#its literally a wish fulfillment fantasy

[durn3h]

The argument of "if christianity is manmade then why does it go against man's desires" is already dumb enough on it's face, but it's even dumber when you consider that most christians believe that they will be rewarded for their faith both during their life and after death. It's like the marshmallow test for kid's about delayed gratification but instead of getting 2 marshmallows for waiting until the end, you're allowed to take a nibble every now and then and sometimes you will get freebies, and then at the end you get a marshmallow factory.

[stressfulsloth]

I've seen a couple of takes about Disco Elysium being copaganda going around recently, and beyond the fact that DE is relentlessly critical of the police force in general and makes explicit reference to the failures of the system that allow the officers in game to abuse their power, I also think it's important to note that there very literally is an in-world version of copaganda that the writers of the game use to parody that romanticised view of the brutality of policing. The RCM at their inception were structurally inspired by in-world copaganda- their culture, their "fashions, even weapon preferences, borrow heavily from classic Vespertine cop shows." Every investigation is it's own little drama, every officer imagining themselves to be the bad-ass hero of their own crime serial. Detectives name their cases like they're naming episodes of a TV series in a "robust but literary system"; a title that "draws inspiration from snoop fiction and Vespertine cop show staples". They give themselves nicknames to sound like cool, suave fictional officers- Ace, Dick Mullen, etc.- from the cool, suave world of copaganda.

The legend of the RCM's inception, the "point of contention" over its uncertain origins, is even an extention of that; the whole organisation is shrouded in this self-fictionalising mythos that allows for distance that in turn obfuscates much of its violence to the officers that participate in it. They get to convince themselves that they're not abusing their power; they're the hero of the story! The dichotomy of "good guy" taking out the "baddies," a manifestation of the libertarian fantasy of the "good guy with a gun" who does what it takes, just like in Annette's detective novels, and at the same time who rails against oversight bodies like Internal Affairs/'the rat squad' because due process slows down the immediate satisfaction of Swift Justice, despite Internal Affairs existing to protect the citizens from overreach on behalf of the police. "Wanton brutality" from police in their real world is a cold bitter reality but Dick Mullen was "made to crack skulls," "bend the rules and solve cases no one else can," and which version of that story is more comforting to the overworked, underfunded officers of the RCM?

The level of fantasy and detachment required for the cops to still see themselves as the good guys after everything that they do in the line of duty mimics The Pigs and her breakdown too; she parallels Harry so clearly. Both "did right by the kids" in the past, hoping for a better future- Marianne (The Pigs) by looking out for Titus and the Hardy boys when they were young, Harry in his role as a gym teacher. Both abandoned and left behind by the system that the RCM uphold- a brutal capitalist landscape with no safety nets. Both turning the source of their trauma into a costume, a performance, a shield, shaped by "radio waves and cop shows." The Pigs uses RCM items scavenged from the Esperance where they'd been thrown away, while Harry uses the Dick Mullen hat that Annette gives him but both are essentially in costume.

Harry identifies himself with the fictional detective as a kind of wish fulfilment; Dick Mullen is "wicked smart." He doesn't fuck up his cases and when he's sad it's not pathetic; it's effortlessly cool brooding and everyone sympathises. Everyone loves him. His violence- "skull crack[ing]"- is justified because he's a "good guy" enacting that violence against the victims of police brutality sorry "bad guys". He doesn't ever face repercussions; "Dick Mullen won't be sent to the clink for the sake of some legal niceties!" So if Harry is Dick Mullen then his failures, his breakdown, they're all just a part of being a "bad-ass, on-the-edge disco cop." He's not wrong, he's a hero! This idealised fictionalised idea of the police force, this "new, sadly better, reality" that both Harry and The Pigs cling to is "escapist stuff," "receed[ing] into a ludicrous fantasy world," so far removed from the brutal material reality that they're in.

My point is, idk. Disco Elysium is so far from being copaganda. It is a multi-million word long dissection of it, of the purpose of policing, of state sanctioned violence and its interaction with capital and the fallout experienced within the wider community as well as the trauma cycle created for individual officers. A dissection of how copaganda interacts with RCM culture and perception, and by extension how we interact with irl perceptions of police through that lens.

[koimethehorizon]

Fionna and Cake theory: Simon the Artist

Nothing like a good old creative panic attack.

Fionna and Cake good. Haven’t been excited about a show like this in a long time, though it being a part of Adventure Time does help quite a bit. I was holding on to some cautious optimism for the show when it was announced as yet another big IP series covering the multiverse (still waiting to groan at THAT scene where Prismo has to explain to us about there being infinite universes), but as usual, Adventure Time’s crew continues to surprise me with its creativity, humor, and thematic resonance.

The most striking part about Fionna and Cake so far is just how deliberately the show wants us to differentiate it from the original Adventure Time.

We’re getting shots where Simon pops an artery from his arm, a theme song that explicitly talks about suicidal ideation, discussions of rent and financial problems, and curses no longer disguised with AT’s usual dialogue. Adventure Time has always had violence, thematic density, and juvenile rating pushers, but they were always reserved at small points. Meanwhile, these are factors that are just casually shown and discussed in Fionna and Cake every 3 minutes or so. This is not an all-ages miniseries, it’s for young adults. (hint: this will be relevant later)

Let’s get right into it. This is much less a speculative lore theory and more on what thematic direction the story may be going.

Before we do, let’s get this out of the way first. This theory assumes that the current Fionna and Cake world is all a part of Simon’s head and not merely a separate multiverse, which… I’m certain is fact for the following reasons.

The immediately obvious piece is that Fionna and Cake was always the Ice King’s fanfiction. Now if you’re versed in AT’s continuity you’re probably going to be asking about the red light in Fionna and Cake + Fionna and… I’ve no answer for it unfortunately. It’ll probably be relevant later in the series and possibly age this post like milk but for now, we’re not here to focus on the how, but the why.

Second is that the intro and the ending of Ep 2 literally show Fionna’s world spilling right out of Simon’s head like an animated world out of a frozen brain. If that isn’t clear enough-

Didn't realize this until writing, but these glasses are just plastic made to look like Betty's

There’s no other explanation for this other than that this world is artificial or influenced by Simon in some sense. Fionna even specifies that the statue went under renovation 12 years ago, but nobody seems to know who it is. Considering how Finn looks in the episode, it’s likely that it’s been that long since Betty’s sacrifice in the finale.

With that out of the way, here it goes.

The reason Fionna and Cake exist in the first place is because the creators found Natasha Allegri’s genderswap designs charming and wanted an in-universe reason to use them the Ice King wanted to create trashy, wish fulfillment through art. It was a phase.

Definitely changed that image for publishing.

Simon can argue if they’re good or bad but it’s undeniably his art. It’s not just a portfolio he left behind in a closet, it’s an experience that was shared with a larger audience.

And even if wasn’t liked at first, the citizens of Ooo seemed to have come around to it. And some of them love it!

Whether Simon likes it or not, he has a fan base that is so endeared to the story he made all those years ago that they demand he makes more. Why let a good story, loved by many, go to rest when you still have some life and creativity left in you?

Can't move on in more ways than one.

Except, the problem is that Simon isn’t Ice King anymore. He’s aged out of it.

His real passion is history, he's an adult who who finds passion in the mundane and antiques from the past. And frankly, there isn’t much room for wish-fulfillment and fantasy anymore. Simon has responsibilities. He has a job and a daughter in a world that is moving faster than he can process.

And where Ice King wrote about looking for love, Simon has already had it.

And lost it. His mind isn’t focused on the rosiness of finding new love, it’s grieving the one he already thought was the one.

Wasn't he supposed to be good with kids?

Despite his new life experiences, all his peers seem to want from him is to make more of what they’re familiar with.

A story made from wants and wishes that he doesn’t even have anymore.

A story that was literally made by someone else at a different time. It’s a fiction he cannot connect to anymore, art that he’s embarrassed by. Yet also jealous of. Because at one point, the body Simon used to be in understood what exactly was missing from his life and could express that easily.

Seeing it again is like experiencing a retrospection of a cringey loser you don’t want to imagine having ever been. It’s not you anymore, and you don’t want to be reminded of that.

Because despite him having a new creative passion, no one seems to care about that. All they want is Fionna and Cake. And what is more lonely than other people misunderstanding what you’re trying to express?

If I failed to make it clear somehow, my theory is that: Simon’s relationship with Fionna and Cake is a metaphor for creators growing out of their art. And this new Fionna and Cake world is still comfort art born out of Simon’s current desires and perceptions.

The snippet subtitles this “child holding a phone”. I guess I’m wrong. Essay over.

Episode 1 and 2 both have direct parallels with each other. They’re both about a protagonist who are feeling displaced from their world, living a phase of losing a significant other, leaving a thankless job, wearing a mask of stability in front of the people they care for, seeking a guru at the heart of the forest, and concluding that they no longer belong in their current world.

But more importantly, Fionna and Cake (the characters, the world, and the show) are no longer for an all-ages crowd. Fionna and Cake now feature young adults, curses, gore, alcohol, partial nudity, financial issues, morning routines, mid-life crisis, and overt suicidal ideation. These are the feelings that Simon relates to and possibly desires to express through art. Thus, his story and our new miniseries have warped that way.

Am I overthinking this? No. How dare you assume that.

Is equating the unconscious writings of his dementia-ridden self to Simon as his younger self seem a bit odd? ….Kinda. Again, it’s not the how but the why that matters in this case. I'm NOT crazy, I have proof that there is some acknowledgment of this directly in the show.

Rewatch the bar scene and apply this reading of the episode to what Simon says there:

“Your old stuff, Fionna and Cake, honest to glob my man, is an inspiration to me.”

“My old stuff, I don’t really want to talk about my old stuff…”

“Why not? You should be proud! You wrote an entire extended universe in a fugue state if you think about it.”

"Simon cringes"

If you have ever shared art with a group of people in the past, you’ve had this conversation.

Not likely, not possibly, no perhapses. You HAVE.

And Fionna and Cake being an epilogue to a massive award-winning, near-decade-spanning, cultural sensation 5 years after it ended, might result in its creators feeling very retrospective about what audiences want from them now.

And how difficult it’s going to be to tell new experiences and tones from what’s come before. Also, come on. “Extended Universe?” That doesn’t sound like Fionna and Cake. That sounds a lot like something else.

Again, seems bad with this kid.

One of the more profound shots in the main trailer for the show features the inconspicuously Finn-like kid crouching at her Fionna and Cake book in Simon’s trash. I believe this character is going to have a major role in two ways. Convincing Simon to be proud of what he’s accomplished and/or embracing that Simon wants to move away from his original work in order to create something new, or perhaps more likely, reinvent Fionna and Cake into what Simon relates to now.

We’ll just have to see what Simon thinks of his new Fionna next week.

PS. Talking as a fan now, WHAT IS UP WITH THE 1000+ TREEHOUSE IN THE INTRO?!!! ARE WE REVISITING THIS TIMELINE AGAIN?

SOMEONE TELL ME NOW!!!

[imagines-to-quench-thirst]

Joker Masterlist

Disclaimer: stories are fictitious and should not be taken literally, the behavior is entirely imaginative and the content may be inappropriate

Updated & repaired: 16/07/2023 (if a story won't load or something else, please message me and let me know)

MAIN MASTERLIST

Fluff🌺  Angst 🌩️ Smut❤️‍🔥

MY HEADCANONS W/ OTHER CHARACTERS:

Speak In Flowers 🌺 Flowers speak their own words and show their actions. And your man loves to speak it out loud.

Visiting Your Hometown 🌺 how would your boy act when you drag him along to your hometown

Helping You To Accept Your Stretch Marks 🌺your boy helps you accept your beautiful stretch marks as they are...pure perfection

Explaining To Your Man Kdramas🌺I (V) wrote small drabbles that paired my favorite men and dramas that I absolutely love

Dating A Tattoo Artist 🌺 being a tattoo artist and your boyfriend being part of it

When Tough Times Occur 🌺Life itself can be a pain and with its obstacles, it can seem impossible to overcome it but that’s what makes us stronger as people.

Someone Rubs You The Wrong Way With... 🌺 how would your man protect you when someone doesn’t mind your business

Having A Shower ❤️‍🔥having a shower with your man sounds like heaven right?!

One Thing He Loves About You (Physically Or Mentally)🌺 the title spoils the ending a bit

No Nut November ❤️‍🔥in the glory of No Nut November, you make a bet with your liver saying if they fail you cuff them and use them to your liking but if you lose they get to fulfil one of their fantasies. And you are keen on it to make them lose, by any means.

ASKS

Taking Off Their S/O's Makeup 🌺(Could you do Duncan Vizla,the Joker and whoever else you’d like.)taking off their s/o makeup after they come from a nightout because they are too drunk to do it themselves 💛

Stress Test 🌺can i request Duncan Vizla, the Joker, Victor Creed and what would they do if they see their s/o down because they're stressed due exams?

DRABBLES FROM MY🧠

Leaving Legacy 🌩️the Joker is captured by Batman. Leaving Y/n, his girlfriend to hold up his legacy but what happens when a woman nudges herself between the criminal and the good girl turned mafia leader?

You Just Wrote Your Death Wish 🌺Y/n is taken by the Penguin and Joker is ready to collect

Lipstick Kisses🌺

Living On The Edge 🌺Dating the Joker had its ups and downs, some would say more downs...

Waves 🌩️ J doesn't like waves

Surrounded In Gold🌩️🌺

The Queen Of Gotham🌺

Purple Coat🌺

PICTURE IMAGINE

Joker stealing the world’s rarest and most expensive diamonds as a surprise for you🌺

Joker Looking At You🌺

[ohcorny]

A lot of your frustrations with CLAMP and Chobits is why I can't really return to their manga as an adult and actually enjoy it.

Like- Cardcaptor Sakura has TWO canon teacher/student relationships that are treated completely straight and as if these pairings are soulmates instead of massive grooming red flags. One is is literally between an elementary schooler and her teacher.

i feel like everybody knows about the teacher thing in cardcaptors lol. that ain't news to me

but that also isn't really what i'm talking about when i talk about my frustrations with chobits. i'm more concerned with the failure of storytelling in an adult story about adult subjects. my point about the CSA read of chobits is that CLAMP laid out a horrible situation, made gestures toward it as a tragedy, but then didn't unpack its full nuance or impact in a satisfying way. that's not exactly the same as wish-fulfillment fantasy about a crush on your teacher, which, yes, i agree Sucks. it is not good. but it's not the same thing. the entire plot of the story doesn't hinge on it. much like the ueda/yumi relationship in chobits sucks (he's 39, she's in high school) but is more Incidentally Unfortunate than a structural narrative problem.

[infamous-if]

"The ROs are fully fleshed people (well, I hope) with their own thoughts and feelings" (i would like to clarify ahead of time, idt you should put up w it)

i think that because the ROs are their own people with thoughts and emotions, and that this doesnt revolve around MC because the ROs have their own actions, people start to think that their MC is a loner because they see the other characters super put together (um. as they should, its chapter two??) and this makes people feel bitter/annoyed because they feel like since they control everything abt MC, that MC is a loser because they dont APPEAR to be as composed as the other ROs and characters are, and it pisses them off (which sucks because, how lame can u be? its literally the second chapter. do people break down crying to you at ur second week of friendship? no babe, they dont)

so, in short, you write your OC's so well that when the other people get to compare the ROs to MC, they feel like MC's a loser because they know ALL of MC's feelings, and forget the ROs are their own people that ren't gonna relay all their thoughts and emotions out for MC

this is not meant disrespectfully <3 if it seems rude my bad

hahaha thank you. I realized that I think the root cause of most of the complaints? disappointment? comes from things that people would only know if we weren't in MC's POV. A lot of this is one-sided, because we don't know what the other characters are thinking. All we see is MC's inner turmoil so it makes it seem like MC is the only one struggling, which...I mean I showed that Rowan is going through his own inner struggle when they had their talk, so I did want to show that it's not just MC who feels a bit out of their depth.

The story is always going to feel biased or leaning a certain way because we're in MC's head. MC has no idea what the other people are thinking/feeling (aside from the POVs and even then, I have to sanitize it so I don't spoil the routes).

If people expect a power fantasy or a wish fulfillment story where the characters fawn over MC, please don't haha. I don't like those, and I don't like reading main characters who are perfect. MC is not the center of any of their worlds, and they have a lot of problems that MC has no idea about yet.

Once the romance starts, it'll be different obviously, and they'll start treating MC in a way we haven't seen before, but they're still their own people!

I think the only RO who thinks about MC to an extreme is Seven Lawless....surprise surprise.

It wasn't rude at all! Very insightful and you're right! ^^

[taubinator-md]

Can we talk about Taub's Porsche for a second?

I read it as sort of a multipart symbol. First, his wife's love of him. The car is something that he wants as a fantasy, but that isn't even on his radar with all the shit House has been implying about Rachel's secret savings account. When she first reveals that he'll have a new car in a few days, Taub goes from expecting the worst to utter disbelief and joy that she would make that particular desire happen for him.

But we see some bitterness there too. That's because the car also represents the hill of lies on which Rachel has built her love. She sees Taub as someone who belongs behind the wheel of that car. But he has a moment of realization: I didn't trust her. I don't deserve this.

Third, I'd argue the Porsche Cayenne, as a classic "midlife crisis mobile," also at its core represents Taub's unfulfillment (or whatever you want to call it). It's pretty and shiny and impractical, very popular amongst middle aged dudes trying to feel young and cool, much like the younger women he can't resist. But even as a wish-fulfillment fantasy, it can't make him happy. He looks at the car and his expression is sort of empty, then guilt-ridden, almost pained. Beyond his betrayal of vows, he simply can't feel what Rachel wants him to feel. It's true of the car, and it's true of their marriage.

We find out later on that he wants to be a dad, but Rachel doesn't want kids. Looking back to this episode, we see that there's no room in his Porsche OR his marriage for the kind of life he wants deep-down. He knows this car is forever going to be a reminder of his failings as a husband, the love he really doesn't deserve, AND his longing for something he'll never have.

This is the moment where all his self-delusions (i.e., protecting Rachel's happiness by keeping up his lies) come crashing down, absolutely crushing him with guilt. Maybe he HAD hoped she'd been doing something underhanded so that he could forgive her for something... but no. All her secrets literally WERE to make him happy.

Taub simply can't live with that. He has to tell her the truth, come what may, because he wants to be the man who can deserve the car, the love, the life he needs. gee, let's see how long that resolve lasts...

[ashipiko]

The hilt of your sword weighs heavy in your hand.

It has always been, even after years of wielding it. In a way, that fact alone was comforting in itself. Almost like the gentle weight of a blanket, wrapped around your shoulders.

It was perfectly balanced, as if it was tailor made for your own two hands. Elaborate images of swirling suns burning ablaze was carved into its hilt, delicate little designs that gleamed in the morning’s sun. A fine sword with no equal… except its twin.

Another sword, created with the same chunk of metal. Twins, as they said, and their design reflects such. While yours represented the brightness of the great, golden sun, the other was decorated with imagery of hearts and roses. The burning of passion, its heart rivaling the sun’s.

And who else would wield such a sword but the heartthrob of the Heartsabyul Clan, Ace Trappola himself? He’s always seemed to follow his heart, rather than his head. Fulfilling every desire, every whim of his very own… even if that leads him face first into trouble sometimes.

Just last night, he was reprimanded for sneaking a bite or two of the Head of House’s tart. Ace’s scandalised face pops into your mind, his mouth all agape.

You couldn’t resist a laugh. As you chuckle, Ace stares at you quizzically, before a twinkle of mischief slipped into his eyes. As quick as a mouse, he rushes forward with all his fancy footwork. Making quick work of your defensive stance, disarming your sword with a flick of his wrist. Taken by surprise, you close your eyes for one second…

Only to be swept off your feet, Ace’s steady arm around your waist. He holds you tight, his breath heavy from the sudden burst of energy. Yet as tired as he was, he still managed a sly wink and a boyish grin.

“Gotcha.”

You sigh theatrically, before giving him a playful slap on the arm.

“Goodness. It’s my birthday, Sir Trappola. Wouldn’t it be much more nicer if you showed some mercy to me today? Taking a lady unawares… how rude.”

Ace gasps, offended.

“Some mercy? You beat me hollow on a regular, Ashi dear!”

Hopping back up, you poke the very tip of his nose, laughing all the while.

“And. I’ll. Do. It. Again! You have to be kept humble somehow.”

Ace sighs, before he catches your wrist within his hand, gently coaxing it towards his lips. Pressing a soft, gentle kiss into the palm of your hand. Glancing at you sheepishly, he shoots you a smile. A gentle one, this time. A more tender one. The kind of smile one would give their lover, a soft, sappy sort of smile that just melts on your lips.

Ace holds your hand towards his cheek, nuzzling into the curve of your hand. Your cheeks grow warm at the sudden show of affection, as you were caught off guard. Ace takes this chance to whisper softly. Tender, heartfelt words meant for you, and you alone.

“And I hope you’ll be there to keep me humble for all my life, for I cannot see a life without you by my side.

Happy birthday, Ashi dear.”

Happy birthday ASHI!!!! A little early but YKNOW what the inspiration hit too hard so I simply must hit you harder, Y’know? I went with a fantasy sort of setting cause it fit Ashace so wellll!!!! Happy birthday again!!!!!!!

ASHI’S BIRTHDAY CAMPAIGN! 🌺

“…Ceruru, you have like a super decked out mind, don’tcha?!” Ashi squeaked out, mind still warbling after hearing the tale woven especially for her, “That’s a real… Nice imagination you got!”

The mage seemed quite satisfied with the girl’s reaction, face red despite her attempts to push it down, “I like, totally appreciate it! You have a total gift! But I’ve gotta— Um— Go, so… bye-bye! Thank you SO much!” Wishing Ceru a quick goodbye and thank you as they snickered to themselves, she ran over to the nearest restroom in attempts to calm herself down.

…Unfortunately for her, she wasn’t able to evade her favorite ginger’s eyes in time.

(ASHI REACTION UNDER CUT)

…..MR TRAPPOLA HELLO. HI!!! THE WORST PART IS THAT WHEN YOU SENT THIS IN I WAS LITERALLY LEARNING SWORDFIGHTING???? SO IT FELT EVEN MORE LIKE. ugwhwgshwgsw. I LITERALLY SCREAMED AT TYE END OF IT AND I WILL SCREAM AGAIN. your ace is so cute he’s so squishy……. the banter…… THANK YOU SM CEURRU 🫶 YOUR WRITING ALWAYS HITS

[bestanimatedmovie]

Choose your favorite!

Time to fly!

Vote in the other polls!

What fans say:

How To Train Your Dragon:

The message was just nice. I have a lot of nostalgia for it. I used to be a huge dragon nerd as a kid and dragons just weren't that prevalent in media here, especially not as friendly figures. I still love HTTYD and it's sequels nowadays.

It was one of my favorite movies as a kid and one of the few movies I watched that wasn't a barbie movie, it's just really cool.

Best movie featuring dragons period. The pure wish fulfillment fantasy of having a highly intelligent fantasy creature companion that can fly and doesn’t mind being ridden like a horse, therefore also the best execution of the dragon rider trope in all of fiction. Extremely funny, adding to the comedy is the fact that only adults have Scottish accents and all the teens have an American accent. So good that even its tv show follow up was decent by extension. The bit where Hiccup is trying to earn Toothless' trust and they start to work together changed me on a fundamental level.

I LOVE IT SO MUCHSHJKBSKHGDK I have a bone dysplasia which causes some bones to be a little bit more hollow and whenever I would feel a pain in my top back, 8 year old me was like ''woah I'm growing wings its my time to fly like toothless'' lol and it was always a dream of mine to fly. Weirdly enough I could relate to toothless because the "not being able to fly but you should be" felt like an allegory to a lot of my life! It gave me hope when he WAS able to after the help of others + the care he always needed + that mechanic wing thing made me feel like with the right ''recipe'' could help me get better too. My favourite scene is the first flight!! I love the animation for it, it makes me feel like im flying through the clouds too! The soundtrack is amazing too, I still cry to the songs.

I could write an entire essay about how much I love this movie, it truly is one of the best films ever made to me. Utterly flawless on both a technical level and a story-telling level. Not to mention the score oh my GOD the score of this movie changed my life. There are too many scenes that are so impactful, but the Forbidden Friendship scene has to be one of the best. Test Drive too.

This is literally my favorite movie of all time. This movie got me through the worst times in my life. It’s about love and friendship and all that lovely goopy stuff and it’s also fucking gorgeous.

THE cinematic masterpiece of our generation. On god.

This movie is an absolute masterpiece, the animation is pretty, the score is perfect, the relationship between Toothless and Hiccup is so sweet, Toothless is absolutely adorable. Definitely one of DreamWork's best films.

It's a beautifully animated movie about an unconventional viking boy named Hiccup finding his place in a world where dragons and vikings are constantly at odds, and how he changes the world around him. The dragon designs are unique and beautiful, and the vikings are larger than life and match the exaggerated setting.

Who on Tumblr DOESN'T want a dragon best friend I ask you. I would kill to have what Hiccup & Toothless have.

It does a brilliant job balancing tropes in a way that subverts and plays into them. There is so much in it for both adults and kids, it doesn't look like other animated films, it feels more grounded and in that realism it becomes so beautiful. The friendship in the film feels very real despite one of the characters being unable to talk! Forbidden Friendship scene is, in my opinion, the greatest scene in the history of cinema. The music, the lighting, the cinematography, the pacing, the emotions, it is practically perfect in every way. I could go on but I think ya get it.

God this movie defined my childhood and it's still so good when I rewatch it now. I'm guessing you'll have had this submitted a good few times bc it goddamn deserves it but. Hiccup is so relatable and !! dragons !! big cute dragons whose animation models are based on cats!! based fr

I have many fond childhood memories of this movie and in particular I loved how my cousin would "talk" for Toothless (cousin was babysitting us when we first watched the movie). Another thing is The SCORE. The music is iconic and awe inspiring to this day. That first time when Hiccup and Toothless fly together and it Works and the score absolutely goes HARD, I loose my breath every time. It's great. Also have you seen Toothless he's an adorable dragon and a badass, what's not to love?

Makes me cry every time because Hiccup and Toothless are such good friends and they love each other and end up as two halves of a boy dragon soulmate sandwich also the music is extremely good who doesn’t like dragons anyway.

It's the story of a beautiful friendship forming between a boy who doesn't fit in and a dragon who is the last of his kind. It's so cute. And it shows positive representation of disability, Hiccup and Toothless become disabled in ways that meaningfully parallel each other. Hiccup makes a prosthetic tail fin! And Toothless is just so cute!

The sound track is amazing

Honestly everything is phenomenal. It has a good use of comedy and an excellent story and character development. There are also countless beautiful and awe-inspiring scenes supported by an amazing score.

Up:

It is a very emotional movie about an old man learning to still enjoy life even though his wife died.

Such a beautiful film about loss

[jamsofdeath0]

I think the biggest issue with shield hero is the author accidentally wrote motoyasu into being in the right. this wouldn't have been an issue if they decided to address it instead of tripling down on him "being an idiot" instead of a morally upright dude who believed a woman when she claimed to be raped.

Naofumi for all intensive purposes looks like the most reprehensible motherfucker on the planet from the outside. I wouldn't take his goddamn side. but the story NEEDS you to be with him. so they thoroughly make him sympathetic before he buys the child slave. now don't get me wrong I love this plot point. I think "protagonist buys a child slave" could have been a fucking awesome story. but the author didnt actually want to go into how fucked up that is. they just wanted to write isekai wish fulfillment about a guy at the bottom revenge plotting his way to the top. this is fine to. this can be a perfectly serviceable or even good plot. the problem is the second sheild hero stops being a dark fantasy (episode 5) it gets obscenely boring. like so fucking dull.

this is because they didn't know how to get you onto naofumis (the man who owns a child slave) side without making the antagonist needlessly over the toply cruel (myne) or the most annoying performtive idiot on the planet (motoyasu)

lets examine motoyasu. hes a womanizer. not very bright. believes myne when she claims to be raped. duels naofumi to free a slave.

none of these things are bad. his attempt at free raphtalia (the slave) is maybe a tad performative, naofumi calls this out himself when he brings up slavery being legal, but its not evil. it GOOD. even if its a little to do with his personal beef with naofumi that to could just be interesting writing.

hes FLAWED (being gullible) yes but thats just being a well written character. (he isnt)

so the shows written a well meaning but flawed antagonist. hes against the protagonist bc he rightfully believes him an irredeemable monster who raped women and own slaves.

what will be done with this charater? nothing interesting i assure you. the episode after the duel instead of having him question why the slave girl actually liked naofumi at all (the man they at this point belive to BE A RAPIST (he isnt but they dont know that)) he shows up at a village to become a figure head lord. mynes calling all the shots. and she says the first decree will be that anyone who enters the village will have to pay a toll of FIFTY SILVER. FIFTY! Naofumi then says a night a board AND food is only 2. Thats above cartoonishly evil. thats just stupid. youre not going to make any money that way no one's going to be able to afford the fee. your just killing a village to kill it.

What does motoyasu do when this VERY CLEAR EVIL is happening right in front of him by HIS SIDE? look stupid and double down bc he doesnt like naofumi. he shows hes willing to fuck over a TON of people just to get a go at one guy.

this is the second their whole dynamic becomes so boring. it becomes "naofumi right"; "motoyasu stupid". when motoyasu loses his assumed moral high ground. when hes no longer fighting for what he believes is right.

whereas before their clashes had been moral and even nuanced to a degree now its just a postering idiot and a guy who can inly be bothered bc hes LITERALLY GENUINELY being forced to.

[serpentenial]

FINALLY, AFTER A YEAR'S WORTH OF WORK "CABARIS vol 1" LAUNCHES THIS HALLOWEEN WITH @toxicmetalpress !!! CABARIS is a Dark Fantasy comic I've been working on since Nov. 2020, and now this month it's finally coming to print!

Rumors and whispers of demons and black magic fill the streets of Helenthon, a small village once thought to be free from the Root of Hell and its demonic horde.  As fear grows and the Village Lord is unrelenting in his cruelty, Allegra tries to live her life each day as normal as she can. Haunted by the memories of her brother’s death and the growing pressure to fulfill her family’s wishes, she begins to feel a darkness stir within her, a darkness only rivaled by the growing shadows of this endless nightmare…

This project has been a literal BEAST to work on, but I am so excited to bring this comic to life and share it with all of you! Please read and enjoy this 10-page preview!

READ THE FULL VOLUME ON PATREON

[pfffsfic]

Post-Fall Falls False Starts- Chapter 18: Looking Back

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter [not yet uploaded to tumblr]

There were two kinds of slow walk. One was the sort of walk a group of heroes would do on the way to the villain's headquarters, the sort of walk wrestlers sometimes entered the ring with. Ideally there would be a cool song playing in the background and then that song would be reused at climatic moments later in the series, but you'd never really feel the impact as strongly as you felt it that first time- she digressed. The second type was the sad type. Emotions could weigh a girl down like a backpack full of dumbbells, and though having them around usually motivated her to get where she was going and do what she was planning to do faster than usual, something about that just wasn't happening tonight. Part of her hoped to run into a monster just so something would take her mind off of the situation. None came. Only her own inner demons, which seemed less like formally-dressed hot tall guys and more like shapeless masses of painful thoughts.

Several major doors to the future had just been abruptly and unceremoniously closed off to her. She hadn't even planned to use the 'out' she had prepared by stealing from the van until much later, but now that it was no longer a possibility, this place seemed less like a magical land of possibility and wish fulfillment and more like a lawless universe of danger and despair. Why, oh why couldn't she find it in herself to get excited? Danger was good! Much of her work contained dangerous situations over which heroes triumphed. The rest of it was fluff, which was definitely out of the question right now. The difference, she realized, was that she was unsure of her ability to triumph. Her fantasies swerved from all the ways she could live it up here to all the ways she could die here. Okay, so the present was a dark forest path and the future was a cave full of monsters- the former was literal, the latter was metaphorical. What about the past? Ah, yes, the past.

She met up with Rob on her fifth real day here and they had been grilling mushrooms and catching small forest animals ever since. Before that, though, life was less... stable.

MORNING 1: DEEP FREEZE

If she squinted, she could make out the clock on the wall of the vacant grocery store. 2:11. That had to be AM since the stars and moon were overhead.

The doors were locked. She snuck around the perimeter of the building, back to the wall like a secret agent looking for 'weak spots' in its structure. A rusty air vent grate hung loose from one of its fasteners. Excellent! She was tall enough to pull herself through after lugging over a rock to step on. The grate on the other end came off with surprisingly little resistance and she happily tumbled face-first onto the glorious air-conditioned sales floor, where she made a beeline for the icebox next to the checkout counter, slipping her head inside, letting out a pleasurable sigh, and then curling her body up on the floor next to it. This was perfect. The only thing that could make this whole situation any more perfect, she thought out loud, was if she encountered a certain someone in her dreams.

Her first encounter with a 'local' was far from that, though. She groggily opened her eyes to see a slack-jawed cashier, freshly into work, staring down at her. In a flash, she reached for her head, popped it back on, and theatrically looked over the other ice creams.

"I'm aliiiive!" she gasped, feigning lightheadedness. "My brethren," she addressed the inanimate frozen treats, scooping a couple of them into her arms, "why only me? Why have you not all been awakened to the glory of sapience?"

When no answer came, she leaned over the icebox for a moment like a grieving widow at a military funeral, pretended to steel herself, and then ran out of the store and into the woods via the automatic door.

AFTERNOON 1: INTO THE WOODS

With a spring in her step and a sparkle in her eyes, Sarah whistled some nameless tune all the way down the forest path. Was it for fun? To occupy her mind? To stave off hunters? To stave off monsters? To attract monsters? She didn't know for sure, but she also didn't need a rationale to continue with it. Whatever ended up happening would be swiftly rationalized as part of her plan. When the forest stopped being creepily sunny and started being sunnily creepy, she sat down on a rock and started on one of the popsicles she had grabbed earlier. It was strawberry flavored and if Sarah tried hard enough she could make out some faint differences between this universe's strawberry flavor and her own universe's strawberry flavor... or, on second thought, that probably just came down to the brand.

"It would be a shame if my peaceful lunch in the scary forest was interrupted," she spoke out loud to no one in particular, hoping that, as was typical for cartoons, something would happen right afterwards. It was almost a letdown when nothing did.

As dusk set in, she wandered the forest in search of a birch tree, failed to locate any, and fell asleep eventually on the roots of an evergreen tree, driven not by fatigue but by a simple desire to dream. She did have a dream that night. It was about a meteor impact on Elmore, only when the meteor came down instead of spreading fire and destruction it made all of the computers and TVs in town start playing loud dubstep. Sarah was a member of the task force dispatched to chop up the metaphor and eat it (which seemed sensible in the dream but was confusing upon waking up).

DAY 2: THE TREES HAVE EYES

Sarah noticed a small anthill near her sleeping tree when she woke up. The ants, going about their day, were a good metaphor for... something. She didn't really know what and her creative juices weren't flowing fast enough today to push her to come up with something. She was melting a little. As one ant trotted aimlessly around in a search for food, she noticed something odd: none of the ants had approached her yet, and she, a self-proclaimed tall drink of 50% water, 15% sugar, and 45% dairy, had been sleeping there for at least five or six hours. 'That's alright,' she thought, 'the ants here are probably weird like everything else.'

Part of her mind told her the ants weren't the problem.

Just 10 minutes from the sleeping spot was a small grove of birch trees and their adjacent cave. This place, she decided, would be her hideout! Exploring the cave, though, Sarah discovered a giant spider with human feet on the ends of its eight legs, heard it hiss territorially at her, and quickly changed her earlier decision. The rest of the day was spent scouting out other caves, none of which were quite as eventful (though she did spot some small footprints that could have belonged to some distant gnome), and she topped it off with a rather one-sided wrestling contest against several angry raccoons over what had seemed a worthy prize: a bucketload of discarded food from the dumpster out back of Greasy's Diner. It was delicious- the victory, that is. The food, on the other hand, was mediocre. And all of it tasted like coffee.

MORNING 3: DISTANT ENCOUNTERS

As the wee hours of the morning on the third day dragged on, Sarah, an early riser, donned "her" top hat and bow tie and her eye patch, left the shallow cave she had slept in the previous night, and trudged out to sit out by the edge of the lake, its subsurface disappointingly free of any visible lake monsters. The moonlight made the whole thing awfully serene, just like a painting in the waiting room of a doctor's office. Sarah couldn't help but skip a small stone across the surface. When it hit the water and sunk on first contact, she remembered with a heavy heart that she did not actually know how to skip a stone. That had once been a source of trauma and/or drama in her childhood; a friend from Richwood Elementary, a well-off human girl, had invited her to a lake house birthday party and the girl's snooty parents had nearly laughed her off the property when she came in last in their stone-skipping contest. She had never really fit in, but that was okay because of uniqueness, or something. That lake house had been in the 2D part of town. This town was in the 2D part of the multiverse. Something about the view brought her back.

When a group of rowdy early-bird fishers pulled up by the lake with a boat strapped haphazardly on top of their truck, rather than going and saying hi like she had been urging herself to do despite her appearance, Sarah fled into the woods clutching the hat for dear life. In retrospect the group of middle-aged men probably would not have been enthusiastic about greeting her for multiple reasons, but what citizen would be? No, she needed to wait for the right moment. Now she was just worried that moment might never come.

AFTERNOON 3: CATCHING FLIES WITH IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY

The ground would be her canvas and that big stick over there would be her brush. On second thought, maybe her finger would be her brush, because the stick didn't allow her the sort of control she needed to make three letters fit neatly inside a tiny heart. A heart... there was something else she had meant to draw, but what? Oh! Right.

After a few minutes of sloppy work there were eyes of providence in a circle around the clearing, with legs, arms, and accessories for good measure. Sarah hoped this would be an effective 'trap' for the object of her makeshift summons even without the Latin incantation, but the afternoon was still young, and she had to make use of her time effectively. What did that even mean at a time like this? She had no concrete plans, just a bunch of tiny idea fragments. She decided, staring at the watchful eyes around her, that she would go through all her ideas from least to most embarrassing. Everyone liked exponentially escalating hijinks.

The first act was a monologue. She took up the old adage and imagined a naked audience to replace the nonexistent audience before her. It helped with the nervousness, or maybe she didn't have any nervousness to begin with, but either way it was absent by the time she hit her stride.

"...And that's why i think there should be more shoujo love interests with huge biceps. Anyways, you ever wondered why anybody would choose to have one eye?" she asked, pausing for an imaginary burst of laughter and flipping up her eye patch. "Of course, I don't mean to insult anybody who doesn't have a choice. But if you do have a choice? I mean, c'mon. I'd love to interview some shapeshifting one-eyed guy about that someday, but of course nobody's listening." Another pause, a slow sweeping look at her surroundings, a glance over at the eye patch. "I just wear this thing to look cool! Maybe that's why someone would choose that. Am I a hypocrite? I might be a hypocrite."

The second act was jokes. She told a few of her many memorized puns related to herself ("What does ice cream do when it gets stressed? It has a meltdown!") and then filled time with a particularly long and winding joke about a monk that ended with an unsatisfying punchline. The fun of that one was considerably lessened without the groans that always followed her telling it back home. The capstone on her set began with "My ex wife still misses me," followed by a tangent about whether it was even appropriate to tell jokes that start on false premises about the teller, whether joke plagiarism applied to informal conversations, and ultimately whether a tree that fell in the forest with no one to hear it would make a sound. The punchline to that final joke never arrived because she had forgotten where the conversation began.

The third act was music. Sarah's vocal chops were better suited to calmer, quieter, and/or creepier tunes than the loud and flashy showman-esque renditions she was now attempting to put on with her stick in hand as a makeshift cane. The first song she had in mind was We'll Meet Again, but the second she opened her mouth, it dawned on her that she did not know the entire thing, just about half of the chorus. She pivoted to another similar song with Daisy Bell and then in an entirely different direction with a few of her favorite vocal synthesizer tunes, a few of which she had memorized in half-mangled Japanese and then another few that were in English. Halfway through a high note, she noticed with awe that a few animals had taken notice of her singing. A few beady-eyed birds, a raccoon (who looked familiar, maybe from her battle the previous night), and two deer- scratch that, upon closer inspection it was one deer with a head at each end and no backside- stood by the clearing watching her go. So this was what it felt like to be a Disney princess... or, really, less of a Disney princess and more of a Disney forest hermit.

"Thank you for coming out tonight," she said, and then she realized a moment later than her subconscious that night had fallen. The animals scattered when she sat down to take a short rest, and suddenly her motivation, momentarily buffed by the presence of actual tangible beings other than herself, was mostly gone.

A bit more walking from the art clearing yielded yet another cave, and a peek inside the cave, past the waterfall that hid its entrance, yielded yet another disappointment. This one at least had the additional security of both a few large boulders and the waterfall, the flow sound of which changed when someone passed through it, and so she accepted that there were too many caves to find that cave easily and laid down to see if her performance earlier that day would bear fruit. It didn't. In fact, if she dreamed at all, she didn't remember it.

DAY 4: THE INTRUDER

Sarah was hungry. Not eat-your-own-leg hungry, but hungrier than she had been for, what, weeks? Months? It had been a little over 24 hours since her last meal, and that last meal in question was coffee-spiked all-day breakfast food out of a dumpster, so not exactly the sort of soul-nourishing thing she needed for a lite survivalist lifestyle. She beat the sun into the town proper and glanced tentatively at the diner, which made her stomach drop and alleviated the hunger a little as a result.

It was difficult to both walk casually into town and constantly dart behind lampposts and buildings to avoid the gazes of the citizens, especially with no destination in sight. After who-knows-how-many minutes of Red Light, Green Light, Sarah's eyes fell upon a mansion on a hill in the distance, and, using a technique no doubt more common in Elmore than here, she ducked behind one building far from the mansion and popped out from behind another building closer to it. One or two short fence hops later she stood before the mansion, staring up at a window that hung open just a crack, wondering what sorts of food the pantry of a place like this might have in store.

On one hand, this was the wrong house to come to for someone like her who was not a fan of taxidermy or getting lost; on the other hand, this was the wrong universe to come to for someone like her who was not a fan of taxidermy or getting lost. With a deep breath and all of her mild-hunger-fueled athleticism, she used the rope from the van to lasso the latch of the open window, used a combination of a few lucky footholds and her height to ascend the side of the house, and pulled herself over the threshold into what she soon realized was a very occupied bedroom. Her eyes met the occupant's eyes. She couldn't tell who it was- their eyes were the only things visible in a field of pitch black.

"Who-" said a youthful voice from the direction of the other two eyeballs.

"You're dreaming," said Sarah, darting for the bedroom door. As soon as probably-cifica (whose identity Sarah was really making an educated guess about) saw Sarah's unusual silhouette in the doorway, she must have figured the dream explanation was more likely than an actual giant ice cream cone in her house, because she didn't attempt to make chase. The pantry was easy enough to find (perhaps the family had more than one?) and, after spraying edible gold dust on the security cameras, Sarah made off through a garbage chute with a whole roast-ready duck, a pint of caviar-flavored frozen yogurt, and a few bags of imported chips with a fancy French name she couldn't read.

She took a different route back to the cave this time and noticed a few footprints that weren't hers. A clearing with several suspicious, near-hidden pit traps caught her eye, and she made sure to watch her step.

DAY 5: THE OTHER INTRUDER

What time was it? She didn't know for sure, and there was no sunlight in the little muddy crevasse she had made for herself between two easily-pushed boulders. She shoved another chip into her mouth and chewed quietly. The good thing about chips was they could be eaten at breakfast, lunch, or dinner, as well as between meals as a snack, so it didn't really matter what time it was.

Why was she huddled up? Well, only a few hours earlier a set of footsteps had echoed outside- and then inside- the cave, and she had taken measures to hide herself from prying eyes. It had apparently worked. The intruder was deterred, right? Maybe it was an animal. Maybe it was a person. What if somebody owned this cave and she was just a trespasser?

It was like the universe responding to her thoughts when the sound of the waterfall changed. It didn't go back to normal, either. Someone was sitting in the flow, and they weren't leaving. Why would anybody do that? To train for a big battle? To meditate (for a big battle)? Nah, unlikely. She poked her head up from behind one muddy boulder and snuffed a near-gasp with her hands. The person (or not a person?) meditating (or not meditating?) in the waterfall was three-dimensional. No, no, not just that, she recognized the back of his head. A sense of loneliness she didn't even know she was swamped with crumbled around her as she stepped up to him.

"Rob?" she asked. He was repeating something incoherently to himself and apparently didn't hear her over the sound of the rushing water. That was alright. She reached out in what was supposed to be a friendly pat on the shoulder, but the force of the falling water made it really more of a slap...

She didn't have time to cover her ears before he shrieked so loud there was a mini-earthquake inside the cave and darted off into the distance. She wasn't planning to follow him, really, at least not until she had the chance to clean off the mud and get out of her two-item cosplay, but her eyes fell on the crowbar that had fallen from his backpack in his confusion, and she suddenly had a conversational 'in'. That was always the goal when getting to know people. Then again, if you were desperate enough for interaction, you could fabricate an 'in' from practically anything, like entering a conversation about grades with a, "woah, we could be study buddies! Who knows? it might turn into something more." That one hadn't worked. What was she doing even thinking about this? She needed to get the crowbar back to Rob!

Thankfully, the waterfall was almost like a 5-second shower, and she only needed to stand in it for a second to get most of the mud (and a bit of herself) off. There were wet footprints in the forest dirt for her to follow. "Who knows?" she said to herself, or to nobody in particular. "Maybe this could be the start of a great friendship."

Several weeks on, Sarah still didn't know if what they had was great or a friendship, but it sure helped the existential dread to think of it that way. She looked down at the tapes and thought to herself, no looking back, no looking back, no more looking back.

[pixlpxie]

Hello :) So first of all, I hope you're going good and that you have a great day.

Second of all, I feel better and safe here about my horny thoughts for Ateez mostly. I feel truly less alone after reading the other asks, I thought I was alone and just creepy af for thinking about having seggs with Ateez, I always felt weird about all of it thinking this was not normal and that I would be judged if I spoke about my thoughts and my actions. I truly have found a safe space for me. So thank you for that really, most people are like "stop sexualizing your idols" and honestly it contributed to me feeling weird af for being horny about Ateez, but now I truly feel better, knowing I'm not alone in this.

Sorry for the rant 🥹☹️

Omg so sorry for responding so late 😭

it's not weird to fantasise abt them its so normal but sadly its super looked down upon i mean its not any different from saying "Oh i wish they railed me rn" when you see someone hot irl so why is it weird to want this with a celeb? Idols are meant to fulfill your fantasies thats literally a part of their job, even worse they sell you this fantasy and they know most ppl think of them sexually, they probably think of their fans sexually, exactly the way we do them 👨🏻‍🦯so nothing is weird.

And you don't understand how special and important it is for me that you feel safe here 🥹💓 i hope you will always feel comfy with me and my blog ilysm💗👩🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏻👩🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏻

[ilikekidsshows]

I don't understand why people like to make Marinette become super strong even out of the suit, is there any base of this fanon? Not saying people couldn't, it just weird for me because Marinette isn't really athletic or working out so her being portrayed to be a strong girl seems to be out of the blue.

Like there's this story I've read once where Marinette is super strong, even matched cat noir who is a miraculous user despite of her not being one. Or the other one where she suddenly be able to fight against some thug despite none of the chapters before this shown her to be really strong or capable to do that. Also I've seen a post that said Marinette is actually stronger than Adrien because she manage to beat him in sparing in episode riposte. Is it true? Sorry of this question weird.

This is basically a “yes but no” kind of situation. Yes, the people insisting Marinette is strong have a legitimate point. Marinette can manage some feats, like all the characters in the show. For example, the Mime can lift the entire Eiffel Tower because the universe operates on cartoon physics, so goofing off with character endurance and strength is to be expected. In addition, Marinette should get to do some really cool stuff, at least as Ladybug, because Miraculous is a girl power show and she is the main character. Marinette is supposed to be inspirational to young girl viewers, so she’s cool, competent and strong. The point is to find the baseline of the series.

As it stands, Marinette’s abilities in her civilian persona do get exaggerated in comparison to other characters in the fandom. The thing is, the tumblr fandom has a thing about Marinette. Marinette gets bashed to hell and back on Youtube and some other parts of the web, so parts of the tumblr fandom are really defensive of Marinette. This means that anything “negative” said or done with her character by other fans gets backlash. And some of these fans include depicting Marinette as anything that’s not the strongest, bestest, smartest at everything ever as “negative”.

As I said, Marinette’s physical feats are not out of place in the world of Miraculous. Everyone in Miraculous can do insane stuff even without a Miraculous. The show runs on exaggerated reality. Also, you need more than one example to prove a point. Marinette scoring one point against Adrien in a fencing practice match where Adrien thinks he’s teaching the ropes to a complete newbie is not a pattern. It’s Marinette impressing him by showing off that she’s competent at his hobby. Now, every time we see Kagami and Adrien have a spar, Kagami has won, that’s a pattern. But even this doesn’t mean Kagami is stronger than Adrien, it means she’s a better fencer, skill and strength are two different things.

Then we get to “Marinette can match up against a Miraculous holder”: this claim is absolutely made up fantasy and nothing but wish-fulfillment on the part of Marinette stans. Every single Miraculous grants its holder super strength and super durability, I repeat: super strength and super durability. If a normal person can do the same or even better, it’s not super. End of story. Marinette is not stronger than any Miraculous holder because that defeats the purpose of using a Miraculous to get superpowers.

Now, as for Ladybug versus Cat Noir, there actually was a very in-depth analysis in this fandom on this topic some time ago. The consensus we came to was this: the show gives us a lot of clues that Cat Noir is physically stronger than Ladybug, but, in an actual fight, the end result is determined by them hitting their win condition, since Ladybug is a better fighter in terms of strategy and agility. Also, Cat Noir would absolutely go easy on Ladybug, no exceptions, while Marinette has an insanely high competitive streak and will go all-out at the slightest provocation as long as no harm will come to her partner out of it. Even Cat Blanc, a literally brainwashed Cat Noir, gives her so many openings he practically hands victory over to her. Ladybug will win a fight between her and Cat Noir every time unless something really extreme happens to make him take the fight seriously.

Another thing to take into account, however, is this: a tiny girl being secretly as strong as The Hulk is funny.

[olderthannetfic]

Since the conversation seems to be somewhat shifting towards AI, look at this gem I found today! https://twitter.com/elizabethminkel/status/1665857285531238401

Tech bros are the plague of mankind, I swear. They strip of beauty all the arts because they want a "hands on" experience, as if they're constantly wearing a VR headset.

No, I don't want to fucking chat with a character. That's not why people enjoy fics to begin with!

Not to mention that this crap would just be roleplay: you play one character, the AI plays another. I used to do that with fandom friends on Facebook, back when Ao3 was at its beginnings. Except that, with an AI, there'd be no twists and turns, and no personality whatsoever, because AI can't come up with original ideas. They harvest and remix the stuff that was put into them previously, but they can't offer anything new.

This crap thinking also stems from the "stereotypical" view of fanfics: that they're all about self-fulfilling fantasies and that the main character must be a self-insert of the author, while the other part of the ship is someone you wish would bend you over.

Sure, plenty of fics start off from "I would love to be in this situation" or "I find this very specific kink to be hot", but like... not all? And definitely not the majority. But saying that a fic is just self-fulfilling fantasy is so, so stupid, because then all writing, even that of traditionally published authors, must fall under that category because they included whatever topic interests them or because the story is based on one of their past experiences/a place they visited.

This whole AI shit, and how strongly it's pushed, really shows that we truly live in a capitalistic hellscape: people see no value in the arts, not even if they're done for pure personal enjoyment. Literally a culture sculpted in the "rise and grind" mentality, the one that wants people to constantly work to earn money and nothing else, and in which all experiences must be lived in first person or are otherwise useless.

--

[cto10121]

How Romance in Fiction Works

For this Valentine’s Day I dedicate this to all the “Romeo and Juliet/Twilight/[insert X] isn’t a romance!!1!1” clownery out there, because now I have to contend with the depressing fact that people—and not just illiterate randos, actual bookish people perhaps too used to the Hero’s Journey template—have no clue what romance in fiction (as the main plot) works. And no, it has nothing to do with ~fantasy or ~wish fulfillment or ~everyone is nice and in love and nobody’s mean or cheats ever!!!1!1 It has to do with the goals of a romance. I’ll be focusing largely on literature, but technically this can also apply to TV, movies, and other dramatic mediums.

(Disclaimer: I will not be talking about romance as a genre, either the knight/damsel tradition or the HEA conventions of modern American romance fiction. The former has nothing to do with romantic love and the latter has nothing to do with the art of fiction but what sells, so don’t @me. It should also go without saying that I won’t be talking about romance as a subplot to the main plot. You lot already know too much about that already.)

Romance IRL vs. Fiction

So romance in real life can be literally anything and occur anywhere and at any time. No duh. That is true for *waves hand vaguely* everything in reality. Fiction, however, is a different story. It must, in short, make sense. There is plot, character, tone, as well as your literary techniques and devices. Otherwise the romance will not work or be implausible. So far, the same as most any other fiction.

Where romance differs from most fiction, however, lies in its purpose. I like it to call it The Romance Novel Paradox. To whit: Romance in fiction functions on the premise that the couple cannot be together because of X reasons. As soon as the couple resolve all of their issues and be together fully, that’s when the romantic story is over.

Thus, the task of the romance writer is to prevent the couple from getting together before the point where they absolutely need to be. So in a way, writing a romance…is fundamentally writing an anti-romance.

Sounds crazy and weird and hard? It is. That’s exactly why writing romance is so hard in the first place. You have to juggle these two separate and opposite tensions tugging and tearing at the work. You literally have to do two things at the same time along with all the other things required of writing a romance.

The Goals

So with all this in mind, the goals of the romance is as follows:

That the couple meet and fall in love

That the couple enjoy and even consummate their love

That the couple overcome any obstacles that threaten their relationship

That the couple be successful in being true to their love and the first 3 goals.

The Plot(s)

Romances actually have two kinds of plot. I’ll just call them the Courtship Plot and the Love Story Plot respectfully.

The Courtship Plot essentially deals with the inner conflicts/obstacles that prevent the couple from being in love or falling for each other. This could be as short as a scene or two or as long as a whole book/movie/TV show, depending on the medium and intentions.

Beginning/Set Up: Establishes both the world, its stakes, and/or the romantic couple. Oftentimes, though, a romance does start with a different character(s) entirely who talk about the couple before they appear.

Inciting Incident: This is when the couple first meet. This could range anywhere from love at first sight (instalove) to absolute abhorrence (rivals/enemies to lovers).

Courtship/Investigation: Even if the couple does do instalove, they must first get an understanding of each other’s intentions, the depth of love/attraction, personality, etc. This time also includes Proofs of Love, in which the lovers each provide proof of their love for each other through words, acts of service, etc.

Internal Conflicts/Obstacles: These relate to the couple’s inner conflicts/hangups that prevent them from entering a relationship and what they must do to overcome those. In this type of plot they will mostly be internal but there can be some external obstacles as well.

Separation of the Lovers: Most often because of misunderstandings/internal hangups, but it can also be because of actual external shit beyond their control.

Resolution: These inner conflicts are resolved and the couple can get together properly. Traditionally this is shown through marriage (Cheers, bells, and Hymen the God of Marriage arrives to officiate your wedding. Congrats!). Or simply living together/dating.

This is more or less the plot of a romantic comedy, but this can be the plot of romantic drama as well, especially if those internal conflicts are truly heavy. There may also be some external conflict happening, but it’s usually not as significant as the internal ones.

The Love Plot, or Love Story, is concerned with the the love/relationship of a couple as well. However, it is less focused on the courtship side and more on the external conflicts/obstacles that threaten their love. To whit:

Courtship (Abridged): Some Love Plots may include this, but it is not strictly necessary. If they, it’s mostly in abridged form, quick montage, small flashback, or simply just as Proofs of Love.

Couple Is In Love (Status Quo): Most Love Plots begin with the lovers already together and in love.

External Conflicts/Obstacles: These include anything that prevents the lovers from getting together or keeps them apart. Family doesn’t approve, society doesn’t approve, natural events occur, personal enemies, other love interests, etc. Sometimes the couple has an internal conflict going on, but mostly not for this

Separation of the Lovers: Almost always temporarily and literally, due to above External Conflicts and, on occasion, Internal Conflicts. Very rarely metaphorically.

The Lovers Reunite: Almost always, although some media may skip this part.

Couple Triumphs (Or Not): The couple succeeds in vanquishing all obstacles and they come out stronger than ever, yay! Or they don’t and they die and/or their love dies, oh no! Yes, the latter is definitely an option and actually not an uncommon one with these plots.

The Love Story Plot does have its downside in that it can be harder for the audience to care very much for the couple if they haven’t spent at least some time getting to know them and their love. However, it is preferred traditionally if just because of the dramatic and much-clearer stakes involved. The lovers’ characters are also revealed/developed through adversity, which is always a plus.

So all romances are effectively love stories. However, not all romances are love stories. Most romances tend to have both, mostly in one or two books. In Epic Romance this is stretched to three or four at the most. Beyond four the book/TV show/thing turns from a romance into a full-blown soap opera (coughOutlandercough).

So here are a few examples of romances often classified as such and why they count as romances. I’ll start with two works people most insist are not romances: Romeo and Juliet and Twilight.

Example 1: Romeo and Juliet

Though tons of Internet clowns insist to this day that Romeo and Juliet is not a romance and is a comedy/satire/what have you, it skews closely to the Romance plot as outlined.

Romeo and Juliet:

Courtship Plot: Two families in a patriarchal, violent, and conservative society hate each other (Beginning/Set Up). They meet at a ball and fall in love (Inciting Incident). But of course they are heirs of two feuding families (Obstacle 1). However, Juliet is worried that Romeo is just playing with her (Internal Conflict) while Romeo is worried Juliet might choose to refuse him after all (Internal Conflict). As proof Juliet asks Romeo to arrange for their marriage and Romeo agrees right away (Resolution). Romeo pretends he is over Rosaline with Mercutio and Benvolio and meets with the Nurse to arrange the marriage (Proof of Love). They then get married and renew their commitment to each other (Couple Triumphs).

Love Story: This is the latter half of the play. Tybalt kills Mercutio, so Romeo kills Tybalt and gets banished (Obstacle 2), Juliet forgives him (Proof of Love), they make love (Proof of Love), and say goodbye to each other (Separation of the Lovers). Juliet is then forced to marry Paris by her parents (Obstacle 3) and so with the help of the Friar she fakes her death (Resolution). But Romeo doesn’t get the news in time due to plague (Obstacle 4), and so goes to her tomb and kills himself; Juliet wakes up and does the same (Couple Defeated…Triumphs?).

So obviously Romeo and Juliet is a love story in just plot alone. But is it also a romance? As you can see, they end up dead and do not succeed in having a full relationship.

That said. Romeo and Juliet do succeed in keeping their love for each other true and pure. They do not cheat each other, think about cheating on each other, or decide not to pursue their relationship. And that, I feel, is more important than the fact that they could not be together in life. So yes, I do think theirs is a romance too, and why most people consider it to be one.

Example 2: Twilight

Speaking of another work that gets a lot of hate for no good reason, Twilight! And of course you have the antis insist this isn’t a romance either. Unfortunately for them the plot hews even more closer to the romance plot and even has more of a Courtship Arc. To whit:

Twilight:

Courtship Plot: Bella goes to Forks to please her narcissistic mother and worries about fitting in (Beginning/Set Up). She meets Edward on the first day of her new school (Inciting Incident). Unfortunately Edward wants to eat her (Obstacle 1) and leaves for three days later. They meet again and talk about each other (Courtship). Edward then saves Bella from the van the next day (Obstacle 2). This, however, does not bring them together and they don’t speak for one month until Edward gets jealous of Mike Newton (Obstacle 3). Edward and Bella become tentative friends and Edward takes Bella to the nurse’s office when she gets dizzy smelling blood (Obstacle 4). He insists on driving her home and they talk (Courtship). Bella and Edward spend the weekend apart but still thinking about each other; Bella learns what he is (Courtship). Bella then goes to Port Angeles with friends and Edward rescues her from rapists (Obstacle 4). They then talk (Courtship) and Edward admits he is a vampire. The next day Bella and Edward go public about their situation (Courtship) and they talk at lunch, clarifying their feelings for each other; Edward invites Bella to the meadow on the weekend. Billy Black learns of their relationship and tries to warn Bella (Obstacle 5). Edward and Bella meet in the meadow and confess their love for each other (Courtship). Edward successfully resists his bloodlust all for his love for Bella (Resolution of Obstacle 1).

Love Story: This is basically the latter half of Twilight and the rest of the series. Edward saves Bella from James (Obstacle 1) and the lovers are together again (Lovers Triumph).

New Moon:

Love Story: Bella and Edward are in love (Status Quo), but then Jasper tries to eat her and Edward’s self-loathing and desire for Bella to have a regular human life kicks in (Obstacle 2). Edward lies to Bella and tells her he doesn’t want to be with her and she accepts it (Separation of the Couple). For six months the two are barely functional. Eventually Bella’s need for adrenaline leads her to a friendship with Jacob (Obstacle 3–yes, this counts) and starts to love him despite herself. Laurent arrives and tries to eat Bella (Obstacle 4) and tells her that Victoria is out there trying to hunt her as revenge (Obstacle 5). But then Alice comes and Jacob unintentionally tells Edward that Bella is dead; Edward decides to commit suicide (Obstacle 6). Bella saves Edward from the Volturi (Obstacle 7) and they are reunited (Reunion of the Lovers).

Eclipse:

Love Story: Bella and Edward are in love (Status Quo), but Bella wants to keep her friendship with Jacob (Obstacle 3). Jacob is also opposed to Bella being with Edward for both ethical and personal reasons (Obstacle 3 again). Victoria is still hunting Bella but now she is making a whole new army (Obstacle 5 again). Bella realizes she loves Jacob in a potential-love-interest-way (Obstacle 3) but still chooses Edward (Resolution). The lovers decide to get marries (Couple Triumphs).

Breaking Dawn:

Bella and Edward get married (Status Quo). Bella and Edward make love, leaving Bella happy but bruised, which pains Edward so much he refuses to make love to her again (Obstacle 1). Bella seduces him successfully (Resolution) but then falls pregnant (Obstacle 2). The pregnancy is high risk, causing dissension between the two (Obstacle 3) but Bella convinces Edward to go along with her plan (Resolution). Bella delivers her baby and turns into a vampire (Resolution). She learns the ropes of vampirism (Obstacle 4) and harbors no romantic feelings for Jacob anymore; Jacob imprinted on Renesmee so he has no more love for Bella (Resolution). Irina finds out about Renesmee and think she is an immortal child, and tells the Volturi (Obstacle 5). This leads the Cullens to call their friends and prepare for any eventuality, and Bella learns to use her power (Obstacle 6). The Volturi come and try various excuses to execute the Cullens (Obstacle 7) but they are able to defend themselves aptly. The Volturi leave and Bella and Edward can finally be together with their little family (Couple Triumphs).

As you can see, a lot of Twilight's Obstacles double as Proofs of Love what with Edward and Bella saving each other constantly. That is perfectly acceptable and in fact a very common doubling in romance.

What Is Not A Romance?

Romances do have to have some provisos, a couple of quid pro quos. Again, though, there are some exceptions and writers can and will break the rules successfully.

They must be requited. Unrequited love on either side does not a main romance plot make. Unrequited love is mostly a romance subplot if that or as part of a love triangle.

They cannot be abusive (to each other). The lovers of a romance do not have to be good people at all. In fact, they (yes, it has to be both) can be bad or villainous…to other people. That said, their love must be actually mutual and good for each other, even redemptive. A couple who is bad for the world and each other defeats the point of a romance. Mutual enmity does not count (see: Enemies to Lovers).

Their love must be main plot. If the couple is not the focus of the plot, then it’s not a romance but a romance subplot. Subplots can be as complete or incomplete as they like, developed or underdeveloped, but they are subplots for a reason.

Can a romance focus on a beta couple as well? Generally no. In American romance novels, authors do set up the couple for the next installment, but that is not quite the same as page time and development. Romances focus on one couple at a time—once that couple’s love story is done, writers can move on to another couple’s romance. Stories that have more than one couple tend to be something else entirely.

What about second chance romance? Second chance romance is essentially the same as the Courtship Plot, since the work very rarely talks about the lovers’ relationship before they separated. So in plotwise it’s basically just like meeting each other for the first time.

What about love triangles? Unless Character C is framed as an obstacle in the overarching narrative, then love triangles do not really count; they are more for coming-of-age or slice-of-life fodder. Polyamorous couples, however, should count in theory if their story has the romance plot. But of course, that is the rarest kind of all.

Keep Calm and Love On

There are some unconventional romances out there, for sure. But they are ultimately rare; the standard romance plot should fit most works accepted as such. As always, romantic tropes and dynamics are neither good or bad—they all largely depend on the the execution.

The only plot that may be confusable with the romance is the marriage plot, which is something different. Marriage Plots are essentially comedies of manners and they may or may not include romantic love or attraction as a major plot element. They are less about the couple’s erotic compatibility and more about their social compatibility. Austen’s works come the readiest to mind; a contemporary example would probably be Crazy Rich Asians. Otherwise Marriage Plots have much of the same beats as a romance.

So if you’re not sure if X is a romance, see how it fits within this plot. Nine times out of ten, you should get your answer.