#insert worst person you know just made a great point meme

[maxedes]

Marko saying it’s supposed to be under the drivers and not in the Media and saying that the TPs should stay out 💀 did not as anything negative about George only that you are supposed to stay with the truth

This went indirectly against Max and Horner… 👀

racist grandpa thinking five steps ahead & considering who he wants on his team when max pulls a nico hahahaha.

but yeah he seemed pretty tame in comparison. only the truth part seemed like a subtle dig against george since max has been accusing him of being a liar.

[clairedsfield]

up here spoilers / thoughts

starplus is the worst site because it made me wait until three in the morning

let's start with something simple

both of them have last names (jimenez and arthur)

OKAY SO

I HATED MIGUEL'S JOB!

they for some reason did not sue miguel

i guess apart from being fired from his job, he quit at the same time (which is good because he realized that it wasn't for him, not because he didn't belong or because he couldn't do things right (who wants to be a banker in first place) but realized his own value (something his coworkers took advantage of in addition to being racist towards him)

i think that they (lindsay and miguel) still have many situations to resolve and to tell each other because their reconciliation was too fast for my liking

personally i can identify with miguel but at the same time with lindsay

those voices never really go away however we can work not to hear them so loud

i didn’t like how they handled the situation when this character told miguel that he had to defend himself from his racist colleagues like. you are a white man with nothing to lose — miguel simply did not have that luxury

AND THEN THEY (the writers) made HIM blame LINDSAY all of a sudden and it turned into something else entirely

and they never touched that topic again

mae did a great job as well as the actors who did the inside voices

they are all very talented

to be the first time that mae does this, did not feel like it was — really fooled me 

(this interview) about their lip syncing????? there is no need to worry because everything was very synchronized

i loved the actress who sang at the wedding — go listen to it

my favorite characters besides miguel and lindsay were renee, joan, marta and miguel's old co-worker

i would have liked to see more andréa burns tho

she was the voice of hope after all

REGARDING THE MUSIC AND MUSICALS

it's not that i didn't like them but they could have done something better (certainly the actors made you forget the details)

the melody was good but the lyrics not so much

but i do have my favorite songs (now that i know their context)

The Truth Is and Falling in Love also emilia suarez’ you don't belong >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

i really would have liked to see more of miguel because i felt that on some occasions they kind of forgot about him (i don't know if anyone else felt that?)

HIS SCENE WITH HIS DAD MADE ME CRY

carlos is too talented and he showed it here (we certainly know the things he is capable of — but he surprises you with each scene)

i do consider that lindsay and miguel do make a cute couple and that they deserve each other but they need to talk

the ending!!

i already imagined something like that when lindsay was talking to ted mcgooch

i don't know if that was something for a last scene of a season to simply give continuity to the plot, it seemed unnecessary to me

BI LINDSAY AND BI MIGUEL

i am always right

ALSO WHERE CAN I PLAY THIS 

/kidding but the graphics were great

ALSO i liked the work of the directors

the colors

i would have liked to see more of the streets of new york?? (since i'm not from there and i've never been there) because they showed more of the place where lindsay lived, her room, miguel's house, miguel's workplace, lindsay's workplace and the subway and some other places but they were always in a room

i think it was an attack on me when they said miguel cries watching notting hill

THIS IS JUST SO ME

ALSO

[INSERT ANY TEXT] this is the pointing mirror guy meme

(((((((did you notice how this same sleeveless shirt didn't want to collaborate in any scene when he got dressed?))))))) because i did

the foreshadowing

EDITED: i forgot to mention that i didn't like the time jumps :/

if anyone finds the hd episodes to download, please! tell me :)

8.5/10

i don't know if i forgot to mention something else but i'll add it later

and that’s all!

[yarrowleef]

insert “heartbreaking the worst person you know just made a great point” meme

[chibinekochan]

How to become a Demon Ruler 112

Part:   01 I 02  I 03  I 04 I 05  I 06 I 07 I 09 I 10 I 11

GN. Reader insert

taglist:  @ayesha95    ;  @nomnomcupcakesworld ;  @fex-phoenix   ; @depressed-bixch ;   @kitsune-oji   ;  @witch-o-memes

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

  Another morning comes. Unlike the previous days, I'm woken up by Barbatos. 

"Time to rise and shine young master. Due to yesterday's events, we have to squeeze in another lesson, so I have to wake you up earlier." He sounds cheerful, but his tone gives me shivers. 

  I did not think he was mad at me yesterday but this is my punishment for sure.

  With a groan, I sluggishly get out of bed. "Good morning Barbatos." I yawn. I'm too tired to fight back. "Is there time for my morning shower?" 

"Certainly, and there is time for breakfast as well." Barbatos smiles calmly. 

  With an uncertain feeling, I get ready. I really have to get back on his good side. 

  Much to my surprise, Barbatos has prepared breakfast in my room today. "Please sit down and eat with your best manners today's meals will be part of your lessons." He certainly thought this through. 

  I do as he says and use my full arsenal of polished manners. Barbatos corrects me from time to time, but not any different than in our usual lessons. 

 I hope he can see that I'm working extra hard today. 

 "Very well, now we will perform a short test of your knowledge." Barbatos presents me with a small stack of papers. 

 I wish I had prepared for this. The test covers everything I have learned in these past days. Luckily enough it's multiple choice. 

 Barbatos quickly glances over my finished papers. "You passed, though your score is far from perfect." 

I feel very depressed about this, mainly because he usually compliments me. Even when I'm far from perfect. 

 I look at Barbatos. "I know I made you upset, but please forgive me." 

He looks at me seemingly confused. "I'm not upset. I simply want to know where you stand in terms of regular demons." Then he stops himself for a moment, placing a hand on his chin. He thinks for a moment. "I'll take that back. I'm upset about yesterday, but not for the reason that you assume."

"And what reason is that?" I look at him, confused. 

"Well, I wanted to choose the outfit with you but now lord Diavolo has taken that experience from me." His face makes no motion. 

I blink a few times at him. "We can just choose an outfit together next time." There isn't any issue in my opinion. 

"I am well aware of that, but it won't be the outfit for your first party in the devil dom." He sighs, this must be a bigger deal than I thought. 

"In that case, we can buy the outfit for my next milestone together." This sounds like a good idea. 

"I will look forward to that, and you did a good job on the test." With this, Barbatos seems to be back to normal. This makes me feel instantly better. 

 Barbatos continues to give me another lesson on the devildom, focusing on its countless dangers. He isn't over yesterday after all. 

 After this, it's finally time for something much more enjoyable. 

 Our baking "lesson". 

 Barbatos leads me to the kitchen. It's very impressive and yet again I don't see a single person around. 

 I pull out a recipe book. "We should start with something simple since I'm not used to the kitchen here." 

"Just tell me what you need." Barbatos seems very excited. 

 I list the ingredients for simple chocolate cookies. 

 Barbatos has everything ready at lightning speed. 

 Then we measure everything. Barbatos is very good at this step. Much as I expected from him to be honest. 

 Barbatos then turns the mixer on and explains the oven to me. Other than its demonic nature, it's a pretty straightforward oven.

 While we wait for the cookies, I show Barbatos the rest of the book. "All of these are very interesting. I think cookies would be the easiest gift. We can easily math out a huge batch that will satisfy Beelzebub." He is very fascinated by every single item in the book. 

"Sounds good to me. Maybe we can bake two different recipes to give him a bit of variety, but I wonder if there is something that caught your eye?" It seems to be fairly easy to find some for Beel but I'm curious about what Barbatos wants. 

"The cakes interest me the most. There are many options that I would love to serve with tea." He already has some ideas, it seems. 

"That sounds great, but I meant for yourself." I gently correct him. 

"Serving you and the young lord cake with tea is one of my greatest joys." Barbatos has no concept of accepting treats. 

"Then how about a cake for all of us together?" This is a great compromise in my opinion. 

"That sounds lovely. How about this cake in that case?" Barbatos points to one of the cakes in the book. 

"Sounds great to me." I already look forward to it. 

 We end up making 3 different types of cookies, after running out of hazelnuts. We make chocolate chip cookies, hazelnut cookies, and basic cookies with different decorations. 

 I feel pretty proud of the end product. I could probably open a store with all of them. "I think with this amount I can give each of the brothers, you and Diavolo a few to try them." 

 I look at the huge amount with a sense of pride.

  "I'd be honored to get some of these as a present. Barbatos smiles. 

"How about eating a few now?" I eye the delicious-looking cookies. 

"Certainly, we want to make sure they are good after all," Barbatos smirks at me. 

I like this side of Barbatos. I take a cookie and hand it to Barbatos and then grab one for myself. I take a bite. The sweet flavor spreads in my mouth. 

"How is it?" With big curious eyes, I look at him.

"It's absolutely delightful." A big smile spreads across his face.

I'm very happy about this. 

"But now I regret that I never asked you what your favorite cookies are." He sighs with regret. 

"Oh, that would be the chocolate chip cookies. They are simple but there's nothing above them for me." It's the very cookie we have just eaten. 

"No wonder it tastes so great. I will make sure to always remember that." Barbatos smiles at me gently. 

This causes my cheeks to grow hot. "I'm just glad you enjoy them."

"Should we start with the cake now?" Barbatos must really look forward to the cake. 

I smile at his enthusiasm. It's very nice to see a completely new side of Barbatos. Baking with him feels very casual. 

"Yes, first we need to prepare the biscuit dough and bake it." We both start to get to work. "It's funny since we have never done this before, but we are a great team." 

Barbatos nods. "You are right. We should do this again soon." He seems to enjoy this just as much as I do. 

"You are right, next time we need to bake some demon delights." I already look forward to that. 

"I have this great recipe that you will love. We should make that." He smiles at me naturally. He seems so different from his usual professional self. I would love to see much more of this side of him. 

"That sounds great. Maybe we can cook together too." I always enjoy his food but cooking together sounds fun. 

"That would be very lovely." He gently looks at me with a light smile on his face. Then suddenly he seems to remember his standing. "I mean that would be very inappropriate."

I feel a strong tug on my heart. "I need to learn about demon cuisine too." I try to convince him. 

He smiles and shakes his head. "Very nice try, but I can not let that slide."

I sigh disappointedly. "But what if I don't know the dish and its ingredients and someone wants to poison me?" I try something else. 

Barbatos raises his eyebrows. "You should never eat anything that I haven't given you."

"I just really enjoy doing things like this with you." In desperation, I try the honest approach. 

Barbatos blinks a few times. I guess I surprised him again. "I can't win here can I?"  Then he chuckles softly. "Alright, but only something easy and fun to cook." He shakes his head with a smile. 

I grin at my victory. "Sounds fair to me." 

He once again shakes his head and then turns to whip some cream. 

Once the cake is made, we decorate it. It looks very good. I sent a picture to Mammon, to make him jealous. It works. 

With great pride, Barbatos and I look at our creation."It's so pretty, it's almost a shame to eat it." 

"Indeed, but it's cake time so we will." Barbatos looks with great joy at the cake. 

I can only nod to that. 

I put a few cookies on a plate for Diavolo. 

Barbatos prepares everything else. I have seen him preparing the table many times already, but it's still very impressive.

We both wait for Diavolo to arrive. 

"It's so great to see. The worst part of my punishment was not being able to see you." Diavolo looks unusually gloomy. 

"That wasn't part of your punishment, the young master simply needed to work harder today." Barbatos calmly fills his cup with tea. 

"We were very busy. We made today's cake together and the cookies on your plate too." I try to cheer him up. 

"Oh, they look great. I'm so glad I finally get to try my siblings’ baking talents." Diavolos mood shifts in an instance. He gives me a big smile when he takes a cookie and bites into it with great delight. 

"I baked them with Barbatos, but I hope you will enjoy them." I can't take all the credit by myself. 

"I didn't do much." Barbatos doesn't seem to want the credit at all. In all honesty, he did most of the work. 

"They are great, the best I ever had." Diavolo doesn't seem to care either way. 

"I think that is giving them too much credit." My cheeks are once again hot. 

"Don't sell yourself short." Barbatos smiles at me while filling my cup up. 

"With all this praise I might become the first demon ruler with their own bakery." I giggle lightly. 

"Haha, I'd love to see that." Diavolo gives me a huge laugh. "Oh with all of this fun I almost forgot. We had to move the party to tomorrow. I know it's a big hassle. It just couldn't be helped." Diavolo drops this big news like it's nothing at all. 

I almost drop my cup. "TOMORROW?! I'm not ready whatsoever!" 

Barbatos raises an eyebrow. "Has that anything to do with the demon brothers?" 

"It's mainly because of Lucifer and then the new school year will start sooner than we planned to." Diavolo keeps on calmly drinking his tea. 

"This is very troublesome. I will have to go right away to make sure that everything will go smoothly." Barbatos sighs. 

"I can't believe it. How will I ever survive at this rate?" I feel so lost right now. 

"You will be fine. After all, I will be there to support you." Diavolo is not worried whatsoever. 

"I will support you as well and have no doubt that you will shine tomorrow. Due to this sudden change, I have to entrust today's dance lesson to Diavolo, as much as I regret it." Barbatos mumbles the last part.

"Does that mean my duties will be shorter today?" Diavolo shines as he asks this question. 

"No." Barbatos coldly refuses his request without another word. 

Diavolo shrugs. "Then I will just do my best to be fast today."

"You should strive for that every day." Barbatos looks at Diavolo with narrowed eyes. "Anyway, you don't need to worry at all about tomorrow." Barbatos once again encourages me with a gentle smile. 

I can only hope that he is right. 

"He is right. There is no way the demon brothers won't love you." To answer my thoughts, Diavolo speaks up. 

"Exactly, even I personally would be happy enough with them being cordial towards you." Barbatos shakes his head. 

I start to chuckle. "That sounds like you are jealous."

Barbatos seems surprised and coughs a little bit. 

Wait does that mean he is jealous? Well, he might just be overprotective. 

Then Barbatos seems to remember that he has to be somewhere. "I should get going." 

"Yes, please don't worry about us." Diavolo gives Barbatos a kind smile. Barbatos looks critical at Diavolo. 

"I will keep him in line." I can imagine what goes through his head. 

Barbatos lights up instantly. "I will leave him in your capable hands." 

Diavolo shakes his head. "I can take care of myself you know."

Barbatos doesn't acknowledge Diavolo and leaves. He couldn't even finish his cake. 

"Of course you can, I think he just likes teasing you." At least something like that. 

"Maybe but he might be right too." Diavolo sighs. "I can see why my father adopted you. He probably wanted to motivate me."

"I'm not sure how a simple human could motivate you, but I'm glad if I have that effect on you. Honestly after seeing what it's really like I don't think I even want to become the demon ruler." I never wanted this in the first place. 

"Not any human of course, but you certainly do. Ever since you came here I feel more motivated to push my big plan forward. The union between all of the realms. Ever since meeting you, my plan seems more attainable than ever." He looks at me with full sincerity.

 He is usually so goofy that it's a completely different feeling from usual. 

"It's a great vision, and I think if anyone can do it's you, and if I can support you in any kind of way I will," I say this with my full heart behind it. 

"Thank you, you don't know how much these words mean to me…" Diavolo stops himself. "Never mind, we should clean this up and finish today's work." 

I'm sure he wanted to say or ask something important just now but stopped himself. I wonder what he was about to tell me, but I can't bring myself to ask. 

I only nod and quickly put everything back onto the cart and into the kitchen. Putting everything away, only leaving a cup and the rest of the cake for Barbatos.

  Then I read a bit while Diavolo finishes his work.

  Diavolo seems very exhausted once he is done. Lucky for him, I saw this coming and prepared him some coffee. "You worked very hard today, drink this to recharge."

"How thoughtful of you, at this rate you might steal Barbatos' job." He seems very happy about my compliment and the coffee. 

I giggle. "Nobody can do that."

"You are right." He smiles gently. "I'd also feel strange if you start calling me my lord." He seems to find this thought very amusing. 

"You are right, that would be strange." With that, we go to the dance hall. 

Diavolo fumbles with the record player and then a slow waltz starts playing. 

"Do you still remember the steps?" Diavolo seems slightly concerned. 

"Yeah, but I might still step on your feet." I'm unsure of my skills, to say the least. 

"Just take it slow and just focus on me." Diavolo gets into the right pose.

  I'm used to it, but Diavolo is taller than Barbatos and differently built so it's a completely new experience to dance with him. 

Diavolo starts to move slowly, and I can easily follow his lead. It feels very natural. 

It doesn't feel like practice somehow but like we even when I still make sure not to step on him. 

He smiles at me. "We should dance more freely if we can in the future."

"You mean like at a normal party or a club?" I'm not sure what he means. 

"The kind of party we have tomorrow is normal for me but I suppose. I'd like to experience a regular party in your world too." Diavolo looks deep into my eyes. 

"That sounds like fun. Have you ever been to a devildom disco?" Our conversation just naturally flows away from tomorrow. 

"I have, but I could never mingle. There are always exceptions and usually, people are scared of me." Diavolo looks just a bit sad. 

"We should throw a casual party then. With only our friends. I mean I don't have many in the devildom yet but I'm sure it will be fun." I smile at the idea. 

"That sounds wonderful." Diavolo has a strange smile on his face. 

His schedule might not allow something like that. 

"We can always just have fun together too. Just dancing like this is also very nice." I try to cheer him up. 

"Actually, I want to ask you before tomorrow… Do you like the devildom?" It sounds like this question was weighing heavy in his heart. At least his eyes tell me so. 

"Of course. I have only seen very little of it, but I love what I have seen so far." To me, it's not even a question, to be honest. 

Diavolo seems honestly deeply relieved. "I'm glad." He seems to be holding me a bit closer now. There seems more to his words. Something he isn't saying right now.

  I suppose he will tell me soon enough. I fully trust Diavolo. Strangely, I feel like this already. It's not even a week since I know him and yet here I am barely able to imagine my time before I came here.

  "What is on your mind?" Diavolo notices my absentminded thoughts. 

"Sorry, I was just thinking how funny it is that I feel so at ease here even after such a short amount of time." I feel embarrassed about spacing out. 

"I see, that is a great thing. You adapted so quickly, it's amazing. You truly are amazing all around." Diavolo has such a kind expression on his face. 

"I'm just normal. I think it's all thanks to you and Barbatos." I can't think of anything special that I have done. 

"Well, I gladly take the credit if you want to. I think we should stop for today. Tomorrow will be a long day for you." He seems sad to stop. 

I feel the same way. As soon as he lets me go, I feel like a great deal of warmth leaves with him. 

"You are right. I will just fix something to eat for myself. Do you want something too?" I don't feel like heading to bed without dinner. 

"That's such a sweet offer but dinner is already prepared in our rooms tonight. Such a shame really." Diavolo seems to have some regrets about this. 

"Oh I see, have a pleasant night Diavolo." I don't manage to fully hide my disappointment.

"Yes, have sweet dreams." There seems to be a flicker of sadness in his eyes too.

  We both don't say anything else and go our separate ways. 

Dinner feels so lonely tonight that I can't fully enjoy it.

  I feel utterly unmotivated tonight and just fall on my bed after changing into my Pajamas. 

[hiddengiggles]

"Worst" asks: 1, 2, 16, and 19 😊

1. Where is your worst spot?

It really depends on the day? Top two contenders are my feet and my thighs on this really specific back part. Each makes me wish for a swift demise at different times 😅

2. What’s the worst tickling you’ve ever endured? What made it the worst?

I wish I could pinpoint a single time but holy shit @alphatickl has me screaming and begging regularly enough that they sometimes blend together in a haze of “ohfuckohfuckohfUCK THAT TICKLES”. I can say the situation usually involves two spots being tickled simultaneously that I can’t handle, him teasing me verbally, and me already on the brink of cumming so I’m crazy sensitive, all at once ☠️ He’s a menace 😤😤😤

16. Worst “NOT MY ________ [insert spot here]!!!” experience?

Oh jeez 😬 Let me paint a picture for you:

Me, an innocent person who has never done anything wrong ever, bound on the bed, spread eagle with cuffs on each wrist and ankle, face down.

My boyfriend, the meanest most efficient tickler with a terrible evil smile and wiggling fingers.

At this point, all of my nerves are lit up and very very aware of the threat posed. I’m jumpy and giggly and squirming, and this man decides “This is a great time to use my nails for evil!” He settles himself on top of me and claws all too gently at that spot on my thighs and I s c r e a m into my pillow. I can’t bounce him off, can’t roll over, can’t pull my thighs together, I just cackle and shriek and beg and eventually tear up and WHEEZE out a cry for mercy. I’m just about to pull out a safeword, but he knows my limits pretty well and stops. He’a wonderful at making sure I’m taken care of so I continue to enjoy it, and he helped me recover, but wow it took me a WHILE to come down from that huge panic.

19. A time you actually said “you’re the WORST” to someone after they tickled you.

BOLD of you to presume I haven’t said that to every partner after getting my ass handed go me 😂

Find more asks from the “Tickle Worsts” ask meme here

[defilerwyrm]

For the ask meme: burning bright, anything about the parts at the table with the Nein. You write their banter so well!

FIC SPOILERS BELOW!

Burning Bright on AO3

The entire dinner scene hit me like a bolt of lightning while I was working on this fic. It started with Beau’s outburst, and then Veth’s willful denial and subsequent fit, and I built the two scenes around that.

Diving into particulars….

“Uhm,” he said, intelligently, but quickly recovered and flashed his friends a smile. “It is most impressive. Certainly a step up from a tiny hut.”

A direct reference to the name of the spell. Originally it was Leomund’s tiny hut. I have no clue why in 5e Wizards decided to 86 the attribution names on so many spells like Otiluke’s resilient sphere and Tasha’s hideous laughter. Things like that always made me curious about the (what I assume were) PCs the spells were named after. I had thought maybe it was because the characters who diegetically invented them were specific to one setting, but in that case I don’t know why Bigby’s hand is still Bigby’s but Evard’s black tentacles are no longer Evard’s. I don’t like it. As an aside, Widowgast’s Nascent Nein-Sided Tower is, mechanically speaking, Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion. Anyway. Moving on!

It was delectable that Caleb wanted to impress him.

This boy hungry and not just for soup

Flustered, Essek tried to fend them off, but it was Caleb that did him in. It was always Caleb. The human took a large roll from his own plate, broke it in half, and offered one of these parts to Essek, who tried his best not to choke.

“You need to keep your strength up, ja?” Caleb implored him quietly.

The steady hand that accepted was a point of pride because it very much wanted to quake. The Kryn weren’t bread people, but...did he have any idea what this gesture would mean in Rosohna? Any inkling at all?

This is another one of those places where I delight in playing to cultural differences. What I’d had in mind for what that gesture—breaking food into two pieces and offering half to someone—WOULD mean in Rosohna was a bit nebulous, as I like to keep the reader guessing a bit and let their imagination fill in the blanks; but my rough idea was that it’s a courting gesture that signifies “I can and will provide for you, even if it means less for me.” An expression of selfless caregiving and an offer of partnership. Not wholly unlike a bird bringing food to a prospective mate.

And actually it’s a little bit funny coming from Caleb, who has fuck-all to his name but his name, when Essek is a rich bitch who answers directly to the Bright Queen.

Not that he was about to say it out loud, but he was a quick convert to this whole bread thing. To say that it won him over would be an understatement. That seemed to be a recurring theme here.

I imagine if I’d grown up never really eating bread and was introduced to it in adulthood I’d be like “Where have you BEEN all my life?!” But also: the bread is friendship, the bread is the Mighty Nein, the bread is communion in the spirit of sharing rather than politics and appearances and power plays—things he thought he was fine without until they were foisted upon him.

Somewhere in the course of the multiple conversations going on at one time, Jester got an Idea, as she was prone to doing. He became increasingly aware of her talking about kissing, of all things, and this culminated in her shouting above the din, cheeks flushed purple though he hadn’t seen her touch any wine: “I have an idea you guys! Why don’t we all go around and say how many people we’ve kissed?”

Jester is the most wonderfully convenient deus ex machina if you ever need to insert an awkward or embarrassing conversation among the Mighty Nein, because this is exactly the sort of shit she would do.

Jester leaped up and slammed her hands onto the table. “Caduceus you’ve never been kissed?! That’s so sad!”

The firbolg was unfazed. He merely shrugged and said, “It hasn’t come up and I haven’t gone looking. Not something I’ve ever thought about, really.”

Jester’s tail lashed back and forth behind her like an overstimulated cat. “Do you want me to kiss you?”

Fjord went a bit wild-eyed at this. Caduceus smiled gently and said, “No thank you.”

Three things about this part:

1) Jester’s tail doesn’t get NEARLY enough mention in fic! If I’m playing (or writing) a character with a tail you can be damn sure you’re gonna know what it’s doing! Makes me wanna play a tabaxi tbqh.

2) Cad’s “No thank you” is the sum total of his sexuality, lol. Jester was raised in a pretty highly sexualized setting, didn’t really get out much before she fled Nicodranas, and can be pretty naïve, so she doesn’t really get the whole aroace thing; but it never crosses Cad’s mind that this would be “abnormal“ or ”sad” in any way—it causes him no distress, as it shouldn’t. This is yet another “Same planet, different worlds” moment.

3) Fjord is physically restraining himself from yelling “JESTER WHAT THE FUCK” lmao

Veth kept picking at it. “So you’re um. You know. Into the fellas?”

Beau snorted. “I could’a told you that months ago.”

“Yeah you could’a!” Veth pouted with a self-conscious curl to her shoulders.

I saw a comment on Tiktok that said Veth was being borderline homophobic, but that wasn’t my intent! It’s just that she inherited a certain blind spot for male queerness from her player, and as hard as she’d been trying to encourage Caleb to hook back up with his female ex, it never occurred to her that he had a male ex, too—and given that they’ve been so close for so long, she’s feeling pretty self-conscious about the fact that she never figured out that Caleb is bisexual in all that time, as well as kind of upset that no one—Caleb especially—told her. She’s having a moment of “Why didn’t I know this? Did you think it was going to change things between us? Did I make you feel unsafe?” And also a little bit of “Okay well, now I have to get him to hook up with TWO people AT ONCE because my boy deserves threesomes 😤”

Jester went goggle-eyed at him. “You’ve only been with one person?” she exclaimed. “But you’re like a hundred years old! And very handsome. I would have thought you’d get like, all the ladies.”

Ladies. Right.

Veth might not be the only one with a certain blind spot.

Beau gave her a funny look, snorting. “I dunno, he seems like the kinda guy who turns down those offers left and right.”

..…But Beau’s got his number, for more than one reason. She’s got super gaydar, for one, and has him pegged as the type who’s very choosy about his partners (also mind you, this was before demi!Essek was canonized by WoG, so I was still rolling with my hc that Essek got around when he felt like it).

The uproar was instantaneous. Everyone—almost everyone—started talking or shouting at once. Beau’s voice rang out among the din with, “HOLY SHIT ESSEK FUCKS.” Strangely pleased with himself, he downed the rest of his wine in one gulp and spent the next few minutes fending off increasingly prying, personal questions until the Nein grew bored with his lack of answers and someone changed the subject.

There it is, the line that spawned two entire scenes!

He was not a war mage, but he was experienced and wily, and he was damned good at what he did, and as long as there was breath left in his body, the Mighty Nein would not fall here.

Joke’s on me, motherfucker literally has the War Caster feat -_-

But like in my defense, that’s just what it’s called in the book. The feat just means that you have either the training or experience to cast well during a fight, which I see as not necessarily the same thing as a war mage, which was my way of saying an arcane caster who is a soldier.

Veth stared at her blankly as if willing herself not to understand. “Caleb? With who?”

She breathed steadily. “...Essek. Caleb and Essek.”

Beside her, Jester squealed and brought her fists to her face.

Veth was less enthused. “WHAT.”

Beau’s mental commentary here is dead on. Veth still doesn’t really trust Essek at this point and has been pretty vocal about that…despite being the one to declare him part of the Mighty Nein? Eh, she’s allowed to have complicated feelings on the guy, all things considered. But I find it kind of comical and very Veth (and very Sam) for her to be all full of zest for trying to get Caleb back together with the frigging Volstrucker who is actively working for his abuser and worst enemy but balk at him hooking up with Essek.

Jester “explained” in a delighted yell: “Caleb and Essek are gonna fuuuuuuck!”

I don’t know, is this too unsubtle to call foreshadowing? The line flowed naturally in the dialogue, but it’s also letting the reader know exactly what they’re in for next, lol.

“...He’s going to break that little elf twink, you know,” Veth said, sounding distant. Seemed she was having some difficulty processing. Not too surprising, considering how adamant she was about wanting their wizard to hook back up with his old flame, the fucking Volstrucker. “We’ve all seen his dick.”

This was 100% taken from Sam’s little throwaway line “It’s above-average” but it turned out to serve two purposes other than reminding the reader that all of these people have seen Caleb naked:

1) It’s yet another thing Veth thinks she understands about him but doesn’t. Caleb’s a top like Dalmatians are purple and if you disagree then I respect your right to be incorrect ;)

2) That said, it is, in fact, foreshadowing for the sequel, in which Essek experiences a great deal of frustration. (I haven’t touched the damn thing in weeks, feels like; I’ve been too busy with work, being exhausted from work, and being in a tizzy about my upcoming surgery.)

Fjord blurted out, “I’ll join you.”

Poor Fjord has had such an uncomfortable night!

Hoo boy that was a lot. Thanks for the ask, this was really fun!! And sorry it took so long; I work Saturday nights and things got really busy for a bit there.

[doshmanziari]

Architectural Criticism in 2021/2022 || Part 1.5

Before writing a fuller continuation of my previous essay on architectural criticism, I’m inserting a mini-essay that focuses on a particular piece of criticism. Let me be clear: I don’t see Kate Wagner, the person behind @mcmansionhell, as an enemy; I’m just using one of her articles as an example because I had, in my essay, already linked two articles of hers (more accurately, one article and an image from another), and I’d rather elaborate on what I mean when I write “...a vapid buildup to a politically convenient takeaway” than bring in an entirely different item. Wagner, in my view, represents a sort of destabilizing criticism that takes pleasure in tackling “dry” subject matter with breathless, Meme-heavy sarcasm. I find the tone off-putting, but I appreciate it as one attempt to invigorate and broaden the audiences of architectural appraisal. My issue is that by now the joke has overestimated its capacity for judgmental clarity. Really anything can be made fun of if you’re determined enough, and the more of an unquestioning audience you have the easier it is to believe everything you say is true or coherent.

The image was from this 2018 Vox article: “Betsy DeVos’ summer home deserves a special place in McMansion Hell” (a title likely devised by the editor; given the other residences Wagner has lambasted, I would be surprised if she truly believes this is among the worst). My observations won’t make sense unless anyone who is reading this reads her article as well, so please do that if you’d like to follow along. It should take only a couple of minutes.

What I’d first draw readers’ attention to is that Wagner spends the first four paragraphs on the United States’ beyond-vast inequality of wealth. Two of these paragraphs are the article’s largest, and the article is twelve-paragraphs-long, meaning that 1/3 of it is devoted to establishing a socio-economic context -- at least, that is the pretense. Once Wagner writes “...getting paid to make fun of DeVos’s tacky seaside decor is one of few ways to both feed myself and make myself feel better”, it is clear that her personal intent is a kind of vengeful mocking, and that her intent for readers is to prime them to associatively, knee-jerkingly despise anything which could come next with flat-affect “lmao”s. It’s hardly irrelevant to mention economic realities when examining luxury items (and what else is a mansion?), but Wagner’s subsequent analysis is not really architectural or even artistic: it is rather about looking at several photographs of a building, knowing who lives there and hating that person (and also imagining that they were responsible for all design decisions), and then mocking this-and-that in whatever ways one can devise. These grievances are understandable, but understandable grievances do not automatically lead to perceptive criticism.

Please look (perhaps again) at the first image. Note that only four, maybe, of the fourteen details Wagner chooses to focus on -- “no wry comment needed”, “these look like playdoh stamps”, “when you love consistency”, and “oh my god is this a shutter” -- approach anything vaguely resembling coherent criticism; and the other four images fare even worse (with the exception of the highlighting of an apparently absurd interior balcony). The rest are inane attempts at saying anything at all. Writing “hell portal” by an upper porch area may be funny for a moment, but what does it actually express? Well, nothing, except the author’s own irritation which will find whatever it can to announce its contemptuous sarcasm. Wagner’s captions will land only to the degree that the reader is humorously sympathetic.

The aforementioned remarks, excepting the one about the embedded chubby Tuscan columns’ Play-Doh-likeness, suggest that the worst thing a building can do is be formally heterogeneous. The implicative corollary here is that good architecture is eminently justifiable in all of its parts -- consistent, unified, rational. This is as fine a personal belief as anything else, but when it is wielded as dogma against architecture which has no interest in being a Petit Trianon it can only reveal its intellectual self-limitations. Wagner writes that “there is a difference between architectural complexity and a mess”, yet what that difference may be is hand-waved away. We just have to believe that thirteen different windows styles is too much. What’s the threshold? Does it depend on the size of the building? The types of styles used? Who knows.

Now of course bad architecture exists, and sometimes the failure indeed points to deficient editorial acumen; for architecture, like any other art, is as much about what’s included as what’s excluded. But in saying so little about the shingle style itself, Wagner seems to have given no thought to readers concluding that all shingle style houses are freakish -- more specifically, concluding that this freakishness is a damning transgression, and that no self-respecting, punching-up class-warrior would ever be caught dead sincerely enjoying their geometric, “exquisite corpse” escapades. In fact, the freakish tendencies of shingle style houses are just what make them such great fun to see, visit, or reside in. Wagner’s article, as far as I can tell, omits this possibility. When she writes, “Betsy likely went with this style because it is very popular in New England and in coastal enclaves of the rich and famous in general”, one is being pushed to presume that the only probable reason the shingle style exists or could be preferred over another style is to signal élite solidarity.

The photograph right above is of Kragsyde, a Massachusetts shingle style mansion, designed by the US-Northeast-oriented firm of Peabody & Stearns, completed in the 1880s. It was demolished almost a century ago, but the few exterior images of it which remain are, I think, fascinating -- maybe most of all for its enormous archway, possibly a porte-cochère, which has a thin, overextending keystone bizarrely driven into the top like a nail puncturing a petrified rainbow. I bring the building up because Wagner gives us no reason to consider why Kragsyde may have been a genuine architectonic accomplishment and not merely an oversized farce of contiguous pretensions. To the layperson hot off of the Vox piece, there may be no artistic difference between it and DeVos’ place, except that perhaps Kragsyde has a more consistent fenestrative application (would that make it better? if so, why?).

I appreciate that only so much can be said when you’re limited to less than a thousand words, especially when the issue is “complicated” (as the byline for Vox’s First-person series advertises). But the problem I keep coming back to is how DeVos’ mansion is treated as a stand-in for DeVos herself. This makes any architectural critique, no matter how pressed it is for size, flimsily presentist: its durability starts and ends with how alive the architecture’s resident(s) and political presence are. On some emotional level, this is pretty sensible: if we despise monarchical institution, we can find a sort of loophole to enjoying Versailles palace on the basis of it no longer being the residence of royalty. Our awe over its decadence and scope is intersectionally “admissible” on the basis of its having become a UNESCO World Heritage site. Similarly, one can imagine DeVos’ mansion being appreciated in a hundred years (should it still exist then) because the passage of time will have rendered DeVos’ person a historical fact, and perhaps more separable, and then tolerable, in that regard -- even if the building remains private.

But if architecture is, as a craft, critically whittled down to nothing more or less than inorganic expressions of social disparities, with every aesthetic decision a reflection of politically explicable taste, then we must assume that a great deal of the world’s most remarkable architecture is equally ridiculous and despicable, since so much of it was born out of great privilege and required specialized resources. I doubt Wagner actually believes this, because it would betray the entire premise of her McMansion Hell project, which is to demonstrate how so many modern day mansions are deeply unpleasant mounds of visual illiteracy, and cannot hold even a stump of a candle to the luminously learned and eclectic talents of prior great architects such as Mackintosh, Norman Shaw, Lutyens, or Ledoux. So what’s the takeaway here? As far as I can tell, it’s simply that if you hate Betsy DeVos, and if you care about class, you should hate her house too. And I do not think that that is architectural criticism.

[eulangelo]

OP of the Vaspider post being death2america is just [Insert the "The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point" meme]

u know uve hit rock bottom when death/2/america calls u out

[supernatural-reacts]

Season 14 episode 8

- this episode is called “Byzantium” and all I know about it is Jack dies. Not looking forward to it :(

- why is Lily Sunder in the recap

- “what happens next. For someone like me.” “I don’t know.” “Then it’s gonna be an adventure.” EXCUSE ME WHILE I SOB

- “not fair? I know that. But he needs you.” THE WAY CAS CAN ACTUALLY GET DEAN TO LISTEN PAST HIS GRIEF

- AAAAAAAAA JACKK 😭

- POOR SAM

- this is fucking heartbreaking

- oh yeah Mary :/

- SAM WHAT ARE YOU DOING

- he really said “aight Imma head out” and then started chopping trees down huh

- aAaaAaAAaAa

- Dean stop encouraging everyone to use your unhealthy coping mechanisms

- what is this montage

- whose dream is this? Jack’s?

- OH DAMN IS THE EMPTY CHASING HIM IN HEAVEN

- AJSJSKAKD LILY?! HI I GUESS?

- “it’s not his entire soul” *cue that one song that goes oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no no no* (I know a little bit of the plot of this season)

- Jack what are you doing

- OH SHIT HI KELLY

- am I the only one who finds it a little bit weird that Kelly got into heaven? The angels tried to kill her a whole bunch

- on that note how is Jack in heaven? The angels hated him too

- Lily’s motivations make sense

- oh no they can’t afford more angels dying

- every time Naomi is on screen I have a violent physical reaction I fucking hate her

- oh it’s called the Shadow not the Empty?

- NAOMI FUCK OFF OH MY GOD

- “you know I’m right Castiel” ITS THE GASLIGHTING FOR ME

- who are they summoning? Anubis or Osiris?

- yep Anubis

- “God doesn’t decide. I don’t decide. You do.” That’s... interesting

- I feel kind of bad for Lily

- AWWW CAS AND KELLY REUNION I LOVE THEM

- OH NO THE EMPTY FOUND HIM

- “the pain of losing a kid? Don’t do this to us.” yeah

- damnnn this actress playing the shadow right now is really good and creepy

- “take me.” CAS NO FUCK

- WAIT THE DEAL HAPPENS NOW?? THEEE DEAL HAPPENS NOW?

- “when you finally give yourself permission to be happy. And let the sun shine on your face. That’s when I’ll come.” GODDDD IT IS THEE DEAL JESUS FUCKING CHRISTTT

- “they don’t need to know what happened here. What I did. I’m at peace with my choice, I don’t want them to worry.” IM ABOUT TO SMASH MY HEAD INTO A WALL

- IM EATING FUCKING GLASS I CANT BELIEVE THE DEAL HAPPENED SO SOON

- YAY JACK IS ALIVE

- oh damn Lilly is dead

- YAYYYY SHE GETS TO SEE HER DAUGHTER

- Naomi: “you saved us. I think that deserves a reward don’t you? Like the archangel Michael’s location?” Me: [insert that meme that’s like “Heartbreaking: the worst person you know just made a great point”]

this drives me insane because like. He looks so happy. But you know he’s not really happy because he can’t let himself be. Crying.

- awww they’re a family 🥺

[firelxdykatara]

Jenny Nicholson posted a 2 1/2-hour Vampire Diaries overview on YouTube today and you were the first person I thought of. I watched the entire thing despite only having seen about two episodes five years ago, so you'd probably get a lot more out of it than I would (although spoiler alert she was positive about the series finale, so... proceed with caution??)!

I just finished watching it, actually!

It’s funny, because I’ve been like... deep-diving into the depths of youtube and watching a lot of Jenny Nicholson videos (and also SarahZ and that ‘when posting goes wrong’ dude and hbomberguy, sidenote but i now know much more about the johnlock conspiracy and destielgate and various tumblr controversies and like msscribe shit than i ever needed to lmfao), but I took a break today to do some writing and then a friend of mine was like OH JENNY NICHOLSON’S TVD VIDEO IS UP, and I was like ‘her what???’

Anyway, needless to say I rushed right over to watch it. (I fucking screamed about like, the China Beach shit and also that weird af point-and-click game??? that was so fucking weird lmfao) I will say that while there’s a lot I disagreed with, I do have to give her some latitude because from the sound of things she watched the show almost entirely divorced from the fandom (insert ‘god i wish that were me’ meme here) and had a very surface-level reading that, I think, comes from watching it all at once and not getting embroiled in deeper meta analysis and just not caring that much about getting Deep into the show. Which I can understand, like if I hadn’t been watching tvd since fucking.... 2009 oh god I actually remember this because I started watching around when episode 5 of the first season was airing... I probably would be a lot more casual about how I read the show.

As it is, I’m an Elena stan first, last, and forever, so....yeah I don’t agree with her on everything. But I did agree in a lot of broad strokes, and I think even her ‘Elena’ section had some points to make, she just came to somewhat different conclusions than me, and part of that probably comes from my attachment to Elena and how much of that whole Situation that I saw through that lens. (And also I think she skates right around ‘Elena is a depressed and suicidal teenage girl’ but never quite arrives at that particular point and misses some of the finer points of her overall character arc.)

We did agree on some major things (like season 5 being objectively The Worst), but then she had to say things like ‘Stefan is the guy you would actually date’ (and also ‘it’s better than buffy’ which, like, careful jenny, them’s fightin words), and that was the point where I went ‘hmmmmm someone didn’t actually take time to think through his relationship to Elena and put a lot of the not-so-great points together’, which again I attributed to missing the fandom (and therefore the fandom infighting, so again I have to say I somewhat envy her experience) and not really caring to dive deeply into the source material. Which I can respect! But as someone who spent four years obsessed with the show, and another two angry at it but clinging for the sake of one (1) character, finally freed when she left (and so I do have to admit that Jenny’s actually seen more of the show than me, since I never watched seasons 7 or 8 [except the finale] and don’t intend to ever), I can’t help but be like ‘WELL ACTUALLY -insert list of things she’s wrong about-’.

And then there were things that I couldn’t technically disagree with, like her opinions on Jeremy, but I was also like ‘you don’t have all the facts, I love him’ so I was just that angry ‘I GUESS’ meme for a few sections.

Then again, pointing out that Caroline was metaphorically gay and being tortured by her gay dad who was metaphorically homophobic made me absolutely lose my shit laughing, so she also had some very good points, and watching the video was well worth the time.

I did have to laugh at the very end when she was like ‘I stan Julie Plec’ bc that, more than anything else, made it eminently obvious that she watched the show well after it was over and never engaged with the fandom in any meaningful sense. Which, again, I can respect, bc the fandom was batshit especially in those middle years, but Plec ran the show into the ground and I still haven’t forgiven her for it.

[maxedes]

so nico rosberg brought up sebs name for the audi seat (i am still not sure if that was serious) & sky germany actually asked binotto about it & i fear we have to insert heartbreaking: the worst person you know just made a great point meme

[itscookieoverlordtoyou]

40 Questions — Meme for Fic Writers

Don’t you sometimes see those ask games and wish you could just fkg do them all? On this sunny Saturday, we make our dreams reality lolol

1.  Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.

Short fic, I usually get a small scene I want written so I write around it, plus I love short stories with interesting punchline.

2.  Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

Probably, I don’t know them all ^^’

3.  Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?

Writing about stuff that disgust me I guess.

4.  How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

Like 5-6? I want to write about a restaurant but set in a world where people have powers I think the combo could be very funny. The main character has the power of insight, the plonge is a giant pool where you swim around cleaning. Backstories of characters with shitty and amazing powers and how they ended up here. Rival to lover character that has the power to see into the future.

5. Share one of your strengths.

Dialogues, subversion, and humor; classmates often said I have a touch to spin a sad story into something positive/happier.

6.  Share one of your weaknesses?

I get tired when I describe something for longer than 4 sentences.

7.  Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

“In what kind of trouble have we walked right into?”, I ask my companions as they’re idly fixing their attire. Together, we’ve face many perils and this mission ranks among one of the most dangerous. Yet, the others had been…how should I say it…professional! Rescuing kidnapped princesses, vanquishing terrifying monsters, quests to restore mythical artifacts, save nations from insidious plots. Oddly enough, “Does this dress make me look fat?”, is not the answer I’m looking for.

Ribbon in my hair is the first time I wrote about my knights, I first dreamt about them when I as 18, my boyfriend at the time called my idea stupid and my world building pointless so I only started writing about them when I was 21. Now I write about them a little bit every year :)

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

“Do you really want your last words to be complaints?”

“I die as I lived.”

“Will we become a fruit tree?”

“I don’t think so, it’s never been the case for my ancestors.”

“I’d love it if we could turn into a banana tree.”

“I’m not from the southern regions, plus I like apples more.”

“Just imagine, our fruits could have been banana flambée”

This death scene was a big finale to a story I wrote for a class in Uni, a story of war between clan of forest and volcano people, of the supposedly brutal death of a Goddess, of a mysterious apple tree whose fruit give vision of the past. I should revisit it.

9.  Which fic as been the hardest to write?

My analysis on D’Artagnan and the figure of the hero. Granted it’s an essay for school but I deeply loved it. I was too afraid to write or ask for help from the professor in charge of me (which made our relationship tense ^^’) but when I did, it was beautiful and I was very proud got 89% :D

10.  Which fic has been the easiest to write?

A play called Adelaide where an old couple reads their old fairytale book about a Prince on a quest to save a Princess. They bicker about the other misreading the story but we finally get to the part where the Prince tosses the princess apart to get a better view of the dragon of which he falls instantly in love. The book is actually their wedding album.

11.  Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?

It’s one of my passions, but it’s not something I think I could live on so I delegated it to my hobby.

12.  Is there an episode above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?

The wedding scene in Shrek 2, my mind was blown when I saw it in theaters and when I need inspiration to write, I rewatch it.

13.  What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Presentation is important. If trying to read you gives people headaches, they’ll stop. Choose a nice big font, space with paragraphs, be mindful of your spelling and missing words. Read out loud because some things written are bad said.

14.  What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

I must’ve been lucky in this regard, I don’t think I’ve ever received advice that made me go NO, but I did have to listen/read stuff that made me gag.

15.  If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?

I would love to the Adelaide acted out, some adjustments would be required because I’m no expert in play writing but I think I’d be great.

16.  If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?

Luyenor’a and Taram, names are placeholders as of now but they’re two of my knight, being the “only pairing I’m allow to write about forever” means I’d get more knight shenanigans done.

17.  Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

I’m doing bullets point of what I want to happen and write stuff without much order. Some days I have no inspirations for what goes in the beginning but have loads for a later point. I surf the wave when it presents itself.

18.  Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?

Word on my computer, a notebook in my bag, the note app in my phone.

19. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?

I have little trinkets all around my computer to invite inspiration.

20. Describe your perfect writing conditions.

Freshly woken up, having eaten, drinking something sugary and sometimes apple cider because the alcohol help lower my inhibition.

21.  How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

I read out loud at least once the whole thing, helps with missing words but dude I reread my stuff on ao3 and always find mistakes still ^^’

22. Choose a passage from one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style. (Person sending the ask is free to make suggestions).

I’m not going to put here because it’s in French and I don’t want to translate now but I wrote Vision of a world, mine when I was 16 and damn was I already depressed then?

23.  If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

The Princess and the Soldier, some gay fairytale I think my first one, I’m sure I can do better bow

I also have one about a janitor and it’s a murder mystery I could redo

24. Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?

Once by accident, I was so angry I never rewrote it.

25.  What do you look for in a beta?

I don’t really use beta (beta reader right?) but I guess I’ve had like 3-4 when I was in Uni and had to read people’s wip and they read mine. They’d talk about what they liked, links they noticed, things that seemed weak or to change

26.  Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?

I usually just point out the stuff I like

27.  How do you feel about collaborations?

For a class in college, we had to act out a play we wrote collectively. Ten sketches written in pairs/alone. I made sure I was alone so I wouldn’t be saddled with someone else to write my sketch

28. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

I don’t follow fic writers; I just am in a mood for a ship and read what’s available. I do like my friend @alumort ‘s fics tho ^^

29.  If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

There was a Phineas and Ferb fic focused on Perry I really loved. Their world building was something I’d never seen and they abandoned the story, so I did fanfic of a fic. Never dared to post it anywhere I mean it was their world to begin with.

30.  Do you accept prompts?

Of course, when inspiration is given I accept

31.  Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?

I don’t care about canon but I do love using it when there are little trivia to enrich the character.

32.  How do you feel about smut?

Love to read it sometimes, would love to write it. Some I’m like………….youveneverhadsexhaveyou…………………

33.  How do you feel about crack?

Love it!!!!!!!! I’m too self-conscious to write it tho. Oh maybe that could be a never before written trope I could try?

34.  What are your thoughts on non-con and dub-con?

Rape I can’t, dub-con where underlying requited feelings exist but anxiety™ don’t let the characters express them but they’re drunk so it surfaces is okay

35.  Would you ever kill off a canon character?

Hell yeah! I do when/if the death makes sense (I am still pissed at Kishi for Neji)

36.  Which is your favorite site to post fic?

Ao3 is where I post,I used devianart when I had one

37.  Talk about your current wips.

Marry Me for the Love of Cake: God I’m so sorry to the few people who followed it, I said I’d pick it up before the end of 2019 and well……I have the ending in bullet points

Yours, with Love: I hope I’ll finish it…I have most of the ending in bullet points

I guess I’m into rom com at the moment lolol

38.  Talk about a review that made your day.

I made my best friend read All this for a Roll Cake, and she laughed so much at my work, I took a picture I look at from time to time to remain humble.

39.  Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

Thankfully I’ve never received a rude review. My professor once told me it seemed kinda unnatural how unlucky my protagonist was vs. how lucky his love interest was (All this for a Roll Cake) but that was the whole point of the story so I just ignored her.

40.  Write an alternative ending to [insert fic title] (or just the summary of one).

Writing this I realised I lost my final version of All this for a Roll Cake T^T so I guess I’d rewrite the ending I have of the before the last version I still have.

Well this was fun ^^ got to revisit my works and remember many beloved pieces of fiction I wrote, I look forward to my next projects

[dramanomikata]

“Last Hope”

132.

Title: “Last Hope” Genre: Medical Season: Winter 2013 TV Station: Fuji TV Theme Song: “Calling” by Arashi Starring: Masaki Aiba, Mikako Tabe, Seiichi Tanabe, Eiko Koike, Yukiya Kitamura, Fumiyo Kohinata, Masahiro Takashima Date Finished: June 11, 2020 My Personal Reason for Watching: Aiba, of course! Also, I started watching it during my last months living in Japan and never got around to finishing it.

(^^ Dr. Aiba, let’s go!)

“Last Hope” is a medical drama, set at Teito University Hospital. The drama focuses on department of translational medicine at the hospital and the team that has been gathered to cure the “incurable,” using cutting-edge technology. Coming from various backgrounds and all walks of life, these six team members come up with ways to save their patients together.

(^^ We’re trying to save someone here! No time for 3 p.m. snacks, Hatano!)

When I first heard Aiba was going to star in a medical drama, I thought: 1. “Aiba as a doctor? How would that work?” and 2. “Medical dramas are kind of boring. Not sure if I would be interested in this.”  After watching the drama, I can say that it definitely wasn’t boring (although the medical jargon used in each episode is spoken very fast and sometimes, it just goes way over the viewer’s head).  Each week, there would be a new patient and you would end up rooting for the success of the team to save that patient. 

The back-stories of each doctor provided a great twist to the same old medical dramas.  The backstory of Dr. Komaki (Kohinata) losing his son was the most heartbreaking but they were all pretty tragic.  Each of these doctors had a painful past, which is brought up throughout the series.  It definitely keeps you interested, wanting to see how their past concerns and troubles are resolved in the present.  As for Aiba being a convincing doctor...*awkward silence*  Just kidding. He played the part of Dr. Takumi Hatano (or “Machisha” a.k.a. “Private Doctor) well and they definitely tried to bring in some comedy with his character, always having a 3 p.m. snack at the worst possible timing.  I must say, those snacks looked delicious!

(^^ Why isn’t anyone taking Hatano’s snacks?? I want one!!)

Some scenes were definitely made to pull at the heartstrings, especially the story about the last patient where his estranged son agreed to the lung transplant (which definitely made me cry).  Other times, they would go over the top and play for the dramatics.  I know Asian dramas are, at most times, very overacted and over-dramatized, but when your boss just collapses all of a sudden mid-sentence, do you just stand there and watch?? That was one scene that actually made me go “WTF?” out loud.

(^^ He’s falling in slow motion…should we do something? Um…you guys are doctors, right?)

In summary, “Last Hope” defies the “boring medical drama” trope with intriguing storylines and sympathetic characters.  However, my one gripe: do they really have to say the drama’s title in every episode?  It’s like when a movie character says the name of the movie in the movie and you go, ‘Hey! That’s the titleofthemovie OMG!’ *insert Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme here*

Favorites: Favorite Character: I guess, Hatano? Although Komaki comes as a close second.  Favorite Episode: Personally, I liked episode 6 where they had to decide whether to save a patient or obey the patient’s request for him to see again even if that meant sacrificing his life.  My grandma also suffers from macular degeneration like the patient so it really hit close to home for me.  It just goes to show that eyesight is such a precious thing we take for granted and having it taken away is a cruel fate to live with.        Favorite Scene: Obviously, the 3 p.m. snack times XD

(^^ A photo of the doctor who learned that the patient’s wish is most important)

“Last Hope” Rating: Story: ✭✭✭½ (a solid storyline with a clear ending) Acting: ✭✭✭ (Aiba convincing as a doctor, who knew?  But I got to give it up to the supporting cast!) Theme Song: ✭✭✭½ (Not my favorite Arashi song, but a catchy one nonetheless!)

Total: 10/15

Next Up: Maybe “99.9 Keiji Senmon Bengoshi”

(^^ “We’re your last hope.” WE GET IT!)

[johannesviii]

Top 15 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2002

13 to 14 years old. Most of the year was pretty good. Summer was great. But in September I arrived in 2nd (local equivalent of 10th grade), so I was 14 in a class of mostly 15/16 years old students, and I looked so out of place that inevitably, bad shit started to happen very quickly.

Thankfully, it was a damn good year for hits. They say music never sounds better than when you are a teenager, as if that was a bad thing - but maybe they’re right? So yeah, nostalgia is in full force there. This year was so good for music, in fact, that this is a top 15 instead of 10. It was already super difficult to keep only 10 songs before I even looked at the French year-end list, and then I just gave up.

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

This list originally had SIX horribly painful cuts so I decided to do some damage control and make it a top 15. There’s still a whole bunch of honorable mentions, though.

Heaven remix (DJ Sammy) - [Insert here rant about Johannes liking overproduced dance garbage full of colors and lights]

Move b█tch (Ludacris) - Just a ton of fun to sing along that chorus.

Whenever Wherever (Shakira) - I claim overplay, but that is still legendary.

How You Remind Me (Nickelback) - Nobody’s gonna disagree if I say they’re a terrible band, but you gotta admit, their first hit was pretty great.

The Middle (Jimmy Eat World) - In a year full of fantastic earworms, some had to stay out of the list.

Can’t Fight the Moonlight (LeAnn Rimes) - Just re-read the previous statement.

Get the Party Started (Pink) - More on that later.

Inch’Allah (MC Solaar) - Not his best song by a mile (obviously; I mean, the guy who wrote a song about making Satan explode into antimatter can’t really top that because nobody can) but still very nice.

Cleanin’ Out My Closet (Eminem) - Yeah, the rethread of The Real Slim Shady is on the list and not this. What can I say, I told you I had bad taste.

Just Like a Pill (Pink) - The last cut from the list. I just really, really liked Pink, can you tell?

This is when I started to listen to the radio A LOT in my room, because my access to the family computer was restricted and radio was basically the only media I still had 100% access to and full control of. Which might explain why I suddenly liked a ton of pop music. Or maybe that year was simply really good. I guess it’s a mix of both.

Also, I still didn’t have a key to the appartment, but I was a lot less supervised when I was outside, and I would sometimes sneak out to go the library or to the disc store.

So... here’s some of the first singles I ever bought, for the record, and also because I think it’s fun to see all of them together.

They’re all on this list, just to clarify.

15 - I’m Gonna Getcha Good (Shania Twain)

US: Not on the list / FR: #67

Well, that was quick. So yeah, I loved this song. The accent meant I couldn’t understand half of the lyrics, but it was still a ton of fun and a delight every time it was on the radio.

14 - Wherever You Will Go (The Calling)

US: #5 / FR: #53

I didn’t love this song that much at the time and only put it on one tape, but it really grew on my over the years. Yeah, it’s your standard 2000s pop-rock song, objectively, but I don’t know. It didn’t have to go that hard with its metaphors. I mean the guy is ready to follow that person into hell and turn back time if necessary. I really don’t know. It shouldn’t work so well but it does for me. Maybe it’s because I’m very literal-minded.

13 - Le Chemin (Kyo ft. Sita)

US: Not on the list / FR: #55

Basically: A Ma Place by Axel Bauer & Zazie from the previous honorable mentions of 2001, except with half the amount of Hetero Drama(tm) and a pop-rock flavour to make it more palatable.

The first hit of a band it would very quickly be super cool to hate in my country (and I do mean very quickly, like a year or so) because everyone (including me, mind you) thought their lyrics were a bit too cringy even for pop-rock songs.

Doesn’t mean I didn’t buy the album and listened the shit out of it for like two years, though. The saddest part is that my favorite single from it by far, Je Cours (”I Run”), isn’t elligible for any list. Dammit.

12 - Murder On The Dancefloor (Sophie Ellis-Bextor)

US: Not on the list / FR: #26

This was a huge hit in Europe and somehow I thought it had reached the US, but apparently it didn’t. That’s a shame.

Also, overplay didn’t manage to kill it for me and that’s impressive.

11 - Complicated (Avril Lavigne)

US: #11 / FR: #83

Loved it, bought the single, loved it even more, and then one of my uncles sent me the album for christmas, and all was nice and good in the world.

For the record, I thought Sk8er Boi was one of the worst songs on the album (my favorite was My World), and I still dislike this particular song to this day, so this is why it’s nowhere to be found here.

10 - Don’t Let Me Get Me (Pink)

US: #36 / FR: Not on the list

You already know that because of the honorable mentions, but yeah, I loved Pink. This was the second album I decided I had to save money for months to acquire instead of just a single and which my parents would probably find acceptable. And this song is the best and it kicks some serious ass, on top of being full of self-loathing and extremely relatable at the time ("everyday I fight a war against the mirror, can't take the person staring back at me"? "I wanna be somebody else"?? Big, big dysphoria mood right there).

No regrets, baby.

9 - Hands Clean (Alanis Morissette)

US: #95 / FR: Not on the list

In just about every list I’ve made so far, there’s one song which makes me think “if I had better taste, this would be much higher”. This is one of these songs. Still love it, still put it on a tape and burned it on a cd. I found the cd in question again yesterday while making this list and it contains, in that exact order: Visage, Evanescence, Kyo, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Talk Talk, Scatman John, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Shania Twain, INXS, Freur, Alizée, Linkin Park and this exact song by Alanis Morissette. It’s a great little time-capsule of my debatable tastes.

8 - Die Another Day (Madonna)

US: Not on the list / FR: #86

This has the same kind of weird, disjointed beat as Music, but it sounds much more aggressive and sinister. This dropped right when I started to have real problems at school, so it’s a bit difficult for me to listen to it nowadays without having unpleasant flashbacks at the same time, which is why it’s so low on the list even though I listened to it on a loop back in the day. It might be a subpar James Bond theme, and might have dumb lyrics (god the Sigmund Freud line sdfghjhgfdfg), but on its own? It’s great.

Also I loved the music video. My mother, obviously, hated it, which only made me like it more, because, I mean, obviously it did. That’s how it works when you’re 14.

Speaking of which.

7 - Without Me (Eminem)

US: #21 / FR: #11

By that point, it was becoming pretty clear that I would never be able to buy the music I wanted if my parents disapproved of it, so I had to be sneaky and buy every, uh “debatable” single with a second more acceptable single to hide the first one. The one I bought alongside this one was a cover of Désenchantée, sung by Kate Ryan.

Success.

It is, in fact, less good than The Real Slim Shady, and I could only understand about one third of the lyrics, but still. I listened to it a loooooot. Because I actually had that single and not the other one which it was basically referencing to the point of self-parody. And just like the other one, I obviously don’t endorse all the lyrics, and the beat is great.

6 - All the Things She Said (Tatu)

US: Not on the list / FR: #12

Just like Die Another Day this one is a bit difficult to listen to nowadays for me but it’s a monster of a hit nonetheless. Have to say, though: I listened to Not Gonna Get Us even more, which means THAT one is even more linked to bad memories, to the point of basically being unlistenable because it triggers a literal fight-or-flight response with me. Not kidding in the slightest. Still love it though.

5 - J’ai Demandé à la Lune (Indochine)

US: Not on the list / FR: #4

This is one of my least favorite hit songs from Indochine. It’s still #5 on a list where I had to keep 15 entries instead of 10. This is because almost no other song I really really like from them will ever be elligible for these lists and if I can’t put a single Indochine song somewhere, especially from the Paradize album, I will have to punch a wall, dammit.

So here. Have the one in which the guy asks the moon if his significant other still loves him and where the moon answers “dude it’s not my problem”.

I love them and Paradize is an absolute monster of an album which rightfully made them relevant again, from new wave sensations of the 80s to favorite mainstream band for every young French punk/goth kid ever in the 2000s. This is not a diss, by the way, considering I was very clearly in that core demographic. Especially if you look at the top three I made for that year (and for the next one but let’s not get ahead of ourselves).

4 - A Thousand Miles (Vanessa Carlton)

US: #6 / FR: #51

Yeah yeah, you knew this was coming when you saw that pic of the first singles I bought, and you can start laughing now. I know it’s basically a meme now (and a good one, mind you), but sometimes, songs are remembered for more than one reason, and you have to admit that one is still great on its own. I listened to it SO. MUCH. Especially before everything started to go wrong for me that year, so basically this is the sound of “how things should have been”, and it’s so pleasant and nice to listen to it even today. It’s no longer on my mp3 player, but, no joke, I think it stayed on it from the day I bought my first mp3 player to something like 2017. Is it an indicator of quality or yet another indicator of my debatable taste? Probably both.

In any other year, there would be a clear #1 either towering above the other songs or just slightly ahead of the rest. 2002 was so good I can’t, for the life of me, decide which of these next three songs is the best one, even subjectively, in a “hey I like this one a little bit more” kind of way.

So I’m ranking the top 3 according to the lengths I went to to listen to each of these songs at the time.

Let’s go.

3 - C’est Une Belle Journée (Mylène Farmer)

US: Not on the list / FR: #46

This is what I’d call the Last Great Mylène Farmer Song. Oh she was still making music, pretty great music, in fact, after that. She’s still making decent stuff nowadays, from time to time. But in my opinion, it’s all downhill from there.

Still. This kickstarted my obsession with her at the time, because someone (I still have no idea who that was) was foolish enough to buy me the cd for Christmas. This is also why it’s #3 and not higher; I didn’t have to work at all to listen to it.

So... This is a song about killing yourself, disguised as a bouncy energetic pop tune. And it works horribly well. It’s very vaguely sinister but if you don’t listen to it very closely, it’s nearly impossible to notice what it’s actually about (translation here), and it charted super high and for a super long time without any controversy in its wake.

As I said: all downhill from there, because... how do you even top this?

2 - Lose Yourself (Eminem)

US: #63 / FR: Not on the list

You probably guessed this was coming. I’m not sure what the consensus for the “best Eminem hit song” is nowadays, but that one has to be pretty high on the list. And it’s also kind of a meme because of the spaghetti line, I know, but still, quality, man. The most important thing about it in the context of this list is that it was juuuuust slow enough to allow me to understand most of the important parts with my still-limited English, and I loved the little story it told. I remember trying to put it on a tape for days and waiting for it to pop up on the radio and instantly pressing Record after the first note.

And of course I wanted to see 8 Mile and I couldn’t, but a few months later, the local book/dvd/music store, which had screens broadcasting scenes from new stuff they were selling, had a screen with a few battle rap scenes from 8 Mile on it, and once I noticed I stood in front of the screen for a long time in silent admiration. What can I say, I was an angry little thing, and seeing angry people fighting each other in ways where no-one gets hurt was very satisfying and cathartic.

1 - In the End (Linkin Park)

US: #7 / FR: Not on the list

The music video had hilariously bad cgi even at the time, just to clarify. But yeah, that sound right there had the perfect balance of color, energy, sadness and anger to be the hit of the year for me back then. And I could understand nearly all the lyrics! I. Loved it. The local library had Hybrid Theory and I listened to it so. MUCH (my favorite song on it was actually One Step Closer (singing CAUSE I’M ONE-STEP-CLOSER-TO-THE-EDGE, ANDI’MABOUTTOBREAK felt great) and I thought Crawling was a bit embarrassing). Thank god that library didn’t have fines if you returned your stuff after the due date because I had to wait until I was able to make a copy of it first. The “parents-proof” “”cryptic”” label I wrote on said copy wasn’t particularly cryptic, though, and I’m gonna share it with you right now because that’s kind of funny.

So what do you do when you’re 14, pretty sure you understood the whole song, are finally able to listen to the whole album, burn it on a cd, and listen to it way too often? You write down the lyrics, painstakingly, with a fountain pen, in a small notebook where you try to write down the lyrics of every single song you love & can understand entirely. That’s what you do. Of course.

When I stopped doing that in 2007, there were two notebooks like that. I lost one of them, apparently, but the one I was able to find already had 63 songs in it. I finally had my own internet access later that year and I could find all the lyrics I wanted whenever I wanted, and I stopped doing that once and for all.

But it helped me get a lot better with English, so in the end, it doesn’t even matter.

So yeah, In the End?

Loved it and loved that band. I still do.

Next up: wow, “all edge no point”, uh?

[coe-lilium]

TroS reaction (1st view)

Necessary premise in bullet points:

- I liked TFA when it came out and still do but as I dug into the franchise/canon (Disney only by choice) my enjoyment of it became more lukewarm. Came out of it dreading a potential Reylo but liking the two charas on their own. 

- went into TLJ worried I’d hate it, came out with it being my favorite saga movie and sold on the Rey-Ren connection, whatever road it would’ve taken. Loved the “Rey’s powerful on her own/bc the Force wants to set Kylo’s wrongs right”. It felt good after two years of being bombarded with “this fucking Mary Sue can have any power only if she’s connected to powerful men of the saga, she has otherwise no right in being powerful” in forums spaces.    

- went into TroS non-spoiled, wary of Palpatine return but relatively hopeful if soured about the “JJ our lord and saviour pleease save us from evil evil Jonhson” (HA!). The rumors about lore from the tv series being featured into the movie had me excited.  

That said, here goes: [SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MOVIE, ENDING INCLUDED, RIGHT OFF THE BAT]

I didn’t like it. I really hope to warm up to it more in future views, there’s absolutely stuff I liked or even loved, but as it stands now it was overall a massive disappointment on many sides and -worst of all- threatens to retroactively ruin my enjoyment in other previous stories. 

First, the positives: 

- Parentage notwithstanding, Rey was good. Her rage, her fears, her good heart, her commitment to the fight and the training, her longing for guidance… truly, if the bloodline revelation hadn’t retroactively ruined my investment in the character and themes I’d have fully, 100% loved her even if every single other part of the movie had been the same. 

Except for a brief war flashback to Starkiller game abilities (I lolled) I wasn’t even troubled by all the new abilities or their scope. Movies’ been inventing new powers since the beginning and the Force does what the Force wants. Again, fuck the genetics “twist”, garbage stuff. 

- Kylo, next to… 95% that involved him? TLJ did a great job selling him to me and surprisingly this movie added to that instead of retconning it away. More competent but still stupid and petty from time to time. I’m glad he came back, glad he choose right and glad he was allowed more time on the right side than Anakin. I love redemptions and he was portrayed as wavering the entire trilogy, I don’t even really care that it could’ve done better. I’m happy for him and his family, that’s all. The kiss got a laugh out me but not a malicious one, I was kind of running out of reasonable reactions by then. 

I’m just conflicted on how I feel about his death. Back when TFA was released I wanted him to survive to face what Anakin didn’t: justice (the kid-friendly setting prevented a death sentence anyway), atonement and growth from there, I still wish it happened and maintain that a different pacing would’ve allowed it. On the other hand, I’m also kinda okay with him dying. He righted at least a bit of his many wrongs, he saved a person he cared for, that his parents cared for and that could help the galaxy much more than he ever could and he was at peace. It was a good death.      

- Kylo’s vision/illusion of Han. A surprise but a very pleasant, well acted one. Would’ve I maybe liked Anakin more, as Ben idolized him so much and for all the wrong reasons and because I love that disaster? Yes. Does Han work much better in the economy of the movie and trilogy story and do he and Ben have a much rawer relationship and history? Absolutely. I am a teeny tiny bit baffled as  for why Luke didn’t also show up, but the actual scene was good enough I forgive it.  

- Rey and Kylo bond and connection was one of the saving graces of this mess and I utterly loved it. Both actors worked their asses for for all their scenes and it payed off, oh if it payed off. Their DSII duel was perhaps a tad long but great nonetheless (Republic era Jedi jumps!), the hurt and the sense of absolute loss and grief they both conveyed -and shared!- after Leia’s passing was incredible, Rey regretting the near kill and softly going “I would have stayed, had you renounced the dark side”. She cared, yes, but not to the point of ignoring the horrors (something Anakin never quite understood). The “dyad” stuff was a bit overkill, just call it a force bond, we can see it’s freaking powerful, but the Force Skype and sharing of objects that came with the package, that I loved. Surprise lightsaber, Ren fuckers! :D Bet Anakin and Obi Wan were really jealous, that would’ve come in handy during the war.       

- Finn was now fully invested in the cause, at ease, visibly happy to be with his friends, ready to bond and reach out, quick to plan, to act and to adapt to the situation, brave but cautious and calculating. I wish it was given a bit more focus, but I loved he found other young FO defectors. Also fuck yeah, he’s force sensitive and his ability is used, not just thrown in as a useless wink. Jedi Finn in future material, c’mon!

- Poe’s also grown. He was probably going to have more screen time with Leia had Carrie not died but there was nothing to be done for that. I’m not as happy as for previous 3 charas for the backstory retcon I’ll tackle in the negatives.

- Jannah was cool, the addiction of other FO defectors a welcomed one and the scene were she and Finn excitedly went over their “I broke free” moment was adorable. Good bean, I’d read more about her and her company. 

- A bit lot annoyed at Bloodline being kinda tossed outta the window but getting Leia with lightsaber was nice. Give me some ancillary material to deal with the clash and I’ll fully forgive it. 

- Jedi! MY GIRL AHSOKA MY MAN KANAN! I mean, I sure wish they were in a better movie, but hey, recognition for something more than the OT? No slandering of the Order but all of them collectively kicking Sidious ass once and for all? I’ll gladly take it. Anakin, my dude, I’m sorry your sacrifice was next to nullified but it was good to hear you again ;_;  I didn’t hear Ezra’s voice anywhere so I can still hope he’s alive, well and with the Ascendancy teaching all their Navigators. “I am all the Jedi” remains a terrible line. 

And now, oh boi. Here comes the long list of annoying - bad - stinking shit stuff: 

- If I wanted to watch a 2 and half long videogame cutscenes I’d have done that in the comfort of my home without spending money for tickets. Go to level x to retrieve related macguffin, move to next level to get next macguffin and so on and so on. I liked close to everything in the DS II sequences, but what would’ve that dagger pointed at if the wreckage had fallen even a little bit differently?   

In general, many plot points gave me the feeling they were stolen from the tv series and badly executed, like a mockery (or incompetence?). Case in point: Hux betraying the 1st Order out of personal, spiteful hate? Potentially good! The execution? A poor man’s Rebels Agent Kallus, already over in little more than 5minutes. 

- Palpatine himself is a poorly, ridiculously poorly executed Maul resurrection storyline from tcw and rebels. 

Because Maul was 1. explained and 2. got a good, long arc that made you forgive the undoubtably contrived ass-pull it took to bring him back while Sidious is just… there. You gotta accept it because the writer said so. 

How did he survive? We don’t know and fuck you if you expect an explanation (they really had the absolute galls to have him say the iconic/meme line from Rots and apparently it was supposed to be enough?!) How could he “have all Sith reside inside me” when canon’s clear that Sith do-not-get-to-retain-their-individuality-in-the-Force, do not work well together (lmao) and he as an individual never gave a shit about the Sith except when they could serve his own personal desires? His entire approach to the rule of two and other Sith stuff is “fuck that noise, everything in the galaxy exist to serve me”. He’s fine dying as long as “the Sith rule”? Who IS this character, because he’s not Darth Sidious (as presented in Disney’s own canon, mind). Oh, you wanted explanations? FUCK YOU, screams the movie. 

The mess gets somehow salvaged in the end as he comes to his senses and siphon the life out of Rey and Ben to de-rotten/revive himself to rule in person, now *that* was in character. Was he actually lying his ass off the entire time waiting for the moment he could siphon them? Hopefully but who the hell even knows.

In the end it just wasn’t worth bring him back. A holocron, a different Sith, even a hive-mind of old records/tainted wraiths of Sith (perhaps wearing Palps face to buy the old empire aficionados loyalty, idk) would’ve been better than “actually, Anakin suffered nearly his entire life and sacrificed himself for barely more than 25 years of peace and it still wasn’t enough to rid the galaxy of the monster who destroyed his and countless other lives”. But Johnson was the one shitting on beloved characters legacy and accomplishments, uh? Surely at least he’s got company. 

Ian was clearly having a blast, so there was… that? And the initial sequence being legit creepy and the Sith storm or whatever the fuck was that. That can stay, it was cool.     

- Poe, the latino character, got retconned from former Republic pilot (a backstory established before TFA came out and faithfully respected ever since) into a smuggler and gang member. Classy. What does Lucaslfilm have a story group for if not for stopping stuff like this from happening? Bonus Zorii being used for a “no homo! homo? no homo?” wink wink and for generally being a poor man Solo’s Qi’ra.   

- The movie makes you worry for a character death three (3) times in a row only to immediately backpedal on it. The survivors are grieving, the scene is sober… and then suddenly! they’re alive! isn’t it wonderful? let’s insert a comical scene now that we’re at it! Sigh.   

- The whole Threepio stuff was a contrived waste of time in a movie already full of more relevant plot treads that could’ve put that screen time to better use. 

- Rey’s parents apparently aren’t assholes anymore bc they sold her into slavery to protect her from Sidious, which is… supposed to make it alright, a sacrifice in the name of love? If they had been shown trying to give her to a trusted person and then she was kidnapped that wouldn’t had been their fault, just unfortunate, but the movie shows them leaving their 5yo daughter with her in-all-but-name slaver so?? 

- Rey Palpatine… Rey. Palpatine. Gesù Cristo benedetto che minchia mi è toccato di vedere. That hurt. That was so hilariously over the top bad I just…I started laughing. On top of the entire thing, thank you so, soo much for validating all those fucking assholes who demanded Rey be connected to a powerful man in the saga to accept her powers and value, you hack. Jedi were never about power of blood and then you went and reinforced the very opposite. She ain’t powerful bc the Force recognized her as worthy to stop evil and chose to aid her anymore, she’s powerful bc grandfather was. Lovely stuff. Hilariously, now she has a lot more legit “Mary Sue” traits than before. 

- Rose’s sidelining was a blatant bow to her and her actress haters whims. If in VIII she jumped at the chance of action, now she was fearful and “had to stay behind” studying maps. Fuck that noise. 

- Even if she rejected it, underline is that the Skywalker line is wiped out and the Palpatine one thrives. I… just… wtf wtf wtf. A final “Just Rey” would’ve been more powerful -because now it would’ve been reclaimed- and less corny and in poor taste than a Palpatine taking on the Skywalker name. I’m not sure if Sidious is more offended or if he’s laughing his ass off in space!hell. Probably the 2nd. Bad.      

- The final scene on Tatooine. It rang so empty because the planet brings warm memories only to the audience, not the characters. In-universe, that place brought nothing but misery to the Skywalkers: Anakin and Shmi were brought there as slaves and lived as such for years, Shmi was tortured to death and Anakin began his descent into the dark for crying out loud. Luke had to hide and saw his relatives murdered. Leia had no connection whatsoever to the place. The mera idea of burying Anakin Skywalker lightsaber into the sands of Tatooine and considering it a way of paying respect is… I don’t know, hilariously in bad taste? Rey, dear, what did you have personally against the guy? Put those sabers to rest on Naboo! Ah, but we can’t truly acknowledge the PT now, can we? Wack.   

- It’s not TroS complete fault, that “honor” mostly sit at TFA’s feet but for all its omages, copies and almost slavish references, from a in-universe point of view it’s like the OT barely occurred. 

The same evil man has been defeated (until next time?), the Republic must be rebuilt from scratch, a evil military is all over the place and must be dealt with, the Jedi Order has to be rebuilt… it’s depressing. A new evil taking advantage of the empire leftovers would’ve been one thing, but Sidious? He’s been effectively winning nonstop ever since he was elected Chancellor. He had all the power, all the influence, all the control and he maintained it all even as a rotten corpse in exile, the entire galaxy marching on his tune, controlled by his strings. And as the cherry on top of the cake he even managed to wipe out the family that could’ve, should have been his undoing! He effectively destroyed the Skywalkers. He outlived every Jedi, every survivor, every clone. I hate this. It’s sickening. I can’t even be happy Rex was on Endor anymore.      

In general, the best word I can find for this movie is: coward. 

So blatantly desperate to please, to be “forgiven”, to reference every single irrelevant thing -except the PT and the TV series in a intelligent way-, to throw fanservice after fanservice after fanservice no matter how nonsensical from all over that crossed the “corny” to wander into embarrassing territory many times over (Maz giving Chewie a medal outta nowhere? Come the fuck on now). 

The cartoon series had twenty time the guts of this movie and I vehemently wish for Filoni to take the helm of the entire creative team in a very near future.                  

[ed-edward-blackbeard]

Fanfic Author Meme.  Keep Reading after question 2 for 3-50.

1. What was your first fic and could you stand to reread it today?

Jesus Lord, no.  I’d die of secondhand embarrassment before I got halfway through it.  It was never published online, thank Christ.  It was called … ugh, I don’t remember what I called it, but it was a line from Edmund Spenser.  (Don’t judge.)  It was an OC female character and Autolycus, from Hercules and Xena, played by Bruce Campbell.  It was… a SHAMBLES.  Self-insert, wish-fulfillment of the worst kind.  But, my friend Alicia read it at the time and she told me how great she thought it was, and I should keep at it.  So, thank you, Edmund-Spenser-titled-fic.

2. What’s your most recent fic and how far do you think you’ve come?

It’s called “i commit sins every day but i never give my soul away”, and it’s on my AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/22951009.  And I actually don’t have a unit of measurement for how much I’ve improved.  But it’s also been… God, I’m 43 today,  so it’s been 27 years I’ve been writing.  Almost thirty years.  Shit, I’m old.

3. In your opinion, what’s your best fic?

Oh, man.  Tricky question.  If by best you mean technically written, most enjoyable?  I’d say maybe wasting the dawn.  Definitely By Inches We Fall.  But to be totally honest with you?  I think my best fic, the one that got me, personally by the throat, shook me, and hasn’t let me go?  Shoah.  It’s one of my earlier fics, from the Sentinel fandom, but man.  Writing this was rough.  I did my research on concentration camps, and I couldn’t sleep right for weeks.  Lisa and Patt were holding my hands over AIM practically every night when I was sobbing that I couldn’t finish it, that I couldn’t do it, that it was too much.  (I’d have been about fucking seventeen, maybe nineteen, when I was writing it.)  I bit off way more than I was prepared for, but I didn’t quit.  And I’m proud, quite frankly, that I even finished the damn thing, but even this far removed from it, I still feel that gut-punch when I go back re-read it, which is why I don’t.  And haven’t for a couple of years.  

4. In your opinion and without looking at any numbers, what’s your most popular fic?

It’d probably be Consortio.

5. Is there any fic that makes you super happy to reread and remember you wrote that?

I actually feel that way about 99% of my stuff.  Even some of the older stuff, I re-read it and I get really happy because not only do I see myself changing and maturing, I realize I was harder on myself than I should have been.  I didn’t suck like I thought, and I get the warm fuzzies.

6. Is there any fic that makes you super embarrassed to reread and remember you wrote that?

Er, not really?  I mean, there’s some cringey shit I wrote when I was like, twelve, but not even I know where those notebooks got off to.

7. What’s the fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?

By Inches We Fall.  It’s my only Game of Thrones fic, and I feel like I really want to continue the story of Jamie and Brienne and their kids, and of Jaime being Hand to King Jon and Queen Sansa.

8. What’s the oldest (longest since last update) fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?

How Firm A Foundation.  It’s a Deadwood fic, and I (many years ago, when Deadwood was actually on the air) actually sketched out how every chapter would go.  There’s a few things I’d change today, if I started it again, just because I can plot better than I could ten years ago, but I think the thread of the story is gone forever.

9. Have you ever written for a fandom without watching/reading/playing the source material?

Yami No Matsuei.  A friend of mine was actually heavily into YnM, and I wrote several stories for her.  Later I’ve watched some of it, and I realize I did okay on my characterizations, but there’s always things I could have done better.

10. Have you ever written for a fandom without reading other fanfic for it?

Pretty much every fandom I have ever been in.  I don’t read a lot of fanfic, because I’m afraid (almost paranoid, in fact) that I’ll internalize something I’ve read and later spout it out in my fic, and I don’t ever want to copy anyone, deliberately or otherwise.

11. Have you ever written a fic for a concept you know someone else has done before? How did it impact your writing process or feelings after posting?

I have, and I didn’t publish it for the reason above; I didn’t feel like my take on it was original enough to bother.

12. Have you ever written a fic and decided never to publish it? Why?

Lots of reasons, actually.  Sometimes I write with the intention of not publishing, it’s something just for me.  I’ve also written a few fics that I ended up absolutely hating, and they’ve never seen the light of day.  I’ve also done some that I felt wasn’t original enough, or they were written about the trope du jour, and I had nothing else to offer that ten other people hadn’t already done.

13. What’s the biggest change between your style when you started in fandom and today?

Sentence style and structure.  I used to do the whole, “He said.”  “In reply, she said.”  “The sky was blue when he rode in.”  And then a few of my better friends (and betas) took me in hand and showed me how to mix it up, chop my comma addiction in half (seriously, I once had a single sentence run on for twelve lines.) and I feel like I get a better grip on characterization.

14. What’s the biggest change in your taste between when you started in fandom and today?

Sex.  I used to write it in everything.  And then the more I wrote, and the older I got, the less I wanted to write it (or read it, or talk about it.)  So I’m a lot more comfortable writing non-sex stories than I used to be.

15. Have you ever purposefully written one fandom/fic idea over another because you knew it’d be more popular?

Of course.  I think everyone has, at one point or another.

16. Have you ever stopped writing a fic/for a fandom because it wasn’t receiving enough attention?

Anything I’ve ever abandoned was lack of my own attention, not anything else.  I’m kinda used to not getting a lot of attention.

17. In your opinion, what’s your most overrated fic?

What He Wants.  It’s pretentious wankfic, for a pairing I don’t actually like all that much (Lucius/Harry), and I just feel like everyone loves it way more than it deserves.

18. What’s your most underrated fic?

I’m gonna pick on Shoah again, because I feel like it just doesn’t get enough love.  I’m biased, because of how emotionally attached I am to the fic, but I feel like it’s ignored.

19. If you had to pick one fic/scene/chapter of your work to describe your entire portfolio to a stranger, which would you pick?

Wasting The Dawn.  It’s a Magicians fic, and it showcases every character from the show, and I think I did a passable job of hitting every voice.  So I’d be proud to show that one around.

20. Have/Would you ever rewrite a fic? If yes, would you take the original down?

Would I rewrite it?  Sure.  Would I take down the original?  Um, that’s a little more difficult.  On the one hand, I’m not really ashamed, as such, of anything that I did.  But having two copies of things would get really complicated and onerous.  I might actually start a second pseud, like maybe kelex-originals or something like that, and move the originals over to that, and leave the rewrites on my main, with a link to the original in the notes.  Yeah, that’s probably what I’d do.

21. If someone starts kudosing and commenting your fics in a spree and has a few works of their own, would you go look through theirs?

HELL YES.  Mostly because I’m always looking for shinies to read in fandoms I don’t write for.  I also kind of like to read their stuff and get a feel for who they are and why they like what I’ve got.  But mostly, I just love it and it makes me giggle watching someone go through my fics and like EEEE THERE YOU ARE AGAIN.

22. Has there ever been anyone who’s made you freak out because they read your work and followed/favorited/reviewed?

Fucking scads of people, actually.

23. What’s the nicest review you’ve ever gotten?

Oh man, I’ve got a fuckton of good ones.  But the one that I always get a kick out of is on one of my Gotham fics, and the comment was along the lines of, the tag mentioned bed-sharing and they thought that was all it was going to be, but it was so much more and they got caught up in it and it was wonderful.  And that’s my favorite (if not the nicest) because I love the fact that I was able to give someone something they enjoyed, even more because it was unexpected!

24. What’s the meanest review you’ve ever gotten? Do you think the reviewer intended it?

It was a review back in the days of OneList, and I was told that my pencils should be broken and my keyboard taken away because I was a terrible writer.  And yes, I know they meant it.

25. What constructive criticism, however well-meaning, always makes you feel bad when you see it in a review?

It’s less a concrit and more a crit.  But it’s always, “why did you do X?  It was out of character!” and that makes me grit my teeth.  Mostly because I feel like I’ve always explained, thoroughly, why I’ve done something (whether in dialog, in the writing itself, or heavily implied in monologues), and that question always makes me want to throttle someone because either they didn’t get it, or I didn’t.  

26. What aspect of your writing do you most enjoy to see praised?

Humor.  I’m a sarcastic bitch, and when it’s appropriate (and sometimes when it isn’t), I have funny characters or have characters deadpan things.  And it delights the fuck out of me when someone highlights that as one of their favorite parts.

27. If you could only ever write crossovers or single-fandom fics ever again, which would you pick?

Single fandom fics.  I’m not a fan of crossovers, though I’ve written them from time to time, and probably will again if I think it’s appropriate.  I just prefer not to cross the streams, as it were.

28. if you could only ever write for a single crossover or a single fandom again, which would you pick?

Good Omens.  Hands down.  So. Many. AUs.  So many ideas.  So many delightful characters.

29. Does the division of your writing across fandoms line up with your reading? What’s the biggest discrepancy?

It does not.  I read far, far less than I actually write.

30. Do you continue to write for a fandom after you’ve moved on or do you focus solely on the new one?

I usually focus on the new one, however, I’ve occasionally re-visited a fandom after I’ve left it, because inspiration hits me, or I’ve gotten back into it.

31. Who’s the one character you’ve just never managed to get perfectly right?

Margo Hanson, from the Magicians.

32. Who’s the one character who shines without you even trying?

There’s a few.  Eliot Waugh, Lex Luthor, Jack O’Neill, the Doctor (9 & 10 mostly)

33. Is there any particular character whose scenes always wind up being longer/more frequent than you expected? Does the quality hold up?

Not really?  Characters and scenes are as long as they need to be.  I do think the quality holds up, though, because honestly, by the time they’re done, I’m done.

34. Was there any fic that you wrote that really surprised you in the fandom reaction? Was it just by the numbers or did they take it an entirely different way?

Not really, or if there was, I don’t remember it.

35. Have you ever written a ship into a fic without meaning to?

Yup.  It snuck in there, especially in the background early on, and by the end I was like, what the fuck, I don’t even ship you, YOU DON’T EVEN GO HERE.

36. Have you ever sincerely written a ship you do not support into a fic?

Nope.  If I don’t like a ship, I don’t write it.

37. Have you ever purposefully bashed a character/ship in a fic?

No.  Not as a writer.  But like, I have written a character saying “I don’t think X belongs with Y, they belong with me!” because that’s pretty much how the actual relationship went down.  (Spike, Buffy, Riley most specifically.)

38. Have you ever purposefully written something you know your readers would find uncomfortable/would not enjoy? If yes, why?

Very, very, very many years ago.  I wrote it just to see if I could.  I could, I did, and I haven’t written it again.

39. Do you consider yourself to have a readership?

No.

40. Do you feel like you put out enough content?

I feel like I put out what I need to.  Is it enough?  idk.

41. If you cross-post your fics on multiple sites, do you have a favorite? Are there certain fics you would only post on certain site?

AO3 is, hands down, my favorite.  For awhile, I was posting to WWOMB (Wonderful World of Make-Believe) but I’ve stopped there, sadly.

42. How many views has your most popular fic gotten?

Consortio is my most popular fic, and it’s gotten 21,658 hits.  Although the fic is multi-chapter, so I don’t know how to break that down into individual hits. In fact, four of my five most popular are multi-chapters.  The only single-chapter fic is What He Wants, clocking in at 6,743. 

43. Your least popular?

The Rose and the Yew Tree, with 0 hits.

44. Do you follow/favorite/kudos/comment/review more stories than you have received?

Unfortunately, no.

45. If you had to call yourself an author of a single genre (besides fanfic) what label would you give yourself?

Pornography.

46. Do you consider yourself a diverse author?

Diverse as in fandoms?  Yes.  Diverse as in style?  Not so much.

47. If someone you know in real life who isn’t involved in fandoms asked to read your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you recommend they read first?

I’ve done that before, and I’ve tailored it to the person and what I know they like.  For example, my old boss got me hooked on La Femme Nikita (the Peta Wilson one), and so when she wanted to read my writing, I gave her my LFN fics to read.

48. Does anyone you know from outside of fandom know you write fanfic? Are they involved in the same fandom too?

Yes, and some of them.

49. Has anyone in your life ever read your fanfic just because you wrote it?

Yes.

50. Has writing fanfic had a significant impact on your life? Would you say it’s entirely positive?

It has had a very significant impact, and no, it hasn’t been at all positive.  Some of my best moments, as well as my worst, are because of fanfic and fandom, but fanfic in particular.  Fic’s brought me close to people, fic’s pushed me away from people, and it’s made people change the way they look at me.