#like the story is BETTER and more interesting with her as a character

[jalicecookie]

Little Climbing Champ!

A little Gift for @n1daehodefender and her work that inspired me to write this little Post. I totally love the Idea of the Squid Game Boys with their Babys and like to give you this Gift <3 - Check out her Storys, her writing is so good!

Summary: You wake up extra early on a Sunday morning and try to climb out of your bed with one goal - to steal your Appa's watch because it has caught your interest.

TW: Nothing except Cuteness and fatherly Love from Kang dae-ho, Nam-gyu & Thanos - as well as hints of nightmares based on the experiences in the Squid Games.

Characters: Kang dae-ho, Nam-gyu, Thanos

★★★Thanos★★★

You wake up a little tired and realize with a sleepy look that it wasn't even light yet…the small gap in the curtains on the window didn't let any sunlight through…but…if it was still bedtime and your mommy and your appa were still asleep…maybe you could try something really exciting and awesome?

With a quiet yawn, you kick the blanket off you and crawl closer to the bars of your bed.

You've already tried several times to climb over the edge of the crib because… it was so exciting and great (plus you wanted a little extra cuddle time with your Appa, you've been in your Appa only phase for a few days… which Thanos finds quite amusing, after all he is THE LEGEND - of course it was really cool that as your Appa he was much higher up in your eyes than your mommy) and you really want to take a closer look at that great watch, that your father is wearing… it's so sparkling and great and you want to have it.

Sometimes Thanos says the watch is off limits for you… whatever that means? You don't know but… if your parents are still asleep, they certainly won't notice that you're trying to sneak into the parents' bedroom.

Exactly! You would steal Appa's beautiful watch and just keep it… then it would no longer be Appa's watch but yours....your Watch.

Determined, you stand up and try to climb over the edge of the bed. It takes several attempts , before you can lift your right leg and then your left leg over it.

(When you tried a few days ago, either your mother or father caught you half-heartedly and either lifted you out of bed themselves and sat you on the large, soft play rug in the room, or you were placed on your parent's hip and your climbing ideas were doomed to failure.) Climbing over it was easy… landing on the rug… less so.

You land on your diapered, padded bottom and luckily the start wasn't too painful for you.

And luckily for you, the door to your room was only ajar.

It wasn't uncommon for you to wake up in the night and call for your parents - in the last few days, more often for Thanos, of course - but this time you use the ajar door , to walk clumsily down the dark hallway towards your parents' bedroom.

This door was also ajar and you pushed it open a little further.

It was dark and both Mommy and Appa seemed to still be asleep….okay….where did Appa have his watch….does he sleep with it on his arm, like you sometimes need your favorite stuffed animal to fall asleep?

"Kid what are you....how......wait is that my Watch?"

You giggle once and press the watch closer to your cheek, not really planning on giving it back to your Appa…but of course you wanted to tell him what great things you had accomplished…no matter how late or early it was.

"Appa! Me....climbed out ... baby bed! ALONE!"

It took a moment for Thanos to realize the words and a tired, broad grin on his lips before he playfully reached for you and pulled you into a loving hug.

"WOW, that's so cool! My little climbing champ! And at 4:44 in the morning! Appa is proud of you! And as a reward, you can continue sleeping in Appa and Mommy's bed… if you give me my watch back, hm?" - Thanos praised this night climbing action… and that was a much better reward than keeping the watch.

So you nod enthusiastically and voluntarily give him the watch back.

A few minutes later, you are lying between your Mommy and your Appa and quickly fall asleep again.

Thanos covers you and his partner with the blanket a little more carefully , before he also returns to dreamland with a happy smile.

★★★Kang dae-ho★★★

"Appa? Wakey-Wakey?"

You carefully support yourself on the edge of the mattress and try to check whether your father is still awake.

It was difficult to climb out of your bed… you somehow hurt yourself and actually wanted to call out loudly for your parents, but actually you also wanted to play with the watch, that your father accidentally left on the changing table in your room and… somehow everything ended in chaos… which is why you are now standing in your parents' bedroom and trying to wake up the sleeping Dae-ho.

Because somehow… when you tried to push the small chair that sometimes stands at the even smaller table in your room… closer to the changing table in order to get the watch… the chair somehow crashed into the small lamp and it broke… you still don't have the watch and Appa has to help you now! Very, very urgently.

You hear a rustling on your mommy's side of the bed and she struggles out of bed to pick you up a few moments later.

"Appa was really tired, baby… can we be a bit quieter?", your mommy whispers in your ear… but you see it as a game and clap your hands enthusiastically, only to shout a loud OKAY into the room and thus wake up your Appa, who… sits upright in bed, startled, and looks from you to his partner.

"What happened? Oh my God, is our baby sick? Was she crying and I overslept? Are you sick, darling? Is it already morning? What time is it? 4:44? oooh…", - came the confused reply from the former player of the brutal Squid Games.

Of course, his first concern was for your safety and that of his partner…and somehow he seems like a sleepy Labrador puppy to a person in the middle of the night.

"Climbed out baby bed…fell…little ouchie but kay kay….Appa Watch on changing table….lamp broken…..Appa fix it? Me wanna play with Appa Watch please!"

There was a moment of silence before your parents' amused laughter echoed through the bedroom, and your Appa dragged himself tiredly out of bed to check whether you had hurt yourself during your climbing.

Your parents cleaned up the night's chaos and Appa read you a little bedtime story, albeit in a tired voice… but with a fatherly, loving glow in his eyes, which made you forget about your beautiful watch and you quickly fell asleep again.

Without any more climbing… of course you didn't notice the slightly proud smile on your father's lips as he put the book aside… and was proud of this… could you call it a new milestone in his baby's life?

★★★ Nam-gyu★★★

"Woah woah…what do you think you're doing?"

It was the middle of the night and the voice of your Appa made you pause for a moment…actually you wanted to climb over the edge of your crib in a death-defying manner because you wanted to secretly steal that amazing clock from your parents' bedroom…but your climbing attempts were discovered because…Appa suddenly stood in the brightly lit room and there was a mixture of surprise in his voice.

"Appa! Help!" - you say tearfully, hanging half with one leg over the top edge of the bed and the other half on the other side, threatening to slide off.

"If you're tired of life, baby, I'd rather see this situation.... if you ever meet that crazy salesman on the subway…run Kid.....run", you hear your father mutter and he picks you up in a routine and fatherly gesture.

You look at him with big, pleading eyes and pat the right cheek of the… somewhat tired-looking Nam-Gyu lovingly.

"Wanna Appas Watch....pretty...", you said and cuddeld closer to your Father.

"Ah i get it, so that´s why you start this climbing adventure....sorry I promised to be the best Appa ever for you....no Watch"

"Pwetty please Appa!", you said and whinned once.

"How about this, instead of more climbing stuff this fu....very early night like we have 04:44 a.m.....i sneak you into our Room and you can fall asleep with Mommy and Appa for now?", - your Father said in a soft voice while giving you an calming kiss on the hair.

"Teddy too?", you asked and pointed towards your Crib where a Teddybear was sitting.

"Sure, what kind of an good Appa would i be, if the Teddy is left behind?", said Nam-Gyu and grabbed the stuffed Animal to give it to you.

Only a few Moment later, you were placed in the king sized double Bed next to your sleeping Mommy, while your Father wished you a good night and hummed a soft lullaby, which quickly made you fall asleep.

THE END

[elliequeen777]

Ok, so now and then I think about one post I so a couple of years ago of this person asking why do people like winterwidow. At the time I gave a very basic answer, that I liked their dynamic and how they understand each deeply. Since then I've thought way more about the things I love about this pair.

The one thing that amuses me the most about them is how little were the odds of them actually being together as a couple. Not only in story, but also the real world implications. When you read them interact it seems like they have always been drawn to each other, like it's only natural there's love between them. But the truth is that they weren't always meant to be.

Unlike some of the most popular couples in comics Bucky and Nat weren't created to become a couple at the beginning. All the time Nat was around, writers gave her a good share of serious romantic relationships some of them crafted since her literal birth (in all senses), it had to pass a long time before someone thought to pair her with Bucky. On the other hand, when he was brought back to life she wasn't a clear obvious candidate to be his romantic interest, their relationship was a surprise for both the audience and the characters around them. They weren't an obvious choice at the beginning.

They weren't each other's fated mate at any point, and they have never been untouchable by the narrative. But, somehow, they are always at their best when they are together, even if it's not in a romantic relationship, when they cross their paths they are better.

We already know that they don't find each other in every universe. We have seen them love other people and have fulfilling lives away from each other. The possibility of their romance succeeding isn't a hundred percent every time. Yet, when they are together it feels so natural, like they were always supposed to go side by side.

There is a unique kind of trust and understanding that only exists between them. One that's so deep and so rare, that a lot of people aren't able to perceive it. Therefore, sometimes the fates aren't in their favor and sometimes the odds are even against them. Most of the time they aren't together because is their destiny, but rather in spite of it.

[gamorahww]

Analyzing Glinda Upland Through MBTI - Why She Doesn't Go With Elphaba, Why Ableism is Just Part of Her Worldview and Why She’s Upset, Fiyero Started “Thinking” -

Hello, this is a Glinda analysis no one asked for. It doesn’t contain any spoilers for Wicked: Part 2.

Glinda is one of the most interesting characters with one of the most interesting story arcs I have ever seen in any media. I love the deconstructed “good” of her character and all the layers that the music, the actresses playing her, even the choreography, and in the movie, the editing gave her. Which is why I am slightly annoyed that a portion of the fandom refuses to see her as anything but Pink Fairy Princess With a Girl Crush™. This analysis is meant to look at how Glinda functions, and why she clashes with the two other important characters of the story, Elphaba and Fiyero, based on their personality types.

Yes, I am biased. I ship Fiyeraba, and I even wrote a similar essay on why they work so well, also through the MBTI lense. This is one of the reasons why I will not look at Gelphie only, I would like this to be as broad as possible. I don’t mean to attack anyone’s shipping preferences, this is just a character study. If you are here for that, welcome! Grab a snack, this won’t be short.

Disclaimer Regarding MBTI

I know many people think MBTI is bullshit and even a bit limiting, when we talk about real life, and the people inhabiting it, but in the case of well-written, consistent fictional characters (which applies to Glinda, Elphaba and Fiyero) I think MBTI can be used without worrying about negative effects.

I.) Context, If You Are Not Familiar with MBTI

When it comes to MBTI, there are two angles of looking at the types. One you are probably familiar with is the four-letter abbreviation (ENFP, INTJ, ESTJ, etc), but there is a deeper layer, where looking at those cognitive functions that each type uses. There are 16 variations of the four-letter types, but only 8 functions, that vary in order, and preference in each type. 

We identify four main cognitive functions in each type. Introverted types (their four-letter type stars with an I) are most comfortable using their introverted functions, and extroverted types (their four letters start with an E) are most comfortable with their extroverted functions. However as a person grows up, goes through life and evolves, they learn to harness their initially weaker functions better, and this gives them a more well-rounded personality, and a more healthier way of living in the world and be their authentic selves.

The order of the functions is also important, so whatever is in first place is their strongest function, and whatever is their last is their weakest.

You may be looking at this thinking “I didn’t ask for this”. And you are right, you didn’t, but bear with me.

So, lets sum it up: Each four-letter type has four main functions, and the extroverts are good at extrovert stuff, while introverts are good at introvert stuff. Got it!

II.) Glinda and her MBTI Type and Cognitive Functions

Glinda is an ESFJ personality type. ESFJs are also known as “caregivers”, because they are deeply social people, and they use their skills of being able to read people to influence the lives of those around them. Usually they thrive on giving to others, and they genuinely don’t want anything in return. ESFJ is the most common personality type among women, with their introverted counterpart (the ISFJ) they are considered the “mother” stereotype. They enjoy hosting parties, making sure everyone around them has a great time. They hate conflict, and in an ideal world for them, everyone would just get along, while upholding their own ideal of the world.

ESFJs have a deep sense of community, but they are also deeply traditionalists. They have a hard time letting go of the idea of “how things should be” according to them. Their ideals however don’t come from personal beliefs, they come from learned and social input that they interacted with throughout their lives. "How it should be" for them, always stems from what they are used to, and they usually struggle with thinking out of that box.

Glinda - ESFJ - Cognitive Functions: Fe-Si-Ne-Ti

(Fe) Extraverted Feeling: Focuses on creating harmony and meeting others’ emotional needs, making decisions based on group values and relationships. Glinda goes with the flow of the groups she inhabits. Whatever environment she is in, she wants to ensure the people around her are in harmony. When people around her have differing emotional needs, then she hits a wall, because she has to decide which one she prioritizes over the other.

(Si) Introverted Sensing: Draws on past experiences and traditions to create stability and provide a reliable sense of order. She relies on what she knows, and what she has experienced before. If she has to chose between what is new and what is familiar and therefore reliable, she will always chose the latter.

(Ne) Extraverted Intuition: Explores possibilities and connections, generating new ideas and perspectives for problem-solving. This function is used by ESFJs to explore creative ideas on how to improve the lives of the people around her. "Popular" is a great example of her trying a bunch of versions out to see how she can improve Elphaba’s life - mainly in ways that Galinda herself finds useful.

(Ti) Introverted Thinking: Analyzes information internally to find logical consistency, supporting nuanced and precise understanding. Glinda has this internal sense of logic, where she sees how in her mind, things hang together. This is an internal system, that is rather rigid, and to change one aspect of it would mean to change everything else around it as well. She uses this to decide what is actually possible, and what’s not - according to her.

III.) Clashing Values and Peronalities

Elphaba and Fiyero are obviously the two main characters Glinda interacts with the most throughout the story, but her relationship with either of them mostly works on a superficial level only, and the main reason for that lies in the cognitive functions each character uses. Let’s take a look below. To see how two characters are similar in their personalities, what we are looking for is the same functions in their function stack.

Fe-Si-Ne-Ti > Glinda

vs

Ni-Te-Fi-Se > Elphaba

Se-Fi-Te-Ni > Fiyero

As you can see, Glinda doesn’t share a single one of the functions of the other two. On the surface this would not be a huge issue. Different people find beauty in their differences all the time, and can greatly benefit from those differences. If this was a story, where personal values are of no significance, if there wasn’t you know, an authoritarian regime on the horizon, they all could be friends, as they are. But that is not the case, and in the context of the story, this situation first makes, but then also breaks both of these two relationships she has. And the main culprit in their personality for that is…

Elphaba and Fiyero's Introverted Feeling clashing with Glinda's Extroverted Feeling and Introverted Sensing.

You see, Introverted Feeling (Fi) is what Fiyero and Elphaba bond over. (Fi) is the part of a person that holds their values and integrity. It’s what they hold dear, it’s their sense of what is right, and how things should be. People with introverted feeling are more driven by what they perceive as just, vs what people around them see as just acceptable and normal. You can read more about my exploration of (Fi) in Elphaba and Fiyero here.

Glinda doesn’t have (Fi). This is very obvious in how she reacts to injustice around her, and how she doesn’t really care about Dr. Dillamond’s fate, even when she saw him getting dragged out of the classroom with her own eyes. 

In the deleted scenes, Glinda tells Elphaba that she would have helped, if Elphaba asked her to do that. Glinda is telling the truth. She would have helped, but not because she thought it was the right thing to do, but because Elphaba asked. Her motivations stem from what the outside world wants her to do, and if she loves the person asking her to do the thing, and it doesn't clash with her how others view her or what she thinks others expect from her, then she will do the thing. But had Elphaba put a spell on everyone, except for herself and Glinda, Glinda wouldn’t have done what Fiyero did. She wouldn’t have jumped out of her seat immediately to pick up the cub, on her own accord, and if it was the two girls in that situation, they probably would have stood there for a while, not really knowing what to do.

Neither of them are the taking action type of people, that's Fiyero.

See, Glinda's love for Elphaba can take her as far as helping her save one lion cub when everyone else is asleep, and there are little to no consequences for doing this. She is absolutely right, she would have helped. But this is the limitation of her helpfulness, and essentially, her love for Elphaba as well.

Glinda can’t help who and what she is. “Popular” is not her “I want” song in the musical, but it is a declaration of her values, and how she thinks the world works. I feel many people write "Popular" off as a comic relief moment, but it actually spells out exactly what she is, and what is important for her. She sees social standing as the most important thing in the world, so far that she even would teach Elphaba whom she cares for at that point, how to get a more appropriate status, so she can get by. She truly believes that “networking” with anyone, and maintaining good relationship and a beneficial personal brand is the best way to get what you want. She is not wrong, in many cases, her way of diplomacy are useful, impactful, and may also lead to some level of change.

Glinda is very manipulative, in bigger and smaller ways, but she is usually able to manipulate people in a way that they don't get angry with her for it. (see her directing Boq's attention towards Nessa, something that Glinda thinks kind, but it actually also a self serving act.)

However... Elphaba’s integrity does not let her to compromise in the face of what she percieves as injustice. Her morals don't allow her to network with people, who are so willing to do… well, fascism.

IV.) Satisfying the System

I won’t go into details of how far Glinda goes to be the part of the established system, as that is spoilers territory for part 2, and maybe not everyone is here for that. Nor do we know, how this will play out in the movies. But…

Glinda has no interest in questioning the system and how it works. She understands how it functions, and she uses it to her advantage whenever she can. She uses her social standing and the image she cultivated to get what she wants, and this takes her as far as she can go, like she said in "Popular", without “brains or knowledge”, but she hits a wall with Madame Morrible, and the sorcery class. Magic is so rare in Oz, and Glinda wants to be able to do magic so bad. There is an almost throwaway joke that, when we examine it closer, I think explains why she wants to be a sorceress.

In her conversation with Morrible, Glinda mentions she submited and essay titled “Magic Wands: Need They Have a Point?” which is a pun on the shape of wands (and Glinda eventually not having a wand that has a point at the end of her transformation into Glinda, the Good, but one with a sphere and crystals at the end) but also, if we break it down a bit, she is saying “does magic need to have a point?”. I believe this means she wants to do magic for the sake of it. Not to change the system, or improve it, no. Of course, she also wants to help others with her magic, but, importantly, to help them in a way she sees fit, and to help others meet the standards of the system and the society they live in, so they fit in nicely into Glinda's world.

Not everyone is able to fit in like that however. I would like to briefly touch on the ableism she exhibits by manipulating societal perceptions of Nessa as “tragically beautiful” and giving her a suitor Glinda herself doesn’t want. Glinda exploits the pity she knows people feel for Nessa to manipulate Boq, using the ableist system to her benefit while perpetuating it. She views herself as superior to both Boq and Nessa, which is why she feels justified in orchestrating this situation.

Another example of her ableism is when she criticizes Dr. Dillamond for his inability to pronounce her name. The professor explains that his lack of upper front teeth, a physical difference that impacts his ability to articulate certain sounds in human language, prevents him from doing so. However, Glinda dismisses this explanation, insisting that “every other professor” can manage. She fails to recognize that a skill she considers basic might not be universally achievable, and she unfairly holds him to a standard he cannot meet.

Glinda’s actions perpetuate an ableist system by upholding and exploiting societal biases against those with disabilities or physical differences. By manipulating perceptions of Nessa and disregarding Dr. Dillamond’s explanation, she reinforces the idea that people must conform to arbitrary standards of “normalcy” to be valued. This behavior not only marginalizes individuals with unique challenges but also normalizes the expectation that their worth is contingent upon overcoming or compensating for those differences.

V.) It’s Safer inside the Bubble

To ignore the fact that Glinda comes from great privilege in a story that has this much politics in it would be a silly thing to do, but I will kinda do that anyway. The only level of privilege I would like to touch on is the fact that her and Fiyero come from similar backgrounds, royalty and power. They both had a presumably an easy and sheltered life before meeting Elphaba. Elphaba also comes from wealth, but society and her family made life a lot more difficult for her.

Glinda sees this similarity with her and Fiyero, and feels like she found her match. In the state Fiyero is in, when they initially meet, he seems like the perfect fit for her. But the thing about Fiyero is that he is in a very-very emotionally unhealthy state when they meet. (You can read about his looping in my Fiyero and Elphaba analysis) 

Isn’t it interesting, that Glinda sings about popularity not needing “brains or knowledge” and Fiyero claims to dance through life “painless” and “brainless”?

Fiyero lives superficially and carelessly, literally shutting his brain off, and not engaging his inner world. This inner world is where his Introverted Feeling lives, so him not using that keeps him from clashing with Glinda on the points mentioned in III.) above.

But that is not Fiyero’s natural state, and he shouldn’t behave like that. However the fact that they can only connect when one of them is not entirely themselves is something Glinda clocks, when she says he is being “distant” and that he “has been thinking”. After his encounter with Elphaba, Fiyero starts engaging his (Fi) - again, more about that in the other analysis - and Glinda has no idea, what to do with that. He presumably even told him that it had to do with the day Dr. Dillamond was taken, but Glinda cannot connect to this on an emotional level, and she calls him “an old goat”, which is pretty insensitive of her. She can’t really cope with the fact that Elphaba and Fiyero were both affected by this thing that seems almost trivial to her, just another day at school, and she didn’t like Dillamond anyway.

She is very pereptive, and she can see the change in both of them. And change for a traditionalist like Glinda is devastatingly scary.

Little does she know that Fiyero from that point onward is no longer inside the same bubble as she is, and he is a lot less afraid of seeing it all in the rearview mirror, and never to return to it again. Well, if he could help it, that is.

So, taking Fiyero and the lion cub, and school, and all that away, Elphaba and Glinda go to see the Wizard. Once they realized (well, Elphaba does) that the Wizard has no magic, and he is also behind all the things happening to the animals, Glinda's bubble doesn't... pop. She aligns herself with the crowd, preserving the status quo.

She has to chose between what is right, and what feels right for her, and well... she stays behind. And she doesn't do the right thing. This time.

[thewadapan]

My pal @irlnautica has just shared her essay defining the Transformers version of the Doylist/Watsonian perspective dichotomy!

"Budianskian and Furmanist: A new model of storytelling analysis"

Bob Budiansky believed that the most interesting thing about the entire Transformers setup was that the Transformers were on Earth. The vast majority of his stories revolved around ideas of culture clash and worlds colliding; Bob’s Autobots would be perplexed and fascinated by human behaviours, from small-town life to professional wrestling. [...] Budianskian storytelling is concerned with looking at Cybertronians from an external perspective: exploring what sets them apart from you or I, showing how they interact with a world not their own, how and why they hide themselves as human vehicles to conduct their war. Budianskian storytelling is about the Transformers being robots in disguise. By contrast, Simon Furman was far less enamoured with humans and the ways the two species played off each other. [...] To be sure, his stories take advantage of the characters being robots, but rarely is it particularly concerned with them being vehicles. Furmanist storytelling looks at Cybertronians from an internal perspective; it’s concerned with how they interact with each other, and the lore and history and substance of their own world. The point of the robots as characters isn’t to contrast with the human experience, but to be a stand-in for them. Furmanist storytelling is about the Transformers being more than meets the eye.

If you enjoyed my essay on Transformers One, I guarantee you'll find stuff to like in Jo's writing too. Much of it is giving an overview of major examples of Transformers stories, but whenever it steps outside that specific context, you'll find it raises interesting questions about "the promise of the premise", what exactly it is that makes certain kinds of stories/themes/allegories better-suited to given properties/settings/concepts than others.

I feel strongly that these terms can be generalised to cover all forms of sci-fi—hell, any story where the premise involves a "break from everyday reality" in some form or another. Are we in that world, or are we outside it, looking in?

(I think, for most people not in Transformers fandom, the ethos behind Furmanism in this specific context is frankly baffling. What is the point of writing about these giant alien robots if you're really just writing about humans? Personally, it's the culture-clash stuff that continues to compel me as an adult. Nevertheless, this essay makes a valiant effort to justify the appeal of Furmanist stories as best it can!)

[latinfeline]

i feel like this has been talked about to death but i want to talk about how different the anna kiss scene was between paths

this post is going to be really long so i'll crop it here, spoilers ahead obviously

first off: anna's reaction to lane's feelings

on lost compassion (lc) anna is hesitant to get close to lane because she doesn't want her own feelings hurt. idk how consistent this is with her character especially on this path (as she and lane are pretty codependant already before this) but it's better than the alternative.

on awakened compassion (ac) anna's just straight up homophobic. the only real reason she doesn't want to enter a relationship with lane is because she's a woman. it's a somewhat interesting conflict for a character to have, but only when done right (this isn't), and it also doesn't make sense as anna on the lc path doesn't have many hangups about lane being a woman iirc.

second: her reaction to the kiss

lc anna is having a good time, good for you girl. (assuming my reading of 'bucking' as she's pressing against lane in a /pos way is accurate)

ac anna meanwhile is angered and disgusted. the use of 'she wanted to wash herself off' is so disheartening to me especially, like has there ever been another li disgusted by the mc's advances? it feels like she doesn't even like women here. even tata, who is battling internalized homophobia, still recognizes that she is attracted to women and enjoys lada's affection. even aside from that, this isn't a problem to lc anna, who is the same character! the difference between lc and ac is lane, not anna.

third: reciprocation!

on the lc path anna kisses back. this is the bare minimum and i don't think sasha should be praised for this. yes, the scene is good, but should the players on the ac path really need to switch over just for their li to kiss them back?

meanwhile ac anna is just sitting there? no matter what's going on surrounding it, this is a romance story, and our li isn't even kissing back. and based on the rest of the scene, it feels like she isn't even attracted to lane. adding 'without being mean or angry' when she wsa angry about it just a little while ago is an extra kick in the gut.

so tldr the awakened compassion scene sucks (everyone already knew that) the lost compassion scene is ok but a little ooc, and looking at them side to side makes anna ten times more confusing

rant over ig feel free to discuss especially if you're more media literate than i am

[kezzamjam]

Mane Six Redesign! 🌟 + Finalized Cutie Mark Redesigns!

these ponies are the only things keeping me sane during this insane time guys! hope they can help u too if you’re having a tough time^^

Some notes about their designs below if you’re interested! :D

Finally redesigned their cutiemarks! I wanted them to be as intricate as their cutie mark story! I tried to make them match my style as well, cause the originals didn’t really fit too well in my interpretations. these will probably be the ones i use from now on!

Twilight of course has her iconic blunt cut, I think the ponytail suits her straight to the point, sarcastic but loving and fun personality in the first season! her hair will slowly start to loosen into a low tied back ponytail as she learns the magic of friendship :’) if you saw my Older Mane Six Redesigns you can see what I mean! She also has birthmarks around her chest and horn! While marks are seen in Pegasi usually, they are seen in Unicorns in rare cases. When she becomes an Alicorn, creatures mistakenly think she was born a Pegasus.

I feel like Applejack, in her traditional country girl style would have a longer mane than originally! I gave her Pear Butter’s hair texture, and though she doesn’t really know how to maintain it, she keeps it long in honor of her mother. But! she does keep it braided to keep it out of the way. Vitiligo bc I think it would be common among Earth Ponies, supposedly mirroring the way sun dances on the soil.It also is what causes her freckles! Also, I made her hair similar to the shape of a bitten apple! I think it rly suits her as the CORE (pun intended) apple! :p

Fluttershy!! Shorter mane/tied up bc the animals always try to claw and tangle themselves in it. Her silhouette is meant to juxtapose Dash’s, despite their similar design choices! (ie similar length manes, tails, both pegasus ofc) this is to really emphasize the fact that Pegasi come in so many varieties! When people say she should have just been an Earth Pony makes me so sad, bc that’s the whole point! She isn’t your typical pegasus but we love her for it! Multiple pink shades in her mane to mirror Celestia, as many ponies later point out her likeness to her— I also think it’s an interesting point of what exactly is the beauty standard in Equestria! Fluttershy has often been remarked as very beautiful, and I’d like to think her similarity to the Princess is part of that. She also has hoof marks on her! All pegasi do and in rare cases, they relate directly to their future cutie mark!

RARITY MY DIVA !!!! Ofc had to give her the most luxurious mane of all. She has a curly hair type, and is arguably the only one of the Mane Six who knows how to properly care for her hair type 😭 don’t worry! she teaches her friends and it’s wonderful (i wonder who i mentioned earlier that rly needs her help…. 💎🍎…..) I wanted her to invoke the feeling of the original myths of unicorns, with their lankiness and long, flowing white coats. She was actually my first redesign all the way back in august, and the only one i haven’t changed! I love her more than anything.

Pinkie Pie was lowk the hardest for me because of her monotonous color palette 😭 but I didn’t want to change it bc she is simply!!! iconic!!!! I enjoy the designs of the original mane six and just wanted to alter elements of the designs rather then entirely recreate the characters from the ground up. She has very tight coily hair (my poc queen 🤞🤞) and decorates it with her favorite confetti! and sometimes frosting >< Gave her highlights to better see the shapes in her mane. And ofc gave her more blue accents! I think it’s so understated that she has two iconic colors in her palette and no one takes about it

And finally, Rainbow Dash! Dashie was so much fun bc I had such a clear vision for her. I wanted that sweet lightning bolt motif, both cause I think she would have a cut specifically for dazzling up her flying skills, but also to mirror AJ’s hair motifs! (for u appledashies out the ;3) and also because they’re always head to head, but rly they go hoof in hoof together and compliment their softer friends so well. Dash’s scars on her wings are from her first sonic rainboom! She was very lucky to have it heal stinger than before, and was the only filly to ever do so. Her Pegasi hoof marks are actually very plain, which is why she tattooed over them! she had them done is the same style of her cutie mark, and actually got one of her hoof wings tattooed white too. Speaking of her cutie mark, I wanted it to feel like the sonic rainboom really left an impression on her physically, dancing on her coat, forever with her :) it also, to dash’s enjoyment, is rad as heck!!

thank u for reading if u made it this far, and I can’t wait to draw these designs some more!!! x3

[dodger-chan]

#google search "books for crotchety old women in their mid twenties who like murder mysteries and gay people"

And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling

Not exactly a mystery from the reader's perspective, more of a dark thriller (serial killer, missing girl, etc.) with mystery elements. The sequel is a much better mystery, but I think you need the character introductions from book one. There's a lot of small town drama and politics in both books, which to me is the more interesting part of the series. The main character/detective is the acting local sheriff (the election to get a permanent sheriff is a major plotline in book two) with a tragic past (a brother who went missing as a kid and a murdered boyfriend who he couldn't properly mourn because their relationship was secret)

Last Call at the Nightingale by Katherine Schellman

Period mystery set in New York in the roaring twenties. The mystery is really good and, as I recall, solvable for the reader. The main characters are really interesting people. There is a love triangle (our intrepid young seamstress/detective has feelings for both the mysterious nightclub owner and the semi-criminal fixer with police connections) but a well written one that mirrors the heroine's inner conflicts. I am very biased towards this series because it touches on so many of my interests.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

One of the all-time classics. Fantastically written mystery. I'm not sure if the reader can actually solve it, but you do get all the same information the detective does, just not any of his reasoning. And you probably know who did it because it's a famous story. It was written in the twenties, though, so its queer villains are not exactly portrayed with modern sensibilities.

The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney

Another thriller, but one that leans more into the mystery aspect. Definitely on the darker side, with cops investigating a serial killer in 1969 Glasgow. To be honest I read this book when it first came out in 2018 and I don't remember why I liked it but I really did.

Proper English by K.J. Charles

Charles tends to write queer romance, but this one is also a murder mystery. It's been a while since I read this one, too, and the romance stuck with me more than the mystery, but as I recall it's one of those murders in an isolated country estate at a house party with a limited number of suspects, nearly all of which were being blackmailed by the victim. (If you're unfamiliar with the works of KJ Charles, they're a fun author. Their Sins of the City series is also kind of a mystery, though it takes a backseat to the love stories. And the Will Darling Adventures has kind of a spy thriller/mystery plotline, though again the romance is the main point; the spy stuff is what happens while the romance develops)

That's pretty much it for murder mysteries with canon queer detectives off the top of my head but Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries are fun and very readable (they were written over a long time span so the older ones use some very uncomfortable language). I'm a huge fan of Raymond Chandler, particularly The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye (it's very easy to read Philip Marlowe as bi; The Long Goodbye is more about his relationship with Terry Lennox than it is about the murders). Hammett's The Thin Man is another really great mystery, and the main characters (married couple Nick and Nora Charles) are very sweet and in love.

Getting into reading in 2025 is a nightmare like why is everything divided into “cosy” or “spicy” and why are we describing protagonists and plots with fanfic tropes 🙃🙃

[seph-ic]

Georgie baker means so much to me like she literally just decided to have no fear and be completely immune to like the entire tmaverse.

“Fear gods rule us and feed on our greatest fears.”

“Good for them can I just film my fucking podcast and be bisexual in peace?”

A legend among men she is truly a hero to us all.

[arnaerr]

Rellana, Twin Moon Knight & Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon

prints ✦ full process on patreon

[ohrackham]

what was the point of lila thinking home was a feeling she didn't deserve and could never earn until she found diego. what was the point of them finding deep, meaningful love in each other. what was the point of lila opening her heart and confessing that all she really wanted was a family with him.

what was the point of developing diego and lila over two seasons, creating such a beautiful, chaotic bond, just to destroy it for no reason.

[team7-headquarter]

Whenever someone tries to make a point about something the Konoha kunoichis, I need to make a pause and remind them how out of character they were in some of those moments.

Kishimoto pretty much abandoned Sakura and Ino's friendship and then tried to bring it back during the War arc. Ino lost her sensei and then her dad, and when was Sakura? You mean to tell me she wouldn't care? About any of it? Or when Sasuke was declared to be killed, do you mean to tell me that Ino wouldn't have run to find Sakura?

The way Hinata was written on Shippuden???? Naruto aside, people forget that Hinata refused to give up during the Chunning Exams and forced Neji to almost kill her if he wanted the victory. She was stubborn, she was prideful too, she had more going on than simply a crush on Naruto. She was told by her father she was a failure and yet she didn't give up on becoming a kunoichi, did she?

Then why is that Shippuden wrote her like her sole ambition was Naruto, hm?

And Tenten? She was MEAN when she wanted to be because she was highly competitive. We know that she wanted to train under Tsunade, so where did the death of that dream take her? She's such a powerful kunoichi and yet we know so little about her personality, her life...

We got "Ino and Hinata know some medic min techniques" in the most random way possible... We know Sakura would walk around with Hinata even, so what about their girl bonding moments during the genin to Shippuden years?

It made me so angry whenever the girls treated each other like strangers in Shippuden. So many stupid situations made to highly their teammates even if I meant to write the girls out of character...

[ask-lu-wild]

[shorthaltsjester]

maybe this is just because it feels like a metaphor for how tlovm uses vex in general (and i could write an essay about it and have and will again) but something that i both understand tlovm choosing to do and deeply hate as a choice they made is vex no longer being the one to break thordak’s crystal even though vax was still the one to kill him. especially since the show was very explicit about thordak being responsible for killing the twins’ mother and also set it up as a sort of avenging of percy, it felt tonally weird to literally just have vex hanging out in the background for both the crystal breaking and him being killed. it’s fine (deeply upset voice) i understand that adjustments to pike’s vestige made this make sense for the plot but. glad to have vex continue to be a witness in tlovm moments that in the campaign her agency in were delicious character moments. it’s fine.

[cheriafreya]

I can't believe I'm gonna say this but... I'm starting to consider taking a break from Genshin and just go play Wuwa instead for once 😬

[seventeendeer]

just watched the barbie movie everyone was discoursing about last year and I can't help but feel like a lot of the problems in its execution could have been avoided if the kid character's arc had been about learning to embrace girly stuff as an act of rebellion against the adultification of teen girls while barbie went full butch transmasc

[tetsuskei]

i will say that one thing i think is really weak about natlan are the characters. i actually like the traversals and using them, but content wise i feel like they don’t have much personality? or at the very least, the game does not set them up for you to learn more about them. i don’t know why they got rid of story quests, that was probably one of the biggest mistakes they could’ve done. the tribal chronicles don’t really give anymore information on them either, as many characters don’t appear until the last act. not to mention the quests usual surround some issue happening in the tribe which gives less focus on the characters involved. and i will say that i think mauvika is probably one of the least developed archons in design and character/personality.