#or at least what i imagine they'd be in mb

[save-the-villainous-cat]

Hello cat!

Just read your 3k series and wanted to give you a bit of feedback.

End of part two feels a bit hasty, besides the typo in the second to last paragraph (pretty sure you meant villain not hero there). There's a few typos but who cares, this one was just a bit confusing and stopped my reading flow. BUT.

Part four is GREAT OMG the feelzzzz

And don't get me started on the ending it's truly villainous~ and just over the top honestly. I love it. Hard, hurting, realistic. Wanted to let you know you did a great job on the series :)

Personal opinion: I feel like you could have made this a lot longer. There's only a glimpse of the feelings you're trying to express, they came out but they'd really sink in if you'd dwell on it a bit more, write about the stuff a bit more. Although I think that's mb just not your style since you put more weight on dialogue. Like I said it's just a thought it's still great you don't have to change anything in your style.

Something else entirely... I've read some german mostly in your tags sometimes. So I wonder where you're from if you want to tell. Don't have to ofc.

Greetings!

Uhm…okay?

So, when I put my work out here, I obviously have to expect criticism. That’s kinda unavoidable. People will have an opinion about me and my writing.

However, I don’t really know what your intention is. For example, I don’t see the “typo in the second to last paragraph.”

I wrote:

The hero stared at them, eyes narrowed. As if all of this was a trick. But then eventually, they spoke. Followed by a line spoken by the villain.

The hero stared at them. So, they spoke eventually. I get that using nb/nb for both characters is confusing but most of the heroxvillain community is structured like that and nearly all my writing is too. Which makes it weird to me to see this as a mistake on my part…? Like, you could use any line I’ve written on here and tell me I actually meant hero or villain because they both use they/them pronouns.

Also, I didn’t really catch any big typos/mistakes in that snippet. I used a lot of short sentences in this especially because the hero is extremely tired in these scenes and thinking in long ass sentences is just not really possible in such a state of mind (at least not for me lol). So, I guess this could be a reason for why you were confused/not satisfied with the writing flow? It’s structured like all my other snippets and it’s my usual writing style, so that confused me about your ask, too. Of course, I make mistakes as well and I make typos but again…you could say that about every snippet I write, so I wonder why you chose this one specifically?

Additionally, I don’t really see which parts of my snippets are giving “only a glimpse of the feelings [I am] trying to express.” I don’t think my readers are dumb. I think my readers get what I mean when I write “It fried their brain, making it impossible to even think straight. Old panic resurfaced but they put on a tired smirk.”

I think my readers get that old panic means that this character is familiar with panic, whereas putting on a tired smirk is a reaction to it. Which is (as we see throughout the whole story) a thing the hero does a lot. Hiding their pain and distracting themselves with flirting. Readers aren’t dumb. I don’t have to go into every little detail about every tiny thing the characters experience. In fact, part of being a reader is, that you get to imagine these things for yourself. As the writer, I give you a tiny bit of information and as the reader, you get to interpret and shape that however you want.

My readers get what I am trying to express with my characters’ actions and their dialogues. The villain asking the hero if they think they’re a good person has meaning behind it and normally, as a reader, you get stuff like that. I don’t have to describe in a paragraph that the villain doubts themselves and is beginning to value the hero’s opinion on them, no, I let them ask if they think they’re a bad person.

Of course, this series could have been longer. Could’ve been deeper. It could’ve been a whole book. But I am not here to write books for you for free. I am not here to write thousands of words because one anonymous user thinks a blog which posts snippets, should write more and more and more.

So, I believe this is more opinion than actual criticism. I guess? Because, like I said, there’s a reason for the way this snippet is written and if you want to “criticise” me for typos, you’d have to criticise every post I have ever made.

And another thing is, this message is coming from an anonymous user. So, I’m sorry if this offends you but I really don’t care about your opinion that much. I don’t think this message had any criticism in it which improves my writing.

Eventually, your opinion doesn’t have the same weight to me as the opinion of a certain epiclamer or a certain lilyaang or a certain creweemmaeec11 or a certain snowshowerwriting or a certain avvail or a certain thepenultimateword or a certain English teacher of mine.

This is your opinion of the series and this is mine — I don’t see any big mistakes or horrible decisions I’ve made and some anon telling me they didn’t like this or that won’t change that.

And yes, English isn’t my first language. I am German, come from Germany, live in Germany.

[mischas]

Oh I'm so glad you know that moment! I tried to screencap it and it doesn't do it justice, she looks like she's beaming and about to burst from joy really. It's incredibly cute. You make a great point, IMO Mischa shined in those happy moments too, it's hard to hone a particular skill as well when she's never given a chance to practice it either. She brought a lot of high energy to it and felt very real. They spoke on the podcast how M was actually quite goofy irl which we rarely see.

Is this the one you're also thinking of? (fastest I've ever giffed something)

I love her open-mouthed smile at the beginning. For once she's just a girl sitting on a ferris wheel with her boyfriend! It's so heartwarming.

I've been so jaded about this show for a few months now but I always come back to the fact that they center Marissa's suffering so obviously. Or at least make it a tenet of the show's foundation. And that plainly sucks. Sure it produces good (though convoluted) plot but eventually at what cost? She becomes more caricature than character.

By s3 (and earlier if they were honest with themselves) they'd written themselves in a corner so it's no wonder they tried to blame MB/Marissa as they pivoted. I really wish the culture of 2000s media was different for MB back in those days because I'm sure she was told (directly and indirectly) about her strengths and weaknesses as well as responsibility for a show's success. It's a lot to process to this day and I can't imagine how she coped back then.

[mdverse]

thoughts on middle blocker santana? <3

oh god i'm so sorry to that author but middle blocker santana is the worst glee volleyball take i've seen so far and maybe i just have strong feelings about which positions the glee kids would play but also. no. to quote bob the drag queen, "mama this is garbage". santana would not be a middle blocker and let me tell u all why i say that because i really need to get it out of my system.

the first glaring issue there is that santana is rather short. canonically, at least, she's about my height and while i may make them all slightly taller in my own fic, i don't think that's what ote's author did. and even when playing with a women's height net, I feel pathetically short when i'm up close to it, which middle blockers often are. i don't want to say for sure that she would be too short to be a good middle blocker, but being taller would certainly go a long way. especially because if you look at most teams, the tallest players there will most likely be MBs (and they can be huge). and sure, short people could probably still be decent middle blockers (ie hinata in haikyuu) but it just does not make sense to put a short person in that position. middle blockers, more than anyone else at the net, are constantly switching between offence and defence. you pretty much always have to be ready to block the ball, or to go in for a fast-paced spike. it's a very hectic position to be in and, because you're jumping more than anyone else, height is crucial in getting to blocks quickly. a short person could in theory keep up, as hinata does in hq, but they'd be using a whole lot more energy running around everywhere, they'd have to jump extra high and get the timing right, etc. it's a lot of hard work. and they'd probably be suited to other positions anyway. and i'm not saying santana couldn't do it - i'm sure she could if she really wanted to play MB. but that leads me into my second point.

santana would hate being a middle blocker. maybe i'm biased as someone who has played mb maybe once or twice in games and absolutely hated it lmao but also. i see santana as someone who has much more of an offensive playing style. girlie loves sending a good, strong spike right past the opposing block, and having the time to wind up to it. you don't really have that as a middle blocker because things can get so hectic in the middle of the court. she'd hate having to make that switch right at the net. i also reckon she wouldn't be a great blocker generally, y'know? like she's not a terrible blocker, but it's probably her least favourite play. not to mention middle blockers don't actually play in the back row - once they're done serving, they get swapped out and the libero plays defence in the back until they've rotated back to the front row, and then the MB comes back onto the court. and i just don't see santana liking that. if anything, she wants to spend as much time on the court as possible and she loves the opportunity to attack from the back row. she's great at receiving, too. being a middle blocker would just end up being really frustrating for her. honestly, if i didn't see santana as more of an offence-leaning player, i might've considered making her a libero. clearly that didn't happen but it is a possibility i'd be more inclined to think about than middle blocker santana.

for what it's worth, if i had to rank the positions based on how likely i'd be willing to give them to santana, i'd say:

outside hitter (left side)

opposite hitter (right side)

setter

libero

middle blocker

1-2 are interchangeable, and 3-4 might be as well. but either way middle blocker is always dead last. like i never even considered it for her because it's such a weird choice, so imagine my shock and horror when i found out that was the position she got in ote. so much disbelief and a lil bit of rage.

in conclusion, MB!santana is garbage and anyone who tries to tell me otherwise would need a really compelling argument bc based on both her physical attributes and her personality, i could never see her enjoying it. thank u for coming to my ted talk <3

[iasip808]

Smosh Marching Band au?

it's marching season again soooo

ian is back field drum major/pep band drum major but before he was he marched clarinet. sings the loudest during hey baby & pretty fly. in charge of stretches & pt.

mari is front field drum major who plays baritone for pep. she occasionally stops by the low brass section to bully shayne since she was section leader the year before ahaha

lasercorn is def trumpet. he's a chaotic section leader who makes the section do lots of exercises that seem Very weird but they all help

joven plays the tenor sax and has the best technique on the whole field. him and sohinki are usually the last 2 left in drill downs.

sohinki is on horn/mellophone. runs runs runs!!! always complains about not being able to see mari or ian conducting because of the size of his bell. always wears gloves & cleans so his instrument is shinyyyyy

wes is in battery. he plays quads and is like the only one so he works real hard to get all the cadences down since they're all pretty much centered around him

boze is in pit. she plays aux so she has like gong and triangle. the bells are too heavy & tall for her to get to the field so she makes keith & noah do it

damien is alto sax. him and shayne compete to see who can play the loudest/longest and shayne is almost always louder but damien's air lasts longer

shayne plays tuba and got one of the new ones since the people they were meant for dipped on the marching band (maybe im projecting...). Very loud. also very good at horn snaps. another competition between him & damien is seeing who can count louder during band camp.

olivia plays piccolo. she often plays the highest notes she can into shayne's ear just to scare him. shayne usually screams as she scuttles away to her locker.

courtney is also in battery. bass tingz. she memorizes her own music and everyone else's cause she's beast like that.

noah is in the color guard. he's rifle!!! one year during a run through he accidentally hit courtney in the head with the end of his flag and the sound of it was in time with the music

keith is our front ensemble boy. he plays marimba and his fingers are all beat from using 4 mallets at a time. he also giggles a little when he hears boze hit the triangle in the show.

kimmy! she plays synth during show and has a cheat sheet on the piano of all the different effects she has to use during show but the judges can't see from all the way up there so she's allowed to use it. but she has it mostly memorized, its just for when the nerves kick in and the muscle memory fails.