#it would have made the plotline more meaningful too!

[pisshandkerchief]

to be honest I think Rose Tyler should have died for real in Doomsday (opinions that would have had me hunted for sport in 2013)

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

why didn't they just use franziska for literally all of this.

[mazzystar24]

i feel like im in the minority who don’t want eddie to have a slut era in general like… idk even without chris it feels so ooc for him to me, like i feel like he’s so far repressed at this point that if he didn’t wind up with buck he would end up just living the bachelor’s life…

and like i feel like that was the whole point of not having eddie and tommy be the couple this season was bc it wouldn’t make sense for eddie to step forward in that way unless it was buck… or at least that’s what i interpreted the initial decision to swap the storylines to be so maybe i’m wrong

i guess after six years i’m just tired of them dragging their feet and i’m sick of them giving them meaningless relationships with zero chemistry rather than just letting them be happy… and giving eddie a slut era would just feel like they’re rehashing buck 1.0 and i’m tired of them reusing plotlines they’ve already used for other characters (and even giving characters the same plotlines again)

like eddie can be gay without having a slut era and i kinda would like them to not play into the hypersexual queer stereotype since they’ve decided to do so w buck

One thing is 3am me is a gremlin and I don’t like her or her brain (that was the time I made that post) also she just likes to make fun of annoying people but so do I and I had seen TOO many posts talking about a straight slut era for Eddie so hence the chaos gremlin post

Normal me’s thoughts on this:

• the reason I don’t like slut era as gay Eddie canon for Eddie is like you said it’s a bit ooc but also imo like I feel like BECAUSE he’s so repressed it’d take a really meaningful and impactful relationship to give him the like motivation/push he needs to get him outta that closet (which was my same reasoning for why I was glad they didn’t do Eddie/tommy like they originally planned- cos buck just never realised it but Eddie like actively represses it and has much more like in depth reasons for it- like buck wasn’t so much in the closet as he just thought that was his room meanwhile Eddie is like in a super bolted chained Houdini level closet)

• I mentioned in the tags but I want to be FLABBERGASTED when buddie canon happens I want to let out an audible scream in shock and wake up my neighbours and realise it only after I get a noise complaint and if they make them both canonically queer it’d feel like a matter of time (funnily enough i said this but about making ONE of them queer when the bi buck rumours were going around and legit the next week or so we get 7x04 and I was right - true I didn’t anticipate bt fans and the fact that it doesn’t feel FULLY inevitable- but fingers crossed I am psychic again and we get gay Eddie)

• while I think the fact it’s so ooc would be interesting because like it’d show how Chris leaving is affecting him I feel like it’d also be a huge disservice to Eddie because his queer arc and experiences deserve better than like strangers and one night stands as a coping mechanism if you get me

• if I’m fully honest even if his queer arc doesn’t end up perfect I just want him to be canon like it wouldn’t be my ideal like honestly if they do a disservice to him I’d hate it but still I’d just take the win because gay Eddie deserves to be free from😔 like even with buck they kinda weren’t great with his arc but my joy at bi buck overpowers that

But yeah sick and tired buddie canon now Tim please😔💔

[guiltycorp]

mmm im sort of glad they released arcane survivor jayce skin voicelines in league before act 3 drops because my expectations for it were rising a bit too much lmao... before it i almost convinced myself that yeah, viktor's character arc will lead him to manipulate jayce into transferring his soul to a new mechanical body + focus on a new strategy for 'healing' societal issues that isn't 100% evil and bad (while still having its drawbacks re: will and consent) and fighting noxians would place the zaun side in a better position to bargain with piltover for equal rights and a stop to exploitation (with an open ending sure but still), or even a straightforward revolution with zaun getting its independence through a violent protest that piltover wouldn't be able to curb due to being stretched too thin

but uhm.... all of this looks kinda... sigh

i really doubt they'll have the time in the remaining 3 episodes to develop both his and Viktor's motivations to fit those new ideas, feels like more of the same 'it all happened off-screen, trust that it makes sense' journey saying that Viktor is 'still worth saving' feels especially yucky all things considered, like pls stop trying to save that man and let him act and choose for himself for once in this season maybe? never thought i'd miss the times when Viktor was doing unsafe experiments, getting illegal drugs from evil mentors and accidentally fridging random female assistants, but mmm that sure didn't get a proper continuation for him did it... just like with Caitlyn, or even Mel or Jinx, we just can't seem to get a proper development for the obviously Questionable things the characters choose to do, it's all kind of swept under the rug or cancelled out by magic interference i guess, or they changed their mind off-screen so it's fine now now that i think about it, Jayce is the only one who was allowed to somewhat grow and change organically, and yet this arcane adventure of his might end up ruining even that... well maybe Vi too but she didn't have a concrete focus this season, just more of the same 'should i reconnect with my sister/father or kill them off for good' and lesbian angst (if she still goes back to enforcers after this i just... fml) did Ambessa's warmongering get the best of her or was she cornered by the Black Rose shenanigans with no better way out? did Isha have any purpose aside from giving us false hope that Jinx will get better and have a happy ending? will Mel have any relevance aside from the new magical one and managing her own mother? does Viktor want to 'supersede nature' and get rid of human error element now because of his own character journey or because that's just what Hexcore is leading him to do?... will Caitlyn show that she still doesn't get why Zaun is the way it is or will she also go 'yeahhh i made some mistakes, but now we fight a common enemy yay, and i'll be a bit less strict in the future without making any meaningful changes to the status quo... it was all them foreigners fault' it's just all so... aghhh

and yep now i am expecting that the piltover/zaun conflict is overrr because they have to come together to fight Ambessa and whatever is going wrong with the magic, sighhh social conflict plotlines are a little too spicy for our animated league adaptation i guess... ...this is the only voiceline implication i like and even then i can't help but imagine Viktor the damsel in distress begging Jayce to fix the mistakes they both did instead of like, participating in that himself

bonus points if that promise won't even be to Viktor fghgfhgf

[zeroducks-2]

I don’t understand how Clark is even Bruce’s friend after reading how Bruce treats his sidekicks

There's more than one reason.

All heroes - beside Barry Allen - haven't been (and often still aren't) always sunshine and rainbows when it comes to their sidekicks. I won't go in depths with all of them but Bruce isn't the only abusive one. Consider that the Leaguers were all pretty young when their sidekicks came around and made lots of mistakes, whether because of inexperience or because they were misguided, thinking that being harsh and unforgiving would have built character for their little counterparts (again, Barry is a stark exception to this). And importantly, how to mentor a sidekick was no one's business except the mentor's. You don't see Barry tapping on Arthur's shoulder and tell him "stop hitting Garth", despite how affectionate and careful with children Barry has always been. Same thing goes with Clark and Bruce.

Of course seeing Bruce treat his sidekicks that way over more than two decades should be enough for anyone to reconsider the friendship, but comics are not real life. Being "difficult" is part of Bruce's whole deal: he pushes away the people he loves, he isolates, keeps to himself and stews in his own pot of demons and loneliness. And Clark loves him, he really really does, and wouldn't leave him alone despite the abusive behaviors Bruce displays towards, well, pretty much everyone (Clark included. I know Superbat shippers tend to live up on the candy mountain where everything is perfect between Bruce and Clark, but Bruce is very much abusive, manipulative and an asshole to Clark too and invariably, Clark forgives him). So the thing is, Clark loves both Bruce and Dick. He recognizes Bruce's flaws and the fact that if he pulled away, it would just hurt Bruce and Dick, and solve nothing.

More in general, Bruce's behavior in this sense is normalized. Read any comic of anyone interacting with Bruce for more than 1 minute, and there will be some rationalization or justification for the shit he pulls at some point in the story (not necessarily towards his sidekicks but in general). His personality is full of jagged edges and if you try to touch you'll likely cut yourself, and all the people close to him know and accept this - luckily for Bruce, because otherwise he'd be entirely alone. This dynamic consistently hurt his friends and family though, and it's especially damaging to the people who Bruce has power over, namely his sidekicks. But everyone normalizes this and considers it part of the "Batman deal", which is why no one does anything meaningful to make him stop, or cuts ties with him over it.

There's another reason, and this one is more meta. When discussing Bruce we can't forget that the character is 80+ and has been written by hundreds of people. And depending from writer to writer, his behavior towards his sidekicks is perceived as more or less abusive: some people make him do the most terrifying things and present them as "tough love", or "necessary for Robin's growth", or even a symptom of how Bruce is the perfect mentor and is preparing his sidekicks to the harsh reality of their vigilante duties. The emotional incompetence (and therefore neglect) is shown as something masculine and therefore desirable, necessary to survive in a world where the Mission is more important than everything else, and everyone is potentially out to get them. So even if one writer will have Clark actively disliking Bruce's behavior towards any Robin, it's likely that the next writer will just drop the plotline and pretend it never happened because they see nothing wrong with it.

And finally. I know that I've said "comics are not real life" at one point, but if I am to be entirely honest with you anon, this is exactly how it works in real life too. People are friends with people who abuse the shit out of their kids, employees, waiters at the coffee shop. Awful parents have friends, managers who act like slave owners have friends, teachers who vent their frustration on kids have friends - it happens all the time and if abusers weren't coddled, justified and even catered to, the number of traumatized people in the world would be drastically inferior. Clark remaining friends with Bruce despite everything is honestly way more realistic than lots of people claim it is.

[saintseiya-thoughts]

ALRIGHT SO !!

Shiryu as Hadès and How His Character Could Have Had More Screentime (this is going to be long and like...not even half of what I have to say sorry)

First of all : Shun is actually a good character for Hades, the whole kind guy turning into World's End Maker was a good plot twist BUT character wise he was already pretty central and full fleshed, Shiryu otherwise....erm (I rlly love Shiryu but he gets so bad/forgattable after Sanctuary...sick) + don't forget those are the main plotlines !!! I have a whole developpement in my head but you don't want to read a whole novel so please bear with me

I feel like he was tossed a bit of the side after the first arcs and it genuinely makes me sad, his character is a bit alike to Shun's on some points but except losing his sight every five episode well...he's not as well developped as Shun lmaoo 😭 that's why I believe it could have been interesting, even without the whole developpement points who are hard to add in a show like this, his character could have been a little more than what he is...Shun has a pretty shiny role, Seiya is the mc, Hyoga has a familial story or something like this every arc, and Ikki also has meaningful parts in fights/story, while I feel like Shiryu was often here because well he had to, but doesn't have a role that big (minus maybe in Asgard, but here he was a bit of an ass with fenrir for no reason so um 😭)

Anyway so ! First of all, Shiryu is the only one without a known family member (Seiya -> Seika, Shun -> Ikki, Hyoga -> his mom), no real backstory, nothing (thanks Ohko for trying at least, genuinely it made Shiryu's character rlly much cooler) so I decided to change it to give him at least something ! Also the necklace trope is also included but I won't extend myself on it, you guys know how it works

Changed his whole non existent backstory in the AU, basically, instead of being an orphan with the other kids, he would have been taken home by Dohko, who would have protected him from Pandora and Hades when his parents died from their attack (I always saw Shiryu as Chinese, I scrapped the whole brothers trope bc I don't like it + it's manga only) Dohko is a powerful Saint and could have done that.

I feel like he'd know Shiryu was like...different, his job is looking at the reincarnation of the Specters so yeah, he felt it. But killing a child, right after Athena was taken away and almost killed ? Yeah...no...he'd feel too bad, and would take Shiryu with him instead, keeping it to himself in hopes a good teaching and keeping an eye on him could prevent anything bad from happening (almost worked ig, oops)

It could make an interesting plot point with Shiryu and Dohko's dynamic, because as much as Shiryu likes him as a parental figure and master, he knows he's keeping secrets from him, and would feel some resent when learning about the truth y'know ??

After that it doesn't change much from the plot, except when it comes to dynamic within the Bronze group : Shiryu is sent to check what the hell is going on with the Galaxians Wars (a bit like Hyoga did in the manga), Ikki makes a whole ass mess, etc etc. Also it'd "explain" how Shiryu was so eager to end Ikki's life : he doesn't know him like the others do. For him he's just a threat to put an end to, which would be interesting dynamic wise too...Seiya would try to integrate him to the group, Shun, while understanding his view, would feel some kind of discomfort BEFORE trying to learn to know him better (I love their friendship srry), and I feel like he'd connect with Hyoga with the whole "My dad is a Gold Saint and while I love him well sometimes he tends to be a bit weird with me" and with Ikki I have a whole another plotline but I can't sum up that. This post is already long enough. Anyway the dynamics would have been changed and I think it's interesting to learn to know characters through someone who doesn't know them as much as they do know each other ?? Honestly most of the developpement is made in my head here are just the big lines

ANYWAY, back on track, nothing changes that much from the og anime before Hades (or it does change in my head because Shiryu was badly written in those ‼️or not written at all idk) and...yeah 😭 whole big mess...Dohko has to explain to Shiryu how and why he kept like...HUGE stuff from him all his life in order to protect him, also to Shion because "why the fuck didn't you say anything" (he cares for the kid and was afraid Sanctuary would take him from him), also I don't really remember how the whole Pandora plot point was made in the thread I made with the person on discord (sorry it was in march but I remember Pandora has a different plotline than in the og anime) but starting here it's just, yeah kinda the same I guess !! Except for the Ikki part/dynamic with Shiryu, but ONCE AGAIN it's a part of my Shiryu/Ikki plotpoint and it'd be too long (before some ask, YES, Ikki stops himself from killing him, because YES, Ikki cares about his friend group), also if it sounds silly sorry, but he sometimes (in the og anime) had a bit of extreme reactions, was willing to go pretty far to protect the people he cares about (Fenrir, Ikki...) and it could be a bit of a hint to his soul sometimes awakening to his Hadès self... He's not like, cruel or really mean, there's just sometimes something off about him, he sometimes "shifts" slightly and ppl can't really pinpoint what it is (not sure about this one does it make sense ???? Idk)

The most important parts of this AU are basically the developpement of his character through that "newcomer" lenses, learning to trust the others, and overall develop a more meaningful dynamic with them and giving him a bigger role !! I know it sounds a bit "Saint Seiya, everything is the same minus Shiryu is Hades" but there's more to that I swear, it's just hard to explain like this without making huge walls about dynamics

(Can you tell I'm shitting myself. Please don't be rude rlly, if you don't like the idea just ignore !!)

[kurokoros]

no, but actually I think Hopper's faked death was the final nail in the coffin for me in terms of my trust in the duffer brother's ability to write a satisfying sci-fi/fantasy epic. it's disrespectful to your audience to pull a "gotcha! he was never really dead!" when there's no satisfying or logical explanation for it, and the revelation that the character is still alive doesn't actually influence the plot in a meaningful way.

i'm rewatching the LOTR extended editions right now, and--spoilers, I guess--Gandalf is revealed to have been brought back to life following his battle with the Balrog. the thing about this death is 1) obvious Jesus symbolism, 2) it was an actual death, not a fake death. Gandalf died and was brought back by the creator deity because the story still needed him. bringing Hopper back is not Gandalf the Grey returning as Gandalf the White; bringing Hopper back is like if Boromir had died, we had the emotional sendoff, and then he just rocked up at the Battle of Helm's Deep because reasons. It negates the emotional impact of his loss to the narrative and to the characters.

the Duffers can't get by on solid storytelling alone, and they're too attached to their characters or too afraid of fan/executive reactions to actually kill off any of the main cast. this has made the writing predictable because we know that each season they introduce a new character that's just important enough to 1-2 characters for the death to be emotional, but not make any real waves in the plot going forward. Barb had an effect on Nancy, not the entire cast. Bob had an effect on Joyce and (to a lesser degree) the kids, but his death was just a blip in the season. Billy had an effect on Max, but ultimately no one else gave a shit. Alexei died to cause a setback in the plot without actually disrupting things in a way that couldn't be solved via a musical intermission.

Hopper's death should have had more of an impact on all of the characters, not just Joyce and El. it should have been a signal to the audience that going into the two seasons things were going to get more serious. it should have raised the stakes. but the Duffers did the exact opposite by giving Hopper the most bullshit plot armor I've ever seen and sticking him in a plotline so disconnected from the rest of the season that you could cut the entire Russia story out and the season would be better for it. Hopper living achieves nothing for the plot narratively, it did nothing for any of the characters involved in said plot, and I doubt he'll do anything in S5 that justifies him still being alive.

[plounce]

I am like. 70% sure that at some point y'shtola says to alphinaud that she was about his age when the exodus happened. But man the colony/mainland/exodus situation w regads to Thancred, Yda, and Lyse specifically has driven me to madness. The exodus was about five years after the conquest of ala mhigo and I feel like the Hext's could have made that journey far quicker then that- still, at the most conservative estimate Lyse still grew up in Sharlayan for ten years. What was her education like??? Yda seemed to have been working with the resistance for a while before her death, so who was taking care of Lyse? And Thancred- he seems to mostly self identify as Sharlayan? You never see him calling himself a Lominsan. Why was he assigned to Thanalan instead of La Noscea, if he knew the area better and had more contacts there? How much time did he even spend in Sharlayan before starting on field missions? (Also fun fact: Palaymo's dad is actually featured in a sidequest in Old Sharlayan! He never says it outright but he talks about having a son who followed Louisoix)

you are vindicated by @eriyu in the replies to my post!!

i agree with you totally about the hexts. god i wish i had more - okay i went and looked at the wiki page for yda and learned more from the encyclopedia eorzea v1:

Yda fled her homeland following the invasion of Garlemald in the year 1557 of the Sixth Astral Era. She and her sister first came to the Twelveswood seeking succor, but were forced to leave after being rejected by the elementals. After moons of wandering and foraging off the land, they found their way to the Dravanian hinterlands. With the aid of her future bosom companion, Papalymo, Yda was given a chance to begin her formal education in Sharlayan proper.

fuck the elementals 2. DAMN that's a long way to go, but coerthas pre-calamity is way less hostile to life than what we see 3. thancred truly copying the hexts in terms of "wandering around dravania foraging for moons". that would be a funny conversation for him and lyse to have

iirc, the only time yda is ever actually seen in game is in the 1.0 echo visions for gridania starters? every other time we see her is actually lyse in disguise (which - i have my own thoughts on the efficacy of that plotline, since we never actually see any meaningful difference between the two hext sisters or get much yda at all, but that's a tangent for a different day). i have to imagine that lyse was living with the totolymos in sharlayan when yda was killed, and the news of her death reached them first, allowing lyse to take her sister's place fairly seamlessly? or something? i don't think this plotline will ever really be touched on since lyse's story got basically finished when stormblood did (oh, lyse. how i wish your writing was a bit better.) (fordola and arenvald have been the continuing stormblood/ala mhigo plot/theme thread characters - lyse didn't show up at all in the role quest!). oh wait apparently there's some other stuff about YDA AND FORDOLA BEING FRIENDS? i have like no memory of this and i don't see a source but here's the wiki page. this is really stream of consciousness my apologies. oh well let's keep going

with regards to lyse's education, we know she didn't get her archon's mark (since it got vanished when she took off the yda disguise since papalymo was the one maintaining the illusion of it). the encylopedia has this to say about yda:

At first, this did not proceed smoothly, given her aversion to the study of letters. All too often, she could be found sating her hunger for lemoncakes rather than books. What Yda lacked in wit, however, she made up with her amazing physical prowess, and in time would channel this talent into becoming an expert pugilist.

considering how the encyclopedia also says that yda is "mysterious", i think that it knows that our yda is lyse, because it doesn't mention her becoming an archon in the entry.

also i agree with you about thancred, and at this point i'm developing the belief that louisoix tended to put his students in situations that were initially out of their comfort zones: yda/lyse got put in the twelveswood (where the elementals rejected them), thancred got put in the city state he didn't have a backstory in (he doesn't seem to have much fondness for limsa), and urianger got sent away from home and from his best friend. "here, kiddos! grow and develop! sink or swim!"

also it's so crazy that there was extremely little time between thancred arriving in ul'dah and watching ascilia be orphaned (also it's so crazy that he blames himself for that when there are people who literally let the goobbue loose). and then he became a teenage alcoholic. for work, of course. (shakes him)

i think there's an interesting compare-and-contrast between thancred and lyse - lyse has always been pretty vocally ala mhigan, and any association with sharlayan is mostly through her association with the scions. and thancred mentions his lominsan heritage maybe three times in my memory - explaining how he holds his breath so long in stormblood, recalling how minfilia called him a "wine-sodden wharf rat", and when he's reminiscing on the lominsan docks at the start of endwalker. beyond that he's pretty sharlayan. i do have the headcanon that he is faking his fancyboy accent, so i have the accompanying headcanon that he deliberately tries to distance himself from his childhood. i do think that thancred could've easily returned to sharlayan now and again to report in person, get info, etc, since he could still teleport back then. just not very often, what with the old teleport restrictions, but his handler is friends with a guy who's friends with the wilfsunwyns, teleportation experts...!

i do think it's interesting that louisoix had three kids from eorzea, had them educated/trained in sharlayan for their teenage years, and then sent them back off to eorzea to do recon and direct action for the circle of knowing. hm hm hm.

okay that's enough rambling. every day i think so much.

[giselledorleans]

hshqtask059.

when did you join ? what made you join ? what do you remember from the plotlines that were current at the time ? where were you in life when you joined and where are you now ?

i joined in july 2017 ! i remember browsing the tags and finding laura's wc for irena's sister. i was so obsessed. i loved a good family connection and heck if that wasn't it ! i was studying back then and now i'm working for a company 🤢🤢🤢

which characters have you written over the years ?

iris <3<3<3 isabela, giselle, arthur sr., darcy, kurakin, ignac ! honestly a lot less than you'd think !

what is your favourite plotline that you've been part of ?

in a way arthur sr. short escapade. i liked the fact that the storyline's timeline was clear and i could have him for a short time. his interactions were pretty wild. and i loved his dynamic with art and nicole. but honestly ? there's been so many but i think i've enjoyed myself the most during isabela's best era ? when she was picking up fights left and right, rebelling, etc etc. isabela's friendships with rohan and remei are probably my favourites. rohan's relationship with isabela was so random and it was so organic. i adore it. writing with julie on the otherhand was so wholesome. this is just a sidenote but two threads that have stuck with me would iris and irena's fight. when i was writing that i felt like i finally tapped into something in iris that made everything clear. i knew the character, i knew what she was supposed to say, and everything made sense. i wanna say laura felt it too. our writing matched so well and we understood where the other character was coming from. it's one of my most precious memories. then there's giselle's and roman's threads. i don't remember if this was a single thread or if these moments were scattered here and there but i loved writing giselle against roman because he brought out the best of her. the d'orléans enabled the terrible side of her. they fed her selfishness and cruelness. roman challenged her and sort of reminded her about the truly meaningful things in life. the threads were important to me and i think they made giselle so much more interesting to write.

what about other people's plotlines ?

alexei's depression. i didn't realize what elisa was writing at first and then she started to drop the signs and i was like oh no. alexei is one of the saddest characters i've seen. i was sold.

who is your favourite character from the ones you've played ? why ? what made you love them ? what made them so fun to write ?

giselle. which is a bit weird because giselle has never really had the starring role in plots ? i think all my plots on her haven't exactly been about her but it has been a lot of fun to tag along ! giselle's snarkiness was fun and i loved her antics. isabela is a close second but i think she wasn't as flexible ? her threads were a bit repetitive in the end.

if you could relive a plotline, which would it be ?

iris and irena. i think it's been a very long time and if we got to write them now, we'd be able to write them even better. it might be just nostalgia speaking.

is there a plotline that you'd edit now if you could ?

i wouldn't edit anything but i wish i had spent more time developing the friendship between isabela, bash, art and co. i think it was a fun group and a bit random !

what's a plotline you wish you would have been able to finish before closing or just write more of ?

i wish i could have made giselle into a good sister-in-law to fanni ! something wholesome after a long period of darkness would have been nice. but also it would have been cool to develop the slovakia-hungary plotline. ignac was a lot of fun and i'm glad i picked him up even if it was only for a short time ( like almost a year but time moves weirdly.... ).

what is your favourite ooc memory ?

i don't know if this is strictly ooc thing but I LOVED the craziness of the monaco nye. i loved that everyone just did wild shit. it was amazing. i don't want to say we peaked there but we totally did.

where can others find you if they want to get in touch ?

i'm not gonna lie but i'll probably disappear. everything has to end and i think this is it for me and the hshq gang. i'm not opposed to writing with you guys again but idk how likely it is since the only reason why i was still on tumblr was hshq ahah

what else would you like to say ?

i agree with everything that has already been said and i think we did something special here. everyone did their part and everyone participated in such innovative ways, i respect everyone here greatly for it. it feels like i've grown up with you and the characters and it's a weird feeling to walk off now. everyone knew this day was going to come but now that it's here, i really don't want to accept it. i'm so glad i found hshq and you <3

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

5, 16, 20?

Linking the original ask post cause it took some digging to find it again lol

Something you see in fics a lot and love:

B-boysss... kissing :3

lol okay uh the overwhelming majority of what I read is jaytim that's rated Explicit, so there's, ya'know, a lot of patterns in there that I've self selected for, but attempting to get into a more meaningful answer, I really like the way that fanfic repeatedly digs up old shit and uses it as a catalyst for characters to gain greater intimacy with each other. The constant reinvention and re-contextualization of Jason and Tim's various fights is neat to me

A tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate:

Oooh I'm gonna throw up the post I already made about the guy Jason manipulated into playing puppet for him

But that feels like cheating so I also want people to appreciate the asymmetrical aspects of the OG spoiler outfit, because I adore it so. I am a SUCKER for shoulder pads/spikes and 80s asymmetrical outfits.

Your very first fandom:

That's... actually pretty hard to answer.

The first online community I truly got involved with is City of Heroes. Loved playing the game when it was live, and I role played in the Homecoming servers for fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, for about five years. I still play every once in a while too! If you see Dread Captain Bones, David Drakal, or Cowboy Cline around, those are me :3 The only issue I have with saying it's this one is that I'm not entirely sure this counts as a fandom?? It really is more a role playing community than anything like a fandom for the game itself, most people only very lightly engage with the setting and it's considered a tad crass to get any of the named canonical characters involved with your character's story lines.

We could very technically count Naruto simply because that was the first one I ever tried to find fanfic for but uhhhhh... I started with ff.net with a super dark E rated fic because I thought E meant for Everyone and bounced off it so hard. I'm very sorry geisha AU naru-sasu fic I read when I was like thirteen, I tried so hard to like you, but my PTSD was not having it lmao

There's also half decent arguments to be made for Marvel comics, Doctor Who, or Vampire the Masquerade simply because my parents are/were such massive nerds lmao

Both of them did a lot of LARP and one of my favorite pictures of my mom is her as either the Sheriff or the Prince of our city ripping someone's heart out via a sponge soaked with fake blood :3 so yeah I def grew up learning about the clans and the lore and such

And this is very much a Marvel household lol My parents used to do story time with me about the X-men, and like they are completely accepting of my metal head and queer stuff, but I feel like it hurts my dad's soul just a little bit that I ended up being so into DC and so uninterested in Marvel. Whenever we talk about some of my (not romance related) plotlines for my DC fics he'll substitute in vaguely equivalent Marvel characters because he simply cannot be asked to dedicate braincells to DC characters lmao

Me: "I'm really looking forwards to writing out how the super geniuses and stuff push the limits of what Jason and Tim did to the diseases."

My Dad, knowing FULL WELL that I am not including any Marvel characters in this fic: "Oh yeah, Reed Richards would go nuts trying to figure that shit out."

My dad also collected Doctor Who episodes, like the ones from 1963 all the way to modernity, I grew up watching the black and white stuff, and for sure tumblr did expose me to Superwholock, through I never felt like I was a part of that.

It might actually be DC comics itself that's my first fandom! I just never really interacted with any sort of online or fandom space directly until Boostle dragged me into DC fandom's sphere of influence.

Anyhow I hope my ramblings were interesting/entertaining and thank you muchly for the ask! :3

[ac-liveblogs]

It's really funny to me that you're saying Tim should get so entrenched in vigilante lifestyle that he can't keep a normal life bc I recently saw (the post wasn't that recent but I saw it a little while ago) someone complain that when they killed Tim's family they took away what truly made him unique, which was that he had a life completely separate from Robin. Not to drag yours or anything I just found it funny :)

But bold of that anon to complain about dick getting the spotlight given that his fans were outraged a couple years ago about the ric grayson run lol. I personally think that your fave getting badly written is better than not getting written at all, but man, the cost. Plus dick's robin run was over twice as long as the *second longest* robin run (tim) so it's not really a surprise dick has so many fans

Hey, sorry for the late response, I've been sick :>

Oh yeah, I don't think I've seen that post but I do generally agree - not so much that it was Tim's family life specifically, but that he did have a life outside of Robin. Tim was intended as a relatable audience avatar first and foremost, and he got a scaled down teenage version of Batman's cool secret identity shenanigans (high school, home life, romance, friendships with heroes and civilians, the works). That was his main draw, and when he was a teenage superhero that really worked.

It's just that, as everyone keeps complaining, Tim Drake can't stay a teenager forever.

Tbh, I think more than the loss of his life-outside-Robin, it was the New 52 that really fucked Tim over. It's true that after Tim moved into Wayne Manor, he had at that point lost most of that. It wasn't destined to stay that way though, because Bruce died, we hit Batman Reborn, and with it Gotham's status quo got totally upended.

With the loss of almost everything that Tim had as a staple part of his identity, Red Robin (2009) was working towards rebuilding Tim not just as a superhero, but as the type of character he was going to be from then on. I think that Red Robin's end goal was to give Tim a transitory identity/book while he figured out who he was outside of Robin and then let him move on into that new identity.

And I think that would've been fine? Even if Dick did move into the Batman role and Tim would eventually become more… mm, Nightwing-adjacent, we would've had the storylines that explained how he got there and set up his new status quo. I think there was plenty to work with that would've kept Tim interesting. I don't know what he would've looked like, but it certainly wouldn't have been Aggressively Just Kinda There Guy.

Like, Tim was still an engaging character in Young Justice and Teen Titans. There were other roles he could play and character dynamics he could have outside of his Life Outside Of Robin.

It's just that when Batman Reborn got shafted and the New 52 came in, Tim had absolutely nowhere to go. He wasn't the main Robin anymore, he didn't have his family, he was meeting edgy reboots of his friends for the first time, his secret identity plotlines amounted to 'Teen Titans' Batman But Smug', he lost his romantic relationship with Stephanie… man, he didn't even really get to keep his brotherhood with Dick, or his rivalries with Jason and Damian, what did he HAVE? While you could to some level intuit what parts of Dick, Jason and Damian's histories remained, Tim was wiped totally clean and just handed to us like. Yep. Here's Some Guy. Please care about him.

By the time Rebirth rolled around, all forward momentum for Tim totally popped. Without Red Robin's status quo or plotline, it was difficult to redefine Tim's identity as a superhero that actually meant meaningful for his story or the character he was meant to be. DC was aware he needed to change, but had no ideas on where to take him or how. Tim's just Drake, suddenly. And then when the whining about Damian got too loud DC rolled their eyes and went "SEE! WE HAVE NO REASON FOR HIM NOT TO BE ROBIN ANYMORE, JUST TAKE HIM" and here we are. (This is kind of an issue he shares with Kon, Cassie and Bart (etc.) actually. Talk about a lost generation.)

So like, all that to say I don't think losing the family life killed Tim's character, I think he was definitely in a position to recover from it once upon a time, but right now? When they have no ideas for him? No way. And you can tell because there was an attempt to restore Tim's secret identity recently and it just like... didn't work? It wasn't as appealing. Magic's gone, we need something new now.

When I say Tim Drake should get so entrenched in the vigilante lifestyle he can't maintain a normal secret identity… hmm. It's about how his civilian lifestyle was a necessary inconvenience for him in Red Robin, how he has nothing tethering him to his old life because everyone he cares about is a cape, his obsessive tendencies. I think there's a tragic irony in Tim Drake truly being the one that did not have to be here, might NEVER have ended up here, being utterly damned to never be able to leave the role he forced himself into because he lost everything else. I think that this is a plotline I would want to see in either a shorter Elseworld title or exclusively in flash-forwards. You know the type.

I also think about his hilarious tendency of ending up as a supervillain. Dude is so fucking not normal.

Also yeah, Dick is still THE Robin for most normies, and the safest non-Batman Batfamily member to focus on in spin-off media.

I personally think that your fave getting badly written is better than not getting written at all,

Ooooh I agree in spirit but in principle I love Jason Todd and oh boy, he's had some runs.

[azsazz]

and it would have been more meaningful if amren started understanding feelings for it to be with her family. and it could have actually been a plotline, kinda like how maleficent started liking aurora lol just looking at rhys when he's about to do something dumb and going "do i actually like this thing?" and then starting (very slowly) caring for the ic more and more but yeah not to the point of having a romantic relationship

yes that would've made much more sense to me too tbh :/

[lightninstrikedragon]

listen Zoya/Zoyalai nation

We had just the reaction when nikolai announced the engagement and that liitle scene at the ending. We won? No. Not in a

milion years. They didn't make her justice. Here are some thoughts that are living rent free in my head and i need them to get them out.

First of all, I kinda like that they change a little bit Zoya plot line to helping the crows to find the sword and everyting and that's all of it. Also the thing that Nina said to her, god. Zoya would not what will hit her (if the show is renewed).

Now beggins the things that seemed not right and the ones that i didn't like.

She deserved more screenntime. I know that in the original trilogy she made some appearances here and there. She was know as the "mean girl", untouchable one, also powerful one. I know her story is bilding up, but i dont like it the way it does in the show. Like how they are gonna do the Kos plotline with Alina? No way this is gonna be good. Alina (again) stole everything of what Zoya should have. Deserved. My guess is that Nikolai is gonna transform slowly in that demon and Alina will try to get rid of it but she cant, so they choose Zoya to lock him away every night and here will start the rumors and the downfall. It s gonna be embarrassing for her. Yes, she will bear it, but for how long? It was different in Kos because Nikolai was single. Now she will be seen different. She is going to be general or whater else, she is going to act like she doesnt care about all the wispers and rumors that eventually they will reach Alina and Nikolai ears. I dont even dare to think what a mess is this for her. For our rightfull queen.

Secondly, Alina takes David place. Fuck her. The triumvirate was meaningful because they represent the 3 orders, not the Saint order. Wtf. Even if David wasn't that important in the plot line, but was important for the people who loved him, especially Genya, he shouldn't died so soon. What happens to his funeral? In the books (spoiler ahead for those who didn't read row) was a massing thing. I cried and sobbed for days. DAYS after I've read that chapter. How could they kill him that way?!?!?! HOW??? Alina takes too much credit for what she've done.

I have to calm myself after all of this mess. And yes Wylan, I'll accept that tea with pleasure.

Also who read all of this, you are the best.

Zoya nation forever

[alphinias]

Seeing a lot of Kiarah stuff on TL lately and it reminded me of a thought I had after the topper cheating storyline/anniversary party blow out. I kind of wanted a conversation after the party between all the pogues (or just John B, Kie, JJ maybe on the sidelines) about the topper/sarah drama. Like, Kie knew. She not only caught Sarah and topper at breakfast but Sarah told her what happened on the beach. Before john b or any one else knew. I almost wanted a moment between them like John b saying “you knew..?” And Kie kind of stuck in the middle, and JJ even a little upset about it. The core 4 friendship is at the base of the show, and that was lost in season 3. John b would be hurt by Kie knowing about that. Especially after all the drama about trusting Sarah in season 1. I think that moment leading up to the Sarah decision, Jarah at the police station, and speech at the chateau would have made it that much more meaningful. Having a divide, not only between John b and Sarah, but all the pogues too (JJ/Kies drama, John b feeling betrayed by Kie about knowing about topper, angst of the party fight and Kies parents probably sending her away, etc.) would have given more payoff in that chateau scene when they all decide they’re still in it together and they’re going to South America.

I completely agree. I just can’t reconcile the Kie that was making Sarah promise not to hurt JB and the Kie that was so protective over him in S1 with having her literally just like “so y’all are done?” In Kie’s defense, it wasn’t like it was an ongoing affair Sarah was planning on hiding from John B or anything, but it really didn’t add up. I know she didn’t want to lose Sarah again after all they’ve been through either and that perspectives had shifted a bit but they made her weirdly casual about it. That plotline was shitty all around though. Literally NO ONE wanted to see that. They didn’t even bother to make Topper realistically someone worth doing that for (and I know it was really more about Sarah than him, but I don’t care). In fact, they’ve repeatedly chosen not to deepen his character at every opportunity, which is fine, but feels weirder and weirder with how insistent they are on involving him in things.

All that to say Kie and John B’s friendship is so precious and it deserved so much better than what we got in S3! I really do hope they heard how unhappy we were with the lack of pogues in general and try to fix that for S4.

[jeanmoreaux]

why did you dislike ses4? and was there anything you enjoyed recently?

oh boy. i think it would be easier to tell you what i DID like about the season. i can count it on one hand. (1) ruby. she's my queen. (2) adam making it explicitly clear that he identifies with the bi label. (3) gillian anderson. she's just soooooo ugh. i love her. (4) NONE OF THE BAD BITCHES CHOOSING OTIS. maeve and ruby both deserve better fr. (5) aimee reclaiming some agency. cannot even think of a sixth thing. that's how bad this season did not worked for me. i said i was not gonna rant but i guess now i am gonna rant a little (trying to keep it short for both of our sakes).

i think there is definitely some more technical and objective stuff that's wrong and with this season and then there is some stuff i personally didn't like but that may work for other people.

objectively, i think the writing was severely lacking in quality. it was SO LAZY. even uninspired. the plot was meandering and the arcs fell extremely flat as a consequence. they randomly introduced interesting internal and external conflicts, sometimes even towards the end of the season, that could have spanned the entire eight episodes, but then they often just drop those ideas like hot potatoes—sometimes by the next episode, sometimes by THE NEXT SCENE (e.g. otis basically taking over a surrogate parent role or feeling like losing his mom, basically everything ruby-centric that wasn't oatis-related, jackson questioning his sexuality, etc.)!! other storylines that didn't have to last for several epsiodes (like jackson's cancer scare) went on for way too long. and the storylines they kept up for several episodes were mostly half-assed. the vivian & beau thing was surface level at most (and rushed af), the ace thing was soooo buried and shoved aside for stupider plotlines (they did o so dirty istfg), same with their approach to adding to the discourse on disability/accessibility, the exploration of jean's sister dealing with her abuse was just almost non-existent, eric's storyline reconciling his sexual and religious identities relied an cheap gimmicks, maeve finding her voice as a writer, jean's postnatal depression (how half-assed that was truly hurt my psych major brain), etc..... and then they dragged these storylines out without giving them any *substance*. like. i SKIPPED two episodes and missed NOTHING (i even did go back to jump through it just now to verify and, yup, did not miss a piece of information i did not gain or infer from the episodes i watched). you know a story is aimlessly wandering around when people can skip 2h of content and not even miss a shrivel of character development. i'd claim almost all storylines and arcs were handled badly. the only one that was well-structured and well-executed (from a storytelling standpoint) was the groff family arc (mind you, not the individual arcs but their arc as a family). AND I DON'T EVEN AGREE WITH THAT STORYLINE FROM AN IDEOLOGICAL STANDPOINT BUT STILL I LIKED IT THE MOST BECAUSE WRITING WISE IT WAS AT LEAST COMPETENTLY HANDLED!!!! like, that's so unfortunate. for me. and don't even get me started on the tonal dissonance WHITIN scenes and BETWEEN scenes. it was so so jarring at times and made the humour NOT land AT ALL (especially the physical humour because holyyy shit what was that). idk if that's editing's fault or if the writers made these decisions or if the producers and executives are to blame, but the inconsistency of mood and tone just really made me feel disconnected from the emotional moment. felt absolutely nothing about what was happening to these characters.

on a more personal level, i took issues with the way they wrote some characters and the content of some arcs. they really reduced maeve's character to nothing (like. i am sorry but her dialogue is so flat and boring, the most meaningful thing she said all season was probably at her mom's funeral.) otis literally learned jackshit. he's still kind of a self-absorbed dick. o was so underutilised and disrespected (they didn't even try to make the ace thing an important plotline). aimee was turned into a grotesque parody of herself. eric's story focusing on religion was HELL to me personally. like, i grew up catholic (which is different to the christianity eric practices but still...), and ngl the way they handled his 'religious' awakening just sent me up the wall. as a queer person who was very involved in church life from a young age and had to reconcile her faith with her queer identity, i felt like his story made a mockery of that struggle and that inner conflict. the visions were ridiculous. it felt like the writers were making fun of the struggle queer people face when (1) wanting to meaningfully engage with faith and religion *OR* (2) wanting to distance themselves from organised religion. additionally it felt like they were making fun of religion & religious faith as a whole, depicting it as this almost psychotic thing to believe in god. and they completely decoupled eric's personal journey to faith from what religion primarily is about for many, many people: community and connection. like, sure, they briefly brushed it i theory, but neglected to real get into the emotional reality and complexity of it. they very much glossed over the fact that religious communities are a source for moral/ethical and social control and even when you disagree with some aspects of the doctrine you will still be affected by it if you grew up in those circles. and your personal reckoning with religion will probably be more tied to THAT (the fear of losing love/support/part of your social circle, ostracisation (because even when you're okay with who you are right from the start it's something that doesn't feel good even when you prepare for it....), feeling disconnected from your former self, struggling to build your own belief system that you feel lie it truly belongs to you etc.). his entire journey was lacking any nuance and complexity in my opinion. and maybe that's because i personally had a different experience reconciling my faith with my sexual identity. i wasn't a self-hating queer either, but breaking away from religion still was a change in my life that impacted me very real and convoluted ways!!! (also like let's be real him becoming a pastor is gonna solve what exactly??? go through the homophobic system to change the homophobic system??? HUH with what power??? you're better of starting a new church fr.) idk. another thing that bugged me was the lack of chemistry in intimate scenes. like. jo and i watched these scenes and. nothing. the lack of chemistry really made me so uncomfortable. it almost made me question if i really do like sex lol. ALSO WHYYYY did they force the aimee and isaac relationship for no reason???? that really didn't have to have to happen. not that i hate it, it's whatever, but i was just so BORING to me. same with the otis and maeve thing. THEY WERE SO BORING. their drama this season was so repetitive and reminiscent of earlier conflicts between them it made me want to rip my hair out. i think i stopped caring about them as a couple after season 2. they don't fit and they don't work yet still the writers were trying to make them a thing for no reason. i could go on but this is already longer than i wanted it to be (yikes). i just want you to know that this season did so many things so badly i ended up not caring about ANYTHING that happened or ANY of the characters (except ruby). they could have all just disappeared and i wouldn't have cared one bit because they were all giving NOTHING. so basically, the season felt like this meme to me, but with a heavy, all-permeating, very petty & derogatory undertone:

okay so now for the things i did watch and enjoy recently (i assume you mean movies/tv shows because i my monthly wrap ups cover my reading). there are quite a few things, actually! ofc i watched barbie which was fun, and oppenheimer which was Very Good. oh, and i watched and liked set it up, and my brother sat me down and made me watch the two spider verse movies with him which i enjoyed a lot as well! my other brother made me watch the new puss in boots (liked that one, too). i also watched the first couple of episodes of the bear and i am very intrigued (gonna continue for sure)!! also finished glow a couple of month ago which was quite good but sadly prematurely cancelled. other than that i have been mostly rewatching stuff tbh (recently e.g. fleabag, schitt's creek, atla, succession, and the occasional movies like p&p 2005, emma 2020. also been in the mood for a rewatch of god's own country & the ghibli movies.). other than that, the movies/tv shows i reblog stuff from are generally things i enjoyed in the past (or at least partly enjoyed). idk there's a lot on my 'to watch list' but i am only making my way through it super slowly jhghjgjhjgjh

[joshuaalbert]

Beverly Crusher or Tuvok for the ask game

ironically this took me a while because i was participating in an insane about the crusher family moment so severe i am lightheaded. anyway. i feel like i dont have a ton of meaningful things to say about tuvok yet except "i generally like him i think he has a lot of interesting moments i just wish they didnt regress his characterization gains with such regularity" but i do enjoy him and maybe i will come back to this when i have more coherent thoughts

favorite thing about them

love her confidence tbh like she knows she can do it all and do a great job of it. she has such a wide variety of skills between her actual job and her hobbies and i think that's very fun to see. i also think she's spectacular in the Some Fuckshit Is Happening To The Enterprise mystery episodes like im glad they gave those to her a lot bc it works within her skillset of like. ok this is how i would go about examining a scientific hypothesis this is how i would break the problem down to something manageable so i think that's neat, and i also just think gates mcfadden is very good at carrying the tension of those episodes.

least favorite thing about them

fucking TERMINAL picard disease. remember me is like the prime example of it to me to the point where i literally rewrote part of the script one time but just. so many of her plotlines get taken over to instead be about her thing with picard in ways that don't actually progress anything. and so many of the things that should be about her and wesley end up being about picard and wesley. and like clearly these are importantly dynamics in all their lives but it feels like there's a lot that gets sacrificed in the name of putting picard at the center

also i do think they have a problem with like. not letting her be significantly wrong a lot? i noticed this in like s6 but the plot frequently kind of curves to make sure she's right about things like with both ethics and suspicions they introduce new elements of the plot to be like yeah actually she did not do anything wrong and i just think that holds a character back.

favorite line

"If there's nothing wrong with me, maybe there's something wrong with the universe." queen of believing in yourself. i know this seems counter to what i just said about not letting her be wrong but i liked this one ok. it's about moderation. i love her confidence and i definitely don't want that disrupted in any deeply significant way but i also wish they would let her be wrong every once in a while.

brOTP

she does have really fun dynamics with like most people but hers with troi is good and i like her dynamic w/alyssa ogawa. like yeah alyssa is a subordinate so they're not like Bros bros but beverly clearly cares a lot about her as a person and i think it's neat. also riker if we uhhh. if we don't count. listen if i try to think about the host too long im gonna start setting shit on fire so we're not counting that right now ok we're just counting them in normal episodes.

OTP/nOTP

listen im combining this into one question i think her whole thing with picard is fine and despite what it sounded like earlier i actually kind of enjoy it at points i just hate the way it consumes her whole plotline. if they had just been normal about it it would have been fine.

random headcanon

god ok i know that like all the plays she stages are like Classics and all but i really think they shouldve let her at anything that was fosse-related. i think she would be a great director for that kind of deal.

unpopular opinion

i never know what opinions anyone has on any of these characters unless ive recently seen something that made me mad lmao but. idk sam @sallytwo and i were just talking about this but any attempt to reduce the beverly and wesley dynamic to like "it's good and they're close" or "it's bad and they're distant" is such a doomed endeavor. it's so much more complicated than that like they're close in that they clearly love each other a lot and they don't have a lot of open conflict but they're both deeply repressed people when it comes to expressing meaningful emotions and it definitely takes a really significant toll. again no idea where it falls on the like popular/unpopular opinion scale but it seems like a lot of people don't quite know what to do with that relationship and that's fair because it is. odd especially when you try to figure out what the writers meant for it to be.

favorite picture of them

ngl this is less about her and more about how much utility I get out of it (due to the. i have brain damage.) but it has been very useful so thank you bev