#i think the fan content is really adorable but the potential for unrequited love and matsuda angst is just ❤️

[biwenqing]

My Thoughts on: Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

I picked this up after I finished my reread of Golden Stage/Terrace, looking for a relationship that felt similarly balanced. I think I found it, but the books are also so different it would be a disservice to compare them. Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know is very much a story of the fantastic with lots of playing with tropes (which is a soft spot of mine). You can read the details on the Carrd and you can read the translation here on WordPress.

Things I adored:

The characters: Just about every one of the main characters (except for the ones you were supposed to hate/dislike) are delightful! Moral codes are all over the map, but that's what made it so great. No one was fully good or bad, and the story explores the ways that work in this world. The characterizations were delightful, especially considering that the POV does shift around a lot. There are some characters' POVs that would feel a bit dragged out now and then, but that was so rare and usually ended in advancing the plot so masterfully, I could easily forgive it.  

The premise: The fan-favorite character/secondary male love interest of a terrible hetero romance novel has said novel dropped on his head with a note asking him to fix the reader hated ending. It seems like a simple set up, but it gets so complicated and the ways it dives into some of the existential questions that comes up when you find you are a character in a story is masterful. I don't want to say more because I don't want to spoil it - I went in unspoiled and the twists that came up around the premise delighted me!

The worldbuilding: This had some of the most detailed and specific descriptions of the way cultivation worked (advancing and regressing in levels), as well as details on different cultivation paths to follow. At first, it felt like a lot, until it became clear how important it was to the story as a whole. By the time I was five chapters in, I no longer felt it was clunky and instead leaned into the insight it provided. 

Ties into characters but I feel needs its own shout-out - the female characters: There are three main ones, the "female lead" of the romance novel, and two high-ranking leaders in the demonic sect. They are all so different from each other and the stereotypes I feared would plague them were subverted or played with masterfully. Definitely shipping potential abounds between all three too, if that sweetens the deal. Support women's wrongs!!!

The romance: terrible bastard men miscommunicate at each other. Okay, not really, it's a lot more complicated than that. I will note that this is definitely a plot-heavy story so if you are looking for a more heavily romance focused, it might not be for you. But if you LOVE slow burn, unrequited love that is actually mutual, leveling of power imbalances so the relationship works better, exploring toxic and non-toxic possessiveness, power couples, and in a lot of ways friends to lovers, this story is for you!

Things I didn't like:

I don't think I have any? I couldn't read it fast enough? Like I said, some places would slow down a little, but it usually made sense in the context of a story that spanned so many decades.

Content Warnings:

Do pay attention to what is mentioned on the summaries. I think I'd more strongly warn for rape - the victim is a male character  assaulted by a female character, and it is brushed off in a way that made me uncomfortable, but I think that was also sort of the point? It does happen off screen. The male character ends up marrying the character who assaulted him sooooo... yeah. Be aware of that and take care of yourself! 

[teamfortresstwo]

The duality of Lawtsuda is liking it cause of the fan content and liking it because of canon

[foilfreak]

Headcannons for my favorite One Punch Man rarepair: Golden Ball x Spring Mustachio

Both joined the Hero Association around the same time and knew of each other in passing, due to living in the same city, but didn’t officially meet until about 8 months in, and as a result of that, these two did NOT like each other at all during those first 8 months. Spring Mustachio thought Golden Ball was just another crass and reckless delinquent using heroism as a legal outlet for violence, and Golden Ball thought Spring Mustachio was an entitled rich boy who was probably paying his way up the hero ranks. When the two heroes were finally forced to formally introduce themselves to one another at the first annual Hero Association banquet, or some other equivalently pointless publicity stunt the Associacion probably put on at some point or another, they were shocked to find just how wrong their initial judgments of one another actually were.

Despite Golden Ball’s appearance, what with the bleach-blonde hair, slightly baggy clothes, tall, muscular frame, and the lollipops that Spring Mustachio correctly guesses are a substitute for cigarettes, Golden Ball is actually incredibly intelligent, having earned a master’s degree in chemical engineering (this particular headcanon is inspired by @batneko) from a highly prestigious university (currently considering going back for his PhD if he can save up the money), and all of his signature weapons are his own personal inventions. Likewise, Spring Mustachio, despite having the appearance and persona of someone who grew up having everything handed to him on a silver platter, had long ago rejected the escalator to success his parents had offered him in the form of taking over as head of their family business, in favor of going out on his own to explore the world and everything it had to offer, mastering the art of swordsmanship and opening his own restaurant (where even after hiring a decent sized staff, he still took up menial tasks such as washing dishes and serving guests) along the way.

After getting to know each other at that first meeting, the two heroes became surprisingly fast friends, their personalities mixing rather well together on top of having many shared interested, and even began hanging out outside of their hero duties, where they already spent a considerable amount of time together considering how frequently the Association paired them together for missions. Most of their time outside of work was spent at Spring Mustachio’s restaurant, engaging in casual, slightly teasing conversation over onion rings and a couple rounds of beer after a long day of hero work. Later on into their friendship however, it became much more common for Golden Ball to also come into the restaurant during the day to bother the older man during his shift, not that Spring Mustachio minded the company one bit, especially if it meant having a couple of extra hands available to dry the dishes he’d just washed. It eventually got to the point where it was pretty much common knowledge throughout the city that if Golden Ball wasn’t out on a patrol or sent away on a mission for the Association, the first place you ought to check if you’re looking for him would be Spring Mustachio’s. Likewise if it’s Spring Mustachio you’re looking for and the restaurant is a no-go, try your hand at getting ahold of Golden Ball, cuz wherever he is, chances are that Spring Mustachio is standing right next to him. Its a wonder how the whole city doesn’t start assuming the two are dating when they begin referring to each other as ‘Gold’ and ‘Spring’, during hero work, and exclusively by their first names when off the clock.

The two heroes remain nothing more than close friends for full year after their first meeting, and while both had developed more-than-friendly feelings for one another over that time, neither were planning on doing anything about it, not wanting unrequited feelings to potentially ruin the incredible friendship they’d formed, among the other internal struggles that come with accepting that you’re attracted to other men in a society that, although no longer criminalizes homosexuality, definitely still doesn’t view it in a positive light by any means. Spring Mustachio has been in the closet his whole life and plans to keep it that way to avoid the potential social backlash. Golden Ball on the other hand didn’t realize he was bisexual until grad school and has since only managed to work up the courage to come out to his (thankfully incredibly supportive) family and closest childhood friends. Needless to say neither of them were in the headspace to even think about confessing, especially when they had so much to lose should it not go well, and both heroes were content to simply let their feelings die out over time if it meant that their friendship would remain intact.

Things change however, when Golden Ball’s place gets totally trashed in a monster attack, and the younger man finds himself staying with Spring Mustachio at his house until it can be repaired. Now not only do both men have to deal with their budding feelings for one another, but they also have to deal with their budding feelings for one another while also figuring out how to coexist in the same space, made even more interesting by the fact that Golden Ball has two pitbulls, Gizmo and Tonka, and Spring Mustachio isn’t the biggest fan of dogs (spoiler: Spring Mustachio falls in love with the sweet little puppers and spoils them absolutely rotten, much to Golden Ball’s amusement). Over the couple of months it takes for Golden Ball’s apartment to be fixed the men learn several things about each other that never would have come to light in any other context, including, but not limited to: Spring Mustachio’s extensive collection of alcohol bottles from all the drink’s he’s tried over the years (and of course all the stories that come with those bottles), Golden Ball’s horrific nicotine addiction being the result of an undiagnosed anxiety disorder that got BAD toward the end of undergrad and was forced to come to an end when he had a heart attack at 25, the tumultuous relationship Spring Mustachio has had with his family (specifically his parents) since breaking away from the plan they had created for him, the fact that Golden Ball is easily the biggest nerd that Spring Mustachio has ever met (and probably the smartest too), the brief run Spring Mustachio had as a competitive fencer in his early 30s that Golden Ball thinks he should get back into, the adorable way Golden Ball talks to his dogs when he thinks no one is listening, and so much more.

These things of course only cause their feelings to worsen and the situation just continues to spiral out of control from there. Im torn over whether I want them to actually get together in like a nice, mature way, like they ultimately end up talking abou their feelings to just get them off their chests, you know like adults, or if i want them to confess after getting into a huge fight, like maybe one of them got really hurt and some things they didnt actually mean were said and so they didn’t talk for a bit but then they end up tracking each other down and confessing after the tension finally snaps or something like that. I’ll leave that up for you all to decide but what i will say is that they get together just as Golden Ball’s apartment is finished being rebuilt, but with his lease being up at the end of the month and having already settled rather comfortably at Spring Mustachio’s place, he decides not to renew the lease and just stay where he is, much to Spring Mustachio’s delight.

As for their families, Spring Mustachio tells only his older sister and younger brother, who are confused, but ultimately supportive and happy that their brother found someone he truly loved and wanted to be with. His parents end up finding out somehow and while they aren’t exactly thrilled about it when they first learn that their eldest son is dating another man nearly 20 years his junior, they are, to their credit, polite and avoid making any inappropriate comments on the rare occasions he and Golden Ball do agree to visit the estate for dinner. Golden Ball initially only tells his parents, but things rarely stay secret for very long in his family, and not even a week goes by before his grandparents are calling asking if he’ll be bringing his new boyfriend to the cookout at the end of the month. Spring Mustachio has a fantastic time meeting the plethora of grandparents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and close family friends that make up Golden Ball’s wonderfully lively family, though he does end up getting thrown into the pool by Golden Ball’s older brothers at some point, as is custom treatment for “new members” of the family. He doesn’t seem to mind all that much, especially when Golden Ball’s mother finally breaks out the baby pictures and he gets to coo over how adorably plump his boyfriend was as an infant, much to said boyfriend’s growing embarrassment.

For professionalism’s sake they decide to keep the relationship on the dl and though the two are rarely seen apart, they save the more intimate moments and actions for behind closed doors. No need to give the press an excuse to start shit.

Let me know what you think of my headcanons and what your headcanons are for this rarepair if you have any!!!

[merryfortune]

arc v anniversary: fav character

I’m seeing a lot of Yuya love and none of his fangirls irl have anything on my favourite arc v character: Mieru Houchun

Mieru Houchun is amazing. I love her to bits and pieces so here is like an outline of why

1. personal relatability

Mieru is one of those few characters whom I can see a lot of myself in: she’s small and loud and eccentric. Eccentric especially. Personally, I see Mieru as who I would love to be: pastel goth dresses and psychic abilities. She’s also a coward; she ran away from the fight when she knew she couldn’t make the grade. I’m a bit like that too.

2. plot points

Mieru is the star of one of my favourite arc v foreshadowing scenes. I love her scene where she discusses colour theory with Yuzu and Mrs Sakaki and the colours she talks about correlate to Zarc which is brilliant in my opinion

3. her relationship with Yuya

I got into arc v last year during the realisation that I was personally stuck in a case of unrequited love so I really feel for Mieru. That and one of my favourite running tropes in yugioh is the unrequited crush girl(tm) and I really love Mieru’s take on it. the girl has a yuya teddy bear, I can respect that because I have like... 20 poems about my yuya

4. fan content

Mieru is... a hidden gem, I think. I can’t think of anyone who hates her and I think that gives her a unique disposition because she’s honestly so... shipppable?? in my opinion? like you’ve got yuya if you like unrequited love and there’s plenty of other options a little wilder. 

Not to mention, cool Lancer Mieru AUs or AUs where Mieru’s powers get remembered and she can be used as the communications officer between the Lancers and Standard.

5. her character design 

Mieru’s colour scheme is great. Her personality is wholly conveyed in her clothes. I think Arc V had great character designs but honestly, I find Mieru’s to be a stand out and her deck is themed around types of divination and she’s adorable and I just love her Look and just look at her concept art, she’s so expressive and eccentric... i love it so much

6. her potential arc

finally we have her “potential arc”. I mentioned before, cool lancer AUs and being a coward. I think Mieru has a very unused or untalked about arc which is going from being a know it all to realising the world isn’t set in stone. If I was in her shoes, going from knowing absolutes to knowing that fate can be changed would be terrifying but she learned to do that in her few episodes, or so I like to think.

Anyways, I sincerely love Mieru Houchun and I love her with all my heart.

[dmieii-blog]

Buffy Vs Twilight A Slayer, A Swan, As well as a Vampire

Buffy Vs Twilight - A Slayer, a Swan, and a Vampire

Regardless if you are Crew Edward or Staff Jacob, Crew Angel or Group Spike You can find something that all these supporters have in popular and that is passion, passion to the figures and tales that make up the two most widely used contributions into the pop culture of vampires in the last twenty years. With that passion, as is usually the case, arrives debate and controversy.

In 2008, the movie adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's e-book Twilight was unveiled catapulting the number of guides prepared by Stephanie Meyer from the charts. The Twilight trend had started and fans all around the nation devoured as much on the guides, movies, soundtracks and merchandise as you can. The series itself is four books, Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.

There was another team of supporters, a rather more mature lover-foundation, that reacted with annoyance in the followers of The brand new trend proclaiming this was absolutely nothing new, the storylines now renowned bore a placing resemblance for the vampire lifestyle which they had acknowledged and cherished for 10-as well as a long time, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the Tv set collection created by Joss Whedon, ran for seven seasons from 1997 by way of 2003. Gradually, the Buffy community started to develop at any time extra irritated at the attention being obtained with the Twilight collection along with the Twilight admirers became Similarly as irritated professing the Twilight sequence was the two distinct and top-quality on the Buffy series.

Twilight

Whilst the Twilight trend was initiated by the discharge in the movies, there was a large fan-base that was already in position; the publications on their own experienced by now produced a substantial subsequent of devoted supporters. I must warn the reader that I don't take into consideration a person a Twilight enthusiast whenever they have not browse the publications, though the movies are fantastic; I'm normally biased in direction of the e book in approximately every single scenario. Any time a guide is customized for film there is usually a lot content that is certainly disregarded. The guides chronicle the Tale of Bella Swan and her arrival during the town of Forks. She fulfills a young person named Edward who may have a mystery. The two of them tumble in really like and have to handle the results linked to mates, spouse and children, Culture and Edward's magic formula.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The Buffy The Vampire Slayer collection chronicles the Tale of Buffy Summers, a woman by using a key, and her arrival within the city of Sunnydale. She satisfies a younger man named Angel who's got a secret. The 2 of these drop in like and also have to deal with the results connected to close friends, destiny, destiny and their respective techniques.

Stephanie Meyer maintains that she experienced never witnessed Buffy The Vampire Slayer previous to writing her series. The development of the Twilight entire world began when she had a desire with regards to the two main people along with a dialogue that they may have, which sparked the novels, the world and pop culture. Although there is not any cause to disbelieve Stephanie Meyer, there are a few important similarities amongst the two collection.

** Warning: The rest of This information will deal with articles from both sequence that could be viewed as a spoiler When you have not study all the Twilight Series or found the entire Buffy The Vampire Slayer collection.**

Buffy Summers and Bella Swan, the two unbiased potent young Girls. Each of these are deposited right into a new city and left to climb the mountain of integrating into a new faculty, earning new buddies and changing to everyday living with a single parent.

Buffy falls in really like with a vampire named Angel, Bella falls in enjoy which has a Vampire named Edward.

The Buffy sequence had a werewolf named Oz who was A part of the most crucial cast of figures. Jacob is the werewolf from the Twilight Collection.

The two of the female potential customers Have got a best friend (woman) with supernatural powers.

Equally sequence Use a supernatural governing system, which sets procedures with the worlds they are now living in and disapproves of the connection concerning vampire and human.

In Every single sequence There's a male vampire and his woman companion who come to town to stir up trouble.

The topic of forbidden enjoy, betrayal, and heartbreak are common in both equally.

The ideal-dude Close friend of the feminine direct is usually a victim of unrequited like.

The listing of similarities goes on for pretty a while for a longer time, however, The purpose has become designed.

In spite of every one of the similarities, there are plenty of ways that the two storylines deviate.

Buffy has supernatural powers from your introduction of her character and struggles with a twin identity from the overall collection. Her life is a constant battle among destiny, destiny and absolutely free will. Bella would not occur into full realization of her supernatural skills until near the close from the collection. Whilst her Tale does not cope with these kinds of ominous Concepts like fate and Future, hers is a lot more of a story of love, romance and household.

Buffy is never in the position to make her romance with Angel function and although he will almost always be the adore of her existence, their marriage will never be fully understood. Bella and Edward at the conclusion of the collection find them selves in Film adore, joyful, that has a daughter and an eternity laid out just before them.

Buffy on a nearly weekly basis finds herself inside the midst of a fight during which the fate of the entire world rests within the harmony. Bella may possibly truly feel generally instances that the planet is ending but The truth is the scope of her actions isn't going to increase far too far outside of Forks.

Buffy can be a hero, with that comes battle, resolve, failure and redemption. Bella is actually a teen, relatable, fallible, and her character is designed intensely throughout the sequence.

In my intellect, The decision is straightforward, Twilight is not a remake, nor did Buffy The Vampire Slayer mostly encourage it. Even though there may be some similarities in the main points from the characters and plot elements that can certainly be described by the genre through which the stories in which dependent. If you write tales about vampires in modern day occasions, Whenever your lead is often a teenage feminine, it should be anticipated that a lot of the exact same plot devices might be current in both equally. When analyzing the rites of passage as well as interior workings of affection in youth it's no wonder the tales unfold in similar strategies In fact Buffy and Bella are the two human.

The overarching storyline of Buffy The Vampire Slayer is always that of the younger lady who was destined by fate to generally be a hero. She struggles with the twin id of currently being a traditional Female who would like to tumble in enjoy plus the Slayer who carries the obligation of defending the earth from unimaginable evil. The Twilight collection is a personality examine of the younger teen caught up in the star-crossed love affair. Nevertheless, discounting either story as a result of its similarity to prior is effective sets a scary precedent for numerous terrific operates of fiction. Repeatedly yet again we see tales with storylines that closely mirror and they are influenced by other functions. Some of them have arrive at be milestones of popular society. The Harry Potter collection, the Inheritance series and in many cases the Star Wars sequence are all rooted in literature that predates when it was penned. It isn't going to negate the worth or maybe the enjoyment inherent in Those people will work. We are all influenced each day by things which we see, study, and listen to. Our lives tend to be the sum of our encounters and as writers acquire encounters and rely on them to encourage their do the job it remains to be precious, however entertaining and nevertheless honest.

Why have to there become a choice? Why have to you be on Staff Buffy or Staff Twilight? I for one am a big lover of both equally sequence. I think they are fantastic tales brimming with elaborate figures, and deal with issues that are significantly achieving past the superficial layer of amusement, that ought to be what you are taking faraway from both sequence. That's what has created fans on each side that share one thing in frequent, passion.

Bryan Curry is the writer/host/producer of your Hellmouth Podcast. The Hellmouth Podcast is a part of the Hellmouth Empire and is centered to the Buffy The Vampire Slayer series created by Joss Whedon. The Hellmouth Podcast blog is often a companion towards the podcast which happens to be current daily with news through the Whedonverse and content composed by Bryan and also other customers from the Hellmouth Crew.

http://www.hellmouthpodcast.com

Bryan could be achieved at hellmouthpodcast@gmail.com