#it really does feel like they're going back on so much that is previously established

[selvnite]

Really hoping “the Mandalorian can be anyone” isn’t a way for them to write off Din Djarin as a character because writers/directors/D*sney can’t decide/agree on a coherent story (for him or Mandalore tbh) or compelling character development especially when the show is built on his character (and Grogu) and in subtitles he is still refered to as ‘THE MANDALORIAN’ and known by other characters through that moniker or ‘Mando’ like what???

[twig-tea]

Top 5 moments of yearning in 2023 bl (no cheating you can only pick 5)

WOW. wowowowowowow. Wow. It's almost as though you saw my other answers before asking this (which I know you didn't because this came in first and I am Slow). Rude.

First, I need to establish a very important distinction: Pining (my beloved) is when you think or are determined that it will never happen; yearning (also my beloved) is when you think it could and are really struggling to hold yourself back from just going for it right now for Reasons. The possibility of fulfillment is the main difference.

Second distinction: Yearning is not necessarily sexual tension. It can be an element of it, but yearning is about wanting something, whether that's sex, closeness, acceptance, or something else. It's about wanting existing barriers to drop that are preventing you from having the thing you want most in that moment, whether they're internal or external, physical or metaphysical.

Finally, as much as I would love to talk about only my favourite shows exclusively forever, you did ask for my top five moments rather than top 5 shows that contain yearning, so I stuck to the rules. All that is to say, there are a couple of series on this list that I don't actually recommend lol

With that out of the way:

Top [For Real Only] 5 Moments of Yearning in 2023 BLs Because Shan Hates Me

1. Jae Won yanking and then patting down Ji Hyun before putting him in a cab, The Eighth Sense

Basically this whole show is yearning (except for the brief interlude for pining). I chose this moment because this was the first moment I was certain they both actually knew what was going on and it was clear to them both that they could have this, at least in theory; the tension felt palpable, and I really wasn't sure whether they were going to hold back or not. Jae Won is supposed to be saying goodbye, but he can't keep it in to the point where he just can't stop touching Ji Hyun (that backpack pull that happens immediately before this, guh), and Ji Hyun is also so clearly soaking it up. When the cab pulls up and they just keep staring, there was a real question in my mind about whether they were going to break and just go for it or not. For these two it's not just about sex; they yearn for version of one another they are when they're together, and they don't want the spell to end.

2. Khun Lu and Ken almost kiss while naked in bed, Chains of Heart

I'm still not entirely sure I know what happened in that show, but the yearning between these two was palpable the whole time. In this particular scene, Ken has just seen a hint the previous night that Lu is in fact Din, his missing-presumed-dead lover, and he's already previously rejected Lu on the premise that Din is still alive and is the only man he'll ever love, even though he feels drawn to Lu. Up until then, his yearning was for Din, though he also felt something for Lu. Now suddenly he's presented with the possibility that he's already reunited with his lover, which is all he wants, though he's unsure that's what's happening. On the other side of this equation, Lu has been wanting as much of Ken as he can charm, trick, or beg for. He just wants him now, here, under the pretense of this new body, because he knows Ken will never be safe if Din is thought to still be alive. At the same time, he is torn between wanting to be near Ken to keep him safe and wanting to stay away to keep him safe. Yearning barely covers it.

3. The post-sex breakdown of Yai and Jom in I Feel You Linger In The Air

This scene was particularly painful because the yearning only hits harder after his orgasm, rather than the catharsis Jom was probably expecting. In this scene they weren't just yearning for one another physically like in earlier parts of the show; they are yearning for a future they can't have together but both want and in this moment feels like it should be possible. Yai really looks like he wants to meld into Jom's skin. The way that sex does not break the yearning is quietly devastating. Is there anything worse than having everything you want in your arms but knowing you can't keep it?

4. Patts desperate to get through to Saengai on the other side of the door, La Pluie

@liyazaki the tumblr gif search is not crediting you properly so adding a tag to you here!

Listen, Patts has been yearning for reciprocation from his soulmate for years before he meets Saengtai, and it did not at all stop once they met, it just changed in quality. He's always yearned rather than pined because with soulmates comes the expectation that it will work, because of 'destiny'. We saw him say in a flashback that he thought his soulmate could be platonic, and I do believe him when he says to Nara that he'd be fine with that, because what he really yearns for is to be understood and wanted for himself (hence the heartbreaking line "is it that hard to choose me?" that comes before this). The fact that someone had a "destined" connection to him and rejected him for years took a real toll on this man. The way he claws at the door in this scene will stay with me into 2024.

5. Minato and Shin at the Onsen, Minato's Laundromat s2

As much as I dislike where this season went, a yearning list would not be complete without Shin and Minato. We spend a lot of time with Shin's yearning in this show, but we get glimpses that Minato is actually yearning too throughout the season and especially at the onsen. In this scene, he tries to get drunk to get past his own insecurities, but it doesn't work as well as he wanted. This scene was all about Minato articulating all the ways he also yearns, and how it's overwhelming for him--and how that overwhelm is frustrating. I love this outpouring of Minato's frustration around his own internal blockers to what he wants. Also Shin swallowing in this gif makes it perfectly clear he is also Suffering. Perfection.

Bonus and it doesn't count as cheating because it's not a BL SO THERE:

Sam and Mon comforting one another after Sam's grandmother found out about their relationship, GAP

This show was such a mess but my god these two women wanted one another so badly, and I appreciated the hell out of that. It felt like yearning rather than pining until near the end, because all through their getting together phase they insisted on such an intense level of denial that they didn't even seem to worry about what they wanted being impossible, they just knew they didn't have it yet. So they did things like bite one another and pretend it was platonic and wonder why they weren't satisfied. I was thinking about going with an early scene where they barely resist the urge to make out, but instead I went with this one because I think it's a double-whammy. in this scene, Sam is trying to get Mon to tell her what's wrong, and Mon confesses that Sam's grandmother saw her at her house and asked her to leave Sam. Instead of pulling away, Mon clings to Sam, and Sam apologizes to her for not being there for her. Sam thinks she can talk her around to accepting Mon. "Don't worry; I'll talk to her. We'll get through this". The yearning here is for them to be together and safe; accepted by their families and happy, and not feeling this pain. I don't recommend this show, but there is something to be said for the way it showed the impact of intergenerational trauma and the very real yearning so many of us feel to just be accepted as we are.

[branmuffins22]

Every once in a while, I come across an Owl House fic in which someone does something romantic/sexual with someone who isn't their established partner, and I see it tagged as "Cheating". Which, in the context of that fic, is almost certainly exactly right! (I wouldn't know for sure, I don't really read these fics.)

But I can't help but imagine the leadup to this, how this situation comes about in the first place. And wonder how, at no point, did the previously-involved character bring this up to their established partner. And wonder how, at some point, they decided that doing these things with someone who isn't their established partner is bad, and wrong, and "Cheating".

The Boiling Isles were made to have few or none of the usual biases which brought about our cisnormative, heteronormative, amatonormative, allonormative, perisex-normative, etc. society. Some real-world biases remain, like ableism, classism, and (although it's quite different from its real-world counterpart) racism, but they're mostly reserved for the real jerks, not applied on a wider scale. In all, it's an absolute queer haven, and I somehow doubt that polyamory is where they draw the line.

Since the most recent ship I saw with this was Luz/Viney (cheating on established Luz/Amity), let's imagine two scenarios.

Scenario A:

Viney sends Luz some Signals: she wants something romantic and/or sexual from her. Luz, oblivious as she is, doesn't notice the implications until things have already progressed to a certain point with Viney's desparation to get the point across and/or mounting inability to reign in her impulses, so something has already been done, by Viney, to Luz. Stolen kiss, slap on the ass, whatever, doesn't matter. They're impulsive teens, so everything feels like the Most Thing. Luz talks to Amity about it in a panic, because of COURSE she does, those two are modern media's single most communicative leading ladies. Amity is like "Oh shit, but did she mention me?" because she's also kind of a massive lesbian, and Viney is the triple threat of Confident, Competent, and Chaotic. Even if Amity has no particular feelings for Viney (which is admittedly pretty likely), she must still admit that Viney is a hell of a catch. So far, she has no reason to feel anything but happy for Luz, and doesn't understand why Luz is panicking. Luz, having grown up in the modern, compulsively monogamous United States, is confused as fuck about Amity's seemingly blase attitude toward this development, and says something like "But isn't that/wouldn't that be cheating???" and Amity is like "What? Cheating how? Who's being cheated out of something? Viney? Me? You?" 'Cause like. Nobody loses. Luz gets to kiss or whatever with Viney and also kiss or whatever with Amity. Nothing about one says she can't do the other. Hell, dating someone who's dating someone is a great way to get to know someone, and a great way to gauge mutual interest, should you ever want to date someone. Luz predictably brings up that whole weird monogamous people thing with like. Assumed exclusivity, or whatever you call it. And Amity is like "Okay, but I don't own you??? I can't control everything you do and dictate who you can interact with and how, because what the FUCK, that would be super evil and controlling and manipulative and weird. And way too much like something Odalia would do." And Luz is like "Oh shit. Wow. Polyamory. Awesome. Once I'm done disavowing all notions of infidelity, and figure out my own feelings on the matter, will you hold my hand for moral support as an excuse to come along with me when I get back to Viney about it?" And Amity is like "Hell yeah. Let's fucking go." And then they do and maybe something comes of it but who fucking knows or cares because they Communicated. Like they are wont to do. Sike, actually. I care, and I think Viney/Luz/Amity is AWESOME.

VS

Scenario B:

Viney sends Luz some Signals. Luz reciprocates these signals immediately, despite herself, because she's an impulsive teen, I guess. One thing leads to another, and WHOOPS, now Luz is in some kind of not-strictly-platonic relationship with Viney, even though she was already in such a relationship with Amity. Luz internally berates herself for her infidelity, all the while still doing said infidelity. She doesn't tell Amity because she's way too deep now, it would ruin the relationship, or something! Amity finds out anyways and becomes so heartbroken that she breaks up with Luz on the spot and probably drinks herself into a coma or something. I don't know, this isn't really my subgenre. Luz only realizes her mistake after it has already cost her the love of her life (whom she already knowingly and willingly betrayed, somehow), and I dunno how much further into this scenario I need to go for you to get the point.

Which of these do you think is more likely? Which of these appeals more to you, personally? Which of these completely butchers the existing characters and their dynamics for the sake of a "hey wouldn't it be fucked up if ___" hypothetical? For the record: you and I might disagree on any or all of these.

I dunno. Maybe I'm just too poly for this. Or not allo enough for this. Or too much of a multi-shipper for this. Or haven't actually read the fics in question enough for this. Or haven't felt the touch of another recently enough for this. It sure has been almost a decade. Gosh. Who can say.

[sapphic-agent]

Let's Talk About the Leaks

[Spoilers for recent leaks, turn around if you don't want to be spoiled]

So I usually don't do this as I don't keep up with the manga other than for research and I only really check in with the anime from time to time, but holy hell I feel like I just woke up in the Twilight Zone.

My fellow antis have been talking about this all morning, so I figured I probably should be too. So. I looked at the leaks...

Bakugou's Quirk There's so much wrong here. Not only because of his awakening (he's had like three at this point), but how he was brought back. Apparently a drop of sweat made it into his bloodstream and restarted his heart. First of all, a small explosion is not the same as a defibrillator. If this was Kaminari's quirk we were talking about, that would have made sense. But an explosion- even a tiny one- has way more of a chance of hurting the heart than restarting it. Second of all, that's not how his quirk works. Bakugou's sweat is only combustive on his palms. It isn't just the glycerin in his sweat, it's a reaction of that with the acid that comes from his palms. No other parts of his body have ever produced explosions because no other parts of his body produce that acid. So it makes no sense that his heart was restarted by his quirk. No amount of work or dedication is enough to change your previously established anatomy. ("Pain" being the answer also makes no sense. His sweat wouldn't seek out an injury and try to correct it, again that isn't how that works)

AFO's vs Bakugou There's no way. There's no way that Bakugou's gonna take down the big-bad of the series. First of all, Bakugou shouldn't even be a match for the Demon Lord. It's been stated multiple times that OFA is the only quirk that can stand a chance against AFO. That's literally the point of passing it down and finding successors and why only a few heroes even know about AFO's existence. No random explosion quirk should be able to match against AFO. Second of all, AFO. Sweetie. Sister. Why are you letting this random kid get your panties in a bunch? Because he looks like someone you had a hate boner for 200 years ago? Not to mention his body is barely being held together. Drive a spike through his heart or some shit and be done with it. It's really not that deep for you to be letting him get under your skin. (All Might literally ripped his face off. There's no way he hates Bakugou more, there's just no way) This match-up is also random as hell. AFO and Bakugou don't have a moral conflict. There's no clashing of ideals or a reason for them to hate one another past AFO likening him to Second. There's nothing driving this fight. Either Izuku or All Might (or both) should be the ones to defeat him. There's no emotion to this fight. Nothing compelling and nothing interesting. It just exists to boost Bakugou as a threat level to AFO and make him more important than he is.

Izuku Izuku girlies stay losing, bro. He's barely had a part in this war. Shigaraki's clearly toying with him and that's the extent of their interaction. No deeper conversations, no indication that Shigaraki even wants to be saved. So his role in "saving Shigaraki" is all for nothing and doesn't contribute to the war at all. It would be different if this was a fight in the making. If Shigaraki and Izuku were set up to have a huge emotional moment in the end. But beyond the mall scene, they've barely had any meaningful interactions. Hell, say what you want about Uraraka wanting to save Toga, but at least they have had more than one interaction. Uraraka is probably the only one who does understand her to a degree. It makes some amount of sense that she wants to save Toga. But Izuku doesn't understand Shigaraki nearly enough to save him. They're supposed to be parallels, but they haven't been built up to be. This interaction is meaningless.

So that's what's going on in the manga right now, take it how you will. There's more I haven't talked about but I generally don't have the energy. If you guys have anything to add please feel free to.

[david-talks-sw]

Luke Skywalker in 'The Last Jedi' (2/2)

OK, so in Part 1/2 of this post, we explored why Luke's TLJ characterization isn't really inconsistent with what had previously been established in Star Wars lore. It tracks. Dare I say: it works.

And yet... something still feels off, right?

Well, the reason for this is because Luke's character development is impacted by the film's structure, which in turn is impacted by - of all things - Poe's lack of development in Episode VII! Just hear me out!

The intention: Making the audience feel the same emotions as the protagonist, deuteragonists and antagonist.

This is what most movies strive for. Unless the film is trying to go for some dramatic irony, you want your audience to be on the same page with your protagonist, emotionally-speaking.

And y'know what? Rian Johnson does this very well.

Overall, he displays a very good grasp of making us, the audience, feel the same emotions as a film’s protagonist (generally, the main character, whose POV we follow) or deuteragonist (the ‘secondary main character’).

Rey was expecting to meet the Luke from the Original Trilogy, the Luke from Legends... and instead was disappointed to meet an old jaded hermit. Just like many of the fans were.

Finn is fooled by DJ, mistaking him for an archetypal "misfit with a heart of gold". Just like the fans were.

Poe is increasingly frustrated with Holdo, just like we were.

Call it "meta", call it "subversive", the bottom line is that some of the narrative choices that a lot of fans criticize the film for are intentionally placed there to put you in the same mental state as the characters you're following, even during the film's twists.

But as a result, if a character isn’t the protagonist (Rey), or the deuteragonists (Poe or Finn), or even the antagonist (Kylo)... they'll barely get any development.

They might get one or two scenes for themselves tops, but overall secondary characters like Luke, or Holdo, or DJ will mostly be shown through the filter of Rey or Poe’s or Finn's POV.

The Problem: Luke isn't a protagonist or deuteragonist, so he isn't developed to the audience's satisfaction.

Don't get me wrong: Luke has the second-most screen time in the whole film, but that's because Rey is the one with the most screen time, and he's primarily a character in her storyline.

To be fair, he does have his own subplot, he's the spiritual center of the whole film. But concretely, he’s one step above support characters like Holdo, Leia, Rose and DJ. We're barely shown his own POV and mainly view him through Rey's lens.

Like, there's a reason why in this scene...

... we don't see what Luke witnessed in Ben’s mind, simply his reaction to it: Rey didn’t see it either.

All three "Rashomon" flashbacks are what Rey is picturing in her mind when she’s being told three different versions of the story. She doesn't see what Luke witnessed, so we don't see it either.

And you know what? On paper... this is also not really an issue. It's actually quite standard. I mean, Yoda doesn't get much backstory or an arc in Empire Strikes Back. He's just the mentor figure, and we see him through Luke's POV.

There's no arguing that Luke in TLJ receives much more development than Yoda does in ESB.

But y’know what?

Yoda was also never the protagonist of a whole other trilogy.

So if you're gonna tell an audience that "the protagonist of the previous trilogy strayed from the path and is now a completely different person" - even if they eventually make their way back with a character arc - I don’t think it’s out of order for audience members to expect more development than a regular mentor archetype.

Context is expected, and when it isn't delivered, that'll kill the suspension of disbelief, for many fans. They're not just disappointed in Luke like Rey is, they're not immersed in the movie anymore.

So how do you go for what Rian was going while also trying to keep about half the fans from jumping ship?

The Solution (?) Delving deeper into Luke.

So let’s suppose Luke was treated like a deuteragonist. Suppose we see his own POV more, rather than just seeing him through Rey’s eyes. Would that help? And what would that look like?

Firstly, we keep that deleted scene of him mourning Han’s loss.

Or we show it like in the comic adaptation of TLJ, with Luke getting angry at his decision to cut himself off from the Force, unintentionally levitating objects until Chewie consoles him.

WHAT IT DOES: Either version humanizes Luke, shows who he is beneath the jaded mask he's putting on, gives audience a chance to mourn Han with him.

We keep that deleted scene of him explaining to Rey why he thinks the Jedi were flawed, also known as the “3rd lesson scene”.

WHAT IT DOES: Spells out Luke's rationalization that the Jedi Order needs to end. Marks the beginning of Luke's wake up call.

We add one or two additional short flashbacks of Ben gradually becoming darker and unhinged. Maybe he harms one of his fellow students in a fit of rage.

WHAT IT DOES: Clarifies that Ben was going through a dark period and that's why Luke went to confront him in his hut. He didn't just saunter into Ben's hut, sabers blazing.

Maybe halfway through the film, we see Luke pack his bag as he prepares to rescue his friends with Rey, only to find her communicating with Kyloe.

After all, the novelization shows that, upon opening himself to the Force and sensing Leia, he immediately decides to get back in the game. So if that’s not just something Jason Fry added to embellish stuff, let’s see that.

WHAT IT DOES: Drives home the fact that Luke realizes his mistake. (Although, it might also take away from the subsequent scene with Yoda).

Finally, let’s actually see what Luke saw in Ben’s mind: him killing Lor San Tekka, killing Han, killing Leia, murdering Chewie and countless more innocents all with a smile on his face.

WHAT IT DOES: Provides context for Luke's extreme reaction.

Most of these things are already technically canon, the only difference is that it would be shown on screen. And if all these elements are added, then Luke’s reasons for staying away and his reaction in Ben’s hut are already more understandable.

So where’s the flaws in this solution?

Solution Flaw #1: Plot twist would be ruined.

Talking about this one:

Again, we're seeing Luke THROUGH Rey's POV, for the most part. Our reaction is - intentionally - the same reaction as Rey.

The whole point of the twist is that

we, with Rey, believe Kylo can be redeemed, because

we, like Rey, remember Luke redeemed Vader.

So when she realizes “oh shit, Luke was right, he’s too far gone”... we react that way too.

But if we had seen Ben’s turn as well, if we had seen how he was during his training, if we had seen what Luke’s saw in Ben’s mind, we would all collectively agree with Luke and think that Rey is making a mistake in trying to redeem Kylo.

So when Rey walks away from Luke, rather than hoping she succeeds, we’d just be waiting for her to inevitably fail. We'd be thinking:

"Rey, you moron, you're walking into a trap and Kylo isn't gonna turn!"

Emotionally-speaking, we would be detached from the protagonist.

Solution Flaw #2: Increase in the runtime at the cost of other scenes.

The Last Jedi is already the longest film in the franchise. Adding just three of the above-suggestions would increase that runtime, which wouldn’t work. So you’d need to take something out.

But Finn and Poe’s storylines are already stripped down to their bare bones as it is. Hell, so was the Rey/Luke storyline, for that matter.

Actually, wait... why do we have three storylines, in the first place?

After all, if we look at The Empire Strikes Back, they only have two storylines, right?

The protagonist, Luke, goes to Dagobah.

The deuteragonists, Han and Leia, evade the Empire.

Main plot & subplot. Great.

Wouldn't it be better to just have Poe and Finn do the Canto Bight storyline together? That would give us sme remaining time to focus on Luke’s past, right? Where’s the issue?

Well, Rian Johnson put it this way:

Bottom line, in The Force Awakens, Poe is a clear-cut character. Simple as that. He’s charismatic and fun, but there isn’t much room for him to grow.

A lot of people compare his character to Han, but there's an issue with that comparison (besides the obvious fact that Finn is Han and Poe is Leia)...

In ANH, Han has an arc. He's the philosophical antagonist of the film, he's only out for himself which conflicts with Luke's attempts to help others. Han goes from being a selfish irresponsible gun-slinger to taking responsibility and becoming a selfless rebel, a part of something bigger. Arc concluded.

(Hell, this very reason is why Harrison Ford didn’t wanna keep playing him and lobbied to kill him off.)

So in ESB, Leia is the one who has the arc. Han is just being himself. Leia is the one who must slowly come to terms with the fact that she does love him, despite him being a total nerf-herder. So she and Han bicker, there’s conflict there, but there’s also an underlying affection.

As such, when Poe doesn’t have an arc in TFA, and is already on great terms with Finn, then there’s no conflict if you put them together in a subplot.

And conflict is crucial, in storytelling. If it's absent, then the story becomes boring.

As a result, Rian Johnson had to create conflict and growth for Poe.

Which means that, now, a third storyline is thrown in the mix... and the pacing and development of the other two are affected by this. Some really good scenes need to be cut, some stuff needs to get shuffled around.

For example, remember this deleted scene, from further up?

In the commentary, Rian explained that the reason it wasn’t in the film is because it didn’t intercut well with the other two storylines. *Three and a half, if you wanna count Kylo's personal scenes.

As such, there’s no space to add more scenes to develop Luke's perspective.

And if Rian made more space, well, that wouldn't work either. Because while Luke is the spiritual core of the film... this isn't his movie. He's not the protagonist anymore. But he used to be, and if you show him too much (not as Rey's mentor figure, that is, but as a protagonist or deuteragonist), he'll take the spotlight off the new cast with the snap of a finger.

When Michael Arndt was working on the Sequels with George Lucas in 2012, he encountered this same issue:

“Early on I tried to write versions of the story where [Rey] is at home, her home is destroyed, and then she goes on the road and meets Luke. And then she goes and kicks the bad guy’s ass. It just never worked and I struggled with this. This was back in 2012. It just felt like every time Luke came in and entered the movie, he just took it over. Suddenly you didn’t care about your main character anymore because, ‘Oh f*ck, Luke Skywalker's here. I want to see what he’s going to do’.” - Michael Arndt, Entertainment Weekly, 2015

And I'm guessing this is a problem that JJ had to deal with too, hence why Luke was pushed to the end of Episode VII: so as to give the new characters a chance to be developed a bit more, first.

“In a very general sense, the original idea for Episode VII started midway through what we now know as Episode VIII...” - Pablo Hidalgo, Twitter, 2016

There's finally the fact that, while most of those ideas can make Luke's fall more understandable... his story isn't about "how he fell".

It's about how he got back up. The whole point of the film is that even when you've reached your lowest point you can still inspire and be inspired by hope.

So while adding any of the above scenes would only reinforce what was already shown in the movie, be it explicit or subtextual... they wouldn't ADD anything to the theme of learning from failure and getting back in the saddle.

Do I care about Luke’s characterization in TLJ...?

In spite of what the length and intricacy of these two posts might indicate... I don’t, really 😅

Like, sure, I wish more had been done with the character, but Luke was never really my childhood hero, Obi-Wan was.

So Luke in TLJ isn’t a gaping wound in my chest. I didn't whine about it in 2017, nor did I shed tears of joy and said “he’s finally back” when we saw him in The Mandalorian, for example.

Like, it was an awesome scene, but in my mind Luke never left.

Also I’m the type of Star Wars fan who’ll tolerate any addition to the canon by virtue of it being new Star Wars content.

So even if that addition is something I didn’t enjoy during the viewing, I still focus on the positive and roll with it, I come up with a headcanon that'll make it work.

Because you get to do that, with a transmedia franchise!

If you don’t like how it went down in the movie? There's always a comic around the corner that'll retcon it and/or retroactively make it better... that's how it was for the Prequels.

But for the Sequels, it's difficult. There's a scarcity of transmedia content, when it comes to stuff set around the Sequels era.

I mean, can you think of any

Luke-centric work

that serves as a meaningful addendum to what's seen of him in the Sequels?

A novel, a comic issue and a distantly-relevant manga.

That's it.

(The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett are too soon after ROTJ to have any meaningful impact on Luke's journey in the Sequels. Some people see Luke's behavior in those shows as "the beginning of his failure", but I covered why I don't think this is really the case, here.)

Instead of just three items, how about a comic mini-series focusing on the year Luke spent training Leia, or on his adventures across the galaxy as he tries to rebuild the Jedi Order? Maybe he meets Cal Kestis, or Quinlan Vos? Maybe he needs to face against an Oppo Rancisis who was consumed by the darkness, post-Order 66?

Or better yet, how about a video game centered on Luke, in the style of Fallen Order or Jedi Academy?

Get Mark Hamill to motion cap it, he's done it before.

This would also allow the fans who grew up with the powerhouse that is Legends Grandmaster Luke Skywaker to have some fun!

Many fans wanted to see Luke in action, in TLJ, and instead got a pretend-samurai fight. Which is nice, powerful and symbolic, he goes out like a true Jedi, it makes the Force more than a superpower... but it's not a lightsaber duel. In a game, though? Players can go to town.

I dunno... any additional content would've smoothed the blow for many people who didn't like what was done with Luke in TLJ. Sure, you'd always have people who just hated the whole thing, but if transmedia content helped reduce the hate for the Prequels, it could've done the same with Luke.

I'm not sure why that route wasn't taken.

[gffa]

Ahsoka: 7, 8, 13

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like? You know, I answered this once here, but I feel like I have more to say about Ahsoka! 💕 While I sometimes take issue with how it's done (especially in the vein of "Ahsoka can never be unreliable about anything ever") one of the things that has meant a lot to me is seeing Ahsoka embraced as a teenage girl, that her story is valuable specifically through the lens of being a young character who is growing up and that the audience could grow up alongside or see her as someone to look up to if they were younger than her or as someone to empathize with if they were older. When she was first introduced, apparently she was pretty hated and that's fairly typical of teenage girl characters who feel like they're being inserted into the story about previously established characters. But TCW was really good about using her as a vehicle to show the effect the war had on someone like her, how it ground her down and left her with scars and took so much and so many people away from her. To write her character's importance in the same way a male character's importance would have been written in her place, but to never shy away from that she's clearly a girl, but that it's not about that, it's about being a young person taking tremendous steps into a bigger galaxy, yet still so resonating with other girls watching her, that really makes my heart glad. 8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise? Also answered above, but let's go again anyway--I dislike it when fandom pits Ahsoka against Mace specifically, because of one tense moment that wasn't even that tense, but because so many people hate him (Guess Why), like I got real tired of seeing people cheering that he was about to die because omg how dare he not give Ahsoka--who established herself as a civilian first--all their sensitive intel. God forbid Mace uphold her boundary and have a day where he's less than perfect despite that he's had a fucking awful day already, as if Ahsoka herself in that scene didn't understand that and back down. I genuinely think, while they might not be besties, they would be able to have a calm and reasonable discussion, that Mace cares about her, that Ahsoka still respects him, and they both would trust the other enough to at least be genuine with each other. I dislike conflict just to prop Ahsoka up, she doesn't need it, she's great already!

13. What's an emoji, an emoticon and/or any symbol that reminds you of this character or you think the character would use a lot?

🙄🙄🙄

[blackjackkent]

Into the sewers, which have definitely seen better days.

In keeping with the rather animalistic side of Rakha's nature as represented by the Urge, I tend to think that she has pretty sensitive hearing and smell. (Her perception isn't high numerically, so I don't think she picks up on a lot of specifics, but she does get very strong overall impressions. So a place like this, which definitely smells awful, is pretty unpleasant.)

So she's not really in a good mood. Luckily, it's not a long walk to the entrance to the Guildhall.

It is a little amusing to me that this door is marked as forbidden, when you can (as I learned with Hector) pick it and open it with nobody seeming to care, and ALSO (as I learned just now with Rakha) smash it down, and nobody seems to care about that either.

There are definitely other entrances to this area elsewhere in the Lower City, as well, but taking the nearest manhole seems like the most logical option since this is Rakha's top priority at present.

I think Rakha finds the Guildhall a little bit of a relief. It's quieter than the city above - less noise, fewer people, and consequently less simultaneous murder urges for her to fight down. It also smells much better than the sewers. So she decides to take a little bit of a wander around, since no one seems to have an immediate problem with her presence.

There's a lot of brief conversations to be had here and most of them aren't tremendously interesting. There are, however, a few things of interest to Rakha, as well as a few conversations I don't remember encountering previously.

We'll start with this one. Rakha has drifted over to the corner where a bard is playing, watching the swirling Weave around the melodies, when this woman speaks up unprovoked from nearby:

"Eyes off the barkeep, new blood. He and I, we're a thing. Were a thing. Will *be* a thing again."

Rakha has already met the barkeep in question - a bugbear, who seemed decently friendly but not anything to write home about. She isn't entirely sure what the woman means by a thing, and answers cautiously and noncommittally in the hopes of getting more information. "Why aren't you... a thing... right now?"

"We're just... taking a breather," the woman says forlornly. "A short one. Only... I don't know why he broke things off. He said he had to - that Nine-Fingers forbade our love - but... well, I'm fairly certain she doesn't know I exist."

She looks up at Rakha hopefully. "Perhaps... he'll open up to you? He's such a soft heart, really connects with his customers! You'll see!" A pause, and then her eyes narrow suspiciously. "But NO funny business!"

Rakha has to take a moment to parse this. She means a romantic relationship - with the bugbear. And she's asking for help to re-establish it.

Hard to say exactly why Rakha agrees. Perhaps it's mere whim. Perhaps Wyll finds the whole thing romantic and encourages her to support it. Perhaps, deep down, she has a certain sympathy for people in love with those the world would call monsters.

Anyway she goes back over to the bar. The bartender's answer is, unfortunately, decidedly unromantic:

"What's going on between you and Cheeky Nora? She seems rather... eager."

"Gah. Nora's what you call an M-F. The M stands for Monster. Let's just say I ain't that type."

OK. First of all - valid. No one wants to feel like they're being fetishized. Second of all - Rakha is now irritated, because she now feels like she looks like a bit of an idiot.

(And, perhaps, deep down, the part of her that briefly saw something of herself in this little moment is rather disheartened.)

-----

"Are you an M-F, then?" she asks Wyll bluntly as they trudge back across the hall.

Wyll starts. "Am I-- excuse me?"

A pause. "Some would call me a monster."

Wyll frowns. "Oh. No-- no, no, no. No. Definitely not." A slight pause. "I love you."

He lowers his voice a little, not wanting to hear Minthara's commentary from behind him - but to his relief, Jaheira (who grew well-practiced at redirecting Minsc during tender moments between Caden and Aerie) has caught the tone of the conversation and drawn the drow back out of earshot.

Rakha is quiet for a little while. The two of them have not really used the word love very often; it feels too big and overwhelming to her, really, and she herself has not said it at all yet, even though she knows she feels it. But Wyll has, and he always sounds sincere.

"Because you're you," he goes on earnestly. "All of you, not just one part, whatever that part might be." He smiles a little. "Or did you think I was simply out looking for the only Bhaalspawn in the world and happened to get lucky?"

She relaxes slowly - not having even realized she was beginning to tense up. "Ah. No. Of course not," she says, but there's relief in her voice to hear it anyway.

-----

"Have you spoken to Severn yet?" the woman asks eagerly as Rakha approaches again.

"I have. You two aren't meant to be," Rakha says shortly.

"But... what do you mean?! He didn't *say* that!" the woman wails, agitated.

(A/N: Okay. Listen. Hear me out. Rakha doesn't have MUCH of a sense of humor, nor does she usually take deception checks. However, she's irritated at this woman now because of how this set of conversations has played out, and none of the other options are particularly Rakha-ish either, and I am only human and think this is hilarious.)

Rakha looks her straight in the eyes. [DECEPTION] "It's me," she says, in the flattest deadpan in Faerun. "Severn and I are in love."

At her side, Wyll makes a sudden inarticulate choking noise. Jaheira snickers. Even Minthara cracks a faint smile.

Somehow, the woman apparently takes this as a sincere statement of fact, because her eyes go wide and she flares with sudden righteous anger.

"You back-stabbing minx!" She glares daggers at Rakha. "I suppose you want to fight now, heh? Bathe in one another's blood in Severn's name?"

She doesn't realize how dangerous this particular set of words are, because the beast in Rakha's head would, indeed, like that very much, and she starts getting a very uncomfortable smile on her face.

(A/N: On anyone else this would absolutely be considered a shit-eating grin, and independent of context it's actually the nicest smile I've ever seen on Rakha's face. But in this context, there's no way it's not the beast getting revved up for a kill.)

And perhaps it's that smile, or the general air of sudden danger emanating from Rakha's whole body, but the woman immediately changes tacks and backpedals a few steps.

"Perhaps for someone else, I would!" she goes on haughtily. "But my love for Severn is pure. Unsullied by violence." Then, perhaps feeling that this is not enough to keep Rakha from following her, she digs hastily in her pocket. "Here. I was saving this, to woo him. But it doesn't matter now, does it?"

She backs up another few steps, then manages another irritated glare as she departs. "He can't see a good thing when he has it!"

And with this parting shot she disappears into the hall's lower levels.

(A/N: The ring in question is 18-gold trash loot. I'm giving it to Jaheira to keep in her pack because its description mentions that it's Calishite in origin and I'm a rank sentimentalist. :P )

[butterflydm]

More thoughts on the Seanchan Problem (TM)

I recently ran across a very interesting set of posts about what we know & can guess about historical Sparta and how it doesn't much match Sparta as it gets glamorized in media: acoup[dot]blog/category/collections/this-isnt-sparta/

It got me to thinking about the Seanchan, and I wrote up a lot of what I'm posting here and but, funnily enough (I guess it makes sense that we're all thinking about how the show will handle the Seanchan right now!), some discussion about the Seanchan came up with @ofthebrownajah re: the show needing to handle the Seanchan differently than the books did (very much agreed on that point) and @markantonys re: the issues with how the Seanchan were handled in the books (also very much agreed) and it all seemed pretty related to this post that I had been working on.

So, the thoughts in the Sparta blog posts that I linked, about how a majority-slave population works (or fails to work), reminded me a lot about various questions that I've had about the Seanchan, especially as I've gone through my reread.

We know that the Seanchan were kinda a mishmash of Every Empire, but the slavery mentioned in Spartan society in particular seems to strike a pretty familiar chord (because it sounds like it was pretty brutal even by Greek standards).

This does get critical and it does get into major spoilers through Knife of Dreams.

We know from The Fires of Heaven (Rand & Avi's honeymoon trip) that there are constant uprisings and slave revolts on the Seanchan continent. The Seanchan like to playact at being the embodiment of 'order' when they come to try to conquer the Westlands, but they cannot even keep their own house in order. The whole reason they're good fighters/generals is explicitly because they've been fighting each other this whole time (we learn that in Winter's Heart).

Which is one of the reasons why Crossroads of Twilight and Knife of Dreams feel like such bizarre departures from the previously established 'reality' of the Seanchan as we know them -- in CoT & KoD, we're suddenly living in Tuon's sheltered dream-world about how the Seanchan work and the narrative (at least in Mat's storyline) seems to be asking us to take it at face value, both because Mat doesn't challenge it (and he should know better -- and DID know better back in WH) and because it backs her PoV up by giving us ~glowing~ recommendations from all her slaves that just adore her ~oh~ so much -- she's a GOOD slaver-owner who only beats her slaves *checks notes* when they say something that pisses her off while doing their best to obey her orders (Tuon's intro in Winter's Heart). Ah.

But at least she... allows them to get their wounds treated once they've groveled enough and convinced her that they love her more than anything and will lick her hand like a dog! So it's totally okay!

idk, even after some distance from my rereads of CoT & KoD, they are such a jarring experience. I have some complaints about the Sanderson co-authored books, which I talked about in-depth in my last reread post about AMoL, but nothing that approaches how I feel about how the Seanchan were handled in CoT & KoD, specifically in Mat & Perrin's storylines(*). Just... the whiplash that I get from the 180 that got pulled in-between WH & CoT in Mat's behavior alone(**).

And it's really that soft-focus glamorizing of the Seanchan in Mat & Perrin's storylines in CoT & KoD that makes me think about historical Sparta and how pop-culture history only focuses on the elite 5-10% of the population and not on the vast majority of the population who were being abused by said elites (if you're looking for a group in WoT that really does resemble "the 1%", then you should be looking at the Seanchan High Blood, not the Aes Sedai).

It does look like the show will be going hard with the Seanchan during S2 and really showing how horrific the slave-breaking is and I feel like, since they do have an overall plan in place, they probably already know what their endgame is for the Seanchan, so we won't get an abrupt "okay, slavery bad, sure but... what if the slaver is HOT when she tortures her slaves or prospective slaves? Have you thought about that?" and "What if you could save your wife for the low low price of selling two hundred women into a torturous existence for hundreds of years? What a bargain! Slavery is such a convenient tool, isn't it?" face-heel narrative turn like we had in CoT & KoD for Mat & Perrin.

But that kinda ties into a larger issue that it feels like Jordan was only partially aware of -- on one level, he definitely realized that objectification of women is not a great thing, but he also fell into it a lot without seeming to realize that he was doing it. There tends to be a vibe of "women being killed is an evil thing but women being tortured forever is okay because they're technically alive and that's all that matters; the quality of that life is not relevant in the way that it would be for a man".

In plotlines where Jordan was focused on women as people, he tended to do a lot better, but that only makes it stand out more in the places where he's failing to do that, imo.

The two hundred Shaido Wise Ones who get thrown into slavery are treated with less humanity than the single (male) Shaido prisoner whose hand Perrin cuts off. They're just the background element as Perrin thanks and praises the slaver who helped him buy his wife back with blood. Jordan frames two slavers (Tylee and Tuon) as "good ones" without actually making anything about their behavior different from the "bad ones" of the Seanchan, because they are important to the narratives of two of the main male characters and so get boosted into being 'better than the other Seanchan' without any actual behavioral changes on their parts(***). Protagonist-centered morality at its most 'yikes'.

When you combine this with Rand sending the damane back to the Seanchan after Semirhage's attack as a 'gesture of good faith', it just adds up to a vibe of "women's freedom is negotiable". And because of the focus in the latter books on the damane as opposed to the da'covale(****), it is women's freedom specifically that is shown not to be valued in the main male PoV chapters. We'll make a big deal about how we can't kill women, but we can let them be tortured and enslaved.

It's a very ugly theme for the three Two Rivers' boys all to be sharing in at the end of KoD. Jordan makes all of them make choices that are very dark, but Rand is the only one getting real narrative push-back about those choices (*!) by having people he respects with openly disagree with him on the matter (*!!).

The show really does need to either commit to having the change in Seanchan society actively begin to happen on-screen (*!!!), or they need to not have the boys willing to throw their morals away so easily. Ideally, both.

As it is, in the books, Perrin is just straight-up selling people into slavery at the end of KoD. Mat is having thoughts about how he would just curl up and die if this horrible slaver lady got killed. And, like Perrin, Rand has decided that women are property to trade around, though he is much more reluctant about it than Perrin (*!!!!).

...

(* Hmm, random thought but - I wonder if, for me, being so deeply unhappy with what Jordan was doing in Mat, Perrin, & Rand's storylines in CoT & KoD, meant that the different take that Sanderson had on the story (which is inevitable; no matter who took over the series, they would have a different take than Jordan did) was more likely to be something I would find positive because I was so disappointed with the state that Jordan had left things in?)

(** I know I repeat this a lot but Mat flips from sympathizing with the slaves to sympathizing with the slavers in less than a week, all off-the-page in-between Winter's Heart and Crossroads of Twilight so it just really stands out to me when he starts doing things like using slavery as a threat against the Aes Sedai and forcing former slaves to share a wagon with their former abusers; Bethamin was actively abusing Teslyn a week ago and Mat makes them share sleeping quarters, meanwhile Tuon gets to be in a wagon alone with her slave and Setalle Anan who, just like Mat, has flipped from sympathizing with slaves to sympathizing with slavers in less than a week, taking Tuon under her wing and behaving as if she's a wee child in need of protection and being amused when the child throws tantrums and breaks things)

(*** contrast this with Egeanin, who does have to undergo a lot of changes, and who actively goes against the Seanchan norm more and more as her storyline progresses -- but, notably, Egeanin has a lot less temporal power in the Seanchan empire than either Tylee or Tuon, and also notably, her change in direction began when she was part of Elayne & Nynaeve's storyline and finished up in Egwene's storyline -- meanwhile, Tylee making a deal with a local in order to secure two hundred more damane sounds like something any Seanchan Blood would be willing to sign off on, and all we see from the Mat and Tuon 'relationship' is him making concession after concession to her while she throws tantrums, makes threats, and hurts his companions. We do have Alivia as representing the people who are injured and marginalized by the Seanchan elite, but we get so much less on her background and narrative PoV than we do for Tuon, who is on the top of the social heap. Giving Alivia more page time and a PoV or two would have helped balance out all the Tuon/elite High Blood focus in CoT & KoD; instead all her big conversations with Rand happen off the page and the books never explore her justified anger at her oppressors)

(*** though even the da'covale seem to be weighted towards women? The 'entertainment slaves' who dance for the Blood's pleasure always seem to be women and it seems like the majority of the da'covale that we see are women)

(*! though the Wise Ones disapprove about what Perrin does, the narrative ignores them just as much as Perrin does; and the same goes for Mat's bizarre choices in CoT & KoD -- we're never let inside the PoV of one of the people with him who disapproves of what he's doing)

(*!! Nynaeve, though even she, in accordance with the laws of No One Is Allowed To Offer Solutions About The Seanchan Especially Not To Rand, doesn't tell Rand any of the information that she has that might actually help him make better choices, like all sul'dam being capable of learning to channel, which is important military information for him to have!)

(*!!! which means that we, at least, need Tuon acknowledging that she can channel and that their society needs to change - it has to come from someone who actually has power in the Seanchan Empire, not just exiles like Egeanin)

(*!!!! I will also never back down on this being one of the biggest TACTICAL mistakes that Rand ever makes in the series. Sending back the sul'dam would be fine, whatever, because they're essentially prisoners of war, but sending back the damane tells the Daughter of the Nine Moons that Rand agrees that women who can channel are fair game as property to be bought and sold, which is the worst possible footing to begin his negotiations with the Seanchan on, as he has already conceded that women can be property)

[em-writes-stuff-sometimes]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I wasn't tagged directly, lol. I'm doing it anyway, though!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I have 12 works on AO3!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

390,129 words, at present.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently (and I suspect forevermore): House of the Dragon. Previously: Harry Potter (back before JKR was a massive cunt).

4. Top five fics by kudos?

dōnus riñus (sweet girl) (3,417) gevivys (beauty) (2,971) ñuhus prūmȳs (my heart) (2,276) ilībītsos (little slut) (1,881) darilaros (princess) (883)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes, I do! I like to thank people for reading, plus it satisfies my odd-number issue (they make me weirdly uncomfy). When people take time out of their day to leave me a message, I want to make sure I'm recognising that and letting them know that I appreciate it.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Yikes. I think it's the Harry Potter one, where I have Harry and Hermione marry and have a kid during the war, and they both die in the Final Battle and Ron ends up taking the kid to visit their grave.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I think that pretty much all my terms of endearment fics have happy endings - or near enough for ASOIAF-verse!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Weirdly enough, no. I'd resigned myself to it given the themes and content, but people are weirdly accepting of it. I sometimes get strange comments (like someone who keeps insisting I make Daemon cheat with Rhaenyra), but they aren't hate, just... odd.

9. Do you write smut?

Yes. Feels like that should be overemphasised, haha. My writing is diiiiiirty.

10. Craziest crossover?

I haven't written any crossovers! If I were to do so, I'd probably do a 'Daenerys teleports back in time to House of the Dragon and gets with Daemon and Rhaenyra'. Hot.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Three damn times, lol, all from the same fic series (ToE). Once in May of last year, where someone stole my work and only changed the names to fit the Shadow and Bone fandom. Once again in June of last year, where someone plagiarised multiple ways and multiple times to write their fic (a whole other drama, yikes). And once in May of this year, where someone stole the entire first part of one of my chapters to write their Daemon x OC fic on Wattpad. All have been removed, because I'm not down with plagiarism at all.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think so? I cannot remember for the life of me. I know I've been asked, and I gave my approval, but I haven't seen the translations myself so no idea if that ever went ahead.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! But it hasn't been published. We call it 'the Socussy fic' because it involves an unnamed female OC being hired by the Blacks to off the Greens during the Dance, only she does so by banging them to death in hilariously macabre ways. I wrote the establishing part featuring Daemon hiring her and the Larys footfuck death. We're missing one final bit, I think? It started in the big HotD Discord server I run, and @bottlesandbarricades @targaryenrealnessdarling and @ewanmitchellcrumbs have all collaborated on it. We're waiting for a final victim to contribute and then we shall convene as the Socussy Council and bestow the posting of it upon one poor soul! (I vote you Rach @bottlesandbarricades)

14. All time favourite ship?

I'm a die-hard Daemyra (Daemon Targaryen x Rhaenyra Targaryen) fan, but I also recognise that this is likely going to fracture and perish as the series progresses. I'm also hella into Jonsa (Jon Snow x Sansa Stark) and Jonerys (Jon Snow x Daenerys Targaryen). Plus, I like Jaimsa (Jaime Lannister x Sansa Stark) and Sanseryn (Sansa Stark x Oberyn Martell). I don't really know what this all says about me as a person, both the pairings themselves AND the fact they're all ASOIAF ships.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have an Aemond WIP fic that I'm too scared to finish given Aemond stans are a little intimidating to me! Also, I have a Klaus Mikaelson x OC/Reader x Elijah Mikaelson threesome fic that lingers in my files.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I like to think my strengths are my flowery prose, my relative era-accurate world-building and my characterisation.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I ramble way the fuck too much. Seriously, shut up, Em. Explain those three paragraphs in one goddamn sentence only.

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I think it's cool! I've made sure to research how one would format the inclusion of this in a standard fiction novel, too, so that it reads as 'professionally' as it can be. I manually translate High Valyrian to include in my writing, because the translators aren't at all accurate and I don't want to break the immersion (even for myself). (As an aside, I can and do assist others in this too - hit me up if you need it!)

19. First fandom you wrote in?

Blegh. Harry Potter. Don't shoot me, I was a child.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

My series terms of endearment. If I have to choose within the series, probably ñuhus prūmȳs (my heart); it's the first proper divergence from show material featuring my own plot, and I think it's where my writing truly takes form.

YAY! Done.

No pressure tags: @vampire-exgirlfriend @emilykaldwen @marthawrites @mini-kunoichi @selfproclaimedunicorn

@ripdragonbeans @flowerpotmage @presidenthades @queen--kenobi @lady-morrigen

[irithnova]

Inner mongolia headcanons? :3

He seems somewhat spacey if that's the right word? Like his mind is often thinking about something else

Also I think his name would be Batbold 🐱 I think Baatar (Mongolia) and Batbold (Inner Mongolia) sound cute together LZKQAK

Because many different ethnic groups live within him (I mean, he's straight up outnumbered by Han Chinese), he is more sensitive of other people's cultural norms to say the least compared to his brother in the North. Also has a better alarm for what not to say out loud

Wears his hair in two braids, has a bit of facial hair. I'd like to think he's around the same height as Mongolia, if not slightly shorter?

He tolerates Manchuria better than Mongolia does seeing as they live so close together and there are many Manchurians living in Inner Mongolia. What would really annoy Mongolia would probably only illicit a sigh from him.

On Manchuria again: They sort of have a weird relationship. For Mongolia, it's easy for him to dislike Manchuria or to be easily annoyed by Manchuria. But for Inner Mongolia, because both of them live under China , he came to the conclusion that there's really no point spending time on being angry at him all the time when they're kinda in the same boat now.

That doesn't mean that he doesn't get passive aggressive or annoyed towards Manchuria at times or has completely let go of his feelings towards what happened but Manchuria isn't exactly a threat to him anymore and if anything, is in a worse position than he is, so.

So yes. That combined with the Manchurian population in Inner Mongolia means that inner Mongolia does in fact invite him over for celebrations and trips and whatnot (Northerner solidarity finally real?).

Even if this annoys Mongolia when he comes over and visits. He finds it kind of funny anyways

Touching back on a previous point: I see inner Mongolia being a brother to Mongolia rather than being his like, child or something. This is because inner Mongolia was originally Southern Mongolia and a distinction between Northern and Southern Mongolia was only really prevalent during I guess the late 16th century or even mid during Ligdan Khan's reign?

Inner Mongolia (previously Southern Mongolia) was colonised by the Qing (Manchuria 🐱) in 1636 and Outer Mongolia (Mongolia) joined a few decades later in 1691

Between Northern and Southern/Inner Mongolia, there were some differences in the ruling families and Mongolic peoples populating each. This is kind of complicated but outer Mongolia (iirc) consisted of mainly Khalkha, Buryat, Uriankhai (umbrella term for the likes of Tuvans) groups and Inner Mongolia also had Khalkha and also Tumet and Chahar Mongol groups. There are a number of other Tumens/factions that are a part of this shitshow but I'm simplifying it for now

Despite these differences, this did not make Northern and Southern Mongolia two different entities. At least for a while

These groups, such as the Khalkha and Chahar, were Chinggisid (Genghisid), so of/loyal to the Chinggisid royal bloodline. It was under Dayan Khan that these groups were reunited after defeating the Oirats, and it was established that they were a Chinggisid people once more.

It was a strict rule in Mongolia that only those of the Chinggisid line could be Khan. Side note: the rule of Chinggisid leaders only being legitimate was so widespread throughout Central Asia which is why Timur of the Timurid Empire wanted to prove that he was Chinggisid so much, and even married a woman who was a descendant of Chagatay Khan (one of his sons).

Because of this Chinggisid heritage ordeal iirc this is why the Qing carefully planned intermarriages with inner Mongolian ruling groups so they could, in some convoluted way, claim legitimacy. Inner Mongolian nobles married with Manchurian nobles pretty extensively

So yes relationship with Manchuria can be kinda weird considering this past LMAO but he tolerates him now because. Same boat™

I make his birth date being in the late-ish 16th century because there already was a difference in the kind of factions inhabiting inner and outer Mongolia but I don't want to make him be born too early as that might be seem as legitimising Qing Imperialism/ legitimising Inner Mongolia being separated from Mongolia.

As stated previously, the difference between them can be seen in Ligdan Khan's reign. The Khalkha and Oirat factions by the early/mid 17th century were already going against Ligdan's rule, and he really only had the Chahar Mongol faction on his side

Inner Mongolia was officially annexed to the Qing in 1636 after Ligdan Khan died. His son, Ejei, was the final ruler of the Northern Yuan dynasty (Mongolia - he was coping and seething with the Yuan ending so called his territory the "Northern Yuan" lol) before the Qing finally put an end to it when Ejei was defeated in a surprise attack in 1635 and subsequently handed over the Northern Yuan imperial seal to the Qing, which was the first step to legitimising their rule before the extensive intermarriage with inner Mongolian nobility.

Inner/Southern Mongolia was the first to be annexed, Northern Mongolia held on for a bit longer but ultimately fell to the Qing too.

This (1) of the many reasons why Mongolia has a huge complex about inner Mongolia and what went down because uh. It's used to justify "Inner Mongolia is the real Mongolia" rhetoric

Because of this Mongolia is extremely fussy over inner Mongolia which does kind of annoy the latter

Once inner Mongolia and the Imperial seal was taken, this meant that the still independent Mongols in the North needed to find a new authority. Thus they turned to Tibetan Buddhism and established a new spiritual leader, Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, in 1639 (mfw tibmon real because Tibet helped Mongolia regain control of himself and a will to live once inner Mongolia was taken -)

But didn't last long lol as the Qing would install their own lamas into Mongolian monasteries so.

He is pretty chill on the surface, he's not very outwardly fussy about things and is pretty easy to talk to about whatever. Doesn't really involve himself in drama and whatnot

However he does have some. Deep seated complexes and problems that he never brings to the surface and are really hard to gage.

Mongolia however uh. Can sense them. I've already talked about this hc before but I think Mongolia has problems with anything to do with understanding mental health and doesn't show empathy easily but he's very different when it comes to inner Mongolia. He catches onto when he's upset or not feeling okay and like. Shows genuine concern.

I've said previously that Inner Mongolia gets kind of annoyed with Mongolia when Mongolia becomes too fussy about him... Mfw Inner Mongolia orders takeout for them in Mandarin when Mongolia visits and he looks up and Mongolia looks like he's seen a ghost -

I think sometimes they bicker about wrestling rules LMAO. Inner Mongolian and Outer Mongolian wrestling rules slightly differ. For example, in Inner Mongolia, you're not allowed to grab your opponents legs, whereas in outer Mongolia it's completely permissible.

Inner Mongolia also rubs in how much fancier inner Mongolian wrestling outfits are compared to outer Mongolian.

Mongolia in turn makes fun of the "Jangga" tradition in Inner Mongolia. In Inner Mongolian wrestling, some wrestlers wear a colourful ribbon necklace around their neck to signify that they're a good wrestler, as its often gained through winning many matches. But you can also acquire it if a retiring wrestler just decides to give it to you, regardless of your skill.

Mongolia voice: Isn't that just cheating lol

I think he has a good relationship with Daur. Many Daur live in Inner Mongolia and I see her being quite. Cheerful? So he likes being around her. She tries to teach him hockey :3

Really likes Uyghur food. I read that inner Mongolians often go to Uyghur restaurants when they eat out and take their (Outer) Mongolian friends there.

About Mr Uyghur again: I see them having a good bond. Love for lamb and wrestling etc lol some very similar interests but also it's a minzu to minzu thing and shared experiences of living under China.

Also because of the history between Uyghurs and Mongols but when it comes to overall history in particular, Uyghur is more familiar with Mongolia because well, he was around for longer lol

His and Mongolia's relationship isn't always good and there are definitely problems. In 1919 when China attempted to occupy outer Mongolia, a lot of the troops where Chahar Mongols from inner Mongolia 🤒

I also think inner Mongolia can get quite passive aggressive towards Mongolia when he's annoyed with him. Like the whole "well we retained our culture unlike you who uses the cyrillic script now instead of the original Mongol script"

Adding onto this and harking back to some points earlier, inner Mongolia does kind of have a superiority complex towards Mongolia because of the "Inner Mongolia is the real Mongolia" fiasco and Ejei Khan giving the Imperial seal to the Qing which lead to inner Mongolia being annexed etc etc and Northern/Outer Mongolia having to find a new authority to have a stabilised sense of identity again.

Also because he's simply a lot wealthier than Mongolia and I've heard that apparently some Mongols travel to inner Mongolia for certain healthcare?

Inner Mongolia also really. Dislikes it when Mongolia puts him on a pedestal and Mongolia often finds himself bitterly disappointed when he visits inner Mongolia and he does not act like the idealised version of himself he has in head🤒

It's ok though they do still love and care about each other KXKSKS just. Family issues I guess

Positive relationship with Tibet but kinda reels at how Mongolia and Tibet act around each other LMAO.

Ending on a more positive note, I think it's funny how it's inner Mongolia who goes around with facial hair and Mongolia who decides to be clean shaven lol

Also thank yew because you helped me out with parts of this post teehee :3

[reorientation]

Hormone dosage virgin here. I found this kink probably about 6 months ago. I’ve changed so much in that time. I’ve gone up, then I went back down on hormones. I almost got into an established relationship with a straight man (but things didn’t work out). I’ve talked to lots of Real Men in the last 6 months. They’ve all told me how important it is to embrace my true self. But I like your blog the most of all of them! ♥️

To be honest, the thought of a Real Man’s cock hasn’t left my brain. The thought of a Real Man fucking me and cumming inside my wet, tight virgin pussy is so good. It’s something I hadn’t even thought I wanted even just a year ago. In fact, I wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. I still liked men, but I didn’t wanna be fucked. But somewhere along the line, a fire got lit and it’s been building ever since. I am bisexual, thought I’d mention it.

You were right, I am a familiar type. I see it even scrolling through your blog. There are so many other girls just like me. Insatiably horny virgins with a purpose. I have you to thank for making me realize some things about myself. Thank you, Sir.

Last thing, before I end this anon. I have top surgery scheduled. What do you suggest I do?

- hormone dose girl ♥️

(Previously)

Pleased to hear you've been learning the most from me, cutie. It doesn't take so long for it to really settle into the depths of your mind, does it? Almost like it was just filling empty spaces that were always there.

You're a familiar type, but I always love seeing it. As testosterone is working its way into your body, the thought of being fucked bare by real men is working its way into your brain. Your desires are changing, and now, because of that testosterone you wanted so badly, they're burning.

For a lot of girls, it's a battle against herself: whether she can keep taking those shots of T in the thigh that will make her a "man", without spreading those thighs and taking the shot of cum that will make her a bred bitch.

But there are some smart girls, like you, who just give up the fight. Who realize that when they're dreaming of men coming in their pussies, they're thinking about something they could never do and something they could never escape.

I do hope you find another straight man to fuck you, Anon. You're a good girl and you deserve it.

As for top surgery... I think you know what my advice will be. Just look around: there are so many girls here who will tell you that they wish they still had their tits, who put on breastforms and stuffed bras just to pretend they never made that mistake. Hormones are mostly reversible: once you go off T, your body will heal itself to its natural state. But it won't fully heal from you losing your breasts - and from what one former FtM has said, it hurts to feel them try to grow like they're supposed to, once you've been bred.

So do the right thing and cancel your appointment. The day that you would have gotten your breasts cut off, you can stay home and play with them and imagine how they'll grow.

[phoebehalliwell]

can I send you another silly ask lol I'm curious about how your characterisation of each character came about. across all of your next gen aus and canon lol. I've got my own next gen ocs for another fandom and some of them were a full character immediately while others I still have no idea. I have to assume making like aesthetic edits and stuff helps you with that but what else? did you have to think about it much or did some appear in your mind with a full personality and vibe already?

so a lot of it depends i would definitely say some appeared in my mind more fulfledged than others (charactrers like henry jr, parker, sheridan, & pj i had a pretty solid handle on from the start whereas like melinda, tamora, dj & mikey morris, and patricia halliwell-trudeau were definitely slower processes and a lot of coming up with something then scratching it lol). but, in general, for next gen specifically, i would say my greatest influence is both parents + birth order, just because i think those are the thing that will make a next gen character feel the most like a next gen character to the audience. it is a personal pet peeve of mine where next gen media kind of goes yeah they were kind of shitty parents like. those are the people i grew up with!! you shut your whore mouth!!! (no i am still not over the characterization of aang in lok.) but yeah, so like, a large part of what their character is like will come from what i perceive their childhood to be like. so for example: pj, phoebe and coop's eldest, is def going to be a romantic and totally going to meddle in everyone's business, and then, being the eldest, is also going to have that protective/overprotective streak we see so often modeled by the eldest sibling in charmed, as well as her own mother (think back to when paige was with richard). so next gen does offer a kind of cheat sheet like that.

there is, of course, a little more difficulty when, like, you just straight up don't really know which route to go/where to start. for melinda, i had trouble because she's already coming in on two really strong personalities: wyatt & chris, who also already have an established dynamic without her. for this, i really just kind of worked backwards to establish what i didn't want. for melinda (and this is personal preference) i really didn't want the stereotypical ya 2014 badass heroine who wears eyeliner and black leather jackets. for starters, i feel like those tropes have gotten really overdone, especially in the urban fantasy medium, and then secondly i just didn't want everyone in this family to be the same kick ass leather boots type (which, given that i already had visions for parker, henry jr, kat, chris, pj, etc who all kind of fit comfortably into those ya tropes, i really wanted someone on the softer side). i also think that like, for her, piper and leo are you know they have this tenderness this sweetness and i wanted to embody that. so i didn't want black leather melinda, but narrowing it down further i also really didn't want doormat melinda either. again, we're looking at her parents. they're stubborn, they're fighters, they don't take shit. so i wanted to work to combine a softness and like a take no shit vibe. from there it was just kind of holding up puzzle pieces in my mind until i found ones that fit (e.g. i think she swears at her brothers and calls them out on shit but i think outside of the home she's a lot more passive not everything needs to be a fight because quite frankly she's got plenty of tension in her life already no need to be adding more, she's shy when it comes to love interests, she's a perfectionist, she's a mom friend/mama bear, all just little character quirks that exist in my little character brain bank that i decided i liked how they worked for her)

there is the separate category of the true oc, one who has not previously engaged with canon at all, and those are usually shaped through motivation, and their motivation is usually shaped by what i need to happen in the plot. so, for viola, for example, her main motivation is a wish to be left in peace. why? well, because i wanted kat to try to find the twice blessed and that kind of meant the twice blessed had to be hiding. so for that main motivation, a couple potential pathways arose: she could straight up not give a fuck and be apathetic towards the whole thing. she could be scared of her destiny and not want any part of it out of fear of herself/her own power. she could not want to complete her destiny because doing so would involve making a choice she feels like she can't make. i ended up going for the last one bc to me it definitely seemed the most fun. based off canon, i decided that the twice blessed destiny, while never explicitly stated in canon, was to wipe out all evil. of course, this meant there was the flipside there was the potential to wipe out all good. now i feel like to the average person this has a fairly easy answer like if you could wipe out all mosquitos. like, yes, you know there are prob going to be some like ramifications from removing a species from existence, but, like, fuck those guys. also, hello, malaria? i feel like you'd be saving a lot of people. so like i felt like i needed to give her some tie to evil, some bond, something that would motivate her not to want to destroy evil because if she did she'd be destroying her loved ones. next question is why/how does she love something evil. so i built her a backstory of being raised in a defect clan (witches who have turned into warlocks, something we established could happen in the show), giving her a different perspective of being people raised in say the manor might have. from her backstory more parts of her personality started to bloom, she doesn't let herself be tread on and hates feeling like a pawn in someone else's game, she's very protective over the ones she loves and is willing to remove herself from their lives to save them, she likes helping people, she likes making people smile, her sense of humor can be a little bit twisted and she thinks selfish people should be cut down before they hurt others.

i hope this helped answer you question if you have any more qs just let me know and i will do my best to answer

[brandwhorestarscream]

Cybermorph ideas!

So? We got the whole reproduction ask thingy from before. Maybe, a queen can choose where the transfluid goes? Like maybe they can retain it? It's possible in snakes, why not wacky aliens.

Also, Megs just panicking in a field because EGGS is such a funny image. Imagine the second time it happens, he does feel some obligation to return to them, dragging somebot with him, trying to figure out why he wants to return this time. Only for the eggs to "latch on" to the bot. Imagine his horror. He doesn't know his own workings. To learn how eggs work would be chaos for him.

Ooooh now I've got THOUGHTS

So... this is a little difficult. We established previously that Megatron isn't able to asexually reproduce until he's much older, with an established hive. Which means, if these eggs he's just laid are going to hatch, they have to have a sire. Cybermorph queens can hold onto transfluid to fertilize eggs later, right? Hear me out, then: it's not something they do consciously. It's smthn their body just performs on it's own, and he has no control over it. Just a natural happening of the reproductive system and there's nothing he can do about it short of a sterilization surgery.

So. Megatron is operating under the assumption that these eggs are sterile. The nesting instinct made him withdraw from Kaon and he ended up slinking into a crack in the planet's surface, somewhere dark and secluded where no one would bother him. After the clutch's arrival, he assumes that they're not fertile, same as the first batch. His last time interfacing with someone was a quite awhile ago, waaay before he started to feel eggheavy. He doesn't feel any connection to them, and so just... leaves.

He returns home a few days after nesting, checking in with his parents to let them know he's back. They freaked out pretty bad when he suddenly vanished the first time, so now he makes sure to tell them he's not dead.

And this is where it gets a little wonky. He has very few cybermorph friends: they are the first generation, after all. None of them have experienced any egg cycles, and they're all operating under the false assumption that cybermorph conception is the same as cybertronians: that the fertilization happens exclusively during sex. They don't know it can happen out of order, that there can be large gaps between the actual interfacing and the fertilization of eggs.

I mentioned previously that the war eventually starts when the cybermorph population has swelled considerably, quality of life in the south plummets, and the north side of the planet clings to a strict segregation lockdown. Said lockdown was put in place almost immediately after the first gen of cybermorphs popped

I have a point here, I swear. Stay with me, this is gonna get long. I gotta talk through this or the final conclusion will make no sense

The first generation of cybermorphs were of course heavily influenced by their hosts. Ordinarily, xenomorphs are born and grow rapidly, and are incredibly aggressive, vicious, with the main primary goal of eliminating other species and propagating their own. But they've always been fully organic species: crossbreeding with inorganics resulted in some previously unseen traits. The possession of a spark, for one

The xenomorph embryos mutated rapidly when implanted in their cybertronian hosts, having to very quickly adapt to energon and spark energy radiation to survive. The little ones that come out are half and half, obviously, but their spark is really what matters. Newborn xenomorphs are loyal only to their queen and their hive. But these newborn cybermorphs don't have either. What they do have, however, is alien blood and physical souls in their chests that are linked to their cybertronian carriers. And their carriers are alive. They're bonded to these mecha from birth, can feel their emotions and hear their thoughts, just like any other sparkling. The bonds are incredibly strong, due to utter lack of a queen to imprint on and only growing stronger when their host parents deign to raise them.

Because they possess sparks and energon and have carrier-creation bonds, they're largely judged to be cybertronian. Or at least, cybertronian enough to avoid slaughter. The Senate can't order them killed, because their emergence makes international news, and even if they are incredibly freaky looking, they still possess a soul. Killing them would be infanticide. People would riot. Begrudgingly, the Senate allows the newborns to live, but the trade off is total segregation. No warframes may leave the southern half of the planet without rigorous medical exams and quarantine procedures, and the cybermorphs grow up in designated safety zones Just In Case. The Senate is constantly monitoring them, whether they know it or not (they don't).

Now, going back to Megatron's clutch. The first eggs really are sterile. He leaves them in that little nesting spot and never goes back for them. The Senate, however, does. They send someone to retrieve the eggs for testing, also assuming them to be sterile. They're filled with the cybertronian equivalent of water, a lifeless, perfectly clean oil that has no genetic code in it. Curious.

The second batch, though... not so much. Megatron thinks they're sterile, and so do the ones watching. Another retrieval team is sent in, except this time, they get the facehugger treatment. From what I've read, being implanted with an embryo causes a bit of short-term memory loss (or at least, it did with the first victim), so when the incubators awake in the nest once more they see that the eggs are destroyed and report back to the Senate. They were too late, the eggs have already hatched.

Now, for one reason or another, the retrieval team isn't permitted to cross the border. That's either because of quarantine procedures or because they're warframes that already live there, but regardless. They're still on the southern half of the planet when the morphlings pop out of them

This time, however? These babies don't feel any connection to their host, because they already have a(n unknowing) queen. Megatron is their carrier, not their incubators. He can sense them, in his spark, as well as instinctually, and he goes off on the prowl to hunt them down. He doesn't really know what he's looking for, at first, not until he finds his first cute little sparkling

Or well. "Cute". Cute to him. If they're anything like actual xenomorph newborns they're kinda long and wiggly and wormlike, but nyeh. We can figure that out later.

Regardless. Megatron finds out the hard way that those eggs weren't sterile, and he's very confused. He knows he didn't have any intimate relations whe the eggs were forming, so what gives? And also, how the HELL is he going to manage his morphlings? What if the Senate tries to take them away? What if he can't feed them all? What if- what if-

Anyway. I'm gonna call it here because holy shit this got long. Let this be the beginning of Megatron’s first Hive 😌 their existence has just opened an entirely new chapter for all the cybermorphs and literally no one knows what's going on

[td-frog]

thoughts on dcas e8:

the challenge

tbh i thought this was one of the weaker challenges they've had so far. the 1v1v1 at the end was an interesting twist, although it kind of felt like it didn't live up to the potential? like obv it'll adds to the love triangle drama but it was literally "build a ladder. go up the ladder."

idk overall it was fine it just felt like less of a challenge and more of a setting for the characters to interact in.

magenta team

jake and ally fighting like kids is really funny to me. like it makes sense given jake's abandonment issues flaring up re:ashley but he's really being sooo hostile out of nowhere.

yellow team

i'm so glad the yulgrett plot is progressing. this man is so stupid. literally grett is the only thing standing between him and elimination since alec and riya so clearly hate his guts, and yet.

aside from that i really like alec's two confessionals about fiore and yul- i like that he acknowledged not wanting / expecting fiore out, and that he pointed out yul being a shitty boyfriend. like we know he was a shitty husband but he still has standards.

cyan team

so tom's boyfriend is 100% fake.

also i called it on ellie leaving. i have mixed feelings about gabby- on the one hand i like that she's maybe getting more to do now and it does line up with her previously established character, but the black-and-white friend-or-enemy thinking was something i never really liked about her in s1.

also i get that it's important for keeping the villain's alliance relevant given that they're all so dysfunctional, but i don't love this particular set of villains all that much.

also shoutout to tess for being the only reasonable person on this show

predictions

i don't think magenta will face another elimination before the merge, unless something major happens next episode. it's just that between the love triangle plot and the fighting for ashley's attention plot, it would have to be ally, which removes the tension from that second one so soon after establishing it.

i think yellow could lose next time, and i maintain my previous prediction: yul loses if grett figures him out and votes for him, riya loses if it goes to tiebreaker (or if yul survives via immunity idol).

i don't think cyan is likely because the obvious boot is gabby and she like just decided to be a villain. it makes more sense to me that they'd lose a villain from yellow.

again i have no idea when merge happens. all bets are off if that's next.

love triangle was less central to this episode but i expect it to come back next time what with jake tricking aiden. ellie not being around to influence it could also change up the dynamic.

would like tess and ally to connect again but idk how likely.

villain's alliance will probably take center stage- gabby has expressed the intention to join them and yul is starting to blow up his relationship, so they're ripe for drama.

ellie not reading names at the end maybe indicates she's coming back although i doubt it's next episode if at all.

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

8, 9, 11, 17 for the writer/artist asks!

8. Do you have any OC family trees?

I do, from several years ago, but I can't remember where I put them. I could recreate them, tho.

9. Favourite OC?

Since I already answered this, I'll pick another favourite, Tom. His insecurity and struggles to unlearn habitual misogyny have captivated me because my boy is TRYING he's DOING HIS BEST at separating from the poor company that influenced him for years. He slips up, but he's still trying his best. Overall he's a very relatable character.

11. Sum up one or more of your wips!

I wouldn't exactly call this a wip because I haven't seriously worked on it for years, only bouncing around my brain a bit, but: Patience, the dear beloved knitting oc. I love her and her story and may even find it in me to write it during nanowrimo this year, if I haven't properly planned out any of the other ones I want to get written.

Patience copes with life by hiding away in a small sandstone cave a lot of the time, halfway up a mountain. She knits a Lot, so much so that she has to sell her pieces just so she can afford to buy enough yarn to knit with. This upsets her, but hey, she copes. She's really quite contented with her life, until one day she hears the rattling of *her* rope-and-stick ladder that *nobody else* uses, and a head pops up above the ledge. Unfortunately, its owner is trying to be friendly. Even more unfortunately, due to a combination of circumstances it is sprung on her completely without notice that this is her new adopted sister, Rhona. Patience does not like this. Patience Does Not Like This. However, she does her best to try and work with her, but Rhona just doesn't vibe very well, really. Time passes and her parents are at the end of their rope and it seems that Rhona will have to go elsewhere, though where they don't know. I completely steal a plot point from Dear Enemy in which Patience saves Rhona from a fire, in the process breaking several bones. While she recuperates, Rhona comes to understand her more and learn how Patience works and vibes and how they ought to interact, better. By the time Patience is well enough to go back to the cave as previously - having to overcome her newfound fear of heights, with Rhona's support - they are good friends and enjoy one another's company. In the final scene, Patience is teaching Rhona how to knit.

17. What are some tropes and character dynamics found in your wips?

The Sudden Realisation, in romance; I do not know how romance develops, or how feelings grow. If I have a POV character, either they're Suddenly Aware, or it's an already established thing. (Examples of the Suddenly Aware include both Tom and Adira - he realising he's not actually interested in another girl romantically, she by seeing a photo of them asleep together and going oh - and the established thing would be Paddy and Lilac.) I love the grumpy one/sunshiney one as a trope, and to some extent that's represented in Vaniah and Anneka's relationship, and certainly with Neil and Faith. (Spoilers!! Faith takes a while to be introduced and that relationship certainly surprises the other characters.) I can't think of any other tropes or dynamics off the top of my head rn, but if anyone wishes to pick them up in my writing and ask specifically about it, I'll answer, lol.

[jonathanbiers]

hello may i have some fic lore please. i am requesting a dvd commentary analysis of your favorite ever scene you've written. please and thank you and only if you feel like it <3

EVER WRITTEN? OOOH. uhhhh my favorite scene i've ever written has not been published yet (and may not ever? it's. complicated. but i won't talk about it in detail i'm so sorry) and while my favorite fic in general that i've written, like, with the whole thing taken into consideration is from the tone of your voice, i've talked about my favorite scenes from that one multiple times before, so i'll give you my 2nd fave.

which is from part one of the steddie fic i actually finished last week, which i affectionately refer to as "eyeliner steve" because that's a lot shorter than you're shooting stars from your eyes (it drives me crazy, drives me wild). i'll put the excerpt and my rambling under a read more because i will be quoting whole paragraphs, oops. also it's nsfw, so there's that.

so first of all, the alley scene in part one was the very second image that popped into my mind when, way back in SEPTEMBER, i had the conversation with @jeysuso that inspired me to write this whole entire ass fic. i really wanted to make it so obvious that, sure, while the idea behind the fic was basically "omg what if steve wore eyeliner and eddie fucked him till he cried" (happens in part 2 👀👀👀) this is still an established relationship where they're very much in love, talkin gomez and morticia level whipped and horny for each other. but the scene itself starts in the hideout:

The first time in a few weeks that Steve’s free to make it to Corroded Coffin’s show at The Hideout, there he is in the crowd, eyes rimmed with black and sticking out like a sore thumb in a teal polo. He’s got his denim jacket—he bought it because it reminds him of Eddie when they’re apart, he says—draped over his arm and he’s singing along to Eddie’s every word, knows all the lyrics by heart. He insists Corroded Coffin is the greatest metal band of all time, and Eddie knows it’s because they’re the only metal band Steve likes, but how supportive he is makes Eddie’s heart sing anyway. 

i think after time (which it isn't stated but i wrote this with the idea they'd have been dating for a year, maybe two) steve would adopt little eddie-esque pieces into his wardrobe, but definitely not in a "becoming someone else" way where he's donning a new style he's never previously had any interest in for himself. just something simple, so i chose a denim jacket, which would remind him of eddie's vest, and maybe he'd have a little corroded coffin pin on it or something. but he's still going to show up to eddie's show in what he's comfortable in, and eddie would never ever want him to change just to fit in with *his* crowd or whatever. i really like the sweet little moment i wrote to get that across, when eddie spots him in the crowd.

And Then 😈😈😈 the alley.

After the show, before Eddie can so much as get his lit cigarette between his lips, Steve is cornering him against the brick wall between the emergency exit and the dumpster, clinging to his sweat-soaked t-shirt and kissing him like he’ll just die if they part. Eddie’s come to expect this by now. He doesn’t get it, but Steve seems to love how he gets after shows, how he’s all sweaty and flushed and breathing hard and— Okay, yeah, maybe he does get it.  That doesn’t mean he’s any less amused about it as he carefully holds the still-lit cigarette at a safe distance. Eddie’s free arm snakes around Steve’s waist, pulling him as close as he can and eagerly swallowing down the sound Steve makes at the contact, using the opportunity to get his tongue inside his mouth. Steve one-ups him, because of course he does, sucking on Eddie’s tongue until he starts to feel like his jeans fit a bit tighter than they had before. 

if i had money to commission someone to draw a scene from any of my works, this would be my 2nd choice (behind the shotgunning scene in fttoyv with steve in argyle's lap but again. i've talked abt that one)

this kind of starts off the dynamic i keep in mind through the whole thing, which is: steve gets his way, eddie knows this, and wouldn't change a thing. even if eddie is technically filling the more "dominant" role, steve is the one in control of what's happening, and eddie loves giving him exactly what he wants, even (especially) if he can tease him before getting there. which also happens later. 👀

When Steve finally breaks away, it’s only because he’s trailing more kisses along Eddie’s jawline and down his neck. Eddie tilts his head, gives him some room, and has to suppress a shudder when he feels Steve’s tongue on his skin, licking a line up his neck. It shouldn’t turn him on like this but it does, he knows he’s all sweaty and gross but he also knows Steve loves it. He has it confirmed when Steve’s lips brush against the shell of his ear around a whisper of, “Eddie, you looked so fuckin’ hot tonight, under all those lights...” 

i got called out in my dms by a lovely friend for this paragraph ghfjkjgk don't look at me too close. anyway. my point here is that steve has a sweat kink. maybe i'm projecting. that's my business

Before Eddie can even get a chance to respond, Steve is sinking to his knees on the pavement, and all the words fade right off the tip of his tongue. It’s well into the night but his eyes have had enough time to adjust, and between the distant streetlights, the full moon, and the neon red of the sign above the emergency exit, he can see the man in front of him very clearly. And what a pretty picture he makes, kiss-swollen lips and disheveled hair and that fucking eyeliner, all tinted in red as he leans in to mouth at the obvious tent in the fabric of Eddie’s jeans. 

i don't even think i need to comment on this one because i just? yeah. that image. steve on his knees <3 i love it as much as steve in laps <3

but behind the curtains, we have steve doing what he does throughout the entirety of this fic, which is intentionally pushing eddie's buttons in order to get what he wants, which of course he eventually does. because they are equally as weak for each other, and steve knows he's hot. also i hc eddie's favorite color as red? but that's just me, and even if you disagree, we all know red is sexy lighting.

i really don't even have that much more to say about it ghdjgdk i'm really proud of this. and of course there's some good stuff immediately following 😈😈