#in the entire narrative

[getvalentined]

sometimes I think about that one VN that featured

a character whose parents were murdered in front of him in a racially-motivated hate crime when he was in kindergarten

a character who had given up on her dreams for the future in order to leave her home country and earn money for her dying father's medical treatment and whose father dies in the course of the narrative

a character whose mother was so devoted to her work that she literally spent more time with the children she tutored than her own daughter, leading to this character attempting to re-parent herself by dedicating her entire life to working with children so nobody else has to feel like there are no adults that love them

a character whose mother may have been poisoned to death by his estranged rich father who later tried to force this character to murder his wife

a character whose father only treated her like a person after she got married to the previous character in spite of her running his company behind the scenes since she was like fifteen

a character whose father was a violent alcoholic who drove her into the same addiction from a very early age prior to drinking himself to death

and a character whose parents divorced when he was like seven

and how the narrative was set up in such a way to indicate that we were all supposed to feel that the character who had it worst out of all of them was the one with divorced parents

How Not To Write a Visual Novel: The Visual Novel

[linktoo-doodles]

i'll strangle you or i'll kiss you on the mouth

[haliaiii]

Juno’s champion

[lotus-pear]

i love you royal trio (minus akechi)

[eyra]

love and light to big blue sky readers everywhere but for the last time, yorkshire is not in wales.

wales is a whole different country. please…. please learn this…. this is important

[mischievous-thunder]

A few days later:

Wolvie bear found a freak like that at long last

[angelnumber27]

My mom is in her mid 60s and divorced my abusive dad a few years ago, got an apartment, started dating her boyfriend, moved in with him and is now living with him. She’s extremely happy. It’s never too late y’all <3 don’t settle and don’t give up

[naumaxia-art]

I was really supposed to be doing work today...

[lonelyzarquon]

DOCTOR WHO | Before The Flood

[littlenastieswewhispered]

“buffy ended the show single :)” ok but only because her current love interest just DIED!! (he near quite literally died in her arms! in sacrifice for her!) her last words of the entire series were telling him she loves him and then saying his name in admiration. she isn’t single; she’s a widow.

[ruegarding]

these books are written for disabled children. percy has, since tlt, been very outspoken when ppl put his intelligence down. there is a constant reminder that the ppl who treat him like he's stupid are not correct bc these series are specifically written for ppl w disabilities. that's why percy clarifies "i'm dyslexic. i'm not stupid." in the tenth anniversary edition of tlt. percy's insecurities do not affect the overall message that ur disability does not make you stupid bc percy himself is constantly challenging the ppl treating him like he's stupid.

conversely, wottg is constantly making digs at percy's grades and percy's ability to think without annabeth without keeping the theme that your disabilities do not make u stupid. annabeth is acing all of her classes. give me one example from wottg that detail how her disabilities negatively affect her or how she is accommodated to overcome them. and now think why it might be a problem that percy, someone who is written specifically to represent children w disabilities, is being treated as stupid, doing poorly in his classes, is being overworked, is constantly disparaging himself, and is never once standing up for himself, like he did in tlt.

[curlytsunamiart]

the pointless cruelties found aboard the pony express long-haul freighter tulpar

alternate colors:

[essektheylyss]

I do just keep thinking about Essek listening to Ludinus talk.

Essek, who will be on the run for the rest of his life for the deal he made with Ludinus.

Essek, who handed over unfathomable power to Ludinus believing it to be for the greater good and embroiling an entire continent in war as a result.

Essek, who helped orchestrate acts of espionage searching for the priceless artifacts that he had handed to Ludinus which the Empire, under Ludinus's puppeting, used to claim themselves righteous—defended themselves against unlawful invasion—in their war.

Essek, who once believed Ludinus a like-minded peer before discovering that in his eyes he was only something to be used and cast aside once his purpose was served.

Essek, who has seen the scars carved upon his dearest friends by those Ludinus has enabled as a means to his ends.

Listening to Ludinus speak of the damage that the gods have wrought. The wars they have waged at the cost of others. The way they have coerced and manipulated mortals into enabling their ends. The lives they have ruined and left in their wake without a care.

There are no gods walking Exandria, but there are monsters.

[egophiliac]

(breathing into a paper bag) FRALIO....

can't believe they gave us another guy. oh my god. so I guess Kelka is more, uhhh, more OOO then, and Fralio is Ankh? not that it matters too much, although they do seem to be doing something with the connected Riders so. who knows. anything goes! or if I may, anything gOOOes! god. of course they're the Ambition parallel. of course they are. oh my god.

fortunately there's nothing else they can throw at me right now that could possibly --

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[warpedpuppeteer]

It's interesting how Buck's love interests are all written in a way that ends because of the reason they meet/happen in the first place and then of course, we have Eddie.

Abby, who changes Buck's view of a healthy relationship but then turns around and ghosts him, making him wait for months on end and letting him realize she's not coming back on his own.

Ali, who meets Buck during a dangerous situation in his line of work and then leaves him for how dangerous his work is.

Taylor, who lashes out at Buck for using her as a fake date and saying she thought she could trust Buck to be a friend who then ends up using him for her career and chose to put his friends in danger.

Natalia, who's there to help him embrace and deal with his temporary death but it leads to their break up because of the constant talk surrounding death when Buck's not comfortable with it.

We can't confirm for Tommy till it ends but it's important to note how he offers to get Buck into his interests like flying and muay thai yet doesn't show effort with Buck's interests like dressing up according to the bachelor party theme despite Buck being stressed about it. And we also have the fact that the entire reason they got together was due to Buck's jealousy for Eddie which he then claims to be was for Tommy. Makes me think they are either going to end because of differing interests OR because of the jealousy issue popping up again.

Funnily enough, every scene above has an Eddie parallel:

Eddie co-parents with Buck and not only does this not stop after a dangerous event but Eddie also has Buck down as a legal guardian (healthy relationship - Abby).

Eddie is in the same dangerous line of work and they have each other's backs. This happens right off the bat too.(dangerous job - Ali).

The Lawsuit era and The Dispatch era - both where they "betray" each other but manage to work through it (betrayal/lie - Taylor).

Eddie doesn't pressure Buck to talk about his temporary death until Buck's ready and is more focused about him living than in his death (death doula - Natalia).

Eddie who has different interests than Buck (poker, basketball and UFC/MMA) but also manages to show interest and actively takes part in whatever Buck comes up with; he suggests their outfit for the themed party AND ends up staying there for Buck even when others leave (different hobbies & showing interest/taking part - Tommy).

Absolutely fascinating when you start noticing that Buck's relationships keep failing for one reason or another and then we have him and Eddie who face the same sort of situations but they still come out of it stronger together.

It's clear that there's a reason Buck is able to overcome anything when it comes to Eddie (that conversation with Maddie about being there for each other even at their worst 👀) and we've already established that everything Eddie looks for in a partner is already something he has found in Buck. So really, all that's left is for them to realize that hey, the one I'm looking for is right in front of me! 🤷🏽

And yes, it's been said to death (hah) but you don't find it son you make it. And Buck and Eddie have already made it.

[nellasbookplanet]

Mentioning Tusk Love and the potential of other independent stories set in Exandria reminded me of an old discord conversation about how they could Fix the courting of the crick for publishing (seeing as it's canonically a Bad Book due to being super dry and also racist towards drow) without breaking canon:

Rename it 'The Courting of the Kryn - a Reimagining of the Classic Story, by Jester Lavorre'

Present it as an in-universe fanfic-ish rewrite. There's a foreword where 'Jester' elaborates on the inaccuracies of the original, the impact the story had on her, and the importance of Dynasty-Empire relations. There's an acknowledgement section where she thanks Caleb and Beau as 'consultants on Empire culture', as well as an unnamed/under fake name/clearly Essek as an 'expert on the Luxon, dunamancy and Dynasty culture'. All his information on spy networks is eerily accurate and has his former co-workers scrambling. (He makes her keep all the dry historical accounts, but now it's accurate (with added dick-related puns)). She mentions that she reached out to the Bright Queen who reluctantly (after 5 messages in a row) gave some pointers. In her frantic research she possibly made some breakthroughs on the nature on the Luxon that has Essek reeling (there's a 'further reading' section where she lists the academic paper he wrote building on her discoveries and an entire list of the sources her consultants used).

For extra fun and meta-ness, include footnotes where she comments on things she changed/removed from the original and why, how various scenes may have been inspired by a real life couple or events, etc. Some of the footnotes are written by her consultants. Caleb and Essek get into arguments on dunamancy theory which is actually thinly veiled flirting. There's anatomically accurate drow sex (it's unclear whether the consultant was Essek or Caleb or possibly a certain brother, who was also consulted on Dynasty military practices).