTs see him as misguided but like they just saw how Maruki brainwash a teenage girl to be her sister and torture her Persona from her. After kidnapping her for a week. Like that gets no comment and never brought up again. Wouldn't the PTs consider that behavior from a rotten adult,but they don't and see him as different from other palace rulers. I wish that they acknowledge that her hurt Sumire greatly and still try to keep him sympathetic. But given comments from the P5R interview, I think that the developers themselves also don't realize how fucked Maruki is.

i mean you're preaching to the choir here lol, i've written a bunch of meta on this whole topic

i do think the writing waffling on whether what maruki's doing is wrong ends up being a weak point in what's otherwise a really excellently crafted story, especially, like you said, the way that sumi ends up being used as kind of the mouthpiece for "maybe he's really not that bad!" when she's the one who was most directly harmed by him. it's a flaw with how p5 handles a lot of female characters and their agency in the arcs around them honestly, with shiho and haru as probably the biggest examples of this particular issue, but with sumi it's frustrating to know that it probably wasn't always like this and she was the one they chose to change to try and make maruki more sympathetic... and in doing that so late it feels like they just had to change the dialog around plot beats that were already set in stone and cast him in a worse light than they seem to want to

i totally get them wanting to make it a legitimately difficult choice but i wish it hadn't come at the cost at getting any acknowledgement at all of how fucked a situation sumi was in or letting her really work through any pain or anger over it

the one thing i can say is that the phantom thieves other than joker and akechi don't know everything that happened to sumi from 1/2 to 1/9, since they show up after she's already unconscious and they don't know what he did to make cendrillon behave like that, and later when it comes up in mementos she doesn't remember anything after azathoth grabbing her. i don't think joker or akechi would tell anyone in detail after that (joker out of sensitivity, akechi because he's not really interacting with anyone more than he has to) but i do at least think if they'd seen all that go down they'd have been a lot angrier on sumi's behalf, especially if he still let her try to fight the whole group one-on-one. or i'd hope they would have been, at least.

[jackienautism]

HI fe3h anon from earlier. i started playing at like 9 and stopped at 4. did not realize how early it was until i turned the game off because i was at a good stopping point lmao. anyway!

made it to chapter 4 of the first... idk what it's called? section? i chose the black eagles (it was a sort of tough decision, because . off the bat i REALLY liked both edelgard and claude, but i liked the eagles a lot more on average which was the deciding factor). having fun so far! i was expecting to not lovee the actual like. battle mechanics but nope i was totally sucked in. really good gameplay.

as for characters. well. like i said, off the bat i really liked edelgard and claude. honestly as of right now i don't think there's a single eagle i dislike those are all my besties. if i had to pick three (non edelgard, bc she is hands down my favorite so far) characters who were my favorite eagles... right now, probably dorothea, bernadetta, and maybe caspar? but it's genuinely so hard to pick, i like them all.

as for non-eagles, i haven't gotten the chance to know them quite as well yet, so there's more a list of characters i'm interested in learning more about? top of that list is probably ingrid, marianne and hilda. OH and of the like... non-students, i've barely met her but i loveee shamir's voice and design.

genuinely i barely know anything about fire emblem somehow so. i am excited to see how the story plays out!

HIII OH MAN A FULL 7 HOURS OF PLAYING HUH? I TOTALLY WENT THROUGH THE SAME THING WHEN I FIRST STARTED PLAYING. remember to take care of yourself and get some sleep though! but i totally understand the feeling of getting sucked in fdgjdnjg the game does such a great job of doing that! BUT THE OTHER PARTOF ME WANTS YOU TO KEEP GOOOOING... IM SO HAPPY AND EXCITED FOR YOU HEHE

YAAAAY SO HAPPY YOU CHOSE THE BLACK EAGLES KDFNGFD i will warn you rn though based on the writing of edie's route compared to everyone else's..... it's so obvious that teaming up w/ her was thrown in at the VERY last second. i won't say anything just yet but im sure you'll understand what i mean if you play the other routes. and who knows maybe you'll figure it out also just by playing hers? but anyway, no spoilers! but as a heads up edie's route is 4 chapters LESS than the three other stories :/ and there's no like... real resolution to her arc / story? SO much can be accomplished in 4 chapters and they jsut.... man idk, the stopping point was terrible. bc based on edelgard and motivations? her story wasn't yet done.

BUT ANYWAY. ENOUGH OF THAT. SO HAPPY YOU CHOSE THEM AS A FIRST ROUUUTE.... and claude is such a good second choice.. his def would've also been a great starting route. although it's pretty obvious how the blue lions was meant to be the "meat" of the game yk? you find out soooo much more abt *certain* characters and just. yeah. it's sad. but! edelgards route still holds a special place in my heart, regardless of the quality, and i hope it does for ypou too! also super glad to hear that the battling mechanics hooked you in! theyve improved the gameplay from previous games (esp w/ the inclusion of divine pulse. having that is sooo nice i will say) so im happy it works well for new players!!!

EDIE AND CLAUDE ARE SUCH GOOD CHOICES<3 AND THE BLACK EAGLES TOO<33 dorothea bernie and caspar are such good choices too btw.... glad you weren't annoyed by bernie at first bc my brother really was gkdfnjg CASPAR IS MY BOY.... IF YOU ENJOY THEM NOW YOU'RE TOOOOOTALLY GOING TO ENJOY THEM AS THE GAME PROGRESSES AND AS A EVERYONE GETS MORE DEPRESSED!

its not the same as playingthe route as the house those characters are in, but you'll get to learn more abt them through talking w/ them in th emonastery! i also def recommend like. recruiting the characters you wanna learn more about asap and going throuhg their supports w/ other characters if possible.... i also just HIGHLY recommend recruiting your non black eagles faves. bc uhhh things certainly happen later in the game. but yeah<3 those non eagles chocies are very good.... ingrid is. an interesting case. bc i understand why ppl hate her but i also went throuhg the supports that made ppl hate her and lik e? i understand why she thinks the way she does? and she actually becomes... self aware in her B support w/ him? but still. you;ll understand once you play the blue lions route im sure. but yeah i jus tcant help but have a soft spot for her idk. i just think shes neat and i love projecting onto her for certain things lol.... also lorenz is along the same lines as her in relation to claude and yet hes barely shat on? like HMMM I WONDER WHY :/ ANYWAY. MARIANNE IS SUCH A FAVE AND HILDA IS CERTAINLY FUN. THEIR DUO IS SO INTERESTING AND CUTE TO ME

AND SHAMIR MAN??????? I HAVENT TALKED ABT HER YET BUT SHE WAS OONE OF THE REASONS WHY I GOT THE GAME IN THE FIRS TPLCE KFGNDGF ASIDE FROM EDELGARD.... YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW SAD I WAS THAT I COULDNT MARRY HER..... also fun fact allegra clark voices both dorothea and shamir!!!!

OOOHHHOHOH IF YOU DONT KNOW MUCH ABT FIRE EMBLEM THEN THATS SO AWESOME. YOURE DEF IN FOR A TREAT IM SO EXCITED FOR YOUUUUU. try to avoid spoilers as best you can! the games have been out for a while so i doubt ppl are tagging them anymore... ill try to be conscious abt that when posting though! HOPE YOU CONTINUE TO HAVE FUUUUUN

[projectjasper]

hi archer!

you said about ep10 that you're certain they are setting wai x korn up (even if it will only be a background thing) and i wanted to ask you about that. the bi korn signals are very strong, and some of pat and pran's behaviour could be explained with them knowing he likes wai, but from wai i'm only getting heterosexual vibes. pa's reaction to his advances, ink murdering him with her eyes, and even the way pran talked about him; it's textbook "token staright who's on thin ice" for me. (thin fucking ice. like oh my god how is there still ice there. how is he still standing. (the answer is: bc pran's mother really fucked up in her parenting. but i digress.)) do you think it's at all possible that even if wai is confirmed to be the one korn likes, the two of them still don't become a thing? i think it's a realistic scenario (i have had small crushes in the past on straight guys who had a pretty face or were charismatic, but sucked as people. oh and were only into girls) but this isn't real life, it's a bl drama. so i've come to ask your opinion on this, because you have seen a lot more bls than i have and you are familiar with the screenwriters and the director's previous works too. what do you think?

hope you have a nice day/night, and thank you for being the editor of my favourite newspaper (you know bc of your blog title) 🪐

ok, so i think it's time to explain my (very unfortunate) waikorn agenda. as usual, i preface this with the fact that i ALSO don't want it to happen, but i don't typically live in denial either, so let me explain first and foremost why i think it is happening (in whatever way).

the first thing that set my alarms off was this scene in episode 7:

korn did not need to be there. the arc of wai's crush on pa is already done with, and korn did not participate in it in any way, so it wasn't for him to tell pat wai has a crush on pa or whatever else in connection with it for sure. so why was he just randomly there? you could argue that it might have been for that one small moment where korn and pa greet each other, but not only is it not particularly necessary to establish that pa and korn know each other because - considering how close korn and pat are - it would be a fair assumption to make and it, therefore, wouldn't be weird to see them in some future scene together, being clearly familiar with each other, but the moment of greeting itself is also very quick, and the focus of the second part of that scene clearly lingers on wai and korn (while pa is long gone).

then, in episode 9, we have this scene:

why in the world is it korn, of all people, who defuses the situation between wai and the opposite team? it would make sense for it to be literally anyone else if there is nothing more going on. louis or safe, who were established as being there and who are his actual friends, pran, as another attempt to reconcile and help wai. even pat, in a similar fashion to what he will later do at the cafe. so why korn? you know why.

same episode, another scene:

i think we can all agree that korn definitely has a crush on a guy from architecture. he said that he was joking, but this line makes absolutely zero sense unless he wasn't. "but archer" i hear you say "why can't it be someone else from architecture?". well, my dear, who is it likely to be: safe, louis, the guy from the play, someone else entirely - the characters korn had zero interactions with, or wai - the character he keeps having all these little, seemingly out of place moments with?

finally, this entire scene in episode 10:

honestly, everything about it just screams "this is here for a reason". and like, what's the point of reconciling wai and korn specifically? you are telling me we haven't seen much of a conversation between pran and wai about what happened, wai is now chill with pat and this entire progression almost fully took place off-screen, we haven't seen both louis and safe from pran's friend group and chang and mo from pat's, even though they also very much participated in the rivalry and need reconciliation, but we decided to focus specifically on wai and korn?

in addition to that, in terms of framing, i want to point out that when the guys start talking about pa, there is not a single time korn is out of frame when they are showing wai. pat and pran are shown from different angles: alone, with the two of them, with the entire table, but every time they show us wai's reactions, they show us korn's as well. why even? he isn't really a part of the conversation, pa is his best friend's sister at best. and yet they are making sure we see the way he is acting and what he is feeling during the entire conversation.

i also want to remind everyone that my mans drake is a fantastic fucking actor, and him looking at wai this way is not an accidental choice:

now, my last point is the novel. despite the fact or perhaps because of the fact that there are a lot of changes the writers made between the source material and their script, they love throwing in small little nods to the novel. and what could be a better nod than gently and ever so slightly inserting the secondary couple from the source material?

now that i have made my case, let's get to the specifics, which you were asking about, dearest anon!

i think that with the two episodes we have left - one of which is most likely not going to have any major characters but pat and pran in it - korn's crush on wai will be at least potentially reciprocated. it might be something akin to mil and phukong in 2gether, where mil had a crush on someone else but was rejected, and their arc ended with phukong asking mil to give him a chance. or it might be something more concrete.

the reasons why i don't think it could be entirely unreciprocated is because 1) it doesn't fit into the general narrative and 2) we don't have time to deal with it, even if it did. for the first point, bad buddy is an entirely character-driven story - we see everything from pat and pran's perspectives, with the exception of inkpa scenes, which are there for a very specific reason, and korn having unreciprocated feelings for someone is not a storyline that makes sense for us to get into, because some scenes would then have to be korn-centric, which i can't imagine happening. with waikorn, im imagining something like them talking about it in some big final scene (once again, like mil and phukong) or them just glancing at each other in a particular way, nothing too big. for the second point, there'd have to be some reason for this storyline - possibly, showing this kind of an experience - but that would need to manifest in at least two conversations between korn and someone else on the subject, and i just don't think it fits into what's going to happen in our last two episodes (or likely just the finale, considering how patpran-centric episode 11 will be).

hopefully, this clears everything up! we'll see if i'm right in less than two weeks.

[casa-amor]

Hey! So I saw this post you made about the leak thing. What if, Will goes and says all that and comes back to Thabi, thinking he wants to better for Thabi, but in reality it's actually mc? Hence he went back to Thabi first before going back to mc. Because after Thabi ends whatever going on between them, he comes back to mc, right? But then, when he comes back to mc, mc is already coupled/paired up with someone else. Now he's forced to watch mc having fun and vibing with an LI knowing how fun and how easy it is to be around mc. Like he remembers how fun it was to just chill with mc, talk with mc, have a laugh with mc-- those kind of things. Then, he realizes that he could've been that LI instead. Will to will, he's like, "why am I thinking of mc?" Bc yk, it should be Thabi who's flooding his mind and not mc. And that's when it sinks in that he didn't want to be better for Thabi, he wanted to be better for mc, so he comes back to mc.

Ngl, that's fanfic material right there 😂. It also fits that selfish persona fboys have. It's very cliché when considering the story, but cliché happens for a reason, yk? Anyways, I just wanted to share my wild thoughts with you after reading the post.

THIS IS THE BEST WAY THEY COULD DO WILL'S ARC. (given that, yk, they dont wanna rewrite the whole thing)

MEGA SPOILERS BELOW

it makes sense that he backs off from MC because MC is already coupled up like pretty seriously. we're like the power couple this season (not by choice lol we're kind of forced to be in love with james/bruno/najuma for most of the season) so it makes sense he keeps crawling back to thabi.

but also for something like this to happen (and for it to be satisfying), they'd have to put in little "hints" that will was thinking of MC throughout all this, like side glances or random chats that kinda make you go "wait...👀" they do this a lot in s2. like you can tell noah is kind of interested in MC even if you dont do a noah route.

from what i've seen there's really none of this in s4, which i chalk up to bad writing. i mean i sympathize with the writers because it seems like they were put under really stressful situations while writing s4. unpopular opinion but i think the "spirit" of s4 is really good, you can tell the characters were crafted with a lot of love, and the outline of the story was pretty promising, but when it came to the execution (actually writing the episodes, the dialogue, etc) that's when they came up short. it seems rushed and... like it was written by someone else who doesn't really know what's supposed to happen

then again, to be fair the leaks only go up to chapter 33, so we dont really know how will acts after coupling up with MC yet. maybe later in the game we get a solid conversation with him that explains everything. (i mean we do get kind of like a confession from him, but it doesn't really cover much, like if MC was coupled up with him before there's no mention of that, it's sort of more like a "hey, now that things aren't working with thabi, i think i like you, bye" and thats it)

sooo yeah. fingers crossed it gets better🤞 i think there is still time for a more serious "i wanna do better" epiphany later on in the game. ugh i just hope it's written well. thats all. thanks for coming to my ted talk

[evilkitten3]

Hi! Sorry to bother you, but I've only just discovered your blog. How's the Fairy Tail rewrite coming along/is there anywhere I can read it?

no worries, i'm very botherable! the ftr is still very much going to happen, but i haven't been able to summon up the motivation to get much actual writing done lately, so it's currently not available to read. i know more or less what i want to happen and how i want it to go, but it's a monster of a fic, and i don't want to do that thing i do where i get halfway through a project then abandon it.

so the current plan is to handle it like so: there are several arcs of varying lengths, so i'm going to have multiple arcs finished and ready to go before i start posting. the first two arcs (saving macao + daybreak) are fairly close to canon, so i've compressed them into being two chapters each and i'll probably post all of those fairly close together once they're finished and then start slowing down as things deviate from the original story. i'd like to have everything up through the oracíon seis arc finished before i post anything at all (which sounds like a lot, but that's just the first fourth of the outline. there's a reason i've gotta pace myself here). i'm considering this to be "part one", even though - if my outline holds true - it's nine arcs spread out over eighty-five chapters, and (for ao3) each arc is going to have its own "story" just to make things a little less overwhelming.

"part two" will kick off with the edolas arc and either go through the grand magic games arc or stop just before it, depending on how things go. like i said, it's an absolute monster of a fic (i have been working on this for literal years now jfc), and the outline spans 23 arcs/340 chapters, not counting any "extras" i might decide to do later on. a lot has changed from my original idea of the story, but i really like where it seems to be headed!

(btw, anyone can feel free to ask me any questions they want. i can't promise to answer every single one bc spoilers, but i can promise to do my best. also, sometimes talking to someone helps me spot plotholes or realize there's an opportunity i've missed/something to add, which is really helpful! i'll answer all the asks, even if it's just to say "unfortunately i don't want to spoil anything so i can't tell you yet", but if it's something that won't affect the overarching plot, i might answer. if you have questions about which ships will be happening then that's fine too, but hopefully people will be interested even if their otps don't show up or aren't portrayed quite how they'd prefer. i'd also like to state that some things that may seem similar to canon are intentionally made that way to keep you in suspense as to where i'm deviating and where i'm not. some things will be obviously different, but some things will be a bit sneakier. so be aware ;P)

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Hello! You are one of my favorite writers on tumblr & ao3. Do you have any writing tips, especially for longer stories?

uhhhhhh

so first you gotta understand that so much of my writing has ended up being carefully making something for my characters to interact with, gently lowering them into it, and watching in dismay as they take off like feral brats in the wrong direction and being like 'what the f--alright, I guess!' as I frantically try and keep up with them

but for longer stuff, i like having a bit more constraints to keep my head on. (more under the cut because wow this got long)

i absolutely credit this post from @bookishdiplodocus for helping me with that, go check it out, give that some love, but i kinda find it hard to do sometimes??? the tl:dr of that post is break your total word count into scenes of approx 1000 words and write a sentence for each scene so you have a skeleton of your rough draft. I've only done that for one of the longer works I've written, 'Always Set the Timer for a Cup of Tea' bc it was a request and I knew i would be following the arc of s2 of Agent Carter. for the others, 'Impostor Syndrome,' '(Un)Wanted,' I didn't know those would be longer works when I started them. They were just supposed to be one-shots, just the first chapters, but then they wouldn't shut the fuck up and I had to keep going. For those, I did a modified version of what @bookishdiplodocus is talking about.

A good set of characters can carry a bad plot, a good plot can't necessarily save a bad character. If I can just get my characters to want something in each interaction, I can write it. For (Un)Wanted, Virgil's trying to understand what's going on and each of the others is trying to help him. That dynamic, combined with the fact that, uh, neither of them is gonna necessarily outright say that, gives me the words and ideas needed to flush out the chapters. For Impostor Syndrome, I was able to stretch that dynamic out over several chapters and mutliple perspectives. Understanding what your characters want and, to some extent, how to prevent them from getting it, can help build out things when you've only got a rough idea. A lot of my writing ends up longer than I think it will because my characters need a little longer to get what they want from each other. That's okay! Let it take the time it needs to.

(You might find that you don't need as much planning because your characters will suprise you. Trust me, I've been staring at my comptuter going what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck more times than i should admit.)

If that's hard, or if you're having trouble keeping it in character (which I get, most of the people I know/write aren't willing to figuratively flay themselves in front of others), let them leave. Figure out why they're not saying what they should be saying (or what the plot needs them to say) and circle back. Somehow. Build your plot with the interactions in mind. Your characters should be driving the plot, work it into the spaces between their words. You might get some interesting things out of it.

And go into it ready to be surprised! I get taken aback by a lot of what my characters end up doing in longer fics. I have notes saved that are just edit dumps, where I've let them talk for a while and been like 'nah, this isn't necessarily what I want' and then I go back and rewrite and compare later. But i've learned things about them that I didn't know and found ways to include things I wouldn't have thought of. It's okay to not know exactly what's going to happen and it's always okay to rework stuff. Cryogenically freeze your darlings and all that.

Also, please feel free to write stuff out of order. I am notoriously bad at this because my brain says no start at the start and write but it is absolutely okay to do it out of order. a post went round awhile back that was like '99% of fic writing is wanting to write THAT ONE SCENE and then figuring out how to get there.' and it ain't wrong. Find that one scene that won't shut the fuck up and get it down. it doesn't have to be perfect, you might end up reworking it anyway, and *gasp* you might not end up including it, but it's where your characters and your story feel the strongest. get that down. feel it. then take a deep breath and start to unpack it. it'll help. you might find yourself with a couple of 'that scene's. that's also okay.

it is also okay if things don't end up the length you expect them to be. with practice you can start getting used to the stretch and release of how characters do their thing and how the plot makes the stuff happen. something that might be helpful is to write the shortest possible way things could go. if everything goes perfect, if everyone says everything in exactly the way they know it will be understood, what does it look like? then start to take steps back. Like, okay, no, they would never actually admit that because of x. But then y happens because character a doesn't know that yet and so on and so on. play with it. let them talk. make a mess of it. you can always go back and edit later.

i have no idea if this will end up being helpful or not, so i hope you find something in here that helps you figure things out. everyone's writing process is different, you might read this whole thing and go 'wow, this is completely useless!' and that'll be good too! because then you know what not to do for yourself!

anyways, thank you for the praise and i appreciate it :)

[terrainofheartfelt]

⭐

Dan + Alison + the Miloverse

Mimsy dear friend, my fic writing hero, I know you don't know much about GG but ty for giving me a chance to ramble about a niche character who appears for 3 episodes and then is never seen again!

Alison Humphrey as a character is complicated, in the brief time we know her there's a whole world of interesting questions that open up.

Okay, so for context: the big narrative catalyst for the pilot of GG is the main character, Serena, returning to the UES of Manhattan after a year's absence, no one knows why she left, no one knows where she went, you can imagine. But the OTHER catalyst, less pronounced and less mired in salaciousness, is that of Alison Humphrey, who went away upstate "for the summer" to work on her art, leaving her husband, Rufus, and her two kids, Dan & Jenny, at home in Brooklyn.

and Serena's return sparks a connection between her and Dan, which causes Rufus & Serena's mother (who had a torrid love affair 20ish years ago) to reconnect and rekindle, by the middle of the first season, Alison has reappeared, retried her marriage, only for her and Rufus to decide that it just isn't working (bc she cheated with a guy upstate, and he's in love with his ex) WHEW. complicated. okay.

AND I should note: the ages of the parents, plus the narrow gap of time between Rufus and Lily (the ex)'s break-up and the ages of their kids, Rufus and Alison (and Lily) were very young parents, around 22 or 23 years old at the most. (this math comes from the fact that Dan & Serena share a half-sibling that is maximum 3 years older than they are, born when Lily was 19. gotta love those teen soap plot twists).

Dan makes no secret of his perfectly justifiable anger at his mother, so storywise, when she's only mentioned for what happens and what's said off-screen, it makes sense that they drift apart, and lots of fanon (very good fanon content, no shade intended), writes Alison off in a similar way - which is fair, because she fucked up and if Dan feels like he doesn't want to repair that damage, that is understandable, and I love reading work that digs into that too!

but me, I'm sort of an Alison Humphrey apologist, mainly for this very compelling speech she gives in the first episode she appears in, back in Brooklyn trying to reconcile with her husband. she says that when h was deep into his music career, touring and working all the time, she put her art and her work on hold to support him and raise their kids (we get the impression from the advice she gives and how she treats Dan & Jenny when they're all on-screen together that she was a very good mom, right until the moment she wasn't and left), and she says "my entire adult life has been about you." which FASCINATES me.

it's that compelling question that I think lots of women who were young adults in the 80s & 90s grapple with a decade and a half later, she had given all of herself over to marriage and motherhood, with no piece of herself left for herself, and when you're in it, in the business of raising kids, maybe you don't notice what's missing until their almost adults, with their own lives and personalities and dreams, and you're encouraging them but you're also thinking, "I didn't do this, or have this, fuck." admittedly, her method of handling it, running away, was not a good solution, but I think, ultimately, I get it.

this fic-verse, in which Dan keeps the baby his ex-fling has when they're 19, is not the first I've written in a Dan & Alison reconciliation chapter, but the added element of Dan being a young parent adds another dimension.

Alison was a good parent until she wasn't, and I think if one of her kids were in a real, genuine crisis, she would help in any way she can. She even does on the show in a sense, when Jenny decides that it's not healthy for her to live in NYC anymore, and chooses to finish out high school upstate living with her mom.

and, in the brief canon Milo arc, Rufus' initial reaction is...reticent, to say the least, so I think it would be interesting to have Alison react in contrast to that (we never hear on the show what she thinks of Milo's existence), of her digging in and deciding "if my kid is going to be a young parent too, then I have to help him not do the same fuckups I did." and it's a headcanon of mine that, being such a young parent, Alison dropped out of school and came back to it, so when Dan does the same, she would back him up in his choice. (while Rufus, who during Dan's pregnancy scares on the show - yes, plural - is adamant that Dan finish school and stay on track for his future. he also doubles down on Jenny finishing school too, so the hc is not that much off base).

I think it's Alison stepping up to help him when he's most desperate that - at the very least - starts the process of Dan trusting his mother again. And as time goes on, and his journey into parenthood continues, he would be more comfortable admitting certain vulnerabilities to Alison, the mother he's reconciled with, than Rufus, the perfect parent who Dan's not sure he can measure up to, which is why in let your heart be your guide, I put in this line:

It’s easier with his mom: to admit weakness, maybe because they both knew she’d already fucked up, Dan didn’t have to worry about how he came off with her. Dan knows his dad is supportive, and helps out as much as anybody else does, maybe more even, but with Rufus—it feels like if he blinks or flinches, he’s leaving himself open for an I told you so, rooted in how Rufus reacted when he first found out about Dan being a father, and choosing to stay one.

and I think them having a relationship is good for Dan, who forgets to prioritize himself wehn he's lost in the parenting bubble that exists when you have a child younger than 6 years in your care. his mom is one of the many people in this fic that insists that Dan make space for himself as a person outside of his identity of "Dad," and her experience makes him heed her when she speaks, as I put here:

“It is a good thing you’re doing,” Alison says, “going back to school, having Milo see you work towards a goal like that. Just as it’s good for you to have things for yourself. You still have your librarian yoga, right?”

Dan rolls his eyes playfully at the moniker, given because he’d started while he was still working at the NYPL, “Mondays and Thursdays. But with school being the way it is,” he shrugs, “I may drop it.”

“Don’t,” his mother pleads, leaning towards him over the table, “you may not think you need it, but you do.”

He looks at her then, really looks at her, and thinks that maybe he gets it, that his mom had completely given herself over for a decade and a half, with no corner of her life left over for herself, that maybe that’s why she freaked out on them eight years ago.

In a show rife with things that beg for Fix-It attention, Alison is one of those that I'm tempted to tackle in every big au. She's just one of Those Characters for me, and even those she only appears in one vignette of this au (for now...), a lot of thought went in to how she would appear, and what her relationship with Dan & Milo would look like. Milo calls her Nana. She loves it.

Fanfic Writers: Director’s Cut ask game

[lilydalexf]

hi! i hope you're doing okay amidst the coronavirus frenzy. do you happen to have great recs for multi-chaptered xf fics? preferably AU... i need to lose myself in a little reading bubble lately because the news is super depressing and i feel like i've read a lot of the long fics out there already. thank you so much for your help!

Thank you for the ask! I hope you (and everyone else) is doing well. There are lots of multi-chapter fics in my posts of novel-length fic recs: part 1, part 2, part 3. Many of those stories are AU, but here is a list of AU stories. Not all of them are multi-chapter, but they are all great.

This list of AU stories is HUGE, so it’s behind the Keep Reading cut. First, please enjoy this AU-style gif of Mulder and Scully playing house in Arcadia.

All Things Bright And Green by DBKatePost-“Herrenvolk” AU. Mulder escapes with the child Samantha clone and with Scully, all three go into hiding. Months pass, Christmas is near and the struggle to find joy begins.

The Ballgame by @dksculderScully takes a case in her hometown, an old flame causing mixed emotions for her and Mulder.

Beating the Darkness Back by AnjouWhere do we go from here, now that we are free?

Breathe by TerriIt’s set in the future after Mulder has disappeared and a fearful Scully gets in contact with him.

A Candle for Katherine by MarasmusSometimes it’s the friends you make along the way that make all the difference.

Cubed by Louise MarinScully does a little body-swapping of her own. Can she and Mulder make it back to each other? Do they want to?

A Different Place by @myownsuperintendentHerrenvolk AU. When Mulder successfully brings one of the Samantha clones back from the farm with him, she must learn to adapt to a different life.

Eleventh Hour by Rachel AntonSome feeling defy the confines of time.

False Memories by ZuffyTwo years have passed since Mulder left. And then a woman walks into a bar.

Five Things That Never Happened to Dana Scully by anythingbutgreyDana — and she is always Dana now — looks out the window. She has stopped waiting. Instead, she watches.

Five Years and One Night by ShalimarThis starts post “Kitsunegari” and is full of spoilers including all of season 5. It deals with the events in “Emily”.

if you weren’t so by @seek-its-oppositeDreamland AU. “Thanks for coming out there with me,” he says, like she didn’t leave him alone last night.

In Absentia by QofMushDoes absence make the heart grow fonder or smarter?

In My End is My Beginning, Katabasis, and Homeostasis by JohnieSamantha is found and some truths are finally uncovered, but can Mulder deal with them? / Scully deals with Mulder’s disappearance. / Mulder deals with Scully’s disappearance.

An Inconvenient Truth by @mldrgrlAU Prompt: The events of Tithonus happened Post One-Son because Scully needed a break from Mulder and partnered up with Ritter on the Fellig case

Jasper’s Last Thought by MD1016Scully is abducted again, and returned to find her world has changed.

Katherine of Ireland by Jenna ToomsThe King is dead. Long Live the Queen.

The Long Road to Improbable by @mldrgrlWhat if the flashbacks in Per Manum dated back to season 5? What happened between then and Requiem?

Love, The Missing Word by Sarah KileyMulder and Scully are drafted into WW III. Is distance making the heart grow fonder?

Mobius by L.A. WardWhile investigating the disappearance of a physicist, Scully finds someone she didn’t expect–Mulder.

A Notorious Affair by Nicole PerryMulder and Scully in Hitchcock’s movie ‘Notorious’.

Old Growth Forest by AndreaMulder and Scully investigate the disappearances of homeless people in Madison, Wisconsin and seemingly end up suffering the same fate.

Prelude to an X by Helen WillsMulder’s a freelance journalist and Scully’s just been assigned an “X” file to work on, when they meet.

Road Markers by anythingbutgreyThere are anniversaries she can’t shake. Dates have, over the years, many years, worked their way into her mind as an internal clock.

Rules of Life and Death by @dksculderMulder is presented with a list of conditions he must fulfill to receive an inheritance. Can Scully help him accomplish all of the tasks?

The Sin Eater by Jane MortimerScully disappears into a mysterious vortex and Mulder makes an unbelievable sacrifice to ensure her safe return.

the shadow knows by captaingeorgyMSR AU

Shopping List by threeguessesScully has too many rolls of toilet paper for just one person.

Sinners Come Down by @poeticsandaliensSix years into her marriage to Daniel, Scully meets Fox Mulder at a bar one night, and they get talking and fucking over alcohol and self-pity.

The Smell of the Person You Love by @mangokiwitropicalswirlHere’s some plotless NSFW smutty Thanksgiving AU pie

Tandem by @alienqueequegIn 1988, a young Fox Mulder tries out yoga after a difficult case takes a toll on him.

The 13th Sign and Seven Days in May by Prufrock’s LoveMulder saw no reason for life, death, sex, Armageddon, or emotional dysfunction to stand in the way of true love. / It might be the end of the world. Fox Mulder had a psychic vampire on the loose, a six-year-old son in tow, a ton of emotional baggage, and an FBI budget, but at least he wasn’t dead. Mulder felt things were looking up - romantically and apocalyptically.

Triangulation by LeyannHe finally tracks them down in Oxford in mid-October.

The Unfinished Universe by RevelyMSR. This story wasn’t AU when I started it, but now it is.

Untitled AU by @foxmuldersau where mulder and scully get married during the events of christmas carol/emily, believing it will aid scully in the adoption process. after emily dies, they’re still married

Untitled AU by @frangipanidownunderWeird little five para AU set somewhere in Wales in some unspecified medieval time

Untitled AU by @how-i-met-your-mulderAU where M and S get together during the cancer arc

Untitled AU by @leiascullyAn AU where Requiem never happened.

Untitled AU by @leiascullyMulder told Scully he would do whatever he could to help her adopt Emily and she took him up on it.

Untitled AU by @lyndsaybonesAU where Mulder and Scully move in together circa s7

Untitled AU by @lyndsaybonesAU where Scully is shot instead of Diana

Untitled AU by @mldrgrlau where scully is reassigned from the x files but mulder isn’t

Untitled AU by @real-cream-cheeseAcademic AU

Untitled AU by @real-cream-cheeseset post-orison/pre-en ami, pure angst

Untitled AU by @spookysadsophiePrompt: Mulder and Scully have sex during Pilot, Scully gets pregnant, moves away and meets again at Thanksgiving (prolly a couple of years later) bc Mrs Scully invites him.

Untitled AU by @scapegrace74-blogRoyalty AU

[firelxdykatara]

I've read your thoughts on the noncon kiss between K/ataang (and I agree 100%), so I was wondering what your thoughts were on when Damon kept on trying to kiss Elena even after she rejected him?? (Also, I'm genuinely asking! I actually ship Delena, but this has just always bothered me.)

I suppose the simplest answer to this question is ‘I hold vampires with dodgy morals who began the show as villains to a different standard than I hold the heroic protagonist of a kid’s show’--because the fact of the matter is, Damon began the show as a villain. (And, not that it makes much of a difference, but I genuinely do not remember Damon trying to kiss Elena again after finding out that she was wearing vervain in the third episode--with the exception of the first episode of season 2, which was absolutely a horrible moment and I’ve never denied that. So where did he ‘[keep] on trying’? Genuine question, bc it’s been a while since I saw the early seasons of the show so I could be forgetting something.) Damon was unequivocally a villain and a monster in the beginning of the show, and his road to become a good man was long and not at all linear, and he was never going to be the Hero, because that’s just not who he is. (Which is ok, because not all good people have to be.)

The way the EIP kiss is presented, with absolutely nothing bridging the gap between that and Katara making out with Aang in the finale, it makes it seem like she figured out her feelings for him because he crossed her boundaries, rather than coming to that conclusion because she actually had romantic feelings for him and had worked through them on her own time. Aang makes his feelings her problem, without even asking her how she actually feels about him, and reveals that he assumed they would be in a relationship by now (because of the last time he kissed her without her consent, something that he phrases as mutual when it very much was not). This is especially an issue because it’s a children’s show, and this could very well be some of the target demographic’s first concept of consent in a romantic relationship--so the fact that there wasn’t even an attempt to point out that what Aang did was wrong and why, nevermind allow Katara to actually work through her feelings on screen, is a big problem, and when this gets brushed under the rug by Aang/Kataang fans it seriously bothers me.

By contrast, Elena was able to work through her feelings for Damon on her own time. He killed her brother at the beginning of season 2, unquestionably one of his worst actions in the entire show, and he had an arc where he began to realize that he actually cared about what he’d done--he actually cared about her, and was in love with her--and did everything he could to make it up to her. Crucially, though, he never actually made his feelings her problem, once he came to terms with them. He told her that he was in love with her, but then he compelled her to forget it so that she wouldn’t be burdened with that knowledge--and he backed the hell off. He didn’t even ask for her to forgive him until he was literally dying. And he accepted when she said that she still needed time--time he didn’t have--and didn’t actually push the issue until he was so delirious from the werewolf venom and in the middle of vivid hallucinations that he couldn’t control himself.

Elena kissed Damon at the end of season 2, thinking he was going to die--this was 100% initiated by her and unprompted by him, and it was her saying both ‘I forgive you’ and ‘goodbye’, because she thought he was about to die. (And he would have if Katherine hadn’t shown up with Klaus’ blood.) The next time they kissed, you could actually compare it to the Kataang surprise kisses--because when Damon kissed Elena in 3x10 it was unprompted (though she held the kiss and did not react negatively to it, unlike Katara who looked upset at the pre-invasion kiss and got angry at the EIP one)--but the important difference here is that Elena herself phrases it as a mutual kiss later on when she is talking to Stefan and wants to be open with him.

And the real crux of the matter here is, Elena’s feelings are always front and center in her relationship with Damon. She initiates most of their pre-relationship kisses--2x22, 3x19 (where she nearly fucking jumped his bones lmfao), 4x7--and the one where she didn’t is a kiss a kiss she describes as mutual, and as something she needs to confess to her ex-boyfriend to keep all her cards on the table. (Actually, I just went back to refresh my memory, and she doesn’t just say ‘we kissed’, like Damon said to Bonnie the next day. She says ‘There’s something I have to tell you. And it’s not because I feel guilty that it happened, it’s because I feel guilty that you don’t know. I kissed Damon.’ And then Stefan goes on to punch Damon because of it, because that doesn’t have any gross implications at all, but I’m not gonna go into that bc this isn’t an ‘I hate Stefan Salvatore’ rant. Yet.)

Elena chooses who she wants to say goodbye to in the season 3 finale. Elena chooses who she wants to be with in the beginning of season 4 (because, whatever she felt for Damon [and she owns those feelings and admits to them multiple times without prompting], she never had closure with Stefan, and she needed that before she was able to truly move on), and she chooses who she wants to spend the rest of her existence with after that.

Elena’s choice is crucial in her relationship with Damon, in a way that Katara’s never is with Aang. And I’m not trying to pretend that there aren’t a lot of elements to Damon and Elena’s relationship that aren’t questionable (he’s a 172-year-old vampire with a lot of murders in his past and a history of being a monster pre-redemption, and she’s an 18-year-old girl when they start dating), but again the difference there is that I have different standards for a) enemies-to-lovers relationships vs friends-to-lovers where they are on the same side from the start, and b) vampires vs Kid Heroes, so I’m going to have different expectations going in, and am probably going to react with more distaste to actions in one that might be comparatively tame, but still read very differently in different contexts.

It’s 100% understandable to have a line in the sand re: sexual violence/rape, but there are still vast differences in what is considered ‘par for the course’ in a show like TVD vs one like ATLA. In TVD, compelling humans is normal, and almost every vampire has had sex with humans under compulsion, so when this is brought out as some mark against Damon and only Damon, it makes me wonder why some fans hold him to a completely different standard than literally every other vampire on the show (possible exceptions being the ones who get turned during the show--although Caroline compelled Matt to forget she was a vampire and then continued her relationship with him sooooooo). Not liking TVD because it has issues with sexual violence/how consent is addressed when half the cast can take away the other half’s free will? Very valid. Not liking Damon, specifically, for these reasons when stanning characters like Stefan, Katherine, or.... p much any other vampire on the show???? Not so valid. 

Annnnd I’ll get off my soapbox now lmfao. I still have A Lot To Say apparently, and some day I’m gonna get into why the TVD fandom has such a weird relationship w the show’s issues with consent (like why Stefan and Katherine stans will call Damon a rapist while ignoring that their faves are also rapists by the very same metric), but I think that’s a bit beyond the scope of this ask.