#more fleshed out meaning an context and romance

[lenalvthor]

hey i have a fucking bone to pick with sapphic fandoms

like, i get it okay. i've been on tumblr since 2011, i was in the trenches during the bury your gays nightmare, i grew up on buffy, i watched the 100, i've been through the furious and devastating queerbaits, and i've watched helplessly as the boom of proper progress with sapphic rep has burned and disappeared with the faults of the industry as it is rn and the resurgence of bury your gays in the form of tv cancellations

i even did a fucking guest lecture for a film & tv university course a couple years ago on all of this

we joke about the fact that queer (specifically sapphic) fans flock to any show with the barest hint of rep in it because we're so starved for it, and we talk about the fact that if nothing else, that proves that there's a market and an audience and it usually creates a huge wave of viewership and attention for the show

but i need to fucking point out: acting as though a show exists for the sole purpose of the sapphic relationship you've started watching it for is fucking detrimental to how you'll perceive the show, how it'll get talked about in fandom spaces and then beyond that (bc the line between fandom spaces and wider online discussion of media is a lot thinner than it was ten years ago) and isn't actually going to do any good for sapphic rep! like, at all! because guess what! unless you're watching a show where the entire storyline revolves around romance, this couple you're watching for ISN'T going to be the centre of the story! it's a part of it! and there's such a weird fucking entitled toxicity to how fans act around brilliant storytelling and worldbuilding and writing and characters throwing tantrums about not getting more screentime for the relationship they like because they don't actually care about any other part of the story. and the thing about people who watch something solely for a ship rather than the wider story it exists in, is that a lot of the time, you'll fundamentally misinterpret the characters and their dynamic because you're not taking any of the wider context of the world and story into account at all.

and yes, of course i'm talking about agatha all along in the immediacy. because we knew a long, long time ago that billy maximoff was gonna be an integral part of this story, long before we knew anything about what the vibe of this show was gonna be, long before anyone even had the tiniest whisper of rio's existence. the same way wandavision was monica rambeau's origin story even though the show was wanda's, we suspected that agatha all along would be billy's/wiccan's origin story even if the show focused on agatha. and you know fucking what. that's good fucking storytelling. this show is smart, it's funny, it's curious, it's campy, it's queer, and it's ensemble. that's always been the point. agatha and rio were a delightfully unexpected part of it that added such delicious tension and phenomenal sapphic rep, but you know what else! the point of that dynamic is to flesh out agatha's character! this show isn't about agatha and rio! it's about agatha and billy, who they are, how their pasts and their magic are connected, their traumas and their power and how the road shapes their futures! rio is a part of exploring agatha's past, and it's phenomenal, but i am so fucking bewildered by the ridiculousness of people's reactions to billy now having a bigger part in the story and there being less focus on agatha and rio. you do know that you write scenes and characters and stories in a way that makes sense right? that because of the nature of this show, even if we don't get more than a handful agatha and rio scenes for the rest of the episodes, they're both still sapphic characters, this is still wonderful sapphic rep, and this show is still very, very queer?

like, it's obviously not fair that we have to beg for scraps to have queer shows to watch. but that doesn't mean that any of us get to do such a fucking disservice to the people who make amazing shows and fight to put sapphic rep in them within the contexts of the stories they're telling by whining that it's not enough. what we're getting with agatha all along, what kathryn han and aubrey plaza and jac schaeffer have said with such grace and nuance and intrigue and depth about agatha and rio's relationship, is so fucking rare! and it's nestled within a story that's got so much other intricate storytelling that makes agatha and rio richer characters when you actually pay some fucking attention and care about who they are outside of their sexual tension!

and i'm saying this because this is an issue i see with So many other shows, where the worth of a show gets boiled down to fandoms wanting content of their ship and nothing else and then poisoning the conversation and reception around what else it is that show is doing with its story. idk get some fucking media literacy, grow up and respect artists and creatives.

[wisteria-lodge]

I’d love if you ever expanded your thoughts on the way JKR writes romance, because it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while. One thing that’s very interesting to me is that jealousy is used as a driving force for both of the main romantic storylines in HP. It’s more obvious with Ron/Hermione (the Yule Ball, basically everything that happens between them in book 6, the locket horcrux stuff) but also plays a big role in Harry/Ginny. Harry’s jealousy of her relationship with Dean is what makes him realize he’s into her, and moments where he’s pining for Ginny tend to focus on that jealousy more than an actual appreciation of Ginny’s personality. The most important part of writing a convincing romance is making readers believe that these characters actually care about each other and want to spend time together, and it feels like maybe what you describe as JKR’s obsession with pining made her lose sight of that. What do you think?

We've also got jealousy as a motif in Harry/Cho and Severus/Lily. It is absolutely a trope she uses, a lot. 

When I was trying to get my head around how JKR writes romance, the main thing that made it click for me was realizing that, to her - romance is inherently threatening. And/or embarrassing, overpowering, animalistic, dangerous. (thanks to @the-phoenix-heart for that line.) 

Really, the Harry Potter books are kind of a romance-free zone. It is incredibly unusual to see a romantic couple, acting like a couple, on the page. We spend a lot of time with Arthur and Molly, and while they’re both pretty fleshed out as characters, we get almost nothing of their couple dynamic (and what we do get doesn’t seem all that positive…) The blocking tends to physically separate them - Molly isn’t at the World Cup or Harry’s hearing, Arthur is working overtime when Harry is at the Burrow, etc. This is a pattern: her romantic couples, of which there are not many, have a way of being in different rooms, on different side quests, one of them is mind-controlled, one of them is unconscious, it cuts to black right before Harry kisses Cho, and right after he kisses Ginny.

Ron/Hermione takes place mostly outside of Harry’s perspective, and Harry/Ginny takes place mostly out of *the reader's* perspective. It’s a lot of narration, a lot of “Harry could not help himself talking to Ginny, laughing with her, walking back from practice with her” and “[Harry] was supposedly finishing his Herbology homework but in reality reliving a particularly happy hour he had spent down by the lake with Ginny at lunchtime.” Like, I don’t know. I might have liked to see those scenes play out.  

Bill/Fleur is probably her most successful couple (I mean, who doesn't like Bill and Fleur?) But even they almost never interact with each other. They talk about their relationship to other people, other people talk about them, but like… I’m just going to go through a rundown of every single time we see Bill and Fleur interact: 

 “’E is always so thoughtful,” purred Fleur adoringly, stroking Bill’s nose. Ginny mimed vomiting into her cereal behind Fleur. Harry choked over his cornflakes.

(Romance = embarrassing) 

What if [Ron and Hermione] became like Bill and Fleur, and it became excruciatingly embarrassing to be in their presence, so that he was shut out for good?

(Romance = embarassing, threatening)

Most [of the people at Dumbledore’s funeral] Harry did not recognize, but a few he did, including (...) Bill supported by Fleur and followed by Fred and George

(put a pin in this one, I’m going to come back to it) 

“Bah,” said Fleur [in Harry’s body], checking herself in the microwave door, “Bill, don’t look at me — I’m ’ideous.”

(I actually think this is kind of cute in context, but unfortunately JKR is being uncharitable to her hyper-femme characters again, and making a joke about woman-in-male-body, which unfortunately makes it less cute in the grand scheme of things) 

“I’m taking Fleur on a thestral,” said Bill. “She’s not that fond of brooms.” Fleur walked over to stand beside him, giving him a soppy, slavish look that Harry hoped with all his heart would never appear on his face again.

(Romance = embarrassing) 

“We saw [Mad-Eye die]” said Bill; Fleur nodded, tear tracks glittering on her cheeks... 

(Not sure if this counts as them interacting, but they are at least next to each other)

“No,” said Bill at once, “I’ll do it, I’ll come.” “Where are you going?” said Tonks and Fleur together. “Mad-Eye’s body,” said Lupin. “We need to recover it.”

(this one doesn’t even frame them as a couple, since the teams have split into Bill and Lupin and Tonks and Fleur.) 

“We can’t tell you what we’re doing,” said Harry flatly. “You’re in the Order, Bill, you know Dumbledore left us a mission. We’re not supposed to talk about it to anyone else.” Fleur made an impatient noise, but Bill did not look at her.”

(... does this imply that Fleur isn’t in the Order? Anyway, they’re married at this point, and kinda disagreeing a la Molly and Arthur) 

[Griphook] continued to request trays of food in his room, like the still frail Ollivander, until Bill (following an angry outburst from Fleur) went upstairs to tell him that the arrangement could not continue.

(Another conflict, but hey, at least it sounds like they resolved it. We hear about their daughter Victoire in the epilogue, but this is the last time we see Bill and Fleur together.) 

But, okay. Not putting romance in the Harry Potter books is a perfectly fine creative choice. JKR can absolutely decide she just wants to give other things more emotional weight. What clarified this for me was the Fantastic Beasts films and her adult literature (particularly the Cormoran Strike books.) In those, JKR is wanting to write romance. And yet....

In Fantastic Beasts, she can write the awkward getting-to-know-you pre-romance stuff, but the second Jacob and Queenie are actually a couple - he loses his memory, then he’s brainwashed, she’s with Grindelwald, they’re different plot lines that never intersect… and then they just get married at the end of Secrets of Dumbledore. So it’s not even a slow-burn, will-they-won’t-they thing. Tina and Newt get the same treatment, except their pre-romance getting-to-know-you beats are so subtle that a lot of people missed them completely. Then Tina's angry at Newt for a very silly misunderstanding… then in a separate plotline… and is only in the third film for two minutes at the end. People compare the structure of these films to Indiana Jones, but in those movies the love interest is actually hanging out with Indy the whole time. In the Cormoran Strike books, the romantic leads do spend time together, but they’ve also been doing a pining, bad timing, will they/won’t they back-and-forth thing for seven books. And they’re long books. 

So okay. What’s going on. Why is this. 

JK Rowling has been very public about the trauma she has from abusive relationships and sexual assault, and I’m afraid I do have to bring that up in a conversation about why she treats romance so negatively. More specifically - if I had to guess - I think she finds male attraction towards women threatening. (I’m sure we all remember Harry’s chest monster.)  I think she feels a little icky writing it, which is why when she does do it… it feels perfunctory, generic, repetitive, and also not the sort of thing that would come from a teenage boy. (Like when has a 14-year-old boy ever thought a girl was pretty because she had nice teeth. That’s such a straight girl compliment.) BUT, when she writes about the attractiveness of guys - it gets more specific, more nuanced, more interesting, and also a lot less uncomfortable. J.K. Rowling likes guys! She’s allowed. 

But of course, she also tends to write male viewpoint characters, and I think this is why a lot of her guys (and Harry specifically) kinda read as queer to a lot of people. We’re told Harry is distracted by/attracted to Cho Chang… but is he though? Compared to the way “pretty boy” Cedric, or “sleek haired” Draco get under his skin? 

I want to take a look at her adult romantic leads for a second. Because in Fantastic Beasts, she really did pull out all the stops to make Newt and Jacob as non-threatening as humanly possible. Newt is a gentle, pacifist, Doctor Dolittle-type conservationist who barely seems interested in women at all, and Jacob… is a Muggle baker. She pairs Newt with Tina, tough as nails American star auror. Jacob is with Queenie, who is constantly literally reading his mind. Which is an ability we’ve only seen with the most powerful wizards. These guys are not a threat to these ladies. In Queenie’s case, the power balance is tipped so insanely far in her direction that I’m a little bit worried for Jacob (and she does in fact, bewitch him into doing stuff.) I think JKR wrote her couples this way so any romance she wrote with them would also feel safe… and sadly I don’t think it worked. The most fleshed out couple dynamic we get is Dumbledore/Grindelwald, who have a coffee date and a duel in the third movie. But - that’s the one movie where she doesn’t have sole screenwriting credit, they’re exes, and they're also both GUYS, so she doesn’t have to worry about any kind of male/female power imbalance gunk, or put herself in the headspace of a guy being attracted to women.

Now I do want to talk about Cormoran Strike. Of all her non-threatening male love interests, this is the one who seems to work best for her. She’s stuck with him the longest, and it actually seems possible that we might get an actual romantic scene with him in the next book. 

Here’s my theory. I think that when JKR was writing Goblet of Fire, and it came time to introduce the real Mad-Eye Moody - imprisoned in the bottom of his own trunk, weak, down a leg and an eye -  something clicked. Because that is someone who is both entirely masculine, and entirely safe, and that makes him the perfect romantic figure. And I absolutely think she grabbed that archetype when it came to writing Cormoran Strike.

Basically, this character just is Mad-Eye Moody, only 15(ish) years younger, and non-magical. Strike is an ex-military cop who now freelances. He’s older than his love interest, he’s been around the block a few times. He’s gruff, but careful and kind, world-weary and grizzled, extremely capable, principled, tough, and just sort of hyper aware of what’s going on around him. He is also a bigger guy with some access weight who is not “conventionally attractive” - and for JKR this is a feature, not a bug. If your female character is into someone who is not *~*~handsome~*~* that means they’re cool, deep, not like other girls. Viktor Krum is not conventionally attractive, and (after the werewolf attack) neither is Bill. In fact “he now bore a distinct resemblance to Mad-Eye Moody.” JKR likes Mad-Eye Moody. 

And you better believe that Cormoran Strike has a broken nose and a missing leg, just like Mad-Eye Moody. Strike’s prosthetic leg comes up a *lot.* I think it’s telling that the loving interaction we see between Bill and Fleur is her physically supporting him at Dumbledore's funeral post werewolf attack, and the loving little wrist squeeze we get between Lucius and Narcissa is right before Lucius hands his wand over. Basically, JKR likes someone who is sexy and capable and has a lot of presence, but who you get to take care of, and who… can’t chase you. Doesn’t pose a threat. That's the fantasy. 

[infamous-if]

To Gender Select, or to Not Gender Select

So as everyone knows, I'm using the opportunity for this rewrite to really step back and look at what I have so far. I have just subscribed to the whole "follow my gut" thing and for the last two months or so, my gut has been telling me something.

For context, I created Orion (and I have mentioned this a couple times when I first opened this blog) that he came to me fully formed. While other ROs were more of a puzzle that appeared more and more fleshed out with every detailed I added, Orion was like a jenga block tower that grew more and more unsteady every time I changed a detail about him. He just came to me exactly as he was and I didn't really think beyond that. For example, with G, pieces of both Gina and Griffin came to me at the same time and G isn't G without both versions. With Orion he was just...Orion.

But lately—and this was not without many suggestions asking for it!—I've been playing around with the idea of a female version of his character.

One of my biggest things was to make sure that this wasn't a matter of just changing a variable. When it comes to my gender selectable ROs, I want to make sure I'm including the subtleties and nuances that come with being a man/woman in the public eye, especially for O. Their route is heavily centered around the idea of professionalism and...other things I can't mention and I think it'd be super interesting to add another component of being a woman, not only typically stern and taciturn but in a dominant position in music mostly taken up by men. Which is why, in the rewrite, there will be lines that are unique to Orion and unique to her. Reactions that are different, conversations that change. People who continue to romance Orion will prob not see a difference.

Not only does it separate them as two different people, it creates some distance from Orion, who is an established and beloved character already. I want his female counterpart to stand on her own as her own character.

Just because they have the same route does not mean they are the same person. I've always said that about my gender selectable characters.

This was not a spur of the moment decision. I was thinking about this for a while. I just needed to make sure every piece of Orion's route would make sense for her, and I do believe it does.

I've also been told many times how many people like Orion's route and the whole "manager-client" trope but are unable to play it as they are not attracted to men. I think this would be a nice addition and a way to make it more inclusive/give more people more routes to play!

The things I have written for Orion will probably stay the same since they've been written. Everything after the rewrite will have both options to select from.

So meet Oriana Quinn. With a short black bob usually greased back and a perfectly pressed suit, Oriana is as intimidating as she is determined. Yes, she's just as tall and muscular as her male counterpart and as obsessed with the gym as he. Her route with Cory will be different in its nature (since Cory is straight) but...guess we'll see!

fun fact: The beauty of Oriana being the name is that coincidentally, it also has to do with the sky. One of my requirements for finding a name like Orion's was that it was sky themed since it does come up. It almost seems like fate! haha

TLDR: Orion will be gender selectable. If you have plans to romance Orion and Orion alone, this will make no difference to you. For those who were hoping for this, I hope this news makes Infamous a bit more enjoyable for you! <3

[startheskelaton]

Can you tell us more about Landlot(Sparkplug's ex boyfriend)please?

Oh gosh I'm gonna go on a huge tangent about this guy, mostly because I feel like it.

So Landlot is the newest version of a character that belonged to my own ex boyfriend. However I was the one to properly flesh out his character, the most my ex did was give him a color pallet and basic personality.

For context, One Spark first started as a fanfiction called "End of the rode" made by my ex. It was a post apocalyptic transformers au where the Optimus and Megatron are dead, the autobots are trying to make another arc to get to Cybertron and the decepticons are now led by Starscream. The story only really got a proper threw line when I suggested adding a character I had thought up, Sal Witwicky, the orphaned daughter of Spike Witwicky. Sal's deal was that she resented transformers because they not only destroyed her world, but let her family die, now she's one of few surviving humans. She gets found by Hound and reluctantly agrees to go back with him to the autoboot base.

At one point, Sal was supposed to be horribly injured by Ravage (who was only there because I really liked Soundwave, and his addition helped fill in plot gaps), to the point she was about to die. However they put her in a experimental protoform body... she would now be known... as Sparkplug. (I also came up with this plotline)

Why am I going on about this? Well because it's important to why Land lot exists on my current story. Landlot in the old fanfiction was a twin and was one of the first transformers built on earth, post Sparkplug getting put into robot body. He was supposed to be the leader of his group, as he was kind of a hotrod wanna be. He was also vary clearly a self projection character for my ex, similar to how I tend to project onto Sparkplug. I had offered the idea for Sparkplug and Landlot to be a couple, I can't remember if my ex was on board for the idea or not, however I do remember it being the only thing close to romance in the whole story.

So here we are a good maybe 6 years later. I had a lot of trauma from that relationship to the point I still dream about him, and the moment I realize it's him in my dream, I try and get away from him, not wanting to be with him at all. I won't say I was a saint during that relationship, but I do resent him for being able to find some sense of peace with intimacy. A lot of shit happened... So when I decided to remake the Transformers AU, I was mean to Landlot.

So who is Landlot in the One Spark AU?

Well he's a 1970's Plymoth GX, who emerged with his twin sister, Defender. They emerged pretty soon after the matrix awakened the energon on earth. They emerged vary close to the autobot base and were taken in and trained like any normal sparkling would be trained back on Cybertron. He fit in vary well as he remined a lot of the autobots of the older days, just a bunch of guys who turned into cars acting like heroes and messing around. He would become a poster boy for the transformers born on Earth.

How did he end up dating Sparkplug? Well I'll tell yah. Despite a lot of my art showing people dotting over Sparkplug, that wasn't the case for a majority of the autobots, yes a good amount of them formed bonds with her, but it was only because they were related to prime. Bot's like Ironhide, sideswipe, Blur, Proceptor and a good amount of other autobot's being vary against Megatron and Soundwave being allowed to join, and some are still convinced that Sparkplug is just part of a secret plan of Megatron to try and take over earth again.

So a lot of bots stayed away from her, and this bias would trickle down to the new earth born bots on the base. So Sparkplug never had any friends her age, the closet being Rumble and Frenzy who were basically teenagers when she was born. However Sparkplug did grow up to be rather pretty... well... as pretty as you can be while being a weird combination of two bots. Even though she tried to talk to the other young bots, her awkwardness and bluntness only made them stay away from her. However Landlot slip in, seeing an opportunity to have a cute/shy girlfriend. Sparkplug fell hard and fast for him because she had never had anyone interested in her romantically. He would try and mold Sparkplug into a sweet, dotting and helpless shy girl that would hang on his arm to make him look cooler. Because how badass would it be to show that he was able to get the notorious Megatron's daughter to be his side chick.

Eventually, Sparkplug got tired of getting the short end of the stick and decided to break up with him after seeing that he was trying to get with other bots behind her back, bot's that vary clearly didn't like her.

So that's where they stand as of now. Landlot is still a celebrated leader for his heroics and fun personality, while Sparkplug just only got passed to go on missions and was put on the most mind numbing job imaginable.

sorry that this is so long, I just really wanted to share all this info

[smoft-demons]

About pacts

The game is kinda ABOUT the pacts, but somehow I feel like the concept is not fleshed out enough in canon. So I’m fixing that! I am making them so fluffy, I am developing them into the magic QPR bond of my dreams lol

(Brief mentions of blood and sex under the cut, be warned)

Ok so. In the game, the pacts have four key functions: 1, allows the human to give the demon binding orders. 2, gives the human a way to amplify the demon’s abilities and strengths. 3, implied, gives the demon a way to do the same thing for the human, to lend them their own strength. 4, allows the human to summon the demon basically for free. Have him on speed dial, I suppose. Summon with no ritual, no spell components, no nothing except an incantation.

That’s cool, I like that. But like,, iirc the game says nothing of the mechanics of this, or how the pacts feel!

I think pacts should be a mildly psychic connection. Nothing like what Beel and Belphie have going on, and no actual ability to put words telepathically in your demon’s head (and vice versa), but like… an Awareness of each other, muted and vague when you’re not actively reaching out through the pact, but just enough that like,, you can feel them vaguely in the back of your mind. You know they’re alive, and you can mentally reach for them if you want to.

When you ARE using the pact, it doesn’t HAVE to be for one of the aforementioned four functions. It can also be… just a mild mental ping, like tugging on a string or tapping them lightly to get their attention. When they reach back, the bond opens up a little bit more, to allow the passage of emotions, flashes of memories, even awareness of about how far you are from each other and what direction you’re in. All entirely voluntary, no invasive mind-reading, but you can mentally share what you want with each other.

I feel like the pacts don’t have to imply romance. But, they DO imply partnership—not necessarily exclusive partnership, in fact probably it isn’t an exclusive sort of thing by default. Plenty of demons have multiple humans, and plenty of humans have multiple demons. The sort of partnership that doesn’t really have a standard box to fit into by average human reckoning. Queerplatonic partnership. Close, emotionally intimate, committed, devoted. But not necessarily having anything to do with attraction, romance, any of that.

These pacts can be purposely strengthened, to make communicating with each other like this easier. Strengthening the signal, if you will.

The key to that is two things: emotional intimacy/trust, and sharing vitality (or however you wanna phrase it. Vitality, life, essence, soul, etc. I mean this to encompass a few different things, and none of those words is a perfect fit for all of them. Let’s say there’s an untranslatable word in infernal that fits perfectly). Specifically, the human and the demon make mental contact through the pact with the intent to strengthen the bond, then do whichever of the sharing vitality/essence/life/soul things that they feel like doing.

For example:

Kissing. An emotionally intimate thing to do that involves sharing fluid. DNA counts as essence, and this is a way of combining it. A textbook, effective way to reinforce a close bond. Doesn’t even strictly have to be romantic! It CAN be for sure, and usually is, but like… you can also kiss the homies out of platonic affection if you want to. Especially if the homies in question are demons in a pact with you. This is normal and chill to them.

Also, simply sharing the same air! Pressing foreheads together (think keldabe kiss minus the helmets), noses touching (i think this is called kunik). Sharing breath. This absolutely counts as sharing vitality. Also, afaik this is a thing people would only have the instinct to do with someone they really love. It’s such a soft, peaceful thing that doesn’t make sense in any other context but trust and devotion and emotional intimacy. Super good way of reinforcing a close bond!

Obviously sex works for this too. Obviously. It ticks all the boxes: reinforces a close bond, combining vitality/essence, can be very emotionally intimate. Probably the most textbook option.

In the other direction, possibly not quite as expected but totally works if you think about it: bloodshed. I’m sure it’s common enough in the ritually combining blood sort of way, but also… think about fighting at your pacted demon’s side, or getting wounded and then being rescued (seems more likely, especially in part 1), and both of you bleeding. Physically supporting each other, spilling your vitality onto each other, each wiping blood off of the other and patching each other up in the aftermath of an altercation. Really, you can’t get more devoted and trusting than that.

Food, as well. Taking a bite of something, then feeding a bite to your pact partner. Your food is the source of your vitality, in a similar way to breath. It’s your life. Sharing food with this intent absolutely works. It works even better if it’s food you made, and/or familiar food that you love in such a way that it’s part of your identity. That way, it works twofold. The physical effect of metabolizing the food is your vitality, and the identity aspect—feeding a loved one something that resonates with who you are—is sharing your essence/soul.

This one’s a bit of a reach, but I think it still works—tears. Experiencing something that makes both pact partners cry, be it a sad story, an emotional conversation, painful events, etc. Supporting each other through that, feeling compassion for each other, comforting each other. There’s no shortage of intimacy, devotion, and trust in this. On both an emotional and physical level, this counts as sharing soul/essence/life.

Sharing soul/vitality/essence/life (whatever the fitting word for this in infernal would be) on purpose like this would absolutely bring pacted partners closer together. Strengthens the bond between them, helps them understand each other, reinforces the love. Strengthen a pact enough and eventually you won’t even need the incantation to summon that demon.

_______

(I am planning to put this in my rewrite of obey me season 1 with my own MC, of course. Once I progress enough to start posting it, that is lol)

(but also, maybe, if I find the inspiration, I might write gn reader!MC oneshots with these concepts. Pls let me know if you think I should try! Also, anyone is more than welcome to use this for your own writing if you want)

EDIT: I wrote a oneshot! The time when my MC found out that strengthening pacts is a thing, with Beel and Mammon. Here it is!

[erisweekofficial]

We're thrilled to shine a light on @zenkindoflove!!! Amanda is an absolute gem in the Elucien fandom AND Eris fandom and has also blessed us with Alexius, her incredible OC for her Eris x OC fics.

Alexius stands out as one of the few male OCs in the community, and the dynamic between him and Eris is nothing short of captivating. Think forced proximity, delicious yearning, witty banter, political intrigue, and all the tension you could dream of. You can see them in both Summer Heat (which has Elucien) and Pull Me in Deeper, which... y'all you gotta read this asap😍🤭🥵 Also the mods are begging you to read Taste of You, a short and delightfully smutty one shot.

And PLEASE admire this amazing art of Alexius and Eris!

Read more to learn about how @zenkindoflove was inspired to create content about Eris AND her extremely helpful tips for writing content about him. (We're taking notes)

What inspired you to start creating content about Eris?  I became curious about writing Eris after he was featured in some of my Elucien fics. When I started my multichapter Elucien fic Summer Heat, I decided that I would give him a male love interest in that fic and create an OC - which ended up being Alexius who you see featured in all of my Eris work. I originally intended for it to be a background relationship, but I decided to experiment and write the scene of their first meeting (a very smutty scene) just to do some character exploration. I didn’t intend to include it in the fic, but then once I wrote it, I knew that it was something special and Eris x Alexius became a true B storyline in that fic with a fully fleshed out love story. After that, I wanted to expand and write fics that focused on them which I've written several now and more to come for Eris Week! It's a bit niche. Hardly anyone writes Eris x Male OC but I'm obsessed now.

What's your favorite piece you've created featuring Eris and why? 

That would be my Eris x Alexius multichapter fic - Pull Me in Deeper. I love it because it was a way for me to explore Eris’ character when he is out of the watchful eye of his father and others in Prythian. It’s also just a fun action/adventure/romance story and I got to explore more lore and character building for my OC Alexius as well. Alexius was designed to be, in my opinion, the perfect person for Eris and that means often standing in contrast to a lot of his personality traits and pushing him outside of his comfort zone. So it was an incredibly fun dynamic to explore. And it’s two gay men who are on a quest to find out (*spoilers*) if unicorns exist XD.

How do you approach writing dialogue for Eris? 

I tend to lean into Eris being more careful with his words - so he is sharp, concise, and efficient in his word choice. Depending on who he’s sharing a scene with and the context, he can be severe and short or he can be long-winded and eloquent. And of course, he has banter and jabs a plenty. So I try to balance all those sides of him depending on the context.

Do you have any advice for other creators wanting to make Eris content? 

Eris inhabits a unique space in canon where he is truly a free agent when it comes to relationships. So, I would recommend if you want to write romances with Eris to lean into self-indulgence and write the pairing/story you really want to tell and try to let go of what you think will be popular. And if that ends up being Eris x OC rather than a canon character, know that it can actually be such a rewarding experience even if you don’t have a built in audience. Creating an OC to pair with Eris has been immensely fun and has broadened my creativity. Eris is a complex, interesting character with so many layers and building someone to fit him and find out what is underneath all of those layers can lead you down quite an obsessive path. But a fun one. 

Please give us a name for one of Eris’s Brothers

Kian. He is the third oldest and is more of a scholarly type. Now that second brother Conan is dead, he is next in line after Eris.

Please give us a name for one of Eris's Dogs.

Lithia. She just had puppies in PMID and Eris is worried about her. 

[livefromcastledracula]

Somehow, more faithful than a movie called Bram Stoker's Dracula

Hahaha. I mean yes and no.

Coppola's Dracula (BSD from herein) does have all the necessary moving parts. Three brides! Whitby! Lucy's three suitors INCLUDING ACTUAL QUINCEY! Renfield! All of the lines! Dracula growing young and being unharmed by sunlight!

In a way it is a bloodier, raunchier, more in-your-face version of Stoker's book the same way 2024-25 Nosferatu is a bloodier, raunchier version of the 1922 Nosferatu.

But the Dracumina romance is a cancer in the heart of that movie's authenticity (and every Dracula movie it's in). Not only does it render most of the book-faithful elements of the movie nonsensical given the context of the 'romance' but it sucks all the horror out of the story and the vampire whenever it rears its head.

Whereas the Ellen/Orlok connection in 2025 Nosferatu IS the horror. The darkness and ugliness and ambiguity and inevitability of this woman drawing this ancient bloodsucking corpse man to her like a magnet and destroying absolutely everyone in her vicinity while everyone around her punishes or dismisses her for her desperate attempts to warn them is deeply unsettling from frame one.

And it doesn't humanize Orlok. In some ways it makes him less human, more like a bound familiar, her personal, contracted Mephistopheles, or maybe even a Tulpa, an imaginary friend made (rotting) flesh. He's the conflict of her most primal urges with the stifling world around her incarnated and the fact that he's NOT a suave hot vampire guy but a repulsive decaying plague-ridden corpse is perfect.

Because he's also the incarnation of her own revulsion, fear and self-loathing at the aformentioned desires (and where they conflict with her failure to fit in with the ideals of the people around her) and that's why it works for me, that's what sells it, where BSD's Dracumina romance is...just a soppy melodramatic romance, straight up, and it kinda kills that movie for me now.

[aihoshiino]

Between Akane, Kana, and Ruby, which do you think is the best written, and has more depth outside of their relationship/crush on Aqua? The argument I’ve been seeing most often from diehard fans of any of the three girls is that the other two (or one of the other two) don’t have any depth beyond liking Aqua. Been seeing this especially from people who hate Kana, but also from Akane haters and Ruby haters

Anon I truly believe you sent this with nothing but good faith in your heart but never before have I received an ask that looked more like the internet equivalent of someone handing me a baseball bat and pointing me in the direction of a hornet's nest. AND BROTHER, I'M ABOUT TO START SWINGING!!!!

In order from best to worst I'd say right now, it goes Kana -> Akane -> Ruby. If you'd asked me this question in a pre-123 world I probably would've said it's Ruby -> Kana -> Akane but… well i'll be getting into what existing in a post-123 world has done for ruby's character soon enough anyway lol.

I fully expect to be hit with accusations of bias in this regard both because I just have generally always liked Kana and fandom lately has been so fucking weird about her but the reason I like Kana is because I think she's the most consistent and fleshed out beyond the scope of her relationship with Aqua. Like, to be clear, all the girls definitely revolve around him way more than they should - to a degree, this is just kind of the nature of the beast in a story like OnK where a lot of characters' foothold into the story are their personal relationship with the protag. But so much of their screentime and story relevance is eaten up by the romance subplots that it ends up coming at the expense of giving the viewer a strong sense of who they are outside those relationships.

This is the trap I think Akane falls into, to the detriment of her character writing. On paper, she's a super interesting character with a lot of potential to add to the story's themes and overall commentary but her actual role in the story and the context within which she's allowed relevance is purely just Being Aqua's Love Interest. Hell, her foothold into the cast period is just that she and Aqua are fake dating and Akane is catching both feelings and a sense of indebted gratitude towards him, so she's totally down to match his freak about it. There's a reason I think Tokyo Blade is her best post-LoveNow arc and it's because while the developing relationship between her and Aqua is an important part of the story, it's absolutely not Akane's focus when compared to everything else she's got going on with Kana. After this arc, though, she's given basically zero plotlines or things to do that aren't wholly predicated on Being Aqua's GF and the interesting underlying issues suggested to exist in her character go largely ignored in favor of her serving Aqua's story. She doesn't really have any relationships with the other cast members outside of Kana and even that ends up devolving into love triangle slop. The result is that, based purely on what exists in the text of the story, Akane is isolated from any other character that she could interact with to create a sense that she has a life and interior world unrelated to Aqua.

This is also why I say Ruby is the worst hit by the Love Triangle Brainrot Disease out of the three heroines because she had an interesting, lively character with a full world and social life that had nothing to do with Aqua only for 123 to come along and infect her with terminal love interest brainrot. Honestly, Ruby being Like This with Aqua right now is probably the biggest singular issue with OnK at the moment, because it means one of the series' primary protagonist is stuck in this malformed relationship cul-de-sac where the feelings we've spent the entire series building up and fleshing out have somehow simultaneously taken over her entire character at the expense of all her other ongoing plotlines while also going entirely unaddressed by the narrative. 123 essentially wiped Ruby's slate clean of anything that wasn't the AquRuby stuff and then proceeded to treat it like a massive joke for literally 20 entire chapters - once again, at the expense of what was a genuinely really necessary arc for her. Ruby's so-called 'revenge' peters out with a wet fart because all the moments leading up to it that should have given any of it weight are offscreened in favour of yet another panel of Ruby splooging over her brother. But despite this being like the one singular thing her character has going on right now, Akasaka is simply refusing to address the massive incest elephant in the room, which means that both Ruby as a character and the story as a whole are robbed of opportunities to develop and be developed by an exploration of how that massive taboo intersects with and affects… literally anything! Since 123, we've gotten exactly one chapter that bothered to even pretend it was taking Ruby's feelings seriously but despite it ending on perhaps one of The Biggest Status Quo Shifts in the whole series… it too has gone entirely unaddressed!!!

Both Akane and Ruby are trapped in this bog of having their entire characters reduced to revolving round Aqua while being disallowed from meaningful development that would probably advance or give closure to that relationship. Akane… sort of gets this with her whole "i'm his mom now btw kana you should suck him silly" thing and her big dramatic haircut but even then, she's still orbiting Aqua and his revenge quest because apparently she has nothing better to do. Ruby, meanwhile, is in this baffling place where the story is having to twist itself into so many pretzels to avoid addressing whatever the hell is going on with her and Aqua before the Akasaka ordained Most Dramatic Moment that she is not getting any moment-to-moment development that might even risk letting her address or untangle any of this stuff. She and Aqua are not allowed to have any direct on-screen interactions and even when they did in 157, it just felt plastic and artificial and honestly kind of forced because of that failure to so much as acknowledge UH, HEY, REMEMBER WHEN RUBY STUCK HER TONGUE DOWN AQUA'S THROAT?

anyway. ALL THAT UP ^ THERE ^ is the reason I think Kana is the character who feels the most fleshed out beyond the bounds of her relationship with Aqua, ironically because of having comparatively less romantic focus and explicitly romantic interactions with him. Because less of her screentime is taken up by romance drama, it allows her to just breathe and exist as a person without her entire role in the story being Aqua's Love Interest. Her major moments of development are all built on Kana's own backstory and baggage which has basically nothing to do with Aqua and everything to do with her own insecurities, her history of abuse and abandonment, her obsession with acting and her fervent desperation to cling to the entertainment industry even when it has made clear that it doesn't want to make a place for her anymore, because so much of her personhood is warped by and tangled up in her childhood growing up in the public eye. That's not to say Aqua isn't involved in Kana's arc and he has an undeniably huge impact on her, but when you look at the ways his interactions with her push her story along it very much feels like Kana is just having her own arc that Aqua is serving and sometimes intersecting with rather than the other way around (as it feels for Akane and Ruby).

WITH ALL THAT SAID… it is just blatantly a bad faith reading of the series to the point of flat out lying about the contents of the story to say any of the three heroines have nothing going on outside their relationships with Aqua, even if we don't get as much focus on that stuff as I'd like. Ruby has her whole history as Sarina and the experiences of abuse, disempowerment and abandonment that have created the bullheaded high-energy Ruby of the present day. Akane struggles with low self-worth and tendencies towards creating narratives for herself and other people in her head that don't always survive impact with reality. Kana has… well, I rambled about all that up there lol. In fact, all three of the heroines are interested in Aqua for imo, at least hypothetically well developed reasons that have observable and tangible roots in their own histories and personal baggage and how Aqua, as a person, has impacted them.

The issue is not with the girls themselves or their feelings for Aqua. The issue is that Akasaka is a romcom guy flying by the seat of his pants trying to write a murder mystery character drama and it's just not what he's cut out for. So he falls back on what he knows - the romance stuff - regardless of how it does or does not cohere with the arcs of the characters involved or the wider story at large. He simply doesn't have the chops to balance both halves of the story at once and his clear interest in playing shipping drama for all its worth has ultimately compromised the integrity of the surrounding story, to the detriment of the characters involved.

[highfantasy-soul]

Ok, here's my breakdown of Jessie Gender's video on NATLA. I decided not to post this as a comment on the video because I just don't feel like it would be productive, but I needed to refute the points she was making as she's a quite respected (at least, I really respect her opinions on things) video essayist and I felt like this video was...wild.

So, I guess it's best to just watch along with her video and read my commentary side-by-side because I don't give much context for my points, this is just a stream-of-consciousness style response.

To be perfectly clear - this is not intended to be a 'hate post' about her, this is just me feeling very strongly that the interpretations of things she had in her video needed to be talked about and another perspective given.

I shift from saying 'you' to 'Jessie' like halfway through (when I decided not to post this as a comment) but I don't feel like going through and changing all those, so yeah, just ignore it.

1) you insulted a martial arts kata as 'a mildly choreographed dance' - it shows a complete lack of understanding of other cultures and a desire to take a quick dig at something you didn't like in a way that insults a cultural practice. I really didn't expect to hear that sort of comment from you so it was pretty jarring when you said it. Ironically, you say that Sokka was wrong to assume the Kyoshi warrior's kata was a 'dance' because that's 'a girl's place' when...you literally made the same insult with not a hint of recognition just a few minutes earlier about a movie you didn't like…

2) I felt that the live-action really deepened a lot of the themes from the OG - take Iroh's storyline for example, fleshing out Suki's character so she's...you know, her own character and not just there to teach Sokka a lesson, and delving into how hard of decisions you have to make during a century long war. Idk, I'm just really curious as to how you felt quite literally the polar opposite of me

3) Sokka's sexism: the animated show handled it one way, but Sokka's treating women as 'less than' wasn't a core part of his character - in all honesty, it doesn't actually make any sense as he was raised by Hakoda (who we never see being sexist), Gran Gran (who left the NWT due to its sexism), and was surrounded mostly by older women. The sexism storyline in the cartoon was to teach a very blatant lesson to kids "don't be sexist, boys!" while the live-action made Sokka's struggles much more realistic and in line with the world building: he struggled with non-traditional masculinity and if he was 'allowed' to be that way while they were at war. For me, it's a much more important message for young men today than the very dated 'women can fight, too!' message that was needed in the early 2000s. It's very odd to me how you claim that Sokka always taking charge isn't ever challenged when...in literally the scene you're showing when you say that, Katara challenges him.

4) I'm sorry, but I cannot possibly see how Suki is her own person more in the animated version than in the live-action. She was literally created solely to teach Sokka a lesson and have no character traits other than 'I'm a strong woman warrior' where 'woman' means 'I like romance' rather than...I'm a whole person with my own wants and desires and fears that have nothing to do with a love interest as is shown in the live-action. You keep comparing the animated and live action as though they were trying to tell the same story about Sokka's journey with his role in the world, but they weren't. Of course Suki's attitude toward him is going to be different, of course he's not going to need to tell her 'you're right, I'm a dumb, terrible man, pretty please could you teach me', because it's a different dynamic they're going for in the live-action.

5) When Sokka pinned her in their lesson in the live-action idk how you got that she was 'demuring herself' to Sokka? Just as in the cartoon, he managed to get the upper hand - which she promptly took back, teaching a lesson along the way. She didn't make herself less so Sokka could feel secure in his masculinity - it's a bit odd you feel that showing respect to someone and helping them learn is 'demuring yourself'. I much prefer them respecting each other than the animated version of them seeing each other as less than and then...her giving him a kiss to prove 'see, I'm a romance-loving girl, too'.

5) To me, Suki beating Sokka in the live-action when the first sparred wasn't her being mean, it was her not understanding how much less experience Sokka had fighting - she genuinely thought he would be able to hold his own against her because he had told her he was the best warrior in his tribe. Her face clearly shows 'I have no idea what I did wrong - I thought that type of sparring is what everyone did for fun, why was he uncomfortable with it?' Not really sure why you made the connection that us seeing Sokka's abs was meant to indicate that his insecurities are unfounded when...literally the whole season shows us that Sokka's struggles aren't "end goal = big strong warrior" but rather "you don't have to be a big strong warrior to help, you are allowed to delve into other aspects of who you are and those are just as important". Just because he has muscles, also doesn't mean he's a competent fighter - those two things aren't the same.

6) It feels like you took certain scenes and made wildly left-field interpretations of them and then claimed that that's what the show was intending you to take from it. It's like saying that the scene that cuts from Sokka saying he bets Momo tastes like chicken and cutting to the scene that shows people cooking meat actually means the showrunners are saying Sokka is going to cook and eat Momo this season and that will then give him the powers of the Avatar. It's very clearly not what the showrunners were saying, but if you interpret it in the least forgiving way and then make a wild leap off that, then yeah, you might get upset with that made-up interpretation. Same with the reasons they didn't put Sokka in the Kyoshi outfit - there is 0 evidence of them nixing that part due to transphobia. I didn't see it as any malicious intent, just a streamline of the plot so Sokka doesn't have to go change before running away on Appa.

7) I feel that the live-action DOES challenge the Fire Bender's colonialist rhetoric in the Kyoshi Island episode, but the animated...doesn't? At all? It's solely about girl power - and as we see with Azula and all the women fire nation soldiers, the fire nation doesn't seem too caught up in sexism. You know what they are caught up in? Which you mention? Bender supremacy. And that's what the live-action directly addresses with Sokka being so surprised that Suki is able to hold her own so well even though she isn't a bender. He's seen just how powerful benders are (they destroyed his home, killed his mom, and beat his ass last episode) and it's in line with the worldbuilding that he feels like he's already several steps behind in being a good enough warrior because he doesn't have bending (a storyline that isn't brought up until an episode in season 3 of the animated show). To me, the live-action Kyoshi storyline refutes the Fire Nation's imperialistic themes much better than the animated show does.

8) The live-action's lesson wasn't that might makes right - Suki never did any strength training exercises with Sokka, she taught him how to control his body and use his opponent's strength against them. Fight smarter, not harder. Know what you're fighting for, not just that you want to fight. Even if you don't have the resources of your opponent, it doesn't mean you're doomed from the start. That last one is particularly poignant when we look at how much stronger the Fire Nation is than the other nations they're subjugating: it's the classic 'oppressed rising up against their oppressors and not winning because they just punched harder, but because they used what they had to fight for a righteous cause and didn't just give up because the other side was more powerful'. That's quite directly what the live-action was saying - the exact lesson you thought it should be saying. You have to do some serious extrapolating from the animated episode to get to those themes while the live-action drew that concept up to the forefront immediately.

9) Aang's journey to accept his Avatar responsibility and the previous Avatar's enforcing this is directly from the animated series. Like, directly. It's not the live-action show saying 'colonialism good'. Showing the Avatar power wasn't the showrunners saying 'see, this OP is good and cool', it was to show the magnitude of it - something the animated show does too. The live-action does talk about how terrifying and damaging that power is - literally the previous episode has Aang almost toss Katara and Sokka off the mountain and they mention it. Just earlier in that episode, Sokka talks about Aang almost killing them and Aangs major hang up about embracing it is that he might hurt someone. Kyoshi argues that not learning to control it will hurt more people and - y'all, individuals are allowed to have their own views of the power that everyone doesn't have to agree with. What happened to 'make strong characters with flaws in their world view?' did you all of a sudden decide that's NOT actually good writing? So having the Avatar who used her powers liberally, and as the video states, used them maybe too much, telling Aang that he needs to use his own powers a lot is…consistent characterization? Which is then challenged by Roku later as he tells Aang that all the Avatars are different and have different views on the power of the Avatar. Why is Kyoshi's opinions suddenly taken as wholly accurate in representing what the show overall is trying to say? She's giving her opinion to Aang - an opinion that has some truth to it, but also some flaws that Aang will need to navigate on his own journey. Kyoshi and Roku's stories are not compressed all into Kyoshi - only the aspect of Roku taking control of Aang and using his body to fuck shit up in the Avatar state is compressed - not the ideological aspects of it

10) Sokka supporting Katara's fight against Pakku is a culmination of his arc to let go of obsessively protecting her and actually letting her decide her course of action herself - because his arc was different in the show than in the animated series. Trying to say that the reason he told her to kick Pakku's ass didn't fit because he was never sexist wasn't the reason - it WAS a culmination of his arc, you just refused to see it by clinging to the old one.

11) The whole argument as to 'why show genocide' I already made a post about, but to condemn the depiction based on the way you interpret the showrunner's quote is disingenuous. Again, it's taking something and making up a narrative around it so you can feel justified in hating it. It's important to show a culture before they are killed because they deserve to be seen as people, not just martyrs. They had lives. They lived and were happy and had a rich culture. They were not just 'fated to die and be told of in history books'. Genocide is disgusting and hard to watch - it's calculated and brutal. Showing that drives home just how awful the actions of the fire nation are in practice rather than just theory. Yes, the airbenders fighting was 'cool' to see - in the way that all action is 'cool' to see. But no, the genocide wasn't played as 'look at neat fighting!' in the live-action. It was shown as brutal and terrible, horrifying and surprising, and the airbenders didn't deserve what happened to them. It also gives you a direct view of what the fire nation is capable of when they come to the south pole and the northern water tribe: you've SEEN the devastation first hand and you DON'T want to see it again. The threat isn't theoretical, it's very real.

11.5) To take a CHILD'S quote about the sequence being 'so cool' is absolutely WILD to me. GORDON IS A CHILD! No, he's not going to have the most sophisticated and politically nuanced sound bite to say about the action sequence in an interview. HE'S A CHILD! Holy mother of god. To use that to bolster your point that 'that's the way it was intended to be viewed and how everyone is going to view it!' is just…..holy shit. You're taking media interpretation from A CHILD??????? Do you think, if we interviewed a child about the OG show, they'd talk about the fucking colonialism??? How Azula was abused too and didn't deserve her fate?? Or do you think they'd say "The fight between the Fire Lord and Aang at the end was so cool!" Honestly thought Jessie Gender wouldn't try to bolster her interpretation with a quote from A CHILD, but I guess here we are…

12) It's wild that she makes the point that conservatives are incapable of reading deeper than just the surface-level visuals of a story while…she's doing literally the same thing just in the opposite way. The live-action depicted the genocide, therefore they MUST just want to 'cool' visual of firebenders fighting airbenders! There can't be any other things at play here! No story being told whatsoever because all it is is spectacle! That's all I see! Ironically, she's falling into the same trap of not looking deeper at why one might depict the horrors of genocide and the battle against people with no army.

13) Aang actually treats the genocide as more immediate in the live-action than he does the animated show. Most animated episodes, you can forget that it even happened, while in the animated show, it pops up a lot in some unexpected ways like when he's uncomfortable waterbending because Gyatzo had always been his teacher, when he yells at Bumi for making light of the genocide, his desire to get to the north to keep it from happening again, when Zhao proclaims that he can wipe out an entire race of benders and Aang says he knows exactly what that's like, when he constantly stays to help people because 'I couldn’t help my own people, but I can help them'.  Not only through Aang, but also through every child in the series - like with the animated show, the live-action shows how kids are shaped by the generational trauma of the war plus the immediate effects of it: Teo ready to fight, Jet making compromises to fight back, Sokka shouldering too much responsibility so young, Katara's trauma around her mother's death and her waterbending, Bumi losing his faith, Zuko and Azula being shaped by their father to be the perfect weapons to continue the war.

14) Interpreting Zuko's comment of 'sometimes the weak can become strong' right after his father mutilated him for showing compassion is not meant to be taken as a thesis that 'Zuko just needs to get better at fighting, this is what the story is saying, I am very smart'. It's showing HIS CURRENT view of the world - the idea that his father has taught him that he needs to be strong and Zuko has bought that and wants desperately to earn his father's love. Zuko's story through the series is showing that 'strength' isn't what his father defines it as (or what Jessie defines it as in her video) but rather it's strength of character - compassion is not weakness, it's strength, and no, that doesn't mean if you have compassion you punch harder.

15) The live-action show makes the Fire Nation MUCH more nuanced than the animated show - we see how Ozai and Azula aren't just maniacal villains, but we see the pain and torment their upbringings deal out to them, and in turn, deal to others. It shows the cycle much more clearly and showing fire nation citizens who disagree fleshes out the culture even more.

16) Jet was much more nuanced in the live-action as he's RIGHT about the mechanist being a spy and the king being lax in his duties. He's created a community of people to try to heal from the harm the fire nation has caused them and he gives actual good advice to Katara, helping her emotionally heal and remember the good aspects of her mother.

17) The argument that 'the live action is trying to ignore the past' is a massively simplified narrative. The live-action is showing Aang stuck in the past, unable to take large steps into the future. Pain, trauma and loss can anchor us in the past - it's HEALTHY to keep moving forward rather than only thinking about the pain in the past (ie Jet's advice to Katara). Aang was continually trying to avoid the genocide happening again while simultaneously trying to get past Avatars to do the big hard work for him. His lesson is not to 'forget the past just live in the now' but rather, don't let fear of what has happened in the past stop you from making a difference in the future. Yes, war is loss and suffering, but if you get paralyzed by not being able to prevent that, the fire nation will just keep marching across the world. It's about not letting the past immobilize you to the point where you stop fighting back against oppression - or getting together with a community to help you fight for fear they'll die just like those in the past did.

17.5) Letting go of the past is a buddhist philosophy that is a lot more complicated than Jessie is making it out to be here. Just as in the animated series, characters can come to realizations about lessons they need to learn while still taking seasons to fully learn the lesson - just because Aang said he's ready to let go of the past doesn't mean he's now ignoring it and all will be smooth sailing. It means he's ready to start taking steps to do that and approach life in a healthier way. It's wild that Jessie took the direct quote "I need to let go of the past to focus on my future" and then states that the show is saying "the character's aren't seeing future possibilities and hope, they're focused on the now" when, quite literally, the quote she just referenced….is talking about building a better future.

18) Then, she references later seasons (Aang in the fire nation school) a lot to indicate that the live-action is ignoring those concepts from the OG when….we're talking about season 1 here - not season 3. Why is the world not allowed to organically grow? Why would you make the argument that 'season 1 didn’t explicitly deal with these concepts that aren't brought up until season 3, so therefore they are ignoring them'?

19) Jessie uses a lot of clips from a Daily Wire (conservative talkshow) guy as if that has anything at all to do with the live-action ATLA. She's trying to draw a line between that ideology and the ideology of the show and I feel like she had to bastardize the NATLA show in order to do that so horribly, her interpretation of the story and themes is completely unrecognizable to what is actually shown on screen.

I usually agree with her takes on media, but this video was not it. Every interpretation she had, I interpreted the scenes/lessons in the exact opposite way and, I believe, I interpreted it closer to what the showrunners intended.

Oh no, i just had a thought: this is The Last Jedi all over again! I saw so many negative interpretations of that movie that I just sat and scratched my head over like "How in the WORLD did you get to that conclusion??" when I thought my own interpretation was just...the obvious way to view the movie. I had no idea my views on it would be so controversial. Here we are again. Time is a flat circle. Life is a meaningless cycle of disappointment and confusion, neverending.

[elegantsparklyllama]

Why we love Asha x Starboy

I just watched Wish, and it is because of the lack of meaningful character interaction in the movie. Aside from Asha and Magnifico, there are only so many characters to bounce off with Asha. There are 7 friends, but they're surface-level at best, with one line per character. The same goes for Sabino (Asha's grandfather), Asha's mom, and even the goat! Star in the final movie is a one-note "follow your dreams" character. There is no added dimension to these interactions, making the film feel hollow.

Giving the Star a humanoid appearance and a potential romance with Asha suddenly makes Wish more interesting. By making Star a human, writers are less likely to treat them like a random animal sidekick and more like a human character.

Meaningful character interactions give viewers something to cling to and relate to emotionally. The Disney Renaissance emphasizes romantic subplots and family conflicts for this reason. You can also find this when the main hero interacts with an animal sidekick. They provide the heart of a movie.

As a writer, I'm attracted to romance subplots because, like any relationship, they provide exciting character interactions and emotional investment. I'm beating a dead horse, but just because a princess has a romance arc doesn't mean she isn't empowered. Belle and Mulan are Disney princesses with love interests, yet they are still fully fleshed-out characters. Romance can also thematically enhance a story. Beauty and the Beast would not be the same without a romance between Belle and the Beast.

In the context of Wish, I think Asha already has an animal sidekick with the goat. She only needs one (they already have too many characters with the 7 teens). It is not that animal sidekicks couldn't be compelling characters. Mushu from Mulan is an example of creating entertaining animal sidekicks. He even has a character arc that complements Mulan, the main heroine. However, with Disney standards right now, you can't help but feel they might butcher the animal sidekicks.

Even the OG movie Snow White checks the mark for meaningful character interactions. It is not between the nameless prince and Snow White, but it is with the seven dwarves. Ironically this is where Asha's 7 friends are based off. The most important relationship of Snow White is literally in the title of her movie: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Unlike Wish, the reason why they can get away with 7 dwarfs is because the film is centered around the relationship between them and Snow White to avoid bloat.

It doesn't help that Asha and Magnifico themselves feel like bland cutouts. If you compare them to Disney's rosters of heroes and villains, they'd pale in comparison. They have the most interesting interactions but it feels like the bare minimum.

Whenever I look back on a movie, I remember a thought-provoking thematic beat or even a funny character interaction. Wish doesn't leave room for much. The movie feels like an amateur school play they show to grade-schoolers which is a low for Disney.

You know what's sadder?

I wish I could've had that meaningful character interaction with Asha and her grandfather, Sabino. They had something with Asha wanting to grant Sabino's wish but Sabino refused to let it be granted. In the movie, the conflict lasts for about a scene, and then it shifts to granting the wishes of everyone in Rosas.

You can see why the writers toyed with the idea of the Star Boy being a younger version of Sabino. The relationship between Sabino and Asha is the heart of the story.

This imaginary ship buried in concept art gave what the movie lacked: a heart. It is not enough to spew out inspirational messages and call people stars. One should also incorporate humanity.

I have a lot more thoughts on the story, specifically in its thematic beats but that is for another time.

[waateeystein]

Okay y'all I'm doing it, I'm once again analyzing an out-of-context picture from Guillermo De Toro's Frankenstein movie! I am now donning on my "grad student studying scenography" hat lets fucking go!

First off, What are the giant green vats? Is there a significance to having two of them, what step of the creation process are they related to, what's the deal here??? Everything else I can kind of see what the inspiration or reference is, but these green vats are running a big blank for me. I don't immediately hate them, I'm just mostly curious. They are certainly a vibe!

The next thing that is immediately striking is the massive window, and I'm kind of obsessed with it! From the Vanity Fair article we get this very relevant quote from Del Toro, "Gothic romance was born partially out of the fascination with ruins - Sometimes they’re more beautiful than the building complete because it’s the clash of creation and destruction." We have this beautiful gothic-style window contrasting the massive abandoned structure it seems to be inside of. The architecture of it all reminds me of gothic cathedrals, and I don't want to make a call yet on whether or not Victor has set up shop in an abandoned cathedral or church, but I do think that would be funny if it was the case. A bit of extra research taught me that they did use the Glasgow Cathedral as a filming location, I'm unsure if it was specifically for this scene, but it definitely gives us a sense of direction as far as inspirations for the production design.

What is confusing me about the architecture is the metal grates on the ground. It makes me think sewer grate or basement drainage, but the massive window directly next to it says very high above ground, so I don't know what going on with where exactly in the building we are. It makes sense to have it here from a practical "I have a bunch of oozy body parts on ice in here and those juices need somewhere to go" perspective. Idk, it looks neat and it might just be a suspense of disbelief moment.

Speaking of those oozy bodies, holy shit body parts! I honestly didn't fully process the giant piles of flesh on my first viewing of this picture, but damn those are fucking great! It really puts into perspective the sheer amount of matter that Victor would need to make his creation (I mean look at the blood on those sleeves), and how messy that process is. I feel like a lot of adaptations I've seen don't lean into that gorey aspect of the story, so I really appreciate that they are doing that here. I'm especially a fan of the giant ice block cooling what seems to be a head and torso, I don't know who got that big ass hunk of ice on that table but I'm impressed. The set dressing overall is really fucking impressive and is super effective, I really could dive into the details forever!

There are also a lot of big mechanical things happening here, like the massive wheels by the windows for instance. I'm not sure what these are or what they say about the original usage of the space, I was trying to search for what these might be, but because my personal knowledge on this is very limited, I have no clue what to even search to find more information on them. If anyone has any hints for me I'd appreciate some direction! The other mechanical thing we see is the table that the creature is laying on. Looking at the way it's attached to the ground, and the block at the creature's feet, I'm guessing this table tilts upwards to bring the creature to a full standing position.

On the creature himself, I think this was our first look at the creature design! I am cautiously optimistic about this design, but really I think I need to see his face to make a final call on how positive or negative I personally feel about it. This movie, from all evidence I've seen, seems to have a lot of influence from the 1931 James Whale film, in addition to Mary Shelley's original story. This creature seems to be more closely aligned to the book description, but again I don't think we see enough of him here to make a full judgement call on that. At least he's not green!

Overall, this first look is really cool, I'm really excited to see what production designer Tamara Deverell, set decorator Shane Vieau and costume designer Kate Hawley do with Del Toro's direction! This wasn't the deepest analysis ever, it's hard to do it justice when we know so little and everything we do have is out of context. But I'm excited to get more production photos eventually!

[kkbardd]

was your hand inside the box..😭? why were there wooden skewers in a box? i have so many questions yet so little answers..

also sorry for disappearing </3 school suddenly decided to get 5x harder and I have 0 time for anything but sleep

+ you are making me debate whether or not to watch jojo truly the best promoter of everything by just making it yuri-fied

omg isopod!!!! dw abt school stuff, im really busy myself for the same reason!

ok so ive been making this 1/4 bjd of an oc (the succubus i posted a while ago) as a side hobby lately. ill post pictures once i finish everything, but basically what happened was i needed to spray seal all the unstrung parts after blushing them. so i was taking a bunch of wooden kebab skewers and stabbing them into a cardboard box to hold up the parts in the air. (that way i can spray them while holding the skewers, not touching the sealant & have them dry in the air etc etc.) well of course while stabbing them into the box i got a little careless and did it with my arm over the previous skewers andddd... bam theres a skewer stuck in my hand! thank god it didnt go all the way through but it was about 1-2cm in and after pulling it out i had this huge hole in my right hand lol! afterwards (and still kinda now) I can't put much strength into it and it hurts if I do too much. i probably hit a nerve or something!

its crazy though bc a ton of other bad stuff happened right after (that's way too much to talk abt) but i ended up having to get IV's in both my wrists at the EC which made my hands even more unusable 😔 I'm doing way better now but bc of all that, the skewer incident really became the least of my worries!

I am always a promoter of jojo!!!!! its so funny you say that though, because i had the exact same interaction w my best friend who's also a lesbian. (she was the one i spent 50 mins in voice notes explaining the plot of part 4 just with the change that kira's a lesbian now LOL) if u love yuri and wanna get into jojo i STRONGLY recommend part 6!! its prison lesbians!! you really don't need to watch the previous parts to watch it, most of everything u can pick up on by context clues. it's my absolute favorite part, and the way women are written in it is really good!! i got my friend on it and she loves it despite knowing nothing of jojo before.

i love jojo so much but i must say that especially in the early parts, the women are either nonexistent or badly written. its only when you get to part 6 that they get fully fleshed out (and really well i gotta add)! but even despite that i really really love jojo for all that it is!! its such a unique show and you get so many unique and interesting moments that u really can't see anywhere else. i mean who else has a plotline where u have to fight vincent van goh made from a stand called bohemian rhapsody!? its crazy! (and ofc just know that jojo is a fighting show first n foremost, so while there can be some subcontext that makes people ship characters, there's not that much actual romance, much less queer romance between characters to speak of ☝😌)

i would definitely recommend part 6 if you wanna see strong, complex female characters with an amazing plotline. and if u like mystery with a patrick bateman-type villain, part 4 is still really fun to watch (ESPECIALLY if you watch it while imagining kira as a lesbian <33 )

[itsbansheebitch]

We should probably talk about Elliot

So... I feel like there are three types of opinions when it comes to Elliot. I usually see some version of the same three points depending on the person.

Elliot is boring (This is fine, honestly I'd like to see his character fleshed out more with some of the new dialogue coming, but that's not a guarantee.)

Elliot is the Ideal ManTM & Can do No WrongTM (I understand where people are coming from with this, but I also understand why people disagree. yes I AM going to be a fence sitter on this one)

Elliot is alright, but I HATED the boat heart event.

I'd like to discuss the third opinion. Because I'm an Elliot fan and I COMPLETELY understand why people (even Elliot fans/stans, and myself at first) HATE this heart event. Having a guy row you both out to sea in a tiny rowboat with no one around and kissing you without asking is a fairly major red flag.

It shows that he sometimes oversteps boundaries, even if he doesn't mean to. However, I'd like to argue that this is NOT a deal breaker. Let's break it down. Elliot, in the context of the game, is a person. And people are flawed. they make mistakes. I think this event actually goes to show that he's a well-rounded character.

He has flaws. He (sometimes) breaks boundaries, and if you say your uncomfortable, he says, "I see" and you get -50 Friendship points. This shows that he doesn't take criticism super well AND could imply that he kisses you spontaneously because he's so isolated in his cabin with only BOOKS (fiction, probably some sort of romance included) as his entertainment. He probably didn't even realize that what he did was wrong. It is NOT an excuse, but it IS an explanation!

I'm just saying this to say that I think Elliot is actually a well-rounded character with flaws, and if this happened in real life, you could probably talk it out and understand each other's point of view, thus mending the (metaphorical) lost "friendship points."

I actually think this heart event adds MORE to his character rather than taking away from it. I mean, Stardew Valley is not unfamiliar with flawed characters! Alex can be kinds misogynistic if you play as a girl, Clint is a LITERAL incel, and Shane & George are pretty big assholes when you first meet them. Elliot just has a different kind of character flaw, one that we don't usually see in media.

HOWEVER, I understand if after this you still don't like the heart event and/or Elliot. I respect your opinion and I think we can all still be civil even if we disagree. I just appreciate that we all have wildly different experiences when we play the game. I only recently started playing the game and I love how passionate this community is. Hope ya'll enjoyed this long winded rant! :)

[absolutebl]

Ok. Hey. I have a question.

Watching Only Friends, I've been wondering why I haven't been able to connect with all three couples equally in an attempt to better solidify my understanding of what character interactions and dynamics lead me to percieve chemistry.

FirstKhao as SandRay have been stellar for me so far. They easily have the best chemistry, dynamic and interactions for me. They also seem to have gotten the most fleshing out from the writers in terms of building on them as individual characters with likes and dislikes and hobbies and past events, etc.

Their chemistry feels very natural to me, almost like improv. Their line readings and the very dialogue itself for them feels very natural, fluid, and dynamic to the situations they're in with respect to who they are as characters. It feels like their chemistry is a more...grounded style more akin to a ITSAY/Moonlight Chicken than a UWMA or a MSP.

This style of chemistry works really well for me personally in this context, which is why I feel so weird about ForceBook.

It feels like their romance is so....off. I have not felt as connected to them as characters, or as a pairing as TopMew. Their dialogue, interactions, and overall chemistry feels stilted, like it was out of Enchante or a more traditional Thai BL where the actors feel...stiffer.

There is also BostonNick, but that one needs more time from me.

Am I the only one who feels this way? Is this intentional from the writers? Or are ForceBook just not my cup of tea?

Watching Only Friends, I've been wondering why I haven't been able to connect with all three couples equally in an attempt to better solidify my understanding of what character interactions and dynamics lead me to percieve chemistry.

For me personally, frankly put, it has nothing to do with the various pairs and their chemistry as pairs, it's that Sand and Ray are the only likable characters and therefore I like seeing them together.

Or are ForceBook just not my cup of tea?

That is a good question. How did you feel about them in Boss & Babe?

I'm not sure on them myself. I can't decide if it's them or if it's the scripts and characters, since they never seem to have been given good ones or either. But it could be them.

I do think FirstKhao have a real easy natural chemistry together as well as both being very good actors.

Scrapes brain... so far as GMMTV's many pairs are concerned that means they are comparable to Ohm & Nanon but not many others...? I mean there are pairs with very good chemistry but often one half (or sometimes both) don't have the acting chops (yes, sigh, I am thinking of OffGun and JoongDunk, don't kill me). Also there are ones where both are great actors but the chemistry is shaky. (I am beginning to suspect PerthChimon may fall into this category - woe is me. I do hope they can prove me wrong.)

Anygay, there it is...

[muckmagister]

can you explain your tierlist please. i'm genuinely curious

i don't knowwww it's mostly vibes based tbh

i wasn't really ranking them according to who i thought was "A tier" or "C tier" i just ranked them in reference to each other

i did replay the game after making the list just in case and it's like. first of all, the music still slaps i'd forgotten about that, but also it's so short there really isn't actually much characterisation unfortunately

and that's the main issue i have with any of the girls lower than an A tier, they just aren't as interesting to me as the rest. except beel. i never liked beel all that much. didn't really gel with her design from the start idk. cerberus is down there too cause honestly i don't have much to say about her, all the girls have their own gimmicks of sorts to help them stand out and for cerberus her's is being a hyperactive dog girl who controls three bodies with one mind, which is cool! but it's not much of a personality trait, so she ends up being one of the plainer ones imo, even if she's wonderful

anyway starting from the top, justice being there was inevitable, of course she is. but lucy's always been my fav though, she has one of my favourite designs, she's used to getting everything she wants but also she never gets a damn thing she wants, she's sadistic in a much more subtle way than pandemonica that i enjoy a lot more. in the context of the game i think she and the helltaker suit each other the best, they both love pancakes and they're both constantly stuck cleaning up after everyone else's bullshit, i mean they have matching "satan" aprons in the epilogue for chri- hm. and in examtaker when she says subject 67 reminds her of a man she knew long ago. ough, she clearly cares about him toooooo it's very sweet. tbh it definitely helps that i can chuck everything i already know about lucifer into her character and make it infinitely more complex than it would have been, which is great, i love a sympathetic lucifer. she's cute and sweet and evil and blatantly toying with you, hell yeah

i almost put judgement at the top too, but i ended up keeping that to just my fav. and justice. anyway i'd be hard-pressed not to say this was my favourite design, i mean her whole part of the game was awesome. she clearly doesn't get many compliments which is a shame, when you do compliment her i just think it's really cute:3 oh and those chains. whew. i mean what. uhh, the substance abuse sisters! they have a fantastic dynamic together, in that they have an awful dynamic but it's very entertaining. malina is great, someone to play videogames and ttrpgs with ofc. and zdrada is hilarious, the bitchy demon just waiting for someone to tell her off~ fjdkjdks then she's on her best behaviour when pandemonica's around lmao. also that comic where she wears glasses and gets so flustered over being called adorable the ensuing conflict lasted days. which is adorable

now azazel and loremaster are just fun characters, i enjoy that she exists but idk, she's also just a little bit.. one note, to me. but i guess you can say that about any of them. nevertheless i can't ignore her narrative contributions, but if she didn't have that loremaster future side of her she'd probably be down with cerberus. however for modeus i'm reconsidering her tier, like if i put judgement up a tier i'd put modeus up a tier too y'know? she has what's probably my third favourite design, the sweater is a fun departure from the more standard dress-ware most of the others are in, and all the hearts floating around her head are cool too ^^ personality wise the choice for her to not know about romance and end up thinking it's the kinkiest thing ever is inspired, and the comics she's in are all great

>tfw you're reminded porn doesn't happen irl

if it weren't for the comics fleshing her out a bit more though i'd definitely leave her where she is

pandemonica is a bit of a shame to me cause having those two personalities feels like it should be fun and interesting, but both personalities end up feeling kinda void of actual personality. she spends most of the game in sleepy mode which means she's just tired, doing her job, which'd mute anyone's personality tbf. like it makes sense how as the custodian of hell as well as the first demon you meet that she just kinda lets you know what's up and tries to keep things in order, but that doesn't make it feel any less plain. when you do get her coffee though her sadistic mode is just so intense it feels like there's still nothing else there. with lucy there was that manipulation and playfulness but here it's just *threatens harm*, it's like instead of two personalities she's just got two personality traits, and you only get 1 at a time. in the comics there's more of her sadistic mode but it still doesn't add much, like there's that bit with zdrada which is funny but it's way more of a zdrada moment, for pandemonica it's just threatening someone the same way she always does. i know she has that third nice and sweet personality when she gets proper good coffee, which is funny and adds some needed depth to her character but we only hear about that once and never actually see it, i get why though, a secret niceys personality for her is funny to imagine but actually showing it off betrays the purpose of her character

oki so that's about it i thinks, hopefully you can kinda tell why i clumped them together in their tiers the way i did, i don't know why i wrote so much i hadn't thought about these characters in like over a year at least before you asked :||

[villain-in-love]

Thistle x Kiera playlist

Hunt or be Hunted

У хозяина болота by Сны Саламандры

Blood like a cowberry juice, drips down the hands inconspicuously Like a crimson ribbon down the braid, scarlet thread on the cloth* Duckweed and quagmire on the left, angelica and sedge on the right The lord of the swamp has a gentle voice, yet harsh temper

Дикая Охота by Канцлер Ги

This isn’t love It’s a wild hunt after you! Red juice is running cold Somewhere far away a rallying cry rumbles It’s a forced march! Subliminal feelings run the show This isn’t love You weren’t calling for a holy virgin that night, were you

Headcase by Shinedown

White trash kingdom with an ocean view I hope you don't regret it 'cause you're born to lose! You're trying to negotiate the Hammer of the gun But I'm already convinced that You're an oxymoron!

Dance of Death by Inkubus Sukkubus

We dance with life, beyond all life We tell out tales of war and strife A knife, A sickle, rattle drum All play the song, 'till others come The moonlight glow on sallow flesh There's beauty in our Dance of Death

Saccharine by Jazmin Bean (slowed and reverbed)

Everything you do, I'm obsessed with you I don't mean to scare, but you're just so cute Every move you make, you're fucking sweeter than a cake I wanna cut you up and put you in my oven just to bake

Единственный Враг by Канцлер Ги

Bored of waiting at the cliff’s edge and staying in my saddle, I’ve gone mad from their incompetent attacks I’m stubbornly following the trail, bending towards the ground, Searching for you, oh my only enemy Searching for you, oh my only enemy

Every Time We Touch by Dan Avidan

I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me I still feel your touch in my dreams Forgive me my weakness, but I don't know why Without you, it's hard to survive

Eat You by Caravan of Thieves

I'm gonna eat you, you're my desire I'm gonna sharpen all my teeth and build a fire I'm gonna eat you, cook and defeat you I'm gonna breathe you in my lungs and make you mine

Fill The Crown by Poppy

Poison the children No peace of mind Poison the family Make the children cry Poison the fountain Empty your mind Follow the leader The leader is blind

Silent Hedges by Bauhaus

Following the silent hedges Needing some other kind of madness Looking into purple eyes Sadness at the corners Works of art with a minimum of steels Pure sensations

Bad Romance by Hildegard von Blingin'

I want thy horror, I want thy design Thou art a criminal whilst thou art mine I want thy love Love, love, love, I want thy love I want thy Nero, thy Bedlam lament, If this is sin then I shall never repent, I want thy love Love, love, love, I want thy love

As Sick As The Secrets Within by Marilyn Manson

There is a trick to get out of your skin You're only as sick as the secrets within But the beast is calling for us And slowly assuming control

Ivory Tower by Nova Twins

This is how the story goes I am not the damsel And you are not the hero We just put on a good show...

*The original word was “платок” and in the context it can mean both a “handkerchief” or a classic russian headscarf (or even a shawl??), but I really couldn’t decide which it should be, so “cloth” it is.

By the way, also instead of “braid” there possibly could have been “scythe”, as “коса” can mean both. But I decided to put “braid” here as it makes just a bit more sense.

Anyways, "У Хозяина Болота", "Дикая Охота" and "Единственный Враг" were translated by me.