#it's because the writers are not serious people

[derinwrites]

Do you have any advice for writing in a web serial format?

Let’s look at this in two sections – the business part, and the actual writing part.

The Business Part

1. Consistency. Consistency in updates. Have a schedule and STICK TO IT.

If your schedule is too hectic and starts affecting your health or otherwise adversely affecting your life, change the schedule; update less often. Don’t update in spurts and then randomly stop. The audience will far more easily tolerate a slow schedule than an inconsistent one; an inconsistent one will lose many readers. You’re not Andrew Hussie and you can’t get away with that bullshit.

There may be times where you need to take a hiatus due to some emergency, life event, or health condition. This is fine – your wellbeing is more important than your story. But you need to be up-front with your audience about this; tell them you’re taking a hiatus and tell them exactly how long it’s going to be. If you can, you should tell them in advance (this isn’t possible for things like a car accident, but is very possible if you’re planning to, say, move house in a month). If you’re taking too many hiatuses, then it’s better to slow down your schedule and update less often. Audiences prefer fast and consistent, but if they have to choose, slow is better than inconsistent.

The #1 helper to consistency is having a big buffer – that is, have several weeks’ worth of unpublished chapters. The length of your buffer is personal taste, but I like to keep mine as long as possible so that if there’s some problem that stops me from writing for several weeks, it won’t upset the schedule. It keeps my stress down to know that I have that leeway. Other writers prefer to only write a week or two ahead, though, so different things work for different people.

2. Decide on your monetisation system early and prioritise it.

The most popular and most effective method for monetising a web serial seems to be the patronage method, which is the one I use. You set up a patreon, ko-fi, or whatever sponsorship system you prefer, and offer rewards to those who support you. Having their names in a credit list and getting access to advance chapters are very common rewards. Some people also lock access to their discord behind a paywall, or offer extra stories or let supporters name story characters.

This model is not the only way to make money from web serials. Some people make money via advertising, or selling merchandise, or use the web serial itself to advertise stories that they sell. You can of course use several revenue streams – you can have both a patreon/ko-fi and run ads on your website (I don’t because I hate ads, but you can), or start selling merch related to your story once there’s a demand for it. Many web serial authors (including myself) sell their completed works as books. But the important thing here is that one of these systems will be your main system, and you need to know what it is and behave accordingly. If you run ads AND have a patreon, are you more focused on ad revenue or patreon revenue? You’re going to have to put your time and attention into one of them over the other. You’re going to have to make decisions that will help one and harm the other. So know in advance which one is most important to you.

You don’t have to monetise your story at all, of course. Plenty of people write fiction on the internet for free every day with no thought to making an income at all. But if you’re serious about this, I would recommend monetising it, because that makes a better and more consistent product. The reason I’m still able to keep writing these year after year is that my supporters pay my mortgage; without Patreon and ko-fi, I’d have to get a different job, and wouldn’t have time or energy to write consistently. Also, the reason I can write and update even when I don’t feel like it, and the reason I always push to make my stories as good as possible even when I’m not interested, is because I owe it to my supporters who are paying me real actual money to read my work. If I didn’t owe my readers anything, none of these stories would ever get finished, because writing is only fun about half of the time.

3. Don’t expect to be able to turn this into a career.

This advice sounds silly coming from me, who has through sheer luck, as well as the generosity and passion of my readers, somehow turned this into a career. But I need to emphasise that that luck is not typical. Most web serial writers will not be able to support themselves solely with their writing. It can make a good side hustle, but if your primary goal is ���low barrier to entry work-from-home career where I don’t have to answer to a boss and can support myself comfortably,” then web serial writing is usually all of those things except the last one. There’s no harm in trying to turn this into a career – I did it, as have many other web serial authors – but don’t expect that result, is all I’m saying.

Still, if you can do it, it does have a lot of advantages.

4. Don’t expect to make money fast.

I remember when I finally started making an entire $100/month on Patreon. It was a fantastic day.

It was when I’d been writing web serials for four years.

5. Your most valuable resource is your readership.

Your readership will grow and gather momentum over time. The best business decisions you can make are those that grow your readership and allow your readers to participate in community, even if you have to give up opportunities to make money to do it.

A good example of this is discord. Some people have private discords that only their patrons can access; while this is a useful anti-spam and anti-harassment tool, I don’t recommend doing this if you don’t have a major spam or harassment problem. Some people will pay for discord access, yes, so you might get a handful of extra dollars per month that way – however, you will also get a far less active discord. When it comes to readers, population density is critically important; the more activity, the more people talking about your work together (or talking about anything and bonding with each other), the better. Plenty of people have joined my free discord just because it was there and only read my stories after seeing people talk about them there. Then they go and get their friends to read the stories. Enthusiastic readers are inherently valuable, and the best thing you can do is give them the resources they need to talk to each other and share their interest.

This principle applies to a lot of things. I have a lot of free stories on my website that aren’t the usual web serials, and more than once I’ve considered whether they should be paywalled. The answer I always land on is ‘no’; I couldn’t tell you how many readers have been roped into my web serials because they liked Copy <|> Paste, or The Void Princess, or Drops of Blood. These readers may or may not then become monetary supporters, but even the ones who don’t will increase activity and discussion about the stories, have fun and tell jokes in the discord, and may even produce fanart. A thriving community is always going to be more valuable to you than a few extra dollars; make sure to support them accordingly.

Your readership will start very small. In terms of marketing, this is your hardest time. A big readership does the majority of the marketing for you, but when you’re on your own, it takes a lot to convince anyone to give your stories a shot. It helps if you have an existing readership to leverage, which is what I did – I’d been writing Animorphs fanfiction on AO3 for years, and many of my first readers followed me over from there. If you have such a community that already has faith in your writing, leverage it. If you don’t, you can gain one my writing in a place where people go to read stories similar to your work, such as an appropriate subreddit, or a web serial site like Royal Road or Scribblehub. You are looking to gain as high a number of enthusiastic, engaged readers as possible.

And now, the fun part – the actual craft!

The Writing Part

1. Always remember that you are writing for two audiences

A web serial author has to keep two audiences in mind; the serial readers, and the bingers. You are writing a story that needs to be fun and engaging when read very slowly, at the pace of whatever your update schedule is, but that also needs to be interesting when read all at once.

This is not an easy task.

It’s something I fucked up pretty significantly with Curse Words, which was my first attempt at this. Curse Words has a lot of complicated political stuff happening throughout pretty much the whole story, as well as a complex save-the-world plot that’s reliant on a lot of secrets, mysteries and extremely speculative information. With so many wheels spinning, I decided to make the protagonist not particularly smart and move him very slowly through the plot to make sure that the reader would be able to keep up.

This was a mistake.

‘Pretty slow and simple’ at a novel reader’s pace is torturous at a web serial pace. Readers got a full week to discuss the mysteries and implications of each chapter with each other, doing the detective work of ten chapters between each one. The frustration with Kayden’s slow pace was clear, and he came across as an outright idiot rather than an average teen. Personally, I think this lesson was one of the biggest reasons for the difference in quality between Curse Words and Time to Orbit. Don’t slow down for your audience; they’re already slowed down by your update schedule.

At the same time, though, you don’t want to move so fast that you lose the bingers. You can’t assume that your readers will have time between chapters, or that they will discuss each chapter with other readers, or that they will go back over previous chapters looking for clues. Interested people reading update by update will do this, but bingers absolutely will not. So you still need to make sure that everything is comprehensible on a binge read with no backchecking or outside investigation.

My advice on this matter is to move as fast as possible, but take care to make sure that readers are reminded of everything important a few chapters before it comes into play. That way, both audiences can keep up. If you have to make a decision, it’s best to favour your update readers; they’re your most active community. They’re doing the up-to-date discussion, and probably doing the most word-of-mouth and fanart, although binge readers will do that too (I have plenty of dedicated readers who wait five or six weeks to binge a bunch of chapters on purpose, just because that’s their preferred reading style, and they’re still very engaged). But if you plan to publish your story later as a complete work, you also need to keep in mind how it’s going to read as a binge – and also, new readers will binge the earlier chapters of your story to catch up to the current one, so make sure it’s a good experience for them or they won’t get a chance to become update readers.

Two audiences. Mind your pacing and information reveals accordingly.

2. Chapter length

The general rule of web serials is that the more often you update, the shorter your chapters should be. The generally agreed ‘sweet spot’ is 1-1.5k words, 3 times a week, but this depends heavily on individual style. I update once or twice a week (depending on what stories I’ve got going) and try to keep my chapters between 2 and 2.5k words. If you update once a month, your sweet spot is probably about 10k words.

Don’t hold religiously to what other people tell you the ideal word count is – this will vary drastically with genre and personal style – but it’s best to try to stay fairly consistent. It’s not always possible to stay exactly on target because the best break points between chapters will vary (I’ve got 1.8k chapters and 3.5k chapters), but readers like to be able to predict about how long an update will be and they like it to not vary too wildly too often. As with choosing your update schedule, choosing your chapter length will depend on what suits your personal schedule, and what suits the story you’re writing.

“The shorter the chapter, the more frequent the updates” is a good rule for attracting the widest audience. Short, infrequent chapters will have a lot of readers losing interest between updates; long, frequent ones will have a lot of readers feeling overwhelmed. But the most important thing is finding something that you can consistently output year after year (remember, it took me 4 years to make $100/month; this is a long game).

3. It’s a TV show, not a movie

This advice is less useful in our age of Marvel movie franchises and made-to-binge Netflix series, so pretend I’m talking to you in the year 2010 or earlier. If a novel is a movie, a web serial is a TV show. What I mean by that is that a novel is shaped primarily as a complete experience, whereas a web serial is shaped as a chapter-by-chapter experience.

It’s best, in both cases, to have a well structures and paced story that is made of well structured and paced chapters. But sometimes you have to choose between the structure or a chapter and the structure of the story as a whole; making one better will cheapen the other. When you’re writing a novel, you should choose the structure of the whole, but when you’re writing a web serial, you should choose the structure of the chapter. Web serial readers will prefer a chained series of excellent chapters, over a beautiful story of chapters with mediocre individual structure.

In fact, whether you want a structure to the overall story at all is personal taste. My stories have strong overall structure and move towards a planned conclusion because that’s how I prefer to write (and it also makes the story bingeable, since it’s basically a novel being released really slowly), but plenty of web serials out there have no real planned ending and will wander about for years and years in no obviously consistent direction, occasionally throwing in a big twist or major change to freshen things up. These would make absolutely horrible novels, but make very popular web serials. Whether you write like me or like them, the rule is the same – the experience of each individual chapter takes priority.

Come to think of it, this might be why people call my stories “ADHD crack”…

4. Okay, so how do I structure a good chapter?

I generally try to do three things in every chapter.

- Hit the ground running

- Give them something new

- End on an open question

Hit the ground running – Unless it’s the very first chapter of the story, you don’t have to be coy getting into the action. Open the chapter as if it’s the middle of the chapter; start at full momentum. Catch the high point of the last chapter before it falls. It your last chapter ended with “We checked the fingerprints on the candlestick. It’s Colonel Mustard.” then you can start this one with “But he was in the library at the time!”, you don’t need to recap or slow down or anything.

Give them something new – Every chapter should give the reader at least one thing to talk and think about. A new choice, some new information, a shift in perspective, whatever. People are reading these updates one at a time so it is vital that they feel like they got something out of the experience. A chapter in which nothing is learned will make readers feel like their time was wasted, and they have all the time until next update to reflect on that.

This is also true of a novel, but it’s much more critical in a web serial. A novel with nothing chapters in it is just frustratingly slow-paced; a web serial with nothing chapters in it leaves the reader feeling cheated for long stretches of time.

The thing to talk about doesn’t necessarily have to be a big plot reveal or major advancement. An incredibly cute scene, or sad scene, or funny scene will work just as well. But you have to give them SOMETHING. If you’re giving them nothing, consider cutting the chapter entirely and integrating any important foreshadowing or whatever into the next chapter.

One major hurdle of mine with this rule is recap chapters. If you’re writing a very complex plot over a long period of time, you need ways to occasionally take stock and make sure everyone is on the same page and nobody’s forgotten or misinterpreted anything important. This information can be recapped or conveyed in the middle of an action sequence or something, but I personally find that putting other stuff in the scene makes it too distracting and therefore less effective. I like to literally just sit the heroes down in a room and have them go, “okay, we’re spinning a lot of threads at once right now; what do we know, what are we trying to figure out, and what are our next steps?” This is the literary equivalent of the save point or room full of health packs right before a boss battle. Game designers don’t put that room there to be nice; they do it so that they know exactly how much health you’re going to have going into the battle, and can structure it accordingly.

You can make these chapters entertaining with character banter, but you can’t really introduce new threads to talk about, except possibly as a twist right at the end. Introducing new information mid-recap distracts from the recap and makes it pointless. You might have something similar in your stories, chapters that are essential but don’t give the reader anything new to work with.

My advice for these is to just bite the bullet on this one. Release the chapter with nothing new to talk about. You can get away with doing this occasionally, if the chapter has a clear purpose (I get a lot of readers tell me that they appreciate my recap chapters). Readers who get nothing out of the chapter will shrug and talk about older stuff instead, so long as you only do this occasionally. But a chapter with no new information has a cost in opportunity and in reader patience, so only pay it if the chapter’s worth it.

End on an open question– End the chapter with a reason for the reader to come back. You want them to think about the story afterward and be eager to read the next chapter when it comes out. Adhering to this principle is probably why I have such a reputation for cliffhangers, although truth be told I don’t use nearly as many actual cliffhangers as people say, I just try to end by opening a question. By that I mean, the audience should always end a chapter asking a question, which can be something that will span dozens of chapters (“How can Colonel Mustard’s fignerprints be on the candlestick? Is he being framed? Does this mean that the candlestick was in the library and isn’t even the murder weapon?”) or span a single paragraph (“How will the narrator react to learning that Colonel Mustard lied about never touchign the candlestick?”) This could be the emotional height of a scene, or the point at which new information recontextualises everything. It could be the moment where the stakes are raised or an important assumption turns out to be false. Anything that makes the audience eager to learn what happens next will do.

There should always be at least one open question in your story, more if it’s thematically appropriate. You know how mmorpgs and crafting games and suchlike keep you playing for hours and hours by making sure you’re always near the end of an activity – keep playing til you reach the next level, oh but now we’re nearly at the end of this quest so we should complete that, oh but now we’re just 20 gold short of being able to buy that cool new armour so we should just… same trick. Readers should always have at least one ‘quest’, an open question that they’re following, and should always be close to an answer.

You don’t have to dramatically introduce an entirely new question each time; you can end a chapter by reminding the reader of an existing open question. I tend to be a fan of the Big Dramatic Reveal On The Last Line method (cliffhanger reputation), but you don’t have to do it that way. Indeed, it’s a good idea not to do it that way every single time, lest you get stuck in a rut; every chapter ending doesn’t have to be incredibly tense and snappy. Somebody mentioning that they wish they knew how they could get enough food to make it through the winter before a full paragraph of cuddling and falling asleep in their mother’s arms works just as well.

5. It will help if your story is good, but it isn’t required.

You don’t have to be very good at writing to do this.

It helps to be good at writing, of course, and I assume that since you’re asking me for tips, you’re the sort of person who wants to be as good at writing as you can. But there is some true hack garbage out there doing absolute numbers in the web serial circuit. I try not to harp on about this too much because Curse Words fans get really upset at me when I do, but I think most of us can agree that Curse Words kind of sucks. And that just sucks in an ‘author is still learning how to do this’ kind of way; there’s much worse writing, real bullshit Ready Player One-level writing, trucking along out there brilliantly.

The point I’m trying to make here is that this isn’t an industry where there’s any value in hesitating and wringing your hands and asking yourself if you’re a good enough writer to do it yet. You are. You can just start writing a web serial right now and so long as you consistently update, you’re probably already above average for the market. And your first one probably will suck (mine did), but it’ll teach you how to make a better one. I think that Time to Orbit: Unknown is passably okay, and it absolutely would not be passably okay if I hadn’t written Curse Words first. Just go for it. Try to write a quality story if you can, but if you can’t, it’s honestly not that big of a deal. What matters, truly matters, is that you are committed to improving your craft. And that means actually practicing your craft. Which means writing some chapters and setting up a release schedule.

Good luck.

[chocobroing]

It’s because it’s Rhaenicent first, everything second to these dumbass writers and showrunners.

I'm appalled by the amount of people who think we can't critique or hate the writer for how they've handled a story, or question their capabilities. If you haven't read the book and you enjoy the show on its own, that's great, I'm happy you enjoy it. But for readers who see characters that they love being stripped of their personalities and are the complete opposite of what George described them to be, that is NOT good writing. What they're doing is basic character assassination.

This whole story is a fucking tragedy. Taking out Maelor completely does change a lot that unfolds and it's supposed to be heartbreaking. Every death is supposed to haunt the narrative of the Dance; there are essential points in the plot that should NOT be messed with, moved, or erased because then everything else falls apart.

When the writers are giving me inconsistencies with character choices, plot holes, and lack of emotion, if I'm not feeling the tragic losses and it's not impacting the story, the side characters, then yes I will in fact question the writer's capabilities. I will think they failed at adapting the Dance on screen because to me they did.

[angelspitxx]

I'm genuinely asking, why do you like helaegon so much? I've seen a lot of people hating on this ship some reason saying it's toxic and stuff... I kinda like too but I don't wanna be judged

i love helaegon for many, many reasons. (sorry it took so long to respond btw, i wanted to put some real thought into this and explain it properly.)

their sun and moon symbolism is beautiful and represents the tragicness of their relationship so perfectly. check out this post, it's explained pretty well there.

they have these haunted, victorian gothic vibes to them that appeal to me. whether it's the different filters used during filming and editing, or tom and phia's acting itself.. it's ethereal.

i love seeing snippets of their family dynamics. in season one helaena and her children are wearing gold. she has a golden sun wedding ring to resemble sunfyre and aegon. the dinner scene, where he's silently fuming about her dancing with jace. the glimpses we get in season two of her embroideries in aegon's clothes, as well as the twins blankets/jaehaerys' shroud. him comforting her when she says she's afraid and calling her an "enduring mystery".

then there's the more serious stuff, like the fact that they were both forced into becoming king and queen, only to lose their child because of it. they share this pain and grief, that no one else around them understands. only to not come together because they don't know how. it's much worse in the books but regardless, they can't comfort one another. they were never properly taught.

tom has even said, that it's like they're living the same life, just on different paths. they can't connect even if it's what both of them desperately need at that moment, each other. i find that so intriguing, and heartbreaking at the same time. if their upbringing had been different, what kind of relationship would they have had with one another? the possibilities are endless..

and that's where fanfiction comes in. i, personally, find the writing for hotd subpar. it's got it's good moments but i have seen so many amazing fanfic writers bring helaegon to life. i suggest you take a look on here or on ao3 and see what the hype is about. there are tons of other shippers out there and since season two came out, there's even more.

don't ever be ashamed of who you ship. it's no one else's business what you like. also, once you let go of that worry about being judged by people, i promise you'll enjoy fiction much more than before. ❤️

[violetmuses]

Roman Reigns + Correspondent!Reader (Part 4) 🖤

Fandom: WWE

Character: Roman Reigns

@expert-texpert @persethegawd @episodes-ff @adriennegabriella @fearlesschimera @secretlifeoofmarpessa @mytribalnightmare @adoresmiles @blackgurlnhermoods @babybratzmaraj 🏷

====

2024

“Wait a minute. Are you serious? Where is she? I can't believe this.” Reading this script for another match, Joseph Anoa'i vented regarding backstage production and started looking for you.

Calling first, Joe rubbed down his face and noticed this beard, quietly wishing that your fingers could smooth along black-grey patterns.

“Hi, Joe! I'm not sure if anyone told you, but I'm stuck in traffic. I'll be there soon.” Despite offering happiness, your bad news remained.

“Oh, man. I'm sorry. Just come find me when you get here. It's important. Stay safe.” Keeping his composure, Joseph tried to settle before hanging up.

“All right! See you later.” Your sweet voice pulled through once to end the call.

When Joseph silenced his phone, staff members almost looked horrified as the writer's team chaired this room and sought his opinion.

____

“Change the ending right now.” Joseph shook his head.

Voices would mumble in all directions upon realization.

“Episodes are fake. What's wrong?” One leader spoke up.

“This isn't fair. We've had segments together for years and the draft tossed everything out like garbage.” Not even mentioning details while thinking of you, Joe then lifted stapled papers.

“Joseph…” The leader wanted to calm down emotions.

“Don't argue.” Joe defended his choice. “I've spent most of my career putting up with y'all and you still can't listen to me?”

Just before that writer could respond, knocking echoed from the hallway.

“Hello, everyone. Apologies.” Staying cordial, you updated this production team.

Employees welcomed you inside and you quickly sat down, given the script.

While staff offered you this beverage, the progress kicked off once more as leaders explained that upcoming episode.

While reviewing details as usual, you smiled toward Joseph and laughed sometimes, prompting his rare joy that stood off camera.

Yet, the final pages grounded your unexpected shock.

What the hell? You thought.

No matter what happens though, you can't walk away from this opportunity.

______

“You okay?” Joseph looked for you in the tunnel once that vital meeting ended.

“No. The ending won't even make sense.” You stood across from him because this story would change forever.

“Since that team won't listen, I'll handle it.” Joe made this promise before walking away, ready for the program.

******

Thousands of people cheered when Roman defeated another monster, but nearly ominous music would pick up to signal one entrance.

“Holy hell! Solo Sikoa has emerged with members of the New Bloodline. A fresh chapter will change history.” Commentators almost yelled around fans.

Yet before Solo could even open his mouth with that microphone, someone else loomed and veiled their eyes, standing feet from the ring.

Taking off the hat of one outfit, that stranger revealed themselves.

You arrived.

“Oh! Let's go. What the…yeah!” Jimmy and Jey Uso almost cursed while realizing your appearance.

“Write this down!” Fans chanted your longtime slogan.

“Solo. Aren't you part of the family?” Using another microphone, your moment began.

“He's supposed to care about us.” Jey quickly spoke up near you.

“Who are you?” Solo dared to turn nonsense over your presence and everyone lost their minds.

“What did you just say?” Roman stepped forward while towering Solo to defend you. Even cameras noticed silent rage.

“Don't worry. I'll deal with this.” You intervened before Roman could knock Solo out.

Even Sami Zayn folded both arms while observing this live movie.

“I'm in charge now. I'm the Tribal Chief!” Solo barked, yet no one flinched.

Your nearly manic laughter spooked him right back and you no longer veiled the truth of this unexpected personality. Fans cheered again.

“No one has ever pulled this much audacity before! You've lost your mind, Solo.” Your declaring words protected the only bloodline here.

“OTC!” Fans encouraged Roman over and over again.

Camera angles zoomed inward as you stepped back and prompted Roman to watch Solo's every move.

“If anything happens to her, I'll burn this place to the ground.” Reigns held nothing back and warned Sikoa. “You understand me?”

“I don't care.” Solo narrowed his eyes. “You can't run things anymore.”

When Jimmy and Jey safely escorted you out of that ring, Roman burned emotions and grounded the most diabolical Superman Punch for Solo!

“You scared? Huh? Don't get up.” Reigns worked trash talk once more. “Uh-uh! Don't get up now, Solo.”

Lifting two blurred middle fingers, you shouted almost incoherently while standing ringside as Jimmy and Jey viewed this hopeful win.

“My goodness! Will Roman Reigns keep his rightful place as Tribal Chief?” Announcers questioned so much to offer dramatics.

“Listen. Keep her name out of your mouth before we have some problems!“ Roman torched Solo and looked for you again.

“Get him, Uce!” Jey chanted for Roman when time ran down.

Crashing his iconic spear maneuver with Sikoa, Reigns pulled this much-needed victory.

“The reign continues. There is only one Tribal Chief standing upfront in WWE!” Commentators wailed to end the match.

____

Turning himself away from that large-scale ring, Joseph shattered the fourth wall and immediately headed in your direction, rasping his words.

“Look at me. I love you.” Views of perfectly dark yet long hair fell around Joseph's chiseled face.

Even his bare sweat warmed near each of your stances.

“Joe…” Before you could turn away, Joseph raised your chin using his gloved finger.

“I love you…” Repeating the truth, his Southern accent toned this meaningful whisper.

Welcoming the true promise, you smiled against his lips in character while credits rolled to end another program.

*****

“Just warning everybody. I'm still fired up from our match, so be careful.” Joseph would still face media platforms once televised cameras stopped.

“Reports have already speculated that you were supposed to lose this match.” One person revealed their inquiry.

“I didn't.” Joe shrugged.

“We've also heard more rumors about the future your own storyline…” Questions moved to The Bloodline again, but Joseph couldn't overreact.

“We all put on a show. Everyone does. Leave it at that.” Joe knew better.

“One last question.” Your voice turned heads around the room.

“Excuse me. Before you start, Hey.” Offering this bright smile, Joseph truly aughed and colleagues almost swooned.

“Hi.” You grinned.

“Please go ahead.” Leaning back, Joseph welcomed the question, but his glare locked down and focused on you.

Even while hustling for media right now, You look absolutely gorgeous.

“What's next?” Your words quickly trembled this audience.

“Until somebody else can knock everything down and take power away from me, we'll just keep moving forward.” Joseph stood tall with the answer.

“Thank you, Sir.” You smiled to end the press conference.

“Sir?” Pulling that Big Dog character up, Joe messed with you while everyone silenced. “Baby Girl? This might be too hot for TV, but listen. Don't even pull this trigger unless you know what happens afterwards.”

“Uh-oh!” Other voices realized the dynamics of what Joe meant.

_____

Once media turned out of his way, Joseph nearly chased you down this tunnel and found one corner, hiding despite the surrounding public.

“You're a brat? Huh?” He smiled against your lips when you looked up to face his brown eyes.

“Maybe…” You would play his own games right back.

“I love you…” Joseph Anoa'i offered the truth one last time before looping his fight arm around your shoulder, grateful.

[thatbuddie]

"eddie isn't queer/gay," you say. "he is straight in canon, so him being gay is just a head canon. it's ok for others to think of him as straight because that's what he is."

let's ignore for a second the fact that eddie has never ever ever ever not even once, said in canon that he is a heterosexual very straight guy. seriously!!! he has never once said it!!! if i am "assuming" he's gay then you are also "assuming" he is straight even though he has never once said it!!

how do you think we got bi buck as canon? like i am serious right now, answer the question. how do you think we go bi buck canon? evan buckley was never conceived to be a bisexual man at the beginning of 911. the reason we have evan buckley as a canonically bisexual character today is because us, queer fans of 911, interpreted him and headcanoned him as bisexual. i would go even further and say that it was us, BUDDIE FANS, who interpreted him and headcanoned him as bi. even before the writers were explicitly writing him as bisexual. we read his actions and his story and his identity and said: "this is a bi character!" and the writers looked back and realized that it made sense! and so they started writing him explicitly and canonically as bi.

was it wrong of us to headcanon a character as bisexual then? like for all intents and purposes we were reading a "straight" character as bi. were we doing something wrong? how come you are not complaining/chastising us/shaming us for how we took evan buckley, an otherwise straight character, and saw him as bi? is it because it now serves a purpose to you that he is bi?

also, taking characters that aren't confirmed queer and reading them as queer is what the queer community, and specifically the queer fandom community, has been doing for DECADES. look up the history of queer coding, i am begging you. it has been through the means of queer coding and the perseverance of people that are engaged in it that actual queer representation in media has increased. and let me tell you right now, eddie diaz is, undoubtedly and undeniably, one of the most queer coded characters there is. whether you think this queer coding is conscious by the writers or not. eddie diaz is queer coded.

and i want everyone who says things like "eddie diaz is not a queer character. he is straight in canon. it's wrong to assume a character is queer without the character saying so" to know that this is exactly what straight and homophobic people say. you are using the SAME rhetoric that has been used to shame queer fans for decades for seeing themselves and their experiences in fictional characters of all types. in fact, us, queer fans (and again BUDDIE FANS), were told so many times by straight fans that we were wrong for reading buck as bisexual. and where are we now? where did reading buck as bi take us? oh yeah, to having bi buck in canon.

so please just stop with the "eddie isn't queer in canon" comments. if you don't want to interpret eddie as queer then that is your prerogative. i will be judging why that is, for sure, but it is your right. but be honest about it. it has nothing to do with whether or not he is straight (which hasn't been said) or queer coded (which he so obviously is seeing as so many of us can very easily read him as queer). it's a personal preference and you're not engaging with canon better because of it.

[arcane-temp-fandomblog]

My theory is that they probably always were really chaotic which is why the first version of Arcane had to be scrapped for sucking.

and

Maybe somebody forced them to get oversight to get out something more structured, but after s1 was so successful they probably got high on their success,

Yeah, that's what if feels like. I think Season 1 sucked as bad as Season 2, but they had people come in to polish it. Not one mastermind person, but writers that would take the showrunners ideas and turn it into coherent story that meshed together. The more I read post Season 2 interviews, the more it seems the showrunners are not proficient in translating what they wanted to screenplay by themselves but didn't realize it.

You can say that political messaging was always shallow, but the story in Season 2 has issues on every level:

meta narrative - the time loop where Jayce always is set on the same track to do the same things contradicts the "choice" message they make final showdown about

story structure - character's go missing from the plot for whole segments of the story in very contrived way, and not just one - several of them

story exposition - we learn same information several times, some dialogue is just characters explaining plot to the viewer

tone - serious story beats are intersected with out of place humour, ie. Jinx and enforcer dialogue about circus tent pants where apparently Jinx should be worried about Isha, Cait and Vi ending on very dramatic note in act 1 only to trade quips when reunited in ep. 6 and not have any emotional resolution - How am I supposed to take this story seriously when there's Joss Wheadon dialogue in between important parts. Season 1 never had this tone problem while having humour.

character's goals become muddled or their internal logic becomes broken, not expanded on like Singed with his daughter but broken - Ambessa is great example of just becoming illogical in decisions so plot happens along.

tension - the show now withholds information from the viewier in contrived ways for reveals, including last reveal being 15min before end that explains Jayce's motivation. There was nothing like that in Season 1, we only had flashback at the start of the episode.

dialogue - a lot of dialogue is just an exchange, sometimes without lead up or sounds cool but has no sense. I think best example is Caitlyn's last line "Are you still in this fight, Violet?" - what is the fight she's talking about? Who cares, it sounds cool.

I could go on, because everything seems worse or less coherent.

If you compare it how events are structured in domino effect from Silco trying to implicate firelights with Jinx grenade through Marcus, to it being reason for Marcus' demise because he off handedly proposes to Jayce to close of the bridge while going with Silco's demands and Jayce jumps on it, to it becoming an obstacle for Cait and Ekko, to it becoming central to council learning about Jinx and that being part of bargaining between Jayce and Silco, to Silco's death. There is nothing like that in Season 2, stuff is just stitched together - oh Vander is sick - we go to a healer, healer camp got attacked - we go to Piltover.

i'm not done with my christian linke slander. his response to fans' complaints about vi's characterization (or lack thereof) in season 2 is very disappointing. there is nothing wrong with wanting more attention for other characters but ffs, vi is THE protagonist of the series. there should've been more attention on her loneliness after breaking up with caitlyn, struggling with change, and her thought process of becoming an enforcer; all of that felt like an afterthought in season 2. it's not like a character having disproportionate screentime was ever a problem either. jinx and vi had the most screentime in season 1, but the other characters still felt fully fleshed out and interesting. i really hope linke doesn't work on the upcoming lol tv adaptations, you should not be a show runner if you can't listen to reasonable fan criticism.

[littlefankingdom]

It's ironic how Batman is painted as irresponsible for having children fighting as his side (ignoring how said children would still fight without him), but never other heroes, HOWEVER the moment the Teen Titans/Young Justice wants to do something dangerous or comes back from doing something dangerous, he is literally the only responsible adult out of the Justice League. Like, the others are simply like "I'm so proud of you!" but Batman is lecturing his kids about how dangerous it was, how they didn't even told him where they were going, how they didn't contact him about their well-being enough, about how difficult it would have been for him to come help if they needed it... He's straight-up acting like a parent that found out his kid sneaked out, but they didn't came back until later the next day, and never called to tell them they were alive.

Bruce is portrayed as the "unfunny" one when one of his teenage kids is like "the team and I wants to do this dangerous thing unsupervised", because every other adult is fine with their own doing it, but like, he is being the responsible one. Yeah, a responsible parent would not be like "sure sweetie, go fight this dangerous thing with your teenage friends", they would be like "No, you could get hurt. Yes, I trust you, but this is not safe".

Sometimes, he isn't overprotective, he is normal-level-protective for when your kid is a "vigilante that fights people who will kill them without regret" as a hobby, and the others are being careless (no hate to them tho)

[butterflysonnets]

yes i'm rooting for m*leven breakup because byler is neat but mostly? i'm rooting for m*leven breakup for the sake of el and mike.

to me, their romance was always a puppy love born out of a combination of social pressures, naïve curiosity, and a lack of true understanding regarding intimacy and romantic love and what it really is. it was real in that they do truly, deeply care about each other and they are close friends, maybe even shared an attraction, but a maturing romance is so much more than that. they've grown up and out of being boyfriend/girlfriend, and that's okay! i think television/film needs to show more often that most of us don't have definite "soulmates" or first childhood loves that we spend our whole lives with. it doesn't mean these relationships meant nothing and didn't impact us, it just means they've run their course and that something else is in the cards, and this is part of life!

i've always felt el was at her best and most confident self when broken up with mike, discovering who she was and what she liked alongside another girl her age instead of just relying on mike for mentorship on how to live in the real world. she deserves more of an opportunity to find herself, her autonomy, and her independence, and to love who she is, and she's made it clear she's felt insecure in the relationship with mike because she isn't being loved and understood the way she wants, needs, and deserves from someone who is her partner.

also, it's okay if mike doesn't love her in "the way he should". he is not obligated to love her romantically and stay in a relationship with her just because she's a girl, because she "needed someone", or because he cares about her a lot. he shouldn't be pressured into a romance if it's not truly coming from his heart. he deserves freedom to find out and honour who he is, too, instead of just staying in his non-functional first relationship — one he got into as a child, essentially — and defining himself that way because it's what's expected when a boy and a girl are close. he loves her in some way, yes, but it's okay if he doesn't feel comfortable or secure being her boyfriend anymore, for whatever reason that is. he's felt insecure too, and that's valid and it matters.

they are their own people and are steadily growing and changing every day. they need time to figure out who those people are, and it's become clear (at least in my opinion) that those people aren't meant to be a couple at this stage.

they deserve freedom. they deserve to grow up and be authentic to themselves and not feel like they need to lie for the sake of a relationship. they deserve to move on from this version of their relationship that isn't making them happy and rekindle the best part of their bond: their strong, beautiful friendship. they don't have to be a couple if it doesn't make them stronger and better and happier people.

i think it would be healthy and wonderful for a show, especially one consumed frequently by young adults, to show a relationship starting, progressing, and ending on good terms in this way. sometimes things don't work out, and that is okay.

[alistairkisser]

"can't you guys shut up and stop complaining about the announcements and just have fun" i am having fun. i like complaining

[ladyluscinia]

Oh and since I am already rambling about Izzy's leg and "redemption arcs" tonight - I don't think I commented on this before because no one I'd been talking to about the season has this mindset, but I just want to acknowledge for the record that the idea Izzy went through a successful "redemption arc" is lowkey ridiculous?

Like *I* do not have issues with it because I don't think he did anything he really needed to be redeemed from with the crew. He was mostly an antagonist due to situational reasons and the situation changed, ergo now he's their friend. Minimal characterization-based hurdles involved. The only place he needed to actually talk through some healing and accountability was with Edward, and that's complicated by a) how I am actually criticizing that as unsatisfying, and b) the story tipped the balance of "harms that need to be addressed" so heavily toward Edward that it feels mostly pointless to bring up Izzy anyway. Broadly? Izzy's cool, and he bonded with the crew.

But for people who actually still think Izzy left S1 needing to be held accountable for crimes or overcome some internalized biases he had...? Um. That didn't actually happen on-screen. My guy pretty much got tortured a whole bunch and then given some community support. He's expressing pretty much the same values in 2x01 as he is in 2x06, minus maybe some self-worth (provided by the community support). If you think this a departure from his 1x10 characterization, then all the "redemption arc" growth happened between seasons in a timeskip and as a direct result of being tortured?

Which sounds the opposite of satisfying?

I mean, again, I think the only important realization he makes between 1x10 and 2x01 is "Kraken Era = Bad" and maybe reluctantly accepting "shit Bonnet wasn't just a fling", neither of which is groundbreaking enough he needs to have them on screen, and that his S2 arc is about breaking up with Edward / that self-worth which we do see. But if I thought it was a redemption arc about growth from S1 I would have notes.

[seaslimes]

Thinking once more about the F/F AO3 stats issue. Really struggling with the urge to write "issue" there too, LOL.

I know that call-to-action doesn't always go well, and that I exist as a drop in the bucket compared to millions of Tumblrites & AO3 users. But the curse of seeing yet another post which discusses how horri-bad these stats are, when the differences within the individual fandoms is often so manageable. It drives me insane.

There's a couple versions of these "wow, M/M fics are more popular and that's bad because of X issue" posts that have screenshots of laughable disparities. Stuff like 500 more M/Ms than F/Fs. That is a genuinely amusing number, because with the help from a fraction of the thousands who share any post like that, this very scary gap would cease to exist.

So, anyway. I'm considering some sort of fandom roundup wherein I have folks vote on a fandom with F/F to M/M "disparity" which I will then run a "break the ratio" event on. Encouraging people to write fics until the ratio evens. IDK, is that something that people would be interested in? I could be crazy but this rubber room squeaks and I think the rats are talking about me.

[greensaplinggrace]

highly specific pet peeve of mine when it comes to sab is that none of the characters act with any kind of wariness when they should. like the grisha would not be celebrating in the king’s court with genuine displays of emotion (and obvious shows of rivalry that can be exploited) for all of the otkazat’sya nobles to see. aleksander shouldn’t be showing so much genuine emotion in front of the king or any otkazat’sya (noble or not, they’re all threats to him after all). everyone should be tenser when they’re in court or around authority figures, and the ways they disregard authority are bizarre. that would have you flogged in any monarchy during that time period.

it feels like the writers don’t really grasp the setting or what it means to the characters. these people are soldiers, and even worse, they’re soldiers that are apart of a persecuted class. they should not be so comfortable in areas or around people where they would be thinking about their every little move and how it could be taken advantage of if it was shown. vulnerability should not be tossed around so carelessly by people who should be startlingly aware of life’s atrocities.

honestly, genya is the only character that even acts remotely like she should, in that she is always tense and wary and holding herself like someone who knows they can be hurt at any moment. and even then she’s loose in the king’s court (the king) when she would be at the height of her wariness and paranoia.

[lunar-years]

Oh wait did I get confused, I read it as confirming Jamie as bi, was it confirming Roy as bi?

it can mean anything your heart desires it to, anon. MY heart desires it to mean #happybivisibilityday to all pictured parties PLUS our favorite guy who hung their posters 🥰 do what brings you joy and #believe

[amplexadversary]

I'm screenshotting rather than derailing this post but

I'd like to call it now before I'm accused of this by someone who thinks the thematic foundation of a particular show is the "romance"

just. Based on some *takes* I've seen.

[clawsextended]

on a note to all: my plotting style is something i like to call i have adhd and if i see you on the dash and have an idea chances are i’ll im you about it. i’m an anxious little dude who isn’t always active in a broad scope, and it’s always been my nature to reach out to people. that doesn’t make me even remotely anxious. not even remotely expected to answer me — i totally get it, sometimes you don’t feel the vibe — but a general psa about how i work. i come from the dinosaur era where the only way to communicate with one another on any level was to directly talk to them and frankly i don’t even know how else you’re ever supposed to plot with a person otherwise. like… how do you write if you never talk????

[m4ndysk4nkovich]

does anybody else think that they dumbed ian and kev down a LOT as the seasons went on for comedic effect