#is that if he wants his dragon to talk about things

[plasticfreckles]

ok nvm im coming back to this

lucanis dellamorte the snooker player

illario is also one

there's a whole thing about lucanis being better (=ranking higher) that makes illario salty af (honestly tho maybe Lucanis is just better at compartmentalizing the baize and the game only as opposed to the whole competition/championship thing. Skillset-wise, they have different points of focus, but them playing pvp is actually always really close (and really long!) matches. High-breaks and centuries left right and center but also the "i will lightly slap the cushion to show my respect for the shot you just made" A LOT.

there's a lot of post-game slander that is very not gentlemen's sport

but they also love each other

lucanis is like "i mean illario has some MEAN offensive game and I'm more on the safeties sort of side. Incredible break-building."

and illario's like "man's is so SLOW it really takes me out of my flow >:(" [but deep down he admires that lucanis can and will take as long as he needs to leave the baize with the most incredible snooker played to date] [i need this bc I need to believe in the good in ppl and that ronnie o'sullivan isn't just a maladjusted entity >:(]

but when they're both in the World Championship finale it's the singular most watched snooker event ever, they will talk about it for years to come. Jan Verhaas will return from retirement specifically to referee this match. Michaela Tabb will also return to snooker to watch the computer part of it [like the one that supervises from a distance so support Jan in resetting the table after complicated situations].

Rolf Kalb will ALSO return from retirement to provide legendary live commentary for German-speaking audiences.

They will spawn an entire new generation of snooker players who, when asked what made them want to become professional, be like "the 9:64 Dragon Thedas Championship finale between the Dellamortes."

The little fancy commentary room they have in the Crucible for the BBC that is like entirely retired pro players at this point will have a field day. They will find a nickname for that match. Something outrageous like "Dellamorte Deathmatch" or "Combat of the Cousins"

and bc players also have nicknames in snooker

Lucanis "The Demon" Dellamorte [I thought of going Mage Killer and then make Illario The Mage but that's a little too far and there's already like 50 mage-adjacent nicknames on the main tour, so] His walk-in music would either be My Demons by Starset (bc I'm hilarious) or some tacky instrumental tune from a lovesong OR Michal's Kein Bock

Illario "Mage Killer" Dellamorte [bc he's a killer who's learnt magic lmao. no I just ran out of juice for this. I just wanted to see if I got any feedback on my thesis yet :(] Walk-in music: Scream by Bronnie or Scarecrow by Lordi

If they're healed anough to joke about it after the Thedas Championship final they will call each other "The Heir" and "The Spare", dependent on who won lmao.

kthxbye

if you have a niche sport/job/hobby it’s your sacred duty to make the most specific incomprehensible AUs with the characters you like. no more coffeeshop aus no more college aus you have to put those guys in a microbial lab. your fave is a high school english teacher. that show is about bowling now sorry. THIS IS MANDATORY!!!

[meglosthegreat]

So... everyone pretty much hated Veilguard's "secret ending", right? Beyond speculation about the Executors themselves, I haven't exactly seen anyone excited about its presence, and for that matter, haven't seen many people talking about it at all.

The closest way I can describe my initial reaction to it was an immediate, visceral disgust. I think I remember uttering at my screen something along the lines of "Fuck off! What the fuck?! Are you fucking kidding me???" and ever since then I've wanted to put into words exactly why it made me feel that way.

For the 88% of you (according to Steam achievement statistics) who didn't see this ending due to not picking up three very specific codex entries by complete chance, you can watch it here. In short, the clip depicts a mysterious voice who sounds suspiciously like Matt Mercer talking about how a group of shadowy figures has "balanced, guided, and whispered" over scenes of villains from the previous DA games, implying that these shadowy figures have been at least partially responsible for all of the bad things happening in Thedas, towards some unknown nefarious purpose.

Now obviously, this sucks. This is hamfisted, unimaginative writing that simultaneously retcons and re-contextualizes elements from DA's past that absolutely no one thought needed further explanation, as well as being exactly the kind of irritating sequel-bait tactics that people have largely grown tired of these days. But why does it suck so much? Why did I feel such palpable distaste for this scene?

For starters, it simply reeks of entitlement, and a lack of respect towards Bioware's own past games. Remember those villains you loved and thought were compelling? Well, their own personal, very complex and thought-out motivations were really just the Executors whispering in their ears the whole time! Loghain making a difficult and calculated decision at great personal cost for a greater good he truly believed in? Executors. Bartrand succumbing to his own greed to the point that he betrays his only family and devolves into a tragic husk of himself? Executors. Corypheus and the Magisters breaching the Golden fucking City??? Executors.

Ignore the infuriating lore ramifications for a second and consider: what do all of these things have in common? They're all instances of complex character motivation; of people in this world doing things for their own reasons that ended up having massive ramifications. In short, they're not events that can be explained easily in terms of black and white morality. And from what we've seen in Veilguard, the current dev team has a serious inability to work with any story elements that do not have absolute moral clarity: the Venatori and the Antaam are Evil. The Shadow Dragons and the Crows are Good. Any nuance; any potential questioning of this duality is quickly explained away or snuffed out.

And that's exactly what they're trying to do, retroactively, with the rest of the series. Having a hard time deciding whether Loghain was right or wrong? Well, worry not, the Executors are Evil and if they were guiding him the whole time, then what he did must have been Evil too! Grappling with how the plot of DA2 was about the inevitable tragedy of a series of oppressive systems reaching their natural breaking point? Well, wrestle no further, for if the Executors were involved then Meredith and Bartrand must've been Evil, no question! What the Magisters did was definitely Not Great, and what do you know, there were consequences for it that they and the whole world very much did pay for. But if the Executors were behind it all, then it was someone else's fault, some Evil power reaching in and making them do what they did, rather than their actions being the result of a horrific series of power abuses done by actual people.

Which leads me to where my initial disgust comes in. Because in a world which has always had core themes of power and its many abuses, actions that have consequences, and the idea that there are no true higher beings; every horrible thing that has ever been done was done by people, the simple act of putting shadowy figures behind key moments in history completely debases and neuters all of those themes. The whole point of Dragon Age as a series up until this point has been to illustrate the complex relationships people and societies have with power, choice, and morality. To remove that link - to place an external force between those characters and their choices - is to rob the series of any meaning whatsoever.

There is a staggering difference between the messaging of a game that tells you ordinary people are to blame for society's wrongs and a game that tells you a secret shadowy faction of evil forces are to blame for them. The former invites thought about one's own society; it has the potential to be uncomfortable and difficult to reconcile with. The latter assures its audience of the fantasy it is couched in. It gives the audience a boogeyman to be angry at, and in so doing deflects any potential for introspection. And that, I think, is the real point of the scene in question.

In a time where our media has become inundated with bland, unchallenging liberal politics, the idea of "cozy" stories have become a growing trend. These types of stories often sport a broad rejection of complicated themes, painful emotions, and nuance, preferring instead to provide a "safe" place to escape to. And with that "safe" space comes a directive not to engage in critical thinking about a work, and not to draw any message from that work and apply it to the real world. Yet this is exactly where Bioware seems to be heading nowadays.

Veilguard has already been faced with heavy criticism about playing things overly safe; removing anything that might be potentially uncomfortable for the player. And the end credits scene is no different. Don't think about things too hard, it whispers to you seductively, in Matt Mercer's soothingly Evil voice. See? The Bad Guys were behind everything, all along.

[sinnabarmoth]

Tribute for the Dragon (15/18)

Pairing: Dragon|Sylus x Fem|Reader

Summary: With the rut drawing to a close, you and Sylus look to the future for what this means for you both.

Content Warnings: Adult language. Minor breeding kink. P in V.

Length: 3k

Chapters: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (16)

Read on AO3

You soon realized that dragon ruts were not for the faint of heart. The next week of your life was the most exhausted you had ever been. Every single day, multiple times a day, Sylus found you wherever you were and fucked you within an inch of your life. He had cooled off a little, able to push aside the lustful haze to offer you some respite the longer it went on.

But that first day had been the most feral he had gotten. You hadn’t left the hoard room until late into the evening and that was just because you absolutely needed more food than what he scrounged up from the kitchen between rounds. Thankfully the entire rut didn’t need to take place in the hoard room so you at least got the cushion of the bed back to make things a little more comfortable.

You were also shocked at how sweet he was during the whole thing. Despite how rough things got and how filthy he spoke, he would always be there to help ease you back down. And if you really didn’t want to have sex, if you were just too sore for anymore he didn’t push you.

In between rounds you’d lay together and talk about what your future child was going to be like. “And you’re sure I’m not going to end up laying an egg?”

Sylus chuckled. “Yes. You won’t lay an egg.”

“But the woman who birthed you--”

“Was cursed and her womb magically altered to be able to lay a dragon egg. You are not cursed and because I am at least half human you should have a normal live birth.” Sylus assured you, “Although, the state of the baby is uncertain.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, when I was born I looked almost entirely human except for my eyes and as I got older the scales and tail and horns grew in. The children will most likely be the same way. But I do not know what all they may grow. Some might have horns and tails and wings and scales, others may not. Maybe one grows horns and scales but no tail. Maybe another grows wings but no claws. I cannot say for sure.”

“At least I don’t have to worry about little claws or horns complicating things when they come out.” you touched your stomach. You looked back at him. “Do you want to try one more time?”

His smile sharpened. “You bounced back quick this time. Alright then, come here.” He sat up in the bed. He pulled you across his lap, your back pressed to his chest.

He receded the armor around his hands with a small groan. “Sylus, I know it hurts you don’t have to--”

“I want to be able to play with your pussy a little before hand. The pain is temporary and not important.” he dipped his now clawless hand between your legs, the soft pad of his fingers swirling over your clit.

You reclined your head back on his shoulder as little blips of pleasure heated your body. “That’s it,” he said, “Always so responsive to me.”

He removed his hand from your pussy and sucked the juices from his fingers. You whined at the loss but you only got a dark chuckle in response. “Do not worry, little bird. You’ll get my hand and much more back in a minute. But right now, I need you to do something.”

He caressed your arms and lifted them up and behind you before curling them around his horns. “Hold onto these while I play with you and do not let go. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” he sighed, feeling how tightly you were gripping his horns.

You thought he was going to go back to your pussy but instead he moved slowly, his hands gliding up and down your body at a lazy pace. He traced every dip and curve with his hands as if memorizing every inch of your body by touch alone. His mouth kissed down the column of your neck and to your shoulders. When his mouth landed on the faint mark of your mating bite he suck his teeth into your soft exposed skin. Arousal pooled between your legs as he continued to caress and tease you.

You could feel him getting hard underneath you. The hard ridge of flesh was hot and curved back to rest on your folds. You tried to grind against it but he pulled your hips back to keep them still. “Not yet.” his breath was hot in your ear, “I want you ready to burst when I put it in.”

He continued to strum your body, plucking at your most sensitive spots but without any of the relief you sought. It seemed wholly unfair that he could be so patient during a rut. Wasn’t he supposed to throw you to the bed and fuck you until you were screaming in a fit of lust filled rage? How come he was teasing you?

“Someone’s pouting.” he turned your face to his. “What do you want, little bird? What can I do to make that frown go away.”

“You can put your dick in me. That’d be a nice start.” you batted your eyelashes at him. “Please master?”

“Calling me master while I’m in rut,” he growled, biting your neck again. “Do you think that a wise decision?”

“I think it’ll get me what I want.” you smirked. “So please, will you put your dick in me and breed my pussy, master?”

“That dirty trick won’t work forever.” Sylus muttered angrily as he lifted your hips up.

“I just need it to work now.”

“Becoming my mate made you such a brat.” he hissed as he lowered you down onto his cock. “There, you have your precious dick snug in that tight little pussy. If you want it bred though, you have to work for it.”

“But--”

“You expect your master to do all the work? That’s what you’re here for. Now get moving but don’t move your hands. Keep them wrapped around my horns.” he cupped your breasts and pinched and pulled at your nipples.

You began shaking your hips, pulling yourself up and down on his lap. His cock slid against your walls, sending bursts of ecstasy into your brain while he played with your breasts. He had sufficiently worked you up enough that you felt like you could come right then.

“You feel so good, wildfire.” he moaned into your neck. “This is exactly where I want you forever. Fucking yourself on my cock, trying to make me come. Cause that’s what you want, right? You want me to come. You want me to come inside you and breed this pretty pussy of yours?”

“Yes!” you clamped down on him tighter. “Yes Sylus! I want it! I need it!”

“I know you do.” he groaned, drawing in a sharp breath as you sped up. “You make me wanna come, wildfire. Just keep bouncing yourself on my dick.”

One of his hands trailed down your stomach and found your clit, adding to the sensations that were already overloading your body. “I won’t come until you do.” he said. “So if you want my cum you have to come for me, wildfire. Come on you master’s cock and he’ll give you what you want. What you need.”

“Ha…ha…ah fuck!” you forced your hips to move faster, chasing a release so close yet just out of reach. Your hands were cramping holding onto Sylus’s horns. The tighter you held them the heavier his breathing got.

“Sylus…” you whimpered. You were so close. “Sylus please!”

“Right here. I’m right here.” he craned your head back to kiss you. “You can do it. Just come for me.” he rubbed your clit faster, his other hand squeezed your breast.

“Sylus!” you moaned against his lips as you both came. He smothered the moan with another kiss, panting against your lips.

“So good. You are so fucking good, wildfire.” he pressed a kiss to your jaw.

Your arms fell to your sides as you relaxed against him. He rubbed at your shoulders, relieving the ache that had grown there. He moved you back so you were laying side by side on the bed again.

You took several deep breaths to center yourself, grounding yourself by nuzzling into Sylus’s chest. “Hey, not that this hasn’t been a lot of fun but how much longer is this rut going to last? I’m getting exhausted.”

Sylus rolled his eyes. “You were the one that tackled me into bed this morning, not the other way around.” he reminded you. “I think you forget that your libido is just as bad, if not worse than mine can be.”

“Fine. I admit it. But really, do you think we’re any closer to knowing if I’m pregnant or not?” you stared up at him with wide eyes.

“Oh my sweet little bird,” he pressed a soft kiss to your forehead. “If you had let me speak this morning instead of dragging me back into bed I would have been able to tell you that you already are.”

“What?”

“You’re pregnant. I could smell the change this morning. That’s why I originally came in here. I was going to tell you after you had a chance to wake up a little more.” he was smiling the widest you had ever seen him.

“I’m really…” tears sprang to your eyes. “We’re going to have a baby?”

“Yes, we are.”

You wrapped your arms tight around his neck. It was happening! It was really happening!

Oh gods it was happening…you were…with a… You were going to give birth to a little dragon baby. Oh gods. This was actually happening! It wasn’t just a fun roleplay in bed. It was real. You had a little dragon growing in your womb.

“You look panicked. Are you alright?” Sylus asked. “I thought you’d be happy.”

“I am! I am ridiculously happy!” you assured him. “I’m also kinda terrified. In a few months we’re going to have a baby. We’re going to be parents and be in charge of another life. I mean, how do we even do that?”

“We’ll figure it out.”

With your pregnancy confirmed the rut wore off. You were thankful for the respite but now your mind was filled with nothing but preparations for the baby. You weren’t even showing yet and all you could do was make lists of things that needed done.

“Where is the baby going to sleep?” You asked Sylus one afternoon as you sat at the kitchen table, a list of things that needed done in front of you. At the top of the list was make a nursery.

“I suspect they’ll sleep in our room until they’re old enough to move them to their own room. There’s a lot of empty rooms in the mountain. We can fit a whole brood of hatchlings in here.” he kissed the top of your head and went about grabbing a bowl of stew from the large pot over the fire.

“A brood? Exactly how many kids do you want to pump into me?”

“I was thinking at least six or more.” he said with a shrug.

“Six!” you shouted.

“My ideal is nine since it’s a lucky number.” he took in your dumbstruck expression. “What?”

“You are insane if you think I’m going to birth nine kids.” you couldn’t even comprehend having a family that large. “I’ll give you three.”

“Seven.”

Was he haggling the number of kids you were going to have? Fine then. “Maybe four.”

“Five?”

“Four.”

“Alright, four.” he set another bowl of stew done for you. “Make sure to finish that. You’re eating for two now.”

“I know.” you set the list aside. “I need to go into town and do some shopping later, as well as tell my father and friends the news.”

“I’ll take you down whenever you’re ready. Are you nervous at all about telling them?”

“A little. It’s only recently that father came around to you and I’m not sure how he’s going to react. I hope he’ll be happy with the idea of being a grandfather at least.”

“You’re giving him his first grandchild, he’ll be thrilled no matter what.” Sylus assured you.

You grabbed some coins from the hoard room and left with Sylus for the village. Your first stop was to find your father and tell him the news. Sylus walked with you to the house but stayed in the background as you talked to your father. Your father was shocked at first but was soon smiling and congratulating you and Sylus both on your upcoming bundle of joy.

“I’ll have to get started working then.” he said, “I’m going to make a mobile for you to hang over the crib.”

“That sounds wonderful, father. Thank you.” you hugged him again. “I actually came into town to commission the woodworker for the cradle as well as buy some fabric and yarn to make baby clothes. I also need to find Tara and tell her. I know she’s going to be thrilled too.”

“That she will be. Congratulations, sweet pea. I can’t wait to meet them when they’re born.” he gave you a kiss on the cheek and you were on your way.

You left to run your other errands. Sylus was still by your side, looming in the corner wherever you went like a shadow. The village had really come to like him but he was still rather uncomfortable with the attention. He looked like he was going to fly away when you told Tara the news about your pregnancy and had given Sylus a huge hug in her excitement. She had promised to do a reading for your pregnancy as soon as possible and tell her mother so she could make you a perfect baby blanket for the little one.

Your last stop after the fabric shop was the woodworker to commission the cradle. There were some other people there that saw you come in with Sylus and froze. The woodworker looked up though and smiled. “Ah, what can I do for you today?”

“Hello, I came with a very special request. Mind you, I won’t need it for a couple months so take your time but what I really need is a cradle.”

“A cradle?” the woodworker smiled. “Oh my dear girl, you’re having a baby?”

“Yes. Yes I am.”

“Another mighty dragon in the village. What wonderful news.” the woodworker called to Sylus, “How big of a baby do we need to plan for?”

“A regular sized cradle should be fine.” Sylus said. “They shouldn’t be much different from a human baby.”

Sylus looked to his side where a man that had been waiting in the shop was staring at him. You didn’t recognize him immediately but it was a decent sized village, you didn’t have every face memorized. Sylus didn’t seem to appreciate the man’s staring and glared at him. “Do you have something to say to me?”

The man shook his head and took off. While most people in the village were used to Sylus there were some who still didn’t entirely trust him. It was an inevitability but hopefully in the years to come everyone would come to recognize him not as a threat but as a neighbor.

Once everything was done and finished you stopped by to say a final goodbye to your father and returned to the mountain.

You set what you had bought down and started getting preparations ready for dinner. While you were cooking you kept hearing Sylus walking back and forth past the kitchen. What was he doing now? While dinner simmered over the fire you went out to find him.

It was then that you noticed there was a carpet under your feet. That definitely hadn’t been there before. Where had it come from? And there were more carpets! They made a trail down the corridor and into your bedroom. Sylus was in there unrolling another carpet and layering it with the others.

“What are you doing? Where’d all the carpet come from?”

“Ah, yes,” he stood up, “I got to thinking that when the baby is born it’d be best if they had something soft to crawl around on so I’ve been finding whatever rugs I could from the hoard room and laid them out. I may also need to go around the walls and smooth them out so if they run into them they don’t get cut.”

It was endearing watching him worry and fret about how to make the mountain safer for your baby. You hadn’t even been pregnant a month and he was already doing so much. You walked up to him, your feet squishing against the plush carpet, and hugged him. “I’m so glad that our baby is going to have you as a father. I really am.”

His arms closed around you. “I’m the lucky one, really. To have a child with you. Knowing that this child is going to have you as their mother.” he knelt down, his face inches from your stomach. “Your mother is so good, little one. And I am going to love and protect you both for the rest of my life. I swear, nothing bad will ever happen to you so long as I draw breath.”

He kissed your stomach. You ran your hands through his hair, holding him there as he rested his head against you. “I can’t wait to meet our little one too.”

[brucebocchi]

Ranking 2024 anime, Pt. 5: #10-1

hey, this post is also available on my ko-fi, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i do this for free and am currently between jobs. you can find part 1 of the list here, part 2 here, part 3 here, and part 4 here. all of my seasonal reviews are on my ko-fi and under my anime reviews tag, mixed in with my occasional musings. thanks!

And we are in the home stretch! I didn't want to split up my top 10 like last year, so it took a couple days to get it all together. Thanks for your patience.

​As you may have noticed, some of these reviews are longer than others. I've reviewed most of these shows before, so I didn't want to be too redundant while talking about shows I've already reviewed. You can, of course, go back and read my initial reviews in my previous seasonal roundups.

Also, I just wanted to quickly shout out a few shows that I haven't watched much or any of, but would likely have placed well in these rankings, namely Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction, YATAGARASU, the Spice and Wolf remake, Orb: On the Movements of Earth, Sound! Euphonium's third season, and the late Akira Toriyama's SAND LAND and Dragon Ball DAIMA. I only have so much time in a day, week, month, and year, but those series have been on my radar and I do intend to pick them up sooner or later.

But for now, let's focus on what I did watch. Off we go:

10. Blue Box

This is a slightly biased placement on my end because I picked up the manga this year and quickly fell in love with it, and I’m just happy that it got a faithful, well-made anime adaptation. If you have an issue with that, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret: This whole list is biased. It’s MY list, after all.

After an uneven summer output between My Dear Friend Nokotan and Suicide Squad Isekai, WIT Studio is in full form adapting Kouji Miura’s gorgeous high school sports romance. Rising first-year badminton player Taiki has a huge crush on his basketball star senpai Chinatsu, who practices in the same high school gym he does. He’s happy enough to keep a friendly distance as they improve at their respective sports, but that distance is closed significantly when her parents go abroad for work and she ends up moving in under the same roof as him. The spirit of competition is in the air, and is that a whiff of romance I smell as well?

The reason I felt the need to call out my own bias at the start is because Blue Box’s debut cour is, on balance, probably just “pretty good,” but I was just so overjoyed that this anime even exists that I was willing to overlook the early story’s growing pains. Taiki, of course, is the POV character for most of the first cour, and most of the romantic tension we see so far is entirely from his end as he swoons and huffs and goes into cardiac arrest over any and every gesture Chinatsu throws his way. You know, teenage boy stuff. There have been criticisms that Chinatsu doesn’t get much interiority for a bit and that she’s a bit of an enigma in terms of her role in the central “romance,” such that it is so far, which is a valid criticism of a lot of shonen romance stories. I’m generally of the mind that these things are more potent when the object of the protagonist’s affection is treated as more than a puzzle for him to solve, but I think Blue Box does a fine job of establishing what Chinatsu means to Taiki before we do indeed begin to get a feel for how she operates and what she might think of him. If you found that part a little maddening early on, trust me when I say it’s worth sticking it out.

Regardless, the character writing is what made Blue Box such a hit in Weekly Shonen Jump. Taiki is a flat-out good kid, if a little naive, and his boundless determination to achieve and exceed his goals in both badminton and romance makes him easy to root for. Chinatsu is fairly taciturn, as mentioned, but that’s by design; she’s a notoriously difficult person to read, as even her friends and teammates note that they can rarely decipher what she’s thinking. She’s still an effortlessly charming character, and it’s not hard to figure out why Taiki’s got it so bad for her. The real highlight of the series, though, is Taiki’s classmate and longtime friend, Hina, a rhythmic gymnast and an absolute troll. She is an absolute delight in every scene she’s in, whether she’s knocking Taiki’s knees out from under him, focusing on rehearsing her next routine, or prying into Taiki’s love life and realizing that, oops, she really cares about him too. Hina is wonderful and I just want the best for her.

Characters this likable will need the voices to match, and I am over the moon about this show’s casting. Shouya Chiba is tremendous as Taiki, in a far cry from his Epic Based Stoic Chad role as Ayanokoji in Classroom of the Elite. Every line read for Taiki sounds exactly as gung-ho about sports and devastatingly down bad for his crush as you’d expect of a hormonal 15 year old. Reina Ueda is terrific as the soft-spoken Chinatsu, but I’m looking forward to hearing the always-delightful Xanthe Huynh (Haru in Persona 5, Marianne in Fire Emblem Three Houses) take on the role in the dub just as much. Akari Kitou channels much of the same gremlin energy she did for KamiKatsu to portray Hina’s mischief, and I look forward to hearing her nail Hina’s excellent upcoming character moments. And although it’s a secondary role, the casting I was most excited to hear was Chiaki Kobayashi (Mash in Mashle, Stark in Frieren) as Taiki’s teammate Kyo. Kobayashi’s languid tsukkomi affect was exactly what I had in mind whenever Kyo would put Taiki’s lovelorn antics into stark relief in the manga. It’s like he was born for the part.

This show looks tremendous, perfectly adapting both the soft, doe-eyed character designs from the manga as well as the lower-detail gags. The pastel color palette and gorgeous lighting effects are exactly what I was hoping for while reading the manga.  If I have any complaint, though, it’s mostly that I want to see more of the sports action. The granular details of the badminton matches and basketball games are hardly the focus of the story, but the action panels are usually the best part of Miura’s art in the manga. Shot-for-shot, it certainly does hew close to the manga presentation, but it’s mostly a racquet swing or close-up jump shot followed by an onlooker’s reaction. I’d have liked a bit more follow through. The CGI used for background competitors can get a little distracting after a while, too, but it’s easy to forget about.

Blue Box is continuing into 2025, and I’m waiting for every new episode with bated breath. If you liked the first cour enough but still have doubts, trust me when I say it just keeps getting better. I look forward to coming back to the second half of this season in another year for my victory lap.

9. Girls Band Cry

This is one of the most inventive girls-band anime out there, certainly the most so since that one from 2022 that I swore I wouldn’t bring up by name. Gorgeous 3D-CG animation, stirring original music, and a compelling cast of characters combine to make Girls Band Cry even more than the sum of its parts.

More than anything, I think what makes Girls Band Cry a terrific showbiz series is that it depicts the uncomfortable reality that a lot of artists are just flat-out unpleasant people and often don’t mesh well with one another. Protagonist Nina is messy, stubborn, and angry at the world and her parents and will not hesitate to make it your problem. She butts heads with her friends and bandmates at any provocation, but stubbornness is a major driving factor in the plot: Each of the five members of Togenashi Togeari has something they’re trying to move on from with their music, and while they each have an opinion on how to get there, they do come to realize, after a lot of silly yelling matches, that they want to do so together.

As a vehicle to push Girls Band Cry and Togenashi Togeari as a real-world multimedia experience, this show is a success. It’s a terrific-looking show in ways we rarely see outside of Studio Orange productions (and allegedly Love Live! Sunshine!!, which director Kazuo Sakai also had a hand in); the 3D computer-generated character models and animations are terrifically expressive and lively, and creative visual effects add a compelling sense of synaesthesia to Nina's emotional highs and lows. The voice cast, all pseudonymous contest winners, are also the real-life band members, and they fully nail both elements of their roles. TogeToge’s music in the show is terrific, and as an already-existing Gorillaz-esque virtual band, I’m excited to dig into their back catalog.

Girls Band Cry finally got an official English translation, so there’s no longer any excuse to sleep on this one. It’s funny, it’s heartfelt, and above all else, it fucking rocks. Don’t let this one fade away just because you might’ve missed it when it aired.

8. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, second cour

When I ranked the first cour of Frieren as the best anime of 2023, I wrote:

The debut season of Frieren will continue into 2024, and if the quality remains a constant, it could very well be one of the best anime of next year too. It has remained as MyAnimeList’s top-rated anime ever for its entire run, warding off the legion of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood fans. Frieren deserves it.

A year later, it is still MAL’s top-rated anime, and by a healthy margin. Another 12 episodes aired to kick off 2024, and it was indeed one of the best anime of this year as well. I stand firm in my convictions that not only is it one of the best anime of the decade so far, it’s one of the best anime I’ve ever seen.

I really shot my wad by praising Frieren so profusely midway through its run, to the point where I still don’t really feel the need to add much more here. The second cour mostly focuses on the First Class Mage exam arc, allowing us to learn more about the present state of magic in the modern day and adding some much-needed depth to the cast. It continues to strike a lovely balance between the quieter moments and bonkers action sequences, as well as the more serious moments with laugh-out-loud goofiness. It may be a lesser arc in this story, but it would be a standout in so many others.

If I haven’t been clear enough, I remain over the moon about Frieren. The second cour looks and sounds just as incredible as the first, and this show’s success should serve as a reminder to the industry that investment in quality pays off. Madhouse knows they have a banger on their hands, and if the next season can maintain this level of production value for the major arc that is still to come, Frieren may very well earn GOAT status. Even if another season somehow never materializes, I’ll still be talking about this season in five years when it comes time to talk about the best of the decade. Watch this goddamn show.

7. A Sign of Affection

For all the romance anime and manga I consume, I’ve shamefully been lacking on the shoujo/josei front. I really gotta fix that. If reading more shoujo was what spurred Yukinobu Tatsu to make DanDaDan, then who knows what it might do for me? A Sign of Affection isn’t my first shoujo, strictly speaking, but it does feel like one of the first I’ve seen of the good old-fashioned flowery romance type.

What a gorgeous show. A Sign of Affection looks terrific, sounds terrific, and above all feels terrific. This is just a lovely, fluffy romance with low stakes and easy payoff; just two pretty people getting to know each other and learning to overcome their differences. It’s low on gimmicks and plot contrivances, and for as much as I like romcoms and romance stories with a unique bent, I love a good straightforward romance just as much sometimes. Everyone looks beautiful and likes each other and Jesus Christ look at the lips on these boys. There’s even a double-date to Costco, and what better depiction of marital bliss could there be?

I’m still pleasantly surprised at how this show handles the main character’s disability. Protagonist Yuki’s congenital deafness isn’t a single-note character quirk or a plot device to make her seem helpless; it simply is. It’s a part of her life that serves as the lens through which all of the people in her life see and treat her, and it leads to the only thing that resembles a major conflict in the show. Itsuomi, the main romantic interest, doesn’t baby her or walk all over her; he instead gently tests her boundaries while learning to accommodate her in a way to ensure her comfort. Her childhood friend Oushi, on the other hand, is very jealous of this development because he seems to feel entitled to her just because he did the bare minimum to accommodate her. The circumstances aren’t common, of course, but it’s a good lesson for a shoujo to have: Don’t settle.

My praise for A Sign of Affection mostly boils down to “it’s just really nice,” but it does “just really nice” so goddamn well. It’s fluffy, it’s comfy, it’s cozy, all of those adjectives that would set off my fight-or-flight response if I heard them from someone else, but I was enthralled by this show week in and week out. I can’t believe I neglected to start reading the manga, and I’m gonna have to get on that ASAP because I can’t wait for another season.

6. The Apothecary Diaries, second cour

I found myself more intrigued at The Apothecary Diaries at the end of 2023 than most other shows I’d watched that year. I grew more and more invested in the idiosyncratic Maomao as she investigated mysterious ailments and navigated imperial palace politics, all the while being a lovable little shit. 

Before I’d realized it, though, the 2024 half of its run knew it had its hooks in me and took me for a ride. What looked at first like a series of one-off puzzles quickly began entangling into a much larger mystery, rapidly gaining momentum until exploding into a massive emotional payoff. So many of the small details in what you assume are episodic mystery-of-the-week mini-stories become relevant in unexpected ways and draw you in ever further. I adore this kind of lowkey long-term storytelling, and for it to be part of such an appealing package is basically catnip for me.

For as gorgeous as The Apothecary Diaries can be visually, sonically, and sometimes even emotionally, it’s worth mentioning that this show is also hilarious a lot of the time. Maomao is on permanent goblin mode whenever she isn’t carrying out official business, and any time the palace officials have to rein her in is a delight. The push-and-pull between her and Jinshi is endlessly entertaining to the point where I can wait forever for that payoff if I have to.

I neglected to read the Apothecary Diaries manga after the first season went off the air (though I nearly bought all of it sight unseen), and with the second about to drop, I guess I’m holding off for another six months. Can’t say I mind, though. I’m along for the ride and I want this show to keep surprising me for as long as it can. This is easily one of the best anime of the 2020s so far and I’m gonna be there front row center for every new episode.

5. Bang Brave Bang Bravern

People say “peak fiction” too goddamn often these days. Not that it was a meaningful term to begin with, but it’s been memed to hell and back and is mostly just thrown out ironically to mock garbage writing. To be honest, I’m not above it myself, but I prefer to ascribe it, even jokingly, to stuff that can only truly come from a brilliant and/or deranged mind. Preferably both. Peak fiction, to me, is the intersection where talent meets insanity, no matter the degree of either.

Bang Brave Bang Bravern is peak fiction.

I gushed about this show after the winter season, and I almost don’t want to say anything further about it, mostly for two reasons: Firstly, because I don’t really want to give the game away any more than I already did back in April, and secondly, because I think it may have permanently burrowed into a specific part of my brain and then melted it. All I’m left with is “this show fucking rocks, dudes rock, you need to see it, it’s peak, don't ask questions, just watch it.”

Indeed, Bravern is the Dudes Rock anime of the year, and an essential piece of Dudes Rock media. It’s Top Gun with aliens and a giant talking robot. And the robot wants to fuck his pilot. This show is loud, horny, stupid, and self-aware, combined just so into a cocktail of legitimate brilliance that is, for better or worse, unlike anything I’ve seen before or since. Nearly every single episode had me clawing at my hair and shrieking “WHAT THE FUCK AM I WATCHING,” and that is the highest praise I can give just about anything.

I might be overselling it just a touch, but Bravern is just as earnest as it is utterly wild. It’s an intentionally hilarious show, but it means everything it does and says. It’s a love letter to mecha anime and tokusatsu, and with its top staff sporting Gundam and Macross bona fides, that love oozes into every aspect. The mechs, both manmade and alien, all look tremendous, the music is a throwback to the goofy bombast you’d find in series like this as far back as the Showa era, and the ensemble cast outside of our silly leads are just as gung-ho and serious about Saving The World as you’d find in just about any other mech show. Anything that can be this goofy with a completely straight face is going to hook me in.

All in all, Bang Brave Bang Bravern is hypercompetent lunacy with heart. Call it weaponized genre awareness if you must, but it knows exactly what it’s about, grabs you by the collar, and takes you for a ride, all while doing badass tokusatsu poses and calling out special moves with silly names. This is legitimately what fiction is all about. 

Also, if you don’t like Lulu just because she screeches a lot, you’re a weakling. Gaga-pi, motherfucker.

4. The Dangers in My Heart, season 2

This was a series whose first season was conspicuously absent from my 2023 rankings, but I caught up shortly after finishing that list in order to catch up to the second season. I’d watched a glut of slice-of-life romances in 2023 and figured I could afford to miss this one. I’m overjoyed at how wrong I was.

To paraphrase the second season’s exceptional OP, The Dangers in My Heart is indescribably beautiful. As I said with A Sign of Affection, I love me a straightforward anime romance, and this middle school slice-of-life is just that: Underdeveloped edgelord boy ends up making unlikely friends with, and falling for, the cheery popular girl in his class. This is easy wish-fulfillment on paper, but that’s hiding the trick: Kyotaro isn’t gonna get anything he wants by keeping his quills out for anyone who comes near, and he has some growing up to do if he’s ever gonna get what he wants.

Season 2 picks up right where the first left off, with Kyotaro’s arm still broken from his family trip and Anna feeling guilty because she thinks her distraction was what led to the injury. Right out of the gate, we see the care these two have developed for one another: Anna wants to help while he can’t do his own schoolwork, while Kyo is quick to try to cheer her up when she no longer feels like she’s able to. Already we’re seeing Kyotaro’s character development coming to light: The Dangers in My Heart isn’t a story about a Nice Guy getting the girl just by being there; it’s a story of self-improvement, of trying to become the type of person whom your crush would want to fall in love with. For a story about and ostensibly marketed to early teenagers, that’s a good lesson to have, and I absolutely devour stories like that.

As can be the case with plenty of adolescents, most of the conflict here is internal. Kyotaro spent the early part of his middle school education keeping a safe distance from everyone in order to avoid getting hurt, and as you can imagine, that did a number on his self esteem. Though he’s mostly kicked the chuunibyo mindset, Kyo still prefers to keep his distance, less because he doesn’t want to get hurt, but now because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone else. Specifically Anna. So much of this story is about him learning to be okay with letting people in and not just falling in love, but making friends and becoming somebody whom people just want to be around. It’s a chuuni rehabilitation story. You love to see it.

With all due respect to mangaka Norio Sakurai, the biggest surprise that came from reading the manga was how much better the anime looks than its source material. The anime looks tremendous in its own right, but compared to Sakurai’s doodly, occasionally messy style, the love put into the show stands in stark relief. Characters, backgrounds, and lighting are all soft, squishy, and warm, almost like the entire thing was run through the filter through which only a 13-year-old in love can see, even as a little edgelord. Little flourishes in the environment and music highlight the minute but consequential motes of progression in Kyo and Anna’s relationship. The OP ended up shaking out as my favorite of the year, even with 2024 being bookended by Creepy Nuts bangers. It’s that special to me.

And just like that, The Dangers in My Heart went from “eh probably not for me” to “yeah this is one of the best anime of the decade so far.” It’s a simple slice-of-life romance on paper, almost literally so in the manga, but this is a transformative adaptation. There’s much more of the story to tell, and I wouldn’t complain about more, but as it stands after two seasons, The Dangers in My Heart is damn near perfect as it is.

3. Oshi no Ko, season 2

Another year, another season, another top-four finish for one of the best manga adaptations I’ve ever seen. 

The anime adaptation of Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari’s showbiz-revenge manga made shockwaves last year following its thunderous feature-length premiere, and its source material made even more waves due to some questionable plot developments that fortunately went nowhere. Doga Kobo was undeterred by any negative attention brought to the brand, though, and pressed forward into the next arc with a level of swagger you rarely see brought into an anime’s sequel season.

The 2.5D stage play arc in Oshi no Ko’s manga wasn’t my favorite, but it was one that you could tell just from reading it would translate well to the screen. Even then, I wasn’t prepared for just how hard Doga Kobo would go in adapting it. Character animation is sumptuously fluid, color used to amazing effect, and personal expression bursts forth into impressionistic abstraction to such a degree that it made manga artist Yokoyari cry. Everyone looks and sounds incredible beyond any way I could’ve imagined from reading the manga, which, at the risk of sounding defensive, is still very good as a whole.

This being a story largely about the music industry, the music remains as on-point as ever. It’s too soon to tell if the second season’s OP/ED pairing tops the instantly-iconic “Idol” and “Mephisto” from the first, but these are no slouches. This season’s OP, “Fatale,” is a whiplash-inducing banger by Tatsuya Kitani and idol Kento Nakajima, performing under the collaborative name of GEMN (itself a relevant name to the show; twins without the i/Ai, DO YOU GET IT???) with visuals that might actually top those of Idol. The new ED, “Burning,” is Hitsujibungaku at their fuzzy, 90s-style alt-rock best, and it takes on a brand new meaning by the end of the season. Of course, there’s also the story-relevant music; while the bulk of the season focuses on the stage play, the last few episodes give us a glimpse into the pop music process, with the season capping off with an in-universe music video that, while not sonically my exact cup of tea, features 90 seconds of some of the best-looking dance animation I’ve ever seen in my life. That’s a flex if I’ve ever seen one.

And just like the first season, the second capped off with an announcement that Oshi no Ko will indeed be returning for another season. At this rate, and with the anime’s success, they will adapt the entire work, which will raise some eyebrows. I’m not going to litigate the manga’s later controversial developments nor its widely-panned ending, but if Doga Koba was able to handle everything that came before those things with such aplomb, I have faith that it will at least be done well.

2. DanDaDan

I want to preface this by saying that I agonized over whether this or the final entry is my anime of the year. I’m comfortable with what I chose, but if I’m being realistic, DanDaDan is basically 1b. This is a masterpiece already.

Although the source material was a bit of a cult hit until this year, DanDaDan came with a considerable amount of hype. If you were even peripherally familiar, it wasn’t hard to see why: Yukinobu Tatsu’s art is absurdly detailed in almost every panel, character designs are easily recognizable (one of the leads dressing similarly to a Persona 3 character was fortuitous for the anime to drop in the same year as Reload), and so many bizarre things happen in the plot that relaying them to anybody who wasn’t already familiar would make their brain briefly touch the void. Above all, though, Science SARU was tabbed to animate it, and any project by them is immediately worth your attention.

Sure enough, DanDaDan made an instantaneous splash, its first episode adapting the manga’s bombastic, twisty 63-page opening chapter nearly beat for beat. I’m not gonna “don’t look it up, just go in blind” this one, but almost too much happens for me to properly detail it all without just writing a complete synopsis. It boils down to “lonely nerd boy believes in aliens, angry kogal believes in yokai, it turns out both are real and now they have to deal with it.” It’s silly, it’s wild, it’s action packed, and if you can stomach the sexually-compromising alien abduction of the girl, you’re along for the ride.

I’m not gonna harp too much on that last point. It does stink that the female lead, Momo, is stripped to her underwear for the sake of alien sexual “research,” but said aliens get their comeuppance before anything happens to her. It’s still not great, and it’s not the last time female characters are portrayed in their underwear, but I do promise it’s for story reasons, it takes a backseat to the onscreen action and is pretty clearly not done for the sake of fanservice. I know such things can be beyond the pale for some people, but if you think you can compartmentalize that, I recommend you watch the first episode with that caveat in mind and decide from there. You may be pleasantly surprised.

DanDaDan is effectively two stories at once; on one side, we have Momo and the boy, Okarun (a nickname Momo devised for him to preserve her own sanity), gaining wacky supernatural powers in order to fight back these occult threats and regain what was stolen from Okarun from his first encounter with the unexpected (IYKYK). Because these threats can come out of nowhere, their daily high school lives can completely pop off without warning. On the other side, we have quieter slice-of-life tension as Momo and Okarun get to know (and frequently misunderstand) each other and realize they are completely and hopelessly head-over-heels for one another.

Surprise, motherfucker: DanDaDan is a romcom.

Yukinobu Tatsu, formerly an assistant on the first saga of Chainsaw Man, long struggled to get his own work serialized. At his editor’s urging, he read something like a hundred manga for inspiration, including several shoujo romance series. That research shows through in DanDaDan; although the bonkers action sequences and off-the-wall monster designs are what draw in readers and viewers alike, what’s kept this many people along for the ride is the beating heart just barely under the surface in the form of the romantic tension between Momo and Okarun. It’s easy to write this off as some “lonely nerd gets the cute gyaru just by being a Nice Guy” wish fulfillment, but that’s not really the case here; Okarun was a weird little twerp right from the jump. Similarly to Kyotaro in the aforementioned Dangers in My Heart, Okarun believes early on that he’s nowhere near Momo’s league, completely unaware that she quickly grows to actually like having him around, so he puts in the effort to become a more well-rounded person so that he can be confident enough to be seen next to her. He also just wants Momo to think he’s cool, and she thinks that’s adorable. And she’s right! These two are cute as fuck together.

So you come for the wild action and stay for the tremendous character dynamics. It should go without saying that Science SARU nailed all of the above, but I’m gonna say it anyway. Reading the Manga+ comments on each chapter as I read through the manga, readers were begging a top-flight battle shonen studio like MAPPA or WIT to pick up the series, and I think these fans got more than they bargained for. Masaaki Yuasa hasn’t been in charge of a series at the studio since Eizouken, or anything they’ve put out since Inu-Oh, but his influence is all over their recent works, including last year’s fellow top-three series, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. It’s beyond impressive how, much like Scott Pilgrim, this series manages to maintain the source material’s art style while still looking very much like a Science SARU anime. Everyone is bouncy and malleable as their moods dictate, line weights are wildly varied, and action animation is kinetic and unpredictable. Each fight with an alien or cryptid is awash in eye-searing color or eerie greyscale. The music is a boatload of fun as well; even putting aside the Creepy Nuts OP (banger after banger after banger from those dudes) and Zutomayo ED, regular proceedings are punctuated by a wildly varied score, from funk to folk to an insane chase scene set to an electronic mashup of the “William Tell Overture” and the can-can. Everything about DanDaDan keeps you guessing.

I was looking forward to DanDaDan enough that I went to the theatrical premiere of the first three episodes and was sufficiently blown away. If you’ve seen the show, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that it looks and sounds incredible in a cinema setting. I left the theater positively buzzing, telling anyone who’d listen that they had no idea what was coming, but even knowing the entire story, I wasn’t prepared for more of what was to come. The literal next episode after what I’d already seen in the theater had one of the most bonkers action setpieces I’ve seen since Gurren Lagann, and just four episodes later an unbelievable emotional gut punch, prior knowledge of the manga be damned. Every single aspect of DanDaDan as an anime was given the same level of love and care that Tatsu put into his own work. It’s one thing for an anime adaptation to be faithful to its source material, and another entirely for it to elevate and transform it. DanDaDan is somehow both.

If there’s anything that held this back from being the anime of the year, it’s that this season kind of just… ends. With the 12-episode runtime that was given to the debut season, DanDaDan ends its first run right after the beginning of the manga’s next arc, which feels bizarre. There’s no resolution, but there’s no real cliffhanger here either. Which I kind of get, the story is driven by a constant forward momentum, but a little warning that the season was ending would’ve been nice. It’s only a six month break until the show comes back, but judged on its own, the way this season ended left me feeling a bit cold and the season itself feeling incomplete. Even shows that have year-long breaks between cours rather than seasons tend to put some kind of cap on each individual run, but DanDaDan just kinda left the toilet unflushed, and next to it a Post-It note promising to come back later. For something this lovingly crafted, that seems like a bizarre oversight.

That was hardly enough to temper my enjoyment though. Anything this well-made is deserving of the attention and success it’s attained, but to have this story, with these characters and this level of bonkers action made this well, is just an embarrassment of riches. And God help me, I’m shamelessly greedy. July can’t come fast enough. I need all of it.

1. Delicious in Dungeon

At the end of its run midway through the year, I declared Dungeon Meshi the best anime of the year up to that point and that I’d be impressed if anything would manage to overtake it. Though the other two entries in my top three made extremely strong cases, nothing else quite hit the spot and nourished the soul quite like Dungeon Meshi.

Barely a year removed from one of 2022’s best anime, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, Studio Trigger kicked off 2024 with another Netflix original, this time with its first proper manga adaptation since the studio split from Gainax a decade prior. It seemed an odd fit at first to have a studio known for wacky, hyperkinetic action productions like Kill la Kill and Promare to adapt this quirky fantasy dungeon manga, but hey, they also did Little Witch Academia. It turned out to be an odd fit, but in the best way: Dungeon Meshi is pretty offbeat as it is, so for it to get picked up by one of the more oddball prestige studios ended up making a tasty stew.

I struggled to elaborate on what makes this show so good after each of its cours, and six months later I remain a little lost for words. It’s an exceptional story adapted exceptionally well. Between the characters, the story, the setting, the emotional stakes, the comedy, the highs and lows, they nailed it all. Trigger just gets it. Even when characters go off-model for the sake of an intentional animation quirk, it still has that inimitable Trigger charm to it. It sounds just as good as it looks, too: The orchestral score highlights the quieter, sillier moments just as well as the tenser action setpieces, the foley work behind the dungeon’s bizarre and varied flora and fauna is immaculate, and the cast is perfect in both Japanese and English (I rarely ever say so but seriously, shout out to the dub).

I’m just as sick of saying “this show speaks for itself” when I have trouble finding the words as you probably are of reading it, but I have little else to add here. I’ve written plenty already. Just go watch it. This is already one of my favorite manga ever, and by the time the series wraps up at the end of its second season, it will easily end up as one of my favorite anime ever.

[takashi0]

This is only true if you're one of those people who think that a DnD campaign where Orcs are the primary villain is some sort of coded message saying that being racist to black people is good, aka a fucking psychopath who is projecting their own bigotry onto fantasy media.

Literally the entire point of the Hearth's warming special with the Windigos and Zecora's introduction episode was "hey being racist is BAD!" Or more accurately mostly the first one since the second one is also a "Don't judge a book by its cover" aesop that also had smatterings of "racism is bad" with it thanks to Zecora being a Zebra. I can't fucking stand this notion of "If you ever had bigoted tendencies ever at all you're irredeemably evil and we will never, ever acknowledge the fact that you changed for the better."

That is some fucking Lily Orchard tier "Straight up lying about the show", there's like FOUR episodes out of Nine seasons!

I'll concede that the buffalo thing wasn't the best thought out idea, but you're talking about a tv show meant for seven year olds and the moral of the episode is "Learn to compromise", you are out of your goddamn mind if you think they're going to touch on things like the Trail of Tears, let alone do it in a fantasy world where you can just say that shit didn't happen.

I'm pretty sure the actual thing they said was "G5 being a distant sequel where the ponies are racist to each other like the Hearths Warming Origin episode completely undermines everything Twilight and co did through the show", but hey acknowledging that means you can't make the show look bad or the fandom look irrational for no reason, and God knows we can't have that!

Oh wow the main protagonists aren't perfect people, I thought that's what you fucking yahoos wanted.

Also didn't Yona give up trying to act like a pony and the ponies gave up on trying to make her act like one too?

Again, real "Orcs are totally black people you guys" vibes

Dragon culture was made up of Fratboy douchebags who tormented each other and other races for fun, to the point where they tried to get Spike to smash Phoenix eggs for shits and giggles. Another dragon straight up tried to KILL SPIKE just for entering his cave.

The Griffons were rude assholes who only cared about themselves and money.

My memory is hazy but I wouldn't blame anyone for not being super stoked about Yak culture since the most I remember of the Yaks outside of Yona is "Screaming loudly and breaking everything in sight."

And I swear to God if you use THE CHANGELINGS as an excuse to slander the ponies you are a complete goddamn idiot. Their first introduction on the show is them INVADING A CITY and attempting to harvest the population for love! Which is exactly what they did in their next appearance to Ponyville! Yes, Thorax exists! Yes, they all eventually did a face turn and Chrysalis left because she's a bitch! That's great! That's wonderful! But that doesn't change the fact that Thorax's whole challenge was proving to the ponies that he wanted to peacefully coexist! The ponies not trusting him were obviously in the wrong to do so, BUT THEY HAD GOOD FUCKING REASON TO NOT IMMEDIATELY TRUST HIM.

If you're going to give the mane six shit for thinking the Zebra they've never seen before who hangs out in THE DANGEROUS FOREST OF MAGICAL PLANTS AND ANIMALS THAT CAN KILL YOU could MAYBE be dangerous, but act like the Changelings did nothing wrong, you need to sort out your priorities!

The Seaponies/Hippogriffs were the only culture aside from maybe the Zebras (who we didn't see until the season 10 comics which I haven't read so idk) and I guess the Kirin (who had like one problem that one of their own already understood how to solve anyway) that you could say "nah they don't need to learn friendship from the ponies." And see the buffalo thing above for "These aren't missionaries you fucking morons, this is a little girl show about friendship."

Yeah! And the board were the ANTAGONISTS! The main villain of the season was the head of the Board's DAUGHTER who worked with the closest thing the show had to SATAN to try and sabotage it! Again, why the fuck are you guys acting like Calvinists?

They fucking didn't, you should know better than to blindly trust tumblr users on anything.

i'm gonna be honest i don't get why they say everypony instead of everybody in mlp. it's not like the word everybody is human-specific. the ponies have bodies. the word everypony, however, is pony-specific in a world where ponies are not the only people in their society, which means it would be more accurate and inclusive to use everybody instead of everypony. it all makes no sense to me

[honey-minded-hivemind]

How are the gargoyles reacting when they first find out about Dragon and that they are lost clan? And how do they feel about Brooklyn being buddies with them?

How does Brooklyn feel when he finds out about Dragon being his...sibling, I guess? Cause he likes them sure, but he's not dumb. He knows there is a wall there. They like him and enjoy his company, but they hide a lot from him and for good reason. Do the reasons no longer matter now that they are family in his eyes, or is he still conflicted on what is going to happen to the kind human who rescued him out of the water, simply because it was the right thing to do?

Goliath, watching Reader and Brooklyn hang out from far away: I don't trust them.

Goliath, seeing Reader glare at someone: Omg, that's my child. I didn't trust my child. What is wrong with me?

Okay, good questions!

One, when they find out Reader (Dragon) is lost clan, they're now trying to get them to join but aren't taking no for an answer. They feel they should have realized sooner.

They react to Brooklyn amd Reader being buddies with suspicion, as it seems odd a human would save one of their's... But then again, this human also goes out of their way to spend time with Brooklyn, and don't bother asking him questions about the clan, if anything, theu avoid those questions... They'd much rather ask his favorite color, or how high he can climb, or if he wants to see a few statues in the park... So they begrudgingly will have them watch out for them... Except seeing such a small human, a young one too, on their own... It doesn't sit right with them... Were they abandoned? Or cast out? Is anyone looking out for them? Hmmmm... They'll need to keep a closer eye on them then... Perhaps Elisa or Matt or Xanatos or Fox can talk with them, find out what's going on...

Brooklyn finds it a bit spooky, or world-shaking, that Dragon, his odd friend, is also one of his lost hatchmates from a thousand years ago, the one that was murdered... On the one hand, that's spooky and scary and feels too close to the Magus and magic for comfort... On the other hand, they're someone he used to know and love, so that means they aren't lost forever, he can see them again, they're back! ... But on the third hand, what about, well, Dragon? They're their own person or gargoyle or whatever they are now, and he loves them too. He doesn't want them to stop being Dragon, but he also wonders if they'd remember him or their other brothers or Goliath and Hudson amd Demona... He feels it's like with Elisa amd Xanatos and Fox and Matt, right? Sure, they're human NOW, but they used to be gargoyles, they just have those memories buried... So nothing has to be given up or sacrificed to have both, right? All in all, he feels very confused and worries if there's any right choice for this matter...

Of course he knows he and Dragon aren't completely honest with each other. They avoid talking about where they live or their families or what goes on when they aren't seeing each other and playing around or trying to find new places to hang out and look for stuff. He knows they fear the others, and that there's a slight fear of him... but he feels the same towards them. So it's fair, right? It isn't healthy exactly to worry so much about what could hurt them or come after the both of them... but they tend to push that aside and try to do something fun. Climbing brick walls or old statues, see who can find a hidden item the fastest, challenge each other to hide and seek, and every now and again go fishing... So no, maybe they're not completely honest... but for what it's worth, he likes them, and they like him. They're both trying, and that's all they can do. He appreciates they don't talk about him to other humans much... but he can't help but tell Goliath and the others about them. He worries about them, especially since while sure, it's fun to have someone who isn't afraid to wrestle or jump from heights or climb things, that isn't normal human behavior, is it? And where do they go when he leaves? Are they safe? Are they warm? Are they eating? So he found it best to voice those concerns to the others... He just hopes it doesn't come back to bite him...

Goliath and the others grow just a bit fonder each time they hear a new escapade that Brooklyn and his odd human friend went on, and start to grow worried themselves. Perhaps they need to finally step in... Make themselves known... Or at least offer shelter if they're in need of it...

What they don't expect is to smell the scent of clan on them, or how their glare and their laugh sound like Goliath's... or how small they are, compared to the world around them...

[howlsofbloodhounds]

I was thinking about color and killer, and beats and kin, and the idea of codependency.

The big thing with Beats and Kin is that they’re both introverted, and Beats is extremely avoidant of people they don’t know and aren’t familiar with—deeply distrustful of people, to the point they’ll run and hide if approached or have panic attacks if they can’t.

Whereas Kin just seems to be highly independent and introverted, preferring to mostly be alone with just themself and Beats, Beats has something deeper going on as well as their introversion in general.

Forcing Beats to try making friends and talk to people when they don’t want to will be very bad for their mental health and will shatter their trust in the person forcing them to do so. Kin, acting as their big brother and sort of guardian figure, isn’t afraid to set and maintain boundaries regarding how people are allowed to talk to Beats, who is allowed to, how many are allowed to, and when they’re allowed to.

Kin can be very possessive, territorial, aggressive and protective—due to their dragon stuff I’m pretty sure. But they’re like this with all of their friends and teammates, such as getting protective and defensive of V when Kin felt the other V (girl, purple hair, werewolf V), was being disrespectful and rude to their companion.

Kin isn’t controlling, however. The control they do have regarding Beats and their boundaries seems to be things that Kin, Beats and possibly Maestro (Beats’ parent), have talked about and discussed in detail before.

Kin doesn’t prevent Beats from making friends or talking to people if they want to, which they rarely do anyway. Kin doesn’t stop Beats from talking to, spending time with, and maintaining their relationships with the other few people that Beats’ feels safe with—which is basically mostly just Kin, Maestro (Underbeats Gaster/Beats’ parent), Nico (Underbeats Papyrus/Beats’ younger brother), Uncle Grillby (Underbeats Grillby and Mae’s childhood friend), Underbeats Muffet, and potentially Blindy (Kin’s master/AU’s Gaster, who Beats calls their ‘other dad.’)

Beats also seems to be on okayish terms with Abyss Team members such as Abyss (who they see around often enough to be familiar with) and Mecha (gave him a flower to cheer him up), familiar with and trusting enough of them to approach them first; even if Beats doesn’t seem to yet consider the two friends.

There was also a brief drawing where Color and Beats were drawn by another creator talking and sharing some of Beats’ favorite drink together (milk), but Beats’ creator reblogged that post joking something along the lines of how Beats would immediately get scared and magically disappear. Something like that, suggesting that Beats wasn’t yet comfortable with Color at the time.

The two were described by their creators as something like eachother’s “comfort zones,” and neither really want to leave their bubble—but when one does on occasion, the other won’t try to stop them, and eventually the one who wandered off will come back to their “comfort zone.”

Even if the two can sometimes get jealous or insecure or sad when the other seems to be making more friends and connections, the other is also usually happy for them (happy that they’re happy), and doesn’t try to prevent it or make the other feel bad about it. And the one making new friends is also quick to reassure the other.

They don’t push each other out of their comfort zones, but they also don’t stop the other from trying to wander out and grow. They just prevent other people from forcing eachother to do anything they don’t want, aren’t comfortable with, can’t handle, or aren’t ready for.

On the other side of things, Killer is introverted and Color..is not. He’s extroverted. On top of that, Color has lasting trauma regarding being almost completely and forcibly alone for reasonably two decades, whereas Killer has trauma regarding people and never being left alone (and having his want to be left alone often ignored, sending the message over and over again that what he wants doesn’t matter) for assumingely a very long time.

Of course Killer wants to be alone with the very few things, seemingly the only things, that have never used or controlled or hurt him; animals and Color. His feelings towards most other people in general can range from extreme distrust to curiosity to contempt or apathy and disinterest, to fear and terror and potentially paranoia, depending on the Stage he’s in.

Meanwhile, feeling/being completely alone, isolated, not remembered, seen, heard, replaced and without anyone has deeply traumatized Color to the point he’d even join random groups of strangers just to feel less alone and forgettable.

I believe that, if it weren’t for not only the six souls but the friendships and connections Color has outside of Killer (Epic Sanses & Abyss Team), Color very likely wouldn’t have mentally and emotionally survived everything that took place between him and Nightmare, and him and the alternate versions of Killer that all replaced the other.

Color probably would’ve even tried to kill himself or been driven to desperate extremes in an attempt to fill the emotional void inside him and kill the loneliness, willing to tolerate or invite a lot of things if it meant someone remembered him, was seeing him, and he wasn’t alone. Which isn’t a good thing if he’s trying help a version of Killer that’s more violent or manipulative, or even a lot more cold and indifferent.

Hell, given the nature of the Multiverse and Nightmare replacing Killers with alternate versions, there isn’t anything preventing something like the scenario above from having already happened before; and Color and the souls having connections outside of Killer and eachother is what saved Color from that situation.

And then of course, when Color finally manages to successfully convince one Killer to save themselves and keep him alive, all these past experiences will color the relationship he has with this current Killer—in both nostalgic and potentially even traumatizing/stressful/upsetting ways, for both Color & the souls and Killer.

For example, Justice helping Color set firm boundaries with this current Killer regarding details and the nature of Color’s past relationships with other Killers; that Killer is not allowed to try and demand more from Color than he’s willing to share, and Killer’s not allowed to go digging through Color’s things to try and figure it out.

Not exactly because remembering and talking about them is too painful for Color (it is painful, but he’d never want to forget what he had with the others, whatever that might’ve been), but because 1. he is entitled to his privacy and he & the souls should be able to share when they’re good and ready, and 2. potentially, he knows how Killers can get; having dealt with extremely possessive and potentially controlling Killers before.

Not sharing or showing information until they’re ready talk about it on their own terms, to remember and invite in old pain and memories and open old wounds, until they’re certain this Killer can be trusted to handle this information without accusing Color of only wanting a replacement, or having ulterior motives, or getting dangerously possessive like some Killers might’ve in the past is for their own mental, emotional, psychological, and physical stability and safety.

I don’t know, I just like the idea that Color and the souls learn, grow, and develop throughout their relationships with different Killers—progressing and regressing—developing and defining their rules, moral codes, boundaries—what they will and won’t do, how they are and are not allowed to treat others, how others are and are not allowed to treat them—and that Integrity and Justice help Color build and reinforce this internal framework, with consequences both internally and externally if they aren’t followed or if a rule/boundary is broken.

[axel-mania]

I'll issue a small correction: characters and relationships are *always* supposed to be canonized as long as they don't include an inanimate object or a nebulous group. Only then rule of three potentially comes into play, which is why Kenta (the New Japan wrestler) has a canonical tag for his crutches. This means if you get two of your friends to also write about Kenny Omega's eyebrows or something then you will probably get it to canonical status. Rule of three is used mostly for freeforms, which is why there's not very many wrestling specific freeforms.

Some more details: the awkward thing about choosing what goes into the character canonical is that we have to take into account what fics already exist and what is most likely to exist in the future. We have to balance the desires of all the current users. If a wrestling promotion never got tape or no one on Tumblr or Ao3 fandom has ever shown interest in it, we're probably not going to include a wrestler's name from that promotion. It might seem like we're arbitrarily including something unpopular, but fics get deleted very often, much more often than you think, and dead tags get left behind.

When we changed Swerve's tag after he joined AEW, he still had NXT fics under his name there. There used to be maybe one hundred Dragon Gate fics and they were all purged, leaving lots of characters with old names to deal with when fic started up again. The order of the names is totally arbitrary, we just usually put the newest name first, or the name that won't mess with the alphabetization as much.

As Dana implied, in 99% of fandoms character tags don't get changed pretty much ever, and they don't have to deal with fiction vs reality. There are some fandoms that regularly get requests to change them, even, and have decided not to do so. We have no RPF category and probably never will, because too many people write RPF using fictional wrestler names. (This is okay! Dustin/Greg/Trent/Chuck is a lot of fun.)

You might want us to include every possible name that a wrestler goes under, but then what happens is any relationship tag they're in hits the character limit, and we have to delete some of the names in the relationship canonical. We're encouraged to keep the tags as short as possible for this reason.

We are separating wrestlers by distinctive fictional character whenever possible now. For example, Uncle Howdy has been kept separate from Bo Dallas. It's more difficult to retroactively separate popular wrestlers who were in Lucha Underground a long time ago, even though they were almost all absolutely different characters, because of how many fics we're talking about and how intertwined the tags are. Frankly unless there's a desire for this from Lucha Underground fans sending support requests I don't see this happening.

If you're bothered by anything you're absolutely free to send in a support request. We're not going to see it as you being a Karen or anything, it's a routine part of wrangling. The other wrestling wrangler co-signs everything I wrote.

I love the way wrestlers gimmicks get sorted on ao3 bc it ends up being up to the discretion of the first couple ppl who write them what tag ends up being common. Half of wrestlers arent even marked the same guy as their name on the indies but according to ao3 canon the 64 million yr old dinosaur IS the same guy as that one big brother contestant that had an affair on the show

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

Happy new year :)

So I finally got to read the new chapter today, and I just - want Childe to ask Zhongli outright why everyone thinks he's human, when he isn't. Obviously, he wouldn't ask that on purpose, but maybe just blurt it out?

Hopefully, Zhongli would notice that Childe doesn't care at all that he isn't human, and he could just be himself with him without having to censor his reactions.

Zhongli seriously needs someone besides Qiqi to be himself with and talk about all that. Childe would have the added bonus that he didn't know Zhongli as Rex Lapis, and while it would trip him up for a bit, he would just go on with life and treat him no differently.

Though all revelations regarding his nature as a dragon will have to wait until after they return from their trip.

As always, thx for sharing your fantastic writing!

genuinely i think if the gang had a couple doses less respect towards zhongli n they started thinking abt intervening on his whole- he looks tired and stressed deal, THEN childe might actually blurt something out if he happens to be there as an intervention is taking place

kinda like,

zhongli: what do you mean i cannot leave the house. i have things i must do guizhong: you need to take a day off! have you considered the spa? a massage? you look stressed hu tao: yeah, can't have you coming in to work like you're dead on your feet zhongli: i assure you i'm fine ping yan: yeah but you don't really believe it, do you? you look like shit my man guizhong: you're not getting out of here until i see you take like at least a couple of days off to just relax around the house! ping yan: oh- one of the girls from student management does call-on massages! hu tao: wait that's great! we could get him a massage! he looks ultra tense! zhongli, mildly concerned now: uh- what- guizhong: i think i still have some nice coconut oil somewhere in the bathroom, this is a great idea! zhongli, hearing the word 'oil', alarmed: i really don't- hu tao: oh sush you! you're the one that got into this situation by being a workaholic, you have no right to complain now! childe: oh my god- first of all rude, second- why do you all just keep treating him like he's gonna collapse?? guizhong: because he will??? childe: no??? are you blind?? you can't just apply human logic to this, have you actually thought of asking him how he's doing?? ping yan: tf you mean 'human logic'?????????? guizhong: he says he's fine but we can all see he's not, so there's no point in asking him when he's just gonna try to pretend he's not stressed childe, realizing they haven't actually asked him, realizing they don't believe the man anyway (!!), and realizing they haven't noticed he's Not Human (???): oh my god. how are you the one who's known him the longest

[inubaki]

The New Butler

-more of a random story rant idea-

okay! Not so random story idea. This ball was rolling by the amazing @helluvahazbins’s! The link of their drawing below! Please check them out, they are glowing with ideas!

This story is the classic Adam falls after his murder, but with the Beauty and the Beast twist. To get back into Heaven by a certain amount of time or else his soul will crumple into the dust he was made from. His form takes the image of his greatest sin during the battle, one resembling Razzle (whom we’ll take as one created without sin even by Lucifer’s hands. As they were created by the true love he held for daughter. A father’s love that Adam had long forgotten.)

He must remember and understand the humanity he lost. The person he once was on earth. And to aid him on his quest, they take away his ability to talk.

The story starts off with Charlie finding him and missing her goatly friend, she enthusiastically takes him in. He will fight this with all his might and a little bit of Charlie’s abandonment and trauma keeps a quick grip on him. Lucifer, having made Razzle and Dazzle from toys, is both suspicious and confused by this similar look alike. But he makes Charlie happy, dispute the hissing, so allows it. Dazzle is thrilled by this and is desperate to make friends while Adam is trying not to die by the other guests giving him odd looks. And Charlie whom wants to dress him up.

To summarize the rest is; Adam starts to adopt and finds himself guiltily finding sympathy for the residents. Observing their struggles and finding himself caught in some of their weaker moments. Allowing Angel to hold him during a panic attack. Playing cards with Husk. Backing up Vaggie in her ‘sergeant’ exercises for the group. Helping Dazzle, the quiet voice of mourning. And most of all, Charlie as she fails to suppress her emotions from the life long feeling of abandonment. Along side Lucifer’s failure to communicate. Bulling Lucifer with bites, head butts and even stealing his things, without words trying to convey what Lucifer needs to hear. And through his own lectures, he begins to remember his own family and his own human life. Worse. He remembers how much he misses them.

——-

that’s the basic idea!! Again!! The idea was heavily influenced by @helluvahazbins!

link:

Don’t know how I’ll go about making it. I’m not that good at writing, especially at long stories. But I adore the idea. The endgame being Adam and Lucifer of course. Old man dad couples for the win. As well as a shout out to Adam’s original dragon goat design that Razzle and Dazzle inherited.

[murtagh-thorn]

Murtagh Realizing You're Not Doing Well & Taking Care of You Headcanons

Murtagh is a very attentive, observant person and clocks that something is off with you immediately. Of course he worries, but also doesn’t want to pry or make you feel smothered, so just silently observes you for a while.

When it’s clear this is more than just a bad day, he starts keeping a more watchful eye on you, doing little things silently here and there to make your life easier. Any chores you were dreading are already done by the time you arrive, any items you need are suddenly waiting on your bed, little trinkets and your favorite foods are appearing here and there, etc.

He starts checking in with you to make sure you’re eating, drinking, and sleeping enough while gently reminding you that you’ve more than earned time to rest. If there are any tasks that are stressing you out, he offers to help or even take care of them for you with no hesitation.

Eventually, when things don’t improve and it’s clear you’re pushing yourself past your limits, he sits the two of you down and opens up about he felt after the battle in the throne room. How exhausted, angry, burned out, and completely drained both he and Thorn were and how it would’ve ended very badly for everyone involved if he didn’t take a break—all this to say, he doesn’t want to see you push yourself so hard that you lose yourself in the process and thinks a break might be a good idea, and why don’t you let him talk to Eragon about it on your behalf?

Eragon of course understands and tells you to take as much time as you need. You’re welcome to continue hanging around the academy without worrying about tasks or to take a trip elsewhere. If you feel you need to get away, Murtagh offers to show you all the cool places he found in his travels with Thorn.

If you opt to stay around the academy, Murtagh says his out of the way cottage is open to you whenever, and he even makes sure his spare bedroom is always prepared if you’re not together yet (or if your relationship is still new). If you are, of course you’re welcome in his room. He gets you all the things you need to relax, saying his book collection is all open to you, and takes care of everything—including cooking you meals that have all the nutrients you need to heal and loves making you tea.

If you need some time away and agree to accompany Murtagh and Thorn on a trip, he’s ecstatic to show you all his favorite places he found. He somehow even makes camping out in the open by the fire relaxing and secretly enjoys having you all to himself.

He seeks Eragon’s help out in learning meditation strategies, breathing techniques, and ways to cope and heal that he learned from the elves. As he’s teaching them to you, it inspires him to take better care of himself as well and it becomes a tradition for the two of you to do many of these things together.

He’s constantly bringing you little gifts, such as flowers he found in a field, your favorite snacks, or even hand-making you little wooden carvings. If he really wants to impress you, he acquires the elves’ help to learn how to make jewelry. The designs are always simple, but you can feel the love and care he put into them and never take them off.

Of course, night flights on Thorn with him are a must (or flying together on your own dragon, if you’re a Rider), usually followed by landing in an out of the way, remote location to just chat, stargaze (he loves astronomy and is pointing out all the constellations to you), snuggle, etc.

He becomes a bit more touchy feely during this time, regardless of where you are in your relationship. If you’re not together yet, they’re very shy, gentle touches to your arm, back, hand, etc. here and there. If it’s early, the touches are a little more frequent and he’s not as afraid to do things like smooth your hair, kiss your knuckles, or pull you into a hug. If you’ve been together for a while, he’s practically attached to you at all times, holding your hand, holding you against him, all the random kisses, lifting you off the ground when he hugs you, etc.

He’ll do whatever it takes to make you feel better, is constantly trying to make you laugh and smile, and always reminding you about how much better his life is with you in it.

[impcrios]

she can't help but roll her eyes at his first sentence, it sounded condescending in the tone that he said it, but she let it go. they knew when to pick their battles and she wasn't about to go sprouting off on the apprenticeship that she had under her belt or the fact that she had been in her line of work for over six years now. they weren't an idiot when it came to lucius malfoy, they had been in the same house, same year, knew that his father died and ended up being the head of his house, too young for anyone, and at the moment it had happened she had felt bad for him. it would be a loss to lose a parent, a loss to have an empty mansion with ghosts not seen, and a younger sister and mother to care for. she sees it then, the first sign of emotion, the irritation, her mask is composed again, the shift in tone changing once more. her mother had tried to beat her into submission when it came to proper etiquette and decorum, chastising them that they said whatever came to their mind. she takes a deep breath, listening to him, trying to understand, but there's a very deep part of her that just feels doomed. maybe even a bit sad. 'you don't think i couldn't have any girl i wanted,' she raises an eyebrow at that, her arms crossed, clutching her wand, and when he keeps talking and painting the picture of the kind of wife that she should be, she gulps, her jaw slackening at the thought. then lucius goes for the jugular, as any slytherin would. she can't help but the corner of her lip almost turning upward. maybe he had been right, maybe she did want to be different so badly, but there was one thing that she clung onto. "i'm not unhappy, malfoy." at least, in terms of her career life. in fact, she felt like she was finally free. they had a job that they loved, a place to call home in england and in romania. they had dragons that they cared for since they were born, that only knew narcissa as their loyal caretaker. the only thing that truly made her unhappy was the fact that andromeda was gone. 'what  is  it  i'm  working  for,  or  that  you'll  allow  me  to  work  for', before she can even answer she hears it. toujours  pur. she could react in anger, in fact, she wanted to punch him in the face. but they wouldn't give him the satisfaction. "are they?" she asks, are they truly happy? they could name many girls in their year who would speak only ever in the dark about how it felt like being someone's property to be betrothed to someone but no one ever said the quiet part out loud. "are you? aside from gaining the black name and my family? are you happy?" whatever his answer would be, it would always come back to family duty and honour. maybe that's what it would always be between the two of them. it made her sad for the both of them.

lucius  malfoy  knows  many  things.  he  excels  in  potion  making,  charms,  conducting  business,  having  a  poker  face,  operating  malfoy  manor,  attending  meetings,  hiding  his  allegiances.  there  aren't  many  things  he  doesn't  know  —  but  now  he  has  two:  dragons and how  to  handle  narcissa  black.  ❝  this  tells  me  you've  done  the  research.  ❞  not  that  it  took  a  genius  to  see  how  the  dragons  are  chained  and  harmed  while  making  a  visit  to  gringotts,  he  still  wasn't  sure  how  he'd  manage  narcissa's  request,  but  he  knows  people  —  it's  the  one  thing  he  knows  how  to  do.  ❝  i'm  not  asking  for  effort  from  you,  ❞  the  words  come  out  sharp,  irritation  veiling  his  tone.  lucius'  doing  the  best  he  hows  how  and  yet  narcissa  twists  his  words,  sizing  her  up  as  well.  ❝  you  don't  think  i  couldn't  have  any  girl  i  wanted  ?  ❞  it  wasn't  meant  to  be  cocky,  but  more  matter-of-fact.  lucius  malfoy  was  an  eligible  man  and  already  head  of  his  household  —  the  families  of  many  single,  pureblooded  woman  had  already  sent  in  requests  for  lucius  to  take  their  daughters  hand  in  marriage.  lucius  didn't  accept  any  of  them.  ❝  i'm  being  serious,  ❞  his  voice  lowers  as  he  watches  narcissa  closely.  ❝  you  think  i  would  accept  a  proposal  with  you  if  i  wanted  a  socialite  to  fill  my  house  with  unwanted  people  for  parties  and  change  the  decorations  every  month  ?  ❞  he  takes  a  pause,  a  moment  to  really  look  at  them.  ❝  i  think  you  want  to  be  so  different  so  badly  that  you  cause  yourself  to  be  as  unhappy  as  you  are.  what  is  it  i'm  working  for,  or  that  you'll  allow  me  to  work  for  ?  you  and  i  always  knew  this  was  our  path  —  family.  duty.  honor.  toujours  pur.  ❞  the  french  house  of  black  motto  rolls  off  of  his  tongue.  ❝  did  you  think  this  would  be  different  for  you  ?  even  if  you  think  those  other  pureblooded  girls  are  easy  or  lesser,  at  least  they're  happy.  ❞

[izayoichan]

A little walk. 🎶

[artkaninchenbau]

A h-heartfelt reunion..?

Bonus

[allyriadayne]

Hook, line and sinker: Larys and Alicent // Larys and Aegon

[ecklekecle]

STOPP IM SO INVESTED IN THIS NOW SKDHSKSN

THE WAY FELIX FINDS OUT ABOUT ROSEKILLER IS BECAUSE BARTY IS BEGGING FELIX NOT TO LET THE DEMENTOR GET TO HIM BUT HES CALLING OUT EVANS NAME INSTEAD AND BEGGING EVAN NOT TO LET HIM DIE AND THAT EVERYTHING HE HAS DONE LEADING UP TO THIS POINT IS TO GET REVENGE ON THOSE WHO KILLED EVAN (barty participating in the torture of Alice and Frank). AND HES BEGGING AND TELLING EVAN (felix) THAT HE LOVES HIM AND WILL ALWAYS LOVE HIM SLDHSLS (i actually love rosekiller sm)

OR ALTERNATIVELY BARTY AND FELIX TALK RIGHT BEFORE BARTY GETS THE DEMENTORS KISS WHICH MEANS FELIX FINDS OUT EVERYTHING INCLUDING REGULUS HUNTING FOR THE HORCRUX, EVAN BEING FORCED TO JOIN, BARTY JOINING IN HOPES TO PROTECT HIS BEST FRIENDS ONLY TO FALL DEEPER INTO THE DEATH EATERS. THEN WHEN BARTY DOES GET THE KISS, AS HIS SOUL IS GETTING SUCKED OUT (?) HIS MEMORY GOES LIKE HAZY AND HES CALLING OUT FOR ALL HIS FRIENDS TO JUST LET HIM SEE THEM AGAIN AND THAT HES SORRY AND HE DIDNT MEAN TO GET THIS FAR IN TO THE “DARK SIDE”, HE JUST WNATED TO LOOK OUT FOR HIS FRIENDS :( to add to the Barty angst, i can see him getting deeper into Voldemorts like closest death eaters because he was desperate to belong somewhere after his friends died. And since his father obviously didn’t care for him, and his mother had died, the closest thing he ad to belonging was Voldemort

also im imagining felix joining the aurors because he doesnt want to end up like Evan and he wants fight for rhe “good side” (plot twist dumbledore is just as bad 🫣), there he meets Barty yada yada yada then barty dies so Felix starts to research the horcruxes and everything WHICH LEADS HIM TO SIRIUS (because regulus) AND HE EXPLAINS EVERYTHING TO SIRIUS AND THEN BLACK BROTHERS ANGST and since sirius is connected to harry which is connected to ron which is connected charlie (you see where im going with this?) he is then reconnected with charlie and they get talking, which leads felix realising like, “oh! ive hated my job this whole time!” and “i literally love dragons sm why am i not working with them?” (pretty sure this canon too lol) and so he quits his job (assuming aurors get paid rlly well) and lives off what he made through being an auror as well as his family’s money (they’re probably super rich) and goes horcrux hunting and so this would probably speed up the original timeline, then comes the big battle yada yada yada voldemort is defeated (hopefully less people died this time) and felix goes on to pursue a career with dragons (then maybe charlie and felix fall in love and live happily ever after (and for ppl who dont ship that, charlie and felix then go ahead and become best friends again and work with dragons together idk)) (also im not sure how old felix is during this whole thing but according to google and my calculations Charlie is about 22 in GoF so im gonna assume felix would be around 21-23 ish when barty dies)

ALSO felix telling luna all about her mum, dorcas, regulus, barty and Evan. Then also lets pretend Sirius doesnt die si then hes able to tell harry about his parents and also about regulus.

i had more to add but i forgot what lol (I ACTUALLY DID THINK ABOUT WRITING A FIC HUT LIKE MOTIVATION AND THE LAST TIME I WROTE A FF I WAS ABOUT 11 (so about 5+ years ago) SO MY WRITING IS A BIT CRUSTY ATM LMAO BUT IM LOWKEY KINDA THINKING ABOUT IT)

i should be sleeping but anywho i keep getting these tiktoks of rosier twin angst and im just think like, what about Felix?

Like, just some thoughts, Pandora and Evan have like a 6-7 year age gap with felix. Theyre very good siblings to him, and they love him and like you know, typical older sibling things, but then the war happens and Pandora and Evan aren’t in the same side of the war and this is because Evan (this is just a hc) is forced by his father (and possibly because he cares for Regulus) to join the death eaters. Pandora probably, while she didn’t necessarily get to choose what she wanted, she probably pushed to stay out of the war altogether, i just see that for her, anyway, adding to the angst, Pandora doesn’t know that Evan was forced into the death eaters and doesn’t know his motives of wanted to like, protect Regulus (and probably Barty too), so she starts distancing herself from not only him, but the whole friend group. So now Evan and Pandora dont talk naking it hard for Felix yk cause if Evanbis being forced into the war then whats stopping Felix from also being forced into the war (though hes probably only 10-12yrs old (thats if Evan also got the dark mark at 16-17 ish)) anywho then Evan dies (lets just say at the age of 19-20ish). Pandora still knows nothing, abd Felix has lost one of his siblings (he’ll be around 13-14ish) . Then later on (lets just say three years later) Pandora dies and now Felix has lost both if his siblings (and now hes 17-18 ish). anywho so jow Felix has no siblings. On a hppier note we can pretned his parents no longer care for him in joining voldemort and he becomes a dragon tamer person with Charlie (Weasley) (THEYRE BEST FRIENDS BOYFRIENDS WHATEVER IDC)

I have seen this ither hc that Felix looks very similar to Evan, like basically copy and paste so whenever he looks in the mirror he just gets reminded of his siblings. He then goes ahead to dye his hair tro try and leave the similarities all behind is that even makes any sense but his facial features still look so close to his siblings, like he has the same shade of blue pandora has in his eyes, and his facial structure(?) clearly resembles Evan and no matter what he does he just gets reminded of them.

also what if Felix knows barty (just gotta add some rosekiller in there). NO VUT WAIT IF PANDORA KEPT IN TOUCH TOUCH WITH FELIX THEN HE WOULD KNOW LUNA OMG crazy realisation cause lets say Luna is A LOT like her mum and while felix absolutely adores Luna, everytime he visits her he just gets glimpses of pandora in her (then he bonds with Xenophilius and Xenophilius kinda becomes like an older sibling figure for Felix (thats actually kinda sweet)). Anyway back to barty idk hoe to include him in atm oh well

Anyway idk if any of that even makes a sliver of sense its all just rambling tbh i’ll add kore to it in the morning if i think of any more ;)