#not that it would be bashing necessarily but idk i’m really just here to write

[mittenlady]

why klavquill

originally i thought of the pairing as a joke because simon would totally hate klavier, but like… i thought further upon it and now i fr am invested. i could say sooooo many things. so:

here’s a post i made a while ago explaining

here's another post focusing on the aspects of other dynamics that would be affected; less important but fun to mention

and let me provde an updated (attempt at being more concise but simultaneously more elaborative) version:

• thematic similarities in that they both helped usher in the dark age of the law BS. klavier got phoenix disbarred (which ig because he’s the golden boy is the end of the world but TBF the crazy ass corruption he exposed in his first three (?) years as an attorney does make him incredibly significant and a sort of figurehead) and simon went to prison for “murder” a year after that

• adding onto that, klavier and simon worked at the prosecutor’s office for one year of overlap (2019-2020) prior to simon’s sentence. even if they didn’t know each other directly, they would have known of each other (guy who got phoenix wright disbarred during his first trial and guy handling an international spy case with criminal affairs) (also i really love the estranged friends to lovers narrative)

• and even at that, they likely WOULD have had to interact during turnabout academy. simon was literally prosecuting the case. yes, klavier didn’t have an official investigation, but you’re telling me that they’re working on the same case without a single interaction???? frankly it’s just poor writing and they didn’t want to put in the effort to connect AJ’s narrative properly; which was an actual writing direction they had so why am i surprised.

• juxtaposition of older sibling situations; both in prison but for different reasons. i want to analyze this bit more but there’s something there

• sharing a narrative of healing from the ghosts of their pasts after DD :)

• both are incredibly melodramatic and theatrical in court. they’re on the same wavelength; and speaking just from a writer’s perspective, writing their interactions is some of the most fun i’ve had lol. if you’re curious, here’s my ao3 series containing all the fics i’ve written for them so far :)

• they also do have similar aesthetics in the sense that they both wear darker colors. klavier has a more grunge (?) / generally alternative (and like 70s-80s generic rockstar) style and simon… dresses like he’s from the victorian era yes (not counting the jinbaori) but he has more of a goth / emo vibe? i’m articulating this very poorly they both just look very well together. also men with long hair :)

sparknotes version: i think they have a lot of similarities and parallels and narratively, i believe it would make more sense for them to be together. part of it may also be wanting to connect the narratives of AJ and DD properly but idk. it just makes more sense, at least to me, in comparison to other pairings

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Everyone is Here

Prompts: Hi, I wanted to mention that I absolutely loved Nobody Left Behind! You hurt my boy, but it's okay, because you fixed it. If you feel so inclined, I'm really curious what everyone else's reactions would be to realizing they forgot Remus, but absolutely no pressure! I love what's there already it's super good! - anon

Idk if your prompts are open, but can you please write some soul crushing remus angst?

Thank you!!!! - anon

Prompt (If youre taking them): When Thomas was a kid he overheard someone making fun of someone for haveing a comfort item (Blanket, stuffed animal) and kinda internalized that having a comfort item was stupid. A few days later Logan has a presentation proving that having a comfort item is NOT stupid, but 1 side misses the meeting. Fast forward to present day, the side that missed the meeting has a comfort item but hides it due to fear of being made fun of. Havea great day!!! - anon

I come with a sanders sides request, if you're willing to accept it

remus with abandonment issues, scared of being left alone and forgotten after janus gets accepted but jan and logan prove him otherwise because they love him so much, roman being a good brother, virgil being remus' chaotic best friend who misses him a bunch and patton learning that the dark side of creativity isn't necessarily a bad thing

. . . did this make sense? idk, it's like 1 am here, do with that what you will - anon

My new favorite song is “I Deserve To Bleed” by Sushi Soucy and I keep thinking about Remus when I hear it, any chance you could write something inspired by that? Doesn’t have to be a songfic. Ofc no pressure if you don’t want to tho - anon

Read on Ao3 Part 1 

Warnings: Remus still has abandonment issues 

Pairings: listen either this is romantic DLAMPR or found family y’all can choose 

Word Count: 3154

It’s movie night.

Roman said Remus could come.

He invited him specifically too; told him he’d drag him upstairs if he didn’t know better by now—but in that sweet way that Roman does where it means Remus doesn’t really have to come if he doesn’t want to and it makes Remus want to bash him over the head with a mallet—and Remus, well, he’s excited.

He hasn’t been upstairs for a proper movie night in, well, forever, and he’s been bouncing off the walls all day to the point where even the gulper eel at the bottom of his lake thought he was being excessive. Which is saying something; she swallows things bigger than a school bus on a daily basis. So he takes his viscera chunks and chucks them at the wall until they splatter all over him.

“Movie night,” he chants gleefully, grabbing more balls to stim with, “movie night, movie night, movie night!”

Ollie burbles in support, waving his arms back and forth—“Octopus have arms, not tentacles, Remus, we’ve been over this!”—as he swims up and down the length of his tank. Remus smiles and bounces on the balls of his feet and lets his gaze roam about the room.

It falls on his bed, where his family sits.

He pauses, some of the manic energy dissipating as he looks at them.

“What?” He tilts his head. “Aren’t you happy?”

They sit, watching him. He comes a bit closer.

“This is what Roman said we could do, remember? We—we’re gonna have fun tonight?”

The lion’s big red eyes gaze at him as the blue frog’s eyes balloon from its head.

“No, he did! You were there, you remember hearing it, he said he’s gonna bring his brother.”

The yellow snake curls atop his pillow and eyes him.

“I’m the only one he calls his brother, you know that. Of course he was talking about me. He even looked at me when he said it.”

The purple spider sits anxiously on the edge of the sheets, one of its legs lost in the folds of fabric.

“It’s gonna be fine. He said that they would be happy to see me, we’re watching Jennifer’s Body tonight, I’m the horror guy!”

The dark blue cat’s tail hangs over the edge of the bed. Remus frowns.

“I know you guys are just worried, but it’s gonna be good. I promise it’s gonna be good, I’m gonna—“

Remus takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, closing his eyes.

“I’m gonna try and have fun tonight,” he whispers, “it’s going to be good. I’m going upstairs to watch a movie with my brother and the others and it’s going to be good.”

When he opens his eyes, the plushies stare back at him and he grins.

“Well, time to get ready!”

He takes a shower. Like, an actual shower, not one where he’s dunking himself in whatever liquid he’s experimenting with this week. Shampoo—for washing! Not drinking!—and conditioner and body wash and everything. He towels off and pulls on his onesie—the one with the extra arms that Roman helped him make after he said he should have one, not just be in the buff the whole time.

“But it’s my strong suit, Roman,” he’d whined, “why are you trying to make me less strong?”

Roman had just given him a look over the piece of black fabric. “You looked plenty strong when you were sitting there shivering your little nuts off.”

“They are not little.”

“We’re twins, Remus, identical twins. You can’t lie to me.”

“You’re no fun.”

“Freezing your balls off is no fun.”

“Fine, but we’re giving it tentacles.”

“I thought they were called arms?”

“Shut up!”

He pulls the onesie on and buttons up the front, smiling as he takes in the neon green buttons and fabric spots. The rest of the arms hang around his waist, coming from somewhere in the back, perfect for fiddling with when he needs something to do with his hands. He sticks a fidget cube in his pocket just in case and turns.

“Don’t wait up,” he calls to Ollie as he leaves.

He bounces up the stairs, flapping his hands a bit as he gets to the living room. It’s a struggle to keep the smile off his face. It’s going to be so much fun!

He gets to the top of the stairs.

Virgil and Patton are in the middle of a massive pile of pillows. Logan and Janus are seated on the couch, each with mugs in their laps. They appear to be talking about something. Roman isn’t there yet.

Remus steps into the living room.

All noise stops.

They turn to look at him.

Virgil’s expression closes off as Janus’s schools into one of cool neutrality. Logan sits up a little straighter. A flash of fear flickers across Patton’s face.

Remus freezes. The excitement bubbling in his chest explodes.

“Remus,” Logan says in an even voice, “can we help you?”

Uh…he’s—he’s here for movie night. He should say that. That—he’s wearing a onesie, he got it right, didn’t he? They’re all in onesies too—well, except for Janus, but he’s in pajamas. Yeah. Yeah, Roman said onesies. He’s in a onesie.

Was he supposed to just pop up behind the couch? But then he wouldn’t really be able to see. He—he would like to see the movie too.

Only when he blinks and he realizes he’s said nothing does he start.

“Oh, uh, movie night?”

Something flickers across Virgil’s face but he looks away. “Right.”

They don’t stop staring at him. Remus shifts from foot to foot. “Can I, uh, sit?”

“There are no assigned seats,” Logan says, turning away and staring at the TV even though nothing is on it yet.

…that means he can sit, right? He can—he can sit down? He takes a step forward, waiting to see if they’ll tell him where to go, but they don’t. Logan and Janus stare at the black TV. Patton leans his head against Virgil’s shoulder but he’s anything other than relaxed. Virgil just stares at the blanket.

Remus swallows the lump in his throat and takes a step closer.

Closer.

Close enough to sit on the very edge of the cushion pile.

A few of the cushions fall down.

Virgil glances at them, then at Remus, but doesn’t say anything.

Silence hangs in the room like a wet rag, smothering them. Remus doesn’t dare approach it, not when they’ve erected it like a barrier between themselves and him.

His fingers itch.

The fidget cube would make noise.

Virgil mutters something about needing to use the bathroom and he extricates himself from Patton, moving up the stairs and out of sight.

Patton mumbles something about food and vanishes into the kitchen.

Janus sighs and says he’s going to go to his room until the movie starts, asking Logan to tell him when it’s started.

Remus stares at the carpet. It’s dirty. Thomas should vacuum.

Behind him, Logan clears his throat.

“Why did you come tonight, Remus?”

Remus opens his mouth to say Roman invited him, he loves the movie they’re going to see, he wants to be here, he misses them, he misses them, but nothing comes out.

He feels his heart shatter a little at that.

Logan sighs when he doesn’t say anything. “I’m going to fill my water bottle.”

And he gets up and goes into the kitchen with Patton.

Remus can’t turn his head to watch him go. He just stares at the ground. Traitorous bits of liquid begin to gather around his eyes and they’re not tears, because tears only happen when you actually cry and Remus is not crying.

His chest twinges and his ears roar. He keeps staring at the carpet. They really need to clean this carpet. Especially if he’s the one saying that.

Maybe he should’ve brought a plushie instead of the fidget cube. Fidget cubes were good for fidgeting but not very good for squeezing. Remus wants something to squeeze right now. He can’t move his hands out of his lap and reach the tentacles—arms—so he should...that’s something he should’ve thought of.

But then the others really wouldn’t have liked that. Security items were stupid, Thomas learned that ages ago, he shouldn’t need one. No part of him should need one.

Five plushies, each painstakingly made out of scraps of fabric and furrowed brows, each colored after—

Remus clenches his hands. His nails bite into his palms. He looks around. He stands up.

He puts the pillows back into place. He makes sure everything is tucked in and secure. He takes the blanket he was sitting on and folds it back up, making sure it’s nice and comfy for the people who will be sitting in it. He bites his lip and forces the water back from his eyes.

He takes one last look around the living room and a small smile comes to his face.

They’ll…they’ll have a good movie night.

Then he walks back downstairs and strips his onesie off as he gets into his room.

His family watches him with no judgment as he crawls into bed, tail between his legs. He pulls them close and buries his face in their soft fabrics. He sniffles.

They catch his tears on the ends of their noses.

There is a difference, Remus learns tonight, between knowing and knowing. The difference splinters his heart and he promises he won’t invade any more of their family things.

The red lion nestles under his chin until the points of the crown dig into the soft part where his tongue should be.

———————

Roman sighs, finally getting out of his room and rushing downstairs. “Sorry, sorry, I know I’m late, we can start now!”

He stops abruptly when he sees the empty room.

“Hello? Did I get the time wrong?”

Patton and Logan poke their heads out from the kitchen.

“Oh, hey, kiddo,” Patton calls, “no, you got it right, everybody just dispersed for a second.”

“Oh, thank the Force, I thought I messed up my times.” Roman plops down onto the couch. “But no, all’s well that ends well.”

“Only you,” Logan says, fond in a way that you’d only realize if you’d heard it before, “would quote Star Wars and Shakespeare in the same sentence and have them both be perfectly acceptable.”

“Aw, I care about you too.” Roman nudges Logan’s shoulder as he sits down, Patton lounging on the pillow pile. “Where’re the others?”

“I’m here,” Janus says, striding out from the corner where Logan summoned him, “had to go not be around people for a little longer.”

“Virge’s in the bathroom,” Logan says, taking a drink, “and…I don’t know where Remus went.”

Roman perks up. “Remus? Remus came? He actually came?”

“Whoa, Princey,” Virgil says, emerging from the top of the stairs, “no need to sound like they just announced a new Disney movie.”

“Yeah, kiddo, Remus was…he showed up.”

Roman’s eyes narrow at Virgil’s dismissal and Patton’s tone of voice. “What did you tell him?”

“Nothing!” When Roman glares at him, Virgil raises his hands. “I didn’t say anything!”

“That’s true,” Patton says quickly, “Virgil didn’t say anything to him. He just—well, he came, we were all a bit…surprised, and he left while I was in the kitchen getting a snack.”

Janus sighs, leaning against the couch on Roman’s other side. “Well, I for one am not surprised that he made an appearance.”

Roman turns to narrow his eyes at Janus. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, since he’s obviously expressed interest in coming to these before,” Janus drawls, raising an eyebrow like he’s surprised at Roman’s reaction, “it makes perfect sense that he’d want to come and of course we’d give him a warm welcome.”

Oh. Oh, these absolute—

“Did you seriously run him off?”

“Roman,” Patton scolds, “we didn’t do anything like that.”

“Yeah? Then why else would he just leave?”

“Maybe he was going to get something,” Virgil suggests, squeezing his stuffed Jack Skellington, “I know I almost forgot my comfort object and we are watching a horror movie.”

“Roman,” Logan says quietly, drawing his attention, “Remus came upstairs and I asked what he needed. He said he was here for the movie night and asked where to sit. I told him it didn’t matter and he sat on the edge of the pillow pile. Everyone else left to go do little things and I asked Remus why he chose this movie to join us for. He didn’t answer and I went to go refill my water bottle, when I came back, he was gone.”

Oh, is that all?

Roman’s ire, slowly building since he realized his brother had been here and was no longer present, reaches a boiling point.

“So what he experienced was a sudden suspicion at his presence,” he says in a low, dangerous voice, “no clear direction for what to do at something he’s never been at before, everyone else making convenient excuses to leave, and then you asked him why he decided to come?”

Logan’s mouth opens and closes a few times before he manages a weak: “oh.”

“Yes, oh,” Roman grumbles, standing up, “now if you’ll excuse me, I have a brother to collect.”

“Wait!”

“Let us come with!”

“You’re gonna need more help if you’re dragging him with you.”

“Surely you can’t expect us to just wait for you both, we do want to start this movie soon.”

Roman suppresses a grin as they fly down the stairs.

We’re coming, Re, don’t you worry.

———————

“Remus!”

Remus buries his head in his pillows. He doesn’t want Roman to come in.

“Remus, it’s us, please open the door.”

“C’mon out, kiddo, we need to start the movie! We can’t do that without you!”

“Guys, stop, you’re gonna break the door.”

“Pfft, if you think this is what trying to break a door down looks like, you and I have not hung out enough.”

“Hey, do this later.” Another knock on the door. “Re, please, come out, this is a big misunderstanding, we want you upstairs, come on, please!”

Remus will always and forever resent the day he told Roman he was weak to his little pouty ‘please’s.

He barely has time to say anything before he’s being tackled to the ground.

“Ah—Roro!”

“Re,” Roman mumbles into his ear, “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you came up, I would’ve explained it better.”

“I’m sorry, Remus,” Logan says softly, crouching down and trying to catch his eye over Roman’s head, “I didn’t mean to imply you weren’t welcome.”

“Princey, let him up, he needs to breathe.”

“He can breathe just fine,” is Roman’s cranky mumble, which is true, but ribs do hurt sometimes.

He pats Roman’s shoulder. “Ro-Bro, I’m good, you can get up.”

Roman sits up, dragging Remus with him. “So you’ll come back upstairs?”

When Remus hesitates, Virgil jumps in. “I’m sorry, Remus, I didn’t—I didn’t realize what we sounded like.”

“Or looked like,” Patton adds, “come upstairs, you can sit with us, it’ll be fun!”

Remus wants to. Oh, he really wants to. But he also wants to wrap his arms around Roman and hug him so tight his face turns blue. He can’t stop the way his gaze twitches toward the bed and his hands clench.

“You can bring them if you want,” Roman murmurs, too quiet for the others to hear, “no one will mind.”

“But security items are bad,” Remus whispers back, trying to keep anyone from realizing what he’s talking about, only for Logan to overhear and make a soft noise.

“They’re not,” he says softly, a hand on Remus’s shoulder, “that—well, I suppose you missed that presentation.”

“I—I can have them?”

“Of course you can.”

“We’re watching a horror movie,” Patton points out, his own face half-buried in his blanket, “we all need comfort objects.”

Logan raises his water bottle in support and Janus toys with the pendant he’d had hidden under his shirt. Remus looks at Roman who wraps his arms around his waist and squeezes.

“I got you, Re, I’ll be good.”

Remus blinks. And blinks. And blinks.

“Oh, hey, hey,” Logan says in this soft voice he’s never heard before, “it’s alright, Remus.”

Then Janus is leaning down and cupping his face in his hand and cooing about how Remus can just come and enjoy the movie, sweetie, it’ll be fun, Roman can keep a hold of you the whole time.

Then Virgil and Patton are helping put their arms around everyone and sinking them back into the living room, landing atop the mess of pillows. 

Then Roman is mumbling for someone to press ‘play’ and get the lights and whispering that it’s all good, Re, I got you, you just sit with me, okay?

The tears whisper as they fall onto Logan’s arm, Janus’s hand, Roman’s neck, Virgil’s hair, Patton’s shoulder.

Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind.

General Taglist: @frxgprince @potereregina @reddstardust @gattonero17 @iamhereforthegayshit @thefingergunsgirl @awkwardandanxiousfander @creative-lampd-liberties @djpurple3 @winterswrandomness  @sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes  @iminyourfandom  @bullet-tothefeels  @full-of-roman-angst-trash  @ask-elsalvador @ramdomthingsfrommymind @demoniccheese83  @pattonsandershugs @el-does-photography @princeanxious  @firefinch-ember  @fandomssaremysoul  @im-an-anxious-wreck  @crazy-multifandomfangirl @punk-academian-witch  @enby-ralsei  @unicornssunflowersandstuff  @wildhorsewolf @thetruthaboutthesun @stubbornness-and-spite @princedarkandstormv @your-local-fookin-deadmeme @angels-and-dreams  @averykedavra @a-ghostlight-for-roman @treasurechestininterweb  @cricketanne @queerly-fluid-fan @compactdiscdraws @cecil-but-gayer  @i-am-overly-complicated  @annytheseal  @alias290  @tranquil-space-ninja @arxticandy @mychemically-imbalanced-romance @whyiask @crows-ace @emilythezeldafan @frida0043 @ieatspinalcords @snowyfires @cyanide-violence @oonagh2 @xxpanic-at-the-everywherexx @rabbitsartcorner @percy-07734 @triflingassailantofmyemotions @virgil-sanders-the-gay-emo @cerulean-watermelon @puffed-up-bees @meltheromanstan @joyrose-fandomer @insanitori @mavenmush @justablah65

If you want to be added/taken off the taglist, let me know!

[sylvielauffeydottir]

Hi I just saw your post about Israel and Palestinian. I don't know if you're the person to ask or if this is a dumb question but I was wondering if anyone has considered starting a second Jewish state? I was wondering because there's a bunch of Christian countries so why not multiple Jewish ones.

Sorry if I'm bothering you and Thanks for your time.

That’s actually a pretty interesting question. I am going to apologize right now, because I essentially can’t give a short answer to save my life.

I’m not a ‘Jewish Scholar,’ so while I can speak with some authority about the history of Zionism, I definitely couldn’t speak about it with as much authority as others. I mentioned in at least one of the posts I have written about the history of plans for a ‘Jewish state’ when Zionism was originally being proposed, and I can kinda of track the history of Zionist thinking for you if you are interested, though essentially it’s just about arguing where to go. But there are better scholars for this than me, so I would recommend Rebecca Kobrin, Deborah Lipstadt, Walter Laqueur … idk. Maybe just read some Theodor Herzl, honestly. With all of that said, I can speak with some authority about the post-war history of this in the Middle East. So let’s go.

In post-war times, there has really only been one serious discussion of an alternative Jewish state, as far as I know. And actually, this is part of why I find it so ironic that people are campaigning so hard to be “anti-Zionist” and to express views like “anti-Zionism” in their activism, because the Jews in Israel who are most anti-Zionist are actually the settlers of Palestinian territories, who want to secede and form a “Gaza-State” called Judeah. There's a great book about this called The Deadly Embrace by Ilana Kass And Bard O'Neill, if anyone is interested. Anyway, most of those people, who are largely Haredim (the Ultra-Orthodox Jews, though some of those settlers are semi Orthodox), have essentially been waging a “culture war” about what it means to have a Jewish state and what the identity of that Jewish state should look like basically since the 1980s.

There is a really good article about this that you can find right here written by Peter Lintl, who is a researcher at the Institution of Political Science for the Friedrich-Alexander Universitat. I’ll summarize it for the lazy people, though, because it’s like 40 pages. Just know that this paragraph won’t be super source heavy, because it is basically the same source. Essentially, the Haredim community has tripled in size from 4% to 12% of the total Israeli population since 1980, and it is probably going to be about 20% by 2040. They only accept the Torah and religious laws as the basis for Jewish life and Jewish identity and they are critical of democratic principles. To them, a societal structure should be hierarchical, patriarchal, and have rabbis at the apex, and they basically believe that Israel isn’t a legitimate state. This is primarily because Israel is (at least technically, so no one come at me in the comments about Palestinian citizens of Israel, so I’ll make a little ** and address this there) a ‘liberal’ democracy. Rights of Israeli citizens include, according to Freedom House, free and fair elections (they rank higher on that criteria here than the United States, by the way), political choice, political rights and electoral opportunities for women, a free and independent media, and academic freedom. It is also, I should add (as a lesbian), the only country in the Middle East that has anything close to LGBT+ rights.

[**to the point about Palestinians and Palestinian citizens of Israel: I have a few things to say. First, I have recommended this book twice now and it is Michael Oren’s Six Days of War, which absolutely fantastically talks about the ways in which the entire structure of the Palestinian ‘citizenship’ movement, Palestinian rights, and who was responsible for governing Palestinians changed after the Six Days War. If you are at all interested in the modern Middle East or modern Middle East politics, I highly recommend you read this, because a huge tenant of this book is that it was 1967, not 1947, that caused huge parts of our current situation (and that, surprisingly, a huge issue that quote-on-quote “started it” was actually water, but that’s sort of the primary secondary issue, not the Actual Issue at play here). Anyway, I’ve talked about the fact that Israel hugely abuses its authority in the West Bank and Gaza and that there are going to be current members of the Israeli Government who face action at the ICC, so please don’t litigate this again with me. I also should add that the 2018 law which said it was only Jews who had the natural-born right to “self-determine” in Israel was passed by the Lekkud Government, and I really hate them anyway. I know they’re bad. It’s not the point I’m making. I’m making a broader point about the Constitution vis-a-vis what the Haredim are proposing, which is way worse].

To get back to the Haredim, basically there is this entire movement of actual settlers in territories that have been determined to belong to the Palestinian people as of, you know, the modern founding of Israel (and not the pre-Israel ‘colonial settler’ narrative you’ll see on instagram in direct conflict with the history of centuries of aliyah) who want to secede and form a separate Jewish state. They aren’t like, the only settlers, but I point this out because they are basically ‘anti-Zionist’ in the sense that they think that modern Zionism isn’t adhering to the laws of Judaism — that the state of Israel is too free, too radical, too open. And scarily enough, these are the sort of the people from whom Netanyahu draws a huge part of his political support. Which is true of the right wing in general. Netanyahu can’t actually govern without a coalition government. Like I have said, the Knesset is huge, often with 11-13 political parties at once, and so to ‘govern’ Netanyahu often needs to recruit increasingly right wing, conservative, basically insane political parties to maintain his coalition. It’s why he has been so supportive of the settlements, particularly in the last five years (since he is, as I have also said, facing corruption charges, and he really can’t leave office). It would really suck for him if a huge chunk of his voters seceded, wouldn’t it?

Anyway, that is the only ‘second Jewish State’ I know about, and I don’t think that is necessarily much of a solution. I really don’t have the solutions to the Middle East crisis. I am just a girl with some history degrees and some time on her hands to devote to tumblr, and I want people to learn more so they can form their own opinions. With that said, I think there are two more things worth saying and then I will close out for the night.

First, Judaism is an ethno-religion. Our ethnicities have become mixed with the places that we have inhabited over the years in diaspora, which is how you have gotten Sephardi, Mizrahi, Ashkenazi, and even Ethiopian Jews. But if you do actual DNA testing on almost all of the Jews in diaspora, the testing shows that we come from the same place: the Levant. No matter how pale or dark, Jews are still fundamentally one people, something we should never forget (and anyone who tries to put racial hierarchy into paleness of Jews: legit, screw you. One people). Anyway, unlike other religious communities, we have an indigenous homeland because we have an ethnic homeland. It’s small, and there are many Jews in diaspora who choose not to return to it, like myself. But that homeland is ours (just as much as it is rightfully Palestinians, because we are both indigenous to the region. For everyone who hasn’t read my other posts on the issue, I’m not explaining this again. Just see: one, two, and three, the post that prompted this ask). This is different from Christians, for example, who basically just conquered all of Europe and whose religion is not dependent on your race or background. You can be a lapsed Christian and you are still white, latinx, black, etc right? I am a lapsed Jew, religiously speaking, and will still never escape that I am ethnically Ashkenazi Jewish.

Second, I think you raise a really good point about other religious states. There are many other religious majority states in the world (all of these countries have an official state religion), and a lot of them are committing a lot of atrocities right now (don't even get me started on Saudi Arabia). I have seen other posts and other authors write about this better than I ever could, but I am going to do my best to articulate why, because of this, criticism of Israel as a state, versus criticism of the Israeli Government, is about ... 9 times out of 10 inherently antisemitic.

We should all be able to criticize governments. That is a healthy part of the democratic process and it is a healthy part of being part of the world community. But there are 140 dictatorships in the world, and the UN Human Rights Council has condemned Israel 45 times since 2013. Since the creation of the UN Human Rights Council, it has has received more resolutions concerning Israel than on the rest of the world combined. This is compared to like … 1 for Myanmar, 1 for South Sudan, and 1 for North Korea.

Israel is the world’s only Jewish majority state. You want to talk about “ethnic cleansing” and “repressive governments”? I can give you about five other governments and world situations right now, off the top of my head, that are very stark, very brutal, very (in some cases) simple examples of either or both. If a person is ‘using their platform’ to Israel-bash, but they are not currently speaking about the atrocities in Myanmar, Kashmir, Azerbaijan, South Sudan, or even, dare I say, the ethnonationalism of the Hindu Nationalist Party in India, then, at the very least, their activism is a little bit performative. They are chasing the most recent ‘hot button’ issue they saw in an instagraphic, and they probably want to be woke and maybe want to do the right thing. And no one come at me and say it is because you don’t “know anything about Myanmar.” Most people know next to nothing about the Middle East crisis as well. At best, people are inconsistent, they may be a hypocrite, and, whether they want to admit it to themselves or not, they are either unintentionally or intentionally buying into antisemitic narratives. They might even be an antisemite.

I like to think (hope, maybe) that most people don’t hate Jews. If anything, they just follow what they’ve been told, and they tend to digest what everyone is taking about. But there is a reason this is the global narrative that has gained traction, and I guarantee it has at least something to do with the star on the Israeli flag.

I know that was a very long answer to your question, but I hope that gave you some insight.

As a sidenote: I keep recommending books, so I am going to just put a master list of every book I have ever recommended at the bottom of anything I do now, because the list keeps growing. So, let’s go in author alphabetical order from now on.

One Country by Ali Abunimah Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations by Ronen Bergman Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation, edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman The Girl Who Stole My Holocaust: A Memoir by Noam Chayut If a Place Can Make You Cry: Dispatches from an Anxious State by Daniel Gordis Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis The Deadly Embrace by Ilana Kass And Bard O'Neill Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation by Yossi Klein Halevi Antisemitism by Deborah Lipstadt Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Michael Oren The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter That Transformed the Middle East by Abraham Rabinovich One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate by Tom Segev Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation by Eyal Weizman

[ectora]

So, after the post of season 2, I decided to continue with season 3. I wanted to do Until episode 9 cause that’s the strict half but I knew there was along break after episode 10 so I was like let’s do until ten. For the second part, I might do it for every episode separately in some sorte of episode review or whatever, or just wait for the end of the season and do a global season 3 post. We’ll see I guess, I’m an indecisive so I hate taking decisions lmao. Anyway, let’s get to it.

Screen time

Macy : 3h03m10s (10/10)

Mel : 2h47m12s (10/10)

Maggie : 2h40m57s (10/10)

Harry : 2h09m34s (10/10) (+Jimmie 7m37s)

Abigael : 47m40s (5/10)

Jordan : 1h02m24s (9/10)

Again, those numbers are not to the second but scene wise. The only time I would separate the screen time in the scene itself was if the focus was completely on one character (vision + sound) and we know another character is there but we don’t really see them).

As before, here a graph of the screen time per episode for each character.

*harry and jimmie’s screen time are mixed for the graph but again, Jimmie’s is like 7 minutes.

And here a graph of all the characters screen time by episode so it’s more easily comparable.

Now, again, the screen time is pretty obvious on the fact the sisters are and stay the focus of the show. But far. Though I’m Ngl, I was really surprised to see Maggie being the last of the three sisters. She had way more screen time in season 2 but idk in season 3 it also felt like she was also a bit ahead. At least of Mel. But I think that’s a question of how they handle the story. I think Maggie is actually the one with the best treatment out of the three sisters, with the more consistent development. So maybe that’s why she feels more present. Because she’s actually getting development. Mel, imo, can’t really say the same. She doesn’t have that much more screen time than Maggie and yet, to me, she feels a lot more less developed. Macy had her story focused around men last seasons. And if this season hasn’t fixed that issue when it comes to Hacy imo, I do feel she gets a bit more personal development. But still, Maggie feels the most developed to me.

Jordan is more present in the story so that’s good. I love him and I hope they can find him a good place in the story as a human because he’s a sweetheart. To be honest however, he could have a bit more screen time Ngl. Same can be said for Abigael. I personally have the feeling that the story she has now wasn’t necessarily planned if I’m being honest, which is why it feels so detached. And obviously she needs to have her story more liked to the main storyline and TCO so her presence can be more natural and cohesive. However when you think about it, half the episode when we’re half way through the season, for a regular/main character, it’s a bit weird. I hope going forward, they’ll fix both these issues. Have her be in more episode and linking her to the main story.

Detailed screen time

As I did last time, here are the tables with their detailed screen time with each other main characters.

* group means 2+ characters of the core six that doesn’t involve all three sisters.

To be honest, these tables brought light on issues we - I think- were already aware of. Mel/Macy for example is basically inexistant. It’s really sad to see them barely share scenes just the two of them. Like Mel and Maggie have really nice scenes together where we can see them talk and bond. Macy has that sometimes with Maggie too. But Mel and Macy ? We barely even know what their relationship is if I’m being honest. Like it feels like Maggie and Mel have each other and they make Macy have Harry. He is her one to go, the one they develop her relationship with the most which, imo opinion, shouldn’t be the case.

It brings me to my next point. I know it’s only half season but TCO purely together isn’t even the biggest screen time anymore. Hacy actually is. Love them or not, that’s not the topic, I think there is the need of a discussion about how they slowly shifted the focus of these two characters toward each other. The pairing isn’t an issue, the way it’s handled kinda is. Because at the end of the day it’s also a disservice to both of them. I know COVID is to be taken into account and that they’re limited in the interaction and that Harry is the most integrated of the three main supportive characters but it is still an issue. Even in the story, Harry is all about his relationship and sometimes forgets his duties. Macy’s first thought is basically Harry. They could have used some of this time to develop further the sisters between themselves. Like Maggie and Mel don’t feel as centred on their romance while Macy definitely feels like it’s the major characteristic of her character right now. Same with Harry.

In a general manner however, they’ve been doing better with the sisters sharing scenes that aren’t all about fighting but there is still some serious work to be done. As said, Mel and Maggie for example have some nice scenes where it’s a bit more domestic. They talk about their actual lives more. Maggie has that a bit with Macy too but it’s mostly Mel/Maggie. While Macy talks to Harry.

When it comes to their personal time, by that I mean without the core six, they have around the same time so that’s good. Tho again, as I said before, they have around the same time but it feels like some character just have better written development.

I’m also glad to see Jordan and Abigael share screen with a bit more characters but also would like to have more mix between the mains. It’s almost odd at this point to see Jordan interact with anyone else than Maggie and Harry. I loved his episode with Macy but it almost felt random because he shared 90% of his time with Maggie. Abby it’s a little bit less the case because I feel like in season 2 she had the opportunity to share scenes with all of them (and I want more cause I love it) but now I would like to see her interact with others more too.

PAIRINGS

Hacy : 53m11s

Joggie : 18m18s

Abimel : 12m37s

Melby : 5m58s

That’s probably one of the things that annoy me the most in the show so bare with me.

Let’s start with the small things. I’m Ngl, I’m a bit confused about Maggie. Jordan is pretty obviously supposed to be her love interest I think we can all agree on that. I don’t know if they’re trying to throw some love triangle drama or fake drama with Antonio but well. In any case, I think they’re just a bit more slow burn. And I do think they’re actually the best written romance in the show since the beginning. Maggie never feels centred around Jordan. And tho Jordan does majorly gravitates around Maggie, he also gets a story and development. And yet their love connexion is obvious. Don’t know why they can’t do that with others.

I think I made my issue with Hacy rather clear. Not the ship itself but the way the show does it. I mean their time is clearly superior to everyone else (and i know it’s because Harry is technically the fourth character in terms of importance and is integrated in the story but still, I think there are still things to be fixed about this) and I think the way the show tend t have these two continuously gravitate around each other first is a disservice and just too much at this point. Like in ten episodes they have had more than the entirety of season 2. I’m pretty sure it means something.

Which leads me to my last point. And the most annoying one. Mel. It’s a whole other level. The show has a serious issue on their hands. Mel is the only sister that isn’t straight. And her relationship are not even remotely treated the same as her sisters. Season 2 was one thing. But season 3 makes it so painfully obvious. And it’s not ok. She has two potential ships. And yet, the screen time of these two combined is barely above Maggie’s with Jordan. And not even half Hacy’s. And that’s a genuine issue. I need the show to start treating their lgbt relationship the same way they do the straights. I’m tired of ghosts. I’m tired of unseen. I’m tired of two dimensional. Of the lack of development. Or the unbalance with her sisters. It’s enough.

Talking about her potentiality, the show definitely has me confused with the whole Abimel/Melby situation. They’re hinting hard on the first one while keeping the second in the background. Which is entirely confusing. And low key a problem too. Because yes I ship Abimel but I do think Melby deserves better. And if the show is just keeping melby while they can develop Abimel then that’s just weird too.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Melby just doesn’t feel like a relationship the show has any interest of putting effort in. Ngl, when Mel said at ClexaCon that the writers didn’t really give them backgrounds or anything, it didn’t sound like freedom, it sounded like they just didn’t care enough to develop it. Sometimes, it almost feels like they just kept it around because of the Abigael backlash, so have a sapphic relationship while they can develop something else on the side. Ruby has a charming actress so she has that working for her, but her character is very superficially developed, they didn’t bother to give her depth and it doesn’t feel like it was meant to last with the whole not wanting to be involved in magic thing. I’m not trying to bash anyone or any ship, but that relationship does feel very superficial in terms of writing. And honestly if they’re just keeping it around while building something else, it’s in itself annoying due to the nature of the relationship. Like at that point it’s not even the bare minimum.

Abimel seems more build up already. They’ve been hinting at it since season 2, poring them all the time. The lines. The tensions the chemistry. The connexion. It genuinely feels like that’s were they were going toward. Because it just makes sense. It also makes sense in terms of pairing. All three sisters have their love interest in the main cast. Enemies to lovers trope. As said, it makes sense. But also who actually knows. Because let’s be honest, the show has an history with not treated sapphics the same way as straights. Which is even more obvious in this first part of the season and looking at the numbers. Again I understand Ruby is not a regular (which reinforce my previous points). But likes. That’s what brings me to say again and again that at this point, the show needs to either actually commit to that relationship and make Ruby an actual part of the show or let it go. Because what we have right now ? Not ok. Because they give us zero energy. And I’m pretty sure that if they wanted to actually do more, they definitely could have. Right now, the show is under a pretty bad light when it comes to lgbt characters and their treatment. It’s a bit ridiculous and it’s just not right.

Anyway, I think this concludes my rant. I’m sorry it’s very, very long and for WHAT 😭 I have too much time on my hands I’m telling you. Anyway, if you read all of that I hope you’re enjoyed but also you probably, too, have too much time.

[vidalinav]

As someone that loves almost every character in ACOTAR but still wants to discuss their flaws and slip ups I really liked your post about Nesta and how she treated Feyre as a sister. None of the characters in ACOTAR are perfect. They have flaws and people in the fandom need to keep the same tone about all of them when it comes to that. Don't excuse one character and bash on the next. Like of course you can have your favorites, but Idk I just love seeing the characters as flawed rather than put them on a pedestal. Cheers 🖤

I mean I absolutely love flaws. I love Nesta for that reason. She’s such an imperfect, easily debatable character. Her interactions with others are amazing because of this, because she’s not so easy to be around, so she pushes a lot of boundaries or expands the way these characters have learned to adapt in their world. They’ve never met anyone who is not so easily swayed, which is obvious in all her interactions with them. Though I won’t get into it, since this post will be a thousand times longer. 

But I think if any character is most human-like, as in she is based on how someone in the real world would act, she’s probably the most authentic in my opinion. But authenticity requires a level of flaws that can’t be denied or overwritten. So, I really did want to stress that, that she can keep her mistakes, her cold demeanor, her sometimes harsh words, her standoffishness, her distrust many times, but at some point she’s going to have more character development and will she really exonerate herself and claim she played no part in her own life or the lives of her family members? She hasn’t before. She’s acknowledged that Feyre went out and kept them alive, but to what extent does she feel guilty or regretful or even blameless? Not specifically about that situation, but... the lack of friends, her relationship with her father, her sisters, or any close relationship before and after the trauma, her own wants, wishes, goals, the lack of purpose. In the case of the cabin, and now in the case of her father’s death, she’s really coping the same way. Someone else is supporting her, and she’s really mentally unhealthy and very closed off. You know maybe I’m taking a page out of my own psychotherapy textbook, but I think healing for her would require her to see more options, to be open to more opportunities, and for her to see the world and how she interacts with it a little bit differently where she has accountability for her own wellbeing and happiness, but also accepts the role she played in the past that she could’ve changed.

*But* if she copes that way throughout the series and she doesn’t allow anyone in and she unintentionally hurts someone’s feelings, for lack of a better term, then their feelings are still valid whether we understand them or not. That’s how POV’s work. A change in the narrative. And if in Feyre’s POV Nesta’s done wrong in some way even though some may not agree, even if Feyre herself has done wrong, it doesn’t mean we erase the mistakes as if they didn’t happen. I think to really analyze a character you need to see the whole character and not just the things that make them palatable or the things we’d rather ignore/excuse, even in the pursuit of defending them. As readers, we’re the third party observers, so we can see more things than the characters, but to Feyre for example, Nesta has an odd way of showing her love to the point where we have instances where she questions it throughout the series. It doesn’t mean necessarily that Nesta has to change or that she doesn’t love Feyre, but it also doesn’t make Feyre wrong to feel that way. or Elain or Cassian or Amren whatever happened to them. It also doesn’t make the Inner Circle wrong for not liking her, though the situation is more complicated than that. If Feyre’s hurt that Nesta won’t come to her after all they’ve through, after she’s reached out, and tried to help in the way that she knew how, then she is allowed to be hurt. And if Nesta’s perspective says that Feyre wronged her after what happens in ACOSF, even if Feyre had good intentions and explains her intentions, Nesta has been wronged. I think there’s a certain level of validity that we need to keep when discussing their interaction or any interaction, otherwise we start playing a blame game, when no one is at fault. It’s too complex to be simply one person’s fault and we know practically nothing of Nesta’s POV. It’s not Feyre or the Inner Circle’s fault that Nesta is in a bad way. But it’s not Nesta���s fault that Feyre sometimes feels hurt or betrayed or unloved. Which unfortunately makes the situation very complicated and quite oxymoronic. 

Also I think that sometimes people feel (which people have also said to me) that discussing Nesta’s flaws is a direct attack on her character, because other character’s flaws are not as highlighted in the fandom nor Feyre’s POV. But I think that in itself is a whole other post. Because Feyre has grown up with Nesta, and she has seen her in so many lights, and she’s really only beginning to know how the Inner Circle are truly when the wars are over and the dust has settled. You know, they took her in when she was really low and in an emotionally abusive relationship and having had a traumatic experience with the Amarantha situation, and they supported her and her decisions. So, I find that it would be hard to really expect that from Feyre where we ended in ACOSAF. But this of course doesn’t mean that we can’t dislike a character or question why they do things. It just means that we can dislike a character for a lot less than having to make one character seem inherently greater than another and making people feel bad about it. They all offer value to the series that we all are so obsessed about. But also we as posters can’t reasonably post essays. Like I can’t post something discussing Nesta’s flaws and a specific circumstance and then equally talk about several other character’s flaws in the same post to make everyone feel better and sure that I’m not taking a side. 

Which is what I try to get at sometimes when people comment and they seem a little bit too aggressive. Which is why I really don’t like the whole anti/pro debacle, even though I understand the practicality of being able to filter certain posts you see on tumblr because of those hashtags. Thankfully there hasn’t many people who are uber aggressive and honestly I block a lot of people who continually post things in which they don’t allow their opinion to be challenged in any way. Because at the end of the day, none of us are wrong, but... some I’d say are more right than others--simply because they have and use textual evidence to back up their claims or they make reasonable connections that don’t stomp on anyone’s opinions and open up a discussion in which everyone exchanges their ideas. There are so many posts I absolutely adore in either direction, because of how well-rounded they approach the topic. 

That being said, quite honestly that post that thankfully you appreciate, absolutely drives me insane. Every time someone likes it or comments I get so afraid that it’s going to be someone telling me off. But I’m a very anxious person so that’s probably why, but also I’ve seen many people being told off lol. I really was hoping it wasn’t too bad or being too biased. I absolutely hate that. And I certainly don’t want to be just agreed with, I love active discussions and will have them with many people on here, but I don’t like feeling like at any moment I could be invalidated and my opinion worthless when all I did was post something I felt was accurate to my own analysis. So I’ve almost deleted that post so many times. But thankfully, y’all are not horrible... so far. 

Anyways, I for some reason go on tangents that only half make sense. Stream of consciousness and ADHD I guess. But hopefully this reply wasn’t so drastic. I absolutely love that you support the active discussion of flaws and the character’s who have them and you are more than welcome to discuss with me anytime :D As long as your okay with the fact that I write essays as opposed to simple thanks haha!

[en-theheights]

All the problems with HSMTMTS:

I keep getting asked question on what happened in the fandom, and what is going on against all of the s*xual assault allegations against J*shua and T*m. This is going to be the post where I lay out all that I know of and inform the tumblr fandom on it because not all of you are on Twitter, and Tumblr is literally the heaven amongst fandoms. After this post, I’m DONE talking about this show and being apart of this toxic group. Along with talking about the s*xual assault allegations, I will also be addressing the issues during the BLM movement and other crap that not only the cast and crew have been a part of, but also the fandom itself. Let’s dig in.

Sidenote: I really don’t want any hate, I’m just trying to be open with you guys and inform you all. Also, I’m doing my best to remember everything, so if there is something that you want to know more on then please just message me personally cause I’m seriously SICK of discussing it publicly.

Not eveything in the fandom is due to JUST the cast and crew. This fandom is FULL of very toxic and creepy people.

A few months ago, someone (a grown women) who was overly obsessed with Olivia hacked into her grandfather’s account to turn it into a fan page to get undercover information on Olivia, as well as getting information on where Olivia lived. This grown women has also done some other seriously inappropriate things. If you want to learn more about the sketchy things that this women has done than you can go to Twitter and look it up.

There are always ship wars in fandoms, but this one takes it WAY too seriously. I’ve seen people get attack on their looks just for being a part of a ship. The ones that are heavily abusive are Rina vs Rini, Seblos vs CJ, and redlyn vs Redky. It has cause people to leave the fandom due to how bad the attacking got. On Tumblr, everyone’s pretty open about ships, but on twitter it is a literal battle field.

Disgraceful people still continue to ship the actors instead of the characters. J*livia and J*fia is what I’m going to talk more closely about. (First, josh is a grown adult and both Sofia and Olivia are minors, please unfollow me if you don’t see anything wrong with that). Sofia had to delete a few of her tik toks after one with Joshua went viral and people wouldn’t stop shipping her and him in her comments. Like one video she did, the caption was “I want a boyfriend” and people assumed they were dating and wouldn’t stop tagging him in her videos. As for Olivia, people have been shipping them since the beginning of the show. Fan accounts on all platforms have dedicated their time to this. I don’t necessarily remember if Sofia or Olivia came out saying that they were uncomfortable when they got shipped with their cast mates, but it started causing drifts between the actors because of this and Joshua wasn’t featured in any of Sofia’s videos after that and Olivia didn’t post as much as she use to with him. It goes to show that shipping actors makes things awkward and strained within their personal relationships. DONT DO THIS!

A person stating that they were friend’s with Olivia came out to expose Joshua of being a bad boyfriend after she tells everyone that Olivia and Joshua has been secretly dating during the press tour of HSMTMTS. There was clever evidence that showed they were dating and the girl came out with multiple receipts, and even went so far as to go on Instagram live to speak on the matter. But she then came out stating that it was false and she only wanted some attention. Apparently she was a j*livia stan. I can’t find anything on twitter about it anymore, since I’m pretty sure eveything was deleted. This can ruin people’s careers and I don’t know why anyone could think it’s okay. 

There are genuinely a lot of creepy adults that roam around in the HSM fandom. On twitter, there would be grown adults writing in detail how the kissing scene between Joshua and Olivia made them feel. People continue to post the gif of Nini and Ricky kissing and write out why it’s so important to them. People have taken that kissing scene and literally turned it into nasty and inappropriate sm*t on AO3 and Wattpad. Note once again that these characters are minors and it’s NEVER okay to write inappropriate stories about children. Grown adults need to be held accountable for their actions if this is how they’re acting.

Some parts of the fandom genuinely hate on both Sofia and Olivia for literally nothing. Just jealousy between their ships, and because of it, they think it’s okay to to personally attack the actresses on their looks and where they are in there careers. People continuously pin Olivia and Sofia against each other, like for example people bashing Olivia for not being as successful as Sofia, or Sofia being bashed because she doesn’t have the same singing career as Olivia. It’s once again, DISGUSTING!

This one is more about Disney and then not doing their part. Disney cut out the majority of Seblos’ scenes, which caused a lot of turmoil within the fandom and why Seblos felt unattached and awkward while they were together in all of their scenes after the dance episode. People called out Disney and said they they shouldn’t have put Seblos in if they weren’t going to go full out with it.

Onto the cast and the crew:

Kate (miss Jenn) got a lot of hate for exposing that Frankie (Carlos) and Joe(Seb) are in an actual real life relationship without asking them for their consent to tell the world. Don’t know whether they had spoken about them being in a relationship or not, but Kate didn’t speak on it after that either.

A video came out a few days ago of the cast taking cast pictures during their tour, and Mark (Mr. Mazzara) was standing beside Sofia in which it looks like his hand was rubbing Sofia’s lower back, and she seemed uncomfortable. I’m not sure if it’s a stretch or not because the video is super blurry and it’s hard to kind of see their faces, but you can clearly see his hand go behind her back. Personally for me, I didn’t notice anything too alarming, but you’d have to see for youself. I won’t be posting that and instead you can dm me personally and I’ll send you the link to the video.

A past comment of Joshua’s was exposed in which he is saying the F slur. #joshuabassettisoverparty was trending world wide on Twitter, with people wanting him off the show. He has apologized for it since then, but not many ever forgave him and it was just really his young girl audience that came to his defense, even though it wasn’t their apology to forgive. People that only stan him because he is a cute cis white male didn’t see the problem in what he had said, and kept saying that he was young and that it’s not a reason for us to hate on him, but he was only 17 when he said that, and it’s no excuse. Personally to me, his apology was super bland and he didn’t address it personally on his Twitter, but instead replied to a post saying he’d do better. Here’s what he had said:

Here is his apology on this:

Joshua also went on a live in which he said “boys, gals, or whatever” People accused him of being transphobic and enbyphobic. Others think that his words were being blown out of proportion. Here is that video:

I found it to be very ridiculous and rude that he doesn’t follow anybody on twitter or tik tok. On a live video, Julia said something about him not following her, and he just says that he doesn’t follow anybody and she shouldn’t take it personally. Honestly not that big of a deal, but it’s still shows pitifullness and arrogancy. Don’t know what his contract looks like with whatever agency he’s with, but maybe they’re just strict on that, but idk.

People hate on Matt (EJ) for being republican. He hasn’t done anything problematic or said anything out of offense, so for me he’s good. UPDATE: Turns out, Matt is friends with Benjamin Lawson Adams, a convicted pedophile. Here’s a brief statement in what happened:

He worked for the Weinstein company, so no surprise there. His arrest happened in May 2016, and his license was suspended to practice Law in July of 2018. If Matt knew what was best for him, he would stop having any and all associations with this dude.

That’s all I can think of on situations not regarding the s*xual assault allegations or the BLM movement. But there’s probably so much I’m missing. I’m going to make a part 2, cause the next half is too long to post here as well. I’ll label it #exposinghsmtmts so others are able to see it.

[smores100]

Yes, 100% agree with everything you said and your tags in that post about wtfock being like a group project patched together by 10 people trying to make it unique but still retain elements of the original. At this point I’m honestly just feel like I’m along for the ride and it’s not necessarily a good one but I’m here for it lmao. The two willems’ chemistry is holding the whole thing together for me. The cast is doing a great job. It’s just the writing that’s so frustrating and inconsistent.

It’s also frustrating because I feel like some of their ideas were good and had potential — I like the setting of the trip they went on, I love the whole art school thing, and I loved Noor so much and was really hoping they’d have Robbe open up to her. The flat share dynamic is so fucking cute, and I thought the buildup to the pool scene was also beautiful. It just makes me sad that they’ve gone so wrong with the drama. Idk why they packed so much shit in in such little time :( disappointing

exactly! i pretty much agree with all of this. the situation is so frustrating bc it’s not all 100% bad ideas, it would’ve been much easier to say it sucks and dismiss it completely if it was. but that’s not the case, there was some real potential here!

there have been some good ideas executed well - the flastshare ‘found family’ dynamic, for example, is the highlight of the season imo; the willems are believable to me as teens, their (great!) chemistry is what made the robbe/sander relationship seem less underdeveloped than it was, and when they’re allowed to be cute and loving with each other, they SHINE (this latest clip, for example). 

there have also been some good ideas executed badly tho - the week at the beach??? i will never understand why they waited TWO WHOLE EPS to introduce sander, the character who’s basically the catalyst for s3′s storyline - it made the first two eps feel repetitive and slow, it messed up the pacing of the whole first half of the season (first slow, then fast af when packing so much sander content all at once), it cut out one of the best things about the evak development (the slow burn! isak seeing him for the first time, the nerves when he talks to him a few days later, seeing him around school and the lowkey stalking him trying to find out everything about him and becoming even more enamoured, *more* nerves when he asks him over to his place and they spend all afternoon together getting to know each other….ahhh, lovely), and it made their relationship feel underdeveloped and rushed (an almost kiss after 6 days of knowing each other in which they interacted twice, kissing naked in a pool after a week and a half…..etc etc. realistic? maybe. good storytelling? less so). which brings me back to the week at the beach - they took away two weeks of sander, ok, at least make up for it by featuring him A LOT during that week at the beach??? use that week to focus on robbe and sander making eyes at each other, getting to know each other, talking, hanging out, listening to music….unlike all the other evaks they were on vacation TOGETHER, they were in the SAME PLACE together, it was such a ROMANTIC setting, the opportunity was RIGHT THERE. but instead that whole week was sander/britt and robbe/noor nonstop, with a bit of sad pining on top. which speaking of noor!!! yeah, the way she was introduced seemed like she could be one of the better emmas, i’ve seen people say they loved how they built up their relationship and the development they got, and like…..what a waste that ended up being?? if he’d ended up coming out to her and they’d become friends (since his own friends were being blah), then ok, i get giving them all this focus. but that didn’t happen. she ended up being like every other emma, confronting him about being gay and telling him to get out of the closet. so why did we spend so much time on her and robbe??? was it really that important to show them making out numerous times, even trying to go all the way twice….?? being gay and fighting your true self is sad, we get it, we got it watching og s3 without seeing isak force himself to make out with emma numerous times (and without lashing out at even accusing him of taking advantage of him and calling him a slur….and without watching him and even get gay bashed….and without one of his friends being homophobic to him when he came out….).

……i’m rambling. but basically, this could’ve been a good season, if only the writing was (much) better; if the writers concentrated and followed up on their original additions to the season instead of trying to stay with og’s timeline and follow its plot; and if the writers cared more about telling a good, hopeful story than they did about doubling down on the drama. s3 had enough drama without all this extra stuff, it didn’t need more! there needs to be a good balance b/w angst and fluff, and wtfock just didn’t have that this season. and again, it’s not *all* bad, and i do get why so many people are going gaga over robbe/sander - they’re pretty together, they have great chemistry and ust, and they’re super cute and fluffy with each other! but the writing, man…..i just can’t ignore it? if this were any other show, i probably could, lord knows i’ve watched (and still do tbh) shitty shows just for that one cute couple i loved and believed deserved the best. but it’s not just any other show, it’s skam, and og s3 was SO MUCH MORE than just a love story b/w two guys. there were so many layers, so much depth and symbolism and big themes throughout the season, the cause and effect and how everything that happened was important and everything was connected and had a big effect on isak’s story (e.g. the isak and sana friendship - apparently some people think robbe’s and yasmina’s friendship is better bc it wasn’t based on the weed plot? which is….listen, they’re hella sweet together and it’d have been nice to have seen her more this season, but *none* of the remakes have managed to fully recreate this friendship, bc *all* of them have failed to understand what was so great about it - i could write an essay on this, honestly). ANYWAY, my point is - i get why people are loving robbe/sander, they’re cute and sweet. but the writing hasn’t done them any favors (in fact it’s done more wrong by them than right and it’s really the willems holding all of this together, so good job boys!), and even if it’s all perfection from now until the end, it just feels like too little too late for me, like, the damage has already been done. i’m keeping up with it bc i’m curious to see how it ends, but it’s not what i was expecting and i’m disappointed. and to each their own ofc, but i can’t say i’m not baffled when i see people saying they like robbe/sander better than evak or how this season is much better than og s3. i just don’t see it??? especially the latter (the former is more of a personal preference, i suppose? but like i said, the writing for evak >>>>> the writing for them, so), which is to me one of the best seasons of tv EVER. it’s literally flawless. there’s not a single thing i would change about it (force me and i might change a couple of things, but nothing *too* major). but again, to each their own! 🤷‍♀️ just don’t disrespect the og when praising your favorite remake, and i’m good, idc. it’s when i see people disrespecting/belittling/diminishing etc etc og that i get into Fighting Mode, otherwise agree to disagree!

[livenudebigfoot]

Exchange of Interest Letter

Really excited to not only be participating in but helping to mod @exchange-of-interest this year! You can sign up here, and sign ups are open until April 7. I urge you to jump in and sign up; it’s gonna be really fun.

Future anonymous gifter, thank you so much! I know I’m a huge weirdo, but I hope I’m also a fun weirdo. My askbox is open to anonymous messages, so feel free to hit me up if you have any questions (if you’re not my gifter but you have questions about the exchange, hit me and other, smarter mods up at @exchange-of-interest)!

Likes, dislikes, and a whole bunch of information under the cut:

GENERAL INFORMATION

DNWs/dislikes: character bashing, unrequested non-canon ships, unasked-for poly, non-canon major character death, A/B/O dynamics, AUs that make the characters dramatically younger (i.e. high school or college AUs), crossovers

Likes: emotionally stunted people trying to connect with each other, fix-it fics or other forms of canon divergence AU, wild or fantastical setting AUs that maintain characterization, silliness, big swings (in the daring narrative choices kind of way, not necessarily in the sense of a literal large swing)

REQUESTS

1. Reese/Fusco: I love the evolution of their relationship over 5 seasons, and how it grows from this really dark, kinda twisted relationship to something that’s very sweet and based in mutual trust and love. I feel like a lot of Reese/Fusco fic (including my own) is from that early dark era but I'd really love to read more stuff that makes use of their warmer dynamic from towards the end of the show. You know: Fusco being increasingly comfortable with Reese because he knows him really well now, Reese being increasingly comfortable with expressing the fact that he’d actually be pretty upset if Fusco died, the two of them busting each other’s balls while actually being extremely fond of one another, taking bullets for each other, bowling, terrible food, rough-yet-tender sex, silent and fraught intimacy, fleeing to a remote location to retire under assumed names in some sort of post-canon fix-it scenario. Regular relationship stuff.

2. Lionel Fusco & Sameen Shaw: Their friendship is so heartwarming and good. I’d love some serious post-canon stuff about the two of them continuing to maintain their friendship/crime-fighting partnership maybe in the wake of tragedy. But I would also like some goofy stuff about them going on some kind of low-stakes comedy adventure together. Platonic ideal of this would be some kind of cross-country road trip where they’re arguing about music choices the entire time. They stop to see the World’s Largest Ball of String. Bear rides shotgun.

3. Joss Carter/Sameen Shaw: I really loved what little we got of Shaw and Carter's dynamic and I always wished they had more time together to really develop their relationship. I liked that Shaw's crush on Carter made her a little goofy and I like the idea of Carter getting sucked into Shaw's risky, high-stakes shenanigans and having an opportunity to loosen up and have a little fun. 

4. Logan Pierce/Leon Tao: These two never actually got a chance to meet because Ken Leung had the AUDACITY to get cast on a different show like some sort of JERK. I think their personalities are a perfect match and they would have The Best Time fighting crime together and maybe smooching together too. Maybe Leon gets brought onto Logan’s team post-canon? Or Leon gets rescued by Logan’s team post-canon? IDK go wild. I don’t even need it to be romance, I just want them to meet and like each other because I think they’d get along really well. 

5. Lionel Fusco/Andre Cooper: I understand that this is a long shot, but consider the following: 1. Wingman was a really cute episode, 2. Lionel and Andre have a sweet little arc together, and 3. they should smooch. This episode cries out for a gay romcom follow-up where Andre's trying to set Lionel up and they're both catching feelings and Andre's like "oh no he's my client" and Fusco's like "oh no he's just trying to do his job" and there's ridiculous pining and it's total tropey nonsense.

6. Character: Lionel Fusco: He’s my favorite boy. This is no secret. I love this stubby lil’ ball of grit, determination, and loyalty so darn much. If you want to write about Lionel having a gruff-yet-tender platonic time with any of his pals at Team Machine, I’d be into that. Also, I recognize this is, uhhhhhh, niche, but I have a weird affection for AUs where Fusco is either slightly magical in some way or besieged by slightly magical nonsense. I’m talking “Fusco is a time traveler trying to play it cool”. I’m talking “Fusco deals with some kind of bizarre, fantastical being the same way you might a pigeon or a dude talking to himself on the subway because [shrug] NYC”. If you write or draw something based on this dumb text post I made, you will greatly excite me.

[epb-archive]

Okay, this is me trying not to care too much about Brighter by Wingit on Ao3 or @wing--it on tumblr (and failing miserably)

DISCLAIMER: Everything is my opinion and is in no way attempting to bash other fic writers because writing is hard and everyone that put their personal time into doing this and sharing fics with people over the internet deserves praise and to feel proud of what they’ve written. For this reason I won’t be naming any other fics aside from Brighter because that’s the focus and #Boost Ur Fandom Writers ya feel

DISCLAIMER 2.0: I realized I told @wing--it  that i’d have a meta done for their fic except I realized I’m not entirely sure what Meta is so I’m probably not good at it wow this is long im sorry okay let’s do this thing

Actually as I’m writing this, I realize it’s just going to turn into a giant ass review for Brighter and I don’t know how I feel about that but @wing--it hi, i love your fic, we’ve been over this right? Under the cut this goes. (contains mild spoilers for Brighter but I’m trying not to say everything outright)

Brighter is a Victuri fanfic that is by far one of the best I’ve read in terms of storyline, characterization, conflict, and angst revolving around that conflict.

Starting with storyline, Brighter is a godsend fic that gives that good ass almost immediately after the GPF life for Victuri. So the two of them figuring out their relationship and working out how to live together in a more intimate sense (that being on their own and not constantly surrounded by Yuuri’s family and the patrons of Yu-Topia). Now, there are some other good ass fics that also have the lives in St. Petersburg and that do this shit well (actually, I appreciate every fic out there, shout out to all fic writers yall are doing gods work) BUT something different that stands out about Brighter is how the storyline isn't just focused on Yuuri Katsuki.

Honestly, at the most current point (10 chapters in, updated last on the 8th of June) the two main characters are NOT Victor and Yuuri, but Yuuri and Yuri which is??? Possibly one of the few fics I’ve seen where these two are the main focus while still having the fic be Victuri centered. Like without getting too much into Yuri’s storyline for the sake of spoilers (though it’s kind of revealed in chapter 3 or 4 i think, pretty early on) This fic, by far, has some of the best characterization of Yuri P that I’ve ever seen.

Which is saying a lot because I will often stop reading a fic because of how they characterize Yura (especially if he’s a major recurring character in the fic). Yura does play a huge part in this fic in terms of his own character development and conflict (godddd I just really fucking love his story line) and Tash!!!!!! Gives a solid reason why Yura would be “”angsty”” 24/7 and h*ck!!! It’s just ugh!!! Everyone knows, if you’ve gone through your angry teenager phase, it’s so incredibly difficult to stay mad 24/7 unless something’s happened or something’s happening (mental illness notwithstanding) and like just godddd. Okay??? Okay. So Anyways, Yura opens up to Yuuri (eventually) and friendship happens and honestly out of this entire fic Yuuri and Yuri’s friendship is my favorite. Like yes, this includes Victor and Yuuri’s relationship or Victor and anyone else or any of the characters combines. I just think Tash did such an amazing job working with Yuri in the fic and I’m already emotional this is a mess I’m sorry.

Okay, So that’s Yuri’s character. On to Victor’s. I think Tash does a beautiful job having Victor adjust to life loving someone. Like here, we have a guy who’s spent his entire life trying to please and surprise so many people, like aside from splurge stuff, what has Victor done for himself? When going off that logic (and like the 50 in depth tumblr posts about this) Brighter is so beautiful in his characterization. Because it starts with Victor and Yuuri being soooo in love and everything’s perfect!!! For exactly .2 seconds

Because everyone knows that’s not how relationship work and people have to work together and have conflicts and allow room for being human together. (And dont get me wrong, I am just as likely to read a 50k coffee shop au with 0 conflict because I enjoy not hurting). Anyways, Victor’s characterization is essentially him trying to figure out how to be genuine (and failing on multiple occasions) and just him trying to teach himself that he doesn’t have to do what he thinks Yuuri would like to get him to stay because Yuuri loves him and they’re in this for the long run but still Victor  IS STRUGGLING to figure this out.  Tash just. God. Tash just does this so well.

And Victor. He’s also subject to his own anxieties but in a different way from Yuuri and??? Like the fact that he’s throwing himself back into his career after a year break and to go back to his way of surprising people and then coaching Yuuri and choreographing short programs for him, yuuri, and yuri too (i think he was doing 3 short programs anyways). The ice skating portion of this fic is so fucking important, which of course it is, in an anime about ice skating of course it’s fucking important but what I mostly mean is that it doesn’t necessarily take second to the romance in the fic with is easy to do. The Ice skating and the romance are like on par with each other with the only vaguely second plot line being Yuri’s story line which is :,,,) still

Anyways  I just fucking love this okay I’m so sorry this got off track I’m not even done yet but please, read Brighter.

Last on characterization is of course, the main character, Yuuri Katsuki. Alright, I just h*cking love Yuuri in this fic. Like?? He’s so understanding and doesn’t deserve half the shit he’s gone through because if!!! SOME PEOPLE just TALKED IT OUT1!!!!!! Maybe. But no. Tash’s way of writing Yuuri is one of the ones that I appreciate the most. His way of dealing with things (which is to overthink then not solve anything) or his way of sherlocking through other people’s problems (see: Yuri P see: Victor N) His insecurities are all #relatable and just, Idk how to talk about this because i really can only say how perf i think tash did with him and that’s nonsensical imo anyways yuuri in brighter is like best yuuri hi i would die for him to be happy

For Brighter, the conflict and the angst go hand in hand (though tash has been hinting at things getting more painful in the next update and i’m not ready but :,,,) ya kno) and so without spoiling anything I just want to say that the conflict/angst is different in a way that it’s something that doesn’t seem improbable and is just 100% believable like past the characterization in the fic, I could almost 100% see this happening in canon which is a weird feeling and idk if the movie turns out to have any of these problems I’m gonna pay Tash like $20 or something (so open ur paypal now cause I have a feeling). Specifically here I’m talking about the conflict between Victor and Yuuri (not necessarily Yura’s because that’s something I definitely don’t want to happen but god it makes for some really good ass story telling and background on a character).

For Victor and Yuuri, it’s a matter of being honest about one’s feelings and just you know, um, telling the truth and not saying what you think someone else wants to hear. Which doesn’t really sound hard or difficult at all but here we have Victor who’s done everything for other people up to recently in his career and has probably never been so deeply in love as he is with Yuuri right now so he’s confused and I’ll give him that. HOWEVER, sometimes, Victor just needs to have a little more faith in Yuuri’s feelings for him.

The same goes for Yuuri though, the conflict isn’t 100% Victor’s fault. Some of the blame is deff Yuuri’s and Yuuri’s anxiety (which is essentially a whole nother Yuuri except darker with idk maybe a goatee and constant bad ideas). But also you can’t blame a character for being anxious and stuff and really I’m not ragging on Victor for this but I also don’t think Yuuri’s entirely to blame here? Like I’m so bad at meta okay I’m sorry buT I think to a degree they both have insecurities and doubts that are straining the relationship. They really do try to work through things but on Yuuri’s side, he almost always links the problems back to himself and in term him not being able to satisfy Victor like sexually and emotionally I THINK. Like…….. Okay I can’t go into it because I’m not sure how to put what I’m thinking into words

Another point I cannot stress enough and can’t actually find a good place to put in even tho this was number 1 on the list of things I wanted to talk about in here is This conflict is seriously all good conflict. Brighter has character’s growing and developing and just. Nothing seems forced or out of place?? Like it wasn’t just put there in order for there to be something wrong. Actually I think i did mention this but I cannot stress enough how much the conflict in brighter just fucking makes sense!!!!! I’m actually repeating myself I know but seriously my favorite part…. Second favorite part after Yuri’s characterization is how good the conflict and problems Yuuri and Victor have are. Like they’re honest to god relationship things and fuck!!!!!!!!! It’s so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But essentially, Yuuri and Victor need to have a good oldfashioned talk but that’s not going to happen because Tash is about to rip out our hearts and I’m ready for once.

Alright, that’s been my not meta. I’m sorry @wing--it if you’re on mobile and cant read under the cut, it exists and also I’m sorry that this got so long……. But you know i told you!!!! It was gonna be long I just really fucking love brighter and i cannot express that enough. I tried to be coherent here in talking about all the things I enjoyed and I definitely missed something like the JJ conflict but this is almost 2k in length and I’m really embarrassed bcos of how passionate I am about this.

tl;dr: just read Brighter for fucks sakes, that’s all I want. More people to read brighter and scream about the character(ization)s and just heck!!!!!

[warriorgays]

I’m (re)reading some classic scholarship on queer US history for class today and also going over my EasyCo Big Bang and thinking about how like… one of the main things I tried to get at in the fic is that gay identity is mixed up and complicated. and I just realized that maybe I should sort of warn people before they read my fic?

because there are four main ships and one side ship, and all of them are–idk, legitimate? for lack of a better word? like, all of them are good for each other in certain ways, and have sweet moments, and they’re not sunk beyond all hope. but at the same time, not all of them end happily? sorry. see it all has to do with history. because, historically, a lot of guys had a lot of complicated feelings:

knew that they were gay before the war. formed an identity and social circle based around it. (of course the type of circle varied a lot based on location and personality. but basically the late 1920s were the first time when the idea of being gay/lesbian/bisexual started to emerge as an identity label. there was a backlash to it in the 30s, but still, there were glimmers.)

found out they were gay in the war. formed an identity based on that.

found out they were gay at some point, decided it wasn’t such a big deal that it had to become a thing they WERE, only something they DID. (this was pretty much the only PoV prior to the 20s and still very common afterwards; a popular attitude was “oh everyone says homosexuals are sick, I can tell I’m not sick, ergo I’m not a real homosexual, this is just a thing I do.”)

saw their homosexual inclinations as situational–it’s only when women aren’t around, only when the normal social order is in chaos, only with a certain person or involving certain acts. (HELLO Army life.)

and based on those identities they also made complicated choices:

to not pursue relationships and/or sex with men for moral, health, or safety reasons. (obviously I’m not saying being gay is immoral or unhealthy, but at the time you bet it was seen as such, even by people who were queer themselves. sexologists did… a lot for societal knowledge of homosexuality. some weirdly good, some very bad.)

to  pursue relationships/sex with men in addition to getting married to a woman, because marriage the right thing to do, because it’s less suspicious, because they wanted the perks that come with marriage (like kids and also the social network stuff)

to form a long-term monogamous relationship with another man

to form a long-term relationship with another man, but not to be monogamous (cruising was such an important part of gay male history especially and the establishment of people’s identities, I refuse to bash it)

to have only brief or casual relationships, because some people just aren’t good at commitment, or because the pressure is bad for relationships, or because it’s safer to not stick to one person and one place all the time

to be more or less celibate, but to get emotional support from gay friends because GUESS WHAT, queerness is still important even if you’re not having sex

and like, a solid majority of the people in this fic are type 1 or type 2, because uh. the fic is about a gay clique, and types 3 and 4 aren’t likely to join such a clique. but some of the main characters are types 3 and 4, and as for end relationship types, they’re all over the place. with the way the ending works, you don’t necessarily SEE each of the relationships play out, but I’m toying with the idea of maaaaybe doing a follow up, and four or five of those relationship models would play out in it. (actually I think it would be fun for people to guess which ships end up in which model, because there are definitely hints in the main fic.)

anyway. I don’t know exactly what my point is here. as I was writing this fic I was like “lol I’m basically writing rarepairs, who is even going to read this” and now I’m like “hey lol I’m writing rarepairs and some of them DON’T EVEN GET HAPPY ENDINGS, seriously who is going to read this” but. I think historical queerness is really cool okay!! and if you do too, you should read this fic and talk about historical queerness with me!!

[backtothestart02]

Hello love! This is your Klaroline Valentine gifter! It would really help me out if you could answer a few questions about what you would like to see in your gift. On your request, you marked multiple AUs, all of which I’m happy to write; I just wanted to know which of them are your favorites? Besides Klaus and Caroline, do you have any other favorite characters or ships you would like included? Do you have any other requests? I just really want to write something you'll be happy with(: Thanks!

Ahhh, hey KC Anon!

I feel so bad about not being more specific on my request, but I kind of have no idea what I want. I always like AU gif sets of them I see on here & fics where they’re already together or are on the road to getting together w/ the implication that Caroline went down to Nola after he did at some point. As far as canon divergent, it would be cool if when Silas pretended to be Klaus and was all ‘I’ve tried to stop thinking about you, but I can’t’ & Caroline was so raw w/ being afraid of how she felt abt him basically - if that had rly been Klaus instead. Or if when Caroline had gone down to Nola w her girls in the crossover, if Klaus had been there instead of locked away. I always like the idea of Klaus trying to stop SC’s wedding if it had been happening under normal circumstances w/o the Devil+sirens nonsense. I don’t necessarily need other ships in the fic, but my other big ships in the TVD/TO 'verse are delena, steferine, haylijah, & kolvina. I was a huge fan of klamille too & think that maybe that’s who Klaus needed at that time in his life, so no bashing of that ship is preferable. I also reeeally love the klebekah sibling relationship & Katherine is my absolute fav char. I rly loved her talking w/ Caroline abt having slept w/ Klaus even if she only rly did it to set off Tyler. Lol. I loved the quasi-friendly dynamic Caroline & Katherine got to. Idk… Does that help, Anon? 😆

[lostinthewinterwood]

Hetswap 2020

Hey there friend!  Thanks for creating for me. 

Sorry this letter’s late—it includes the general likes and fandom-specific notes that my signup is tragically lacking.

My other exchange letters can be found here, and all the fandoms I’ve linked have fandom-specific request tags too.  I’d be happy to get treats in any medium.

 General DNW non/dub-con; non-canonical major character death; heavy angst; hurt no comfort; on-page deliberate self-harm*; on-page suicide; smut; gore; grimdark; complete downer endings; character bashing; incest; cringe comedy; a/b/o; mpreg; graphic eye trauma; graphic hand trauma; issuefic; unrequested full-setting aus; unrequested identity headcanons; a focus on unrequested romantic relationships**. *I don’t include things like, say, punching a wall in a fit of emotion under this. however, something like cutting would not be appreciated. **canonical levels of canonical ships are perfectly fine; background non-canon ships that I haven’t dnw’d are okay too.

  General Likes

– I really like plotty fics

– Secret identity and disguise shenanigans, the more layers to them and more absurdity the better.

– Crossdressing for whatever reason and gender disguises, also for whatever reason, though not as a kink—that I enjoy less.

– A focus on family and/or friendship, especially characters realizing they’re not nearly as alone as they think they are, and just generally characters who like each other and enjoy spending time together

– Found family; families of choice

– Character studies

– Worldbuilding

– Canon-divergence AUs and missing scenes; things set pre- or post-canon; wriggling into canon and poking at it to see what it spits back at you, if that description makes any sense at all.

  Art Things(??)

I’ll be real here, I’ve never requested art before; I don’t really know how best to prompt for it.  I like a lot of different styles, though, so—if you matched on art or want to make art, just, do your style?  I’m sure I’ll like it!  For the visual media, definitely don’t feel pressured to stick to the canonical art style if you don’t want to.  Seriously—digital, traditional, some combination—you do you.

As I, again, don’t really know how to prompt well for art, I haven’t given art prompts even where I’ve requested art.  Don’t feel pressured to try to work any of the proposed scenarios into your art, though if you feel inspired by them that’s great; just give me the characters together, however you think best—that will be enough.

  Podfic

My only podfic-specific comment is that I do generally appreciate not having very sudden volume shifts, especially from quiet to loud, as I like to listen on headphones.  Apart from that, again, go with your style :D

   Original Work

·        Male reforester who's planted thousands of trees/Female dryad of the new forest

·        Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl/Female Student Warrior Disiguised as a Boy

·        Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl/Female Fellow Student Mage

·        Runaway Princess/King of Thieves

·        Sheltered Prince/Roguish Female Thief

·        Teen Girl Medium/Ghost of a Murdered Detective Helping her Solve the Case (OW)

·        Teenage Supervillainess with a Secret Identity/Teenage Superhero with a Secret Identity

·        Teenage Supervillain with a Secret Identity/Teenage Superheroine with a Secret Identity

·        Fanfiction

 This isn't a hard-and-fast rule, but I'd rather all the human characters in relationships be at least fifteen, and I'd rather not have a very large age gap (say, >5 years) if one of the characters is underage. (For the medium/ghost, you don't need to keep it that small; just maybe don't draw too much attention to it and/or make her an older teenager lol).

fandom-specific dnw: predatory manipulation between characters in the relationship in service of the relationship--if, for example, the superheroes/villains are manipulating each other for non-relationship things and such that's okay, but i'd rather both parties in any of the ships be interested in the romance of their own accord.  Additionally—this isn’t in my signup—please don’t have characters react to any gender-disguised characters (or characters in general, but it’s most relevant to them) in transphobic or transphobic-adjacent ways (i.e. none of the characters are requested as trans, but I still wouldn’t want to see the kinds of comments people make about trans people aimed at them).

  Reforester/Dryad—I really like, idk, the vibe I get off this one—it’s got a very nice atmosphere?  I don’t really know how better to say it, I’m sorry.

 Student Mage/Student Warrior; Student Mage/Student Mage—obviously I love identity and disguise shenanigans; it always struck me as tragic when I was younger that there were all these stories about girls disguised as boys, but no one ever seemed to do the reverse?  Hence prompts such as these.  I’d love an identity/gender reveal, or maybe a post-reveal setting; I’d really rather not see them engage in any kind of serious romance without both of their genders being accurately known to the other, though flirting is definitely okay, as would be a date or two.  It’d be fun to go with some variety of mutual pining pre-reveal though, that could make the reveal all the sweeter.

 Runaway Princess/King of Thieves; Sheltered Prince/Roguish Thief—these seem to be mirrors of each other, somewhat at least; how does a royal meet a thief?  Does our princess find herself in the criminal underworld when she runs away?  Does our prince have a burglar appear on his balcony, or does he perhaps meet a girl at a masquerade who’s no noble and instead a thief?

 Medium/Ghost—lots of fun shenanigans you can go into here! What kind of case are they working on? How does a relationship work, when one of you is alive and the other isn’t?

 Supervillain(ess)/Superhero(ine)—love me some superhero identity shenanigans. Do they know each other in their normal lives?  Are their identities secret from each other, or only the world?  How do they first fall for each other—were they friends in their normal lives and enemies in masks?  Is this enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, or maybe something in-between?  How do they reconcile a romantic relationship with one being a hero and the other a villain?

    Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure

·        Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel (Cartoon)

·        Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Stalyan (Cartoon)

·        Fanfiction

 Eugene/Rapunzel—they’re adorable.  I love them.  Give me more—a moment in their lives?  Something in the year before the series starts; something post-canon?  Or maybe glimpses of them on the road?

 Eugene/Stalyan—I will admit that this certainly isn’t my endgame ship for this canon, but I’d really love something pre-canon, when they were engaged or dating—what was their relationship like?  How did they interact with each other and the world?  Maybe a heist fic; that could be fun.  My interpretation from what we get in canon is that their relationship wasn’t necessarily the healthiest (healthy relationships don’t usually lead to one getting left at the altar, after all) but it didn’t seem to me that it was necessarily abusive; I’d appreciate it if it was kept out of the actually abusive zone.

    Hanging Out with a Gamer Girl (Manga)

·        Terazaki Kaoru/Takekawa Izumi (HOwaGG)

·        Terazaki Kaoru/Ousaka Nanami (HOwaGG)

·        Fanart

·        Fanfiction

·        Podfic

 Fandom-specific dnw: sexualization of Kaoru’s crossdressing, full justification of Kaoru’s fears re: Nanami’s dad

 Kaoru/Izumi—they’re both cute; they have cute interactions; give me more of that?

 Kaoru/Nanami—I, admittedly, don’t usually ship these two—but I love their friendship.  Give me more of that, show me how it becomes a romance?

 My typical DNW for unrequested setting aus does not apply here; if you want to write an au and want some ideas, I requested several in my AUEx letter.

    Tortall – Tamora Pierce

·        Stiloit Tasikhe/Varice Kingsford

·        Kaddar Iliniat/Kalasin of Conté

·        Roald II of Conté/Shinkokami of Conté

·        Fanfiction

 fandom-specific dnw: characters in the political marriages hating being married to their spouse throughout the fic--they can start off with reservations or not liking it but i'd really rather end with them at the very least liking their spouse.

 Stiloit/Varice—they had quite interesting interactions, the few times they got the chance; Varice is a bit young for him in Tempests and Slaughter, but say he didn’t die—say he was alive still when she grew up a bit more—what does their relationship look like?  What changes in the wider story, if Stiloit doesn’t die, if Ozorne doesn’t become quite so close to the throne as young as he does?

 Kaddar/Kalasin; Roald/Shinko—these are both political marriages between characters who either seem to like each other or like they’d have a reasonable chance to like each other; what does marriage look like when you came into it as a diplomatic thing rather than falling in love?  How do they learn about and come to care for each other?

     Revolutionary Arc – kitsunerei88

·        Aldon Rosier/Francesca Lam (Revolutionary Arc)

·        Aleksandr Willoughby Dragic/Fei Long Lin (Revolutionary Arc)

·        Fanart

·        Fanfiction

 Aldon/Chess—they do not have enough fluff or gentleness in the story right now; I’d like some more, please.  Maybe post-war, with Chess off at muggle university—how does Aldon do with living properly in the muggle world?  What do Chess’s classmates/friends think of him?  I would also happily accept fluff/soft things set in the universe of Blake.

 Alex/Fei—they haven’t ah, interacted ever in canon that I recall, but they seem like they’d fit together well, if only for a little while—is this a wartime friends-with-benefits?  Maybe post-war?  If you go with the friends-with-benefits take here I wouldn’t necessarily mind a bit of smut, as long as it’s not only smut—please no PWP.

    Rigel Black Chronicles – murkybluematter

·        Arcturus Rigel Black/Pansy Parkinson (Rigel Black Series)

·        Remus Lupin/Rispah Cooper (Rigel Black Series)

·        Fanart

·        Fanfiction

 Archie/Pansy—so.  Archie’s quite attached to Hermione right now; but he’s also fourteen.  Not all romantic interests people have at age fourteen stay strong; I’d rather not have a hard break or too many hard feelings between him and Hermione, and I think he’d be interesting to see with Pansy.  As for Pansy herself—she seems to be too close to Rigel as a friend to seriously consider him as a partner, but she did seem potentially interested in Harry at the Gala—perhaps she’d also be interested in Archie, when she gets to meet him properly.  Maybe this is a post-reveal thing; perhaps in trying to get to know the real Black heir she falls for him?  I don’t know.

 Remus/Rispah—this is admittedly partly my inner Song of the Lioness fan coming out, but I’d love to see Remus learning more about the Lower Alleys and what goes on there, and conversely bringing Rispah more into his world too.