#i know the ask says avatar vs vampires

[aboutiroh]

Avatar vs vampires

*mid battle*

Katara: you want to drink my blood? How about I give you a taste of your own?!

Toph: nice one, sugar queen.

Sokka, sitting cross-legged across the room with some parchment on his lap: actually, that makes no sense. You see, they-

*Katara piercing eyes activated*

Sokka: oh, they’re doomed.

[writingquestionsanswered]

What's "Filler" vs What's Relevant

Anonymous asked: How do you know when something is “filler” that needs to be deleted, or if it can be kept? I often see advice saying "your characters should talk about nothing but the plot... no frivolous banter or silly arguments, because it's useless, self-indulgent, filler-fluff." But then I watch or see things and it's like, hm... there sure are a lot of things happening here that aren't plot relevant, yet the audience adores it. For example, in a popular episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, called "The Tales of Ba Sing Se," nothing relevant to the main plot (stopping Fire Lord Ozai) happens. Instead, characters shop and go to a spa, rebuild a zoo, and go on a date. Part of the episode is even dedicated to one character's running off after having a nightmare. Nothing that we learn or that happens in the episode is ever relevant again as far as I recall, yet 19 years later, people still talk about how much they love that episode. So, I’m really confused as to what counts as useless filler/fluff vs what's important information. How do you tell the difference?

[Ask edited for length...]

First, it's important to note that a Nickelodeon cartoon from twenty years ago is not a great measuring stick for how to write fiction in 2024. ATLA, from what I've heard, is an amazing TV show, full of heart and top-notch character development. But it was also a cartoon created for and written to be enjoyed by children as young as age seven (the low end of Nickelodeon's demographic at the time), so it was following different guidelines from what you'd be following if you're trying to write a short story, novella, or book.

Case in point, the ATLA episode "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" is what's known in television as a "vignette," which uses short, self-contained stories unified by concept and theme to explore character relationships, growth, world-building, and to expand on themes that are important to the overall story. So, while the episode may not have contained plot-relevant elements, as get a glimpse into the minutiae of the characters' daily lives in Ba Sing Se, the characters and their relationships are still pushed forward, even if in only the tiniest ways.

And, again, this is a TV show with 61 episodes, not a short story, novel, or book, all of which are structured differently than a TV show.

On the Subject of "Fluff"

I want to be clear about the fact that if you're writing fan-fiction, fluff is just fine. And even if you're writing original fiction, you can get away with a little bit of fluff... you just need to be clever about it...

Filler, Fluff, or Relevant?

If something is absolutely necessary to move the story forward or understand it, it's plot relevant.

If something doesn't move the story forward and isn't critical to the reader's understanding of the story, but it helps them understand the characters or world in a way they didn't before, it's probably fluff that's been dressed up in a plot relevant costume. (That's the "you need to be clever about it" bit from above, which we'll get to in a second...)

If something isn't necessary to move the story forward or understand it, and it doesn't add anything to the reader's understanding of the characters or world, it's filler. It's just words on a page that serve no purpose, and it should be cut.

On the Subject of "Moving the Story Forward"

To clarify, in case anyone is wondering, "moving the story forward" means advancing the plot from one scene to the next scene. In other words, to use The Hunger Games as an example, Prim's name being drawn in the Reaping moves the story forward, because it forces Katniss to volunteer in her place. It moves the story from Katniss being a bystander at the Reaping to being a tribute. Another example, using Twilight, when Tyler's van skids into the parking lot and almost smashed into Bella, it forces Edward to use his otherworldly vampire strength to save her, which confirms in her mind that he's not human. It moves the story from Bella being curious about this weird boy at school to realizing he is something else and wanting to know more.

Dressing Up Fluff to Make it Relevant

Let's say you're writing a story about a young woman who stayed in her small town and went to community college while her high school besties went off to a college she couldn't afford, and now they've returned and she's trying to maintain these important friendships while struggling with feelings of resentment, jealousy, and feeling left behind.

Now, let's also say you have an idea for a really cute scene where your protagonist and one of these friends goes to a museum together for an afternoon. And as it stands, nothing plot relevant happens in this scene and it doesn't add anything to the reader's understanding of the characters or world. It's just something silly and fun you think would be cute in your story. How can you turn it from fluff to relevant?

To start with, look at your character's internal conflict... wanting to maintain the friendship while struggling with jealousy and feeling left behind. What could happen in the museum that could play on that? Maybe they stop in front of a reproduction of the Venus de Milo and the friend starts talking about the semester abroad she and the other friends did in Paris. This is a perfect place to explore the protagonist's feelings of jealousy and being left behind. If the character talks about her thoughts and feelings in that moment, either inside her head or with the friend, it gives you a chance to expand upon these feelings, explore why they're happening, and even to add further conflict. Maybe she confronts the friend and it doesn't go over well. Or, maybe she lies about something to feel better about herself, and that creates problems later.

Another option would be to look at the next plot point that needs to happen. Is there some way this scene can be used as a stepping stone between two existing scenes? Could something be added to this scene that raises the stakes or or makes the next scene more interesting?

While I'm sure there are some scenes you just can't make relevant no matter how hard you try, usually you can find a way if you just take the time to brainstorm and try out different ideas.

One Last Note...

On the rare occasion you end up with a fluff scene that has no relevance and can't be made to have relevance no matter how hard you try, write it anyway. Then, take it out, save it someplace safe, and hang onto it. These kinds of stories make GREAT incentives for things like newsletter sign-ups, subscription perks, web site bonuses, etc.

I hope that helps! ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[murfeelee]

TS3 vs TS4 Features - Supernatural

I saw @moonbiscuitsims' comment here about how EA added "way more features" in their TS4 occult packs, and I wanted to talk about it in depth, cuz that's a misleading statement. Y'all know TS4's my trigger.

Cuz yes, on paper, EA offers a LOT of stuff in TS4 packs. But the saying goes: as broad as an ocean and as deep as a puddle. 😬 QUALITY, versus QUANTITY, which is crucial for replayability, customization, variability, and ultimate longevity. And another thing is the TIMEFRAME that that content was released. Sure, if it takes you 10 years to develop/dripfeed your frikkin game, ofc you can add more content over more packs; than if you'd just stuck to ONE dedicated pack, developed it in 1-2 years, and given people arguably BETTER, if not MORE content.

My gut reaction's to say EA had BETTER be offering more content! 😤 Not even to justify the ridiculous pricetag or anything, but for the simple fact that TS4's supposed to be NEXT GEN. It's SUPPOSED to be bigger & better than everything that came before it. Why are we sitting here for 10 years with TS4 if it ain't gonna increase ANYTHING but my rising blood pressure & trust issues?!

So Imma just examine TS3 SN in comparison with TS4's packs, and give my take on what's been going on, from 2012 (SN EP) to now.

Missing Features: TS4 Fairies

A fairy was the very first sim I ever made in TS3 back in 2009 (my avatar sim, Sakura). Watching the SN announcement trailer for the first time dang near made me cry. TS4 could never; moving on.

Missing Features: TS4 Zombies & Toadsims

TS4 Tragic Clowns are a W for the apple juggling & costume. I think EA was lazy by slacking on the clown just cuz he's already dead in Sunset Valley; and I guess they don't expect players to resurrect his ghost. SN EP did nothing to actually improve/expand him, just creating the alchemy Clown Potion; I guess to better integrate fishing the Clownfish into the lore.

TS4 Vampires GP (2017)

This is an easy one. I've said since TS3 Late Night EP (2010) that TS3's vampires are utter dogtrash, and the SN EP did eff all to patch/improve them, and I will die on that hill (until someone figures out how to give convert TS4's functional coffins & vampire fights & special FX). Compared to every other occult, I have more mods installed just to try to fix how effing busted & stupid vamps are; and these sparkling Twilight dumb AF bloodsuckers STILL get on my dang nerves.

IMO, TS4 Vampires is hands down the best pack EA ever made for TS4. 10/10, the attention they put in that pack outclasses darn near everything else they did until TS4 Seasons. Undisputed W, yes. 👏

TS4 Realm of Magic GP (2019)

Disputed W. I gave it an 8/10 at BEST, cuz magic/fantasy's a win, but I am disappointed. If this had been a home run for EA, I'd've shut my dang mouth, ISTG. But alas. I went on a long AF tirade against RoM when I realized that a lot of its so-called "new" features were things we could already do in TS4, with a flashy coat of paint--let alone things TS3 & the SN EP did, and better. Some things I didn't mention though:

Muggles who ask spellcasters how to do magic are sent on a fetch quest for Magic Motes, which is EXACTLY what the ITF EP Time Traveler occult Emit Revelart makes normies do to, finding Power Cells to learn how to use the Time Portal.

The Witch's perks/ranks system works just like the Vampires one, so kudos to EA for not fixing something that ain't broke I guess.

The Spells: At MTS I actually broke down what each of TS4's spellcasters do that's largely nothing sims couldn't do in TS3, even before SN came out (via SHT Genies or SSNS Aliens, or the Store).

TS3 Witches (let alone other lifestates) can do most of this either through alchemy or inherited features from older TS3 packs. This was a huge RoM dealbreaker for me, as I'd been hoping for WAY more innovative features in TS4's spells--the whole point of Spellcasters--than just an elaborate set of cheats. TS3's Witch's main features are fewer, but far more cohesive, IMO. (Granted, NONE of the packs holds a single candle to the GOAT that is TS1's Makin Magic, which had WAY more features than TS2, TS3 & TS4; and was CHEAPER. But I digress.)

There's no unique features with TS3/TS4 wands; they act the same way; the effects are just different, and TBH I'm not a fan of either--I wish wand/magic FXs could be modded in different colors at least (like BLACK 😈). But I DO like that in TS4 they can duel for rewards.

TS4 brooms do EFF ALL in a closed world; EA made them exactly they way they were in TS2, with zero innovation. (IIRC kids can't even use them--EA's hatred for kids & elders ALMOST matches MY hatred of EA.)

IMO beekeeping doesn't count, cuz TS3 included it as a small feature for alchemy ingredients in the SN EP, while TS4 integrated it far better in SSNS to work with gardening, which is genius.

Speaking of SSNS, there's the Weather Stone that only appears if you have both SN & SSNS, so occults can conjure magical weather effects over the whole world. (I'll talk about the best perk under Crystals SP.)

Familiars are the certified W for me with RoM. They're the best & most unique & most well-thought out & feature of the GP, IMO. ❤️

Extra TS4 features I think are supremely cool are spellcasters' books floating whenever they read anything. And their cauldrons have much cooler animations, and I'm so jealous that y'all can cook food in them; EA should've added that to the Store Cauldron, although I guess I understand why they didn't in the SN EP Alchemy Cauldron.

A lot of RoM's features are wrapped around Glimmerbrook. Access to Glimmerbrook comes with the Glimmer Stone key--and I WOULD use that as a segue into the Crystals SP, but I'll hold off. I already vented about Glimmerbrook in my Werewolves GP rant--but I'll get to that in a minute, too. The bigger issue is what even constitutes a TS4 "world"--those non-customizeable tiny AF clusters of tiny AF lots and huge swaths of decorative set dressing--let alone the Diagon Alley ripoff EA loves promoting like I was born yesterday and never saw Harry Potter. GORGEOUS realm, of course, like many EA worlds are. But they're largely just set-dressing, which irritates me to no end.

TS4 Paranormal SP (2021)

I've ranted & raved about Paranormal before: 7/10 at best.

TS4 Seances with the crystal ball work very differently from TS3's Soothsayer's Crystal Ball, which wasn't about banishing ghosts, but improving progression for SN's Witches & Fortune Telling (career). Fortune Telling's NOT a ghostly job, although the boho aesthetic carried over to TS4 Paranormal. (On top of the fact that they promised this whole NOLA Voodoo vibe, but delivered ZERO cultural accurate features reflecting ANYTHING from Haitian Voodoo, wtf? It's all hippie boho New Age BS--why TF does the tutorial ghost look more like Johnny Depp and less like Dr. Facilier, I ask you, EA.) Granted, some of the interactive objects are nice, like the calming dollbaby & magic candles to purify lots--kinda like TS3 incense. But again: 1-trick ponies. Yes, the animations look great, but crystal balls are typically for divination, asking spirits about the past/present/future, not removing haunting poltergeists, so I don't really get it. Stylish & gorgeous! But GENERIC AF substance-wise.

IMO, TS4's Ghosts are an L across the board; all the way from the base game--that bafflingly launched in 2014 WITHOUT ghosts until they were patched in a whole month later after everyone rose a stink (IIRC TS4 kids can't be ghosts!?)--to present. EA's been over/course-correcting from that gaffe ever since, with like double the amount of Death types than TS3. I DO NOT like how TS4 ghosts colors are tied to Eeemotionnsss~! (more like they're a sentient Plumbbob). TBF, kudos to TS4's smoky cloudy effect when ghosts appear. But the lack of unique deaths & ghost types in RoM (aside from Spellcaster Overload & the Night Wraith) made me roll my eyes, as SN EP's ghost types are some of my faves (ITF & SHT are also my top 3).

IIRC it was the SN patch that unlocked all types in (basegame?) CAS to make playable Ghosts. SN's Philosopher's Stone allows sims to summon new playable Ghosts (and ofc allows for transmutating cheap objects into gold ingots--more on that later), or it can just kill you and make YOU the new ghost, LOL.

But as for features, sure, TS4 ghosts have more interactions--though they're all pretty, rather than scary (vs TS2 ghosts, which were SCARY). TS4 ghosts lost the HORROR to just be silly/goofy or just CUTESY--especially the little spectres from Paranormal.

Speaking of horror, I can't talk about ghosts w/out bringing up TS3's AMB EP, cuz the Ghost Hunter (profession) is the real parallel with TS4's Paranormal Investigator (freelancer). In TS3, they actually stuck to their promised main premise (Ghostbusters). Overall, TS4 Seances are nowhere near as fluid as TS3 ghostbusting. In TS3 you can run all over the world using gidgets-gadgets to detect/fight ghosts & sprites, not just inside haunted houses, but anywhere they happen to spawn (ofc inc. graveyards). You're not just locked to a lot/house the player already knows is haunted (cuz you just toggle Haunted Lot to trigger the feature--SN's Ghost Gnome object isn't exactly the same, but it does spawn hauntings on the lots you put them in). ANY TS3 indoor/outdoor residential/community lot can randomly get haunted during a Ghost Hunter's shift; and you never know which one it'll be, or what kind of shenanigans will happen--EVIL ghost or just some sprites--which skyrockets replayability & keeps things fresh & interesting.

Functionally, Paranormal had no right to be that dang good for a Stuff Pack. That was a Game Pack; IDKY EA insists otherwise; esp. when it offered more & better things than some actual GPs. I'm confused. However, a serious problem TS4 has is that it gameifies everything to the point that TS4's numerous features lose their spontaneity, and just become rote--BORING. The ectoplasm everywhere just becomes another mess in your (haunted) house you have to clean--CHORES. On top of me not liking TS4 ghosts' look & vibe (and I HATE TS4's Bonehilda). Quality over quantity, EA!

TS4 Werewolves GP (2022)

Speaking of ghosts, waaaay back in 2020 I told the spirits precisely what I wanted from a potential Werewolf dedicated TS4 pack. Did they listen? HAYUL NAW. So in 2022 I said everything I had to say about the Werewolves GP, and accepted the fact that EA's INEPT.

Do TS4's wolves have MORE features than TS3? YES ofc (even in 2012 everyone complained that Witches & Faeries got the lion's share & Werewolves got shafted--they're basically glorified Familiars for Witches/Alchemist to find collectibles--more on that below). But was most of it GOOD features though? Debatable! I LOATHE the 2 wolf packs, which was what I'd most looked forward to; plus the whole world's aesthetic was ugly homeless-grunge, without a single bit of creativity or originality--only EA could make monsters as terrifying as werewolves effing cartoony hipster squatters. 🤦 7/10 at best.

TS4 Crystals SP (2024)

These crystals are ugly, EA. Which is weird, cuz the basegame TS4 gems & esp. space rocks are GORGEOUS. I have no idea which vision-impaired dev at EAxis thought these nasty looking opaque poorly-painted rocks were pretty.

Features-wise, granted, having TS4's bonafide Gemology skill from the Crystals SP's nice, instead of TS3's basegame hidden Collector skill. But the functioanlity's largely the same: cut more, unlock more (which I prefer to cheat my way through--TS3 thinks I have time for all this gameplay, LOL). (Not to mention all the extra features TS3's Aliens, Simbots & Plumbbots have when interacting with gems, space rocks, or metals.) TS4 only got 10 gem cuts for 27 crystals (=270), (+25 metals); compared to TS3's 16 gem cuts for 28 gems (=448), (+16 metals with their own separate ingots). Of TS4's 10 cuts, the Skull Cut is the ONLY one I think looks better (ignoring the atrociously flat textures ofc) than TS3's (which TS4 copy/pasted--no agates, no crystal ball, wtf).

The Garden Gnome cut isn't unique to TS4, as TS3 has several craftable (glass-only) Garden Gnome cut from the Glassblowing Machine (more on that soon).

The only TS3 gem that genuinely affects sims is radioactive Tiberium from the WA EP, so more features is definitely a plus. The best addition is TS4's Charging Grid feature--I LOVE that TS4 crystals can be imbued with magic energy--it's like TS3's Store Crystal Tree, ITF EP's magic crystal plants & the SN EP Mood Lamp all rolled into one. @greenplumbboblover's WIP Interests & Hobbies mod brainstormed integrating that functionality that back in 2020.

The functionality of the TS3 SN EP Gem Cutter & the TS4 Crystal Tree are similar, though ofc the tree's wallet & eco-friendly; and it's a plant, not a hunk of machinery, so it naturally has that going for it.

There's also the SN-SSNS Weather Stone, which gives werewolves the ability to summon a Hunter's Storm, raining a hail of gems, rocks & metals over the whole world for easy loot farming. (The best perk, though my fave is the Faeries' Reviving Sprinkle for gardening.)

Aside from SN, TS3's real equivalent is actually the Prism Art Studio Venue's Artisan skill. Cuz the REAL seller's the jewellery-making. There's ~100 CAS items in Crystals SP (plus 30+ regular Build/Buy mode objects). At $10, the Crystals SP is a steal, at least when compared to the BONKERS $20 tag on TS3's Prism Art Studio at the Store (2014). IIRC the Glassblowing Machine newly added 16 craftable CAS items & 13 craftable glass objects (as SN already gave us the Gem-Cutting Machine & AMB already gave us the Widgets work station); and 8 Build/Buy objects (inc. the goated L-shaped "spiral" stairs). It also added 5 craftable Perfumes for sims to use.

So while the Crystals SP added NICE features, I wouldn't say they added MORE features. Rather, they added more content: Quantity. But as for Quality, I think TS3 beats it out--the Prism Studio's a effing ripoff, but AFAIK it added features TS4 still doesn't have yet (craftable glassblowing & perfumes, spiral stairs); and the objects it did add are pretty nifty.

Timeframe-wise, we got the 2014 Prism Art Studio's Glassblower 2 years after the SN EP's Gem-Cutter; 5 years after the 2009 basegame. Compared to TS4's wait for the Crystals SP 2 years after Werewolves, 3 after Paranormal, 5 after RoM; and a whopping DECADE after the basegame launched in 2014. Wtf, EA?

Still, I'd say the Crystal SP's a 7/10 (there's not enough gem cuts, the gems textures are ugly, and most of the features were lifted from things TS3 had innovated 10+ years earlier).

TL;DR

Quantity =/= Quality.

EA's been taking way too long releasing packs to have the nerve to present debatable content--it should be goated releases EVERY time; esp. since everyone agrees TS4 is easier to create content for, so much smaller in scale/scope, and with an infinitely larger budget & fanbase than The Sims franchise ever had. There's zero excuse for EAxis' mediocrity, when TS3 was churning out EPs like it's life depended on it: SHT, SN, and SSNS all came out the SAME EFFING YEAR. 2012 was LIT.

EA, you suck.

[ficfanatictrf]

bluebell, tigerlily, and aster for the ask game!

And just in case you haven't heard it yet, happy new year!

Thank you very much and I hope that you have a happy new year as well <3 <3 bluebell— do you have any pets? if so, what are their names?

I have two cats. Sunny and Jaci. They are twins when my mom adopted them from our local cat shelter she was volunteering at after my cat (Cookie) past away. Sunny is a male short haired orange hyper mess. He is ready to run towards anything that seems dangerous, but he is also super intelligent. He comes when I call his name, and he is pure muscle. Jaci is a female long haired mixture of grey tones ball of anxiety. She would rather lay down and nap than run around, and honestly she is a tad stupid (I say this with love because she is my favorite). She is super small, half of what you see of her is just fur.

tigerlily— do you have any favorite quotes from any movies, tv shows, books, or poetry? (or from people in real life)

It is a super short quote, but is something that I have always loved because of the whole entire story. "Hey Mr. Arnstein, here I am" - Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl) For me, I always looked up to this song because if she had just stayed with the group (the safe option) she would have never lived the life she wanted. She put herself out there and went for something that could have blown up in her face - yet she made the decision with knowing that. That is why I love it so much.

aster— do you have any 'fictional crushes' on any movie, tv show, or book characters? who and why?

OMFG! Well, let's go on the list. Thin Smart (I am a nerd, and I adore listening to Tedtalks and podcasts....give me someone who can talk for hours on a topic they are passionate about? I'll marry the man in a heartbeat) - Spencer Reid (Criminal Minds) - Milo Thatch (Atlantis) - Viktor (Arcane) - Athelstan (Vikings) - Professor Lupin (Harry Potter) Husband Material (They are so perfectly what I am looking for in a husband that I can't help but love them) - Shikamaru (Naruto) - Intelligence, dry humor, board games - James (Seduce Me, Otome Game) Intelligence, oldest child, *cough* BDSM *cough* - Sam (Seduce Me, Otome Game) Physically fit, protective, caring - Zuko (Avatar the Last Air Bender) - Tom Lucitor (Star vs the Forces of Evil) He learns about what his partner is into (even if he doesn't like it), he is protective but in a supportive way, may have an obsession with Tomco - Genos (One Punch Man) Hardworking, never gives up, caring, sometimes adorably childish - Shin-Ah (Yona of the Dawn) OH GOD A precious sweetheart, he deserves all the hugs, such a sweet and caring guy - Hak Son (Yona of the Dawn) Sarcastic humor, protective, dedicated, loyal - Tetsuro Kuroo (Haikyuu) Science nerd + sports, pays attention to his team, good with people, punny - Rengoku Kyojuro (Demon Slayer) What I want to be more like. Positive attitude even when not in a good mood, able to work hard even when people try to push you down, and kind in all situations but able to speak his mind bluntly - Bakugou Katsuki (My Hero Academia) Hard working, physically fit, shows care for people the way I show care for people, while I wish I was more like Kyojuro I know I am more like Katsuki - Dick Grayson (DC Comics) Funny, positive attitude, kind, hard working, caring I know it's a kink (if we met in real life I would probably die- I can go more into these...but this is getting long) - Loki (Marvel) - Sasori of the Red Sand (Naruto) - Damon Salvatore ( The Vampire Diaries) - Sukuna Ryoumen (Jujutsu Kaisen) - Lucifer, Avatar of Pride (Obey Me! Game) - Satan, Avatar of Wrath (Obey Me! Game) - Mammon, Avatar of Greed (Obey Me! Game) - Beelzebub, Avatar of Gluttony (Obey Me! Game) - Garou (One Punch Man) - Ban (Seven Deadly Sins) - Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter) - Kaz Brekker (Shadow and Bones)

[theyanderespecialist]

YANDERE MASTER LIST 2021+ RULES

-Rules-

.No Sex Scene with any characters 16 or younger

.No World Leaders or Real People such as youtubers or Celebrities

.Keep It At Least DUB CON or less

-What You Can Request Supporting Hints-

1: Genders and Genderbents

.You may have the reader be, (Male, Female, No Binary Or Transgender) (If Transgender say born as (Fill in birth gender) Identifies (Fill in Gender they identify as)

.Genderbents you make take a character from the list of fandoms bellow and ask if you want them to be the rule 63 aka genderbent version of themselves (Like with Superman Clark Kent being genderbent to Superwoman Claire Kent and anything else)

2: Sexuality

.You can Have Reader be Any sexuality there is (Straight, Bisexual, Pansexual, Gay, Lesbian, Asexual, and so on)

.Same with Characters from Fandoms. Since they are fiction you may make them any sexuality you want (Kinda obvious a yandere is yandere for whatever gender)

3: Roles and AU's

.You can make reader be anything (From Superhero to royalty, from homeless to Villain anything really may it be headcanons or scenarios I even had one story I made reader a chess champion so anything and everything (Except racist and pedo and rapist Obviously)

.Same with the characters from fandoms (Like I have Made priest characters, Dad characters, professors, serial killers and more, anything excpet those three things is good to go)

.You can do au request of like a fandom in a fantasy world or au's with soulmates and so on.

4: OCS

.Yes yes there is OCS and we do better me and my co author writing smut for them here they are

.Marie (My co author as her oc based off of her)

.Mark (My co author with Rule 63 genderbent of her based of her if she was a man)

.Michelle (My Oc based off of me EpicnessQueen)

5: Poly Relationships AKA Sharing

.Yes you can be in a poly relationship where two or more yanderes are dating each other and have the same darling

.Sharing where to yandere decide to share the same darling

-Headcanons-

.You all know how this goes by now but for anyone new. You can ask for headcanons in many different ways with the rules above and also how they deal with any type of reader like even suicidal or yandere from sharing to single it all works.

-Scenarios-

.You can ask for a scenario like (Darling finds out (List of yanderes you want) is yandere for them or anything really.

-Questions aka Q AND A-

.How would (Insert yandere or yanderes) Be like as yandere, propose what pet names they have for darling and any other questions you have in mind for the yanderes

NOW ONTO THE MASTER LIST OF 2021

-Animes-

Bleach (Seen all the anime almost)

Naruto (Seen all the anime)

Naruto Shippudin (Seen a good amount of it)

Tokyo Ghoul (Only in season 1 right now)

Black Butler (Seen most of it)

Ouran High School Host Club (Seen all the anime and manga)

Attack On Titan (Seen First two seasons)

Death Note (Seen Most Of The Anime)

One Piece (Seen a LOT OF IT)

One Punch-Man (Got The Gist Of It)

Fruit Basket (Read all the manga got to watch the new anime)

Rosario Vampire (Seen season 1)

Vampire Knight (Seen all the anime)

Cells at Work (Watching Season 1 now)

Fullmetal Alchemist (Know The Gist of it)

Future Diary (Seen most of it)

Kamigami No Asobi (Seen all of it)

-Horror Themed Ones-

Movies (TV Series will be after)

A Nightmare On Elm Street (Seen Most Of these movies)

Alien (Seen All Of Them)

Alien VS Predator

The Boy

Candyman

Carrie (Only the Original )

Child's Play (Seen the original one in 1988 not the sequels and will now do the remake)

Children Of The Corn

Deep Blue Sea (both)

Dracula

Evil Dead (2013 Remake)

The Exorcist

Final Detestation (Only The Third One)

Frankenstein

Freddy VS Jason (GO JASON!!!!)

Friday The 13th (All of Them)

Get Out

The Grudge

Halloween (Seen Them All)

Hannibal

Hannibal Rising

Harry Potter (All Eight movies)

Hellraiser (All of them but cannot remember most of them)

I know What You Did Last Summer (Seen it once)

IT (Original 2 parts and part 1 of the 2017 remake)

Jaws

Jeepers Creepers (1 and 2)

Meat Train

Orphan (Seen once)

Pet Sematary

The Phantom Of The Opera

Predator (All Of Them)

Prom Night

Psycho (The first and second one)

The Purge (first one)

The Ring (2002)

Saw (All Of Them)

Scream (Just first one)

The Shining

The Silence Of The Lambs

Silent Hill (First One)

Silent Hill (1999)

Split (Yes it is under Horror)

Sweeney Todd: The Demon On Fleet Street (Can't remember which one)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (All Of Them)

Village of The Damned

When A stranger Calls

The Wolf Man

Wrong Turn (Some of them I cannot remember )

Zombieland

---------

Next the tv shows which is shorter for reasons (Dont question me)

Bates Motel

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Hannibal

The Walking Dead

------

Horror Games as I now a lot of you will want that :D

Alice The Madness Returns

Baldi's Basics

Bendy and The Ink Machine (Half of it so far)

Corpse Party (The First One)

Danganropa (all of 1 and some of 2 and 3)

Doki Doki Literature Club

Emily Wants To Play

Five Nights at Freddy (ALL OF THEM)

Hello Neighbor

Little Nightmares

Lucius (The First One)

Mad Father

Misao

Resident Evil 2 (The Remake)

Resident Evil 7

Soon To Be Resident Evil 8 Village (As soon as I can see it yasssssssssss tall vampire lady step on me!)

Ride With Strangers

Silent Hill (A Couple of Them)

Unforgiving The Northern Hymen

Until Dawn

We Happy Few

Welcome To The Game (1 and 2)

-Various Other Fandoms-

(Games)

Dream Daddy

Bully

(TV Shows)

Avatar The Last Air Bender (Not The Legend Or Korra)

Grey's Anatomy

Law and Order SVU

Prodigal Son

The Blacklist

Breaking Bad

Criminal Minds

Bones

Sherlock

A Series Of Unfortunate Events

DR. Who

Good Omens

Once Upon A Time

South Park

(Movies)

How To Train Your Dragon (Both Movies and TV and Netflix series)

Rise Of The Guardians

-Dead By Daylight-

all killers most survivors

-Outlast, Outlast Whistlerblower Outlast 2-

all characters

-Overwatch-

all characters playable or not

-Disney/Pixar-

all characters will not do the live action remakes

-Star Wars-

Most characters so far

-Degrees Of Lewdity-

All important non playable characters

-Borderlands-

all

-Greek Gods, Tales and Mythology-

everything even fucking Greek monsters as long as age is met

-hetalia-

all 1ps all 2ps and all their nyotalia and cattalia

-creepypastas-

most of them

-DC And Marvel-

Most of the characters

-Team Fortress 2-

All characters.

Well I think that is it for this year master list I may add to it but this is it right now. Please Enjoy and stay sexy!] 

[tsarisfanfiction]

21 Asks: Fanfiction Q&A

Well I got tagged by @onereyofstarlight @gumnut-logic and @janetm74 for this, so here goes (answering on fic blog, because... fic!)

This is going to take a while, but it’s also going to be fun, so let’s get started :D

1. What fandoms have you written for?

Uhh... several.  In alphabetical order because that makes my brain happy, we have:

Published: Bleach, Boku no Hero Academia (My Hero Academia), D.Gray-Man, Detective Conan, Flight Rising, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Märchen Awakens Romance (MÄR), Mortal Instruments, Naruto, One Piece, Team Fortress 2, Thunderbirds, Twilight.

WIPs (Unpublished): Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dragon Orb, Flame of Recca, HunterXHunter, Inuyasha, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures (Part 7/Steel Ball Run), Kuroko no Basuke (Kuroko’s Basketball), MI High, Yu-Gi-Oh (Duel Monsters, GX, 5Ds), Yuri On Ice

A couple of those are only because of crossovers... which we’ll get to later.  Similarly, a bunch of the unpublished I have no plans to publish, but I’ve written them so they count in my head.

2. How many works do you have on AO3 &/or FFNet?

AO3: 150 FFN: 149 (the difference is due to a co-authored fic with @lenle-g on AO3, because FFN doesn’t support co-authorship)

(Tumblr has many more because so many of those fics are actually fic collections)

3. What are your top 3 fics by kudos on AO3 &/or favs on FFNet?

AO3 Kudos:

Tales From The Heart (1449)

The Combat School (524)

Succor (348)

FFN Favourites:

The Combat School (681)

Tales From The Heart (185)

Succor (136)

4.  Which 3 fics have the least kudos & favs?

AO3 Kudos:

Wishes of the Dark (0)

4am Forever / Leave Out All The Rest (2)

FFN Favourites:

A Little Fall of Rain / He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother, Leave Out All The Rest / See You In The Sky / Stolen Shadows all have 0

5. Which Fic has the most comments and which has the least?

AO3 Comments:

Tales From The Heart (618)

37 have 0

FFN Reviews:

The Combat School (608)

After Sundown / Heroes Made of Gas / Splatter / Stolen Shadows (0)

6. Which complete fic do you wish had gotten more attention?

I mean, I always like attention :P  That’s a hard question because my fandoms vary wildly in size, so for example, while Tales is one of my most popular fics, it’s still pretty tiny in comparison to the big One Piece fics out there, but ones like Grounded numerically barely rate while actually getting the attention of a much larger proportion of the fandom.

Honestly the fic that’s getting less of a response than I’d hoped is still incomplete... but I think I’ll go with Vulnerabilities.  It’s an older fic, and a drabble collection rather than a cohesive story, but it never really got any traction.

7. Have you written any crossovers?

Ah yes, crossovers.  I’ve got three published at the moment:

The Combat School (Harry Potter/D.Gray-Man)

Vampire vs. Shinobi (Naruto/Twilight)

Stolen Shadows (Flight Rising/Thunderbirds)

As far as WIPs go, I have (who knows when or if I’ll actually finish or post these):

Alliance (Naruto/Team Fortress 2)

Black Phoenix (Harry Potter/D.Gray-Man)

Legend of the Exorcists (D.Gray-Man/Yu-Gi-Oh/GX/5Ds)

Untitled (Avatar: The Last Airbender/Thunderbirds)

Untitled (Inuyasha/Lord of the Rings)

8. What is the craziest fic you’ve written?

What even counts as crazy?

Okay, I say that, but Vampire vs. Shinobi is a stupid, Twilight-bashing, parody crossover thing so.  Probably that.

9. What’s the fic you’ve written with the saddest ending?

Ahaha.  There are a few.  All of these have MCD warnings (two are canonical), two of which are suicide, so watch out if you’re poking around:

Deception (canon)

I Promised

The Fish and the Mermaid

The Light That Shines Twice As Bright... (suicide)

Torture (suicide)

Unwanted

Whirlwind (canon)

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

Tsari likes positive endings.  I’m not actually sure what the happiest is, though.  I often write... hopeful, rather than happy?  The happiest I can think of... is a WIP that I have the ending planned for but that’s spoilers~

I’ll go with Riding the Dragon, I think.  But honestly just take your pick out of the family fluff.

11. What is your smuttiest fic?

Tsari does not post smut.  She has written some, she has not posted it and will keep it that way.

Out of the posted stuff... there is kissing in Briefings?

12. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I think when you hit 100+ fics, you’re lucky if you don’t.  I’ve had a few here and there, but they’re ignorable

13. What is the nicest comment you’ve received?

Oh boy.  I have had many nice comments, but I am going to highlight this one in particular because it’s the one that forever and always springs to mind when I get asked this:

Wow. That was pretty great. You writing managed to keep everyone in character, and still kept the story from falling flat. It's almost as if you stole a page from Cassie's story, and stuck it here. I really want to see more from you.

On: A Tradition of Pride

It’s nowhere near the longest I’ve got, and long comments make me super happy, but this one?  Being told it fits in with the original book?  Makes me beam like an idiot every time.

14. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

[insert eyeroll here]

I have had fics reposted, yes.  Tales From The Heart and Whirlwind have both found themselves posted on sites I don’t use - I managed to get Tales taken down, but the site hosting Whirlwind isn’t paying me any attention.

15.  How many fics do you have marked as incomplete?

Nine, which is both too many and not as many as I thought.  Although if you ignore the collection fics - Tales From The Heart and Behind The Scenes, which are basically eternal wips - it’s seven.

16. Which of the WIPS will most likely be finished first?

Just A Bruise, because it’s already just about finished, @lenle-g and I just need to tie up the final chapter and editing the rest of it before it’s posted.

17. Which WIP are you looking forward to finishing?

Long Way From Home, because it’s going to be huge and finishing that will feel amazing.  But it’s going to take a long time.

18. Is there a WIP that you’re considering abandoning?

Nope.  I will, one day, finish all of them.  Yes, even Uchiha Itachi.

19. Which complete fic would you consider rewriting?

Complete?  None.  However, the above mentioned Uchiha Itachi is being (very slowly) rewritten - and is actually on its second rewrite - because it pains me in its current state.

20. Which complete fic is your favourite?

Asking the hard questions I see.  I have a soft spot for In Your Shadow, I admit, although I have several fics that I love (mostly my Military Bros stuff...).  Also Tales, although that’s technically not “Complete”.

21. What’s your total published word count?

AO3: 956,962 (I aim to break 1 million by the end of the year... just watch me!)

FFN: 1,102,070 (FFN counts author’s notes, AO3 does not)

If someone is brand new to your writing, what work would you want them to start with to get to know you, your style, what you’re all about?

This is not a numbered question, I see, but it was on the post I copied these from, so I guess this is 21+1 questions!

I’ve answered this before, and honestly I think I’d stick with the same answer - Black Widow.  It’s not my biggest fandom.  It’s not my most recent work.  But it does contain a lot of playing around canon without breaking it.

Although, if someone has the time, Tales From The Heart does great for showcasing the range of things I write.  But that’s also 250+ chapters, so probably not a good one to start with.

And this is where I tag people, yes?  Not entirely sure who’s been tagged already, but let’s go with @lenle-g @ak47stylegirl @thetwelvecaesars @gaviiadastra @willow-salix @scribeofred

[aquagirl1978]

Hi! After watching a Let's Play up to Jean's Ch5, I caved and downloaded Ikemen Vampire. When you said there were a lot of mechanics, you were not kidding, omg. I looked through Otome Obsessed's FAQ and still have questions. When looking at a character's route screen, how do I unlock the grey-ed out letters and side-stories? I thought it was just playing the connected chapter, but no? I've gained like 12 of the Hearts currency, which I understand can be spent on the kissing mini-game/Nightmare Event, but what do you get from the kissing mini-game? Will a free-to-play player ever finish an Event storyline with a character? Does the game award other important prizes?

Thank you so much!! If this is too many questions, feel free to direct me elsewhere. Have a great day!

(PS sorry for the unfollow/follow I accidentally hit it while going for the ask button aaHH)

Ahhh....another convert! 😆 Yes, this is so not Lovestruck or even Choices or Fictif, it's really a whole other level and far more involved (but also a whole lot more fun imo).

So about unlocking side stories, letters, etc. - it can be very confusing at first (I know I was confused!). I'm going to show the IkeVamp chapter list vs the IkePrince chapter list because that one's a bit more clear (don't worry, all the games have such similar structures that once you figure one out, you can play any)

IkeVamp for some very annoying reason lists "Letter/His Side Story" next to EVERY chapter. If it is a faded color, like you see in Jean's Chapter 8, then that will be available once you read that chapter. IkePrince is kinder and does not list those for every chapter, only the ones that have it. A note about Letters and His Side Stories. Letters are free to read, simply click the button to read it. His Side Stories need to be purchased with 3 keys (which cost 300 diamonds or about $3 USD). And some (see Jean's Chapter 8) need to be read twice in order to unlock the ability to purchase it. I have not read many of the POV stories, but the ones I've read were all worth the cost.

Usually there is an Event going on during the game - Story, Collection or Kissing. These are special events that do not effect any character's route and are just bonuses. Story Events do not require tickets to read, but you do need "Love Points" at certain chapters to continue reading - you can complete Love Battles in the Event homepage to gain these. Collection Events require you to collect hearts, either by performing Love Battles or reading chapters. Kissing Events are similar, but you get to "kiss" your suitor. For both of these events, you are rewarded with different types of items. Some are in-game items like gold or stamina. Some are avatar items, like shoes or a skirt. Some are short stories (and when I say short, I mean it, they're short). And sometimes if you collect enough for a particular suitor, you get a plushie of him.

This is from the last kiss Event, but you get the idea of what to expect. It's cute to see their reactions.

I can also tell you, as a f2p player in IkeVamp (they haven't gotten my money...yet) you can definitely finish parts of the events. In the Collection/Kissing one's, I get around 4 or 5 plushies. For Story Events, I've been able to read two suitors' Sweet Endings. I don't normally go for the Premium ending as it requires so many Love Points. And if I love the character, I can buy the Epilogue.

This is my Avatar - almost all the plushies were from events, and I have more sitting in my inbox.

The macaron ones are birthday specials and all players get those. I've also only been playing since August, so I think I've done well (I also login daily).

Feel free to send any other questions!

[shadowfae]

1- Not much tbh, just what you've posted, and 2- To be honest I quite like your long answers. It can definitely wait though, you should get some sleep.

Is your warpriest link a constant thing? Does it ever fade into the background? I'm contemplating forming a second link, something happier than my copinglink, and I'm not sure how to tell when to tell when the line of a link vs a persona is crossed when not worn out of necessity.

And the original ask so I have it on hand. I did take a look at your original context, and if you're cool with it, I'll edit this post with a link for those who may find this is a useful answer and need that on hand. Otherwise, it'll stay a mystery.

But yes, it seems like my Sabe experiences would be a useful thing to talk about here. And in order to do that, I need to go over four things: who and what Sabe is, why he exists the way that he does, what that does for me, and lastly what I think he is in terms of terminology and why.

To start, here is his toyhou.se profile, if you want to read more about his actual story and thoughts and whatnot. But I doubt you'll have the necessary context for that, so let me go into it. RuneScape (RS) is one of the oldest MMORPGs in existence. WoW might be older but I doubt it. Basically it's a medieval magic fantasy that's very long running and you the player end up the World Guardian, aka the guy that stops the gods (who are very powerful folks who just don't die of natural causes and typically stand for some philosophy) from blowing the world up because Guthix, the dead god of balance, asked you to. Well, he voluntold you. And that makes you a major chess piece, Elder Gods get involved, it's a big mess.

But before all that happened, back in 2006 when I was introduced to the game and very shitty at it, well. I liked the lore insofar that I've always liked the lore, it was interesting and I liked thinking about it. I didn't have membership and I sucked at playing so I just read the wiki and the God Letters over and over and sometimes the Postbag from the Hedge. Alongside my two friends, we played at being children of the then-triad of main gods: Saradomin, Guthix, and Zamorak.

I liked Zamorak best, but I didn't think his ideas would be the best for society as a whole, so I ended up playing child of Guthix. Eventually we grew up and grew apart but every couple of years I'd go back to RuneScape, read the lore, settle on what choices I'd make if I could play, and think about being the player character. In 2010 I discovered a fic - dawn by khayr, it's on Ao3 and dA - about Iban, son of Zamorak, right around when I was reading Percy Jackson. Cue him showing up as a soulbond and an older brother figure and guiding me right up until the end of sixth grade. Iban got me through the ruthless bullying that would later set the stage for all my major suicidal-ideation and self-hatred for the entirety of high school: even then, I was more stable than I might've been otherwise, because he interfered.

Saradomin stands for strength through order. Procedures and law and diplomacy and war strategy. He was originally kind of a ripoff of the Christian god, but he's grown to be more of an order-over-peace character and is quite well-written. Guthix stands for strength through balance, and has been all over the board in terms of what he's done and will do. He's kind of a dick, actually, but his heart's in the right place.

Zamorak, as you've heard, is strength through chaos and personal strife. It's no "the strong over the weak" or "the strong take care of the weak", it's flat-out "everyone is strong, and just need the right circumstances to tap into it to be the best they can possibly be". Now, his philosophy is kind of more for warriors and scholars, but if you tilt your head, it applies to everyone. Chronically ill folks will find their chaos in fighting to get up every day and maintain a life. Folks in traumatizing, abusive situations find that chaos in their very survival. Scholars challenge themselves and their fellows and their predecessors trying to find the answers they so need. Nobody in lockstep, no such thing as "we've always done it this way."

A lot of human Zamorakians and Saradominist propaganda says that Zamorak is simply absolute evil: and to be fair, when most of that was written, he kinda was because he was based loosely on the Christian devil. Later writing says that they're typically mistaken on that. Zamorak isn't evil. The very first thing he did upon becoming a god was fulfill a promise and lead a slave rebeliion. (The Avernic uprising, if anyone's curious.) He stands for the downtrodden and says "You are never going to get your dignity by going through the motions and trying to peacefully show you're worth respect. Burn some shit down and prove that you won't stand for this bullshit."

Zamorak in a Saradominist's eyes is someone whose banner you wear when you want to be a crazy murderer. Zamorak in a Zamorakian's eyes is the singing voice who murmurs "Get up, this isn't enough to kill you, you can still do this," when transphobic laws get passed or you hear a slur thrown your way on the street.

And as someone who grew up queer and nonhuman, yeah, that resonates, and the older I get the more I think "Guthixian philosophy is best for a society at large, but Zamorakianism for individuals is good." Because Zamorakianism can't really apply on a theocratic level. It really doesn't. It turns into American bootstrap culture and no social services and all that shitty stuff.

The funny thing is that Zamorak himself has no issues helping out if he thinks you need it. (If he didn't, he wouldn't be cool with asking for help, or giving it when he's asked. Which he does do repeatedly so. The man has more kindness in him than people want to admit.) What I do find fascinating is what he thinks of the actions of some of his longtime subordinates, who clearly support him, but I don't think support his actual philosophy. Because if you ask me, he'd side with the downtrodden humans of Meiyerditch, not the vampire lords that treat them like cattle. He's proven that he likes humans, and doesn't see them as unworthy. I do wonder if Jagex will show us what he might do about that.

Either way. Ahem. Over the course of a decade and a half, I keep going back to RuneScape, refining my philosophy and side, thinking again what I would do playing the game proper. About... I want to say five years ago, Jagex opened up the Sixth Age and I finally noticed, and they rewrote every god's philosophy because they wanted every single one to be actually playable. Not just "hurr durr evil" but actually have a logical line of thought. They probably didn't have pop culture paganism in mind, but the gods of RS are incredibly well-suited to it.

Well, I found that out, and immediately went through every god's philosophy, and reasoned my way through it. What does a worshipper of this god look like? What sort of life would they lead? If i apply this to me, what does that look like from that perspective? Do I understand this? Is it comfortable to exist in?

And as it turns out, I understand Zamorak the most, followed a close second by Armadyl, which was quite surprising. Zaros remains incomprehensible and I don't trust like that. (That's another story.) So I thought about it more, and it stuck even when I wandered off to different fandoms and interests. But what happened was that I ended up internalizing it, unknowingly and without meaning to.

It meant that when, two years later, I ended up in a horrific and traumatizing situation, the anchor I hit that held me together was a mixture of being a Devil - I am a fucking God you will obey me and recognize my power - and Zamorak's core philosophy: this cannot kill me, this cannot stop me, this is pure fucking hell and I am going to laugh in the face of death because people are forged in hellfire and I will walk away knowing what I'm made of.

And I was right. Honestly, out of everyone who was there with me, I think I'm the only one that was that deeply entrenched and walked out without trauma. I do not believe I could have done that had I not internalized Zamorak's philosophy. (That isn't to say if the others had that philosophy they wouldn't be traumatized, because there were absolutely other factors I wouldn't know about and some that I do and didn't do them any favours; but I am saying that it saved my ass and without it, I might not have been okay.)

I walked out of that with zero regrets. Zero. Even now, I don't regret a thing. Because it doesn't matter what happened or how much I was lied to or if he deserved my kindness. I know what I perceived to be happening, and I know how I reacted, and when the pieces were down I was stronger than steel, gave kindness without considering the cost, and I walked away unscathed.

How many people can say they've looked death in the eye and laughed? More than there should be, not too many that knowing what I'm capable of when put into pure chaos isn't somehow impressive. Because it is. And Zamorak's words proved themselves, or rather, I proved him entirely correct.

And when I last went back to RuneScape, and thought about it with enough time to put it all into hindsight, well. Aw, shit, he was right. Then vaguely around that time I went back and read Dawn, which was unfinished, tracked down the author and demanded to know how it fucking ended. (She told me and we're still friends like three years later. xD) Then I went back and found my old OCs, and decided fuck it, I'm making my own World Guardian.

So first thing I did was log in and jump over to the Makeover Mage and make myself into a boy. Kept the plateskirt though, I wanted to have the RS equivalent of a limp wrist to prove I'm Very Queer. Then I went about remaking my character. I wanted to make a self-insert, I was old enough to know it wasn't cringey, it was just fun, but I didn't want to use my default avatar with the black hair over one eye and the Chaorruption. I wanted to make a new self-insert based in nothing I was already using.

So I made the most beautiful man I could! Long, dark brown hair, pretty semi-dark skin, looked Kharidian, and then I said fuck it and made him Zamorak's youngest son. Originally, he was adopted when he was young by Iban and Clivet, and suffered serious imposter syndrome when being WG meant he'd never get demigod powers. But as I grew more confident in myself, he ended up getting powers? And then eventually I rewrote his backstory, and then wrote about his mother, and her relationship with Zamorak, and then he had friends like Blaire and Icthlarin (who was also my furry awakening, rip me).

Then with the most recently questline I've been getting a bit more into RS magical theory, and I've been mulling it over lots, and Seanan McGuire's Middlegame definitely helped; and I figured out how I wanted him to handle being World Guardian: it didn't make sense for him to be openly Zamorak's son, the other gods would just target his family to manipulate him. So I had him play neutral openly and Zamorakian to his friends, effectively living a double life.

Then he just looked up one day and said "Oh, by the way, my father won't acknowledge me to keep me safe but I don't know that so we have a very unsteady relationship because I don't know if he loves me", and then Children of Mah came out, and he was all "Oh and I think I just got disowned (I didn't, Zamorak was protecting me, but I don't know that) so my relationship with Zamorak is Fucking Shitty" and he was stuck that way until I figured out how to save their relationship.

It culminated in Sabe not knowing how his Mahjarrat powers worked and guessing, and hating himself for being half-and-half, and missing everything about being a Mahjarrat, and literally you couldn't have gotten more obvious in order to tell me I was having Fucking Issues coming to terms with the fact I didn't have any understanding or knowledge of my own heritage, but whatever, eventually I noticed that.

And as I've been working to understand myself and my heritage, so too has Sabe been doing that with his Mahjarrat heritage. But for the longest time, no matter how I put him and Zamorak in the same room in a scene to try and get them to talk it out, it wasn't working. Something wasn't right. Sabe resented being World Guardian, hated having to betray his family, didn't know if he was wanted, and hated himself for having to kill Mah, the mother of his species.

Not that long ago, a few months actually, he informed me (which is my shorthand for 'I suddenly figured out this happened, and it genuinely feels like remembering that one fucking word you have on the tip of your tongue, I always knew and just forgot for a while') that no, he'd been ripped in two by a hope devourer, brought to his father's stronghold, and Zamorak split his magic between mortal and divine in order to get around his godproofing and heal him. Zamorak's intense worry for his youngest son was what caused Sabe to break down and tell him honestly what was going on and how he was feeling, which caused Zamorak to do the same, and they finally, finally made up.

A week later, I noticed the connection between Sabe's Mahjarrat issues and my Irish issues, and started to wonder if he was a linktype.

I mean... he's a self-insert. He makes the choices I would, the me in the here and now, that I think are best. He's not a person I was and still know myself to be, he's not someone I grow into, he's not living his life beside me like a shadow. He's me, choosing the things I do, because I say so. But he's also me in the things he reflects, the things he struggles with, and things I had zero fucking conscious input on.

Sabe is the person I am when a crisis hits and I have to deal with the chaos. Sabe is the person I am when I need to lead. Sabe is the person I am when I am desperate to be known and loved by those I consider family. Sabe is the person I am when I want to be sure in where I came from, where I will return to, and the things that I will always be. Sabe is a man of darkness who knows the light as an acquaintance and nothing more, who is cruel and careless and kind.

Sabe is a warpriest of Zamorakian philosophy, because it took me twenty fucking years to put into words how I see the world, and now that I know, I will argue them to death and use them to help others. Drakath may have wanted a messiah to share the hivemind with others. Sabe is a warpriest, spreading the word and calling home the broken and the damned. He is the Last Rider, not the last of the Ilujanka but the one who keeps riding towards the chaos and never falls, no matter what.

Some of who Sabe is I have conscious input on. A whole lot of him was unintentional and perfectly reflects me.

So when it comes to terminology... I don't know what he is. A self-insert, yes. A linktype, maybe. A kintype, also maybe. Sabe doesn't feel like my past linktypes, because Sabe isn't always catharsis and comfort. Until he made up with his dad, Sabe was brutal and hurt a lot and constantly yearning for his foundation and slowly going mad. It wasn't fun. I just refused to do anything but see the story through. I was going to get it right. I wanted to see it to the end. I wanted to be the Last Rider, even though I didn't phrase it that way.

But to answer your actual question, of what he feels like when I'm not actively being him out of necessity, desire, and active thought. If it fades into the background.

And like... it can? Sabe as he is, recognized for what and who he is, is kind of a new thing. Sabe as a concept is very old, but Sabe as what he is right now is new, and confusing, and honestly I'm still trying to figure out what to make of it.

Like, seriously. Sabe is Zamorak's son. Am I Zamorak's son? Is he keeping an eye on me as I am? Would he be proud of me? Would he offer his approval of my progress? Does that make me, in some way, the World Guardian?

I have not a clue, buddy. Not a goddamn clue.

So what it means is that I've been paying attention, really. I don't just become strong in times of crisis. I've been trying to do better. Be better. Learn, and listen, and rethink myself. Break out of lockstep, of doing things the way I've always done them. Try to always do better than I did, build habits I like, stop waiting for things to change and just do it. Become the chaos, instead of waiting for it to hit me.

It means I need to live up to what Guthix told Sabe to do. It means being gentler, being kinder, not burning bridges when I'm not sure. It means keeping an eye out for any sign Zamorak's listening, in case I am his son, in case I really have to decide what I'm gonna do about being the son of chaos incarnate.

But other than the questioning, what it feels like is just... what I was already dealing with, just a little more at arm's length and easier to deal with. Once I recognize that his issues are reflective of mine, if I solve his, I have a pretty good idea of how to solve mine. Some of it won't work exactly right - Zamorak will always forgive him for not being the son he expected he might have had, my own parents may not, yay I'm queer and pagan - but it's a good rule of thumb.

It's also just comforting to know that when in doubt, nothing can kill me, because I simply refuse to die. I am World Guardian, I am a demigod of chaos incarnate, all the hellfire in the world can do nothing but strengthen me. And if I present those to myself as unshakeable beliefs, because for Sabe they are, then I'll be okay. It probably couldn't stop most disasters or tragedies, but I got hit by a car, broke five bones, and walked away with a record recovery time, so I mean... I can't prove that I can't die by some accident or tragedy, but you also can't prove that I can. (Trying to do so usually falls under what we call 'murder', and I personally believe I can't be murdered. Only assassinated.)

But really, I think the worst that could possibly happen with a new linktype is that you learn what not to do. It's new, it's scary, it's chaotic, and from where I'm standing, that's the best way to learn.

[kryptsune]

Kit’s Fandom Love List

🌼 So I have been messaging back and forth with my friends and everyone knows me as the Fell Queen pretty much, an offshoot of the Undertale fandom, but I love so much more content besides that! I was asked what, so here is a list of the things that give me the warm and fuzzies! These are in no order and not all of them obviously. Super special ones are bolded!  Anime/ Manga:  1. Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) 2. Pandora Hearts 3. Beastars 4. Death Parade 5. Ergo Proxy 6. Inuyasha 7. Fruits Basket 8. Danganronpa 9. Kyoukai No Kanata (Beyond the Boundary) 10. Ancient Magus Bride  Shows:  1. Supernatural (this show is one of my favorites of all time. Say what you want about it but... you can’t take my love away from it.) 2. Doctor Who (all of them up to Mat Smiths version) 3. The Magicians  4. Sherlock 5. Stargate SG1 and Atlantis  6. The Librarians 7. Eureka  8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer 9. The Vampire Diaries 10. Kippo and the Age of Wonderbeasts 11. The Arcadia trilogy (Trollhunters, 3 Below, Wizards) 12. Avatar (the SERIES) 13. Grimm 14. Gravity Falls 15. Star Vs the Forces of Evil 16. She Ra (this was a shocking one to me I definitely recommend it) 17. Gargoyles (yes the Disney cartoon it still hold up today btw) 18. Hazbin Hotel Games:  1. Persona 5 2. Okami 3. Spyro 4. Crash Bandicoot 5. Sly Cooper 6. Gris  7. Franbow 8. Final Fantasy (X specifically its a nostalgic thing) 9. Animal Crossing 10. Pokemon 11. Tomb Raider (OG not the new ones) 12. Danganronpa 13. Five Nights at Freddy’s (Please don’t murder me)

[nightcoremoon]

ok so let's talk twilight. girl meets vampire. girl falls in love with vampire. vampire falls in love with girl. girl and vampire start dating. evil vampire wants to eat girl. vampire kills evil vampire.

new moon. vampire leaves girl. girl gets depressed. girl rebounds with werewolf. werewolf wants to fuck girl. werewolf realizes he's the rebound. werewolf leaves girl. girl seemingly attempts suicide. vampire learns about this and attempts suicide. girl goes to tell him she's not dead. vampire king gives a warning.

eclipse. vampire and girl are back together. evil vampire girlfriend wants revenge. evil vampire girlfriend makes evil vampire army. vampires and werewolves kill evil vampire and army. vampire king gives another warning. vampire marries girl.

breaking dawn. vampire and girl get married. and fuck. girl gets pregnant. baby will kill girl. but abortion is ~evil~. girl dies and gets turned into vampire. werewolf wants to fuck the baby vampire. vampire king shows up to kill the baby. it was a big misunderstanding lol. happily ever after except for the people who died.

that's the gist of things for anyone who doesn't remember.

ok so there's two groups of people. team edward, people who are satisfied with the canon. team jacob, people who say "fuck that, girl should be with werewolf instead". and many people on team jacob proceed to say that team edward all condone pedophilia and stalking and other terrible things. fandom wars happened. and in the end, most people moved on.

...

but not me.

now, I wasn't an obsessed super fan. I thought the first book was boring as shit until the second half. it took me a month to read the first half and three days to read the second half. I read the entire second in literally one day. the entire third in like 3 days. and the entire fourth in like 5. I watched all the movies in theaters. but none of this was by choice. my mom and my several sisters basically made me, but it was okay I guess. personally my fandom progression started with final fantasy 12. it moved into eragon, death note, jak and daxter, avatar the last airbender, invader zim, tales of symphonia, a dash of harry potter, sly cooper, my little pony friendship is magic, dead space, red vs blue, twokinds, resident evil, etc. I'm not in the twilight fandom by choice, but I know all the lore and trivia so fuck it. I might as well be.

I'm team edward.

I know what you're thinking. "but he's 100 years old trying to fuck a teenager! he watched her sleep! he almost killed her drinking her blood! he made her suicidal and depressed! he was super jealous and possessive whenever jacob was around! he broke her bones when they had sex! he impregated her with a monster baby that killed her! HE IS TEH EVILEST EVAR!!1"

let's take this one piece at a time.

1- he didn't try to fuck her. she tried to fuck him. but he said not until she's a full grown adult capable of making her own decisions, and not until marriage ~because premarital sex is wrong~

2- yeah watching her sleep was a little creepy but we can attribute that to stephenie meyer thought it was romantic because she's a dumb white mormon cultist

3- he is a VAMPIRE, and not by choice. and it was either suck the poison out of bella or let her become a vampire. which he didn't want to happen because ~being a vampire sucks 🥁~ so yeah he saved her life. and he managed to not drain her dry and kill her even though her blood is so goddamn delicious because she's a fucking mary sue

4- he didn't make her suicidal and depressed by leaving the country so she didn't get in any life threatening situations like being around jasper who has the self control of a fat kid in a twinkie factory. bella just took the breakup really really badly, and if someone reacts badly to a breakup, it's on THEM, not the other person. saying any differently is, what's the word, toxic and clingy. her emotional instability for plot is just indicative of the author's inherent misogyny (which makes sense, as dumbass mormon cultists are rife with the stuff)

5- he was not jealous and possessive. JACOB was the one who was toxic, since "that cold one will TAKE MY BELLA AWAY FROM ME". jacob wanted bella for himself because he had a crush on her since they were kids, and it was a super unhealthy obsession. edward could read his thoughts and was pissed; consider his backstory in hearing potential rapists' thoughts and killing them. but edward couldn't kill jacob because he was bella's friend. nothing more, though, and jacob fumed in his nice guy fedora

6- again, edward is a VAMPIRE, and a horny bastard at that, because he is a gentleman and therefore probably was a virgin too. he even told bella countless times that it would happen but bella thought it was #WORTH to get some of that hot vampire dick. I guess she's into some super kinky shit. no wonder 50 shades of grey made sense as a twilight fanfiction. anyway, bella seems to have fully consented, otherwise she's the world's most unreliable narrator.

7- the monster baby plot arc was propaganda against female bodily autonomy because "teh babby haz a SOUL and abortion is MURDER even tho she'll LITERALLY DIE otherwise but hey backwoods redneck mormon values are more important than the lives of women, right? anyway, ironically enough, he respected her bodily autonomy by not fixing the mistake he didn't think could happen (uterus vampires can't get pregnant but dick vampires can get other people pregnant? NANI, THE FUCK???) because bella didn't consent to him killing the fetus that was literally breaking her bones from inside since ~abortion is wrooOOoong~

and now, counterpoint.

...and counter-counterpoint.

"edward groomed bella" edward's main focus when she was 16 was to not kill her and drink the delicious cherry fanta, and his main focus at 17 was to make sure she didn't die and that nobody else killed her and drank her delicious cherry fanta, and only when she was a full ass adult was he like "alright fine you wanna marry me sooooo bad here's ur fuckin diamond ring". yeah they made out but like, consider that a FUCKING MORMON WROTE THIS BOOK. one can't fault a character for the dumbassery of the author. that's why in this house we stan james potter. and besides, a few years ago whilst playing truth or dare I at 21 was dared to kiss a 17 year old and I did- granted I didn't know he was 17 at the time but that doesn't even matter because granted edward was a lot older than 21, but granted that doesn't even matter anyways because you know how many teenage girls would make out with oscar wilde, keanu reeves, chris evans, or danny devito jason momoa if they had the chance? I know I would have. it isn't necessarily sexual unless you want it to be. besides, the argument could be made that brain development stops when you become a vampire, considering their body stops developing too. technically edward had the brain and body of a 17 year old, he was just 17 for a long time. so any way you slice it, there are acceptable explanations justifying this in the magic fantasy land of what-ifs and JUST BAD WRITING.

we good?

now let's tackle jacob.

he demanded she "choose" him over edward. he was just as childish and petty as mike. oh, poor mike. he was just too dumb. SWM be like. anyway, he literally abandoned her, his friend, because she wouldn't fuck him, when she needed her best friend the most. because that's who jacob was to her. he was her best friend. she kinda ignored him because edward is smexy and it overpowered her tiny teenage girl brain, or at least that's the author's excuse (yay for internalized misogyny). when they were in the mountains and he was keeping her from dying of hypothermia edward literally had to ask him to stop thinking about fucking her. while she was unconscious. which is kinda rapey. and then to top it all off, he wanted to fuck her baby daughter. so jacob is literally every single thing people called edward. he is jealous, possessive, creepy, obsessed with bella, and a whole bunch of other stereotypes associated with brown skinned man wanting to fuck white skinned women.

...

...

...

oh dear god.

wow I can't believe that the white woman who took an existing native american tribe and rewrote their culture to fit her vampire love story for white girls to have a sexy ~exotic~ savage feral werewolf boy in the love triangle turned out to be a racist all along.

so ideally, jacob would be the ideal partner for bella. lore-wise as well. bella and jacob grow old together in their plain regular normal human lives (and hopefully bella's face doesn't get clawed off like sam and leah BIG OOF FOR THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE), edward and tanya get married like they were supposed to do all along and gallivant off and do vampire things, all that jazz. edward isn't creepy and weird, bella isn't a magic mary sue with a magic fucking jean grey mind shield, jacob isnt an asshole.

but after reading the books and the evidence provided, I cannot in good conscience be team jacob over team edward.

thank you for your time.

fuck stephenie meyer.

and fuck all the dudebros who dog on girls for liking twilight anyways, as if dudebros don't watch and consume shitty media all the time.

[thenightling]

My few grievances about The Batman vs. Dracula:

The animated film The Batman vs. Dracula is both a guilty pleasure and a disappointment for what might have been.  I sort of like it but at the same time acknowledge it’s a very flawed movie.    Here are a few of the problems I have with The Batman vs. Dracula the animated movie.   Note: I do like this movie.  It’s a guilty pleasure because I know it’s flawed.  Anyway, here we go.

1.   I would have preferred to see Dracula up against Kevin Conroy’s Batman, Batman of the 1990s Batman animated series.  To me this version is the perfect Batman and in my mind (when I was ten-years-old) he was the version of Batman I wanted to meet my other favorite characters like Disney’s Gargoyles, or The Real Ghostbusters.  So of course he’s the version I would have preferred meet Dracula.

2.   I acknowledge The Batman vs. Dracula doesn’t really follow  The Batman vs. Dracula (Red Rain) graphic novel trilogy.  This doesn’t bother me too much.   Truth be told I wish they would make a new Batman vs. Dracula in the main DC comics continuity.  DC almost never uses Dracula.   And honestly, I kind of felt the trilogy was mildly disappointing.  

3.   Dracula is one of the few public domain characters that I can’t help but say Marvel got better (except the stupid “Dark Elf” look where he had that high white pony tail and red armor from 2010 until 2018.   That was annoying.)   But no one can deny that Tomb of Dracula (which gave us Blade: The Vampire Hunter) is now a classic.

Come to think of it, I prefer Marvel’s Adam (The Frankenstein Monster) to DC’s Frankenstein monster too.   At least when Marvel remembers Adam (The Frankenstein Monster) is intelligent and articulate.  Sometimes he gets writers who are stuck on “Fiiire Baaaaad!” and clearly aren’t familiar with the Mary Shelley novel... (Someone hire Steve Niles, quick!)

 4.   On to the story itself.    This scene. This scene right here!   Bruce Wayne / Batman The Great Detective... He should not have had to write “Alucard” on a silver platter in lipstick and hold it up to a mirror to realize it’s Dracula spelt backward. I get that The Batman is the more kid friendly incarnation of the animated Batman but why not a scene of him telling someone like Alfred or someone else that Alucard is Dracula backward.   Spare “The Great Detective” his dignity.

Also let’s be honest.  Dr. Alucard is just a terrible alias and Dracula is just asking to be caught.  And not just because he was overly excited by a platter of steak tartare.   This Dracula is so obvious I think he wants to be captured.  ...I think it’s a cry for help.   

5.   Dracula’s death scene.  Batman in the main DC comics continuity and especially in the more kid friendly animated universe does. not. kill.   Yet here in this animated movie (Tied to the “Kid friendly” The Batman animated series) has a scene of Dracula defeated and on his knees.  And what does Batman do?:

Weak and on his knees Dracula looks up at him and goes “You’re Bruce Wayne.”  (Someone clearly forgot one of Dracula’s powers is supposed to be mind reading!  In fact I’m adding that next.  The de-powering of Dracula.)   Batman melodramatically has his cape spread in front of a giant sunlamp’s light.  (No, really...)  It briefly looks like Batman is going to show him mercy.  Batman corrects Dracula by saying “I’m Batman.”  And it’s a fairly cool delivery but then he lowers his spread cape so that the light kills Dracula.  Who is cowering ON HIS KNEES!  Our hero, ladies and gentlemen!  

Questions and problems related to this:

A.  Does killing Dracula not count as taking a life because he’s undead?   Isn’t that some sort of racism, Batman?   And if Dracula doesn’t count as alive where’s the line? Does that mean Solomon Grundy and Swamp Thing don’t technically count as alive?   Grundy is literally a zombie.  Swamp Thing is the consciousness of a dead man absorbed into “The Green” and in a plant-avatar body.  Run, Swampy!  Batman’s goin’ gardening!    

B.    Does this not count as murder because it’s technically the lamp that killed Dracula and not Batman? This is a dubious technicality.  Again, where’s the line?

C.   Honestly, based on how it played out, it looked like he WAS going to show Dracula mercy but once he realized Dracula knew his secret identity he decided to go “Nope.”

D.   Even The Avengers don’t try to kill Dracula anymore.   Marvel heroes have elaborate restraints and special cells for holding Dracula.   If Tony Stark can do it, so can Batman.  Wouldn’t Dracula’s blood addiction and predatory instincts and animal-like inclinations from an arcane blood mutation that grants superhuman powers earn him his own special cell at Arkham? 

E.   We saw at the start of The Batman vs. Dracula that Dracula had easily been held in chains in a coffin away from his homeland.  So obviously he can be contained.  Was Batman just being lazy?  In Batman The Brave and the Bold we learn he has Nth metal handcuffs that can hold a ghost.  He should be able to contain Dracula.  

F.   Come on!  Dracula is easy to contain compared to The Joker yet The Joker is spared!

G.  This was a missed opportunity.  Think how interesting a recurring Dracula could have been.  He could have escaped or been captured.   And if he was captured a semi-reformed Dracula would make for a fun reluctant hero or anti-hero (So long as he keeps all of his powers, of course.)  Imagine the banter if Bruce held him in The Bat cave. 

6.  Dracula is too depowered.  Marvel and DC are both guilty of making Dracula burn in the sun (like in the movies) but in the original Stoker novel Dracula could walk in the daylight just fine. He was just weaker by day because it was not his natural time.  And he could not take animal form by day.   

Marvel once published a graphic novel of the original Dracula story by Bram Stoker and in that they remember that Dracula could walk by day. And they claim the graphic novel is the backstory for the version of Dracula in Tomb of Dracula but by the time you get to Tomb of Dracula he burns in the sun.  So go figure...  

Anyway, Marvel’s Dracula has the power to conjure storms, turn into a wolf, bat, and mist.  He has been raised from the dead many times.   He can read minds. And he can hypnotize. Of course he has all the traditional weaknesses too but still this version seems far more powerful than DC’s Dracula...

 Marvel’s dracula is just superior.  

And what makes it more frustrating is Dracula is in the public domain. That means anyone can use him.   And they could have and still could do so much more with him.

7.    It’s a little odd that Dracula’s wife in The Batman vs. Dracula is Carmilla.  Carmilla is a lesbian in her original novel. She’s bisexual in Castlevania.  I don’t mind her being bisexual.  And I don’t really mind this twist. It’s just a little odd.

8.  I keep wishing they would remake the animated movie but with a more serious / adult feel to it, like Justice League: Dark.   And I wish DC was as good about finding clever uses for their Dracula as Marvel does.  DC’s version goes to waste.

Just look how cool he looks!  Why aren’t they using him?!

[geryreviews]

Alex Verus: Fated

Book by Benedict Jacka

Review by Gery Hristova

Warning!: This review contains the usual random fanart and pointless comics done by me. Enjoy!

I wonder how explaining these books to people would go?

Ok, ok, I know people keep comparing Alex Verus to Harry Dresden. But you know what, now that I have finally read the first 7 books of the Dresden Files (thus becoming a specialist on the topic), I can safely say… I like Alex Verus a LOT LOT LOOOOT better.

Why?

EPIC MAGIC FIGHTS, POLITICS, COOL PLOT TWISTS, MAGIC EVERYWHERE, ONE LOVE-INTEREST, LONDON, PROTAGONIST IS A DIVINER AND IT’S AWESOME WHEN USED IN FIGHTS OR EVERYDAY LIFE, MAGIIIIIIIC!!!!

*continues fangirling for a few more minutes*

Ok, we all have reasons to resonate with some characters/stories more than others.

Me, personally, I adore books filled with more politics, action scenes, magic fights and …ONE LOVE-INTEREST! Ok, it doesn’t have to be ONE, but definitely not every single person with boobs that happens to pass near the main hero!

Back to the point …I mean, back to the~

REVIEW! 

THE SETTING

Best way to describe the series...

Don’t expect police investigations or crime stories involving vampires, fairies, werewolves and others. Nor is the protagonist a powerful avatar, able to use all types of magic through martial arts.

But the world IS secretly inhabited by mages who have their own governing system. AND each mage can only use one type of magic…hmmm, maybe Dresden Files+X-men.

Types of Magicians

Cinder - fire mage, Anne-life mage and Sonder-time mage

You have the most common Elemental Mages who can use powers such as air, fire, water, lightning, force, etc.

Living Mages are mages who can affect living things (either to influence their mind, heal/mess up their bodies, etc)

And the final, rarest and strangest of them all are the  Universal Mages - they can affect time, space, chance, they can see the past or the present, etc.

Anyways, most mages belong either to the Light or the Dark ...faction.

Levstas - a Light Mind Mage 

Both factions can be equally evil and cruel (it's only a matter of whether you feel the need to hide the bodies or brag about them). There is a constant struggle for power and status, even among the Light mages. Therefore, enlisting/enslaving/black-mailing useful minions is a great pass-time for the big players in the magical society.

And having someone who can see the future in your team can be highly profitable.  

THE PROTAGONIST

Alex Verus is a diviner. No, he cannot shoot deadly bullets made of air, disintegrate you with a touch or anything as flashy, but he can come up with other creative ways to hurt you if he feels like it and annoy the crap out of you while he's at it. This rare type of mages specializes in information- they can learn any new skills instantly just by checking into the future in which they've spent hours/days studying them; they can find out any dark secrets about you if they put their mind into it; they are hard to surprise, hard to kill and hard to be found if they don't want to be found. Random chances and free will limit the certainty of their predictions, but Diviners are the best at exploiting any situation to fit their needs.

THE PLOT

Nevertheless, being a neutral mage (not belonging to either the Dark or the Light faction), means that Alex Verus has plenty of time to mind his own business (a small shop selling books, herbs and other "magical" thing-a-ma-bobs), advise any confused novices and, of course, look through the future for the fun of it...sometimes resulting in answering his customers' questions before they even ask them.

Alex's peaceful and predictable life comes to an end when he becomes the centre of attention for major players in the magical world. They all have one thing in common - they need a diviner (who hasn't gone into hiding yet) to retrieve an ancient, seemingly-impossible-to-get, artefact. Corrupt Council members, powerful Dark Mages, dangerous acquaintances from his past, are just a few of the new additions to Alex's list of people-to-avoid-at-any-cost. The only question is: should he run or will his curiosity be the death of him.<spoiler>(the fact that there is a sequel, gives it away, I suppose.</spoiler>

WHAT BOTHERED ME IN BOOK 1 AND DOES IT IMPROVE?

-LUNAAAAA -  One of Alex's few friends, an adept with a very dangerous ability, Luna is one of the main reasons readers can decide to turn away from the series. GOOD NEWS - she doesn't stay a useless wimp for long (only in the first 2 books). And neither does Alex keep treating her like a pet dog. XD

 -Illogical deisions- The first book has a few, which I didn't notice during my first read (cause I was having too much fun!)

WHAT I REALLY REALLY LIKE!

Alex vs Onyx - All you need to know is that Onyx is a Dark Force Mage who absolutely despises Alex! Every scene where these two interact or fight with each other are priceless!   

Romance -  It's not Luna.  Rather slow (it takes a few books until you even realize there is one), but worth it! One of my favourite fictional couples of all time! 

And Morden...I like Morden too...how many fanarts did I do?

AUDIOBOOKS

The audiobooks are pretty good! It took me a bit of time to get used to the narrator's style since I read the first five books myself and had different voices for the characters, but other than that I have no major complaints.

COVERS

"I LOVE THE BRITISH ONES!" is what I would've said before THIS HAPPENED!

WHY PUBLISHER!!! WHYYYYYY! Now I need to buy the new ones as well in order to have matching covers…you’re so cruel…

I like the new ones too...

WEBSITE AND EXTRAS: 

There is a WHOLE encyclopedia regarding the Alex Verus's world! Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan.

CONCLUSION: 

Despite having read a HUUUUUGE amount of Urban Fantasies featuring male mages as protagonists, there's something about the Alex Verus series that totally captivates me: maybe it's the awesome divination magic that is used in a super creative fashion; maybe it's the world-building that might seem limited compared to other books, but it's very well-thought-out, detailed and believable; maybe it's Alex himself. Whatever it is, I consider Alex Verus to be one of my top 10 favourite series of all time (and top 3 favourite Urban Fantasy series)

Will I recommend to friends: if you enjoy Urban Fantasy, then definitely YES! Paperback, Hardback or Audiobook: Paperbacks are perfect (wait for the new covers to come out if you're living in the UK). Audiobooks are great too, but it took me some time getting used to the narrator. Nevertheless, still worth buying and highly enjoyable!

RECOMMENDATIONS

Here are some other similar Urban Fantasy series:

Dresden Files - DUH! Ok, half of the readers adore it, the other half hate it with passion! I tend to deviate between the two. Crime/Mystery/Urban Fantasy. 

Iron Druid - Focuses more on pagan deities (Celtic, Norse, Slavic), fairies and other mythical creatures. Couldn’t get into it, but it’s the second most popular one, so…

Peter Grant  -Very different and original. The style wasn’t my thing, but if you’re looking for a Fantasy/Crime book with an English twist, then go for it. 

Daniel Faust - More of an anti-hero, a lot darker and gorier than the rest. Barely any magic though… 

Prof Croft  - A Harry Dresden Fanfiction :D  that I enjoyed more than the majority of Harry’s books! Nevertheless, lots of similarities with the Dresden Files…

Happy Reading!

[darkzorua100]

Apparently yes if episode 57 is anything to go by.

Vrains, what the actual hell? I called something like this to happen all the way back in episode 19 but I didn’t think you would actually do it with the way things were going at this point!

“What if the experiments, the Hanoi Project, was some kind of mind/soul split where they took these kids and implanted them with AI technology and in turn extracted their emotions that they unleashed to give free will to an AI, creating the Ignis species.”

Granted, do I actually think what Bohman is saying is true? Hell no. Anything that comes out of his mouth should always be taken with a grain of salt and we all know it. That guy’s mind is so broken at this point with how many times he has risen up as a vampire (I’ve been watching Shiki so vampires have been on my mind lately and that beginning scene is giving flashbacks) that it is really just sad because he truly honestly believes he is Playmaker and Yusaku is the fake him. It is even sadder when you notice that Playmaker is so off his game that he’s honestly looking like he’s starting to believe him when in actuality it is so easy to find out if he is telling the truth or not just by the fact that he never actually called Playmaker by his actual name. If he was the real Yusaku, he would have said it to hammer his point even more but he doesn’t because he doesn’t actually know his real name since his group doesn’t know it. He says he knows how to counter Playmaker so well because he is him but that can also be checked off because of course they would know Playmaker’s strategies; they have been studying him after all. Then there is Ai who when you think about it should be able to tell who the real Yusaku is or not just because of their connection. Even if he couldn’t, for some reason, all Playmaker would have to do would be to ask Bohman a question that he would know the answer to, that the REAL Yusaku would know the answer to, before the Incident or during it, and if he gets it wrong, then yeah, you should obviously know he is lying.

However, at the same time, what Bohman is saying actually makes some sense. No he’s not Yusaku but I really think that something did happen to him during the Hanoi Project. Again, go to the link to see what I’m actually talking about but a lot of Yusaku abilities/traits would be explained if what Bohman is saying is true. His Link Sense, his intelligence, his demeanor (besides the PTSD being taken into account), and most importantly, his backstory. We still know NOTHING about Yusaku before he was captured for the Hanoi Project. Maybe it is because the writers had no reason to bring up what his life was like before it but no, it probably is because Yusaku just doesn’t know and of course he wouldn’t know because he never had a life before the Hanoi Project if he was born there like Bohman is claiming he was. Heck, when Spectre brought it up to Playmaker during his duel against him, Playmaker said nothing to that. You would think we would have gotten more backstory to Yusaku during that duel against Spectre, who we saw what his life was like before, during, and after the Hanoi Project, but no, we didn’t. Looking back at it, doesn’t that seem odd? That would have been a perfectly opportunity to give more backstory to Yusaku and his past since they were trying to compare his to Spectre’s.

I said it before and I’ll say it again, maybe Yusaku and Ai might have switched places? Not like how Bohman is claiming him and Yusaku did but they might have swapped some characteristics of the other instead of Ai just being based off of Yusaku like how Flame is to Takeru and so on with the other Ignises and their humans. Ai was the final Ignis to be created, if his Control ID is anything to go by, so maybe something went wrong during that time? Dr. Kogami could have been in such a rush to finish creating Ai, since maybe Ryoken might have already called the police by then and he was working on little time, that something might have went wrong during that process.

So yeah, in a nutshell, Bohman is lying about him being Yusaku (even though he thinks he’s telling the truth), but there could be some truth in what he’s saying about Yusaku not actually being “himself” before the Hanoi Project.

But yeah, with that whole discussion out of the way, Playmaker vs Bohman. God, Vrains why did you have to throw that “plot twist” at the end. With the way things were going, it seemed obvious Bohman was going to win. He’s not after Ai (oh great, more questions now on what this group of his wants if they aren’t after the Ignises but they still destroyed the Cyberse for some reason and captured Jin), so Playmaker doesn’t have that plot armor protecting him but now he can’t lose because he’s going to get his body stolen. More stuff I said was going to happen that is actually going to happen! Well this sucks. I still want Bohman to win this duel but after that reveal, pretty sure Playmaker is going to win again. ‘Cause I don’t know how they are going to make this work now if Playmaker loses. *long sigh* And it was looking so promising too...

Well we got two weeks now to dissect the rest of this duel. I am very interested to see what 58′s cast list is going to be now after that plot twist. Makes me wonder if we could potentially get Yusaku’s parents revealed finally if we are driving more into his backstory. Same with Bohman if he is still actually a Lost Child, just not the one he thinks he is at the moment. If not, someone in this group has to be one. I still don’t think it is Haru, because his age doesn’t match up with the timeline (of course, age means nothing to Link Vrains avatars so who actually knows with him) or it could actually be their boss who is the Lost Child. Again age means nothing here.

[darkspellmaster]

Voltron: Just wanted to clear something up regarding the Interview that Lauren and Joaquim gave recently...The person you want to talk to about the VA’s names is the Voice Director, not the EPs...

Okay, so see this woman right here. I need you all to remember her name because this is Andrea Romano, and she is the Voice Director for Voltron. She has also been the Voice Director and Casting Director for...

The Gobots

Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf

The Smurfs

Paw Paws

The Jetsons 1980s reboot

Pound Puppies

The New Adventures of Jonny Quest

DuckTales

The New Yogi Bear Show

Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Paddington Bear

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers

Tiny Toon Adventures

Batman: The Animated Series

The Plucky Duck Show

Animaniacs

Bonkers

ReBoot

Freakazoid!

Pinky and the Brain

The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries

Superman: The Animated Series

The New Batman Adventures

Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain

Histeria!

Batman Beyond

Static Shock

The Zeta Project

Justice League

Teen Titans

Justice League Unlimited

Avatar: The Last Airbender          

The Boondocks

The Batman

El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera

SpongeBob SquarePants

Ben 10: Alien Force

Batman: The Brave and the Bold

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien  

ThunderCats

Motorcity

The Legend of Korra

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Beware the Batman        

Niko and the Sword of Light

The Adventures of Puss in Boots

Voltron: Legendary Defender

DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp

Jetsons: The Movie

Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation              

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero

Wakko's Wish

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

Barbie in the Nutcracker

Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman

Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

Superman: Doomsday

Justice League: The New Frontier

Batman: Gotham Knight

Wonder Woman

Green Lantern: First Flight

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies

Camp Scare

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

Batman: Under the Red Hood    

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

All-Star Superman

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights

Batman: Year One

Justice League: Doom

Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Superman: Unbound

Flashpoint Paradox        

Batman: Assault on Arkham

Son of Batman  

Batman vs. Robin

Justice League: Gods and Monsters        

Ratchet & Clank                

Animaniacs Splat

Overwatch

This is just a sample of what she’s worked on. Andrea is the woman who directs and helps with the casting of the characters. This means that she would be the one that knows who voiced who on the show. 

Most of the time the EPs, or Executive Producers are in contact with the writers, the ADR and the Voice Director, and Casting Director, and the Animation lead team (Story board head, animation lead, background lead, CGI lead, etc) and the other heads of the departments. They mostly work with the Main cast, or long running/ major reoccuring characters VAs. This means that they likely will not have a lot of interaction with a smaller character’s VA. This doesn’t mean that they don’t care about the VA but it does mean that they are more focused on making sure that the Main cast and characters like say Matt, will understand their roles and the like at times. 

The Voice Director’s job is to take that script that came out, and have the Actors play the parts and present them to the best of their ablities and pull the dramatic tension out of it. 

That scene with Shiro and Keith in Last season, that was Andrea pushing Steve and Josh to their limits to get that scene right. She’s also got others working with her as assistants and co directors at points, but this is mostly her doing this work and getting the actors to play their parts. 

People are getting upset over the forgetting of one actor, but it’s pretty likely that neither of the EPs directly interacted with that VA for a long enough time. IE they met him probably, said Hi, and depending on how long and how many sessions he was in for, which if Adam is not a hugely important character in the over all story (IE, like Colleen in that he is important to a character but not directly affecting the plot itself), then that is really really limited seeing as they have other departments that will take up their time.  Now this is not to say that they don’t respect the actor, it just means, as far as the people concerned directly with him and who would be working the most with him thus probably the person to ask more about this would be, Josh, since he plays Shiro, and Andrea, since she is directing it and probably any of these three as they are the casting directors:

Ania O'Hare Mary Hidalgo Cymbre Walk

As such they would be the people to ask about the voice of Adam. It’s their job to find the actors and cast them. Andrea directs them, and the EPs basically are there to manage and make sure everything runs smooth with the story developments and over all direction of the show... So please...please guys, stop harping on them over not remembering who did Adam. Yes he’s important to Shiro, but not to the over all story, which...If I might remind people, is actually focused on Keith and his growth...or it’s supposed to be and that was shoved aside for Shiro...thanks Suits...thanks. So yes, Adam is important, but not to Keith, or Lance or Allura (who are most of the POVs in this series thus far) and because of that, he probably doesn’t have a ton of screen time, and thus Lauren and JDS probably didn’t get to meet or talk with the VA of him a lot, so, yeah, it’s more than likely that his name slipped their mind.