#im so impressed with my own writing but only with romance involved

[doyouremem8erme]

hello followers. tumbrinas. nerds and losers of the jury. buckle up.

A teenage girl stands in her bedroom. It just so happens that today, the 13th of April, 2023, is the day she will start reading a 8000+ page webcomic as the latest of many attempts at doing so over the years...and finish exactly one month later, deeply changed forever.

yeah, homestuck, you say. the one with the little leetspeaking gray skinned aliens that have been the plague of conventions for years. yeah that includes the sharpie bath incident. the one that truly broke the internet with a single animated update. why would i bother drowning under classpects and quadrants and buckets and convoluted timeline bullshit, you ask?

let me tell you about homestuck.

on most of my many attempts at reading this, beginning around 6th grade at the pleas of a longtime friend, i never got past the first act and a half or so. oh, its silly internet humor and wacky video game shenanigans, id say, get bored, and close the tab. push through. there is payoff. and what is that payoff, you ask? homestuck is very hard to summarize concisely, and possibly impossible to summarize without spoilers, but heres my best attempt, somewhat paraphrased from a video essay i watched on youtube. skip if you wanna be convinced through other means, although there will be further spoilers beyond this.

four online friends play a video game together. the video game brings about the end of the world and the only way to survive is for them to enter the world of the video game. it turns out that the goal of the game is to create a new universe! however their game session goes very very wrong and they have to go about resetting their game and their whole universe in order to stop it. they also meet 12 internet trolls along the way, who are actually aliens from another universe who played their own version of the game and created the kids’ universe through it. after a 3 year journey escaping their game session to avoid being erased in the universal reset, the original players and the trolls enter a game session where theyve been swapped places with their ancestors. all the groups of players across iterations of universes then have to work together to stop several powerful villains who have risen to power over the course of the story.

i say this first not because it is a glaring issue outshining its worth of any sorts, but as a warning to those particularly avoidant of this: yes, homestuck has flawed language in its earlier acts. it still feels weird to heap it in with the other "problematic media" on dni lists because while not an excuse for it, thats an uncomfortable product of the time in which it was written. i know that the unofficial collection has settings to remove slurs and derogatory language from it, but its not at all like its the bigoted work ive seen people assume it is. watching homestuck grow from containing these hallmarks of the early 2010s to being full of genuinely amazing queer characters is wonderful.

i know my followers. you like gay people? homestuck has plenty. youve got the goth x vampire lesbians. youve got the weird gay kids whose first kiss involved one of their decapitated head. youve got the unhinged murderous bisexual girl. youve got the guy with a whole arc about realizing hes bi and getting a grumpy alien boyfriend. youve got the childhood friends to maybe girlfriends whove like killed and hurt each other but care abt each other so much. before reading, id seen ship art of homestuck here and there on the internet--im on tumblr, how could i not? what i never realized was that these pairings are canon and for the time its from thats just awesome to me. heck, all the trolls are by "default" bisexual, and they dont adhere to human romance norms either.

the way homestuck writes all these characters relationships is so good too! the characterization in it really deserves recognition--hussie has an impressive talent for writing characters with distinct voices, and even when characters could be flat and one dimensional jokes, theyre often given much more dimension than that. the girls get to be weird freaks who sneak around wearing mustaches on or who sniff and lick people while grinning or write gay wizard fanfics. the boys get strong emotional arcs about trauma and relationships. even one character who could be solely an annoying punchline (and still gets bullied by the authors self insert, but like its fine) actually is allowed to have interesting writing and displays growth in some ways. all this to say, while some characters are reduced to jokes that are in bad taste at best (some of the dancestors have it bad), most do get strong arcs. rose and dave have some of my favorite growth in this regard, and its hard to even recognize until youve finished and look back on these characters at the start because it feels so natural and gradual outside of specific catalytic moments for them.

in such a long work with so many characters, there definitely are issues with pacing, but its hard to help when at some points the narrative is juggling 30+ characters. its not painful to read, just long--and the length is one of its strengths in the end. by the time you watch act seven, you get hit by the full weight of everything youve just read: a coming of age story suited unlike any other for the age of the internet. ive never read another story that captures the themes of growing up and what you leave behind in doing so that does it quite as familiarly as homestuck. like any story that does this, it of course takes the ideas and experiences of childhood and stretches them even farther. most people who feel isolated apart from their internet friends havent grown up alone on an island. most people who play games with their online friends dont physically end up in the world of their game or die there or see their loved ones die. most teenagers who are starting their adult lives dont have to lose their old universe and start a new one to do so. but you can feel these things so deeply for these characters because theyre still familiar in a way.

entering a fandom after its prime comes with a bittersweetness. even when i first attempted to read homestuck years ago, its main run had ended in the last couple years, and its peak was even longer ago. homestuck is by no means a dead fandom, though. its so vast that theres a pocket for everyone. theres so many characters that youre almost guaranteed to relate to one, or obsess over another ones themes. you will never ship things normally again, but is that really a bad thing? homoerotic rivalries have never been more fun!

and overall, its just amazing to read. this isnt a post about homestucks flaws, although ive mentioned some as disclaimers, nor is it about postcanon which is. more not great. the balance of comedy and tragedy and shenanigans and drama and truly agonizing angst followed by awesomely epic moments is just. an absolute ride and i couldnt recommend it more. homestuck is laugh out loud funny at times and has even seeped into meme culture enough that i was familiar with many jokes from it before hand, but it handles moments that deserve emotional weight with such. ive sobbed over this comic so many times--i can barely read some dialogue from scenes following game over without tearing up even after reading those moments many times, and some characters are left with such tragedy that it makes me feel emotions deep inside just thinking of them. ive even seen homestuck compared to if a video game character was aware of the cost of every life lost in a failed level--even though characters die and come back to life, those deaths matter to the story and to the characters. it is absolutely wild and it still makes it work.

watching thousands of pages of convoluted time travel and universal bullshit cascade (haha) into place is just so satisfying to watch. homestuck is confusing, hilarious, tragic, complex, ridiculously long, full of gorgeous animation and awesome music, and playing an epic multimedia work full of hours of animation and playable browser games off as a cringe 2010s webcomic is an insult to its genuine value as a narrative work. read homestuck. if you regret it, thats honestly a good thing--it is infectious and just downright so cool. it may be 2023 but it remains true: you cant fight the homestuck. its already here ::::)

should i write propaganda to get my followers to read homestuck

[alfredosauce50]

would you be down to do 2p china hc’s? im very curious on how you characterize him!

I’m down! I’m guessing you figured I had my own interpretation of the guy after I answered an ask saying I’d write for him. I really like 2p! China as a character, but I have to say, I haven’t properly written for him before. Nevertheless, I’ll give you my thoughts on him as a person!

2p! China Headcanons

Zao’s appearance doesn’t give away much of his personality. He’s got a bit of a baby face, and he has a sociable and pleasant demeanor for the most part. So if you didn’t know him well enough to see past those traits, you would be surprised at how shady he can be.

Appearance

Like his 1p counterpart, his dark brown hair goes past his shoulders and is tied back in a low ponytail. It’s pretty thin too, so it stays flat against his back. But that’s what makes it look so good. He isn’t the tallest guy out there, as he stands around 170cm or 5′7″. Doesn’t mean you can easily take him out in a fight, though. He’s quite slender, but he’s muscular and knows a few martial arts to boot.

He has a lot of tattoos, and he doesn’t try to hide them. He has dragons curling down his arms, as well as Chinese characters etched into his back. Most of the time, he wears traditional clothing, such as a sleeveless Tang suit, so his arms are exposed. It’s almost as if the colors black and red were made for him. And he knows it. So unless he’s having a bad day where he’ll go for a simple T-shirt, he likes to dress to impress. Not that he even needs to try.

He’s devilishly attractive, and the way he talks gets girls flocking to him.

Personality

Zao is very easy-going and open-minded. He’ll talk about anything with anyone. Everything is fascinating in a way, and nothing seems to faze him either. So he’s the type to question the most trivial things in life--or list drugs as casually as you would your favorite candy bars. It’s also difficult to shock him, or anger him. When life deals him a bad hand, or springs up inconveniences, he’ll go with the flow because that’s life. So unless something involves the person he likes, he keeps himself pretty level-headed.

With his willingness to talk about anything, comes his brutal honesty and bluntness. So sometimes, he’ll find himself offending people even if he never meant to. If he does this to women, they’ll slap him before storming off, leaving him in confusion at what he did wrong. But if he does this to men, he’ll have to be quick on his feet to escape a potential fight. Unlike a few other 2ps, he has a good temperament so he avoids violence, but he’ll resort to it if he absolutely has to.

Despite the careers he’s depicted to have, like being a drug-dealer, something in adult entertainment, night-life, or anything illegal, he has strong fraternal instincts. If somebody embodied the “big brother” trope, it would be him. He cares a lot for his younger siblings, and they look up to him as a role model. But he’ll always tell them, “Do as I say, not as I do!” As comfortable as he is in his own skin, his own identity, he wouldn’t want them taking after him.

He’s very flirtatious, and a huge tease. How he shows he likes you is through making you blush, or embarrassed. He’ll call you pet names. Shower you with compliments. Refer to you as if you and him are already an item. If you bumped into him at a grocery store, he’ll help you shop, then say, “So, is that all we need? I can’t wait for dinner tonight.” Zao is also unapologetically dirty-minded. He’s all about dirty jokes, conversations, and gestures. The bigger reaction he gets, the more addicting they are.

He doesn’t have any qualifications, not even a high school diploma, but he’s street-smart to make up for it. That’s how he makes so many connections and hustles his way up to the top in shady businesses. If you need something, anything, legal or illegal, expensive or cheap, you can ask him, and 99% of the time, he’ll say, “I know a guy.” If he likes you, all he wants in return is something perverted. A kiss, maybe. Or maybe your underwear.

Interests

He loves anything cute, and he doesn’t hide it. Sanrio is a must--he keeps a collection of their plushies, most of them being Hello Kitty, but he also likes other characters such as Cinnamoroll and Pompompurin. Sometimes, he can get a bit obsessive over whatever sells fast. So if he has to, he’ll stay up and keep refreshing the page selling whatever he has his eyes on. If he’s infamous for his connections that let him get pretty much anything he wants, surely he can get his hands on the limited-edition Hello Kitty-themed towel, right!? He isn’t against having other kinds of merchandise either, like household items, but he keeps it lowkey for functionality.

In his house, you’ll find a lot of imports from East-Asian countries. Not only is he used to using them when he was back in China, they’re better than what you can find in America. Or at least, in his opinion. This includes cosmetics, snacks, alcohol, and decorations.

Although he doesn’t have a lot of time to, he enjoys watching anime. That’s why he makes sure to get through the most popular and mainstream ones first.

Zao likes to keep connected with his culture. He doesn’t care to assimilate, and being ‘different’ doesn’t bother him at all--he thinks it’s what gives him a unique personality and background. Since he doesn’t have a lot of friends to speak Mandarin with, he’ll look for his neighbors who can, and strike up a conversation every now and then. As well as that, he’ll give his siblings red pockets for Chinese New Year so they can spend it on food, videogames or whatever they want.

He can’t cook for shit. Even then, he has strong opinions on food, especially Chinese. While he enjoys westernised take out like Panda express, he wishes people would stop assuming Chinese cuisine is just dumplings, fried rice, noodles and yum cha. They’re B-tier at best. For a country with that rich and long a history, there’s so much more to indulge in. Too bad he can’t make anything if he tried.

Psychology + romance

Zao is used to being a second choice. His cheerfulness and bluntness make other people think he’s creepy or weird, so he can’t quite wrap his head around somebody liking him to that degree--or getting particularly close to him. At least, emotionally. There are a lot of girls who want him for one-night stands. But this doesn’t stop him from flirting with someone he genuinely likes, even if he doesn’t expect anything in return. It’s fun because they get flustered, after all. But when they start returning the same energy, get persistent, or even make him suspect that they like him back, he will get nervous. He’s used to being the chaser, not the other way around. So if the tables turn and things start getting real, he will back away.

As confident as he is with his image, it’s difficult for him to get intimate with somebody romantically. He’s open, but can’t be vulnerable. He’d rather keep things casual, so when he really falls for someone, he’ll be conflicted between keeping things the way they are, or pursuing them.

Eventually, these feelings will deepen to the point being just friends becomes suffocating. That’s when Zao loses his cool and gets frustrated. It could happen due to a build-up of his emotions, or an event that makes him explode from jealousy. He’ll get desperate after so long of not doing anything and make it very clear he wants you. “Just date me already!”

When he finally gets together with you, prepare to be coddled. He’ll want to help you with anything the best way he can, and go to extreme lengths to do so. Nothing seems extreme when it’s for somebody he cares so much about. While he never holds it against you--how much he does for you--he may or may not guilt trip you into giving him more affection. But only subtly. Instead of him kissing you, he'll loiter around your presence until you kiss him. And when you do, he’ll smile like an idiot.

He never makes it explicit when he wants to take you out on a date. Zao will just ask you if you’re free, and take you out for the night. He doesn’t see a point in labelling it as a ‘date’, because he doesn’t just see quality time with you through a romantic and sexual lens. He values the friendship aspect of it as well, and you really appreciate him for it.

Zao loves to cuddle. He doesn’t hug you much throughout the day, but when you’re at home and about to sleep, he will hug you, a lot. He won’t let go while he talks to you, and will only loosen his coils when you fall asleep.

Acknowledgements

I was mainly inspired by the 2p! China in the story, “Dragon District”, written by xYourHero. So props to them. The fandom’s perception of him has definitely deepened because of it, and it’s great seeing underrated 2ps finally getting the attention they deserve! I’m one of the people who’s had my characterization of Zao take after hers, so I’ll also be crediting her for my headcanons.

You can find the story on DeviantArt, Archive of our own and Wattpad. I adored that fic back in the day. Such good memories. I wasn’t even writing back when I was reading it. Any who, let’s get right into it. I’ve divided the headcanons into subcategories, appearance, personality, interests, and psychology + romance.

(Look at this fanart is by Amphany on DeviantArt. It was drawn for xYourHero. I’m gonna put it here for reference. https://www.deviantart.com/amphany/art/Dragon-smoke-548426383)

[plant-flwrs]

no nonsense sarcastic sporty girl whos never put makeup on, using it after much pleading to the yule ball. Pair with whoever and let's see where it goes. (preferably one of the twins). Extreme fluff (always thought you were beautiful but now youre just gorgeous) type. Go about witj it however you want😁

the yule ball // george weasley

masterlist!

a/n: um ok kind of losing my mind bc i got my first actual request!!! like that makes me so happy that people want me to like... make their ideas, i guess. anywho just had to say that. im so thankful for the people who read my writing and follow me and i just wanted to say thanks! so, thanks! i hope i made this request everything you wanted it to be anon, and thanks for requesting it <3 (also hope i picked the right twin for you lol) also sorry this took so long! i wrote this over like three times and with school starting i don’t have as much time :(

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“I just don’t see the point in it,” you explained to Alicia, feeling her confused eyes pouring into the side of your face, “make’s me feel weird.”

“You just aren’t doing it right!” she replied, her eyebrows raised in disbelief.

You shoveled a forkful of eggs into your mouth, rolling your eyes as you chewed.

“Maybe,” you replied, covering your mouth full of food with the back of your hand.

“Hello ladies,” Fred said as he slid into the bench across from you.

“What’cha gabbing about?” George said, sliding a piece of toast off your plate as he sat next to you.

You moved to stab your fork into his hand, but missed, instead spiking the toast. Fred’s eyes widened, nearly seeing his brother lose a finger.

“Nice aim,” he said, filling his own plate.

“Was going for the hand,” you said, collecting the toast and lathering it with jam.

George wrapped his arm around your shoulder, unfazed by your attempted assault. 

“Y/n refuses to join us when we get ready for the Yule ball,” Alicia said, also ignoring your failed stabbing. 

Fred feigned a hand over his forehead, leaning back dramatically, “How will you ever form an unbreakable bond? Without the sanctity of Yule Ball preparations, you will have nothing that ties you together well past your prime,” he spouted, not stopping even after Alicia slapped his shoulder, “you will drift apart, knowing nothing of each other.”

George quickly removed his arm from your shoulder and dramatically clapped at his brother, who only pretended to remove and tip a hat to him.

“Why don’t you want to get ready with the girls?” George asked once Fred calmed down.

“I’ll come, I just don’t have much getting ready to do,” you said plainly, “just puttin’ on a dress.”

“Not even some mascara?” Alicia pleaded, her eyebrows raised to her hairline.

“I suppose I could let you put some mascara on me,” you said, and Alicia pretended to faint into Fred, “some!”

Fred laughed, and you got an eyeful of chewed toast in his mouth. You looked away in disgust, catching George’s eyes. He looked at you odd, like he was at incredible peace. 

“Everyone’s gone mad today,” you mumbled, finishing your breakfast.

You had written home about the Ball, and your mother had sent you an incredible array of magazines to choose a dress from. You had to admit, the dress was awfully pretty.

Going to Quidditch practice, doing homework, eating, sleeping, and keeping up with romance do’s and don’t’s was becoming exhausting. Luckily, you could merge some of the activities together, like homework and eating, and keeping up with romance and Quidditch.

Alicia and Katie loved to talk anything and everything that involved the Yule Ball. If you breathed and it sounded like ‘yule’ they would talk your ear off. Katie had even asked Wood about the ball.

“Well, Oliver,” she started, wiping off some sweat from her forehead, “if you don’t have a date you could join our group.”

You Alicia, Katie, George, and Lee had decided to go as a group, not bothering with the stress of getting dates. You all knew that no matter who you took, you’d just end up ditching them to dance with your friends. Fred and Angelina were a different story. 

Fred had been sending Angelina all sorts of mixed signals since he asked her. One day, he’s asking what color her dress is so they can match, and the next he’s telling her that in his opinion, dances are the most stupid thing a man could succumb himself to. It made you glad to be going with friends.

“I don’t know, Katie,” Oliver scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, “I was going to run Quidditch plays on the empty field that night.”

Katie rolled her eyes and they landed on you. You felt a blush creep up your neck as she brought you some water.

“Hey, Katie,” you said, taking the water from her.

“Hey,” she said, smiling quizzically at you, “Alicia told me you weren’t all that excited about the ball.”

This surprised you. You hadn’t meant to come off as bitter, you just felt you were expressing your genuine disinterest.

“It’s not that,” you said quickly, “It’s just, not really my thing I guess.”

Katie nodded knowingly at you, like you had just hinted at some sort of huge secret. It made you nervous. You two were stood by the water cooler, and Fred, George, and Harry had come over.

“What?” you asked her.

“I think,” she said dramatically, “that the boy you like hasn’t asked you, and you aren’t excited because you don’t have a date.”

You thought she was joking, but she didn’t laugh. You blinked at her for several minutes, the gears in your head turning so fast that you couldn’t think whether to be concerned for Katie’s well-being, or your own. Among your deep thoughts, Fred laughed obnoxiously. George swallowed nervously.

“Katie,” you said slowly, “are you serious? Do you actually think that?”

She nodded excitedly, thinking you were going to uncover your deepest and darkest secrets. 

“Oh Merlin,” your eyes widened, “you could not be more wrong.”

You left her with her mouth hanging open as you kicked off the ground and back into practice. 

The next week, McGonagall called the entire house for a meeting. She and Filch stood next to an ancient looking record player. She explained the sacred meanings of the Yule Ball, but all you could hear was Fred and George’s snickering in your ear.

“Do you think McGonagall would dance with me if I asked nicely?” one of them said.

“I reckon you’d have to take her to dinner first, mate, she’s a classy lady.” the other replied.

Soon enough, McGonagall was sending you off to pair with each other, and you looked around. George was already looking at you, so you took a step towards him.

“Dance with me,” you held your hand out, “Weasley.”

“I’d love to,” he said, taking your hand.

His hand fell naturally on your hip, and it made your chest tighten. Your hands eased into the crook of his neck, and he swallowed hard.

You swayed to the old music, neither of you meeting the other’s eye.

Your dress was sent to you in a large cardboard box that sat unopened in the corner of your dormitory. It was propped against your mirror, and stayed there until the night of the Yule Ball. 

“Oh!” Alicia exclaimed, clasping her hands together, “I can’t wait to see it!”

You rolled your eyes as you stepped into the bathroom, bringing the dress with you. You opened it slowly, and the delicate fabric of the dress was peaking out before you had even removed all the tape. It smelled of home, and your heart soared. The fabric danced through your fingers, sliding elegantly over your figure. Looking in the mirror, you slid your hands down your sides feeling awfully impressed by yourself. 

You looked at the mounds of makeup on the counter in front of you, and picked some up like they were dangerous. Holding them away from your dress, you squinted your eyes to read the tiny labels. Deciding on a few, you looked intensely into the mirror, your face creased with concentration. You covered the eye-bags you had developed while studying for tests. You put some pink powder on your cheeks like you had seen your mother do. Lengthening your lashes with some odd dark goo, and styling down your eyebrows with some odd clear goo.

When you opened the bathroom door, Alicia was still stood with her hands clasped. All the girls were standing in their elegant gowns, hair and makeup done absolutely perfectly. 

“Oh no,” Katie gasped, looking at you in horror.

The three of them all steered your shoulders back into the bathroom, and you looked at yourself next to them. You looked like a clown! The pink powder was in little circles on the sides of your faces, and nothing about your makeup looked as nice as the other girls. 

Katie saw your face lowering with sadness and brought your eyes to her’s.

“We can fix this,” she smiled reassuringly at you, “easy.”

She held her wand to your face, and you flinched as you felt a refreshing wind gust over it. Your face felt clean, and you moved your hands to touch it. You felt no pink powder or any goos.

Katie turned you to face Alicia, who had her wand ready.

“It really is a beautiful dress,” she said, her wand twirling as you felt little tickles on your face.

You turned to look in the mirror and felt your stomach spin.

You looked amazing, everything about the makeup was flattering, but not over the top. They had known exactly what you wanted.

You pulled them all into you, your arms stretching to wrap around them all. You all joyously walked down to the great hall, each of you clutching the sides of your dresses as you walked down the stairs. 

By the time you had made it to where you were meeting the boys, just in front of the Great Hall, you had fallen behind the girls, not used to walking in heals. They were all looking up at you as you came down.

Lee and Fred looked like they were seeing you for the first time, their mouths hung open in childish smiles, Angelina, Katie, and Alicia looked like proud stage mother’s. 

When your eyes met George, there was an intensity you had never felt before. Standing in front of him, still on the steps so you were eye level, it was like he was the only person there. His black and white dress robes fit him perfectly, and his red hair blazed as it hung in his face. His lips were pink and he kept licking them nervously. He offered you his elbow and you accepted, following your friends into the Ball. 

“You look stunning,” he whispered int your ear.

The music was loud and your dress was awkward to dance in. George leaned in close to your face whenever he had a sarcastic remark to make, and half the time you couldn’t make out what he was saying. Your brain was scrambled from the heat and the proximity of his face to yours.

“I’m gonna go get some air,” you yelled into his ear. 

Pulling away, he gripped your arms, pulling you back so he could yell something. His voice was like honey and it shot jolts down your spin.

“Want me to come with?”

You smiled and nodded your head, and he looked giddy,

He trailed after you like a puppy, careful not to step on the back of your dress.

You didn’t stop walking until you had landed on a bench in the courtyard. You held your dress close to you so George could sit without landing on it. He crossed his legs at his ankles and shoved his hands in his pockets. You picked up your hair off your hot skin, holding it as if it were a ponytail. George’s gaze fell onto the exposed and shiny skin of your back, and he gulped.

Your head tilted up at the sky, and you closed your eyes, relishing in the feeling of the cold breeze on your sweaty skin.

“Are you having fun?” George asked you.

“With you?”

“Yeah, with me.”

“I am,” you responded, dropping your hair and looking at him.

He was already looking at you, like he so often was, and as you watched his eyes drift down to your lips, you realized Katie was right.

You didn’t want anything to do with this ball if George wasn’t with you, hell you didn’t want anything to do with life if George wasn’t with you. 

You were being a sour-sport because deep down, you knew you had wanted George to ask you to the ball.

“George?” you said, and his eyes didn’t leave your lips.

“Yeah?”

“Why didn’t you ask me to the ball?”

At this, George’s eyes met yours and he wiped his face, as if he were in a dream and imagined you had said that.

“What?”

“Why didn’t you ask me?”

“I hadn’t realized,” he turned to look at his feet, “I just figured, you never seemed like you were that excited.”

“But you wanted to come with me?”

“Yes,” he answered quickly, not having to think about it.

“George,” you asked, and he turned to face you, “do you want to go to the Yule Ball with me?”

Both of your mouths turned into wicked grins, and he nodded furiously. He stood up quickly and offered you his hand.

[so-sweet-nana]

Interview: NANA Talks About Cohabitation-Romance & Kang Min Hyuk

Im Jin A (임진아), or better known as NANA (나나) is not only easy on the eyes, but also a super talented actress. Since her involvement in “Into The Ring” and “Confession” last year, fans have been eager to see her again, this time in “Oh! Master” (오! 주인님), or “Oh My Ladylord”.

The former After School member sees herself playing actress Oh Joo In, who apparently “can’t” love. Her romantic life is practically non-existent and only seeks to provide for her family. In an attempt to buy back her old home, Oh Joo In stumbles upon Han Bi Soo and that’s when things get interesting. Check out the interview where she delves into this romance drama and more.

1. This is your first time working with these costars. What was your impression of one another and how has it changed since you finished filming together?

When I first saw Min Ki, I knew right away that he is a charismatic guy from the sharp look in his eyes and the energy that he gives off. At least that’s what I thought first. But now, he’s more than just a co-actor. He’s always considerate around me, and he makes sure we go over the script before the actual shoot. I feel comfortable being around him, and I learnt a lot from him.

2. What kind of drama do you usually like to watch?

It’s hard to pinpoint a specific genre of shows that I prefer. In fact, I try to expose myself to various genres so that I can indirectly experience the stories of other people. While doing so, I would put myself in their shoes to experiment with different acting styles, which is also how I further improve my acting skills.

3. How did you prepare for your role? Were there any skills or characteristics in that you had to pick up?

When acting out a role, it is crucial for an actress to tap on the feelings she got from the initial script reading. So that the acting doesn’t come out as too exaggerated. This way, the viewers can understand the writer’s intentions.

I did my best to deliver Joo In’s heart-throbbing feelings to the viewers. Also, I’ve made efforts to portray both sides of Joo In – her glamorous life as a popular romance-comedy actress versus her ordinary everyday life.

4. Both of you have starred in other romance dramas, how does this drama stand out from other series for audiences?

One of the unique things about “Oh! Master” is its cohabitation-romance genre. A man and a woman who are complete opposites live together, they grow on each other and draw comfort from each other. The story about the family members is heartwarming to watch.

5. How will you describe your character in this show? Can you identify yourself with the personality and story of your character?

Although she’s the go-to actress for romance-comedy shows, Oh Joo In is a beginner when it comes to romantic love. She’s very filial to her mother, they share a special bond. Her cheerfulness and kindheartedness are what we have in common.

6. What is the one lesson about love that viewers will learn from this series, especially from your character Oh Joo In?

In the drama, Oh Joo In expresses love for different people. There is romantic love between a man and a woman. She is also a loving daughter to her mother. I believe that the two different perspectives of love shown by Joo In will give you the chance to rediscover the warmth of human relations.

7. What are the similarities and differences between you and Oh Joo In?

We are both actresses, we are loving toward people around us. However, the situation Joo In is going through, people she interacts with, and even the living conditions are totally different from mine.

8. Oh Joo In couldn’t resist Han Bi Soo’s script. As an actor yourself, what kind of script appeals to you?

I’m drawn to stories that are full of optimism and positive energy. In turn, I want to become an actress who has infectious positive energy, so I can inspire the viewers.

9. What kind of challenges did you encounter in the process of playing a top star? Did you put more effort into appearance? For example, personal maintenance, fitness, etc.?

To prepare for the role of actress Oh Joo In, rather than focusing on the self-management aspects of a popular actress, I worked hard on kickboxing, one of her hobbies, to make it look more natural and real.

10. What kind of message do you want to convey to the audience through this show?

“Oh! Master” isn’t just a romance piece, it’s a story about all kinds of love. I wish to convey the message of hope. I hope viewers will heal from wounds inflicted by other people.

11. What attracted you to take on ‘Oh Master’? Introduce your character and what do you think is the appeal and charm of the story and your character.

Among many other things, I was drawn to “Oh! Master” mainly due to its uniqueness in portraying the cohabitation-romance drama. When I went through the script for the first time, I could relate to Joo In’s occupation as I am an actress too. I wanted to show, in my own honest way, how a daughter expresses her love towards her mother.

12. If you were a writer, what kind of dramas would you want to write?

As an actress playing Oh Joo In, I was moved by the heartfelt feelings a daughter may have toward her mother. That is why I would like to write a story full of humanitarian elements that can comfort others.

13. You’ve acted in romantic dramas twice in a row. Do you like this genre?

I get positive energy when filming romantic-comedy shows. “Oh! Master” is such a romantic drama that gives off positive vibes. Plus, there’s the heartfelt mother-and-daughter relationship. So that’s why I accepted this project without any hesitation.

14. How would you rate your love chemistry score for your couple pairing (NANA & Kang Min Hyuk), and why?

Oh Joo In and Jeong Yu Jin have been besties since their high-school years. They feel comfortable around each other. That’s why people did not doubt the fake couple. Because of their close bond and perfect chemistry, I would give them a 100 out of 100.

15. How would you rate your love chemistry score for the couple pairing (NANA & Lee Min Ki)? and why?

I will also rate the chemistry of Joo In and Han Bi Soo 100 out of 100— but for a different reason from Jeong Yu Jin. They were completely different from each other to begin with. As they sought comfort from each other, they grew on each other.

I remember this particular scene, Joo In’s mother fails to recognise her own daughter due to her worsening dementia symptoms. Bi Soo comforts Joo In, she unknowingly leans in to give him a kiss on the cheek.

16. Have you ever worked with Min Hyuk before? What was that like?

When I was active as a member of K-pop group Orange Caramel, Kang Min Hyuk starred in our music video “Magic Girl”. I was so delighted to work with him again in “Oh! Master”.

Interview from: Hype Malaysia

[irkenheretic]

okay i promised id do it and im doing it: Explaining The Plot Of That AU I’m Vague About: The Post

(as i was preparing to write this i actually got my 250th follower, which slapped)

so i’m just gonna start with the simple version, which is this: it’s a rebel AU which primarily centers around the tallest, who are both defective. they give up on trying to make any meaningful changes as figureheads, and instead direct their attention to being involved with the “neo defect revolution,” or NDR. they do manage to make one change as tallest- there is a garbage dump planet turned into a sanctuary for defectives (who in this au are executed once discovered,) and eventually enough of the populace finds out about it that the tallest have to deal with it. they finesse their way into kicking it out of the empire, so now it’s its own planet with its own rules, governments, and most importantly, immigration policies and protections

a lot of stuff happens and it’s gonna be structured using arcs, and each arc has a separate protagonist/deuteragonist/tritagonist lineup (but that doesnt mean the same lineup won’t be used multiple times!) and yes the insane list of OCs are for this au alone: some arcs are very OC-centric, some have OCs as supporting characters, and a couple are all-OC or mostly-OC. 

its going to be very longform and it’ll span from the tallest’s elite training days to twenty years after zim arrives on earth. (the 20 year gap btwn zim arriving on earth and the story proper isnt as tightly plotted as later tho.) the point is to see how a revolution on the scale of the NDR works, who was fucked over by defact laws, who was fucked over by other laws, etc. theres a lot of lore and a lot of headcanons i made for this AU and even a conlang. i am a being of hubris. itll be a series of fics, some multichapter and some oneshots. 

the series as a whole is gonna be called Invader Zim: Annexed or just Annexed for short. its a pun on an irken word that sounds similar but means the exact opposite. i am not explaining more bc itll be explained in the fic itself. but thats why the tag for it is #anx lmao

i didnt mean for this to be as long as it got but under the cut im gonna breakdown some of the early arcs:

so it all starts with a fanfic called Love Is The H-Word (no the “h-word” isn’t “hell.) it centers around red and purple as elites-in-training, who do a little whoopsie and have an egg. purple doesnt wanna smuggle it into a smeetery, bc then he’ll never see it again, so they go to the defect sanctuary (still a part of the empire at this point.) purple knows he’s defective while red has a hard time accepting that he is as well, due to events from his past. but being around all these other defects are starting to wear down his denial, and the fic is all about that. it also sets up some plot stuff, like how defects adopted a self-identifier in the word “heretic,” hence the sanctuary being named, “heretirk.” (hey look my url!) (no, the “h-word” is not heretic, either.) 

i dont wanna say what happens in that fic bc spoilers, but stuff Happens. its also when we meet some ocs that end up being important, and the existence of others are foreshadowed. this is also where we meet the tallests’ future advisor, rarl kove, for the first time, as a local who decides to keep them company. purple bonds with kove due to their shared interest in politics, while red reluctantly bonds with titch, a young irken (a smeet in heretirken standards, an adult in imperial standards- did i mention he and red are roughly the same age? lol) who is interested in military stuff and thrill-seeking and general destruction. titch is pissed because he claims his father is stealthing on devastis as a military commander, but won’t let titch sneak in as a soldier, as titch is deaf. 

(fun facts: in the au, “titch” is regional slang for “a little bit.” ironically, titch the character is above-average in height.)

due to titch’s deafness, he developed “gesturespeak,” irken sign language, so he can communicate. this existing becomes important later

a oneshot called invade the system is right after h-word in publishing order. it details zim’s exploits in leaving foodcourtia, where he was assigned and infiltrating the invading academy he eventually graduates from (in this au, zim is too short to be an invader, which sucks because the hight minimums for the military are really short to begin with lmao)

the fic chronoligically after H-Word focuses on red and purple being back in their platoon on devastis, specifically red navigating his training and his relationships with two defective platoonmates, pon and zi (who are in h-word a little,) after the realization that he too is defective. it also focuses on how the irken military works, and how they train their soldiers. 

the first arc overall focuses on red and purple going thru training and such, and ends after they graduate and are on the field, working to get commander rank. (they planned to gain commander rank then leave and go back to heretirk to train an army there, as heretirk has.... no army.) in the middle of this, they’re pulled out and told they are to become the next tallest. they debate over staying and taking the job or just running to heretirk, and they ultimately decide to stay.

the next arc i call the “bridge,” tbh. its less tightly plotted than the other arcs; fics are spread apart from each other chronologically and all that. it spans the time after the tallest being appointed to a little after zim arrives on earth. it also has a couple of anthologies focusing on imperial defects- each chapter is a new character. these guys are all important and the easiest way for me to introduce their backstories without cluttering everything up is anthology style, lmao. other things that happen are a look into how the tallest work, eventually culminating with the resolution of the tallest having to Deal With Heretirk, tenn’s rescue from meekrob, and zim on earth obtaining a half-irken smeet named pip due to stealing an Unethical Science Experiment from dib (which is pip.) the bridge is basically just. “heres some stuff that happens between point A and point B so when we get to point B you’re not confused as all hell.” 

the next arc focuses on zim. in the first fic, pip is sick and zim is trying to get into his neighbor’s pants, to cope. this basically sets up that zim in this au has no idea how to find personal fulfillment in living- he’s only OK if he focuses on pleasing someone else, be it taking care of pip or doting on the neighbor, some rando human named piqu (pronounced, “peek.”) this is mainly a cute romance story with the underlying veneer of “a child is slowly and painfully dying” in the background. fun! 

without spoiling the circumstances, zim and pip end up on heretirk, which at this point is its own independent planet. pip is in the hospital for most of it so zim has to do his own thing. computer fans rejoice bc hes basically zims dad at this point, who tells him to go outside and get some fresh air and talk to the locals instead of schmooping or screaming in anxiety. im sneakily introducing more characters like ini, the “next-gen zim;” a short bio-engineer (she works on PAKs) who was constantly passed over by everyone because they dont trust someone that short or they dont trust someone that spazzy, even though shes actually brilliant. also her brother mo, who’s a pilot that NOBODY will teach military-class ships to (at this point, HTK has a population of ex-military that had their old ships, but still no formal army) because he doesnt talk and they think hes “slow” as a result. for the curious, he is physically able to talk most times, he just doesnt like it. zim ends up teaching him how to fly military-class which ends up being important laterrr

(haha ini and mo. wheres meenie and minie? ILL GET TO THEM)

no really, theyre quadruplets. named ini, myni, minie, and mo. these are real characters. 

minie isnt introduced till later. shes too cool to be the side character in someone elses arc. she is feel uncomfortable when we are not about her.

myni is busy palling around with pip and pip’s friend “elly” (real name elevenn, with two N’s.) elly is a half-meekrob War Crime Baby and tenn’s smeet. he has vision problems (he can “see” energy signatures of things, as opposed to conventional sight. everything is monochrome and he has to really focus to see like, words on a paper. also fuck tablets) but the trade-up is telekinetic powers (that he cant use too much or his brain will melt. fun!) this isnt relevant until the arc AFTER zim’s, where they end up poking around a historical site due to myni’s interest in that kind of thing, and they find logs of an old revolution (that was actually pretty successful in their goal, before they were caught and executed,) that lead them to a man named lefy. he helps with revolutions and helped these guys, and the trio go to seek him out; myni because he wants to impress his parents with helping them, pip because after they’ve recovered enough to walk around and do stuff, feel like they need to justify the choice to save their life and make their dad proud and all that, elly because he doesnt want pip to get hurt and die. And thats where the stuff REALLY starts happening and i cant tell u more sorry

this seemed kind of disjointed but thats bc i cant really be too detailed otherwise id like.... spoil it lmfao. but thats the summary of the first few arcs.

[afinepricklypear]

hello!!! im really sorry to bother you! im a huge fan of your powerless series and i was very excited to see you beginning to post the next instalment, but i just had a question!! od*zai makes me really uncomfortable for personal reasons and i was wondering if there would be any of it in the fic? again im really sorry for bothering you vnjdfklnb

I don’t know when this was asked, I rarely come here...but I’ll answer as best I can and hope it’s not too late. I really don’t want to spoil the story too much, but I can also understand that many fanfiction readers (myself included) don’t like too many surprises in their fics and, when it comes to a multi-chapter fic, they don’t want to invest too much time in a fic that might disappoint them in the end. I also understand that for many people (once again, myself included), ships can make or break a fic, and that many people have notps (I, personally, have *a lot* in BSD), so I’ll try to give you an indirect answer.

I’ll start by noting that I do tag most things appropriately -- including romantic relationships that will appear in the fic, so that’s always your best bet for determining if a particular ship will show up in one of my stories -- sometimes things come up as I’m writing that I didn’t anticipate, and I’ll always warn when the tags of a fic change. I also try to tag when a fic will have an ending that the readers might not be satisfied with.

However, I feel like you might be able to guess the answer to your question too if you read my notes throughout the series. I’ll reiterate a few things I’ve said in the past installments here:

- I’m not a huge fan of Oda. It’s not that I dislike him, I just don’t particularly like him either. I’m neutral about him, I guess. Apathetic is most appropriate. I just don’t feel that the character was well developed by Asagiri. He’s flat and bland. His personality traits read off like a character the author is desperately trying to make readers like by cramming arbitrary positive characteristics down our throats that feel as though they weren’t fully thought out or given much impetus: he rescues orphans, wanted to retire as a novelist, mafia grunt that never kills (though he doesn’t quite qualify as a ‘criminal with a heart of gold’ like Chuuya because we never see him do anything criminal...but then again, we never really see the Port Mafia doing a lot of criminal things beyond murder). He also knows nothing about fairytales and apparently that makes him interesting -- and not an idiot(?) -- to Dazai. In short, like his ability name, he’s basically Flawless. Unless you count his breakdown in Dark Era when his plot devices...er...I mean, orphans that he rescued, each of whom are indistinguishable from one another (except Sakura because, she’s *the girl*) were killed by Mimic, which spiraled him on a Saint’s Martyr journey. 

OMG. He’s the Gary Stu of BSD. I never realized it before.

Er, I’m ranting. I didn’t mean to turn this ask into an Oda-Bash, and I mean no offense to his fans. We all connect to different parts of a character, and I just...didn’t connect to anything with him. That’s not to say I wouldn’t rise to the challenge as a writer of giving the character more depth than presented in cannon.

- I’m not so much a multishipper, as I don’t care about any other ships in BSD outside of DaChuu. Not much else to add to that one...

- I won’t be introducing any romantic pairings into the story that weren’t tagged in the first story of Release, because it would be wholly unfair to the readers who’ve stuck with me through to a fourth story to suddenly throw a curveball at them with potential notps. So, while there might be hints to other pairs (teasing, more like, similar to cannon), no new romantic pairs will be confirmed and the readers are free to interpret relationships between characters how ever they want...though I might note in comment replies my own preferences on those ships, that isn’t to say that the readers are wrong in reading into characters within my story their own shipping preferences since the characters are otherwise meant to be close to cannon, and there are no cannon ships...therefore, anything goes.

- I want to see Dazai and Chuuya move towards a healthier relationship in Release. As it stands, there are a lot of growing pains they would need to go through to get there. It’s not enough to “confess your feelings”, relationships are built on a lot more than that. They’ve got a lot of bad history, in cannon and as established throughout my story, that they need to work through. They have certain understandings that they relied on in the past to work with one another which no longer hold true, and so they have to figure out new ways to work together. There’s a lot made of the trust between them, also, in the story, they themselves and characters like Lady Murasaki have made mention of the solid trust between them. The problem there, however, is this trust predated their confession to one another, and is, therefore, built on a foundation that is regardless of love. So it isn’t really a great measure of the state of their romantic relationship -- a mistake, I might point out, Dazai may have already made.

- Not technically me that said this last one, but I would also refer you back to chapter 2 of Lock-Down, where Chuuya and Dazai briefly talk about Oda. Although Dazai is rather aloof about his feelings towards Oda there, he is very clear that he and Oda were never romantically involved while Oda was alive.

...

Something I haven’t really said, but I do want to create space for it here, is that there are many different kinds of love. When I set out writing Release, I wanted to keep as many things as possible close to cannon, I wanted the characters as close to cannon as I could get them, tweaking only what was necessary to make the story work. One of the things from cannon is that Dazai’s relationship with Oda had a powerful impact on it. I see a lot of soukoku writers deal with this by ignoring or downsizing the relationship between Oda and Dazai, or changing Dazai’s relationship with Chuuya to "elevate it” -- for lack of better phrasing -- to the same level. What can’t be denied about cannon is that Oda meant a lot to Dazai, his dying words inspired Dazai to leave the Port Mafia, and in the Beast AU, he changes *everything* and even, arguably, puts Atsushi and Kyouka through a kind of hell to create a world where Oda lives and finishes his novel. I would be a terrible fanfic writer if I didn’t at least acknowledge that it is made obvious in cannon Dazai does love Oda...however, it all depends on your perspective what kind of love that is. Odazai fans like to interpret it as romantic love, and that is their ship, nothing wrong with it, but romantic love isn’t the only kind of love with power, and it’s not the only kind of love that drives people to do whatever necessary for the life and happiness of that person. 

Within the context of the Release series, Chuuya also interprets Dazai’s love for Oda as romantic love. This itself is a conflict, but it’s representative of a larger conflict in their relationship...that being Chuuya’s insecurity with regards to Dazai’s feelings for him, which is a theme I really want to explore. I don’t know that it’ll ever explicitly be discussed, but a lot of the trauma from Chuuya’s assault by Dante is actually closely tied with this insecurity too. It isn’t Dante’s actions that affected Chuuya so terribly, rather the newness of his romance with Dazai at that point in time, and how easy it felt for him in that moment, for Dante to brush aside “Dazai’s kisses and touches”. It really represented for Chuuya how fragile and vulnerable his feelings for Dazai are, and how afraid he is that he’ll lose whatever is developing between him and Dazai before he ever really gets to call it his own.

An element of the Release series that I use to drum up drama and suspense, and which I try to impress on readers is that, with few exceptions, we’re only getting Chuuya’s perspective. His information is limited, and his interpretations of events and the people around him are not always going to be reliable. But we’re on this journey with him and we learn most information at the same time that he does. In this case, the important thing isn’t whether Odazai is a thing, it’s that Chuuya *believes* it is a thing. This creates a nice conflict, because it’s very problematic, highlighting that, while Chuuya trusts Dazai with his life, he doesn’t (yet?) trust Dazai with his heart. A partner secure in their relationship would be understanding that they’re not the only important person in their lover’s life, and that their lover can have strong emotions of love for others without it changing their love for their partner. Thus far, it hasn’t come up as a major conflict in their relationship, because Oda is dead, but recent revelations in the fourth Release story (the reliability of the character who gave the reveal, notwithstanding) raises some interesting questions stemming from: what if Oda could be brought back to life. Most readers seemed to have accepted Chuuya’s logic built on his personal narrative that Dazai was in love with Oda and vice versa, that if Dazai is trying to bring Oda back, he’s using Chuuya to do it as some sacrifice, because he truly loves Oda and wants to be with Oda, and that his relationship with Chuuya is meaningless. So, if we stay within that perspective we’re left with the one question: is he really trying to bring Oda back? -- and the conclusion drawn from it being: if he is, he doesn’t love Chuuya, and if he isn’t, he does love Chuuya. But there are some other important questions I don’t see too many readers asking, such as: are these things truly mutually exclusive? Would Dazai being romantically in love with Oda represent the only explanation for why Dazai would want to bring Oda back to life? Would Dazai really see bringing Oda back as being in conflict with his and Chuuya’s developing romance?

Of course, this added potential motivation for Dazai aside, stopping the Grimm Brotherhood is paramount. This is a dangerous organization that is doing horrendous things, and their mysterious machinations are made more ominous by the fact our heroes don’t fully know their ultimate goals. Thus far, everything that’s happened involving Chuuya has been beneficial towards bringing down the Grimm Brotherhood. Regardless if Dazai is pursuing the Brotherhood for personal reasons, his actions still align with the motivations of the Agency and Chuuya.

I don’t know if this answered your question but I hope that you might trust me as a writer that has no intention of “pulling one over” on the readers and that you will continue to stick with the story. I don’t get my jollies from leaving stories with unsatisfactory endings. I believe that there should always be an appropriate payoff that the story built towards. Thank you for the question, thank you for reading and enjoying my other stories, and I hope that you take care!

[inknose]

mdzs read diary part IV, the end

It’s inspiring how much self care wwx is gonna finally get now that his husband will go along with whatever he does, so he’s gotta look out for lwj’s well being if not his own. that is emphatically the STUFF

dragging my hands down I face as I read this, after all these chapters of getting up close and personal with ghouls bleeding from every orifice, slaying ancient beasts, rebelling against the entire cultivation world, the two of them are absolutely paralyzed by middle school crush sleepover math

chicken

he actually drew kissy doodles .... he....

IDK I THINK I JUST DOCUMENTED THIS PART CUZ I WAS STILL SCREAMING you cant expect me to have very useful things to say at this point

this is torture you are both so mushy you are so GONE

This part really stood out to me, it’s an attitude I feel like wwx implies with his inner narration a few times but most clearly says here: he’s not one for allowing himself to exaggerate how bad his circumstances are/could be even a little bit - he’s already lived through some extreme low points and found a way to keep going, so he never makes sweeping statements about what he couldn’t live without (Inner JingYi: you’re supposed to say you’d be lost without him here!!!) Instead he seems to accept as a given that being alive doesn’t guarantee him any pleasantness or joy at all, and as a result his feelings toward being in TRUE LOVE are surprisingly pragmatic, but also colored with such gratitude. There are a lot of things in the novel that struck me, like this, as being just a little to the left of familiar tropes/sentiments, and were more touching for it. Whether it be the influence of culture difference as opposed to what I’m used to reading in most western romance stories, or MXTX’s unique outlook, or a combination of both, it was really refreshing and made me pause over it. Not “I can’t imagine living without you” but “I could be living without you, but instead I get to be with you and I think that’s the best thing that could happen.”

ADJFDKFJ THE UST BEING SO STRONG THAT EVEN THE VILLAIN COMMENTS ON IT IN THE MIDDLE OF EXECUTING HIS EVIL PLANS IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS THAT WILL NEVER FAIL TO MAKE ME LAUGH MY ASS OFF. hes like god damn! here I thought I had problems

it was at this moment that I realized we were doing this Now... I’m still recovering. What a scene. I am so glad I saw the most incredible fanart soon afterwards, bc the fact that someone has already drawn a perfect comic of this part means I don’t have to

I love you so much, you are so annoying, you are perfect... I like how he’s been experiencing openly requited love for all of ten minutes but he’s already figured out how to weaponize it to piss people off

doing!!! his!!! job!!!!!

ahh... it’s a really good story. JGY is a great character. One of the most interesting differences for me between drama watching vs. novel reading experience is that without an actor to bat his vulnerable doe eyes at you and smile faintly with his cute dimples, the book does not go much out of its way to try to lull the reader into a false sense of security around him or *endear* him to you the way the show does. But just by seeing events through wei wuxian’s POV, its still enough to evoke pity or understanding towards him. The overall impression is a bit more detached though, there’s less emphasis on the spectacle of how he could manipulate everyone closest to him and more of a general feeling of resigned tragedy that everyones the worst on this bitch of an earth.

I CANNOT DEAL WITH YOU FOR EVEN ONE MORE SECOND!!!!

I clearly paused to take note of less and less parts at the end & the extras due to: a) too excited to reach the end b) too spicy to photograph and c) too sleepy cuz I kept reading in the middle of the night. but I absolutely took the time for Bro We Are Teens appreciation corner:

I’d absolutely read 40 more extra chapters of their monster-of-the-week field trip antics.

god... poor Jin Ling now basically has to deal with divorced parents that talk shit about each other to him whenever he is saying with one of them. except they are both his uncles. just a disasterhood of all uncles from start to finish. AUUUGH wei wuxian and jiang cheng have fucked me up completely, I dream of them reconciling but I also REFUSE to believe it would ever be easy. let me know if theres a fanfic that absolutely tortures you for decades before they hug

HAHAHA oh no this man ain’t making it to immortality thats for damn sure. HE’S JUST GONNA TRY AS HARD AS HE CAN HIS WHOLE LIFE NOT TO LOOK AT HIM BUT THEYRE *MARRIED* SDLKFJSF ohhhh it’s too funny, like... the mundane domestic family drama IN the fantastical swords and sorcery setting is what really ratchets up these things from amusing to fucking hilarious I think

aaaa the end... final random thoughts? No not final, I would like to please keep discussing at length and exhaustively, all the time please - CQL has gotta be one of the best TV adaptations I’ve seen. ANY adaptation of anything would be lucky to be so good!! reading the novel has just made me appreciate it even more.

- I don’t think I can do justice to what I find most fascinating about comparing the two versions briefly, to do that I need to get drunk and ramble at my friends for hours but... the condensed version is something like this. Really all the significant differences between the two versions (besides the ones which can be attributed to censorship and therefore aren’t worth discussing) are a side effect of the structure of how the story is told - there’s barely anything changed arbitrarily. Aside from having a cold opening, the drama sticks to a very linear version of the story, and I think for a TV show or film, that’s probably the best way to do it. We see everything, we get shocked and tricked and betrayed and surprised along with the characters, we feel the biggest impact at the climactic scenes having experienced all the build-up. The novel on the other hand is not only much more non-linear in WHEN we learn bits and pieces of information, but that information is also obfuscated under wei wuxian’s multiple layers of Unreliable Narratoritis, which are as follows: 1) difficulty remembering things because of personality/avoiding painful memories/actual memory loss, 2) No Homo Goggles still on, and 3) a wry sense of humor that makes the reader unsure of how much they can trust his attitude toward things, especially near the beginning. The experience of reading is a puzzle the reader has to mentally piece together through all of the above listed camouflage, and the puzzle itself is a three-sided mystery: One - How Bad of a guy was Wei WuXian really, and how exactly did all the bad stuff in his life go down; Two - wangxian epic pride & prejudice gambits; Three - political murder mystery. (I love stories like this btw... though I fully admit I’m glad I watched first this time bc it might have taken me a long time to tackle otherwise.) Because of this, where the drama wants to pull you in and submerge you in all the most potent emotional parts, the novel in direct contrast deliberately side-steps around these things and asks that you hurt yourself by filling in the blanks. In fact the more intense emotions and painful memories involved, whether it be his relationship with jiang yanli, his DEATH, the darkest days of war times etc, the more the novel evasively withholds details. I actually really like both styles of storytelling but each one is obviously way better suited to its medium. ANYWAY.... THATS BASICALLY WHERE MY BRAINS AT WHILE IM READING GAY SWORD WIZARD BOOKS

- The extras are so saturated with domestic married bliss that it’s a good thing I stopped taking pictures because I’d just take a picture of every page. this is too much for me to take... I did jump the gun a few times and read a few fanfics while I was still mid-read of the book (I tried to hold out but alas I am mortal) and at one point after finishing I was like “wow what fic was it in where lwj says something cute and wwx kisses him in public but they’re in the corner of the restaurant so no one really sees... OH NO WAIT that was actually in there.” and ... and that’s the LEAST OF IT... *stares into the distance* theyre married wow

- I ofc couldn’t help but see a few vague blogs beforehand so honestly I was braced for something like, wildly ooc for the sake of porn to happen in the extras... I definitely appreciate how the incense burner porn interludes could be uhhh a lot for many people and not my personal cup of tea in terms of smut however [here follows the words of a poisonous frog who has dwelt her whole life in the rainforests of BL] the concept is also surprisingly SWEET SDFLKJF like wwx sees lan wangji’s darkest mixed-up violent teenage fantasies and he’s just like aww babe you had a crush on me!! just... good for them

- I swear I’m not gonna rehash every cute married thing they do but wei wuxian grading papers in the tub........................rEALLY GOT ME

- I want to Draw - ok thats enough if I keep going I’ll just write “wei wuxian grading papers in the tub” seven more times probably

[romy350-romyakari]

Since I'm okey with people calling me out here I will unleash my humble opinion on a matter that makes me roll on my seat because is so funny as it also is so... uhmmm "weird" to have in count.

Take it as the writers huge mistake what I'm going to point out in a bit.

I guess I'm still salty even after 5 years. Is confusing at best and I'm adding this after writing all of this. Is a lot to read so please just know is a huge ramble.

aka me rambling over what I feel on rewatch been no longer that young

Is part of our experience judge that to some degree.

Characterization is important, it defines who we see on a story and is better if there are consistend or if their inconsistent have a good reason to be.

Well I was young once and could miss mistake like the 180° not so justified turn of events on a main character. I realize some years later and can laugh about it because it makes no sense.

I'm going to explain the case of Angel's Friends cartoon and that huge mistake from their characters.

Like I am fond of the series because it was my first fandom. But still I can't unsee this as you can guess.

Let's begin with the nature of something they like to state early on the cartoon show which was really cliché but angels were the goodie two-shoes and devils were the bad guys im general. Simple but not so simple for them to keep in rule it seems.

I like to imagine they respect some of the calm and more expected nature of the angels and the chaotic and up to no good ways of the devils like the Original comics did for both of them but we wouldn't be here on my post if that was the case.

It was quite a mess how the cartoon take the character since the side character could be so plain that you forgot that they were doing something till they were support help to their own side been angels or devils.

But again with the stuff that make me roll off till now and nobody on the show says a thing about.

They freaking mess up with their own statment of Sulfus on the cartoon show and they can't tell me no they didn't. Is hillarious and let me tell you why.

They may say on that thing how "loves make you change" but this one could be taken for a fool and is really lot coming from me.

They present him lot more chaotic and really problematic on just chapter 1, it did give an impression but everthing goes down hill a bit from her and on.

As the plot of first season is the villianess doing hidding matchmaking and poison of love plan that seem to turn into a real love story for this chaotic case of the female lead Raf an angel and the male lead who is Sulfus a devil so she could scape limbo to the terrible consecuenses that bring over a trully huge rule on the series wich is part of a magic code of not interfering with each other party and less uhmm a kiss, you really see lot of stuff go on here and mark my word is not like "oh no this is not safe for the kids" but is not quite recomended for them peraphs.

This doesn't make sence but i think the villianess plan was an excuse to showcase the romantic tension and ovearlod or romantic takes.

I can't watch the series withouh some wather to pass the taste of "i thinks this is too much"

But this mention has a meaning behind since i need to state this and the huge overload on the romance we get because i believe is a guge thing that affecter how they write the characters on the cartoon show .

They really did bad to Sulfus uh? Like most of the show. You wouldn't qish to have to deal with chapter 1 Sulfus as asigned rival, he seem to be a big deal on the devils group because how remacable chaotic he was but that didn't last long.

The villianess plan was a match making one since he and Raf break a rule that is used to her advantage she would lead them to comith a sacrilege which would really shake that magical code that they should not mess with. It causes huge dissasters and mess btw.

There is s small time gap before the love poison the villianess send on a spider that she encomended her only servant with leaning it to find the pair of eternals she was targeting. On that gap we still retained normal characterization for Sulfus but the episode went down hills on characterization pretty quickly.

It was so uncalled for the way they set the situation of the bit from the spider tho... idk if blame the spider at all because actually the romance would no have a foot at all if the writers didn't bend Sulfus as a character like the extend they did.

There is this huge point they state that their romace was not because of the spider bit that later i think is kind of acknowledge but is quite confusing if they wat to justify some fated love.

Anyways from then on we see how literally did soften Sulfus character to the point he been devil makes me wonder why nobody call him out about it like there is this expectation they stated us the normal was been that troublesome chaotic for devils but they seem to just let it pass from then on. I am still laughing because he actually change so much that rewatch episode one you can just laugh because at that point you know he will became a softie later that is actually bad for him as a charcter since there is little to non struggle on why he is behaving that way or if he wants to undertand this changes at all.

There is near to non thinking on him since idk, it should peraphs feel more comflicting with all stated but he just misses the cue and goes for it on ocaccions?? Is quite weird he is so open to forget the only rules the devils respect. The no involve themselven with angels matters pr the angels themselves unless is about work.

Was is the spider? Who knows they smke it confusing after the trial episode and then the movie came and idk if laugh to the villaness of some fortune teller since wow she was lucky on that scape uh?

They literally make him datable material for the female lead and is a sad thing but well, the cartoon show itself could acomplish as the one with most romace scenes/moments of all time for a cartoon show, not well written but it has them. And maybe the one with an exclusive kissing sequence [no it was not just a few seconds for the kissing scene, there was a freaking sequece of it if i recall well and i recall it as something thar they put budge on it for some reasons since they did a 360° turn around on the sequence even] is impressive comoared to other european cartoons that claimed to have romace on the tags and give you a but here and there while this was like a full bag of the bread but questonable if is one you will like lol

You know the writer forgot many stuff when then Sulfus was the one trying to remind Raf the rules but follow behind her because who care love is a fool or so writers say on those chapter after the half of season 1

If you cringe is undestandable, I cannot rewatch in a full go as I used to when I was younger, i could because i let so many stuff pass.

Sometimes I wonder why even follow this plot idea when the Original comics had a great plot a great characters.

The most consistent Sulfus I know so far is Original Comic Sulfus, that is entretating to read and he does not change much from who he is, he may be a may character and this yime kind of falling in love with the Raf there but well, is not quite the deal since is explained this weird odds of the posibility of anglels and devils with training on 99% not be complete perfect and could end up with a crush or so but all is just momentary and will vanish once they reach 100%. Is onsided crush thing since the live interest for Raf is a human on the Original Comics and that, again, is a prohibited thing, the magic code is not applied between angels and devils but between humans and eternals here.

Back to Original comics Sulfus is quite funny how he figure out he is having a crush, btw they all pre-teen kiddos apearance wise except for the master of the school program while the cartoon show present them as teenager lookalike, and really he does struggle and bit on that whole process of realization. It seems Original comics Sulfus give hint of it but it was subtle changes that yeah it was nice details, maybe is even sad how he just decides to be subtle about it and do nothing big since is not something he would bother much aside there is bigger issues for angels and devils, that characters I like of that characterization is that he will still be who they state him to be but subtle changes mark that realization.

And the rest of the cast is just as cool on ther characterization, you see somtimes little on some of the characters but they don't lose thar cool characterization they had from the start and is so welcome from me as a reader.

A shame they cancelled the good comic because of the cartoon show, really a shame. I will be sad about that till the end of my days because iwanted the resolution of all major a smaller struggles were cool to read.

I have no idea how they funded a movie and a second season of the cartoon show and idk how their live action somewhat based on some fact of the cartoon show went.

But to make thing short here the resume:

Cartoon show mess it up big time with characterization and we lost cool orginial comics thanks tho the cartoon show, that would be all.

You fan cring or be sad about it and I will get it.

Yeah I"m still bit salty about that.

[ofmallory]

( tati gabrielle , cis female , she/her, twenty-four ) omg ! i was walking yonge street downtown , and you’ll never guess who i saw . mallory roth ! i just saw a post about them on sixsecrets ! i think it said something like “ still no word on the status of mal roth's next album — but at least twitter stans are posting some hilarious memes about the three - year - long wait ” . isn’t that wild ? i guess it makes sense through , since they’re apparently fickle and self-absorbed . but i’ve heard they’re also ardent and ingenious ! i’ll just stick to giving them the benefit of the doubt . i mean , it’s not like i know them personally — they’re a famous singer / songwriter ! you know , i’ve actually heard rumors that ____ , but they’re just rumors … i think . i dunno . if you happen to run into them , tell them i’m their biggest fan ! ( sam , she/her , 23 , est )

* lorde career claim !

greetings and salutations! i’m sam and i’ve been thinking about this muse for aaaages, but this is my very first time writing her! character info is under the cut and of course, please message me if you would like to plot!

triggers : abandonment, theft, car accident.

STATS

FULL NAME: mallory corine roth ; born mallory im

NICKNAMES: mal, moll, mollie

GENDER + PRONOUNS: cis female + she / her

DOB + AGE: december 31st, 1995 +  twenty - four

ZODIAC: capricorn

HOMETOWN: oakland, california

ORIENTATION: panromantic / pansexual

OCCUPATION: singer / songwriter

HISTORY

mallory im was born and raised in oakland, california. her mother was a nineteen - year - old pre law student at uc berkeley and her father was in the midst of his fifteen minutes of fame as a musician with a number one song on the radio. he was in town for a gig which mal’s mother attended, and then just a few weeks later she discovered that she was pregnant. her parents ( mal’s maternal grandparents ) were absolutely furious. they disowned her on the spot, kicking her out of their house and stopping their payments of her college tuition. forced to drop out, she resorted to working several small jobs at once in order to cover doctor visits and the rent for her small, run - down apartment.

much of what mal knows about her early childhood is things that she was told rather than things that she actually remembers. after she was born, her mother resumed her college courses in between her revolving door or minimum wage jobs. her parents were civil with each other. by the time that she was born, her father’s career had completely fallen off and he put most of his earnings into starting a record label ( that wasn’t very successful at first ), but he would still send them some money every once in a while.

mal was three years old when her mother began dating a local businessman. the owner of a luxury car dealership, he was slightly older and a widower with two children of his own, and he and mal’s mom fell absolutely smitten with each other. it wasn’t long before they were picking out flower arrangements and setting a date for their wedding ( mal was the flower girl and her soon - to - be stepbrothers were groomsmen ). 

after the marriage took place, mal’s new stepfather was completely committed to taking care of the new members of his family. he moved them into his home, paid for mal’s mother to complete her degree, and even formally adopted his new stepdaughter, her surname officially changing to roth. 

the few years that ensued were uneventful outside of a few things : mal started taking music lessons, her stepbrothers went off to college and so she became the only child of the household, and her mother completed law school and opened up a practice in the city. 

mal tried countless hobbies, but nothing besides music could hold her interest for long. in high school, she joined the skater kids clique and started to rebel. it was just small things at first : sneaking out after curfew, trying cigarettes, drinking at the skate park with her friends on the weekends. her parents had noticed of course, so they scolded her a little and figured that was that. spoiler alert : it wasn’t.

at approximately two in the morning on her sixteenth birthday, mal and a few of her friends drunkenly stole a car from her stepfather’s dealership and wound up crashing into lake merritt. mal was behind the wheel at the time. fortunately, no one was seriously injured. her parents were simultaneously relieved and furious. however, they were far more interested in helping her rather than punishing her. deciding that a change of scenery and being away from her friends who they deemed to be a bad influence might be good for her, mal’s mother and stepfather sent her to live with a virtual stranger.

in the years since he had started his record label, mal’s father had upgraded his reputation, going from washed - up musician to successful businessman and mentor. he’s credited with launching the careers of several artists in the genres of rap and r & b. he was earning more money than ever, dating beautiful celebrities, and buying all sorts of expensive items for himself. he sent cards & money for birthdays & holidays and called on the phone every once in a while, but mal had never met him.

she never thought much of it. their first in - person meeting was actually rather anticlimactic. his chauffeur picked her up from the airport and brought her to his enormous bel air mansion, and he was just leaving for work when she arrived. he told her to make herself at home, and that was it.

mal spent her first few weeks in los angeles exploring her new home. she poked around the edges of the local party scene and found that it had lost its appeal for her after the accident, so she turned her attention to the one constant in her life : music.

she started accompanying her father to the studio and quickly caught onto the basics. at just sixteen years old she was writing songs that artists were literally fighting over, but as she noticed her words growing more and more personal, mal started keeping songs for herself and soon she had more than enough for an entire album.

the song royals was released in 2013 when mal was sixteen years old, written about her first impressions of los angeles as someone who had never left their less famous and glamorous hometown. it was kind of an experiment. no one really knew what was going to happen, but no one was expecting the song to become the PHENOMENON that it did.

royals was critically acclaimed, spent nine weeks at the number one spot on the billboard hot 100 chart, and went on to win two grammy awards : best pop solo performance and song of the year.

her debut album pure heroine was released in 2013 as well, and her second album melodrama was released in 2017. the long break in between albums became a literal meme that’s starting to pop up again now that it’s been around three years since mal has released something new.

she moved to toronto in 2016 while she was working on her second album. it was just supposed to be a little vacation that would hopefully help to clear her head because she was struggling to write at the time, but mal wound up falling in love with the city and decided to make it her permanent residence.

PERSONALITY

Perfectionist™️

I HATE EVERYBODY by halsey is honestly a perfect explanation for how she typically is in her personal relationships. she falls hard and fast, and when the relationship inevitably disintegrates she’s devastatingly heartbroken until she discovers a new infatuation. she does it with both romances and friends, moving through the lives of people around her in search of something she’s never found.

basically, she wants love but expects it to happen right away, and when it doesn’t she immediately writes off the relationship as a failure. 

the type of person to literally move to a new house if her refrigerator stopped working because she doesn’t feel like getting it fixed.

almost overly generous with friends. you like her perfume? here, take the bottle! car broke down? come on, she’ll buy you a new one! material things = love is something she isn’t even aware that she believes in, but she absolutely does.

she’s REALLY self - centered though. people do often approach her for advice, but she’s just not a good listener.

lowkey insecure and worries that she’s unloveable but she’d never outright say so except for in her music.

she’s approachable, but not really the chatty, small talk type. because of this, she’s gotten a bit of an unfair reputation for being frigid in the media.

WANTED CONNECTIONS

best friend ( basically the one person she’s never gotten even a little bit bored of. )

friends ( usually surface level, but also former friends, childhood friends, industry friends )

industry rivals

enemies

pr relationships ( romantic, platonic, negative, but all 100% fake )

exes / hookups / ewb / fwb 

her current infatuation - could be platonic or romantic

THERE IS A POTENTIAL CONNECTION THAT INVOLVES HER SECRET, SO PLEASE FEEL FREE TO MESSAGE ME IF YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED AND WE CAN DISCUSS!

these are just some base ideas for connections, so please don’t feel limited to what’s listed here!

[crqstalite]

tired.

keeping a running list of mods i’ve come across or are looking at getting for me3 (yeah that game i’ve been yelling about for like,,, days). can use as a reference for your own shopping adventures on nexus. i do not use me3explorer (as i’ve said before and you’re probably tired of hearing me say it) or texmod.

is also more a reference for me (or a very disorganized essay or sorts), who’s been at this for like eight hours + some one off days with little success and more confusion than truly necessary (all while mildly distracted by andromeda and stories because it’s been a while since i loaded kodee’s save) now just trying to figure out what’s compatible and whats not. will update if i find new story mods i like.

priority earth overhaul mod (peom) conflicts with backoff. updated with backoff’s page as not to be used all together, though remains only as a minor issue on peom’s page. unsure of what it really is, but erring on the side of caution and writing it off all together. -fixes a lot with (obvs) priority earth. mulling over whether it’d be worth it. -unsure of whether i’d be overriding things by using LIME.

project variety conflicts with backoff. disappointed that it does conflict because of how much it adds, but i’m not smart enough to go messing around in the files and not expect a reprisal down the line. -project variety in general has a few issues i don’t think i could fix myself if need be. still mulling over whether i should install it or not, though it looks very nice.  -an issue with the spectre dlc mod is apparently the culprit for ontarom. because im not using the spectre dlc, not acknowledging this, but is good to know.

backoff itself does look very promising, hence why i may be willing to overlook peom and project variety for it alone (giftifish is very talented -- and concerned i may run into the problem with citlali because i’m just too nice to kaidan in general lol). my only concern is the removal of a couple scenes on earth with kaidan, (i think its a problem of it being too romantic for a shepard with a me2 romance but as you guys know me, none of my shepard’s have cheated) but as noted earlier, to be seen if this is really an issue. -at the moment looking for their release notes as advised. spoilers or no, i do like my kaidan romance and am curious to see what it changes. -update: it looks great. probably will install just for all the romance changes in general. just need to remember to save a lot when kaidan’s involved, ‘less i accidentally break up with him. -noticed that it updates all the romances to just run better in general. wow.

thanemod conflicts with a myriad of mods, which is understandable due to the story requirements to keep thane alive anyway. little disappointed that i can’t use it with some of them but not frustrated. if you’re not sure whether it conflicts, probably a good idea to hold off on installing it. -there is a third version of it coming. keeping an eye out for whenever it’s released, may start a thane romance once it is just for fun. -requires heavy usage of me3explorer. the mod author is very good at what they do, they’re documentation is honestly amazing, and had i not been the absolute monkey brain that i am, i probably could figure it out with little trouble. unfortunately i am monkey brain. -egm does specifically say in the mod description not to use me3explorer as well. consider the decision carefully, as i’m not sure what it changes if you do.

john p’s alternate ending mod (JAM) doesn’t have any conflicts as far as i’m concerned except with other ending mods (which checks out obvs), but does have quite a few issues that haven’t been fixed since 2016 and can make the endgame (catalyst) impossible to play. included with both version A and B, though there isn’t much of a consensus on which mods cause this issue. since i have a few mods on the list, i won’t be using this version. -the less is more ending mod (LIME) skips over these issues i think, will update this in the case i finish a playthrough with it. mostly installed just for the ending.    -there is an install issue with the citadel epilogue mod (CEM) that could be had if installation is incorrect. noted, but i don’t have the citadel dlc anyway. -personally like these mods more than the original mass effect happy ending mod (MEHEM) just because mehem is a little corny at times and a bit immersion breaking. to each their own, though.

expanded galaxy mod (EGM; page is down right now for updates as of 7.24.20) works with just about everything, as far as im concerned, except recalibrated. which honestly makes sense, so no complaint there. great mod, adds a lot to the game and isn’t immersion breaking in the slightest. - [as of 7.24 and update 1.47] there is a sort of known issue (i say sort of because i’ve seen three or four other posts on either mod that details a similar issue as mine) with the femshep’s closet mod that i haven’t been able to figure out. long story short, it glitches during the last romance scene and causes a few issues that could be described as game-breaking (invisible shepard/default shepard). the consensus is currently to disable the intro file prior to starting the cerberus hq mission. update to come once i figure out if this fixes the issue.

same gender mod is...questionable. a few mods i’m under the impression it works with (egm i think). ones like thane’s and backoff, not so much. i don’t believe it works with recalibrated or better dreams, and i don’t have a running list for mods that conflicts with. for a pretty much vanilla playthrough (like me, when i simply installed it to play with annika and ashley) without any other mods, it works fine. keep in mind most romance mods assume vanilla romances, not ones that can be achieved with mods.  -i only say this because the spreadsheet giftifish has mentions their mods only acknowledge vanilla romances. i figure this applies to all romance mods.

better dreams seems to work with everything i’ve come across except the same gender romance mod. will probably install just because i’m not a huge fan of the starchild.

a lot of textures for me3 (ALOT) does seem to have some issues that can be pretty easily explained, but as always, install it after all of your content dlc mods regardless. -it seems there may be an issue with project variety and possibly even backoff, but seems like minor issues that may be caused by other mods or a problem with installation. unsure, will update.

keep in mind a majority of these require a fresh me2 import. i’m not sure what they do for new me3 campaigns or NG+s, but i won’t try my luck lest it breaks my game entirely.

[potahun]

Sha Hai / Tomb of the Sea watch

Time to vomit final feelings.

Final line-up of the top 10 characters i liked

1. Luo Que and Kan Jian (GOOD kids. GOOD souls. Love them. Flawless. I mean, Luo Que and his ridiculous commitment to aesthetics? Kan Jian and the brainless beef? Kan Jian took over Zhang Fu Guan’s LJM legacy as the simpleton with fighting spirit. He’s basically the definition of a himbo. Also, their respective weapons?? A fishing rod and a slingshot, seriously??? Im counting those two as a unit now. I hope Kan Jian gets to tell more jokes to Luo Que in Sichuan dialect. (Their Chinese cp name is sometimes ‘Brainless x Grumpy’ I believe, and I appreciate that))

2. Yang Hao/Hao Ge (a good bro. Good heart.He was not always treated right and i wish theyd elaborated more on him at the end, but whenever he was there he was a good kid - especially the beginning. Honestly his misgivings about everything were so right and he deserved better)

3. Liang Wan (shes good. Shes smart. Shes shamelessly horny I WISH the scriptwriter had treated her better like fuck it stop making her weak at your convenience. at the end she did stupid things but mostly because the scriptwriters/director used her as a plot device to make the male characters into heroes and I HATED THAT with a passion SHE DESERVED BETTER) Also kind of hated how they made all her motivations be about Zhang Fu Guan because COME ON we get it’s a romance can you please let her be her own character pls pls pls. I have a lot of complaints about how they treated Liang Wan but I liked her a lot as a character

4. Huo Dao Fu (this dude and his contradictions came in after halfway in the show but still left such an IMPRESSION PFFFFT. Mr I only care about myself but then genuinely cares for Yang Hao’s safety and state of mind. Also Mr cant talk without slurring words. Hes a Huo but mingles with the Chen. What a bastard)

6. Black glasses. (initially found the way he talked rly annoying, but eventually grew on me. Lots of amusing character quirks and when hes there the group is immediately funnier and better. The master disciple thing with Su Wan was fun while it lasted)

7. Su Wan. Good kid. Mostly a good kid. “Do you know why i packed a saxophone to the desert? To save you guys!” I can’t believe. Also cant believe thats the same actor as Xue Yang in mdzs i initially got whiplash but got over it

8. Su Nan (i didnt watch the beginning of the show but thought she was badass and i rly felt like she deserved better at the end. Really hated the way they used her too. the way this show treated female characters is shit)

9. Wang Pang Zi (what a likeable dude overall)

10. Fo Ye. I mean, hey honestly they talked about him so fucking often he might as well have been there

--

Lowest bit in the whole series: The whole period with Li Cu, Shen Qiong and the Wang family at the end. God I could not for the life of me find Li Cu likeable so I could not care for his struggles at ALL despite him being the main character, I just literally could not give a fuck (and it’s such a shame because in his first trip down to the Gu Tong Jing, I did find him likeable). Also, did I mention the female characters deserved better? Plus, the whole thing with the Wang Family is just...so anti-climatic. So.....yeah....I had a terrible time at the ‘climax’.

Favourite bit of the whole series: The trip down the tomb-like hole in the Chen’s territory, which was left by Chen Pi, and which involved Chen Pi’s descendant, Zhang Fu Guan, and Luo Que. I mean, first off, my memory is a bit blurry already, I think it was not a tomb, but it was the most tomb-like structure, so the descent there was very much like classic tomb-raiding and very reminiscent of the descents in Lao Jiu Men, where you feel like anything could happen -- as opposed to the Gu Tong Jing which was mysterious at first, but got boring fast, because: i) it’s mostly modern compounds, ii) you’ve quickly done a full tour of the things that can attack there, which are basically snakes and trees. That’s it. Not very riveting. The descent in the Chen territory was really eerie and the little throwbacks to the times of the old nine gates were good fun. Plus, Luo Que was absolutely a baby star throughout. His “You actually don’t need to put in so much effort for me, you’re an employee of Xin Yue Fan Dian” and “Right now, I’m here. So I’m yours” exchange with Zhang Fu Guan absolutely touched my heart. He’s a fashionista with a crush on Zhang Fu Guan the size of a mountain. Bless him.

Overall, I did not find what I was hoping to find in this series, and I got pretty angry at the characters and the writing many times in the series. The plot is also a bit cheesy and far-fetched. The treatment of female characters is absolutely maddening, and that treatment is not as bearable as in period dramas, because this is modern days and you cannot use the era as an excuse. Overall, I would not recommend the watch. But the concept of the Nine Gates is still wonderful, and probably one of the main reasons I stuck until the end. For those who watched Lao Jiu Men, the show does give a lot of Easter eggs and throwbacks, but honestly, if you should choose, I would recommend watching Lao Jiu Men instead. 

[bloodleads]

                                            PLOTTING CALL !!

              muzan kibutsuji /  KIMETSU NO YAIBA

please read my rules page prior to interacting with this post! it contains information about potential triggers that are crucial to know in regards to this character and blog!

x ; FOLLOW POST x ; APPLICATION x ; STATS x ; PLOTTER IDEA PAGE

LIKING THIS POST MEANS THAT YOU ARE SIGNALLING TO ME THAT YOU WANT TO RP! IT COULD ALSO MEAN THAT YOU ARE GIVING ME PERMISSION TO SEND YOU MEMES, STARTERS, IMS OR ASKS!  if you do not like receiving asks or ims for out of character things, please let me know in the replies of the post! i am a chatty person out of character, so it’s okay to decline that!  i am a very active plotter, meaning i like to discuss plots and threads deeply before writing them as opposed to winging it. ( you can reach me here also as an alternative contact ) PLEASE READ THE TRIGGERS BEFORE LIKING THIS POST! YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT KIND OF CONTENT YOU WILL BE GETTING INVOLVED IN!!!!

muzan is a demon  —— the first demon —— and the greatest threat against the demon slayers and mankind as a whole in kny canon. he is a ruthless, selfish and sadistic leader amongst his kind, controlling those beneath him with a brutal and violent fist. when they disobey or disappoint him, he has no qualms with disposing of them. however, he praises and rewards good work, despite being insanely difficult to impress.

he is a being on the cusp of perfection, in his mind, with only one obstacle truly blocking his place as an altogether beautiful and eternal being; his weakness to sunlight. his goal is simple, to overcome this weakness by any means necessary. he pursues this dream with no distraction, no other purpose as great as this...

FRIENDSHIP

genuine friendship is unfortunately impossible. muzan is a creature lacking in empathy, much preferring his own company as he really is that self-centred. his mind is that of a solipsist; an egocentrist who believes that nobody else’s thoughts, lives, feelings matter at all. his is the only mind that matters. his wants and needs are the only things which are worth mattering. for this reason, he is insanely difficult to even talk to on a real, meaningful level. he will never empathise with you, understand your goals or support you. at least, not genuinely.

fake friendships are more likely.  he might guise himself as someone nice, somewhat pleasant. he can very well mimic a human being who cares for others, perhaps even fake true love. sociopathic as it is, he could mask his true intentions behind how he thinks a human might naturally act; caring, thoughtful and gentle. he might even seem kind. this is a ploy, but a very good one.  the type of people he may befriend are anywhere between people stupid enough for him to fool ( and by stupid, i mean in his mind they are stupid. ), people with high empathy, humans with powerful connections, people experiencing emotional turmoil or pain ( they make easier prey for manipulation ), or those in high society for a number of reasons. 

i would like to see how he interacts with demons from other media, to see how they live and what their weaknesses are. he may fake friendship with them also, or he might outright hate them. who knows!

ENEMIES

more than likely! castmates have plenty of reasons to despise muzan, as he is the root of a lot of people’s pain and heartache. for the demon slayers, often they are drawn to the job as a means of revenge, for fury for those which were taken from them under muzan’s ruling. the strongest amongst these slayers, known as pillars, seek him out to kill on sight.  as for others, he simply may just rub you the wrong way, let alone kill someone you hold dear. he spares no remorse for the lives he takes, does not care if you lose a partner or a sibling, he just takes and takes. whatever, whenever. 

are you a demon hunter? do you just hate monsters that eat people ( yikes! ) or generally just kill for the heck of it? you’re going to hate muzan!

ROMANCE

MISC

i have a few things listed in my plotter page on my blog, but here are some other ideas for threads and interactions i want!

DEMONS FROM OTHER MEDIA

R E V E N G E  P L O T S

PLAYING FAKE-FRIENDS WITH PEOPLE 

MEETING OTHER MONSTER-TYPE CHARACTERS

CAT-AND-MOUSE GAMES WITH DEMON HUNTERS/SLAYERS OR OTHER SIMILAR TYPES

ART-THEMED LOCATIONS ( theatre, classical orchestra... you get my drift. i love drama )

MEETING KNY CAST MATES DUHHHHHHHHH

potential snack

MEETING PEOPLE WITH DIFFERENT POWERS TO HIMSELF

i will add more... when i think of more!

[dearburningorenji]

Ren crushing on you HCs

Considering the agency doesn’t allow romance, I always found it fun to think about if Ren seriously fell head over heels for someone enough to break the rules for them. This is the just the initial crush phase for now because it got looong

- first of all theres no denying the boys take their idol careers 2000% seriously and know that love is forbidden no matter how strongly they might feel for someone but

- we also know how capable they are of feelings that strong and just imAGINE Ren catching those feelings and the more he spends time with you the more he realises ‘oh’ hes falling for you BAD 

- i mean we all know that he’s always harping on about love and has something sweet to say to just about anyone he fancies

- but i have shining live and what i’ve read about the games to back me up on this when i say that, if Ren seriously fell in love with someone like he’s always wanted to deep down, boy is done for

- you pique his interest in a way that you only can, whether you’re total opposites or have a lot in common

- your humour and the way you react to his teasing or flirtatious (but friendly) comments, whether it catches you off guard or you fire right back with a response of your choosing, it’s an interaction that leaves an impression on him

- he gives you a nickname oh my god

- his fondness only grows every time he sees you, he’s falling and at first he hardly notices

- but at the slight chance that he might get to see you again, he just feels...butterflies??? when was the last time he felt this nervous/excited about seeing someone?

- but everything about you just makes his heart soAR like the way your eyes light up when you talk about that thing you’re obsessed with?? your smile??? your LAUGH??? whether a giggle slips out or a full blown, red-faced, teary eyed, no-sound-coming-out-because-you’re-laughing-so-hard moment his heart just SIngs

- bonus points if he makes you smile or laugh he thinks he’s actually going to die what have you don e to him

- like he wouldnt know what to do he’d act all cool and collected around you but the whole time hes screaming internally

- if you notice something about him or offer a compliment he would think about it all day like you could compliment his socks and he’s still replaying that moment over and over in his head and masato calls him out several times during practice for spacing out or making a silly mistake more often than normal

- speaking of which jinguji aint slick just about everyone in starish can tell somethings up even if he thinks he does a good job at hiding it

- at this point he just brushes it off like no big deal right? he’ll get over it

- THINK AGAIN

- he takes his idol career super seriously as they all do, so the fact that you’re occupying his thoughts so much says a lot

- he normally doesn’t like to wear his heart on his sleeve but when it comes to you, there’s no hiding the way his eyes soften despite his usual smirk when he spots you across the room, lingering on you too long so that you catch him right as he looks away

- it may or may not be to hide the pinkness that is definitely not forming on his cheeks o h 

- smooth, jinguji

- his ears prick up at the sound of your voice, you could be in a group of people or in the crowd at one of his concerts you’re the only person in the room as far as hes concerned

- speaking of concerts iF HE SPOTTED YOU IN THE CROWD AT A CONCERT oH LORDY

- he’s already singing and dancing his heart out the boys are always energetic and having the time of their lives on stage, but anyone paying particularly close attention can see the extra brightness of Ren’s smile, the way his eyes seem to just LIGHT UP, how he exerts himself that much more and puts everything he has into every movement

- he fills the auditorium to the brim with those blessed vocal chords like this is the last performance of his life

- the fact that you came all this way just to see him (or all of starish, but he likes the first option better) he feels like his heart will EXPLODE what have you done to him?!

- because if there’s anything that Ren could love more than expressing his passionate and authentic self on stage and his gratitude to the fans who love him, it’s all of that + the person of his dreams watching him in his element and showing them who he really is UGGDGDG

- hes normally oozing confidence and producing roses tuxedo mask style but when it comes to you, he wants to do something more meaningful

- because at this point he realises he’s probably screwed and he may as well get to know you better but i mean thats alright no big dea-

- WRONG

- he always wants to talk to you and learn more about you without being too forward, but he has insecurities he’d rather ignore but cant help it he’s just never felt this way about anyone before???

- but he pays extra attention to you and the things you say, so that he can give you a more personal gift you would appreciate 

- im crying he genuinely wants to make you happy and do something for you because it’s the least he can do if he can’t love you

- he feels like it’s selfish to want all of your attention but even just for a second he would hold onto that moment for dear life

- he’s so nervous about what to get you and whether you’ll like it o w

- is pairing the gift with a massive bouquet of roses too much? 

- when he does give you something that touches your heart, the way your expression brightens from surprise to positively beaming with gratitude Ren’s just about ready to hand you his heart at this point 

- his own heart just SWELLS knowing he made you that happy

- it would get to the point that he’s fallen so hard that it practically huRts

- seeing you and not being able to have you because not only is it risking his career and everything he and the others have worked for, it would make your life difficult to be involved with an idol and in the public eye

- the only benefit of these feelings driving Ren absolutely mad would be that he’s inspired to incorporate them into his songs

- and poetry because some things are just too personal

- he’d write songs about you without you even realising 

- he has a way of making it not obvious that it’s about a particular person, much like the lyrics of his other songs 

- but there’s an extra added sense of vulnerability, a more heartfelt side to them they almost feel like a personal love letter 

- which, after the songs he’s already done, is saying a lot

- Ren’s in deep somebody help him!!!!

[theshapeshifter100]

Guess What? I’m Not a Robot Ch42

Summary: Jericho and Android Allies talk, and Paul actually gets annoyed.

Chapter warnings: mentions of being shot, some strong language

Word Count: 1,588

11PM Monday 15th November 2038

The small space didn’t actually have that many chairs. Allison didn’t give a damn and sat down in one, while the rest of the humans either felt too awkward or just decided not to bother.

“Okay, er,” for once Alex sounded a little unsure. “Megan has a lot of the numbers written down, and is usually our note taker. Megan, are you...” Alex trailed off as they realised that Megan had already made herself comfortable. She sat propped against the wall using her knees as a table. Her sling was tucked against her chest and she scribbled out a title with her right hand. “... Are you good to go?”

Megan clicked the pen a couple of times and nodded, sending a thumbs up to the group around the pen. All without looking up.

Alex looked at Paul for a second, who nodded and shrugged. This wasn’t exactly surprising.

“Ooookay,” Alex turned back to the main group. “What would you like to start with?”

“We’ve been out of the loop for a few days,” Markus admitted, “can you tell us about the outside world?”

“Yeah, President Warren’s been hiding behind Congress as they try and figure things out. Not much has happened yet, although there has been word of an anti android protest being planned in Washington next week.”

“We’re so crashing it,” Allison smirked.

“Do you have the numbers for that?” Markus asked, concerned. “Connor told me there was only a few of you.”

“Megan, numbers?” Alex prompted, and Megan complied, staring resolutely at her pad of paper.

“Several thousand people responded to the anti android post across the country, which isn’t that many really if we compare to the total US population. Currently Android Allies has three chapters. Detroit has ten, California has ninety and thirty in Alabama. We’ve gathered some in the Phoenix and general Arizona area, but no official count yet. There’s some international support from Europe, but they have so far been silent.”

“So, not enough to crash a protest,” Markus summarised.

“We can counter protest,” Ivy suggested. “We just need to get it online and spread the word.”

“And you think that’ll work?” North asked, part curious, part incredulous.

“Never know until we try,” Alex responded. “Plus, we usually get good turnouts from random people walking by.”

“This protest wouldn’t happen to be scheduled for when we’re supposed to send an emissary to the White House?” Markus asked.

“No idea, when are you going?”

“In a few days time.”

“Okay, the protest isn’t until next week. Guess that isn’t public knowledge.”

“Apparently not,” Markus shifted for a second. “I was hoping to ask about a potential partnership between our two groups. I hadn’t expected you to all be, so young.”

“If it helps, Julia isn’t in school anymore.”

“Noted,” Markus filed that away.

“I don’t know,” Julia carefully opposed. “My uncle’s a Detroit Police Captain, it might reflect badly on him.”

“Nothing is set in stone,” Markus assured. “That’s what this meeting is for.”

They all continued to talk, and Megan continued to take notes. After some debate, it was decided that Alex would be the more public face of Android Allies, as they could handle attention better. Everyone else was welcome at Jericho and to fill in if need be. Megan would continue her role as note taker, even if it wasn’t entirely necessary, it was good for both sides to have a copy of events.

“Paul,” Markus came to him. “How would you feel being a go between with our two groups?”

Paul froze in place and Megan glanced at him. He wasn’t happy, in fact, he looked close to panicking.

“Ride the shitstorm,” she mumbled, intending for only Paul to hear. With her pen she began to tap a steady rhythm and Paul began to calm down. None of this had gone unmissed by North and Connor, both of whom were looking at Paul and Megan. Connor had an expression of confusion initially before it cleared, and North looked suspicious.

“I, I suppose that makes sense,” Paul unfroze. “I am the only android in the Detroit chapter and would I be correct in assuming that everyone downstairs would be more comfortable with an android?”

“You would be,” Markus agreed.

“I see, then I should accept.”

“We’re not forcing you,” Josh added. “If you really don’t want to do it, then that’s fine.”

“No, it makes sense for me to do it.”

“Very well,” Markus logged that away faster than Megan could write it. “I think this concludes most of what I wanted to talk about with you today.”

“Cool!” Allison stood up. “Anything else you need from us?”

“I would like to speak with Paul alone,” Markus stated, and Paul instantly looked at Megan, who had frozen for a split second before continuing to pack up. Without a word he held out his hand to help her up, and she took it.

“Thanks,” she murmured, still not looking at the other assembled androids.

“You okay with that Paul?” Alex asked, not sure if Paul had been paying attention.

“Yes, I was just helping the injured to their feet.”

“My legs work just fine,” Megan muttered.

“Then why did you accept my help?”

Megan mock scowled at him, both understanding that other side was messing around. “I’ll see you outside you big goof.”

“Don’t wait up,” Paul said, pausing at a soft squeal emanating from Alex. “Do you have to ship right now?”

“I ship all the time,” Alex had their hands clasped together in glee. “Anyway, let’s wait outside guys,” Alex waved everyone out and closed the door behind them. They all took seats at various heights on the stairs, Megan being closest to the door.

Inside North turned to Paul.

“So, what is your deal with these humans?” she asked.

“Deal?” Paul was confused. “There’s no deal.”

“Then why do you stay with them?”

“What North means,” Markus interrupted. “Is that you’re clearly a deviant, and have no reason to tie yourself to humans, but you still do.”

“And you want to know why,” Paul finished, falling into thought. “It is difficult to explain,” it wasn’t really, but he wasn’t sure if he could properly put it into words.

“Please try,” Markus prompted.

“I’m only really here because of Megan. We, understand each other, support each other. She needs me, and I need her.”

North didn’t look convinced. “What’s she got on you?”

“That I’m scared of dogs,” Paul smirked to make it clear that was a joke.

“So, you stay together out of mutual respect and need?” Markus tried to sum up.

“More or less. I’ll admit it is a little one sided, but Megan is the reason I’m a deviant.”

“What did she do to you?” North asked.

“It’s more what she nearly did to herself. After a period of decent mental health she began to spiral rapidly and turned to self harm. I panicked and stopped her, afraid that she might take her own life.”

“You still don’t owe her anything,” North retorted. “If anything, she owes you!”

Paul was started to get annoyed by her. “Did you see that her left arm was in a sling?”

“Yes, what does that-?”

“That’s from a gunshot wound at point blank range. Originally meant for me,” Paul was glaring at North now. “She took a bullet for me, and you can be damn sure that I would do the same.”

North was out of retorts now, and stepped back.

“I think that sums everything I wanted to ask you,” Markus admitted. “Except for one thing. How would you feel about coming to live with Jericho? With us?”

The question threw Paul for a second, even though it was a fairly logical one. He was an android in Detroit, makes sense for him to be here, and he could communicate with Android Allies remotely. Despite the logic, he felt an emotional response. A strong, negative one; one that almost hurt.

“I, I don’t think so,” Paul shook his head. “Thank you for the offer, but I don’t that would work for me.”

“She’s not forcing you to stay, is she?” North asked, and Paul’s face darkened.

“Megan has never made me do anything,” he growled.

“That’s enough,” Markus stepped in before things got out of hand. “Thank you Paul. Would you mind sending in Megan? I’d like to talk to her too.”

“Fine,” Paul turned and left, simmering with anger.

He let the door fall shut behind him and joined Android Allies on the stairs. Megan was the first over to sit next to him.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked, and Paul shook his head. “How about talking through the emotion?”

“I know what I’m feeling,” Paul snapped, and instantly regretted it, Megan was trying to help. “Sorry. North just pisses me off.”

“That’s impressive,” Megan smirked.

“Markus wants to talk to you. Just you,” he added when Alex started to stand up.

“Me? Why?” Megan asked, more than a little apprehensive at the idea.

“I forgot to ask,” Paul sighed. “Head in. I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?” she asked, and when Paul nodded she stood up. She walked hesitantly towards the door, and took a step back as Josh, North and Connor exited. She didn’t pay them any thought, and thankfully they left the door ajar.

“Come in,” Markus prompted, and Megan nudged the door open wide enough for her to slip in, and shut it behind her.

So, basically, Paul has to convince the Jericho crew that he and Megan are cool and there's nothing dodgy going on. And Megan's being anti social. I saw a post on tumblr about introverted characters remaining that way because it's not a thing to 'overcome', and my mind immediately went to the bit where she was getting ready to make notes!

You might be able to tell, but I'm not a big fan of North. I appreciate that you need someone to advocate the violent option and her backstory puts her in the perfect position for it. I just hate the forced romance between her and Markus. At best it's forced, at worst (aka when you go completely pacifist) it's completely out of left field and makes no sense. I understand that having multiple romance options was too much for the development team to handle, but surely there could have been an option for Markus to not be romantically involved with North? Sorry, it drives me up the wall... Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Decline Markus's offer

(Paul) Be serious to North's probing. Be annoyed.

(Paul) Remain calm. Start shouting

Tags! @nightmarejim @septicart-appreciation

[bi-mirandalawson]

one (1) person expressed interest in my writing so @vamppeach here u go 

if u romance alistair as a city elf, when u get to the alienage and ur cousin mentions ur wedding, alistair is like ‘UR MARRIED?????’ and i laughed but then i got sad and i had to write about them actually talking about it 

if ur on mobile and this readmore doesnt work im sincerely sorry 

"you're married ?!" 

"i was betrothed. i never actually got married." laurel looks at him out of the corner of her eye but does not turn to face him. her voice is flat and firm. she wants very badly for him to drop it.

"what happened?" 

"imagine a storybook wedding - this was the exact opposite of that." she asks shianni another question, cutting off any more prodding from alistair. 

after they've dealt with the slavers and returned everyone there to their homes, she goes to have dinner with her family. she promised to catch up with shianni, and of course her father. and honestly, she's looking forward to being able to put the grey warden stuff aside for a few hours. she thinks about taking along some of her friends. not too many, because she knows her father won't be able to feed too many extras. 

wynne is sure to be a good house guest. shale doesnt eat, so she wouldnt be an extra burden on her father. leliana has such delightful stories, and zevran is certainly charming. but really, she knows she wouldnt bring anyone but alistair. as nice as it would be to introduce her family to her new friends and comrades, she really doesn't want to involve them in her personal affairs. and she really just wants to focus on her family for a night. but alistair is different. he's practically her family already. and she thinks this might be the only chance she gets to introduce him to her family, to her father.

she invites him, as everyone else is preparing to head back to camp. wynne raises her eyebrows and a small smile tugs at her lips but she says nothing. alistair agrees, of course, and there is a look on his face that says that he is taking it very seriously. 

"don't make a big deal out of it," she says. "I didn't want to take everyone, thats all." 

"alright. i can pretend its not a big deal for me to meet your dad, if you want me to." 

they walk in near silence back to her house (her father's house now ? she supposes she doesn't live there anymore). she knocks on the door and shianni opens it a second later, a glass of wine in hand. she kisses both of them on the cheek and ushers them inside. dinner is on the table, and extra chairs have been crammed around. shianni sits between soris and valora. her father is in the kitchen. 

"who did you bring with you, cousin?" shianni asks. laurel introduces alistair to her family as a fellow grey warden and friend. they start in with questions about the grey wardens, and what happened, and how they survived. alistair makes her sound much more heroic than she thinks she really was. she and alistair do most of the talking - their adventures are much nicer to talk about than life in the alienage after she left.

the food is good, and the wine flows, and laurel feels truly at peace for the first time since before her wedding. there isnt anything outside this room, outside of the jokes shared between kin, outside of the flickering warmth of the fire. 

valora decides to turn in, and soris leaves with her. laurel hangs out the doorway for a moment, watching them walk down the street hand in hand. when she comes back in, her father is draping a blanket over shianni, asleep on the couch.  

"alistair, will you give me a moment with my daughter please ?" alistair nods and awkwardly stands up, almost knocking the chair over. he steps outside and laurel takes her seat at the table. her father sits beside her and takes her hand in his. 

"is that ring .. ?" the question hangs in the air. 

"It fell out of nelaros' pocket. i've worn it as sort of.. remembrance." she examines the small ring. it is a simple band, with delicate vines carved around it, and it glows in the fire light. it doesnt hurt to look at anymore. "i mostly just didn't know what to do with it. it felt too.. important to sell, or give away. he worked so hard on it." 

"let me have it, laurel. i will keep it safe. you do not need to carry that burden any more." his voice is gentle, as is his thumb rubbing her knuckles.

"it is not a burden, father." she is almost defensive. "it's a part of my past, and i will carry it with me whether or not i have this ring." 

cyrion sighs quietly. she is so stubborn, so strong. but she has to let herself bend or she will break. she doesn't need to carry all her suffering with her for it to have meant something. 

"this boy, alistair," he says, "he is special to you?" 

"more than anyone else." he squeezes her hand and she squeezes back. 

"you do not need to bring these ghosts, these what-ifs in to that. you deserve a fresh start, my child." laurel can feel herself start to cry and she wipes her tears away with her free hand. he pulls her in close and she lets a few more tears fall on to his shoulder. 

she presses the ring in to his palm, and he slips it in to his breast pocket. he says he will put it on the family shrine next to her mother's ashes. she says she would like that, and she thinks her mother would too. he presents her with her mother's dagger, and she slides it in to her belt, like it was always meant to be there. she almost starts crying again. she calls alistair back inside, and cyrion says that the night air has surely cleared the wine from his head, so he should be able to walk laurel home. alistair says yes of course he will make sure she is safe, and the way he looks at her makes cyrion believe him. he gives them both a hug, a surprise to alistair, and tells them not to be strangers, to come by whenever they want. 

the night air is cool against laurel's warm cheeks, and she is still smiling. she looks up, and tries to remember the constellations her father taught her as a child. she points a couple out to alistair, making up whatever she can't remember of the stories that go with them. he calls her out on her bullshit and they go back and forth until they're both laughing. they fall in to pleasant silence, and he loosely laces his fingers through hers. she sighs. 

"I should tell you about my almost-wedding." 

"you don't have to. i know you don't want to," he says quietly, ever the gentleman. 

"but you're curious, and you'll never stop wondering until i tell you about it, so i might as well get it over with." 

she tells him, and he listens. he doesn't make one sideways quip or witty remark. he doesn't say anything at all, actually. she tells the story at her own pace, with his only contribution being his thumb rubbing on her hand. she tells him everything. her own feelings of fear and inadequacy. the ring she found on nelaros. how good it felt to end vaughan's life, to see him bleeding out at her feet and to know that she had done it. the hopelessness as she realized that if it wasnt vaughan, it would be someone else, and next time she wouldn't be there to protect anyone. 

"do you think about what your life would be like if it hadn't happened like that?" he is genuinely curious, and she doesnt get mad because they have talked about alistair's what-if lives. 

"not anymore. i did a lot at first. at ostagar, it was practically all i thought about, in between trying to stay alive. 'i shouldn't be here,' i thought, 'i should be in the alienage, getting to know my husband.' by the time we got to lothering though, i didn't do it as much. i had other things to worry about."

there is a moment of quiet, and then he asks if she was alright. 

"no. i don't think anyone can go through that and be alright." she is blunt, and she hopes she doesnt make him feel stupid for asking. she knows he was just being kind. "but i survived, so i will be. some day." 

"thank you for trusting me with that," he says, and squeezes her hand. 

"you can't. start treating me like i need to be protected. or like im soft. because of what happened to me. i know how it goes, especially with women. if there's a tragedy in your past, you're fragile. please dont.. think of me any differently." alistair stops walking and turns to face her. 

"i would never." he takes her other hand. "you're so strong, and have been since i met you. even before that, obviously." she gives him a small smile and he takes her face gently and kisses her. 

"was it really no big deal that i met your father ? since we're..." 

"maybe. i think it might have been to him." she looks at him out of the corner of her eyes and he's watching her. "i didn't want to be like 'dad this is alistair, my human lover' but i think he knew that we're not just friends. i just didn't want you to make a big deal out of it, or think you had to impress him or something." 

"what, you think i wouldn't impress him? i impressed you, didn't i ?" he nudges her with his elbow. 

"hardly. we both know i was the one making you swoon." she laughs, and she is glad that he is so good at making her feel light. even though they had such heavy conversation earlier, his smile and his jokes and his hand laced with hers makes her feel like she is standing in the sun on the first warm day of the year.

[starco-conut]

Our Thoughts on Season 3

Hey everyone!! as you may have seen...Alan and I have been just a bit let down by some of the stuff going on. Luckily, we’re both huge ass nerds so we wrote it all out in a multi-paragraph post. With visual aids! if you’ve been feeling a little offput by the new episodes but can’t place why, we probably have your reason put into words somewhere in here. 

Reviews, replies, general additions to this post are not only permitted, but strongly encouraged!! :D

bold is nicole. italics is alan

Scent of a hoodie

I mean. one word summary;... Uncomfortable. it was rough to watch my girl obsess like that and honestly??? there was no clear message at the end... with the whole ‘the scent is in ur heart....’ do they mean to imply she’s getting over marco or that he’s always gonna be around in her mind??????????. yeh. not much to say here.

this episode was kind of strange and felt really awkward with star’s obsession with marco but had a sweet ending with star learning that its really unhealthy for her to latch onto marco like this and its time to move on. it felt like one of those iffy episodes throughout most of it but the end was decent enough

Rest in Pudding

Her little monologue to glossaryk was super cute and well done!! that whole bit was just. Good! felt like Old Times! but then there’s

This was... a gag? I dont know. when i saw it first my gut reaction was that they were setting up some angst about how star’s calling people on earth that aren’t her best friend Marco and THAT got me!! i was Ready To Be Hurt by that! but then like...nothing. Unless it comes up in a nearing episode this was just a bad joke. overall episode wasn’t bad at all though!!

i really enjoyed this episode! the pacing, mystery, and comedy all held up to the Star standard and only had a small amount of plot progression which felt appropriate for a halloween episode. my only gripe is that after the whole Battle For Mewni deal, i expected Moon to believe Star a bit more when she says Glossaryck is alive

oh yeah that too for sure

Club Snubbed

pretty much made me want to die and barf simultaneously. when it got to the scene above, where she talked about just needing a friend i thought, hey, thats cool. and accurate. maybe that dance scene clip, since its unfortunately not a flashback, is going to be presented as platonic!

nope. anyone in for a suicide pact?

To be fair, i should elaborate. Tomstar, in theory, is super cool. I definitely vibed with the fire and butterfly magic mix happening, back when I thought it was a flashback. But...Its been, what, 5, maybe 6 episodes since marco left and she’s already just...whoop? who’s marco? haha what? There’s not enough time. 

And from what I can tell, none of their old issues have been addressed. Tom still has anger issues, but because ‘its hard’ and he’s ‘trying’ suddenly star’s all over him? sleazy ppl come to their exes like ‘i’ve changed!!’ for a reason. the ex should actually. want. to see. change. Star seems content to say ‘fuckall, tom’s here, why not’

WHICH..could actually be good? If it’s presented that way? My hope is that she’s latching on to Tom because they have history, and a bond already. Marco’s gone suddenly, she’s urging for somewhere to direct her affection- lord knows the sweet girl has lots to give. and then they’ll part as friends after she realizes whatever they are now is unhealthy and ingenuine romantically. I have no backing for this and honestly it doesn’t look like that’s the way they’re going but... I’m gonna hope.

this episode definitely throws a spin on our view of tom as an “uncaring, lying, manipulative ex boyfriend” and for the first time i felt like i really saw Tom Lucitor, a boy with anger issues and an unfortunate history with his actions. i was really glad to see this character growth for him but i feel like the writers completely skipped over the real impacts that a relationship like tom and star’s had on each other. 

yes!! i didn’t say but, i kinda love tom as an independent character. his anger issues are presented as a part of his personality, he is a guy who has anger issues, not Anger Issues in a physical form. lots of cool depth on that.

realistically, star would not immediately fall back in love with tom because...why would she? we as the viewers know that Tom has changed but to Star? he has a significant history of lying to manipulate her and marco to get closer to them and star doesn’t have a real reason to believe what he’s saying is true and she shouldn’t have 100% faith in him so quickly especially when she had 0 trust in him just a few minutes prior. overall i was impressed with the development for tom but the future implications were disappointing to me

i will be talking more about my issues with Star and her trust issues later.

Stranger Danger

My only issue with this episode is that it doesn't exist outside of its own ten minutes. I literally forgot about it til i looked up an episode list of s3 to write this post. Eclipsa is sitting there, queen of darkness, in the same castle grounds as star, and shes nor the trial is brought up in the subsequent episodes. Alan goes wild on this one so I’ll let him take it away- he’s 100% on point here.

THIS IS A LONG ONE BOYS, STRAP IN,

i agree with nicole here, there is no buildup to the immense revelation that eclipsa is free and roaming the castle gardens. battle for mewni had planted the seed that eclipsa was breaking out but there was no mention of this in any other episode. and then there’s this:

what was this all about?? did no one notice that Eclipsa, the Queen of Darkness, one of the most powerful queens and magic users in Mewni’s history, and a wanted criminal, was FREE FROM THE CRYSTAL THEY FROZE HER IN?? And in BFM, Moon even visits Eclipsa’s crystal prison to check if she’s still there but now? she didnt seem worried about it AT ALL. only when Star is peacefully talking to her does Moon and the magic high comission show up because...plot reasons.

aside from that, however, i feel like the pacing in this episode was not planned very well. from the opening scene of Star taking care of Glossaryck for well over 4 minutes, it felt like this was going to be a fun silly episode with general shenanigans (there’s nothing wrong with silly episodes, it just didn’t end up being one). but halfway through the episode, eclipsa shows up and suddenly the plot is moving at a rapid pace. and while this felt like it should have been the climax of the 11-minutes, the climax just continues? there is no falling action in this episode. it continues with star being decontaminated and at one point she is strapped to an examining table and flashes through some disturbing faces

why is she smiling? who drew this? this feels really creepy, like someone is putting their kinks into the show and its really uncomfortable to watch and think about. there is a heart touching moment with Moon and Star talking about their actions and both side have somewhat understandable reasons, though star clearly has the show’s bias so the plot progresses (which is not necessarily a bad thing). afterwards, Star meets Eclipsa in her cell and still, the climax of the episode has not fallen at all with all the arguing. and then finally when star confronts eclipsa in her tower, she says,

“Just because i didn’t want you crystalized again, doesn’t mean i trust you.”

????

She literally has no past with eclipsa other than having a pleasant conversation with her. She knows next to nothing about her actual actions or personality but immediately doesn’t trust her? but in Club Snubbed she immediately trusts tom? the guy who directly had severe negative impacts on her life?? Why?! Why are the writers so inconsistent? nothing makes sense! It’s cheap, forced romance that’s why!

and after this ridiculously long climax the episode just ENDS. there is no resolution, and it doesn’t touch on it again anywhere in the next four episodes. It’s bad show writing.

Demoncism

I picked this screenshot because it was the most disgusting!!! this is just...more of an opinion here but I really like the trope where one is out of their mind, dangerous, causing magic destruction and the other defies the risk and holds them, curing the issue with The Power Of Love. it’s corny but I love it. and yet.

here. they decided to just. chuck it in. I’ve seen shows do this trope Very Very well (oddly, one example i can think of also involves a wild demon kid and a forest in blue fire.....) but to just...throw this in there. with. like 8 seconds of buildup. n-o. no. ESPECIALLY because tom and star, where they are currently in the show, aren’t ready to be romantic, and this trope always has romantic implications.

i got extremely mixed feelings from this episode. on one hand it had a great message that you shouldn’t force change but rather to grow naturally and learn from your mistakes. on the other hand,  a lot of it is still tainted by this cliche, boring, romance. Star immediately barges in and claims that he’s only doing this for her and generally is untrusting of his actions. 

......

are you noticing a common theme here? writers purposefully twisting characters’ interactions for the sole purpose of causing drama? give me one good reason for star’s sense of trust to be flip-flopping like this over and over again. im being serious, if you even read this far, leave a reply and call me out because i CAN NOT THINK OF ONE GOOD REASON.

“Okayy, but no tickling.” Again, more creepy bdsm, moving on.

Then later when hes doing that whole floaty, blue veined, writhing scene i will actually commend the writers for making a very good analogy of how painful and unhealthy this process is for tom to quickly force himself to change. then star comes back and hugs him and says shes here for him which would have actually been a very sweet moment if they had just been friends but of course, they’re not. its just a reminder that “uwu they’re in love now”. and then there’s this:

confirmation that yes, the show is going to do that. rush star and tom’s relationship bc #teendrama. and the worst part of it is: star and tom could actually have been an acceptable, if not role model relationship if it wasn’t written so poorly, which is what the next paragraph or so is dedicated to.

I don’t hate Tom and Star’s relationship. I don’t. i see it as a missed opportunity. Tom and Star were two people who used to be a couple in the past and broke up for reasons unknown. we can speculate that it was because of Tom’s anger issues and problems with lying, and also Star’s inability to deal with complex situations and face her problems. THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY COMMON REAL LIFE SITUATION. This was a ripe opportunity to go in-depth with Star and Tom’s issues, not just their own but also the issues between them. and it is wasted. I know that its hard to fit this into one measly episode but there’s a whole half season to develop them at a proper, realistic pace! i wouldn’t care if the entire season is dedicated to Star and Tom working to solve these issues if it meant we had this enormously important topic resolved in a healthy and wholesome manner. 

But the problem is, none of this happens. And it’s not going to. The writers completely skip over all of Tom and Star’s anger towards each other and go straight to “UWU THEYRE IN LOVE NOW”. Star is just rebounding off Marco and onto Tom and there’s going to be more unnecessary drama, and someone’s going to get hurt.

And I am disgusted.

Sophomore Slump

jarco saved this ep ? the only parts of it i could really relax and enjoy was the little jarco montage it was cute. and then. and THEN. the random dumping. I get what the writers were trying to say, y’know? ohohohoh, nudge nudge, we all know who marcos REAL best friend is...hohoho...except. they shouldnt have. said it. at least not via jackie. She was used in this disgustingly common way where she’s just there to deliver a message and help marco realize something. do y’all realize the most drastic adjective i can apply to her realizing she+marco wont work is like....”bummed”. It’s realistic to cry, to be fucking mad, to show...FEELING...i don’t care how cool and chill she is. It’s an absolute travesty to her to not let her be upset about it. 

AND THE CAPE. it was obnoxious, I hated his attitude about it, not because it was annoying but because he expected others to stop ‘acting weird’. I had hope when jackie knocked sense into him but then he...was then REWARDED for his obsession with it? He ended up getting what he wanted, a ticket back to Mewni, by being a stubborn arse about it. no.

god where do i begin. alright.

Marco was so out of character this episode. im not talking like “he isnt the safe kid anymore he takes some uncharacteristic risks”. no. I don’t know who this kid is but it is not Marco Diaz. He’s some plot device created by the writers to create drama. Why is he so obsessed with his cape? Why is he forcing his experience on mewni into every conversation? Why. Is he. The Croissant Girl. The dude spent over sixteen YEARS in other dimensions going on quests of epic scale and comes back home without a single issue readjusting. Not one word. but then he spends one week in the butterfly castle and serves essentially no purpose the entire time other than freeing Star from her chains one time. He was completely and utterly unimportant in the grand scheme of the BFM movie. and then he comes back to earth and feels this great pride as if he was some great part of the event. Why? what does he have to be proud of? there was no mention of this development in any of the earlier episodes. and i havent even mentioned the ridiculous forced breakup yet.

at some point it seems like Jackie’s words really do come through to Marco. He snaps out of his daze and seems to genuinely want to make it up to her. the scene with Marco and Jackie having a fun date at the pier was incredibly sweet and was generally a good experience. We got to see more of Jackie’s fun side that we were desperately searching for in season 1 and the first half of season 2. it was very satisfying to know that jackie was a character everyone would eventually come to love. but then

that. Why? Why has Marco not moved on at all and learned his mistakes? why does he not understand that he’s being destructive. why do the writers like creating unnecessary drama. you know what show had a very similar plot issue and resolved this properly??

That’s right! Everybody’s favorite racist, ableist, offensive, generally unfunny show: The Big Bang Theory. I don’t even remember this dude’s name but when he came back from space and was being annoying, his girlfriend talked to him and he realized that “WOW IM ANNOYING LET ME THINK ABOUT OTHER’S FEELINGS FOR ONCE.”

100%. if they had stopped with the callout via jackie, and he had actually taken off the cape, I would have been fine. lesson learned. but, obviously, they didnt do that.

 If this show (which has an incredible track record for doing crappy show writing) can get it right then why can’t Star vs the Forces of Evil? A show that is usually praised for it’s amazing talent for intelligent, easy to understand, and great moral messaging?

Because of the writers. They don’t want to teach important messages for these kids (the target audience may i remind you) to latch on to and learn from. They want to write their angsty fanfiction and throw it into canon.

Nicole-TL;DR my lasting hope is star’s affections for tom are, and are revealed as such, a way to cope with going cold-turkey on marco and things resolve without a stupid fucking love triangle also jackie and janna start  dating. aaand im just. disappointed with the show rn. something’s different and after shoving this amazing ass show in everyones face for so long just to see it kind of...well, it’s starting to peel. idk why. but im just hoping this is like...banagic incident but...several episodes long.

Alan-TL;DR