#in fact I'd argue that if you like every single character that's probably bad character writing

[the-magpie-collective]

"Make Wyll worse. Make him turn evil. Make him want revenge or to hurt other people, just like the other characters. That would fix him. That would make him interesting."

Wrong. Wrong. Very wrong.

Make Wyll worse. Make him continually sacrifice his comfort for the safety of others. Let him constantly put himself last in his goal to make the world a better place. Watch him erase his sense of self for a heroic mask that exists to make others feel comfortable and at ease around him. Have Wyll grind away at himself day after day after day until there is nothing left for him to give. The only worse Wyll I want to see is one who continually sets himself on fire to keep others warm.

I cannot fucking wait until this idea that just because someone is good/kind/helpful then they must be infantile/naive/boring dies. No, being a nihilistic pessimist is not more interesting or whatever, especially when there are already characters in BG3 that fulfill that role.

[withacapitalp]

How come "books are books, shows are shows, do whatever you want w characters" doesn't apply to B*lly? Not trying to start drama, just genuinely want to understand. Is it because he's a bad guy I can't reshape him into something I'd like and ignore what's "canon?"

Oh boy Nonnie okay I'll try to be really clear but it probably won't come out super legible. I'm putting it under a read more because I don't wanna clog up my dash w a long explanation (which knowing me it's going to end up being) I also want to say that all of this is MY opinion. I'm no one's ultimate judge, I'm just a guy on the internet who writes stories.

All that to say, this is why I think that fundamentally the idea that Eddie's sexuality and Billy's racism can be manipulated in fandom on the same level is really flawed.

Overall I think that the point of fan fiction is personal enjoyment. Ultimately you're creating something with yourself as the audience in mind. If not, then I don't really get it. So, for you, maybe it can mean that. Do I personally agree? No, but I can't stop anyone from creating something and putting it online. That's the whole point of ao3, no bars, no barriers. When you start putting that kind of wall in place, a slippery slope starts to form, so even if I would never personally partake in some forms of fanfic, I get why it's important to have a place where any kind of fic can exist. Back button exists for a reason, block button exists for a reason, curate your own online experience.

I'm not gonna be the person who says like if you like Billy you're a garbage person, because like that just isn't true? The two aren't automatically associated. Do I think that people who want to erase that part of Billy should maybe examine that urge? Yeah, but I think we all need to look inside and see where systematic racism might make us think things are more acceptable than they should be. I also can't understand people who want to give Vecna a redemption arc, or the people who think Sn*pe was just misunderstood. Regardless, we're all works in progress, and 90% of people to me are capable of learning more and growing and seeing where they might be working with a bias. I know I definitely have my own too.

I personally just will not give him redemption of any form or reshape him, because to do so seems to be disrespectful from my point of view to real life people. I'm not a person of color, Billy's racism is at the forefront of his character, so for me to reshape that and erase it in a fanfic feels like I would be ignoring a serious thing and pretending like that never happened, when it exists in our society in a major way. There isn't a point where Billy's racism ever gets resolved. In fact, the whole thing gets dropped completely in s3 which seems like a really terrible oversight by the Duffers. It's used as a plot point when it was convenient, which is messy and wrong.

But All of that is just background to your real question here which I believe is this-

Why is it okay to change a character's sexuality, but not their bigotry?

For me, I don't really like to equate the two? I think that the idea that someone's sexuality is a 'flaw' that needs to be reshaped is kinda problematic, and we also don't actually know Eddie's sexuality. Everyone can say what they think till the cows come home, but at no point did we get 'Eddie is confirmed gay, straight, bi, etc. etc.' EVERY single interpretation of Eddie's sexuality is someone shaping canon as they see fit right now.

With Billy he is confirmed racist. He is 100% undoubtedly a racist. Not even someone who used to be racist who learned and repented. He was always racist and tried to commit a hate crime against Lucas (I would argue that he did, because holding a twelve year old up against a wall and threatening to kill them because they're black and they dared to want to get to know your sister feels like a hate crime to me) The only reason he didn't seriously hurt Lucas was the fact that Steve stepped in. That's it. He was going to assault a child for his race.

To compare ignoring that to playing with a character's sexuality feels....mm I just strongly don't agree. I don't exactly have words to explain, but I really don't.

I think there are things you can change about characters easily. You can change their sexualities, their ages, their genders, their backstories, but to fundamentally erase something like that just doesn't line up for me.

No call out here Nonnie, I appreciate that you wanted to ask and be open, but this is my question for people who want to change Billy that way- What is it about Billy that is so compelling that it feels necessary to change that part of him? Why is Billy the character you *need* to write for?

Jonathan is a fantastic big brother who has a ton of issues and was abused by his father. If you're having the hankering to try and examine a flawed big brother, he's right there.

Eddie is an outcast (and strongly implied that he comes from an abusive home) and if you're looking to try and write about that, he's right there.

Steve is the character that has actually GONE through the redemption people always try to give Billy. He said slurs and did bad things, and almost immediately went to make amends for them when he was able to acknowledge he did the wrong thing.

Billy never even apologized. He hadn't changed by the time he died, and no I don't think sacrificing himself was some major change. I think that a villain can be tragic without needing to retroactively make them a better person. Billy is a flawed and broken person. Yes that probably relates mostly to the way he was raised and the fact that his family was violent, but that doesn't excuse it. The Byers have an abusive home, and at no point does Jonathan act the way Billy does. I think they're really good foils to each other on what can happen with a big brother.

Anyways this was a really really long answer nonnie, but I hope I got it across why I really disagree with that stance. If anyone was offended or upset, know that wasn't my intenion, and feel free to let me know.

[grotesque--cooties]

Hellow, I'd like to request a oneshot (btw love the fact you write on your blog that you're LGBTQI+ friendly, in these times every single ally is so damn important :'D) for the Supernatural fandom.

It would be a non-pairing oneshot OC/character (as in the Winchester brothers).

tags: (found)-family, fluff/feelgood, hurt/comfort

My OC, Johnny Winchester, is the older sister of Dean and Sam ('cuz I thought there are already enough younger Winchester sisters who depend on Dean&Sam's protection :D)

So, about Johnny: She's as tall as Sam, pretty buff, proud and lesbian. She's four years older than Dean and watched out for her brothers a lot. When John left them in town in order to get the job done, she would work to earn more money for their food and pay extra rent. Mostly, she'd work in funeral homes because she liked the job.

She and her brothers are really tight and back when Sam left for Stanford, she teamed up with Dean to continue hunting on their own.

I'd love to read either:

a fight between Dean and John when Dean's already an adult and Johnny picks Dean side in order to protect him of their dad

When all the three of them are teens/Sam maybe still a kid: John is gone (again) and Johnny tries to cheer her brothers up by making a fool of herself

Johnny visits Sam in Stanford while he's there studying and gets to know Jessica and talks to Sam how he's doing without the hunting business yada yada

Or whatever comes to your mind, I'm very much looking forward to what you'll write :D

Greetings, beardothebard :)

@beardothebard

OMG I AM SO SORRY THAT THIS TOOK FOREVER!!!!! I SWEAR I DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT YOU I'M SO SORRY BUT PLEASE ENJOY THIS IT WAS SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE:)))))

"That Dumbass Johnny"

Synopsis: Johnny, the Winchesters older sister, tries to cheer up her brother Sam when he misses their father...even if it requires injuring herself.

Characters: Dean, Sam, Johnny

Tags: (found)-family,  fluff/feelgood, hurt/comfort

Warnings: curse words(?), bad dad(it's John Winchester tho what do you expect), smacking/hitting(not violent)

Word Count: 1.7k

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It's been AGES! When is Dad coming back?” Sam said, his tiny body slumped over the couch in the motel.

The siblings had been stuck in a dingy motel for three days, the walls rotting off and the building smelling like mold. The building could barely be described as holding up; yet, it was home for now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John, their father, had taken them all up to Wisconsin for a “job”--says there were 3 mysterious deaths with all of them having signs of possession. 

Johnny had argued with her father, saying she should finally hunt with him as she had just turned 18. She was an adult, she could do these jobs with her father and Dean was old enough to watch Sam. She had been watching over them ever since she was 8, since…since their mom died. Johnny felt ready, ready as she'd ever be to go on a hunt with her father finally but he wouldn't let her.

They had argued the entire ride up to Wisconsin about this, with John explaining that he needed someone responsible for watching her brothers, someone not like Dean who would go mess around with the women in the area….

Yeeeaah her man-whore of a brother probably isn't the best to watch over Sammy but still, he's responsible enough. However, she reluctantly agreed, silently fuming for the rest of that ride.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“He's been gone FOREVER!” Sammy moaned out again, signing loud and exaggerated.

Dean was sitting at the small, circular table near the tiny kitchen, sloppily eating a burger Johnny had bought him earlier.

“Shuuut uuup…” Dean groaned out, throwing his head back to emphasize his annoyance further.

“You shut up,” Johnny said, slapping Dean on his head as she walked past him. He made a small ‘ow’ noise and gave her the middle finger, which she gladly returned.

“I'm bored…” Sam mumbled, curling his body onto the couch now, lazily turning his head to watch the TV. 

“BORED!?!” Johnny yelled out in fake shock.

She smirked as she walked over to him, coming to fall on top of Sam swiftly. As she laid on top of him he grumbled for her to get off, trying to push her muscular body off him.

“Oooohh whatever shall we do?” She giggled, laying more of her body weight on him.

After a few more attempts of Sam trying to push Johnny off, she finally relented and stood up. 

“Careful there Johnny, any longer and you would've had another dead body to take care of.” Dean laughed out, hinting at her previous jobs at nearby funeral homes.

“I hope you choke on that burger.” She smirked, walking over to the fridge to grab herself a drink.

“Yeah, yeah…” Dean grumbled out, going back to munching on that Thang©️.

As Johnny was opening her drink, she felt a tug on her pants and looked down. It was little Sam pulling on her pants, a frown etched into his face.

“What’s wrong Sammy?” Johnny asked, coming to squat down so she could be at eye level with Sam.

Sam stood there for a moment, his eyes only looking down not wanting to meet his sisters.

“Does…” Sam spoke, eyes still not willing to meet Johnny’s: “Does Dad not want to be around us? Does he not love us? Is that why he’s never here?”

The atmosphere of the motel room had quickly darkened, Sam’s question forcing them to confront the idea of telling him why their Dad was never around. They had held off on telling Sam what their Father does for a living, not wanting to force him to grow up with a life revolving around death. Having to watch Dean grow up into a hunter hurt Johnny so much, watching her loving brother turn from a normal child to now knowing their father’s true job–it’s something she never wishes Sam to go through.

“No Sammy, Dad loves us. He just…” Her words died down, finding it difficult to explain to Sam why their father couldn’t be around while not giving away the family business.

“Dad just can’t be around us for long because of his job. Ya know, always selling and going around the country for more job stuff…boring adult stuff you don’t need to hear!” Johnny explained, trying to cheer up Sam by making the situation more light-hearted.

Sam still held a sorrowful face, her attempt at cheering him up failing.

“Listen,” Johnny placed her hand on his shoulder, holding it firmly: “Dad does love us, he just can’t be around us for long. Yes, he’s gone a lot but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to be around us. He tries and sure he could try a little harder”, she lets out a quick giggle Sam following suite,” But he does love us, and he is trying to be a good dad…” Johnny finds herself at a loss for words, not knowing how to phrase or explain what she wants to say to Sam.

“I’m not going to lie to you Sammy, I don’t know how to explain it. It’s something you will learn about one day and it will make more sense when you’re older… but I just can’t tell you why Dad’s gone all the time. Still, he loves us, you shouldn’t doubt that.”

Sam showed a small smile, his eyes finally meeting Johnny’s. She patted his shoulder and brought him in for a swift hug before letting him go.

“Come on, let's go do something fun. Maybe that will cheer you compared to my half-assed speech.” Johnny laughs, coming to stand up.

Sam becomes excited, running to put on his shoes and jacket. Meanwhile, Dean walks over to Johnny, a sad look etched onto him.

“We have to tell him one day…” He whispers to her.

“I know… I just want him to be a normal kid for a little longer…as normal as we can get.” She sighs, but before she can dwell on the thought she quickly replaces it with an idea to make Sam feel better.

“Come on, let's go to the park and maybe I’ll rent that movie you’ve been dying to see”, singing out the last word. 

She quickly grabbed onto Dean’s jacket, yanking him with her to leave the motel.

As they arrived at the park Sam saw that the swings were free, which was a rarity. He rushed over to the swing set, waving his hands to urge the siblings to swing with him. As they all sat down on the swings, carelessly swinging back and forth Johnny got an idea(UREKA!)

“Guys, how high do you think I can jump off this swing?” She said, starting to quickly at the ground to pick up the pace.

“NO! Last time you did that you sprained your foot! Don’t do it.” Dean said firmly, remembering the pain it was to take care of her when she sprained it.

“Mmmmmhhh….” she groaned out, still picking up the pace. “Yeah but like…what if I do backflip landing?”

“Can you even do a backflip?” Sammy questioned, leaning forward to see his sister picking up her pace very quickly.

Johnny was contemplating, not remembering the last time she did one successfully. She looked over at them, a smug look crossing her face.

“I don’t know but we’ll find out!”

“AYE JOHNNY NO!!” Dean shouted, trying to grab her swingset chain to slow her down but he missed because Sam swiftly kicked his legs.

“YOU LITTLE SHIT!” Dean gritted, trying to kick Sam while still swinging.

Sam let out a loud laugh, trying to get away from Dean’s kicking while still swinging. That was until Johnny's voice broke them out of their fight: “HEY WATCH ME REAL QUICK!” She shouted before coming to jump off the swing. Sam’s mouth agape with Dean yelling at their sister to not attempt the backflip. Yet, she didn’t listen. If she said she was going to do the backflip then dammit she’s doing the backflip. As she was falling in the air she tried to make the motion to start the beginning of a backflip but her long legs ended up catching the ground first, halting her motion.

“OH SHIT!” She shrieked before tumbling on the mulch, her body swiftly planting into the ground.

^Johnny fr

Sam laughed hard, coming to a full stop to hold his stomach. He couldn’t hold it in, his sister was such a dumbass for doing that. Even Dean couldn’t hold in his laughter, coming to chuckle at her ridiculousness.

“You…” Dean tried to hold in his laughter but it slipped out some more, “You are such a dumbass.” He coughed out, Sam still laughing hard coming to a point where he was wheezing. After he calmed down, he looked at his sister still lying in the same pose.

“Are you still alive?” Sam asked, coming to wipe a few tears from his face.

Johnny didn’t respond vocally, only giving a thumbs up in return.

“Damn…she dead as hell.” Dean joked, watching to see if she’d stand up at some point but she never did. Dean didn’t feel like getting up at the moment, so he chose the next best option to force her up.

“A cute girl is coming over…looks like your type.”

“WHAT WHERE!?!?!?” She quickly stood up at that, not wanting to look like an idiot in front of hot women. Brushing off the mulch on her face and trying to tidy up her hair she hastily looked around, finding no woman in sight.

“You asshole!” She gritted out, coming over to smack Dean’s arm.

As Johnny continued to wipe the mulch and dirt off her Dean and Sam continued to swing. No words were spoken between them, coming to find the comfort of just watching the world around them. After a few more moments of silence, Sam got off the swing set; coming over to Johnny.

“Can we go rent The Land Before Time now?”

“Sure buddy, I’ll buy some ice cream too.” She said, coming to place her arm around his shoulder.

“AND SOME PIE!” Dean yelled, rushing to catch up to them. 

“UuUUUUuhushUhuHUBFhebfhcje fine…” She groaned out, walking with her Brothers.

“Thank you, Johnny…for making me feel better.” Sam quietly spoke.

“Of course, that’s what big sisters do.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO END IT I’M SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I REALLY LIKED WRITING FOR YOUR OC THO IT WAS SO MUCH FUUUNNN

I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS AND I'M REALLY SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT😭😭😭😭

[halleyuhm]

~WTW Ghost Gala: Days 1 to 8~

I just found the event and I'm several days back, so I'll try to be brief. I'll be using my WIP The trees don't let you see the forest because I think it's the one I'd like to try for NaNoWriMo and the aesthetics fit with the season.

It tells the story of a young witch cursed with blindness due to a failed spell and her journey to find the way to reverse it, aided by friends, fought by foes, and realizing the might be more important things than getting her sight back. It will be a challenge to write using every sense but vision! I have written the synopsis here, if you are interested. Yeah, I should probably do an official WIP intro.

So there we go, under the cut.

(Divider by @cafekitsune, go check her work out!)

🎃 Pumpkin Carving - You have to kill off a character: Who do you choose?

Right now, without having planned much, I choose Mauve. She's the secret keeper and sooner or later the past catches up with everyone.

🦅Raven - Create a tagline for your WIP

"Things we lose aren't lost: they remain with us, albeit in different shapes".

🔮Crystal Ball - Outline a scene, act or your entire WIP.

Let's just try the first scene so we can compare what I plan with what will later come up:

1. Juniper wakes up and sees nothing. Elowyn is there tending to her wounds. Crying, stress, oops she messed up so bad, she can't be a Sun Sage anymore. But she deserves it, and Mauve, her mentor, lets her know. Periwinkle, the cat, is silently judging June so hard she can feel it.

2. Laurel comes in, distraught because he played a part in the situation (unknowingly??). Maybe he argues with Elowyn and Mauve because of inner guilt + they accuse him. But June crashes against something and they focus on stopping her from falling head-first into a boiling pot.

3. Same scene or after some struggles?? Mauve (or Periwinkle, why not) mentions the Wildfire Hollyhock, the burnt lands, and the town there, but doesn't tell what happened in those cursed places.

4. June wants to go, Laurel joins, and Elowyn is told by Mauve to go with them because she is the BEST. There are obvious reactions. Witchy stuff.

5. I'm bad at this.

🍂Fallen Leaves - Create a playlist for your WIP

Work in progress but here it goes.

🎇Jack o' lantern -Share an interesting fact you found while doing research for your WIP

There is a flower that only blooms after wildfires. The seeds lay dormant under the surface until the soil is burnt and then they sprout. They don't last long, just enough for bees to pollinate them and drop seeds which will stay dormant until they are awakened.

You can read an article here, for example.

🧄Vampire - Tell us where you find inspiration or motivation.

This is what I struggle with the most (along with planning).

Inspiration comes in dreams, random shower thoughts, a single word in an extensive paragraph, Pinterest aesthetics, little things I see in my daily life, name generators (that I never end up picking), and simple things. Like, "Oh, this would be fun to write about."

Motivation uh, comes when my brain hyperfixates on an idea. And reading. Reading lots.

💀Skeleton - Have a favorite plot structure? If not, share how you plot.

I have no idea how I plot. Usually, I start writing and let the story take me where it needs to go (yeah, there's lots of editing later). I get ideas on the go, maybe a whole scene, and I add it to my evergrowing list of ideas waiting for the auspicious moment when it comes into play. Somehow, I managed to be very cohesive, though. And I surprise myself with how everything seems to flow as if I had previously planned it.

🍬Trick or Treat - Set some writing goals and milestones for your WIP.

This crashes a bit with the last answer, but I really really want to be more disciplined and focused. I just want to manage to plot the story and get to the NaNoWriMo final milestone. Let's do it!!

If you've come this far, thank you! You are my hero 💜

[cetra]

My final verdict: this game was really fun for me, for a long time. The combat is really great and definitely speaks to the part of me that absolutely loves turn-based gameplay (my favorite kind of combat in any RPG). the music is fantastic and I do think Borislav Slavov deserves every award he's getting for it. The game has lots of great characters of whom I think Lae'zel and Gale are the standouts (or at least for Lae'zel until the epilogues lol). But the story, the clear biases that the development has in regards to certain characters as well as the choices of the playerbase and the unpolished feeling of the game is where this game REALLY fell flat for me and it started to become incredibly annoying to play

I genuinely enjoyed Act One, and most of Act Two. but Act Three drops the ball so freaking hard in terms of the writing quality. i mean good LORD it's so awful and incredibly rushed. And i was playing as the Dark Urge which afaik gives you more to do in this act, yet it STILL felt like it was just begging me to finish the game already. But playing the game was getting more and more tiresome for me so i was practically slogging through. Act One took me a long time to get through as well mind you , but only because I was tearing apart everything it had to offer. Whereas with Act Three i was just like..... I Seriously Don't Care About What's Going On Anymore. Battles stopped being fun in the city. I felt like the game was REALLY really trying to punish me for the way i chose to play the game and not in a way that felt emotionally effective, in a way that was really annoying me and made me feel like I was being talked down to as a player

and even though I was lucky enough to not encounter that many bugs, I know for a FACT that Act Three stands out for a huge portion of players as the definitive most buggy segment of the game. which leads me to my next point: Baldur's Gate 3 could not be more obviously unfinished. I mean it's embarrassing at this point the amount of massive patches they've had to roll out many of which continue to break the game in new and exciting ways.

on top of that, the stunt they pulled with the epilogues was definitely the thing that made me realize okay, I'm probably never going back to this game and i'm definitely not going to give Larian money ever again (something that was already set in stone after I found out about the crunch but yeah), because how on earth is it STILL acceptable for game companies to so blatantly put out games that aren't finished and full of insane game breaking bugs with every intention to just go back in after release, "fix it" and then add a bunch of cool new stuff to try and appease to unsatisfied fans. (because it's the new industry standard that's been around for a LONGGG time now but i'd argue was codified by No Man's Sky and CP2077, for some reason fans keep falling for this garbage EVERY SINGLE TIME)

And yeah. there are lot of things I can talk about here honeslty, like how bad the game's politics are when the game remembers to have some, Minthara in general (romance flag issues and pandering to Good players who refused to do what made her recruitable by making her recruitable without raiding the grove), the game's really bad treatment of its ONLY Black companion Wyll, how clunky and underdeveloped certain gameplay/combat mechanics can feel, how a lot of the world just feels so empty compared to other fantasy settings I've seen in games (And i don't mean empty as in devoid of life, I know that a lot of the game takes place in the wildness and dangerous lands most wouldn't wander to, but most of this game just doesn't feel like it's the setting for a world that has been around for centuries and is full of lore and mythos. It just feels like a generic backdrop and not even reading the countless books i came across helped to immerse me in this universe), etc.

i'll just leave it at that. This was probably one of the most disappointing games i've played in recent memory, which sucks because I was really hoping i would love it. I remember while playing it I thought for a while it could even be an all-timer, but now I look back at it with mainly contempt. i also think it's reflective of a huge part of what's currently wrong with the game industry, which is multimillion to billion dollar game companies pushing out unfinished work to make a profit as soon as possible and please shareholders. Alongside live service games, microtransactions, lack of unions, developers being abused and crunched.... I mean i could go on but I already talk about this a lot on my blog so you guys already know how I feel about the state of the industry 🫥

I appreciate how the game pushed me creatively and how i was able to meet so many wonderful people in its community, and I'll happily take that part with me while leaving the rest behind. I still have a lot of love in my heart for some of the characters of this game, the music, my friend's OCs and their creations for this game (the latter two of which I'm going to continue to support with all my enthusiasm), and if you really love this game which I know a lot of my followers do then more power to you honestly!! I'm really glad you got something out of this game and i hope you'll continue to be touched by it. As for me this is probably the last I'll talk of my many many issues with it before I move on because i'm tired of feeling dragged down by my negative feelings for it and I want to spend my time playing better games instead of complaining about one mid one🫡

I finally uninstalled my computer's virus known as "Baldur's Gate 3"

[blackjack-15]

Do you have any NHIE s4 post-boink theories that don’t involve ghosting? I feel like that’s a definite possibility but also this show has surprised me every season. I know a lot of fan fics had them avoiding each other/awkward after Malibu but then in 2x1 Ben smiled at her all day at school and then was immediately like “let’s talk about the kiss, Im single now, can we date?” I feel like Ben doesn’t avoid awkward things. He brought up the 1x8 kiss attempt(s) as well the first day they were back in school.

Curious to hear your theories on the fallout.

Thank you so much for the ask! I do love to theorize even when (especially when!) it's Immediately tossed out upon the next season airing.

I'm of the firm belief that Ben/Devi won't ghost each other post-boink -- at least not fully, even if they're awkward for a bit. Post-birthday-kiss-attempt and post-Malibu they didn't avoid each other -- land, even post Incredibly Public Revelation of Cheating they didn't avoid each other; Devi tried desperately to get things back to "normal", and Ben made his "too bad you're not moving" comment and actively antagonized her in class. I'd even argue that the thesis statement of 2X04 is that these two cannot avoid each other -- primarily because neither one really tries (and neither one really wants to).

In my moderately qualified opinion -- noting that the show has surprised me several times, and will probably continue to do so -- I think that the general audience is very well aware of how Devi feels towards Ben; we had the jealousy in the let's-kiss-someone-so-we-don't-kiss-each-other scenes in 3X05, the stomach knots in 3X10, the blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments pre-Valentines with Ben and Aneesa, etc etc just in S3 (let alone all the jealousy, pining, and unresolved feelings in S2). Because Devi is our main POV character, we can be pretty assured how she feels -- the stomach knots were just the Final Confirmation.

Ben, on the other hand, has had 2 POV episodes, both of which revolve around his two central conflicts: his conception of his current self (generally expressed through his home/family) and his drive to be a better version of himself (generally expressed through his interactions with Devi), but we don't know as much about Ben's current feelings towards Devi -- other than, of course, the fact that he both loves her and is in love with her (to say otherwise is to simply ignore...well, everything from Jaren's performance to the writing to the very visible (at this point) plot arcs for the characters in the show).

As a viewer, dramatic irony is one of my favorite devices in a romance; in this case, the large thing that stands out to me is that the viewers know that Devi is staying for her senior year, her family knows she's staying, Principal Grubbs (I'd assume, given the paperwork that would have to be filled out otherwise) knows she's staying, but, as of the door closing pre-kiss in 3X10, Ben does not know, and for me that's a sticking point.

As far as Ben Gross knows, up until that door shuts in the viewer's face, Devi is leaving for Shrubland and has turned up at his door (just fully in his house, bless her) to cash in the coupon he gave her. When we consider it that way, it's easy to see how he might frame it as a Goodbye or an "I'll Miss You Too" gesture. Knowing that they shot several versions of that scene and chose one with only bare minimum dialogue says to me that they wanted those strings up in the air until S4. Now, whether we see her tell him that night, whether she tells him during the summer, or whether she shows up for registration -- or something else entirely, as Devi regularly surprises me -- how he finds out will inform his reaction, and will inform how he and Devi relate to each other in the beginning of S4.

My personal theory (which is about half interpretation and half my own preferences) is that Devi innocently assumes Ben knows she's not going to Shrubland (a very Devi thing to do, especially if she's already told Eleanor et al) and thus doesn't say anything concrete about it until right before the school year starts. Ben, who has been in "this is what I'm going to get to I'll make the most of the summer" mode and has been avoiding talking about Shrubland for that reason, now has to reframe everything in his mind and decide if the way Devi is with him means anything to her. I don't think either one will avoid the other, but I do think our two lovely idiots in love are going to have to figure out once and for all exactly what they want the other to be for them in their lives -- and I think it'll depend largely on how Devi leads out, because Ben at this point is probably going to be once-bitten, twice-shy.

That being said, if Eleanor is the one to clue him in I will shriek with shipper-on-deck joy.

[dmclemblems]

It's entirely possible the devs think Almyra is a joke. Think about it this way: Dimitri and Dedue care about Duscur, fans wanted more Duscur: AG has more Duscur! Sylvain cares about Sreng, fans want more: AG involves more of Sreng in Sylvain's paralogue. Claude is half Almyran, fans want to learn more: devs, nah. They probably think Shahid is enough to "satisfy" the fans who wanted Almyra stuff. As if 2 whole chapters in GW part 1 is enough about Almyra when nothing is resolved about it at all.

Personally I do think they see it as more of an easy to ignore area of the world. They make Sreng out to be a huge threat and they make the matter with Duscur very ingrained into the story and extremely serious in its involvement with the characters.

In VW we just kinda... get Nader joining Claude for a little bit and there's not much more on it than that. We know some small details about it through Claude but nothing impactful to the story. In CF Almyra is pretty much tossed to the side and crushed by the Empire despite Almyra's military strength probably rivaling the Empire's, and I'd even argue better than the Empire's because Holst is really the number one thing holding them back in the first place. Without him they'd probably be able to storm right through Leicester and make their way through Fodlan if they wanted to. The way Nader is just offed in Edelgard's paralogue is nuts to me.

In GW you have Nader hanging around longer than in VW and you get more details about it, but none of them are really all that heavy. There's no major concern about Almyra once Shahid is dead, despite Claude saying earlier in the game it was best not to kill him because doing so might incite other Almyrans to attack Fodlan in revenge. While the situation Claude was in with Shahid was understandable as far as killing him went when he actually did, I feel like it would've made sense for him to have to explain himself or make a proper case for himself as to why he had no choice but to actually kill another member of the royalty this time. I doubt they killed every single Almyran that was on Shahid's side, and I can guarantee one of them would've went back and informed the other brothers of what happened if this was written to be more important

Honestly I think they could've scrubbed out a whole lot of the battles with the Empire and made it more based on Almyra just on the fact alone that if Claude's brothers hated him so much, at least one of them should've sought revenge for Shahid or hell, even used his death as an excuse to invade. In other words, either someone would've recognize Claude or they would've simply gone back and said hey look Leicester just killed one of our princes and we should retaliate.

Also, I'm torn on the way they handled Nader getting permission for things. I mean, I understand that the king could've been "half asleep" and signed something from Nader because he'd trust that Nader would never have him sign something bad or anything, but I could've taken that as an answer if it wasn't basically the only instance that the king had any involvement at all in the war. I'm pretty sure Nader didn't even tell him that he was fighting in Fodlan to help the king's supposed favorite son, because I'm pretty sure he could've gotten the king to sign that if Nader came to him saying he'd found the prince and was fighting for him in Fodlan for a bit.

It's mainly that Almyra is considered threatening, but how often do they seem actually be threatening? Even in the Alois and Shamir paralogue in Houses, it's just regular bandits/pirates using the Almyran name to scare people and not actually their men.

I think since SB has a split route with Claude fighting Edelgard, they should have brought Nader and some other Almyrans into it. Claude brought an army from Almyra in CF, so why not in SB? Why not do that and then, if you kill Claude instead of let him escape, maybe you get an extra chapter where they fight the Empire longer to seek revenge or something? Why not make them more important?

I'm not sure they consider them a joke so much as they just... don't care. I've seen a lot of complaints about GW and how they have the story all over the place, and while I think SB is worse in that regard, I think between that aspect in GW and the lack of how much Almyra truly mattered in the plot that it seems like both of Claude's routes are the ones the devs cared for the least. They don't seem to go into depth with Claude's personal story even when they give themselves the chance to.

Since Hopes gave them the opportunity to add new characters, they really should've taken the time and investment into showing is more of Almyra/its royal family. Both other routes in both games as well as SS are a much more personally driven story for the character that acts as the main lord, but neither of Claude's routes really do that. I get the center of the game is Fodlan and all, but if they made the game with a foreign born character in mind and wanted to go into details about that, they should've just committed and not made it that unimportant. Sometimes it feels like it's just put in to be like "see? He's Almyran. This is why he's like this. Now back to Fodlan stuff".

You'd think with how they started saying that not all of Almyra thinks of Fodlan so poorly and that a chunk of them speak Fodlan's language that they'd... actually put that into the story somehow. If Fodlan's impression of them is worse than the other way around, why are we even told that if they won't do anything with it? They kind of hand us odd lore here and there and leave it and never touch it again.

I'm pretty sure Brigid has more presence in both games in general, which is... kinda dumb considering Claude is a lord and Petra is not.

It's disappointing that we've had ample opportunities between both games to have Almyra be more important and they just sprinkle it here and there. :(

[shyrose57]

Thank you other anon for wishing me well!! That means a lot to me! 

He does but Raq doesn't actually know Rans backstory. So he doesn't know Ran has siblings. He just assumes his mom either died or abandoned him due to finding Ran completely alone and being a hybrid. Before Ran would just scream at Raq in Enderian, now both Raq and Ran scream at eachother in it. Jackie describes it as, "A screaming match to assert dominance." 

Yep, his body was already straining itself to fend off the posion and the teleporting ended up straining him more than he could handle. So as soon as he teleported them he collapsed and wasn't able to even stand. 

That just made me imagine them digging down only to look up and see Phil clambering down after them like a mole. 

After he made a scavenger hunt made out of everyone else's items. Phil found his axe in a destroyed tree trunk and Ran found his sword buried in the ground. While Sapnap found his bow hidden behind stones and Jackie was never able to find his particularly because Ranboo forgot where he hid it. 

Yes, although its very rough. 

Porkius is very very suprised and needs time to come to turns with them being there. While Porkius reacts well to Techno, Techno does not like Porkius and has threatened to punch him a few times and one time he followed through and punched him hard enough to make him fall to the ground. 

Definitely.

---------------------

Ranboo is still his ancestor! Ran feels mostly confused, startled, scared, and oddly a bit comfortable. Phil makes him feel comfortable because he reminds him so much of Watson who was a very close and comforting figure to him. But Techno kind of scares him cause while Porkius was kind to him he was also strict, so he's afraid Techno will be stricter and mean just due to how he looks. He also just kinda ignores Ranboo at first because he can't handle the fact he's looking at his now alive ancestor. 

Not really I'd say, even though they all have different enderman percentces, they have the same instincts. Though due to Ranboos memory problem, his memory of enderman culture is almost non-existent, and instead presents itself through his instincts. If any of that makes sense? 

Karl is terrified upon seeing Ran, as soon as he even hears he's here he immediately drops what he's doing and after a few questions runs off to find and confront him. Tubbo is incredibly fascinated by Ran and at first he respects Ran's boundaries and stays away from him, but as soon as Ran is walking around outside and exploring the surrounding environment, he sees that as the perfect opportunity to bombard Ran with questions. Eret (who I like to headcanon is like a medic and knows a lot more about medicine than most), doesnt comment at first and is instead focused on helping him, but after he learns more about Ran, he is fascinated by him but takes time to get to know Ran and work on making a friendship with him. No one else, not even Michael knows about Ran being there, though they do eventually find out. 

A multitude of reasons 1. He landed wrong and ended up breaking an arm and cracking two ribs due to the sudden stop. 2. He isn't used to traveling through time so time travel had the affect of making him very sick, including headaches and nausea. 3. When he was dragged into the timetravel a match in the Pit just ended and he had a few bruises and cuts that hadn't been taken care of yet, so the travel and harsh landing just aggravated them and re-opened some. 4. The harsh landing ended up also giving him a concussion. 

When Ran is finally consciousness enough he refuses to speak in anything other than Enderian. At first Phil and Techno are scared he can't speak nor understand their language. But Edward steps in and tells them he can both understand and speak it he just doesn't want to necessarily. So Edward does the communication with Ran on their behalf, he also takes the time to comfort and help him come to terms with him being there. Edward is also the one to gently push/convince Ran to actually speak to them. 

Agreed, uh, maybe From Future to Past? Idk. 

------------------------

I already have a name for this au thankfully, Tip of the Iceberg AU. (Also I wanna say real quick not every single character in the Dream SMP or Tales From The SMP will be featured in this au because it's just to many characters for me to keep track of, it'll mostly be characters I feel like I understand if that makes sense)

They end up everywhere, the Bandits end up in Las Nevadas and end up robbing the place before they bolt, running with no real direction in mind. Zack and Cletus end up just outside of Las Nevadas but they run off into the woods once they hear yelling inside the country. Isaac, Porkums, and Grievous end up in Kinoko Kingdom. Ran lands in Erets castle and accidentally breaks a window from his entrance. Jackie, Jon Jon, and Sheriff Sherman end up in Pogtopia but manage to get out (expect Jackie who is stuck and they can't get him out so they actually left for help). Benjamin lands into the ocean around the Guardian farm. Ranbob also lands near the Guardian farm but instead on land. Charles and Watson land somewhere nearby Foolish's summer home. Ranbulter and James get dropped onto Tommys Memorial Island. And Ash lands in Snowchester. (Note I believe these will be all the tales characters I'll be mostly using, but if any get added I'll probably mention where they also ended up). 

Something important though is that almost no one stayed where they landed, Ran ran off into the surrounding forest so he could focus on regathering himself and calm down without worrying about getting attacked, Benjamin just randomly picks a direction to go (North) and ends up picking up Ranbob to join him. John John and Sherman went different directions to look for help; the Kinoko Kingdom group argues before finally Porkums and Grievous head off together having elected to follow the oceans edge (they think the Kingdom is abandoned and think following the ocean will eventually lead them to a city or something), while Isaac calls them stupid and stays around the Kingdom, exploring and taking stuff; and Charles and Watson just kinda walk around though stay in the general area. Anyone I did not mention stays where they landed or is close to where they landed. SOMETHING IMPORTANT THOUGH IS THAT NONE OF THEM GET DIRECTLY SEEN BY ANY SMP MEMBERS RIGHT AWAY, its only found out what happened when Quackity accuses Fundy of stealing from him which he heavily declines. And instead says that he saw others riding out of the country so it must've been them (he saw them from a distance), and their descriptions are enough to unnerve Karl who then goes back to Kinoko Kingdom to look at his Tales from the SMP books where he runs directly into Isaac and realizes what he feared is true. 

Once Karl gets confirmation that people from both the past and future are here he immediately calls an emergency meeting and just tells everyone almost immediately that he's a time traveler so it doesn't become a problem later, they don't believe him but Isaac is kind enough to help convince them. Soon everyone is convinced and while everyone is included only a few are actually part of a active search party. Those people being Techno, Phil, Ranboo, Tubbo, Foolish, Quackity, Sam, Eret, Bad, and of course Karl. Everyone else is assigned to just keep a eye out. Not everyone is in the party because they didn't want to be or they had other stuff to be doing.

He explains the In-between and Other Side but other than that they never really interfere, if anything he gets dragged into both sides when sleeping and the two sides both push him to find everyone and fix it all.

Jackie, as per usual, is the funniest gremlin on the block.

Poor Ran!! At least he gets some rest?

Absolutely terrifying image, I pity the poor fool who witnesses it.

Pfft. Can you just imagine the chaos? Half the time it's probably just caused by his memory issues. Prank war a few weeks ago? Ranboo forgets the traps he put up, and everyone ends up with brightly colored hair, and a large amount of rabbits in their house, and he;s standing right there with them trying to figure out who did it.

It's something, so I'll take it!

Technoblade: Nearly starting wars since...uh, whenever he spawned in, I'm not really sure of the details there.

Good.

-----------------

So Ran is aware Ranboo is his ancestor? Does he have the same backstory as Brothers AU!Ran?

Does this mean Ranboo is working solely on instincts when around other Endermen or Ran? How does that work out?

And since Enderwalk has all his memories, what are Ran's encounters with him like? Is he aware of Enderwalk state, or was that lost to time? Where do their instincts lead them? Does Ranboo get a bit more hesitant towards Ran when he's leaning more on them? Or is he more open and welcoming? Can he tell Ran shares his blood?

Confrontation? Uh oh, how does that go? Especially considering Ran's possibly the only one to have a vague idea of Karl's hobby? Does it end up coming out?

How does Ran feel about having Tubbo constantly ask questions? Is Tubbo just curious, or is he trying to figure things out? Does this mean Ran ends up in Snowchester, or does Tubbo head to the Antarctic? Medic Eret?? What kind of relationship do they have with Techno and Phil to get called in and come to their aid? How do Eret, Karl, and Tubbo learn of him, if this is being kept hush-hush, and why is it being kept such?

Poor Ran, he's really gotten the short end of the stick here. So time traveling can negatively effect those not used to it/built for it? Does Karl suffer similarly?

And Edward speaks Common, then? Also, Edward!! Is he still Techno's roommate here? Does he have a little nearby area? Or does he head back to the End when he's not hanging around? Has he been helping Ranboo as well?

Sounds good!

-------------------------

Gotcha, gotcha.

The fact that the bandits first instinct upon appearing in a strange new place with no prior warning is to rob it brings me great joy. How does that go for them? How far do they get, what do they steal?

Cletus & Zack: Dunno who you are or where I am, but I don't like the sound of that, so lets bolt.

Issac, Porkums, and Grievous actually don't sound like a chaotic combination, so they probably don't cause too much trouble.

Poor Eret. Imagine just trying to enjoy your day and coming back in to see your window broken.

Jon Jon and Sherman with Jackie just sounds really funny actually. The blatant contrast from time periods and all, and Jackie's pure chaotic energy...Also, they'd both be so much taller than him. Why was he stuck though? What happened?

Another question is, at what point was everyone tossed back? Long after Karl had left, before meeting him, in the middle? Is it different for some? How do those who've met him before react? Why does Isaac believe Karl, and how does he help convince the others?

Who's found first? What happens then? Is anyone hurt? What are both sides definition of 'fixing it all', and how does being dragged in between the two effect Karl?

[shiraishi--kanade]

Oh I'm not denying your right to analyse her, she's equally as fascinating to me and in my own eyes she's a combination of generational trauma and living vicariously through her daughter taken to the extreme by perhaps personal sadistic tendencies. We're given hints at Mafumom was probably coming out of poverty or at least financially insecure position; we're also given hints that she did not receive higher education and depends entirely financially on her husband, which is not a good position to be in regardless of their relationship, and pushing Mafuyu towards a high-paying career at the cost of her mental health might've been a good trade off in her mind. This is an interesting probability worth considering, as well as the other ones I laid out.

My addition was less directed at you trying to find a reason to her actions (aside from the last two paragraphs, but that's just me getting personal¹) and more about that I think the approach towards it is incorrect. Much every action she does that seems unreasonable or needlessly cruel can be explained by her being abusive and wanting absolute control and authority over the situation, a part of a much larger scheme & plan that took her years to realize;

Instead of focusing on the cases where she's shown to be cruel and trying to explain them individually (when they are very simply explained by the fact that Mafuyu is the target of manipulation and abuse), it is in my opinion more productive to grab her character as a whole and ask "Why is she like this?" question. Less of "why did she do this bad thing in that situation (because she operates on abuser logic, most likely)" and more of "what brought her to the position where she considers doing all of this to her daughter to be justified/normal?" approach, which is on itself I think is a good question to ask and wonder about. I just think the scope of abuse is too overwhelming to try to pick apart every single instance we're shown on screen and it needs to be considered through a larger lense of their relationship as a whole, or else we're missing important context.

Though I'd argue it's hard to tell if she doesn't know she did anything wrong or she feels like she didn't do anything wrong because of her sense of entitlement towards Mafuyu, and feeling entitled to forgiveness/love/obedience regardless of the horrific abuse she consciously initiated. "I didn't do anything wrong" vs "I did hurt her but she should have forgiven me because I'm doing it out of love and love is never wrong", and her own words in Farewell to my Persona seem to indicate towards the latter, for what it's worth. These beliefs may be hard to tell apart and in my opinion she hasn't spoken enough after third anniversary for us to confidently make the call. She is... A lot.

¹ - also it's not directed at anyone actually trying to make sense of what might've pushed her to that. It is more so than I hope Sega never confirms anything and sets it in stone and doesn't spoon feed us the explanation because I just feel like it would be poor taste and make a lot of people sympathise with Mafuyu less. Explain not justify, etc. Or at least if this does happen, she isn't forgiven or her actions aren't narratively justified. It's also just entirely possible there is no reason to her actions and she's just... Like that.

The more I read Mafuyu's stories the more confused I am about why her mom is like that. She has the temperament of a good parent, being able to control her emotions, but she chooses to guilt trip her kid who was probably scared after getting lost? She reacted calmly at first, but went about scolding her like Mafuyu is intentionally hurting her by getting lost instead of getting lost because she's a kid and stuff happens.

Like, if you can stay calm enough that your first response is to not scold her but check in on her, why would you guilt trip your kid after? A simple, don't it again, would've scared a kid enough to not do it again. But no! It's you're turning out to be a bad girl instead. Oh I'm sorry, who wasn't paying attention to her kid in a busy theme park? Not Mafuyu, but you

Girl could've been kidnapped and you'd have found a way to blame her, honestly

Honestly it seems like her mom is the culmination of the worst of toxic culture mixed into one and making it generational. I'm still gonna believe my theory that it's generational and that Mafuyu is breaking the generational trauma.

If Mafuyu really did end up being a doctor, what then? Yeah she would've been a great one, but what then? Being in the medical field ia stressful enough, add to it her not being able to feel her own emotions, what's gonna happen to the patients who needs their doctors to go beyond the physical and Mafuyu can't provide that?

What was the point of all that she did?

Mafuyu's mental state is shattered, add to it the stress of the medical field, it's easy to see where it'll end up. Again add to it the toxic work culture Japan has, if she gets lucky she gets a normal hospital, if not, good luck. That girl is gone and never moving up to be a successful doctor with her people pleasing facade. They're gonna take advantage of her.

Honestly, Mafuyu isn't even my favorite on the priority list, but the fact her mom exists is the only reason I want to dissect her. As a (young) adult with a somewhat good upbringing, she confuses me. No matter how hard I try to think from her perspective I can't. And as someone getting how to care for yourself advice now, she confuses me even more. Work all the time is obviously not optimal but that's just how it is in her head. It is optimal because Mafuyu is focused on that, she'll get it. Which isn't true, as Farewell my mask shows, girl cannot focus because test day is near and the stress of upsetting her mom pretty much makes her crash and burn.

I have so much thoughts. It's getting too long.

[ivory-sunflower]

Arty Art Things ✨

Hellooo!

I've decided to post some of the arty things I've done either recently or in the last few years, well the pieces I'm somewhat proud of at least. All my posts tend to be a lot more wordy than they need to be but hey it's what I do here!

Conchúr White

Anyone one who's been on this blog for a bit will have probably have seen me talk about this lovely Irish fella. The pencil drawing is actually a year old as of yesterday, I only know that because screenshots of me flipping out about Conchúr following me on twitter popped up in my memories yesterday. I think I'd sent it to him at about 3 in the morning (I was not in a good head space at that point in time), so probably not what he was expecting to see when he opened his phone in the morning aha

The biro version is much more recent: I got bored while sat at my desk and doing research about university courses, saw a biro, saw my old drawing of Conchúr, had an idea. I revisited my GCSE art techniques and here we are. Again, I put this up on Twitter and now (at the the time I'm writing this) when you google "Conchúr White" it's the third top image of him which is a bit mad really. I think I spent all of about 20 minutes on Conchúr but another 45 minutes on the words behind him. The words are the names of the songs on his EP 'Bikini Crops', he doesn't just really love the idea of Channing Tatum driving him around at night in a daisy print bikini... Well maybe he does but what he does in his spare time is none of my business...

TechDif

So I mentioned that the pencil drawing of Conchúr came from a rough patch in my mental health and this one is no different! In fact this one came from an even worse circumstance so we love to see it. I had a bad, bad time in July and this started as a way of distracting myself from what was going on in my head. Without it, I can't honestly say I'd still be here so even if the final product of this had been a terrible mess I would still love it for keeping me alive. However, it did not turn out to be a terrible mess!

Now that the origin of this is out the way, where do I start with TechDif? Unlike Conchúr, I haven't really talked about them on here (unless you count one brief post about Citation Needed) before so I guess I'll do it here. The Technical Difficulties are a wonderful group of 4 British fellas who have had their fair share of fun online and even before. They did a radio show at university together, which went on to become their Reverse Trivia Podcast, later moving on to a panel show called 'Citation Needed': and a game called 'Two of These People Are Lying'. All of which I would thoroughly reccomend, they're one of my go to things when I'm having a rough time. All 4 of them are excellent! Tom Scott (red top, blue jeans on the picture) has his own YouTube channel which does content aside from TechDif. If you're quite nerdy and like science, linguistics, computers, or any number of other things you may enjoy Tom's channel. He is probably best described as "The Moderator" of the group, much like a tired teacher he tries desperately to keep everyone on track with what they're meant to be doing, but usually it does not end well for him. Then we have Matt Gray (space top, holding an ice cream) who also has a channel away from TechDif stuff, he does techy electronic things and has a series called 'Will it Soft Serve?' where he puts all kinds of strange things through a soft serve machine. Matt brings a very specific energy to TechDif and I can't fully describe what that vibe is but I love it. Matt and Tom also share a YouTube channel where TOTPAL is posted and they had a series called 'The Park Bench'. Moving on to everybody's favourite Gary Brannan: Gary Brannan (SATIRE hoodie, glasses) and can I just say, what a fella he is! He's just excellent! He is the one that will argue and rip into Tom the most (not in a malicious way) and hilarity ensues. There are some episodes where he is absolutely on it, getting all the points and others where he very clearly has no idea and that's where some of his funniest quotes come from. Given how badly I was doing at the time I made this, his response to it on Twitter was so so lovely. I specifically remember one tweet where he said I'd made him happy and although it was probably a flippant comment, it just made feel alright for a bit. Yeah I might be feeling awful right now, but I've made someone else happy so that's a nice feeling. Then last but certainly not least, we have Chris Joel (buffalo check shirt, beard)! I would be lying if I said he isn’t my favourite... His sense of humor is the one I vibe with most, he can get rather dramatic in parts and can chat bollocks like a champion. He has absolutely no online presence away from TechDif and, like Rens from Temples, I fully believe he’s a cryptid and lives off in a tree somewhere. 

The picture took me about 4 days to complete, well 4 nights because I did most of it between the hours of 12 a.m. and 7a.m. - I remember watching the sun come through my window each morning. It’s made up of lots of little pieces, all cut out and stuck on; even the sky and hills are made of separate pieces of paper. Nothing was actually drawn on the piece of paper it’s all stuck on, it’s not how I usually do things but if I messed up one little but I could just redraw it rather than ruining the whole thing. The most tedious parts to make were Chris’ shirt because I had to draw each square individually and then join the as well, and cutting out the ban-hammer in the bottom right was surprisingly hard. Every single detail of the picture is a reference to the podcast/shows, I still have the plan sketch and reference list knocking about somewhere. I listened to a lot of true crime videos while making it to the point that certain parts remind me of different cases: the brandy now reminds me of Peter Tobin, and the big spiral thing reminds me of Tim McLean (very harrowing case) - sorry that fact is a bit morbid but interesting nonetheless. 

I did post this for a little bit back in July, but I received some rather awful messages so I took it down. Generally, Tom Scott/TechDif fans are lovely but there’s been a few that have taken a disliking to me for some reason so I’m hoping they don’t resurface again. I’m in a better head space now though, so even if they do I’m more equipped to deal with it this time.

Hozier

This was a quick sketch I did in April, I was getting bored with lockdown and decided to summon the bog man himself. There’s not really much more backstory than that, no poor mental health story, no fun twitter story - he’s just here. He’s vibing. I will say I’m particularly proud of his nose, I just think it’s one of the best noses I’ve ever drawn. His hand is okay, but I think that the hands on my Conchúr drawings are better. So there is the Hozi-Boi...

The Corpse Bry

I’ve talked about Bry on here before as well, I love him, he’s excellent, top lad. He is a living Tim Burton character, he’s 6′6, very skinny, and his legs are longer than my will to live. I was watching ‘The Corpse Bride’ a few weeks ago and suddenly had an idea and so ‘The Corpse Bry’ came to be. I gave him a little panda friend because the panda has always been his animal - he used to wear a panda beanie all the time and his album had a panda on the cover. Again, there’s not really a fun story behind this one, I guess it’s somewhat fun because it’s the first art I made after finishing my psychology exams in October so it was nice to actually have the time to draw.

James Bagshaw

Ginger talking about Temples for the third post in a row? it’s more likely than you think! I did this one last week, I’d had a bit of a wobbly day and had group therapy on Teams in the evening and I just couldn’t concentrate on what was going on and I ended up doodling Mr James E. Bagshaw, the glitter crying fraggle man himself. It’s a bare-bones drawing that I could definitely work into more but I’m happy with it as it is to be honest. I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit and add the individual bits of fringe to his jacket, just thinking about doing that makes me tired. Maybe I’ll get around to drawing the whole band at some point...

Alice in “Wonderland”

This one is from about 5(?) years ago, it’s not my typical style and was a “study” based on another artists work (basically i just had to copy this fellas work). I’ll be honest, this one has a sketchy backstory that I won’t go in to because it’s not exactly a nice one, and because of that I also won’t say who the artist is that it’s based on. Despite this, I’m still really proud of this one and I’m so sad that I never got this piece back after I got taken out the class. I’ve considered trying this style again, I’ve even joked about doing another Conchúr drawing in this style as a nod to my progression through GCSE art, eventually leading to Conchúr drawn in ink on music manuscript and stained with neon paint and dyes - it would be quite the project!

So this has been quite a lengthy post so apologies about that but life goes on. Similar to the vinyl post, I’ll probably add to this as and when I make more art. Even if no one is reading these posts, I’m enjoying making them so that’s the main thing. It’s just nice to document things and the feelings that go with them. 💕

~ Love Ginger xx 

29/11/2020

[willowrosenboob]

(Prepare for a rant) I mean full offense to Jenny Nicholson but TVD is SUUUUUCH a blatant ripoff of Buffy that the first time I even got into the fandom I was so confused over how I kept hearing THE SAME ARGUMENTS that people used so much over the brothers and which ship of them and Elena was better. I know that TVD is based off of a book series but having read the books and the plans of the original author when it came to that story, TVD the series is insanely different and there's too many parallels to Buffy that go beyond the love triangle and "best friend who's a witch". Even the Stefan/Ripper stuff are so similar to Angel/Angelus that the fandom often uses the same argument about it and how "it doesn't really count because they're intentionally bad vs when Angel has a soul/Stefan has a conscience". Also Spike/Klaus????? Where????? I'd even argue that Klaus is so much more evil than Spike and I'm not even interested in defending Spike in any way, it's just that Klaus was literally planning on making an army of werewolves when practically any idea that Spike has ever had fails because he's a fucking moron, and I say this as a complete fact. There's also the fact that Julie Plec's plagiarization is all over her other series as well, especially Legacies. And for all of the reasons that Josh Whedon can go to hell, at least Buffy had more coherent season-long plots and even with it's flaws stands out as a series overall. TVD IS A MESS, both plot and character-wise, I practically gave up around season 4 because I couldn't even take any of the bs from it anymore. End of rant (sorry for the long message).

i totally get you. i think a big problem with her take was that she mentioned how the similarities to twilight had to do more with common tropes in the genre, but she didn’t touch AT ALL upon how twilight affected pretty much all teen media of the time. maybe the reason that the series is so different from the books is because a lot of vampire media became so centralized  and uncreative in the twilight era and constantly borrowed from things that already existed. and i’m saying this as someone who’s completely fascinated with the twilight phenomenom, like it really gots its hands into every single corner of the world in just a few years. nothing was truly sacred. that could’ve been a really interesting angle to explore, though i guess the video was already so long, it makes sense t

another thing i noticed is how she said she likes julie plec, but you can clearly tell that’s because she’s never even touched all the drama that’s gone down with her over the years. i’ve only started looking into the tvd fandom in the last few months but even i know that everyone hates her for so many valid reasons. giving yourself some space from fandom is valid, but it made her video feel like it wasn’t properly researched.

i may be completely wrong, but my theory is that jenny has only watched up to season 2 ish of buffy, which is where her buffy=bad and spike=klaus takes come from. i get the damon/spike parallels, but with klaus the only similarity i see is that they’re both british and villains. yeah spike gets redeemed from the love of a woman, but before that he goes through a phase where he gets constantly dunked on and nobody can take him seriously as a threat, which is part of what makes him so interesting and entertaining to me. it’s like that post i reblogged a few weeks ago about how spike is the most pathetic of the worms, wearing the funniest of hats kjkjksdhg. tvd never had the balls to subvert tropes the way btvs did. also, spike had always centered his identity around the women in his life, even as a human, so his transformation didn’t come out of nowhere. klaus has pretty much been an uncaring dickbag for his entire existence, and i’m saying that as someone who actually likes him. but in comparison he is NOWHERE CLOSE to spike.

it’s kinda annoying that she said “if you like buffy you’ll probably like tvd cause it’s better” like she makes it so clear she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. i’ve seen so many btvs fans who hate tvd, and also lots of people who like both but prefer btvs. there’s a reason there’s are literal college classes on buffy and not tvd, and it’s not cause one is more popular than the other. one planned their storylines multiple seasons ahead of time, was thematically consistent, dealt with morality, and had powerful feminist themes, and that sure as hell wasn’t tvd.

ALSO in regards to your complaints, the ripper storyline pisses me off so damn much. there’s no real proof that the “humanity switch” actually makes you incapable of being a good person, it’s clearly only there for drama, unlike with btvs where the soul makes a huge difference in how vampires behave. the soul takes away a vampire’s choice to do good, but the lines between humanity/no humanity are so blurred that it feels like there’s no real thematic purpose to it. it’s straight up insulting to btvs

i enjoyed and agreed with most of the video, but that part just pissed me off

[rebelfire]

I'm probably not seeing the same Carol hate discourse as you, so obviously I'm not defending anyone nor do I want to suggest it's all deserved. (Like I said, Anthony did her dirty.) But I don't think the Carol/Glenn comparison is fair to judge whether fans are picking on a character for being a woman. 😕

Carol is a successful business person with a stay at home spouse.

Glenn is a single parent who just lost his job.

We see Carol for a short few minutes here and there, and her biggest moment is her first appearance when she's angry at Darryl.

Glenn, by nature of being a player character, is in every episode so we get a sense of his true flaws and get to see the positive side of him. We also never really see him blow-up to the extent that Carol did.

We also see Glenn *punished* through the course of the show. (I think most of us would even argue that his punishment was excessive for his 'crime'.)

We don't really see Carol have to deal with the bad karma she's due and, honestly, I know if I overheard a friend have a phone call like Darryl, I'd be right there calling their spouse a jerk if they'd let me. (I'd also be asking how often that happens and if that's the worst of it because the fact that she did that in front of her friend is alarming.)

I support women being allowed to be wrong and fucking up just like men are permitted to do, but I also support people getting called out on toxic behavior. ❤️

Maybe I'm misremembering but I don't think Carol Wilson was ever mean? Like, sure she got angry at Darryl when he called her and said he lost Grant, but that is imo a pretty reasonable reaction! And it isn't mean for her to want a divorce that's just how it goes sometimes. I think yall maybe just don't like women

[pyroreadscomics]

@shihoerusu Favourite runs of her New Earth solo stuff: Catwoman (1989), Catwoman: Defiant, Showcase '93 #1-4 (it's an anthology), The backup story in Detective Comics #759-762, Catwoman: Selina's Big Score, and last but certainly not least, Catwoman (2002) #1-24 (Side note: I'd personally argue that that series (if you generously ignore the terrible events it gets dragged into) never goes bad. Certainly those first 24 issues is that run at it's peak, and damn do I hate the artstyle change, but its far from bad. Its more like the series drops from excellent to merely pretty good. Please read issues 32 & 53-68 at least as well as the first 24 if you're not willing to read all 82 issues) As for her appearing in other books: Gotham City Sirens is the obvious one, being Selina's only real team book. Batman: Long Halloween has a good showing from Selina despite the fact she's a minor character for most of it. Batman Hush if you're a fan of BatCat (because Selina is little more than "the love interest" though a well written one). And lastlyBatman: Life After Death and Batman: Eye of the Beholder (she gets (another) sidekick in those stories and she's great). And, shockingly, basically all the bat events she was dragged into during the 90s. In specific KnightsQuest, Contagion, Officer Down. Even when she's not part of the main story (KnightsFall, Cataclysm, No Man's Land) her tie in issues tend to be the highlight off that run. In fact I'd argue the six No Man's Land issues (72-77) are the best her 90s series ever got. (Not Legacy though. Even if Legacy Part Two happened in the Catwoman Solo, she's not actually part of that event. and also I don't like that event in general.)

And as for what made it feel not worth it? Well, it's a bit hyperbolic, I wouldn't have persevered if that sense of completion wasn't so tantalizing and also if I wasn't trying to compile a comprehensive reading guide in the style of jlquartely for Catwoman, but... while that end goal might carry some sense of achievement, reading all those comics as an undertaking just for the fun of it, wasn't worth it. By my estimation there are (give or take 10 issues) 450 issues listed by DCU Guide as having Selina Kyle appear in them. There is no universe where every single one of those in a banger, and unfortunately, we live in the universe where about 15%-20% percent of them suck. An additional 30% or so are just mediocre, and then, if you're reading for Selina, about 5-10% or so, are just unspeaking cameos stuck in the middle of multi issue story arcs that you may or may not be invested in. That's over 200 issues that just weren't worth reading. Though, part of it is due to the fact that I just don't vibe with 90s Selina. 80s Selina? my blrobo. 00s Selina? my beloved fave. 90s Selina is just so different from both of them it's just difficult to see the character I love in the stories from that decade. If you vibe with 90s Selina, significantly more of these stories will appeal to you. If you are planning on reading literally everything (and don't, I'm making a guide so no one ever has to go through all that again) I think my advice would be: Don't do what I did and blitz through 450 comics at the pace of one trade paperback a night. Especially with 90s comics, they're... not conducive to bingeing. Maybe read the 90s series one issue a night and it you'll probably have a better time than I did.

I have done it

According to the DCU Guide, I have read every single Post-Crisis Pre-Flashpoint comic that features main universe Selina Kyle. And I have to say... Good lord was that not worth it.