#it’s all very interesting and beautiful to me if not like some of the most interesting stuff on the planet

[starlightguh]

Mermaid Hotel

Word Count: 2,198

Summary: When Thomas decides to stick you and Rafayel in a cheesy themed mermaid suite, he thinks he’s getting revenge on Rafayel. Little did he know the room came with a water bed, and Rafayel is very good at controlling the tides.

Tags: Smut, water bed sex, NSFW, porn with very little plot

A/N: Sooo, this might not be my best work but I needed some practice to get over my writers block, so bam. Water bed sex. Read at your own risk, but MDNI! Enjoy all you Raf girlyss~

Rafayel had invited me on an impromptu trip to his latest art gallery. He was very insistent on it since he claimed the city where the gala was being held had the most beautiful beaches. I needed a break from the insane influx of wanderers, so I agreed. It would take us two days to get to the city we needed to be in since we had a late layover flight.

Thomas was usually in charge of all of Rafayel’s travel plans, I guess he was frantic when Raf demanded last minute that I be added as a plus one. I feel bad for Thomas sometimes, since Rafayel can be very demanding, but I know the bickering between the two in a way, feels almost familial. Though, little did we anticipate, Thomas had a small version of revenge up his sleeve.

Me and Rafayel were a bit exhausted from our long flight and were sluggish in the hotel lobby. However, as soon as we reached our room, we were jolted with surprise.

The neon moodlighting reflected off the clear plastic of fake bubbles along the walls, there were fishnets and various aquatic themed posters also on the walls. It was a mermaid themed room.

“Now this is just offensive,” Rafayel’s face contourted in disgust at the kitsch decor of the room.

I felt a burst of laughter erupt from my chest at this ordeal, “I guess this is what you get for giving Thomas gray hairs.” I set my bags down and began to take a look at all the cute mermaid and fish themed nicknacks that had adorned the dresser below the tv.

With a drained sigh he walks over to the bed that has a giant seashell headboard, he stares at it and reaches out to poke it, “A water bed really? That’s so outdated.” Rafayel rolls his eyes and scoffs at the bed as if it personally offended him.

I turn with wide eyes, “Really? I’ve never slept on a water bed before.”

Rafayel chuckles, “It’s not exactly practical cutie.” He then pauses briefly as his eyes catch something on the dresser.

I quirk my head at his sudden peak of interest as he walks over and grabs an iridescent blue vase, it almost looks like an antique perfume bottle. Rafayel inspects it by trying to swish it around and determine if there’s liquid inside.

“What is it?” I ask.

“It couldn’t possibly be what I think it is, there’s no way a cheap hotel like this would have Lumerian scents…” He popped the topper off the vase and inhaled. Suddenly, it was like a switch had been flipped.

Rafayel immediately started panting and groaning.

“Raf? Are you okay?” I touched his shoulder to check on him and he tried to push me off with a slight hiss.

“This is…” he gasped as one of his hands clasped at the front of his shirt, “It’s…Lumerian…It’s a pheromone…One a bride would typically use on her wedding.”

He seemed in agony as he closed the vase and fell to his knees on the floor. His purple-pinkish eyes nearly looked black as he looked up at me with nothing but desperation painted across his face as he whimpered my name.

“Help….I…I can't, I need you right now….” He gasped and raised his torso to hug my legs and nuzzle into them with desperation.

I was at a loss of words at this sudden shift, but with the tight grip he had on the back of my thigh and the look in his eye, I let out a shaky breath and nodded, “I’m not sure what happened to you, but whatever you need. I’m yours…”

As soon as the words left my mouth, Rafayel stood and lifted me by my hips as he threw my back against the bed. As I fell back, the plop of water sloshing resounded in my ear as the next thing I knew Rafayel’s lips were on my neck as his hands lifted up my legs.

“Raf-“ I gasped at his boldness, his actions were hurried and desperate as he tried to hold on to my body desperately as if I would drift off like the waves of the water beneath us.

“Shhh, I need this right now or I’ll go crazy…Let me take care of you my beloved bride,” he groans as he slides off my leggings and panties all at once.

He lets out a shaky breath at my exposed form and I start to feel dizzy as Rafayel then begins to drool on my bare sex and licks his lips as he brings his face down to give an experimental lick. I arch my body up and close my thighs around his head, trapping his face to my hole.

He doesn’t move as he just sensually licks and sucks at me like he’s savoring his favorite ice cream. My moans are drowned out in my own ears as I can hear nothing but the water in the bed slosh around. It felt like I had laid back in the bathtub and could hear only sounds of water moving with my body, except, unlike the bathtub, the only thing wet was the mixture of slick and saliva as Rafayel ate me out.

My thighs gripped his face harder as he purposely sucked my sensitive bud, “C-Close…I’m close,” I gasped.

I received nothing but a happy humm in response, the vibrations of his voice sending me over the edge as I moaned with fervor at my release.

“Rafa….” I gapped as I opened my thighs to release his face. He pulled back and stared at me with those dark eyes as he undid his belt. His cheeks and ears were a bit tinged in a blush as his purple fluffy hair was now disheveled and his lower lips covered in my essence.

Never breaking eye contact, he ripped his high waisted black pants down and his usual low cut white shirt was gone in an instant as he crawled on top of my body. The motion of him climbing on top of me caused the water to propel me even closer to him as my bare cunt brushed against his still covered lower half.

As I could feel his hard length against me, I was taken aback as he laughed deeply in my ear. The reveberations of his laughter caused the waterbed to shake abit and I was moving up and down like I was floating in a lazy river. “What’s so funny?” I asked as he looked down at me with a bright and cheeky smirk, his usual teasing pink coloring returning to his eyes.

“You should see how you look right now, like a birdy drowning in the sea with how much you keep moving back and forth.”

“Well, I’m being swallowed by the motion of the water, what else am I supposed to do? How are you so composed on this thing?”

He sat up as he began to take off his boxers, a confident and arrogant expression painting his face, “Me and the waters are one and the same,” after he finished undressing and I can see his dripping length standing straight as he comes closer to whisper in my ear once more, “We’re both unpredictable and all encompassing.”

With that his hands slide down my torso to then lift up my shirt and push it over my head, his mouth meeting the pebbles of my now erect nipples. I let out a small moan at the sensation and desperation of his suckling mouth on my chest.

With a pop his mouth leaves my nipple as he laughs while moving his hips to make the water shake me, I’m at a loss as the waves make my body move sporadically. I try and sit up to have a similar vantage as Rafayel, but he meets my lips in a passionate kiss as I lay flat against my back.

“Are you ready for me my bride?” His voice is almost unfamiliar as its deep purr resounds into my very core and I shiver.

I let out a shaky yes and suddenly I gasp as he slams a knee into the bed and suddenly the motion of my body slides to connect him and me in one swift motion. “N-no fair! That was sneaky!”

“Shhh, you know you love it cutie,” he laughs as both of his hands grip the sides of my hips. Rafayel’s lips trail into the crook of my neck as his hips send crashing waves into the bed as he thrusts in and out of me with a smooth rhythm.

“I must say, this is actually fulfilling some fantasies of mine.”

I whine as he hits a sensitive spot within me and bites down on my neck, “Raf-Please.” I feel breathless as my body is floating in pleasure with every crash of our hips. The water surrounding us in this cheap mattress make me feel as if I’m drowning in an endless ocean of pleasure. I was drowning in Rafayel’s very being, and I never wanted to come up for air.

“Please,” he mocks me in a deep voice, “I should make you beg more for the way you’re driving me wild.” He removes his face from my neck and meets my lips to force them to open for him. With a moan he sucks on my tongue and his hips speed up.

The wetness of our bodies and groans of exctasy mix with the sounds of splashing waves of the bed below us. My nails find their way to Rafayels back and I drag them down as I feel my crescendo reaching.

I pull away from his lips and lean my back and yell out his name. “Rafayel!”

He lets out a shaky breath as he continues at a relentless pace, “Not yet, just a bit more cutie.” Rafayel grunts as he presses me deeper into the sinking bed. I clench around him unable to control my own bodily reactions.

“I can’t! Rafayel please,” I can feel tears welling in the corner of my eyes from trying my best to hold off my orgasm, but finally as his hips slam even deeper within me, I lose myself.

“Come for me, my beloved bride,” he pants as he keeps the same rhythm.

I feel weightless as my legs shake from intense pleasure and the rest of my body goes slack as Rafayel keeps chasing his high. I lightly drag my fingers up from the scratched I made on his back to reach up into the hair at the nape of his neck.

I dig my fingers in a bit gently and pull as my eyes meet his intense purple gaze, “Let go Rafayel…”

His face contorts into an almost melancholic pout as he scrunches his eyes closed and with a final thrust that resounds a smack throughout the cheesy themed room, I feel the warmth of his spend drip into me.

Rafayel pants and collapses ontop of me as he hums with pleasure in his voice as his body is still painting my insides.

“Well that certainly is one for the books for me,” my voice is a bit gravelly and hoarse as I laugh at the absurdity of our situation.

“I actually think I might have to thank Thomas instead of yelling at him,” Rafayel grumbles into my chest.

“And here I thought you didn’t like water beds,” I started to run my hands through his hair as I teased him.

“You know I think I might buy a couple for my studio now,” he props his chin up on my chest and looks at me with a cheeky smirk, “Only if you test them out with me.”

“While this was fun, I don’t know how fun sleeping on this will actually be.”

He reached a hand out to touch my cheek, his thumb rubbing gentle circles on them, “Who said anything about sleeping?”

After a few spent moments of us basking in the after glow, we got up and cleaned ourselves off to actually get some needed sleep. As I glanced back at that blue bottle on the counter, I couldn’t help my curiosity.

“Rafayel, what is that pheromone that made you crazy? You said something about Lumeria, right?”

He crosses his arm and stares at me with a pout, “Well, I’m not sure you need to know what it is, just know that I’ll be taking that stuff with me to use at a further date. So prepare yourself miss bodyguard, because next time you won’t walk away so easily from me.”

“Is that a threat?” I laugh as he lays down next to me and captures me in his arms. He once again manipulates the unease of the waters below us to push my body as close as possible to his.

“Oh cutie, it’s a promise.” He kisses the crown of my head as the waves and the warmth of his arms help me drift off to a peaceful slumber.

That night I dream of a life underseas and a purpled haired merman worshiping my body with the waves surrounding us.

~fin~

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

Of the following words, I can recognise or am not surprised by the meaning of amizade, cordialidade (this sounds like a wonderful word), esperar (I know this from French), estrelado, ficção, inverno (sounds like Italian?), laranja, poesia, primavera (another one that sounds like Italian), and sonolência (sounds like 'somnolence' in English).

So recognition of the written word is less of the problem for me in Portuguese. The real issue is how the hell do I distinguish the spoken language at natural speed? I am listening to Os Maias by Eça de Queiroz on Spotify at the moment, and apart from the fact that Portuguese sounds so nice, I can hardly distinguish any word without seeing the Portuguese text-- which, to nobody's surprise, I can hardly read anyway.

I am quite stumped about how to approach Portuguese. Simply relying on my existing French knowledge will not work, as when I tried that method, I was nonetheless thrown by Portuguese words that didn't follow the French pattern at all. Furthermore, reliance on French won't help with pronunciation, either. I have also tried one of those videos where they give you a ton of basic phrases, but my brain doesn't want to undertake the effort of doing that. My brain seems to sense that that is an inefficient way of learning, especially if I want to read novels like Os Maias. I have also dabbled with Goethe Verlag's Portugiesisch für Anfänger, although I keep stalling after a while. (I wonder whether this is because I have been following the lessons one after another, instead of jumping directly to the lessons I need.)

Later on, I began listening to Portuguese, like the channel O Principe Historiador, the Portuguese Radio Maria, and now this audiobook of Os Maias. Most of the language goes in one ear and out of the other, although it is a very beautiful language and sounds relaxing.

Perhaps a solution to the problem would be to review how I became fluent at French. This came from having family that spoke French, French lessons at school, and self-study. Yet none of those three enabled me to become confident with understanding the spoken language. It wasn't until around four to six years ago that I began listening properly to spoken French, chosing audio material that I would find interesting.

And even none of that was sufficient to maintain interest after a while. During this year alone, I improved my German considerably by watching the Netflix rom-com Isi und Ossi. This after over a decade of learning German fruitlessly and, up until recently, getting bored with the language. The other factor that helped renew my interest in German was reading the radio plays of Heinrich Böll, namely, Mönch und Räuber and Zum Tee bei Dr. Borsig. Years of dull and fruitless study fell away as I realised how much I like the German language.

But then (and this may begin to run around in circles), I was aided in my quick improvement by those years of studying some German grammar, albeit in a haphazard fashion.

I think I am in the position where I want to read Os Maias (which is, nonetheless available in English translation), while only having rudimentary Portuguese. The great Hungarian polyglot, Kato Lomb, described similar circumstances when she approached new languages, and she recommended purchasing novels and absorbing audio material.

As was the case with Isi und Ossi, it really helps that I am hooked on Os Maias for the writing alone. I have already decided to revamp my entire manner of writing fiction (in English) on the basis of Os Maias and Jorgen-Frantz Jacobsen's Barbara. So I will have no problem with obsessively rereading this text for enjoyment and for learning Portuguese, which for me are one and the same goal.

This might lead to a possible solution. I read Os Maias in English and then gradually learn the Portuguese text (not all of it, but the parts I am most likely to remember and which reveal the grammar). Then I listen to Os Maias in Portuguese while following said Portuguese text in order to remember the pronunciation. I already have a small Portuguese dictionary, and I am confident that I will need to study more and more grammar as the need arises.

I will see how well this method works and report progress as and when.

Another List of "Beautiful" Portuguese Words

for your next poem/story

Alegria - joy

Alma - soul

Amizade - friendship

Ansiar - to yearn

Céus - skies

Cordialidade - warmth

Deslumbrante - dazzling

Esperar - to wait

Esquecer - to forget

Estrelado - starry

Ficção - fiction

Inverno - winter

Laranja - orange

Pesadelo - nightmare

Poesia - poetry

Primavera - spring

Quente - hot

Sonolência - sleepiness

Verão - summer

Zueira - joking, fun

If any of these words make their way into your next poem/story, please tag me, or send me a link. I would love to read them!

Sources: 1 2 ⚜ More: Word Lists ⚜ Part 1

[beemovieerotica]

Considering that you're the most high-profile Pirates of the Caribbean fan on this site, I would love to hear your ranking of the movies.

stopppp you're making me blussshhh ok my ranking is literally just just the order the films were released lmao

curse of the black pearl. the og. script is watertight. pacing and flow of it are really just flawless. it's got a wonderful classic storytelling arc, they had plenty of time to cook.

dead man's chest. starting to get quirky with it, and it's fun. WEIRD villainsss. kraken attack. leaning fully into pirate mythology. the world is OPENING UP. film is still fairly tight with some diversions. yess god.

at world's end. a little messy with a lot of moving pieces, but fuck, it's a fitting conclusion. beautiful. crying. TRAGEDY!!! parallels. foils. went out with a bang, there are some things i would've changed, but overall a good feast. [SEVERE DROP IN OPINION]

on stranger tides. very different. they've lost the plot. jack sparrow was never meant to be a main character, he's a trickster who played off the main love story (will and elizabeth) and if you want him to step into the main role, he needs to be capable of change or slip into a different archetype (reformed trickster). they kept him silly and drunk and it's getting tiresome. he can't carry the film. blackbeard is...alright. nothing hits the same as the sheer cosmic villainy of the calypso/davy jones romance that tore the world apart, but like, i won't hold that against them. the jack and angelica content is fun. love barb. fountain of youth is genuinely a great concept for a pirate movie.

dead men tell no tales. the new younger characters suck, let's be real. flat as cardboard. they retconned the lore of the trilogy to try to make all this work - not saying that lore is unbreakable and you can't ever do that - but what they put in its place isn't even interesting. young jack sparrow is bad. the mystic lady is bad. salazar is a step up from blackbeard, i love a ghost man. henry turner would never fucking join the royal navy. what's even happening here. thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[tricitymonsters]

How would any/all feel about a fat MC, especially one insecure about her body and reluctant to let them touch at first, since she wouldn’t believe they were actually into her? I’m on the heavier side and this game is such a good escape for me. Thank you very much! 😭

I've answered a similar ask before but i TRULY love this one because it gives me the chance to shout it out again: across the board, all the ROs are into fat MCs. Everyone moves to physical intimacy at their own pace and I think they'd be good at being insistent enough to prove that they're being honest while making sure they don't push hard enough to make MC more uncomfortable.

Akello used to be really fit but has since put on some poundage as his metabolism slows down but he's accepted his thickness as a blessing. He's well fed, strong, and comfortable with age changing his body. But also I think of all the ROs he's probably the most specifically into fat bodies- fat babes of all genders and presentations feel great in his hands, and he loves the look of a fat ass + thick thighs + belly. PLUS also Akello really likes to eat and he wants to share meals with an MC who's open to relishing the pleasures of life with a little bit of hedonism.

Amir loves Big Girls and Thems and Boys don't let his slender looks deceive you. He also has a very mild feeder kink and would insist that you look adorable when he can get you samples of luxe snacks you've never had before. He knows that a lot of people have baggage about eating and bodies but he's one of the first to INSIST all bodies are beautiful and that conventional notions of beauty are not only impossibly narrow, but also carry gross baggage deeply rooted in racist, classist, and sexist nonsense. Besides if a man who looks like Amir does can't pass the Conventionally Beautiful Margin just because he likes makeup and dresses and huge heels how good of a judge could it POSSIBLY be, obviously he is earth-shatteringly beautiful and they're just insecure haters.

Mori wants to put his grabby little goblin hands all over a fat MC please. He loves big boobs (gnc), big butts, big thighs to get crushed in. He has a little belly pooch himself because he's an irresponsible drinker and eats garbage so he's also one of the LEAST likely RO's to make judgments. He's here for a good time, not a long time, and he wants to enjoy getting physical with MC and explore whatever body they have.

Bonus Mentions:

Kazu may be an insufferable gym rat who meal preps but he also eats like a garbage disposal and food is a huge stress/comfort thing for him. As long as you feel strong and healthy in your body, that's all he cares about. Also he's an ass guy so please don't think a big ass won't get him all worked up.

Raath ESPECIALLY loves chubby/fat bodies. So much for him to grab and bite.

Marcel is kinda like Kazu in that he can be a little bit obsessed with his workout routine but Marcel's more interested in that for himself, not pushing it onto others, especially if they haven't explicitly shown interest in getting a routine of their own. Most likely to brag insufferably about his thicc mc partner as loud as he can, though.

[oacest]

Hi I would like to delve deeper into the oasis lore and was wondering if you have any book recs ?

I read that the supersonic book (containing all the interviews from the doc) is quiet extensive, and obvi from the sources themselves, but maybe you have other Recs that you found interesting?

we were delighted to get this ask, bc yes yes YES we DO have loads of opinions on the oasis books! Be aware that most of these cover sort of the same time period (my spirit mourns for an in-depth book dealing with the mid-to-late aughts). Presumably every publishing house in the UK circa 1996 was offering book deals to randos if they heard the name "Oasis", but these are the best ones (there are, if you can believe it, many more):

The Supersonic interviews are a definite rec -- they're exhaustive, cover way more than the doc suggests, and feature a lot more voices too. The editing job is astounding. Definitely be aware while reading that the interviews were conducted in 2015; with Oasis especially, facts and feelings change depending on time, mood, the wind, whether one is hungover, etc

Brothers from childhood to Oasis by Paul Gallagher. If one never reads any other book on Oasis, they should read this. In fact, no one is permitted to have an opinion on Noel or Liam without having read it. Paul has his blindspots, as one would expect with any sibling, but he also ofc knows his brothers and what makes them tick in a way no one else on the planet does, so!

Oasis: what's the story? by Ian Robertson. This one is somewhat controversial; the author was a bodyguard/security coordinator for Oasis and people understandably have opinions on that. Imo he's a good enough writer that he has a very clear authorial voice and perspective, which makes any worry about being fed lies moot so long as one has a brain. I appreciate he also takes some artistic risks in this book. Also, regardless of his flaws as a man or employee lol, he has a keen, at times painfully empathetic read on Liam specifically. iirc he was the only person who wrote about Oasis in those early years who had a front row seat to Liam's voice/throat problems, which lends a somewhat Cassandraic air to the whole book.......

Getting high: the adventures of Oasis by Paolo Hewitt. Oh, Paolo. What can we say. You have to read this one because it covers so much ground, just be aware it's badly written and the author is quite biased towards Noel. (I say this as a Noelist myself)

Was There Then: A Photographic Journey by Jill Furmanovsky. This is a photography book (and a fucking beautiful one) but it also has a TON of text background. Critically, it offers a perspective on the band/brothers missing from all the rest in this list -- that is, the view and impressions of two women who worked closely with the band (Jill herself and Daniela Soave, a music journalist)

Oasis, definitely by Tim Abbot. This one had a lot of personality and abbot was a creation guy so he knew the band pretty well.

Take Me There: Oasis' Story by Paul Mathur. Mathur was a Melody Maker journalist who followed them around in the early years. He had a pretty fair take on them.

The Truth: my life as Oasis's drummer by Tony McCarroll. So, obviously Tony hates Noel, like. A lot. You have to approach this book like you're giving a hostile witness a cross examination lol but THAT SAID, he does cover stuff missing from other books like pre-deal Oasis.

[thehollowwriter]

I've always found it so interesting how Vil describes himself and his actions as ugly, not his appearance. I'm tired af rn so I can't really put it into words, but it's very striking that Vil, at least to me, doesn't seem to believe in outward ugliness. In fact, he simply calls people potatoes. Not ugly. Potatoes. As some analysis' pointed out, it seems to be because he seems them as spudlings who haven't yet reached their potential. Like Quartz said, he doesn't want to change everything about you. He wants you to be the best you can be.

He is, as also Quartz said, a very selfless character and he seems to strive to be more than what he's been typecast as. That's part of why he had such an extreme breakdown from his actions and called himself "ugly." He was a villain. He was behaving just like others assumed he would. And if he's no more than the roles he's been trapped in, how could he possibly defeat Neige?

But in book 6, he had his "hero" moment. What he did was a huge sacrifice to make, especially when you consider what Vil risked. He risked literally his entire future and his reputation.

There are some fans who poke fun at him for being "shallow" crying about his appearance, but... wouldn't you?

Firstly, there's Vil's career. Remember, Vil is an actor and a model. He works in two industries that are centred around beauty. You can't have wrinkles, you can't be fat, you can't be unappealing for even a second. You must conform to beauty standards at all times. That includes not just your appearance, but what you eat and what activities you partake in, since certain eating habits and hobbies are associated with certain appearances (e.g ugly gamer).

Now that he's like this... who's going to want him as a model? Who's going to want to cast him in any role outside of an evil old hag, if they want him at all? How will his fans, the faceless masses who fixate on his appearance, react? Is there any guarantee they'll stick around?

Vil's entire future has potentially gone up in flames. He's been acting and modelling since he was a small child. What else could he possibly do?

Secondly, there's the fact that Riddle just got white hair, while Vil got all of his youth sucked out of him. He was not old just in appearance, his body was old. That's his entire future suddenly severed. He's human, and humans don't live for very long compared to fae.

From Vil's perspective, the decades of life ahead of him are gone. Now, in this frail body, who knows how much time he has left? Who knows what health problems might start ailing him and taking him early?

Well gee, no wonder he's crying! He might lose everything and he might also die much sooner than expected. I hardly find that shallow.

I find the comparison of Vil to a stereotypical mean girl overall very weird. Mean girls purposefully bully and tear down others to lift themselves up. When they insult people's fashion or appearance, it's not because they think they can improve. It's because they view those people as below them. Sometimes the outfit itself isn't even bad. It's just "poor people clothing."" Mean girls are also very manipulative and will tear others down to climb up the ladder and come out on top, even if they have to cheat and lie to do so.

Vil isn't like that at all. He doesn't insult, he criticises. And like I said, he sees people's potential and wants them to live up to it. His goal is not to tear them down and make himself feel better. As far as fashion goes, Vil knows different styles work on different people, and with how his character is, he's most certainly not going to hate or bully someone for using a "poor brand" or whatever.

Vil literally refuses to cheat!!! He does not want to win against Neige through cheating, because he knows that's not truly a win. He wants to earn that win. When he tried to poison Neige, that was a complete mental breakdown and he immediately regretted it.

So yeah. Vil is a harsh, but nurturing and actually very kind and selfless guy. Leave him.

(If I got anything wrong pls forgive me I haven't read book 5 in a while. @v-anrouge you're the Vil expert pls lmk if there's anything to add or correct)

Vil yap session

[karuvapatta]

buckle up, I'm gonna bitch about Arcane season 2 for a while.

disclaimer: the animation and art direction is absolutely stellar, writing and voice acting is mostly solid, music ranges from good to amazing, sound design is great, and it's a great show overall.

HOWEVER:

There were so many interesting subplots and ideas, but not one of them had enough room to breathe or time to develop organically.

(spoilers under cut)

Caitlyn - I love the subplot about her becoming a fascist dictator and Ambessa's pupil, I really do. But then it sort of fizzled? She faced no repercussions for installing a police state and using chemical weaponry against civilians? The last one got to me especially - her mother built this system claiming that "the people of Undercity deserve to breathe" and Caitlyn then turned it against them. Okay, Vi and Jinx both called her out and it left to her rift with Vi, but... she's still in charge at the end, having seemingly learned no lessons?

Vi - uh, she was there. Sort of. Most of the time. Again, she joined the Enforcers, and it led to SOME conflict, but... is she going back to being an Enforcer? how does she feel about that? Who knows - Vi was mostly there for Cait and Jinx's subplots than her own.

Jinx - her subplot with Sevika and Isha was my second favourite thing about this season. The idea of her becoming a symbol and uniting Zaun is great. That little moment in the prison was awesome. But, ultimately - it didn't amount to much. Her sacrificing her life for Vi (or not, I don't know if she actually dies) didn't hit as much because we already knew she was actively suicidal.

Isha - had the potential to be super annoying, but like I said, I ended up really liking her character. Her death rubbed me the wrong way, however - it was very emotional, but the framing was very strange. Were we supposed to find it inspirational? Tragic but beautiful? Proof that Jinx isn't irredeemable?

Sevika - again: loved her, loved her interactions with Jinx and Isha.

Silco - I found it weird how this season consistently framed him as a good guy. Jinx and Sevika remember him fondly, he was the only thing holding Zaun together, there are cute flashbacks / AU versions of him and Vander being happy... he's a complex character and we love him for it, but let's not forget his many, many crimes.

Singed - kinda weird that he got what he wanted with no repercussions.

Mel - all right, her subplot bothered me perhaps most of all. Mel is a joy every time she's on screen, true, but last season she had been established as a savvy politician and businesswoman, motivated by her mommy issues, and a corrupting presence on Jayce. She pushed for progress at all costs to fulfil her own ambitions and prove something to her mother. That's a great setup! But what we got in s2 is... random superpowers out of nowhere. Mel always had power - she was the richest woman in Pilltover and basically ran its Council - but now instead of confronting her with the potential side-effects of Hextech, the consequences of her ambitions, and the futility of proving herself to her abusive warmongering mother, she just gets... more power. Out of nowhere. And validation from Ambessa. It was just weird.

Jayce and Viktor - easily the most compelling part of this season, and my favourite subplot. And STILL - it felt rushed and incoherent. I thought at first that Viktor would become jealous and resentful because Jayce is everything that he isn't, and I am honestly so glad they didn't take that route. But instead, Viktor gets... brainwashed by the Hexcore I guess? Ascends to a higher plane of existence? His Jesus Days and his cults were fascinating, but I didn't get the philosophy behind them at all. I can see why Viktor would want to shed his physical body for a machine that has none of its weakness, and how he might convince others to follow that path, but instead he chose to brainwash his followers and then assimilate the entire human race? What? There were so, so many potential sources of conflict between himself and Jayce - the Hextech weaponry Jayce built, Pilltover's fascist takeover of the Undercity, Jayce reviving him against his will and not destroying the Hexcore, accidentally poisoning Ekko's tree through their irresponsible use of Hextech... but the conflict we got didn't built on any of that. And I don't understand why.

(But I get you, Jayce/Viktor shippers. You won this round.)

[kagoutiss]

green beetle black beetle

[szaryherbatnik]

I want to know ppls genuine opinions on icebound ships. Cause i totally get the energy of each ship, i think basically all of them are super cute. But what are like. SHIP ships. Not just a cute concept but something more. Something that makes you pace around maybe jump up and down a little bit

(Also im on ep 15 so pls spoiler free!!)

[sysig]

The brainworms are winning, clearly (Patreon)

[bookshelf-in-progress]

It's a good sign I'm recovering from my creative slump that I was able to brainstorm a story that makes me laugh.

[todayisafridaynight]

THIS IS GONNA SOUND SO MEAN BUT WHY DO U LIKE RYO AOKI/MASATO

masato hot

[cocolacola]

do not even talk to me about any "my fav is doomed by the narrative" shit unless u witnessed the Sylvanas Incident of 2018-2022 because that was my final straw

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

Almost all of the "criticism" (i.e., hatred, bashing) thrown at Disney Princesses comes directly from a fundamental misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misreading of the core message of their stories and their respective characters and journeys.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[bmpmp3]

the epic highs and lows of trying to read an ongoing shounen manga