#of course my favorite characters are always like. The Protagonist. so I have story favor

[rotisseries]

i do this every chapter I've realized which is so funny. every chapter drop I'm like GUYS!!!! SHIT IS FUCKING RIGHT NOW!!! IM SO EXCITED!!!!!! and then my tumblr dash is a mourner's parade

[kirkodiletears]

I wanted to answer this question: (it's only a speculation)

"How intense is Luo Binghe love for the original Shen jiu and why is he so damn fixitated him for is it his looks or personality lol ? I'v read so many fics of Shen yuan identity reveal with Luo binghe and the peaklords that always ended positively but do you think it'd be the same in the canonverse? Like if Shen yuan were to reveal he wasn't the original would they react positively or negatively?"

I think 1st thing he feel in love was SJ's looks

"Shang Qinghua: “What was your first impression of the other person?”

 

Luo Binghe continued to reminisce and lightly said: “An aloof and remote, distant and untouchable immortal.”

then he started to do anything to gain SJ's attention/favor... He befriended with SJ's favorite disciple NYY, even if she always got him in trouble, then after he was pushed down to the abyss he realized that SJ would never return his feelings so he decided to destroy him, meanwhile he started to cope with it and started to pretend that SJ was a scum villain who couldn't love anyone but himself (that's probably why he never seen SJ's memories even if he was able to do so) and when YQY died he and SJ's reaction finally shattered his illusions...

Well, in my opinion, you pretty much nailed it. Especially keeping in mind the original intentions of Airplane to write PIDW as a yaoi novel with SJ (SQQ) and LBH as a OTP.

P.S.: Apparently I better quote the text of SVSSS, chapter 81 to be precise, to avoid ignorant comments. There's a huge misunderstanding going on in the English-speaking segment, probably dew to an English translation of SVSSS. Some readers are mislead by two quotes, that they take as a contradictory, which in truth, they are NOT.

The first one is from a Chapter "The story begins". It is the last chapter of the novel, after this the extras start. And this particular chapter is a culmination: this is where the truth is reveled. Like in a detective story, where we finally find out, who the killer is. This meant to become a real "bomb", that makes a reader go WOOOW!!! And this is THE KEY for understanding the whole story: the plot and the characters, especially Luo Bing-mei (and Luo Bing-ge). And speaks about the intentions of the Airplane. (original scrapped outline(c))

The second quote on the other hand speaks of an EXISTING PIDW. (original outline(c))

The first quote, from the final chapter:

Shen Qingqiu looked him up and down. “You don’t look crushed at all after all this foolish messing around ended up completely changing your own novel.”

Shang Qinghua said, “You can’t say it like that ah. Maybe you think it’s just all foolish messing around that isn’t worth a damn, but for Bing-ge, your foolish messing around is probably the meaning of this entire world.”

... holy s***, Great God Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky was able to say something like that?!

Shen Qingqiu was terrified. “F***. You didn’t turn back into the original character, did you?”

Shang Qinghua said seriously, “Don’t be like that. I’m also a young person with literary ideals. Of course, I have my own reflections and emotions.”

Shen Qingqiu laughed coldly. “What literary ideals? How come all I saw in the original work was shameless fanservice?” Not to mention his hand speed that could produce ten thousand words a day, and the courage to even occasionally explode with twenty thousand. If he didn’t have such equipment, there was no way 《Proud Immortal Demon Way》 would have been able to hold out before it was serialized!

Shang Qinghua spread his hands. “You think that I always wrote shameless content that lacked any integrity from the very start? I’ve also written belles-lettres4 before, but they were all unpopular, so I had no choice but to go down a path that catered to the masses. It must be said that writing novels is a very lonely undertaking. Rather than writing a stallion male protagonist who’ll be stereotypical in the end, it’s more in line with my philosophy for writing to create the current Bing-ge━this kind of weirdo male protagonist whose character is a bit more complicated, has contradictions and conflicts, and has a rough destiny.”

Shen Qingqiu concluded, “So, your philosophy for writing is to write about gay guys?”

Shang Qinghua: “Do you look down upon gay male protagonists? Works of art and artists all like to create gay guys. Belles-lettres favors gays, do you know that?”

He waved his arms wildly and passionately. “Cucumber Bro, if the System hadn’t chosen you, this faithful die-hard reader, perhaps the plot wouldn’t have deviated so thoroughly, thoroughly to the point that it deviated all the way back to my original scrapped outline. Even though the me back in reality━who couldn’t endure the loneliness and was under financial pressure━chose to finish writing 《Proud Immortal Demon Way》 according to other people’s preferences and what they found cool... now, all thanks to you, essentially everything that I wanted to write has already unfolded in front of my eyes. Cucumber Bro!”

He patted Shen Qingqiu’s shoulders with deep sentiment and solemnity. “You... are the chosen one; as for my career, I have no more regrets!”

... why did it sound like the System and this world were both products of Shang Qinghua’s resentment over scrapping that outline and going with what was mainstream?

Shen Qingqiu, who shamefully became this kind of “chosen one”: “Who’s your faithful die-hard reader?”

Shang Qinghua waved his hand and one-sidedly declared his victory. “I’m not going to talk to you; you’re an anti-fan.”

Shen Qingqiu was about to say, “I’m only an anti, not a fan!” when he suddenly heard Shang Qinghua starting crooning something like, “Emotions are warm, kindness hard to bear, lips moving together, desires turning the evening to the next morning, never resting from dawn to dusk.” The crucial point was that melody, which sounded extremely familiar to the point that it made Shen Qingqiu’s hands and teeth itch. He pointed at him and said, “Shang Qinghua, what are you singing?”

Shang Qinghua continued to croon. “The warmth of emotions makes gratitude hard to bear. Lips to lips, locked in a kiss. Let this night linger ‘til tomorrow’s dawn. Day after day, night after night; never to end. Will tomorrow be another today? When ‘til Zheng Yang reaches its zenith? As Zheng Yang ascends, the voice of Autumn stirs. A sheathless Xiu Ya, a spurt of cold nectar. Tragic pleas amidst choked sobs, thus in vain; for he rises again5...”

Shen Qingqiu was in disbelief. “F*** you—why don’t you just try and sing another line?”

Shang Qinghua said, “Great Lord Shen, why aren’t you listening to what I’m saying? You must never go around casually f***ing people. Bing-ge will go crazy. I’m telling you, this Resentment of Chunshan is equivalent to Shi Ba Mo6. You two are the legendary national homos, do you understand? I have no problems with you shutting me up, but ultimately it’s useless. You can’t possibly make all the countless people in the world shut up...”

The second quote, from the extras: "

System: 【Basic accomplishment of《Proud Immortal Demon Way》’s original outline, slight deviation of romance plot, objective accomplished. Function to return to original world download complete. Activate return home sequence?】

Basic accomplishment of the original outline, that he agreed with, all the holes which needed to be filled were filled. But, this “slight deviation of romance plot” isn’t quite right. Bing-ge is gay no━how can you say this is a “slight deviation”? Ay okay, okay. In fact, in his original outline, Bing-ge didn’t have a romance plot; he was doomed to fade away, alone and unaging forever. If you insist on adding a plotline, that’s whatever, but he’s wasted this many words… you mean he can return to his original world?!?!"

The second quote is very poorly translated into English. What it actually means, is that Bing-ge does not have ANY SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIP, LOVE. Nothing to do with he amount of partners he fucks. And yes - the ending for the tyrant he became in PIDW is not happy in a slightest. This is how his relationship with the harem is described by the PIDW reader's forum in the novel:

"Airplane really doesn’t know how to write romance plotlines, best if he just doesn’t. I feel like Luo Binghe doesn’t have feelings for any of his wives, he just wants to use them. And I can’t see any of those women with real moving emotion for him. "

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

I know this doesn't tie into the tournament, but I've noticed how a lot of women-based media will have the fandom favorite be a side male character. Turning Red and Tyler, The Owl House and Hunter, Pretty Cure and Tsubasa, Barbie (2023) and Beach Ken.

So, I can't speak to most of those series specifically, so I'm going to have to speak with my experiences in the more abstract, just heads up there in case my opinions do not apply. Also, I'm long-winded, so let's go under the cut.

I think misogyny in the audience is always a factor because fandom loves its dudes, but you also always have to account for what I call Protagonist Syndrome, which is when a character is a little too defined by being The Protagonist, to the point that it overshadows what character they do have (and they often have at least some!). A lot of series suffer from this, and I think it's part of why the break out character is so rarely the protagonist. Break out characters, in my experience, tend to fall into three categories: 1.) just the coolest 2.) fits perfectly into the preferences of a specific, large group of fans and 3.) absolutely goddamn hilarious. If a character falls into one or more of those, even better. As Cracked After Hours pointed out years ago (if memory serves), the protagonist rarely gets the good, memorable, quotable lines. And this can get aggravated when a series also heavily defines a character by their being A Woman (and god help you if she's The Woman). Now, these ladies generally do have personalities, but they aren't allowed to shine as just characters, and that is a problem. To try and be more brief, it's often a mixing of general writing failures, "it's supposed to be feminist but I fucked up" failures, "this story is actually multiple stories superglued together so the protagonist might be less consistently designed" failures (more of a movie problem than anything else, to be fair), and writer misogyny failures. And then when you bring in fandom... well, fandom loves it's dudes.

And on the note of fandom loving its dudes, there is of course, on top of what I've said above, people just valuing men over women, but also some fans will always find a way to find a m/m ship (bonus points if it's Any Two White Dudes) to obsess over, and other fans looking for a het ship will be like "this man is such a Wife Guy, a thing that a female audience desires, and we love him for it" and find a way to make the female character bland regardless of her canon personality (tbf, the dude also becomes blander here often but continues to be more favored because of desirability). And sometimes fans are just horny and it's no more complicated than that. Not that we should ignore the misogyny in the room, but there are often multiple factors at play here, but then that's true for everything ever.

idk if I've covered All Of My Thoughts here, but that's it for this morning, at least.

[muqingapologist]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

this is such a hard question because i’ve gone through so many phases of obsessing over pieces of media in my life, and sometimes it’s really hard for me to parse which characters are lasting favorites and which are just part of that phase. but i’ll try! keep in mind, lots of sentimentality ahead…

and this is in no particular order.

1. wei wuxian (the untamed)

ok so this kind of goes along with a previous post i made discussing my feelings of the mdzs book vs. the untamed. when i first watched the untamed at the recommendation of a friend, it was so unlike anything i’d ever seen before. and wei wuxian was so unlike any protagonist i’d ever encountered before. his determination to do what’s right no matter what others do, but also not being above experiencing doubt and uncertainty about his decisions, really touched me. also of course his carefree attitude toward life is something i repeatedly try and fail to achieve myself. it might also have to do with xiao zhan’s acting choices, but he really touched me as a character. it’s hard for me to say if the wwx of the book did the same organically because i read it over a long period of time after watching the show, so im just going to count the untamed version.

2. shizuku tsukishima (whisper of the heart)

this one is probably pretty niche but allow me to give my most heartfelt recommendation of whisper of the heart, my favorite ghibli movie and one of my favorite films of all time. shizuku is the protagonist of the film. she’s a young girl, probably about 14, and so far, her life has been defined by satisfying her imagination by always reading fiction, immersing herself in stories. inspired by the love interest of the film seiji, she decides she wants to try to be a writer. the film is kind of like a slice of life over a few months of this time, and we see shizuku struggle with perfectionism and wanting to follow her dreams and inability to take criticism, etc. i rarely cry over movies but i cried at this one because i had just never felt so seen by a character. everyone please watch whisper of the heart!🙏

3. prince zuko (avatar: the last airbender)

i think 50% of the reason he’s on here is sentimentality since avatar was a show i watched so much throughout my childhood and of course again more recently with its resurgence in popularity, but also what can i say? his character arc is unmatched. i won’t rehash the details. i will say uncle iroh would probably be here instead if we knew any more about his past because he’s off-screen journey is just so fascinating to me.

4. percy jackson (percy jackson & the 12 olympians)

PURE sentimentality but ya know….also im only considering this character how he exists in the original series. he kind of lost me in heroes of olympus. but yeah percy jackson was the first character that really impacted me back when i was 9, and i think i still carry that impact to this day. i also think the original series still holds up reading it as an adult.

5. kim wexler (better call saul)

kim nation!!! reveal yourselves!! i watched better call saul a little over a year ago and damn, it’s so rare to find such interesting, well-developed, flawed within reason female characters in a tv drama like this. her intelligence and her tendency to get carried away with jimmy don’t contradict each other but work together. her emotional journey….UGH!! kim x post-prison jimmy, who else hopes?

6. xie lian (tgcf/heaven official’s blessing)

so this one is new and i’m not completely sure the deep impression will last yet, but i’ll explain. when i first read tgcf about two years ago, i kind of skimmed because it was so long, and the feelings i had toward xie lian were…not super favorable. i was kind of bored by him and….i saw him as a lesser wei wuxian. AND I WAS WRONG!!! because i reread tgcf finally a couple of months ago, no skimming, really thinking about what i was reading and now i love him. his journey from optimistic prince who had never before suffered to carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders to nearly collapsing under that weight but despite all odds, pulling through and once again finding that optimism, or at least hope. it touched me so much this time around!!! also i don’t know why i thought he was boring first time around. this guy is funny as hell! anyway, lots of lessons to apply to my own life and whatnot.

7. ninth doctor (doctor who)

guys….hear me out. notice im not saying “the doctor” because i think most of doctor who is just nonsense. but that one season with the ninth doctor (and okay i like the tenth doctor’s seasons well enough, or i did really love them. less so these days…). so much potential. so when i say he’s one of my favorite characters ever, i accept that it’s mostly the version of the doctor that lives in my head and isn’t subject to the bad writing decisions made later in the show. it’s a lot of sentimentality, but i am really fascinated by this traumatized alien guy who just lost his entire people, finding himself devolving into more violent, unforgiving tendencies, but meeting rose, jack, whoever else along the way is able to remind him of not who he was but who he could be. of course doctor who is forever ongoing though so character development can only go too far lol.

8. nozue (old-fashioned cupcake)

this is also brand new so not sure if lasting because i only just read and watched ofc, but man. this guy’s journey from being defeatist about getting older and turning 40, being afraid of trying anything new, to allowing himself to experience new things, one of those things being falling in love! his whole concept of using regret as fuel for happiness, transmitting that idea to togawa who transmits it back to nozue later!! ahhh!! so like my love for this character might actually just be love for the entire story but i can’t not mention it every five seconds rn so….

9. isabel archer (portrait of a lady)

so this is the protagonist of henry james’s portrait of a lady, which i finally finished reading last month. and gosh! well the book itself was amazing, but i was especially touched by isabel’s character, mainly because she just felt so realistic. her motivations, her goals, her shift, her sorrows, they all feel earned, creating an incredibly vivid character that i think most people can find something in there to relate to, especially other women who have always been told they are clever and imaginative and yet find themselves struggling internally to live up to those expectations.

10. natasha rostova (war and peace)

it’s been years since i read war and peace in my university freshman seminar, so it’s hard for me to speak on the details of why exactly this character is here. but also it’s no surprise because this is a character that continues to be the star of russian literature. what i can say, she’s another bright, carefree character (clearly symbolizing aspects of russian culture but even beyond that) who it’s impossible not to feel deeply connected to. she goes through some pretty life-altering stuff in war and peace (everyone listen to the musical called natasha, pierre, and the great comet of 1812 for those details!!) and as the reader, you just really feel for her. idk man she still stands out in my mind, but also this is also much thanks to the musical i just mentioned above.

i kind of came up with these on the spot so like…who knows how accurate this is, but i like to talk about the things i like so sue me. thank you for the question though!!

[zuko-always-lies]

Every Refence to Azula’s Relationship with the Court and General Public in the Fire Nation

“The Siege of the North, Part II”:

Zuko: I finally have you. But I can't get you home because of this blizzard. (He walks over to the cave entrance to look out at the falling snow, his back to the camera) There's always something. Not that you would understand. You're like my sister. Everything always...came easy to her. She's a firebending prodigy – and everyone adores her. (Cut to a frontal view of Zuko) My father says she was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born. (Cut to view of his back again.) I don't need luck though, I don't want it. I've always had to struggle and fight and that's made me strong. It's made me who I am.

According to Zuko, “Everyone adores Azula.” His perception is probably mostly confined to the Court and the Capitol.

Canon Bio of Azula:

Character: Princess Azula

Daughter to Fire Lord Ozai, Azula is Zuko’s 14-year-old younger sister. She’s a lot like the typical “Little Miss Perfect” younger sister, only she’s also a deadly Firebender. Azula has always been the favorite of the Fire Lord, and of everyone around her for that matter-  everyone but Zuko, that is. Azula excels at her royal role-  she is extremely gracious, smooth and put-together. An ideal Princess, she is also cold, calculating, and precise. Zuko will tell you that Azula is “lucky.” Things just tend to turn out in her favor.

Azula is “the Perfect Princess”(which probably implies she generally fits ideals about royalty within a broad section of Fire Nation society) and is “the favorite of everyone around her”--a judgement which seems more confined to the court.

“The Awakening”:

(The camera zooms out from the shot of Aang and Katara. The scene cuts to a shot of the Fire Nation capital city and harbor. Cut to Lo and Li, who are seated on top of a very high balcony at the royal plaza facing a large crowd of Fire Nation citizens. Behind them is a large archway filled with flames.)

snip

Li and Lo: Now the heroes have returned home. Your princess, Azula! (Cut to a profile shot of Azula. The camera pans right as she walks towards the edge of the balcony and the crowd cheers for her.) Li and Lo: And after three long years, your prince has returned. Zuko! (Cut to Zuko walking out onto the balcony and facing the crowd. The Fire Nation citizens cheer for him as he sullenly gazing over the crowd.

Azula (and Zuko) are cheered by an absolutely massive crowd upon their return home.

“The Beach”:

Ty Lee: (surprised) What? You were jealous of me? (gestures toward herself) Um, but, you're (gestures toward Azula) the most beautiful, smartest, perfect girl in the world.

Zuko: I guess you wouldn't understand, (pulls Mai to him) would you, Azula (sarcastically) Because you're just so perfect.

Both Zuko and Ty Lee refer to Azula as “perfect,” which hardly suggests that they think she’s widely hated.

“The Ember Island Players”:

Azula is the protagonist and “hero” of “The Boy in the Iceberg,” and is cheered as such throughout the play.

Of course, there’s also lot’s of evidence that Ozai is extremely popular, and Azula is associated with him, but that’s another story.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 314: ...Or You Live Long Enough to See Yourself Become the Villain

Previously on BnHA: Some random assholes were all “let’s throw exploding spears at All Might and see if it activates his Conqueror’s Haki” and SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKERS, IT DID!! Elsewhere, Lady Nagant confusingly tried to capture Deku alive by shooting him in the stomach, but to be fair I guess that’s what happens when you send an assassin to do a bounty hunter’s job, so yeah. Deku was all “ouch”, and then because this is a shounen he basically just straight up forgot about it, and did a big fancy Smokescreen thing, and then activated his mildly incomprehensible new ki-blasting quirk which he got from the Third. En and the Third were all “hey Deku maybe let’s not just impulsively activate all this shit in the heat of battle when you don’t know how to use it yet and you’re already injured,” and Deku was all “thanks for the quirks guys but I’ll take it from here” and snuck up on Nagant and grabbed her arm and so now what’s going to happen I wonder.

Today on BnHA: Nagant is all “[shoots Deku again]” because of course she is lol. Deku is all “tell me about AFO!” and Nagant is all “why would I tell you anything?” and then proceeds to tell him her entire life story which is FILLED WITH SO MUCH MURDER, YOU GUYS. Holy shit. So basically she was an assassin for the HPSC, which we already knew, but somehow it’s one thing to know that, and another to actually see her running around capping dudes in the forehead and being covered in more blood than the elevator from The Shining. Anyway, so you’ll never believe it, but all that murder had a negative impact on her psychologically, and eventually led her to question everything she believed about hero society, and so she killed her creepy boss and was promptly sent to Tartarus. This extremely fun chapter ends with Overhaul showing up all “HI, HELLO, I’M STILL HERE”, because for some reason he is still here. Why are you still here, Overhaul.

“the beautiful Lady Nagant” oh you know your audience don’t you Horikoshi

well all right then! so I’m guessing this means that she is not, in fact, going to roll over and die just because Deku’s out here all “GOT YA!” like they’re playing a game or tag or something. ffff may the manga gods have mercy on our young suicidal protagonist

lmao so Deku is all “GOD I’M SO SMART, WHAT A GOOD STRATEGY I HAD, CAPITOL JOB THERE OL’ CHAP, CAPITOL” and lol, okay. I mean, it was a good plan though. but I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop here

“I’ll make you give me information on All for One” well there you go, lol. Deku Angst arc still fully engaged. still no light in his eyes either of course. just a lil chaotic ball of sleep deprivation and rage

lol, fucking THANK YOU though

oh my god what the hell did she do to him lol

did she shoot him with her elbow??? fucking look at this?? THIS IS WHY WE LISTEN TO HAWKS oh my god Deku are you dead

WHAT’S HAPPENING, IS THIS GOOD OR BAD, WHO’S WINNING

things that I wish I could tell from this panel which I unfortunately cannot tell

did she stab him or shoot him?? can you imagine if it was the former lol. why does Horikoshi keep stabbing all my kids. look Kacchan now the two of you can match

did she actually hit him or did he get away??

or did she hit him and then he jumped away?? just, what

well anyway, so now Deku is asking her why she sided with AFO, but he seems a lot more pissed off than when he was interrogating Muscular, though. probably because she shot him three times. fair enough

oh my god

does Lady have a blog here on tumblr dot com?? -- does Horikoshi have a blog here on tumblr motherfucking dot com?? why do I suddenly feel like this man is out here sneakily reading up on all our discourse

oh my god Deku it’s almost like getting up close and personal with someone who can shoot custom bullets from any distance and any position with deadly accuracy was a terrible fucking idea

IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD WARNED YOU NOT TO ENGAGE WITH HER AT ALL COSTS. IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD HAD THE FORESIGHT TO DO THAT sob. can you imagine how much shorter this series would be if characters actually listened to Hawks. Hawks, and Momo. why do we even let anyone else run the show ever

OH MY GOD

DEKU, RUN

OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING

this looks a lot like what happens to me whenever I play One’s Justice. those fucking combo attacks that you can’t fucking escape from and so your character just has to stand there getting their ass whalloped repeatedly while you wonder why you paid $40 for this

but anyways though. so Lady who did you kill?? I bet they deserved it, don’t worry I forgive you

(ETA: ANYWAY SO FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT LADY NAGANT DID NOTHING WRONG EVER IN HER ENTIRE LIFE. aside from murdering all those innocent people and shit. but there were CIRCUMSTANCES, and THEY WERE EXTENUATING, OKAY.)

-- holy shit

looks like the HPSC arc is back on the menu boys

so are we about to learn that the HPSC was going full Hydra on people’s asses? secretly dispatching anyone they deemed a threat to society?? “taken care of” as in you fucking shot them??

so then was the “hero” she killed actually one of the guys who was giving or carrying out these orders?? holy shit Lady, up until now I’ve mainly just been stanning you for your flawless eyebrow game and metal af quirk, but this shit could actually get real very quickly, and I am prepared to genuinely and sincerely love the shit out of you depending on what we learn next about your backstory

oh my god?!?

so wait, hold up. am I reading this right?? basically the HPSC started murdering vigilantes because they were worried they were gaining too much of the public’s favor?? holy fucking shit???

oh my GOD oh my god

“it’s been a while since I scarred you all with the dead dog and the graphic slaughter of an entire innocent family, huh,” Horikoshi says thoughtfully. “anyway so what do you all think of my new creation, the Spaghetti Bullet.” well, Horikoshi, so you know that squished-up face that Kermit the Frog makes sometimes? yeah. that’s what I think, if you must know lol

holy hell the juxtaposition

I’m actually kind of surprised to learn she had a lot of fans? what with her M.O., I was expecting her to have been an underground hero like Aizawa, but apparently not? then again I still have absolutely no idea how any of that works. I really need to read Vigilantes already

oh snap

nothing like a sweet dose of assassin trauma to finally round out our BnHA Trauma Bingo!! well done guys, we finally collected all of the traumas! hooray!

noooo Ladyyyyyyy

holy shit what a fucking chapter. like, this man promised us an assassin, and went and fucking delivered. I was not expecting it to be this dark, lol, but holy shit I am here for it

you know, at some point you have to start questioning the logistics of this, though

I mean, how do I put this... her quirk isn’t exactly subtle. that murder scene from a few pages back looked like the first season of Dexter for fuck’s sake, that’s not exactly “disappearing” people now is it?? and I mean, her bullets are literally made from her own fucking hair; it seems like it would be impossible not to leave any evidence behind. did no one start to wonder who the fuck was going around murdering all these people? or did the people who asked too many questions wind up getting conveniently “disappeared” themselves??

and hey, speaking of asking too many questions

holy shit is he blackmailing her??!? or no, wait -- what the hell is he reaching for in his pocket boy you better not

(ETA: what exactly was this man expecting fdslkjd. “uh oh my unstoppable hair trigger assassin who is literally always armed is asking questions, better announce that I am going to shoot her and then reach into my pocket veeeeeery slowly while she stands there all of two feet away.” how did this guy ever function as the head of a shadow government with these decision-making skills, I’m genuinely baffled.)

OH MY GOD LADY YES

this. right here. is why “run the fuck away” was damn good solid fucking advice. oh shit. but my god did this dude have it coming

so wait lol has she just been narrating all of this out loud to Deku this entire time

okay but can we just stop for a moment and appreciate the fact that they’re having this deep conversation about the dark secrets of hero society right in the middle of their intense mid-air sniper free-for-all lol

holy shit you guys, Nagant’s the one that should have made the tell-all video. I mean, no offense to you, Dabi, I’m sure you worked very hard on your video and did a ton of crunches every day so that you would look good with your shirt off while you told the world all about how your dad was a jerk. but seriously...

this is already like 100x more convincing than what he put out. also, gasp, is it another flashback

yes it is oh my gosh

so the HPSC Chairladyperson whom ReDestro killed used to be this guy’s direct subordinate, huh? I wonder if she kept the whole assassin program going after she took over. can’t say I was feeling any particular kind of grieving way about her death before, but certainly not now lol

but unfortunately Nagant has finally lost me at the same place where all of the villains inevitably do, which is to say when they somehow make the dubious mental leap from “society sucks and is bad” to “let’s just be openly fucking evil lol, worth a shot.” because when heroes murder innocent people and cover it up, that’s obviously bad (and I mean, it absolutely fucking is lol, don’t get me wrong); but when villains murder innocent people straight up out in the open without giving a fuck, they’re righteous revolutionaries? just -- is there really no non-murdery middle ground here?? I guess that’s what Deku and co. are for, hopefully

anyways oh shit Deku seems to have spotted something?? and he’s doing something weird with Blackwhip what

oh, he spotted her, I guess

lmaooooo

new favorite Deku panel right here. a masterpiece

oh my god you guys our little boy is starting to grow up before our eyes

you love to see it. and you can tell with those elipses that he’s gearing up to say something really cool and determined and badass like the shounen protag he is, yes please, Deku ilu so much please do your thing

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

IS THAT A TEENY TINY LIL EYE SPARKLE THERE OMG. still not anywhere close to his usual standard, but that’s some clear resolve there in his eyes there at long last! it always shines the most clearly when he’s being true to himself and his ideals, so I love that it finally shows up again here, when he’s reaffirming his resolve to help others no matter what

uh oh so what’s Lady going to do now

is it time for a trump card?? kinda sounding like it’s time for a trump card

???

I lied btw, this is my new favorite Deku panel. but anyways what is she up to now lol

ohhhhhh, lol

why does she seem shocked, lol. here I thought this was part of her plan, but apparently she forgot all about ol’ “Look Ma, No Hands” back up there

and so I guess that’s it for this week! so we’ve learned basically everything now about Lady and her quirk and her history with the HPSC and why she agreed to work for AFO. pretty much the only question that still remains is why the hell she decided to drag this asshole along for the ride! because I still cannot figure that out dsklkjlkf

(ETA: actually now I’m kind of wondering if they maybe have some past connection we don’t know about yet. when exactly was Nagant sent to Tartarus? is it possible she was ordered to track down and kill Overhaul at some point before that, but never got around to it? or something else along those lines? idk but now I’m curious.)

anyways Deku, I know that your empathy has no bounds and that you’re on a “saving villains” kick right now, and good on you... but also, if you decide to just like, skip all of that shit just this once, absolutely no one will hold it against you, I’m just saying. just, all I’m asking here is maybe let’s think twice before we start trying to reform guys who imprison and torture little girls for profit. I think maybe that’s a good place to draw the line. next week is going to be a very interesting chapter lol

[magicofthepen]

my first instinct is to say "knock the ice from my bones" as my favorite fic of yours, because that's the one that first really struck me — both the title, as the ice association with Romana is something that (clearly, looking at my body of works lol) is very important to me, but thinking on it more, I think my favorite of yours might be "silver tongue"?? specifically the bits about Narvin, because of course — of course. Narvin, who has my whole heart and one of Romana's as well. I'm very ambiguous about my feelings toward explicitly romantic narvinromana, but I think. I think that it makes sense, in this context, but mainly and possibly only with Trey (and sometimes, in my head but never written down as of yet, the real Romana III). Trey stealing things — friendship, love, a kiss. the ice metaphors toward the end. I've always thought that is Romana II is sea-ice, Trey is like frost. bright and sharp and burning-cold, but gone so fast. so, yeah. all this to say — silver tongue has stuck with me, very very deeply.

what is your favorite fic of mine?

oooh it’s neat that you mentioned both of those because they’re among the fics I’m most personally satisfied with, but the process for each one was completely different. knock the ice from my bones was brainstormed and drafted and re-outlined and re-drafted and edited and that was a year plus long process. vs. silver tongue was drafted in a couple hours on a whim and not revised much because I was pretty satisfied with the initial draft.

but now I am Thinking and — they are similar, aren’t they? they’re both character studies of versions of Romana, they’re both about the narrative of their lives — the story Romana is telling about herself after Etra Prime, and the role Tre must play in the story of Gallifrey, a role she is exceedingly aware of. and the fics are about where the stories can be true and where they are a lie. and what it is like to be a person trying to fit into a Story. (but Romana is Allowed to defy the narrative more than Tre is, Romana is still The Protagonist and Tre is not.) my love of stories about stories sure does keep jumping out huh.

anyways! Narvin and Tre yesss. Leela can’t see Tre as Romana, but Narvin does, and so even his exasperation with her feels like a kindness because he is reacting to her like he reacts to Romana. and I loved getting inside her head and exploring how that hits her, how it hurts and heals at the same time, because these brief moments are all she’s going to get of her friends. and the knowledge that her time with them is so limited also makes her more inclined to express her feelings for them in various ways because she has nothing to lose and they deserve to know — and maybe she wants to believe they could love her back. if things were different.

and your interest in Romana + ice metaphors is always so interesting to hear about! I actually favor fire and heat as metaphors for Romana (it’s about the contrast between how strangers perceive her and how the people close to her perceive her), and I know I’ve used fire/heat metaphors from Narvin’s pov in particular. but I like the way you use ice metaphors in your work, it Works the way you write it, and it’s neat to see a different perspective! but I had to lean into the ice thing for Tre because she is choosing to Be How People Expect Her To Be — once Romana and Leela have labeled her as Someone Not To Be Trusted, that is the act she puts on. she is actively trying to convince them she is ice, rather than it just being How She Is Perceived and that distinction was also really interesting to explore.

thanks for sending this, it’s so great to hear how much you like silver tongue!! ❤️

[addictedtojmanga]

Shoujo manga recommendations - otome game isekai

So, after 10+ years reading shoujo manga, I’ve read over 1k titles, admittedly, a reasonable amount is one-shot (or at least a collection of), but nonetheless, over time I had to expand my interests.

Lately, I’ve started reading the otome game isekai genre, and decided it’d be nice to share the ones I thought were best.

Most of them are pretty much the same, but the best ones usually have a twist, so...

! Warning: You’ll most likely want to beat up 1 or 2 characters from each one, but worry not, so do I and the other characters

1. Fiancée's Observation Log of the Self-proclaimed Villainess

Crown prince Cecil was so brilliant that everything in life was easy to the point of boring him, then one day, his fiancée Bertia suddenly said "Prince Cecil, I am a villainess!" Claiming that this world is the same as that of an "otome game" from her past life and that she is playing the role of the "villainess" in it, she aims to play her part well and have their engagement annulled. With that goal in mind, she sets about causing turmoil in Cecil's daily life.

This one definitely takes the gold for me. Super sweet and pretty funny.

2. My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

Most people would prefer being the protagonist of a world full of adventure, be it in a game or in another world. But, unfortunately, a certain girl is not so lucky. Regaining the memories of her past life, she realizes that she was reborn in the world of Fortune Lover—one of the games she used to play. Unfortunately, the character she was reincarnated into—Katarina Claes—is the game's main antagonist, who faces utter doom in every ending. Using her extensive knowledge of the game, she takes it upon herself to escape from the chains of this accursed destiny. However, this will not be an easy feat, especially since she needs to be cautious as to not set off death flags that may speed up the impending doom she is trying to avoid. Even so, to make a change that will affect the lives of everyone around her, she strives—not as the heroine—but as the villainess.

This one takes 2nd place! It has a different result than others, and the FL is great - everyone is, to be fair.

3. Of Course I’ll Claim Palimony

"I'll annul our engagement!" My fiancé suddenly declared?! Apparently he's in love with the recently transferred count's daughter and is planning on making me the villain in order to annul the engagement. Although I have no lingering attachments about the engagement, I do have to claim a hefty consolation fee don't I?

This is sooo good. The FL is spectacular and manages to stand out - even if just a bit - from the rest of the genre.

4. I’m a Villainous Daughter, so I’m going to keep the Last Boss

Avoid the BAD END! That's the goal of the villainess in this plot-twisting story!! She has been reborn into the world of an otome game as the villainess, Irene. Using her memories of her former life, she recognizes flags indicating she's en-route to the bad end, so she makes a plan to conquer the last boss (the evil king Claude), make him her lover, and see if she can open up a new route!

Pretty funny, and the FL is bold. Also, the ML is a bishounen.

It’s one of the few mangas from this genre that has been completely translated, and since it only has 13 chapters, it’s a good way to start out.

5. The Plain & Unnoticeable Me is No More

Elaine Lana Norris, who was born at the top of the aristocratic daughter, was declared abandoned by her second fiancé at the school's founding party. Lana, who has been made a villain daughter, is driven out of her home by a strict grandfather. But there is a secret in Lana that everyone doesn't know about?

I don’t want to give out any spoilers, however, it suffices to say that she accepts her role as the villainess.

Ok, I think these 5 are my favorite, but the ones below have been selected as well, so they’re still pretty good and worth reading.

6. The Villiainess Is Adored by the Crown Prince of the Neighboring Kingdom    

Tiararose was supposed to be disengaged and exiled from the country. “This was the Otome game I had played!” She realized on the day before the story’s ending??……. Shall I wait for the judgment? But, I did not do anything too cruel……. Thinking so, the ending continues. But, during the judgement??something that was not possible in the game happened. The neighboring crown prince courted the villainous daughter Tiararose.

ML: 10/10 FL: 8/10 (too insecure for my taste)

7. Endo and Kobayashi’s Live Commentary on the Villainess

She’s always putting on that grumpy face even though she’s not actually that upset! Oh, why can’t she just be honest with herself…!??? She is a tsundere, after all? When her embarrassment levels exceed a certain limit, she will explode into anger. However, the point that she’s suppressing under the surface is that she wouldn’t mind that sort of thing if it were in a less public place.? As Endo-kun passionately reacts to the antics of Lady Liselotte, the villainess of an otome game, Kobayashi-san provides a painstaking breakdown of her tsundere behaviour. Suddenly, one person could hear their voices; Liselotte’s fiancée, Prince Siegward. That is where this story begins.

8. I’m the Villainess, but the Capture Targets are too Abnormal  

The villainess, Mystia, remembered her past life on her 10th birthday and has unwittingly turned the characters in the otome game "Kyun Kyun Love School" into yanderes! In order to avoid becoming the love rival of the "heroine" who will lead her to her downfall, she starts making every effort to break off her engagement with her "prince-like classmate"! That’s was what supposed to happen...But, because of her kind personality, her favorability increased instead!

It’s still in its beginning stages, but seems pretty solid.    

9. Though I May Be a Villainess, I'll Show You I Can Obtain Happiness!  

A collection of one shots.

Great way to start out, it has quite a few options, so if you don’t like one, give another one a try!

10.  The Villainess, Cecilia Silvie, Doesn't Want to Die, So She Decided to Cross-dress!      

I was reincarnated into the body Cecilia Silvie, the villainess of an otome game. According to the plot, what awaits me in the normal route is either a slow, painful death or an instantaneous one... Essentially, every route leads to my demise. Then I'll change my fate! And that's why I decided to become a man. However, I made a mistake during a certain event, and the story began to head down an unexpected path...?

I haven’t seen any other like this, and if you like gender bender, this one’s for you!

11.  I’ll Become a Villainess That Will Go Down in History ― The More of a Villainess I Become, the More the Prince will Dote on Me

Alicia is the eldest daughter of the noble Williams family—a bloodline that excels in dark magic. Her jet-black hair and golden eyes command a powerful presence, but her most unique features are, without a doubt, her sharp tongue and malevolent nature. By all means, she is a villainess, but also a fictional character from an otome game!

12. I’m Not a Villainess!! Just Because I Can Control Darkness Doesn’t Mean I’m a Bad Person!

The novel The Saint Beloved by the Prince is set in the land of Lacia, where spirits control the elements, each of which is overseen by a "Spirit King." On rare occasions, these Spirit Kings may bless a single human, granting them immense magical control over their respective element. The heroine, Amelia Logan, and the villainess, Claudia Leitzya, are two sides of the same coin, blessed by the Light and Dark Spirit Kings respectively. However, while Amelia is beloved, Claudia is hated and rejected due to her dark skin, ebony locks, and aptitude for dark magic. After dying in modern-day Japan, Sakura is reborn as an infant Claudia. While difficult at first, Claudia tries to adjust to this new life, all the while accompanied by the Dark Spirit King Gerald. But even this task is far from easy; people fear her at first glance, no matter how she acts toward them. Still, Claudia is set on changing her fate from the novel, proving she is a good person and breaking free from the shackles of a "villainess."

13. Rebirth of the Villainess: The Life of Letizia after the Engagement Annulment      

For some reason, the duke's daughter, Letizia, was plotting to break her engagement with the prince. Her plan succeeded and the prince, none the wiser. But shortly after the engagement was terminated... The King collapsed! In that moment, she recalled her memories of her past life as a nurse and she fully utilised her knowledge & experience as a nurse, to save the King's life. Thinking she had achieved what she wanted, she thought she could finally relax, drinking her favourite beverage and leisurely spend her time, she instead somehow keeps getting involved in incident after incident. The slow and peaceful life is now nothing but a dream!? Lazy daughter, busy seeking freedom and laziness!

14. I Won't Become a Villainess. I'm Just a "Normal" Duke's Daughter!

A Japanese person reincarnated into an otome game chock full of death flags for the villainess, Rosalind. "I'm going to live an enjoyable life in this world!" Making full use of the game knowledge to avoid death flags, for some reason events keep happening one after another?! Contracting with spirits, helping her father (the prime minister) with his work using her modern day knowledge, taking a walk with the holy beast... and on top of all that, even starting up the heroine's event...? Will Rosalind be able to smash through every unknown death flag that comes her way...?! And will she be able to be fluffy lovey-dovey with the supporting beastkin character she liked from her previous life?!

Cute. Has beasts.

15. Milady Just Wants to Relax      

She worked herself to death in her past life, but then she was reborn in another world as the villainess Ronia! As expected, her engagement is broken and she's expelled from society, but now she takes that chance to live peacefully, and even opens a cafe with the help of her fairy comrades, which is becoming unexpectedly popular with beast-kin...?

Also cute. Also has beasts.

16. I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again!            

Violette, a proud and beautiful daughter of a duke, commits a crime out of jealousy towards her half-sister. Convicted, Violet faces her own heart with sincerity in a prison cell and regrets her sin. Then time rewinds to a turning point—to her first meeting with Maryjun one year ago. Violette makes a decision. She will not make mistakes this time. Without committing a crime and bothering anyone, she will live an ordinary, plain and inconspicuous life...! However, incidents contrary to Violette's expectations occur one after another...?!

17. I Became a Villain Daughter

On her 15th birthday, Hinase Kaede, a young girl who was working as a part-timer, perished in a traffic accident. Upon her death, a self-proclaimed “God” appeared, declaring that Kaede would be brought back to life. However, Kaede’s happiness was short-lived and her soul was thrown into Erika, the villainess of an otome game! In the original game, Erika became a saint candidate alongside the heroine, committed evil deeds over the course of the candidacy, and ultimately faced condemnation. Thus, Kaede decides that she will not get close to the main characters of the game so as to avoid the bad end, but yet——?

[hypnoticxopoison]

I know this is gonna set your minds on fire, but.... You can appreciate Zoey Deutch’s acting in the VA movie and like her for what we got and still acknowledge that the character was white-washed and therefore Zoey was not the best choice.  You can appreciate Sisi Stringer’s upcoming performance as well and hope she nails the part acting-wise and acknowledge that the erasure of Rose’s real ethnicity isn’t what we were hoping for when we hoped for a nonwhite actress for Rose. It’s possible to love her and love her acting as the character and acknowledge the erasure. It can go both ways. Things aren’t always so black and white. You can like and not like both, not like either, or like one and not the other. Differing opinions are not a personal attack and a wish for book accuracy does not equal racism, nor does the reverse. Vampire Academy was published at a time when Middle Eastern representation in American storytelling was not exactly favorable. I have known people throughout my years in the VAFamily who have expressed their appreciation and love for the fact that a character with a Middle Eastern background was a protagonist in an American story. And that she was a badass, heroic, FEMALE character at that! She means a lot to them for that reason. Of course they wanted to see a Turkish actress get the role. Of course they wanted to see that representation on screen and they are allowed to feel erased and disappointed. People of any race, color, sexuality, and background are allowed to view it in this light too because it’s a valid opinion. I can’t rule out racism of every single member of the fandom, of course not, but not liking this casting does not equal hatred for black people in every person who is feeling unsure or who straight up feels the way I just described. So cut the crap with that.  The other side is valid too. The cast is beautifully diverse and that’s a really good thing. Do I think known racist Julie Plec is doing it for selfish reasons rather than the right ones and do I worry about how the cast will be treated with her at the helm? Absolutely. All opinions are valid. I’m happy for those of you who are leaping into this without reservation and feel nothing but excitement. I’m happy for those of you who are looking forward to it. I don’t think you’re wrong. I don’t think you’re racist. I don’t think you’re evil. I just don’t agree with you. For all I know, Sisi will be flawless acting wise and she’ll win the entire fandom over and we’ll all feel blessed to have her... BUT the above opinion is still valid. You can like and not like something at the same time and I hope those of us who feel dread and fear that our favorite story is going to be butchered get proven wrong. I genuinely do. I would love to love it. For those of you who don’t see the racebending as erasure and who are simply plain happy with the casting, then you know what? I’m happy for you too. You do you. If it wasn’t for the fact that Rose’s ethnicity plays such an important role in the plot, I’d be right along side you. Rose Hathaway as a black woman would be unstoppable and amazing if it weren’t for that. I’d love her just as much as the rest of you, but like some, I have my reservations for the reasons described here.  As for Dimitri.... Ever since the Cold War, Russians have been the villains of American stories. Dimitri, the hero, is a rarity. Look at the most recent perpetrator of this: Stranger Things. It’s STILL a popular storytelling trope in the US. Of course Russian fans and fans who view Rose’s casting in this light are confused and disappointed by this casting as well. For all we know, this actor is incredible and he’ll have the perfect Russian accent. For all we know, he’s been training for months to perfect it. But the point is, is that we know virtually nothing about these actors and people are allowed to feel reservations and worries when it comes to characters that mean something to them. I think, if the actor masters a Russian accent and they don’t change him to an American, as is the rumor, then... that’s fine. I think? A Russian fan would know better than me about that.  At the end of the day, I personally won’t be watching it. I can’t afford another streaming service and I don’t trust Julie Plec with the actual writing as far as I can throw her. Even if the first season is good and it hooks everyone in, I feel pretty confident it’ll be downhill from there. Based on the character descriptions released today... I’m kinda thinking it’s gonna suck for people who want book accuracy and not a loosely based on the source material fanfiction. Some people don’t care as much anymore and they don’t mind new twists. Some people do. And both views are okay.  So VA fandom, let’s knock it off. Love it or hate it, find your people. Rant with them or celebrate with them and leave the other side alone. Their opinions don’t impact you personally. So just follow people who feel the same as you do and don’t drag yourselves down like this. We’re all adults in this fandom by now, so... let’s act like it. 

[lavalampelfchild]

I’ve already made a post about this, but I hate the Birthright quest in DA2. I hate everything about it, and I hate how the game wants me to think Gamlen was all in the wrong, Leandra was all in the right, and of course Hawke backs up Leandra because Grandpappy Amell left his favorite daughter literally everything, while Gamlen gets nothing, and just argh. This quest pushes all of my No-No buttons, including:

Treating legitimate backstory and contextual elements of a character’s life that explain their growth in a certain direction like nonfactors (like parental favoritism/neglect; do you expect any child to have absolutely no issues when they’re neglected and ignored in favor of another? Especially when the favoritism is apparent from a very formative point in that child’s life?  Gamlen has had no support network, no true love from his parents, and was written off as a lost cause because of a gambling issue that most likely arose from the neglect of his parents, and which then got worse once his sister left.  These are important elements in his backstory and aren’t gone just because he’s an annoying sleaze when you meet him.  Also, to clarify, I don’t hate these things as elements in a story; I hate when they’re presented and not really explored, or when they’re just used as shorthand for something and left alone otherwise.)

Vilification to the point of denying a character any kind of redemption arc or growth (Gamlen doesn’t get jack shit in the way of any kind of understanding or narrative exploration until Leandra’s death, and the rediscovery of his daughter. And even then, his backstory and reasoning are never truly explored. It’s all skewed in favor of Leandra, and it ruins what could have been a truly interesting dynamic.)

Justification of selfish deeds done by the protagonists because the person they’re committed against is annoying (I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: Leandra came back to Kirkwall after 25 years literally expecting NOTHING to have changed, as though Gamlen didn’t have his own life and struggles without her present; then, she only cares about seeing him again because of the estate tied to his name; she gets pissed at him for “selling her children into servitude” when he did no such thing; he presented them with a deal and they took it because Leandra was unwilling to leave Kirkwall; Leandra also gets pissy when Gamlen asks her and her kids to contribute to paying for food ONLY ONE WHOLE YEAR AFTER THEY HAD BEEN STAYING IN HIS HOME, and it’s framed like some sleazy greedy thing.)

I hate this quest, I hate how it’s framed, and while I do have sympathy for Leandra at points throughout the story, everything that is said about Gamlen, or that has to do with Gamlen makes me want to set fire to my face and put it out with an ice pick.

The last thing I want to say about this is that my frustration is entirely personal. I connect way more with Gamlen than any of the Hawkes, not because I’ve ever had an addiction problem or gambled away my family home, but because I’ve experienced rejection and a lack of emotional investment from people I cared deeply about, and it sucks. I don’t care about the prodigal daughter returning to get her cut of the goods, I care about the bitter son who was ignored and left behind, and who was left to stew in his own resentment, loneliness, and anger until it became something truly bitter and awful. I want to explore his mistakes, I don’t want to hear about how he brought it all on himself. That’s not interesting, that’s just bullshit. And again, I feel it much more when that connection is there, which, for me, it absolutely is.

So it’s fine if you disagree with this, if you dislike Gamlen yourself, if you love Leandra, or if you like/dislike/etc. both of them. I’m not here to make people feel bad about which way they lean, and I apologize if the strength of my opinion and reaction does exactly that. I just had to get something out there about this because it has always been one of those elements of DA2 that just gets under my skin.  Take this with a grain of salt, as it is entirely personal on my part, and as such isn’t meant to reflect on how other people should or shouldn’t be interacting with DA2.  Sometimes, I just really need to rant.

[a-master-procrastinator]

Long ass post about the Eternal family not being a copy-paste from ATLA (aka I like the memes but my god can you please stop)

Because some people truly think that Vaylin is off-brand Azula, Arcann is Zuko and so on.

It's. Called. A. Trope. (I mean how often do we come across abusive manipulative fathers in media? Mothers who couldn't much to change anything? Children, desperately looking for their parent's approval no matter what?)

Of course, you have to consider the fact that the writing of ATLA is simply better than of KotFE/ET, so this might have been one of the reasons why people say that.

Spoilers for Avatar: The Last Airbender, Knights of the Fallen Empire and Knights of the Eternal Throne expansions!

Okay, so here's my unprofessional, maybe biased, not super deep take.

(not going to mention that all of them are members of royal, ruling family, kinda obvious)

What roles do they play in their stories? Well, both Valkorion and Ozai are main antagonists, but their presence throughout the story is very different. Ozai is rarely shown in first two seasons, we don't even see his face until season 3. He doesn't have a direct connection to the protagonist, they only meet at the very end of the show, and Ozai's role is to pose a threat to the world, while Aang's is to save it. Valkorion, on the other hand, is constantly on the screen, interacting with the main character, challenging their viewpoint and influencing them directly. His end goal is similar to Ozai's (destroy everything and be the only ruler of the his nation), but with one major difference - he's trapped in Outlander's mind, so to achieve his goal Valkorion attempts to take control of the main character. Their interactions play important role in the story, and we spend a lot of time with Valkorion.

In addition to that, their relationship with children are also not exactly the same. It seems like Azula is Ozai's favorite and Zuko is a failure in his eyes until he meets his expectations, and the same goes with Vaylin, Arcann and Valkorion, right? Well, partially. Indeed, Valkorion and Ozai's treat their sons in similar ways (are disappointed in them until they meet their expectation by doing something that goes against their morals), but when it comes to Vaylin and Azula, it's not that easy. See, Valkorion claims that Vaylin was always his favorite creation (even though we know it's actually his empire), and he certainly seems to take pride in her potential in the Force. But her power is the very reason he's afraid of his own daughter, and in this fear Valkorion literally locks Vaylin away and allows to put her through physical and mental torture just to make sure she won't become a threat, won't overpower him. Maybe he thought of her better than of Arcann, but she wasn't his favored child for sure. I don't want to say that Azula hasn't experienced abuse from Ozai, but for the most part he clearly favored her over Zuko. He has never shown fear of Azula's power and abilities (or at least I haven't noticed), quite the opposite - allowed her to do a lot, as long as she brings results.

I could also mention their slightly different characterization (mostly that we get more characterization of Valkorion, get to learn his motivations, views, philosophy and all that, also he's portrayed as more nuanced, even if he not really is) and role in their respective governments (ozai is one of many Fire Lords and arguably not the greatest, while Valkorion is a god to citizens of Zakuul, their only Immortal Emperor), but those are details, and I think you get the point.

What's similar: role of the main antagonist, manipulative and abusive father, goal of destruction of everything that isn't their nation/empire, relationship with disgraced son.

What's different: presence in the overall narrative, relationship with the main character, relationship with daughter, role in their societies.

Senya and Ursa are even less similar. Yes, they both are mothers who love their children, but have to leave them, but these are probably the only things they have in common. Just as with Ozai and Valkorion's presence throughout the story, Ursa is only shown in flashbacks (for obvious reasons), and Senya is one of major characters in KotFE and (a bit less major) in KotET. Ursa leaves because she has to kill Azulon in order to save Zuko, and later isn't present in the story (I'm aware that her fate is told in comics, but we aren't talking about it). Senya leaves because when she tries to take children with her, they refuse, and she understands that she can't force them to, nor she can help them to break free from Valkorion's manipulations. For a long time she's absent from Arcann ad Vaylin's lives, but at the time of game events she attempts to save her children and stop the madness and destruction they've caused, and it isn't a small part of the story.

I also want to add that their relationship with Ozai and Valkorion are also different, but can't say much about Ursa. I heard that she didn't choose this marriage and suffered emotional (and maybe physical???) abuse from Ozai. I can say with confidence, though, that Senya genuinely loved Valkorion, and strangely enough, he seems to at very least respect her. But, of course, this wasn't the best marriage either.

Plus, we see more of Senya's relationship with Vaylin than Arcann or Thexan, but with Ursa we see her more with Zuko than Azula. Just a detail to remember.

(also Senya is simply a better character but that besides the point, moving on. in this house we stand Senya)

What's similar: role of loving and caring mother, abandoning their family at some point.

What's different: presence in the overall narrative, relationship with husband, characterization in general.

Boy, where do I even begin. Vaylin and Azula are similar in that they are both extremely powerful (one is firebending prodigy, the other is potentially stronger than Valkorion), both are cruel "craaaaazy" (i hate that cliché), both are younger sisters, have serious mother issues (seemingly more so than father issues), both go through betrayal of people they could always rely on, which eventually leads to their downfall. But when I took a look at their personal arcs, it became clear that they aren't the same (unfortunately, Vaylin's arc is very rushed and underdeveloped, but we'll have to go with what we have and my personal view, sorry).

There's a really good video about writing corruption and madness, and I'm going to base my thoughts on it. To summarise it: a good corruption arc should have 4 components:

- the character has a specific goal (or a goal and subgoals);

- in pursuit of said goal they become the cause of a significant event that brings serious consequences;

- as the result of these consequences, character abandons their morals, ideals or a code in pursuit of goal;

- character either will not achieve their goal or will succeed, but it won't be enough to satisfy them.

And then the author brings Azula's arc as one of the best examples of compelling story of corruption (so basically, she represents it perfectly). In short, Azula's main goals are perfection and control, and subgoals help achieve the main ones. In pursuit of these goals, Azula causes Mai and Ty Lee to betray her (by pushing them too far to do something they wouldn't do), which then causes her to become paranoid, which makes her to attempt controlling everything and everyone around her, *breathes* which makes her lose control over herself and ....

Now, I thought if Vaylin's arc could fit into a corruption one, and next part will be based a lot on my assumptions and personal view of her character (plus rushed writing doesn't help), but I think yes (or at least mostly). The difference is in goals, ideals and details.

While the story strongly makes us think that Vaylin's goal is freedom (or control over her life and everything around her) or power and destruction, I think it's actually self-determination (which was said by Tenebrae in 6.2) and feeling safe. Let me explain (and here I thought this would be a short comparison). Sure, when Valkorion caged Vaylin on Nathema, he took choices and control over her life from his daughter. But let's not forget whom Vaylin blames for this (even more than Valkorion): her own mother, and I think this details tell us that the most important thing that Vaylin lost on Nathema is feeling safe. Then, after Arcann brought her home, I assume Vaylin still didn't feel safe enough under Valkorion's rule, still too afraid that he'd simply send her back to that hellish place.

It's when Valkorion is struck down Vaylin finally has a feeling of personal safety, even if she isn't the one on the throne. Why? Because back on Nathema there were two people who haven't turned on her - Arcann and Thexan (yes, this is also a huge assumption, bc the game states that only Thexan visited her, but it doesn't make much sense).

I've always noticed (and I'm not alone in this) that her behavior in Fallen Empire is different from the way she acted in Eternal Throne. Most likely bc of rushed writing, but I see a character driven reason here. In first of these expansions, Vaylin is the second person in power on Zakuul, and with Arcann being in charge, person she can trust more than any other living being, she feels safe - she can test her power, and now Valkorion won't prevent it, she can do pretty much everything she wishes, and the most Arcann will do about this is mildly complain (without blaming her). Really would be nice if we got to see any normal hobbies of Vaylin (like wasn't there something about books or art?), but I digress. She might have some questions about Arcann's tactics, but they get along just fine. The important thing to note is Vaylin not seeking to hunt the Outlander personally, to rule or conquer the rest of the galaxy, or trying to achieve absolute freedom or power. She's kinda there.

This, however, changes when Arcann doesn't allow Vaylin to kill Senya. Their relationship was getting somewhat worse towards the end of KotFE, but this is a turning event Vaylin caused by attempting to strike her mother. By saving the person Vaylin blames for all the trauma from sending her to Nathema, Arcann threatened her feeling of safety. And now Vaylin starts to believing that to achieve safety she now needs to kill people who hurt her (that's why she's so determined to find Senya and Arcann), take the throne and hunt down Outlander (she was manipulated by SCORPIO to these subgoals).

(The following is the weakest, I'll admit, but I hope I can at least express what I see). So, in trying to achieve goals she didn't want before Vaylin loses in self-determination, being either driven by overwhelming anger or manipulated by others (SCORPIO or Commander on Odessen), desperately trying to accomplish anything, or even goes against her morals (like by erasing GEMINI's free will protocols, when earlier she agreed that freedom to choose is important; or breaking the deal on Odessen). All of these result in her downfall.

But even this isn't the end. The key difference between arcs of Azula Vaylin lies in it's resolution, or that Vaylin have a chance to overcome corruption in the main narrative (and Azula doesn't. again, not including comics here, sorry). After death, Vaylin is again controlled by Valkorion in Outlander's mind. First time physically (she can't resist it), second time mentally. This is where Vaylin has to choose - kill brother who betrayed her and Commander who killed her, or go against Valkorion, person responsible for almost all of her pain and trauma. She has t choose by herself, and I think it's a good start.

Now, before 6.2 we all thought Vaylin was dead for good, but that story update hinted at possibility of her coming back to life. What I like to think is that now that she dealt with people responsible for her trauma (helped defeat Valkorion and actually for once listened to Senya), Vaylin can now have a different life, finding herself with support of someone she doesn't hold a grudge against and who treats her well (Satele, I mean).

I'm so sorry for going into details, but I needed this long explanation to present the point (and I suck at explanations). As said before, this is my version of her arc, and most likely wrong interpretation, but even with personal freedom of choice, Vaylin character differs from Azula a lot.

Need I mention that Vaylin relationship with Arcann and Valkorion are drastically different from those between Azula, Zuko and Ozai?

(Also a little detail - with royal family of Fire Nation, Azula is the golden child, while with Tiralls it's actually Thexan, not Vaylin).

What's similar: role of extremely powerful, emotionally damaged daughter with little to no regard towards others, close people betraying them, resulting in their downfall.

What's different: characterization, role in the narrative, relationship with father and brother.

Arcann and Zuko is the most difficult part, but I still believe that calling Arcann just a cheap copy of Zuko is incorrect.

So, they fall into role of less successful son, always getting disapproval from father, being in shadow of more talented sibling, both obsessed with capturing the main character but ending up helping them end the war after going through a redemption arc with help of caring family member. Even both have scars on left side of face. Yeah, seems similar. I still think they are different characters.

Let's start with their relationships with family. In Valkorion section I said that his attitude towards Arcann is similar to that of Ozai towards Zuko, so not going to spend too much time here. However, there's slight difference - Zuko didn't kill his father even he had a perfect opportunity (bc it wasn't his goal), Arcann did (bc it was one of his goals), which says something about their characterizations.

Zuko and Ursa were shown to have a good mother-son relationship, and it played a role in Zuko's character. With Arcann and Senya, we don't really know (not much was shown in expansions). We know Arcann didn't hate his mother, but possibly didn't have warm memories of her either. The reason is most likely, like Senya said, her children wanted nothing to do with her (which is a bit untrue about Vaylin, but okay) and leaned more towards Valkorion. We need to remember that on Zakuul Valkorion isn't just one of many great leaders, he's the greatest, and seen as a god by most citizens, so safe to assume the same would apply to his children as well.

Zuko and Azula's siblingship (i'm out of words) is a bit similar to Arcann and Vaylin's in way of brother knowing that his sister isn't good, but still caring about them (even if not showing). At least it's what I saw. What's different is how Azula treats Zuko, compared to how Vaylin treats Arcann. I think Azula showed compassion or concern for Zuko maybe twice, but I'm not entirely convinced that it was 100% sincere. Vaylin, on the other hand, seems to trust and care about Arcann (with bits of sass and questioning his life choices), and switching to complete opposite after him saving Senya. Also, I don't she ever called Arcann a failure in their father's eyes.

Now I want to say that their roles in stories aren't the same either. Sure, both are introduced to us as antagonists, but in reality, Zuko was never a true antagonist (we get to learn this somewhere mid-season 1), when Arcann remains the main antagonist for whole of KotFE. Zuko didn't start a war and didn't participate in conquest of other nations too much, his main goal was to capture the Avatar so to restore his honor (and deserve his father's forgiveness). Honestly, I think it's safe to say the Zuko is one of two main protagonists of ATLA. Why does Arcann want to capture the Outlander? Solely because his father's spirit still lives inside this person's mind, and the best solution to keep Valkorion away from the galaxy is not letting the Outlander free (hence the carbonite freezing). And Arcann doesn't want or need Valkorion's forgiveness when he attempts to kill him (or kills him, depending on your choice. anyway, his action directly leads to Valkorion's "death"). And right after that he becomes a ruler of Zakuul and begins the conquest of Republic, Sith Empire and everything he can reach (the reasoning behind this is still unclear to me though; maybe because he was raised with ruling Zakuul in mind and he didn't anything else, idk). Point is, he's responsible for war and main's character imprisonment, which makes him the main antagonist of KotFE. They have it the opposite ways - Zuko starts as disgraced prince, supported by a little group of people, and in the end he's recognized and appreciated by his nation, and Arcann starts as respected by his empire, later becoming less and less loved, until some groups start rebelling his rule, and in the end he doesn't get to rule Zakuul again.

This leads me to their morals. See, Zuko didn't have the worst morals in Fire Nation, even more, he expressed care for loyals soldiers of his nation before getting punished by Ozai. During first season (and about a half of second one) his views on other nations are what he was taught before. However, these views are challenged by travelling in Earth Kingdom, witnessing people suffering from war Fire Nation started and hating its people (you already know all of this), and with this he comes through final stage of redemption when he's back home. Unfortunately, Arcann doesn't go through this, and he's shown to be more ruthless.

Alright, when it comes to their redemption arcs, well let's say they are different (both in quality and the way they go through it), I'm just a bit tired of long explanations at this point. Zuko's arc is one of the best ever put on television, and Arcann's... well, it definitely has potential, but is criminally underdeveloped (there are other people who will explain it better than I ever could).

What's similar: role of disgraced son, living in shadow of their sibling, serious injuries on the left side of face (though with different meanings), obsession with capturing the main character, having a redemption arc.

What's different: role in the narrative, role in their society, characterization, relationship with sister and mother, different end goals (before redemption), paths to redemption.

[meidozangetsuha]

I’m honestly really tired of the twins. It looks like Moroha’s getting the spotlight in the next half and I’m 100% ready for it, but if Sunrise baits us with another twin and SessRin storyline, I’m done. I do hope their writing is different too because the amount of plot holes and inconsistencies in the first season and first half of season 2 are annoying.

well, it obviously goes without saying i'm in full support of the twins and sessrin, but, I do hope Moroha really gets to shine this season! i feel like a large chunk of season 2 under it's new director was fixing things from S1, which unfortunately showed in some part, it's part of the reason I really wanted a S3, to fully tell a good story without worrying about weird stuff from the past...

but!

well obviously I'm biased, Towa Higurashi is one of my favorite characters... well, ever. i'll always be in favor of her being the main protagonist, and of course it's pretty explicit she's the one that's gonna have to take the charge to save the world from the Grim Comet, but I don't mind Moroha taking that spotlight for a while; go, girl! Towa has for the time being accomplished her goal, so I can see her totally willing to set aside her time to focus entirely on Moroha's issues and quest. I think there's a lot of unnecessary criticism relating to her not prioritizing Moroha's goals when she was in the Sengoku Jidai for a very specific goal, so I don't mind her taking the supporting role for a while. after reuniting with their own parents, I can only imagine Towa and Setsuna would want the same for Moroha if it's possible (not that they wouldn't have wanted to before, just, had their own things they were focusing on)

I do want at least some sessrin in S2? I wanna see how they get together and let them have some affectionate scenes asdf;lkajd and I don't mind if there's a storyline with them, but inukag and Moroha definitely deserve their time to shine

I hope you're happy with the second half of S2 <333

[bookworm555]

Fanfic Masterlist

Soo...I realized that, despite being on this site since 2012, not to mention always talking about my fics in posts’ tags/in general, I have never made a masterlist of my fics. So I am finally getting around to that. (Especially since I’ve gotten a lot of new HWS fandom followers, and I have a lot of HWS fics.)

Some notes before I link the fics:

-Due to FFN being more difficult to access/use now (unfortunately), I have been uploading my fics to Ao3, which are the versions of them I am linking here. The Ao3 versions of the fics have been slightly edited (to fix things that were bugging me over the years), so even if you’ve read my stuff before, years ago, if you liked them, I encourage you to read my fics on Ao3.

-I do not write (or read) lemons (I guess people just call it 'smut' now; I feel old, haha). Though some of my fics are rated M, it's for violence/abuse/other sorts of mature content.

-I tend to write angst/hurt-comfort/whump, so my fics skew a bit on the darker end. I do not shy away from antagonists' cruelty. However, I do have one or two lighter, fluffier fics.

-I rarely write romance, but when I do, in my multichapters, it is very slow-burn, while in the one-shots with a pairing listed, it is very gentle, simple romance. I like to focus more on platonic/emotional bonds between characters. (Though of course, I have my favorite ships.)

-I sometimes have OCs as both protagonists (such as Changing Destiny or Duality) or antagonists (such as The Weakest Link).

-I have nothing against OC x Canon character ships (this is more-so referring to Changing Destiny, where that is relevant, though it could also count for Duality too).

-Some notes specifically for my HWS fics: I use the canon human names and ages for the characters (for the ones who were given them). However, I do have a headcanon where, some characters' 'true' names are different than the ones on official papers. This is to have a logical explanation why some characters given names or surnames (such as Eduard's surname) don't match up with the naming patterns/culture of their countries. This also goes along with why some characters have a part of their name (such as Eduard’s surname) that they probably wouldn’t be fond of. This specifically comes up in The Weakest Link, and is alluded to in chapter one of Duality (though it will appear more in Duality later on).  In terms of the characters’ ages, I tend to combine aspects of their human ages with a certain level of maturity, given the fact that they are immortal and centuries old. However, for characters whose human ages are sixteen and younger, such as Ice and especially Raivis, I tend to write their mentality skewing younger in general (though of course they have moments of maturity as well). Eduard is in a grey area, for me, because he’s caught between ‘teenager’ and ‘young adult’. Because of this, and due to his immortality, this is why I have no issue shipping him with Toris, Den, or Fin, but I also ship him with Ice, too.

-I do not favor Ivan in my fics. If you’re a big fan of him (unless you like him darker/a villain), you probably won’t like my fics, since I heavily sympathize with Toris, Ed, and Raivis. I do not shy away from his cruelty. However, my portrayal of him wasn’t/isn’t pulled out of thin air; a lot of how I write him is based off of how he acts in the older strips. A lot of his darker/crueler moments just haven’t been animated. 

-For the fics set in historical time periods, I did do research, and any historical references/notes are explained in the after-story A/Ns. (However, I am merely an American who read a lot of books and talked to people from the various countries mentioned in these fics, so if there’s anything that can be fixed, let me know.) 

Now, under the cut, I will link the fics, along with the rating, the ships (if any), the summary listed on Ao3, as well as a few ‘you’ll like this if you like/because of’ comments.

HWS fics:

*Note: if a country is named in the summary, I will put the little dots/spaces in the name, so that it won’t show up in the countries’ tags. Obviously they are not written like this on Ao3, XD)

Suffocation Rating: G Ships: None Summary: Even after more than twenty years of being independent, L.atv.ia still has a hard time sleeping alone, especially when days get bad. -Drabble- You might like this if you like platonic cuddling, and if you like platonic EstLat. 

Pity the Child Rating: T Ships: None (though there are some hints of AmeLiet at the end) Summary:  -Post USSR- Hoping that some time away from the B.altic region will help L.atv.ia heal, L.ithu.an.ia and E.sto.nia send him to A.me.rica's house for the week. A.me.rica thinks that the time will be spent playing sports and video games, but is quick to discover that there is something wrong with the mentality of his little guest. Can he be the hero he always claims he is and help? -No pairings- You might like this: if you like an intelligent Alfred, friendship between Alfred and Raivis, or the aftermath of Ivan’s cruelty to Raivis being discussed. *Note: this is probably my favorite fic

The Weakest Link Rating: M (*Note, this fic is pretty gruesome and very dark.) Ships: slow-burn IceLat, established/background SuFin, eventual DenEst, implied AmeLiet Summary:  A sinister organization discovers the existence of personified countries and forces four of them to be their pawns in a plot to infiltrate powerful governments. Things don't go as planned when most of the scientists hired for this project realize they enjoy breaking their captives a bit too much. Can the world's personifications save their friends? Or will the captured four be damned to a life of constant death and scientific experimentation... And to make matters worse, one of the scientists takes special interest in one of the captured four, an interest that quickly becomes a terrifying obsession. *M for torture, blood, obsession, and scientific experimentation.*  You might like this: if you like darkfics, fics dealing with scientific experimentation, or fics where the main protags’ inner strength is shown, despite them being broken physically and mentally. *Note: This fic is complete on FFN, but ongoing on Ao3.

Transient Rating: T Ships: None Summary: "When Nations form a special bond with humans, it only leads to heartbreak. Humans are transient creatures, while we are eternal ones." I.cela.nd learns this the hard way, and discovers why Nations are reluctant to start friendships with humans. -Oneshot- You might like this if: you like Nations interacting with humans

Rebellion of the Weakest Rating: T Ships: Nyo!AmeLiet Summary: Sometimes, even the smallest rebellions can seem like large victories. But they always come with a price. The B.al.tics know this all too well. -USSR era- -Nyotalia- -Twoshot- You might like this if: you like angst, and Nyotalia

Perfection (or the Illusion of It) *Sequel to Rebellion of the Weakest Rating: M (this is more of a strong T, but I rated it M just to be safe, since there’s implied sex, though nothing is written out.) Ships: Nyo!AmeLiet, past Nyo!PoLiet and past Nyo!Ameripan Summary: "Looks like we both know what it feels like to be betrayed by the person we loved most," A.me.rica stated. "And to betray said person." L.ithua.nia wrung her hands. A.mer.ica and L.ithua.nia realize they have more in common than they thought. AmeLiet, Nyotalia. Rating is more of a strong T, but rated M to be safe. You might like this if: you like Nyotalia, or NyoAmeLiet

Boiling Point Rating: T Ships: None Summary: Tensions between R.us.sia and L.at.via finally explode. L.at.via is sick and tired of being pushed around, and, after years of abuse and resentment, finally sticks up for himself, while R.us.sia wonders what will ultimately break the small blond's spirit. -End of the Soviet Union era- You might like this if: You like Raivis showing great inner strength and finally sticking up for himself. (Also Toris slaps Ivan in this one)

Light Rating: T Ships: EstLiet/LietEst Summary: ‘L.ithu.ania knew that feeling this way would not bring anything good upon their already miserable lives, but for the moment, he pretended that he'd get a happy ending. That they'd get a happy ending." During one of their darkest days, L.ithu.ania and E.sto.nia realize their feelings for each other. *EstLiet/LietEst* You might like this if: you like angst with a side of romance *Note: I normally do not portray Ivan’s obsession with Toris as a romantic one, but in this fic, it is (one-sided on Ivan’s part, not to mention VERY unwanted/unwilling on Toris’s part), because after re-reading these three strips, it inspired the portrayal in this oneshot. 

Clouded Consciousness Rating: T Ships: None Summary: E.sto.nia discovers L.at.via's drinking problem and confronts him. He finds out how broken his friend is, and realizes that it his partially his fault. -Soviet Union era- -No pairings- You might like this if: you like platonic EstLat friendship

Audacious Insolence *Sequel to Clouded Consciousness Rating: T Ships: None Summary:  -Sequel to Clouded Consciousness- R.us.sia takes one of L.at.via's punishments too far, and E.sto.nia steps in to protect his friend. Unfortunately, he pays the price for it, and learns firsthand the pain that L.at.via experiences. -No pairings- -Soviet Union era- You might like this if: you like platonic EstLat friendship

Snap *Sequel to Clouded Consciousness and Audacious Insolence Rating: T Ships: None Summary: The conclusion of the 'Blood and Tears' series- L.ithua.nia, horrified by how R.us.sia hurt E.sto.nia and L.at.via, makes a deal with him. This sets off a chain of events that turns the B.a.ltics' already horrible situation into a terrifying nightmare. -USSR era- You might like this if: you like angst and hurt/comfort. Also, Raivis tells Ivan to burn in hell in this one, so I feel like that line alone is worth a mention, XD

Duality Rating: M (once again, not for smut, but for dark themes and scientific experimentation) Ships: None (so far, though that could change) Summary: The personification of E.sto.nia already has a lot on his plate. But when he is ordered to become a mentor to another immortal teenager-whose immortality is a result of cruel scientific experimentation-his world turns upside down. -Contains semi-graphic depictions of unethical scientific experimentation- You might like this if: you like OCs, Toris, Eduard, and Raivis being mentors, lots of hurt/comfort and angst, or stories dealing with scientific experimentation *Note: This fic is ongoing

Strictly Business Rating: T Ships: slow-burn, eventual PoLiet Summary: When the company Toris Laurinaitis works for merges with another, he is introduced to the enigmatic Feliks Łukasiewicz. After accidentally stumbling upon dangerous corruption within their companies, the two must work together in order to stop it. Add the Russian mafia, a terrified runaway, and the complexities of romance to the mix and they've got even more trouble. Eventual PoLiet --Modern, human AU-- You might like this if: you like hurt/comfort, mystery fics, or thrillers. *Note: AU *Note: This fic is ongoing

Parallels Rating: G Ships: None, but it’s implied Ludwig and Feliciano have crushes on each other Summary: When Romulus Marcellus brings his grandsons over to his old rival Diedrich Beilschmidt's house for a playdate with the man's own grandsons, he never thought that both sets of boys would be parallels to each other, not to mention, he himself and Diedrich. -Human AU- -R.om.e and G.erm.ania centric- -For the Hetalia Holiday Exchange 2013- You might like this if: you like cute friendship stories *Note: AU

First Date Rating: G Ships: HongSey Summary: S.eyc.helles is nervous about her first date with H.on.g K.on.g. Hilarity ensues as both are awkward with romance. -Written for the Rarepairs Valentine's Day exchange 2014- You might like this if: you like awkward romance, first dates, humor, or fluff

Dust Rating: G Ships: Implied AusHun Summary: "The setting might have been different, but the feeling was all the same. Okay, so maybe it wasn't, since you were playing jazz instead of your usual classical, Gershwin instead of Chopin, but that didn't bother you too much. As long as you were at a piano, your beloved instrument, you were happy." A.us.tria realizes that while his music lasts forever, his audience doesn't. -Drabble- You might like this if: you like angst with Roderich

-

HWS Tumblr ficlets:

Intertwined (FinEst, AU)

Untitled Platonic EstLat angst (based on one of Raivis’s character bios)

Untitled IceLat steampunk AU

IceLat superhero AU (w/ old 2015 art)

Frozen AU (w/old 2014 art)

Side note, GODDD my old art is awful X’D

-

Other fics:

Changing Destiny Fandom: Naruto Second Place is the First Loser Fandom: Death Note

[daresplaining]

[ID: Excerpt from Zdarsky’s Daredevil run. Elektra and Daredevil are in prison, at the door of Matt’s cell, talking (Matt is in an orange prison jumpsuit and matching mask).]

Elektra: “You wanted to strike higher! No more beating up drug dealers! No more chasing liquor store robbers! This is what you’re looking for! This is the ceiling! There is nothing higher! How can you even--”

Matt: “It’s simple... I don’t trust you. You’re a murderer. You use people.”

[ID: Matt closes the door of his cell in her face and lies down on his bed.]

Matt: “You’re tired of the darkness? You want to work for the light? Prove it.”

Daredevil vol. 6 #25 by Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, and Marcio Menyz

    Like much of this run, I’ve had kind of a tough time grappling with my feelings on this issue, for various reasons that I won’t necessarily go into in this post. But I did want to talk about this moment, and my main takeaway from the Matt side of things. 

    One significant, recurring facet of Matt Murdock’s character is that he’s a colossal jerk. Not all the time, of course, but enough to be noteworthy. This is actually one of my favorite things about him. He can be petty, cruel, thoughtless, selfish, and there are several key runs in which you are prompted to root against him, or at the very least, to disagree with his behavior. I love that. I love how human it makes him, and I enjoy stories in which the protagonist isn’t always in the right. I’ve mentioned before that one of my main problems with Zdarsky’s run is that I dislike Matt, but it doesn’t feel like I’m supposed to. I haven’t been able to parse whether he’s intentionally being written as punchable, or if I just don’t like the writing. But regardless, Zdarsky did a great job of making me want to wrap my hands around Matt’s throat and squeeze the life out of him in this issue. 

    The context, if anyone hasn’t read it, is that Matt (as Daredevil, hence the mask) is in jail for accidentally causing someone’s death all the way back in the first issue of the run. He pled guilty and allowed himself to go to jail only because he felt comfortable knowing that Elektra would be protecting Hell’s Kitchen from this story’s Big Bads. Elektra then comes to him in this issue and asks for his help fighting the Hand, and this is his response: to tell her that he doesn’t trust her and that he thinks she’s a terrible person. I’m not going to claim this is new, because it isn’t. Matt also pulled this type of moralizing with her in Soule’s run, and it bothered me then too (note: that post was written before anyone knew that the whole arc was a dream sequence, but the point still stands). Maybe Matt is being intentionally petty here, because Elektra slept with him and then manipulated him and so he’s annoyed at her. Plus, one of the reasons Matt is so unlikeable in this current run is his repeated self-important moralizing at everyone around him, so this at least fits that pattern of behavior. And it’s extra galling here because it’s Elektra, and this is a genuinely cruel thing to say to her, particularly now, when she has just done him a huge favor. 

    I’ve had some issues with Zdarsky’s characterization of Elektra, but I think that just comes down to a difference in taste. It was clear from the beginning that he was basing her characterization on Frank Miller’s semi-canon Man Without Fear mini-series, and that became extra blatant in this issue, which literally starts with a flashback to a scene from that comic. And it happens that Elektra’s MWF characterization is... not my favorite. But I certainly can’t criticize Zdarsky for using it, other writers have too, and again, it just comes down to differences in interpretation. What matters here is that this version of Elektra suffers from some kind of inherent violent tendency that she has always struggled to control. And in general, over the years, one of the most common recurring Elektra plotlines has been her attempts to find peace and comfort and human connection in the cruel, brutal world in which she lives. When she returned from the dead the first time, she made a huge effort to put her life as an assassin behind her. Matt knows this. He was there. And many, many Elektra stories have focused on her empathy, on her own feelings of loss and trauma being pulled to the surface again and again, on the clash between the armor of pragmatic cynicism she has constructed in order to do her work and the ethical issues she faces as she performs that work. She is not cruel and she is not unfeeling, and Matt knows this because he knows her. She has helped him many times, she has had his back, she has saved his life, and at the end of the day, when you get right down to it, he loves her-- and this is the point where I give Zdarsky credit for making me want to strangle Matt because telling Elektra that he doesn’t trust her, and making her feel like she needs to prove herself to him yet again, is a nasty thing for him to do to her. And it’s very telling and painful that Elektra seems to take this criticism to heart, and it’s why her decision to act as Daredevil for him (as she says outright: in order to get him to believe in her) is bittersweet rather than just downright awesome. (To clarify: It is awesome. It’s just... an emotionally complicated awesome.) 

    Clearly, this was a pretty emotional read for me, and I’m grateful for it, because I’ve formed an emotional connection with so few issues in this run that it was wonderful to feel something, even if that something was just a burning desire to punch Matt in the face. 

[hopeymchope]

hopeymchope, at this point anon thinks we're going to have to face down a cold, unpleasant reality: if you're a bullying victim, Fandom Culture Is No Longer Your Friend. And because modern pop culture fans have turned on bullying victims, the mainstream media has followed suit. The media must always appeal to the widest audience possible, or it won't sell. Remember that Hiyoko fan who sent you an ask saying they hope another anon kills himself? THAT is the audience today's media is appealing to.

Note: This is a follow-up to this post.

We've seen fandom and geekdom celebrate characters who are excluded/harassed by their peers for so long that I couldn't see the shift coming, I guess. I mean, in Western media, look at some of our biggest pop culture heroes like Clark Kent or Peter Parker. They're the ones who've gotten ostracized and bullied (in most incarnations of their stories, anyway). And in loads of the most popular anime/manga, we've long focused on heroes who were rejects, outcasts, and/or victims of bullying in some form or another. Luffy from One Piece, Deku from My Hero Academia, Naruto from his eponymous series, Kyo from Fruits Basket... these people are all sympathetic, heroic characters that were all cast aside, excluded, resented, and/or bullied. Sometimes they even overtly and proudly battle other bullies. Naruto famously stepped up when Hinata was getting harassed by bullies.

And of course, what's the series this Tumblr is most focused on? Danganronpa. Who are its lead protagonists? People with low self-esteem, people who feel unworthy. People who aren't popular. People who are often ignored. My point being that fandom — whether it's for comic books, movies, video games, TV, or foreign media — has historically been FOR and ABOUT those of us who didn't find ourselves in more mainstream pursuits. People who loved superheroes have not historically been the people who excel at sports, right? The rich and famous never used to discuss their favorite anime in interviews, right? Those things are recent phenomena.

But of course, if I take the Danganronpa fandom as an example, I must also acknowledge that some of the most popular and beloved characters seem to be the cruelest ones. So I guess the warning signs were there all along. As fandom has gotten more mainstream courtesy of things like the massive popularity of superhero media, so too has that wider embrace led historically "geeky" works to appeal to those in power — to embrace "the majority."

....so maybe I shouldn't be surprised that one of the most popular romcom manga/anime of the past decade features a lead protagonist who's been a bully for most of their life — a fact which is treated as unimportant to who they are and merely played for a laugh. It's an ongoing gag that another character is forever afraid and scarred by her, but hey, who cares, right? Fandom's increased celebration of the cruelest characters as ideal husbandos/waifus has been building to this point. The adoration of Bakugo, the woobification of Kokichi, and even the RL rise of populism that vilifies minorities and refugees in favor of celebrating the bullying elite — these things were already pointing the way here.

But it's still not a shift I was ready for.

[flipflap-flipflap]

[Alright take-two on this damn post.  First one got eaten by post editor right as I was ready to post.  You see how long this is?  Save to drafts, kids.]

I’m here to shove a manga on you: Ookami Shounen Wa Kyou Mo Uso O Kasaneru (The Boy Who Cried Wolf Also Told a Lie Today).  It’s a gender bending romance.  Despite how awful that probably sounds, it’s actually really fucking good and I do not say that lightly. 

(No spoilers, this is all in the first chapter)  A high school boy insecure about his intimidating face, Itsuki, has fallen for a shy loner girl, Tokujira, who does not seem specifically phased by his naturally scary face.  So he takes a risk and confesses, but she turns him down brutally.  Itsuki goes to his sister to lament his insecurities about his face, which he (more or less correctly) attributes as why he can’t make connections.  To give him a new perspective on his appearance, his sister (trans btw) gives him a makeover while he’s sleeping and then kicks him to the curb of her salon - fully crossdressed.  On his way home, Itsuki (♀) ends up bumping into Tokujira, and she mistakes him for a boyish girl.  Under this misunderstanding, she asks "her” for a favor...

She has androphobia, and she has it bad.  So much so she can’t even look at men without snapping violently or becoming physically ill.  And Itsuki (♀) is just boyish enough to trigger her, but not enough to lock her down.  So she asks for “her” help, to see if she can desensitize herself to her phobia. Itsuki’s in a bind for a couple obvious reasons, not the least being the guilt of deceiving Tokujira. But nonetheless, he genuinely wants to help her.  So, he decides to continue crossdressing, diving into a lie that he soon finds he has no easy exit from.

I really recommend this manga.  I cannot say that enough times.  It is phenomenal, shattering tropes left and right in fun and interesting ways.  Do yourself a favor and give this manga a try.

Personal feelings and meta analysis below the cut.  It’s, uh, ungodly long, and will get very spoilery.  But I will flag spoilers.  And there will be pretty pictures?

(Also, no, I did not go into this planning to compare a manga about crossdressing to the abolitionist writings of Frederick Douglass, but reality deserves to be a bit absurd sometimes.)

Before you think I’m getting spoilery, with the intro I gave or anything I don’t mark as spoilers, I’m really not.  Everything outside of spoilers is right on the package at the start.  It sounds like I’m spoiling late-game stuff, right?  That’s something that was really fantastic to me: this manga doesn’t spoon feed you.  There’s no arcs of pure silent angst, even at the lowest point in the story. These kids are smart, they think and intuit on the spot, and they share what they’re feeling with each other like good friends do.  Like that next panel down there with Itsuki introspecting about his confidence level while crossdressing?  That’s from the first chapter!  These kids are smart.  And god damn that is so nice to see.

There was a lot I liked about this manga, but at the top is how compelling the protagonist and his internal conflict are.  Right from the first chapter he’s already wracked with guilt about what he’s about to do: deceive this girl by pretending to be a safe space.  But Tokujira told Itsuki (♀) she hopes to one day be able to fall in love, and Itsuki wants to ensure she can have that - even if it’s not him that gets to confess to her.  He’s fully aware of exactly how fucked up what he’s doing is, and is appropriately beating himself up over it in a really realistic way.  But although the guilt never fades, it slowly gains company in happiness. He enjoys this new, fragile life he has constructed around the two precious new friends he's made as a girl.

It was probably easy to gloss over in the synopsis, but arguably the biggest part of Itsuki (♂)’s conflict is his complex about his face.  He looks dangerous, and because of that he is afraid to even lift his head or smile in front of others.  But as Itsuki (♀), he smiles and laughs without fear.  It becomes immediately clear to him on the first day that he's a more confident person while crossdressing.  Happier in a way he can't be as a man.

Botan is easily my favorite character in the series.  She’s introduced early on, as Tokujira’s first and only friend before Itsuki (♀).  At the start she’s a dangerous third wheel, a serious threat to Itsuki’s ability to keep up his lie.  And though the situation is (thankfully) defused rather quickly, she becomes a massive source of internal conflict for Itsuki. Nonetheless, she becomes a dear friend for both Itsuki ♂ and ♀. She’s just so...*chef’s kiss*

^This face is the repository of all my love and affection.

Mark my words, this is the first and I assume last time I will ever say this: love triangle good. You know it’s inevitable in a romance genre piece, but this manga approaches the trope in a new and compelling way. [Spoiler] Needless to say, it’s between Itsuki, Tokujira, and Botan.  But...there’s two Itsukis involved, ♂ and ♀, and in the center of it all is this lie. His lie stops being about him: it's about not hurting these two girls he cares so much about. [/Spoiler]

On a more personal note, I saw so much of myself in Itsuki’s older sister, Ibuki.  She runs a salon, catering especially to crossdressers and transwomen.  She’s a self-described “Youthling”, an alien from the planet Youth, obsessed with observing the exciting and turbulent lives of the youths of earth.  For more or less for the same reasons most of us do: transpeople don’t tend to get the youths we want, if we allow ourselves to experience youth at all. So it’s nice to be able to enjoy it vicariously, through this younger generation that is able to more fearlessly pursue the lives we couldn't. 

^Incidentally, one of my favorite interactions in the manga.

Despite getting Itsuki into this crossdressing mess, she’s someone he can always return to and confide in, and get good, helpful advice from.  Her whole philosophy is to give young people agency to explore their identities and find themselves, and though she tells Itsuki the road he's taking is dangerous as soon as she learns what he's doing, she'll always support him however she can.

That, I feel, is what separates her from other, more creepy/pedophilic enabler types, like Sawako from K-On! or Lucoa from Dragon Maid. It’s a refreshingly honest and respectful portrayal of a quirky adult just trying to be a good older sister.

The last thing I want to say, and I’m not going to even mark this as a spoiler because of course it’s going to happen and if you can’t predict that then you’re not my problem, is that Itsuki of course eventually has to drop his lie.  All I’ll say about it is that it is probably going to live in my head for years. Everything about it, the lead up, the execution, the fallout, and the recovery, are all so masterfully crafted for maximum emotional impact.

That’s all I want to say exclusively about my personal feelings.  On to analysis.  There will be a lot more contextual spoilers here that, even without reading the parts I’ve specially blocked off will probably leak through.  Read at your own risk, but I would recommend revisiting after you have finished the manga.

One thing I really want to talk about is language.  That’s right, I’m going to compare a crossdressing manga to The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the autobiography of a freed slave turned abolitionist. Douglass talks about a concept that has remained imprinted on my mind ever since I first read it: how and why slaves struggled to comprehend the concept of freedom.  This wasn’t anything to do with fear or “racial inferiority” like pro-slavers would argue, but rather with a lack of vocabulary.  They have all of these feelings and things they know to be true, but lack the words to make meaningful sense of them.  For Douglass specifically, his life completely changed when he learned the word “abolition.”  It was like a floodgate burst, as he was suddenly able to put meaning to feeling, create context from chaos.

And that’s right, we see that happen in a big way, with Tokujira.  This should be an obvious development, but as it happens late in the manga I will mark it [Spoiler].  As Tokujira and Itsuki (♀) practice things like talking, eye contact, holding hands, etc., Tokujira naturally starts to fall for Itsuki (♀).  But she doesn’t understand that.  An important part of her character is that, growing up, she focused on expanding her vocabulary as much as humanly possible in the hopes of being able to better articulate herself.  So words are very important to her.  It’s not until she sees a work of lesbian fiction on display that she finally realizes that’s the word she’s looking for.  The floodgate bursts, and all of her emotions suddenly make sense.  She realizes she loves Itsuki (♀). [/Spoiler]

And I think that is a vital and underexplored concept when discussing LGBT youth, especially in countries where even knowledge of these concepts is taboo.  The reason so many LGBT youth struggle with their identities, especially trans youth, is because we do not have the vocabulary to conceptualize our feelings.  I am always excited to see this concept play out, especially in this context.  It’s such an important thing that needs to be addressed more broadly.

Moving on, I want to talk about historical context of the genre as it relates to what the author did here.  Notably, I want to talk about a specific trope rampant in Japanese queer fiction, specifically early lesbian fiction: the idea that queerdom is a meaningless, youthful phase that children will naturally and inevitably grow out of.  It’s problematic for obvious reasons.

[HELLA HELLA SPOILERS]  My kneejerk reaction to the ending of this manga was that the author fell into this trope.  In the end, Itsuki comes to the conclusion that he does not need to crossdress.  So again, kneejerk.  But...it really wasn’t like that.  He never had any dysphoria; crossdressing was always just a necessity of his circumstance.  Nonetheless he learned to analyze and value his experience crossdressing as a woman, and because of that grew as a man.  And as part of his journey to understand his identity we, through him, see why some people crossdress.  Along with his example, we see why his sister, a bona fide post-op transsexual, has made it a permanent change to her life.  Likewise, we see Miyama, who crossdresses purely for the gender euphoria, but has no (stated) interest in going all the way.  These are all presented as valid and meaningful. [/Spoiler]

Crossdressing, and gender nonconformity in general, is portrayed not as some one-dimensional fetish like cultural taboo would depict it to be, but rather a meaningful exercise for exploring and critically analyzing your own identity.  For some, yes, it’s a phase, but an importantly transformative one when done right.  While for others, it is a gateway to a new way of experiencing and enjoying life.  Or, it’s fun just for the pragmatic reasons...

I honestly cannot recommend this manga enough.  Tragically, I cannot imagine it ever getting an official english translation, so you’ll have to settle for a  scanlation like the one I linked in the title up top (and here, again).  It’s a really good translation, though the site is predictably sketchy.  Warning for lots of NSFW ads.

Read it, and then come talk to me about it!!!  There is basically zero fan community and I need to fangirl with someone!