#it's bad when it happens to adults too! bc they're still human! but this is an even more extreme example of it!!!

[daz4i]

how the fuck is paparazzi as a profession still a thing. literally how is this not just stalking

[cybertron-after-dark]

I was gonna ask a question but i honestly forgot it 😅 so just tell me something you want to rant about

If you do happen to remember what you were gonna ask feel free to do so, do not worry about spamming my inbox bc I live for that shit.

As for the rant

Transformers Rescue Bots had some of the best, kindest, and most respectful representation of neurodivergence I have ever seen in media and I'm tired of pretending it didn't.

While there are obvious complaints to be made about neurodivergent traits (especially autistic traits) usually being portrayed in media by inhuman characters like aliens or robots, this being a case of both, I feel like thats a pretty negligible sin given just how human the show makes the robots feel. (Also it was like 2011 and we were STRUGGLING for any scraps of rep anyway)

But like. The behaviors all these robots exhibit are all shit that I do that was always deemed unacceptable when I was a kid and seeing it portrayed with the level of kindness and gentleness they do in that show has me fuckin crying a little man. I wish I had actually watched it when I was younger and it was first airing because maybe if I did I would've had an easier time explaining what the hell was going on with my brain a LOT sooner.

Blades being anxious, overly sensitive, and WHOLEHEARTEDLY queer (which they had the absolute unparalleled balls to just casually confirm by having him swoon over "hunky vampires" in one episode and NOBODY commented on it. Fucking iconic) and getting so so deeply invested in the shows and movies he loves that he acts out the roles with enough passion to steel his nerves and completely flourish.

Boulder getting really confused at concepts that are basic and intuitive for most people, but still being so fucking intelligent, and never being made to feel stupid for the mix-ups, as well as just being so wholely, unabashedly in love with the planet he's found himself on, even if he doesn't understand all of it (Also apologizing to inanimate objects when he knocks them over 😭)

Chase being obsessed with rules and law because he NEEDS the structure to not fall apart at the seams, even feeling the need to fabricate a minor crime to justify using the emergency line to get a hold of the firehouse when he can't find the other bots. As well as just fully not understanding comedy (BUT TRYING HIS DAMNEDEST), taking things super literally, and having a lot of trouble with tone and expressions (even though you know just how deeply he feels All The Time).

Heatwave being desperate for attention and recognition, but completely allergic to asking for it. And honestly allergic to showing any genuine emotional responses other than aggression. The constant sarcasm and sass and defensiveness that he POORLY maintains because everyone knows that underneath that tough guy front is the loneliest robot on earth that wants to be loved SO bad but would rather jump into unicron's mouth than voice it because if he lets his guard down who knows what will happen to him or the people he cares about.

Just. All of it man. Seeing them exhibiting all these behaviors and quirks that all too often get met with poor reactions from people who don't want to deal with what they don't really get, but here they're met with patience and understanding?? It's got me fucked up. They get to be functional adults that struggle with what they have going on but still push through. They get to have unconditionally loving relationships with people that treat them with respect. And that's the kind of shit that gives me a lot of hope for folks like me because maybe some neurotypical kids that watched it picked up on what's helpful when their friend who acts like one of the bots is going through it. And maybe some neurodivergent kids watched it too and for the first time they just felt SEEN.

Okay rant over, I'm gonna go cry over some plastic robots 👍

[mithliya]

What do you think of this

https://www.tumblr.com/animentality/715171325722984448

i think TRAs need to stop misusing the term genocide and fear-mongering while also criticising this because it is indeed weird as fuck. i looked up missouri laws and it doesn't look good. the laws they're trying to pass in missouri regarding trans people look concerning and honestly a lot seem to be violating bodily autonomy and human rights.

but then when i tried to look deeper into these, they didn't look as bad as initially presented by the media. i could not find evidence that that bill actually calls for genital inspections (which one source claimed that an ammendment allows for genital inspections if the school deems it necessary). i also found that the law actually doesnt let people just report people simply for being trans and nothing else. it's about violating a newly passed law around the surgeries if the person who underwent the surgeries does not fall under a certain criteria, and the person who is held legally accountable is the health provider not trans people. what this would do is discourage health providers from readily providing transition-related surgeries and hormones.

In April 2023, the Attorney General issued an emergency order declaring gender affirming healthcare for adults "experimental", and implementing severe restrictions on adult trans care - banning it entirely unless all of the following conditions are met:

The patient has exhibited medically documented, consistent, and intense gender dysphoria for at least three years prior to the beginning of treatment.

The patient has been through at least 15 psychiatric sessions over an 18 month period, at least 10 of which being with the same therapist, "to explore the developmental influences on the patient's current gender identity" and to screen for any mental health comorbidities.

Any detected comorbidities must be fully "treated and resolved".

The patient has been screened for autism.

The provider must track and document any adverse affects potentially related to the care for a period of 15 years from the beginning of treatment, and prepare it in a form that can be accessed readily for systemic study.

The patient must be assessed at least annually from the beginning of treatment for continuing dysphoria.

The patient must be regularly screened for any signs of "social contagion".

The patient must sign a written consent disclosure every three months for the first three years of treatment, and every six months thereafter.

The provider must maintain in the patient's records detailed documentation of said patient's compliance with the above regulations.

The order is set to expire in February 2024.

(source)

my issues with this criteria are as follows:

what does it mean to "fully treat and resolve" mental illnesses? most mental illnesses cannot be "cured", you can only teach people to cope with it. plus treatment for it could take many, many years. being treated "fully" may not even be possible in many cases. but then i read the actual document and the actual wording is "Fails to ensure that any psychiatric symptoms from existing mental health comorbidities of the patient have been treated and resolved". that's better wording bc that means they'd have to show no symptoms from other mental disorders, but i still think it's too broad and vague. like if someone is schizophrenic and has to take medication to not experience symptoms of schizophrenia, would that be counted as treated and resolved? what about being depressed bc of having dysphoria? what about treatment-resistant comorbidities? idk its just too broad.

being screened for autism-- okay fine, but then what? will them being autistic or not mean they don't qualify? there's no clarification in the actual bill, they just say that they should be screened for autism.

the social contagion one-- how do you screen such a thing to begin with? and why must it be done annually (according to the official document)?

so basically, this tweet is fearmongering and misusing the word genocide. the report function isnt to get trans ppl taken away and put in death camps, it’s to hold medical practitioners accountable and have them do adequate screening and record-keeping of the transition procedures they do. that said, some of the criteria is too vague and broad and that is concerning.

[yellowocaballero]

definitely no pressure or anything and u can ignore this entirely but i would love to hear more abt any of ur ideas for atsv fic (ur multiversal mistake peter parker fic appealed to me greatly) ...... i loved how atsv tied so explicitly into metanarratives by just calling them 'canon events' instead of smth else and the whole movie felt like it was justifying miles as spiderman and that his story is just as much a spiderman story as the others. and i love how you engage with canon in similar ways ? like u engage with the text of canon on a level that i find really interesting frex like i loved ur stephanie fic extra just bc stephanie is a character done so dirty by canon in all these awful misogynist ways that ur fic felt like like such an amazing contradiction.... this ask has kind of gotten away from me, but i hope ur doing well on the whole !

Thank you! All of the Spidey crossover fic ideas I have are tepid, so none are good enough to share. Bad crossovers are easy, good crossovers are so hard. And there's nothing more obnoxious than a bad crossover. MK/Avengers fics, you were awful.

I typed out this whole dissection on how modern Spider-Man writers have completely lost the thread of Peter as an 'everyman', and how he wasn't an 'everyman' because he was relatable in terms of personality, identity, or actions, but because he was relatable in terms of problems, and how once Spider-Man stories started being about how difficult it is to be Spider-Man Masked Hero instead of being about how difficult it is to survive in this world and be a good person when you never know if you're doing the right thing or not, then they stopped being actually engaging as everyman stories. and when you simplify Spider-Man down to 'he's just like you except with a cooler life!' then you miss WHY it's important that Peter's life is marked by tragedy and defined by his sadness, which is the fact that if his life was easy then it would indicate that it was easy to be a good person, and what the story tries to say is that being a good person is the hardest thing in the fucking world But Baby We Do It Anyway, and THAT'S what Spider-Man is about, and -

Then I realized that was fucking dumb and also not what you asked and deleted it. ATSV is peak fanfiction because it engages in conversation with the text, and while it has a lot to say about Spidey stories itself it is not a Spidey story. I think end of the day 'what classic spidey is about' just can't be what Miles is about, because Miles is about his relationship to Peter & Spider-Man. They're mutually exclusive. Miles CAN'T have Peter's story at all, because ATSV is telling a story about telling a story. Superhero stories really can't exist unobserved anymore huh. This is so common - Spidey stories since the 2010 have honestly been about being Spidey stories - that at this rate it is also a Spidey story and so it is valid on the grounds of how ubiqutous this story is. I sound like a dipshit.

So I'm still trying to formulate a good story. Miguel vexes me, I've been trying to lock down a good story idea for him for ages and it just hasn't happened. What I liked about the SM2099 comic was the fact that it was about Miguel, who was dealing with a problem that a lot of adults deal with: having your sense of self and identity disrupted, having your understanding of the world disrupted, and trying to sort out how to build yourself into somebody you can live with. I don't think he ever truly figures that out. So it's hard to write a story asking that question, because man I'll let you know when I figure it out too.

And I'm glad you liked New Wave - that was also heavily in conversation with the text, because the text hated women. Steph is an everyman to me - not because she's remotely similar to any human being in real life, but because she wants what any human being would want. And does the weirdest possible thing to get it.

[anonanimal]

ok we watched the barbie movie and i must be ovulating because the emotional levers were successfully pulled and i did cry but i was also mad part of the time.

i'd say i have a few thoughts and questions about the depiction of ruth handler lol but i haven't put it into succinct enough words yet

interesting they'd do the jokes about earring magic ken and growing up skipper and uh whatever pregnant midge was called and do a joke about ruth handler's...tax evasion? did she really do tax evasion? but they didn't touch on bild lilli. maybe they can't

sooo barbie is a god and mattel are her... stewards. lmao? what the fuck is gonna happen in barbieland if god is not in her heaven... whatever. just like in preacher when god goes missing (yes i watched part of the preacher amc series with my mother). i feel like the "barbie is a god, she is every barbie and every barbie is her" would have been the explicit focus of MY barbie movie (what can i say, i love a good story about a god becoming human, it's the christianity i've been steeped in) but they kind of don't do much with it

actually ruth handler = god, barbie = jesus?

ken becomes a ... men's (ken's) rights activist. lmao?

anyone else think the car chase was filmed like a car commercial. like weirdly obviously so? i feel like product placement has come farther than this

they want people to say it's a gay or trans allegory sooooo bad between the birkenstocks and the "you don't get permission, it's something you discover about yourself" they want it sooooo bad ok you win i'm saying it. but i know you wanted me to say it. you won fuck off!!!!!! or maybe i'm reaching because it's easy to read the emotional journey of coming out to yourself in a general coming of age tale. but come on. i'm not that smart so if i'm picking up on someone wanting me to think something, they probably do. the only way this movie could have been gay would have been if the weird barbies led a new society.

so was this their way of saying they're debuting a line of kens with jobs...?

i liked the comedy of 2001 monolith barbie and the barbieland physical comedy stuff. maybe i should have rolled my eyes but i'm easy. rollerblading executives also killed

i liked the little twist that barbie's crisis was precipitated by being played with, not by a maturing child, but her mother. kind of in line with how the movie itself is an ad for the barbie brand for adults. there's quite a few moments that i thought had to be intentional references to the function of the movie itself in the real world, and they all felt weird and bad, like someone screaming "let me out!!!!!" i've forgotten a lot of them now because i'm adding this bit in an edit the next day.

*guy who has only seen south park voice* getting a lot of imaginationland vibes from this

i kind of expected for there to be like a joke about allan being in unrequited love with ken but i now think there probably was in an earlier draft and it didn't mesh with the final product and they had to nix it. or like surely someone floated it at least

you know they tried to save it from being too much about ken by having someone literally say "what about barbie's ending?" and then doing barbie's ending but...it was still kind of more about ken i think. he did a dance number for christ's sake. i almost forgot that barbie got to dance too, but barbie's dance was also mostly about ken wanting her to notice him. "he's just ken" "kenergy" "i am kenough" come on. i think the biggest laugh in the theater was actually the kenough hoodie. biggest laugh for me personally? sasha saying, (and i'm paraphrasing of course bc i'm not bothering to look it up) "are you two shining?"

i got SO close to killing the mood when we walked out by saying "hey lets google mattel factory working conditions right now" but i decided that was too far / probably in poor taste for me to flippantly use in post-movie discussion

the feminism 101 stuff was whatever. it made sense within the setting of the movie since america ferrera as a human had to introduce ideas into barbieland for them to take hold, and ideas just kind of manifest whatever happens in barbieland, but i'm very surprised they didn't do a joke like "gee i wish it was this easy in the real world" like how did they miss that opportunity, it would have worked. or maybe they did and i missed it because i had my hater goggles on

sooo velveteen rabbit?

all in all, as a member of the moviegoing public, i guess i got what i wanted. an experience that left me with something to think and talk about.

p.s. this was, for me personally, an ad for ryan gosling. i didn't find him interesting until now. they really got me there.

p.p.s. obviously any criticism i have of the like existence of the barbie movie is hypocritical because i haven't said it about gundam (yet)

[cherubchoirs]

i'm fucking. whagshjqgdjshdb first of all i'm obsessed with ur supercomputer au it's SO sick!! but second, now that p5r has been ported to pc i've been able to play it again n i've been LAMENTING how little the actual game did with yaldabaoth? but it's inspired me to do as i do n create ocs to remedy lack of character exploration lmao n i've settled on this idea to create a kind of "daughter" for yaldabaoth? the gist of it is that he created her by separating part of himself into its own being, n she comes from the distorted desires of humans who essentially know things are wrong n have the desire to change them but are still afraid of rocking the status quo? she's essentially another variable in his "game," as well as a way for him to attempt to quell any feelings of regret or remorse within him (since. a being created from human desires shouldn't be able to separate himself from them, but). n ultimately, his plan for her is to reabsorb her into himself at the culmination of his power, to prove that humanity's desire for change is still too weak to challenge him, but she ends up defying him n their resolution is that he regrets the way everything played out n the ultimate culmination is that even though he is a "god", bc he is born from humanity he could never completely rid himself of things that make up human psyche. also i wanted to explore the possibility for him to genuinely care about humanity through her; since she's technically a piece of him, n it's just got me thinking about everything n the fact that like. in canon he pushed akira so hard n the ultimate conclusion of the game to be like. "well, anyways!" after everything was SOO frustrating bc there was literally no reason for him to orchestrate things the way he did if there wasn't also So Much More To It

HOOTIN AND HOLLERIN...YEA!!!! YOU GET IT!!

i totally also 100% believe there just...HAD to be more when it came to yaldabaoth and i think he was cheated out of getting his development, esp when you consider his relationship with akira as well as the similarities the two of them share. they develop a social link together that culminates in yaldabaoth offering a place by his side, and how they reflect one another is actually interesting: they're both of the fool arcana, they both have a shapeshifter and faceless motif, and akira's ultimate persona is yaldabaoth's son. generally speaking, the big bad god isn't so deeply connected to the main character so like. what happened!!! he's also built up as such a major presence in akira's life, he's his guiding adult figure, and they've created a bond as deep as the ones akira shares with his closest friends. it's such a fantastic setup, to have the protagonist so unwittingly close with the final antagonist and then????? THEY DO NOTHING WITH IT??????? it's honestly so bizarre that how personal this all is is NEVER addressed by the narrative whatsoever since what's the point otherwise???

BUT to get back on track, it really would have been SO nice for yaldabaoth to have more of a connection to the human consciousness. i’m bringing it up again i know, but that’s why i really loved how the anime had him refer to himself as “us” and “we” in his grail form - i think there’s a yaldabaoth that is individual (god) and a yaldabaoth that is collective (grail), with the collective sort of being his base form. he becomes something else with a sense of identity, but yal is ultimately forged from the desires of humanity and he responds to it. i really wish there would have been more acknowledgement of his situation, where he has grown into a god only because it was wished for - he is an amalgamation of desire and so many people were being crushed under the weight of societal pressure that he became a god to answer prayers. and yaldabaoth has disdain for humanity, but imo his solution isn’t meant to be a punishment, it’s just what he believes is the best way to solve the problem. ALL THAT TO SAY...i would love for him to be able to play off of a character that represents all of that for him skdfhdg like to acknowledge that he obviously has feelings about all of this and he’s not at all divorced from it would add a lot...and i esp like the idea for her character because yaldabaoth admits that there are good people out there, but so many of them do nothing or are otherwise looked over, and i just think that line isn’t talked about enough!!! ALSO also i just like thinking that she’d be a character throughout the game...and the reveal would be really good aaaa!!!

[crowned-ladybug]

Thoughts about the characters of Nowhere (White Noise, Heart, Vision, Skirsa, and Sleep) and their world in general that I had before falling sleep last night, bc fuck knows there's hardly anything properly established about this verse

Nowhere is, well, nowhere. It's a thin slice of between-world that specifically these interdimensional beings can use as a default place to be when they aren't dicking around in more solidly existing places

Sizes of residents are variable. As in, they change as they please bc nothing is ever set in stone in Nowhere

White Noise changes around a lot. Skirsa follows suit mostly in trying to one-up them. Heart also usually just reacts to Noise's size but for the sake of comfortable matching. Vision isn't all that bothered as long as things don't get Too ridiculous, and Sleep is usually off doing their own thing, but they mostly count as Relatively Huge, which suits their slow nature just fine

White Noise and Skirsa have their dumb rivalry apropos of nothing, White Noise and Heart are found siblings, and Vision is somehow still the designated adult amongst a bunch of ageless beings

White Noise and Heart are both fond of the human world/planet and visit quite a lot, tho never using their "true" forms bc they don't wanna cause That much of a ruckus

Heart's preferred forms when amongst humans include eurasian magpies, eurasian jays, and black cats. They're also still fond of orcas but no longer take that form now that humans pay more and more attention to keeping track of orcas as individuals, bc he doesn't wanna cause false sightings and screw with data. No matter the form tho, the heterochromia is a constant

White Noise cares less about specific species and more about showing off some form of leucism or piebaldism (not albinism tho, both out of aesthetic preference and liking to fuckin See)

They're both understandably fond of appearing as canids tho

Skirsa visits the human world less but still does sometimes, and picks the flashiest forms they can think of with no regards to what animals are native to the area

Could each of them appear human if they chose? Yes. Do they ever choose? Nah. Doesn't feel fun for them. Too many rules

Vision never walks this material world. They stick to dreams

Sleep also mostly sticks to dreams but sometimes drifts over into the human world from Nowhere without realising. Looking their normal self. Like half the Nessie-esque sightings in the past 40 years are probably on them

Vision's area of expertise is funny/weird dreams, Sleep's is comfort. They cannot straight up turn nightmares around but they can slip in small details to make them more bearable or start a comforting dream right after the nightmare ends

The human world is teeming with magic!

One example is stray curses. They aren't, like, proper curses, which are spells cast with intent. Stray curses are globs of negative emotions and all around bad vibes culminating in magical dust bunnies. They like to congregate in corners and against doorsteps and if you happen to be able to see them, they're best described as inky black frogs with stilts

White Noise likes hunting them for fun not unlike how cats hunt bugs. And then eats them for snacks. Heart does not hunt them for fun bc he hates how they taste

Skirsa sometimes gets goaded into competing with White Noise over who can hunt more stray curses quicker which is fuckin stupid bc Skirsa is in the human world a Lot less and has a Lot less experience hunting these lil fuckers and thus gets their ass handed to them every time

[potato-goose-tornado]

Okay, okay, okay

Soooo

I forgot to post another prompt last night (ruining my two day streak >:(( ), apologies from the deepest, darkest, cardiac artery that I own.

Anywho

Soulmate au, for funsies

The specific au I'm thinking of is where wherever your soulmate touches you first, you have a black mark signifying where they're going to touch you, and when they do, it turns into a bright, colorful, mark before slowly fading into some more pastel colors over time

There's a few different scenarios I can think of for this, ofc

•

1. Modern/College/General Adult au, characters do not know each other remotely, and they are both independently at the same party. One character (A) has their mark on their face, in the shape of a handprint, and have gone through life thinking that their soulmate is going to fucking slap them once they meet, while the other (B) has a (normal) mark of their palm being black (usually, it's a handshake or high five).

Well, whoopsie doodle, A ends up having something happen to them (they're overwhelmed, their partner breaks up with them, they just got a bad grade on an assignment, ect. ), and they get incredibly upset and leave to go quiet down and have a cry.

Well, coincidentally, B also leaves to do something (smoke, get some air, ect.) and they find A, and rush to comfort them, ultimately (and gently) putting their hand on their face, until it starts fucking glowing and they freak the fuck out

This would just be a cute little rp, domestic, funny, nothing too serious

•

2. Again, a modern/General Adult Au, one character (C) is at a bar, wallowing or doing something alone, when the local band sets up and plays. For some reason, C is *obsessed* with the band, and especially the lead singer, who is the other character (D).

Long story short, the band plays their set and wraps up by going backstage, while C runs to the bathroom (for whatever reason, to escape from the noise, to throw up bc they drank to much, whatever), and ends up in the dressing room of D. D is mildly annoyed at first, but sees C's state and takes it upon themselves to help C and/or get them home.

They both only figure out the next day that they both had their soulmarks activated (is that the right word?) in exactly the same spot as the other touched them/they touched the other, and they have *no clue* who they are (as C never told D their name and D was in a *very* small indie band that didn't have anymore gigs due to life events, and had an alias instead of their name).

They're both sad and decide to move on, until a few years later when (ultimately) they meet an *extremely* annoying person at their job and they decide that that person is the bane of their existence, (personally, Im thinking of them both being high school teachers, but thats just me).

You can see where this is going

Adversaries to Lovers as they slowly realize, hey, I might actually like this person, to them getting together, to maybe thinking about their soulmates and how they are still in love with them, but also love their partner (this could be one person's dilemma as the other wonders why their partner is so distant), until it's revealed that D was the lead singer of an indie band (perhaps if teachers, through the kids finding out about it and spreading it), and then it's a decently good ending :>>

•

(Yes, this was heavily inspired if not slightly ripped off of this jmart fic. 100% read it, it's soo good)

3. Friends to Lovers (again) human au.

Now, and I've saved best for last (debateable), this one CAN BE A FANTASY AU

Bc those are so popular /s

Anyhow, doesn't have to be fantasy, just has the capacity to be fantasy and would be cool/interesting.

Basically, one character (E), and the other (F) are best friends (from childhood, or just like tweens, or since highschool, SOMETHING), and for some reason, they have not touched ever before (for a multitude of reasons, one character doesn't like touch, they both aren't touchy people, or (if it's a fantasy au) maybe it's not favorable to ever touch royalty in any circumstances (especially if there's a *culture* around soulmarks))

But, they both have crushes on eachother, but don't want to risk their friendship by confessing and receiving a rejection that they believe is inevitable. Until, one day, something happens (can 100% be dramatic or mundane) and WHOOPSIE they've been soulmates the whole time!!

If you want, this can end there, if not, one could try and insist that it 'won't change their friendship' and have a whole OTHER level of drama surrounding their relationship bc of the miscommunication, really up to y'all.

Okay, okay, okay, now I get to talk about the FANTASY ASPECTS OF THIS LETS GO

SO SO SO SO

So many ways to do a fantasy thingie! You could have a royal advisor that grew up to be the heir's closest advisor and friend and have fallen in love with eachother, you could have a royal be childhood friends with a knight that either saves them occasionally, or they both are warriors, you could have a baker's child become friends with the heir bc of them sneaking into the kitchen to get snacks, and have it all cute and lovely

SO MANY OPTIONS AND SCENERIOS, OML

Anyhow, as usual, courts in the past had a HUGE thing about not touching and stuff, especially if someone is your 'better', or just Royalty in general, unless you're their personal servant. Soooo, the heir would have likely never been allowed to touch anyone, or they would have been covered head to toe at all times, and unallowed to take their clothes off to touch their friend's skin.

This can be a cute courtship thing, or OR, it could turn into *drama*, where the heir, having broken the rules, finds out that they are going to be married for a political tie, and they have to figure out a way around it to still be together

(I don't know if I have to make this clear, but any Fantasy stuff will not have homophobia in it. It's unnecessary and I don't want it in my silly little fantasy world)

•

ANYWHO

That's all I got for now, feel free to use these with someone else or DM me, my preferences are in the pinned post

Drink water, have a good nighttttttttttt!

(I'm sleeping now omfg)

[beauzos]

i don't despise 7OX7 the way i've despised other books i've read that i think are bad. like 7OX7 is really terrible, but in such a baffling way that i can't even get THAT mad. but don't get me wrong, i really dislike this book. i can't think of a single thing i even remotely like about it. i kinda like the main guys in the first 50 pages, but they're both so fucking boring. no one really has character flaws or anything beyond "nice/good Christian." that's it. there was one mean guy in the first chapter, and that's about it.

on a technical level, like in terms of the structure and the way the writing works (albeit showing flashes of competence if it just had a lot of work done on it), 7OX7 is probably one of the worst books i have ever read in my life.

like... there's no conflict. hopefully there's some conflict later on, but i'm 310 pages in and there's been one very small fight, and that's it. the characters never fight, barely ever disagree, everyone is nice, they have experienced basically no real hardship. like yeah... traveling in the West is hard, and they're doing hard work to set up their lives, but it's not conflict because it just... gets done. like. there's nothing stopping them from doing virtually anything.

all the characters are always automatically friends, and we just have to take for granted that they all bond offscreen, because that's what the narrative tells us constantly. the book is supposed to be about this group of people looking for a legendary canyon to live in... they find it 250 pages in out of 650 pages. there's a 30 page sequence about them building a fucking house. Ritzer glosses over a lot of time passing, but will stop the narrative to a screeching halt to do shit like that.

the whole group has to stay in the house over winter because they don't have time to build other houses. Ritzer goes out of his way to say that none of the characters fought once. that they all got along perfectly in this tiny little dugout over winter because i don't fucking know. god forbid the characters FIGHT about anything, even when it'd make sense. one of the people in the group is an 18 year old kid trying to make it on his own, so why wouldn't he chafe against being stuck in a dugout with a bunch of little kids and adults who still treat HIM like a kid?

i'm already thinking about what i'd do to rewrite this book if it were up to me. beyond scrapping, oh... everything that happens after page 50 and paring down those first 50 pages to about 20 pages, i'd try and like, y'know, give the characters some humanity. some flaws. some conflict to make it interesting. i think there's so many obvious routes you could take.

the main guy is a bit of a loner, and the book should lean way more into that, him being capable and decent, but kinda cold and distant to people, a nice contrast to the family he's traveling with that's very loving and friendly. have him bond with them slowly instead of auto-friendshipping him with them all. let it mean something for him to bond and become kinda part of this family, plus with the teen boy too.

and that 18 year old kid, man! the book just glosses over anyone getting to know him. he barely talks to be honest like idk why this character even exists which is why i propose this kid trying to latch onto Tom because he's like, the cool capable guy all on his own, and this kid is striking it out on his own, trying to make it, so he wants to impress Tom but maybe Tom pushes him away bcs he sees what the kid is trying to do and is like 🙄 a little because he doesn't want to be responsible or whatever.

also they barely touch on it but like, that kid is also like, half or part Native to some degree, and there's a very brief discussion of racism with him though it says ultimately people wind up really liking and accepting him and like. ok that's all well and good, but- ok i just realized i basically want a version of Ethan and Marty from The Searchers here but you COULD do a little story of prejudice re: Tom and the kid. the family accepts him bcs they know him and his family, but Tom might be a bit hesitant. like yeah the book establishes early on thast Tom isn't racist and that's fine too, but i don't think it'd be crazy to have the kid experience some kind of racism instead of handwaving it away by insisting everyone is JUST so nice to him!

like they don't HAVE to do that, i'm just spitballing here to try and find some kind of conflict and interesting character dynamics beyond "everyone is nice and besties with each other." it's a Western, i'm not saying everyone has to be terrible to each other, but Westerns is all about man vs. man. and there is nothing at all instead. hey, maybe RItzer will remember books are supposed to have conflict at some point in the next 330 pages, though!

the book has no character growth. there is no ROOM for character growth because everyone is already perfect. i seriously doubt i'll change my mind with the back half of this book, i really doubt it. but i'll hold out the tiniest bit of hope and seeing if ANYTHING gets better.

[glupblorbo]

ok so i tried to put this in tags but. tumblr has a tag limit?? apparently???? so. just gonna repaste it here:

MAN like. this is all devastating ofc but. but what gets me here. it's the “given sigils based on the original chosen classes on record”

imagine. you're an oracle student. you've been one since you were old enough to choose bc that's what your mom did and that's what her mom did and that's what her mom's mom did. and it's not. bad. but seeing The Horrors can definitely take a toll on you y'know?

but then luz comes. and shakes things up. and suddenly you can do oracle magic AND something else.

suddenly you've got options. so you choose healing. bc if you can see someone's end then you'd like to give 'em some healing in the meantime. it's the least you can do, right?

and suddenly. you look forward to school. you're in love with the person you're becoming. you think it's someone a younger you would be proud of, maybe. your parents remind you that you'll need to choose a coven of course but that's still several years out. you have time.

and then coven head adrian graye shows up with the fucking golden guard alongside him.

and suddenly everyone's getting sigils. left and right. people try fighting and you try fighting but there's so many scouts and the golden guard can flashstep behind you in an instant and suddenly everyone's very cowed and in line because the illusion kid who's friends with luz the human has been given a sigil. and it's the type of magic he likes, sure, but it's still. a sigil. it marks him as an adult now. and the shock of it all makes him lose the illusion grasping the school that's been protecting all of you.

suddenly they've got all of you lined up and school records pulled from bump's office (where is bump anyway? and the other teachers? the scouts wouldn't have...done anything right?) and the golden guard has a tall scout with sharply pointed ears pulling up your friend's records from before xe switched out of the healing track to the bard & beastkeeping track and then the golden guard is giving xem a sigil for the healing coven and. wait. that's. not supposed to happen. they switched over so shouldn't they get a choice? but then far too soon it's your turn and you're hyperventilating bc you're about to be locked only to oracle magic forever as the taller scout flips through the pages and says your name and then “oracle was the first” and before you can explain he's lifting a glowing finger and then. it's over. you're in the oracle coven now and there's no going back. and your chest is tight and something wants to come out of your throat but you're not sure if it's a laugh or a sob or an insult or a hex but the golden guard is already waving you off and another scout is pulling you by the shoulder over to the side where your friend sits, staring at nothing and shaking just enough to be noticeable, and you want to do something but by the time you can pull your courage back into your gut they're thanking the students for their cooperation and leaving and a few of the teachers are being taken with them to the conformatorium for trying to help you all escape the emperor's mandate and the airships leave and then there's just a bunch of terrified, exhausted teenagers, and you realize that in the scheme of things, you have always been very very small.

you get home, and you hug your mom, but she doesn't understand why you're so upset—after all, you didn't leave the oracle track completely, so you're better off than some of your friends, right?

you are a caged animal and you walked into the trap willingly. there is nothing you can do about today. and there is nothing you can do when the day of unity arrives and your sigil becomes a very real cage indeed.

Labyrinth Runners Alternative

Me destroying canon relationships dynamics

More rough sketches part of my late redemption Hunter Au (canon divergent)

Hunter was able to take lead in forcing sigils upon the students and succeeded, now the day of unity stakes are higher. Luckily he isn’t like Adrian and at least provided them the matching sigils to their track…the multi-track students are given sigils based on the original chosen classes on record.

Now they will be affected by the draining spell, Hunter is convinced he did something for the greater good and is proud. This will cause so much conflict in the future.

Connected to this and this

Calling this AU late redemption Au for now and works will be tagged as such

[bylertruther]

No fun theories or smart analyses or hot takes HOWEVER i think that they shouldve gone further with possessed will. I know the point was that they werent supposed to figure it out but i imagine the little ticks a possessed person might have. We already got the darker/black eyes, but i think that instead of looking out of the corners, hed have to turn his head fully. Like his pupils wouldnt move. I also think a black tongue would be kind of cool. They should done more with the black veins that come out when the mind flayer is under duress i think its the coolest shit ever. Anyway. Hi 👋 ;) possessed will headcanons go crazy

LISTEN ... I AGREE ! i agree so bad, you don't even know how bad i agree, mal. you're so right.

in hindsight, i guess it makes sense why he wasn't Super Weird, but i remember thinking that it was such a tame possession by what we assumed to be an eldritch monster. like... you'd think he'd be creepy. this is something from another world trying to pass off as human—how is it doing so well on its first try? why is will still so... will? we know why now and it's also for Plot Reasons like you said, but .. still! 😠 u kno?

like, imagine if will had killed bob in the car like shawn levy said will did in one of their super early drafts. imagine his veins turning black, his actions quick and jerky and unnatural. so... just... wrong. like, that's clearly not will, but it's also not an animal. it's just something else—something you can't quite name. and then it goes back to will-will. the monster is a little stumped bc it didn't think this through. it didn't think abt the consequences. n then will has to deal with those consequences. really hammers home the whole trapped in ur own body thing and no one believing him abt what's real and what isn't.

orrrrr ! you know how The Particles look stormy? imagine if instead of his eyes just going dark, you could see the particles moving in them (if u look reeeaaaal close) when He's pulling the strings. or parts of will turning black, like his fingertips in your drawing. or his left hand, as a callback to the whole left hand and eye of vecna stuff. like the more possessed he gets the more the rot spreads. kinda like a zombie boy thing.

i kno it had to be subtle but. maybe just maybe. they should've considered tht i would've liked to see will unhinged and feral and eating fertilizer like the flayed in s3. maybe i Wanted to see him stalking toward mike (or anyone) all slow and calculated and unsettling, creeping forward like cats do. maybe i wanted to see him have exaggerated or too-flat emotions bc the Monster is trying to mirror everyone else, but keeps getting it wrong. or a scene where the Monster is talking but those are will's eyes and they're all red and shooting around n screaming everything tht his mouth won't speak. or smth where the Monster is taking control of his limbs, like when it choked joyce, but will is fighting back. trying to pry his hand from her throat, screaming tht he's sorry, screaming at the Monster to stop please stop. smth like tht. smth to really give u the heebie-jeebies.

like, maybe i Wanted to see him thrash and kick and scream abt n then when even mike piles in to try n restrain him will's head just whips his way and he's staring at him with those Big, Big Eyes of his and. and it's will. it's will that they're all piled on top of, will that looks at their arms n faces n sees his scratch marks, will that whimpers bc three grown adults n a 45lb mike are crushing him. will who grapples with the crushing guilt n shame before the Monster grabs the reins again n starts saying LET ME GO, LET ME GO, LETMEGOLETMEGOOOO and the lights are flickering n flickering n flickering n joyce is begging him to calm down n mike is saying will, it's okay, you're okay, it's just us, you're okay n Everything Is So Loud And Keeps Happening And . and . like i'm just saying . What If I Wanted To See That In My Scary Monster Show, Duffers. What If.

[randomnameless]

The only other time in Fire Emblem I can think of where "wound too bad, healing staff don't work" is freaking Lilith but I feel like it's implied by how often characters talk a lot before they die without people trying to heal them... i.e. "staff don't work" doesn't mean someone is dead... YET... just that it will happen soon. But I also feel Vigarde knew what Lyon was doing regardless bc he said stuff like "this hasn't been made public knowledge yet"... Who do you think makes those decisions 🤔

I still think Lyon made this decision, since he was the one in charge of the "spooky brigade".

Maybe Lyon felt bad for revealing this to Vigarde, or was afraid of Father McGregor's reaction - telling your dad your research on Satan's power managed to save a girl and you can have a limited form or precognition ? Also wasn't Vigarde already ill by that time? Maybe Lyon didn't want to bother him with this dilemna...

IDK a lot about Vigarde, but he would have stopped those researches quickly, as a descendant of Grado he knows what kind of power Lyon is talking about, and who fuels this power (and maybe sent those visions?) and this is a big no-no.

We don't see a lot of adults reacting in FE8 (well they're all dead) save for Mansel, but given how even Ismaire knows the Dark Stone isn't supposed to exist, I'm pretty sure her reaction would have been to stop those researches. Maybe it's just Magvel conservatism at play, but when you have Satan on the opposite side, I sort of understand their positions.

On an unrelated (?) note, maybe this is why the Aum staff and the Braggi Staff from FE Archanea-Jugdral has limited uses : you can use "necromancy" once, but that's all. It's not a new discipline or a way to "science!" out of death. Humans are not supposed to bring back the dead, maybe they can science their way to upgrade their healing spells, but resurrecting people?

[lewis-winters]

(gif by @lyselkatzfandomluvs)

oh? me? writing about single dad!lewis who is a disaster human being but a good dad to a precocious little girl named Bea who adores him but at the same time thinks her daddy is the silliest person to ever exist?

you bet your ASS i am.

anyway, here have this headcanon list:

Bea is Lew's little girl from a one night stand. her mom didn't want to abort, but she didn't want to keep her, either. Lew considered putting her up for adoption, but the second the doctors let him hold her he knew that that just wasn't an option.

at that point, Lew never really knew what love was. not really. but looking down at that lil bundle in his arms that resembled more a bean than human, he decided then and there that that is exactly what true love feels like.

Bea is AMAB and has always known she was a girl. Lew always indulged her, especially when she finally learned how to talk and walk and have opinions. if Bea said she wanted to wear a dress or play with dolls or grow out her hair, he'd let her and he'd sass down anybody that let her feel like she couldn't. bc of that, Bea never thought that she was anything but a girl for ages.

i mean, the only thing she truly hated was her name. bc it was a boy's name and was therefore very ugly.

when she was four, she told Lew and everybody that would listen that she wanted to be called Beatrix-with-an-X instead of the name they gave her. she heard it on tv one day and loved it so much, she just decided to use it and that was that.

I wouldn't say Lew didn't have his moments of crisis over it-- he had a whole paradigm shift, and he definitely had to read up some stuff and talk to people, but he never let Bea know it. that's his baby girl. and he loves her. he'd never forgive himself if he'd ever let her feel otherwise.

he calls her BumbleBea on a regular basis, but in his head and when referring to her to anybody else, he calls her Little Miss Nixon

occassionally Little Miss Hypochondriac if she's being particularly fussy that day

bc Bea is VERY fussy

she's under the belief that her daddy doesn't take care of himself very much. she is right. Lew does not like to admit it.

she prepares his vitamins and reminds him to drink water and eat his veggies

they take care of each other a lot

Lew makes sure Bea does her homework and is polite and gets dressed real nice and is making the right friends

Bea makes sure Lew remembers to brush his teeth or eat breakfast or drink water or dress up warm during the winter

their little mantra in the morning is--

Lew: Be good, but if you need to be bad--

Bea: Don't get caught!

Bea also understands sarcasm a bit too well for a baby child

Lew says it's the natural Nixon gene. Blanche says it's bc Bea spends way too much time with Lew.

Bea calls Lew two things: Daddy, on the regular, and Dada when she wants to be cuddled or carried or held or comforted

Lew has NO idea why she does, but every time he hears her call him Dada while holding out her arms in a silent request to be picked up, he melts into a puddle

George, Lew's old college buddy and Bea's godfather, and Blanche are her regular babysitters. she loves them both so much but she definitely loves Blanche more because when she's with Aunt Blanche she gets presents

George treats her like a mini adult, which just kinda reinforces why she's so fluent in sarcasm to begin with or why she's half as mischievous as she is.

Bea is a morning person. Lew is a night owl. when Bea was a baby, this was definitely a problem, bc she'd have Lew running to her side at 3 am, so much so that he just moved her bassinet to his room and then just little by little let her migrate to his bed and let her serve as his alarm clock.

but when she started to walk and talk and become big enough to do things on her own, they've come up with a system where she'd get up, try her best to make Lew coffee, then wake him up with kisses

the coffee is never good but Lew swallows it down anyway

Lew is very good at braiding hair for some reason

Bea always did say that her Daddy is fit to be a stay at home husband bc he keeps track of their household stuff better than his at work stuff

Lew doesnt work at the plant-- Stanhope didn't like the name Beatrix, let's just say. Lewis told him to go fuck himself. thankfully before doing that, he saved enough money to sustain him and Bea until he could find a job. also, he has a group of very good friends and an amazing sister who stuck by him and Bea, so really, leaving Nixon behind to get a fresh new start in New York with his baby girl was the best decision he has ever made

(Lew always says Bea saved him somehow-- taking care of another human being helped him learn, little by little, how to take care of himself. how to function. he wants to be a better man for Bea, wants to be able to be somebody she's proud of. and by wanting that and doing everything to be that, he's managed to heal himself. day by day. it hasn't been easy. but it has been worth it.)

(he still drinks, though. but never in front of Bea. and never more than a glass. he can't afford to go down that road right now. not with Bea.)

Bea meets Dick first. she's seven years old in a brand new school being run by her dad's college friend and her godmother, Kitty and Dick, fresh from his last tour in Iraq, is there to visit Kitty's boyfriend and fellow teacher, Harry, who is his old college buddy.

Bea likes Mr Winters very much and talks about him to Lew when she gets home

Dick, of course, is easily charmed by this precocious lil girl with an inquisitive nature and an oddly dry sense of humor. He's planning on getting a job in the school's administrative branch so he's there quite a lot. Bea always stops to talk to him, and he never fails to humor her. He rather enjoys her company.

Lew, otoh, is getting very jealous

all Bea can talk about is Mr Winters said this and Mr Winter said that and ooohhh did you know Mr Winters was a soldier? that's pretty cool

Lew has a 9-5 desk job. Bea doesn't think that's very cool.

bc of this, Lew does not like this Mr Winters on principle

All of Bea's godparents (George, Kitty, Lip, and Ron) and her Aunt Blanche think this is hilarious

Everytime Lew sees them, he grumbles about Mr Winters. This, of course, drives Kitty to find a way to introduce them.

so, during during the Parent Teacher Conference, Lew meets Dick. and he finds he does like Mr Winters after all. he likes Mr Winters a lot.

Dick, otoh, sees Bea light up and run into Lew's open arms, giggling when Lew peppers her face with kisses and raspberries, and immediately knows he is very much In Trouble.

Bea, being perceptive as she is, picks up on their mutual crushes on each other and thinks they're meant to be (she's right, of course) and immediately starts trying to push them together.

Bea: Mr Winters, do you like bad boys?

Dick, who most definitely has always had a thing for dark haired, rakish characters with hearts of gold and is also blushing very hard: Uh... sure I do

Bea: Great. Because my daddy is bad at everything.

it becomes Bea's mission to get her daddy and Mr Winters together

she doesn't have a plan for it. she just waits to throw them at each other at every opportunity until something happens.

she's very determined. Lew would stop and admire her ambition if only he wasn't busy fumbling into this new relationship with Dick while also doing his best to be a good dad.

and it's all very cute and fluffy and nothing bad ever happens ever bc this is my au, gdi, and i'm allowed to be as indulgent as i want, thank you.

[the-satellite]

Hello friends and welcome to ☆Hateful Nostalgia☆. I was exposed to the mob talker mod WAY too young bc I was an unsupervised child on the internet watching mod showcases and SkyDoesMinecraft. Looking back these sucked, the stories were often bland and the designs were milk toast at best and tits out at worst. So for the sake of procrastinating on working on anything substantial I grabbed the main 6 I remembered and gussied em up. Redesigns, rewrites, better names, all that bullshit. If your interested in better photos, design notes, story details and rambling hit the basement, otherwise here's a line up you should click for better quality.

Also I wrote all this once before already but I deleted it like a dumb bitch. On the night Unus Annus was murdered in front of my eyes no less. Was a rough fuckin night.

The Creeper- Kupa. An explosive pyromaniac with a habit of making empty threats and yelling. She protects what she believes to be her territory with a suicidal passion, but if you manage to get her to cool down and soften up she's pretty sick to hand out with. Hard of hearing, has at least one bout of head trauma at all times, and deathly allergic to cats.

Because the creeper is kinda the og I wanted to reference AT2's design more than the others, but I'm p sure the only thing I actually kept was the red hair and brown gloves. Otherwise I was doing whatever. I really wanted to lean into the explody bit of creepers, so I gave her some bite and dressed her in clothes referenced from Irish railroad workers. This may also be why I keep imaging her with a very heavy Irish or Scottish accent, whichever would be most incomprehensible when angry. Every color but her skin was color picked from one of the references, with some minor alterations for makes my eyes happy reasons.

With Kupa I imagine a story line with her would largely be about her as a character and her development than like an actual adventure narrative like everyone else. She starts off ready to blow up both you and herself in a misguided attempt to defend what she sees as her's and opens up and learns not everyone is out to get her. Lots of time taken to understand her childhood and how she ended up how she is. Very simple, probably the default or tutorial run people would go through.

The Zombie- Bee. The ill husk of a missing explorer suffering from a less than conventional appetite. She wallows in her self imposed loneliness, believing herself to be an irredeemable monster doomed to hurt those around her. What she really needs is a buddy and some clue to who she used to be. Rough voiced, chronically fatigued, and prone to spontaneous combustion in sunlight.

 I definitely consider this one the weakest for design sadly. I imagined Zombies as humans who went into strange caves and caverns and didn't come out for years, only to pop up as completely different people. I just tossed AT2's design. The first thing I did was make her a bit of a genderbent Steve and tinted her green bc Zombies in game are just Steve but green. Tore up her clothes, colored picked the darkest colors I could from the clothes on the in game and boom, Bee. I do vaguely regret not making her eyes pure black but I also still wanted her to be human enough to fit with the other overworld mods.

 Ok so Bee actually has a basic story. When you meet her she's aggressive, but as a warning. She fears the possibility she may hurt somebody so heads for threats immediately. Going back and forth between her cave and village for a while you learn more about the situation with the missing folks who come back and Bee as a person. After a bit you pick her up off her depressed ass and start a nocturnal adventure of refinding your past, adapting to who your becoming, overcoming self destuction, and slow burn babey!!! 

The Skeleton- Ulna. One of the few surviving warriors of a now destroyed kingdom and dead culture. She spends most of her time now traveling alone, hiding in trees and shooting anything see sees as a threat- which is everything- in the face with homemade arrows. Very much suffering from loss of her home and a bad case of lost purpose. A woman of few words, very antisocial, and naturally nocturnal.

 I came in with the Skeleton wanting to make her seem mysterious, so my first thought was immediately a cloak and a mask, but I wanted her face to like be visible so I went with the face paint. I didn't actually know that I wanted to do under there so I went with wraps that are reminiscent of the original outfit but still not tits out bc it's so fucking easy! Gave her a quiver, color picked the cloak and face paint from the in game model and the wraps from AT2'S art. I did like. Subconsciously draw her eyes the way I do Asian characters but I didn't have anything specific in mind so like go nuts with what you think she is.

 Ulna's deal is very much her lack of purpose or home and the entire thing is about finding that again. She's found sitting up in a tree during a storm pointing a bow and arrow into your face. She eventually let's you stick around until the storm is over and theres some bonding into deep night until the rain stops. You ask if she wants to come with on your little travelling sword for hire business, she says sure, sleep schedule shenanigans, backstory angst, and road trip bonding happens and she eventually decides that helping people is her new purpose and you're her new home

The Spider- Park. A young adult experiencing the world for the first time through her tribe's rite of passage. She's really just trying to figure out how to live life outside of the cave she's been stuck in her entire life and aggressively trying to be an independent adult despite not knowing anything about being an independent adult. Its projection. Blind in the daylight, naive and excitable, and taken to refusing help at her own risk.

 Ok so. I don't know who looked at the spider and said "purple haired loli with puffy pants" so I once again yeeted the whole thing, only really keeping the kinda cutesy and childish bits. Spiders are a tribe of humans what live in caves unless they've broken off to live on the surface. Kids are kept inside until they hit a certain milestone, where they come up to explore at night. They're usually small and pale, but are pretty kickass when necessary. Again picked the colors off the in game model, played with the lightest gray for the skin, and bc I couldn't figure out anyway to use the stripes so they're on the patches lol.

 Park's meeting is probably the funniest and most meet cute one here, in that she accidentally drops on top of you from a little cliff drop off. Cue loads of apologies and an explanation about the spider deal and being blind in light. She asks for some help getting around and bam babey friendship and emotional attachment! What follows is kinda a buddy of coming of age story with the obligatory goes home and is miserable scene. Generally it's just about being a scared young adult and having someone to fall back on and why that's important. Also crushes and young people being bad at that.

 The Blaze- Amber. A demonic entity who would let the world burn and the sun die if it meant she'd get her soul back. She's known for being ruthless, taking souls through force instead of making deals like other Blazes. Keeps this forceful nature even once she's become friendly, makes you do dump shit. Territorial, eyes glow and dim with her life, and runs remarkably warm.

 Amber here is the first one I actually did! I was just. Really tired that she was in a bikini. I decided early on I wanted overworld mobs to be human and everyone else was decidedly not, so Blazes are demons who gave up their souls under false pretenses to other Blazes. Because of how little clothes AT2's design wore I had essentially free reign and my thought was immediately to lean on golden knight bc of how Blazes are found protecting fortresses. The gold isn't picked from anything bc I was looser with the colors, but everything else is, and the hair is supposed to represent the smoke. Also the sticks in her hair are blaze rods bc I don't like them just floating around her.

Amber is found in the Nether obviously, protecting a fortress and immediately trying beat your ass and either incinerate you or make you give up your soul. During you prove yourself a p damn good fighter and she makes a deal to show you how Blazes exist and pursade you to give your soul up willingly. Bonding happens and she explains where the souls go and what happened to her. Insert line about how she dug in the sand for her soul until her fingers bleed bc I'm an Arcana freak lol. In general I'd just like her to learn to adapt to who she is now and learning to live life well instead of letting her anger burn her up from the inside out.

 The Enderman- Violet. A confused but sweet young bit of void created by and connected to the Ender Dragon. Her relationship with reality is tenuous at best and abusive at worst, making stable existence rather difficult. She doesn't know a name, age, gender, anything about herself aside from that she likes sweaters. Communicates primarily through psychic connections, docile and sweet, and melts like a witch in water.

 Violet was incredibly easy, so this may be way short. Endermen are decidedly human shaped void from the End with varying sentience. They're direct extensions of the Ender Dragon, and nobody knows how they're made or where they come from, not even they do. Adventurers who escaped The End say they seem scared of it though. Violet in particular is pretty damn new and extraordinary nonconforming, and I tried to show that with her sweater and ponytail. Once again, literally all colors picked. Definitely the simplest but one of my favs.

Violet is the sweetest meet up I think. As your traveling between villages you notice a strange enderman watching you and plant a little flower in front of her. She picks it and you hear a happy little trill come from you and a pretty voice say thank you in your head. Now you have a tall dark teleporting travel buddy! After a little bit of back and forth she tells you in some broken English that the Ender Dragon made her but she doesnt know how, and that it's bad and needs to be killed for the sake of Endermen and that's the new goal. Spoiler they're the corrupted souls of those that died fighting it, with it gone Endermen are free to exist as their own being and do whatever, hurray!

[himbo-buckley]

what are your thoughts on what maddie says about her and buck's parents, that they were "good people, bad parents"? bc idk if it's just me but I can't get my head around that lmao, I can't understand how they can still be good people if they're bad parents, the two just can't go together for me, so another perspective would be interesting!

Hello friend 🥰

Oh, that is quite a question, isn’t it? Damn I just got out of work but you’re making me think deep thoughts here…

I think that is actually a question were we cannot find a unifying answer to - because like you said for you being a good person and a bad parent aren’t compatible, but for me they are. And I think we’d first have to define what everyone thinks constituents a good person and what constitutes bad parents!

For me a good example of that is Shannon Diaz who, in my opinion, is a good person. She means well and she tries hard but she is quite frankly an awful mother. Yes, she was put in horrible situation after horrible situation and she broke on that - which is something human and cannot be begrudged - but she left her child for several years and while she did try to reconnect and she was learning, she wouldn’t haven contacted Eddie on her own. She came back because the opportunity arose not because she tried to get back to them. (She could have become a good mother but she never got the chance.)

In the same vain I think Bobby pulled a lot of shit back in Minnesota but he still seemed to be a loving and kind father - so my question to you, friend, would be: do you consider Bobby a good person (the Bobby prior to Season 1 mostly)? Despite being the type of person who went to work drunk and / or high and by this endangering others and himself? Because I don’t think so yet the show frames him as a good person despite his downfalls (and I am not saying being an addict makes someone a bad person but I am saying knowingly endangering others does) - and if you think someone cannot be a good person but a bad parent, can someone who is a bad person also not be a good person?

See, one thing I learned working with children is that some people just aren’t made to be parents, and I am not talking about my time with child services, i am talking as a kindergarten teacher. Some people are very nice and they try hard but damn, parenting does not come natural to them and I worry how this will develop in the future. Like one of my mom’s is severely depressed and she might have Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy which doesn’t make her a bad person - but a bad parent at times.

And now, this is were I make you regret asking me specifically about this topic (or maybe not, who knows what your interests are) because I do have a bit of an expertise in what constitutes good / bad parenting and I will talk about it at random whether I am asked or not (and hopefully my language won’t fail me as most of my theoretical knowledge is in german, so please excuse any mistakes in technical terminology because I have to find the english equivalents and you know all those untranslatable german words? Yeah. Someone finally figure out how to translate the difference between Erziehung and Bildung please because both cannot be education and also it doesn’t really fit either):

So let’s get into it, shall we?

What makes good parents?

First up: parental relationship and parenting capabilities: several years ago the german department of family, seniors, women and youth (BmFSFJ) released a paper on what skills parents need to become good parents. There a four main skills (and I hope I translated everything correctly):

child-corresponding skills (ability to respond to the individual needs and features of the child, be it in terms of recognising potential or setting boundaries or sth else)

context-corresponding skills (ability to recognise developmental opportunities but also hinderances for the child and acting accordingly)

self-corresponding skills (being able to reflect their own behaviour as well as being willing to learn new things; also ability to regulate one’s emotions)

action-corresponding skills (trust in ones own ability and effectiveness; being consistent, both in their own actions as well as in response to others actions)

You might have heard of Kurt Levin or Diana Baumrind or someone else doing research into parenting styles. Generally there are four main ones, which, if we use Baumrind, differentiate on the aspects of control and demand 

(here is a graph from wikipedia on this)

(I consider this fairly self explanatory but I will get into it in a bit a little more, soooo)

Now of course parenting isn’t just about the parents and what they do - children also have needs (and yes there is a lot of overlap but I am doing this right, okay?)

To quote my government again (because the paper was actually quite good, okay?) children want autonomy (a chance to do things themselves), expertise (a chance to develop their own skills) and relatedness (that one was very hard to translate but this came the closest; the idea is children strive for social connections, a sense of trust in themselves and reliability)

Also Urs Fuhrer defined 5 basic needs children have which are:

feeling of shelteredness and reliable love (I won’t explain this further except: google Harry Harlow and try not to cry like I do every time I am reminded of this monster of a man)

physical security and intactness (self explanatory, right?)

individual and developmentally suitable experiences (yes, children need to be socialised but it needs to be based on the individual child and how it learns best and all that)

boundaries and structure (CHILDREN WANT BOUNDARIES!!!! ALWAYS!!! CHILDREN WANT YOU TO TELL THEM YES OR NO, they need adults to help them navigate the world! Part of feeling secure is having someone who will tell you no and don’t do this; boundaries protect from danger, they represent support and orientation, they protect someone’s dignity (both the child’s and the parent’s), they give something to chafe against on our way to adulthood (because listen, Erikson wasn’t wrong, a lot of development happens in adversity, we find out who we are in contrast to other people)

a secure attachment (most people have heard about Bowlby and his theory of attachment, right? There are several types, though we are born with certain abilities for attachment and then learn how to attach from our parents, we model relationships on this, attachment determines our feeling of security and our thrive for exploration as children)

And I’ll leave the theoretical at this and go on to talk about the Buckley’s now, okay?

(and try to figure out if any of this has an actual point, uuups)

As for the specific situation of Mr and Mrs Buckley, let’s first see what we know of them, okay? (It’s barely anything) (half of it is assumed)

they are both alive

they are (probably) still married

they warned Maddie about Doug (meaning they somewhat cared)

they weren’t physically abusive and most likely also not emotionally

they probably live on the east coast in Pennsylvania

Buck may still be in contact with them

Maddie considers them good people but bad parents

they accepted losing contact with at least one of their children

Maddie doesn’t want them to know about Doug

That’s it!

Now, I personally think they might be very conservative, possibly unsupportive of their children. They might have had plans for their children’s life Maddie and Buck didn’t agree with, they might have been the types to not listen to their children, maybe they worked a lot. Probably fairly impatient, possibly disinterested in their children. Not good at the parenting capabilities.

Based on their children’s issues I’d say authoritarian or neglectful parenting style (though not abusive because it would be a redcon of Maddie’s background), meaning most definitely unresponsive though I cannot make up my mind whether they were demanding or undemanding, as both these styles - even when not so bad they are abusive and / or endangering to the child - make insecure, dependent and unhappy adults (like the children turn into those once they grow up), which does kinda fit with Buck specifically, right?

Though tbh I don’t think the Buckley parents were that horrible. I know fandom has taken the idea and run with it, mainly because after three seasons we know virtually nothing about them aside from some throwaway lines and all the issues we see in their children.

Now, why do I say this?

One, Maddie is a fairly capable adult despite everything that happened to her and even being as resilient as she is, she still has too few issues for how horrible fandom thinks the Buckley parents are

Two, while Buck has a lot of issues, being cocky and having problems with intimacy and being a bit directionless and still needing a parental figure in your mid-20s doesn’t seem that uncommon to me? Like the only really deep issue I’d say he has (that have to be caused by something deeper) are his abandonment issues (and connected to that intimacy). And it’s been implied they are caused by Maddie leaving to go to College which does paint the picture that he doesn’t have a good relationship with his parents but honestly, that sometimes happens, right?

(Also, and this is where my professional background comes in, I don’t like how everyone jumps to the worst possible conclusions about them, simply because I feel it sends the idea that only if the worst things happened to you, you have certain issues which is wrong. Sometimes small things will trigger something way larger in us and that should not be invalidated.)

And okay, I am getting off topic again (but again, my profession lies here) but what I am trying to say is this:

I do think Mr and Mrs Buckley were bad at parenting because they demanded too much but gave too little (emotionally) and I don’t think Buck is really in contact with them but I also don’t think that makes them necessarily bad people. (just bad parents)

I think Maddie and Buck weren’t as close back when they were children as they are now (at least not after Maddie moved to College) because the Buck we know would not accept a sister he is very close to simply no longer having contact with him for three years without trying to figure out why.

I do think they can’t have been that bad mainly because of how good Maddie and Buck are. Listen, I believe in resilience and already being born with a certain personality and traits which shapes how our environment reacts to us, but which is also influenced and changed by our environment ! (Nature vs. nurture, ya’ll) Now I know I said we find and develop ourselves in adversity but not just. We also need someone to foster and support and reward certain traits or we lose them and this is especially true for being kind and heroic!

Buck especially has shown way to little anger or capability for violence for how the fandom likes to write his parents, which considering his general character and also the way he looks - just doesn’t work! (Because generally especially boys raised in abusive families emulate this behaviour and Buck just - doesn’t! Which considering how “fuck toxic masculinity” Buck is most of the time doesn’t make sense because being tall and buff would make the opposite easier for him and would make it the better strategy for survival, so this would be the behaviour he would have learned)

(unless our writers say fuck being realistic and fuck psychology)

His parents had to have done something right, because Maddie will have left for College by the time he was 12 / 13 probably and we know they consider this her abandoning him meaning they probably weren’t really in contact then and while the first years of your life ARE VERY important for who you become later (urgh, yes, I’ll admit it, Sigmund Freud, the most overrated theorist did get SOME things right) they aren’t everything and you develop for longer and also a young girl like Maddie would have been would have not been self-reliant and stable enough to raise her literal baby brother in a way that made him resilient enough to become the person Buck has become despite her leaving him twice

Not to mention: considering the person we know Maddie is - if their parents really were that horrible she wouldn’t have left Buck with them, she would have taken him with her!

 ANYWAYS!

Okay, tbh, I have no idea if any of that answered your question, but I did spend nearly two hours on it so enjoy?

I really don’t have a good answer to your question because we really don’t know enough and what we know doesn’t fully gel with each other and urgh, I don’t know friend despite this being the one thing I actually have some knowledge on!

I’m not even sure any of this makes sense and I am so sorry about that! I was trying, friend, but sadly an answer eludes me

Guess I should have just ended after saying: we cannot find a unifying answer to this because we each have individual definitions of good and bad in regards to people?

(Now, for everyone who read all of this? I love you and thank you and sorry! Please have a great day while I go cry in the shower now because I this ask drained me and also Harry Harlow)

EDIT: I wrote attachment issues when I wanted to say abandonment issues, shit!

[lemon-ty]

While I have no time to draw I found that thing from twitter and I don't think it would be bad if I post at least anything till I'll be free to draw?? and let's say that's just one another post before I'll finally add some of It in my blog

I'll just answer all in one post let's go, guys

(Movies & mini series & book mixed)

1. Favorite female character

I don't think there're a lot of 'em lol. But

Patricia Uris

That's right, not Beverly. Patti has one(!) chapter and somehow I fell in love with her character while reading it. She's got her own story before Stan and she's got a very very very beautiful relationships with him.

(I'm so in love with Uris family I mean whyyyy can't I just have some Stan with his pretty wife and a CHILD THANK U VERY MUCH)

2. Favorite male character

RICHIE

I'm just in love with him he's perfect next

3. Worst character

Bill?

OK, let's talk about it. I was kinda neutral to everyone in the Loser club except Richie for a year or more. Then while being in fandom I fell in love with these guys like with everyone of 'em concluding Bill. But when I decided to actually read a book... why is he so stupid and careless and fjligvdsvfuklugxseggh

Moron.

I really tried not to be "of course u let kid go alone what will happen right??" but this.fucking.weather.this.fucking.fact.that.Georgie.told.him.he.was.about.to.go.to.the.closed.area.u.know.closed.bc.it.was.dangerous.to.go.there like BOY, u killed ur brother when he stepped out of the house HAVE U EVEN LOOKED TO THE WINDOW???? Was it ur plan how to get rid of him bc he was clever and better than u and everyone loved him more? Bc if it was, well, congratulations! it worked not like u expected but still worked!

I'm bullying Bill Denbro in my house I wish for the alternative version with George as a main character instead of him-

4. Favorite scene

Richie and Beverly dancing together

I LOVE their friendship they're like BEST BROTP EVER

I love all their interactions and I find it SO ADORABLE they danced together I always think about it ...about 'em

5. Favorite member of the Loser club

Well, again? Fine. RICHIE

6. Original or remake?

I'd say book? But if we're talking only about films when of course remake

I saw mini series some time ago and that was cute and had a lot from the book (and abult Eddie-) but it was so naive and looked kinda stupid (sorry everyone but I'm the new auditory and I can't get that seriously especially after new films) while new films... Weeelll...

Let's be honest, I saw It 2017 only bc of James McAvoy in the second chapter and I found it boring. And then the second part I found more like a comedy than horror. I didn't like films that time but I liked characters (Richie). Some weeks ago I rewathed both It 2017 and It 2019 and second one is still too long and a comedy but first I found interesting

So remake is great at least on the second time watching and that's enough

7. Reddie?

Reddie is always the answer it's never a question cuz the answer is YES all the answers YES

8. Ben of Bill?

Oh that's a question for me and my hate to Bill!

Ben OF COURSE

Not only bc I hate Bill, Ben is awesome himself. In films he was more leader for the Losers that Bill and Mike like together?? And have u seen that he did fo Henry in the book? Damn boy u're way too cool slow down

9. Best ship

Look question 7

10. Worst ship

OK it took a lot time to find the one bc I don't think there's any ship I would actually hate or smth but if thiiink Bill × Beverly

First, bc Bill?? Seriously?? Go and find someone better, my girl

Second, bc Ben and Bev have much more chemistry (god, Richie and Bev have more chemistry and this tells the person who would kill for reddie)

11. Book or movie?

Book

(and if u say the book is too big I swear I-)

12. Tim or Bill as Pennywise

Why do u need to ask such difficult questions?? I mean, I love every version of Pennywise no matter if it's book or 1990 or 2017-2019 they all are great in their own ways

So both Tim and Bill have an extreme charisma, different but equal in power

I like Tim's Penny bc he's simple and warm I mean c'mon I would definetly hug him or anything and die happy, I mean, he just got ur trust??? And I like how bad effects make him seams not like an awful monster who will eat u but like a friendly mischief (listen me up: he makes sink dirty right after Bev cleaned it up like phhhhhhhhahaha really u're a moron u know). Yeah, that's not that Pennywise is meant to be but that's adorable

And I love Bill's version bc he does look scary (in a some way, of course). Yeah yeah new effects are doing their work and the costume is less friendly than Tim's but the most important is Bill's acting. His mimic and expressions are perfect he fits this role way too good. And, damn, he's so funny like... Yeah, I'd spend my last minutes with him he's great, that would be the most hilarious death I could ever get

So... can I just say both??

13. Funniest character

Do u really see this as a question??

Richie. The funniest guy ever. I would go to his stand-up. I would buy his merch. I would buy hi- AHEMAHEM

Seriously, I found him irritating watching 1st movie first time but after 2d started I've changed my mind he's a diamond that makes films better like he's the only reason I didn't fall asleep while watching 2d part

14. Worst character fear

OK, let's say we don't count the book here. Bc, u know, the fears in the book was, well, like actually kid's fears. Like someone just saw a horror film great now they've got a deep emotional trauma that's like kids work.

So saying about movies...

Stan

Does anyone really got what's wrong with that painting?? I mean???? Just an art what's wrong with u, Stan, do u like... hate art???

I do not get it, plz, if u do, just explain me bc I have no fucking idea why should it be a normal fear that's stupid

15. Favorite actor from the film

James McAvoy

Like I said I went to this fandom ONLY bc of him

16. Favorite adult character

Do u think they grew up and anything changed? Hell no!

Richie

Forever Richie

17. Worst encounter with Pennywise

None? I really can't name u anything bc they all are great at leeeeast bc of Pennywise taking part in it. The scene with him can NOT be worst

(but still-

Eddie's such a stupid brave boy like WHY does he always need to go to scary deadly places I mean are u going to die of what????)

(in the book he just decided that was a great idea to actually try to get into the Neibolt house like ????????????????? U FUCKING BRAVE IDIO-)

18. Worst jump scare

I don't pay attention to any jump scares sorry

None

But I can name my fav! Mrs. Kersh. Not bc she's scary but SO FUNNY OMG

(and in mini series she IS scary, yeah...)

19. Favorite quote

Everything Richie says

20. Least favorite ship

Stanbro

This ship is really great: there're reasons why it's existing and the ship dynamic is good but... I hhhaaaateeee Biiilllllly. And that's the whole problem, yes. Blame me but I can't love otp if I don't like one of the characters

21. Favorite fan account

Don't follow any

22. Favorite Pennywise quote

Is he saying anything??

Alright-alright I know how it looks. "U say u love Penny but don't remember any of the words he's saying". Yes! All I remember is that everything he says is cool but, yeah, sorry, I have nothing in my head

23. Best friendship

RICHIE TOZIER

&

BEVERLY MARSH

24. Richie or Bill?

Who the fuck will choose Bill?????? Richie's the best

I mean, u want me to choose between my fav one and the one I hate most? really?

25. Eddie or Ben?

Not lying to u that's a difficult question. I like both of 'em so I needed a list with +s and -s of each one

Eddie:

+ Jack Dilan Grayser's face

+ the thing with hand

+ u can joke about his mom

+ s.h.o.r.t.s

+ he's mean I like ppl like that (I'm person like that)

+ can kill u with the knife just stuck in his cheek

+ healer

+ brave as hell

- he's SO loud

- non human speed of talking

- most of the time he's a wimp, let's be honest

- DEAD

- has scary tendencies of amputation everything

- not Riche's husband somehow

- mindlessly brave as hell

- FIVE

- PARAGRAPHS

- OF

- OBSCURE

- MEDICINE

- STUFF

in his very first chapter

Ben:

+ an architect (i concider all of 'em like gods)

+ punctual. If he said he'll be in ur bar on Saturday when he'll be doesn't matter he's in London right now

+ I tell u he's a hidden leader

+ can drink and stay sober

+ HE

+ PUNCHED

+ HENRY'S

+ BALLS

- wrote a haiku I don't like haiku

- minuses are ended

So Ben has less +s but less -s if u compare to his +s. So, sorry, Eds, but Ben

26. Funniest scene

Every with Richie

27. Least favorite male characters

I can't just say Bill again, right? Or I caaan???

Bill

28. Most underrated character

MIKE

I see ppl love every character even the once that has really small time (STAN) but I haven't seen so much ppl loving Mike. Everyone kinda... forgot about him?? What an irony

29. Favorite edit

Every with Richie

30. Is fack real?

No

Plz don't ship real ppl