#otp: the heart has its reasons

[fishandships]

“Don’t get up - I’ll do it.” for Alhaitham? -Setchan

Fluff Starters (thank you i needed this ;w;)

      Work was dragging on even more slowly than usual. Alhaitham could hardly even focus on his book, glancing constantly at the clock. It was normal for him to want to leave early, but this time was for a different reason. This time he had a date.

      As he checked the clock for the umpteenth time, there was a knock at his office door. “Come in,” he sighed irritably.

      The door cracked open. One of his secretaries peered nervously through. “Sir, a message for you. It’s from Kaveri.”

      Now Alhaitham was paying attention. “What did they say?”

      The secretary opened the door a little further. “They  offered their sincerest apologies, but said they won’t be able to meet with you this afternoon. They’re laid up with a migraine.”

      Alhaitham frowned. Kaveri had mentioned offhandedly that they experienced frequent migraines, but he hadn’t realized it was so bad that they would miss a date. At once a sense of purpose came over him. He stood. “Well then. If anyone is looking for me, tell them I had to attend to an emergency.”

      With that, he brushed past the secretary and headed out.

      This was a time when having an Akasha Terminal again would have been useful. Instead Alhaitham paused briefly at his own home to grab a few books on cures for common ailments, as well as some other things. He read up on migraine treatments all the way to Kaveri’s temporary residence in the outermost suburbs of Sumeru City. When he arrived, the windows were covered, which was unusual - normally Kaveri kept the windows wide open in any weather. Alhaitham rapped lightly at the door. “Kaveri? It’s me.”

      “Just a moment!” came the reply, the voice weary but pleasantly surprised.

      After a short while the door opened. Kaveri shielded their eyes with their hand. They were in loose-fitted, simple clothing that Alhaitham assumed were pajamas, and their hair looked as though they’d hastily groomed out their bedbead just before coming to the door. Their bearing was haggard, pain evident in the slight squint of their eyes. “I’m so sorry to flake on you,” they said sadly. “I was really looking forward to this afternoon, but-“

      “Don’t apologize,” he interrupted in an authoritative tone. “The museum will still be there next week. I’m more concerned about you. May I come in?”

      Kaveri stepped aside to let him in. “I’m really in no shape to be a good host, but I could make you some tea if-“

      They stopped abruptly when Alhaitham lifted his hand to their face, his thumb gently brushing over their cheekbone as he examined them. “Shh. Don’t worry about any of that. I’m here to take care of you.”

      At this Kaveri’s demeanor took an unusual turn. A furrow slowly appeared in their brow, and their eyelids fluttered in response to the prickle of incoming tears. They leaned into his touch and swallowed before speaking. “Thank you.”

       He kissed their forehead. “Go back to bed. I’ll make the tea - I brought something that’s supposed to help with migraines.”

       Kaveri stood frozen for a moment, biting their lower lip as if to keep it from trembling. “Okay,” they said quietly, and retreated into their bedroom.

      Alhaitham busied himself making tea, tidying the kitchen a bit as he went. When the tea was ready, he found Kaveri in their room, curled on their side amid a veritable nest of pillows. They sat up quickly when he entered and immediately winced. “Relax,” he said, setting their tea within reach. 

       Kaveri accepted the tea, sipping in silence as they watched him prepare a blend of essential oils. “Where do you keep your diffuser?” he asked.

       “In the closet,” they replied, swinging their legs over the side of the bed.

       He held up a hand to stop them before they stood. “Don’t get up - I’ll get it. Drink your tea.”

       Once the diffuser was set up and the gentle aroma of mixed herbs filled the air, Alhaitham sat at the foot of Kaveri’s bed to drink his own tea. They were still watching him over the top of their cup, peering up through their long eyelashes. “Thank you,” they murmured. “I’m not used to being taken care of.”

        “It’s nothing,” he replied. “Selfishly, I still wanted to spend time with you. The location of the ‘date’ is irrelevant.”

       “We should still go to the museum another time, though,” they said.

        He nodded in agreement, offering them a little smile. “Absolutely.”

       Seeing that they were nearly finished with their tea, he asked, “Is the window closed because it’s too loud outside?”

        They sighed. “Yeah. The fresh air helps a lot, but here in the city, the noise sort of outweighs the benefit.”

       “Then let’s remedy that,” Alhaitham said.

       He removed his noise-canceling headphones and carefully placed them on Kaveri’s ears. They lifted their hands to touch the headphones almost reverently. “Are you sure?”

       “I wouldn’t be willing to loan them to you if I wasn’t sure,” he replied, his tone kinder than his succinct words might otherwise have implied.

       Standing, he went to the window and opened it wide. A gentle breeze swept in along with the general clamor of the busy street outside. Kaveri looked relieved. “These work beautifully.”

       “If I put on some music, you’ll hardly be able to hear anything else at all,” Alhaitham offered.

       “Oh…no, that’s alright,” they said softly. “I want to be able to hear your voice.”

       Another little smile graced his lips. He trailed the back of his forefinger along their cheek. Then he said, “I have one more thing that might help.”

        Reaching into one of his many pockets, he produced a flat, round object. He squeezed it in his hand to activate it before offering it to Kaveri, who inclined their head curiously as they accepted. Their expression lit up in such delight that Alhaitham had to smile again. “It’s a little Cryo Slime! And it’s cold!” they exclaimed.

        “It contains some essence of Cryo Slime,” he explained. “It's meant to be used as a compress.”

       “It even has a little face…how cute.” Kaveri lay down on their back with a sigh of relief, their slime cold pack on their brow. “Oh, that feels so good.”

       They turned their body in a way that reminded him of a cat to gaze up at him with soft eyes. “Thank you again. Really. It might not seem like a lot to you, but to me…”

        Their eyes started to water. Alhaitham stroked their hair. “Shh. Just rest. I’ll be here if you need anything else.”

       Kaveri nodded. They closed their eyes and sighed again. Satisfied that his work was done, Alhaitham again sat at the foot of the bed. He took out a book and started to read. After a moment he glanced at Kaveri. There was still some tension from pain in their face, especially around their eyes, but less so than when he’d first arrived. Now, laying among their collection of pillows in their soft pajamas, they looked much more relaxed and comfortable.

      And cuddleable.

      Alhaitham set his book aside. Slowly, almost hesitantly, he lay down beside Kaveri. He put his arms around them and pulled their back to his chest. They put their hands over his own, hugging his forearms. “Are you gonna nap with me?”

      Though he couldn’t see their face, he could hear the smile in their voice. ���Mm-hmm,” he hummed, his face against their shoulder. 

     Kaveri kissed the backs of his fingers before wiggling a bit to attain maximum comfiness. This time, their sigh was one of contentment. “I feel better already.”

      “Good,” he said, the relief he felt only barely entering his voice. 

      Even without his headphones, he soon found himself growing drowsy in the warmth and comfort of the shared bed, blanketed in the fresh air and the aroma from the diffuser. Kaveri’s breathing grew shallow and even as they dozed off. With them in his arms, he soon joined them for a brief afternoon snooze. It wasn’t the date he had been looking forward to, but, having been able to share some comfort with his lover in their time of need, Alhaitham was content.

[menelaiad]

hello here to push my patroclus/menelaus agenda.

they are so similar. in both. character, story (to an extent) and how the bard/author of the iliad treats them.

they are literally both deemed as 'kindly' - the only two.

if y'all make me talk about the defence of patroclus again i'll riot (mother cow. slain for my honour. the DEFENDER not the attacker)

they exist in the shadows of greater heroes (despite being pretty awesome themselves) patroclus in achilles' and menelaus in agamemnon's and yet they don't begrudge that. they're fine... happy with the spotlight being on these other figures because they love them and care for them.

they are catalysts to a greater story. aRUGABLY achilles wouldn't have rejoined the war without patroclus' death and the trojan war would not have started had menelaus not sought help from his brother/partially initiated it himself.

they both have weight on their backs. patroclus is a murderer and an exile. menelaus is cursed and an exile.

they were both suitors to helen. they have met before.

in the agamemnon/achilles fight ... bro. they both can see both sides. they can see achilles' slighted honour and agamemnon's fragile mental state but they can also see achilles' stubborness and agamemnon's willingness to try. they both can't wholeheartedly take a side.

they would have spoke after so much time at troy. they would have got on so well.

there's a line in the paris musical where patroclus sings 'menelaus i indulge your grief, your dignity and your pain' and for a campy insane iconic musical??? it made some points. its got hanDS.

incredible lads.

[singingcicadas]

Megatron's Opposite Day

"I free slaves"

This is Soundwave binding Ratbat but seeing as Megatron did the same thing to Pentius by putting his spark into Trypticon and reformatted Rumble and Frenzy into cassettes against their will I think he approves a lot of this practice

Megatron on Optimus and humans, after his defeat in All Hail Megatron ⬇️

he really salty

"I implant ideology" aka brainwashing

Decepticon cause = Megatron. nuff said.

"I liberate cities" says the person who let Nyon burn to make a point

Cities are too small, think bigger

Holding New York hostage.

"Like Autobots, they believe in the sanctity of life" which he doesn't. Kudos for being honest.

Allowing troops to do free-rein massacre is a reward for conquest. Nothing like some easy murder for de-stressing.

The Simanzi massacre which halved the Cybertronian population is off-screen so it doesn't deserve its own pic

"The revolution"

"We only feel good when we stand with a blade in one hand and a throat in another" "Let's make the entire face of the planet into our new gladiator arena"

What nice, confidence-inspiring revolutionaries. I'm sure they'll rule the population with benevolence after they've killed all the Necessary People with Necessary Violence. Final interpretation of what constitutes as Necessary is reserved for the sole discretion of Megatron, ofc.

Good goals.

Sentinel might be an absolute asshole but at least he's got one thing right: they're literally a gang of thugs who gets high off murder.

"The people are my utmost concern"

'The people': ................

"Battling for freedom"

Freedom of what? Function? Autonomy?

Religion?

the ability to choose whether to fight? on which side to fight?

Idk why they used the word "pogrom" for this, it's way too specific

Anyways it doesn't matter, they won't be missed.

Good for Bumblebee for calling him out. Screenshotted this just to appreciate Megatron's bitchy face ⬇️

Other urban legends:

"Megatron loves Cybertron" let's just burrrrn it

He did fight to save Cybertron in Chaos Theory but also made it pretty clear why he did it. It's not out of the goodness of his heart or any sentimental reasons like that. It's an ego/dominance thing.

Plus his wording when he's trying to convince Optimus to let him go with the Lost Light: "I broke the planet. And that, Optimus, is why I owe it to you - to everyone - to find a replacement."

Replacement.

In other words: I made a mess and can't be bothered to clean it up, so I want to get away from it and find somewhere new to start clean.

I don't think Optimus appreciates the favour.

"Megatron tore down a corrupt government" which is true, just too bad that he's worse

He's also, um, a closeted Zeta admirer?

"Megatron advocates equality" ???

Megatron x dictatorship is literally his OTP. They were inseparable for four million years. A lot of people died trying.

"Megatron cares about the Decepticons" no he doesn't. Not his troops nor its cause.

Like for one thing he treats them with complete scorn

Admits that the most useful thing about keeping Starscream around is that he can bully underlings into line

Wants to use the humans' nuke to get rid of his troops and reformat them into peaceful drones after they outlive their use because they were "too ruthless" for his perfect peaceful society

Has zero scruples about fighting Deceptigod, just affronted that his own soldiers are being used against him

And basically just drops the Decepticons like a bag of vermin after he surrenders. He never once mentions them of his own accord, other than to insist he has nothing to do with them. Even his surrender speech is something Optimus makes him do as exchange b/c he wants to go on parole. He wasn't planning on making a public address otherwise, he was just going to leave them hanging.

Looking at the publication timeline, Megatron started out as an established Evil McEvilson-type villain similar to how he is in G1 and it's not until Chaos Theory in 2011 that JRo really gave him a sympathetic backstory that drew his characterization away from the bloodthirsty pugno ergo sum warlord into someone who once held ideals about societal reform and remains convinced of his own moral supremacy throughout the 4 mill years of death and war, adding worldbuilding such as Functionism/oppression/government corruption as justification for the beginning of the Decepticon movement. But because the start of the Decepticons was already written in Megatron Origins and every evil thing he'd done up till Chaos Theory can't be retracted and they had to keep Megatron as a villain until his story was no longer central to the Autobot-Decepticon war line, and JRo didn't try to downplay the atrocities he'd committed (some of the most sadistically disturbing things Megatron did were exclusively in MTMTE flashbacks), but rather tried to distance him from them and placed the focus on the juxtapositions to emphasize change, this as a whole just resulted in Evil McEvilson getting turned into Hyper McHypocrite.

[dangermousie]

Top Dozen cdramas - 2024

This can obviously change but nothing truly exciting looks to air for the rest of the year so that's unlikely. My Top Dozen for the year are likely be set in stone.

It's a very idiosyncratic list which has two mini dramas, three moderns (!!! for me that's insane) and a lot of vibes dramas.

12 Hard to Find - all vibes all the times. A tragic romance that feels like a Gothic fairytale, this is what minidramas could be.

11 Love In the Desert - out of all the dramas on this list, this is the one that screams most "a good time." It's a romance and visual feast and webnovel madness and sexy good time and it made me cry.

10 Fortune Writer - a mini that is so smart and meta and fun about narratives and fate and villainy and fighting the story itself. So clever.

9 Derailment - a puzzle and a love story, telling most anything about it would be a spoiler but this story about a rich girl from 2025 who seemingly wakes up in a parallel universe in 2023 in body of a poor doppelganger, and the young man who was in love with the original has everything including addressing what it must feel to people to have a transmigrator possess a loved one.

8 Tender Light - the ending was just - it's the reason it's not n1. But the rest of this drama about an abused wife and an idealistic young man refusing to bow to societal pressure was just exquisite. It addresses morality and loneliness and complicity and sacrifice. Just incredible. Poetry in motion.

7 Will Love In Spring - a modern romance cdrama? In my list? Is the world ending? But seriously, this is such a gorgeous, realistic yet intense exploration of love and loss and trauma. It made me utterly reevaluate Li Xian to boot.

6 Snowfall - this is such a fever dream of a mood piece of a vampire romance, with seriously BDSM and gay vibes, as well as utterly incredible canon age gap ride or die OTP with Ouyang Nana bothering to act for the first time in her life and Vengo Gao embodying a gentleman vampire to perfection. Li Muge remains one of my favorite directors for a reason.

5 Heroes - the story of three very different men all consigned to the dustheap of history by changing times (the best swordsman in the era of guns, a former imperial guard of a regime about to be overthrown, a constable obedient to obsolete code who studied for imperial exams which got abolished) as the Qing dynasty is about to fall, this has fights, humor, three (!) separate love stories, philosophy and utter and complete heartbreak. The performances, the ideas, the filming and the writing all combine to make a bleak masterpiece with a 99% death rate (I am not kidding, only tertiaries make it out.) If I were in charge, it would get all the awards.

4 The Legend of Shen Li - the one truly mainstream idol costume hit on the list. It's an adult, passionate xianxia that reunites Zhao Liying and Lin Gengxin as deities and battle powerhouses in a love story that is so full of yearning and passion and intensity I feel like peeking through my fingers. This is everything xianxia romance tries to be and almost never is. This just might be my favorite xianxia of all time, tbh.

3 Eternal Brotherhood - a dark horse whose existence I didn't even know about before it aired. Visually stunning despite its tiny budget, this narrative about three sworn brothers in a kingdom and world in crisis, is pitch perfect in its humor, its intensity, its tragedy and its themes (also THREE!!!! amazing love stories despite not being a romance-centric show.) The battles, the friendships, the traumas, the darkness at the heart of it all!

2 Fangs of Fortune - the sole drama that can rival JoL2 for me (only caveat is it's still airing), this is visually the most jaw dropping drama I've ever seen, but it's also high fantasy the way it should be - making me feel so immersed that stopping feels like coming up from a deep dive or waking up from a hypervivid dream. It has impeccable performances (many from actors who I don't normally even like), and its plot and relationships and themes - fate and sacrifice and choice and found family bonds and trauma and so many other things - make it feel as if it was made just for me.

1 Joy of Life 2 - THE drama of 2024 for me. It's somehow better than the incredible first installment. It's funny, it's heartbreaking, it has insane performances, a narrative that hits all my personally favorite themes (a person trying to remain human in an inhuman world, righteousness not being weak), a large cast of fascinating characters who feel like they live in front of me (there are no throwaway roles in this), my favorite ship of the year (though it's not even a ship-centric show) and above all, Zhang Ruoyun's live wire of a performance as Fan Xian, arguably my favorite cdrama character of all time. It should not work yet it does. Brilliantly.

[bloggingboutburgers]

I had a wake up call about fandom by scrolling today. It's linked to both the fact that I write and my asexuality.

The post was about how people don't consider writers as artists. It remembered me a post talking about how artists are better than writers who just write fetish porn.

And it remembered me. Isn't it all that people care about when it come to fanfic anyway? Writing their otp kissing and then sleeping together?

I wrote literally only gen fic for all my teens years. You imagine that I am used to be ignored. Today, I hate posting my fics, even if I write more who are romantic.

The reviews change nothing. To me, people will never consider the effort I put in my writing because nobody kiss and have sex.

I see this outside of fandom too. Two of my favorite story get its theme ignored because it wasn't a romance despite the male and female lead being close. They just ignore everything that happen just because they deluded themselves that there were romance between them

Because what else could it be? Why else would they read or write fic?

I'm tired that they lead how society view relationship. I hate their obsession for romance and sex that I talk about on the microcosm but apply in an even worst way in real life where my parents think that my best friend talking to me less should be normal because she have a boyfriend (she's busy because of her job but they don't believe me)

It's worst in media for women even if I'll talk only about shojo here, were even if the heroine claim to not want love some stereotypical asshole with a heart of gold will steal hers later.

I hate being a writer in that environment. I hate knowing that I'll change nothing. Even if some people like my ideas I know that on a large scale it's nothing.

...OK, I know we talked about that in private since this message already, that I'm replying to this super-late and I hope I'm not reopening any old wounds, I'm so sorry if I am...

...But tbh I'm still gonna share this as it is and not comment further because... Agreed tbh. I don't write (aside from comics), I don't engage in fandom actively anymore because of such reasons, so I have no idea how to make this better, but... At least visibility of such messages has to account for something I hope, and I don't know if sharing it here will accomplish a lot, but it's the least I can do anyway.

And I'm so sorry I'm doing it so late T^T

[conundrumoftime]

Fandom grandma tales: how I survived canon ruining two of the ships I liked.

(Written after a discussion with some of my TROP fan pals about how canon can break your heart re: shipping, and how fandom manages. There are spoilers here for the entire run of Babylon 5, and for one story JMS wrote after it. yes, that story. sorry.)

Babylon 5 was a sci-fi space opera show that ran from 1993 to 1998. It is sci-fi of the era of 22-episode seasons, of huge ensemble casts with characters who get their own B- and C-plots, with an effects and casting budget that doesn’t always match its ambition, and - something it was quite pioneering in, at the time - grand pre-planned story arcs. 

It’s the first fandom that I was involved with in internet spaces as it was running, or at least when its final season was (there’s Discourse and drama from earlier years that I missed). Its showrunner, J. Michael Straczynski - ‘JMS’ - was very active in (non-fanfic) fan community spaces, and you always knew exactly what he was thinking about things because he was part of the discussion around them. There was also fanfic, which he didn’t stop but didn’t go near on the grounds of legal liability for story ideas. 

Most of the fanfic in the early days as the show was airing was focused around two big ships, of which one was canon endgame (Delenn/Sheridan) and one was canon all-ends-in-despair (Marcus/Ivanova). I, as a teenager discovering a developing online fandom for the first time with all the overwhelm and excitement that causes (ask me anything about what reading fic was like before the days of tags/ratings/warnings!) got into Marcus/Ivanova and also into one of the minor ships, Delenn/Lennier.

Delenn/Lennier was never, ever going to happen in canon. This is obvious; it clashes with Delenn/Sheridan which was JMS’s baby darling OTP, the show’s big love story. Delenn is married for the later part of the show. Lennier is her diplomatic aide, is absolutely devoted to her, and they have a very intense mentor/student relationship, which it seems is kind of standard in their culture (when Delenn’s own mentor died she went briefly insane with grief and started a genocidal war over it) but is still Very Intense. He is canonically in love with her, but that’s as far as the explicit canon statements go.

However. HowEVER. Canon also gives us, for that relationship, some wonderful ship fuel. Lennier knows about every bad thing Delenn has done, including all the stuff she doesn’t/can’t tell her husband. He’s her link to her previous world and culture and stands by her even when they kick her out. She says at one point, “without him, I would stumble and fall and never get up again.” 

And then… we had Season 5, the final season.

Season 5, for various complicated production reasons, was operating a little outside of pre-planned story arcs and in this season the Delenn/Lennier stuff ramped up about three gears in one go. It was still very obviously never, ever going to be canon, and was almost certainly not intended by the creator (who wrote most of the episodes himself) to look like there was even anything there. At this point Delenn is married; any relationship with her aide would not only be going against the show’s OTP, but going against it in the sense where she’s cheating on her husband, and there is Just No Way JMS would have gone there. And yet! Season 5 gave us:

A scene where Lennier says he can’t stay, it’s too painful to be around her now she’s married, and she’s devastated and has the following conversation with her husband about it:

S: I got your message about Lennier. Is there anything I can do?

D [snapping]: Almost certainly not.

S: Is it because of me?

D: In part, I think so.

S: Yeah, I was afraid of that. Well, as we say back on Earth, three’s a crowd.

D: On Minbar, three is sacred.

S [slightly uncomfortable laugh]: Well, I don’t think I’m ready to handle that one, Delenn.

Delenn then calling Lennier back to the station to do some secret mission thing for her, which involves her sneaking out of her bed while her husband sleeps to meet Lennier in a darkened alley behind a bar, where she tenderly strokes his face and they have a whole conversation about whether her husband understands her or not.

A scene where Lennier comes back from his secret mission to meet both Delenn and Sheridan, Delenn goes to greet him with a hug, and Lennier does this very pointed step back and nod in the direction of her husband, and she pulls back and just sort of pats him on the arms instead. 

I MEAN.

But, the issue here is not what fans did about it but what canon did about it. Canon did the canon equivalent of dragging that ship outside and shooting it in the head. 

In the final few episodes of the entire series, Lennier tries to kill Sheridan, runs away in shame, and then someone finds his diary in which he’d been writing for ages about what a bad decision he thought Delenn had made and how her whole marriage was an awful idea. Even to this day, it’s fun/awful watching people go through a first-time watch when they get to season 5 and hit that. ‘Character assassination in the form of a diary’ was a whole thing for a while. It’s been 20+ years and the actor who played Lennier is stilll mad about it (not because of shippy stuff, but because he - correctly! - thinks Lennier absolutely would not have done that). 

What *fandom* did, on the other hand, was Fixed The Problem.

Delenn/Lennier was not at all a big ship when the series was airing, and for a few years after. Then the fandom dynamics started to change. With less pressure on what canon was going to do, it felt like fandom had more space to play around with things it didn’t do. Fanfic got less interested in trying to fit within the overall story being told and started spinning off in all its own directions. And *this* ship started getting bigger and bigger. People did really interesting things with it, canon divergence went in all directions, everyone wrote a fix-it story of some variety, some authors did a great series of connected stories based on an idea that Minbari have three genders, the quality of the writing has been brilliant. And I think without that absolute whiplash feeling of what happened in canon, there would never have been this feeling of “well I’m not having THAT” which led to all this.

We did not need canon! Canon had done its thing. And canon had broken our hearts enough ways with many of the other stories it told (entirely on purpose) and we weren’t just going to sit back and let it ruin us forever.

By comparison, the other ship I was into was Marcus/Ivanova. This is entirely doomed. Susan Ivanova’s love life is just perpetually doomed. The first partner of hers we meet is an ex who’s interested in getting back together, but then it turns out he’s just using her to infiltrate the station for the fascist terrorist group he’s secretly joined. Then she falls for an archrival of hers, Talia, who works for Psi Corps, the organisation she loathes most of all things - but it’s okay because it turns out Talia is starting to question them too! Maybe these crazy kids can make it work! They have one night together and then OOPS turns out Talia was being secretly controlled by a sleeper personality implanted in her by Psi Corps the whole time. Ivanova’s love life is doomed. 

So for two seasons, she has this sort-of-flirty, sort-of-bickery, sort-of-friendship going with Marcus, who is on the surface of it very much “why not fall in love at first sight like a true romantic, YOLO!” but it turns out is actually deeply messed up himself and full of survivor’s guilt and pain and, you get the clear impression, would have died of shock if she’d actually called his bluff on the OTT flirting and said “yeah, let’s go for it”. And then he sacrifices himself to save her life. It is a very tragic ending, it is absolutely the way he would have wanted to go, she wakes up both furious and absolutely distraught, says that the last thing she heard was him saying “I love you”, says she wishes she’d at least slept with him once, and says that in a way all love is unrequited. PAIN. 

So, lots of fix-it fanfic, lots of ‘Marcus comes back to life’, lots of canon divergence AUs where he doesn’t die and they live happily ever after and both get over their huge levels of unresolved pain. Pretty standard for that kind of pairing. And as a pairing it doesn’t get in the way of any big canon pairings, it doesn’t imply anything icky like mentor/student power imbalances or adultery. And JMS clearly quite liked it. So that’s better, right?

NO. It was WORSE.

JMS wrote an Marcus/Ivanova story himself, published in one of the sci-fi magazines, to try to give them a happy ending. This happy ending involves Marcus, many many years in the future, waking up from the cryogenic suspension he’s in (it’s sci-fi, keep up, keep up). Ivanova is long dead, but he isn’t about to let this get in the way, so what he does is to *create a new Ivanova* by getting some kind of DNA + computerised memory/personality bank thing, finding a doctor who will clone her, putting himself back into animated sleep until the clone reaches the age Ivanova was when she died, then - THEN, I’M STILL GOING - takes her to a distant planet where, with her memories wiped and their spaceship having deliberately been crashed BY HIM so there’s no way back, they live out their lives in peace.

WHAT.

That pairing still does okay in fandom but it’s not really taken on a post-show world of headcanons and riffing on other people’s ideas and tropes in the way that Delenn/Lennier has (and we all just pretend that story never existed). 

So! This has been my experiences in the field of What We Do When The Show Has Thoughts On That Non-Endgame Ship We’re Into. Fandom manages. Fandom will see you through. And in the words of Susan Ivanova:

Babylon Five was the last of the Babylon stations; there would never be another. It changed the future, and it changed us. It taught us that we have to create the future, or others will do it for us. It showed us that we have to care for one another, for if we don’t, who will? And that true strength sometimes comes from the most unlikely places. Mostly though, I think it gave us hope that there can always be new beginnings - even for people like us.

[davidstirlings]

Could you please do a Mcdiarmid character brake down?

Of course!! ("give me a character" breakdown thingy, for anyone wondering)

How I feel about this character

We haven't had much screen time with Jock McD yet, and yet I am already captivated by him, heart and soul. My lovely mad Scotsman, who has mad beef with Reg for no reason(?) but is absolutely down to fight him, holds hands with Pat, might possibly be more insane than the rest of the SAS put together, he's always up for a row (the Ritz fight was brilliant, I love him), and has a great moustache. He's also really fucking funny, and if there's an S3, I want more of him, and more of his brilliant one-liners.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Oh god, where to begin? Bill Stirling/Jock ("I like your boots, Bill"), Reg/Jock (an "enemies" to lovers type situation, like Reg and Johnny were), and Pat/Jock (holding hands 🥺). Oh, and Bill Fraser/Jock bc of that one gifset.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Hmmm, probably Jock and Pat, or Jock and Bill. Bill would constantly roll his eyes at Jock, and Pat would probably just encourage him.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I don't think I have one? We haven't really had enough of him on our screens for me to have an unpopular opinion. I guess perhaps he's sometimes a bit too much, and a bit too reckless, but that also describes 90% of the characters in this show

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Ok, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I kinda want to see that dark descent that Jock is supposed to go down when they finally touch down in mainland Europe after D-Day. We've seen bits and pieces of the trauma the lads are going through, especially Reg in S2, and I think seeing how several years of this fighting is taking its toll on the lads would be very interesting (and heartbreaking). I also want him to start more bar fights, and have more cute little moments with Pat.

[melancholiast-clair]

For the ask thing. Melancholia, since she’s your URL and I’ve never seen you talk about her

YES YES YES OMG OKAY HI. i have been Waiting for a chance to talk to her but its been so long since i've reread the books that specifically involve her that i feel like my knowledge of her as a character has dipped. still !!

here is the link for the ask game :)

favorite thing about them: her attitude, honestly. i LOVE a rude character, especially when that comes from a place of jealousy, and she is my Queen of jealous behavior <3

least favorite thing about her: difficult question, to be honest! anything i dislike is often sort of meta and aimed at derek landy's method of writing characters who have been "brainwashed."

fav line: DIFFICULT!!! "surprise," when she first goes to hunt valkyrie in db is a classic, but i thiiink. i think i'd have to go for a moment later in that conversation, when she talks about what it feels like to be a god.

like... she's so clearly desperate to convince herself just as much as she's desperate to convince val, and i love it so much. she's so SO messed up.

brOTP: i honestly don't look at mel as someone with a lot of friends, but one of my favorite dynamics i like to run over in my head is her and clarabelle. i think interactions between them could be so so funny and honestly really cute - mel's such a self-centered grump, it would be fun to see her against someone who's so constantly lighthearted.

OTP: val/melancholia has my heart . like literally forever. they're so awful to each other in the beginning but they establish this understanding that actually means so so much to me? their dynamic is so fun to play with, and i have an au where mel ends up near val during the post-dotl time skip that i think about All The Time.

nOTP: haven't seen anyone actually ship these two, but just one thing i would be decidedly uninterested in is mel and craven. for a lot of reasons overall, but idk. with the way derek writes their relationship i wouldn't be comfortable seeing them in anything outside of what they already are - which is uncomfortable in itself, to be honest.

random headcanon: i like to think she used to be a writer, when she had free time. i don't really have a basis for it, but i like to think about 15 yr old mel with a poetry journal, scribbling down edgy lines and dreaming about becoming the next sylvia plath. i just really like the idea of her with dreams before she became the death bringer.

unpopular opinion: um. i haven't really seen enough opinions About mel to necessarily have an 'unpopular' one? i guess mine is like... i would've actually liked to see more of her and the consequences of her failing on the necromancer community.

song i associate with them: okay. a song with both vibe and lyrics that fit her would be this but i have like. a whole list of specific val/mel songs and songs that mel would just break down upon hearing the lyrics of, including satisfied by MARINA, to be seen by searows, and drunk drivers/killer whales by carseat headrest. also, the line from the arcane s2 soundtrack goes CRAZY as a melancholia song, actually.

favorite picture of them: i don't feel right reposting other people's art, but i've really only ever seen @nicstylus draw her, so PLEEEASE go check out their stuff because its brilliant <3

[yukidragon]

Sunny Day Jack - Playful and Crazy

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I've decided to just write something in the spirit of love. What better way to show myself love than with some sugary sweet self-indulgence with my OTP? I just let things flow wherever it took me with Alice and Jack loving on each other, without really fretting about any bigger purpose, polishing, or any real beginning or end.

No real warnings apply, just some sweet making out and silliness from a clown who has an appreciation for television and a ray of sunshine who drives him crazy. Who doesn't love to reference a good sitcom that they grew up with when the mood is right?

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you all have a wonderful one and that you enjoy my story. Love you all and, as always, thanks for reading and sending me sweet comments!

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur @kurokrisps

...

Alice ran her fingers through his blue hair. It felt soft and silky, not at all stiff like a wig or as if it was dyed. Jack let out a low, pleased rumble at the back of his throat as he leaned into her touch. His expression was one of pure contentment as his eyes drifted closed. His adorable dreamy smile seized her heart in a gentle squeeze.

“Alice,” Jack sighed. He shifted as Alice brought her fingers back to his forehead, nuzzling into her arm before pressing his lips to her wrist. “My sunshine…”

Alice shivered at the way his voice and warm breath caressed her skin. “Jack…,” she said softly as he planted another kiss there, then another. Slowly he worked his way down his arm, planting countless playful pecks that tickled and warmed her all at once.

“Cara mia,” Jack said with a playful note to his voice, his eyes dancing as he met her gaze.

Alice tried not to laugh, but it escaped her anyway in a snort. Of course this television clown would make a TV show reference. “You’re so cheesy,” she teased before breaking off into giggles as he peppered her with intentionally ticklish kisses.

“Querida mia,” Jack cooed in a poor Italian accent. His movements became a bit more exaggerated with every kiss, making the reference even more intentional, but each kiss carried his sincere love for her.

Alice giggled as she watched her silly clown perform, using her arm as a prop. “Do you even know what that means?”

“No,” Jack admitted playfully between kisses. “But I do know that it means you’re the only one for me, sunshine.”

Alice felt a flush of warmth that brought a rosy hue to her cheeks. “You’re the only one for me too, mi amor.”

Jack’s eyes sparkled with excitement, and he flashed a wide smile. “Sunshine, that’s French!” He practically attacked her arm with kisses. “You know it drives me crazy when you speak French.”

Alice fought not to laugh at his silly antics, giving him a smile that barely managed to hold onto its wry hook. “A-actually that’s Spanish.”

Jack paused for a moment, as if caught off guard or contemplating, before he went back to kissing her arm. “Alice, that’s Spanish! You know it drives me crazy when you speak Spanish.”

Alice couldn’t hold back her laughter that time, and every kiss only made her cackle even more.

It was only when Jack worked his way up to her shoulder and his lips found her neck that Alice started to go breathless for a different reason. Silly pecks slowly started to linger, his mouth gently sucking on her skin with every kiss that blazed a trail upward along the hollow of her throat. Gently, he raked his teeth along her skin before nibbling on a particularly sensitive part, eliciting a gasp that turned into an adorable almost mewling sound.

“God…,” Jack murmured against her neck, and Alice could feel his smile against her skin. “It drives me crazy when you make those noises for me, sunshine.” He leaned back just enough to see her flushed face, those plump pink lips that beckoned for his. “You drive me crazy… so, so crazy…”

Alice didn’t get a chance to respond before Jack claimed her lips with his. She moaned what would have been his name if his tongue didn’t slide into her mouth to twine with hers, making words impossible. She gave up on any sort of witty retort and savored the kiss instead, wrapping her arms around her lover’s neck to draw him closer.

It was only when both of them were left breathless and gasping desperately for air that they parted, mouths wet and connected for a moment more after that. Jack admired the haze of love and desire that clouded her bright blue eyes, taking pride in knowing that he was the cause of it. He was the reason she was so worked up. He was the only one she looked at that way, the only one who she would ever look at this way.

A part of Jack wanted to show off, to brag to the world that only he was worthy of Alice. He was the only one who could drive her wild and make her weak with need. Another part of him was greedy like a dragon with its hoard, wanting to lock her away in their own little world where no one could take her from him. Nothing would take his sunshine away from him. He’d never allow it.

It scared him sometimes how badly he needed her.

“I can’t help it,” Jack said softly, more to himself than her. “I can’t help but be crazy for you, Alice. I love you so much… I need you.”

His answer was a kiss, as Alice pulled him back to her. Jack melted into her lips, moaning as she took the initiative to deepen the kiss, sliding her tongue along his intimately. She twined her fingers through his hair, tracing hearts along his scalp and making him shiver as the kiss ended.

“I love you too, Jack,” Alice said breathlessly. She placed a kiss on his painted nose before giving him a crooked smile. “You’ve made my life crazy, you silly clown, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Jack chuckled as Alice teasingly poked her tongue out at him before he captured it with his lips, leading them into another deep, wet kiss. He pulled her close, savoring the warmth of her body against his, how her delicate fingers toyed with his hair and scalp.

“Good,” Jack said once they caught their breath again. “Because I’m not going anywhere.”

“I’m holding you to that,” Alice said as she playfully, but gently, tugged on his hair for emphasis.

Jack shivered at the feeling and his smile took on a hungry edge to it, like a predator salivating over his prey. “You can hold onto me as tight as you want,” he practically purred before his voice turned teasing. “You can pull on my hair as hard as you like too. I don’t mind, you know~!”

Alice blushed harder at his suggestion and sputtered for a moment before she recovered. “You really are a crazy clown,” she said with a soft chuckle, before giving his  hair a slightly firmer tug. “Just… let me know if it’s too hard.” Her smile faded just a little. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t,” Jack said. His voice was soft but full of conviction so strong that Alice couldn’t help but believe it too. “Don’t worry… I’m tougher than I look, you know. Besides, I’d enjoy it if you played a little rough with me sometimes.” He added a playful wink to lighten the mood. “I love how gentle you are with me, Alice, but I’d love to drive you just as crazy as you make me. I want you to lose control with me, go wild for me, want me, need me, until you can’t think about anything else but me… how much you love me and I love you.”

Alice let out a quiet chuckle at that. “Trust me, there’s no one else who makes me wild like you, starlight.” She punctuated her words by nipping at his lower lip before drawing back. “I’m crazy for you, Jack. I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Alice,” Jack sighed happily before he closed the distance between them in another kiss. He smiled against her lips as he felt her give his hair another, much more firm tug. He moaned her name in approval before drinking deeply of that sweet mouth that always knew the right words to say to fill his heart with love.

[perverse-idyll]

@hprecfest 2024 - Day 5: a romantic fic

Yeah, it's Dec. 23rd 26th, but I haven't given up hope of posting a few more of these. Therefore, onward! More Snarry!

Miles to Go Before I Sleep by pluperfectsunrise - This is so far into sweet romance territory it risks setting off the skeptical Scrooge in me. See, it's rare that I swoon over emotionally mature versions of Snape. But this fic is so elegantly written and so perfectly constructed I was seduced by its humor and the writer's light and loving touch, so it didn't take me long to fall for its charms. (Much less time than it takes Harry to fall for Snape's, I'll tell you.) The premise: once a year, Harry and Severus dance together at the Ministry's Solstice Ball. Over the course of 14 years, undercurrents of yearning rise to the surface as they waltz closer to confessions of the heart. It all comes together (yes, I did that on purpose) in a consummate final scene, with several lightning strikes of dialogue the Gollum writer in me covets and the Snarry fan adores. This story knows exactly what it's about and takes you there with tenderness and grace and a kind of snowlit intimacy, beautifully crafted. Pluperfectsunrise has a gift for writing restrained romance that blossoms in a rush of resolved UST.

Contempt/Devotion by danpuff - Two stories, two sides of the same coin, and part of an ongoing series, Love, Your Enemy. Okay, this is definitely my drug, my poison, the flavor I crave above all else when imbibing my OTP, and it's the kind of conflicted, even unhealthy romanticism that contains the seeds of self-destruction but also healing. With Snape/Harry, it feels right to me that strains of love/hate pollute the flood of desire, but in the end I want their relationship to survive, whatever it takes, and this series does not disappoint.

In these paired fics, Danni gives each of the men their own voice and viewpoint on the same events, each mirroring the other's out-of-control emotions and internal struggles to resist. Contempt is Harry's story, and it's soaked in the wildly contradictory heat of his passion for Snape and his anger at the fact that he can't wean himself off this secret addiction. He's cruel to Snape in his mind, hammering on all the reasons why he's contemptible, the reasons their liaison is unthinkable, and why he should stay away. (Spoiler: he doesn't stay away.) It's an untenable and guilty cycle of near-madness. Harry's engaged to Ginny and playing the role of faithful, upstanding lover, all the while telling himself that he'll end things with Snape … just not yet. That he'll do what's right, even if he's beginning to doubt what that is. The emotional impact of this fic is intense, erotic, compulsive, and at times makes you wonder if a happy ending is even possible. Snape's version in Devotion is even more self-lacerating because of course Snape knows exactly why Harry should hate him and why he only compounds his past mistakes by not driving Harry away. He anticipates rejection, despises his own longing, and yet is horribly aware his soul belongs to Harry, even though he considers himself unworthy and certainly the worst thing that could happen to Harry's reputation. But he chooses to suffer jealousy and self-loathing rather than give Harry up, and is willing to risk being destroyed by the inevitability of Harry leaving him.

And through Danni's gorgeous, intimate descriptions and red-hot sensual detail, the reader is inside their skin with them, experiencing every breath and rapture and torment, all the rationalizations and temporary ecstasy. Danni is amazing at mapping the emotional hardships and rewards of coming to grips with an inappropriate love, something so consuming that it feels dangerous. And the series isn't complete yet, so the outcome and consequences of their illicit relationship remains open and uncharted. Even as a WIP, this is one of my desert-island stories and a personal touchstone for everything I love about my ship.

[equixen]

Looking back at ‘Before You Go’

Welcome to part 2 of my Narnia fanvid retrospectives which consist of me talking about a specific fanvid I’ve made and how I’ve interpreted the lyrics. This time, I’ll be talking about my second Caspeter fanvid, ‘Before You Go’, which I uploaded almost one and a half years ago now [original post].

Before I get into it, I just wanted to say that this one is especially for @an-angels-fury because she enjoyed my retrospective post for ‘Run To You’ and said that ‘Before You Go’ is her other favourite of my Caspeter fanvids. 😊

Okay, so this one actually has an interesting origin story and that’s because this fanvid was very close to being my first Caspeter fanvid and also very close to never happening at all.

Let me explain… 😊

When I first became obsessed with Caspeter, it wasn’t long till I decided to try making a fanvid about them. I started by going through my music and eventually narrowed it down to two songs. This one and ‘What Hurts the Most’. I liked both songs very much so it was quite possible that ‘Before You Go’ would have been the first one to be edited although I ultimately decided on ‘What Hurts the Most’.

As for why this fanvid was almost never made at all… well that’s because, at the time, I thought Narnia and Caspeter would go the way of many of my other recent fandoms up till that point. That I would do one fanvid, maybe two if I was lucky, but eventually either my interest in that fandom would wane or something new would come along to take its place as my latest obsession. So, I knew that by picking one song over the other, it was quite possible the second one might never have been made.

Well, we all know how that turned out. 🤣 Several more fanvids (and even fanfics) later, Caspeter and Narnia ended up becoming so important to me for various reasons (I’ve written more about this in another post if that’s of interest) which led to Caspeter becoming my OTP of OTPs. 🥰

Alright, now onto the lyrics. This fanvid is all from Caspian’s POV.

‘I fell by the wayside like everyone else’

I feel like there are a couple of ways this line can be looked at for Caspian. Firstly, it’s Caspian personally feeling like he doesn’t measure up to the High King from Narnia’s golden age. And secondly, that Caspian thinks that Peter sees him as less-than because of his Telmarine heritage. Also, I still really like the visuals I chose for this sequence… of Caspian deferring to the higher status of the Pevensies and hanging back as they enter the How for the first time.

‘I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, but I was just kidding myself’

Yep, Peter drives Caspian absolutely crazy in the beginning. Two young men with their own axes to grind and who are out to prove themselves. Caspian both hates how stubborn Peter is during the strategising at the How, but also can’t help seeing beyond that tough exterior that Peter puts up. Someone who is both more and less than what Caspian grew up hearing about in all those stories. Because Peter might not be all that he imagined in terms of the magnificent battle-hardened warrior (at least not at first glance) but he’s also more human and more beautiful and has more heart than Caspian ever could have imagined.

‘Our every moment, I start to replace, 'cause now that they're gone, all I hear are the words that I needed to say’

Despite the connection they share, their time together is over too soon. And once Peter is gone, Caspian can’t help regretting all the things he never told Peter while he had the chance. While I’ve had multiple versions of what Caspian might regret after Peter leaves Narnia in my head for different projects over the last year and a half, when I was editing this fanvid, I was very much imagining this to be that Caspian never told Peter that he loved him.

‘When you hurt under the surface, like troubled water running cold. Well, time can heal but this won't’

I think this was the line that first made me take notice of this song as a potential Caspeter fanvid. The way it reflects their regret over the loss of so many lives after the failed castle raid. It is something that will probably haunt both of them for the rest of their lives. And even though we had no closeup of Caspian’s face when they escape the courtyard, I was rather pleased that I was able to fake one by using a shot of Caspian from the start of the film which I still think works rather well. 😊

‘So, before you go, was there something I could've said to make your heart beat better? If only I'd have known you had a storm to weather’

Apart from his siblings—who Peter could never hope to hide anything from—I feel like Peter is the kind of person who’d keep his troubles close to his chest. So, for most of the time that Caspian and Peter would have known each other, there’s so much about Peter that would’ve been a mystery to Caspian. And at the top of that list would be the hardships Peter had faced as a result of being forced back into his old life after living in Narnia for so long. Constantly being underestimated by the adults in his life as well as being bullied and belittled by his peers.

‘So, before you go, was there something I could've said to make it all stop hurting? It kills me how your mind can make you feel so worthless’

There are definitely times when Peter feels worthless. But for the first instance of this line, I chose a moment where Peter feels like he’s worth less than others. And what better representation is there than the, “what about your own future?” deleted scene between Caspian and Peter. Caspian learns for the first time just how much Peter is willing to sacrifice for those he loves and for the greater good. Even his own life. That thought alone scares Caspian more than anything so he prompts Peter to think about his own future in the hopes that it will give him something else to fight for.

‘So, before you go, would we be better off by now, if I'd have let my walls come down? Maybe I guess we'll never know, you know, you know’

The moment when it all comes to an end. Caspian has just been crowned King and is looking forward to getting to know Peter away from the hardships of war. Just seeing where these feeling take them. But then Peter drops the bombshell that they’re leaving and Caspian can’t do a thing to stop it. All he has left now is regret. Regret over all those missed opportunities where he could have said how he felt but didn’t as well as wondering what could have been if he had. 😢 And I still rather love that sequence for, “I guess we'll never know, you know, you know,” where it looks like Peter is kicking himself for not being brave enough to say something to Caspian when they’d had a moment upon first entering Cornelius’ office. 😊

‘Before you go, was there something I could've said to make your heart beat better? If only I'd have known you had a storm to weather’

When Caspian finds Peter during his and Susan’s talk with Aslan, he can see that something isn’t right with Peter. He wants to help but how can he when he never knew the depths of what Peter, a king to a nation that had been home to him and his siblings for 15 years, had dealt with by being flung back into their own world against his wishes. A loss of self, of purpose and of feeling like he truly belonged.

‘So, before you go, was there something I could've said to make it all stop hurting? It kills me how your mind can make you feel so worthless’

And now we come to the second instance of this line where I focus on a moment when Peter feels worthless. Of course, no one is harder on Peter then Peter himself. As the High King, he has the weight of the world on his shoulders and he when he messes up, he feels the shame of it in every fibre of his being. After the failed castle raid, and the subsequent run-in with Jadis, Caspian starts to see a side of Peter that he never had before. The side that makes mistakes and, in his darkest moments, doubts his value. And that only makes him feel for Peter all the more and wish he knew the right things to say that would make Peter feel otherwise.

‘So, before you go’

And lastly the ending. What can I saw about the ending that hasn’t already been said. I mean, between Peter’s, “we’re not really needed here anymore,” and Caspian’s, “I will look after it until you return,” has there ever been a scene where two people who love each other have said so much and yet so little at the same time?? They were so close to having it all and now they’re being torn apart as Peter walks out of Caspian’s life, never to return. 😢

--------

And on that note, I think I’ll leave it there. I’ve had so many feelings about these two over the last year and a half and, with yet more fic/vid ideas percolating in my mind, I don’t think that will be ending anytime soon. 😊

[silently-standingstill]

Gateie

favorite thing about them

I love who she is as a person, someone who is willing to stand by what they think is right and tell others off for their wrong-doings. She has no issue telling people what they're doing wrong and I find that respectable. She is analytical and holds herself to the same standard as those around her, for example, during TPOT 2 she admits when she's wrong with her teams conflict, and also Gaty is the few characters to treat any of the algebraliens as equals instead of being afraid of them, any of her interactions with Four or X being a perfect example. She isn't above anybody else and will never pretend she is.

least favorite thing about them

TPOTs direction with her in episodes 3-7, to me, it's an injustice for her character, and even with how she's characterized in episodes beyond that. Her, and even her team barely having any focus in episodes and relying on her friendship with Two to stay safe frustrates me as Gaty values her friendships and wouldn't use it to her advantage like that. Even during these episodes their friendship with Two isn't shown to the detail it was in TPOT 2, causing me to have the impression that she's only using Two as someone to win, rather than being a friend.

favorite line

"Flower what the heck are you doing! ... well, you look idiotic" everyday i mourn how mean Gaty was, they lobotomized her because every presplit line she had was criticizing somebody

brOTP

GATY AND TWO!!! Their friendship is built on love and care for each other and I adore how much value they have for each other. The show doesn't shy away from showing their bond and their enjoyment around each other and it is very beautiful to me. i do draw a lot of ship art of them but i do think its one-sided on twos side😭

OTP

I HEART SAWGATY!! i mostly draw twogaty but im a sawgaty truther and the world needs to know.. I love how comfortable they are with each other as it makes it clear theres a history with them, but also how they make sure the other is okay and are there for each other. I wish there was more with them :( such a shame Saw got off early she's always been a favorite of mine

nOTP

gaty and lollipop because lollipop puts the L in LGBT

random headcanon

Gaty and Pillow would be an entertaining dynamic, they both enjoy studying and analysis but in different aspects (gaty focuses on people, pillow focuses on theories) you’d think they’d click because of that but Gaty is usually right, while Pillow is almost always wrong. The two would bicker over Pillow's research, until Gaty looks at her research notes and sees it’s just scribbles, realizing there's no point arguing with her

unpopular opinion

i have to accept that she'll never be written like how was originally was and shes flanderized because of her friendship with two

song i associate with them

boogie oogie oogie or river of peace? i dont have songs i associate with her, but i can see her listening to these gons

favorite picture of them

my pfp! tpot 1-2 is so good because it gives so much characterization even if they dont have any lines or focus in an episode, any screentime a character has is dedicated to giving more characterization and for that reason i believe it is so well crafted

[fangirling-heart]

Hi Heart! Good morning ^w^

For the fandom Ask Game, how about The Owl House?

Hello! And good day/evening (it's evening for me)! Thank you for the chance to ramble about my favorite show! :)

my favorite female character

Luz Noceda my beloved! I have mentioned the numerous reasons why I like her so many times, I've probably become annoying, so I'll keep it brief: She's sweet, she's enthusiastic, she's unapologetically herself, she's smart, she's headstrong, she's extremely relatable to me, she's a weirdo, she's a legend and she is the moment!

my favorite male character

Hunter! Hunter is a really great character, who I absolutely love for his story and arc, his awesome design, his relationships with other characters, his personality...

He basically has everything it takes for me to love a character, including the antagonistic starting point (I do have a soft spot for redemption arcs), but he didn't really have a redemption arc, because he didn't really need it. Hunter was always a good person, trapped in the bad situation, but that doesn't make his arc any less impactful and wonderful.

my favorite book/season/etc

Definitely season 2. Literally every element in it bounces off each other perfectly. The character arcs get moving, we see many relationships grow and develop, we meet a lot new characters whose entrance to the show feels completely natural and very impactful and everything develops more and more! The story, the relationships, the characters! And then everything is comes together for a marvelous final act (Hollow Mind-King's Tide)!

my favorite episode (if its a tv show)

Thanks To Them. Yes, it's not a season 2 episode, but it's my absolute favorite one!

I will forever be pissed at disney for cutting this show short, but I will also forever be in awe for the way the crew handled the last season and especially this episode. It does an excellent job balancing out all the characters, a bunch of dynamics and I never thought that one scene was taking time from another one. Also, it focuses on a lot of the stuff I love the most about the show, like the dynamics of Luz and Hunter and Hunter and Flapjack, the lore of the Wittebanes, the shenanigans of the Hexsquad, Camila and her relationship with Luz, Belos being a creepy bitch (the fact that we didn't see him get hit by a car is a crime, but I gotta admit the idea of having him quietly getting stronger by possessing critters in the background to set the atmosphere and build up the ending part was great) and an awesome confrontation with a bunch of emotions for the end! 10/10 episode! (I still cry with Flapjack's sacrifice...)

my favorite cast member

The man, the myth, the legend, Alex Hirsch!

my favorite ship

I honestly have so many ships I love in this show, it's hard to choose just one. So I'm gonna say my top 3 (in no specific order):

Lumity

Huntlow

Raeda

a character I’d die defending

Camila Noceda! None of that "Camila is a bad mom!" crap is allowed here! In this house, we love and appreciate mama Noceda!

a character I just can’t sympathize with

Odalia Blight. That's an actual bad mom and horrible person! Screw her!

a character I grew to love

Probably King. I did like him from the beginning, just not so much when compared to other characters. But during season 2, when we got to explore his character more, outside of cute comic relief, I grew to love him.

my anti otp

Well, aside from obvious choices (incest, pedophilic ships), I personally don't like ships with the Hexsquad and Boscha, especially Boschlow. Aside from just, not really liking Boscha as a character, I just can’t see in general the appeal of the bully x victim of their bullying ship type.

[winged-cries]

i would love to hear your thoughts on pll!

not entirely sure if this was for the meme thing, but i'm supposing it was!

my favorite female character: alison 🖤 but i love all of the girls so much that it's a difficult choice. spencer and mona are definitely up there.

my favorite male character: hmmm. ezra is probably my favorite but i still get angry that he wasn't A. well, in my heart he was, and during that whole arc he was my favorite male character by far. i maintain he should've been the ultimate villain! everything was so precisely developed for that, he had all the reasons and resources to be A, and thematically it was the only thing that really made sense. so the answer is ezra, but specifically ezra as A.

my favorite book/season/etc: too difficult because i love this show so much, every season has its strenghts. i think the first couple of seasons give me a lot of nostalgia, but i love s4 for the ezra is A arc. so who knows!

my favorite episode (if its a tv show): aaah impossible to choose just one, i couldn't even pick a favorite season. i love all the halloween episodes, they're all iconic.

my favorite cast member: i really like all the girls a lot. i think i developed a certain special fondness for sasha pieterse because she was the youngest, and she was often the target of fan harassment.

my favorite ship: spencer/alison foreveeeeeeeeeeeer. they were my heartstopper or whatever.

a character I’d die defending: alison 🖤 i'd defend her from haters within the fandom and within the fictional story itself.

a character I just can’t sympathize with: i mean, ezra... but he's still my favorite male character, i don't need to sympathize with that bitch.

a character I grew to love: aria. she was my least favorite when i first started watching the show, though i always appreciated the creepy shit with ezra. but i really grew to love her and her story.

my anti otp: this is such a tricky question because to me shipping isn't necessarily about supporting a relationship, so while one might expect me to answer something like aria/ezra i actually think they're one of the most interesting couples in the show. the real answer would be spencer/caleb. they committed the horrible sin of being boring.

[asklesbianonceler]

for the character ask meme—Rykard! I’m always very curious to hear people’s takes on him.

I do love Rykard! Maybe one of my favorite war criminals in Elden Ring and also one of my favorite characters to be unserious about.

Favorite thing: I love that, despite being one of the easiest characters to confidently call evil, and becoming that willingly, he still has a heart for his family. Expecting Tannith to leave him and seemingly being understanding if that were to happen, offering her what he felt was a kindness to ease her suffering when he became the serpent, that she refused. And still being close to Ranni and trusted enough to be privvy to the night of black knives. I genuinely think he's fascinating all around even tho he is an evil freak. I'm always fascinated by a character who takes research to an absolutely vile route as well, and knowing he was in the Realm of Shadow for those reasons makes him even cooler to me.

Also his little legs.

Least favorite:

That I needed to respec to use the sword meant to make his fight easy. I thought for some reason I was the only person who couldn't do the easy mechanic.

Wish he didn't torture albinaurics, they've been through enough shit, but his character really is "guy who does torture" so 🤷🏻‍♀️

Brotp:

Rykard and Ghiza. Me and my wife do a bit where they're two fucked up dudes trying to pull at the club.

OTP:

I love that Tannith is a monsterfucker. I love them. But I think most Rykard ships are good. We know he can pull. He was a horn dog.

NOTP:

Guys I'm trying to have a notp. I have them for other Elden Ring characters I promise. Are there Rykard rarepairs I haven't seen? Show me.

Headcanon:

I like to think he has a nice relationship with Rya even though it is not textually supported. I'm in love with EmmaWard's art of them.

Unpopular opinion:

is it unpopular to say Rykard lays eggs? He does. It's the truth.

Quote:

So he only has the two... But his last words being "No one will hold me captive" is genuinely a good summary of what being a blasphemer means to him as well as the lore, where it is just being free of the ruling belief system and unrestrained by its laws. Giving himself to the serpent was the most powerful form of freedom he could find from the erdtree. Similar to Ranni shedding her flesh to unbind herself from the golden order and greater will.

Song:

Please 😭 I can't come up with this shit on the fly. Pre-Snake/ Young Rykard I feel like we need some sleezy shit. Can I say there's probably something by Electric Six or Viagra Boys that works?

Favorite pic:

more like the reveal of it but when he first turns and you see his slightly less defined face waking up for the first time in the cutscene. That shit is good.

[velvet-apricots]

Ansbach for character ask

favorite thing about them

His entire character is very interesting. When you think "murder cult" you think axe murderer levels of crazy. But he is alarmingly sane, well spoken, and reasonable. He is polite to everyone, even his enemies. You really get the vibe that he represents something very different from what we are shown. Like once the Dynasty was MORE than what it is now. One that could have been a real dynasty, but has degraded into a cult.

least favorite thing about them

WHY THE FUCK DID HE DIE? HE WAS STILL STANDING WHEN I BEAT THE FINAL BOSS ITS NOT FARE!!

Also not a fan of how fandom pits him against Gideon Ofnir.

favorite line

Miquella the Kind...is a monster. Pure and radiant, he wields love to shrive clean the hearts of men. There is nothing more terrifying.

(also litterally whenever he calls me Righteous Tarnished)

brOTP

Thiollier and Ansbach. They have such a nice little vibe. They both are afraid but are willing to fight for who they have devoted themselves to.

OTP

Adamah x Ansbach and Ansbach x Tarnished. Obviously I have a preference to m/f content, and thats what I seek first and foremost. There is almost nothing of that (or anything actually) though. But I have Adamah so I am not entirely without content, but it doesn't hit as nicely when you make it.

Kind of surprised there is so little Tarnished x Ansbach honestly. Nor is there any Ansbach x Reader? so many people are talking about how hot he is, and yet I don't SEE anyone doing anything with him. Super disappointing. U_U

nOTP

Don't have one with him. Not yet anyway. The ships I have seen I am utterly neutral about. I am very picky and feel very strongly so its only a matter of time XD

random headcanon

He has arthritis in both hands. Makes using his scythe hard in his old age, so thus he has taken up the rapier.

unpopular opinion

I have one but I won't say it cause its not about him specifically and I would be flayed alive for even saying it.

song i associate with them

I have a rather limited library of music i listen too but lets see.... Yeah okay this one kept popping up into my head. U_U

favorite picture of them

old men hunch meeting.