#it's also bad in a way that never gives a satisfying conclusion to any of its major threads

[variousqueerthings]

I know that Doctor Who eras are universally considered camp and that a seasoned classic!who fan presumably will laugh at the idea that the show is good "again" when its peaks and valleys constantly come around and are reassessed as overrated or as secret gems, and so yes the idea of Doctor Who being good "again" is kind of ridiculous in the grand scale of things, since RTD is but a drop in a very very big pond (albeit a very important drop considering his was the reboot), but coming in to Capaldi again I've got to say. that M*ffat era is bad, and even Capaldi and Gomez can't make it that much better, although at least they make it bearable and have individual great scenes. but yes this is improving upon quite a few years of bad.

[emeryleewho]

I've noticed that people take writing advice way too literally and then get really mad about it, so here's a quick guide of what the typical "bad' writing advice is actually trying to tell you.

[Note: you don't have to take literally any piece of advice. It's just there for your consideration. If you hate it, leave it and do things the way you want. But the reason all of this advice is regurgitated so often is because it has helped a lot of people, so it's okay if it's not for you, but it may still be life changing for someone else.]

Write Every Day

"Write every day" is NOT supposed to be a prescriptivist, unbreakable rule that dictates anyone who doesn't write literally every day isn't a real writer. It's supposed to be a shorthand way of saying "establish a writing routine. Get used to writing at certain times or in certain places or in certain patterns, both so that you can trick yourself into writing even when you don't feel like it by recreating certain conditions, but also because if you only write "when you're in the mood", you may never get around to finishing a project and you likely won't be able to meet publishing deadlines if you decide to pursue publication."

The point of this advice is basically just to get used to seeing writing as part of your daily routine, something that you do regularly. But if you decide you can't write on Tuesdays or weekdays or any day when you have certain other activities, that's literally fine. Just try to make it a habit if you can.

2. Show Don't Tell

"Show don't tell" DOES NOT AND HAS NEVER meant "never state anything plainly and explicitly in the text". Again, "show don't tell" is a shorthand, and its intended message is "things tend to feel a lot more satisfying when your reader is able to come to that conclusion on their own rather than having the information given to them and being told they just have to accept it." It's about giving your reader the pieces to put the puzzle of your book together on their own rather than handing them a finished puzzle and saying "there. take it."

So if you have a character who's very short-tempered, it's typically more satisfying that you "show" them losing their cool a few times so that the reader can draw the conclusion on their own that this character is short-tempered rather than just saying "He was short-tempered". Oftentimes, readers don't want to take what you tell them at face value, so if you just state these sorts of details, readers will push back against that information. People are significantly more likely to believe literally any information they are able to draw conclusions on without being told what to believe, so that's where this advice comes in.

3. In Medias Res

This one is so often misunderstood. "In medias res" or "start in the middle", DOES NOT MEAN to literally start halfway through your plot. It also DOES NOT MEAN that you should start in the middle of an action packed scene. It just means that when you start your story, it should feel like the world and the characters already existed before we started following them. It shouldn't feel like everything was on pause and the world and characters only started acting the moment the story begins.

This is why starting with a character waking up or something similar can feel jarring and slow. We want to feel instantly compelled by your character, and the most efficient way to do that is [typically] to have them already doing something, but that something can be anything from taking a shower to commuting to school to chopping off a dragon head. We just want to feel like the story is already moving by the time we enter.

4. Shitty First Drafts

The idea that you should let your first draft suck and not revise it as you go is a tip presented to combat the struggle a lot of people have with not being able to finish a draft. If you find you've been working on the same first draft for five years and barely gotten anywhere, you might want to try this advice. The point is to just focus on getting to the ending because finishing a draft can give you renewed energy to work on the book and also makes it easier to get feedback from readers and friends.

That said, if your story is flowing fine even as you go back and make edits, then don't worry about this. This is advice specifically designed to target a problem. Likewise, this doesn't mean that you can't clean up typoes when you see them or even make minor edits if you want to. It just means not to let yourself get completely bogged down by making changes that you never move forward.

A "shitty first draft" also doesn't mean that your story has to be completely illegible. It just means that you shouldn't let perfectionism stop you yet. I see a lot of people say "well, I can't keep going until this first part makes sense", and that's totally reasonable! Again, the point of this advice is just to get you out of that rut that keeps you from making progress, but if you spend a couple weeks editing and then move on or you find the book is still making forward strides while you edit, then you're fine. You don't need this.

5. Adverbs

The idea that you "shouldn't use adverbs" DOES NOT MEAN that any time you use an adverb, you're ruining your story. It just means that you shouldn't *rely* on adverbs to carry your story, namely in places where stronger verbs or nouns would do a lot more heavy lifting.

For instance, you can write "she spoke quietly", but generally speaking, that "quietly" there is a lot weaker than just subbing out this clause for "she whispered". You probably have the word "spoke" all over your draft, so subbing out one instance of it here for a stronger verb in place of the same verb + an adverb makes for stronger prose. This doesn't mean that you'll never want to use the phrase "spoke quietly" over the word "whispered". For instance, if I write, "When she finally spoke, she spoke quietly, like that was all the volume her weakened lungs could muster." In this case, I'm using "spoke quietly" specifically *because* it echoes the previous spoke earlier in the sentence, and it evokes a certain level of emotion to have that repetition there. I also used it because she's not actually "whispering", but trying to speak at full volume only to come off sounding quiet.

So when people tell you to cut adverbs, they're saying this because people often use adverbs as a crutch to avoid having to seek out stronger verbs. If you're using your adverbs intentionally, having considered stronger verbs but ultimately deciding that this adverb is what does the job properly, then there's nothing wrong with using them. This is just a trick to help you spot one common weakness in prose that a lot of authors don't even realize they have.

6. Write What You Know

This is potentially the single worst-underestood piece of writing advice. "Write what you know" DOES NOT MEAN to write only what you know or that you have to put all of your life's knowledge on the page. It just means that drawing from your own experiences and already there knowledge will help you craft a better story.

So, for instance, being an eye doctor doesn't mean you have to write a story about an eye doctor. It doesn't even mean you need to write a story that directly deals with any eye knowledge. It just means that there are likely things you've experience as an eye doctor that can help inspire or inform your story. Maybe you remember a patient who always wore the same yellow shoes, and so you include a character who does exactly that. Maybe you spent a lot of hours dealing with insurance so you decide to write about insurance agents. Maybe your practice was located next to a grocery store so you decide to write a zombie apocalypse story that takes place in a location inspired by that shopping center.

The point is that, as people, our lived experiences allow us to relate to other people and craft more believable worlds. So don't limit yourself to your lived or experience or feel obligated to only write the things you've done, but when you find yourself wondering what to write about next or how to give a character more depth or how to describe this random location, pull things from your life and let what you already know bring a certain level of unique you-ness to your writing.

And the MOST important advice I can give you is to stop looking at writing advice as some holy, unbreakable rules passed down by the gods that you cannot ever deviate from. And if a piece of advice sounds totally bonkers, do some research on it. There's a good chance that whoever's passing it to you has no idea what they're talking about. But even if every other writer swears by a certain piece of advice, you absolutely do not need to take it. Try it on if you want, and throw it away if you don't, but stop making yourselves miserable by letting random internet people dictate your life. Most people giving advice on the internet aren't where you want to be anyway, so don't expect them to be able to guide you somewhere they've never been.

Everything's made up, and nothing matters. Write what you want.

[starreyblueberry]

Timmy Turners fate in the new series is one of the most anticipated/theorized aspects of the new show right now. We have multiple easter eggs towards him being a possible character in the new show, and due to the creator saying that Timmys kids could possibly be Cosmo and Wandas next godkids, I don't think Timmy has kids yet (aka the channel chaser ending might be on its way, but not happened just yet.) He is arguably going to either be a huge hit or miss, everyone has different ideas, fates, what he should be, what would be the best conclusion to his character. The lines between real genuine trauma and gags in the old show are blurry, as well as core aspects of his personality. It’s so hard to actually write him as an adult for the new show purely cause what exactly are you going to take from the show that MATTERS. Will you take the lovingness of his parents from season one? or the neglectful spiteful parents they become from season 4. Will you take the horrible grades as him actuallly being bad at school, or crocker failing him on purpose. Will chole even be his best friend? Or is it back to AJ and Chester? Or will his only friends be cosmo and wanda?

We’re Cosmo and Wanda parents to Timmy, or just godparents.

Its already proven that timmys magic somewhat stayed (aka Peris existence, Dale being a millionare, hell even dimsdale/fairy world being intact) If they will acklowdge that? The school mascot being Timmy turner adjacent, past fairy’s seeming to have remembered Timmy (The tooth fairy having a little card of Timmy, Jorgen hanging out w cosmo and Wanda more CAUSE of Timmy’s adventures etc). He’s somehow a crutal part of almost every piece of the show and he’s not even there. I fully believe they’re gonna explain why a lot of Timmy’s wishes have stayed (in my opinion so many of his changes have made the world in general a better place, and he has saved the universe so often undoing his shit would kinda change the whole fabric of space and time, thus making his magic stay, memories are more… iffy.)

I know a huge thing is also the family dynamic, the fact Timmy is their favourite, hell the HALL OF TIMMY!!! The fact they keep a picture of his room in their house, the fact that they reference him sometimes within conversations with hazel. Never actually spoken his name but implied that’s their Timmy (aside from one time) That the reason the world is right now the reason this problem or circumstance or blessing is happening is because of Timmy Turner.

The amount of pure power Timmy has over the show is something crazy, and I do trust the new writers to give us an ending that will satisfy us. He’s been so connected to many people’s childhoods, showing found family at its core. He’s snarky, loud, smart, kind, and more. People want to see him happy, people want to see him with his family. Who you count as his family is up to you. It’s already been semi-confirmed it’s gonna be connected to the channel chasers ending since most of the general audience has said they wished the show ended during that time ( I have my own opions about it but I digress.) It would be super cool if they did their own take, aka any unconventional Timmy future that we haven’t seen as a concept in the OG show. I know many people are rooting for too remember, for them to be united, and I really wish it happens. We also have to remember this is hazels story too, and we’ll be seeing the end of Timmy’s story rather then the middle of it. A special about him would be amazing though, especially if he’s either the hero, or the villain. Idk!!One day I’ll make a full post about every possible future Timmy and my preferences towards which ones, but for now I’ll stick with my analysis of the OG show.

All I know is that Timmy changed Cosmo, Wandas, and Peris life almost more then any other Godkid, and I like to think the show respects the impact he had. Not only as their godkid, but as their first kid to consider true family.

[darkonekrisrewrite]

This can't be the final "End", for both the heroes and the villains

(Spoiler warning, long post)

Deku and Ochako's stories didn't end well, and not just for the shipping or not keeping One For All.

The narrative endings they got, either don't make sense or flat out don't work at all.

The end of Ochako's arc doesn't work because it conflicts with what we've been shown to be true.

She does try to help others after hearing PARTS of Toga's backstory, a natural progression of her character.

But the problem is that it leads to this:

"Uravity to expand access to Quirk Counseling"

EXPANDING Quirk Counseling...

Not REFORMING and then expanding Quirk Counseling.

Remember that this is Quirk Counseling:

"Where they attempt to hammer out any bumps in your understanding of the world and program you to fit neatly into society's little boxes.

It's a far from perfect process, the counseling ends up emphasizing the inherent differences among us all, and that's one bug they've yet to work out of the programming."

Stated by Curious during the MVA Arc, then confirmed later in a flashback featuring a counselor talking to Toga and her parents:

"Let's straighten you out so you can be "Normal".

Deviance is common in children with strong Quirks.

We'll fix it. It'll be like it never existed."

Focusing only on repression and the appearance of being normal, not actually helping the child at all.

So yeah, knowing that this is how Quirk Counseling really is, how exactly does expanding this help??

THIS WAS WHY TOGA STAYING CLOSE TO OCHAKO WAS SO IMPORTANT

(Not being with her in the shipping sense but working, talking with her and just being together.)

Anything good about this project that Ochako is creating is only implied not shown, and it doesn't mesh well at all with what we already know.

And even if Ochako did do things right, it still wouldn't be a satisfying payoff.

Ochako wasn't fighting so hard and struggling so much to help random, unnamed, unseen people from the villain life.

She was fighting to help Toga Himiko.

Her failing to save Toga and only (implying) saving others we don't even know, will never carry the same weight.

It won't feel right in a story that's supposed to be "Hopeful", because there's no solid connection left for that sentiment to be attached.

And there was no saving going on between Deku/shigaraki and Ochako/Toga after their battles were over.

This is the sentiment put forth by Nana Shimura (and at the time agreed upon by All-might and Deku), on what a true hero saving someone means:

"When you have to save someone, they're usually in a scary situation. A true hero saves not only their lives, but also their hearts... That's what I believe."

"Saving" is supposed to be both the life and the heart.

Not just one or the other.

And even if Gran Torino was supposed to be the one in the right -

(The narrative sure as hell made it look like he was supposed to be in the wrong and Deku was going to be the one to prove that.)

- in that killing can be a form of saving.

Deku and Ochako didn't even save the villain's hearts.

Not fully.

Shigaraki tells Deku that he still needs to be a hero to the villains and that he fought to destroy until the very end.

Only giving a snide encouragement to Deku at the end of the fight because he's literally crumbling into dust and got his world view rocked by the "It was AFO all along~" reveal.

Toga tells ochako that she didn't make "the bad stuff", the pain in her heart go away.

Only telling ochako that her efforts and words made Toga feel happy, but that's it.

They couldn't save their lives, only partially saved their hearts, leading to the results:

100% - 50% - 25% = 25 % (final grade)

FAIL

The rest of Deku's conclusion doesn't fair any better.

Deku's heroic finale ends the exact same way it ended in every filler bnha movie, only with even less payoff.

He didn't succeed in his goal, with who he wanted to save and he just goes back to doing what he always did at the start, being a hero.

He doesn't develop in any noticable way until the OFA embers run out off screen.

Even the symbolic saving of the scissors boy, Deku doesn't get.

It would have been a world of difference if deku had seen tenko's full backstory, then told it to the world.

Telling the civilians that they needed to do their part to help those in trouble.

(Knowing that there's no AFO left to potentially get in the way.)

Resulting in many civilians coming together to help the scissor boy.

That would have delivered on everyone's narrative payoff.

But instead the theme doesn't work here because the single old lady who does step up to help, does so out of guilt (Not helping tenko) rather than because it is the right thing to do.

Nobody among the civilians besides the old lady stepped up to help on top of that.

So it looks less like a societal shift and more like the redemption of one single person.

The narrative makes a half-hearted attempt to tie this back to Deku but it doesn't work there either.

Because how exactly does Deku punching shigaraki into powder inspire the old lady to extend a helping hand to someone who represents that same villain??

It doesn't.

Even if the sentiment is: that everyone must do their part to help, there is a giant disconnect between:

Everyone seeing the heroes helping each other, fighting and succeeding in destroying the scary villain.

and

Realizing that someone has to help the person who looks like a scary villain.

It doesn't add up together.

Doesn't flow narratively at all.

The 8 year time skip makes more problems with Deku.

The line of: "You too can become a Hero."

Is meant to be the payoff callback to All-might giving those same words to Deku in bnha's beginning, so now Deku says the same thing to another kid that has doubts about his ability to become a hero.

It is kind of sweet but thinking about it for more than 5 seconds should give pause because:

Deku was about to receive the most powerful quirk in the world from All-might.

And the kid Deku was giving those same inspirational words to could throw plates from his head.

It's not even confirmed whether or not the kid could control their size, telepathically manipulate them or something like that.

So if what that other loudmouth kid in the final chapter said is true, about how only the most capable can become heroes in the current time.

The entire conversation, just like many other things in this ending, reads like false hope from the heroes.

Not like Deku has to deal with any of that or the kid himself anymore because he gets a tech suit, allowing him to be a hero again.

We don't know if he keeps his teaching job or not, maybe he did, maybe he didn't.

But still, once again Deku avoids any difficult questions that the story puts in front of him.

And all of this doesn't even cover the other issues that the story brought up:

The popularity poll expanding instead of ending, as if that would prevent the Endeavor/Dabi situation from happening again.

Lack of social/government help for anyone who gets dealt more than a couple of bad hands in life, those caught up in hero/villain conflicts or other disasters (quirk based or not).

Remember how twice became a villain?

THE QUIRK SINGULARITY DOOMSDAY

Now that AFO, shigaraki and the doctor (all of his research and technology) are gone, what's going to happen when children start wiping out whole city blocks?

(The doctor may be alive and imprisoned but with AFO dead, the doctor likely won't help anymore because AFO was so important to him.)

With the power and complexity of the quirks inevitably increasing, think Eri unintentionally killing her dad X10.

Then the next round of kids, make it X50 then X100.

And finally, in the last chapter it's stated that there's a: "Decline in the villain emergence rate."

Why exactly that is isn't said, but it's implied that it's due to the efforts of Ochako and Shoji.

Let's put aside the suspension of disbelief and assume that it's true, that what they did worked in stopping villains from being made enough to have a real impact.

What happens to the people that are already villains??

The ones currently on the run or in jail.

If the hero kids made that big of a difference in the demographic of villains just by expanding counseling and nonviolent resolution, then that only reinforces the truth that the villains are easily preventable victims.

The implications of that aren't doing the heroes or hero society any favors.

We don't know what happens after because Rehabilitation was never offered to anyone who wasn't a small time criminal (Gentle Criminal) or a former assassin of the state (Lady Nagant).

Are the other villains still currently stuck in their circumstances just out of luck, help came too late for them too just like the Lov?

We don't know.

You can assume, imply and head-canon the solutions to all these issues, with what the hero kids might do, as much as you want to.

But if you have to do that with the big questions and plot points, then the story hasn't delivered on what it said it was going to.

Maybe horikoshi isn't that good of a writer but it's hard to believe that.

Horikoshi put so much into this series and all the characters in it, the central villains and the hero kids being the most important ones.

That he'd just fumble everything and pull a Falcon and the Winter Soldier: "You need to do better" and then they did'-Type ending.

This can't be it.

Maybe the "Ending" endpoint of this narrative but not the end of the overall story.

For the villains just as much as the heroes.

Toga dying to a blood transfusion, despite everything other characters survived (Gran Torino donut, edgeshot worm, Dabi charcoal skeleton) and things that she herself survived already.

Having curious bombs go off inside her body leading to internal damage and severe blood loss, yet she still survived until she received help and recovered just fine.

They got Dabi to medical and kept him alive.

Other villains like overhaul, muscular, compress and spinner survived.

It's not like she either had to die or go to jail, she could have just escaped.

Leading to her meeting up with Ochako again in secret or something, to finally fulfill both of their arcs and iron everything out for what would have happened in the future.

Then the Quirk Counseling ending could have worked.

Shigaraki dying after finding out his life was entirely manipulated by AFO.

Strung along like a puppet, mentally and physically manipulated to believe he is a force of destruction, so much that by the time the series starts, it's all shigaraki can believe himself to be.

Twice and Kurogiri fight and die trying to save Toga and Shigaraki, so they can live and be reunited with their friends.

This all just meant nothing in the end??

Ochako, Deku, Toga and Shigaraki's stories can't be over yet because they are important characters and there's too much left unresolved.

Ochako's resolution is incomplete and undefined.

Deku's hero ending feels disappointing and tone-deaf.

Toga completely disappeared before Ochako was taken by the helicopter, nowhere to be seen where she should have been if she had died.

And how is shigaraki a force ghost still walking around in the world if there's no quirks left tethering him as a vestige?

ALSO this recent interview with Horikoshi himself:

(Warning: Spoilers for the most recent BNHA movie)

"Horikoshi says one thing to pay attention to from the My Hero Academia "You're Next" movie is the relationship between Giulio and Anna and how it connects with Deku and the others' goals.

He writes:

"The relationship between Giulio and Anna is a part of the goal point where Deku and the others will eventually reach.

The movie as a standalone in itself is interesting, but if you watch the movie then return to the actual story, then you might feel 'oh so this is where the story leads to.' As such, please pay attention to Giulio and Anna in the movie!"

To give context, by the end of the movie, Giulio is able to cancel out Anna's quirk using his own, allowing her to live a life without being sheltered in fear of her quirk or used as a weapon. So Horikoshi's comment is probably referring to how they help each other accept their quirks or lack thereof and still be able to live in harmony.

In regards to their relationship, Giulio tells Anna he will always be by her side no matter what, they hug and then walk off into the sunset together at the end of the movie."

And another heavily lampshaded moment in the movie novelization when Giulio inner narrates this:

'He knew that killing her wouldn't be a true form of salvation.'

What was all this about??

There has to be more left.

[bumblebeehug]

Massage Misunderstanding

Summary: Happy comes to the conclusion that Lucy and Natsu really should stop making such suggestive sounds when massaging. Notes: I honestly don't know what this is supposed to be. It's already published on my ff.net account but I thought y'all might like it here too. Translation - Ao3 - FF.net

***

It was just a normal day in the Fairy Tail guild where everyone was having a happy time, one or two small fights in the background and Mira serving drinks to the guild members. Natsu, Happy and Lucy had just gotten home from another mission, and Lucy dramatically laid her head on the table where they sat.

"Urgh, my muscles are killing me!" She groaned, vincing at her slightest movements.

"Come on, it wasn't that bad Lucy!"

"Yeah Lucy! I told you that you should have gone with us on our morning runs," Happy exclaimed. "You're just out of shape!"

"I'm not going to get up at 5 in the morning to go on runs with you two. Our stamina isn't even close, you just run ahead anyways," Lucy answered with a pout. "Besides, you never let me sleep a full night's sleep. I can't sleep with fur in my face and an overgrown baby taking up all the space!"

"That's why I keep telling you that we should cuddle, I wouldn't take any space that way."

"No, but you would overstep my personal boundaries. Now shoo, let me recover in peace."

Natsu just frowned, ignoring his partner's attempt to get him to leave her alone.

"Is it really that bad?" He asked with a slight concern. He knew that she would be okay after a few days, but he really didn't like seeing her in pain. "Your back I mean."

"I'm not dying or anything, but I could really use a massage. I'm gonna ask Kinana to give me one if she has a moment to spare," the blonde explained. "She must have been gifted with the hands of a God, I don't think anyone can fix soreness as well as she does!"

Happy snickered as he heard Lucy's praise.

"Lucy, did you know that Natsu also is really good at giving massages," he revealed.

"Wait, seriously? Natsu, is it true? How come you've never told me this?" Lucy's eyes widened in disbelief. How could Natsu, whose only skill is burning things and fighting people, be good at giving a massage?

"Meh, Happy is exaggerating." He just shrugged. "I've only given a handful of them, I wouldn't know if they're any good," he explained. Maybe that was a lie. He had given massages to a good bunch of the guild, and had gotten just as many compliments.

"I'm totally not exaggerating!" Happy exclaimed. "Well it doesn't matter, you'll get to decide that for yourself Lucy. Come on Natsu, give her a free trial!"

"No way. She doesn't want me to anyway, let's just go fishing or something," Natsu said, trying to get away from this forced labour. He found it so incredibly boring to give massages. There was never a reward for him, it was just a big waste of time in his opinion.

"Wait a second mister, who said I didn't want you to give me a massage?" Lucy protested, feeling curious about this new skill she had found out about the dragon slayer.

"I'm not gonna give you one either way." Natsu stood his point this time. Last time he did it the requests kept coming, keeping him from doing anything productive that day, He was not going to have that again.

"Pretty pleaseee!" Lucy gave him her best puppy eyes, but at no avail. "I'll cook food for you the entire week, I really need a massage as soon as possible!"

Natsu's interest peaked slightly. He would get something out of it if he did it, and he never refused food.

"Two weeks or no deal. And don't tell anyone, got it?"

"Deal!" Lucy chirped. "Come on, let's do it now! I think the infirmary is empty!"

Natsu just sighed as he watched Lucy skip there in advance.

"Happy, if my entire day gets ruined, then it's your fault."

"Yeah yeah, whatever, let's just go now before anyone catches on!"

As Natsu and Lucy prepared to satisfy the blonde's poor muscles, the rest of Team Natsu entered the building.

"Gray-sama!" Juvia's sweet voice filled the guild hall, informing everyone about his arrival.

"Hello Juvia," Erza greeted, leaving Gray to her. "You haven't seen Master or Mirajane, have you?"

"Ah, if Juvia's not wrong she believes that she overheard that Master is in a meeting with the council. Juvia hasn't seen Mira-san today, but she believes you may possibly find her behind the counter," Juvia answered before turning her attention back to Gray.

"I see. Thank you Juvia. I just wanted to tell Master that we're back from the mission, but if he isn't here I'll just inform Mira. Well, if I can find her."

"You're not just gonna leave me, are you!?" Gray mustered to say, feeling a bit sweaty in Juvia's tight embrace.

"Sorry Gray-san," Wendy timidly excused. "I'm feeling a bit tired from the mission so I was planning on finding Lucy-san and Natsu-san."

"They owe her a pastry for ruining hers last week," Carla further explained.

"I wonder why Happy hasn't come to greet you yet Carla," Wendy teased. "He's usually the first one to notice us when we come back from missions."

Carla let out an annoyed puff.

"I haven't noticed. I'm just glad that Tomcat isn't pestering us today."

"It's still odd though," Gray said. He had gotten himself a free moment while Juvia ran to get some new handmade gift. "I usually can't even get a moment to relax before Fire Breath tries to pick a fight."

"Maybe they went on a mission alone?" Wendy said.

"They said they wanted to rest a bit though before taking a long mission with a big reward." It was Erza's turn to invite herself to the conversation. "I'm not sure if it has anything to do with Natsu and Lucy, but Mira was lurking outside the infirmary. She seemed excited so I didn't want to interrupt."

The gang started asking the rest of the guild about the original team Natsu's whereabouts, but no one seemed to know where the three members held house.

"I'm gonna talk to her," Gray finally said. "She's been gasping at the door for ten minutes, whatever she's doing can't be more important than knowing where our friends are."

"Juvia agrees. Mira-san should probably go back to work soon anyways. Let's ask her."

As they all came closer to the door to the infirmary Wendy started blushing. Did she really hear..? No, she must have been mistaken.

"What's the matter Wendy?" Carla asked quietly.

"No, no, it's nothing… I think. Unless!" Wendy gasped. Maybe that was the reason Mira's ear was pressed to the little gap between the floor and the door. But was it really Lucy and Natsu she was hearing? Maybe she was a bit too tired from the mission to think right. The voices must be distorted from exhaustion.

As they got closer more members of the group started hearing what Wendy was suspecting. They tried to ignore it while talking to Mira. Whatever two members that were having fun in there could keep doing what they were doing - the group just wanted to know where three of their team members were.

"Sorry to interrupt you Mira but can we ask you something?" Erza said, taking the lead.

"Ah!" Mira finally started to get back from her dreamland. "Yes of course. Welcome back by the way. I must have missed your arrival," she pardoned herself.

"It's fine, we were just wondering if you have any idea where Natsu and Lucy have gone? They were supposedly in the guild before and no one saw them leave so we feel quite confused," Erza explained. Mira burst out in a fit of giggles.

"Yep, yep, I know exactly where those two are! They're a bit occupied right now though."

"Well, where are they? We wanted to say hi at least," Erza insisted.

Instead of answering, Mira just pointed to the door that led into the infirmary. The rest of the group couldn't believe their eyes.

"You're joking, right?"

"There is no way!"

"Juvia knew it!"

"I really shouldn't be listening to this…" Wendy blushed as she held her hands over her ears.

"It's quite inappropriate." Carla shook her head disapprovingly.

"In the guild hall? That's bold." Gray snickered tauntingly.

"Wait, does that mean that Happy is there too?!" Erza exclaimed as she came to the realisation.

"Gross!"

The group felt confused by their discovery. None of them knew what to do with this new information, but it was hard for them to just leave Natsu and Lucy to it. They might have wanted this to happen a bit more than they cared to admit, and they weren't going to lie - they were quite curious about what they were doing.

Let's head a few minutes back where Natsu and Lucy had just arrived at the infirmary. The blonde had just taken off her shirt, and laid down on the infirmary's only massage bench as Natsu locked the door.

"So, let's see how good you really are," Lucy mumbled confidently. She already knew that Natsu had dry and calloused hands, so it couldn't feel that good, right?

"Take off your bra too."

"H- huh?" Lucy stuttered as she felt her face warming up slightly. Was that really necessary? Kinana usually found ways to go around the bra, and that worked perfectly well. "W- why?"

"I'm gonna use oil so that I don't scrape your back. You don't want your clothes ruined, right?"

"Ah, of course…" With a blush embracing her cheeks she unclasped her bra and pulled her arms out of the loops. In one smooth movement she removed the bra under her and then tossed it to her left, where her shirt laid neatly folded. She took a moment to consider if it was worth pulling down her skirt too, and since she definitely didn't want to deal with washing an oily skirt, she decided to drag it down slightly, just so that it still covered her buttcrack.

While Lucy was stripping down, Natsu had turned around to grab the oil. He remembered where it was since he'd given the rest of the guild massages, and after moving around a few bottles he found the small, cylinder shaped container. It was only half full (or was it half empty?) but it would be plenty for one massage.

When Natsu turned back around he was met with the sight of his best friend half naked, with her head facing him.

"Ya ready to be blown away?" Natsu joked, his signature grin dancing across his lips. Lucy let out a small giggle.

"Do your worst." Lucy winked playfully. Little did they know that Mira-Jane just happened to walk by the room, hearing all of the following conversation.

"I'll start out slow," Natsu informed, finally placing his slightly warmed up hands on her stiff shoulders, earning a quiet groan from Lucy. Knowing it was probably a groan of slight discomfort having sore muscles kneaded, he decided to ease up on the strength he put in. "You okay there Lucy?" he whispered, keeping the voice down in an attempt to be calming.

"Mmh, yeah… God, that feels good," Lucy groaned. She figured the secret behind these magical hands must be heat, because while it was only barely the same temperature she took baths in, they were still hotter than Kinana's hands.

A minute passed with Natsu just slowly rubbing his hands up and down her back to get her blood circulating, when he decided to begin the real kneading. He started out lightly, beginning at the nape of her neck (exactly where she smelled the strongest) and working himself slowly to her shoulders and down to her arms. Now, while he had massaged many people, he had never before massaged such a loud person. At almost every motion he made, Lucy let out a small sound. If he didn't know better he would think she was moaning.

"God, Natsu… gnh… harder," She whimpered out, blushing slightly for a moment when she realised how it sounded. She didn't have time to worry about that though since Natsu followed her order, making her groan out louder.

Natsu himself actually found that he got weirdly flustered by her sounds. The fact that he could hear a gasp coming from outside didn't really help either since it made him feel like he was doing nasty stuff - stuff he only thought Gildarts or that nasty Gajeel would like to do. To cover up his reaction to Lucy's pleading, he immediately followed through, only resulting in also adding speed to the massage.

"Does it feel good?" Natsu heaved out in an attempt to ignore the heat in his lower belly.

"Uh, oh yeah, a bit sl- ahn~… slower though."

"Oh yeah, sorry, got a bit too excited," he quickly apologised. Now that her shoulders felt kneaded through he carried on down on Lucy's upper back. He could feel some really tight knots there, and he felt a bit bad for her, knowing how much of a bother they must have been. Natsu himself had really good blood circulation, so he was only sore for a few hours if he strained himself too hard, but Lucy had to deal with that pain for multiple days, if not weeks sometimes.

"Happy, could you get me some water?" Lucy managed to get out. She got a bit sweaty from the heat in the room.

"Aye!"

Soon enough she had a glass of water in her hand, and with wobbly arms she managed to take a few sips before accidentally spilling it on the floor. Lucy didn't have time worrying about that though, as Natsu carefully dragged his hot and oily fingers along her waist.

"Look at how wet you are," Natsu whispered out in an attempt to tease her for getting her arms and hands wet. "You're even dripping, Lucy"

"Ggnhh~ come on Natsu, it's not- mmh… it's not funny" She managed to get out. Natsu had just poured on some more oil and was now caressing her hips.

"You're making a mess," Natsu commented smugly. Lucy could hear his grin in his voice.

"Well so are you," she answered, aiming at his overuse of the oil.

"Everything to make the princess feel good" Natsu witted. He didn't really care about the multiple new smells that now lingered outside of the room. He didn't even know how long they had been there, but he also didn't care as he currently felt like he was in a fog of Lucy's smell and whimpering.

Natsu had now worked through every single knot he could find, and was topping off the treatment by dragging his nails loosely over her entire back. Lucy let out a loud sigh in relief - she definitely loved how his hands had felt, working so thoroughly on her body, but it made her surprisingly tired. A quick run over her armpits made Lucy gasp out loudly, giving Natsu one last sound that he never really had heard before. Weren't people supposed to laugh when they got tickled? Well, it didn't really matter since he had gotten a response either way.

"Let me clean you up before you get clothed," Natsu said sincerely, happy to see his friend so satisfied.

"Alright. Thank you for this Natsu, seriously. It felt great. And I promise, I won't tell the others about it. It'll be our little secret." Lucy blinked playfully, happy that she had her own secret masseur. She definitely didn't want to share, that much she knew.

After they both got cleaned up and Lucy got clothed they finally got a good look at each other. Both looked sweaty and had a small blush, probably from the adrenaline kick from keeping a secret from the guild, and Lucy's hair was messy. They grinned at each other before opening the door that kept them apart from the rest of the gang.

As Natsu and Lucy walked out from the infirmary they were met with half the guild, who all were blushing furiously.

"I can't believe they-"

"Shhh, not with Asuka here!"

"Lu-chan oh my god! It finally happened! How did it feel?"

"I must say I'm quite surprised you both kept your relationship a secret for so long!"

"Juvia would like to apologise to Lucy-san for thinking she was a Love Rival."

"I can't believe flame-head lost his virginity before me!"

"Wa- wait! You're all misunderstanding!" Lucy finally gasped out. "He's not-, we're not-, I'm not-!"

"Meh, let's leave them Lucy. I'm really hungry, let's go back to our place and get some food." Natsu grabbed Lucy's right wrist and started tugging her along and through the crowd.

"OUR place?! Last time I checked it was me who paid the bills!" Lucy argued. "AND it's me who does the grocery shopping! You can't even fold your own laundry!"

"That's just because your way of folding it is too complicated. Why does my drawer have to look as neat as yours anyways, it's not like anyone checks them."

"I only started doing that folding because a certain person and a certain cat wouldn’t stop looking in my panty-drawer!" Lucy burst out, forgetting the crowd behind them.

"Jeez Luce, we're just confused how you can wear that stuff. It doesn't cover anything!" Natsu tried to defend himself, earning a light smack on the head.

"Don't go talking about what my panties cover-" "or doesn't cover" Happy added, "in public! Urgh, just be quiet until we get home."

The rest of the guild looked wide eyed at the door which Lucy and Natsu just left through.

"Do you think they got married on a mission or something?" Someone in the guild asked, not expecting an answer.

"What do you mean? Lucy and Natsu have always been like this." Happy said.

"Are you telling me they've fucked all this time!?" Levy burst out in shock. Wendy screeched at her choice of words.

"What? Natsu was just giving Lucy a massage" Happy revealed before leaving the guild behind, catching up to Lucy and Natsu.

A bunch of sighs and groans filled the guildhall as they got back to their day to day business, rather disappointed.

"Are those two never going to get together?" Mira cried out with a defeated look on her face.

"Welp, at least Natsu's still a virgin," Gray shrugged, taking a seat at the bar where a gloomy Juvia held place, muttering something about love rivals. "Some things will never change."

[f1llory]

i know a lot of people think it's not that deep but idk, the constant desire for more gory stories of past hunger games rubs me the wrong way. don't get me wrong, i'm all for fanfics exploring that, but there's a reason there will never be novels detailing that.

the reason people want spinoffs for finnick and johanna is the fact that we love them. there is nothing that would be added to the universe if we had an official/canon account of their games. they're typical games and typical victors--which i think is the point of their character. they're different from each other in some ways, but their stories are so common among victors--because that's simply what the capitol does to people.

i'm not sure i agree with the people who think it's inherently bad for people to be interested in that. there's a reason people are interested in that. the characters and worldbuilding in the hunger games are so beautifully done that there's always something to notice, theorize about, explore, and expand on. i just think that having novels on things like this would be pointless--and detrimental to the message of the series. the point is not to show violence for violence's sake, the point is to show what it takes for people to become who they are, and how the choices they make can lead to either oppression or liberation. that being said, i'm all for exploring them in fanfic. i think fanfic is an incredible thing, i love reading and writing it, and there are so many things that fans of the series can explore and create.

i'm also all for new novels if they happen! i just think they would have to add a hell of a lot more to the world of panem than the gory details of a typical hunger games to satisfy people's curiosity. here's some things that i think would be cool to see:

-the life of an avox in the capitol. this would give a totally different outlook on life in the capitol, since we've only seen people who benefit from the system and not those who are punished by it. this could be some random unknown avox but because i'm me, i would LOVE to have a full pollux spinoff i'm literally in love with him

-a victor we've never seen and their life after the games. it could show their life after returning to their district, how they're viewed, how their view of their district has changed. this could also be an interesting way to see a little more of the mentoring process and the toll it takes

-something exploring life in any of the districts we haven't gotten to see. this could also be part of the previous idea, i just think it would be interesting since our knowledge of so many districts are limited. although maybe that's the point? all we know of panem is through the eyes of two deeply unreliable narrators

-the first rebellion, or anything set before the hunger games were created. how was panem different back then? and how did things get to the point of such a big rebellion?

-are there people living outside the bounds of the districts? obviously people like lavinia have been caught trying to escape, but there very well may be people living out there. i wonder what they'd think of what was going on, or if they'd come into contact with people escaping to district 13. and no i do not want this to involve lucy gray i never want confirmation on what happened to her

basically, there's so much more of panem i'd like to see explored, but there are some things that i don't want to see, or expect to see, in any offical continuation. i absolutely love fanfics exploring those things, or anything other fans find interesting. i just think that there are so many things that could be added to the canon and i don't understand the focus on the idea of novels that would really detract from the way suzanne collins approaches her work.

in conclusion i am simply losing my mind over tbosas and i’m using a blog i never use to yell into the void thank u for reading

[eddiediazismyhusband]

breathe friend you know tommy is bones in s8, he's not bucks endgame the reliable leaker has literally been clear about that. don't believe anything that psychopath on twitter says, she's literally insane.

oh trust me i don’t believe anything she says lmao

and i know the leaker said that about tommy but tbh that dont mean shit about whether or not they are actually going to fix any of the fuckery they pulled in s7

just because they are allegedly giving tommy the boot doesn’t mean they’re going to actually get their shit together and stop ship baiting us; so like i said until they actually start to give us any indication that they’re going to stop mistreating poc characters for cheap drama and that storylines are actually going to be thought out beforehand rather than thrown together because “ehh, this is good enough” i’m not going to be wasting my time. these shows are meant for entertainment. if i am not being entertained by what’s being done, why am i going to waste my energy on it?

i dont say this to sound snippy or rude, anon, and it is NOT directed at you specifically (and i really hope it doesn’t come across that way i am just bad at emoting through screens 😭😭), i promise, but sometimes it feels like people who try to “talk me off the ledge” in these anonymous asks don’t really look at what i’m actually saying and they jump to the conclusion that i’m just making shit up to panic about, but the fact of the matter is that everything i talked about in that post is something that could feasibly happen… all of buck’s love interests up to this point have not been narratively satisfying; developed or not. so even if tommy does end up going like the leaker said (again not getting my hopes up because things change at the drop of a hat in this business) that doesn’t mean they will actually follow through with queer eddie or that any other potential love interest for buck will be in any way narratively satisfying. i’m not saying i’m closing on buddie, because i will love them and ship them together when my body is six feet under, but after the burning dumpster that was s7 post the cruise ship arc, i don’t have the faith in tim that i had before.

at the end of the day, yes abc is a more accepting and inclusive studio, but it is still that: a studio. a corporation. a money maker. they don’t actually give a fuck about the fans. i have seen time and time again that these shows do this cat and mouse shit with a queer ship and then never follow through, even if one of the characters involved does end up being confirmed queer. maybe it was a little harsh to say that tim is only interested in money, but after how little thought and care he put into last season it’s hard not to feel like he actually cares about the fans who have stuck with this show since the beginning.

i’ve mentioned before that i have stuck with this show for seven years. i have shipped buddie since s2. i witnessed the s4 buildup and subsequent letdown in s5 and 6. I know that was not tim’s fault specifically, that KR and Fox both fucked the show over

but that does not mean that tim won’t also change his mind— we saw evidence of that last minute with all the rewrites that were happening post mid season hiatus with s7. he found out he’s getting another season so he changed the plot of 7b, and if they get a season 9, all the more reason to keep dragging the buddie bait hype along with now true intentions to follow through?

i reslly really reallly wanted to trust tim again especially after the potential he had with the shooting arc in s4, but sometimes it feels like he himself has closed on buddie since then unless it’s done as a last-ditch effort to save the show… again, i’m not saying i think bt is going to be endgame, but just because they aren’t endgame doesn’t mean buddie is and that is what pisses me off. that we will have been waiting for nearly a decade for this ship to go canon, we will have gone through so much hate and vitriol from the bt stans, we have been teased and built up time and time again (even in s7), we have been bait and switched with no satisfactory outcome, and we have been laughed at the entire time, and there is a possibility that none of it will actually pay off, all because some white man gets to call the shots and he’s shown that all he cares about is melodrama and trolling people online to stir up shit.

anyway, i didn’t mean to hijack this post, anon, but i wnated to further expound upon what exactly my point was in my original post, which was not that i believed Bree’s delusions or that the helicopter pilot is buck’s endgame, but that i won’t trust tim to actually go through with anything promising until i start to see actual concrete irrefutable evidence of it.

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

So I finished the trilogy and woahhh it was... well it was not what I'd expected lol. My thoughts are a little messy and jumbled so I can't put them into words rn and I can't decide how to feel about alina's ending.

But yeah the whole "Like sure, he put a fucking collar on her but she’s His and it’s Not Supposed To Be Like This." pretty much explains his thought process. What was it supposed to be like in his head? Wonder what would've happened if Alina had been an obedient little pet sun summoner and done everything just the way he wanted it. Would he have grown tired of her after sometime? Or if at any point in the books alina would've reciprocated his advances how would he have reacted? Also, just what exactly does he even want? Like if he'd gotten his perfect sun queen and ruled ravka would that be enough for him? Idk he's a weird little guy and I think nothing would satisfy him. Also sorry for yapping around in your askbox lol I read these books because of your takes so I didn't know who else to share my thoughts with 😅

Re: this ask Oh yeah. Yeah... the ending is bad lol. In some ways I can understand what LB was going for? But the end result feels wildly regressive for Alina as written. It's a real shame!

FWIW she said this about it in a Q&A: "In Ruin and Rising, Alina embraces her role as a Saint when she must, faces a dictator who she knows possesses greater power than she does, learns to rely on people to help buttress her own strength, murders her best friend because she knows the sacrifice is required.

What does Alina do after she loses her power? Brings down the most powerful Grisha in the world using her intelligence, courage, and the teachings of a woman who was her mentor and friend. Secures a pardon for Genya. Determines the future of the Second Army by selecting the Triumvirate (Zoya, David, and Genya) and getting Nikolai to put them in power.

And as for ending up where she began, Alina chooses to rebuild Keramzin and make it a place of love and learning where every child can be raised to be a valued citizen of the new Ravka, and where every child has a say in his or her destiny—Grisha or not. In other words, she gives orphans and refugees, the unwanted and disadvantaged, the opportunities she never had.

For me, these are not the actions of a girl who does not know her own worth. That's how I see the story, and that's why I wrote it that way."

And like... I get it... but... that isn't the narrative framing that actually exists in the series. It's not really a story that's about her being told that her only value is in her power and therefore her having to lose her power to see her own worth being the logical conclusion? And even in a scenario like that, I think you'd need to spend longer with her having lost her power and having to adapt without it, rather than it just being the conclusion of her story. The series sets up Alina's power as something intrinsic to her that she's been suppressing to be with fucking Mal, who textually doesn't appreciate her. Her growing into herself is explicitly tied to her embracing her power-- something the Darkling tries to wrest from her. Meanwhile the story continues to build up a conflict where it becomes increasingly clear that she cannot be with Mal if she continues to have her power (because she'll be more important than him lmao) so... the conclusion is that she loses her power and settles into obscurity... and again explicitly this is the only way she can be with him? Infuriating! I think Bardugo tries to frame Alina changing her name and going to live in the countryside as like a positive exiting of the narrative, being released from the burden of it. But the way the story is built just doesn't support that! Anyway, re: the Darkling, I agree that he would never have been satisfied with any outcome. He's had centuries since the creation of the Shadow Fold to build up the idea of the Sun Summoner as the cosmic answer to every one of his problems. As someone who exists specifically to fill the gaping hole in his withered husk of a heart lmao. And those just aren't expectations that any real, living person could ever live up to. Anyway, eye personally do not think he would have grown tired of her, for the same above reasons. The accumulated obsession is just way too intense and has basically nothing to do with her. So in a way, nothing she could do would kill it. As far as reciprocation. I mean I think he would've always gone gloves off with her at some point. The plan was always to use the amplifiers to control her. Even if she hadn't run away, at some point she would have refused to help him do mass murder, and he would've treated her the same way. Frankly, her running away was such a small mutiny, that itself tells you how little he's willing to compromise or give her any space. She hadn't acted against him, she was afraid and with good reason! It would've been so easy to just... tell her that Baghra was lying lmao. Just be nice and smooth things over! But he's fucking incapable. And I think reciprocation would've gone the same way. Like, in the first book she literally offers to work with him if he doesn't kill Mal. Which... would literally just give him a hostage to hold over her head forever. Like it was a good bargain for him. But he couldn't, because he cannot bear a situation where she gets to dictate the terms at all! He'd always want to make sure he has complete and utter control. I've speculated a couple times about "And then what?" scenarios about him winning though

[venigni]

I just want to talk about the tragedy of Venigni for a sec. (Spoilers)

So, I regard this sidequest as one of the very few in the game that has a happy-ish ending. Everything about the game is bitter, and the best we get--even in the best ending of the game--is bittersweet. Venigni's questline is no different.

On first sight, the quest has a mostly satisfying conclusion: You return Venigni's childhood toy to him, (potentially) kill Arlecchino, and give him closure on his parents' murders.

But Venigni is still a deeply tragic character.

Based on documents we find throughout the game, we know the Venigni Company itself is taking full responsibility for the Frenzy.

We also know that Venigni basically lost all hope after the Frenzy began, and with how closely he ties himself to his work--literally naming all of his inventions and ventures after himself--he takes this responsibility on his very own shoulders, as well.

A lot of the characters we interact with throughout the game have already had their tragedies inflicted upon them. Usually we're just the bearer of bad news. Venigni is unique in this regard because once you learn of his parents' murders, you are led to believe that was his tragedy. It is not.

Venigni's true tragedy is ongoing, and it is that he is the weight bearer of a series of traumatic and terrible events. The game's events are no exception, because not only does Venigni hold himself accountable for the death of his parents...

...and the puppets who started the puppet frenzy...

...if you decide to tell him the truth about Romeo's message, he also bears the weight of instilling the Grand Covenant within every single puppet; Geppetto's personal fail safe that ensures his complete control over them that gave him the ability to initiate the Frenzy. This is why, yet again, lying in this game serves to ease others' pain, while telling the truth is often seen as the harsher, less-human option. Because the entire reason Venigni came up with the Grand Covenant in the first place was to stop puppets from murdering humans. To stop what happened to him from ever happening again.

And as a result, he unknowingly assisted Geppetto, whom he trusted more than anyone in not only manufacturing all of the puppets, but also...

...in laying all the necessary groundwork for Krat-wide genocide.

Yet another thing he must carry on his shoulders. The pain he must feel is unbearable and still he does his best to put on a smile every single day and try to make others laugh; try to bring joy and hope into the world with his inventions, and be helpful in any way he can to those better suited to fighting on the front lines, like the stalkers and P.

Oh, and on top of that all, he's witnessed almost all of his friends and family die--not just his parents, but Antonia, too, as he particularly mentions she was like family to him growing up--and got betrayed by Geppetto, who played him like a fiddle seemingly their entire friendship.

Venigni, too, is a deeply tragic character, just as every single character is in Lies of P. Even if P helped him in finding hope again, even after the dust settles, he will always have all this contend with. For this very reason that he is such a sad character, he is also a very inspiring one. He persevered. Despite it all, he keeps moving forward.

I know Venigni can come off as a silly character. But he's one of my favorites in all of video games. Never give up! Keep your chin up! Wake up to live another day! Stay smiling! If Venigni does it, you can, too!!!

[cescalr]

Oooh, definitely glee for the fandom asks! <3

Always with the hornets' nests with these ones, I see! Though i don't think there's a fandom out there that isn't in some way a hornets' nest once it gets large enough... hm. Alright. I'm just gonna be as honest as i can be about this, and tag accordingly.

Glee:

my favourite female character: augh. argh. ouph. so difficult. so hard. Since I'm working off of half-remembered show and half recently-rewatched show... its a tossup. Mercedes, Santana, Quinn. Probably Mercedes. She did nothing wrong ever in her entire life <3 well okay maybe except that one time she smashed kurt's car windows (but it was a banger song, though). Can't say Santana because of the Biphobia TM and other things like excessive use of bigotry-based insults, and Quinn. Oh god girl. Cheating is not cool! Funnily enough! So I find them really interesting but 'favourite' is hard to say. Mercedes. Mercedes for sure <3

my favourite male character: Blaine sam blaine sam blaine sam yes. I am imitating ripping petals off of flowers and coming to a conclusion based on which is the last name i said. So I guess that means Sam! But really this is a tie.

my favourite book/season/etc: Mannnnn idk. I don't like shows for seasons as-a-whole. Also i could not tell you what happened in any given season if you held a gun to my head. I'm not good at that. The only shows i know 'seasons' of are Buffy and Teen Wolf because i've watched them like 100000000000 times (exaggeration) for various reasons (mostly fanfiction research).

my favourite episode (if its a tv show): I can tell you my LEAST favourite episode (blame it on the alcohol, thank you Kurt king of biphobia! this is a persona foible it's not the worst episode in the show. by far. by far. it's kind of an average one. I'm just angry at it.) BUT er. Favourite? Idk. Genuinely some of the earlier Kurt-centric stuff was really well done (his convo with Burt... <3) and the Quinn giving birth accompanied by bohemian rhapsody was obviously iconic, but if I'll be honest I couldn't name any episodes of this show (other than That One previously stated, anyway). And yeah most of the time they were named after song titles and No i don't remember those song titles either. I'm just so bad at this. My memory is that of a goldfish's being haphazardly bounced around on a sieve.

my favourite cast member: it would be really funny if I said Demi Lovato [she counts!] but the truth is N/A: i don't know these people !!! They are strangers!! (i don't. follow celebrities. at all. I couldn't even name most of them. They're just people doing a job and their lives are irrelevant to me beyond their ability to perform that job well. I do not need to know where they live and what coffee they drink. Stalker shit tbh. I'm kind of a very private person myself, so rpf-adjacent stuff just... creeps me out. I've never watched a single cast interview in my lifetime and I'm not about to start!)

my favourite ship: Difficult to say! Grave and obvious lie. Blam. It's blam. Quintana is a close runner up though Santana really needs to stop dating people who cheat on the regular (I'll accept Quinn has grown enough not to do this by the time a Quintana coupling would be viable - and satisfying in terms of character arcs - narratively speaking).

a character I’d die defending: Blaine Anderson did something wrong for sure but like Kurt did it first so shrugs. Cancels out. Bad for each other! Case closed!

a character I just can’t sympathize with: genuinely don't remember if I had one of those the first time around because I was like 10 and just didn't pay attention if I didn't care, but Terri and her racist self take that 'prize' this time, alongside the obvious predator in the room [original choir teacher. Sandy? I forget his name immediately after hearing it. He doesn't deserve to be remembered]. Also JBI is just.... a yikes character all around. I mean, he's a blatant stereotype for one, in a the people who wrote this person don't like jews kind of way. Unfortunately common stereotype too, for the era, so not only is he that, he's also lazy. Just a one-note pervert who's the butt of various antisemitic 'jokes' you've heard from era-peer shows a million times over, tired and awful and a sour reminder of bigotry that continues to this day. Really regrettable character who's lack of redeeming qualities was probably purposeful. (I know Rachel and tina are also jewish, but this comes up very rarely and mostly only when santana needs to say something kind of fucked up, as is her modus operandi, for 'comic relief'. Tina's jewish-ness wasn't even canon for several seasons, because she didn't have a surname or a family or anything resembling complex character depth for several seasons. The one time I really remember Rachel's religion being important was when she was pressuring Kurt into believing in some kind of god, which??? don't do that. Bad example. Trying to guilt trip a friend into faith sucks. I take back what i said earlier Mercedes did that too. Boo. Girls try again that was a bad showing all around. Though i have no idea why Kurt went the acupuncture route as his 'secular' option but i think that has to do a lot with the writers doing literally no research ever once in their lives (you can tell they don't by the way they write the football segments of the show, which make no sense according to football fans who watch Glee, of which there are numerous because real life isn't like fiction where you can only like music or sports. Most of the kids in my school year were doing the most of everything ever if they were the 'popular' ones - we do that differently; popularity isn't really based on who know know; for some bizzare reason literally everyone knew who I was? Even people I'd never spoken to?? - but more about like... how much you can do, I guess. Overachievers, but I'm not saying that negatively; these people were generally - generally - very nice, and surprisingly chill for people who had no spare time whatsoever. I'm not entirely sure when they slept; A* across the board, at least one sport, at least one instrument, several extracurriculars, parties every weekend, dozens of friends and an s.o. . Eh? Way too much going on. Scary lifestyle! Impressive burnout rate, probably. Er. Tangent! Back to the scheduled programming).) There's uhhhh there's a lot of bad characters on the show, but i'd say Sandy and Terri and her equally but more loudly racist sister are truly completely irredeemable ones. Like they're not interesting or anything, they're just there to be narrative annoyances (which, in the case of Sandy specifically, is insane. Arrest that man!!! He has actively sexually assaulted minors!!!).

a character I grew to love: difficult to say because I tend to just make an opinion and stick to it. Also i don't remember who i liked at first and who i didn't, this show came out when i was eight. I didn't watch it until I was a little older than that, of course, but I frankly have spotty memory until my late teens, so! I'm not sure!! Quinn, probably. Pink-hair-era Quinn helped me understand her more, and seeing the moments of kindness hidden behind practical cruelty, when you understand her family and situation, makes things make a lot more sense. It takes a lot to get me to sympathise with a cheater, but I can see where Quinn was getting all turned around in her head about life because of her upbringing and socialisation, not to mention the profoundly negative impact cheerios had on her mentally and that the school's culture in general was not exactly a breeding ground for empathy and optimism.

my anti otp: can you tell (klaine). I don't dislike Kurt!!! Please let him have a fun chillaxed boyfriend in new york with his vogue friends. But also please stop attempting to control other people's diets thank you!! Thank you!! I'm of mixed feelings. Blaine and Kurt both did at least one bad, relationship-ending thing, and proved over and over again that they just weren't on the same wavelength in regards to life goals and ways of living it. They can't even share the same living space, which is kind of required for a functional marriage. I don't know, it just seems like they settled for their first proper, serious boyfriend even if that's not really the best match, and I... wish they'd just got to see more of life first, you know? They got married at like 20! Or something! I'm 23, I cannot imagine getting married at 20. That's a baby. Let them live first!

(same for Santana and Brittney, imo. I also don't really like them together because Santana and Brittney have very different ideas regarding monogamy, which is just never going to go down well in the long run. If your girl cheats on you like twenty times and tells you to your face its not cheating in her view of things, but you think it is, break up with her because you'll just make each other miserable. Brittney sort of seems incapable of feeling guilt but if she were, this kind of moral pressure would be Not Good, and obviously Santana isn't comfortable with the idea and doesn't have to be!! Just move on!!! Find other people!!!! Don't marry your first girlfriend if you've broken up like ten times this is simple!!!! Please!!!! But Klaine wins out over Brittana because - in my opinion, glee fandom please do not persecute me, I am known for this specific thing - I see... interactions that verge on abusive between Klaine that I don't see in Brittana. So. Oof? Ex; use of public perception to disguise attack; deliberately hurting Blaine in a stage-combat fencing match (you are not meant to make actual contact in these) and thus using Blaine's own dislike of making his difficulties common knowledge against him in order to 'punish' him. This is no good! Don't do this!!.[Also just to err vaguepost about a comment.... that is. not. what i would call passive aggressive. Physically attacking someone with a sword - no matter the type of sword, fencing foils hurt just as much, they're just not stab-you sharp... er, these days - is just straight-up aggressive.]).

Note that negative things stick in the mind better than positive ones; on a rewatch I may well alter my opinion!

But also I'm really, really stubborn. So it's not likely. Klaine.

[mastergeeka]

I’m coming up to about a year of being a NRB fan which means we’re almost at a year since it all went to hell, shall we say. Brilliant timing on my part, thanks so much Universe. But because how much time has passed, I want to take a look back on everything. Time gives a new perspective as they say. Also, I'll be real, I've had these thoughts in my head for months at this point and I need to get them out.

By the time I was seeing information about the situation, I was already like a third of the way through binging everything the channel had ever made. My real life was going through a particularly rough patch and I was definitely using NRB videos as escapism. I ended up deciding that the videos were a source of joy that I needed at the time and since Adam had left and Carley wasn’t appearing on the channel, no matter who was lying vs. telling the truth, my watching of the videos that already were posted would not greatly benefit or punish any involved party so until more details came out, I just tried to ignore the situation. I basically tried to live in a world where both parties were innocent until proven guilty and it was just a really sad misunderstanding or that it never happened at all.

The word “tried” in all those statements is doing a lot of work. Most of the time it worked and I was able to escape reality for a bit, but sometimes my brain would say something like “Am I a bad feminist for not immediately believing the woman, do I just want her to be wrong subconsciously and that’s what’s making me waver? The rule of thumb is believe victims when they speak out”,

“But the ideal of believing the woman/victim doesn’t apply here, no victim has come forward, Carley is just saying that she heard about it and maybe Carley’s just been misinformed or she could be making up rumours. I want to believe that a person can redeem themself and if he took accountability the first time, surely that deserves some credit? That’s what we want people to do after all, take accountability and grow, so we should reward that behavior with trust”

“Sure, but be realistic here, what does your own life experience say is more common and therefore likely with this sort of thing. Don't be naive” and those voices would go at each other, back and forth until I gave up and went to do work or something. So the silver lining there is that at least this kept me from slacking too much. Isn’t that something? I give all this preface to show that this situation isn’t something I’m taking lightly.

Now that I’m in a better place in my real life, I decided I should actually look at everything that happened and see if I could draw any more conclusions to help satisfy the curious/nosy part of my brain. Unsurprisingly, I haven’t been able to crack the case wide open but one thing is clear, and getting clearer by the day: The rest of the cast are on Adam’s side. From the cast members unfollowing Carley, them liking Adam’s statement proclaiming his innocence and his plan for legal action, to recently Jon’s Kickstarter game having a quote from Adam on the front page. These are forms of public support that would be the safest to use if there was a legal battle happening in private.

What this means to me is: Just from a logical standpoint, whatever I believe about Adam, I have to extend it to the whole cast. I can’t condemn Adam but not condemn the rest of the cast. The rest of the cast either know the what happened or didn’t look into the situation enough before standing by Adam. That means if I believe Adam is guilty, I must therefore believe the rest of the cast is complicit and at the end of the day, I just don’t want to do that unless the evidence makes it impossible not to do so.

I really like watching the channel and I don’t want to force myself to stop watching or feel complicit in supporting bad people unless I have to. So until evidence comes out showing otherwise, I believe Adam is innocent. I have to. And if I am wrong, and I must stop watching/supporting NRB as a whole for ethical reasons, at least I gave myself a little more time to enjoy it before I have to say goodbye. Is that selfish? Yeah probably, at least a little if I’m honest, but it’s an understandable level of selfishness that I could forgive someone else for, so I can forgive myself for it, if it turns out for the worst.

And I want to also say that I still think it’s possible Carley isn’t a liar as well. This is not a “Carley is lying” post. If I’m applying innocent before proven guilty to Adam, it’s only fair that I apply it to Carley as well. I’ve tried my absolute best to keep my reasoning consistent across the board with this. I believe she believes what she said but I think it’s possible she could be wrong. And wouldn’t that be nice, if it turned out both parties were innocent and there was just a big confusion? I’ll admit it’s not the likeliest scenario, but I’m still hoping for it. Basically, the more people involved in this that are revealed to not be huge jerks, the happier I’ll be. That’s what dictating my best to worst case scenarios.

The whole reason I wanted to make this post is to remind everyone, including myself, that we as the public still don’t know much of anything. We have 4 comments on a YouTube video on one side and vague PR statements on the other. That’s pretty much it, officially. The rest is just based on how the people involved are interacting with each other and the like. That leaves a lot still up in the air and that’s really frustrating. Uncertainty is one of the worst feelings and I think it’s easier to just say Adam’s guilty and move on than to keep being uncertain about this for so long. Because if he is guilty after all that, we have to process that, on top of having dealt with the terrible uncertainty for this long so we want to “bite the bullet” now, so to speak. It’s less emotionally risky to just assume the worst now, deal with it, then push it into the past and I think there’s a significant portion of fans that did that or that are trying to anyway. The drawback there I want to point out though, is that it ignores the possibility that there is a happier ending to this. Additionally, condemning Adam but trying to stick by the rest of the cast may feel like the simplest & easiest solution at first, but it’s not a realistic one or one that works with the very few pieces of information we do have: the actions of the other cast members.

My goal with this post is not to convince people to either side. That would require me to pick a side and as I think I’ve shown, I can’t. My goal in making this post is to encourage people to keep their minds open to the possibilities out there and remind them not to jump to conclusions too soon. Because one year feels like a decent estimate to me for how long legal stuff like this lasts and I think it’s possible that people could speak freely soon. At least, that's what I'm hoping for and I want other people to have hope, too.

[personasintro]

Hi! I really wanted to ask this. I fanfic is nearly 200k readers and I'm so happy for that. My fanfic is still ongoing but I wanted to keep it pause. Because I want to do some corrections maybe change something in my work. I also feel unmotivated while writing it. In my last updat i asked my readers that i want to keep it pause and told the whole thing I want. I even told them that I'm gonna update a new one cuz I don't want my readers to be upset but they did the opposite thing. They started to attacking me. I felt really disappointed. I was thinking they will support me but they started to attack me. I felt so much disappointed. Atp I don't wanna even write anything. I felt really sad. I just wanted to give the best and don't want to disappoint my readers!

Hello bub!

For me personally, especially when it comes to writing and making decisions, I need to want and like it first before anything else because or else I wouldn’t be satisfied with it. I’m not that kind of writer who puts out something I don’t like, I’d say it’s pretty much the same with decisions I’m sure about. If you’re sure about your decision and truly believe it’s for the best, do it no matter what it is. If you always bend for people and their wishes, I believe your work won’t come out as genuine. There’s always going to be someone who’s not gonna like something.

I love to include my readers a lot, but if I truly believe in something I make the decision because I think it’s for the best.

I’m not sure but from your ask I came to conclusion your story is on Wattpad. With all respect to anyone who’s on that platform and I don’t mean this in any bad way, we all know what kind of readers are there. Not everyone though! But majority can be quite toxic and they think they have a say in everything. I mean this completely genuinely but I’ve never required with such toxic audience until I started posting my story on Wattpad.

There’s no reason why they should be attacking you and I hope you can believe in yourself and in your wishes!

That’s what I would do. I’m nowhere near someone I consider being a specialist when it comes to any advice, I’m only sharing my opinion but I hope you’ll be able to take away from it whatever might help you!

Good luck & I hope however you decide it’s going to be something you want and believe in! 🩷

[bitofanupsidedowner]

people who want will to get a boyfriend who isn't mike make zero sense to me ngl... i get that mike is kind of a jerk but i just don't feel like it makes a lick of sense tbh, and i also just think anything bad thing mike’s done is best justified/made sympathetic and solved by the conclusion he’s been struggling with his feelings towards will. 

mike is in no way this unredeemable person and i think it’s pretty extreme to treat it like he is. he isn’t perfect, but he’s shown that he does care about will much more often than he’s hurt him. just the facts.

like. yeah sure byler has been built up since season one and mike has been written in a way that made it literally impossible for will TO get a separate love interest. despite mike having a literal girlfriend, his jealousy and protectiveness over will didn’t leave any empty space. we all saw his weird reaction to the painting at the airport and how when dustin and lucas wanted to help will on halloween he yelled at them and shoved them away. 

but like... yeah, let's throw him with some random guy we have no time to get invested in so mike and el can keep being a dysfunctional mess with no chemistry or shared interests even though it would make no sense, have no emotional payout and  is not in any way what mike or will need for a satisfying conclusion to their character arcs (or el! it negatively affects all three.)

separating the two would be the only opportunity possible to give will someone new. it would’ve been tricky to make it believable, but it was their only chance after mike’s emphasis in will’s storyline. that in itself is suspicious, but they essentially told us with mike’s little ‘oh shit’ closet moment that they would not be doing that. 

instead, they kept doubling down on mike and will. they even made the cali plotline sort of agonize over it, with mike and will pulling in the most heart-to-hearts of any duo in any one season afaik. the emphasis on their relationship has been too integral to the show. having had wills sexuality in mind from season one, making mike as big an element in that storyline to begin with is not without consequence. they wrote it in a way that made it almost impossible to reasonably go in another direction.  

they spent a lot of time especially in season 4 showing us how mike and will’s relationship comes naturally to them, has a good  foundation of mutual love and respect, and just generally functions better than mike and el and can repair itself without that much effort. even when mike and el are in their ‘good’ phases, they have less going for them than mike and will in their ‘bad’ phases.

will’s feelings for mike are directly contrasted with el’s. mike makes will feel better for being different. he makes EL feel like a monster. with el, she begged him to say it and he denied her, implying he didn’t ‘know what to say’ and agreeing when will said ‘what if they don’t like the truth?’ he denied her what she wanted until will told him to say it. the text is very directly comparing el and will’s dynamics with mike for a reason.

you never say it > i say it

oh, i didn’t say it. > you didn’t have to.

it doesn't make sense to set this up and then retreat back into a relationship that is mutually destructive, that hinders all three characters growth and self worth, and goes directly against their character arcs. it makes no sense to make will in love with mike at all if it was going to end up with a new guy shoehorned in last minute.

 there’s a reason it’s mike and not lucas or dustin that will fell for. there’s a reason that the majority of people are ecstatic about lumax, jopper, jancy and duzie but find milkvan tedious and forced. 

it's filling the same place in my brain rn as when people want will to have a villain arc. it just does not make any sense to me to actively desire  conclusions to arcs that would undo character progress or just completely misshape the character profile permanently. 

it isn’t JUST a romantic relationship will wants. he doesn’t just have a hankering for a boyfriend. it’s not just about having SOMEONE. it’s specifically mike’s love. it is specifically spending his life with mike that has been explicitly stated over and over again as what he truly wants. 

i feel like it’s fairly rare for characters to both know and state plainly what they want, but will does, which i think is honestly so admirable. he admits it when he is at his most vulnerable (rain fight) when it would be more beneficial for him to just pretend. but he doesn’t. he’s hurt, but he doesn’t hide from it. 

the fact he doesn’t even surprises mike, who was expecting for will to agree that changing drastically and obsessing about girlfriends was the natural progression they were supposed to take. after his wish is put into the open and seemingly rejected, he destroys castle byers. 

mike is insecure about wanting this, but we know he wants that too, we just dont have the explicit confirmation if it’s romantic yet. 

the point being that the emphasis has already been placed on not only who/what will wants, but how confident he is in that never changing. he wants it deeply and forever.

it isn’t just a boyfriend he wants, it’s mike. 

that’s the person he has the deepest connection to, that’s the guy who saved him, who pulled him out of the upside down, fought the hardest for him, stayed by his side when he needed him, befriended him when he was five years old because he thought, ‘he’s like me.’ mike gets a lot of criticism, but none of that is how will himself feels. to him, that’s the guy who makes him brave enough to accept his sexuality. it’s mike, it's always been mike, and it doesn’t make sense narratively for him to be with anyone else.

‘what if you want to join another party? > not possible.

[alwida10]

Do you think there is astroturfing around disney properties?

When Ant-man 3 was release, everyone was shitting on the movie but praised Jonathan Majors's performance but after the conviction I keep seeing statements like 'his acting was clownish', 'he was the worst part of Loki' etc.

You know since the recent poll about Loki, as of now 57.3% has passed on him,even after release of season 2 which was trending for a while got me thinking . Like, what happened ? Wasn't it the most watched show?

I really hated what happened to him so much that seeing him makes me eyeroll. My favourite MCU character ruined since ragnorak.

If Tom says he didn't like the show, would the opinion on it change?

Omg, yes! And thank you so much for coming to my inbox!!

So, first of all, thank you for teaching me a new word. For everyone else who -like me- didn’t know the exact meaning of “astroturfing”:

But I think the whole situation is complex.

1) i absolutly think that Disney has a team that does use shady methods to make the public opinion appear better than it actually is. I think it was @iamnmbr3 who noticed that some 5 star reviews on major rating sites looked like they were bot-generated (but it was quite some time ago. I linked the article in my master post). Twitter (now X) has so many bots on it and the platform allows them to tilt polls massively. So, yeah, I agree. But. I don’t think that’s necessarily the biggest influence on the public opinion.

2) I assume this is the poll you refer to. It doesn’t distinguish between series Loki, TR Loki, and OG Loki which might have biased the outcome in a negative way. I know some hardcore og Loki fans who did not vote at all, because they LOVE og Loki, but cannot give series Loki a “smash”. Others voted “pass” because the pic is of TR Loki which is still a turn-off for some. I assume that some series Loki fans might vote “pass” because there are many that never liked Loki before the show.

3) there are different types of fans. The hardcore fans stay, but during the airing a lot of casual fans come rushing in, consume, and eventually leave. These people are often very enthusiastic, sometimes even aggressively positive. by now they will have wandered further, leaving only the hardcore fans behind (old and new ones).

4) a lot of people loved the SHOW but not LOKI. I see these types of fans mostly on Reddit. They like the time travel, or kang, or the side characters or just the mcu. Those as well won’t care for Loki or even vote on polls around here.

And then there is also this trend to attack people for liking stuff produced by people who are in any way problematic. Majors trial made all those people drop him like a hot potato. Perhaps some are now trying to “atone” for saying good things about Majors by roasting him? Perhaps the people who never liked him to begin with feel now it’s “safe” to publicly criticize him, since his supporters must fear being attacked for “supporting a domestic abuser”.

All in all, I deeply agree with you on the series being very bad for Loki (as in “destroying any chance for a satisfying conclusion to his arc, his feelings about the adoption, and the time with Thanos”) and I fear it might also be bad for both Tom and the MCU (as in “the public interest is going down and while the show WAS praised widely it still contributed to the downfall instead of generating or reviving interest”).

And yeah, I have a post on how successful the show was in preparation. 🙈 sorry for being so extremely slow with that one. I prefer focusing on writing fanfics, these days. 🙂 OG Loki is alive in our fics, dear anon. No one can take him away from us! 🫂

[mdhwrites]

Thoughts on the Damsel in Distress trope? Is it a tired, outdated, sexist cliché, or do you think it's more like Liar Revealed, in that it has a useful purpose for structuring stories?

The latter, especially since while it is gendered in name, it doesn't have to be gendered in use. In fact, it doesn't even have to be a person technically to be a damsel in distress. The trope's whole point is that someone took something important, you have to get it back. That's it.

BUUUUUUUUT... That's also why people have stopped using it as much. It's a VERY simple framework but one that is effective. It gives a clear conflict, motivation and resolution to your plot from step one with there really not being much in the way of shaking up you can do with it. Unless you add twists, the goal is to save the thing and beat the bad guy.

This simplicity is why the true marquis of the trope is Princess Peach instead of any literary character. Sure, there are stories in literature that will use a damsel in distress but that usually is an escalation mechanic. Daphne being kidnapped shifts a compelling mystery into a sudden thriller with one of the group's members on the line! But it's the twist, not the meat of the work because a Damsel in Distress alone isn't actually that compelling, not on its own. Mixed with gameplay that just needs an excuse to be happening it can be the full story but otherwise it will struggle.

It's actually just like Liar Reveal in this way. Liar Reveal is also never the whole story. Usually, the story is actually about the struggles going on with who the liar is interacting with, the smaller betrayals happening in the process of the Liar reaching their goal or continuing their facade until the liar is revealed and then a proper climax can be given between the liar and those deceived. A damsel themselves is usually not much of a work's runtime and saving them comes much more as a byproduct of stopping a larger evil. This is why saving them will often feel token because the promise of cake or kiss on a cheek or the like is meant to be the signal to the audience that indeed, everything is okay and they're going to live happily ever after.

Buuuut if you look at these two structurally, you again see why Liar Reveal has persisted much more than Damsel in Distress. Liar Reveal has inherent character drama, conflict and an arc built into it. Damsel in Distress is just... There. This is also why the most common 'subversion' of a Damsel in Distress is to give them agency. To try and make an arc out of them being trapped and imprisoned. To make them be a part of their rescue. Just SOMETHING to do with them to try and either give more meat to their section of the story or to create an arc. The problem then usually comes that the story wants it both ways and still wants the hero to save the damsel, that is still the actual, satisfying conclusion to this after all since that's still the hero's motivation at the end of the day, so it usually actually just cuts into runtime that could be being given to the main plot to flesh it out. This is because most people who are going to use this trope like that... Well, I'm going to be a bit mean but they're not creative enough to understand why this trope has weaknesses and so just look at the shallow critiques of it being sexist, disempowering shlock. They won't address the fact that it's so basic as to feel almost unnecessary. "I need to stop the bad guy because they're going to hurt people!" is essentially just as good as "I need to stop them because they have my girlfriend!" without fridging a character for the sake of your narrative. In fact, this exact reason is why it's usually used as an escalation because before it was just the right thing to do but now... Now you've made it personal! Or something like that.

The last big thing I want to mention is something Overly Sarcastic Productions talked about when they did an episode on this: If you do this in a long running thing and do something like... I dunno, throw Vegeta in a cell and make him a damsel in distress, he needs to keep his personality. He shouldn't be crying out "WOE IS ME!" just because that's the trope but still being himself which is where I will give credit to the attempts to have characters try and break themselves out. Many damsels are supposed to be functional people so why wouldn't they try and seek escape somehow? How they do it allows for their character to shine and make sure you know that just because they're stuck, doesn't mean their character was left behind. You know, so long as the character had a character to begin with.

So in summary: It cannot be a whole story but indeed, for structure and escalation it has its uses. As always though, the more cheaply you use a trope, the cheaper it will come across to the audience and this trope has been used VERY cheaply to turn one dimensional characters into nothing but prizes for heroes, thus garnering its reputation as sexist shlock. It does not have to be that way but you need to know what you're doing if you're going to shake it up because this trope's simplicity also traps it in a prison of somewhat inflexibility, much like the damsels who are whisked away. See you next tale.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[adamsvanrhijn]

(At the time of writing I intend for this to be my final post on the matter — asks on this topic are welcome if anyone needs to vent, but I do not expect to post them.)

It does make me sad how few people are willing to entertain the idea of canon compliant happy futures for Thomas, Richard, and Guy as Characters, irrespective of shipping.

I remember leaving the movie like "I don't think I'll even feel the need to write fanfic about this" — it was clear to me that there had been a conscious effort among the production team to give fairy tale endings to as many characters as possible, and I was mostly satisfied with that as a conclusion. Some of it was cliche—but the cliche helped clarify authorial intent for me as, this film is meant to be a Downton Abbey happily ever after.

Combined with The Gilded Age, I was confident that JF was trying to explore a broad range of historical gay experiences across his works, and the decisions made in ANE enhanced my interpretation of TGA and vice versa. I don't necessarily care deeply about authorial intent on the whole, but to me, it was just super clear that anything I was personally disappointed by was a good faith artistic decision toward that cliche happy closure element of the film, and it was so special to me that Thomas was finally included in an unambiguously happy Downton Abbey ending.

Given how cliche it was for every character, I assumed anyone who was disappointed like me would also see that.

Then as soon as I woke up the next morning I wrote and published fanfic. Like fewer than 11 hours had passed!! And it was fanfic about Richard Ellis!!! Because I was disappointed, and so I wanted to explore his side of the story Immediately, but I was also so so so excited to reorient my interpretation of him based on new canon and create new fan content, both canon compliant and not—I saw absolutely no reason not to because clearly Thomas was going to be happy without him soon and there were so many possibilities.

Like, oh my God, Thomas's type really was actors all along, and how is Richard, guy who speaks with imagery and does impressions and likes mischief and is clearly in my mind an 1890s theatre kid, now his former lover who is married or about to be, going to react to seeing Thomas in a movie with a movie star he probably knows everything about already????? And I was so eager to play with that, and I also knew I'd probably be writing some crying-with-ice-cream style canon divergent fanfiction so I could get my emotions out about my ship not being canon anymore and people who were disappointed could have what they would perceive as fix it fic, and obviously I had tons of old stuff to finish that just was never going to be compliant, and obviously the new AU potential was through the roof because I had a brand new Guy 😌 who fit in perfectly, and I was pretty confident that at some point I would get around to writing post-canon, canon compliant stuff in a brand new all American playground, too. But baby steps.

And then what actually happened was a bizarre schism where there appeared to be little if any tolerance for still caring about that guy (general noun) while also liking new guy (proper noun), & this lack of tolerance manifested in frankly very shocking and upsetting ways, so instead of even trying to do what I wanted, I blacklisted everything and intentionally stayed out of it until it became personal, at which point it turned into what literally might be the most bad faith fandom experience I have ever had in my life.

We could have had it all, etc!