#rich people are wild is basically what i'm trying to say

[unhinged-jackles]

pretty sure this is the shirt jensen is wearing

Not quite the same, but interesting comparison

Twitter

[barry-j-blupjeans]

People didn't wander aimlessly through the woods like they used to. For a good while there, neither Edward nor Lydia had had to leave Wonderland for advertising. Someway or another, a poor hero or party would stumble through the Felicity Wilds and get drawn into Wonderland for their own various reasons— fame, riches, glory, all of the above. Word of mouth, of course, was to best way to advertise. But once you've killed someone, their icky flesh body started decaying much too fast. It was hard to leave the Felicity Wilds in a timely manner and still look enticing enough to lure people back in.

But this year had been rough. Maybe they scared away too many folks— Edward had to be honest: having the body he was possessing crumble to literal dust in front of the crowd he was advertising to hadn't been the best way to sell the glory of Wonderland. And letting people actually leave Wonderland was a no-go. They had learned that rather quickly.

So they were back to the basics. Magicking up their spectral forms into something appealing (though, with the lack of Suffering, it was getting quite hard to keep it together. Thus, why they could only go out as a pair.) and drawing unsuspecting forms deeper into the Wilds, straight into Wonderland. The old one-two, conversationally speaking.

And people just didn't wander aimlessly through the woods like they used to! So when Edward finally found their first catch of the day, it was important that he didn't slip right through their fingers.

"Oh," Lydia said, seeing the man not a second after Edward had. He could already hear the note of arrogance in her voice. "Oh, he'll do beautifully."

Indeed, the man looked like a perfect victi— ahem. Guest. He was human, older in age, so they'd have much more memories to draw on. He played the part of a worn-out traveler quite well. Mussed hair, and a worn, heavy satchel that jingled with every step he took. It was too quiet to be coins, but the white-knuckled grip he had on the strap of it told Edward it was something much more valuable than he could guess. His pants— though quite an unusual style, but who was Edward to say, having been dead for so long— were stained with mud. There was a bit of blood against one corner of his shirt, where the fabric had ripped.

But to be so steely with determination still? To walk through the Felicity Wilds alone and still be going strong? Edward did have to agree. Wonderland would suit this man perfectly.

"Long way from home, friend?" Edward asked. His form materialized next to a tree and he proceeded to lean against it. The man turned, startled. There was a crack in his glasses. Lydia appeared behind the tree, peeking out at the man as if she had been there the whole time.

"You, uh, you could say that," the man said.

"You're very brave, going through the Felicity Wilds alone," Lydia said. "Are you on your way to somewhere?"

"I'm, uh—" the man hesitated, looking between Lydia and Edward uncertainly. He seemed to be deciding on what to say. After a second, he continued with, "I'm looking for a place called Wonderland."

Bingo. Better than bingo, actually. Edward glanced at Lydia. They shared a grin.

"Wonderland, you say?" Lydia said, hand over her chest.

"You— I'm gonna hazard a guess and say you're familiar with it?" the man said.

"You could say," Edward said. "and what brings you to Wonderland, if I may ask?"

The grip the man had on his bag tightened. The object inside jostled, gently ringing again, and Edward felt inexplicably drawn to the sound. He could tell Lydia was, too, but they both refrained from showing. It was never a good look to be desperate or over-eager.

"I have… an artifact," the man said, slow and carefully choosing his words. "Of— of immeasurable magical power. And I was told that no one who goes into Wonderland ever, uhm, ever comes out. That's— This needs to be somewhere that no one can reach but— but they know they can try. It's— it's gotta be wanted. It's— it's—"

Searching through people's memories was a tad harder outside the walls of Wonderland, much less when they were this low on visitors. Still, Edward reached out with his magic, carefully slipping into the man's mind.

The world was ending. And then it wasn't. And then it was, again, and again, and again. It was a rush of information— much more than Edward had seen in the oldest elves, let alone a middle-aged human. Memories flew by fast enough that Edward couldn't catch any in his hands. A red haze was settled over the entirety of it all— Edward could see it clear as day.

The man was a lich.

This made things… much more interesting.

"Say no more," Lydia said, holding up a hand. Edward blinked himself back into the present, trying not to let his face show any surprise. "Lucky for you, we just so happen to know the way to Wonderland."

"For what price?" the man asked.

"What, you don't trust us?" Lydia said, pulling off a pout Edward had the displeasure of seeing her practice. At the man's face, they both laughed a little.

"I must say, I admire a man with a touch of hesitation," Edward said. "But we'll lead you with no extra charge. If this object is truly that important, then I say getting it to Wonderland is our highest priority, Barry."

"I never told you my name," the man said.

"You didn't have to, darling," Edward said. "Running a fortress in the middle of the Felicity Wilds lets you pick up a few things here and there."

"You—?"

"You'll have to excuse him," Lydia said, "My brother loves a dramatic reveal."

Edward could feel fire running through his veins, a pull in his chest leading them straight back to Wonderland. Lydia's cool and pleasant face broke in a way only he could see through— one victim would have been enough for a while. But the possibility of more was too savory to resist.

"We'll set off now," Lydia continued, "and we'll be there before dark."

"Now," Edward said as Lydia set their pace and the man stumbled after them. "Tell us more about this artifact."

[lonelylonelyghost]

Under the Skin analysis nobody asked for

a.k.a why I think that Du Cheng is pretty awesome actually.

SPOILERS for Under the Skin - Chinese drama, NOT a vore? body-snatcher?? movie with Scarlet Johansson. You have been warned.

*********

OK, let's get one thing out of the way first. People give Du Cheng a lot of shit about how he treated Shen Yi at first, which - fair, but hear me out.

Captain Lei for Du Cheng was not just a mentor and a fellow police officer, he was practically a father to him, the one who supported and showed young Mr. Du that he could redirect his anger and strength towards greater cause and help other people.

So imagine, in a very short amount of time, during the phone call with your almost-PARENT you hear him getting stabbed, find his dead body in a ditch, and then the reason the killers were able to identify him at all - a smug little shit of an artist who bragged about remembering every face he saw - couldn't draw for some reason the only face that mattered.

You'd also probably flip out and hold a grudge for 7 years.

Du Cheng also didn't know at this point that Shen Yi couldn't remember the face due to being dumped into the sea, he assumed that the artist just didn't want to do it.

I'm not saying that all this excuses Du Cheng's behavior, he's still a dick to an innocent person, a victim of circumstances - the fact which he already knew. What I'm saying is that it makes sense.

The scene in the interrogation room was amazing but I think we all know it

*********

Now, onto the thing:

The initial impression of Du Cheng's character is that yes, he's the police captain, and he's capable, but he's also kinda goofy. Like, where the work is not involved he's simple, straightforward person, not a genius like Shen Yi with his art or good with technology like Li Han, not very sophisticated, etc.

He's pretty chill overall (unless it's about murder cases or Shen Yi). Typical big gruff police captain that can be a butt of several jokes in other shows, but here is where things get interesting.

*********

When we first see him in the series, he's submerged in a bath inside of a suitcase, trying to figure out how a crime was committed. (Typing this I realized that there's even more of a theme of water and drowning, specifically of self-inflicted kind, than I'd thought before).

It shows that he's willing to go to great lengths to solve a case, including getting himself in a harm's way in the process, and this is demonstrated constantly throughout the show.

Later we see that he's also a good leader of his team, street-smart and physically strong.

A lot of wet men this show has

Speaking of physicality, I like how Du Cheng carries himself. With his height and size he could seem awkward, but Du Cheng is in complete control of his body.

His movements are big (wide? idk but you get my point) but fluid and calculated at the same time, partly because of the years' worth of training, partly because like many other tall people he's used to moving in the world that's occupied by smaller humans and a lot of fragile items.

He's not using his size for his advantage in everyday life, unless it's for the case and he needs to save one ever-unlucky Shen-laoshi from trouble for the tenth time that week.

He moves with the grace of a wild animal, calm and seemingly tame until he isn't, which is why although I understand his comparison to a dog in the show, I feel like he's more of a wolf.

Basically, there are three things I can watch forever - how the fire burns, how Shen Yi draws, and how Du Cheng jumps into the swimming pool.

*********

Another little mystery about Du Cheng that just doesn't let me go is - what the hell is his family background?

At first it seemed like he was just an ordinary rebellious teenager from some kind of tumultuous household. We don't hear anything about his parents, so we're simply left to assume (the same goes for Shen Yi).

That was until Du Qing comes into the picture. Du Cheng's sister is like rich-rich, so she could either amount to such power herself (girlboss ❤), or she's already come from money.

If the latter is the case, then what was Du Cheng doing on the streets all those years ago? Rich boy's tantrum? It didn't seem like it. Also, Du siblings seem pretty close, so I don't think that Du Qing would let her younger brother roam the streets if she had a choice.

Maybe I missed something? I don't know, but this tidbit just tickles my fancy for some reason, like what's his deal?

*********

But the thing that proved to me the fact that Du Cheng is as complex of a character as She Yi was when he framed himself as M's killer.

(I mean, I knew that he was innocent from the start, because hello, this is s Chinese contemporary show about cops, there's only so much wiggle room in terms of morality the censorship would allow - either he's guilty and he dies at the end, or he's not and everything will be fine. It didn't seem like the first option, so...)

Even before the whole thing went down, Du Cheng in general never seemed like a sidekick, simply a load of big muscles compared to Shen Yi's torturous genius, but this particular decision really cemented the quality of this partnership - in different ways, but they're equal. Neither can do without the other, and both of them can adapt and change their usual tactics when required.

And do you realize how rare this kind of thing is??

When two people have this sort of dynamic in a show - where one is very smart and the other is more down to earth - the second person more often than not would just feel like an assistant to the first one, and it's incredibly annoying to me personally.

But here it's different and oh my god IT'S SO GOOD! I practically screamed in excitement when it happened.

The motherfucker can scheme! This guy fell down from the stairs, hit his head, saw that M was dead, instantly understood what was happening and came up with a whole plan, which granted, involved getting himself in huge trouble, but it's not like Du Cheng is the only one who likes to be self-sacrificial fool in this show.

He sets a trap for the villain like a predator for the prey and then patiently waits. He knows that the price for this stunt is not only getting framed for the murder and demoted/imprisoned/executed? (I don't know the terms for death sentences in China very well), it's also the trust and potential well-being of his colleagues, and Du Cheng still agrees to pay it. He's ruthless both to himself and others, and I LOVE IT.

The later parts of the show provides us with not only deliciously tense moments, full of suspicions and drama and angst (the dinner with Du Qing, and Shen Yi drawing the eyes from the security footage are especially great), but also proves that BOTH of main characters have this darker undercurrent beneath their friendly exteriors.

And although it can't really be explored properly due to censorship, it still is fascinating to think about.

[bubblesxo]

i dont know if you will see this but i am a big fan of your g!bruce meets the batfam!!!! I literally have tumblr just for this series (and now that I’ve tried it im beginning to love it ngl) . Annyywaayy ive just read the new chapter and it’s so good!?? Like i am really excited for the next chapter!!!

Oh and I haven’t watched gotham ( im planning too ) but i sometimes mix the twins????? Like your explanations are good dont get me wrong but yk when your reading and you need to check which ones which? Yeah … and like i want to fix that idk how .do i just like memorize the twins personalitys??

also in this au is theres 2 jokers??????? I saw you once mention Jerome(?) being revived or something

ps .im that great at English sorry .

oh wow wow wow thank you so so much!! i'm really glad that you're enjoying my story so much! it really means a lot to me. <33 i think your english is good! but if you need/want me to clarify anything i say here, just let me know and i'll try to rephrase it for you!

okay, so in the Gotham tv show (this has spoilers for all 5 seasons, so read on if you're okay with that) the way that they approached writing the joker was actually really up in the air in the beginning. this is because they didn't have the rights to use the name "joker," and so fox (the company that made the show) planned on making a bunch of smaller characters in the show as a kind of easter egg as people who could be the joker or who resemble him in some way.

this changed when cameron monaghan (the actor for both jerome and jeremiah) guest starred in s1e16 "the blind fortune teller." in it, the character of jerome is introduced as a 17/18 year old boy who travels with the circus with his mother, who is a snake dancer. he is meant to be one of the aforementioned joker-like characters in the show and wasn't actually supposed to be included again after that episode, if i am not mistaken.

however, the viewers LOVED his performance and jerome came back in season two as a member of the maniax, a group of arkham inmates who were broken out of the asylum. i won't go too into detail about the actual plot, but in seasons two, three, and four, jerome shows up in at least a few different episodes with very memorable storylines each time.

it isn't until season four of the show that jeremiah is even revealed at all! jeremiah and jerome are identical twin brothers, however, jeremiah has been in hiding for years under the fake name "xander wilde" in an attempt to escape jerome, who wants to get revenge on him for lying to their mother about what he (jerome) did when they were children. basically, jeremiah lied to their mother (lila, who jerome is revealed to have killed in 1x16) that jerome tried to kill him, causing jeremiah to be sent away and be adopted by rich people and get to go to a well-funded private school where he could live out his best life as a child prodigy (which was jeremiah's end goal to this), whereas jerome was left behind in the circus that they lived at (haly's circus, the same one that dick grayson later was raised in before being adopted by bruce). during this time, jerome was horrifically abused by his mother, his uncle, and his mother's many romantic partners. this eventually caused him to crack, which creates the character we see in the show.

here's an easy way to remember the difference in their personalities:

in the standard american deck of cards, there are two jokers: one that is black and white and one that is in color. in this analogy, jeremiah is the black and white joker and jerome is the one in color.

this is jerome:

he's got a *very* boisterous personality. he's outgoing and charismatic and, of course, severely messed up in the head. he *enjoys* the pain he causes people and does it with little to no reservations. he thinks things through less thoroughly than jeremiah but jerome always has a plan and is actually quite smart. i couldn't do him the disservice of calling him the dumb twin, despite some points about jeremiah that i'll get back to later.

anyway, jerome has a grand plan for all of gotham: he believes that, fundamentally, everyone in the world is like him and is also at least a bit crazy inside. he wants everyone to tap into their inner selves and let themselves run free / go crazy. he successfully ensnares huge hoards of gothamites with his persuasive way of speaking and interesting flare to his words. he amasses a large cult following, all of whom are very similar to him in the sense that they all demonstrate similar signs of instability.

here's some more gifs of him.

jerome kind of invented the iconic "HAHAHA" signature joker laugh in the gotham universe, even though he isn't the one who goes on to become "mr. j" (gotham's version of the joker) in the end (that's jeremiah, though i have a lot to say about that).

jerome's always smiling, a genuinely creepy smile that throws people off at first but can be really scary once you know what you're looking at. he single handedly turns gotham into a madhouse on multiple occasions and is the one who basically spread the "crazy" to the general population (for short: genpop).

he's a classic cult leader in the sense that he can mesmerize a whole room with his magnetic presence but also will ruthlessly cut down any of his followers if they so much as upset him (or even if they're just being annoying or could have a greater purpose, like when he stabbed a follower in the gut to take their blood to draw a frowney-face on bruce).

that reminds me, another important thing to know about jerome is that he has an iconic stapled-on face! this is because he died once (in season two, though he came back to life for season three onwards) and one of his followers tried to revive him using some insider medical knowledge from doctor hugo strange (who is just... a whole thing. ew.). he thinks that he failed at doing this and steals jerome's face so that he can wear it on television in an attempt to control jerome's followers (spoiler: this doesn't work).

however, it turns out that jerome *was* revived from this, and he's pretty upset that some dude stole his face! so he uses a staple gun to re-attach it after he gets it back (and kills the guy who did it). his face is later punched off by jim gordon but reattached more properly during his time at arkham afterward (the carnival scene happened in season 3 and jerome came back with a kind-of healed face in season 4).

here's some gifs with jerome's messed up face!

jerome is the colorful joker because he's very much expressive. he lets out every single emotion he feels---unless he's trying to deceive someone, at which point he is a phenomenal liar. (in season 1 when we are first introduced to him, he almost successfully gets away with the murder of his own mother.)

jerome is funny and laughs a lot and is *loud.* he's also absolutely insane and incredibly cruel, as well as impulsive, but he's able to curb his instincts if he feels like he can pull off a big plan.

jerome is a showman by nature. he's a product of the circus and it *shows.* everything he does is like an act, something that is acknowledged by many people in the show.

he's a funky lil dude. totally crazy, but kind of adorable at times.

he's also SEVERELY traumatized from his horrible past and has huge trust issues.

so, yeah. jerome is colors! remember that.

unfortunately, pookie died in season 4 and doesn't seem to have been revived this time </3

now, onto his twin brother jeremiah!

jeremiah is, at least at first, presented to be the complete opposite of jerome. he's calm, collected, and seemingly sane---at least at first. bruce trusts him at first and he even befriends him for a period of time before jeremiah betrays him.

jeremiah is a genius engineer, and, when looking into his past, we can assume that he was a child prodigy. he worked with thomas wayne before he died and designed the wayne plaza building under the aforementioned alias "xander wilde." he also locked himself in an underground maze for ~6 years (i believe?) and never went outside, instead sending his proxy (ecco) out to act in his place during business transactions.

as seen here, jeremiah seems to be the complete opposite of showboat jerome:

when we first meet jeremiah, we are told that he is totally sane, but we can later see that this is not the complete truth.

i'll use jeremiah's project as a metaphor for this. jeremiah was building a set of generators which could make energy harvesting and usage much less expensive and much more bio-friendly (if i remember correctly). bruce promised to fund his project and jeremiah accepts his offer quickly.

after jerome dies in season 4 after kidnapping bruce and jeremiah, he left behind a concoction of chemicals that seemingly make jeremiah go insane. this is a play on joker toxin / joker venom from the greater dc universe.

however, after jeremiah reveals his new self

he says that the spray did not actually change who he actually is, but just gave him an altered appearance. there are a lot of fan theories about this, but the general consensus is that the spray likely lowered his inhibitions, which gave him the kick needed to reveal his true self.

even his complexion resembles the joker he corresponds with: black and white. he is the black and white joker because he isn't as expressive, is way more calculated, and is more cruel and less happy. even his skin is paper white.

here's some gifs of what he looks like after those "slight cosmetic changes" :

that looks a lot more like the joker we know and love today, right? bleach-pale skin, red painted lips, green hair. he's instantly recognizable as the stereotypical joker now.

remember when i mentioned the generators? let's go back to them. the entire time that the generators have been around, they've also been perfectly functional as powerful bombs. their ability to be used as bombs does not undermine the fact that they can also be used as generators, and both of these things were true at the same time *for the entire time they have existed.*

it is in this way that jeremiah's paradoxical nature has always existed. jeremiah is crafty, cunning, and absolutely vicious. he has no care or concern for human life in general and will sacrifice most people in his life if it means that he will get what he wants in the end.

this is shown both before and after the joker toxin in how he lied about jerome when they were children (which caused jerome to be heavily abused) and in how jeremiah willingly killed one of his most devoted and beloved followers, who was being ransomed, just because someone put him on hold and it was personally easier for him to just kill him than sit on hold on the phone for a while. (he also has a vicious streak, though, because he immediately moved the demolition of the bombs up to immediately once he was out of the blast zone because those people inconvenienced him.)

something that's important to realize about jeremiah is that he has an issue with being called crazy. jerome does, too, but he eventually comes to accept the term, almost like he's reclaiming it, but jeremiah is *violently* against it. that's one of the things that set him off in the previously mentioned interaction.

both jeremiah and jerome are obsessed with bruce, though in different ways. jeremiah sees bruce first as his best friend and later as the "brother [he] could never have, that jerome could never be." jerome just sees bruce as a particularly entertaining and interesting kid who he enjoyed tormenting who he would eventually kill.

anyway, despite jeremiah being crazy (or, depending on who you ask, just less inhibited) he is still crazy smart and calculating. he thinks through everything before he does it and his master plans seem like they go on forever with 10000 parts to them and backups and contingencies galore.

the only time that jeremiah ever really seems to break out of this is when he's fighting with bruce. while he still does have a greater point to make or something he's trying to accomplish, he thinks through things less with him and shows his impulsive and rash side a bit more, which is interesting because jerome showed his thoughtful and contemplative side when faced with the obstacle that is bruce thomas wayne. i love parallels and contrasts, especially in these two characters! i just love writing about twins, they're always so interesting.

some important things about their relationship to one another:

even though jerome kidnapped jeremiah and seemingly strapped a bomb to his neck (after breaking into his house and telling him that he would kill him), jerome doesn't seem to actually want jeremiah to die. instead, as we later find out, he wants jeremiah to unleash his true self and carry on his legacy of chaos and cruelty in gotham for him after his death. this is why he left behind the laughing gas for him.

(the fact that jerome thought to do all of that shows that he really was a smart character and that he truly did understand the world around him well. he knew exactly what would happen in the event of his death, i.e. bruce offering to fund jeremiah's work and jeremiah accepting, as is shown when jerome has the joker venom in a present box which claims to be sent from wayne enterprises.)

jeremiah *hates* to be compared to jerome in any way, as he thinks of himself as "the face of true sanity." he actually has an entire notebook full of jerome's ideas, which he says he will outdo and perfect, thus defeating his brother in the end, which i don't know if i agree with, but whatever.

i think that it's because of the reputation that jerome got at the circus. jeremiah wanted people to think of him as better than jerome and as the perfect child, which he succeeded at. to him, jerome is synonymous with crazy, which i've already mentioned that he hates to be called.

okay, just one more part to talk about. the infamous, much anticipated Mr. J!!!

in the series finale, it is revealed that jeremiah, after falling into a vat of acid, is horribly disfigured and pretends to be in a vegetative state for the whole ten years that bruce is on his quest to improve himself before becoming batman. he does this as a way of waiting for bruce to come back to gotham so he can continue to be obsessed with him.

however, though this is jeremiah, it seems that he has actually gone through immense mental trauma sometime during this time (perhaps during his fall into a vat of chemicals), which has caused him to sort of lose his sense of self. he once says that there was "another me" [another him] once, which is, of course, referring to jerome. this implies that jeremiah sees jerome as an extension of himself, almost, and almost makes it seem as if mr. j is a whole different entity of his own.

hopefully this clears everything up a bit for you!! let me know if you have any questions or want to know anything specific about the characters and i will be glad to oblige!

thank you once again for being so kind as to leave this ask!! it really made my day. thank you for enjoying my fic, i hope it continues to live up to expectations. i have a lot of fun things planned (and i am very happy that you decided to look into these characters more, because they are actually extremely important to the plot as we get more into the actual story!). <33

[summercosmos]

Fablehaven Pokemon AU; Pt 2 (Seth)

Seth as a pokemon ranger!

Seth would be bored out of his MIND tending to the daycare all day; running showers for and grooming cutesy pokemon is fun for about the first four times you do it only.

it doesn't help that there are more interesting (read: unsafe) pokemon available right at the fablehaven daycare! it's just that grandpa sorenson will not budge in letting his grandkids interact with those. something about lacking "experience" and "expertise".

Seth: alright then. bet ←(gets himself into a ranger school Like A Boss)

there's really nothing anyone can do about the school sign up— I'm thinking kids in the pokemon universe are considered their own legal representation around the time they graduate trainer school (13-14 yrs old)

and after the initial scare, everyone concedes it's kind of a good idea, really. Seth gets to explore and interact with wild pokemon while still in a somewhat controlled environment, minimizing the amount of trouble to be stirred.

Kendra is happy to be the one to inform Seth that Ranger School does, too, involve actual textbook studying. he forgor💀

Seth would do the bare minimum for the theory aspects — what he really excels at is practical demonstrations!!!

don't let anyone tell you otherwise; pokemon absolutely interact with people based on Vibes. if you show that misdreavus even the smallest of hesitation you're getting Astonished into your next life dawg.

obviously this is not a problem for Seth. in fact i think he'd be at his very best when approaching wild Dark & Ghost types; those are the most likely to feed from fear and distress!

if you have no fear to feed the little creepers with then theyll be like Well. Hmm. What Now. (top tier strategy)

while on that the rangers here are a bit of mix from the spin offs and from the trainer class from the og games. they have one partner pokemon that will accompany them in their main rescue missions, but their job also involves protecting certain areas from poachers &/or criminals— that means there's also a lot of pokemon battling!

I'll be honest i think Seth's main criteria for his pokemon team is Does It Look Cool? Catch

when his eevee evolved into a sylveon he had to pause to cry throw up bang fists on the wall roll around for a bit. imagine having your team astethics ruined by the sparkly fairy type. Kendra makes fun of it at least once

still comes back to the daycare even while on the training stage; when he graduates as an actual ranger the first place Seth will suggest to send rescued pokemon to is fablehaven

Partner Pokemon

Absol: look at me in the eyes a dark type pokemon which is frequently labeled as a chaos bringer & malicious when it in fact only has intentions to help warn people beforehand so they can escape disaster. who else could i even give this to. it literally gets wings in its mega form LOOOOK AT ME

okay so anyways Absol are pokemon which are frequently abused bc of superstition so it isn't a stretch to say one would have eventually found its way to fablehaven daycare as a rescue. this is still in the early days of Kendra and Seth being there to help out so obvs they wouldn't be allowed to handle this one bc of the dark typing and its general bad rep. do you think seth gaf though he does NOT his ass would absolutely sneak out at night to the enclosure they kept absol at and try to make friends with it. the secret lasts about a week (Kendra snitches) but grandparents end up letting him actually catch absol bc they bonded. aw

(rest of the) Team!

Meowth: first pokemon, a gift from his parents! Seth isn't much interested in it bc it's so very normal and boring and not very Cool until he finds out this cat can basically sniff out shiny things (coins & jewels included) and it quickly becomes a Get Rich scheme. which only works on paper for about 2 minutes until he realizes the meowth will absolutely NOT allow anyone (owner or otherwise) to get their hands on its loot. it kind of becomes a srungly family pet though like in a drowned ugly rat kind of way so its still loved regardless. isn't much used in battles so it hasn't quite had the chance to evolve.

Spiritomb: sorry but how can you tempt a child mentioning there's a antique keystone that contains a cool ghost pokemon inside of it and expect him to not do anything about it like thats on YOU. anyhow Seth frees the spiritomb out of the odd keystone and finds out its just a little guy that got locked away for playing too many pranks. come on there's not even a good reasoning to take it away from him

Braviary: caught as a rufflet! pokedex entry from black & white 2→ "It stands up to massive opponents, not out of courage, but out of recklessness. But that is how it gets stronger." it probably tried to pick a fight with Hugo the Golurk and Seth thought it was the funniest thing ever and immediately caught it.

Golurk (Hugo): actually more attached to the fablehaven daycare than anything; it has its orders to protect the people and pokemon inside of the property. still Seth bonds with it more than anyone else and maybe actually brings the guy outside so it can see the world. cuties

Sylveon: okay now bear with me. LISTEN! Seth wouldn't have used any evolution stones on his (graduation gift) eevee bc he was hoping for a high friendship evolution, either espeon or umbreon. well. can you even imagine the look on his face when the evolution process finished and the first thing he saw was a pink ribbon. oh hed lose it. anyways sylveon are actually very combative pokemon — it lures foes in with the cute face and then pounces. they go out of their way to actively fight dragon pokemon likeee can you see the vision. Seth feels immediately better abt the whole thing when sylveon whoops a whole ass hydreigon with one singular Moonblast.

oh i had a Time making this. i love you pokemon au i really do. ill probably do either ronodin or bracken next

[critical-birb]

Random things I feel people outside of Scotland should know about Scotland.

-Kilts are formalwear. You only wear that kinda thing to like - weddings and funerals and stuff usually, maybe a fancy party. You wear a sporran with a kilt, it's like a little pouch that's usually fuzzy.

-If you live in Edinburgh/Glasgow/Aberdeen you probably hate bagpipes because everywhere you go there's buskers with bagpipes. They just....appear. you'll be trying to work your 9-5 and suddenly there's a bagpiper on the corner by the office and for the next six hours you have to listen to it. There is only one song that is played on the bagpipes and it gets real repetitive real fast.

-I am ruining the joke for everyone but as an autistic person who would be super confused by this unspoken rule in another country I need to share - literally everyone in Scotland will try to convince you as a foreigner that the wild Hagis is a real animal that lives in the Highlands. Every single museum has a Haggis exhibition with like a weird taxidermy animal that's usually a mash up between like a hedgehog and a bird or something. People will, with a straight face, talk to you about how they were hunted to near extinction. Zoos and safari parks will have empty exhibits with signs saying there is wild Hagis living in there hiding. This is the most widely known Scottish joke that literally every Scottish person is in on.

-Haggis is lamb, fat and oats boiled in a sheeps stomach with a bunch of spices. It's unironically good actually if you give it a chance. It's basically fatty spiced meat.

-Other popular foods in Scotland include Cullen Skink, which is a rich cream based soup with potatoes and fish. Black pudding, a sausage made with blood - great for iron deficiency. White pudding, a sausage made from oats, grains, herbs and spices. Stovies, which is basically potatoes/onions/meat boiled together and usually eaten with bread, Neeps and tatties which is mashed potato and sweed. We are also known for deep frying anything, any corner shop chippy will deep fry a chocolate bar for you. Somehow we are obsessed with sugar and fat but at the same time we also put salt on our porridge.

-A Ceilidh is a group dance - a similar concept to square dancing if you're in the US. Except a lot more violent. Someone will usually briefly teach everyone the steps and then you are thrown into chaos and the music gets faster and faster. Someone will inevitably be thrown into you at high speeds and you will break a bone. It's extremely fun. Often done to accordion music. Lots of larger pubs do ceilidh nights you should go to one if you can, it's good if you go alone because they only work with an even number of people and 99% of the time they're begging for a single person to join to make up the numbers. You'll make a lot of drink friends and possibly get vomited on as you're thrown around at high speeds and kicked in the shins laughing like a loon.

-The more North you go the less you will understand people. I'm from Edinburgh and live near Glasgow and for the fuck of me I can't understand a word anyone says here. I went to Aberdeen once and I swear they were talking gibberish. They felt the same about me. The dialects are too strong.

-We also have a rich history of language including Gaelic and Doric and a few others. Scots is what you probably think of when you think Scottish people - it is technically its own language but is very similar to English just with lots of different terminology. Our native languages like Gaelic were outlawed by England when they colonised us and it's only in recent decades we have started to try to reclaim them.

-We dislike England. Don't ever call a Scottish person 'British' rather than Scotish, it opens up a whole can of worms I am not about to go into right now.

-Iron Bru (the bright orange soda that tastes like a candy store) is more popular than Cola here. Scotland is the only place worldwide where Coke isn't the most popular carbonated beverage. Iron Bru is the lifeblood of Scotish people and it is literally everywhere.

Anyway there's your Scotland facts of the day

[onepiece-oc-archives]

Heyy, any tips for dressing OCs? I struggle a lot coming up with outfits that look unique while looking like it fits in with the rest of the characters and the world.

Hi, thanks so much for your ask! Boy oh boy do I have tips for you, so buckle up! I'll try to keep this as straightforward as possible, but if you get lost on the way, I'll give examples at the bottom of the post.

First of all, it's important to have a feel for the character's personal style. One of the first things I do for every new OC I create is usually to hop onto Pinterest and make an aesthetic board for them because it just helps with so many things. Sometimes, you'll just stumble across the main design detail of your OC on accident! For example, my OC Aurelia's signature claws just showed up when I searched "gold aesthetic", and I decided that this was the way to go.

But let's go back: How do I even know what to search for? Well, you might want to have a basic concept for your character. What are their inspirations? What is their background? Do they prefer clothes that are more practical or more stylish? Do they have any signature colors? How do they come off in the eyes of other people and does that match their fashion sense? How rich are they?

The last point may be helpful to get a basic idea but, in the end, it doesn't have to be the deciding factor. Let's take the Straw Hats, for example. At the start of the story, they're not exactly rich. Still, both Sanji and Nami are walking around with nice clothes. Nami steals her clothes or bargains with (or threatens) the vendor until they give her a huge discount. Sanji, meanwhile, probably had a good bit of money before he left Baratie since it was a fairly successful restaurant, and I'm willing to bet that he probably only has one or two good jackets, so he might look high-end, but he's actually not very rich at all.

What I'm trying to say is: Knowing how your OC acquires your clothes can be a huge help both for their character design and for fleshing out their story.

Otherwise, just throw anything about your OC you can think of into Pinterest's search bar, glue "outfit" or "aesthetic" to it, and you'll probably find some good inspo for your OC's clothing style.

Now that you have an idea of their fashion sense, time to make it fit in!

I'll be the first to admit, the early animanga art style doesn't really leave a lot open for detailed character design, but once you get further into the story, you can practically go completely wild.

The first thing I'd think about is: What's your OC's place in the world? Are they a Marine? Great! You can draw them in uniform! A noble? What culture is their kingdom inspired by? A pirate? What are their crewmates dressed like? After all, some crews practically have their own version of a uniform or at least a theme.

In the end, someone's clothes "fitting in" probably isn't as much of an issue as you think. Yes, the Straw Hats' outfits look pretty simple in the early animanga episodes, but... take one look at OPLA or even try imagining their outfits in real life and you'll figure out at that isn't necessarily the case. They're just simply drawn because it's a simple art style. One Piece is such a diverse world that almost anything goes. You can go surprisingly far into sci-fi or steampunk or historical, whatever you like, if you play around with it a little.

A thing that I like to do is to take inspiration from the characters that my OC is close to. The Straw Hats are especially great here because, for a lot of story arcs, their clothes collectively have a theme, but they still manage to be individual and unique. How?

The details. It's all in the details. Even if your OC is a Marine, you can make them unique through the details. Think about Coby! How is Coby unique? Pink hair and those signature glasses! Most of the Straw Hats have one design detail that carries on throughout pretty much all of their outfits, be it an accessory, a color scheme, a pattern... Luffy has his straw hat, obviously. Zoro has his swords, earrings and bandana. Nami has circles and stripes. Usopp loves himself some overalls and, in the animanga, his goggles. Sanji almost always wears a suit or at least a dress shirt and, if he doesn't, the outfit is most likely blue. Think about how this works for your OC. What's the one detail that carries on throughout all of their outfits? That's what makes them unique and recognizable.

But details can also help tie your OC into the greater world. Remember that you are an artist making character design and you're free to throw in as many easter eggs as you want. They can really add to an outfit. Adopt an accessory from a character that your OC is close to! Make the pattern of their clothes a nod to someone or something or someplace else! That's what brings your OC to life because it's what people do. We steal each other's clothes, we buy matching outfits, we unintentionally and subconsciously pick up on or play off of other people's sense of style... It's a natural process, maybe even a sign of love, and it's one of my favourite things to see in art or character design.

To maybe put this all into perspective, let me walk you through how I came up with the outfits for two of my OCs, from two different backgrounds and parts of the world.

OC no. 1 is my beloved Akaito Coraline. Cora is a tailor of considerable fame throughout the East Blue and ends up joining the Straw Hats because she's childhood friends with Sanji. Finally, she ends up dating both Sanji and Zoro.

Practically the first design detail I had about her was a nod to her family, because her family and their tailoring tradition is a very important part of Cora's character. So, it was decided that she would have a sewing needle pierced through her ear. Her profession as a tailor also made it pretty self-explanatory to me that she would prefer clothes that are, well, tailored, and she most likely makes all of her clothes herself. So, she could wear fitted blouses and other fairly intricate or expensive stuff without actually being rich or being able to go shopping often because she can sew those clothes herself - which is also a lot cheaper. It also occurred to me that Cora would have a love of fashion and would probably put fashion over functionality in her outfits. Because of her backstory, I also knew that she would keep her back covered. Lastly, as a pirate, she would have to have some kind of weapon, and I decided on a rapier, because it's elegant, feminine, fashionable, and long and pointed like a sewing needle.

In the end, I threw all of those things together, picked reference images from Pinterest, slapped them into my drawing program, and, through trial and error, came up with this:

Base by Hevis-Swan on DeviantArt by the way - use and credit bases, kids, it really helps!

We've got the sewing needle through the ear and one of Zoro's earrings to link her to him. We've got a form-fitted blouse and vest where I made sure to actually draw the different panels so you could have an idea of the sewing process. The black things on her sleeves are sleeve garters, which are meant to hold your sleeves up while you work, and I figured Cora might wear them as one of the few things she wears for practicality's sake - but they're also made of lace because she loves her fashion. The idea to have her wear pants was more of an afterthought because I absolutely wanted the holster for her scissors, but the pants are based off a pair that I own myself! The belt is based off of historically accurate belts used to hold rapiers in the 16th and 17th century. Those boot covers are extremely impractical to button up, showing Cora's "fashion over function" principle. Finally, she wears heels because she's short and likes the extra height, and the anklet is a gift from Sanji, hence the blue and silver.

On a different note, we have OC no. 2: Dracule Aurelia, the wife of Dracule Mihawk. If you've ever seen Mihawk, you know that he's one fancy man, and the same applies for Aurelia. She is rich, filthy rich, and she's an incredibly powerful pirate. Her vibe is that of a mafia boss, a femme fatale, of power and deadliness through beauty. Her epithet is "Black Widow" because all of her lovers keep dying one way or another. Either by her hand or through other mysterious circumstances.

With those things in mind, I was already pretty sure of how I wanted to draw Aurelia and what clothes she should wear. "Aurelia" roughly means "the golden one" and, combined with her incredible wealth, that already guaranteed that she'd be wearing a lot of gold. Secondly, I knew her clothes had to be sexy. There's no other way to put it; she had to be turning heads. She also needed to be able to kick people in the nose. And lastly, I wanted it to be easy to see that her and Mihawk were married, so I took a lot of inspiration from him.

Bases by Fluffy-foxgirl and Alex-Hime on DeviantArt

This outfit is essentially one big easter egg hunt. The flower symbol is found on Mihawk's sleeve, the long coat is inspired by Mihawk and the collar is both a reference to him and Aurelia's father (whom I will not name here for spoiler reasons), she wears crosses just like Mihawk, the feathers on her headpiece are a nod to the feathers on Mihawk's hat, the petal-like sleeves are a nod to the island she's from... But the outfit is still 100% her! The way everything is very revealing, the gold chains, the claws, the high slit, the dagger with the spider in its pommel...

So yeah! I hope this helped at least a little. Hope you're having a wonderful day! ^^

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/6/2024: THE I SPIT ON YOUR LADIES' NIGHT MISOGYNATHON, PART 1 - BLINK TWICE AND DON'T WORRY DARLING

Sometimes during Blogtober I'll watch some movie that so activates my pattern recognition that I have to watch several other movies in a row, and then the entry is like this. In this case it is all the fault of BLINK TWICE.

I am perennially interested in stories about insidious forms of sexual abuse, and I thought this was OK. Spoilers be here, if you're worried you could skip to the image from DON'T WORRY DARLING below, although I don't know how surprising BLINK TWICE really is. Well, maybe it's surprising enough that the fucking studio put a fucking trigger warning on the beginning of this fucking R-rated movie like I'm a little fucking baby, but ANYWAY. It is rather obviously about how Channing Tatum is a recently-disgraced techbro who is continuing to do extremely bad things to the women he lures to his tropical island. Part of me wondered if this whole movie weren't some sort of warning shot at Jared Leto about the island cult he has or is trying to start, but in any case it is very entertaining. It's sort of odd to do what is kind of a heavy rape movie and make it this funny, but I supposed there ought to be some alternative to just extreme confrontationalism--although there is a dash of that here too.

There is also a dash of some sort of magic realism that didn't seem that well integrated. That the island is full of snakes whose venom just so happens to counteract the techbro's experimental rape drug--and he knows this--is a little too on the nose for me, a little too Eve and the Serpent, kind of silly. And if you're a genius with unlimited resources, why would you chose a place that's full of these problematic snakes for your island where you have to use this one drug for your rape orgies? Yeah, sure, he could have realized this too late and wasn't willing to cut his losses, but it all seems very convenient.

I also had a problem with part of the basic setup: Zoe Kravitz directs Naomi Ackie as this loser millennial who is first seen watching an apology video by Channing Tatum who has become notorious for doing some unspecified Armie Hammer-type shit. Then Naomi sneaks into this gala where she meets him and immediately accepts an invitation to his isolated island, and like *maybe* what you learn much later is supposed to explain why she has absolutely no misgivings about this, but in the meantime you have to spend quite a lot of time wondering what kind of person she is, that she's down for this. Her acceptance of him should mean something. Either she's so naive she believes public apologies from powerful men, or she's suffering from so much internalized misogyny that she doesn't believe other women, or she loves bad boys, or she's hypnotized by his wealth, or...something. I really wanted an excuse because whatever it is would majorly inform her whole character. We all have pretty specific assumptions about people who defend Johnny Depp, there are specific motivations behind that behavior. I just felt like the whole story needed more justification from the jump. Although that said, it is very amusing for a movie about a rape island.

Anyway, while I was watching BLINK TWICE I started to wonder if Olivia Wilde felt ripped off by it. Even though DON'T WORRY DARLING is a science fiction film, it has essentially the same plot: A rich, charismatic techbro invents a little elite paradise for his friends and supporters where they can enjoy perfect control over women. And I'm suddenly realizing this segment is also going to be fairly spoilery, so sorry if you haven't seen this one either but the twist ending actually IS surprising, even if the movie otherwise wears its debt to THE STEPFORD WIVES on its sleeve. But perhaps the most surprising thing of all is that I actually sort of like DON'T WORRY DARLING, and I might be the only person in the world to say that.

I don't even know if I can justify my affection for it, but I am comfortable at least saying that even if it's not great, it doesn't deserve the heaps of abuse it got. In this cold, weird, '50s-flavored thriller, Florence Pugh and her husband Harry Styles live in a remote Southwestern cul-de-sac that houses all the bright young men who work on the mysterious "Victory Project". None of the too-perfect housewives knows what the Victory Project actually is, though everyone is way oversubscribed to the idea that glorified cult leader Chris Pine is somehow building a better future. Inevitably, Florence Pugh figures out that the women are being controlled somehow, which revelation causes some fabulous hallucinations and her eventual action hero rebellion.

I get the problems with this. The story is overly familiar, poor Harry Styles produces absolutely nothing resembling a recognizable character despite his earnest efforts, and worst of all, the movie just misuses its time. The revelation that this is not a Stepford-type project, but rather an underground virtual reality experiment for incels and their kidnap victims is honestly pretty cool. It's interesting! Interesting enough that they shouldn't have saved it for the very end, they should have found a way to integrate it into the main narrative more; instead there are too many repetitive scenes of Florence Pugh being argumentative, which all have forgone conclusions.

But meanwhile, DON'T WORRY DARLING establishes a very sharp, edgy tone that keeps you (or me, anyway) in a reasonable state of suspense and claustrophobic anxiety. I've been trying to analyze where this comes from and I think part of it is just the sound, which is often excellent (if occasionally over the top). There's a certain kind of ambient tone used in the little cloistered homes that makes me smell ozone and feel pressure in my ears. And I think most of the performances are very good, especially Florence Pugh of course who I just love. I love her because I think she could beat my ass. It's like, fucking Scarlett Johansson has been foisted upon the world as an action hero and she just seems so slow and dull and unconvincing. Meanwhile Florence Pugh is scrambling up a gravel road barefoot at alarming speeds and I totally believe it. Even in MIDSOMMAR she's just so fucking physical, and did you see that wrestling movie she made, FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY? It's really good, you should watch it. She could kick anybody's ass.

[hypaalicious]

NGL y'all, it's been rough.

On the surface, I guess you could say I'm doing alright. I have a roof over my head, adequate food to eat (most of the time), good friends and family to rely on... But when I say this world has beaten me down to pieces, it definitely has.

COVID was the first chink in the armor. Watching the entire world basically shrug off mass death and try to blithely live like it's still 2019 despite a pandemic raging worse than ever with less protections than we had before is wild. Don't matter how much facts you have to show to people, they will ignore it and then also in the same breath wonder why everyone's sick all the time. I mourn the children who aren't protected, who are sent into schools with no masks to become disabled/chronically ill for the rest of their lives. I mourn the immunocompromised who are trapped indefinitely in their homes because the world has moved on from pretending to care about COVID. It's been 4 years. Time doesn't even feel real. Then October 7th happened, and I get to watch a genocide happen in occupied Palestine in real time. Now, if you don't know me, then you may not know that I generally avoid rated R live action movies because I am a wuss and can't take the explicit violence and gore in a lot of them. I went from that, to watching lives of Palestinians recording their loved ones blown up, carrying their remains in plastic bags, IDF psychos shooting women and children in the back, the despair and anguish of Palestinians being corralled, starved, poisoned just because they exist. I have irrevocably been changed by bearing witness to this horror. Writing my script for my game has slowed down to a crawl. I close my eyes at night to sleep, and dream about the devastation I witnessed. I wake up and see even worse horrors, all unchecked by world powers. I get on Facebook and see people carrying on with life as if nothing is happening at all. I don't... I feel like I'm looking at society from the opposite side of a glass window. Everything has lost its color. How can I care about movies, video games, traveling, etc when it all just serves as a distraction to the ugly reality that cannot be ignored? I don't care about celebs and their drama. I don't care about the regurgitated mess Hollywood puts out. I don't care about what overpriced AAA game is highly anticipated. I do not care at all. The climate is fucked up and I see venture capitalists literally selling pieces of iceburgs to rich folks in the UAE for cocktails like it's nothing. People wanna talk about what new restaurant opened up and all I can think of is the fact that a singular bell pepper is like $2. A musical artist announces a tour and all I see are more superspreader events where people won't mask then bring home viruses to their families. Is this the future we want? Hell, will we HAVE a future? We, collectively, will rue the day we sat around and did nothing to stop all of this. And I fear that day will come very soon.

[pinepickled]

Fandom Homework for @razielim

I decided to do this as a kind of WIP checklist for stuff that's in my docs but maybe won't be published soon. I'm not adhering to any strict time limit, but I'm definitely going to write. Under the read more:

Starting with the fact that I've now made a pact to finish writing long fics before i start to post them. Before when I was a younger and more inexperienced writer, I felt like I could handle writing week to week if I could get that sweet validation from readers. However, I also knew that my writing wasn't that good, and quickly life and insecurity got in the way. Now, I'm comfortably writing extremely lengthy fics and waiting to post them. some of those fics go as follows,

A Tiger and Bunny omegaverse fic. It's a total rewrite of the first season (with tentative plans for the second) that revolves around Tiger's life as the first Omegan Hero. The Barnaby in this fic is totally unhinged. Kotetsu has 3 baby daddies. It's the most emotional piece on feeling like your life is over and no one cares about you that I've ever written. It's taking a much darker tone than the show will, and also a much hornier one. I have a lot of hidden surprises for people, lore building up the wazoo (especially in regards to Tiger's past) and even religious/magical aspects once Lunatic gets introduced. It's definitely going to be a wild ride. I can't give an exact word count because these chapters got too long to keep on the same doc, but it's probably around 50k words now, and I'm not even halfway done. It's been in the works for, maybe, 2 years? 3?

A Jujutsu Kaisen fic. If I'm being quite honest, the manga going downhill so fast killed a lot of my inspiration to write for this series. However, there are still aspects I really like about both the series and definitely my fic. The fic has gotten to maybe 20k words? And it's ongoing. I got stuck on one seen between Gojo and Nanami last year and have been too busy to overcome it, but I desperately want to. I have such a story to tell with this fic. It's going to revolve mainly around Touji- I guess I should mention now that it's an Omegaverse fic- who gets mated to Gojou unwillingly before he dies the same way he did in the manga. Fast forward 10 or so years, he's back, and if he wants to survive, he's gotta stick around an uncontrollable, violent, god-complex Alpha who's got his pup in his clutches. That's a very dramatic way to say Touji will have to tolerate Gojou's kisses. It includes a lot of worldbuilding into the way powers work in JJK, as well as the presence of deities and Sukuna's past. It also includes an intricate weaving of omegaverse into the actual world of JJK, including all the changes I'll make. It's a polyamorous fic, everyone/everyone basically, so you bet Sukuna will be involved heavily in the romance aspect. And I made Yuji an Omega.

An rpf fic for a kpop group I wont name. It's a mafia omegaverse AU, where the MC will be an omega from the pampered rich neighborhood, who runs away from home to try and attain freedom. In this fic, Omegas are bought and sold like objects, and regulated and humiliated sexully very often. It's a mix of horny and actual legit analysis into what it means for your soul to be crushed over and over again, trying to reach for love from the people who own you. It got a lot darker than I intended lol, but as of right now it's short. It's gonna include a lot of triggering topics like rape, forced sterilization, gang violence, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, torture, and more. But I adore it. What's that one post? "The hands that cradled you were drenched in indescribable amounts of blood." "But they cradled me, yes?"

An extremely long planned out yet very little written omegaverse Supernatural fic, wherein Dean is an Omega who was pushed into the incestuous role of being a mother and wife after Mary died, and Michael just wants his pookie to be okay. But so does Sam. Shenanigans, not so much. I like to think of it as an exploration into the taboo being condoned by a holy being. About god being dead, too. About how fucked up it is that you're fucking an angel in the body of your dad in the 70s. It's almost a complete degradation of Dean's self esteem as a 'righteous man', with Michael, Lucifer, Sam, Castiel, and Ruby all telling him to abandon the upright view his father and the world at large expect of him, and to accept that he wants to be coddled, pampered, spoiled, and fucked. Men aren't fucked. But Dean will be.

A Miraculous Ladybug omegaverse fic (are you seeing the trend yet) where Luka gets a random miraculous (not part of the cat and ladybug's miraculous box) that allows him to transform into a hero called Beast of Omen, given power from the qwami 'Fenrir'. It's a darker, more I'd like to say realistic and fucked up interpretation about ML. For one, the main cast are all in high school, not middle school, close to their senior year. Luka is actually older than Juleka, as the cowards originally intended, and is in his college's second year. The majority of France are not shifters, meaning they can't smell or purr and they don't have claws. Luka, however, is a slightly apologetic Alpha. This is set in like season 3-4 kinda, when Luka and Marinette are hesitantly dating. The first chapter is set right after Marinette breaks up with him. Luka had withheld himself a lot, conscious that his more Alphan traits could scare her, but now she ran away from him anyway. Marinette is one such non-shifter. Adrian, however, is the most coddled and ignorant Omega on the planet, who has no idea how the Alphas around him- including his own father- look at him.

A Jason Todd fic where an adult, Alphan Damian asks Jason to come with him to Nanda Parbat after his grandfather sends out an uncharacteristic summon for him, his mother, and the ever elusive Nyssa al Ghul. Jason basically is forced to accept being pampered and looked after for a few weeks as Damian rebuilds his self esteem. There's also a bit of hate/love sex with Jason and bruce much later in the game, but god was it delicious. I love spoiled and pampered Jason getting waited on hand and foot by Alphas and having no idea what to do with all the attention

A descendant's fic (yes the disney movie) where Auradon prep is a college, Ben is 28, and the main cast are still the same age (if older by one or two years than canon). Ben is an Alpha (yes im doing this) who is really into being a daddy dom, and he's been searching for the perfect little to make into his puppet-queen for years. With his coronation just a few months away, a blessing is sent to him in the form of the Isle's children, who all happen to be adorable, young, impressionable Os in need of a strong and comforting hand to guide them. This fic actually features a very broad range of OCs from my end, and I have to say, I like where it's going so far. I also do my best to give it a more mature tone (naturally since the original was a movie made for children) while keeping the fun and bitchy elements. Also some mild magical world building.

Lastly, a very olllllllld Haikyuu fic, also Omegaverse, involving Omega Iwaizumi in a throuple with Alphas Oikawa and Ushijima, and also Omega Akaashi living with Alpha pack leader Bokuto

hehe, i had fun

[demonsfate]

Seen Pucca talking about this and I figure it's a good time for me to share my RP server horror story. Pucca's experience reminded me why I don't ever join servers at all anymore. Okay, so I was a part of this DC server (directed toward a specific franchise but y'all probs know what it is if you know my other blog) and my GOD. It was wild. One thing, people weren't all that interested in threading with me. And usually when my muse does get acknowledged, he's either treated like the butt of the joke or for ppl to "put down." (Understandable in a way since the comics themselves do that to the poor guy. But my characterization was a very serious one that I wished people would respect)

My character brags, he gets put down, my character jokes about something, he gets put down, my character gets jealous - feelings don't matter. And it'd be one thing if these were how the characters would realistically react to mine. But then there was one of the mod's characters, and he had very similar traits to mine - arrogant and all that. Except... every muse hyped him up. For some reason when my muse brags, arrogance is bad. But when this muse bragged, arrogance good. Clearly it's a bias for the mod - who was a real big problem themselves but I'll get into that shortly.

Then there was a problem with a guy who was clearly jealous of a ship I had - they tried to do all they can to catch my ship partner's attention and try to "woo them". This eventually lead into a kind polyamorous thing which I didn't want because my muse, being a super jealous type, wouldn't so easily enter one. And again, when he expressed that, he got put down. And tbf, a lotta this arise from a proper lack of plotting with the ship partner, but it still stressed me tf out.

The mod I mentioned before was a huge jerk. They clearly had a lotta money (which is probs another reason why everyone "worshipped" them) and then like a snobby rich person, they put down everyone who buys anything "cheaper". They spend HUNDREDS, sometimes even THOUSANDS, on those ball joint dolls. Then they openly teased (made fun of) me for buying cheaper figures. Even though it's like, my current mental and physical state does not allow me to work rn and also? Even if I could? Not all of us are in a position where we can afford to buy pricey af dolls. Go fuck yourself.

What I'm about to talk about is a little controversial but. A trans woman wanted to play a "gender-bend" version of a male character (but as a female) and basically the cis people gained up on her to tell her how bad she is for that and everything. She gave her reason, that playing male characters makes her dysphoric and whatnot, but then they asking her why she wants to write the character despite the fact she gave her reason over and over again. It basically ended with her apologizing after being bullied for it and saying she won't do it. This one, of course, is a touchy topic but the fact that cis people were talking over a trans person flabbergasted me.

OH YEAH, and after that... somebody wanted to "brighten the mood" so sb @ me to give facts about my character, since I was hyperfixating hard and knew so much about them (y'all know how passionate I get!) and then this other fucking person starts GUILTRIPPING ME???? acting like I'M bad because that person was interested in my muse?? And THEY start going on about how nobody cares about theirs and how I'm ""lucky""?? Despite the fact they had WAY MORE threads than I did at the time??? Like literally wtf!

And finally... the weirdest fucking thing... nude posting. Despite the fact that this is a DC RP SERVER, almost EVERYONE started posting their nudes??? Some even posting videos OF THEM GETTIGN FUCKED BY THEIR SPOUSES?! Like it's so wild, it's almost hard to believe it was real. Like I knew I felt like I was on drugs when I saw what was happening. Eventually that same mod came back and even they were like "uhhh?? guys??? Maybe let's not post our nudes in a server full of STRANGERS?? You never know what weirdos might be here??" and then that's when people stopped. But it was like... holy shit. I just never saw that happened before??? These weren't even ppl with OnlyFans or something. It was just so bizarre. And I'm ok if ppl are fine with showing off their naked bodies and stuff if they wanna. But is a RP group really the appropriate place??? Especially when there's nothing inherently sexual about the server??? Like it felt highly inappropriate to me and just weird.

It got to the point where the original creator of the server (a mutual of mine) told me how nervous the place made them and how they don't feel comfortable going on. They thought it was their fault but then I explained that it is a horrible place full of toxicity and everything. They left the server, and eventually, so did I. This isn't the only reason why I don't join RP servers anymore. There was also another where whenever I spoke about my headcanons for my character, another person who rps that character would get so fucking upset and basically try to change the topic or get me to stop talking. Or straight up say they don't agree. OR when I point out how one of my "headcanons" IS canon, they literally called original writer STUPID! (Therefore calling me stupid too because I abide by that canon???) And one time when we agreed on something they said "omg I can't believe we finally agree on something!!" and made a big deal out of it and I literally told them we didn't have to agree on anything, that our takes are supposed to be unique to oursevles and it's something they shouldn't have to worry about (or get upset about lmao) and I've had other bad experiences, but this server was just the Worst. I think there are more bad moments too, but this is all I can remember rn.

[groovycatanime]

There's not a lot of headcanons for Jesus Burgess's family or backstory (in fact, I don't think there are ANY), so I'm going to share some ideas that I've been playing with in my head for a while.

Burgess' parents died when he was really young, so his grandmother, or his 'Abuela' took him in and took care of him all his childhood.

Abuela was a small, sweet and caring old lady, pretty much your typical grandmother, but she was also very fierce and tenacious woman, who was a lot stronger than she appeared, traits that passed on to her grandson.

When Burgess was growing up, he was a bit mischievous (which is likely to be an understatement...) and liked to get into fights with anyone or anything he locked eyes on! Whether it be the town bullies, the drunks from the local bar or a wild animal he happened to come upon, Burgess would fight them!

As expected, this usually got him in a great deal of trouble, which was often reported to Abuela. If the fight Burgess had was with someone who Abuela perceived as troublesome, like the bullies or the drunks, she'd let him get away with it. If it were an innocent child, adult or wild animal, then she'd let him have it! And Abuela is not someone who you want to make angry!!! (She was probably one of the few, if not the only person in town, who could kick Burgess' ass)

Burgess' fighting spirit didn't grow weaker as he got older, which is what a lot of adults in his hometown hoped; it just got stronger, and soon, he was pretty much one of the strongest men in town! Burgess had also been doing his best to not pick fights with every rando he came upon, but he still managed to start fights with some people, though the town was pretty used to it as this point. And the law pretty much thought, "As long as he doesn't kill anyone..."

Now, what drove Burgess to piracy? (I took some inspiration from the backstory of Salvador, a character from Borderlands 2)

So basically, Burgess was pretty much minding his own business in town (a rare thing), and he encounters a fancily dressed person he had never met in town before and decides to challenge them to a fight. To his surprise, the stranger agrees, but he tells Burgess that if he wins, he has to give up all the valuables he has, not just on his person, but in GENERAL, which would include whatever his grandmother possessed.

Burgess, not wanting to put his Abuela through that sort of turmoil, fights the hardest he had ever fought in his life! And he wins! BUT his opponent was not pleased by the outcome of the fight, since apparently, he had a reputation of being a fighting victor where he came from and felt humiliated by his defeat by Burgess, who in his mind, was just a nobody. Burgess pays no heed to the man's frustrations and just goes about his business, thinking the man's anger won't amount to anything harmful.

However, later in the week, the loser, accompanied by several men, go to Abuela's house in an attempt to rob the place as payback against Burgess for his victory. Abuela fights back as best she can, and eventually, Burgess catches wind of it and rushes to her aid, where they successfully fight off the men and restrain the loser. Abuela would've preferred to turn the man in to the local police, but Burgess, enraged that the loser had dared to harm his Abuela, kills the man out of anger. Unfortunately, that proves to be a GRAVE mistake.

Apparently, the loser was not only a popular fighter, but was also from a VERY rich family, who was NOT pleased that Burgess had killed him. Burgess was taken to court, where the reasons for his crimes were explained and the trial went like this at some point:

Judge: Mr. Jesus Burgess, you brutally killed a man of noble birth! Have you anything to say for your actions?

Burgess: He was trying to kill my Abuela!!!

Judge: I know that, but is there anything else you want to say?

Burgess: ...it was fun?

In the end, the punishment for Burgess was either exile or a life sentence in prison, and since Burgess didn't like the idea of being in a cage all his life, he decided to leave his island and have his fights elsewhere, much to his Abuela's dismay.

It would be a couple of weeks later, when he's picking fights on a random island in the South Blue, that he encounters Blackbeard...

So then you must wonder, what happened to Abuela while Burgess was gone? Well, she probably worried about whether he was okay or not, which increased when he got his first bounty poster, like any good grandmother would do. And I have two ideas for what became of her at the present point in the story. One's happy and funny, the other...not so much.

For the happy and funny idea, Burgess gets a wild hair and decides to go to his home island to see how she's doing and brings some of the crew along to meet her. Some of his crewmates, like Augur, try to suggest that this may be a bad idea, but Burgess doesn't listen.

Once in the town, he spots her:

Burgess: ABUELA!!!

Abuela, seeing him and gasping: BURGESS?!

Burgess, starts running towards her: ABUELA!!!

Abuela, starts running towards Burgess: BURGESS!!!

Burgess, still running: ABUELA!!!

Abuela, pulling off one of her sandals: BURGESS!!!

Burgess: Abuela?

Abuela, holding up his bounty poster: BURGESS!!!!!!

Burgess, starts to turn around: OH MIERDA! AUGUR, YOU WERE RIGHT! SHE WASN'T HAPPY TO SEE ME! GET ME OUTTA HERE!

But Augur and the rest of his friends have disappeared and Burgess, despite his possession of the Buff-Buff fruit, once again gets his ass beat by his angry Abuela.

Once Abuela had calmed down, she invites Burgess and his friends to her home for tamales and pastelitos, where she delights them with stories of Burgess' childhood (much to Burgess' embaressment).

Now, as we manga readers know, Burgess's face is now half-metal, and Abuela does ask how that happened, and Burgess is more than happy to answer. Afterwards, Abuela asks Blackbeard if he's willing to recruit the elderly into his crew...

And then a brief idea of a scene in the battle of the Straw Hats and Allies against the Blackbeard pirates would go:

Sabo, staring off into the distance: why is that little old lady running at me with a sandal???

Abuela, raises sandal up: THIS IS FOR HURTING MY GRANDSON!!!

Sabo: WHAT?! You're grandson?! Who's your grandson?

Burgess, whistles, getting Sabo's attention, and points to himself, grinning: It's me. I'm her grandson.

Sabo, looking back at Abuela: Oh fu-.

So, yeah, fun times for Sabo. (On a different note, I feel like Abuela and Dadan would get along GREATLY. They'd have a LOT to talk about!)

Now for the not-so-happy idea (hate me if you feel sad)

Burgess is doing pirate things on the seas, when by some odd chance he comes across someone from his old town who's working on a trade ship the crew happened to be pillaging.

The neighbor recognizes Burgess and informs him that last he saw his Abuela, she wasn't doing well. She had gotten sick with something and had trouble recovering.

Burgess, horrified to hear this, takes Doc Q and goes straight home to the South Blue, hoping to help her and maybe take her back to Fullalead with him.

Unfortunately, he arrives just in time to see her freshly marked grave...

Burgess being Burgess tries to play her death off as no big deal ("Well, I guess that's fate, like Augur would say, or bad luck, like you would say, Doc!), but deep down, he is HURTING. He feels a lot of guilt for not checking in on her, which increases when he learns from his neighbors that she had worried about him a lot when he started becoming a notorious pirate, which likely led to her illness.

Some neighbors phrase this in a way that it makes it seem like her death is Burgess' fault and that he should've never gotten into trouble and gone into exile back then, because who knows, maybe his Abuela would still be alive, and for a time, Burgess agrees...

But eventually, he turns his grief over her death into determination, using his pain to motivate himself to help Blackbeard become the GREATEST pirate in all the world! And maybe make his own strength and winning-streak well-known around the world, too, to show his Abuela, who he was sure was still watching him, didn't raise Burgess for him to amount to being a nobody!

[freakattack]

How's it like for people to be generally accepting and adoring of your headcanons? I've been putting my stuff out there, but it isn't as beloved as yours or Jan Misali. Kinda intimidating to be honest, but I can see the appeal in your works. I look forward to seeing them and hope my works will be liked too.

Truthfully, I had no idea that so many people 1) accepted and adored my head-canons and 2) put me on the same level as jan misali of all people. I don't think i'm nearly as well-known as them (only one of us has a youtube channel with over 300k subscribers and it ain't me) but it's certainly an honor to hear that LOL.

When I started pumping out comics, i had no idea i would get this kind of a response; in fact, I had already made peace with the idea that i wouldn't get more than 5 notes before I even started posting!  So getting so much positive feedback was a huge surprise. I basically treat my online existence as a room to dance by myself in, and it just so happened that a bunch of people came around to watch.  I don't say this to gloat, but to say that I think the best way to have fun on the internet is to do what you love, and no matter how many people show up to join in you'll be happy.  Especially since the notes don't tell you how many people actually saw and enjoyed your stuff; even if you get a lot of likes and not a lot of reblogs, each like is one human behind the screen who really liked your art.  Some people might really like your art and not interact with it at all; you never know how many lives you touch just based on the numbers, so I don't focus on them too much.

If you're asking for writing advice, I think the 1 biggest thing that I try to do in my art is to be authentic. I notice that a lot of fan art tends to use "meme templates", so to speak; twitter screenshots, comic redraws, stuff like that. And that's fine and all, but that's not what I like to do. I love delving into the nitty-gritty of detailed characterizations: how would they react in this situation? How would they feel about this other character? What kind of problems would they encounter and how would they solve them? Stuff like that. Warioware in particular is like a field day for me because the characters are rich enough to have a lot to draw off of, but the slice-of-life format gives a lot of unexplored territory that I can color in.

As someone who grew up in the 2000s (where I set my comics - I broke this rule once to draw a nintendo switch but I try to stick to a pre-2014 setting), I draw a lot from my own experiences. People I've known, things I've done, interactions I've had with family and friends; nothing shot-for-shot, but ideas that can guide me when I think of the setting these particular characters live in and the situations they might find themselves in.  I love drawing from my own life because unlike the internet memes or movie screenshots that everyone's seen, that's stuff that only I can draw from.  At the same time, I think that approach also helps me connect with other people; I'm certainly not the only one who's gone on a wild family trip, or had a younger relative, or done goofy things at a friend's house. When I draw these silly scenarios, I hope that people can look at them and think, "haha! This looks familiar!" not in the sense that they've seen it before on a screen, but that they've lived it themselves.

This is a whole lot of words and I hope it doesn't sound as pretentious as I think it does. Basically, the first rule of art is have fun and be yourself. I hope that you can find some value in this spiel!

[fanvoidkeith]

What show or movie do you love

there's so many, but i'll list my top 3 favorites of both. i have a lot of things to say about this topic so. uh. this post will be long lol

*deep breath*

•my top three favorite movies are:

Nimona. there's a shapeshifting, non-gender-conforming main character. there's a sad little meow meow guy who's mistaken as a villain. there's a good man-former-best-friend-of-meow-meow-man who's been brainwashed by society. there's a fake-out death. there's found friendship. the sad little meow meow man and the former best friend guy are still in love, even though they end up on opposite sides. there's an old song about monkeys and cereal that made me suddenly feel nostalgic about my childhood. the main character can shapeshift into any living thing. the rest of the music is rock and metal. there's flying cars. there's knights. the co-director of the movie, who originally created the nimona comics (n. d. stevenson), is nonbinary. what is there not to love about this movie??

Wendell and Wild. a scary-ish movie that has demons that's actually pretty dark. it's got claymation. it has a girl- the main girl- who's parents died and they eventually come back to life later, though only temporarily. there's cool devil/demon powers that the main girl has. there's a boy at a christian all-girl's school because he's trans and his mom can't afford to send him to a different school. he's an incredible artist, and that turns out to be plot-relevant later. several "popular" side characters try to recruit the main girl into their posse, but end up being actually good characters later in the movie and help the main girl out. teenagers (and some demons, and some alive parents, and some dead-but-temporarily-alive parents, and some other people too) fight gentrification from literal dead people and two oppressive rich living people. somewhere in the chaos, a dead church dude who is also the leader of the christian all-girls' school gets a makeover after being murdered by rich people. leader church guy and the demons get bribed early on, because the church guy wants money and the demons want to build their own theme park. i'm pretty there's several subtle sexual/dick jokes, usually in scenes with the demons and not the humans. the main girl is shown that people besides her parents love and care about her, and the whole movie gives me Beetlejuice vibes, but like, for teenagers. it's so cool. very weird too. great vibes for halloween.

Megamind. i don't care if people think that it looks ugly and the physics are weird, it has an honestly good theme and moral to it. also aliens with superpowers. also regular people. it has slightly more character diversity than Astro Boy- another of my nostalgic favorite movies- which is more than you could say for most movies in the early to late 2000's and 2010's. (sorry for the short description, i was very tired while writing this)

•my top three favorite shows are:

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. my sons. my boys. silly lil turtle guys, being brothers and also learning how to be ninjas with their silly but sad rat dad and human friend who's basically a sister to all of the turtle teens. a magical pet... creature that doesn't show up enough causes chaos for the human friend, but is cat-like and cute and is therefore forgivable. ough. silly shenanigans turning into trying to survive the end of the world... man. it's so good. families isn't always blood relations, but when they are, that's great too!! (also loved the movie, but that one's in my top 5, not my top 3. still incredible, though.)

Helluva Boss. i know this one's a problematic favorite, but i don't care- i love stories about demons. demons are cool. it's also free to watch on youtube, which is also awesome, considering how high-quality it is. there is way too many characters to keep track of, though, so i watch commentary videos about the show and it's sister show, Hazbin Hotel, which is supposedly airing on netflix or something in 2024.

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts. a really neat post-apocalyptic concept about a tween-ager/teenager learning about the world after the apocalypse, since she's lived underground since she was born. also... she's a science experiment. she's hopelessly optimistic, and makes friends where people say constantly that she can't make them, forcing people to get along lmao. she's the reason that things get better between humans and mutants. i can't say much else about this show without spoilers, but i think it's really interesting and fun! the art style and animation- especially in fight scenes- is great! the plot twists are really cool! there's some horrifying scientific stuff going on in the background of the show to throw you off your rhythm of adventure and stuff!!

...this got out of hand. i love too many things to just talk about one or two of them 😭

[hyperfixatedonstuff]

ok hiii hello i see you in my notes. I'm inquiring about your self-insert :3 —fool-in-his-wedding-gown

oh my goodness i saw this and went crazy and tried to fix up all my messy lore so here it is

this is his redesign because i hated how he looked!

he’s an outlaw/bandit who lives in Vesuvia but bounces around a lot

he never talks about it but he grew up in a thick wood far from Vesuvia

his family and people have a very strong connection to their magic so he has a good control over it and incorporates it into his fighting style

he also knows how to survive in multiple environments

he’s currently in Vesuvia to deal with all the weird things that have been going on with Julian and Count Lucio

Nadia knows he’s a steal from the rich give to the poor type of outlaw so she offers him a pardon for his work

i haven’t decided if how true it stays to the main story like if he died and all that

either way he’s friends or becomes friends again with Julian because they’re both outlaws and Marcellus needs to clear his name

Lucio has also met him before

they served together in a makeshift mercenary army once

he also caught them robbing him before

well he saw them but didn’t catch them

Muriel knows them because he accidentally helped him escape from the coliseum

basically Marcellus was causing a ruckus trying to steal something and noticed Muriel trying to escape

the two shared and look before Marcellus caused a huge distraction which allowed for Muriel’s escape

in return, Muriel later allows him to lie low at his cabin

Portia and Marcellus have always been good friends

they both work to keep an eye on Julian and Portia may or may not give him information on guard patrols and what not

Asra and Marcellus worked together bc of the plague and Marcellus often vists Asra’s shop for magic items

Marcellus gets along really well with Morga because they’re both fighters

she respects how he can survive in the wild and hold his own in a fight

she also likes his spirit in fighting against most governments

however, she has mixed feelings on his weird relationship with her son

according to Portia, Marcellus has “weird gay shit” going on with Julian and Lucio

which basically means whenever he robs Lucio they fight and have homoerotic tension

and then Julian will bandage his wounds and say some gay shit

Portia is so tired of their nonsense 😭

yeah idk my lore is kinda a mess rn but he’s basically just a silly little gay dude who hates the government

[halfelven]

Genuine question, what movies are you talking about in that post? Bc I can't think of any that fit that description but I'm also not a big movie person so I may just have been lucky with the ones I've seen dkjsfa

disclaimer! don’t @ me saying to watch better movies! i do! i just watch a LOT of movies! i like to see what’s going out there since i study media*

also i know this is badly written. i have not pulled myself together after a very long year and a half

this got rambly so i’m putting my tl;dr here: comedy feels stagnant to me, and that makes me feel weird when it comes to things (some of which are aimed at kids/teens)

okay so if you don’t watch a lot of movies you probably missed them! the kind of movies i was thinking about are mostly comedies that are aimed at teens but really just don’t feel right. just stupid forgettable movies that will have a random adult (maybe a teacher) make some comment about back in their day. and they just feel off in a very specific way where it’s like idk who is writing this but i don’t think they have a grasp of what is going on

probably due to being rich

i am terrible with titles and names and i’m currently in the wilderness so i’m not too confident matching scenes to titles

(also that post was slamming together a few themes i’ve seen repeated in different movies and shows and they are not all american. some are canadian/uk/australia but i use the ‘too movies’ or ‘too much (blank) on tv’ thing as a joke)

also some of the movies/shows are marketed to adults not teens. they also carry with some of those themes. um. working moms (show) is canadian and i’m not sure if they’re millennial or gen x but they have a lot of weird recurring issues with ‘ooh scary generation gap with my kids.’

and i think um. i’m trying to remember the name. idk it stars the australian woman who was in pitch perfect and she’s in a coma and wakes up 20 years later and goes back to school and they make the slur jokes. that is the one i watched most recently. i was having a hard time with trying to figure out who the target audience was… can’t remember the name and i watched it last week

another movie i can’t remember the name of that i think was marketed at teens also had the weird ‘oh the climate change protest kids just want attention’ gimmick that the movie with the pitch perfect woman had

is sarah jessica parker gen x? her new sec and the city show is Wild. one of the groups presentations in my media discourse class was about the representation of sexual minorities between the old sex and the city and the new sex and the city. i can try to find one of the articles they referenced in that because how the new one is almost more isolating is really interesting

which is kind of a trend? a ohh boo hoo don’t yell at me mean minorities!! i’m trying!! kind of vibe that runs through a lot of new movies/shows

like there is this distinct weirdness that is coming in with media created by white female comedians (i say female bc i tend to watch movies with female leads) amy palmer or pohler or whatever her name is. she has a movie out like 5 years ago? it had this teenage girl finding her mom’s old punk albums or something

but basically i had been watching a bunch of comedy things with female leads and so many are just weird. like it was leaving me wondering like what are the shows/movies teens are getting that feel somewhat authentic?

obviously movies are weird and there aren’t a lot of good ones that really stand out. and there have been constant jokes about how young people are portrayed in media for forever probably

but i think that movies are a good medium for comfort and hope, maybe especially for children and teens. you don’t have to have the energy to read to yourself. you can watch it when you’re doing something else with your hands. or are sick.

it’s the visuals. and the music. the way you can do something else while getting a story. they are very human.

and comedies are much harder to do than dramas. but they have a different sort of catharsis. i don’t know. people tend to downplay them as just stupid when there is a deep connection humans try to have through humour. i’m rambling but i just really love comedies and i love stories for children and stories for teens and i think they’re all downplayed as. being stupid. or easy. like you don’t have to try.

i’m sorry this just turned into rambling. maybe writers just went too far with the ‘set things in high school bc a.) kids will make emotional decisions that you wouldn’t see an adult character make b.) your characters are trapped in that environment c.) unlike college, they are trapped with other characters on mostly the same schedule and d.) they still see breakups etc as life and death situations’ advice that they give writers (this is paraphrased from several screenwriting guides i’ve read)

but idk i’m just bothered by the comedies i’ve been watching. and comedies do tend to show a lot about the current state of the world. comedies and horror are both downplayed genres that show a lot.

again sorry this is rambly. i don’t have energy to find my sources. there are interesting theories on comedy out there that just make me feel weird about what i’m seeing. like it’s so stagnant. that’s my tl;dr

most comedies i’ve seen lately seem stagnant

*i have a degree in this so i feel bad that i’m not pulling sources bc it feels like plagiarism at points