#not really but tagging just to be safe

[darcyolsson]

ok i'm finally getting around to this hello again. so my main issue with malec is mainly the oversaturation right. you look up content for anything else and malec is just constantly there, and I could forgive this if it didn't start bleeding into canon! cassie visibly shifted the way she started writing malec as they got so popular, and now they're so perfect and nothing can go wrong with them.

i'm sorry but they were so much better when they were toxic!! idk alec actively sabotaging magnus and magnus being way too emotionally absent for alec (who was in his first relationship and also barely not a child) and yet the way they still went back to each other every time! when they were broken up but still obsessed with each other - when magnus ended their break up by telling alec he loved him!! real shit right there!

but now they can't be flawed anymore :( i'm sorry i just do not care about them as parents. i'm so sorry i know everyone's obsessed with rafe and max but in my heart i think alec and magnus should be touring the world constantly breaking up and getting back together and having insane sex unhindered by infants. domestication of wild animals has never sat right with me.

and i know you said you loved the eldest curses but omg that series is my worst offender. first of all i know not everyone has this issue but i can really tell that it's cowritten by someone else and it's just a bit grating. second of all - why did the red scrolls of magic take away their fun holiday!! this is such a small grievance but what do you mean they had one adventure and then gave up and stayed at home. noooo they should have been getting it on all over europe nooo noo that will NEVER sit right with me.

and the lost book of the white.... mm mm didn't hit the spot sorry. the tmi gang have such a special place in my heart and i just... didn't really care about them in this book? i'm sorry i am one of the people calling tec fanservice because while i sometimes love fanservice this just didn't work for me - sammael felt like a hugely wasted villain and i didn't care about shinyun, plus my issue with tmi gang characterisation.

but my one big shining star of disappointment. malec didn't even have a proper arc in the book? absolutely nothing changed in their relationship. ik that's because this book was written between other books but you can't spin out a three book series and have NO meaningful development between the MAIN CHARACTERS. yes, development is taking place over time between the books, but it's not happening in the tec books themselves, rendering them obsolete! alec was a bit concerned about magnus not being honest with him but ultimately went nowhere with this and it just ended with them being super badass husbands again. by this point i'm sorry i'm BORED.

i know a lot of these grievances are just petty and ultimately i am mostly just getting into this rant for the bit, but a part of me is genuinely a little sad that the flaws of the characters, which are what made me enjoy them so much in the first place, just kind of don't exist anymore. like the fact that alec, who was the most conservative of all the tmi gang by far particularly about downworlders (was still uncomfortable that simon was a vampire in cohf), becomes the head of the downworlder shadowhunter alliance and is suddenly really friendly with all downworlders?? that would be kind of sweet if anyone would acknowledge that he had previously been mostly against their existence beforehand, but no one ever does. the development post tmi is basically completely skipped over. (side note it will forever irk me that alec is head of that alliance instead of simon, and that its meetings are held in simon's old flat discussing issues very relevant to simon's life experiences, but WHATEVER.)

alec becoming shadowpresident and living his best life is great and all but i miss the tension... the drama... back when he was properly bitchy. and i hate to say it but i actually prefer reading about magnus in the past series when alec isn't around because frankly magnus will always be mostly compelling to me as a charming isolated loser! i have to speak my truth.

anyway many apologies for this but i hope you enjoyed regardless. i actually didnt even get round to complaining about fandom at all but this is getting way too long anyway. down with canon and may jimon stay strong forever (i was the jimon 😢 anon)

first of all, the quote "domestication of wild animals has never sat right with me" regarding malec will never ever leave my head after reading this. what an incredible way to put it

it's so interesting that you mention disliking the tmi gang characterisation in tlbotw! i both get it and i don't. i read tlbotw right after reading tmi, and to me they did quintessentially feel like the tmi gang, but the gang we saw in the 1st half of tmi. i dont see people talk about this very often but i feel like the first half of tmi is SO different from the other half in tone. it's very silly and doesn't take itself too seriously, while the second half mostly lacks that vibe with the exception of a few chapters. it literally feels like two different series sometimes.

tlbotw definitely is more of a sequel to that tmi gang and the magnus we see in the bane chronicles than it is to the version of the gang we see in eg tda, but i personally didn't mind it. lower stakes and less seriousness for a side book feels appropriate, and i love the silly vibes in tbc and earlier tmi.

i DO agree with what you said about sammael though! when reading tmi the greater demons feel like this massive threat, but in later shadowhunter books (like tlh) they just... don't, because they don't get the same buildup. tlbotw is a really extreme example of this i feel, because what's supposed to be this massive villain gets defeated in just one book, and a book where none of the characters really take it seriously at that. taking what's supposed to be this huge evil and presenting it this way, imo, makes the greater demons as a whole a lot less interesting as a threat. if their supposed limitless power can be stopped in what feels like a low-stakes story, why should we worry about them as a threat in eg twp?

anyway. back to malec, who this is about: i do get it. i also love past magnus, and i was genuinely devastated to find that camille made no appearance in tlh, because their relationship has always been SO interesting to me. to me it feels very obvious that this is because any content we get about magnus is now about magnus-and-alec, meaning camille (alongside magnus as the messy, devastatingly lonely immortal) has now fully disappeared. he essentially became like tessa: as a character she is so defined by her relationships to jem and will that we never once see her as a main character in a story without them, even though we know she spent most of her life without either jem or will (and went through some crazy stuff in the meantime).

i really get what you're talking about when you say magnus & alec have become almost too perfect as a couple, and that you would prefer some more goold old fashioned toxicity. i get it! however i am going to hold you hand when i say this. you and i are not looking at this like the average reader does. we are people who always want characters to be Worse. and as my good friend julian blackthorn has let me know...... this is not a common sentiment among tsc fans (or perhaps YA readers in general).

malec post-tmi are written as a happy ending, and people would probably literally show up at cassie's house with torches if she did anything to them. this applies to all the main couples, we're also not going to see emma & julian, or even jem & tessa go through any significant struggle after their story is already finished, but obviously this applies to malec even more because theyre SO popular. and i DO agree that this puts malec in a really weird position re:bonus content, because theyre both the fan favourite so they cannot experience any kind of legitimate struggle or cassie will have to start worrying about her house getting burnt down, but at the same time they are the fan favourite so they must get a lot of fan content. i think there has to be a way to efficiently balance the two (i'm curious to see how jace and clary's recently announced Better in Black story turns out for this reasin) but ultimately, regarding malec, cassie will always play it safe, especially because alec as a character is important to her personally since he was written for a late friend of hers, as well as to loads of fans.

i do feel your struggle though! i am content with current malec, because if i miss bitchy alec i can simply return to tmi, but i will say that the magnus we saw in tbc will forever be my favourite and that i dont think i'll even enjoy alec's character as much as i did that time when he tried to mortality-trap his bf into never being with another person again. also i think magnus should have kissed matthew and/or camille in tlh and i do fully believe he would have had it not been for #malec, in that sense it's very clear tlh magnus was affected by the existence of present-day malec, which i think is a shame, because messy, serial 17-year-old-boy-kisser magnus was my favourite.

basically: i don't mind the current characterisation of malec as it being their happily ever after, because i think it suits the series and (most of the time) i know not to expect content like that from tsc/cassandra clare, but i also wish that magnus as an individual wasn't defined by his relationship to alec so much even in stories that take place long before alec was even born (but were written after #malecendgame happened in tmi)

(also, very true what you said about simon. ive thought of that before too!)

this was incoherent and long as hell, hope this makes any sense. sorry it took me so long to answer your ask i knew this reply would become massive so i kept putting it off lol

[demon-cleanerr]

still so irritated w marlene arguing with joel when he said “you dont understand”

like her going as far as to say she understood *more* than joel bc of her promise to anna…? that sucks and all but thats a totally different relationship and dynamic

im also confused about why joel was tasked with escorting ellie from marlene when marlene apparently got to the hospital first and had more resources whole traveling

[artpigeons]

Really loved the scene with the Loviatar-priest. I kept rolling well on intimidation, so it's just the priest getting progressively more and more horny beating Lyon, who keeps yelling at him to hit him harder. Shadowheart and Astarion are nearby, cheering and bonding over how much they dig this. Gale is reconsidering his choice of company.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I love you Safety Wizard.

(Inspired by @keroascrazy)

[humming-fly]

The 2D vs 3D contrast of the sonic and shadow generation hubworlds cracks me up the more I think about it

Bonus:

[buggachat]

honestly what I love about miraculous and what I think a lot of people seem to hate about it is that the show is completely character-driven. it absolutely follows the rule of "would" rather than "should". episodes and plot lines and everything make so much sense and are so easy and engaging to follow when you understand that everything happening is because that's what the characters would do. things like: marinette would lie to protect someone's feelings, chloe would need more than just being queen bee to change her, adrien would forgive someone and try to see the best in someone who has shown him nothing but red flags. these aren't things they should do, it's just what they would. they don't change their behavior to tie up every loose end, they aren't vessels to give the audience moral lessons, their interpersonal conflicts are sometimes never addressed head-on and instead remain as a constant noise in the background of their relationship, they are all so stubborn and complicated. the plot bends to them, not the other way around. i see all the time people complaining about how the show is so bad/a failure but in the same breath say that they love the characters, as if the show's primarily goal is not to create and facilitate those same compelling characters that you love and let you watch as the story unfurls around them.

i mean, it's completely fine if you hate it. it's fine if you'd prefer every loose end to be tied, if you prefer the plot and story to take center stage, if you don't like it when a plotline seems to be forming but the characters decide against it, etc. it's a narrative choice, and not a "good" or a "bad" choice, just a choice. we all have our preferences. but your hatred of it is not any more "objective" than someone else's love for it. sometimes being a character-driven-story lover is difficult when online media criticism seems to always see it as a bug and not a feature.

[abyssal-ilk]

playing as a tabris warden and especially playing as a fem tabris warden is just a constant over and over gut punch. you're getting married but then you, your cousin, and several other women from your alienage are kidnapped during your wedding by the arl's son. you slaughter your way out of it to save your cousin and the other women, but there isn't a victory in it— you know there will be retribution for killing a palace full of guards and several nobles even though you were defending yourself and your kin. you're forced to leave your home and join the grey wardens without being given even a single night to recover. you know there will be a purge. you don't know if you'll ever see your family again.

you're taken to ostagar where you are the only woman amongst the grey wardens, and not only that, you are the only elf among them. you remember nessa, the girl in your alienage who was afraid of leaving because she feared what the soldiers would do to her after going so long without seeing a woman. your status as an elf and a woman are constantly remarked upon. you have no choice but to stay. you are fed darkspawn blood by duncan; the blood kills one man while he slaughters the other in front of you. you are supposed to feel grateful to have survived this.

and even later when you seek help from the dalish, what do you learn from zathrian? the same injustices that were inflicted upon you have been repeated over and over for centuries. what do you learn when you seek help from the mages? templars lurk in every corner, always watching, driving mages to the same violence you yourself committed. what do you learn in orzammar? to be a castless woman is to be not considered a person, who's only worth is the children she can bear for the same nobles who keep the castless subjugated. to be chosen by a noble is supposed to be an honor. why does this feel familiar?

AND THEN. what do you learn from the deep roads? darkspawn in all of their corruption are no different; you learn of the broodmothers. it is the same everywhere, no matter where you look. nothing changes. even your other party members, leliana and zevran, have their own stories. and you don't have another choice but to keep pushing on.

[salamispots]

a rug hook commission for @stickynotebirds! :O (who also drew the original sketch/design and I tweaked it a little bit)

[housederiva]

Nick Thornburrow has hurt me once again

[polite--cat]

my top favourite moments from this year's secret santa:

georgie bringing up alex repeatedly due to how they are married in real life

unfortunately he completely skipped over the great joke, "you've got the posing down to a T"

liam's true and genuine enthusiasm for his gift was SO CUTE. oscar did well!!

"whenever i take my driver cover off i'll be thinking about your butt" alex i love you

valterri guessing george because the frogs on the goggles look like him 😭

more footage of estie looking joyful in haas teamwear YIPPEE

plus, him talking about being an RC car freak, he's such a dork and i LOVE HIM!!!

yuki not knowing anything about mate was both funny and painful 😭brother you cannot have some "before you sleep" there is SO MUCH caffeine in chimarrão

i'm sorry but the contrast between lance's complete lack of charisma, to the video immediately cutting BACK to franco because he's too magnetic was very funny 😔

the whole franco saga in general was just great, he's a content machine and a STAR

lando joking with zhou he'd get him a knockoff dior but actually getting him a very sweet gift he appreciated was very him, i love it

getting to see the timeline of the chili costume bet was great, it really immediately motivated him

THE COUPLES PADEL LESSONS. i would say galex conspired but alex guessed george... suggesting he didn't know who george had. so they both INDEPENDENTLY decided to get them the same gift... more proof that they're married (and zak brown has a type)

[teehee-vibes]

Hi guys. I’m behind on JRWI-Tober. Here’s my progress so far.

1) Riptide

2) Fave PC

3) Fave NPC

4) Campaign swap

[beinganegg]

Very belated Isabeau birthday comic

[thenyandrawsnstuff]

Day 26 - OC make interactions between OCs

Ah yes, the iterator OC therapy support group

i was always gonna have fun with this one lmao, I just like making OCs interact ok?

characters on the left are mine, characters on the right belong to @druidshollow @kociokwiki and @hdra77 respectively

you know drawing these (SUPER COOL OCS MADE BY SUPER COOL PPL) really makes me think about how much detail put into their designs compared to me? I mean especially in the clothes, or maybe I just suck at drawing clothes lmfao

anyways that’s all, *disappears in a puff of smoke*

[novorehere]

Fellow non-sexual vore enjoyers in their mid-twenties and older… are you out there…

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

so five and lila being a thing is going right next to allison literally sexually assaulting luther in the box of things we are absolutely under no circumstances accepting as part of canon right

[incorrect-agatha]

Lilia, staring lovingly at the rest of The Coven who are in the midst of their usual shenanigans: Sometimes a family is just a large group of hazards to society.